in 1 Chronicles chapter 4. This is the second and the last
part of the prayer of Jabez that you and I began studying on the
last time we met. Let me read this passage to us
again. Just two verses about this man
in all the Scriptures. 1 Chronicles chapter 4 and verses
9 and verse 10. And Jabez was more honorable
than his brethren, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying,
Because I bear him with sorrow, thy sinner Ephrath said he will
cause pain. And Jabez called on the God of
Israel, saying, O that thou wouldst bless me indeed, and enlarge
my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou
wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me. And God
granted him that which he requested. Last time we spent looking at
this man himself who called upon the God of Israel. And we saw
there that he was an honorable man. That's the first thing that
it says about him, that he was more honorable. And then we looked
at the correlation between that and his character. I think this
was a witness of the Holy Spirit of this man's character. He was
just a man of a good character. And we looked at the correlation
between what he was, how he lived his life, and prayer. And I believe
that we can see the correlation there, that he was an honorable
man. He called upon the God of Israel. And prayer has an effect upon
our life. When we go into the presence
of the God of Israel, it will change us. Well, there's an old
adage that we used to say prayer changes things, but I think the
better adage is prayer changes us. Luther said prayer was climbing
up into the heart of God. I think we put that in the Bulletin
Sunday. and climbing up into the heart of God, being in the
presence of God in prayer, it does change us, doesn't it? It
changes us. And I think we saw the correlation
of that last week. And then we also looked at this
man, what his name was. Even when
he was born, his mother must have had a terrible time delivering
him because she said he's sorrow, he's just sorrow. And His name
means He shall cause pain. And we looked last week how He
turned this grief and this sorrow to His advantage. If He lived
up to His name, He shall cause pain, then He was a fellow that
knew something about the sorrows and the pain and the heartaches
of this life. But what we looked at last time,
He turned that for His advantage. He said, you know, I am a man
of sorrow. I am a man that has pain and
I've caused others pain, my mother, whoever. But he realized there
was something better. There's something higher. And
that better is God. And God is able to bless me and
God is willing to bless me. So out of his bitterness and
out of his sorrow and his pain, he began to call upon the God
of Israel. And I wonder sometimes if this
couldn't be a great example to us, because don't we sometimes
let our sorrows overwhelm us? You know, we get into trouble,
trouble in life comes, and we get so down, even despondent. And instead of turning that for
our good, And taking it to the Lord, sometimes we carry it and
we bury it and it almost drives us to despair. I love that old
song. I can't remember exactly. I thought I had it down here. Are
we weak and heavy laden? Cumbered with a load of care. How can we turn that for our
good? If that's where we're at, if that's what I'm feeling, how
can I turn that for my good? Precious Savior, still our refuge. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Casting all your care upon Him. Turning our care and letting
it encourage us to cast it upon the Lord instead of despairing.
I saw that in this last week. But tonight we want to look at
verse 10. And I want to begin here with
How he addressed God in prayer, and he addressed Him as the God
of Israel. He called upon the God of Israel. Now that's the way they often
prayed back then. You come over to the New Testament,
and they address God a little bit different. In the New Testament,
I love the way they address Him in the New Testament. He's the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. I bow my knees unto the
Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. I love to address Him that way.
And you have too when you've been in prayer and this comes
to you. I think the Spirit brings us
to this place where we say, Father, the God and Father of the Lord
Jesus. And that's the way they addressed
Him in the New Testament. Sometimes they addressed Him
as the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. That's
a good way to address Him too. But in the Old Testament, This
is the way sometimes they addressed God as the God of Jacob or the
God of Israel. Sometimes they addressed God
as the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob. Here's the way Moses put it when he was reminding the
children of Israel about the Lord bringing them out of Egypt.
He said, The Egyptians' evil entreated us and afflicted us,
and laid upon us hard bondage. And when we cried unto the Lord
God of our fathers, He heard our voice, and looked upon our
afflictions, labor, and oppression, and brought us up out of the
land of Egypt." So they called upon the God of their fathers,
which was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But especially
this is true of the God of Israel. And one of the reasons they called
upon the God of Israel, God had made the children of Israel His
people, and He was their God. Listen to 1 Chronicles 17, verse
22. This is what Solomon said, For thy people Israel didst thou
make thine own people forever, and thou, Lord, becomest their
God. Thy people Israel. You made them
your people and you became their God. You know, we can say this. We believe in Gentiles. We can
say this, that God is our covenant God. Everywhere in the New Testament
it says things like this, that you are the temple of the Holy
Ghost. As He hath said, I'll dwell in
you, I'll walk in you, and I'll be your God. and you shall be
my people." He's still the God of Israel, isn't He? We could
still address Him that way. He is the Israel. He has a church. He has a people. And Galatians
chapter 6 tells us that it's the Israel of God. So we could
still address Him this way even today. He's the God of Israel. In the Old Testament they called
upon the God of Israel. Because He was their God, their
covenant God. And as their covenant God, He
was known as the Blessing God. The God of Israel was known as
the Blessing God. You want to put one of your little
markers there and turn back over to me, with me, in Numbers chapter
6. Numbers chapter 6. A couple of
places here. Numbers chapter 6. And look in
verse 22. This is what the Lord told Moses
to tell Aaron when he came out of the holy place from sacrificing
to the Lord. He had come out and all the tribes
were surrounding the tabernacle. He was to come out and this is
what he was to say. Look in verse 22. And the Lord
spake unto Moses, saying, speaking to Aaron and to his son, saying,
On this wise you shall bless the children of Israel. the children
of Israel, saying unto them, The Lord bless thee, and keep
thee. The Lord make his face shine
upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance
upon thee, and give thee peace. And they shall put my name upon
the children of Israel, and I will bless them." So he called upon
the God of Israel because he was a blessing God. He was Israel's
God and he promised to bless them. Listen to Isaiah 41, 17. When the poor and needy seek
water, and there is none, and their tongue felleth for thirst,
I, the Lord, will hear them. I, the God of Israel, will not
forsake them. I will open rivers in our places,
and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the
wilderness a pool of water, and the dry lands springs of water. I'm the God of Israel. This is
what I'll do. I'll bless them. So He's a blessing God. What
I want to do, just for a minute, is go back over in Genesis chapter
32. And I want to look at this because
this is the first place the God of Israel is mentioned. This
is when He became the God of Israel. This is where He changed
Jacob's name to Israel. They never forgot this. The children
of Israel never forgot this. And I want us just to read this
story and just look at a place here because there's so much
encouragement here and information here concerning prayer. Look
here in Genesis chapter 32 and verse 24. This is where Jacob
got his name Israel. Look in verse 23. Genesis chapter
32 and verse 23. This is where he took his family,
Jacob took his family and sent them over the brook and sent
over that he had, all that he had. 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 holler of his thigh and the holler of Jacob's thigh
was out of joint as he wrestled with him. And he said, the angel
said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And Jacob said, I will
not let thee go, except thou bless me." I want you to bless
him. 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
hath power with God, and with men, and hath prevailed, And
Jacob asked him and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And
he said, Wherefore is it that you ask after my name? And he
blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of
the place Penel, for I have seen God face to face, and my life
is preserved." So here is where Jacob asked to be blessed, and
here is where God blessed him. And I imagine that is why Jabez
was praying to the God of Israel to be blessed. If He blessed
my father Jacob, then perhaps He'll bless me. That's encouragement,
isn't it? To know that God is in the habit
of blessing people. That's encouragement for us to
pray to be blessed too. There's a good reason for needing
encouragement to pray. That's one of the reasons I wanted
to look at this to begin with because if you're like me, and
I imagine you are, you need encouragement to pray. And that's what I find
in this passage because it's not always easy to pray. We see
that here in Jacob obtaining this blessing, it was difficult
because he wrestled with the Lord maybe all night long, wrestled
with it. Jacob began to wrestle with the
Lord and we're told here in this text that the Lord lamed him
Touched the hollow of his thigh. Can you imagine the pain? And
he was dragging his leg around. And all he could do then was
just hang on. He absolutely got a hold of this angel and would
not let him go. And the angel said, Let me go
the daybreak. And he said, I am not turning
loose until you bless me. Now that is what we call wrestling
with the Lord for a blessing. Wrestling with the Lord. Sometimes
prayer is easy. Sometimes we get a quick answer.
That centurion came to the Lord Jesus and said, Lord, my servant
is sick of the palsy. He's grievously tormented. Would
you come and heal him? And what did he say? I'll come
and heal him. Just that quick. I'll come and
heal him. That's the way sometimes the Lord answers prayer, isn't
it? I've been amazed sometimes. You know the Bible says in one
place, before they call, I will answer. Ain't that amazing? But you know, I have found it
in my life that sometimes it's somewhat of a wrestling. It's
somewhat of a struggling. That Canaanite woman that come
to the Lord Jesus and His apostles and she said, Lord have mercy
upon me, my daughter is grievously vexed with the devil. How did
the Lord answer her? He didn't. He didn't. He answered her not a word. And
the disciples said, Lord send her away. And that's all he would
have had to done is turn and walk away from that woman, and
she would have probably got discouraged and went away. But he opened
the door for her, didn't he? He looked at her and said, Woman,
I'm not sent but into the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
What did he do? I tell you exactly what she perceived
in her heart. There's a blessing here for me.
And that's what he wanted her to believe. Woman, listen, there's
a blessing here if you're willing to wrestle it out of me. And
he opened the door for her. He reached out his hand for her
to get a hold and begin to wrestle with him. And that's what she
did. Then, the Bible says, then, when he said that then, she came
and worshipped him and said, Lord, help me. And he said, it's
not right to take the children's bread and give it to dogs. And
what she did, just like Jacob, she grabbed ahold of him and
said, I'm not going to let you go now. You've already started wrestling
with me. You've opened this door. I'm
going to step into it. And she said, Lord, that's the
truth. But children, the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from
the rich man's table. She wrestled with him, didn't
she? And what did he say to her? Woman, great is your faith. Be
it unto you, even as you believe. And he blessed her. And he blessed
her. So sometimes there is a wrassling. Sometimes there is a struggling.
The Apostle Paul, when he had that thorn in the flesh, you
know he went to the Lord three times. Went to the Lord three
times. He was a great Apostle. And he
went to the Lord three times. When Elijah was up on Mount Carmel
praying for rain, you know he prayed seven times. casting himself
down on the ground seven times for rain. Why is prayer sometimes
like this? I think sometimes it's like this
because the Lord likes to wrestle. I think He's a wrestling God.
And I think sometimes He loves for His people to wrestle a blessing
out of Him. I don't know why it's that way.
But He told us Himself, didn't He, about prayer, that unjust
judge and that widow going to Him. He said, she just kept going,
and she just kept going, and she kept going, and finally the
judge said, she's worried me out. She's worried me to death,
and I'm going to give her her request. The man that needed
bread, that had a friend come, and he went to his friend's house
and said, give me bread, and he said, go away, I'm asleep, and he just
kept beating on the door, kept knocking, and finally he said,
I can't take this no more. And I think the Lord gave us
these examples just like Jacob, wrestling with the Lord for the
blessing, for the blessing. Jabez called on the God of Israel,
and we have no idea if he called one time and the Lord blessed
him, or if he was like his father Jacob, that he wrestled with
the Lord half an hour or a week, wrestling the blessing out of
the Lord. But he got the blessing, didn't
he? He got the blessing. Look back over now at our text.
I just want you to look at that. There is so much in that. We
could take Jacob when the Lord changed his prayer to our rationale.
We could take a whole lesson on that. It is so good. I want
us to look quickly at the prayer. Look at his request. Back in
1 Chronicles 4, verse 10. Here is what he said. 1 Chronicles 4, verse 10. 1 Chronicles 4,
verse 10. 1 Chronicles 4, verse 10. 1 Chronicles 4, verse 10. 1 Chronicles 4, verse 10. 1 Chronicles 4,
verse 10. 1 Chronicles 4, verse 10. 1 Chronicles 4, verse 10. 1 Chronicles 4, verse 10. 1 Chronicles 4,
verse 10. 1 Chronicles 4, verse 10. 1 Chronicles 4, verse 10. 1 Chronicles 4, verse 10. 1 Chronicles
4, verse 10. 1 Chronicles 4, verse 10. 1 Chronicles 4, verse 10. 1 Chronicles 4,
verse 10. 1 Chronicles 4, Indeed, oh, that you would bless me indeed. This seems to indicate there
are blessings indeed, and there are some things that maybe pass
off as a blessing that's not a blessing, is it? Have you lived
so long that you're glad that all your prayers didn't get answered?
I have. There are some things that if
the Lord answered our prayer, I'm telling you, it wouldn't
be a blessing. We're told even carnal things that we can pray
for. We're told to give us this day our daily bread. I was talking
with a dear friend of ours just last week, and he wanted to know
if it was lawful to pray for a job. He's afraid he's going
to lose his job. And I said, my goodness, it's
lawful to pray about everything. Let your requests be made known
to God. I think sometimes, though, if
we're praying that we may consume it upon our own lust, are just
temporal advantages or something like that. The Lord may give
us something that it wouldn't be a blessing indeed. Remember
when Israel prayed and asked for a king and God gave them
one. He gave them a king in his anger
and took him away in his wrath and that was one of the worst
kings they ever had. So what this man here is praying, he
said, Lord, I know that there's blessings indeed, and that's
what I want. I want Your blessings indeed,
those which would be a blessing to me, a blessing to my soul. He has three requests, just three
simple requests. His first one is this. Here's
the thing that he asks first. Enlarge my coast. The word there
means, of course, borders. Enlarge my borders. What they
prayed for is when the children of Israel went into the land
of Canaan, they divided the land up by lots. Each tribe got his lot. And then the family in those
tribes would take as much land from the Canaanites as they could.
And they wanted to extend their borders. There was a big valley
down there. And you can see Jabez getting
his kids together, his sons together, and getting his servants together,
and arming them, and said, listen, see the enemy down there? That's
our enemies. No Canaanites are our enemies.
We're going to take that valley. We're going to extend our borders
out. And he prays and says, O Lord, enlarge my borders. Enlarge my
borders. Boy, we can apply this Spiritually,
can't we? We want our borders enlarged,
don't we? We want our spiritual borders
enlarged. The Bible talks about the increase
of the knowledge of God. Oh, wouldn't you love to have
your heart enlarged to obtain more of this knowledge of God
in Jesus Christ? The Bible talks about growing
in grace and knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior, of
comprehending with all saints what is the breadth, the length,
the depth, and the height, and to know the love of Christ which
passes knowledge. Wouldn't you love to enlarge
that border of your heart to comprehend more of the love of
Jesus Christ? The Bible talks about increasing
of faith, abounding in love, abounded in the grace of hope
through the power of the Holy Spirit, it would just be wonderful
to have our coast, our borders enlarged. Wouldn't you love to
have your border enlarged to be more patient? I'd love that
with you. Boy, that's a border on it. Long-suffering,
that's a border on it. Joy, peace, all the graces of
the Holy Spirit to grow in these graces to have our border enlarged. And you know we have enemies.
We have enemies, don't we? We have enemies that we're going
to have to fight if we're going to enlarge our borders. Down
there deep in the valley of our heart, there's a family that
lives there that's called the sloth family. And they live in
a little town called Lazyville. You ever seen that family in
your heart? We've seen it. And they have some relatives
on the hillside that set up a community called Neglect. And if we're
going to extend our borders, we're going to have to fight
with these fellows. All kinds of enemies are in our hearts
that we're going to have to fight with to extend our borders out.
One of them is, and I'll confess this to you, is a lover of pleasure. It seems like because I've got
older, instead of losing my desire to watch a ball game, it's increased.
You know, just pleasures. If there's something going along
to excite this old man, it seems like I want it. Lover of pleasure. If we're going to be able and
unable to enlarge our borders, then it must be a blessing from
God. If we grow in grace and knowledge,
if we increase in love and the knowledge of the love of Christ,
God has to give us the desire, He has to give us the determination,
the will, the strength, and the wisdom to enlarge our borders,
doesn't He? Without Me, you can do nothing. But that's a good prayer to pray
for, isn't it? It is. And Paul prayed for the children
of Israel, for the Ephesian church, that you might be able to comprehend
that you might be able to enlarge your borders. He said, I pray
this for you, and I hope that you're praying that for yourself.
I don't want to die a spiritual dwarf, do you? I really don't. I don't want to live 40 or 45
years in the kingdom of Christ and leave this world not knowing
much more about the Lord than I did when I started. I don't
want to be that way. We've seen people that way, haven't
we? Never enlarge their borders. Secondly, he asked for this,
and I guess this is just a logical request when you think of the
first one, and that thy hand might be with me. Thy hand be
with me. I wonder if so much of our lack
of fruit bearing and gaining some victories is because maybe
we have not earnestly prayed for this blessing. For that your
hand might be with me. You know men like John Newton. John Newton used to say, ìGo
into the world and do your business and get on.î He said, ìThereís
nothing out there to help you.î But you know what he used to
pray for? ìLord, when I do go into the world, let Your hand
be with me. Let me witness. Let me be a testimony
while Iím in this world. Let Your hand be with me.î When
the Lord was with Israel, they prospered, didnít they? And when
He wasnít, they didnít. I wonder how much weíd be willing
to risk I wonder how much we'd be willing to do if we could
live in the faith and confidence that God's strong hand, His gracious
hand, was with us everywhere we did. What would we risk? What
would we try that now we're afraid to try? One of the reasons that
we're so timid sometimes and so fearful and doubtful is because
we don't live in this confidence. in this assurance that His hand
is with us. Boy, if we can live in the confidence
of that, there's no telling what we might try. I remember I was
going to preach one time, and I didn't have anything to preach.
I mean, I didn't have a thing to preach. And the thought come
to me, try this text. It just come to me. I was in
my bathroom. I said, try this text. And first thing come to
me, oh, you better not do that, you know. And another thought
come to me, try it. Try it. And I thought, well,
if God is with me, I will try it. And you know, personally,
that's one of the best messages I ever preached. I didn't have
a note one. Didn't have a note one. But I wonder sometimes if
we could get this assurance in our heart that the hand of the
Lord is with me. Can you imagine this fellow getting
up and seeing the Canaanites down there in the valley? And
the devil coming to him and saying, man, you better stay in your
house today. And him said, No, God's hand is with me. God's
mighty hand is with me. God's gracious hand is with me.
I'm going to try it. I'm going to try it. I remember when Elijah had killed
those 450 prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel and it began to
rain. And the Scripture says that the
hand of the Lord was on Elijah and he outran Ahab's chariot
from Mount Carmel to Jezreel. Out ran that chariot in the rain
for over twenty miles. The hand of the Lord was upon
him. You know, I have felt that strength
in my spirit, haven't you? I've experienced that strength
strengthening my heart before. In the time of temptations or
in the time of sorrow, in the time when I've needed that strength,
I have felt that strength. Fear thou not, for I am with
thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee, yea,
I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee, all with the right
hand of my righteousness." That's a mighty hand, isn't it? That's
a sovereign hand. was persecuted about the stoning
of Stephen, and they went everywhere, the Scripture says, preaching
the Lord Jesus. And listen to this. Listen to
what's said about their preaching. The hand of the Lord was with
them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord. I tell
you, that makes a blessing when the Lord's hand is with us, doesn't
it? When His hand is with us. I'm
telling you something little. Little is much if God is in it,
if God's hand is in it. And if you and I could live in
the confidence of this, I just wonder how much difference that
would make in our lives, in our testimonies, and how we act and
how we did. And we could go, we could go
with so much confidence knowing that nobody can pluck us out
of His hand, you know. We wouldn't have to be afraid
of that no matter what our faith. I give it to them eternal life,
and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand." Oh, it's a blessing, isn't it? Thy hand be with me.
And thirdly, and lastly, he prays this, and this is wonderful for
all of us who pray this, that thou wouldst keep me from evil,
that it may not grieve me, may not hurt me, may not vex me,
may not ruin me. It means all of that. Keep me
from evil. And this is what the Lord Jesus
Christ prayed to His Father for. He said, Father, keep them from
evil. I don't pray you take them out
of the world. I just pray you keep them from the evil. I tell
you, there's evil in Satan. He's the evil one, isn't he?
If there's enough evil in him, if God don't keep us, then He'll
drag us down to hell. That's how much evil is in him.
There's enough evil in this world to draw us astray from following
the Lord Jesus if He don't keep us from evil. There's enough
trouble in our hearts to harden our hearts. And there's enough
evil in our hearts to ruin us. I was reading one of the letters
that John Newton wrote to a young man, and he was wanting to get
out of the world. He was wanting to just go and
get him a house Not even go outside. You know, just shut yourself
away. And Newton wrote to him and said, well, you can do that,
my young man. But he said, when you get in there, you're going
to have yourself to contend with. There's enough evil in us, isn't
there? There's enough evil in us. Evil
and sin to drive us to despair if the Lord doesn't keep us from
it. This is why the Lord Jesus told us to pray, deliver us from
evil. and except the Lord keep the
city, the watchman waketh but in vain." There are five things
that I thought about the evil of sin that I want to be kept
from. If we are not kept from these
five things, then evil is going to grieve us, the evil of sin.
First of all is this, all my sins, all my past sins,
have to be forgiven. I can't serve the Lord, I can't
love Him, I can't walk with Him if I have to look behind me with
this mountain of sin and guilt hanging over my head. I can't
do it. Can you? That would grieve me to death. We have to know
that all our past sins are forgiven us. And I love that the Scripture
teaches that He has forgiven us all. Thy sins, which are many, are
forgiven they. And aren't you glad that we can
live with that? If we couldn't, we'd be grieved to death, wouldn't
we? Second is this. If sin, this evil of sin, is
not going to grieve us, then we must be kept from falling
into this sin. We must be kept from falling
into sin. Falling into open sin. That's
what happened to David, wasn't it? Look at Lot, look at Peter,
and look at the grief that caused them. Lord, don't let me fall
into sin. That will grieve me to death.
If I bring shame on myself, if I bring shame on your people,
if I bring shame on your name, oh, that's going to keep me up
at night. It's going to grieve my heart. And look at Psalm 51,
at David's prayer. Thirdly, is this, if I fall into
sin, and who's going to be so bold to say I'll never fall?
If I fall into sin, Lord, don't leave me there. Don't leave me
there. If you leave me there, I'm going
to grieve myself to death. Break my heart again if you have
to. Bring me to a thorough confession. and forgive me. If we confess
our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us. If any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father. Fourthly is this, don't let the
evil of sin have dominion over you. Don't let it rule me. Don't let it so influence me
that it guides me around. Sin shall not have dominion over
you, for you are not under the law, but under grace. And lastly
is this, if sin is not going to grieve us, then we must have
a good hope, a good hope through grace of being saved from the
presence of evil at last. At last. When I would do good, evil is
present with me. But here's what brought His joy.
Who shall deliver me? He looked for deliverance, didn't
He? He had hope in deliverance at last. The creature itself
shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption unto the glorious
liberty of the children of God. And that glorious liberty has
to include this, a deliverance from the very presence of sin. And that's our longing, isn't
it? And to think, I tell you, it wouldn't just be hell. It
wouldn't just be hell for me. It wouldn't just be hell for
you to go to hell. One of the awful things about
hell is the evil. The evil. The Lord has made us
new. He's put this grace in our heart,
this life in our heart, His image in our heart. And we can't be
satisfied until finally we're in His likeness. And that means
deliverance from evil. And to go to hell, the flames
of hell, would be the easy thing. Burn the evil that's there, the
way we feel now. Lord, deliver me from this evil. that it may not be gracious to
me, and here's the blessing God granted him, God blessed him,
that which he requested." Israel's God is a blessing God, isn't
He? He's a blessing God. Wayne, would
you dismiss it?