Now let's all stand together.
We'll sing hymn number 449. 449. To God be the glory, great things
He hath done, So loved He the world that He gave us His Son. Who yielded His life in atonement
for sin And opened the life-gate that all may go in Praise the
Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the earth
hear His voice. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the people rejoice. O come to the Father, through
Jesus the Son, and give Him the glory, great things He hath done. O perfect redemption, the purchase
of God, To every believer the promise of God. The vilest offender who truly
believes That moment from Jesus a pardon receives Praise the
Lord, praise the Lord, let the earth hear His praise Praise the Lord, let the people
rejoice O come to the Father through Jesus the Son And give
Him the glory, great things He hath done Great things He hath
taught us, great things He hath done, and great are rejoicing
through Jesus the Son. But purer and higher and greater
will be Our wonder, our transport, when Jesus we see. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
let the people rejoice. O come to the Father, through
Jesus the Son, and give Him the glory, great things He hath done. Be seated. We'll sing hymn number
268. 268. Thou firm of foundation, ye Saints
of the Lord for your faith in his excellent
word. But poor can he say than to you
he hath said, to you, who for refuge to Jesus hath fled. Fear not, I am with thee, O be
not dismayed, For I am thy God, I will still give thee aid. I'll strengthen thee, help thee,
and cause thee to stand. Upheld by my gracious omnipotent
hand, When through the deep waters I call thee to go, The rivers
of woe shall not thee overflow, For I will be with thee thy troubles
through. And sanctify to Thee Thy deepest
distress. When through fiery trials thy
pathway shall lie, My grace all-sufficient shall be thy supply. The flame shall not hurt Thee,
I only design Thy drops to consume And Thy gold to refine The soul
that on Jesus Jesus hath cling'd for repose, I will, God, I will. Not desert to his foes That's
all though all hell should endeavor to shake I'll never, no never,
no never forsake That's what our Lord said. He
said, I'll never leave you, never forsake you. Never, never, never,
never. Acts chapter seven. I'm gonna read verses 51 down
through 60 and then go back and kind of try to deal with it a
little at a time. 60 verses here. It's the longest message in the
book of Acts. And he starts preaching in verse
3 and don't get through until verse 52, 53. Acts 7.51, You stiff-necked and
uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy
Ghost, as did your fathers, so did you. And which of the prophets
have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which
showed before of the coming of the just one. whom ye have been
now the betrayers and murderers, who, having received the law
by the disposition of angels, have not kept it. When they heard
these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on
him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy
Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory
of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said,
Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on
the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud
voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon Him with one accord.
and cast him out of the city, and stoned him. And the witnesses
laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling
upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled
down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their
charge. And when he had said this, he
fell asleep." Our blessed Lord and our great
God and Savior, Jesus Christ, both our great God and our Savior,
our Master, the very lover of our souls. Lord Jesus, we come
into your presence and we just read your word. And there's so
much here to deal with, I pray that you'd give me wisdom to
deal with it, understanding to deal with it, wisdom to deal
with it and give us ears to hear what has to be said tonight and
how we deal with these things. And Lord, I pray for those who
are not with us through weakness of body, frailty of body, those
who are providentially hindered. And Lord, and I do thank you
for those who are here. And I ask you to bring glory
to yourself in this service tonight. Honor your blessed glorious son.
And Master, may we glorify you. You said, you called me Master
and Lord, and so are you. You said, so you was. That's
why we call our Master and our Lord. And so Father, please,
tonight, honor and glorify your Son. Name me to speak. Be merciful
and gracious to our lost loved ones. God, do for them what only
you yourself can do. You did it for us. You can do
it for anybody, and we trust that someday, in your sovereign
mercy, you'll cross their paths, and you'll send conviction to
their hearts, and show them their need of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and bring them to his blessed feet, and there, and treat him
for his mercy. We ask these things in our Lord
Jesus' name, amen. him number three hundred and
three Jesus, Savior, pilot bee, over
life's tempestuous sea, unknown waves, Charts and columns come from
Thee, Jesus Savior, Pilate be. As a mother stills her child,
Thou canst touch the ocean wild. Boisterous waves obey Thy will,
When Thou say'st to them, Wondrous sovereign of the sea,
Jesus, Savior, pilot be. When at last I near the shore, Though breakers o'er, Twixt me
and the peaceful rest, There while leaving on thy breast,
May I dearly say to Thee, All right, back over here in
Acts chapter 7. Like I said, this is the longest
message in the book of Acts. It's also the record of the first
man who was martyred, the first soul that was martyred for the
Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament. The second one is
James, but he's the first. Stephen's the first martyred
for Christ. And you remember last week we
had the council. They all gathered. They brought
two charges against Stephen. It said in verse 11 of chapter
six, thence abhorred they men, which said, we have heard him
speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God. They charged him with that. And
we've heard him even say that spoke blasphemous words against
this holy place, against the place, the temple and this holy
place. that Jesus himself shall come
and change the customs in Moses, and Moses in the law. And look what he says there in
verse 1 of chapter 7. Then the high priest said, Are
these things so? Have you spoken blasphemous words
against Moses? Have you spoken blasphemous words
against God? Have you spoken blasphemous words
against this temple? Have you said that the law is
going to come to an end? That Jesus Christ is going to
destroy this place and change the law? Are these things so?
I tell you the first thing he didn't do, he did not defend
himself. He did not defend himself. He
did not do that. And I tell you the first thing
he does as they brought this charge against him, the first
thing he says, men and brethren, and fathers. He said those are
elders in the church, those elders here in the synagogue. And oh,
listen to what he says. The God of glory appeared unto
our father in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Haran. And see, God doesn t, the first
thing He tells them is God doesn t live in Himself to places.
They said this temple, this holy place, that God doesn't limit
Himself to places. Now, God didn't speak to Abraham
off of the Mount Sinai and holler way over across, you know, way
across countries and holler at him. No, no, it says God, God,
the God of glory. All they said was God. He calls
Him the God of glory. He says the God of glory, He
appeared, He made Himself known, He revealed Himself to Abraham. When Abraham dwelt over here
among idols and worshipped idols, the God of glory appeared unto
him. And the first thing He told him was, Leave where you re at
and go where I ll show you. And what Stephen does is he goes
and he tells He tells the redemptive glory of the Lord Jesus Christ
in God's purpose, starting with Abraham and ends in all the whole
history of Israel and what God did for him. And he told him,
God told him of the covenant. And he talked about the covenant.
God made a covenant with Abraham. and he told him that God made
a covenant with him, told him that he would be a stranger in
a strange land. You all know all this. We went
through the book of Exodus, and when God appeared to him, said,
Abraham, said, I'm gonna show you a country, and I want you
to go into that country, and you'll not own a part of it.
You'll not have a place on it. You'll not have a foot to set.
You'll be a stranger in a strange land all the time that you're
there. You ll just travel here and yonder. That s what the Scripture
said. Here s a stranger and a pilgrim. And that God would send him down,
send him into Egypt. You remember that? Look what
he says down here in verse 6. And God spake on this
way and this way, that he ll seize his soldier in a strange
land, and they d bring him into bondage, and then treat him evil
for four hundred years. And he, God said, I'll bring
them out and I'll save them and they'll serve me in this place
where I've set apart. Then God not only did he send
this, this last supper, but sent them down there into Egypt. And he sent Moses into Midian
and he gave him the covenant. Moses went into Midian. You know, you know the story
when Moses He saw two brethren, you know, he was found, he was
a proper child. His mother put him in a bulrush,
put him in a little ark and sent him out into the river because
it wasn't right, as they said, you're going to kill every male
child in Israel. Every Jew that's born that's
a male, KILL HIM! They're getting too many of us,
too many of them and not enough of us. So they'd kill him, so
she put him in a bull rush and ended up Pharaoh's daughter is
the one that found him and raised him as Pharaoh's son, raised
him as her son. Well, he was out one day and
he saw two brethren fighting. He stopped them, broke them up,
said, why are you brethren fighting with one another? He knew he
was a Jew, he knew he was a Hebrew. Now the next day he'd done the
same thing. And after a while he got to fighting and he killed
one of them. Buried him in the sand. And oh my. They said, oh boy, who made you
a judge and a ruler over us? Well God did. He sent him down
into Egypt. And oh my, God is the God. And
what he's saying is God's the God of the whole world. He called
him out of Mesopotamia. He called Abraham out of there,
and then he called Isaac, and then he called Jacob, and then
he called them out of Egypt. They're down in Egypt. God's
got over the whole world, and whether it's in Israel, or Egypt,
or Mesopotamia, God gets His people wherever they are. And
that's why Philip told of me, you stiff-necked and uncircumcised
in heart, you've always despised the prophets, and which ones
did you not persecute? My they just always did and always
the God of the Bible. He's not bound if I want geographical
place And they said oh, we've got Abraham to our father and
so he went down through there and showed how Abraham and all
that God done and Then this shows how that they hated Joseph. You
all know the story very well instead of me going through this
itself about Joseph talked about Joseph down here in verse nine.
And you know, it says that Joseph, the fathers hated him and despised
him and put him in a pit and Joseph. And then it says there
that they found him and God, he was down in Egypt and Pharaoh
made him. Verse nine says, they sold Joseph
into Egypt, but God was with him. God saved him out of all
of his afflictions. A famine came and Joseph was
made Lord, made God, made Lord over all the world. You know
why he was hated? He was hated just like our master
was, rejected like our master was, sold into slavery. And they
had, and you know, here's what happened. God sent a famine for
one reason, to make them have to go to the one they hated and
despised. If you're gonna eat, you're gonna
eat. Joseph's gonna be the one to feed you. You're gonna have
any corn? Joseph's the only one that can
give it to you. Oh, we hate Joseph. We despise Joseph. We're not
gonna bow down to Joseph. Yes, you will. Yes, you will. And oh, they had to go down to
Egypt. Jacob, he had to go down to Egypt. And oh, they had to face the
one. And you remember, oh, one of the most blessed things ever
was, is that his brethren finally got down there, and Joseph revealed
himself to him. They said, oh, he's gonna kill
us all now. He's gonna get even with us.
He's gonna destroy us. And he could have. He could have. But he started asking, said,
how's my, you know, and he just started crying. He had to get
up and leave. And they come back and said, oh, what's gonna happen
to us? And he's asking, where's my father? How is he? How's that
old man? How's your father? And oh, he
had them all brought down there. And he gave them all the blessings. He gave them everything. He gave
them the best property, the best land. He gave them everything
the best. And ain't that what our Lord
Jesus Christ, we hated him, we despised him, we rejected him,
but he came to where we was, revealed himself to us. and gave
us the best, gave us the land of Goshen, the land flowing with
milk and honey. Oh my, and I'll tell you what,
and then along comes Moses. Now they're down in Egypt, Joseph's
down there, and Joseph died, and another Pharaoh that didn't
know Joseph rose up. And Moses is the one that they
said, oh, who's gonna, I mean, who made you a judge
over us? Who made thee a ruler over us?
But look what it said down here in verse 20, And when he was cast out, Pharaoh
s daughter took him up and nourished him. And Moses was learned in
all the wisdom of the Egyptians, mighty in words and deed. And
when he was forty years old, he came into his heart to visit
his brethren. And you know how he defended one, and another
smote him, and then he had to leave. He had to leave. They didn't know that he would
be the deliverer of those that did. And then verse 29, Then
fled Moses at this saying, was a stranger, was a stranger in
Israel. But they didn't know that Moses
would be the one to deliver them out of Egypt. And Moses, like
all God's people, was a stranger in a strange land. Ain't that
what it says? Moses fled and was a stranger down in Midian.
And then, I tell you, Moses came back. God sent him back. You know, he said, look down
at verse 31. There appeared an angel in a
burning bush, and when Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight.
He drew near to behold it, and the voice of the Lord came unto
him, saying, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of covenant, the
God of election, the God of sovereign mercy, the God of glory, the
God that calls, the God that reveals Himself. Moses trembled. And then he told him, I've seen
my people in affliction. And he said, I'm going to send
you down there, and I'll tell you what, I'm going to use them
to deliver them. And oh, Moses, like all God's people, was a
stranger. God appeared to him. They refused him. They refused
him. They refused Moses. But they
see God sent him to deliver them, and he told them of another prophet.
Not only Moses, but remember when Moses went down and delivered
them. But anyway, look what he says. Now this is Stephen preaching. Yes, like I said, he's going
through all of Israel's history. You can read this all at your
own time and see how it all comes together. And he brought them out in verse
36, after he showed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and
in the Red Sea, in the wilderness, 40 years. Forty years. And then, oh my. Then, oh listen,
this is what Moses said then after they was in the wilderness.
He says, this is that Moses, the Moses you said that I spoke
evil against and I blaspheme against him. This Moses, which
said unto the children of Israel, He said, You think I'm a prophet,
and you don't love me, and you refuse me, and you murmur against
me, and you hated me. A prophet shall the Lord your
God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me. You're
going to hear Him. You're going to hear Him. And
that's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who they're
talking about. But they wouldn't obey Moses.
Look what happens now. Verse 40. Well, in verse 39,
to whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them,
thrust Moses from them, and their hearts turned back into Egypt.
And I tell you, he's telling these fellas that, he's preaching
to these people. And this is what they said, said,
this Moses fella, I don't have a clue where he's at. He was
up there on the mountain with God Almighty face to face. and
there and make us gods to go before us. For as for this Moses that's
brought out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what's become of
him. They made a calf in those days, offered sacrifice under
that calf, rejoiced in the works of their hands. Oh my, and look
what happens. Then God turned And this is what
you know, everybody, people say all the time, do you believe
we ought to stand for Israel? Do you believe we ought to stand
with Israel? Do you believe we ought to stand with Israel? Israel despised
God and everything he stood for. I mean, they come through the
Red Sea. They've seen wonders down in
Egypt. seen what God had done, and they
wasn t out of there just a little while, and their hearts went
right back to Egypt! We don t care about Moses! These
gold calves brought us out of Egypt! These gold calves saved
us! And look what it says in verse
42, Then God turned and gave them up. You want to worship
idols? You want to worship idols? You
want to worship the work of your hands? You want to worship these
idols that you made? You want to worship silver and
gold? I'll worship the host of heaven. God turned and gave them
up to worship the host of heaven. As it is written in the book
of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have you offered me slain
beasts and sacrifices in the space of 40 years? Oh, you went
God of reprimand made them to worship not carry you, I'm gonna
carry you into bondage. I'm gonna carry you all the way
down into Babylon. And then look what he said, oh
my, God gave them up. And oh, God gave you the law,
the oracles of God by Moses. And you didn't keep it. You didn't
keep it, he said in 42. He said, you didn't keep it.
You didn't keep the law. Down in verse 42 and 53. Which of the prophets have your
fathers not persecuted? They started with Moses. And
which of them have they not slain? You know how many prophets they
killed? They persecuted Isaiah. They persecuted Jeremiah. They
persecuted Ezekiel. They slew Micah. They persecuted
Samuel. They killed, they slew them,
killed them. And oh my, look what happened.
And oh, they said they keep it now. And oh, you don't keep it,
you despise it. He said in verse 53, you received
the law by the dispensation of angels and you've not kept it.
Look what he says over here in John 7, verse 19 with me for
a moment, John chapter 7. Look in verse 19. Oh, they said, oh no, he bashed
for him against Moses. He's telling them here exactly
who made you a judge and a ruler over us and God sent him down
to be the deliverer. And when he delivered them, they
said, this Moses, ain't nothing to him. We're gonna make us some
idols. This is the one brought us out
of Egypt. Moses didn't do that. God didn't do that. Oh my, but
look what he said in verse 19. Did not Moses give you the law? And yet none of you keeps the
law. Why go you about to kill me? Kill me. Moses, you despise Moses
and you despise him now. And then look what it says here in verse 52. Which of the prophets
have you not persecuted and have slain? And listen to this now. which God showed before of the
coming of the just one. God showed the coming of His
Son, all the way Moses spoke of Him. Moses, when he awoke
unto the prophet, he's speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. When
he slew the Passover lamb, he's speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The one that appeared to him out of a burning bush was the
Lord Jesus Christ. God is always and only ever spoken
to anybody by his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And oh, he showed
by the prophets. He showed of the coming of the
just one. Now listen to what he says to
him. And whom you have been now, you betrayed him. You betrayed
him. You sold him. You lied on him. You betrayed him. You turned
against him, just like you did Moses. Just like you did Jeremiah. Just like, they, you know what
this history says. Now it's not in the scriptures,
but church history says that they took Isaiah and took a saw
and took a saw and sawed him plumbing too. Jeremiah spent almost all his
life in a dungeon. He wrote a book, gave it to the
king, for death saith the Lord, he wrote a book. King got it,
looked at it a few minutes, said, anybody here got a knife? Yeah,
I got one, give it to me. Cut that up. They always hated
the prophets. Always hated the prophets. Always
despised them. And oh, God sent his son, he
showed before the just one, you betrayed him, you murder him.
And you know that he was the one who was coming, you know
he was coming, you know the Messiah was coming. Your fathers received
the law, God's word by the dispensations of angels, and yet you haven't
kept it. Ain't that what he told in verse
58? You received the law. And not one of you, not one of
you kept it, not one. And then he talked about, you
know, he blasphemed against this holy place. They said that they
were going to destroy it, and then Jesus of Nazareth would
destroy it. And then Stephen talked about
God making the tabernacle and dwelling in the tabernacle. In
verse 44, our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the
wilderness as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses that you
should make it after according to the fashion which he had seen.
So they said he spoke against this holy place. Well, he referred
to the tabernacle and said, that's the place that God said, do you
make it just like I tell you to make it? He did. God dwelt
in that tabernacle in the wilderness. David wanted to build him a house.
And you know what was their glory? That big old tabernacle, that
big old tent, that big old, excuse me, that big old temple that
they was in. They looked at that thing and
they thought, boy, look at the glory of it. Look what a beautiful
building we got. Look what a place we got to come
and worship. Oh, we got all these beautiful
things here and all my, this is the most glorious thing. And
this is where we get to go. Beautifulest building in all
of Jerusalem. And our Lord took them out there
and looked at it and said, see this beautiful thing? He said,
yes. He said, destroy this body, this temple, talking about himself,
and I'll restore it again three days. But then he also told them
that not one stone will be left upon this tabernacle one of these
days, this temple. And 70 years later, Jerusalem
was in ruins, just like our Lord said. But anyway, but Solomon
said, that I'll build him a temple. And then look what he says in
verse 48. Solomon built him a house. But
he said, you know, God doesn't dwell in temples made with hands.
You know that. You don't look at this temple
here. Look at this beautiful temple. But God doesn't dwell
in temples made with hands. Heaven's my throne. Earth's my
footstool. Where's the house that you're
gonna build me that I can dwell in? Where's the place that I
can rest? My hand made all these things.
And that's why he turned around and said, you stiff-necked. You
ain't gonna bend the neck. You hard-hearted. You always
resist what God has to say. What God has to say. And oh my. And you know what happened? He brought all these charges
against them. Brought these charges against
them. You stiff-necked, you uncircumcised in heart. You resist the Holy
Ghost. Always had and they always will.
Oh, they were circumcised physically, but their ears wasn't circumcised.
Their hearts wasn't circumcised. And oh my, And they always persecuted and
killed the prophets and they had murdered the Lord. And that's
what he charged them with was murder of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then look what, and they
know, he know, they know that he was telling the truth. They
listened to every word he had to say. And I mean, this is a
long, long, long message. There's more here probably than
what he said, but this is what they wrote down. And oh my, how'd
they react to it? when they heard these things.
When they heard about Moses, heard about the tabernacle, heard
about the glory of God, heard about His call, heard about God's
dwelling in these temples made with hands, heard about how Moses
was once sent down to save them. And oh my, when they brought
them charges against them, look what happens. They heard these
things. The scriptures tells us just
like their heart was cut. Just like he cut their heart.
Just stabbed them in the heart. Oh my. And then look what they
done. They gnashed on him with their
teeth. And that don't mean that they started biting on him. That's
not what they're talking about. They gritted their teeth at him.
You ever gotten mad and gritted your teeth? Huh? You ever gotten
mad and gritted your teeth? Or just grit your teeth to keep
from saying something, you know? Have you ever done that? Well,
that's what these fellows were doing. One of Mary's grandmothers, she
hated God with a passion, and all of her boys did but Herman.
You had mentioned God to them. I was one of his brothers fixed
to go and have open-heart surgery. And I talked to him about Christ,
talked to him about the gospel, talked to him and said, what
if you don't make it out of this? What's going to happen? So I
talked to him about it. Boy, he just looked away and
just looked down, never acknowledged I said a word. But I talked to
his grandmother, Ethel's, I mean, Mary's grandmother on her daddy's
side, and you'd mention her, and she'd go like this. Just
gnash her teeth and stomp her foot. God ain't never done nothing
for me. Third brother done the same thing.
Go down there and talk to him. Sitting on his porch, talk to
him. Read the Bible through, he said, 52 times. And I said,
you mean to tell me you've read God's Word 52 times and you're
yet not a believer? There's a lot of things I don't
understand. But he'd gnash their teeth. That's what these fellas
did. They just was gritting their
teeth. They hated him with a passion. They hated this. Oh my. And they looked at Him and then
He looked up. He looked, being full of the
Holy Ghost, He looked up steadfastly into heaven. He wasn't paying
attention to these people and they're gnashing their teeth
and gritting their teeth and their hatred of Him. But He looked
up steadfastly into heaven and look what He said. He said, I'm
His like Isaiah. I saw the glory of God. I saw
the glory of God. What is God's glory? The Lord
Jesus Christ. What's He doing? Standing on
the right hand of God. He was standing up for one of
His own to come home. And look what He says. And He said, Behold, look at,
look, look, look, look up what I'm looking at right now. I see
the heavens, they're opened up. And I see the Son of Man standing
on the right hand of God. Boy, what happened then? Then
they all began to shout and scream and holler, just like the false
prophets of Baal. And they cried with a loud voice
and put their hands over their ears. They couldn't stand to
hear it. They put their hands over their ears. Because he saw
it about Christ, saw the glory of God, talked about it at the
right hand of God. Heaven's open. And they cried
with a loud voice and put their hands over their ears and ran
upon Him. All of them just rushed Him.
And then they dragged Him. You know, this took a while to
happen. Then they got a hold of Him and dragged Him, carried
Him outside of Jerusalem. Carried him out of town, just
like Christ. He's crucified outside of town.
They carried him out of town. And then they got, when you're
talking about stones, they didn't take little rocks and start throwing
at him. They'd get big stones. They'd get big stones, great
big stones, and they'd throw them big stones down on him.
and throw great big stones down on them until they was utterly
covered up with stones, just like almost burying them, big
old stones, and stone them, and just kept throwing rocks at them.
Oh, I want to hit him in the head. Whack! Oh, I'm going to
get this out of there. Whack! And they stoned him. And they all stoned him, and
the witnesses. There was a bunch of witnesses
stood. They stood there watching this. You think they'd stand
up and help this young man? No, no. And there was a young
man standing there, Saul of Tarsus. And they laid their feet, those
witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of those whose name
was Saul. And they stoned Stephen. And Stephen, what was he doing
while they were stoning him? Calling upon God. and saying, Lord Jesus, just
like our Lord did, receive my spirit, receive me. Oh my. And then he kneeled down. They
didn't kill him, they thought they was gonna kill him, but
he kneeled down. He kneeled down. and cried with a loud voice,
just exactly the way our Lord Jesus did. Cried with a loud
voice that everybody could hear it. And he done just exactly
like his master. Lord, forgive them of this sin. Forgive them for they know what
they do. And he said, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he said that, he died. He died. Boy, did he give a good
witness? He preached to them the history
of Israel, and brought them all the way down from Abraham to
the Lord Jesus Christ, and His coming, and His death, and their
murder, and they hated it. Hated it all. Because the charge
they made against Him was false. But He done everything just like
His Master did. Oh Lord Jesus, don't lay this
sin to their charge. He's gone. He's gone. Our Father, thank You for meeting
with us tonight. Thank You for Your Word. There's
so much to deal with, it's impossible, utterly impossible, unless we
deal with two or three verses at a time. But Lord, let us Let
us be a Stephen, full of the Holy Ghost and faith. Make us
that way. Make us that way. Make us as one who says, Lord,
when we're mistreated or talked about or hurt by anybody or any
way, Lord, enable us to pray, as did Stephen, lay not this
sin to the charge. Oh Lord, forgive us of everything
that's unlike you. Keep your people. Bless those
who are traveling who will be coming home soon. Thank you for
those that's watching tonight and listening. We pray your blessings
for them. In Christ's holy name, amen. Amen. Well, God willing, I'll
see you Sunday morning. You're at liberty to go.