Unlimited Grace

Bryan Chapell: And here is God saying to people who are broken and crumbling in their lives in the Old Testament, who have not got it all put together, who have not even got their repentance put back together before God. God is saying, "You have been faithless, but I abide faithful."

Guest (Male): So glad you joined us for today's Unlimited Grace, the audio broadcast ministry of pastor and author Bryan Chapell. In today's episode, Pastor Bryan shares a lesson from Isaiah chapter 44. Dr. Chapell shares of the free gift of God's grace, of which we so easily assume we disqualify ourselves.

You can find this lesson and many others when you visit UnlimitedGrace.com. While you're there, check out the new daily devotional from Pastor Bryan. Throughout this year, Dr. Chapell will take you through the entire Bible with a new devotional each day as we discover the ways that God's redeeming grace unfolds throughout all of scripture. Let's hear now from Dr. Bryan Chapell as he shares the lesson, "Grits and Grace."

Bryan Chapell: The best summer travel advice I can give you, we discovered this two summers ago traveling home from Colorado. It was getting late. We were tired, a long drive. We were hungry. So, we stopped at the best Waffle House we could find.

And there I discovered, because we'd not been to a Waffle House in years, that one of the featured items on the menu was cheese grits for 35 cents. I mean, I'm not talking about a little dab. I'm talking about a heaping, huge bowl of cheese grits for 35 cents.

That is almost as good as free. I was doing the math here. I'm thinking, I might not have to wait until anniversaries or birthdays to go out to dinner. 35 cents! If you can get cheese grits for 35 cents, that's almost heaven. This is really good. And then I read the fine print.

Cheese grits, 35 cents with any full entree. Yeah, almost free, but then you've got to get something else. And I soon thought, isn't that how a lot of us think of the free grace of God? Almost free, provided by Him, but surely you have to do something else.

We can be in the church long and while you hear the sermon and while you're in the Sunday school class, you think, "Christ Jesus died once for all. His blood sufficient, full, once for all. We're free." And then, of course, we sin, or our families fall apart, and we wonder what else does God really require? What is going to make this right with Him? Surely it can't be free. I mean, not really free.

What we're struggling with, the fact that we might have to do something else to make something right with God beyond what He would do for us, is what the prophet Isaiah is dealing with here. What do we have to do? What do we have to do to be right with you finally, ultimately, God?

The prophet starts in a strange place. He begins talking about idolatry before he ever begins talking about what redemption really is. He begins talking about the blacksmith. In verse 12, "The ironsmith takes a cutting tool and works over the coals; he fashions it with hammers and works it with strong arms." And yet though he's making an idol to take care of him, what happens? He becomes hungry and his strength fails. He drinks no water and is faint. It's just a subtle irony. He's making an idol to help him out, but instead the idol just wears him out. He works and works at it, and it can't really solve the problem he wants it to solve.

The next example, of course, is the carpenter. Verse 13, "The carpenter stretches a line; he marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass." It's sweet to see that an ancient carpenter still uses the same tools that carpenters use today. But there is a problem, of course. Once that compass is used, the carpenter shapes it into the figure of a man with the beauty of a man to dwell in a house.

Apparently, it's the image of a little house sanctuary that pagans would have in an ancient culture. But the prophet recognizes that once you have measured as a man and once you have cut as a man, that the image that you ultimately have just reflects the ability of a man. The idol really just reflects who you are.

It's the reason so often that people reach the pinnacle of their own success, their own career, and recognize at the end of it, they don't have anything more than the limits of themselves. I just created myself. I just made what I thought would satisfy me or lift me or remake my world, and at the end of it all, I just have me again. What I made only reflects myself, my limits, my blessings, but just who I am. That's all I get. If my heaven depends on me, what I end up with is still just me.

Finally, there's the example of the cook. It's really just the carpenter cooking his meal. Verse 14, what does he do? He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and rain nourishes it. So he may cut a tree down in the woods or he may domesticate a tree, but regardless, he still depends on the rain he cannot supply himself for his idol to be made.

And then verse 15, "Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. He also makes a god and worships it; he makes an idol and falls down before it." Do you get the picture? He's got his log. He takes half the log and burns it to fix his meal. The other half of the log becomes his idol that he's shaping for himself.

The irony of that is said at the beginning of verse 16, "Half of it he burns in the fire." Beginning of verse 17, "And the rest of it he makes into a god." Verse 19, "No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, 'Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and eaten. And shall I make the rest into an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?'"

Hey, it can't take care of itself. Why would I think it can take care of me? It's burning up in the fire. Why would I think it can rescue me? It's a delusion, a lie, ultimately an abomination. The prophet here ultimately makes fun of those who depend upon their own hand's work to feed them and satisfy them. Verse 20, "Whoever does this, he feeds on ashes." Just the stuff that burns up, that doesn't last. A deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, "Is there not a lie at my right hand?"

Do you get it? All the prophet has done so far is he's just laid out this series of ironies of idolatry. And in order, they are these: an idol promises to help you out, but instead it wears you out. It promises to remake you, but instead it just reflects you. And finally, it promises to satisfy you, but you end up only eating ashes and you want to rinse and spit. It doesn't do what you think it's going to do.

You have to understand, at this point, the prophet is preaching to the choir. He's speaking to Jews about idolatry. And at this point, everybody's agreeing. After all, they're monotheists. They're spiritualists. They believe that God is spiritual. They don't believe that a god is something that you make with your own hands. So as the prophet is speaking about idols, all the Jews are nodding their heads. In fact, they're kind of chuckling at these foolish pagans who have an idol that they think can rescue them that is the product of their own hands.

But now the prophet has you just where he wants you. I want you to think what the principle is. What's the common denominator of all these idols? It's this: if it depends upon you for its creation, it cannot be your salvation. If it depends upon you for its creation, you cannot depend on it for your salvation. If you make it, it will not rescue you and cannot.

With that principle in mind, the prophet now turns to what our redemption looks like biblically. These words are dear, but they are important. Verse 21, "Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant; I formed you. You are my servant, O Israel; you will not be forgotten by me." Here's the first principle of redemption. God is simply saying to his people, "I will not forget you." Why? "Because I formed you."

Do you get the reverse? If it's an idol, we form it. But God says, "No, listen, I formed you. So you're precious to me. You're a treasure to me, and I therefore will not forget you." Why is that important? Because this is Israel in a time of great discipline. Just a remnant remains.

The people have turned to other forms of idolatry in the past. They have turned away from God. They are in sinfulness. Many of them are already in exile. And now, as a result of their being so far from God, they do not remember His commands. They do not remember His worship. Many of them do not even remember the language of the Israelites anymore. And yet God is saying to them, "Though you have forgotten me, I will not forget you."

Think of what it would mean if you were one who were coming now today and maybe in this experience of being in a church you recognize you've been a long way away for a long time from the things of God. And this may seem strange and foreign and people are talking about prophets in the Old Testament, I don't even remember what that stuff is about. Would it help you to know that even if you've forgotten God, He has not forgotten you? He formed you. He made you. You are His. As the creation of God, He says you need to know that I will not forget you. Though there be all kinds of reasons that you may be deserving of my lack of memory for you and you may have forgotten me, I won't forget you.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Unlimited Grace, the audio broadcast ministry of pastor and author Bryan Chapell. It may seem hard for younger Christians to believe, but people over 50 were raised during an era when 90 percent of Americans identified as Christian. These older believers were once part of a majority group that understood the mission of the church was to take control of our culture, to halt its evils.

At the same time, Christians under 50 have lived their entire lives perceiving themselves as a minority that needs to make credible their faith to a secular, pluralistic culture. These distinct experiences and perceptions have a profound impact on the priorities different generations have for church ministry. It's no wonder that younger and older believers don't always see eye to eye.

In his new book, The Multi-Generational Church Crisis, Dr. Bryan Chapell asks the question: what could be accomplished in the name of Christ if we could better understand each other? This practical and hopeful book is backed by thorough research, revealing how to open the lines of communication, appreciate the experiences that shaped each generation in your church, and unite in one mission to impact your community and the world.

You can request your copy of The Multi-Generational Church Crisis when you donate online at UnlimitedGrace.com or by calling 844-4-GRACE. That's 844-414-7223. And now, more from Bryan Chapell on today's Unlimited Grace.

Bryan Chapell: Elaine Pereira is a name some of you will know, author of I Will Never Forget. It's the story of a woman who is caring for her older mom who is going into dementia. And Pereira describes her mother's descent in a way that is not flattering at all. Her mother can't remember things and in her dementia begins to put strange interpretations on what is going on.

Her mother can't remember in the nursing home room where she has put her brown pants. And so she begins to say, "They've been stolen. The nurses have stolen my brown pants." And Elaine Pereira says, "Why would the nurses do that? The pants don't fit any of them."

And then the nail file is missing. "I can't remember where I put it. The nurses stole my nail file." But then the worst: "I can't find my piece of lint. The nurses stole my lint."

And in the embarrassment of the indignity of the loss of the memory for her mother, we begin to understand that as the story unfolds, the dignity is restored not by the mother's memory, but by the daughter's memory. She remembers her mother: the brilliance, the love, the warmth, the nurture. And in the daughter's care for her mother, in the memory of what she was and still is by virtue of her creation as that image of God, the mother is redignified, she's ennobled again because her daughter will not forget who she really is.

And here is God saying to people who are broken and crumbling in their lives in the Old Testament, who have not got it all put together, who have not even got their repentance put back together before God. God is saying, "You have been faithless, but I abide faithful. I will not forget you."

You may have forgotten me, you may have wandered away, you may not know the things of the church anymore, you may not know the things of the faith anymore. It does not ultimately matter. I formed you and I will remember you. And though all the family and all the world and all the nation, everybody else forget you, God said, "I will not forget you."

It's not something we make. It's not the creation of our hands. It's something in the heart and the mind of God. More than mere recollection, it is the promise of the preservation of our dignity by the memory of God.

And the prophet is just beginning to scratch the surface of how deep and wonderful is the redemption of God. Because he goes on from talking about memory to matters of forgiveness. Verse 22, this same God who is speaking to Israel in the covenant language: Jacob, Israel. "I made you, you're mine." He says, verse 22, "I have blotted out your transgression like a cloud and your sins like mist."

When I first read those words, just the image that came to my mind was that God was somehow putting a cloud between Himself and our sin so that He was blotting out from His vision our sin. And the mist was somehow obscuring to Him our sin. But that doesn't work at all, does it? God isn't blinded by the clouds or the mist. He knows deep into our hearts what's there.

As I studied more, I began to recognize that what the prophet is saying is that the cloud is what is caused by our sin. The mist is the darkness, the misty wash in which we walk as our own sin begins to obscure to us the sunshine and the goodness of life. And the Lord is saying that though our sin be upon us, the radiance of His love is driving away the cloud, blotting it out. And just as the morning mist is relieved by the dawn and the warmth of the sun, so the Lord is saying, "Though your sin surround you like a mist, I'm taking it away. I am taking it away." It's not what you do. It's what I'm doing.

Some of you will know the name Anne Lamott, a novelist who is coming from a very different place than most of you in this room. A life of sin, destitution in so many ways, a life seeking God in all the worst things of this world. She writes about her progress to faith and how the clouds and the mist had to dissipate.

"What did it mean to be saved?" I ask the minister. He was the first Christian I ever met whom I could stand to be in the same room with. Most Christians seemed almost hostile in their belief that they're saved and you're not. "What does it mean to be saved?" I asked.

"You don't need to think about that right now," he said. "No, just tell me. What does it mean to be saved?"

He said, "I guess it's like discovering you're on the shelf of a pawnshop, dusty and forgotten and not worth very much. But Jesus comes in and he tells the pawnbroker, 'I'll take her place on the shelf. Let her go outside into the sunshine.'"

That was the promise of new light and a new day. Just in being remembered, not left in the dust on the pawnshop shelf. But some of you know that the mist wasn't all gone in her life. It still needed to dissipate. She writes, after hearing what it meant to be saved, "I wanted to fall on my knees, newly born. But I didn't. I walked back home and got out the scotch. I was feeling better in general, less out of control, even though it would be four more years before I got sober. I was not willing to give up a life of shame and failure without a fight."

But slowly, slowly, she came back to life. She'd been like one of those people that Ezekiel comes upon in the valley of dry bones. People who had given up, people who were lifeless and without hope. But because of Ezekiel's presence, breath comes into them, spirit and kindness revived them.

I love her words: spirit and kindness revived them. It wasn't something ultimately out of them. It was this expression of the grace of God perceived. His spirit working in her spirit, the understanding of His kindness for one who was in the mist of a sinful, dark life and yet was reaching to her and using the sun of His countenance and His mercy to drive the mist away. And it was that that was reviving her even before she'd even turned and understood it. It was working in her behalf. It was forgiveness, as it were, even after her sin, as the Lord wasn't simply walking away because she didn't have everything straightened out yet.

I think of it maybe in terms simply of having been in a seminary setting for about three decades in which there are lots of young couples, lots of Christian young couples having lots of Christian young babies. And the consequence of having lots of little babies is seeing them go through their stages of development. I see lots of first steps.

What does a parent do? You know, there's the child taking first steps and parent gets down and goes, "Come on, kid, come on, come on. I'll hug you. Come on." There's actually very few parents I have seen that say to that little child, "You take a few steps and then I'll hug you."

It's kindness that calls. Even before you've taken the steps, even before you know how to, even before you're able, here is the kindness that is reaching forward. Do you recognize how God is saying that? It's in language that is truly radical in terms of what we expect to be the reaction of God to our sin. Because God is not simply promising forgiveness after sin. God is actually promising forgiveness before repentance.

Guest (Male): That's Pastor Bryan Chapell, and you've been listening to Unlimited Grace. If this message has been an encouragement to you, you can find a collection of more valuable resources at UnlimitedGrace.com. When you visit, you will find today's message and many others from Pastor Bryan.

While you're there, make sure to sign up for Pastor Bryan's daily devotional sent right to your inbox. Once again, go to UnlimitedGrace.com, or you can give by calling 844-41-GRACE. That's 844-414-7223. Please be sure to join us next time as once again we endeavor to put Christ at the center of our efforts so that lives might be transformed by His unlimited grace.

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