In 'The Gospel Story of the Old Testament,' Peter Allison discusses Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin, where he is falsely accused of blasphemy. The accusations include speaking against Moses, God, the temple, and suggesting that Jesus would change Mosaic customs. Stephen uses the Pentateuch to refute these charges, demonstrating that his words align with scriptures accepted by both Sadducees and Pharisees. Stephen's defense emphasizes that God's presence is not limited to the temple or Israel, illustrated through narratives of Abraham, Joseph, and Moses, highlighting God's glory beyond geographical confines. He points out that the rejection of Moses by the Israelites parallels their rejection of Jesus, underscoring the continuity of God's plan from the Old to the New Testament. Stephen's masterful storytelling, filled with scripture, answers the charges while calling the council to repentance and acceptance of the Gospel, the ultimate fulfillment of Old Testament promises.

Please turn to Acts chapter 6. That was a beautiful psalm. Psalm. A beautiful expression of the cry of a believer to know the Lord. I'd like to begin reading at Acts 6 and verse 11.

Then they secretly induced men to say, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God. And they stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes, and they came upon him, seized him, and brought him to the council. They also set up false witnesses who said, This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us. And all who sat in the council looking steadfastly at him saw his face as the face of an angel.

And then the high priest said, Are these things so? May the Lord shine His face upon us as servants and teach us His statutes. I should have introduced this passage by explaining this is Stephen as he's standing before the council. And we began reading as He had been brought before them and been charged. And we will look at His defense this morning, Lord willing, let us pray.

Father in Heaven, we thank You for Your Spirit that leads us and teaches us. And we thank You for Your Word that You have given to us as an example. These history as an example. These things that were written before for our instruction. Lord, may we be instructed this morning out of them.

And may Your Holy Spirit work upon us mightily as we hear Your Word. And may You sanctify my sinful lips for this task. In Jesus' name, Amen. Just like Christ before Him, Just like Christ before Him, Stephen has been brought before the Sanhedrin and falsely accused, false witnesses, were gathered together to accuse him. And there were four accusations that they brought against him.

The first was that he spoke blasphemous words against Moses and God. Blasphemous words. Words that denigrated God. Words that spoke poorly of the Lord or of Moses, his servant. Words that demeaned them.

Demeaned them. Secondly, they accused him of speaking blasphemous words against the temple and the law. Thirdly, they accused him of saying that Jesus would destroy the temple. And lastly, they accused him of saying that Jesus would change the customs which Moses had delivered. See the first two are their interpretation of what he said.

The last two things are things that he actually said. He blasphemed. It depends on one's perspective. There are profane people, we would call them profane people today, who think that the Bible is blasphemous. That the Bible itself is evil because they see all the people that God commanded to be destroyed in the Old Testament.

And so they think that is genocide and that God is not a good God. We would say that's blasphemy. And it is. And so they are accusing him of blasphemy because of these things that he has said about the temple and the ceremonial law, the customs that Moses delivered. And Stephen's defense answers these points about the temple and the ceremonial laws.

He does it by showing that what he said about the temple and the ceremonial laws are exactly what the Scriptures said about those things. And if he's saying about the temple and the ceremonial law what the Scriptures themselves are saying, then he of course can't be blaspheming. And he uses the Pentateuch to do this. Because both the Sadducees and the Pharisees accepted it as the Scriptures. See, the Sadducees only accepted the Pentateuch.

And they rejected everything else, including the oral traditions, which were later written down and became what we call today the Talmud, a satanic document. This is what Jesus was always correcting when He said you've heard it was said. You've heard it's been said. He's correcting the oral tradition. Well, the Sadducees didn't accept that, but they didn't accept the rest of the Old Testament either.

They only accept the Pentateuch. And so Stephen limits himself to the Pentateuch to make his case. And he can do that because you see the scripture, All of the doctrines of the Scripture are contained within the Pentateuch in seed form. In fact, I think it's Ken Ham that's pointed out that Genesis 1-11 can answer pretty much any question of the day. That all of these doctrines come out of there.

And so all of the Gospel, the truth of the Scriptures in seed form is contained in the Pentateuch. We say that about the Old Testament too. That all of the doctrines of the New Testament are hidden and concealed in the Old Testament. And that they are more fully explained and revealed in the New Testament, but they're not new. They're not new.

And so you can, Stephen can do this. He can answer all these charges right from the Pentateuch. Sadducees also denied the resurrection and the existence of angels, and Stephen's defense deals with those points as well. He's like Paul, he's dividing the Sanhedrin a bit. And he does all of this with a story.

Somebody sent me an email this week about why don't we modern preachers use stories more. He sent an article from I think it was the Epoch Times of a teacher talking about the power of stories. Stories are important. Jesus preached with stories. And Stephen's defense is a story.

A masterful story. And I'd like to read that story now while you're sitting. And as I read this story that Stephen tells in his defense, ask yourself, How does this story answer the charge against Him? And secondly, and somewhat incidentally, notice the continual incorporation of the Scriptures in His story. He weaves them right into His story.

From short phrases to long sections, many verses, He weaves them right into his story seamlessly. It shows that he's memorized the Scriptures and they are very much a part of him and a part of his speech. So I'd like to read them this story. It begins where we left off with our Scripture reading in verse 2 of Acts 7. So listen to this story.

And he said, Stephen, Brethren and fathers, listen. The glory of God appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said to him, get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you. Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Heron. And from there when his father was dead, he moved to this land in which you now dwell. And God gave him no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on.

But when Abraham had no child, he promised to give it to him for a possession and to his descendants after him. But God spoke in this way, that his descendants would dwell in a foreign land and that they would bring them into bondage and oppress them for 100 years. And the nation to whom they will be in bondage I will judge said God, and after that they shall come out and serve Me in this place." Then he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham begot Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot the twelve patriarchs. And the patriarchs, becoming envious, sold Joseph into Egypt.

But God was with him, and delivered him out of all his troubles, and gave him favor and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and made him governor over Egypt and all his house. Now a famine and a great trouble came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers found no sustenance. But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers first. And the second time, Joseph was made known to his brothers. And Joseph's family became known to Pharaoh.

And Joseph sent and called his father Jacob and all his relatives to him seventy-five people. So Jacob went down to Egypt and he died, he and our fathers. And they carried him back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem. But when the time of the promise drew near, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, till another king arose who did not know Joseph. And this man dealt treacherously with our people, and oppressed our forefathers, making them expose their babies so that they might not live.

And at this time Moses was born and was well pleasing to God and was brought up in his father's house for three months. But when he was set out, Pharaoh's daughter took him away and brought him up as her own. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in word and deeds. Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel, and seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed and struck down the Egyptian. For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by His hand, but they did not understand.

And the next day, He appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and he tried to reconcile them, saying, ''Men, you are brethren. Why do you wrong one another?'' But he who did his neighbor wrong, pushed him away saying, ''Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday? Then at this saying, Moses fled and became a dweller in the land of Midian where he had two sons. And when forty years had passed, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire, in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai.

And when Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight. And as he drew near to observe, the voice of the Lord came to him, saying, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses trembled and dared not look. Then the Lord said to him, Take off your sandals, off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt.

I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. And now I will send you to Egypt." This Moses, whom they rejected saying, "'Who made you a ruler and a judge is the one God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. And he brought him out after he had shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the wilderness for 40 years. This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear." This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give to us, whom our fathers would not obey but rejected.

And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, saying to Aaron, Make us gods to go before us. As for this Moses who brought us Out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him." And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, and rejoiced in the work of their hands. And then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven as it is written in the book of the prophets. Did you offer me slaughtered animals and sacrifices during forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? You also took up the tabernacle of Molech and the star of your god Remphan, Images which you made to worship, and I will carry you away beyond Babylon." Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness as he appointed, instructing Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen, which our fathers, having received in turn, also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of David, who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling for the God of Jacob.

But Solomon built him a house. Moreover, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands as the prophet says, Heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. What house will you build for me, says the Lord? Or what is the place of my rest? Has my hand not made all these things?

You stiff-necked and uncircumcised and hard in ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit as your fathers did, So do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the just one, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it." That was Stephen's answer. His defense, which we'd like to look at, answers these accusations. That Jesus would destroy the temple, and that He would change the customs that Moses delivered to us.

And he also answers the accusation that he blasphemed Moses and God. But his defense, you notice, begins with the power of the Holy Spirit. The very first thing that is said is that His face shown like the face of an angel. He had the power of the Holy Spirit. His face radiated peace and joy and strength.

You will keep Him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because He trusts in you. Here He was in danger of His life in front of the Sanhedrin, but a few months earlier, Jesus had been condemned and crucified. And His face is radiating joy and peace and strength. And not fear, and not confusion, and not bewildered. He's not stunned.

He's not timid. He's not confused. He's powerful. This is exactly what Jesus had told them in Mark 13. But when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not worry beforehand or premeditate.

What you will speak, but whatever is given you in that hour, speak that. For it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit." He was filled with the Holy Spirit. Full of faith and power. And in several places, did you notice how many times He alludes to the Scriptures, quoting them at some times extensively, meaning that there are many passages in the Bible that He's committed to memory. He's filled with the Spirit, and He's filled with the Word of God, because the Spirit testifies to what Christ says.

You see, that's what Peter tells us about apologetics. That it begins with ourselves. The defense of the faith has to begin with us. The classic verse on apologetics in the New Testament. But sanctify the Lord God in your heart and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is within you with meekness and fear.

We can't expect to draw people to something that we have no experience in. To something that we don't know ourselves. We can't expect there to be any power in a message that we have not experienced ourselves. That's why advertisers always get users to advertise their products. It's far more powerful than some spokesman who doesn't know about it.

Well, the same is true with the Gospel. We can't be witnesses to the Gospel and the power of it if it's not sanctified us. If our life isn't a billboard, a message communicating, expressing the power of the Gospel in our life. Note that He also, under the power of the Holy Spirit, respects the authority of the civil magistrate. These are wicked rulers.

These are the people that crucified the Lord of glory. And He does confront them for their sin. He's not afraid of them. This isn't, He doesn't cower before them. This isn't false praise flattering them because they're over Him.

No, but He does respect their authority. Brethren and fathers. Why does He call them brethren and fathers? Are they brothers in the Lord? Well, they were in the church.

It was an apostate church that they were in the process of separating from. But He still recognizes them and respects their authority. Calls them brothers and fathers. He's not disrespectful to them. Regardless of how wicked they are, how unjust they are, He's not railing against them and calling them names and things.

But He's respectful. As one who is led by the Holy Spirit should be. His first point in his defense in this story is that God's glory and God's presence are not limited. And don't depend upon this earthly temple or this land, this place. They keep calling it this place.

They said He is blasphemous words against this place, this holy place. And that Jesus would destroy this place. His first point is that this place, there's nothing inherently special about it. And he illustrates that from the lives of the patriarchs. First, beginning with Abraham.

The God of glory, he says. This is the Shekinah glory that was so prized by the Jews that they had this presence of God in their midst, this temple. Remember, this was the great point of confusion or disagreement, controversy, between the Samaritans and the Jews. They thought they were better because they had the temple. And Jesus does acknowledge that salvation is of the Jews.

They had the Scriptures. They had the Gospel. But here, Stephen is saying that the glory of God that you so highly prize as being only confined to this place and you as the keepers of it. This God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was where? In Mesopotamia, far away from here, another land, what we would call Iraq today.

There's no temple at this time, and Abraham's not in the Promised Land, but the God of glory, the God whose glory filled that temple, appeared to him. And then he dwelt in Heron. That's not in the promised land either until his father died a few more years. Then Abraham is a sojourner in the land of Canaan. And God promised this land to him, but he never got it in his lifetime.

He was a sojourner this whole time. So either God didn't keep His Word to Abraham, because God promised that He would have this land. That He would give it to Abraham and his descendants. He didn't just promise that He would give it to his descendants. He promised that He would give it to Abraham and his descendants.

He didn't just promise that He would give it to his descendants. He promised that He would give it to Abraham and his descendants. So either God didn't keep His Word, or the land wasn't the ultimate fulfillment of this promise. See, Abraham was looking for another land whose builder and maker, another city whose builder and maker is God. And so, What Stephen doesn't fully explain, but what's explained in the New Testament is that the earth is promised.

The fifth commandment, the promise is that it may go well with you in this land which the Lord your God is giving you. And Paul quotes that same commandment and says it's the first commandment with promise. He says it's the earth that God's giving us. Abraham even had to leave this land because of famine. God gave him also the covenant of circumcision.

But that wasn't until his 99th year, some 25 years after he saw the Lord of Glory. God promised a son, but he had to wait 30 years for that. And then he was told that his descendants would be oppressed for 400 years in a foreign land. Some of your Bibles may have a note there that Stephen is speaking in round numbers or that he's quoting the Septuagint and try to reconcile this with the 430 years that are given in Exodus 12, where it says that the children of Israel who sojourned 430 years left the land of Egypt. But I don't believe that Stephen is talking in round numbers.

I believe he is quoting exactly the Scriptures and that the years are exact even though they are in what we would call round numbers. Because in Genesis 15, that is what God says. No, certainly. That your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs and will serve them and they will afflict them for 400 years. And also that nation whom they serve I will judge afterward.

And they shall come out with a great possession. But as for you, go to your fathers in peace. But in the fourth generation they will return here for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. In the fourth generation from Abraham, the children of Israel would return. But also he says it's the oppression that is 400 years.

He doesn't say the sojourn, they would be oppressed 400 years. And I believe that oppression begins with Ishmael. Remember who Ishmael is the son of? Hagar the Egyptian. Hagar the Egyptian.

So, Galatians says, Paul says in Galatians, but he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit. Now, we brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit. Even so now, nevertheless, what does the Scripture say? Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman." So that oppression, Remember that began at the weaning of Isaac.

Isaac was born when Abraham was 100. And his weaning five years later would be... And that's 25 years after he made the promise, because God appeared to him when he was 75. So, Isaac is born, and five years later at the weaning, that would be 30 years. And that's the difference between the 430 and the 400.

Isaac was a sojourner for 430 years. From the time that Abraham entered the promised land until they exited the land of Egypt. That's the 430 years. The oppression began 30 years less. It began with Ishmael.

And so that's what Stephen's reference here to 400 years. It's 400 years. The children of Israel were 215 years in Egypt. You see, in this story, in this account, Stephen is rebutting the Sadduceean rejection of the resurrection. Because it says, by faith, Hebrew says, that by faith Abraham dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country.

He was a sojourner dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob and heirs with them of the same promise, a promise he didn't see in his lifetime physically. For he waited for the city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God." Abraham received what he was promised, but he didn't receive it here in this life. And so the implication of what Stephen is saying is that life must not end when the soul departs the body. Then Stephen moves to Joseph in his story. Under Jacob, God moves Israel to Egypt.

Again, away from the promised land. And Joseph prospers in Egypt. God is with him in a foreign land, far away from this place. And God raises him to a place of Great power. And again, it wasn't in the land.

God ordains this. And God intends this for good, as Joseph says. This wasn't some aberration. This was what God ordained. And He ordains it for good to save Abraham's line from this famine.

And so because of Joseph and the famine, the Israelites end up spending, as I said, 215 years out of the land. Jacob dies in Egypt, and his bones are carried back. Joseph dies in Egypt, and his bones have to wait for the exodus to be carried back. Moses takes them back. See, all of Joseph's life, practically, is lived outside the land.

And yet, he is the focus of the story. This story of the Gospel. That's what this story is. It's the story of the Gospel in the Old Testament. God's plan of redemption.

His salvation. And then Stephen gets to Moses. And everything Moses does is outside this place. He spends the most time on Moses, verses 17-43, because Moses is accused of blaspheming Moses. And so he deals with both of these charges in dealing with Moses.

Moses is raised by the Egyptians. He's learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He's mighty in word and deed. Did you get that? Moses is mighty in word and in deed.

He was a great warrior. He was probably raised as a warrior and a leader of men. He's probably a lead army in the battle. By the time he laid Israel out, remember, he was 40 years old when he fled. He'd been an adult in Egypt for 20 years.

He flees. Then God's glory appears to him in Saudi Arabia, the land of Midian, at Mount Horeb. It had nothing to do with the temple or the Holy Land. God's glory then destroys Egypt and it protects the children of Israel again far away from the land. God's power delivers them through the Red Sea, through the Gulf of Aquaba we would call it today, the Sea of Endings.

All of this is happening outside of this place that they think is so holy. But Moses then deals with their second charge that their fathers were the ones who repudiated Moses, not him. Their fathers were the ones who were blasphemers of Moses. Remember, he says, when he killed the Egyptian who was opposing a Hebrew, Moses thought that they would understand that God had sent them to deliver him. And this is even before his burning bush and time in Midian.

Moses knew He was a Hebrew, but here He was, mighty in word and deed. And when He sees an Egyptian beating up one of His fellow Hebrews, He uses all the skills that He would have had as a warrior trained in all the wisdom of Egypt. And he killed him with his hands. He was mighty indeed. He was a mighty man.

But what happened? It was the forefathers, these Israelites, who rejected Moses and said, who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Because that was when he came out the next day and he saw two brothers. He heard that thrown at him. But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed Moses away when he tried to reconcile them, saying, who made you a ruler and a judge?

Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?" And Moses fled. Well, who had they rejected? Well, there's Moses who they rejected saying, who made you a ruler and a judge? He's the one that God sent to be a ruler and a judge by the hand of an angel who appeared to him in this bush. And so Moses sees this bush.

He marvels at the sight of a bush that's on fire that doesn't burn up. And he goes there and then he hears, stop. Take off your shoes. You're standing on holy ground. And he trembles.

And he dares not look. And then God says to him, "'Surely I have seen the oppression of My people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come to deliver them. And I am sending you to Egypt to do it.'" And so Stephen says, God made Moses a ruler and a judge. You're the ones who rejected him.

And then they also rejected Moses after they crossed the Red Sea, saying, we don't know who this guy is and we don't know what's become of him. Make us an idol. And Stephen says, this is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai. God is the one who spoke to Moses. And He gave him living oracles for us to keep whom Our fathers would not obey but rejected Moses and made a golden calf instead and bowed down to it and worshiped it.

And Aaron said, this is the God who delivered you out of Egypt. And then Stephen goes on to quote from Amos 5 how they have continued in their rejection of Moses with their persistent idol worship. And he quotes several verses from Amos 5 that we read. But then he also demonstrates that in rejecting Christ, they were also rejecting Moses. Because Deuteronomy 18 says, The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren.

Him you shall hear, according to all that you desired of the Lord, your God in Horeb, in the day of assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die." Moses alludes to this. In verses 37 and following, God said in Deuteronomy 18, I will raise up what they have spoken in being trembling there at Mount Sinai. He said what they have spoken is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put my words in his mouth. And he shall speak to them all that I command him.

And it shall be that whoever will not hear my words, which he speaks in My name, I will require it of Him." You see, Jesus is that prophet. And in Matthew, in the transfiguration, while they were speaking, a bright cloud overshadows them and suddenly a voice comes out of the cloud saying, this is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear Him." This is the prophet that God raised up from their brethren. And see, when they crucified the Lord of Glory, they were the ones who were rejecting Moses. The second main point of Stephen's defense is that the earthly temple wasn't the final temple, and it wasn't indispensable. And he deals with that in verse 44 and following.

It wasn't the only way of being in God's presence. It wasn't the only place to worship God. And they were really treating it like an idol. And he goes back to talk about the tabernacle in the wilderness. They didn't have this temple in the wilderness.

They had an earthly tabernacle. And from Abraham to the time of Moses, there were changes in the ceremonial law. And then Joshua took that into the land of the Gentiles. And then there were changes there. Remember the tabernacle of David that was there in Jerusalem while the other tabernacle was in Shiloh.

And there were changes to the ceremonial wall there. And then Solomon built this house of God. And there were changes, again, attached to God's worship and the ceremonial law there between this wilderness tabernacle and Solomon's temple. And then there were changes yet again when they were in Babylon, and there was no temple that they could worship. And so his point is that they are making an idol.

They're idol worshipers. They haven't ceased to worship idols from the time they made the golden calf. See how he just moves right in from this Amos passage about them continuing to offering things to Molech to this temple. And he says, the Most High doesn't dwell in temples made with hands. And then he goes to Isaiah 66, "'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?" That's a glorious passage that he alludes to. Because it speaks of the Gospel going forward to all nations. Heaven is my throne, Earth is my footstool, all these things, my hand is made, all these things, says the Lord, exist.

But on this one I will look, one who is poor and contrite, and one who trembles at My Word." That chapter, and you have to remember, this was a very, very well-known passage. And his mere allusion to it, I'm sure brought to mind the ending of this passage, which reads, "'For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before Me, ' says the Lord, "'so shall your descendants and your name remain, and it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me, says the Lord." The promise of the Gospel going to all the Gentiles. Isaiah says, "'For I will set a sign among them, and I will send to the nations to Tarshish, to Pole, to Lud, who draw the bow and two-ball and jave into the coastlands afar off, who have not heard my fame nor seen my glory. And they shall declare My glory among the Gentiles, and they shall bring all your brethren for an offering to the Lord out of all nations on horses and chariots and in litters and on mules and on camels to My holy mountains Jerusalem." That's the Gospel.

That God would bring the Gentiles in and call them. And Stephen closes his defense by confronting them specifically for their sin. You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears. You always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.

But see, there is the hope of repentance, the hope of salvation in Christ. But they have to receive, they have to repent, they have to acknowledge their sin and believe on the one whom they have rejected. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the just one, of whom you have now become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it." He's calling them to repentance, to remember the universal Gospel. This story that He told them is the story of the Gospel.

And He told it to them out of the Old Testament that Christ was the prophet that was promised who would come and speak to them, who would bring them the word of truth. But they had to receive Him, to bow before Him, and to acknowledge that He is Lord and Savior. May God give us the grace to do exactly that. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You that You are our Savior, that You are the Holy One of Israel who has offered Yourself as our sacrifice in our place, who has borne your wrath, your just and holy wrath.

Lord we ask for your Spirit to be at work in us, that we might not be stiff-necked and hard-hearted, but that we may come into agreement with you, with your word, and with its truth. For therein alone is life. Lord, we love you and we thank you that you have shown to us this way of life. Help us to walk in it. Not by our, not by trying, not by our own strength, but by your Spirit, by your grace.

In Jesus' name, Amen. Thanks for watching!