(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Chapter 6, beginning in verse number 1, the Bible reads, And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily administrations. The first thing we see here is that this was a growing, thriving church. This is the early church in Jerusalem. And if you remember the last few chapters, we've seen them undergoing persecution, they've been thrown in jail, they've been beaten, and that's how we pretty much finished up chapter 5, with them being beaten and threatened, and yet they cease not, daily in the temple and at every house, they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. Well, during that time, the number of the disciples is multiplied greatly. So in spite of all the persecution, in spite of all the opposition, because they're continually out soul winning, they're out preaching the gospel, they're getting all kinds of people saved, and their numbers being greatly multiplied. And, you know, a church should always be growing. We should always be outreaching people, winning people to Christ, there should always be new people coming in. It shouldn't just be the same people, the same group, just looking at each other every week, over and over again. We should be outwitting people to Christ and growing and multiplying, or something's wrong. You know, if we're not out getting people saved, if we're not bringing new people in, something's wrong. And the early church was filled with the spirit, they were doing all the right things, and therefore the church was growing. It says in verse number 2, Then the Twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look you out among you seven men of honest report. We'll get to that in a moment, but basically here was the problem. Part of the function of the church here, because they had such a large church with thousands of people in it, was to take care of the widows, those that were in need, those who were widows indeed, as the Bible says in 1 Timothy 5, where it lays out what that constitutes. They needed help, they needed food, they needed care packages brought to them. And what happened was, some of the widows that were the Grecians started getting angry at the Hebrew widows, feeling like they were being neglected, or that the apostles weren't really taking care of all the church's business like they should. And so the apostles, you know, the Twelve, that's what it's referring to, they called the multitude of the disciples unto them and said, It's not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. What they're saying here is, look, we need to focus on the main thing of our ministry here, which is preaching God's Word. And we get that from chapter 5, verse 42. Daily in the temple and in every house, they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. So we don't want to leave off preaching the Gospel, getting people saved, preaching to the church, to edify the church, prayer, these spiritual concerns, just to do a menial, physical task that we can give to someone else. So basically, the work was just too much for them to where if they were really going to get everything done that they needed to get done as far as taking care of the widows, they were going to have to neglect some soul winning, they were going to have to neglect some preaching, they were going to have to neglect some of their prayer and Bible reading, and they don't want to do that. And so they're saying, We're spread too thin here. So because of that, we're going to give some other men, we're going to choose seven men to basically be deacons. They're going to help out with some of the day-to-day work of the church here. They're going to take care of the widows, they're going to take care of the daily administration. That way, he said in verse number four, But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. Now, look if you would at 1 Timothy chapter number, I'm sorry, 2 Timothy chapter number four. 2 Timothy four toward the end of the New Testament here. We see in 2 Timothy chapter number four, Paul is preaching unto Timothy who is a young pastor, and he's pastoring this church at Ephesus, and he's been Paul's protege in the ministry, Paul has trained him and taught him everything, and Paul's given him some advice in chapter four verse two of 2 Timothy. He says, Preach the word, be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust shall they eat to themselves, teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. So the first thing he's doing is he's giving him some advice on his preaching. He's saying, look, people aren't going to like it, there will come a time when people will turn away their ears from the truth, but in season or out of season, you've got to be instant, you've got to approve, rebuke, and exhort where it's needed. Preach the word. But look what he says in verse number five, but watch thou in all things, endure afflictions. He's saying, go through the persecution, you're going to have to handle it. And he says this, do the work of an evangelist. So right here, Paul is telling this pastor Timothy, yes, preach the word, yes, edify the body of believers, yes, reprove, rebuke, exhort, but he says you also need to do the work of an evangelist. An evangelist is somebody who preaches the gospel, somebody who's going out winning people to Christ. And he's telling Timothy, do the work of an evangelist make full proof of thy ministry. So these are some of the important duties of a pastor, to preach God's word, to preach to the flock right here, and also to go out and do the work of an evangelist. This is part of what it means to be a pastor. Prayer, studying the Bible, preaching, winning souls, these are all important things in a pastor's life. And back in Acts chapter 6, if you want to turn back there, the apostles were afraid that some of the menial, everyday things were going to take away from that. That's why they needed some other help. Part of the reason why is because they're pastoring a church with thousands and thousands of people in it. So it got to where they're spread too deep. Now, I don't find myself running out of time going to all the widows in our church. Because obviously our church is a newer church, it's a smaller church. It's not of the size that's here. Now, the deacons here that are chosen, he lists off seven here. Look at verse 5. It says, And it says, And a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. So when we see that when these seven deacons are chosen, one of the qualifications here is that they're filled with the Holy Ghost. He said they need to be filled with the Holy Ghost and wisdom who made a point over this business. Now, what was the business? Taking care of the deacons, the daily ministration, the daily day-to-day work of the church, and yet they had to be filled with the Holy Ghost. Why? Because what you need to understand is that when we're talking about church, everything about church, what we do here, is important. Amen. Everything's important. And even somebody who's just doing a menial task here of just serving food, of just organizing the food, of just taking care of day-to-day menial tasks, what the apostles here referred to as just waiting tables, he said, but it's important because it's God's house. And so we're not just going to hire anybody to just do this menial task because even waiting the table in God's house is important. Any cleaning that's done in God's house is important. I mean, anything that has to do with the church here, you know, playing the piano, playing the organ, leading the singing, all these things are important responsibilities. And so even just for a menial task, he said, you need to choose the right people here to be deacons, men that are filled with the Holy Ghost, men that are filled with wisdom. Now, some people say, well, you know, why doesn't your church have deacons? Well, you know, when we get to where we're running thousands of people, we will have deacons. Now, this church is running several thousand. I mean, do the math. They have 3,000 added to the church in Acts chapter 2, and then the numbers multiply. You know, we don't know what it was multiplied by, but it's multiplied. It's a huge church. And how many deacons did they have? Seven. Seven. Now, seven deacons for a church of many thousand. You have many churches that have, like, 100 people. You'll need to have, like, seven deacons, okay? And the problem with that is that a lot of times the deacons that are chosen do not meet the biblical qualifications. First of all, in 1 Timothy chapter number 3, you don't have to turn there, but there's a list of the qualifications for the deacons. The Bible says that the deacons must be the husband of one life. The Bible says that the deacons should be not given to wine. They should hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. He said, let these also first be proved, and then let them use the opposite of a deacon, being found blameless. Now, those are the qualifications that are often emphasized. In most churches, the deacons will all be the husband of one life. The deacons will all be men who are not into drinking, you know, and they'll kind of go by that, but really, they kind of miss the primary qualification there in Acts 6, that they have to be filled with the Holy Ghost, filled with the Holy Spirit. He said, well, how do we know if they're filled with the Holy Ghost? Well, in Acts 4.31, it says, and when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken. He said, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. So if you have a weak man who does not preach the word of God with boldness, who is not doing the work of an evangelist, he is not winning souls, then he's not qualified to be a deacon. And unfortunately, many times in churches, the deacons are the deadest church member who does not do any soul-winning, and when he gets up to preach, he can't preach his way out of the wet paper bag, because he's not filled with the Holy Spirit. And that's not right today. We need to have deacons that are scriptural deacons that need to be filled with the Spirit. Now, the other thing is that these deacons that are listed here, look at Stephen. Look at verse number 8. It says, and Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. Now, up in verse 5, Stephen gets kind of a special mention. It says, and the same pleased the whole multitude. They chose Stephen, you know, right out of the gate, first choice, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. And Philip, now Philip, we're going to read about in chapter 8. He's known as Philip the Evangelist. And Philip is out soul-winning, getting all kinds of people saved in Samaria. Then, of course, Philip's going to go down and talk to the Ethiopian eunuch and win him to Christ. So these guys were some of the most on-fire church members here. They're out winning souls. They're out just leading the way on preaching, on evangelism. That's the kind of deacons that are scriptural deacons. So when faith-forward Baptist church gets to the side, where it would be necessary for us to have deacons, this is the kind of men that we will be choosing. And no one else. They'll be the men who lead on soul-winning. They lead on preaching. They're bold men. They're filled with the Holy Spirit. Not just, well, they're just handling financial matters and they're just handling day-to-day stuff. So it doesn't really matter if they know how to preach. Yes, it does matter. Because biblically, these are men who's, they've had hands laid on them. They've been ordained to the ministry and they're going to be out preaching God's Word. That's who they need to be if they're going to be in the leadership of the church, which consists of two officers, the bishop and the deacons. And that's it. And so it's really important here that we see it. But the other thing that I want you to see is that these men here that are deacons, to me it's clear, reading the passage, that they're full-time employees. I mean, these aren't just guys who have a job doing something else and just show up for a few hours for some kind of a deacon's meeting. And today many churches are patterned after the U.S. government instead of being patterned after the Bible. So they basically have like the pastors like the president. And then the deacons are like a congress. And they basically vote. You know the one I'm saying is true. They're like a legislative body. They basically vote, make decisions, and they're always laymen. And you've even heard people say, well, the deacon, they're out working their job, they own businesses, they work, and so forth. Well, if they have a job doing something else, then how could they be a deacon doing the daily work of the church every day to take the load off the pastor? In this case, it was the apostles running the church. So yeah, it doesn't really make a lot of sense. The deacon is a worker. Okay. Now, obviously, before you have deacons, you'd have a pastor that's probably full-time doing that. And then you'd add deacons as the load becomes too much for him. Until then, it's not really needed. That's why they waited until they had a church of some size before they had ordained deacons to help out with it. But here's what I think is interesting. In this passage, we see what the pastor and the deacons should be spending their time on. What should the pastor be spending his time on according to this passage and according to the other passage of 1 Timothy 3? It said the ministry of the word, right? That's the main thing he should be spending time on. If we get the context from Acts 542, that's going to include soul-winning. Because right out of the gate in Acts 542, daily in the temple and in every house, they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. The they there is the apostles, okay? And these guys are out-winning souls to Christ. Then they start getting drawn away into other things. We see that when the ministry of the word is going to include, obviously, yes, preparing sermons, obviously studying the word, preaching three times a week, but also going out and preaching the gospel and winning souls door to door. But see, I wonder how many pastors today have left the word of God to serve tables today. And there are so many churches where the main thing ceases to be the main thing. And instead of the pastor giving himself to prayer and the ministry of the word, and instead of the deacons taking care of the necessary administration, taking care of the widows, taking care of the day-to-day business, but also out-winning souls and preaching, as we see Stephen and Phillip doing, and they get caught up in all kinds of other things that are just a time drain that is not really the work of God. The biggest example I get here, and this offends people, but it doesn't matter, it's true, the Christian school. Because if you stop and think about it here, look around at the churches that have a Christian school, and it's the major ministry of that church. If you look at a church that has a Christian school, if you look at how many man-hours of the full-time employees of that church are spent on the Christian school, it's probably 80% of the man-hours. I know, for example, that when I went to First Baptist Church in Hammond, there were over 500 employees of the schools, and I think about 50 employees of the church. And so that right there shows that there were 10 times as many workers, 10 times the budget, 10 times the money, 10 times the facilities, 10 times the energy going toward the Christian school. And people today will try to tell you that a Christian school is commanded by God in the Bible, Christian school. Well, let me ask you this. If it's such a big ministry that it takes up 90% of the resources, 90% of the facility, 90% of the money, and 90% of the workforce, why is it not mentioned in the Bible? Why didn't they say here, hey, we're too busy running this Christian school. Can you help these widows? We're too busy teaching science and history and English and math to little kids while their moms are out working and doing everything else and have them dropped off here at a spiritual daycare center. Why don't we see it in the Bible? And you say, well, times change. Well, for some people, times change. And some of us are old-fashioned Bible-believing Christians who believe that there's nothing new under the sun and that it's my job as a man to go out and work and toil and pay the bills and that my wife's job is to marry, bear children, and guide the house and to raise the children at home. And that it's both my job and my wife's job to teach our children knowledge and wisdom and understanding, both biblical and also just practical. You know, there's more to life, obviously, than just knowing biblical truths. You need to know basic math. You're going to need to know English. You're going to need to know science. You're going to need to know history. You're going to need to have basic knowledge and learning. Why is that not mentioned in Acts 6? In a discussion about the division of labor in the local church. Is that not what this chapter's about? It's about dividing the labor. What should the pastor be doing? What should the deacons be doing? What is the work of the church? And no mention of a Christian school. No mention of operating a daycare center. No mention of any of it. Because the focus in the New Testament church here was preaching the gospel and preaching the Bible and prayer and spiritual things, not raising someone else's kids for them in our money. And people say, well, you know, the school is just a part of the local church. Well, then why is it mentioned here? In a discussion about the day-to-day business. Well, the school's part of the local church. Well, then why do you have to pay money to go there? Do you have to pay money to go to church? No, church is free. Buy the truth and sell it up. And so we've been caught up in the world system. And so we have a Christian school system that's basically just patterned after the public school system. That's who they look to as the standard. And which came first, the chicken or the egg? Which came first, the public school or the Christian school? Because back in the 1950s, there were public schools in every city in America and every kid practically was in them. But there weren't Christian schools. The schools were rare in the 1950s. And not until the 1960s we had the Christian school movement where all of a sudden all the churches started schools because the public school got so weird that they started pulling their kids out of the public school and staying in the Christian school. And look, I'm not a poor public school either. I'm for parents rearing their own children. Isn't that a concept? You know, and you say, well, how are they going to learn? You quiz my children. You put a standardized test in front of any of my children. They'll be grade levels ahead of any of the kids that the world has to offer. The world has to offer, period. They're educated. They know math. They know science. They know history. I'll put them up against high schoolers for their knowledge. And they're just little kids. And I'm not even kidding when I say that. They have all kinds of knowledge. And you say, well, I'm just not a very educated person so I don't think I would have the ability to teach algebra. Well, here's the thing. You start out when they're a little kid and do you know your ABCs? Because that's the first thing you're going to be teaching them is just the alphabet. Do you know how to read? You don't start out with your four-year-old and say, okay, you know, I've got to brush up on my geometry. The only geometry you're going to teach that four-year-old is circle, square, and triangle. And you probably are pretty good with that. And the thing is, you can learn with them. Just stay a couple of lessons ahead of them. Learn as you go. Teach them as you go. And so if you start when they're young, you know, and it'll probably be good for you too because as you get into the high school, maybe you'll do better in algebra this time around. You know, 20 years later, maybe you'll do better with geometry and everything when you're teaching it to them. The Bible says, thou therefore that teacheth another teacheth thou not thyself also. You know, you teach your, when you teach something, you're learning too. The one who's doing the work is the one who's doing the learning. And when you're training someone else, you're actually getting better at it too. You're learning too. And so yes, you do have the ability to teach your children. The government and others have an agenda to take the children out of the home in order to attack the structure of the family and weaken the family unit where the family is just something that we just kind of visit for a few hours each day. We just kind of visit the home, have dinner, watch TV, and go to bed and get up and go off to some other institution where we're being brainwashed by the public school system. And you say, well, that's why we have a Christian school. But a Christian school is not biblical. Doesn't that matter anymore that we would run the church according to God's word? You're going to tell me that this gigantic monstrosity financially, manpower-wise, is biblical when it's never mentioned? The word school is never mentioned. Except the school of Tyrannus who was an unsaved man who rejected God's word. That's an act. And then you'll find the school of... Yeah, that's all. Actually, that's the only time school is mentioned in the whole Bible. All 66 books. The school of Tyrannosaurus Rex. You know? And that's what they teach your kids, by the way. Tyrannosaurus, millions and billions of years ago. That's the only school in the Bible. Some Tyrannosaurus guy who disputed with God's word and did not believe it. That's the only school in the Bible. I challenge you to show me the word school. Say, you're against education. Hey, I'm for education. I'm against school. You know what school means? Who knows what a school of fish is? Right? That's what school means. I'm against school. And you say, are you against assemblies? No, I'm for this assembly right here, the local church. And I'm for the assembly that's called mom, dad, and children, called the family. Those are the assemblies that God came up with. Church, family, nation. Those are God's institutions. And I'm just a back to basics. It's called being a fundamentalist, going back to the fundamentals. Prayer, Bible reading, ministry of the word. And that's what I want to spend my time on. I don't want to spend my time raising your children. Raising yourself. Amen. And I'll raise mine and you raise yours and raise them according to God's word. We don't need to put them all down here and set up a bunch of desks and tables and I'm going to go around wiping their nose. That's your job. And so let's get off that subject. But you got to admit, folks, Acts chapter 6 is discussing what we're going to do with our manpower. What are we going to do with our deacons? What are we going to have the pastor doing? And it's pretty clear that we don't see a lot of the things that we see today of operating a daycare, running a Christian school, all these other things. And just other things. Music is important, too. The Bible talks a lot about music. But we don't want that to just become the main thing of our church. It's just a music center. We want to keep it focused on the things that God said it should be focused on, which is prayer and the ministry of the word. Prayer and Bible. That ought to be the focus right there. So let's keep reading here. We're going to read a little bit about these men, Stephen and others, but mainly Stephen. So we saw the list of deacons there in verse number 5. It said, whom they said before the apostles, verse 6, and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. And the word of God increased. So as a result of higher these guys, notice, more people were added to the church. God's word is being preached more. More people are being saved. They're knocking on more doors. And it says, the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. These are a lot of the Levitical priests that were in the temple. A lot of them got saved. So this is a great time for the church. The church is really thriving. It's really growing there. It says in verse 8, and Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the Synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen. So basically, Stephen is just this powerful man. He's doing all this preaching. Tons of people are getting saved. Well, a lot of people start to get upset about that. So this group of the synagogue, the Libertines, and some other people, they come and start disputing with them. They start arguing with them. They start trying to prove him wrong, and they couldn't do it. They could not resist the wisdom of his word. They could not prove him wrong. He had the Bible to back up everything, and so he defeats them on everything that they tried to get him with. It says they're disputing with Stephen in verse 9. Verse 10 says, and they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spayed. I mean, they were no match for him. They're trying to catch him and trip him up, kind of like they did to Jesus. They couldn't trip up Stephen either, because you know what? Stephen wasn't Jesus, but he had the word of God, but he had the spirit of God, and it wasn't Stephen's wisdom. It was the spirit by which he spayed. It was the Holy Spirit. It was God's word that had the power, and man's wisdom was no match for God's word, preached with the power of the Holy Ghost. So it says in verse 11, because they couldn't catch him and trip him up and prove him wrong and dispute with him, here's their next attempt. It says in verse 11, then they suborned men, which said, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God. And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes and came upon him and caught him and brought him to the council and set up false witnesses. So are these people telling the truth? No. Here's what they're going to lie and say, which said, verse 13, this man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law. For we have heard him say, now is this true what they're about to say? No, they're false witnesses, they're lying. We've heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us. And all that sat on the council looking steadfastly on him saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. Now this is the same type of thing that they tried to lie about Jesus, do you remember? They pretty much said the same thing. They bring up these false witnesses saying this man said he's going to destroy the temple and change the customs that were delivered by Moses. Go to John chapter 2. You see, the most effective lie is the one that contains some kernel of truth in it, right? Because if you just tell an off-the-wall lie, nobody's going to believe you. But the best counterfeit is something that's similar to the real thing. And so let's see what Jesus actually said. Jesus Christ, after he had cleansed the temple, this is when they were buying and selling things in the temple, he goes in there, first he makes a whip, so it's premeditated. He didn't just fly off the handle. He went somewhere and crafted a whip, went in there and started flipping over the money changers tables, dumping out their money, and he drove them out of the temple with a whip, okay? And when he drove them out, he said to them in verse 16, he said unto them that soul does, take these things hence. Make not my father's house and house of merchandise. Nothing wrong with merchandise. But he said take it hence. Give it out of here. It doesn't belong in God's house. It belongs in a place of business. Now look, we're all involved in business. That's how we make a living. You know, whatever business you're in, maybe you drive a taxi cab, you know, maybe you're an electrician. Wherever you work, you're involved in some business. That's fine, but just keep your business out of church. Don't try to bring your business into God's house and sell things here and buy things here. This is not the place for business. This is a place for God's word to be preached. It's a house of prayer not a house of merchandise. And so the disciples, whenever he said that to them, remembered that it was written, the zeal of my house hath eaten me up. Verse 18. Then answered the Jews and said unto them, what signs showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. Now did he say, I'm going to destroy this temple? No. He just said, destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it up. Then said the Jews, forty and six years was this temple and building and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body. When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said. Go back to Luke 21. Just go back a few pages to Luke 21. Let's see what else Jesus had said that could be construed as him saying that he's going to come and destroy the temple and change all of Moses' customs and so forth. It says in verse number 5 of Luke 21, and as some spake of the temple how it was adorned with godly stones and gifts, he said, as for these things would ye behold, the days will come into which there shall not be left one stone upon another. One upon another that shall not be thrown down. Now look, did he say that he was going to destroy it? Did he say he was going to throw down all the stones? He's basically just telling them what's going to happen. He just says, look, did you know that someday every stone that's in this temple will be thrown down and this temple will be gone and destroyed? Now look, did that come true? Can you show me this temple today? No. It's been gone. It's been destroyed. It doesn't exist today. In Jerusalem, this temple is gone. There's not one stone left standing upon another. So Jesus was right. Now, a lot of times the world tries to twist your words. You'll just tell them something's going to happen and it's like they'll blame you, like you're going to do it. You know, like for example, remember when I preached my sermon that Barack Obama is going to hell? And I even said, I even said, I hope he dies sooner rather than later. I hope he gets brain cancer, you know, so he can die like Ted Kennedy. And you're like, oh, you're threatening the president? I didn't say, I'm going to give him brain cancer. I'm not going to strap a cell phone to his head or something to get him brain cancer. I'm not going to radiate him with a naked body scanner while he sleeps in the White House. You know, I'm not, how can I give him cancer? How can I send Barack Obama to hell? I don't have the power to do either of those things, okay? Or for example, you know, you'll preach what the Bible says, judgment upon people. You know, that people are going to hell and it's like, you're sending, I'm not sending anybody to hell. I'm not killing anybody. I'm not a violent person. I've never laid hands on anybody in violence. And yet, you just preach God's word and you just preach the truth and you just tell the truth. Or like, for example, if you say, hey, murderers should be put to death, according to the Bible. It's like, oh, you're going to go out and kill. I can write the Bible. But yet, I'll preach what the Bible says, where it says, you know, if a man also lied with mankind as he lied with a woman, even both of them have committed abomination, they shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them. And I'll say, hey, according to the Bible, homosexuals should be put to death. That's what it says in Leviticus 2013. No one can deny that's what it says. And even these phony new Bibles, the New International Version, the ESV, the RSV, are going to be put to death in Leviticus 2013. And yet, for me getting up and preaching that, they're saying, well, you're going to go out and kill these homos. No, I'm not, because it's not my job. It's the government's job to put people to death. I'm not this vigilante that's going out, just taking the law into my own hands. I've never been. I've never advocated that. But I am going to stand up and have the backbone to preach what nobody else seems to have the backbone to preach, which the Bible says that they're worthy of death, that the death penalty is what God appropriated for them. And what they do is, according to the Bible, vile, disgusting, filthy, and I'm going to call a spade a spade. It's the same thing. Jesus here, do you see Jesus? I mean, aside from chasing people with a whip one time, where do you see Jesus putting anybody to death? You know, where do you see Jesus ripping apart that temple and destroying it? Where do you see Jesus doing these things? And yet, he's blamed that he's going to be the one to do it. You know? And so, a lot of times, you'll just twist it a little bit, and that's how they'll lie about you. Usually, when people lie about you, there's some kernel of truth in what they're lying. Because that's usually the most effective lie. They'll take something that you said and just twist it a little bit. You know, Jesus did say that that particular temple was going to be destroyed. Jesus did say, destroy this temple, and in three days, I'll raise it up. But see how they twisted that to say, well, you know, Jesus said he's going to destroy it. Here's the other thing that they twisted. Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5. The other thing that they lied about was, you know, number one, they said, hey, he said he's going to destroy this temple. That wasn't true, was it? We looked at Jesus' words. He never said, I'm going to destroy this temple. But they lied. Well, here's the other lie that they told. They said that he's going to change the customs that were delivered to us by Moses. You know, he's going to change what we are, religion. Well, Matthew chapter 17. This is what Jesus said about that. He said, think not that I am come to destroy the law of the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. Christ, verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in them know wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven, but whosoever shall teach them, the same should be called great in the kingdom of heaven. So, here right away, Jesus is saying, I don't want you to misconstrue what I'm saying that I'm telling you that the Old Testament commandments do not have to be obeyed. He said, if people teach not to obey the least of the Old Testament commandments, he says, he'll be called the least in the kingdom of heaven, but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same should be called great in the kingdom of heaven. He said, I am come to destroy your so-called Christianity. He's going to tell you to throw out all the Old Testament commandments. They say, well, we're New Testament believers. We only obey the New Testament commandments, but that is a lie. That's false. There are certain things that have been changed. Certain things were fulfilled by Jesus Christ, and he spells out what those are in Colossians, chapter two. He spells out what those are in Hebrews, chapter nine, and he tells us, you know, the meats, the drinks, were imposed on them until the time of reformation, until the fullness of time when Jesus Christ came and fulfilled the law, did not destroy the law, fulfilled the law. But as far as what God preached in the Old Testament was right and wrong, those things still apply. And there's a false doctrine out there that says, well, if a commandment is not repeated in the New Testament, we don't need to obey. You know, everything that we need to obey was repeated in the New Testament. You know, people would like that because the Old Testament is this long and the New Testament is this long, okay? And so there's all kinds of hundreds and hundreds of commandments in the Old Testament that you'd be throwing out by saying it. And here's what I always say to people when they say that. I say, okay, well then, can I marry my sister now? Because that's not repeated in the New Testament. There's nowhere in the New Testament that says, don't marry your sister. But the Old Testament tells you not to marry your sister, right? There are all kinds of commands that a man should not wear a woman's garment, that a woman should not wear that which pertains to a man, right? But people will say, well, that's Old Testament. Let's throw that out. Okay, well then, men can wear dresses now and women can wear pants and dress like men and men can wear dresses like ladies and, you know, you can marry your sister and all these, you know, does that make any sense to you? But how many other commands can we list about nakedness that are given in the Old Testament? Those aren't repeated in the New Testament. Does that mean nakedness is now okay? You know, if we look at the Old Testament, we see commandments about, you know, not lying with an animal. You know, does that have to be repeated again today? No. And so we've got to be careful who we're listening to. Pastor Least, down at least Baptist, is telling us that all the Old Testament, you know, we're not under the law, we're under grace. That's talking about salvation. That's right. Paul said, I am under the law to Christ. He said, when it comes to salvation, we are not under law but under grace. He says, we're saved by grace, by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. But Paul said, when he's talking about becoming all things to all men, he said, you know, unto the Jew, I became as a Jew. Under the Greek, I became as a Greek. He said, I've become all things to all men that I might by all means save some of them. But he said this, he said, under those without law, he said, I was as one without law. He's talking about outside the Jewish law. But he said, hey, I wasn't outside the law to Christ. I wasn't outside Christ's law. I still have to obey Christ. And guess what? Christ is the author of the whole Bible, not just the New Testament. Amen. Jesus Christ is the Word and in the beginning was the Word. He was with God and the Word was God. All things were made by him. Jesus Christ, the Creator, according to Colossians chapter 2, Jesus Christ the Creator, according to many other places, and John chapter 1, for example, and so we ought not throw out the Old Testament commandments. Jesus was not throwing out the Old Testament commandments, but as 1 Peter chapter 1 said, he was building upon the foundation of the law and the prophets and that Jesus Christ was the chief cornerstone of that building and he was building upon the foundation of Moses. Not contradicting Moses. Jesus didn't contradict Moses. He fulfilled Moses. He didn't contradict David's prophecies in the book of Psalms. He fulfilled them. And so we need to be careful that we don't speak blasphemous words by throwing out the Old Testament what they accused Stephen of doing and what they accused Jesus of doing. Jesus was not guilty of that. Stephen was not guilty of that. Now in Acts chapter 7, we're going to see that very clearly because Stephen is going to stand up and preach and he's going to preach through the Old Testament starting with Abraham. He's going to go through the stories about Abraham. He's going to go all the way up until Solomon's building the temple. And he's showing that basically he is just picking up the torch from where these great men of God left off in the Old Testament from Abraham to Solomon. But he said not only that, just as in their day, you know, the Jews by and large rejected the prophets that were sent unto them, rejected Moses. They worshiped Rem-Phan and worshiped Molech in the wilderness when Moses was preaching to them the word of God. Only a small group would assemble at the congregation, the tabernacle of the congregation with Moses, those who sought the Lord, and the majority was worshiping false gods even at that time, even in the wilderness. Throughout the book of Judges, they continually worshiped other gods. When all these different prophets came to them, all these deliverers came to them, they hearkened not to God's word and he said, you know what, it's the same way right now. Stephen is saying, hey, I'm preaching to you right now and you're resisting the truth, you're resisting the Holy Ghost. And so in New Testament, Christianity is not a destruction of the Old Testament or some kind of a repealing of the Old Testament. No, it's the fulfillment of the Old Testament. And so if God is telling us not to lie in the Old Testament, we shouldn't lie today. You say, well, that's just because it's repeated. Some things are repeated, but whether it's repeated or not, God only has to say something once for it to be right or wrong. People say, well, that's just one verse. Well, you know, one's enough. You know, you'll show somebody a verse that clearly says that Jesus is God, they'll say it's one verse. Well, how many do we need? And there's not one. There's plenty of verses that say that. But there's only one verse that I can think of that tells you not to cross-dress. But that's enough for me to dress like a man for the rest of my life every day. You know, and it's just, I'm glad that God didn't just rehash all those weird laws in the New Testament. You know what I mean? It's not a very wholesome chapter to read in Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20. You know, I'm glad he didn't rehash all that again. You know, I'm sick of preaching about it, to be honest. I wish I could never preach about it again. But we live in a society where it's so prevalent, you have to keep just ringing that bell over and over again because it's so prevalent. But thank God, it must not have been as prevalent in Jesus' day. He, you know, and thank God he didn't have to rehash it all. And by the way, the apostles even said, hey, we're giving you certain commandments in Acts chapter 15. He said, we're giving you certain commandments because he said, Moses has those who read him every Sabbath in the synagogues. They're saying, look, we don't have to re-preach everything that Moses already preached because it's already there in the Old Testament. And so thank God that my Bible today that I'm preaching out of is the whole Bible, 66 books, not just the New Testament. We've got to preach the whole counsel of God. And all scripture is given by inspiration of God and it is profitable for doctrine. Stephen preached the Old Testament and he was, they were lying about it. They said that he was trying to change things from the Old Testament. He wasn't changing anything. They tried to say that, you know, he was going to destroy the temple, like he was going to be some kind of a domestic terrorist and blow the thing up or whatever. He had no such intention. Jesus did no such thing. Because our battle has always been a spiritual battle, not a physical battle. And so Stephen was not trying to take up arms and kill people and lead some kind of a physical coup. Jesus Christ said, if my kingdom were of this world, he said, I'd command my servants, they'd have swords, they'd have weapons and they would come and kill you and set me free. He said, if it was of this world. But he said, you know, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against power. And so Stephen here was not some kind of a violent, dangerous person. Stephen was put to death in chapter 7 because of what he said and nothing else. Just what he preached. He was put to death for it. And you say that will never happen, but you know what? It could happen again and it will happen. And it's happened throughout history. And so it's our job to just do the right thing, preach, be like Philip, be like Stephen, be like these great men, serve God, and let the chips fall where they may. Are people going to lie about you when you serve God? Absolutely. And who did they lie about? Out of these seven deacons, who did they lie about? The best one, right? The one that was the most effective for God was the one that ended up being lied about the most. And so you, even just you, you're not a deacon, you're not an apostle, you know, I don't have the power that Stephen had, I'm not an apostle, I'm not in his category at all, but you know what? Any of us, male, female, young, old, anytime you start to serve God and really do something big for God, start making some waves, you're going to be persecuted, you're going to be lied about. And so don't let that bother you. And you know, you can't always right every wrong. You know, people will lie about, if every time somebody lied about me, if somebody tried to correct it and set the record straight, you know, I'd have to hire like seven deacons just to do that. Because there'd be so much, you know, you can't do anything. If somebody lies about you, you know what? You just keep doing right and history will show, everybody knows today who was telling the truth, don't they? Two thousand years later, we know Stephen was on the right side. And I don't think anybody would argue that Stephen was wrong here. Even the worst heretic. Because history sets the record straight. And so, just keep living your life, keep doing right, and when people lie about you, people slander you, people attack you, you know what? Just leave it in God's hand and just keep on going and don't waste your time with it. Just keep preaching, keep doing the right thing. Let's put our eyes on that board of prayer. Father, thank you so much for your word, dear God, and for these great men that paved the way for us and showed us the way in that early church. Help our church, dear God, to be like that early church. Help us to be a church of prayer and the ministry of the word. Help those to be the two things that we emphasize more than just menial things. And God, I just pray that we would multiply greatly, just like they multiplied greatly, that we would be filled with the Spirit like they were filled with the Spirit, dear God. And help us to be able to withstand the persecution and withstand the trials that you have for us in our lives, personally and as a group. And in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.