What I tell them is, ‘Would you please show me from the Scriptures.”
And what they show you is the Christian attitude in the civilized world, right? Working next to everybody and you do it with love, and you do it with grace. No kidding, Sherlock. No kidding. But Paul didn’t come with excellency of speech. As a matter of fact, he was crude, to get his point across. And these words that we use are defined by Scripture and a person that doesn’t obey God is stiff-necked.
I can’t see Stephen saying, “Oh, will you please listen to me a little bit, you have a little problem psychologically, and you know, your attitude and your motives are wrong?” YEA, RIGHT! I don’t find that nowhere in here by preachers. But that’s all you hear today.
So, Stephen is done being nice to them in telling them their entire history. I like how Stephen leads into the next passage, in verse 50: “Hath not my hand made all these things?” Who is he talking about? The Lord of heaven.
“Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye” (Acts 7:51)
“Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears” … What’d he call them? A dog and pigs. Yes he did. Uncircumcised are the Gentiles.
“Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost” … Well, how did they know they were resisting the Holy Ghost? They know it right now. It is called CONVICTION.
“Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed 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” (Acts 7:52-53).
What are you saying? They have the oracles of God. From Who? From God! Of all people, they should know Who the Messiah is … they got the Scriptures, they should have read them. They got the Law, from God! I mean to tell you, you look at this and say, “Are you kidding me?” Yea, it’s bad.
What does this show about Stephen? Well, it shows that he does not compromise, He does not sugar-coat it, and he does not fear. Why is that? He has the presence of God in him and on him. In him and on him. And conviction comes to those that hear the truth and are guilty of violating it, according to verse 54. They violently—violently—responded to the fact that they were guilty. Stephen had the touch of God, and because of his love for God—God opened his spiritual sight—to behold the Lamb of God which, I’m telling you, conquered death and hell and is at the right hand of God. Who did that for him, God did, because he was obedient unto the Word of God.
Where’s the proof of their conviction?
“When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth” (Acts 7:54).
“Gnash” means they went through the flesh. The uppers met the lowers. When you and I have excruciating pain—basically you burn yourself at the stove—you gnash your teeth—it’s just automatic. That’s why Jesus says for those in hell, ‘gnashing of teeth,’ that’s proof that there is never-ending pain in hell.
And the conviction of the Holy Spirit, guess what, you are pricked in your heart. They responded negatively showing how full of the devil they were.
Point number 5 – God honored Stephen in verses 55-56.
Stephen conquers the world, the flesh and the Devil.
“But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God” (Acts 7:55-56).
Now the Devil-possessed helps him unto God. They thought they were destroying him, but they are just helping him on to 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” (Acts 7:57-59).
I’m telling you, people, religious folks hate those with a relationship. Religious folks don’t have a “know-so religion.” They don’t. That’s why they need to get saved. They go back and say, “I said a prayer.” They never say they believed when they were younger, “I’m sticking with that prayer.” Are you sticking with the prayer, or why you said that prayer? It’s not semantics, really. It’s just a fact! You either believe or you didn’t believe. And if you believed, there ought to be someone at home. So, it ain’t the doubting of people’s salvation—the Devil will do that good enough for you, but if you don’t have assurance—my goodness, get assured! You need that presence of God.
You need that relationship with God, knowing Who God is in your life. You need to know God.
I’m telling you, these people with no relationship, and then us with the relationship—what do we long for? —we long for His presence in our life. We long for that, it is in us. We want to see God operating in our life. Even if you are a backslidden Christian. Your new nature, man, and the Holy Ghost—the voice has sort of been snuffed out—even when you are backslidden, there is something in you that is just crying out for your Father.
Now those that want God in their life seek out those things that please Him from the Word of God. You don’t make stuff up. Well, God I think is going to like this, or God is going to like that. The Word of God tells you what pleases Him, so you get your instruction from the Word of God. You got to have that and do them. Now, they don’t fear, but rather accept the accusations and persecutions of the religious world. Those that know God and have a relationship with Him do not fear what the world can do unto them. They don’t fear accusations or persecutions. I mean, we all have a little fear, but when you think about it—when you know God—this is part and parcel of our life down here, are the wrong accusations and persecutions.
If you are going to stand for the Lord, you have to understand that. This stuff will happen, and for a brief moment all of us get a little depressed over it, but when you think about it—if the accusations are false, quit trying to prove that the accusations are false. God will fight for you. Just keep going on. There are too many people that accuse us all the time. Accuse our motives, accuse everything. Just keep going for the Lord. That’s all. God will make things happen.
Now God rewards the honest child—that child that realizes the wickedness of his heart and body—and the necessity of the power of God to accomplish what God desires them to do. Remember, “I can do nothing of myself,” Remember, “in my flesh I can do no good thing.” What’s that? That’s Scripture declarations about your flesh. That’s the declaration about a Christian that wants to serve God, knowing that he does it by the power of God, because God gets the glory, the Christian does not. God will reward that Christian, for giving glory to Him.