Blood of The Martyrs

Well, I like to get underneath the hood and look at how things work underneath, but why is Stephen martyred? What's happening here? I'd like to look at a number of verses together this morning. I'd like you to turn here, maybe you can put a bookmark, and turn to Revelation, chapter number 17. I've been fascinated by this study.

I've been doing some on Babylon. In Revelation 17, there's this woman. She's dressed out in all kinds of gaudy attire.

She's a harlot woman, but there's much more to this woman. She's symbolic of something. And interestingly enough, here in Revelation, chapter 17, it says this, verse 5, and upon her forehead was the name written, Mystery Babylon the Great.

The mystery, something that is hidden, something that you need to have vision and spiritual eyes to understand, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. And here's the interesting part in verse 6, and I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration, like wonder, this great wonder, this seeing.

John sees a woman, and she's all decked out like a harlot, but she's drinking from probably a silver cup, and he notices that that cup is not one that's filled with wine or strong drink, that the cup is filled with blood. And then she's drunken, whether he sees her staggering about and laughing giddishly, but he sees her and she's drinking, and he understands it to be the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And if you'd look at the blood closely, you'd find out that some of that blood is Stephen's.

He was one of the martyrs, actually the first one. And so this woman has a lot to do with all the martyrs that have been killed for the faith or persecuted for the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you.

But it's a mystery, John says. It's a great wonder. What's God saying here with this woman? And she's drinking blood, and this blood is the martyrs down through history.

Look down to chapter 18. He goes on and talks about her in verse 24. It says, And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all... Notice that word all.

...of all that were slain upon the earth. So the blood of the martyrs, all of them, are coming right at the feet of this woman, this mystery Babylon the Great. They lie at her feet.

And that's what the Bible says here. She is the one responsible. And she loves it.

She drinks their blood. And you know when you get drunk, you love the alcohol, you love the wine, and it puts you into a state of drunkenness? She loves the blood of the martyrs. And now she is drunken with the blood of the martyrs.

So this woman, what is she or how does she represent her? What can we learn from her? A number of years ago, and you don't have to turn here, but a number of years ago I was just reading, doing some study on prophecy, and I came across a verse that perplexed me. And just in the last five or six years, I've really got a better feel for what the Lord was saying here. But in Matthew chapter 23, speaking to the Jewish people right before his crucifixion, he says this in verse 23, And beware, for behold, I send unto you prophets and wise men and scribes, and some of them you shall kill and crucify, and some of them you shall scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city, that upon you, this is interesting, that upon you may come all, there is that word, all, the righteous blood shed upon the earth, all the martyrs, coming upon you, Jerusalem, from the blood of righteous Abel.

You know how far back that goes? That goes all the way back to the first family. It says, from the blood of righteous Abel, unto the blood of Zacharias, it's probably someone that was just recently killed, the son of Barakias, whom you slew between the temple and the altar. Verily, verily, I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem.

We're going to see Jerusalem here in just a minute. But God, the Lord says, I'm going to lay the responsibility of all the martyrs. And I thought to myself, Lord, I can see how, you know, Jerusalem may have been established in the days of King David, maybe from there to here, but why do you go back clear to Abel? There was only one family alive at that time.

Why do you go clear back to Abel? And you place it upon Jerusalem and this generation, this people. And that was perplexing for a while until I came to the realization of what Babylon represents, what this woman represents. And I'd like to spend a little time this morning talking about that very thing.

What does Babylon represent and what does Jerusalem here represent? And Abel, clear back to Abel, how does this all fit? Well, some of you have been here for a while. You've heard me share a little bit on what Babylon is and what it represents. But just for a quick review here, I'd like to share with you what Babylon is.

God gives us an example here of Babylon in Genesis 11. And you don't have to turn there, but you can if you'd like. Genesis chapter 11, starting in verse number one, is the first mention of Babel or Babylon.

Some of you here, we talked about in Acts chapter 2 the two times that God changed languages. He did it in Babel and he did it on the day of Pentecost. But here in Genesis 11 is the essence of what Babylon represents.

It says in verse one, the whore was of one language and of one speech, and it came to pass as they journeyed from the east that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick. Now there's enough lettuce in this passage to make a good salad.

Notice how many lettuces there are. Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone and slime they had for mortar.

And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven. And let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. Notice this.

We as a bunch of men want to make us a city. We want to make us a tower. We want to make a name for ourselves.

A tower that will reach unto heaven. Notice in this passage God's not mentioned at all. This is what man in his fallen nature left to himself his desires of doing.

Man wants to make a name. Man wants to deify himself. Man wants to glorify himself.

And you know what happened? God looked down and said, No, this is not going to work. I'm going to scatter them. And he separates their languages and he disperses them throughout.

But Babylon at the very beginning represents man's work, man's effort without God. Man seeking to honor himself and to glorify himself. And God brought that work to nothing.

And probably the best example of this is found in the book of Daniel. And you don't have to turn there either. Let me see if I can find it.

Daniel is the story of Nebuchadnezzar. And this is something that God dispersed of real quick. In Daniel chapter 4, in verse 29 it says this, or verse 28, All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar.

At the end of 12 months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. Here's Babylon again. And the king spake and said, Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of my kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty? Wow, that's a pretty good statement, isn't it? Isn't this great city built by my strength, by my power, and for my honor? Me, me, me, me, me.

And then the next verse says this, While the word was in his mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, O king Nebuchadnezzar, your kingdom has departed, and I'm going to send you out, and you're going to eat grass like swine, like the cows. Whoa, God took care of that one real quick, didn't he? And you know, man, his boast, and all that he does, this is what Babylon is throughout the Bible. And you get to the Revelation, the last book of the Bible, this great city which is built by the hands of man.

We don't need God. And you know, you look at technology today and the way people are going, we don't need God, we can do this. We can do it on our own for our honor and for our own glory.

And so you see this great city in the book of Revelation, built by man to the glory of man. By the way, there's two cities in the book of Revelation. One is built by man and one is built by God.

That city that comes down from heaven, not a harlot, but a bride dressed in white. And that city is what Abraham said, I'm looking for a city whose builder and maker is who? I'm looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. And there's a reason why that is, is because if God builds a city, God gets the glory.

God gets the honor. If man builds it, man gets the glory, and man gets the honor. And so you have these two warring against each other throughout the Bible.

Babel, Babylon, what man can do apart from God. And then that great city, the bride of Christ. And so Babylon is simply this, the idea of what man can do without God.

The deification of man. By the way, this woman sits on the beast. And this beast is the Antichrist.

The Antichrist is a man making himself to be God. And she sits on him and rides this beast. And so there has been, by the way, from the very first couple of chapters of the Bible, guess the first thing the devil said to Adam and Eve? You shall be as God.

You know what happened was Lucifer, he was an angel and he tried to be like God. He was cast out. He was cast to the earth.

He said, well, I just got destroyed. Here are these people, they live in paradise. I'm going to ruin their paradise.

And so he says to them, don't you want to be like God? And so obviously Adam and Eve, they then fell. And we have this tragic world that we live in. So the first martyr is Abel.

And Jesus speaks about Abel. And I'm going to explain a little bit about why Abel was killed. You know, here is Cain and Abel, their first family.

There's no religious churches, no synagogues. First family and God comes to Cain and Abel. He says to them, fellas, I want an offering of blood.

I want a lamb. I want you to bring a lamb to me. And that lamb is a picture of Christ who will bring me glory.

And he was foreshadowing the glory of God. And so those boys go home, and Abel does the right thing. Abel, he brings what he's supposed to bring.

By faith, he brings an animal sacrifice. And in essence, he's saying, I'm trusting you, Lord, your sacrifice. This is what you want, a blood sacrifice.

To the glory of God. Praise the Lord. We sing here this morning, Man of Sorrows, what a name.

To the glory of God. Cain went home, and he said, I want to bring some glory to myself. I want to bring glory to man.

So he goes home, and he gets his garden fruit. And he brings them to the Lord. And this is the first picture in the Bible of Abel, Cain.

Cain is going to kill Abel for a reason. So here's what happens. In Genesis 4, verse 4, God speaks to Cain, and he says these words to Cain.

It says, and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering, but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. In other words, when Abel brought God his blood sacrifice, God smiled. I like this.

You did good, Abel. When Cain brought the fruits of his hands, good things, bananas, pears, apples, tomatoes. The Bible says God frowned on his offering.

And there's a reason why God frowned. You're going to get glory from that one, Cain. I'm not.

I'm frowning on it. It's not what I want. And then the next verse is important.

It says, and Cain was very wroth. Cain was very wroth. And it says, his countenance fell.

I can just picture those two boys, you know, Abel after offering up his offering. He's happy. He looks at God.

His face is smiling. He feels peace and rest in his heart. And he's rejoicing.

He's going out in the field. He's probably singing, what can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus redeemed, how I love to proclaim it. He's happy.

He's joyful. And anybody's happy who knows that God is smiling upon their life. Amen.

Cain comes with his own works, his own efforts. And God's frowning at him. He's condemning him.

And Cain walks away from there just, urgh. You know how that feels when you're always condemned. Urgh.

And you know, he's angry. He's wroth. Why doesn't God accept me? Why doesn't He accept this offering? It says, his countenance fell.

If you met him that day, you just kind of... We were at the couple's night last night, and the brother was mentioning it takes a lot more muscles to frown than to smile. But you'd have met Cain. What's wrong, Cain? What's up? Why are you so angry? Why are you so depressed? God didn't accept my offering.

My heart is not at peace. I'm troubled. This is a first family.

So Cain walks out. I don't know how it all happened. He walks out in the field, and here's old Abel out there, jumping around, singing, Redeemed how I love to proclaim it.

He's just so happy and rejoicing. He just saw God smile. He's done the right thing.

And Cain, when he sees that, he is envious and jealous. And he says, I can't stand this. And he goes in, what he did, whether he hit him or stabbed him with a knife.

But the motivation that caused Cain to kill Abel was the fact that Cain's heart was not right. Cain was seeking to pursue God on the basis of his own works and effort for his own glory. And Abel was pursuing God through the blood of sacrifice.

And he had peace. And so when Jesus talks about Babel, He says, you can go clear back to Abel and Cain, you can see Babel right there. Babel is Cain and the works of his own hands, his own strength for his own honor.

And you can see Abel is following the right way, the way of entrance into my church, into that holy city, that city that Abraham was looking for. And so he was wroth. I've experienced this over the years.

And some of you probably have too. But I tell this story a lot about Brother Craig. He's such a good example of this.

When Craig was converted, we'd sing. I sang this morning, Redeemed How I Loved to Proclaim it. I just remember him.

My wife remembers this too, I'm sure. We'd sing, Redeemed How I Loved to. And I knew it was coming.

Hallelujah. He'd just shout in the middle of the service. He'd just shout.

And he's like Abel. He's filled with the Spirit. He's so happy.

He had been saved out of drugs and is just so happy in Jesus. Then you had a few of these, I call them crusty folks around. They're the canes of the world.

And they'd come up to me and say, Would you stop him from doing that? Stop him. It's just not right. You know, they had their suits on.

And even back then, I wasn't very old as a Christian, but I knew this isn't right. There's something not right about this. And there wasn't something right about it.

Same attitude Cain had. I don't like this peace that Abel has. I don't like this joy.

It frustrates me. And so whether or not you take and kill the individual or you just blast the individual or you just try to stop the mouth of the individual, you're going to do something to the individual. But that is the essence of why Cain killed Abel.

And I'd like you to just consider here Abel's countenance. He was probably joyful, had a happy countenance, and Cain's countenance, the Bible said, was fallen. Now if you just take, think about this, Abel and Cain were the first example of martyrdoms in the Old Testament.

The first example in the New is Stephen. You know what the Bible says about Stephen? He's sitting there with his face as the face of an angel. And these guys are so angry.

It says they're full of wrath and they're wrathful and they come upon him and they stomp their ears just like Cain did. I can't stand you. You're full of the Holy Ghost.

You're full of peace and joy. You're going to be shut down. You can just see it.

And they did. They shut him down good. But Abel came in a Christ-centered, God-glorifying way.

Cain came in a man-centered, man-glorifying way. And you find this throughout the Scriptures. We'll look at a couple of examples here.

A God-glorifying way and a man-glorifying way. I told you here a few weeks ago, I had these examples on the board. I want to go ahead and write them again.

These hearts. There was three hearts we had on the board. And how that one heart here represented the good heart, the redeemed heart.

And this heart over here was a wicked heart, a bad heart. And I failed in talking to one brother. Make sure I do this properly this time.

We were talking how that, you know, when people's hearts are not right with God and they don't have peace with God and they're starting to slide over here into the middle ground and they don't want to be like the public and the sinner. They don't want to be like the wicked person out there in the world. And so they park right here in the middle.

And even though they have a bad heart, and this is the Jewish people that killed Stephen. I give you this example because of it. They put on themselves an outward appearance of righteousness.

Jesus said outwardly they appear righteous unto men, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Boy, if you'd have been on Stephen's martyrdom, you'd have seen some ravening wolves. And so we tend to, when our hearts are not right with God, we don't have peace with God, things are not good, we tend to slide over here.

But we don't want to look like the world because that kind of gives everything away. And so generally what we do is we put on a front. And that's what the Jews, that's where they were.

That's where they were living. And here's the important thing, the lesson here, is that all of this here is Babylon. As a matter of fact, if you would have looked at the Jewish religion of that day, it was all man-centered.

It wasn't to the glory of God. Jesus said they worship me in vain. And even religion, even religion, can become man-centered and become Babylon.

And Jesus mentioned a number of things, and I shared this over in Pennsylvania, that the Bible talks about a number of things here. The fear of man. That was in the Judaistic system, the fear of man.

Boy, they were petrified of men. You have also trusting in men. Cursed is he that trusts in men.

You have also the men-pleaser. They were men-pleasers. Here's an amazing statement Jesus made of those Jews.

He said all their works they do to be what? Saint of men. That's their motivation. It's all about man.

They followed the traditions of men. They were involved in the doctrines and commandments of men. Now you notice something that's common here throughout.

Man, man, man, man, man. It's moving to a man-centered system of religion. And that's why they killed Stephen.

Though they were religious, their whole system was built to the glory of man. It was Babylon to the core. And even though they would not represent themselves as being in the world, it was the same heart.

The same heart. And so that is the people that are killing Stephen. It's Babylon.

You know, you see this here? And I don't want to point fingers, but the Pope, it's a man-centered religion, the Catholic system. All cults, if you look at all the cults, all the cults worship a man. David Koresh, Jim Jones, Joseph Smith, they all center on a man, an individual.

They turn the attention away from Christ to a man. Many of them have on an outer cloak. By the way, just to remind you, this outer thing is important, amen? But many people can have the outer thing and have a Babylonian heart.

Have an ungodly heart. So you have, instead of the fear of God, teaching people the fear of God, trusting in the Lord, being a God pleaser, Jesus said, I do always those things that please Him. Instead of God's tradition and God's commandments, we slowly turn people away from that to men.

It's a process. But it's Babylon. It's man-centered.

And so that was the heart of these Jewish people that were killing Stephen. They had a man-centered religion. Their heart was not right with God.

They were like Cain. Cain was trying to serve God. He brought God an offering, but it was a man-centered offering.

And it was rejected. And so the Jewish system was in the very same place. The Bible tells us we're to look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

So when the Scripture says, marvel not that the world hates you, Jesus is referring to this right here. Those who do not have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. And some of you found out that this group seems to hate even more.

And Stephen found that out. Hey, the Romans, they're pretty nasty to us, but the Jews are even worse. They do not like us at all.

And so let's look at another example of this, and then we'll get into this story here. I do want to talk about why they killed Stephen. Look at Galatians chapter 4. Galatians chapter 4. I like this story here.

Galatians chapter 4 verse 22. It's the story of Abraham, but two Jerusalems are mentioned here. And these are the two cities in Revelation.

In Galatians chapter 4 verse 22, for it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman was by promise. Which things are an allegory, for these are the two covenants, the one from Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar, that's Hagar.

For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem, which now is. That's the Jerusalem down here, the one that Jesus said, I'm going to lay all these martyrs' blood at your feet, and is in bondage with their children. But the Jerusalem which is above, that's the one Jesus has gone to prepare, that comes down out of heaven, is the mother of us all.

For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren, that bearest not, break forth and cry, thou that travailest not, for the desolate hath many more children than he, she which hath a husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. Now notice verse 29, But as then, he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit, even so it is now.

In other words, Paul says, if you look out there and you're going to see all these martyrs and the persecution, he gets back to Abraham and Sarah. And here's the story of what happened. Abraham and Sarah were promised by God they'd have a child.

And they were older, getting older, and time went by, many years went by, and there was no child. And they had a choice. Lord, are we going to keep trusting you? We're going to trust you, not men, we're going to trust you, we're going to wait on your promises, and we want to glorify you, it's going to be all you.

When you bring us a son, it'll be a miracle. Nothing, we have our hands in it all. That's what they should have done, right? But they didn't.

They said, listen, let's see if we can do something ourselves. Let's see if we can bring this thing about ourselves. And so they decided together that why don't you, Sarah says, go into Hagar and we'll have a child through Hagar.

And so they do. And I have no doubt if we're visiting Sarah and Abraham, they're all excited. This is that promised child that God promised us.

His name is Ishmael. And they loved Ishmael. As a matter of fact, when God brought Isaac later on, Abraham said, oh, would to God that Ishmael would live before you.

He loved Ishmael. Ishmael was his strength, his idea, his work. And then later on, I don't know how old Ishmael was, but God came to Abraham one day and said, hey, Abraham, time to have that child I promised you, you know? And Abraham says, oh, we've already got one.

And oh, no, no, no, no, no. Abraham, I promised you. I want glory, Abraham.

And I want to give you Isaac. He's a son of promise. He'll glorify me.

And you'll glorify me. Ishmael is your glory. Ishmael is what you concocted, Abraham and Sarah.

Ishmael is your wisdom. And it brings you honor and glory. It doesn't bring me any.

So Abraham learned a lesson there. I better stay out of God's way and trust him and just wait and let him do his work. Well, as it says here in verse 29, but as then he that was born after the flesh, that which is man's effort persecuted him that was born after the spirit, even so it is now.

And so Ishmael turns around and becomes the greatest persecutor of Isaac. And if you look at the story of Stephen, Stephen is Isaac. Stephen is the one who's trusting in God's promise.

He's looking to Jesus. He is trusting in eternal life through the blood of Jesus. And these other men are Ishmael.

And they don't like it. Because they have, they want honor and glory from their own works. Now let's go back here and look at Acts with that in mind.

In Acts chapter 7. That's what's in the hearts of these men. And that's what the Bible says is the reason for their persecution. And let's, I want to comment on these verses as we go down through them.

In verse 54 it says, When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. They were angry. You know Jesus said that outwardly they appear righteous unto men, but inwardly they are what? Ravening wolves.

Do you know what a wolf does to sheep? A wolf, Jesus said they have sheep's clothing on, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. A wolf devours sheep. You're going to see a devoured sheep right here.

This man is going to get devoured. And he's going to be killed and thrown out. And the nature of that wolf, though it have clothing, though it have all the outward trappings of Christianity, the nature of that wolf is coming forth on Stephen.

And Stephen is devoured. Now do you know two things a wolf does to sheep? Number one, he eats them. That's not good.

But there's something else a wolf does. He scatters them. Now you want to know the biggest wolf there was in that day? Look to chapter 8 verse 1. Here is the biggest wolf of all.

It says, And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church, which is at Jerusalem. And they were all, here's that word, scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles.

And devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc at a church. This wolf is coming in and making havoc.

Like picture a whole field of sheep and a wolf coming in the midst of it and then just going everywhere. Verse 4, Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere. It's a picture spiritually of this wolf coming in and just scattering the sheep and devouring them.

Let's keep reading here in verse number 55. But he, here is the beautiful countenance of Abel, but he being full of the Holy Ghost, he was right with God. He looked up steadfastly unto heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God and said, Behold, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.

Can you imagine being in the condition of Cain? You're angry, you're raw. You've got this guy before you whose faith is the faith of an angel. He's got peace with God.

He's rejoicing in the Lord. And then he says to you, I see Jesus. I see the Lord standing at the right hand of God.

Look! These men who've never probably seen a vision in their life, who have no vision when they read the Scriptures, they lost their vision of spiritual things altogether. And they know they're dead. They know they're dry.

They know they're not in the right place with God. And here's this guy full of the Holy Ghost. He's right with God.

He has peace in his heart. Then he sees a vision. What are you talking about envy and jealousy? How would you like to be in that position, you know? And so they can't handle it.

It says in verse 57, it says, Then they cried out with a loud voice. What a sight this must have been. Cried out and started screaming, stopped their ears, and ran upon Him with one accord.

By the way, I want to throw this in. If you go through the book of Acts, we'll see this as we go through the book of Acts, but God visits His people when they're suffering. You know, go through the book of Acts, you find when does God send an angel? When does God visit Himself? Well, the Lord ends up, you know, Peter ends up being put in prison, an angel comes.

How many of you have seen an angel? When Paul is being persecuted, he's in jail, guess who shows up in a night vision? The Lord does. Courageous. Jesus, when He's at the Garden of Gethsemane, angels come and minister unto Him.

It seems like when God's people are suffering and suffering unjustly, that the Lord shows up for that one. And here He does. He shows up.

And so verse 57, Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon Him with one accord. And you know, they did that because they were furious, because their heart was not right. You know, some people here, maybe your heart's not right with God.

Maybe you see someone back there, like a Valerie or someone here, just want to praise the Lord. And God did this miracle. And you're in there like, Grrrr.

Grrrr. Last time God did a miracle for me was, I don't even remember. Grrrr.

Why don't somebody quiet these people down a little bit? You know how that is, right? With the God that we all could just rejoice in the Lord. Praise God. But you know, hearts are not in the right place often.

And just like here. I see Jesus, standing at the right hand of God. Oh really? Let us see.

Not rejoice with them to rejoice, but just hate them. You know, if you and your heart feel angry and upset because someone is praising God and is free and is happy, you ought to check your heart. You might have the same heart Cain had.

It's not a good heart. So verse 58, it says, And they cast him out of the city, and stoned him. And the witnesses lay down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.

Now, Saul is going to talk about this in Acts chapter 22, what happened that day. And I think Saul is in the group here. He's one of these, Grrrr.

And they go out, they get him, they take him outside the city. I'd love to have been there to have seen it. Stephen's probably singing on the way out.

I don't know. They get out there and the witnesses, how many witnesses? Supposedly he blasphemed by saying certain things. Saul says, Okay, who's going to stone him? And five or six men say, We will.

And they take their coats off, so they can throw better. And they bring their coats over and give them to Saul. Hold on.

I'll hold them for you. Let me read to you what Saul said later on in Acts 22. It says, And when the blood of the martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him.

You know why? I try to put myself in Saul's position. You know why I think Saul was such a great apostle? I mean, that guy had a path that's like, If the Lord saves me, He's got me. I mean, I have so much remorse in my past life, so many things I've done wrong.

I'm just, I'm going full bore. Doesn't Jesus say that he who is forgiven much, loves what much? And certainly Paul was one. He said, I am the chief of sinners.

Paul was one who saw his wickedness and how much he opposed. He even said, I even forced people to blaspheme the name of Jesus. And having seen all that and God showing him mercy, it's like, I'm just giving my whole life.

I don't care. I'll die. Whatever you want.

So they laid their garments at Saul's feet and they cast Stephen out of the city. I'm going to ask you to turn to another verse here. We have a little bit of time.

Turn to Hebrews chapter 13. I want to read a passage here. I shared this when I taught through the book of Hebrews many years ago.

Outside the city was the garbage dump. It's called Gehenna. It's a picture of hell.

But the things that were wasteful, you know, they didn't have the waste systems combined, pick your garbage up every week like we do. They had a valley outside the city where they would burn and smoke would kind of always kind of just be simmering. And that was a picture of hell.

The smoke ascends up forever and ever. It was just a picture outside the city. You constantly see it.

Garbage is out there. Well, here in Hebrews chapter number 13, Paul is writing and starting in verse number 10, he says, We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without the camp.

Wherefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered without the gate. You know, the Lord was crucified outside the city. And then verse 13 says, Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach.

Now those animals that were sacrificed, they all were symbolic. There was a picture. And so imagine this, you're bringing your lamb to the temple or the tabernacle.

You walk in the front door there and you've got the brazen altar and the priests say, What would you like? Here's my lamb. I want to offer it as a sacrifice. And so they take that lamb and they take it to this altar and they kill it.

It's a picture of Jesus' death. And then they take the blood of that animal and take it into the Holy of Holies and put it on the altar. That's a picture of the blood of Jesus placed on the altar for the forgiveness of our sins.

Then they take the meat, the good meat of the sacrifice and the priests get it to eat. That's kind of their portion. And so that lamb, his blood goes to the mercy seat.

The meat sustains the priests. And then there's this, if we're done butchering, there's this pile of junk. The stomach, the tongue, the hoof, the head, and all this stuff.

Can you imagine how much stuff was in that tabernacle when they had a bunch of people coming in? Hundreds and thousands of people offering up animals. Well, it's that stuff that was taken outside the city and burned. And you know there's a picture for us of the Christian life.

This is the life of Jesus. He offered himself up as sacrifice. His blood went to the mercy seat.

His body sustains us. We are priests. We eat of him.

We eat of my flesh. We drink of my blood. But there's an aspect of his life that we seem to like to reject.

And that is that junk that's there. And the Lord is saying here in this passage that this thing is a symbol of you're going to have to suffer too outside the city. You're going to be rejected.

He said you're going to be despised. You're going to be hated. Just like that junk that was taken outside the city.

And so he invites us here in verse 13. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach. In other words, it's an invitation for all of us.

Yes, it's not the most pleasant thing. Outside the camp. We like to stay inside the camp.

Isn't it nice here? Fellowship. Singing. We're going to eat in a little bit.

But it's outside the camp where you're going to get hated. And so the invitation is come on outside the camp and suffer. And bear my reproach.

And so we're encouraged there to do that. And this is who's going to reproach you right here. Marvel not that the world hates you.

Because both of these have a bad heart. They don't have peace with God and they're angry. And maybe what we ought to do is show people that we have some joy in our life.

Amen? Maybe we should show people we have a face of an angel. Lord help us. Lord help me.

Okay, let's just go back here to Acts 7 and we'll finish this story. Stephen's only been a Christian for a short time. It seems like he had just been ordained as a deacon.

Boy, his ministry as a deacon was short-lived. Stephen's going to lose his life. Some of them say, boy, what a wasted life.

Not in God's perspective it's not a wasted life. But let's keep reading verse 59. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice. Can you imagine this scene? Amazing. Amazing.

Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. Wow. Reminds me of Jesus.

His last words. Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

Now stop and think about that for a minute. Here you have some people who are devouring wolves. And they're trying to destroy them.

And then you have someone who has the spirit of Christ saying, forgive them, Lord. Forgive them. Just like Jesus.

Father, forgive them. For they know not what they do. While these are presenting the spirit of a wolf, there is another spirit here.

Not only does it have the face of an angel, but it says, I still don't want you people to go to hell. I still love you people. Lord, please have mercy on them.

So the Bible says, pray for them which despitefully use you, right? That's if you have a good heart. If someone despitefully uses you and you don't have a good heart, what are you going to do then? You're going to devour them. You're going to devour them.

But if you have a good heart, if you have a heart that's redeemed, you're going to know that, you know, I'm a wicked individual and God has forgiven me so much, I'm going to forgive and forgive and forgive. And so these who are killing Stephen represent the wolf, the devouring spirit. And Stephen is showing the love of Christ.

The Bible says that love covers transgression. Stephen is still trying to cover their transgression. Lord, please cover their transgression.

Father, forgive them. Lord, do not lay this sin to their charge. I don't want them to have to stand and give an account of this.

Please, Lord, forgive them. What a good heart. And you know that heart is being led by the Spirit of God.

And you know if your heart today is in the right place and you have peace with God and you're filled with the Holy Spirit, it doesn't matter what people do to you. Even if they throw stones at you, you're still going to say, Lord, would you please forgive them? You're not going to go after them and devour them. You're going to have a good spirit like Stephen.

You know, I can just see most Christians today getting up, picking one of the stones and start throwing them back. Well, it's not in our place. They hated him.

And you know they wanted to stone him because they thought he was blaspheming God. But he loved them. And by the way, I've shared this with you many times before.

You can impersonate this, but you can't impersonate this. You can't impersonate the heart. And you watch the spirit of an individual.

You can't impersonate it. That's why the Bible says you shall know them by their what? Fruits. Fruits.

And so these people, though they looked religious, showed that they had a wolf nature. The Bible says the devil's come to steal, kill, and to destroy. I have come, Jesus said, for life.

And also, just let me make some application here real quick and I'll finish. This heart right here, it wants to devour. I'll tell you, somebody else who wants to devour too.

Do you know who that is? The devil walketh about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And do you know what happens if you have a heart that wants to devour? There'll be an evil spirit that'll come yoke up with you real quick and says, I like this home. It's got the same spirit I have.

And you know what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 22? He said to the servant who didn't forgive his brother when he was forgiven, who took his brother by the neck and tried to devour him. What did God say would happen to him? He would be delivered to the tormentors. You know who the tormentors are? The devil.

Demons. We'll let you have a few demons come to yoke up with you if you want to devour your brother. There's a few demons that love to do it too.

And they'll come and live with you and you'll find that you'll be tormented. So if you don't want to be tormented by a spirit, you ought to say, I don't want to devour anybody. I want to be one who gives life.

And mercy and grace. Lest you invite something that you don't want. A lot of people are tormented.

Tormented. Because they have a devouring spirit. I don't know what happened to these men here.

I'm sure they didn't go and lay their head on the pillow that night and get a lot of rest. They were probably tormented. And so let's make sure, as we always encourage, let's make sure that this is the issue that's right.

And then put some things on the outside and match that. And don't be upset when someone starts shouting Hallelujah and rejoicing in Christ Jesus and all the things that God is doing. Why isn't that person just shut up? You ought to ask what's wrong with your heart? So we finally put Stephen to rest.

And he's outside the city. I don't know if they ever buried him. He's outside the city.

Oh, that's right. It does say that Sam came and picked him up and later on I think we pick up with that story. He picked up his body.

Where is that at? Oh, yes. I'm sorry. Chapter 8, verse 2. Devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him.

So he did get buried. So let's look at our own hearts here this morning. Are we a part of this thing called Babylon? Babylon.

By the way, the world's heading quickly in that direction. How can we build to our honor and glory? What man can do. And even religion is heading in that direction.

They picked up the spirit of Babel. Man-centered. A lot of false prophets.

All right, let's close. We'll have a word of prayer and then we'll move right into our baptism. Baptism looks like, praise the Lord, the Lord supplied enough water.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we want to give thanks to you for giving us your word and Lord, for the opportunity to consider our own hearts. Lord, may we all examine our hearts, whether we've come to you in the proper way, that which brings glory and honor to you and not to us, saved by grace through faith, lest any man should boast.

May there be no boasting in our hearts. And so, Lord, we thank you for your word. We pray you'll minister grace to each one of us here.

Teach us your truth. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.