Stephen's Sermon - [Acts 7:1-53]

And open them to Acts chapter 7, as I do something I should not do, which is go through 53 verses in one week. Sorry, I'm apologizing ahead of time. They say the best offense is what? Good defense. I prefer the best defense is good offense.

Because it's more fun to play offense. Outscore the other guy. Isn't it more fun? Yeah. Well, the winning is good too. I'm not going to read all of our text today because we would run out of time in a big hurry.

But last week, if you recall, we looked at verses 8 to 15 of Acts chapter 6. Just a briefer view. We noted that Stephen, this man who had been chosen to be a proto-deacon by the congregation as they were trying to resolve the issue of the widows of the Hellenists being neglected.

And the apostles had agreed with the Hellenists, that is to say, the Jews from outside of Israel who were now living inside of Jerusalem. They're known as the Hellenists because they spoke Greek. Easy.

Had Greek culture. So Stephen was one of these seven men who was noted to be full of the Holy Spirit. He was wise in scripture. And he was also doing apostle-like wonders among the people. And as he went about preaching, if you recall, he attracted opposition in the form of some zealous Hellenist Jews who couldn't win.

They couldn't win fair and square, in other words, by debating scripture. By using logic and reason and all the things that we kind of value. Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit, full of the knowledge of scripture, and so he was able to easily defeat them.

So they stooped to a playbook that had been used against Jesus, used against the apostles, and it was this. You get some false witnesses, they make false accusations, and you then get them in front of the Sanhedrin.

And they really, I described it as a lynching, and that's right. It was a mob arrest. They just fired up the crowd, arrested him, and took him before the Sanhedrin. And we closed last week saying that as he stood there in the well of the Sanhedrin with these 51 men above him, 51, 71, 71, all these men above him, everybody looked at him and saw this was the face of an angel, meaning sheer innocence.

He had this kind of glow about him. So now, as we enter into this chapter, we would expect, because the chief priest is going to ask him, you know, how do you defend yourself, basically, we would expect to see what?

A defense, right? A point-by-point refutation of these charges. And instead, he goes on offense. And this morning we have five summary statements from Stephen's speech or his sermon, his defense, as it were.

And this really is a trial. He's on trial in front of the Sanhedrin. If I were to summarize it this way, you could say this, that Stephen is going to present these truths, but he's going to do it in a rather roundabout way.

God is faithful. Mankind, as personified by Israel, is faithless. And only the grace of God changes the hearts of men. So summary statement number one, God was faithful to Abraham. You hear that and you ought to just think, that's right, amen, preach it.

Stephen's message is the longest one in Acts, which is amazing when you think about it. Here's this prototype of a deacon, not an apostle, and he preaches a longer sermon than Peter. He preaches a longer sermon than Paul.

And yet, a few things are missing. If you're a Christian preacher, there are a few things that you want to do. One is you want to preach Jesus Christ. He's not mentioned by name. Another is you want to make sure to include the resurrection.

Not here. Why not? We'll see. But mostly I think we could summarize it this way, that Stephen is going to kind of hit them where they're weak. Hit them in the soft spots. Kind of go between the ribs, as it were.

Knock the wind out of them. The essence of the charges against him were by witnesses, who had been instigated, I think is what the ESV says. And I told you last week that that word really doesn't give us full clarity, because it really is the idea that they were either blackmailed or bribed.

These men had suborned perjury. In other words, they had gotten these men to just lie about Stephen. Going back to verse 11, this is what they said about him. We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.

In another summary, it says that he committed, basically he was lying about the law and about the temple. Those are the two issues. Moses and the law. God and the temple. Those are roughly equivalent in these arguments.

So Stephen, again, he's looking up at these men. And the high priest in verse 1 says, Are these things so? In other words, here's your opportunity to defend yourself. Instead, Stephen starts by addressing the Sanhedrin with respect.

And maybe I wish he'd said it this way, with all due respect, because then you'd know he was going to launch, but he doesn't kind of give us that. Instead he says, and Stephen said, Brothers and fathers, hear me.

The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. Now there is a defense here, even in this verse. But again, it's subtle. He says, I've been accused of saying false things about God.

Well, let me tell you about God. God is the God of glory. Who could argue with that? Psalm 29 .3 The voice of the Lord is over the waters. The God of glory thunders. The Lord over many waters. This is a glorious God.

I'm not defaming God. I think he's glorious. In verses 3 and 4, Stephen recounts the promise of God to give Abraham and his descendants a land. The one the Sanhedrin is currently living in. Now there's something, right?

We go back to Genesis. Don't turn there, but I'm going to read Genesis 15, verses 7 and 8. In fact, I'm going to be reading a lot from Genesis and Exodus. I mean a lot. Some. Genesis 15, verses 7 and 8.

And he said to him, God said to Abraham, I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess. But he, Abraham, said, O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?

How do I know that I can trust you? That's the question. And if you recall, this is where Yahweh, the covenant-keeping God, the promise-keeping God, the trustworthy God, puts Abraham in a sleep and then cuts a covenant, meaning he's already told Abraham to gather up these animals, cut them in half, and then while Abraham's sleeping, Abram, for those who want to get technical, God then, in this smoking furnace, goes between the animals.

So what's the point of that? That on the pain of his own death, God was going to be faithful. Stephen notes, essentially, that he promised this land to our father, Abraham, and here we are today. Verse 5, yet he gave him no inheritance in it, in other words, no permanent possession of it then, not even a foot's length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child.

I mean, that's pretty strong. Not even a foot's length. Not an acre, not half an acre, not a foot's length. And that was enough for Abraham. Why? Because God is faithful. Again, does this seem like a blasphemer?

He's glorious. He's faithful. When God said that Abraham's descendants, offspring, would be slaves for 400 years, but promised to judge the nation that enslaved them, he also promised that Israel would worship him in this place, meaning in the promised land.

Another reference. God indeed delivered Israel from Egypt and brought them into the land to worship him. Stephen is really testifying of the goodness, the faithfulness, the righteousness of God. Look at verse 8, and he gave him the covenant of circumcision, and so Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac became the father of Jacob and Jacob of the 12 patriarchs.

Now again, just as an aside, I find it really fascinating, because I like to talk about, if you were going to invent a religion, what would you do? I dare say if you were going to invent a religion, it wouldn't involve circumcision.

Sorry, you just wouldn't do it. Abraham's 99 years old. In fact, some translations, and I like the way commentators handle this, because it says here, and so Abraham. And the word can be translated, and I think it's right, if it's thus, because the circumcision precedes the birth of Isaac.

Ishmael's already born. He's 13 years old when this happens. But when the circumcision, or the covenant of circumcision was given, Abraham is 99, and the promised child has not yet been born through Sarah.

As Kistmacher points out in Genesis 17, where this covenant is given, where it's reiterated, God calls it my covenant, his promise, nine times in 20 verses. He's taking complete ownership. He makes it clear that he is making this covenant, that he is responsible for it.

Before Israel existed, this is Israel or Jacob's father who gets born, God was faithful. And in preaching this, again, Stephen is no blasphemer. God was faithful to Abraham. Second summary statement. God was faithful to Israel through Joseph.

God was faithful to Israel through Joseph. Look at verse 9, and the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt, but God was with him. Now there has to be, there's a little bit of irony here, if you just think about it for a minute.

The patriarchs, the brothers of Joseph, were jealous of him. Can you imagine that? You must be thinking, can you imagine the patriarchs being jealous of Joseph? I mean, that's crazy, isn't it? I mean, you guys wouldn't know anything about that, right?

It's not like you were jealous of Jesus and worrying that the people were going to follow him. It's not like you were jealous of the apostles and put them on trial. It's not like you're jealous of the favor that God has shown me.

Joseph was the favored son of Jacob. And all the other sons of Jacob knew it. Why? Because Jacob made no secret about it, and Joseph made no secret about it. And what did they do, his brothers? They, I'm going to use the word again, they lynched him.

They took mob action against him. They put him into a pit and they sold him. But of course, what Joseph's brothers meant for evil, Genesis 50, 20, God meant for good. Joseph knows it, or there's a famine that comes up in the land after Joseph's sold into Egypt, and Jacob sends his sons to Egypt.

They meet Joseph, but they don't know who he is, right? And it's the second time that they find out who he is. But what happens while Israel is in Egypt? They grew from 75 persons, to listen to how Exodus 1, 7 describes them.

But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly. They multiplied and grew exceedingly strong so that the land, the land of Egypt, was filled with them. That's what happens during this, it's actually 430 years.

Stephen does a lot of things. He contracts some verses, he rounds things off, but this is kind of a, again, he's not, sometimes he quotes scripture exactly, but basically what he's doing is making a summary argument against what they're doing.

Exceedingly strong, so the land was filled with them. Then what happens? And then Jacob died, and so did Joseph, and look at verse 16. And they, kind of the indication here is talking about Jacob and Joseph, they were carried back to Shechem.

And again, he contracts things here because there are two different burial places, but he's shortening up. And they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

Commentator Waters says this about the people of Israel back then. Their faith in God's promise, of this land promise, was undiminished. They're in Egypt, right? So why did they care about burying Jacob, Israel, in Israel, in the promised land, and Joseph in the promised land?

Their faith in God's promise was undiminished by their geographical location. God can be believed, trusted, and served no matter where his people are. God had been faithful to Israel, saving her from a famine, even using the treachery of Jacob's 11 sons to save the nation.

Again, Stephen is no blasphemer. He teaches that God is to be trusted. God was faithful to Abraham. God was faithful to Israel through Joseph. And third summary statement, God was faithful to Israel through Moses.

Recalling, or if you recall, Stephen was accused of blaspheming Moses, of speaking ill against Moses. One commentator notes that the life of Moses is divided, in Stephen's speech here, into 40 year increments.

Verses 17 through 22, the first 40, 23 to 29, the second 40, and 30 to 34, the last 40. And it's really important to note that Moses, you know, if you think about this, all the emphasis now, from the time they go down into Egypt to the time they come back, is on what?

The promised land. But Moses never enters because of his sin. Both Joseph and Moses brought into the household of Pharaoh. We talked about Joseph and we know the story of Moses because we've seen the Ten Commandments.

Brought into the household of Pharaoh through extraordinary circumstances. Both had power and worldly blessings, but they forfeited those. They give them up because of their faithfulness to God. And yet both are rejected, at least initially, by the ones God appointed them to deliver.

Now how is it that, you know, cute little baby Moses, because he's described as a beautiful baby, how does he wind up in the house of Pharaoh? To back up just a minute here, Pharaoh had this design, I mean, it comes to fruition.

I talked about how in Exodus 1, you know, the people of Israel are filling the land of Egypt. So in Exodus 1, verse 16, the Pharaoh's seen enough and he's decided it's time to do a little population control on these Hebrew people.

So in verse 16, he says this, when you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him. But if it is a daughter, she shall live. But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live.

So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, why have you done this and let the male children live? Here God blesses people who maybe aren't telling the truth. Verse 19, the midwives said to Pharaoh, because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.

So God dealt well with the midwives and the people multiplied and grew very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, not just the midwives, all of his people, every son that is born to the Hebrews, you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.

Why? Because if the daughters live, they will then what? Marry Egyptians. There will be fewer Hebrews. You'll eliminate the Hebrew problem. But God rescued Moses, verse 21 of Exodus 1, and when he was exposed, which can also mean murdered very interestingly, but in this case, it just means when he was revealed and exposed to death.

Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and he was mighty in his words and deeds. Now there are parallels between Moses and Jesus.

Stephen here describes him as mighty in words and deeds. Well, in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is described as mighty in words and deeds. They're both prophets and deliverers. They're both saved as infants from rulers trying to put all male Hebrew infants to death.

And they are rejected by their own people. We see Moses' rejection in Stephen's sermon in verse 23. And I couldn't resist referring to this 23 and me. We don't know exactly why, that whole genetic testing thing.

We don't know exactly why, but Moses wants to go visit his Israelite brothers. We don't know what triggers that. It just says, when he was 40 years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel.

And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand.

But they did not understand. Moses was ready to be the deliverer. They're not ready to be delivered. Verse 26, And on the following day, he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, Men, you are brothers.

Why do you wrong each other? But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him, Moses, aside, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? What authority do you have? Verse 28, Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?

Are you going to murder me too? At this retort, Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons. Moses wants to help, but there was no sense of his calling to his fellow Israelites.

In fact, he's mocked, scorned, called a murderer. Moses was a man without a nation. He turned his back on Egypt. He left Pharaoh's house. And Israel had rejected him because he was too Egyptian. So, he fled to Midian.

And he's there for 40 years. I mean, I'm sure Moses, by this time, is not thinking anything is going to really come of his life. Forty years he's there. Verse 30, Acts chapter 7, Now when 40 years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai in a flame of fire in a bush.

When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight. And as he drew near to look, there came the voice of the Lord. I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob. And Moses trembled and did not dare to look.

Now, when we see, to go back to Exodus for just a moment, when we see in Exodus chapter 3, and the angel of the Lord appeared to him, when we read that, we think what? The angel of the Lord. We know that that's the pre-incarnate Jesus.

But in the Septuagint, it's not that precise. It says, an angel of the Lord. So we don't know if Stephen is just quoting that, if he doesn't know that the pre-incarnate Christ is the angel of the Lord and that's who appeared to him.

But it's kind of not all that important to his defense. And certainly, I would say, even if he knew that it was Jesus, it's probably not time to just launch that on him. You hold your best shot to the end.

Verse 33. Then the Lord said to him, this is Stephen again, take off the sandals from your feet, for the ground where you are standing is holy ground. I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their groaning, and I have come down this condescension, this condescending language, that God is going to come down to deliver them.

And how is he going to do that? Through Moses. He says, and now come, I will send you to Egypt. Stephen recounts the story, emphasizing what? The holiness, the otherliness of God. The otherness of God.

I guess. Again, think about it. As he talks about the burning bush, as he just talks about the holiness of God, is this a blasphemer? Somebody who accurately is portraying God. So firstly, God was faithful to Abraham.

Second, God was faithful to Israel through Joseph. He was, third, faithful to Israel through Moses. And fourth, Israel was faithless to God and the men he sent. Faithless to God and the men he sent. In verses 35 and 36, Stephen tells how God established the previously rejected Moses, even giving him the ability to do wonders and signs.

We talk about this all the time. Why do miracles only happen during roughly 100 years of recorded biblical history? Or why are they focused there? Well, it's to establish the legitimacy of this spokesman.

So whether it's Moses or Joshua or Elijah or Elisha, Jesus and the apostles, it's God's stamp of approval on them. So far from blaspheming Moses, far from denigrating Moses, he points out that Moses led Israel out of Egypt.

He led them while they were in the wilderness. He prophesied of a future prophet who would be even greater than he was. Jesus. He received the oracles of God, the Ten Commandments. And how did Israel respond to this God-sent deliverer?

Verse 39. This is what R .C. Sproul would call cosmic treason. This isn't just ordinary cosmic treason. This is pretty spectacular, blatant cosmic treason. Verse 39. Our fathers refused to obey him, Moses, but thrust him aside.

And in their hearts, they turned to Egypt. They longed to go back to Egypt. Saying to Aaron, make for us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses, who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.

I mean, look, he's been up on the mountain so long. And they made a calf in those days and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. That's putting it mildly, but we won't go down that road.

This is really one of the more shocking scenes in the Bible. Delivered from Egypt. Led out by this pillar of fire at night, cloud during the day, signifying the presence of God, that he was with them.

And when they're terrified, when they think they're just about to die, the Red Sea, what happens? God parts the Red Sea and they walk through. And they get through and then the Egyptian army tries to follow and is destroyed.

This is the most amazing physical delivery I think we see in the Bible. And how do they respond? By creating and worshiping a golden calf. Peterson says, they were not grateful for their salvation and were unwilling to be the holy people of God, trusting him and obeying him.

Moses was faithful. Israel was treacherous. God is faithful. Israel is idolatrous. And God does not ignore Israel's idolatry. He judged them. Verse 42, but God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven.

As it is written in the book of the prophets, did you bring me slain beasts and sacrifices during the 40 years in the wilderness? Oh, house of Israel. You took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your God, Raphon, the images that you made to worship and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.

Kistemacher says, whereas he has been good to his people, he now withholds blessing and turns his back to them. Right? That's the picture. He turns away from them and what does the text say then? And gave them over.

That should sound familiar if you've listened to one preacher I know who preaches Romans 1, it seems like, every other week. And God gave them over. God gave them over. What does it mean? It means he gives them the desires of their heart and step by step by step they descend further and further into sin.

And it's almost impossible to imagine greater sin than worshiping false gods when you've been delivered by the living God. Stephen quotes the Septuagint translation of Amos 5, verses 25 to 27. God asks if Israel sacrificed to him while they were wandering in the wilderness.

And the answer, it's a rhetorical question, the answer is, kind of. They made sacrifices, right? They did sacrifice some animals, but what does God say about sacrifices that are only outward? You know, he looks on the heart, he doesn't care about these sacrifices that they were making.

And because of their idolatry, they were exiled from the promised land to Babylon. Stephen then turns his attention to the false charge that he was predicting Jesus would destroy the temple. The temple, the place where God resides, where he's most invested.

That's what they would say. And he starts with the tabernacle. The tabernacle was God's design. It was given to Moses. Look at verse 44. Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness. That's the tabernacle.

Just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen. But the tabernacle was never meant to be permanent. The people moved it around the wilderness. Verse 45.

Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations. In other words, when they entered the promised land and when they moved the other peoples out or conquered them. That God drove out.

In fact, it even says that. God drove them out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David. In other words, there was no permanent temple. And if you recall, David asked. He wanted to build that temple.

And what was the response? That ultimately it wouldn't be him. It was going to be Solomon who built the temple. Stephen puts the temple in perspective by reminding them how great God is. Too great to be contained in a tabernacle, in a temple, in any one location.

Look at verse 49. Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? Says the Lord. Or what is the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all these things? That just reminds me of that section of Job where Job has made all these complaints and now it's like, okay, Job, God's going to speak to you out of the whirlwind.

Are you ready? You know, gird yourself up. Did not my hand make all these things? You guys think that you can do something for God? That you can build him a house? God is omnipresent. He's everywhere.

You mighty Sanhedrin, you Sadducees, Pharisees, you are puny little creatures and you're going to build a house for God. They put so much emphasis on the temple. In fact, you could say that they were the idolaters, that they were the blasphemers.

Why? Because they almost have a, I think they do, a worship for the temple. These men who completely lost track of who God is and what purpose the temple serves, they're the ones accusing Stephen of being a blasphemer.

So, summary statement, number one, God was faithful to Abraham. Two, God was faithful to Israel through Joseph. Three, God was faithful to Israel through Moses. Four, Israel was faithless to God and the men he sent.

Fifth, Israel was faithless to God and the Messiah he sent. Stephen brings his defense back or to a crushing conclusion. Verse 51, you stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit.

As your fathers did, so do you. Now, that term stiff-necked, I think we basically understand it, but just to kind of make it plain, it's an agricultural term and it refers to basically you go to put a harness on an ox.

You go to put a harness on a horse and it shakes its head and won't have that yoke put on it. That's being stiff-necked. We might call it self-willed. And you can see how that easily translates into being disobedient.

You tell your son or daughter to do something, they won't do it. If you look at them and you go stiff-necked, there's your word for the week. But to refer to the Sanhedrin as uncircumcised, I mean, that's like slapping them in the face.

They would be like Paul would later describe himself in Philippians 3, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. They would see themselves as the circumcision. And he says, you're uncircumcised in heart and ears. In other words, in your heart of hearts, you don't love God.

You've got the physical circumcision. It's been done to you. But it's had no effect on your heart, your mind, and the way you hear the word of God. Kistemacher says, they have the external sign, but they lack the internal sign in an obedient heart regenerated by the Holy Spirit.

Essentially, Stephen is calling them Gentiles. He might as well have said, you uncircumcised, what? Philistines. If you've ever watched a courtroom drama, there's usually a moment where there's a big turn and things.

One of my favorites, I won't mention the movie, but it's pretty old. And the attorney is kind of, the defense attorney is kind of, he's sort of screaming. And the judge hits his gavel. See, I want to take it out.

And he says, you're out of order. And the attorney says, he points at the judge and he says, no, you're out of order. And you're out of order. And you're out of order. He's just pointing to everybody.

And then he breaks it all down. How the system's all corrupt. That's what he's doing here. He's pointing his finger at them and pointing the finger of blame right back at them. You think I'm a blasphemer?

You think I'm a blasphemer? Let me tell you what your sin is. Verse 52, which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the righteous one, listen, whom you have now betrayed and murdered.

Can we hug it out, guys? Just like your ancestors who killed every prophet who came their way, who tried to warn them to repent, who told them of a coming Messiah. You killed the Messiah. You killed the promised one.

You killed the innocent one, the righteous one, the one who was to redeem you. Without mentioning Jesus by name, Stephen answers the high priest by doing exactly what the high priest accused the apostles of doing.

You remember in Acts 5 .28, what did he say? He said, you, talking to the apostles, he said, you intend to bring this man, Jesus, his blood, his death upon us, make us guilty of his death. Well, they were.

And now Stephen just flat out accuses them to their face. And verse 53, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it. It was Jewish tradition that the angels had been the messengers, the mediators, kind of, who had delivered the law from God.

Now let's just think about it. The law of God. Ten commandments. Thou shalt not murder. They'd murdered already. We could go right down the list. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Well, they did.

They had their rules, they had their laws, they had the temple. This God, they didn't really obey. At all. In fact, when his son, the second person of the Trinity, takes on human flesh and walks among them, what do they do?

They kill him. Commentator Dennis Johnson says, the tone of Stephen's speech is one of indictment. In other words, you think I'm guilty? You're guilty. Without a call, listen to repentance or promise of forgiveness.

And you think, what kind of gospel messenger is he? One commentator says this, he says, Bengal, says, he who believes in Christ establishes the law. In other words, faith in Christ is the law. That is the command.

Believing, trusting in him. Then he goes on and he says, he who sets aside Christ, let alone kills him, sets aside the law. You want to please God? You want to honor God? You want to not blaspheme God?

Honor the Son. Obey the Son. Trust in the Son. Often when we're evangelizing somebody, when we're trying to give them the gospel, I have a friend and I've spoken to him, I've even done it on Facebook.

I've spoken to him about the gospel. And his constant refrain is that he's always lived a life that he wouldn't be embarrassed by. What does that mean? I'm sure these men would say the same thing. I'm not embarrassed by anything that I've done.

What does that mean? That means I set the standard. I determine what righteousness is. I create my own set of rules. And if I live up to that, if there is a God, he should be satisfied with that. Well, there's an obvious problem.

If there is a God and there is, the Bible says that only a fool would say there is no God. If there is a God, then why would he accept your standard? Why would he accept any standard other than his own?

Is he silent or has he given us his standard? He's told us what he wants. He sent his Son to reveal what he wants. And here's what he says. Believe in the Son. Trust in the Son. I sent him to live the perfect life that you're supposed to live.

I pointed my finger at you. He, Jesus, lived the perfect life. He, Jesus, perfectly fulfilled my law, the law of God. He did everything the Father commanded. He was the perfect man. Then he went to the cross and took upon himself the sins of all who would ever believe.

When he died, he paid the penalty for every single sin that every believer would ever commit. And when he rose on the third day, the Bible tells us that was God saying, I accept that payment. So to set our own standard, to determine what God should accept, to think to ourselves, I'm good enough, and God is going to, what, get over it?

I can do what I want. I can think what I want. Sure. I can commit tax fraud. I can commit adultery. As long as it's only in my mind, that's fine. It's not the standard of the law. Just imagine Jesus never even sinning in thought, let alone deed.

That's the standard. Our problem, so often, as it was with these people in the Sanhedrin, is that we have this idea that somehow there is a standard that we can set, or secret sins that God isn't going to know about.

He knows everything. Our every thought will be laid bare to Him. He knows it all. But friends, the good news is that Jesus paid for it all. But not if we are stiff-necked and insist on our own way. Let's pray.

Father, we are blessed beyond measure. The grace that You have shed upon Your people is absolutely amazing. As we read about the history of Israel, and we think about how time and time again You rescued them physically.

Father, You have rescued us. Your children, over and over and over again. Because You are a God who is rich in mercy, great in love, which You have poured out upon us in the person and work of Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Father, would You grant us, by Your Spirit, the capacity to obey You more, to love Jesus more. And as we do that, would You conform us into the image of Your dear Son. We pray for these things in Jesus' name.