Ruler and Deliverer

[00:00:00] All right, let's take our Bibles and turn to the Book of Acts, chapter seven. [00:00:07] We're going to skip ahead a little bit in our at least in our text from where we are in our study. We're in chapter seven, verse one, but we're not going to read that passage right now. [00:00:22] We're going to start in verse number 51 and read down through verse number 53. [00:00:34] Acts, chapter seven, verse 51, down through verse number 53. [00:00:44] The Bible says, ye stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did, so do ye. [00:00:58] Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted, and they have slain them which showed before the coming of the just one, of whom ye have now. [00:01:10] Ye have been now the betrayers and murderers who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it. All right, let's pray. [00:01:21] Our Lord, thank you for the opportunity to meet together around Your Word. And Lord, thank you for each and every person that's here and those that are listening in that can't be here. Lord, thank you for them. Lord, we pray that you would truly meet with us. [00:01:34] Teach us, Lord, from your word Help us understand this message that you gave to Stephen as he was under great peril, under great pressure. But Lord, he was filled with Your spirit, and the words he spoke were just exactly the words that you would have him to speak to these leaders even under the threat of death. And Lord, thank you for this example in the Scripture. Lord, help us, Lord, to be likewise faithful to you. Help us to like Stephen, to be unashamed witness of the truth as we look at these things today. I pray that you would, Lord, help us to understand the truth, and I pray that you would apply it to our hearts in the way that you see fit and these things would sink down deep into our hearts. [00:02:23] Lord, we come away from this message this time together, this morning. [00:02:29] We would come away better than when we came. [00:02:32] So Lord, we commit it to you. We trust you with it. Lord, I admit that I don't have any strength or knowledge on my own, lord, I need Your help. I need your grace. So, Lord, please help me and clear my mind and help me just to say exactly what Your people need to hear and what I need to hear as well. In Jesus name, amen. [00:02:56] So this is actually the tail end. Verse number 53 is the very tail end of Stephen, the deacon, the faithful deacon. His sermon before the council in Jerusalem, it begins in verse number one by the high priest saying, are these things so? And he said, men and brethren and fathers in verse number two. So basically he's giving his defense. But actually, in fact, most Bibles, if you read it like my bible, says Stephen's speech. Many Bibles in the commentaries, especially, say Stephen's defense. But Stephen is not defending himself. He's been accused of blasphemy. He's been accused of saying blasphemous things against God and against the temple. He's been accused in chapter six of saying that Jesus would change the things that Moses had taught, none of which had any bearing upon what he says here at all. He does not defend himself. In fact, just like any good preacher, he takes the opportunity that God gives him to talk about Jesus. To talk about Jesus. We see Stephen, as we saw throughout our study of the deacons and of Stephen in particular, that he had a great understanding of the Old Testament Scripture. And remember, this was a time when you didn't have a Bible that you could take home and read every day that just didn't exist. Books like we have here, bound, these are called the bound books. They're called a codex, where they put the books in pages and bind the edges of the pages. That's what we have, what we call a book. But they didn't have that. They had very expensive scrolls that were written on animal skins, and they met together to hear the word of God read. And what they read is what they heard. And so you think about this man's knowledge of the Scripture. Without a Bible like we have, certainly our knowledge ought to be at least equal to his right. And we have the Bible familiar to know. We have it so easily accessible to us. But Stephen knew the Bible. But what's more important than knowing the stories of the Bible? Don't let your Bible knowledge just be just a passing familiarity with the stories you see in chapter seven and verse number 51. [00:05:20] Notice what he says. Ye stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did, so do ye. He says in verse 52, which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted, and they have slain them? Which showed before the coming of the just one. Notice that verse 53. Who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it. Notice what he's saying. He's not only showing that he knows the stories that are mentioned in chapter seven, but he's also showing that he understands what the Lord is teaching through the Old Testament Scripture. I know when you read your Bible, sometimes you might get bogged down in this place and that place. Sometimes in the Chronicles or in Judges, you kind of get bogged down with some of the things you read. But listen, it is important that we are New Testament Christians. We live under the New Testament. We call it the economy, but we live under the New Testament time. [00:06:27] Stephen lived under the New Testament time. But all he's talking about is the Old Testament, because to Stephen, the Old Testament was the bible as the New Testament had not yet been written. As far as we know, not even one word at this point of the New Testament had been written. His entire message comes from the Old Testament. So the Old Testament is also given by inspiration of God, and the Old Testament is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness. In fact, that verse given to Timothy by Paul was primarily a reference to the Old Testament. [00:07:02] So the Old Testament is just as valuable as shown in Stephen's message here. And hopefully we're going to derive some value from the Old Testament even as we read Stephen's message here. [00:07:14] Now, Stephen knew the Old Testament, stephen knew the different stories of the Old Testament, but he also knew what the Old Testament displayed and demonstrated about the people of Israel. Now, I know we are not Israel, we are not Israel, but what Israel was in the flesh is what the children of God are in the Spirit. And there are many, many comparisons that can be made here. But what I want to talk about this morning is actually just one kind of simple thought. [00:07:43] But as we look at chapter seven and we kind of break it down into its parts to understand what Stephen says, he first talks about Abraham, and he talks about Abraham to really anchor into the very beginnings of the relationship that God had with Israel because these people are you remember what they said to they boasted when John the Baptist was alive? They boasted to John the Baptist how we're the children of Abraham and John the Baptist said god is able of these stones to raise up children of Abraham. That's not a big deal. [00:08:20] They were boasting in that fact. And Stephen is mentioning that they came from the line of Abraham. God called Abraham. What happened with Abraham is not just a happenstance or an accident. God specifically called Abraham and his lineage, which would turn into the people of Israel through Isaac and Jacob and his twelve sons. [00:08:42] And then what's interesting is he skips a huge portion of the Old Testament in order to emphasize two characters in this passage. He talks about Abraham to kind of lay the groundwork, but the rest of his message. And really, as we read in verse number 51, ye stiff necked and uncircumcised and hardened ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did, so do ye. So that is the theme and the climax of this passage. Stephen talks about a lot of things and he goes into the history of Israel in various ways and talks about all the different. He gives kind of a timeline of the history of Israel, but that's what he's getting at. [00:09:29] He's demonstrating the hardness of heart and the stiff neck of the people of Israel as seen in their like, say, two millennia of history with God, because that's about Abraham was around 2100 years before Christ. And so from about that time when he starts all the way up until his time, which is just after Ad, that 2000 year period, he is reviewing how Israel's relationship to God has been. You know what he finds out what his conclusion is. [00:10:06] You have been from the beginning, stiff necked and uncircumcised in hardened ears. You have resisted what God has done for you. You have rejected his deliverance and you have rejected the people that God has sent to rule over you. In other words, at every step Israel was found to have been doing that. And this is what he's saying. This is what he's saying. [00:10:38] Now there are four times in this chapter, just to kind of give you an understanding overview of what he's saying. There are four times in this chapter that Israel, stephen says that Israel rejects those whom God had appointed to be their deliverer and ruler. There are four different first, the two main figures that he talks about beside Abraham is Joseph and Moses. Now, there was a lot of history after Moses. After Moses, you have all the Joshua and the Judges and you have all the first 2nd Kings and Chronicles, all the way up until the Babylonian captivity, they've returned from captivity, Ezra, Nehemiah, you have all of the major and minor prophets. All of that has happened after Moses. He doesn't touch any of that. He mentions David and Solomon, but that's really about it. He quotes just a couple of verses in Amos, but most of what he's talking about is Joseph and Moses, which is very interesting. [00:11:45] Four times he mentions how the Israel rejected God's appoint God, the man that God chose and appointed, to rule over them and deliver them. First, he mentions Joseph in verse nine. The Bible says in verse nine and the patriarchs, that's the twelve sons of Jacob moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt, but God was with him. Now, we'll talk about Joseph in a minute, but we know when they sold him into Egypt, they did so because they hated him. They hated Jacob's favor over Joseph, they hated his coat of many colors, which was an indication of his favor. And so they wanted to kill him. And if it wasn't for the intervention of one of the sons, they would have killed him. But instead they found a way to make money and they sold him to the Ishmaelites, who took him down to Egypt. And so he ended up purchased as a slave to Potiphar. [00:12:39] But you see, they refused Joseph. [00:12:44] And then Moses is mentioned actually two different times in verse number 27. But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away. So Moses is trying to intervene in a dispute. Once he's 40 years old, he goes out from the house of Pharaoh and he's identifying with the people of Israel and so he's trying to break up a fight, basically. [00:13:04] And they thrust him away and they said, who may be a ruler and a judge over us? [00:13:10] They're rejecting his intervention, they're rejecting his rule. [00:13:16] And then you also see the same thing. These are actually probably connected. In verse number 39, it says, to whom our fathers would not obey, talking about Moses again. [00:13:27] But this is after Sinai. This is after all of the business with Moses. The lord's already given him the he's on Mount Sinai. They thrust him away from them, and in their hearts, and in their hearts, they turned back again into Egypt. Notice two times the Bible says they thrust Moses away, they rejected Moses. And then finally, in verse 52, it says in the last part of the verse, of whom ye have now been the betrayers and murderers. Of course, this is culminating with Jesus himself, whom they thrust away and demanded that he be crucified. So four times in this chapter, Stephen shows from the history of Israel that Israel had rejected the one that God had appointed for them. [00:14:20] Now, notice, it's very important that he emphasizes Joseph and Moses. Think about the comparisons. Think about the comparisons. [00:14:33] Joseph was sent by God to rule over Israel. We'll see this in just a minute. If you think of Joseph, Moses and Christ, all three of them were sent by God to deliver Israel in Joseph, Moses and Christ. All three of them were at first initially rejected by Israel. Right? Joseph was rejected. Moses was rejected, as we just read, and then also Christ was rejected in his first coming. In fact, I mentioned this last week, but what we read here is not only a climactic point in 51, 52, 53 is not only a climactic point in Stephen's sermon, but it's also a climactic point in the Book of Acts, because Christ, again, this is the continuing Acts, is the continuing works of Christ through the Church. Through the Holy Spirit in the church. All right, so the Lord offered himself to Israel. [00:15:38] He came to Israel to save Israel. He was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. They rejected him and cried, crucify him. And so now he is again offering Himself to Israel through Stephen, through the church. And of course, we know that they ultimately reject they were joseph, Moses and Christ were sent by God to deliver Israel. Joseph, Moses and Christ were all rejected at first by Israel. But both Joseph, Moses and Christ would deliver and rule over Israel at the second time, even though they were initially rejected. [00:16:28] So remember, Joseph had a dream of ruling over Israel, but he was sold into Egypt. [00:16:35] Moses was thrust away twice, as we already saw, and Christ was rejected in his offering to Israel. But the Bible says that when Christ comes, he will appear the second time without sin, unto salvation. So the work in Israel is not over. It's just see. We see Joseph and we see how it started. They rejected, but we see how it ended. He reigned. He delivered and he reigned. And then we see Moses and how it started and they thrust him away. But in the end he delivered them and he reigned. Reigned. He ruled, I should say, because Moses wasn't a king. [00:17:11] And see, we see christ was rejected. [00:17:15] He came to deliver them, but he was rejected. [00:17:19] But that last part has not yet been accomplished. Quite yet. [00:17:24] So let's look at a few verses in this chapter. I just want to point out a few of the verses. First of all, talking about Joseph, I want to look at Joseph, I want to look at Moses and I want to look at Christ. Okay? [00:17:41] All right. First of all, in Joseph, look at verse number 25. [00:17:50] Well, before I get there, let's go to verse number nine and ten. [00:18:00] Bible says, and the patriarchs moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt, but God was with him and delivered him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house. And we know what happens there's a famine. [00:18:20] Jacob sends his sons to get food in Egypt and that's how they come upon Joseph. Now we're going to come back here in just a minute, but let's go back to Genesis, chapter 45 to look at a few verses that deal directly with this event. [00:18:44] Now, Genesis 45 is when Joseph reveals himself and his identity to his brothers. [00:18:54] Notice what he says, genesis 45. And verse number seven. [00:19:08] It says this and God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. [00:19:20] See this, this is what Joseph is saying of himself as to his purpose. Why was he sold into Egypt? He was sold into Egypt first of all, from the human perspective, because his brothers hated him. We know that that's fairly obvious. [00:19:37] But as Joseph found out later, the purpose of him being sold into Egypt was to actually save Israel. So Joseph was sent, he actually says, and God sent me before you to preserve you of posterity in the earth. So Joseph understood his purpose. He was sent by God to save, to deliver Israel. And in fact, in this famine, had it not been for Joseph, it very well could have been that the people of Israel would have been no more. I mean, it was that bad, this famine. I mean, people were this is a seven year famine, seven years and seven years, a 14 year famine and it would have destroyed Israel. There was no food to eat. I mean, they were going to other countries, to other nations far away to get food. [00:20:28] But Joseph was sent by God to deliver them, to save them. This is exactly what Stephen is saying. Look at chapter 50, verse 20. [00:20:49] This is at the very end. Jacob has died. And of course because Jacob has died, the brothers all afraid that Joseph is now going to take off the mask and really stick it to him really good for what they did to him selling him into Egypt. [00:21:06] But in chapter 50, verse 20, the Bible says but as for you, well, he says in verse 19 and Joseph said unto them fear not, for am I in the place of God. [00:21:16] But as for you, ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day. Notice what it says. This is the key thing. You're going to see it in a minute to save much people alive. [00:21:31] Now therefore fear ye not, I will nourish you and your little ones. [00:21:39] And he comforted them and spake kindly unto them. So what did Joseph do? He said God sent me to save you. [00:21:49] But we know from Joseph's dream which we won't look at that for time's sake. It's in Genesis chapter 37. [00:21:57] We know from his dream that he had this dream of sheaves and then he had a dream of the sun, moon and stars. [00:22:08] Well, we could probably just as easy look at it and that way we can get our point. I won't have to explain it so much. [00:22:14] Genesis 37 so God gave Joseph these dreams. Joseph realized retrospectively that the Lord sent him to deliver them. But way back when he was young, verse number five, he dreamed a dream of Genesis 37. He told it to his brethren. They hated him yet the more verse number nine he dreamed another dream and told it his brethren. He said behold, I have dreamed a dream more. And behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his father and to his brethren. And his father rebuked him and said unto him what is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? [00:23:11] And his brethren envied him. But his father observed the saying now think of what is happening. So we see joseph is a deliverer, a savior for Israel, and Joseph is also a ruler. In this dream the Lord is telling. And notice Jacob gives him the interpretation. He sees the sun and the moon and eleven stars, eleven brothers bow down to him. Think about that. [00:23:44] Not only did his eleven older brothers bow down to him, but his mom and his dad, his mother and father also bowed down to him. So what this shows is that the Lord is telling Joseph that he is going to rule over even his ancestors, his mother and father. And in this way it prefigures Christ. [00:24:08] Because like Joseph, Christ was prophesied. Christ was foretold that he would rule, but he would not rule over Israel in only his time. He would be the ruler over all of Israel. [00:24:24] Even Abraham. [00:24:26] The Lord said of Abraham, Abraham saw my day and was glad. In other words, even Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, who are his ancestors, would bow down will bow down to Christ. Well, they have already, because they're with Him, but they bow down to Him. In other words, he ruled over everything. So here's what you have. Joseph would save Israel. Joseph would rule Israel, save, rule, deliver and reign. This is what happened with Joseph. Now, Joseph is a type of Christ. Think of it. [00:25:01] Could Joseph rule Israel had he not first been rejected and sold by his brothers? You see? So he was through the rejection of Israel, Joseph became their deliverer. Is that not like Christ? How did Christ save? Christ came to save his people from their sins. But the question is, how did Christ save his people from their sins? What's the answer? Somebody help me. [00:25:27] There's only one answer to this. [00:25:31] Anybody want to be bold enough to speak up? [00:25:36] Exactly. He died to save us. And that's true of Israel just as well as true of us. He died, in other words, by the rejection of Israel, the deliverance was made possible. So with Joseph, by the rejection of Israel, the deliverance was made possible that his brothers rejected Him, and then he became their deliverer because he was then in Egypt. And so it is true of Christ, not only did he save them that one time, the immediate deliverance out of the death, out of death from the famine, but he says in chapter 50 we just read, he would care for them and nourish them. In other words, by ruling over them, he would continue to care for them for years and generations to come because he ruled them. So he saved them and he ruled them. Now, let's look at Moses. Go back to Acts, if you would. [00:26:35] Acts, chapter seven. [00:26:39] It is a well established fact that Joseph is a type or a symbol of Christ. He was a real man, of course, but his life parallels the life of Christ in many, many ways beyond that I've mentioned here this morning. [00:26:56] But Moses is also a type of Christ. Notice what is he saying? He's saying stephen is saying God sent Joseph. Israel rejected Joseph, but Joseph would save them and reign over them. God sent Moses, they rejected Moses, but Moses delivered them and would rule over them. [00:27:19] God sent Christ. [00:27:21] He was rejected, but he delivered them and will reign over them. You see, he's showing their it's. It's a type. [00:27:32] Now, we look at Moses in chapter seven, verse 25. The Bible says moses, verse 24. Seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him and avenged him. That was Oppressed and smote the Egyptian. For he supposed this is Moses. His brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them, but they understood not. So at 40 years old, when Moses left the house of Pharaoh, he knew that God would use him to deliver them. This is 40 years before the burning bush. He knew that it was God's plan for him to deliver them. It just wasn't time. [00:28:08] And then the next day, verse 26 he showed himself unto them as they strove and would have set them one again, saying sir, as your brethren, why do you wrong one to another? But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying who may be a ruler and a judge over us. [00:28:23] In other words, who are you? You're not our ruler. [00:28:27] We are not submitting to you and your arbitration between us. We're not doing what you say. Get away from us. [00:28:37] But then you drop down to verse number 34. [00:28:43] Now, at verse 34 in Stephen's sermon, he's talking about the burning bush. [00:28:47] He says, I have seen I've seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt. Egypt. And I've heard their groaning and Am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt. [00:29:01] This Moses whom they refuse notice that what refusal saying, who made thee a ruler and a judge? That's when Moses was 40. [00:29:13] The same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer. Now we stop right there. Ruler and deliverer. See that? Ruler and deliverer. We already saw that with Joseph. Joseph was he saw that God has sent him into Egypt by means of the rejection of his brothers to be the deliverer. [00:29:38] And after he delivered them, he ruled over them all. Eleven stars and the sun and the moon bowed down to Joseph. He was the top dog under Pharaoh in Egypt. He was the ruler and the deliverer. The same is spoken of Moses. [00:29:55] He says this Moses, verse 35, whom they refused, saying, who made thee a ruler and a judge? The same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush. He brought them out. After that, he had showed sign wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the wilderness 40 years. [00:30:23] So just like Joseph, we see moses was appointed by God both when he was 40 and then in the fullness of time when he was 80, to be the ruler or to be the deliverer of Israel. But having delivered them, now follow me with Joseph. Joseph saved them from the immediate death, from famine. But once he saved them, he nourished them for years to come as a ruler. So Moses, he delivered Israel, but he didn't deliver Israel just by himself. No, it was through the blood of the lamb. Just like remember Joseph, because he was rejected, delivered Israel. So in the second deliverance mentioned here, which is out of Egypt, it was done through the blood of the Passover lamb. [00:31:10] So you see Christ pictured there as well. And because of the blood of that lamb that's put on the linens and the two door posts of the doors, Israel was brought out. They were delivered. [00:31:23] But having been delivered hold on, now, listen. Having been delivered, they're saved from Egypt, but they're not delivered. [00:31:33] This is one thing that really annoys me, is this world. Whenever they give lip service to the Exodus, this world always describes it as a liberation from slavery. And that was there. But that wasn't the big deal. [00:31:49] That wasn't the main thing. You know what? The Hebrews themselves had slaves. All right? So this idea that he was an emancipator or something like that no, god was delivering his people from the oppression of Egypt. [00:32:03] He wasn't making a statement about slavery or anything in particular like that. He had a purpose for Israel. He delivered them through Moses. [00:32:14] But having delivered them, he brought them out. They crossed the Red Sea, went into the wilderness. [00:32:23] Was that the end? [00:32:25] No, that was the beginning. [00:32:28] The Lord said through Moses, let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness. So they came out of Egypt. Moses led them into the wilderness. That was not the end. [00:32:44] They were delivered to serve the Lord. [00:32:48] And the way God would rule them is by means of Moses. You remember Moses. He would sit when his father in law came. He would sit all day long and hear their different cases and things and controversies, and he would make a judgment. He was the judge, he was the ruler. He was the top dog. He put people under him. In Exodus, chapter 18, we see that as well. But here's the point. Moses delivered them even though they had rejected him. And then once delivered, he ruled over them and took care of those people. He gave them the law of God. They were ruled by Moses. [00:33:26] They were ruled by God through Moses instead of being ruled by the Egyptians. [00:33:36] And eventually God would place them in the land of Canaan. And you know who would be their king? [00:33:41] God himself would be the king. [00:33:45] But in the meantime, while they were still in the wilderness, moses was their earthly ruler. So going back to verse 36, verse 35, notice what it says again this moses, whom they refused, saying, who made thee a ruler and a judge? The same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel. Notice that ruler. So we've seen it with Joseph, we've seen it with Moses, and now with Christ. [00:34:19] In verse number 52, we see the rejection of the people of Israel, how they rejected Christ, of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers. [00:34:30] Christ came, christ died on a cross, first for the Jew, but also for the Greek right, first for the Jew, but also for. The Gentile, christ died for all. He tasted death for every man to include the Jew and the Greek. [00:34:51] But in order for that to happen, he had to be rejected. [00:34:56] The rejection precipitated his offering. The cross was made possible because Israel rejected Him. Now, of course, God knew that in his foreknowledge. He knew all of that. He knew all of that was going to happen. He determined. In fact, the Bible says he actually determined it. He determined all of that that was going to happen, and it all came to pass through the Jews rejecting Him. And that the reason why there was a cross, is because they were under Rome and all those things. But when it came to that cross, the Bible says in Isaiah 53 that he made Himself an offering for sin. He became sin for us, you see? And thereby became the Savior and the deliverer. This is what he's talking about here. Just as Joseph, just as Moses, now Christ, but Christ was not only the Savior, he's also the Lord. [00:35:53] He's the deliverer that was rejected, but is to reign, just as Moses, just as Joseph. [00:36:03] Listen to these verses, if you would. [00:36:07] Actually, I'm going to read several verses from second. Peter. Let's turn to we're just going to walk through the New Testament very quickly. We're not going to take a very long time, I promise. [00:36:17] Start in Luke, chapter two. [00:36:24] But let me ask you a question. [00:36:26] Was it possible for the people of Israel to receive the deliverance of Joseph without receiving his reign? [00:36:36] Could they take his salvation but not his position? [00:36:42] What about Moses? [00:36:44] When Moses delivered the people out of Egypt, he didn't deliver and say, all right, have a good life. No, by his deliverance they were delivered to serve the Lord under the leadership of Moses. [00:36:57] And so it is with Christ. [00:36:59] Luke, chapter two, verse eleven. [00:37:01] This is the birth of Christ. For unto you is born this day in the city of David. Notice the terms a Savior, which is now we know what Savior is. That's the cross, right? That's the cross, which is Christ the Lord. [00:37:22] That's the crown. [00:37:24] Notice how they're both mentioned at his birth. [00:37:27] Look at John, chapter 19, as we move on. [00:37:36] John 19, verse number. [00:37:40] Let's see. Let's start in verse 15. This is at the right before Christ is crucified when he's standing with Pilate. But they cried out away with him. Away with him. Crucify Him. Pilate saith unto them shall I crucify your king? [00:38:03] The chief priest answered, we have no king but Caesar. [00:38:10] What are they rejecting? Obviously they're rejecting Christ. They'rejecting his person, they'rejecting his salvation, which is actually going to be accomplished by the cross. But they're also rejecting not only his salvation, but his rule. Not only do they not want Him to be the Savior, they don't want Him to be the ruler either. They say, we don't have a king. He's not our king. [00:38:34] All right, look at Acts, chapter two. Some of this we already covered. [00:38:42] MMM. [00:38:44] Acts two, verse number 36 says this therefore, Peter speaking. [00:38:55] Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified. There's the cross, there's the salvation, both Lord and Christ. [00:39:10] All right, let me make a statement. I'll come back to it in just a second. [00:39:17] Jesus was made Lord and Christ by God the Father. We don't make him lord. He is lord. God made him lord. You see? That's what the verse says. [00:39:32] Look at chapter five, if you would. [00:39:40] Peter and the other apostles preaching. We've already covered this in our study, but let's read it just as a reminder. [00:39:48] Verse 30 says, the God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on the tree. There's the salvation part. [00:39:56] Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a notice what it says. Prince and a savior. [00:40:06] Prince and a savior. That's the salvation and the rule. That's the cross and the crown. That's Joseph saving the Hebrews and Joseph ruling the Hebrews. That's Moses saving them out of Egypt, and Moses ruling them. That's what Stephen is talking about. Jesus is both the Savior and the Lord. Colossians, chapter one. [00:40:29] This will be our last verse. [00:40:37] Colossians, chapter one, verse number 13. [00:40:53] You see this pair? Once more, the Bible says, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness. All right, stop there. Delivered us what's that word you could also say saved us? That's the savior. That's the cross. [00:41:10] How did Jesus deliver us from the power of darkness? He destroyed the power of the devil. How? By means of death. In other words, on that cross, he destroyed the power of the devil and delivered us from the power of darkness. He saved us from sin, from the devil. That's what you see in this verse, the first part of it. [00:41:28] Delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. That's a kingdom. That's a reign. That's a crown. That's a rule. Once again, he's the savior. He is the Lord. [00:41:47] Second peter, listen to these verses. For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Chapter eleven, verse verse eleven, chapter two, verse 20. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ chapter two, verse 20. [00:42:10] Chapter two, verse 20. I repeated myself here. Peter says the Lord and Savior. Here's the thing. As I said before, we don't make Jesus Lord any more than we make Jesus a Savior. God made Jesus a savior and so God made Jesus the Lord He is both. [00:42:28] We merely receive him as such. When you got saved, you received Christ as your Savior. You didn't make him your Savior. Listen to this verse. One Timothy 410 says this for therefore we both labor and suffer reproach because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe. That means he's the Savior of some people that don't believe, right? They didn't make him savior. They don't even acknowledge Him, and yet he is the Savior. That's because God made Jesus the savior, not us. And likewise. [00:43:06] We don't make him lord. [00:43:09] We simply submit to his lordship. See, here's the thing. [00:43:15] There's no way to receive Christ only as your Savior and reject his lordship. There's no way for them to accept the salvation that Joseph offered without accepting Joseph's lordship, without accepting his position because he was the Lord of Egypt. There's no way for them to accept the deliverance of Moses without being under Moses'rule. [00:43:40] And so there's no way for us to receive Christ outside of also acknowledging and submitting to his lordship. We're not talking about lordship salvation. Some people use that term. And they talk about how that you got to do these certain things and then you get saved if you clean your life up. That's not we're talking about. But there's listen, if you receive Christ, you're receiving the Lord. And if you receive a Christ that is not Lord, he's not the Christ, because Christ is the Lord. [00:44:13] We didn't make him that. He is that. [00:44:17] He is that. Now, we know that after we receive Him, you got to be careful. Sometimes these things get you can get into some terminology that's unhelpful. You talk about Christ is the Lord and what that means. But the bottom line is that when we came to Christ, we came to Him empty. We came to him. Lord. Lord. I'm just a sinner. I need you to save me. We bowed to his Lordship. That's part of what repentance is all about. [00:44:48] It's acknowledging that he's right and we're wrong and bowing to Him, yielding to Him. And then after we get saved, you know what we do? [00:44:58] We spend the rest of our Christian life making sure that we're trying to submit to Him, to his lordship. And just like Joseph, just like Moses, he reigns over us. He takes care of us. He provides for us. [00:45:15] He gives us what we need because he is the Lord. [00:45:23] I think a big problem we have is that sometimes we want the saving part but don't want the ruling part. [00:45:37] We want God to save us from sin and from death and from Hell. [00:45:41] But we don't so much want the Lord to rule and reign over us. [00:45:49] But the reality is that he's both. [00:45:53] Just like with Joseph, just like with Moses, it's our job to yield to Him, to submit to Him, to bow to Him, to do his will. Is that not why we're here? [00:46:05] Is that not why we're here? We are here to do what God wants us to do. We are here to live the way God wants us to live. We are here for his honor and for his glory period. [00:46:23] Because he's the Lord. Let's pray.