This Book of Acts, I'm doing a little bit differently. I'm trying to hit the mountaintops because we need to be exposed to the general teaching of the Bible. Now, we could back up and preach the Book of Acts again and just go hit every verse as we go through and boy, we'd have a whole new sermon series. But right now, I'm just wanting us to get a hold of the truths that are in the Book of Acts that's gonna make a difference in our lives. And then in our Bible studies, we'll eventually fill in any of the blanks and valleys that we've left behind, but this morning we're talking about Stephen, as Erin mentioned. In chapter number seven of Acts, we know we left Stephen last week. In chapter six, he has been preaching about that resurrection, the crucifixion, the resurrection, that Jesus is the Savior. Jewish religionists did not like that at all, and so they laid hands on him, and they're accusing him. They called in people to twist his words and to make false accusations, and they couldn't handle the truth at all. And so that's where we find him in chapter number 7. Let's just read the first verse of chapter number 7, and then we'll go down to the end of the chapter and see how it ended. Chapter 7, verse 1, Then said the high priest, Are these things so? And he said, Men and brethren and fathers hearken. And then he talks about the glory of God appearing to their forefathers down through the ages and the centuries. He goes through a long sermon, the longest sermon in the book of Acts. He brings them up to speed all the way through their history with a very pointed conclusion that cut them to the heart when we get down to verse number 51. After he's told them about Abraham and Moses and David and many of their church fathers and the temple and the law and then he gets down to verse 51 and he brings that conclusion in like he just hit the accelerator all the way to the floor. Watch this, verse 51. You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you 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 of the coming of the just one? of whom ye have now been the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by 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 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, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. Father, we pray that you'd bring our hearts to be open, to hear the word of God, to be not only increased in knowledge of it, the application of it to our daily lives. Lord, help us to see this unshaken faith and Stephen's stand as something that can be a reality in our own lives. I pray that you'd bless this morning in a great and wonderful way for the glory of God. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Stephen provides a great example of what Jesus can do in a life and what unshakable faith really looks like. This Stephen, the deacon who turned preacher back in Acts chapter 6, was accused in the previous chapter of blasphemy, blasphemy against Moses and the law and the temple. and so they bring him before their council, and that's where we find him in chapter seven. He's accused of all these blasphemous charges, and the high priest allows Stephen to give his defense, and boy, was he ready. He was loaded for bear, and he gave a great, great sermon. I want you to see these last few moments, especially of Stephen's life, we'll look briefly at his sermon. It's a long sermon and you'd do well to read it as a devotional and just to complete your knowledge of the history of the Jewish people and how their faith began with Abraham and continued on with Moses and some of the other fathers. Notice in the first place this sermon. The sermon is remarkable because Stephen brought this sermon in the midst of danger with no fear for his own life. It was preached on the unbelief of Israel and their rejection of Jesus. It was plain pointed and pungent preaching. Man, he laid the plow into the ground and he plowed down that row. He began his message with reference to Abraham and he climaxed it with the crucifixion of Jesus. He brought a powerful message and it was more powerful to those Jews than probably we who are not Hebrews today, we might not grasp the fullness of it like they did, but boy, that's why it cut them to the heart. These Jews resisted, now listen, these Jews resisted the fact that God, while being unchangeable, has a plan that is in movement. Are you listening? God's plan is not a static plan that just starts over here in the Garden of Eden. We see God working with people in the Garden of Eden and they failed. And so we see it move to another age or dispensation of the government of humans of themselves trying to govern themselves. And you can't govern yourself very good. Now you can be governed if you allow the Holy Spirit. But they have not done that. And we see that age move from the Garden of Eden to the government of humans the patriarchs and eventually it gets its way up. God's program is moving. Are you seeing that? God didn't end everything right there at the Garden of Eden. Thank God He had a plan to eventually get to a resurrected Savior who had been crucified in our place for our sins. So God's plan is moving. He is unchangeable. but His plan progresses. That's why each dispensation, you'll see it drawing closer and closer to God's ultimate plan of redemption, the cross of Christ. And they just couldn't accept that. They were stuck on the law of Moses. And His sermon was saying to them, look, you claim that you appreciate old Abraham because he's the father of your faith, and you quote those patriarchs quite often, and you claim to believe the prophets, and you claim to be keepers of the law, and you claim to be dedicated to your temple, but God has moved along because you failed back there. In the law that these people that Stephen is preaching to, They didn't keep the law. They had kept tradition. If they had been keeping the law, that would have been a good thing, but they couldn't do that because they're sinful humans, just like you and me. And so they're stuck in the time of the law, and now comes Jesus, and he's crucified. Everything in the law was types and shadows of things to come. All those animal sacrifices, that temple worship. In fact, in this Sermon of Stephens, he said, God can't be contained in a building. You've tried to put God in that temple, and that's not where he lives. He lives in heaven. Earth is his footstool. And you Jews have tried to capture God and put him in your temple, kind of like these pagan gods. where they just live on a certain mountain or in a certain country? God is the God of the universe and he's telling that. You can't capture God and keep him in the law and you can't keep him in the temple. And can I say to you today, we can't keep God in the church house. He's the God of everything. He's the God of everywhere. Well, they didn't like this because they were stuck on the law and they weren't willing to change. They're hearing the truth from Stephen. Stephen's preaching the truth that Jesus was crucified for your sins. You killed him, but he still died for you. They weren't willing to change. They're saying, nope, we're sticking with Moses. We're going to keep going to the temple. We're not giving it up. And so they accused Stephen of blasphemy. But could you agree with me that Stephen knew how they were going to react? He knew that when he proclaimed Jesus to them, these were the same people that had crucified Jesus. He was not preaching to a friendly audience. He was addressing some people that were likely to kill him. But did he turn and run? Did he change his message? Did he quit and throw in the towel? Not at all. He was preaching to a people that had it in for him, but he was bold, and that's why we're calling this sermon today, His Unshakable Faith, Stephen's Stand. He had an unshakable faith that kept him standing in the midst of those people, and he didn't say, oh, come on, boys, I was just kidding. No, he stuck by his guns, and he kept with what he believed. He had an unshakable faith, and those who looked at him with anger, And blood in their eyes did not keep him from preaching the truth. Thank God for preachers who will stand. We live in a time where preachers and ministries and churches are becoming softer and many of them forget about the blood on purpose. Many of them don't give an invitation for sinners to come and receive the Lord Jesus as Savior, but it's just kind of a morality lesson. Well, I'm all for morality, but it won't save you. We ought to be moral because we're believers. We ought to be moral because we belong to Him. We ought to be moral because that's the way a Christian should be. I read the story of Peter Cartwright, a powerful and bold preacher a couple of centuries back in America. Peter Cartwright was preaching. He preached in a church where a lot of people came to hear him. And can you just imagine on a Sunday, here's a church, a bustling church, man, it's filled with people and everybody's coming in with expectations. They didn't have YouTube and video and radio and TV and internet where they could hear sermons any time of the day. Man, they had usually one chance or maybe two during the week where they could hear a sermon. And so, man, they went with expectations. So that church is filled with people coming to hear the great Peter Cartwright preach the Word of God. And he was in the middle of preaching. He was one of those circuit riding preachers as well. And when he's in the middle of preaching a powerful sermon, a bold sermon, and right smack dab in the middle of it, one of the deacons leaned over and whispered to him and said, Preacher, that's Andrew Jackson in the church. Be careful. That's Andrew Jackson. That's President Jackson. You know what he did? Peter Cartwright? He said, if Andrew Jackson doesn't repent of his sins and turn to Christ, he'll go to hell just like everybody else. And man, the whispers went around the room and I thought, well, now he's done it. What will Andrew Jackson do? How will he respond? Well, as they were leaving the service that day, Andrew Jackson shook his hand and said, I wish I had a whole regiment of soldiers just like you. He was not a coward. Stephen was not a coward. He had boldness. And friend, when we're giving the message of salvation, the redemption that's in the Lord Jesus, we don't have to be arrogant and mean-spirited, but we ought to be bold to proclaim and witness about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ to our friends and to our family and everybody around us. We ought to be bold enough to do that. Stephen took a stand in his preaching. because he had an unshakable faith. What would it take you? What would it take to get you to stop? His sermon was bold and presenting the truth to these accusers that we're now gonna call the sinners. The sinners, well, aren't we all sinners? Well, let's think about it just a minute. Look at verse number 54. It says when they heard these things, what things? Well, the things that he just got through preaching, that they hadn't obeyed Moses, they hadn't followed David, they were stuck with this temple worship, and so he was preaching. They're sinners. They're not coming to Christ. And it says they were cut to the heart and they gnashed on him with their teeth. I mean, can you imagine a bulldog in your face and he's showing his teeth and he's grinding his teeth together and you're thinking, boy, he's gonna bite my arm off. That's what they're doing with Stephen. Man, they're grinding their teeth and gritting their teeth and man, they're just, they're ready to kill him. They were pronounced guilty by the word of God. And they were cut to the heart with conviction. You know something that's missing out on modern preaching a lot of times is that somewhere between the pulpit and the pew, there's no conviction. I don't know if it's because the majority of preachers have no passion about what they're preaching and what they believe. or whether it's the hearers just don't apply. But these people, they didn't get saved, but boy, they heard it and they were cut to the heart. There was conviction, man. It hit them like a ton of brick right in the face. Conviction. Many times, even we Christians try to comfort ourselves in our sin by pointing to somebody else's sin. We find the worst sinner so we feel good about ourselves. We find somebody that's doing it so horrible that it makes us look good. We think, not. Do you remember Jesus and the woman who was taken in adultery? It says about that time, it says the scribes and the Pharisees brought unto Him a woman taken in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned. But what sayest thou? Well, of course, they're trying to trick and trap Jesus. This they say, tempting him that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground as though he heard them not. So what did he write anyway? Only he knows. There's a lot of speculation that he might have been writing those accusers' sins down, maybe some of their own adulteries and fornication. I don't know. That is just speculation. It doesn't say. But whatever it was, Jesus was not having any of their snobbishness. But Jesus stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground as he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted himself up and said unto them, he that is without sin among you, let him cast a first stone at her. And again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it being convicted, get that word, convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last, and Jesus was left alone. And the woman standing in the midst, when Jesus had lifted himself up, he saw none but the woman. He said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? And she said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee. Go and live it up. Is that what he said? Now look, We pick on the Jews there and say, well, they were the real sinners here. No, they were sinners for being self-righteous and trying to point to her sin as being worse than their sin. And yes, they were guilty. And so was she. He didn't excuse her sin. He said, go and sin no more. He said to the Jews, you're guilty? Now get. He said to her, you're not condemned. Go and sin no more. So whose sin would condemn them to hell the quickest? Look, all sins, I don't believe all sins are equal in their seriousness nor in their condemnation and judgment. But one sin will keep a sinner out of heaven just the same as a hundred sins. You see, there are sins that are more grievous than others. I think the sin of abortion is a grievous sin. I think the sin of sodomy and lesbianism, I think it is an abomination, just like the Bible says. But does that make them go into a worse hell than the sinner who just maybe told a few lies, stole a few nickels? They'll go to the same hell. So there are degrees of sin, but as far as salvation goes, if you've committed one, you're guilty of all. That's what it says in the book of James. And you know what it takes to remove a thousand sins? The blood of Jesus will keep them out of hell. You know what will cleanse that sinner that has one or two little sins? It'll take the blood of Jesus just the same for both. Aren't you glad that it doesn't matter as far as salvation goes, whether you're a big sinner or a little sinner, you're condemned to hell until you receive the Lord Jesus as your Savior. And when you go away with your sins forgiven, you're just assurers of heaven as if you were already there. But go and sin no more. You see, I think people in our modern Christianity try to take this and say, well, adultery is not so bad. I mean, look how Jesus handled it. It's hypocrisy in the church, the one that's so bad. No, they're both sin. We don't need to start lifting one sin up or putting another sin down. We have knee-jerk reactions when we go to one extreme or the other. Let's just label sin as sin. We tend to feel approved in our character and feel pretty righteous when somebody else is doing something that we're not doing. If we got victory over a sin, man, we're quick to condemn it in somebody else. We're probably still working on a few ourselves. I mean, I am glad that there was a loud outcry about the mockery of the Lord's Supper at the Olympic program. I'm glad that there was a loud outcry. It was horrendous, it was bad, and you know one of the worst things about it, it's not being mentioned very much, but it seemed to be alluding to and equating Jesus with the Roman mythical god Dionysus who had supposedly been killed and was raised back to life and so It seems that the worst part of this, besides the immorality of it, is that they're trying to replace Jesus with a mythical Roman God. And I'm against all of that. I think the outcry was justified. But wait! Before we start clutching our pearls, we better ask ourselves, how am I living my life? Hey, listen, if you're not bringing up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and teaching them to be a counterculture in this world that's ruled by the devil, He is the God of this world, with a little g. And if we're not raising our kids to be a counterculture, then I'm not too impressed with your outcry about the Olympics debacle. If you're not able to get to church and on a regular basis to learn more about the Lord and how we ought to react in our culture change our culture from the inside out, then I'm not too impressed with the outcry. And there's people who are crying out about it, and I'm glad they're crying out, but I say they ought to have their own lives in order to make that outcry more effective. Closing the barn door after the mule is already out is poorly rewarded. Stephen preached with an unshakable faith to the sinners who had hidden behind their religion. It is an acceptance of Jesus that removes our sins and keeps us, listen, I said we're going to talk about that sinner status. Who is a sinner? I know some people make a huge theological debate about who is a sinner. Once you're saved, you're not a sinner anymore. Well, if we're talking about sinners in one sense, it's talking about those like these Jewish religionists who had rejected Jesus. They're still in their sinner status. We who are saved are children of God. But does that mean we still don't sin? You see, you may not be in a sinner status permanently as a non-believer anymore, but Christians who do wrong are sinning at that moment when they sin. So at that moment they are a sinner. But there is a distinguishing, I believe, between when we talk about the sinners and the saved. That's the distinguishing point. When this sermon of Stephens was preached, boy, it brought conviction. The same sun that can warm and melt a hardened heart is the same sun in the same sermon that can harden another heart to stone. There are people who will come into a church service and they'll hear the preaching and their hearts are touched and maybe there's a tear in their eye and maybe their heart is ready to change to meet with the Lord Jesus in daily life. Another is only offended and walks out saying, who does that preacher think he is? The same sermon, the same preacher, the same Son of God, the same Word of God. Stephen had an unshakable faith and he said, I'm going to preach it whether you like it or not. And he did. The next thing we notice about Stephen's sermon is It concluded in verses 55 and 56 with a standing. Look at verse 55. But he, this is right after they're gnashing on him with their teeth, verse 55, it says, but he, being full of the Holy Ghost, now that's what makes the difference, friend, of having an unshakable faith and one that will cower in the face of danger. 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. Stephen stood for the Lord. Stephen had an unshakable faith, and he stood in the face of those whose faces were turned against him, and he preached it anyway. He stood for the Lord, and he looked up into heaven. and God gave him a vision of the Son of God standing for him. He stood for Jesus and Jesus stood for him. I don't think you'll see that a lot in scripture, will you, where Jesus is standing? We see him seated at the right hand of God. But when this happened to Stephen, Jesus stood up in honor of a servant who was willing to stand for him. and Stephen walked together and they're ready to walk into heaven side by side. It might have looked like in these verses, I mean, Stephen is proclaiming the truth but boy, he's standing there all alone facing that whole angry mob. And you might say, boy, old Stephen, he was all alone. No, he looked up and he saw Jesus and he said, I'm not alone. You go through the valley of the shadow of death. You go through tragedies. You go through hurts and pain. If you're a Christian, you're never standing alone. He is with you. And that's an encouraging part of this sermon. Stephen, being stoned, still looked up with joy and peace in his heart because he saw the Son of God standing at this very time. You'll face some times like that. Make sure you walk with Him. so you can stand with him. Notice in verse 57, the stopping. In verse number 57, it says, then they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and ran upon him with one accord. His audience didn't like what they were hearing preached, and so you ever see little kids do that? That's what they're doing. I don't want to hear anymore. We're done with this. You know, I think people do that a lot of times. If not physically, at least emotionally, stop their ears when they're hearing something. I don't want to hear that preached so I'm just not going to, I'm not even going to listen. I'm not going to think about it. I know what I believe and you can't change me. I think we ought to be willing to let the Word of God change us. Stephen's audience just decided to stop listening. As a pastor, I kind of know the feeling Stephen had. There's times I look out and I see one or two who's got a glazed over look and I think, boy, I've lost them. I should have done the handstand or something. But you know, it used to really bother me that I thought there's somebody snoozing over here or somebody's got that glazed over look and they're not listening. And I found out that a lot of times, maybe not every time, but a lot of times it's just that they are considering what was just said and they're lost in their thought of the previous thing that the preacher said. And so I learned not to be quite so harsh on those. I had a lady that slept in church a lot. Man, I mean, she sat there with her eyes closed and head thrown all the way back on the back of the chair. And so I decided I'd embarrass her one day and was shaking hands as she went out. And I mentioned the part of the sermon that I figured she missed because she was sleeping through it. And she told me exactly what I said about it. I thought, well, thank God, she can sleep and hear at the same time. Some of our hearing is self-imposed. Some of our hearing loss is self-imposed. I heard about the old fellow that went to the doctor, and he was having a great deal of trouble hearing, and he went to the doctor, and the doctor fitted him with some hearing aids, and boy, it restored his hearing 100%. And so he was pretty happy about it. He went home and came back in a few weeks for checkup, and the doctor said, boy, is your hearing still doing good? He said, I can hear everything. He said, I bet your family is really glad about that. He said, I hadn't told them yet. I've changed my will three times. Sometimes we get selective hearing. And that's what happened with these Jewish religionists. They got finished listening. So they turned the preacher off. And it was something they really, really needed to hear. You know, a lot of times when somebody misses church, They miss exactly what they needed. I don't prepare sermons to hit individuals. That's why I like expository preaching. Like through the book of Acts, the Bible takes me where I'm going through my sermon. But boy, sometimes I'll be at one point and I'll think, boy, that's exactly what old sister so-and-so or old brother so-and-so, man, that would have helped them if they'd heard that. But they weren't here. So I'll just have to preach the message over again when I see them. Just kidding. When the accusers heard this message, boy, that brought them face to face with their sins. And I like what Chad said this morning in the Bible study class that preaching needs to change us and we need to be willing to hear what is said before it can change us and these accusers heard exactly what they needed to hear and it brought them face to face with their sins old Jonah needed to hear God's message but man he was so busy pouting he didn't have time to hear he was so bad he was so involved in his pity party he didn't hear God's message to him or at least he didn't heed it So these accusers, man, they're face to face with their sins. And I like encouraging sermons. And even those that have some negativity to them that point out our sins ought to be an encouragement. Encouragement to stop doing that which destroys us and to begin doing that which brings glory to God. So now we notice something else about Stephen's stand. The Spirit. the spirit in which he faced this. Here they are in verse number 60, the first part, look at this. It says, and he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. You know what he's saying? He's saying something very similar to what Jesus said on the cross. Jesus is hanging on the cross and there are markers there There are cruel people there, cruel soldiers, cruel Hebrews, and they're all making fun of him. Even one of the thieves on the cross is mocking him as he dies. And if anybody had a right to be mad and bitter, it would have been Jesus on the cross, but he didn't. You say, but he was a son of God. But Stephen, imitating his Lord, did the same thing. He was not deity. And Jesus said, Lord, I mean, on the cross, Jesus said, Lord, forgive them. They know not what they do. Stephen, as he's being stoned, he could have looked up in heaven and said, Lord, kill them. But instead, he said, Lord, forgive them. They need to hear this. They need to think about this. Lord, give them a little more time to repent. the spirit in which he had. How do we react when we're bitterly attacked? The flesh says, rise up, defend yourself, and retaliate. And I felt that way at times, haven't you? I'm going to punch him in the nose. And if anybody had a right to, it was Stephen. But he didn't. Like his Lord, he said, Father, I wish you'd forgive him, give him a little more time. The Spirit. Boy, what a message that could be preached on that. And then lastly, the sleeping. The last part of verse number 60. After he kneeled down, it says, in the last part, and when he had said this, he fell asleep. What a euphemism for the Christian to adopt. He fell asleep. Well, actually, he's laying there bleeding, probably in a lot of pain, but we don't see him writhing in pain in the Scriptures, and we don't see him cursing his accusers and stoners. We see him peacefully falling asleep. That body was stoned and got laid to rest, and the body sleeps. But while his body was being stoned, his spirit was winging its way homeward to heaven. And you and I need to consider, how do we face death? Every one of us, with no exceptions, unless the rapture happens first, are going to face that. We're going to walk that lonesome valley. Will you go kicking and screaming? Or will that walk that you've had with Jesus, will that sweet walk with the sweet Son of God give you peace to even say in death, I see the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. I see the sweet, serious saints of God waiting for me to enter the golden gate the pearly gate and walk the golden streets and I'll get to sing in their choir. You think I can't sing, but when I get there I can. Stephen, I don't know if I could do like he did or not. Do you? Is somebody stoning me? Is my walk with Jesus strong enough? Do I have an unshakable faith strong enough? that I can just lay down and go to sleep while the rocks are hitting me and I see Jesus welcome me home? Can I die peacefully that way? Can I stick to my message to get others to trust Jesus as Savior even though they oppose me? Is my faith unshakable? Is your faith unshakable? Let's pray together. Father, I pray that you'd bless the invitation time. Lord, I pray that just like Stephen had an unshakable faith and stood for the Lord Jesus. Lord, I pray that we would see that we can have an unshakable faith as well. We may not be called on to suffer a stoning, but fears are still real for us as we face other difficulties in life. Lord, help us to face each trial, each tribulation, with peace, joy, comfort, knowing that Jesus has not forsaken us. He said, I'll never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Lord, help us to remember it. Help us to live like it. Lord, I pray for those who are not saved, that they trust the Lord Jesus as their own personal Savior today.