with me to Acts chapter 7. Acts
chapter 7. Sixty verses, and of course the
scriptures and the Bible was written, it wasn't written in
verses, it wasn't written in chapters. They were letters written. And here we have Stephen, in
Acts chapter seven, does most of the speaking. Sixty
verses, and that's the longest message in the book of Acts.
It's the record of the first man martyred for Christ in the
New Testament. Now, people were martyred for
Christ, for the gospel, for the faith in the Old Testament. Abel
was the first martyr. His brother, because his own
deeds were wicked compared to what Abel's had done. God received
Abel because of his sacrifice. But here's a man, the first martyr,
the first one who died as a witness for his faith, witness for the
Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm going to just read verses
51 through 60, and then go back and try to go through all this
whole chapter tonight. I'm going to try. I believe I
can. You can't just take a little
bit of time, I don't think. I can, anyway. He says in verse
51, You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always
resist the Holy Ghost, as your fathers did. So do you. 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
been now the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by
the dispensation of angels, and 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, And they stole Stephen, calling
upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Stolen a man
while he's praying. 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. Here's this council. You remember
the council that brought Stephen before them, the Sanhedrin, all
these priests and elders and people who supposedly ruled Israel. They brought two charges against
him. They charged him with two things down here in verse 11
of chapter 6. Two charges they brought against
him. And this is what then, they suborned
men to do this. They hired men to lie, and they
said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words, and here's
the two charges against Moses and against God. Now, when they
say against Moses, that means against the law. They want to
change the law. They want to change the standing
that they have before the law. And then against God, and God
dwelt in Israel, so they said, dwelt in Jerusalem, the city
of peace, and in that temple. And that's why they said down
in verse 13, "'And set up false witness to have said, This man
ceases not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place.'
where God dwells, here in the temple, here in Jerusalem, and
the law. And that's why we know that it's
these two things, against the temple, where God dwells, and
against the law, against Moses. For we have heard him say that
this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall
change the customs which Moses delivered unto us. And oh, my! Well, look here in verse 1 of
chapter 7. Then said the high priest, here he stands, he's
on trial, they charge him with two things. Are these things so? Are these
things so? Are these things so? How do you
answer these charges? Well, I'll tell you the first
thing he didn't do. He didn't defend himself. You don't ever
find the apostles in the Scriptures defending themselves. When Peter
stood before the Sanhedrin, he just preached the gospel. He
didn't say, I didn't do this, or I didn't do that, or I've
done this other thing. They didn't ever defend themselves. They
just stood right up and declared what God put in their mouths.
They never had to defend themselves. And always remember that. If
somebody's charging you with something that you know is not
true, don't defend yourself. God said, I'm your defense. We
sang in that old hymn, Cover My Defenseless Head. And if you
did try to convince them that they were wrong, it'd just make
them worse anyway than they already was. And you ain't going to convince
them. Somebody don't like you, they ain't got nothing to do
about it. But here he doesn't defend himself. What he does
is he reiterates God's history of redemption. He goes through
God's history of redemption and God's covenant of grace. And
that, when he shows this and teaches this and goes through
this, that this redemption is always progressing. It's the
starting place of it, the starting place of Israel's beginning,
and then how God progressed in His redemption and His choosing
and His election, and what He's done throughout this history.
And so they brought this charge against Him, well, He's going
to change the law of Moses, and He's going to destroy this place
here where God's at. And so what He does is that He
starts, first of all, He says here in verse 2, starts out with
Abraham, and he shows that God does not dwell in just one place,
particular place. That his people come from all
over the world, and that he saves them out of all places in the
world. Then he says, Men and brethren and fathers hearken,
the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was
in Mesopotamia, before he even dwelt in Iran. That's where God
appeared to him, when he was a heathen over here in idolatry. So you're talking about where
God dwells, where God deals with people, where God meets people.
He said, this is where he met Abraham. He was over there in
Heathen Idolatry. That's where he was at. God's
not limited Himself to places and particular places. And then
He began to tell him of that covenant. And He said, oh, He
said, you get out of your country and go to the land that I've
shown you. And He left out of Chaldean. And he didn't give
him any inheritance. And I won't go through all this.
And he says that you'll be a stranger in a strange land. And he said
down in verse 8, he gave him the covenant of circumcision,
and that was before the law. Abraham begat Isaac. Isaac begat Jacob. Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.
Told him of the covenant. He told him of the covenant that
he'd be a stranger in a strange land. And just as God's a stranger
in a strange land, He said, just as what I'm saying that Abraham
was a stranger in a strange land, you're thinking I'm trying to
change things? This is how God deals with His people. And then
He sent them into Egypt. Sent them into Egypt. Now, if
you know this, not only does He deal with them in Mesopotamia
and in Arabicalities, and then over, brought them into Canaan,
but He also, then He sent these people down into Egypt. Look
what He said down here in verse 6. And God spake on this wife,
that his seed should sojourn in a strange land, and that they
should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil for four
hundred years. And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage
will I judge, said God, and after that shall they come forth and
serve me in this place." So you see, beloved, the first thing
he done is he sent them down into Egypt. Not only did he call
them, but sent them into Egypt. They said, this is the place,
Jerusalem, where God dwells. No, God don't dwell in Jerusalem.
He don't dwell in this temple. He dwells wherever His people's
at. Wherever His people are, that's where He's at. And He
calls His people, one here, one there, and one from this other
place. And all of you all started with
this one person, with one place, with one man back there. That's how Israel started. He
said, you all think you're something. You started with one man who
is an heathen idolater. And then he said about Moses,
he goes down to Moses, then he starts dealing with Moses, down
in verse twenty-nine. You know, Moses was sent down into Egypt, and he
says in the next day he showed himself He sent Moses into Midian,
and the next day he showed himself to his—well, where am I? This
man Moses at this time was a stranger in the land of Midian, where
he begat two sons. Now, this man Moses, whom they
are so struck on, he dwelt in the land of Midian, in a place
where God wasn't known, where God wasn't worshipped. What he's
telling is, God's the God of the whole world, not just of
Israel and in a geographical location. And he told them, he
said, you do always resist the Holy Ghost. And which of the
prophets did you not persecute? And then he starts showing them
how he persecuted them. And he started out with Abraham.
And look what over here in John chapter 8 with me, just a minute.
How did they treat Abraham? How did they treat Abraham? How
did they regard Abraham? You know, they persecuted all
the Lord's people. Down in verse 39, or verse 38,
our Lord said, I speak that which I have seen with my father, and
you do that which you have seen with your father. The answer
said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them,
if you were Abraham's children, you'd do the works of Abraham. You're not Abraham. You're not
even related to Abraham. That's what he's saying. That
you were really Abraham's children, Abraham's true children. And
that's what they trusted in. They trusted in everything but
God. They trusted in everything but the covenant. They trusted
in everything but Christ. They trusted in everything but
the Word. And what Larry said tonight said
the same Word that created the world and brought the world up
out of the waters. And God is in the waters. The same world
now is upheld by the same Word. That's just to show you how sure
God's Word is. He made this world by His Word.
And He says now the same world is upheld by the Word. And the
Word says that it's going to melt with firmity. They had the
Word. And they had Abraham, and they had the prophets, and he
said, You do always resist the Holy Ghost. You resisted in the
days of Abraham, you resisted in the days of Moses, and then
he starts talking about how they persecuted the prophets. Look
down here in verse 9 now of Acts chapter 7. And they have Joseph. He starts
with Joseph. And the patriarchs moved with
envy. sold Joseph into Egypt. Acts chapter 7, verse 9. Oh my,
do you mean, he's showing them here how they treated the prophets,
how they treated the Lord's people. And what did Joseph do? His brothers
sold him for envy because why? He said, they're going to bow
down to me. No, we're not going to bow down to you, Joseph. And
they said, we'll not have this man Christ to reign over us.
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
all Egypt in his house. The very one, the very one they
hated, the very one they despised, the very one they sold into slavery,
that's the very one they had to turn around and come back
to. God put them in a strait, God starved them to death, and
they had to go down to the very one And here's the sad thing
about it. They didn't know who he was until
he made himself known to them. They ate his food. He treated them really nice,
really good, gave them lots of things, asked about their families. And they didn't have a clue who
he was until he said, it's me, it's Joseph. And ain't that the
way men are by nature? We don't have a clue who Christ
is. He's our elder brother. He's our kinsman redeemer. We don't know anything about
him at all. Until one day we're standing in front and we said,
it's me. It's I. It's I. And the first
thing we say, just like Joseph, oh Lord, you gonna destroy us?
You gonna kill us? No, no. Joseph said, God didn't send
me down here to kill you. He sent me down here to preserve
many souls alive, to save you. And oh my, they hated him. And
then look how they treated Moses. Look how they treated Moses.
Down here in verse 20. Moses was born. And you know Pharaoh and another
king of Rome didn't know Joseph. He said, I want all the young
children to be destroyed. I want them all killed. I want
the male children killed. Well, they had a child, Moses,
and he's an exceeding pharaoh. And they put him out. Do you
remember? And Pharaoh's daughter come and found him, and Moses
was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and mighty
in words and deeds. And when he was forty years old,
it came into his heart to visit his brethren. He knew they were
his brethren. He knew he was a Jew. And seeing one of them
suffer wrong, he defended him and avenged him that was oppressed,
and he spoke the Egyptian. Now watch this. Now he knew. He knew that God was going to
use him to save Israel. But he did not know when. He
didn't know exactly how. For he supposed his brethren
would have understood how that God by His hand would deliver
them, but they didn't understand. They did not understand. But
what did they do? Well, the next day he showed himself unto them
as they strove, and would have set them at one against, saying,
Sirs, you are brethren, why do you wrong one another? But he
that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away." Watch this. Who made
me a ruler and a judge over others? Huh? You going to kill me like
you did that Egyptian? That's when Moses got scared
and fled down into the middle. Huh? And Moses, like all God's
people, was a stranger down there in Midian in that strange land.
But I'll tell you, they said, who's going to be a judge over
us? Look down at verse 35, and I'll show you. This Moses whom they refused,
saying, who may be a ruler and a judge? The same did God send
to be a ruler and a deliverer. By the hand, everyone they rejected,
everyone they persecuted, everyone they refused, that's the one
you have to deal with. God's going to meet men exactly
the place that they stand up and stiffen their neck at Him.
That's where they go. We don't want Moses. Well, you're going
to have to deal with Moses. We don't want Joseph. Well, if
you eat anything, you're going to have to come to Joseph. Huh? If you get anything in this land
of famine, in this wilderness, you're going to get it from Joseph.
If you're going to come out of Egypt, there's only one person
who can bring you out of Egypt, and that's Moses. Oh, that's why it says, you do
always resist. Which ones haven't you? And then
look what it says there in verse 35 again. This Moses, whom they
refused. They refused him. They refused him. But that was
the very one God sent to deliver. To save him, they've got to pick
two in a bush. And it says in verse 36, he brought
them out. After that, he had shown wonders
and signs in the land of Egypt and in the red sea and in the
wilderness. Forty years. Forty years. Now watch this now. And Moses told him another prophet.
You think I'm a prophet? You think I'm used of God? Listen,
a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your
breath and like unto me. Him shall you hear. He began
to talk about Christ. He told about that prophet that
would come. That, oh my, they wouldn't obey
Moses, but they turned back in their very hearts. Ain't that
what he says? They said under Aaron, look it
down in verse 39. They turned back in their hearts
to Egypt. To whom our fathers would not obey, talking about
Moses, when he was in the wilderness. But thrust him from them, and
what's this? And then their hearts turned
back again into Egypt. You think man is not a depraved
creature? Here he's been brought out of
Egypt with a high hand, and where is his heart? Right back in that
place of bondage. Right back in that place where
he had a hard task after. And oh my, I said unto Aaron,
make us not to go before us. Moses, who sent you down here?
I am that I am. How do we know that he sent him?
Because he was locked down and turned into a snake. Brought him out so he had a cloud
by day, to keep the sun off of him, had a light by night, to
keep the enemy away from him. And here they were, Moses up
there getting the law that they said we love, we cherish, we're
going to keep, we're going to obey, we're going to really be
good men and women for God. We're going to be on fire for
God while he was up there getting that law. They was down there
naked and dancing around the golden calf. Make us gods to
go before us. Watch this now. For as this Moses
was brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we want Lot to
become of him. They just got to tell us that
he's speaking against Moses. He said, I'm going to tell you
how you treated Moses. You think I don't love Moses.
You think I disrespect Moses. Let me tell you how you done
him. And they made a camp in those
days and offered sacrifice, what's this, unto the idol. And oh my,
I don't want you to do that, but they rejoiced in the works
of their own hands. Oh my, look what we've done.
Look at this beautiful idol. Look at this beautiful statue.
Look at this beautiful thing. I forget where I was the other
day and we were going by somebody's place and they had a statue out
in it and I said, don't they know that that's a Catholic idol? Oh, it's out in North Carolina. Out in North Carolina. A church member. Went by a church
folks house. They had this statue there in
the yard. I said, don't they know that's
a Catholic God? He said, I don't know much, just
don't know much. I said, but that's why they had
this idol. Look at this. It just made them
feel so good. We made this ourselves. We gave
our gold to have it made. We gave our silver. We gave it,
and oh, we worked, and we gave, and they felt so good about it. Oh my, but then watch what happens,
though, when you do that, when you rejoice in the works of your
own hands, when you refuse Moses. The Scripture said in Hebrews,
if they refuse him, they spake on the earth, and suffered at
the mouth of two or three witnesses. How much more? How much more? If they refuse Him who speaks
from heaven. Sore of punishment are they worthy
of. And then watch what happens in verse 42. Then God turned
and gave them up to worship the host of heaven. And then He began
to tell them that this is what the Scriptures themselves says.
Oh, you house of Israel, have you offered to me slain beasts
as sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?
Yeah, you took up the tabernacle of Mordecai and the star of your
god, Rimfan, and figures which you made to worship them, and
I'll carry your way into battle." Oh my, not only did they refuse
Moses, not only did they refuse the true worship, the tabernacle,
where God was, and not only that, but they turned and worshiped
the works of their own hands. And oh my, God gave them up. God gave them the law. God gave
them the oracles by Moses, and what he's saying was, you don't
keep them then, you don't keep them now, you despise Moses then,
you despise him now. Look what our Lord said about
them here in John 7. And I'll tell you, anybody, and
I do know this, if you go to the law in any way, any way whatsoever,
it's got to be law all the way. People say, well, You know, the law is what God
uses to keep us sanctified and keep us in line. No. No. All the law is in it for
it to show man his exceeding sinfulness. Never was given the
Savior. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. And I tell you, these guys that want to go under the law,
the minute you ever have any law whatsoever, it's got to be
all law. It cannot be just, well, I go to Calvary to get washed
in the blood. I go to Calvary to get saved.
I go to Calvary to get my sins taken care of. And then I go
over here to the law and I start obeying the law and all these
commandments. And by that, that's how I live, right? That's how
I get my sanctification. Christ has got to be our wisdom,
our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption, and if there's
any law, it's got to be all law, or it's all Christ. There ain't
no middle ground. And that's what these people did not understand.
That's what they refused. Because that's what Christ said.
I am the way. And He told them about Moses
here. Look what they said here. Our
Lord Jesus said here in verse 15. They're talking about Him.
And the Jews marveled, saying, How knoweth this man letters?
Forty years of learning. He didn't go to any schools we
know of. Jesus answered them and said, My doctrine is not
mine, but his that sent me. My teaching is not mine, but
his that sent me. If any man will do his will,
he'll know the doctrine, he'll know the teaching, whether it
be of God or whether I speak of myself. He that speaks of
himself, he's seeking his own glory. He that's talking about
what he had done and what he accomplished and what he knows
and where he got his degree. I'm Dr. This and I'm Dr. That. But he that seeketh his glory,
that's sinning. That's the man that's true. And
there's no unrighteousness in him. Watch this. Did not Moses
give you the law? And yet none of you keeps the
law? Why go ye about to kill me? Moses said, you can't kill people
without witnesses. You just can't go around killing
people. And that's what they said. You say Moses gave you
the law and you don't keep it. And then God sent His own Son.
Look down here with me. That's what He said was shown
before by the prophets. Down here in verse 52. Which
of the prophets? have not your fathers persecuted,
and they have slain them which," watch this, "...showed before
the coming of the Just One, of whom you have been now to betrayers
and murderers." God sent His Son, sent the Just One, Moses
spoke of that prophet that was coming. And what did you do? You betrayed Him. You betrayed
your own Messiah. You betrayed your own Savior.
You betrayed the old Christ. He was the just one. You murdered
Him. And you not only done that, but
you killed all those who said He was coming. And Almighty says
in verse 53, your fathers received the law by the dispensations
of angels, and you've not kept it. And then they said the charge
they brought against him was that they said Jesus was going
to destroy this place, going to destroy the temple, going
to destroy the tabernacle. Well, God dwelt in the tabernacle.
Down here in verse 44. Let me deal with this just a
minute. Our fathers had the tabernacle
of witness in the wilderness, as He had appointed. speaking
unto Moses that he should make it according to the fashion that
he had seen, which our fathers that came after brought in with
him. They brought the tabernacle with them with Joshua into the
possession of the Gentiles, which God drave out before the face
of our fathers. Well, David said here, David,
who found favor with God, decided to build a tabernacle for the
God of Jacob, for the God of electing grace, for the God of
sovereign grace, for the God of covenant. But Solomon built
him a house. But now wait a minute. Did God
really dwell in that house? Did He? Did God ever dwell in
that temple of Solomon's? Well, look what it says. Now,
Solomon himself said this when he was doing it, when he was
building this, when he was dedicating it. He said, Howbeit the most
high dwelleth not in temples made with hands. And our beloved,
he says, the heaven of heavens can't even contain him. How can
this building which we've made contain him? So they want God
to be in a certain place and in a certain way. We know exactly
where he's at. We can go in there any time we
want to and go into his presence. And he got to accept us because
of what we're going to offer and what we're going to do. And
that's exactly the way people does now. They want their God
exactly the way they want Him, where they want Him, acting the
way they want Him. And God said, I'm not going to
do that. Him building the beautiful building
you want. And I tell you, if you've ever
seen a picture of Solomon's Temple, he had a golden thing right out
in the front of that thing that was solid gold. Bulls all around
it, facing out. And it was still about that high,
and it was about half the size of this building. And it was
called the Bath. It was solid gold! Walked up these steps and walked
with all that cedar in there. And they said, But you know what Jacob said?
He laid down in the wilderness and had a stone for a pillow.
And while he was laying there, God of mercy appeared unto him.
While he was sleeping, there was a ladder that reached up
to heaven and reached back down to earth. Well, he said, I saw
the angels going up and down. And he woke up and he said, surely
this is the house of God. And there wasn't a building in
sight. And he left that stone there and said, this is a witness. This is bells. This is where
God lives. This is where God dwells. Huh? Wasn't a building in sight. Where
did God dwell when Abraham didn't have a place of worship? Where
did God dwell when Noah got off of that ark? That's what he's
saying to these people. You all make so much. You glory
in this building. You glory in this temple. You
glory in this tabernacle. And he said, God don't dwell
in these temples made by hands. Look in verse 49. The heaven
is my throne. The earth is my footstool. What
house would you possibly ever build me? Said the Lord. Where's
the place of my rest? My hand's made it all! Huh? Oh, my. And you know what our Lord said?
He said, You turned it into a den of thieves. That's why He said
it turned into a den of thieves. Well, look at their opposition
now. Let me hurry. Take me a few more minutes here.
You see, he proved by their very actions, or they proved by their
very actions, everything he said was true. Then he says there
in verse 51, he comes to the conclusion here, and they charged
him with two things, he's going to charge them with three things. He said, You stiff-necked, uncircumcised in heart and ears,
You do always resist the Holy Ghost, as did your fathers also.
The first charge you brought against them was, you always
resist the Holy Ghost. And you know, whenever you resist
the Word of God, and you refuse those that God sends, Moses,
Noah, Joseph, they don't receive. When you resist the Holy Ghost,
you resist them. What you do, how you do that
is, you resist God's Word and resist them that God sends. You
resist God's message. You say, I don't believe it.
I'm not going to have it. It's not, you know, holding on to
the bench and say, I'll get saved one of these days. That's not
what it's talking about. No, it just means sin. I don't
believe that. Yeah. And oh my, why did they
resist? I'll tell you why. Look what
it says. This is uncircumcised in their heart. Oh, they had
their flesh circumcised. They kept that law. They kept
that commandment. They kept that token of the covenant.
But this is where God deals. This is where God deals with.
This is the heart. Huh? God said, rid your heart,
not your garments. And they do that now. You watch
the news one of these times. Watch some of them people over
in the Middle East. And they'll grab the heart. And
they'll beat on their heart. Go like that. That's why I said,
don't rid your garments. Rid your hearts. That's why He
said, you can't say, your heart is uncircumcised, it's unclean. And not only your heart, but
your ears have never been circumcised. You can't hear a word. You've
got filthy ears. You hear everything but what
Christ said. Our Lord said, a man comes in
his own name and you receive him. But if God comes in His
name and you won't receive Him. Oh my. Well, that's circumcision. This business is circumcision.
It's something that God has to do for a man. Huh? And it has
something to do with the heart and the ears. And then look what
else he said. Not only did he charge them with
resisting the Holy Ghost, but they always persecuted and killed
the prophets. He said, which of the prophets
had not your fathers persecuted? That's what our Lord told us.
He said, your witness is yourself. of what you did to the prophets.
And you know, and I heard Henry Mahan say this years ago, he
said, men will go back to the fathers, go back to their forefathers,
and they'll brag on them, build statues to them. George Whitefield,
Charles Spurgeon, Don Calvin, Build these great statues to
them, and that's the way they've done Moses. When Moses is there,
everybody before him, when Moses is dead and gone, been dead for
years, they've bragged and bragged on Moses. But when he is alive,
it wouldn't have nothing to do with him. We don't want to follow
him, don't want to hear him. And you know they'll brag on Spurgeon
because he's dead and gone, but they despise the prophet who
preached the same message that he did. Huh? They're cheating
and bragging on folks that's not here. But to identify with
the gospel, identify with Christ right now, and that's what this
man was doing. It's easy to believe Moses. He's dead and gone. Brag
on him. And here I am, standing here
in the presence of God Almighty, with the name of Christ, full
of the Holy Ghost, and, oh, you want to be against me? After
he watched it, he said, this is nothing new. He said, you've
been doing this all your life. Oh, your fathers did it, your
grandfathers did it, and your great-grandfathers did it, and
your children's going to do it, if God don't have mercy on you.
Ain't that what he says? Not only that, but you slew,
betrayed, murdered the Son of God. And then he said then, verse
53, he charged them with never, ever keeping the law. You've
received the law by the dispensation of angels, and you've not kept
it. God gave it to him out of a burning bush, came down with
it, and you didn't keep it. You didn't keep it before he
even got down off the mountain with it. Well, why, what'd they
do? Oh, my, when they heard these
things, It just, that just, oh man, it just cut him right to
the heart. Talked this morning about getting
to the root of the matter. Stephen talked about getting to the root
of the matter here. He cut, they were cut to the heart. Oh my. And then they began to grit their
teeth at him. Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah,
ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah,
ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah,
ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah,
ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah But oh my, what does he do? He imitates
his master. And while they were so angry
at him and their hearts were cut, they were so angry and they
know that he was talking about them and the condition they were
in. But he being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly.
Oh, how God is so faithful to his people. How he blesses his
saints. He looked up and he saw the glory
of God. Well, what is the glory of God?
The Lord Jesus, and He was standing. I don't want the world, every
time you ever heard the face you read about Him in the scriptures
in heaven, He's seated. This is the only place He's ever
standing. I don't know what that means, and I won't even try to
tell you what it means, but I know it's on standing. But He's standing
where He's always at, at the right hand of God. Whether He's
standing or standing, He's at God's right hand, the place of
power and authority and honor. And he said, not only there,
but I see the heavens, they're open. Y'all see it? No, they
couldn't see it. They couldn't see it. And oh,
I see the Son of Man. This very Jesus, who you hate,
you despised, you murdered, you betrayed. I see Him standing right now. I
see Him with my own eyes right now, standing on the right hand
of God. Oh, they cried out with a loud voice. Oh, they just got
so angry. And they put their hands over
their ears. These are grown men now. These
are the rulers. These are the elders. Could you
imagine? What if you didn't like what
I said, you know, and you start covering your ears? These are
grown men acting this way. And they ran on him with one
accord, and they took him out of the city. They took him out
of the city. That's what they've done. Remember,
when our Lord Jesus Christ actually told them about Elisha and Naaman,
there's only one Elijah was sent to, and only one Elijah was sent
to, and oh man, they got so angry and full of wrath, they took
him outside of the city, going to throw him over a hill. Well,
that's what they've done. They take him outside of town, and take
him outside of the city, and then throw him over a hill, and
then start throwing rocks down on him. And they took him out
of the city and stoned him. And you've got to, and the way
they've done it, they had witnesses. And the first witness was the
first one to throw a stone, then the second witness, and then
the third witness. They'd take time about throwing them rocks,
throwing them big stones on them, rolling them on them. And all
those witnesses would do that, and they laid their clothes at
Solomon Tarsus' feet. He was right there that day.
He was there, and he heard this man preach this message. He heard
how Moses had been treated, and here's a man who's had a right
to set the law. He said it's blameless. Well, look what happens now.
Well, they stoned old Stephen, treating him just like his master.
And he acted like his master. And he is calling on God. Well,
they stoned him. He's calling upon God. And he
said, Lord Jesus, that's what our master said, O Father, receive
my spirit. Into Thy hands I commend my spirit.
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Receive my spirit. I'm going
to die right here. Just calm as he could be. Lord
Jesus, receive my spirit. And he got up on his knees. And he cried with a loud voice,
just like his master. Lord, O Lord, lay not this sin
to their charge. My soul. You see? My, my, my. Did he learn well from his master?
You reckon he was at the cross when he heard our Lord pray that
prayer? No. And watch this. I love this.
And when he said this, what does he say then? He didn't say nothing about dying. That's what we talked
about last week. He said, he fell asleep. I'm
going to go wake him up. Oh, don't be afraid. Your daughter's
asleep. He just fell asleep. He went to rest. He went to rest. And his spirit went to be with
the Lord. That's how death is viewed. God views death for His
people. That's how He's people. I'm just
going to go sleep. Oh, my, what a wonderful way
to go. Just go sleep. Oh, my. Oh, to have a testimony,
to have a witness like that, to be able to pray. Very lucky
enemies to the place where you say, Lord, don't lay this sin
to their charge. It was your last breath. And, oh, my, the
Lord Jesus standing there and received him when he got to glory.
The Lord's standing there, waiting on him. Wait a moment. Our blessed, blessed
Savior, how gracious, how merciful, how wondrously pitiful You are
to us. We indeed, indeed count Your
longsuffering to be salvation. Not only salvation for us as
You longsuffering put up with us and suffered us so long, and
still suffer long with us. But Lord, we count your long-suffering
to be salvation for our children, our grandchildren, for our unconverted
loved ones. Lord, you're so loving and gracious
and merciful and long-suffering and patient. Lord, don't give
our children up. Don't do them as you did Israel.
Give them up to worship the stars of heaven, the gods of heaven. the stars, the moon. Oh, Lord,
save them from themselves. Save them from their darkness.
Save them from their idolatry. And, oh, blessed Savior, please
make us to be as this man was, to have that attitude, that spirit,
that we'd tell the truth and we'd tell it fearlessly. And
yet, dear Lord, when we're persecuted, we take it Graciously and humbly,
pray for those that would persecute us. Pray for them who curse us
and bless them and curse us. And even pray for our enemies
and love them. Teach us to do these things,
our Lord Jesus, that we can truly be the children, the children
of the Most High God. It's in His blessed name we pray.
Amen. Amen. There is a name I love
to hear. I love to sing its word. It sounds like music in my ear. The sweetest name on earth. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Why do we love Him? Because He
first loved me. Amen. I'll see you next Sunday.
God will have no wish to deny service.