God’s Way and Man’s Way – Acts 7

Jan 22, 2015 | Acts

For the last couple of years, I have been reading to Judy after dinner, while I make her do the dishes.

(It’s about the only way that I can get her to work.)

And it’s the only time that I allow myself to read works of fiction,

I’ve decided that if the book isn’t good enough for my wife’s ears, then I shouldn’t be reading it either.

The book that we’re currently working on is involves differences between the United States and the misnomer called “The People’s Republic of China.”

One of the things which constantly comes up is that the culture of both countries are so vastly different that when they can look at the same thing they see something entirely different.

In the book each country calls the other country “barbaric.”

And the Americans have taken to calling the China leaders “Klingons” because they are so different.

Do you suppose that dogs think the same way that you do?

Do you suppose that when they see you getting ready for church, that they realize the importance of what you are doing?

Or to they think that you’re just being mean and forsaking them one more time?

I can’t speak with authority about the differences between oriental and occidental thought processes,

But I have heard about it from several other sources, so I assume that they are real.

The Chinese don’t look at things from the same moral point of view.

It’s not because of communism, but far more deeply rooted and cultural than politics.

And certainly our pets can’t reason or see things the way that we do.

Nearly any passage of God’s Word can be studied from different directions and to learn different things.

That is partially because the Bible isn’t a human book.

It has been created by God, whose way of thinking, for lack of a better term, is SUPERIOR to ours.

He says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

So are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

I hope that you aren’t put out at me for looking at this lengthy message in its entirety once again.

But there is something else that I think that is important to notice.

Not only is Stephen defending himself against the charges that have been laid against him.

And not only is he laying his own charges against his accusers.

But throughout the entire message we hear the Lord saying “my thoughts are not your thoughts.”

The fact that our thoughts are not the same as the Lord’s does not mean that our thoughts are always sinful.

For example, sometimes we pray for something, and hope for something, but it’s not the Lord’s will.

It is not necessarily sin to ask the Lord for that particular thing.

But we need to learn to pray with the heart-felt attitude: “Not my will, Lord, but thine be done.”

“Lord, I acknowledge that my thoughts are not as high as your thoughts.”

There MAY be nothing sinful in our way of thinking, but the Lord’s thoughts are NEVER sinful.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, the Lord’s thoughts are always perfectly right and righteous.

He who sees the end from the beginning knows best what is best – from the beginning.

And He who is omnipotent can insure that things go according to His plans, and that is something which no human being can control.

As I was reading this sermon for the umpteenth it occurred to me that just about everything said here about men, whether good men or bad, was countered and corrected by the Lord, who doeth all things well.

Notice the way of man versus the way of the Lord.

ABRAHAM.

Do you suppose that Abraham was planning on moving out of Ur before the Lord called him?

Do you suppose that he was concerned about the idolatry that he had been enjoying all his life?

I was raised in the Anglican religion, and I confess to immature satisfaction with it.

The Lord had to come to me and call me out of my darkness and into His marvelous light.

From Ur Abraham traveled to Charan, about half-way to Canaan, and he seemed to be willing to put his roots down in Syrian soil, but that wasn’t the will of the Lord either.

It seemed to be the idea of Abraham to cling to his family and friends, but it was the will of God that he be separate.

“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”

Why do you suppose that Paul had to say that to the Christians of Corinth?

Wasn’t it because they had left Ur but thought it acceptable to settle in Charan?

Half-way obedience is perfectly acceptable to fleshly people; that’s the way that most of us think.

And that was even the thinking of Abraham.

And probably when he arrived in the Promised Land, he had the idea that now the Lord would give him a big tract of prairie on which to graze all his cattle.

But it was the plan of God to keep his promise with Abraham’s seed rather than with Abraham himself.

“Lord, that’s not the way that agreements are supposed to be kept.”

Oh? By whose way of thinking; yours or mine?

And then there was the matter of that seed.

“God, I know that you are omnipotent, but I’m 99 years old and impotent.

It is not logical for me to expect my old bride to give me a son at our age.”

But the reply of the Lord is: Don’t YOU worry about my promises.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

So are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

And “all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.”

“The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”

And then there were the PATRIARCHS.

Where did the idea of circumcision originate?

Human beings have done terrible and even evil things in their pursuit of false religion.

Would you say that this idea was logical to the mind of man?

And what did the ten older sons of Jacob think about Joseph?

They hated him and were jealous of him,

But the Lord loved him and had chosen him to a very special task.

I wouldn’t doubt that when he was first freighted to Egypt even Joseph wondered where the Lord was.

But he appears to have had a great grace and great faith.

Eventually, his mind was brought into conformity with the Lord’s mind.

He said to his brothers: “I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.

Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.

And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God.”

“Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.”

 Do you think that Joseph would have planned the deliverance of Israel in the way that the Lord did?

And then there was MOSES.

The way in which he was spared from death as a baby should bring a smile to any believers face.

Just how many options did the omnipotent God have available to Him to save that child?

It’s ridiculous for us to even think about the endless possibilities.

But the method that the Lord used, putting Moses in the palace of the king who hated Israel, borders on the sublime.

But then, God’s thoughts are not our thoughts.

And then to arrange things so that Moses’ own mother nursed him and could teach him about his own people is positively miraculous.

So when Moses 40 years old and filled with messianic ambitions, he began to take steps to deliver Israel.

But Moses thoughts were not God’s thoughts, even though they were admirable and basically right.

“For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.”

 When he was 40, Moses was far too mighty to be of much use to the Lord.

He had to be humbled and then weakened with another 40 years of life, before he was fit for the master’s use.

And then there was the thinking of his countrymen:

“Who made thee a ruler and a judge?”

The question was a good one, but it was asked rhetorically and with a negative attitude.

You aren’t our ruler and judge; you aren’t our redeemer. Oh?

Have you wondered what ever happened to the two Israelites who were arguing that day?

Did either of them live long enough to see Moses return and lead Israel out of Egypt?

When Moses was 80-years-old God met with him and called him into action.

I’m not sure today that an 80-year-old man would be accepted into seminary.

And if man was arranging that meeting between God and men, we would probably have done it in a far different sort of way.

Maybe angels, trumpets, fiery chariots, wheels within wheels or plain old thunder and lightning.

But no, God’s ways are not man’s ways, and past finding out as far as human logic is concerned.

God called Moses from a bush that burned but was not consumed – very strange.

So Moses was sent back into Egypt to bring Israel out, but only after the use of ten plagues.

“He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt.”

Would you have done it that way?

Well, perhaps YOU would have.

So Moses brought the nation to the foot of the Mountain of God.

He climbed to the top to receive the law of God.

What did Israel think of that law? Was it according to their way of thinking?

Did they want to submit themselves to the God that delivered them from their oppression?

“To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,

Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.

And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.”

“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

“Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness,” built according to the specific directions of the Lord.

But Israel took up “the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of the god Remphan.”

Eventually along came David and Solomon, who had the noble desire to replace the tabernacle with a beautiful temple.

Again the plan sounds like a very good idea, after all if the tabernacle was even still around, it must have been very well-worn.

But the thoughts of men do not necessarily match the thinking of the Lord.

Jehovah granted David’s desire, but put off the commencement of the work until Solomon’s reign.

“The most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands.”

And then there were the immediate people to whom Stephen was speaking.

It was their thinking that personal righteousness was good enough to please the Lord.

There was their continued rejection of the preachers whom the Lord had sent.

There was their manipulation and mutilation of the revelation of God in and through the law.

And there was their rejection of the Messiah.

It wasn’t that they weren’t looking for the Messiah;

It was just that they Messiah Who came wasn’t what they were expecting.

These people were looking for a Messiah with politics and different kinds of power.

They were looking for a Messiah of power and might Who would kill for their redemption,

But they got a Messiah of humility and grace who was willing to die for redemption.

No, the ways, and plans of men, don’t often match the ways and plans of God.

But if there is anything that this chapter teaches us its this:

We had better bring our thinking into alignment with the Lord’s.

“Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”