Go Out From Your Land
A Sermon on Acts 7:1-3
Originally preached Nov. 13, 1966
Scripture
1Then said the high priest, Are these things so? 2And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, 3And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and …
Sermon Description
The Christian must ask themselves: “Are you ready to truly follow God? What if it costs you everything? Will we then continue to follow Him?” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones describes the call of God on Abraham that caused him to flee his home country and land. This was a call to abandon all he knew including his nation, religion, and kindred. This was a call to serve God above all and this same type of call is upon everyone who follows Christ today. Listen as Dr. Lloyd-Jones walks through Christ’s call to flee this world and pursue Christ and His kingdom. It requires service to God alone as the only true Sovereign. This is a hard message to heed when it is easy to think about the world and its concerns alone. It is easy to see the church as nothing more than a source of moral transformation in a society like any other social institution. But this is all wrong. The church has been entrusted with the gospel of Jesus Christ and this gospel calls all to come out of the world. It calls them to reject the thinking philosophy of the world. It calls to serve God as Lord over the whole world. The Christian should not hesitate to flee from this world and its vain ways, for they have a new citizenship in heaven.
Sermon Breakdown
- Stephen is on trial before the Sanhedrin for preaching about Jesus.
- The high priest asks Stephen if the charges against him are true.
- Stephen begins his defense by recounting Jewish history and God's call of Abraham.
- God called Abraham out of Mesopotamia to the land He would show him.
- God's call of Abraham illustrates how God calls people today through the gospel.
- The call of the gospel is a call to leave our old way of life in the world.
- The world lives for the desires of the flesh, eyes, and pride of life. It is under God's wrath.
- We must get out of the world's way of thinking and come to God.
- God's call is personal. He calls individuals, not nations or groups.
- We are each responsible for how we respond to God's call.
- God calls us through preaching, reading the Bible, illness, accidents, death, etc.
- The Christian life means a new way of thinking focused on God and eternity, not the world.
- This world is temporary; we are pilgrims passing through to the world to come.
- The world offers false hopes of improving conditions, but it is under God's judgment.
- The Christian hope is the new heavens and new earth where righteousness dwells.
Sermon Q&A
What Does God's Call to Abraham Mean for Modern Christians?
What is the significance of God's call to Abraham as explained by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones?
According to Dr. Lloyd-Jones, God's call to Abraham in Acts 7:3 ("Get thee out of thy country and thy kindred and come into the land which I shall show thee") represents the essential pattern of God's call to all believers. This call contains several key elements: it comes from "the God of glory," it is personal and individual, it demands leaving behind an old way of life, and it offers entrance into a new promised land. Lloyd-Jones emphasizes that this biblical pattern remains unchanged and is the authentic Christian message for the modern world.
How does God call people to Himself according to Dr. Lloyd-Jones?
Dr. Lloyd-Jones explains that God calls people in various ways. While preaching is the primary ordained method, he lists several other ways God may call individuals: - Through reading the Bible or other literature - Through viewing the beauty of nature - Through illness or serious health challenges - Through accidents or near-death experiences - Through experiencing the death of someone close - Through war, calamity, or world events that make people face ultimate questions - Through memorial occasions like Remembrance Sunday that cause reflection
Why does Dr. Lloyd-Jones emphasize that God's call is personal and individual?
Lloyd-Jones stresses the personal nature of God's call because he sees a dangerous modern tendency to focus exclusively on social and political concerns while neglecting individual souls. He points out that "The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham" - calling one man personally. Lloyd-Jones argues that the greatest social impact has historically come when the church emphasized personal salvation first. When individuals are changed by God, they then address social conditions, whereas focusing primarily on social reform has led to church decline and societal degeneration.
What does Dr. Lloyd-Jones mean by God's call to "get out"?
According to Lloyd-Jones, "get thee out" means leaving behind a worldly view of life. Just as Abraham was called to leave the pagan environment of Mesopotamia, Christians are called to leave behind: - A life focused only on earthly concerns ("country and kindred") - A life dominated by "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" - A life controlled by selfish desires and worldly ambitions - A life that excludes God and worships other things instead - A life built on false hopes that humans can perfect this world
What is the Christian hope according to Dr. Lloyd-Jones' sermon?
Dr. Lloyd-Jones presents the Christian hope not as gradually reforming this present world, but as looking forward to "a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God" (Hebrews 11). He points to Revelation 21's description of the New Jerusalem - a completely new creation where "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying." Lloyd-Jones insists this heavenly city is the only true hope, not human efforts to build utopia on earth, which he calls "rubbish and nonsense." The crucial question is not whether there will be another war, but whether each individual will be a citizen of God's eternal kingdom.
The Book of Acts
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was a Welsh evangelical minister who preached and taught in the Reformed tradition. His principal ministry was at Westminster Chapel, in central London, from 1939-1968, where he delivered multi-year expositions on books of the bible such as Romans, Ephesians and the Gospel of John. In addition to the MLJ Trust’s collection of 1,600 of these sermons in audio format, most of these great sermon series are available in book form (including a 14 volume collection of the Romans sermons), as are other series such as "Spiritual Depression", "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" and "Great Biblical Doctrines". He is considered by many evangelical leaders today to be an authority on biblical truth and the sufficiency of Scripture.