And Jacob went on his way, and
the angels of God met him. And when Jacob saw them, he said,
This is God's host. And he called the name of the
place Mananaim. And Jacob sent messengers before
him to Esau, his brother, and to the land of Seir, the country
of Edom. And he commanded them, saying,
Thus shall you speak unto my lord Esau. Thy servant Jacob
saith thus. I have sojourned with Laban,
and stayed there until now. And I have oxen and asses, flocks
and menservants and womenservants, and I have sent to tell my Lord
that I may find grace in my sight. Jacob's going to have to face
his hated brother, who the last time he saw his brother, he saw,
he said, the next time I see you, I'll kill you. Because he
deceived his father and got the birthright. That's what's going
on. And the messengers returned to
Jacob saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and also he cometh
to meet thee, and four hundred men with him. Then Jacob was
greatly afraid and distressed, and he divided the people that
was with him, and the flocks, and the herbs, and the camels,
into two bands. And he said, If Esau come to
the one company and smite it, then the other company which
is left shall escape. And Jacob said, O God of my father
Abraham and the God of my father Isaac, the Lord which said unto
me, return unto thy country and to thy kindred, and I will deal
well with thee. I am not worthy of the least
of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast shown
unto thy servant. For with my staff I passed over
this Jordan, and now I become two bands. Deliver me, I pray
thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I
fear him. as he will come and smite me
and the mother with the children. And thou saidest, I will surely
do thee good and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which
cannot be numbered for multitude. And he lodged there that same
night and took of that which came into his hand a present,
for he saw his brother. 200 she goats and 20 he goats,
200 I and 20 lambs, 30 milked camels with their coats, 40 kind
and 10 bulls, 20 she asses and 10 foals. And he delivered them
into the hand of his servants. Every drove by themself and said
unto his servants, pass over before me and put a space between
betwixt drove and drove. And he commanded the foremost
saying, when he saw my brother Seathee, And asketh thee, saying,
Who art thou? And whither goest thou? And whose
are these before thee? Then thou shalt say, They be
thy servant Jacob's. It is a presence unto my lord
Esau, and, behold, also he is behind us. And so commanded he
the second and the third. And all that followed the drove,
saying, On this manner shall ye speak unto Esau when ye find
him. And say ye moreover, Behold,
thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him
with the present that goeth before me. And afterward, I will see
his face peradventure. He will accept me. You see what
Jacob's doing, what he always has done. He's trying to weasel
his way out of it. He's a, he's a conniver. He's
a, he's a manipulator. He's a, and he's going to figure
out some way. Does that not describe us? Many
times in the scripture, he says, you sons of Jacob, you sons of
Jacob, And that's us. He's in a pinch and he's gotta
figure it out. So he's gonna divide and send
all these presents. He's hoping that this is gonna appease Esau
and Esau won't be mad at him anymore. But God's bringing him
to this place. So went the present over before
him and himself lodged that night in the company. And he rose up
that night and took his two wives and his two women servants and
his 11 sons, and he passed over the Ford Jaybuck, and he took
them and sent them over the brook, and sent them over that he had,
and Jacob was left alone. And there wrestled a man with
him into the breaking of the day, and when he 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. He said, let me go, for the day breaketh. And he 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 a prince
has thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And
Jacob asked him and said, tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And
he said, wherefore is it that thou dost ask us for my name?
He blessed him there, and Jacob called the name of the place
Peniel, for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
And as he passed over Peniel, the sun rose upon him, and he
halted upon his thigh." Here we see Jacob, that old manipulator
whose name means surplanner, and why reason he was named that.
When him and Esau were in his mother's womb, they were wrestling
against each other. It says that before they were
born that she went to God and required what's going on because
they were struggling on the inside. It was so unbearable, it says
that she either thought they were going to kill each other
or they were going to kill her one. And then when they were
born, he latched hold of Esau's heel. And he was trying to take
that which was not rightfully his because he was the youngest,
he wasn't the firstborn. The blessing went to the firstborn,
the inheritance went to the firstborn, and all that. And Jacob was not
the firstborn. But like I read in Romans chapter
9, before them boys were born, that the purpose of God according
to election might stand, God told them boys' mama, the elders
gonna serve the younger. And God singled out Jacob to
be a picture of his grace and his mercy toward us. He is a
plotter, he's a schemer, and his manipulating is all over. God is hymning him up. God is
bringing him to this place, and that's where God brings him.
And he shuts him up. It says here that they went over
this brook, Jaybok. Now what does this mean? This
little stream ran into the Jordan River. And Jaybok means to empty
out, to make utterly void, to cease to be. When this small
stream entered into that large stream, it ceased to exist. It lost its name. Why? That large
river consumed it. It loses its power. It took on
the power of the river, Jordan. And when God brings us to this
place, and when we see that our life is swallowed up in God,
we will see that this is what Jacob learns here, that Christ
must increase and we must decrease. That's what we're gonna see.
God brings Jacob to this point. He sends his two wives and his
two maidservants and all of his 11 children over this brook. And the first thing it says in
verse 24, and Jacob was left alone. Jacob was like Israel at the
Red Sea and Jonah in the belly of the whale. He's alone. And
you know what God will do to you? God will get you alone. There may be a lot of people
around, but God will get you alone. That's where he deals
with sinners. He gets them alone with himself. Jacob was totally dependent upon
God and he knew it. I'm no match, like in the Bible
class about David against Goliath. Jacob knew that he was no match
against his brother. He knew his brother would kill
him, and he's got 400 men behind him. What's he going to do? God's
shutting him up. God's bringing him to this place
and gets him alone. Jacob was separated from his
family. Jacob was left alone because those whom God is pleased
to save, those whom he reveals his mercy, love, and grace in
Christ must be brought down to see their total inability. His whole life, whether it was
his brother, whether it was Laban, or whoever it was at, he could
get himself out of that situation. He ain't getting out of this
situation. God's brought him to this place. And you better
thank God when God brings you to a place like this. And God
brings you to a place where it's just you and Him now. It's not
you and anybody else. It's not you and the preacher.
It's not you and your family. It's just you and Him. He was left alone. Jacob's life
had been a life of trouble and confusion. He had always played
second fiddle to his brother. His brother was the oldest. His
brother was a man's man. His brother was the big hunter.
His brother was always going out shooting venison for his
daddy, and boy, his daddy loved it. I picture Jacob as a mama's
boy, always around her apron strings, always playing second
fiddle. And no sooner does he leave Laban's
house and start back home than he meets Esau. And he's going
to have to deal with Esau. And Jacob is left alone. He is
in a miserable condition. He's helpless and alone. But God's brought him to this
place because he is in a blessed condition, where God put him. Listen. To be left alone with
God is the only true way of arriving at a just knowledge of ourself
and our ways. It doesn't matter what men think
about us. It doesn't matter what we think about ourselves. The
question is, what does God think about us? And that question can
only be answered and found when you are left alone with him. We don't like to be alone, do
we? We want somebody to be there. We, you know, just totally isolated. Isolation is always the forerunner
of revelation. Grace and salvation and blessings
come because God separated Jacob. God separates him. God gets him
alone. You remember Gomer in the wilderness,
in the book of Hosea, he said, I will allure her and bring her
into the wilderness. Remember the message that Frank
Tate brought, John chapter eight, about the adulterous woman, when
he said, he that's without sin, let him cast the first stone,
and they all left. And it's just Christ and that
woman. She's alone with him. Alone. Do you see the picture? God gets his people. God brings
sinners to this place to bless them. He singles them out. You know what this is? This is
God crossing his path. God had separate Jacob before
he's ever born. But this is the time of love.
This is when God's gonna bless him and change his name. and
reveal his glory and mercy unto him. Now look in verse 24 again,
and Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him
unto the breaking of the day. About the time the sun went down,
a man appeared to Jacob. The man laid hold upon Jacob,
and this was God laying hold upon Jacob. This man here is
none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, laying hold upon him. Isn't that salvation? It's when
God lays hold on you. And why did he come? He come
to wrestle with him. To wrestle with him. Now, Corey
knows what this is about, and Ben does. This is not that fake
wrestling stuff. I've seen videos of Ben wrestling,
and he may be small, but he'll try to get the best of the other
guy. And his objective in wrestling is to pin that other guy down.
and to get him to submit. And God comes to Jacob to wrestle
him down and to make him submit. It doesn't say that Jacob wrestled
with the angel. The angel wrestled with Jacob. Jacob was not wrestling with
the man to get the blessing, but the angel of God, the angel
of the covenant, was wrestling with Jacob to give him the blessing. Why did he wrestle him? To render
him helpless. To get him down where he's totally
helpless. You know the problem with people
today? They think they can do something. They don't think they're
helpless. And as long as a man thinks he
can do something, he's going to do something. As I begin to
think about this this morning sitting in the study, you know
what I thought about? When the angel laid upon hold on him,
I could just see Jacob. He's trying to get loose. He's
trying to weasel his way out. Just turn me loose. And he wouldn't
turn him loose. Every way he went, he grabbed
him. And we're going to see this goes on all night. Now, he could
have submitted him right then, but he didn't. Sometimes it may
go on and seem like for a long time. But God has a purpose in
it. The purpose of God, and listen,
in all of our trials, is to make us strong in grace and strong
in faith. Paul said, when I am weak, then
am I strong. When I am totally, totally helpless, helpless, then am I strong. This was the issue that had to
be resolved. And it had to be resolved in
Jacob's heart. This had to be resolved now and
permanently. Now listen, this is not some
brief decision that was made on the spur of a moment in front
of some church. This is life or death. He laid hold on him. Jacob didn't lay hold on him.
And we eventually will. But he laid hold on Jacob. Jacob
had to acknowledge that Christ is Lord. We're not Lord. We're not God. We can't figure
it out. We can't handle it. God has to
make us. Now listen. Now listen to me.
God has to make us helpless. Helpless. He had to bow to the
will of God. Jacob had to lose his life in
Christ. He had to surrender to Christ
in all things in his heart. Bow to him. Not my will, but
thine be done. God had purposed to bless Jacob. His purpose could not be defeated,
but he would not grant his blessing and would not use him until Jacob
was conquered, broken, and surrendered. Did you hear that? He had to
be broken, conquered, and surrendered. We were talking between the services
this morning. Salvation is nothing less than
God conquering you. He conquers you. Conquers you. That's what we see here. He's conquering him. Making him
to submit. God resists the proud and he
gives grace to the humble. the broken and a contrite heart,
he will not despise. Blessed are the poor in spirit."
What's poor in spirit? Bankrupt, helpless. For they shall be, blessed are
they that mourn. Why do they mourn? Because they're
bankrupt and they shall be comforted. This is how God works. But listen
to me, now listen well. This is not a one-time thing.
This conquering of our own nature is a lifelong experience. It's a lifelong battle. It continues
through our whole night upon this earth and God still wrestles
with his people. If God's not wrestling with you,
you don't know him. God wrestles with you every day
to subdue your old nature. That's why most people don't
like Romans 7. And when they read Romans 7, they say, well,
that's talking about a carnal Christian. No, that's talking
about Paul, who'd been saved several years, probably 20-some
years. And he still says, that that I want to do, I don't do.
And the things I don't want to do is what I find myself doing,
oh, wretched man that I am. You know what God's doing to
you every day? He's conquering you. He's making
you helpless. And unless he lays hold upon
you and wrestles you down, you'll go to hell. That's right. He's got to make you helpless
because till he does you ain't. Verse 25. And when he saw that
he prevailed not against him, he touched the hall of his thigh
and the hall of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled
with him. Christ could have subdued Jacob
any time he wanted to. That's right. He instigated the
wrestling. He was in control of all of it the whole time.
The outcome was never in doubt. But God's people are not puppets
and they're not robots. We must be able, we must be made
to see feel and experience the weakness of our flesh. And you
know what he did? He touched him in the hollow
of his thigh. And when he touched him, it was
out of joint. And what could he do? Nothing. He wrestled with him a long time.
It says it's almost to the breaking of the day. Dark. He can't see. He can't see him. He don't know
which way is coming at him. And he wrestles him. And just
when he sees fit, he touched the hollow of his thigh. It'd
be like your hip being out of joint, Danny. Said, I can't do
nothing. Touched him. He touched him.
We must see how empty this world is. God's people will be made
willing in the day of his power. What was that doing when he touched
him in the hall of his life? He was showing him his power.
I can do this anytime I want to. And he can, and he does. There's never been a sinner our
Lord came humble. Never been one. You know what
he did to the Apostle Paul on the Damascus Road? He smote him
down and he touched him in the hall of his thigh and he was
never the same. And let me tell you this, this
is the reason for every trial that comes into our life. He
teaches us that this world is just passing away, that it's
nothing, there's nothing in this world that we're just frail creatures
and that we're nothing without Him. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. This is the purpose of all God's
dealings with us. Thank God for all our trials.
You know what it does? It brings us. It brings us to
the end of ourself. What are we going to do? Same
like last few weeks, that's all we've looked at. What are we
going to do? What are we going to do? He brings you to the end
of yourself every day. It ain't like, well, he'll deal
with you today and leave you alone tomorrow. Oh, no. There'll be something
new tomorrow. There'll be something new the next day. He brings you
to the end of yourself. He's brought to the end of his
self and all of his resources, everything's gone. His whole
family, everything's gone and he's left alone. What's he gonna
do? Nothing. Nothing he can do. You know what,
you know the biggest thing, you know what the biggest problem
we have with dealing with lost people is to get them to not do nothing.
Isn't it? Like the little track, do or
done. It's done. One stroke from the hand of God
rendered him utterly helpless. Helpless. He touched the hollow
of his thigh. God got hold of him and God crippled
him. Those that God brings low, he
cripples and he makes them walk with a limp and they're never
the same. Never. Some of you may not know it,
my right leg is a half inch shorter than my left leg. If my shoe
wasn't built up, and you wouldn't know it if I hadn't told you,
I would walk with a bad limp. You could see it. And you know
what that reminds me of? Something that happened to me
when I was 13 years old. Every dime, every day, every
day when I put my shoe on, I am reminded of that right there.
And I have to limp, and I'll take that limp to my grave. And
if God ever touches you in the hollow of your thigh and shows
you your helplessness, you'll never be the same. You'll limp
as long as you're in this world. Helpless. Helpless. Helpless. He weakens us. that he may bless us. Here's
how God always works. He kills and he makes alive. He wounds and then he heals. And the world won't sit reversed. And that's how God works. Unless God crosses people in
their path of rebellion, they're gonna go to hell. Unless God
lays hold of them. Your family, my family, your
loved ones, my loved ones. Unless God lays hold on them,
they're going to hell. Depending upon something that
they do. And you can't convince them any other way. But I can
tell you, I know one that can. Verse 26, and he said, let me
go for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee
go except thou bless me. Now watch this. Christ has been
wrestling with Jacob. And just when he sees fit, on
purpose, he touches him in the hollow of his thigh. Now all
Jacob can do is cling to him. He can't wrestle. He's saying,
son's getting ready to come up. He said, let me go. He said,
I will not let you go unless you bless me. Now he's holding on. I can't let you go. The kingdom of God suffers violent
and the violent take it by force. And I gotta have him. And it's every day. I've got
to have him. When God wrestles with us, all
we want to do is to get loose. But now here, Jacob said, I will
not let you go. I've got to cling to you. Until
now, Jacob had tried to order his own life, his planning, his
scheming, his deceiving, to get what he wanted, and now he's
helpless. All his strength is taken away,
and he clings to Christ, saying, I will not let thee go, except
thou bless me. It was not until his thigh was
out of joint that Jacob said, I will not let thee go. Cheryl,
I can't let him go. I can't let him go. You know
why? Because he wouldn't let me go. This was life or death. A struggle
for Jacob, the battle that would not be fought again. He had heard
the promises of God's blessings. Now he wanted them in truth.
He had heard about God's blessing. He said, now I want those blessings. It's not just having it in your
head. I've got to have it. I've got to have what? I've got
to have him. The question is this morning,
do you want him? Like I said, we're not, God doesn't
make robots and puppets. God makes his people willing,
his people willing in the day of his power, and they want him
more than life itself. Everything else gone. It's just
Jacob. He's all alone. And I've got
to have him. He was still Jacob. His past
clouded with sin. He was a wanderer in a strange
country and still must face his brother, his angry brother. He
knew he was no better off from this experience unless the Lord
gave him his approval, his acceptance, and his presence. I've got to have you. I was talking
to a man yesterday and he was talking about you accepting Jesus.
And that's all they know. And I said, listen, if you was
to go before a king, I said, would you accept him or would
he accept you? And he said, I guess the king
would accept me. I said, that's exactly right. Christ must accept
you. And Jacob said, no, Lord, will
you accept me? Will you show me mercy and grace? Will you receive me? Will you
show me your favor? The one great blessing Jacob
saw from Christ was the assurance of God's favor. And he said unto
him, verse 27, and he said, what is
thy name? And he said, Jacob, what's he
doing here? Now God knew what his name was
and God knew who he was. He wanted Jacob to see it. And
he wanted Jacob to confess it. You know, the biggest thing for
you to do is to confess who you are. If you confess your sins, he's
faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and to cleanse
you from all unrighteousness. And really confession is this
right here. That you saying the same thing about yourself and
your sin that God says about you. It's you taking sides with
God against yourself. And he said, what's your name? And he said, I'm Jacob. Jacob, God forced Jacob to acknowledge
who and what he was. I was struggling that day trying
to look for something to say to somebody and All they was
doing was bragging on their righteousness and everything they've done.
And you know, to a person, a sinner, what can
you say to them? I've got water for the thirsty,
but a man that ain't thirsty, what do you have for him? I've
got food for somebody that's hungry, but what about a man
that ain't hungry? You can put food in front of him. He said,
I don't want that. I don't need it. But when you ever say you
need Christ and mercy and it's in him, Jacob said, you know
what he said, I'm a sinner. Joseph Hart, the same one that
wrote that song we sung a few minutes ago, said, a sinner is
a precious thing, the Holy Ghost hath made him so. What does that
mean the Holy Ghost hath made him so? The Holy Ghost opened
his eyes, when the Holy Spirit has come, he will reprove the
world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. That means he
will thoroughly convince you of who you are. I can't convince
you you're a sinner. Boy, God can. And he's written,
now see this, you see the picture, he's wrestled Jacob down, he's
touched the hollow of his thigh, and Jacob's saying, I want you
to bless me, but how's he gonna bless him? What's your name? I'm Jacob. But the last thing we do is confess
who we are. I'm a sinner by nature. I'm a
sinner by choice. I'm a sinner by practice. There's
not one thing I do that's not tainted by sin. Every prayer,
every thought, every motive, I'm a sinner. Let me tell you,
there's good news for sinners. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. And when God makes them willing,
God makes you see not who you think you are, not what everybody
else thinks you are. Everybody else might think you're
the best person in the world. But when God puts a spotlight
on you and you see how God sees you and you confess it. It would be like the publican
that wouldn't even lift his eyes to heaven and beat upon his chest
and he said, God be merciful to me, the sinner. Blind Bartay
Mayer said, thou son of David have mercy on me. That's sinners. You know what I'm doing? I'm
looking for a sinner. Every day I'm looking for a sinner
and I don't seem to find any. But if God ever wrestles you
down and I know he's able and touches the hollow of your thigh,
you'll see who you are. And you'll not only see it, you'll
have to confess it. You'll have to admit it. I'm
guilty. Guilty. Guilty. My name is Jacob. I'm a cheat. I'm a deceiver. I hold the birthright
by my own efforts, and all my efforts are sin. I am Jacob the
sinner." Me and Sandy was talking this morning, you know, about
Jacob there, how he put his wives and he put the servants first,
then he put his wives. She said, I can't believe he'd
do that. And I said, now, Sandy, this is Jacob, and that's us. You'll do everything to save
your own hide, won't you? I love you, David, but you're
gonna go before me? That's Jacob. That's hard to admit. But that's
who we are. Skin for skin. But God gave him a new name. He's a man with two names. Sometimes in the same verse he's
referred to Jacob and Israel in the same verse. Why? He's
a man with two natures. Boys, that's us. He says, because
God doesn't change, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. We're sons of Jacob. But we're also Israel. They're
not all Israel which are of Israel. And listen, that nation overseas,
they call them Israel, but that's just a picture of the true Israel
of God, the true elect of God. And they're Israel. We're Jacob and Israel. What is that? That's the new
man. The name implies royalty, sonship,
acceptance, and favor with God. Jim, my name is Jacob, but God
has changed my name to Israel. See, it means Prince with God. He has favor with God. This was
not the result of Jacob's will, his efforts. It was the gift
of God's free grace. It means God commands. Israel
is one whose life is commanded and ruled not by self or by Satan
or by the world, but by God. Now listen to me. Anybody that
says that they know God and they've been conquered by God and everything
in the world rules them, there's something wrong. I know we still
have the Jacob nature, and we're still filled with unbelief, but
we're Israel. They're not all Jews, which says
they're Jews. Circumcision is that of the heart,
not of the flesh. He's a new creation. Don't tell
me that man knows God if he's not been conquered by God. They have to be conquered. He
gives them a new name. And he gives them a new nature.
If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are
passed away. Behold, all things are become new. As a prince,
Jacob had power with God and with men and prevailed. His new
name was a constant reminder to Jacob that his success, his
strength, his blessings, all that he had, which made him to
differ from any other man, was the gift of God. What made Jacob
any different than his brother? God did. Who makes you to differ? Who
makes you to differ? Do you know if you're in Israel,
you have favor with God? You can come boldly to the throne
of grace and obtain grace and mercy to help in time of need,
favor. Now that's a blessing. Me and Sandy joked about it that
night when we were sitting beside the interstate with a broke down
car and she said, you know what? We're blessed. The world would
say, how can you be blessed? We're blessed. Blessed. With all spiritual blessings
and heavenly places in Christ. God blessed Jacob. He blessed
him. He said, I won't let you go unless
you bless me. Do you not see this? God makes
sinners want Him. Want Him. And he said, would
you bless me? And you know what he did? He
blessed him. Listen to this, I got it from
Matthew Henry. It says, it was Jacob's weakness that prevailed,
not his strength. Yet it is our weakness that has
power with God. Just as an infant's cry has power
with a mother, more than the cry of a strong man, why does
a mother run so eagerly to the cry of her baby? It is the cry
of helplessness. And until we learn our utter
weakness, we shall never have power with God. It was not the
strong Jacob, the verse 24, but the weak Jacob, the verse 25,
that prevailed. This world, they don't know.
They don't know God. They don't know, don't know anything
about Him. They think that they can overcome
God. They think that they can pray
and twist God's arm to get God to do what they want Him to do.
That's foolishness. God makes you willing. And it's
not your will, but His will be done. And He blesses you. And you prevail. You prevail. Remember the two
on the road to Emmaus? Our Lord was walking with them,
and their hearts were so heavy. They were so downcast. And he
walks up to them, and they don't even know who he is. And he talks
with them by the way, and he opens to them the scripture.
And he's going down the road, and the road comes to a fork.
And they've got to go this way to go home, and he acts like
he's going on down the road. You know what they did? It says
they constrained him. They said, please come to our
house. Constraining the eternal, sovereign Son of God? He act
like He's going on. Lord, please come to my house.
Lord, please meet with us. Lord, please bless us with your
presence. And you know when he does? When
we see, when he makes us to see our utter helplessness. That's right. Utter helplessness. And Jacob asked him and said,
verse 29, tell me I pray thee thy name. And he said, wherefore
is it that thou dost ask us for my name? And he blessed him there. Jacob was a subdued man, but
his flesh was not destroyed. In curiosity, he asked and tried
to pry into that which was not yet revealed. Pried there to
seek familiarity with the Almighty, and God refused to tell him his
name. Jacob must believe God within
the scope of his revelation, and that's how we believe him,
how he has revealed himself to us. Faith demands no more than
God reveals. Yet in spite of this, the Lord
confirmed his blessing on Jacob. And then it says, And Jacob called
the name of that place Peniel. Now watch this. For I have seen
God face to face, and my life is preserved. No man can see
God's face and live. You know what it says? but we can see the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ, my mediator. That's how you can
see God face to face. Our Lord said, if you've seen
me, you've seen the Father. And then lastly, he said, as
he passed over Peniel, the sun rose upon him and he hauled it upon his thigh.
when he left Peniel, the sun is coming up and the sun rose
upon him. The sun of righteousness rises
and shines upon those whom God has blessed. And it says in Proverbs
4.18, but the path of the just is as the shining light that
shineth more and more into the perfect day. This was a token
of God's favor and God's love. God loved Jacob. Jacob term I loved And all that God loved before
the world was made He's gonna conquer them in time Election
is not salvation. It's unto salvation He elected
them chose them in Christ the Son of God has he redeemed them
but the Spirit of God Comes and wrestles them down and makes
them helpless and gives them a new nature While Jacob walked with God,
he halted upon his thigh. He was not the same man. He never
walked the same way. And we go halting through this
world. What does this mean? We are forced
to lean upon our Savior. Go back this week and read Hebrews
11, the roll call of faith. What does it say about Noah?
Noah believed God and Abraham believed God and it was accounted
unto him for righteousness. Noah moved with fear, prepared
the ark. But you know what it says about
Jacob? Out of everything that Jacob did, he offered up Isaac,
his only son. I mean, that was Abraham, I'm
sorry, but out of everything that Jacob did, what would you
think that he would have recorded? Out of everything he did, here's
what's recorded. Hebrews 11, verse 21. By faith, Jacob, when
he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph Ephraim and
Manassas, and he worshipped, listen, leaning upon the top
of his staff. When he's crossing over Pena,
you know what he's doing? He's leaning on that staff. And
when he gets ready to leave this world, what it says about his
faith, he's leaning on that staff. A believer in Christ never quits
leaning on Christ. He died in faith. You know what
God does? Keeps you leaning on him. He
said, I've had this staff a long time and he still got it. He's
been in Egypt 17 years, and he's getting ready to die. He can't
even see. He can't even see which one of Joseph's sons are the
oldest. Remember, Joseph brings his sons
up there, and he brings the oldest up to the right hand, and he
leaves Jacob's hand. He's going to put his right hand
right on that boy. You know what Jacob does? He
crosses his hands, and he puts the right hand on the youngest
boy. And when he's dying, He worships
leaning upon His staff. This is how God deals with His
people. Every day, all your life, He teaches you continually to
lean upon Him. Learning to lean. Learning to
lean. I'm glad he teaches us that.
He don't leave us alone. He never will.