The Resistance

with Pastor Micheal Oxentenko

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Dear heavenly Father. We need Jesus because it's so easy
to look at somebody else or someone else's failings and
to not recognize that when we do this, we're the
problem at the heart of Philadelphia Christianity. Lord is love service,

(00:23):
obedience that doesn't virtue signal, but reaches out to save
the lost. Lord, thank you for the life of Stephen.
We're going to focus on his famous, famous sermon, his
famous intervention with the Jewish leaders. Help us to learn
from that to day in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, I'm

(00:43):
in a series on the Book of Acts, and I'm
not going to get off of it till we finish
the Book of Acts. So we'll be there for a while.
And it just so happens in our presentation today that
we are interacting directly with Bible prophecy Daniel chapter nine.
And does that sounding okay to you? With no feedback back? There?

(01:04):
It does? Andrew? Do you have those monitors on up here?
They cut them off perfect alrighty, I'm getting used to
something new here in Acts six eight? Let me pause?
Is that too loud? What I just said a little bit?
It is too loud. Let's bring it down just a
little bit. We got a chance to get this right,

(01:26):
because next week I want to have the right settings. Brian,
just a little bit, let me try it again it
Acts six eight. Is that better? Okay? I think we
got it. Let's hang in there. In Act six eight,
the Bible records of Stephen that he was a man
full of grace and power. In this sense, Stephen was
the model leader for the church. Boy, we could have

(01:50):
a whole lot more Stevens as leaders, and it wouldn't
hurt us a lick? Would it? Look at Act six eight?
Take your bibles, open it and turn to Act six
verse eight. And Stephen, full of grace and power, did
great wonders and signs among the people. When Stephen was
arraigned before the Sanhedrin, it was witnessed that his face
shone like an angel. Friend, when you have the truth

(02:13):
in your life, the truth shines out through you so
others can see Jesus in you. Does that matter? It should?
Stephen could not hide the fact that he was a
follower of Jesus Christ, the Angel of the Lord. We
read the Old Testament, we find that the Angel of
the Lord is the Lord. Now, Andrew, I'm gonna ask

(02:35):
you just give me a little bit more on just
a hair on that, if you could, thank you now.
When Stephen began his testimony, the Jewish leaders called him
out for two offenses, recorded accurately in Acts six fourteen.
And let's take your bibles and look at that it's
on the screen. For we have heard him say that
this Jesus of Nazareth will number one destroy this place.

(02:58):
Number two will change the customs which Moses delivered to us.
So they accused Stephen number one of saying, you're going
to destroy the temple, and number two, you're going to
change the law of Moses. You noticed that they refer
to the Law of Moses as a set of customs.
Do you see that in your Bible. Burse They didn't
believe that the law was a revelation of the character

(03:18):
of God that pointed to the coming of the Messiah,
who would embody the law. They had disconnected God from
his law. They saw the Law of Moses as nothing
more than a list of things to do, a code
to keep customs. They also claimed that Stephen had taught
that Jesus was of Nazareth would destroy the temple, and

(03:39):
there was nothing that was more loved in Judaism than
that beautiful temple that Herod had built. If they were
students of the Book of Daniel, they would have been
familiar with the seventy week prophecy of Daniel nine. How
many of you know the seventy week Prophecy of Daniel nine,
which is four hundred and ninety years long. They did
not study it as they should that time. Prophecy explicitly

(04:00):
predicted that the Messiah would come, that he would establish
a covenant with God's people, and that he would do
more than that that as they rejected him, the city
and the sanctuary would be destroyed. So there was a
prophetic basis to believe that the city and the sanctuary
would be destroyed. Now do we have a good deacon

(04:20):
here in the church? Raise your hand, good deacon here,
I need a glass of water right here? Could you
go get that for me? They have water in the back,
Just bring it rought up and that will help the
preacher continue on. Thank you. So if they had studied
now have you ever heard people say, well, you know,
we don't need to study about prophecy. But if they

(04:41):
had studied Daniel nine, they would not have been caught
by rejecting the Messiah. They would have been ready for
the coming of the Lord. They would have been right
on time and in tune with events that were prophesy.
Thank you so much, Steve greatly appreciate it. So if
they had studied that prophecy number one would have realized
that they had come to the very last year of

(05:03):
the four hundred and ninety years. It was the year
of judgment for the city. It was the year in
which God would pass his final verdict over Jerusalem. Now,
Jesus was not on trial at this time. He'd been
on trial three and a half years earlier. The person
who was on trial was Stephen, and he was on
trial because he was a witness for Jesus. Some people say, well,

(05:25):
I go to church because what I can get out
of it. I go to church because it'll help me
have a future. Friends, do you go to church for Jesus? Yes?
Or no? Because if you go to church for Jesus,
God has called you to bear witness for his name.
Many pastors and teachers and missionaries have been on trial.

(05:45):
Thank you, had been on trial for Jesus, just like Stephen.
Evil has a way of putting good men and good
women on trial. I'm not going to say who are
give you the particulars, but I have a pastor friend
who was recently arrested and put on trial because church
members don't like him, and they did their best of

(06:07):
framing Paul's charges the whole nine yards, and he's got
a fight for his life because he was doing nothing
but trying to advance the word of God in his
local church. Don't tell me this is justin Stephens day.
It is in our day. Satan uses the same methods
in every age. They should have known that the prophet
Daniel had predicted the end of Jerusalem and it's sanctuary

(06:29):
because of their rejection of Jesus. Daniel nine twenty four
he says, seventy weeks of years of the creed for
your people and your holy city, to put an end
to sin. He goes on to say, detone for iniquity,
to bring an everlasting righteousness, he says, for your holy city,
and to finish the transgression. In verse twenty four of
Daniel nine, they were given four hundred and ninety years

(06:52):
to get their act together, and at the end of
that God would judge them. But what does he do
he sends them Messiah to save them. In this prophecy,
look at the one nine twenty six. And after the
sixty two weeks weeks masshot Siah shall be cut off,
but not for himself, and the people of the prince
who is to come shall destroy. What does it say

(07:12):
in your bible? So are you reading along with me?
What does it say? The city and the sanctuary? The
end of it shall be with the flood, until the
end of the war desolations are decreed. So does the
text clearly say that the city would be destroyed and
the temple would be destroyed? Yes or no? Yes? All right?
Look at verse twenty seven. Then he shall confirm a

(07:34):
covenant with many for one week, but in the middle
of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice,
an offering, and on the wing of abomination shall come
one who makes desolate. This is the antichrist power, even
until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on
the desolate. So you have it. Messiah shows up, they

(07:56):
reject him. What do you have going on here? You
have the destruction of the temple and the sanctuary. I
get two bottles of water. I am I left that
one over there. That's right, I did. But I'm grateful
I have two now. Thank you for your kindness. I
appreciate that I'm getting used to a wireless microphone today.

(08:17):
I feel pretty good, all right. Jesus was cut off
according to the prophecy, and he was crucified in the
middle of the last seven years of the seventy weeks,
the four ninety years. Do you realize that the Dead
Sea Scrolls refers to that prophecy two hundred years before Christ?
Do you know that it's in Cave eleven the Melchizedek document.

(08:39):
It quotes verse twenty six of Daniel nine in expectation
that the Messiah would come at the end of ten Jubilees,
which is four hundred and ninety years. Stephen would die
at the end of the last seven years. Christ was
cut off in the middle of the week. John the
Baptist died at the beginning of the last seven years.

(09:02):
So you have three deaths. You have the death of
John the Baptist at the beginning, you have the death
of Jesus in the middle, and you have the death
of Stephen at the end. They murder the prophets in
the last week of the seventy weeks and Stephen, just
like John the Baptist, bore witness to Jesus and the
truth and his bold testimony, and he was taken out
because he was a minister of the Word of God.

(09:23):
Daniel predicted that the Messiah would confirm the New Covenant
in the midst of the week. I had the privilege
of going into the young adult Bible Study Saba School
this morning, and they were focusing on the New Covenant
in Daniel eight. And I saw those young people in
their Bibles, and I'm telling you, that's what they ought
to be doing here at Sabath School. Now I've noticed

(09:45):
something at Reaching Hearts. I've noticed the children are on
time for the Sabbath School. I've noticed that the young
adults get there. But I've noticed that some adults are
not arriving on time for Sabath School. Have you noticed that?
Without sending you in a guilt trip, I'd like to
encourage you to come here to study the Word of God.
And we do need more teachers. We need people who

(10:06):
expand classes here, and we need this whole sanctuary filled
with people studying the Bible run in church. The prophet
Daniel had predicted the destruction of the temple. He had
predicted the death of the Messiah in the midst of
the seven years, the last one. Steven's defense before the

(10:27):
Sanhedrin began with a kindness leveled on the very men
who would murder him in a few hours. And he
began his defense by addressing them as brethren. He didn't say,
you rotten guys, you corrupt leaders. He said, brethren. You

(10:48):
know it's a sign of a holy spirit person when
they can address leadership, whether good or bad, with respect.
You hear me. If we can't address leadership, whether good
or bad, with respect, and we have lost our way. Saul,
the future Apostle Paul, was present at his defense. He
was a young man in Paul's defense in Acts twenty

(11:09):
two to one, when he himself will be on trial
before the same kind of counsel, the Sanhedrin, most likely
when he faced them. When he made his defense, he
repeated the words of Stephen. He called them, brethren, the
servants of God are not ugly in their defense of truth.
They're to be kind, direct, and clear, as they preached
the word of God in love. In Act seven, Stephen

(11:33):
begins his defense before the council with Abraham, who left
ear of the Caldies, and why did he do that?
Because the Christians had were leaving Judaism for the very
same reason Abraham had left Idolatry, and so Christians were
leaving the corrupt worship of the Temple. Stephen was trying
to drive home the point that there is a calling out.

(11:53):
The Greek word for church means the called out once,
and he's talking to these people who are institutionalizing their mentality.
He's saying, look, the church was established for a movement,
that it's meant to take us to a city that
Abraham is looking for, that has foundations, whose builder and
makers God. The Greek word for church means the called
out ones. How many of you, when you became a

(12:15):
Christian realized you were called out of the world and
you are called to follow and obey Jesus. Are you
in that camp? I am in that camp. Stephen quickly
moves to prophecy. When God told Abraham that his children
would be persecuted by the Egyptians, look at Acts seven,

(12:37):
six and seven, and God spoke to this effect that
his posterity would be aliens in the land belonging to
others who would enslave them, And I'll treat them four
hundred years for seven. But I will judge the nation
which they serve, said God. And after that they shall
come out. You see the word come out, and what

(12:58):
follows the phrase, come out in your Bible and worship
me in this place. Friends, we have to come out
of the world to worship the Lord. We have to
come out of a slavery, to sin, to come into
relationship with God. And so Stephen's getting right to the heart.
He says, you are so stuck in your place. You

(13:18):
have not come out to recognize the authority of Jesus
in your life. What happened to the Jewish nation was
now happening in the Christian Church. And so Stephen here
is saying in bold terms, we are coming out. The
religious leaders have become the new Egyptians, the new Pharaoh,
and thus the gentiles in the discourse of Stephen, Friends,

(13:39):
you may have grown up in the church, you may
have a long pedigree in the church. You may think
you are an important somebody in the church. But friends,
if you persecute the church, if you try to trip
up the church, if you try to destroy the church,
or minimize its impact. You know what Paul says, the
one who destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him.
And he's talking about the church, primarily First Corinthians. And

(14:01):
that is what Stephen is saying to those leaders gone wrong.
The prophet Daniel predicted that the Messiah would confirm a
new covenant in the last week of the four to
ninety years, and thus Stephen reminds the Jewish leaders that
God made a covenant of circumcision with their ancestors. Now
keep your eyes on the word circumcision. Gavin had it here.

(14:22):
By the way, didn't he do a great job reading
the Bible verse this morning? Where's Gavin at Gavin? Alrighty? Now,
you know, Gavin, you got a lot of energy, and
I'm proud of you because when I was your age,
I had energy too. But I noticed today you stood
up there, you read that verse, and I think you
have a preacher's voice. So we're proud of you, and

(14:43):
God be praised. We don't want to go to your head,
but we want to encourage you. Okay, alrighty, give you
a thumb up there. So keep your eyes on that
word circumcision because it refers to the covenant. Stephen will
come back to it at the end of his defense
and he'll say, there's something wrong with you. Stephen makes
the point that God is the one who makes the

(15:04):
covenant circumcision. It's God's covenant, not ours the covenant, which
is another way of saying the law is about God,
It's from God. Stephen continues that as he describes the
history of the patriarchs of Isaac, of Jacob, of Joseph,
who was sold by his evil brothers into slavery to Egypt.
And remember that Stephen had just called them brethren. I mean,

(15:26):
remember that starts as discourse by saying that Joseph's brothers,
his brethren, persecuted him. So he's connecting dots here. They
sold him into slavery, they seized him, they did all
of this, but God turned it around to save the
nations by seven plentiful years and seven bad years. He

(15:50):
gave them what they needed. Joseph was sent there to
preserve life, but his brethren were bad actors. Stephen here
describes how God did this, but the brethren in the way.
In Genesis, the seven year famine was preceded by seven
plentiful years of grace and harvest, just like the seven
last years. In Dale nine, Stephen is hinting that the

(16:11):
seven last years of the four hundred ninety years are
running out for the Jewish nation. They've had seven plentiful years.
And what did they do. They killed the prophet of God,
John the Baptist. They killed the Messiah in the midst
of the week, and now they're going to kill the
last voice of conscience, Stephen. Eventually the people were enslaved

(16:33):
and the prophecy for Abraham was coming to an end,
just like Daniel's four hundred ninety year prophecy, and Stephen
zero was in on it, Act seven seventeen. Take your
bible's look there. But as the time of the promise
drew near, now are we living near the coming of Christ? Yes?
Or no? Now, friends, we are living at the end

(16:55):
of prophetic time in the Book of Daniels, in such
a way that we have no business compromising in our
lives so that we don't have our hearts fully under
the control of the Holy Spirit. But they didn't care.
They have time prophecy running out. But here Steven's drawing
attention to the prophecy given to Abraham that would affect
the children of Israel. They're coming out of Egypt. But

(17:17):
as the time of the prophecy drew near which God
had granted to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,
till there arose over Egypt another king who had not
known Joseph. Good times can end and bad times can
begin for God's people. We've had good times at reaching hearts.
You know, when persecution hits in this country, we're going

(17:38):
to have bad times in this country. When we are
tested with bad times in life. Don't forget the good times,
the times when God was with you, because God is
always with you if you are surrendered and you love
Him no matter how you feel or what's happening to you.
You know, the pastor's wife that I am referring to recently,

(18:00):
he told me, I just feel rejected of God, abandoned,
And I told her God has not abandoned you. He's
trusting you with hard times so you can maybe see
your son saved, you can see your family saved, that
God can work through your affliction. And so, yeah, you're
going through the furnace. But I'm gonna tell you something.
I'm gonna be with you and your other friends who

(18:22):
love you. Stephen recounts the birth of Moses and how
God saved baby Moses from the death decree of Pharaoh.
When Moses was forty, he tried to save his brethren
as a deliverer. Look at verse twenty three of Stephen's discourse.
When he was forty years old, he came into his
heart to visit his brethren, the sons of Israel, and

(18:44):
seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed
man and avenged him by striking the Egyptian. Now we
call that aggressive evangelism, isn't it all right? I mean,
whatever you do when you're trying to help somebody, don't
hit them. Really. I remember one time, and I'm not

(19:06):
going to tell you when or what, but I can
remember a man who came to church with intention of
hitting another church member, and I had to take him
out under the tent and spend all that day before
my sermon convincing him to calm down. You don't believe
that didn't happen here. It happened in another place. Boy,

(19:26):
I tell you it's something. I just lost my spot here,
give me a second. Yes, So, basically, Moses struck that Egyptian.
Look what it says here, And seeing one of them
being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him

(19:47):
by striking the Egyptian. So when we see injustice, should
we use violence to help? No? Look at verse twenty five.
He supposed that his brethren understood that God was giving
them deliverance by his hand, but they did not understand.
Remember that Stephen called these religious leaders of that council brethren.

(20:09):
He keeps using the word brethren, brethren, brethren. Moses fled
to Midian, and there at Mount Sinai, the Angel of
the Lord appeared to Moses verse thirty. Now, when the
forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in
the waters of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire
in a bush. And when Moses solid he wondered at
the sight. And as he drew near to look, the

(20:29):
voice of the Lord came. And here's what it says,
I am the God of your Father's. So the Angel
of the Lord is in the bush. And when the
Angel the Lord speaks, what does he say? Help me
with this? What I am the God of your Father's.
That means the Angel of the Lord is God. Don't

(20:50):
read over that too fast. The Angel of the Lord
who spoke from the bush is God, just like when
Joshua met him as the captain of the Lord's army.
He said, take off your shoes, Joshua, for the place
you're standing his holy ground. That's exactly what the voice
said at the bush. This is the preexistent Christ in
the burning bush speaking to Moses as the living word

(21:13):
of God. Sometimes we think that there was a poster.
Someone sent me a poster sign that a very wealthy
billionaire put up in California saying Jesus is not God.
And of course my friend said, that's blaspheming based on
this verse, that would be blasphemy. He said, I am
the God of your father's the God of Abraham, the

(21:33):
God of Jacob, of Isaac, and of Jacob and Moses.
Tremble did not care to look, and the Lord said
to him, take off the shoes from your feet, for
the place where you're standing is holy ground. I have
surely seen the ill treatment of my people that are
in Egypt. I've heard their groaning. I've come down to
deliver them, and now come I will send you to Egypt.

(21:54):
Have you ever felt in your life that God doesn't
hear you when you pray. You ever had a hard
time where it looks like you're failing, and you wonder
if the Lord's going to intervene. Now look at the verse.
Based on this verse, does God hear yes or no?
Does God care? Yes or no? Will God intervene? Yes?
And that's what I shared with this pastor's wife. As

(22:18):
the new Moses, Jesus had come down to deliver his
people from Satan, and the Jewish leaders were now under
his control. The people opposed Moses in his ministry, and
Stephen records that Moses predicted that the new Moses who
would come after him, who is Jesus, would be treated
the same way by the brethren. Look at Acts seven
thirty five. This Moses, whom they refused, saying, who made

(22:42):
you a ruler and a judge? God sent as both
ruler and deliverer by the hand of the Angel that
appeared to him the bush. So here we have the
Angel of the Lord, who is God right and God
sent God. Are you following the text which means the
Angel of the Lord is God an angel form, but

(23:04):
God is the one who's sinn him. That's the Father
and the Son. You see. So we have God the
Father and God the Son in the Old Testament, and
we shouldn't read over these verses that show us this.
In fact, in Nexus twenty four, God calls Yahweh, calls Yahweh.
Is Yahweh the elder is to come up to Yahweh

(23:24):
because he's speaking of his son. And we've been told
in the spirit of prophecy, the Father and the Son
together were present when Christ spoke the Ten Commandments. And
if Christ spoke the ten Commandments, he has to be
Yahweh God to have done it, because he's saying, I
ay I, who made you a ruler and judge? That?

(23:47):
So in next seven thirty five the Moses, whom they refused,
saying who made you a ruler and judge? God sent
as both ruler and deliver by the hand of the
Angel that appeared to him the bush verse thirty six.
He led them out have perform wonders and signs in
Egypt and at the Red Sea in the wilderness for
forty years. This is the Moses who said to the Israelites,

(24:08):
God will raise up for you. And what does it
say in your bible? A prophet from your brethren, as
he raised me up. So the Messiah would be the
new what based on that verse Moses, so that means
Christ would be the new lawgiver. He would come to
live the law, to proclaim the law, to define the law.

(24:30):
Moses predicted, the prophet like him would be the new Moses,
the new Covenant prophet. Stephen records that Moses was with
that angel. That angel was God in angel form, the Angel,
the Lord who is the Lord, the good Shepherd, and
redeeming Angel. That Jacob says, the Angel that has redeemed
me from all my troubles, and he calls that angel God.

(24:52):
In Genesis, Stephen records how the people of God who
had received the Law built a golden calf as they'd
lost themselves in the wild kind of worship and dance
that is golden calf worship, they rose up to play.
Steven cites Deuteronomy four nineteen, which shows how evil angels
as the host of Heaven, control the hearts of people

(25:13):
who receive the Law but don't receive God. In other words,
they give themselves over to demonic control in their life. Friends,
if you don't keep Jesus in your heart, you don't
keep the law. You hear me, You may say, well,
we keep in the law. But if you don't have
Christ in you, you don't have the law on you.

(25:33):
When you persecute his servants, you persecute him, and you're
a lawbreaker. Look at Acts seven forty three, and you
took up the tint of Molik. Does anybody know what
the word molik means in Hebrew? All right, it comes
from the word Melic for king, but it has different vowels.
In ancient Carthage, it was just melic, it was king.

(25:56):
So why did the Hebrew Bible change the vowels? Because
the vowels for a bowshitt bouchett, and so the O
and the ah goes into the Melic to create Molik,
which means king of shame. What did they do when
they worship Molik? When they built an altar where they
put a lamb on the altar, what do they put
on the altar at Gezer? They found three hundred children,

(26:18):
little girls cut in two, that were sacrificed on the altar. Demolk. Now,
friends in fantaside always goes with false religion. Don't think
for a moment that God is honored when children are
killed for any reason, they are His children. God loves
the children of the world. You took up the tenth
of Molik, the star of the God, repond the figures

(26:41):
which you made to worship, and I will remove you
beyond Babylon. Friends, it's possible to think that because you
have the truth, you are automatically a child of God,
no matter what you do. Not true, Stephen says. Steve
is trying to say here that the very people who
had the law became demonic law breakers. They openly worshiped
the host of heaven instead of the God of Heaven.

(27:02):
There are some in the church today who think that
it is acceptable to enjoy pornographic television viewing, our movie attendance,
his entertainment. AM all right, it is not. Most of
Hollywood today is totally bathed in demonic messages. Our kids
don't need this stuff. We don't need it. We're not

(27:24):
going to be ready for the coming Christ. If this
is part of our lifestyle, it has to go. And
that goes for the most that goes for the modern
rock industry today. I was watching a small segment of
sixty minutes that was a number of years ago, was
aired and Bob Dylan. You know who Bob Dylan is.
He transitioned from folk music to rock music. Bob Dylan

(27:46):
won the Nobel Prize in Literature for his lyrics. He
has supernatural kind of lyrics. And the outright confessed in
that interview that he made a pact with the ruler
of this world. That's what he calls him to acquire
the needed to break out and become a great musician.
And he was talking like you know that famous German

(28:08):
novel of the guy who made the Pact with the Devil.
He confessed that he sold his soul to the Prince
of this world, and the interviewer couldn't believe it. I
could go through others in the industry have done this
exactly the same thing, Lady Gaga, and I could go
through many many others. So let's not bring that kind
of music into our church. Is that fair? Let's let

(28:31):
the Lord inspire a new generation of songs that are
motivated by the Holy Spirit, the Bible truth revival. You know,
every generation is the right to write new stuff, but
don't mix the two. Stephen recounts how God had Moses
built a tabernac in the waterness and how God moved
around in that tent until God led Solomon to build

(28:51):
a permanent temple sanctuary at seven forty four. Our fathers
had the tent of Witness in the wilderness. Even as
he spoke to Moses directed him to make it according
to the pattern he had seen. Our fathers, in turn
brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations,
which God thrust out before our fathers. So it was

(29:12):
until the days of David, who found favor in the
side of God and asked leave to find a habitation
for the God of Jacob, in other words, a house
for God to live in. But it was Solomon who
built a house for him. Stephen records all of this
only to add that God doesn't need a house to
dwell in. God is not building. Is not dependent upon

(29:36):
a building as important as it is. No, do we
have a beautiful church here? Yes? Or no? We do, friends,
This church is a means to an end. It's a
blessing of God. But it's not the end with God,
because God is our house. If we don't have this building,
we have God. We have our temple at seven forty eight.
Yet the Most High does not dwell in a house

(29:58):
made with hands, As the prophet says, Heaven is my throne,
Earth is my footstool. What house will you build for me,
says the Lord? Or what is the place of my rest?
Did not my hand make all these things? Stephen is
trying to say that it's possible to fall in love
with a building with a temple or a church instead

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of falling in love with God. Isn't it It's possible
to focus on what we have instead of who has us.
It's possible to treasure the truth you think you have
when the truth doesn't have you. It's possible to forget
that God made all these things and that God is
the only reason in our lives for the blessings we

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enjoy and take for granted. And so obedience means we
love God. God's not impressed if we glory in what
we have instead of who we have as a savior,
our friend in God. Friends, I don't come to church
for this building. I work all week with others to
make sure it stays up. I come to church for
God for his people who need him. And I come

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for Jesus and God, and I put up with wolves
At times. You may too because all kinds of people
come through the church. We can all be a little
wolf like ourselves at times, and we must realize we
come to church because we are sinners in need of grace.
We come because we need God in our lives. At

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this point, Stephen no longer calls these religious manipulators brethren.
The seventy weeks of day On nine had come to
an end, and they stood indicted before God Almighty as
rebels against the Covenant. The Holy Spirit speaks through Stephen.
The indictment is clear, Act seven fifty one. He says, you, now, Gavin,
this is what you read. Here's what it is. Yes,

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stiff necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears. You always
resist the Holy Spirit as yours fathers did. So do
you now, yes or no? Yeah? He's getting right to it.
He's saying it with love. We are told in the
Spirit of Prophecy in Chapter one of Steps to Christ

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that when Jesus uttered his scathing rebukes, there were tears
in his eyes in his voice. And so Stephen was
no doubt like Jesus weeping as he said, you stiff
necked people and circumcised and heart and ears, and loving
them as he said that. Now, don't you think for

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a minute that you're He's trying to say, don't you
think for a minute, don't think for a single minute
that your religious pedigree will save you. It will not.
You may have some high folut notion of your religious heritage,
of your personal importance, but don't bank on it in
the judgment day or any day of your life. We
have all sinned, That includes the preacher. We've all fallen

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short of the glory of God. That includes the preacher. Now,
I visited a thrift story every now and then. There
are two former seventh the aventist at the second avenue
for a thrift store that God has led me to,
and I go to pray for them every week. And
as I showed up, there was a man from Islam
who met me there as I was looking at something,

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and he said, I am a direct descendant of Jesus Christ.
Do you ever hear you want to say that? He
says all the cities around us are named after Jewish
kind of places. And he believed that Jesus lived to
be a hundred he moved to his place, and that
he's a descend of Jesus. But he doesn't believe in
Jesus God. He doesn't believe Jesus is the save of

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the world. He doesn't believe. I asked him, does Islam
teach that there's any forgiveness of sins? He says no.
He says, no forgiveness, just power. You gotta do the
right thing. I said, well, what if you mess up? Once?
I said. He didn't answer. I said, are you a
perfect person? And guess what his answer was, I am

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a perfect person. Well, you know that's how they were
acting here. If you don't feel your need, you can't
turn to Christ. We've all sinned, we've all fallen in
short of the globe of God. One of the problems
of the latest seeing condition is that we can't admit
that we're the problem. But we need Jesus. Stephen knew
that the humble are those that God recognize. He continues

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in verse fifty two. Which of the prophets did not
your fathers persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand
the coming of the righteous One, whom you have now
betrayed and murdered you who received the law as delivered
by angels and did not keep it. Amazing these leaders
had accused Stephen of preaching the destruction of the Temple,

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and have set inside the law of Moses. Stephen bore
witness to their resistance of the truth, and he unmassed
them as lawbreakers and frauds. These leaders had destroyed the
Temple by their own actions. Christ had come to save them.
They had rejected the true prophet, the New who is Jesus.
They had acted just like the brethren in the Old

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Testament again and again, who persecuted Jose as the false
brothers who persecuted Moses, the false brethren who worshiped demons
by sacrificing their children to Moloch. The host of having
false brethren, the nation that killed all those children in
time killed the son of God. And Stephen calls him
the righteous One. Stephen chose the words, well here in

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naming Jesus the righteous One. Now, I'm going to let
you all know something. It's all right, how many you
like our children in the church. Here, I Harvey, I'll
tell you what happened one Sabbath, and I was at Sligo.
I was preaching right up here, and Donald, who was

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a todller, my little son, walked all the way down
that large church all the way up in the platform
and said, Daddy, I want you to hold me. And
I had to hold him as I was preaching my sermon.
Now I have a little theory why our kids are
little Lancey right now. We gave him rocket fuel. It
happened in Saba school. I saw those sweet things. Now,
maybe I don't think about that, but it happened here.

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And that's not a criticism. I really realized. We love
our kids and all the like, but you're dealing with
forces you cannot control right now. It's called glucose. But
we love you, and don't you feel one lick. I
hope I didn't embarrass you by saying that, but we're
with you. But when Donald came up, he was in
my arms. I just you know, I just finished the
term with Donald here in my arms. It was funny.

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They never saw anything like that at Sligo ever. Guaranteed,
we want children in our church. We love them. These
leaders were not listening to Stephen. The nation that killed
all those children in time killed the son of God,
the righteous one, that's what Stephen calls him. He chooses

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this term Isaiah fifty three to eleven very quickly on
the screen. Here it's a direct quote from Isaiah fifty three.
He shall see the fruit of the travail of his
soul and be satis. He's talking about the lamb who
goes to the slaughter. Here in the context, by his
knowledge shall th. And what does it call the one
who dies for our sins? The righteous one, my servant.

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Make many to be kind of righteousness, and he shall
bear their iniquities. So Stephen goes right to Isaiah fifty
three to refer to Jesus as the righteous One, identifying
Jesus by two names, the servant and the lamb that
would come thus the righteous One, And that means they
sacrifice the Son of God, the righteous One, the Lamb

(37:33):
of God Dow nine twenty four seventy weeks, or the
creed for your people and your holy city, to finish
the transgression, to put it into sin, to toone for iniquity,
to bring in. And what does the Bible say, ever
lasting righteousness. So Christ came in the seventy weeks to
be the suffering servant, the righteous One, and to stay

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righteous and to bring in everlasting righteousness, to turn us
from evil to God by his cross and forgiveness. And
rejecting Jesus and his servant. These leaders brought ruin upon
themselves and the Holy nation. Know what doesn't mean for us?
You see, friends, if we focus so much on what's wrong,
but we don't focus on what's right with God, and
we don't have a relationship with Christ, we can do

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the same thing. That's how they went wrong. They finished
the transgression of Day one nine twenty four that brought
judgment on them. Stephen said, you always resist the Holy
Spirit now in your life? Is that true of you?
When the Holy Spirit says, straighten out that cabinet, that
video cabinet, when he says, look quit you know, spending

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your time and this kind of leads your activity. Get
to church, try to live for others? Do you resist
the Holy Spirit? We all can. Luke records that they
became enraged. Now that is not a Holy Spirit attitude
to have. Look records that they ground their teeth. Why
don't you take your teeth a little bit, go like this,

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don't grind too hard uncontrolled anger. I have stood in
this pulpit over the years, went on occasion, and a
church member here or there has done the same thing
to me right facing me when you grind your teeth
at the preaching of the Word of God, you're not
a holy spirit led person. And you need Jesus, you

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need conversion. In Mark nine eighteen, the demoniac that met
Jesus ground his teeth in the presence of Jesus. And
you know Jesus refers to He says, depart from you, all,
you workers of iniquity at Luke thirteen, and he says,
you will weep and gnash and grind your teeth at
the end. See, if we grind our teeth at truth,

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we will grind our teeth. And the judgment Stephen's accusers
will do the same, and the judgment day they will
gnash their teeth. At this point, they can't escape the
fact that Stephen is more than a deacon in the church.
Stephen is a prophet of God, raised up at the
end of the seventy week prophecy to pronounce judgment upon
that Acts seven fifty six. And suddenly Stephen looks into

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the heavens and he says, behold, I see the heavens opened,
and the Son of Man standing at the right hand
of God. Stephen here borrows from the Book of Daniel
and Psalms one ten, verse one, when the Lord said
to my lord, sit at my right hand until I
make your enemies a footstool for your feet. And when

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you stand up, it means you're ready to crush them.
Number two Daniel twelve one. Michael the great Prince, So
stand up, and there will be a time of trouble,
and God will deliver his people. Daniel seven, thirteen fourteen.
The son of Man comes to the Ancient of days
to receive his kingdom and to deliver his people. Judgment
is occurring. What do they do? They cast him out

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of the city. They've stormed upon him. They very likely
went out the eastern gate right to the spot where
Jesus had died, and then they stoned him to death.
He died praying the same prayer Jesus prayed for his enemies.
He knelt down, the Bible says in verse sixty, and
he cried with a loud worse, Lord, do not hold

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this sin against them. And when he said this, he
fell asleep. Jesus said, Father, forgive them. They know not
what they do. Stephen said pretty much the same thing. This,
what's the seventy weeks about? It's not about judgment. It's
about forgiveness. How many times should we forgive somebody? Seventy

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times seven? When you do the math, what's that number?
Four hundred and ninety. There was a young man standing there.
His name was Saul. He would later be called Paul,
and the Bible says they put their garments at his feet.
They stripped themselves down so they could beat him up
and stone him. They didn't want their garments to be soiled,

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but they demonstrated by that that they had no righteousness,
no righteous garments on them. They were naked before God,
these persecutors. And as Saul heard Stephen say, Lord, do
not count this against them, Lord received my spirit. The
Lord Jesus sought Paul Saul on the Damascus road, and

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he said, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And I've
come to God. I've come here to let you know
that I'm watching you and I care for you. It
took Saul a little bit of time to figure out
that he was on the wrong side of things, but
a man of God led him to Christ. He gave
his life to Christ. He had resisted all his life

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Jesus in his heart. He had resisted him outright by
persecuting others. But Stephen's witness had changed his heart and
he made a decision to give his life to Jesus,
and he became the apostle to the world. God blessed Stephen.
We owe a lot to Stephen. Dear Heavenly Father, Thank

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you for Stephen. May we be like Stephen, faithful, not
cheap religion that goes nowhere, but good religion that goes
into the heart. And Lord, maybe not be judgmental toward others,
but really look at ourselves and realize that we're the

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brethren that Stephen is talking about. And help us Lord
to save others who are our brethren. In Jesus' name, Amen.