Okay, go with me back to Acts
chapter 6. Acts chapter 6. I have some interesting
facts to bring out tonight. Interesting facts. Interesting
facts can be very interesting. But interesting facts can be
very distracting. I know firsthand. I was a distracted
man for a little while this week. You'll see what I'm talking about
when we get to it. If we don't see Christ and him
crucified in these interesting facts, then they will all be useless
facts. Absolutely useless. Facts won't
save anybody. They won't save anybody. Facts
won't do any good for anybody. If we don't see Christ and Him
crucified, they are useless. They're useless, useless, useless. All right, Acts chapter 6, verse
8, it says, and Stephen, full of faith and power, did great
wonders and miracles among the people. Then there arose certain
of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines,
and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia, and of
Asia, disputing with Stephen. These were all synagogues in
Israel. They all had their places, different
places, different religions. It would be like saying the Catholics
and the Presbyterians and the Pentecostals and the Baptists,
they're all different, but they all came together in agreement,
disputing with Stephen. They could all agree that they
hated the message Stephen was preaching. No, I don't really
agree with you, but I hate that. I hate that. But verse 10 says
that they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by
which Stephen spake. Now last Wednesday, we looked
at verse eight and it says that Stephen was full of faith and
power. And we saw that it was not Stephen's
faith. It was not Stephen's power. It
was the faith of Christ, and it was the power of Christ. And this is not Stephen's wisdom,
and it's not Stephen's spirit. It's the wisdom of Christ and
the spirit of Christ. Stephen has nothing to glory
in. God has just been merciful to him, been gracious to him.
He put his word in him. And if we have God's word, we
have the wisdom of God, the power of God, right? He put his word
in him and he put his spirit in him. And when God moves and
when God works, if God is doing it, it cannot be resisted. It
just cannot be resisted. They all tried to dispute with
him, but they couldn't. They couldn't. So verse 11 says, Then they suborned men which
said, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses
and against God. This was their common, evil,
wicked, lying practice. When these men of religion, that's
who this group was, the fellows in the church, when they couldn't
dispute or couldn't find anything against somebody that they wanted
out of the way. What they would do is they would
go around until they found men who were willing to lie and say,
we heard this man speak blasphemous words against God. That was worthy
of death back then. Back then, they fear and reverenced
God so much, if a man spoke blasphemy, he was stoned. It was worthy
of death. It still is worthy of death. Men and women just don't know
it. They just don't know it. Go with me over, actually, wait
a minute, verse 11, then they suborn men, which said, we've
heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.
And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes
and came upon him. and caught him and brought him
to the council and set up false witnesses which said, this man
ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place
and the law. This holy place and the law. Now go with me to Matthew 26. They did the exact same thing
to our Lord. Matthew 26. Verse 57, Matthew 26, 57. And they that had laid hold on
Jesus led him away to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes
and elders were assembled. But Peter followed him afar off
unto the high priest's palace and went in and sat with the
servants to see the end. Now the chief priest and elders
and all the council sought false witness against Jesus to put
him to death, but found none. Yea, though many false witnesses
came, yet found they none. At the last came two false witnesses,
and said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of
God and to build it in three days. You know what our Lord
was saying right there? What he was
declaring right there? Jesus Christ and him crucified. He said, I'm able to destroy
the temple of God and build it again in three days. Jesus Christ
and him crucified. Verse 62, and the high priest
arose and said unto him, answerest thou nothing? What is it which
these witness against thee? But Jesus held his peace, and
the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee
by the living God that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ,
the Son of God. Jesus said unto him, thou hast
said. Nevertheless, I say unto you,
hereafter shall you see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand
of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest
rent his clothes, saying, he hath spoken blasphemy. What further
need have we of witnesses? Behold, now you have heard his
blasphemy. What think ye? They answered
and said, he is guilty of death. Then did they spit in his face,
and buffet him, and others smote him with the palms of their hands,
saying, Prophesy unto us, thou Christ. Who is he that smote
thee? They accused our Lord of blasphemy. They'll accuse his disciples
of blasphemy. They persecuted our Lord for the truth. They're
going to persecute his disciples for the truth. Back over in Acts
chapter 6, verse 11 says, Then they suborned men which
said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses
and against God. And they stirred up the people
and the elders and the scribes and came upon him and caught
him and brought him to the council and set up false witnesses which
said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against
this holy place and the law for we have heard him say, that this
Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place and shall change the
customs which Moses delivered us. This man, Stephen, is preaching
that Jesus Christ of Nazareth is going to destroy our temple. And he's going to destroy our
laws. And he's going to destroy our
customs. And he's going to destroy our
ordinances. And he's going to destroy our
sacrifices. And he's going to destroy our
holy days. And he's going to destroy every
single thing we're worshiping. Everything we're worshiping.
Every single thing that we are clinging to. Every single thing
we're trusting in. Stephen saying that this man
Jesus Christ of Nazareth is going to destroy it all. He's going
to destroy it all. And we believe that's blasphemy.
No, it's not blasphemy. It's actually the Word of God.
It's the Word of God. Now go with me to Matthew 24. Matthew 24, verse one, Jesus went out and
departed from the temple and his disciples came to him for
to show him the buildings of the temple. Our Lord walked out
of this temple and the disciples came up and they wanted to show
him around. I want you to see how beautiful
these buildings are. Verse two, and Jesus said unto
them, see ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, there
shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be
thrown down. Every bit of it's going to be
thrown down. And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples
came unto him privately saying, tell us when shall these things
be? And what shall be the sign of
thy coming and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered
and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For
many shall come in my name saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive
many. And you shall hear of wars and
rumors of wars. See that you be not troubled.
For all these things must come to pass. But the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against
nation and kingdom against kingdom. There shall be famines and pestilences
and earthquakes in diverse places. All these are the beginning of
sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up
to be afflicted and shall kill you and you shall be hated of
all nations for my namesake. And then shall many be offended
and shall betray one another and shall hate one another. And
many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many. And because
iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he
that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And
this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world
for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come. When you therefore shall see
the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet,
Stand in the holy place. Whosoever readeth, let him understand. Then let them which be in Judea
flee into the mountains. Let him which is on the housetop
not come down to take anything out of his house. Neither let
him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And
woe unto them that are with child and to them that give suck in
those days. But pray ye that your flight
be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day. For then
shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning
of the world, to this time, no nor ever shall be. This is what
he said in verse 15. He said, When you therefore shall
see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet,
stand in the holy place, whosoever readeth, let him understand. Let him understand. That sounds
like something I need to understand. The abomination of desolation.
What is that? Go with me over to Daniel chapter
9. Daniel 9. Jerusalem was captured. They were held captive by Babylon
for 70 years. Have you heard of that, that
they were held captive 70 years of captivity in Babylon? Jeremiah
prophesied that that would happen, and Daniel was in that captivity. This was written while they were
in that captivity, okay? Seventy years of captivity. Daniel
chapter 9 verse 1 says, In the first year of Darius the son
of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes which was made king
over the realm of the Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign
I Daniel understood by books the number of the years whereof
the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet that he
would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
The Lord revealed to Daniel as he read the book of Jeremiah,
we're in captivity because of our sin. That's why the Lord
gave him over to captivity is because of sin. Hasn't the Lord revealed that
exact thing to us? captivity because of sin. So verse 3, Daniel said, I set
my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications
with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. Verse 5, he said, we have
sinned. We've sinned. We have not served
you. We have not worshipped you. We've
served ourselves. We've worshipped the gods of
our imaginations. That's what we've done. We acknowledge
our transgression, our sins, ever before us. So verse 19,
Daniel 9 verse 19 says, Oh Lord, hear. Oh Lord, forgive. Oh Lord, hearken and do. Defer
not. For thine own sake, O my God,
for thy city and thy people are called by thy name." He's calling
on God, begging for mercy, begging for forgiveness, begging for
deliverance from this captivity. That's what we do every time
we meet here. We are begging for deliverance.
We're begging for mercy. We are in captivity. We have
your promise. Daniel read a promise in this
word. Seventy years, then deliverance. Oh Lord, send that deliverance. Verse 20, And while I was speaking
and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people
Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the
holy mountain of my God, while I was speaking in prayer, even
the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning,
being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of
the evening oblation, And he informed me and talked with me
and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill
and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications
the commandment came forth from the throne of God. And I am come
to show thee, for thou art greatly beloved. Therefore understand
the matter and consider the vision. Seventy weeks are determined
upon thy people and upon the holy city to finish the transgression,
and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity,
and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and
prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. Know therefore and understand
that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and
to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah, the Prince, shall be seven weeks
and threescore and two weeks. The street shall be built again
and the wall even in troublous times. And after threescore and
two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself. and
the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the
city and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with a flood.
And unto the end of the war, desolations are determined. And
he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week, and in
the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation
to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make
it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined, shall be
poured upon the desolate." Do you know what the angel just
preached to Daniel? Do you know what all that was?
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That was Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. This is what he told Daniel.
Seventy weeks. In seventy weeks, reconciliation
for sin is coming. in 70 weeks. In 70 weeks everlasting
righteousness is going to be sealed and all the abominations,
that word means idolatry, all the idolatry is going to
be destroyed. Desolations means destroyed. Now there are quite a few references
to explain these 70 weeks, and I'm going to show you the clearest
one, okay? Go with me to Genesis 29. Genesis 29, look at verse 18. And Jacob loved Rachel, and said,
I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter.
Jacob had to serve seven years for her. Verse 25 says, And it
came to pass that in the morning, behold, it was Leah, not Rachel,
Leah. And he said to Laban, what is
this thou hast done unto me? Did not I serve with thee for
Rachel? Wherefore then hast thou beguiled
me? And Laban said, it must not be so done in our country to
give the younger before the firstborn. Fulfill her week, which is seven
days. And we will give thee this also
for the service, which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other
years. And Jacob did so and fulfilled
her week, seven years. And he gave him Rachel. That's
what was required, seven years. He said, fulfill another week
and you can have Rachel. So he did, he fulfilled the week,
seven years. All right, so a day is a year. And the only reason we know this
is so is because prophecy is not something that I wanna delve
into. The only reason we know it so is because it's over and
we can look back and see this is what the prophecy was. Okay. What Daniel spoke of reconciliation
for sin, righteousness being sealed after 60 and two weeks,
Messiah is coming. Messiah is going to be cut off.
It's finished. All right. So we can look back
and see this. A day represents one year. One week is seven years. Seven years in a week times 70
weeks is 490 years. The commandment, he said, this
is going to start when the commandment comes to rebuild Jerusalem. That
came in the book of Nehemiah at around 445 BC. All right, so that's 445 years
till the time that our Lord came. And then He walked this earth
for 33 and a half years, which puts us at 478 years, which means
there's a few years discrepancy. So all the commentaries, I had
out every commentary in my study And I called my dad and had him
read to me commentaries I didn't have. And all the commentary
writers went on a rampage trying to figure out when did these
70 weeks actually start. It's roughly 400 in the high
400s, okay? And they were saying, is it Ezra
4 or Nehemiah 2? Which one is it? They said, was it in the 20th
year of Artaxerxes? That's when most of them said
it started. I think it was before that. There's a discrepancy. Is it based on the Jewish calendar
or the solar calendar? All right. I became so bogged
down. I had a horrible day of study. I became almost depressed. Just
waited. I became so bogged down in these
70 weeks, I still, I had my calculator out, I still can't make the 490
match up. Cannot make it happen. But let
me tell you this, it doesn't matter. God knows the beginning, God
knows the end. It doesn't matter. There's only
one thing about these 70 weeks that matters. Daniel, Messiah
is coming. Messiah is coming. He's going to put an end to all
this, all this misery, all this captivity, all this bondage,
all this sin, all this grief, all this sorrow. Daniel, Messiah
is coming and he's going to put an end to this. He's going to
be cut off. It's said, but not for himself.
He's not doing this for himself. He's going to do this for his
people. He's going to do it for his people,
the people who are given to idolatry. Given over every one of us before
God opened our eyes, we were given to some form of idolatry,
starting with this idol right here. False worship. And he's going
to make all the abominations, all that idolatry, desolate. He's going to destroy idolatry. He's going to bring it all down
because the religion of worshiping false gods cannot save anybody. It cannot save anybody. All right,
now go back with me to Matthew 24. We're going to try to wrap
this up. Matthew 24, verse 15, when you therefore
shall see idolatry destroyed, spoken of by Daniel the prophet,
stand in a holy place. That's Christ. He said this temple, this is
what he was saying, the temple is going to be thrown down. Not
one rock is going to stand on another. What do you mean stand
in the holy place? He just said it was going to be destroyed.
As soon as you see that huge idol, all the idols that were
in it, man started out worshiping God. When God pulled Abraham. When God spared Isaac and Abraham
grabbed that ram and threw it on that altar and he killed that
thing, he was worshiping God with every fiber of his being.
And when those Israelites were pulled out of Egypt and God said,
you kill a lamb, they were worshiping God with every fiber of their
being. And when Solomon built the temple and he dedicated it
and he slaughtered all those animals, he was worshiping God
with every fiber of his being. But all of that changed. That
temple was destroyed. It was rebuilt. And when they
rebuilt it, the Ark of the Covenant wasn't there anymore. The fire
that never went out on the altar was extinguished. And God wasn't
in it. And people were worshiping idols.
That's all that was happening. And that's what's happening in
all these places today. We're just worshiping idols. And he said, when you see idolatry
destroyed, there came a point in every one of our lives when
we saw personally idolatry destroyed. When you see it. Stand in the
holy place. As soon as you see it, get in
the holy place. Whosoever readeth, let him understand. When God gives you eyes to see,
when he causes you to see the truth about salvation, the truth
about eternal life, when he causes you to finally see the only true
and living way, when all your idols are destroyed, right in
front of your eyes, stand in the holy place. Get in the Lord
Jesus Christ and stay there. Verse 16, then let them which
be in Judea flee into the mountains. God allowed Rome to come in about
35 or 40 years after the Lord said this, around AD 70. And Rome destroyed Jerusalem. There was not one stone left
standing on another, just like God said. They destroyed it. It was a horrible, horrible destruction. He said in verse 21, great tribulation
such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no,
nor shall ever be. That was the truth. It was horrible. But there is one eternal destruction
that's far greater than anything this world has ever seen. So our Lord said, flee to the
mountains. David said, I will lift up mine
eyes unto the hills from whence comest my help. Verse 17, let
him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything
out of his house. Don't return for anything, nothing. Let your heart not look back
for anything in this world. Look to Christ. Run to Christ. Verse 18, neither let him which
is in the field return back to take his clothes. Don't go back
to your old self-righteousness. Don't put on your old clothes.
There's a robe in the mountain. That old self-righteousness,
it won't cover you. The only thing that'll cover
us is the blood of Christ. Verse 19, woe unto them that
are with child and to them, those that give suck in those days.
Woe unto them who say, I would follow Christ, but I have too
much responsibility to take care of. Too many needs to be tended
to right here. Verse 20, pray ye that your flight
be not in the winter. Pray that you don't have a cold,
stony, sluggish heart when that day comes. Verse 20, neither on the Sabbath
day. Pray that your religion won't
hinder you from getting to Christ. I can't do that. It's the Sabbath.
Run to Christ. Run to Christ. Because he said, there shall
be great tribulations such as was not since the beginning of
the world to this time, nor shall ever be. Lord God, make us desolate
of our abominations. Make them destroyed. Destroy
our idolatry and let us stand in Christ. All right, back to
Acts chapter six. That's what Stephen was preaching
to them. He was preaching Christ and Him crucified, destroying
all their idols, and they caught on to what he was saying. Acts
6 verse 13, And set up false witnesses, which said, This man
ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place
and the law. For we have heard him say that
this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall
change the customs which Moses delivered us. And all that sat
in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had
been the face of an angel." This is what John Gill said about
that verse right there. Saw his face as it had been the
face of an angel. He said there was such a calmness
and serenity in it. He wasn't anxious. Such a calmness and serenity
in it which showed his innocence and unconsciousness of guilt. And such a beauty and glory upon
it that he looked as lovely and amiable as the angels of God. They accused him of blaspheming
God and the law of Moses. So in Stephen's defense, now
this, in the next chapter over, it ends with them stoning Stephen
for blasphemy. And he looks up into heaven and
it opens up and he sees the Son of God standing on the right
hand of the Father. And he says, Lord Jesus, receive
my spirit. The Lord stood up from his throne
to receive this martyr, first martyr, first martyr for the
truth. And they accused him of blaspheming
God and Moses, the law. So in his defense, the same God
who gave the law to Moses, and when Moses came down from that
mountain, his face glowed and they said, he's seen God. This
is whatever he says is of God. His face started shining. And
they all sat in the council looking steadfastly on him, saw his face
as it had been the face of an angel. He gave Stephen peace. He gave him rest. He gave him
comfort. Stephen had run to the hills.
That's what he had done. I pray the Lord would let us
do the same thing. Just let us rest in this man. All right, let's stand together.