All right, let's open our Bibles
now again to Genesis chapter 32. I hope you notice in the bulletin
we've got the dates and speakers scheduled for our conference
coming up in March. I hope you'll be in much prayer
about that, this upcoming meeting. I'm very excited to get to hear
what the Lord gives these three men for us to hear. All right,
I've titled the message this morning, What is Your Name? Now,
the scene here in Genesis 32, Jacob is finally coming back
home years after he had stolen the birthright from Esau. As
he's coming, first thing he hears is Esau's coming to meet him
with 400 men. And Jacob is afraid. He's afraid
Esau would kill him. And if Esau did kill him, who
could blame him, right? I mean, this has not been a good
relationship. So Jacob sent a parade of people, his family and servants,
just this whole parade ahead of him, and each group bringing
different gifts to Esau. He was hoping that these gifts
would soften Esau up so that Esau wouldn't kill him when he
finally got there. Jacob sent his whole family ahead of him
to meet Esau first. If Esau was going to kill somebody,
well, first he sent the servants, and then he sent the concubines
and their children, and then he sent the less appreciated
wife and her children. If Esau's gonna kill someone,
maybe he'll kill them first, and his thirst for blood will
be finished by the time I get there. Isn't that cowardly? That's just cowardly. That's
just not a husband, a leader whatsoever. But since Jacob has
sent everybody on, now he's left alone. They've all crossed the
river, gone to meet Esau. He's left alone. In verse 24,
Jacob was left alone. And there wrestled a man with
him until the breaking of the day. Now, after Jacob sent everybody
ahead, Jacob is in the best possible place he could be. He's alone
with God. That's the best place for any
of us to be, to be left alone with God. I try very consciously
to do that with you, to preach Christ to you and leave you alone
with God. And what I mean by that is preach
Christ to you and then not try to get you to do anything. We
just preach Christ and wait and see if the Lord will do something
for you. My prayer really is not you'll do something for God,
but that God will do something for you. So we preach the gospel
to you and leave you alone with God. Because if God's ever going
to do anything for you, you're going to have to be like Jacob
was here. You're going to have to be alone with God. Because
that's the way God deals with sinners. One on one. Alone with
God. just like he did Jacob here.
And I know this man who came and wrestled with Jacob is a
pre-incarnate appearance of Christ our Savior. I know it's Christ
because only God could bless a man like he blessed Jacob.
Only God could give him a new name like that. And second, when
this whole ordeal is over, Jacob recognized, I've seen God face
to face. I've seen God's face and lived.
So he called the name of that place where he wrestled with
God, Peniel. The name means facing God. Jacob said, I've seen God
here in this place, face to face. So he wrestled with God. Now
let me tell you what's going on here in this verse. There
was a physical wrestling match going on here. Our Lord Jesus
came and he physically laid hold on Jacob and began to wrestle
with him. Jacob laid hold upon the Lord
and began to wrestle with him. They grabbed one another. I mean,
can you get the vision of that in your mind? You know, these,
these two men and the way the words are there, like as they
wrestled, it means like kicking up dust. They were just wrestling
with each other and turning and spinning and kicking up dust.
I mean, it was a, it was a Bible going on. If you just were there,
you just came around the corner, happened to see these two men
wrestling. There's a whole lot more going on there that meets
the eye. Look over, if you would, at Hosea
chapter 12. Hosea is right after the book
of Daniel, Hosea chapter 12. There's a spiritual wrestling
match going on here too. And the way we know that is what
the Lord moved Hosea to write in Hosea chapter 12. If you have
the authorized version, that's page 1134. Hosea chapter 12, verse two.
The Lord also hath also a controversy with Judah and will punish Jacob
according to his ways, according to his doings will he recompense
him. And he took his brother by the heel and the womb and
by his strength, he had power with God. Yea, he had power over
the angel and prevailed. He wept and made supplication
unto him. He found him in Bethel. And there
he spake with us. Now, there is no way Jacob could
physically pin the Lord down. That's what you do when you try
to wrestle somebody, try to pin them down, don't you? There is
no way Jacob did that. No way whatsoever. No man is
any match for the Lord. Remember that mob came to take
our Lord. All he had to say is, I am. They all fell over backwards,
you know. Jacob's weapons in this wrestling
match were tears and begging. what Hosea calls weeping and
supplication. Jacob didn't prevail over the
Lord in his strength. He prevailed with the Lord by
his weakness. He prevailed with the Lord because
the Lord heard Jacob's begging. He heard his cries for help. Now, I don't know if you're like
me, but when you think of this story, I think of Jacob wrestling
with the Lord. But you notice that's not what
it says here. It says in our text that there came a man, I'm
in the wrong place, that there came a man and wrestled
with Jacob, wrestled with him. There's a big difference. Jacob
wrestled with the man and the man wrestling with Jacob. The Lord came and wrestled with
Jacob. And I know this, Jacob could
not put up much of a fight. You know, when you wrestle with
somebody, you grab a hold of them and you try to pin them
to the ground against their will. You try to pin them on their
back and pin them against their will. Well, the Lord came and
wrestled with Jacob. And I'm just sure of this. It
didn't take all night for the Lord to pin him. I bet you he
pinned Jacob quickly. I tell you what took all night
is the weeping and the begging. That's what took all night, the
supplication and the tears. When the Lord pinned Jacob, that's
what took all night. It didn't take the Lord long
to pin Jacob at all. And the Lord pinned Jacob. It's not a
comfortable situation to find yourself in, pinned to the ground.
But the Lord did that to Jacob for his own good. See, before
the Lord could do anything for Jacob, Jacob had to learn his
utter weakness and helplessness before the Lord. And the Lord
pinned him to teach him that. Jacob had to be brought to the
end of his abilities and be shut up to Christ before we'd have
this tears, weeping, and supplication. The Lord had to put Jacob down
so Jacob knew he was conquered. See, for anything else could
be done. The Lord had to subdue Jacob. Jacob had to see how needy
he was and how dependent he was on the Lord before the Lord's
grace would mean anything to him. And that's what the Lord
does with all of us. The Lord's not going to use anybody.
The Lord's not going to bless anybody until we're broken and
we're subdued. We've got to be broken. The Lord's
just not going to use anybody when we're on our high horse.
We've got to learn how dependent we are on the Lord. And the way
the Lord teaches us that is penitence. So we see I can't move, I can't
wriggle, I can't do anything. I'm completely helpless before
the Lord. We can't be of any use at all
in God's kingdom until we learn our weakness. See, I'm only strong
when I'm weak. When I'm weak, then am I strong. The only way I have any strength
is realize I don't have any strength of my own, and I rely on Christ. I rely on his strength. The job's
gonna get done, not by my power, not by my intelligence, not by
my scheming. I'm a good friend of Jacob. I'm
a schemer, you know, I come up with all these plans, I'm gonna
make this work, you know. Not by my power, not by my scheming,
it's by the Lord's power and by the Lord's will, and I've
got to learn that. The Lord penned Jacob, so Jacob
learned he's helpless, and he willingly surrendered. He willingly,
he wasn't just, you know, penned against his will, he willingly
surrendered to God. Once he surrendered, The only
thing he can do is hang on to Christ. That's all he's left
with. All I can do. Jacob was not winning
this wrestling match. The Lord said, oh, you know,
you got to let me go because you're winning the wrestling
match. The Lord said, let me go. Because Jacob refused to
let go. He's hanging on for dear life.
See that? It's not like he's winning the
battle. He's subdued. He's conquered. He's hanging
on to Christ for dear life. That's what's happened here,
verse 25. And when he, when the Lord saw he prevailed not against
him, he touched the hollow of his thigh and the hollow of Jacob's
thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him. And you know,
that had to hurt. I mean, that had to hurt, didn't
it? He didn't let go of the Lord to grab ahold of that hurt hip.
He kept hanging on to Christ. In verse 25, he said, let me
go for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee
go except thou bless me. That's Jacob just hanging on
to the Lord for dear life. He's got no other hope. He's
got nothing else. He's just hanging on to Christ
for dear life. If Lord ever saves you and me,
he's going to do the same thing with us. He's going to pin us. He's going to bring us to the
end of ourselves so that we hang on to Christ and Christ alone.
That we see I've got to have Christ or else I die. That we
just won't let go of him. And you know, there's no shortcuts
to this process of being made dependent on Christ this way.
The Lord's going to do it in his own time, in his own way
through the preaching of the gospel, but he's going to bring
us to the place where we see our helplessness and say, I've
got to have Christ. I don't care what else I lose.
I'm not letting go of Christ. I'm not letting go. And you know,
Jacob prevailed here with the Lord by his weeping. by his supplication,
by him refusing to let go. Isn't that a mighty good lesson
to you and me? I tell you, cry out to God. And
when he doesn't answer the first time, because he seldom does,
keep crying. Don't quit crying. Beg God for
mercy and forgiveness, and don't quit begging. See, that's how
you'll prevail with the Lord. If somebody won't quit begging,
they don't have any resources of their own. It's not like,
well, I'm going to beg here. After a few minutes, I don't
get something. I mean, it's really OK. I've got plenty stored up
for myself. The person that begs and keeps
begging and keeps begging and keeps begging has nothing but
Christ. And if you've got nothing but
Christ, you need nothing but Christ. because you're a helpless
sinner. That's the person that will prevail
with God. You're not going to prevail with
God because of your strength. You prevail with God because of your
weakness. If you need Christ, you keep begging, God will hear
you. But here's something else. Before the Lord acts in mercy
and grace, there's going to be a confession of our sin. I'm going to see the Lord's going
to pin me. I'm going to see my weakness, my helplessness, But
there's also gonna be a confession of sin. And that's what happened,
verse 27. And he, the Lord Jesus, said
unto Jacob, what's your name? And he said, Jacob. Now the Lord
knew what Jacob's given name is. You know, the Lord never
asked questions for his own information. The Lord knew Jacob's name before
Isaac and Rebekah knew his name. The Lord knew his name from the
foundation of the world. And the Lord loved Jacob. from
all of eternity, so he knows Jacob's name. But before the
Lord reveals himself to Jacob, before he gives mercy and grace
to Jacob, there's got to be a confession. And scripture doesn't say this,
but I just wonder when the Lord said, what's your name, if Jacob
didn't... Jacob. Like he hated to admit
it. But I gotta say it, it's true.
There's got to be a confession. Before God's merciful to me,
there's got to be a confession of who and what I am. I'm the sinner. It's not like
I'm a sinner. No, I'm the sinner. I'm the sinner. I commit sin because I'm the
sinner. I am sin. I was shaping an iniquity. I can't be anything but a sinner.
So everything I do, everything I say, everything I think, everything
I want to do, it's sin. And by nature, I'm offensive. I'm offensive to God. And I deserve
for him to name me. I don't deserve to be forgiven.
I don't deserve for the son of God to pay my sin debt with his
blood. I don't deserve for the son of God to die in my place.
What I deserve is for God to destroy me, because that's what
my sin deserves. And that's just exactly what
Jacob is admitting about himself when he said, my name's Jacob.
He admits, I'm a cheat. I'm a supplanter. I'm a schemer. I deal with people dishonestly.
As a matter of fact, I'd rather do business dishonestly with
somebody than honestly. I mean, Jacob's just dishonest
with everybody he meets. That's my name. And that's who I am. That's who I am. See, who I am,
that's worse than what I've done. See, I do what I do because of
who I am. Who I am, that's worse than what
I've done. When I say that's my name, I'm
admitting my shame. All right, that's my introduction. Now I got two points. Two points
on the name of a believer. What's your name? I want you
to know that this morning when you leave here. What's your name?
And your name is your character. What's your name? Well, number
one, what's my name? My name's Jacob. My name is sin. My name is shame. My name is
failure. My name is rebellion. My name's
Jacob. Now, if the Lord's gonna save
you and me, like I said earlier, he's gonna come and wrestle with
us, and he's gonna pin us, just like he did Jacob. Before we
can ever taste of God's mercy and grace and forgiveness, we're
gonna have to confess who we are and confess our need, confess
our need of Christ. See, when Jacob finally admitted,
my name's Jacob, now we're getting somewhere. Now we're getting
right down to the brass tacks of the problem. When Jacob said,
my name's Jacob, there's nothing honorable in that. I tell our
young people, this is good advice to you now, pay attention to
me. Take care of your name. And what I mean by that is this,
when people hear your name, what do they think about you? Do they
think you're dishonest like Jacob? Do they think you're a cheat
like Jacob? Or do they think, here's an honest person. Here's
a kind person. Here's a person you can trust.
I can trust this person. Take care of your name. I mean,
when somebody hears my name, I don't want them to think all
these bad things. Not so with Jacob. He said his name, he's admitting
there's nothing honorable about me. Everything associated with
my name is shame. Jacob admitted that to the Lord.
He said, my name's Jacob. What he's saying is I'm shameful.
I'm shameful. And if the Lord's ever going
to save you and me, he's going to have to teach us the same
thing. We're shameful. I mean, shameful. Oh. We're so
shameful, we won't admit our sin. We're so shameful, we won't
admit our nakedness and our shame and our rebellion. We won't admit
it. We've been caught red-handed, and we won't admit it. The Lord's made it as obvious
as the noonday sun, and we won't admit it. So the Lord's gonna
have to pin us, isn't he? So that we admit. He's got to
teach us our helplessness. He's got to teach us we need
God's mercy, because I can't do it myself. I can't earn anything
from God. We've got to admit before God,
my name's Adam. I'm just like my father, Adam.
I'm wanting to be God. I'm wanting to make the rules.
I want to take God off the throne so I can make the rules. My name's
Jacob. My first name is sin, and my
last name's iniquity. That's what I am. That's who
I am. And I do wickedly because I'm full of iniquity. There's
just nothing honorable in what I've done or who I am. I'm worthless. I'm helpless. I'm vile. That's what I am. And there's
no reason on this earth that God would not destroy me. There's
nothing about me that would make God look at me and say, Isn't
that good? Isn't that sweet? I think I'll
do something else. There's nothing but shame. Everything
about me is shameful. That's what a sinner is. A sinner's
not somebody who just broke the rules. I mean, you know, I really
didn't mean to, you know. I didn't know, you know, that
that was a rule. I'll tell him, Charlie. He told
me this. He said, I think sometimes I've
not been a very good patient. I did something I didn't know
I wasn't supposed to do. Debbie had to tell me, you're
not supposed to do that. Well, Debbie can just be, you know,
that's Charlie. He's sweet. He's my husband.
You know, it's okay. She doesn't, you know. I can't tell God, well, I didn't
know. I didn't mean to. No, I meant to. I meant to. And
I knew. Everything associated with me
is shameful. That's what this this matter
of sin is. It's a shameful thing. Shameful thing. As God taught you, that is your
name, Jacob, by nature now is your name, Jacob. I said some pretty ugly things
about you just now, didn't I? About me, about us by nature.
But if God's taught you, Jacob, you know, it's a good thing.
God is the God of Jacob. God saves Jacob. He teaches everybody,
everybody he saves and teaches them they're Jacob, God saves
them. God doesn't teach, now everybody by nature is Jacob.
We're all sinful, we're all shame, we all deserve God's damnation.
But God doesn't teach that to everybody. The Lord didn't go wrestle with
Esau, did he? He left Esau alone. He left Esau thinking he's a
pretty good fella. The Lord came to wrestle with Jacob and taught
Jacob his help has taught Jacob his sinfulness, and that's why
God saves him. See, the Lord humbles us, and
he makes us realize my name is Jacob. My name is sin, and that
make me cry out to God, tears and supplication, begging him
for mercy. The Lord will bless us. When the Lord finally teaches
us, my name is Jacob. I mean, that's a bitter thing
to learn. That's a bitter thing to admit, isn't it? But oh, when
he teaches us, my name's Jacob. The Lord's getting ready to do
something for us. He's getting ready to be merciful. He's getting
ready to be gracious. He's getting ready to forgive
our sins. The Lord, when he teaches us,
our name's Jacob, that's when he's getting ready to bless us.
That's when he's getting ready to bless us. And it's not because
of what I've done. It's because of what he's done
and who he is. Oh, if the Lord ever teaches
us, you and me, our name's Jacob. He's getting ready to do something
for us, just like he did Jacob. So what's my name by nature?
My name's Jacob. Sin and shame. But here's the
second thing. Talk to believers now. What's
your name in Christ? I know what your name is by nature.
It's Jacob. What's your name in Christ? Your
name's Israel. Prince with God, son and daughter
of God. Verse 28. 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. Oh, you're a prince
of God, you're a son and daughter of God. Who has more power with
their parents than a child? Than a child. Jan and I have been up in Lexington
helping Clark and Savannah do some work Clark had started.
We're going to go up again this evening. A bunch of the work
is done. And so we said, well, we'll just
wait and go up Monday. We won't go up today. We'll sleep
in our own beds tonight and we'll go up Monday. And Holly tells
her mama, but I want you to come to our Super Bowl party and watch
the Super Bowl with us. Guess where Frank and Janet are
going. Just power. Child. asking their parent for
something, yes, we'll do it. The Lord changed Jacob's name.
Now he's the son of God. And he gave him a new nature.
A new nature needs a new name, doesn't it? The new nature that
God caused to be born in Jacob, that deserves a name a whole
lot better than Jacob, doesn't it? He named him Israel. A prince
with God. The name, I read this, literally
means God prevails, God prevails. See, we got to get this out of
our head that Jacob, by his own strength, prevailed with God.
Jacob didn't prevail with God because God's strong. You know
why Jacob prevailed with God? Because God prevails. God prevails. God the Father prevailed over
Jacob, over his sin, over his rebellion, over his deadness,
over his lost estate, by making Jacob his in divine election. Jacob didn't have a choice in
the matter. God prevailed over him, didn't he? God prevailed
over all of Jacob's sin by putting his sin away with the blood of
his son. God prevailed over his sin. Jacob
couldn't do anything about his sin, but God did. God prevailed
over it. And God the Holy Spirit prevailed over Jacob's sinful,
deceitful nature. Not by changing his nature, by
giving him a new one. By giving him a new, holy, righteous
nature in the new birth. The only way Jacob could prevail
with God is by faith in Christ. And Jacob, try as he might, could
not conjure up that faith, could he? But God prevailed and God
gave him faith. God gave him faith in Christ
that enabled him to prevail with God. Now, if you and I want to
prevail with God, I'll tell you what we should do. Come to God
by faith, by faith in Christ. Come to God, pleading the merits
of Christ. Don't come to God, pleading your merits. Say, well,
I mean, you know, I'm doing better than most. Don't come to God,
pleading your merits. Come to God, pleading the merits
of Christ. If you plead the merit of Christ, the righteousness,
the obedience of Christ, you'll prevail with God because God
accepts his righteousness. Come to God, trusting Christ
as your all. Now, if you try to add something
to it, you're going to ruin it and you won't be accepted. But if you
come to God completely naked, naked of everything that you've
done, everything that you think you've done that could please
God and you trust Christ as your all, you'll prevail with God.
God's gonna accept his son. He can accept him. Come to God
trusting Christ, trusting his blood is all it takes to wash
you white as snow. Not with any help from you, just
the blood of Christ. If you come pleading nothing
but the blood of Christ, you'll be accepted. That's how you prevail. You'll be washed white as snow.
Come to God pleading nothing but Christ, and you'll be accepted. You'll prevail with God because
the Father loves the Son. Isn't that special? That's something,
isn't it? And let me give you this now.
If you can't come to God in faith, say, well, Frank, you tell me
to come to God in faith, but I don't have that faith. If you
can't come to God in faith, come to God for faith. Faith is the
gift of God. It's a gift. He gives it freely
to his people. Why wouldn't he give it to you?
Why don't you come ask him? If you can't come to God in faith,
come to God for faith, asking God to give you faith in Christ.
That's how you prevail with God, coming to him as a beggar without
any strength of your own. Come to God for faith. Ask him
for mercy. Ask him to give you a new heart.
That's what he did for Jacob. Now, here's the thing about a
believer. There's two natures in a believer. We looked at this
a week or two ago. Those two opposite natures, they're
always going to war and fight with each other. Well, old Jacob,
bless his heart, he's still Jacob. But Jacob's Israel too. He's
Jacob and he's Israel. That's a picture of the two natures
that's in every believer. And you know, the rest of his
life, Jacob limped on that leg. The Lord touched him in the hollow
of his thigh, took his thigh out and leg bone out of joint.
And Jacob limped the rest of his life. But Israel walked with
God. If the Lord saves us, we're going
to limp the rest of our lives. This flesh, this sinful flesh
is going to be unchanged. And it's gonna cause us to limp
the rest of our lives. But we'll also walk with God.
Walk with God. And after this meeting, Jacob
was never the same again. I'm not saying Jacob was perfect
and he started doing everything right, because that's not so.
Jacob still made lots of mistakes. In the rest of his life, Jacob's
gonna have a lot of ups and a lot of downs. But he's not the same. He's not the same. His walk has
been changed, hasn't it? The Lord made him to limp. Jacob
met the Lord and in all, the Lord was merciful to him. The
Lord changed his name and in all those ups and downs and all
those mistakes that Jacob made the rest of his life, Jacob was
not consumed. You know why? The Lord changes
not. The Lord changes not. Jacob limped
through the rest of his life, making mistake after mistake
after mistake. He limped through the rest of
his life. But when that time was over, Israel walked straight
into the presence of God. And you will too, God saves you.
See, it's good. It's good to be Jacob, isn't
it? Because that's who God saves. See, God changed Jacob's name
to Israel. And I'll tell you what that means.
Jacob must be saved. He cannot perish. Because what
did God say? All Israel shall be saved. They
shall be. And that's what God does for
every last one of his elect. Jacob met God. God changed him. He met God. Well, he got up in
the morning, crossed that river. He wasn't afraid to meet Esau
now, was he? No, he met God. And that changed everything.
Now I give you three things in closing. First, look at Isaiah
chapter four. I want to look at the blessing
that it is to have our name changed. What God calls us is changed
in Christ. I believe these will be a blessing
and encouragement to you. Take them back out with you as
you go back out in the world this week. Isaiah chapter four,
verse three. And it shall come to pass that
he that is left in Zion and he that remaineth in Jerusalem shall
be called holy. Even everyone that is written
among the living in Jerusalem. God says he's gonna call his
people holy. Now I have to say by nature,
my name's Sin. My first name's Sin, my last name's Iniquity.
That's what I am. But the Lord calls me holy. The
Lord's not calling me something I'm not. You know why the Lord
calls his people holy? Because that's what he made them.
by the sacrifice of Christ, by the blood of Christ, he's made
them to be holy. Israel is holy, accepted with
God. Now look at Isaiah chapter 62.
Isaiah 62 verse three. Thou shalt also be a crown of
glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand
of thy God. Thou shalt no more be termed
forsaken. Neither shall thy land any more
be termed desolate, but thou shalt be called Hephzibah. My delight is in her. And thy
land, Beulah, married, married to the Lord, for the Lord delighteth
in thee. And thy land shall be married. Now by nature, My name's forsaken. I've forsaken God and God should
forsake me because of my sin. But my name in Christ is Bula. Married. Married to God. Married to Christ. The bride
of Christ. By nature, my name is desolate. Desolate of anything
good. Desolate of any righteousness.
Desolate of anything that God looks for. Desolate of anything
that pleases God. But in Christ, my name is Hephzibah. My delight is in her. God delights
in you if you're in Christ. If you believe Christ, He delights
in you. Delights in you. Now when are you going to go
across the river and meet in the morning? What are you afraid of? Huh? God delights
in you. And then last, look at Jeremiah
chapter 33. Jeremiah 33. Verse 15. In those days and at that time,
Eli caused the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David, and he
shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. In those days shall
Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this
is the name wherewith she, shall be called the Lord our righteousness. Jehovah said, Kenu. By nature,
my name is sin and iniquity. You can call me Adam. You'd be
right. You can call me Jacob. You'd
be right, because that's what I am. But in Christ, the believer's
union with Christ is so real. It's so much you're one with
Christ that the Lord calls a sinner like me by the precious name
of His Son, Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord, our righteousness. You know, the Lord's not calling
you something you're not now. He's not calling you something
you're not. He's calling you what He's made you to be by Christ's
sacrifice for you. He had made Him send for us that
we might be made what? Jehovah Sidkenu, the righteousness
of God in him. Can you think of anything more
precious, more of a blessing to your soul than being called
by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ our Savior? That's your name. If you join
me. Now I ask you, I want you to
think about this. I'm asking this question. I want you to
be honest with yourself. I'm going to leave you alone
with God. You're going to think about this.
What's your name? What's your name? Now, be honest
with yourself. You know. You know if you believe
Christ or not. You know if you're joined to
him or not. What's your name? All right, let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for this story that's such a precious picture of salvation in our Lord
Jesus Christ. How we thank you for the new
name that you've given to the new nature that you caused to
be born in your people. Oh, by your mercy, and by your
grace, we know it's all of thee. It's all of the doing and dying
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all an application of thy
Holy Spirit. And Father, we're thankful it's
that way. Father, as bitter as it is for us to learn our utter
and complete helplessness, Father, show us how helpless we are.
Show us how needy, how completely dependent we are upon the Lord
Jesus Christ. Oh, and then, Father, would you
be pleased to reveal him to us, to give us faith in him, to be
like our brother of old, to cling to Christ and say, I will not
let you go because you're my only hope. Father, we ask this
for our sake. Oh, it's for our good. We ask
you to be merciful to us. But Father, for thy glory's sake,
would you be pleased to be merciful to us this morning for your glory? Father, these things we ask in
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's for his glory. For his sake,
we pray. Amen. All right, Sean.