Revive Us Again | Week 6 | Acts 6-7

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December 3, 2023 Pastor Jeff Rice Covenant Reformed Baptist Church Tullahoma, TN

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Revive Us Again | Week 7 | Acts 8

Revive Us Again | Week 7 | Acts 8

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If you will at this time please take your copy of the scriptures and turn with me to Acts chapter 6.
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No, excuse me, Acts chapter 7. Acts chapter 7 we will consider verses 54 through 60.
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Acts chapter 7 verses 54 through 60.
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Let's begin with Acts chapter 7 verses 54 through 60, and then we'll turn to Acts chapter 7 verses 54 through 60, and then we'll turn to Acts chapter 7 verses 54 through 60, and then we'll turn to Acts chapter 7 verses 54 through 60, and then
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I pray this in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
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Amen. All right, so let's read that text. Acts chapter 7 verses 54 through 60.
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It says, Now when they heard this, they become furious in their hearts, and they began gnashing their teeth at him.
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And being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven, and he saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said,
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Behold, I see the heavens open up, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.
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But crying out with a loud voice, they covered their ears and rushed at him with one accord.
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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
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Saul. They went on stoning Stephen as he was calling out and saying,
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Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Then he fell on his knees, and he cried out with a loud voice,
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Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And having said this, he fell asleep.
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So our overarching theme for this book, the book of Acts, has been revive us again.
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So as y 'all know, we normally do exposition, and we're going through the Gospel of John.
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We went a little over one year in the Gospel of John. We made it through Chapter 9. And so now
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I want to take just, it might be a few months, and we're just going to go through this book, this
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Acts of the Apostles, the Acts of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles, and we're going to see how revival occurred.
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We're going to see what the Holy Spirit did through broken individuals like you and I who are filled with power, power from on high, the power of the
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Holy Spirit. We want to see how they use uneducated men and women to accomplish great things in the earth, things that if it had not occurred, you and I would not be here today.
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And so we're looking at this as revive us again. We want to say, well, what did revival look like then?
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Just in case it comes, we'll know how to identify it. We want to see the markers of what took place.
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What did they do? What were they told to do, and did they obey the Word of God? So we know what we're told to do because we are a part of that same church, and are we, you and I, obeying the
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Word of God, which has been very challenging, right? Hallelujah, hallelujah, right? It's been some stuff, you know, to quote
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Bodie Baucom, if you can't say amen, say ouch, because it's been stepping on all of our feet, right?
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Like this has been really challenging. We had a conversation last week after the service, and I mentioned,
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I said, imagine growing up somewhere where there were no churches, maybe in Allen, and maybe anywhere, just imagine growing up in a place where there were no churches, and you stumbled across a
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Bible, and you read that Bible, and you've read that Bible, and you've read that Bible, you've read, read the
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Bible many, many times, and you're reading this Bible, and you're seeing what's taking place in Acts.
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You're like, man, I cannot wait to actually walk into a building that has believers like this, and to be a part of something like this, because your whole life you haven't been, but you've had this
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Bible, and you've read it, and then you come to America, or wherever it is that you are, and there's churches, and you walk in, and you're like, what is this?
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What is this? Most of us, when we become
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Christians, when we became Christians, we were very passionate, right? We were very passionate about telling people about Jesus Christ, about His gospel, and the problem is, is we didn't lose that passion.
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So I was speaking with Jerry last week. We didn't lose that passion. The problem is, is we started going to church, and no one else had the kind of passion that we had.
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Again, Bodie, thank Bodie. Can't say amen and say ouch, right?
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We had this passion for God, and the gospel, and everyone that we met, we started telling people about it, and the next thing you know, we start going to the church, and nobody is passionate about God, and about the gospel, and about reaching the lost, and guess what happens?
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We become not passionate about God, the gospel, and reaching the lost.
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The people, as Christians, the problem is, the people inside, the
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Christians, they do not have this passion any longer. The Christians that we fellowship with in the church can sometimes stomp out the fire, the passion that we have for God and for the lost.
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Now I have been fortunate in my life over the many, many years, 20 -something years of being a
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Christian and being in church that I have had a small group of individuals that I've fellowshiped with outside my congregations who did evangelism, and so I have always done evangelism, and I've been fortunate in that, but I can tell you that there's times where that fire was gone, and being around this group of men would reunite that fire in me, and there's times with them where that passion, that fire was gone, and being around us men who are passionate about it came back, right?
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A fire needs air in order to spread. In order for a fire to go, it has to breathe.
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You have the power of the Holy Spirit inside of you, but the problem is, is you're not fanning the flame.
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You need the other individuals around you. That's why it says to not forsake the gathering of ourselves together as the assembly, right?
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So we can stir one another up to love and good works. The greatest work you can do is the work that Jesus left us to do, and it is to go and make disciples of all nations, and to baptize them in the name of the
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Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and we ought to teach those who have been made disciples, who have been baptized, to bring them into the church, and to teach them what we should not do, is put out the fire.
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I say this to optimize. Doing evangelism has been one of the scariest, and yes, it's scary, the scariest and yet most rewarding things
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I've ever done in my life. I read this on Facebook. I'm going to give him the credit.
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His name is Ryan Deaton. He wrote this, quote, Reform theology and low -energy churches, sermons, outreaches should be a contradiction in term.
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So what's going on? This is proof that theological knowledge alone isn't enough.
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We must have God's Spirit, end quote. Knowing right theology isn't enough.
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One of the main reasons why people gather in Reformed Baptists or Reformed Presbyterian churches is because you're tired of being spoon -fed sermons that talks about people's lives, and they don't dive into the
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Scriptures, all right? So people who are who are wanting something more, they attend
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Reformed churches because we teach the book, right?
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But a lot of these Reformed churches, they have no fire. They have no passion for the lost, right?
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Amen? Hallelujah? I'll look back. To quote
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Martin Lloyd -Jones, one of the... I love
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Martin Lloyd -Jones. I sometimes get teared up listening to his messages. Passionate man for God, Presbyterian.
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He says this, We are living in an age hopelessly below the
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New Testament pattern, content with a neat little religion. We are living in an age hopelessly below the
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New Testament pattern, content with a neat little religion, end quote.
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One of the present dangers in a Christian's life is contentment. It's to be content with where we're at.
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Don't ever be content. Our theme for this
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Lord's Day is Stephen's best life now. Stephen's best life now.
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And whatever you might face for the cost of Christ, understand this. This is the best situation for you or for them.
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Whatever persecution might come to you for the sake of Christ, that is the best thing that could ever happen to you.
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Whether it's stoning or being skinned, whether it's being sawed in half or dragged by horses, it is the best thing that could ever happen to you.
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And that's something foreign from an American mind. For Stephen, Stephen was stoned.
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We just read about that. But Stephen was the first Christian martyr of the New Testament.
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Stephen finds himself in an intellectual conflict that ends with him being stoned to death.
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You say, well how is that his best life now? He saw heaven open.
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God on the throne. Jesus stands from the throne of David.
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And the moment he fell asleep, he was dancing where angels tread. If one of the disciples could by chance enter into heaven and say,
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Stephen, come back, he would say, mind your business. I am living my best life.
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There's something that we don't understand when it comes to the saints, right? We should not mourn as others mourn.
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When it comes to someone we know has gone into glory, we should not mourn as others mourn.
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The Bible says that God does not delight in the death of the wicked, but it says that he takes delight in the death of the saints.
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Yes, we should mourn over the wicked, but the mourning over the wicked should look different than the mourning over the saints.
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Let me tell you something, as bad as you might want your loved one back who has gone to glory, they would tell you to mind your business.
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Do your thing. I am dancing where angels tread. Death is not the worst thing that can happen to a person, not even death by stoning, but death without Christ.
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That is the worst thing that could ever happen to anyone. It's to die, to leave this life without Christ, to die with Christ no matter how the death occurs is grace this side of heaven, and to die without Christ no matter how peaceful is punishment.
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It's punishment. It's a punishment that we all deserve because of our sin. There's a saying in church history about christened martyrdom.
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It's coined by an early church father from the second century named Tertullian, and it is this, quote, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church, end quote.
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The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Take one of us out and our blood will spill, hit the ground, and five more
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Christians will rise from the dirt. There's never been a greater church growth strategy than to kill a saint, for the blood of the martyr is the seed of the church.
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Throughout church history, this has been the main ingredient for Christian growth, the main ingredient for Christian growth, and we're going to see from this one act, the stoning of Stephen, the church leaves
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Jerusalem. They begin to obey the marching orders given to them by Jesus to go into all the world.
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Up until this point, they have been in Jerusalem. The church has been growing, but now after what takes place from this text, they leave
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Jerusalem. So in our outline today, we're going to see what caused the stoning of Stephen.
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We've got three points. We've got the calling of Stephen, the accusations against Stephen, and Stephen's answers.
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Answers, yep. So point number one, the calling of Stephen. Point number two, the accusations against Stephen.
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And point number three, Stephen's answers. And as we transition, turn with me in your Bibles to the
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Gospel of Matthew. Look at chapter 16, and we're gonna look at verses 24 and 25.
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Jesus says, well, then Jesus said to his disciples, listen, if anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
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For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
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Although Stephen just lost his life for the sake of Christ, he found
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Christ. He found Jesus. He's in the presence of the beloved.
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If anyone wishes to come after Jesus, he must deny himself.
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It's not about you anymore. It's about Christ. He must take up his cross. He must look to Jesus Christ in faith, and you must follow him because he is the light of the world.
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When you're not following Christ, you're walking in darkness. What is Christ trying to do?
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He's trying to reach the world. We, as his people, are called to reach the world.
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I know a lot of us have had heart heartaches. I know I did, leaving the circles that I come from, and we're scared to say things like we're called to be world changers, but it's true, just not in the mix -up of the controversy that's taking place, right?
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When you have the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit causes you to keep God's commands, right?
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What's the one command Christ gave to us? To go out into the world, to be his witnesses, and that's what we're called today.
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We're called to follow Christ by being the hands and feet of Christ. The church is known as several things.
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One of them is the bride of Christ. The wife submits to the husbands, right?
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Wives are called to submit to the husbands. The husband is called to lay down his life for his wife.
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Christ laid down his life for his bride. We, his bride, are called to submit. We're also called the body of Christ.
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If Christ was physically on earth right now, what would he be doing? You know the answer, right?
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You need me to tell you? You know the answer. He'd be reaching the lost. You and I, who are in Christ the church, we're called the body of Christ.
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We are his hands and feet. Today I stand before you as a mouth, this Saturday I will be hands and feet trying to reach the lost.
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Please come. We are called to be the body of Jesus Christ, the bride of Christ who submits to her husband.
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Point number one, the calling of Stephen. So this takes place in chapter two, and I want you to understand that this is a very complicated message that I stand before you today, because I'm used to preaching sometimes one word, sometimes a few verses.
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Today I'm preaching two chapters, which is why Jerry read such a long passage for us.
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So this is very challenging for me, so please be in prayer for me in my study, and even while I'm up here today to try to break this down to you and make it intelligible.
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It's taken from Acts chapter 6, and in this section we're going to look at four subheadings.
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Subheading A, the problem. Hellenistic Jews were being overlooked in the daily distribution.
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Look at verse 1 of chapter 6. In those days, while the disciples were multiplying in number, there was grumbling from the
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Hellenistics against the Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily servings of food.
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Now this is dealing with two different types of Jews, all right? You had the Hebrew Jews and the
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Hellenistic Jews. So what took place is whenever the Greeks conquered the world, right, and Rome conquered the world, everything had become
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Hellenized. Everything had become Greek -speaking. The Greek language had taken over the known area of the world.
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Whenever we read in Acts chapter 2 that all these Jews were traveling to Jerusalem because of the Day of Pentecost, and these disciples of Jesus, and this group of 120, they were speaking in tongues.
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It says that each person that was there were able to hear them in their own languages.
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This group, they were all Jews from different parts of the world, different languages.
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They had been Hellenized. And so right here you're seeing the difference between...there
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seems to be favoritism shown to the Hebrew Jews and not to the
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Hellenistic Jews, those that have been traveling, those that left their homes to be a part of this
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Christian set. And they did not go back. They sold everything they had to be a part of this
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Christian set, this movement that's taking place that's going to change the way the world sees religion.
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Subheading B, the solution. The disciples chose seven men to oversee them.
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Look at verse 2. Then the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, it is not pleasing to God for us to neglect the
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Word of God and to serve tables. So it's not...those that are teaching the
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Word of God should not stop teaching the Word of God to make sure that these other widows are being fed.
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Therefore, brothers, select among you seven men of good reputation, full of the
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Spirit and wisdom whom you may put in charge of this need.
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But we, the disciples, the teachers, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serve in the service of the
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Word. Stephen was one of the men in charge.
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I want to say much more of them. I'm time constricted. I'm sorry. Stephen is one of the men in charge of making sure that these
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Hellenistic widows are not overlooked. Making sure that they get as much on their plate as the
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Hebrew widows get on their plate. So a certain thing in Scripture when you read, when you read the
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Scriptures, you see that we are to...that we are to take care of widows and orphans.
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Widows and orphans. All right? The Bible makes it clear. If a man doesn't work, he doesn't eat.
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We have to be responsible with our money and do what the Bible tells us to do. But when it comes to widows and orphans, those that cannot take care of themselves, the church is supposed to take care of them.
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All right? Which is another thing that the church has failed at and our government has manipulated.
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Again, to our detriment. Section subheading
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C. Stephen, one of the men chosen, he is described as full of faith and truth.
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We're going to read verse 5a and in 6, in verses 6 and 7 for the time.
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Verse 5a, and this word pleased the whole congregation, and they chose
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Stephen, a man of full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.
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Verse 6, and these stood before the apostles after praying.
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They laid their hands on them. That means they ordained them to this position. Verse 7, and the
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Word of God kept, listen, kept spreading, and the number of the disciples continued to multiply greatly in Jerusalem.
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And a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faiths. Verse 7 here is key.
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Don't don't don't miss this. Verse 7, we'll read it again. And the Word of God kept on spreading.
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They were told to stop preaching the Word of God. So this tells us that they did not stop.
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They were not obedient to man. They were obedient to God. The Word of God kept on spreading, and the number of the disciples continued to multiply greatly in Jerusalem.
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This tells us that they were still in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests, leaders of the old covenant system, were becoming obedient to the faith.
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You're talking about causing trouble. You see the problem? They kept preaching.
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They kept preaching the faith. People coming to the faith, and the priests were coming to the faith, which brings us to subheading
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D. How does this take place? A part of his ministry was signs and wonders.
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Look at verse 8. And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people.
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Remember what I said signs and wonders were for, right? Answer to validate the message in the messenger, right?
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So Stephen was performing miracles. These miracles were drawing a crowd.
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Once the crowd drew near, Stephen would preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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And the miracles would validate for them that he, that this message was from God.
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John chapter 3, Nicodemus says, we know that you are from God because no one could do these mighty works that you're doing unless they are from God.
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The miracles validate the messenger and the message, right?
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If I was able to, if I was to tell you something, you didn't believe me, but I could turn a pig into a man, you said, well,
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I better believe this guy, right? That's what the miracles were for. They would, the miracles would validate the message and the messenger.
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So point number two, trying to get through this quickly. We don't have much time. The accusation against Stephen.
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This also takes place in Acts chapter six. In this section, we're going to look at two subheadings.
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Subheading A, a dispute with the synagogue of the free man. We see this in verse nine.
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But some of the men from what is called the synagogue of the free man, including the synagogue of the free man.
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Let's just stop right there. So we see right here that he's, many people are coming to Christ.
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They did not stop preaching. Many people are coming, even the priests. So a synagogue gets involved.
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They get a synagogue upset. A synagogue is a place of worship. The text tells us that these men rose up and were arguing with Stephen.
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Now, I believe they were arguing with Stephen because Stephen was drawing a crowd through signs and wonders and was preaching to them, the people, the gospel.
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And also as some of these synagogues were drawing near, they had priests that were involved and the priests would hear the message and God would grant to them faith.
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Right? Things wasn't going the way the old covenant system, those that were still ruling under the old covenant system, wanted them to go.
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But this is exactly how God had it to go. So subheading
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B, the false accusations. The false accusations come from the synagogue of the free man.
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Stephen was accused of four things. The first two have to do with blaspheming.
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Blaspheming, speaking blasphemous words against Moses and against God. We see this in verses 10 and 11.
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But when they were unable to oppose the wisdom and the spirit by whom he was speaking, then they strictly included men to say, so having some liars on the scene, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.
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The next two things have to do with the temple and the law. They were accused of speaking against the temple and the law, verse 12.
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And they stirred up the people and the elders and scribes and they came up to him, dragging him away and brought him to the
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Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin is 70 members. You have the
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Sadducees and the Pharisees. They corporate together as the meeting in the courts of the
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Sanhedrin. And there was 70 in total, equal in number between the two. And the high priest would be the final vote, just in case they could not resolve a matter, verse 13.
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And after they put forward false witness, liars, who said, this man never ceases to speak against the holy place, the temple, and the law, the
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Decalogue. For we have heard him say that this Jesus, the
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Nazarene, will destroy this place and alter the customs which
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Moses handed down to us, verse 15. And fixing their gaze on him, all who were sitting there in the
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Sanhedrin saw his face, the face of an angel. Basically, what he is being accused of, what they're accusing him of, is changing the times.
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Which is funny because it is God who is changing the time, right? Stephen is just being the messenger of what's taking place.
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The old covenant is ended. Do this and live. You want to be right with God? Keep the law and live.
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All right? If you break a law, there's a sacrificial system in place so you can sacrifice an animal and have atonement.
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Oh, you murdered someone. You committed adultery. You blasphemed. Hold on. Grab the stones because this man is going to die.
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And it all had to do with the land. It was all land promises. If you broke one of the major laws and it calls for death, they would put you to death.
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Keep the law and live. Also, it had to do with the land. The sacrificial system was there for them to properly ordain in such a way that by breaking the law, they will not be removed from the land.
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And so this sacrificial system was basically a blanket that they threw over their sins to hide their sins from God because the blood of bulls and goats cannot satisfy, cannot grant true forgiveness of sins.
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And I love what verse 15 says. It says that the Sanhedrin, they all fixed their face.
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They all was gazing upon Stephen and they saw that his face was like an angel.
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And I can just imagine if they were in their right mind, they would say, this reminds us of Moses, right?
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When the law was given to Moses and he came down and his face shone with the glory of God.
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And they said, could you cover that? You mind putting a veil over your face because we don't want to see all that.
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The Jews always ran from God. Like have you read the
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Old Testament? Right? They tell Moses, you go up to the mountain.
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We're going to stay right here. We don't want to hear his voice. You go.
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We'll stay here. When Moses would travel to the tent of meeting to visit with God, they wouldn't even leave their tents.
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They stare out their tents and intently seeing what was going on, but they were afraid to leave their tents because they knew that God was speaking with Moses.
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They wanted no portion with God, only the prophets. All this will make sense in a little bit.
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I'm sorry. Point number three, Stephen's answer. This is taken from chapter seven, which was read in our hearing.
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And again, there's just no way with the time I'm allotted to read through that and walk through it. This is definitely the hardest sermon
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I've ever preached, trying to get all the information in a time -constrained fashion. I hope
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I'm able to do so. It's 60 verses, okay? So I'm just going to summarize as we walk through this a little bit.
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So Stephen begins with Abraham and how Abraham and how
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God called Abraham to follow him. In Genesis chapter 15, which is the Abrahamic covenant, the
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Abrahamic covenant was cut. God revealed to Abraham that his offspring, according to the flesh, were going to be enslaved for 400 years.
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This takes us to the story of Joseph and how his brothers rejected him as God's chosen leader.
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And they reject him by selling him into slavery.
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And I believe that this right here shows us how the Jews have always, always rejected
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God's leader for them. He announces Joseph is going to be their leader.
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His brothers couldn't stand that. So in jealousy, they sell their brother into slavery.
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And after the death of Joseph, there rose up a king, a pharaoh that knew not
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Joseph. All right, so Joseph is sold into slavery. Joseph makes it because God's favor.
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He's actually put into second -in -leadership. The pharaoh that was alive in the time of Joseph loved
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Joseph. He would do anything for Joseph. That pharaoh dies. Joseph dies.
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Joseph's family has been in Egypt, right? They've been in Egypt.
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They done planted seed. There's a ton of them there. This pharaoh raises up, and he does not know
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Joseph. The pharaoh was threatened by the number of the Jews, and he decided to enslave them.
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The Jews at this time were under harsh persecution. And under this harsh persecution, God raises up for them from among the
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Jews. That's important. We can't forget that. God raises up for the Jews from among them a man named
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Moses. Moses was born a Jew. At this time when
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Moses was born, they were trying to kill all the male babies. Moses' mother puts
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Moses in a small ark and sends him off into the water. He's found by Pharaoh's daughter, and he's raised by Pharaoh's daughter.
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And that's all I can say about him right now. Stephen points out how the Jews rejected
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Moses, whom God appointed to them as a leader. When Moses first attempted to help, and when
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Moses first attempted to help, so Moses is seeing that the Jews are being mistreated, he goes out there and he tries to to keep somebody from mistreating them.
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He ends up killing somebody in Pharaoh's army. The next day he comes back, and he sees two
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Hebrews fighting among themselves, and he tries to break them up, and they reject him as their leader.
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And by them rejecting him as their leader, they reject God. Stephen was accused of rejecting
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Moses and God. Stephen, in this message, as Jerry was reading in chapter 7,
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Stephen, what he's doing is he's pointing to them and says, no, no, no, you are the ones that rejected
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Moses and God. And he's including himself in this, because he is a Jew, Stephen's a
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Jew, but he's a Hellenistic Jew. He says, you, the Jews, are the ones that rejected
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Moses and God. But when
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Moses appeared 40 years later after their rejection, with signs and wonders, under the ministry of Moses, the
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Jews were freed from the bondage of Pharaoh, the Pharaoh who knew not Joseph. Now let's pick up in chapter 7.
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Hopefully it'll slow down for a minute. Look at verse 35. We'll read through verse 35 through 50.
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This Moses they disowned, saying, who made you ruler and judge?
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Is the one whom God sent to be both ruler and deliverer?
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With the help of the angels who appointed him to, who appeared to him in the bush, this man led them out doing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the
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Red Sea, and in the wilderness for 40 years. This Moses said to the sons of Israel, God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.
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And we know in the New Testament hindsight that he is speaking about Jesus Christ. Verse 38.
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This one among, this one, hold on real quick. So notice
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Moses, God raised up Moses, someone from among the brothers. Moses prophesied that God's going to do the same thing.
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He's going to raise up one from among them, speaking about Jesus. Verse 38. And this, and this is the one whom in the congregation of the wilderness was with the angels who was speaking to him on Mount Sinai with our fathers, the one who received living oracles to pass on to our fathers who were unwilling to be obedient to him, but rejected him, and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.
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He's saying that you, even after he's taken them out of the wilderness, they rejected him.
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He went up to the mountain to receive the tablets. They began to look back to Egypt and begin to worship the gods of Egypt, forming for themselves a goading calf to dance around.
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Saying to Aaron, make for us gods who will go before us for this
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Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt. We do not know what has become of him.
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And at that time they made a calf and brought in and sacrificed the idols and and were rejoicing in the works of your hands.
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But God turned away and delivered them to serve the host of heaven.
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For as it is written in the book of the prophets, did you not present with a slain beast and sacrifice 40 years in the wilderness of the old house of David?
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You also took along the tabernacle of Moloch and the stars of the god
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Erephraim and the image which you made to worship. I also will remove you beyond Babylon.
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Our fathers had the tabernacle and the testimony in the wilderness, just as he has spoken, spoke to Moses, direct to him to make according to the pattern which he had seen.
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And having received it, in turn our fathers brought it with Joshua, with the dispersion in the nation whom
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God drove out before the fathers until the time of David. For David found favor in the sight of God and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the
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God of Jacob. But Solomon built a house for him. However, listen, the
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Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands.
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As the prophet says, heaven is my throne, the earth is my footstool for my feet.
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What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what place is there for my rest?
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Was it not my hand which made all these things?
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All right, so they accused Stephen of blaspheming
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Moses and God, and Stephen points to them, them as a people, the
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Jews, as the one who rejected Moses and God. They accused
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Jesus of speaking against the holy place, the temple, and Stephen tells them that God does not dwell in houses made with hands.
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And he uses scripture. He points to Isaiah 66, verse 1 and 2, and he shows them that heaven is
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God's throne and the earth is his footstool. And as I was reading this,
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I was reminded of Psalm 115, verse 3, which says, but our God is in the heavens and he does whatever he pleases.
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All right, our God is not constrained by temples. All right, if you here today have received
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Christ, you have been baptized in the Holy Spirit, right, you've been regenerated, you have the
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Holy Spirit in you, you have God in you, but guess what? God is not constrained by your body.
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God is in the heavens and he does whatever he pleases. All right, how is it that God is in me and he's in you and he's in you and he's in you?
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How can he do this? Because he is all -powerful. Yes, God was in the temple, but if you think for one second the
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Holy of Holies with those golden walls had captured God and he could not get out, you are wrongly mistaken.
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This is what Stephen is telling them. He is preaching to them their own history, and I guarantee you so much of what he was saying, those
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Jews were like, yeah, you know, he's at a point, he's right right there. Yeah, what he just said is right, but whenever he turns it back to them and says it's you, you're the one that's rejecting
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God. You're the one that's blaspheming God. You're the one that's blaspheming Moses. You're the one who is speaking against the holy place by saying this building can contain
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God. It cannot contain God. They accuse
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Stephen of speaking against the law, and Stephen, listen, this is what really gets him in big trouble.
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He uses verse 37 and he applies it with verses 51 and 53 to show them that they are the ones that are against the law.
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Look at verse 37 again real quick. It says, remember I was speaking about how Moses prophesies one coming from among the brothers.
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This Moses who said to the sons of Israel, God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.
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Now look at verse 51. He says to them, these freedmen, right, these leaders, these
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Jewish leaders, he says to them, you stiff neck and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the
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Holy Spirit as your fathers did. So do you. And which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?
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They killed those who were previously announced the coming of the righteous one whose betrayers, listen, and murderers you have become.
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He took all the blood that was spilt throughout the Old Testament and he applies it to them.
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Verse 53, you who received the law as ordained by angels and yet did not observe it.
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That's where verse 54 comes in. When they heard this, they became furious, right.
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They started gnashing their teeth. They could not take it.
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They could not allow him to keep speaking in this matter because they could not intellectually argue with Stephen.
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Hence why he was stoned to death. I want you to notice three things.
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The first thing, they're uncircumcised in heart and ears and they're always resisting the
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Holy Spirit. Circumcision of the heart is what takes place in regeneration, right.
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We have the washing of regeneration. The Bible talks about having been washed with the water of regeneration.
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Pointing back to Ezekiel chapter 36. In Ezekiel chapter 36 God tells
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Ezekiel that there's going to come a time, speaking of the new covenant, when he's going to wash with clean water.
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He says I will sprinkle you with clean water. This is regeneration. And what takes place in regeneration, the sprinkling of clean water is, is he's going to remove a heart of stone.
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He's going to give a heart of flesh. He's going to, he's going to put his spirit in them and his spirit is going to cause them to keep the law.
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So in regeneration we see the removal of the heart of stone which is self -righteousness.
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And the replacement is a heart of flesh which is faith.
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Faith. He's removing I'm a good person from your heart and he's giving you a heart that says you know what
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I'm not a good person. I need to put my trust in Jesus Christ. That's regeneration.
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That's why regeneration precedes faith. Regeneration must come before faith. God must be the interactor.
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He must be the one pursuing us. Right? We hear the gospel. The gospel grants to us faith.
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This going, you're going, so so when someone becomes a Christian they're going from self -righteousness to faith in Jesus Christ.
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Faith, believing what God has said about his Christ is how we receive the
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Holy Spirit. Galatians chapter 3 verse 2, did you receive the spirit by works of the law, speaking of keeping commandments, or by hearing in faith?
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Did you receive the spirit by doing the works of the law or did you receive the spirit by hearing in faith?
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Again Romans chapter 10 verse 17 tells us that faith comes by hearing and hearing the message of Christ.
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That when someone's preaching God at that moment can either grant faith or he does not have to grant faith.
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And this is how we have to understand the resisting of the Holy Spirit. When it says that they resist the
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Holy Spirit, what were they doing? It says that their ears, it mentions their ears are uncircumcised.
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They're unwilling to hear Stephen. He's speaking but they're unwilling to acknowledge what he's saying is true.
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Self -righteousness is coming up in them. It's boiling up in them. Romans chapter 10 verses 1 through 3 talks about how they use the law of God to establish their own righteousness.
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And this is where it comes to answering a fool. Proverbs tells us two things, answer a fool according to their folly.
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And it says don't answer a fool according to their folly. When I'm talking to someone that's ignorant about theology,
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I have to look at both of those things. If I'm speaking and they're willing to listen, I answer the fool according to their folly.
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But if I'm talking and they're not listening to me, I'm done. There's nothing more
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I can do. If you're unwilling to hear me, I am not to answer you as a fool according to your folly.
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That's what's taking place here. They're stiff -necked, they're uncircumcised in heart and ear, and they're unwilling to listen.
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And so in turn they gnash their teeth and they put Stephen to death.
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Second thing, they're just like their fathers when it comes to the persecution persecuting the prophets.
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Turn with me to Matthew chapter 23. We read a portion of this last week. Jesus speaking to the
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Pharisees here. Look at verse 29. He says, Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
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For you build the tombs of the prophets and adore the monuments of the righteous and say, if we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would have not been partners with them shedding the blood of the prophets.
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So you bear witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.
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Remember in Acts just now he basically says that their blood falls on them.
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So verse 32. Fill then the measure of the guilt of your fathers.
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You serpents, you brood of vipers. He's saying you den of snakes, you pit of snakes.
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How will you escape the sentence of hell? On account of this, behold,
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I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify.
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Some of them you will flog in synagogues. We saw that last week. And persecute from city to city so that upon you may fall the guilt of the righteous blood shed on the earth from the blood of righteous
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Abel. So all the way from Abel. Who killed Abel? Cain.
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So upon this generation, they're going to be guilty for the blood of Abel, all the way to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, who you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.
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Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
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That generation is the near demonstrative. It's speaking to the people. It's talking about the people whom he is speaking to.
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All the prophets in some way announced the coming of the righteous one. In chapter 7, he points to Moses as announcing the righteous one, the prophet like him from among them.
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They rejected Moses. They rejected God. Moses speaks about whenever they receive
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Moses because of signs and wonders, Moses tells them that one is coming from among them.
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And when he comes, they are to listen to him. Jesus comes. They did not receive
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Christ. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to those who did receive them, to them he gave the right to become children of God.
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The third thing to notice, they are guilty of murder. So not only the murder from Abel all the way to then, now he's supposed to make it real personal.
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So not applied guilt, but actual guilt. Them having received, them being the
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Jews, have received the law, murdered the one who gave them the law, God.
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Let's see how much time I've got left. Okay. Lord give me grace. All right. So as Christians, right, we believe in one
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God. How many gods are there? Baptists, please speak up. How many? One God. All right.
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But yet the Bible reveals to us three distinct persons, Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
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And that's why we like to say the one what and the three who's. The one what is the one being of God. The three who's is the
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Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. All right. The Father is not the
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Son. The Son is not the Father. Right. So on and so forth. And yet there is only but one
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God. All right. The Bible clearly tells us that no one has ever seen the
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Father. When Adam walked with God, he walked with Jesus Christ. When Moses was speaking to God on that mountain, he was speaking with Jesus.
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That was Jesus's finger carving into the tablets, right? Carving into the tablets.
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And then again in John chapter 8, whenever he's riding on the ground, that's the same hand that is riding on the ground.
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It's the same hand that wrote on those tablets. The same one whom they rejected in Christ's ministry is the same one they rejected in Moses's ministry.
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This is not a different God. There's only one God. One God, three persons,
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Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And there is no hierarchy in this God. There is no out trying to out
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God one another. If all of us men are together, depending on the topic, there can be some alpha males in the group, right?
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If we were playing basketball, I'd be trying to outman you. Listen, and I don't even know how to play basketball that good anymore.
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But I would still act as if I knew how to do it, right? I'd be up a little in your face trying to pack the ball and steal from you, trying to outman you, trying to be better than you.
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There is none of that in God. There is none of that in God. They all have their specific duties to accomplish redemption.
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God the Father purposed to save a people. He sends his Son into time to accomplish this purpose and to apply this purpose.
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That's to the Holy Spirit. And you and I who have the Holy Spirit, that's why we're given the commission to go into all the world to preach the gospel so the
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Holy Spirit can apply the purpose of God, and that is to redeem a people for his name's sake.
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So they reject God. They murdered the one who gave them the law.
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And when this takes place, I mean, which takes us to the breaking of the law against the stoning of Stephen.
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All right, so they've already, Stephen, all the apostles have been saying this Jesus, God, you murdered.
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You killed him. The Romans nailed him hands and feet to the cross, but they said give us
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Jesus. Now give us Barabbas and crucify Jesus. They killed Christ.
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All the apostles have been, all through the book of Acts, have been saying you've killed the Messiah. You killed the
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Son of God. You killed the Savior. And now they're going to kill
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Stephen. Commandment number seven, thou shall not murder.
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Stephen is innocent. Stephen did not blaspheme God. Stephen did not blaspheme
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Moses. Stephen did not speak against the temple. Stephen did not speak against the law.
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They see Stephen's face shine like an angel, and they rushed at him to throw stones at him.
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So he's over here telling them that they are guilty of murder, and they pick up stones to murder
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Stephen. Are y 'all seeing any of this? They are
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God haters. They're God haters. They want nothing to do with God.
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And that's what Jesus was coming back, and that's the message of Christ. That's the message of the apostles, and that's the message that we see taking place with Stephen.
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So what Stephen just said in verses 35 through 53, in particular 51 through 53, caused them to become furious at him.
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And now let's go ahead and read the account again from what I read earlier. Now when they heard this, everything
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I just said, they're the ones that blaspheme God and Moses. They're the ones that speak against the the temple and the law.
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When they heard this, they become furious in their hearts and began gnashing their teeth at him. And being full of the
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Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven, and he saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
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And he said, Behold, I see heaven open when the Son of Man, which is the
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Son of Man is saying Messiah, standing at the right hand of God, but crying out with a loud voice, they covered their ears.
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Remember, in order, you have to hear. Faith comes by what?
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Hearing. They cover their ears. They cover their ears. I lost my place.
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They cried out with a loud voice and covered their ears and rushed at him with one accord. And when they had driven him out of the city, they had to go out of the city because the
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Roman, the Pax Romanis, the Roman rule, they were not allowed to put people to death. They take him out of the city.
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They hide. This is an event that's not in public. They're in shame. They're taking him into a dark alley, right?
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Like bringing it into our context. They're hiding to kill this man. They began to stone him.
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And when the witnesses laid aside their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul, they began stoning
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Stephen, and he called out. He was calling out saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
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Why would he say, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit if Jesus isn't God? Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice,
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Lord, do not hold this sin against them. Having said this, he fell asleep. I believe that Saul was the high priest that day of the free man's synagogue.
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And I believe that they lay their feet at Saul. I mean, they lay their coats at the feet of Saul in sign of respect, in honor.
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We're doing this for God. And they do so by laying their coats at the feet of Saul.
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Now, some translations manipulate that, but as y 'all know, the LSB is a word for translation, and it says something that would bring to light the way that people interpret it.
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And it goes right along with the Greek structure. Saul, as we will see, comes to faith in Jesus Christ.
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And we'll look at that in the next couple of weeks. Now, how was this, again, how was this
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Stephen's best life now? He's with Jesus.
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He's with Jesus. And as good as we think we have it, this is not our best life now. I don't care what book
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Joel Osteen wrote, this is not your best life now. Every day is not a Friday, right?
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There's trials and there's tribulations in our life. If you're married, you already know, right? Hallelujah. And no man says hollaback, right?
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My wife knows I cut it up, but it's true, right? I mean, there's, you know, you got two different human beings are coming together, like two different things, and now we're trying to figure this out.
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There's just trials and tribulations in marriage. There's trials and tribulations in life, right? This is not our best life now.
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Our best life is to come, and it's when we're walking with glory, walking with Jesus in glory. Now, in those, now, these two chapters that I just read, there is no clear gospel presentation.
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And the whole cause for what we're doing is to find the gospel presentations. But this is such a pivotal point in the book of Acts, I could not skip it.
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Pivotal because they move from Jerusalem and they begin to expand.
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They go to Judea, as we'll see next. They go to Samaria and all the way to the ends of the earth. And as they did in their meeting together, so our meeting together today would not be possible if Stephen would have not been stoned and the church left
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Jerusalem. Listen, we would not be meeting here today if Stephen would have not been stoned and the church left
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Jerusalem. That stoning caused them to leave Jerusalem. It's unthinkable sometimes what
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God has to do in order for us to obey the gospel, in order for us to get up off our lazy pews, right, in order for us to do what we're supposed to do.
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Sometimes He causes someone to be stoned to death, as we see in the book of Acts.
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That did not happen. We would not be here today. You and I are to continue to obey Jesus in these marching orders.
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Again, Dr. Martin Lloyd -Jones, please forgive me. I'm two minutes over. We are living in an age hopelessly below the
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New Testament pattern, content with a neat little religion. Ladies and gentlemen, do not be content.
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You and I broke God's law. We deserve death. Jesus is the
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God -man, one God who has come into existence. The God of all heavens enters into time, takes on flesh.
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Jesus is truly God, and He is truly man. God cannot die, so God has to become a man in order to die.
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Man cannot keep God's law, so Jesus also had to be God in order to keep
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God's law. As God, He keeps God's law, and as man, He tastes the death for all man.
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And listen to the response. Our response is to repent, to turn from self -righteousness, and to look to Jesus Christ in faith, and I say this with all due respect.
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Do not resist the Holy Spirit. Do not cover your ears.
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Listen. Do not resist the Holy Spirit, because faith comes by hearing, and it's hearing of the
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Word of God, and today you have heard it. I'm available to anyone who wants to talk. Pastor Kyle as well.
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Let's pray. Father, Lord, this has definitely been one of the challenging, most challenging messages
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I've stood before your people to preach. I pray I did due diligence.
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Lord, I just ask for your mercy and your grace to be upon me. I'm not sure if I've ever talked that fast, but Lord, please, in Christ's name, if there was anyone here who did not know you as Lord and Savior, I pray that today through this message that you have granted to them faith to believe.
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Lord, we love you, and we're so grateful that what took place in Stephen's life, as horrific as it might have been,
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Lord, that we're here today because of what took place and the church left
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Jerusalem, and it went to Judea, Samaria, and we see it now still traveling to the ends of the earth.
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Lord, we pray that you will grant the church today faith and repentance from all the things that we've done wrong by not being obedient, by not taking the gospel to the streets, and by not taking care of widows and orphans.
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And Lord, that you will put such a passion in us to fulfill that commission. It's so hard when you have such a small church to be able to look at things so big.
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Lord, with you giving us this faith, I know that we can accomplish these things. We love you, and Lord, we pray that right now as we're about to partake in the
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Lord's Supper, we pray, God, that you use this meal to conform us to the image of your Son. We pray that there's anyone here today that plans on partaking and they're living in sin.
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Lord, we pray that you will grant them faith in you to confess their sins, and we know that you are faithful and just to forgive them of all sins, and so that they can partake in this meal with a clean conscience.
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We love you, and Lord, we know that we are guilty, but Christ is our redeemer, and so we come to you today in his name.