in the book, each different book
every single week. And this week we happen to be
on First Chronicles. If you'd like to turn to First
Chronicles chapter four. First Chronicles is a. Echo, if I can
put it that way, of Second Samuel in a lot of ways, same accounts
are given from with a little more detail, perhaps in some,
and then sometimes in Second Samuel there were more detail
in some of the accounts, but it was. about David's life. It was about what David endured
and what he did throughout his life. And so, 1 Chronicles, I
said 2 Chronicles, didn't I? 1 Chronicles is where we are,
I'm sorry. 1 Chronicles starts out by giving us a genealogy.
It gives us the history of the children of Israel. And if you
were to look at 1 Chronicles chapter one, verse one, it just
says Adam. Adam begot Seth, and then it just starts. No preface,
no lead up to it, it just starts giving you the genealogy immediately.
And it does this for three entire chapters, and it continues through
chapter four. But something remarkable is in
chapter four that gathered my attention, that I want us to
look at. show you how these genealogies
kind of happen if we were to look in chapter 4 verse 1, the
sons of Judah, Perez, Hezron, Carmi, Hur, Shobal, and it says,
and he begat him, and he begat him, and he begat him, and then
all of a sudden, that's how it's been for three chapters. All
of a sudden in chapter 4 at verse 9, this man Jabez is mentioned
for the very first time. Jabez was mentioned a couple
chapters before, but it was a place. It wasn't a person. And that's
not necessarily relevant to our understanding this hour, but
it is important to mention this is the second time his name is
mentioned, but it was a place. It wasn't the same as this man.
This is the first time this man is mentioned. And in verse nine,
it tells us, and Jabez was more honorable than his brethren.
And his mother called his name Jabez, saying, because I bear
him with sorrow. And Jabez called on God, the
God of Israel, saying, oh, that thou wouldest bless me indeed,
and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me,
and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, and it may not grieve
me. And God granted him that which
he requested. And Cheleb, the brother of Shu,
begat Miher, which was the father of Eshton. So it goes right back
to genealogy. Do you find that interesting?
I found that very intriguing. I was curious to see. I suppose
as I was looking for a message for us from 1 Chronicles, I'd
already mentioned this is an echo from 2 Samuel. So a lot
of the messages that could be brought from 1 Chronicles already
preached to us from Samuel. So I was trying to find the Lord's
face in this, in the genealogies and in different things. And
what the Lord showed me was that these genealogies, these are
the Lord's people. This was all in him bringing
about the Lord Jesus Christ, his lineage, him saving his people. This is the example of men being
born, men living, and men dying, and yet they continue on by having
offspring. And so it all led up to Jesus
Christ being born, being the salvation of his people, and
he got all the glory in that. So what of this man Jabez? What
can we learn from Jabez? We can learn how God saves sinners
from the prayer of Jabez. We can learn how God saves sinners.
Jabez represents all the elect of the Lord. Jabez was made to
have a need, just as the elect are made to have a need. We are,
second of all, made to see the remedy for that need. Third,
we're made to cry out, we're made mercy beggars. That's what
Jabez was, was a mercy beggar. Fourthly, we're made to confess
that it's by grace alone. That's what Jabez's confession
was. And fifth, made to have our requests granted. We are
made to have our requests granted because of our substitute. Now, these five things are very
clear in this, these two verses, and I want us to look at them.
The first one is, is he was made to have a need. He was marked
from birth. He was marked from birth by his
name, from his mother calling him Jabez. And that means sorrowful,
full of sorrow. Why? because in sorrow she had
Jabez." This is interesting to me because if you go back to
Genesis 3 where the curse happened of man, the judgment that fell
upon Adam and Eve because of their sin, the Lord told them,
in sorrow shall the woman conceive. It's going to be sorrowful when
she brings forth children. So this woman should have already
had that knowledge. This was well after the first
five books of the Bible were written. So she would have had
this knowledge and yet she still names him Jabez. She names him
the exact thing that is the curse to Eve all the way back in Genesis
chapter three. Could you imagine having the
name Jabez, the name Sorrow? Understand that in today's time,
we name our children most of the time based upon something
that sounds cute or something that sounds pretty or something
that we like. Maybe it's a family name that's
passed on. Most of the time, we don't really name based upon
the meaning of the name. Sometimes we do. There's an exception
to all these things that I'm saying, I'm sure. But understand
at this time, their names were because of what the name meant.
Much like what the Native Americans would do in calling their son
running wolf or something like that. It meant something to them. Having the name Jabez, everybody
knew Jabez was sorrowful. That was like when they, if you
were to, you know, my name Caleb means a faithful dog. So Well,
I hope that's my hope. That's the truth. I hope the
Lord makes me a faithful dog, but the point I'm making is is
my mother and father didn't know the meaning of my name when they
gave it to me, but they knew you don't think faithful dog.
Whenever you say my name, you just say Caleb back then they
would. The name stuck with that person and it was a testament
to their character. It was a people would see them
coming in and be like, well, there comes the sorrowful one
J Bez. So do we see it? It wasn't. He was condemned, his life was
condemned by birth. He was literally, men would see
him and say, well, here comes Jabez, the man of sorrow, the
man of sorrow. His own mother named him that,
his own mother. The good news is, brethren, is
that is the name of every one of the children of God, every
one of his elect. Their name is Jabez. Their name
is sorrow. They are made to be sorrowful. In Psalm 13 too, it says, how
long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my
heart daily? Is that your confession? Do you
have sorrow in your heart daily? Do you grieve over your sin?
Do you see yourself as the chief of sinners and your confessions
the same as Paul, that which I would do, I do not, but that
which I would not do, that's exactly what I do over and over
and over. That's being sorrowful. Do we
see that we we grieve? We grieve over what we are. The
Scripture goes on to say how long shall my enemy be exalted
over me? You'll never meet someone more
sorrowful than a center. When the Lord's made a man a
sinner, he makes him sorrowful, but he doesn't just leave him
in that sorrowful condition, that sorrowful state. He doesn't
make him just say, how long will my enemy overtake me? Well, what
is our enemy? Is it Satan? Certainly, he's
the adversary. He's the accuser of the brethren, and the world
hates us. That's our enemy as well, but
what is our true enemy? It's this right here, isn't it?
It's this wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? We see this. and were made full of sorrow.
Now there's two kinds of sorrow. It's very important. The scripture
mentions in 2 Corinthians 7, verse 10, there's a sorrow of
the flesh and there's a sorrow of God. There's a sorrow of the
world and there's a sorrow of God. He says, for godly sorrow,
this is what godly sorrow does. It worketh repentance to salvation,
not to be repented of. Once the Lord changes your mind,
you will never be able to change your mind again. You will always
look to Christ. Godly sorrow worketh repentance.
The Lord makes you sorrowful, sorrowful and makes you repent
and gives you the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ to look to
him. He goes on to say, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. What is this sorrow of the world?
If I'm to be sorrowful and have repentance to salvation, I want
to make sure that I have the sorrow of God and not just the
sorrow of the world. Well, what is the sorrow of the world? Sorrow
of the world is, Works religion, isn't it? Men will stand up before
others and say, well, repentance is you need to come and and feel
sorry enough. You need to pray and pour out
your heart before the Lord and he will have mercy upon you.
See, that's works. Do we see that? That's not what
we preach here. Men will say that you need an
emotional stirring that perhaps the Lord's passing by, and if
you don't let him into your heart, he may never pass by your way
again. That is the sorrow of the world. It's the same vanity
that Solomon talked about. All is vanity. Sorrow of the
world. It brings death. Men say you
should feel bad. I was talking. To my wife earlier
about something we could both recollect on as children. When
we would do something wrong, This was teenage years around
that time when we would do something wrong. During that time, the
churches that we were attending, my parents, I was attending my
parents' church, she was attending her parents' church. And literally
they have free will Baptist written on the sign. But what I'm trying
to say to us is that when I would do something wrong and I knew
my parents were upset with me, I knew I could go to the altar.
and I could pour out my heart or I could try to make a confession
unto God so that when it was brought up to me of the wrongdoing
I had done, I'd say, I've already confessed it unto God and he
forgave me. And it was a manipulation type thing. And it was a rededication.
Well, I rededicated my life back to the Lord. And why am I telling
you this? Because it's foolishness. That's
the sorrow of the world. We can't be sorrowful enough
to please God. Godly sorrow is what Christ did
for his people. He was the one that was full
of sorrow. He was sorry enough to please
God. You and I can't please God in
being sorry. Did you know that? No matter
how sorry we are, no matter how grieved we are, it will not merit
salvation. It takes the faith of the Son
of God. He gives you repentance and you
see yourself as sorrowful. And then the second thing he
shows you the remedy, doesn't he? That's the second thing we're
going to talk about. Shows us the remedy. We're made
to see it. We don't get to. We don't decide
to see this this remedy. He causes us to see it. He causes
us to see it. He causes us to see that we're
sorrowful and immediately causes us to see the remedy. Isn't that
good news? He don't just leave us in our sorrowful state. He
don't leave us where we deserve to be is just knowing that we're
sin and not be able to do anything about it. He doesn't leave us
there. Not one time has the Lord ever revealed to a man or a woman
that they are a sinner without saving them. The Lord gives repentance
and faith at the same time, simultaneously. Jabez was made to see the remedy,
just as the Lord's people are. He was made to know that it's
by thy mercy, Lord. If thou wilt, I can be made whole. If thou wilt, he said, oh, that
thou would bless me. It was a crying out. It was a
desire. He knew it was by mercy. It was
by his hand alone, by mercy and by grace alone. We cannot please
God by being sorrowful enough, and Jabez was made to know, made
to know that Christ was the only one sorrowful enough to please
God. I want to see that. Turn with
me to Isaiah 53. I want us to look at that. Isaiah 53. We've been made to know that
we can't be sorry enough to please God. We've been made to know
there's nothing that we can do to please God, but we have been made to
run and flee to the remedy, to flee to Christ. We see our condition
of unable, unable to come to him, and yet here we are crying
out, Lord, bring me, Lord, save me. And he does. Every time someone
has begged for mercy, he's never turned away a mercy beggar. And
this is why in Isaiah 53, verse three, He is despised and rejected
of men, a man of sorrows. Christ Jesus was a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief. And we hid it where our faces
from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. He carried our sorrows, brethren.
Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquity.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes,
we are healed. Christ is that remedy. Why? Because
he's the one that bore our sorrow. We can't be sorrowful enough.
Yet he took all of our sorrow unto himself and bore it before
the Lord. And the Lord put it away. We're
no longer of sorrow. We're heirs of God and join heirs
with Jesus Christ by the blood of Christ alone. He was sorrowful
to the extent the father demanded. Christ satisfied his father to
the fullest extent necessary so that you could be redeemed.
So that we could have a redeemer. We could have a kinsman redeemer
that ransomed our soul back to God. This is what Jay Brezza's prayer
was representing. He said bless me indeed. Well,
what's the blessing if Christ not the blessing? Bless me indeed. Give me Christ. It's the same
prayer for every single believer, and it's a reflection of the
Lord's Prayer in John 17. Turn with me to John 17. The
prayer that you pray unto the Lord begging him is the same
prayer that is a reflection of the same prayer of what the Lord
prayed unto his father in John 17. These words, verse one, John
17, verse one. These words speak Jesus and lifted
up his eyes through heaven and said, father, the hour has come
glorify thy son, that thy son may also glorify thee. As thou has given him power over
all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou
has given him. Now that's the clearest, one
of the most clearest gospel passages in the scripture. He gave him
power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as
many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom
thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the
earth. I have finished the work which thou hast, thou gavest
me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou
me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee
before the world was. Now look in verse 23. I and them
and thou and me that they may be made that they may be made
perfect in one and that the world may know that thou has sent me
and has loved me as thou hast and has loved them as thou has
loved me. Is this not the prayer that you
cry out unto the Lord? You're not looking for glorification
for yourself, are you? You're not looking, meaning you're
not looking for praise for yourself. You're not looking for admiration.
You're crying out, Lord, Lord, expand my border. Put me in Christ. Put me in Christ and glorify
Christ. That's what we pray, isn't it?
And we we don't desire to be exalted and to be lifted up in
the sense of us having recognition. We desire to be exalted and lifted
up in Christ. Do we see that in Christ? I don't
want any recognition for myself. I don't want any praise for myself.
See, I'm sorrowful. I'm a dead dog center. I need
a substitute. I want Christ to get all the glory and I must
be found in him. This is the same prayer that
we pray that the Lord was praying. This is the same prayer of Jabez.
It's the same as the Lord told his disciples. Dine is the kingdom
and the power and the glory forever. The confession is all the glory
belongs to him, not into us. Oh Lord, not into us. But unto
thee be all glory. Why, why do we desire that the
glory go into the Lord? Because of mercy and truth sake,
that's what he said in Psalm 115. It's all for Christ's sake, isn't
it, brethren? It tells us, be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath
forgiven you. This is our desire, that the
Lord would be glorified, because our salvation is completely based
upon Christ's sake. We've been made to see that,
haven't we? We've been made to see the remedy. We've been made to see
we're sorrowful, and we've been made to see the remedy, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Third thing we see, third thing we've been made
to do is cry out for mercy. Cry out for mercy. We've been
made mercy beggars. Jabez requests four things from
the Lord. Bless me, enlarge me, be with
me, and keep me. Now, was this a humanitarian
need that he had? Perhaps. But we know that it
certainly was not the only reason that Jabez approached the Lord.
As he asked to be enlarged in his borders, we know that this
is the same request that you and I ask the Lord. We're not
asking, we're not begging that we have more land, are we? We're
not asking that we have more property, more money, more, maybe
some of us do. That's certainly not my greatest
desire. When I come before the Lord,
I'm a mercy beggar. I'm full of sorrow and I see the remedy.
Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. That's what we beg for, isn't
it? Lord, enlarge me in Christ, not in myself. Not that I may
be exalted, exalt him. Put me in Christ, exalt him.
That's our hope. And he gets all the glory. As
I was studying for this message, I read a article on a man. I
thought it was a grace preacher, but I was mistaken. He had the
same name as a grace preacher, but he was definitely not the
same man as the grace preacher I thought he was. I'm not going
to tell you his name anyways. I read an article and he was
He was certainly a false prophet, I could tell you by the end of
the article that I read. And he was talking about how we approach
the Lord in order for the Lord to bless our lives. That we've
really, we've done our very best over the kingdom that the Lord's
given us in our life, that our house and our land and everything
is good. And now we need to expand. Now we need the Lord to increase
our borders. Now we need to get more and we need to start new
companies and we need to invest more and we need to go. That's
not what the Lord is telling us about Jabez at all. Not at
all. Jabez may have had a physical
desire, certainly, but his desire was unto the Lord. How do we
know that? He was called an honorable man. Do you know what that means? He was worthy of honor. Who's
worthy of honor? But the Lord Jesus Christ. He
was in Christ. So what would he have been crying
out for? Mercy. Mercy. That's what he makes.
Every one of his people, he makes us mercy beggars. Word honorable means good. He
was a good man. What did the Lord tell the rich
man came to him good master? What must I do to inherit eternal
life? He said, why call us tell me good? There's none good, but
God. Why call us tell me good? There's none good, but God. So
if J Bez is considered a good man, what does that mean? He
had to be in Christ in order to have that title, didn't he?
You believe the same thing, don't you? If you're going to have
that title, you have to be found in Christ. You see how sorrowful you are.
We're sorry, aren't we? We just are. We're dead dog sinners
and we see that. And yet the Lord shows us the
remedy and then he causes us to cry out for mercy. He's never
turned away one mercy beggar because he's given them the heart,
the faith of Christ to cry out for mercy. He says, keep me from evil. This
is further affirmation of what I'm describing to us. Keep me
from evil. What is evil? This is evil. It's not that we're,
Sure, the world's evil. Sure, Satan is evil, but I'm
the evil thing. If the Lord lead me to myself,
I am utterly desolate. I'm destitute. I'm empty. I need
to be filled. I need to be filled and this
is what we beg for. Fourthly, we've been made to
confess that it is all by grace. It is all by grace. It is not
merited by us anyway, shape or form that if we attain salvation,
it's because it's bestowed. If we find grace in the eyes
of the Lord, it's because he bestowed the grace upon us. Not that we were looking for
it. It's all by grace. The leprous man said, Lord, if
thou wilt, if thou wilt, thou canst make me whole. That is
exactly what Jabez is praying. Oh, that thou wouldest bless
me indeed. Christ is the blessing. Christ
is the blessing, and that's what we cry out for. Oh, that thou
would give me Christ indeed. It's all by grace if you do.
You know the verse well that says for by grace or you say
through faith in that not of yourself. It is a gift of God,
not of works, less any man should boast. There will be no boasting.
There will be no boasting in the Lord's presence. It's all
glory. in honor and praise unto Jesus
Christ, the Lamb of God, forever and ever. The last place I'd like for us
to turn is 2 Thessalonians 2. This is what He's given us by
grace, brethren. 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 16. He says, now our Lord Jesus Christ
himself. I love the wording that the Lord
gave the apostle Paul here. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
and God, even our father, which hath loved us. Don't you love
the fact that Jesus Christ himself and God our father loves his
people. He loves us. How can he love
a sorrowful, wretched, vile creature such as we, because we are in
the spotless Lamb of God, and He loves His darling Son. Now
our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God, even our Father, which
hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and
a good hope, how? Through grace. Through grace. Comfort your hearts, establish
you in every good word, and work. He's given us everlasting consolation. That word consolation means the
comfort received by a person after a loss or disappointment. You were disappointed whenever
you first found out that you were full of sorrow, wasn't you?
When you were made a sinner, you were disappointed. At least
I was. I saw myself as a sinner because
the Lord made me to see thus. I was sorrowful. I was disappointed
in myself. Are you still not disappointed
throughout life and things that you do, the things that we would
do, we do not? Just as I mentioned earlier,
we're disappointed. We're disappointments, aren't
we? Truly, truly. And yet he says here that we've
received comfort, an everlasting consolation, comfort. by a person,
by a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what consolation means,
to receive comfort. We have made to see that we are
sorrow from birth. We're not just sorry, we're full
of sorrow. And he has given us eternal,
everlasting consolation by grace alone. He hath borne our sorrow
in his own body. He hath put away our sin before
the Lord. The Lord doesn't see us as sorrow
anymore. He took our sorrow unto himself. He took our sin unto
himself and he put it away. This is the comfort he's talking
about. This is the everlasting comfort that he's mentioning
right here, the everlasting consolation. He hath taken away our sin. That's the comfort to the believer. So just as Jabez, number one,
he hath made us have a need. He hath revealed unto us, number
two, that there is a remedy. There is a balm in Gilead. There
is a city of refuge that you can flee to. There is a cleft
in the rock. There's a hiding place under
the shadow of his wing. There's a ark that you can flee
into and escape his wrath. He has made us to see there's
a remedy. Number three, he's made us mercy
beggars for that remedy, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He's
made us to confess that it's all of grace and he gets all
the glory. And lastly, number five, God
granted him that which he requested. God granted him that which he
requested. Why? What was his request? What is your request? Lord, give
us Christ left lest we die. Lord, give us Christ. I'm a marked
man. I'm desolate, destitute. I'm
poor. I'm needy. I have no hope. I'm
a sinner. I'm a sinner. And if that will, I can be made
clean. Just as Jabez said, the four requests unto the Lord,
Lord bless me, Lord, enlarge me, Lord, be with me, Lord, keep
me. Keep me in this life. Keep me from myself. Keep me
in Christ. May I be found in him. You know
what the Lord's response is every time a man or a woman comes unto
the Lord with the heart that the Lord's given Jabez here?
I will, be thou clean. I will. And God granted him that
which he requested. God will never turn away a sheep
that cries out for mercy. God will never turn away one
of his elect because they pray the same prayer as Jabez. Father, thank You that You have
hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them
unto babes. Cause us to cry out the same prayer as Jabez. Cause
us to be found in Christ and grant us a request according
to Your will. In Christ's name, Amen.