Back to Genesis 32. Genesis 32. Let's go to the Lord
in prayer. Our Father, thank you for this
hour. Enable me to rightly divide the
word of truth, thy word of truth. Help us to worship you in spirit
and in truth this morning. Help us to, from our hearts,
rejoice in God our Savior. Thank you for saving us, Lord.
Thank you for saving our souls and making us whole. Thank you.
Help us this morning, be with us. In Christ's name we pray,
and amen. Wrestling with God, part two. This is part two. I'm going to pick up, I'm going
to recap. I'm going to recap. What I, some of what I said last
week, but, uh, basically we'll pick up in verse 24 and Jacob
was left alone. And there was a man that wrestled
with him, but there comes a time. There comes a time when God is
going to save a center. HE'S GOING TO CROSS THAT CENTER'S
PATH, AND THE CONFLICT IS GOING TO BE BETWEEN GOD AND THAT CENTER. THERE'S GOING TO BE A REAL STRUGGLE,
A REAL WRESTLING, IT'S A SPIRITUAL WRESTLING. THIS IS WHAT'S GOING
ON HERE, THERE'S A REAL SPIRITUAL WRESTLING GOING ON BETWEEN THE
LORD JESUS CHRIST AND JACOB, ONE OF HIS OWN, THE LORD'S CHILD. And everyone whom he saves is
going to experience this to some degree. I mean, we're not, you
know, you get in trouble when you start talking about experiences
because everybody starts to measure in their experience to someone
else's experience. The Lord deals with his children
individually. Individually, you know, growing
up in a home, we have seven of us kids growing up. We all had
our own personalities, different personalities, and you have to
deal with them and some are more tender than others and some are
more difficult than others and they've got to be dealt with
a little more a little more difficultly but here the lord deals with
jacob now in this narrative j it starts out with jacob and esau
but the really what's the focus of it is jacob and the lord It's
the Lord Jesus Christ wrestling with Jacob. It's really not Jacob
and Esau. It's the Lord dealing with Jacob. But it starts out
here with Jacob and Esau. Jacob sends messengers to Esau.
Then he hears that Esau's coming with 400 men, and it stresses
him out, scares him out of his mind. And so he starts dividing
up his possessions, and he sends them over ahead of him, and he's
trying to appease his brother with presents. I told you last
week, we can't appease for our sins. We can't appease God. We
cannot appease God for our sins. That's the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the only one that has what it takes to appease
God. And that's perfect righteousness.
That's perfect obedience. That's his death. That's his
blood. He has what it takes. We don't have that. We don't
have it, but the Lord does. But when I looked at this last
week, I thought this, Esau is not Jacob's real problem. He's
not his real problem. God's his real problem. He's
got to deal with God. You see, God met him at Bethel,
and he revealed himself above the ladder, and that ladder,
as we saw, was the Lord Jesus Christ. It was a picture of Christ.
But now, now he's going to deal with Jacob. personally. See, the first time he told him
what he's going to do, you know, he gave the covenant, the blessing. But now it's a real, it's a real
dealing, struggling with, uh, with God over a conviction of
sin, what I am, what I've done, my own belief. There's a real struggle that
the Lord, the Lord brings when he saves us from our sins. And every sinner's gonna learn
this, that my real problem is with God. The Lord said in Matthew
10, 28, and 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. What was Jacob saying? He was
saying he's afraid of Esau. I fear Esau. He's stressed out
his mind, Esau. Esau's not my problem. Esau's
not my problem. My sin and God, God Almighty,
that's my problem. And how my sins are going to
be put away. How's the Lord going to, how's the Lord going to be
one with me? How's he going to deal with me
in mercy and grace? Because I've got this multitude
of sins and we've got to deal with that. and this is I think
this is what's going on here this is a this is a this is a
spiritual battle this is a spiritual wrestling match going on between
the Lord and Jacob turn over to Hosea we get a little more
light on this and and Hosea and Hosea chapter 12 listen to
this And we see a little bit more in here. Let me read to
you verses 1 through 6. Ephraim feedeth on wind, and
followeth after the east wind. He daily increases lies and desolation,
and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried
into Egypt. The LORD hath also a controversy
with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways. You see,
he's speaking here of the children of Jacob, but he's talking about
Jacob. Well, Jacob's a supplanter, and he will punish Jacob at his
visit upon Jacob. According to his ways, according
to his doings, will he recompense him. Jacob, he took his brother
by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power
with God. Yea, he had power over the angel, the one he's wrestling
with. He's referencing back to this
period in Genesis. He had power over the angel and
he prevailed. He wept. Jacob wept. And he made supplication unto
him. He's praying, he's begging. Number one, I think he's begging
for mercy. You ever begged for mercy? Have you ever really begged
for mercy? I know in our day that we live
in, all the preaching that goes on out there, they make this
matter of salvation look so easy. It's just an easy believism.
There's a struggle here. He's crying and he's making supplication
unto him, unto the angel, that is, unto the Lord Jesus Christ.
I picture in my mind Jacob on his knees and he's got ahold
of the Lord's robe and he's hanging on and he won't let go. He will
not let go, and this struggle is going on all night. It's going
on all night. He made supplication unto Him.
He found Him in Bethel, and there He spake with us. Even the Lord
God of hosts, the Lord is His memorial. Therefore turn thou
to thy God, keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually. Wait on Him. Beg him for mercy
and wait on him for mercy. Trust him, trust him. But there's
a little more insight to what was going on that night. Jacob
is crying and begging. He's making supplication for
mercy, for his life, for the life of his family. He knows
that if the Lord doesn't bless him, he doesn't stand for him,
that he's all gonna kill him. He knows that. So Jacob in this
chapter, he tries to, in verse 13 through 21, he tries to appease
his brother with those presents, and he's unable to sleep there
in verse 22. And he rose up that night, took two of his wives
and his women servants and his 11 sons, and he took them out
of the way of harm. He put them out of the way of
harm. He sends them over that brook to safety. And then he
took them and he sent them over the brook. And then it says in
verse 24, and this is where I really wanted to come to, Jacob was
left alone. Jacob was left alone. I wish
we could learn as those of us who preach. And I think those
who do preach the gospel, they know that the work of salvation,
the work of conviction is of God. It's not me trying to make
you feel bad. It's of God. Only God can reach
into your heart and give real conviction of sin. But Jacob
was left alone. He came with many earthly possessions,
didn't he? He was rich when he left his
father-in-law. He was rich, but now there he
stands alone. No earthly possessions with him.
He's just there just himself. He's just by himself. This is where the Lord brings
us if he's going to save us. Like Jacob, we are at his mercy. We are at his mercy. Jacob knew
he was at the Lord's mercy. He knew it. He's not at Esau's
mercy. He's at the Lord's mercy. That's whose mercy he's at. There
comes a time when it's you and the Lord. It's just you and him struggling. Wrestling, spiritual wrestling,
conviction of sin. And one thing for sure here,
Jacob cannot manipulate God. And that's one of the things
you realize, you can't manipulate God. Jacob was a supplanter. He manipulated his father-in-law,
his father. He deceived his father and Laban,
and he manipulated Laban, but not God, not God. This is where it all falls out. This is where we stand before
God stripped. This is who we are. And the Lord
knows it, and you know it. You know it. And Jacob was left
alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of
the day. I put on this caption. I usually put captions over top
of a scripture. I put, this is boot camp. This
is spiritual boot camp. God if you want to deal with
Jacob now personally not just a revelation of a blessing but
now it's a revelation of Jacob it's a revelation of Jacob you
see the Lord must empty us in order to fill us he's got to
empty us of ourselves he's got to bring literally literally
now he brings us to the end of ourselves To where we have no
more strength, we have no more excuses, here we are. Here we are. This man wrestling
here is the Lord Jesus Christ. This is one of his pre-incarnate
appearances, no doubt about that. And whoever said that salvation
was easy has not been saved. It's not easy. There's a real
struggle. There's a real wrestling with
God in the process of being saved. You know, right now, we who believed,
we are being saved. We are being saved. And we still
struggle, don't we? There's still a struggling, sometimes
more than in others. There's still a wrestling. But Jacob wrestled with Christ
till the breaking of the day. This is not a little skirmish.
This is a life or death match. You know that. If God saved you,
you know that. It's not just a little skirmish. It's a life or death matter.
When we realize that God does not have to save us, Jacob is
no better than Esau that he's about to face. He's no better. And when you realize that God
does not have to save you, He does not have to save me. That's
salvations of the Lord. It's of His sovereign mercy and
grace. That's what it's of. It's terrifying
when you realize that. It's terrifying. Have you ever
considered, and I wrote, I considered before saying this, but have
you ever considered, and I'm not just saying this to you,
there's several people who listen to this. Have you ever considered
that God might not save you? Has that ever really weighed
heavy on your heart? God might not, that did me. The most frightening, and I'm
saying this from experience, the most frightening thing I've
ever had to endure, that God might not save me. I was told
by several different ones, the Lord wants to save you, that
Armenian junk. Oh, how he wants to save you.
Then I heard the gospel and I realized he might not. I thought he might
not. There was a time I thought he
wouldn't save me. I really believed he wasn't gonna
do it. It scared me to death. For the first time, I had a right
fear of God. Jacob, I don't know what all
went on there that night in the darkness. You know, he wrestled
with him there in darkness. And I don't know what all went
on there, but I do know this. Jacob really understood not only
who the Lord is, but who and what he is. He understood it. I'm a, jeez, I'm a supplanter. I'm flesh, I'm weak. Unless the
Lord saves me, I'm not going to be saved. Lord, if you don't
save me, I'm not going to be saved. I'm going to be lost.
That's frightening. That's frightening to a sinner
who understands that God can save them, him or her, or damn
one or the other. That's frightening. And Jacob
wrestled with the Lord all night. He was not going to let him go.
He's not going to let him go. But I tell you what, Jacob is
right where he needs to be, along with God, along with God. He has no one to call on but
God. He's right where he needs to be. You see, Jacob, me and you, do not
need a helper. I don't need a helper. I need
a Savior. I need one to save me. I need
one that is mighty to save. I need one that's stronger than
me and stronger than Esau. I need one that can do it. I
don't need a helper. I need, you know, like Jacob,
we are in a mess. Are we? We are born into a mess. We are born a mess. We are. We've offended God's law. We
are a bunch of supplanters. And we need someone like the
Lord Jesus Christ to save us, not ask me if he can do it, not
try to do it, not help me. I need him to do it. Lord, save
me or I perish. It's one or the other, one or
the other. And so Jacob wrestles on. when
he saw that he prevailed not that is the angel the Lord Jesus
Christ when he saw he prevailed not against him it's not that
the Lord could not overcome Jacob oh no but I tell you what this
does show the power the power that a child of God has with
God he let Jacob hang on the Lord
let him hang on In fact, listen, and this is encouraging when
you really look back and you understand the struggle. You
understand this, he helped me to hang on. Job said this, Job
23, six, will he plead against me with his great power? No,
but he will put strength in me. The one hand, the Lord is wrestling
with him. The other hand, he's giving Jacob
the strength to hang on. You don't realize that when you're
going through a real conviction of sin. I mean, I know what I'm
talking about. You believe the Lord's not gonna
save you, but you can't let go. You know he's your only hope. And now I realize, while he's
convicting me and wrestling with me, or in a spiritual sense,
at the same time, he's upholding me. He's putting strength in
me to keep coming and keep believing and keep calling and keep crying.
He puts strength in you. You're his child. He's not gonna
let you go. Jacob's his. Jacob have I loved
Esau, I've hated. He didn't do that for Esau. He
did it for Jacob. He did it for Jacob. And then the Lord touched there
in that verse. He touched the hollow of his
thigh. And yet Jacob still wouldn't let go. He wouldn't let go. He said, am I gonna let go? You
blessed me. I don't know what. You ever see a child hanging
onto his father's foot and he's dragging it like this, dragging
that child along? Jacob's hanging on. I mean, he
may be dragging along, but he's hanging on. He said, I'm not
letting you go. You see, Christ was his only
hope against sure death by his brother. It's sure death. And
you know that. I tell you, this is when God
saves a sinner, that sinner knows apart from Christ, it's sure
death. One of the songs that when back at 13th street, I would
ask Mike to sing often, you know, whenever I could. And when I
was pastor at hurricane road, I had him to sing, give me Christ
or else I die. I love that song because it just
speaks to me. It speaks to me, give me Christ
or else I die. Christ is my only hope of standing
before God accepted. You know also here, Jacob was
at his strongest when he was at his weakest. When he was at
his weakest. Paul said, when I am weak, then
am I strong. When you and I are at our weakest,
spiritually, that's when we are at our strongest. That's when
we hang on to Christ and Christ alone. And then we have here
the wound. He touched. It's only a touch. That's all
he did. He just touched him. That's all. He touched the hollow
of his thigh, his strongest part. And the hollow of Jacob's thigh
was out of joint as he wrestled with him. He touched his thigh
and he's crippled. He's crippled now. God said,
I wound and I heal. First, I wound. He's got to wound
us. He's got to really wound us before
he heals us. spiritually, and here he wounds
Jacob. And I know this, you cannot wrestle
with God not knowing, and there not be evidence of it in your
life, in your character, in your walk. Your walk, I promise you,
your walk, my walk, if God has truly spiritually touched us,
our walk will be different. It will not be the same. And you'll notice here, even
with this crippled leg Jacob wrestled on, Job said this. Job said, though he slay me,
yet will I trust him, though he take everything I have. And
he did. Job didn't have anything left.
He was sitting there just scraping those sores. He says, though
he slay me, I'll trust him. I'll trust him. And that'll be
proven too. The Lord will bring every one
of his children to this point, that there's no other hope anywhere
else but in the Lord. He might slay me in this life,
so to speak. He might take everything I have.
He may yet take everything you have. Henry used to say things
like that, and I thought, I wish he wouldn't say that. Seriously,
it scared me. As a young man, it scared me.
It did. And I've experienced, I've experienced
some of that. And the Lord will try his own,
and you're gonna learn that though he takes everything I have, I'm
gonna trust him. By his grace, I'm gonna trust
him. When your life is at stake, you'll
not let go till you have the blessing of salvation. You won't
let go. Like that Syrophoenician woman,
remember? She came to the Lord. He never
gave her one word of encouragement. The fact that there's a wrestling
match going on here tells me that the Lord has not given him
any encouragement. He's trying his faith. He's revealing. There are things revealed to
Jacob in this darkness and wrestling with him. And it's evident to
me that through the wrestling, that the Lord has not given him
any encouragement to write off. or there wouldn't be a wrestling
match. You know, when he met him at Bethel, and he revealed
the covenant, his blessings, and you know, all that went on
there, there was no wrestling. But now there is. And he's not
encouraging Jacob. But you know why? Because Jacob
is so afraid of his brother, he's forgotten the Lord. He's
forgotten the covenant. He's forgotten the blessings.
Remember there to begin this chapter, there was two hosts
of angels, There was two hosts of angels that had accompanied
Jacob. They were watching over and following
Jacob and protecting him. Do we not have the same? We have
the same. He's given his angels charge
over you as he did his own son. God, speaking of God, the father
given the angels charge over Christ, but he also gives them
charge over us. And yet we, we, we go about so
fearful, so afraid. But like that Syro-Phoenician
woman, he didn't give her any encouragement, but he could not
run her off. She wouldn't let go. She wouldn't
let go. No one whom the Lord saves will
let go, because he won't let him let him go. He won't let
him let him go, let him go. And here's the test. And he said,
the angel said, the Lord said, let me go, let me go. But if you can, you never had
a hold of him. If you can, you never had him. Let me go for
the daybreaketh. The daybreaketh. It's time, listen. The Lord has
met him, wrestled with him, made some things known to him. And
Jacob cried, as we read over in Hosea, he cried and made supplication,
and there's a real spiritual struggle going on. But the Lord
says here, the daybreak has let me go. It's time for Jacob now
to be about his business. You see, life goes on. We have
a work to do. We have a life to live on this
earth according to the purpose of God. Jacob says I will not let thee
go Except thou bless me. I Mean, I think he had what I'd
call a death grip on him Because he knew he saw could justly kill
him But here's a real display of faith and the Lord's gonna
bring this out of us. He's gonna bring The act of faith
out You're gonna bring it out of his children. Jay, I'll not
let thee go. I won't do it. I'll not let you
go. Song of Solomon. I did listen
to this. Listen to this. I wrote this
down. Let me see what it is. Song of
Solomon three, chapter three, verse four. Well, let me go to
verse one and I'll read through verse four. This is the Shulamite. By night on my bed I sought him
whom my soul loveth. I sought him, but I found him
not. I will rise now and go about the city and the streets, and
in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth. I sought
him, but I found him not. The watchman that goeth about
the city found me, to whom I say, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?
It was but a little that I passed from there. I can see conviction
of, real conviction of sin in those first few verses. But it
was but a little that I passed from then, but I found him. The
Lord's not gonna convict you. There's not gonna be a real conviction
of sin and you not find Christ to be your all in all. But I
found him whom my soul loveth. I held him and would not let
him go. Not this time. I would not let
him go. Held him would not let him go
until I had brought him into my mother's house and into the
chambers of her that conceived me. Oh I tell you if you ever
get a hold of Christ if God ever convicts you of sin you get a
hold lay hold of Christ You're not gonna let him go. It's your
only hope your only hope And Verse 27 we have a name change. I This is what the Lord's been
bringing him to. He's been bringing him to this place. All this time,
he's been what? Jacob. Supplanter. And that's been his life. That's
been his life. He's been a supplanter all his
life. He's been a cheat all his life. But now a name change is
coming because of nature. We have a new nature given to
us. And there's a name that goes with that new nature. There's
a new name given. You know what it is? Sons of
God. Sons of God. And he said to him,
verse 27, what is thy name? And he said, Jacob. The Lord
asked Jacob his name. He's going to make Jacob confess.
My name is Jacob. Back in those days, they were
given names that meant something. They had a meaning behind it.
You know, now we give names that's just cute, or just whatever pops
into your mind or whatever. It really has no name to it.
Not for most people, some do, but not for many. You don't name
them because of this, what it means. Jacob knew what
his name meant. Remember in another place he
says, thou worm, Jacob. Thou maggot, Jacob." Jacob was made to confess that
he is a supplanter by nature. He's a cheat. And he lived up
to his name. He knew that. We must own who
and what we are. Everyone whom the Lord saves
is a Jacob. You know that? Everyone, a cheat
and a supplanter. everyone but but listen jacob
have i loved jacob have i loved and here's
the blessing in verse 28 and he said thy name shall be called
no more jacob israel that nation over there in the
middle east that nation that we know is israel started right
here They got their name by God. God gave them that name, Israel. Thy name shall be called no more
Jacob but Israel for as a prince hast thou power with God with
men and has prevailed. The scripture says that we have
been made kings and priests unto God. You realize, I know we don't,
We don't realize, really, what power we have with God in Christ. He said, as a prince, you have
power with God in men, and you've prevailed. And Jacob asked him,
he said, well, tell me, I pray thee thy name, what's your name?
And he said, wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name,
which none your business? The best I thought I had with
this is this. Jacob didn't need to know any
more than what the Lord revealed. If he had said, and he could
have said the Lord of Hosts, the angel could have. He also
could have said Jesus Christ. He could have said that. But
he said, you know, he said, right now, you know enough. You know enough. And he blessed
him there. He blessed him there. One day
we will look back on our life and in these struggles and these
convictions of sin and these struggles, we are going to say,
the Lord blessed me there. I can look back and those times
that it was just terrified me that the Lord wouldn't save me.
He blessed me. He blessed me there. Thank God I realized that. Thank God you realized that.
You look back and say, he blessed me there. Only those whom God
says has a real conviction of sin, nobody else does, nobody
else does. They might feel bad over something
because they have a conscience that the law's written on, but
they don't have a real conviction of sin. And Jacob called the
name of the place Peniel. I've seen God face to face, and
my life is preserved. He knew he's gonna live now. He knew it. And then he says here, and I
won't close. And he passed over Penuel, the
sun rose up on him and he halted upon his thigh. Jacob's walk
had changed. He met God and was never the
same since. Let me read this real quick in
Matthew 18, eight. Wherefore, if thy hand or thy
foot offend thee, cut it off and cast him from thee. It's
better for thee to enter into life Hawked and maimed, crippled. You know, everybody wants physical
healing, don't they? That's what most of religion sells the morning,
physical healing. I want to be healed. You want
to be healed? Spiritually, yeah. Physically, it doesn't really
matter. And the children of Israel ate 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 in the sinew that shrank. We see here a great need, salvation. A great person, the Lord Jesus
Christ. A great striving, Jacob wrestling with the Lord. And
a great blessing, the Lord changed his name, Son of God, Israel. All right.