Would you please turn to Genesis chapter 32.
For our limited time we'll read from verse
21.
Jacob had 65 years of carnality, 80 years
of spirituality, and in this chapter God met
him and consecrated that man.
Obviously he was converted when he saw that
remarkable vision of the ladder on earth going
up to heaven and the angels of God
ascending and descending.
He was coming back from the land of
Patanaran and the Lord met him at a
place called Mahanem, that means two houses.
And that should have been sufficient really to
confirm in the heart of Jacob that God
was with him.
But unfortunately he couldn't fully trust the Lord.
He hears that Esau is coming with 400
of his men and therefore he tries to
appease him with an enormous appeasement offering.
Comprising of 200 sheep, 20 billy goats, 200
lambs with 20 rams, and then he had
20 goats, we have mentioned that.
And then there were 30 camels, there would
be 40 cows with their 10 bulls, and
20 asses with their foals.
An enormous present.
And what he was trying to do was
to appease him with this gift offering.
What basically he should have done because he
cheated him out of the birthright, when he
met Esau to confess that he had done
wrong and then to offer him this particular
gift.
Anyhow in his mind he was saying something
like this, if the first grove doesn't satisfy
him the second will, and if the third
doesn't the fourth will.
And so he was going to break him
down with this kind of kindness.
And then the Lord was going to break
now into his life and bless him.
So we read from verse 21.
So went the present over before him and
himself lodged that night in the company.
He rose up that night and took his
two wives and his two winning servants and
his 11 sons and passed over the four
jails.
And he took them and sent them over
the brook and sent over that he had.
And Jacob was left alone and there wrestled
a man with him until the breaking of
the day or the ascending of the morning.
And when he saw that he prevailed not
against him he touched the hollow of his
thigh.
And the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out
of joint and he wrestled with it.
And he said let me go for the
day breaketh.
And he said I will not let thee
go except thou bless me.
And he said unto him what is thy
name and he said Jacob.
And he said thy name shall be called
no more Jacob than Israel.
For as a prince hast thou power with
God and with men and hast prevailed.
And Jacob asked him and said tell me
I pray thee thy name.
And he said wherefore is it that thou
dost ask after my name and he blessed
him there.
And Jacob called the name of the place
Peniel.
For I have seen God face to face
and my life is preserved.
And as he passed over Peniel the sun
rose upon him and he halted upon his
thigh.
Therefore the children of Israel eat not of
the sinew which shrank which is upon the
hollow of his thigh.
And to this day because he touched the
hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew.
And the Lord will bless to us the
reading of his word.
Wherever we find a group of people who
are truly consecrated to the Lord God bless
us.
We have never known a time in our
experience over 51 years of preaching.
When we have seen a barren group of
people who were consecrated to the Lord.
And one of the great needs among the
churches of God today is that we should
be dedicated to the Lord.
You will observe in Romans chapter 12 and
in 1 Corinthians chapter 12.
That before the apostle presents the local church.
He makes sure that all the bodies are
laid upon the altar.
And that those in fellowship can say that
Jesus is Lord.
Now that is absolutely vital.
But how do we come to this position
of consecration?
And that is why I am going to
take up Jacob.
65 years of carnality.
55 years at least when he was trusting
in God and trusting in his own scheming.
Until God finally dealt with this man.
I want to divide the talk into three
so that we work normally and orderly.
First of all I want to speak about
Jacob's visitation.
Then I want to speak about Jacob's rebellion.
And then I want to close by speaking
on Jacob's conversion and his consecration.
And trust that this might be a blessing
to all my brothers and sisters.
First of all note the place Jabbok.
Jabbok was a place that was very beautiful
in the midst of a wilderness.
There was fertility there.
There were two small streams that poured their
natural water into a little basin that was
called Jabbok.
And then they flowed into the river Jabbok
that flowed into the river Jordan.
And as you know the Jordan flowed into
the Dead Sea.
The word Jabbok is very interesting.
In the Hebrew so the scholars inform me
it speaks of emptying and pouring out.
And I suppose when Jacob came to Jabbok
if those waters could speak it would say
something like this.
Jacob we have been poured out here for
hundreds of years.
But you have never been poured out.
There are things in your life that are
wrong.
And as you hear the chuckle of water.
And as you hear the movement of the
spring.
Be sure of this there is going to
be an outpouring in your life.
Every person in the Old Testament that came
into contact with God was poured out.
Every person in the New Testament that had
a divine revelation of God or the deity
of Christ was poured out.
You say what do you mean?
When Isaiah that great poet a man of
beauty a man of profundity.
Saw the Lord in the year that King
Isaiah died.
He was so broken that he cried out
woe is me for I am undone I
am a man of unclean lips.
You see what was in him was exposed
by the glory of God and he poured
it out.
Again that great model of patience Job one
of the holiest men that ever lived.
When he saw the Almighty Lord he cried
out behold I am vile.
Poured out emptied.
Again you will remember the apostle Peter.
When the Lord told him launch out into
the deep and let down your nets for
a draft.
He turned to the master and said master
we have toiled all night and caught nothing.
Night time was the right time to fish.
When the sun was on the water the
fish went to the bottom and it was
almost impossible to catch fish.
But then he said rather reluctantly nevertheless at
thy word I will let down the net.
And when they had this done they enclosed
a great multitude of fishes so that their
net break.
And after calling to their partners to help
them with the catch.
As Peter was bringing back his catch.
He looked at the Lord he saw again
that unique deity in his master.
And then he said something that was paradoxical.
Depart from me for I am a sinful
man oh Lord.
In other words it was the last thing
he wanted the Lord to do was to
depart from him.
But he felt so wicked in the sight
of God that he was poured out.
What shall I say about the finest Christian
of all.
I have no doubt in saying that the
apostle Paul was probably the greatest Christian that
ever lived.
And some years after his conversion he was
trying to improve himself the Lord way.
And he found it impossible.
And that man was heard to say and
he meant every word that he said.
Oh wretched man that I am who shall
deliver me.
Could I ask a question.
Have you ever been in the presence of
God and wept because of your failure.
Have you ever said in the presence of
God with tears Lord I have done it
again.
Or perhaps am I saying something that is
foreign.
We shall never be consecrated until we understand
the absolute depravity of our flesh life.
And we expose it in the presence of
God in deep confession.
You see God blesses the humble and the
contrite heart.
Isaiah tells us that he has two thrones.
One in the highest heaven and the other
in the humble and contrite heart.
May this be a Jabbok experience for every
one of us this afternoon.
When we shall be poured out before the
Lord.
And that is when the blessing of God
comes.
Secondly I want you to note the time.
There is some drama here in these profound
words.
And Jacob was left alone.
Now I must say that again.
I will say it slowly so that you
get the weight of the word.
And Jacob was left alone.
See the drama and then get the impact
of this spiritual importance of this action.
He had sent over his two wives Leah
and Rachel.
And he loved them.
It was hard for him to send them
over the brothers.
Then he sent over his two women servants
Silpah and Bildah.
He sends them over.
Then he looks at his eleven sons and
he loved every one of them.
It was the sign of the blessing of
God upon him.
And he sent over his eleven sons.
And you could almost see this man in
a very miserly way sparing them.
Then he sent over all his possessions and
he was fabulously rich.
And you could see the sheep going over
and the lambs and the rams.
And the cattle all going over in their
hundreds with the servants.
And then all of a sudden he was
alone.
And that's when God met him.
Beloved friends God never deals with us en
masse.
He always deals with us individually.
But one of the hardest things when we
are listening to the gospel or when we
are listening to ministry is to get alone.
Now let me explain.
In the gospel the gospel preacher will cry
after an explanation.
All have sinned and come short of the
glory of God.
And the people will say yes quite right.
Then the gospel preacher will say as a
nation we have sinned.
Yes I agree with that.
But then there comes a moment when he
will express the issue and say I have
sinned.
Different matter.
You see it's God putting a ring all
around that person and pointing at him.
Then there comes a moment when the gospel
preacher will say to his congregation for God
so loved the world that he gave his
only begotten son.
Yes we'll agree with that.
Then he will say emphatically Christ loved the
church and gave himself for that.
That select group of people the ecclesia of
God.
We agree with that.
But then he comes in tremendous power.
He loved me.
Gave himself for me.
And the circle gets closer.
And as it were the cross comes.
And on that cross the divine son of
God bearing that person's sin.
And he realizes that his sins caused the
death of Christ.
That's divine enlightenment.
Then into that sacred circle there comes the
written Lord.
And it's the Lord Jesus and that seeking
soul.
And they're meeting.
And can I take a text right out
of its context now.
He stands at his door knocking.
And there comes a moment when he opens
the door and receives the Lord.
But there's something more important than that this
afternoon.
There comes a time in a ministry meeting
when God puts a little kind of sanctuary
all around the saints.
It's not the wall of Jericho.
But it's the wall of a sanctuary.
And into that sanctuary he comes.
And he says I want to talk to
you this afternoon personally.
And it's a message for each one of
us individually.
I cannot hide the fact from myself.
I believe now as I'm speaking to you.
God would have dealings with me as a
preacher.
And I believe I hear this afternoon God
would have dealings with us individually.
And all dear friends I trust that this
may be a period when God will speak
to us all individually.
It will be the very oracle of God
for each brother and each sister.
Alone with God.
Now what was the purpose?
God wanted to do two things.
First of all he knew he had to
break Jacob.
And secondly he was only going to break
him so that he might bless him.
Now the break.
God speaks to us in four waves.
Now I believe this is very important.
First of all he speaks to us through
his son the Lord Jesus.
God who at sundry times and in divers
manners.
Speaking times past unto the fathers by the
prophets.
Hath in these last days spoken unto us
by sons.
And my dear friends all that God wanted
to say.
All that he would ever say.
Has been said in Jesus Christ.
He is the finality of God's eternal voice.
And when God has spoken in the son.
He says with triumph Amen.
Nothing more can be added.
No other voice apart from the son.
Secondly he speaks to us through this sacred
volume.
The inspired scripture.
How shall they hear you without a preacher?
How shall they preach except they be sent?
And what the preacher does is to use
the word of God.
To quote it regularly.
It is God's voice to his people.
That's why all Christians should study the scriptures
diligently.
It's God's great letter to his people.
Thirdly he speaks to us through preaching and
teaching.
And therefore in preaching the evangelist gets alone
with the Lord.
He gets a message from the Lord.
And he cries aloud in old fashioned language.
Thus saith the Lord.
The Bible teacher will hide himself in the
sanctuary.
Until he gets a word from the Lord.
Especially conference time.
And he will come with the same message.
Thus saith the word.
And God speaks to us through the exposition
of scripture.
It becomes the very oracle of God.
Now note this.
What happens when the son does not fully
satisfy us?
What happens when the word of God gets
stale?
What happens when the preaching and the teaching
has no relevance?
How can he speak to us?
He can speak through adversity.
And I want to be careful what I
say.
This time last year I was dreadfully ill.
Not supposed to live.
And God spoke to your poor preacher through
adversity.
And all I can say is this.
I trust, I trust, I trust.
I have learned the lessons.
That God revealed to me.
In that deep sickness.
Beloved may I say this to you from
my heart.
Don't allow God to speak to you through
adversity.
Let him speak to you through the word.
Be obedient.
And he will bless you.
And then he was only going to speak
to this man in order to bless him.
How was God going to bless him?
God wanted to change his character.
If I may use New Testament language.
God wanted to cleanse him and fill him
with the spirit.
God wanted to not only bless him but
God wanted to make him a prince with
God.
Think of it.
And God not only wanted to bless him
but he wanted to bless all his children.
And not only all his children but all
his household.
And not only all his household.
All his grandchildren and his great grandchildren.
In fact forgive the excitement.
God wanted to bless all the nations of
the world because of this man.
Dear friends that's why he wants to bless
you.
Are you willing to let the Lord bless
you with full consecration.
So that you can become a blessing to
others.
So that your boys and girls can say.
Dad, Mum they are both godless.
So that your grandchildren can say.
One thing about my grandfather.
He walked with God.
And my grandmother they walked with God.
The things of this world didn't basically matter.
You see God wanted to bless
him like that.
And then we find in the rebellion.
A man wrestled with him.
Who was this man?
I think I'm right in saying this.
If you would have said to Jacob ten
minutes before this experience.
In a few moments Jacob when all your
family has gone across that brook.
And when all your substance has gone.
There's going to be a man from heaven
and he's going to wrestle with you.
He would have run for his life.
From nowhere there came this man.
Out from all the darkness someone jumped on
him.
And probably threw him to the ground.
Who was this man?
Sometimes we are told or once it was
an angel.
But quite obviously if we listen correctly to
Jacob.
It was the son of God.
In the theophany of a man.
Therefore look at the dignity of this man.
He was the great creator.
He was the sustainer.
The one that held the atom together.
He was the heir of all creation.
One day the king of kings and the
lord of lords.
And here he was in the manifestation of
a man.
Wrestling with whom?
Jacob.
Forgive me being very penetrating with him.
He was a cheat.
He was a supplanter.
He was a crook.
He was an arch deceiver.
He deceived his father by food.
He deceived his father by touch.
He deceived his father by the word.
And he deceived his brother.
And here is the contrast.
The almighty God.
Jehovah the Lord.
The worm Jacob.
And he wrestles with him.
Why should God ever bother with us?
That's how it came to me this morning.
I was almost broken before my bed.
Why should he bother with us?
Now you will notice a man wrestled.
Not a man fought.
This was not a battle where there were
clenched fists.
But when there's wrestling, let me put it
to you like this.
There's hugging.
And this was the hugging of love.
Wrestling.
Holding him.
And holding on to him.
And why was he doing this?
Because he wanted to bless him.
And then we read these awful words.
Can I use another expression?
Horrible words.
He prevailed not against him.
In other words, this man was determined to
go his own way.
He wanted his own thing.
He wanted to have some of God, some
of self.
And when the man of God from heaven
wrestled with him, he prevailed not against him.
He resisted him.
Beloved, I've seen that in gospel meetings.
You know, I have seen unsaved people listening
to the gospel and the Lord is wrestling
with them.
And I've actually seen them pulling down the
shutters of their mind, closing the door of
their heart and saying no.
But can I tell you something much worse?
I have seen Christians resisting the word of
the Lord.
Can I give you a case in point?
A young man, 35 years of age in
London, had deep dealings with God.
And he stood up in an assembly Sunday
morning and ministered on that little expression.
This people honoreth me with their lips, but
their hearts are far from me.
And may I say this?
It was a word straight from heaven.
But I watched the saints and they were
infuriated.
They rejected it.
One man came to me and said, I
would have pulled him to his seat if
I had been near him.
No wonder that assembly has closed.
It rejected the word of the Lord.
Don't do that, brothers.
When God speaks, there will be some kind
of inward rumblings, but don't reject it.
Jacob was in a very dangerous position there.
And so in the midst of all the
battling, God looked at his opponent and there
he saw him, determined to resist.
He says, I must do it.
He touched.
It's a beautiful word.
It's not a vulgar thump.
The word is a professional artistic touch.
He touched the hollow of his thigh.
The thigh bone and the thigh muscle, as
you know, is the most powerful bone and
the most strongest muscle in the body.
And it wasn't a break.
He dislocated it, put it out of activity.
So it was no longer really in connection
with the main strength of the body.
He put it out of action.
What's the strength that's in our lives that
resists God?
What is there in our lives that really
creates this awful opposition?
Why is it when God wants to bless
us as a group of people with consecration
and a spirit-filled life as we were
hearing last Sunday, why is it we resist?
Shall I tell you why?
Because of the ugly power of the flesh.
The flesh in the believer is the seat
of all sin.
It's the throne room of iniquity.
It's the seed plot of every form of
transgression.
If we could take out our flesh life
and look at it carefully, the flesh life
in all of us would be the same.
Our behavior patterns are different, but our flesh
is the same.
And if we could pull to pieces our
flesh life, we wouldn't see a speck of
good in it.
It is totally corrupt.
And when God is going to bless a
group of people, He goes right to the
source of the problem, right to the strength
of all evil, and He touches the powerful
thing, flesh.
Thank God on the cross He has condemned
it.
But practically if we are going to have
victory and we are going to be consecrated
Christians, we must crucify it.
And do you know what that means?
We must learn day by day to say
emphatically no to all the dictates of the
flesh.
And happily, yes, to all the loving overtures
of the spirit.
And then we'll be consecrated.
But there's something else.
I was looking up the word thigh, and
I noticed it's the same word as the
shaft in the candlestick.
I wish I had a candlestick, at least
the one that Bezalel made.
Not the ones you buy in Israel.
There's a vast difference.
And in that beautiful piece, a masterpiece of
Godmanship, there was the central shaft.
And out of it came the three twin
branches.
And the central shaft was taller than the
others.
And it speaks of the preeminence.
So can you see, one moment He touched
the seat of power, the next moment He
touched the seat of preeminence.
Dear friends, I cannot look at you because
the conviction in my own heart is so
great.
But what's the preeminent thing in my life
that's resisting God?
And what's the preeminent thing in your life
that's resisting God?
Is there a moral sin in your life
that you've never confessed?
And it's been nagging away for years.
Deal with it.
Is there something in your home that you
know is causing your spiritual life to be
blown to a thousand pieces?
Deal with it.
Is there something in your family life that's
not right and not correct?
And He touches it.
Is there something in your business life that's
not pure and holy, straight and honest?
Here, touch it.
Oh, as He comes to us, I believe
He's touching the preeminent thing in our lives
and in my life.
The thing that's wrong with me may not
be the thing that's wrong with you, but
He touches it.
That preeminent thing.
Perhaps He's been touching it for years and
He's touching it now in power.
And when that thigh was dislocated, not broken,
then this man suddenly took his two hands
and he grabbed on to this mystical man
of God and then he said these beautiful
words.
Listen.
I will not let thee go except thou
bless me.
Just what he wanted.
Wouldn't it be lovely if we all said
on this Easter, Good Friday, I'm not leaving
this seat until He blesses me.
Wouldn't that be amazing?
Doesn't matter basically about He.
God has spoken and I want to get
right with Him.
I'm not leaving this place until He blesses
me.
Immediately he got in there.
He said something that was quite obvious and
yet sounds ridiculous.
What is thy name?
As though he didn't know.
Why did he ask him, What is thy
name?
My dear friends, he had been in the
presence of Isaac all dressed up like Esau.
Can you see him?
With the smell of the fields on his
garment.
His mother Clevelaire Rebecca had put the goat
skin round his neck and on his arms
and then he tried to disguise his voice.
Rebecca had disguised a kid of the goat
like a venison but it was all deception.
The food, the dress, everything.
And when his father said, Well, it's the
voice of Jacob but it's the touch of
Esau.
If he had gone by the voice he
would have been right.
Always go by the word.
Don't go by your feelings.
And in the presence of his father who
was going to give him a blessing he
had actually said this, I am Esau.
Forgive me saying it, what a liar.
What a liar.
Now the almighty God says in the person
of his son, What's your name?
And he whispers, Jacob.
A supplanter.
A deceit.
A liar.
That's what I am.
And that's when God blesses us.
When we come to a point where we
are broken before the Lord God will bless
us.
My dear friends, this may be the last
time I shall ever be in Sydney.
But can I share this with you?
God wants to bring the assemblers to repentance.
He doesn't want us going through a round
of meetings until we die.
He wants us to be broken before him
and tell him we've failed.
And then he'll bless us again.
Jacob, God.
Right, he says, thy name shall be no
more Jacob.
But what shall my name be?
Israel.
A prince with God.
And then he made this wonderful promise to
him.
Thou hast prevailed before God and men.
Thou hast wrestled with God and with men
and hast prevailed.
He had power with God and with men
and prevailed.
Jacob and Israel.
And dear friends, when this man was a
dying he blessed all his sons.
I find it hard to say this.
And when he came to the gate of
glory, God must have said something like this,
Jacob, you're not coming in here as a
cripple.
It says something in Scripture that's beautiful.
He gathered up his feet.
He hadn't been able to do that for
80 years.
And he had an abundant entrance right into
the presence of the Lord.
And it was all changed.
Let me go over it and close.
First of all, the Lord changed his name
from Jacob to Israel.
Then you find he changes his walk instead
of a stubborn, cocksure walk.
He's seen leaning on his staff, the walk
of faith.
What we say in the New Testament, the
walking in resurrection path.
Then you find there's not only the change
of name, the change of walk, there is
a change of day.
During that particular night when he was wrestling
with the man of God, it was not,
but the moment he grabbed on and said,
I will not let thee go until thou
disbless me.
The morning was coming.
The ascent of the morning.
A new day for God's servant.
And then there was a change in temperature.
One moment God gave him x-ray treatment
and went to the source of his problem.
The next moment there was deep surgery.
And then would you believe it, he gave
him sun ray treatment.
The sun shone upon him.
And do you know what that means in
New Testament language?
The love of God was shed abroad in
his heart by the Holy Ghost.
And then we find that there was a
complete change in the diet of his sons.
From that moment they wouldn't touch the meat
that came from the sinew of the loins.
And when God raises up a mighty man
of God, then the children will have a
change of diet.
You won't find them feeding on the flesh,
but you'll see them feeding on the spiritual
things.
And God blessed him there.
I'll close with this.
Can't you see Jacob calling back his two
wives, two women servants, eleven sons saying, look
at the dust there, yes.
God met with me last night and his
broken me and his blessed me.
And from this moment my name is Israel,
a prince with God.
And can't you see him pointing to the
spot?
He blessed me there.
There.
Can I point?
He wants to bless you there.
Let him do it.
Amen.