Thank you, Brother Walter. It's
good to be back. Good to see everyone again. I
remember so very well the meetings we had here last year. I rejoiced
in those I want you to take your Bibles with you this afternoon
and turn to my text. You'll find it over in 1 Chronicles
chapter 6, chapter 4 and verse 9 and 10. Just two verses. 1 Chronicles chapter 4 and verses
9 and verse 10. And Jabez, was more honorable
than his brethren. And his mother called his name
Jabez, he will cause pain, saying, because I bear him with sorrow. And Jabez called on the God of
Israel, and he said, oh, that thou wouldst bless me indeed,
and enlarge my borders, my coast, and that thy hand might be with
me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not
hurt me, grieve me, cause me pain. And God granted him that
which he requested. I want to try to leave you, if
I can this afternoon, with one thought that may profit you. And that's this, God can bless
a man. If I can just leave you with
that thought in your mind as you go back to your life next
week and to serve the Lord and worship Him, just this one thought,
God can bless a man. It was said here that Jabez called
on the God of Israel and asked Him to bless him. And the God
of Israel blessed him. I jotted down several scriptures
here concerning the God that Jabez called upon. There's different gods with a
little g. And they can't bless anybody. I'm talking about the God who
is able to bless a man. The God who can bless a man. And that's the covenant God.
The God of Israel can bless a man. Listen to some of these scriptures
where he is identified. Listen to 1 Chronicles chapter
29 and verse 10. Very, very familiar scripture.
David calling on the God of Israel. And here's what he says to him.
David blessed the Lord before all the congregation and David
said, Blessed be Thou, Lord God of Israel, our Father, forever
and ever. Now listen to this. This is the
God that Jabez called on. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness. Thine, O Lord, is the power and
the glory and the victory and the majesty. All that is in the
heaven is Thine. And all that's in the earth is
Thine. Thine, O Lord, is the kingdom,
and Thou art exalted as head over all. That's a great God,
ain't it? Both riches and honor come of
Thee, and Thou reignest over all, and in Thy hand is power
and might, and in Thy hand it is to make great and to give
strength unto all. That's David's estimation of
the God of Israel. Listen to what Solomon said about
it. Solomon prayed unto the Lord God of Israel and said, there
is no God like thee. There's no God like. What a way
to begin a prayer to God. There's no God like Thee. In
heaven or in earth, which keepeth covenant and shows mercy unto
Thy servants that walk before Thee with all their hearts, Thou
which hath kept with thy servant David my father, that which thou
hast promised him, and spaketh with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled
it with thine hand, as it is this day. And now, O Lord God
of Israel, let thy word be verified, which thou hast spoken unto thy
servant David. But will God in very deed dwell
with men on earth, Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens
cannot contain thee. Listen to what Hezekiah said
about this God of Israel. Hezekiah prayed unto the Lord,
and he said, O Lord God of hosts, God of Israel, that dwelleth
between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of
all the kingdoms of the earth and thou hast made heaven and
earth. Isaiah said this about it. Verily
thou art a God that hideth thyself, O God of Israel our Savior. And listen to what God says about
himself. When the poor and needy seek
water, and there is none, and their tongue felleth for thirst.
I, the Lord, will hear them. I, the God of Israel, will not
forsake them. I will open rivers in high places,
and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the
wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water."
This is the God that Jabez called upon. And you come over to the
New Testament and it says things like this, the Lord who is over
all. He's over all. Not only the New
Testament describes Him as being a sovereign covenant God, but
you come to the New Testament and it says He's the God who
is over all. And He's rich. He's rich in mercy. He's rich in grace. He's rich
in all of His saving attributes. He's rich unto all that call
upon Him. The God of Israel. That's Israel's
God. He's the covenant God. Thou art
my servant. I have chosen thee, O Israel.
I am the Lord that created thee. I am the Lord that formed thee.
O Israel, fear not, I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy
name, thou art mine. That's the God he called upon.
Israel shall be saved in the Lord, in the Lord Jesus Christ,
Israel shall be saved. That poor, I don't know what's
going to happen to that poor nation over there in Palestine.
I don't know if God's regathering them to do anything for them
or not, but there's another Israel. There's an Israel of God. He's
our God and we're his people. And Jabez called on this covenant
God, this triune God, God the Father who chose his people God
the Son who redeemed his people and God the Holy Spirit which
regenerates his people and implants in their hearts his saving graces. The covenant God of Israel. I
am the Lord and there's none else. Besides me there is no
God. This was the God he called upon
and asked the Lord to bless him. He knew that this God was able
to bless him. He knew that he was willing to
bless him because he is a covenant God. He promised Abraham hundreds
of years before Jabez lived. In these shall all nations be
blessed. So what does this man do? He
turns his faith into words. And he says, O God of Israel,
bless me. And it was said to him, God heard
his prayer and granted him his request. God can bless a man,
brothers and sisters. God knows how to bless a man. God is able to bless a man. Jabez is not the only one who
called on this God. Listen to how David called on
him. David said this, I will call upon the Lord who is worthy
to be praised, so shall I be saved from my enemies. The sorrows
of death can pass me. The floods of ungodly men made
me afraid. The sorrows of hell can pass
me about. The snares of death prevented
me. In my distress, I called upon the Lord, and he heard me. He heard me. A lady told me one
time, she said, the Lord saved me and it surprised me. It surprised
you, didn't it? Aren't you surprised? Aren't
you even surprised today when he hears you? He heard me. And my cry came before him, even
unto his ear. And David said this, Rejoice
the soul of thy servant, for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift
up my soul. For thou, O Lord, art good and
ready to forgive, and plenteous unto mercy unto all of those
who call upon you." Here's how God says it, calling
to me. In the day of your trouble, and
I will answer you. and you shall glorify me. You know you and I have continual
access unto this God. We have free access unto His
presence. There's never any time of day,
any situation we find ourselves in, any condition, but we're
free to go into the very presence of the God of Israel. because
He raised His Son from the dead, set Him on His own right hand,
and Jesus Christ takes His sweet incense of obedience and puts
it upon the prayers of His saints, and they are accepted to this
God of Israel. And when He came to this world,
remember what He told us, that men should always pray, and not
to faint. And Jabez just took him at his
word. And he called upon him and said,
Lord, bless me. And he heard Jabez's prayer and
he blessed him. Now let's look quick at this.
I won't keep you very long. First of all, I want to emphasize
what I think the Holy Spirit has emphasized here with this
man. And I want to do it something like this. Who is this man? Who in the world is this man?
We don't know. The Jewish historians speculate
that it could be this man or it could have been that man,
but they just don't know. Commentaries speculate, who is
this man? They don't know when for sure
he lived. They're not for sure who his
dad and mom was. They're not for sure how old
he was. They don't know if he was a poor man or a rich man.
Who was this man? What was the state of the church
when he lived? What was the state of the economy?
Nobody knows. He just shows up out of nowhere. And he makes this request, Lord
God bless me. And the Lord blesses him and
he goes off the scene and he's never heard from again. Who knows who he was? And I think
this is the point that the Holy Spirit is stressing unto us. Nothing else matters about this
man. But this, he called on the God
of Israel and he heard him and blessed him. Here's what you
and I are often doing. We want to set these prerequisites. We want to set these conditions
on the Lord hearing us. We can't go to Him just as we
find ourselves. Well, Bruce, we're living, you
know, in such an awful time. Look at what a bad, immoral state
our country's got itself into and perversion on every hand. It's just so awful. We're living
in just an awful time. Yes, we are. And look at the
church, how materialistic it's gotten. Everything is so cold. And besides, in my life, it's
just, my life is a mess. And my family is so dysfunctional. And I've got so many things I
need to straighten out myself. And what we secretly do sometimes,
we have this notion that we need to be just a little bit better
before we pray. We've got to add just a little
bit more faithfulness to our Christian life. We need to read
more, so we want to read more. We want to pray more. And then
when we get all of these things together, and then we feel worthy,
then we'll go and ask the Lord, Lord bless me. I wish we could have gotten rid
of all this self-righteousness and legalism when the Lord saved
us, but it hangs on to us, doesn't it? Here this man comes out of
nowhere, and let's be honest, where do we find him? God knows
how we feel about reading these genealogies. I can't even pronounce
these names. I get all bored, don't you? But out of this boring passage
of Scripture, this man shows up. And we don't know anything
about him. And I think that's what the Holy
Spirit is emphasizing to us. It doesn't matter. Here we are. Does your life ever get boring?
This whole hum? Mine does. What a perfect time to go say,
Oh Lord God of Israel. You can bless me. You bless this
man. What kind of condition was he
in? I don't know. That's the point. He accepts us right where he
finds us. Does he not? I remember when
I was a teenager and I was so afflicted in my conscience. And one of the things that kept
me from coming to God was I thought that I had to be good enough. My life was a mess. I had these
sins and I couldn't quit doing them. And I knew that until I
was, I could get rid of them, I couldn't approach unto Him.
And I thought of a thousand things I needed to do. But I never come
to Him. until He brought me to the place
where He made me see, I'm going to save you right where you are. And then He saved me. I called
upon Him right where I was, in the awful guilty condition, ruined
by the fall. I went to Him just like I was. And I think what the Holy Spirit
here is emphasizing, that's the thing that mattered
with this man. It doesn't matter anything else about who he was,
what the state of the church was, what everybody else was
doing, how bad things was. He went to the Lord God of Israel
just as he found himself. Dear child of God, do you believe
God is able to bless you? Do you really believe He's able
to bless you? Do you believe He's able to bless
you right where you are? Without you having to get everything
together. And make amends. And be more
faithful. I don't know if this is proper
theology or not, but go to Him and try. Go to him and try him. That was the first thing concerning
this man. The second thing we find out about him here is the
scripture says he was more honorable than his brethren. Some of the
commentators said he could have been a man of great wealth or
riches or strength or integrity and that made him honorable.
Man of great courage. I don't know what this man did
in the eyes of man, but I know what makes a man honorable. I know what makes a man honorable.
The Bible tells us. First Samuel chapter 9 and verse
6, you remember when Saul was looking for his father's asses
and his servant said there's a prophet over there in that
town, we need to go see him. This is the way he describes
him. There is in this city a man of God and he is honorable. In the same breath, he's a man
of God, he's honorable. What makes a man honorable? When
God makes him. Let the blood of Jesus Christ
touch a man's conscience, and I'll tell you what he'll do.
He'll turn from his dead works. The blood of Jesus Christ purges
our conscience from dead works to do what? To serve the living
God. If any man's in Christ, he's
a new creature. He is a new creature. All things
have passed away, and all things are become new, and all things
are of God. All things of this new creature,
it's of God. You have the old creature, and
he's of this earth, he's earthy. But you have this new creature
and he's from heaven. He's born from above. He's God's
man. That's what makes a man honorable. I don't know what he may have
done in the eyes of man to be honorable in the eyes of man
if this is what he's talking about, but I know why he did
it. A man who is born again is a
man of honesty. A man who is born of God loves
the truth, does he not? He's a man of integrity. He's
not a perfect man. This man wasn't a perfect man,
but he was a man of God. Since thou was precious in my
sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee. When God
loves a man, that love will become reciprocal. And you'll love him
back. And love worketh no ill to his
neighbor. I don't know why he did what
he did before man. I don't know what he did, but
I know why he did it. I know why he was an honorable
man. God made him that way. Something else is said about
this fellow here in verse 9. We're told he had an awful, awful
beginning. His mother named him Jabez because
I bear him with sorrow. The margin says he will cause
sorrow. She probably said, boy, you give
me a lot of trouble in my womb. You kick me, a lot of pain coming
out of my womb. And she's probably somewhat upset
with him. You cause me a lot of pain, you're gonna cause other
people pain, and you're gonna cause yourself some sorrow. He
had a bad beginning, didn't he? Bless his heart, how would you
like for your mother to name you J-Bass? Every time he messed
up, every time he hurt somebody's feelings, he thought of his name.
My mother named me good. All I've done is cause people
sorrow. All I've done is cause myself
sorrow. He had a bad beginning. You and
I have a bad beginning too, don't we? Boy, we were born bad. We came
forth from our mother's womb speaking lies. Man that's born of woman is of
a few days and he's full of trouble. Marvin's quoted Dear Pastor Richardson,
Brother Scott, he often said a Christian is either coming
into trouble, or he's in the midst of trouble, or he's going
out of trouble. Trouble, sorrow, pain. He caused his mother pain. Boy, you young children, any
young children here, Honor your mother and your father. Boy,
don't ever talk back to them. Don't ever go up to your daddy
and your mother and say, I hate you. Oh, don't ever do that. You're looking at a man who caused
his mother some sorrow. And I tell you, I've suffered
for it in my own conscience. Honor your father and your mother. That's the first commandment
with promise, isn't it? You and I live in a body of death,
live in a crooked and perverse society, in a world of disappointments,
uncertainty and grief, just like Jabez. But you know
what he did? Right in the midst of his sorrows,
he called on the God of Israel. And he said, bless me. And he
did. And he did. Let me say this concerning the
blessings of the Lord. He tells us here in verse 10,
when God blesses a man, he's blessed indeed. Oh, that thou
would bless me indeed. That means real. That means something
that's a fact. Oh, bless me indeed. You know,
some people, bless their hearts, they spend their life just muckraking
around in this world, don't they? Laboring to get their hands on
a few things, and then after a while of having them, you have
to leave them. They grab, I've got a dear neighbor
of mine and I see him, I call him Bunyan's Muckraker. You ever
read Bunyan's Muckraker? I saw him down the other day
and he took an old house down and he stacked all the different
sizes of lumber up. He just all bent over, carrying
different pieces of lumber, putting in different piles. I thought
of Bunyan's old Muckraker. People are like that with this
world, aren't they? And after they get it all together,
it's just so much sorrow, so greater hindrance to them. Oh,
Solomon said, I sought it. And he said, I got it. And after
I got it and had it for a while, I found it to be vexation of
spirit. It just grieves me to death. But you know what the Bible says
about the Lord's blessings? The blessings of the Lord maketh
rich. And listen, He addeth no sorrow
with it. When the Lord blesses you, there's
no sorrow that goes along with that blessing. I can tell you
how you know when the Lord's blessed you with material things
and they're a real blessing and not a curse. Three little ways
that you can examine to see. One, it's not a grief to get
them. He sort of just lets them fall
into your lap. Number two, it's not a grief to keep them and
share them. And number three, It won't be
a grief to let them go when it's time. Bless me, oh Lord, indeed. But I doubt seriously if he was talking
too much about natural blessings. This is a spiritual book. Paul
mentioned there a minute ago about the spiritual blessings
in Christ Jesus. He's blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in Christ Jesus. There's no sorrow with those
spiritual blessings are there? No. Oh my goodness. I have blotted
out as a thick cloud thy transgression. You ever been sorry about that? He has justified us from all
things. You ever been sorry about that?
I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
I've never been sorry about that, have you? I go to prepare a place
for you, and I'm coming again to receive you unto myself. Oh,
that's never caused me any sorrow, has it you? That's the blessings
of the Lord. Those are real. Those are blessings
indeed. The spiritual blessings. That's
in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Oh, to lift up your heart and
say by the grace of God, come Lord Jesus. Come Lord Jesus. That's the blessings of God,
brothers and sisters. He asked for three things. Notice
this right quickly. He asked for three things. One,
he said, Lord, enlarge my borders, my coast. Did he desire more
land? He may have. He was a Jew. They
wanted the land of Canaan, didn't they? Maybe some Canaanite had
taken the land next to him and he wanted it back. Lord, enlarge
my coast. But I think there's a good spiritual
application here. Listen to what David said in
Psalms 119 and verse 32. I shall run the way of thy commandments
when thou shalt enlarge my heart. Boy, we got a race to run, haven't
we? We have. We got a course to finish. And boy, there's obstacles all
over the place. And along the road, there's instructions
for us to follow as we run. But you know what we need to
run this race more than anything else? An enlarged heart. Boy, if you've got a heart, that'll
help you to run when nothing else will. You ever seen some
ball team that they're not very good, they're just mediocre,
but nobody can beat them. And the reason they give for
it is this. Boy, they play with a heart.
They play with heart. That's what we need in our race,
isn't it? God enlarge my heart that I may
run the way of thy commandments. Sometimes we got deep valleys,
long valleys. We got high hills. We need a
heart. When your understanding sometimes
fails you, when your faith is weak, if God will enlarge your
heart, you can run. Give me a heart. Enlarge my heart. Enlarge the borders of my heart's
comprehension, that I may comprehend with all saints what is the breadth,
the length, the depth, and the height, and to know the love
of Christ which passeth knowledge." We've got a great Savior, brothers
and sisters. His mercy is higher than the
heavens. It'll take Him for all eternity
to tell out His kindness to us. His faithfulness in the very
clouds and beyond. He is so full of these saving
merits. But you know what our problem
is? Our hearts are so small. Lord, enlarge my heart and then
fill it with Yourself. enlarge my heart." Oh, what a
blessing if He enlarged our hearts. "...that thy hand may be with
me." That's what He prayed for. Bless
me that thy hand may be with me. Listen to these passages
of Scripture. The Bible teaches us that God
has a strong hand. Isaiah 40 and verse 10, "...behold
the Lord's Behold, the Lord will come with strong hand, and his
arms shall rule for him. My hand also has laid the foundation
of the earth. That's a strong hand there. Listen
to this big hand. He's measured the waters in the
holla of his hands. Listen to this redeeming hand.
I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands. Listen to this securing
hand. I give unto them eternal life,
and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hands. Listen to this upholding hand.
Fear not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee. Yea,
I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. And what if we do fall? The steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord. Though he fall, he shall not
be utterly cast down. The Lord will uphold him with
his hand." Uplifting hand. Oh, that your hand may be with
me. And listen to this one. If this
one's not so, then forget the rest of them. He has an irresistible
hand. Nobody can tie his hand. This is Isaiah 43,
13. Yea, before the day was, I am he, and there is none that
can deliver out of my hand. I will work, and who shall hinder
it? Oh, that your hand may be with
me. What a blessing if God's hand
is with us. Those disciples that were scattered
in the persecution of Stephen went everywhere preaching the
Lord Jesus Christ. And this was what was said, the
hand of the Lord was with them. And much people believed. Oh, that's what we need as preachers,
ain't it, Walter? The hand of the Lord with us.
And the last one, and I'll close with this one. He asked for this
blessing, keep me from evil that it may not hurt me. That's what
the center reference says, grieve me, hurt me. Lord keep me from
evil that it may not hurt me and God granted him his request
and then he got sick. But it didn't hurt him. And then he lost part of his
farm, and then he lost his bank account, but it didn't hurt him.
And then he lost his spouse that he'd been married to for 50 years,
but it didn't hurt him. And then he got old and weak
and lost his mind, but it didn't hurt him. When the Lord blesses you, brothers
and sisters, nothing can hurt you. Oh, you say, but it is hurting
long-term. It was said of three men in the
Scriptures, and all of them had all kinds of trouble. Abraham
died in a good old age. Gideon died in a good old age. David died in a good old age. They had all kinds of trouble,
but none of it hurt them. Not long-term. That's what we're
after long-term, ain't it? God in His wisdom, dear soul,
answers your prayer and blesses you and keeps you from evil,
that it won't hurt you. He in His wisdom will so arrange
it, and in His love and in His mercy will so arrange it, that
nothing He puts you through will do you any hurt. I look back over my life and
I've had a terrible time. I've shed a bucket full of tears.
But I'm standing here today with this testimony. It's not hurt
me. It's just not hurt me. Even my
afflictions were good for me. Because the God of Israel arranged
it that it didn't hurt me. And you can look evil in the
eye. You can look your enemies in
the eye. your afflictions in the eye and say you meant it
for evil. But my God has blessed me and
He didn't hurt me. Go home, go home just as you
are and get on your knees along somewhere and ask the God of
Israel if He would bless you. Lord bless you. Lord bless you.
Thank you, dear brother Walter.