I'd like for you to turn again
to the book of Genesis, chapter 32. It says in verse 24 of Genesis 32, And
Jacob was left alone. Was there ever a man more troubled,
more frightened, and more confused than this man Jacob? His whole
life had been one of trouble and disappointment. When he was
born, he was born second. He was second to Esau. Esau,
his brother, was the firstborn. He came out, there were twins.
There was so much significance placed on the firstborn. There
was so much attention given to the firstborn. There was so much
glory on the head of the firstborn. The second son, which was Jacob,
came from the womb clutching his brother's heel, and they
gave him a name in reference to clutching his brother's heel.
They called him Jacob, supplanter by deceit. He was inferior to
Esau. Esau was a big, strong, handsome
man. Jacob was a delicate, plain man.
His father, the father loved Esau. The father took great pride
in Esau's strength and nobility. He was his firstborn. The mother loved Jacob. He was
mama's boy. And his mama pushed him, encouraged
him. You see, his mother His mother
had a special revelation from God before the children were
ever born. The Lord said unto her, The elder
shall serve the younger. Jacob, have a love. Esau, have
I hated. Before the children were ever
born, before there was any distinction between them, before Esau ever
came forth, the leader, the giant, the noble one, or Jacob, the
plain mama's boy. It was said to her, Esau will
serve Jacob. Jacob will be the leader. So
his mother pushed him. She even pushed him to deceive
his blind father. That troubled him. His father
was blind. His father was going to bestow
the blessing, and the mother, the father sent Esau out to get
him some venison. Esau was the hunter. He wanted
some of Esau's special sauce and special deer meat. And he
sent him out hunting, and while he was gone, Jacob got some and
brought it in. The mother fixed it up like Esau
fixes it, and he put some. Esau was a hairy man. Jacob wasn't. He was a plain man. And he came in, put
a skin over his back, and his blind daddy reached out and said,
Your voice sounds like Jacob's, son. Oh, he said, I'm Esau. And
he said, let me touch you, and he reached out and touched him,
and he had that hair on his back, and said, give me the venison,
and he ate it, and he blessed him. He gave him the birthright,
he gave him the leadership of the tribe, he gave him the blessing,
he gave him everything through the sea. And Jacob was troubled
over that. It was never in his eyes right.
And he was troubled about it, worried about it, and he stole
his brother's birthright, and threatened by his brother, he
ran away from home. His mother sent him away, said, you just
go on, leave home until Esau cools off. Well, Esau didn't
cool off. And here it was many years later, and Jacob had been
down to a place where a man named Laban, some of their kinfolks
are way back, you know, down the line live, and he was deceived
just like he had deceived his father and deceived Esau. Laban
promised him if he worked for him seven years he could marry
his daughter Rachel. When it came time to marry Rachel,
this man deceived Jacob and gave him the older daughter, Leah.
And so he married Leah, and then he worked seven more years for
Rachel, and he finally married her. That's fourteen years he
worked for her. And he married her, and then she didn't have
any children. And Leah began having children. He had eleven
sons, or ten sons. And then the other one was born,
which was Joseph. And these eleven sons and the
two wives, God came to them and said, Leave Laban. Go back to
your father's house. This was years and years and
years and years later. And so he left and started back,
and he found out that his brother Esau was coming to meet him.
He sent his servants up ahead, and he was concerned about this
anyway. And besides that, Laban chased him. And one of the girls,
Rachel, had stolen some gods, some idols, out of her daddy's
house and hid them. And he chased him. And then he
sent his servants ahead, and the servants came back and said,
Yes, your brother's coming to meet you all right. He's coming
with 400 men to meet you. Poor Jacob. So it says here that Jacob sent
his wives and children on over the brook, Jabbok, And this troubled,
frightened man, confused, his whole life had been a life of
trouble and disappointment and cheating and deceiving and being
deceived, a mess. And so he was left alone, all
alone. And yet, here's something else
that needs to be pointed out. Yet he was no stranger to God.
Now, this man Jacob, Jay, was no stranger to God. He was not.
God, I know his mother told him about this promise. I know that
when they were planning this thing. Now, Mom, could you be
mistaken? No, sir. Jacob, the Lord God
said to me that you were going to be the leader of this tribe.
But my brother's the firstborn. It does not matter. But the firstborns
always had the birthright, not in this case. But mother, it
can't be that way. It is that way, and you do what
I say." And he was mama's boy, and he did what she said. And he was very grieved about
it. He was very grieved about it.
But he knew somehow, he believed his mother. And he believed God,
and then on his way, after he ran away from home, and was on
his way to Laban's, turned to Genesis 28. Genesis chapter 28. God did meet him. And God gave
him a dream. You remember, he was sleeping
there with his head on the rocks, and he dreamed about the ladder
ascending to heaven. And God appeared to him, and
Genesis 28, verse 13 says, listen to it, And behold, the Lord stood
above it, and said, Jacob, 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, and to thy seed. Verse 15. And behold,
I am with you, I will keep you in all places where thou goest,
I will bring thee again into this land. I will not leave thee
until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of." Now
he knew that. He had some, he was no stranger
to God. There was a foundation laid by
his mother and father. Isaac was his father. And he had a foundation laid,
and God appeared to him, God spoke to him. And then when he
was down there with Laban and all this years, you know, and
so forth, God came to him again and said, go back home now, go
back home. And so he started back home.
But here he was alone. It's time to think this thing
through. It's time to take inventory. This is a crisis time. This is
a confrontation. This is a time to take inventory
of the whole thing. Now, Jacob was in trouble, in
real trouble. He was told to leave where he
was, and yet he wasn't welcome where he was going. He had been
chased by his father-in-law and was about to be met by his brother,
and he offended both of them. He was unhappy. He was distressed. He reminds me of those people
over in Psalm 107. Turn over there to Psalm 107.
And really, when you're going to do business with the Lord
God, this is a good place to be. It's the place with none
to help. Lord, I've got nowhere to turn.
It's like the Israelites when they were in front of the Red
Sea. The army of Pharaoh behind them and the Red Sea before them.
Here Jacob was with Esau coming to meet him and Laman mad behind
him. Here he was, all alone, distressed, by himself, no one
to turn to, none to help. It says here in Psalm 107, look
at it, "...give thanks unto the Lord," he's good, "...his mercy
endureth forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy, and
gathered them out of the lands from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness
in a lonely way. They found no city to dwell in.
Hungry and thirsty, their souls fainted in them. Then, out of
need, out of helplessness, out of inability, out of loneliness,
they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them
out of their distresses. This is a good place to be. Like
the woman with the issue of blood, she had no one to whom she could
turn. She tried so many things, they
all failed. Like Peter sinking beneath the
waves, Lord, if you don't save me, I'm a goner. There's none
to help me. Here, poor Jacob, I wish you
and I would come to this place, if we just could. Get off alone. Lord, old Jacob had tried to
arm a flesh, it had failed him at every turn. He tried all things. His life had been one of conniving
and cheating and deceiving and deception and disappointment
and trouble, and it always is when there's no godly purpose,
no glory to God. And here he is now by himself. Ah, good news. Let's read on
in Genesis 32. And it says, Jacob was left alone, left alone, and
there rustled a man with him until the break of day. Who was this man? Who was this man? There's no
doubt who it was. Jacob knew who it was. It was
Christ. That's right, it was the Lord
Jesus Christ. He became a man through the virgin's
womb, but he frequently, in the Old Testament, he frequently
appeared in human form. Frequently, did you know that?
Christ frequently appeared in human form in token and pledge
of his future incarnation. When Christ came in Bethlehem
and walked the earth as a man, he had walked this earth before
several times as a man. Who do you think Melchizedek
was? Melchizedek, the priest, having no mother or father, no
beginning of days or ending of days? How could it be anybody
but Christ? Christ's the only one of whom
that can be said, J. There's no rival to Jesus Christ.
He appeared to, who do you think it was in the fiery furnace,
one likened to the Son of God? Who do you think it was in the
lion's den that delivered Daniel? And here Rasslinger made, well
let's look at some verses and let you see this, verse 26. Jacob
said to this man, I will not let thee go except thou bless
me. Who has the power to bless a man but God? No angel can bless
a man. And then down in verse 28, he
changes Jacob's name. Now, no angel has the power to
do that. Thou shalt no longer be called Jacob, but Israel.
Israel? A prince? And then down here in verse 30,
Jacob said, I've seen God face to face. No man has seen God
at any time save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal
it. Man can't look on God and live, but he can look on Christ
in human form. He's God. No question about who
it was. But now watch this. And a man
appeared to him, and they wrestled. They actually wrestled face to
face. That's the way you wrestle. You
engage one another in battle face to face. The man took hold
of Jacob. Oh, that God in his sovereign
power would be pleased to care enough to take hold of some of
us. Jacob was there alone. And he
didn't look up this man. He didn't accidentally run into
him. This man looked him up. He appeared to him. And he wrestled. He took hold of Jacob. You know,
sometimes we feel like taking hold of our children, don't we?
Oh boy, you little rascal. And just, you know, just give
him a good shaking. You big rascal. They used to
tell me about a teacher over here at Putnam. Your husband
told me about that teacher at Putnam. She's so little, she'd
get those big old boys and try to shake them, and she'd shake
them. They wouldn't even move, you know. She'd get hold of him
and just, you remember that? And she'd just shake all over
the big old boy standing there, you know. But the Lord appeared
and took hold of Jacob, and he shook him. But you know, Jacob
laid hold on him, too. Jacob laid hold on him. They
laid hold on one another. You have here, you know what
you have here? You have sovereignty and responsibility. You say,
I don't understand this, preacher. Well, I don't think you have
to understand it. Well, explain it. I don't explain,
I just preach. Somebody says, explain this.
We're not in the explaining business, we're in the proclaiming business.
I do know, it says here, that this man, Christ Jesus, took
hold of Jacob sovereignly, deliberately, on purpose. And I know here that
a lonely, weary, disappointed, frustrated Jacob took hold of
the Lord. And he took hold of him, too.
It was a physical and a mental and a spiritual conflict. And
they literally wrestled, wrestled. And Jacob wouldn't let go. And
God wouldn't let go of him. He had agreement on both sides,
and they wrestled. It was no brief encounter. They
wrestled, it says here, till the sun started coming up, till
the breaking of day. All night he wrestled with God. I tell you, it was no brief encounter. Great issues were at stake. And
there's great issues at stake with you and me. I tell you,
Jacob, he'd been frustrated for a long time. I would say Jacob
has got to be a man nearly fifty years old here. He's got to be
a man in his forties. He's got fourteen years working
for two wives. He's got eleven sons. This man has got to be well up
and mature man. And here he is with all these
years of frustration and disappointment and confusion and not having
things put together, and here he met, he had an encounter with
the Lord of glory. And it's almost as if Jacob's
saying, Lord, I've been confused. My mother talked about me being
the leader, and I'm gone. I'm out here wandering around
with everybody against me. I'm no leader. My mother talked
about me having the birthright and your promises, and you said
to me, I'll bless you, I'll never leave you, I'll give you the
land you're standing on. And Lord, here I am being pursued
by everybody. I'm confused myself, I've been
a deceiver and a cheat and a supplanter, and it's just not, things aren't
right here. I know they're not right. I know
they're not right. And look at verse 25, and when
Christ saw that he prevailed not against him, you say, what
in the world? That the Lord God couldn't prevail
against Jacob? It doesn't say he couldn't. He
didn't say he couldn't. He could have. You see, Moses
speaks here after the manner of men. If you're not careful
when you're reading the Bible, you know, the Lord came down
and said, Adam, where art thou? Well, it sounds like he's looking
for somebody. He knew where Adam was. The question was for Adam's
benefit. He wanted to hear Adam say something.
That's here what you've got to say, Adam. That's reading the
Acts. Where are you? Where are you? God knew where he was. When
he said to King, where's your brother? Don't you know God knew
where his brother was? You want to hear something from
King? And when he says, repenteth the Lord that he made man, God
never repents. God has done no evil of which
to repent. God has made no mistakes from
which to turn. He's planned all things in his
sovereign purpose. So he's speaking as a man when
he talks about God's hand is not heavy and his arm's not short. God has no hand or arm. God's
a spirit. But the writers of Scripture
have to talk to folks who think along these lines. You see, that's
the way we think like humans, and we've got to be written to
like humans. So there's no question he could
have prevailed against Jacob. There's no question. In fact,
he gave Jacob a sign of what he could do to him. He just touched
his thigh, and the thing went out of joint. He just touched
it. He touched his thigh. Look at
it. It says there in verse 25, he touched the hollow of his
thigh. He didn't pick up a brake bat
and hit him with it. He touched the hollow of his thigh, and
his thigh was out of joint. But old Jacob wouldn't turn loose.
He wasn't telling us. Why, he, the conflict, the conflict
was ordered by God, the outcome was in the purpose of God. But
all of this was to test Jacob. It was to test his perseverance,
it was to test his persistence, it was to test his determination. You see, these things have got
to be revealed. They've got to be indicated. Got to be indicated. They've
got to be revealed. God's got somehow, God limits
himself. Stay with me now. God limits
himself to bring out from you your persistence, your perseverance,
your determination. You see, when you pray about
a matter, God already knows what he's going to do. They say prayer
changes things. What does prayer change? It sure
doesn't change God. God can't change. I'm the Lord,
I change not. Isn't that what Scripture says?
It doesn't change the will of God. It doesn't change the purpose
of God. What does that change? It changes
you. It brings you in conformity with the will of God and the
purpose of God. It changes you. It changes your attitude and
spirit. It may be, in God's good pleasure,
it may change some things around you and things in reference to
you. But you see, when God says, ask,
and it shall be given you, well, why don't you give me without
asking? Well, you can't have a one-way love affair. You can't
have a one-way friendship. God's got to hear from you. It's
got to be brought out of you. Love for Him, and dependence
upon Him, and confidence in Him, and trust in Him, and reliance
upon Him, it's got to come that way. And while the God is sovereign
and God ordains, and He's got to be, you can't have a God that's
not sovereign. He says, I'll do my will in the
armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. None
can stay my hand or say unto me, what doest thou? As the potter
hath power over the clay, so have I over you. You've got a
sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient, almighty, eternal God, immutable,
infinite. But creatures aren't dead logs,
they're not tin cans, they're not robots, they're responsible,
active human beings. And God says, I've called, and
you refused. I've reached out my hand, and
no man regarded. All right, I'll judge you. But
here he reaches out to Jacob, and Jacob takes hold of him.
You see that? He reaches out to Jacob, and
he wrestles with Jacob, and lays hold on him, and Jacob lays hold
on him. And the Lord shows his superiority
and strength. He touches Jacob's thigh and
it's out of joint. The Lord shows the weakness and
inability of the creature. And then he says to Jacob, let
me go. Verse 26, let me go. Let me go,
the day breaketh. And Jacob said, I will not let
thee go except thou bless me. All right, Jacob, you've engaged
in religious exercise, now let me go. All right, Jacob, you've
wrestled with God, now let me go. All right, Jacob, you've
been wounded. You've been wounded. You've been
afflicted. You've been tried. Now let me
go." Jacob says, "'No, sir. It's true that I've wrestled
with God. It's true I've had an encounter
with Deity. It's true, I've been tried and
wounded, but I still don't have the blessing. I'm not going to
let you go till I get it. You know, our Lord turned to
his disciples one day, preached, talked about the kingdom of God
and its mercies and grace and love and all of these things,
and people didn't want it. They turned, walked off, and
he turned to his disciples and said, Will you go away too? Will
you go away? And they said the same thing
Jacob did. We will not go away. To whom shall we go? Now here's
what I'm saying. So many people do. God laid hold
on Jacob. Christ laid hold on Jacob. And
Jacob laid hold on Christ. And they wrestled. They engaged
in conflict. And there was all kind of endeavors
and wrestlings and encounter. And then Jacob was wounded and
went through a trial. And God says, now let me go.
Now turn loose. Turn loose, Jacob. And Jacob
said, No, sir, I've had an encounter of consciousness of God. I've
been wounded and tried, but I don't yet have your favor and your
blessings. I don't yet have that peace that
passes understanding. I don't yet have that rest. I
don't yet have that seal of God's approval. I don't yet have that
assurance and confidence. I'm not turning loose. I'm not
quitting. I'm not quitting until you personally
bless me. You with me? Now, I know what
I'm saying here. I know that most religious decisions
today are just brief religious encounters. You lost? Yep. You want to be saved? Yep.
Trust Jesus? Okay. Shake my hand. You're saved.
Goodbye. You've had a religious encounter.
Or perhaps you come to a church, a congregation, you stay there
a while, you have some trials, you go through a church split,
a church fight, and you get wounded. Okay, you served your time, now
quit. Goodbye everybody, it's been
good knowing you. And we go home and sit down, and no peace and
joy. Jacob, let me go. I will not. I don't have the
blessing yet. I don't have, I don't have. What
I know belongs to a person who belongs to God. I've been through
all the motions and the ceremonies and the encounters, and I've
been through the self-analysis, and I've been through the wounding,
and I've been through the crippling, and I've been through the fusses
and fights, but I don't yet have your blessing. I ain't turning
loose. You see what I'm saying? I'm
not turning loose. And so the Lord God said to him,
what's your name? He said, my name's Jacob. My
name's Jacob. My name's supplanter by deceit.
Look it up. Supplanter means deceit, getting
something by force or deceit, cheat. That's my name. I hold
the birthright by human effort. I hold the birthright through
deceit and deception. What's my name? My name's Jacob.
That's my name. That's, my name's Adam, my name's
man, my name's sinner, my name's cheater, my name's failure. That's my name. And so he said,
you'll be no more called cheat, supplanter. You're going to be
called Israel, son of God. I'm going to take away your reproach.
I'm going to take away your failures, take away your sin, take away
these things. I'm going to take away that That
brand that's been put upon you. Don't you know Esau branded him
and Esau's men? Mama's boy stole a birthright. I'm going to take away that reproach.
They look at you and laugh. The folks, what are you doing
down here leaving, said, I stole from my brother and deceived
my blind father. Everybody, they branded that
boy. He was an outcast. And we are.
We're outcasts. The angels of God look down and
say, you tried to steal the throne from God in the Garden of Eden.
You're a supplanter. You tried to reach up with unholy
hands and take that which is not yours. It belongs to another.
You've deceived your father and you tricked your brother. You're
a cheat and a supplanter. You're trying to take by human
effort what's not yours. The angels have branded us, the
demons have branded us. All men look upon us and point
their fingers, and God said, no more. I'm going to change
your name. You're from now on no more a
son of Isaac, but a son of God. You're no more a son of shame,
you're prince of God, Jacob. Preacher, I can't hardly. You
mean that's for folks like me, folks like you? That's who it's
for. It ain't for folks that try to
take it. by their own efforts. It's for folks that dare to wrestle
with God and lay hold upon Christ. You know, I read a story this
week about Joab. You familiar? Joab troubles me. Joab was David's servant, and
Joab, he was a rascal, though. Joab murdered Abner. I mean,
in a trickery. He took his knife and, hello
friend, and stabbed him. And he did that to another fellow,
but another fellow, you remember reading, another fellow, he reached
out his hand, his friend thought he was going to embrace him,
and he stabbed him. And David said when Solomon became king,
he said, I want you to deal with Joab. Joab's got to be dealt
with. Joab's a menace. And I want you
to deal with him. And don't you let him come down
to the grave with gray hair. And so Solomon sent his servant
to get Joab, and Joab heard he was coming. And you know what
he did? He ran to the tabernacle, into the holy place, and laid
hands of the altar, the horns of the altar. And the servant
Cecil came and said, Joab, where are you? He said, I'm in here,
holding on to the horns of the altar. Well, he said, Joab, the
king says, come out of there. He said, I'm not going to come
out of here. I'm going to die here. Here's a man under judgment
who goes to the externals of religion and lays hold on them.
He lays hold on the altar, he lays hold on his baptism, he
lays hold on the Lord's table, he lays hold of the sacraments,
he lays hold of the mourner's bench, he lays hold of the law,
he lays hold of the externals of religion, and he won't let
them go. And he knows death is upon him, and danger is upon
him, and the wrath of the king is upon him, but he hangs on
to these religious externals. When I had an experience back
then, I was twelve years old, better let it go. But I made
a profession. Don't hang on to the horns of
the altar. Come to the king. The king says, come out of there,
Joab. Come to me. That's what Jacob did. He laid
hold on Christ. He didn't lay hold of the altar,
the horns of the altar, none of the externals of religion.
He laid hold of Christ, and he says, I'm not going to let you
go. And he lived. My life's preserved, he said.
Joab, they said, okay, if that's where you want to die, that's
where you'll die. And they killed him and buried him there. But
he wouldn't turn loose, Charlie. He laid hold of the horns of
the altar. Not him whom the altar represents. He didn't cast himself
on the mercy of the king, or the compassion of the king, or
the spirit of the king. If he had, he'd have been saved,
I believe. But he laid hold on the horns
of the altar. And old Jacob didn't. Bless your heart, he laid hold
upon Christ. And Christ said, from there on
you're a prince. From now on, you're a prince.
You've prevailed with God. Whoo! You've prevailed with God. Well, I'm going to sit here.
If God wants to bless me, He will. You're not too interested
in it, are you? You're not too far gone yet.
Old Bartimaeus was sitting there in his blindness, and he heard
a commotion. And he said, what is it? He'd
been blind all his life. He was the son of Timaeus. And
he had been blind all his life. He said, what's the noise? And
they said, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. Who? Jesus of
Nazareth. Jesus, thou son of David! Jesus! Have mercy on me. He listened. No reply. Jesus! No reply. Jesus! And somebody said, shut
up. He said, I won't shut up. He's
my only hope. I won't hush. He's my only hope.
Jesus! Don't leave!" And then he heard the voice of
the Son of God say, Bring him to me. Bring him to me. Boy,
I tell you, you ain't blind yet. You won't quit hollering. You're
not in trouble yet. Jacob was in trouble. He was
alone. He was alone. Everybody was after
him. And he knew it. He's in trouble.
He met God and he said, here's my only hope, and he wouldn't
let go. He crippled him. He's limping around now on that
old bad leg, but he wouldn't let him go. God could have, or
he could have, he could have put him away. You see, the Lord's
trying his perseverance and trying his persistence and trying his
patience. He just touched him, let him
know who the boss was, but he wouldn't let go. And he said,
I want the blessing. I'm not going to hush, I'm not
going to let go, I'm not going to quit. Satan will try to discourage
you, he'll give you every reason to quit, but you better not quit.
Even God himself, he'll tell you, ain't no use. Let me go. The day I got business to take
care of, the day's breaking. Wait a minute now, Lord. I'm
your business right now. And you're going to drag me along
with you. I sink or swim, I'm going to go to him. I go to hell,
I go to hell begging for mercy." And so he blessed him, but then,
oh, Jacob, I want you to listen to this. So Jacob said, Jacob
said, I pray thee, verse 29, what's your name? Oh, my. Like to spoil it, didn't he?
Why couldn't he be satisfied with a blessing? Now, human curiosity
has got to inquire into things that God hasn't volunteered.
We're all guilty of that. We all got that in us. Some of
you sitting out there, somebody will go away and say, you know
what he said? I preach here 45 minutes, they'll pick out a 30-second
statement that they don't like and they'll work it over. God
help you. He will someday. He'll help you
right out. But that's the way we are. If you hear Jacob here
got the blessing, God, make you a prince, son, or son of God. What's your name? What's your
name? If he'd have wanted to know his
name, he'd have told him. Human curiosity. Then there's a desire
for proof and signs. Wait a minute, how am I going
to tell everybody? Tell me your name. I got the blessing, but now that's
not enough. I want to know your name. I want proof. I want a
sign. Here's ambition. Get on a first name basis with
the Lord. Huh? Is that what Jacob's trying
to do? Isn't it enough that God knows his name? Huh? Isn't it enough? Isn't it enough
that the Lord God of glory gave him a new name? Isn't it enough
that he now wears the name of God, a Prince of God? No, he's
got to get on a familiarity basis with the Lord of glory. Better
watch out for him. Better watch out. And here's
another thing here. Jacob met the incarnate Son of
God in a token pledge form. He could not be carried beyond
his age and generation and the revelation that was given to
that day. You with me? In other words, suppose the Lord
Jesus Christ had said, I am Jesus of Nazareth. Jacob wouldn't have
known from the hill of beans what he's talking about. It's
all true. I am God who will become human
flesh in order to obey the law and suffer on a cross, and I
shall be identified with the transgressors, numbered with
the transgressors." Jacob in no way could have understood
that. Even the disciples who looked him right now didn't understand
it for a long time. I have things to say to you.
Christ said, you're not able to bear. So Jacob, you're not
able to bear. This is where we get in trouble
too, wanting to go beyond what we're able to understand. We
know in part, we prophesy in part, we understand in part,
we preach in part. When that which is perfect is
come, that which is in part shall be done away. Jacob knows now
what his name is. Jacob knows now. But you see,
each dispensation, each generation has to walk in the light of revolution
as God is pleased to give it. And this is what some of these
so-called prophetical preachers are doing. They're trying to
project us out yonder into the millennium. And we're confined
to this flesh right here. I'm not ready for the millennium.
God'll take me there when I'm ready. I'm not ready to enter
the secrets of glory and the secret mysteries of God's counsel
and the future as it's in God's plan. This is my place. And that's more or less what
the Lord's saying to Jacob there, Jacob, live in your age, live
in your dispensation, walk in the light God's pleased to give
you. There's plenty of time for future revelations. Plenty of time. It's not for you to know these
things. But brother, it's enough that
we've been blessed. It's enough that he saved us,
it's enough that he made us princes, and we've got enough to rejoice
over now. And so Jacob called that place
Pineal. He said, I've seen God face to
face. It wasn't a decision, was it?
It was an experience. Not through a preacher. It wasn't
through a soul winner. It wasn't through a campaign.
He met God face to face. I've seen God. Not in a vision
or a dream. I wouldn't trust that. Too much
garlic will give you a dream or a vision. But I've seen God
in His Word. I've seen God in Christ. He that
has seen me has seen the Father. You want to study God, you study
Christ. He is God. I've seen Him in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And Jay and I talked about this
a little bit yesterday. I can't prove this. It says down
there in verse 31, and Jacob came away from that encounter,
and he came away from Peniel, Penuel, it's called there. The
sun rose upon him and he came away from there limping. He came
away from there limping. Some people say Johnny limped
the rest of his life. I can't prove that. Maybe. It says in that next verse, the
hollow of the thigh, the sinew that shrank. It may be Jacob
limped, but I'll tell you this, whether he limped the rest of
his life, when he came away from that encounter with Christ, he
had an evidence that God had dealt with him. It was clear
to everybody. Jacob comes, what you limping
for? I met the Lord. He took the pride out of me,
as he did. He took the ability, self-ability
out of me. I'm just walking by his grace.
I've got evidence. I've been with Christ, you see.
Jacob, maybe the rest of his life, he must have, he might
have walked like that. He never forgot that encounter.
He had the evidence in himself. And I believe when a fellow meets
Christ, he comes away with a new heart, he comes away with a new
nature, he comes away with new thoughts, with a new family,
with new directions, with new ambitions. He comes away with
plenty of marks all over him. The evidence is, John, he met
Christ. Tell him, walk down this aisle and shake my hand and go
right on out, and I don't have the power to touch his thigh.
Boy, if you meet him, he'll fix you up. He'll fix you
up, just one touch. He touched me. Oh, He touched
me. And oh, the joy that floods my
soul. Something wonderful happened.
He touched me and made me whole. He touched Jacob and crippled
him. He touched me, and there were
some things He crippled and killed, but He made me whole. He touched
me. Don't be satisfied with anything
less than that. It might not happen today. I may be talking
to some of you. I'm not going to be one of these
preachers who say, the last train to heaven is pulling out, I'm
the engineer. I'm not. That train may sit on your cross
in a while. If God intends to do something
for you, that train will sit there until He knocks the soup
out of you and gets you on board. It took 120 years to get Noah
on board, but he went on board willingly. But I'm just simply
saying that this is what it takes. It's not just this, you know,
and it's not just this. It's not just signing a pledge
card and joining up, you know, and meeting with the good folks
down at the church. It's an encounter with Christ,
an encounter with Christ. And that's when you get down
to where you can't get any lower, and He meets you. Our Father, may it please Thee, not to leave us in our darkness
and in our distress, our confusion. Lord, meet with us like you met
with Jacob. Touch us. May we feel the touch
of power divine, a visitation from the Lord of glory in the
power of his Spirit. We know, we've made decisions
before, and we've joined churches, and we've obeyed the ceremonies,
and we've rededicated, and we've made promises and resolutions
and all these things. We've tried and failed. If you,
through your Word and by your Spirit, come upon us as you did
upon Jacob, and there might be that conflict with Christ, that
encounter with Him, and we'd come away touched by power divine,
and we'd never be the same. We'd never walk the same. We'd
never talk the same. And like you said to Jacob, you're
a prince now, and you've got power with God, and you've got
power with men. And that power with thee would
give us influence with men, power with men. Use us for thy glory, whatever
it pleaseth thee. We've lost favor with men because
of our deception, because of our natures. But Lord, you can
restore all that's been lost, that favor with God and favor
with men, through Christ the Redeemer. In his name we pray.
Amen.