The Privileges of Grace

Driving home: So the crown jewel among all the promises of God is the promise of his unfailing presence.

Jacob's self-description to Pharaoh in Genesis 47:9, 'The days of the years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years,' is used as the biblical terminology and organizing principle for the sermon's headings.

but I hope it will make every person who is not a Christian envious and stir you to jealousy with the privileges we have, and you'll get jealous enough to seek them. And I'll read you these two, and I'll make you happy, and I'll make you happy, for they are the privileges of the grace of God. Well, after God was pleased to lay hold of Jacob in His grace, so that he no longer had the second-hand religion of the God of his mother and father, but he had first-hand heart dealings with God from Bethel onward, what were the privileges that marked his life all of his days? Well, first of all, we see ...

2:45 - 4:10 Read in full sermon

Driving home: No man is fit to be in a place of any spiritual influence with others who has not known the discipline of a broken heart.

Alexander White's vivid description of Jacob's 'come down' from the spiritual heights of Bethel to the mundane and deceptive household of Laban illustrates God's disciplinary hand.

And Jacob is taken to the house of Laban his uncle. And Jacob is taken to the house of Laban his uncle. And Jacob is taken to the house of Laban his uncle. And Jacob is taken to the house of Laban his uncle. And Jacob is taken to the house of Laban his uncle. And Jacob is taken to the house of Laban his uncle. And Jacob is taken to the house of Laban his in the gate of heaven, he enters through the gate of his uncle Laban's household. And Alexander White has captured so powerfully that I don't want you to be robbed of his ability to express it which is better than my own. What a come down it w...

26:36 - 27:05 Read in full sermon

Driving home: No man is fit to be in a place of any spiritual influence with others who has not known the discipline of a broken heart.

The repeated cheating Jacob endured from Laban, his own uncle, is used to illustrate how God allowed Jacob to experience the very deception he had practiced, making cheating 'hateful as hell' to him.

What a cruel fall from the company of ascending and descending angels into the clutches of a finished rogue like Laban. Jacob had been all but carried up of angels from Bethel and taken into an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled. But instead of that, he's taken down to Paddan Aram where he is cheated out of his wages, cheated out of his wife, and cheated, and cheated, and cheated. Cheated again, ten times cheated, and that too by his own mother's brother, till cheating came out of Jacob's nostrils and stank in his eyes and became hateful as hell to Jacob's heart.

27:05 - 27:49 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second privilege is fatherly discipline, exercised to mold believers. Martin traces Jacob's journey from 'heel snatcher' to 'prince with God' through experiences like Laban's…

The sayings 'Greek sometimes meets Greek' and 'diamond sometimes cuts diamond' are used to describe how Laban's cunning was a fitting discipline for Jacob's own deceptive nature.

We say that Greek sometimes meets Greek with all due respects to a Greek among us. We say that diamond sometimes cuts diamond. We calculate the length of handle his spoon would need. To have who sucks with the devil.

27:49 - 28:07 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second privilege is fatherly discipline, exercised to mold believers. Martin traces Jacob's journey from 'heel snatcher' to 'prince with God' through experiences like Laban's…

Jacob's profound grief and refusal to be comforted over the apparent death of Joseph (Genesis 37:34-35) illustrates the fatherly discipline of a 'broken heart,' essential for spiritual influence.

And the only way out was to have new levels of dealings with God. And then there was the fatherly chastisement of the apparent. The fatherly chastisement of death of his beloved son, Joseph. And as I've read and then listened on tape on the way up in preparation for these messages again to that moving story, the horrible grief and pain and sense of loss that came to old Jacob.

30:49 - 31:23 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that God uses unjust treatment, difficult circumstances, sickness, and the pain of wayward children as fatherly discipline to mold us and strip us of creature confidence.

Martin imagines God having a 'wry smile' as Jacob wept for Joseph, knowing the true outcome, to illustrate God's loving, though painful, disciplinary purpose.

And while God had not taken away Joseph, And I can imagine if we can do this without being irreverent, how God must have smiled, as God saw the day, when old Jacob, down in Egypt, would say, This is my son Joseph! He is my son Joseph. When God saw him weeping bitter tears, refusing to be comforted, I wonder if God didn't have a wry smile upon his face. But he said, My son Joseph, melo니 Scuola değiş carro.

32:29 - 33:05 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that God uses unjust treatment, difficult circumstances, sickness, and the pain of wayward children as fatherly discipline to mold us and strip us of creature confidence.

A hymn about God's 'paternal rod' and 'paternal love' is quoted to express gratitude for God's tender chastisement and reproof, affirming it as a privilege of grace.

An old hymn writer whose name is not even attached to the hymn captured it in these words. Glory to thee, thou righteous God, righteous yet kind to me. For under thy paternal rod, paternal love, I see. Though humbled in the lowest deep, thy gracious hand I bless.

37:45 - 38:11 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third privilege is God's wise but inscrutable providence, which preserves and governs all creatures and actions, with a unique focus on His people. Martin illustrates how God…

Blakey's commentary on the incident of Jacob obtaining the blessing is quoted to explain how God's inscrutable providence can weave morally wrong actions into His purpose without staining His holy hands.

There was a wise but inscrutable providence ordering and directing all of the affairs of his life. Blakey in his caravan, his classic work Heroes of Israel, very strikingly writes as follows. In the incident of obtaining the blessing, all of the parties were to blame. Isaac and Esau were to blame for attempting to reverse the divine decree that the elder shall serve the younger.

42:58 - 43:28 Read in full sermon

The point: Believe that all things, even the sins of youth, heartbreak, and withered dreams, work together for good for those who love God.

William Cowper's hymn is quoted to beautifully articulate the mysterious yet wise nature of God's providence, encouraging trust despite blind unbelief.

The hand of God was upon him, guiding and protecting him until all that God had purposed was accomplished in his life. And isn't this why William Cowper wrote, God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform? He plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm. Blind unbelief is sure to err and scan his work in vain.

45:50 - 46:22 Read in full sermon

The point: Believe that all things, even the sins of youth, heartbreak, and withered dreams, work together for good for those who love God.

Edersheim's commentary on Jacob's life is quoted to illustrate how a higher hand guides the threads of history, weaving individual actions into the master's pre-devised pattern.

joined to infinite wisdom, driven through that fabric by infinite power and absolute control of all things, seen and unseen. And if there's anything to be experienced in heaven akin to a sense of shock and shame, it will be how little we believed that a gracious, a wise, though inscrutable providence was indeed guiding and guarding us throughout our entire earthly pilgrimage. Edersheim commenting on this fact in the life of Jacob says, this is one of the most remarkable complications of life showing in the clearest manner that a higher hand guides the threads of history so that neither sin, no...

48:10 - 49:38 Read in full sermon

The point: Believe that all things, even the sins of youth, heartbreak, and withered dreams, work together for good for those who love God.

A hypothetical scenario of 15 people randomly placing colored paper pieces on an easel, resulting in a perfect rose, illustrates how God's providence secretly guides human actions to achieve His beautiful, pre-ordained purpose.

and towards which each laborer had contributed, one or another feature. And in trying to illustrate this, I came up with this silly, silly scenario, but it may help to illustrate it. If we were to take 15 people at random from this conference and say, now we want you all to volunteer for a project. We want you to come forward.

49:38 - 50:03 Read in full sermon

The point: Settle issues of forgiveness, eternal destiny, and the legacy you will leave your children now, not on your deathbed.

Martin shares a personal anecdote about his father's letter to his children, emphasizing the legacy of a consistent walk with God and principled giving over material inheritance, illustrating the value of a spiritual legacy.

wrote a letter to us recently the last time the extended family could well be gathered together before his funeral though if he follows the pattern of his mother and other relatives he may though he's eighty-four and healthy as a horse may still live another ten years I don't know but he has a sense and I can't help but believe that God is giving him that sense that maybe his earthly pilgrimage will not be much longer and in this letter sent to each one of the ten siblings he said your mother and I married as two high school dropouts we didn't have one bit of premarital counseling attended no ...

65:00 - 66:29 Read in full sermon