| Devotional Hours with the Bible |
Chapter 7 |
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The high priest did not know what his prisoners were doing. Full of rage, he was eager to have them punished, and called a full meeting of the court, and sent officers to bring the apostles from the prison. “But the officers … returned, and told, saying, the prison-house we found shut in all safety, and the keepers standing at the doors: but when we had opened, we found no man within.” The high priest was sure of his victims. He had them safely locked in the guardhouse. It was a startling surprise when he learned that the prison was empty. There is an old Bible word which says, “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly.” There is a promise also which assures us that “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it.” Satan is very shrewd and cunning, and by long practice has learned to do his work well. But God is stronger and wiser than Satan, and knows how to deliver His own out of Satan’s hands.
At length the apostles stood before the court and were accused of having disobeyed the command to speak no more in the name of Jesus. To this Peter answered, “We must obey God rather than men.” This should be the motto and life principle of every one of us. This has been the martyr’s word in all Christian centuries. Bunyan, when condemned to three months’ imprisonment for preaching the gospel, and told that if he did not promise to abstain he would be banished, nobly replied: “I am at a point with you. If I were out of prison again to-day, I would preach the gospel again to-morrow, by the help of God.” Not many of us will be called to assert the principle in such circumstances of peril; but in life’s ordinary business, in its common affairs, in school, at home, at play, we shall every day have opportunities to follow conscience, to do what God commands without being swerved from duty by what men say. It would be very fine to do some such heroic thing as the apostles did here, but it is fine in God’s sight to live faithfully and loyally in the midst of the countless little temptations of the most commonplace life.
“Him did God exalt with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins.” Here we have the whole gospel. Jesus was the Messiah of God. He was rejected and killed by those He had come to deliver and save. But God raised Him up and exalted Him to the throne of glory. There He is not only King of kings, but also the Saviour of all who will believe in Him. The two words, “repentance” and “remission”, are full of meaning. We are not saved merely from sin’s power, but from sin itself. That is, we are pledged to give up our sin. Repentance means this. Then remission means more than merely wiping out the penalty; it means also the putting away of sins themselves.
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