The Bible says, When they heard these things,
they were cut to the heart and gnashed
on him with their teeth.
But he, being full of the Holy Ghost,
looked upstead fastly into heaven and saw the
glory of God and Jesus standing on the
right hand of God.
He 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 and
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.
Go back to verse 57 if you would
please.
It will be our text tonight.
Acts 7, 57.
Then they cried out with a loud voice
and stopped their ears and ran upon him
with one accord.
Tonight, we begin our series of meetings with
this simple message.
Get your fingers out of your ears.
Like everyone, you may be seated.
Let's bow our heads and hearts and let's
pray and ask the Lord to bless our
time together tonight.
Get your fingers out of your ears.
Now, Father, please help me as I preach
tonight and throughout the week.
And Lord, I pray that you would help
me as they listen to the Bible.
And Lord, I have one heart's desire tonight,
and that's not to be eloquent or necessarily
to be a blessing, but to be emptied
of self and filled with the blessed spirit
of God that I might have your power
upon me for the next few moments as
I preach.
And Lord, I'd be a very foolish and
very haughty man, very haughty preacher to get
in this pulpit and just try to preach
some memorized sermon.
Father, tonight I need and I plead for
the power of God and I pray that
you would help me.
Use the Word of God.
We realize, according to Isaiah 55, that the
Word of God will not return into your
void, but it will accomplish that which you
sinned against So Father, tonight, would you convict,
would you convince, and would you comfort as
only you can.
And we'll thank you, dear God, for everything
that you'll say and do for it's in
Jesus' name that we ask it and pray.
Amen.
You know your Bible well enough to know
that the book of the Acts is the
founding, the establishment, and basically the propagation of
the early New Testament church.
From Acts 2 all the way through Revelation
22, verse 21, we have one great main
New Testament emphasis.
And that New Testament emphasis is the founding,
the establishment, and the continuation of local New
Testament Bible believing and Bible preaching churches.
So in Acts 1, we see that Jesus
Christ ascends up into glory as clouds receive
Him out of their sight.
The disciples get all downcast and discouraged, but
yet in verse 11, the Bible says that
two men in white apparel stood standing there
and said, You men of Galilee, why stand
ye gazing into heaven?
This same Jesus which ye see rising into
heaven shall so come again in like manners
ye have seen Him go.
And then in Acts 2, when those men
waited in the upper room upon God, we
see that the rushing mighty Spirit of God
came through that room and they all began
to speak with other tongues.
That was languages, not some kind of discombobulated
mess that we hear in the charismatic movement
today.
But yet the Bible says that God came
down, that some man stood up to preach
the Word of God named Peter, and thousands
of people were converted by the grace of
God.
In chapter number 3 and chapter number 4,
we see the ministry of the Apostle Peter
and John.
They're walking along.
One day they see a beggar.
They said, Listen, we don't have any money,
but we got one thing.
Rise up and walk in the name of
Jesus of Nazareth.
The Bible said he got up and he
began to go.
He skipped him all the way back to
the house and he was an excited man.
Yet in Acts chapter number 5, we have
a turn of events.
We have problems.
Now here we have the very beginning of
the church and you know the devil is
just going to try to get up to
bat and try to knock a home run
for the devil's crowd.
And he steps up and there's a man
by the name of Ananias with his wife
by the name of Sapphira.
I hear a lot as an evangelist in
this movement that I referred to, the Pentecostal
movement, the charismatic movement.
They're always talking about being slain in the
Spirit.
Did you know that is a biblical phenomenon?
Acts chapter number 5, Ananias and Sapphira lied
to the Holy Ghost and the Bible said
they were slain by the fire of God.
So that's about the only time you'll ever
see slaying in the Spirit in the Bible.
But in Acts chapter number 6, we have
a problem.
You see, he could not wreck the church
in Acts chapter 5, so he again steps
up to bat in Acts chapter number 6.
In Acts chapter number 6, the Bible says
that the widows, these ladies whose husbands had
passed away, they were arguing and bickering because
during the daily ministration they were not receiving
the bread and the water that they were
supposed to be getting as the widows of
the church.
So the devil caused some contention.
He caused some immaturity to rise up on
the part of these elder ladies, if you
will.
And so these preachers got together and had
themselves a little head-knocking conference and they
said, now wait a minute, we've not been
called to serve tables.
They were not saying we are too good
to serve tables.
They're just saying, listen, we're too busy.
We need to give ourselves to the ministry
of prayer and to the Word of God.
And so they appointed, as you know well,
in Acts chapter number 6, deacons.
Now these deacons had to have certain qualifications.
The Bible said they had to be, if
you read 1 and 2 Timothy and read
the book of Titus, they had to be
grave and sober and temperate and things like
this.
But yet they have some very interesting applications,
if you will, to go into the deacon
body in Acts chapter number 6.
The Bible says these men were full of
the Holy Ghost.
It says they were full of faith.
It says they were full of wisdom, not
worldly wisdom.
So the Bible says, be simple concerning that
which is evil and wise concerning that which
is good.
But yet there was one young man who
was appointed as a deacon in that first
early local church who I would like to
preach on tonight and that is the man
Stephen.
Look in your Bibles if you would please,
back in Acts chapter number 6 where we
began just a moment ago.
Acts chapter number 6 as we study his
life and please look at verse number 8.
And then we'll go to Acts chapter 7
and that's what will remain for the message
tonight.
Acts 6.8 The Bible says, and Stephen,
full of faith and power, obviously the power
of God, did great wonders and miracles among
the people.
Verse 15 please.
And all that sat in the council looking
steadfastly on him saw his, that's Stephen's face,
as it had been the face of an
angel.
Now go back in your Bibles to Acts
chapter 7.
I give you the thought we have our
points and we'll be through.
Acts chapter 7 verse 57 again.
Acts 7.57 Then they, that's these magistrates,
that's these people who were listening to the
preached word of God.
Verse 57 Then they cried out with a
loud voice and stopped their ears and ran
upon him with one accord.
In the past five years that my wife
and I have traveled in evangelism, it's interesting,
you hardly ever, if ever, there's maybe been
an occasion or two when I've not paid
much attention, but you hardly ever see people
actually physically sticking their fingers in their ears
and hollering out with a loud voice, Hush
him up!
Hush him up!
I don't want to hear what he's got
to say.
Now a lot of people have that idea.
A lot of people no doubt have that
cold, stony type of a heart and you
don't see them sitting there in the pew
in the back row, front row of the
choir physically with their ears plugged up, but
yet I believe a lot of people have
their ears plugged up and they're just about
as hard as this pulpit right here and
you can preach and preach and preach and
pray and pray and pray and teach and
teach and teach.
You can kick off your shoes, loosen your
tie, get red, white and blue all in
the face and I mean you can holler
and reek and rave and you can beat
them over the head with the Bible but
it's just about like speaking to that wall
right there.
They just have their fingers in their ears
and they're not going to listen to what
you, they're not going to listen to what
God, they're not going to listen to what
anybody says.
Why is it that people do that?
How is it that some people can just
kind of turn the Word of God on
and turn the Word of God off?
They can turn the preacher on, they can
turn the preacher off.
Why does the Bible say that these men
cried with a loud voice, obviously they didn't
want to hear the message, but why is
it that all of a sudden these grown
adults, these grown men who I'm sure were
rather husky, busky fellas because they just stoned
this fella to death in Acts chapter 7.
Why is it that these grown men, these
magistrates, these rulers in town act like a
bunch of thumb sucking babies and stick their
fingers in their ears and begin to whine
and they will not listen to the message
that Stephen brings them?
Why is it that people physically or spiritually
stick their fingers in their ears?
I believe there's three reasons.
In the context of Scripture, they'll be very
easy to see.
I believe in preaching the Bible within its
context, within the pages of the Word of
God and I always pray that God will
help me to be true to the Bible.
I think we've got too much cheap preaching
in America, we've got too much storytelling, too
much Time Magazine, USA Today, and Reader's Digest
preaching and we need to get back to
the unadulterated, straightforward preaching of the Word of
God.
So right out of the text, I give
you three reasons that no doubt, according to
the Holy Spirit right here in your Bible,
why these men plugged up their ears and
would not listen to the Word of God.
Look in your Bibles please if you read
at verse number 54.
Verse number 54, Acts chapter number 7.
Notice the phrase, when they heard these things,
they were cut to the heart.
Now, number one, I believe the reason these
fellows physically put their fingers in their ears
and why spiritually many people do that is
first and foremost, remember it or mark her
down because of the truth of the Scriptures.
Because of the truth of the Scriptures.
I want to remind you what Stephen is
doing.
He has just been appointed a deacon and
in just a couple of short days as
a young deacon, he stirred up so much
controversy in this town that they even got
false witnesses.
I mean, they got NBC, ABC, Health Box
Office, and Fox, and the rest of those
crowds to come out with their little pens
and paper in hand and they came out
with the 5 o'clock and 10 o
'clock nightly news and I mean, they lied
about this fellow and they began to set
up false accusations and they began to say
that this guy was crooked and he was
teaching customs which were contrary to the Bible.
What they meant was he's teaching customs that
are contrary to our tradition because they were
more interested in their traditions than they were
in the doctrines of the Word of God.
So he begins to preach boldly to them
but yet the Bible says they could not
resist the spirit by which he spake.
That reminds me of 1 Corinthians 1.
Here was a group of people that were
always bickering and arguing.
Here's grown ups who Paul said when you
should be eating T-bone steaks for the
glory of God, you're planting a sandbox.
He said, you're a bunch of immature babies.
He said, some sound of Paul.
They said, well, that ain't nothing.
I signed the card and I joined the
church of Apollo.
He said, hey, that ain't nothing, pal.
I was saved and Osephus put me under
and Paul said, listen, are you not carnal
in your thinking?
He said, some plant, some sow, some water,
but it is God that giveth the increase.
He said, when I came to you, I
came not to you with excellency of speech,
but in the power and the demonstration of
the Spirit of God.
And I believe that is the preaching that
Stephen had.
What was he preaching about?
Well, we don't have time to go back
in our Bibles and study all of Acts
chapter 7.
But you study it sometime did you know
for 52 verses in the Word of God,
52 consecutive verses, he preached basically all the
way from Abraham all the way up until
their present situation and called them murderers, called
them blasphemers, called them ungodly and what a
way to end your sermon and we'll see
that in just a moment.
But he begins with Abraham.
You remember Genesis chapter number 12, God comes
down to a man who didn't even know
who God was.
He had a pagan father and the Bible
says he came down there and God said,
Abraham, I want you to get up and
I want you to go to a land
which I shall shortly tell thee of.
And by the way, he never got there
according to the book of Hebrews.
But nonetheless, he was looking for a city
whose builder and maker was God.
Now just put yourself just for a moment
not in Abraham's position but ladies, why don't
you put yourself in Sarah's position just for
a minute.
Here's a man that is out one day
chopping wood, whatever he's doing.
God comes down and says, son, I want
you to go to a land which I
will tell thee of.
So Abraham says, okay, how much clothes do
I take?
God says, take them all.
You're going on a long trip, son.
Well, where exactly am I going?
Well, I'll tell you when you get there
but I'm not going to tell you until
you do.
Well, I need a compass?
No, no, I'll guide you.
Do I need a map?
No, no, I'll guide you.
So can you imagine him ladies going into
his wife?
Can you imagine what he must have thought
was going through the back of his head?
Oh, she's going to hit the roof on
this one.
And so he comes walking in and he
says, baby, get your clothes together.
We're going on a trip.
Oh, wonderful, wonderful.
Are we going on a cruise?
Where are we going?
We're going a long way from here so
you might as well get your summer clothes
and get your winter clothes and just get
all your clothes.
And if you're anything like my wife who'd
take 15 chariots just for the shoes in
the closet, amen.
And so she said, just get all the
clothes and we're going to take them all.
So she said, well, honey, I'll get all
the clothes together.
I want to be submissive and obedient but
where are we going?
He says, well, that's just the whole fun
of it, baby.
We don't know where we're going.
We're going to trust God.
She said, you're nuts what you're going to
do.
And he said, no, no, just come on,
get the chariot and we're going to trust
the Lord.
So they're traveling around, don't have any idea
where they're going but yet the Bible says
because of his faith, God blessed him, the
father of the Jews gave him more children
than the stars in the sky and the
sands of the seashore.
And so he begins with Abraham then he
begins to preach on Isaac.
You remember Isaac?
Sometimes we think of him in Genesis chapter
number 22 as a wee little kid that
was being offered upon the altar.
But no, no, you study the Bible and
you will find out that he was a
full grown adult.
I'm sure he was in his twenties.
And the Bible says that he was being
offered up.
You know the angel of God stopped him
and said, Abraham, because of your love for
me, I'll not cause you to do this
thing.
So he preaches on Abraham's faith and obedience.
He preaches on Isaac.
He preaches on Jacob which was there one
night, L-U-Z, a little place called
Luz.
But when God was done with him, he
said, this is Bethel.
This is where I met with God.
This is the house of bread.
This is the place of blessing.
This is God's house.
And he said, God's Spirit was here and
I knew it not.
And that night he broke some oil, he
put it upon a rock and the Bible
says he put that rock up for a
pillar or for an altar and his life
was changed, his character was changed, his name
was changed and a nation was changed.
Then he begins to preach for a little
while on Joseph.
You talk about a scriptural, I mean in
-depth Bible study, I mean Stephen was preaching
the Word of God just point after point
after point.
He begins to preach on Joseph there as
he's thrown into the pit.
And then he goes to the palace and
then he goes down to Potiphar's house and
then they throw him in the prison.
And then he goes and he's Pharaoh.
He's Pharaoh's right-hand man.
And he preaches about that and then he
leads right into the fact that there arose
a Pharaoh who was a man of God
and for 400 years the children of Israel
were in depraved bondage.
I mean you talk about deplorable conditions, they
were whipped, they had to make their own
brick, their own mortar, all of that out
of the slime pits of Egypt.
And then he begins to talk about the
exodus.
He begins to preach about Moses who was
that great picture of Jesus Christ taking his
children out of the bondage of sin, out
of the bondage of Satan, out of the
bondage of the world.
And he preached how Moses went in there
with a rod of God in his hand.
And he said, let my people go, let
my people go.
And 18 times the Bible says that Pharaoh's
heart was hardened towards the things of God.
But yet finally after the firstborn of every
household was dead, and by the way, sometimes
we read that and we think that just
kind of entailed the little bitty children, but
I will remind you that entailed some grown
adults as well.
Just a while back, I don't know how
long ago, maybe three or four weeks, I
was reading that portion of Scripture of my
devotions and something caught me that I'd never
seen before.
The Bible says, for there was not a
house where there was not one dead in
every single house in Egypt.
Not the houses of the children of Israel.
Every single house in Egypt, the Bible says,
there was not one dead.
Finally, that was the last straw pulled out
of the hat.
He said, get them out of here, let
them worship their God.
Then we find out they're backed up against
the Red Sea.
He said, stand still and see the salvation
of God.
And Almighty God used the faith of Moses
and that rod of God, that rod of
miracles to split the waters of the Red
Sea like two elevator doors in a hospital
building and they walked through on dry ground.
And he preached basically through the whole book
of Exodus.
The word Exodus means to exit or to
come out of.
That's what the book of Exodus is all
about.
He then begins to preach after Moses, he
begins to preach about David.
King David, the man after God's own heart,
the little shepherd boy who was anointed king.
They looked at his brothers and said, oh,
they would make good kings.
And Samuel said, no, sirree, Bob, that's the
one that God had his hands on right
there.
So he preached through the reign of David.
And then after David, he preached on Solomon
for a little while, the wisest and richest
man that ever walked upon the face of
God's vineyard.
After he preached on Solomon, he then began
to talk about the great Messiah that would
come.
He began to talk about the great handiwork
of God.
He preached on creation.
And I mean, you talk about a scriptural
sermon this man preached from A to Z
in 52 short verses in the Word of
God.
But I want to show you the conclusion
of his sermon.
Look in your Bibles, please.
Acts 7, verse 51.
All right, preachers, don't ever try to close
your message like this because it won't work.
Verse 51.
He 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?
He said, listen, fellas.
He said every prophet of God that came
out with a message for your people, for
your fathers, for all those wicked generations, he
said, which one of them have they not
persecuted?
He said, man, listen, they put Isaiah in
a log and chopped him in half.
They tried to get rid of Jeremiah and
Hosea and the rest of that crap.
He said, you tell me right now, which
one of the prophets have not you and
your fathers tried to slay, tried to push
away?
He said, you resist the Holy Ghost just
like your fathers did.
I'm sure that didn't sit well with him.
Let me share what I mean.
Look in verse 52.
Which of the prophets have not your fathers
persecuted?
And they have slain them which showed before
of the coming of the just one.
You notice the capitalization there.
We're talking about the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Of whom ye have now been the betrayers
and murderers.
These people are looking for the coming of
the Messiah.
We know they believe that Jesus was not
the Messiah for John 1.11 tells us
they came unto His home, but His home
received Him not.
Thank God for verse 12.
But as many as received Him, it then
gave Him the power to become the sons
of God.
So they resisted Him.
They said, listen, you're not the Son of
God.
You're not God.
You're not the prophet.
You're not the one the prophets were speaking
of.
For no good thing shall come out of
Nazareth.
Who are you?
Who do you think you are to do
all of these miracles?
You're killing our Sunday school numbers.
And they rejected Him.
And now Stephen gets up just a few
short weeks after that whole incident had taken
place, still fresh in their hearts, and he
said, you know what?
He said, you people are stiff-necked.
He said, you are uncircumcised in ears and
in heart.
He said, spiritually and physically you're lost as
a ball in high weed.
He said, and now you're a bunch of
blasphemers.
And you even murdered the just one whom
your fathers persecuted the prophets for talking about.
He said, you talk about this just one.
You talk about the Messiah.
And you talk about ending a message, friend.
I mean, he just about got to the
place.
I'm surprised they didn't jump on him right
then.
They gave a little bit more time in
a couple of verses here.
But I mean, like a pack of hungry
dogs, they jumped all over this.
Man, you talk about a mean, scathing Bible
sermon.
He preached the Word of God to these
people.
Then look what the Bible says in verse
53.
Who have received the law by the disposition
of angels.
Now, the word angels there, we're not talking
about little haloed animals or little haloed creatures
and these little flappity wings and these little
naked cherubims that you see all over Walmart
and stuff like that.
That's not what we're talking about.
The word angel here is a reference to
messenger.
It's the same word, a matter of fact,
the word prophet is just a verse or
so before.
He's dealing with the prophets of God.
He's calling them angels, messengers of God.
He said, listen, you bunch of rebels have
received the law of God from prophets.
Then look what he said about the law
of God.
And have not guessed it.
He said, you people are disobedient as the
day is long.
He said, you are wicked and the most
crooked, perverse generation that has ever walked the
face of God.
What a way to preach a Bible sermon.
I mean, he gave it to them both
barrels.
I mean, just a blazing.
And then look what the Bible says in
verse 54.
When they heard these things, they were cut
to the heart.
So why did they plug up their ears?
Number one, because of the truth of the
Scriptures.
They could not handle the truth of the
Word of God.
But you know why they could not resist
the Spirit by which He spake?
Because He didn't get up with a little
five-point alliterated outline, three points in a
form, whatever you want to call it.
He didn't get up with all the great
hermeneutics and all the great homiletics.
He didn't get up with his memorized message
and just get up and say, okay, I'm
going to tell you what I learned in
Bible college.
I'm going to tell you what I learned
here and what I'm going to learn there.
He got up and boldly preached and proclaimed
the Word of God and they could not
say anything about it for they knew what
this man was speaking was the truth.
You know what?
We're living in a day when people, no
matter how old they are, no matter what
their background is, no matter what their social
or their marital status is, some people just
do not want to hear the truth of
the Scripture.
They do not want to hear the truth
of the Word of God.
For example, many people that I preach to
do not want to hear the truth when
it comes to the issue of salvation.
You know, it's a pretty dead issue with
me.
The Bible says in John 14, 6, Jesus
said unto them, I am the way, the
truth, and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father but by
me.
I don't know about you, but I'm from
Tennessee and that's pretty bold, down to the
earth, logical, Cuban in language, don't you think?
I mean, right there, black and white in
your Bible.
Matter of fact, in verse 6, I mean
black, it's red because it's the words of
Jesus Christ.
I mean, right there in the Bible, He
said, listen, that's the only way you're going
to go.
You will go to the Father because I
am the way, I am the truth, and
I am the life.
But some people don't want to hear that.
Some people enjoy their Buddha and some people
enjoy their Muhammad and Confucius and the rest
of that confused crowd around the world.
Some people enjoy their way rather than God's
way.
And so here's a man that preaches the
straight truth of the Word of God and
the people do not want to hear it.
Some people don't want to hear the message
or the truth of the Scripture when it
comes to living in a sanctified or separated
life.
And so they have basically the same type
of reaction.
They have basically the same type of blistering
up or bolstering up and getting mad because
they're just not able to handle, they're just
not able to digest the truth of the
Scripture.
So this man did not come to them
and say, let me tell you what I
think.
He said, let me tell you what God
says.
And the reason they could not resist His
message is because He didn't preach on His
doctrine.
He didn't preach on the traditions of the
Baptist church that He grew up in.
He didn't preach on the creed.
He preached the Word of God and they
stood there dumbfounded.
They were spellbound.
They plugged their ears with their fingers and
said, whoa, whoa, mister.
We don't want to hear that and we're
living in a day when people do not
want to hear the truth of the Scripture.
I'm trying to get to my third point,
so let's get to the second one.
Look in your Bibles please now for the
second reason that they would not listen to
His message.
Verse 54, it's right there in the same
verse.
When they heard these things, what things?
Fifty-two verses of the Word of God.
When they heard these things, they were cut
to the heart.
Number one, they plugged their ears because of
the truth of the Scriptures.
Number two, for sake of an outline or
for sake of alliteration, they plugged their ears
because of the touch of the Spirit.
They were cut to the heart by the
continual convicting of the Holy Spirit of Almighty
God.
These men listened to what this man just
said.
They heard about Moses and they heard about
Abraham and they heard about Jacob and Joseph
and Isaac.
And they heard about Solomon.
They heard about the Messiah.
And they just were come face to face
like a man would look in a mirror
with the fact that they're murderers, with the
fact that they are blasphemers, with the fact
that they crucified the Messiah, their only hope,
mankind, humanity's only hope for the world.
And they were just confronted with that.
And the Bible says because of the truth
of the Scriptures, what they heard, and because
of the fact they were cut to the
heart, they were not willing to repent, they
were not willing to get right with God.
Now, there's always two responses that you can
have to conviction.
Lost people and saved people both need conviction
and both of them can respond to conviction
in one of two ways.
They can either receive the conviction.
For a lost person, that means that God
will bring them to a place of being
saved.
But they can also reject conviction.
They do that long enough, what Jesus called
Matthew 12, 32, the unpardonable sin.
But for a saved person, they can receive
the conviction, can get right with God, or
they can reject the conviction and they can
be of all men most miserable as the
Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15.
Obviously, by way of context, these men were
lost.
The Spirit of God showed him, hey, what
this man is preaching is the Word of
God.
What this man is preaching is his truth.
Hey, this wasn't birthed out of Nashville, this
wasn't birthed out of Ambassador, this wasn't birthed
out of Greenville, this wasn't birthed out of
Pensacola, this wasn't birthed out of Shittex.
He said, listen here, this was birthed from
the Word of God.
He said, what I just preached to you
was God, holy, inerrant, without error, perfect Word
of God.
And these men heard that, they knew it
was the truth, but they were not willing
to listen to the truth of the Word
of God.
They were not willing to respond to that
conviction.
And I think that some people are like
preaching to a brick wall.
I mean, you can tell some people the
same thing over and over and over and
over and over again, but if the Spirit
of God does not first reveal to that
person either their need for salvation or number
two, their need to get right with God,
get out of a hog pen, quit living
a backslidden life, we can talk, preach, pray,
yell, holler and scream all we good and
jolly will please, but the fact is they
have to do business with the Spirit of
God themselves.
And these people were no doubt under conviction.
They were cut as a knife would cut.
They were cut deeply to the heart.
What happened when they were cut to the
heart?
Keep reading your Bibles.
Let's see.
Let's see what their response was.
They were cut to the heart and gnashed
on Him with their teeth.
I heard a man one time preaching Bible
college.
It doesn't make any difference to me.
This is basically no doctrine to this, but
I heard a man say what that means
is that they just began to grit their
teeth.
They were mad at the message that he
was saying, but yet I have fun with
that because the Bible boldly says they gnashed
on Him with their teeth.
It doesn't say they gnashed around Him.
It doesn't say they gnashed because of Him.
It says they gnashed on Him with their
teeth.
So here are these people like a bunch
of little babies.
You know, you keep the nursery and all.
God bless nursery workers.
I mean, we preachers think we've got problems.
I'm telling you what's the truth.
I mean, nursery workers, they get it bad
for Him.
I mean, they've got to change diapers and
they've got to fix this and they've got
to do this and do this.
And I'm telling you what's the gospel truth.
These people were a bunch of little babies
in the nursery.
I mean, gnashing on Him.
I mean, biting this guy, sticking their fingers
in their ears.
They were not going to listen to the
message.
They didn't care what He said.
They didn't care what He did.
They didn't care how much conviction they were
under.
The Bible says they gnashed on Him with
their teeth.
Hey, look at this, verse 55.
But He being full of the Holy Ghost,
looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the
glory of God and Jesus standing on the
right hand of God and said, Behold, I
see the heavens open, the Son of Man
standing on the right hand of God.
Look at the reaction when He said that.
Then they cried out with a loud voice.
Boy, they didn't want to hear that.
They tried to muffle out that noise.
Then they cried out with a loud voice
and stopped their ears and ran upon Him
with one accord, verse 58.
And cast Him out of the city.
You see, it was kind of a thing
of ill repute if you study Bible history.
You'll find it wasn't a very nice thing
to stone somebody in town.
So they'd take them to the next town
and stone them over there.
They didn't want blood all over their streets
and they didn't want to break the law,
if you will.
They didn't want to be known as a
violent society.
So they'd go to the next society and
then just kind of crucify them out there
and then stone them out there.
We have this idea that they get up
this little piece of granite or this little
pea gravel out of the thing and they
say, oh, bad boy, bad preacher.
And they kind of throw a little thing
and kind of hit him in the head
and kind of flicks off.
He's like, stop it, guys.
Let me preach a while.
Hitting him with this little piece.
No, no.
You study Bible history, you study the Word
of God, I mean, they were for the
good.
I mean, these were papadogs.
I mean, a bunch of vicious people.
They drug him out of the city, probably
put him in some kind of potato sack
or something like that.
I mean, they tied him up real good,
threw him out there in a ditch, picked
him a big old stone and dropped it
on his leg.
Then they picked up a stone and dropped
it on his head.
Then they picked up one and dropped it
on his back and they dropped it all
over his body.
I mean, they were going after this man
to the death.
They did not want to hear the message
of the Word of God.
So they drug him outside of the city
to kill him.
Now look what your Bible says, please, in
verse number 58.
Cast him out of the city and stone
him.
And the witnesses, these false ones, by the
way, is what your Bible says.
These witnesses laid down their clothes at a
young man's feet whose name was Saul.
I was reading that not long ago and
I thought to myself, you know, Brother Duffy,
this is probably the first time when Saul,
who we reverently know in the Bible as
the Apostle Paul, the greatest writer, the greatest
evangelist, the greatest pastor, the greatest missionary outside
of John the Baptist that ever lived.
Yet the Bible says that right here, specifically,
the Holy Spirit of God put words in
the Bible because we believe in the verbal
inspiration of the Bible.
Every word of God is perfect.
Every word of God is preserved for us.
It's right there playing right in the Word
of God.
The reason it says that is because I
believe this is the first time when the
heart of Saul was really beginning to get
stirred up.
God was preparing for what was about to
happen two chapters later.
And he was working in his heart.
You know, man, wouldn't you have liked to
have been Stephen?
Think about something for a moment.
Here's a man that because of his death,
he is used to convict the heart of
a man named Saul who eventually becomes the
Apostle Paul and at the judgment seat of
Christ, Stephen will reap the dividends of the
ministry of the Apostle Paul.
Whoo!
That's pretty good receipts from the grocery store,
don't you think?
I'm telling you what's the truth.
Here's a man that laid down his life
and through his death, another man learned how
to live for the glory of God.
Look in your Bibles, if you would, please,
now at verse 59.
And they stoned Stephen calling upon God.
Now, that doesn't mean while they were stoning
him, they were calling on the Lord.
They were not saying, whoo!
Praise be the Lord.
No, no.
Don't read it wrong.
Read it right.
Stephen was calling upon the Lord.
Alright?
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, get this,
he fell asleep.
It doesn't even say he died.
It doesn't say anything about the brutality that
was coming against him.
As a matter of fact, if you study
the Bible, you'll find that in verse 55
that his eyes were not fixed on the
rocks.
His eyes were not fixed on the fact
that they were fixing to drag him out
of the city and stone him dead.
His eyes were not fixed on the fact
that these men were cursing him and that
these false witnesses had brought these lying, wicked
accusations against him.
His eyes were not fixed on that, but
the Bible says he looked steadfastly into heaven
and he saw the glory of God and
Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
Now, I'm going to be honest with you.
My Bible tells me in Hebrews 1, verse
number 1, God who at sundry times and
in divers manners spake in times past unto
the fathers by the prophets.
After these last days spoken to us by
His Son by whom He hath appointed heir
of all things and by whom also He
made the world.
You study that.
The Bible says He put all of His
enemies under His foot like a footstool.
He ascended and sat down at the right
hand of the Majesty on high.
This is the only time in my Bible
I can ever find Jesus standing.
I'm going to be honest with you.
My head is not theologically deep enough to
understand all the ramifications of why Jesus was
standing for Stephen, but I will say this.
He's not going to stand for you then
if you don't take a stand for Him
now.
And here's a man that knelt down.
He looked up.
His eyes were not set on the lying
tabloids.
His eyes were set on the glory of
God, on the goodness of God.
And the Bible says that he just physically
fell asleep.
And while he was dying, he said, Lord
Jesus, receive my spirit and lay not this
sin to their charge.
Doesn't that sound like somebody else you heard
in your Bible?
It sounds like Jesus Christ.
Here's a man that walked with God and
spoke with God and loved God so much
that he even had the same response to
his accusers as the loving Lord Jesus Christ
did.
But here's my main emphasis tonight.
I want you to look in your Bibles
if you would.
I want to show you the biggest reason
why I believe these people plugged up their
ears and would not listen to the message
nor watch and heed to the ministry of
Stephen.
Verse 54, please.
When they heard these things...
What's that?
The truth of the Scriptures.
They were cut to the heart.
What's that?
And they gnashed on him with their teeth.
But he...
Who's that?
That's Stephen.
Verse 55.
But he being full of the Holy Ghost
looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the
glory of God and Jesus standing on the
right hand of God.
I believe the last reason that they plugged
up their ears was because of the testimonies
of Stephen.
Even more than the truth of the Scriptures
which they did not want.
Even more than the touch of the Spirit
which they desperately did not want to heed
to.
But I believe even more than those God
did not want God used the testimony of
Stephen to convict these men of their dastardly,
horrible deed which they were doing to convict
them of their life to convict them and
strip them of their self-righteousness and show
them that they needed the lovely Lord Jesus
Christ without a shadow of a doubt.
What was his testimony?
The Bible tells us.
But he being full of the Holy Ghost.
I devil don't dare you go through your
Bible sometime with a high letter in the
New Testament.
Twenty-seven books in your New Testament Bible.
And you highlight how many times God said
somebody was filled with the Spirit.
You highlight every single time God said in
His Bible that somebody was filled with the
Spirit and you'll come out of the book
of Revelation and you'll be able to count
them on one hand.
One hand you'll be able to count all
the people that God said were filled with
the Spirit.
You know what?
Two times on that one hand we're talking
about the same man.
The Bible says that his testimony was one
of being filled with the Holy Ghost.
Here's a man that knew what Ephesians 5,
18 and 19 was all about.
And be not drunk with wine were in
his excess but be filled.
You see what I mean?
Be being filled.
Now if God's gotta tell me to be
filled obviously there's times in my life when
I'm not filled.
My wife by the way knows when those
times are.
My Lord no doubt knows when those times
are.
My friends and closest associates and those who
I go with they know when those times
are.
But the Bible says be not drunk with
wine were in his excess but be filled
with the Holy Spirit.
What happens when a person is filled with
the Spirit?
You will notice sometimes if you read Ephesians
5, 18 there's no period after that word
Spirit.
That means the thought continues into the next
verse.
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs.
Singing and making melody in your hearts to
the Lord.
And I'm telling you ladies and gentlemen here
is a man whose heart was fixed on
the glory of God.
His heart was not fixed on all the
circumstances.
Why could this man endure something so grueling?
Why could he go through all of this
punishment?
Why could he go through all of this
torture and turmoil?
Why is it that he did not respond
viciously to his critics?
I'll tell you why because here was a
man that two times your Bible in two
different chapters said without a shadow of a
doubt in black and white he was filled
with God's Spirit.
Now I want to make a statement tonight
and I classify myself as a statement along
with everybody else.
I do not know very many Christians who
are really striving to be filled on a
daily basis with His Spirit.
And I please furthermore say this.
In the past five years we've been to
this camp many times and I praise the
Lord for it.
We've been in many other camps around the
country.
We've been in hundreds of meetings.
We've been in all types of different Baptist
churches.
We've been in several Bible colleges and hundreds
of Christian schools.
And I'm going to be honest with you
I know very few preachers that are really
filled.
You know, if we use Acts chapter number
6 for the real qualifications for deacons most
of our Baptist churches wouldn't have any deacons.
If we use these qualifications for pastors for
missionaries for evangelists for camp workers we wouldn't
have very many of them running around the
country either.
And I know very few people that have
really been filled or at least want to
be filled on a continual daily basis with
the Holy Ghost of Almighty God.
And you will know.
Now you won't walk around gleaming like a
flashlight and bragging about it.
You know, kind of like Nebuchadnezzar.
You know, humility and how to obtain it.
You can sign your book for it if
you bought the back table type of deal.
No, no.
You won't walk around and say look here
I've been filled with God's Spirit.
You're not going to walk around bragging about
being filled with the Spirit of God.
It will be a humbling experience.
It'll not be something you walk around and
say, well look at me, fancy free.
I've been filled with the Spirit of God.
And if you don't like it, well Tommy
Rod, I've got it and you don't.
Glory to God.
You won't walk around like that for you.
Matter of fact, it will humble you when
you're filled with God's Spirit.
And you won't walk around with a proud,
arrogant, cocky, self-righteous attitude.
But you'll be a Stephen full of the
Holy Ghost and you'll see what his attitude
is like, don't you?
And I'm telling you, we ought to daily,
every single day of our life, strive to
be filled with God's Holy Spirit.
We've let the charismatic so scare us about
the Holy Spirit that we don't even want
Him anymore.
And I'm telling you, we need the Holy
Spirit of God to fill us.
He didn't come to thrill you and to
chill you and to kill you and to
kill you.
Bless God, He came to fill you.
Jesus said, if I leave, I will not
leave you comfortless.
I will send another.
Why is that another supposed to come?
To fill us.
To fill us to overflowing fill my cup,
Lord.
Fill it up, Lord.
And I'm telling you, we need some people
in this room who have a passion, who
have a goal and have a desire to
have said from God about them what God
said about Stephen, He was full of the
Holy Ghost.
You know, we can get set off real
quick.
You know, people say, and I believe it,
I preach it, sometimes we carry things over
from our former life.
2 Corinthians 5, 17, old things were passed
away, no doubt.
But Paul did not say in Romans chapter
7, when I want to do good, I
find in a law in my members.
And I would do good, evil is present
with me.
He furthermore went on to say, the spirit
is willing, but the flesh is weak.
He said, in me, that is in my
flesh, dwells no good thing.
Now you're always going to have a great,
big, huge warfare between your flesh and the
Spirit of God.
Because our flesh no doubt wants to dictate,
it wants to dominate, it wants to override
with the Spirit of God.
It says, no, no, give it up.
Look yourself square dabbing the eyeballs in the
mirror every morning and say, drop dead.
You're not going to be in control.
The Holy Spirit is.
And we're in desperate need of people who
desire passionately to really be filled with God's
Spirit.
Now I'm not talking about falling to the
ground, barking like a dog, having your eyes
roll back in your head and going with
a worm all over the floor.
I'm not talking about being silly.
I'm talking about living a life that when
people look at you, they can see exemplified
in you that there is a person who
has examined themselves, they have heeded to what
the Scriptures say, they talk right, they act
right, they live right, they walk right.
There is a person who is desiring to
fear God, to be a Bible believer, not
a hearer of the Word, but also a
doer, James 1.22. And there's a person
who wants to be filled with the Spirit
of God.
And people will know if you've been filled
or not.
It'll come out by the way that you
talk.
It'll come out many times in our reactions.
And as I was saying to you earlier,
sometimes we carry things over.
And before, say, on April the 17th of
1992, you talk about a hothead.
I mean, I could, pooh!
I mean, I could fly off real quick.
I mean, I was like a stick of
dynamite with a very, very, very short fuse.
Matter of fact, I didn't have a fuse.
Pooh!
I just had a detonator stick, buddy.
I'd just go out.
And sometimes that detonator feeling gets to come
back to me.
I'll tell you one of those times.
I was driving back from Maine.
Oh, I don't know.
It was the end of March, I guess,
because the Robertsons were going to be meeting
at our home church, Franklin Road Baptist Church
in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
And March the 25th or the 30th, we
were doing their spring revival campaign.
And my wife, my wife and I had
been in New England in the snowy weather
for about a month and a half or
two months.
And everybody always tells me, especially Brother Robertson,
he gets up and says, look Greg, this
is how you do this thing.
He said, in January and February and the
first part of March, you go to Florida.
And he said, the rest of the time
when it's sunny and it's nice, you go
up there.
Well, that's fine, but that's when they want
the meetings.
And I'll be honest with you, I didn't
have any other evangelist to contend with.
I was the only one up there because
everybody came to my meetings.
But anyhow, I was up there for about
two months.
And my wife said, listen, he said, I'm
getting snow fever or sun fever.
She said, it's about time that I go
visit my grandmother.
And I said, you're right.
I said, listen, I've got to go to
Maine for another week and a half, two
weeks.
And I said, they tell me that it's
about eight and a half feet of snow
up there.
I know we came up here and we
about drove the track wheels, whatever you call
them things, off the snowmobiles.
I mean, we tore Brother Don's all to
pieces.
But nonetheless, me and Brother Doe had a
good time when we came up here for
the weekend, for the winter youth retreat.
So I said, okay.
Well, I flew into Texas and me and
the poodle dog, Shepard, amen.
And we got in the truck and I
left the trailer in Rhode Island.
Make a very, very, very long story, very
short.
But I got up there and I freaked
two weeks in Maine.
I left on a Friday night at about,
oh, I don't know, maybe 9.05, 9
.15 from the New Hope Baptist Church of
Farmington, Maine.
And on Friday night, we started a revival
meeting that Sunday morning at Franklin Road.
It was about 28 hours.
And so, man, I got down there as
quick as I could.
I was driving.
I went and picked up my trailer.
It was about two o'clock in the
morning.
I hooked that thing up.
Drove 28 and a half straight hours.
I mean, I didn't sleep a lick.
I ate a little here and there.
I mean, just drinking and driving.
And I'd stop and get fuel and move
on.
Stop and get fuel and move on.
I was driving through Virginia on Interstate 81.
If you've ever done any driving, I want
you to know that Interstate 81 is the
loneliest, most wicked, vile section of Interstate in
all of America.
I mean, there is nothing there.
I mean, it's just lonely.
So, I'm driving down the road and I
hop on the cell phone and I call
a good friend of mine, Pastor Eddie Hawks,
outside of Royal Oak, Virginia.
And I said, I said, I said, why
don't you meet me at a show and
so and so at this exit?
He said, okay, I'll be there.
So, I pulled up.
He pulled up.
At the same time, we had ourselves a
nice bite to eat.
I checked the trailer out to make sure
everything's all right.
I said, I've got a long way to
go down 81.
Hop over on 40 and get down to
Tennessee.
And I was excited about preaching in the
home church and all, but I'll be honest,
I was getting tired.
I mean, I was getting weary and well
done.
So, I'm driving down the road.
I don't know, I'd been just kind of
quiet for a little bit and I'd been
listening to a preaching tape and I turned
it off and I just began to talk
to the Lord.
I believe that's all right.
I think you can have revival anywhere.
Hey, Jonah had one in the middle of
a fence so I believe I can have
one in the front seat of a truck.
Amen.
So, I was driving down the road and
I went on a praise campaign.
I mean, I just began to praise God
for everything I could think of.
Praising for this and praising for that.
But I got excited and got to preaching
that place, got to shouting, swerving all over
the road with that big old rig.
You know, I got to hollering.
Oh, I mean, just getting into having a
good old time.
I thought I was going to have to
have windshield wipers on the inside of the
truck.
Man, I was just sitting happy.
And I'll be honest, the people who drive
by look at me like I'm a nut.
You know what I mean?
They're looking at me like I'm crazy.
You know, I didn't care.
Hey, man, I was waving at them while
holding up my Bible.
Oh, I was just having a glory fit.
So, I'm driving down the road and I'm
praising God.
I'm praying.
Men, the tears are just a-flowing.
I mean, the snot's just a-rolling out
of my face.
I mean, I'm just weeping.
I mean, I'm praying for the power of
God and I'm praying for this upcoming meeting.
I mean, I'm having a spell just enjoying
God.
Really.
Well, I stopped after, I don't know, about
15, 20, 30 minutes.
I don't know.
I talked to the Lord, you know, I
kept going down the road and honestly, here's
what I thought to myself.
I thought, you know what?
I feel like I'm on cloud nine.
I don't think I'll ever get mad again
for the rest of my life.
Man, I made sure I was going the
speed limit.
I was so spirit-filled I could taste
it.
I mean, I knew I'd been with God.
You know, I don't believe in all this
audible voice business, but honestly, it was almost
like He just moved right in the truck
and just sat right down beside me.
I'm telling you, it was sick.
I was excited.
So, I'm driving down the road and man,
I'm so spirit-filled I can't even hardly
stand it and this nut comes flying up
behind me.
I mean, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep,
beep, beep, I have a compassion for 18
-wheel truck drivers nowadays when I pull that
big 40-foot travel trailer.
I mean, end-to-end truck, in front
of the truck end of the trailer, I
guess, you're probably about 53, 54 feet long.
My trailer empty is 18,000 pounds with
all by wife's boy's bears it must weigh
25,000.
I've got a 1-tone diesel truck and
so I've got all this stuff in here
so I'm guaranteeing I'm going 24-25,000
pounds down the road and this guy pulls
up behind me And so, honest, I'm in
the left lane, and I want to be
cordial, so I'm trying to get over, but
there's a truck beside me, and he won't
let me.
And so, I'm slowing down a little bit,
and this guy's behind me.
Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.
I mean, he's just honking that horn, and
I'm mousing up, and so I'm thinking to
myself, I just spent time with God.
I'm going to be Spirit-filled about this.
And so, I put my blinker on, and
I pulled over to the side of the
road, and I waved there in my mirror,
and I was just as cordial, just as
nice as you've ever seen your life.
Boom!
This guy come flying up by me, and
I thought to myself, now look at that.
Boy, is that that bad?
Boy, he flips his dome light on, and
he starts giving me all kinds of sign
language and hand gestures and things, and I'm
thinking to myself, whoa, okay, is that right?
And so, he pulls over in front of
me, and I'm thinking to myself, that's all
right.
I'm going to be Spirit-filled about this,
man.
I mean, I was juicing it for all
this work.
This guy pulls over in front of me,
and over the door, he pulls this trailer.
What do you say, about 60 miles an
hour, kid, something like that.
Hey, 57 miles an hour.
I called him about five and a half
hours one time.
We left Mankato, Minnesota.
We was going to do a meeting at
Rockford, Illinois, at North Slovakia's church, and I
never got out of fourth gear in my
truck.
But, nonetheless, he's going about, he likes to
go about 50 miles an hour, about 60
miles an hour, about 58, 60 miles an
hour.
But, I like to just put the thing
on cruise control, and I figure, hey, I
got this big old fire stroke diesel.
I just let the thing go.
So, I go down the road about 70,
75 miles an hour.
I'm just whipping and zipping, you know.
This guy whips over in front of me,
and locks up his brakes in front of
me.
Yeah, that's right.
I mean, he locks them up right in
front of me.
He locks them up.
I thought to myself, this guy is a
blooming idiot.
He's a moron, if I've ever seen it.
And, so, all of a sudden, I mean,
I'm coming right to the back of this
guy.
I lock her down, buddy.
I put in the clutch.
I throw that thing down in low gear.
All the way down the interstate.
And, this whole time, I was thinking to
myself, yeah, hallelujah, I've been spending time with
God.
I'm pretty good about that.
So, he set up, and I set up.
He got to the top of the hill.
I got to the top of the hill.
Now, getting up a hill is a little
difficult.
It's like, going down a hill, buddy, you
can get all the speed you want.
He's in the right lane.
That's my lane.
And, so, I put that thing in high
gear.
I'm going down that hill just as fast
as you can get around.
I put that thing in fifth gear.
I get right up on him about three
or four feet from him.
I turn my lights on high.
I start tooting the horn and blinking the
lights back and forth.
I thought I'd give him a taste of
his own medicine.
If I've ever told the truth, I'm telling
right now in this pulpit.
It was almost like the Spirit of God
grabbed a hold of me and said, Son,
I thought you were so Spirit-filled you
wasn't going to get mad anymore.
I thought you were so Spirit-filled you
wasn't going to get upset.
And, out loud, God is my witness.
Here's what I said.
I said, Dear God, You let this man
pull off the side of the road.
I will pull off behind him and beat
him to death in the name of God
and be filled with the Spirit the whole
time.
I'm telling you what's the truth.
You've never seen some preacher so mad.
I mean, I believe I can spit nails
into a two-by-four.
I mean, I went from praising God to
shouting and praising the devil.
I was like, I can't believe this nut.
I'm blinking my lights and honking my horn.
He just moved on down the road, just
kind of got on his way.
And, I got to thinking about that and
I thought to myself, Here I was just
a few minutes earlier, begging for the power
of God, and look how quickly He set
the fuse off.
Now, let me ask you a question.
Do you really want to be filled with
God's Spirit?
We're going to have to get our flesh
under control if we are.
Two weeks ago, the Robertsons were with us
at the White House Baptist Church.
And, I preached Wednesday night, excuse me, Monday
night.
I preached on what does it really mean
to be saved.
I preached at this camp two or three
times.
What does it really mean to be saved?
Preached on conviction, preached on making a choice,
and preached on God making a change.
Simple message.
Man, we had a good time that night.
We had some other people there, had another
pastor from the Revival Baptist Church across town.
And, I mean, it was a good spirit.
People were saying amen.
Amen's aren't everything, but I mean, they help
every now and then.
And, I mean, it was just a good
spirit.
I mean, the people were singing.
I mean, the pastor was encouraged because Brother
Robertson, I mean, he was just pulling out
the people.
They sang loud already, but I mean, he
was just pulling them out.
And, it just sounded pretty, you know, and
everything was going well.
I mean, a lot of people were coming
out of this little old church.
But, I mean, for them, I mean, they
were just bringing them out.
And, I mean, it was great.
Man, I got through just preaching and ripping
and snorting and sweating and having my supper
time.
I mean, things were happening, you know, and
this little girl got saved that night.
And, I mean, this other guy raised his
hand, and I knew the Spirit of God
was working on him, but he wouldn't come.
And, other people came, young people, older people
came.
They were playing and weeping on the altar.
I mean, it was just a good meeting.
It really was.
I went back to the tape table, and
I was selling some tapes on my table
as soon as the meeting was over.
I hadn't even been out of the pulpit
eight minutes.
They closed and prayed.
I took my water bottle back there.
I hadn't even been out of the pulpit
eight minutes.
My wife had an ear infection.
It messed her ears up.
It messed her teeth up.
I mean, it was bothering her.
It was hurting her.
She came back there.
She said something to me.
And, I don't remember everything it was now,
honey, but I mean, it was just something
about the fact that when I was talking
in the back, that it was loud.
When everybody was coming by, shaking hands, and
everybody was kind of loud, and she said,
because everything's been amplified.
When she said that, I thought she was
referring to everything that had happened in the
service.
I thought she was referring that the preaching
was too loud.
I thought she was referring that the music
was too loud, and that everything was too
loud.
And, so, when she came back there, I
just sat on the pulpit.
I mean, I just stepped out.
And, I'm back there shaking hands.
God bless you.
Come again.
Here's a special on the tapes.
Amen.
Don't miss that.
God bless you.
Shaking hands.
And, she came back there and said something
to me.
Boom.
There it goes.
And, I had got out of the pulpit
from preaching the Bible message.
I'm going to tell you something, friends.
How bad do you really want to be
filled with God's Spirit?
You're going to have to get that attitude
under control.
You're going to have to get that tongue
under control.
You're going to have to get rid of
that bitterness, that anger, that gossip, that clamor,
and that evil speaking.
My Bible tells me two times.
But, he being full of the Holy Ghost.
And, these men saw somebody, no doubt, for
the first time in their lives, who was
really filled with God's Spirit.
And, it bothered them so much, they could
not listen to the message that he preached.
They could not look at him without being
angered and bitter.
And, they stoned him to death because of
his testimony.
Because of the fact that here was a
real man that proved it can be done.
He was full of God's Spirit.
What's your passion like in life?
Do you plug your ears against the truth
of the Scriptures?
What about the touch of the Spirit of
God?
Are you willing to do what God tells
you tonight and throughout the week?
Do you have the testimony of Stephen that
he was filled with the Holy Ghost?
And, I say to you tonight on the
authority of the Word of God, get your
fingers out of your ears.