Well, Jacob is continuing his
journey back toward home, and the Lord sends graciously a double
host of angels to accompany him, some 120,000 angels, if the Jews
are correct that a host consisted of 60,000. and this being Maenaeum,
which means double or two hosts, 120,000 angels. It's quite interesting
to remember. It's been 20 years since Jacob
used a rock for a pillow, and he laid down and he dreamed,
And the Lord in this dream showed him a ladder. That ladder reached
from earth, reached all the way to heaven. The ladder is Christ
Jesus. That's a picture of Christ Jesus.
We know that. We come to God through Christ,
this ladder. And God deals with us by means
of this ladder, our Lord Jesus Christ. He's a long ladder. He
reaches all the way to God. And God comes down to us, all
the way to us, by means of this ladder. One of the many interesting
things about that ladder that Jacob saw, he saw angels of God. Angels of God ascending and descending
upon that ladder. Remember this, all of the blessings
of God come to us through Christ Jesus. And angels are a blessing
of God to us. And when our Lord sends angels
to minister to his saints, as he sent these two hosts of angels
to minister to Jacob, you may rest fully assured he sent them
to Jacob by way of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every, every mercy, every
grace, every blessing that God has for us sons and daughters
of Adam. People who are saved by the grace
of God. That remnant according to the
election of grace. Every mercy God sends to us,
He sends through Christ Jesus. And He doesn't send them any
other way. God blesses us as we meet together through the
preaching of the word. He blesses us through the ministry
of a congregation such as ours. He uses us, but make no mistake,
those blessings don't come to people through us. They come
to us through Christ Jesus, this latter. I love the words of verse
one where it says, the angels of God met him. the angels of
God met him. Now, not just one angel. Though
one angel who is sent of God to guard us, to encourage us,
to minister to us in some way, one angel is more than sufficient. But our Lord opened the eyes
of Jacob and enabled him to see a host of angels, a host of angels. And this was to greatly encourage
him. And let us remember, those of
us who are the people of God, that the Lord has continually,
he sent angels, he's used angels to minister to us. Listen, he
used angels to minister to his own son. That's how much grace
of the Lord is manifested through angels. He used them to bless
His Son, to minister to His Son, to watch over and in some way
protect His Son. The angels were there. They sang
His praises as soon as He was born. And I thought of this today
as I worked on this message. Those angels that bless us through
their presence, that is God blesses us through their presence, angels
that minister to us, they're not new angels. And undoubtedly
they were there at the incarnation, the same angels. You think of
that. There's the angels gathered around
and they observed this new baby. Their Creator has taken on the
form of sinful flesh, made likened to the people whom He's going
to save. He wasn't a sinner, of course,
but was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. Romans chapter
8 says that. And those angels, they looked
on and they sang His praises. and the shepherds, they heard
them. They heard them. That's not fiction. That's not
a made-up story. That's real. That's real. These angels who ministered to
Jacob were as real as the angels that do minister to you, though
unseen by our natural eye. Just as real. And they beheld our Savior. Like I said, these are not the
angels that minister to us, that guard us, that encourage us,
that no doubt whisper into our ears verses of Scripture to strengthen
us in the faith. These are some of the same angels
who ministered to our Savior. You want to know how much God
loves us and how gracious He is to us? He uses those same
ministering spirits, spirits that minister to His only begotten
Son, He uses them to minister to us. Isn't that something?
That just was a sweet thought to me today. I'm so blessed by
that. I thought, here I am in this
office, with the word of God open and I'm studying and I don't
have the least doubt but what angels of God were right there
in the office with me and sent by God. They beheld the Savior's
birth. They were there to minister to
the Savior after Satan tempted him 40 days and 40 nights. And
I certainly believe they took him food. They took the Savior
food and water. They ministered to Him. And they
were there ready, as it were, on call. If the heavenly Father had seen
fit to send them when our Lord was on the cross. And you remember
Simon Peter, he took his sword out And he whacked off the ear
of Malchus, the servant of the high priest. Lord Jesus reattached
that ear. He told Simon, put your sword
up. How else shall the scripture
be fulfilled? But they were there. Those angels
were there. They were ready. I guarantee
you, they were ready. But their services were not needed,
for the death of the Lord Jesus was ordained in old eternity
to save us. No angel got a call from the
Father. No angel received a divine summons. Go there! Oh no, oh no. He must die, He must suffer,
He must bleed, He must die, and He must die, He must redeem all
by Himself. No angel was there to help Him
in any way. He did it by Himself. And of course we know that our
Lord died, And I don't doubt but what angels of God weren't
gathered around that cross. And when his soul left that body, up he went into the presence
of God. After all the angels were there when Lazarus died,
right? We read about that. Angels of
God took him into the presence of the Lord. I'm sure the angels
of God took the Savior right into the presence of God, this
righteous, righteous servant of Jehovah. And angels were there,
I'm sure, when he was exalted and he ascended on high. And
you know what it says in Matthew chapter 25? When our Lord Jesus
comes back, and everybody's gonna be gathered together, gonna be
a great judgment. In Matthew chapter 25, I read
it again today, and all the holy angels coming with him. Now,
how many is that? All of the holy angels, his attendants. Oh, how they praise him. But
they can't praise him like we do. because they haven't been
redeemed. They look, they desire to know
more about it, but there was no salvation for
the fallen angels. And the elect angels, they haven't
experienced, they will never experience sin. And therefore,
consequently, they will never know the sweetness of forgiveness
and the full pardon of sin through the bloody death of the Lord
Jesus Christ." They'll never know anything about that. And
they'll hear us sing forever, worthy is the Lamb that was slain,
who redeemed us to God by His blood. They can't enter into
that, but we sure will. Now, think of this. God used
angels to minister to his son, who is the darling of his bosom, loved him with all of his heart. And when I say that, I realize
that doesn't even begin to set forth the father's love toward
the son. But I'll tell you this, as the
father loves the son, that's how he loves us. And he sent
those ministering spirits to one like Jacob. And he sends ministering spirits
to each of you who are the people of God, you who are watching.
Probably somebody out there by themselves, you got your Bible
open. He sends his ministering spirits
to you. because you're valued by God. You're one of His jewels. That's
what we read in the Scriptures. One day He's going to come back
to gather all of His jewels. A jewel is expensive. A jewel
is that which is very highly valued and prized. I tell you,
God highly values His people. And so he sends the same angels
to minister to us as he sent to minister to his son. If that doesn't kind of make
your day, if that doesn't put a little wind in your sail, Well,
you need to seek the Lord's face. It's a great blessing. But this
is what happened to Jacob. He's fearful. He's met with Laban. Though they parted on good terms,
Laban kissed them all goodbye. And Jacob then sees these angels. And it did him good. But it didn't
take him long to forget. And that's the way it is with
us. Because he sees all of these angels and then he sends messengers
to his brother Esau. And said, basically, I got a
lot of stuff for you. And he even called him Lord,
which was not right. because Jacob has the birthright. Jacob's got the blessing. He humbled himself before the
wrong one. But you see, he's trying to save
his bacon, as we'd say. He's trying to take care of himself.
He's sweetening this thing. Maybe Esau won't be so rough
on me if I call him Lord. I'm your humble servant, and
I've got a goodwill package for you, all this cattle and sheep
that I'm going to give you." And the messengers came back.
Well, did you find them? Yes, sir. You found my brother? Yes, sir. Well, what's going
on? He's heading your way and he's
got 400 men with him. And all of a sudden, all of a
sudden, that vision of all those angels just kind of evaporates. And he's afraid again. Look at
verse seven. Then Jacob was greatly afraid
and distressed. My title to this, it's a long
title. Jacob, Jacob. fearful and prayerful, but really
I'd put another word in there, but probably wouldn't have room
for this full title. Jacob, fearful and distressed,
but prayerful, but prayerful. He's fearful. And he's distressed. Very interesting word, that word
distress, because it comes from an original word, which means
squeezed in, or as we would say, between a rock and a hard place.
He feels everything pressuring in on him. And he's fearful. And he says,
What am I going to do? I'll just divide my whole group
into two groups. And if he comes across that group
over there, at least we'll be all right. If he comes across
me in this group right here, they'll be all right. Trying to take care of himself. But we get to verse 9. And he does have the good sense
to go to the Lord in prayer. And he says, verse 9, And Jacob
said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac. God. The word is Elohim. The Creator God. The God who
made all things. I believe you're the governor
of the nations. You made all things by your power. You rule all things. You're God. And there is in that
a plurality. For there is the Trinity. For
the Lord said there in Genesis 1, let us make man in our own
image. Not three gods, but three persons
in the Godhead. And then he says, the Lord, he
uses a different word now. The first word is Elohim or the
triune God, omnipotent. The Creator now uses Jehovah,
the Great I Am, the ever-existent One. He recognizes the greatness,
the omnipotence, and the glory of the One to whom He is speaking. When we go to the Lord in prayer,
let us always remember who it is we're talking to. We're talking to the One who
made everything, who rules everything. We're talking to the Great I
Am, the Eternal God. And this is the God who saves. This is a God who shows grace. So yes, Jacob, he's fearful. He feels like the whole world
is squeezing in on him. Do you ever feel that way? The
troubles are just, they're coming in, it's just mashing me, it's
pressing on me. That's the idea of this word
here, distressed. Do you ever feel like everything's,
it's just, we'd say, stressing you out. That's the way Jacob
was, he was stressed out. He's felt like everything is
just mashing him. You ever feel that way? Sometimes
the people of God feel that way. What are you going to do? What
are you going to do? Well, I'll tell you what Jacob
did not do. He didn't turn to the gods of
Laban. And his wife has got those gods
in her saddlebags. But He didn't turn to them. And He didn't turn to the angels
either. Thank God for the angels. But we don't pray to angels.
No sir. We're thankful for them. But
we don't worship angels. I know a lot of people today
do. That's idolatry. It's idolatry to worship angels. John fell down to worship an
angel in the book of Revelation, and the angel of God said, Get
up! I'm just a servant of God like you are. I just serve in
a different capacity. Yeah, he didn't call on the angels,
and he didn't call on those false gods of Laban. He called on the God who's God.
Isn't it very comforting for all of us to know that the God
who rules the world, the God who is the sovereign, the God
who is all-powerful, the God to whom all things belong, Jehovah,
the Eternal One, The only Savior. Our Lord Jesus used that expression,
I am, several times in His ministry as they're recorded in the Gospel
of John. I am the door. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. I am the resurrection. I am the
life. I'm the Good Shepherd. The One we call alone is the
Great I Am. And nothing is impossible with
Him. And nobody can frustrate His
purpose. Nobody can stop Him from doing
what He's purposed to do. That's who Jacob calls on. Tell
you what, if you're going to call on the Lord in prayer, you
make sure you call on the right Lord. There's a lot of people
across this world that call on any kind of Lord at all. There
are people in this world, here's what they'd do, they'd call on
the gods of Laban, just in case. And call on the angels, just
in case. And call on the God of Abraham,
just in case. Just kind of hit them all. Well,
surely one of them is the real God. No, you're an idolater.
That's what people, they get these prayer chains going. They say, well, I want everybody
praying for me, about my cancer or whatever, my heart condition. And they call the Catholic Church
and the Baptist Church and the Methodist Church. And they say,
well, surely one of them will get through. There's only one God who hears,
and one God who has all power, and that's the God of the Bible.
That's Him. Say what you want to about Jacob.
He did call on the right one. I know he's fearful, and I know
he is distressed. He's just plumb stressed out.
but he called on the Lord. And look at his attitude in verse
10. Don't you love this? I'm not
worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth. You can enter into that, can't
you? Don't you say in your own heart, Lord, I'm not worthy of
the least of the mercies you've given to me. But I'll tell you what, any of
the mercies of God that he gives to his people are not least mercies. They're big mercies. Because
they're mercies in Christ Jesus. Think of how merciful God's been
to you to teach you the truth. The truth. The truth of how God
saves sinners. The truth of God's identity. And there's the truth about your
condition. And the truth about the Lord
Jesus and His work of redemption upon the cross of Calvary, and
the work of the Spirit of God. He's revealed to you the Spirit
of truth who teaches you about Christ Jesus. Jacob says, I'm not worthy. I'm
not worthy that you would show the truth to me. And then he throws this in. He
says, for with my staff I passed over this Jordan now and become
two bands with this staff. He's a shepherd. He knows what
a staff is for. It's got a crook on it to pull
a lamb or a sheep back with the flock. And he can kind of nudge them
along. Maybe he's saying, Maybe he's
saying, if I'm out of line, use that staff and pull me back in
line. But he says in verse 11, deliver
me. Save me, save me from my enemy. But you know something? He really,
he really didn't have anything to worry about. because Esau's
not coming after him to get him. I'll tell you how it is with
us. We let our minds run wild, and
then we, in our own minds, we imagine the worst that's going
to happen, and we worry about it. Guess what Jacob's doing? He's worried about, oh no, this
is terrible, that's terrible. No, it's not terrible. Because
it's not gonna be the way that Jacob thinks it's gonna be. Esau's
not, he's not gonna be on the war path. He's gonna come up
to Jacob and hug him and kiss him. And when Jacob says to him,
In fact, go over here and look at chapter 33. Look at chapter
33. Just look at verse one. And Jacob
lifted up his eyes. He looked and behold, Esau came
and with him 400 men. Oh no. Oh boy. Probably his life flashed before
his eyes. This is the end right now. And he divided the children unto
Leah, and unto Rachel, and unto the two handmaids. And he put
the handmaids and their children foremost, and Leah and her children
after, and Rachel and Joseph hindermost. And he passed over
before them. He goes ahead of them. All right. If I'm walking to my death, I'm
going to go over there by myself. Probably he's going to say to
Esau, just take me, do with me what you want, but not my family. He goes over, he bows himself
to the ground seven times, perfect humility, until he came near
to his brother. And Esau ran out to meet him,
and Jacob probably said, here it comes. Here comes the dagger. And Esau embraced him. and fell
on his neck and kissed him. And they just cried. It didn't go the way Jacob thought
it was going to go. He had worried about this. He
couldn't sleep over this. He's fearful, distressed. But it was alright. And I'll
tell you a good many of the things that we worry about, that we
lose sleep over. A lot of them don't even happen. We just imagine the worst. And
even if things do happen, let us never forget the Lord said,
I'll never leave you and I'll never forsake you. And Jacob's got all these animals
with him. And I'll just show this in verse
eight there of chapter 33. And Esau said, what meanest thou
by all this drove which I met? Well, what's all this cattle? What are all these sheep here? And Jacob said, these are to
find grace in the sight of my Lord. Trying to buy his favor. Kind of like a sinner. Trying
to buy the favor of God. Just come empty handed. And here's
what Esau said, I have enough my brother. Keep that to yourself. I've got
enough. Didn't work out at all the way
Jacob thought. All that pressure, his blood
pressure probably running up. No, it didn't go that way. I'll go back over to verse 11.
He says, deliver me from the verse 11 of chapter 32. He says,
deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from
the hand of Esau. I fear him, lest he'll come and
smite me and the mother with the children. And then he goes to this, he
says, but Lord, I remember your word. Let me tell you something
about prayer. First of all, it's got something
to do with the will of God. And we would all do well when
we pray publicly to, as it were, remind the Lord of what He said
He's going to do. David said, Lord, You said, seek
ye my face. Thy face, O Lord, I'm going to
seek. You said, if I seek you, I'd
find you. Go ahead and use God's word. I'm very much persuaded we don't
use enough of the word of God even in our prayers. Use God's word. Use what he has promised. This
is exactly what Jacob is doing here. Lord, you said, you said
to me, I've got your word on this. I will surely do thee good
and make thy seed as the sand of the sea. I'm going to have
a seed. His name is Christ Jesus the Lord. And he's going to have
a people as numerous as the sand on the seashore. A people that
can be numbered from multitude. Lord, that's what you promised.
That's what you promised. And I'll tell you what the Lord
has promised He will do. He will do. Well, may the Lord
bless that His glory and to our good. Thank you, Father, for
bringing us together this evening. You have said in Your Word that
a man can receive nothing except it be given him from above. Lord,
we believe You've given us something from above tonight. Help us to receive the Word and
to draw strength and confidence and encouragement from what You
have said. We thank you, O Lord, for your
dear Son, our Savior, for that great salvation in Him. And we
thank you for the ministering spirits who come to us and who
no doubt are with us now. We're thankful that they're here.
But more than that, we're thankful for the Master of the angels,
our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the angel, the messenger of the
covenant. We rejoice in Him, and as we
leave this building tonight, we go our way thankful that our
God is God indeed, and that all things are under your dominion
and your control. Forgive us for being fearful.
We have no cause whatsoever to ever be fearful. And yet, Lord,
knowing us as we do, we'll be fearful again, and we're sorry.
We're asking that you'd help us to grow in grace and in knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Remind us that not only are the
angels of God with us, but far more than that, the angel of
the covenant is with us by His Spirit. and we rejoice in Christ
Jesus. Dismiss us with the benediction
of your grace and love and mercy, and may these be upon all who
call upon your name in truth and in spirit. For Christ's sake
I pray, amen.