Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to Genesis 32 and verse 10. The whole verse reads, I am not
worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth
which thou hast showed unto thy servant. For with my staff I
passed over this Jordan, And now I am become two bands. The words on my spirit are the
first words in this verse. I am not worthy. Jacob could view over all what
the Lord had done for him. And this was how he felt, I'm
not worthy. And we can be sure of this, that
all of God's children, when they are in receipt of the blessings
of the Lord, whether they be temporal blessings, whether they
be spiritual blessings, they will say, I am not worthy. There won't be any that will
get to heaven and say, I'm deserving of the blessings that have been
bestowed upon me. I'm worthy of them. No, they will say, I am undeserving
of the blessings bestowed. Not worthy is how they will feel. We should never think, if the
Lord blesses us, that we will feel worthy of that blessing. We won't. We'll have such a sense,
even under the blessing of the Lord, of our sinnership, of what
we really deserve, that it will balance those blessings, and
in fact they're very blessings, or bring us to say what dear
Jacob said, I am not worthy. Now, when our Lord was on earth,
he spoke of those that really were unworthy of himself. In Matthew 10 and verse 37 and
38, he speaks of those that love father or mother more than me. And he says, he that loveth father
or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he that loveth
son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And then he adds to that, and
he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not
worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall
lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. So we find a people that those
that are truly blessed feel they are unworthy of that blessing
and yet to take up their cross and to love the Lord above all
others and to follow after him, though they feel unworthy of
being a disciple, unworthy of being a follower, unworthy of
being a church member, unworthy of being amongst the people of
God. Yet, as the love of God and the
blessings of God are in their soul, they must walk in that
path, even if they're opposed in it. by father or mother, and
son or daughter, even if there was a cost to that path, that
they would walk in that path. In the Revelation we speak and
read of the church at Sardis, which was a church in a very
low state, ready to die. In Sardis there were those that
had not defiled their garments, and the Lord says that they were
worthy to walk with Him in white. God's people, whenever they are
worthy, is because of God's work in them and the fruits that are
seen in their lives that come from The Lord. The whole witness
of the redeemed in heaven, as recorded in Revelation chapter
5, is a united voice, a loud voice. I beheld and I heard the
voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts and
the elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times ten
thousand, and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice, worthy
is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and
wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing. And every
creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth
and such as are in the sea and all that are in them heard I
saying, blessing and honour and glory and power the unto him
that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb forever and
ever. The Lamb was worthy to take the
book, to open it. He was the one that had been
slain for his people. And the vision that is set before
us there is the Lamb that was beginning of that chapter 5,
I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy
to open the book and to lose the seals thereof. The book of him that sat on the
throne, the book with the seven seals on it, no man. All of the counsel of God, the
providence of God, all that should happen, all of God's people,
but it was found that the Lord was worthy, the Lamb was worthy,
as it had been slain. They sung a new song saying,
thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof,
for thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of
every kindred and tongue. and people and nation, and has
made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on
the earth. And so the message of scripture,
it is the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ, that is worthy of all
praise and honour and glory, and those for whom he was slain,
and those that are blessed with his grace, received. So on to look this
evening just briefly at three characters beginning with Jacob
then going to John the Baptist and to the Centurion those three
in the unworthiness that they felt and the circumstances which
they felt in. Firstly then there is Jacob Jacob,
he had already received of the Lord's hand many blessings, and
that is what he says, that he is not worthy of the least of
all the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast shown unto
thy servants. And he says, with my staff I
passed over this Jordan, and now am become two bands. or so
years later, and he remembers. He remembers how low he was. He was on his own. All he had
was a staff. And in the meantime, the Lord
has blessed him with two wives, children, flocks, herds, every
blessing. And he's mindful of it. The Lord
had blessed him and his soul too. But these outward things
were things that no one could tempt Him, that did not come
from God. They were things that God had
promised that He would be with Him in the way that He went,
that He would bring Him back again, and He is coming back,
and He has these things, and He feels most unworthy of them. May this be an encouragement
to us, Jacob here is in great need, really, he is in fear of
his life, but at this time he's not losing sight of what the
Lord had already done for him, and he feels most unworthy of
him, and he says so. He looks for no reason why the
Lord should preserve him from his brother, and no reason why
the Lord had blessed him as he had. And yet he comes before
the Lord and really puts the Lord in remembrance of all those
blessings that he'd had. And what an encouragement to
us. We read about those having tasted
that the Lord is gracious. Very often it is in in ways that are of the lesser,
that there is a tasting the Lord is gracious. When the Lord was
on earth, he fed the multitudes. They tasted, in a very literal
way, miraculously, the food that he provided for them. Later he
says to them, labour not for the bread that perisheth, but
for that which endureth to eternal life. They'd already tasted the
goodness of the Lord, what He was able to do, and the miracles
that He could do, and He would encourage them to seek for those
greater things, those eternal blessings. We think of those
who, like the ten lepers, were made receipt of unworthy blessings
of healing, and only one returned to give thanks. return to the
Lord. Many times the Lord will give
a people, and especially give His people, to taste that He
is good to all. His tender mercies are over all
His works, that He has not dealt with us as our sins have deserved. And as those things are realised,
and we feel unworthy of those, then there as with Jacob flows
that further prayer for deliverance and saving and later on a real
wrestling for the blessing of the Lord. You might say the Lord
wrought in Jacob even before he richly blessed him with spiritual
blessings. He blessed him with a spirit
of unworthiness, felt unworthiness. He brought him to a low position,
brought him to a place where when blessed he would not abuse
it, he would put the crown on the Lord's hand. We can't think
of a situation the other way around. If someone had been blessed
with goods and health and strength and every blessing, I say look
what a good person I am and because of my walk the Lord has rewarded
me and he's given me this and he's given me that and look how
wonderful favoured I am. And you would think is that a
good preparation for the Lord to show eternal mercies and pardon
and forgiveness and the grace of God which is never deserved,
is never earned, that doesn't You can't go from a sense of here am I and look how
worthy I am of all these blessings and then to truly be humbled
under the great salvation of God. Every blessing out of a deserved
hell comes to us really through the precious blood of Christ.
He is the Saviour of all men, especially of them that believe. The only reason why the sentence
is not executed speedily upon man is that the Lord would lengthen
the days of the world out for His people's sake. When the last
one is redeemed, the last one is saved, the world shall end,
and the last one is born again of the Spirit. But until then,
He still heals those who do not acknowledge Him. He still feeds
them. He causes His sun to shine upon
the just and unjust, and the rain, and the dew, and every
blessing He gives from heaven. But it is of His people that
see these things and they say, I am not worthy of them. I do
not deserve these things. And you see that sense that low,
that humbled attitude and that spirit is what precedes the richest
blessings of God. Pride is the thing that marks
out the state of fallen man. He rises up in pride. When we see the grace of God,
even in temporal things, bringing down, then we see something of
God's work that is a preparation for the greatest of blessings
and favours that God could ever bestow. And so here with Jacob,
we have him saying, I am not worthy. What stage is he saying
it? When the Lord has blessed him
and favoured him in many, many material ways, which he mentions
here. And it is just before he needs
a great blessing from the Lord, a further blessing, preserving
his life from Esau. And then going further on, he
wrestles for the blessing, I will not let thee go, except thou
bless me. And for this one that felt unworthy
of those temporal blessings, We read in the end of verse 29,
and he blessed him there. And he says, he called the name
of the place Peniel, that is the face of God. For I have seen
God face to face, and my life is preserved, wrestled with God
and with man. That is our Lord in one of his
pre-incarnation appearances, God and man in one person and
the reason why Jacob could see his face and his life be preserved. It is in the Lord Jesus Christ
and him alone. So we'll leave Jacob and go to
John Baptist. Now John Baptist we read of in
a couple of the Gospels but if we Just read from Matthew and
chapter 3. In Matthew chapter 3 we have
John coming, preaching in the wilderness of Judea. And he testifies
of who was to come. He says in verse 11, I indeed
baptize you with water unto repentance, But he that cometh after me is
mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall
baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire, whose fan is in
his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor and gather his
wheat into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable
fire. John, he says, whose shoes to bear, or in another whose
shoes latcheth, I am unworthy to unloose. He is such a high
view of the Lord, and he is such a low view of himself. And yet we might say, John Baptist,
you are the messenger who is spoken of in Malachi, that shall
go before his face. You are the one that shall come
in the spirit of Elijah and go as a forerunner and to proclaim
his coming. Our Lord spoke of John the Baptist
and of all the prophets. There was no greater than John
the Baptist. He was the last of the prophets. He was the prophets that actually
saw in the flesh the Lord Jesus Christ. The other prophets, they
spoke of him, they saw him in vision, in prophecy, but they
didn't see him as John the Baptist did. Our Lord indeed says that
he that was least in the kingdom of heaven was greater than he,
meaning that John the Baptist, he never saw the Lord crucified,
slain and risen again. He wasn't in the days of the
apostles. When the kingdom of heaven was
preached, a man pressed into it, the sacrifice offered, John
Baptist did not see that. He saw the Lord the same as Simeon. Lord, now let us there thy servant
depart in peace, mine eyes have seen thy salvation. But nevertheless, John Baptist
was in a very prominent position and chosen by God to be in that
position, but as he is executing that office, as he is pointing
out the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, he
feels his unworthiness. He is testifying of himself,
that I am the voice of one. Crying in the wilderness, prepare
ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. And yet he does not come feeling
so worthy. And we could really add in this
thought of those that are put into a position, the Apostle
Paul, who says that he was not worthy to be called an apostle
because he persecuted the people of God. and yet God put him into
that position. And so we get another picture,
where one has been appointed into a position, whether it be
a child of God, one in the family of God, whether it be in the
church of God, a deacon, or a minister of the gospel, or a pastor, whatever
position it is, or maybe head over a house as a husband, or
put in the position for as a wife over the children, a mother of
children, and to realise that position and the responsibility
and the blessing of that position, to actually then feel, I'm not
worthy. I'm not worthy of it. Again,
it is a humble walk. It's a very opposite walk than
what proud nature would walk. And it's good to notice the effect
of grace and the effect on those who have been greatly blessed
and greatly used that truly have been blessed by God. It has not
gone to their head. They're not strifing about saying,
here am I. And really, if people read their
Bibles, if they knew that character, then many would not be deceived
by the multi-million dollar pastors in those mega churches in America,
although any that really are a people that want men to go
after them. have them in admiration because
of an advantage and to follow after them. It is one real warning
sign to any, if they are seeking the truth and seeking the way
of truth. John Baptist, he said, he must
increase and I must decrease. I am not worthy, but he is worthy. Worthy is the Lamb. And that
must be the message of All the people of God and every servant
of the Lord in whatever station that we're put into, the very
position that we're in should humble us and make us to feel
unworthy of it. That doesn't mean then that we
shouldn't diligently discharge that office or that we should
be backward in actually going into that office if put into
it by the Lord and by His people. It is a reminder that those who
truly are to go in those offices, they enter into it feeling like
a little child, unworthy, unfit. You think of Solomon when he
was put into the position of the king over the people of God. And he said, and he wasn't a
little child, but he said that he felt like one, and that he
wanted that wisdom which was from God, and God gave him that
wisdom that he needed. It was said of King Saul, who
was before David, that when he was little in his own eyes, then
he was exalted. But afterwards, then he rose
up, put himself above Samuel, above the Lord, and that was
his downfall. May the Lord make us in whatever
position that we are put into, maybe in our earthly employments,
whatever it is, that it has that effect on us, that we are unworthy. The third one is the centurion. In Matthew chapter 8 we read,
and also in Luke, probably it might be a better passage, in
Luke 7, where we have the centurion, because in Luke we have the elders
of the Jews coming to the Lord on behalf of the centurion, whose
servant was sick. So Luke chapter 7, and this servant
was dear to the centurion. We read, when he heard of Jesus,
he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that
he would come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus,
that's the servants, the elders of the Jews, they besought him
instantly saying, that he was worthy for whom he should do
this. They gave the reason as he loveth
our nation and he hath built us a synagogue. Others thought
him worthy, but what he thought was very different. Because when
Jesus was coming to him, that he then, when he was not far
from the house, centurion sent friends to him saying unto him,
Lord, trouble not thyself, for I am not worthy that thou shouldst
enter under my roof. Wherefore neither thought I myself
worthy to come unto thee. So he sent the elders and the
Jews, he sent others because of his felt unworthiness and
all he wanted. But say in a word of my servant,
shall be healed. And he gives the example, and
he says, I'm a man under authority. He's a centurion. He has soldiers
underneath him. He says, I say unto one, go,
and he goeth. Another come, and he cometh.
And do this, and he doeth it. And he's viewing the Lord Jesus
Christ. a man of authority. The Lord
could, just like the centurion, just speak, and his servants
would do his bidding. His servant would be healed.
These blessings could be done just with the Word. We read with
our Lord, when Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, turned
him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say
unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And they that were sent returning
to the house found the servant whole, and had been sick. And so in the Lord's own words,
here is one of great faith, that believed in the greatness and
authority of the Lord, and that all he had to do was to speak,
and it would be done, A great blessing to have that as we come
into the house of God, we read the Word of God, we have it preached,
to believe that all the Lord needs to do to save our souls
and to bless our souls or to heal us or anything was just
to speak the Word. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God. The world was formed by the Word
of God. Souls are saved by the word of
God. My word shall not return unto
thee void. It shall accomplish the thing
whereto I sent it. And this centurion accompanying,
or his testimony before that word is given, before his servant
is healed, he is unworthy of it. Unworthy of the Lord's presence,
unworthy that the Lord would come to him. He is not seeking
great things. He's not seeking wonderful revelations. He's not seeking the Lord to
come with a great train and a great crowd come around his house and
there's a great fanfare and his servant is healed. All he wants
is the blessing, as it were, in a quiet way, in a way, through
the Word of God. I wonder how many of us, you're
seeking the blessing from the Lord, and your thought is, this
has got to be some wonderful thing. If I'm to come before
the church, I want a wonderful experience, and I want to be
able to say what the Lord has done, and others have seen all
what the Lord has done, but just to be able to say, well, the
Lord spoke the word. The Lord blessed this word to
me, so impressed on my heart and so spoke to my soul through
this word. Would we think that too menial
a thing? You think of Naaman, he had this
thought how he would be healed of his leprosy. How the man would
come out of the house and he would do something, some great
thing. All he did was send a servant
and give him some directions to go and wash in Jordan seven
times. He was offended at it. Are we
offended at the way the Lord chooses to bless our souls and
speak to us? It was his servants that then
reasoned with him, brought him to be humble, brought him low.
You see the need of being brought to feel unworthy first, brought
low. What a hindrance is pride, even
spiritual pride. The heart uplifts with God's
own gifts, makes even grace a snare. Are we looking for some worthiness
before the Lord will bless us? Or has the Lord made us feel
so unworthy And because we're feeling so unworthy, maybe in
a wrong way, we're thinking the Lord cannot bless us. Yet from
the words of night, we can say it is those that felt unworthy,
the Lord did bless and did bring his word. They weren't looking
for great things. They were looking for real things.
And the Lord gave them that. And here with their centurion,
He commends it as being great faith in what he viewed of the
Lord. Really, that is what makes all
the difference. John the Baptist, he had high
views of the Lord. The centurion had high views
of the Lord. You may say, dear Jacob, had
high views of the Lord, low views of himself, his unworthiness
of anything from the Lord's hand. And yet, if ever there was a
pressing case with dear Jacob, it was now. His life held in
the balance. Not only that, the Lord had given
him promises. There was much bound up, and
no doubt Jacob, he knew that the promised seed to the woman
that should bruise the serpent's head, it was through his line. It was through his seed, the
promises to Abraham. to Isaac, to Jacob, and so there's
a lot bound up with what was happening here. How much is bound
up in what is in your life, my life at this time? Very seldom
it's just one thing on its own. When Hezekiah is sick and going
to die, it's not just his sickness, not just his going to die, he
hasn't got a child. He again is in the line to Christ. The things that are bound up,
and very often we cannot see in another. We might see an outward
trial, but we don't see what is going on in a person's heart. We might see the chasing, God
is laying on one, but we can't see the exercise that is going
on in that soul. that afterwards the peaceable
fruits of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby. The
heart knoweth its own bitterness. Stranger does not intermeddle
with his joys. And here in these three cases
what comes out is a real sense of unworthiness, a humility,
aloneness, and that is what precedes blessing. and deliverance. The Lord laying low first and
then raising up, a pattern that we find in Psalm 107 again and
again. Brought down, none to help, and
they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them
out of their distresses. That's the, you might say, black
canvas that the Lord writes his sweetest blessings on. Our proud nature, the old man
of sin, doesn't like to be humble. It likes to think itself worthy
and mighty and high. And it's a great work of God
to bring man low and to bring him to a place where this people
have I formed for myself and they shall show forth my praise. And at some point in their dealings,
the Lord is really showing them what they are and what they deserve. At some point, He is showing
them the riches of Christ, the blessings of their sins forgiven,
the blessing of His redeeming blood shed for them at Calvary. He's showing them their names
in the Lamb's Book of Life. He's showing them that He's given
them life, He's given them hope, He's given them a good hope through
grace. He's given them a hearing ear
to what the Spirit saith unto the churches. He's given them
that mark of a sheep, they hear my voice, they follow me. He's
given them a name, a name of Christian, a follower, a disciple
of the Lord Jesus Christ, like the Thessalonians. who under
the preaching of the Word became followers of the Lord and of
us, and to wait for his Son from
heaven. Blessed souls have that mark
that one day they shall cast their crowns before him in heaven,
and here below, they're like John Baptist said, I must decrease,
but he must increase. Now on to, before we close, just
think of this in a practical way. I am not worthy. It may be there's one that is
hearing the words of nine, and this is what you have been saying.
This is what you've been thinking. Concerning making an open profession,
concerning, confessing what the Lord has done for you, joining
the Church of God, walking in obedience, and it's this sense
of unworthiness that is holding you back from confessing what
the Lord has really done. But this did not hold back any
of these. the unworthiness they felt, but
they still had the richest blessings, they still walked in the way
God had appointed for them, and they still obtained that which
they had asked. Really, everyone, everyone that
is numbered rightly amongst the Church of God feels unworthy
of it. M. Ryder says, why was I made
to hear thy voice and enter while this room, when millions make
a wretched choice and rather starve than come? Why, why did
the Lord bless my soul? Why did he humble me? Why did
he reveal anything of the things of God to me? Why did he show
me his beloved son, and give me faith in his name and to trust
in him. Unworthiness, it's not those that feel worthy
that should come, it's those that God says is worthy and who
themselves feel unworthy while they're looking like Jacob did
at unmistakable unmistakable blessings in providence,
and we may say unmistakable blessings in grace too. Where, like the
two on the way to Emmaus, you can tell what was done in the
way, what was done in your life, what was done in the way, and
that is crowned by how Jesus was made known unto you. Those two things. comprise the
testimony of the people of God, because the Lord does work in
the way and in their life, and he does crown it with, at last,
revealing who it was that has done all these things, who has
spoken, who has blessed them, who's walked with them, and like
the two on the way to Emmaus, revealed himself to them. Do you know what they did immediately
and wanted to do? immediately returned to Jerusalem,
immediately returned back to the disciples, their first thought
was, we want to tell what has been done in the way and how
the Lord revealed himself to us. And that is what they did.
And when they came back, they found that others also were saying
that the Lord is risen indeed. And may the Lord truly be risen
indeed with healing in his wings and with his blessing to be upon
us. Now that is the case, we will
feel unworthy but as unworthy so blessed and so favoured.