Well, it's good to see everybody.
I'm gonna ask you to take your Bibles and turn with me to the
book of Genesis chapter 46. Genesis chapter 46. Seems as though to me, the closer
we get to the end of this book, the slower I try to go. It's just so precious. I would like to look at verses four, I'm sorry, two
to four. Genesis chapter 46 says, and
God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night and said,
Jacob, Jacob, and he said, Here am I. He said, I am God, the
God of thy father. Fear not to go down into Egypt,
for I will there make of thee a great nation. I will go down
with thee into Egypt, and I will also surely bring thee up again. And Joseph shall put his hand
upon thine eyes. Israel is now in the process of taking,
we looked at this last time, his journey, his journey. And all that he needed, the Lord
supplied. And now here we find that they're
on their way to a place called Beersheba. And it's at that place,
Beersheba, that Israel is going to offer, the
scripture says, sacrifices unto the Lord, the God of his father
Isaac. amazing passage of scripture
that we would do well just to take our time just for a few
minutes and consider the mercy of almighty God. To needy sinners like me and
you, we're the ones that need to hear what God has got to say. Verse two says, and God spake
unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I. Now, I'm sure you noticed this,
but I want to bring it out. Notice, first of all, to whom
the Holy Spirit says that God spake. Verse 1, Chapter 46 says, And
God spake unto Israel. He spake unto Israel. Now you
remember who Israel is. Israel is Jacob. Israel is Jacob that Almighty
God told. He said your name will not be
Jacob anymore. Your name is Israel. Israel and
the scripture declares God spoke unto Israel The Lord is speaking
to an object of his eternal love and affection He's speaking to
one that he has promised. I will never leave you. I'll
never forsake you Here the Lord spoke to Israel speaking to the
object of his affection, the object of his love. And the scripture
says, verse 2, and God spake unto Israel in the visions of
the night. Now, obviously, it seems as much
as I could find out. He was probably sleeping. If that's not what he was doing,
it was in the visions of the night. It seems that he was,
Israel, was asleep. And though Israel was probably
asleep in the visions of the night, it may be though physically
asleep, God spoke to him. God spoke to him in a voice that
Israel heard. Because when the Lord spoke,
this is what he said, Jacob, Jacob. Notice how Israel answered the
Lord. Says, and he said, here am I. Now, we would do well to consider
those words that were just revealed to us and marvel at the difference
in those names. God is telling us something here.
He's telling all of us something here. There's a great difference
in those two names. Same person, same person, same
physical man, Jacob Israel. The Lord spoke to him and used
these names. These names were used. God spoke
to Israel and said to Israel, Jacob, Jacob. Now let me ask you something.
Had the Lord changed Israel's, I'm sorry, Jacob's name to Israel? Did the Lord change Jacob's name
to Israel? I told you that, that was a passage
where Lord asked Jacob, he said, what's your name? He said, my
name's Jacob. He said, no, not anymore. Your
name is Israel, or as a prince with God, you've prevailed. So here's a man that God has
changed his name. Did he change his name? Yes,
he did. He changed His name to Israel. And the Lord had truly
shown mercy to this sinner. He had shown mercy to this sinner,
like He has to so many. There's some Jacobs by nature
that God Almighty has made and declared to be Israels, a prince
with God. But though mercy had been shown
to Israel, the Lord would never allow this Israel, this prince
with God, to forget the pit from which he was dug. Is he truly Israel? Yes, he is. Is he truly Jacob? Yes, he is. What did Paul the
Apostle say? Oh, wretched man that I am, that
I am. I see in me, that is in my flesh,
there dwelleth no good thing. You think Paul the Apostle knew
God? Sir, I know whom I have believed. I'm persuaded he's
able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that
day. Did Paul the Apostle see himself as a wretched man? Yes,
he did. You think that was just religious
rhetoric? No, ma'am. No, sir. There's two men in a believer,
and they're both very real and alive. One spiritually, one physically,
one gonna be under the judgment of God forever. The other's gonna
live with God forever in mercy and compassion. But there's two
men in a believer, and they're certainly real. The Lord spake
with special emphasis when he spoke to Jacob. He didn't just
say, Jacob. He said, Jacob, Jacob. You know, there was other times
when the Lord did that for reasons known only to the Lord to arrest
the attention of the one to whom he spoke. He would repeat the
names of those whenever Abraham was instructed to go and take
Isaac up on a mountain, a mountain of God's choosing. God told him
where to go and that's what Abraham did. He left where he was. Took his son, Isaac, upon a mountain. What did God tell him to do?
He told him, he said, I want you to take your son, your only
son, and offer him there as a burnt offering unto me. Was that God's
word? Yes, it was. What did Abraham
do? He did exactly what God told
him to do. Took that boy, bound him, He took a knife, raised
that knife. Abraham was about to carry out
the sentence. According to Genesis chapter 22, verse 11 declares,
scripture declares that the angel of the Lord called out unto him,
called out unto him out of heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. Lay not thine hand upon the lad,
neither do thou anything unto him. For now I know that thou
fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only
son, from me. Moses went up a mountain there
in the desert. He saw a strange They saw this bush and
the bush was burning and it wasn't consumed. And he said, I'll go
near and I'll see this thing, see what this is. What did God do? Moses, Moses, take off your shoes. For your
standings, holy ground. There was a young boy. God was
going to call him to preach. Put him under a man named Eli. And one day, one night, God called
this young boy, Samuel, Samuel. Martha, Martha, we know whenever Almighty God
is going to arrest a man, a woman, God knows how to do it. He does
it in His way. And here the Lord reveals through
His blessed Holy Spirit that there was a man that God spoke
to visions of the night. He was
in Israel with God. He was in Israel. But God addressed
him. He said, Jacob, Jacob. This Israel that was everlastingly
loved of God. And the Lord called him. And
that's how he called him. Jacob, Jacob. thing I noticed, he did not say
to the Lord. It says it was in visions of
the night. That's as much as I could read,
much as I could tell, that's what most of them think it was. A vision, a sleep, it was whatever
it was. God spoke to him and Israel,
Jacob, heard him. He heard him. I noticed he did not say, oh,
you said Jacob. That's not my name anymore. He
didn't say that. He didn't say, no, my name is
Israel. Beloved, though Jacob had truly
been shown mercy by the Lord because God Almighty had been
pleased to set his affection upon this, this man, God going
to preserve him. But I will tell you this, this
object of God's mercy would never forget that he was a sinner. He was never going to leave.
He was not going to leave this world without going through the
rest of his life, knowing what he is by nature. What did he
do? And God called him. Jacob, Jacob. Know what he did? Here am I. Every believer in this room tonight
is gonna be the first one to admit concerning himself, that's
me. I am a surplatter. I am a huckster. I see that, as I said a moment
ago, I see in me there dwelleth no good thing. What Almighty
God has been pleased to reveal to me, He's revealed to me by
grace and mercy, and for that I thank Him. But as I've said
so many times, Pat, what part of you can you look inside and
say, now there's a righteous man in me? Every believer looks inside.
and sees within him there dwelleth no good thing." Jacob, Jacob. Jacob was going
to remember. You're going to remember. You're
going to walk on this earth. Almighty God is going to keep
us. Jacob, Jacob, here am I. Verses 3 and 4. And he said,
that is the Lord speaking, He called him Jacob, Jacob. And
he said, here am I. And then the Lord said, and I
read over this time and time and time again today. And I just,
I was amazed at these words. Here is God almighty. He who spoke everything into
existence. He who upholds all things by
the word of his power. He by whom all things consist,
hold together, works. He speaks and it is. No man can
stay his hand. And he calls this man to whom
he'd shown mercy and compassion, Israel. And he called him Jacob,
Jacob. And he said, here am I. And he
said, I'm God. I am God, the God of thy father. Fear not to go down into Egypt,
for I will there make of thee a great nation. I will go down
with thee into Egypt, and will also surely bring thee up again.
And Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes. Every time I look at those words,
I think of the mercy of Almighty God to speak to a nothing. A man, a woman who by
nature is in themselves putrefying souls. And he says to that vessel of
mercy, I am God. God was speaking to a man and
revealed himself. I am God, I'm the God of thy
father. Fear not to go down into Egypt.
Oh, just consider the mercy of God. and the miracle of God's
grace to reveal Himself to this vessel of mercy. I'm God. I thought to myself,
God's people know Him and they want to know Him. Somebody would
say, do you know the Lord? Yes. I know him, and I want to
know him. That's what Paul said, oh, that
I might know him. What I know, I see through a
glass darkly. I see through a veil, I see so
dimly. Jacob, Jacob, here am I. I'm God, I'm God. John 17.3 says this, this is
life eternal. You know, I read that passage
of scripture too, and I read that and I think, okay, I want
to hear what this says. I want to hear what, this is
life eternal. I want to know what God has to
say about life eternal. This is life eternal, that they
might know thee. The only true God in Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent. You know, life eternal is not
merely an outward profession of religion. It's just, I know
how, and you do too, you've heard how people will say, now just
repeat these words. If you'll just repeat these words.
Now if you repeated those words, you're saved. Life eternal is not merely a
profession of religion. I can mimic, a parrot can mimic. I can say some words. It's not
a reforming of my ways. I'm gonna have to straighten
up and fly right. I'm gonna have to, we're gonna
have to start doing church. We're gonna have to start, no, It's not knowing merely some
facts about the Lord. Everybody knows that the Lord
Jesus Christ went to the cross. There's facts. But regenerating grace is shown
to those to whom God has given a revelation of Himself. And
I don't know any other way to say it. I don't know any other
way to say it. The Lord reveals Himself to His people. He reveals Himself.
And they know Him. Anybody can hear those words,
but I need for God to reveal Himself to me. To show me of
me. Show me me. My need. Lord, show
me You. This is life eternal that they
might know Thee experientially. That they know Him. Galatians
1, 15-16, But when it pleased God, He separated me from my
mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal His Son in
me. Now that right there is something
that I can't explain. It is a revelation. It is a revelation
to a new man with a new heart. A new heart, I'll give you. New
spirit, I'll give you. But it's a revelation. We know him, not as one we bargain
with, but one that we know as being God who rules in the army
of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. Would it please God who separated
me from my mother's womb, call me by His grace to reveal His
Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen immediately?
I conferred not with flesh and blood. I know this, to know the true
and living God, I know this, is to believe Him. I believe
Him. I believe Him by faith. That's
all I got. That's all I got is His word.
That's all I need, Lord, as you say. That's what that Roman soldier,
remember that? Lord said, you know, I'll heal
your servant. You know, we'll go to him. He
said, Lord, all you got to do is speak the word. I'm a man
of authority. And Lord, if you speak the word,
my servant will be healed. To know the true and living God
is to believe him. God's people hear his word as
it's revealed to them in their heart. And they believe him.
They believe him. And they receive him as the impartation
of life is given unto them. That's how they receive him.
It's not an offer. I'm not meaning that, receive
him. But he gives himself. I will come and I'll sup with
you and you with me. How do I have, I have no power
to make him do anything. Life eternal is to love him as
he's revealed in scriptures. As he says it is, as I said a
minute ago, as he says it is, it is. That's the way it is.
The Lord says before the foundation of the world, he chose us in
Christ. that we should be holy and without blame before him
in love. That's the way it is. And God's people bow to that. Man thinks by nature that he
knows God. Man thinks if he gets a little
bit of religious knowledge, he knows God. Saul of Tarsus was
a Pharisee, and he had some religious knowledge. He had some knowledge.
had some religious knowledge. And when the Lord stopped Saul
of Tarsus on the road to Damascus, he called out his name twice,
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Here's a religious man, and God
called him, called him by name, called him in particular. What
did that man, that religious man, say? Who art thou, Lord? Who are you? This was a Pharisee. The Lord was pleased to arrest this
needy sinner, was also pleased to reveal himself. And the Lord
said, I was looking at these words right here, I am Jesus. Whom thou persecute us, I looked
at that, those three words, I am Jesus, I am, who is that? Jehovah, that's Jehovah, I am,
I am that I am. Who art thou? I am Jesus, the
name of his humiliation. The servant, the savior. And the Lord said, I'm Jesus
whom thou persecutest. It's hard for thee to kick against
the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what
wilt thou have me to do? Man by nature says that he believes
God, he knows God. But the spiritually impotent
little g God that's worshipped, and that's what they're doing.
They're worshipping a God of their imagination. They've made
him up. He's not real. worshiped by the masses. Today,
he's not the God of the Bible. He's not the God who is worshiped
by his people. His people, God's people, know
him and they love him. God spake unto Israel in visions
of the night. He called him Jacob to remind
him of his constant need. He revealed himself in mercy,
power, and I'm gonna wrap this up, and Lord willing, I'm gonna
pick up right here next time, but I wanna make a couple of
comments here. He said, I'm God. The God of thy father, he's the
covenant God. The God of covenant mercy, covenant
grace, covenant compassion. I've loved you with an everlasting
love, everlasting love. Oh, how thankful we are that
there is God Almighty in heaven who knows his people, who will
not let them perish, who's gonna save them by grace and call them
by power and keep them to keep them and receive them unto himself
one day in glory. Oh, Lord, have mercy on this
Jacob. Have mercy on this Jacob. Lord,
if you're pleased to have mercy, Lord, I'll see you. Lord, don't leave me to myself.
This I pray for Christ's sake. Amen, amen.