Grace Chapel Bible Ministries
worship Call 1182 - 2024/11/15
[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Welcome to Worship Call with Bible teacher Buzz Lawbet. Buzz is the pastor of Grace Chapel Bible Ministries located in Duncan, South Carolina. This ministry is dedicated to the verse by verse teaching of God's word and discipleship programs aimed at strengthening the faith of God's people. Now here's today's message. A quote from Howard Marshall, the Jews had the tabernacle in the wilderness and later the temple built up by Solomon. But they fell into idolatry and made the mistake of thinking that God actually dwelt in the temple. These two themes are intermingled in the speech of Stephen. This is the sixth day of the week and God's created order. The 15th day of the 11th month, 2024th year of our Lord, and this is another fine day in the Lord. Father in heaven, we thank You for it. We pray that we follow to open our hearts. There's a study this morning that we may grow in it, that we may take the example of Stephen, of when we are confronted with questions and with hostility toward us to recognize that the hostility is not directed toward us personally. But to the word that we are to, and the witness that we, and the one that we are witnessing for is to be exalted. Pray, have we followed You open our hearts, these things, in Christ's name we pray. Amen. And as we continue on, we learn, we're exploring how God's promises from the early days of Israel to the life of Jesus and the early church showcase His unwavering faithfulness and the call for His people to be witnesses and faithfulness. And here we have, we continue to look at this as Stephen has brought up before the council and the council. And you have to ask yourself in the end, who's on trial? Who's the judge here? Who's doing and who's doing speaking? Because in the end, it's going to be the one who's filled with the spirit who communicates. You see, when you communicate a spirit and you're under the filling ministry of God the Holy Spirit, then those who attack you because of your faith. Or it is not, it is not the you that's doing speaking, it's not you to be defending yourself, but to be defending the word of God. And this is what the council is doing. Once again, this is what he did with the apostles, or, well, Peter and John, when they tried to intimidate them, Stephen is not going to be intimidated. And I'm still going back to, I think it's kind of fun to think that here these guys, these Pharisees, these teachers, they're the experts of the law. And yet, here it is this layman, per se, who is Stephen? That Stephen can stand up with all the confidence between these PhDs and all and give a good testimony. Amen, amen to that. So Stephen continues to school the council. His point was connect this Jesus who named murder because they are under the indictment. They are the ones who murdered Jesus. And so Stephen is making his case. And basically what many lawyers do is to discredit the prosecution as the prosecutor tried to discredit the defense. It also addresses the two attacks against them. What are the two attacks? First of all, that Jesus would tear down his temple and build it back up. Well, let's look at Acts 6 at 11. Then they secretly induced Ben to say, "We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God." And they steered up the people, the elders, and the scribes. And they came up to him and dragged him away and brought him to the council. And they put him forward to witnesses who said this man incessantly speaks against the holy place and the law. And so Stephen is taking the council through the scriptures. He is, as it were, letting the Word of God do the defending. Calling back, in the times of this, when you have to face, even a question, maybe a question that's brought to you, or maybe you're under the attack for your faith. And certainly when you're under persecution. And I bet you, Stephen, are looking forward to speaking with Stephen on this, perhaps. And as you're going through it, you should be constantly in prayer as you're going through this situation and that you might give the good answer, that the Holy Spirit will bring to you the answers that you need. And now we come to the person of Moses who is held at the highest regard. Moses is held at the highest regard of all the Jewish people. And so to make a comment against Moses and against the law and against the temple. And so they're going to the, he's, they're attacking him legalistically. He's done this, he's done that, he's done this. But the highest law has already been, been blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Nothing is addressed yet on that. So Moses is more of a type, as we mentioned yesterday. He's more of a type than any person. And remember, a type is a foreshadowing of something to come. And a type, you have the image, the foreshadowing, and later on you have the antichrist, what it points to, like the Lamb of God. You have the sacrificial lamb throughout the Old Testament. And it foreshadows the actual lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. And here, the flag was a type of, of final judgment. The anti-type, and the anti-type of course is the final judgment. So Moses is more of a type than just about anyone you have. Or you can take Moses and can take Jesus on both sides. And you can see the parallels within their lives and the narrative. And no type, remember is perfect. No type illustration is perfect. There are those things. For example, Moses was a murderer. Jesus was not. Therefore, Moses was a sinner. Jesus was not. He was perfect. So that's something to remember. Don't try to fit everything in the life of Moses to Jesus. And try to, try to work around it. It's better to know, know the, the, the, the new scripture, know what the anti-type known. When you know Jesus and you become occupied with Jesus and you come in that narrative. And when you go back to the Testament and you read the life of Moses, you begin to say, "Oh, okay. I see the images. I see the parallels." And so we finished with Moses having killed the man for mistreating one of his own Hebrew. And coming to find, when it was found out, then Moses had to escape to the desert. Once again, you try to say, "Well, how does that fit into life of Jesus?" I, I don't think it does, except that, except for this, Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness. And Jesus went to the wilderness for 40 days and fasted there when he met up with it. And it was in the wilderness that Moses received the revelation from God. Okay, let's, so let's go to Acts 731 and I'll read down to 37. When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight, as he approached to look more closely. Remember, this is the dialogue of Stephen to the council. When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight and as he approached to look more closely, there came a voice of the Lord. I am the God of the fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses shook with fear and would not venture to look. But the Lord said to him, "Take off your sandals from your feet for the place in which you are standing is holy ground." I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt and have heard their groans. And I have come down to rescue them, come now, and I will send you to Egypt. Okay, we can draw out a little bit of parallel here or a type or a figure, a Moses figure. Moses is sent to the people to free them or to lead them out of captivity, as Jesus is sent from the Father in heaven to an oppressed people. For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. And Jesus said, "I did not come to judge the world but to save the world, save the many." So Moses would be, so Moses, okay, I want to know that. Continue on. Verse 35. This Moses, whom they disowned, saying, "Who made you ruler and judge is the one whom God sent to be both a ruler and deliverer with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the thorn bush." In this, both, let's go back to that passage again. All right, lost it. There we go. "Whom God sent to be both ruler and deliverer and the help of the angel who appeared to him in the thorn bush." This is also connected with Joseph. Joseph was both the suffering servant and he was the deliverer, the redeemer, the savior. Jesus, up to this point, and still, did you still, in their mindset, even today, they have this, there are those that believe that there are actually two. There's the deliverer, there's the savior, and there's the king, the Messiah. And many fail to recognize that they are both the same person, this is what happened with John, John the Baptist in the prison. When he sent a message to Jesus and he said, "Are you the one, or can we expect another one per se?" And Jesus sent a message back and saying, "Well, look at what's going on and look at the miracles. People are being, their sight is being restored, the lame is walking and those things." And John wanted to know whether, you know, whether he wasn't losing faith in Jesus, he is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. But is he the Messiah? Is there a second person that he should be looking for? And that's what Stephen is saying right here, he's professing that Jesus is not only the savior, but he is also the Messiah. Verse 36, "This man led them out performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea and the wilderness for 40 years." Okay, just like Jesus, Moses, he established his authority through miracles, or let's just say his credentials. Knowing that he is from God, knowing that he was sent from God, his bona fides were the miracles which he had performed. This man led them out performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the wilderness for 40 years. This is the Moses you said, when you go there, you know, this is the accusation. This is the Moses you said to the sons of Israel, "You will rise up for you, a prophet, like me from your brethren." Okay, they taught, and the Pharisees taught this. These are their repeated words from Scripture. So God will raise up for you a prophet, like me from the brethren. Let's see what, and that's in Deuteronomy 18, 15, let's just go to there. "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet, like me from among you, from your countrymen, and you shall listen to him." This is according to all that you ask of the Lord your God and horrib on the day of the assembly saying, "Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God. Let me not see the great fire anymore, or I will die." And the Lord has said to me, "They have spoken well." Looking for another. All right, looking for a mediator is what it is. Looking for someone who will stand between them and God. Okay, and Acts 3, 22. Moses said, "The Lord God will raise you up a prophet, like me from your brethren." This is Paul's or Peter's second time they were sitting before the counsel. "The Lord God will raise you up a prophet, like me from..." Actually, it's not the second time he was coming, it's his second sermon. "Like me from the brethren, to him you shall give heed to anyone anything he says to you." Okay, here's the indictment, are you listening? I'm going back once again. This is the one. You notice how often, as you go back through this, notice how often Stephen is... See, he's making a case for Christ. Notice each time he says, "This man, this man, this man, this man whom you crucify, this man, this man whom you stand guilty of murdering." This is the one. He is the one who has been raised up. He is the prophet. He is the one who is like the Moses that is to come. This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness together with the angel who was speaking to him on the Mount Sinai and who was with our fathers. And he received living oracles to pass on to you. So Moses, again, here's that type. Moses would go up to Sinai. He would receive the information. He would, just like Jesus, would go up to the mountain to pray, to intercede for the people. So would Moses go up to the mountain to receive revelation, to bring that revelation back down to the people and to pass on. And remember, it was in the same type of type as well. We can look at this, that there were actually two covenants. Actually, it were the same, but remember the first time Moses went up and he received the stones that was written on by God. By the finger of God, he brought those stones down. And when he saw the adultery and the things that were taken place, what did he do? He threw the stones down and broke them. And later on, they would have a second. The Lord would give them a second law, which would bring the tablets again. So also foreshadowing there of the Mosaic law. And then there would be the new law, the new covenant. And the new covenant was created for Judah and Israel, and we find that would be in Jeremiah 31. So it would be the second, or the new covenant. This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness together with the angel, who was speaking to him on the Mount Sinai, and who was with our fathers, and he received living oracles to pass on to you. Our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him, but repudiated him, and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. First of all, when Moses first came to the wilderness or to the people after being sent from the burning bush, they in Exodus 2 to 14, they didn't want to hear him. Because when Moses, remember when Moses in Exodus 3, when Moses and Aaron showed up, they made Pharaoh mad, and Pharaoh actually increased their labor. And so these people didn't want, they rejected him, initially said, go away. They didn't want him. They said it was bad enough. And again, we have another type there, those that call upon Jesus. You can live a life, you can go through life, and you can be a live a comfortable life. As long as you don't bring up the name Jesus, you may live a life, a good life, and die, and go to hell. But when you take a stand for Christ in a hostile world, be prepared to have temporal suffering that comes along with like these people, and they didn't want to reject him. But even after, okay, let's go with Exodus 2, 14, but he said, who made you a prince or the judge over us? Are you intending to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? That Moses was afraid, and said, surely this matter has been made known. There was also out in the wilderness, the rebellions, and the different rebellions against Moses. There was the rebellion in which they rebelled against the law, they rebelled against provision, and they rebelled against the authority of God. And at that point, in numbers, the Lord sent the serpents that bit them, and they suffered, and some of them died. That's where the bronze serpent, the Lord said, well, make a post, but a bronze serpent on there, and all those who will look upon that, they will be healed. There was the rebellion of Korah. In Korah, he assembled the people, his family, and he assembled those that wanted to go back to Egypt, go back to the old way, or go back to the way they knew, go back to Egypt. At least they could be fed, and they could go back, and what happened there? The ground opened up, and swallowed, and they went straight to hell, healed. They went straight to hell, that's when people say you could go straight there, and while Korah and his family did, they rebelled. These are examples Paul says, and to the Corinthian believers, these are examples for you. And that again, Stephen is laying this out before the council, the Sanhedrin. But they're arrogance, and they're arrogance, they're going to fail to see and take heed the lesson. Jesus himself was not received, but was crucified. There was a clear rejection of Moses, even a hatred for Duke, and there was a clear rejection of Jesus as well. But he said, who made you print? Oh, okay, back up a little bit on this one. There we go. Back to Acts. Our father's unwilling to be obedient to him, but reputed him, and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. Saying to Aaron, "Make for us gods who will go before us, for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt." We do not know what happened to him, out of sight and out of mind. And this is what really the religious leaders wanted of Jesus to be out of sight and out of their mind, but he keeps coming back. At that time, they made a cap and brought the sacrifice to the idol, and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. But God turned away and delivered them up to serve the host of heaven. As it is written in the Book of Prophets, it was not to me that you offered victims and sacrifices 40 years in the wilderness, was it? Oh, House of Israel. You also took along the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of the God of Rumpa, the images which you made to worship. I also will remove you from beyond Babylon. Here's another morning. Here's another foreshadowing because 8070 is on its way. And 8070 is going to be the destruction of the very thing that their sacred temple, the thing that they hold on to. And we've talked about this time before, that there are people, even Christians who worship their church. Am I right? They worship their church. They worship their altar. They worship their steeple. They worship their parking lot. They worship their graveyard over and above. And these things become idols. And the temple became an idol for these people. Remember what Stephen is up on charge before speaking against the law? Which law cannot save anyone. And speaking of the temple which becomes their idol. But the very things that they are so afraid of, they're holding on to it like that monkey with his hands in a jar. He can't get his hand out of jar because he's made a fist because he's grabbed onto the nuts in there and he's just captured by it. So here it is that they were captivated by the things that they worshiped. And which was the idol and their law. They couldn't see past that to see Jesus. And they should. The law isn't a bad thing. But the law is a tutor that Paul says. It's a tutor. And it brings us into seeing the Christ. As we said before, that these people, those the believers, what they did was equate the historical person of Christ to their scriptures. And they learned who he was. Our fathers had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness. Just as he had spoke to Moses, directed him to make according to the pattern which he had seen. To the pattern, it's important here to understand that the tabernacle, the temple, was only a pattern in the image. It wasn't the actual thing. Where is the actual tabernacle? It's in heaven. And that's where Christ is right now. As our high priest in that tabernacle, making intercession for us. You can look at Hebrews. I'm not sure but this was the pattern. It wasn't the actual thing. The temple is not, though they were to treat it secretly, it was not the higher thing to be worshiped. That's what I'm trying to say. It's because Christ moving on. All right. Verse 45, "And having received it in their turn, our fathers brought it in with Joshua upon dispossessing the nations from God drove out before our fathers until the time of David." David found favor in God's sight and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built the house for him. However, the most high does not dwell in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says, "Heaven is my throne. The earth is my footstool of my feet. What kind of house will you build me?" says the Lord. Or, "What places is there for my repose?" Remember, again, Stephen is up against talking about Jesus who spoke of tearing down this temple. It was a lie, but Stephen didn't expound on that. He's going straight to the heart. You're worshiping something that you shouldn't be worshiping. Because the greater thing has taken place, Jesus who goes to heaven, who is in heaven. The temple right now, we're excited when we bring up stuff, as I've done on the last days, and I'm excited about the temple being built. It is not about the temple itself that I'm excited that's going to be. And when they start building it and building that temple, and I believe it's going to be in a very short period, I think it's going to be within my lifetime that that temple is going to be built. And I'm going to be very excited about it, as many of you are going to be very excited about it. Am I excited about the sacrifices that's going to start back up in a way, but not in a sense you might think? Because of all this, I'm seeing the prophecy being unfolded. I'm excited about scripture, about how it's being unfolded. The unbelievers, the unbelievers, those who are going to be sacrificing in that temple, they are in apostate Jews. They have built their temple, they're going to start back their sacrifices, but these Jews have rejected the person who looked. They're looking for how they're looking for their sins to be forgiven, and the only way to do that is their sacrifices and bring it back to the temple. And this is what this future temple is going to mean for them. They want some place that they can go to take their sacrifice to worship God, because they do not have God in their heart. So is it the temple itself that I'm excited about? No, I'm excited about the unveiling of scripture, as it is written. So these Pharisees, they're looking at keeping everything in place to law, the temple and all this. And here it is that Stephen is professing the Christ. Alright, 51. Verse 51, "You men who are stiff-necked, now here comes the verdict, you men who are stiff-necked." And uncircumcised in heart, you see, they're circumcised ritually going back to Abraham. That Abraham was God who established the sign of the covenant through Abraham. "You men stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart." It is not about this, Paul is going to talk about it, it's not the circumcision of the flesh that counts, but it's the circumcision of the heart. And ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit. These are the ones that are guilty of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. It is these men who have claimed the Holy Spirit to be Bel-Ezzabah. And it was then that Jesus said, "You say anything about the Son of man, but when you speak about the Holy Spirit, that will not be forgiven you. You are doing just as your fathers did, you're repeating history. Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the righteous one, whose portrayers and murders you have now become. Okay, as the sins of the Father is now upon them. You have received the law as ordained by the angels and yet did not keep it. She there indicted by the law. Paul is going to talk about this as well. They are holding up the very law, they are persecuting others under the law, which they themselves are guilty of. It's like David when Nathan came to David and David was a murder of Uriah the Hittite. And he brought up the story about the man who had a little lamb and the rich man came and took that lamb and killed it and slaughtered it. And that the lamb to the man was like family, it was his pet and somebody else killed it. David was outraged. David did not see his own sin, as these men did not see their own sin. And David was cut to the quick and David was going to die. He was going to die son of the death and then David and Nathan pointed out to him, you are that man, you're that man who killed that lamb. And these are the men who they can cast blame of those who broke the law who did this and did that. But all the same, they are the guilty ones, they are the ones with blood on their hands. And so here comes the verdict, guilty. And that guilty is passed down from the Holy Spirit to these men and they are not going to like it. Father in Heaven, thank you for this opportunity of fellowshiping your word this morning. And we pray Heavenly Father God the Holy Spirit will open our hearts to the study of your word and may we be edified by it. And these things we pray in Christ's name, amen. All right, it's another fine day in the Lord, another fine weekend in the Lord. We'll be back here and Sunday morning. Lord, Willensburg, God, and 11 a.m. if you're in the neighborhood, please stop by and fellowship with us if you don't have a church. And so until then, stay motivated in the Lord, keep your armor on, keep fighting, good fight of faith. Lord, Willensburg, guide me in after penning. We'll be back here then. Joining us. You can hear this message again as well as previous lessons. And get notes by visiting us online at www.gchappell.org. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO]
This lesson explores how God's promises, from the early days of Israel to the life of Jesus and the early church, showcase His unwavering faithfulness and the call for His people to be witnesses of that faithfulness.