[0:00] Thank you for tuning into this message by David Entry. Every true revival is a product of the strong preaching of God's Word. May you receive a word from this message that will spark a revival in you.
[0:13] Acts chapter 7. Thank you, Jesus. I really am being tempted to... Today's... Let me just give it a go.
[0:26] 60 verses. Are you sure you're ready for this? So, well, even if I finish and I don't say anything, the Bible has done the speaking.
[0:41] Acts chapter 7, verse 1. Then said the high priest, are these things so? And he said, men, brethren, and fathers, hearken. The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Charon.
[0:55] And said unto him, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and come unto the land which I shall show thee. Then came he out of the land of the Chaldees and dwelt in Charon.
[1:06] And from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him unto this land wherein ye now dwell. And he gave him none inheritance in it.
[1:18] No, not so much as to set his foot on. Yet he promised that he would give it to him for air possession and his seed after him. When yet he had no child.
[1:30] Verse 6. And God spake on this wise that his seed should sojourn in a strange land and that they should bring them into bondage and entreat them evil 400 years.
[1:46] And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage, I will judge, said God. And after that shall they come forth and serve me in this place.
[1:58] And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham begat Isaac and circumcised him the eighth day. And Isaac begat Jacob and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.
[2:12] And the patriarchs moved with envy and sold Jacob into Egypt. But God was with him and delivered him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
[2:26] And he made him governor over Egypt and all his house. Now there came a death over all the land of Egypt and Chanan and great affliction and our fathers found no substance.
[2:40] But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent our fathers first. And at the second time, Joseph was made known to his brethren and Joseph's kindred was made known unto Pharaoh.
[2:52] Then sent Joseph and called his father Jacob to him and all his kindred, three score and 14 souls. So Jacob went down to Egypt and died, he and our fathers, and were carried over into Seqam and laid in the sepulcher that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Amal, the father of Seqam.
[3:18] But when the time of the promise drew near, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt. Till another king arose which knew not Joseph.
[3:31] The same dealt subtly with our kindred and evil entreated our fathers so that they cast out their young children to the end that they might not live.
[3:45] In which time Moses was born and was exceeding fair and nourished in his father's house three months.
[3:56] And when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up and nourished him for her own son. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and indeed.
[4:08] And when he was full 40 years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him and avenged him that was oppressed and supported the Egyptians.
[4:24] For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them, but they understood not. Verse 26. And the next day he shewed himself unto them as they strove and would have set them at one again, saying, Says, you are brethren, why do ye wrong one another?
[4:48] But he that did his neighbor wrong, thrusted him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us?
[4:58] Will thou kill me as thou did the Egyptians yesterday? Then fled Moses at the same, and was a stranger in the land of Midian where he begat two sons.
[5:11] And when 40 years was expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai an angel of the Lord in the flame of fire in a bush.
[5:21] When Moses saw it, he wandered at the sight, and as he drew near to behold it, The voice of the Lord came unto him, saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
[5:41] Then Moses trembled and does not behold. Then said the Lord unto him, Put off thy sandals from thy feet, for the place where thou standest is holy ground.
[5:53] I have seen the affliction of my people, which is in Egypt. And I have heard they are groaning, and I am come down to deliver them. And now I will send thee unto Egypt.
[6:05] This Moses, whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? The same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer, by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.
[6:20] He brought them out after he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness, 40 years.
[6:33] Verse 37. This is that Moses which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise unto you of your brethren like unto me.
[6:46] Him shall ye hear. This is he that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount sinner, and with our fathers, who received the lively oracles to give unto us, to whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turn back into Egypt, saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us, for as for this Moses which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we watch not what is become of him.
[7:25] And they made a calf in those days and offered sacrifice unto the idol and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
[7:36] Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven. As it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of 40 years in the wilderness?
[7:55] Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Molech and the star of your God, Raphael, figures which ye made to worship them. And I will carry you away beyond Babylon.
[8:07] Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen.
[8:21] Which also our fathers that came after brought with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers unto the days of David, who found favor before God and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.
[8:46] But Solomon built him a house. However, the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands, as saith the prophet, Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool.
[9:02] What house will ye build me, saith the Lord? Or what's the place of my rest? Has 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.
[9:22] So do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which should before of the coming of the just one, of whom ye have become now betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it.
[9:42] When they heard these words, they were cut to their hearts and they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God.
[9:59] And Jesus standing on the right hand of God and said, Behold, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.
[10:11] 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.
[10:24] And the witnesses laid their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. And they stormed Stephen calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
[10:41] And he knelt down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not the sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
[10:55] Here ends the reading of God's holy word. Hallelujah. Please, let's pray. Oh God, let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to thee.
[11:12] As we navigate through this juncture of your text in scripture, this point of scripture where transitions to place. We pray, open up the text to us.
[11:24] Help us to see Jesus. Help us to see and encounter and experience the gospel of grace. The gospel of God.
[11:35] The testimony of Jesus Christ and the economy of the New Testament. We pray that as we get into your word, give us grace to see you as you are.
[11:46] That we shall be like you. That we all with an open face will behold your glory as in a mirror and be transformed from glory to glory.
[11:57] Heal the sick, save the lost, convict the sinning. Glorify your name in Jesus' name. Amen. Wow. We're coming close. That's a long text.
[12:12] Because Stephen's preaching was very long. And when he finished this long preaching, they kid him. I want to draw your attention to some interesting facts.
[12:25] Last week we saw how Stephen, instead of defending himself, he preached the gospel. And the content of his preaching was so heavy that I want to bring some stuff to our attention as the Lord permits today.
[12:45] First of all, I want to introduce two major, it's not too heavy, theological words to you. So you'll be familiar with it.
[12:56] The first of them is dispensation. Let's all say dispensation together. Please say it again. Dispensation.
[13:06] When in Christianity, when we say dispensation, it is pointing to a specific period in which God interacted with humanity in his plan of salvation.
[13:24] So a specific period in which God interacted or a specific way through which God interacted with humanity in his plan of salvation.
[13:36] So God has always had a plan of salvation. And there's a specific way in a certain period he interacted with humanity so long as that plan of salvation is concerned. And this leads to a derivation of dispensation is what some of you might be familiar with the word dispensationalism.
[13:56] It just stems out from dispensation. So obviously if dispensation is a period of time or a specific period of time in which God deals with humanity in his plan of salvation or a way in which God deals.
[14:09] Dispensationalism starts to imply that over the period of time, you know, the different dispensations that God has worked with. Does that make sense?
[14:20] So you see, the Bible talks about how God comes into the garden in Genesis chapter 3 particularly and interacts with Adam. Why are we not having that? That was a different dispensation.
[14:31] In the days of Moses, you go to the temple and they have to, when you sin, you have to sacrifice, bring your, See, some people make a lot of noise.
[14:41] Why is it that in the Old Testament some things are done and we are not doing it? Why is it that God told Moses, even with a text we read, said take off your shoes because it's a holy ground. Why are we wearing shoes in church?
[14:54] Where are our cows? Why are we not bringing cows or sheep or turtle doves or goats to present? Why are we not wearing the gowns of the high priest in those days?
[15:06] What has changed? Is it not the same God? Why are we not going to fight? God asked David or the Israelites, kill your enemies and take the land. Why are we not doing that? We also receive the right to do that.
[15:18] No, we are talking about dispensations. So we have the dispensation. If a theology calls something, the dispensation of innocence. That is between Genesis 1 to Genesis 3, they were innocent.
[15:31] Sin hasn't come. Man was innocent. So God was dealing with man in a certain way. It's called a dispensation of innocence. And then there's dispensation of conscience. When sin came in.
[15:42] So between the time Adam fell and the time of Moses, conscience. They are aware of what they were doing. Sin had come. Then from the time of Noah all the way to the, you remember, before God called Abraham, the Tower of Babel.
[15:55] It's the dispensation of human government. That is why they said, let's build this. Let's do this. And it looked like God was not too involved or controlling what they were doing. It's called a dispensation of human government.
[16:06] And then we have the dispensation of promise. That is from the time of Abraham all the way to the time of Moses.
[16:16] Moses. So that's when God promised Abraham and he was dealing with that. There was no law. There was no law that thou shalt not. All he asked him to do is circumcise. And Abraham also gave tithe.
[16:28] But really, there was nothing, no restriction and demands on him. It was the dispensation of promise. And then after dispensation of promise, that's from Moses all the way to the New Testament.
[16:39] Talking about Moses, Moses all the way to the time Christ came, the New Testament. We have the dispensation of law. So when they were saying that, watch this.
[16:50] This is very interesting. When they were saying Stephen was speaking blasphemy against Moses and the law. So that dispensation, it was all about the law.
[17:03] Two key things about the dispensation of Moses or the dispensation of the law is the law and the temple. You can't worship God without going to the temple.
[17:13] Your worship to God has a lot to do with your activities around the temple. And the law, the law had three aspects. The law of God, sorry, the law Moses had three aspects.
[17:26] We have the moral law. We had the ceremonial law. And then the ritual laws. So ritual laws, how you are supposed to do your sacrifices and all those things.
[17:39] Ceremonial laws, they have to every year, every now and then they have to do this. The way the ceremony should go and how they should relate to God in the temple. This was ceremonial laws.
[17:50] So they had ceremonial laws. They had ritual laws. And they had moral laws. Amen? Praise the Lord. They had moral laws. And so these three laws, what are the moral laws?
[18:03] The moral laws were, that shall not kill. That shall not steal. That shall not. But now, the moral law was more a reflection of the character of God. So even though we are not in the days, the dispensation of law, the period where we are relating to God based on law.
[18:21] That's ritual law and ceremonial law. Ritual law and ceremonial law was dealt away with. But moral law, because it was a reflection of the character of God, is still valid in our days.
[18:34] Does that make sense? And so under the dispensation, that period God was dealing with them based on the law, we had the law and the temple.
[18:46] Now, after dispensation of law, we enter into the dispensation of grace. So in John chapter 1 verse 17, the law was given by Moses.
[18:59] But? Grace is true. So watch this. Grace is actually, watch this. Grace is actually not an Old Testament word. You will see someone had grace or found grace and all that.
[19:13] But grace, in its true sense, is completely a New Testament word. John chapter 1 verse 16, it says, of his fullness have we all received grace upon grace.
[19:27] Now, you remember Stephen was said to be a man full of grace. Acts chapter 6 verse 8. Stephen was a man full of grace.
[19:38] Read the entirety of the New Testament. Particularly the letters that were written to the church. It starts with grace to you. Grace to you. It was in the Old Testament, the greeting was, ma shalom or shalom.
[19:51] Shalom, that's peace be upon you. Peace. That's the Old Testament greeting. But in the New Testament, it's grace. It's charis. Charis. Charis. Someone shout charis.
[20:02] Charis. And so, the grace, we now are under the dispensation of grace. Grace. That is why people can sing and still continue singing.
[20:13] Grace. Grace. In fact, Paul puts it this way. In Romans chapter 6 verse 1.
[20:26] He said, shall we continue in sin? So that before, before he reads this, you have to look at the previous verse, chapter 5. Verse 21. He says that, that as sin has reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life.
[20:48] Now, I think the verse 20 I need. The verse 20 is better. Moreover, the law entered, that offense might abound. But, where sin, where there's more sin, what happens?
[21:00] Grace is not small. That means grace always will overtake sin. When it comes to God dealing with us under this dispensation.
[21:12] Okay. Grace will always, listen. The text says that, this is very interesting. Let's start reading it from the screen. Let's go. For we want the Lord to sin. That. Watch this.
[21:24] This is, I don't want. The law, the reason why the law came is so we can see who is sinning. It's not so someone can look good. Or we can see the intensity of your sin.
[21:38] The dimension of your sin. So, the law came, the weight of your sin. The law came so that your offense might do what? It's not to reduce your sin.
[21:48] No, no, no, no, no. You know, someone, they can make laws right now. And some people will be found one sin in this country. Yeah. The law came so sin may abound.
[22:02] But, the Bible says that, but there's the good side of God. Where sin? How about grace? Grace. So, he said, so, the next verse, chapter 6, verse 1, that's actually, he says, what shall we say then?
[22:20] Shall we continue? Who are the we? Watch this. Who are the we? No human beings. He's talking about those who are in Christ. Those who are in Christ. Shall we continue? Since we now, we are in grace. Shall we continue in sin?
[22:31] So, grace may abound. He uses the strong. God forbid. Never. Look at the next verse. God, God forbid. Ah, I feel like preaching. God forbid.
[22:42] How shall we? Who are, how can you come back to what you are dead to? Because the mere fact that you are in Christ means you are dead to something. Dead to sin.
[22:54] So, why are you struggling what you are dead to? Is it possible that you are actually not born again? No, no, no.
[23:05] I'm just thinking. I'm not telling you you are not born again. Oh, no, no, no. How can I say that? I don't know what it takes to say you are not born again. But I'm just asking, why don't we actually think? I think we should be thinking.
[23:16] Maybe you are not born again. Because, because he who the son says free. But you don't look free. The way you are, every evening you are drunk.
[23:30] You like girls so much, everything in a skirt looks like meat for you. A Christian husband who beats his wife.
[23:49] A Christian husband who continually keeps cheating on his wife. Continually.
[23:59] You are not stopping. You did it seven years ago. You did it six years ago. You did it. And then when he says, I don't know what came and be. I don't know. And you keep doing it. I'm not. I'm saying, continue.
[24:11] It is possible you are not born again. That's right. Because the question there is, how shall we? How shall we? How shall we?
[24:21] How shall we? How shall we? It's a question. How shall we? How shall we? Why has sin become so much a major problem constantly?
[24:34] So, we are within the dispensation. I just want to teach you so you are not. Are you listening to me? Yes. So, you are not ignorant of these things that pertain to Christianity.
[24:49] Before someone comes to ask you, okay, people are hypocrites. But is it not the same Old Testament that says that don't combine two clothes of two colors? Why are you now using the other one and leaving the other?
[25:01] There's a difference between ceremonial law and moral law. If the Old Testament said, thou shalt not kill, it's still valid in these days. If the Old Testament said, thou shalt not steal, it's still valid in these days.
[25:14] But if the Old Testament said, always bring your sacrifice to the temple, to the altar in Jerusalem, that is no more valid. Because there's a difference between the moral law, ceremonial law, and the ritual laws.
[25:27] So, now, so when we talk about the dispensation of, after the dispensation of grace, then you enter into the millennial reign of Christ. The dispensation of grace is called the church age.
[25:42] Starting from Acts chapter 2, all the way to Revelation chapter 19. It's called the church age. Right. So, having understood the dispensations, let me go back and then let me introduce another important word to you.
[25:59] I don't think, I've been mentioning it every now and then, but I want to give a clearer understanding of it. The word is ekonomi. Or the Greek is oikonomia.
[26:12] Oikos. Oikos. Oikonomia. Nomia has to do with law. Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy. So, second law.
[26:23] Okay. Antinomianism. Lawlessness. So, when we talk about nomia or nomos, nomos is law. It has to do with law. So, oikos has to do with house.
[26:35] Every house has some rules. Everywhere you go, especially in a big house, like a mansion, there are systems in place to make sure the water systems is running well, the heating systems are working well, the ventilation systems are working well, and then whoever is in management, managing, making sure that, so like a hotel like this, there's someone in charge of housekeeping, and that's a group in charge of maintenance, and that group, front desk.
[27:05] Most of the front desk, people don't know how to do housekeeping. But the manager makes sure that everything is running, it's an economy. So, oikonomia. And so, when we talk about this now, when we talk about God's economy, this is a very important definition, God's economy, we are talking about God's administrative system or an administrative arrangement.
[27:30] is an administrative arrangement of God to carry out his will, his good pleasure, and to fulfill his purpose on earth.
[27:46] So God has some systems. So what I am doing, listen to this, we are all in church. It's part of God's administrative system to dispense grace.
[27:58] Christ has grace and Christ has life into us. Now, having understood that, that means that God, oh, watch, this is a good one. Based on dispensationalism, that means that God from Genesis must have had an administrative arrangement that will end up producing man to become what God has always wanted us to be.
[28:24] That is our salvation and our being with him. It didn't start, that's what Stephen is talking about. It didn't start from the Israelites. It is God's original intent and plan.
[28:37] So now once Stephen was asked to give a defense or to give an explanation of what he was talking about, he drew them into something they were missing. Now, having explained that, I want you to also understand that the Old Testament system was God's, who put in place, it's God's system, right?
[28:59] It was God's system. And so Jesus was born in the Old Testament. The Old Testament or old administration, that's why I told you the dispensation of grace did not start in the days of Jesus.
[29:13] It started from the day of Pentecost, the church age. The church was born on the day of Pentecost, okay? And so Jesus, watch this, and the apostles, they all lived, they were trained, they were raised, they were grown up under the old system.
[29:31] And so the Jews in the old system or in the old dispensation, in the dispensation of law, it was about physical kingdom, physical place, and the Jews as God's people.
[29:44] It was that. And so you remember when Jesus resurrected, can you imagine, Jesus spent three and a half years with them. And then when he resurrected, he spent intermittently, within the 40 days, he spent intermittent times with them, teaching them even deeper and stronger things after resurrection.
[30:06] And can you imagine that after all this period, just towards the end of the second half of the, or the last half of the fourth year, towards the end, one of the disciples said, in Acts chapter 1, verse 6, when they had therefore come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, will thou at this time restore again their kingdom to Israel?
[30:35] after Jesus being with them and taking them because there was, watch this, I'm talking about transitions. Season of transition. They were going through a dispensational transition.
[30:49] They were within, the book of Acts is about a dispensational transfer. It was a dispensational transition. But even within that, they were still thinking Old Testament.
[31:01] So they were asking Jesus, when are you going to restore the kingdom? Jesus said, forget about physical kingdom. It is not for you to know. But what is important is, the church age is about to start. That's what he spoke about.
[31:12] You shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you. Hallelujah. And so, the guys were still, now, look at this.
[31:24] It is human. Everywhere you go, anybody who becomes born again in Christ, you are going to come with your own existing religious mindset.
[31:35] There's a paradigm. It's programming. That's how we've been programmed. Every one of us, in spite of your race, in spite of your gender, in spite of your education, can you imagine when you go to certain nations, intellectuals, top, top professors, they will put, maybe, white garments on their, just on their chest for religious purposes.
[32:07] And some people go and they are beating themselves. And it's not got to do with education. It's got to do with religious systems. God, in the old dispensation, gave Israel a certain dispensation, which became a religious system where they all grew up in.
[32:25] That is why, even when, watch this, so, is it the Old Testament or the old dispensation, the two key things are, the law and what? The law and?
[32:36] Watch this. The God was trying to introduce a new dispensation to old dispensation folks. That is why, they are not bad people. They are not weak people to kill him.
[32:47] They were so committed to this Old Testament dispensation that they will resist anything that opposes it. If they ended up fighting God, those who killed Stephen executed him, not because they are weak people, but they were in a state they were in a state.
[33:09] They were so much committed to the Old Testament economy of God, the old dispensation, the dispensation of law that if you temper with it, that's why they killed Jesus.
[33:24] They killed Jesus because this guy is tempering with something that is older than him. This thing cannot be tempered with. They said, of him that he, when he was on the cross, Matthew 26, 1861 or so, let's see what, Matthew 26, 61, they said, you said, you said, you are able to destroy the temple and build it in three days.
[33:51] You see that charge? Because when Jesus is teaching tempered with the temple, they said, now you to deliver yourself, you who say you can destroy the temple? Deliver yourself.
[34:02] So, they were so protective of the temple, it got to a time God himself had to make sure this temple must come down. That's why the temple came down. Jesus says in Matthew 24, verse 1 and 2, in Luke chapter 21, in Luke chapter 21, verse 5 and 6, let's look at, I like the Luke's version.
[34:20] Luke 21, 5 and 6, look at Luke 21, 5 and 6. He says that, and some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations.
[34:32] Jesus said, these things which you see, the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down.
[34:43] The same thing, Matthew chapter 24, verse 1 and 2, verse 2, look at verse 2, Matthew 24, verse 2, and Jesus said unto them, do you not see all these things? Actually, I say unto you, not one stone shall be left upon the other that shall not be thrown down.
[34:59] God had to make sure this icon of the old dispensation, God himself had to make sure he takes it out. That's why there was a time even Jerusalem did not exist.
[35:13] Jerusalem was a run over. When they, after they killed Jesus and attacked the church and all that, after a while, Jerusalem didn't exist because some people came and took over. They were run out of the land because they were so committed to the land and the temple and the law.
[35:29] God himself said, I am going to do our way with the temple. Stephen said, it was not possible that God should stay in things like this. Whatever Solomon built was not satisfying for God.
[35:39] He said, me, myself, I'm going to build something. So Stephen's submission was touching on some fundamental things. Really, it was about introducing the dispensation of grace to people who were raised in the dispensation of law.
[35:56] Stephen said, men and brethren, you accuse him, I don't have time for that. You accuse him. Why would they accuse him? The accusations was that he was speaking against Moses. He was speaking against God.
[36:08] He was speaking against the law and he was blaspheming against the temple. Moses, the law, God, the temple. Or Moses, God, the law, and the temple.
[36:20] Those were the foundations of their religion. The foundation and religious leaders will not, this is what, this is what I'm trying to say. He was trying to carry them and bring them into a new dispensation and the full revelation of God, they resisted it and not just resisted that one and they opposed anybody.
[36:47] That's why they started persecuting the church. They are persecuting the church because they were introducing a new system into an old system. To understand that even the Christians in Acts, they had not gotten it fully.
[37:01] After Acts chapter to Holy Ghost came, they were still worshipping in the temple. After Acts chapter 2, they were, to the extent, we saw it, we saw it in Acts chapter 15, I said in the other time, how Christians, they are believers, went to Antioch and told the Gentiles, guys, you have to be circumcised.
[37:22] They are bringing the law back into the staff. Bringing the law back into the staff. They are bringing the law into a system of grace. It wouldn't work. It wouldn't work.
[37:33] Peter himself, can you imagine, pastor, eventually, they had to call council meeting to discuss it. That tells you they didn't even know. That's right. They were not sure about this whole thing.
[37:44] It was so new. After all the time this is took to educate them, to enlighten them, they are still not embraced it because they were in a transitional period.
[37:56] They were still transitioning from the economy of works or dispensation of law. Law and the temple into dispensation of grace, which is, in the dispensation of grace, Christ is everything.
[38:15] He is the law of life. In the dispensation of grace, he is the living temple. In John chapter 1, verse 14, it said, the word became flesh.
[38:26] The original Greek word is and tabernacled. So the tabernacle, see, Stephen mentioned the tabernacle in the wilderness that Moses built. That tabernacle could not really fully house God.
[38:38] The Bible says that in Colossians chapter 2, verse 9, it's pleased God that in Christ, oh, the Bible says that in him, all the fullness of the Godhead dwell physically, bodily.
[38:50] In Colossians chapter 1, verse 19, it pleased God that in Christ, all the fullness that he was the actual temple. In John chapter 2, verse 23, the Bible says he spoke concerning his body, which was the temple.
[39:07] Jesus said, I'm the temple because God said, you can't use hands to build something for me. That's what Stephen was trying to talk to them about. Stephen was trying to tell them, guys, we are so, our fathers are so stark.
[39:22] In a system God gave, which was supposed to lead us into a new system, but we got stuck in it and we are not moving. They will move. Stephen had to school them. That's why he spoke about Abraham.
[39:33] See how he began. He said, the God of glory. And then in the verse 48, he started with forget, God of glory, verse 2, and verse 48, he talks about the God, the most high God.
[39:44] My goodness. My goodness. He calls him the God of glory. Then 48, most high, most high, most high. That's how he ended his message. They said he's blaspheming against God.
[39:56] No, he called him God of glory. And last week, I spoke about how God of glory appeared to Abraham. It wasn't the voice of God that moved Abraham. It was the glory he saw.
[40:07] What is the God of glory? You remember, 1 Peter 5, verse 10, it talks about how we have been called. Look at that. He said, may the God of grace, all grace, who called us to eternal glory.
[40:19] He called us to eternal glory. There is this calling. The calling is into glory. The reason why you are born again is because you saw something. You heard something.
[40:30] You discovered something more beautiful about Jesus than whatever. Whatever you left. Whether a lifestyle, a relationship, an opinion, whatever you left behind, you must have seen something better.
[40:46] Why would you throw away your little metal, beautiful, expensive silver spoon or stainless steel spoon?
[40:57] Very beautiful. Expensive. Why would you throw it away and go and pick your golden one? Oh yes, I will go for the golden one because one of the golden one can buy 10 of these ones.
[41:08] Why would I leave this? Because if I don't see the glory, there's no, I am not going for anyone. I wanted to speak American, but it's not coming. I am going for any other one.
[41:21] Oh yes, I am leaving my good one and go for that one. Some of you don't know that your wife is golden. Don't leave their gold and go for silver.
[41:34] So, the God of glory who appeared to Abraham, all of us said yes to Jesus because we saw the glory.
[41:47] Every good preaching is supposed to make Jesus look glorious. Yes. I was studying some time ago and I came across and when a pastor preaches, you cannot be preaching and make Jesus look glorious and you also look wonderful.
[42:06] Wow. After some discoveries, I realized that excessive presentation, some of us may have to tone it down. Oh yes.
[42:19] Oh yes. Excessive presentation like, you know, Michael Jackson, a preacher, you don't have to look too weak. Hallelujah.
[42:36] I'm saying something very profound. It is healthy for preachers to look simpler. Not just healthy, necessary.
[42:48] As I grow, I'm beginning to understand the simpler, the better. The simpler, the better. So all the attention can actually be on the glory. Jesus can look so beautiful.
[43:00] Jesus can, oh yeah, glorious Jesus. Someone say glorious Jesus. Stephen, if you, if you work for the God of glory, you will see the glory of God.
[43:16] Stephen said, the God, men, brothers, verse 2, brethren, listen, the God, that's his, can you imagine his comment? His opening statement? His opening statement?
[43:28] His opening statements? I remember I was listening to one great preacher quite a few years ago. I've said it in church before. And he says that when we pray, Christians, we don't pray to Satan.
[43:43] Too much Satan in our prayer is not good. That part is not good. He said one day, he went to a certain church and there was prayer meeting or the pastor said, we are going to pray.
[43:56] Shall we pray? And I said, okay, let's all pray. The pastor's first comment, Satan, we bind you. Is that Christian prayer? Jesus said, what you pray? Say, the pastor said, Satan, people.
[44:13] Stephen's opening comments were the God of glory. No wonder just before he died, he said, the heavens was opened and he saw the glory.
[44:25] He saw what Abraham saw. He saw what gave birth to the New Testament, the Old Testament, the move of God. He saw the glory. If you take a stand for the God of glory, you'll see the glory of God.
[44:39] You'll see the glory of God. You'll see the glory of God. You'll see it. I see somebody seeing the glory of God. So when we talk about what was happening in saving time, it was the clash of dispensations.
[44:57] Better still, it was the crisis of dispensational transition. They were transitioning, but some said no. To their stand, this wise man called Gamaliel, he knew if we are not careful to fight against God.
[45:12] They were fighting against God because they said no. No. That's why he said, Paul, it is difficult for you to kick against the gods, fighting against God.
[45:26] In Stephen's submission, he pointed because I don't want to come back to this. Stephen took them through history and he showed them how every time God's, even under the dispensation of law, every time God sends somebody, they killed a person.
[45:45] This Moses they were talking about, Moses attempted to help. They rejected him and made the guy run out of town. But that time God hasn't sent him.
[45:57] Then later on, God sent him, Bible says, by an angel that appeared to him. He went back with the mandate. Initially, he was going with his acumen, his abilities, his personal achievements, his attainment because Pharaoh's daughter was childless and saw somebody's son.
[46:16] Said, I like you, you become my son. So he became heir apparent to the throne. So he thought he could do whatever he wanted. I'm sure those days he would drive a Ferrari with a dharma plate Pharaoh one.
[46:32] Yes. So he thought from that position of influence, he could help them. Why did he have a mandate? Church work is mandate from heaven. Not talent.
[46:45] Not just mere education. Not entitlement. It's a mandate and when you have the mandate, it cannot be suppressed. No one, please stop saying somebody is sitting on your ministry.
[46:58] Nobody can sit on your ministry. Just say you don't have a mandate yet. Because if you have a mandate, who can sit on your ministry? God.
[47:11] Oh, yes. So it's important to understand that Moses attempted without a mandate.
[47:22] But when he finally had a mandate, he didn't want to go. When he went, they rebelled. Look at the stems. They said, ask for this Moses, we don't know what has become of him. He said, make us gods, a god, so we can worship and take us back to Egypt.
[47:37] They told Aaron. So this Moses, you people are talking about. Our fathers, they used the word, our fathers rejected him. Our fathers rejected him and they actually ended up, God said, I will give you up and you will serve your god, Raphaim.
[47:54] So now Raphaim became their god. Yes, Rapha. Some transition. He says that you also took their tabernacle. Now, they left God's tabernacle and they went from tabernacle of Moloch.
[48:08] That will make you the sacrifice children there and they do occur. Tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your god, Rapha. Images which you made to worship.
[48:20] And God said, I will carry you beyond the Jordan. And Stephen was running them through the history of their nature. Their pattern has always been there.
[48:30] And he said to them, after he, then he says that until the days of David, and David found favor before God and he desired to build God a temple.
[48:42] But the Bible says that, I like the way Stephen, Stephen didn't focus on David. He said David desired but Solomon built. Then he says that however, this temple we are making the noise about.
[48:54] However, this temple, God cannot live in this temple. God cannot accommodate the temple. The only thing that can accommodate the presence of God on earth is Jesus Christ.
[49:07] And that's what the early church was preaching and they are facing the resistance. And so he says that however, God doesn't dwell in the temples made by hands. And then he quoted what the prophets have said.
[49:22] And after saying that, he's finished his message. It looks like the things started from Abraham, the God of glory, to the Messiah God where he doesn't stay.
[49:34] So look at, it looks like the Old Testament plan or the dispensation of law was leading us to this supernatural temple called Jesus.
[49:46] Because after he said that Solomon's temple cannot house God, I was surprised. He turned on them. It's very serious. Stephen is a very, he turned on them, verse 51.
[49:59] He said, you stiff neck and uncircumcised of heart and ears, you always resist that as your fathers did. Because he's been talking about the father, they knew it, they knew it.
[50:10] And he said, not just that, he said, your fathers resisted the Holy Spirit. And then those who God sent, look at verse 52, which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? So you're fighting us, but it's understandable.
[50:24] That's what you would do anyway. You are so foreign from God that you fight God thinking you are working for him. So which of the prophets is your father?
[50:35] And he said, and they killed, your fathers didn't just persecute the prophet, they killed those who spoke about the coming of Jesus. They killed him and now you have become his betrayers. Betrayers.
[50:47] And next verse, you have received the law for that, you have the law, but you couldn't even keep God. And next verse, when they heard these things, they were cut.
[50:57] It's like they were sewn, they were sewn with a chainsaw in the hat. The thing cut them so much, they couldn't take it anymore.
[51:09] They couldn't take it anymore. And the guy will not shut up. They were cut to the hat. And Bible says verse 55, verse 55, but the guy was so full of the holy ghost, he gazed into heaven.
[51:26] He kept his eyes on heaven. He was gazed. He had seen something. He was gazing into heaven and saw what Abraham saw. He was gazing.
[51:36] Some of us, we don't gaze enough. You have to learn how to gaze in your Bible. Gaze, gaze. Keep your focus on God. You will encounter destiny. Keep your focus on God.
[51:48] He gazed into heaven and saw what the likes of Jacob saw. The likes of David. The likes of Ezekiel. The likes of Jesus.
[52:00] The likes of Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration. It doesn't happen to everybody. Only certain individuals. These people had unique encounters.
[52:12] Isaiah, he said, I saw the Lord. Isaiah chapter 6. In the year when Isaiah died, I saw, I saw, I saw the Lord. Stephen also joined the team.
[52:25] He joined the team and he saw the heavens was open, saw the glory of God and Jesus standing. This man wouldn't shut up. His man wouldn't shut up.
[52:38] And look at what he said. He said, and look, he said, I see this guy. Shut up. The guys are coming after you. Shut up. I'm saving.
[52:49] He said, look, I see heaven open. Look, I see heaven open. I see heaven open and the son of man standing on the right hand of God.
[53:01] When they were challenging this, what the final straw that broke the back of the camel was when they said, who do you say you are? And they said, he was blaspheming and he told them that from this time you will see the heavens whoop and you see the son of man standing on the right hand or descending on the right hand of the father.
[53:23] Jesus said to them, and they said, we don't need any other witness. He said it. He said it. I think Mark 14, 29. I think so. He said it. We don't need any other witness.
[53:35] This Mark 14, he said, Jesus said, and you will see the son of man sitting at the right hand of the power coming with the clouds of heaven. Look at the next verse. And the Bible says, then the high priest tore his clothes and said, what need we have?
[53:51] No witnesses anymore. This guy has proved that we have to kill him. You have had the blasphemy. What do you think?
[54:03] And they all condemn him that he deserve to die. Stephen has seen the same report. He's telling them, now you killed him, but now I can see he's standing on the right. Stephen, he has seen the glory.
[54:19] He wasn't afraid of anything. He was living in a realm. You will never prefer something less when you see the main stuff. And Stephen saw the glory.
[54:31] So they were coming to stone him. He said, I see the Son of Man standing. They blocked. Now look at what they did. It was too much for them. They cried out with love. Can you imagine like senators, senators, very, very dignified people.
[54:45] Now they lost control. They were crying out and they blocked their ears. They don't want to hear anymore. And they pick up stones. They ran towards him, took him out, stoned him, and the witnesses laid their clothes because he needs freedom to win.
[55:02] But let me just throw this in. Let me throw this in. Deuteronomy chapter 17 verse 6 and 7, it talks about when you have to execute somebody, there must be witnesses.
[55:13] So you need a witness. Whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses. he shall not be put to death on the testimony.
[55:25] That's why they brought witnesses. And after he finished talking, they look at the next verse. It says that the hand of the witness shall be defensed against him to put to death.
[55:35] What they do is there is about maybe three meters deep ditch. So when they are going to stone you, they will bring you to the edge. Jesus has kept, scared.
[55:47] And then the first witness, the one who is witnessing that you said it, there must be two. So the first one will come and push you. If you fall face long and you die, that's it.
[56:00] But if you fall backwards and you don't die, then the second one will have to take a big stone and throw it on your heart and crush you. And if you don't die, then the rest will have to.
[56:11] And Stephen, he went through all that process. they pushed him, they threw a stone, and the Bible said they stone him. And he had, let me add this, somebody who was being stoned, he had energy and determination and was able to kneel down.
[56:29] He got up and knelt down and cried out to the Father, don't lay this to their charge. The church, St. Augustine said, the church owes Stephen's prayer for Saul.
[56:43] That prayer gave us Saul. That prayer gave us Saul. Stephen was the first one to give a comprehensive explanation, to move us from the dispensation of law to transition us into the dispensation of grace.
[57:03] And he gave his life for it. And as soon as he died, the church spread out. Because now grace, grace, grace, grace, grace, grace.
[57:20] Did you receive something? Amen. Amen. Thank you for listening to this message by David Entry. We pray you have been revived towards God. You can connect with David Entry on all relevant social media platforms, including Instagram and LinkedIn.
[57:36] You can also hear more messages from David Entry on all relevant streaming platforms and the Carish Church app. Don't forget to like and share the message. Be blessed.哪裡哪裡