May it please God to help us
as we continue our meditation in the Acts of the Apostles,
and this evening we'll take the first eight verses in the seventh
chapter of the Acts. So the seventh chapter from verse
one down to verse eight. Now, you will remember that we
concluded our last time, when we considered this, that the
council that was the Sanhedrin a very eminent body of people,
they came together and we read, they set up false witnesses which
said, this man ceases not to speak blasphemous words against
his holy place and the law for we have heard him say that this
Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place and shall change the
customs which Moses delivered us. and all that sat in the council,
looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face
of an angel." So we have the scene there where these false
witnesses had accused Stephen of blasphemy and speaking wrong
things about the Lord Jesus Christ. And there was this wonderful
evidence that he was blessed and his face shone, as it were,
like a face of an angel. And then we read then the high
priest asked him a question and he said, are these things so? And Stephen then gave a very
wonderful answer to those things that he had been accused of. And as we go through this, to
just remember that this man was facing a great test of his faith.
It wasn't easy to stand up before that great company of learned
people and to speak the truth with regard to those things that
he had proclaimed previously and to not back down and to not
give it any inch, but to be very faithful in those things of which
he was concerned about. And it's a good example for us
today that we should be very faithful in the things that we
speak and we should not back down even when we're faced with
great opposition. And so he comes and he says,
men, brethren of fathers hearken. He addresses them in a kind way
and it's always necessary in any times of discussion or argument. We don't get heated and we don't
get annoyed, but we carry out such conversations in a calm
and right and godly way. It's very easy to get irate when
people totally disbelieve the truth and especially sometimes
when they may appear to get the better of us through untruths. But nonetheless, we have an example
here. of Stephen speaking in this way. Men are brethren of father's
hearken. And he goes right back. Remember he's talking here to
these people who have been blessed through the promise given to
Abraham. They were Jews. They were all
emanated from Abraham. And so he takes the case right
back. to Abraham. He starts there and
he says, the God of glory. It's a wonderful expression,
isn't it, that he uses. The God of glory appeared unto
our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he dwelt
in Charon. And it's very remarkable and
significant that there they were, he and his father and the family
in Ur of the Chaldees, which was the place they were in. And
God came and sovereignly spoke to his father Tirah and apparently
also to Abraham in similar words. And they had to leave that country,
the country they had been brought up in. And they had to leave
it. And God had spoken to them. They
didn't hesitate. They did that which the Lord
spoke and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and
from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee."
Well, we read in the Hebrews, he obeyed and he went out, not
knowing whither he went. That's wonderful confidence and
faith in God. And these accounts are recorded
for us to be encouraged in our life, that as the Lord may speak
to us, as the Lord may direct us, we may follow that direction
that he gives to us. Now, as I said, this was not
an easy thing to leave their nation, their country, and to
go out to a place they didn't know anything about. Then he came out of the land
of Chaldea, and dwelt in Charon. And from thence, when his father
was dead, he removed him into this land wherein ye now dwell."
This wasn't a short journey. It was a long journey. It wasn't
a direct journey up to Haran or Charon. It was one direction
and then another direction going down to Canaan. But they dwelt
in in Tehran for quite some time. It wasn't a journey that just
happened and they followed a direct route. No, the Lord was with
them and the Lord directed them and they had to stay in Haran
for some time. And we should not forget, of
course, the case of the Children of Israel. When they journeyed
for those 40 years, Sometimes they stayed in a place for some
reasonable period and sometimes a very short period. But when
the cloud moved, they moved. And so here we have this occasion
of Abraham. Abraham goes out. And he gave
him none inheritance in it. No, not so much as to set his
feet on. Yet he promised that he would
give it to him for a possession. and to his seat after him, when
as yet he had no child." Now it's easy for us to read a statement
like that. But let's recollect that here
was Abraham and in fact he never really possessed any land himself. No, the Lord had promised it
to him and his family, those that should come from him. He
never actually owned any land himself. When his wife died,
he had to pay for that bit of land. He didn't own it. He had
to pay for that bit of land to actually bury her in that cave
at Machpelah. So, we see that Abraham obeyed
God, but the promise, in one sense, he might think wasn't
fulfilled in the way that he might have anticipated. The Lord
told him to go out and the Lord promised him that his seed would
cover the earth and that he would be blessed and given that land
of Canaan, but he never actually saw it come to pass himself. Sometimes the Lord gives us promises
which we may not always see come to pass ourselves. The Lord is a sovereign in those
things which he says and in those leadings and directings And we
may form very quickly a picture. We may think something's going
to occur instantly or very quickly, not realising that sometimes
it's a long way ahead. And it was indeed a long way
ahead in this case when the children of Abraham would come and possess
this land of Canaan. Many, many things had to occur
before that came to pass. He gave him none inheritance
in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on, yet he promised
that he would give it to him for possession and to his seed
after him, when as yet he had no child. And as we know, of
course, that was a test of faith, wasn't it? He had no child for
a long time, but eventually The promise came to pass. Eventually,
Isaac was born. The Lord sometimes delays fulfilling
His promises to make us pray more, to make us cry out to God
more, to make us urgently seek for His answer and for those
revelations and deliverances. which causes us to come and to
plead God's promises. You know, God never gives a promise
that is not tested and tried. When God speaks a word into our
hearts, expect it to be tested and tried. Expect it to be put
through the fire, so that everything which is false is burnt up. And what the effect will be is
this. to direct us away from self. We won't be able to boast
in our self, we won't be able to boast of the things that we've
been told, but we shall desire to boast in what Christ has done. That will be really the object
and the motive of the great and glorious work that God gives
to us. And God spake on this wise, that
his seed should sojourn in a strange land, and they should bring them
into bondage and entreat them evil 400 years. Now, 400 years
is a long time and we may realise that sometimes in the Word of
God we read 400 years, sometimes we read 430 years and it's a
kind of question that perhaps younger people may be asked and
people may try and prove the Bible is false and the Bible
isn't true. Well, I thought you might be
interested in a paragraph written by Dr John Gill on this subject,
speaking about these 400 years. And he says, and entreat them
evil 400 years, which must be reckoned not from the time of
their going down into Egypt, which to their coming up out
of it were but 210 years. But from the birth of Isaac,
which was as soon as Abraham had the promised seed, and may
be reckoned after this manner, from the birth of Isaac to the
birth of Jacob, 60 years, and that's in Genesis 25, 26, and
from thence to the coming of Jacob into Egypt, 130 years,
Genesis 47, verse 9, and from thence to the coming of the children
of Israel out of Egypt, 210 years, which in all make up 400 years.
For the sojourning and evil entreating of Abraham's seed are not to
be confined to the land of Egypt, but belong to other lands where
they were within this time, though that land is more especially
intended. And so the Septuagint version,
you may know the Septuagint was the Greek translation of the
Hebrew Bible about 200 years before the Lord Jesus Christ
came on the earth. And it's interesting, the Lord
Jesus often quoted from the Septuagint version. That renders the text
in Exodus 12 verse 40, now the sojourning of the children of
Israel, which they, in some copies add, and their fathers sojourned
in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan were 430 years.
and this text is differently read in the Talmuds. In one of
them, thus F6, and the sojourning of the children of Israel who
dwelt in Egypt, and in all the lands were four hundred and thirty
years. And in the other, and the sojourning
of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt, and in the rest
of the lands were four hundred years, upon which latter the
gloss has these words. From the time of the decree the
captivity was made between them to the birth of Isaac were 30
years. And from the birth of Isaac until
the Israelites went out of Egypt were 400 years. Take out of them
the 60 of Isaac and the 130 that Jacob had lived when he went
down into Egypt and there remain 210. And so is a decree that thy seed shall be a stranger
in a land not theirs and it is not said in Egypt but in a land
not theirs and when Isaac was born Abraham was a sojourner
in the land of the Philistines and from thence till they went
out of Egypt it would be found that Isaac and his seed who were
the seed of Abraham were strangers and the thirty years before that
are not numbered in the decree. Well, I guess you might find
that of interest, especially our younger people, because people
are very keen on trying to prove the word of God to be wrong.
And so here we read, and after that, shall they come forth and
serve me in this place. And the nation to whom they shall
be in bondage, that of course was Egypt, will I judge, saith
God. And after that, shall they come
forth and serve me in this place." Well, they came forth. The Lord fulfilled his promises.
And they did come forth and they served the Lord. And of course,
we know that eventually the Lord brought them out of Egypt, through
the wilderness and safely into Canaan. And what lessons there
were to learn all through this period. The wonderful deliverances
that God brought about, as we shall read later on about Joseph
being raised up in that wonderful way and brought into Egypt and
being wonderfully used. And then when Israel were in
Egypt, how they were brought out, the Lord demonstrated His
wonderful power in all those miracles which were brought before
Pharaoh. And then when they came to the
Red Sea, how the Lord gloriously brought them across the Red Sea.
And then when he instituted the Passover, when they came out
of Egypt, and then when they were in the wilderness, how there
was the tabernacle raised, and there were all the Glorious ceremonies
pointing to Christ, and that wonderful day of atonement, the
annual occasion when the high priest went into the Holy of
Holies, not without blood. Oh, there was wonderful lessons
to be learnt, and all these had to be learnt before they came
into their inheritance. All these things had to be learnt.
And I suppose we could analyse it in our lives, couldn't we?
You see, we have to learn so much, do we not, in our lives. There is an inheritance which
God's people will possess. It's an inheritance which is
incorruptible and undefiled and which is reserved in heaven for
those who are kept by the power of God through grace unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last times. You see, our life is a
sojourn on this earth and we have much to learn. It's a wonderful
thing if the Lord leads and directs us as he did his ancient people
and directs us to the Lord Jesus Christ as he did his ancient
people. Christ was displayed in all those wonderful ceremonies
and things which were carried out very carefully in the tabernacle
and of course later in the temple. What teaching there was, what
a blessing there was and what a favour it is in our lives if
we are led through this earth where we are just foreigners
and pilgrims and the Lord is teaching us and the Lord is instructing
us and the Lord is fitting us for our eternal home, that home
in glory, where is the God of glory, who by his grace we shall
be with throughout eternity to sing his praise for ever and
ever. And so, as we go through this
account of Stephen speaking before the Sanhedrin, the great truths
he brings before them, may we be encouraged by them to realise
we serve today the same true and ever living Lord God. Amen.