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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/fred-krauss/the-grace-of-acceptance/
2nd Corinthians, please, chapter 12, verse 1. It is expedient for me, doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. Verse 7. Lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh.
The messenger of Satan debuffered me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me, and or but he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee.
4. My strength is made perfect in weakness. Now, my dear brethren, in your life, there comes a time when you have to cross bridges and you haven't anticipated. In your life and mine, there may come a trial.
You have never planned it and you must face it. So my subject, I trust, will be help to all, maybe not so much for the young believers. It will come ultimately. My subject is the grace of acceptance. The grace of acceptance.
Tell me, have you ever met people and in conversation they said, relating to other Christians, I don't like him. I don't like her. Hmm? What kind of Christianity is this, brethren? Have we forgotten what the Savior taught in the Gospel of John?
By this shall all men know you are my disciples, because you tolerate each other. Hmm? You suffer each other. Nor by this shall all men know you are my disciples, because you love one another. Have we forgotten this?
The grace of acceptance. Let's trace it for a moment. You see it in Hebrews 2 and 9. I'll come to that in a moment or two. Hebrews 2 and 9 teaches you that Calvary was an act of divine grace. Would you have done it any other way?
An act of divine grace. You need the grace of God in our service. First Corinthians 15. It isn't always easy. Hostile neighbors. Hostile people in university and college. Some time ago I was in the eastern parts of Canada in Labrador, Newfoundland.
Pioneer work. A number of people had previously professed to be saved, so we announced a baptism. The baptism could not have been held in the Atlantic Ocean. It was too rough and too deep. So we went inland on a lake.
The whole village turned out. Over 200 people with baseball bats. And they weren't about to play baseball, except with the preacher's heads. They physically attacked young converts. They tried the same with the five of us.
Now what do you do in a situation like this? I didn't know their mentality, but they wanted us to retaliate. That would have been a real fight. Very difficult in a situation like this to remain passive.
But we did. And that turned the tide. I do remember, brother, George Campbell, who is now with the Lord. Before his conversion, he was a pugilist. Do you know what a pugilist is? By the looks of you, you don't know.
It's a fighter. Not a professional one. He knew how to fight. He said to me, Fred, I felt like asking my Lord ten minutes leave of absence. I would have knocked a whole bunch of them down. But you see, as a Christian, you have to control your emotions.
You remain entirely passive. But you see, in cases of adversity, you need the grace of God. In the Old Testament, the predominant aspect of attributes was mercy. Mercy, mercy, mercy. Not an expense of grace.
Genesis 6. In the New Testament, the predominant aspect is the grace of God. You see it in Calvary. You see it in 1 Corinthians 15. You see it in 2 Corinthians 8, in our giving. Not just money. Giving of self.
Brother, had we known Paul as a mere academic, his name would have gone into oblivion. But because he was for Christ, all the world knows Paul. Come on, young men. Please keep in mind. Now, there's nothing wrong with a good career.
Nothing wrong with a good salary. What will remain is what you do and are for God for all eternity. Come on, young men. What's your ambition in life? God's assembly needs young men who stand because brother and older men leaving us fast.
I've taken a number of funerals. And all have concerned with leaders among God's people. They're gone. We're the young men that stand in their feet, in their steps. Great need today. So put God first, young brother, young sister, in the local assembly.
Seek to cultivate a Christ-like spirit. Learn how to worship. Learn how to pray. This is important. And God will give you all the other things that you need. It's not just money. It is intellect. It's your home.
It's who you are. Moses laid all upon the altar. Where Solomon turned out a spiritual failure and later life and prosperity came. Paul laid all upon the altar. Everyone knows the apostle's name. Demas, well, we may know his name.
The grace of God in relation to our service and adversity. You have the grace of God in 2 Timothy. Again, you have difficulties and adversity. Let's move to Romans 12. Don't you ever have the idea, young brother, that this place behind the platform is a very zenith of a preacher's achievement?
I could inform you otherwise. It's the grace of God that we present the word of God. And don't you young folks ever be critical of something that is said that will expose your weakness. For the presentation of all the counsel of God.
God intends for your own preservation and the preservation of the local company. That's why we must present it in the proper spirit. You see the grace of God in the marriage bond. Something is deeply disturbing these days.
And that is the divorce rate. Not the world. Among saints. Could give you some examples. You need the grace of God. Don't the young people think, you know, that married life is a continual honeymoon? No, it's a beast you have to contend with, not the honey.
Did you ever notice, my dear brother, that when in some instances the partner in life goes to be with Christ. I have seen men spiritually collapse. Because the woman was a stronger spiritual person. Vice versa too.
You need the grace of God in the marriage bond. Now, let's come please to the text. The year is 1587. The exact date is February the 8th. The country in question is the Midlands in England. You would have been horrified had you been a spectacle what took place.
There's a young woman of royal blood. And for some time she tried to bring a whole country into the vortex of a religious system. And she didn't shy back from anything that would accomplish this. She was found of high treason.
The high court condemned her. She's taken out as a young woman of royal blood. And decapitated. For you see, I do not know why leaders and dictators and kings and rulers never learn of the mistakes of the past.
For you see, I'm not a Scottish person. But the battle of the Jacobites, have you heard of the Jacobites? Was already lost in the battle of Culloden when they lost. Bonnie Prince Charlie had to flee to France.
His cause was gone. But she insisted and insisted until she was proven guilty and executed. What a spectacle that must have been. Now follow me 2 ,000 years before. They take a man at night in the Jewish law courts.
Anyone accused was given a defense attorney. Not the Savior. Nothing to eat. Nothing to drink. Down in the prison overnight. The Sanhedrin gathered. You know what followed. Oh, the awful hatred in the human heart.
And then the Savior takes a cross. I don't have to detail what he suffered and the scourging. You ever see a Roman lash? Before my unsaved days, there was a fortification that the Romans had in the city near Frankfurt or Bad Homburg, where I come from.
And I saw one of the nine cat tails. Leathers, strips that long. Bones or steel woven at interval of ten inches. Wooden handle. And whereas the Jews, their limit about scourging was 50 less one, 49. Brother, the touching thing is the Roman knew no such limitations.
I do not know how my blessed Savior suffered it. Two soldiers. Down came the whip. Again and again. How his back must have hurt when he was nailed to the tree. And his back rubbed against the rough wood.
That was just the beginning. And ultimately, you know, these were not nails that you buy at the hardware store. You ever seen a Roman nail? Brother, the touching thing is today he did it for you. Calvary, the awful pain, the scourging, the rejection.
And during the three hours of night, he suffered what we will never find out. Brother, let it touch our heart. Not just in the morning meeting. Even now. Because, you see, the center of Christianity is a crucified man that rose again.
The center of my faith is the resurrection. And we should never forget it. He did this for you, no matter who you are. Hebrews 2 and verse 9. The grace of acceptance. Let's move for a moment. Oh, by the way, did you ever notice Exodus 4 and 10?
Moses, it was said concerning him, he was slow of speech. You know the original? Moses had a speech impediment. That's what it means. Tell me, my dear brethren, in Waterloo, Cedar Falls, and wherever you come from, would you be happy to have somebody on the platform with a speech impediment?
Come on. That takes about two minutes to give it a sentence. That mighty man of God, maybe there's a purpose in it. But, you see, Moses, by the grace of God, had to accept his condition. He was reluctant to speak.
The Lord says, who made man's mouth? You go to Pharaoh, take Aaron there, brother. Oh, yeah. Let's come, please, to Genesis now. Genesis 29. I think I mentioned something like this in Stout. Bear so repeating.
Isaac loved Esau, and the reason is given because he was venison. Brethren, you have affection governed by material advantage. Rebekah loved Jacob, her affections governed by faith. Come to the second generation.
Interesting. Jacob loved Rachel. Who wouldn't? She was a pretty little thing. I forbear to describe her in the Eastern customs. Jacob did not hate Leah. He loved Leah less because the reason is given.
She was weak-eyed. That's an understatement. Dear Leah, can I put it to you in plain American English? People sometimes tell me, Mr. Krauss, how many languages do you speak? I said, I've got my mother language, and I speak English, and I understand the Americans with all their dialect where they come from.
Oh, I like the Texans. Floridians. Yeah. So Leah was cross-eyed. Huh. You never knew which way she looked, northeast, southwest. But dear Leah had to cope with it by God's grace. Some people, they're not satisfied with the way they look.
Well, Leah wasn't either, but she had to accept her conditions by the divine grace. Hold on a minute. My dear young sister, it's not necessarily what you're outward. It's the inward spiritual qualities that count.
For not by Rachel came the priestly tribe of Levi. Not by Rachel came the royal tribe of Judah, from which sprang the Savior, was Levi. Judah came from Leah. So what matters in your life and mine is what we are for God.
You can be the CEO of a great company and be very little in God's sight when it comes to assembly. So my dear young man, there's nothing wrong with education, please. As long as you see that it's lined up, the fear of God, and you put God first.
I can give you some examples. I don't have the time. Oh, I plead with you, dear young man, the grace of God. Now, let's come to King Saul. I'm not here to look whether the man was a believer or not. Leave that aside, it's difficult.
However, to get a proper estimate as to the life and testimony of Saul, you have to divide 1 Samuel into two sections. Chapter 1 to 16, 16 to the end. Now watch. And the first section, King Saul, went on fairly well.
However, there are certain crisis points in his life. And the Lord rejected him. Watch. King Saul didn't have the grace of God about him. He tried, and that's where the difficulty comes in. From chapter 16 on, King Saul tried to maintain a position in the flesh that God had denied him.
That's where all his troubles came. Jonathan didn't have any problems with accepting dear David. Not at all. Oh, King Saul, the flesh and jealousy. That's an awful thing to notice and witness and experience, you know.
Yeah, no grace. No grace of acceptance. King Saul. Don't you know I'm the big number around here? Don't you know I'm number one? I was in assembly once. And one of the brethren, been in the assembly for well over 50 years, he says, I'm the boss at work.
I'm the boss at home. And I'm the boss in the assembly. Brethren, that's dead wrong. You don't need any bosses in the assembly. They belong to the warehouse. They belong to the factory. What a local assembly needs is shepherds.
Shepherds. Godly leaders, examples, not bosses. And he acted like one too. Strange, isn't it? If our spiritual aspirations are not governed by the book but by self and self-importance, King Saul, no grace of acceptance as far as he's concerned, you know.
Now, let's for a moment come to the oldest book in the Bible. That's one of my favorites. The book of Job. Remember four years ago we touched on it. And you dear folks, you remember every word I said, didn't you?
By the looks of you. Anyhow, let's make a few statements. Job, there's only half a verse that gives an indication that Job had just an inkling of a suspicion as to who was behind the gigantic attack. It was satanic.
The statement of the Lord that he was a good man was too much for the devil. He stirred all hell. And you know what took place? The man lost his family. He lost all his goods. He lost his health. You and I, my dear brethren, you have never been there before, have you?
Very difficult. Job, however, only by divine grace, he came through the trial brilliantly, brilliantly. The three friends who came were no help at all. For you see, their theology was governed by legalism and nothing else.
By the way, your service for God will be determined as to how you think of the Lord. Solomon, Moses, Paul, Demas. The principle defined in Luke chapter 7. If my comprehension and perception of divine purposes and divine persons are mediocre in that measure, I will not serve the Lord as I should.
If my perception and comprehension of God is what they were, Paul and of Moses, I'll put myself upon the altar. Before I was converted, of course, we all have to learn a lot and the learning process never ends.
Don't ever get the idea you have arrived. Even after salvation, I put myself ahead of the divine purpose. My job was a mediocre one. So look at the one edge. A job opening opened up way up in Northern Ontario and I thought I was qualified.
I never got the job. And my dear brethren, where I grew up, they said, Fred, we were all praying that this job for you would fall through. I said, fine friends you are. They said, we believe that God has something else for you.
Here I am. Sometimes God moves. If he knows that you can accomplish something for God, he may close doors. Or he opens doors. That's what he's able to do. Ambition. Here's dear Job. Brilliantly he passed through the trial.
His friends didn't help him. I don't have any time to go into details. Now let's look for a moment at Jonah. Jonah's heart not to crack. Well, first of all, Jonah shared the antipathy of his contemporary church of Gentiles.
You see, the Jews in this day, they were taught that the Gentiles are second class citizens. Goyim. And even the early apostles, brethren, they had this problem. Peter did. Until he was shown what God has cleansed, don't you call unclean.
Now look at you. As far as I'm concerned, you're all Gentiles, aren't you? Any Jews here? Shalom. Glad to see you. Oh, the grace of God. Jonah didn't have the grace of God. He was a prayerless man. Because what prayer does, I mentioned in Stout just a week ago, does five things.
Don't have to repeat it. But Jonah is not a praying man. Else he would have understood the process of Noah long time ago. That, although symbolically, includes the Gentiles in the purposes of God. Paul received the vision.
And the Acts of the Apostles. And then the gospel went rather into Asia at the time. Later they heard the word. They went into Europe. Come over and help us. And so Noah's prophecy and the vision in Troas, we are today the indirect result of what Noah thousands of years prophesied that we would share in the gospel of the grace of God through the Semitic people.
Yeah, but Jonah's not a man of prayer. So he doesn't understand. Now for the sake of time, let's look at Jeremiah. Very difficult time. There's a sad incidence in the preacher's life as far as Jeremiah is concerned.
You see, Jeremiah was faithful in the midst of total unfaithfulness. The king heard about it. Jeremiah, I want to have a private audience with you. All right. Jeremiah, glad to see you. Tell me, what are you carrying under your arm?
Well, Your Majesty, that's a copy of the scriptures. Can I have a look, please? Hand it to him. And the king takes it, puts a penknife through it, and throws it into the fire. Brethren, you have a leader among God's people who treats God's word like this.
Is it any wonder the nation fell into disrepute? Is it any nation they went into exile? Well, the Jews ultimately were scattered. I had a fellow Christian, was it last year? He knew I was from Europe.
In a certain way, I was a witness of what took place, although we did not know these notorious concentration camps that were hidden in the bush. He said, Fred, as a Christian, I have misgivings. I don't understand what happened to these thousands and thousands of Jews.
I said, neither do I. But I said, did you ever read Deuteronomy 28 and 29? Moses prophetically predicted what would happen to the nation, not only in Europe, all down the corridor of time. He said, if you get away from God, the exile will await you.
You have no peace in the day. Oh, God, we would. It was night. At night, you say, God, we would. It was morning. You'll be hunted from nation to nation. That's exactly in principle what the Jews passed through, not only in Europe.
Look at the genocides under the Chinese leader Mao Zedong. Look at the genocide under the leader Joseph Stalin. I remember this man killed millions of Ukrainians, starved them out. Have you ever heard of the killing fields in Cambodia?
That's the result of a human race that's governed by hate and self-seeking and selfishness. Godless nations. And can I tell you today, although I'm not a prophet, brethren, the worst is yet to come. We won't be here when that takes place.
So you have Jeremiah. He predicts, and rightly so, that Israel, because they failed to keep the sabbatical year from Solomon's time, 490 years, their greed got the better of them. So the Lord says, okay, 49 divided into, is it 7?
70 years. Away you go into Babylon. The land must give its rest. 40 years. That's why it was 70 years. Now, there's a man by the name of Hanani. He's supposed to be a preacher. He said, no, this Jeremiah, he's too hard.
No, no, not at all. It's not 70 years, folks. Relax. The exile will only last two years. Oh, very dangerous, brethren. To falsify divine truth, to compromise divine truth, very dangerous. The man was dead within two years.
Hanani, that's his name. Of course, Jeremiah got it from Leviticus 26, about the sabbatical year. They didn't have more on fertilizers, as they have it here in the state of Iowa. So the land needed its rest.
No grace at all. Well, finally, let's look at the Apostle Paul. Paul endeavored to carry the gospel to Spain, Rome's oldest presence. And in order to reach Spain, he would make his headquarters, at least for a little time, in Rome.
That's why he wrote the epistle. He wrote the epistle to introduce himself and his teachings. A masterful work of divine revelation concerning the purposes of God. Galatians is the rough picture. Romans is like a statue of granite.
God's purposes, right from the beginning until the end. So Paul endeavored to go to Rome. Now, he arrived there, all right, brethren, in chains. In chains! You see, sometimes the situations in our lives, you have not planned.
They come your way and mine. Whether it's family difficulties, or whether it's sickness, just around the corner. But in a situation like this, thank the Lord, he has made a recovery. And that is, by God's grace, we can accept which otherwise we would never do.
So, brethren, God has made provisions for us in these dark, dark hours of life. Some of you don't even know what I'm talking about. It'll come your way. The grace of acceptance, the ability to endure what comes your way.