Genesis 32. Now, we're still looking at this
one patriarch named Jacob, and as we noted several weeks ago,
he was left alone out in Horan, out in that desert, and he learned
a valuable lesson. He learned that lesson and we
saw Jacob's ladder. And here again, we find Jacob
If you were to read this entire chapter, the 32nd of Genesis,
what you would find is Jacob married, older, by maybe at least
20 years, getting ready to return with his family and his wealth
and all that he had, sojourning back, according to God's promise,
back to his homeland. However, there's his elder brother,
Esau, that stands in his way. And you remember what Jacob did
to Esau. He tricked him to sell his birthright. He tricked his dad before Esau
could get in and receive the firstborn blessing. Jacob's life has been pretty
well up and down. It's been in a lot of turmoil.
But we're going to see a beautiful lesson tonight. And whether you learn the lesson
of God dealing with you or dealing with us unto salvation, God's
good grace unto salvation, or whether you learn the lesson
of God dealing with us post-salvation, it is of some concern. But I
think the main thing is that we simply just learn the lesson
in Genesis 32, and it's a two-part lesson, One that God will bring
down our flesh and cause us to acknowledge our nothingness before
Him. And when He does that, we will
then desire to do for Him as He commands. Secondly, we will
also be weaned from our flesh day by day, continually seeing
its worthlessness, and in seeing that, and in seeing what He does
for us by grace, we see that Christ is our all in all. If we just learn that lesson,
this is a good picture of what God does for sinners as He draws
them. It's a beautiful picture of how
God deals with us after salvation, because this flesh, this old
man, it never gets any better. The old man is always prone to
wander. The old flesh in us is prone
to worry. The flesh is prone to be afraid. The first point that I have here
is we see, even in the believer, the power of the flesh. In Genesis
32, let's just start reading in chapter 32, let's start reading In verse 3, Jacob is returning
with his wives, he's returning, as I said, back to his homeland,
and he remembers how he treated his brother, and he's still not
sure how his brother is going to receive him. So in verse 3,
Jacob sent messengers before him, before the company, to Esau,
his brother, unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom. And
Jacob commanded them, the messengers that he sent before the company,
this whole family, he said, you speak this to my lord Esau, thy
servant Jacob. Sayeth thus I have sojourned
with Laban and stayed there until now and I have oxen and asses
and flocks Men's servants women's servants and I have sent to tell
my lord that I may find grace in thy sight and the messengers
returned to Jacob saying we came to thy brother Esau and he also
cometh to meet us or to meet them and he also had 400 men
with him and Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed." Now,
just like you and I, Jacob, he's a believer, but we still got
the flesh. We still worry and get upset
and all these different things. And I was telling Bruce the other
night, and I was telling Melinda when I was talking on the phone,
I don't know why It's really not for me to ask why I didn't
have this lesson before we went down to Little Rock, because
I think this would have helped me. But then I realized that
in order for me to preach it from my heart to you, I had to
go through this stuff. So as I speak to you, I can speak
from some experience because we have Jacob, we have the flesh,
and we worry, and we get upset, and we lose it. And Jacob here, God revealed
Himself to him in Horan when he saw that ladder and he saw
God face to face, and here he is later on in life, And he sends
this company before him, sends messengers, and then they said,
yeah, we met him and he's got 400 men with him. So he's thinking
400 man army. Jacob's greatly afraid, distressed,
and now he divides the people that was with him and the flocks
and the herds and the camels into two bands. And he said,
if Esau come to the one company to kill it or smite it, then
the other company which is left shall escape. So see, he's scheming.
He's got all these things that if this happens, And don't we
do that? Now, if I can get this much money
set aside and get my nest egg set over here, and if I can do
that in case the markets crack, instead of, by faith, trusting
God. And again, we've been through
some of these struggles before. There's nothing wrong with savings
accounts, IRAs, that's not what I'm saying. But when it interferes,
when it takes the priority over let it be what it'll be, I'm
going to trust in Christ. When it affects our maintenance
of the gospel, maintenance of this building, maintenance whatever,
when these things start to affect the spiritual aspect of our lives,
it's the flesh. Let's just call it what it is.
It's the flesh. We can reason it, we can justify it, just like
Jacob, But it's the flesh. And God's
going to deal with, if you're His, if I'm His, God will not
leave us alone. He's going to wrestle with us,
which is what we're going to see in verse 24. He's going to wrestle with us,
and He's going to touch us, and He's going to put that thigh
out of joint and subdue us. And then we'll say, what would
you have us to do? But oftentimes we go out in the
flesh, Or we get advice from people who are supposed to be
in the know, whatever it might be, instead of simply casting
our care upon Him. Jacob says in verse 9, Jacob
he see they say that the the the spiritual man in Jacob says
in verse 9 Oh God of my father Abraham and God of my father
Isaac the Lord which said it's done to me return unto thy country
and to thy kindred and I will deal well with thee So he's a
he's a man of prayer. He's a man of grace. He understands
that he's struggling. So he goes to the Lord in prayer
and Look at this verse 10 He says, I am not worthy of the
least of all the mercies and of all the truth, which thou
has showed unto thy servant. For with my staff, I passed over
this Jordan and now I am become two bands. And that's about as
far as I read when I was down there at the hospital. That's
about as far as I read. That's all. And that's all I needed
to read when I realized no matter what happens or where I'm at
or what I'm doing. that I am not worthy, in and
of myself, of the least of his mercies, or any of his truth,
which he has shown unto me." The only thing that makes anybody
here, if they know the Gospel, that differ is Christ. Not our flesh, not our wisdom,
not our strength, not our financial abilities, not our supposed genius,
because whatever man highly esteems, God says it's an abomination.
He goes on and says in verse 11, deliver me, I pray thee,
from the hand of my brother and from the hand of Esau, for I
fear him, lest he will come and smite me and the mother with
the children. So he, you know, he understands,
he understands spiritually, but the flesh. The spirit is willing,
the flesh is weak. And look at verse 13, and he
lodged there that same night, and took of that which came to
his hand a present for Esau his brother. He took two hundred
she-goats, and he-goats, and ewes, and rams, thirty camels,
and he delivered them unto the hand of the servants. Every drove
by themselves, and said to his servants, Pass over before me,
and put a space between the drove and drove. So in other words,
what he's doing is he's gathering all of his substance his worldly
wealth, he's got it broken down into two bands in case Esau smites
one, the other one can go free, he won't lose everything. In
case the stock market crashes, he won't lose everything, right?
But the way he's doing it is he's putting a group of herds
together and in a space, And in another group, so when they
come to Esau, they'll say, you know, they'll be, look at all
these presents. And then there'll be a gap. And you know, well,
look at these more, just presents upon presents and gifts, because
he's going to try to appease. Esau verse 17 he commanded the
foremost saying when he saw my brother meets thee and he asked
thee Whose art thou and whither goest thou and whose are these
before thee and you shall say they be your servant Jacob is
a present Sent unto my lord Esau and behold also he's behind us. So Esau's figuring he's planning
he's in the in the flesh and He's thinking, now if I just
be nice to this person and just keep on, my brother, just keep
on sending them gifts, overwhelm them with material things, then
he won't be upset. That's the power of the flesh.
It's even in God's people. Afraid of Esau, planning and
scheming, and basically using all our senses except faith's
substance. We use all of our senses and
justify them instead of standing back and
say, but thus saith the Lord. He promised that I was going
to be okay and He promised me that when I went back to my father's
homeland, I would be fine. And He acknowledged that, but
we were so weak. We understand God's sovereignty.
We understand God's grace. We understand God's compassion
and how He deals with us in mercy through the blood of Christ.
But we always add, but, or yet, or my situation's a little different,
or mom didn't teach me that, dad didn't teach me that. Whatever
it might be. And so God, in grace, if He leaves
you alone, that's when you should be afraid. But whom He loves,
He chases. The Scripture says, whom He loves,
He chases. Children, you love those children,
you're going to keep them in line. If you're a teacher and
they're not your kids, you want to keep them in line, but you
can't touch them. But if they're yours, You love them, and so you correct
them. And they thank you for it later
on, just as we thank Him, as we see
what He's taken us through. So that's the power of the flesh.
Secondly, God will have His way, and we will learn His glorious
lesson through Christ. And here we go. 22 he rose up that night. He took
his two wives and these two men women servants and 11 sons and
passed over the four j-book Which I looked up that word that word
j-buck means to empty So he passed he passes his wives over his
kids over and he's he's he's passing them over trying to protect
them. He's still scheming he's still trying to figure out how
he's gonna appease Esau in the flesh and And they pass over
Jabok, and that means to empty. And I don't know if he understood
that, but he's getting fixed and ready to. And verse 23, And
he took them and sent them over the brook, and sent over that
he had. And here we start. God's going
to have his way. Verse 24, And Jacob was left
alone. Jacob was left alone. You and God. It's a scary place to be, but
it's the best place to be. There's nowhere to run. There's
nowhere to hide. You can't go to mom. You can't
go to dad. You don't want to call this person.
We'll do all those things, but when God deals with us in saving
grace and in keeping grace, when He corrects us, there's going
to be a time that nobody can help you. You're all alone. Jacob
was left alone. You and God, me and God. Nothing
to hide behind. There's no more excuses to be
made. All the props. are pulled away
from us, which hinder us, and it's just Him and us. Let me
read you a quote from one of the older writers. He says, We can never get a true estimate
of nature and all its actings until we have weighed them in
the balances of the sanctuary, and there we may ascertain their
real worth, no matter what we may think about ourselves, nor
yet what men may think about us. The great question is, what
does God think about us? And the answer to this question
can only be learned when we are left alone, away from the world,
away from self, away from the thoughts, reasonings, imaginations,
and emotions of mere nature, and alone with God. Thus and
thus alone can we get a correct judgment about ourselves. when
you're left alone with God. And God's going to have His way,
and if you're one of His, all these other things, all of our
reasonings about what's good and what's not good, about what's
the gospel and what's not the gospel, there won't be any questions. If God has a hold of you, He's
left them alone. And look at the next verse, verse
24. And Jacob was left alone, and
there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of day. Now
this man, who is this man? This man is none other than the
Lord Jesus Christ. Because in verse 30, Jacob called
the name of the place Peniel, for he says, I have seen God
face to face, and my life is preserved. See, he knew that
God could crush him any time he wanted to. God face to face. This is one of those incarnations,
this is one of those times where Christ appeared to His people
in the Old Testament. He said, there appeared a man
which wrestled a man, there wrestled a man with him. Jacob didn't
initiate the wrestling. Now, there's a lot of commentators
that say, oh, this is about Jacob wrestling in prayer and this
and that. No, I think it's Jacob as a believer, either unto salvation
and or mainly in the flesh. God's gonna chase in this man
because he's gonna change his name from Jacob to Israel in
a minute But God initiates the wrestling because the flesh will
not be allowed to honor God the flesh must be mortified and the
thing is he in verse 26 and The the man said let me go for the
day breaketh and Jacob said I will not let thee go except thou bless
me the day breaketh and The flesh, it takes a lifetime to learn
the lessons of grace. You know, I was thinking about
this today. I've been thinking about this for a couple of days.
I was thinking about this today. I remember we used to have a
man that was a part of this group, not this particular group, but
the previous group. And every time you'd see him,
you'd say, oh, the Lord's teaching me this, the Lord's teaching
me that. Just remember like it was yesterday Lord teaching me
this Lord teach me that and I never saw any change Betty had never
saw any change and I don't know reason why I thought about is
because he would always tell me What the Lord was doing for
him? And there's no change The God
gets a hold of you And he gets a hold of you through the preaching
of the gospel He's going to wrestle, it's going
to be a lifetime thing. We grow in grace. And then He's going to touch
that thigh, and then it says Jacob halted, he walked, he limped,
he walked, he walked different. You don't have to say, Jacob, have you heard the gospel? Jacob, have you learned to trust
more in the grace of God and the blood of Christ and less
in yourself?" And then he tells you all about it. You could tell
Jacob had been with somebody because of the way he walked. The way he walked, he limped. So God initiated the wrestling.
And it lasted all day to the breaking of the day. And then
he touches the hallow of his thigh. He said, I will not let thee
go. Jacob said, I will not let thee go except thou bless me.
And that's when we realize the flesh cannot do anything and
we must be blessed by God. And he said unto him, what is
thy name? Christ asked him, what's thy name? He knows his name.
He wants Jacob to say it. He says, and he said, Jacob,
Jacob, the rascal, Jacob. sinner saved by grace, but oh,
such a sinner. And verse 28, and he said, Thy
name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel. For as a prince
hast thou power with God and 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 them there. He
blessed them there. Verse 25, he said, he touched
the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was
out of joint as he wrestled with him. Verse 31, and as Jacob passed
over Peniel, the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.
So God will have his way, and we will learn his glorious lesson,
and that is, first, we'll have to be left alone. Secondly, God
will initiate the wrestling. because our flesh doesn't want
any part of it, and then He'll touch the hall over our thigh,
and we walk different because of this lesson of grace. I know
we're slow to learn. I'm slower than anybody in this
room to learn the things of God. But He will teach you, He will
teach me. There are some hard lessons we
learned A long time ago, we hadn't forgot it. And the Lord used
those things to have us to help other people going through those
very things. And I got some glorious emails
and some phone calls from pastors who have lost. loved ones, and
Jack Shanks sent me a note, a handwritten note, and he had two passages
of scripture on there and a few other things, and I'll tell you
what, it was absolutely, it was honey. It was absolutely wonderful. But as the howl of the thigh
is touched, We will limp and halt, as the word is used, and
not put too much weight upon our own ways and reasons. It's
smarts. You know, it's just like a little
kid, you know, they want to touch that burner and they see that
thing, well, they get burned. And when the Lord teaches us
these lessons, We can't put all that weight on that. Jacob couldn't
put all that weight, or Israel. He says, you're no longer going
to be called Jacob, you're going to be called Israel. which means in the margin it
says a prince of God or also it also could mean for God commands. And as a Jacob, we want to do
things our own way. And then when God teaches us
this lesson, we say, you command me. And then we'll do, we'll
obey. But then, fourthly, as far as
God having His own way, He asked a question. What's your name?
Jacob, surplanter, sheep. He said, no, Israel, or God commands. He's a prince. That is an heir. You're an heir of God. We need
to be made to know our name, that that is our natural weaknesses
and our inabilities, and then be graced to know His name that
He gives to us in Christ. in Christ. Now, we've already
looked over pretty well briefly, but what are some of the sweet
results of God's dealing with his elect? We're reminded of
our weaknesses because Jacob limped for the rest of his life. We're reminded of our weaknesses.
And then Jacob said, I'm not going to let go until you bless
me. Another thing we learn as a result of these gods dealing
with us is we want to cling to Him. You know, this world starts
to lose its...