Those that do know Him will truly
praise Him from the heart. Who can tell how much we owe Him? Did you come to church this morning? Or are you coming to Christ? Come to Christ with a need. If you come here wanting to come
to Christ, wanting to hear from Christ, as a needy sinner, needing
some good news from Christ, you'll go away filled. You come to church. you go home having gone to church.
And that's all. I want you to turn with me to
Malachi chapter one. Malachi chapter one. While we read the first three
verses Malachi chapter 1, beginning with verse 1, the burden
of the word of the Lord to Israel by or through Malachi, the preacher. I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet you say, wherein hast thou
loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob,
and I hated Esau, and laid his mountain and his
heritage waste. the dragons of the wilderness.
Was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob
and hated Esau." There's not a verse in the Bible which provokes
more anger and stirs more controversy than the one I just read you.
We read that back in Romans 9, too. Paul quoted it in Romans
9. Most people, religionists, I
say religionists because those are the people who read the Bible. Most people, when they read this,
they try to explain it away and rise up in indignation and anger
when you insist upon the literal meaning of it, that God did indeed
love one man and hate the other. Sovereign, what we're talking
about is sovereign love. Yet this passage, which causes
anger and consternation and indignation and wrath and rebellion in the
hearts of so many people, is my greatest source of joy and
comfort. If you'll stay with me, I think
you'll see why. Let me explain at the outset here. We heard
it so clearly the other night. Most people have wrong thoughts
of God Almighty. Wrong thoughts of God and consequently
wrong thoughts of man. Most people think too little
of God and too much of man, don't they? Now, the God of the Bible,
our God, yea, everybody's God, whether they acknowledge it or
not, the God of the Bible is not like we think he is. He's not like we think he is. God said it in one place. He
said, I was altogether such a one as
yourself." God is not like we think He is. God is as He is. And the Bible says, now, we say
this all the time, but if you ask 99, if you ask 100 people
what they think of God, Ask a hundred people to describe, to give the
principal character of God. Tell us, what is God like? Ninety-nine
out of a hundred people will say love, right? God is love. God is love, but that's not his
principal character. His principal character, God's
chief or foremost attribute, characteristic, that which describes
God above everything else is holy. Holy. Righteous is another word. Holy. God is holy. He's called by that description
more than any other in all the Bible. Holy. God is holy. His temple is called
His holy temple. He is said to be sitting on His
holy throne. The angels, those supernatural
beings that fly around His throne, are called His holy angels. God loves holy things. As Scripture said, the righteous
Lord loveth righteousness and hates iniquity. God is holy. Would to God that he would impress
everyone in here of that one thing this morning. God is holy. God is righteous. God is good. But what it says
of man, and we read it in Isaiah 64 this morning, there is none
righteous, no, not one. Doesn't it? Certainly it does. No, not one. Not one man or woman upon the
earth who has ever lived upon the earth, or right now living
upon the earth, who can be called holy, righteous. acceptable,
well-pleasing to God. In the flesh, no man can please
God, the Scripture says. Because why? God is holy. We are unholy. Unholy. So you see, I don't wonder why God hated Esau. I don't wonder that at all. I
don't have any problem with God hating Esau or anybody else for
that matter, especially myself. But I stand amazed. This is the gospel. This is the
amazing thing, is that God loved Jacob. See, the thing that causes me
problems is not that God hated Esau. I understand that because
everybody is hateful. Utterly every man, woman, by
nature is utterly odious, the Scripture says, hateful, despicable
in the sight of God Almighty. I understand why God would hate
such filthy creatures as man, but I can't understand for the
life of me why God would love Jacob. That's the sense in what he's
saying here in Malachi. He said, now wasn't Esau Jacob's
brother? In other words, Jacob and Esau
were brothers. They came out of the same womb,
just alike. Yet he said, I love Jacob. Notice
where he put the emphasis first. We don't delight in the hatred
of God for Esau. We understand it. We don't delight
in that and take pleasure in that, but we declare it. But
I tell you what we do delight in, take pleasure in, is that
God loves somebody. Jacob. Jacob. Now, if you don't
know what I'm talking about this morning, you need to know what I'm talking
about. I'm not sure you've experienced this thing of salvation. You
see, salvation. The love of God, the grace and
the mercy of God, the favor of God, the acceptance of God is
for unrighteous, guilty. Are you listening to me, you
dear, sweet, elderly ladies? Salvation is not for a good woman. Salvation is not for a woman
who's never done this, never done that, has been a good, moral,
upright person all of her life. That's not who salvation is for. Christ said, I didn't come to
call the righteous. I didn't come to call the morally upright,
the good, never drank, smoked, touched this and that and the
other and so forth. Now, I'm not advocating those things,
but I'm saying what the Scripture says is salvation is not for
the morally upright and the good, those that think so well of themselves
and everybody else thinks well of them. Salvation is for sinners. Christ said, I've come to call
sinners. to repent, guilty, ungodly, unlovely, unrighteous sinners. You tell me what a man or a woman
thinks about him or herself. If I could ask the average man
or woman or churchgoer or whoever they may be, especially churchgoer,
tell me what you think about yourself. If I would ask the average man
or woman what they think about themselves, Their answer, I could
pretty much tell whether or not they know anything about the
God of the Bible and have experienced salvation. I can't infallibly
know that anybody's saved, and not only God knows that, but
I can tell you for sure if they're not, by some certain answers
someone give. If you ask someone if they are
a sinner, ask someone, are you a sinner?
The reply is usually much like this. Yes, we are all sinners. Right, it's a general thing. Well, yes, we are all, all of
us have our faults. Isn't it a general thing? It's
never a personal thing. Are you a sinner? Oh, I'm a sinner.
Oh, I'm all together. I'm a man, like the people of
the scriptures, I'm a man of unclean lips. Woe is me, I'm
undone. Am I a sinner? I'm altogether
a sinner, from the sole of my feet to the top of my head. No
soundness in me. Do you hear that? No, we are
all sinners, generally speaking. We all have our faults. Yes,
I have my faults. That man or woman doesn't know
God Almighty. They have never experienced salvation
of God because God came, Christ came to save sinners. Those that
know themselves to be sinners appeal to the only one who can
save sinners. Nobody else will appeal to Christ.
That's the reason I started this thing out by saying, if you come
here to meet Christ, if you come to hear from Christ, only guilty
sinners come to Christ. You know what? A righteous, holy
man, a religious man, a man who's got everything all figured out,
knows all he needs to know, is all he needs to be, and so has
arrived, has attained. He doesn't need a savior anymore.
He's all fixed up, he or she. A man who knows all the doctrine
he needs to know, he doesn't need to learn, sit at the feet
of Christ and learn of him again. I talked to a man who professed
to be a Mormon on the telephone one day. I've told you this,
tell it to you again. He began talking, and we tried
to get through, you know, but he has his little spiel. They
have their little spiel they've got to go through. And finally
I said, tell me about yourself. He said, what do you think about
yourself? He said, here's his reply. He said, well, I'm a pretty
neat fellow. Oh, I said, aren't you a sinner? So, yeah, I've got my faults. That man doesn't know any Christ
Jesus, the Savior does. He doesn't know anything about
this whole thrice holy God whom he stands before, judged. So you see, I can say, turn back
to Genesis chapter 25 with me. Genesis 25. What I'm saying is salvation
is for sinners. Now listen, I can understand,
I can see why God hated Esau. Look at Genesis 25 with me. Genesis
25. I can understand why God hated
Esau. Esau was a despicable fellow.
He was a despicable fellow. Esau, you may or may not know
the story, but Esau despised the birthright. I'll tell you
about that in a moment. He sold the birthright to get
something to eat. Same thing going on now. His
God, like Paul said in one epistle, his God was his belly. His God was his belly. Look with
me at Genesis 25, beginning with verse Twenty nine now you we
read it in Romans nine how that Isaac and Rebecca had two sons
twins Jacob and Esau. OK. One came out the first one
Esau. He was red all over like a hairy
garment and he was a hunter and Jacob was a mama's boy. He stayed at home and was a shepherd
or something like that. And it says in verse twenty nine
that Jacob sawed potties, that means he was making some stew.
He was making some bean soup, lentil soup is what he was making.
And Esau came in from the field one day, having been out hunting
on an extended time, maybe rode his horse out hunting somewhere
and been gone for a few days, maybe got lost and came back,
ran out of provisions. He was faint, he was sick, he
was tired, he was hungry. And Jacob was out a long ways
from the home, and he was the first one that Esau came across.
And Esau said to Jacob, feed me, I pray thee. He barely made
it up to the camp where Jacob was and said, feed me, I pray
thee. Oh, that's soup. I've got to
have some of that pottage. Jacob, my brother, feed me, I'm
faint. Therefore, with his name called
Edom, that is red, that red pottage, and Jacob said, What a thing to say. Here his
brother was starving to death. Weak, faint, at the point of
collapse. And Jacob said, Son, you're both right. Stirring that soup, you know,
and here came Esau up. Crawling up, maybe. Looked bad. Brother Jacob. Please I got to
have a bowl of something to eat something to drink. Tell me your
birthright. And I'll give it to you. Now listen, you know
what the birthright was? The birthright was just that,
the rights given at birth, the rights that were given to the
oldest son at birth, and there were many. There were many, and
there were wonderful rights to the oldest son. He was to be
heir of all, all that the father had. He was to be the next ruler
in the home. He was to be the priest of the
family. But especially now, the birthright
represented something. Listen to me. The birthright
represented the promises of Abraham. What were those? God's sons. God's chosen, elect, loved, blessed
people. The blessings of God. That's
what the birthright represented. The blessings of God. The spiritual
blessings. The coming Messiah was to be
in the seed of Abraham. V. C., eternal glory, eternal
things, spiritual things. In other words, the birthright,
although it was a fleshly, earthly-oriented thing that the oldest son would
get and on passed on down through the line, it had a spiritual
meaning. What it meant was the things
of God, the blessings of God, the promises of God. And the
oldest one, the oldest son, the first son, got that birthright,
and all of his family, his posterity, he himself, everybody, his wife,
his children, were blessed by that birthright, if he had that
birthright. But Esau, you see, didn't care about it. He could
care less. All he wanted was something to
eat. Right? his fleshly appetite, meat and
drink. To him, that was the most important
thing. The kingdom of God to him was
meat and drink. Who cares about the birthright?
I'm too young anyway. By the time I get older, I'll
look into these things and I'll be more concerned with them.
But right now, I've got to have my belly full. And like Esau,
now listen to me very carefully. Like Esau, the natural Natural
men and women, their God, our God, is our belly. Our God is
our belly, our appetites, the flesh. What is natural man's
God? Himself, right? What does he
worship? What does he attempt to adorn?
What does he dote over? What does he covet? What does
he pursue with all the gusto he's got? Fleshly appetites,
gratification of self, health, wealth. The religious man is
no different. He's worse. The religious man, he comes in
under the pretense of knowing God, knowing the truth, loving
Jesus and so forth. But what he wants is health,
wealth, happiness. What he can get out of God. Religion
for gain, for the body. Not caring about knowing, worshipping
the true and living God. Knowing Christ can be found in
him. See, I understand. You see now
with me, I understand why Esau was hated by God. Esau said,
I don't care about the things of God. I don't care about these
spiritual blessings and all. I just want something to eat.
In other words, he'd drop all those things just to, what would
a man give in exchange for his soul? A bowl of oatmeal. A bowl of beans. What would a man give in exchange
for his soul? A better job. A new home, a new car. Fleshly appetite. Happiness in
this world, right? Yes. I understand now. Do you understand with me why
God hated Esau? Do you understand? Do you understand
with me, huh? Why God hated Esau? Esau didn't
care no more about the things of God, and I'll tell you what. Neither do 99.9% of the people
who profess to be believer. Going through the motions of
what they can get out of. And I see why God despises them.
But I tell you what amazes me. Here's the amazing thing. Here's
the thing that gives me comfort. Here's the gospel. Are you listening?
Are you concerned? Here's the thing that gives me
my greatest hope and source of joy. God said, Whoever listened to me, I'm going
to preach to them. Polly, God said, I loved Jacob. I hated Esau. I can understand
that. He said, you know what, though? I loved Jacob. Well, you say, well, what? Do
you know who Jacob was now? He was Esau's brother. He was
Esau's brother. He was just like Esau. He came out of the same belly,
grew up under the same father and mother. He was just like
Esau, just like him, except worse. You know, if you'll read the
story, you'll see how Esau seemed to have some commendable traits.
He had mercy and grace upon his brother, didn't he? When his
brother treated him like a dog, cheated and lied, scheme that
connived on him and tricked him on every hand. Jacob tricked
his brother on every hand. You don't hear that about Esau,
do you? Jacob was worse than Esau. Yet
God sovereignly, unconditionally sent his love, his eternal love
and affection on that old rat, that old boy. and said, I'm going
to love that old boy. You see, God didn't have to force
himself to hate Esau. God doesn't just arbitrarily
say, I want to hate this person. No, everybody's hateful. Everybody's
altogether unlovely, the Scripture says. But God must arbitrarily,
unconditionally, sovereignly, electingly say, I'm going to
have to make myself love that old boy. Right? You know yourself, yes, if God's
going to love you, Henry Sawyer, he's going to say, I'm going
to have to love that boy. I want to set my love and affection
on him. Why? He's so unlovely. Jacob, take the name Jacob. You
know what does that name mean? When those two boys were born
out of that mother's womb, Esau came out. And you know what happened?
Jacob came out next they were twins you can and Jacob the first
thing he did was grab ahold of his brother's foot. He. Is always coming out you know
or crying and Jacob came right out got. You say, well, this was just
an involuntary action. No, this was a gesture. This was a sign, a portent. Is that the word? A preview of
things to come out of this old boy. The name means supplanter. It
means catch the heel. It means scheming, conniving,
manipulating, trying to get ahead. You're not going first. It's
as if he was saying from the beginning, I'm going first. Wasn't
it? His brother. Come back here. I want out first. From the beginning. Now, listen
to me. Like all men and women, old Jacob
was brought forth from the womb speaking lies. That's what David
said about all of us. The wicked go astray, estranged
from the womb, speaking lies. You don't have to teach your
child to lie, do you? Why do people that don't believe in
the depravity of man, I can take their children and set them before
and convince them of it. I should be able to. Why does
that kid lie? Why is it easier for your child
to do evil than good? Why do you have to beat evil
or good into them? I have to beat them to get them
to tell the truth. They're brought forth from a womb speaking lies,
just like you did. They learned it from you, who
in turn learned it on the down the road to Adam. But you see,
from the beginning, Jacob was a selfish, scheming, conniving,
manipulative, devious man, self. He was looking out for number
one. Now tell me what you think about yourself, Matt Spock. Who
are you looking out for now? Who you been concerned with all
these eighty-some years, Virgie? Come on, now. Let's all get open
and honest and naked before God Almighty this morning. Anything for his own pleasure,
that's what Jacob was after. Anything for his own profit,
his own good, me, mine, and self, that was him. He schemed for
the birthright. We just read about that. He schemed
to get this birthright, this blessing. Now what kind of person,
now tell me, what kind of person would cheat his brother to get to do that? What kind
of person? You would, but by the grace of
God you would. What do you want about these
sibling rivalries we go through when we grow up? Why do kids,
why do brothers and sisters fight? blood. You know, they've got
the same things. They've got everything their mom and dad
gives to them. What did they fight growing up? Tooth and nail.
My brother used to grab me by the neck, and if God's grace
hadn't prevented it, I'd have been dead. He'd have killed me.
Did you ever do that to Sammy? Huh? Did you? He needed it if
you didn't. We had holes in the walls upstairs
where we lived. A hole would punch, you know,
a duck. Boom. Knock a hole in the wall. We
were out to kill one another. Why is that? Devils, little devils
of our Father, scheme for the birthright. You and I have done
the same thing, given the same situation. Seen a little, little
advantage here. Oh, poor, he saw, yeah, I'll
give you some of your birthright. Yeah, I'll give you some of this
soon. He schemed for the blessing.
You know, it wasn't too much after that that the boys came
before their blind father. Isaac was blind, an old man,
a poor, helpless, seemingly helpless old man. He was going to give
the blessing to his sons, you know, he was blind. And Jacob
with his mother, what kind of woman, tell me this, what kind
of mother would do that? Woman, why? But he schemed to
get the blessing out of his blind father over his brother. His brother was out hunting again. And he disguised himself and
came in and made his father think he was Esau and got the blessing
that way. What kind of person? Look at
Chapter 28 with me. Genesis 28. This man was religious
for gain. Jacob was religious for gain.
He had a religious experience here in Genesis 28. And he started
vowing a vow to God. How many of you have vowed vows
to God? How many times? Oh, I see now, I see now, I see
the importance of coming to church, and oh, I want to be committed
to God. I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm
going to sit, I'm going to learn the gospel, and I'm just going
to be so consumed with the gospel, I'm going to read my Bible, I'm
going to pray to God, and so, I see now, I see it now. A couple weeks later, where's so-and-so?
We're worshiping today. Jacob had an experience, he had
a religious experience, he got all convicted and so forth, here
in chapter 28, and he started bowing and bowing to God. Look
at verse 20 and 21. You remember the Lord appeared to him there? And verse 20, and Jacob bowed
and bowed and said, if, now listen to the tenor or the tone of his,
what he's saying here. Verse 20 and 21. If God will
be with me and will keep me in this way that I go. and will
give me bread to eat, and arraignment to put on, and I come again to
my Father's house in peace, nothing happens to me, then the Lord
will be my God. If the Lord gives me this new
job, and the Lord gives me a baby, if the Lord gives me a new home,
if the Lord blesses me, then the Lord will be my God. Now, he might have been sincere
in this. Well, then, a little while later,
old Jacob was tricked into marrying a wrong woman. Boy, he got what
he deserved, didn't he? You know how it was? He went
down in the country and met this man, Laban, or met Rebecca, first
of all, a woman of his dreams. And he met her father, and Laban
was his name, and he said, I worked seven years for this lady. I've
got to have her. I don't care what it takes. I'll do it. Rebecca.
Like Terry, that's what he said. I've got to have her. Woman of
my dreams. And he said, I worked seven years
for her. So the end of seven years came,
and Laban tricked Jacob. How in the world he did this,
I don't know. But he slipped Leah in one night on Jacob, and
they got married, consummated the relationship, and so forth.
And he woke up in the morning, and it was Leah, the wronged
woman. What did Jacob start saying?
I've been wronged, didn't he? When he got what he had coming. When God gave him just retribution,
just what he'd been doing all his life to everybody else, God
gave it to him for a change, what'd he say? Oh, why me? Didn't he? I've been wronged. Well, who
are you, Jacob? He wasn't ready to know who he
was. He didn't know his name yet, did he? He cried, Pharaoh. Let me tell you the man after
God's own heart. Let me tell you what he says. David one day,
an old boy named Shimei was cussing him. You low down no good son
of a... Cussing old David. And one of the fellas said, let's
go cut him. Who's he think he in Davidson? Wait a minute now,
come on. If you knew me, you might cuss
me too. He'd just leave that old boy
alone. The Lord sent him to cuss me. I need a good cussing. And
if Jacob had thought about it, he'd say, oh, I just got what
I deserved. I had it coming, wouldn't he?
I had it coming. I should have known. I should
have known better. I never did repent of what I'd done, didn't I? Well,
he schemed again. He kept right at it. He schemed
again to get even with his father. I'll get even with that old boy.
He said, well, I've got to have Rebecca. I'll take Lee, I guess,
but I've got to have Rebecca. So he said, I'll work seven more
years and I'll take Rebecca. So he ended up marrying both
of this man, this man's daughter, Laban's daughter. And he, you
know the story about the lean, the speckled cattle and so forth
and the rods and the pillars and how he, what he did was he
schemed and connived. He was a cattle man. He knew
all about, he schemed and connived to get all of this man's best
cattle. He got Laban's best cattle, and
most of them. He made an agreement. He said,
I'll take all the sickly ones. I'll take the spotted ones and
the speckled. You take the purebreds. You take the Holsteins and the
Asimitals. And I'll take these no-good scruffy
ones. Well, he, being a cattleman that he was, he was wise about
it. And he fed and did all the trick and scheme and all this
to where the speckled ones became the best ones. And the purebreds
looked like scruffy cattle. He got the best. And got his
daughters too, the man's daughters, both of them. And then one day
he left without even telling the man goodbye. Took his daughters,
all this herd of cattle, and split time. Got him now. What would you do in that case? Her leg fella came to marry and
got Shannon and married her and took off without even saying
goodbye to you and Nancy. You'd be angry, wouldn't you? And you'd
go looking for that boy. And Laban did. Laban did. But you know what happened before
he left? This is significant. Rebecca, his wife, Stole some
idols out of her father's house as a little statue idols. They
were called idols evidently Laban worshipped idols and so did his
family what Jacob had done had married an unbeliever and he'd
been living down there for 14 years in the midst of idolatry.
Do you tell me now was Jacob worshipping the God? His wife,
his bosom friend, whom he was supposed to be the spiritual
leader of, worshipped idols. She got out of there without
some idols. You think if Jacob had been the true spiritual leader
that he was, that his wife would have participated in something
like that? What about you men? You're spiritual
leaders in your home. What about your wife? What kind
of influence do you wield over your wife? Well, Jacob was afraid of men
more than God, too. Jacob was on the run, and he
heard that Esau, his brother, was coming, and he should have
been afraid. Esau finally was coming after him, and Jacob feared
Esau in spite of, despite the promises of God. If you'll read
the story, God came to him, John, a couple of times and said, Now
I'm going to bless you. I'm your God, and so forth. I'm
going to bless you." Yet here came Esau, and Jacob was scared
to death. Full, Jeanette, of unbelief. He feared Esau more than he did
God. And Esau was coming to him one day, coming to get him, and
his lookouts came back to Jacob and said that Esau's coming,
and he's got, I forget how many men, 400, 600 men with him, coming
out Oh you know what Jacob did? This
mighty man of valor. You know what he did, Joe? He said, Leah, get the kids. Was he going to shelter them,
hide them in a cave? No, he said, Leah, you and the kids go out
front and you go meet Esau. Y'all get out there and we'll carry, bring up the rear. You get the point? God loves
this man! You don't love him now, do you?
You see what a scum he is? A no-good, wiggling maggot! He didn't deserve to live, did
he, sir? What a cowardly no-good bum! My, son! Then, one day, Turn
with me to Genesis 32. Genesis 32. Then one day, something
happened to old Jacob. Something happened to this old
boy. Something happened that changed Jacob forever. Changed
his mind, changed his walk, changed his name. Look at Genesis thirty two verse
twenty four and Jacob after all this was left alone. Now I tell
you what. Jacob was finally alone with
his thoughts alone before God didn't have anybody to hide behind.
And if a man or a woman if you anybody in here a man or woman
is going to be saved. You're not going to be saved
in a crowd. You're not going to be saved because your wife
saved, or your husband saved, or your children saved, or your
mom and daddy saved. You're not going to be saved because of
that. You're not going to be saved by a preacher. You're not
going to be saved by a soul winner, are you? A man or a woman is
going to be dealt with by God Almighty when that man or woman
gets alone with God Almighty and starts crying out alone,
oppression-ly, to that God, God save me or I perish. Not repeat after me. That's hogwash,
that's absurd. It's not when people come up
and a preacher has to compel them what to say, you say, I'm
a sinner, I'm a sinner. I've sinned against God, I've
sinned against God. No! That person will realize and
get along with God and say, I'm a sinner! And it gets thee and
thee only if I've sinned and done this evil. Nobody else around
to see you, to impress, to influence you, you and God. That's what
a man or woman is going to be dealt with when they're alone
with God. And it says here, Jacob was left
alone and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of
day. There wrestled a man with Jacob
until the breaking of the day. Now Jacob had been asleep. He'd
been asleep. But somebody found him. Somebody
woke him up. and began to wrestle with this
old boy. Huh? Somebody woke him up. Who was
it? Well, I'll tell you what. It says down in verse 30, I've
seen God face to face. Jacob was asleep. Now you get
the picture? Jacob was asleep. He was all alone. He was asleep.
That's us. standing before God, dead in trespasses and sins,
but somebody came to him. It says a man, you see that there?
It says a man wrestled with Jacob. It doesn't say Jacob wrestled
with a man, does it? It says first, a man wrestled
with Jacob. Doesn't it? Who was that man? It said in verse 30, God, the
God-man. He said God, I've seen God face,
but a man wrestled with him. Who was it? It's the God-man.
Who was it? Who is that? Christ came to Jacob. Yes! Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, came to him that day. Found that old boy asleep after all in his wickedness and
his sinfulness. Asleep! How could you sleep with
all these things on your conscience? How could we? Yet Christ found
him asleep and came to him. He found him. He was the good
shepherd, John, looking for one of his lost sheep, black sheep
at that. And he found him. He was on the
trail of his sheep. And he found that old boy. And
old Jacob was going to hear his voice. He had something to say
to that old boy. He was going to hear him. He
was going to be wrestled with. And when he goes away, he's not
going to be the same. And if you come to Christ, let
me tell you this, if you come to Christ, It'll be because He
first came to you by His Spirit. It's because He wrestled with
you. What we're doing this morning. The Holy Spirit takes this Word
and wrestles with your mind, your heart, and your conscience.
Is it doing anything to you inside your mind, your heart? Is it
doing anything to you? Are you wrestling inside with
your thoughts, your mind, your convictions? Are you? That's
what the Holy Spirit does. Gets this Word and wrestles with
a man or woman. And they go away. Touched by
God, by the Word made flesh. And he wrestles with your heart
and your mind, your conscience. He convicts you of sin. It's
the first thing he does. You'll see that in a minute from
Jake. He convicts you of sin. You don't start hollering out,
praise Jesus first. You start hollering out, woe
is me. Every single description of salvation
in the Bible started out like that. Everyone. They found out
what they were and who God was. And you'll wrestle with Him,
too. He'll wrestle with you. And, buddy, you'll wrestle with Him. Yes, you will. It says, "...that
wrestled a man with Jacob until the breaking of the day." And
look at verse 25, "...and when he saw that he prevailed not
against him," that is, That he prevailed not against this fellow.
That he wasn't going to deter Jacob. That Jacob wasn't going
to be put off. He saw the sincerity of Jacob. That Jacob was really sincerely
wrestling. He wasn't trying to get away.
He saw who this person was and he was wrestling with him. And
the angel saw that he wasn't going to be put off. This man
was sincere about it. Then what did he do? He touched
him. Just a little sense of his power.
Maybe his little finger. And his thigh went out of joint. His thigh went out of joint,
it said, as he wrestled with him. Touched him, so that Jacob,
let me tell you, from this day forward, any of you ever had
a broken hip? From that day forward, Jacob
walked with a limp. You know, he walked with a limp
from that day forward. You see, when an old rotten gutter
snipe gutter-dwelling, no-good, wretched, rotten, garbage-eating
sinner. You're looking at one. When the
God of heaven touches that old boy, now, he ain't the same no more.
I'm telling you, the Scripture says he's old things pass away. All things become new. He breaks
him, he touches that old boy, brings him down in the dust.
Breaks him, not his hip, his heart. But he raises him in mercy
and grace to walk differently. How? In newness of life. A disciple, all together, taken
up with Jesus Christ. He's got a limp now. Why? He's
got a burden, that's why. You know why a believer walks
with a limp? He's got a burden. What is it? The cross. Christ said, if any man come
after me, let him take up his cross. He's supposed to have
a burden for the word of the Lord. Don't tell me a man or
a woman has... God's touched him when he's got
no burden for the word. The gospel could He might or
might not hear it. He's got to lift this old boy.
Look what he said. He said, the angel said, Let me go the day
breaketh. I'm leaving now. And Jacob said, I will not let
you go. I'm not coming out of this place
until God speaks to me. Would to God we all say that
this morning. Would to God we'd wrestle every
now and then like that. I will not let you go unless
you reveal the gospel to me. I'm tired of playing religious
games. I'm tired of falling asleep in
church. I'm tired of not loving my brother.
I want to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. I won't let
you go until you bless me. I don't know the gospel. Please
reveal it to me." Would to God somebody say that every now and
then. Come up here, God, I will need
to know God. Word to God, one of our children
to break down with a sense of their sin. Instead of run out after the
garbage of this world. You show me a man or a woman
who may or may not read the Bible. You show me a man or a woman
who may be in the worship service or may not. Who may sing praises,
may sing songs or may not. I'll show you a son of Esau who's
in this thing for a rebellion. Lord, I'm telling it like we
need to hear it this morning. That you show me a man or a woman
who is consumed. who is wrestling sincerely in
their heart, who is availing themselves of every opportunity
of hearing the gospel. Why do people lose interest in
the gospel? Why do people not come to hear the gospel? They don't need it. Right? There's something else
better. Right? You show me somebody who's seeking
the Lord with all the heart. You read that article by Spurgeon
this morning. Oh, I'm not preaching at you.
Preaching to me too. You show me somebody who makes
every effort to hear the gospel and just is consumed with the
gospel and it's sweet to them. I'll show you a son of Jacob. A daughter of Jacob, loved by
God. But I tell you what, you've got
to be touched before this happens. You've got to be touched. Anybody
who does not have that attitude has not been touched yet. I don't
care if they've made a profession, been baptized or whatever. I
don't care how many baptized. I made a profession, some emotional
experience. I went to church for many years.
I did it in Mount Tehillabim. He said, I will not let you go.
Well, look here, here's the text, and I'll let you go. Verse 27. And the angel said unto him,
now here's the question. What is thy name? What's your name? Now, Joe, he wasn't asking this
for information, was he? He knew this old boy. He foreknew
this old boy. He had predetermined from all
the foundations of the world to save this old boy and this
old girl, whoever it might be. Set his love and affection on
him. He knew his name. He gave him his name. What he demanded of that old
boy, was to answer for himself. Tell him what he thought about
himself. What's your name? Let me ask you. What's your name?
Well, I'm pretty neat. Well, I'm Jacob. I'm the son
of Abraham. You ought to know me. Everybody knows me. Son of
the promise. I'm somebody. I'm a good man. Good woman. That's not what he
said, was it? Will you listen to me? What did
he say? He said, my name is Jacob. You think he said that proudly?
He said, my name is Jacob. As my name is, so am I, Jacob. I'm a cheat. I'm a no good, worthless,
scheming, conniving, hypocritical sinner. I'm a sinner, that's
what I am. Jacob. Jacob. The people, by God's grace, you can be able to say when asked,
what's your name? If you can say from the depths
of your heart, Jacob. Look at the answer here. He said, Thy name shall be called
no more Jacob. I know you are. I know that's
your name. I'm going to call you Israel. Israel. See, the name Israel
meant a whole lot more than we give it, just the Jews over there.
It's the people of God. It meant prince of God. In other
words, Jacob, I'm going to turn, you're not going to be a sinner
anymore. Because I said your sins and iniquities, I don't
remember no more. But just yesterday I cheated my brother, and just
yesterday I cheated my father, and just yesterday I was a coward
before God, scared to death of men, wouldn't take up... That's
all right, Jacob. No, it's not all right, but I
forgot all about that. That gave that illustration of
going to court. I've been in court, but it wasn't for a speeding
ticket. I'll tell you what, I know