Welcome to Bible Believers Fellowship and the ministry of bbfohio.com. I am Pastor Greg and I invite you to join us for a current events update and then the first part of our study of Stephen's martyrdom in Acts chapter 5 verses 51 to 60. We remind you that this is part of a complete verse-by-verse study of the book of Acts and we encourage you to read your Bible daily at home going through the entire Bible with us each year And as you learn from these studies, they will help you understand when you read and study at home alone with the Lord. The conclusion of this two-part message, along with more than 3,000 other Bible studies, including complete studies of more than 24 different books of the Bible, can be found at bbfohio.com and available free of charge. This is part one of two. The current events update. Kind of a practical but current event update this morning. We talked about charity this morning in Sunday school. 1 Corinthians 13 is not the love chapter unless you're Laodicean with a new Bible. It's the charity chapter. And the words are not exactly the same. Which, hence, we teach things that are not the same. But the reason why that word is used in 1 Corinthians 13 is because love can be neutral. And today, and even in the times that the Bible was written, by the way, the word love was abused. It meant lust in a lot of cases and that sort of thing. Charity, you don't confuse that. You know what that is. Well, some people today just think charity is something you do for a tax write-off. That's not the case, but you can get a tax write-off, but that shouldn't be your motivation. It requires some thought, and this is a challenge because a lot of people don't think about what they're doing when they give to charity. Throwing around cash makes you a target. Not only for the spammers and the, you know, what do they call the different, they used to send mail, what do they call that? Junk mail, but there's another word for it. Spam's another one. solicitators, solicitation, whatever. Once they get you on their list, you can better believe they're going to come after you if they know you get money. But it also makes you a target for crooks and criminals. Not only the, what you call, identity theft, but also just everyday druggies and addicts, as they're called today. And so this is just an example of why you should be very careful and you shouldn't give cash directly to people in need unless it's somebody you know very well. And this happened to a lady in Chicago. I'll show you the clip. One of her friends tells us exactly what got her killed. But she was a volunteer worker in one of those food bank type situations. But she helped people over and above that and she gave out cash to people. A woman who dedicated her life to helping her community has lost her life to violence on the west side. Thank you for joining us on this Labor Day. I'm Scott Schneider. And I'm Natalie Baumke in for Dawn. We start with the murder of a church pantry volunteer found brutally beaten to death. Tia Ewing is live. Well, you heard from her friend who was absolutely heartbroken. She told me that Marisol Berrios was a giver. She didn't have a lot of money, but she used what she had to help others and a friend telling me she even helped the man that is now charged with her murder. I'm like, is this what we get when you try so hard to help somebody? Then you have to worry about your personal safety. Hours ago, Leah Tisha Bailey found out her friend, Marisol Barrios, was murdered in her home in the 4200 block of West Adams Street. This video shows Bailey and Bedios packing up food for the less fortunate. You know she didn't have a lot. She would connect with ministries that would go all around the world and help people. Bailey says she even helped a man that is now charged with her murder. When I saw his face My heart was broken because this was somebody she fed. This was somebody she gave, you know, small amounts of money to help. Saturday, Chicago police say is when 59-year-old Marvin Wells forced his way into Berrios' apartment, fatally injuring and killing her. They broke in her house. They took the car, they took her purse, they murdered her, they just beat her with a hammer. Wells also allegedly stole the car Betios was in possession of, which belonged to her sister. He crashed it four miles away from the crime scene, and that's when Chicago police took him into custody. She left here in a defensive position. Like, you know, she saw it coming and she was afraid. How do you do that? How do you do that to somebody who gave so much? Now, the Berrios family, they are here in Chicago. They live here. They wanted to give Marisol an open casket, but she was so badly beaten that that can't happen. As for Wells, he is charged with five felonies. That includes murder and also home invasion. This was somebody she gave, you know, small amounts of money to. This was somebody she gave, you know, small amounts of money to. She gave, you know, small amounts of money to. Just wanted to get that through your head. If you're giving money to people, you're making yourself a target. And again, we're not talking about your brother or your cousin that you know real well or something like that. We're talking about the typical out on the street. The people who work with these people a lot will tell you, they'll tell you, do not give them cash. Now, because it answers the question, who are you trying to help? Because if you're trying to help somebody, you want to do what's good for them. But see, most people don't care about the person they're giving money to. They're doing it to feel good. And you even talk to them, they'll say, it makes me feel good. Oh, is that what it's about? That's not charity. Charity is you want to help that, it's like they say, a leg up, not a hand down. That's if you care about people. Now, if you're just virtue signaling and want people to see you give money, or if you're just trying to make yourself feel better, you still got to worry about that. And I'm warning you just because I love you. What's that sign over there say? We love you enough to tell you the truth. And I'm telling you the truth right now. I have my own stories I could tell you. I could go on for the rest of the afternoon telling you the stories. And I might have told this one before, but I'll never forget a fellow coming into a church that I was helping a preacher out over on the west side, up in the hilltop area. And a fellow came in and solved a story. And the pastor, without saying anything to anybody, he just says, we're going to take up a love offering for this fellow. And he asked somebody to pray before they took up the offering. And while they're praying, I walked over to him. I said, you're making a big mistake. You do not hand this guy cash. The Lord led me to do it, brother. Just let's just tell me to shut up, basically. All right. So I walked over there, and I let him. They took up an offering, got a couple hundred bucks for this guy. Oh, he was so thankful. Till the next week. Then he showed up wanting more. I said, he's going to keep coming back. People on drugs aren't logical folks. And they'll do whatever it takes to get the money. You know what that guy did? After that pastor dawned on him, maybe this other preacher's right. He said, we can't give you cash. We'll feed you and we'll help you out. No, I need cash. I need cash. He gets violent. Then he gets mad, throws things, walks out. The preacher thinks it's over. I knew it wasn't over. I went and stood in the window of the building we were in and watched him. And I said, call 911. He started busting the windows of the cars to get in the cars and look for spare change or anything he could find. It was Christmas, Christmas Eve. What'd he do? He started grabbing things that people had in their cars to take to Christmas gatherings. That preacher who used, I think he used to be a cop or something, but he goes running out, boom, running out after him. That guy's running down the street with his arms full of stuff, starts chucking it. It's something comical if it wasn't so sad. That ended fine because no one got hurt. I can tell you other stories where people got hurt. And so I hope you're paying attention and not looking at the babies the whole time I'm talking. Not to mention being sure you don't fund the scammers. How many of you have a goal in life to keep the scammers in business? That's not a life goal, is it? This guy, a man who said he was a missionary, accused in a $30 million scam that was supposed to send Bibles to China. You may not know this, but there are ministries all over the place collecting money and they will not use your money for anything but for themselves. Some of them might give 10% so they have something that they can say they did, but 90% of it goes into their own pocket. These are non-profits, so the organization isn't profiting, but the people who work there are profiting. That's how it works. Jason Gerald Schenck is accused of buying diamonds and gold and gambling with money that was donated by people who thought they were sending religious materials to China. And this isn't just for you folks here, it's for those online. Wherever your local church is, that's where you funnel your money through. Because I can tell you that all the ministries we support, we know them. I'll tell you what, you know, Daniel Bardwell over in Ukraine is not buying gold and diamonds and gambling. and our other ministries and missions we support, we know where the money goes. If you just go around feeling good about yourself, throwing money at people, the Bible says to know those who labor among you. You're violating the scriptural principle by doing so, but that's how most people give. And then they give to these TV preachers. We just watched again that demon-possessed looking guy, Kenneth Copeland. You don't have a God in you. You are one. Quote from Kenneth Copeland. And we just watched him. He's got his own TV thing. He's got his own apps and everything. He raised like six, how much was it, Jenny? Was it $9 million? Yeah. $9 million so he can have his jets and two or three homes and all that stuff. It's just amazing. I have more of my own stories about this stuff, but I'll just tell you, I've tried to warn people and they get mad at me. We had a few, probably 10, 12 years ago, this guy collecting money for Bibles over in Africa, and I did a little research and I told the people who were online supporting him, I said, this guy doesn't have any, there's nothing, no evidence he's doing anything with that money except for living off of it. And there's evidence that he's womanizing. Probably using the money to impress the women. People got mad at me. Blocked me. What can you do? Nothing. That's all I can do. And later it came out. It was exposed. And of course, it's not just fake Christians, by the way. It's not just Christians and pretend missions and everything. This guy, he lied and told everybody he had colon cancer. And it was like his own personal Make-A-Wish. You ever heard of the Make-A-Wish Foundation? They do good work as far as I know. This guy said it was his dream to play in one of those poker tournaments out in Las Vegas. I'm sure John's familiar with those out there where he lives. No, I'm kidding. He doesn't gamble. But that's what this guy, he's dying of colon cancer and he tells everybody, my dream was to play in a poker championship. So they raised up a bunch of money, $10,000 was the minimum that they raised to get him into the tournament. And, well I don't have the clip, but he admits he doesn't have cancer. He made the whole thing up. But it was online, and everybody, just without asking any questions, go to that, I think it was a GoFundMe, and they give you, listen folks, if you just give to any strange group or person on GoFundMe, you're just a sucker. Unless you do a little research and find out that the person is really real. There's all kinds of these scams out there on the internet like that. Meanwhile, a growing number of missions are going into apostasy. That's another thing you have to watch for. World Vision. How many of you have heard of that? It's just amazing. These people are sickening. It's been years now that they've turned on Israel and been supporting the Muslims. They even hired a Muslim over there to head up their aid. Listen, if they're not preaching the gospel and giving aid, it's not a Christian mission. And that's what World Vision's done for years. They drew the attention of Senator Chuck Grassley. He sent a list of questions to the humanitarian aid ministry, as they call themselves, regarding its work in Gaza. And they've been funneling millions of dollars to Muslims over there against Israel. World Vision, the $1.4 billion Christian Relief and Development Ministry, has told Senator Chuck Grassley that it denies claims it aided terrorists in Gaza. Well, as this Ministry Watch reported last year, an Israeli court sentenced World Vision Gaza director, listen to the name, Mohamed El Halabi, sentenced him to 12 years in prison for allegedly transferring ministry funds to the terrorist organization Hamas. World Vision denies this and they conducted an extensive financial investigation using international auditors that says revealed no financial wrongdoing. They did not. They won't let you look at it. They said, we did an investigation. We didn't find anything wrong. OK, well, let's see your investigation. No, that's OK. We'd rather you not. Everybody's trying to act like Congress today. That audit was never released to the public, however, and now Grassley is demanding to see it. And so we wish and pray for Grassley's success in getting to the bottom of that. Where you give your money matters. Our own kingdom reward will depend at least in part upon our stewardship. God has given you a certain amount of this, a certain amount of that. He's given you a certain amount of time. And no, there's nothing wrong with spending some leisure time doing this or that, but you better take inventory about how you're spending your time. You're going to answer for it. You're going to be rewarded on your stewardship of time, your stewardship of money. There are going to be people who made a million dollars in their lifetime and only gave back a hundred to the Lord. I mean, think of that. And Jesus taught this in Luke 12, 42. And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. of a truth I say unto you that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. We should also, by the way, never reward rebellion or laziness. Amen? 1 Thessalonians 3.10 is just one place that says this. For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. And there are ministries who will take in these guys off the street, but they'll say, now you have to earn your keep. They have them sweeping the floors. If they've got the ability to paint, maybe they have other skills. They put them to good use, but they'll have guys who won't say, as soon as they say they have to work, they'll just walk away. What do they do? Bye. That's what the Bible says to do. And that's what's wrong with the welfare system in the United States of America. First of all, the Constitution never gave the government that place. It's supposed to belong to the churches and charitable organizations. That was taken away because the government's greedy and they want all the money. And now, who do they reward? They reward all kinds of people who will not work. And it should be work fair. And if you're absolutely bedridden and can't work, that's one thing. That's different. But most of the people I've ever met on welfare, they're just lazy. And that's part of what's happening to our society and where we're going and the direction we are. So that's just a current event update regarding. There's a lot more that could be said about it, but we'll cut it off there. Be informed. Pray accordingly. Amen? All right. We're going to look at Stephen's martyrdom. Acts 7, verse 51 is where we're going to start. We come to the deadly reaction of Israel's leaders towards Stephen. In our last study, we went through 50 verses because it was basically a sermon given by Stephen. His last stand, we called it. He now closes, and we'll see it cuts to the heart of Israel's leaders. We're going to see the invitation in 51-53, the initial attack in response to that in verse 54, then Stephen's response in 55-56, the actual execution of Stephen in 57-58, and Stephen's last words as he's dying in verses 59 and 60. We're going to start there with this called the invitation. Verses 51 to 53, and of course you'll see that's a little tongue-in-cheek. But look at verse 51. How many preachers have you heard give an imitation like this? You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Ghost. As your father did, so do ye. Isn't that great? So I want you to read that with me. Read the even verses, so start in verse 52 with me. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the just one, of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law of 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 sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. Amen? Set. Imitation. is usually, well, historically it's been something like, I preach the gospel, now if you would like to repent and believe the gospel, do so. And then around the 19th century, Charles Finney decided he wanted to bring them up front and talk to them to make sure that they were genuine about what they were doing, which is fine. And so they'd have what they sort of call an altar calls. That's the wrong name for it, but there's nothing wrong with having people come forward at an evangelistic service and making sure they really understood the gospel. And so they would say, come forward. And then Billy Sandy came and he would have them set up a tent. And a lot of times it would be dirt floors, so they'd put down sawdust to keep the dust down. And so then he would tell people to come down the sawdust trail and to come forward. So they could talk to them. And they then started leading them to Bible-believing churches. And that worked great. Then came Billy Graham, and they started having the altar calls, and a lot of people just went forward to meet Billy Graham. But to their credit, they were at least saying they wanted to be able to talk to people and explain the gospel and make sure they understood and everything. But in addition to that, then they would send them to any church in the area, including apostate churches, Catholic churches, and even synagogues. Now, we don't have anything personal against the Jews and their synagogues, but they're Christ-rejecting. Why would we send Christians back to their synagogue that rejects Jesus Christ? It makes no sense. It's on record. I'm not making this up. I hope you know that. It's on record. It happened. They would send people back to their Catholic churches that don't even preach the biblical gospel. Send them back to apostate churches that deny the deity of Christ, deny the virgin birth, deny the literal resurrection, deny the literal second coming, and yet Billy's ministry would send them back there. People have wondered why so many people went forward at Billy Graham Crusades, and yet, when he left town, there was no evident difference in the society around him. Other preachers in the past, when they'd come in and have a revival and thousands of people get saved, bars would even close down. There weren't enough people going out and getting drunk. Churches would be filled. All these changes would take place in society. That didn't happen with Billy Graham and no one seems, I mean no one, no one in the mainstream seems to have the brains to figure out what happened. I know what happened. I mean you had a lot of people come forward to meet Billy because he's famous, then you had a lot of people who would be sent back to apostate, dead, fake, false churches. That's what happened. And now come, it's even worse. Because now the Message and invitation is that you are a sinner on your way to hell. Christ died to pay for your sins and shed his blood on the cross, rose from the dead, conquering sin and death. If you will repent of your sin, turn to God with faith in that gospel, you can be saved. If you'll do that today, come to Christ. That's the way it used to be preached. You knew when you were sitting under an evangelist at that time. Now, here's what you get. You need to understand how wonderful you are. You are so wonderful that God just had to have you. He had to have you. You're worth so much. He died to have you. That's how much you're worth. If you were just to realize your self-worth and come to God and let him love you. That's not the gospel.