My name is Jacob. Do you know who you are? Turn with me to Genesis chapter
32. If God the Holy Spirit will enable
me to proclaim that which is here written in the book of God
and inscribe his word upon your heart, You'll find out before you leave
here today who you are. Genesis 32. Let's begin reading
at verse 24. And Jacob was left alone, and
there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, He touched the
hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out
of joint as he wrestled with him. And 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 as a prince hast 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 after my name? And 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 he passed over Peniel, as
he passed over Peniel, the sun rose upon him, and he halted
upon his thigh. Therefore, the children of Israel,
eat not the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the
thigh unto this day, because he touched the hollow of Jacob's
thigh in the sinew that shrank. The title of my message, my name
is Jacob. I want by the power and grace
of God the Holy Spirit to try to tell you something of what
I know and have experienced of God's abundant free grace to
poor, lost, helpless, ruined sinners like you and like me. This passage of scripture is
often used as a picture of conversion. But this is not really Jacob's
initial experience of conversion. That took place 20 years earlier.
when Jacob saw a ladder descending from heaven, a ladder which portrayed
the Lord Jesus Christ as the only mediator between God and
man, that ladder by which God descends to man and by which
man ascends up to God, the only way of access For man to find
acceptance with God is Jesus Christ the Lord. He is the latter
by whom we ascend up to heaven. Jacob saw that and he understood
that when the Lord God appeared to him at Bethel. Frequently,
this passage of scripture is used as a picture of a man wrestling
with God in prayer, fervent in prayer. encouraged by many to
wrestle with God. We've got to wrestle with God. What a foolish notion. What a
foolish notion. The picture here is not of a
man wrestling with God, but of God wrestling with a man. There's a huge difference. It
is the man Christ Jesus, God our mediator, the angel of the
covenant who comes and wrestles with Jacob in this passage. This
passage of scripture then sets before us a picture of the Lord
God Almighty subduing proud sinful flesh in his believing people. that which he does by his almighty
grace, forcing every son of Jacob to acknowledge who and what he
is. And God Almighty, if I'm his,
if you're his, will force you to acknowledge who and what you
are, not once in a while, but all the days of your life. He
will graciously force you to acknowledge my name is Jacob. All right, let's look at this
passage again, line by line. First, we read that Jacob was
left alone. Was there ever a man more alone
than Jacob? His whole life had been filled
with trouble, and disappointment, frustration, and difficulty. Now, as he was returning home,
he feared for his life. His brother Esau was coming to
meet him with 400 men. Remember, Esau had sworn to Jacob,
if I ever see you again, you're a dead man. But Jacob has been
down serving his father-in-law, his uncle Laban, and he's served
him faithfully. But as he deceived his father,
his uncle Laban deceived him. And Jacob wound up marrying a
wife he didn't want and served another seven years to get the
wife that he did want. And then the Lord appeared to
Jacob and told him, said, you go back home now. You returned
to your father's land and to your father's house, and he promised,
I will bless you. Jacob, you'll remember, at his
mother's instigation, had deceived his father and stolen the birthright
from his brother Esau. The birthright was his. It was
his because God had so ordained it. But Jacob devised arm of
the flesh by which he deceived his father and stole the birthright. Esau swore to destroy him and
Jacob fled. He fled from God Almighty and
now he's returning. He's returning because God promised
to bless him. Jacob has now met the Lord God,
and he's understood that Christ is his mediator, and he worships
God. But he's about to meet Esau.
He must have been thinking about the things God had promised him,
the things his mother had told him, I'm sure, from his youth.
Jacob, the Lord God told me he loved you. The Lord God chose
you. He's determined to have you.
And he was to be greatly blessed of God. So Jacob, earlier in
the day, sent his flocks and his herds and his family in droves
before him. And he went over the brook Jabbok
and sat down and waited to meet Esau. He's shut up now altogether. He's just alone. and Jacob was
left alone. Shut up to God working for him. What a blessed place for God
to put you. Shut up alone with God. We see when God Almighty is about
to work a work of grace for a sinner. You can be sure that isolation
is always the forerunner of revelation and grace and salvation. Before
God saves, he separates. He'll get you alone. He said
concerning Gomer, I told Hosea to say concerning Gomer as he
said concerning Israel, I will allure thee into the wilderness
and there will I speak comfortably to you. God gets sinners alone. The Lord Jesus, when the time
of mercy had come for that woman taken in adultery in the eighth
chapter of John, put away all her accusers. And when he was
done, there was no man left except Jesus and the woman alone with
him. And the Lord Jesus was about
to reveal himself to Saul of Tarsus. He isolated Saul of Tarsus
from the crowd around him and revealed himself to Saul. And
then Saul spoke to Saul. To everyone else was just a noise
of confusion. But the Lord Jesus had separated
Saul for himself. Now, we read next, there wrestled
a man with him until the breaking of the day. Who was this man? Obviously, there's no question
this man is Jesus Christ, our God. We're told in verse 30,
Jacob said, I have seen God face to face. So the man wrestling
with Jacob is the incarnate God. These pre-incarnate revelations
of Christ to his people in the Old Testament were pledges of
the promise that he would come in time in human flesh to redeem
and save his people. This man who wrestles with Jacob
is Christ Jesus, his mediator, the angel of the covenant, that
one through whom all the blessings of the covenant and all the blessings
of grace flow down to God's people, this man. The Lord Jesus wrestled
with Jacob. Now, was this a physical wrestling
match? I doubt it. I doubt it. It lasted
from the sunset until the breaking of the day. Now, I was on wrestling
teams when I was in school, and I've had some matches that lasted
the full time limit, but that was just about two and a half
or three minutes. And after just a little while,
I was exhausted and I was a young fella. I rather doubt that this
was a all-night physical wrestling match. Not in need for that. It was something that took place
in Jacob's soul. Took place in his heart, perhaps
in a night vision. But the Lord God Almighty in
the person of his dear son appeared to Jacob and wrestled with him
all night long. In wrestling, You have an object. The object is to pin your opponent
to the ground and make him helpless. That's your object. Your object
is to pin him to the ground and make him helpless so he cannot
break your grip. That's what the Lord Jesus came
to do with Jacob. And that's what he comes to do
with all his own. The Lord wrestled with Jacob
to reduce him to a sense of his nothingness, to make him see
what a poor, helpless, worthless creature he was. Do you see this? God's purpose. Hear me, children
of God. Hear yourself, preacher. God's
purpose in all our trials is to make us strong in grace and
strong in faith. And the way he does that is by
making us to know and recognize how utterly useless and helpless
we are. This is not a once in a lifetime
experience. This is the continual experience
of God's people in this world. When I am weak, Paul said, then
I'm strong. I will glory in my infirmities,
for when I am weak, then am I strong. As Ruth sang just a little bit
ago, the Savior says then, my grace is sufficient for thee. And when you find yourself utterly
insufficient, you'll find his grace completely sufficient. When you find yourself utterly
empty, then you will find yourself filled by his grace. When you
find yourself stripped by the hand of God before God naked
and ashamed, you'll find yourself clothed before God with no reason
to be ashamed. This man wrestled with Jacob
until the breaking of the day. There were issues to be resolved.
They had to be resolved in Jacob's heart. They had to be resolved
permanently, and they had to be resolved now. This was not
a brief passing encounter. It was not some indifferent decision
you made on the spur of the moment in the front of a church giving
response to an altar call. Great issues were at stake. Eternal
matters had to be settled. What were they? Jacob had to
acknowledge and confess that Christ is Lord. With the heart, man believeth
unto righteousness. With the mouth, confession is
made unto salvation. That is, with the heart, man
believes with reference to righteousness. He acknowledges that he has none
and that his only righteousness is the blood and righteousness
of God's dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. With the heart, confession
is made unto salvation. Or with the mouth, confession
is made unto salvation. Confession is made with reference
to salvation. The man, the woman, born of God's
spirit and taught of God, is continually taught to confess
himself nothing, Christ everything. Himself sin, Christ righteousness. Himself the transgressor, Christ
the redeemer. Himself having broken the God's
law, Christ the one who redeems and sets free from the curse
of God's law. Jacob had to know and bow to
the will of God. This man wrestles with Jacob
to pin him. To force from him this helpless
confession, my name is Jacob. Tricky, deceiver, supplater,
deceitful, cunning, crafty, sin. That's my name. And Jacob had
to lose his life. He had to surrender everything
to Christ. his heart, his life, he had to
surrender willingly. When I speak to you about your
sin, some of you sit where you are and say, I'm not like that. You're lying to yourself and
you know it. And sooner or later, you're going
to confess it. either willingly before Christ on the throne of
grace or unwillingly in the day of judgment before Christ on
the throne of judgment, but confess yourself and confess him, Lord,
you most certainly will. Jacob had to bow and so must
you. He had to surrender everything
to Christ. Everything. Thy people shall
be willing in the day of thy power. Willing surrender, Dave. Willing
surrender. You raise five children and you
can with force and pain make them surrender but not willingly. But after a while, If you can
conquer their hearts, trouble's over. They learn to
surrender and won't do. The old man does know a few things.
He's smarter than I thought he was. He is looking out for my
good. So it is with God's people in
conversion. We don't surrender to Christ
because we have to. We surrender to him because we
want to. We don't bow because he forces
us to. We bow because we want to. But
the only way that'll happen is if he forces you to bow. God
was determined to bless and use Jacob. His purpose could not
be defeated. but he would not grant his blessing,
and he would not use this man until Jacob was conquered, broken,
and subdued, surrendered willingly to the Christ Jesus, the Lord.
This conquering of the flesh, this breaking, this subduing,
I repeat, is not a once in life experience. It goes all day. by day, by day,
by moment, by moment, by moment, experience by experience, by
experience. There's a warfare inside here.
Flesh and spirit. The flesh can never prevail,
but it will never surrender. The spirit must conquer the flesh. Christ will ultimately prevail. Thank God he shall deliver me
from the body of this death. If we're his, he'll conquer us
and he'll make us willing to be conquered and he will at last
deliver us from this flesh. All right, read on. Here's the
next thing. And when he saw that he prevailed
not against Jacob, verse 25, He touched the hollow of his
thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joints as he
wrestled with him. Now, there's no question God
could easily have subdued Jacob physically. This conflict was
ordered by God and instigated by God. The outcome was never
in doubt, but God's people are not puppets. We're not robots. How often you hear folks say,
if I believed what you did, you'd make me a robot. You'd make us
puppets on string. And my usual response is, would
to God we were just puppets on a string. Then we wouldn't have
any responsibility for what goes on in us. There wouldn't be any
corruption or rebellion in us. But the fact is we're not puppets
and we're not robots. We're real human beings and God
Almighty says, my son, give me thine heart. And he's going to
get it. He's going to get it if we're
his. We must be made to see and feel and experience the frailty
of our flesh, the emptiness of this world, and the glory of
God in Christ so that we desire his presence and his salvation
above all things. Grace makes us willing in the
day of God's power. This is the purpose of God in
all that he reveals to us, in all that we endure, and in all
his dealings with us. Thank God for the sharp, painful
blows of providence and grace that bring us down. Thank God for the sharp, painful
blows of providence and grace that bring us down. Jacob is
brought to an end of his own resources. One swift stroke from
God rendered him helpless. Look at verse 26, his strength
withered. And he said, let me go for the
day breaketh. And Jacob said, I will not let
thee go except thou bless me. Now the Lord had accomplished
his purpose. Jacob was helpless. He could no longer wrestle. All he could do was hang on. All he could do was hold to his
master, his God, and his Redeemer. He's helpless. The Lord broke
his thigh. Until now, Jacob had tried to
order his own life. planning and scheming and devising
and deceiving to get what he wanted. Now he's helpless. His strength is gone. He says,
I will not let thee go except thou bless me. Other refuge have
I none, hangs my helpless soul on thee. Not only did he say,
I will not let thee go, he said, I will not let thee go except
thou bless me. He seeks from the Lord the blessing
of his grace. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in thee I find. But still confession must be
made. Look at verse 27. He said unto
him, what is thy name? And he said, Jacob, Jacob. Jacob. Nothing about that name suggests
anything honorable. Jacob. What's your name? Treachery,
deceit, lying, cheat, cunning, trickery, dishonesty, Subtlety. What's your name? My name is
Sid. That's what I am. And that's what I do. And there's no grace for you
until God makes you know that. My name's Jacob. And he said,
as soon as Jacob said, my name is Jacob, the Lord Jesus said,
thou shalt no more be called Jacob, but Israel. What a name. I'll give him a
new name. His name's Israel. Prince with
God. Prince with God? Jacob? You? Bobby Estes, he says, your
name's Israel. And so all Israel shall be saved.
Prince with God? For as a prince, thou hast power
with God and with men and hast prevailed. Jacob confesses his
name. God gives him a new name. And
as the prince with God, This man, Jacob, has power with God. Can I tell you something about
Don Fortner you may not know? Merle Hart, I have power with
God. Power with God? Not because Jacob's
holy, he wasn't. Not because Jacob behaved better
than he saw, he didn't. Not because Jacob somehow overcame
his flesh, he couldn't. Not because Jacob had decided
to turn over a new leaf and do right, he hadn't. How is it that
he has power with God? because he has favor with God. Rex Bartley, God smiles on us
in Jesus Christ his son and therefore he declares that whatever we
ask in his name, we have it. I believe that's having power
with God. I believe that's prevailing with God. Jacob, God's prince. God made him so. But he's a sinner
still. Read on. Verse twenty-nine. And Jacob asked him and said,
tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And the Lord Jesus said, wherefore
is it that thou dost ask after my name? Jacob asked out of mere curiosity
what God had not yet revealed to him. He seeks to pry into
that which is not revealed to satisfy his curiosity. I frequently
receive letters from people that are in conversation to ask curious
questions about the things of God. Curious questions. And some of you will have those
questions. Let me urge you, don't answer them. Don't answer them. I asked a fellow the other day,
I said, he'd written to me, he said, was Melchizedek God? I
said, I don't know. Are you saying you don't know,
or are you saying the Bible doesn't say? I'm saying the Bible doesn't
say, so I don't know. I don't know. I have some thoughts, but
I don't know. Well, I want to know everything
I can about the Bible. It's one thing to want to know
everything you can about God. It's something else just want
to know everything you can. Jacob just said, what's your name?
I've told you my name. Now you tell me your name. And
the Lord said, why are you asking? Why are you asking? And he wouldn't
satisfy his curiosity. The fact is that God's people,
God's people, God's people, are sinners still while they live
in this world. And they still have to battle
the flesh and the corruptions and the pride and the lust of
the flesh and the tendencies of the flesh. Why do I have to even talk like
this? I don't want to try to convince you or convince me.
We're just sin. That's what we are. But now watch
this. The next line. and he blessed him there. He blessed him in spite of what
he is by nature, in spite of what he does, in spite of his
sin. You see, God's blessings don't
depend on our goodness. God's blessings do not depend
on our righteousness. God's blessings are free, unconditional
blessings of grace. He blessed him there. In spite
of everything, he blessed him. Now look at verse 30. And Jacob
called the name of the place Piteo, for I have seen God face
to face, and my life is spared. Aaron, Jacob saw God. Well, you can't see God. God's
Spirit, I know. That's the reason the Word was
made flesh and dwelt among us. And Christ, the wisdom of God,
appears in the form of a man to this man, Jacob. And Jacob
is looking at God's Son in the face. And he understood that
this man, the woman seen, who had not yet come into this world
through the womb of a virgin, this man, he's God! I've seen
God face-to-face. Now, why should I fear Esau? I've seen God face-to-face. What
man's face should I fear? I've seen God face-to-face. Why
should I fear anything? But there's more here. If you
have a marginal translation in the margin of your Bible, you'll
notice the word piteo means the face of God. Jacob called the
name of this place Pineal. He called the name of this place
the face of God. He saw the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ. That's what God does when he
saves sinners. God who commands light to shine
out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Now look at verse 31. And as
he passed over Pineal, The sun rose upon him, and he halted
upon his thigh. He passed over Peniel, and the
sun rose upon him, a token of God's favor. The sun of righteousness
rises and shines upon those who are blessed of God, and the path
of the just shineth more and more unto the perfect day. While
Jacob walked with God, He halted on his thigh. We will go through this world
halted. Forced by God's grace. to lean
entirely upon another, even Christ our Lord. Forced by grace to lean entirely
upon our Redeemer. Oh, thank God for that weakness
that forces a sinner to trust the Savior. Whatever it takes,
Frank Hall, to make you lean on Christ, I'm for it and praying
for it. Whatever it takes, whatever it
takes to make your sons and daughters and mine lean on the Redeemer,
that's what I'm praying for. Whatever it takes to make you
and me lean on Christ, that's what we want. But notice here also, that in
verse 32, the Jews were told, the children of Israel, don't
eat of that part of the body where God smote Jacob, that sinew
that shrank on the thigh to this day. How come? Because religious
men and women who never experienced God's grace will always substitute
superstition, idolatrous traditions, and works, and anything else
for the knowledge of the grace of God in Jesus Christ the Lord. Religious folks will take anything
else, any substitute. Do you know the Jews and their
Mishnah commentaries they write? I don't read the Hebrew commentaries,
but Dr. Gill did. He says, in their mission,
they have an entire chapter giving rules concerning the eating of
the sinew of any animal which is upon the hollow of the thigh.
Whole chapter, just a list of rules. Now, this is what part
you can't eat. This is what part you can't eat.
This is how you have to cut it. This is how you have to fix it.
Because the whole nation is in blindness and darkness. but Jacob understood what God
had done. I began this message by telling
you my name is Jacob and asking, do you know who you are? Can
you take your place with Jacob? Will you confess and own your
name before God, bowing to Christ the Lord? In the book of God,
have you ever noticed how God's people are described as the sons
of Jacob? The sons of Jacob. Oh, what a
name for you and me. Skip, if you're God's, you're
one of Jacob's sons. Well, what's so special about
that? Jacob was loved of God. Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. Well, why would God love me?
If you ever find an answer to that question, I promise you,
you know nothing of God's love. Why would God love me? Why? Because he would. The children
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand, it is written, Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Tell you something else. Jacob
was chosen of God. God chose Jacob. God chose Jacob
for his peculiar inheritance. The psalmist says the Lord hath
chosen Jacob unto himself. And he's chosen us in Christ
Jesus. Thank God for electing love. to thank God for electing love. People sneered and said, you
believe you're one of the chosen few? And I smiled and said, that's
exactly what I believe. That's exactly what I believe. Yes, sir, God chose me. The reason
I believe is because God chose me. The reason I worship him
is because God chose me. The reason I know Christ is because
God chose me. Third, the God of Abraham redeemed Jacob. We read it earlier. Thou hast
with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob. You see, those
who are the objects of God's love, the objects of God's choice,
these are the people redeemed by the blood of Christ who shall
be saved by God's almighty grace. And the Lord revealed himself
to Jacob. He revealed himself to Jacob
at Bethel, and he saw that ladder. Jacob said, God showed me how
God can come to me, and I can go to him, and it's in the person
of the God made by Mediator. And the Mediator comes and reveals
himself to Jacob here in Genesis 32, conquering him and telling
him of his mighty grace, and he's a prince with God, the Lord
God, met Jacob and made himself known to him. And you know what? Jacob was never the same after
that. He was never quite the same.
Everything's different now. God's made him new in Christ
Jesus. And the Lord gave Jacob a new
name, Israel, prince with God. Behold what manner of love the
father hath bestowed on us that we should be called the sons
of God. If ever there was a child born
to a woman fit for hell, it's the one standing in front of
you. But God chose me, adopted me
as his own, and made me his son. I remember hearing a story about
a couple back in the days when you could go to an adoption agency
and adopt a child. And they made an appointment
to go to the adoption agency and see the representative They're
going through all the paperwork and stuff, and they were going
to be examined and make a decision what they wanted, and they had
lots of children there. And the lady had prepared a beautiful
young girl, got her a new dress and curled her blonde hair just
right, and the girl so mannerly, and she's just sitting, waiting
for them to come in. And as they drove up and got
out of the car, the man and his wife got out, and there's a little
boy behind the bushes. And just as soon as they got
by him, he picked up a rock and threw it. hit that fella right in the
back. He turned around and looked at
him, the fella just kind of left, snaggled tooth, redheaded fella,
just bushed your hair and took off running. And they went through
all the talking and the lady talked about how good this girl
would be for you and the man kept looking at his wife and
her looking at him and said, you're on the way in here. Here's a little redheaded fella,
kind of dirty, brushed your hair and snaggled tooth. He threw
a rock, hit me right in the back. And the lady said, oh, I'm so
sorry. I apologize. She said, we've got, that's Johnny. We've got 59 children here to
be adopted. He's number 60. That man looked at his wife and she
looked at him and said, I think we'd like to have Johnny. I'm
number 60. God made me his son. My name's
Jacob. Who are you? Tell you something
else about Jacob's sons. Jacob was led all the days of
his life. God said to Jacob, behold, I
am with thee and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest. For I will not leave thee until
I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. God said that to me. I remember
that. He said, let's be content that
your conversation be without covetousness and be content with
such things as you have. For he hath said, I will never
leave thee nor forsake thee. And here I am, 45 years later, and he's never left me and never
forsaken me. He's proved himself faithful
every day. One more thing. Jacob was kept. Kept. All the days of his life,
kept. Kept by God. because God changes not. And this is his word to you.
I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore, you
sons of Jacob are not concerned. I take the name gladly. My name's
Jacob. Who are you? Number 219.