Genesis chapter 32. The subject tonight is Jacob's
prayer. Jacob's prayer. I don't know
that I've ever preached from this before. I may have. I don't
know whether I've heard a message from it. I may have, but it's
interesting. Genesis 32. Let's read the first
13 verses. And Jacob went on his way, and
the angels of God met him. And when Jacob saw them, he said,
This is God's host. And he called the name of that
place Maanaum. And Jacob sent messengers before
him to Esau his brother, unto the land of Sera, the country
of Eden. And he commanded them, saying,
Thus shall ye speak unto my brother, my lord Esau. Thy servant Jacob
saith thus, I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed there
until now many, many years. And I have oxen and ashes, flocks,
and men's servants and women's servants. And I have sent to
tell, my Lord, that I may find grace in thy sight, to tell my
brother that I may find grace in thy sight." And the messengers
returned. They came back to Jacob and said,
We came to your brother Esau, and also he cometh to meet you.
four hundred men with him. He saw it sworn to deal with
Jacob because of Jacob taking the birthright. And Jacob was greatly afraid
and distressed and he divided the people that was with him
and the flocks and the herds and the camels into two bands. You remember he told us how many
people were with him. He had several sons too, children,
Leah and Rachel, all these servants. Divide them into two bands and
he said if Esau come to one company and smite it, then the other
company which is left shall escape. And Jacob prayed. Now listen
to this. O God of my father Abraham and
God of my father Isaac, the Lord which said unto me, Return unto
your country and to your kindred, and I will deal well with you.
I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all
the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant. But with my
staff I passed over this Jordan. When I came this way, running
from my brother, I didn't have anything but a shepherd's staff. And now I'm going back, and I
have become two bands. Deliver me, I pray thee, from
the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear
him, lest he will come and smite me and the mothers with the children."
And thou saidest, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed
as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. And he lodged there that night,
and took of that which came to his hand a present, for he saw
his brother." How can anyone explain this unusual man, Jacob? except to say he was an object
of God's free, sovereign, peculiar, particular, discriminating grace. Often when the God of heaven
is referred to in the scriptures, he's referred to as the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. There's really nothing about
Jacob, and he confesses that. He said, I'm not worthy of the
least of your mercies. I'm not worthy of all the truth
which thou hast revealed to me. I'm not worthy. There was nothing
about Jacob that would merit God's favor. Nothing about Jacob
that would merit God's blessings. Nothing whatsoever. I've heard
people, preachers particularly, try to describe Jacob, and I'm
not sure that I agree with them. I hear many preachers say, well,
he was a spoiled brat, he was a mama's boy and all that. I
don't find any foundation for that in the scriptures at all.
Jacob was a hard-working man. He was a devious man. But Jacob
was a hard-working man. He was a clever man. Intelligent
man. They talk about trying to divide
the two. Esau was a hunter and a daddy's
boy and all this. No, he was a firstborn son. He
was hairy and probably ugly. But that doesn't mean Jacob was
a sissy at all. His mother loved him, but God
told his mother before he was ever born, you remember? Rebecca
was a strong-willed woman. She was just doing what God said
to her. God told her before that boy
was born he was going to have the birthright, didn't He? Before
the children were born, neither having done any good or evil,
God said to her, the elder shall serve the younger, and she's
fixing it up. That's what she did. She felt she was doing the
will of God. Just like Rahab. Rahab lied,
but she did the will of God. God used the wiles of women to
accomplish His will in a lot of things. when they don't do
things exactly like some of you men would do them. But she's
determined that boy should have the birthright. But that doesn't
make him a mama's boy at all. His mama told him, you're going
to have the birthright. And she saw to it. But Jacob
was a strong man. He went down to Laban, labored
seven years for Rachel, and he was tricked, do you remember,
like he tricked his brother? And he married Leah. So he labored
seven more years. That's 14 years for the love
of one woman, for a strong man. And then the Lord used him to
prosper Laban. You read that last chapter back
there where he was talking to his wife, Rebecca, and he told
her, Rebecca, that was his wife's name, anyway, Jacob told her, he said, I've
prospered your daddy. He worked for him and prospered your daddy. Rachel,
he told her, he said, I've worked hard for your father and he's
prospered since I've been here. So I'll tell you this about him
though. Here's the things I know about
him. This has the foundation of God's word. Number one, God
loved him before he was born. God loved him before he was born. Secondly, God chose him in Christ
before he was born. And thirdly, God gave him the
birthright, spiritual blessing, before he was born. And fourthly,
God met him at Bethel and revealed the gospel to him. He met him
at Bethel and he revealed to him the gospel, showed him the
ladder to heaven. That's Christ. And we'll read
you in a few moments what God said to him that. And fifthly,
God never forsook him. In all of his wanderings and
so forth, God never took his hand off Jacob and never forsook
him. And in the sixth place, God gave
him a new name. He called him Israel. He said, your name is no longer
Jacob. It's now Israel of Prince. And throughout the Old Testament,
every believer is referred to as a son of Jacob. Let me show
you that. Turn to the book of Malachi.
I know you've seen this in the Scripture, but here's what I'm
saying, and it's written many times in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, sons of
Jacob, down here in Malachi chapter Chapter 3 it is, verse 6. I am the Lord, I change not,
therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. That's you
and me. And the reason we're called sons of Jacob is this. Like Jacob, not much to us. Not much. Not by nature, not
by birth. We're sons of Jacob. in the fact
that we are sinners, sinners from birth, from Adam. But like Jacob, number one, we
are loved with an everlasting love. Jacob have I loved, Esau
have I hated. God's sovereign, particular love
is upon us. I have loved you with an everlasting
love. Secondly, we were chosen in Christ. before the foundation
of the world. Not only before we were born,
before the foundation of the world. We were chosen in Christ.
We're sons of God. And thirdly, we're children of
the promise. Everyone who's a believer is
a child of the promise. God promised Jacob the birthright. And that's what he's given us.
Made us kings and priests unto God. That's what Jacob was. He's king of the home. the tribe,
the people, their priests. And then we've been to Bethel. What is Bethel? The word Bethel,
what is it? It's the house of God. When Jacob awoke from that
dream, he said, this is verily the house of God. And every one
of us, God brought us to the house of God and revealed the
gospel to us, the way to way to himself, the way to glory.
And then in all of our wonderings, in all of our ups and downs and
failures and mistakes and whatever, he's never forsaken us. Never
forsaken us. Always had his hand on us. Always
blessed us. Always kept us. Always rescued
us. Always called us back to Bethel.
Come on back. Always forgiven us. Always lifted
us, always. And then we have a new name.
Beloved, behold what manner of love God hath bestowed upon us
that we should be called sons of God. That's what he called
Jacob. He said, your name no longer is Jacob, it's Israel,
prince, son of God. We're sons of God. Yet, back
to my text, let's get to it. Now, Jacob's life was not easy. You'd be blessed to read the
life of Jacob, and reading it, see our own lives. Jacob's life
was not easy. Oh, it was a life of triumph,
but it was a life of trouble. Trouble, great trouble. He had
so many troubles you can identify with if you'll read his, you'll
read his life. His life of triumph and life
of trouble. His life of blessings. It was
a life of bitter disappointment. Just for example, one thing,
you know, when he worked for his Uncle Laban, and he had a
daughter, Leah and Rachel. Leah was the oldest, and Rachel
was the youngest. And he fell in love with Rachel.
And he wanted to marry Rachel. And his Uncle Laban said, alright,
you can have her, but you'll work seven years. Now, seven
years is a long time. And he worked hard for seven
years. And it came to wedding day, and
they stood up and were married, and those girls were covered
with veils. When he lifted the veil, it wasn't
Rachel. It was Leah. Now you think about
that. Seven years. Disappointment. And he said, what was going on?
His uncle said, it's not right for the younger daughter to be
married before the older one, so you've got to marry the older
one. He held his peace, as I said,
you know. And labored seven more years for the love of Rachel. You know, she must have cared
a great deal for him. A man that works 14 years to
marry you must care a great deal about you. He's a picture of
the love of our Redeemer for us, isn't he? But his was a life
of disappointment. And his sons, boy, I tell you, they were something. And then his life was a life
of revelations. but a life of tribulations. And
here he's in another one of those spots. Deep, deep, deep trouble. Trouble. I read it, you listen
to it. Esau was coming to meet him.
It says here in verse 7, he was greatly afraid and distressed. Distressed. Esau was coming to
meet him, angry. And he just knew that Esau was
going to kill every one of them. He had 400 men with him. He wasn't
coming to meet his brother for a family reunion or picnic. He
was angry. So Jacob prayed. I want to notice
something before I look at his prayer. I note that he acted
with intelligence and wisdom. Did you notice this? That in
verse 7, And he divided the people that
were with him. He didn't just throw up his hands
and say, well, what will be, will be. He acted with some wisdom. He's going to do what he can
to save his children and wives. So he divided them up. This is
intelligence. This is a man using his... God
gave him wisdom, understanding. And he divided them up into two
bands and he said, now, in the morning or tomorrow, whenever,
you all go this way and the other band go that way. And if Esau
falls upon one and destroys it, the other, he'll think that's
all of us. And the other will escape. And then he prayed. And there's
some wonderful, wonderful prayers in the Bible. We were discussing
this recently. Wonderful prayers. Somebody read
one of the prayers of one of the men. Inspirational prayers,
devotional prayers, mighty God-glorifying prayers. But this prayer right
here, 9, 10, 11, 12, four verses. This prayer, there's
none more applicable to me and to you at this time. And in our
need, and in our great trouble, more than this prayer right here. More than this prayer right here.
And he was greatly distressed, greatly afraid. All right, let's
look at seven things about this prayer. Number one. Now let's
study this prayer, and this is real. This is real. This is where it is. Now let's
study it, all of us together. Number one, Jacob cried, O God,
O God of my father Abraham. His prayer is unto the heavenly
Father. I was down at the hearing aid
center yesterday and I drove up behind a car and it says,
Pray the Rosary. No, sir. He's not counting beads. And he's not praying to Jude
or Peter, or James, or Mary, O God of my Father. O God, His prayer is unto the
Heavenly Father, the One to whom our Savior taught us to pray,
our Father which art in heaven. The least of us, the weakest
of us, call upon the Father. And then his prayer staying under
this first point here, oh God, it's a prayer out of desperation
and trouble and pain, oh God, you see how, oh God, I know you
can identify with that, oh God, I cried unto the Lord out of
my trouble. Paul said, Out of the depths
have I cried unto thee. Oh, God. Now, we've begun to
pray when we pray like that. As Bob said in his prayer, we're
not heard for our words. We're heard for the sincerity
of our hearts. Oh, God. And then his prayer
is to him whom Jacob knows to be his only source of help."
Oh, God. The only source of help, the
only source. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble, and this is what they said. Oh, God, I'm
convinced of it. And really and truly, that would
be sufficient. Just stop right there, oh God.
You don't need to tell him anything. You don't need to tell him anything.
He knows better than you. He knows me. He knows my heart. He knows my motive. He knows
my desire. He knows my thoughts before I
think them. He knows what I need. He knows what's good for me.
Oh God. But that's the object of his
prayer. Secondly, now watch this. Oh God of my father, Abraham
and God of my father Jacob." Now listen to me real carefully. He's not calling upon God simply
because he thinks he might find some pity or sentiment or emotion
in God. Jacob knows he has one license
and allowance for approaching God, and that's the covenant
mercies of God. You see what I'm saying? This
is not just some unhappy creature in God's kingdom, some frightened
mouse. This is a son of Abraham. And this son of Abraham is pleading
with his father on the basis of a covenant which his father
made with Abraham's seed, which is Christ. See what I'm saying? Jacob here is claiming the covenant. Now let's go back and see. I
told you I was going to read what God said to him in Genesis
28 at Bethel when God met him. In Genesis chapter 28, verse
12, Let's read verse 11. Now, go
with me here now. Chapter 28, verse 11, And he
lied upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because
the sun was set. He took up the stones of that
place, and put them for his pillar, and lay down in that place to
sleep. He wasn't seeking God. God was seeking him. He didn't
come here to meet God. God brought him here to meet
him. And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder set up on the earth,
and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels
of God ascending and descending on it, and behold, the Lord stood
above it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and
the God of Isaac. The land whereon thou liest,
to thee will I give it to thy seed. and thy seed shall be as
the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west,
to the east, to the north, to the south, and in thee and in
thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And
behold, Jacob, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all thy
places whither thou goest. I will bring thee again into
the land. I will not leave thee until I have done that which
I have spoken of." And Jacob awaked out of his sleep. and said, Surely the Lord's in
this place. And I knew it not, I knew it
not. And he was afraid and said, I
dreadful this place, it's none other but the house of God."
Jacob prayed out of the depths, O God, that the basis, the foundation,
the license on which he approached God is God's sovereign mercy
to him. That's right. Whom he foreknew,
he predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son. Whom
he predestinated, he called. Whom he called, he justified.
Whom he justified, he glorified. What shall we say to these things?
If God be for me, who can be against me? And that's the only
way to pray. The Lord Jesus said, pray. Father
which art in heaven." How is He my Father? By His choice. By His regenerating power and
new birth. By His covenant of grace, He's
my Father. Everybody who is of faith is
a son of Abraham and a son of God. And that's the... Oh God! the father of my father, Abraham."
All right, thirdly, and he pleads the Word of God. Listen to this. You said to me, like verse 9,
Jacob said, of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, the Lord,
which said to me, Return unto thy country. You said for me
to do what I'm doing. Yes, He did. Turn back here to
Genesis. Let's see if I can find it. Genesis
31, verse 1. Look at this. Genesis 31. And he heard the words of Laban's
son, saying, Jacob hath taken away all that was our father's.
And of that which was our father's hath he gotten all this glory.
And Jacob beheld the countenance of Laban. He looked at his uncle
Laban, and behold, it was not poor to him as before. Laban
was upset with him. God had blessed him. Jacob didn't
take it away, God gave it to him. You remember Laban told
Jacob, said, now, he was a crook, Laban was. He said, now you can
have the speckled calves. Every calf that is born speckled
is yours. Well, when do you have a speckled
calf? Just once in a while. All the calves were speckled.
Read it. And then he took it back and
he said something about, well, you can have the calves at a
ring tail. I don't know anything about a ring tail calf, do you?
But that's what he said. Just once in a while. The whole
lot was ring-tailed for the next two years. That's what happened,
and Laban was upset. God was blessing Jacob. Now listen,
verse 3. And the Lord said to Jacob, go
home. Leave. Return to the land of
your fathers and your kindred, and I'll be with you. And that's
what he's claiming in the prayer. Now go to the prayer. He said,
Father, O God, O God, God, father of Abraham
and Isaac, my father, you told me to go home. And look at verse
12, And you said, I'll surely do thee good, and make thy seed
as the sand of the sea. And I'm saying this, when we
pray, let's base our prayers and our claims and our petitions
on His promise. Now, what's wrong with this when
you pray? Can you find promises? Can I find promises to plead?
Lord, you said, ask and we'll receive. Isn't that what you
said? Didn't you say, knock and it
shall be opened? Didn't you say, seek and you'll
find? You said that. You said, what
thing soever you desire, when you pray, believe and you'll
have it. You said that, Lord. You say, I'll never leave you
nor forsake you. You say, if you being evil know how to
give good things to your children, how much more shall your Father
in heaven give good things to them that ask Him? That's what
He said, wasn't it? You said, if any be sick among
you, call the elders of the church and anoint them with oil, and
the effectual perfect prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Isn't that what you said? And that's the way Jacob prayed.
And I challenge us to pray the same way. Jacob said, I'm in
a mess, but you told me to go home. I'm in trouble, but you said
you'd never leave me. Never forsake. That's what you
said. That's what you said. And if a father, I'll pick any
father here, any father here, I'll take Mike Bartram, and if
he says to his daughter Leah, who's 14, I'll say, Honey, when
you're 16, when you're 16, Dad's somehow going to get you a car. You have my word for it. Would
it be wrong for her on her 16th birthday to knock on your bedroom
door real early and say, Dad? I'm 16. And you say it. You say it. That's what you said.
And you'd say, Honey, that's what I'm going to do to you.
If I said it, that's what I'm going to do. And that's what
Jacob's saying. Isn't that the way he's praying?
You say it. You say it. Basing his prayer
out of desperation, oh God. He's basing his prayer on a covenant
relationship. You made me your son. And you said you'd do something. You said, all right. Alright,
look at the next line, verse 10. He disclaims any merit. Here's
number 4. He disclaims any merit or worthiness. He didn't claim any worthiness.
He says, I'm not worthy of the least of your mercies. Just pick
out breath. I'm not worthy to have breath. I'm not worthy to be able to
lift my arm. I'm not worthy of the least of
your mercies." To smell a flower, I'm not worthy of that. I talk
about not being able to hear. I'm not worthy to hear. I ought
not to hear anything by nature. What are we grumbling about?
Barney, did you say anything else out of hell? Mercy. Because
we sure don't deserve it. I'm not worthy. He said, I'm
not worthy of the least of your mercies, and I'm not worthy of
all the truth you've shown me. God's shown this outfit here
some truth. Did you know that? There's more
truth been preached here per square inch than anywhere in
this country in the last 45 years. Truth! I'm not worthy of all the truth.
The mercies and the truth. But you've blessed me. Look here
at this rest of that verse 10. All which you showed your servant,
for with my staff I came over this Jordan." When he's running
from Esau and home, this old boy didn't have anything but
a shirt on his back. That's what he said. I had a
staff in my hand. And I crossed this Jordan. And
some of you, well, some of you, all of us, didn't have anything. Nothing. And look what you have now. Look
what we have. That's what he's saying. God,
I'm not complaining. God help me, I'm not complaining.
I'm not finding fault with your providence. I'm not worthy of
the least of your favor. I'm not worthy of any of the
truth you've shown me. And Lord, look where I am. Look
where I came from and look where I am. Look what I have. We don't, I don't, you don't
have any difficulty in owning the fact that we're mercy beggars.
That's one of my favorite people here in this congregation. That's
one of his favorite prayers. Brother Cecil, I'm a mercy beggar.
I love that statement. I think it originated with you. I'm a mercy beggar. You're in
trouble with that? Jacob didn't. I don't pray for
anything because I deserve it. You don't either. Not for a moment. I don't pray for anything because
I'm worthy of it. Everything I am and have and
know and hope to be is by His grace. It's not my goodness I'm
pleading, it's His. You said! That's what Jacob,
you know what Jacob's pleading? He's not pleading any worthiness.
Well, who do you think you are? I know who I am. It's not a matter
of thinking. Jacob knew who he was, but he
wasn't pleading his goodness, he was pleading God's goodness.
You say it. He wasn't pleading his worthiness,
he was pleading God's worthiness. He wasn't asking for mercy because
he loved God, he was asking for mercy because God said he loved
him. Isn't that what he said? That's what we base our prayers
on. Of course, we love God because
He loves us. He said so. And your children don't beg thanks
because they love you. They beg thanks because you ain't
no good. Well, you love them. You love them. We're not asking for anything
because He's ours. We're asking something because
we're His! That's what Moses, when he interceded
for Israel, he said, you're going to destroy these people? Well,
they're your people, they're not mine. You're the one that
called them. You're the one that made them
your own. Are you going to bring reproach on your name, God, and
destroy these people and have everybody say, well, he didn't
love them anyway? Vindicate your character, that's
what Moses said. Isn't that what he said? He might
be right, he did. And God loved him for it. God
loved him for it. You said. You said. And then listen to his petition,
number 6, in verse 11. It's very simple. It's very plain. He didn't tell the Lord how to
do it or when to do it. He just said, Lord, deliver me. I prayed this from the hand of
my brother. from the hand of Esau. I'm afraid
lest he come out and smite me and the mother with her children."
And I'm praying two words, deliver me. He didn't tell the Lord how.
No eloquence. Just plainness of speech. Like
Bob said, no much speaking. No bargaining. He didn't say,
now Lord, if you will, Mark it, he didn't promise anything,
did he? Lord, if you do this, I will... I've heard that too much. I've
been guilty of that. I promised to do this, that and
the other. Leave it off. Leave it off. We don't bargain
with God. Lord, deliver me. That's all
he said, deliver me. And you know what he did? He quoted that verse 12. You said, I'll surely do thee
good. He said it again. And I'll make your seed as the
sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered. But look at verse
13. Here's the seventh thing about
this prayer. And he lodged there that same
night. And he took of that which came to his hand. And in the
next few verses you'll find 200 she-goats 20 he goats, and 200 ewes, and 20
rams, and 30 milk cows with their coats, and 40 kine, and 10 bulls,
and 20 she-ashes, and 10..." I'm telling you, that's some gift, isn't it? He's getting
that all together to give to Esau. He's going to give it to
him. Now, what do you see there, preacher?
I see that Jacob was not resigned to defeat, nor fatalism. He just didn't say, well, I'm
going to sit here and die. He went about doing something
to reconcile Esau. See what I'm saying? It's like
we preach. We preach. We ask God to save
sinners, but we preach to sinners. We don't sit down and say, well,
if he's going to save them, he's going to save them. If he's not, no, we're
going to preach to them. We'll depend on Him to meet our
needs, and yet we'll work and labor to support our families.
Isn't that right? We'll look to Him for all things,
and yet we'll search His Word to find His will. You like saying
what? Jacob's going out to meet Esau,
and he's prayed, But he's thinking in his heart
now, God may be pleased to use means. So I'm going to get together
some things here to show Esau that I'm going to be kind. I'm
a different man from what I left home. I'm going to show him that.
So he gathered these things together. I'll rest in the truth, the salvations
of the Lord, and yet I'll employ the means that he puts to my
hands. And that's what he's doing there.
He lodged there that night and he got these things together.
And then he went to meet Esau. And when he saw Esau, he said,
this is what I have for you. Esau said, well, I have enough.
And Jacob said, Esau, I have everything. I have God. Well, I hope that's a blessing.
It was to me. I feel like that the Lord gave me some things
to say on this subject of Jacob's prayer. May He make it a blessing
to your heart. Our Father, Lord God, we cry
unto Thee out of the depths. We are needy creatures. As our
brother says so often, we are mercy beggars. And Lord, our
plea and our foundation of calling upon Thee is not our love for
Thee, but Thy love for us. That everlasting covenant of
mercy that You made with us in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now because
we love Thee, You loved us. And we're Your sons, we're Your
children. Behold what manner of love you
have bestowed upon us that we should be called sons of God.
And Lord God, we call upon Thee because You are our only help. Mercy must come from Thee. Healing
must come from Thee. Deliverance, salvation, forgiveness,
everything by Your grace through the blood and righteousness and
the merit of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we cry unto Thee in His name.
Lord, deliver us. Lord, deliver us. Be with those
who are weak and helpless, sick and distressed, in need of Your
mercy. Lord, deliver us. You said, You
said, Whatsoever things you desire, when you pray, believe, you shall
have them. Ask and you shall receive. We're
asking. We're seeking. We're knocking. We're calling upon you. Pleading
your love, your mercy, and your word. Vindicate yourself and
your word on behalf of your people. Lift their burdens. Minister
to them. Show us a token in our day for
good. Encourage our hearts. Lift our
spirits. Give us cause, O Lord, to rejoice
in thee. Special cause. Silence the voice of the enemy
who says, where is your God? Our God's in the heavens. And
he hath done whatsoever he pleased. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did He in heaven and earth and the seas and all deep places,
to Him be the glory always, ever, all the glory from this day forth
and forevermore. In His blessed name, the name
which is above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
we do pray and call upon Thee. Blessed the word preached for
Your glory and our good, for Christ's sake. Amen.