This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,
County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
Whenever I leave here today, even though I sense His Holiness
and His presence in the midst of us gathering as a congregation,
I will sense that same holiness when I leave here.
And God is with me wherever I go and where He's with you.
Wherever you go, He dwells in us.
The temple of God is you and me. When we gather together as a
corporate group, it's it seems like it's more dynamic.
And it is because whenever two or more gathered together in His
name, He's definitely clearly there in the midst of us.
You don't need to have a fancy building, the charismatic
pastor, or even a worship band to enter into God's presence.
When Jesus died on the cross, God's presence ripped the
curtain to the Holy of Holies in two, making God's presence
accessible to anyone who calls on His name.
Pastor Clark teaches you today that God is with you always,
even when you're not around other believers.
You could still sense His presence with you even when
you're going about menial activities in your everyday
life. Now here's Pastor Clark in Acts
Chapter 7 as he continues his message.
Jewish history began with Abraham.
Next day he appears to two of them as they're fighting.
So 2 Jewish guys, they're fighting about who knows what.
And he tries to reconcile them saying men, you're a brethren,
you, you belong to each other, you're family, Why do you wrong
one another? But he who did his neighbor
wrong pushed him away, saying, who made you a ruler and a judge
over us? You want to kill me as you did
the Egyptian yesterday. Then as this saying, Moses fled
and became a dweller in the land of Midian where he had two sons.
So Moses hears us. He's probably looking around.
I hope no one heard this. I'm getting out of here because
they catch me for this. I'm I'm in trouble.
So so he took off. It's interesting that any
messenger that God has sent and you can study throughout the Old
Testament. Isaiah was a prophet.
He was sown into Jeremiah was sown in a prison.
I mean, all the people that God had sent to bring the message
was always we somehow either martyred, rejected or just
betrayed. This is just the the history of
of the nation of Israel. I find it amazing that here God
picks his people group. They have these miracles.
They go through the the miracle of the deliverance through the
Red Sea. They have the pillar of cloud by
day to guide them. Tabernacle moved around God's
presence, the pillar of fire at night.
They had manna provided for them food.
They had quail to eat, protein, they had clothing that never
wore out. I mean, they had one miracle
after another miracle after another miracle.
And they get to the point that they aren't going to listen
anymore. They're not going to listen to
God, let alone the people that he sends to tell them about who
he is. And so Moses, then he takes off.
He fled and he became a dweller in the land of Midian.
So he he became a sheep herder in the backside of the mountain
of the deserts for 40 years, every day getting up, taking
care of the livestock. He had a wife and couple, couple
kids. That was it.
He probably every once in a while thought, I wonder how
things are going in Egypt. I wonder how my people are
going. But he knew he couldn't go back
because of the murder he had committed in verse 30.
And when 40 years had passed, an Angel of the Lord appeared to
him in a flame of fire in a Bush in the wilderness of Mount
Sinai. So here he is, another day.
There's another mundane, boring day of doing work whatever up
there on the mountain. He probably passed that Bush at
different times. All the sudden this Bush is on
fire and he hears a voice coming from the Bush.
It's an Angel of the Lord getting his attention.
And when Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight.
And as he drew near to observe, the voice of the Lord came to
him, saying, I am the God of your father's, the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
And Moses trembled and dared not look.
Then the Lord said to him, Take your sandals off your feet, for
the place where you stand his holy ground.
I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are
in Egypt. I have heard their groanings,
and I've come down to deliver them.
And now come, and I will send you to Egypt.
So I think about all these years of people crying out to God.
It's never the fact that God doesn't hear.
It's always the timing of 1 responds to what it is the cry
is about and we can't speed that up as much as we wonder like
Lord, how come you haven't answered me yet?
How come you haven't helped me with this yet?
How come you haven't shown me yet?
It isn't that he's ignoring you, but He has a perfect time when
he's going to deliver you or help you or provide for you in a
way that you'll know it's him. It wasn't you or anybody else,
it's Him. And so God shows up in a very
powerful way and now he's Speaking of Moses.
And Moses isn't an arrogant man anymore trying to use physical
force to get people to get straight.
Now he's a timid, fearful, weak man.
And that's who the kind of people God uses.
He's not looking for people to have it all together who think
they're perfect or they're trained or they're skilled or
whatever. He chooses the weak and foolish
things of this world to confound the wise that no flesh with
glory in his presence. So Moses at this point is not
probably the best candidate from our perspective because of his
lack of pride. God maybe, or his lack of, I can
get this done or I can do it. Hey, you picked the right guy.
I'm all ready to go. Moses does everything he can.
If you remember to say, hey, not me.
I can't talk. I I can't do this.
And God's frustrated with him. Like I'm going to do this in you
and through you. It's not going to be you, Moses.
But God gave Moses a break for a little while and had Aaron, his
brother, do some of the speaking initially, until Moses began to
see that the mighty hand of God was doing all these miracles.
It wasn't him or Aaron. It was God in and through these
servants of His. And so the Lord is speaking to
him now and the people they are, this is the way they are, this
Moses whom they rejected saying, who made you a roller?
And a judge is the one God sent to be a roller and a deliverer
by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the Bush.
He brought them out after he'd shown wonders and signs in the
land of Egypt, in the Red Sea and in the wilderness 40 years.
So you see the rebellion of Israel against God starting in
verse 37. This is that Moses who said to
the children of Israel, the Lord your God will raise up for you a
prophet like me from your brother, and him you shall hear.
So he's already telling him that Jesus is coming.
He's on his way, and he's the one you're going to hear.
He's the one that's the true leader.
He's the one that's the true deliverer.
He's the one that is the Messiah.
And this is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness
with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our
fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give to us
the 10 commandments whom our fathers would not obey, but
rejected. And in their hearts they turned
back to Egypt, saying to Aaron, Make us gods to go before us.
As for this Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we
do not know what has becoming him.
And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the
idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
And then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of
heaven as it is written in the book of the Prophets.
Did you offer me slaughtered animals and sacrifice during 40
years in the wilderness of House of Israel?
You also took up the Tabernacle of Molech and the Stars of your
God Rap fan images, which you made to worship.
And I will carry you away beyond Babylon.
And so in this midst of God doing all these awesome miracles
and the group of people that you would think would be tuned in to
be faithful, to follow, to be loyal to, to have allegiance to,
to pay homage to, they are just blowing it off like never
happened at the bottom of Sinai. Moses is up there dealing with
God and the law and, and all the holiness and the purity of who
he is. And they're down there partying,
they're getting drunk, they're having orgies, they're
worshipping Pagan deities or they're molding idols.
I mean, it's just a horrific scene.
And whenever Moses came down off that hill, Joshua, his helper
said that there's a sound of a lot of voices down there.
What what's going on? It sounds like war closer they
got down there, they realized it wasn't a war.
It was a horrible picture of ungodliness under the holy
mount, Mount Sinai. And so God had to deal with it
and, and over 22,000 people were killed that day because of their
disobedience to the Lord. So the picture here is that
Steven is preaching and showing the nations history of how
they've always acted and they're still acting this way even
though initially they're acting like OK, Jesus is a good guy, a
prophet, whatever, you can have your religion, we'll let you go.
They are getting more and more convicted because they're
supposed to be representing to their own people group, true
religion or true faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
But because of their unbelief and their rebellion, they are
going against what it is that God is endeavoring to show them.
So it continues in verse 44, our fathers is talking about God's
true Tabernacle. Our fathers had the Tabernacle
of witness in the wilderness as He appointed instructing Moses
to make it according to the pattern, and He had seen which
our fathers having received it, in turn brought with Josh, went
to the land possessed by the Gentiles.
So when Moses couldn't continue to lead the nation and God took
him up, Joshua was the next kind in the leadership there to to
lead the children of Israel. This temple, this Tabernacle was
so specifically designed. The beauty of it and all the
different parts of it and all that these things represented to
the people, this presence of God.
They were told to, you know, take care of this and move it
around. This is how God would show up
and speak with them at that particular time.
Joshua, they they take God drove out before the face of the
fathers, all these bad people in the promised land until the days
of David, who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling
for the God of Jacob. But Solomon built him a house.
So there's another temple built in the times of David.
However, in spite of all these historical facts and history,
the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands.
As the prophet said, God never intended us to worship a
building or worship an environment that we think is
holy. The only thing that that's holy
in the environment when people gather is the holy God, and we
are partakers of that holiness. As his followers, we're to be
holy. The Bible says is he's holy.
But whenever I leave here today, even though I sense His Holiness
and his presence in the midst of us gathering as a congregation,
I will sense that same holiness when I leave here.
And God is with me wherever I go and where he's with you,
wherever you go, He dwells in us.
The temple of God is you and me. When we gather together as a
corporate group, it's it seems like it's more dynamic.
And it is because whenever two or more gathered together in his
name, he's definitely clearly there in the midst of us.
But he's also, this is really, and this is present when you're
with him in your home or wherever you are meeting with
him in prayer or the word or just talking him about whatever
is on your heart and what you need help with.
But then the prophet says, and he's, he's quoting here from
Isaiah chapter 66. However, the Most High does not
thrown temples made with hands. As the prophet says, heaven is
my throne and earth is my footstool.
What house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is
the place of my rest? Has my hand not made all these
things comical? You know, you want to know the
throne room of God? It's the whole universe, way
beyond what we can even see or even comprehend.
The Bible says in Him we live, move and have our being.
And it's staggering that we would think that God is in a
box, in an altar. And we sit and we look at the
box, somehow thinking, you know, well, God's in that box, which
in some religious traditions represents the communion, the
Eucharist, the Lord's Supper. You can't contain God in
anything. God's omnipresent, everywhere
present, He fills all things. And so our minds, I guess before
we come to know Christ, they're real small, aren't they?
We don't have the ability to fathom a creator God because
everything's like we're looking and we got a penny in front of
our eye and the penny blocks the vision of the glory of God
because we're so narrow minded and so short sighted that we
can't see what it is that God wants us to see until we begin
to, to read the Scriptures. And then they the Bible says the
entrance of God's word gives light, it turns the lights on,
it takes the darkness away because understanding the simple
minded people like us. So Israel resists the Holy
Spirit. So they're resisting the
prophets. They're resisting the message of
Moses. You know, the brothers, the
patriarchs rejected Joseph's leadership until, you know, he
provided for them. And they then begin to know that
it was God's plan. Everything had happened.
But it's just his tendency of human nature to reject the will
of God. So then he starts really getting
into it here you stiff 5th neck and verse 51 and uncircumcised
in heart and ears. Now they were circumcised
physically, but they weren't circumcised in their heart and
the true circumcision of God is a new heart.
God says I will take out your heart of a stone and I will give
unto you a heart of flesh. And when God gives us this new
heart right, which most of us probably have in here is born
again believers. We definitely have it if we're
born again, if we're not saved yet, we don't.
We still have a heart of stone and that's what continually
resists the seed of the word of God on in our heart.
We just reject it, push it away. I did that for years.
I'm sure some of you did too and want to hear it and want to
acknowledge it and want to accept it.
But he's telling them that they're like this.
They're stiff necked and uncircumcised.
He, he told them this over 20 times in the Old Testament, that
this is how they react. You always resist the Holy
Spirit as your Father's did, and so do you.
Which of the prophets did your Father's not persecute?
And they killed those who foretold the coming of the just,
one of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, who
have received the law by the direction of angels, and have
not kept it so. They have all this religion,
they have this temple, they have the Torah, the first five books
of the Bible at the time. They have the the 10
commandments, the law, and no one's keeping it, no one's doing
it. It's just showing up, going
through ritual, the ceremony, and then going out and living
life like God doesn't exist. And so when they heard these
things and these are the people, the audience that the Lord had
collected to hear. Now at this point in time, most
of the people in Jerusalem that heard the message have already
become believers. The last time we looked at the
numbers, approximately 20,000 people, I don't know how many
people were living there at that time, but it was still a small
percentage of the total population.
So God knows when he moves and he moves within a people group
and a nation, a country that there will eventually be a
number that's sort of like stabilized.
And the rest of the people that are rejecting the message would
be people that hate Jesus and hate him.
And I'm not saying there's no hope for them, but the heart of
the heart becomes the more difficult it is to put your
faith in Jesus Christ. That's why Paul said the day is
the day of salvation. If you hear his voice now, he's
softening it. Receive Him and believe in him,
because you might not get another chance if the Holy
Spirit's convicting you. And you know I need Jesus, let
him save you. Get out of the way and ask Him
for forgiveness that you want to follow him and he'll he'll save
you. It's, it's, it's that simple.
So these people are resisting. So when they hear these things,
verse 54, they're cut to the heart, meaning they're convicted
and they gnash at him with their teeth.
They're so mad and angry. You ever get really mad at
somebody just hurt your teaching.
I hate you. I hope you guys don't do that,
but you've probably done that before.
The Bible talks about weeping and gnashing of teeth being
symbolic of the consequences of what it's going to be like being
in hell will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
But he being full of the Holy Spirit, Steven never missed a
beat. He was under the control and
influence of the Holy Spirit. He wasn't going to back off or
not tell these people the truth. He was a true faithful witness.
He gazes into heaven. I don't know if he had some kind
of vision or this is something that he was able to see and no
one else was able to see. And he saw the glory of God and
Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
Jesus is standing there ready to receive his first martyr that's
given his life for the sake of the gospel.
Jesus already gave his life for you and me.
And Stephen has the privilege of being the first human being to
give his life for Christ and, and Christ is rooting for us all
the time. He's our biggest fan, isn't he?
Like when we walk our in our lives and do things according to
his will, he's cheering you on. You're with me.
You're my family, you're my son, you're my daughter.
I rejoice in what you're doing. I see your suffering.
I know it's hard, I know it's difficult, but it's going to be
worth it. Just keep, keep on keeping on.
Like it says in First Corinthians 1558, be steadfast
and movable, always abiding and to work for the Lord as much as
you know your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
It's never a waste of time. And so he sees the Lord Jesus
standing there at the right hand of God, says, look, I see the
heavens open and the Son of man standing at the right hand of
God. Then they cried out with a loud
voice. They stopped their ears and they
ran at him with 1 accord and they cast him out of the city.
And the way they do this, they put him in some kind of pit and
they had all these rules of how many feet you had to be away
until they, you know, repented or, you know, said, I'm not
going to do this anymore. There was no opportunity for any
of this. Stephen was committed and he
wasn't changing his mind. They cast him out and they stone
him, and the witness laid down their clothes at the feet of a
young man named Saul. So here's the apostle Paul
before he's saved. And keep your in your mind, you
might know someone in your life. Oh, that person's never going to
be a believer. They're so wicked, they're so
ungodly, they're so Pagan, they're so hateful.
Pray for them. Be a light like Stephen was.
Stephen's countenance shine like an Angel.
Paul had to observe all this, right?
Who knows the background in all the details of when Paul
eventually became a believer, But Stephen had an impact on
Paul as he's had an impact on everybody that's ever read the
story and all those who were there.
And so they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God, saying, Lord
Jesus, receive my spirit. Remember the Lord Jesus when he
died on a cross into your hands I commit my spirit.
Stephen's doing the same thing, committing a spirit to the Lord.
He knelt down and he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not
charge them with this sin. And when he had said this, he
fell asleep. What a man of God, What a loving
man, loving his enemies. Jesus says love those who hate
you, pray for those who hate you, love those who hate you,
pray for those who despitefully use you, and say all manner of
evil about me for my namesake. Don't you want to be like Jesus?
Don't you want to be like Stephen?
I know I do, and I can't do it in my own strength and neither
can you. That as the Holy Spirit works in
US and the grace of God fills us with the Spirit of God, we can
have lives that testify like this.
And as he said, like Jesus said, Father, forgive them.
They know not what they do. What a profound thing to say
when they were surely determined and focused and knew why they
wanted to get rid of Jesus. But Jesus and his grace said,
forgive them. So they don't know what they do.
And Stephen says do not charge them with this sin.
It says in chapter 8, there's a few verses now Saul was
consenting to his death. So the apostle Paul's like, kill
this guy, throw the stones at him.
Let's get rid of him, silence him.
He's coming against the great institution of Judaism in the in
the nation of Jerusalem. And so we got to get rid of him.
And so Saul was there pushing this stuff.
And at that time a great persecution arose against the
church, which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered.
They were pushed out of Jerusalem, the comfort zone, and
they ended up in the regions of Judea, Samaria, except the
apostles and devout men carried Stephen to his burial and they
made great lamentation over him. They were broken hearted over
this man's death. As for Saul, this is what he did
until the Lord got a hold of him.
He made havoc of the church. He came in and caused problems
everywhere he went. He hated Christians, he entered
every house, and he drag men and women out into prison,
committing them to prison because of their faith in the
Lord Jesus. What blows me my mind about the
Bible? You go through a chapter like
that and you got the whole history, don't you, in one
chapter and it's so clear, it's so simple to understand.
So if you're here today and you're like those people wanting
to throw stones, put the stone down and say, Lord, I get it, I
need you. I believe this, I see it
documented in history. This is historical fact.
This isn't make believe stuff. This is true.
And whenever we come to the Lord with open hearts and soft hearts
and ask him and speak to him in prayer, He listens, He'll give
you a sense of his presence. He'll give you a sense of him
being near to you. And you'll begin to see life
change and, and become completely different than it is
now. Living without God.
God's created us to live with him.
He'd never created us to live without Him.
And really, we can't live without him.
The way things are happening in the world right now and what
could potentially be coming down, you're going to need the
Lord. I'm going to need the Lord of
ways that we never thought we needed him before until all we
have is him, right? And he'll protect us, He'll
stabilize us. And the best thing that is in
store for us is that we're going to see this one who stood up,
Stephen, and we're going to walk up into his presence that day as
his kids. And we're going to hear by his
grades and see a smile on his face.
And he's going to hug us and say, well done, good and
faithful servant, enter into the joy of the world.
We're so glad you joined us today on this edition of Living
Waters of Grace. Pastor Clark is teaching through
the Book of Acts, which is the only book that chronicles the
history of the early church immediately after Jesus's
ascension. It gives us a front row seat to
how the Gospel began to move outwards, starting in Jerusalem
and reaching into the heart of the Roman Empire.
In just three decades, a small group of frightened ordinary
believers became a bold, spirit empowered movement that
transformed the known world. Acts is not just a history
lesson. It's a reminder of what God can
do when His people are surrendered, obedient, and
filled with the Holy Spirit. Their perseverance still
inspires us today. May we follow their example and
live faithfully for Christ in our own time.
We hope today's message encouraged you.
Living Waters of Grace is a ministry of Calvary Chapel,
Westmoreland. If you're in the Greensburg, PA
area, we'd love to have you join us in person.
Our Sunday service begins at 10:30 AM at 400 E Pittsburgh St.
Unit 6B. Be sure to visit
calvarychapelonline.com to confirm times and learn more.
If you are in the Greensburg area, you can listen to Grace FM
on the new 91.7 frequency. Please pray about supporting
this outreach. Gifts can be sent to Grace FM,
PO Box 716, Greensburg, PA 15601.
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Thank you for tuning in and spending this time in God's
Word. Be sure to join us again for
Living Waters of Grace.