WWUTT 2592 Always Resisting the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51-53)

Stephen’s Warning About Resisting the Holy Spirit

Stephen said to those who were resisting his message, you are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, always resisting the Holy Spirit. Now, what does this mean to resist the Holy Spirit when we understand the text?

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible study in the Word of God that we may comprehend with all the saints, how wide, how high, and how deep is the love of Christ. Tell all your friends about our ministry at www .tt .com.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky.

Stephen’s Sermon and Martyrdom in Acts 7

In our study of the speech of Stephen, Acts 7, we're finishing up the sermon today, but then I'm also going to include that portion where Stephen is taken out and stoned for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This is Acts 7, starting in verse 51. Hear the word of the Lord. You men, stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, are always resisting the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. And which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?

They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the righteous one, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become, you who receive the law as ordained by angels. And yet did not observe it.

Now, when they heard this, they became furious in their hearts and they began gnashing their teeth at him. But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

And he said, behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. But crying out with a loud voice, they covered their ears and rushed at him with one accord. And when they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him.

And the witnesses laid aside their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. They went on stoning Stephen as he was calling out and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Then falling to his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them.

And having said this, he fell asleep. That's the portion we're gonna be looking at tomorrow where Stephen is taken out and stoned to death. But for today, looking at these last three verses of his sermon, he has gone through this history lesson from Genesis all the way through the prophets and showing them how they, like their fathers, rejected the prophets and even put them to death.

And this was to convict their hearts to recognize that they have not actually followed God's word. They have been the ones who are against it. Remember the accusation that they made of Stephen, which we read at the end of chapter six.

They said that this man speaks blasphemous words against Moses and God. But Stephen showed through his preaching how he's actually in agreement, in keeping with the words of Moses and the word of God.

It's these men who have gone against the word of God and those who brought them that word, the prophets whom God had sent, even his own son, Jesus Christ. And so as we look at these closing verses today, 51 to 53, we'll look at those verses one at a time.

So verse 51, where Stephen says, you're always resisting the work of the Holy Spirit. Verse 52, where he said, you have persecuted the prophets and even the son of God himself. And then verse 53, you would receive the law as ordained by angels, but you did not observe it.

How did they not observe it? And how was Stephen using the law to convict their hearts? That's an important part of this as well. So back to verse 51, you men stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears.

Now, remember that Stephen has been going through the Old Testament and there's numerous Old Testament references here. As I had said to you at the beginning of the study through this sermon, if you have a Bible that's the NASB or the legacy standard, then the Old Testament references will be in all caps.

So it's easy for you to spot all of his Old Testament quotes like quoting directly from those scriptures. And we saw quotes from Genesis and Exodus and then later on, even some of the prophets. So he's been taking them through the Old Testament and showing them how the prophets who had been rejected, this is who you have been like.

And in the Old Testament, God would say to Israel because they were so stubborn, he would call them stiff-necked. Deuteronomy 31, 27, I know your rebellion and your stiff neck. Behold, while I am still alive with you today, you have been rebellious against Yahweh.

How much more than after my death? That's Moses, of course, addressing Israel. Isaiah 48, verse three, I declared the former things long ago and they went forth from my mouth and I caused them to be heard.

Suddenly I acted and they came to pass because I know that you are stiff and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead bronze. Therefore I declared them to you long ago. So what does it mean that this people would have a stiff neck?

It means that they are unwilling to turn back from the direction that they are going. Especially if you think of like a draft animal, whether it's a horse or an ox, you have them attached to a plow. If they turn their head, the whole body turns, the plow turns and everything else, right?

So a stiff neck would mean that the animal is not going to turn at all. And so using that illustration to Israel and saying of them that you are fixed in your rebellious direction, you will not repent, you will not turn back, you have a stiff neck.

So that's the address in the Old Testament. That's what Stephen is saying of these people here. And then also calling them uncircumcised in heart. Now this also goes back to the book of Deuteronomy because before the people were about to enter the promised land, they had not yet been circumcised.

This was the generation that was going to be permitted to take the promised land. The older generation had rebelled against God. They died off after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. So to this generation that God was going to bring into the promised land, they were supposed to be circumcised.

They had not yet been circumcised. But even this circumcision was supposed to be to them an understanding of the circumcision of the heart. What was even more important than the circumcision of the body, the circumcision of the foreskin among the males was the circumcision of the heart among all the people.

That they would be cut off from the desires of the pagans in the land and instead would be united to Christ. Well, united to God, but of course, united to the Messiah, the son of God, the one whom God was going to send to redeem them.

They would be fixed to the promise. And if they were not going to be united to God, then he would cut them off. And this was all testified to in the covenant sign of circumcision. God's direct command to them was to be circumcised of heart.

But here, the way that Stephen is addressing this people saying you have not done that, you've been stiff-necked and you are uncircumcised in your heart and your ears. You are like pagans. You think that you are the children of Abraham and are going to receive all of these promises, but you are not like Abraham.

You are not like the children who will receive the kingdom of God because your hearts and your ears have been united to those things that are opposed to God. They opposed the very righteous one, the son of God who was sent to them.

So because of their stiff neck, because their hearts are not before God, so Stephen says you are always resisting the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Now, this verse is often used against me to contend with the doctrine of irresistible grace.

If you are familiar with the doctrines of grace, that which is also called TULIP, it is the summary of Calvinism, the study of God's sovereignty in election, in salvation. It is God who has chosen to save whom he means to save.

And this is not by our will, but God's will. As said in Romans 9, he will have mercy on whom he has mercy and he will have compassion on whom he has compassion. He will have mercy on whomever he wills and he hardens whomever he wills.

And so the doctrines of grace kind of summarize that understanding where you have T-U-L-I-P in the acrostic TULIP, T standing for total depravity, U for unconditional election, L for limited atonement, I for irresistible grace, and P for the perseverance of the saints.

Now, those aren't really the best names. And even as I've taught through those doctrines before, I have given more proper titles to them. If you've ever listened to R .C. Sproul, he's done the same. Sproul doesn't really like the term total depravity, so he might call it radical corruption or something like that, or total inability.

And instead of limited atonement, it would be a particular redemption. Instead of perseverance of the saints, it would rather be the preservation of the saints. So, you know, things like that. The doctrines actually sound like they've been named by the people who oppose the doctrines rather than the people who are in favor of them.

But anyway, with regard to that doctrine that is called irresistible grace, there are those that will contend with this because the understanding of irresistible grace is that when God has chosen to save whom he means to save, they will come to him.

And this is Jesus in John 6, 37. All that the Father gives me will come to me. And the one who comes to me, I will never cast out. And then he also says later on in chapter 10, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me.

These are some of the verses to defend this doctrine of irresistible grace. That when the Holy Spirit transforms the heart, the heart of a person who was previously in rebellion against God, and now they've been given a new heart and a new mind.

In a sense, they are given a circumcised heart and ears. Then that person will hear the gospel and the gospel and the promise and the call of the gospel are so powerful by the work of the Holy Spirit that that person will respond to it.

It is irresistible grace, a grace that is so overwhelming, so incredible. And the person hearing it realizes their sin and the love of God that is demonstrated through Jesus Christ that they are compelled to respond to it favorably.

Falling on their knees in repentance, begging God for forgiveness and receiving it by faith in Jesus Christ. This is the understanding of irresistible grace. And so whenever we talk about this particular doctrine, even defending it from scripture, there are those who will attempt to use verses to resist that doctrine, and this is one of them.

This is probably the verse that ends up getting used against this doctrine. So Acts 7 .51, you men stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are always resisting the Holy Spirit. And they will say, look here, it says right here, Stephen says they're resisting the Holy Spirit.

So there's no such thing as irresistible grace. Well, understand that there's two kinds of calling and the Holy Spirit is in both of these kinds of calling. There is the external calling and there is the internal calling, or that which we would also refer to as the effectual calling.

The external calling is the calling that everyone hears when they hear the word of God spoken, not just the gospel, but even if the Old Testament, even if the law is read, the Holy Spirit is behind that as well, because these are words that have been given by the mouth of God.

Whether it was as ordained by angels, as Stephen says there in verse 53, so it comes from the mouth of an angel, or it comes from the mouth of Moses, or it's written down in a manuscript, it is still the word of God, it came from God.

So the Holy Spirit is, of course, behind that. As said in 2 Peter 1, no prophecy comes about by the will of man, but the Spirit of God guided men to write what God wanted them to write down. So it is God's word as given by His Spirit.

Whenever anyone hears God's word preached, they are hearing the voice of God through the Holy Spirit, Old Testament or new, law or gospel, okay? So that's the external call. Everyone who hears God's word preached, whether they are a believer or not, they have heard the external call to be righteous, but then even hearing, I haven't been righteous, turn from your sin to the Lord Jesus Christ, who will forgive you of your sin and cleanse you from all unrighteousness, and then you will be made a child of God, you will have eternal life.

The declaration of the law, the declaration of the gospel, the Holy Spirit working in this to convict the person and bring them to an understanding of their sin and who Jesus is, that's the external call.

But then the internal call, the effectual call, is when the person not only hears that with their physical ears, but they hear it with spiritual ears. They hear it with a transformed heart and they believe it and receive it.

Now, the Holy Spirit doesn't make them believe. It's not like the Holy Spirit believes for them. So the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts and He's believing on our behalf because we were unable to believe.

That's not what happens. The Spirit gives us a new heart and a new mind. It is still our believing. And our resisting is also our resisting. If a person resists that message, that's because that was in their heart to resist that message.

And so the statement, you are always resisting the Holy Spirit, is not resisting the effectual call. You can't resist the effectual call. If it is the Holy Spirit's will that you would be transformed and follow God, then He is going to do that.

And all of this according to what God had decreed from before the foundation of the world. These are my children. These are those for whom Jesus will die. The Son of God will lay His life down as an atoning sacrifice.

These are those who are vessels prepared for mercy as Romans 9 says. So these are the one that the Holy Spirit effectually changes and brings to an understanding of the gospel that they have heard, they believe in it, and they are saved.

A person is still saved by grace through faith. That's the only way any person is saved. Nobody is saved any other way. But the decree was made before the foundation of the world. Who was going to be saved and who would not be?

And Romans 9, again, illustrates that. God has prepared vessels of mercy for salvation and He has prepared vessels of wrath for destruction. And if it is God's will to do such a thing, He is just in doing so.

He is gracious and merciful to save those who could not save themselves. We could do nothing to save ourselves. Our hearts by our nature were in rebellion against God. We were not for God, we were against Him.

And so we needed the work of the Holy Spirit to transform our hearts that we would hear the gospel of God and desire Him instead of continuing to resist Him. So what Stephen is saying to these people here is that they are still in this rebellious heart.

They're resisting the Holy Spirit because they have not listened to the Holy Spirit. It's not because the doctrine of irresistible grace is wrong. It's because they in their stiff necks and uncircumcised hearts resist the Holy Spirit.

That's what every person does until the Holy Spirit transforms them to understand the gospel and believe it. So not the gotcha verse that they think it is. That's verse 51, as your fathers did, so do you.

The Parable of the Vineyard and the Rejected Son

Now going down to verse 52, and which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who previously announced the coming of the righteous one, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.

This is Stephen saying to them, listen, Jesus told you that you were gonna do this. In the parable of the vine growers, which you can read in Matthew 21, verses 33 to 46, Jesus tells this parable about a land owner who planted a vineyard and he rented it out to vine growers while he went away on a journey.

And then he sent slaves to receive some of the fruit, but the vine growers took the slaves, beat one, killed another, and then stoned a third. He sent another group of slaves. They did the same thing to them.

And then afterward, he sent his son, saying they will respect my son. But when the vine growers saw the son, they said to themselves, this is the heir. Let's kill him and seize his inheritance. And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

And Jesus, after telling this parable, said to the crowds, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what's he gonna do to those vine growers? And the people said, he'll bring those wretches to a wretched end and he'll rent out the vineyard to other vine growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.

And then Jesus said to them, did you never read the scriptures? The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. And this came about from the Lord and it is marvelous in our eyes.

And therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruit of it. And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.

And now this is Matthew 21, 45. When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parable, they understood he was speaking about them. And so Stephen is bringing this back to their remembrance. Jesus already told you this and you have done exactly what he said you would do.

Your fathers killed those who had previously announced the coming of the righteous one. And now you have killed the righteous one. You who receive the law, verse 53, you receive the law as ordained by angels yet did not observe it.

Angels themselves who had declared the law from Mount Sinai, Exodus chapter 20, thundering from the mountain as it smoked, went up like a kiln. The million and a half people of Israel that were there at the base of the mountain to hear the voice of God thundering through these legions of angels declaring the law to God's people.

This is the law as ordained by angels, but the people did not observe it. They even twisted the law and made it into something that God did not say. And so Stephen has said here, he has given the prophets, he has given the law to convict their hearts that they would see their wickedness has actually been in opposition to God's word.

Stephen's not the one who has been going against it. They have, even to the point of killing the son of God who was sent to them. And what are they gonna do with Stephen? Well, as they did to Jesus, so they're going to do with Stephen.

And that's the part that we will read tomorrow, verses 54 to 60. My brethren be convicted by the law of God, turn from your sin to the gospel of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, and in him, you will be forgiven and saved.

Heavenly father, we thank you for what we've read, this word that has been given to us from your prophets and apostles. And I pray that it would convict our hearts that by the work of your Holy Spirit, we would be transformed to desire to do those things that are pleasing to you.

Lead us in paths of righteousness today. For your name's sake, it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Closing Remarks and Ministry Sign-off

Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog, sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers, and offering commentary on the church and social issues. You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .tt .com.

Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's word when we understand the text.