The Method of Grace

Driving home: We're not speaking of nature in Jacob, preparing him for grace from God, but we're speaking of God in grace, preparing Jacob for mortgage.

The analogy of an arrow's point preparing the way for the shaft and feathers illustrates that God's grace prepares the way for its own full revelation, rather than man preparing himself for grace.

And therefore, it is not wrong to speak of his preparation for saving grace so long as we understand it was not nature, in Jacob, preparing himself and earning grace or making himself fit for grace. It was grace paving its own way as the point in the arrow prepares the way for the shaft and the feathers. So it is one arrow and it is one revelation of grace and it is the arrow of God's own work preparing Jacob to receive that full revelation, the revelation of his grace. I again refer to our confession of faith

14:21 - 15:05 Read in full sermon

The point: Bless God regularly for the grace of having godly parents, despite their faults and failures.

Martin shares a personal anecdote about his parents knowing when he sinned and holding 'judgment day' talks, illustrating the pervasive godly influence in his home and how it kept him from sinning with abandonment.

One of the ways I knew that my parents knew God, I could not get away with doing anything on the slide. Somebody was always around to tell my mom and dad. And we'd have a little judgment day. And they'd sit me down whenever everyone went to bed.

22:44 - 22:59 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third way God prepared Jacob was by guiding his early choices, particularly regarding the birthright and the choice of a wife. Jacob's desire for spiritual blessings over…

The example of an 11-year-old foolishly cutting off half an index finger illustrates that some choices, once made, cannot be undone, emphasizing the lasting impact of early decisions.

They're done. If you stupidly, stupidly and foolishly as an 11-year-old kid went out against your father's knowledge and wishes and his approval and took a sharp axe and tried to split wood and cut off half of your index finger on your right hand, you've got to live with that stupid 11-year-old choice until you go to your grave. And we see in the life of Jacob how the grace of God was guiding his early choices. Let's just look at a couple of such instances.

34:34 - 35:06 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third way God prepared Jacob was by guiding his early choices, particularly regarding the birthright and the choice of a wife. Jacob's desire for spiritual blessings over…

Martin shares his personal story of choosing his wife based on 'silly, irrational, freaked out, infatuation at first sight,' but acknowledges God's grace in guiding him despite his foolishness, illustrating God's guidance in early choices.

And some of us were in a state of grace when we chose a wife, but I tell you, we didn't hear anything from the pulpit or pastoral counseling from our parents in explicit counseling to give us a framework of making that choice. And in my case, it was silly, irrational, freaked out, infatuation at first sight. Yes, it was. Now, thank God it grew into a lot more than that and it stuck and gets gooder and gooder after 35 years.

42:37 - 43:07 Read in full sermon

Driving home: heaven has been opened to me while I slept and if that doesn't underscore the divine initiative in grace I don't know what can

The analogy of sleeping as a state of helplessness and passivity, second only to death, is used to underscore the divine initiative in Jacob's dream at Bethel, as God acted while Jacob was most passive.

of chapter 28 he put the pillow under his head and lay down in that place to sleep it doesn't say he girded up the loins of his mind to seek God under the stars he stirred himself up to a season of intense prayer he's going to sleep as a weary frightened no doubt man with a wearying influence of an accusing conscience and what happens while he is sleeping and there's nothing in which we are more passive other than death than when we're sleeping that's why the bible likens the state of a Christian's body in death to sleep next to dying we're never more

55:41 - 56:25 Read in full sermon

The point: While it is proper to mourn the sins of youth, do not go through life crippled by 'if only' regrets, but trust that God saved you at the best time.

The contrast between ordinary, often ludicrous or monstrous dreams and Jacob's dream at Bethel highlights that Jacob knew his dream was a unique, divine revelation, not a mere product of his own mind.

helpless and passive than when we're sleeping now what's God going to do he dreamed and behold a ladder and he knows it is no ordinary dream in which you can dream all kinds of weird things it's amazing isn't it you get up some mornings and say how in the world did my head ever spin out such a weird concoction half ludicrous and half monstrous and all when we dream most of the time we just get up if we remember anything about our dreams we either laugh about them or we shake our head and say can the potential to be that loony lie in my brain it must because it came out in my sleep but when he ...

56:25 - 57:09 Read in full sermon

The point: While it is proper to mourn the sins of youth, do not go through life crippled by 'if only' regrets, but trust that God saved you at the best time.

The metaphor of the Canadian Mountie who 'always gets his man' is used to illustrate the certainty and effectiveness of King Jesus' conquest in grace, emphasizing that God always brings His elect to salvation.

oh look to God I had been converted earlier don't go through light crippled saying if only if only if only God saved you right at the time God knew it was best to save you and don't you question his wish he took the initiative and just like the Canadian Mountie who always gets his man when King Jesus goes forth upon the horse to conquer in grace he always gets his man and he got his man in grace but the divine initiative was the basis now quickly the covenant promise was the framework within which grace was revealed if the divine initiative was the basis of the revelation of grace

60:50 - 61:35 Read in full sermon