All right, in Genesis chapter
32, we begin in verse 24, it says, and Jacob was left alone. Now, you know, it's a wonderful
thing to be able to look at the Old Testament and see Christ
in the Old Testament and to see ourselves. And when I think about
Jacob here, I think about ourselves as sinners who are hopeless and
helpless without any means of recovery in ourselves. You know Jacob, the story of
Jacob is an interesting story about how in his life he was
a schemer, he was a plotter, he manipulated things and his
mother helped him, he fooled his father, cheated his brother,
and now he's on the run. He's running from his problems,
he's running from himself, and it says here he was left alone. And I think about this, here
Jacob is a really good illustration of us, because when God the Holy
Spirit brings us to a point to where he's going to bring us
to Christ. He always brings us to see our
helplessness, our sinfulness, our depravity, our inability
alone. We're just alone. We can't have
any help. We don't have any help from anyone
else. And here's Jacob. You might say he's at the end
of his rope. And he sees now that he's shut
up. to the sovereign mercy of God.
Like the publican, God have mercy upon me, the sinner. Not thinking
about anything else, Jacob was left alone. And that's what he
does. That's what the Holy Spirit does.
He brings us to that point where he shows us that we are alone,
have no help, and Christ is our only hope. And that's bringing
us to conviction. of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment, where we can have no room to boast in ourselves,
no room to boast in anybody else. It's all that he might have the
glory. And so what happens here in verse 24, it says, and there
wrestled, Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with
him until the breaking of the day. Now, I think most of you,
if you've heard any gospel messages on this passage, you understand
that what we have here, this man, that wrestled with Jacob,
who appeared to Jacob, this man is Christ himself. This is one
of the many pre-incarnate appearances of Christ in the Old Testament. And I've listed some in your
lesson. He often appeared in human form in the Old Testament
to the Old Testament believers. And his pre-incarnate appearances
were tokens and pledges of his future incarnation. God had promised the Messiah
would come and then he he told Abraham that it would come through
him and then it would come through Isaac and Then we're going to
see it come through Jacob. He would come through Jacob and
the pre-incarnate appearances of Christ that is pre-incarnate
meaning before he was made flesh To dwell among us to walk on
this earth. He appeared many times and it
was to help his people and it was a token and a pledge of the
promise of his coming. We know that he's coming. And
so, like for example, in the Old Testament, Christ appeared
to Adam and Eve before the fall and after the fall. I believe
that's a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. He appeared to Abraham
several times to establish and confirm the promise of his coming,
the promise of salvation. the one who would come to put
away our sins and establish the only righteousness whereby God
could be just to justify the ungodly. He appeared to Moses
in the burning bush. That was Christ, the giver of
the law, who wrote on the tablets of stone. That's Christ in the
burning bush. Now here he appears to Jacob.
And Jacob was laid hold of. And this is the, you know, we
talk about Jacob laying hold of Christ, a sinner laying hold
of Christ. Well, Jacob was first laid hold
of by Christ. And that's the way it is. Christ
comes to us and then he lays hold of us. And he does his great
miraculous work in the new birth. And then based upon that and
because of that, we lay hold of him. He seeks us long before we seek
him. And so Jacob was laid hold of
in this wrestling match by the Lord in sovereign power and purpose. There's a purpose here. And what
was it? To bring Jacob to his knees to
see that he is totally, absolutely, 100% dependent upon God's mercy and grace in
Christ. And this brought Jacob to lay
hold of Christ. And this was a mental, a physical,
and a spiritual conflict which had to be resolved. And the Lord,
what it is, God's sovereign. He's gonna have his people. God
did not promise to save everybody without exception, even those
who perish. God has a people. And he chose
before the foundation of the world and gave to Christ and
sent Christ to do what was necessary to procure and ensure their salvation
completely. And so God's gonna have his people.
Christ said that in John chapter six, all that the Father giveth
me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no
wise cast out, and this is the will of him that sent me, that
of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but raise
it up again at the last day. You can read that in John six
in verse 37 through 39. Well, the Lord is sovereign. The Lord is omnipotent. He is
king by right. In other words, because of who
he is. He is king by decree. What he says matters. It's the
authority of the king. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
king by his death on the cross for all of his people. That's
the mediatorial kingship of Christ. And then he's going to be king
in the hearts of his people. He's going to rule over the hearts
of his people. He's going to bring them to submit
to him and to serve him as Lord of lords, and they'll do it willingly.
He'll draw them by the commands of the gospel and the cords of
love, and they will be made willing in the day of his power. Now
it says here in verse 24 that this man wrestled with Jacob
until the breaking of the day. In other words, this wasn't just
some short spat. or some passing encounter. This
is a serious wrestling that I believe every believer goes through in
our minds and hearts when the Holy Spirit brings us to conviction. Again, conviction of sin, conviction
of righteousness, conviction of judgment. These are eternal
matters that have to be resolved. And Christ personally meets Jacob
on this issue. And God will bless and he'll
use Jacob, but he's going to conquer him. He's going to subdue
him. He's gonna make Jacob surrender. This is not just some sort of
willing compromise or Jacob giving in, it's the Lord conquering
him. And that's what happens in our
salvation. The Lord actually conquers us, but it's a willing
thing. He gives us a new heart and a
new mind. And this wrestling is a metaphor, I've got in your
lesson here, this wrestling is a metaphor for the warfare that
goes on within our hearts and in our minds when the Holy Spirit
convicts us of sin, of righteousness, of judgment, and brings us to
Christ by God-given faith. He gives spiritual life. And
then we struggle against our natural selves, the flesh, against
the unbelief that dominated our lives up until that point. But again, he's omnipotent. He's effectual. This is like
the invincible calling of the Spirit that cannot be resisted. You see, if you can resist it,
you're not being called by Christ through the Holy Spirit. This
is His great work. But the Holy Spirit and the Word
of God, using by the Spirit and the Word, He convicts us that
there's no other hope of salvation. There's no other way of salvation. No other way of forgiveness of
my sins. Sin's my problem. Sin's your
problem. This is the world's problem.
How are we gonna conquer sin? Listen, you can't conquer sin
by putting the right man in office in Washington. You can't conquer
sin by a vote. You can't conquer sin by going
to war with weapons. You can't conquer sin with human
religion and reformation. How are we gonna conquer sin?
We can't. But Christ can and did. And that's
where he brings us to. He shows us that righteousness,
what do I need to be saved? I need righteousness. What is
righteousness? It's the perfection of the law. And the law condemns me based
upon my best work. So where am I gonna find righteousness?
Only in the man with whom Jacob is wrestling. Only in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Where am I gonna find life but
in him? Now look at verse 25, he says in Genesis 32, 25, he
says, and when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he
touched the hollow of his thigh. Now this is Christ. He 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, and he
wrestled with him. Now listen, now we know, We know
the scriptures, how the scriptures portray and tell us about God,
the Son, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
We know that the Lord here could have easily subdued Jacob, brought
him down. The Lord could have just took
his breath, we know that. But this conflict here, This
struggle here, this wrestling here was ordered by God himself,
and the outcome was never in doubt. You see, but for his glory
in Christ, God always brings his people in this struggle to
see our need of Christ, to see our need of the grace of God.
So the Lord struck a crippling blow. He brought Jacob's leg
out of joint. and Jacob went down. So God always
brings us to our knees and makes us willing to submit to him and
his way of salvation and righteousness in Christ. He draws us, the scripture
says. And through the gospel revelation
and the invincible calling of the spirit, he brings us to see
and experience the depravity, the sinfulness, the frailty of
the flesh, the emptiness of this world, the inadequacy of human
religion and works and brings us to see the glory of God and
the salvation that's accomplished for us by his power and his grace
in Christ Jesus. And he brings us to submit to
Christ as our righteousness. And that's what's happening here.
You know, he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh and it was out
of joint. That's the legs, that's the walk.
By nature, we walk in darkness. By nature, we walk after the
flesh. But he's gonna bring us down
and bring us to walk after him and after his life. Verse 26
says this. It says, and he said, let me
go for the day breaketh. Now this is the Lord speaking.
And Jacob said, I will not let thee go except thou bless me. That's interesting, isn't it?
Now again, as I said, the Lord could have easily subdued Jacob,
left and walked away, if that's what he wanted to do, but he
touched Jacob and then expressed his desire to leave, but Jacob
held on, crying for the Lord's blessing and power. I won't let
you go until you bless me. And what's the lesson for us
here in this? Do you suppose that the Lord
would be so cruel as to wound Jacob? Or in our case, to wound
us spiritually only to leave us in that awful state? Bring
us down just to leave and leave us there? Well, let me tell you
something. The Bible teaches us plainly
that the Lord never brings his children in conviction to see
our sinfulness and our hopelessness and our depravity in ourselves
only to leave us in that agony of sin and unbelief. He never
does that. It is always to show us his glory,
his greatness, his power, his grace, his mercy, to save us
from our sins and bring us to faith in Christ. That's why he
does it. Now false preachers, legalists,
they'll beat you over the head and bring you down and leave
you there, but God won't. God always brings his people
down always to raise us up in Christ. That's always the result. And so, Jacob had an unusual
revelation here. He had wrestled with the Lord,
he'd been wounded, but the battle was not over for Jacob until
he could be assured of the Lord's blessings and the Lord's salvation
upon him and the peace that only God could give him. This was
life or death for Jacob, you say. It's a battle that wouldn't
be fought again. He'd heard promises of God's
blessings and now he wanted them in truth and the assurance of
God's word. He was still Jacob now. His past
clouded with sin, his present sinful. He was a wanderer in
a strange country. He still had to face Esau later
on, his angry brother. But he knew he was no better
off for this experience unless The Lord gave him his approval,
his acceptance, his comforting presence. I won't let you go.
And that's where God brings us to. It's not that he's powerless
or we're more powerful than him, obviously not. But this is his
work. You see, you gotta understand
that. What Jacob is going through here is the work of God, not
the work of Jacob. Bringing Jacob to a point where
he says, I won't let you go until you bless me, that's where God
wanted to bring him to. And that's where God wants and
does bring all of his elect to. He's gonna bring us to where
we lay hold of him and we won't let go until we see his salvation. That's for his glory. We hold
on for dear life, as somebody said. Look at verse 27 now. It says, and he said unto him,
what is thy name? The Lord asked him. The Lord
knew his name. He said, what is thy name? And
he said, my name is Jacob. And he said, in verse 28 here,
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. There's the blessing
of God's grace, Jacob. I, Jacob, who are you? What's your name? This is an
admission, a confession of our sins. That's what, what does
Jacob mean? It means supplanter. It means
cheater. That's who I, Jacob, as one old
writer said, he lived down to, he well lived down to his name. I'm a sinner, Lord, that's all
I am. Only a sinner, saved by grace. This is my story. To God be the glory. I'm nothing
else. And that's the equivalent of confronting Jacob with his
sin and depravity. What's your name? Who are you? Well, I'm one who has no righteousness
of his own. There's none righteous, no not
one, that's me. I'm one who has no goodness of
his own. I'm one who has no power of his
own. And in our conversions, God the
Holy Spirit convicts us of sin so that we confess our name as
fallen, depraved Jacob's sinners. And just like Jacob, by nature,
we've all tried to claim God's blessings by self-righteous works
and self-deception. But in conversion, we're brought
by God to see the reality. of our sin and our dead works
in light of the reality of God's grace in Christ. In conversion,
we desire the Lord's true blessings of salvation and forgiveness
and righteousness and eternal life that can only be found by
God's free, sovereign grace in Christ by virtue of his righteousness
imputed to us. You see, the Lord changed his
name from Jacob to Israel. What does the name Israel mean?
It means prevailing with God. Some say it means God hath prevailed,
but it's both. God always prevails over his
people. He always conquers. He always
gets the desired end. Our God is not the God of this
generation who is a God of unfulfilled desires. Oh, he loves you. He sent his son to die for you.
but it won't do any good unless you cooperate. Well, if that's
the case, we're all doomed. But that's not the case. God
has prevailed, but Jacob has prevailed. And that's why his
name is now Israel. He's prevailed with God. How
in the world can a sinner who deserves nothing but death and
hell, how can such a sinner prevail with God? How can I be accepted
with God? How can I please God? How can
I be saved? How can I be just before God,
forgiven of all my sins and declared righteous in God's sight? How
is that possible? And there's only one way, by
his sovereign grace in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
it. And so his name is now Israel.
The victory, the position is not one achieved by human merit,
works or will, but only by God's grace in Christ. And so, as I
mentioned last week, we can see how we as sinners saved by grace,
we can identify with Jacob in two ways. We're all Jacobs by
nature, sinners, cheaters, supplanters, schemers, connivers, but we're
all by the grace of God. Our name is changed to Israel.
We prevail with God because of Christ. He's overcome. the world, the flesh, and the
devil, and he's overcome us. That's what he's done. I am the
Lord, I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. And so look at verse 29, he says,
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 him there. Now, we can speculate, on this
verse about where Jacob said, tell me your name. And he's been
brought by God truly to seek the Lord of glory. And the Lord
replied, well, why are you asking my name? And we can only speculate
here, but God had already revealed to Jacob what he wanted Jacob
to know. And God reveals his redemptive glory equally to all
his children in the gospel. Equally, they shall all know
me from the least of them to the greatest." Now, there are
different degrees of knowledge amongst believers. Some have
more knowledge than others, but we all know Christ. We all know
the gospel. There's no division there. And
he brings us to know Christ as our righteousness. And from this
knowledge, we grow in grace and knowledge of Christ. God is pleased
to reveal more of himself in his word. And in the Old Testament,
God revealed only that which was necessary for the salvation
of his people. But there were many things yet
to be revealed and only revealed to us in the New Testament. You
can read about that in Matthew 13 and 1 Peter 1. One thing was
certain, Jacob would not be carried beyond the bounds of faith prescribed
for the age in which he lived, and that faith looked forward
to the coming of Christ. And so God says, God's sovereign
in that revelation. God's saying, I'm gonna reveal
to you what I want you to know. And that's it, we won't go beyond
that. And so in verse 30, Jacob called the name of the place
Peniel or Peniel, however you wanna pronounce it, for I have
seen God face to face and my life is preserved. The face of
God, that's what Peniel means. For I've seen God face to face
and my life is preserved. What's the significance of that?
Well, you know, back in Exodus, Chapter 33, Moses asked this
of the Lord. He said, show me thy glory. And
the Lord answered this way. He said, I will make all my goodness
pass before thee and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee
and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show
mercy on whom I will show mercy. That's God's glory, Exodus 33,
19. But then the Lord told Moses,
he said, thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man
see me and live. That's Exodus 33 20. But listen to this, earlier Moses
wrote in Exodus 33 11 that while he was in the tabernacle, it
says this, the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaketh
to his friend. You know, the Apostle John wrote
that no man had seen God at any time, no man had seen God at
any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the
Father, he hath declared him, John 1 18. Now what's going on
here? Is there a contradiction? God
says nobody can see my face, and yet Jacob says here, I've
seen thee, seen the face of God, and Moses spoke to the Lord face
to face as a man speaketh to his friend. What's going on here?
Is there a contradiction? And the answer's no, there's
no contradiction here. There's a point being made though,
and it's an important point, and it's made in all these verses.
And here it is that simply that sinners can never see the glory
of God or approach God and live apart from that revelation that
God gives to his people in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. You
wanna see God? You wanna talk to him face to
face? Well, my friend, you've got to have a mediator. You've
got to have a surety, one who has your sins upon him and stands as your surety, owing
the debt that you ran up. You've got to have a substitute,
one who will take your place and pay that debt and redeem
you from your sins. You've got to have one who died
and arose from the dead because of righteousness. In order to
approach God, and live, in order to see God and live face-to-face,
you've got to have a righteousness that equals and answers the demands
of God's justice. You don't have it by your works,
you don't have it by your experiences, you don't have it by your will,
it's all in Christ. And so if you wanna see God,
you wanna be accepted with God, you wanna approach God face-to-face,
well listen to this. This is 2 Corinthians 4.6. For
God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath
shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's what
Jacob, by the grace of God, saw when he saw the face of God.
He saw Christ. The effulgent, radiant glory
of God, Hebrews 1 tells us. in the face of Jesus Christ,
in the glory of his person, in the glory and the power of his
finished work. God's face is that which identifies
and distinguishes him as the one living and true God, the
God of all grace, the God who justifies the ungodly based upon
the righteousness of his Son freely imputed to his people
and which they receive by God-given faith. And that's the only way
that sinners can see and approach God and live. To approach God
without Christ is certain death, isn't it? All right, we'll close
there.