In the 7th chapter of the book
of Acts, Acts chapter 7, I want to read just a couple of verses
and then we're going to go back into chapter 6 a little bit and
pick up some of the review. Just review a little bit of what
is going on here in this chapter. It's interesting to note that
Stephen is going to quote at least 14 Old Testament verses
in this message that he's going to present here before this council.
He refers to the Old Testament. Now, he refers to the Old Testament,
number one, because that's all he had, and number two, he knew
the Old Testament. He knew the Word of God. Here
we read this, the council and the high priest ask this, are
these accusations true? Are these things so? Now in chapter
6 we'll look and review very quickly in just a moment that
there was some accusations brought against him because of his preaching. He preached to these folks and
they heard him and they arrested him and brought him in front
of a council. There were four accusations specifically that
he brought. If you would turn back with me
into the 6th chapter of the book of Acts, verse 11, we read two
of them. Acts chapter 6 and verse 11,
and these are the accusations that they have brought against
Stephen. We know that these accusations
that they brought were false, because they had to suborn men
to say these words. They had to prompt these people
to say this, Well, you know, it's a little fuzzy, but yeah,
I do. Yeah, I do. Well, it says here,
they suborn men, which said, we have heard him speak blasphemous
words against Moses and against God. No, when we go back, we'll
find out that Stephen was only presenting what the Bible had
to say about Moses. Moses presented, I am telling
you, a prophet shall come like me. Him you will hear. That's what Stephen brought.
And then it says against God. You know, when he spoke about
the Lord Jesus Christ, he spoke about God. God was revealed in
Christ Jesus. We go through the Old Testament
and we read about a Messiah coming, and that Messiah is so often
compared equally with God the Father, the God of Elohim, the
God of Jehovah. In fact, He is Jehovah. So he
brought that up and they brought that accusation. And then in
verse 11 it says, And they stirred up people, and the elders, and
the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him
to the council, and set up false witnesses. Now we know again,
What he had to say, they didn't agree with because they had to
convince false witnesses to bring up these accusations. This man
ceases not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place.
You know what he brought up, and we're going to find that
in his testimony here, that he only said, said, Destroy this
temple, and in three days I'll raise it up again. And he spoke
of his body. And Jesus told the disciples
and anybody that heard him, This temple that you see, this beautiful
building that you're around, not one block will be standing
upon another. And that took place in A.D. 70.
It was destroyed. Why was it destroyed? Because
they continued to make an idol out of it. Why was it destroyed? They continued to go down there
with their temple services when all of the Old Testament type
shadows and pictures were fulfilled in one person, Christ Jesus on
the cross. Everything was fulfilled. When
He said it is finished, all was finished. It was complete. And
now we worship and look to the Lord Jesus Christ just like the
saints from the very beginning. Able to worship Christ, the Messiah,
the promised one to come. So here we have the accusations
that were brought against him. The council were not able, verse
10, notice that in verse 10, they were not able to resist
the wisdom and spirit by which he spake. You know, all he had
was their Bible. He only had their Bible, the
Bible they said they believed. And you know, when they came
against him, not one verse of scripture was brought up against
him. You know, this last week, I was
there in Michigan, and my good friend, Brother Wayne Boyd, often
goes over to a McDonald's right across the street from the church
building, and he lives in the Parsonage there. He'll go over
there and have a soda pop and sit down with some Oh, people
my age. And you know, I would sit down
there, I've met these guys before, and I sat down there and I started
talking about the grace of God and the requirement that God
alone can save His people without our decision. And you know a
man that's there who says he knows everything, he didn't bring
up one verse to my attention. You know what he said? You're
going to hell. You know, there was no rebuttal.
There was no going to the scripture. There was no going to the Bible
saying, you know, let's look at this verse of scripture. It
was just probably he said in his mind. And besides that, you're
ugly. You know, that's the greatest defense that people have against
the gospel, is, you're going to hell, and I don't like you.
But when here we have Stephen presenting the Word of God, presenting
Christ, presenting the gospel, all they could find against him
is they would go to their tradition of the fathers. He went to the
Word. They didn't bring up one verse
of Scripture out of Isaiah, Jeremiah, the Psalms, or any place else
to rebut him. They only brought up a railing
accusation and had people suborned and lie about Stephen. And that's
why we find here in the book of Acts chapter 7, are these
accusations true? Well, let's go over here in the
book of Acts, chapter 7, and notice Stephen's response. Chapter
7, verse 2. Now, we looked at this a little
bit last time we were here, but I'd like to go over it just a
little bit again. There's so much cram put, placed
in this verse of Scripture. I've used this reference before.
I was so shocked one time when I went into a store over on the
coast, and they had in this little thing, about this big and about
this wide, a T-shirt crammed in there. I don't know how they
got it so small, and you took it out of there, and it became
a regular-sized T-shirt, and you could never get it back in
that little package. How do they cram that? You know,
God is so gracious to us that for time and eternity, we will
never run out of the blessings of His Word. We'll never come
to the end of the blessings of His Word. There is so much here. So, in the 7th chapter, verse
2, here's Stephen's response to the accusations that were
made, and he's going to spend quite a bit of time here quoting
Old Testament Scriptures to these doctors of the law. You know,
it's amazing when Jesus Christ was dealing with Nicodemus, he
said, you being a doctor of the law, don't know these things.
You know, they are spiritually revealed. And just to know scripture
is not enough. It must be revealed to us. And
Christ Jesus is the revelation of the scriptures here in the
book of Acts, chapter seven, verse two. We find that the that
Stephen and, you know, he's just nothing but a servant. He's been
selected as a servant. What was the requirements for
him being a servant? A man filled with the Holy Ghost,
honest, upright. There wasn't one requirement
that he'd ever taken a business class. I've been in churches
where the deacon was selected because he was good at business.
Didn't know a thing about the gospel, but they were good in
business. That's not the requirement for a servant. Here we have Stephen. He had all the requirements.
You know, the number one most important requirement for ever
serving God is being born again. You can't serve God without Him
giving you the new birth. From then on, it's an exciting
ride. Up and down, but it's an exciting
ride because he's in rule of it. All right. He said, men and
brethren, fathers, hearken. I want you to listen to me. I
have something very, very important to say to you. Please don't interrupt
me. And they don't seem to interrupt him until the very last. He respected
them. He said, men and brethren and
fathers. He didn't come out and just say, you know what? You're
really stupid. All I've been doing is quoting
year-old Testament passages of scripture, and here you are,
got me arrested. He just said, man and brethren, Harkin, I want
to talk to you about somebody that is very important in your
history. You know, for a long time, this
person was very important to Stephen's history. He'd heard
about him. No doubt he was a Greek Christian.
He was from an area that spoke Greek. But Stephen also understood
that Abraham was a very important person in his history. Because
Abraham is a father of the faithful. A picture, a type, and a shadow
of every believer. We come into this world not knowing
a thing about God. We come into this world speaking
lies, and just as happened to Abraham, what does it say here
in Acts chapter 7 verse 2? The God of glory appeared unto
our father Abraham. My goodness, when we look at
where Abraham was, he is in what we know as Iraq. It was Ur. It was between the Tyrus and
Euphrates River over there. And it tells us in the book of
Joshua, Joshua just telling the people, all of those great people,
leaders of Israel at the time of about his death, he's telling
them, don't you feel too proud about this man Abraham that you're
related to him because God called him out of Ur and he was a worshiper
of idols. He worshipped probably a thousand
different idols, and he was probably like the Greeks there in Athens. There was a God he hadn't heard
of yet, so he had a little altar to him, too. The unknown God. Well, it tells us there the God
of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia,
before he dwelt in Sharan. Now turn with me, if you would,
over to the book of Joshua. Joshua chapter 24. In Joshua
chapter 24, Joshua is going over their history, and it is a history. How God would take out of all
of history one man by the name of Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees. Why would he do that? Because
of his free and sovereign grace. He didn't look down on Abraham
and say, well, he's one of my pastors. He's a Bible teacher. He's one of my prayer warriors. Therefore, I'll be kind to him.
You know what Abraham was? He was an idolatrous sinner. Hated God. hated anything he
ever heard about God. He's down there and it tells,
Joshua brings this out in Joshua chapter 24 and there in verse
1 he says, And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to shechem
and call for the elders of Israel. These are the leaders of Israel. And he wants them to know beyond
a shadow of a doubt that the person who started their line,
their lineage, Abraham, was nobody special. It tells us there, the
judges, the officers, and they presented themselves before God.
And Joshua said unto all the people, thus saith the Lord God
of Israel, your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood
in old time. Now that's not speaking about
the flood at Noah's time, it's talking about a river. the river
Euphrates. And he goes over there, that's
where they lived. The other side of the flood, in old time, even
Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nacor, and
they served other gods. Now they had, they served other
gods. You know, one time I was looking at the Ten Commandments,
and you know, it came to me, none of those commandments were
given just to be preventative. Those commandments were given
because there was a problem. We got a problem. Look at these
people's hearts. Look at these people's souls.
We're gonna give these Ten Commandments, and they have a problem. They're
the ones that have found other gods. They're the ones that have
looked on other people. They're the ones that have done
these terrible things by nature, and they were doing it before
God ever gave them the Ten Commandments from the mount and brought it
down to them on those stones. They were in trouble from the
very beginning. In Adam, all sinned. In Adam,
all died. So we have a problem from the
very beginning, and God comes down there with those Ten Commandments
and reminds them of it. Well, here we have, with regard
to Joshua, it says He reminds them that Abraham, don't get
too puffed up about this. It tells us here and they've
served other gods and I took your father Abraham from the
other side of the flood and led him throughout all the land of
Canaan and Multiplied his seed and gave him I see what did God
do? He took him out of her I Like
as we go through the scriptures we find that God speaks with
authority He's never made into suggestion He is going to speak
with authority. And what God says, He's going
to accomplish. What God says, what God does,
is by authority. The authority of God. Folks,
don't get too proud here. They served other gods. Turn
with me, if you would, to the book of Romans. Romans, as Brother
Lauren was reading about, that Paul had a great desire to go
to Rome. He mentions that, and he'd been
hindered several times. Who hindered Paul from going
to Rome? Was it his brother-in-law? No.
Was it his son? No. Was it his nephew? No. It was God Almighty. He had this
man he wanted him to visit with before he got down to Rome, and
he had this lady he wanted him to preach to before he went to
Rome. So he wasn't wasting his time, but he wanted to go down
there, and he was prevented, and here we have him writing.
And in the book of Romans, chapter one, just a little further there,
Romans chapter 1, we find that he is writing to them about a
problem that they have down there in Rome. Now he could have wrote
to Ephesus, he could have wrote to Corinth, because he does.
Writes the same thing, He could have wrote to the Dow's. He could
have wrote to my little hometown of New Pine Creek. He could have
sent a letter to Duffer or Friend, and it would have exactly the
same thing. We have a problem. If we think
for a moment, by separating our kids. My dad didn't want us growing
up in that big city of New Pine Creek. My grandmother said 160
people and that counted the cats and dogs. My dad did not want
me growing up in that big city because they would lead us astray. You know what? We went astray
anyway. It's our nature. We are born with that nature. And here he goes on and says
in Romans 1, verse 21, because that when they knew God, they
glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain
in their imaginations, and their foolish heart were darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed
the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image. the glory of the uncorruptible
God into an image made like to corruptible man
and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Can you imagine a people giving
over to worshiping birds, four-footed beasts and creeping things and
man? Yes, you can. We did it by nature. Now, we may not have had some
idol that looked like a bird, but we had the substitute for
that. We had ourself, and we had our
religion, and we had everything else that goes with it. Goes
on to say, professing them to be wise. And then in verse 24,
wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, through the
lust of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between
themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie. You know what
they're saying there? I know what it says in the Bible,
but this is what it really means. They change the truth of God
into a lie. His word is truth. And when we
go against it, just like that man there in that McDonald's,
I don't believe it, so I'll use any statement I can. I'll just tell you, you're going
to hell. Well, that's just the way we deal with it, unless God,
in Christ Jesus, should give us the truth, and we understand
the truth that is in God. And then we quit fussing about
God. We quit fussing about His sovereignty.
We quit fussing about His election. We quit fussing about how He
does His business. We don't walk away and say, I
don't believe that. We walk away and say, thank God He does that,
because without it, I'd have never been saved. He's the one
that got involved with me. So we have all these creatures
that are made. In the book of Deuteronomy, chapter
four, we read this about Israel. You know, I've been around people
who, when they talk about all these things that are going on,
and particularly about Israel, oh my goodness, they, look at
them, how stupid they are. Look at them, they don't like
their manna. Look at them, they wouldn't go into the promised
land. Look at them, what they're doing against God. I'd have been
smarter than that. You ever heard that? I'd have
been smarter than that. I wouldn't have done that. Oh,
we're only fooling ourselves, aren't we? You know, what is
a sure sign of a person has never heard the gospel? I would have
never done that. I would have never done what
Israel did. I'd never rebelled against God like Israel did.
I would have been in the promised land. They didn't go, I would
have went. Well, here in the book of Deuteronomy
chapter 4, read with me here, as God brings out to them, Deuteronomy
chapter 4, and so this issue that Abraham had, or Abram, before
God appeared unto him, This issue that he had, that he had worshipped
and was worshipping other idols, we find that that permeates the
scriptures, is through the scriptures, through and through, that this
is a real issue with natural man. Unless the God of glory
appear unto us and take us out of where we are, we will never
leave. We'll never come to the end of
it. We may reform. We may go through all kinds of
reformations. I won't do that again. I'll turn
over a new leaf. But no heart change, no change. All right, Deuteronomy 4, verse
15. Deuteronomy 4, verse 15, it says, Deuteronomy 4, verse
15, it says, Deuteronomy 4, verse 15, it says, Deuteronomy 4, verse
15, it says, Deuteronomy 4, verse 15, it says, Deuteronomy 4, verse
15, it says, Deuteronomy 4, verse 15, it says, Deuteronomy 4, verse
15, it says, Deuteronomy 4, verse 15, it says, Deuteronomy 4, verse
15, it says, Deuteronomy 4, verse 15, it says, Deuteronomy 4, verse
15, it says, Deuteronomy 4, verse 15, it says, Deuteronomy 4, verse
15, it says, Deuteronomy 4, verse 15, it says, Deuteronomy 4, verse
15, it says, Deuteronomy 4, verse 15, it says, Deuteronomy 4, verse
15 likeness of any winged fowl that flyeth in the air. Why are
these words brought up? Why did God bring these things
up? Because there was a problem. He isn't here to create a problem. He's here identifying a problem.
What in the world are people doing worshipping these kind
of things? Same thing we did, worshipping our kind of things.
They're substitutes for a holy God. and our natural heart will
choose a substitute every time. over God Almighty. It's just
the way we're made. And that's why grace is so gracious. That God would come down where
we are, in the mess that we're in, dead in trespasses and sin,
and appear unto us. The God of glory appear unto
us and take us out of the place that we're in. Bring us out of
the hole that we're in. Set our feet on the solid rock
that he says there in the Psalms. He brought me up out of a horrible
pit. I couldn't get out on my own.
There wasn't a baptism that would do it. There wasn't a communion
service that would do it. There wasn't a priest that could
do it. There wasn't a preacher that could do it. There wasn't
a doctrine that could do it. There wasn't a confession of
faith that could do it. Only Christ could bring me up out
of a horrible pit. And when He brings us out, He
doesn't set us down just anywhere. He set my feet on a solid rock. Where is that? Christ Jesus the
Lord. That's why we are invincible. We have Christ as our rock. Now
he may take our lives out instantly, but our spiritual well-being
is invincible. It is secured in Christ Jesus,
the Lord. He brought me out of a horrible
pit, set my feet on a solid rock, and what else did he do? He gave
me a soul in my heart. Worthy is the lamb that was slain. That's what God does. Now what
we do is what Abraham did. He continued on in his idolatry. And if he would have continued
on till the day he died, if the God of glory had not appeared
unto him and brought him out. He commanded him to come out. And it says he came out. In Deuteronomy
chapter 5, turn there with me if you would. Deuteronomy chapter
5. And there in verse 17, oh excuse me, verse 8, Deuteronomy
chapter 5 verse 8, it says, Thou shalt not make thee any graven
image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that
is in earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the
earth. Thou shalt not bow down to them. There shall be no other
gods before you. Well, Psalm 106. Psalm 106, look there with me,
Psalm 106 verse 19. The history of Israel is a sad
history. The history, our history, my
family history is a sad history. It appears that they had worshipped
anything but the living God. It appears that God was not pleased
to go down to their ur and bring them out. But I'm thankful in
time He appeared in my ur and brought me out. The God of glory
appeared. Psalm 106 verse 19, we read these
words, it says, They made a calf in Horeb. How long after they crossed the
Red Sea did they make a golden calf? And you know what they
said about it? We threw the gold in the fire
and it came out as a calf. Can you just imagine Moses going,
what? How could you say that? That's
a lie, lie, lie. Liar, liar, pants on fire. You cast some gold. No, no, no, no, no. You cast
a golden calf. You made a golden calf. What
did they have down in Egypt? The same thing. They brought
the God out of Egypt, out there into the wilderness. And because
Moses wasn't with them for 13 seconds, they're out there dancing
around a golden calf. You know, if the law removes
itself from us for 13 seconds, our nature will lead us to do
the most ghastly things possible. The law never saved us, the law
never delivered us, but it is used as a pinion against us so
often by the preacher. You can't do that. Guess what? I've already done it in my heart.
You all know about that little boy that was told to sit down
in his chair in the car. He's mad as hops because his
dad buckled him in and he's just sitting there. He's tribulating. And his dad says, what's going
on? What are you doing? He says, dad, I'm standing up
inside. You put a law on anybody, they're
still standing up inside. There's no way not to. So here
we are, the moment that Moses leaves the sea, and it looks
like, it looks like we're free. Get your gold. Now, we're not sure right at
the moment what we'll tell Moses when we get back, but we'll think
of something. And they sure did. They thought of something. We
threw the gold in, and it came out a golden calf. What a mockery. How stupid do you think Moses
was? Well, it says there, and thus
they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that
eateth grass. Psalm 78. This is Israel. This is not the Hittites or the
Hivites. This is Israel that's doing this.
This is God's chosen people. This is what people do that were
given such gracious activities and gracious blessings from a
physical standpoint. God didn't touch their heart,
but He hedged them in, brought them out, herded them across
the Red Sea, opened it up for them. I'm absolutely, no, from
the facts of the world, they walk through on dry ground. That's
what it says. And it tells us that he destroyed
the whole army of Egypt right behind them. They had nothing
to fear. And they get out there in the
wilderness, and Moses is gone for just a few hours. He's on
the mount for 40 days, okay. And here he comes down, and the
mess that has broken out. And it's worse than we thought.
If you read this in the original, you'll find out there's an orgy
going on here. This is not just a bunch of people
dancing around a golden calf. They went to the worst of the
worst of the worst. Here in the book of the Psalms,
Psalm 78, verse 8, we read these words as recorded in God's Word
about the condition that Abraham was in and the condition that
everybody's in, and particularly the condition that Israel was
in until he makes himself known unto individuals there. Psalm
78, verse 8, it says, and might not be as their fathers,
a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that set not their
heart aright, whose spirit was not steadfast with God. The children
of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day
of battle. They kept not the covenant of
God and refused to walk in His law. Oh, how sad this is to read
about someone so taken care of You know, Nancy and I did the
best we could. We tried to take care of our
kids the best we could. She fed them. And you know what? They all turned
out sinners. You can't hedge it in. You can't
put a coat on them. You can't do it. It's just their
nature. It breaks out. Psalm 115, would
you look at that with me? This is what we find blessed
truth about God. Psalm 115 and there in verse
3. Psalm 115 and verse 3. The church
says, but our God is in the heavens. He's not a beast. He's not a
bird. He's not a fish. He's not some
created being. He's not some created idol. He's
not something. We didn't cast him into the ashes
and he stepped out of it. He's always been. But our God
is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he pleases. That's the God of the church.
And then he says, their idols are silver and gold. And he could
speak very easily about Abraham, before he was saved? Moses, you
and I, their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.
They have mouths, but they speak not, eyes they have, but they
see not. The God that's in the heavens,
he sees, he acts, he speaks, he leads, he directs, but the
gods that we have made by our own imagination can't do a thing. You know, the illustration is
given in the Old Testament about somebody going out in the woods.
Anybody went out in the woods and cut down a tree? As probably
we all have witnessed it or done that. And then, you know, to
cut it into wood length, some of it's going to heat our house
and some of it, mom's going to cook over her food over it. That's what happened here. And
then the guy that has it, he sees a block of that and, you
know, it's got the most beautiful grain in it. He gets the bark
off and looks at it and he says, my goodness sakes alive. I'm
going to take this down to Sam, and Sam is going to carve it
into a god for me. And everybody says, okay. Some
of it we heat ourselves with, some of it we cook our food over,
and Sam is cutting a carving, an idol for us, and God says,
has a mouth that cannot speak, ears that cannot hear, feet that
cannot walk, and hands that cannot work. That's the idol. There's nothing that can be done.
It's no wonder that we find in verse three, but our God is in
the heavens and hath done whatsoever he pleases. In the book of Ezekiel,
there is an illustration about how bad things are. Now, I go
over this and over this, and you know, it's a review for me
just where God saved me from. where he found me, what condition
I was in. I was pastoring a church and
I'm in the same condition. I told a young man yesterday,
I says, I was pastoring a church and hated to go. I understand why people don't want
to go to church. I didn't want to go to church and I was the
pastor. I didn't have anything to say.
I would go home and wonder, is there really a God or not? The
worst of the worst. Well, here, read with me here
in the book of Ezekiel. It's talking about a temple.
Book of Ezekiel. Now, there's a lot of metaphorical
language in the book of Ezekiel, and whether this was actually
in the temple or not, it doesn't matter. Every time a priest went
in there, he took this with him in his heart. You know, this
is just what preachers do. We take our idols into the pulpit
with us. Now, some of my worship of days. You cannot do anything on Sunday. Worship of days. Jesus said,
if your ox falls in the ditch, you take it out, even though
you don't like people doing it. You know, months. We're in a
special month. We've got December here. We've
got April here. We've got a special day in this
month. The law, how often the law is a idol taken into the
pulpit by preachers. You can't do that. The ordinances, works, free will. You know, the worst one I found
is that they take into the pulpit the power of a man and the weakness
of God. What a terrible God that is. What a terrible idol is taken
into the pulpit. You, God, can't do anything without
your permission. My goodness, Abraham would have
never come out of the Ur of the Chaldees and you and I would
have never been saved by His grace if He didn't go against
our will. All right, here in the book of
Ezekiel, chapter 8, there in verse 6, it says, He said furthermore
unto me, Son of man, seest thou what they do? Even the great
abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that
I should go far off from my sanctuary, but turn thee yet again, and
thou shalt see the great abominations. And he brought me to the door
of the court, and when I looked, behold, a hole in the wall. And
said unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall, and when I dig
in the wall, behold a door. And he said unto me, Go in, and
behold the wicked abominations that they do here. So I went
in, and saw, and behold every form of creeping thing, and abominable
beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel. portrayed
upon the wall round about. What did he see? Everything that
Israel had been worshipping. Now, whether this is metaphorical
or whether it actually happened, that doesn't matter. But the
point is, there wasn't a place on this earth when mankind goes
in, didn't take his idols with him. and if it wasn't for the grace
of God to reach down to the pit that we're in. Now, over in 1
Thessalonians 1 and verse 9 is such a glorious passage of Scripture
that deals with this whole mess that we're in by nature. Here
we find out what God does for his people when he calls them
out of Ur of the Chaldees. This is some of what he does
for his people. He is gracious to them. He shares
with us here in the book of 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 9, for they themselves
show us what manner of entering in we had among you and how they
turned to God. Now, how can you do that? How
could I do that? How could you do that? How could Abraham do
that? Turn me, and I shall be turned. My people shall be willing
in the day of my power. So that's what God does. He gets
involved. He's the one that got involved,
effectually involved with the life of Abraham, Abram as he
was known at that time, and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees. He brought him out. He was not
down there. Abraham was not down there fussing
and fighting about all the stuff that was going on. I need a new
place. I'll go live in another place.
I don't know how many people have said, you know, I just want
to go someplace where there's not all the trouble. Don't move
because you'll take it with you. Don't we? Yeah, we do. We just
can't take it to a clean place because there is no clean place.
Well, here we go. It says here, and how Ye turn
to God from idols to serve the living and true God. God does a work of grace. God
does a work, a miracle of grace. He takes us out of the pit we're
in. He takes away the idols that we have. And the worst idol we
have is ourself. We worship our will. God can't
do anything with me that I don't want him to do. Don't count on
it. And be thankful when he does,
because he's the only one that can lift us out of that terrible
place. How was Abraham turned? The glory
of God turned him. The glory of God appeared to
him out of his own purpose of grace. He saw no good in Abraham. He saw a sinner, and that's his
business, is saving sinners. Nehemiah chapter 9. Nehemiah
chapter 9. Old Testament book there. Ezra
and Nehemiah were those who led the children of Israel out of
the 70 years of captivity over there in Babylon. And in Nehemiah
chapter 9, we read this, verse 6, 7 and 8. Nehemiah chapter
9, verse 6, 7 and 8. The scriptures share this, Nehemiah
9, verse 6. Thou, even thou, art Lord alone. Thou hast made the heavens of
the heavens with all their hosts, the earth and all the things
that are therein, the seas and all that is therein. Thou preservest
them all. The host of heaven worshipeth
thee. Thou art the Lord, the God who didst choose Abram. and brought us him forth out
of Ur of the Chaldees, and gave us him the name of Abraham, and
found us his heart faithful before thee, and made us a covenant
with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites,
the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Gergesites,
to give it, I say, to his seed, and has performed thy words,
for thou art righteous. You're the God that did choose
Abram, and you brought him out of the Ur of the Chaldees. You
know, effectual grace is absolutely essential, that God would effectually
come down and call us out of the place that we're in. Only
the Lord had delight in the fathers and loved them. We find, for
I called him alone and blessed him and increased him. That's
what he said about Abraham. I called him. Abraham wasn't
looking for me no more than Saul was looking for God on the road
to Damascus. And no more than we were wherever
he found us. Now, we had a God and we thought
he was the true God. We thought he was the God of
heaven. We thought he was the God of saving. But we find out
that He was no more a God because we, I don't know how many times
I heard this, and even practice it, if we can get more people
to pray for this than are praying against this, then our God will
change His mind and do the thing. You ever heard that? Yeah, that's a shallow God. If we get more people to pray
about something, God's going to change his mind? No, no, no. That's not the God of heaven.
That's not the God of the Bible. God does whatsoever he pleases. And he doesn't do a flip of the
coin to find out what he's going to do. He works all things after
the counsel of his own will. None can stay his hand or say,
what doest thou? He does all the things according
to his purpose. You know he said to a man by
the name of Matthew who was taking custom, collecting taxes, he
had a good job. He had one of the best jobs there
in Israel at the time. He was collecting taxes and it
didn't matter how much he collected, all he had to do was send a certain
amount over to Rome and he got the rest of it. Jesus came by
one time while he was collecting taxes and he said, follow me. You know what the other next
words are? Matthew didn't say, are you kidding?
Matthew didn't say, well, tomorrow. Matthew didn't say, you know,
I'm doing the best I can. The very words that are found
next in our Bible about Matthew is, he followed him. Now that's the God of the Bible.
when he comes to one of his lost sheep and calls him by his grace. What does the scripture say?
It tells us in the book of John chapter 10 verse 27, my sheep
hear my voice and they follow me. Why did Abraham come out
of Ur of the Chaldees? Because he was one of the Lord's
sheep, and when God called him, he followed him. All my sheep,
my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. All right, in closing,
I have two minutes. In closing, Hebrews chapter 11.
In closing, Hebrews chapter 11, and we'll go on in Stephen's
message here Further the next time. Hebrews
chapter 11 verse 8. Now notice this with me. Remember
where he came from. Remember what he was. Remember who appeared unto him. Remember what kind of lifestyle
he had. Idolatrous, idolatrous, idolatrous. Hebrews chapter 11, by faith. Abraham, when he was called to
go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance,
obeyed. And he went out not knowing whether
he went. Now did God reveal everything
that was going to happen to you when he saved you? No. He just
tells us, I'll lead you. not knowing whether he went.
He had been promised something by faith that God had granted
to him. He's the author and finisher
of our faith. He's the one that gives us the
faith. And Abraham by faith, when he was called to go out
When the God of glory appeared unto him, and he was called to
go out, the very next words, he left, he went. How gracious
is God to take his people out of the place they're in by nature,
the mess that we're in by nature, and lead us to green pastures,
set our feet on a solid rock on Christ. And you know, Brother
Mahan one time was accused Some guy came to him and he says,
you've made an idol out of Jesus. And Brother Mahan says, that's
one of the best compliments I've ever received in my life. An object of worship is Jesus,
and that should be our object of worship. Brother Mike, if
you'll come.