All right, if you would, let's open our Bibles together to John chapter 20. John chapter 20. As you're turning, let me welcome Ken and Joyce back. It's so good to see you all. I told Joyce, instead of looking at your pictures, see you face to face. I'm glad you all are here. We want to remember Cozetta and her family. Cosetta's sister-in-law, Jim's sister, is being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. And apparently they think the time may be short for her, so let's remember them in prayer. And then also, it's in the bulletin, but remember our men's lunch will be this Thursday at noon.

All right, let's begin in John chapter 20 in verse 24. But Thomas, one of the 12 called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, we've seen the Lord. But he said unto them, except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. And after eight days again, his disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you might have life through his name.

This is where I'm gonna end up the message, Lord willing, this morning, is the gospels preached unto us that we believe. that we would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And I pray the Lord will make that so for us today.

All right, let's stand together as Shawn leads us in singing our call to worship.

When oceans vast their depths reveal,
and moons have ceased to wane,
The Lamb who died and rose again on Zion's hill shall reign.
His name shall ever be heard.
evermore endure, when suns have ceased to shine,
and through eternity the saints
We'll sing His praise divine.

As countless as the drops of dew or sands upon the shore,
our blessings which the ransom have in him forevermore.
Let every other name receive his name alone,

Okay, if you would, turn in your hymnal to song number 176. We'll sing Break Thou the Bread of Life. 176. Break thou the bread of life, dear Lord, to me, as thou didst break the loaves beside the sea. Be on the sacred page, I seek thee, Lord. My spirit pants for thee, O living Word. Bless thou the truth, dear Lord, to me, to me, as thou didst bless the bread by Galilee. Then shall all bondage cease, all fetters fall, and I shall find my peace, my all in all. Thou art the bread of life, O Lord, to me. Thy holy word, the truth that saveth me. Give me to eat and live with Thee above. Teach me to love Thy truth, for Thou art love. O send Thy Spirit, Lord, now unto me, that He may touch my eyes and make me see. Show me the truth concealed within thy word, and in thy book revealed I see the Lord.

Good morning. For our scripture reading this morning, turn with me to the book of Psalm. We'll read Psalm 23. Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his namesake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest the table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil, and my cup runneth over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Let's pray together. Our holy, our holy God and heavenly Father, we pray that your name be lifted up in this place this morning, that you would bring glory to your name, bring a knowledge and sight of Christ, bring faith, increase our faith, give us faith to believe and to see Christ for who he is, as holy and as worthy, as sinless, and yet as the sacrifice that took our sin in his body on the tree and actually bore it away as the successful sacrifice. We would, by your grace, we would see Christ in this place this morning.

I pray that you bless our pastor and give him the word from you. And I pray that you bless us, give us ears to hear and give us a heart to believe. Pray that you don't leave us to ourselves. We repent and admit that we're At best, as the scriptures say, at best, we're vanity. We're we're rebels. We're sinful. We're cold. We're dead without you.

Father, we we repent that that is the nature that we carry. That is who we are. We're thankful that in in Christ were also yours were also alive and given faith and given life and given a heart. And just as Peter said, Father, you know we love you because you've given us that love. You know that we believe because you've given us faith to believe.

Father, help our unbelief. We repent of who we are. We pray that you see us always and only in Christ. We thank you for full remission and forgiveness of our sin in him. And we thank you. We thank you for your goodness. We thank you for who you are. And we would see who you are this morning together.

We pray for ourselves, those of our congregation that are hurting and undergoing particular trial. We think of Kazetta and her family. And we think of others, Father, that are struggling either physically and emotionally, whatever the need may be. Father, we think of our children also, that you leave them not alone, that you would see fit to reveal to them, as you've seen fit to give life and faith and repentance to so many people we've seen over the years, Father, we pray that you do the same for our children. We thank you for this place and this time that we have together. We pray this all in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen.

Open your Bibles with me to Acts chapter 7. I normally read the text or have one of the men read the text I'm going to preach from, but it's very lengthy and I plan on just reading through it as we go this morning. So Acts chapter 7. I've titled the message, The Message That Cost Stephen's Life. Stephen preached the gospel of Christ so Clearly, so powerfully that the enemies of Christ killed him for it. A message that cost Stephen's life.

Now I want to begin reading in Acts chapter 6 verse 9. And there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Sicilia and Asia, disputing with Stephen. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. And they suborned men which said, we've heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God. Now these men could not resist. They could not poke a hole in the message that Stephen was preaching. It was the truth of it. They couldn't dispute the truth of it because his message matched the scriptures. Stephen was expounding on the scriptures, on the word of God. He wasn't giving his ideas about things. You can always poke holes in that. He was saying, thus saith the Lord. This is what the scriptures mean. This is how the scriptures point us to Christ. And they couldn't dispute it. They couldn't poke holes in it. So what they did was they got people to lie about Stephen, to try to discredit him and get people not to listen to him. And boy, that playbook's still around today. That's what people do to God's servants all the time.

Well, in chapter seven, we have the message that Peter preached as the result of this. I won't say to defend himself, because he makes no effort to defend himself, but this is his answer to these men that accused him of speaking blasphemous words against Moses and against God. I want us to see here that as Stephen preaches, he's not just laying out some facts. He's preaching Christ. This is the Christ that we preach. This is the way that God saves sinners. This is the way we preach. And he's to be believed. He's to be believed.

So first, we'll begin here in chapter seven. And what Peter does, or what Stephen does throughout this passage, is he lays out the history of Israel. And giving the history of Israel, he gives us pictures of Christ. These are pictures of Christ. This is the one that we are to believe.

And number one, Stephen preached the electing calling God, the electing calling God, the God of all grace. Verse one, then said the high preacher, are these things so? And he said, men and brethren, our fathers and fathers hearken. The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he dealt in Charon and said unto him, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and come into the land which I shall show thee.

Now God chose Abraham. He elected Abraham and he chose Abraham and revealed himself to Abraham. Now where Abraham was living, there's a whole bunch of idolaters. God could have chosen any of them. I mean, none of them were any count. Even Abraham, he was an idolater. But God chose Abraham out of that bunch of idolaters and plucked him out and told him, you go to a land that I'll show you that I'm gonna give you. And Abraham went. He and Sarah went, not knowing where they were going, because they believed God. They believed God because God appeared to Abraham. And that's the only way Abraham ever would have known God, is that God appeared to him. And the same thing's true of you and me. We will never know God until he appears to us.

Now he's not gonna appear to us in a physical form or talk to us in an audible form like he did Abraham. But he appears to his people in the gospel. And that's just as miraculous. Might I say more miraculous? That having not seen, having not audibly heard, you believe because Christ has appeared to you in the word. And if God appears to us so that we know anything about him, and if we see him, we're going to learn a whole lot about ourselves in the light of who he is.

We're going to know this. Salvation has to begin with God's electing love. It has to. Because by nature, we'd never choose God. By nature, we would never choose God's way of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll always want to contribute something of our own work, something of our own self. That was Abraham. Abraham was happy in his idolatry. He was happy in his father's house. I mean, he had everything anybody could have wanted. He was happy in his idolatry. He wasn't looking for the Lord. He wasn't saying, you know, this isn't right. I don't like this. No, he liked all the form and the ceremony of his idolatry until the Lord appeared to him. And when the Lord appeared to Abraham, he saw something better than his idolatry and he left it. And he followed Christ the rest of his days.

And since the scripture is so plain on this, and there's so many evidences of it, that salvation must begin with God's electing love. What does that say about us? It says we are nothing but sin. We're filthy, we're dead in our sins, dead in trespasses. We cannot see God. We cannot come to Christ. We cannot, you know, preachers tell us, well, make a decision for Christ, but you can't do it because you're dead. You're dead. This truth of God's electing love says about you and me that we are totally, completely dependent on God's grace. We are dependent on God to save us from its beginning to its ending and everywhere in between, we are completely dependent on God to do all of the saving for us. We can't do one thing to get God to save us. We can't do one thing to make ourselves more savable than somebody else so that God might choose to be merciful to us. The only thing we can do, this is the only thing you and I can do, is beg for mercy. We can't make God save us. We can't do something that obligates God to save us, but we can beg him for mercy.

And here's something so encouraging. to those of us who are begging God for mercy. The God we're begging for mercy, before time began, chose to save sinners. Chose them in his electing love. That's the God we're begging for mercy.

Number two, Stephen tells us that the God we worship, the God who is to be believed, always accomplishes his purpose. Verse four. Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Cairn, And from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land where ye now dwell. And he gave him, God gave him none inheritance in it. No, not so much as to set his foot on. Yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession and to his seed after him. When as yet, he had no child.

Now God always, always moves in mysterious ways. his wonders to perform. He never does things in a straightforward manner that makes sense to our fleshly logic. Never. And boy, we would do well to remember that. When things are happening in our life and in the world around us that seem like they make absolutely no sense, that seem like they're all going the wrong way, that's what is going on, you know? It's very good for us to remember God always works in mysterious ways. And he always, no matter how bad it looks here on earth, he always accomplishes his will.

The Lord told Abraham, I'm gonna fill this land with your seed. But Abraham and Sarah are too old to have any children. They're 100 years old and 90 years old. They're too old to have any children. It's physically impossible for them to have any children. But God gave him a child. He gave him the child of promise. And from that one child, Isaac, grew a multitude, grew a nation, spiritually and naturally, didn't it? In Isaac shall thy seed be called. And God worked that out when it seemed like it's impossible. And from that one child grew a nation that no man can number.

But you would think, as much as Abraham, and particularly Sarah, wanted a child, you'd think, boy, he's given us the child. He's given us the heir. And they understood, not only is this my precious baby boy, this child for whom I prayed, through this child is coming the Messiah that's gonna bless every nation on this earth. And you'd think, we've got the son? There's no more problems in life, everything else is just gonna be just a bed of roses, isn't it? But not so, verse six. And God spake on this wise that his seed should sojourn in a strange land and that they should bring them into bondage and entreat them evil 400 years.

This child's gonna be born and you think, oh, God's promised he's gonna bless the whole earth from this. And we're just going to be a nation of kings and rulers and spreading the gospel all over the place and all of our riches and all of our influence. God said, I'm going to make, the Messiah is coming through this child, but I'm going to make all of your seed a nation of slaves. They're going to be nothing but slaves for four centuries. For four centuries.

Read on, verse seven. And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, saith God. And after that, they shall come forth and serve me in this place. And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham begat Isaac and circumcised him the eighth day. And Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat the 12 patriarchs. And the patriarchs moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.

Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt, Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers found no sustenance. But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent our fathers first. And at the second time, Joseph was made known to his brethren, and Joseph kindred was made known unto Pharaoh, Then sent Joseph and called his father Jacob to him and all his kindred, three score and 15 souls. So Jacob went down into Egypt and died. He and our fathers and were carried over Sycam and laid in the sepulcher that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emor, the father of Sycam.

But when the time of promise drew nigh, when God has sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt. until another king arose which knew not Joseph. The same dealt suddenly with our kindred and evil entreated our fathers so that they cast out their young children to the end that they might not live.

" Here the Lord promised this nation, come through this child Isaac, and sure enough, boy, they became a great nation, didn't they? They went down to Egypt and And Joseph was in charge of all the land. Joseph, that type of Christ, fed his family, protected his family, provided for his family, was gracious and forgiving to his family.

It all seemed so well for the children of Israel, living in the land of Goshen, living in the best land of all of Egypt, until there arose a Pharaoh that knew not Joseph. And just like God promised Abraham, he made the whole nation a nation of slaves and did his best to wipe them out. Sounds like even some of the children of Israel killed their babies rather than have them live a life of slavery because it was so horrible.

Oh, what horrible, horrible bondage in the way that they were treated. And when it seemed like You're just about ready to be able to wipe out the children of Israel. We're going to kill all their boy babies. Their girls aren't going to have any choice but to marry an Egyptian, and it's all going to assimilate into our society. And the children of Israel will be no more.

Just when Pharaoh thought he had them right where they wanted them, God destroyed Pharaoh to show Pharaoh and to show us just who's in charge here, just who is it that is accomplishing his will. And the Lord promised Abraham for 400 years, your descendants, your seed are gonna be slaves. They're gonna be treated so horribly, but I'm gonna deliver them.

And the Lord didn't send a deliverer, not only until 400 years, just exactly like he promised, he didn't send a deliverer until all hope seemed to be lost.

Verse 20, in which time Moses was born and was exceeding fair Thirst up in his father's house three months. And when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up and nourished him for her own son. And Moses learned all the wisdom of the Egyptians. It was mighty in words and in deeds. And when he was full 40 years old, it came to his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him and avenged him that was oppressed and smote the Egyptians. For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them. But they understood not. And the next day he showed himself unto them as they strove and would have set them at one again, saying, sirs, your brethren, why do you wrong one to another? But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? Wilt thou kill me as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday? Then fled Moses at his saying, and was a stranger in the land of Midian, where he begat two sons.

And when 40 years were expired, I mean, Moses had been gone for 40 years, people forgot all about him. There appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai an angel of the Lord in the flame of fire in a bush. When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight, and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him, saying, I'm the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled and durst not behold. Then said the Lord to him, put off thy shoes from thy feet, for the place where thou standest is holy ground. I've seen, I've seen the affliction of my people, which is in Egypt, and I've heard their groaning, and I've come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt. This Moses, whom they refused, saying, who made thee a ruler and a judge? The same did God send, to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel, which appeared to him in the bush. And he brought them out after he showed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the wilderness 40 years.

Now the Lord waited to send the deliverer until all hope was lost. And that's the way God almost always accomplishes his will. in a miraculous way when all hope is lost. And if God saved you, you know this, he didn't save you until you lost all hope of salvation. Until all hope in yourself was gone, that's when God sent the deliverer. That's the way he always works.

The third thing Stephen told them, using Moses as a picture of Christ, is that Christ is our ruler and our judge. Now those children of Israel asked Moses, who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Who are you? Well, the Lord did eventually make Moses the ruler and judge of Israel, didn't he? But he did it in God's time. He didn't do it when Moses thought, now this is the Lord's time. He did it in his time.

Now if you look back at Matthew chapter eight, You know, Moses there is a picture of Christ, our ruler. And that word ruler means the chief ruler or the prince, the father made Christ the ruler and the judge of his people from all of eternity. And here's authority, his authority in Matthew chapter eight, verse five. And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion beseeching him, And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home, sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I'll come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I'm not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof, but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I'm a man under authority, having soldiers under me. I say to this man, go, and he goeth. And to another man, come, and he comes. And to my servant, do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard it, he marveled and said to them that followed, verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.

This centurion understood authority. And he understood who the prince is, who the ruler here is. And he said, Lord, if you just speak the word, my servant will be healed. That's your authority, your power. All you have to do is speak the word and my servant will live. And if you're not pleased to speak the word, My servant's gonna die. It's completely up to you. That's bowing to the sovereign will and purpose of our God. Lord, it's up to you whether you say the word or not. And the same thing is true in our salvation. Salvation is not up to a choice that we made. It's up to the prerogative of the ruler. If he's pleased to speak the word, to our hearts, we'll live. We'll have eternal life. We'll be born again. We'll be saved. And if he's not pleased to speak the word, we'll never live. We'll never have life. He's the ruler and salvation's up to him.

And he's also our judge. Oh, Lord said in John five, verse 22, that the father judges no man, but it's committed all judgment to the son. Now it's the Lord Jesus Christ who will be the judge of the earth. It's him who will pronounce sentence on every son of Adam, an eternal sentence. But not only is Christ the one who pronounces the sentence, like a judge would do, but he's also the standard by which we will be judged. If we would be accepted, we must be as perfect as the son of God. And if we're not as perfect as Him, we just have one blemish on our record, we'll be damned. We must be as perfect as Christ Himself.

So again, what does that say about us? Well, it says God's God, and we're in His hands to do with as He pleases. Aren't we? We're in His hand to do with as He pleases. That's true of natural gifts, That's true of spiritual gifts. We don't have anything that the Lord's not pleased to give us because he's the prince. He's the judge. He's the ruler.

But if you look at Revelation chapter one, I want to show you what our prince and our judge has been pleased to do for his people. And this will be an encouragement for us to come beg him for mercy.

Revelation one verse five. And from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness and first begotten of the dead and the prince. Now that word prince there is the same word translated ruler in our text. He's the prince or he's the ruler of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood.

Our ruler, our judge, has been pleased to sacrifice himself. to shed his blood and wash his people from all of their sin. To wash it so that it does not exist anymore and to make his people the righteousness of God in him. To make them perfect so that they would be accepted into the Father's presence.

Our Lord said, I'll be gracious to whom I will be gracious. I'll show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But that one, it's his choice, isn't it? It's his prerogative. I'll be gracious to him, I will be gracious. I'll show mercy to him, I will show mercy. But this one, mercy's his to give, grace is his to give, or grace is his to withhold, is the same one who's been pleased to sacrifice his own self, to put away the sins of his people.

Now that encourages me to come beg the Lord, Lord, you're gonna be gracious to somebody. Would you be gracious to me? I know the Lord is gonna be merciful to somebody that does not deserve it. Lord, I fit that bill. Would you be merciful to me?

Then the fourth thing Stephen tells us here is our God is holy. In verse 33, Then the Lord said unto him, put off thy shoes from off thy feet for the place where thou standest is holy ground. That ground is holy because God who's holy is there.

Now everything God does must be holy. He can't do anything that would violate his holiness. That means God's not going to save you or me. If he's got to violate his holiness to do it, if he's got to ignore our sin to do it, if he's got to sweep our sin under the rug to do it, or he's got to accept the best that we can do, even though the best that we can do is full of sin, he won't save us under those conditions because God's holy.

God is not impressed with our failed law keeping, doing the best that we can do. He's not impressed with all of our ceremonies of religion and You know, all the things of religion that we do, our motions of religion. He's not impressed if we're related to Abraham. He's not impressed with anything about our flesh.

God can only save a sinner if he can still be holy when he does it. I tell you, that makes me thankful. That doesn't make it sound like to me like there's a way that God's keeping sinners out of his presence and out of heaven and sending them to hell. That makes me thankful. God's gonna save somebody. And if God saves us in a holy way, it can never be lost. Because if God saves us in a holy way and then condemns us, that would be unholy. And God can never be unholy.

And here's how God did it. He saved his people in such a way that he's holy and right when he does it. He transferred the sin of his people onto his son. He made his son sin for his people. And then he punished his son fully for that sin. That sin became Christ. You know, the father didn't kind of, kind of sort of punish him, but you know, kind of lighten the stroke a little bit, because it's not really his sin. No, it really became his sin. Even though he never committed a sin, it really became his sin. And the father gave his son everything that sin deserved. He spared not his own son. And in return, he made his people the righteousness of God in him.

See, God saves in a holy way, so it can never be lost. It can never be marred by the sinner. That's the way God saves sinners. And the only thing that I have to say to that is, Lord, save me. Save me by your grace. Wash me in the blood of Christ. Make me what you'll accept.

Then the fifth thing Stephen tells us is that Christ is the deliverer. In verse 34 he says, I've seen the affliction of my people, which is in Egypt, and I've heard their groaning, and I've come down to deliver them. I am come to deliver them. We talk about Moses being the deliverer, but he's just a type of Christ. God said, I will deliver them. I will, Christ is our deliverer.

And like I said earlier, by this time, the children of Israel pretty much just, they'd given up all hope. I mean, how many times did Egyptian soldiers come into a house where there's a newborn baby boy and take it and throw it in the Nile River and drown it? I mean, it's just more awful than we can really comprehend it. They'd just given up hope. I mean, they'd pretty much forgotten. God's promise to Joseph. And when all hope was lost, that's when God sent the Deliverer. And that's just what I said earlier, how God saves his people. When all hope of salvation by our works and our goodness is gone, that's when God saves his people.

Titus 3 verse 5 says, he saved us. He saved us. He delivered us when All hope was gone. And I love this about God's way of salvation. It's just, it's holy, and it's miraculous. Christ didn't come deliver his people by just coming to the prison house and unlocking the door and saying, go free. Christ delivered his people by taking their place, by bearing the punishment that they deserved. And when Christ suffered for the sin of his people, he delivered his people from sin. He delivered them from the condemnation of sin.

If Christ died for you, he's already suffered the condemnation your sin deserves, and God can never condemn you, because that would be condemning two men for the same sin. Can't do it. He's delivered you from the ruling power of sin. I've told you this many times, being delivered from the ruling power of sin does not mean I'm going to be tempted to sin and I'm just going to, by my will, overcome it and not sin. No, that's not it at all. As a matter of fact, when God saves you, causes you to be born again, there's a new man and an old man, you're going to think you sin now more than you ever did because it's only the new man who can see the sin of the old man.

But here's how God delivers all of his people, every last one of them, from the ruling power of sin. There was a time you could not believe Christ. Even if you wanted to, you couldn't make yourself believe him. There was a time you really did want to see Christ. You come to the worship service, and the preacher's preaching, and you hear some man say, amen. That's good. After the service, people are talking about it. They seem kind of excited. They seem like this really made them happy. And you think, I wish I could see. What is the big deal? I can't see. I wish it good, but I can't.

Then the Holy Spirit came and caused you to be born again. And now you see. Now I see what the big deal about. It's Christ. He's the big deal. It's that he could love a sinner like me. It's that he would be the substitute for a sinner like me. That he would save a sinner like me in both justice and mercy. So that I could never be lost. Now I see. Now I believe Christ. My old man tries to make me not believe him every day, but now he can't make me not believe. Now I believe and I can't quit believing. Because I've been delivered from the ruling power of sin.

And one day, he's gonna deliver us from even the presence of sin. God's people, unless we're still alive and remain when he returns, then we'll be changed, twinkling of an eye, but if we're not here when Christ returns, every believer is gonna die and open their eyes in glory, and they're gonna awake just like Christ. Holy, unblameable, and unapprovable.

You think about how happy the children of Israel were to leave Egypt and go across that Red Sea. And after 40 years of wandering around the wilderness, how happy they were to enter into that promised land. I mean, they entered into the promised land and everything was prepared for them. They didn't have to fight a battle. The most strenuous thing they did is walk around the city for a few days until the Lord caused the walls to tumble down when they blew a trumpet. I mean, that's about the most strenuous activity that they had. Other times they'd come up to a town and they'd walk in, there's nobody there. There's nobody there. The Lord sent hornets and drove the people out and they walked in and said, well, my goodness, dinner's already ready. Let's just sit down and eat. And they'd eat, and then they'd look out and kind of take stock of their surroundings. Why? The crops are ready to harvest. We'll go to sleep, and we'll get up in the morning and harvest those crops. Everything was all ready for them. I mean, you'd think how happy they were.

That is sadness compared to the emotion of awaking in glory and being made just like Christ and seeing Him face to face. And every one of God's children is going to do it because he's delivered us from the condemnation of sin. And the only thing I can say to that is I know I can't set myself free. I mean, I spent years trying. I can't do it. Lord, deliver me. Would you be pleased to deliver me by your mercy, by your grace?

Six, Stephen says our God is that prophet. Verse 37 says, this is that Moses. which said unto the children of Israel, a prophet shall the Lord our God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me. Him you shall hear. I bet by that time Moses was so tired of telling the children of Israel what God said and they wouldn't listen to him. He said, there's coming a prophet you're gonna hear. That prophet, that prophet. That prophet is the Lord Jesus Christ. And when he came, you know what he did? He revealed God to men. That's the prophet's job, is to reveal God to men. Thus saith the Lord. This is what God's like. This is what God says. This is how God saves sinners.

And when Christ appeared, He revealed God to men. And today, God speaks to us the same way He spoke to His people when our Lord was, during His earthly ministry. He speaks to us, the writer of the Hebrews said, by His Son. by his son through the preaching of his word. The incarnate word is revealed to us through the preaching of the written word. And you who believe know that this is true. There's a day that you heard the gospel, you didn't believe it, you didn't like it, it didn't mean anything to you. And now it does. You're hearing the same preachers, you're reading the same word, what's the difference? God spoke to your heart. God spoke to your heart. He spoke that word and there's life. And it is his, the sound of his voice, but you hear him just as clear as a bell, just as clearly as you hear me now. The difference when God speaks is you're not just hearing the voice of the preacher anymore. You hear God speak to your heart and he does it through the word. Now, if I can only see God, if he's pleased to speak to me, my prayer is, Lord, speak to me. Lord, speak to my heart. Don't let me just hear the preacher. Let me hear the preacher. Let it be mixed with faith. But, Lord, you be my teacher. You speak to my heart. And if he speaks to our hearts, we'll live. We'll live. We'll know how God saves sinners and believe it.

Stephen tells us that our God is the just one. In verse 51, he says, you stiff-necked and uncircumcised and hardened ears, you do always resist the Holy Ghost, just like your fathers did. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they've slain them, which showed before the coming of the just one, of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers.

Boy, Steve's not holding back anything, is he? He's telling the truth. This is the just one. The Lord Jesus Christ is the only one who is just. The word means without sin. The Lord Jesus is the only one who ever obeyed God's law perfectly.

And if the Lord ever reveals Christ to us, that's when I find out I'm unrighteous, when I see his righteousness. When I see the glory of His perfect righteousness, that's when I find out that my righteousness is the very best things I've ever done. I thought, well, God might be kind of happy with me because I did that. That's when I find out that's just a filthy rags.

And not only is Christ the only one who's ever been just, who's ever been sinless, He's the one who justifies sinners and makes them just like Him. Look at Romans chapter three. Romans 3 verse 25. Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

Christ is that just one, but he's also the justifier, the one who justifies his people by taking their sin away from them and putting it away by his precious blood and giving them faith to believe him. See, we're justified by faith, by faith in Christ, not by our works. He's the just one. He's our only hope of salvation.

All right. Now we're gonna get right down to where the rubber meets the road. This is my last point. And this is something that is so important. I want you to listen and pray that God give you ears to hear it and a heart to believe it. Our God is to be believed. Now best as I am able, I just told you who God is. From God's word, you see that these pictures of Christ and who He is. That's Him in His glory. That's who He is and how He saves sinners. Now you believe Him. Believe Him. Don't just hear that and say, yeah, I see that's what the Word says. I see that's what that says. It must be so. Believe it. Believe it.

Look what happened when Stephen got done with his message, verse 54. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and they gnashed on him with their teeth. I mean, they were so mad and they started biting. This is, you know, you teach your one year old, you're smacking them and you know, don't bite me, don't bite me. These are full grown men, 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. Our Lord is seated on the right hand of God, isn't he? How many times does scripture say that? Here he's standing. He must be standing, getting ready to receive one of his own to himself. And Stephen said, verse 56, behold, I see the heavens open 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.

And you and I are commanded to believe the gospel of Christ that we just heard preached. We're commanded to believe on him. And our reaction to the gospel would be the same reaction as these men. We'd kill God, we'd kill his son, and we'd kill his servants if we thought we could get away with it. We would. That's our nature. The natural man hates God. The natural man hates the Lord Jesus Christ. The natural man hates God's way of salvation. And I'm not talking about people all through this town that are in goat farms, as Brother Fortner used to say, or they just don't go anywhere on a Sunday morning, they're watching football pregame shows or something. I'm saying you and me, you and me are born with a nature that hates God. And there's no salvation without faith in Christ. Now I haven't preached grace to you, and then at the very end of the sermon given you a work to do. I'm not mixing grace and works. I'm saying if you and I would be saved, we must believe. But I'm also saying this, we can't believe. We cannot. Our nature cannot unless God gives us the gift of faith.

Now this Christ is to be believed and if we don't believe on him, we're going to perish. Now what is the logical thing for you and me to do. It's to beg God for mercy. Lord, give me faith so that I believe Christ when I hear him preached. I pray God would be pleased to do that for us this morning.

All right, let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you for allowing us to be here this morning. to be able to be here to worship your matchless name, to be here to hear the gospel of your dear son preached one more time. And Father, I pray that you would not allow us to leave here this morning unchanged. But Father, that you give us a heart to believe the Lord Jesus Christ. Deliver us from all Forms of religion from trusting in the forms and ceremonies emotions of religion Deliver us from trusting in anything about this flesh Father give us this gift of faith. I beg you give us this gift of faith That we might believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and have life in him Father it's in Christ's name and it's for his sake for the glory of his name. It is a great blessing that we ask that you'd save our sorry souls. But father, for the glory of your son, would you get glory to the name of your son by revealing yourself to sinful men and women such as us here this morning? Father, it's in Christ's name we pray and give thanks. Amen.

All right, Sean. Okay, if you would turn in your hymnals to song number 216, and stand as we sing, Look to the Lamb of God. 216.

If you from sin are longing to be free,
look to the Lamb of God.
He to redeem you died on Calvary,
look to the Lamb of God.
Look to the Lamb of God.
Look to the Lamb of God.
For He alone is able to save you,
look to the Lamb of God.

When Satan tempts and doubts and fears assail,
look to the Lamb of God.
You in His strength shall over all prevail.
Look to the Lamb of God.
Look to the Lamb of God.
Look to the Lamb of God.
For He alone is able to save you.
Look to the Lamb of God.

Are you a weary? Does the way seem long?
Look to the Lamb of God.
His love will cheer and fill your heart with song.
Look to the Lamb of God.
Look to the Lamb of God.
Look to the Lamb of God.
For He alone is able to save you.
Look to the Lamb of God.

Fear not when shadows on your pathway fall.
Look to the Lamb of God.
In joy or sorrow, Christ is all in all.
Look to the Lamb of God.
Look to the Lamb of God.
Look to the Lamb of God.
For He alone is able to save you.
Look to the Lamb of God.