- 00:36
- Heavenly Father we thank you for gathering us here today. We thank you that you have given us your only begotten son with whom you are well pleased and that you have given us to him and that with him that you will freely give us all things as you work all things together for the good of those who love you who are called according to your purpose.
- 01:01
- I ask that you would bless us with your holy spirit today that you would fill us with your spirit so that there would be a warm amen in our hearts concerning this word that you have granted to us from heaven.
- 01:17
- A word by your spirit of your son in whom we are to rejoice to whom we are to bow the knee by whom we come to you according to his merits pleading for these graces.
- 01:39
- We ask that you would help us now to understand what you have spoken of your son by your spirit in this unfailing inerrant word in Jesus name we pray amen.
- 01:57
- I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter 7 and we will be reading verses 38 through 50.
- 02:12
- We are continuing on in this defense of the faith by our dear brother
- 02:23
- Stephen and he simply full of the spirit full of power full of faith full of wisdom went out and heralded
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- Christ he praised Christ he spoke of how important he is how glorious he is how unique he is and because of this as he as he preached
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- Christ and did mighty signs and wonders and began to draw the attention of the people to the one mediator between God and man the man
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- Christ Jesus he was accused of blasphemy men from the synagogue of the freedmen stirred up the people and the elders of the people with lies telling them that Stephen was blaspheming
- 03:25
- Moses because he spoke against the customs and the law that he was blaspheming
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- God because he spoke against the temple they stirred up the people and they fell upon Stephen like an avalanche dragged him before the
- 03:43
- Sanhedrin as an enemy of his own people an enemy of the society laid the charges before the
- 03:50
- Sanhedrin and the chief priest points at Stephen and says are these things so and as they looked on Stephen's face was like the face of an angel and he made no defense of his own person sought no rescue for his own life but since he was on trial for the claims of the gospel and because they hated the
- 04:13
- Christ of him he preached Christ the accusations that they made that he blasphemed
- 04:20
- Moses that he blasphemed God he took up these charges and he made a defense for Christ he spoke of the patriarchs in Christ he spoke of the lawgiver in Christ Moses and Christ showing how they could only be understood in the light of Jesus the very same light that illumines
- 04:43
- Stephen's face in this moment and now speaking about Moses and moving forward in the story of God's redemptive history with Israel the covenants that he made with his people the very next item up after the covenant that God made with Israel at Sinai was
- 05:05
- God's promises to David time to talk about the temple time to talk about whether or not
- 05:11
- Stephen and the rest of the Christians and if Jesus of Nazareth himself had blasphemed God by speaking against the temple
- 05:18
- I invite you to stand with me as I read God's word we'll begin in verse 38 of Acts 7 and we will read through verse 50 this is the word of our
- 05:28
- Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by his spirit through his servant Luke this is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and with our fathers the one who received the living oracles to give to us whom our fathers would not obey but rejected and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt saying to Aaron make us gods to go before us as for this
- 05:54
- Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt we don't know what has become of him and they made a calf in those days offered sacrifices to the idol and rejoiced in the works of their own hands then
- 06:15
- God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven as it is written in the book of prophets did you offer me slaughtered animals and sacrifices during 40 years in the wilderness oh house of Israel you also took up the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your
- 06:34
- God Rimfan images which you made to worship and I will carry you away beyond Babylon our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness as he appointed instructing
- 06:49
- Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen which our fathers having received it in turn also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the
- 06:59
- Gentiles whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of David who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling for the
- 07:08
- God of Jacob but Solomon built him a house however the most high does not dwell in temples made with hands as the prophet says heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool what house will you build for me says the
- 07:28
- Lord or what is the place of my rest has my hand not made all these things this is the word of the
- 07:38
- Lord thanks be to God you may be seated we are to play the man as Latimer said to Ridley as Joab said to Abishai as Paul said to the
- 08:12
- Corinthians we are to play the man we are to have Christian courage the description of Stephen's defense is indeed a prescription for our
- 08:29
- Christian witness we are to have courage we are to have courage and Christian courage exchanges the lie of the creature for the truth of the creator
- 08:44
- Christian courage exchanges the lie of the creature for the truth of the creator a couple of weeks ago
- 08:55
- I drove out to Seminole Oklahoma beautiful drive and I went out there to buy a birthday present for my wife it was not something that I would have thought about but many of you ladies enjoyed these pews in our front yard for my wife's birthday garden party they were acquired and cleaned up and primed by a woman a sister in Christ named
- 09:26
- Sherry when I got out to the country roads and I and I turned to go on to Sherry's land you drive upon this well -graveled road the long driveway on either side beautiful fields well -fenced cleared land full of animals outhouses outbuildings for the animals and drive up there's a shop and some sheds obviously hand -built something that someone who lived there put together over here a house that's been added on to a garage and a huge front porch mature trees growing in and around the house it's been there for a long time and I pull up and I get out and there's and there's
- 10:17
- Sherry and her grandson Levi two years old very happy to be at Mamaw's house and trying to show
- 10:26
- Toby all about it I got out I immediately complimented her on the beauty of their estate
- 10:35
- I could tell they were really working on this land she said oh yeah we moved out here we moved the house out here 30 years ago and we just never stopped building we moved the house out here 30 years ago and we just never stopped building she started pointing at this thing and that thing over there showing me all that her husband had done all the improvements they had made places where they would get together after church every
- 11:04
- Sunday with their kids and grandkids and enjoy what
- 11:09
- God had provided them on God's green earth beneath an
- 11:21
- April blue sky a moment I'm going to remember the rest of my life
- 11:29
- Sherry and I knew we probably wouldn't see each other again at least for a while but we agreed to look each other up in the reunion beyond I got to thinking what would have happened if Sherry and her husband 30 years ago had believed the lies of our materialist
- 11:58
- Marxist pagan culture instead of believing the truth of God 30 years ago by the way was 1993 that's 20 years after Roe all the necessary lies for a materialist
- 12:16
- Marxist pagan culture already very prevalent very present being pushed forward so easily easily
- 12:25
- Sherry and her husband could have believed the lies of the creature and exchanged out the truth of the creator and stuck to the lies what would have happened well you know marriage is oppressive to women right it's bad for them it oppresses them it is dangerous to them marriage and family is a construct of the patriarchy and parents are oppressors to children parents are bad for children if there are children they should be given to the state for proper raising and proper education right it's wrong it's evil to own property that much property nobody needs that much land you should own as little as possible and make as little impact as you can upon mother nature for it angers her when you pretend like you own her the best case scenario for mother nature is to leave her alone and let her be a wild thicket full of thorns unkempt untaken care of right a wilderness is true paradise children are a nuisance a problem something to be avoided people with lots of kids are miserable the lies of the creature what would have happened no green fields no nourished trained animals no productivity no beautiful buildings hand -built with love and care no place for three generations to meet on a weekly basis after worshiping
- 14:10
- God no little
- 14:15
- Levi rejoicing in mamaw's house culture war brothers and sisters it's a spiritual war with massive cultural implications it's a spiritual war
- 14:41
- Stephen is defending the faith 2nd
- 14:47
- Corinthians chapter 10 verse 3 says for though we walk in the flesh though we live in this world we walk in the flesh that's not even though we live in in this present time we live in a society we have a culture even though we walk in the flesh we do not war according to the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal not fleshly but mighty in God what is going to win this war what will win this conflict weapons that are mighty in God for doing what for pulling down strongholds where are those through some sort of territory that we have to take over no for pulling down strongholds casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God heard any high things exalted against God lately there's the battle people don't want to defend the faith people ask is this really constructive right is it really constructive to to take what people are saying and disagree with them so clearly so often so loudly so deeply so thoroughly is it is it this isn't very constructive you're right it's deconstructive that's exactly what second corinthians says we're deconstructing arguments against God rebellion against Christ high things exalted against the truth of scripture yes you're right we are deconstructing and why are we deconstructing it to get it out of the way so that the things which please
- 16:47
- God and please Christ bring glory to his name can be built you know old ratty destroyed burnout buildings have to be deconstructed cleaned up and moved out of the way so that something good can be put there correct correct steven is defending the faith he's taking what they have said about him that he has blasphemed moses because he spoke against the customs and he takes them through moses okay let's just see if that's so or not and he deconstructs their arguments and he shows them that they are making foolish statements they don't even know what they're talking about and now they've accused him now watch this they've accused him of blaspheming god because he had the gall to speak against the temple what just happened there they said if you speak against the temple that we're building with our own hands 46 years it has taken us to build this temple you speak against that temple you are blaspheming god well let's see if that's so and let's watch steven defend the faith let's watch him deconstruct their false ideas how did jesus relate to the temple you remember he was talking to the samaritan woman she's like well there's this big argument going on between the samaritans and the jews whether we should worship at this mountain or that mountain and jesus says no it's not option a it's not option b it's no a day come is day is coming in an hour is coming and now is when those who worship god shall worship him in spirit and in truth god is truth worship him in spirit and in truth um what did he say about the temple something greater than the temple is here matthew 12.
- 18:48
- what was he referring to referring to himself referring to the new covenant that he brings he rebuked those in the temple as he cleansed it out he said do not make my house a house my father's house a house of trade you have made it a den of thieves and he cleaned out the temple he rebuked it it's comparative to the fig tree that looked like it had lots of life and activity but when you get up close there is no fruit so he curses it so it withers and dies and he says this generation will see it not one stone will be left upon another this this temple is coming down it's going to be destroyed this came up in his trial at christ's trial they accused him of speaking against god by speaking against the temple and they're doing the same thing to stephen here so how does stephen reply well he's just been talking about moses so let's go ahead and keep on talking about moses and this is a great opportunity to bring up israel's cardinal sin of idolatry almost as soon i mean as soon as moses has the people there at sinai to make a covenant is just how fast idolatry shows up verse 38 this is he moses this is moses who was in the congregation in the wilderness the ecclesia in the wilderness the church in the wilderness this is not the church that christ builds upon the rock of his person and work upon the gospel this is something else something that is under judgment and you'll see this in a moment moses was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on mount sinai and with our fathers the one who received the living oracles to give to us whom our fathers would not obey right he says that there's they're accusing him of being against moses but stephen reminds them that their ancestors were the ones who were against moses and in fact they're against moses because they reject christ whom our fathers would not obey but rejected and in their hearts watch this they turned back to egypt they turned back to egypt in what way how did they turn back to egypt did they did they pack up their belongings and start walking back to egypt no it was in their hearts that they turned back to egypt and this was demonstrated but when they said to aaron make us gods now what a ridiculous statement make us gods that is a self -refuting statement we used to talk about oxymorons things that are impossible by saying there's no such thing as a married bachelor but they're working on that now so i can't use that anymore making gods though that'll do that's impossible you can't make gods gods make you all right that doesn't make any sense so make us gods to go before us as for this moses who brought us out of the land of egypt we do not know what has become of him so how do they turn back to egypt though they made a calf they were familiar with the uh the the idol of calves from from egypt so they made a calf in those days the golden calf offered sacrifices to the idol and rejoiced in the works of their own hands they rejoiced in the works of their own hands this is the problem so so they've accused stephen of blaspheming god because he has spoken against the temple but what is the temple they said it themselves the temple is the work of their own hands they told jesus that it has taken us 46 years to build this temple it was the work of their own hands they had overlaid it with gold they thought so much of the temple but they didn't think so much about god so the idolatry begins that the spark of idolatry occurs when they reject moses the rebellious against moses i don't know what happened we don't know what happened to moses he said he was coming back but we don't see him we don't see him so we're going to do something we can see we don't want to touch the mountains so we're going to make something we can touch we're going to pretend like god is in the shape of this calf and we're going to worship this idol and say that this was the god that brought us up out of egypt obviously we were brought up out of egypt obviously there were great miracles we're going to say it's this golden calf so they're not saying they're not saying uh let's worship the gods of the locals what's his name uh kimosh we'll worship kimosh no they weren't saying that they're saying this is yahweh look at this golden calf that's what they're saying so they're rebelling against god's word that was coming through the prophet moses but rebelling against god's word always leads to idolatry and everywhere you find idolatry in the scriptures and in society you find vast amounts of immorality and injustice where idolatry thrives immorality and injustice thrives just ask the old testament prophets those are the three things they were always preaching about and they were always connected to worshiping false gods the spark of idolatry there the golden calf leads to a wildfire of idolatry verse 42 then god turned verse 39 in their hearts they turned back to egypt verse 42 then god turned the wrath of god is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness because what may be known of god is manifest to them for it is manifest in them even his eternal power and god has it that they were without excuse for although they knew god they did not glorify him as god nor were they thankful they became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts their foolish hearts were darkened what did they do they exchanged the truth of god for the lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever amen then god turned them over to right god turned them over to their immorality to their injustice to reprobate hearts that is the wrath of god revealed from heaven they turned god turned and gave them up to worship notice not just the golden calf that they called
