The last two verses of Acts chapter 7, we read of the death of Stephen. In the previous chapter, the Hebrew Sanhedrin had attempted to silence the preachers of God's grace. They tried to eradicate the name of Jesus from their people's ears. They had put them in jail, they had mocked them, they had beaten them, and they had persecuted the earthly believers with confidence that the early church would be wiped from the face of the earth. But they were wrong. The more they persecuted this infant church, the more it grew. The more they tried to silence God's voices, the more opportunities were given to declare the glory of Christ to their nation. One of the interesting effects of their criticism was a message from this man, Stephen. It's recorded here in this seventh chapter of the book of Acts. And I want to look at that message today and the circumstances around it. And I want to try to bring you a message that I have titled, The Death of a Faithful Martyr. There are several things I want us to see from this passage of scripture. First of all, in this seventh chapter, we find Stephen preaching to the Sanhedrin. The rapid growth of the early church had led to a horrible conflict. The Sanhedrin was set up to establish the Jewish religion and to maintain it. The Christian church was at odds with that. As we come to the early part of this chapter, the Greeks in the early church had an issue, a conflict to do with the church. Their widows were being neglected. They were taking care of the Jewish women, but not the Greeks. And so the apostles did not want to be interrupted in their study and in their meditation upon the word of God So they declared that nothing should interfere with their preaching. And they appointed the selection of seven deacons to serve the church. That's what deacons do. Most of the churches around here, because they can't keep a preacher for more than a year or two, the deacons run the church. People around here believe that deacons are supposed to run the church. It is not so. God calls pastors to pastor churches. And those men who don't have enough backbone to do what they need to do need to get out of the ministry. And those who do have need to pastor the churches. And deacons need to serve the church and to help those who have needs. One of these Grecians who was selected in this ordaining of deacons was this man named Stephen. This division of authority brought forth great results. The word of God was preached with intensity and passion. These men were not distracted from their work by the maudlin cares of the widows and orphans. The number of believers multiplied increasingly in Jerusalem. They grew every day. It started out with 12 men that the Lord ordained and established in his church during his public ministry, but the church was growing every day. It was getting larger and larger and larger. There were even a great number of the priests, it tells us in the sixth chapter, who had begun to believe. They had forsaken the law and forsaken the Hebrew religion and had trusted in the Lord Jesus and believed in him and were serving him. But then in this chapter, produced one of the great men of the early church in this man, Stephen. He was a man that was full of faith. God's people need to be full of faith. Now the world will tell you just work up your faith. Just practice on it and work it up. That's foolishness. Faith is a gift of God. If you have faith, God gave it to you. If you have great faith, God gave it to you. If you have faith to believe, God gave it to you. And God blessed them. He was blessed of faith and He was blessed with the Holy Spirit. We don't talk about the Holy Ghost much anymore. Folks just assume that they have the willpower and the energy and the direction and the mental capacity to do God's work. They don't need the Holy Spirit. But I tell you, we can't do anything without the Holy Ghost. In the early days of my ministry, I was pastor in a church in Washington County and we had a meeting of preachers and they were trying to think up new ways to evangelize people and get the churches stirred up. They were going on and on with their ideas, and finally one of the old preachers there in the community, who was a faithful man of God, I've lost track of him, but he was a faithful man of God, he finally said, wait a minute. You all are talking like we have the ability to turn this council, and this city, and this county upside down, you're fools. If God doesn't do something with us and for us, we can't do anything. And I heartily approved what he said. He had power with God. This man, Stephen, could do things. And he frequently went to God's throne. He was a man of prayer. I know people who have all kinds of talent. I know people that are great singers. I know people that are great Preachers, I know people who are great organizers. You know what kind of people I admire? Great prayers. When I was a young man, just been saved, I met a fellow named John Darland. Been dead many, many years. And he and I used to pray together. I can still hear John praying, Lord draw a circle around me. start a revival right in me. I was amazed to hear that man praise like he talked to his best friend and he did. God blessed him to be able to do marvelous wonders. Now Stephen Zeal led him to preach in the synagogues. In the ninth verse of the seventh chapter, the patriarchs moved with envy I'm sorry, it's chapter six. In chapter six, it tells us, in the ninth verse, that there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines and Cyrenians and Alexandrians, of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen. He went there to preach to them. They took issue with his message. They took issue with his doctrine. He became the object of violent hatred and wrath. They hated him. They hated Stephen. And I'll tell you that if you live for the Lord the way you ought to live for the Lord, there'll probably be some people that'll hate you. I've had people that hated me for the last 50 years. I don't know why. I didn't do anything to them, didn't try to do anything to them. They hate the message I preach. And they hate the church. They hate God's Word. False witnesses spoke against him and lied about his actions. They couldn't find anybody to say anything about Stephen, so they hired some people to just lie about him. And they brought him up on charges before the Sanhedrin. But all their charges were false. They were untrue. And they misrepresented his message. They took everything he said and they twisted it and bent it around so it would turn out to be what they wanted it to be, rather than what he said. The second thing that Stephen does in chapter 7, beginning in verse 2, through the 47th verse, is he talks about Hebrew history. I think it's good to study history. I don't remember who it was, some historian said, if you don't know where you've been, you don't know where you're going. And he's right. And Stephen appeals to Hebrew history in this seventh chapter to challenge them. He starts out speaking about Israel's blessed history. And you know, the Jews were proud of their history. They bragged all the time, we're Abraham's children, we're Jacob's children, this, that, and the other. But they were proud of their history for the wrong reasons. They were prejudiced. And they set themselves up as being a special people. They weren't special people, because God called them. But they set themselves up as a special people and thought highly of themselves. You see, God chose them not because they were special, but because they were nothing. They continually gloried in their heroes. I was talking about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and these men. They failed to contemplate God's will in preparing for Christ's coming. This book that we call the Bible, the Old Testament, is a prophetical document that points to the coming of Christ. The Gospels are a historical collection of books that tell us about the coming of Christ. And from Acts to Revelation, we have a record looking back to when Christ came. They failed to understand that. Stephen gave them several examples. The first one was Abraham, the father of faith. He believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. God called him out of Haran, from Ur of the Chaldees. He was as much a heathen as anybody else there. Abraham wasn't one bit better, if anybody there. And he told him, said, you're gonna make a great journey. Abraham said, where am I going? He said, I'll tell you when you get there. How long is it? I'll tell you when you get there. And Abraham, to his credit, began to obey God and he began to march. And he foretold that a time was coming when the burden of bondage would be laid upon the Israelite people by the hands of the Egyptians. He gave Abraham a covenant of circumcision for his descendants. Physical circumcision of male children was an indication that they were part of the covenant. It used to be practiced by the Jewish elders and it still is among Orthodox Jews. When he finished talking about Abraham, he started talking about Joseph. Now Joseph's one of my heroes in the Old Testament. He's a man that didn't do anything wrong. He was a man that was hated by his brothers. They rejected him. They captured him and they sold him into slavery at the hands of the Midianites. But God blessed him. And we ended up down in the slave councils of Egypt. moved a man in Pharaoh's court to purchase him, and he blessed him greatly. He was placed there to be God's deliverer for his family. He was such a wise man that Pharaoh said, whatever he says, do it. He's in charge. I'm going to set a prayer on my throne, read the newspaper. You all just pay attention to what Joseph says. Whatever he says, do it. And Egypt had been blessed. But God put him there to be the deliverer of his family. 75 Hebrews would come out of Israel and come to Egypt. And when they left 450 something years later, there'd be 650,000 of them. God's intention is seen later in Israel's deliverance from bondage. They were there in the muck pits of Egypt building Pharaoh's tombs until God led them out with a high hand. They took everything the Egyptians had, all the gold, all the jewelry. All the statues, all the artwork, the wagons, the horses, the mules. They walked out of Egypt with it and nobody put up a hand to stop them. He next starts talking about Moses and he starts, when Moses was born, how God set him apart as a witness. There was a king who knew not Joseph. And he had enslaved the nation of Israel into bondage. And he was killing all the children. All the males were executed when they were born. But Moses was delivered of his mother and delivered of God in that troubled time. His mother kept him in her house as long as she could and she built him a nest, a little boat. And she put him in the Nile River. And guess who found him? Just by accident. He was lucky, people would say. Pharaoh's daughter found this baby and she had compassion on him. And she decided she'd raise him as her adopted son. And Moses' sister Miriam was sitting on the bank watching this, and when she came out of the water, she said to her, she said, if you need someone to nurse this baby, I can get you a Hebrew woman. And he was raised by his own mother. He became the most powerful man in Egypt, outside of Pharaoh. He was educated in Pharaoh's school. But when he got 40, for some reason, he decided to have an affiliation with the Hebrews. And he killed an Egyptian taskmaster. He tried to lead the people, and they said, what are you going to do? You going to kill us, too, like you did him? Pharaoh found out about it, and he put Moses out in the desert, left him out there to die, wandered off in the wilderness, and he ended up in Midian in exile. And he met his wife there. And years later, he was out tending the sheep, and he saw a bush that was burning, but it never burned. And he went up to the bush, and the bush spoke to him and said, take off your shoes, Moses. The grounds you stand on is holy ground, and God called this man to deliver his people. He said, go and tell Pharaoh to let my people go. And he said, I can't talk. He said, you got a mouth, don't you? If you don't got one your brother Aaron does, tell him to speak for you. And God met him there. and he gave him great miracles and great power to deliver Israel and he brought them right to the edge of the promised land. Stephen then speaks of God's blessing on Israel the nation. He said that they were a people who were dedicated to idolatry and unbelief and they had been all their life. Moses went up on the mountain to meet with God and get the Ten Commandments. And when he came down, he found them dancing before their idols, and he threw the stones down and broke them. Criticized the people. And they said, go up and tell God to tell us what to do, and whatever he tells us to do, we'll do it. Have you ever said something like that? Absolute foolishness. Moses went up. God gave him another set of tables. He came back down and the people broke every law in them. But he led them out into the wilderness. He led them for 40 years in the wilderness. And then he died. Stephen then speaks about the blessing of God on Israel, the nation. They were people who were dedicated to their unbelief. Every time they met somebody, God had told them, don't let your sons marry the daughters of these idol-worshipping people. And don't let your daughters marry their sons. Stay to yourself. Well, the Hebrews, like most of us, they got proud and arrogant about that, and they decided they were the hottest thing on God's green earth, and they'd just do what they wanted to do, and they did what they wanted to do, which was sin. And they created idols, and they began to worship these idols, make sacrifices to them. They came to Mount Sinai and created a golden calf, and they worshiped it. Amos said in Amos 5.25, have you offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness 40 years, O house of Israel? But you have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Kion, your images, the star of your God, which you made to yourselves. Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts. God determined to deliver them using the Babylonians, and He did so. Why did the Babylonians not destroy the Hebrews? Because they had a king named Nebuchadnezzar, and God broke him like a cow, made him crawl in the grass like an ox, until he looked up and saw God. My friends, God has a definite purpose that was vastly missed by these Jewish accusers of Stephen. They stoned Stephen, railing upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Here's the climax of Stephen's sermon. The climatic point of his message is a portrayal of God. When a man preaches the word of God, he ought to make sure that he identifies who God is. What most people preach in their churches is not the God of the Bible. It's not. They're gods trying to do things. They're gods trying to make everybody happy. There God's trying to make everybody satisfied. There God's trying to keep anybody from having any problems. They all read the Bible. They find out that God's holy. And He's just and He's righteous. He's upright. And He deals with His people according to His will and according to His purpose because He has an intent. for them to fulfill. Stephen begins to feel the death sentence that God has decreed for him. These men are going to stone him. I think about this, and I'll be honest with you, I think to myself, would I have enough nerve to do this? In my flesh, no. But Stephen wasn't in his flesh. He was in the Spirit. And he said, Lord Jesus, receive my Spirit. He charges these people. He attempts to bring deep conviction of their heart to the God of the Bible and the Lord Jesus Christ, his Son, But in doing so, he surrenders his life to the hand of God. And he reveals to them the character of God. It's important that we know the character of God. God does not dwell in 10 temples. No buildings can restrain Him. They thought they built a temple. God's got to stay in the temple. Isaiah 66, 2 says, For all those things hath my hand made, and those things have been, saith the Lord. But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of an contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. Let me tell you something. In just a few minutes, we're going to dismiss. and you're gonna go out that door and go home. And I'm gonna turn the lights off and the heat off and then I'm gonna go out the door and I'm gonna lock the door behind me. But we aren't gonna leave God in here. God's not a prisoner in this building. He's wherever you are. God is seen to be sitting on his throne in sovereign power over the earth. These men in the Sanhedrin could not see that, but Stephen could. He looked up and he saw God sitting on a throne. Men and women make puny efforts to make something for God, but it's useless and it's foolish. God has a purpose in the temple worship, but it's more than any man comprehends. Those people came there and offered sacrifices. They brought animals to be sacrificed and this, that, and the other. But they had come to the place where they thought that they were satisfying the purpose of God by offering those animals and those fragrances. But the truth of the matter is, that all they were trying to do was to appease the anger of God who was at wrath against their sinfulness. He makes several charges against the Jews that hated him. He said they were stiff-necked. You know anybody that's stubborn? We don't have any stubborn people here this morning, do we? Not a one. They were uncircumcised in their hearts and in their ears. They resisted the Holy Spirit just as their fathers did. Listen to me, men and women have been resisting the Holy Spirit ever since the beginning of time. Adam and Eve resisted the Holy Spirit in the Garden of Eden. The Pharisees and the Sadducees had resisted the Spirit of God all their lives. These people resisted the Spirit of God. These people are descendants of those who murdered and persecuted believers. And they would continue to murder and persecute These Jews and Gentiles who God had given faith in His Son. He spoke with confidence that Christ was standing by Him in His trials. He looked up. Verse 56 says, Behold, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. He looked up and saw His Savior. If persecution ever comes to you and trials ever come to you, the only way you'll deal with them is if God lets you see his son and you'll rest in him. These men rejected Stephen's testimony. They cried out in such a way as to drown out his message. They plugged their ears so they couldn't hear the truth. And they rushed to shed Stephen's blood by stoning him. Isaiah 5-7 says, For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant. And he looked for judgment, but behold, oppression for righteousness, but behold, a cry. The world still goes to the same extremes it always has to avoid the Spirit of God. But the conviction of the Holy Spirit cannot be silenced either in the earth or in hell. Remember that rich man that had that beggar sitting at his gate? He's been in hell now for over 2,500 years. He still hears the Holy Spirit speak to him every day. All those wicked men and women, remember that man and his wife that sold that property and said they were gonna give it to the church and they kept part of it for themselves? They've been in hell for 2,000 years and they still hear the Spirit speak to them. The conviction of the Spirit can't be silenced. And then we find here the breaking up of Stephen's message. He's preaching to these men. And they 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 he said, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. These men who rejected Stephen's message had deep convictions. Stephen had given them a powerful presentation of the truth, but they didn't want to hear it. They were cut to the heart, and they brashly spoke angry words at him. They resisted the conviction of the Spirit, and they proved it by attacking God's man Stephen. And they finally could stand the anger no longer, and they were moved to act. Next year will be the 50th year I've been preaching the gospel. I have not had anybody stone me. I have had a few people throw things at me. And I have had a lot of bad things said about me. But that's in God's purpose. And God has settled that debt for many of those people. This man stared death in the face as he laid hold on the Spirit of God. This great man of God looked up and God gave him a vision of heaven. He looked up and he saw the Lord Jesus standing there by God's throne. And they began to pray, receive my spirit. And they kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. What humility. What humility. Have you ever forgiven somebody who did something to you? Most of us have, but it's hard. It's hard. But Stephen proved that God had changed his heart because he could forgive these men. He looked to God's sovereign throne and he saw God's glory. His Lord, his Master, stood by the throne and gave him the grace that he needed and promised to receive him. The Hebrews rejected his testimony. They cried out so loudly that it muffled his words of wisdom. He tried to deal with them in justice and mercy. They wouldn't hear it. They plugged their ears to avoid hearing this message of God's free grace and God's salvation. They made their feet fast to shed the blood of this faithful man. They fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah in Isaiah 59, 7. Their feet run to evil and they make haste to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, wasting, and destruction are in their past. I want you to know something, the world has not changed. The same men that stoned Stephen are still in seats of power. They still resist the Spirit of God in the same way. You may have heard on the news that there was quite a furor created in Israel this week when President of the United States declared Jerusalem to be the capital. Somebody asked me the other day, he said, what do you think about that? I said, what do I think? I don't think anything about it. Jerusalem's always been the capital of Israel, in God's measurement. All President Trump did was do what the scripture says. Their conviction never changes even in hell where it's too late. I want you to know something. Every person who's in hell today still believes all the invalid things that they believed when they were in this flesh. They still hate the things of God. They still hate the church. They still hate the Bible. They still hate God's preachers. They still hate God. They haven't changed a bit. Now lastly, I want to just give you a few things to think about. There are two worthy points to be concentrated on in Stephen's life. This dying prayer of this humble believer. I just admire it. Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. Lay not this sin to their charge." What a prayer. The other thing is that this person of a single witness to Stephen's execution would be raised up to be the greatest preacher of the gospel in modern history and the writer of two-thirds of the New Testament, this young man named Saul, who held their garments. Also, Stephen commended his spirit to Jesus who trusted him, who he trusted completely. He requested God's forgiveness to those who murdered him. He was in a relaxed state of mind. Somebody's gonna kill you. Would you be this relaxed? Stephen's as calm as a dish of frozen Jell-O. I mean, he's not quivering at all. He's going to fall asleep in Jesus. His presence rests in Christ's hands even as His body rests in the earth. And it will stay there until the coming resurrection of Christ. We need to ask, and some have, Well, Stephen's prayer answered. It was because there was a young man here whose ministry would bless multitudes. This young man, Saul of Tarsus, helped the garments of those who had stoned Stephen. He was an insignificant member at this time of the Sanhedrin council. He was a protege of the great teacher Gamaliel. But at this time he was just a young man who was on the council. But he could never get away from the testimony of Jesus. Never get away from the message of Stephen. And conviction pricked Saul's heart like an ox code. In the 9th chapter of this book, in the 5th verse it says, He said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. Thus God used the testimony of Stephen in his life and in his death to bring Saul of Tarsus to salvation and make him Paul the Apostle. They stoned Stephen, calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he said this, he fell asleep. I love that statement. He fell asleep. I tell you, the life of Stephen is a model for every true believer. You want to know how to serve God? Read Stephen's life. His charges against the Jews were verified in due time. God destroyed the nation of Israel. It does not exist. I'm not convinced it will ever exist. Stephen's final testimony was an exaltation of the Lord Jesus. He said, Lord, I don't hold anything against these men. Please forgive them. They don't know what to do. And God answered Stephen's dying prayer. And he went to sleep. May it be that way with every one of us. Stephen, this great martyr of the faith. Amen.