The Revelation and Transformation of Grace

Introduction: The Life of Jacob as a Pattern of God's Grace

0:03 This message was delivered at the 1991 Northeastern Reformed Baptist Family Conference. Now, in order to refresh our minds concerning the facts of the section in The Life of Jacob, upon which we will be concentrating this evening, will you turn again in your Bibles, as we have done on at least one previous occasion, to the 28th chapter of Genesis, Genesis chapter 28. And I will begin the reading at verse 10 and read through to the end of the chapter, Genesis chapter 28.

0:47 Remember now that Jacob has been instructed by his mother and father to seek a wife in a circle where he would be most likely to find a wife who had been trained in the knowledge of the God of the covenant and not a pagan wife. His brother Esau has a heart. He is full of murder, as we read in verse 41 of the previous chapter. He is set on slaying his brother Jacob.

1:16 So with this dominant twofold motive of escaping the wrath of his brother and seeking a wife, Jacob sets out on his journey to his uncle Laban. And we read in verse 10, And Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set. And he took one of the stones of the place, and put it under his head, and lay down in that place to sleep.

1:50 And he dreamed. And behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And behold, Jehovah stood above it and said, I am Jehovah.

2:08 I am Jehovah, the God of Abraham, thy father, and the God of Isaac. The land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed. And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth. And thou shalt spread abroad to the west and to the east, and to the north and to the south.

2:27 And in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee, whithersoever thou goest, and will bring thee again to this land. For I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely Jehovah is in this place, and I knew it not.

2:58 And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful or awe-inspiring is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first.

3:30 And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, and Jehovah will be my God, then this stone which I have set up for a pillar shall be God's house, and of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee. If the Lord were to send Jacob back from heaven, where he now is and has been for some time, and give to Jacob, Jacob the privilege and the gifts of being a hymn writer,

4:15 I believe Jacob could write a hymn at least similar to the one I want to read in your hearing. Grace moved the triune God, lost sinners to redeem. Grace is the source of every good, and grace shall be my theme. Grace, what a pleasing sound.

4:39 How it delights my ear. How it revives my languid hope, and drowns my every fear. Through grace I conquer hell and break infernal chains. Through grace my soul aspires to heaven where the Redeemer reigns.

4:59 Grace the good work begins, and grace completes the same. Grace shall constrain my soul to raise Hosannas to the Lamb. From his abounding, grace daily I draw supplies. Grace is the never-ceasing spring of all my swelling joys.

5:21 And when I meet my Lord and join the gracious throng, grace shall inspire my soul to sing, and grace be all the song. And I say, Jacob of all the patriarchs would be the one who would pen a hymn that focused on the grace of God, that focused on the grace of God, that focused on the grace of God, and we are contemplating this man as a pattern of God's salvation by grace. In our initial study, we considered the sovereignty of grace as to its subject, as illustrated in the life of Jacob. Bound up in the words, Jacob have I loved,

6:05 but Esau have I hated, is the glorious, high, mysterious, but humbling truth, that God's, unmerited salvation to hell-deserving sinners, always has as its ultimate source, the free, sovereign, distinguishing, electing, love of God. Then last evening we began to consider the second major category of the pattern of salvation by grace as exemplified in the life of Jacob, namely, the operations of grace in its application to men.

The Transformation Effected by Grace

6:47 For as surely as the sovereignty of grace is operative with respect to who shall be saved, it is the operations and methods of grace in their application to men which actually bring men into the possession of that salvation for which they were marked out in eternity. And in the opening up of that theme of the operations of grace, And in the opening up of that theme of the operations of grace, And in the opening up of that theme of the operations of grace, or methods of grace. We saw the preparation for grace in the life of Jacob, and then the revelation of grace here at Bethel. Now tonight, our attention will be on the third of those

7:29 subheadings of the operations of grace, having considered the preparation for grace, the revelation of grace. Now tonight, the transformation effected by grace. The transformation effected by grace. Now although the workings of God's grace in preparation for grace are often unrecognized at the time of their operation, and although the initial saving revelation of grace begins in the deepest,

8:06 hidden springs of the human soul, yet it is indeed true that grace will eventually burst forth in the consciousness and in the experience of all who receive it, and then will overflow into the patterns of a life consistent with the transformation which grace always brings. In short, the grace which is sovereignly bestowed,

8:37 and revealed in the gospel, that brings people to repentance and faith is always grace that transforms an elect and a converted sinner. And perhaps no passage more succinctly states that than the familiar words in Ephesians 2, 8-10. For by grace have you been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works that no man should glory, for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God afore prepared that we should

9:20 walk in them. And in those verses, there is an inseparable bond of spiritual experience from salvation by the grace of God to the outworking of that salvation in the good works of the saved sinner. And what I want us to do then is to look especially here in this chapter read in your hearing at the ways in which Jacob was transformed by the revelation of God's grace

Trembling Acknowledgment of Personal Dealings with God

9:55 to him there at Bethel. And we will concentrate upon four very clear manifestations of the transformation effected by the grace of God. And the first is this. He was brought to a trembling acknowledgement of personal dealings with the God of grace. The first indication

10:23 in Jacob's life that the grace of God had been applied to him with power here at Bethel is that he was brought to a trembling acknowledgement of personal dealings. Dealings with the God of grace. Look again at verses 16 and 17 of Genesis 28. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep and said surely Jehovah the God of the covenant is in this place and I knew it not. And he was afraid. There was a trembling that took hold of him. There was

11:08 a trembling that took hold of him. And he was afraid and said how dreadful or awe inspiring is this place. And yet look at the apparent contradiction. This is none other than the house of God. This is the

11:21 gate of heaven. Here the privileges of grace in which heaven was opened up to Jacob in that nighttime vision. Here where God comes in the framework of the covenant promise to Jacob when he has for the first time first hand dealings with God it brings him to this mingled state of soul of overflowing joy permeated with a sense of awe and of dread. Prior to this

12:01 experience Jehovah the God of covenant grace was but a name upon the lips of his father. When the father passed the blessing on to Jacob as recorded in chapter 27 while Jacob is standing before his father in the midst of deception and lies his father says to him Genesis 27 27 and following see the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which Jehovah hath blessed.

12:39 And the name Jehovah is upon the lips of his father while Jacob stands before him in the midst of lies and deception. And there seems to be no dread no fear no trembling no sense of awe that before Jehovah I now stand with my father pronouncing blessing upon me while I'm in the midst of a stinking pile of lies and deception. Everything from the passage seems to be a

13:11 sign to indicate he went away immediately with a sense I put it over on my old man. He had heard the name of Jehovah but he had had no first hand dealings with Jehovah likewise the name of God as El Shaddai God almighty was upon the name of his was on his father's lips when he sent him out in chapter 28 and verse 2 arise go to

13:42 the house of Bethuel thy mother's father and take a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother's brother and El Shaddai God almighty bless thee and make thee fruitful and multiply thee. God was a name upon the lips of his father but as yet there is no indication that Jacob had had personal heart dealings with the God of his father. But now

14:12 even though it all happened while he was asleep upon awaking he is conscious of deep inward personal real dealings with the God of his father and this produces in him a trembling acknowledgement I have had first hand dealings with God. No longer do I have second hand religion. No longer do I have second hand religion. No longer do I have second hand religion. No longer do I have second hand religion. No longer do I have second hand religion. No longer do I have second hand religion. No longer do I have second hand religion. No longer do I have second hand religion. No longer do I have second hand religion. No longer do I have second hand religion. No longer do I have second hand religion. No longer do I have second hand religion. No longer do I have second hand religion. No longer do I have second hand religion. No longer do I have second hand religion. No longer do I have second hand religion. No longer do I have second hand religion. No longer do I have second hand religion. No longer do I have second hand religion. No longer do I

14:42 is Jehovah a name upon the lips of my father before which I can stand smothered in my lies and not even twitch. Just awakening to consciousness and knowing that in a dream this God has appeared to him personally and this God has brought his promises of covenant mercy to him personally that this God has come to a man in his sin and has conferred grace upon him personally it brought

15:18 a trembling acknowledgement of personal dealings with the God of grace. Though David had not yet written the words Jacob experienced the reality rejoice with trembling. Yet he said how awe inspiring. His display again though the words of Job had not yet been penned surely Jacob could have uttered them I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ears but now mine eyes see of thee and I repent

16:02 in sackcloth and ashes and as with Jacob so with all whom God is pleased to arrest by his saving grace. For example while the thief on the cross may cry Lord remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom and in the parable of the publican and the Pharisee the publican in his breast beating cry may say God be merciful to me the sinner and while proud Saul of Tarsus is stricken and cries out

16:45 Lord what will I do? What will thou have me to do in all the diversity of the circumstances of being arrested by the God of grace. There is a common denominator in all of those cries. You see what it is?

17:01 Personal dealings between the sinner and the God of grace. Lord remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom. God be merciful to me sinner. Lord what will thou.

17:17 Think of me. Think of me. Think of me. Think of me.

17:18 Think of me. Think of me. Think of me. Think of me.

17:18 Have me to do. And so Jacob indeed is a pattern of salvation by grace. For when that grace has been conferred upon a sinner. One of the first manifestations and effects of that grace.

17:36 Is to bring the hell deserving sinner. The sinner brought to some awareness of his own culpability. And guilt before God. To the place where he is overwhelmed with the wonder that this God who could crush me in his justice.

17:56 Has come to me in grace and kindness and mercy and pity and forgiving grace. And therefore before this God. There is a trembling acknowledgement of personal dealings with him. Alexander White.

18:18 In his comments on the life of Jacob has captured this beautifully. He wrote how dreadful is this place. Jacob had been taught to feel and to say. How dreadful was that place where his father's altar was built.

18:36 And those places where God had come down to talk with Adam and Abel and Noah and Abraham and Hagar. But Jacob had no idea that God. Was at Bethel. Or would ever come down to talk with him there.

18:53 And then more than that there was this. God's presence. God's holiness. But above all God's great grace.

19:02 Will always make the place dreadful. To a great sinner. Dreadful with a solemnizing awful overwhelming dread. That there is no other word for.

19:15 How dreadful did all. Jacob's life of sin appear at Bethel. He had had his own thoughts about himself and his mother and father. And about his brother all these last three days across the wilderness.

19:31 But it was not until that morning. At Bethel that Jacob learned to say. Against thee and thee only have I sinned. How dreadful did his past life look now.

19:45 As it lay naked and open under the gate. Of heaven and under that shining ladder.

19:54 You see when God lays hold of an elect sinner. Whom he has prepared in his own tailor made way for the revelation of grace. When that grace is revealed to the sinner. It will bring to some degree and I would not dare to absolutize to what degree.

20:16 Some felt awareness of trembling acknowledgement. That I am having hard personal dealings with the living God. For bound up in the very blessings of that covenant. By which God's grace comes to sinners is this.

20:34 They shall all know me from the least they shall no more say every man to his neighbor. No the Lord for they shall know me and no sinner can be brought whether dramatically or gradually.

20:50 To personal saving dealings with the God of grace without a sense of this is why anyone professing to know the grace of God who can be flippant about the things of God and the presence of God and the word of God and the day of God and the people of God is most likely self to see he's never had personal dealings with the God of grace. From that moment on.

Believing Embrace of the Covenant Promise

21:25 As we saw last night all of Jacob's experience as a believer takes its lines from the revelation of the God of grace given to him there at Bethel. So that was the first effect the transforming effect of the grace of God but now the second is this. He was brought not only to a trembling acknowledgement of personal dealings with the God of grace. But he was brought to a believing embrace of the covenant promise.

22:01 Of the God of grace. He was brought to a believing embrace of the covenant promise of the God of grace. God had come and said to Jacob verse 13. I will be your God.

22:23 Notice verse 15. I am with thee and will. Keep. The and whithersoever thou goest and will bring me again onto this land.

22:36 I will be your God not only to fulfill these what we might say almost cosmic promises through you the nation should be blessed. But in the midst of it this intensely personal promise I will be with you and I will take care of you. And I will fulfill all of my. Promises to you.

23:01 No wonder he regards that place as the gate of heaven. God has come to so great a sinner and has pledged to that sinner to be his God and to care for him and to protect him and to provide for him. While it seems too good to be true it is true. And what does Jacob do with those promises.

23:25 Well he embraces them. As. The. God.

23:29 Of. The. God. As we clearly see in verses 20 and 21.

23:34 Jacob bowed a bow saying. If God will be with me not an if if doubt. In the light of his promise if God has committed himself to be with me. And will keep me in this way that I go.

23:51 And will give me bread to eat and Raymond. He specifies what God had generically promised to meet his needs. And provide for him. He says if God is going to do all of this then Jehovah will be my God.

24:12 In other words as God came in grace in the framework of the promise of the covenant Jacob in the response to that grace was brought to a believing embrace of that covenant promise. Again in the language of Bush who has an excellent commentary on Genesis. Jacob takes up the precious words and virtually says all that it be according to thy word unto thy servant and thou shalt be mine and I will be thine forever. This was all proper for Jacob sought nothing which God had not promised and he could not well err while making the divine promises the rule and the measure of his promise.

24:54 And he could not well err while making the divine promises the rule and the measure of his desires. You see Jacob's feelings with God were in terms of the method by which God revealed his heart of grace to Jacob and that was in terms of covenant promises. So it is those very promises in which Jacob embraces God as his God and the promises of God in that embrace. And as then so now.

25:25 This is the way God comes to hell deserving sinners. He does not come to us. In any other way but in terms of his promises bound up in the Lord Jesus. In the gospel it is Christ who comes to us saying come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest in my souls.

25:54 Now when Christ himself comes to us in terms of the word of promise we cannot simply snatch at the promise and be indifferent to Christ. But nor can we have a nebulous ephemeral wispy dealing with Christ apart from the promises. For how many so ever be the promises of God in him is the yea and through him is the amen to the glory of God. And so it was with Jacob so it is whenever God comes in grace to sinners and he opens as it were.

26:30 The largeness of his heart to sinners and says you have been thinking all together wrongly about me. I am not the mean tight fisted God that the devil has convinced mankind I am from the garden of Eden. That was his first lie to Eve. God knows that if you partake of that tree it is not a matter of it will bring death to you.

26:57 It is a matter it will bring you to a new level of attainment and enjoyment. And it will bring you to a new level of life. It will bring you to something that is in your best interest and God is tight fisted and narrow hearted and from that day to this that is the lie the devil perpetuates in order to keep men his slaves. They believe that the service of the devil is really better than the service of God.

27:18 And God comes to us in the gospel and says no that is a lie. The yoke under which you serve is an oppressive yoke. The way of the transgressor is hard. The soul that sinneth it shall die.

27:30 There is no peace saith my God to the wicked. And God comes in the person of his son and says come unto me and I will give you rest. Take my yoke. This yoke is easy.

27:43 My burden is light. And if God in grace is working in the heart of the sinner what does he do? He does exactly as Jacob did. He says if God in Christ is prepared to take my burden.

27:59 If he is prepared to give me. His yoke that is easy and his burden that is light then surely this God will be my God. And we have dealings with the God of grace in terms of the promise of that grace that comes to us in the framework of his own word and covenant. And as God comes to some of you in the gospel.

28:30 The base line is to why you have not embraced God. The base line is to why you have not embraced God. The base line is to why you have not embraced God. The basic line is that the only reason you have not embraced the gospel is that you really do not believe.

28:37 That it is in your highest interest to embrace this savior as he has offered in the word and promise of the gospel. You and I are not safe until we are saved. And we are not saved until we believe. And we will never believe until we throw off the lie of the devil and believe as Jacob did.

29:02 The God about whom his father spoke. The God about whom his father spoke. this God had revealed himself and said this is what I'm going to do for you I will bless you I will give you this land I will through your seed bless the nations and I will be with you and I will keep you and I will provide for you and I will not leave you until I've done every single thing I've promised to do he lavished upon him these promises and in response we find Jacob brought to a believing embrace of the covenant promise of the God of grace

Solemn Avowal of Personal Attachment to God

29:45 and whenever God is pleased to open the eyes and the heart of a sinner it will not only be seen by bringing us to an acknowledgement a trembling acknowledgement of personal dealings with the God of grace but we will be brought to a believing embrace of the covenant promise of the God of grace but now thirdly we notice in this account in Genesis twenty-nine that Jacob was brought to a solemn avowal of personal attachment to the God of grace

30:25 he was brought to a solemn avowal of personal attachment to the God of grace verse twenty-one b in the light of all that God has pledged to me so I come again to my father's house in peace and Jehovah or then Jehovah will be my God and he stated that in the form of a vow verse twenty and Jacob vowed a vow saved and the essence of his vow was not reiterating what God had pledged to him

31:09 the essence of his vow was this God will be my God verse twenty-two this stone which I've set up for a pillar shall be God's house number three and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee involved in his vow were three things number one he says that Jehovah is God's house number one he says that Jehovah is God's house number two he says that Jehovah will be my God number three he says that Jehovah will be my God number four he says that Jehovah will be my God and what does that mean it means that I embrace Jehovah the God of covenant mercy

31:48 to be in my experience everything God requires me to acknowledge and to be as God my heart will be his undivided place of enthronement my affections my ambitions my desires all that I am and have God will be my God in other words he will not knowingly tolerate any rival to the affection that belongs to God alone God will have the place of supreme affection in his heart and then he says

32:31 secondly the most important thing to me will be the worship of this God God will be my God God will be my God then this stone which I have set up from a pillar that was his pillow on which he had poured oil to signify it became a very special stone now set apart with special significance for special remembrance and he says here in this very place there will be a house of God erected that is a place where God will be peculiarly worshipped and acknowledged as God and we see a fulfillment of that pledge in chapter 35

33:09 when at that very spot he erects an altar and officially names the place Bethel you see when he is brought to this practical avowal of personal attachment to the God of grace now God becomes his God God's worship is central to his life and God's service will be the bottom line of his life of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee was just a practical way of saying

33:48 I will acknowledge that all that I have and am comes from God and belongs to God and the giving of a tenth of it will be the tangible expression that I am the servant of God he was brought to a solemn avowal of personal attachment to the God of grace Jehovah will be my God his worship will be central his service will be my portion in life and as then so now grace is never brought to the heart of any sinner

34:30 but what it draws from that sinner a personal attachment to the God of grace God in his own workings in grace is never content so to reveal his grace that the sinner receives pardon and forgiveness with no attachment to God himself this is why Paul in describing the conversion of the Thessalonians could say we don't have to report about the success of the gospel they themselves report how in entering in unto you you turn unto God unto your idols to do what?

35:15 to serve the living and the true God and to wait for his son from heaven he says wherever we go we open our mouths to tell them the success of the gospel at Thessalonica and people say no no we have already heard that people have turned from their idols unto God they have taken God to be their God to have him as the supreme authority to it may seem as though

35:57 God God might have supported the church in this world he has till to describe that in order to serve everything but him. In the language of Romans 6, we give the members of our body to be the servants of sin and uncleanness unto iniquity. But now we say, I shall be the servant of the living God and of his Son, Jesus Christ the Lord. He was brought to a solemn avowal of personal attachment to the God of grace. And isn't this the great call

36:36 in the gospel? You see, the call in the gospel is always a call of attachment to the Savior himself. Come unto me. He doesn't say, come to my forgiveness, come to my pardon, come to my justifying grace. All of that's true, but it's always a call to persons to engage

36:58 a person. Come unto me, and I will give you rest. Him that comes unto me, I will in no wise cast out. And as it was with Jacob, so it is with us, that when God's grace effectively works in the heart of the sinner, he is always brought to this solemn avowal of personal attachment to the God of grace, so that Paul can write of the Corinthians, God is faithful, by whom you are called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

37:35 Now let me ask you, do you know? Would the name of Christ, having been spoken in your ears for decades, some of you, and the word and promise of the gospel held out week after week in your hearing, do you know what it is to be brought to a place of solemn avowal, of personal attachment to the God of grace himself? It's not some indication of an advanced state of spirituality to say, for to me. No one's ever said, what a great place to live is Christ, and to die is a gift.

38:13 That's the essence of the disposition of every heart transformed by grace. There is this personal attachment to the God of grace, and while we grieve and mourn that so many times, he is not in this particular area and in this particular relationship, all that he ought to be to us, because of our remaining sin, and the subtlety of the devil's deep lust for the who has loved us. Now let me ask you, do you know that when God brings us in solitude and in an stillness, and the seductive power of the world, yet dig through all of that and what you see is a heart to Jesus Christ and in the perfection of his work.

Practical Expressions of Joyful Submission to God

38:57 Well, Jacob was brought to this solemn avowal, a personal attachment to the God of grace. This was the third strand of the indication of the transformation effected by grace. And then in the fourth place, he was brought to practical expressions of joyful submission to the God of grace. He was brought to practical expressions of joyful submission to the God of grace.

39:30 While we've already hinted at the significance of the last verse in this chapter, I want us to park there for a little bit.

39:38 The climactic expression of this visitation of the God of grace is found in these words, This God, who I now avow to be my God, as he fulfills his promise, then this stone which I've set up for a pillar shall be God's house, and of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth to me. The essence of his response is this. If the God of heaven and earth, the God of my fathers, the God whom I've dishonored by my sin, if this,

40:16 God has come to me in free, sovereign love and mercy and pledged himself to be my God, then I pledge two things. The most important thing to me for the rest of my days will be the worship of this God. The most important thing to me will be the worship of this God. And I am determined that I will continually acknowledge God's claims over all that I am and all that I have.

40:47 We don't have the time to trace. We don't have the time to trace out how Jacob's subsequent history validates this, but I challenge you to do so. And you will see that again and again, we'll just look at a couple of specimen indications, he acknowledges that all that he has and all that he is, is the fruit of God's grace to him. Chapter 31 in verse 7, Your father hath deceived me and changed my wages ten times, but God suffered him not.

41:17 To hurt me, he saw behind his protection from the chicanery and the duplicity of his uncle Laban, the hand of God taking care of him. Verse 40 and following, Thus I was in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night in my sleep fled from my eyes. These twenty years I've been in thy house. I've served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters.

41:48 Six years for thy flock. You've changed my wages ten times, except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac had been with me. Surely now hast thou sent me away empty. God hath seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight.

42:09 And then he goes on until we see him fulfilling what he promised in chapter 35. He then goes back to Bethel, calls upon the extended family to purify themselves of all foreign gods. In verse 7, He built there an altar and called the place El Bethel, because God was revealed unto him when he fled from the face of his brother. You see, what David, what Jacob vowed on that occasion was not simply a temporary emotional response to a spiritual high at a conference.

42:47 There was an unfolding of God's heart to him that drew forth from him vows that found practical expression in a life of joyful submission to the God of grace. And he says in that expression of submission, the most important thing to me will be the worship of this God. That is the acknowledgement in the totality of my life, that God is in control, God is caring for me, providing for me, ordering and directing all of the circumstances of my life.

43:29 You see, to come to a place and to an event of formal worship, detached from a life that acknowledges God in all things is gross hypocrisy. It was the great problem with Israel. They thought they could live any old way, Monday or Sunday through Friday, and they didn't. And they didn't.

43:50 And they didn't. And on Sabbaths and on new moons and feast days, come into God's temple and truly worship, and God says, I'm sick and tired of this shooting mess. Be done with it. Isaiah chapter 1.

44:02 No, when a man says that I will be a worshiper of God, what he's saying is that the totality of my life will take all of its lines from the reality of God's presence and God's claims, God's grace, God's law. And then, when I come, when I come to concentrate in formal, specific worship, I will then express in my hymns of praise and in my prayers in concert with others that reality which has dominated my life prior to gathering to the place of special worship. And then, though we had no record of how and when and to whom he paid his tithes,

44:45 we had no reason to believe that he backed out on this part of the vow. No. God will have a tenth of all that I possess. And one of the most powerful arguments for the abiding validity of the tithe is not only to be found in the incident with Melchizedek prior to the giving of the law.

45:05 How did Abraham know that the giving of tithes was something that was pleasing to God? Well, we don't know how the original revelation came, but this is the second explicit reference. Long before the giving of the law in which there was the acknowledgment in the giving of the tithe that all that a man possessed, possessed as the fruit of his labor, think of what it meant in the case of Jacob, laboring all those years with his uncle Laban. Yet he says, I will gladly give to God the tenth to acknowledge that all comes from him and all belongs to him, and I do not hold it selfishly.

45:47 I do not hold it. I do not hold it with carnal tenacity. What are these but practical expressions of joyful submission to the God of grace? And as then so now, God never brings his saving grace to any sinner, but what he draws from that sinner, practical expressions of joyful submission to himself.

46:18 Practical expressions of joyful submission. Submission to himself. That's why Paul could say of the Romans, thanks be to God that whereas you were the slaves of sin, you were paid from the heart. That form of doctrine unto which you were delivered and being made free from sin, you have become the servants of God.

46:40 You see, people cannot be pummeled into the service of God, but grace sweetly coerces them. Now men ought to serve God, and in the proper preaching, in the law, we must seek to bring men to the acknowledgement that in not serving God, they are wicked, they are perverse, and they deserve the wrath of God. But no amount of pummeling men with their duty to serve God will ever bring them to the service of God.

47:10 It is only the revelation of grace. As with Jacob, God came to him saying, this is what I'm going to do through you. This is what I'm going to be to you. And when Jacob says that God will do all of that for me, while the old takedown artist gives the birthright and blessing by deception and chicanery, if God in grace will do this, what else can I do?

47:45 Here, Lord, I give myself away. It is all that I can do. And I was speaking to Pastor Hendricks before the service tonight, and as I reflect back over the years of my ministry, one of the things that I'm so ashamed of is that I have, I believe, had too little confidence in the power of God's grace.

48:10 We can never preach the grace of God too freely. We can never speak more fulsomely of the wonder of that grace than the reality is. And it's when the Spirit of God opens the eyes of proud, rebellious sinners with heartache, and thoughts of God, and causes them to see they've been entirely wrong in the way they thought of God. The God with whom they have to do is the God who opened his heart.

48:41 The evidence of it is Golgotha, and in the form of an immolated incarnate God hanging between earth and heaven, dripping with spittle and with his own blood in the shame of nakedness, his confused and bruised body, an object of the rude stare of evil men, and the heartbroken glance of his friends. In the midst of that scene, with the heavens shrouded in blackness, and the cry of dereliction, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? God is saying to the vilest of sinners, come to my Son,

49:24 and in him all of the wrath that you deserve is swallowed up, all of the kindness, and mercy that I'll ever show to sinners, I'll show to you because of what my Son has done. And all you need do is own that you're the creature I say you are, a sinner lost, undone, unable to save yourself. Throw yourself upon the Savior. I've shown you my heart in the giving of my Son, and what can take the most proud, stubborn, self-centered, rebel, and make him the willing bond-slave of the living God and of his Son,

50:09 as a sight of Jesus Christ.

Grace Teaches and Subdues the Sinner

50:14 Yes, the grace of God that brings salvation teaches us to deny ungodliness, and to live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world, looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. That's what grace, grace, grace, always teaches us. But in what classroom does grace teach us that? The first classroom is the classroom in which Jacob was placed.

50:46 When with a conscience smiting him for his own sin and deception, running for his life, God comes and opens up heaven and opens up his heart and displays his purposes of grace and kindness and mercy and Jacob says, if God is such a God, then I will take him to be my God and I will serve him and I will worship him. That's what grace does, always does. And when people speak glibly of grace and show no submission to Christ, this whole debate that's raging again about so-called Lordship salvation,

51:31 in some ways, if it weren't so tragic, it'd be laughable. How can a guilty, vile, hell-deserving, wicked, wretch of a sinner, who in his rebellion has lifted up his hand to heaven, how can he see the incarnate God for such sin? And if God pleading with him to come and receive the benefits of his perfect life and his death and do anything other than fall at his feet to become his willing pawns. If someone can have eyes to the edges of the ways of grace

52:15 and do anything other than fall before the God of grace to become his pawns. Oh, my preacher friends, in the midst of the so-called cheap grace that is preached in our day, let us not react in such a way that we feel we need to hedge up the grace of God to make sure it attains its end of making all of its recipients lobbying bond slaves of Christ. No, no, let the grace of God loose the grace of God. No, no, let the grace of God loose the grace of God.

52:46 No, no, let the grace of God loose the grace of God. Do its work. And if the largeness of God's heart to hell-deserving sinners won't break them and make them the bond slaves of Christ, seeking to force them by any other means will not do it. But grace will always subdue the sinner.

53:07 That's why we dare to preach repentance towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ but we preach it in his name in the light of the revelation is made of His grace and kindness in an immolated Savior, in the pouring out of the blood of the Son of God. Yes, there will be those who turn the grace of God to lasciviousness, and God will destroy them for their wickedness. There will be those who take the devil's logic where sin abounds, grace is much more abound. Let's then go on and abound in our sin. Leave

53:48 them be their self-destruction, but let us not think that the answer is to restrict the wide ocean of God's grace that declares to the vilest of sinners, God in Jesus Christ pronounces blessing on those who will have Him as their God. God commits Himself to fulfill all of His promises that are yea and amen in Christ, and He says, Behold My Son, take Him, hear Him, receive Him, and in Him all of the promises are yea. The sight

54:28 of such grace will bring us, as it brought Jacob, to take this God to be our God, and to say that His worship will be the most important thing in our lives, and so to live is to make it manifest that all that we are and all that we have are His, and we are determined that we shall manifest His grace. We shall manifest in the totality of life that we are not our own, that we've been bought with a price. Now that's what God's grace did for Jacob. It brought him to this trembling

Call to Embrace and Serve the God of Grace

55:06 acknowledgement of personal dealings with God. How dreadful is this place, this place where heaven has been opened to earth and where God has communicated to man, to sinful man. It's wonderful, yet it's awesome. Rejoice with trembling. Do you know anything about personal dealings with the God of grace?

55:31 You children, can you say, Mommy's God and Daddy's God is not just a name on their lips. His name is on my lips when I pray in secret. His name is on my lips when I sing hymns to Him lying on my bed. I know Him to be my God.

55:53 And it amazes me. It fills me with a sense of wonder. Why should I have been brought into all these privileges that under God have resulted in my coming to know God as my God? That's always the first effect of the transforming power of God's grace. And

56:18 then we saw that Jacob was brought to a believing embrace of the promise of the God of grace. Do you believingly embrace the promise, He that believeth on the Son hath life? Do you embrace the promise, Him that comes to me, I'll in no wise cast out? You can only know the God of grace as you embrace Him in the framework in which He comes to us, and that is the promises of His grace. And that's exactly what Jacob did. God has said, I'll do this,

56:52 this, this, and this. And Jacob says, Since you will come to me, I will do this, this, and this. And Jacob says, Since you will come to me, I will do this, this, and this. And Jacob says, Since you will come to me, I will come to you, then I will be such a faithful God. Then in

57:05 response, I will do this. It was the response of faith in the covenant promises. Is that the way you deal with God's promises? In the Gospel. In The Son. If you want something

57:17 more, God is not going to give you anything more. There will be no additional revelation. It is in the Word and promise of The Gospel, and you will know Him. He was brought into to a solemn avowal of personal attachment to the God of grace Jehovah will be my God have you been brought to that place where you say I don't care what my peers choose to live for I don't care what their gods are going to be if their gods are going to be MTV and the styles and the youth culture that flows out of it if their gods are going to be sex and clothes and fun and games I don't care but my God will be Jesus Christ who loved me and

58:01 died for me the very one who could have sent me to hell from that place where he'll sit on his throne one day I take that God to be my God and I joyfully submit to this God of grace his worship is going to be the most important thing to me maintaining communion with him seeking to live my life in all of its facets as a worshipper as one who lives unto this God and no longer unto myself and in the ways that God makes practical demands upon me as to my money my time my energy I will regard myself as not my own

58:45 but as one who's been bought with a price that's what grace does God willing tomorrow we're going to look at four large categories of the lifelong privileges of grace as illustrated in the life of Jacob and I'm particularly concerned that some of you who are younger would know the blessedness of what Jacob knew so that these lifetime expressions of the privileges of grace would be yours yes God can save people in their dying hour he did it with the dying feet but how much more wonderful when the God of grace becomes our God in you and then we know the privileges of grace all through our lives

59:30 as did Jacob and if you do not know this God I say to you tonight in his name he comes to you tonight not in terms of a vision not in terms of a ladder set up between earth and heaven but in the word of the gospel and says whatever hard thoughts you have about God they're wrong this God against whom you think such mean and ugly thoughts that you won't give yourself to him you go on in rebellion against him all those thoughts are wrong read the heart of God in the cross of Christ God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son how can a God who gives

60:14 his son to die for the likes of you and me be a mean God how to make your life miserable it's ludicrous it's a form of moral insanity oh young and old alike hear the God of Bethel who comes to a sinner and he says I will bless I will be with you I will and will you this night say this God shall be my God this God will be my God no longer mum's God alone dad's God alone no longer the preacher's God and so and so's God he will be my

60:58 God and if it means I must walk with this God a lonely walk as far as my peers are concerned as far as my friends concerned what difference does it make if I have this God as my God forever and ever and as my guide even unto death we're going to end tomorrow night with Jacob's death and you're going to die someday and oh to die a death like Jacob picks his feet up on the bed and is gathered to his father no terrors no horrible thoughts I've ruined my life and now my worst ruin awaits me go out into an eternity

Prayer for Grace and Appreciation

61:41 without God as my God oh that you may embrace him now and serve him all of your days and be gathered home with Jacob and Abraham and Isaac in the presence of the living God let us pray our father we thank you that you are a God of grace we thank you that you do not come to us giving us what we deserve for we know that if that were so there would not be a one of us in this building tonight you would have long since

62:24 cut us all off in our sins and consigned us to that place where we justly deserve to be and we pray that our poor efforts to set forth the wonder and the glory and the largeness of the heart that you have towards sinners would be owned of you to cause some this night to say with Jacob this God shall be my God oh Lord will you not bring many of these children to an early embrace of you as their God that they may know the blessedness of serving you of worshipping you

63:09 of acknowledging that all that they are and have comes from you and belongs to you and have lives that are useful in this generation and when they come to die are gathered home with joy into the very presence of Christ we pray for your dear people that you will bring us all to a new appreciation of that grace that brought us to throw down all of our misconceptions of you to cast aside our hard thoughts about you we thank you you brought us to see indeed that the yoke of Jesus is easy and his burden is

63:54 light and while many of us have known tearful days and restless nights as a result of being your disciples we confess Lord that all of them together is not worthy to be compared with one day spent with the terror of an accusing conscience wondering if hell would open up and swallow us oh Lord we do confess that you are a gracious God and a tender father and we pray that we may more and more appreciate your grace revel in it cast ourselves out upon

64:38 its boundless shores and enjoy the wonders of that which you have purchased for us in Christ seal then your word to our hearts we ask in Jesus