Sunday, April 23, 2023 AM

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.

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, 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.

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. I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter 7.

Acts chapter 7, and we will be reading verses 38 through 50. We are continuing on in this defense of the faith by our dear brother Stephen. And he simply, full of the Spirit, full of power, full of faith, full of wisdom, went out and heralded 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 preached 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 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 Moses because he spoke against the customs and the law, that he was blaspheming God because he spoke against the temple.

They stirred up the people and they fell upon Stephen like an avalanche, dragged him before the Sanhedrin as an enemy of his own people, an enemy of the society, laid the charges before the 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 Christ of him, he preached Christ. The accusations that they made, that he blasphemed 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 in Christ, showing how they could only be understood in the light of Jesus. The very same light that illumines 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 God's promises to David.

Time to talk about the temple. Time to talk about whether or not Stephen and the rest of the Christians, and if Jesus of Nazareth himself had blasphemed God by speaking against the temple. 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 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 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 God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets, Did you offer me slaughtered animals and sacrifices during forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

You also took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your God, Rimphan, 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 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 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 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 Lord?

Or what is the place of my rest? Has my hand not made all these things? This is the word of the 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 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 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.

Christian courage exchanges the lie of the creature for the truth of the creator. A couple of weeks ago, 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 Sherry.

When I got out to the country roads 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.

You 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 Sherry and her grandson Levi, two years old, very happy to be at Mamaw's house and trying to show Toby all about it. I got out and I immediately complimented her on the beauty of their estate.

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 Sunday with their kids and grandkids and enjoy what God had provided them.

On God's green earth beneath an April blue sky, a moment I'm going to remember the rest of my life. 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 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 Marxist pagan culture already very prevalent, very present, being pushed forward. So easily, easily, 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. 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 God, no little 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. Stephen is defending the faith. 2 Corinthians 10, verse 3 says, for though we walk in the flesh, though we live in this world, we walk in the flesh, even though we live 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? Is there 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? Is it really constructive to take what people are saying and disagree with them so clearly, so often, so loudly, so deeply, so thoroughly?

This isn't very constructive.

You're right.

It's deconstructive. That's exactly what 2 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 God and please Christ bring glory to His name can be built. Old, ratty, destroyed, burnt-out buildings have to be deconstructed, cleaned up, and moved out of the way so that something good can be put there.

Correct? Stephen 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 Stephen 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 is coming, 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. What did he say about the temple? Something greater than the temple is here, Matthew 12.

What was he referring to? He was 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, 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 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.

He says that 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 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. 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 did they turn back to Egypt?

They made a calf.

They were familiar with the idol of calves 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 they've accused Stephen of blaspheming God because he has spoken against the temple.

But what is the temple? They've 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. The spark of idolatry occurs when they reject Moses. They're 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, let's worship the gods of the locals. What's his name?

Chemosh. We'll worship Chemosh. 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 were 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 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, too. 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 Yahweh. No, to worship the host of heaven. As it is written in the book of the prophets, did you... This is from Amos 5, verses 25 -27. Stephen, a Hellenist, he's quoting the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament.

He says, as it is written in the book of the prophets, did you offer me slaughtered animals and sacrifices during 40 years in the wilderness of the house of Israel?

So what?

You also took up the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your God, Rimfan, images which you made to worship, and I will carry you away beyond Babylon. What began by a reconceiving of God as a golden calf leads into a wildfire of idolatry.

They reject Moses. They reject God's word. They say, we will not have this one shepherd. So what do they get? They get 10 ,000 wolves. Do you know what the host of heaven, worshiping the host of heaven as gods is like?

It's like the worst possible tyranny you can ever imagine. You really want 10 ,000 lords? I'll take one who shed his blood on the cross for me and rose from the dead. Notice he says, you took up the tabernacle of Moloch.

Okay, so you're carrying around Moloch's place of worship. You also took up, I mean, you picked up the star of your God, Rimfan. Here you're going to carry around. Okay, what you can do is a little shrine that you can hang from a tree somewhere.

You pack it up and you put it in your suitcase and you carry your God's shrine around. I'm going to go set it up over here on this high place. I'm going to go set it up over here on this high place. Where's Rimfan?

Where did I put him?

There he is. I didn't lose Rimfan. I got him. Carry him around. Images which you made to worship. Now notice what God says, and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.

Why?

Because they're no longer rooted in the land because they're not rooted in God. And those who make idols and worship them become like them. You pick up idols and carry them around to wherever you want to take them.

And God says, I'm just going to pick you up and carry you away too. That is the judgment of idolatry. What is the answer? What is the call to repentance? Well, the quote Stephen gives is from Amos 5, 25 to 27.

And, of course, the Holy Spirit never takes anything out of context. So when you go back and you read Amos 5, you find earlier, before the declaration of judgment, there is a call to repentance. There was a way forward.

Amos 5, verses 4 through 9. For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel, seek me and live. Seek me and live. Later on, Jesus would say, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Seek me and live. Verse 5. But do not seek Bethel, nor enter Gilgal, nor pass over to Beersheba.

Why?

Because those were where the shrines were at. They had built shrines to worship gods and goddesses at Bethel and Gilgal and Beersheba. So God is saying, seek me, don't go to the shrines. Seek me, don't go to these supposed holy places covered over in gold where you find mystical experiences that make you feel like you've arrived at an elevated plane.

He says, seek me and live. Don't seek Bethel, don't enter Gilgal, don't pass over to Beersheba.

Why?

Gilgal shall surely go into captivity and Bethel shall come to nothing. Seek the Lord and live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph and devour it with no one to quench it in Bethel. Amos is preaching to the northern kingdom, the house of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, the northern kingdom that had been strategically, politically cut off from the south, and their first king, Jeroboam, had built alternate shrines so that the people would not return to Jerusalem and worship God because he saw a political problem if his people were leaving the borders of his country to go to another country to worship.

And so Amos is saying, don't go to these shrines that were built. Seek the Lord before he breaks out like fire in the house of Joseph and devours it with no one to quench it in Bethel. Bethel, your most holy place, O Ephraim and Manasseh, is not going to be able to put out the fire that God himself will cause to break out in your land.

You're going to look to Bethel for someone to save you and there's nobody there. Now notice how they're described. Remember, idolatry brings along with it injustice and immorality. Now notice this, verse 7.

You who turn justice to wormwood and lay righteousness to rest in the earth. Take the second phrase first. You lay righteousness to rest in the earth. Everything that used to be right is now dead and buried.

Morality is up for grabs. Do what you want. Sound familiar? Righteousness is dead and buried. It's gone six feet deep. You don't have the standards anymore.

It's just whatever.

And then notice the first one. Who turn justice to wormwood. Do you know what happens when idols reign? When idolatry infects a society and a culture? Justice gets turned into wormwood. Do you know what wormwood is?

Bitterness. Wormwood is the very definition of bitterness. And if you pay attention today, the way that the word justice gets used the most is simply an expression of bitterness. It's just bitterness weaponized.

You thought our problems were new. They're not new. It's an old problem called idolatry that brings with it immorality and injustice. What's the solution? What's the answer? Seek God and live. Who are you seeking?

What kind of God is this? Verse 8. He made the Pleiades and Orion. He made the constellations. He turns the shadow of death into morning, dawn, and makes the day as dark as night. This is the God that we should seek and live.

He calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the face of the earth. The Lord is his name. That's who we should seek. So, Stephen is preaching. He preaches and he says some things about the temple that don't sound right.

Sounds like he's against the temple for some reason. He gets accused of blaspheming God. All Stephen did was preach Christ. All he did was herald Christ. All he did was just boast and brag about Christ, how good he is.

And he gets accused of blasphemy.

Why?

Christian heraldry sounds like blasphemy to idolatrous ears. You try it. You try it. Go on and on and on about how good Christ is, his authority, his supremacy, the meaning of his death and resurrection.

What does it mean that he reigns above? What does it mean that he's going to return?

What does he value?

What is he for? What does he rejoice in? What is he against? You just talk Christ loud and long, and it won't be long till you get accused of blasphemy, which is pronounced modern terms, hate speech. It won't take long.

You'll get accused of blasphemy.

Why?

Because Christian heraldry sounds like blasphemy to idolatrous ears. So what are we fighting? It's not really a culture war. It's a spiritual war with massive cultural implications. We are fighting against the idolatry of a materialistic Marxist pagan society.

The image of God revealed in Christ threatens every icon fashioned by man. The false gods of every age are ground to dust by the continual triumph of God's kingdom in Christ. There is no neutrality. It's either you are in the New Jerusalem or raging against it.

Idols are nothing. Idols are deceptions. Idols are empty of life. And they are powered by the zeal and the rage channeled through them. The only way an idol can stay alive is by those who believe in it and worship it, channeling all of their irrational zeal and irrepressible rage through them.

This is what is going on. We see it by the light of Christ. So, instead of us answering the fool according to his folly and being like him, let's not rejoice in the work of our own hands. Let's not look at our efforts and applaud ourselves and call it God.

Let's answer the fool according to his folly lest he be wise in his own eyes, and let's not rejoice in the work of men's hands. Let's rejoice in the work of God's hands. Verse 44. So, Stephen says, here's all this idolatry in your background.

Verse 44. Our fathers, what else did they do? They weren't just idolaters. They had the tabernacle of witness. God, the truth, had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness as he appointed, instructing Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen.

So, Moses didn't come up with it. The plans for the tabernacle were handed to him by God. So, it didn't come from man. It came from God. And then, if you read the story, and you get to read it twice if you read Exodus, because they repeat everything, God granted all the spoils of Egypt for the building of the tabernacle, and he granted his Holy Spirit to the artisans who crafted everything.

So, this was the work of God's hands. It was something that should be acknowledged as from God. Verse 45, which our fathers, having received it in turn, also brought it with Joshua into the land possessed by the Gentiles, whom Israel just, you know, they beat up really bad, right?

No.

Whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of David. Who won the wars of Canaan? God did. No, Joshua did not fight the battle of Jericho. God fought the battle of Jericho, and Joshua was there.

Who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling for the God of Jacob? David says to God, I want to build you a house. God says to Nathan, no, I'm going to build you a house, build you a dynasty.

I'm going to put a son of yours on a throne that will never end. He says, but Solomon built him a house. Very interesting. Think about the work of God's hands in verses 38 to 43. Notice that we've traveled from Sinai to beyond Babylon.

From Sinai to beyond Babylon. And then in verses 44 through 46, we travel from, again, the wilderness all the way to Solomon building the temple. One story of the work of men's hands, one story of the work of God's hands.

But we see the creature's dependence upon the Creator. I mean, what credit could Israel really take? Now, the Sanhedrin, the current audience, the critics of Stephen, boy, they took a lot of credit. They were always patting themselves on the back.

But Stephen is pointing out, you can take no credit. You shouldn't be boasting at all. Whatever happened in your history that was good, that was from God. And so, he points out, Solomon built him a house.

Now, very interesting, what did Solomon say after the house was built? Did Solomon say, from henceforth, whoever speaks against this house blasphemes God?

No.

It's not what he said. In 1 Kings 8 .27, as Solomon has dedicated the temple and he's praying, he says, but will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you, how much less this temple which I have built.

Solomon understood that. The Sanhedrin, the hideous idol ever made. The eyes don't see, the ears don't hear, and those who make them and worship them become like them. The creature's dependence is only emphasized by the creator's independence.

So, now Stephen preaches from Isaiah 66. He says, 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 Lord, or what is the place of my rest?

Has my hand not made all these things? Look at the creator's independence. He says, what are you going to make me? I've made all these things. Well, again, the Spirit does not speak out of context. So, let's go back to Isaiah 66.

Go look at Isaiah 66. What did God make? What does he rejoice in? Well, you just read what came before that in Isaiah 65. They didn't have chapters back then. Isaiah's just writing on one humongous scroll.

What did God make? He says, these are the things that my hand has made. My hand has made these things. He rejoices in the work of his hands. Men should not rejoice in the work of man's hands. We ought to rejoice in the work of God's hands.

What has God done? Verse 17 of Isaiah 65. This is the preceding context. God says, for behold, I create.

Oh, that's good.

Good, good, good, good. Very good. God creates something. For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth. And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. What is this new heaven and new earth?

Continue on. Verse 18. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing in her people a joy. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people. Reading Isaiah, you can find God is not rejoicing in Israel.

God is not rejoicing in Jerusalem. He's got a lot of things to say to them, and he is condemning them for their idolatry and their immorality and their injustice. But now he says, I'm going to create new heaven and new earth.

Specifically, I'm going to create a Jerusalem that is a joy, that I'm going to rejoice in. The New Testament calls that the new Jerusalem. Our mother above, not the cursed one on earth, Paul says in Galatians chapter 4.

To come to Christ means to come to Mount Zion and come to the new Jerusalem. Hebrews chapter 12. A new Jerusalem. I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing in her people as a joy. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people.

And he gives this list of wondrous blessings that shall come about all because of his covenant promises ultimately that are fulfilled in Christ. And he concludes in verse 25 and says,. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain.

So which is it, Isaiah? Is it new heavens and a new earth? Is it a new Jerusalem? Is it a holy mountain?

Yes. Yes. Exactly.

That's what God creates. See, remember what's happening with Stephen. Stephen is filled with the Holy Spirit.

He is filled with faith. He is filled with power. He is filled with wisdom.

And he is standing on Mount Moriah in the council of the Sanhedrin that is connected to the temple grounds. He is on trial for blaspheming God because he dared speak against their gold-covered box, the earthly temple, the old covenant temple.

That's why he's on trial for blaspheming God. And he's saying, You don't know the God whom I serve because he doesn't dwell in idols made with hands, temples made with hands. That's not where he dwells.

And he quotes by Isaiah 66 verses 1 and 2, by the power of the Spirit, he says, God rejoices in things that he has made. He doesn't rejoice in the work of men's hands but in the work of his hands. And so he begins to talk about a city, a kind of Jerusalem, a kind of mountain, a kind of creation that God makes.

Do you remember the story of Jacob?

Jacob tricked his father, scandalized his brother, got some help from his mom. Now he's on the run. Esau is ready to kill Jacob. Jacob's on the run, and he's in the wilderness, and he finds a place to lay down, uses a stone as a pillow.

Someone once said that Israel was always hard-headed, you know. But he sleeps and he has a vision. And he sees, some translations say ladder, some say stairway, staircase to heaven, the angels of God ascending and descending upon this stairway.

And God speaks from heaven to earth by way of this stairway and assures Jacob about all the promises he made to Abraham and Isaac. And Jacob wakes up. He says, surely God was in this place, and I didn't know it.

This must be the house of God, Bethel, Bethel, house of God, Bethel. Remember the story of Nathanael, the story of Nathanael the disciple, an Israelite in whom there was no guile, and how Philip wanted him to meet Jesus and brought Jesus to meet Nathanael.