Good morning. Good to see everyone. Let's open this morning's service
with hymn number 69 from the hardback hymnal number 69. And
let's all stand together. Safely through another week,
God has brought us on our way. Let us now a blessing seek, waiting
in His courts today. Day of all, the weak, the best,
emblem of eternal rest. Day of all, the weak, the best,
emblem of eternal rest. While we pray for pardoning grace,
through the dear Redeemer's name, show thy reconciled face, take
away our sin and shame. From our worldly care set free,
may we rest this day in Thee. From our worldly care set free,
may we rest this day in Thee. Here we come, thy name to praise,
let us feel thy presence near. May thy glory meet our eyes,
while we in thy house appear. Here afford us, Lord, a taste
of our everlasting feast. Here afford us, Lord, a taste
of our everlasting feast. May thy gospels' joyful sound
conquer sinners, comfort saints. May the fruits of grace abound,
bring relief for all complaints. Thus may all our Sabbaths prove
till we join the church above. Thus may all our Sabbaths prove
till we join the church above. Please be seated. Good morning. That's a good hymn. It's a good opening hymn for
services on Sunday. We're going to be in Acts chapter
6 this morning, if you'd like to turn with me there. Yesterday morning I got up and
wrote you all an email that I never sent. And I said, who would have
thought The Sunday that we thought we might be in our new building,
the Lord would send a hurricane by the name of Isaiah. And we were not able to have
services at all today. Man's heart devises his way,
but the Lord directs his steps. Our God is in sovereign control
of all things and so very thankful that he's allowed us to meet
today. Hopefully, we're going to shoot
for two weeks from today, the 16th. So that's the target date. Might be a week later. Won't
be next Sunday, I'm sure. So got a lot of details to do. But things are coming together. And very, very thankful. All right, you have your Bibles
open to. Isaiah, I'm sorry to. Acts Chapter 6. Let's ask the
Lord's blessings. Our Heavenly Father. We come into thy holy presence
thanking you that we have a an advocate. Sin bearer. Savior substitute. One who pleads our cause and
presents himself on our behalf. Lord, what great hope and rest
we're able to have in knowing that Christ Jesus, the Lord himself,
is our Sabbath. We pray that you would send your
spirit and power, enabling us this day to rest in him. Define him to be our all and
in all. To know Lord that his work of
redemption. Was sufficient to satisfy your
holy justice. And that. His person is. Glorious and. And great enough
for us to. All find a place of hope and
salvation. We ask that Christ to be lifted
up. Our hearts will be drawn in faith to him. Thank you, Lord,
for the blessing of public worship. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. You have your Bibles open to.
Acts chapter 6. In order to. To understand what. Stephen says
in Acts chapter 7, it's important for us to look at these last
verses of chapter 6 because this sort of sets the stage for all
that he's going to preach in the next chapter. And beginning
at verse 9, then there arose certain of the synagogue, which
is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and the Cyrenians
and the Alexandrians and of Cilicia and of Asia disputing with Stephen. Now the word disputing there
means they were asking him questions. And I've titled this message
Disputing in the Synagogue of Satan. Now I get that title from
Revelation chapter 2 and Revelation chapter 3, where the Lord addresses
the two churches that he has nothing negative to say about,
the church at Smyrna and the church at Philadelphia. Some
of you live in New Smyrna, the only two cities that are mentioned
in Asia Minor in those seven churches of Revelation 2 and
3 are Smyrna and Philadelphia that we still name cities after. We don't name cities after Laodicea
or any of the other churches that are mentioned there. But
Smyrna and Philadelphia, the Lord addresses those churches
and he says to them, I know that those who call themselves Jews
have persecuted you, but they are in fact of the synagogue
of Satan. Now, when you read the Old Testament,
you find no mention of God instructing the children of Israel to create
synagogues. Synagogues were a man-made invention
that the Jews came up with during the Babylonian captivity. All
the instructions that God gives for the Jews in the Old Testament
was to go to the temple in Jerusalem. Worship was all centralized in
one place. And so now we read that this
abuse of synagogues has spread to Cilicia, to Asia, to Alexandria. The synagogue of the Libertines
were some Jewish people that had been slaves to the Romans
and now had been delivered and so they had been liberated. And
they've gathered themselves together in the synagogue of the Libertines.
And so we find all these different synagogues, each of them having
a different opinion and different views about the Bible. And Stephen is disputing with
the synagogues of Satan. Nothing's changed. Today we have
the synagogue of the Methodists, we have the synagogue
of the Baptists, we have the synagogue of the Presbyterians,
we have the synagogue of the Catholics, we have the synagogue
of the Church of Christ, and the synagogue of the... go on,
how many are there? Okay, all of them having a different
opinion, and yet the Lord The Lord centralizes the truth of
the gospel. Now, our founding fathers in
this country were, well let me just say this, I mentioned this
last week I think it was, anybody that's under the impression that
this country was found by Christians is mistaken. This is a secular
nation. Our founding fathers were professing
Epicureans. They were deist. They weren't Christians. Some
of them may have called themselves Christians, but there's no evidence
whatsoever. But they did think that it was
wise to decentralize power and authority, and that's a good
thing. And so they came up with three
branches of government, and in the Bill of Rights, they dispersed
the power and the authority of a centralized government, understanding
from their experiences in monarchies, that that was not
a good thing to have all power in one place, and so they dispersed
it among the states, and we've enjoyed the benefits of that
for, what, 250 years now. That's a good thing. I use that
as an example to say that that's not a good thing when it comes
to the gospel. The gospel is to be centralized
in its power and in its authority. And the disputing that takes
place is nothing more than it was in the first century. It's the disputing of men who
have come to their own conclusions about things. And they've created
for themselves their own little denomination and their own little
synagogue where they all have different views and different
opinions about different things. The power of the gospel to save
is found in its centralized authority in the scriptures. And all of
God's people, wherever you go, all believe the same thing. They
don't dispute over over how it is a person is to be saved. They
don't dispute over who God is. They don't dispute over the accomplished,
finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. They don't dispute over
man's inability to make a decision or to perform a work, to make
a contribution to his salvation. There's no disputing among God's
people. They are all in one accord. The Lord prayed for us to all
be in one accord, and all the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ
are in agreement. Now that having been said, like
Stephen, the Lord puts us in a world of differing synagogues. And he gives us opportunities
from time to time to answer questions. just like he did for Stephen.
And you can be sure that the Cilicians and the Asians and
the Alexandrians are all gonna have a different view and a different
question, but they came in agreement about certain things. And they
still do that today. The questions that they ask us
today are still the same questions that they were asking Stephen.
And their response to our answer is the same today as it was 2,000
years ago when Stephen was answering the questions of these different
groups. So my hope this morning is that
the Lord will clarify to our hearts the central truth of the
gospel and that He will give us some encouragement as to how
to answer the questions that the world has about the gospel,
because nothing has changed. It's exactly the same. And if
we stand for the truth, we ought not to expect any different treatment
than Stephen got, because men don't really want the answers
that we have to give them. And, um, now before we go into,
you know, what happened to Steven at the end of chapter seven,
they stoned him. I killed him. Um, turn with me to first Timothy
chapter six. We've looked at this verse recently,
but I want us to look at it again because in responding to the
questions that men have about the gospel, we need to remember,
we need to remember this. 1 Timothy chapter six, beginning
in verse three, if any man teach otherwise and consent not to
the wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ
and to the doctrine, which is according to godliness, He is
proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strife of
words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmising, perverse
disputings of men, of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth. Supposing that gain is godliness,
from such withdraw yourself. Answer their questions, but don't
allow yourself to get engaged in an argument of strife and
contention over the gospel. We don't, we don't argue over
the gospel. We tell them we answer their questions and, uh, and
leave it at that. But if they consent, not to the
wholesome words, even the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, according
to his word. Then they're, well, they're of
the synagogue of Satan. And that's all there is to be
said about that. Men are offended by, that's the
Lord's assessment of these synagogues. That he said, I know that there
are those who call themselves Jews. There are those who call
themselves Christians. There are those who would say,
well, I'm a true Jew. But in fact, they are of the
synagogue of Satan. Verse 10, go back with me to
our text in Acts chapter six. And they, these men that were
asking Stephen these questions were not able to resist the wisdom
and the spirit by which he spoke. They were not able to resist
the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke. Now we're going
to be going through Acts chapter seven. And as we do, we'll see
that all the arguments that Stephen gave for the gospel were just
the recounting of scripture and the history of Israel all throughout
the Old Testament and how everything that God was doing was for the
purpose of bringing Christ into the world. And the work that
the Lord Jesus Christ was to accomplish was the salvation
of Israel. And so Stephen is just telling
them things they already know, but they can't defend themselves
against what they know to be true in the scriptures. And so
they mount a personal attack on Stephen just like they did,
exactly like they did towards the Lord Jesus Christ. Men will not be able to resist
the wisdom of God. They can't argue against it. The word of God is quick. It's powerful. It's sharper than
any two-edged sword. It is able to divide asunder
and separate the bone from the marrow and to expose the thoughts
and the intents of the heart. So my encouragement to you and
what I try to do is if someone from the synagogue of Satan asks
me a question about what we believe, don't engage in human reasoning. Don't try to defend the gospel
with human logic or arguments. That's all they have. And if
they can draw you into that sort of argument, you see, they weren't
able to resist the wisdom of Stephen because Stephen was just
telling them what the Bible said. And they couldn't resist the
scriptures. They couldn't argue against the Bible. And so when
someone asks you a question, if you don't know the answer,
if you can't give them a biblical answer, just say to them, you
know, that's a good question. I'll get back with you on that
and then go see what the scripture says about it and respond to
them with scripture. And men will not be able to resist
the wisdom of God's word. Men would love to bring up their
confessions and their creeds and what the doctor sounding
brass had to say back 200 years ago and they'll have their dead
theologian societies where they all gather together and they
support the position of some dead theologian or some commentary. Don't go there. Stephen didn't
go there. If he had, all the debate would
have just gone on. doctor says this, and your doctor
says that, and my preacher says this, and my creed says the other,
and my confession says that. What saith the scriptures? That
settles all controversy. That's why we spend so much time
in this book, isn't it? Because the word of God is our
source of authority. It was Stephen's source of authority.
It's always been the church's source of authority. It's the
only source of authority we have, and it is of infinite authority
and omnipotent authority, men can't resist it. They can't say,
well, yeah, but. And don't ever forget what our
objective is. Our objective is not to win the
argument. Our hope is to win the soul.
That's our hope. And if that's going to happen,
God's going to use his word. Faith comes by hearing. Hearing
comes by the word of God. It's the word of God. He births us into the family
of God by the word of truth. So always use scripture and always
bring it back to Christ. That's the question. The question
is, whom do you say that I am? You say that Jesus is God. What do you mean by that? Is
he omnipotent? Is he all powerful? Is he eternal
in his person? Has he Has he abdicated his throne
of sovereignty when it comes up to the free will of man? Has
he decided that he's going to let man have authority over him?
Are you saying that Jesus is God and yet, and yet the scripture
says, it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, it's
of God that showeth mercy. I will have mercy upon whom I
will have mercy and whom I will I harden. Let's make sure we
understand who, You see, the truth is, if a person really
believes that Jesus is God, they're a believer. That's right. If they really
believe that Jesus is God, they're a believer. It always comes back
to who is Christ and what has he actually accomplished. What
did he do on Calvary's cross? Did he finish the work of redemption?
Was he making an offer of salvation for us to have to approve or
disapprove? Or did he actually save his people
like he said he would? You shall call his name Jesus
for he shall save his people from their sins. Did he actually
redeem them? Is he the redeemer of sinners? What sayeth the Scriptures on
these things? So, Stephen was doing just that. He was answering
their questions. He wasn't debating with them.
He didn't allow himself to get caught up in some sort of a logical
debate or reasoning. He was answering their questions
from Scripture, and they could not resist the wisdom of God. No man can resist the wisdom
of God. They can't. Unless they're just going to
say, well, I just don't believe the Bible's a word of God. Okay.
And there's another point. If you find a person who really
believes that the Bible is the word of God, the inerrant, infallible,
inspired word of God, you found yourself a believer. I know there's a lot of people
that say that I believe Jesus is God and I believe the Bible
is the word of God, but you get to talking to them and you find
out they really don't. They really don't. Secondly, they were not able
to resist the spirit by which he spake. Turn to me to second
Timothy chapter two. Look at verse 23. But foolish and unlearned questions
avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. And the servant of the
Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men. apt to teach,
able to teach, patient in meekness, instructing those that oppose
themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance to
the acknowledging of the truth and that they may recover themselves
out of the snare of the devil. You see, these things come from
the synagogue of Satan and the Lord's telling us to be gentle
with them. You know, there was a time when you didn't, wasn't
too long ago, in my lifetime, when if you weren't, if you weren't
mean, you weren't preaching. And, you know, Robert, you understand
what I'm saying, don't you? And that's exactly what the Lord
is saying here. Don't do that. They have been caught by the
snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will. So understand that when people
stand against the truth, They are being held captive by
Satan who've taken them. And speak the truth. Don't compromise
the truth, but speak it in love. I want you to notice with me,
go back with me to our text. I want you to notice the end
of chapter seven. The end of chapter seven. Stephen up until
verse 50 has simply recounted what all these men in these various
denominations and synagogues already knew about what God had
done through the nation of Israel. And now in verse 51, he looks
at them and he says to them with a broken heart, He says to them,
you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in hearts, in heart and ears. Do you always resist the Holy
Ghost as your fathers did? So do you. Which of the prophets
have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them, which
showed before the coming of the just one. All these things that
God did in Israel were for the purpose of declaring the coming
of the just one, of whom you have now betrayed and murdered,
who have received the law by the dispensation of angels and
have not kept it. And when they heard these things,
they were cut to the heart and gnashed on him with their teeth.
And he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly
into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at
the right hand of God. Adam, what happens in a court
of law when the defendant's sentence is about to be given? He stands
up, doesn't he? The judge says for the defendant
to stand up. And who stands up with the defendant?
Defense attorney. His advocate stands right by
his side, doesn't he? That's what's happening here.
We know the Lord Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of
God. He has finished his work of redemption. Stephen's about to come home.
And the Lord Jesus as his advocate stands by his side and defends
him before the judge of all judges and receives him into glory. What a picture. But I wanted
you to see that Stephen doesn't pull any punches about telling
them what they've done and who Christ was. And they hated him
for it. And they killed him for it. And
they'll hate you for it. And they hate me for it. Why? Because these synagogues of Satan
don't want to see themselves as the synagogues of Satan. They
want to... What do they... When you try
to talk to a loved one, a family member, a friend, or a co-worker
about the gospel, what do they want to do? They want to embrace
you as a brother or sister, don't they? They want to say, well,
you know, we're all in agreement here. No, we're not in agreement.
We're not in agreement. And the Lord said in Luke chapter
12, he said, they will bring you into their synagogues and
before their magistrates, and they will interrogate you, but
the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost will show you how and what you
ought to say. And so, here's the spirit. They could not resist the wisdom
of God, and they could not resist the spirit of God. The spirit
of God gave Stephen boldness, and it gave Stephen compassion.
Every time I preach, I ask, Lord, Lord, help me to be clear, help
me to speak with compassion, and help me to speak with conviction.
And, uh, and, and that ought to be our, our spirit. And they
could not resist that spirit. And, and then they couldn't resist
the spirit of God. They saw the spirit of God in
him. Look, look at, go back with me
to the beginning of, uh, of our text at the end of chapter six, they were not able to resist
the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. So what'd they
do? They hired some liars. That's what they did. They did
exactly the same thing when they brought charges against the Lord,
and they did it here again. Then they suborned men which
said, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses
and against God. What do they say when you try
to tell them about God's free and sovereign grace in the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ? And that Christ Jesus the Lord
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. And
that we don't look at a decision that we've made or we don't look
at things that we've done as the hope of our salvation. What
is the first thing they say? Well, what about good works?
Isn't there a place for the law? That's Moses. Moses is the law,
isn't it? I mean, that's the... Why do
men do that? Why do men who are in the synagogue
of Satan bring that up? Because they're looking to their
works for the hope of their salvation. They're not looking to Christ.
And so what do we say? We say, Christ, Jesus, the Lord's
the only one kept the law. He's the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. We've not been able to keep God's
law. And then we tell them that when the Lord separates the synagogue
of Satan, which he calls the goats, from his elect, the church
of the living God, which he calls the sheep, he's going to say
to the goats, I was hungry and you did not feed me. I was naked
and you did not clothe me. I was a stranger and you did
not take me in. And what do they say? Now, the
Lord's not going to be talking about, you know, I was destitute
of clothing and you didn't have a clothing closet for me to come
and get clothes. I was hungry and you did not
have a soup kitchen for me. Because in fact, the synagogue
of Satan has a lot of those. They got a lot of soup kitchens,
they got a lot of clothing closets, they got a lot of prison ministries. I was in prison, you did not
visit me. They got lots of that stuff, don't they? But the Lord
said I was, what's he talking about? He's talking about preaching
the gospel. I was naked and you didn't give
me the robe of righteousness to cover my nakedness because
you weren't preaching the gospel. I was hungry and you did not
feed me with the bread of life which came down from heaven.
I was in the prison of my sin. You did not tell me about the
finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, which delivers sinners
from the bondage of the guilt and shame of their sin. I was
a stranger to God. You did not provide for me that
open door. The Christ himself is and provide
for me hope of salvation into the family of God. That's what
he's talking about. But what do they say? But Lord,
when did we see you that way and not provide for you? Boy,
we've been doing that all our lives. Many wonderful works we've
done in their name. And what's the Lord say to them?
Depart from me, you workers of iniquity, for I never knew you.
Yeah, you had your clothing closets and your soup kitchens and your
prison ministries and all these other things going on, but I
never knew you. And what the Lord's saying is all those things
you were doing are iniquity because you were trusting them for the
evidence of your salvation. Instead of looking to Christ,
you weren't preaching the gospel. And then he looks to the sheep
and he says to the sheep, I was hungry and you fed me. I was naked and you clothed me.
I was in prison and you, you, you came and visited me. I was
a stranger and you took me in. What's the child of God say?
Lord, when did we do that? When did we do that? And the
Lord says, and yet you did it to the least of these, my brethren,
you did it unto me. You see all the family of God,
all the members of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ participate
because of their, because of their union with Christ and their
membership in the body of Christ. We all participate together. in clothing the naked, in feeding
the hungry, in visiting those who are in prison, in taking
the strangers in. How do we do it? By preaching
the gospel. And that's what we do. That's
all we do, is preach the gospel. It's what men need to hear, isn't
it? Oh, they say, well, what about the law of Moses? Just,
there we are. We're not under the law. We're
under grace. We can't keep God's law. Christ
Jesus the Lord kept the law for us. We love God's law. But we're
not looking to anything that we've done for the hope of our
salvation. We're looking to Christ and him alone. Amen? You see,
nothing's really changed, has it? If you've ever tried to share
your faith, share the gospel, particularly with a religious
person who's a member of the synagogue of Satan, this is exactly
the experience you've had. Exactly the same experience. Oh, he's speaking blasphemous
words against the law of Moses. They're a bunch of, they're a
bunch of libertines. And he's not talking about just
people that were in slavery to the Roman government. He's talking
about people who have no regard for the things of God. They just,
they live Licentious living. They're antinomians. The word nomos is the Greek word
for law, and an antinomian is a person who lives their life
in contrary to the law of God. So, you see, you really haven't
preached the gospel until someone's accused you of being an antinomian.
I get accused of that all the time. Well, you're just an antinomian.
You're leading people into sin. Are you saying the law is not
your rule of life? No. No. The law is not my rule of life.
Christ is my rule of life. The life that I now live, in
the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. I'm looking in faith to Christ.
And I had a man some time ago say to me, you know, you keep
talking about looking to Christ. I'm looking. I don't see. You're talking about blasphemy.
What they do is they accuse us of the very thing they're guilty
of. That's blasphemy. No, you're not going to see him.
Unless you have eyes of faith, you're not going to see him.
God shows you the glory of Christ and you follow Christ. You don't
have to be intimidated by the law. You don't have to measure
or monitor or motivate or compare your life by the law. No, you've
got Christ. that you're following after.
And someone will say, well, are you saying that you just live
like you want? What do we say? Oh, I wish I could. I wish I
could. If I had lived like I want, I'd
never sin again. All my motives would be pure.
One day I'm going to live like I want. Right now, all I can
do is look in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Stephen
was preaching. That's the message we keep preaching.
And that's what the synagogue of Satan hates. They hate it. They've always hated it. They
always will hate it because it strips them of their righteousness. It puts them where they belong
and it gives to the Lord Jesus Christ all the glory for their
salvation. And they won't have it. You see,
men hate Christ as much today as they've ever hated him before. Let's just read the rest of this
and I'll try not to make any comments. Verse 12, and they
stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes and they
came upon him and caught him and brought him to the council.
Well, we've got, you know, look at you guys. You're just a small
group of people. We've got thousands in our, millions
in our denomination. Yeah, and the Lord said, broad
is the way, and many are they that go thereby, and they end
up in destruction. And narrow is the way, and few
are they that find the way to eternal life. There's God's answer
to that. Don't think because they got
the numbers, that's what they did. We just gathered together
all the people. We got a whole bunch of people
speaking against you now. So that means that we're right
and you're wrong. No, I'm sorry. Sorry, no, it means just the
opposite. And they set up false witnesses which said, this man
ceases not to speak blasphemous words against this holy, against
this holy place and the law. You're speaking, you're calling
our denomination, the synagogue of Satan. You're talking against
our place, this holy place. For we have heard him say, that
this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place and shall
change the customs which Moses delivered us. You gonna change
our customs? No, I don't think so. No, it
came back to Jesus of Nazareth, didn't it? We've heard him speak
about Jesus of Nazareth. And all that sat in the council
looked steadfastly on him and saw his face as it had been the
face of an angel. An angel is a messenger. May
God make us faithful messengers to the world that they will not
be able to dispute or defend themselves against the wisdom
and the Spirit of God. That God might be pleased to
save his sheep. That's our hope in it. All right,
let's take a break.