Well, we'll continue our meditation
in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 7, and we'll commence
at verse 51 down to the end. We read this together just now,
and as Stephen comes to the end of his statement before the Sanhedrin,
and he speaks in this way, and he tells them, Ye stiff-necked
and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the
Holy Ghost as your fathers did, so do ye." It was a very solemn
statement that he made to these people who would have been aware
first of all of the Lord Jesus Christ and his death and the
situation which surrounded him and then they would have had
the opportunity as they were here to listen to what Stephen
expounded to them, how he'd gone right back in history and spoke
to them of the things of God and the things that concern the
Lord Jesus Christ. And as he comes to the end, he
realises that those things that he is speaking to them are not
being received. And he tells them, ye stiff-necked.
You might think, well what does that give us a picture of? But
it gives us a picture of someone unwilling to bow down. They were
unwilling to bow their head. before the great God, the almighty
God. And they were not willing to
accept the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ was the one who
had come to save his people from their sins. They were in this
rebellious condition. And we are all the same, left
to ourselves as we are born in nature. We are stiff necked and
uncircumcised in heart and ears. and it will be a wonderful blessing
if you and I can discern the great and glorious work of God,
of God's grace, of His free and merited favour toward us which
has made us willing And we must say in the day of His power,
because it is only in David's power to bow down before our
God and to acknowledge our true, sinful, unworthy condition that
we have rebelled, that we have said we will not have this man
to reign over us, that we have rejected in and of ourselves
the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's only through His great
mercy and love that He has caused us to consider our ways and to
turn unto the Lord. What a blessing tonight. We have
the evidence of that in our hearts. And so as we read these words,
and solemn they are, as Stephen quotes and speaks to them, it's
a word which is used a number of times in the Word of God.
right through the history really of Israel, when they were in
the wilderness, and of course before that, and after that,
when Jeremiah speaks, he also speaks to them about being stiff-necked,
and how we need the Lord to give us that willingness to bow down
before our God and to say, nevertheless not my will, but thine be done. Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised
in hearts. It wasn't just that which was
in the head, It was in the heart, the centre of our being, our
spiritual centre. And that's where we were. We
were not circumcised in heart. And yes, we did not listen. We
may have heard, but it didn't penetrate into our heart. What
a blessing if God, through His Spirit, blesses us with this
wonderful favour. And He says, ye do always resist. the Holy Ghost. Well we know
of course in truth that when the Holy Ghost works there can
be no resistance because the Holy Ghost is always successful
in his work. But what we know is that there
are many times when the Gospel is preached and the people resist
the words which are spoken. It does not suit their program. It doesn't suit their style. and therefore they are, in effect,
resisting God. You do always, says the apostle,
or rather Stephen, and of course that's true until the Spirit
of God descends upon us. We do always resist the things
of God because we are by nature in enmity with God. What a blessing
if God has made a difference, so that we find We are not resisting
the word of God. We are not resisting the truth
of God. But we want to receive it. And we want to hear it. And
we want to obey it. And we want to walk it out. And
so Stephen says to him, you always resist the Holy Ghost, as your
fathers did, so do ye. It's a very solemn and straight
talking which Stephen speaks here to these people. He goes
on and says, Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?
And they have slain them which show before of the coming of
the just one of whom ye have now been the betrayers and murderers. Well we know that throughout
the word of God there have been those who have spoken for the
name of God and what opposition they faced. what opposition they've
had to endure, what persecution they have received. It's no different
today. There is still this enmity against
the things of God. We see it that way so very clearly,
perhaps in the Middle East at the present time, when there's
absolute enmity against anything which is denominated Christian. There is absolute hatred, absolute
persecution, And we see this spelled out here by Stephen.
And they have slain them which showed before the coming of the
just one. The just one of course is the
Lord Jesus Christ of whom ye have now been the betrayers and
murderers. It was the Jewish nation. I know
it was Pilate especially, but it was the Jewish nation of course
as a whole who enmity with God who had said, we will not have
this man to rule over us. They cried out, away with him,
away with him. They did not want the Lord Jesus
Christ. What a solemn thing it was. The
Saviour had come amongst them and they had been rejected of
Him. Who have received the law by
the disposition of angels and have not captured. Again, the
Jewish nation, they have received the law of God. It had been given
to them. And what had they done? They
rejected it. They turned their back upon it
and followed their own way. So we need to be very aware ourselves
today that we don't reject God's Word. God's Word which He has
given to us in its fullness, in its completeness, in the Word
of God, in the Bible, and how important it is that God gives
us grace to receive it in an honest heart, and not to reject
it. These people, they rejected and
had not kept it. Well, how important it is that
we keep the Word of God. Not just the bits which suit
us, but to keep the Word of God, in love to God, because of what
He has done for us. Now then, when he reached this
point, and he came to the end of his discourse before these
people, What was the result? When they heard these things,
they were cut to the half and they gnashed on him with their
teeth. They hated the truth. Natural man hates the truth about
the things of God. He rebels against it. He does
not want to receive the real truth. He wants to find alternative
ways. of living his life. He does not
want to believe there is a sovereign God who is just and righteous
and that God who will be the judge of each one of us and who
would be the judge of these people here. When they heard these things
they were cut to the heart. It really affected them and hatred
welled up. They couldn't bear to listen
to it anymore. The natural anger and malice of the natural heart
against God. They heard these things, they
were cut to the heart and they gnashed on him with their teeth.
But, now we see the wonderful blessing that Lord brought to
his servant Stephen, this man of God. 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. He was
looking up steadfastly. There was all this opposition
around him, all this hatred. But we might say he had only
eyes for the Lord Jesus. He only desired to speak well
of Him. He only desired to honour and
glorify his Saviour. And so he looks up steadfastly
into heaven. What a blessing if we have a
steadfast view of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we are not distracted
by anything that comes into our lives. However difficult it may
be, and it's going to be difficult here, the Apostle Stephen would
have realised the situation which was developing around him. But he had that living faith,
God gave him living faith, simple faith. But it was real faith. He looked up, steadfast into
heaven, and saw the glory of God. He had a vision, blessed
by living faith, to see the glory of God. We don't know, of course,
precisely what that meant, but obviously it was a wonderful
view. So strengthening it was to this man in his hour of great
need. He was blessed with that view
of the glory of God. What a favour then to have such
a view. And he looked up and saw the
glory of God, and not only the glory of God, but blessed with
a view of his Saviour. A view of his Saviour standing
at the right hand of God, ready to receive him. What a blessing
that was then, in this view. as he saw the Lord Jesus Christ
and he came and he said and he acknowledged what he saw and
he said behold he wanted the people to understand he came
and said behold I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing
on the right hand of God it is significant His statement, he
points out this Jesus was the Son of Man, standing on the right
hand of God. This same Jesus, which had gone
into heaven and seen God, now He was there, evidently, and
revealed to Stephen on this occasion. Then they cried with a loud voice,
and stopped their ears. You see, they couldn't bear to
hear such statements. They went right against what
they wanted to hear. They didn't want to hear anything
like this. And they cried with a loud voice, stopped their ears,
and ran upon him in one accord, and cast him out of the city,
and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their
clothes at the young man's feet, whose name was Saul. Well, you
see, the Lord in his providence allowed Saul, which of course
was, as we know, Saul of Tarsus, Paul the Apostle, he was there
to witness this situation. And at that time, at that moment,
it did not have an effect upon him. We can realise that it's
God's power and God's grace which comes into the heart of sinners
to convince them of their situation before a holy God Saul was not
convinced. He was not really converted on
this occasion. And yet there he was, witnessing
this solemn situation. And they stoned Stephen. And
we see what Stephen was doing. What was he doing? What he was
doing, he was praying. He was praying to his God. He
knew where his refuge was. He knew where his strength was.
He was praying to his God. And he was praying in two ways. saying, Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit. See, it was that personal concern
for his own soul. And it must always be in our
lives that personal concern for our own soul. And he called upon
God, said, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And then he kneeled
down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their
charge. He was concerned about those
around him, those who were stoning him. We see then the two situations,
concern for himself and concern for others. And it's a good consideration
for us to think upon to always be concerned about ourselves,
but also to be concerned about others. Lord, lay not this sin
to their charge." And when he had said this, he fell asleep,
safe in the arms of Jesus. Well, may the Lord bless our
thoughts on what this gracious man was enabled to say in the
testimony, left behind so that we might be found walking in
accordance with the will of our God and bowing down before him
and blessed with that true and right concern for ourselves and
for others. Amen.