Jacob had come a long way, 20 some years since he left his
brother, left this land, left his father's house, 20 some years. He'd come a long way from his
departure out of his father's house to where he now began to
have a little rest. He'd gone down to the land of
Abraham, down to the house of Laban to
take a wife. And down at Laban's house that
I call the father of lies. And I call him that because Satan
has rule among men. He has a rule over them. It's
not a It's not a rule where somebody comes to your door and enforces
it, but it's a rule of deception. It's a rule of darkness and ignorance. Deceit. And Laban, down there,
he was the old father of lies. That place where Christ will
take his bride is a place under the rule of the prince of darkness. All the people in his kingdom
are under him. Taken captive, the Scripture
said, at his will. At his will. All under his curse. And they live in that bondage
of darknesses. And his promises are set forth
in a believable sincerity. Jacob would never have labored
seven years if he didn't believe laboring was going to be good
to his word. No way. He convinced him. How
did he convince him? With a believable sincerity.
His covenants of promise he offers as if to give his life rather
than to break one. Can you remember those days?
You ever sat in those places and listened to him talk? This man under the influence
of Satan would work God's elect for an inheritance that was already
his. It was already his. He'd make
merchandise of his own daughters and his maidservants. He'd say
one thing and do another. He'd promise one thing and deliver
another. And he would, if he could, enslave
God's elect and steal his promised inheritance if it were his own. Now, you read the story. We've
gone over these passages, and I've shown you these things.
He'd use Jacob until he was not worth using, and then he'd cast
him aside being no longer of any advantage to him. And Jacob
seeing these things, seeing these things, decides to leave that
father of lies. But the old father of lies pursued
him, and he chased him all the way to that place where God drew
a line in the sand. He drew a line by revelation
in his heart. It was a spiritual place, a place
of divine intervention. A place where God caused him
to cease his pursuit. And that's the only way, are
you listening to me? That's the only way that this
monarch over this kingdom of darkness will ever, he'll relentlessly
pursue you right into hell unless God intervenes. God intervened
in the life of Jacob and he drew a line and he said, you're not
going to come past this. I'm going to come past this.
And this to me is that place of grace, where grace is established,
where God's presence and gifts begin to shine in the heart,
where sin abounded. Grace doth now much more abound. Where religion, with all of its
past relationships and with all of its past memories, with all
of its past ties, family and friends, and all that past security,
it cannot come past this line. It comes to this place of understanding. No visible wall there. No law
enacted. No guards posted. But it was
a memorial that had to do with an understanding. With an understanding. Because of this spiritual understanding,
Laban would rather lose all his daughters and all his grandchildren
than cross that forbidden line. God said, you're not coming past
here. This was Jacob. This was God's
elect. This is he in whom God said he
would establish his election of grace forever. And if by grace
he'll set his no more works, otherwise grace is no more grace.
Drew a line in the sand. And then as the patriarch turns
to cross the jaybox, he finds himself there wrestling with
a man. Or maybe it might be better said that the man came and wrestled
with him, because that's the way it happened. Came and wrestled
with him. You recall that Jabok received
its name because it emptied out into the Jordan. It means to
become utterly void, to lose all of its significance, to empty
out completely. Well, did the Lord name this
place where Jacob met the Lord? It might be interesting. I don't
have a very accurate ancient map, but I'd like to get hold
of one. I'd like to see where this river
began. I know it began up in the mountains,
and it was up in the mountains where God drew the line in the
sand. And that river ran from there
all the way into Jordan, took its journey from the mountain
and trickled down, went all the way into Jordan. And I just wonder
if that ain't the same place where that river began, where
God met with Jacob up on that mountain. But at any rate, where
did the Lord name this place where Jacob met the Lord? There
that little brook emptied out into the mighty river. In Christ,
he lost his direction and found a new one. In Christ, he lost
his walk and found a new one. In Christ, he lost his power
and found the power of God. In Christ, he lost his goal,
but he found a new end. He found it all in Christ. And that little stream, with
as much current as it could muster coming down out of the mountain,
flowed out into the great Jordan. And for just a little ways, if
you've ever been around a smaller stream when it runs into a big
one. You see that little muddy stream runs out there and it
stains that river out there for about 10 or 12 feet and then
it just disappears, becomes one with the big river. That was
Jacob's experience. This is life eternal that they
might know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom thou
sent. And before old Jacob's walk could
be changed and his attitude changed and his will be made willing,
He has to wrestle with the God-man. In this man and in this man alone
is the love of God established, the justice of God exalted and
satisfied. In Him is God's righteousness
declared. In Him is a river of mercy making
glad the hearts of chosen sinners. In Him. In Him is order and authority
and power over all flesh to give life to as many as the Father
has given unto Him. And Jacob wrestled with the God-man,
and the God-man took the pride out of his walk. He took his
hand and put it in the hollow of his thigh, and he pressed
it until it came out of joint. As he passed over Penuel, it
said, the sun rose. The sun rose. Its bright beams flooded his
own blinded eyes. What a sunrise. Think about it. What a sunrise was that first
sunrise when the day star arose in your heart. What a sunrise. Jacob crossed Penuel, it says,
halted upon his thigh. I was thinking about Nathan as
I prepared this message this afternoon. his right side with
very little strength and his speech a little slurred and lying
there on the bed. But of his own confession, of
his own confession, that day star has arisen in his heart. And the scripture said, when
we're weak, Jacob was weak. God took the strut out of Jacob. Took it out of him. And he limped
up to Esau, didn't he? He lived. I remember a young
preacher just went through a real hard traumatic trial in his life. And he was called upon to preach
at a Bible conference up in Ashland, Kentucky years ago. And I remember
his opening comments. He was preaching on this thing
of Jacob wrestling with God. And his comments was this, you're
going to lose that strut before you come into the doors of the
kingdom of God. You're going to lose that strut.
You are going to lose that strength. When you go out to meet Esau,
your angry brother, you are going to limp up into his presence. Why would God do such a thing
to His elect? Well, I find over here in 1 Corinthians
1.29, the only answer I can find in the Scripture, that no flesh should glory in
His presence. That's why. That's why He chooses
the weak things of the world and the foolish things. That's
why. No flesh is going to glory in
His presence. He's going to remind us often
His own. He's going to remind us what
we are. We're flesh. We're sinners. We're
beggars. And from the time He left Jabon,
flowing out from Jacob's house were tokens of grace and goodwill. And I tell you, I thought about
this and I fear this. I fear this worse than cancer.
I fear this worse than a heart attack. I fear this worse than
being crippled. I fear standing before men and
presenting this gospel in the wrong light. This gospel is good
news. It's good news. There wasn't
anything about Jacob's actions toward Esau. He knew Esau hated
his guts. Esau wanted him dead. That was
his testimony when he left. For 20 years he laid down there
in that land of Abraham fearing his brother Esau. And now God
came into his life and took over his life and changed him and
emptied him out. Left him a vacuum in his own
eyes and filled him up with Christ. And everything that went out
of Jacob's house was just tokens of grace. Tokens of grace. Here it is. You like cattle,
here's cattle. You like sheep, here's sheep.
You need goats, here's goats. What else do you need? You need
a title, I'll call you Lord and you call me your servant. Oh, I fear that I might not shed
His gospel in the light of His grace and goodness. The gospel,
my friend, is God's good news. It's peace on earth, goodwill
toward men. And I fear an argumentative attitude
that it baits the rebellion in men and then slaps them in the
face. I can't find it. That's not how he saw Jacob when
he come, was he? He said he bowed himself to the
ground seven times as he walked up toward his brother. Seven
times. He called Him, My Lord. I tell
you, you won't find that argumentative attitude in the Lord's example
or that of His prophets or His apostles. Yes, they had stern
warnings. And yes, they had correcting
messages. But the tenor of their preaching
was always seasoned with grace. I want you to listen to these
words. Paul said, pray for us over in Colossians chapter 4.
Pray for us that God would open unto us a door of utterance to
speak the mystery of Christ for which I am bound. That's that
I'm down here in prison. But that don't mean anything.
You pray for me. If God wants to open the door,
He'll get me out. He'll get me out. Verse 4, that
I may make manifest as I ought to speak. What a statement. To walk in wisdom toward them
that are without. redeeming the time. Oh, he said,
and let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt,
that you may know how to answer every man. That was gracious
to me. And then at last, Jacob comes
to God, and God makes him a place to live where he once fled. He fled in fear. And now here
he stands by the hand of God, by the declaration of God. He
saw no way for this thing ever to come to pass. His brother
hated him. He no doubt blamed his mother
for what she'd done and blamed himself for what he'd done and
sat down there and feared Esau and could see no way that these
promises could ever be fulfilled. And yet now here he stands in
this little place And here's these men who hated him. You know Esau didn't leave Jacob
with a good name. Everybody in that country knew
about Jacob. Esau spread it around everywhere. I'll tell you about my brother. And now here's his brother. And
Esau's hugging his neck. And this man's selling him property
and God's making him a spot here in this land that He gave to
him. God makes him this place, this
little place of rest. And this land that he feared
to live in and had run from. And Jacob erects there an altar
down in verse 20 of Genesis chapter 33. He erected there an altar. And he called it El Elohi Israel. Now I don't want to get all bogged
down in word definitions. But this name is important and
it's instructive. Jacob's altar, El Elohi Yisro,
means the mighty God of Yisro. Actually, it's a compound of
a lot of words. El is a word. E is a word. Lo
is a word. He is a word. All of these are
individual words. And so I went and looked them
all up. And I began to see something in a pattern of how these words
were joined together. And so I studied each one. And
underneath the study, I'd write the general things that it meant.
And then when I was done, I put them in their own succession,
just as they appear here. And these are the things that
I come to see. It's a compound of many words.
And if you affix their meaning together, it says several things.
It says, first of all, the mighty God rules in Israel. That's what it says. The mighty
God rules in Israel. Where God raises up His altar,
He has established His sovereign rule. Do not ever imagine that
you can come to this place of rest without being brought under
the rule of Christ. It's not going to happen. The
first thing He's going to establish is who's king. That's the first
thing He's going to establish. And it's going to be a loving
rule. You're going to willingly bow down. You're going to see
him not as this vicious king who wants to throw you out of
his kingdom, but you're going to see a willing king, a loving
king, a wonderful king, a king in whom is no God. This king
from the foundation of the world has had nothing in mind except
your good, given himself for nothing but your good. And you're
going to willingly bow down to him. and serve Him. But that
rule is going to be established. It's a rule of grace, but it's
a rule. It's a rule. Oh, Jacob looked on his heathen
brother's face. I've been wrestling with this
for three weeks. Jacob answered Esau. Esau down here in verse
9. He said, I have enough, my brother. Keep that that thou
hast unto thyself. And Jacob said, nay, I pray thee,
if now I have found grace in thy sight, then receive my prison
at my hand. Four. Now listen to this statement. Therefore have I seen thy face
as though I had seen the face of God. You have a problem with that? Esau was his enemy, wasn't he? Esau's whom he feared, wasn't
he? And he said, I look on your face as though I looked on the
face of God. Oh, Jacob looked on his heathen
brother's face and saw God's sovereign rule at that moment
in his life in his brother's face. God's rule. God's rule over his anger and
over his hatred and over what he said he was going to do. God
overruled it. And when Jacob looked in his
face, he saw that rule of God, that gracious rule, even in his
own brother's eyes. His brother's eyes was just burning
when he rode up there with those 400 men. Oh, what a statement concerning
Jacob's understanding of the absolute rule of Christ in all
things. And that memorial that Jacob
would rise up, raise up in this godless land would first say
this, the mighty God rules in Israel. He rules. I'm here because
God's on the throne. That's exactly right. If God
had left me alone, I'd have just continued on my way, doing my
thing, building my house, gathering in my stuff, building up whatever
I thought I could do, doing good for this and doing good for that,
no interest whatsoever in the things of God. And now Jacob
said, God has overtaken me and shown me His rule in my life
from the day I was born, before the day I was born. Jacob have
I loved, Esau have I hated. And he looked back and he could
see God's rule over all things, especially in the face of his
feared brother. What did he do to appease his
brother? Few goats? I don't think so. No, this was
an inward work of God in his heart. The mighty God rules in
Israel. And then if you search that word
a little deeper, it may say this, the mighty God rules for Israel. Not only does He rule in Israel,
but He rules for Israel. The mighty God who set up His
rule in Christ, God said, I've set my King upon my holy hill
in Zion. And all these foolish men have
gathered themselves to gather against Him. I said, the Lord
will laugh. He'll laugh. Put His King upon His holy hill
in Zion. He's the one who worketh all
things after the counsel of his predestination and his will."
Paul said, we have obtained an inheritance in Christ being predestinated
according to him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will. What a thought. What a thought. ever disease-carrying mosquito,
ever blood-borne pathogen, ever monarch in the earth, ever civil
authority, even the enemies of my soul are governed to bring
about my eternal good and God's glory. What a statement. What
a statement. God will take Satan, who desires
to bring this man Peter down to the ground. He's going to
come to Him and He's going to take that proud walk of His and
His proud mind and His powerful arms and jaws and He's going
to twist Him around and cause Him to be just an offense to
the glory and grace of God. Christ looked at Peter and He
said, Satan hath desired to sift you like wheat. You know what happened? All that
shifting did, it didn't do anything except take off stuff that wasn't
Christ. That's all it did. What was left
in the colander was wheat. That's the only thing left. I
was watching the election returns last night for a little while
with my wife. I'm thinking about this scripture.
She said, are you bored? I stand there looking at the
wall. She said, are you bored? I said, no, not really. I've
just got things on my mind. But I was thinking about this
scripture over in Romans chapter 13. He said, let every soul be
subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of
God. See it there in verse 1? There is no power but of God. So that the powers that be are
ordained of God. Look down at verse 4. For he,
talking about these powers ordained of God, is the minister of God
to thee for good. You see that? The rule of the mighty God rules
for Israel. How does he do it? He does it
in his providence, and he does it in salvation, and he does
it in the heart, and he does it even in civil authorities. That's for your good. But if
you do evil, be afraid. For he beareth not the sword
in vain, for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute
wrath upon him that doeth evil. Verse 6, for for this cause pay
ye tribute, taxes, Pay your taxes for they're God's ministers attending
continually upon this very thing. We don't need to just, here,
throw that tax check down here. Go on and get it. You're going
to get it anyway. You don't have to do that. I
don't care what they've got in mind. I don't care what they're
doing. They are the powers set in there by God. Am I telling
you don't vote? No, sir, I'm not telling you
that. But I'm saying when the vote's in, and when you've done
all that our government allows us to do, then bow down to these
powers, because these powers are not put in there for your
spiritual benefit. They're not in there to teach
you things about the Bible. These men, their whole structure,
the whole government, is for nothing except to keep men from
being as evil as they could be. and making our life here a whole
lot easier than what it would be if they weren't there. He
restrains men and he punishes the evil. God Almighty rules
for Israel. He rules for Israel. Jacob was
in Shechem among the uncircumcised heathen idol worshipers. And God made him a place to rest
and protected him by civil government. The mighty God ruled for Israel. God Almighty gave, He said, the
man Christ Jesus. We've been looking at it over
in John 17. Power over all flesh that He
should give eternal life to His name as the Father had given
Him. But then if you search this word
a little further, it says this. It says now that the mighty God
rules in Israel, and He rules for Israel. And then it says
this, the mighty God rules by Israel. Boy, I looked at that a long
time. By Israel. It's through His elect that His
bride is called out. And nobody, he's not using these
heathen churches out here to call out his bride. Where'd he
put that authority? Huh? He said, all authority in
heaven and earth been given unto me. Go ye therefore. Huh? Go ye therefore. Through his elect that his bride
is called out of her father's house. It's through his elect
that his bride comes to see the folly of their father. It's through
His elect that the children of Israel are born. And it's through
His elect that all the blessings of God's covenant will be brought
to pass through this. Through this. Everything God
promised to Abraham, He established in and through His children,
both in a natural sense and in the spiritual sense. If you want
to see the fulfillment of them in the natural sense, go over
to Joshua chapter 23 and read that chapter. Actually, you need
to go back chapter 21 and read it all the way through the book.
But he tells them that everything that God promised them is fulfilled
to natural Israel. It was all fulfilled right down
to the letter. And it's all fulfilled in the
spiritual sense too. In the spiritual sense, Christ
came in the spiritual lineage. He came in through the spiritual
lineage and through the woman's seed. He who is God over all,
blessed forever. And then turn with me to Exodus
chapter 20. Let me show you something here
and I'll start winding this thing down. I want to show you something
over here that will help you. If God would be pleased to give
Jacob rest in this heathen land, then Jacob would erect an altar
to testify of and worship the God who made it possible. That's
what this altar is all about. Now, what is an altar? Well,
an altar is a place of worship, but it's also worship through
the death of a substitute. Where there is no death of a
substitute, there's no need for an altar. Each altar in the Old
Testament economy was important, its name was important, and it
was to establish some particular attribute of God, every last
one of them. An altar is where believers worship God as He's
revealed through the dying substitute. This altar of Abel, it said they
came to worship God and Abel offered a lamb. But his brother
offered the fruit of his hand, the works of his hand. And God
accepted Abel's sacrifice, didn't He? He accepted his faith because
his faith was based on that. sacrifice. Abel came with the
works of his hand. And God snubbed his nose out.
And altars where believers worship God as He revealed through the
dying Lamb. And now the Lord had given Israel
the nation. Over here in Exodus chapter 20,
He gives them the Ten Commandments. What some men call the moral
law. And He gave also this Word after He gave those things to
them. And He gave it to them through Moses. Moses told them
the law. Now listen to what he says down
here in verse 22. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, You have
seen that I have talked to you from heaven. You shall not make with me gods
of silver, neither shall you make unto you gods of gold. an
altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice
thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy
sheep, and thy oxen." Now listen close to what he says here. In
all places where I record my name. Have you ever seen that
before? In all places where I record my name, I will come unto thee. And I will bless thee. And if
thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it
of hewn stone. For if thou lift up thy tool
upon it, thou hast polluted it. Neither shalt thou go up by steps
unto my altar. Don't you build no steps up to
it. You put your little gown on and go up there to worship,
and men are going to look up your gown and see your nakedness.
I want any steps. I want any steps. We're just
going to go over here to a hole. in the earth. And if you insist
on putting some rocks, then you go down to the creek and get
some rocks. Don't you start chiseling angels on them. Don't you start
chiseling crosses in them. Don't you start hanging berries
around the side of them. You just take those rocks and
put them around in a circle. Because the rocks on the altars
is not what it's all about. It's the lamb. It's the lamb. Altars are raised up. in the
place where God has determined to make Himself known. And where
God raises up His altar, He said, I'll come and bless. I'll bless. The altar we erect is in the
heart through faith and a substitute. We worship God in spirit and
truth. We are the circumcision, He said,
which worship God in the spirit and in truth. We don't go down
there to that brazen altar anymore. The altar is in here. It's in
here. And we don't come hanging berries
on it of our good works. And we don't come fashioning
angels on it in our images, in our mind. We don't do that. We
do just earth. Did you hear what he told me
about just earth? Just bring that old red clay that you are,
and He'll create what He will from it. That altar we erect in the heart
through faith in the substitute. We worship God in spirit and
truth. The true Jew, Paul said, is a Jew inwardly, and circumcision
is that of the heart and in the spirit, not in the letter. And
then he tells the Hebrew people this over in Hebrews chapter
13. He said, we have an altar, we
have an altar, whereof they have no right to
eat that serve the tabernacle. You see, when the lamb was offered
on the altar, burnt on the altar. They were to eat the flesh. Who? The priests. The priests. Now Paul said, we've got an altar
that those priests who serve that earthly tabernacle over
there don't have any right to eat. They can't eat our lamb.
They can't eat our lamb. They've got no right to it. We
have a right, a blood-bought right to that lamb. Let me tell you something, only
those who slay the lamb have the right to eat it and offer
His blood. And what God intends to proclaim
and record His name, He inspires His elect to build an altar,
an altar of testimony and an altar of record, an altar of
understanding and an altar of confession. Later on in Hebrews
13, verse 15, He said, By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice
of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips
giving thanks unto His name. And in this place of rejection
and constant rebellion to God, God Himself is determined to
record His name. You can take that literally as
meaning this flesh within this flesh of rebellion and constant
Just constant rebellion toward God. God has decided He's going
to raise up a testimony. He's going to raise up His name.
He's going to declare His name in this rotten piece of clay.
Why in the world would He do it? For the glory of His name. And He raises up there an altar.
And you go in on that altar with that Lamb. That Lamb of God who
taketh away the sin of the world. And there he's offered, and by
faith we offer him up. You can take that same thing
and say that as it applies to the church here. God has raised
up a bunch of altars all together here in one place. And he's raised
up a testimony. He records his name. Think about
the majesty involved in that for just a second. Not really in Walker Creek. We
ain't really in Taylor. I don't know where we are. We're
just out here in the middle of nowhere. God has decreed it before
the foundation of the world. Right here in Arkansas. Right
here in this place where nobody will have me. I'm going to raise
up an altar. Raise it up! Jacob built that
altar and he put that name on it. And he said, God rules in
Israel. And he wrote it on there. Don't
you know they despise that? They despised that altar. But
that altar stood anyway. It stood anyway. His name recorded
by the... I want you to think about this.
In this place of rejection and constant rebellion to God, God
Himself is determined to record His name. And His name recorded
by witnesses of angels. By a heavenly cloud of witnesses. Listen to this, Hebrews chapter
12 verse 22. All of these chapters here after
chapter 10 deal with worship. Deal with worship. Now watch
this. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 22. He said, you come to Mount
Sinai. You're not over here where the
law was given at Sinai. You come to Mount Sinai. And
unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an
innumerable company of angels, to the General Assembly and Church
of the Firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God, the Judge
of all, and before spirits of just men made perfect." Isn't
that our testimony? Just men. How we just. He justifies us. Made perfect. We're being made
perfect. And you come, Hebrews 12, 24,
to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood
of sprinkling, speaks better things than that of Abel. Way
back yonder there at that first altar, God declared His name
in the altar of Abel. And Abel sought and worshipped
God. How much more those who have seen the Lamb of God that
taketh away the sin of the world. How much more ought we to worship
Him? Can you see that? Can you see the mighty God? That's
what Jacob, he looked back over all these things that had happened
to him, back over the experiences of his life being enlightened
by God. He said, I need to build an altar
and I'm going to worship right here. And here's what I'm going
to call this thing. The mighty God who rules in Israel
and rules for Israel and rules by Israel. Jacob could never
see himself with power over that big, brawling brother. He just never could. And here,
by God's hand, it's being brought to pass. All in the rule of Christ. I tell you, that rule, it's not
in our persuasion, and it's not in our things that we do. It's not in these earthly things.
It's all in the power of God. And I look back over my past.
Can't you see it? I see His hand ruling. Ruling. All things.