Resisting The Holy Spirit

I always get convicted when I prepare sermons. I think I get more convicted when I prepare them than when I listen to them. I guess I get more out of them kind of in preparation.

So we're in Acts chapter 7 and we're watching here Stephen or listening to Stephen. He's sharing a message to the council in Acts 7. And we've talked about the four men that he brings up in his message. We talked about Abraham.

Abraham is the father of the Jewish people. He begins with Abraham. Abraham is the one who the lineage begins with when you talk about the Jewish people.

Jews said, our father Abraham. So Abraham is at the very beginning. He begins with Abraham.

Then he moves to Joseph. Joseph is the first example of the Jews rejecting the one that God sent. Joseph was thrown into the pit.

Later he was resurrected. And he came and he fed his people, his brethren. And he delivered them from famine.

And a wonderful picture there of the Lord Jesus, but they rejected Joseph. Joseph is rejected. He would then turn around to be their deliverer.

Stephen's bringing this out. How the Jews have rejected those who God has sent. And many of them they've persecuted and even killed some of them.

Then we talk about Moses. Last time Moses, and Moses takes up most of the sermon here in Acts 7. But Moses also was a man that was rejected. He went out to help his brethren there.

And they run him off. Threatened to expose that he had murdered someone the day before. And Moses spends 40 years having been rejected by the Jewish people.

And then God takes him and uses him as a deliverer of those same people. And what Stephen is bringing, the culmination of the message, too, is that not only have you rejected Moses, you've rejected Joseph, but the same thing has happened right here. God has sent you his son and you've rejected him.

Jesus said, I came unto my own, my own received me not. And now he's going to turn and be your deliverer if you'll repent and come to him. So we've got one more name here in Acts 7 that just takes a couple of verses, but it's very important.

And I think it's the closing, the summing up of this sermon. And it leads us right into verse 51. You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Ghost.

As your fathers did, so do you. And so Stephen is showing them and proclaiming to them how that throughout history in the Jewish lineage, the vast majority of Jews have rejected the Holy Spirit of God. God has been trying to, as Brother David mentioned, reveal his heart.

He's been trying to reveal it through prophets, through wise men. But they have continually rejected that revelation. And so now we're coming down to this last individual.

And I want to start reading here in Acts 7, starting in verse 44. And I think we're going to talk, we're going to bring out here in this invitation that Stephen is giving, a rather firm invitation. You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart.

Remember, it's about the heart. They were circumcised. Boy, did they boast in it, in the external, in the flesh.

But their hearts were far from God. And uncircumcised in heart. And then he goes on to say you do always resist the Holy Ghost.

Let me ask you something this morning. Are you resisting the Holy Ghost? You say, well, I'm in church this morning. Well, they were in church.

As a matter of fact, he's speaking to people who are in the council, maybe in the synagogue. There's a lot of people in church that are resisting the Holy Ghost. And let's talk about that a little bit here this morning.

I'm going to read, starting in verse 44. And I want you to pay attention to a couple of words. We're going to talk about these words.

One of them is the word tabernacle. One of them is the word temple. And one of them is the word house.

And they're all mentioned here as we go down through this passage. So let's start reading in verse 44. It's where we left off last time.

Our fathers had the tabernacle. There's one of those words. Of witness in the wilderness, as he appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen.

Which also our fathers that came after brought in, this is talking about the tabernacle, with Jesus, that's the Hebrew for Joshua, into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers unto the days of David. So there's this tabernacle that Moses established in the wilderness. This tabernacle has been with them all the way up, as they wandered for 40 years.

Then Joshua takes them into the land of promise. That tabernacle goes in with them. And God drives out the enemies, it says there, in the land of promise.

And the tabernacle is with them. You can go back and read the stories there in Judges and Samuel. And then verse number 46.

Speaking of David, who found favor before God and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob, David. We'll see this in a little bit. David wants to find a better house for God.

And Stephen is bringing this up to the nation of Israel. Verse 47. But Solomon built him a house, howbeit the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hand.

It's not about wood, it's not about drywall and cement. God is not interested in those things, although we tend to be. We spend millions of dollars building church houses and places for God's people.

But howbeit the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands, as saith the prophet. Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What house will you build me, saith the Lord? Or what is the place of my rest? Hath not my hands made all these things? Then he moves right into, You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in hearts and ears.

You do always resist the Holy Ghost. Now, what's this all about here? Regarding the tabernacle, the temple, and the house of God. How does this fit in with resisting the Holy Ghost? Well, I want to talk about that here this morning.

And bring again to your mind the attention of God's house. And let's pray, and then we'll spend a little time today talking about this part of the message. Heavenly Father, Lord, may you have mercy upon us.

And may you bring conviction enough, Lord, in our hearts that we can truly have godly sorrow and repentance. Lord, as we consider our own condition before you. And Lord, help us.

And raise us up. Make us truly a house of God that is pleasing to you. For your honor and for your glory.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, just to start off by introduction, I was pondering this week how that, you know, it's amazing God desires to come and dwell with men.

Now, many of us in our mind, I think we've been taught wrong here in this regard. I think I've shared some of these things in the past with regards to prophecy. But God desires to come to where man is.

You know, it's interesting that, have you ever thought about this? That God never made man up in heaven. It would have been a good idea, I think, to say, God, Adam and Eve, I want to make you up here. You stay up here with me.

You know, forget that earth down there. Forget all that creation stuff down there. Why don't I just make you two up here in heaven? And you can spend time with me up here.

But it's interesting that God doesn't do that. It says that God makes this heaven and earth. And then he places man there.

And God then comes down to man. And you find here in the first couple of chapters of the Bible that God is walking with man. Man did not go up to heaven to walk with God.

God came down and he walked with man. You move on to the wilderness there, what we've been reading about. He comes and he wants to tabernacle with us down here.

He builds a tabernacle and he says, I want to dwell with my people. And I want to dwell with them down here on the earth. So God is always coming down to man.

That's maybe because man can't get up to him. But God is always coming down. He came down to Solomon's temple.

He came down in the Shekinah glory. And he dwelt with his people. And then the best example of this is the Lord Jesus.

Emmanuel, God with us. God has come down and visited us from heaven. His name is Emmanuel, Yeshua, Jesus Christ, God with us.

Again, he came down to us. Then on the day of Pentecost, he came down again. There was a great rushing mighty wind from heaven coming down and filling them with the Holy Ghost.

Again, God is coming down. He likes to come down to dwell with us. And then that good example in the last book of the Bible, Revelation 21, or last chapter, last two chapters, it says this holy city prepared is coming down out of heaven.

And God will dwell with man and he will be their God and they shall be his people. And so God is coming down to us. He loves to come down and dwell with us.

And from what I understand, if you read Revelation 21, he's going to dwell on this earth forever. It's going to be a new heaven and new earth. And he's coming down this holy city and we're going to dwell with him forever.

But God's heart is to dwell with man. And, you know, just ponder that for a minute. God who created all things, whose heaven is his throne, the earth is his footstool.

He actually desires to dwell with you. That's an amazing thought. And I know we come to church, we go home, but that thought will really change your life and all that you do.

If you just really have some revelation, Brother David, that the God who made everything really has a heart, in his heart today, that he wants to dwell with me, a human being, one individual. That is his heart. He would like to dwell with each one of us.

Acts 17, 27, one of my favorite verses in Acts. That men should seek the Lord, lest happily they should find him, because he is not very far from every one of us. Isn't that amazing? It's not like God is a million miles away and, you know, you've got to seek him and it's going to be a long trip and journey because God doesn't like to be around you anyway.

He's not far from every one of us. That tells me about his heart. I want to be close to you.

I don't want to be a long way from you. I like you. I love you.

And I want to be close to you. And the revelation that we get in the Word of God is that God has a heart for each one of us. That he's not willing that any of us should perish.

That he loves to be close to you. And many, many, and I have written down here, many, many places in the Bible, draw nigh to God. He'll draw nigh to you.

And so there's some encouragement for each one of us. He is not very far from every one of us. Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If any man will hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him. In other words, I'm close. I'm close enough to knock on your door.

You know, I don't have to be here. I could be out doing my own thing, but I'm here at the door and I'm knocking. I want to be in your house.

I want to be close to you. So many, many places in the Bible, the heart of God is to be close to you. And I can just say this.

If you go to hell and you hear those words, depart from me, ye cursed in the everlasting fire, it won't be God's fault. Amen? It'll be your fault. Because you have resisted the Holy Ghost just like these individuals.

And you have said, I want to go my own way. I love my sin. I love my pleasure.

God, I know you're outside the door. I know you're not very far from me, but I'm going to go my own way. Well, there's going to come a day when he's going to say, well, it's fine, depart from me, it's over.

But for now, praise the Lord, he's not very far from every one of us. So in that desire to dwell with men, God did in the Old Testament type and shadow, in the tabernacle, his desire. In the Old Covenant, the tabernacle was much like that lamb.

It was a picture showing the heart of God, showing his purposes. You know, that lamb, that lamb couldn't take away sins. The blood of those lambs and those bulls could never take away sins, the Bible says.

But they were a picture to show you something real in the New Covenant. That is the blood of Jesus. And the very same way that tabernacle was not the house of God, it was a picture.

God wants to dwell in a house, and he's going to show you what house he wants when we get to the New Testament. The house that he would really like to dwell in and live in eternally. And so we're going to talk a lot about that house here this morning.

But look here at Acts chapter 7. I want to read again in verse number 44, talking about David. Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion which he had seen, which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers until the days of David, who found favor before God and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. David had a heart after God.

As a matter of fact, it says he had a heart very much after the Lord. David desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. It was in his heart.

And David thought, it would be a great thing if God had a nice house, a nice place to live. We're going to see here back in Samuel David's reasonings here in just a minute. But David's heart, though it was a good heart, was a misguided heart because God's going to show David, He's going to show us here this morning, that God does not want to dwell in those kind of houses.

And yes, it was a good heart you had, David. It's kind of like your children, you know? Mom, you're inside in the kitchen. It's spring.

You've got all these beautiful daffodils and tulips outside. And little Junior goes out and picks them all out of the flower bed and walks in and says, Here, Mom, I love you. And you say, Oh, why did you do that? And you accept their offering because it's a good heart.

I wanted to do this for you, Mom. Okay, that's good. It's kind of like this.

David, that's a good heart you have. I really appreciate you wanting to build me a house. It's just not the perfect situation for me.

And I'll show you here in just a minute why it's not. And so good heart, David. But I got something a little bit better in mind.

Now I'd like you to go back, turn with me to 2 Samuel. We'll come back to Acts here in just a minute. 2 Samuel chapter number 7. This is the story of David's reasoning about this house that he wants to build for the Lord.

2 Samuel chapter 7 verse 1 says this. And it came to pass when the king sat in his house, and the Lord had given him rest round about from all his enemies. It's talking about David.

That the king said unto Nathan the prophet, See now I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains. In other words, David's sitting there. He might be on a guilt trip.

I don't know. But he's sitting there in this beautiful house. Cedar, probably the finest of furniture and everything.

And he's sitting there one day, and he's thinking, You know, here I am sitting in this incredibly wonderful house, in this palace, and God, the ark of the testament, and God and his presence is out there in a bunch of curtains. And he's thinking, this is not right. God ought to have a tremendous house to live in.

If I'm going to live in this house. So verse 3, and Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in thine heart for the Lord is with thee. It's kind of like the little boy with the flowers.

Here, mom. And God says, that's a good heart. I'm glad you're thinking about me.

And you want to make a house for me. That's good. But I want to show you things here in just a little bit, how I'd really like it to be.

So, verse 4, And it came to pass that night that the word of the Lord came unto Nathan, saying, Go and tell my servant David, Thus saith the Lord, Shalt thou build me a house for me to dwell in. David, you want to do this? Okay, David, let's talk about it. Verse 6, Whereas I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle.

By the way, whose idea was the tent and the tabernacle? It's God's idea. You know, when Jesus came and walked on the earth, he didn't have a place to lay his head. You know, God's not into big houses and big buildings.

It doesn't do anything for him. When he came down here, he didn't even have a house to live in. And when he came down in the Old Testament and dwelt amongst his people, it was just basically a tent, a tabernacle.

So he's reasoning here with David. Verse 7, In all the places wherein I have walked with all the children of Israel, spake I a word with any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people Israel, saying, Why build ye not me a house of cedar? You know, God never complained about it. Like, I didn't complain.

I was out there in that tabernacle, that tent, and I didn't say anything about it. Verse 8, Now therefore so shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I took thee from the sheep coat, from following the sheep, to be ruler over all my people, over Israel. And I was with thee with us wherever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth.

Now God's changing the subject here, and he's shifting away from David looking at God. God's turning around and saying, David, let's look your way for a minute. Verse 11, And as since the time that I commanded judges to be over all my people Israel, and have caused them to rest from all thine enemies, also, here's something interesting, also the Lord telleth thee that he will make thee a house.

I like that. David's got it in his heart he's going to make God a house, and God switches things around and says, David, you know, I don't know if that's a great idea, but I'm going to tell you something, David. I'm going to make you a house.

I'm going to make you a house. Verse 12, And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

Now God has something different in mind here, and he wants to build a house, and his house, by the way, I think we've shared this many, many times, man builds a house like Solomon's temple, man gets the glory. God builds a house, God gets the glory, and God knows that, and so he wants to build this house, and he says, I'm going to build a house, and this house is going to be for my glory. Of course, the Lord Jesus said upon this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

And so God shifts the discussion away from David making God a house to God making David a house. So here God is showing David, here's the house I really would like. You know, kind of like getting a birthday present, your children come, I've got birthday presents, sometimes I get bananas, sometimes I get, I suppose this is what I get, hand cream, sometimes I get T-shirts, and one time I said, hey, I got an idea, why don't you kind of get a gift that I would like, and I'm going to tell you what it is.

So I told them, and they got me, and it was a good gift. And you know, David's coming and saying, Lord, I'd like to build you a house, Lord, and then the Lord turns around and says, well, I'm not sure, David, I want you to build it, but I'm going to build a house. And I'm going to build a house, and you can be a part of it.

And of course, we all know what that house is. That house is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look what it says in verse 12.

Speaking to David, when thy days be fulfilled, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, and I will set up thy seed. Now, the Israelites felt that was Solomon, David's son, so they built this incredible temple, Solomon's temple, beautiful temple. However, God had something bigger in mind than that.

That seed is the Lord Jesus. That seed which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He, Jesus, shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

Unfortunately, Solomon's house and his temple were destroyed, and enemies came through. And by the way, all of God's temples and houses were destroyed, and they're no longer anymore. But the church of Jesus Christ, the house of God that the Lord is building, will never be destroyed.

This thing that we got going here right now is going to go on forever. It's a kingdom. It's a house.

And this house is going to stand forever, and Jesus Christ is the one who's going to build this house. He is of the seed of David. Yes, the first son of David was Solomon, and many thought Solomon is going to be this one that's going to build a kingdom that will stand forever, and all this David saved up all this gold and all this cedar, and they put it all into this house.

Amazing! Gosh, that's a great house. I'm sorry. Not the one that I'm going to be in forever.

So, you know, we can go back and look. Hindsight, yeah, that didn't work. And, you know, I think God allowed things like that, and that's fine.

But he has something bigger. Yes, lambs were slain. Bullocks were slain.

But he has something bigger. And there is a dwelling place that the Lord has, and it's the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. The New Testament says the church is the house of God.

It's the house of God. It's not a physical building, and many people think carnal is some sort of physical building, just like they thought in the Old Testament. No, but the church is the people of God.

The church is the house of God, you and I, God's people. Well, even when Jesus was here, he never built buildings. And we get enamored with buildings and stained glass windows and all this structure, and we spend a lot of money on buildings.

But it doesn't please the Lord. It doesn't impress him at all, these things. I mean, if Solomon's temple didn't impress him that much, I'm going to show you what's going to impress him.

I'm going to show you a house that really impressed the Lord. We get to the end of the message here this morning. Here's the house the Lord really is impressed with.

And there's no two-by-fours in it, by the way. But I'll show you what it is here in just a minute. So a man made this beautiful temple in Solomon's day, and it was a gorgeous temple.

But that temple came to naught. Let me read to you a few examples here in the New Testament. Mark 13, verse 1, it says, And as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples said unto him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here.

This is Herod's temple. Solomon's was destroyed, now they rebuilt the temple, and it's in Jesus' day. Master, look at the beautiful buildings and all the stones and how wonderful the temple is.

Well, it wasn't very impressive to the Lord. He said, Seest thou these great buildings? There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. It's going to come to naught.

And it's going to be destroyed. By the way, all these structures are going to be destroyed. So again, this whole idea of beauty, outward beauty, boy, it was a beautiful temple.

But that doesn't do it for the Lord. The Jewish people had the same issue in their heart. In Matthew 23, Jesus said, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, for you are like whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward.

Beautiful buildings, beautiful temple, beautiful porches, all the gold and all the silver. But you know what was happening on the inside of the temple? Not good stuff. Remember, Jesus came and drove them out of the temple because they were making merchandise inside the temple.

If you go back to Ezekiel, they were drilling holes in the walls of the temple and things that were going on in there that were ungodly things inside the temple. You find this throughout the Old Testament. God's Spirit departed from the temple and God brought judgment on the temple because of the wickedness that was going on inside the temple.

Well, they were beautiful outside. Solomon's temple was a glorious place. Herod's temple was a wonderful place to behold, but they all came to naught.

And one of the reasons why they came to naught was because just the wickedness that was within. Now go back here. Let's go back to Acts chapter 7 and continue here.

We're going to look at what God's temple is today. Acts chapter 7 here in verse 48. Howbeit the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands.

That in the Old Testament were types and figures of something that was better, something that was eternal, as saith the prophet, Heaven is my throne, the earth is my footstool. Can you imagine someone's children so big that heaven is the place he sits and the earth is his footstool where he rests his feet? What kind of a building could you build someone that big where he could rest, find a good place to dwell? Heaven is my throne, the earth is my footstool. What house will you build me, saith the Lord? Or what is the place of my rest? Hath not my hand made all these things? It's like we need to get past this, these buildings, these temples, this sanctuary, this tabernacle.

And I want to show you where I really want to dwell, where I really want to rest. God wants to dwell in each one of our hearts. He wants to dwell in you.

By the way, a spirit, God is a spirit. And you remember in the book of Matthew, the unclean spirit goes out of his house and he seeks another house to dwell in. He can't find any and he comes back to his previous house, finds it empty and he comes in with seven more wicked.

See, spirits are looking for houses. They're looking for a place to dwell. And evil spirits are also looking for a place to dwell.

But God himself is a spirit and he loves to dwell in the heart of each one of us. So God wants to dwell in you. He does not want to dwell in a building.

You know, we get this idea. God is over there in that church. You go to church and you meet with God.

God's not in a building. His desire is to dwell in our hearts. But you know, when our hearts are full of sin and our hearts are full of iniquity, it's difficult for God to dwell in them.

And so the Jewish people, their hearts were full of sin. Their hearts were full of iniquity. Oh, they certainly look good like the temple on the outside, but their hearts were evil on the inside and their hearts were off limits to God.

They were resisting the Lord in their spirit. They were resisting the Lord from coming to their heart and making his abode in their heart. And of course, they were enamored with externals.

They were enamored with the beauty of the temple, their beautiful dress. Everything was about externals, and God couldn't get even close to their hearts. You know, we have this mindset too oftentimes, and I think the Jews are very much this way.

God, you can stay in that temple over there, and we'll make it a beautiful place. That'll be your house. That's where you stay.

I live my own life over here. I control my own life. And then on the Sabbath, I come over to your house, and spend a few hours and worship you.

A lot of people live that way. God is down there at the church at Remnant Christian Fellowship, and okay, it's Sunday, so we go over to God's house, and we worship him for a while, and then we leave, and I go do my own thing. Same thing, right? The same life.

And that's where we get this mindset. That's the house of God over there. That's where God lives.

Let's go visit him. When in reality, he's wanting to live with you every day. The Bible says, I want to walk with them.

I want to live in them. I want to be their God, and I want them to be my people. But you know human nature.

You know, most of us, we can get by with this idea of, I'm going to go over there and visit the Lord. It's Sabbath day. It's Sunday.

It's time to go and visit the Lord there at the church. We can sing a few songs. We can listen to a sermon, and after that we can get out of there and get back to our own life.

I don't like to stay there very long because I'm pretty dark on the inside. I'll go and visit God. I'll go and worship him with a few songs.

Jesus said they worship me with their lips, but their what? Heart. It's far, far from me. And that's the plague of the church.

Let's just be honest. People come to church on Sunday, and it's a place to visit God, say a few things, maybe sing a few songs, but out the door and it's back at me, it's the head, and the God is not here, and I'll see you next Sunday, Lord. Well, that's Judaism.

They worship me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And you know why that is? Because people like darkness. They like their imaginations.

They like their bitterness. They like their anger. They like their envy.

They like things that are stored up in their heart. They like these things, and they like them enough to say, well, I still want to be kind of in the appearance of a Christian, so I'll go down to that church. I'll visit God, and I'll leave, and I'll get back to my darkness, get back to my wickedness all week long.

Go visit God again on Sunday. Do my part, thinking that if I visit God once a week, certainly that's going to testify that I'm a Christian, right? I mean, this is just the way the Judaizers were. I'll go down to the synagogue, sing my songs, do my prayers, and then get back to my iniquity.

They're in a week. Ungodly. And yet it's very common.

You know, we can look at them and say, my, these people. Hypocrites is what they were. But there's a lot of hypocrites in the church today.

You know that? There's a lot of hypocrites. You know how I know that? Because I'm tempted with hypocrisy just like the same thing here, and I'm supposed to be the one leading you all. I know human nature.

So we have this lip worship in the temple. But when we go out of here and get back to life, it's the imaginations in my own heart. It's holding on to the anger and bitterness.

So and so did me. It's the vanity of this world. It's all the things that are in the heart.

And then we come back on Sunday. That's why we end up with a powerless church. Powerless people.

Powerless. Because we somehow think that God is someone we can visit on Sunday. And then get back to our own life.

And so we can be in the very same situation as these Jews were, much of Judaism were, not having a heart at all. I'd just like to ask you a question, you know. Do you really have a heart? I mean a heart for God.

David had a heart for God. He was a man after God's own heart. And you'll find that if you have a heart for someone, generally speaking, if you love someone and have a heart for them, you want to spend time with them.

I mean if you love someone, you like to spend time with them. And you'll find that people who don't spend time with God, who love to spend time with God, if you love someone, you love to spend time with them, that their heart is far from God. And so you can evaluate a lot of where you're at spiritually.

You know, you get up in the morning, you just go about your business. You don't even acknowledge the Lord. You don't open his door.

You don't get on your knees. Day two goes. Day three goes.

Day five goes. Day ten goes. You know, you come to church.

Oh, it hasn't been two weeks since I've been on my knees. It hasn't been two weeks since I've been in the Bible. God hasn't revealed anything to me.

I'm as dry as can be. You're a perfect candidate for being just like these Judaizers. You're simply a church attender when your heart is far from God.

Can we agree with that? You say you love Jesus. Go to spend time with him. You know, something else, I think of loving somebody.

You love someone, you sacrifice and give to them. You just love to give. And so what kind of giving are you doing for the Lord? You know, we read this a number of months ago, but there in Malachi they would bring, if they brought anything, they would bring the lame and the blind.

And the Lord said, hey, wait a minute, take that down to the governors, see if they'll accept those offerings. No, they won't. So what kind of offering are you giving the house of God, the Lord? So Stephen is saying, you stiff-necked, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you're always resisting the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Ghost has tried to draw near unto you, to enter your heart, to walk with you, to be your God, you be his people, but you continue to reject him because you love the iniquity of your heart. Right? You love your iniquity. Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.

But the tragedy with religion is this. You can keep coming to church on Sunday, keep going to synagogue on Saturday, keep singing the songs, keep doing the form, put on the right dress when the heart is far from God. Far from God.

And so really this morning what Stephen is trying to tell these people is, God wants to live in you. God wants to walk in you. I mean, he wants to be your first thought in the morning when you get up.

He wants to be the last thought at night when you go to bed. As a matter of fact, David so loved God that every three or four hours in the night he set his alarm clock, if he had one, to rise up in the night watches and to meditate upon his word. I love God.

As a matter of fact, his revelation is my center. I don't even eat before I get first my revelation. It's better to me than my necessary food, he said.

And so, you know, let's not make the same mistake the Jews did and be a people that worship him with lip service. When the heart is far from me. So how many of us here this morning? I remember Brother Stephen.

Do you remember Brother Stephen? Some of you. Tells his testimony of the preacher who was standing up there. Can any man hear my voice? Talking about a door and opening his heart to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And Brother Stephen is a young man, married young man, probably 35 years old. Says that morning as his testimony, he opened his heart. Said, Lord, you can come in and take possession of the place.

And I want you to be here. You can't get any closer to anybody than being in their heart. Amen? The Jews were far from him.

Far from him. And so he was converted that morning. I'm not talking about conversion.

Most of you have had a conversion experience, but how many of us are resisting the Holy Spirit of God on a day-to-day basis? I mean, day-to-day. I don't want to walk with you. I don't want to meditate upon your word.

I don't want to pray. I don't want to praise you. I don't want you on my heart and mind on a day-to-day continual basis.

I'd rather have the world on my mind. I'd rather have my evil imaginations on my mind. I'd rather view pornography.

I'd rather do all these things and then show up on Sunday with lips, sir. Isn't that the way it is? And so Stephen says, you are a bunch of stiff neck, and your fathers have been this way, uncircumcised. Your heart's not cut away from any of these things, and yet you're showing religion.

I stand at the door and knock. You know what happens if you open the door? A lot of people are afraid of this. If you open the door, light comes in.

He is the light. If you open the door, it's like, okay, I've got to open up, and he's going to see the darkness, and the darkness is going to have to go. And since men love darkness rather than light, no, we're going to keep the doors shut.

I don't want you in my house. I'll go to church. I'll do lip service, and hopefully I'll get by with that, right? The Lord wants to have a possession of the heart.

Open the heart. So we tend to keep our doors shut. So the New Testament temple, and there's many verses.

We don't have the time here this morning to go into them, but the New Testament temple is us. That sanctuary, that tabernacle and the temple, they were pictures of us, individuals. The church corporately, God wanting to dwell in each one of us.

Walk with us. Talk with us. 1 Corinthians 6 says, Know ye not that your body is the temple.

Ah, there's the New Testament reality. Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you. Many people want to put God in the building and visit Him on Sunday, not live with Him and walk with Him in an intimate way day by day.

That's what God wants. That's what our God wants. That's why we took the Lord's Supper this morning.

Do you know why Jesus shed His blood? Hebrews said that through the shedding of blood, we can now draw near unto Him. Draw near. Draw nigh to me by the blood of Jesus Christ.

The whole gospel message was to get you and God together so you could draw nigh. The tragedy for the gospel to be there and you understanding it and receiving it and yet stay far off. I want to look at one more verse here in Isaiah.

Look at Isaiah chapter 66 and we'll close with this one here this morning. Isaiah 66. Here's the house that God is looking for.

And this is the context that Stephen uses in his sermon. In Isaiah 66, starting in verse number one. Thus saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool.

Where is the house that you build unto me and where is the place of my rest? Okay. This is the Old Testament. You want to build a house? Well, let me share with you what kind of house I'd like.

Not a two-story, not a Cape Cod, not a mansion. I have a house in mind. Here's my house.

Verse two, for all those things hath my hand made and all those things have been, said the Lord, but to this man. Here's the house I want. But to this man.

I want a man. I want to dwell in a man. But to this man will I look.

I'm looking for real estate. Here's where I'm going to look. Even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word.

Here's the house that the spirit, spirit. You see, we're spirit people. Here's the house that the spirit of God wants to dwell in.

I'm looking around. The spirit walking around. I want a heart that's poor in spirit.

Lord, I'm needy. I'm big-time needy, Lord. Contrite, God have mercy on me.

I'm mourning over my condition. Poor and contrite in spirit and that opens up this Bible and oh Lord, Lord have mercy. And trembles at my word.

Now when we think of houses, you know, we think of physical houses and buildings and what house would she like to dwell in. But God is a spirit. He's not flesh and blood like us.

He's not impressed with buildings and houses. He's looking for a person to dwell in, just like unclean spirits are going seeking a house that they can dwell in. The spirit of God is looking for a house and that house is real estate pros, you know, these realtors.

What kind of house does God want? He wants one where there's a poor spirit, contrite spirit and someone who trembles at his word. God sees that heart. I'll move in there.

I like this place. I can rest here. I love this heart.

And if you want God to rest and find your place, a wonderful dwelling place, a house, you certainly need those three things. You're poor in spirit. That's where the New Testament starts.

The first sermon Jesus ever preached. Blessed are the what? Poor in spirit. Next thing, blessed are they that mourn.

Contrite heart. Starts all with that. They that hunger and thirst after righteousness.

Oh, I wish the spirit of God would dwell in my heart. Well, you know, if you're putting on a show and you're full of iniquity in your heart and you're not wanting to open up the door because light will come in, that's not a heart that God's going to dwell in. Why don't you get some real estate that's really acceptable to him? A nice looking house.

Something that's comfortable. Something that's of a broken heart, spirit, and it trembles at his word. Well, in verse 3 and 4, I'm not going to take the time, but 3 and 4 describe the irreligious attitudes of those Jews of that day.

But look at verse number 5. And Stephen experienced this. This was a prophetic statement here. Verse 5, hear the word of the Lord, he that trembled at his word.

Okay, you people who love God and you tremble at his word, you have a poor and contrite spirit, hear what I'm going to tell you. Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name's sake, said, let the Lord be glorified, but he shall appear to your joy and they shall be ashamed. These Jews who actually did the same thing to Stephen, those Jews said, let the Lord be glorified.

We sing praises to God. Let God be magnified, turned around and killed Stephen. Stephen was one of those who had a poor and contrite spirit, trembled at his word.

Stephen faced the brunt of the wrath of those religious Jews whose hearts were full of iniquity. And you see this in Acts 7. We're going to see Stephen stoning next time, but that's a prophetic verse. They're going to cast you out, Stephen.

They don't have a heart after me. Oh, they're religious. They sing.

They do all the trappings, but they don't have a place for me to dwell. And they're going to hate you, Stephen. They're going to hate you because they're going to look upon your face as the face of an angel.

They're going to know you're right with God and you're a favor with me and they're going to hate you, Stephen. They're going to cast you out for my name's sake. But there's going to come a day, Stephen, I'm going to appear for your joy and their shame.

Stephen's going to live this. After finishing his sermon, he's going to live this out right here. They're going to just turn on him.

Religious people, Jesus said the time is coming when they who kill you will think they're doing God's service. What do you mean? We're Christians. Look at our building.

Look at our temple. We're Christians. Look at the way we dress.

We're Christians. We've got all the outside trappings. We sing the songs.

No, you're not Christians because your heart is far from God. Amen? Far from God. And so, you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart, you do always resist the Holy Ghost.

I guess these words are written for us too, aren't they? Are we resisting the Holy Ghost? Is your heart, is your spirit a place for God to rest? Is it a good house, broken and contrite, and it trembles in its work? I hope it is. The Lord will dwell there. You can say, Lord, I hear you knocking.

Come on in. Yeah, there may be some issues in your heart. Say, Lord, whatever you want, just show them to me, and we'll deal with them.

I'm broken and contrite. I open up your Word, and I tremble when I see my need. That's the house.

That's the tabernacle that God is typing and shadowing in the Old Testament. That's the temple. And there's many things we could talk about, but in the New Testament, you are that temple.

You're that tabernacle. Shall I take the temple of God and give it over to fornication? 1 Corinthians says, God forbid. How can you take the temple of God and use it for something that ain't right? And so there's many verses we could talk about regarding the temple of God, but I just want to let you know this morning.

Let me know that God's greatest desire, and you think you're a nobody. You think, you know, I don't have no friends, and nobody cares about me. I got news for you.

There's a God that created everything whose seat is in heaven, whose earth is his footstool, who wants to actually live in your heart. Make a dwelling place there. That's exciting.

And all the rumble about what people say and do, just get in the closet and start seeking God and saying, Lord, I believe these things. Clean me out. I want you to come and live with me.

I want you to be powerful in me. God is no respecter of persons. Anybody here, and he'll respond to you.

So let's be a place that he can dwell, a house that he can dwell in. So let's close with a word of prayer. Thank you for your attention.

Heavenly Father, we thank you again for the word. Lord, examine my heart and these hearts here. And Lord, you know what places here in this congregation is a good place to dwell.

You know there's homes here, there's houses, bodies, where there are hearts that tremble. That's your word. There are hearts who are broken and contrite.

And Lord, we thank you that you're willing to dwell with us. Lord, I pray for those hearts here this morning who are not a good place for you to dwell, who are resisting your entrance and have been for a long time. Lord, grant us repentance into life.

Grant us the desire to open that door and let you come in. Bring our hearts back to the place where we can truly read your word and tremble and actually fear God. So Lord, we pray your blessing on each one here.

May none of us ever hear those words, depart from me. Glasting fire. May we draw an eye to God while we have an opportunity.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.