In the sermon titled 'A Faithful Testimony Before A Hostile Council,' speaker Trent Moody delves into the biblical account of Stephen from Acts 6 and 7. Stephen, a deacon full of faith and the Holy Spirit, stands accused of blasphemy by a council of religious leaders. The sermon highlights Stephen's profound knowledge of Jewish history, from Abraham to Moses, and his use of this history to refute the accusations against him. Stephen argues that the religious leaders, like their ancestors, are resisting the Holy Spirit and clinging to the law and temple rather than embracing the righteousness that comes through faith in Jesus Christ. The sermon emphasizes Stephen's unwavering faith and the grace he exhibits even in the face of death. Trent Moody encourages listeners to follow Stephen's example by being full of the Holy Spirit and understanding the word of God, while warning against the dangers of unbelief and the rejection of God's promises.

By way of context, I do want to back up just a bit. Y'all pray for me. This is a lion's share of a passage to tackle in one Sunday, but I pray to do it without keeping you beyond the normal time. I'll define normal today. Acts chapter 6 and verse 8, just to gather some context, I want you to know that we're not here with opinions, but we're here to hear the Word of the Lord.

And thus says the Word of the Lord in verse 8 of chapter 6, and Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. Then there arose some from what is called the Sadducee, the synagogue of the Freedmen, Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia, disputing with Stephen, and they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke. And then they secretly induced men saying, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God. And they stirred up the people and 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. Chapter 7. Then the high priest said, are these things so? And he said, brethren and fathers listen.

The God of glory 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. And then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, he moved him 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 even 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 a hundred 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. And 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 of 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 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 out our fathers first. And the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers and Joseph's family became known to the Pharaoh. And then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob and all of his relatives to him, 75 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. This man dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our fathers, making them expose their babies so that they might not live. At this time Moses was born and was well pleasing to God and he 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 son.

And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and deeds. Now when he was 40 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 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 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. And then the Lord said to him, take 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 come 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. He brought them 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 own 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 the 40 years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? You also took up the tabernacle of Moloch 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 it 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, to find a dwelling for the God of Jacob.

But Solomon built him a house. However, 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 of these things? You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and 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 now have become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.

When they heard these things they were cut to the heart and they gnashed at him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God and said, Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. And then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears and ran at him with one accord, and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses lay down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, Lord Jesus receive my spirit.

Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, Lord do not charge them with this sin. And when he had said this he fell asleep. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this passage of Scripture that you have placed before our hearing this morning. And Lord, there is an abundance of wisdom and truth and instruction for us here.

And I pray, O God, that you would bless the hearing and the preaching of your word. I pray, O God, for the souls of men. I pray, Lord, that you would save souls today. Every man, woman, and child, Lord, that they would hear the words of the living God ringing in their ears and that they would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And we ask it in Jesus' name, Amen.

You may be seated. The natural tendency would be for us to run quickly to the end of this lengthy passage and to focus on Stephen and his response and what took place to him. But all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. And so this morning I am hoping to get through the entirety of this chapter by God's grace and his good timing, but I don't want to skip over the whole first part of this chapter so that we can get to the end of it because all of that history that we are given here is so instructive for us to help us to understand what it was that Stephen was actually doing. And as our brother read this morning that God by the Holy Spirit had given Stephen wisdom to speak the very words that God wanted to be spoken to this council.

These religious leaders needed to hear something and so do we. If I could summarize this, it goes along well with what Scott has been preaching in Romans chapter 10 where Paul writes these things, brethren my heart, and interesting by the way, Paul writes these things, remember they laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul, and Paul writes, brethren my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

That is key to understanding this passage of Scripture. This whole chapter is this, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own have not submitted to the righteousness of God. And that is this zeal that you see within this council of religious leaders who have brought Stephen before them so that they could examine him and cross-examine him and find out if these things were so? And what we have before us really is a courtroom picture or testimony of what is taking place here. The scene is standing before a council in what would seem to be a courtroom, and they are bringing accusations.

As I read the very beginning of this, we see that Stephen was full of faith and power. He's full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, and they had brought witnesses to witness against him, a false witness, the scripture tells us, to come against him and say that this man, Stephen, was blaspheming God and Moses, the temple and the law. And in response to this accusation is Stephen's response. He's going to come back to them and he's going to lay out for them his rebuttal, if you will, to what they had accused him of. Now can I say that Stephen was no slouch as a deacon?

Pretty impressive this man, but I want you to realize that the impressiveness is not just in the man, but it's in the Spirit of God that makes the man. It's the Spirit of God that was at work, because that's one of the first things that we learn about the Deacon Stephen is that he was a man full of the Holy Spirit. He was unusual in this sense because he was given over to the power of the Holy Spirit in his life, to work in his life, to do miraculous things really. He says that he worked among them great wonders and signs among the people. Although all that we see of him was not in relation to his service of the physical needs of the congregation as a deacon.

It's really interesting they elect this man to be one of their deacons, they appoint him, they lay hands on him, they pray for him, and the next thing we see of Stephen, he's right in the middle of it. He is right in the middle of being accused of being a blasphemer and then he's standing before the council and he's being falsely accused of being a blasphemer. And then Stephen, this man, not an apostle, not an elder, but a deacon, and he brings forth such an astounding testimony of the history of his people in rebuttal to these religious leaders. And I think it's important, one commentator noted that in this discourse, he appears to be a man ready and mighty in the Scriptures and thereby thoroughly furnished for every good word and work. He can relate Scripture stories and such as were very pertinent to his purpose.

Offhand, without looking at his Bible, he was filled with the Holy Ghost, not so much to reveal to him new things or open to him the secret counsels and decrees of God concerning the Jewish nation, with them to convict these gang-sayers. No, but to bring to his remembrance the scriptures of the Old Testament and to teach him how to make use of them for their conviction. Those that are full of the Holy Spirit will be full of the Scripture as Stephen was. This is really our exhortation this morning is that we would be a man like unto Stephen, a man, a woman, a child who is full of the Holy Spirit and as such full of the Word of God. We've not come here to just talk about tales and to tell little ditties.

We're here this morning because God's Word has spoken and it is profitable for every one of us. It will give us instruction and it will give us help in the way in which we are to go. And so what we have before us here is Stephen's defense before this counsel. By Stephen, by this defense, he's setting out to prove a couple of points. First, we will look at the accusation made against Stephen.

We won't spend much here because I preached on that last time. Secondly, we will see that what he taught was not blasphemous. The things that he was teaching and preaching was not blasphemous against Moses and God, but it was actually the fulfillment of what God had been telling from the very beginning. Thirdly, Stephen proves that the Jews have always been a stiff neck and murderous people from the very beginning. And fourthly, Stephen proves that the grace of God is greater than the hatred of men.

So that's where we're going. Stephen, interesting little fact and tidbit about Stephen was that he was one of those who was last called unto Christ and the first to suffer to the point of death for Christ. He was not an apostle but was martyred for preaching the gospel. Even before any other apostles had been murdered or martyred, here we have this Deacon Stephen. And through the first martyr come most notably the conversion of the Apostle Paul, whom God uses mightily for the sake of the kingdom of God, as I read in Romans chapter 10.

It's astounding the thread of grace that God sows through history, is it not? This is the working of our God. So first we look at this and back in chapter 6 and again real quickly verse 8 through 7, 1 was the accusation that was brought against Stephen. Stephen here was accused of blasphemy, and I put it there I believe in your notes, that this blasphemer, he was a blasphemer, blasphemous, slanderous, abusive, he was, this word describes, describes words or people as connected with a slander. So they were accusing him falsely of slandering God and of slandering Moses, of slandering the temple and slandering the law.

They're saying you're totally misusing and misapplying the word of God. You're misapplying what Moses said. You're diverting off course. You're going out of the way. You're becoming a different thing.

You're a cult and you're getting off track. And Stephen though was wanting to prove that what he was saying and what he believed and what he preached was actually in accordance with all of the history of the Word of God and of his people. And so he does that in chapter seven. And at this, then the high priest said, are these things so? With this statement, they opened the door for Stephen to respond.

And boy, respond he does. Can you imagine being able to stand before a council with no notes, with no Bible, and be able to recall the histories and the details of what Stephen did before this large council? Most likely this council, as I said earlier, was over a hundred men. These were people, imagine the intimidation factor that was being experienced there. But what was the difference?

Stephen was a man full of the Holy Spirit. He was not standing there with just the wisdom of his own words. He hadn't gone to apologetics class. He came to the class and to the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ through the Word by the power of the Holy Spirit. And what we need is not more apologetics.

We need more understanding of the word of God by men and women who are filled with the Spirit of God. And in that time the Spirit of God will give you everything that you need. He gives us all the words that we need and that is what takes place. They open the door for Stephen to respond. And so as he responds it's important to note that Stephen calls the Lord the God of glory.

Stephen is a faithful witness of the histories of his people. A history lesson is what he's going to give them. He's going to give them a history lesson to humble their pride and to correct their misconceptions. Because remember, the Jewish people here, they were extremely prideful people. They believed they had the only hold on truth and the Gentiles were on the outside of these things and there was no way for them and that they were the ones that understood it all.

As a point to remember throughout this whole time I want you to to keep in them in your mind this is that we are talking about a very religious group of people. He's not rebudding pagans in sense. He's rebudding those who knew the Scriptures. He's rebudding those who profess to be the people of God. He's rebutting those who profess to be children and of the seed of Abraham, and children of Moses, and the keepers of the temple, and the proclaimers of the law.

So he's going at this and keep that in mind because it's important for our context to understand what it is that he's dealing with. He's dealing with men who believe that they understood and knew what God was doing throughout history. And here Stephen is. He comes before them and he begins by assuaging their concerns of his teaching regarding God. Stephen professes that his God is the God of glory.

It is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Stephen wants to make this point here to begin with that they would be humbled and that his grace would fall upon them. Remember his point is not just to condemn them but to proclaim to them the truth of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He begins by saying this, brethren and fathers, the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Haran. He takes it back to the very beginning of what the Jewish people begin with, and that is Abraham.

He goes back to the father of their faith. He goes back to that very one whom God called out of obscurity and out of paganism and brought him into the land. And Stephen wants to make this point here though, that before there was a Moses, before there was a temple, before there was a ceremonial law, that God was showing grace and making promises to a man named Abraham. He had brought him again out of obscurity. God gave him circumcision as a sign of the promise.

Keep that in order. Circumcision was a sign of the promise that God had given to Abraham. The Jews had a real problem with holding to the signs of the promise over the very substance of the promise. They would focus upon the temple made with hands and they would neglect the understanding of the temple that was made without hands. They would hold to the law as if they thought that was going to bring them salvation even though they did not understand and could not see that the just shall live by faith.

An Old Testament promise. They were actually the blasphemers and Stephen was the truth-teller. They were the ones who were actually slandering the promises of God. They were the ones by their teaching that were misusing the Word of God for their own purposes, to set up their own standards of righteousness, to set up their own idols in their own hearts, by teaching that righteousness came by the law instead of by grace through faith. Righteousness has never come through the law.

The law was given that sin would abound, that we would understand just how sinful we truly were and how sinful they truly were. It was to show them that they could not do what God's holy standard required and therefore they had by faith they had to believe in God. Next Stephen uses the patriarchs as an example. He begins with Abraham and I'm not going to go through all of these things. It would just take entirely too much time but we have read this.

So he begins with Abraham and he's wanting to show that God brought them out of obscurity. He brought this single man and he brought him forward and gave him a promise. The Jewish people started with humble beginnings even though now and this time they were full of pride thinking that they were something. But then he moves to the patriarchs in verses 9 through 16. And we see in verse 9 very specifically, and the patriarchs becoming envious, sold Joseph into Egypt, but God was with him and delivered him out of all his troubles." So Stephen in this part of this history lesson for the council, he brings them and he's wanting to make known what his purpose, and it helps us to understand this, the purpose of this chapter, it becomes more clear as we go through each of these sections as he brings up Abraham, he brings up the patriarchs, he brings Joseph, he brings up Moses, and he walks us right through this history and he's bringing forth his purpose.

It's almost as if you had a telescopic view of something and with every click of the dial, you're bringing it in to focus, clearer and clearer of what he's trying to get to. Now, we know the end of the story and so our minds are jumping there but let's let's hold off just for a moment before we get there. Stephen goes to the patriarchs. The patriarchs were not only the fathers of the Jews, but they were the beginning of the stiff-necked people and the uncircumcised in heart." Notice what it says, and the patriarchs becoming envious sold Joseph into Egypt. The Jews were beginning of the people of the stiff neck people, the uncircumcised and hard.

They were willing, these patriarchs, the brothers were willing to lie against Joseph. They were willing even to murder Joseph, yet were persuaded not to murder him, but let's sell him into Egypt and let's make a little money off of him. There are so many types and pictures here that we have of our Lord Jesus Christ throughout all of this. It's really astounding. He who was rejected has become the chief cornerstone and deliverer of his brethren as Joseph did in delivering his brethren.

It is of importance to note that God was with him. God has never forsaken his own. As you're sitting here this morning, you may be going through times of difficulties in trial. You may have been through times of difficulty in trial in which you thought that you were alone. You were in a crowded room and all by yourself.

You may have sat in the dark in your own room and believed that God was silent, that his ears were closed to your pleas. But I want you to know that even in the midst of Joseph being through all of the story of Joseph being in prison and being falsely accused and on so on it says here by the testimony of God's Word but God was with him. God is with us this morning. It may feel like the promises of God had fallen to the ground through much waiting. Think of the waiting.

God promised Abraham all of this land that you see, look around you, it's all yours. And yet he did not give them so much as a foot to stand in. It was not until over 400 years later through the divine providence of history that God would bring his children out of the land of Egypt and bring them into the promised land. But I want you to understand something, though it seems that God is far from us, he is always near. That God's promises, though they are slow, are sure in the operation of them, they will be fulfilled in the season of them, though perhaps not so soon as we expect, " says Matthew Henry.

Many of the promises of God and many wonder When will the promises of God come about? William Cooper writes of this in his hymn, God Moves in Mysterious Ways, in this line he says, Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face. This William Cooper surely understood the difficulties of waiting upon the Lord when it seemed as if God was silent. But in his defense, Stephen proves his knowledge of the Word of God.

Remember they were accusing him of blasphemy regarding the law or the Word of God, and he's proving his understanding of the Word of God, beginning with Abraham, then going to the patriarchs, And the Word of God, He proved to be His belief of the history of His people. And so Stephen's point was to show their resemblance to the patriarchs. This is something that he's peeling back the layers. He's clearing up the lens for them to show them that they now, this council that was seated before him, were no different than the patriarchs. They were no different than their fathers.

They had the same part within them, the heart of disbelief. If you'll notice there on the outline, I had a little subtitle, The Deadly Consequences of Multi-generational Unbelief. That is what is taking place. It was a multi-generational, I don't want to call it a vision, it was a multi-generational problem of unbelief with the fathers and right down and to the religious leaders of the days of Stephen. But his defense through the patriarchs was clear that he was showing them that they were likened unto them.

And so Stephen wanted to show that he was not blaspheming the Word of God, but the false witnesses were more in fact blaspheming the Word of God and rejecting Jesus Christ through faith. They rejected that Jesus was the way. And so the same spirit of envy that is still alive in the hearts of this council was the same as what was alive in the hearts of their fathers and the patriarchs earlier on. But his defense through Moses, Next we see he goes from patriarchs into Moses in verse 17 through 36. God delivers Israel through Moses.

God uses this miraculous means by which he raises up Moses. But look with me in verse 17, 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. At this time Moses was born. Oh their ears perked up.

They loved the hearing of the word Moses. They were the children of Moses. They were in agreement with him. Yes, Moses is the one. But what he was wanting to do was to show them that they were actually not like Moses.

They were more like the people who were rejecting Moses and saying, ask for this Moses, where is he? So let's see what happens. In verse 25, for he supposed Moses, when he killed the Egyptian, he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand. They were blinded to the fact that Moses was God's choice to deliver them. The voice of the Lord in verse 31, 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. And so this Moses whom, listen, he keeps giving us these hints, this Moses whom they rejected saying, who made you a ruler and a judge, is the one God sent to be a ruler and the deliverer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush." Again, what a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. This very one whom God sent to be their deliverer, not just the deliverer from Egypt, but our deliverer from sin and from the punishments thereof these people have rejected they could not see it says they did not understand but yet Moses was their deliverer so Stephen starts back again with this promise for all these years between Abraham and Moses. He says, in a sense, where was the temple there? Where was the law?

Where was the ceremonies? You see, God began this work of faith in Abraham And he worked it through all of those years up into the time through the patriarchs into the time of Moses. Yet you are holding on to the temple, you're holding on to the law, you're holding on to Moses, and yet God was working. He was saving people before Moses. They were saved by faith just like we are today.

And so Stephen starts with this promise and he's laying out his case before them. The promises of God were still sure before there was a law given through Moses, though they had waited so long and still had not inherited the land, yet the promise of God remained. This was before the giving of the law, and so throughout Jewish history they have not been able to see that the law was not the promise. The law was not the promise. They were not going to be redeemed through the keeping of the law.

The law was given that the promise of God through the Abraham seed might be exceedingly great. So again, the purpose of the law was so that you would be confronted with your sin and see the hugeness of your sin and realize the hopelessness that you would have of ever keeping the law of God. It was only to show you your sinfulness, for no flesh is justified by keeping the law. That has always been the case, but the Jews throughout this history could not see this. But the law came that the offense might abound and never to take the place of the promises.

In Romans chapter 4, again our brother Scott had preached on this months ago, in Romans 4 listen to what it says regarding Abraham in verse 9. Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised or uncircumcised.

Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also, and the father of circumcision to those who not only are up the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised. And so this promise that was given to Abraham was granted through faith, Paul says in Romans chapter 4. He says for the promise that we would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law. It was never through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

For if those who were of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect because the law brings about wrath for where there is no law there is no transgression therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace so that the promise might be sure to all the seed not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations in the presence of him whom he believed. God who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did, who contrary to hope in hope believed so that he became the father of many nations according to what was spoken. So shall your descendants be." and not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead, since he was about a hundred years old. And the deadness of Sarah's womb, he did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief.

Remember, the wavering of the promise of God comes through unbelief. And that was this bane of the whole existence of the Jewish people, is that they wavered at the promises of God because of unbelief. And in fact, it's not only the Jewish people, but in fact there are people here this morning who were wavering at the promises of God through Jesus Christ because of unbelief. It is the unbelief of what God has said that will send you to hell. It was this that they were not strengthened, but he says Abraham was strengthened in faith giving glory to God and being fully convinced that what he had promised he was also able to perform and therefore it was accounted unto him for righteousness.

Now it is not written for our sake, excuse me, for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It was written for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in him, who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of offenses and was raised because of our justification. Remember, as we're reading this whole history of Israel and Stephen recounting all of these things to them, it's not only for them, it is for you to understand what God was doing throughout history to bring about redemption through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and through faith in his name. And so again in verse 35 we see that Stephen shows that they were like their fathers by rejecting the one God sent to deliver them, just like their fathers had rejected Moses.

He says in Acts 7 35, 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." So Stephen is building this argument point by point throughout the history of his people. In my mind as I was studying this I could just see Stephen as if he had the gavel, as if every time he made a point he would ring it down to show them to gather their attention by Abraham, by the patriarchs, by Moses, and by the Lord Jesus Christ. You need to understand that you are like your fathers. You're a stiff-neck people and you have refused to believe on the very one whom God has sent to deliver you. And though he was being accused of being a blasphemer, he was the only one in the room speaking the truth.

Speaking the truth. They rejected the prophet that Moses foretold. Moses plainly told them that there was coming another. There was one who was a prophet like unto him. They had continually in their minds and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.

They continually made gods of their own designs to go before them. They continually rejected the work, rejoiced in the work of their own hands. And here's the most terrifying part. In verse 41, it says, and they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol and rejoiced in the work of their own hands. In verse 42, then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven.

This is so reminiscent of Romans chapter 1. In Romans chapter 1, over and over and over again, because of unbelief, God turns them over to their own desires. He gives them up to their own lusts. And I want you to understand today that if you continually reject the preaching of the gospel, if you're sitting here week after week after week listening to the Word of God, you're listening to the gospel, it is being poured out for you, it is being proclaimed over and over again, and as you continually reject that and you suppress the truth and unrighteousness and you stop your ears just like these council members did. You too will be like your fathers and God will turn you over to worship that which is not.

It's one of the most destructive judgments in the Bible. When God turns a people over unto themselves, listen, the most terrifying thing in your life should be when God allows you to do what your heart wants to do. To be turned over to your own desires is a death now. How many here this morning are on the precipice of being turned over? May it not be.

How many are playing church. How many are putting on the robes and the garments of the religious and yet in their hearts they are full of dead men's bones. How many sit here week after week and reject Jesus Christ just like Israel did throughout their history. Next in verses 44 through 50, Stephen wants to correct their understanding of God and the temple. In verse 44, he says, 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.

And so he's giving us this understanding, this instance in which Stephen now seeks to correct and convict them of their wrong view of God through their wrong view of the purpose of the temple. In their minds they held the temple up to such a degree as if it was even idolatry. They believed that God was only there, but God had made clear even in the Old Testament and from his prophets, however, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands. 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 of these things? God is not limited to the temple nor to Jerusalem but Jesus says in John 421 Jesus said to her woman believe me the hour is coming when you will neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. In verse 23, but the hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship him. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth." Nevertheless, these Jewish leaders, they were enthralled with the types and they rejected the true. They rejected the true and better tabernacle, the one made without hands, the one that Peter spoke of in chapter 2 of 1 Peter.

He says, coming unto him as to living stones rejected indeed by men but chosen by God and precious, you also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is also contained in the scripture, Behold I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on him will by no means be put to shame. Therefore, to you who believe, he is precious. But to those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. Thank you, brother.

And a rock of offense. They stumbled being disobedient to the word that which they also were appointed. But listen to what he says about us. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light, who once were not a people but now are the people of God who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. And it's through our Lord Jesus Christ, through faith in him, but now we get to where our minds wanted to originally run in verse 51.

Stephen has laid out his case. Stephen has shown that they are like their fathers and he's done it somewhat through a history lesson but he's worked this history lesson right up in verse 51 brings it home right into the present. Present tense. Look at what he says, you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.

Stevens witnessed here against the religious leaders that they are continuing in multi-generational unbelief. You know, there are those here who have, God by his grace has brought out of multi-generational unbelief. Isn't that a grace of God that you have been delivered? And Stephen here is preaching the Word of God to them from the beginning to the present so that they would be delivered. That's his design.

I want you to understand something. He's not there just to throw down on them. Stephen was a man full of the Holy Spirit. Remember what Jesus said to James and John when they said, hey can we just call down fire upon these and destroy them? And then Jesus said, you do not know what spirit you are of.

Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. And so should we. And so Stephen here, though, has come to this point. And here's the truth of the matter, when gospel preaching is being faithful to the text, there will be times when you have to say, you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. You always resist the Holy Spirit.

You always resist the Holy Spirit. And he says, as your fathers did, so do you. No longer would it be sufficient to only point to the past sins of their fathers. You know, it's one thing to talk about what generations in the past did. And you know, we see with such clarity the things in the past.

We look at the past and we look at the sins of our fathers and we look at the sins of those who have gone before and we have 20-20 vision. But when we look in the mirror, we are like the man in the book of James who turns and forgets what manner of man he was. Don't turn this morning without looking steadfastly into the mirror of God's Word. That's what that's what Stephen is doing here. He's holding up the mirror to their faces.

He's not allowing them to squirm and to turn, but he's holding it right up in front of them, and he's wanting them to see their selves. He's wanting them not only to focus on the sins of the past of their fathers, but now he wants to point out to them that the Word of God says, you are just like your fathers. You reject the Holy Spirit of God. They could not see Stephen's point. They were blinded to the fact that Stephen was bringing the spotlight of God's Word closer and closer until it landed on them.

The prophets used to do this all the time. If you ever read in the Old Testament you'll see God will bring judgment. He'll bring it on the Assyrians and he'll bring it on Edom and he'll bring it on Moab and then he'll bring it and he just keeps getting closer with his judgments and he keeps getting closer and then all of a sudden Bullseye, boom, his people. That's what he's doing here. He's showing them the whole history of their people and all of the sins but it keeps getting closer and closer and closer until bam bullseye.

And they can't squirm out of it. You are the stiff neck. You are the one who is uncircumcised and hard. You are the ones who resist the Holy Spirit." And he wanted them to understand, even though that they were blinded to it. No longer could they speak only of the past, but now was the time to boldly get to the point at hand.

Stephen had a limited amount of time and Stephen then rebukes the council for being like their fathers. You stiff-nacked people. Verse 52, 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 the murderers who have received the law by direction of angels and have not kept it. It's astounding how a man standing before a full council of religious leaders has now turned their charges that they had brought against him back upon them.

They were the ones refusing to turn from their sins and they were the ones who were blaspheming God and Moses and the law and the temple. They were blaspheming it because they were putting it into a place that God never designed it to be. They were the ones resisting the Holy Spirit. Like it or not, they were like their fathers. They were joining the ranks of their fathers by persecuting the prophets and killing not only those that spoke of the just one, but they in fact murdered the just one.

They were worse than their fathers. What I mean by this is that they had the truth always before them from the beginning in the Word of Scripture. And then when truth himself stood and looked them in the eyes, they rejected him. And now when his his apostles and these these men of God full of the Holy Spirit come and speak, they continue to reject. But we have to remember they knew from the Old Testament that the just shall live by faith.

In Habakkuk in two verses two through four, listen how clear this is. Then the Lord answered me and said, write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come it will not Terry behold the proud his soul is not upright in him but the just shall live by faith." It was pride. It was individual pride.

It was spiritual pride. It was national pride that kept them in unbelief. They refused to believe the word of God that was very clear before them. They were blinded because of their sin. In Deuteronomy, we read much of the same thing, that it was, and the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants.

He told them it was not just about the circumcision of the flesh, it was the circumcision of the heart. The council then proved Stephen's point by their response. Not only did he say that they were stiff-necked and uncircumcised like your fathers, they now wanted to prove it. And prove it they did. They continued in the way of their rebellious fathers.

Stephen, here we have, was a faithful witness of Christ to the very end. Look with me in verse 54, and when they heard these things they were cut to the heart and they gnashed at him with their teeth. Cut to the heart. What a contrast to Acts chapter 2 verse 37. In Acts 2 37 The word of God says, now when they heard this they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles, men and brethren what shall we do?

And in this present verse it means that they were pierced, that they were pricked, or excuse me, in verse in Acts 2 37 it means that they were pricked and pierced in the heart, but here in this passage that same statement is what is so dangerous. It means to be made furious. Conviction can do that, you know. When you're confronted with the truth of God's Word and the truth of God's Word pierces you, it can either make you say, what do I do? Lord, save me.

Or it can make you furious. It'll make you furious at God and it'll most certainly make you furious at the one preaching the Word of God to you. And in fact in this case that's what it did. What a dangerous state to be in, to be cut to the heart but not repentant. Let me ask you, what is your response when you are confronted with your sin that you have a hard and rebellious heart.

Did you know that the same fire that melts the wax hardens the clay? The same word to one is an aroma of life unto life and to another of death unto death. What is the words effect upon you? Is it being joined with faith this morning or has it been being joined with unbelief? Are you believing the Word of God?

Again the testimony of Scripture regarding what Stephen did and what God was doing in their hearts. Stephen was a man full of the Holy Spirit, in verse 55, but he being full of the Holy Spirit gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God." Stephen here is just being this faithful witness in the face of this hostile counsel, But he's also showing us at the same time the destructive consequences of multigenerational unbelief. It's working towards an end and the end is coming on a temporary stage. And as a result, he, Stephen, saw the spiritual reality that they could not see. He saw, it says, the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

What do you see? Are you so full of this world that you see only the temporal things? Do you see the living God? Has God given you the spiritual eyes that you may see spiritual truth in his word? What do you see?

Stephen says the heaven's open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. That's what he saw because he was a man full of the Holy Spirit. But they and their rage could not endure to even hear the words. And it says that they cried out with a loud voice and they stopped their ears and they ran at him with one accord. The rage of their conviction drew them to the rage of their actions.

Their heart was hard and now they were going to be hard upon the man who was bringing the truth of the gospel to their ears. They cried, stopped their ears, ran at him, cast him out, and they stoned him. And the witnesses, the false witnesses, were the first to lay their hands to the stones as the law required. Isn't it interesting that those who are law breakers are so quick to hold up the law which they break? At least in the points that they most delight in.

And then they laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. And what a beautiful crimson thread that Luke mentions for us to prepare our thoughts for the next chapter and the dawning of a new day in which the life of the church and the foretelling of the children of Abraham being raised up from these very stones. Saul, we will see him later. But until then, the rage of the serpent's children cannot but spew the poison of their lust. And they threw the rocks at this man, and they could not tolerate the truth of this man to the extent that their rage is contrasted and overshadowed only by the grace and forgiveness of God through the man Stephen.

The words of Stephen's mouth in his dying moments was consistent with the life that he lived. Do not think that you will come to the end of your life with anything different than what was in your life. Don't think that I will come to the end of my life and boy I'm gonna turn so dedicatedly to the Lord at my last days. You will die as you lived. What fills as you lived.

What fills your heart in this life will fill your lips at your death. Stephen was a man full of the Holy Spirit. He, like his Savior, committed the keeping of his soul unto God and like his Savior, had unnatural grace upon those who were throwing the stones at him to bring about his death. In Luke 23 we read of the Lord Jesus, He cried out with a loud voice. He said, Father into your hands I commit my spirit.

And having said this, he breathed his last. And in Luke 23 we read, and when he had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified him and the criminals, one on the right hand on the other on the left, and then Jesus said, Father forgive them, for they do not know what they do. In life and in death, Stephen was likened unto his Savior. And so the question for us and the challenge for us as we close is this, how are we being conformed into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ in life and in death? We do not know the day of our death.

We do not know how it will come about, but we do know this. It is coming. Are we going to be, as Stephen was, a faithful witness to the end? And how do we apply such a passage as this, such a huge chunk of scripture to ourselves? I have just a few questions that I want to, hopefully will spur on some thinking for you for the rest of the day, to take this narrative of this biblical account and apply it to our lives in such a way that hopefully will spur on love and good works in the spirit of Hebrews 10 25.

I want you to consider first what it looks like to be a man full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom and faith and power. Does your life produce this type of fruit? And You can think about the characteristics of Stephen. You can think about the things that he loved. You can think about the things that he dedicated himself to.

You can think about the things that he filled his mind with and the things that came out of his mouth. You can think of, there's all sorts of things to consider in the life of Stephen. Number two, whenever you read, this is maybe a challenge, whenever you read in the Word of God regarding a person or a group of people and they do something dumb or they do something evil, it's real easy to say, boy, that was done. Boy, that was evil. I want to challenge you.

You should not think to yourself how much better you are than them, but rather ask yourself, how am I like them? For all of sin and falling short of the glory of God, we all have real blind spots. It's easy to look at others with that same 2020 vision that we look at the past with. And when we look into the mirror of God's word, we cannot see. Look into the mirror of God's word and ask yourself, how am I like this?

Am I stopping my ears at the Word of God? Am I raging at the conviction or in my heart do I say, Lord have mercy on me a sinner? Men and brethren what shall we do? Third, are you like those in the council, rejecting Christ through your unbelief? Is your neck stiff not from a bad night's sleep but from a hard heart?

I call you today to repentance. I call you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. If your heart is hard and angry towards God or towards the preacher or towards the Word, turn from these things and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and he will cleanse you. And then lastly, we are never more like our Savior in this life than when we graciously forgive those who wrongfully mistreat us for standing for the truth of God's Word. Grace shines the brightest against the backdrop of unjustified mistreatment.

Peter talks about this in his epistle. I pray that these considerations will marinate in your thinking today. And may God's word do its work in fulfilling us what God has fully attended. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you and praise you for your word that is so helpful and so good for us.

We pray, O God, that you would fill us as Stephen with the Holy Spirit of God, that we would be men and women of God who are sold out to do your will. I pray, oh God, for the unbeliever here this morning that you would turn their hard heart into a heart of flesh and save them. And Lord, I pray of those who are so focused on types and shadows that they fail to see the substance of Jesus Christ. I pray that their faith is not in any temporal thing, but that their faith is solely in the Lord Jesus Christ. In his finished work, in his fulfilling and completing all of the laws standards for us that he perfectly obeyed, help us oh Lord.

Turn us into the right way, help us to see Jesus standing at the right hand of God. We ask it in His name. Amen.