ACTS 7 YOU ALWAYS RESIST THE HOLY SPIRIT2016 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Acts 7 You Always Resist The Holy Spirit

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2016.

Well, this evening we're going to be at Acts chapter 7. We're jumping right into where we were looking at, kind of in the middle of what we were looking at last week as we saw Acts chapter 6 and then the end of chapter 7 last week. We're looking at the life of a man named Stephen, who is one of the seven who were chosen in Acts chapter 6 to administer resources to the widows.

We learned there in Acts chapter 6 that Stephen was filled with faith and with the Holy Spirit.

And as he is ministering, it seems that God has expanded his ministry. And so he's having a bigger impact. It says that he was doing signs and wonders even in Acts chapter 6. And so then there arose up some Jews who disputed with him and they couldn't refute him. And so then they tried another method and they falsely accused him. And so Stephen was accused of blasphemy there.

Back in Acts chapter six. And so he was taken before the religious leaders, the Sanhedrin, and he was accused of blasphemy specifically against the temple and against the law that he was speaking inappropriately and in a way that, you know, is deserving of death against the temple and against the law.

What we have in Acts chapter 7 now is Stephen's message to the Sanhedrin. So we looked a little bit at the exchange last week in Acts chapter 6, and then we jumped to the end, where the end result of this encounter is that Stephen is put to death by these religious leaders. But I wanted to save the bulk of chapter 7, what we're looking at this evening, for us to be able to look at it together and understand

Stephen's message to the Sanhedrin. As he's brought before them with these accusations, in verse 1, it says, And so these accusations are brought, these false accusers are there before him, and now he's given a chance to speak as the high priest asks if these things are so. And what follows now is Stephen's response to that. It's his response to,

the Sanhedrin remember these same guys who just recently, you know, it was probably just a year or so, maybe two years before, that they had put the Lord Jesus to death. It was those same guys, that religious council that Stephen was standing before. And so he should be intimidated. And we talked about that when Peter stood before them as well. But he goes on here to give a very clear and

challenging message to the Sanhedrin. This is the longest message that's recorded in the book of Acts. So we have a couple that are given by the Apostle Paul and one that was given by Peter in Acts chapter 2, but this one is really lengthy. And Stephen goes into great detail as he recounts Israel's history. He recounts some of the things that happened and how God established them as a nation. And so we'll look at that, but it builds to his final point.

And his final point, I want to jump ahead and look at that so that we understand where Stephen is going with these things. So if you would look with me at Acts chapter 7, and we're going to jump into verse 51 to 53. Here's what it says. 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 you now have become the betrayers and murderers, verse 53, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.

Here's the climax, the conclusion of Stephen's message. He calls them stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart, and he says, you always resist the Holy Spirit. And that gives me the message title this evening. You always resist the Holy Spirit.

And so as Stephen responds to these false accusations, it's not really a defense that he gives. He doesn't say, well, no, that's not really what I said. You know, that's he doesn't go down that route. Instead, he builds a case against the religious leaders. He essentially puts them on trial and says, you guys are resisting the work of God and the Holy Spirit.

And so we're going to look at Stephen's message this evening, and there's five points that we can pull from it as he builds to this final exclamation that they are resisting the work of God and the Holy Spirit. And so let's dig in now, looking at the first point found in verses 2 through 8, and that is that Abraham received the promises of God.

This you could maybe call the introduction to Stephen's message. It was the thing that he's going to start out with a foundation. It's a good foundation. Abraham, he uses him as a good example, the establishing of the nation, and then he's going to build on top of that. Here's what it says in verse 2 and 3. It says, 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.

Now, Stephen is going to be quoting quite a bit from the Old Testament because, again, he's in front of the Jewish leaders. Those are their scriptures. And so here he quotes from Genesis chapter 12. He goes back to Abraham, the establishing of God's people, right? Abraham and his descendants were, you know, the ones that God had chosen. That's the Jewish people, the Israelites.

And so here he goes back to Abraham and he says, remember how it all began, how God appeared to Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia. And God told him, get out of your country, get away from your family and go to a land that I will show you. Verse 4.

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.

Here's a quick look at the geography of what Stephen is talking about here. Abraham started out in Ur there over off the Euphrates River. And so that's actually also where the area of Babylon is. And so that's where he lived. That's where he was born. That's where he grew up. He grew up in that region. And then God called him out and said, get out from this land to the land that I'm going to show you.

Now, the land of Israel, where Canaan is over here on the left, right on the Mediterranean Sea, but going straight across isn't preferable because it's just completely desert wasteland. And so what they would do is they would follow the river. So he could follow the Euphrates River all the way up to Haran.

and they camped out there for a while until Abraham's dad died, and then God kind of renewed the call in his life and said, okay, now get out, and you haven't got to the land I want to show you yet, and so he left Haran, and then he headed down to the land of Canaan. It's about

900 to 1,000 mile journey altogether that he took. And so this is the journey that he took. This is what God called him to do. This is how God spoke to him. And it says there in verse 4, he moved him to this land in which you now dwell. All right, we're here, Stephen tells the Sanhedrin, because of this encounter with God that Abraham had. Verse 5 says,

And so here, Stephen, again, as he's recounting the history, he says...

God called him here. He put him in this place. He sent him here, but he actually didn't give him any land to be able to camp out on or live on. He didn't own land. He didn't have possession of the land yet, but he did receive instead a promise. He received a promise for the land and a promise for the land to be for the descendants after him, even though he did not have a child. Verse 6 says,

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 400 years. And the nation to whom they will be in bondage, I will judge, says God. And after that, they shall come out and serve me in this place. So God tells Abraham what's going to happen. He doesn't give him the land quite yet, but he says, your descendants will have it.

after they've dwelt in a foreign land, and then they're going to be in bondage there. And as I bring them out of bondage after 400 years, then they're going to come in and possess this land. And so again, this is found in Genesis chapter 15 now. And so he's just walking his way through the history of Abraham and the nation of Israel. Verse 8 says,

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 12 patriarchs. Here, Stephen reminds the Jewish leaders about Abraham receiving the promises of God. He went forth in faith. He believed God and

And he followed his direction. He got out of Ur. He went out of Haran. He went to the land. And even though he didn't obtain the full completion of what God led him out in order to get, he didn't obtain the possession of the land. He received the promise that that land would be his descendants' land.

But that's a strange promise when you don't have any kids yet, right? So how can I have this land be given to my descendants when I don't have a child? And so the promise of Abraham having a son, along with the promise of, you know, the land being passed down and for Abraham's descendants to be many, these were the promises that Abraham received as he trusted God and followed his instruction.

the promise of land and the promise of descendants. You might remember in Genesis chapter 15,

This encounter that God and Abraham share in verse 5, it says, And then verse 6, And he accounted it to him for righteousness.

Stephen is using Abraham here as a good example, one who believed God and followed his instruction and received what he had for him. And we know from the scriptures here, his faith in God was, you know, something that God rewarded. And so he accounted his faith as righteousness.

Abraham is declared righteous. He has right relationship with God because he believes the Lord when the Lord gives him these promises and when the Lord gives him instructions. Abraham believed and then acted accordingly. He left his land and went, and he believed as God gave him these promises. So as he comes to the conclusion at the end, and he'll say, you always resist the Holy Spirit, and

Abraham is the one contrast to the example here. As he goes on now, he's going to be giving examples of how...

The descendants of Abraham and what the Jewish leaders called their fathers, they resisted the Holy Spirit also. They rejected the work of God. But Abraham was the good example. He's the one we're to model our lives after, to believe God and live our lives accordingly, even when we don't know where we're going or we don't understand what God is doing. Well, going on now to verses 9 through 16, here we have the next point, and that is the patriarchs rejected Joseph.

So Abraham started the Israelites off well, but then it was kind of downhill from there as far as their relationship with God. In verse 9, it says, And the patriarchs, becoming envious, sold Joseph into bondage or into Egypt, but God was with him.

So the patriarchs now, he refers to, are envious. Now, who are these patriarchs? These guys are very important to the Jewish leaders that Stephen is addressing because these guys are the founders of the nation.

the patriarchs is a reference back to Abraham, but then also his son Isaac, but then also Jacob. But primarily the patriarchs is referring to the 12 guys who became the 12 tribes of Israel. Now there's a little bit of, you know, detail that we could get into there with, you know, Joseph and splitting into two and so on and so forth. But the point is,

Abraham had a son named Isaac. Isaac had Jacob and Esau, but God chose Jacob.

renamed him Israel, and then Israel had 12 sons, and those sons became the tribes of the nation of Israel. And so as we get into, you know, the wanderings and bringing out of Egypt and all that stuff, it was the tribes, and these guys were the, you know, the families, the heads of the families of all those tribes. And so you have Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. These are the patriarchs.

And as Stephen makes reference to these patriarchs, it says they became envious of Joseph. And so you might remember the account there in the book of Genesis. Joseph was the son of Rachel, and that was, you know, Jacob's favorite. And so

He, you know, treated him favorably. He gave him the coat of many colors or some say it's a sleeveless coat. Either way, it was special treatment, special coat. And the rest of the brothers didn't like it.

Well, then to further that, Joseph starts having dreams about how his brothers are going to bow down to him. And then even how his whole family is going to bow down to him in another dream. And so they become envious of Joseph and they sell Joseph into Egypt. They first intend to kill him, but then they decide, you know, we can make some money instead. And so they sell Joseph to the Midianite traders that are going by and he is sold into slavery in Egypt.

Because they were envious. And so he's pointing out, he's highlighting the patriarchs that you're so proud of that you, you know, hey, we're descendants of Reuben and Simeon and Levi and Judah and Gad. We're descendants of these guys. And he's saying, look, these guys were envious and behaved this way.

But even though they behaved this way, it tells us in verse 9 that God was with him. God was with Joseph in spite of all this. In verse 10, it says, And so we see that

Joseph is doing well, even though he was sold into slavery. And then he is made governor or, you know, he's governor over Egypt and all his house. And that's a long process. And you guys understand the account from Genesis. So I'm not going to get into that. Verse 11. Now a famine and great trouble came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers found no sustenance.

So now he talks about the famine that drives the sons of Jacob to Egypt for their encounter with Joseph. But notice he says, our fathers, they found no sustenance. Again, there was this strong connection, and he uses that throughout this whole passage, that the Jewish people had to their fathers, to the patriarchs, that they had great pride in their heritage and

And it was a point of great pride for them. And what Stephen is doing is showing that all along the way, these guys that they took such great pride in, they blew it. They failed. They messed up, beginning with their envy of Joseph and their rejection of him. But then that continues as they encounter him in Egypt. Verse 12.

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.

So he sends the brothers to Egypt. You guys know the account. They go. Joseph recognizes them, but remembers the promises of God. And so he treats them harshly. He deals with them, you know, specially holds on to Simeon and sends the rest back and says, you're not going to survive if you come back here without your younger brother, Benjamin.

This is beginning in Genesis chapter 42 and then the following chapters. So they didn't know it was Joseph until later on they finally convinced their father to let Benjamin go and they all go back to Egypt and Joseph reveals himself and

And it's made known to them that he is Joseph. It's made known to the Pharaoh that this is his family. And then verse 14, then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob and all his relatives to him, 75 people. So Jacob went down to Egypt and he died, he and our fathers, and they were carried 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.

So this is giving the account of when Jacob moved his whole family into Egypt. Now, this was a means of God preserving the nation of Israel.

At this point, they're not really a nation. There's 70 of them or 75 of them. They're not that huge. They're just a really big family that are all, you know, hanging out together. But they move into Egypt and over the next 400 years, they're going to be the nation of Israel. They're going to become the nation of Israel as they grow and are multiplied and kept distinct and separate from the rest of Egypt.

But the point that he's making here, the point that you see is the patriarchs rejected Joseph at first. But Joseph was the one that God had designed and ordained to be the deliverer of the whole family. And so those dreams that God gave to Joseph with the family bowing down to him, they were fulfilled. It was a work of God. And God did that work even though the patriarchs

rejected Joseph. Joseph was the deliverer that God had provided for the family, but when he came with those dreams, they rejected him. And yet he was the guy that God wanted to use. And so God brings them to Joseph and delivers them. Now he's going to make this tie saying, look, this is how your patriarchs acted and this is how you act. You're resisting the Holy Spirit just like they resisted the Holy Spirit.

And of course, as we look at these things, it should be a challenge to our own hearts to make sure that we don't follow this example and resist the work of God. But you know, sometimes the deliverance that God has for us and the plans that God has for us are not what we would want or what we would choose, right? So we resist the work of God because we would rather not.

You know, things go our way. But again, let me remind you of something we read in the Proverbs today. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, right? Lead not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths. We love that proverb. It's great. But sometimes when it really comes down to it, we don't want to do it. We don't want to live it. You know, they were trusting in their own understanding when they got rid of Joseph. But our

honoring Joseph and accepting those dreams as from God, accepting, you know, the famine as part of God's direction, that wasn't something that they would have considered. But that's the reality of what God did, but they were resisting the Holy Spirit. And so as we look at their bad examples, we need to remember not to be like them as the Sanhedrin was.

Well, moving on to the next passage, now verses 17 through 36, we have point number three, and that is that Israelites rejected Moses. Now, this is a long passage. I'm going to kind of jump through these pretty quickly as we work our way, because he talks a lot about Moses. First, giving the introduction to Moses 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. 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 and was well-pleasing to God, and he was brought up in his father's house for three months.

And so here Stephen walks them through Exodus chapters 1 and 2. The birth of Moses...

uh the the protection of moses you know uh in his uh parents house for just a short time and then all right he's getting too old now we gotta you know let him go and so they put him in the basket put him in the river the pharaoh's daughter finds him she raises him as her own son incredible in a way that god has orchestrated all these things and you can see from the very beginning this is god's

hand. This is God's design. He is appointed and anointed by God to be the deliverer of the nation. But that's not immediately obvious. Verse 23. 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. Verse 25.

For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand. So Moses, after he's grown up, he's been raised in the palace. He's been raised in luxury. He educated in all the best, you know, Egyptian schools. He knew where he came from. And so he goes to spend some time with the Israelites. And it's clear from this that there was some indication he knew that

that God had called him to deliver his people. In verse 25, he thought they would understand that God had called him to deliver them. Now, of course, as he first attempted this, he wasn't being led by the Lord in this. He wasn't, you know, doing what God wanted him to do necessarily, but

But he knows he's called. And so he's thinking, okay, it's going to begin right now. This guy's in trouble. He's being abused by an Egyptian. And so he kills the Egyptian because he thought they're going to understand. I'm going to be the deliverer of the nation. But it says in verse 25 that they did not understand. We see that in verse 26. 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? Continuing the account there in Exodus chapter 2, after he kills the Egyptian, he thinks he's gotten away with it. Nobody saw him. He buries the Egyptian. But then later, when he sees two of his brothers fighting, he tries to intervene and intercede. And hey, let's all get along and, you know, understand I'm called to deliver you guys. But

But they reject Moses at that point. They say, well, who made you a judge over us? We don't want your influence on our lives. We don't want your authority in our lives. We don't want you to be part of this. Get out of here. And then he goes on to say, do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday? And at that point, Moses recognizes that he's in trouble because word got out. Somehow, somebody saw, somebody knew that

And he knew Pharaoh would find out eventually. And so verse 29, So now he transitions into Exodus chapter 3 as Moses encounters God at the burning bush.

Stephen's point as he works through this, though, is that Moses was rejected by Israel at the beginning. When he said, hey, I want to help you guys resolve things. And they said, you know, get out of here. Who made you ruler and judge? We don't want you in this place. We don't want you in our lives. And then as Moses finds out that the Pharaoh knows, he flees. And so he's out in the wilderness for 40 years until God appears to him again. Verse 31 says,

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 your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.

So God has this encounter with Moses there at the burning bush. He checks it out. God speaks to him, take off your sandals. This is all in Exodus chapter 3. And God says, I've seen the oppression of my people in Egypt.

I've heard their groanings and I'm sending you back and you're going to deliver them. The thing that Moses knew early on that he was called to be the deliverer, I'm sure at this point he had given up on that. He had been living out in the wilderness for 40 years, but God says, no, I'm sending you back. You're still the one I've chosen. You're going to deliver the nation of Israel.

And so Stephen highlights this in verse 35. Verse 36. You remember in Isaiah, I think it's chapter 55, it says,

It tells us that the Lord's ways are not our ways, as high as the heavens are above the earth. The way that God was choosing to deliver his people was not the ways that the people would choose deliverance. That was with Joseph. The patriarchs wouldn't have chose Joseph to be the deliverer of the family. But that's what God chose. That's what God wanted to do. The Israelites would not have chose Moses to be the deliverer of the nation.

And so they rejected Moses and said, who made you a ruler and a judge? We don't want you around here. We don't want you involved in this. But it's that Moses who they rejected that God sent to be the ruler and the deliverer. And he brings them out of Egypt with the mighty signs and wonders that God did there in Egypt and then delivering them through the Red Sea. That takes them into the wilderness for 40 years. But the Israelites rejected Moses. They resisted the Holy Spirit.

They resisted what God wanted to do. They resisted the work of God as they rejected Moses. Moses was the deliverer that God had provided for them. But when he came initially, they rejected him. When he came back later on, they were skeptical because

But then they discovered, they learned, this is the guy that God wanted. This is the one that God had determined would deliver them. So God brought Moses back and delivered the people. But notice that pattern. There's that initial rejection, and then there is the receiving of Moses and the deliverance that God works. We'll see that again as we go on now to the next point in verses 37 through 50, and that is that Israel rejected God.

Here, we'll see that Israel as a nation turns away from God. So first you have, you know, some Israelites saying, hey, get out of here. We don't want you. But now the nation as a whole turns against God or away from God. In verse 37, 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.

Now here, Stephen quotes from Deuteronomy 18, verse 15. This guy was a student of the scriptures. He knew the word of God. And so he refers to this prophecy in Deuteronomy 18, 15. This is a prophecy about Jesus. Moses gives this prophecy of the Savior, the Messiah, who would be raised up like him. And there would be this Messiah, the Savior, raised.

that would be the prophet for the nation. It's a promise of the Savior fulfilled by Jesus Christ. But again, consider the theme that Stephen has been building here. Abraham in Israel didn't receive anything in Israel until his descendants came back to the land. Initially, he didn't get anything, but when they came back, then the land was given to them.

Joseph is initially rejected by the people, by his family, but later he's revealed and it's discovered to be, or that he is the deliverer. He's received by the family as the deliverer of the family. Moses is initially rejected.

But later on, he's brought back to Egypt and he delivers the nation of Israel. And there's a pattern here that Stephen is developing. And then now as he goes into this quote about the promised Messiah, he's really making that point as well. That the promised Messiah, when he comes initially, he will be rejected. And that's what happened. The religious leaders, the nation of Israel as a whole, rejected Jesus as the Messiah. But later on,

They will accept him as the Messiah. In Zechariah chapter 12, verse 10, talks about the people as a whole, the Jewish people as a whole, looking on the one that they have pierced and mourning as one mourns for his only son and grieving for one who grieves for a firstborn. So the whole idea is, the understanding is that they will come to the point where they accept Jesus, but

In this initial coming of Jesus, there's a rejection of the work of God and the plan of God. I like what Warren Wiersbe has to say about this. He says, Israel's history reveals the patience of God and the hardness of man's heart, but it also reveals a ray of hope. Israel rejected their deliverers the first time, but accepted them the second time.

So when God first, you know, brought the deliverer, they said, no, thank you. We don't want any part of that. But there's this ray of hope that God gives second chances. He gives other opportunities. And so when they're brought back,

brought into contact once again later on, then there's an acceptance and there's a deliverance that God brings. And so even for those who reject Jesus Christ, we can have that ray of hope and understand that as they encounter him in the future, they have a good opportunity, a good chance to turn back to the Lord at that time and receive the deliverance that God promises and that God brings.

Well, getting into the point that he makes here in this passage, verse 38, it says, Here, Stephen points out,

As the congregation of Israel has been brought out of Egypt, they're at Sinai, and God's speaking to Moses up on Sinai, giving him the Ten Commandments. While that's all taking place, while God's doing this amazing work, it says in their hearts they turn back to Egypt. They turn away from God and long for the things of Egypt and even turn to the gods of Egypt. Verse 40 says,

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. This is happening in Exodus chapter 32, verse 41. And they made a calf in those days, offering sacrifices to the idol and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. As Moses is on Mount Sinai,

The children of Israel down below make an idol. So they're barely out of the land of Egypt. They're barely delivered. They're on their way to the promised land, and they're already turning away from God and turning back to Egypt. So they convince Aaron to make this golden calf, and they offer sacrifices to it, and they sing and dance and celebrate and rejoice in the work of their hands.

Verse 42, 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 40 years in the wilderness or house of Israel? You also took up the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your God, Remthan, images which you have made to worship and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.

Here Stephen quotes from Amos chapter 5 verses 25 through 27. And so again, he's pulling these passages in from different passages in the Old Testament, things that the Sanhedrin would know. And he's saying, look at how our fathers failed in receiving the work that God was doing. While God's revealing the law to Moses, the people, our fathers, he's saying, failed

rejected God and turned back to Egypt. Look at how fast they turned away from the Lord and turned toward the false gods. And so he says, God gave them over and they worshiped all these different gods, all these different gods that came from Egypt, that they brought out of Egypt, all these different gods they found along the way. They worshiped all these false gods. Israel as a whole rejected God. The whole nation rejected God and turned back to Egypt in their hearts.

They worship these false gods. And yet, here's the grace of God. God provided them a place to worship him. Verse 44.

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 God of Jacob.

So here is there in the wilderness. God gives them the tabernacle there at Mount Sinai. So even though their hearts turn from him, he does a work. He forgives them. Some are received judgment that they're due. But but the nation as a whole is given grace and God gives them the tabernacle where he will dwell in the midst of his people.

And they bring that tabernacle with them as they go into the promised land later on. And they stay there in the promised land with the tabernacle until the days of David. David, it says, found favor before God.

And he asked for God to establish a permanent dwelling place. So not a tabernacle that moves from place to place to place, but a permanent place. And of course, we know how that worked out right there on the hill Moriah, where he offered the sacrifice to God as the angel was there striking down the inhabitants of Jerusalem. There he realized this is the place. This is the place that God wants the temple to be established.

And so they had the tabernacle, then that goes into verse 47, but Solomon built him a house. So he builds the temple there in Jerusalem, but then notice verse 48.

However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says. Verse 49, Here he's quoting from Isaiah chapter 66, verse 1 and 2. So he builds the temple, but he makes the point, God does not dwell in temples.

Now, Solomon made that point when he built the temple and when he dedicated the temple. So it wasn't like it was new information. They knew that going in. He knew that going in. I'm building the temple, but this is not a container for God. God's much bigger than this. He dwells in the heavens. This is not going to be able to contain him. But here's the point that Stephen is making.

Looking back at them at Mount Sinai, they had the presence of God, but they rejected God. They had the tabernacle, but they rejected God. They had the temple, but they rejected God. They had the temple, but they didn't have the presence of God. Now remember, going back to chapter 6, this was the accusation that was brought against Stephen, that he was blaspheming against the temple.

And Stephen here is making the point, look guys, the temple is not the presence of God. It's possible for the nation to have the temple and completely reject God. That's actually what's happened. You guys have rejected God and you've held on to the outward, the external, the outside manifestations, and you've lost the presence of God. Just like the children of Israel there at Mount Sinai.

Moses is out of sight. So it's like, well, we're just doing our own thing now. Let's make our own gods. Israel has rejected God. Now, again, he's building to the point we'll get to in just the next verse. You always resist the Holy Spirit, just like your fathers, the patriarchs did, just like your fathers, the Israelites did, just like your fathers, the nation of Israel did.

You always resist the Holy Spirit. And so point number five, you rejected the promised Savior. Verse 51, you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears. You always resist the Holy Spirit as your fathers did. So do you. Now he stops talking about the history. He starts looking at people in the eye and he says, you guys, you stiff-necked,

uncircumcised in heart and ears. That is, you're hard-hearted, you refuse to listen, and you always resist the Holy Spirit, as your fathers did. Now again, they were so proud of their heritage. Remember, the religious leaders told Jesus, you know, we're children of Abraham. You know, later on in John chapter 9, they said, we're disciples of Moses. And, you know, they had this strong connection, this great pride in their heritage, and

But Stephen is making the point, your fathers resisted the Holy Spirit and you're following that same pattern. You're resisting the work of God. You're resisting God's deliverance and what God wants to do. The patriarchs resisted Joseph. The Israelites resisted Moses. Israel resisted God. And you have resisted the Messiah. Now, the glorious thing is that God still worked in spite of all that resistance, right?

Even though they rejected Joseph, God still used Joseph to bring deliverance to his family. Even though they rejected Moses, God still used Moses to bring deliverance to the family. Even though they rejected God at Mount Sinai, God still worked and gave them the temple and gave them the tabernacle and gave them opportunity to experience the presence of God. God still worked in spite of the resistance, but they resisted. And you're just like them.

You're proud of your heritage, but that's not necessarily a good thing Stephen is telling them. Verse 52. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? Think about all the prophets. He says...

Your fathers, the people you're so proud to be associated with, they persecuted the prophets. It's interesting to think about that, right? Because they held on to the scriptures. They believed the scriptures. They had a high esteem for the scriptures, especially the words of the prophets. And yet at the same time, they were behaving like those who persecuted those prophets that they highly esteemed.

And as you go through the prophets of the nation of Israel, Elijah, he was persecuted. Jeremiah, he was persecuted. Isaiah, he was persecuted. All the prophets were persecuted. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? Now, there's good reason for that. And it makes sense when you think about it, because the role of a prophet was to call a rebellious people back to God.

God didn't send prophets when the nation was right on and seeking the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. They didn't need prophets because they had their relationship with God, their walk with God, and so they were doing that. But the prophets, the whole purpose of the prophets was because the nation was in rebellion against God, and so their mission was to call them to repentance. And as they're sent to call the people to repentance, well...

The people didn't like that, and so they persecute the prophets. The message is not received by the rebellious. You might remember I quoted this portion in Ezekiel last week. Ezekiel 3, verse 7 is God is commissioning Ezekiel. He says, And so Ezekiel is persecuted.

The people won't listen to him. Why? Because they won't listen to God. This is the point that Stephen is making. You guys are just like your fathers who would not listen to the prophets because they would not listen to God. You won't listen to God, he's telling them. And that's why you refuse to listen to me, Stephen would say, but more importantly to Jesus. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the just one.

So these prophets were the ones who give us the prophecies of the Messiah. Now, every Jew in that day, especially the religious leaders, they were looking for the Messiah. They were looking forward to the work that God would do through that Savior,

Where did they get that idea? Through the prophets who brought forth that message. But their fathers killed those prophets who foretold that Savior would come and that the glorious promises that are given with the coming of the Messiah, those were given by men who were persecuted by their fathers, by the children of Israel. But then he goes on to say, and you've done worse than them.

They killed the ones who spoke of the Messiah and you killed the Messiah. There in verse 52, he says, they killed those who foretold the coming of the just one of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers. So you have murdered the Messiah, he tells them. He's on trial. He's given a chance to defend himself. But instead of defending himself, he turns around, he puts them on trial and he says, look, you guys are just like me.

your descendants or your ancestors. You've rejected the work of God. You've resisted the work of God. You've resisted the work of the Holy Spirit, but you've gone even further. You've done even worse in that those who killed those who spoke of the Messiah, well, you've actually been the ones to kill the Messiah. You rejected the promised Savior.

In verse 53, he says, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it. Now, again, remember, Stephen was falsely accused of blaspheming against the temple and against the law. And so what he says is you have received the law and you're so proud of the law. Do you think I've blasphemed against the law? But you don't keep the law.

Because you've put to death the one that the law spoke of. You're so proud of the law, but you've not kept it. And you've murdered the Messiah that was promised there in the scriptures. So he turns this around on them. And he says, you guys are murderers. You have rejected the work of God. You have resisted the Holy Spirit. Now they respond in verse 54,

When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and they gnashed at him with their teeth. I won't go into the rest of the verses. We looked at those last week. But at this point, because of their great anger at him, they put him to death by stoning. He becomes the first martyr because he...

challenges them with the truth, with the realities that they have rejected God's work and God's Savior, the Messiah. He says, you always resist the Holy Spirit. Now, there's an important lesson here for us in this. There's a lot that we could go into that I've just kind of, you know, gone through the message pretty briefly, but

But the important lesson, I think, for us to consider and for us to search, you know, to ask God to search our hearts in is that where do we stand in relationship to the work of God in the Holy Spirit? Are we resisting the Holy Spirit? See, the religious leaders...

were established in their religion. And it's easy for us to follow that pattern. It's kind of a tendency for us where we get stuck in our ruts and in our routines and

And in some of the things that God wants to do in our lives, we push it away, we reject it. And whether that be the form of some kind of affliction or famine or difficulty or that kind of thing, or whether it be a messenger or a call, you know, like God sent Moses or God sent Joseph or, you know, whatever it might be, there's different ways that God works in our lives. But there's an easy danger that we could fall into of resisting the Holy Spirit.

where God's prompting us, maybe even prodding us a little bit, and we're fighting against it. We're saying, no, I don't want to hear that. I don't want to receive that. I don't want to think about that. I don't want to talk about that. That's not what I, you know, that's not going to be part of my life. And God's saying, no, no, you're calling out for deliverance. This is part of that deliverance. You're calling out for me to work. This is part of how I want to work. But initially we reject it because, well, God's ways are not our ways, right?

Again, going back to Proverbs 3, 5 and 6, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your paths. What that means is that when we don't understand, we still trust in the Lord and do the things that we don't want to do because we're not leaning on our own understanding.

Even when I don't get it, even when I don't know why, even when I don't understand what God is saying or what God is doing, I'm trusting in the Lord. I'm doing what he wants me to do, even when I don't get it, even when I'm not fully understanding what God has in that instruction or in that situation. It requires a faith. It requires for us to actually believe.

trust God and not lean on our own understanding. Would you turn with me for just a moment to Proverbs chapter three? I mean, well, I guess not just a moment. We'll, we'll close here. Proverbs chapter three. It just, it, it, it really, you know, ministered to my heart this morning as I was considering Acts chapter seven as well, because these things go together. The religious leaders rejected the work of God. They resisted the Holy spirit and,

Holding fast to what they thought and what they wanted and not being open to the idea that what God wanted to do is something completely different than what they wanted or expected. They were really comfortable in the system that had been, even though they were under Roman rule, they liked the notoriety that they had. They liked the prestige that they had. They were wealthy. You know, they were well off.

And they did not want a new guy, Jesus, to come in there and have the authority and have the attention of the people and have the power. They wanted that for themselves. And so they fought to maintain, although holding on to their religion. They held on to their ways. Again, verse 5 of Proverbs chapter 3. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths.

So as you acknowledge the Lord, he's going to direct your paths. So your paths are not going to be what you think makes sense. Your paths are not going to be what you think, you know, ought to be done. It's going to be different. But then notice verse seven, do not be wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord and depart from evil. And here's where I think we need to learn from the bad example of the religious leaders as Stephen was really calling them out for their resisting of the Holy Spirit.

Don't be wise in your own eyes. The religious leaders were wise in their own eyes. They thought they have it figured out. They thought we understand the scriptures. We understand what's supposed to happen. They didn't fear the Lord. And so they didn't depart from evil. They were wrapped up with, they were consumed with, they were concerned with their own wisdom, their own understanding, what they thought was best. Here's what God says. If you want to be blessed and you want to experience the life that God has for you,

First of all, trust in the Lord with all your heart and don't live your life based on what you understand. Instead, let him direct your paths, even when it doesn't make sense. And don't be wise in your own eyes. To not be wise in your own eyes means to fear the Lord and depart from evil. See, the idea there is when I'm wise in my own eyes, I think I can handle everything.

this little bit of evil. I can handle this little bit of sin. I can handle this situation. It's okay. There's good reason, you know, whatever. There's a lack of the fear of the Lord when I'm wise in my own eyes. I'm not concerned about what God thinks, but to trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding means that when God says this is wrong and you shouldn't go that way, then you don't go that way.

Even when you think, but I can make more money that way, or I can do this that way, or I can accomplish this that way. I can, I can, you know, settle this that way. No, no, no. Fear the Lord. Put his understanding, put his desires, put his instruction above your own wants and desires and what you think is best and let God direct you. The religious leaders refused to do that. They were just like their fathers. Let's not follow that same pattern.

And let our religion, let our rituals dictate what we do. Let's be led by the Holy Spirit and let God direct us according to his plans, according to his will. Even if it's things that, you know, we don't necessarily want. It wouldn't be our preference. It wouldn't be our desire. We don't want Joseph to deliver us.

What if God wants Joseph to deliver you? What if God wants you to take you down a route, to take you down a path, to take you a different direction than you ever wanted? Trust in the Lord with all your heart and follow that. Don't insist on your own way. That's what the religious leaders did. And they resisted the Holy Spirit. That's great. God, I pray for our hearts this evening that you would help us to be open and sensitive, Lord, to what you are saying.

And Lord, we can be so stubborn in our insistence that our life needs to be the way that we've planned it, the way that we've designed it, the way that we want it. And Lord, in that, we can become just like these religious leaders. Lord, we can resist your work, reject your salvation, reject your plans and purposes, and participate, Lord, in the same kind of rebellion that they experienced. Lord, I pray that you would help us. Show us, Lord, if there's areas like that in our hearts that

I pray that there would be great clarity of revelation, Lord, for us, that we would see that for what it is and recognize where we're insisting on our own way instead of trusting in you, where we're leaning on our understanding instead of leaning on your instruction. Lord, help us to recognize those things. And I pray, Lord, that you would give us the strength, the faith to turn from that, to grasp hold of your word and to believe what you say, to live accordingly in

We're going back to the example of Abraham. That's what he did. Getting out of this land and going to a land that I will show you. You don't even know the destination. That doesn't make a lot of sense. But Abraham trusted you and didn't lean on his own understanding. He received your promises and believed you and you accounted it to him for righteousness. Lord, help us to have that kind of faith. Help us to be children of Abraham. We're not children of the religious leaders or children of

the rebellious nation of Israel, but Lord, help us to be children of Abraham, children of faith who trust you and do what you say, even when we don't understand. Lord, would you lead us by your Holy Spirit, direct us step by step, and help us to never resist, but to be receptive to each and everything that you have for us. Lord, we want to experience the fullness of what you have for our lives. So Lord, help us to receive that by trusting in you.

and receiving your instruction, and letting your word override our wants and desires, dreams, and wishes. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.