From His Heart

Speaker 1

Today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, he concludes his series Strong and Courageous by cutting to the quick.

Speaker 2

When we share the true gospel with people, not a watered down gospel, not a gospel that's perverted by any means. People today, they're wanting to always make things more palatable. They want to take the rough edges off the gospel.

It's just kind of, you know, in today's world, we need to say things differently and we need to have nuance. And you got to nuance things. We need to take nuance and throw it completely out of the church. We don't nuance things we tell people.

Thus says the Lord, you be very, very clear with people. I don't want anyone to walk away scratching their head. Well, I'm not sure what Pastor Jeff thinks about this. You may not like what I think about it, but you're not going to wonder what I think about it because I want you to know there is tremendous.

Speaker 3

Always bring love. He can heal every scarce.

Speaker 1

Most people are attracted to people of courage, to people who are strong and courageous. There's just something compelling about seeing somebody taking a stand and being bold and courageous. When we witness that, we often and really should want to emulate it. But not everybody is so moved when they observe the courageous.

Of course, the truth is that when you stand up to speak boldly for Jesus, not everybody is going to cheer you on. This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. Thank you for joining us today. And we're in part two of the Last Message in this series. The series is strong and courageous. And the message is cut to the quick. We started that yesterday.

Today he's going to do a quick review and then share four lessons from the ministry of Stephen that'll help all of us to be stronger and courageous in our faith. If you missed any of these lessons this month, please go to promisheart.org and click the Listen link.

Now, though, open your Bible to the Book of Acts, chapter seven, as Pastor Jeff will certainly cut to the quick.

Speaker 2

Now, we want to look at four lessons today from the stoning of Stephen. The ministry of Stephen and his stoning lessons to help you and me be strong and courageous.

Lesson number one: we're called to grow in our Christian lives. Verse eight says, "Stephen was full of grace and power and was performing many wonders and signs among the people." Now here's the thing that struck me about Stephen. He couldn't have been a Christian for that long because the church hasn't been going that long, and he is growing. He is something else as it relates to his Christian life. And Stephen, no doubt, was being taught by the disciples as they were teaching day to day. He heard Peter say that, "Hey, this is how you grow." He longed for the pure milk of the Word that by it he may grow with respect to salvation. He began to grow. His life was yielded to the Holy Spirit. He was a man full of the Spirit and full of faith and full of grace and full of power. You and I are to grow in our Christian lives. And you can be one that says, "Holy Spirit of God, I want you to have a monopoly on me." We're called to grow strong in our Christian lives.

Lesson number two: we're called to be his faithful witnesses. Now that's the reason, if you really want to know, what are you here for as a Christian? You are here to witness to a lost and dying world about Jesus, who is mighty to save. And Stephen was a faithful witness. He stands before the Sanhedrin, the 70 plus 1, the Jewish Supreme Court. He's before those guys, and he stands and delivers. He's a faithful witness. You and I can be faithful witnesses. But God doesn't want us to just be a faithful witness; He wants us to be faithful, expert witnesses. He wants us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and grow in our understanding and obedience to the Word. That needs to be increasing. We're called to be his faithful witnesses.

Number three: we're called to boldly and humbly speak the truth in love. We do that with boldness, but we do that in humility to speak the truth in love. People desperately need to hear the truth. We don't need to be afraid of man and what man can do to us. The fear of man, Proverbs tells us, is a snare. But he who trusts in the Lord will be exalted. Now we do need to focus our attention on the Lord and focus our attention on pleasing an audience of one. That's what Stephen does. He preaches a sermon for the people, but he's preaching it and standing up to please an audience of one. He says in verse 55, chapter seven, "But being full of the Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God." And he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." Now we know from the book of Hebrews that when Jesus ascended to heaven, he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. But when Stephen got through with his sermon, he stood up in honor of Stephen. Stephen was living his life and preaching and speaking the truth in love to an audience of one. That's how you need to live. That's how I need to live. That's how we need to live: please an audience of one. Don't be afraid of man.

And then lesson number four: we're called to be faithful until death. Jesus said in Revelation chapter two, verse ten, to the church in Smyrna, "Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life." He preaches, and they can't argue with his sermon because he's just telling the history of Israel. It's like, "Yeah, the God of glory did appear to Abraham, and Abraham did leave Ur of the Chaldees. He did go to Haran, and then his father Terah died, and then he went into the promised land. And yes, he did have Isaac, and Isaac had Jacob, and Jacob had the twelve sons." He's just recounting all this stuff. You can't argue with it. Those guys wouldn't have been able to argue with that. He was showing because he said, "This guy blasphemes Moses." No, he doesn't. "He blasphemes God." No, he doesn't. "He blasphemes the law." No, he doesn't. He talks about all those things in his sermon. "He blasphemes the temple." No, he doesn't. And so he's building this case, and as he's preaching, they would be like, "Huh, huh, huh." Everything he says is just straight out of the Old Testament, straight Hebrew history.

Verse 51: he shifts it and he says, "You men who are stiff-necked and circumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit. You are doing just as your fathers did." All that I've been telling you from our past history, that's what you're doing now. "Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One. Now watch it: whose betrayers and murderers you have now become." Oh, that didn't go over well. "You who received the law as ordained by angels and yet did not keep it." Now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick. Literally, their hearts were cut asunder, and they began gnashing their teeth at him. This guy is faithful until death, and he is going to experience death.

But you remember, because some people can say, "Well, he should have backed off. He shouldn't have been so bold. If he had just backed off a little, then they wouldn't have killed him." He's full of the Holy Spirit. What he is saying, the Holy Spirit is saying through him. This is God-directed all the way. He preached to them the truth. When we share the true gospel with people—not a watered-down gospel, not a gospel that's perverted by any. Not a gospel as we have people today wanting to always make things more palatable. They want to take the rough edges off the gospel. It's just kind of, you know, in today's world, we need to say things differently, and we need to have nuance. We need to take nuance and throw it completely out of the church. We don't nuance things. We tell people, "Thus says the Lord." You be very, very clear with people. I mean, that's just how I'm wired. It's like I don't want anyone to walk away scratching their head, "Well, I'm not sure what Pastor Jeff thinks about this." You may not like what I think about it, but you're not going to wonder what I think about it because I want you to know.

And you know, we talk about nuance. I told you before, I'm about as nuanced as a sledgehammer. That's my nuance. Boom, here it is. And this is what the Lord says. Well, Stephen's like that too. He's not nuanced at all. Now notice this: when you preach the gospel—and that's what people need—they need the gospel. They need the good news of Jesus. But the true gospel will always bring conviction of sin. It always does that. Because Jesus said in John chapter 16, verse 8, when the Holy Spirit comes, this is his office work: he convicts the world of sin and righteousness and judgment. Those three things: sin. He convicts you and shows you you're a sinner. Righteousness—not yours, because you don't have it; you're a sinner. He convicts the world of sin. He lets the world know that Jesus Christ is the righteous one. And you don't have righteousness, so there is judgment: sin, righteousness, and judgment.

When you're a sinner standing before a righteous holy God, you are in trouble because judgment is going to come. That's why Paul said God is now declaring that all men everywhere should repent because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead. The judge of all the earth is Jesus. It's not God the Father. Jesus said, "The Father has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son even as they honor the Father." You read in Revelation chapter 20, the great white throne judgment. You ask yourself, "Well, who sits on the great white throne?" Jesus does. And Jesus is going to judge.

And so the true gospel will always bring conviction of sin. And these guys were cut to the quick. Their hearts were cut asunder. The true gospel will always confront a person's pride. You know, when you are a religious elite, as these guys were, and you think you're just so high and mighty and so much better than everybody else, as Jesus said in Luke chapter 18, the Parable of the Pharisee and the publican who went up to the temple to pray, it says he. The backdrop of that is he spoke this parable for those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt. That's how the Pharisees did it. That's how the religious leaders did. They trusted in themselves that they were righteous. They viewed everybody else with contempt.

And when Stephen preached, he hit them at the point of their pride because he said, "You guys are as bad, if not worse than your fathers in the Old Testament. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?" Jesus, when he wept over the city of Jerusalem, said, "Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city who stones the prophets and kills those who are sent to her. How I long to gather you to myself, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. And yet you were not willing." You resisted. You've been waiting and waiting and waiting for the Messiah to come. And then when the Messiah comes and is presented on Palm Sunday, this is your Messiah. "Hosanna to the king, the son of David," you say, and just a few days later, "Crucify him! Crucify him!" They missed the coming of Messiah by a million miles.

Hey, when you share the true gospel, and when you share the true gospel, you're calling people out. You're telling people, "Hey, here's why Jesus came. Because you're a sinner and you're under judgment. And the wrath of God abides on this person who is not right with God." And that's all of us before we come to Christ. John 3:36: "The wrath of God abides upon us until we come to our senses, until we repent and believe, and then there's the grace of God that envelops us." But it hits you at the point of your pride, especially religious people. You know, that's the thing. So you talk to somebody on the street, somebody that's deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore. I remember talking to somebody when I was at the University of Texas. I talked to this guy, and I asked him, "Do you know for certain that if you were to die, you'd go to heaven?" He said, "I know for certain that if I were to die, I'd go to hell." And I said, "You're not far from the kingdom, because once you understand that, and then it's like, 'Well, you don't have to go to hell. Let me tell you about somebody who took all your hell so you wouldn't have to go there.' And he says, 'If you'll turn from your sin and turn to him, he'll save you.'"

So a person that realizes they're a sinner, and it's a lot easier. It's the person who trusts in themselves that they're righteous. They're the ones that are difficult. It always confronts a person's pride. And so Stephen is letting these guys have it. They are cut to the quick, and he has convicted them by the Holy Spirit of sin and convicted them of pride. And the true gospel will do that. And the true gospel will at times be met with intense anger. These guys had intense anger. So they were cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at him. To gnash their teeth means to put your teeth together almost like you're growling like a dog. You're...

Speaker 3

Ugh.

Speaker 2

Like that. They began to gnash at him, growl at him. The word "broco" means to grate your teeth in anger or pain. And both of those were happening there. They were angry and they were in pain because their hearts were cut asunder. They were cut to the quick. You know, if you've ever been trimming your fingernail and you go a little too low on the clippers, boom, you cut that quick. You know it because it will hurt. You ever clip a dog's nails and you cut the quick of the dog, they will let you know. Maybe they bite you because they're hurting, right? And so they were cut to the quick, and they began to gnash their teeth. What does that remind you of? The gnashing of teeth. Jesus used that term when he talked about hell. In that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, intense anger.

This isn't the first time they were cut to the quick. In Acts, chapter five, when they had the disciples there in their midst in verse 28, they arrested them. They had arrested them in Acts chapter 4 and told them, "Don't speak anymore in Jesus' name." Now they said, "We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man's blood on us." But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you have put to death by hanging him on a cross. He is the one whom God exalted to his right hand, prince and a savior to grant repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him." And when they heard this, they were cut to the quick and intended to kill them.

These guys are getting cut to the quick a lot because they don't want to hear the truth. Peter and the disciples gave them the truth, and now Stephen has given them the truth. But when they wanted to kill them in Acts, chapter five, Gamaliel, who was the teacher and very well respected, stepped in and said, "Hey, timeout, you guys. Settle down. Settle down. Have nothing to do with these men. Because if they're telling you the truth, then you're going to be found fighting God. And if they're not telling you the truth, it's going to fizzle out on its own." And so they heeded Gamaliel's counsel.

Well, there was no Gamaliel to stand in the gap here for Stephen. When Stephen said he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God, then they covered their ears and rushed upon him with one impulse, to stone him to death. And that's what they did. Hey, sometimes when you share the gospel, you're going to get intense anger, and people are not going to like it. Now, we are faithful to share because we're not concerned about the fear of man. We're concerned about pleasing God.

But the apostle Paul said this in Second Corinthians, chapter 2, verses 15 and 16: "For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one, an aroma from death to death, and to the other, an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate of these things? No one is adequate of these things." God chose us to be his witnesses. I mean, if you and I were to have sat down and come up with a plan of how do we reach the world for Christ, we'd said, "Let's send angels because angels are faithful. Angels never make a mistake. Angels never disobey. Don't send men because men are flawed and men are feeble and men have feet of clay."

But you know why God didn't send angels to do the work of evangelism? Because angels don't know about grace. They've never sinned and had to receive the grace of God. So angels never knew the joy that my salvation brings because they don't understand that I was a sinner saved by the grace of God. And you and I have something to share with every single person. The same God who saved me can save you if you'll put your faith and trust in him.

Well, lastly, the true gospel will at times be met with intense anger, just like that pastor. That young pastor in Romania, he shared the truth and they beat him to death for it. Okay, that's fine. If Jesus will stand up and give you a standing ovation, it is worth it all. If you please him, it's worth it all. You know, Enoch was the one taken to heaven. Genesis, chapter five. And it says, before his being taken up, he obtained the testimony that he pleased God. Listen, if you please God, it doesn't matter whom you displease. And if you displease God, it doesn't matter whom you please. We are to live a life that pleases the one whom we will stand before one day to give an account of our lives.

And then the true gospel will be used in powerful ways. As we preach the truth, God uses it in powerful ways. Did you notice in verse 58, when they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him? And the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. Saul of Tarsus. Saul of Tarsus, who is a trophy of God's grace. First Timothy, chapter one. He says, "I was a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet for this reason I was shown mercy and I found grace in the Lord." The apostle Paul experienced that in Acts, chapter seven. No doubt that made an impact on him.

And a year to two years later, he has an encounter with the Lord on the road to Damascus. Acts chapter 9. And Saul of Tarsus becomes Paul, the greatest Christian who ever lived, the one that God used to impact untold millions of lives through the death of Stephen. He saw how Stephen died. He saw that his face was like the face of an angel. It was shining. I mean, there was something so significant when they looked at his face. He's not fearing. He's shining. He's confident. His face was like the face of an angel. Saul saw that. Wow. He saw how he died. And he saw the last thing he said, "Lord, don't commit this sin to their charge." That's the way Jesus died. "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." He saw all that and it made an impact on his life. And that came to full fruition in Acts chapter nine, when he met the Lord on the road to Damascus.

Hey. Our job is to be faithful, to share the truth.

Speaker 1

Today on From His Heart, the message was called "Cut to the Quick," and it's from Pastor Jeff's new series, "Strong and Courageous," that we've been airing all this month. If you'd like a copy of this message to listen to again, go to fromhishheart.org and click the listen link.

From His Heart is supported by our listeners who are touched and impacted by the heart messages that God shares with us through Pastor Jeff's teaching. With your gift, today we'd like to say thank you by sending you his brand new six-lesson series, "Strong and Courageous." You can get it on CDs, DVDs, an MP3 download, or on a USB flash drive.

In it, you'll discover how to stop letting fear call the shots in your life, how to stand firm in God's promises when you feel weak, how to boldly live out your faith in a world that desperately needs truth, and how your courage can point others to Christ. This resource will encourage you personally, but more importantly, your gift will help countless others hear the truth of God's word through From His Heart around the world every day.

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We love you and we thank you. I'm Larry Nobles, and thank you for listening to the "Strong and Courageous" series all this month. We trust you've been blessed by it and that you'll join us tomorrow as we'll again encourage you to rise to the challenge. That's on Wednesday when we open up God's Word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from His heart.

Speaker 3

There is truth. There is hope that you always dream love. He can hear every scars Real truth, real love, real from his.

Speaker 1

From his heart is the listener supported Broadcast Ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve speaking the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world.

Remember, no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out more about that when you go to fromisheart.org.