Gospel According to Acts, and
we're going to be in Acts chapter 7 this morning. Acts chapter
7. And we're kind of moved on from
that verse. We want to read it, but we're
kind of moved on from that verse there. Verse 2, about the God
of glory appearing unto Abraham. But we're going to be
spending some more time with Abraham this morning. Here in
Acts chapter 7, I would like to read verse 2 and then move
on because it says, and he said, men, brethren, and fathers, hearken,
listen to me on this very important point. The God of glory appeared
unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before
he dwelt in Sharan. Now we have looked in the scriptures
and we find out that the great warrior, the general, the commanding
of the physical army of God, the Jews, commanding them in
their taking of Jericho, met someone that said, are you for
us or against us? And it turned out it was the
Lord appeared unto him. The glory of the Lord appeared
unto him. And years later, when he recounts about Abraham, he
wanted them to understand that Abraham was saved out of the
same pew they were saved out of. That he was not some special
person that God appeared to and says, you don't have to have
anything happen to you. You're doing fine by yourself. Joshua
brought out, he was a worshiper of idols in Ur of the Chaldees. He needed to be saved by free
and sovereign grace just like you. And so we have it, the God
of glory appeared unto him. And then it tells us in verse
three, as the story about Abraham goes on, and he said unto him,
now this is the title of our message this morning, Git. Git. Now, have you ever had your
mom or dad tell you that? I know what my mom meant when
she said, get. She didn't have to go any further.
Or my dad, get. I didn't have to ask him, what
do you mean by that? There was an emphasis. All right,
here it tells us, and he said unto him, the God of glory said
unto Abraham, get thee out of, what? thy country. This is where you grew up. This
is where you have lived. This is where you've raised a
family or been around in a family. All of these things. He hasn't
had a family yet. Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred
and come into the land which I shall show thee. So the God
of glory appeared unto Abraham in Ur of the Chaldees and told
him, get out of this country. You know, yesterday I was asked
to read a psalm. This is some familiar psalm.
Psalm 23? I've read that 1,000 times probably. Oh, maybe 500 times in my life. And yesterday was the first time
that I was struck by one of the words that was in the 23rd psalm.
He makes me lie down in green pastures. He makes me. Now, my nature is not wanting
the green pastures. Isn't that interesting? That
by nature, we want to be in Lodibar. We want to be in a place of no
grass, no feed. And yet the Lord, when he comes
in his sovereign majesty, he brings us to a point of green
pastures, and you know who that is? That's Jesus Christ the Lord,
and then he makes us lie down in Christ. So he has to settle
us. He has to bring us to a calmness.
He has to do something for us that we cannot do ourselves,
and that is he has to settle our heart. So he says, he makes
me to lie down in green pasture. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. So here we have the God of glory
appeared unto Abraham down in Ur of the Chaldees, and he comes
with one message. get, leave, do not stay here. You must move on. And you know
what we find out Abraham did? Exactly that. I find it such
a pleasant thing in the scriptures that when God speaks, things
happen. He does not just speak to move
his lips, if you please. He just doesn't say something
and hope something happens. You know, Augustus Toplady said,
it is a most absurd in theory and false in fact to suppose
that when God speaks even internally, he may speak in vain. You know, when God thinks something,
it's going to come to pass. When he speaks, he's going to
come to pass. When he does, it's going to come
to pass. I love what the Bible has to
say about Almighty God. He rules and reigns. He is in absolute control of
his creation, and nothing is out of sorts with him. We find
here, get thee out. Hebrews, or excuse me, there
in Acts chapters seven and verse two, Verse 3, he says, and he
said unto him, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred.
In the book of Hebrews chapter 11, would you join me over there
in the book of Hebrews chapter 11? Don't you just love Hebrews? It helps me so much with the
Old Testament. It explains so much. Now, I believe
those prophets of the Old Testament had as much understanding about
what we read here as we read it. They had the Holy Spirit. They had the indwelling of the
Spirit. They had the leadership of the
Spirit. They were not stupid. God gave
them the message of the gospel, and they understood the things
about the gospel that he reveals to us. Now, I'm thankful that
we have his word, as we do. It was, they didn't have it.
But we find in the Old Testament, he appeared unto people personally.
Oftentimes he did that. You know he does today too? Right
out of the book. Don't expect him to come up to
your door and knock on it. He's gonna speak to you out of
his word, personally. And he will only do it that way. Now he may use somebody to bring
his word, but he's gonna speak to us only out of his word. Don't
expect it from anywhere else. I had a lady tell me that the
Lord appeared to her out by her clothesline. And you know what
I did? I didn't say a word, because
you can't argue with it. But I did say, there's only one
place He really appears for us, and that's out of His Word. All
right, here in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 11, Hebrews chapter
11, we read this about the Word of God. Hebrews chapter 11, verse
3. He says, through faith, We understand that the worlds were
framed by the word of God. Now he came to Abraham down in
Ur of the Chaldees and commanded that he get out of Ur of the
Chaldees. He expected nothing else but
that he got out. He had that. If He could create
the heavens and the earth out of nothing, absolute nothing,
by the word of His power, as it goes on to say, so that the
things which are seen are not made of things which do appear. Now, in order for this pulpit
to be made, they had to start with wood. And when God created
the heavens and the earth, He didn't have any wood. He didn't
have any molecules. He had nothing, absolute nothing. There was nothing that God started
with. He created everything out of
nothing, molecules and everything else. He's the absolute creator
of all things and that is just a simple type for us to understand
that everything that is spiritual about us must be created by God. Even the most, we may think it's
insignificant, but the most insignificant things that we think God gave
us must be created out of nothing on our part. They must be made
by God and God alone. He's the one that brought this
faith here in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 3. He's the one
that brought the faith to his people that they could comprehend
this. He's the one that brings repentance
to us so we would have a change of mind about God. He's the one
that brings a will that is changed. He is in charge of all of these
things and they may seem insignificant, but He is in charge of the most
insignificant things. The molecules that make up this
wood, He created and He is in charge of. They were not put here in preexistent
matter. They were created by God and
it tells us through faith, we understand that the worlds were
framed by the word of God. If you are given that, if you
can grasp that by the spirit of God, it is no problem to go
over to the book of Genesis and also in the book of Acts, as
the history has given, that when God came down to Ur of the Chaldees
and told Abraham to get out of Ur of the Chaldees, It was not
gonna be any small problem at all for Abraham to get out. And
he did. But turn with me, if you would,
back here in the book of Hebrews. Another very interesting verse
of scripture, Hebrews chapter four and verse 12, about the
word of God. It tells us here, the word of
God is quick. Now, the first time I asked a
young man that I've been studying with what quick meant, He gave
the normal reason. It's very fast. That's not what
this word quick means. This doesn't mean fast. It means
living. To be quickened means made alive. And God does it quickly. It tells
us here, for the word of God is quick, living, and powerful. So when he spoke down there in
Ur of the Chaldees, It was a living word that he gave, and it was
also a powerful word, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the dividing center of soul and spirit and joints and
marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the
heart. You know, we may, I'm sure all of us have things that
we would never, ever share with anybody else, but God knows the
thoughts and the intents of every heart. God knows. We hid nothing, hide nothing
from Almighty God. In 1 Peter, would you turn with
me to the book of 1 Peter as we think about the word of God.
He told Abraham to get, and the next thing we do we find him
getting. In the book of 1 Peter, 1 Peter, the power of the word
of God. Never underestimate the power
of God in his word. You know, it may look like nothing
happened. When we deliver that word, you know what? It might be years. When God brings that word to
the mind of that person. Don't ever underestimate the
power of the word. It created the heavens and the
earth. It caused mountains to be moved, and it moved people.
Here in the book of 1 Peter 1, verse 23, being born again, not
of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible. You know, we were born by corruptible
seed. What does that mean? We're going
to die. That's the end. We may grow old. We may grow older. We may be
young. But we were born of corruptible
seed, our mama and our daddy. We were created of corruptible
seed, but notice this about the word of God, being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever. We were born again by
the word of God. He created again. He created
as He did the heavens and the earth. He created as He appeared
unto Abraham and Ur of the Chaldees. When His Word comes in power,
when His Word comes in its authority, He creates life. It's spiritual
life. The Bible is so full of passages
of Scripture that share with us our nature, where we are,
where we stand by nature, and that is dead in trespasses and
sin. And sometimes it's represented
as a desert that there's nothing in it. And sometimes it's represented
as a vineyard that's not growing anything. It's dead. Sometimes
it's represented as a place called Lodibar. Sometimes it's just
referred to as not having any spiritual understanding. We're
dead in trespasses and sin, and yet the word of God comes in
power on those he chooses and has chosen to appear to, and
his word creates life. I was sharing this morning, when
the Lord saved me, this Bible became a new book. My goodness,
I'd read it before, but I hadn't read it like this. I thought
there were a few verses that declared the sovereignty of God,
but the whole book is the sovereignty of God. I thought there were
a few verses of how God saves His people, and the Bible is
full of how God saves His people, from beginning to end. The creation
declares how God saves His people. God created. That's how he saves
his people. He didn't ask permission. You
know, as we follow this, we find out that when Abraham, when God
appeared unto Abraham, Abraham, for the first time in his life,
ever heard about a savior that actually saves. Now when he was
bowing down before all of those idolatrous things down in Ur
of the Chaldees, just like religion does today, there is no actual
hope in that. I hope, I don't know how many
people I've had people tell me that they, and they go to church
and he says, I hope when I die that I'll be okay. I hope. You
know, that's just too shady. God doesn't give us a hope. In
that kind of hope, he gives us a true hope in Christ Jesus. As we heard this morning there
in the book of 1 John, how careful he is to declare by his word
eternal life. And it's not something that we
have to worry about today or tomorrow. It's something we can
count on. Let's follow this theme as we
see Abraham. In the book of Revelation chapter
10, Revelation chapter 10, I had the most wonderful experience
this last week. A man told me, I was visiting
with him and he told me, he says, you know, I'm just really concerned
about what's going on in the world today. And I said, you
know, it doesn't bother me at all. He says, well, you have
more faith than me. Well, I said, you know, the Bible
doesn't bring up this stuff as being towards the end of the
world. In fact, it says this is just normal. Wars and rumors
of wars, you find a time when it hasn't been like this. It's
immorality to its degree. You find a time it hasn't been.
You just go back to the time of Adam. We follow this through
history, and we find out it's been going on from the very beginning. The fall is far worse than we
ever thought it was. And every day, we find out more
about it. Now, we might hear about it more
because, you know, we got these right now, and we can videotape
you. Well, it didn't matter in days
of old. Didn't take videotaping, it's
already known. And yet, in the book of Revelation,
he brought that up, book of Revelation. What about the book of Revelation?
I says, the key to the book of Revelation is found in verse
one. There's the word revelation,
the revelation of Jesus Christ. Did you know that that word is
apocalypse? That's the word apocalypse. How
has that been distorted in our world today, in the religious
world? Oh, it means war. It means we're gonna have all
of these things going on. No, it doesn't. It means the
revelation of Jesus Christ, and it's used in the book of Luke.
It says the light to lighten the Gentiles, to give them light
to see spiritual things. That's Jesus Christ. So the next
time someone comes up to you and says, we're ready for the
apocalypse, just ask, are you ready for Christ? The pastor who brought me the
gospel, he says, I never preach the second coming of Christ,
because everybody wants the signs about that. He says, I preach
Christ coming the second time. He's promised that it's going
to happen. All right, here in the book of
Revelation, excuse me for the sidetrack. Revelation chapter
10, verse 13. Nope, that's not going to work. He was clothed, is it verse 3
maybe? Oh my. And he was clothed with
a vesture dipped in blood and his name is called the Word of
God. Well, I'll have to bring that
at another time. I wrote it down. Revelation chapter,
oh, and oh, And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood,
and his name is called the Word of God. In the book of Jeremiah,
Jeremiah chapter 23, would you turn there with me as we think
about the Word of God, the power of the Word of God, here in Jeremiah
chapter 23, verse 29. Jeremiah brought this truth out,
Old Testament truth, but it's New Testament truth. Sometimes,
and I've said this before, sometimes we've had a great disadvantage
given to us when they put a lot of stuff in between the Old and
the New Testament. All of the family record, and
the marriage certificates, and death times, and all that stuff.
Because that gives us the idea that there's just, there's no
continuity. We're gonna have the Old, it's
finished, and now we start the New. It must be something new.
The Old Testament is filled with the New Testament. Salvation by grace. In the book
of Jeremiah, chapter 23, verse 29, is not my word like as a
fire? You know, when it comes to the
law, it is called the fiery law. God gave the law. And it is a
fiery law. I mean, you mess around with
it, you're going to get burned. There is nobody that can keep
it. And the more we say we are keeping
it, the more we are not keeping it because we just lied about
keeping it. We cannot keep the law. It is something that is
impossible for us. And I've had people say, well,
God would never have given us anything that we couldn't do. Well, he's done several times
the very same thing. He requests something to be done
that we can't do, and then we find out he's done it for us.
All right, my word is like the fire. It's a fiery law, but he
goes on to tell us, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock
in pieces. I'm so thankful that that word
of God is like that hammer that breaks our stony hearts He comes
in power and reveals Jesus Christ to us. He takes that old heart
and gives us a new heart. You know, I don't know how many
preachers I've heard say, give your heart to Jesus. Well, I
can tell you with authority, he doesn't want it. He doesn't
want your heart. He wants to give you a new heart
when he wants to give you a new heart. It is a new heart. So
it is His power that He spins on His people. It is the God
with this word that spoke to Abraham and said, get. And you
know, let's go back over there to the book of Acts chapter 7
again, if you would, Acts chapter 7. And there it tells us in verse
3, Acts chapter 7, verse 3, that, and He said unto him, Get thee
out of thy country and from thy kindred, and come into the land
which I show thee. Verse four. What a statement
is made in verse four. Then came he out of the land
of the Chaldeans. God's word is so authoritative,
so powerful, that when it strikes home, the person that it strikes
with is going to do what God is going to do with it. There
is no resistance. I love the term, irresistible
grace. Now, we may have resisted it
for a long, long time, but on the day of His love, on the day
of His power, On the day He has determined to save His lost sheep
from their sin, to reveal that unto them, this power that He
has, it will accomplish exactly what He said it would accomplish,
and that is, they will do as I have required. He makes us
willing in the day of His power. And you know what? After the
Lord saves you, you say, thank you, Lord, because I'd have never
turned into this field on my own. I'd have never found this
green pasture on my own. I'd have never invited you into
my life on my own. And then after he saves you,
he says, oh, come, Lord Jesus. Show me more. Show me what you
are. Teach me from your word. And
so Abraham, get thee out of thy country, and in verse there,
from thy kindred, And then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans. What a message. The word is obeyed. They came out of the land. God
gave him nothing, it tells us in verse five, and he gave him
none inheritance in it. Not so, no, not so much as to
set his foot on. One translation said, not even
a square foot. Abraham didn't owe one square
foot of that. What happened when his wife died?
He had to go buy the cave of Machpelah to bury his wife in. He didn't own an acre. He didn't
own a hectare. He didn't own a square foot.
But he had a promise. It goes on to tell us there,
yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession.
He didn't own an acre. He didn't own a square foot.
And yet God promised him. Now that's where faith comes
in. When God gives faith to his people, they understand that
the promises of God are real. That they're not just, if I keep
my end up. You know, that's religion. If
you keep your end up, it'll be okay. But with Christ, with God,
with the Holy Spirit, I'll take care of your end. Because I know
you can't. I will lift your burden. I will
lift you out of a horrible pit. I will take care of you. I'll
bring you home. I will take you to heaven. I'll
do it all. And that's the message of God's
free grace in Christ Jesus of exactly what he does from beginning
to end He does not leave one particle of the creation up to
us. He is the creator. He is the
mover. He's the caller. He's the high
being that rules over all of his house so graciously. He's not vindictive to his lost
sheep. He is gracious to the core with
them. The word was obeyed, as we read
there. He removed him from the land
wherein ye now dwell, and gave him none inheritance. Verse five,
no, not so much as it set his foot on, yet he promised that
he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when
he was yet had no child. Now this is gonna be some time
before Isaac is born, because he goes through the experience
with his wife, and he says, you know, The Lord has taken a long
time to answer that prayer. And so I think maybe we should
get involved with this. And they have a son. And he's not the son of promise.
Now this, only God can take a great sin and turn it into good. And we find that often happen
in the scriptures. People do great crimes. And some
of them try to cover it up. You know David, when he committed
adultery with Bathsheba? He says, get her husband down
here out of the battle and send him over to his home with the
idea that now this will take care of my problem. Well, the
husband was more honorable than David was in that. And he sat
right there, camped right there by David. He says, why would
I be at home when my brethren are out there fighting? God used
that terrible, terrible crime and brought to us the next one
in line, in the line of the Lord Jesus, Solomon. He allowed Stephen to be killed. Oh, what a crime. And whose feet
were the clothes set at? Saul of Tarsus. And he appeared
unto him later and revealed Christ unto him. And you know, Saul
of Tarsus, we know him as Paul, said, oh, that was such a terrible
thing that I consented to do. But grace is gracious. the promise to enjoy. When God makes a promise, and
we're going to read this verse and then we'll go to the Lord's
table, but would you join me in the book of Hebrews one more
time? In the book of Hebrews, chapter 6. Galatians and Hebrews
have a lot to say about Abraham. We find him scattered throughout
the New Testament, but here in the book of Hebrews, chapter
6 and verse 13, Now this is how great a promise
God made. You ever been in a courtroom
and had to put your hand on the Bible? And you swear that what you tell
is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Why
do they make us put our, I don't know if they do that anymore.
The last time I was in, I had to do that. I had to put my hand
on the Bible. Why do they do that? because we can't find anything
higher to swear by. You really believe the Bible,
don't you? Well, notice this. For when God made promise to
Abraham, that's this promise, because he could swear by no
greater, he swore by himself. As God Almighty, I promise you
what I've And it will be fulfilled. And as we follow this out, we
find out that everything he promised to Abraham is fulfilled. What
does he do for the church? Everything he promised is fulfilled. Nothing is left out. There is
not a scintilla of his promise that breaks down. What does he
say to his sheep? You know, this is what we find
out all the things he's going to give us in this life. But
that thing that we so delight in, He promised eternal life. And what's that mean? Life with
Jesus Christ for eternity. What's heaven like? Jesus Christ. Don't ask me to explain any further
than that. Oh, I want to be up there on the streets of gold.
I don't know. Probably better for it. Being
in Christ is to be gold enough. All right, we're going to stop
there.