Unlimited Grace

Bryan Chapell: But God was building a church. He was building a people. He was giving us not just a future, but a mission that remains for us this day. If we will remember that God can use people who might seem the most obscure, facing the greatest adversity, for still amazing plans of his own.

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 begins a study in the book of Exodus. Dr. Chapell highlights God's working through faithful people and the unfolding plan throughout generations to work things out for his purposes and our good.

You can find this lesson and many others when you visit unlimitedgrace.com. And while you're there, look for this wonderful resource from Dr. Chapell, Holiness by Grace. In this book, Pastor Bryan will guide you through reassuring scripture passages to discover how works and obedience are not a means of establishing or maintaining salvation, but a grateful response to God's mercy. Let's hear now from Dr. Bryan Chapell as he shares the lesson, Hope in Small Packages.

Bryan Chapell: You know the story. We've told it numerous times even this day, that this grand church that now is in this wonderful facility began in a very different place. A mission for children in a railcar in downtown Peoria. The railcar was certainly novelty, but probably also necessity given what was the nature of our town at that particular time.

It's hard to put ourselves back there now, but the city limits of Peoria at that time were only a mile square. Total population 14,000, which swelled again by half when 7,500 Union troops were put here for both training and ready deployment, either by river or by land, wherever the battle would take them.

The troops, combined with the main industry of Peoria at that time—what was the main industry of Peoria at that time? I see you all saying it. Distilleries. Nine distilleries and six breweries. We were the world capital of alcohol. Now, there is a title to hang your hat on.

But with all the troops and that industry, what that meant was Peoria was teeming with docs and drunks and drugs, yes, even then, and floating casinos, yes, even then, and taverns and brothels and 1,200 children within the city limits. And it was those 1,200 children whose voices someone heard and someone remembered the mission of their God. Someone saw an opportunity to reach and someone knew if faithful people would reach, God would remember and he would save. He would do his work because the people of God had turned to him in faithfulness.

It is an important reminder, not just for sentiment in this moment, but for our own commemoration that it would be commencement. That we would not on this day just be looking past and patting ourselves on the back and saying, isn't it great what we have done, that we would actually perceive that we have been given that faithful legacy as privilege for the mission to which we are now called. That beginnings were wonderful, but beginning again is our calling.

What makes us willing to do so? First, remembering that God can use faithful people for a forever purpose. Despite trial, despite sin, despite time, God can be at work through people who believe that he really is working.

If you look at the opening chapter of Exodus, it is clearly just a tie to the book of Genesis that preceded. The book of Genesis ends with Joseph's brothers and father coming to Egypt to get food from a famine in their land. And so the opening verses are just a tie. We recognize the names. Verse one, "These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. All the descendants of Jacob were 70 persons. Joseph was already in Egypt."

We read the names, but the account is laden with significance in every word chosen to make the ties with the book of Genesis. After all, God is working a plan in the midst first of betrayal. Joseph was already in Egypt. Well, how did that happen? Those same brothers named in the list, because they were jealous of their father's attention for Joseph, had him sold into slavery and took his multicolored coat, dipped it in animal blood and said to a grieving father, a wild animal killed him. It was nothing but betrayal.

And what ultimately led to that betrayal being discovered is a famine in the land of Israel. And so the brothers and the father have to find a way to eat, and so they go down to Egypt, only to discover that the child sold into slavery now has a Pharaoh's position and has the ability to judge them and to kill them. He does not. Instead, they are there in the land and they prosper.

But as a consequence of their prospering, other things happen. Verse seven, "The people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them. Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, 'Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.'" Verse 13, "So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves."

The story's not very pleasant so far. Betrayal, famine, slavery. And God is faithful? Where do you get that? It's actually in the opening words of verse one. "These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household." His name was originally Jacob. He's a liar. He's a conniver. What his sons later do to Joseph is what they only learned from his own example.

And yet this same Jacob, the conniver, is now called in the book of God, Israel, because God has changed his name. No longer is he identified as Jacob, the conniver, the one who will make his way by his own wiles and strength in the world. Instead, he is now named Israel. God gives him that name, and it's a name that means "God rules."

God is going to accomplish something that Jacob cannot by his own wiles and wealth and strength. God is going to rule over his sin. God is going to rule over the betrayal. God is going to rule over the slavery. God is going to rule over the famine and bring about a plan that is amazingly gracious. Because what God is doing is saying even to Jacob and all who will follow in his train, you may think you can make your way, but you need a God. And if you call out to him, he will help you. Despite the trials and your own failures, he will help you.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Unlimited Grace, the audio broadcast ministry of pastor and author Bryan Chapell. God instructs us in his word to be holy as he is holy. How can God expect us to be as holy as he is? Such a standard seems either to ignore our frailty or to impose certain failure. That is, until we understand how God views us.

In this challenging yet heartwarming book, Holiness by Grace, Dr. Bryan Chapell illustrates the principles of grace, the practices of faith, and the motives of love in living a life of holiness. Pastor Bryan will guide you through reassuring scripture passages to discover how works and obedience are not a means of establishing or maintaining salvation, but a grateful response to God's mercy.

Holiness by Grace draws straight from the heart of God, as Pastor Bryan's encouraging words will help you understand that your holiness is not so much a matter of what you achieve as it is the grace that God provides, a grace so rich as to make the pursuit of his holiness your soul's deepest delight.

You can request your copy of Holiness by Grace when you go online to unlimitedgrace.com or by calling 844-41-GRACE. That's 844-414-7223. And now, more from Bryan Chapell on today's Unlimited Grace.

Bryan Chapell: You may think you can make your way, but you need a God. And if you call out to him, he will help you. Despite the trials and your own failures, he will help you. And time does not itself undo that promise.

The time that is described here we miss because we forget how Exodus fits into the longer plan. Centuries before, in Genesis 15, God had made a promise. The promise was this: "As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. Then the Lord said to Abram, 'Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners,' that is they won't be there forever, 'your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for 400 years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.'"

We've lost track of the account. Here is God making a promise to Abram, an old man who says, I'm dried up like a stick. God says to that one, I will make you a father of many nations. And God so makes a covenant with Abram that what he shows him by a smoking pot going through animals that have been cleaved in two is a covenant promise. Even God says, may it so happen to me as has happened to these animals if I do not fulfill my word. I will make you a father of many nations.

And Abram can't do it. He's old and in the moment he's asleep when the promise comes. And God says, I am the covenant-keeping God. I will do what you cannot do. And 400 years later, God is doing it in the book of Exodus. Why 400 years? Because God said to Abram, later Abraham, father of nations, I will give you the land to which I call you. But at that point, the land is occupied by the Amorites, evil, numerous armies that Abram cannot overcome. He's just one person.

Now three generations later, Israel goes into Egypt. How many go? Did you catch that in verse five of Exodus one? All the descendants of Jacob were 70 persons. Well, 70 persons can't have much success in the land of the Amorites of Canaan. And so for 400 years they are afflicted. And what happens? They increase and they multiply, so that by Exodus chapter 12, when the people are released, do you remember how many people actually left Egypt under the banner of Israel? 600,000 fighting men, which means you're not counting grandma and grandpa, and you're not counting the kids. Those who would count all say between two and four million people are leaving Egypt to go into the Promised Land. Finally, God has, in that incubator of Egypt, created the nation that he already promised.

But they have no resources. What are they going to do? How can they go against the Amorites with all their cities and armies? Because you may remember that God said to Abram, and when they are released they will go out with many possessions. Now the plagues and the trials start between Moses and Pharaoh until finally Pharaoh responds to Moses' plea, let my people go, by saying, I'll let you go. Moses says, wait a minute, we need some resources. And Pharaoh said, ask whatever you want of my people, you just get out of here.

And as the people of Israel are going, do you remember there is the plundering of the Egyptians? They have wealth and resources such as they never imagined. They are now many people, a great nation, a prosperous nation, ready to go to the land of promise. They have been plagued. They have themselves betrayed others. They have turned from God. They have wandered down paths they should never have gone. And God is saying, may it happen to me as happened to these animals if I am not faithful to my promises. I will make this a great nation. I made that promise to Abram and he fulfills the promise. Time and trial and sin and personal failure may all seem to say the grace of God doesn't apply anymore. And God is saying, my grace is greater and I will make happen what needs to happen so that my plan will be fulfilled for your benefit.

A lot of you know Kathy and I were just last week in Germany celebrating our 40th anniversary by going to her family's historic farmstead and church. The church in the little town of Blossheim that we visited is only 800 years old. See, we're just babies compared here at 150 years. But we learned the story because of the family in that area for so long. The family farms that were divided among children generation upon generation could not be divided anymore and provide food for those families.

And so two brothers and a cousin went from Blossheim to Bremen to the United States, thinking surely famine, no food for us, no future here, 800 years our family's been in this place and now it's not room for us. Surely they must have felt abandoned by God, that God had forgotten them. And yet what was happening as those families eventually were brought over by the brothers and the cousin and grew and prospered in Illinois and Iowa, is we saw an amazing faithfulness of God to a family and farms and industries that have now prospered from that original small spark.

It happens over and over again in Peoria, Illinois. In a railcar, a few kids come in because the YMCA is concerned about children being nurtured in the midst of the awfulness that was downtown Peoria at the time. I don't know how many kids were there. Railcars at that time might have had 40 or 60 adults. Were there 40 or 60 children, or maybe they could crush in a few more? Maybe there were 70, like these.

But God was building a church. He was building a people. He was giving us not just a future, but a mission that remains for us this day. If we will remember that God can use people who might seem the most obscure, facing the greatest adversity, for still amazing plans of his own. God can use courage in obscurity for eternity. We see it in this account that we know so well. There was first this awful law that Pharaoh himself gave. Do you remember it? Verse 14.

Even after their lives were made bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and all kinds of work in the field, in all their work, the Egyptians ruthlessly made Israel work as slaves. But then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, "When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you kill him. But if it is a daughter, she shall live."

You know, we have it kind of doused in the sweetness of Sunday school literature that we grew up with maybe, and don't hear what was just said. Make them work, break their bodies so they're no threat to us. Make them slaves and increase their burdens in such a way that they can't think of rebellion because they are too decimated in strength to actually be any threat to us. And that's not the worst of it. Not just the tasks.

Break them by terror too. If a male child is born, kill him. But if it is a girl, let's save her for what we want to do with her later. It is ancient story, it is modern ethnic cleansing. No different than ISIS and Boko Haram. We see it even yet happening in our world and we recognize the people of God must have said, how is this in the plan of God? How is this faithfulness to our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?

But God was working his plan and he was working his plan by the courage of just a few people. Shiphrah and Puah do not do what Pharaoh says. It would be wrong to kill children like this. So we read in verse 21, "Because the midwives feared God, he gave them families." Well, that's kind of nice to know, this is a version of you reap what you sow. They save families so they got families.

But more than that is being said. The courageous actually get names. Verse 15 that I read by quickly, we need to settle on a little bit. Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah. Who is named in the verse, who is not named in the verse? The midwives are named. Who is not named? The king of Egypt.

Now I know that if you watch the Charlton Heston version of Ten Commandments, he's got a name, right? That's Ramses. It's not in the Bible. Whoever is the king of Egypt, the Pharaoh is never named. Who gets named? Who gets remembered for generation after generation after generation? Who gets remembered? Those who fear God more than man. Those who are courageous to do what God requires.

Guest (Male): That's Pastor Bryan Chapell, and you've been listening to Unlimited Grace. If you've missed anything that you'd like to hear once again, just visit unlimitedgrace.com. And when you do so, you can sign up for Pastor Bryan's daily devotional sent right to your inbox.

Also, be sure to request a copy of Dr. Chapell's book, Holiness by Grace. We'll send you this book right away as our way of saying thank you for your most generous financial support. 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. This ministry is brought to you by Unlimited Grace Media and continues to be made possible with your generous financial support.