Jacob's life illustrates God's persistent grace toward a flawed individual, transforming him from a deceiver into a prince with God. The sermon traces Jacob's journey from his deceitful youth, his flight, and his years of struggle, culminating in his wrestling match with God at Peniel. This pivotal encounter forces Jacob to confront his own inadequacy and self-reliance, leading to a profound change where his name is changed from Jacob to Israel. The message emphasizes that true transformation comes not through self-effort but through surrender to God, highlighting that God's grace renames and empowers those who acknowledge their need for Him.
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May we ask your assistance in prayer. Both Brother Don Welbourne and myself are laboring under the restrictions that are placed upon one by hay fever. On Thursday, I was given an injection by my doctor who said they would clear it up, and maybe it's cleared the hay fever somewhat, but it hasn't cleared my thinking in the least. Some of you, I think, are fellow sufferers. You know what some of these medicines can do. However, God's word is clear. If our thoughts are not clear, if our words are not clear, let's pray that God's word be made clear to the heart of each one here this evening. Let us pray. Gracious God, our Father, we're thankful again for the opportunity of opening thy word.
We realize that thy word is truth, and we ask that this truth may be made good and clear to each one this evening. We pray that the deceiver, that the enemy of souls may be thwarted in his attempts to turn people aside but that thy word through thy Holy Spirit may pierce to the dividing asunder of this heart, of the intent and thoughts of the heart, and that there may be conviction brought to those who know thee not, and that they may see the wondrous provision of thy grace. We ask in Christ's worthy name. Amen. I am thankful to the Lord for Brother Don's selections of song this evening. Amazing grace, I'll sweep the sound that saved a wretch like me. This word grace is something that we use much.
And we all have our own ideas of what it means and what it means to us in any event. I don't pretend to be able to clarify on this much. But one acrostic I like to keep in mind that you all have heard before, as well to remind ourselves of, in defining grace, God's riches at Christ's expense. G-R-A-C-E, God's riches at Christ's expense. God has riches that he wants each one of us here tonight to enjoy. And they are provided for us by the Lord Jesus Christ and what he has done on our behalf. I have chosen this evening to talk somewhat about Jacob. This individual to whom God's grace was shown in a wonderful way.
Let us turn to Genesis chapter thirty-two. Genesis chapter thirty-two. Reading the first and second 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 Mahanaim. Continue turning to Genesis thirty-two. For sake of time we're hurrying on. Down to verse nine, now please. Genesis thirty-two, verse nine. And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord who said unto me, return unto thy country and to thy kindred and I will deal well with thee.
I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast shown unto thy servant. For with my staff I pass over this Jordan, and now I am 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 mother with the children. And thou said, I will surely do thee good and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. Verse twenty, please. And say ye moreover, behold thy servant Jacob is behind us, for he said, I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face.
Perhaps he will accept of me. Verse twenty four. And Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the days. 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 as he wrestled with him. 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, but 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 Penial, for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. And as he passed over Penuel, the sun rose upon him, and he limped upon his thigh. And God will bless the reading of his words to each receptive heart. Jacob is a character with whom I can identify quite readily. A man who tried to go on in his own strength in his own way for many, many years. And we've signed here after years, first of all, at home, being influenced by his mother there to deceive his own father, having to flee because of that reason, going back to the land where his uncle Laban was and laboring them.
there for him for a number of years, deceiving and being deceived again there in that land. We see him now on his way back to where he had left his folks, to where his brother Esau was waiting, and this brother who had sworn that in the day that their father dies, he's going to get even with Jacob. Because Jacob, remember, he had outsmarted Esau, and because of Esau's taking lightly anything of spiritual value he had sold Jacob his birthright for a mere dish of red potty because of his extreme hunger coming in from a hunt and I know something of what some of this hunger has been I've been on some hunts in Africa when we've gone without some food for a while but Esau came in he was hungry huh what's the birthright anyway okay Jacob you can have the birthright and so Esau despised his birthright.
But more than that Jacob went on and under the coaching of his mother had deceived his own father and had taken the blessing that was rightfully Esau's for Esau was the firstborn. We remember that they were twins and yet Esau was the eldest. He came out first and Jacob came out and was clutching at his brother's heel when he was born as well. And therefore he was given the name of Jacob which means one who cut your clutches at the heel, or a supplanter, one who would take the place of. And Jacob was a supplanter, one seeking to take the place of someone else, one who was deceitful in his life for many years. And we see Jacob, as he goes on, a real bargainer, we might say, and God is dealing with him as he left his own country there, his mother and father, and had to flee, apparently all by himself, And out on the desert there in the backside, God appeared to him and promised him that he would bring him back in safety.
And God had shown him his goodness to him, even from earlier years. And yet Jacob was not willing to accept this. He had gone on. Yes, he was mindful that God had something to do here, but he wasn't ready to receive God's promises. He wasn't ready to accept by faith what God had said. And so he goes on still in his own strength. still seeking to find his own way until this time now when he is brought right down to face the bare facts on this night there when he was on his way back to see his brother Esau in the first verse we read 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 Mahanayim this is two camps Here, at last, he was at least willing to recognize that God was there, and that God was concerned about what was happening to Jacob.
You know, sometimes we hear the question, well, what do you think about God? Well, is that a good question? Well, it's well for us to take time to think about God, yeah. But does it really matter one little aorta what you think about God? That doesn't affect God's nest. What do you think about God? Your thoughts really have nothing to do with it whatsoever. The important question is, what does God think about you? What does God think about you? You can't change God. Even if you never gave God a thought, that wouldn't faze him a bit, except that would grieve him because he does love you. But I wonder what you think about what God thinks about you, where you stand in relation to him.
Some people like to talk, discuss God and religion and philosophy, and they think that they're... thoughts and their way of thinking is as good as the next fellows they can come up with a little more clever saying well very well and good and they feel quite content in making God into their image into the image that they want a God to be and say now God is because God is what I want him to be he's going to treat me so and so and so they get off the hook so they think that they are not responsible to God but friends I wonder what does God think about you this evening his thoughts concerning you have to do vitally and intimately with one whom he has sent, with God himself who has come down to present God to you.
And that is Jesus Christ, God's Son. And so what God thinks about you has to do with what you think about Jesus Christ and what you have made with him. What think he of Christ, the evangelist, would answer? And so we would ask you this evening, what think ye of Christ? Because it depends upon what your relationship to Christ as to what God thinks about you. But God was concerned and interested in Jacob here. And Jacob at last was saying, yes, God, he is concerned. He's interested in somebody. He says, here are two camps. God's camps over there. My camps over here. I still think that he was quite a distance from this living God who had shown his grace to Jacob down through the years.
But then he heard that Esau, his older brother, was coming to meet him, and with four hundred men. Well, what in the world would Esau be coming to meet Jacob for with four hundred men if it wasn't to fulfill his threat of getting even with Jacob for what Jacob had done to him? Yes? And naturally Jacob was afraid. And so he was desperate there, and in his despair, in this agony of his soul, what does he do? He does a wonderful thing. He prays to the living God. And he prays a wonderful prayer. Let's read that again. Beginning at verse nine. And Jacob said, O God of my Father Abraham, and God of my Father Isaac. The God, the Lord who said unto me, return unto thy country and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee.
Whom does he address? Well, he addresses this one whom he knows to be there. The God of Abraham, the God of faith. The one who had promised Abraham so much. And Abraham by faith had accepted that. And had shown through his life that indeed God was real and vital. And so Jacob goes to this God whom he knows was there because of what he has heard about his grandfather Abraham and the God of my father Isaac. Oh, in Isaac we see that the promises were fulfilled. That this God who was able to promise so much and to promise to Abraham that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. that he gave Abraham a son there in his old age. And so this promise to Abraham had been fulfilled.
Isaac's life had been preserved, and doubtlessly Jacob had thrilled to these wonderful stories as to how God had dealt with him. But now to this God also of Isaac, he called. He knows that their God was real and living, and now he wants to have something to do with this living and this real God. What kind of a God are you following? Are you following again a God of your own concept? a God of your own imagination, you might as well forget it. Because God, because He is God, must take the initiative, and it is only through His doing that we can know God. God must reveal Himself if we are going to know Him at all. We cannot on our own selves make up a God and say, now this is a God we're going to follow, although many, many people try to do that.
But God, praise His name, has taken the initiative, and He has come to reveal Himself to us. And so Jacob calls upon God, And on a good basis. He says on the basis of God's own word, O God of my Father Isaac, the Lord who sends them to me, return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with things. He says, now God, I'm doing what you told me to do. And as we pray to God, it's well for us to be in such a spirit. To be doing what God would have us do. And then we can pray in faith believing that he might hear us. And I like this next verse. because he humbles himself. And as we would come to God in prayer, we must recognize our own insufficiency, our own inadequacy, because that's what prayer is, a confession of our own insufficiency, of our own dependency, and recognizing that there is someone greater than ourselves to whom we can look and who can meet our needs.
Ten verse ten, I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast shown unto thy servant. For with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become too bad. He recognizes his own unworthiness, and he recognizes the mercies of God. And if you want to come into a living acquaintance with this living God, you must recognize your own unworthiness. Because God does not owe you a thing. God is under no obligation to reveal himself to you whatsoever. God is under no obligation to redeem a single soul. It is because of his love that he has provided a salvation of grace. Grace? generosity in divine proportions.
God has, because of his love, because of his own heart, of interest in you and in myself, he has provided a way of salvation, but we do not deserve it. But we can accept God's provision by his grace. And he recognizes there God's goodness and his dealings with Jacob in the time. And now he comes right down to the point, and he gets specific. He doesn't miss words. He says, 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 mother with the children. And so he doesn't miss matters with God. He says, I fear this man. Deliver me. He recognizes his own inadequacy, and he calls upon this living God.
And upon what basis? Upon again the basis of God's promises. As we pray to God, how good it is to be able to base our request upon promises that he has made. And then we can pray in real faith that he will hear and that he will answer. He says, And thou said, I will surely do thee good and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for a multitude. Well, now this is an exemplary prayer. There is much that we can learn from this in our own daily prayer life. However, did he really believe what he was saying? Did he really trust in the one to whom he was praying to work this out? I fear not. I fear not. For immediately he left this, and then he goes back to his own scheming, back to his own plans.
Now how can I appease my brother, as we read in verse twenty? How can I appease Esau? And so he gets up special gifts to make quite an impression upon Esau. And he sends one herd of sheep and cattle and so forth all, and says to his servants there, that when Esau comes, say this is a present that my Lord Jacob is sending to you. And then another one after that. And he is still fearful. But he doesn't leave his scheming and his cunning and trying to work things out in his own way. And so though he had prayed, yet he depends upon his own works again. And too often it is the case that people coming to God in prayer, they realize their own inadequacy. They realize their own need, their desperateness of their situation.
Maybe they call upon God. But they don't believe in faith. They don't rest it to him. Then they go on still seeking by their own works. by their own endeavors, by their own scheming, to gain God's favor and God's salvation. How futile this is. And so Jacob had not yet learned his lesson. And if he goes on down to verse twenty-two, and we see that Jacob was left alone and they wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day, we don't need an imagination to know who this man was that came to wrestle with Jacob. This was the same one that had been wrestling with Jacob down through those many years, wrestling with the will of this proud man, of this man of any self-confidence, getting him to come to a place where he recognized his own need.
And how long God works in the lives of different ones because of their pride, because of their stubbornness, resisting God's call to them. But how graciously and lovingly God... shows himself time after time to get them to a place where they will recognize this need. But now Jacob was left alone with God, and I feel that it is essential that an individual be brought to a place where he is alone with the living God, where all the things that would distract are set aside and that his attention is taken up with his one. And he allows God himself to wrestle with the soul of this individual. Because of the free will that God has granted us, we in pride assert that will against God's will, and therefore we go on our way missing God's blessing.
For what good did God want for Jacob? Did he want to harm him? Did he want evil for Jacob? No. God wanted Jacob's good, and yet Jacob was resisting that good. And so this evening there may be those here for whom God desires only good. And yet you, because of your own pride, are resisting this good and wanting to go your own way. But God will continue his wrestling because of this grace, and he will bring you, I trust, to a place to where he brought Jacob. Verse twenty-five, 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 as he wrestled with him.
And he said, let me go for the daybreak. So we see here the angel of the Lord, I believe a Christophany, when the Lord Jehovah, Christ of the New Testament, came there and appeared to this man. And as Jacob still in his own desperate pride and self-confidence wrestled with this man, the Lord had to touch the spot of Jacob's pride. For Jacob, doubtlessly a man of the field, a man who had spent his life in the out-of-doors following the herds and cattle. I can imagine that he was a strong man, and that he could climb those mountains and run after those sheep and herd the cattle, and the camel there was the best of them, and that he was a man proud of his own strength.
And yet the Lord touched the hollow of his thigh, and Jacob's thigh was out of joint. He touched the very source of that man's strength, of that man's self-sufficiency. And it is necessary that in God dealing with an individual that he touched that spot. of self-sufficiency, that he humble that man before himself, that man or that woman, has your spirit ever been broken before the living God? Oh, that it might be this evening, that that pride that has kept you back from him, that self-sufficiency that thinks that, no, you don't need someone else to save you, that you're pretty good, that you don't need a savior, that you can, well, you're better than the next fellow.
There's so many lies that Satan would put into the minds of people to keep them from coming to that place where God can bless in reality. But Jacob came there, and then the angel was not going to force himself upon Jacob at all. He said, let me go for the day breaketh, but Jacob there had finally brought to the place that this one whom he was resisting for so long was the one who wanted to bless. and friends of you have been resisting God's Holy Spirit as he has been speaking to you of sin, as he has been showing you that there is judgment to come because of your sin, because of your rebellion against God.
And, Father, you have been fighting him off. May he bring you to the place where you recognize that he only wants to do you good. And so I will not let thee go except thou bless me, Jacob responds. And so now this one who was resisting and wrestling, and now he becomes the clinger, and he holds on to this one, for he realizes that in him and him alone there is blessing. And he said unto him, What is thy name? Jacob, what is your name? Oh, Jacob's thought dashed back uncertain, back to those years before, when back in his mother's tent, or in his father's tent, in Israel there, that his father had asked much the same questions.
Who are you, my son? Oh, I am Esau, your firstborn. And God brings them back to that place again. What is your name? Who are you pretending to be before the living God? Jacob back there had pretended to be Esau. Esau was a man of the world. Esau was quite sufficient. I can imagine that this more not-so-sufficiency. strong and athletic man in Jacob at that time as Esau was. Esau was a man of the field. He was a man of the world. He was a man that could scoff at the things of God. Oh yes, he was quite the man.
And I imagine that Jacob felt rather cowed by this personality of Esau, his brother. But there he was able to say that he was Esau. And sometimes in coming to God, as God would seek to ask us what our names are, as he would seek to ask you friends what your name is, I wonder what we reply. Do we pretend to be someone who we are not? Do we pretend that we're sufficient in ourselves? Jacob pretended that long before. But now God brought him back to that. I wonder, as God would speak to you this evening, what is your name? What would you say? Oh, there are those who would say, oh, I'm Mr.
Self-righteous. There are those who think that they have no need of salvation, that their sins are not nearly bad enough to condemn them to an eternal lake of fire. But God's word says that the soul that sineth it shall die. And it is appointed unto man once to die, and after death the judgment. And it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. God is a holy God who demands absolute perfection. And you have fallen short of his standards. And the results of that is eternal separation from God. Hell, suffering for your sins. But God has made a provision of salvation. And so there are those who would say, oh, I'm Mr.
Self-righteous. Oh, I'm Mrs. I do the best I can. Or, sir, better than my neighbor. Or his honor, I'll take my chance. Or Miss Child of Christian Parents. Or I'm Mr. Baptized. Oh, you could go on. Mr. I'm a church member. There's any number of answers that people would give to God when God would ask them what their name is. But Jacob now was brought to that place where he could no longer pretend, where he was face to face with the living God. And he said, My name is Jacob. My name is supplanter. My name is deceitful. My name is sinner.
And friend, if you are to come into a relationship with God, if you want to receive God's blessing, it is essential that you recognize that before God, your name is finished. Let's no longer pretend. Let's no longer put on a sham and outward... facade with which we can deceive other people. How many people continue as good, upright church members, and they are maybe an example in the neighborhood, and everyone thinks, oh, look at so-and-so, an example of what a Christian should be. But how many just carry on for pretenses, and have never come face to face with the fact that they are a sinner before a righteous God, and that sin demands judgment, for God is holy.
But because God is love, He has provided a means of salvation whereby your judgment has been placed on someone else, on a substitute, on one who has borne your sins in his own body on the trees, on the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And so if we are willing to say, yes, God, my name is sinner, then God is able to bless. And so when Jacob there mentions of God, that my name is Jacob. God knew that there had been a change in his heart, and God was willing to bless. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob.
But Israel, for as a prince thou hast power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. Oh, prevailed? Yes, he prevailed by losing. And friend, in your fight with God, the way you prevail is by losing. is by surrendering your own stubborn will, your own self-righteousness to the living God. And you have your name changed. For as there is a saint or a sinner who is changed to think, God would write his name on the Lamb's Book of Life and Glory, never to be erased because of his grace. Jacob deceived, supplanted, and yet it was changed into Israel.
Israel, a prince with God. Yes, those who are sinners become sons of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. And what a blessed name change that is. Has your name ever been changed? Have you ever come and confessed to God? Yes, God, I am a sinner. I deserve punishment for my sins. But I believe that Jesus Christ died in my place. I receive him now as my own Savior. At that instant, your name would be changed from sinner to saint if he made a child of God. Israel. But now on what basis is it done? In verse twenty-nine, 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. Yes, Jacob now wants to know the name of this one. And friend, might I suggest that it is all important that we know the name of the one to whom we are coming for blessing. For it is in his name, and in his name alone, that there is forgiveness of sins, that apart from him there is no salvation. God had revealed himself to the people, to the forefathers of Jacob, it is true. To Abraham his father he had revealed himself in many regards. And these men through faith had recognized that God was concerned with them, and that they had come to place their faith in him.
And through faith they had been counted righteous. And so it was with Jacob, and yet they did not have the wonderful privilege of having a full revelation of God such as we have today. We know that God revealed himself progressively to men and individuals. And when he sent his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, we had a perfect revelation of God the Father. We see that we... Don't have time to mention the different ones in the Old Testament there. And to Isaiah we see that the promise is made that his name shall be called Emmanuel, God with us. That is, in the ninth chapter, wonderful counselor, Prince of Peace, the mighty God, the everlasting Father.
We go on to the New Testament. We see there in Matthew chapter one, verse twenty one, his name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Yes, it is this one. to whom we would direct your attention this evening. For neither is there salvation in any other. For there is none other name given under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved. It is in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is in the name of God who has revealed himself to us and in this name that would speak to us of God's love. For in Jesus Christ, God himself came into this world to reveal God's heart of love. And it is Jesus Christ, God's son, who died on the cross, the death that you deserve, bore the punishment from a righteous God that you deserve, in order that you might be forgiven.
Yes, it is in the name of this one that salvation is offered, and in no other name. Have you ever come to this one to receive Christ as your Lord and Savior? In the New Testament, we have a parallel portion in Luke chapter eighteen, and we finish with this. Luke chapter eighteen, verse ten and eleven. Two men went up into the temple to pray, and one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not as other men, nor extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even as this tax collector.
I fast twice in a week. I give tithes of all that I possess, and the tax collector standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes into heaven, but smote upon his breath, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Here we see what Jacob was before. First of all, like that Pharisee, thanking God he is not his other people, and patting himself on the back and quite content with his own accomplishment. But then we see the tax collector there. who dared not lift his eyes into heaven but smote upon his breath. Breath, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. What do you make yourself out to be before a righteous, holy God this night?
Are you still pretending? Are you still saying, Oh, my name is Esau? Like Jacob said to his first father, but friends, you will never deceive God. God knows your real name. God knows what you are. God knows your condition before him. And if you were willing to accept your place as a sinner before him, then he is willing to accept you as a justified son, belonging to Jesus Christ, having received him. Yes, this evening the call would go up to you. May you no longer resist God's dealings with you. God dealt with Jacob by grace, and he has dealt in your life by grace. Feel satisfied that you have realized that many times in the past that God has spoken.
and that God has been good to you. How have you responded? This evening he offers you another opportunity to respond to this one who loved you, who gave himself for you, the Lord Jesus. What is his name? Oh, his name is Savior. He wants to be your Savior this evening, the Lord Jesus Christ who died for you. Our time is gone. Just ask yourselves those questions again. What is your name? What do you pretend to be before God? And then what is his name? What is his name to you?
Peter was able to say, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Is he the Christ, the Son of the Living God to you this night? Have you received him as your Savior in Christ's life? For as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.