Genesis chapter 28. In chapter
27, the last time we looked at that, that's where we saw Jacob
in obedience to his mother, deceived his father, Isaac, and secured
for himself the blessing. And out of that deception, His
brother Esau was so angry with him, now he seeks to kill him.
And news gets to Rebekah, Jacob's mother, that Esau is going to
kill Jacob, and now they purpose to send Jacob away to a foreign
country. The old country that Abraham
and Rebekah had came out of. Let's begin reading in verse
1. And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed
him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take
a wife of the daughters of Canaan, but arise, go to Padanaram, to
the house of Bethuel, thy mother's father, and take thee a wife
from Phins, of the daughters of Laban, thy mother's brother. And God Almighty bless thee,
and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude
of people. And God give thee the blessing
of Abraham to thee and to thy seed with thee, that thou mayest
inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave
unto Abraham." There's two reasons that we find here that Isaac
and Rebekah were sending Jacob away. Of course, one was to save
his life. You look back up in chapter 27,
and you'll see there in verses 41, And Esau hated Jacob because
of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him. And Esau
said in his heart, the days of mourning for my father are at
hand, then will I slay my brother. And these words of Esau, her
elder son, were told to Rebekah. And she sent and called Jacob,
her younger son, and said unto him, Behold, your brother Esau,
as touching thee, doth comfort himself, purpose him to kill
thee. So now, they have to send him
away to Abraham's old country. This is the country close to
where Abraham came out of. This was Abraham's relatives,
and where Abraham came out of, and where Isaac had came from,
and Rebekah, Isaac's wife. So the first thing, they sent
him away here to save his life. His brother was going to kill
him. And then secondly, we're told here in the last portion
of verse 1, they sent him away to secure for himself a wife.
They didn't want him to take a wife of the Canaanites. But to go back to the old country,
Abraham's relatives and Rebekah's relatives, and secure him a wife
from them. And in verse 7 of this chapter,
I didn't read it to you, but the scripture says here in verse
7, Jacob obeyed his father and his mother and was gone to Paddanaran. There was a difference in one
sense of the word with all of Jacob's faults that he had. And he was a scoundrel. He was
a supplanter. He was a deceiver. But he loved
and obeyed his father and his mother. Esau was a profane person. He was a fornicator. Sold his
birthright, brought the awful curse of God upon him, and lost
the blessings. But we learn two practical lessons
here. I want us to see in this, and
I've noticed this, and I've mentioned this to you before, I have learned
about as many practical lessons studied in the book of Genesis
as you have doctrines or facts. And here is two practical lessons
that I saw in verses 1 and verse 2. And this is a general rule
that goes all the way through the Scripture, that that boy
or that girl, that child that is obedient and loves their mom
and dad are blessed of the Lord. And we know that not only because
of this incident, but the scripture tells us that. Children, be obedient
to your parents. Respect them and love them and
obey them. That your life may be long upon
this earth. Honor your father and mother.
This is the first commandment that has a promise attached to
it. that your life may be long upon this earth. And when it's
for God's will and for God's glory, then that happens. That happens. Honor your father
and your mother. And here also, the second thing
I want us to see, Isaac reiterates the blessing here to Jacob. You
notice he'd already blessed him in chapter 27, but now here he
comes and he reiterates that blessing. Isaac called Jacob and blessed
him. Don't you know that this was
a great comfort to Jacob? Because even though his dad had
already blessed him, he knew that he had deceived his dad.
And Rebecca knew that she had deceived her husband. But Isaac
came to understand that it was God's will for Jacob to be the
heir of the promise. The Messiah would come out of
him. The Lord had overruled Isaac's blessings, and he blessed Jacob
instead of Esau. But here he comes now, and he
reiterates that blessing, and what a comfort that must have
been. But here is the practical lesson I want you to see. It's
found here in verse 1. Well, I thought it was in verse
1. Okay, here it is. And Isaac called Jacob and blessed
him and charged him. Now, here's the lesson I want
us to see. And here's a truth that runs all the way through
the Scripture. The blessing and the charge. Did you notice how that came
and what order that was? Isaac blessed him, and then he
charged him. First comes the blessing, then
comes the command. With a command must come grace. Now you and I can command, Augustine
used to say, what we will, and God can command what He will,
but I tell you this, without the blessing, it will do no good.
First must come the blessing, and then comes the charge. Ain't that the way the gospel
comes to us? It comes to us to bless us. And then when it's
blessed us, then it brings the charge. It brings the grace and
the commandment in that order. It has to be that way. Let me
give you one or two examples of this. They brought this woman
to the Lord Jesus. She was taken in adultery. And
they said, Moses commanded us to stone this woman to death.
She was taken in adultery in the very act. And the Lord said,
Whosoever among you that is without sin, let him cast a stone at
her. Well, of course, they were all
convicted in their conscience, and they went out one by one,
from the least to the greatest. And the Lord was left there with
that woman, and He said, Woman, where are your accusers? Has
no man condemned you? And she said, No man, Lord. And
then He pronounced this wonderful blessing. He said, neither do
I condemn thee, neither do I charge you with sin. He must have forgiven,
because if he didn't, he'd have to charge it. Neither do I condemn
thee. Who is He that condemns? It's
Christ that died. He that believeth on Him is not
condemned. Neither do I condemn thee. There's
the blessing, but here's the charge. Go and say no more. See the blessing and the charge? They always go together. You
never get the blessing without the charge. But if you get the
charge without the blessing, it'll do no good. It'll do absolutely
no good. God comes to us in His Word,
and this is what He commands all men, to repent and to believe
the gospel. But I tell you, if grace don't
go before that charge and before that commandment, and it doesn't
come with it, It doesn't matter. God can command all day long,
but it won't do any good. With a charge to repent and to
believe, must come grace to touch the heart, to soften the heart,
to break the heart, to make it receptive and enable that heart
to repent and to believe the gospel. Now, that's what must
come. Grace, and then the charge. The blessing, and then the charge. And we find this all the way
through the Scriptures, not only regarding the lost people that
the Gospel comes to and leads them to repentance, but this
happens with us saved people. The Lord, if He just commands
us to do something, if He don't give us grace to do it, we can't.
He commanded His disciples to bring forth fruit. But He said,
without Me, you can do nothing. Lord, how are we to bring forth
fruit then? Abide in Me. There's the blessing. There's
the grace. Abide in Me. And then, you'll
bring forth much fruit. The Lord Jesus told His disciples,
here's the charge that He'd given. He said, go you unto all the
world, and preach the gospel to every creature. Now that's
the charge. And what a tremendous charge that it was in command.
But here's the very next thing He said to them. Carry you at Jerusalem until
you be endued with power from on high. Go and preach the gospel. But not apart from this blessing.
I send the promise of My Father upon you. I'm going to give you
My Spirit. I'm going to give you grace.
And I'm going to enable you to preach the gospel. So there you
have the blessing, and there you have the charge. This is my own personal experience,
and it may be yours. I tried through all my teenage
years to be a Christian. And you talk about an intolerable
burden. You can't be a Christian until
God makes you a Christian. That's what I found out. Try
as you may. You cannot be a Christian until
God makes you a Christian. He comes to you. He gives you
grace to repent. He gives you grace and the Spirit
enabling you to believe. He gives you a new heart and
a new spirit. And then what happens? Then you
desire the sensual milk of the world. Then you desire to follow
Him in the way. Then you desire to pray. Then
you love to fellowship with Him. Then you love to come to the
worship and sit and sing and listen to the Word preached.
But first there has to come the blessing, and then comes the
charge. Blind Barnabas never followed
the Lord in the way until he was blessed to see with his eyes.
And you and I will never repent, we'll never follow the Lord Jesus
until we first obtain grace. Now you'll find that in Ezekiel
chapter 36 and verse 24 and follow it if you want to read that account
because there he says, I'll give you a new heart and a new spirit
that I'll put within you and I'll cause you to walk. I'll
cause you to walk in my statutes. And we just can't do it, can
we? Until we're blessed. Just can't
do it until we're blessed. There's another practical lesson.
And here's some more practical lessons in the last part of verse
1 and then verse 2. Here's some things, and I once
said I'd never make mention of such things again, but here it
is, so I'm going to have to. Comment on it. Concerning marriage. Our children and their spouses. If you want to know something
about marriage, guiding your children in marriage, please
don't come and ask me. Because I have no idea. But here's
some things that I've seen in this. And the first thing is
this. Here's the first thing I saw
about guiding our children for them to pick for themselves a
mate, a spouse. And the first thing is this,
and it's concerning Esau. If you have a child that is at
the age to marry, if that child is going to be so stubborn and
so rebellious, they're not going to listen to your influence and
your authority, that child is going to marry who they want
to, I don't care, in spite of everything you can do to stop
it. If you have a child that's going to marry, you have a son
or daughter that's going to marry somebody, And you try to stop
them. You may go ahead and do it, but
it's useless to try. That's sad, but that's true.
Esau married these two Canaanite women. We found that out in verse
24, chapter 27, and chapter 26. He married these two Canaanite
women. Unbelievers. Idolaters. And there was nothing
that Rebecca and Isaac could do about it. Even in verse 46 of chapter 27,
Rebecca said, I'm weary of my life because of my daughter-in-law.
They're driving me crazy. She would have stopped this if
she could. But she couldn't stop it and neither can you. That's
a sad fact of life. You try to stop it, they'll slip
off and get married. They'll do something if they're going
to get married, they'll do it. That's the first thing I see. The second
thing I've seen is this. The parents should use all the
authority they have and all their influence to stop their children
from marrying the wrong spouse. Do everything you can to stop
it. If your son is dating a girl, that you know is the wrong girl
for her. Use your authority. Use your
influence to put a stop to it. Guide them away from that type
of person to begin with. Look what he says here in the
last portion of verse 1. Thou shalt not take a wife of the
daughters of Canaan. I mean, that was pretty authoritory,
wasn't it? You shall not. You know how old
Jacob was at this time? around 77, and his dad is telling
him, son, you're not to marry a woman among these candidates. Do whatever you can. Parents
and grandparents, when you see your son or your daughter headed
the wrong way in the matter of choosing for themselves a mate.
Thirdly is this, guide them in the right direction
As to who they should choose. Don't just tell them, don't choose
this kind. Tell them what kind of woman
they need. What kind of husband they need. That's what he says
in verse 2. Arise, go to Pedanaram, to the
house of Bethuel, thy father's, thy mother's father, and take
thee a wife from Thins, of the daughters of Laban, thy mother's
brother. Give them direction. What you
and I have found out, at least I've found out, especially a
teenage son or daughter, don't have much sense as to what type
of mate to pick. They don't think about the future.
Guide them. Guide them. Guide them as you
have gained wisdom through the years to see what kind of person
your son or your daughter needs as a mate. And fourthly is this. Ultimately, the son or the daughter,
even though you direct them as to who they should choose, in
general, you must leave it up to them in the end. They have
to choose. You notice how they did that?
They guided him in the general direction to this one family
and said, you take a wife from Vince of the daughters of Laman. But it's going to be up to you,
Jacob. We're guiding you in that direction, but you're the one
that's going to have to live with it. We see on TV now, the
news media tries to portray some of the Eastern customs as being so abusive to their
children. But we don't find in the Scriptures
these two things. that parents chose their wives
for their sons. I don't find them doing that
without the son's or daughter's approval. I don't think that's
Scripture. We don't see where it happened
to Abraham. Really, it didn't happen to Isaac. When they brought
Rebekah back to Isaac, he loved her. He loved her. He fell in love with her as soon
as he saw her. And I bet you if he hadn't loved her, he wouldn't
have ever married her. But Abraham didn't pick that woman out. The
Lord picked her. And when Jacob, look over here
in the 29th chapter, when Jacob got over there to the old country,
look here in verse 10, Jacob came over here to the old country,
and they said, Jacob, we're staring you in the right direction, but
you're going to have to pick out the woman for yourself. And look
here what happened. When he got over there to the
old country, he was standing here speaking to the servant.
And while he yet spake with them, Rachel, Rachel came with her
father's sheep, for she kept them. And it came to pass, when
Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother,
and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother, that Jacob went near
and rolled the stone from the well's mouth. and watered the
flock of Laban, his father's brother. And Jacob kissed Rachel
and lifted up his boys and wailed. In verse 18, Jacob loved Rachel
and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel, your younger
daughter. He fell in love with this woman.
And you know something else that he did? He saw her. He saw her. You know what the media tries
to tries to tell us today that back in these old times, that
the woman dressed, that you couldn't see anything but maybe her eyes.
That's not so. You see those women running around
there, those Ishlam women with all their bodies covered, and
maybe you can see just their eyes, and they say, well, that's
the way they did it back in the Bible days. No, they didn't.
You never see that. You remember when Abraham said,
Sarah, you say that you're my brother? Because they're going
to look upon you and they're going to say, man, what a beautiful
woman. Well, if she's all covered up, how are they going to look
at her and say, she's a beautiful woman? Jacob saw Rachel and he
said, my, she's a beautiful woman. And he kissed her and fell in
love with her. He could see what she looked like. She wasn't covered
up with all this garb, but that's not scriptural. So it's not scriptural
for parents to choose for their daughters or sons a mate, a spouse. And it's not scriptural to cover
yourself up where nobody can see anything but your eyes. Or
the wife walk ten steps behind the husband and be treated like
an animal. Everywhere Christianity goes,
you know what it does? Even in those eastern countries,
it frees women. It frees women. It says you're
partners with your husband. You're heirs together of the
grace of life. You're not to be used. You're
not to be used or treated like an animal. You and your husband
are one in Christ. And you take the gospel away,
especially from those eastern countries, the first thing you
find, they start abusing women. They start abusing women. Genesis chapter 28, verse 2. Go to Pandenaran, to the house
of Bethuel, and take thee a wife from the fence of the daughters
of Laban, thy mother's brother. This is the second time that Abraham sees sent into a
foreign country to get a wife. Second time, first time it was
Isaac. Remember that? Abraham sent his
servant into this same country to get a wife for Isaac. And
remember when we studied that, that servant represented to us
the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit used in the
Gospel through the church and the preachers to secure a bride
for the Lord Jesus Christ. And he showed Rebekah those jewels
and told her about Isaac and how Abraham had given everything
to her. And he said, well, you go with me and be Isaac's wife.
I said, I'll go. I'll go. That was the work of the Holy
Spirit. Well, here now, here now is the second time. Here's
Abraham's grandson. And He doesn't send His servant
after a bride. He goes Himself. He goes Himself. And how does He secure for Himself
a bride? Not by wooing her. But by working
for her. But by laboring for her. And
suffering afflictions for her. Look over here in chapter 31.
And look in verse 38. Chapter 31 and verse 38. This is so important because
Jacob agreed to work 7 years for Rachel. Laban deceived him
and gave him Leah. So he worked 7 more years. So
he worked 14 years. for his two wives. But listen
to what he endeared to secure his wives. This is what he told
Laban. Laban was going to do him harm,
his father-in-law. And he said to him in verse 38,
Jacob said, 20 years have I been with you. Your ewes and your
she-goats have not cast their young. The rams of your flock
have I not eaten. That which was torn, a beast,
I brought not to you, I bear the loss of it. Of my hand did
thou require it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. Thus
I was. In the day drought consumed me,
and frost in the night, and my sleep departed from mine eyes.
Thus have I been twenty years in your house. I served thee
fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your cattle.
And thou hast changed my wages ten times, except the God of
my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac hath been
with me, surely. Thou hast sent me away empty,
but God hath seen my afflictions, and the labor of my hands, and
rebuked thee yesterday night." That's the way he got his wife.
He suffered for her. Endured afflictions for her.
Now who does that remind you of? Doesn't that remind you of
the Lord Jesus? And I tell you, if Abraham sent
his servant to get Isaac's wife, and he affectionately wooed her
to go with him to the point where she finally said, I'll go, and
she went willingly and married Isaac, do you think the Holy
Spirit has the power and the grace to go out into this world
and woo the elect bride of the Lord Jesus Christ and bring her,
each elect soul, to the Lord Jesus. And if you think this
man, this mere man, could labor and suffer these afflictions
and purchase to himself a wife, and that work and that labor
and the afflictions actually bought her and made her his own,
Is Jesus Christ's labor and his affliction any less effectual? If Jacob got himself a wife by
his labors, you bet Jesus Christ has got him a wife by his. And if Jacob's labors were seen
of God, and that secured the blessing for him of these wives,
and from Laban killing him, you better bet God sees the afflictions
and the sufferings of His Son and says, I'm satisfied. Everything
that He's purchased, everything that He's died to secure is His. God saw the travail of His soul
and He said, I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied. Back over in our
text again in chapter 28, I like this as I was reading
this. I like verse 3. I like the way Isaac addresses
God. This is the second time that
this is written like this in verse 3. And God Almighty bless
them. Second time we find this. God
Almighty. That's the way he addressed God. God Almighty. And this is what's
in a name, especially what used to be in the name in the Bible
days. The person's name meant everything because it described
who he was. And when God revealed Himself
to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, He was letting
them know who He was. Here's who I am. God Almighty. The first time this word is used,
the Scripture says the Lord appeared unto Abraham. He revealed Himself
to Abraham, and He said, Abraham, I am God Almighty. Walk before
Me, and be thou perfect. And now here He comes here, and
obviously He had revealed Himself to Isaac. That's God Almighty. In Exodus chapter 6 and verse
3, that's exactly what the Scripture says. Listen to what the Lord
said to Moses. I appeared unto Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob by the name of God Almighty." I revealed myself
to them as God Almighty. When they described their God,
they said He's Almighty. And if you'd asked them, how
do you know that? They said, because that's what He's told
them. That's who He is. He's revealed Himself. Fifty-seven
times in the Scriptures this name, Almighty, is used. And every time it's used, it's
of God Himself. Never anybody, but God Himself. And that tells us that this name,
Almighty, is unique to Him. He is Almighty. That is His glory. God Almighty. And if you want
to read something that will make your heart jump, go over sometimes
and read Revelation chapter 1, especially verse 8. Because here
Jesus, the Lord Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, was speaking to
John, and here's what He said, John, I am Alpha and I'm Omega. I'm the first, I'm the last,
I'm the beginning and the end. I am that which was and is, and
is to come, the Almighty." Who is that? Jesus is the Almighty. We have Him there in Revelations,
the last book of the Bible, and here we have Him in the first
book of the Bible. Abraham says He's Almighty. Isaac says He's
the Almighty God. Who is it? It's Jesus. The Lord
Jesus Christ. That's amazing, ain't it? And
this word has several meanings. One word, you know what it means.
It means to be all-powerful, omnipotent. Now that's unique
to God. There's none almighty but God.
There's none omnipotent, all-powerful, but God. Another meaning of this
word is this, it means invincible, uncontrollable, unconquerable. He cannot be overcome. He's invincible. Who shall separate us from the
love of God that's in Christ Jesus the Lord? All of God's
attributes, all His perfections are invincible. His grace is
invincible. You can't overcome His grace.
His mercy is invincible. I will have mercy on whom I will. That's sovereign mercy and invincible. Love is invincible. It cannot
be conquered. Everything that comes against
it has never subdued it. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Tribulation, distress, persecution,
famine, nakedness, peril of sorts, we are more than conquerors through
Him who loved us. None of these things shall separate
us from the love of Christ, because the love of Christ is unconquerable. It's invincible. The word also
means this, and I like this. It means to overpower. Almighty
God overpowers. Thou hast given Him power over
all flesh. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of Thy power. He can't be overcome, but He
overcomes. He's the Almighty. And then fourthly,
this word means all-sufficient. All-sufficient. Who else do you
and I need, and what else do you and I need to get us through
this world of trouble, and sin, and sorrow, and disappointment?
But the Almighty God. His power is sufficient, ain't
it? We don't need anything else. Be strong in the Lord and in
the power of His mind. That's sufficient. And the last
meaning of this word is to be excellent or perfect in power. Perfect in power. Only thou art
holy, there is none beside thee. Perfect in power and love and
purity. God Almighty. God Almighty. And when you see this word, God
Almighty, used in every place in the book of Genesis, it's
always used in a time of distress. And I thought this was amazing.
When they use this name, God Almighty bless them, it's always
in a time of their distress. And they use this word because
it obviously encouraged them in that time. Let me give you
three or four places that it's used in the book of Genesis.
In chapter 17, when that division had come in Abraham and Sarah's
family with Hagar, and all the conflict and the sadness that
went on with that, that turned her out of the house and she
went out into the desert. And Abraham was 99 years old.
God had promised him he was going to have a child for 25 years.
And he was so cast down in his soul. And the Lord comes to him
and reveals Himself to him and said, Abraham, I am God Almighty. Be thou fruitful and multiply. What a blessing that was. The
first place He revealed Himself to Abraham was, and use this
name, when Abraham needed it most, I'm the all-sufficient,
almighty God. I overcome all obstacles. Be
fruitful and multiply." He was a man who didn't even have a
son. Not myself. But the Almighty appeared to
him. The second time is here in our text. And you know what
a sad time it was here. Rebecca and Isaac had packed
up their son's Jacob clothes and ready to send him away. and
how their hearts must have been broken. Will he be prospered
in the way? Will something happen to him?
Will he find a wife? What's the most encouraging thing
that they could think about? And how could they pray for this
man? Well, here's the way they begin it. God Almighty, the Omnipotent
God, the Invincible God, Him who rules and overrules, the
All-Sufficient God, Bless thee. Oh, that's encouraging, ain't
it? And then in chapter 35, we have
it again. Simon and Levi, Jacob's grown
children. He had children by this time.
They had slew a whole city of men. Because two of those men
had raped, laid with their sister. Slew all the males in that city.
And it scared poor old Jacob to death. He said, they're going
to congregate together and they're going to come destroy me and
they're going to destroy all my wives and my children, kill
all of them. And he left that place and went
with great fear back up to Bethel. On his way back up to Bethel,
his precious nurse died. They loved her dearly, Rebecca's
nurse. And just a few days later, Rachel
was going to die. And right in the midst of all
this affliction and sorrow, the Lord comes to Jacob and reveals
Himself this way, Jacob, I am the Almighty. Oh, you know what
a conference that was. In the midst of His brokenness
and fear and trembling, Jacob, I am the Almighty, be fruitful
and multiply, a nation and a company of nations shall come out of
thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins. What a blessing.
You're not going to be killed. Your children's not going to
be consumed. I'm the Almighty. And he blessed him there. And
then another place, there was a famine in the land. You remember
this. Jacob had sent his sons down to Egypt. Down there to
the governor. They had no idea who he was.
But it was Joseph. And they had kept Simon. Put
him in jail down there. Joseph had. He said, don't you
see my face again until you bring your little brother Benjamin.
And finally, finally, when they'd almost starved to death, Jacob
said, go back and get some more corn, or we're going to starve
to death. And they said, we're not going
back unless you send Benjamin. And Jacob said, you've already
killed Joseph. Joseph's gone. Simon's down there
in jail. And now you want me to send my
precious son Benjamin down. Well, he did. He did. But here
is what he said when he said it. Take your brother and go
again unto the man, the God. And God Almighty, and God Almighty,
that Invincible God, that One who rules and overrules, the
One who is self-sufficient, God Almighty give you mercy in the
eyes of the man. that he may send again your brother
and Benjamin unto me." That's a prayer, ain't it? And you know
what makes it a good prayer? God Almighty. God Almighty. And then the last place is in
chapter 49. The 49th chapter. Jacob was dying. He gathered
all of his children around him. He gathered Joseph and his children
around him. And he blessed all of his children.
But he had the best blessing, the choicest blessing for Joseph.
He loved Joseph. So he pronounced this blessing
upon him. Here's what he said. The God
of your father shall help thee, and the Almighty will bless thee
with the blessings of heaven above and the blessings of the
deep. The Almighty bless you. The Almighty
bless you. Verse 3 again. Look at verse
3 again. First thing I want to see in
that verse then is how Isaac addressed God. God Almighty. We don't hear that much today,
do we? Notice that's the way Larry begins his prayer all the
time. Almighty God. That's a good way to begin a
prayer, isn't it? That sort of stills you, doesn't it? It stills
your heart. It takes away some of the anxiety. But secondly, I want to see this.
Do you and I realize what we're saying when we make this statement? God bless you. Do we realize
what we just said? See that? God Almighty bless
thee. Now that's a statement. That's
a prayer. Do we even realize what we're
saying when we say that? We're allowed to say it. We're allowed to covet it and
pray to that end for ourselves. And we're allowed to pray that
for others. God bless me. God can bless a man. And we're
allowed to pray to that end. God bless me. God bless the church. God bless my brother. Remember
the prayer of Jabez? He went to the Lord and said,
Lord God, bless me. Multiply me. Be with me. Enlarge my borders. Keep me from
sin, that it be not grievous to me. And remember what the
answer to that was? God heard him and granted him
his request. I tell you, it's a wonderful
thing that we even realize what a wonderful thing it is to seek
the blessings of God. The Almighty God bless thee. How can God bless a man? Who
knows the ways that God can bless a man? The Almighty bless you,
and when He blesses you, He's like Abraham with Isaac. You
shall be blessed. And the Master said, therefore,
here's what God sent His Son down to this earth to tell them
to do. Tell them to seek. Tell them
to knock at My door. Tell them to ask. For what? My
blessings. My blessings. I tell you, God's
blessings can be obtained. I don't care who you are. You
go knock at His door. You seek His face. You believe
His Word. And if He blesses you, He says,
I can pour you out a blessing that your heart just can't contain.
We get to thinking sometimes that our Heavenly Father has
this little account, and we don't want to write too big a check
on it because we're afraid that He'll have to declare bankruptcy.
I'll bounce a check. But He's rich beyond measure,
and He's able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above everything
we ask or thank. God Almighty bless thee. Oh, what encouragement to pray.
What encouragement to seek. Seek Him for that. God Almighty bless thee, and
look at this, and make thee fruitful. Does He have the power to do
that? Well, sure He does. He's Almighty. And notice this,
not only make you fruitful, but multiply your fruit. He makes you fruitful, then He
multiplies the fruit that He gives. Make you fruitful. Oh, wouldn't you love to be more
fruitful? In grace, and joy, and peace,
and long-suffering, and gentleness, and patience, and goodness, rich
in good works, fruitful in the knowledge of God, He's able to
bless us. And then when He's blessed us
and we think He can't bless us anymore, He can multiply the
fruitfulness. He can multiply the fruit that
He gave. All God can bless, and He can
multiply His fruit. And look what so much of this
is about in the last portion of this. Not only make thee fruitful
and multiply thee, for this reason, that thou mayest be a multitude
of people. You know this is the first time
this word multitude is used. Now I wouldn't know this if it
wasn't for men who were smart in the Hebrew. But this is the
first time this multitude of people is used. And you may have
it there in your margin. My Bible says you're an assembly
of people, a congregation. It's the church. Make of thee
a church, an assembly, a congregation. And he goes on in verse 4, and
I think that's exactly what he's talking about. and give thee
the blessing of Abraham to thee and to thy seed with thee." The
blessing of Abraham consisted of two things. It was natural. It was temporal. It was the land
of Canaan. But then there was the spiritual
aspect of that blessing. That was eternal salvation. That
was to be redeemed and to be called and justified and to fellowship
with the living Lord. Let me show you that and we'll
close. Let me read two or three scriptures. Look on over in Galatians
chapter 3. And look in verse 8. Galatians
chapter 3 verse 8. God give you the blessing of
Abraham. What was that? To you and your
seed. Now look what he says in verse
8. I want you to turn to a couple
of places. Galatians chapter 3 and look in verse 8 and 9.
In verse 7 he says, Know ye therefore
that they which be of faith, the same are the children of
Abraham. That's Abraham's true sin. And the Scripture foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached the gospel
unto Abraham saying, In thee shall all the nations be blessed. That's the blessing that God
promised to Abraham. All nations are going to be blessed.
So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. How are they blessed? Well, look
in the same chapter, look at verse 13 and 14. Here's one of
the ways. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written,
cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, that the blessing
promised to Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus
Christ. And what was that blessing? God
give the blessing of Abraham to thee, and to your seed with
it. and to all your descendants."
And what was it? That we might receive the promise
of the Spirit through faith. You know what Isaac was more
concerned in his blessing about than anything else? The Lord
make a church out of your descendants. The Lord call them out and regenerate
them. Reveal Christ to their hearts.
Give them a heart to know Him. Give them a new nature that they
may love Him Follow Him and serve Him and be a multitude and an
assembly of people called out for that purpose. He wasn't just
looking to the land of Canaan. He was looking to the church.
A multitude. A multitude. One more Scripture. Look in Revelation chapter 7. Look in verse 9. All nations. The blessing of
Abraham was that in Jesus Christ, all nations would be blessed.
Revelation 7. Blessed with salvation, with
redemption. Be justified freely by grace. Look what he says in verse 9.
Revelation 7. After this, after He had sealed
all of these tribes. After this, I beheld, and lo,
look at this, a great multitude. That's that Word. The Lord blessed
you, Glenn, and made you a great multitude, He said. And here
they are. I beheld, there in heaven, was
a great multitude, which no man could know, of all nations, and
kindred, and people, and tongue. And they stood before the throne,
and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palms in
their hand. And they cried with a loud voice,
Salvation to our God! which sitteth upon the throne,
and unto the Lamb, and all the angels stood round about the
throne, and all the elders, and the four beasts, and they fell
before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God." There's
the church. There's the multitude. And that's
the blessing that Isaac prayed upon Jacob. He looked down through
time upon all the heathen nations.
And he said, Jacob, here's my blessing. I pray that God Almighty
would bless you and make a church out of your descendants, the
body of Christ. And they'd congregate in little
places and big places, large congregations or small congregations,
to lift up their voices in worship to God and to the Lamb and ascribe
salvation to Him. And did it happen? Here they
are. Here they are. Here they are.
Here we are always. Who do we scrap salvation to?
To our God and to the Lamb. God Almighty. Bless you.