Let's go ahead and get started,
so if you would turn with me to Acts 7. Acts 7 and I want
to read verses 48 through 53. Acts
7 verse 48. 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, saith 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 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? Amen. Stiff-necked. There's some mornings, and I'm
sure this has probably happened to you all, woke up and my neck
was sore and I couldn't turn this way or that way. But this
stiff neck is not talking about sleeping the wrong way and waking
up with your neck hurting. This stiff neck is kind of like
the following, and I'll give this analogy. I mean, everyone
knows here that Paul and I have a Bernice Mountain Dog named
Louie. And if you don't, we have a Bernice Mountain dog named
Louie. But every morning we get up,
we put a collar on Louie. And in order to get this collar
on him, it's easier if he bends his head down so you can get
it on. Some mornings this happens pretty easy, and he puts his
head down. But in other times, and in fact most times, he wants
to play so you have to push his head down. And he'll rear it
up when you try to do that, resisting by pushing his head down to get
the collar on his neck. Why does he do this? To be mean
to me? Not necessarily. Although there
may be times he does not want it on, he simply does this because
that's what he wants to do. It is in his nature to do so.
Most of the time he does it because he wants to play, but he does
it because he wants to do it. I have to do something to change
his want to in order to get him to do it. How does this relate
to man? We will do what we want to, no
matter what the spirit of God does. By nature, that is. As we are born in Adam, we will
rear our head backward thinking we are doing something for God,
but we are just fighting against him. If we are fighting against
him, it is because he allows us to do this. Because if he
does not want us to fight against him, we won't. That is whether
you know God or not or whether you love God or not, God is in
absolute control. You will do of his good pleasure.
There are those who in His good time will not be uncircumcised
in heart and ears because of this. They will no longer resist
the Holy Ghost. So let's look at uncircumcised
in heart and ears and circumcised in heart and ears. So let's first look at the result
of this resistance. Those who are resisting will
certainly not, in this way, they will not see it in this way,
but it is the result. They will persecute those who
proclaim the truth. Our current passage is evidence
of this. The truth being taught, being
Jesus Christ and him crucified, as God has revealed him in his
word. They, or we, murder the Lord
in our mind and in our thoughts in this flesh. I know this is
true of those, as it says here, that are uncircumcised in heart
and ears, because I did this at one time. I was just like
these, and just like Saul before he became Paul the apostle. I
persecuted the church of God and wasted it in my mind. I wanted
to shut them up who were saying these things. These are they
who have heard the gospel just like they did hear in our passage. What does it say in verse 52
and 53? 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
been now the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by
the disposition of angels and have not kept it. Here it is
saying these prophets spoke of Jesus Christ. He is the only
just one. It says they received it and
certainly they heard it in their physical ears. The phrase used
here says by the disposition of angels, and you can read it
this way, by the instrumentality of messengers. They heard it,
that is they received it by those God sent them to proclaim this
message. But when you look at it, this
says they did not keep it. That is they did not guard this
gospel when they heard of a just one. They did not guard it, they did
not watch for it, and they did not hold it close. What does
it say they did? They betrayed him and murdered
him. We have all done this in our
flesh. We at one time were the very same way. Our flesh is still
the same way. We have to say with the Apostle
Paul, in this flesh there dwelleth no good thing. Those who are
like this will not hear the gospel. They stiffen up their neck and
say, I will not have this man reign over me. Today they may
not say that specific phrase, at least not out loud, but they
will say things like this. God has done all he can do, now
it's up to you. They don't always get mad, Joe.
It's not always the reaction you get. Stiff-necked. God says he does not need your
help and he says he finished all there was to be done. They
will not bow down to the God of Scripture. They have too much
input for God. They need to give their part
to Him. They will go to hell doing something for Jesus, because
their Jesus is really themselves. But they will go to hell doing
that for their imagined God. They will not bow down to the
God that is the Jesus Christ of Scripture. He will say to
them one day, depart from me ye that work iniquity. I never
knew you. They will not bow down to the
just one. And we see this with the account
of rich men and Lazarus. So if you would turn with me
to Luke 16. Luke 16. Very familiar to you. Luke 16,
27 through 31. Luke 16, 27. Then he said, I
pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldst send him to
my father's house. And this is the rich man speaking. For I have five brethren that
he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place
of torment. Abraham saith unto him, they
have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. And he said,
nay, Father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead,
they will repent. And he said unto him, if they
hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded,
though one rose from the dead. This rich man in hell even testified
to the fact that no one will listen to Moses and the prophets. They will not listen to the proclamation
of the gospel, which is the instrumentality God uses in the hand of messengers. We today do just as Stephen was
doing and we proclaim his gospel. The vast majority of those Hearing
are stiff-necked, and stiff-necked only, I want to add, because
all of us were stiff-necked at one time. They will not hear
his gospel even if someone were raised from the dead to tell
them. What are we told in Luke? They
will not hear even if someone were raised from the dead to
tell them. In fact, one has risen from the dead. All God says we
are to do is to believe him. We are to believe Him as to who
He is and what He has done. But we cannot do that, even though
all know Jesus Christ rose from the grave. But yet they will
not bow down to who God is. As has been said before, no one
saw Jesus in Jesus, how are they going to see Jesus in me? The
answer is they won't. unless they are circumcised in
heart and ears. We read of circumcision in the
Old Testament, but I want to point out a passage that we've
heard here before. But before I do, let me say,
there was that circumcision done by man using his hands and whatever
implements they used at that time on an individual. Generally,
this was done on young males eight days old. This was appointed
by God to do, and in fact, there is an account in scripture where
Moses did not circumcise his son, and God was about to kill
him when his wife took a stone and circumcised their son. This
was under the law, and we are no longer under the law by the
death of Christ. We have been freed from the law,
so there is no need for circumcision, but I have to add this qualification
for God's people. But now hear this verse in Deuteronomy
which we have heard before. Deuteronomy 10, 16. Circumcise
therefore the foreskin of your heart and be no more stiff-necked. What causes us to be stiff-necked
is having a heart that is not circumcised. How are we going
to perform that? Do we even know where the foreskin
of our heart is? We know this is not talking about
the muscle that pumps blood, but that place of thoughts and
feelings we have. We know the heart we are born
with is called a stony heart in Ezekiel. A stony heart, that kind of heart
that is dead. It is a heart hardened with no
ability to be any other way. It is so stony that the one who
possesses this kind of heart is always stiff-necked. It says
there in that verse in Deuteronomy, circumcise the foreskin of your
heart and be no more stiff-necked. So how do we do this? The answer
is, we don't. We can't. We do not know how,
and even if we did, we do not have the ability to perform such
an act. Someone else has to perform the
circumcision for us, to us, and on us. Turn with me now to Colossians
2, Colossians 2. Colossians 2 and verses 9 through
15. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. and ye are complete in him which
is the head of all principality and power, in whom also ye are
circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, and putting
off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of
Christ. buried with him in baptism, wherein
also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of
God, who hath raised him from the dead. And you, being dead
in your sins in the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened
together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his
cross, and having sported principalities and powers, he made a show of
them openly, triumphing over them in it. The act of Jesus Christ, that
transaction done by him in being made sin for us and dying, paying
that debt, cleansing me by his act of obedience and mercy towards
me. It is by this power and by this
one that we are circumcised in heart and ears. He is the firstborn
among many brethren, it says in scripture. He must and does
cleanse us from all sin. He in time will come to us just
as He did with Cornelius, circumcising us with His voice, bringing us
to life in His Son. God will in time perform that
circumcision not made with hands. He does this by the power of
His voice. He will impart to those He has
chosen at that very appointed time He is pleased to do so.
He will impart to them a circumcised heart. When he does this, they
will bow down the neck before him, so to speak. This circumcision
giving them eyes to see, and ears to hear, and a heart to
perceive. Him placing his yoke on them,
which is easy and is burden light. Matthew 11, 28 through 30 says,
come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest
for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden
is light. It is easy and light because
we are willing in the day of his power. We will bow down our
head to get that collar put on our neck. Most of the time when
I'm forced into doing something I'm not desirous to do, what
I'm being made to do. I generally, I despise it. He
causes us, and yes, this is something he forces us to do, because if
he did not do this, we would not do it on our own. But he
does this in such a way that we are willing. He does it in
love, Joe, in that everlasting love, that loving kindness. He
woos us in, causing us to love him, and in what he does, we
then become willing. We then desire to serve him. He changes our want to, as it's
been said. It is no longer a burden to serve
him. We then stop bending our head
back, being stiff-necked, but bow it down before him at his
feet, just as the sinner woman did in Luke, Luke 7, 38, and
stood at his feet behind him, weeping, and began to wash his
feet with tears. and did wipe them with the hairs
of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with ointment.
Once our proud, stiff-necked heart is taken away and he gives
us a heart which is fleshly, that is, it is a living heart
to which we then love and desire to worship him, hearing the gospel
is no longer a chore for us to hear, but we become willingly
to worship him at his feet. The whole human race born of
Adam is born stiff-necked. What we all do is the only things
we can do because it's the only thing a stiff-necked person can
do because it comes natural to them. We do always resist the
Holy Ghost. This stiff-necked hates the God
of Scripture, his gospel, and his people. If God does not intervene,
we will gnash on those who sin. He sins us with the gospel. They
may not stone people to death nowadays, at least not in this
country, but they still do this in their old stony heart. They
will stop their ears and do what they can to quiet those who proclaim
the gospel. The only hope any of us have
is if Jesus Christ, being the firstborn among many brethren,
died for us. And in him, us being circumcised
with that circumcision made without hands by that transaction he
performed, but he then comes to us in his spirit and performs
that circumcision, cleansing us, making us willing in the
day of his power. This Christ, the one we at one
time were raising our necks backward towards, causes us now to bow
it down into submission to him, the just one. We then love to
hear him. We love to gather with those
who speak of him. For Saul, or the apostle Paul,
that time God appointed for him was during this time when they
were laying their coats at his feet, in the passage in Acts
there that we read. This signified that he consented
unto his death, that is, the death of Stephen. This one who
was persecuting the church of God and wasting it had to have
this circumcision done, and so do we. There was that time when
Paul started to be pricked in his heart by those pricks or
goads of God. God put him in the dirt, as he
will with all those who are his. It says in Acts 9 verse 1, and
Saul, Yet, breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples
of the Lord went unto the high priest. And then you have the
account where Paul was knocked to the ground. It talks about
him traveling to Damascus where he was knocked to the ground
by God. There will come a time for some when they cannot fight
against those goads sent by God in that heart of flesh which
has been circumcised by God. If God does not do this, you
will never know the pricks because of that old stony heart. If you
will not bow down to God, and I mean the sovereign almighty
God of scripture, the one who has done it all for the salvation
of sinners, the just one. If you do not bow down to this
God, you are yet stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and
ears. You will do nothing but resist
the Holy Ghost. It is not in what you do or will
do. It is all in what he has done
and does. If he circumcised you, you will
then bow down to him. May God circumcise our heart. If you are one of his, he will,
when he's pleased to do so. I pray he bows me down to him
continually. Amen.