Genesis chapter 32. And Jacob went on his way. He's headed home. God told him
to pack up and go back home. 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, Maanaim. And Jacob sent messengers before
him to Esau, his brother, to the land of Seir, the country
of Edom. And he commanded them, saying,
thus shall you 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 and
flocks and men's servants, women's 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.' And this scared Jacob out of his mind." I'll show you here. 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 he said, if Esau come to
the one company and smite it, then the other company which
is left shall escape. And Jacob said, this is Jacob's
prayer, and this is really where I'll bring the body of the message
out of this prayer. 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 shown unto
thy servant." I'm not worthy of the mercies and I'm not worthy
of the gospel that you have revealed to me. I'm not worthy. But with my staff, I passed over
this Jordan. When I came here at first, 20
years earlier, all I came with was a stick. That's all I had
in my hand, a stick. And now I have become two bands,
a multitude. Deliver me. I love the simplicity
of this prayer. There's nothing that simplifies
prayer like trouble. Boy, do we get to the point when
we are in trouble, when it hurts, when we need help, we let go
of everything else, we just get real simple and plain. Deliver
me. Deliver me. I pray thee from
the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear
him. This is sad. All the promises
that God gave to Jacob. God said, I'll be with you. And
he says, I'm afraid. I'm in fear. I'm distressed.
For I fear Him lest He will come and smite me and the mother with
the children. And here's the title of the message,
Thou saddest. I titled the message this, You
said, You said, I will surely do thee good. You said, I will
surely do thee good, and thou saidest, I will surely do thee
good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot
be numbered for multitude." So let's look at this. We are told
in the Word of God to pray without ceasing, to pray always and faint
not, to cast all our cares upon Him who cares for us. What is prayer? We are told to
pray. What is prayer? Prayer is real
communion with our Father. It's not informing God. Prayer
is for us. It's for us. You notice how Jacob,
how he remembered and recollected the mercies of God and the promises
of God? That was for Jacob. That was
for his encouragement. God never forgets. He doesn't forget His grace,
His mercy to us. He never forgets His covenant.
But prayer is real communion with our Heavenly Father. And
we come to Him in prayer, first of all, to worship. That's what's
going on here. Jacob said, I'm not worthy of
the mercies and of the truth that you've revealed to me. That's
worship. Worship is a true, genuine acknowledging
of truth and of God for who He is from the heart. That's worship. That's worship. Prayer is to praise Him for who
He is. And it's to cast all our cares
upon Him who is able to deliver us. Remember what the king said
to Daniel? Is thy God able to deliver thee? Yes, He is. True prayer shows
that we are mindful, mindful of our Father and of our need
of His continual help. It shows our need of His continual
help. One of the first things I seek
to do, like this morning, you know, I go over to my study and
go over this, but I ask God to help. Help me preach, help me
rightly divide the word of truth, help us listen, help us learn,
because without that, this is useless. This is totally useless. But in prayer, we show our mindfulness
of Him and our need of Him. Now here in chapter 32, Jacob
is fearful of his brother Esau, even though God said, I will
be with thee. I can't slam Jacob here. I'm not
going to slam Jacob because I see Jacob all in me. I see Jacob
all in me. I have my fears. You have your
fears. We have no need to fear. Let
me ask you something. What in this life do I have to
fear? Absolutely nothing. But I do. Why? Sin. sin, but there's never a
time I have to fear. But Jacob here, he fears his
brother. He fears him. Faith in this life
is never perfect in any of God's saints. Not any of them. It's
sad, but it's so. But here's the good news. It's
not nothing to write home about, but the least faith saves. I'm
not going to write home and say, you know, I believe, but I doubt
a lot. I doubt a lot. But the least
faith saved, because even the least faith is the gift of God. It's the gift of God. The strength and foundation,
though, here of prayer is this. Here it is. It's the Word of
God. You said. There's the strength and foundation
of prayer. You said. The scripture says
that God has honored His word above His name. A person is only
as good as their word. And God is good for His word. He's good for His word. You said. Have you not used this with your
parents when you were younger? You said we were going. Have
you ever said that? You said we were gonna get, we're
gonna do, no, you said. Now Jacob's not saying this with
an attitude. He's saying this with a plea. He's saying, you said. God's
good for his word. The greatest thing we can use
in prayer is God's own word, his promises. That's the strongest
argument you can have in prayer is God's promises, His own Word. Lord, You said, Thou saidest. And this is where Jacob is drawn
his strength from to come before God. Lord, You said, Come to me, all
you that labor and heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Lord, I come. Because You said to. You said
to. There's our confidence and encouragement
in prayer, as God said so. Here's the question though, do
we really believe that God will do as He said? Whosoever shall
call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. You believe He'll
do that? If God has saved you, you do.
Even in all your doubts, you believe. Lord, I believe. Like that man said concerning
when he was standing before the Lord, I believe it was over his
son, and he said, Lord, I believe. Because Christ said all things
are possible to him that believes. Lord, I believe. Help thou my
unbelief. Help me to believe. Help me to
trust you. Now, chapter 32, and I'm probably
not going to get through this. We see God's mercy to Jacob on
his journey home. Jacob heads home and on his way... Now listen, here Jacob is afraid. He's afraid of Esau. But what
is the first thing God does when He sends Jacob on his way home?
He meets a host of angels. Angels now. He didn't just meet
an army of men or a host of men. He met a host of angels. God
sent Him a host of angels. And He saw them, He met them,
and He called them the host. This is the host of the Lord.
That's why He called it mehaneim. Mehaneim means two hosts. Two
hosts. He was protected in front and
in back. You remember Israel? When God
led them, there was a pillar of cloud that went before Him
and a pillar of fire by night. Surrounded, protected. And God
has made it evident to Jacob, you are not alone, Jacob. I'm
with you. There is a band of angels. Host. You know what that means?
Many. Many. Many angels are with you. We have the same protection.
We have the same protection as Jacob. It says over in Hebrews
that they are ministering spirits sent forth even now. This is not an Old Testament
thing. Even now they are sent forth to minister and take care
of and watch over God's elect. And there is not one demon or
person or anything that exists that can overcome them because
their power is of God. It's of God. God's people are never alone. Never alone. There's always a
heavenly host accompanying them on their way home. The day you
were born, the day you and I came into this world, there has been
a host of angels going with you. Even when you didn't know God,
God knew you. When you did not know God, when
you was out there running around and acting like an idiot, there
was a host of angels protecting you. I can look back and there's
two or three times in my life I can look, especially one time
I can look back, I could have easily been dead. Easily been
dead. But I didn't. I didn't die. The Lord didn't kill me. He let
me live and hear the gospel just as He has you. He's kept us. He's kept us. But here's the
nature of flesh in verse 6 and 7. And the messengers returned
to Jacob saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and also he comes
to meet you with 400 men with... He's got an army with him. And
Jacob immediately Immediately, his mind goes into stress. Instead of saying, well, the
Lord said, go home. So that means I'm going home.
Doesn't that what it means? He says, go home, I'll be with
you. Well, here's what that means. You're going home. You're going
home. But he fell apart. He fell apart. When he heard
of those 400 men, the first thing he, you know what he remembered?
His sins. He remembered what he did to
his brother. He remembered his sin. Your sin ever trouble you? You ever sit down and then all
of a sudden, something 20 years ago, you start thinking about
it. See, this is 20 years ago and by for Jacob. You start thinking
about it and it's like, and it starts to trouble you. Trouble
you. And you don't find any rest until
you turn to Christ. And that's where you see that
it's under the blood. There's the blood for that sin, and it's
gone. It's gone, it's gone, it's gone.
I have nothing to be afraid of. Nothing. But he's afraid. And that's us.
I understand him. I understand. I've been there.
But here's what we're going to look here for a few minutes,
that is prayer. His prayer has in it assurance, promises pleaded,
a sense of unworthiness, a sense of gratitude, and has supplication
for God to deliver. Now, as I said, he's going to
meet Esau here, his brother, who wanted to kill him, and he's
afraid of it, and he prays to God for mercy and help. And his prayer, listen, this
prayer is truly a model prayer. You know why? It brought God
from heaven to wrestle with him. Now any prayer that brings God
from heaven is a model prayer. Because we'll see this next week,
Lord willing, where Jacob wrestles with the angel, he's wrestling
with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who he's wrestling with. And Jacob's prayer is very simple.
Very simple, as I've already pointed out. He just said, deliver
me. I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble. Deliver me. He
doesn't use any flowery words, just plain heartfelt words. As
Peter said, when he was about to sink, remember when he was
walking on the water? and he started to sink. When
he started to look at the winds and the waves, he took his eyes
off Christ. You take your eyes off Christ,
that's where fear comes from now. Being afraid and fear comes
from when we quit looking to Him and we start looking at these
things. And Peter looked at the wind and the waves and he started
to sink. And he prayed probably the best prayer he ever prayed.
He just said, Lord, save me. Save me. Can there be a better
prayer than that? Lord, save me. And Jacob expresses his humility
here in prayer. He says, I'm not worthy. Have
you ever really had a real sense of your unworthiness for what
you're asking for? If you were worthy, you wouldn't
ask for mercy. It wouldn't be mercy, it'd just
be God paying his debt. He owed it to you. But mercy
and grace is something we don't deserve. We don't deserve what
we ask for. We do not deserve what we ask
for, but there is one. Now you get this. There is one
who's worthy for what I'm asking for. Jesus Christ is worthy for
everything I ask for. If I ask for forgiveness, for
Christ's sake. Whatever I ask for, I ask for
it in Christ's name, because He's my worthiness. The Lord
Jesus Christ is my worthiness. And Jacob here is a model prayer
because he uses God's Word to pray with. And I can't think of anything
better than to use God's own words. Can you? I can't think
of anything. Thou saddest, in verse 12. Thou saddest. I was thinking
about this, and I think it's so. For every situation we are
in, there's a promise that fits that situation. There's a promise. The key is pleading that promise
that fits the situation before the throne of grace. Lord, you said, call upon me
in the day of trouble and you deliver me and I will glorify
you. That's a promise. He said he had not put on us
any more than we could bear that he would with the temptation
make a way out. God the Father is glorified when
He fulfills a promise for Christ's sake. When He fulfills a promise
for Christ's sake, He's glorified, the Son is glorified. Now notice the argument Jacob uses
here in praying. One of the first things he uses
is God's covenant. You notice he said here and back
in verse nine and Jacob said, Oh God of my father Abraham and
God of my father Isaac, the ones you made a covenant with. And
he made a covenant with Jacob. But Jacob knows that God is a
covenant God and he will keep his covenant. He will keep his
covenant. Our heavenly father made a covenant
with his son. concerning all His elect. And He's going to fulfill that
covenant. In that covenant, we have the promise that He's going
to do us good. In that covenant, we have the
promise that He's going to bring us home safely. In that covenant, God Himself
is our surety. He's our surety. In the person
of His Son, God stands as our surety. I'm His responsibility. I like
that thought. I like that thought. I'm His
responsibility to bring home. In this covenant, God promises
to keep me. He said, I'll not lose one of
them. I'll not lose one of them. And look in verse 9, Jacob says
here, And the Lord which sent unto me returned to thy country
and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee. Jacob lays
hold of God's promise to bring him home safely. This is his
encouragement. He said, Lord, Jacob is encouraging
himself. He's not only just praying and
communing with God. There's a real prayer going on
here. He's really communing and speaking with the Lord. And he's
finding real encouragement here in the promises of God. And I don't think he realizes
it at the time. He doesn't realize that he's finding such encouragement,
but God's given it to him. God knows. God's bringing him
through it. And he makes a definite request here. You know, prayer
should never be generalities. We shouldn't pray in generalities.
If we are actually going to go to the throne of grace, if we
are actually going to ask an audience with the God of heaven
and earth, we ought to be specific. We must be specific. Jacob says, deliver me. I pray
thee from the hand of my brother. Go to the throne of grace, Lord,
deliver me from my sins. Which if you don't, they kill
me. That'll be the end of me. Deliver me from my brother from
the hand of Esau, for I fear him. I fear Him. Here's a problem. Here's a problem. The fear of man bringeth a snare. Who should be feared here? Who
is the one that should be feared? God. Jacob's fear of Esau became greater
than his fear of God. And that's when fear takes over,
the wrong kind of fear, the wrong kind of fear. I fear him, lest
he come and smite me, Jacob. I'm gonna just say, wake up,
wake up. God said, I will do thee good. I'll bring you into your own
land, I'll be with you. Have you forgotten that, Jacob?
Have you forgotten that, John, Doug? Peggy, have you forgotten
He said, I'll do you good. I'll bring you home. You can't
be any more safe than you are right now. Listen, you would
be no safer in heaven if you were there right now than you
are where you sit. You wouldn't be any safer. Not at all. He's going to smite me and the
mother with the children. He's going to kill all of us. I'm afraid. You know what the
scripture says in Psalm 56, I believe it is? Turn over there. I know how to quote it, but I
want you to read it. This is one of those Psalms that
I do remember. Watch it not be the one. Oh,
here it is. Yeah. Verse 3. What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. Jacob,
he said, I'm afraid of Esau. Well, trust me. Trust me. You're about to go through God
putting you through something. And you are afraid, he says,
trust me. Trust me. What time I'm afraid,
I'll put my trust in thee. Cast all your cares on him who
cares for you. But here's the key to it all.
In verse 12, And thou saidest, thou saidest, this is the strongest
argument we can use at the throne of grace. Lord, You said, and
I'm here strictly on the authority of Your Word. You said. And You hang on to that. You
hang on to that. God's good for His Word. I know this. I know this. Oftentimes
we pray and it doesn't come out like we want it to, but it's
coming out like God willed it to. And it always comes out for
our good and His glory. Now, I may not really see it
in this life. And I may not see it for another
20 years or 30 years, why something happened. But I can assure you
this, we have this promise, I will surely do thee good. I'll surely
do thee good. William Jay wrote this, and I'll
close. God has the ability to do thee
good. He has the ability to do it. God has the inclination to do
thee good. You can read that in Deuteronomy
30, chapter 30, verse 5. God is under engagement. to do
the good. He has engaged, God has engaged
everything that he is to do the good. And God has already done
the good. He's already done the good. I was thinking of Romans 8, 28.
I can ask this question. Are not all things working together
for our good? I believe that, but I don't always
act like it. I know I don't, but I do believe
it. I do believe it. All right.