Our text is Genesis 32, verses 24 through
32. I've titled this, The Prevailing
Power. The Prevailing Power. Verse 24,
And Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him
until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed
not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh. And the
hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with
him. And he said, let me go for the day breaketh. And he said,
I will not let thee go except thou bless me. And he said unto
him, what is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said,
thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel. For as a prince
has thou power with God and with men and has prevailed. And Jacob
asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he
said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he
blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of
that place Penuel, for I have seen God face to face, and my
life is preserved. And as he passed over Penuel,
the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh. Therefore
the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which
is upon the hollow of the thigh unto this day, because he touched
the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank." Now the
text begins here with Jacob was left alone. Now I want you to
understand, if you can understand this about Jacob, who was a believer,
then maybe you can understand this about you whom the Lord
has begun a work of grace." Alright, listen to me. Jacob
had heard the gospel of God's electing grace. Romans 9, Paul's
quoting from Genesis 25, but he says, the children being not
yet born, having done neither good or evil, that the purpose
of God, according to election, choosing, God's own choosing,
His purpose, that it might stand. It was said unto her, unto Jacob's
mother, the elder, Esau shall serve the younger Jacob, because
Esau, Jacob have I loved, the Lord said. Not because of anything
in them, because God chose him. Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. Now Jacob heard that message.
He heard that message which declares salvation is entirely of the
Lord. Of God are ye in Christ Jesus. Who of God is made unto us. wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption. Now, he heard that. And God not
only caused him to hear that word of grace, God applied this
word of grace to him personally. God revealed Christ to him personally. Look back at Genesis 28. Genesis
28. We just sang that song. And this is where that song comes
from, Genesis 28 verse 12. Jacob, he was at a certain place
and he was there all night. And the scripture says he took
some rocks and made them for his pillow and he laid down there
and he was asleep. That's a good illustration of
where we are when God comes to us by His grace. We're asleep,
we're dead. asleep in trespasses and in sins. And God came to him and it says,
verse 12, and he dreamed. A dream is a good illustration
of revelation, divine revelation. God comes to us in the power
of His Spirit. And he dreamed and behold, a
ladder set up on the earth. A ladder. That which joins that which is
lower with that which is upper. A ladder. And top of it reached
to heaven and behold the angels of God ascending and descending
on it. Going back and forth, back and
forth from the earth to heaven. And behold the Lord stood above
it. If the Lord's going to communicate
to us, you know where all blessings are going to come? They're going
to come in Christ Jesus the Lord. He's the latter, pictured here.
He's the mediator between a sinful, wretched sinner, one who can't
come to God, and God Himself. God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. He
imputed them to His Son. He made his son to be sin for
us, this one who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. So the ambassador of Christ,
the messenger of God is beseeching you, be ye reconciled to God. And this is how, in Christ the
mediator. And Jacob saw this. And the Lord
told him this, verse 13, I'm the Lord God of Abraham, thy
father, and the God of Isaac, who was his father. Everybody who's saved is saved
by this one, who's God. He's the father of all who believe.
And it says, the land whereon thou lies to thee will I give
it unto thy seed. God said, I'm going to give you
I'm giving to you. And He said, 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. And in thee and in thy seed shall be all the families
of the earth blessed. Behold, I am with thee. I will
keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee
again into the land. For I'll not leave thee until
I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. This is what
God, this is the covenant, the everlasting covenant God writes
in the hearts of His people. I'm going to give to you. I'm
going to bring forth my children. I'm going to bring you to the
land I've promised to you. I'm not going to leave you. I'm
going to accomplish that which I've promised to you. This is
the word Jacob heard. It's a word he heard. But we
keep on seeing unbelief in Jacob. Look back at Genesis 32. Genesis 32. He believed God. By His grace, he believed God.
God made this covenant with him and he said, I'm going to follow
God everywhere I go. He's going to be with me. He's
going to deliver me. Now watch what happened. Jacob in verse
6, it says, the messengers returned to Jacob saying, we came to thy
brother Esau. Also he cometh to meet thee and
four hundred men with him. Then Jacob was greatly afraid
and distressed and he divided the people that was with him
and the flocks and the herds and the camels into two bands.
He heard his brother was coming. And Jacob had every reason to
fear Esau coming. Esau had sworn he would kill
Jacob. You know, the Lord God has sworn
he's gonna slay the wicked. All those that are not found
in His Son, He's going to slay them. And Jacob had every reason
to fear Esau because he deserved Esau's wrath. The Lord says that
all of those who have sinned against Him, that have sinned
against His darling, His Son, and not laying hold of Him and
trusting Him alone, They've sinned against him. We've sinned against
God. That's the problem. Now listen
to me, that's the problem. We're not talking about here an academic thing whereby we're
just gonna, we're trying to, we're talking about salvation.
We're talking about being saved from sin. That's what we are. We're talking about being saved
from sin. God is salvation. He is salvation. When you children come over here
and you come over here in your parent's vehicle, do you go out
there and you look that vehicle over and say, now I don't know
if I'm gonna get in this vehicle. Let's see what kind of, well
that's a Ford, or it's a Chevy, or it's a Toyota, whatever. But
now let me see, I don't know How does this engine work? How
does it operate? I'm not going to get in unless
I know exactly how this engine is going to operate. Listen,
Christ is the vehicle. He is the way. He is the one
that's going to transport His people from the sin we are, from
where we are, into God's presence. He says, believe me, you just
get in the vehicle, don't you? And you trust it's going to get
you from one place to the other. Trust Christ. As you go, you
may learn a lot about the vehicle and you will learn more and more
about it. But you get in the vehicle, get in it. He's going
to take you. He's going to take you and going
to teach you everything you need to go as you go. But Jacob's
sitting here and he's fearing Esau because Esau's got every
right justly angered with him. Jacob's only hope here is that
God's gonna save him, that God's gonna do something for him and
save him. That's what I'm saying. The only hope you and I have
is that God will save us. God will save us. Now, at the
same time, And Jacob feared this. Now watch what he did. Look at
verse 9. Jacob said, he's praying now. Jacob said, O God of my father,
Abraham, and God of my father, Isaac, the Lord which sent a
son to me, return unto thy country and to thy kindred, and I will
deal well with thee. Jacob's where he is because God
said go here. Jacob's returning to his country
because God told him to go there, and that's where he's going.
And now he's fearful, he's in the middle of this, his brother's
coming out, he's afraid of him. He said, I'm not worthy of the
least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast
showed unto thy servant. See, Jacob, he trusts God, he
believes him. For with my staff I passed over
this Jordan and now I'm become two bands. Deliver me, I pray
thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I
fear him, lest he'll come and smite me and the mother with
the children. And thou saidest," he's petitioning
God based on his promise, "'Thou saidest, I will surely do thee
good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot
be numbered for multitude.'" You see, Jacob, Jacob knows the
Lord is going to save. You see what I'm saying? Jacob
has some knowledge and understanding and Jacob has faith in he believes
God. But now. Watch what God is continually
teaching the believer at the same time that Jacob believes
God at the same time he's calling upon God. Look what Jacob did. He took a whole bunch of the
goods he had, a whole bunch of the sheep he had, a whole bunch
of everything that he had, and he sent it out to Esau ahead
of him. Why did he do it? Here was his
motive. Here's his motive. Look at verse 20. He told them
that went out, Say ye, behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us.
For he said, this is what Jacob, this is why Jacob sent him. Now
listen to this. I will appease him with the present
that goeth before me, and afterward I'll see his face. Peradventure
he will accept of me. So went the present over before
him, and Jacob himself lodged that night in the company." Jacob's
going to try to appease Esau. Jacob's going to try to get Esau's
favor by sending him this gift, this present. Did it bring Jacob
any peace? Did Jacob have any rest in what
he was doing? Did he have any rest in any of
that? Look at verse 22. He rose up that night, took his
two wives and his two women servants and his eleven sons and passed
over the ford Jabbok. And he took them and sent them
over the brook and sent over that he had. And Jacob was left
alone. There he is by himself. He didn't get any rest from these
things he did. Now, this is what I want you
to get. Conversion. Conversion. This is what you say when you
say, I believe God. I believe Him. I believe He's
converted me. I believe He's saved me. Conversion
from the vanity of our flesh. From the vanity of our wisdom
and the vanity of our strength to Christ. Conversion from what
we are to Christ, who is the power. He's the strength and
He's the wisdom. He's the strength and He's the
wisdom. Conversion from our strength and our wisdom to Him begins
by grace alone. But you watch this now, it's
not a one-time thing. It's a lifelong thing. When the
Spirit of God begins a work of grace in you, And some of you
have expressed to me that you are trusting God has begun to
work in you. You don't, and I like talking
to you because you don't know how to put everything into just
the right words. Like a man that's been around
for a little while. I like somebody who just honestly
saying, here's what I, here's what, where I am. This is where
I am. It's where I'm trusted. And when
you start that way, you're going to start by grace. And what God
starts doing is He starts making you to experience something you've
never experienced before. You start experiencing something
going on, that some kind of struggle that you don't understand, that
you don't know about, that you have never experienced before
in your life. What it is, it's a flesh between
the struggle between the flesh and it's a struggle between the
Spirit. It's a struggle between this
vain wisdom of our flesh and Christ who is the wisdom. A struggle
between this flesh and Christ who is the power. And I can tell
you this, Christ always wins. He always wins. If that's what's
going on in you, Christ is going to win. He's going to win. But
here's what I want you to understand. You've said to me, it seems like
I believe Him. And it seems like I don't believe
him. It seems like I'm trusting, but
then it seems like I don't trust him. And you want somebody to
give you something, to say something to you, to give you some kind
of parallel that you can compare, something you can look at and
say, okay, that's it. But now listen to me, listen
to me. What do you think of Christ? That's the question. What think
ye of Christ? If you behold Christ, and you
behold His light, that's where you're going to behold the truth. The truth of what you are. Isaiah didn't say, woe is me,
I'm undone, until he beheld the Lord. And he beheld Him holy,
holy, holy. And he beheld himself as a wretched,
undone sinner. What do you think of Christ?
Salvations, I want you to know the true and living God. I want
you to believe on the true and living God. How can you know
Him in whom you have not believed? And how can you know Him without
a preacher? And how can He preach except
to be sent? This thing is not going to come
about in lies. It is going to come about in
truth. And I want you to know the truth. And I want you to
know the true and living God. But do you see here when you
look at Jacob? He had Christ revealed in him. He had walked
with God. When God revealed Christ in him
at Bethel, it was 20 years prior to this text right here. And
Jacob knows him. Jacob prays to him, petitions
him based on promise. But still, the salvation that's
going to save Jacob is the Lord. You see, I want you to know who
it is in whom you have believed. But I want you to understand
that, that you know who you have believed. Not what. Not what. I want you to know
Christ who saves. and behold Christ who saves.
And this thing is not going to be, you're not just going to
come along and all of a sudden go, oh I got it and it's summed
up and it's done and I'm alright, it's a one time thing. You see
Jacob, God saved him. God called him by his grace.
God called him in power and wisdom and revealed that the only way
to come to God is in Christ Jesus, the righteousness of God. But right here again, God's teaching
him again. God's teaching him again. Remember
Peter? Peter, when thou art converted.
Didn't Peter believe God? Yes, he believed Him. But Christ
said, Peter, you're going to forsake Me. You're going to forsake
Me. Peter said, no, Lord, I'm not.
They might. I'm not. And the Lord said, when
you're converted, Peter, strengthen your breath. How did the Lord
convert him? The Lord said, how was he kept? How was he saved? The Lord said,
I have prayed for thee, Peter. The Lord said, I have prayed
for thee that thy faith fail not. And it was the Lord who
came to Peter. It was the Lord, Jesus Christ
Himself, who came to him. And the Lord Himself made him
to know, I am thy salvation, Peter. The Lord came to him,
and the Lord made him to know this. And he believed Him. So it is
until the breaking of the day, as long as we're in this flesh
and walking through this earth, Until the breaking of the day
when God has brought us to Himself, we're going to be constantly
made to know that our salvation is not in what we know, it's
in who we believe, who we trust, who we trust. Every believer
here that's been called by His grace, been walking with Him,
We get to thinking salvation's in what we know. And God again,
He gets us alone by ourself. We're just Him and us. And He
teaches us one on one again, I'm your salvation. I'm your
salvation. We've got to be separated from
the multitude, don't we? the multitude of our thoughts
and our vain imaginations of how we think God is. We've got
to be separated from the multitude of men's false opinions of who
God is. We've got to be separated from
the multitude of our good opinions about ourselves. We're in the midst of a world
that hates God and loves every false way. Now you hear me, in
the midst of a world that hates God, calling on the name of God,
professing to do many wonderful works in the name of God, but
who will compromise with every false way rather than the truth
of God. But when God calls His people,
you know what they're going to do? They're going to love God
and they're going to hate every false way. And the only way you
and I will be made to stand only in Christ and for Christ and
with Christ in a world like this is when Christ, the power and
wisdom of God, is formed in us so that we behold the only way
that we do stand. is by Christ, the power and the
wisdom of God. Until then, we won't mind if a man says that
our husband is a worthless, impotent piece of trash who just wants
to save. If this wretched race will just
give him power and let them save him and cast their wisdom upon
him and let him be wisdom until God saves us, that won't bother
us too bad. As long as they say something
about God and Christ and use these scriptures because we really
can't hear it. But when Christ makes God precious
to us, and He makes Christ the love of our life, and He makes
God to be our God, and God to be our Father, and God to be
our Savior, in that day, you know what we'll do? It becomes
very personal. Very personal. When somebody
speaks a lie about your God. because God's put His love for
you in you and He's made you to love Him and to love your
brethren and to hate, hate righteously with a godly hatred every false
way. When you see it in yourself,
when you see it, hear it in some other gospel, when you see poor
sinners being led astray by it, He makes you hate it. But not until then. Not until
then. But He's going to get us alone. He's going to get us alone and
He's going to make us behold Him. He's going to make us to
know Him. Make us to know Him. Let me show
you something here now. Let's look. Verse 24. The Lord got him alone. And it says, And there wrestled
a man with Him until the breaking of the day. This is the angel. of the Lord. There are angels
created, but then there is the angel of God, the Son of God,
the angel of the covenant, the messenger of the covenant. He
was born into this world at Bethlehem and came in the flesh, and a
body prepared Him to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. But before He was manifest in
that flesh, all spiritual blessings, everything God's going to give
a sinner is going to be through this mediator, through this ladder.
And He appeared many times in the Old Testament Scriptures
in various forms, and this is He. That's who came and wrestled
with Jacob. He came there, the Lord. Now
notice the wording here. They wrestled a man with Him. With Him. I made this illustration
for you the other day, I think, about Emma and Will. They like to wrestle with me. They want to come. They want
us to wrestle. They want to wrestle. Let's wrestle. And we wrestle. We get down on the floor and
we'll wrestle. And they think they're wrestling with me. But
at any moment in time, you know what I can do? I can pin them
at any moment in time. They're not really wrestling
with me. I'm wrestling with them. And
that's what happened here. The Lord could have pinned Jacob
at any time, but the Lord is coming here and he's going to
bring Jacob to behold that he has absolutely no strength in
himself whatsoever. And the Lord Himself is wrestling
with Jacob. And He's wrestling with Jacob
to give Jacob mercy that He's promised before the world began
in Christ that Jacob has got to have and that Jacob will have. Because God will see to it. He has it. Now He's come to him
here. And it says, verse 25, And when
he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow
of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint
as he wrestled with him. Now who was it that was not prevailing?
Does the Lord ever not prevail? Does God who made the heavens
and the earth, does He ever not prevail? It wasn't God who was
not prevailing here. It was Jacob who was not prevailing. You see, if you have a cactus,
and you decide, I'm gonna get that cactus to do what I want
it to do, and you rear back with everything you got, and you're
bare feet, you just kick that cactus as hard as you can, you're
gonna find out real quick, You don't have any strength to make
that cactus do what you want it to do, do you? Jacob, the Lord saw Jacob was
not prevailing with him. Why? Because Jacob was trying
to do something in his own strength. Jacob cried unto the Lord and
said, Save me, Lord! According to your promise, save
me! And at the same time Jacob said
that, Jacob was trying to send a gift of his own hand and appease
his offended brother. What did James tell us? If any
of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God. And God will give it
liberally. He won't upbraid you. He'll give
it to you. But ask Him in faith. Ask Him,
trust in Him. For the man that wavers, he's
like a wave of the sea. He's tossed to and fro. That's
where Jacob was. And when he called upon God,
God who knows all things, God knew before he came to Jacob.
That's why he came to Jacob. He knew Jacob wasn't prevailing
with God. Why? Because he wasn't really
asking God to save him. He wasn't on his face before
God asking God alone to give him the blessing. He was praying
with his mouth and trying to do with his hand to accomplish
it. I want you to know Him, but I
want you to know that because He first made unto you wisdom. He said, this is the work of
God, that you believe on Him whom He sent. And when you believe
on Him, you're going to know the doctrine. And as you continue
in His Word, the truth is going to make you free indeed. What
are you saying to me? I'm saying this, I don't want you to think that
you have to get all this grand catechism in order and know everything
you can know about God. And then think that because you've
learned all these things, now you know who God is. Because what we'll do when we
do that, brethren, is we'll be calling out and saying one thing
with our mouth, but we're really trying to do something else with
our hand. Now, here's how this flesh is
going to be subdued. Look at verse 25. He touched
the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was
out of joint as he wrestled with him. We're going to be made willing
in the day of God's power, but it's going to be in the day of
God's power. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth. Why? Because the Spirit of the
Lord bloweth upon it. What happened here? The Lord
touched him. The Lord touched him. How am
I going to know if the Lord has touched me? I just don't have
any doubt. You're going to know. You're
going to know. How do I know if the Lord's touched
me? You're going to know. You're going to know. You see,
I'm telling you, I don't want you to trust in your wisdom and
your strength. I want you to trust Christ, the
wisdom and power of God. And at the same time, I'm trying
to tell you who is the wisdom and power of God. So you trust
Him. See that? I'm saying to you,
He's going to give you the power and the wisdom. And I'm urging
you, lay hold of him with everything. Lay hold of him completely. But
I'm telling you now, don't lay hold of your wisdom and your
power. Don't lay hold of your strength. Don't try to think
you're going to give God something and appease God and satisfy God. God's satisfied with one offering
and it's the offering God himself has provided himself. And when
God comes to us, He makes us to see that's who He's pleased
with, His Son. And He makes us pleased with
His Son. He touched him. Alright, look
here now at verse 26. And the Lord said, Let me go,
for the day breaketh. And Jacob said, I will not let
thee go, except thou bless me. Now Jacob's going to prevail.
Why? because Jacob can't do anything
now. Jacob can't do anything now,
but he can't of his own strength. He can't use, you know what one
of the most dominant tools is to use in wrestling? Your legs. And He can't do anything with
His legs. He can't do a thing now. His
thigh is out of joint. God has touched the flesh and
He's withered it. And He can't do anything now.
You know what He can do? One thing. Just hold on to Christ. That's what we do when we believe
Him. We are just holding on to Christ. When we believe Him, we're just
casting everything into His hands and we're coming to God one way. We're begging Him to have mercy
on us. That's what He's doing now. All
He's doing is just holding on and begging for Christ to have
mercy on Him. God's not going to save you.
God's not going to save any sinner. apart from you, crying unto God
and begging God to have mercy on you because you are absolutely
nothing and deserving of everlasting separation from God. He's not
going to call on you or save you until you call on Him and
beg Him to save you. But you're not going to call
on Him and beg Him to save you until He works this work of grace
in your heart. And this is how He's going to
make you to behold, I've got to have Christ. And none of my
works that I've done, nothing I've walked in, none of my strength,
none of my wisdom, none of my power, none of my offerings are
going to satisfy this Holy One who I have offended. The only
one that's going to satisfy Him is Him. And when we come back, What does He do? What does He
do? He saves us. This is how we prevail
with God. We prevail with God through begging
Him for mercy in His Son. And we come to that place because
God has already prevailed in our hearts. Look over at Psalm 34, 18. I
want you to see something. I want you to see something.
Are you broken? Psalm 34, 18. I said that, I asked that to
somebody. One time I was trying to, I said,
you know, God's gonna, he just gonna bring us to where we're
broken. And he said, well, I still got plenty of money. I said,
not broke, I mean broken. He gonna make us bankrupt all
right, but he's gonna do it by making us broken. Look at Psalm.
Psalm 34, verse 18. The Lord is nigh unto them that
are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. See that? See that? Look over at Psalm 51. Look at
verse 17. The sacrifices of God or a broken
spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."
You see that? Oh, we can't come to God in our
haughtiness. We can't come to God in our pride.
We can't come to God in any way but just broken, just contrite,
just Just a sin-sick sinner in need of the Great Physician to
heal us. Oh, now, let's see what God does. Verse 27, He said unto him, What
is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said,
Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel. For as a prince
hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. Do you see that? Jacob was made
to confess his name. This is the issue. What do you
think of Christ? And in light of what you think
of Christ, who are you? Are you the cheat? Are you the
deceiver? You see, there wasn't but two
men existed right now on the face of the planet before Jacob. And it was the one who wrestled
him, and it was himself. And all he beheld of himself
was, I am the sinner. I am the cheat. I am the wretch. I am the one who has connived
and schemed and planned and tried to save myself. I am the sinner. Can you confess that in the heart?
I am Jacob. That's who I am. This is what God does with those
that come that way. He gave them a new name. He gave
them a new name. What's that name? Israel. You know what it means? It means
a prince with God. As a prince with God, you have
power with God and with men and have prevailed. How? How? I want you to notice something
in verse 29. Jacob asked him, Lord willing,
I'm going to have some more of this for you on Sunday, I hope.
Verse 29, Genesis 32, 29. Jacob asked him and said, Tell
me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Whereof is it that
thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. Now,
there's no point for Jacob to inquire anymore. He's met this
one. He don't have to know anything
about him else, but just trust him and believe him. That's all.
And when you meet him, that's all you have to concern yourself
about. Lord, I believe you. But now let me show you something.
Look over at Isaiah 49. There was no point of Jacob asking
the Lord his name Because the name the Lord just gave to Jacob
is the Lord's name. It's the Lord's name. And when
He makes His people one with Him, He makes you to behold that
the name that He's given you is His name before it's your
name. Look here, Isaiah 49.3. This
is Christ speaking. Isaiah 49.3. He said unto me, Thou art my
servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified." This is the Lord
speaking. Because Christ is the Prince
of God. Because He has wrestled with
the strong man. Because He has come and prevailed
Himself against all our enemies, against the man who would have
cast us into hell, the accuser of the brethren, who would have
said to us, They're wretched sinners. They can do nothing. He came and accomplished the
salvation of His people from Him. He came and He satisfied
God. He came and He satisfied righteousness. He came and He faithfully walked
with God, even up until the death of the cross, and cast all His
care into the hands of God. And He faithfully, by Himself,
redeemed His people from all iniquity. And Christ is Israel. He is the Prince of God. And because He's prevailed, He
says, now your name is My name. Look at Jeremiah 23. And look
at verse 6. In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely."
Israel, Israel, God's people, all of them, they're going to
dwell safely. How? This is the name, His name, whereby
He shall be called the Lord our righteousness. Now look over
at Jeremiah 33 and look at verse 16. In Judah, in those days shall
Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this
is the name wherewith she shall be called, the Lord our righteousness."
Just one name. Just one name. Can you give me
a New Testament scripture on that? 1 Corinthians 12, 12. 1
Corinthians 12, 12. For as the body is one and hath
many members, and all the members of that one body being many are
one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all
baptized into one body, whether we be Jew or Gentile, whether
we be bond or free, we've been all made to drink into one Spirit. You see that? Where He is, where
His name. So Jacob had no need to ask Him,
what's Your name? Jacob just told the Lord. The
Lord just told Jacob what His name was when He said, Your name
is Israel. Your name is My name. If you're
standing right now, so one with Christ, that Christ has totally
become you, stood in your room instead, and is now in glory,
so that where He has gone, you have gone. To the cross, to the
grave, out of the grave, to glory. If that's all your hope. Your
name is Israel. And you know what His name is?
Israel. Israel. Back to Genesis 32, we'll
end this up. And look what he did. Who did
he see? Jacob, verse 30. Jacob called
the name of the place Peneo for he said, I've seen God face to
face and my life is preserved. That's the blessing. That's how
he blessed him. So he blessed him there. He revealed
Christ in him. God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And I love this, verse 31, and
as he passed over, The sun rose upon him, and he halted upon
his thigh. You know what's going to happen
when Christ works his work of grace? When the day breaks, you
know where you're going to be standing? In the sun of righteousness,
in the S-O-N, in all his light. And you know where else you're
going to be, what you're going to be doing? The flesh is going
to be halted. It's going to be subdued. Not
gone. This is going to have to be done
over and over and over, just like it was done to Jacob. It's
not gone. It's not gone. Some of you might
be hearing this for the first time, and you're saying, what's
God doing in me? Have you seen these trials that
the brethren have gone through? He did the same thing in them
that He's doing in you. If He's working this work of
grace, that's what He's done. And that's what He'll do to you.
It won't stop. It's not a one-time thing. But
look now, this is what He does by His grace, verse 32. The children of Israel, the children
of Christ our Israel, the children of Christ the Prince of God,
you know what they no longer do? They no longer feed upon
the flesh. Why? Because this keeping, preserving
grace. Verse 32, Therefore the children
of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the
hollow of the thigh to this day, because he touched the hollow
of Jacob's thigh and the sinew that shrank. This might be a It was. It was a superstition
with the children of Israel. They said, we won't eat that
anymore because that happened to Him. That's what we'll do.
We'll take something God's done and showed us a picture of grace
and we'll take it and we'll say, now let's make that into a law
and we're going to come to God. But God's true Israel, His true
children, they don't feed on that anymore. Why? Because He's
touched the hollow of their thigh. He's blown upon their flesh and
they trust Him. And what happens when Christ
comes? What's going to happen when He comes? You see, when
He works His work of grace, He's going to put you at peace with
God. He's going to put you at peace
with your brethren. He's going to put you... And you're going to love God
and love your brethren. And hate every false way that's
against Him. And we see all this wrapped up
right here in this one verse. And this is what's going to have
a glorious picture of when Christ returns. Look here, Genesis 33,
verse 4. This one He was so worried about,
so afraid of, and so scared of. Look what happened now. And Esau
ran to meet Him, and embraced Him, and fell on his neck, and
kissed Him. And they wept. What's going to happen when Christ
returns? He's going to come, and he's
going to fall on the neck of those he's redeemed and revealed
himself to, and he's going to kiss them, and we're going to
weep together. Tears of joy. I pray, brethren, that you'll
see. If he's working a work of grace
in you, you'll see. It's by Christ the wisdom and
the power. I pray you'll see yourself, Jacob,
and be able to come to God and say, this is all I am. Come with
a contrite heart and cast everything into his hands and beg his mercy. And I promise you, he'll make
you to know your history. And right now in that trial you're
in, you who believe, sit here and know with Jacob. You're going
to do it all over again if you're his, if we're his. And it might
be a bitter pill to swallow while we're going through it, but we're
going to know this is grace. This is grace. All of grace. Amen.