Alright brethren, let's turn
to Genesis chapter 32. As I was organizing my notes
on our questions series, I realized I missed a question. So this
morning we're going to go back here to Genesis chapter 32. I
preached from this passage in Pennsylvania back in 2010. And
then I preached it at a midweek service here in 2011. But I don't think I've ever preached
from this passage on a Sunday morning. So, it may be new for
some of you. Maybe you may recall some of
this, but I'm like Paul. To write the same things to you
is not grievous to me. It's needful. The Lord, wherever
we are in this book, We're going through these questions. We're
in the Psalms. We're in Isaiah. We're going
through Ephesians. And wherever we are in the book,
the message is the same. All flesh is grass and thy God
reigneth. Especially in the salvation of
his people. Salvation is entirely of the
Lord. And the Lord always makes the message fresh in the hearts
of his people. In Genesis 32, we have an account
of a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ, the Son of God. He's
the man who wrestled with Jacob. We know that because we can compare
about three scriptures and see that this is Christ. Look at
verse 30, Genesis 32, verse 30. Jacob called the name of the
place Penaeum. For I have seen God face to face,
and my life is preserved. You know what John 1.18 tells
us? No man hath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. He has. That's who He saw. And then again
He said, I saw God face to face. And we know that 2 Corinthians
4, 6 says, God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness
hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. If you see God,
it's going to be in the face of Jesus Christ. This is one
of those pre-incarnate manifestations of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whenever
God reveals himself in the heart of a sinner, He does so in the
face of the God-man, Christ Jesus, through faith. Now, we're going
to begin focusing our attention on these two questions which
Christ asked Jacob. In Genesis 32 verse 27, Christ
said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And then
in verse 29, it says, And Jacob asked Christ, Tell me, I pray
thee, thy name. Now listen to this question.
And Christ said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my
name? Why did you ask my name? And
he blessed him there. Why did Christ ask Jacob these
two questions? Well, every time that we've seen
God ask a question to a sinner, He's done it to reveal to that
sinner something. He's not done it for his own
information. God knows all things. He's done
it for that sinner's information, to reveal something to a sinner.
This passage shows us how God brings his child to prevail with
God. How he brings his child to prevail
with God. Look at Look at verse 27. The first thing God does is He
brings His child to prevail with God by bringing His child to
the end of ourselves. In verse 27, Christ said unto
him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. Now at this
time in his life, Jacob was already a believer. He was born of the
Spirit of God. He had been converted at Bethel
about 20 years before this. So he'd been a believer for a
long time. And then most recently, most recently, God had given
Jacob a promise. Look back up in verse 3. Genesis
31 verse 3. The Lord said unto Jacob, The Lord said unto Jacob, Return
unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred, and I will
be with thee. I'll be with thee. But Jacob
heard that his brother Esau was coming with 400 men. Now do you
remember the last thing that happened between Esau and Jacob? Now look at Genesis 32, look
at verse 7. Genesis 32 and verse 7. When Jacob heard of this, it
says, Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. when he heard his brother was
coming with 400 men. Why was he greatly afraid and
distressed? Well, Jacob had deceived his
father, you remember, and he stole the birthright from Esau. He stole it from him. And the
last time he saw Esau, 20 years ago, before this, Esau said,
I'm going to kill you. When I catch you, I'm going to
kill you. And so Jacob left where he left, fled because Esau was
after him. Esau wanted to kill him. But Jacob didn't believe God. Did
he? God had told him. He had already
appeared to him in Bethel when he called him and converted him.
And he told him he loved him. That's when he converted him.
And remember he said, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. The elder shall serve the younger.
That was the message. And now God's promised him, I'll
be with thee. I'll be with thee. And yet Jacob's
glorifying Esau as having more strength than God. But we can't
blame him because we've done this. And we do this. Continually
do this. The Lord said, fear not them
which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul, but rather
fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. That's
what Christ said. Fear God, don't fear men. So
Jacob is a believer. He's in the middle of a severe
trial. A believer in the middle of a
severe trial. And he did like we do very often in the face
of a trial. He began praying to God. And
he prayed what sounds like a good prayer. When you read the words
of it, he petitioned God based on his promise. And he even told
God, and that was good to petition God based on his promise, that's
good. And he told God he was afraid
of Esau, that's fine. He told him what was on his heart,
told him he was afraid of Esau. But at the same time, he leaned
heavily on the arm of his flesh while he was praying to God.
No sooner that he quit praying to God and he went to Scheman,
he sent a present out to Esau. Look at Genesis 32 verse 14. He sent this present to Esau.
Look what he sent now. Two hundred she-goats and twenty
he-goats 200 ewes and 20 rams, 30 milch camels with their coats,
40 kine and 10 bulls, 20 she-asses and 10 foals. In our day, that
would be like somebody giving up thousands and thousands of
dollars. I mean, this was his herd that
he was giving. And this was valuable valuable
cattle he was giving to Esau. And he told his men to send them
out in droves. He said, don't come with all
these at one time. Send a wave of them and then
wait a little bit and send another wave of them. Wait a little bit
and send another wave. He wanted it to seem like the
gifts would just never stop coming. He was just sending him gifts
and sending him gifts. And then look at verse 20 what
he says. Verse 20, there in about the second part there where it
says, 4. He said, 4, he said, I will appease him with the present
that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face, and peradventure
he will accept me. So Jacob divided up all his men. He's got all his men divided
up. Then he sent his wives and his children where he thought
they would be safe, and he left them there. Now, when you see
all this, here you got Jacob, he's praying to God, and then
he's doing all this other stuff, sending this gift and all this
to Esau. What does that remind you of?
Look at James chapter 1. James chapter 1. He's in the
middle of a trial, a big trial, and he's asked God to help him.
And then he started sending all these gifts. Now look at this.
James 1 verse 2. My brethren, count it all joy
when you fall into different temptations. Knowing this, that
the trying of your faith worketh patience. It works endurance. It works patience as we wait
on God. Perseverance, but let patience
have a perfect work. In other words, wait on God.
See what he does, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting
nothing. And if any of you lack wisdom,
let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth
not, and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing
wavering, For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven
with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think he
shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is
unstable in all his ways. And what do you see when you
look at Jacob right here? Here's a man that's unstable.
He's totally unstable. Have you walked where Jacob's
walked? I've walked in those steps. I've walked in those steps. This flesh is grass. This flesh
is grass. Aren't you thankful God saves
by grace? God blesses His child. He continues
to bless His child. He keeps blessing His child.
He's going to bless Jacob. Because he said he would. He
said, I'll be with you, and he's going to be with Jacob. But you
know what he's going to do first? He's got to stop Jacob from all
this craziness Jacob's in. He's got to bring him to the
end of himself first. Verse 24 says, And Jacob was
left alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking
of the day. God waited, Jacob wouldn't wait,
so God waited. That's what He said in Isaiah.
He said, I told you your strength is not to go to Egypt, your strength
is to wait on the Lord. But you went to Egypt anyway.
He said, therefore I'll wait, that I may be gracious. I'll
wait till I've broken all your branches off. So here you got
Jacob. Now he's asked God to help him,
but then he went to helping himself. And so now here he is out here,
his whole camp's divided. He's got half his herd going
out to Esau and part of them over here. His wife and his kids
are in one place. He's in another place. Everything's
just divided now because of this scheming that he's done. And
so God waited. He waited. He brought Jacob to
be alone. And now he's got him right here
alone. This looks like a sad, bad place
for Jacob, but it's a good place for Jacob. Now, Christ is going
to get some things settled in Jacob's heart. Notice he doesn't
say that there Jacob wrestled with a man. He says there wrestled a man
with him. There wrestled a man with him.
Christ is wrestling him. This is not Jacob wrestling the
Lord in fervent prayer to get what he's desiring. That's not
what this is. That's not what this is. It says
here, he wrestled until the breaking of the day. Why did Christ wrestle
with Jacob all night long? He could have stopped him at
any time, couldn't he? Why didn't he? Jacob's been attempting
to do what is an utter impossibility. That's why he didn't stop him
right away. He's trying to do what is an utter impossibility. He's trying to partly depend
on God and partly save himself by his own strength. That's an
impossibility. A man can't do that. So, Jacob's
got to be brought to see that he has absolutely no strength
in himself to do anything. As long as we're trying to do
something in the strength of our flesh, we will not prevail
with Christ. Ever. As long as we're trying
to do something in the strength of our flesh, we won't prevail
with Christ. Look at verse 25. And when he
saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of
his thigh. Now listen, read this again.
When Christ saw that Jacob prevailed not with Christ, because Jacob
was trying to prevail by the arm of his flesh, by his strength. And when Christ saw that he prevailed
not with Christ, his own wisdom and his own strength
is why Jacob was so unsettled. That's why he was so fearful
as we just saw in this chapter. Because of his wisdom and his
strength. Whenever we look to our wisdom
instead of Christ our wisdom, we get so confused. And our minds
get so distorted. And when we depend on our strength
instead of Christ our strength, we wear ourselves completely
out. So, what did Paul say? He said, The Lord said to me,
My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect
in weakness. Christ's strength is made perfect
in our weakness. When we're the weakest, that's
when it's most clearly, most perfectly seen that Christ is
indeed all our strength. And Paul said, Most gladly therefore
will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. But we've got to be brought to
the end of self before we're going to glory in our weakness.
To glory in your weakness is to rejoice is to be glad that
you're so weak that Christ has to do everything for you. That's
what it is to glory in your weakness. But we got to be brought to the
end of self to do that. And we got to be brought to the
end of self before we'll rejoice that we have no strength and
we'll rejoice that Christ is the power and He's all our strength. But we can't even be brought
to our weakness by our strength. We can't even be brought to our
weakness by our strength. You know, you can't just go,
all right, I'm going to just stop and just trust that Christ
is going to do all this. You can't do that. If we could,
we'd have started believing on Christ a long time before we
ever did. And in every trial, if we could do that, we'd start
believing on Him a long time before we fall flat on our face.
But he's got to make us fall flat on our face to trust him. He's got to make us totally weak
before we'll trust that he's all our strength. So, Christ
touched the hollow of his thigh. Verse 25 says, And the hollow
of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as Christ wrestled with him.
Alright, now Jacob's got no strength. The Lord has touched the hollow
of his thigh and he can't wrestle. He can't do anything. All he
can do is hold on to Christ and beg for Christ to bless him. That's all he can do. Look at
verse 26. And Christ said, Let me go, for
the day breaketh. And Jacob said, I will not let
thee go, except thou bless me. And Christ said unto him, What
is thy name? And he said, Jacob. Now let me
tell you what Hosea said Jacob was doing right here. Hosea 12.4
says, He wept and made supplication unto him. In other words, all
it says here is that Jacob said, I will not let thee go except
thou bless me. That sounds real strong, don't
it? But that's not what was happening. It wasn't that way. Here's what
happened. Christ broke Jacob's heart. He broke his heart. to where
he made Jacob to see what he is. And Jacob wept from his heart. Jacob confessed to Christ his
nothingness. He was confessing to Christ that
I'm a supplanter, I'm a wicked deceiver, I'm a schemer, I'm
not worthy to be trusted by anybody. That's what he was crying out
to God. And he was saying, I've got no strength, and I've got
no wisdom, and I've got no ability, and I'm utterly dependent upon
you, Lord, to save me. I can't do anything. I can't be trusted for anything. And Hosea says, that is how he
had power with Christ and prevailed. wept and made supplication unto
him. By God bringing Jacob to the
end of himself, Jacob took pleasure in his infirmities, and in his
reproaches, and in his necessities, and in his persecutions, and
in his distresses for Christ's sake. He sat there weeping and
he said, Lord, I lie, I cheat, I'm a scoundrel. That's my infirmities,
Lord. I'm just no good in my flesh.
And he said, and my reproaches. Esau's reproached me and I can't
stand up to him. I've withered underneath him. I should have stood with you,
Lord. I haven't stood with you. All I've done is tried to bribe
this man to get him to be my friend. He said, in necessities. Lord, I can't even make myself
trust you alone. That's what I need. That's a
necessity I need. I can't do that. In persecutions,
he sat there and he said, this man's persecuting me, Father. And I'm scared. I can't stand
up to him. I'm running. I'm just grass before
this man. in distresses. That's what it
said. It said he was in distress when
Esau came up to him. And he's now, he had all this
burden on him where he's trying to fix everything himself. Just weighing him down and now
he's just unloading everything to the Lord and being truthful
with him and telling him exactly the truth of the matter. Because
of what Christ has done for him now. All that load's coming off
of him and it's all going on to Christ. Every bit of it. And
when he was weak, that's when he was strong. Because Christ
took the whole load. Christ took it all. Genesis 32,
28 says, And Christ said, Thy name shall be called no more
Jacob, but Israel. For, this is what Israel means,
as a prince thou hast power with God and with men, and hast prevail. That's what he changed his name.
He said, that's your name now. You have had as a prince, thou
hast had power with God and with men, and hast prevail. Now that's
the first thing that he's going to do when he blesses us. To
make us prevail with him, he's going to bring us to the end
of ourselves. Alright, here's the second thing.
In order to make us prevail, God is going to bless us by giving
His child His name. Alright, verse 29. Jacob asked
Christ and he said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. Now, I've
heard a lot of things about this and read a lot of things that
he went beyond his bounds and he was It was out of curiosity
and he shouldn't have been asking this and what have you. But listen
to what Christ asked him. And Christ said, Wherefore is
it that thou dost ask after my name? Now everywhere that we've seen
a question asked by God, it has been to reveal something to the
sinner. Everywhere. He said, Wherefore
is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. In all of these studies, that's
been the common case in everything. When he asks a question, he's
either making you see your sin, or he's making you see something
of him, or he's blessing you in some way. The Lord asked Jacob
this question, I believe, to make Jacob realize whose name
he had been given. Jacob had been given the name
of the one who just gave him that name. The name of the Lord gave to
Jacob the Lord's name. Turn over to Isaiah 49. Isaiah
chapter 49. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking right here. And he says, Listen, O Isles,
unto me, and hearken, ye people from far. The Lord hath called
me from the womb. From the bowels of my mother
hath he made mention of my name. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking. And he hath made my mouth like
a sharp sword. In the shadow of his hand hath
he hid me, and made me a polished shaft. In his quiver hath he
hid me, and said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel. That's what the Lord named him.
He spoke to Christ. He said, You're my servant, O
Israel, in whom I will be glorified. And he said unto me, Thou art
my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. Christ named
Jacob Israel because Israel is Christ's name. And so when Jacob
said, What's your name? He said, Why do you have to ask
me my name? He said, I just named you a prince. because my name is the Prince
of Peace. I just named you Israel because
as a prince thou has had power with God. Christ is the power
of God. Thou had power with God and with
men. Christ is the God-man mediator. He had power with God and with
His elect children making us one through the blood of His
cross. He had power to satisfy God perfectly and He has power
to satisfy His children in their hearts with Him. He satisfied
God with Him and He satisfies His people with Him. And He satisfies
His brethren in whose hearts He subdues, just like He subdued
Jacob's heart. And it means, as a prince thou
hast had power with God and with men and has prevailed. prevailed. He shall not fail till he has
set judgment in the earth. That's who Christ is. Jesus Christ
is Israel. The prince of peace who has prevailed
with God in man. That's who he is. And he gives
his people his name and it's in that name that we're blessed
with all spiritual blessings from God our Father. Look at
Jeremiah 23.6. Jeremiah 23 6 He gives us His
name His name Here we see a different name
but I want you to see that He gives us His name Jeremiah 23
6 In His days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell
safely and this is the name whereby He shall be called the Lord our
righteousness Are you there? The Lord our righteousness. That's
going to be His name. Now look at Jeremiah 33 and look
at verse 16. In those days, shall Judah be
saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this is the name
wherewith she shall be called. This is the name his bride will
be called. The Lord our righteousness. That's his name, Art, and that's
her name. That's her name. I believe Jacob
got the message. I think Jacob got the message
of what the Lord was telling him. Look back and I'll show
you why. Look back. Not another word was said between
them. The Lord said, why have you asked my name? And he blessed
him. And look at what Jacob did. Verse
30. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, for I have
seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. Look. And as he passed over Peniel,
the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh. You know
what happened to Jacob? Christ the light shined into
that dark place called Jacob and the day dawned and the day
star arose in his heart. God commanded the light to shine
out of darkness and it shined into his heart and he gave him
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. And he said, I've seen God. And if Jacob was here this morning,
I can just about tell you what his lesson would be to us that
he learned from that whole ordeal. He would say, Brethren, trust
in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto your own understanding,
and in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your
path. And therefore, I take pleasure,
therefore I take pleasure in this old hobbled leg of mine,
because every time I walk with a limp, I'm reminded, I'm reminded
that for Christ's sake, it's a constant reminder to me that
when I'm weak, that's when I'm strong. Can you say that? That's true. And then a year
or two will go by, or five or six, maybe twenty, like he did
with Jacob. But he'll remind us again and
keeps on doing it. Because we're still in flesh.
And we got to keep being reminded of this over and over and over
again. Amen.