Gather with us, we pray, Lord,
and may all that is done be with that single eye to Thy honour
and to Thy glory. We ask for Jesus' sake. Amen. Well, our first hymn is
number 630 to the tune Hazelinden, 544. What foolish worms are we, hell-prone
to start aside, and in our troubles flee from Jesus' wounded side,
to wait on self or something base instead of trusting sovereign
grace. 630. now prone to stutter sight, and
in our troubles flee from Jesus' wounded sight, to wait on self
or some Instead of trusting someone. The Lord is rich indeed, and
richly will supply. ? I expect day ? ? The mist from
God ? ? Then wait my soul upon the Lord ? ? If darkness keeps around ? ?
His mercy still ? He is my hope, I'll ever trust,
I'll ever wait for him. Turn with me to the book of Genesis
chapter 32. Genesis chapter 32. And Jacob
went on his way, and the angels of God met him. And when Jacob saw them, he said,
This is God's host. And he called the name of that
place Mahanaim. And Jacob sent messengers before
him to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir, the country
of Edom. And he commanded them, saying,
Thus shall ye speak unto my lord Esau. Thy servant Jacob saith
thus, I have sojourned with Laban and stayed there until now, and
I have oxen and asses, flocks, and men-servants and women-servants,
and I have sent to tell my Lord that I may find grace in thy
sight. And the messengers returned to
Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and 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 herds, and the camels, into
two bands, and said, If he so come to the one company and smite
it, then the other company which is left shall escape. And Jacob said, O God of my father
Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which said unto
me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will
deal well with thee. I am not worthy of the least
of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed
unto thy servant. For with my staff I passed over
this Jordan, and now I am 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 will come and smite me and the mother with
the children. And thou saidst, I will surely
do thee good. and make thy seed as the sand
of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitudes. And he lodged there that same
night, and took of that which came to his hand a present, for
he saw his brother, two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats,
two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty milked camels with their
colts, forty kine and ten bulls, twenty asses, twenty she-asses,
and ten foals. And he delivered them into the
hand of his servants, every drove by themselves, and said unto
his servants, Pass over me, and put a space betwixt drove and
drove. And he commanded thee foremost,
saying, When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee,
saying, Whose art thou? and whither goest thou? and whose
are these before thee? Then shalt thou say, They be
thy servant Jacob's. It is a present sent unto my
Lord Esau, and behold also he is behind us. And so commanded
he the second and the third, and all that followed the droves,
saying, On this manner shall ye speak unto Esau when ye find
him. And say ye, Moreover, behold,
thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him
with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see
his face. Peradventure he will accept of
me. So went the present over before
him. and himself lodged that night
in the company. And he rose up that night, and
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. 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 hast thou power
with God and with men, and hast 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
the place Peniel, 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. Solomon says, under the inspiration
of the Holy Ghost, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and
lean not unto thine own understanding in all thy ways. Acknowledge
him, and he shall direct thy paths. And dear Jacob, he had
been greatly blessed with God's protection and his preserving
grace in great trials, particularly when he met his match with his
uncle Laban. And you'll remember that he was
greatly favoured, though he had deceived his father and angered
his brother Esau by stealing his birthright. And his mother
had sent him away, and go away until thy brother's anger has
gone away, and then you come back. Well, as far as we can
understand it, he never saw his mother again. And we never know,
do we, what effect our actions may have. And so Jacob, he was
gone for 20 years. But the wonderful thing is that
the Lord met him, didn't he? The Lord met him as he was asleep. And Jacob, who was really a schemer,
it said of him, isn't it? He was a supplanter, a deceiver. Well, he had to be very much
awake, didn't he, when he would be scheming all of these different
things. But the Lord met him when he
was asleep. And that's quite remarkable, isn't it? The Lord
met him when he was asleep and favoured him, favoured him to
see this ladder, to see this ladder which reached heaven. And that ladder, he saw in that
ladder Christ. He saw in that ladder Christ. And as he saw the ladder with
the angels of God ascending and descending, we have in that Jesus
speaks of this in St. John's Gospel and the first chapter
And the last verse, as he said to Nathaniel in the 50th verse,
because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest
thou, thou shalt see greater things than these. And he saith
unto him, verily, verily, I say unto you hereafter, ye shall
see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending. upon the Son of Man. And, friends, we see in that
that Jacob was favoured to see Christ, that he saw Christ in
that ladder, in that ladder that reached to heaven. And he was
favoured to understand that as the angels of God were ascending
and descending upon that ladder, upon the Son of Man, so He too
would be protected in the pathway which was before Him. And how remarkable that He saw
heaven opened! Oh, that doubtless he had felt
that the door to heaven was closed. The door to heaven was closed.
A condemned man, especially as he would go on in the journey
and all the trials that befell him. But he's favored, isn't he, to
see heaven opened. The door of heaven, the gate
of heaven is open. He's open. And so he's blessed. He's blessed as he's favoured
to, I believe that it was at that time that he was called
by grace. He was favoured to see his sins
by faith imputed to a precious Christ, though he was such a
vile sinner. He was favoured to understand
that forgiveness is with God. There is forgiveness with Him
that he may be feared. But you know, dear friends, how
often it is, isn't it, that especially when the children are young and
they have little stories and things, and perhaps sadly not
so much today, but certainly in our day, that it was that
a story would end, wouldn't it, and they lived happily ever after. But with a child of God, as Jacob
was enrolled, wasn't he? Jacob was enrolled into the school
of sanctification. He didn't choose to go into the
school of sanctification. It wasn't an optional extra. I believe that it is with every
child of God. as they are called out of nature's
darkness into His most marvellous light, that it is then that they
are called to walk, to walk in a pathway that has been mapped
out in heaven, in heaven each pathway for each child of God. The end is known to God as well
as the beginning. And they're called to walk that.
and they're enrolled in the school of sanctification. And dear Jacob's
school, what a bitter school it was, wasn't it? Oh, go to
your Uncle Laban until your brother Esau's anger be turned away. As it's often been said, isn't
it? Poor Jacob, he met his match, didn't he? He met his match with
his Uncle Laban. And his Uncle Laban could scheme
as well, if not better, than Jacob. But this is all in teaching,
isn't it, dear friends? It's for you and I that we understand
that we're now not our own, that we're bought with a price, the
price, the precious blood of Jesus. He gave his life, a ransom
for poor sinners, for poor sinners. And so, as we said, it's not
an optional extra that it is. Take up your cross. Take up your
cross and follow me. Well, the point that I really
wanted to come to was this. In his prayer, he said in the
11th verse, deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother,
from the hand of Esau. for I fear him, lest he will
come and smite me, and the mother with the children. I fear Esau, And you know, and as I was meditating
upon this and regarding us as a little fellowship here, and
indeed the national situation and the international situation,
we don't go far, do we? We don't go far before the Lord
will have us collectively. He'll have us collectively on
our knees. We'll seek some other way until
he pulls us back, until he gives us a jolt. And then it is, isn't
it, that we're brought here as Jacob was favoured when he was
left alone, that he wrestled with his God, didn't he? He wrestled
with his God in prayer. And how wonderful that was, that
it wasn't because Jacob was stronger, was stronger than a holy God. No, no, no. But he was favoured. He was favoured. He was blessed.
to prevail with God. And friends, and you and I will
know something of that, won't we? Don't we? We've known it
as individuals, we've known it as families, and bless God, we've
known it collectively. And it is, isn't it? It's that
united prayer. That united prayer. And we know
that something's been done. But then it's tried, isn't it?
But then it's tried. You know, there's that little
hymn on on grace number 201. And he says, Dear Doddridge says,
Grace taught my soul to pray and pardoning love to know it
was grace that kept me to this day and will not let me go. And that's what he does, doesn't
he? That's of his grace. That's of
his grace. And friends, isn't it, that as
the Lord favours us, as the Lord favours us and blesses us, and
there's a particular time, there's a particular time that he's appeared,
and he's appeared in such a way that he gives us something that
we shall never forget it. And dear Jacob, dear Jacob, he
goes limping, doesn't he? He goes limping for the rest
of his days to the grave so that he'll never, ever forget that
he was favoured in prayer, that he was favoured to wrestle with
his God and he prevailed. Oh, dear Paul, how he experienced
the same thing, didn't he? Oh, he was given this, wasn't
he, lest he should be exalted above measure. He was favoured,
wasn't he, so favoured that he was taken up to heaven. Oh, by
faith he was taken to heaven. He was blessed with things which
he couldn't begin to speak of. He kept it to himself for fourteen
years. And then he only spoke about
it because there was so much pride in the church at Corinth. And he then began to speak a
little on the things of God, the things that really matter. But oh, he was given this thorn
in the flesh, wasn't he? And thrice, three times, he sought
his God. Doubtless that's figurative language.
Doubtless it was a constant thing with him. Oh, that this thorn
could be removed. My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in
weakness. And so, dear friends, that you
and I, we have these souls, don't we? We have these souls, these
souls, circumstances, afflictions, difficulties here, difficulties
there, faculties failing, strength being weakened in the way and
so, so, so many things. And the church and the church
of God and the Oh, and the infighting that there is, I'm not talking
about that in our church, I'm talking in general amongst the
people of God. And nationally, the national
situation, how desperate it is that in the coming days now,
that dreadful bill is going to come before Parliament again
for assisted suicide. And just a day or two before
that is going to be, if the Lord permits it, a debate to kill
even more babies. Oh, how dreadful. Unborn babies. And so, dear friends, and in
the international scene, unless there is Russia that's ever threatening
us, it was reported a day or two ago that one of the chiefs
of NATO was saying, well, Great Britain either has the choice
that they increase their spending on defense or they learn Russian. They learn Russian. And friends,
and it is for you and I, isn't it? The people of God, to wrestle,
to seek to wrestle with our God in prayer. Oh, to remind Him,
as Jacob reminded Him, didn't he? And this is the pattern of
prayer, isn't it? As we're favoured with it. He
reminded His God, didn't He? In verse 9, O God of my father
Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, The Lord which said unto
me, Return unto thy country and to thy kindred, and I will deal
well with thee. And friends, it is ours, isn't
it, to seek to bless and to praise God, that probably all of us
here, apart from one or two, have never ever known war in
this our land. All of us. who are under the
age of, what is it, 80 years old, and none of us have known
a war and conflict in this our land. And yet there have been
those two great wars, haven't there, within 20 years of each
other. And yet we've been favoured now,
and we seek to remind our God of that, don't we? Oh, and we
have to we come here, don't we? As Jacob went on in the 10th
verse, I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and
of all the truth which thou has showed unto thy servant. That's
it. It's acknowledging, isn't it?
It's acknowledging its confession. It's acknowledging that we are
unworthy. that we are not worthy of the
least of these mercies, but we come pleading his promises, reminding
him of his goodness in the past, and blessing him that we are
favoured to come in the name and for the sake of his beloved
son. The dear Lord Jesus. And we come
pleading His precious blood. We come pleading His precious
name. Yea, we come pleading His righteousness. 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 that deliver me." Now
this is his petition, isn't it? This is his petition. Oh, now
that he's acknowledged his God. He's blessed and sought to praise
his God. He sought to supplicate, and
he comes now, he comes now to present his petition. Deliver me, I pray thee, from
the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear
him, lest he will come and smite me and the mother with the children. And so it is in our private prayers,
isn't it? In our private prayers. When
we're alone as Jacob, when we read of him wrestling with his
God when he was alone. In our private prayers particularly,
we name these fears, don't we? We name these Esau's one by one
by one as helps. Oh, and chief of all, we name
the wretched Esau in our heart, don't we? That's where we begin,
isn't it? Oh, with my burden I begin. Lord, remove this load of sin. And then he finishes, doesn't
he? He finishes his prayer, blessing and praising God as he reminds
him again. And thou saidst, I will surely
do thee good and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which
cannot be numbered for multitude. Well, dear friends, and so dear
Jacob, he was blessed, wasn't he? He was blessed to remember
and to plead the promises of God. There is Mr. Pink, A.W. Pink, he says, one
sometimes wonders if this is the chief reason why so few have
any real power in prayer today. We do not plead our unworthiness. Certain it is that we must get
down into the dust before God if we would receive His blessing. We must come before Him as empty-handed
supplicants. That's lovely, isn't it? It's
painful, but a blessed place to be, isn't it? That Christ
will be all in all, poor sinner, humbled in the dust of self-abasement. We must come before Him as empty-handed
supplicants if He is to fill us. We must own our ill desserts
and be ready to receive Him on the ground of grace alone if
we are to have our prayers answered. Well dear friends, like Jacob
isn't it? Like dear Jacob, we can be left
to ourselves. We can be left to ourselves after
being blessed with nearness to God at the throne of grace and
then left to lean on our own understanding. There's that war that's ever
going on, isn't it, between the new man of grace and the old
man of sin. Oh, to plead. Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief. to be brought to plead as Enoch
was favoured with that closer walk with God, a calm and heavenly
frame, a light to shine upon the road that leads me to the
Lamb. Well, and so the work of grace
is deepened, isn't it? As we go through this chapter
and we see the work of grace deepen as he is left alone and
he wrestles with his God. And then in verse 27, he says,
he said to him, what is thy name? And he said, Jacob and friend,
if ever you and I are going to be blessed, it is that the Lord,
the Lord will remind us and have us to understand and to confess
our unworthiness and that our sins of omission, our sins of
commission, our backslidings, our besetting sins, and he'll
have us name them. What is thy name? Jacob. I'm a deceiver, I'm a supplanter,
I'm a... Ah, but no more, no more will
your name be called Jacob. Thy name, in verse 28, 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 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 oh he went on better
than that did he much better what do we read and he blessed
him and he blessed him there Oh, and so as he went on his
way, as he went limping on his way with all of those sorrows
that he had to endure, and with Jacob being led to, with Joseph,
with him having been led to believe that he'd been killed by an animal,
Brethren coming with with his coat of many colors dipped in
the blood of an animal. And he had to go through all
that for all of those years. But he was favored, wasn't he?
Blessed as as he came to say, oh, Joseph, Joseph, my son is
yet alive. I will go down. I'll make that
journey to go down to him. And so, dear friends, that the
Lord, he's pleased, isn't he, with his dear people to try them,
to try our faith. and oh and how blessed it is
isn't it as he's tried us as he's given us those things to
plead for he's planted them in our hearts we've pleaded them
he's brought them to pass and then he tries it and then he
tries it and it's all isn't it that all the glory will be to
his great and holy name that we won't be lifted up with pride
that we won't be left to coast along and to and and to be and
to be, well, seeking all the praise to ourselves instead of
to Him. Well, and so as we as we come
to prayer now, as we come to prayer now and we have the and
we have the situation where our service has been changed, that,
as I mentioned in our opening prayer, that Richard is at home
looking after his wife, who's unwell. And so James, our dear
Pastor James, suggested that it would be good if we were to
have a prayer meeting, if we were to have a time of prayer. And I've gone on far too long
and I do apologise for that. A time of prayer. A time of prayer. A time where the Lord might favour
us with that wrestling prayer. And we have cause to bless God,
don't we, for His mercies, as well as to wrestle with Him for
those that are in trouble and for those things, those strange
circumstances, some of which we won't bring to the Lord in
the public prayer, but they'll be with us, won't they, as we
pray along together silently. And so we do bless God that dear
Elsie's sister Hannah is somewhat better. She's still in the critical
care unit, apparently, but that's whilst she awaits a bed on a
ward. How we bless God for that, don't
we? And I was sad to hear from Pastor
in the vestry just now that Rob's mother, who was with us at home
yesterday afternoon, and oh, it was the first time she'd been,
and oh, how she enjoyed things there. And Rob got home after
work. I believe I'm right in saying,
is it, that he got home and found her on the floor, and it appears
she'd been there for a good bit of the day and she's now in hospital
and so these things don't these things they come we haven't a
moment have we haven't a moment to call our own and oh and how
we seek don't we dear Ted who's clearly coming down to the grave
and we pray for him we pray for one another in the various trials
and afflictions some that are known to us and some that are
not but you know and it's all known to God isn't it and how
good it is that as the brethren are praying that you pray along
don't you and and before we leave at the house of God those silent
petitions as we're helped to bring them to him and and as
we have our