STOPPING YOUR EARS
Acts 7:51-60 (vs. 57)
INTRO. These are the final moments in the life of one of the first Christian martyrs. The men Stephen was speaking to were the great and mighty men of their day and nation. They knew the Scriptures and should have been among the first to recognize Jesus and come to Him. It was because they knew that Stephen was telling them the truth and that the truth did not agree with their own pet ideas and theories that they became so enraged that they committed murder. Let’s consider, not Stephen, but the men he was preaching to and we will try to understand why they did such a terrible thing.
I. THEY WERE WILFULLY DEAF. (vs. 57)
A. They liked to claim that they were the chosen people of God.
1. They were of the lineage of Abraham. (see John 8:33-40)
2. They bragged that they were children of the covenant made between Abraham and God. That covenant which was symbolized in the mark of circumcision.
3. They boasted that they were the keepers of the Law given by God to Moses.
4. They felt that the combination of their lineage, their covenant and circumcision, and their Law made them the most spiritual people alive.
B. But like so many who claim to be the people of God, they would accept God only when it suited their own selfish purposes.
C. They had used this religion that they supposedly loved so much as a means of falsely accusing Stephen (Acts 6:11-14). They were willing, not to hear the truth, but rather to hear their version of the truth.
D. Stephen not only answered their false accusations but then he began to make accusations against them -- this is when they began stopping their ears.
1. They had accused him of berating the Holy Place -- He accused them of resisting the Holy Ghost. (vs. 51)
a. First of all he denounced their claim of superiority by calling them uncircumcised in heart. In other words, they might be different from the heathen on the outside but they were just the same on the inside.
b. Secondly, we know that there are three ways the Holy Spirit can be opposed. He can be grieved. He can be quenched. He can be resisted.
(1) Only a Spirit-indwelt believer can grieve the Holy Spirit. The word "grieve" is a love-word. We can grieve only someone who loves us and who stands in a special relationship to us.
(2) A church can quench the Holy Spirit by allowing men to usurp His authority, by refusing to follow His leading, or by permitting false doctrine or moral wickedness to take root.
(3) Only lost sinners resist the Holy Spirit.
c. The word "resist" means -- "to fall against or rush upon in a hostile manner"; "to rage in battle against".
d. Their treatment of the prophets, the Scriptures, the temple, and the Son of God, constituted a persistent sin against the Holy Spirit.
2. They had accused him of insulting Moses -- He accused them of murdering Jesus Christ. (vs. 52)
a. Their fathers had murdered the prophets sent to them by God. Matt. 13:10-17
b. God had sent them prophets. He had sent them John the Baptist. He had sent them His only begotten Son. They had stopped their ears to them all.
c. Luke 20:9-18
d. It is strange that many times we will do something we know to be wrong and it does not bother us that others know we did it but it bothers us when we are accused of doing it.
3. They had accused him of blaspheming the Law -- He accused them of breaking the Law. (vs. 53)
a. From the first, at Mt. Sinai, Israel had been Law breakers. For the breaking of the law they had experienced, disease, drought, famine, snakes, locusts, wars, and finally captivity.
b. Their own proud history was a testimony against them...and there was nothing they could say to the contrary. SO THEY STOPPED THEIR EARS!!!
II. IT WAS AGAINST THE GOSPEL THEY STOPPED THEIR EARS.
A. When men find fault with the preaching of the Gospel, they are finding fault with God. Many will not make peace with God and they point to the faults of the preacher or the church when really it is the Son of God they reject.
1. Jesus warned that when people reject the man with the message they are rejecting the man in the message. John 15:18-25
2. Men hate the Gospel because it tells them what they are and they don’t want to know.
3. The Gospel also tells us what God has done to save us from our sins. (I Cor. 15:3-4) -- "For I delivered unto you first of all that which also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures;"
B. These people did not want to be told that they were not good enough to go to Heaven.
1. When people reject reason in favor of pride and selfish ambition, when truth is dethroned in favor of lies, when anger overcomes repentance, then God has nothing more to say to rebellious people.
2. As He had rejected the fathers, so He would reject the sons. They were dead even before they expired. (Jn. 3:36) -- "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."
3. Dad talking to a lady about salvation by works. When he had proven to her from the Bible that works has nothing to do with salvation she said, "Well, I don’t care what the bible says, I still think you must do something to be saved."
4. That is the case with many people today as then, "God has His ideas and I have mine."
III. THE RESULT OF STOPPING THEIR EARS.
A. Spiritual deafness is far worse than physical deafness. Notice their reactions.
1. Their anger and hatred rose inside them like mercury in a thermometer. The preaching of the Word of God was like a knife cutting to their very heart.
2. (vs. 54) - They ran upon him and bit him!
3. (vs. 57) - Like little children. "If you can’t think of anything else, get mad."
4. Finally they killed them.
B. It makes no difference if you get mad, gnash on me with your teeth, stone me or if you simply say, "Well, I don’t believe in the Son of God and I am not going to be saved."
1. You may throw a fit or you may be a perfect lady or gentleman in your rejection of Jesus as your Saviour, the result is the same.
2. (Jn. 3:18) -- "He that believeth on him is not condemned; but he that believeth no is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
CONCLU. Are you stopping your ears to the preaching of the Gospel and salvation?
A. One of the condition to be saved is first to hear the Gospel. Paul said, "How can they be saved except first they hear?" and then again, "Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God."
B. There are several ways you can stop your ears to the Gospel.
1. You can never go to church, never listen to a sermon, never read a tract, etc.
2. You can daydream during preaching.
3. You can say in your heart, "That’s just for sinners, not for me."
C. But the result will be the same for you as for these men. The penalty for stopping your ears against the Gospel of Jesus Christ is eternal separation from God in a devil’s hell.
D. Isaiah 55:3,6-7
