The Resistance

Dear heavenly Father. We need Jesus because it's so easy

to look at somebody else or someone else's failings and

to not recognize that when we do this, we're the

problem at the heart of Philadelphia Christianity. Lord is love service,

obedience that doesn't virtue signal, but reaches out to save

the lost. Lord, thank you for the life of Stephen.

We're going to focus on his famous, famous sermon, his

famous intervention with the Jewish leaders. Help us to learn

from that to day in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, I'm

in a series on the Book of Acts, and I'm

not going to get off of it till we finish

the Book of Acts. So we'll be there for a while.

And it just so happens in our presentation today that

we are interacting directly with Bible prophecy Daniel chapter nine.

And does that sounding okay to you? With no feedback back? There?

It does? Andrew? Do you have those monitors on up here?

They cut them off perfect alrighty, I'm getting used to

something new here in Acts six eight? Let me pause?

Is that too loud? What I just said a little bit?

It is too loud. Let's bring it down just a

little bit. We got a chance to get this right,

because next week I want to have the right settings. Brian,

just a little bit, let me try it again it

Acts six eight. Is that better? Okay? I think we

got it. Let's hang in there. In Act six eight,

the Bible records of Stephen that he was a man

full of grace and power. In this sense, Stephen was

the model leader for the church. Boy, we could have

a whole lot more Stevens as leaders, and it wouldn't

hurt us a lick? Would it? Look at Act six eight?

Take your bibles, open it and turn to Act six

verse eight. And Stephen, full of grace and power, did

great wonders and signs among the people. When Stephen was

arraigned before the Sanhedrin, it was witnessed that his face

shone like an angel. Friend, when you have the truth

in your life, the truth shines out through you so

others can see Jesus in you. Does that matter? It should?

Stephen could not hide the fact that he was a

follower of Jesus Christ, the Angel of the Lord. We

read the Old Testament, we find that the Angel of

the Lord is the Lord. Now, Andrew, I'm gonna ask

you just give me a little bit more on just

a hair on that, if you could, thank you now.

When Stephen began his testimony, the Jewish leaders called him

out for two offenses, recorded accurately in Acts six fourteen.

And let's take your bibles and look at that it's

on the screen. For we have heard him say that

this Jesus of Nazareth will number one destroy this place.

Number two will change the customs which Moses delivered to us.

So they accused Stephen number one of saying, you're going

to destroy the temple, and number two, you're going to

change the law of Moses. You noticed that they refer

to the Law of Moses as a set of customs.

Do you see that in your Bible. Burse They didn't

believe that the law was a revelation of the character

of God that pointed to the coming of the Messiah,

who would embody the law. They had disconnected God from

his law. They saw the Law of Moses as nothing

more than a list of things to do, a code

to keep customs. They also claimed that Stephen had taught

that Jesus was of Nazareth would destroy the temple, and

there was nothing that was more loved in Judaism than

that beautiful temple that Herod had built. If they were

students of the Book of Daniel, they would have been

familiar with the seventy week prophecy of Daniel nine. How

many of you know the seventy week Prophecy of Daniel nine,

which is four hundred and ninety years long. They did

not study it as they should that time. Prophecy explicitly

predicted that the Messiah would come, that he would establish

a covenant with God's people, and that he would do

more than that that as they rejected him, the city

and the sanctuary would be destroyed. So there was a

prophetic basis to believe that the city and the sanctuary

would be destroyed. Now do we have a good deacon

here in the church? Raise your hand, good deacon here,

I need a glass of water right here? Could you

go get that for me? They have water in the back,

Just bring it rought up and that will help the

preacher continue on. Thank you. So if they had studied

now have you ever heard people say, well, you know,

we don't need to study about prophecy. But if they

had studied Daniel nine, they would not have been caught

by rejecting the Messiah. They would have been ready for

the coming of the Lord. They would have been right

on time and in tune with events that were prophesy.

Thank you so much, Steve greatly appreciate it. So if

they had studied that prophecy number one would have realized

that they had come to the very last year of

the four hundred and ninety years. It was the year

of judgment for the city. It was the year in

which God would pass his final verdict over Jerusalem. Now,

Jesus was not on trial at this time. He'd been

on trial three and a half years earlier. The person

who was on trial was Stephen, and he was on

trial because he was a witness for Jesus. Some people say, well,

I go to church because what I can get out

of it. I go to church because it'll help me

have a future. Friends, do you go to church for Jesus? Yes?

Or no? Because if you go to church for Jesus,

God has called you to bear witness for his name.

Many pastors and teachers and missionaries have been on trial.

Thank you, had been on trial for Jesus, just like Stephen.

Evil has a way of putting good men and good

women on trial. I'm not going to say who are

give you the particulars, but I have a pastor friend

who was recently arrested and put on trial because church

members don't like him, and they did their best of

framing Paul's charges the whole nine yards, and he's got

a fight for his life because he was doing nothing

but trying to advance the word of God in his

local church. Don't tell me this is justin Stephens day.

It is in our day. Satan uses the same methods

in every age. They should have known that the prophet

Daniel had predicted the end of Jerusalem and it's sanctuary

because of their rejection of Jesus. Daniel nine twenty four

he says, seventy weeks of years of the creed for

your people and your holy city, to put an end

to sin. He goes on to say, detone for iniquity,

to bring an everlasting righteousness, he says, for your holy city,

and to finish the transgression. In verse twenty four of

Daniel nine, they were given four hundred and ninety years

to get their act together, and at the end of

that God would judge them. But what does he do

he sends them Messiah to save them. In this prophecy,

look at the one nine twenty six. And after the

sixty two weeks weeks masshot Siah shall be cut off,

but not for himself, and the people of the prince

who is to come shall destroy. What does it say

in your bible? So are you reading along with me?

What does it say? The city and the sanctuary? The

end of it shall be with the flood, until the

end of the war desolations are decreed. So does the

text clearly say that the city would be destroyed and

the temple would be destroyed? Yes or no? Yes? All right?

Look at verse twenty seven. Then he shall confirm a

covenant with many for one week, but in the middle

of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice,

an offering, and on the wing of abomination shall come

one who makes desolate. This is the antichrist power, even

until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on

the desolate. So you have it. Messiah shows up, they

reject him. What do you have going on here? You

have the destruction of the temple and the sanctuary. I

get two bottles of water. I am I left that

one over there. That's right, I did. But I'm grateful

I have two now. Thank you for your kindness. I

appreciate that I'm getting used to a wireless microphone today.

I feel pretty good, all right. Jesus was cut off

according to the prophecy, and he was crucified in the

middle of the last seven years of the seventy weeks,

the four ninety years. Do you realize that the Dead

Sea Scrolls refers to that prophecy two hundred years before Christ?

Do you know that it's in Cave eleven the Melchizedek document.

It quotes verse twenty six of Daniel nine in expectation

that the Messiah would come at the end of ten Jubilees,

which is four hundred and ninety years. Stephen would die

at the end of the last seven years. Christ was

cut off in the middle of the week. John the

Baptist died at the beginning of the last seven years.

So you have three deaths. You have the death of

John the Baptist at the beginning, you have the death

of Jesus in the middle, and you have the death

of Stephen at the end. They murder the prophets in

the last week of the seventy weeks and Stephen, just

like John the Baptist, bore witness to Jesus and the

truth and his bold testimony, and he was taken out

because he was a minister of the Word of God.

Daniel predicted that the Messiah would confirm the New Covenant

in the midst of the week. I had the privilege

of going into the young adult Bible Study Saba School

this morning, and they were focusing on the New Covenant

in Daniel eight. And I saw those young people in

their Bibles, and I'm telling you, that's what they ought

to be doing here at Sabath School. Now I've noticed

something at Reaching Hearts. I've noticed the children are on

time for the Sabbath School. I've noticed that the young

adults get there. But I've noticed that some adults are

not arriving on time for Sabath School. Have you noticed that?

Without sending you in a guilt trip, I'd like to

encourage you to come here to study the Word of God.

And we do need more teachers. We need people who

expand classes here, and we need this whole sanctuary filled

with people studying the Bible run in church. The prophet

Daniel had predicted the destruction of the temple. He had

predicted the death of the Messiah in the midst of

the seven years, the last one. Steven's defense before the

Sanhedrin began with a kindness leveled on the very men

who would murder him in a few hours. And he

began his defense by addressing them as brethren. He didn't say,

you rotten guys, you corrupt leaders. He said, brethren. You

know it's a sign of a holy spirit person when

they can address leadership, whether good or bad, with respect.

You hear me. If we can't address leadership, whether good

or bad, with respect, and we have lost our way. Saul,

the future Apostle Paul, was present at his defense. He

was a young man in Paul's defense in Acts twenty

two to one, when he himself will be on trial

before the same kind of counsel, the Sanhedrin, most likely

when he faced them. When he made his defense, he

repeated the words of Stephen. He called them, brethren, the

servants of God are not ugly in their defense of truth.

They're to be kind, direct, and clear, as they preached

the word of God in love. In Act seven, Stephen

begins his defense before the council with Abraham, who left

ear of the Caldies, and why did he do that?

Because the Christians had were leaving Judaism for the very

same reason Abraham had left Idolatry, and so Christians were

leaving the corrupt worship of the Temple. Stephen was trying

to drive home the point that there is a calling out.

The Greek word for church means the called out once,

and he's talking to these people who are institutionalizing their mentality.

He's saying, look, the church was established for a movement,

that it's meant to take us to a city that

Abraham is looking for, that has foundations, whose builder and

makers God. The Greek word for church means the called

out ones. How many of you, when you became a

Christian realized you were called out of the world and

you are called to follow and obey Jesus. Are you

in that camp? I am in that camp. Stephen quickly

moves to prophecy. When God told Abraham that his children

would be persecuted by the Egyptians, look at Acts seven,

six and seven, and God spoke to this effect that

his posterity would be aliens in the land belonging to

others who would enslave them, And I'll treat them four

hundred years for seven. But I will judge the nation

which they serve, said God. And after that they shall

come out. You see the word come out, and what

follows the phrase, come out in your Bible and worship

me in this place. Friends, we have to come out

of the world to worship the Lord. We have to

come out of a slavery, to sin, to come into

relationship with God. And so Stephen's getting right to the heart.

He says, you are so stuck in your place. You

have not come out to recognize the authority of Jesus

in your life. What happened to the Jewish nation was

now happening in the Christian Church. And so Stephen here

is saying in bold terms, we are coming out. The

religious leaders have become the new Egyptians, the new Pharaoh,

and thus the gentiles in the discourse of Stephen, Friends,

you may have grown up in the church, you may

have a long pedigree in the church. You may think

you are an important somebody in the church. But friends,

if you persecute the church, if you try to trip

up the church, if you try to destroy the church,

or minimize its impact. You know what Paul says, the

one who destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him.

And he's talking about the church, primarily First Corinthians. And

that is what Stephen is saying to those leaders gone wrong.

The prophet Daniel predicted that the Messiah would confirm a

new covenant in the last week of the four to

ninety years, and thus Stephen reminds the Jewish leaders that

God made a covenant of circumcision with their ancestors. Now

keep your eyes on the word circumcision. Gavin had it here.

By the way, didn't he do a great job reading

the Bible verse this morning? Where's Gavin at Gavin? Alrighty? Now,

you know, Gavin, you got a lot of energy, and

I'm proud of you because when I was your age,

I had energy too. But I noticed today you stood

up there, you read that verse, and I think you

have a preacher's voice. So we're proud of you, and

God be praised. We don't want to go to your head,

but we want to encourage you. Okay, alrighty, give you

a thumb up there. So keep your eyes on that

word circumcision because it refers to the covenant. Stephen will

come back to it at the end of his defense

and he'll say, there's something wrong with you. Stephen makes

the point that God is the one who makes the

covenant circumcision. It's God's covenant, not ours the covenant, which

is another way of saying the law is about God,

It's from God. Stephen continues that as he describes the

history of the patriarchs of Isaac, of Jacob, of Joseph,

who was sold by his evil brothers into slavery to Egypt.

And remember that Stephen had just called them brethren. I mean,

remember that starts as discourse by saying that Joseph's brothers,

his brethren, persecuted him. So he's connecting dots here. They

sold him into slavery, they seized him, they did all

of this, but God turned it around to save the

nations by seven plentiful years and seven bad years. He

gave them what they needed. Joseph was sent there to

preserve life, but his brethren were bad actors. Stephen here

describes how God did this, but the brethren in the way.

In Genesis, the seven year famine was preceded by seven

plentiful years of grace and harvest, just like the seven

last years. In Dale nine, Stephen is hinting that the

seven last years of the four hundred ninety years are

running out for the Jewish nation. They've had seven plentiful years.

And what did they do. They killed the prophet of God,

John the Baptist. They killed the Messiah in the midst

of the week, and now they're going to kill the

last voice of conscience, Stephen. Eventually the people were enslaved

and the prophecy for Abraham was coming to an end,

just like Daniel's four hundred ninety year prophecy, and Stephen

zero was in on it, Act seven seventeen. Take your

bible's look there. But as the time of the promise

drew near, now are we living near the coming of Christ? Yes?

Or no? Now, friends, we are living at the end

of prophetic time in the Book of Daniels, in such

a way that we have no business compromising in our

lives so that we don't have our hearts fully under

the control of the Holy Spirit. But they didn't care.

They have time prophecy running out. But here Steven's drawing

attention to the prophecy given to Abraham that would affect

the children of Israel. They're coming out of Egypt. But

as the time of the prophecy drew near which God

had granted to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,

till there arose over Egypt another king who had not

known Joseph. Good times can end and bad times can

begin for God's people. We've had good times at reaching hearts.

You know, when persecution hits in this country, we're going

to have bad times in this country. When we are

tested with bad times in life. Don't forget the good times,

the times when God was with you, because God is

always with you if you are surrendered and you love

Him no matter how you feel or what's happening to you.

You know, the pastor's wife that I am referring to recently,

he told me, I just feel rejected of God, abandoned,

And I told her God has not abandoned you. He's

trusting you with hard times so you can maybe see

your son saved, you can see your family saved, that

God can work through your affliction. And so, yeah, you're

going through the furnace. But I'm gonna tell you something.

I'm gonna be with you and your other friends who

love you. Stephen recounts the birth of Moses and how

God saved baby Moses from the death decree of Pharaoh.

When Moses was forty, he tried to save his brethren

as a deliverer. Look at verse twenty three of Stephen's discourse.

When he was forty years old, he came into his

heart to visit his brethren, the sons of Israel, and

seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed

man and avenged him by striking the Egyptian. Now we

call that aggressive evangelism, isn't it all right? I mean,

whatever you do when you're trying to help somebody, don't

hit them. Really. I remember one time, and I'm not

going to tell you when or what, but I can

remember a man who came to church with intention of

hitting another church member, and I had to take him

out under the tent and spend all that day before

my sermon convincing him to calm down. You don't believe

that didn't happen here. It happened in another place. Boy,

I tell you it's something. I just lost my spot here,

give me a second. Yes, So, basically, Moses struck that Egyptian.

Look what it says here, And seeing one of them

being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him

by striking the Egyptian. So when we see injustice, should

we use violence to help? No? Look at verse twenty five.

He supposed that his brethren understood that God was giving

them deliverance by his hand, but they did not understand.

Remember that Stephen called these religious leaders of that council brethren.

He keeps using the word brethren, brethren, brethren. Moses fled

to Midian, and there at Mount Sinai, the Angel of

the Lord appeared to Moses verse thirty. Now, when the

forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in

the waters of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire

in a bush. And when Moses solid he wondered at

the sight. And as he drew near to look, the

voice of the Lord came. And here's what it says,

I am the God of your Father's. So the Angel

of the Lord is in the bush. And when the

Angel the Lord speaks, what does he say? Help me

with this? What I am the God of your Father's.

That means the Angel of the Lord is God. Don't

read over that too fast. The Angel of the Lord

who spoke from the bush is God, just like when

Joshua met him as the captain of the Lord's army.

He said, take off your shoes, Joshua, for the place

you're standing his holy ground. That's exactly what the voice

said at the bush. This is the preexistent Christ in

the burning bush speaking to Moses as the living word

of God. Sometimes we think that there was a poster.

Someone sent me a poster sign that a very wealthy

billionaire put up in California saying Jesus is not God.

And of course my friend said, that's blaspheming based on

this verse, that would be blasphemy. He said, I am

the God of your father's the God of Abraham, the

God of Jacob, of Isaac, and of Jacob and Moses.

Tremble did not care to look, and the Lord said

to him, take off the shoes from your feet, for

the place where you're standing is holy ground. I have

surely seen the ill treatment of my people that are

in Egypt. I've heard their groaning. I've come down to

deliver them, and now come I will send you to Egypt.

Have you ever felt in your life that God doesn't

hear you when you pray. You ever had a hard

time where it looks like you're failing, and you wonder

if the Lord's going to intervene. Now look at the verse.

Based on this verse, does God hear yes or no?

Does God care? Yes or no? Will God intervene? Yes?

And that's what I shared with this pastor's wife. As

the new Moses, Jesus had come down to deliver his

people from Satan, and the Jewish leaders were now under

his control. The people opposed Moses in his ministry, and

Stephen records that Moses predicted that the new Moses who

would come after him, who is Jesus, would be treated

the same way by the brethren. Look at Acts seven

thirty five. This Moses, whom they refused, saying, who made

you a ruler and a judge? God sent as both

ruler and deliverer by the hand of the Angel that

appeared to him the bush. So here we have the

Angel of the Lord, who is God right and God

sent God. Are you following the text which means the

Angel of the Lord is God an angel form, but

God is the one who's sinn him. That's the Father

and the Son. You see. So we have God the

Father and God the Son in the Old Testament, and

we shouldn't read over these verses that show us this.

In fact, in Nexus twenty four, God calls Yahweh, calls Yahweh.

Is Yahweh the elder is to come up to Yahweh

because he's speaking of his son. And we've been told

in the spirit of prophecy, the Father and the Son

together were present when Christ spoke the Ten Commandments. And

if Christ spoke the ten Commandments, he has to be

Yahweh God to have done it, because he's saying, I

ay I, who made you a ruler and judge? That?

So in next seven thirty five the Moses, whom they refused,

saying who made you a ruler and judge? God sent

as both ruler and deliver by the hand of the

Angel that appeared to him the bush verse thirty six.

He led them out have perform wonders and signs in

Egypt and at the Red Sea in the wilderness for

forty years. This is the Moses who said to the Israelites,

God will raise up for you. And what does it

say in your bible? A prophet from your brethren, as

he raised me up. So the Messiah would be the

new what based on that verse Moses, so that means

Christ would be the new lawgiver. He would come to

live the law, to proclaim the law, to define the law.

Moses predicted, the prophet like him would be the new Moses,

the new Covenant prophet. Stephen records that Moses was with

that angel. That angel was God in angel form, the Angel,

the Lord who is the Lord, the good Shepherd, and

redeeming Angel. That Jacob says, the Angel that has redeemed

me from all my troubles, and he calls that angel God.

In Genesis, Stephen records how the people of God who

had received the Law built a golden calf as they'd

lost themselves in the wild kind of worship and dance

that is golden calf worship, they rose up to play.

Steven cites Deuteronomy four nineteen, which shows how evil angels

as the host of Heaven, control the hearts of people

who receive the Law but don't receive God. In other words,

they give themselves over to demonic control in their life. Friends,

if you don't keep Jesus in your heart, you don't

keep the law. You hear me, You may say, well,

we keep in the law. But if you don't have

Christ in you, you don't have the law on you.

When you persecute his servants, you persecute him, and you're

a lawbreaker. Look at Acts seven forty three, and you

took up the tint of Molik. Does anybody know what

the word molik means in Hebrew? All right, it comes

from the word Melic for king, but it has different vowels.

In ancient Carthage, it was just melic, it was king.

So why did the Hebrew Bible change the vowels? Because

the vowels for a bowshitt bouchett, and so the O

and the ah goes into the Melic to create Molik,

which means king of shame. What did they do when

they worship Molik? When they built an altar where they

put a lamb on the altar, what do they put

on the altar at Gezer? They found three hundred children,

little girls cut in two, that were sacrificed on the altar. Demolk. Now,

friends in fantaside always goes with false religion. Don't think

for a moment that God is honored when children are

killed for any reason, they are His children. God loves

the children of the world. You took up the tenth

of Molik, the star of the God, repond the figures

which you made to worship, and I will remove you

beyond Babylon. Friends, it's possible to think that because you

have the truth, you are automatically a child of God,

no matter what you do. Not true, Stephen says. Steve

is trying to say here that the very people who

had the law became demonic law breakers. They openly worshiped

the host of heaven instead of the God of Heaven.

There are some in the church today who think that

it is acceptable to enjoy pornographic television viewing, our movie attendance,

his entertainment. AM all right, it is not. Most of

Hollywood today is totally bathed in demonic messages. Our kids

don't need this stuff. We don't need it. We're not

going to be ready for the coming Christ. If this

is part of our lifestyle, it has to go. And

that goes for the most that goes for the modern

rock industry today. I was watching a small segment of

sixty minutes that was a number of years ago, was

aired and Bob Dylan. You know who Bob Dylan is.

He transitioned from folk music to rock music. Bob Dylan

won the Nobel Prize in Literature for his lyrics. He

has supernatural kind of lyrics. And the outright confessed in

that interview that he made a pact with the ruler

of this world. That's what he calls him to acquire

the needed to break out and become a great musician.

And he was talking like you know that famous German

novel of the guy who made the Pact with the Devil.

He confessed that he sold his soul to the Prince

of this world, and the interviewer couldn't believe it. I

could go through others in the industry have done this

exactly the same thing, Lady Gaga, and I could go

through many many others. So let's not bring that kind

of music into our church. Is that fair? Let's let

the Lord inspire a new generation of songs that are

motivated by the Holy Spirit, the Bible truth revival. You know,

every generation is the right to write new stuff, but

don't mix the two. Stephen recounts how God had Moses

built a tabernac in the waterness and how God moved

around in that tent until God led Solomon to build

a permanent temple sanctuary at seven forty four. Our fathers

had the tent of Witness in the wilderness. Even as

he spoke to Moses directed him to make it according

to the pattern he had seen. Our fathers, in turn

brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations,

which God thrust out before our fathers. So it was

until the days of David, who found favor in the

side of God and asked leave to find a habitation

for the God of Jacob, in other words, a house

for God to live in. But it was Solomon who

built a house for him. Stephen records all of this

only to add that God doesn't need a house to

dwell in. God is not building. Is not dependent upon

a building as important as it is. No, do we

have a beautiful church here? Yes? Or no? We do, friends,

This church is a means to an end. It's a

blessing of God. But it's not the end with God,

because God is our house. If we don't have this building,

we have God. We have our temple at seven forty eight.

Yet the Most High does not dwell in a house

made with hands, As the prophet says, Heaven is my throne,

Earth is my footstool. What 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? Stephen is

trying to say that it's possible to fall in love

with a building with a temple or a church instead

of falling in love with God. Isn't it It's possible

to focus on what we have instead of who has us.

It's possible to treasure the truth you think you have

when the truth doesn't have you. It's possible to forget

that God made all these things and that God is

the only reason in our lives for the blessings we

enjoy and take for granted. And so obedience means we

love God. God's not impressed if we glory in what

we have instead of who we have as a savior,

our friend in God. Friends, I don't come to church

for this building. I work all week with others to

make sure it stays up. I come to church for

God for his people who need him. And I come

for Jesus and God, and I put up with wolves

At times. You may too because all kinds of people

come through the church. We can all be a little

wolf like ourselves at times, and we must realize we

come to church because we are sinners in need of grace.

We come because we need God in our lives. At

this point, Stephen no longer calls these religious manipulators brethren.

The seventy weeks of day On nine had come to

an end, and they stood indicted before God Almighty as

rebels against the Covenant. The Holy Spirit speaks through Stephen.

The indictment is clear, Act seven fifty one. He says, you, now, Gavin,

this is what you read. Here's what it is. Yes,

stiff necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears. You always

resist the Holy Spirit as yours fathers did. So do

you now, yes or no? Yeah? He's getting right to it.

He's saying it with love. We are told in the

Spirit of Prophecy in Chapter one of Steps to Christ

that when Jesus uttered his scathing rebukes, there were tears

in his eyes in his voice. And so Stephen was

no doubt like Jesus weeping as he said, you stiff

necked people and circumcised and heart and ears, and loving

them as he said that. Now, don't you think for

a minute that you're He's trying to say, don't you

think for a minute, don't think for a single minute

that your religious pedigree will save you. It will not.

You may have some high folut notion of your religious heritage,

of your personal importance, but don't bank on it in

the judgment day or any day of your life. We

have all sinned, That includes the preacher. We've all fallen

short of the glory of God. That includes the preacher. Now,

I visited a thrift story every now and then. There

are two former seventh the aventist at the second avenue

for a thrift store that God has led me to,

and I go to pray for them every week. And

as I showed up, there was a man from Islam

who met me there as I was looking at something,

and he said, I am a direct descendant of Jesus Christ.

Do you ever hear you want to say that? He

says all the cities around us are named after Jewish

kind of places. And he believed that Jesus lived to

be a hundred he moved to his place, and that

he's a descend of Jesus. But he doesn't believe in

Jesus God. He doesn't believe Jesus is the save of

the world. He doesn't believe. I asked him, does Islam

teach that there's any forgiveness of sins? He says no.

He says, no forgiveness, just power. You gotta do the

right thing. I said, well, what if you mess up? Once?

I said. He didn't answer. I said, are you a

perfect person? And guess what his answer was, I am

a perfect person. Well, you know that's how they were

acting here. If you don't feel your need, you can't

turn to Christ. We've all sinned, we've all fallen in

short of the globe of God. One of the problems

of the latest seeing condition is that we can't admit

that we're the problem. But we need Jesus. Stephen knew

that the humble are those that God recognize. He continues

in verse fifty two. Which of the prophets did not

your fathers persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand

the coming of the righteous One, whom you have now

betrayed and murdered you who received the law as delivered

by angels and did not keep it. Amazing these leaders

had accused Stephen of preaching the destruction of the Temple,

and have set inside the law of Moses. Stephen bore

witness to their resistance of the truth, and he unmassed

them as lawbreakers and frauds. These leaders had destroyed the

Temple by their own actions. Christ had come to save them.

They had rejected the true prophet, the New who is Jesus.

They had acted just like the brethren in the Old

Testament again and again, who persecuted Jose as the false

brothers who persecuted Moses, the false brethren who worshiped demons

by sacrificing their children to Moloch. The host of having

false brethren, the nation that killed all those children in

time killed the son of God. And Stephen calls him

the righteous One. Stephen chose the words, well here in

naming Jesus the righteous One. Now, I'm going to let

you all know something. It's all right, how many you

like our children in the church. Here, I Harvey, I'll

tell you what happened one Sabbath, and I was at Sligo.

I was preaching right up here, and Donald, who was

a todller, my little son, walked all the way down

that large church all the way up in the platform

and said, Daddy, I want you to hold me. And

I had to hold him as I was preaching my sermon.

Now I have a little theory why our kids are

little Lancey right now. We gave him rocket fuel. It

happened in Saba school. I saw those sweet things. Now,

maybe I don't think about that, but it happened here.

And that's not a criticism. I really realized. We love

our kids and all the like, but you're dealing with

forces you cannot control right now. It's called glucose. But

we love you, and don't you feel one lick. I

hope I didn't embarrass you by saying that, but we're

with you. But when Donald came up, he was in

my arms. I just you know, I just finished the

term with Donald here in my arms. It was funny.

They never saw anything like that at Sligo ever. Guaranteed,

we want children in our church. We love them. These

leaders were not listening to Stephen. The nation that killed

all those children in time killed the son of God,

the righteous one, that's what Stephen calls him. He chooses

this term Isaiah fifty three to eleven very quickly on

the screen. Here it's a direct quote from Isaiah fifty three.

He shall see the fruit of the travail of his

soul and be satis. He's talking about the lamb who

goes to the slaughter. Here in the context, by his

knowledge shall th. And what does it call the one

who dies for our sins? The righteous one, my servant.

Make many to be kind of righteousness, and he shall

bear their iniquities. So Stephen goes right to Isaiah fifty

three to refer to Jesus as the righteous One, identifying

Jesus by two names, the servant and the lamb that

would come thus the righteous One, And that means they

sacrifice the Son of God, the righteous One, the Lamb

of God Dow nine twenty four seventy weeks, or the

creed for your people and your holy city, to finish

the transgression, to put it into sin, to toone for iniquity,

to bring in. And what does the Bible say, ever

lasting righteousness. So Christ came in the seventy weeks to

be the suffering servant, the righteous One, and to stay

righteous and to bring in everlasting righteousness, to turn us

from evil to God by his cross and forgiveness. And

rejecting Jesus and his servant. These leaders brought ruin upon

themselves and the Holy nation. Know what doesn't mean for us?

You see, friends, if we focus so much on what's wrong,

but we don't focus on what's right with God, and

we don't have a relationship with Christ, we can do

the same thing. That's how they went wrong. They finished

the transgression of Day one nine twenty four that brought

judgment on them. Stephen said, you always resist the Holy

Spirit now in your life? Is that true of you?

When the Holy Spirit says, straighten out that cabinet, that

video cabinet, when he says, look quit you know, spending

your time and this kind of leads your activity. Get

to church, try to live for others? Do you resist

the Holy Spirit? We all can. Luke records that they

became enraged. Now that is not a Holy Spirit attitude

to have. Look records that they ground their teeth. Why

don't you take your teeth a little bit, go like this,

don't grind too hard uncontrolled anger. I have stood in

this pulpit over the years, went on occasion, and a

church member here or there has done the same thing

to me right facing me when you grind your teeth

at the preaching of the Word of God, you're not

a holy spirit led person. And you need Jesus, you

need conversion. In Mark nine eighteen, the demoniac that met

Jesus ground his teeth in the presence of Jesus. And

you know Jesus refers to He says, depart from you, all,

you workers of iniquity at Luke thirteen, and he says,

you will weep and gnash and grind your teeth at

the end. See, if we grind our teeth at truth,

we will grind our teeth. And the judgment Stephen's accusers

will do the same, and the judgment day they will

gnash their teeth. At this point, they can't escape the

fact that Stephen is more than a deacon in the church.

Stephen is a prophet of God, raised up at the

end of the seventy week prophecy to pronounce judgment upon

that Acts seven fifty six. And suddenly Stephen looks into

the heavens and he says, behold, I see the heavens opened,

and the Son of Man standing at the right hand

of God. Stephen here borrows from the Book of Daniel

and Psalms one ten, verse one, when the Lord said

to my lord, sit at my right hand until I

make your enemies a footstool for your feet. And when

you stand up, it means you're ready to crush them.

Number two Daniel twelve one. Michael the great Prince, So

stand up, and there will be a time of trouble,

and God will deliver his people. Daniel seven, thirteen fourteen.

The son of Man comes to the Ancient of days

to receive his kingdom and to deliver his people. Judgment

is occurring. What do they do? They cast him out

of the city. They've stormed upon him. They very likely

went out the eastern gate right to the spot where

Jesus had died, and then they stoned him to death.

He died praying the same prayer Jesus prayed for his enemies.

He knelt down, the Bible says in verse sixty, and

he cried with a loud worse, Lord, do not hold

this sin against them. And when he said this, he

fell asleep. Jesus said, Father, forgive them. They know not

what they do. Stephen said pretty much the same thing. This,

what's the seventy weeks about? It's not about judgment. It's

about forgiveness. How many times should we forgive somebody? Seventy

times seven? When you do the math, what's that number?

Four hundred and ninety. There was a young man standing there.

His name was Saul. He would later be called Paul,

and the Bible says they put their garments at his feet.

They stripped themselves down so they could beat him up

and stone him. They didn't want their garments to be soiled,

but they demonstrated by that that they had no righteousness,

no righteous garments on them. They were naked before God,

these persecutors. And as Saul heard Stephen say, Lord, do

not count this against them, Lord received my spirit. The

Lord Jesus sought Paul Saul on the Damascus road, and

he said, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And I've

come to God. I've come here to let you know

that I'm watching you and I care for you. It

took Saul a little bit of time to figure out

that he was on the wrong side of things, but

a man of God led him to Christ. He gave

his life to Christ. He had resisted all his life

Jesus in his heart. He had resisted him outright by

persecuting others. But Stephen's witness had changed his heart and

he made a decision to give his life to Jesus,

and he became the apostle to the world. God blessed Stephen.

We owe a lot to Stephen. Dear Heavenly Father, Thank

you for Stephen. May we be like Stephen, faithful, not

cheap religion that goes nowhere, but good religion that goes

into the heart. And Lord, maybe not be judgmental toward others,

but really look at ourselves and realize that we're the

brethren that Stephen is talking about. And help us Lord

to save others who are our brethren. In Jesus' name, Amen.