Exodus 1:1–7Scripture
Well, we've done it. We've made it to Exodus. We went all the way back to Exodus. Two years in Romans, I think maybe a little more than two years, but it was wonderful. Exodus chapter 1. Now, I'll just say this: today, our course of action, the way that we have been doing this, is that we have a personal study which we give to you. If you're interested in having that, you're not quite ready to join a small group yet, we can print that out for you, because I would rather you do that. It's not like we're going to hold it out, like you have to be in a small group and commit for three weeks before we give you material. Now, we'll give you the material, and you can go through the material without joining a small group.
And so I think it will be helpful to you, because the reality is, as we move through Exodus, I'm taking things in pretty big chunks. It's a very narrative book. If I were to break this down, we would be in it for 10 years. I'd prefer not to do that. Maybe longer. So today we're doing chapter one. Out of chapter one, I'm actually going to be discussing verses 1 through 7, probably the least likely verses you would want me to preach about today, genealogy stuff and names. You're like, "Whoa." You know? But I think there are some lessons for us to learn in there that are pertinent not only for this chapter but then for the remainder of Exodus. So I'm going to dive into that. There's plenty that was said in Exodus chapter 1 that we could talk about. I could probably break this up into three months' worth of lessons. There's a lot of information, a lot of content, and it is your responsibility to dive into that. And when I get up here on Sunday, I am extrapolating. I am pulling out a truth that I think is most pertinent for the chapter. That does not mean that there are not truths that are beneficial to you that I will not be able to broach on Sunday morning. All right?
Introduction
So it is your responsibility to do that. Please reach out to our office, either via email, info@echochurch.tv, or you can call us, and we will be happy to get you a copy some way or another. Miss Ebony, if you can help remind me, maybe we can print off a couple copies and have them ready next Sunday at our coffee and information desk there, right? So we'll try to have some available for you next week. Second little bit is, it would also be beneficial to join a small group, because that time of discussion really helps center us. The reality is, we pick up and we carry into the text predispositions, theological mindsets. We've been influenced by pastors' sermons rather than the Word, by the leading of the Holy Spirit. And the reality is, we carry that into the text, and then we have a hard time hearing what the text is actually saying. And so community then helps us to break those things down. The reality of it is, it's not combative, but there are going to be people in your group who disagree with you, and that's healthy, right? That's healthy. Now, for some of us that's too hard, but I want you to know that if you're in circles that always agree with you'll never grow.
It is the pushback oftentimes that develops strength in your Christian walk.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 3:28
And so I want to encourage you today to allow yourself permission to be pushed against, okay, theologically. I think that's helpful. We need to be in a house of people who don't agree with us about everything, right? You're like, "Well, Shawn, I thought we should find a church that has all of our same beliefs." I don't think so. I don't think that's the way it should work. I think that on some things, yes, but I think overall it's okay to have opposition. I think it helps strengthen our viewpoints, helps us contemplate whether or not we're carrying things into the text we shouldn't, and whether we're actually hearing what the Bible is saying. So I think that's good. I'd encourage you to get in a small group. Do the study, get in a small group, and then Sunday is an opportunity. What I'm talking about today, you guys have already done a bunch of front work, and I'm able to come talk about something that is larger in scope. But if you don't do the other stuff, you're missing out, right? You'll still be a beneficiary of truth, but you're missing out. You're just not getting it, right? And not getting all that you could get. And
Point 1God is present and active in your life
So I want to encourage you to do that. Today's sermon title is called "Providential Presence." Did you know that God is present and active in your life? That's important, right? He's not some absent-minded professor up there, busy with other things that are more important to him. He is very active, and he is presently involved in our lives. There are two different theological viewpoints that I'll just throw out there to you, not to get too heady, but that are present in our culture, and not only outside of our churches but inside our churches. They have risen up as strong viewpoints in our churches that I think
Point 2Deism and openness theology miss God's involvement
Run counter to what the Bible describes as God's involvement in the lives of people. One such viewpoint is deism. Deism basically, I mean, there are so many branches of these different things, but I'll just try to simplify it, almost too simply, is that God sets things in motion. Believe in a God, a higher being, sets things in motion, sits back on his throne, and never gets involved in the affairs of men, but just lets it run its course. Okay, that is a thought, not just a thought outside the church, but a thought inside the church: that God started it, and now you're in control of it. God's not in control; you are, and everything depends on you and you alone. Exodus denies that claim in every chapter. It denies the claim in every chapter. We don't just see that God has made a promise, but God is actively involved in making sure that promise comes to fruition. He is involved in the smallest details. He's not absent. He's not kicked back his feet. He is involved. He is hardening hearts, he is delivering people, he is orchestrating plans, he is positioning men, he is doing things, and he's involved. It's not just men getting men there; God's placing men to get men there. This is women too. Women too, just saying. Mankind. Deism. There's another viewpoint. It's called openness theology. I'm not talking about open theist; that's something different. I'm talking about openness theology. There is this idea that God turns off, at the point of creation, his omniscience, and he doesn't know what's coming about any more than you know what's coming about, and he's moving through time at the same rate you are. This is the simplest way I can put it, because if you go look up openness theology, you'll have a hodgepodge of different things. I'm trying to really just simplify it into the main thrust, or the heart, of openness theology: that God is moving through time with you at the same rate, discovering what's happening at the same time as you. This denies his omniscience, and quite honestly, we don't see that in the Bible. This is very prevalent in our culture today, and it's so sneaky, and it's in lots of churches, and I'm saying it is an absolute denial of God's omniscience. All right. What I believe that we learn just already in Exodus chapter 1 is that in Exodus chapter 1 we are realizing that God is providentially present. He is actively involved in the smallest minutiae of our lives. God is orchestrating and moving and planning and shifting things, even you, to get you where he wants you to be, if you are his children. If you are not his children, he's moving you about to accomplish his will for his glory. God is presently, providentially active in your life. Now, let's just stop here for a second. This is going to be so hard, because I got five pages and I haven't even got past my title. We're doomed, right? But track with me for a second. Whenever we hear the word "providential," or the providence of God, this is some theology-class stuff. I'm not trying to get into definitions, and there's going to be no test after the sermon, okay? So I apologize for the words I'm using, but you have to understand them, because I want to be able to demarcate what God is doing with the word, the providence of God. You see, Exodus is replete with God's providence and his involvement in things to fulfill what he intends to fulfill. Today, though, in the church, we have taken the word "providence" and we've turned it into luck.
So here's an example: "I was driving down the street, it was very stormy, and lightning struck a tree in half, and the tree fell right in front of my car, but it didn't hit my car. God's providence showed up." Okay. I was trying to think of, that's the only one I can think of off the top of my head. I probably should have written some down. "A tornado came through our neighborhood and wiped out every single house in our neighborhood, but the church is still standing. Oh, the providence of God." But then, if we look at Exodus, if we consider not just Exodus but Genesis, did you know that the providence of God is there when God puts Joseph in a pit, and then puts him in a prison, and then puts him in the palace, so that he can interpret a dream in the prison, so that he could get to the palace, and he could help in famine, so that God's people that he promised would multiply and get to the land of promise? Did you know that he wanted to keep them alive, and he put Joseph in a pit and in prison and in the palace to keep his nation that he promised Abraham would come out of him, so that Jesus would be the one that would come out of that line? Did you know that he did all of that to feed his people? "Oh, that's the providence? Well, that's a pain. You mean to tell me that God's providence is present in pain? Is that what you're saying to
Point 3God's providence is often a pain
Me?"
And I came here today to say to you, oftentimes his providence is a pain. It ain't just a good-luck charm, baby.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 12:32
Oftentimes it's a pain. Oftentimes it's a pain. The multiplication of the church came through the death of all the apostles except for one. Sometimes God providentially has a plan, and his plan is a pain to you. So as we read Exodus, let us just acknowledge the fact that just because God is moving doesn't mean everything's going to be great.
Sometimes when God is moving, things get bad before they get better, and that's the way it works.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 13:16
And then you're really not going to like this, because I came just to encourage you today. I want to say to you that sometimes his plan doesn't happen in your lifetime. And sometimes his promise he's made, that we have held close to our chest and desired with all of our heart, does not happen in your lifetime. Some of you want all the promises to come to you, for you, in your lifetime, but oftentimes he delivers it generations later, not just the next generation, multiple generations after your death.
Can you live in a world where it's not all about you? Because God thinks generationally, he thinks eternally, and you think about now.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 14:04
And so as we look at the story of Exodus, we need to understand that as we start Exodus, it didn't start there. It started with a promise in eden. It started with a promise to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob, and continues all the way into Exodus. He begins to continue and fulfill that promise. God is actively fulfilling the promise, and he still is today. He's still doing it today, that there would be as numerous as the sand on the beach, as the stars in the sky. Who? This is your story. For all who believe and have faith in Christ, this is your story. You're his people. You're a part of the plan. He's still fulfilling his promises today. There might be another star in the promise from the sermon, not just in this church but another church, not just in church but maybe yesterday at somebody's house. They heard the good news, God called an individual, and people were being added to their numbers daily, those who were being saved. Are you with me today? You're a part of the promise. So what we want to do is, we don't want to look at this as a people of yesterday or another ethnic group. But guys, there's a people that Christ came from, and there's a people that came from Christ, who believe in him, and that's you, if you call him Lord. All right, so that's my title, "Providential Presence." We're doomed. We're doomed. As we look through the book of Exodus, we learn to think of God's providence in a way that is not just always a good-luck charm, but sometimes God will do what is necessary, even if it's at the cost, your cost. Most B movies on the book of Exodus start with the baby in the basket, but that's not where the book of Exodus starts. It starts out with a connection to Genesis in the first seven verses, so you remember the providence of God that has created this nation. You start out with a very small band of people, and very quickly we are informed they have become something significant in Egypt. But in order to appreciate it, you have to connect it to Genesis, and that's exactly what Moses does in the first few verses. Let's read it, verses 1–7: "These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household." It's a lot of people. "Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah," I don't even know how to say this word, is it Issachar? "Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan," and there you go, I'll go with that, "and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. All the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons; Joseph was already in Egypt." From the pit to the prison to the palace. "Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. But the people of Israel were fruitful." Oh, after they died, after they had received the promise, then people started being fruitful. They were before, but they really are now, because this isn't about you; this is about God. "But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them." Oh, man, so good. So this is where Exodus begins. And if you don't understand that Exodus, if you don't begin here, all you think is, these people have experienced 400 years, and they're being oppressed, and they're in bondage. And then you begin to ask the question, if you don't start here, if you start further on, if you start with what's happening in Egypt, that people are enslaved, you begin to ask the question, "Where is God? What is God thinking? Why has God forgotten these people?" If you start at slavery, if you don't start at the genealogy, if you start at slavery and you don't consider Genesis, you begin to question God's faithfulness and his love for his people. But when you start with the first paragraph, you can't think that way, because you see he has a plan, and he's working that plan. In this first paragraph we're confronted with the providence of God in order to orientate us, or orient us. We don't think rightly about the providence of God. I've said it before: it's become the Christian word for luck, or we confuse it with sovereignty. And you can write these words down. I'll try to give you a very simple explanation of them, to the best of my ability.
God's sovereignty is his rule, or it's his authority. God's providence is the way that he exercises his rule and authority.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 20:09
And you need to distinguish those two as we go through Exodus, because sometimes we will see God's sovereignty. We will see God trying to bring to our attention that he has authority, not Pharaoh, that he is in charge, not Pharaoh.
And then we will see the providence of God, of him working that truth out to Pharaoh, to his people, and to the nation of Egypt, or the egyptians. The means by which he does that is through the plagues, through calling Moses, through the burning bush, to sending him down as a mouthpiece. To do that, he is, by his providential involvement in all of those things, through the plagues, through Moses, through Aaron, through orchestrating all of that, through the communication, using Moses to talk to Pharaoh, all of that's his providential working out of letting Pharaoh and everyone know, including the Israelites and the Egyptians, that he's the boss. We say it that way in the South, so you know I'm serious: boss, right? He's in charge. "I know you think you have authority; you don't. I know you think you're in charge, but you're not. I know you think you're more powerful and you're god, Pharaoh, but you're not. There is only one true God, and I am he. I'm the boss." So you see the difference between authority and then working out to prove your authority? Do you see those differences? Because that is the difference. That's the best way to say it. This is the way, and I like the way the Baptist Confession puts it. It's in chapter 5, paragraph 1. It says it this way. I just like the breakdown of it, so I'll share it with you: "God, the sovereign Creator of all things, in his infinite power and wisdom does uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures and things." Amen. See, that goes against deists that believe that God has just set it in motion, and now he's just checked out, and he doesn't get involved in the affairs of men anymore. I like this perspective: "from the greatest even to the least, by his most wise and holy providence, to the end for which they were created, according unto his infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of his own will; to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, infinite goodness, and mercy." I like that. That's a mouthful. I like that. That's good stuff. The seventh paragraph of the same chapter five reads this: "As the providence of God does in general reach to all creatures, so after a more specific manner it takes care of his church," amen, "and disposes of all things to the good thereof." I like that. Or let me go another way. Wayne Grudem says this, great theologian: "We may define God's providence as follows: God is continually involved with all created things in such a way that he (1) keeps them existing and maintaining the properties with which he created them." You don't see many trees becoming dogs, or dogs becoming cats. Praise God's holy name, we don't need no more anyway. Number two, "cooperates with created things in every action, directing their distinctive properties to cause them to act as they do." Dogs act like dogs because dogs were created to be dogs, and that's the way they should act. Number three, "he directs them to fulfill his purposes." I like this. God is providentially more involved in your life than probably you would like to admit. He's involved. We can have discussions all day long about to what level. If I lose my keys, is God involved?
Did he do that? Did he cause me to become an absent-minded person, to lose my, I'm just saying, he's involved. He's more involved than you realize. I'm just trying to open your mind up to the idea that God is more involved than you realize.
Sometimes what you blame on indigestion might have been God.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 25:34
It just might have been. It might have been. How do we see the providence of God in the first few verses? Number one, here's point number one. I only have
Point 4The providence of God preserves the covenant community
Two of them. Here's point number one. I don't have it up on the screen, so I'll say it twice: the providence of God preserves the covenant community. Or you could say, God's providence preserves the people of promise. Or you could say, the providence of God preserves the covenant community, like I said the first time. Anyway, Exodus 1:1–5. If we were to read that again, and we already read it gives a name of everyone, and then in verse 5, "All the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons." Boy, it starts off small, and the promise is that they would, you would not be able to number them, a grain of sand or stars in the sky. "Joseph was already in Egypt." Started with 70, and he preserves them.
When we get to Egypt, they're over two million people. From 70 to 2 million. From 70 to 2 million. In God's providence, he preserves them, and he uses people like Joseph and many other people along the way to preserve these people. It's crazy. Like, Jacob's 12 sons, they're shepherds, and they're in territories, and they're in territories where there are lions and bears, and, oh my, you know, I mean, and they eat stuff. I mean, the whole case that the sons give is a common thing that would happen in this time, because you were shepherds, you get eaten by stuff and mauled by animals out there. So they dipped his cloak in blood and said, "you know how it happens around here, people get eaten," and that's what they tell the dad.
And then they sell him off into slavery. This is the same location where David said he fought off a lion and fought off a bear as a shepherd. This was a common occurrence. I don't even know why I'm talking about this, but he preserved every one of the children, and they didn't get eaten, none of them. They even went into slavery, and they didn't die in hard work, in hard prison, and dirty, nasty prisons and mistreatment. Even that son didn't die. He preserved his people. It's good. Why? So they would multiply. Even what would normally kill off people, he preserved his people. That's good. I mean, it just gets me so excited. It gets me really, I don't know about you, but this encourages me, because there are days where I'm going, "Where are you? What are you doing? Like, hello, check in." He is.
He sees your situation, and he has a plan.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 29:17
He has a plan. That's good news. Amen? It's good news. And he's actively involved. This is the providence of God. First of all, God kept his people in a foreign land. Have you ever, just let me go off on this little thing here, have you guys ever heard of, or ever met, a Hivite? Talked about them in the Bible. How many of you have ever met a hittite? I didn't think so. How many of you have ever met an Amorite? Are you with me? There's a bunch of "-ites." That was an '80s joke.
Sorry. Has anybody ever met a Philistine? No. You've never met an individual from any of these people groups. They're gone. They were not preserved. In fact, you've probably never heard of a people group who went into another land and another culture that were not then swallowed up and absorbed by the culture and the land.
You won't hear about it, except for here, because God promised he would preserve providentially his people, and he did. And yet God in Egypt kept his people in the midst of a foreign land, and he kept them his distinct people in that land. This is unheard of. This is crazy. There are actually very few ways for this to happen. There are two ways, in fact, that I could think of, and there might be others, and you can discuss it in your small group if you would like, but I could only think of two. Here are two ways you could preserve your people in a land and them still be your distinct people. One way is, a people group conquers a land, and then of course naturally they would keep their identity, because they conquered the land and they get to set the culture. That's one way. Well, we know this is not how they got there. The second way you can do it is, you can conquer another land and you can make people your slaves, and because there is a slave class of people, they will not intermarry and absorb into the culture fully, so that there would be distinction. So slavery was required to preserve your people. Now, this just blows our mind, because we begin to quote things like, God will work all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. But his glory and his plan and his purposes supersede your wants, and ultimately it is for your good. It is for your preservation, and it is for your promise, which God gave, that your slavery is requisite. Oh, man, I just want to go nuts when we consider the goodness of God. Brook, will you do one of them things? Thank you. He also kept his people from premature death. We just talked about that; I got ahead of myself. Jacob had 12 sons. They were in a volatile land, a bunch of stuff happened, and he protected them. He kept his people from separation. All 13 of these sons went to Egypt together. That's crazy. If you guys have four kids, they're probably not even living in the same state. He preserved them, and they went to Egypt together. And actually, we actually learned Judah left the family at one point. Not because he's like, "Deuces, I'm out of here," and he took his stick with his hanky and he ran away from home. That's not what I'm talking about. In chapter 37 of Genesis we are introduced to the generations of Jacob, and in Genesis 38 we're introduced to Judah and Tamar. But at this point Judah has left his home to go make a life for himself. He's gone away to establish his family. And yet not 13, all 12 end up coming into Egypt together. Sorry for saying 13 earlier. It's 12. Twelve end up coming into Egypt together. Why? Because God is preserving his people. Another way his providence is seen is he kept them from famine and starvation. Oh, the keeping power of God. Think of your salvation,
If you will, for a moment, the keeping power of God. If you had the authority to lose your salvation, you would by the end of the afternoon.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 34:56
But just think for a moment of God's providential keeping power: that those he calls, he keeps.
And Paul wrestled with this in Romans, because people are saying, "Well, should we go on sinning more? Should we sin?" He goes, don't enter into fatalism just because of God's keeping power. Don't say things like, "Should we sin more so his grace will abound more?" Or, "Do we not worry about sin?" And he goes, no, you should worry about sin, but you shouldn't be scared you're losing your salvation every day. You should question and test your salvation with fear and trembling, but you should not be fearful that God can't keep that which he calls. And that's good news for us, because it doesn't depend on you.
If it's as far as it depends on you're doomed. But if it's as far as it depends on God, you're saved.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 35:55
And we really need to understand this is God's business. This is God's business. Oh, man. He kept them from famine and starvation. Why did Joseph go to Egypt? Joseph did not go to Egypt so he could learn leadership lessons about how to rise through the ranks and serve alongside the likes of the most powerful leaders in the natural world, contrary to what many podcasts would say today from spiritual Christian leaders. We're so hung up on leadership stuff we don't even know how to be a servant anymore. Because I'm over it. If I see another leadership podcast, I might just throw up.
I just might throw up. I'm not against it. I just think that we're focusing on all the wrong stuff, because it ain't about your leadership; it's about his.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 36:48
It's about his leading. It's about his leading. It's his leading. It's about his leading. He went for one reason alone.
Joseph went to Egypt for one reason alone. Not to be an awesome leader, not to be second in command, but because a famine was coming, and the promised seed needed to be protected from the famine wiping out his people, the people that promised seed would come from, whose name is Jesus Christ. Are you with me today? God promised in Genesis 3:15, when the first Adam falls, God cursed the serpent. He says, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring." He's speaking about his people. He's speaking about the line. He's speaking about the promise that would come from his people and that line. Listen, the promise doesn't happen at Abraham. The promise happens at the very beginning, and God is providentially protecting that line so that we can be beneficiaries of the promised seed. That's good news. So good. So God's promise is a Messiah's coming. He promised that a deliverer is coming. He promised that a Savior is coming. He promises that this Savior will be born in a specific line. We can see this promise of a seed moving through the line, past Cain and Abel, through Seth, and all the way to Judah. But how is Judah going to survive the famine if Joseph doesn't go to the pit, to the prison, to the palace, to prepare the way for them to be fed? Oh, man. God's involved in more than you would like to admit, and he has a plan. He has a plan. It should bring comfort to you in the midst of your darkest hour that God has a plan. God in his providence will sell Joseph. You're like, "Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait. God in his providence?" I said that right. I mean, you could argue with me in a small group, but you have to be in my small group to argue with me about it. I'm just kidding. God in his providence will sell Joseph into slavery, into Potiphar's house. You say, "Well, now, the brothers did that." We could talk about that, because what the brothers meant for evil, God meant for good. God had meaning behind the evil that he had purposed for good. Okay? God in his providence will have Potiphar's wife come on to him, and then God will give Joseph the strength to not cave in. Go, God. And in his providence he will place joseph in prison, so God in his providence can send a cupbearer and a baker whose dreams Joseph can interpret, so God in his providence can interpret pharaoh's, so Joseph can interpret Pharaoh's dreams, which God can give him, so that Joseph can help them out of famine. God kept his people in spite of their sinfulness. Through the generations God kept his promise. Let me just, God kept the promise of his line even though Cain was trying to kill off part of that line. He still kept his promise. He didn't say, "Mm, I'm done. I'm done. I just can't put up with crazy no more. I'm done." And even when he gets mad, and he is done, and he kills off the whole earth, he still keeps a remnant, which Romans talks about. He keeps a remnant. God has a plan. Genesis 45:5–8, this is Joseph speaking to his brothers. Listen to who Joseph said threw him in the pit. Listen to who Joseph said put him in the prison. And listen to who Joseph said put him in the palace. Genesis 45:5–8 says this: "And now,"
This is Joseph talking to his brothers, "do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here," now listen to where he switches this, "for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God."
God is more involved in the small, minute details of your life than you would like to admit.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 42:21
Oh, and to be like Joseph, to be the type of person that, in the midst of your pain and multiple years' worth of suffering and struggling and whatever, to be able to see God's providential hand in the midst of your trouble, working out his promises, that's good stuff. That's just, I don't want to get crazy, but I kind of, i'm not a dancer, but I want to just, you know, do a jig or two. But I don't want to bring suffering to you, so I will just not do that. Joseph, think about this. Think about this. I did some math. There are two years of the famine. Joseph is there for seven years before the famine. So he comes into his service of Pharaoh when he's 30. Track with me. The years of plenty end, and he then is 37. Then two years of famine, he's 39 or 40. Okay, for the sake of this, and math being easier, let's just say 40. All right? They sold him into slavery when he was 16 or 17, and he probably thought, "God is going to fulfill his promise to my father; I'm just not going to be a part of that promise. I'm never getting out of here."
Then his brothers come, and he realizes he's not outside the promise at all, but God sent him there as part of the means of fulfilling the promise that he made. And then he tells his brothers, "Don't be angry with yourselves, brothers. God used you to get something done." Twenty-three years later. Twenty-three years later. Twenty-three years of God making one movement after another movement to get Joseph where he needs him to be, to save his life. That's crazy. In this microwave, everything's-got- to-happen-quick generation, this is lost on us. Lost on us. I mean, some of us say, "I'm going to get in my prayer closet and I'm going to
Point 5The providence of God expands the covenant community
Pray till I get an answer."
Read the Bible, because sometimes you pray and you get an answer four generations later.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 45:12
Number two, last one: the providence of God expands the covenant community. You could say it this way: it multiplies. God's providence is seen in the multiplication of his covenant community. Exodus 1:6–7: "Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong." So Joseph got to be a beneficiary of seeing that God had used him to preserve a line and used him to preserve the community, but he didn't see the multiplication happen at this magnitude. Joseph died, and then God begins to expand after his death. Oh, and in case you didn't know, thousands of years later he's still expanding it. Are you with me today? Let me just ask you a question: will you be satisfied with seeing God's providential care and work in fulfilling his promise actively, or do you only receive gratification in seeing the fulfillment of it? Because he's still fulfilling, and a bunch of people have died since the promise came. I bet, I bet Abraham and Sarah were so fixated on them having a child, they didn't even understand the full scope of what a fulfillment of that promise would be through that child. Are you with me today? And that's the way promises are for us. When we look at promises in the Bible, we don't think globally, we don't think generationally, we don't think eternally. We don't think like God. We go, "How can I take a promise and apply it to me for today?" That's not the way God's promises work.
See, you're fixated on the kid from your barren womb, but God's fixated on the fulfillment, and it's eternal.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 47:47
There are two different ways of looking at it. I don't even know how to fully map that out for you. I'm just saying it's way bigger than the minutiae you focus on. It's way bigger. Okay, this is God fulfilling his promise to Abraham. No matter how many people there are, you wouldn't even with the two million, compare them to sand on the beach or stars in the sky. You wouldn't even compare them to that. God promises Abraham that he would bear a child, and that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through him and his offspring. "I'm going to do it." Listen to this. Romans 9:6–13 says this. Now see if this doesn't, after what we talked about today, see if this doesn't strike different for you, right? See if this doesn't hit different. This is why I chose Exodus, by the way. But just see if this one don't hit different. Romans 9:6–13: "But it is not as though the word of God has failed." It is not, but it is not as though the word of God has failed. There are many people through this process that thought maybe God's promise failed. "For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring." What's it saying here? It's speaking about who the promise is for. It's moving it from the flesh realm to the spiritual realm. Just because you're from Abraham, that doesn't mean that's what the promise is for. You have to actually be a true, just listen to me: "but 'Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.' This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said: 'About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.' And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls, she was told, 'The older will serve the younger.' As it is written, 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.'" In other words, one I elected, one I did not. One's a part of the promise, one is not. In other words, it is by faith that we become descendants of Abraham. It is by faith. That's what this is saying. It's by faith we become descendants of Abraham, children of promise. We see the providence of God here, but don't miss the greater truth: it is the promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and jacob that culminates in the person of Jesus Christ, and it is through him that all the nations of the earth are blessed, because it's through him that we become descendants of Abraham by faith. This is your story. Exodus is your story. It is a story of God's providence that brought about the people that brought about the Messiah, who is the Savior, who is your Savior and my Savior, when we come to his call through faith and belief in him. This is our story, and we are his people.
So why are you fretting over whether God can keep you?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 52:18
Why are you fretting over whether God's got you? Let this story, our story, be an encouragement to you today. God is on the throne. He is in control, in the midst of the most horrific things in your life going on around you. He has a plan. He is working that plan and will bring it to pass. And I'll say this, and this is going to be bold, some of you humanist secularists are not going to like this, but stress and anxiety and worry are evidential fruit of an individual striving to keep themselves. Peace, the Bible says, and rest come not from trusting in you; they come from having faith in Christ. So let this chapter this morning be a beacon of light in what possibly might be your darkest hour, so that you can see clearly that those things that are happening around you, that have you up at night and turning over in your bed, are nothing. They are nothing in the presence of God's providential care for you.
Your greatest trouble is God's littlest plaything.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 53:51
Do you trust him with it? Because he's preserving his people. And then the greatest question today I'll leave you with is, there is little hope for those who have not put their faith in Christ, because he does not preserve those that are not his. As a matter of fact, he promises he destroys them in hell. This isn't a fear tactic; it's just facts. So when you hear the call, you feel the call, you hear the Word, you hear the promise, place your belief in him. That's where our hope comes from.
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