 Amen. Alright. So we're going to look at Acts chapter 6 towards the end of the chapter and maybe jump a little bit into Acts chapter 7. So it'll be Acts 6.5 sermon tonight. But I believe Stephen, this man in the Bible that we start seeing, specifically talked about in Acts chapter 6 at the end. And then the whole chapter of Acts chapter 7, I believe he deserves some study in the Bible. It's a man in the Bible and it's a really extreme situation that happens here. Of course, we saw last week, we studied through Acts chapter 6, the beginning, and we looked at the deacons, the first deacons of the church. We looked at that division of labor of the church, how the people that help out and support the pastor and the ministry are as important as the ministry itself as they allow the ministry to go forward. We just see that it just becomes a much more efficient machine in the church with those types of things happening. So Stephen, one of those men, they look at verse number 8, that's where we'll begin this evening. Stephen, then they talk about the deacons, the seven men that were chosen. And then immediately we go into the details about Stephen. So it says in verse number 8, I mean it's interesting because they said in verse, let's see where it says, in verse number 8, it says, Stephen, a man full of faith and power did great wonders and miracles amongst the people. And in verse number 5, it says, Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. So here, Stephen's kind of given a little bit extra credit in verse number 5 and we see he was full of faith and of the Holy Ghost and then we see of faith and power just kind of showing an interesting little two verses that our power that we have comes from God. It comes from the Holy Ghost. It comes from the power that God gives us. So Stephen was doing some great things and we see verse number 8, it says he did great wonders and miracles amongst the people. So here Stephen is immediately focused on, he's one of these deacons but he's not just serving tables. He's out there and he's preaching and he's doing great wonders and he's doing miracles. Assuming he's doing healing just like the other apostles were doing and there's people that didn't like that. So look at verse number 9, then there arose a certain of the synagogue which is called the synagogue of the Libertines and the Cyrenians and the Alexandrians and of them of Cecilia and of Asia disputing with Stephen. So here are these religious leaders of the Jews they came and they started arguing with what Stephen was preaching. So Stephen wasn't just serving tables. He was out there and he was preaching as we will see in chapter number 7, Stephen is a great preacher and he's got great knowledge and he's filled with the Holy Ghost. So he is preaching the Bible and it says in verse number 10, it says they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. Now that's interesting right there because that just shows you and I've mentioned this in sermons before and this isn't the point of this sermon. But I've mentioned this before that if you ever have anybody that's disputing with you about your beliefs or disputing with you about your beliefs from the Bible and how you're applying that to your life, the Bible says that all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution and if people are giving you a hard time about that, one thing that I always do is I just say let's just sit down with the Bible and you can tell me where I'm wrong and right there that will end every discussion right there. It's kind of like a silver bullet if you want to look at it that way and that's basically what Stephen was saying, you know, Stephen, they were disputing with Stephen but they were not able to resist his wisdom because he was just, he was preaching the Bible. He was preaching what the Bible said. So he just basically said, Stephen's like show me from the Bible and then we'll see in Acts chapter 7, you know, Stephen's response and what he was actually saying to them and you'll see why they were not able to resist what he was saying. But that's basically our answer to anybody disputing with us. It's not, you know, any kind of debate that we're going to have, it's just show me from the Bible, show me from the Bible. That's why every Christian, every Bible-believing Christian, you know, needs to understand and know the Bible. So you can give an answer when that time comes for you to give an answer. Look at Acts chapter 6, verse number 11. So I want to specifically, you know, really drill down on a specific pattern that we see with Stephen and the people that were against and that were resisting Stephen. Because it says they weren't able to resist him, but they still did resist him in a certain way. Look at verse number 11. It says, then they, so they were not able to resist him in words. They were not able to win the debate against Stephen because he was just preaching what the Bible said. He had, he had the truth. He had ownership of the truth and he was full of the Holy Spirit. Tough to, tough to beat that in a debate. Okay? But look, it didn't matter. They didn't just say we, we lost the debate. That's not what they said. And that's what we're really going to look at this evening is why, you know, they did what they did in the next few verses to Stephen. Look at verse number 11. It says, then they suborned men. It's like they, they, that means they hired men to go against him. Okay? 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. I mean, they went to great lengths here. They set up, they, they got these men to say, say things to get him arrested. And then they, they got men to be false witnesses against him at the trial or at the tribunal or whatever you want to call this council. And it says, for we have heard him say, these false witnesses said, this man seeeth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, the, the temple and the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us. Look at verse 15. And all that sat on the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. So look at verse number 10 again. It says they were not able to argue against him. They were not able to resist him. They were not able to argue the Bible. Go back to Acts chapter 4 though. Go back to Acts chapter 4. They couldn't argue the Bible, but you say, yeah, but he was doing, he did great wonders and miracles, the Bible says. I mean, he was doing all these miracles. I mean, how could they, how could they deny that? Well, they didn't deny that. They didn't deny the miracles. They knew. They saw him doing miracles and they didn't deny it. In Acts chapter 4 verse 16, the Bible says they couldn't deny the miracles. Look at verse 16 of Acts chapter 4. Look what it says. It says, saying, what shall we do to these men? For indeed a notable miracle, hath been done by them, is manifest to all that dwell in Jerusalem and we what? It says, we cannot deny it. They're seeing the miracles and they literally, they say we can't deny that the miracle was true. That's what it means. It's like, we saw him heal it. Everybody saw it. It wasn't a trick. We don't deny the miracle. Look, first of all, this is proof of the reprobate doctrine right here. This was proof that they literally, no matter what they saw, they literally could not believe in Jesus. They could not believe that Jesus was the Messiah. You know, go to John chapter, well, I mean, we don't have to go there, but in John chapter 12, you know, Jesus talks about, you know, it says, therefore they could not believe Jesus said in John chapter 12. Look, there were some religious leaders that were done. They were finished. These people that we're looking at right here are part of that. They couldn't deny the miracles. They saw the miracles and they still couldn't believe in Jesus. That's proof that you can just be done. They're reprobates, okay? But here's the thing, more than that, think about this, more than that, they could have just said these Pharisees, these religious leaders, they could have just said we just don't believe it, Stephen, we just don't believe it, or we choose not to. We choose not to believe it. They lost the debate against Stephen, and they could have just said, you know what? We just choose not to believe you. We just choose not to believe that Jesus is the Messiah. But no, they couldn't leave it there. They couldn't leave it there. Here is, it wasn't, even though they couldn't prove it, they could have just said, I mean, haven't you ever run into somebody like that where you've been discussing something and you just like have absolute facts? Maybe it's just even something technical or not even spiritual. There's absolute facts and they're just like, yeah, I just don't believe that. Haven't you ever run into that before? They could have done that. But that's not what they did. They went a step further. Why? And that's what I want to point out tonight. Why did they go a step further? Turn to Matthew chapter 23, Jesus told us why. And we see a specific pattern with these people that turned against Stephen that you will see everywhere in your life. And I want to make sure that we recognize this pattern this evening. Look at Matthew chapter 23. Here's the main problem. Here's the reason that they just couldn't say to Stephen, we just have a difference of opinion with you and walk away. Alright, look at Matthew chapter 23. Look at verse 28, Jesus in Matthew chapter 23 is just ripping face on the Pharisees. This is where he's like, you guys are a bunch of vipers. He's calling them names. He calls them a hypocrite like 12 times. He's just like, hypocrites, hypocrites, hypocrites just tearing them to pieces. But look what he says in verse 28. I mean he's well within the rant. I mean he is going off on these people. In verse 28, look what he says. He says even so. He's like even further. Like we can read several verses above this and he's just going off on the Pharisees. He says even so in addition to, look what he says, you also outwardly appear righteous unto men. But within you're full of hypocrisy and iniquity. He says woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. Because you build the tombs of the prophets and garnish the sepicultures of the righteous and say if we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Stephen's going to fix that statement too in Acts chapter 7. But go back to Acts chapter 28. This is why they couldn't just let Stephen go right here. Jesus says they outwardly appear righteous unto men. They were self-righteous. Self-righteousness was the issue with these people. Think about it. They could have taken many different choices with Stephen. You have Stephen preaching, Jesus as the Messiah, they don't believe it. So they could have just, they could have debated Jesus wasn't the Messiah, they could have lost the debate and they could have walked away. They could have said we still don't believe you. They could have just said we still don't believe you and then they could have still tried to kill him. Guess what? Here's another thing they could have done. They could have done nothing. Isn't that what Gamaliel, Acts chapter 5 told him to do? He basically told him just leave him alone. He told him, he's like leave him alone because if it's not of God nothing will come of it. He's like but if it is of God then you're fighting against God. I mean that was some pretty wise advice. But why aren't they taking this advice? They could have just said they didn't believe. They could have debated that Jesus wasn't the Messiah. They could have just done nothing and left him alone. But instead and it's because of their self-righteousness it caused them to take a different route because of their self-righteousness. Look at Matthew chapter 5. Instead, what did they do? They accused Stephen of two very specific things. Look at Matthew chapter 5. The first thing that they accused him of was speaking against Moses and speaking against the law. They accused him of wanting to change the law. Look at Matthew chapter 5 in verse number 17. Now Jesus himself addressed this and Jesus says in Matthew 5, 17 he says, think not that I've come to destroy the law or the prophets I have not come to destroy but to fulfill. It's the opposite actually. So they're saying that Jesus, I mean because really they're putting what Jesus said on to Stephen because Stephen is parroting, you know, he's saying the message of Jesus. He's speaking with the Holy Spirit and he's saying the message of Jesus. And Jesus said, I didn't come because look they accused Jesus of the same thing. And Jesus said, no, no, no, you got it all wrong. You guys are on the exact opposite wrong side. Sound familiar? You guys are on the wrong side. They're not on the little bit off. They're on the wrong side. You're here to change the law. Jesus's like, no, I am here to fulfill the law. I'm here to do the law. I'm here to do what was in the law, I'm making the law happen, Jesus said. It's the opposite of what they're talking about. He says, fairly I say unto you, tell heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle show and no wise pass from the law. Till it all be fulfilled. So he's like, I'm here to fulfill the law. So that's the first thing. So the first thing that they accused Stephen of is just an outright lie. It is not true at all. But we'll go to Acts chapter 6, back to Acts chapter 6. The second thing that they accused Stephen of is that he wants to destroy the temple. Look at Acts chapter 6 in verse 14. It says, for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us. That was the second part we already talked about. Now turn to John chapter 2. Now they're saying that Stephen is preaching that Jesus is going to destroy the temple. So you know, what are they talking about here? Go to John chapter 2. John chapter 2. Go to John chapter 2. Look at verse number 19. So the first thing that they do is they just outright lie about Stephen, saying that he wants to change the law. When he's just there to preach a man that fulfilled the law. That was there to fulfill the law and just build up the law. Look at John chapter 2 in verse number 19. John chapter 2 in verse number 19. The Bible says, Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. Then the Jews said, 40 and 6 years was this temple in building, you know, they think he's talking about the actual temple. And wilt thou rear it up in three days? And then verse number 21 it says, But he spake of the temple of his body. Now verse 21 is like a narration that only we get to see, right? The reprobates that didn't understand anything, they thought Jesus was talking about destroying the temple. But the funny thing is, did Jesus even say he was going to destroy the temple? Look at verse 19. He says, Destroy this temple. He's literally saying like you're going to destroy the temple. So he's like saying to the religious leaders, he's like you are going to destroy, I mean if they could understand, here's what he's saying, you are going to destroy this temple, my body. He's like you're going to kill me and I'm going to raise from the dead in three days. I guess you could argue that maybe they just still misunderstood what Jesus said here. But look, they're twisting what he said. They're twisting what Jesus said, because he never even, even if you thought Jesus was talking about the temple in verse 19, he didn't say he was going to destroy the temple. He said they're going to destroy the temple. He was just, he was talking about his ability to what? To rebuild the temple in three days. To raise himself from the dead, okay? So look, he actually did say those words, so that's a little bit closer, they just twisted those words. All right? But look, this is a sign of self-righteous people. They had to do this to Stephen, is what I'm trying to get at. Because look, this is the whole point of what I want you to see tonight. There's a pattern of self-righteousness. Now you say, are you talking about pride? I'm like, not really. Like pride is like, pride is one thing, but self-righteousness is like a more dangerous version of pride. It's this, it's this idea that, you know, you're just like, you're above everyone, and you're, you're better in a certain area, or whatever it is. And the problem is, is that self-righteous people, as we see in the story of Stephen, they're very dangerous people. They're very dangerous people, and they can do a lot of damage. I mean, first of all, people in general will do this. You will see this in your life outside of everywhere. You will see self-righteous people do this. I was trying to think of all kinds of examples that I could think, because I know you've seen this pattern in your lives. I was thinking about, you know, examples of, first of all, think about how bad it is. It's something that reprobates do in the Bible. That's bad. I mean, think about how bad that is. And we see how much damage it will cause to Stephen, and how much of damage it will cause to people in the Bible. But here's the thing. Think about, like, so let's just talk about self-righteousness. What's the pattern that you see? This pattern repeats itself everywhere with self-righteous people. Think about a work situation. You think about somebody who's self-righteous at work. You think about, I've met this person many times in my life. You think about a guy or a gal at work that is just like, I mean, say they're like, truly, they're really good at what they do. They're just like, really good at their job, like, genuinely, they're good at it. And they know they're good at it. And they become, like, very not even prideful, but self-righteous. What do you mean by self-righteous? Like, they don't think they can ever do anything wrong. They get this attitude, like, we can't do anything wrong. Nothing can ever be done wrong by me. I'm so great at this. And then, if they do do something wrong, or somebody, even worse, somebody points out, like, a Stephen comes along, and points out, like, hey, you did something wrong there, or that's not right, or does something contrary to what their self-righteous is to say, they will just, like, not only will they not admit that they are wrong, like, these Pharisees, but they will do everything possible to destroy that person that has pointed out what they've done wrong. These are, like, these, I mean, some of these people are crazy. These self-righteous people, I mean, look, you'll run into them everywhere out there. Now think about this. Think about, like, a friend situation. And look, I guarantee you don't have a friend like this, because people like this, it's, like, impossible for them to have friends. You have this friend who's, like, I mean, you've met people like this that maybe wanted to be your friend, or maybe you met them, and you're, like, maybe I could be friends with this person, but they're this type of person that they just, like, they've done it the biggest, they've done it the best. And everything's about the biggest the best, and everything about them is the biggest and the best. But the funny thing that you find about those people is not only are they the biggest and the best, and tell me if this isn't true when you've run across people like this, but they're always, like, ripping down people that aren't the biggest and the best in their own mind. This is a self-righteous person that does that. OK, that's self-righteousness. Now, I mean, think about this. Think about your marriage. Like, this would be terrible for a marriage to be self-righteous. If you have a good marriage, I can tell you that you're not self-righteous. Because imagine, I mean, imagine the pattern we see with these religious leaders. What do they do? They have an argument with Stephen. They disagree. Like, if you're human, you're probably going to have a disagreement in your marriage. You're probably going to have a disagreement. But what if, like, let's say that I have a disagreement in my marriage with my wife, but I'm self-righteous. And I'm like, I can do no wrong. And so I'll never admit that I did anything wrong. This is the kind of, and look, I'm sure you've heard of relationships like this, too. I'm sure none of you have a relationship like this. But I'm sure you've heard of relationships like this where couples, first of all, turn to Ephesians chapter 4, where couples, I can remember a couple that my wife and I knew, a married couple that we knew a long time ago, like 15 plus years ago, and they were like this. They were both like this. And I would be, I mean, hopefully they're still married. But I would be shocked, to be honest. Because they're both very self-righteous people. And what they would do is they would get in an argument together. They would disagree with something that the other one had done, and neither of them would be at any fault. Neither of them were wrong. And then what they would do is if the one person didn't think that they were wrong, what they would do is as the argument went on, like it went on forever, seeming like, but it went on and on and on, then the person that was self-righteous would just keep bringing up. And the person that was self-righteous, let's just assume that they were wrong, but they couldn't admit that they were wrong. So what did they do? They keep bringing up things from a year ago, or from two years ago, or from three years ago, just to try to cover up what's going on. That's what the Pharisees did to Stephen. It's like, here, they had a disagreement with Stephen. They couldn't just say, hey, we disagree. I don't agree with you. Go do whatever you want. If it's not of God, it's not going to come to anything. No, they're like, I must crush you. I must destroy you, because they were self-righteous. That would be a terrible thing to bring into a marriage right there. But think about it. I mean, what does the Bible say? If you get an argument in your marriage, which I'm sure you're probably going to, but look at Ephesians chapter 4 in verse number 26. This is why this is so important right here. Look at Ephesians chapter 6, be angry and sin not. It's okay if somebody wrongs you to eventually be upset about that. I mean, you're not supposed to be like some psychopath who's just like, ah, right away. But I mean, if you're slow to anger, it's okay if you're wronged to be angry about that. But it says, do it in a way where you don't sin. And the Bible says you should be slow to anger. But then it says here, it says, let not the sun go down on your wrath. So this is like good marital conflict resolution right here. So can't be self-righteous because it's not going to work. So when you get in a marital conflict of whatever kind, you did something, or she did something, or both, just own whatever you did immediately. And if both people do that, guess what? The sun will not go down on your wrath. Get that thing over with and move on with your lives. But look, self-righteousness will destroy that. Self-righteousness will wreck that. So look, self-righteousness is a terrible thing. It'll literally, I said, I'm pretty confident that I can say that you don't have self-righteous friends because self-righteous people are gonna have a difficult time having friends, at least long-lasting friends. They're gonna have a very hard time with that. So look, even Christians do this stuff, by the way. Even Christians do that. Let me give you a church example. You'll see this with even Christians. Look, look, we shouldn't do anything reprobates do. Okay, but Christians can do bad stuff. Think about our church. What makes our church different? We're, we say, okay, we're King James only. Okay, we're soul-winning. But here's one thing that is very different about our church. We're whole Bible preaching. So, I mean, that right there separates us from everybody, pretty much. You know, unfortunately, I mean, I mean, it doesn't make me happy to report that. I mean, I wish we weren't the only church that was whole Bible preaching. I mean, you know that. I mean, it bothers me that we're one of the only ones. But here's the thing. Here's what can happen. And here's another general thing that you'll see. Just a general characteristic about people that sit in a church where the whole Bibles preach, guess what? They'll learn the Bible, because guess what? I mean, it's gonna be like, read your Bible. Why don't you read your Bible? Why don't you have Bible studies with your kids? All this kind of stuff and just screaming at you about learning the Bible, guess what? You're probably gonna learn the Bible. You're probably gonna know the Bible better than your average, well, I mean, we all know that. But the point is this, I mean, you could get, you could get self-righteous about that. You could become self-righteous about that. But here's what happens. Here's what could possibly happen, okay? You get in a church that preaches the whole Bible and then you're in the church and you're growing and everybody's growing in the church and then you hit a wall. You hit a wall or somebody hits a wall in the church where they're just like, I don't know if that, the wall could be anything, because the whole Bible's preached. It could be anything, it could be sin, it could be just something that you just don't wanna grow in an area, whatever. But then that just keeps being preached from the pulpit. It just keeps being preached and preached and preached. And for whatever reason, somebody says that's as far as I'm gonna go there. That's as far as I'm gonna go in that area. They say, I'm not, you know, I'm just gonna stay right here on that issue. Which, you know what, here's the thing. I mean, that's not really my responsibility as a pastor. I mean, I preach the word of God and whatever. I mean, it's not good, sin always will have consequences. It's one of the things that is preached about, but now, now think about this. Now add self-righteousness to that, to that mix of somebody that's sitting at that wall. It is not really gonna move across that one barrier, but they're super self-righteous. So what do they do? They're gonna, if they're humble, they'll just be like, yeah, I'm just not gonna go over that wall. It's just, you know, it's a flaw that I have or whatever. You know, you'll meet people like that too. They're just like, I'm just not good at that. You know, I mean, that's fine, but here's the thing. Like the Pharisees, they were just not gonna believe. They were just not gonna believe, but they weren't just gonna walk away and say, we're not gonna believe that. They're like, no, we're gonna attack the man that is preaching the word of God. We're gonna destroy that man. You'll see that in churches. And you know, it could be, they could attack church members, maybe they're whatever. A lot of times they're gonna attack the pastor because he's the one preaching the word of God, you know, but I mean, you see it in churches too, is all I'm trying to say, okay? It's the same pattern where it's at work, but you see it in somebody's marriage, you see it in somebody's friendships. You see it out in the world of people just like you come across, but the more, and here's the thing, the more self-righteous somebody is, and that's why this is such a great example in Acts chapter six. The more self-righteous they are, the more scorched earth they will go. And you look what they did to Stephen and they were so self-righteous, they're just like, we will just, he's a terrorist, and we're just gonna burn him to the ground no matter what it takes. Just because they were so, anything to protect that self-righteous image that they were trying to get across. He's gonna destroy the temple and revoke the law. We must kill him. Look, they successfully did it. They successfully worked the people up all for what? They did it, you know, they were gonna change their mind all for what? Just to protect their own image, to protect their self-righteousness. For Stephen, this was deadly. So that's the whole point I'm trying to get across is that self-righteousness, when you come across it, when you see it, it's dangerous. It's dangerous for relationships. It's dangerous for churches. It's dangerous for a workplace. It's just, they're just dangerous people because they'll just, like the more self-righteous they are, they will scorch the planet earth to defend, you know. I mean, they had to destroy Stephen just to save face for themselves. They couldn't just leave it alone. They couldn't just leave it alone. So the question is like, for us personally, for us personally, you say, well, how do I be confident? I mean, I wanna be confident. I mean, I wanna be confident in the Bible. I wanna learn the Bible, I wanna be confident in the Bible, but I don't wanna become this self-righteous person. Right, I mean, I wanna be confident in the Bible. I wanna, you know, I wanna know the Bible, but here's the thing, I don't wanna come off like I'm a master of the Bible. You know, that's the difference, right? I wanna, you say, I wanna be a good leader in my family. I wanna be a good spiritual leader in my family, but I don't wanna be this self-righteous person either. But you should be a good leader in your family and you should be confident in your Christian faith and in the Bible and you should be a mature Christian that's not just pushed around with every doctrine. So, look, this is a mature Christian balancing act. It is what this is, and the trick is, you know, the trick is this, this is kinda how I think about it. You say, it's easy for you to say, you're the pastor. You know, you're the pastor of the church. Here's the trick for me. Here's the trick. The trick for me is like knowing your wheelhouse. You're like, well, you're the pastor or everything's your wheelhouse. No, it's not. It's not. I'm thankful that everything's not my wheelhouse. That would be terrible, actually. So the thing is, the trick to being confident and not self-righteous is just knowing your wheelhouse. Like, men, your wheelhouse is your home. Guess what? Your wheelhouse, your home is not my wheelhouse. My wheelhouse is this house, you know, to keep this house in order. But as far as, you know, I get up here and I preach the word of God and all these things, but hopefully you go home and, you know, I don't follow you home and, you know, like, what are you doing over there and all that? You know, who would wanna do that? Probably some people, but not me. But the key is just knowing your wheelhouse and just staying within your wheelhouse. That's all. That's a big part of it. I mean, you just think of the Pharisees. Why couldn't they just stay in their wheelhouse? I mean, they still had their broad borders and their flaccuries and they still had, but they just couldn't handle this guy over here. They had to come out of their house and go burn his house down. You know, they should've just stayed where they were at, but why? They couldn't because why? They were self-righteous. There was just too self-important to just stay in their own wheelhouse. Turn to Ecclesiastes chapter six. Turn to Ecclesiastes chapter six. I mean, it's the same thing at work. I mean, say you're the expert of everything at work, which, you know, you should be. You should go to your job and learn everything and be the best and the Christian should be the best employee out there, hands down. But the thing is, like, your job is your job. It's not your job to go out and show everybody else how awesome you are or how not awesome they are. Because that's outside your wheelhouse, once again. Right, it's like just going out and just dragging people down. You start doing that and it's a sign that, like, hey, I'm getting self-righteous here. I'm getting self-righteous. Go to Ecclesiastes chapter seven. Let's look at what the preacher says from Ecclesiastes chapter seven. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter seven in verse number 16. We're gonna have to study through Ecclesiastes. I just love the book of Ecclesiastes. Look at Ecclesiastes 7, 16. It says, be not righteous over much. What is that saying? You know what I'm saying? It's saying, don't be self-righteous. Why? It says, neither make thyself over wise. Why shouldest thou destroy thyself? So it's saying, don't be, it's not saying, like, don't be good at things or don't become wise. It's saying, don't be righteous over much and don't be over wise. Meaning, don't be self-righteous is what the first part of that verse means. And what it says, why shouldn't I be self-righteous? Cause it feels good to be the best. And it feels good to rip other people down. It says, why shouldest thou destroy thyself? You're gonna destroy yourself. It's destructive. Look, it's destructive to other people for sure. But I mean, it's really destructive to you. It's really destructive to you. So this is the pattern that you can see with self-righteous people. Just watch for this in your life. You see it with these Pharisees with Stephen. Just people that just, they can't, they can't just leave, you know, somebody else's thing alone. They just have to protect this self-righteous image of themselves. And, you know, they will do anything to protect that image of themselves. It's really a bad, bad person to be around. Okay, so watch for those types of people. Now let's look at one other thing. Next week, we're gonna look at Stephen's sermon. Let's look at one other thing that's interesting about Stephen. Turn to Acts chapter seven and look at verse number 54. We're gonna jump right to the end of Stephen's sermon. We'll look at the meat of his sermon next week. But look at Acts chapter seven and verse number 54. Now don't forget the scene here, okay? Don't forget the overall context. So when we do these Bible studies and we're going through, especially historical books, I always wanna just like make sure we capture like what's actually happening. I mean, I love going off on rabbit trails and talking about different doctrines. But don't, let's not forget what's happening. What's happening? There's thousands of people getting saved. These apostles are out. They're doing all these miracles. Even the wicked reprobates can't deny the miracles. Thousands of people are getting saved like daily. And they're just being added to the church. Everyone's just like all in, just giving all their, just everything I own is to the church. Let's get moving in this Christian life. You got Stephen healing people. He's doing great wonders. But look at Acts chapter seven and verse number 54. It says, when they heard these things, this is right after his sermon. It says, they were cut to the heart and they gnashed on him with their teeth. They weren't like, great sermon. They were like, they were just like, get him. It just made them so mad. Why? Cause they couldn't resist his words. That's why this is proof. He, it couldn't resist his words and then he proves it in Acts chapter seven. So badly they gnashed on him with their teeth and look verse 57. It says, then they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and ran upon him with what? We see this phrase over and over and over again in Acts. It says, they ran on, except this time it's not good. This time, these people are of one accord, but they're of one accord to kill Stephen. Okay? And they cast him out of the city and stoned him and the witness laid down their clothes at the young man's feet whose name was Saul. And that leads us into another story we'll talk about later. But the point is, is that they ran on him with one accord. They all hated him. Every single person that was here hated Stephen. It says they were all with one accord. It doesn't say half the people were trying to kill him and the other half were trying to get him out of there. It's like, everybody was against him. Like, where was everybody else? You know, where were all the other people? Now compare this to Paul. Turn to Acts chapter 19. Now, I mean, Paul, Paul was a little bit, you know, had a little bit different heart, you know, towards the people that were out preaching with him. If you look at Acts chapter 19, there's a story about how Paul is out preaching and a couple of the guys that are with him, you know, they get captured by a crowd. And if you look at Acts chapter 19, and you look at verse number 29, we see this story, but we see that all these people were against Stephen and there was nobody there that was advocating for him. Look at verse number 29 of Acts chapter 19. Comparing this to Paul when he went out with his missionaries and the whole city was filled with confusion and having caught Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel, they rushed with, again, one accord into the theater. And Paul ran in after to try to get him to get these guys or try to help them. In verse 30 says, and when Paul would have entered in under the people, the disciples suffered him not. And a certain of the chief of Asia, which were his friends sent unto him, desiring him that he would not adventure himself into the theater. So Paul was like heading in there to go in to help these guys. And of course we see Alexander the Coppersmith, who is an interesting character in himself, kind of gets up and calms the day down in that case. But the point is, at least Paul was going in to try to help out these guys. And what this kind of shows is like, and I can tell you from experience that you really kind of appreciate the people around you. You really kind of appreciate, I mean, I can tell that Gaius and Aristarchus, I mean, they would appreciate somebody coming in, trying to help them out in situations like that. I mean, the thing is like, we're gonna need that as a church. You know, we're gonna need that as a church. I mean, the whole thing is like, the vision's not changing here. You know, the vision's not changing here. I mean, it's just a soul winning Bible believing church that's doing the first works is just going to need people that support the people in the church. That's all I'm trying to say. And Stephen was alone when he died, you know, and he was alone by himself. Of course, he wasn't really alone. We'll look at that next week, but all that to say this at the end. I mean, when I read that story about Stephen, and I see that everybody rushed upon him, I mean, it makes me sad a little bit that there wasn't people there that were there to support him and all that. But I mean, here's the thing, folks. I mean, we talked about this even with the deacons last week. You think about like just pastors that are under fire or whatever for whatever reason. And it's just pastors or church members going through hard times and all of these types of things. I mean, you think people are strong, but even Moses needed people to hold his hands up in the Bible, you know. So we just need to always remember that as we have this same vision that's not changing here, and the vision's different, right? Because we're what, we're a different church. We're a different church that preaches different things. It's not different, it's just we preach the whole counsel of God, and that's gonna bring unique challenges. And that's gonna be where the church needs to support. The members of the church, the pastor of the church needs to support you. I mean, it just needs to be this network of support. You know, that's why I just love like, just weekends like this last weekend. You know, we just go off and we just go get a bunch of people saved and we just do a bunch of fun activities. It just makes that type of, you know, that type of support and that type of fellowship and all that stuff stronger. You know, so just remember that, all right? So Stephen is a great man in the Bible. He gave everything to the Lord Jesus Christ. He gave everything, even including his physical life on this earth. And his sermon is absolutely brilliant. We'll look at it next week, but I just really wanted to point out, you know, just this pattern that we see with the Pharisees, why they did what they did and how you will see that with people that you deal with in your life. You need to recognize that pattern. Just recognize that pattern of, hey, why is this guy coming at me at work all the time? Why is this guy, it's cause he's self-righteous. That's why. You know, why are these people always, you know, just always debating and always arguing with me and it seems like they're trying to destroy me. It's because they're self-righteous. Why would somebody protest a church that they don't agree with? Think about how stupid that is. You know, it's because, why would they, I mean, why would people, why would people watch sermons of a church that they don't agree with and then send a bunch of hate mail to the church? What sense does that make? Here's why. It's because they're self-righteous. It's because they're like, you know what? It's just, I can't just listen to Gamaliel and just be like, you know, if it's of God, it's fine. If it's not, you know, just go away. They just can't do that. Cause why? Cause they're self-righteous. That's why people do these things. So we may not like everything that we see happening all the time, but like I said, at least we know why it's happening. There's a lot of self-righteous people out there. It's funny because like, there's a lot of really wicked people that are, I mean, that are self-righteous. I mean, how much, how wronger could you be? Is wronger a word? I mean, how much more in error could you be than just be this totally wicked person that's against God and just think you are the best? No thanks, all right? Self-righteous people. Just watch out for them in your life. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.