Well, this morning I invite you to take your Bibles to Acts chapter 7. If you would stand for the reading of God's Word. Acts chapter 7. We're going to begin reading in verse number 44. Going through Acts 6 and the latter half and Acts chapter number 7, one person referred to it this past week as the mini-series on Stephen, the series within the series. I've really been compelled to slow down in Acts 7 and just going back and seeing the Old Testament history being brought forward and to give us a better understanding and a clarity of just what Stephen was standing for and just how connected what the truth of Christ was to the Old Testament. It was not something different and distinct in such a way as that the Old Testament was for like a different God and the New Testament was for this new God. But it was the completed revelation of God, the same God who spoke the worlds into existence has now come in the form of a man and entered into humanity, deity wrapped in humanity, and that Christ did not come to destroy the Law and the Prophets, but to indeed fulfill all the Law. and the prophets. And I pray that you would see in this message this morning that what Stephen stood for was worth it. That Christ was worth it. My sermon this morning is titled, Stephen for True Worship. We're going to begin reading in verse number 44. It says, "'Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen, which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers under the days of David, who found favor before God and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. But Solomon built him an house. Howbeit the most high dwelleth not in temples made with hands, as saith the prophet. Heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. What house will you build me? Sayeth the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Hath not my hand made all these things? Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost, as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which have showed before of the coming of the Just One, of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it." When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart. And they gnashed on Him with their teeth. But He, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. And said, Behold, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. And Saul was consenting unto his death. Father, I pray that You would bless this morning the reading of Your Word, the perfect revelation of God to man. Lord, help us this morning to submit ourselves to every word of God. I pray that You would enliven my mind, that You would give me a clarity of thought and an ability to communicate the truth of the Word of God this morning that would be biblical and helpful, Lord, in our daily lives, that we would see not only this great biblical truth and this account of the life of Stephen, but we would see that it is becoming ever more evident that we are going to be a generation that will have to stand in such a way that may come with a cost. I pray that you would bless this morning, bless your people, strengthen them. I pray that you would transform the hearts of those that may be here without Christ. May they today be born again. May they receive you by faith. Believing on the finished work of Jesus Christ, I pray in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. We come this morning to the final heartbeats, literally, of the life of Stephen. He's about to breathe his last. And the last words that would proceed out of his mouth would be, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. Stephen is a hero of the faith. Stephen is, as we will hear once again in this message this morning, and as we'll actually read the account and study the account, Stephen is the first martyr that is recorded in the church of Jerusalem. He's the first martyr in Christian history. And it's important to understand, in the life of Stephen, not only what he was willing to live for, We know he was willing to live for Christ, but how he was willing to die for the same. How he was willing to suffer and ultimately to die for his belief in the Lord. To put it bluntly, I believe that there are a lot of people still in America when polls are taken some 80-ish percent, still proclaim to be Christian. However, I would be very blunt to say I doubt that 80% of those people who say, yes, I'm a Christian, I believe in Jesus, would be willing to die. See, one reason I know that is because it is quite evident that in our country, 80% are not willing to live for Jesus. But what is it that makes Christ so preeminent in the life of Stephen that he's willing not only to live for him, but he's willing to suffer. And he's willing to suffer joyfully. And ultimately, he's willing to die for his belief in the Lord Jesus. I submit to you this morning that his belief was more than just saying, yes, I check that belief. Yes, I check that belief. Yes, I check that belief. I agree with this statement of faith. of the church of Jerusalem. I believe it had to be something more than that. And I believe it lies in the reality and the necessity of worship. To worship is literally to ascribe worth to. To worship is to prostrate oneself before. And I believe that what gave Stephen the ability to lay his life down for Christ, if you will, to lay his life down, I don't mean in a salvific way, but to lay his life down sacrificially to be a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ was because the worship of Christ was the thing that was preeminent in his heart and life. To use another word for worship, it was love. He loved God. He loved Jesus Christ. Love is really the essence of true worship. And if there is no love, there is no willingness to lay our life down. If there is no love, like the love that Christ had, that He willingly laid His life down for His bride, we, if we don't have love for God, we won't be willing to sacrifice the comforts that we have in this life to live for Him, let alone to be willing to die for Him if called upon. It goes higher than merely checking off with an intellectual ascent to say, yes, I believe such and such. Yes, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. It has to go deeper than that. It has to get into your bones that there is a love that is consuming in your life for the Lord Jesus Christ that makes you willing to sacrifice things that this world holds dear so that you could live in obedience to the One to whom you hold more dear. than the things that this life has to offer. I believe that's what we see in the life of Stephen. What is it that would give men and women throughout history and in the present the ability to suffer well as Christians? I believe the answer lies in the final point of confrontation of the Sanhedrin council that revolves around the place of worship of the people of God. If you remember in Acts chapter number six, there were four things that Stephen was said to be against. One, that he was against Moses. And they put that in a place of preeminence, of importance. And Moses indeed is an important character in the history of the people of God. And he is definitely one whom God used to deliver the people from bondage. And he was a mighty leader amongst God's people. And they said Stephen was against Him. They said more importantly, Stephen was against God. And this too was false. They said he was against the law. Against the Word. And finally they said he was against the temple. So what is it about the temple that is being taught here in Acts chapter number 7? What is the significance? Why is this a part of his answer of true worship? In his answer to all these, of the things he was against, as he stands before the Sanhedrin council, Stephen declares very clearly that he is for God. He is for the Father. He is for the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. He is for the Son. He declares that in affirming both his conviction and his understanding of the ministry of Joseph in the Old Testament, leading the children through the times of famine. And he affirms Moses, who is also a picture of Christ and the deliverer of God's people. And that he is for the Word of God that liveth and abideth forever. But to the last and final accusation, has yet to be dealt with. That's what we're going to look at this morning. And it has an importance about the priority of true worship. See, the religious people that were putting Stephen on trial had all the form of godliness. They had all the right acts of worship, if you will. They had the right place of worship. and things of that nature. But their focus was improperly on the place, meaning the tabernacle, or in this case, the temple, rather than on the person who those things were to represent. The worship of God, the worship of the true and living God, needs to be understood that it is not about a building. It was never about a building. The tabernacle was not about the tabernacle itself being the thing that we worship. It wasn't that that was the only place that God would meet with His people in the sense that God was confined to that. Nor was it the temple that Solomon built, that David prepared for. But it would be something greater than that. There was a greater temple. There was a greater one that was to be worshipped. In the Gospel of John, we read these words in John 4, verse 24. It says, God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him, how? In spirit and in truth. The point that is made throughout the New Testament is that it is not about a place. It is about a person. The true worship of God is the worship of His Son. who is greater than the temple. And Stephen, in declaring this, he goes back to a history lesson. Well, for us, it's a history lesson. To those whom he was presenting the truth to, they knew what he was talking about. But we see Stephen for the true temple in verses 44 through 50. I want to look at these verses just in brief this morning. He says, Our fathers, remember this is important to understand, this whole passage of scripture is an apologetic, is an apologia. It's a defense of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a defense of the truth of the Lord. And Stephen, when he is entreating these men, he begins from the very beginning to entreat them as brothers and fathers, and he goes to them with the heart to say, our fathers. He's still doing the same in every response, whether it was about his belief in God, or whether it was about his stand for Moses, or whether it was about his conviction of the law of God. He entreats them as brethren. He entreats them as brethren and says, our fathers, and he's connecting himself with them rather than dividing from them. But he's trying to get them to see the truth. He says, our fathers had a tent in the wilderness. This tent in the wilderness is speaking about the tabernacle. He says, our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen. which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers unto the days of David, who found favor before God and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. So here in the Old Testament we learn that there was a vision given, there was instructions given that there would be a tabernacle and in this tabernacle would be a place of worship, a place where they would sacrifice unto the Lord God, a place where the Shekinah glory of God would dwell. And the children of Israel, as they were in the wilderness, would camp outside of that tabernacle. And it was a central place for the worship of God. And that was good and right. But it's important to understand that when something becomes a central place for the worship of God, that we don't begin to worship the place rather than the God of that place. I would say the same thing today. Westside Baptist Church and this building in which we meet is a special place to me. It can be a special place to you. This is just merely, though, a building. But it's special because God does special things here. Not because the Shekinah glory dwells here in this building when we come to make sacrifices to it, but because we come together as the people of God in whom dwells the Holy Spirit of God. And the Bible says in Ephesians 2, we come together as a holy temple in the Lord. And we're built up as a holy temple in the Lord. meaning a spiritual temple. And the reason it becomes a special place is because God's done special things. He's convicted us through the preaching and teaching of the Word. He's broken us in times of prayer and supplication. He's brought us together in unity with one another over a meal and fellowship. And He's brought unity through the partaking of the Lord's Supper. And as we remember His broken body and His blood that was shed, and we rejoice in people that are baptized, celebrate God's goodness. And so therefore, this house, which is to me the house of the Lord, becomes a special place. But it's always important that we remember true worship is not about a building. It's not about a house. It wasn't about a tabernacle. It wasn't about a temple. And it's not about a church building. It's ultimately and preeminently about who fills this house. It's about Jesus. But do you know that religious people, or people who have a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof, they are drawn to buildings. They are drawn to smells and bells. They are drawn to things that seem more religious. They are drawn to things that would cause us to feel like we're closer to holy things. And where I would say there's a balance in all of that, I think that there can be profane assemblies where there is no reverence or respect or dignity for the things of God. But it doesn't mean that the opposite is true, that if we were to light 50,000 candles this morning, we would be closer to the heavens. Stephen's point in saying he is for the temple is ultimately to guide them to who the true temple is. And in this case, I'm not talking about the fact that you are the temple, or ye are the temple of the living God. Notice it's in the plural, the body. But speaking about Christ, who was the essence of the presence of the Father, better than what our fathers built in the wilderness, better than a tent. that God showed up in, and God worked mightily in and through, is the one greater than the temple. One greater than the tabernacle. Not only did they have a tent, but David had in his heart a desire to build a temple. David had built himself, and David was a mighty warrior, a mighty man of God, a man after God's own heart. And David as a king built himself a mighty palace. And he became burdened because he had this glorious palace, and yet God had a tabernacle. And he desired to build a house for his God. And God, by the way, didn't stop him, but He diverted him. David himself was not allowed to build the temple. but his son Solomon was. This is just a brief history this morning. We'll go back to 1 Chronicles 28. In 1 Chronicles 28, it says, And David assembled all the princes of Israel, the princes of the tribes, and the captains of the companies, that ministered to the king by course, and the captains over the thousands, and the captains over hundreds, and the stewards over all the substance and possession of the king, and his sons with the officers, and with the mighty men, and with all the valiant men unto Jerusalem. Then David the king stood up upon his feet and said, Hear me, my brethren and my people. As for me, I had in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord. This is what dwelt in the tabernacle and now he desired to have a house of rest, a place of significance, a place of rest for the ark of the covenant. And have made ready for the building. But God said unto me, Thou shalt not build a house for My name, because Thou hast been a man of war and has shed blood. Howbeit the Lord God of Israel chose Me before all the house of My fathers to be king over all Israel forever. For He hath chosen Judah to be the ruler, and of the house of Judah the house of My father. And among the sons of My father He liked Me to make Me king over all Israel." and of all my sons, for the Lord hath given me many sons. He hath chosen Solomon my son to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. And he said unto me, Solomon thy son, he shall build my house and my courts, for I have chosen him to be my son. and I will be His Father. Moreover, I will establish His kingdom forever if He be constant to do My commandments and My judgments as at this day." David desired to build a house for God. David desired to build a place as a place of rest for the Ark of the Covenant, a place where In that ark of the covenant lied special things like the tablets of stone. There it was to be a place of worship, and it indeed served that purpose. And God did dwell in that place, but He was not limited to dwell in that place. We learn throughout the Old Testament in looking at the building of the first temple and the second temple, that God indeed did come, and He received the offerings that were made there in the Holy of Holies, and God was pleased with it. However, God was not limited to that. And it was only a picture, it was only something to show us something greater that would be in the future. And that is what Stephen is going to drive home in this passage. He says, back in Acts 7, verse 47, it says, But Solomon built him a house. But now he comes to the confrontation. He says, How be it the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands, as saith the prophet? Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. What house will ye build me, saith the Lord? Or what is the place of my rest? Hath not my hand made all these things? Stephen wants them to see that the temple is not what's preeminent, that the tabernacle was not what was preeminent in worship, but it was the One who filled that tabernacle. It was the One who filled that temple. And it is the One who fills all the earth with His glory. That is the One He is to worship. He's not merely a God who has a building. He is the God who's created all things. And He's called in this passage of Scripture, the Most High. This is one of the magnificent names of God. Stephen, as he says this, he hearkens back to the prophets. He says, does our Most High God dwell in temples made with hands? You might say yes, because He dwelt there. But He spilled out of there. He was over it. He was in it. He was under it. And ultimately, He was it. He was the temple. In 1 Kings 8, 1 Kings 8 and verse number 26, It says, And now, O God of Israel, let thy word, I pray thee, be verified, which thou spakest unto thy servant David my father. But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee. How much less this house that I have built, Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O Lord my God, to hearken unto thy cry, and to the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee today." They understood. Solomon's prayer of dedication understood. that the temple was not ultimate. He understood that the temple may have been a place of worship, but it was not the thing of worship. I'm not willing to die for a building, be it a fancy temple, be it a tabernacle in the wilderness, be it a building in the present. But for a person who has saved us, a Person who rules over all, a Person who fills the heaven of heavens and is even beyond that, that One is worth our worship, because He is the Most High. Back in Acts chapter 7, It continues, it says, Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. What house will you build? Me, saith the Lord. Or what is the place of my rest? Like the place of rest for the Ark of the Covenant. Isaiah, the prophet, answers this question in Isaiah chapter 66, or this is really a reference to Isaiah, as he's going back in Isaiah chapter 66, verse 1 and 2, the prophet Isaiah declares in the last chapter of the book of Isaiah, it says, Thus saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne, the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that ye build unto me? And where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord. But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. Another passage says, a broken and contrite heart God will not despise. He welcomes those who come to Him in humility and in worship, prostrate before Him. But who is this that we worship? It's not a building. It is the one in whom heaven belongs, to whom the earth belongs. And He is on His throne. And the whole earth is His footstool. What will you build for me? You have to remember that those in the Sanhedrin, they had knowledge of the Scriptures in the Old Testament, of a great capability They were fastidious in keeping the law. They were present faithfully in the temple. And yet they missed the whole point. That the house was built for a God whom it could not contain. 2 Chronicles, again, a reference to the book of Acts. In 2 Chronicles 2.6, 2 Chronicles 2.6, actually I'll start up a few verses. Behold, I will build a house to the name of the Lord my God, to dedicate it to Him, and to burn before Him sweet incense, and for the continual showbread, and for the burnt offerings morning and evening, on the Sabbaths and on the new moons, and on the solemn feast of the Lord our God. This is an ordinance. forever to Israel. And the house which I build is great, for great is our God above all gods." It was magnificent, the temple. But who is able to build Him in house, seeing the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain Him? Who am I then that I should build Him in house, save only to burn sacrifice before Him? Solomon, who when he built the temple, when he dedicated it to the Lord, he knew that the temple was not big enough for the one in whom he worshipped. But I ask you this morning, even though we have a different cultural climate, and even though as Christians, and even though as Christians, We have a worship of the Lord. We come to worship Him. But I want to ask a question in our daily life. How small have we made Him? Is our worship in all of our life? Does it run through everything that we do? Or is it just when we come here on Sundays? In other words, does knowing Jesus change anything? Does worshiping Him affect your daily life? Does it affect Monday, and Tuesday, and Wednesday, and Thursday, and Friday, and Saturday? Or have we made Him just the one who dwells at the church? Because I fear that just like those in the Sanhedrin Council, Christians today sometimes think, well, we're going to go to church, and that's where we're going to have our religious peace for the week. We're going to have our religious service for the week. We're going to have our religious worship for the week. We're going to have that over and done with. And then we're going to go live our merry life just like everyone else does. And what I want to say to you is that you have done the same thing that those Pharisees and Sadducees did who sat on the council of the Sanhedrin. They had put God in a little box, in a little temple, in a little tabernacle, in a little church building, and they had forgotten that though He does dwell here, though He does meet here, He is over all these things, and He's over our heart. You know, the reason that this came up was because of the words of Jesus Himself. They had high stock in the temple. And Jesus said things that made them to question the importance of the temple. Because Jesus is the one that would be greater than the temple. He's called the Just One. You know what Jesus said? He said in Matthew chapter 12 verse 6, but I say unto you that in this place is one greater than the temple. And who was He talking about? Himself! He is the one we're to worship. In the Gospel of John, the passage of Scripture that I read, when it talked about worship, Jesus was meeting with the woman at the well. He says, neither in this mountain nor at Jerusalem is the place of worship. For if we're going to worship the Lord, we're going to worship Him. Because God is a spirit, we must worship Him. How? In spirit and in truth. Jesus had said something very provocative in the Gospel of Matthew. In Matthew chapter 26 and verse 61, he said, this fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days. Had Jesus said that? Yes. But after three days, guess what? The temple in Jerusalem was still standing. Though the veil of the temple had been rent in twain, the Spirit of God, the presence of the Spirit of God had departed. The temple still stood until AD 70. But the true temple died on the cross. The true temple gave up the ghost. He gave up the ghost as a sacrifice, but three days later, the true temple was built back. Jesus Christ came out of the grave victorious, because He is the One who is ruler over the heaven of heavens. He is the One who made all things. He is the One who is greater than the tabernacle. He is the One who is greater than the temple. He is the One who deserves our worship and our adoration and our praise. He is the Most High. And He does not dwell in houses made by the hands of man. He is ultimately greater than all. He is worthy of our worship. Not a place, but a person. He is worthy to consume every day of your life. He is worthy to live for Him. On Monday, when you're faced with pressures from the culture around us, He is the one worthy to die for on Tuesday. If you're a Christian in a place where you have the potential to be martyred for the faith, He's worthy of it. Not a building, but a person, the Lord Jesus. Again, in Mark's Gospel, Mark chapter 14, verse 58, it says, We heard Him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands. In John 2 verse 19, Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. He is the one who is victorious. He is the one worthy of living for. He's the one worthy, worth dying for. Stephen knew this. And Stephen's going to face that ultimate price. What gives you confidence? What makes it worth standing against the tide? What makes it worth standing when persecution comes? It's Jesus. That all the burning buildings burn to the ground. Jesus is worth living for. He's worth dying for. He's worth standing for. In the next verses, Stephen confronts a rebellious generation. He's willing to stand in the face of the Sanhedrin. He's willing to stand in front of the most feared and revered body in all of Jerusalem. He confronts the rebellious leadership. And he confronts three things in verse 51 through 53. It says, "...ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost, as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the just one, of whom ye have now been known the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it." Stephen confronts the rebellious Sanhedrin just like Jesus did. What does he confront? First of all, he confronts their attitude. They were called stiff-necked. And by the way, this does not mean they were in need of chiropractic care. They were a stiff-necked people. This is not a compliment. When people stiffen their neck, they're in defiance. Being stiff-necked is another way of saying hard in heart, rebellious in attitude towards the truth of God or towards the authority that God has set up Do not be stiff-necked. Stiff-necked has to do with that arrogant attitude towards those who are authorities. Towards the Word of God. Towards the Lord Jesus Christ. They say, I don't care. This is something that the children of Israel over and over seem to have happen in their life. In Deuteronomy 10 verse 16 it says, Circumcise there the foreskin of your heart and be no more stiff-necked. Stop the attitude. This morning, I don't know your heart. I don't know if your neck is stiff towards the Lord. If you've taken a position against Christ and against His church, maybe against your parents, maybe against the truth of God's Word, whatever the case may be, today I implore you, repent. Turn from that. The end is not good. A broken and contrite heart God will not despise, but a stiff neck individual will face severe chastisement and the judgment of the Lord. He confronts this. The Pharisees knew what he was talking about. He goes beyond the attitude and he says the attitude is about their spiritual condition. The problem is that they are uncircumcised in heart and ears. You're talking about the most fastidious of the keepers of the law. These were circumcised the eighth day. These were men who had always been in the place of the temple. They had always been in the place of worship. They had always done their prayers morning and evening. These are the law keepers of law keepers. And here Stephen's confronting them and says, listen, the most important thing is not the circumcision of the outward man. It's the circumcision of the heart and you don't have it. You know what he's declaring to them? You have a knowledge of God, but you deny the power thereof. You are unbelievers. You are rejecters of God. They say, well, it sure doesn't seem like it. They're there in the temple. They have long flowing garments. They love the greetings in the marketplaces. Rabbi, Rabbi, they have bells and whistles all over themselves. They have their phylacteries. They enlarge the borders of their garments. They're very impressive religious people. And yet, He says, you are uncircumcised in heart and you do not know Me. These are the same words that Jesus confronted them with. And here Stephen is proclaiming to them, your problem is that you don't know God. And some of you this morning may be sitting here saying, I've been in this church my whole life, or I've been in this church for many years, or I've been in church my whole life, and I've heard all the stories, and I know all the truths, and I can quote them by heart, and yet you may be sitting here in unbelief. not knowing the true temple, not knowing the Just One, the Most High, not truly knowing Jesus Christ who loves you. And He was willing to sacrifice Himself while you were yet sinners. He died for you. This is not just a New Testament truth, by the way. In the New Testament, in a few of the Pauline epistles, we learn about the importance is not the outward circumcision, but the circumcision of the heart. This is not a new truth. This is an Old Testament truth. In the book of Deuteronomy, as I just quoted, circumcised, therefore, the foreskin of your heart. Cut away that which is unclean from your heart and be no more stiff-necked. In Deuteronomy 30 verse 6 it says, And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, that thou mayest live. Remember I said the importance of worship is ultimately not just about rules and regulations. The ultimate importance of worship is love. What would be willing, who, who would you be willing to die for right now? Your children, your spouse, your brothers, who would you be willing to die for? The truth is the likelihood is it's those you love. Say, well, we're supposed to love the world. We're supposed to love those who are lost. Yes. And that's why people like Stephen are martyred. But that love is not first and foremost to those people whom they do not know. That love is first and foremost to the God most high who is worthy to be lived for and he's worthy to die for. And it makes you willing to lay your life down for those you may not even know. To love Him with all of your heart, with all of your soul. This is the summation of the Shema from Deuteronomy chapter 6. And he's saying this is what real worship is about. It's about love for God. It's about love for Jesus Christ. Romans chapter 2 verse 29 says, But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly, a true Jew. which is one inwardly, and circumcision that of the heart in the Spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God." The confrontation was not only of their attitude, but of their spiritual condition, that they were uncircumcised at heart, and that they resisted the Holy Ghost. I'll just read a few verses from Matthew chapter 23 in Matthew's Gospel. Matthew 23, here is the words of Jesus. In Matthew 23, I'm going to pick it up in verse 13. This is not the picture of Jesus meek and mild. Now, Jesus is meek and mild in the true sense, but that does not mean weak and mild. This is Jesus confronting those who were supposed to represent Him, but instead were following error. He says, but woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees and hypocrites, for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, for you neither go in yourself, neither suffer ye that are... them that are entering to go in. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses, and for pretense make long prayers. Therefore you shall receive the greater damnation. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, for you compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. Woe unto you, you blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing, but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor. He fools and blind, for whether is greater the gold or the temple that sanctifyeth the gold. And whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing, but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon the altar, he is guilty. He fools and blind, for whether is greater the gift or the altar that sanctifyeth the gift. And it goes on for the rest of the chapter. Jesus Christ is confronting their spiritual condition of the religious leaders of the day. And he says, you resist the Holy Ghost, you resist the truth of God's Word. And you continually. Stop those who are true followers. Of the Lord. Their spiritual condition was not only their uncircumcision of heart, but they resisted the Holy Ghost continually, and they followed the sins of their fathers, rather than being delivered from that by the Lord Jesus. And it was followed by wicked action. Verse 52 of Acts 7 says, Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One." The Just One is Jesus Christ. "...of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers who have received the law by disposition of angels..." Means brought by angels. "...and have not kept it." Their wicked action was that they persecuted the prophets of old. They killed the prophets that declared the coming of the Just One. Most recently, they were no help to John the Baptist. And you killed the just One. You killed Jesus, the One greater than the temple, greater than the tabernacle. And you have betrayed and murdered Him. This is what you're guilty of. This is the end of the apologetic. This is the end of the confrontation. It says, "...who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it." Remember, Stephen, he's the one that's been put on the trial. He's the one standing before the Sanhedrin. He's the one giving His own case. But instead of declaring what he was against, he stood for what he was for. And at this last. He confronts those who stood on the council. With the truth. Of their wicked, wicked ways. And we see finally Stephen's faithful to the finish. In the final verses of this chapter, we read sobering words of the first martyr of the Christian faith. Words that we ought to remember Because stands are going to need to be taken. Even as I prepared this message for this week, two reports in our own nation of Christian ministers being told by the courts in Houston, Texas, ministers being forced subpoenaed for their sermons against homosexuality. Because the new mayor of Houston, a lesbian, thinks that they're using their pulpits for political reasons. And clearly, it's not a political reason, it's a biblical reason. Just read last night, two ordained ministers in Idaho who run a wedding chapel and do Christian marriages in Kootenai County, I believe it is, are being told that they must perform same-sex marriages. All in one week. And we were told, oh, it won't affect the churches. Pastors will be okay. We won't force them to do anything that they would be against. And yet the reality is we know that is not the case. So we don't be an alarmist, you know, don't think. The reality is the times are changing and they're changing in a hurry. And the question is not for me, whether some of us may go to jail or not. And I don't believe that'll be tomorrow. The question is, will we love Jesus enough that He's worth standing for? The question is, will our faith really be true? If it's just about buildings, if it's just about the temple, if it's just about being religious, if it's just about having a little bit of Americana Christianity, we'll be wilting flowers all over the place. Churches left and right, churches of significant influence in our culture through music and different ways. This past week, the same week, Hillsong Church from Australia and has campuses or churches planted in America, they've taken a stand that they're not going to take a stand against the gay and lesbian agenda and community because they just haven't come to a place where they can stand yet. The reality is to not take a stand is taking a stand. And I'm not here to stand with anger. I'm not here about a particular issue in case that just happens to be the one rising to the surface in our day. And I don't hate people. I don't want to care for people. I want to see people come to the genuine, saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, no matter what their background is, no matter what sin condition they may be in. But it does not change the fact that we must stand for what is true in a day that is embracing error on all fronts. And we can expect it's not going to be received very nicely. It wasn't with Stephen either. Verse 54, it says, When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens open, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, cast him out of the city, and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he said this, he fell asleep." Meaning, he died. Stephen was faithful to the finish. Say, what had he done? Nothing. He hadn't committed any crimes. He hadn't gone against God's law. In fact, his declaration before the Sanhedrin was watertight and they knew it. He was for God. He was for Moses. He was for the law. He was for the one greater than the temple. And when he says, and this one who is greater than the temple, named Jesus Christ, whom ye killed, they were seething with anger. They were ferocious in their anger. It says they were cut to their heart. This phrase is used only in the New Testament. In the Greek, it means to literally be torn apart. And it has a negative connotation. They were deeply enraged and angered, filled with wicked emotion, so much so that they would literally begin to be cut in two in their hearts. Excuse me, figuratively. Their hatred and anger was so intense that they literally leaped upon Stephen. They fell upon him and began to gnash upon Stephen with their teeth. Can I just say this? It's pretty obvious to know that those people who are against you, if they're falling upon you, gnashing on you with their teeth, they're probably not very just in their dealings. This is not a picture of a justice being administered upon Stephen for blasphemy which would have required stoning. This was a mob. And it was a mob that viciously, ferociously attacked Stephen for standing for the truth. And you and I are going to be in a generation that even if it's not physical, even if it's just verbal, even if it means losing jobs, even if it means facing the repudiation of our neighbors, even if it means being the off-scouring of society, we are going to face the kind of mob mentality when we don't agree with the current tide and trend of our culture. And they will be ferocious. And they will wipe their face and call it good. The psalmist talked about these, he says, but the meek, in Psalm 37, 11 through 12, it says, but the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. The wicked plot against the just and gnasheth upon him with his teeth. This is a sad foretaste of what eternity and hell will be like. This is a warning to you that may be here this morning who say, I agree with the culture. I agree with the Sanhedrin. I agree with those who were against Stephen. Beware. Be under notice that the same wickedness in which you meet or work against the people of God with, you will receive in kind, in punishment. Hell is this kind of place. Hell is real. Hell is a reality that we have forgotten as Christians. But Jesus hadn't forgotten it. And He says in hell, this real place, it will be the place of the kind of eternal torment that will include the gnashing of teeth. Matthew 13, and Jesus sent a multitude away and went to the house, and His disciples came unto Him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. And He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world. The good seed are the children of the kingdom, but the tears are the children of the wicked one. The enemy that sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the world and the reapers are the angels. And therefore the tears are gathered and burned in the fire so that it shall be in the end of this world. The son of man shall send forth his angels and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity and shall cast them into a furnace of fire and there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father, who have ears to hear." Jesus said, let him hear. It talks about the wheat and the tares, those who belong to God and those who are rejecters of God. And they will receive the end that they deserve justly. And it will include the kind of vicious, harmful gnashing of teeth that Stephen faced. And Stephen, through it all, he was steadfast. He's a powerful example to all of us in his faithfulness to God. And the faithfulness that God desires from us as His children. I often wonder just how much the life of Stephen had of influence upon the early church. Think about the Apostle Paul. He was here that day. He was in this passage. His name was Saul of Tarsus. And they laid down their cloaks at his feet, and he was consenting unto Stephen's death. It means he had authority of the Sanhedrin to stop it. What influence did this life of Stephen have? of finishing well. I think with all of our lives, we need to understand. That our lives should not end with a question mark. They should end with an exclamation point. In our stand for the Lord. First Corinthians 1558 says, therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Will you stand even when you're rejected? Will you stand even when the crowd around you cries with a loud voice as they did with Stephen and shuts their ears and won't listen to you? They won't hear the truth. They won't hear logic. They won't hear anything that is right. And when they rush on you, whether it's physically or whether it's metaphorically, when they rush on you, cast you out of the city and stone you publicly, will you stand? Stephen did. And his stand impacts all of us. I want to read from James Montgomery Boyce's Commentary on Acts about the power of a stand or an idea. He said, I do not think you can stop any good idea, even a good secular idea, by threats. A good idea will always thrive and eventually permeate a culture. Perhaps you can slow it for a time. Maybe some good ideas have been stamped out temporarily by harsh rulers. But most have not been. And certainly you cannot stamp out Christianity. The rulers were trying to stamp it out. But what we discover in Acts, which we also find later in church history and see in our day too, if we just look around, is that the more the church is oppressed, the more the gospel spreads. Both Justin Martyr and Tertullian have been credited with the statement that I'm going to share with you now. It says that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Stephen's life definitely ended with an exclamation point and not a question mark. His life was an exclamation of love and mercy and forgiveness and literally at the end of his life, he quotes the words of Jesus almost verbatim. He kneeled down in verse 60, and he cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. You remember the Lord Jesus Christ at the last of His life on this earth before His resurrection in Luke chapter 23 and verse number 34 when Jesus was on the cross? In Luke 23 and verse 34, it says, Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. This was from the cross. And here's Stephen being stoned to death, crying out unto the Lord with a loud voice to the people, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And we had said this. He fell asleep. If there is one thing that you and I should be resolutely clear from the book of Acts, chapter 7, is that Stephen was absolutely not against God. He was not against Moses. He was not against the law. He was not against the temple. He was for God. He was for Moses. He was for the law. And He was for the true temple. And He desires you and I today to be true worshipers who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. Who will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. who will worship Him through the Son, the Lord Jesus, who in John 14, verse 6 says, Jesus saith unto him, I am the way and the truth, and no man cometh unto the Father but by Me. As true worshipers, that we would walk and worship in the Spirit, and that we would stand boldly for the truth, and that we would remain faithful to the finish. This is my prayer, personally. This is my prayer, corporately, that we would be a people who are not only willing to live for Jesus, but are willing to die for him if called upon to do so. And the only way, please hear me, the only way that will be possible is if we truly love him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. If we truly worship him with all of our lives, with our minds, with our hearts, with our hands.