Like Fathers,. Like Sons

Transcript

GR 1596
03/13/11
Like Fathers, Like Sons
Acts 7:44-53
Gil Rugh

Acts 7, we're getting the opportunity to hear an extended sermon by a man who really is on trial for his life. It will climax with his execution. Stephen is a godly man. Back in Acts 6:8 we are told that Stephen was a man full of grace and power. And he was performing great wonders and signs among the people. God was using him in a tremendous way, using him to do significant miracles that validated the message that was being given forth in these early days of the church. Full of grace and power. And he was having an impact both on believers and on unbelievers. And as we noted as we looked at that section, sometimes the word of God is having a tremendous impact on unbelievers, but the impact is not what we would desire and hope, that they would repent of their sin and come to trust the Savior. And here it is having an opposite impact—they are convicted by the Spirit, convicted by the power of the word. They are unable to refute the scripture that is being presented to them so they stir up false witnesses and bring false accusations against Stephen. He has been guilty of blasphemy, he has spoken against Moses. Acts 6:13, he speaks incessantly against this holy place and the law. So if he is brought before the Sanhedrin of Israel, the governing body of the Jews at this time, seventy leaders of the nation. He even stands before them and gives an overview of Israel's first thousand years of history. And in that overview he is going to cover the charges against him, going to deal with Moses and the law and the temple. But he'll start out with Abraham, the man that God chose to be the founder of the nation Israel. The Old Testament tells us God spoke and said that He chose Abraham when it was only one to be a mighty nation. Abraham was a man of great faith.

So that started Stephen's sermon. There is a man here of great faith, our father Abraham. But it has gone downhill from there. He talked about Joseph, his rejection by the patriarchs, the brothers of Joseph who became the heads of the twelve tribes. But they rejected him, yet God was using him and raised him up to be a deliverer for the nation. But there you see the pattern developing.

He came to talk about Moses and Moses' leadership, and the dominant part of this sermon is about Moses. We noted Stephen divided his life into three 40-year segments— forty years being trained in the house of Pharaoh, forty years in the wilderness of Midian being trained and prepared by God, then forty years of leading the children of Israel in the wilderness. It would have been characteristic of Moses' interaction with the people of God—rejection. Why did he have to leave the household of Pharaoh and flee into the wilderness? Because Israel rejected and refused to accept him as a leader and a savior. Their history in the wilderness was one of ongoing consistent rebellion.

You see what Stephen is laying out. God called Abraham, the founder of the nation, and he was a godly man and a man of faith. But the pattern of the nation from there on has basically been one of rebellion against God, refusal to submit to God, refusal to obey Him, rejecting the leaders and saviors that God had provided, like Joseph, like Moses. Moses was the one in Acts 7:37, this is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren. So preparing for driving home the point shortly, you rejected Moses, and Moses the one you claim to be following is the very one not only rejected by the people of Israel repeatedly, but the one who would prophesy of a coming prophet. And of course you know where that is going. They have rejected the prophet greater than Moses in fulfillment of the promises given even through Moses.

Moses was the one who had received the law on Mt. Sinai but they rejected Moses. What happened when Moses was up on Mt. Sinai receiving the Law? What were the people doing? Verse 39, our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him but repudiated him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt saying to Aaron, make for us gods who will go before us. For this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what happened to him. And they made a calf and they sacrificed, rejoicing in the work of their hands.

This has been the history of the nation, you who were accusing me of blasphemy, of speaking against Moses. What has been the history of our nation in reacting and responding to Moses? How about when they made the calf; they were delivered by God, turned over in judgment? We saw in Romans 1 part of the judgment of God is He turns sinners over to the sin that they love. Romans 6:42, God turned away and delivered them up to serve the host of heaven. And forty years in the wilderness were forty years of rebellion.

Verse 43, you took along the tabernacle of Moloch, star of the god Rompha, the image which you made to worship. I will also remove you beyond Babylon. The Babylonian captivity was testimony to their rebellion, unfaithfulness, ungodliness. So they were led away into Babylon. The history of the people of Israel—rebellion, refusal to obey God, refusal to receive and follow the leaders and saviors, deliverers He provided. They made their own gods; they didn't worship the God of Israel. And they were carried away into captivity because of that. Really the Babylonian captivity, they had never recovered from that, in effect. They live dominated. As Stephen is speaking here, who rules over them? Another Gentile power, the Romans.

So he is going to now address the subject of the temple. And this comes out, the connection here; you'll note he said, you took along the tabernacle of Moloch, the tent of Moloch. Now you'll note verse 44, our fathers had the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness. So two different tabernacles here, two different tents that were centers of worship. What were their fathers doing? They took along the tabernacle of Moloch. But our fathers had the tabernacle of testimony. What are they doing with the tabernacle of Moloch? So you see the connection, the follow through as Stephen is now ready to address the accusation that he has been guilty of blasphemy against the temple. The tabernacle being the predecessor of the temple. So he has shown that it was the people of Israel and the leaders of Israel that were guilty of speaking against Moses and refusing to submit to him. And they are the ones opposed to Moses right down to today because it was Moses who told them, the Lord will raise up a prophet like me. Christ was that prophet. Who rejected Him? Who crucified Him? They did, the ones he is speaking to on this occasion.

So he is going to pick up with verse 44 and talk about the tabernacle and the temple. And verses 44-45 transition to the temple which is the focal point of the temple, he had spoken blasphemy against Moses, against God and he speaks against the temple, this holy place as they refer to it at the end of Acts 6. Our fathers had the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness. The tabernacle was that portable tent structure and within it was the Ark of the Covenant, the place where the tablets were kept that had been given to Moses on Mt. Sinai. So it is called the tent of testimony. It housed this covenant of the law which God had given to Moses. It was just a tent structure, it was transitory, and it could be taken down, transported as Israel moved around. That will be the way it is for some 500 years before they had the temple built that he'll refer to shortly.

Moses had constructed the tabernacle according to the instructions of God. Note verse 44. Our fathers had the tabernacle or tent of testimony in the wilderness just as He who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern which he had seen. In Exodus 25:40 God instructs Moses, you be sure to make it according to the pattern that I gave you.

Turn over to Hebrews 8. Talking about the earthly priests and what they did. Verse 5, they serve a copy and a shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle. For see, He says, that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain. When he was up on Mt. Sinai God gave him the plans for the tabernacle. Now he is warned, you don't try to make any changes; you make it exactly according to the pattern that I gave you. And it's a reference back to Exodus 25:40.

Come back to Acts 7. And having received it in their turn our fathers brought it with Joshua upon dispossessing the nations whom God drove out from before their fathers, until the time of David. So from the time of Moses, 1445 B.C. with the exodus, the building of the tabernacle down to the time of David, about 1000 B.C., we have roughly those 500 years. The tabernacle, it was taken into the land by Joshua. You read Joshua 3; remember the priests stand in the Jordan so that the waters stop, the people can cross over and so on. Then the Ark and the tent and so on are transported into the land, the record there. It will be a tent until the time of David. That's where he is going and he's going to talk about what happened in the days of David. David won't be the one who builds the temple, but he's the one who desired to build the temple. But God said, no, so David would be the one, remember, who gathered all the materials. If I can't build it, at least I can do a lot of the work in getting ready for the building of it. And his son, Solomon, would build it. So verses 44-45 transition us to the temple and how we come to the building of the temple.

Verse 46, David found favor in God's sight and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built his house for him. The constant work of God in bringing us down to the temple. And that's where he will stop with Israel's history, but that brings it to current events because the charge against him has dealt with Moses and the temple. So he surveys Israel's first thousand years of history, but doesn't go beyond Solomon and the temple. Then he is ready to drive home the point, having answered the accusations, having shown who has been unfaithful to Moses, who has been guilty of violating the temple. And that holy place.

II Samuel 7 talks in detail about the temple. Come to 1 Kings 5. II Samuel talks about David's desire to build the temple and so on, and he is not permitted to build the temple, it's not God's plan that David be the builder. When you come to 1 Kings 5:3 and Solomon now is preparing to move on the building of the temple. And the key to what is happening here is the Jews before whom Stephen is testifying, the Sanhedrin, totally moved away from God's intention and purpose for the temple. In and of itself it had become an object of worship rather than the God of the temple. And so he is going to put things in perspective. Verse 3, you know that David my father. Solomon is addressing or writing to Hiram, the king of Tyre, regarding certain things necessary for the temple. You know that David my father was unable to build a house for the name of the Lord his God because of the wars which surrounded him, until the Lord put them under the soles of His feet. But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side, there is neither adversary nor misfortune. Behold I intend to build a house for the name of the Lord my God. As the Lord spoke to David my father saying, your son whom I will set on your throne in your place, he will build the house for My name. So he is asking Hiram, king of Tyre, to send cedars and so on for the construction of the temple.

Come over to 1 Kings 8. We are ready now, the temple has been built, they are ready to move the Ark and the ark is the focal piece of furniture in the tabernacle and now the new temple because that was the very place where God manifested His presence among the Jews. So we have to be careful here. This is not the residence of God, Solomon understands that. It's the place where God manifests His presence among the nation Israel and the unique privilege they have to have the God of heaven manifest His presence in their midst. So in verse 12, then Solomon said, the Lord has said that He will dwell in the thick cloud. I have surely built you a lofty house, a place for your dwelling forever. The king faced about and blessed all the assembly of Israel that was standing. He said, blessed by the Lord, the God of Israel who spoke with His mouth to my father David and has filled it with His hand saying, since the day I brought My people Israel from Egypt I did not choose a city out of all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house that My name might be there. But I chose David to be over My people Israel. Now it was in the heart of my father, David, to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. If you went back to II Samuel 7, the first seventeen verses there, you would get this history.

Yet God said to him, verse 19, you shall not build the house, but your son will build it. Verse 20, now the Lord has fulfilled His word which He spoke. For I have risen in the place of my father, David, sit on the throne of Israel as the Lord has promised and have built a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. There I have set a place for the Ark in which is the covenant of the Lord which He made with our fathers when He brought them from the land of Egypt. So you see the significance of this. The God who is enthroned, if you will, above the cherubim who hover above the cover on the Ark. The cherubim cover there, the presence of God is manifested there. The significance is that it's the Ark of the Covenant, God's presence in connection with His covenant with Israel and them to function as His nation.

Now Solomon recognizes that God can't be contained in a temple. Come back to Acts 7; let's pick up Stephen's sermon. Then we're going to go to Isaiah and then back to I Kings. Stephen continues in his account, verse 47, Solomon built a house for Him. However the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands as the prophet says, heaven is My throne, the earth is the footstool for My feet. What kind of house will you build for Me, says the Lord. Or what place is there for My repose. Was it not My hand which made all things? God can't be contained in a physical structure, in a specific locality. The prophet Isaiah spoke of that and that's what he quotes, from Isaiah 66:1-2.

So come back to Isaiah 66:1 thus says the Lord, heaven is My throne, the earth is My footstool. I mean that's the sovereign majesty of God. The earth is just a footstool for His feet. The idea that you could build a little house as splendid as Solomon's temple was and a little place on earth and contain God there would be foolishness. In the Old Testament the prophets never said that was so, Solomon never said it was so, we'll see in a moment. Where then is a house you could build for Me? Where is a place that I may rest? For My hand made all these things. Thus all these things came into being declares the Lord. I mean, all of creation has been brought into existence by Him. So He is greater, more magnificent, more all encompassing than creation. How could you contain the omnipresent God who is present everywhere, who has created everything? God Himself, Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the only thing not created. How are you going to build a house for God? How foolish it is. And yet the Jews had come to think that is the focal point. They have transferred their worship to a building.

Just like people do with their churches, they go in and they reverence this church or this building. They are worshiping the builder; they are worshiping that physical structure. God can't be contained. Now He can choose to manifest Himself and His presence in a special way, but He wasn't limited to the temple in Jerusalem. I mean, He was present just as much in China in those days, just as much anywhere in the world or in the universe. His throne where He manifests the fullness of His presence was in heaven. We'll see that in a moment.

While you're in Isaiah 66 note how Isaiah goes on, God speaking through him. Verse 2 says, for My hand made all these things. Thus all these things came into being, declares the Lord. But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit and who trembles at My word. The condition of a heart is what is crucial and that's going to be significant in what Stephen is about to say.

Come back to I Kings 8. There is no misunderstanding on Solomon's part at this glorious time in Israel's history where God has consented for them to move from the tabernacle to the temple. And the temple of Solomon would have been splendid and magnificent. But in II Samuel 7 God had told David, I never said, never gave instruction I want a more magnificent place, I want a more permanent structure. Because the structure itself is not what was important. It's to God who manifested His presence there in Israel. How easily we transfer our thinking. It happens to us today, where a physical building and place becomes the focal point. That's what happened to Israel.

We're back in I Kings 8:21, Solomon said, there I have set a place for the Ark, which is the covenant of the Lord, which He made with our fathers when He brought them from the land of Egypt. And he stood before the assembly, as he addresses the assembly now; he comes before the altar and spreads out his hands to offer prayer to God. And he says, oh, Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth beneath. He's the covenant keeping God, He has shown loving kindness, covenant love to His servants who walk before you with all their heart. You see the key thing here, all their heart. He asks God to be faithful to His word. Verse 26, therefore, oh God of Israel, let your word, I pray, be confirmed which you have spoken to your servant, my father David. But note verse 27, but will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house which I have built. Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his supplication. You see the humility of Solomon here. He recognizes this is just a building that I have constructed for the honor of God and for a place where He manifests His presence among His people. But we have no illusions, God. Heaven itself can't contain you, how much less this house which I have built.

Then note how his prayer goes on, and you may have this marked in your Bible from previous studies. He says in verse 30, listen to the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. But note, hear in heaven you dwelling place. You ought to mark that. They've come to the temple, it's to be a place of prayer, but God is not contained here. Here in heaven which is your dwelling place, where the fullness of God's glory is manifested. This is just a little taste of that, if you will. But hear in heaven. Verse 32, then hear in heaven and act in response to their prayers. We're not taking the time to read the next verses but as they come before Him with prayer they ask that God listen in heaven.

Verse 34, then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel. Verse 36, then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants. Verse 39, then hear in heaven, your dwelling place. We are reminded at the end of verse 39, for you alone know the hearts of all the sons of men. Then down in verse 43, hear in heaven, your dwelling place. You come to verse 45, then hear in heaven their prayer. Down in verse 49, then hear their prayer and their supplication in heaven, your dwelling place. We see that repeated emphasis. God is not contained in this magnificent building, people would see Solomon's temple and would be in awe of the beauty and splendor. Solomon realizes it is nothing. And it is not a place where God is contained. Heaven can't contain Him. And we come to this temple which is to be a place of prayer and that's what is emphasized through Solomon's prayer here. When we come and pray to you, we come and pray about this and about that and about this. Hear in heaven, that's your dwelling place. No illusions that this temple that would seem so much more magnificent and splendid than that tent that was taken down and carried about and put up in another place. Now you have a temple characterized by the best that man can do with gold and so on. Solomon says where can we come to this place where You manifest Your presence among us, Your people? Here in heaven. You know what happened, by the time we get to where Stephen is and it happened long before that, they were worshiping the temple. They thought that because they had the building and Herod had embellished the temple and expanded it. And it was a magnificent structure. But it was nothing. God never was contained there, never was limited there. That’s Israel's history of misplaced worship. He revealed Himself. Where was Moses when God appeared to Him in the burning bush? He was in Midian. Where was Joseph when God was using him? He was in Egypt. God is not contained in this spot.

Come back to Acts 7. The history lesson is over except the application. We have seen the first thousand years of Israel's history has basically been a history of unbelief, of rejecting the word of God, rejecting the servants of God and being unfaithful to the God who had chosen to manifest Himself among His people. And that was the significance of the tabernacle, then the temple. So now he is going to apply it.

Verse 51 and it's not a soft application. Now remember Stephen is a man full of grace and power, a man used mightily of the Holy Spirit and now he is the mouthpiece of the Spirit of God to address the nation again. And what does he say? You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit. You are doing just as your fathers did. Didn't they pick it up so far? No, because there was nothing in the history lesson that they could deny. What they failed to see was they were in the same spiritually wretched condition that their forefathers had been in. And they are doing the exact same thing. They are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears. They are always resisting the Holy Spirit. You are just like your fathers. The history lesson applied to them. There is no softening of it here, there is no saying I don't want to offend them, I'll just leave it there. No, it has to be applied and the Spirit uses him to apply it.

This is language from the Old Testament. Come back to Exodus 33. Stiff-necked, uncircumcised in heart and ears, we'll pick up those words. These Jewish leaders of Israel well familiar with the terminology as those of you who have been believers for some time and studied the Old Testament recognize it. Exodus 33, and we're in the case, we've had the calf in Exodus 32, the golden calf that Stephen referred to. Verse 5, the Lord had said to Moses; say to the sons of Israel, you are an obstinate people. You'll have a note in your margin about an obstinate people, literally it is stiff-necked. That's the word Stephen has used when he said you are stiff-necked, connecting them back to what he had just talked about. What did Israel do in order to make the golden calf? Because their hearts had turned away from God and back to Egypt. What did God say to them through Moses? You are a stiff-necked people. You see what he has brought out in their history under the direction of the Holy Spirit, now driven home—you are a stiff-necked people. Picking up, you're just like the people that made the golden calf back in the days of Moses. What did God say about that? You are a stiff-necked people and you are a stiff-necked people. Boldness and clarity.
Come to Leviticus 26, God speaking of having to deal with Israel. Verse 41, I also was acting with hostility against them to bring them into the land of their enemies, or if their uncircumcised heart becomes humbled so that they then make amends for their iniquity. You see the uncircumcised heart of this people. Judgment or forgiveness. They need repentance so they can be forgiven. If they would humble themselves, then He would take care of their iniquity. But if their uncircumcised heart. What does Stephen say to the Sanhedrin? Stiff-necked, uncircumcised of heart and ear.

Turn over to Deuteronomy 9. Israel has provoked God so you have the first part of the chapter. Pick up with verse 13, the Lord spoke to me further saying, I have seen this people and indeed it is a stubborn, see the marginal note there—stiff-necked people. They stiffen their neck, they have steeled themselves against God, they will not relent, and they will not bow before Him. They are stiff-necked, stubborn, refusing to submit. That's the description of Israel, that's the description that Stephen gives.

Turn over to Deuteronomy 10:16, what's the instruction? So circumcise your heart and stiffen your neck no longer. The sin of the heart has to be removed; the stubborn resistance against God must be broken. Combined here, circumcise your heart; stiffen your neck no longer. They are to fear the Lord and the instruction is around this. Israel wouldn't do it then. The sad thing, they won't do it as Stephen preaches it as well.

Turn over to Jeremiah. As you are aware, any time a prophet comes on the scene in Israel, it is an indication of spiritual apostasy in the nation. That's why so much of the prophets' messages are filled with sin and judgment. The prophets are sent to Israel when Israel is in a situation of spiritual decay and apostasy. Jeremiah 4, cry to Israel to return to the Lord. The chapter opens up, if you will return oh, Israel, declares the Lord, then you should return to Me. If you will put away your detested things from My presence and will not waver. Then He promises salvation and deliverance. Verse 4, circumcise yourselves to the Lord, remove the foreskins of the heart. The sin of the heart has to be removed. This is Israel's problem. Their conduct is an indication of a heart that is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things.

Jeremiah 6:10, to whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear? Behold their ears are closed. You see your marginal note there? Uncircumcised. They are unwilling to hear God, the word of God. Their ears are closed with sin so they are not open to the word of God. What a message. Their ears are uncircumcised, they cannot listen. Behold the word of the Lord has become a reproach to them; they have no delight in it. What a terrible thing that happened to Israel, they have no delight in the word of God. The application of that right down to our day and the people of God today, the church. You go to church after church, are they any longer teaching the word? Some are, praise the Lord, but how often? What happens when the church gets filled with unbelievers with uncircumcised heart and uncircumcised ears, they don't want to hear what God has to say. They may be professing Christians, but their delight is not in the word of God. So it's not what they want to hear. So the tragedy is false prophets in Jeremiah's day said, declare peace when there is no peace. People don't want to hear what God has to say, they have uncircumcised ears. This is the message that Stephen has picked up and is driving home.

One more passage, Jeremiah 9, stinging rebuke. Verse 25, behold the days are coming declares the Lord, that I will punish all who are circumcised, yet uncircumcised. The Jews had gone through physical circumcision but it was meaningless because they were uncircumcised in heart. The physical action meant nothing. Egypt, and Judah and Edom and the sons of Ammon and Moab and all those inhabiting the desert who clip the hair on the temple, for all the nations are uncircumcised and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised of heart. So the spiritual condition of Israel is the same as these pagan nations. Israel has the physical sign of the covenant but they are uncircumcised in heart. And without the spiritual work of God on a heart the physical circumcision was worthless. So that's the background.

You come back to Acts 7. These are the leaders of Israel, they were well familiar with these passages and Stephen's overview of Israel's history. Now he applies to them the same condition—you men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in hearts and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit. You are doing just as your fathers did. What a powerful conclusion to the message, what boldness. I mean, here is a man who, on effect, is on trial for his life and he pulls no punches. We wither when we think someone might say something mean back to us. Stephen speaks boldly in the power of the Spirit.

Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? He's not done. They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One. Come back to Matthew 23. Israel's history on this is so well known. Jesus speaking in these series of woes, picking up with verse 13, but we come down to verse 29. Verse 28 says, you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness, comparing the scribes and Pharisees to whitewashed tombs. They look pretty and attractive on the outside but inside they are full of dead men's bones. Not a pretty sight. Verse 29, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous and say, if we had been living in the days of our father, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets. So you testify against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?

Then He tells them, I'm going to send you prophets and wise men, and you'll reject them, you'll persecute them. Here stands Stephen early in that line of men that Christ said He would send and we know what his end is going to be. He is going to die. Why? They are no more open to hear than their forefathers were. Easy to say, if I had lived in those days I would have been faithful to the Lord. I wouldn't have persecuted the prophets; I would have stood with the prophets. Always easy to imagine ourselves as glowing and bold for the Lord if we had lived at that point in history. But the challenge and responsibility is to live for Him at this point in history.

I like to read history, I'm reading a history of the Puritans now—three volumes, 2000 pages on the Puritans. I'm learning more about the Puritans than I ever wanted to know. It's interesting, and I find myself putting myself in their position and saying, I would have loved to have stood for the Lord like that. I like reading about their history and putting myself in that history. But you know the real challenge is right here today, right? God hasn't called me to live then for Him; He's called me to live now. These men are just manifesting, they are just like their fathers in their spiritual condition. Their rebellion, resistance and rejection continue.

Come over to Hebrews 11, this list of Old Testament saints, men and women of faith. Verse 36, others experienced mockings, scourgings, chains, imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tested, they were put to death with the sword, they went about in sheepskins, goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, those of whom the world was not worthy. All these having gained approval through their faith did not receive what was promised because the fulfillment of what God had promised was yet future, waiting for the completion of the chosen of God.

Come back to Acts 7. The most serious thing is yet to be said by Stephen. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute, verse 52, they killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One. That is serious. The prophets prophesied the coming of the Righteous One, the Messiah of Israel, and they killed them for prophesying that. But you are the ones who betrayed and murdered the Righteous One. They previously announced the coming of the Righteous One whose betrayers and murderers you have become. If it was serious for them to kill the prophets who announced the coming of the Righteous One, how much more serious is it to be the ones who betray and murder the very Righteous One. I mean, that's as serious as it can get. I mean, you see what their attitude was. Jesus said, you say that if you had been living in those days, we wouldn't have persecuted the prophets, we wouldn't have killed the prophets. But let me tell you, the very Righteous One that the prophets told was coming and they were persecuted and killed for; you are the ones who betrayed and murdered that Righteous One. Peter referred to Christ as the Righteous One when he was speaking on this subject back in Acts 3:14-15, referred to the Holy and Righteous One that had been rejected and crucified.

Verse 53, you who received the law as ordained by angels and did not keep it. There it is. They have accused Stephen of blasphemous words against Moses and against God, of incessantly speaking against this holy place, the temple, and the Law. You are the ones who have received the Law as ordained by angels. The Law given through angels on Mt. Sinai to Israel. That was a great responsibility, but you didn't keep it.

Turn over to Romans 2:11, we studied this some time ago when we went through Romans. There is no partiality with God. Those who don't have the Law will be judged without the Law, those who do have the Law, the Jews, will be judged in the context of disobedience to the Law God gave them. Note verse 13, it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified. How are they doers of the Law? Remember we talked about that, because they had a changed heart by faith and now they live in obedience. Israel's problem is they bypass the transformation of heart. And you know there is nothing more odious and burdensome than trying to live in obedience to God when your heart hasn't been changed. It becomes empty, it becomes ugly, and the real you comes out. It has always been true. Uncircumcised heart, uncircumcised ears that don't hear, stiff-necked. Those who hear and hear without listening because their ears are closed to the truth of God. They maintain their stubborn and stiff neck, refusing to bow.
We'll go to one more passage, Hebrews 2, these who had received the Law. Look at verse 26; if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. If you reject the truth that God has given, the truth concerning His Son, where else can you go for salvation? He is the only sacrifice. When you reject the holy sacrifice, wherever else you go cannot be an acceptable sacrifice for sins. But what remains is a terrifying expectation of judgment and a fury of fire which will consume the adversary. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Writing here to the Hebrews, Jews who professed faith. How much more severe punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the Spirit of grace. For we know Him who said, vengeance is mine, I will repay. And again the Lord will judge His people. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Strong message. You know here Israel in the person of its leaders again confronted with the truth, the truth of their own history, the truth of the provision of the Righteous One in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. They have Stephen on trial because they are continuing in the line of the rebellion of their forefathers, being stiff-necked, uncircumcised in heart and ears. What is the alternative? To bow those stiff necks, to repent and claim the mercy and forgiveness that God has offered down through Israel's history. As we see as we close out the events in our next study, that's not the response.

It continues down to today with God dealing with the church today, not the nation Israel, but the word of God goes out. People sit in churches but close their ears, stiffen their necks, remain uncleansed in heart. Why? Why would they perish? Why would they come under the judgment of God? It's a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. What excuse is there? What reason is there? We see how sinful we are. So Israel's history gets repeated again and again as it did down through their own history right up to the climax of Stephen's sermon. So we face the same challenge today. May God give us the boldness of Stephen to claim the truth with that clarity. God uses it for His purposes; He brings such sharp conviction to the hearts of these men that they see no alternative but to murder the messenger. And Stephen will become the first martyr of the church.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your saving grace. Lord, even as we review the history of Israel and their un-relentless, unceasing rebellion in the face of your offers of mercy, the giving of your word. How sad that they should remain stiff-necked, uncircumcised in heart and ears. Lord, how tragic that that happens today, with 2000 years of the church added to Israel's history, and yet it's so easy for people to remain stubborn, refusing to bow before you, the God who offers mercy, who offers forgiveness. Lord, may we count it a privilege to be men and women that you use to boldly, clearly give forth the message, the message of salvation in the Righteous One, your Son who is the Savior of the world. May our lives testify to your saving grace in support of the words we give forth. We pray in Christ's name, amen.