You would be turning in your
Bibles to Genesis chapter 32. The title of my message this
morning is Face to Face. The text is actually taken from
eight verses that we'll be looking at in Genesis 32, and then another
four verses in Genesis 33. And in chapter 32, we'll be looking
at a face-to-face confrontation,
a wrestling match, so to speak, as it's recorded there, that
Jacob had with a man. A man, we'll discover, is nothing
less than a pre-incarnate presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
God-man. And so this morning I hope to
direct you to the fact that all who shall enter heaven's glory,
likewise, just as Jacob wrestled with this man, They too must
have a face-to-face confrontation with the God-man. They must,
and all who shall enter heaven, they will have. And that's what
we'll be looking at. So to begin with, let me kind
of bring you up to speed on what's taking place here in Genesis
32. Jacob was on a journey, and his estranged twin brother Esau,
who they had parted ways years earlier, was in a nearby region,
and Jacob was fearful of Esau. And so he sent some messengers
toward Esau to try to determine whether or not maybe things had
calmed down between the two. And the messengers reported back,
and they said, Esau's coming to meet you, Jacob, and he's
coming with 400 men. So Jacob imagined thereby that
his very worst fears would be realized. And so he immediately
divided his camp, his servants, his family, and all those that
were with him into two groups, thinking that if Esau came and
slaughtered one group of us, the other group would survive.
And then in verses, in fact, he was so afraid. If you look
in verse seven, it says he was greatly afraid and he was distressed. And that's when he divided his
group up. And in verses nine through 12, he prays to God for
temporal deliverance from his brother Esau. He appeals to God
based on his own unworthiness, asking God for mercy, and appealing
to him based on God's promises, reminding him that, God, you
said you'd bring a people through my grandfather Abraham, Isaac,
my father, and through me, the chosen one, Jacob, not through
my brother Esau. And then in verse 13 and following,
Jacob uses his wisdom and starts to, for the lack of a better
term, come up with a diplomatic strategy that he hoped would
appease the wrath and anger of his brother and cause him to
be accepted by his brother Esau. And what he did was he divided
his servants up into what is referred to here in chapter 32
as droves. They were way groups of people that he put together
and with them. He gave them rounds and calves
and goats and presents to take to his brother Esau. We don't
know how many different delegations he sent forth in front of him,
but we know it was more than three because he said he did
the same thing with the first, second, third and the others.
So quite quite a few. groups here going forward to
meet Esau in advance of Jacob. And he told each group, he said,
tell them this. In fact, look at that in verse
20 of chapter 32. He says, say, moreover, when
you see, get to my brother, Jacob, say, behold, our servant, Jacob
is behind us. He's he's going to be going to
be coming to join us. For he said, he's telling them,
now you tell Esau that this is what I said, that I will appease
him with the present that goeth before me and afterward I will
see his face peradventure or perhaps he will accept me. As
we get to our text that we want to look at today, verses 24 through
31, Jacob nears Esau and he comes upon a brook and he sends his
family on across the brook. And there in verse 24, we're
told, and Jacob was left alone. And there wrestled a man with
him until the breaking of the day. And when he, that is the
man he was wrestling with, saw that he prevailed not against
him, not against Jacob, He just touched the hollow of his thigh
and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint. He was made
crippled as he wrestled with him. And he, this man, he said
to Jacob, let me go for the day breaketh. And he said, Jacob
said, I will not let thee go except thou bless me. And he
said unto him, 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. Something that should
read and shall prevail. 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 him there. And
Jacob called the name of the place Peniel. For I saying this,
for I have seen God face to face and my life is preserved. And
he passed over Penuel. As he passed over Penuel, the
sun rose upon him and he halted or limped upon his thigh. Here we have the picture of Jacob,
literally now, wrestling, grabbing a hold of each other on the ground,
all night long apparently, with a man. But it was a God-man. It was the pre-incarnate presence
of Christ himself. God in the flesh, appearing before
his time, before he had even been born of the Virgin Mary,
to Jacob. Not in a dream, not in a vision,
but in reality. They actually had a wrestling
match. We know that from verse 31. He halted. He limped when
he left. And some say that Jacob believed
that he limped the rest of his life as a result of that literal
wrestling match that he had with a God-man. We know we have the
first indication that this is God in the flesh when he touched
Jacob's thigh and just by a mere touch made him crippled. And
then in verse 26, Jacob knows he's dealing with God When he
says, no, I can't let you go till you bless me. You see, he
needed a blessing that could come only from God. And then
we see more telling in verse 30 when Jacob himself says, I
have seen God face to face. Now in verse 25 you'll notice
it says, and when he saw that he, the God-man, this manifestation
of God in the flesh, now when he saw that he prevailed not
against Jacob. We have here an instance of Jacob
being told that Jacob prevailed against God. Now how can that
be? This man who was God. How can
that be? God's omnipotent. Though he was
man, he was very God of very God. He's all-powerful. We know from the story that Jacob
did not prevail against him physically. No, just with the touch of his
hand on the hollow of his thigh, he showed Jacob, oh, I can take
you. In fact, he did take him. He made him crippled just then
and there. So we know that Jacob's prevailing
was not physical. In other words, God, and here's
why, you see God, this God-man suffered himself to be prevailed
against because he could do no other, consistent with who he
is and what he had promised. If you look back in verse 12
of chapter 32, when Jacob was praying that prayer to God for
deliverance from Esau, He appealed to that, saying, And thou sayest,
I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of
the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. God had told Abraham,
I'm going to preserve you through Abraham, the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, the chosen one, not his brother Esau. And
so he suffered himself to be prevailed about, because God
is who God is. You see, Jacob prevailed in his
insistence here on mercy, claiming blessings that are only found
in Christ. And he says, he says it this
way. He said, you know, when we were, let me give you this
example. You know, when we were kids, I used to wrestle with
my brothers or you'd wrestle with your friends and you'd get
them in a hole or a headlock. And they'd say, OK, let me go.
And you say, not till you say uncle. Now, I may be showing
my age, but that was basically, not until you say, I give up. And here this God-man had touched
his thigh, made him crippled. It was becoming the breaking
of day. Some commentators believe that he did not want Jacob to
see, physically see him. And he says, so let me go, Jacob. And Jacob, Jacob was whipped. He knew that he could not prevail
against this one by his own power, and yet he says, I can't until
you bless me. I've got to have your blessing.
You see, I've got to have what only you can give. And what a
picture. This is a picture of that woman
who said, I've just got to have the crumbs from the table. This
is a picture of the disciples, as we heard mentioned in the
10 o'clock hour, who when the multitudes went away, And Christ
said, will you go away also? And Peter says, where else do
we have to go? I mean, I must have this. It's the picture in the Sermon
on the Mount of the one that knocks at the door persistently
and says, I'm going to knock here. And he says, those that
knock at that door, that door, which is Jesus Christ, if they
insist on their blessing based on what he accomplished and nothing
else, he says, I'll open that door. It's those who strive to
enter in at the gate. That's the prevailing. And it
was all because the Lord Jesus Christ, he suffered himself to
be prevailed against. You see, it was a manifestation
of a God-man, one who would become incarnate in time, well before
his time had been appointed to actually be here on the earth
and perform his work. But it was based upon, this whole
prevailing was based upon the fact he suffered himself to be
prevailed against. You see, He, God, considered
it not robbery to go equal with God in the covenant of grace,
in the greatest act of humiliation and humbleness that's ever been
known. He came and lived just as fallen
humanity with all that the fall brought about, all the toils
and treacheries of this life, except the Bible says without
sin. You see, he was of the seed of
woman. He neither had Adam's sin imputed to him, nor did he
contract it by generations. No, he was born of a virgin.
And he came and he lived and he walked on this earth. God
took into unity humanity. And he came and he walked on
this earth and even died a bloody death on a cross for sins he
had no part in producing. but which God judicially charged
to him. You see, those, his spiritual
chosen people, out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation whom
he gave to Christ, and he willingly bore sins that he had no part
in producing. Now, that was suffering himself
to be prevailed upon. And that's the sense in which
Jacob prevails here, because that's what he's looking to. It's to a blessing that comes
from the God-man, that can only come based on that which this
one would do in due time. What a picture. And then in verse
27, this man who was God, he asks Jacob, he says, what's your
name? Well, again, this is God. He knows all things. He's omniscient.
He knew Jacob's name. But he was beginning a discourse
that would reveal to Jacob that, yes, you are indeed blessed.
And I believe this blessing is both his temporal deliverance
that would take place with his brother Esau and his speaking,
I believe, of his eternal deliverance. And he says, what's your name?
Verse 27. And he said, Jacob. Now that
word Jacob means supplanter, cheater. And I believe when Jacob
answered here and he said, my name's Jacob, he did so with
full cognizance of the fact that that's what I'm saying right
now. You've already touched my thigh. You've taken me, you've
put me out of commission. But I gotta have your blessing,
you see? And I'm coming to you as one
who has nothing to offer. We see that in the beginning
of his prayer back in verse 10 when he started his prayer to
God for deliverance from Esau, saying this, I'm not worthy of
the least of all the mercies. He knew that by his own power
he could do nothing, see, to obtain that blessing. And so
he says, my name's Jacob. Cheater. Supplanter. The scriptures
tell us that Jacob, when he was born, was holding on to the heel
of his elder brother Esau as he was delivered. Esau, who is
the firstborn, was entitled to the birthright of his father
Isaac. Esau, who showed very little
regard for that when he was simply hungry, sold that birthright
to Jacob, the cheater, the supplanter, in exchange for food. And then
Jacob, in conspiracy with his mother, Rebecca, fooled his blind
father into thinking that he was Esau so that he might effectively
steal the birthright. Now this is the one who's wrestling
with this man and he says, what's your name? He says, well that's
me. You see, based on anything I got to bring to this table,
I don't merit your blessings, see. I'm asking for your blessings,
but I don't merit them at all. I'm a cheater. I'm a supplanter.
And God, man, the one he's wrestling with says, thy name shall be
called no more, Jacob, but Israel. Israel means Prince of God. He's saying, Jacob, you're an
object of God's grace. As a prince, he has power. Read what that says. I love that.
He said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob. But Israel, underline
this, for as a prince hast thy power with God and with men.
That's how he's going to prevail. And hast prevailed. Or some say
that should read, and shall prevail. You'll be victorious. You're
going to have the blessing. Now, how does Jacob prevail? He prevails as a prince, as Israel. And that's the way spiritual
Israel is referred to in the New Testament. All of those who,
like this nation, were chosen temporally to bring the Messiah
through them, all who are chosen by God for his eternal blessings,
spiritual Israel. You see, they too, their blessing
is from this God-man. And how do they get it? They
don't earn it. How's a prince? Where's the prince's power comes
from? He inherits it. He's a prince. You see, he's
adopted. He's part of a royal priesthood. He's a child of the king. And
he's telling him, here, Jacob, this is how you're prevailing.
I know you can't walk. I just made you limp. But as
a prince, you have my blessing. You know, in Malachi 3.6, God
said, I am the Lord, I change not. You see, Jacob had gone
and appealed to God based on the fact that God, being God,
is immutable by definition. He can't get better. He can't
change. If he did, he'd have to get better. That means he
wasn't God before, I guess. Or he'd have to get worse. Then
he'd no longer be God. You see, by definition, God,
deity, is immutable. And Jacob had appealed to that.
He said, you said this, God can't lie. You've made this promise
when he said, you promised my grandfather, Abraham, my father,
Isaac. And here, Jacob, in Malachi, we read God saying, I'm the Lord,
ye change not. And here he's speaking of eternal
deliverance. And he says, ye therefore, because
of who I am, ye sons of Jacob. spiritual sons of Jacob, spiritual
Israel, ye are not consumed. The cause I change not. The God
who told Moses, when he said, show me who you are, Moses, or
God, Moses said, show me who you are, God, show me your glory.
He says, I'll have mercy on thousands, but I shall by no means clear
the guilty. Now it's sons of Jacob. God justifies,
see, the ungodly. It's the cheaters. It's the ones
who come with no merit whatsoever before God that are not consumed. Well, how can that be? Because
he changes not. You see, he's a just God. He
said, I will not clear the guilty. And yet he says he'll be merciful.
And you see that mercy and that justice, they only can come together. And this one that Jacob was wrestling
with, the God man. One who could come and in time,
see, walk on this earth in perfect satisfaction to all that God
required. And who then bore the penalty
due unto his chosen people by God judicially imputing or laying
his sins to their account. Their sins to his account. Getting
my tongue twisted here. Christ bearing the sins that
He didn't have any part in producing in order that God could show
mercy and still be a God that changes not, see? And still be
the God who's just when He saves the sinner. And they, in turn,
God says, that which He merited for them in His obedience unto
death, His righteousness, He judicially imputes or reckons
to their account so that they stand before God accepted based
on nothing that they had any part in doing, but something
that happened for those of us today who have been so blessed
to have this face-to-face confrontation such as Jacob has had, was done
for us some 2,000 years ago. "'I am the Lord,' he said, "'therefore
ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.'" And then in verse 29, Jacob says,
"'Well, what's your name?' Now, Jacob, we know already he knew
he was God. He'd already said, No, I got
to have your blessing. And then in verse 31, when God says, Why
do you need to know my name? He goes on, says, And he blessed
in there. And then in verse 30, excuse me, he said he named the
place Peniel. He said, OK, well, I'll name
it. And he said, I've seen God face to face. He knew who it
was. Most commentators believe that Jacob asked This man for
a name because it was customary, and if you read much of the Old
Testament, you'll see time and again they often name the place.
After to commemorate a momentous occasion. To remember it. In Chapter 31, when God did appear
to Jacob in a dream, he he said, I am the God of Bethel. And that
was at Bethel, Bethel meaning the house of God, where that
took place. And here, most think Jacob was
just saying, I need somewhere, I need a way to commemorate this.
And God said, you don't need a name. And sure enough, he didn't,
for he named it himself. He said in verse 30, and Jacob
called the name of the place Peniel. Peniel means the face
of God. So the connotation here is he's
seen something in this God-man that's revealed a look of favor
from God. He's seen something here that's
revealed God to him in this person, in the face of this one when
he says, I have seen God face to face. And look what he concludes
as a result of that encounter. And my life is preserved. Today across our city and our
state and our country, it's Easter Sunday and men are standing in
pulpits and they're telling folks about Jesus who lived and died
on the cross, was buried, rose again the third day, the resurrection. You see, Jake, the resurrection
itself, think of it. And this is so sad that so many
fail to understand this, that he's talking about a finished,
completed work, proven by the resurrection. Paul said in Acts
17, when he said, I'm going to judge the world in righteousness
by that man, this man Jacob wrestled with. That's the righteousness
you must have, see. You have nothing that you can
bring. Those who behold the glory of God in the face of Christ,
you see, they're made crippled, so to speak, just as Jacob was
here in our story. No, he says, those for whom I
came and I lived and died, I'll show them and I'll teach them
that. And I've lost my train of thought here, so I'm going
to have to pick up again in my notes. Where were we? I really have
lost my track. Easter Sunday, that's right.
Easter Sunday, Acts 17. Thank you, Frank. And he said,
I'm going to judge you in righteousness by that one whom God hath ordained,
and listen, given assurance unto all men, and that he hath raised
him from the dead. You see, God said, righteousness
demands life, just as Christ had to die. Why did Christ die
on the cross? Because sins, he really didn't bear sins. Though
they were none that he produced, it was so real, God killed him.
You see, because sin demands death, but the scriptures teach
us that just as sin has reigned unto death, righteousness, see,
demands life. The perfect satisfaction that
he made, he had to come out of that grave. And in Acts 17, he
tells us that's how he gives assurance unto all men that that's
the standard of judgment. You're going to have to have
that righteousness. And if you have that one, the one that would
be provided by this very God-man whom Jacob wrestled with, you
too shall rise. For Christ said, you know, all
that you gave me, Father, I won't lose any of them. And I'll raise
them up again on the last day. As we move into chapter 33, we're
going to look at the encounter that Jacob had with Esau, the
meeting here. And as we see that, by Jacob's
own words, we know that we have a picture of the conversion that
takes place and all those for whom Christ lived and died. And I want you to see, I think
it's a beautiful picture. As we begin chapter 33, it says,
And Jacob lifted up his eyes, and he looked, and behold, Esau
came. And with him 400 men, just as
had been reported. And then in verse 4 it says,
and Esau ran to meet him. But instead of having a sword
or a spear, it says he embraced him. And he fell on his neck
and he kissed him and they wept. And then in the verses I want
us to look at, verses 8 through 11, we read, and he, Esau said,
he's speaking to Jacob now, these two brothers who had been estranged,
and apart for years, who've now come together, he says, What
meanest thou by all this drove which I met? These waves of delegations
of people bearing me gifts. And he, Jacob, said, These are
to find grace in the sight of my Lord. You see, this is a picture,
Jacob's meeting with Esau here, is a picture of how all of us
initially approached God. For what? To appease his wrath. And to be found in his favor. To find grace. This is the religious
world's concept of grace. That there's something I can
do to procure the blessing that I need from God. Jacob had already
told him that through the messengers that he had sent. If you look
back again at verse 20, as we looked at it, he said, I want
to appease him with these things, he said, that I perhaps might
be accepted by him. So he's only repeating what he
said earlier. He's coming to Esau and he's
saying, look, Esau, I did that. I wanted to find favor with you.
That's why I did it. And what did Esau say in verse
9? He says, I have enough, my brother. Keep that that thou
hast unto thyself. And that's what God says to all
of those who are brought to that same wrestling match to come
face to face with the true and living Christ, not physically
as Jacob did here in our story, but spiritually, through God
the Holy Spirit, through the preaching of the gospel, the
good news of salvation. The gospel that Paul said is
the power of God unto salvation, the power by which we see that
we are princes, see, the power of God unto salvation because
the righteousness of God is revealed. That is the very work that Jesus
would come and accomplish. And God says to us when he opens
the eyes of sinners and brings them to that wrestling match,
we see all that we brought was no good. We see God saying, I
don't need that. All that you did, all that religious
zeal that you had, all those prayers you prayed, all those
scriptures you read, all of the dedication and things that you
did in sincerity in order to find grace, in order to gain
my blessing. thinking that that's what made
the difference. Well look, we call him Jesus.
Okay? Esau, the one who Jacob is confronting
here, that really is his, that's his brother. But he doesn't know
him at all in terms of what was needed for his acceptance before
Esau. Not now. Not as he approaches
him. He comes to him altogether ignorant
of that which it takes to please him. Just as we come to God in
the same way. Ignorant of what God requires.
And so what do we do? We do the natural thing. Jacob
was very wise in putting together his diplomatic delegations to
go forward in hopes of doing something here. with his brother.
I mean, there's nothing wrong with what Jacob was doing to
try to appease Esau. He just misunderstood. But you
see, there's a lot wrong with what we do when we come to God
assuming that he's going to bless us because of our gifts that
we bring. You see, as I said, this Sunday,
people are talking about a Jesus who was buried and rose again
on the third day. And then they're told, if you
will now bring something. You see, Jacob took the Esau.
Jacob had been mildly blessed with riches by God, and he was
taking that which God gave him, see, to Esau. And so, likewise,
men today, they say, well, God gave me this gift in Christ,
they imagine. And if I'll now bring it, if
I'll accept him, see, if I'll receive him, if I'll walk down
an aisle, if I'll profess him in baptism, whatever it is, any
of those things, all of those things, some of those things,
you see, God, like Esau told Jacob, says, oh, no, I've had
enough. I've had enough. We're celebrating
today the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, which signified
Righteousness is established. Satisfaction is done. It's accomplished. It's the finished work. When
he hung on the cross and said it was finished, it really was.
And men dared to come to God. We dared. We all dared to initially. We come and approach a holy God
saying, OK, I'll do my part now. When he rose from the grave as
assurance, see, that it was his righteousness, nothing else that
you bring to the table that made the difference. Well, look what
proceeds in verse 10. So here's the good news here.
And pictured by Jacob in his encounter with his brother Esau,
he says, Jacob said, and look what Esau, Esau had told him
there in verses 8 or 9, he said, keep it to yourself. I don't
need that. I won't take it. That's why you're bringing it.
I don't need it." And Jacob said, "'Nay, I pray thee, if now I
have found grace in thy sight.'" The connotation being, if I've
already found grace in thy sight, not based on all these things
that I've done, that I've brought to bear. He says, "'Then receive
my present at my hand, for therefore I have seen thy face.'" Look,
this is how I know it's a picture. as though I had seen the face
of God. This is what happened just right
back there at the brook in my wrestling match. This is the
way I was blessed by God. My goodness, I'm receiving grace
from you, Esau, based on nothing that I brought, just like I discovered
when I saw the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. And thou was pleased
with me. Me, a cheater. You were pleased
with me who I said was not worthy of the least of all your mercies. Pleased with me because he's
pleased in Christ and what he accomplished. Accepted, as the
scripture says, in the beloved. And he says in verse 11, take
I pray thee my blessing that is brought to thee. Now in verse
8, remember he had said, in order to find grace in your sight.
chapter 32 and verse 20 he said to appease you to gain acceptance
with him and now what has happened He's discovered something about
his brother Esau and the grounds of his acceptance now with his
brother, the reconciliation here taking place that was totally
different than what he had imagined. And he says, now I want you to
take them for a different reason altogether, because God has dealt
graciously with me and because I have enough. And look, and
he urged him and he took it. He said, OK, I'll take that.
It didn't buy you favor. You already had my favor. But
it's acceptable now. Do you see the picture? Here
I was for years, imagining that Jesus, what he did and accomplished,
was for all men, without exception. That he died on the cross, that
somehow sins of everybody was laid upon him, but that not all
of them were saved. You had to, like Jacob, bring
something. You had to believe. You had to
accept Jesus as your Savior, invite Him into your heart, pray
a prayer, walk down an aisle, get in a baptismal pool, and
all of those things we should do. And you know what? Those that know me know I'm far
from perfect, but I did try. And you know, I would visit sick
in the hospital. I'd try to be kind and in obedience
to God's revealed will in His Word, do good deeds unto others.
And here, like Esau, I discovered God said, I won't have it. The
Bible calls it dead works and fruit unto death. It's performed
by a spiritually dead man who's not had a confrontation yet with
Jesus Christ through the preaching of the gospel, by the power of
the Holy Spirit applying his word to us. You see? And he says,
I won't have it. And that's what he discovers.
He finds out I really have been made lame, totally unable to
do anything here. I have nothing to bring to this
wrestling match, see? And he says, so all of that,
all those years of dedication and zeal, all of my fervent prayer,
where I was sincere now, he says, that's dead works, fruit unto
death. I won't have it. You see, I have
enough in Jesus Christ. And what he accomplished, that's
why he came out of that grave, that proves it to you. And then
he says, he says to me, but you need this blessing. And when
he draws us to that wrestling mat and causes us to see that
all of our hope is wrapped up in this God-man, then what do
I do? I've had friends who say, if
I believed like you did, that salvation was based on sovereign
grace, purely outside of your control, but based upon what
God did for you, with no act necessary from you in order to
procure it, appropriate it to yourself, whatever, then I'd
just go live like the devil. They're saying, you see, there's
no motive for me to try to obey. There's no motive for me to give
in support of a ministry. There's no motive for me to pray,
to study my Bible, to do these good works if it doesn't gain
me something. Look at the selfishness. That's
the sinner at his best, right there. Or at his worst, I should
say. The best evidence of his sinnerhood. You see, there's
no motive that exists for men like that when they imagine that
if it doesn't get me into heaven, then why would I ever do anything?
But what does our picture here show? Jacob says, now I want
you to have it. I still want you to have what
I brought. But for a totally different reason. And God looks
down and he says, he calls that good fruit. Why? Do I pray harder than I used
to pray? No, but I do pray to the true
and living God, not one of my imagination. Just as true as
Jacob wrestled with a real man here and not a vision. Do I study my Bible more? Not really. Am I more diligent
in attending and caring about others in conformity with God's
revealed will to love my neighbor as myself? Not really, but he
calls it good. He calls it good and acceptable,
not based upon the quality of the work, you see, but based
upon the fact that I'm accepted in the beloved. that he looks
upon me as holy and righteous, not based on any of those things
I'm doing, but based on a righteousness that resides in heaven and sits
right now at the right hand of the Father, but which he imputed
or accounted to my account. Now, that's that's some good
news there. Those very same things that I did before, which were
fruit unto death, they're now fruit unto God. Acceptable, pleasing
to Him, but not in order to gain His favor, not in order to keep
His favor, and not in order to appease His wrath. Well, in verse
11, we see that Esau accepted that gift from Jacob. And it
came from a totally different motive. A motive of grace and
gratitude. He said, because God hath dealt
graciously with me. We'll be turning in conclusion
to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. It's hard to bring a message
titled face to face and not go to this familiar passage. We
all follow the pattern that we see of Jacob in his earthly meeting
up with Esau. We know that it's a pattern that's
appropriate to us in terms of what takes place in a center
when he comes face to face with the true and living God in the
face, in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, because
Jacob said as much. He said, this is just like what
happened to me just the same way I found grace back over here
at the brook. You see, we discover When God
is pleased to reveal himself to you, you discover you need
an inheritance. You need to be a prince. Jacob
found grace with Esau, not based on what he offered, but he compared
it again to what he saw in the face of Jesus Christ, the God-man. In verse 5 of 2 Corinthians 4,
Paul begins there saying, For we, we ministers of the gospel,
preach not ourselves, true ministers. but we preach Christ Jesus the
Lord and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." Now that's
the connotation normally given to that verse, and it fits with
the context. But I believe it's just as appropriate
here that Paul may be saying, we, we preach not ourselves,
that is us sinners, not just us ministers, but us sinners.
See, we're not here When we preach, when Christ Jesus is preached
aright, we're not here trying to get you to do something. We're
not here to try to get you to make a decision today for Jesus.
We're not here to try to get you to walk some aisle. We're
not here to ask you to close your eyes and with every head
bowed say a prayer in order that you might find grace, see? Because
that's not the grace of God in salvation. No, he's saying we
don't preach that, we preach Christ Jesus. And then he goes
on in verse Verse 6, for God, this God say who changes not,
the God who created the world. He says, for God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness. He said, let there be light and
there was light. That God, he creates life in
the hearts of all those that this God man represented in his
life and death. He shines in our hearts. And
here's how he describes that. He gives a knowledge, a light
of the knowledge of the glory of God where? In the face of
Jesus Christ. In the person and work of Christ. You see, that's what happens. He dispels the darkness. Just
as Jacob, when he met Esau, he imagined Esau would perhaps accept
him based on those things he brought. He discovers, oh no.
Now I have a knowledge. I've got spiritual life. I see something I didn't see
before. And what is it that I see? That salvation is conditioned
on this man, on his person and work, and based on nothing else,
nothing I add to it, nothing in addition to it, nothing in
place of it. And he says in verse 7, but we have this treasure
in earthen vessels. You know, he told Jacob, he said,
Jacob, your name's not going to be called Jacob anymore. which
will be known as Israel, but you know, actually he is referred,
continued to be referred to later in scripture as Jacob and Israel,
more prominently Israel, for which the nation is named, but
he was also called Jacob. And I think that's a reminder
of the fact that when God reveals himself, when this face-to-face
confrontation takes place, why is it God, now that I understand
that all of my salvation, why doesn't he take the presence
of sin away from my life now? Well, Paul tells us it's in earthen
vessels. We have this treasure, this knowledge,
as sinners. You see, we're still sinners.
But we're sinners saved by grace now. that the excellency of the
power may be of God. You see, as a prince, thou hast
prevailed and hast have power and not of us. Now that's good
news. Well, in closing, you look at this and you say,
OK, well, how do I know if I'm one of those for whom Christ
lived and died. If you're saying it's all of
Him, I really have nothing, I don't have anything to plead except
for mercy. I, like Jacob, I gotta say, I
gotta have that blessing. Well the good news is, you see,
that's a byproduct of spiritual life. Life that only comes as
a fruit and effect for all those for whom Christ lived and died. So if today, if you can forsake
your natural religion and understand and see and come to the point
where you say, you know, I can't, there's nothing I can do. Not
even my desire for it makes a difference, but I got to have what Christ
did for me. You can only do that if you're
among those for whom he lived and died. Because see, they're
the only ones that's ever brought to this confrontation. to this
wrestling match. To wrestle with the fact that
it's so different from the way that seemed right to a man, but
ends in destruction. To take sides with myself and
instead take sides against myself and take sides with God on this
thing. And He brings you there and you
come out of there prevailing how? As a prince. Knowing that
your salvation is sure and certain. You see, He says no man can come
to the Father but by Me. And all that he giveth me, they're
going to come to me. And what does he say? I'll in
no wise cast them out. You see, that's evidence that
you were found in Christ. And I pray that you'll find that
to be true of you today. That he'll bring you face to
face with Christ, the one whose resurrection we celebrate this
morning. Whose resurrection testifies
to us that that's the only sure thing that does demand life.
And as Christ said, I'm not going to lose any of those. I'll raise
them up at the last day as well. I hope that's been a blessing
to you. Face to face.