Stephen's martyrdom is presented as a pivotal moment in the early church, highlighting God's faithfulness through persecution. The sermon traces Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin, where he recounts Israel's history, emphasizing the rejection of key figures like Abraham, Joseph, and Moses, mirroring the rejection of Jesus. Stephen's final moments, where he prays for his persecutors, serve as a powerful example of Christ-like forgiveness and faith in God's ultimate plan. This event, though tragic, led to the scattering of believers and the spread of the gospel, demonstrating God's ability to bring good out of suffering.
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Now, shall we open in our Bibles to the seventh chapter, the Acts of the Apostles? Try and pick up the threads. I've been speaking on the Acts of the Apostles when I've been speaking here on Sunday mornings for, oh, it's a long time now, but it's quite a long while since we were talking about the sixth chapter. So we pick up the threads in the seventh chapter, the Acts of the Apostles, Now we cannot read this all. There's sixty verses. That'll take a long time. So we'll pick out a few verses. Verse one, just to get the connection, Stephen is standing before the Sanhedrin.
And all the people were stirred up against him and the elders and the Sadducees and all the Pharisees, the rulers there. And he was allowed to speak. The high priest said, verse one, the high priest said, Are these things so? That's the things they were accusing him of things they said he was guilty of doing. And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken. The God of glory appeared unto our Father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said unto him, get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee.
Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charon, and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land wherein ye now dwell. And he 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. And God spake on this wise, that his seed should journey in a strange land, and they should bring them into bondage, and then treat them evil four hundred years. And the nation to whom they should be in bondage will I judge, said God, and after that they shall come forth and serve me in bondage.
this place. Now let's drop down a little bit. Little is said in this long address about Jacob, but much is said about Joseph. So we'll read from verse seventeen. Remember, they had to stay in this foreign land, which was Egypt four hundred years. But when the time of the promised Wait me, I've gone a little too far there. I want to go back a little bit. There came a dearth, verse eleven, over all the land of Egypt and Canaan and great affliction, and our fathers found no sustenance.
But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first, and at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren, and Joseph's kindred was made known unto Pharaoh. Then said Joseph, Then sent Joseph and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred three-score fifteen souls, and Jacob came down into Egypt and died. He and our fathers and were carried over to Sikkim, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham had bought for a sum of money from the sons of Amor, the father of Sikkim. But when the time of the promised unite which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, till another king arose, which knew not Joseph.
The same dealt subtly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children to the end they might not live, in which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair and nourished 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 was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, was mighty in words and in deeds. And when he was full forty years old, he came into 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 Egyptian. For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them, but they understood not.
Now we must, for sake of time, go down to verse twenty-nine. Then fled Moses and was a stranger in the land of Midian, where he begat two sons. And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, an angel of the Lord, in a flame of fire, in a bush. When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight. And as he drew nearer to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him and said, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled and durst not behold. Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place where thou stand is his holy ground.
I have seen, I love this verse, and it's quoted from Genesis three. That's how it is in Genesis three. I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt. I have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them, and now, come, I will send thee unto Egypt. And 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 of the angel which appeared unto him in the bush. Now, for sake of time, let's go down again.
Verse forty-four. Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen, which also our fathers that came after brought in with Joshua, that word Jesus, says Joshua, into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers unto the days of David. Forty-seven. Solomon built him a house, how be it the most high dwelleth not in temples made with hands. As saith the prophet, Heaven is my throne, and earth my footstool. What house would he build me, saith the Lord, or what is the place of my rest?
Hath not my hand made all things? Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost. As your fathers did so, do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which showed before the coming of the just one. This is the only time he mentions the Lord Jesus here. The only time. The coming of the just one. It's mentioned that he saw him, of course. Of whom he have been now the betrayers and the murderers, who have received the law by the disposition 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 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 into their charge.
And when he had said this, when he had said this, he fell asleep. May God bless this reading from his precious word. Shall we pray? Our blessed God, we thank thee for this wonderful witness of this wonderful man, this long, long address. And we see how tragically it all ended. And yet for thy glory. Stephen, the first martyr, gave his life. But out of this terrible tragedy, thy church was scattered abroad, and thy will was done, and they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the gospel, and so the gospel spread out.
And ultimately met us. We thank the Lord for the liberty we have in this land. Nobody's being stoned to death for the preaching of the gospel here today. We don't know how long that will last. But we thank you for our liberty. And we ask the Lord today that the Holy Spirit might take charge of this meeting. And the words may not be the words of the speaker, but the words of the Holy Spirit. Wind home in the power of God to every heart. We ask it in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen. Now, it's always wise when studying the Scripture to get what we call the context. That's to say, find what happened before and find what happened after and get the fitting where it is in the Word of God.
God's Word is wonderfully, wonderfully laid out. There is no mistake in the whole of this great book. And everything fits together, dovetails together wonderfully in God's plan and purpose. But you've got to know God's plan. The unsaved man or woman can't understand it. To them it's a mystery because the things of God are revealed by the Spirit of God and you have to have the Spirit of God in dwelling you to be able to understand God's plan. But we have said many times from this platform and I repeat that God has dealt with mankind in a series of dispensation. There was that first dispensation of innocence in the Garden of Eden, and then the various dispensations down through history.
We live today in what we call the dispensation of grace. This is the Gospel Age from the day of Pentecost until the day when the Lord Jesus comes back, which could be today, this is the Gospel Age. and we're living in the day of graves. The dispensation of law, at the end of the dispensation of law which came in with Moses, that's when the Lord Jesus sent his son. When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his son. And the Lord Jesus, when he died upon the cross, said it is finished.
And that old dispensation of law was completed and a new dispensation was coming in starting on the day of Pentecost the church age the day of grace and that's where we live now we have been studying here week by week for a long time now whenever I've been speaking the beginnings of the church and we have made a statement over and over that we look upon the Acts of the Apostles as a pattern We put it this way, that when God wanted Moses to build the tabernacle in the wilderness, he took him up onto Mount Sinai, up there in the clouds and in the fire up there, and God spoke to Moses, and he gave him a pattern.
And he said, See that thou make all things according to the pattern which I showed thee in the mount. God showed Moses the pattern, And Moses came back and told the children of Israel, and everything was made exactly as God wished it. The length of the boards and the length of the curtains and the hanging of the curtains and the altars. Everything made according to a heavenly pattern which God gave to Moses. Now, the dispensation of law passed away. when the Lord Jesus died and a new dispensation came in.
And I believe it was God's plan that everything should be done according to a pattern. And I say that that pattern was the Acts of the Apostles. That was God's plan for his church. And this is how we should conduct ourselves today. This is how we should run our meetings, our services, as they did them in the Acts of the Apostles. That was God's plan, and it seems to me that God is saying, See that thou do all things according to the pattern that I have shown thee. And that was the Acts of the Apostles. And we have traced him. You remember when Peter preached on the day of Pentecost out of the way his sermon ends, and it says this, David gladly received his word, chapter two, verse forty-one, then David gladly received his word were baptized.
That's the pattern. Now our brother Woodhouse has very beautifully been telling us recently the meaning of baptism, the meaning of the Lord's table and so on, but that is the pattern. David gladly received his word were baptized. and the same day were added unto them, three thousand souls. Now there were a hundred and twenty in the upper room when the Holy Spirit was given. It says the number of the disciples was a hundred and twenty. And then that day were added three thousand souls. I would very much doubt whether they could baptize three thousand souls in one day.
That would be a big problem. There's not much water in Jerusalem, the pool of Salom and so on, but it says the same day they were added to the church. Then as quick as they could, they were all baptized, recognizing and testifying to the fact that they had died with Christ. That now they'd finished with this world, and they were new creatures in the Lord Jesus. They were baptized. But then what happened? And I gave a whole series on this some years ago, which I call things that accompany or follow baptism. I think I called it after baptism. They gladly received his word were baptized.
Then what happened? It says they continued. They continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine. They had no New Testament. They only had the Old Testament. The New Testament was not yet written. But they had the apostles, and they were the oracles of God. God gave apostles in that first century. We don't have them today, but they were the men who could prophesy. I don't mean tell the future, but tell the Word of God and tell God's mind and will for his people in the establishing of a church. Today we have all those things written down in the epistles. We have the epistles, that is the Apostles' Doctrine.
They continued in the Apostles' Doctrine. That's how we've got to go along. We cannot go outside of this book. Man-made ideas, man-made practices, we can't follow them. We have to go by the book. And we have the Holy Spirit to reveal the meaning of the book to us. If we will spend time, that's our problem. We live busy lives and busy days and nights and we do not give enough time. But every one of us here this morning, if we would only give time to the reading of the Word of God and in humility and in faith upon the Lord Jesus, We would take this word and listen to the Holy Spirit.
You tell us what it means. I love it. I love to be reading the Word of God. Sometimes you'll read a chapter through and you think, I can't get anything out of it. You read it through again. And then suddenly one of the verses seems to come right up and talk to you. Now that's the Holy Spirit teaching you the Word of God. They continued in the Apostles' doctrine. That's the epistles we have here. And they continued in fellowship, what a wonderful thing to continue in Christian fellowship. To me, there's nothing on earth just like the Christian fellowship. Where can you go and find fellowship except amongst God's people?
You go amongst the things of the world and you feel like a fish out of water. But you can go to a foreign country. Now, our brother Ron there can confirm this with me. You can go to a foreign country where you can't speak a language. But if you meet a child of God who's really born again, well, you're there. You've got a link. I'll never forget when we went to Greece and we met Christians and we couldn't talk to one another. But it was the greatest thrill to find fellow believers. In the years I spent in the British Air Force and we were separated from everything, what a joy it was to meet a fellow believer in the Lord Jesus.
I never cared whether he was a what denomination he belonged to. All I wanted is to know if he was a believer and what fellowship we enjoyed. God taught me many, many lessons in those days. They continued in fellowship. And then in the breaking of bread. That is one of the things the Lord Jesus asked us to do. Brother Woodhouse put it so beautifully on Thursday night. We continued in the break in the break. This is what we seek to do at Park of the Palms. To go by the book, the Apostles' Doctrine. To enjoy this wonderful fellowship and may God keep us and keep at him from coming into harm and spoil and ma.
And I have always found when God blesses Satan works, and he works among his people, and something seeds up from inside among his people. That's the way Satan breaks up the church. And they continued in the breaking of bread and in prayers. Now, that summarizes our meetings earlier here. We baptize. We believe the book. We have wonderful fellowship. We break bread together and we have prayer meetings together. That's the New Testament. And this is the pattern. I go back to that. I keep going back to it. That's the pattern that God gave us for his church. Not just for the first century, but for the whole history of the church, which has been nearly two thousand years.
And I would love to think, I think it must have been a wonderful thrill to have been amongst those that were breaking bread on the first day of the week in the first century. But what a much greater thrill it must be, and it will be, that you and I should be found at the Lord's table. Maybe this is the last Sunday of the church's history on earth. What a thrill. After two thousand years of testing and two thousand years of detention and departure and apostasy and all the rest, there's a few of us still doing just what they did two thousand years ago I call that faithfulness the Lord is faithful but we have to be faithful to his word and we have to be faithful to his word and this that we're talking about in the Acts of the Apostles is the pattern God gave us and we want to stick to it now then they had problems we talked about problems and progress I think was the last talk I gave problems and progress in the church The problem came out about the distribution of the food, you remember, to the various widows.
And the Grecian widows complained that the Hebrew widows were getting... Well, that the Grecians, they complained against the Hebrews, saying that their widows were neglected. Well, the apostles moved in, by the help of the Holy Spirit, and in an orderly and business-like way, they set it up. And they said this, Let us look out from among us seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, and let us appoint them over the business. So they picked seven men. That's a perfect number. Now they didn't have to be only good businessmen. You can make a mistake in the things of God if you think that those who govern the church should be good businessmen.
Because they're successful in business, they're successful in the things of God. That's not essential. It's not necessary. It doesn't always work. Sometimes it does, but not always. It is good to have executive type of people to work with. I agree on that, but that's not the criterion. Here are the criterion. It says, look out seven men of honest report. That's very important. They've got to be known outside as godly Christian men. And full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom. Here are the credentials for deacons, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this, and we, the apostles, will set out, will give ourselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the Word.
And the same pleased the whole multitude, and they chose seven men. Now, when you hear about Stephen, it always says this, Stephen, a man full of the Holy Ghost. That's the first of the seven. And it's interesting to note how graciously they did it. The complaint was by the Grecians against the Hebrews. And every one of these men that they chose had a Greek name. You ever notice that? They had a Greek name. The Lord didn't let one Hebrew get in that that they could think they were favoring Hebrews. No, they favored the ones they were being comforted. They were complaining. They thought they were suffering.
Everyone, Stephanus means crown or diadem. He was the first name. And it says, he was a man full of the faith and the Holy Ghost. And then there was Philip and Prochorus and Nicanor and Timon and Parthens and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set over, and every one of these are Greek names, by the way. I said over the apostles, whom they'd set before the apostles, when they had prayed, laid their hands on them, and the word of God increased, and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.
And I like to think, just by the way, that Saul of Tarsus was here. God was going to do a great thing with Saul of Tarsus. He was an exceedingly mad raging man to stamp out the name of the Lord Jesus, and he hated these Christians. But when they... Stephen was full of faith and power. She had gained full of faith and power. He did great wonders and miracles. And there arose a certain synagogue of the libertines and the Sirenes and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and Asia, and disputed with Stephen.
And when they were not able to resist the wisdom and spirit by which he spake, they suborn men, which said, We heard him speak blasphemous words. And they stood up all the people and the elders and the scribes and caught him and brought him to the council. Now many priests were believing. I think Saul was in that council, Saul of Tarsus. And don't forget that God, when he saved Saul, he said, it's hard for thee to kick against the pricks. What pricks? I believe in all this thing. God was speaking to Saul's heart. we've heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth should destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered and all they that sat in the council looking steadfastly on him saw his face as it had been the face of an angel what a man Stephen was his face like the face of an angel and then they said Stephen the high priest said the high priest said Is this true?
Are these things so? And then Stephen talks. And there's all this long chapter. This is the longest address in the Acts of the Apostles. And what does he do? Don't forget he's speaking to Jews. Don't forget he's speaking to the Sanhedrin. He's speaking to the Jewish religious leaders. So what does he do? He goes back over the history of Israel. That was the best thing to do, don't you think? That's what they boasted in the history of Israel. And they said that he was speaking against Moses, and he's telling them the very opposite. He starts with Moses. Men and brethren and fathers hearken. The God of glory appeared unto our Father Abraham.
This is where he starts. The God of glory. The God of glory appeared unto Abraham. And when you get down to the very last verse, it says that Stephen... being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God. He started with the God of glory and he ended with the glory of God. And what a wonderful talk he gave. Now we can't spend time. It's too long a thing. But let's just divide it up a little bit. He talked about Abraham. He talked about Joseph. He talked about Moses. Now it's true he mentioned Joshua, it's true he mentioned David, but the whole theme was Abraham, Joseph, Moses.
And the gist of it all was this. He tells clearly how God called Abraham, and you get some wonderful things here, all agreeing with the story in the Genesis, but you get little things here which are just delightful, I always think. He agrees here fully with the twelfth chapter of Genesis. He said, God called Abraham, and he said, Get thee out of the house, out of thy house, their father's house, and their country. And that's verse one. And verse five says, And Abram got up and went. He didn't waste time. When God said, Go, he went. Now Stephen says the same. He said unto him, Get thee out of thy country from thy kindred, and come into the land that I will show thee.
Then came he out of the land of Calvary. When God said he moved, he didn't argue and say, is this the Lord's will? How do I know it's the Lord's will? God told him and he did it. And he did it by faith. He trusted God and moved it, God's word and God's command. And God told him that all that land in which he was going to dwell was his. And yet it says, He gave him non-inheritance in it, not so much as I said his foot on. And it's very interesting, and I don't want to spend too much time here, but it's very interesting to see what God did give to Abraham, because there's so much...
We pray for our president, Mr. Carter, and may the Lord bless him. But I think that the, and I don't want to talk politics, but I do think that the new Prime Minister of Israel, I heard him say, Mr. Carter reads the Bible. He can see what belongs to us. Mr. Carter reads the Bible. He can see what belongs to us. He said, in chapter fifteen, this is the covenant, the same day, verse eighteen. The Lord made a covenant with Abraham, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt.
What's the river of Egypt? The Nile. I lived in Egypt. I lived four years in Egypt. The river Nile is a, now they'll say, oh, it's another little river somewhere else. I think the river, my opinion, the river of Egypt is the Nile. Have I given this land from the river of Egypt, the Nile, unto the great river, the river Euphrates? That means to say all the land between the Nile and the Euphrates, which is all the Arab countries that we are up to date, all that belongs to Israel. And because in the nineteen sixty-seven war they took a little tiny bit of it, there's all this first of all giving it back.
They're going to get all of it. they're going to get all the deserts and the deserts going to blossom as a rose and all these Arab countries there's so much fuss made about today it all belongs to Israel God gave it to Abraham and I wish President Carter would read it but of course he's in a very difficult position and has to compromise all these people have to compromise they can't do otherwise that's what he gave him and of course these people they must have been They must have been enjoying what Stephen was saying. They believed all this. They believed. And he was just going over their history. Well, then, of course, he goes down and he talks about the covenant of circumcision, which they were very, very strict about.
And, of course, that's what God made them, told them to be strict about it. Then, of course, in Christ Jesus, the old thing was done away. Now Joseph. Verse nine, the patriarchs moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt, and God was with him. I love that verse. I've claimed that verse is mine, down through life. I remember when the Lord put me out in Greece, and I was kind of alone, but I had that verse.
But God was with him. But God was with him. I went in there in a minor position. Well, I had an executive position, but I was the chief planning engineer of this Greek factory. But In the course of time I became the manager of the whole factory. I didn't do that, but God did that. God was with him. He trusted God and God was with him. And I've always found it works that way. Nevertheless, God, and he keeps saying God was with him, had delivered him out of all his afflictions, gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and made him governor over all Egypt and all his house.
God's plan for Joseph. But you see, what Stephen is emphasizing, as far as I can see it, he's saying they rejected Joseph. His brethren moved with envy so Joseph into Egypt. What he's coming to is this, that in the course of time, God would send his son. God would send his son, who should be ruler over everything. But what do they do? They rejected him. Moved with envy, they sold him, and they sold him for twenty pieces of silver. And moved with envy, they sold the Son of God for thirty pieces of silver.
His brethren rejected him. Isn't that what happened? The Jewish nation rejected him. But look what he says. There came a death over all the land. and Jacob heard there was corn in Egypt and he sent out our fathers first and at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren. What a wonderful verse. The Lord Jesus came once. What do they do? They rejected him and nailed him to a cross at Calvary and he died and suffered there for our sins. But listen. And the second time At the second time, Joseph was made known to his brethren.
The Lord Jesus is coming back a second time. I'm not talking about he's coming for the church. I'm talking about he's coming to Israel. He's coming a second time. What's going to happen? They're going to receive him. They rejected him the first time. But when he comes the second time, they're going to say, what are those wounds in thy hands? He'll say, those are the wounds I received at the hands of my friends. And then he'll rule over them. And the Lord Jesus will be ruler like Joseph. He made him governor over all Israel, all Egypt, and all his house. And the Lord Jesus is going to rule throughout the universe.
and the Jewish nation is going to bow his feet and recognize that they're his brethren in that coming day. That's a wonderful story of Joseph, but we've got to hurry on. The next man he talks about is Moses. And what he says is this. I want to put it in God's plan. It says, But when the time of the promise drew nigh, that reminds me of when the fullness of the time was come. God has a pattern, God has a plan. God's got it all worked out. He knows when it's going to take place. And when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, another king arose which knew not Joseph and so on, in which time Moses was born.
Now, when God's plan was being unfolded and the fullness of the time came, in which time the Lord Jesus Christ was born. When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son. How God's plans are worked out minutely to the detail, to the day they worked out. God has the plan. He says, no man knows they are but the Father. God knows when the Lord Jesus is coming back to receive his church, and it'll take place right on schedule. And he knows the day when the Lord Jesus feet should touch the Mount of Olives again, and he's going to come back to rule the day is planned. And God's got it on his schedule, and right on time, right on schedule, it'll take place.
And so when the time came, God calls Moses to be born and he was the great man God was sending to redeem his people. And he said this to him, he said, when he saw, when forty years were expired, you see, Satan divides the life of Moses into three-forties. forty years he was in Pharaoh's house trained it says he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and deeds and when full forty years he was full forty years old it came to his heart to visit the children of Israel and he supposed he supposed his brethren would have understand how God by his hand would deliver them you know when you think of Moses In the palace of Pharaoh, you don't think of him as having thoughts like this, but he knew he was a Hebrew.
And Moses knew, Moses knew that God had planned for him to be the beaver, to bring his, and Moses knew that God was training him for this job. And when he went out to see how his brethren did, he said, he supposed his brethren would have understood that God by his hand would deliver them. but they understood not. Does not remind you of a verse? He came unto his own, and his own received him not. He was in the world. The world was made by him. The world knew him not. He was light shining in the darkness. The darkness comprehended him not. Here Moses is a picture of the Lord Jesus. What Stephen is emphasizing is that Joseph was rejected.
Moses was rejected. And Moses had to flee. And he went in the land of Midian, and when forty years were expired, now he's eighty years of age. There appeared unto him in the wilderness of Samia an angel of the Lord, in a flame of fire, in a bush. And when Moses saw it, he wandered at the sight, he drew an arm, beheld it. And the voice of the Lord came unto him, and he said, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled and durst not behold. Then said the Lord unto him, Put off thy shoes from off thy feet the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.
I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people. I have come down to deliver them. And come now. I will send thee unto Egypt. He spent forty years in the wilderness. He's now a shepherd. Forty years before he was a great ruler, the prince of Egypt, I suppose commander-in-chief of the Egyptian army. He's a great man, skilled in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. But now, he's skilled as a shepherd. Oh, God's saying, it must have been a trying time for Moses to spend. After all that wonderful training in the universities of Egypt, to waste his years, as it were, forty years in the backside of the desert.
But there he learned how to look after sheep, and how he needed that looking out to those people he had to look after for another forty years. But what he's emphasizing is how they reject him. This Moses, thirty-five, whom they refused, saying, Who may be a ruler of the 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 him out after that he showed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, in the Red Sea, in the wilderness, forty years. This is that Moses which said, unto the children of Israel, a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you, like unto me, him shall he hear.
He's talking here about the Messiah. And Moses said, God is yet going to send a deliverer of the Messiah. Now he goes on to say that that Messiah, he calls him the just one, the just one, whom ye have slew and hanged upon a tree. And what he's saying is this, they rejected Joseph, they rejected Moses, they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. And he accused them. He says, ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost. as your fathers did even so do ye, which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted, and slain them which showed before the coming of the just one of whom ye now have been the betrayers and murderers, who received the law by disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
And when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, gnashed on him with the teeth, and rushed upon him, And you know the rest of the story. He was full of the Holy Ghost, his face shining like an angel. And he looked up and he said, I see heaven open. And the Son of God sitting at the right hand. This one whom they'd slew and hung upon a tree. He said, God's raised him. And he's sitting at the right hand. And I can see him now in the glory of heaven sitting there. What do they do? They dragged him out of the city. And they stoned him to death. and he died like the Lord Jesus, saying, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.
When they were doing it, they lay their clothes down at the feet of a young man called Saul, and I tell you what, the pricks were pricking. The Lord says, hard for thee to pick against the pricks. And there it's Stephen, he mentions it later, he says, Lord, I was there, and I consented to the stoning of thy servant Stephen. And God was dealing with another man he was going to raise up, who would have to suffer just the same way, and die for the Lord Jesus. Stephen was the first martyr. How many, many, we have a little book in the bookstore and it's out in paperback form called Foxy's Book of Martyrs.
It tells you the long history of the hundreds of men and women that gave their lives for Christ's sake. I don't know what days are ahead for you and me. Stephen lived in the first century of the church's history. We live in the last. I sometimes think it'll end as it began, I don't know. But may the Lord make us faithful. May the Lord make us willing to suffer if need be for His name's sake. Thank God for the testimony and the martyrdom. That's our subject this morning, the address and the martyrdom of Stephen. Now next time, God willing, if we speak, we'll go on with what came out of it.
This was the turning point. A persecution came. I've said many times here, I think, that in the Acts of the Apostles, there are two movements, three movements. Upward movement, chapter one, the Lord went up. A downward movement, chapter two, the Holy Spirit was given. An outward movement, chapter eight, they went everywhere preaching the gospel, and we'll get into that next time, God willing, which comes out of the story today. May we pray. Blessed Lord, we do thank thee for this wonderful man, Stephen. We thank you for his great testimony. We thank you for his faith, a man full of faith and the Holy Ghost. Oh, Lord, help us to take lessons. How we love to defend ourselves.
I would love to argue and think that we did the right thing. If ever a man could do that, it would be Stephen. What a great man he was. He didn't say a word. He was like the Son of God. They dragged him out and stoned him to death. Help us, Lord, to humbly tread the path thou has given us to tread. We thank thee, Lord, thou hast said, humble yourselves beneath the mighty hand of God, and in due time he shall exalt thee. We read of Joseph that God was with him, and in time thou didst exalt Joseph. And we would like to walk that pathway, Lord. We're waiting for the judgment seat of Christ, when all will be put right, and all the wrongs will be explained, and every man's going to have praise of God.
Help us, Lord, not to argue. Help us not to defend ourselves. Help us to go on faithfully doing the job that has given us all to do here. until the Lord comes back. So lead us on day by day. We thank you again for this wonderful story of Stephen in our Savior's precious name.