Good evening to you. Let's go
to Genesis the 32nd chapter for our study this evening. It's
good to be here. I'm thankful to see you dear
folks out. I had a good visit yesterday
with Peggy and we ask you to continue to remember her as she
continues her rehab down at the nursing home and I mentioned
this to the men in the office if any of you have a CD player
she would love to listen to CDs there but she doesn't have one
and she is unable to pick up the audio or live stream on her
telephone. And she said, I wish I could
listen to CDs. And I don't have a CD player. But if I see somebody back there
is indicating to me you've got one a portable CD player, that'd
be great. And if you get it to me, then
I'll get it to her. And then when she is released
from the nursing home, I'll make sure it finds its way back to
you. Let's go to Genesis 32. And I'm going to go ahead and
read the scripture, and then I'll ask God to bless. Ladies, don't forget in the morning
at 1130, the annual Christmas lunch. And this has been a tradition
for a lot of years. And I'm sure you will enjoy being
here. I think the trio has some songs
lined up to present to you. And I'm sure you'll have a wonderful
time in the morning at 1130. Okay, Genesis 32, 24, and Jacob
was left alone. Chapter 32, verse 24, and Jacob
was left alone. And there wrestled a man with
him unto the breaking of the day. And when this man 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, this person
who is a stranger, to Jacob, he said, let me go for the day
breaketh. And Jacob said, and he is now
unable to wrestle anymore. All he does is just hold on. Jacob said, I will not let thee
go except thou bless me. And he said unto Jacob, 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 Jacob 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 Jacob passed over Penuel,
the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh. Therefore
the children of Israel, eaten out of the sinew, which shrank,
which is upon the hollow of the thigh, under this day, because
he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh and the sinew that shrank. Let's ask God's blessings upon
the service this evening. Lord, it is good of you to bring
us together to worship. We are thankful that we have
somewhere we can meet together in comfort, and more importantly,
somewhere we can meet together and open up the Word of God,
study the Scriptures, render glory to your name, as we magnify
and honor your beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you,
Father, for such a great Savior, such a mighty Redeemer. We bless
you, Father, for sending Him to be our Savior, indeed to save
His people from their sins. We rejoice in this great salvation
and this magnificent Savior. who has to be successful always
because he's God. And though he assumed our nature,
took it into union with himself, he never ceased to be God. And
as that God-man, he lived perfectly in this world. And then as our
all-sufficient substitute, He took our place. He died our death. He bore the vengeance that we
would have borne apart from your sovereign grace. And our Lord
Jesus took our sins and He nailed them to the tree. He fulfilled
all of your law and brought in for all of your elect everlasting
righteousness. Our sins were forgiven. They
were washed away by the bloody sacrifice of our Savior. And He who laid down His life
took it up again. He reigns in everlasting glory. In omnipotence, He rules this
world. And He's our Savior. He's our
elder brother. He is the great Shepherd of the
sheep. Thank You, Father, for such a
Redeemer. We meet to worship. We meet to
adore You. We meet to thank You for every
mercy, for every grace, for every blessing that is ours through
the Lord Jesus Christ. For these who have been mentioned,
Lord, we mention them, to each of us because we need to be reminded
of their neediness, and therefore we call upon you to minister
to them. But Lord, you remember your people. You've never forgotten us. You
know the needs. You know the afflictions. You
know the troubles. that your people have, because
whatever be our circumstance in life, it is according to your
eternal purpose. And may we ever be mindful that
all of the things that happen to your children are indeed according
to your will, and they work together for good, for all of those who
love you, for all of those who are called according to your
purpose. Lord, You've said that where
two or three are met together, You'll be in the midst. We believe
that You have brought us here tonight, and therefore we believe
that You're in our midst, and we thank You. We thank You for
Your abiding presence. We thank You that You're with
us day by day. And when we don't recognize not
aware of your presence, still we know you're with us. For you
have said you'll never leave us and you'll never forsake us.
As the Word of God goes forth tonight, I pray that it will
go forth in mighty power, and we know that we'll accomplish
your purpose in the thing whereunto you send it. Thank you, Lord,
for all things. Thank you for the gospel of grace
and the understanding you have given to us of this blessed truth. We ask tonight as we meet that
you would do us good, teach us, and magnify your name. These
things we ask in the name of the Lord Jesus and for His sake. Amen. Well, this evening, we want to
study the subject Jacob at Peniel. And I'll begin this way. In John
chapter 5, our Lord spoke to the religionists of His day,
the Pharisees, who didn't believe Him, who didn't have any confidence
in Him. men who had previously tried
to kill him. He spoke to them. These men were
opposed to him in every possible way. And he said to them, search
the scriptures. That is, you do search the scriptures. And they did. They searched the
word of God. But he said, you search the scriptures
because in them you think you have eternal life. You think
by reading the Bible. That's how you have eternal life.
By you doing something. And I'll tell you, they're not
alone in that thinking. There are a lot of people who
begin every day by reading the Bible, thinking. That's how they
have eternal life. You say, do you know God through
Jesus? The Savior, now see, I read my
Bible every day. Well, it's good that you read
your Bible every day, but that wasn't the question. Do you know
God? You can only know God through
our Lord Jesus. So he says, search the Scriptures,
or you do search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have
eternal life. And then he said this, these
are they which testify of me. And then he said, and you will
not come to me that you might have life. You see, everything
in the Scriptures, and we know this, we've been taught this
for lots of years, but we still need to be reminded, everything
in the Word of God is designed to reveal the saving purpose
of God, in the salvation of a remnant according to the election of
grace, and that through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and all to the praise of the glory of his grace. And that's
all of the Old Testament and all of the New Testament too.
When the Savior said, you do search the scriptures, the only
scriptures they had was the Old Testament. They didn't have Matthew
through Revelation. They had Genesis through Malachi. And he says, all of those speak
of me. And as we look in this portion
of Scripture this evening, we've got to remember that this history
of Jacob, Very interesting. No question about it. But these
things revealed to us about Jacob, they are intended to teach us
about our Savior, about His person, about His work. And we see the
grace of God given to Jacob, and we know the grace of God
is given to poor sinners like Jacob and like you and me through
our Lord Jesus. So as we look into this portion
of Scripture, or any portion of Scripture in the Old Testament,
we're looking for the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there are many things about
Jacob that are very difficult to understand. And you may very well be asking
this question, what's the use in studying the history of Jacob? Well, first of all, because it's
in the Word of God. And secondly, because in his
history we'll see the redeeming wonders of God's grace to him. And then also because we're said
to be the sons of Jacob. You see, what God did for Jacob,
He does for all the sons of Jacob, that is all of us, all of the
elect of God. Was Jacob loved of God? Jacob
have I loved, Esau have I hated. Was Jacob loved of God? Yes,
and so are we. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that He loved us and gave His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. Was Jacob redeemed? The Scripture
says so in the book of Psalms. and we're redeemed by the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus, the sons of Jacob. Was Jacob called
by the grace of God? It says that in Psalm 105 and
verse six, so we're called by the grace of God. As God effectually
came to Jacob there at Bethel, when He revealed Himself to Jacob
as that ladder who spans the distance between earth and heaven,
so He revealed Himself to us. We're the sons of Jacob. If you don't see the hand of
God's grace and God's mercy, and if you don't see the Lord
Jesus in His great redemptive purpose in the life of Jacob,
how can you see it in your own life? We're the sons of Jacob. We read that in the book of Malachi. The Lord said, I am the Lord.
I change not. That's why you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. This man Jacob, he made so many
blunders in his life, but the question ought to be asked, why
wasn't he consumed? Well, the same reason you're
not consumed. is because God is faithful. God doesn't change. He's faithful
to His everlasting covenant promises. He ordained us to be His people. We've been His people from old
eternity. He pledged to save us, and to
keep us, and preserve us, and glorify us. And the reason we're
not consumed is because he's faithful. Not because we're faithful. Now, I encourage faithfulness.
I call on you to be faithful. I call on myself to be faithful. But we all know that ultimately,
lots of times we're unfaithful. And the only reason we're not
consumed is because God is faithful. He's faithful. The Lord loved us like He loved
Jacob. The Lord chose us like He chose
Jacob. Before the children did anything
good or bad, God made a choice. God said the elders shall serve
the younger. Esau is going to serve Jacob.
But whose choice was that? That's God's choice. And here you are tonight, those
who are watching by way of the internet, people who know God,
people who love Christ Jesus, He's your righteousness, He's
your light, He's your salvation. How come you know God? God chose
you, that's why. God made you His people. It's true, so often we find Jacob
in troublesome situations. But I tell you, there was one
who was always with him. That's the Lord. One who undertook
to save him in old eternity. And in the dark, it's night time. You'll notice that, look back
up in verse 22. 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. He took them and sent
them over the brook and sent over that he had and he's left
alone. He's in the dark. It's nighttime. You know, back
in Genesis chapter 28, he was converted at night. When he put
a rock down, he used it for a pillow. And the Lord revealed Christ
to him. That was at night. He said, this
is Bethel, this is the house of God, this is the gate of heaven. This is the one by whom I'll
enter into heaven." A lot of people talk about heaven who've
never entered into the gate. They don't know who the gate
is. Christ said, I'm the door. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved and go in and out and find pasture. He said,
this is the gate of heaven. That ladder, it's the gate of
heaven. Christ Jesus. Thankfully, the Lord came to
us in our spiritual darkness, and He illuminated our hearts. And we see, in Thy light we shall
see light, is what Scripture says. He lightens our hearts. But here in chapter 32, we find
Him in the nighttime, Condition again. This is not His conversion, that
happened back over, I believe it happened over there in chapter
28. But here He is in the dark again. And you know, it is not unusual,
even for the children of darkness or children of light, Children
who are redeemed by the blood of the Savior and called by grace
into the kingdom of light, it's not unusual for us to sometimes
walk in darkness. Did you know that? Let me show
you this. Isaiah chapter 50. Just hold
your place there. Look in Isaiah chapter 50. There are seasons of darkness
even in the lives of God's children. Isaiah 50 verse 10. Now watch
this. He says, Who is among you that
feareth the Lord? What does that mean? Who worship
God? You have a heart fear? reverence,
respect, you stand in awe of God, that obeyeth the voice of
His servant." Well, what does His servant say? Look to Christ. That's what the servant says.
Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Who
is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice
of His servant? You know God. but you walk in
darkness and have no light." That's Jacob
back in chapter 32. Now, he's a believer. He's a
child of God. But he's in darkness. He's in
trouble. He's fearful. He's already got
this tremendous gift to give to Esau, whom he's very much
afraid of. And Jacob's in darkness. Maybe I'm speaking to one of
the Lord's children this evening. He's walking in darkness. You know, sometimes I can't I
can't explain this, but there are some times when God seems
to hide his countenance from us. I assure you he's still there,
but he will bring us to this condition that we search for
him. We've just got to have him. I've
got to have the reality of his presence. That's Jacob. That's Jacob in chapter 32. And
this is the people of God here. Here's somebody who fears the
Lord. Here's somebody who obeys the voice of his servant, but
walks in darkness and he has no light. Well, what's a person
to do under those circumstances? Now, read the rest of this verse
now. Let him trust in the name of the Lord. I tell you what
the psalmist says, the name of the Lord, that's our strong tower.
When you can't realize the presence of God, know that He's still
there and trust Him. And hide in Him. And stay upon
your God. What does that mean? Lean all
your weight on Him. I can't see Him. Where is the
Lord? It's nighttime in my life. It's
nighttime in my experience as a child of God. Well, know that
He's there, though you can't see Him, though you don't sense
His presence. Lean on your God. It's a miserable condition as
a child of God to walk in darkness and have no light. Where is the Lord? Where is the
joy that I have known before? What am I to do? Well, trust
in the name of the Lord. He's your strong tower. He's
your pavilion. He's your help. Psalm 124 verse
8, Our help is in the name of the Lord who made the heaven
and the earth. Isaiah 24 verse 15 says, Wherefore
glorify ye the Lord in the fires, even the name of the Lord God
of Israel. You have fiery troubles, fiery
difficulties, Continue to trust in the God
of your salvation, the God of providence. And do as Peter said,
casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. Yes, over
here in chapter 32, Jacob is in another night season and he's
all alone. At least he thinks he's all alone.
Another night of trouble. It seems like he's always having
troubles. You know, some of the people
of God, they feel like they're always
in a dilemma. And the only thing I know to
tell you is, trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon your
God. I don't know whether he'll take
the trial away or not. But I'll promise you this, he'll
be with you in the midst of the trial. Jacob, you're going to have to
meet up with Esau. This is something you've got
to do. But Jacob, rest assured, you're not by yourself. And you
aren't either. Neither am I. Well, verse 24,
let's go through this real quick. And Jacob was left alone. There
wrestled a man with him under the breaking of the day. Who
is this man? Well, verse 30, Jacob said, I've
seen God face to face. This is the God-man. That's who this is. This is our
Lord Jesus in pre-incarnate form. He comes to Jacob. This is all
according to the purpose of God. And the reason for this wrestling
is to bring Jacob to the end of himself. You see, in a wrestling
match, our son David used to wrestle. Ethan wrestled. Some of you, maybe back when
you were in high school or college, you wrestled. The purpose of
wrestling is to pin your opponent. It's to put him down. It's to
defeat him. It's to win the victory over
him. Our Lord is dealing with Jacob
in order to pin him and make him to see he is weak, but his Savior is mighty. That's what the Apostle Paul
learned over in the book of 2 Corinthians. He besought the Lord three times
that the thorn in the flesh would be taken from him. And God said,
my grace is sufficient for you. Keep the thorn. And the apostles said, all glory
in my infirmities and in my weakness. You say, yes, I am weak. Yes,
you're weak. There's no question about it.
But he's mighty. He's mighty. And here he is, initiating a
wrestling with Jacob. This is not Jacob making a decision
he's going to wrestle with the Lord. This is the Lord of glory
coming to Jacob, coming to one of his children and wrestling
with him to bring Jacob to the very end of himself. And he wrestled with him to the
breaking of the day. And it says in verse 25, when
he saw that he prevailed not against, it doesn't say he couldn't
prevail against him. It doesn't say that. The Lord
could have immediately conquered Jacob. But He's putting Jacob
to the test. Will Jacob, will he quit? Will he just give up? Will he,
like most people, just be contented with a little religious experience
and then be ready to get on with more important things of his
life? Or is he really serious? Does he really mean business?
And I tell you, Jacob wrestled with him, the Lord having initiated
this. This is not saying the Lord couldn't
prevail against him. All he had to do was touch the
hollow of his thigh and his hip is out of joint. There's no question
about who's got the power here. The Lord touched him and from
then on he limped. Why'd the Lord do this? to show
to Jacob his superiority, and to make Jacob understand again
that he's really without strength, that there's nothing to Jacob.
And you know, the Lord constantly is showing you and me, those
of us who are the people of God, we have no strength save that
strength which he gives. And He makes us to limp. When He deals with us, when He
deals with us in grace, when He shows us, and I think the
Lord here is giving Jacob the assurance of his salvation. And he's going to walk the rest
of the days of his life knowing it's the Lord who touched him.
The Lord who touched him. Well, in verse 26, then the Lord
says, let me go. The day breaks. Jacob said, I'm not going to
let you go. He can't wrestle anymore. His hip's out of joint. So all the wrestling is taken
out of Jacob. But he holds on as though he
were holding on for dear life. And when the Lord says, let me
go, The day is breaking. Jacob said, I'm not going to
let you go until you bless me. Nobody can bless but God. And so he blessed him this way.
Look at verse 27. He said to him, well, what is
your name? He said, my name is Jacob. I'm
a deceiver, I'm a deceitful man. I'm a supplanter. I take things just because I
want them. The Lord reminds him, Jacob,
you're just a sinner. Don't ever forget what you are
by nature. We don't, do we? You see, it's always good for
us to be reminded that we are, by nature, sin. We're sinners,
we're sin. Sin within, and we therefore
sin without. Who are you? I'm Jacob. I'm Jacob. Don't ever forget that, what
you are by nature. He says, well, thy name shall
be no more called Jacob, but Israel. He's giving him a name change.
For as a prince hast thou power with God in men and hast prevailed.
You've prevailed with God. You don't have to be afraid of
going up against Esau. You've been with the Lord. And those of you who are the
people of God, you don't have to be afraid of anybody out here. The Lord initiated in these dealings with you and
he brought you down to see that you're nothing and he's everything. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid,
Jacob. You've seen the face of God.
Surely you can go deal with Esau now. In verse 29, Jacob says, well,
what is your name? And he didn't get the same answer
Moses got. You remember back in the book
of Exodus chapter 3 when the Lord revealed Himself to Moses
out of the bush that burned, but he wasn't consumed? Moses
said, well, when I go to tell Israel that I've been sent to
deliver them, who shall I say has sent me? What's your name?
I am that I am. That's what God said. But He
didn't say that to Jacob. He didn't say that to Jacob.
He just says, why do you ask my name? God reveals himself according
to his will, bit by bit. Jacob is naturally curious. God teach us in his time that
which we need to know. But I tell you what the Lord
did, he did more than tell him his name. He blessed him. He
blessed him. He blessed him there. He gave
him the assurance that Jacob's a child of God. He gave him the
blessing of protection, I'm sure, the blessing of guidance. Martin
Luther said he gave him the blessing of a renewed sense that the seed
of the woman is coming through him. Even Messiah, the Lord Jesus
Christ, He blessed him. And it gave him an assurance
of the salvation of his soul. He even says here at the end of
verse 30, my life is spared. I've been rescued. I have been
rescued. God has saved me. That's the
assurance of salvation. Now look at verse 31. As He passed
over to Newell, as He walked, the sun rose upon Him. The sun
of righteousness arose with healing in His wings. He went forth and
He felt the warmth of the Son of God. And He went forth, but
He halted on His thigh. He still got a bum thigh, his
hips still out of joint. You see what the Lord did to
him affected his walk. And I'll tell you what God does
for us in Christ Jesus, it affects our walk through this life, through
this world. We walk through this world and
our chief design is to glorify God. to honor Him in all that
we do. And I know we fail. We'll always
fail without Him. But we desire our walk to be
honoring to God. We desire for our walk to be
a blessing to those around us. We desire that our walk be instructive
to those who behold us. And like those folks in Acts,
that people will say, well, they've been with Jesus. They've been
with Jesus. Tell you what, the Lord deals
with us. It will affect our walk. No question about it. But it ends this way, verse 32. Therefore the children of Israel
eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the
thigh unto this day. That which was evident to the
people of God and evident to Jacob himself that God had dealt
with him, became a superstitious thing to the Jews. And if you
read, some of you do read John Gill, and I enjoy reading John
Gill as well. He says there's an entire chapter
dealt with in one of Israel's law books. Entire chapter deals
with this, that they must not eat of the meat from the hollow
of the thigh. And that if you eat, according
to Gil, that if they ate, if any Jew would eat a piece of
meat even the size of an olive from this forbidden hip joint,
it'd be beaten with 40 stripes. You see, The man of the world
who is religious, he also is superstitious. But I'll tell
you Jacob. Jacob said, the Lord's touched
me. It's like Job. Do you remember what Job said
to his friends? He said, pity me. Pity me. The hand of God has touched me. To those of us who know the Lord,
we say, God has touched us. Don't pity me, but rejoice. Rejoice that God has touched
me by His grace. He wrestled with me. He brought
me down. like Saul of Tarsus riding high
into Jerusalem or into Damascus. The Lord brought him down. The
Lord touched him and he fell off his horse, blinded him. And he said, who art thou, Lord? In the rest of the days of the
life of Saul of Tarsus, whom we know as Paul the Apostle,
He walked through life ever affected by what God did for him. And
we'll always be affected by what God has done for us and is doing. And we go through the days of
our lives full of thanksgiving, full of praise, full of gratitude
to God who wrestled with us, who brought us down, to see that
we're nothing and that He's everything. And we rejoice in Him. Father,
take the things that have been spoken this evening. Remind your people that you're
always with us. And maybe like Jacob, some of
your dear people, people who fear you, People who have obeyed
the voice of the messenger of the gospel, they believed on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet they walk in darkness and have
no light, like Jacob was. He is a child of God, but he
is in darkness, darkness of his soul, in great distress, in fear, Let us trust the name of the
Lord and let us stay upon our God. Lean all of the weight of
our souls upon Him who loved us and who gave Himself for us. So bless us with an understanding
of this passage and may we go away refreshed in Spirit Reminded
that the Lord Jesus, our Savior, ever cares for us. And he who
lived and died and arose for us, ascended and ever represents
us as our advocate before the majesty on high. Unto him be
glory in the church forever and ever. Amen.