Stephen preached the message
that people put their fingers in their ears. We cannot listen
to this. And they ran upon him, and with
one accord, they stoned him. They put him to death. I've entitled this message, of
Stephen. Stephen was one of the seven
deacons in the early church, and he was the first martyr in
New Testament times. Abel was the first martyr, but
in New Testament times, Stephen was the first martyr, and as
a matter of fact, after this, there came a great persecution
on the church, and this was the catalyst for it, this message
that Stephen brought. Look in chapter six, verse eight,
Acts chapter six, verse eight, and Stephen, full of faith and
power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. Then
there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue
of the Libertines and the Cyrenians and the Alexandrians and them
of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen. They didn't like
what he was saying and they were speaking against it and they
were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.
Then they hired men which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous
words against Moses and against God. They accused him of being an
antinomian. That happens every time the gospel
is preached. Well, he's speaking against Moses.
He's speaking against the law. He's speaking against God. Verse 12, and they stirred up
the people and the elders and the scribes and came upon him
and caught him and brought him to the council. and set up false
witnesses which said, this man seetheth not to speak blasphemous
words against this holy place and the law. Now I have no doubt
that he told them their law keeping could not save him. And he told
them that the temple is no longer relevant. Christ is the true
temple of God. The church is the temple. You're
making a big issue out of something that is nothing. and they loved the temple. They didn't understand the law.
They would say they loved the law, but they didn't understand
it because they didn't see how the law condemned them. But this
was the accusation. He spoke against the law and
he spoke against the temple. I couldn't help to think of where
the Lord said to the Pharisees, There standeth one in your presence
right now greater than the temple. They put such emphasis on the
temple. He says it's irrelevant. Verse 14, for we have heard him
say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place and
shall change the customs which Moses delivered us. And all they
that sat in the council looked steadfastly on him and saw his
face as it had been the face of an angel. I think that at this time, he
had such serenity and peace in his face that it looked like an angel.
That's how the people saw him. And you see, he feared God. And
when you fear God, you're not going to be afraid of men. You're
not going to be all upset about men. He wasn't. He had the face
of an angel as he begins this discourse. And just let me read
the first two verses of chapter seven. Then said the high priest,
are these things so, these things that are brought in accusation
against you? And he said, men and brethren
and fathers hearken, the God of glory appeared unto Abraham. Now, I love the way he begins
this message. The God of glory. Every attribute of God is glorious. His holiness, his otherness,
what glory. His sovereignty. That means He's the cause of
everything and me and you are in His hands. Whether or not
me and you will be saved is up to Him. He's the cause of every
event. You know, that's glorious. His
power. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? That's glorious. His wisdom. His way to find a
way to be just and justify the ungodly. What wisdom, it's glorious. Every attribute of God is glorious. And that's where he begins. And
that's where this angel face comes from. You see, if you've
seen the glory of God, as he did, you're not going to be moved
by the fear of men, nor are you gonna care about the praise of
men. Not if you've seen God's glory. Now, if you haven't seen
God's glory, those things are gonna be very important to you.
But if you've seen his glory, you're gonna have this face of
an angel. Every believer, you can't see
God's glory and not have that, that confidence in God. Now,
he began to bring a message that he pretty much covers the whole
Old Testament. We've been looking at this for
almost a year and a half in chapter seven. We've looked at every
event that took place. He preaches the gospel from Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, the 40 years in the wilderness,
and their false worship, David, the tabernacle, Solomon, the
building of the temple, and he ends with that quotation from
Isaiah 66. And now he's going to apply all this. And this is where they get so
mad, they don't want to kill him, they do kill him. He is
stoned because of this. Now this is the application of
this message beginning in verse 51. After he had preached the
gospel from the Old Testament, he says, you stiff-necked, obstinate,
and uncircumcised, they glory in their circumcision. And he
says, you're not circumcised. You're uncircumcised in heart
and ears. You have a bad, hard, wicked
heart, which results in your inability to hear. You're uncircumcised
in heart, you're uncircumcised in ears, and you can't hear. I think of the words of our Lord
to the Pharisees. Why do you not understand my
speech? Because you cannot hear my word. You lack the ability
to hear. No one hears except God gives
him ears to hear. The Lord said, he that's of God,
heareth God's words. You therefore hear them not,
because you are not of God. Strong language, isn't it? And
Stephen looks at these people and he says, you're stiff-necked,
obstinate, hard-hearted, unable to hear. And then he says, you
do always resist The Holy Ghost, there's no time when you do not. You always resist and oppose
what the Holy Ghost says. As your fathers did, so do you. You're just like them. Verse
52, which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?
It wasn't one. And they have slain them, which
showed before the coming of the just one. Now there's just one,
just one, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he is the one who's made
a way for God to be just. And this is the, oh, I hope we
never lose the wonder of this. He's made a way for God to be
just. and justify somebody as unjust as me in a way that honors
His justice. It's called the Gospel. And your
fathers have slain those who before told of the coming of
the Just One. And that's exactly what the Old
Testament is all about. Somebody's coming. The Just One. Of whom you have been now the
betrayers and murderers. I thought of Peter on the day
of Pentecost. Him being delivered by the determined
counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and with
wicked hands have crucified and slain. God hath made this same
Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now he says
you slain. You've been the betrayers and
the murderers of the Lord Jesus Christ. The last thing he says
in verse 53, which of who have received the law by the disposition
of angels. And you've not kept it. You talk
about the law. The law was given through Moses,
through the disposition of angels. And here's what you've done with
the law. You haven't kept it. You talk about your law keeping.
You've not kept one commandment one time. And I can say that
with conviction with regard to me and you. Me and you have not
kept one commandment one time. And if you think you have, you
demonstrate a complete ignorance of God's holy law. You, as yet,
have no understanding at all. Now, those are rough words, aren't
they? Those are rough words. Now, he loved these people. He
wasn't just being hateful and harsh as he prays for their salvation
while they're killing him. But these are rough words. And
how did the people respond? Verse 54, when they heard these
things, they were cut to the heart. Now that's not that cutting
of the heart that we read in Acts chapter 2, when the men
heard Peter's sermon and they were cut to their heart and said,
men and brethren, what shall we do? We're in trouble. What
can be done for us? That's not the kind of cutting
of the heart. This was cutting to the heart of We hate this
and we will not have this man to reign over us. We'll not listen
to this. They stopped their ears. I can
see him doing this. We're not gonna listen to this.
They stopped theirs. They gnashed on him with their
teeth. They were so angry. They were so offended by what
he said. Verse 55, but he being full of the Holy Ghost
looked up. He didn't look upon men. He looked
up. Steadfastly into heaven and saw
the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. Now, He was full of the Holy
Ghost. That's what empowered his preaching. You can't preach
the gospel without the Holy Spirit. You can't hear the gospel without
the Holy Spirit. I think of what Peter said. He spoke of them
who preach the gospel with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven.
Well, Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit as he delivered this
message, and he was faithful to tell them what he saw. He
saw two things that are one that cannot be separated. He saw the
glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And
he was faithful to declare unto them who he saw. The glory of God and Jesus standing
at the right hand of God. Now, God's glory is the perfection
of his attributes. I don't know how else I had to
say, you know, when you were talking about the glory of God, it's kind of difficult
to talk about because it's transcendent. It's something that no human
being can emphasize properly, but the glory of God is the perfection
of all of his attributes. God is glorious. And the glory
of God cannot be separated from the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand
of God. Now, Christ is the brightness,
the scripture says, of God's glory and the express image of
his person. We read in 2 Corinthians 4, verse
6, for God, who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness,
has shined in our hearts. to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Now, did you notice how he saw Jesus standing? Not sitting, standing. Now let's talk for a moment about
the Lord Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of the Father,
because the Scripture makes a big emphasis of that. We read in
Mark 16, 19, and upon His ascension that He was received up into
heaven and sat on the right hand of God. Hebrews 1, 3 says, When
He had by Himself purged our sins, He sat down. the right hand of the majesty
on high. Turn with me for a moment to
Hebrews chapter 10. Verse 11, and every priest standeth They never sit down. There were
no chairs in the tabernacle because their work was never finished.
And every priest standeth daily, ministering and offering oftentimes
the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool for by one offering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. Now why did he sit down? Because
he perfected forever everybody he died for. Everybody that God
has sanctified in eternal election, sanctified on the cross, made
them holy, sanctified in regeneration when he gave them new life that
wasn't there before, he perfected them forever. You know what that
means? That means I'm perfect. Somebody says, I'm not perfect.
I am. I am. And that perfection is not in
me. You all know that. I mean, anybody that knows me
knows I'm not perfect. But in Christ Jesus, I am perfect. I'm not just counted perfect
or viewed as perfect. In Christ Jesus, I am perfect. It says, He hath perfected forever
them that are sanctified, set apart by God. This is true of
every single believer. Perfect. in Christ Jesus. Lacking nothing in Him, dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead in a body, and you are complete,
perfect in Him. Don't you love the gospel that
makes somebody like me or you perfect? The sitting Savior. You see, His atonement atoned I don't know of anything that
I hate more than somebody saying that Jesus Christ shed his blood
for everybody and some of those people might end up in hell if
they don't do their part to make what he did work. That utterly,
I hate it. There's no greater lie. It's
so dishonoring and derogatory to the Savior. Everybody he died
for is saved. He's the sitting Savior. But as Stephen is about to be
stoned, He's standing, ready to receive his faithful
martyr, standing. And what happened? Verse 55,
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 he said, behold, I see the
heavens opened and the son of man standing on the right hand
of God. Now he's letting everybody know,
this one you crucified, he's standing at the right hand of
God. right this moment, the place of all honor, the place of all
power, the place of all majesty. He is in absolute control. He's the Lord. He's not in your
hands. You're in His. And He is standing
at the right hand of God, the place of all authority, honor,
majesty, power, and might. He's preaching the sovereign
Savior at the right hand of the Father. Now, if anybody sees
into heaven, and really every believer does, that doesn't mean
you see actually into the heavens, but you've seen in heaven in
this sense, you've seen that Christ is all. You see, he's
all in heaven, and you really believe that. And anybody that
actually sees into the heavens, it's always a sight, a spiritual
sight of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. You see, I do have some
understanding that he is all in my salvation and everybody
else's. If you're saved, he's all in
your salvation. You say amen to that, you know it's so. If
the Lord's done something for you, you know it's because of
Christ for his sake. And you see him standing as the
absolute Lord of the universe and absolute control over all
things, everybody, he's standing. This one, you crucified, he said.
You've been his betrayer and murderer, but he didn't stay
dead. He was raised from the dead by the power of God and
he stands. at the right hand of the throne
of God. I think of when John was given
an open door into heaven, he saw the lion of the tribe of
Judah as the lamb having been slain. Taking the book from him
that sat on the throne and the cry of the four and 20 elders,
thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof,
For thou was slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of
every kindred, tongue, people, and nation. I see the Son of Man standing
on the right hand of God. Verse 57. Acts chapter seven,
verse 57. 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. I feel quite sure, at least I've
read this, it's the same place where the Lord was crucified.
That's the place at Stoning, where they would execute criminals.
They took him to the same place where the Lord had been crucified,
not that long before this, 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. who would later become Paul the
Apostle. This is where we're introduced
to Saul. The fact that they laid down
their clothes, they wanted to take the coats off so their arms
could be good and warm so they could throw those stones. They
laid their coats down at the feet of a young man named Saul,
which lets us know that in many ways, he was the instigator of
this. He was the one who's in charge of this. You see, he hated
Jesus Christ of Nazareth. And they lay down their clothes
at the feet of a young man whose name was Saul, verse 59. And they stoned Stephen, calling
upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, received my spirit, and he kneeled
down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their
charge. And when he said this, he fell
asleep." That's the way the death of the believer is always described.
He fell asleep. Now, while Stephen is being stoned, he's calling upon God. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. And he's not saying, Lord, look
how I'm dying as a martyr for you. Look how I've been faithful
and preaching the gospel. He's saying the same thing the
thief did. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Look upon me favorably. Look at me in your grace. Don't
look at me in any way but the favor that you have your son.
Same thing as the thief. Lord, remember me when you come
into your kingdom. You're not gonna stay dead, I
know that. You're gonna come back as a mighty reigning king. Remember me when you come in
your kingdom. Can you say that? Lord, remember
me in favor. Remember me in grace. Remember
me in your son. He wasn't asking for payment
for how faithful he had been. Lord, remember me with the favor
that you bear your people. And as he is dying, he kneels
down, succumbing to the thud of the stones against his body.
He cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. Now, if you want to understand
the gospel, listen real carefully. By the grace of God, I'm going
to tell you the gospel. Me and you have sin, and that sin I could name all
kinds of sins. I could talk about a sinful nature.
I could talk about sinful practices. Me and you have sin. And here's
what the sin is more than anything else. Me and you have been guilty
of the death of Christ. That's how bad me and you are.
If God left you to yourself, you would have been one of the
people murdering Jesus Christ. Now, people don't believe that
about themselves, but it's because they don't even know who Christ
is. When you find out who Christ is, that's when men's enmity
come out. But me and you, if you want to know how bad you
are, it's worse than you think. It's worse than you think. You
would kill Jesus Christ if it were in your power to do so. And the only hope that me or
you have is that that sin will not be laid to our charge. Now how can that be right? If
I've committed sin, how could it be right for it not to be
laid to my charge? Because God the Father, God can
do this. He took my sins off of me. and put him in Christ and made
Christ sin. All the guilt that's in me, Christ
bore in his own body on the tree. He became guilty of that sin. He was charged with that sin. Somebody says, how can that be
right? Well, if God did it, it's right. That's the only way I
know to respond to that. If God did it, that's right. And he did it. He made his son
to be sin who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. And because of that, everybody
Christ died for is not charged with their sin. Turn with me
to Romans four for just a moment. Verse one, what should we say
then that Abraham, our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath
found? How was Abraham saved? For if Abraham were justified
by works, he'd have whereof to glory. I did this. I'm the difference, but not before
God. For what saith the scripture, Abraham believed God, and was
counted unto him for righteousness. Now, to him that worketh is the
reward, not reckoned of grace, but of debt. God's paying you
what he owes you. If salvation has anything to
do with anything you've done. But, to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his reward. Faith is counted for righteousness
even as David describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom
God imputeth righteousness without work, saying, Blessed are they
whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Lord, lay not this sin to their
charge. Don't let them be charged with
it. And you know what? The Lord answered his prayer.
Because guess who was saved? That very man whom they laid
their coats at his seat. The apostle Paul. It was Paul
who would write, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's
elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea, rather
that's risen again who's even at the right hand of God. The Lord used this event. One
of the many things that are so glorious about the Lord, he always
brings good out of evil. Only he can do this. You and
I can't, but he does, always. And this is what brought Paul
to a knowledge of the gospel. I'm sure that he never could
get that sight out of his mind of Stephen being stoned and praying
for their forgiveness. What a gracious attitude, even
while he's dying, he's being hit with stones during that time.
He says, Lord, don't lay this into their charge. Now, the only
way The only way me or you can be
saved is if our sin, which is most real, is not laid to our
charge. Christ bore it and gave you his
righteousness. Well, how can I know? How can
I know if he did this for me? Beloved, you can know. You know how? Do you believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? Do you believe He is the Christ,
God's prophet, God's priest, and God's king? Do you believe
Him? I'm not asking you if you believe
you're one of the elect or if you have evidences that you can
look upon and think, well, I must be saved. Look how much I'm progressing. No. Do you believe that Jesus
Christ is the eternal son of God, the uncreated sovereign
of the universe, the only savior of sinners, the only one who
can save you? Then he did this. You say, yes,
then he did this for you. You're one of his people. And
look what took place on account of this, back to Acts chapter
seven. And he kneeled down, verse 60,
and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their
charge. And when he had said this, he
fell asleep and Saul was consenting unto his death. He was in agreement.
He was finding pleasure in it. He hated Stephen. And at that
time, there was a great persecution against the church, which was
at Jerusalem. Fox's Book of Martyrs says at
this time there were 2,000 people who were put to death upon Stephen's
persecution. It just raised up a great persecution. And they were all scattered abroad
throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. They had to leave. They had to
flee for their lives. And devout men carried Stephen
to his barrel and made great lamentation over him. They were
so grieved over this. As for Saul, he made havoc He
ravaged, he made havoc of the church and entered into every
house and hailing and arresting men and women, committed them
to prison. Therefore, they that were scattered
abroad went everywhere preaching the word. This was the Lord's
way of the spread of the gospel. They had to flee and they went
everywhere preaching the word. And as we read in chapter nine,
look at chapter nine, verse one. And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings
and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high
priest and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues,
that if he found any of this way, the way of Christ, the way
of grace, If he found any of this way, whether they were men
or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And as
he journeyed, he came near to Damascus, and suddenly there
shined round about him a light from heaven. And he fell to the
earth and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest
thou me? And he said, who art thou Lord?
And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecuted. It's hard
for thee to kick against the pricks, the ox goads, all you're
doing is hurting yourself. And he trembling and astonished
said, Lord, he now knew who he was, Lord, what wilt thou have
me to do? And the Lord said unto him, arise
and go into the city and shall be told thee what thou must do. Oh, the good that came out of
the stoning of Stephen. Here we have our introduction
to Paul, the apostle, formerly Saul. Saul means big. Remember Saul in the Old Testament,
he stood head and shoulders above everybody else. You know what
Paul means? Little. Little. knew his littleness. Not when
he was, he found out he was little after the Lord saved him. He
found out he was little and Christ is altogether glorious. Let's
pray. Lord, how we thank you for the
Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, give us this side of him
that Stephen Saul, that we see that he is the glory of God and
that he's at your right hand, making intercession for all your
people, ruling and reigning, not pacing back and forth and
worrying, but ruling and reigning. How we thank you for him, his
glory. Lord, let not our sin be laid
to our charge. Let it be put away by thy son. We ask in his name. We ask that
we might be found in Christ. We ask for your mercy and for
your grace. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.