Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Acts chapter 7. Acts chapter 7. The name of the
message is Dying in Christ. Acts chapter 7. The portion that
we'll read together is Acts chapter 7, verses 54 to 60. Let's stand
up and read this portion together. Acts chapter 7, verses 54 to
60. 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 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 the 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. Hmm. My oh my. So our studies through the book
of Acts has brought us to the seventh chapter and our last
few lessons we've been going through this wonderful portion
where Stephen's sermon, he's preaching the gospel and bringing
out Christ in the Old Testament to the unbelieving Jews who he's
speaking to. And we've seen where Stephen's
being arrested and bought before the Sanhedrin,
who he's now preaching the gospel to. What's he preaching? He's preaching the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ for our justification. He's preaching
Christ and Him crucified, right? That's who he's preaching. And Stephen was moved by the
Holy Spirit, and he captured the attention of these unbelieving
Jews by giving a brief history from the days of Abraham until
the days, from the days of Abraham to the
days of Solomon. And because he was a man of war,
the Lord would not allow David to build the temple. But he allowed Solomon, who was again ordained by God,
to be the new king over Israel when David died. And when Solomon reigned, there
was perpetual peace, which pictured Christ. who has brought peace
to his people, peace with God, through the shedding of his precious,
precious blood. And because he typified our Lord
Jesus Christ as a man of peace, Solomon, again, was ordained
by God to be the builder of the Holy Temple. Look at verses 48
to 50. of Acts chapter 7. These were our closing verses
last week, but let's read them again. How abate the most high,
dwelleth not in temples made with hands, as saith the prophet?
Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. What house will
ye build me? What house could anyone possibly
build God? The heavens can't contain him. Or what place, what is the place,
or will you build me, saith the Lord, saith Jehovah, or what
is the place of my rest? Hath not my hand made all these
things? God's made everything. There's
nothing that we don't see that he's not made. You know, we build
houses, it's from his wood. It's from his stones. Right? We don't build anything original. He created out of nothing. We
have to have materials to create things. He created it by the
word of his power. Again, there's stars and every
star is a sun. And there's countless numbers
of stars. But He created every one of them. Spoke them into existence by
His almighty power. How great is our God! How great is our Savior! Why
do we get anxious? The flesh, the flesh, the flesh. Right? Oh my! And the Jews Stephen was speaking
to were unbelievers. They did not walk by faith. Contrary to that, they walked
by sight. They walked by sight. You ever hear people say, well,
if I see Jesus, I'll believe him. No, you won't. People saw Jesus and they didn't
believe him at all. You ever hear people say, well,
you're the only Jesus people are going to see? That's one
of the most blossomous statements around. We are sinners saved by the grace
of God in Christ. He is God Almighty. He is the
ruler over all. We can't even I'll just leave it at that. My,
oh my. Oh my. The reason that these Jews were
so opposed to Christ is because they loved the praise of man.
They loved what they could gain from man. They had no concern
for their souls. Gospel preachers, we have a concern
for souls, for your soul. My, oh, my. But they saw no beauty
in Christ. What do we see in Christ? He's
the fairest among 10,000 to our soul. How do you explain that? We went from seeing no beauty
in Christ to going, he's so wonderful. He's absolutely amazing. And
that's only by His grace, isn't it, Sister Marcia? That's only
by God's grace. There's nothing in us. Nothing in us at all. Why do we love Christ? Why do
we adore Christ? Because He first loved us. And
He's done, as we saw on Sunday School, right? He's begun a good
work in us. Regeneration, you must be born
again. And he's going to complete it too, isn't he? Perform is
complete, remember? Oh yeah. He's the author and
what? Finisher of our faith. Amen. I'll tell you. So they saw no
beauty in him. They loved the dazzling beauty
of the buildings. Oh, look at that. Look at the
temple. Look at that. Look how beautiful that is. It's just
incredible. Right? But they saw no beauty in Christ.
who the temple represented, right? Oh my. That was his temple. But see, they were looking at
the outside. Now we're the temple of the Holy
Spirit, right? He dwells in us, doesn't he? We're the temple
made without hands. blocks fit together, kept together
by the mortar of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. My oh my. Nothing's changed, has it? There's
nothing new under the sun. Folks still doing that. Look at the building. Look at the building. Oh, we
get thousands. I'm going to say something here.
I would rather preach to a small group or a large group, whatever
the Lord ordains, of God's born-again blood-washed saints than preach
to a thousand screaming Ishmaels. Unbelievers. See, what is the church for? I wish folks would come, right? Don't you? We wish them, but
they won't. God's gonna bring them here if
he's gonna bring them. If this church increases, it's because
God's done it, right? And it'll be wonderful. We'll
give them all the glory, right? But here we are right now, perfectly
content, aren't we? The message is going out into
the world. It's being used by God. But our heart, too, is for
the lost, isn't it? Our heart is for the lost. Our
heart is for Him, for Christ, and for Him to draw on His lost
sheep. But we can't do it, can we? We
could fill this place. I just bring in a rock band, compromise on the message a little
bit, which I won't do. This place could be full. But
see, that would be a work of man, wouldn't it? Not of God. Not of God. God adds to the church,
doesn't he? As he sees fit. And you know,
every one of us are ordained to be here. Isn't that amazing?
We are ordained by God to be here. And we pray for the messages
as they go out. Lord, use them. Brother John,
I love that. Use them to draw on your lost sheep. Draw them, please Lord, please
save your people from their sins and edify the saints. My oh my. Listen to D.J. Ward and he was
saying the church is for the saints where we come and gather
together and are uplifted and hear the gospel of the wonder
of salvation. of Christ and in and through
Christ. And then God, if God brings in
unbelievers or has them listen and the Lord saves them, well,
he's adding them to the church too, isn't he? And then they're
going to get a blessing out of the messages as well. See, all
the glory goes to Christ. All the honor and praise goes
to Christ. Our whole existence here is for the furtherance of
the gospel. That's why we're here in Almonte. Norm Wells told
me, the reason you're going to Almonte is God's sheep are there.
Well, here we are. Isn't it wonderful? It's absolutely
wonderful. So with that as a brief introduction,
let's look at verse 51. Stephen's continuing to tell
the group that he's speaking to. He's using very bold words,
but he's continuing just to put Christ before them. He says this,
he's stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears. You do always
resist the Holy Ghost. As your fathers did so, so do
ye. Now this verse is being used
in an erroneous way to say that man can resist the Holy Spirit
of God. That's not what's being brought
forth here. Can anyone resist God? If God is bringing someone to
Christ, can that person say, I absolutely do not want to come? If they're a saint of God? No,
the word for draw is drag in the Greek. And if you don't drag
us to them, we'll never come. Thy people shall be made what?
Willin'. Willin'. You mean you're willin'?
You guys, you guys mean, you guys, you mean you believe that
you're, that you're made willin'? That, that you actually buy your
will? Yeah, we're made willin'. Yeah, we believe that 100%, don't
we? 100%! See, people misunderstand what we believe. Yeah, we willingly
run to Christ. We willingly flee to Christ. God makes us willing to do that.
By nature, we're like, I'm running this way. But see, what we saw
on Sunday School, he that hath begun a good work in you, God
must begin the work in us. and not only must he begin the
work in us, he must continue the work in us and he must perform
it to the end. Right? Or else we're gone. I heard a preacher last night
and he said, he said this, he said, these folks that say that
you can lose their salvation. He said, we, we who are the born
again, blood washed saints of God, we rejoice that we can't. Somebody says, well, you make
a statement like that, then God's people are going to go crazy.
No, they're not. No. We marvel that he even saved
us. Because we were stiff-necked,
weren't we? I was stiff-necked, were you? Before the late Lord
saved me, I was stiff-necked and uncircumcised in the heart. And look what he says here in
verse 51. So these stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and
ears, that's what we were, that was our natural state. That's
the natural state of every man and woman and child born in Adam,
right there. You do always resist the Holy
Ghost. We resist, what we resist, and we're gonna see this, what
we resist is the preaching of the gospel, that's what that
means. We reject the Holy Ghost in the preacher, Preaching, right? Robert Hawker bought this one.
What they're resisting is the Holy Spirit using Stephen to
bring forth the gospel. Because no one can resist the
Holy Spirit of God. If you're a sheep, a lost sheep,
he's gonna get you. And you know what? Every one
of us is living proof of that. who are born again. Brian, you're
driving in the car. I believe. One of our dear sisters
was attending a school, and a pastor was there, and he started speaking
about Christ and the Lord's Savior just like that. She wasn't looking for Christ. No. It's he who must begin the
good work in us, right? He must. And he must perform
it. He must complete it. And he does, praise God. He shall
not fail. But this is us in our unregenerate
state. We are stiff-necked and uncircumcised
and hard. Now, people don't like hearing
that, but it's true. And even in ears. And Stephen basically is bringing
forth that in Adam, we're enemies with God by wicked works, just
as Paul wrote. That's what we are. We're enemies
in our minds by wicked works. What did we say before the Lord
saved us? I don't want him ruling over me. I don't want to live
under those rules and regulations. I remember talking to a dear,
talking to my daughter one time, she said, well, I mean, I have
to stop having fun. No, I told her no, sweetie, no. That's when joy begins, when
the Lord saves you. As Dave said, when he said to
Charlie, he said, you're alive, Brother Charlie, today. He said,
we were dead, now we're alive. We were stiff-necked and uncircumcised. We were enemies of the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and these who he's speaking to, they're
enemies in their minds, and by their actions against the Lord
Jesus Christ, they crucified him. They manifested that they were
enemies. We manifested by our wicked works
that we were enemies in our minds to God. And they were enemies of the
gospel. They were enemies of his church. Did you want to have
anything to do with the gospel or God's people before the Lord
saved you? No, we didn't, did we, sister?
Nothing. Didn't want nothing to do with it. And now here, can't live without the gospel.
Can't live without Christ. Can't live without my fellowship
with my brothers and sisters in Christ. It's wonderful. And this is what they will kill
Stephen for, what he proclaims. He's telling them the truth,
isn't he? Whether we like to hear this
or not, this is our natural state. And God's people say, amen, that's
what I was. Do we still struggle? Oh, yeah. But now we rest in Christ, don't
we? We have a new yoke upon us. Christ's yoke. And it's light. It's light. You know why it's
light? It is finished. The work's complete. My, oh,
my. And Stephen knew that these men
were ungodly because of their blatant rebellion against the
glorious gospel truth. He's talking to them right here.
They're obstinate. Stiff neck there means obstinate
in the Greek. They're obstinate to him. And the word obstinate means
unreasonably determined to have one's own way. Is that not how
we are? Is that not the problem with
mankind? We want our own way. Right? How do you know that,
that little baby? Right? We come out of the womb that
way. We want our own way. People say,
by election, that's not fair. Basically, they're saying, I
want my own way. I want to be me. We don't have to do that. We
want mercy. I love that portion of it. Paul
said it in just marvelous. I obtain mercy. That's what we want. We want mercy. We want grace. Beloved, we've obtained it in
Christ. We've obtained it in Christ Jesus our Lord. Oh my. we have obtained it, all by the
precious, precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are all obstinate by birth,
stubborn and hard-hearted by birth, unreasonable, determined
to be against God, Well, the reason they were like
that is the same reason we were like that, and the reason all
men and women are like that who are sons and daughters of Adam,
because we fell in Adam. We fell in Adam. Is it good now?
We fell in Adam. And the circumcision of the heart
is the sign of the new covenant, which they had not received.
They were not born again, beloved. They were not born again. They
were still dead in trespasses and sins, just like their fathers
were who rebelled against God in the wilderness. God had not given them his Holy
Spirit. They had not received the miracle
of the new birth. And that's a spiritual operation
that God must perform in us, right? Only God can give us a new heart.
These Jews that we see here, they're still controlled by that
cold, stony, dead heart, just like we were before we were born
again. See, now we have a war in us,
don't we? Called the Civil War of the Believer. Your flesh wants
to do one thing, the Spirit's willing, it wants to do that,
but the flesh, the flesh is weak, isn't it? You know, I praise God that our
Savior saves us and keeps us, because I know for me, I'm so
prone to sin, are you? Easily beset by sin, this fellow
right here. But praise be to God for a wonderful,
merciful Savior, named the Lord Jesus Christ, who's cleansed us from all our
sins. And they're not counted against
us anymore. because he blotted out the handwriting of ordinance
that was against us, that was contrary to us. And he took it,
nailing it to his cross. That's a good cause for hallelujah. And it's gone. And those handwritings
was all against us. Blotted out. And when it says
blotted out in the Greek, that means to whitewash. You can't
see them anymore. Oh my, this is wonderful. So Stephen also note too said
they were uncircumcised in their ears. So were we. Uncircumcised in their ears,
they cannot hear the voice of the shepherd through the preaching
of the gospel. But believers now, we hear the
voice of the shepherd, don't we? A.W. Pink bought that forth. We hear
the voice of the shepherd through the preaching of the gospel.
It's not an audible voice. But oh, we marvel. at the words
when he says, I give my life for the sheep. And the Holy Spirit impresses
upon our heart, that's you. Oh, my. And our hearts sing,
don't they? They sing with joy. You know,
just like a sunny day can be clouded out, so do the cares of the world
sometimes cloud out our joy. But when we get our eyes back
on the sun, those clouds just fade away,
don't they? Who's given us here and here's?
God's given us here and here. Gospel's a revelation, isn't
it? We be given seeing eyes, hearing
ears, and heart to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to the
saving of our souls. And that's the work of God. Give
him all the glory, beloved. Praise his mighty name. My, oh
my. He that is of God heareth God's
words, ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God,
John 8, 47. And that's right before he says,
I am, before Abraham was, I am. Then they heard him, didn't they?
And they wanted to kill him. But he walked right through the
midst of them, because it was not his time to die. Whew, my,
I'll tell you. And again, as I said earlier,
some teach that you can resist the Holy Spirit of God, but there
is not a man on this earth or a woman on this earth, if God
the Holy Spirit's drawing us to Christ, that we can resist.
I'll tell you that. You're telling me that the God
who created all things, who spoke everything into existence, sits
there and goes, I can't pull that fellow to me. It's just
too hard. He's resisting me. Come on. We are talking about the God
of the universe. See, that's the God of man's
imagination, right? The God of the universe draws
us with what's called irresistible grace. You cannot resist it,
I cannot resist it. And praise God, we can't. Because
if we could, there'd be no one saved. Because there's none that seeketh
after God, remember? There's none that understand
it. And when it says he draws us
to the Father, you know, he drags us, but you know what he drags
us with? Chords of love, beloved. Chords of everlasting love. Drawing us to the Savior. I'll tell ya, it just gets better
and better, beloved. So absolutely no one can resist
the sovereign, irresistible, drawing power of God the Holy
Spirit. When he determines to bring us
to Christ, he who begins the work will perform it to the end. Right? Or he's not God. A lot of people have a God of their
imagination out there, don't they? Let's pray that God, the
one true living God, will reveal himself. Oh my. It says, you do always resist
the Holy Ghost as your fathers did, so do ye. Think of this
too. As I said earlier, if an unregenerate
sinner could resist God the Holy Spirit and his drawn power in
salvation, then no one would be saved. No one. Why? Well, because the natural man
hates God. Natural man hates that. Paul brought that forth,
I brought that up earlier, that we are enemies in our minds by
wicked works. We want nothing to do, see, in
our natural state, man thinks the gospel is foolishness. These Jews did not accept Christ
as the Messiah, even though the Messiah had come to earth and
died and went back to glory. And the real reason we are enemies
with God in our minds, and the real reason we think the gospel
is foolishness is because we love, at one time, we loved the
darkness we were in. Natural man loves the darkness
that they're in, loves sin, and we were there. That's why our
hearts are moved with compassion. that the Lord would save, save
sinners. That's why we're moved that way,
to pray for the salvation of sinners as the message goes out.
Because we were there. We still struggle with sin even
now, but we've been translated, and I love this, this is just
wonderful, from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God's
dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what God's done. Do you see how this ties in with
Sunday School's verse? God's done that for us. Turn, if you would, to Philippians
chapter one. I'll read you guys the verse that we looked at,
and this is absolutely wonderful. Look at this. See, we're just
like these unbelieving Jews in our natural state. Look at this,
Philippians. Philippians chapter 1 verse 6,
being confident, now confident means there that to be persuaded,
right, of this very thing that he which hath begun, in the Greek
that means a new beginning, okay, begun a good work in you, that's
regeneration, that means to be born again, will perform it,
that word perform in the Greek means to complete, to bring it
to an end. until the day of Jesus Christ. Praise God that he has given
us hearing ears and seeing eyes and a new heart that hungers
and thirsts after righteousness, after Christ, because in our
natural state, we were enemies in our minds
with God. So what do these words mean then? You do always resist
the Holy Ghost, as your fathers did. Who were they resisting?
Who was speaking to them right there, and who were they resisting?
Well, they were resisting Stephen, weren't they? But they were resisting the Holy
Ghost that was in Stephen. They were resisting the Spirit
of God that was in him. just as they resisted the Holy
Spirit that was in the prophets. And their fathers did. Who did their fathers resist?
Well, they resisted the prophets of God. They killed them, just like they're
going to kill Stephen. The prophets were filled with
the Holy Spirit of God, and they proclaimed that, thus saith the
Lord. They proclaimed Jonah 2, 9, salvations
of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, right? He's
the only salvation. Look unto me and live in Isaiah.
They only had the Old Testament. They were preaching Christ from
the Old Testament, beloved. That's what Stephen was preaching
from. And instead of believing God's holy prophets, their fathers
before them hated them, persecuted them, stoned them, sawed them
in half. Right? Just read Hebrews chapter
11, the things that went on. My oh my. And These listeners of Stephen
are just like their fathers. My, oh, my. Think of this. In
Noah's time, Noah was a preacher of righteousness. They resisted
him. He was preaching by the power
of God the Holy Spirit, right? My, oh, my. All through the history
of mankind, All of us in our unregenerated
state, we're enemies with God in our minds by wicked works.
And when we hear the truth from one of God's preachers and turn
a deaf ear to the glorious gospel of God's salvation through the
merits of the Lord Jesus Christ and his perfect redeeming work
for his chosen people, if people turn a deaf ear to that, then
they're resisting the Holy Spirit of God. Serious stuff, isn't it? They're resisting the Holy Spirit
that's in his preachers, giving them the words to speak. My, oh, my. And again, all of
us in our unregenerate state are stiff-necked. We're just
all like that. But rejoice, beloved God, on
the authority of God's holy word. All those that God the Father
gave to his son shall come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Shall
come, shall come. And they're gonna come, how are
they gonna come? By the sovereign, irresistible grace of God. That's how they're gonna come.
By the drawn power of God the Holy Spirit. And they will never,
never, not ever perish. That's good news, isn't it? That's
good news. You know, the whole purpose for
the Bible to have been written is to reveal the grace and glory
of God in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. To reveal the substitutionary
redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And He is our surety. And we've seen in Stephen's sermon
that he's bringing that forth, right? He's putting Christ right
before them. He's putting the providence of
God right before them. Well, let's read verses 52 to
53. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them, which
showed before of the coming of the just one, of whom ye have
now, ye have been now the betrayers and murderers. who received the
law by the dispensation of angels and have not kept it." You see,
the just one there is the Messiah. Who did the prophets speak of?
The Lord Jesus Christ, the common Messiah. And their fathers persecuted
those prophets. Look, it even says, look, they've
slain them, killed them. Didn't want to hear what they
had to say. My oh my. And God's, God's Bible declares
that Jesus Christ is the just one. He's the Messiah. He came
to save his people from their sins. He did it. And now he's
resurrected and seated at the right hand of the Father. God
chose a people redeemed by the blood of Christ. And under the
preaching of the gospel, the Holy Spirit regenerates and begins
a good work in them, right? And we'll perform it to the end.
I'll tell you what, that gives you peace, doesn't it? One time, Brother Neil was saying
to me, you know, we don't have a lot of reason to complain.
And we don't, Brother Neil, you're right. We of all people should
be the most joyful people in this world. because our God is so good, so
wonderful, so benevolent, so full of grace towards us, so
merciful to us in Christ. And we see here that Stephen
declares that the fathers of the Jews he was preaching to
persecuted and killed the Old Testament prophets. And then
he boldly, without fear, turns it and says, you killed the just
one. You're just like your fathers. And Stephen, he knew that those
he was addressing needed to hear that they had sinned against
God, and they had. They had sinned against God,
and he knew they had no hope of entering heaven's glory through
their sinful attempts to keep God's law, and that's what they
were doing during those times, thinking that they could enter
the glory of heaven based upon what they've done. Well, no one
can be saved that way, can they? Without the shed and the blood,
there's no remission of sins, and God will only accept us in
one person, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man sent
by the Father to redeem a people. by the shedding of his precious
blood. And that's wonderful. That's why we say, sinner friend,
cast yourself upon Christ. I'll tell you, there's no other
hope for us except through Christ. There's none. There's none. And he knew, he knew that these
unbelieving Jews, just like we were before our time, salvation
and our regeneration, we were trying to justify ourselves before
God by something we did. Right? We were workspace religionists, trying to justify ourselves by
our own works. Can't do that, can we? No one
can be saved by that. But we can be saved by and in
and through the Lord Jesus Christ, can't we? And he's the one who's
we've trusted our eternal souls to. My oh my, and it all come about
by the grace of God. I'll tell you what, it's wonderful. And this is why we do this in
remembrance of him, because he'd done the great work. Our work's nothing in the eyes
of God, but his work, oh. It's great work, isn't it, brother? Do you know why the work of God
is so great? Because God did it. And it's also great because we're
great sinners, aren't we? There was a friend of John Newton's,
I think it was William Wilberforce, he said, he said, he said, I'm
a great sinner, but Christ is a great savior. Oh my, I don't
know what that man was talking about. Oh, it's wonderful, isn't it?
I'll tell you. I'll tell you what. Oh my. So they were going about
trying to establish their own righteousness. And they'd not
committed themselves to the righteousness of God, which is in and through
Christ Jesus, who is the righteousness of God, right? Now, how did Stephen
know? How did he know? How did he know
they were going about trying to establish their own righteousness?
Well, because at one time he was in the same sinful camp they
were. See, this is the thing about
God's people. We all come out of the same camp. That's why Paul, and I was thinking
about these words this morning in Sunday school as I was teaching,
and I had heard about them before, before I even come this morning,
and I was thinking about them as I was preaching, and I'm thinking
about them now. For who made you to differ? Who distinguished
you in the Greek? To be distinguished is to be
set apart, right? To be distinguished from others. Like when they give the Medal
of Honor to someone, they're distinguishing them for that bravery. Or even any medal you get, right?
Brother Tom, you're being distinguished for that. Well, we've been distinguished
by God from the whole world. Who made us to differ? Who distinguished
us? Well, it's God and God alone. So who gets all the glory then?
God and God alone, right? Oh, it's wonderful, I'll tell
you. I'll tell you. Now let's read verse 53. Now, and think of this, as Stephen's
preaching them, he has a heartfelt love for them. He's preaching
the gospel, he's a heartfelt love for those he's preaching
to. Sinners, right? That's why we pray for folks,
that's why we pray for lost folks, because we love them, we desire
them to be saved, if it be God's will. My oh my, look at this
though. He says, who have received the
law by the dispensation of angels and have not kept it. Oh my goodness. He is laying the... You know, sometimes things get
cut to the bone. That just cut right to the bone. Stephen was telling them that
their fathers received the law of God through Moses who had
received the holy commandments from God himself on Mount Sinai.
And we see in verse 53 that he tells him now, you didn't even
keep the law of Moses, your fathers didn't keep the law of Moses,
and you don't keep the law of Moses. That's fighting words. I'll tell you what, I'm gonna
tell you something. The only man, the only man, who kept God's law, and it's
a holy law, the only man who kept God's holy law perfectly
was the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the God man. It is he,
and marvel at this, Brother Tom, it's he that perfectly honored
that law for you and I and for all his people, perfectly. God
in the flesh. Sent from heaven. Perfectly. Sister, perfectly fulfilled.
So that there's nothing left. There's nothing for us to do.
It's no wonder the cry, it's such a wonderful cry. It is perfect,
it is finished. It's perfect in the Greek, it's
perfect. It's done. And we just look and live, don't
we? By the power of God. By, again, Philippians 1, verse
6, being confident that he which hath begun a good work in you
will perform it till the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't
that wonderful? So who gets all the glory? God
gets it all, doesn't he? God gets it all. And Christ,
by perfectly honoring and fulfilling that law, he established a perfect
righteousness. In Romans, it says that in the
gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. That's Christ. He's the righteousness of God.
He's established a perfect righteousness for us. And we are clothed in
that. I'll tell you. Do we deserve
it? Nope. Do we merit it? Nope. Can you earn it? Nope. God's
got to put it on you. Oh, it's wonderful. Praise his
mighty name. So Stephen, by bringing forth
that the fathers of these unbelieving Jews were guilty of breaking
God's law, well, they were pricked in the heart. And the fact that they were guilty
absolutely infuriated them. That's why people get mad when
you talk to them about Christ, because it offends their pride.
They think, well, I'm a good person. See, that's establishing
your own righteousness. We're not good. There's none
good, no, not one. And they go into an uncontrollable
rage. See, God's restrained them up
to this point, hasn't he? And you ever think when you're
talking to someone, God's restraining them? What would we do to one another
if God didn't restrain us? That's why one preacher of ours,
he said, he said, the only difference between me and the worst prisoner
in prison is the grace of God. And we all say amen. Right? We really know ourselves. My oh my. And we can see their uncontrollable rage in
verse 54. Look at this. When they heard
these things, now they finally heard something. And they hated
what they heard. Remember I said some people come
to hear the gospel, and some leave glad, and some leave mad? Look what, now they're offended
now. He's told them, your work's nothing. And you don't even keep
the law you proclaim. You proclaim to keep the law,
you don't even keep it, and neither did your fathers. And remember, Stephen, he's born
a Jew. He's a Hellenistic Jew, right? My, oh, my. When they told him they had not
kept the law of Moses, that they had no righteousness of their
own, that's what he's telling them, they were cut to the heart
and they gnashed on him with their teeth. Look at this. And
when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and
they gnashed on him with their teeth. They are spitting mad. My God. You ever see a little
kid do that sometimes? Gets so mad. You ever got like
that sometimes? Oh, come on. They gnash on them with their
teeth. So Stephen again told them about their ungodly state
of their fathers. Then he told them about the ungodly state
of themselves. And then he told them, well none
of you have fulfilled the law. And these are the guys that,
like, pride themselves, right? I've done all these things. Remember
that rich young man that came to Christ? What must I do? And he says,
and Christ gave him, and he said, I've done all those things. No,
you haven't. And he said, then he hit him
where he said, go and give away everything you have. Oh, and
follow me. Oh, and he left sad. Couldn't
do that, could he? Well, these folks here, they
are spitting mad. They are enraged. And you know what? This is typical
of all self-righteous religionists. It's still like that today. You
tell people about Christ, you tell them their righteousness
isn't any good, and they're going to get upset with you. I'll tell
you why. They will. They will. And all we're doing is telling
them the truth, saying, look, God won't accept you based upon
anything you do. And we used to believe that,
right? We used to believe that. I did, I believed God, I told
you before, I used to believe God would weigh me in scales.
Well, I found out there's no way in weighing, it's boom, guilty. Right? You know, the balance, there's no
balance in that scale, except by the blood of Christ, which
washes all those sins away, right? Paid in full. Scripture says,
remember that one fellow in the Old Testament? You've been weighed
in the balances and found one. That's true of every unbeliever. My, oh my. And we realize we
were there, don't we? Oh, but we've obtained mercy. Oh, all because it pleased God
to do so. So they deceive themselves into
thinking that they had done something to merit God's mercy, right? And their sinful deception absolutely
destroys the meaning of the word grace. If man could do something
to merit salvation, then it destroys the word grace. Because grace
is God's unmerited favor, isn't it? Showing to sinners. Unmerited favor. See, grace is
wonderful, beloved. It's just incredible, I'll tell
you why. Let's keep reading here. Let's read verses 55 to 56. 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 open, and the Son
of Man standing on the right hand of God. So it says here,
Stephen being full of the Holy Ghost, lifted up his eyes towards
heaven. And he knew where his help would come from, didn't
he? Let us look to heaven. Let us look to Christ. That's
where our help comes from. Our help comes from above. And
our Lord was pleased to open the heavens and allow Stephen
to see the glory of God. Stephen saw Jesus Christ, the God-man,
standing on the right hand of God. And the right hand of God
points to, it's a position of strength. Strength. Points to the glorious, prominent
position that God's Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
He's been highly exalted. He's been highly exalted, beloved,
by God Himself. And it also points to the absolute
truth that God has accepted the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf. Isn't that wonderful? My. God's accepted all that Christ
has done for his elect. That's amazing. It's true though. Now let's read verses 57 to 59. Then they cried out with a loud
voice and stopped their ears. Stephen's preaching there like
this. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear it. Right? That's what they were like. They
stopped their ears. You ever see little kids do that?
Well, we can even do it, too, can't we? Oh, yeah, we can. I've had enough
of this. Right? Oh, my. Stop their ears. And look at that. They ran upon
him with one accord. They're all in unity. They're
running at him. 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. Soon to be called the Apostle
Paul. And they stoned Stephen, calling
upon God. Stephen's calling upon God and
saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. These ungodly Jews had just heard
Stephen declaring that he saw Jesus Christ standing at the
right hand of God in heaven. And none of them wanted to believe
what Stephen had said earlier about them and their fathers.
And none of them wanted to believe what Stephen said he saw. See,
the natural man will never see Christ in his glory. They'll
just see him as a man, a good teacher. But we see him in his glory,
don't we? And the only reason being, we've been given seeing
eyes, that's the only reason. And hearing ears, to hear this
wonderful proclamation of Christ. And none of them wanted to believe
that God the Father had highly exalted the Lord Jesus Christ,
who they murdered. One day they're gonna see him,
aren't they? Oh, yes. They're gonna bow their
knees to our great and glorious God. My, oh my. Some of the men cried
out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and then ran upon
Stephen. They didn't want to hear another
word he had to say. They were absolutely enraged. And we see with one accord, and
together in their vehement hatred against Christ, or against Stephen,
but more so against Christ. They hated what he was talking
about. They hated who he was proclaiming. And now, now see,
see this is where, this is where, this is where that scripture
comes that there were enemies in our minds by, and then by
what? Wicked works. So the fact that they were enemies
in their minds has now been, has now been manifested by wicked
works. And you know what? You know that? Outside of Christ, we'd all done
the same thing. Folks say, well, surely if I'd
been there, I wouldn't have cried, crucify him, crucify him. Yes,
we would have. We would have said, give us promise.
And if we were left in our stiff neck and uncircumcised ways,
we would have ran right with them. But praise God, who made
us to differ? And what do we receive? We receive
grace. Only thing we can boast in is
in Christ. It's wonderful, isn't it, Brother
Brian? It just hinges us right up to Christ. Hinges us right
up to Him. It's wonderful, I'll tell you. My oh my. They stuck their ears. Then they
took Stephen, we see in verse 58, and cast him outside of the
city and stoned him, killing him. They're so enraged, they
kill him. They murder him. So what's Stephen? He's the first
martyr in the New Testament church, isn't he? He's not the first
martyr in the church, Because there's church in the Old Testament
too, wasn't there? But he's the first martyr in the New Testament
church. My, oh my. And he certainly wouldn't be
the last, would he? No, not at all. In verse 58, the text tells
us that Stephen was stoned. The witnesses laid down their
clothes at the young man's feet, whose name was Saul. Saul of
Tyrus, who would soon, by the grace and mercy of God, who wrote
what Brother Tom read today, that he's obtained mercy. Right? He's obtained mercy now. But they laid their feet, and
remember the coat, this man's feet named Saul. And remember
what Paul told us in Galatians when we did our Galatians study
in Sunday school. He said, I wasted the church,
which means in the Greek, I destroyed the church of God. We see it right here. Oh, how it would have grieved
Paul's heart to know that they laid the coat
of Stephen on his feet after he was saved. But then his heart
would rejoice knowing that all his sins were totally forgiven. So when we read about Paul writing
those things, marvel, marvel at the mercy he has obtained,
same mercy we've obtained, beloved. It's wonderful. And they stoned
Stephen, and he was calling upon the Lord. And he said, Lord,
receive my spirit. Notice Stephen is not bringing
rallying accusations against them. He's not calling, asking
God to rain fire and vengeance down upon them. Have we ever
done that? Oh, I've done it. I've done it. I admit it. No. He's saying, Lord, receive
my spirit. He wasn't even trying to defend
himself, was he? He was probably putting his hands
up, I would imagine, but other than that, he wasn't fighting
them. He was going home, beloved. This faithful servant in the
midst of his dying sufferance was calling upon God. He said,
Lord, receive my spirit. And the God that Stephen was
calling upon was none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. And Stephen
knew he was calling upon God when he said, Lord Jesus, that's
God. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And how important it is for us
to pay attention to every single word of the Holy Scripture, right?
He was praying to God. He is praying to Christ. Now
look at verse 60. This is amazing. And he kneeled
down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their
charge. Oh my. And you know, God answered
that prayer. He saved Saul of Tarsus, didn't
he? We don't know who else he saved
out of that group, Paul's forgiven. He's a blood-washed
saint of God. When he had said this, he fell
asleep. He passed away. To be absent from the body is
what? To be present with the Lord. He went immediately into
the presence of God, presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
Stephen being stoned to death, he kneeled and he prayed for
his enemies. What a lesson for us. What a
lesson for us. We see his loving concern for
even those who are persecuting him, hating him, treating him
with such vicious and painful and shameful hatred. And he says,
Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. Only the grace of God
can cause a man to do that. I'll tell you why. Only the grace
of God. Again, his prayer was not, Lord,
take vengeance upon them, open up the heavens and rain fire
down upon them. Not at all. Not at all. Marvel. He said, Lord, lay not
this sin to their charge. What a manifestation of a true
Christ-like spirit. What a manifestation of Christian
love. We're to love our neighbor as
ourselves, right? And Stephen was following the
example of our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember what our Lord said on
that cross? Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do. They don't know what they're
doing. My, oh, my. If the spirit of Christ dwells
in us, then we'll lay hold these inspired words to heart. Let
all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking
be put away from you with all malice. And be kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's
sake hath forgiven you. Be therefore followers, imitators
of God. As dear children, and walk in
love, as Christ has also loved us and have given himself for
us in offering a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling Savior. Ephesians chapter four, verses
31 to Ephesians chapter five, verse two. Those who know God,
know that God has been gracious to us, will be gracious to others. Those who are recipients of God's
sovereign mercy, Because he has mercy upon them, they will be
merciful to others. And those who know that God has
forgiven us for Christ's sake, as we just read there, I read
to you, will manifest a forgiven spirit towards those who offend
us. And all we can say is praise be to God. Praise be to God. Amen. And amen. Brother Brian, can you close
us in prayer?