Address—G.H. Hayhoe
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
I'd like to turn first of all to Second Samuel Chapter 7, Second Samuel Chapter 7, and verse 12. And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his Kingdom.
He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his Kingdom forever.
I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chastened him with the rod of man and with the stripes of the children of man. But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. Well, there are several other scriptures I'd like to turn to, dear young people, but perhaps you've gathered by what I have read.
That which is on my heart this afternoon, and that is the grace of God.
And the government of God I'd like to speak about in connection with the life of Jacob particularly, but just briefly to about the life of Joseph. I believe these are two very important things for us to understand and bear in mind. And I believe it's especially true for those who are younger. For the Lord leaves us here, and life is before you.
Truly, I'm sure it is your desire that you should be blessed and made a blessing.
And if it's your desire, it's much more the desire of the heart of God, because He saved us so that we might eternally enjoy all that's in His heart of love, that we might be forever in a scene where not one sorrow can ever enter. For all will be according to His will, and all will be eternal joy.
And so seeing this is so we can be sure that it's also true in our pathway here that God desires our blessing. Scripture says no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly. And I might say that to walk uprightly doesn't necessarily mean that one is perfect, but uprightly is to be real before the Lord.
And that's important because we're living in days of a great deal of hypocrisy on every hand when people pretend to be what they are not. But you know, God searches the heart and he values reality. I believe that's why he speaks of David as a man after his own heart.
Not because David was perfect, but because David was not like Saul. He sought to be real, and when he failed, he acknowledged it freely and completely. Against thee the only have I sinned. And on this evil in thy sight.
That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. And that is, he was an upright man, and God delights to bless the upright. It says in Job 33 about the unsaved. It says if there be a messenger, one among 1000, to show on demand his uprightness, then he will be gracious unto him. If there's someone here that's not saved, what is the upright thing for you to do?
To pretend that you're good enough for God, That's not uprightness. To take your true place in repentance. To acknowledge that what God says about us is absolutely true, that we are lost, that we are ruined, that we are undone. When a Sinner takes his place in that way, then there's no limit to the blessing. He's upright. He takes his right place before God.
And I say to you, dear young people, that's what God values with you.
Perhaps all of us, and especially when we're young, we start out to please the Lord and then discouragements and things come in.
And the enemy tries to get us to throw up our hands. But you know, the Lord wants reality. He shows us what we are, and we can learn it, perhaps through His Word, or we can learn it the hard way.
He wants us to learn our weakness through his word. Our brother read to us this morning that verse without me he can do nothing. So we need constant dependence upon the Lord. Now the reason I read this verse is you'll notice what God says in connection with David son that was Solomon it says in the.
14th Verse I will be his father, and he shall be my son.
00:05:02
If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men.
But my mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. Now there we see the two things, the government of God and the grace of God, when we speak of the grace of God, or here is it spoken of God's mercy.
It's something that is totally undeserved. Can you and I claim that we deserved any blessing from the hand of God?
First of all, can we claim that because we were so good that we ought to escape the judgment of hell for our sins? Oh, I'm sure everyone is. A true Christian would say, Oh no, it's the mercy of God that delivered me from the just penalty of my sins.
And it's the unmerited favor, the undeserved goodness of God that not only saves us, but bears with us all along our Christian pathway. The only reason it was taken away from Saul was because Saul was not a real believer. And so God was very good to Saul, but Saul's heart didn't respond. And I think there is some unsaved people here. And the Lord's been very good to you. As you look back, you have many.
Many things that you ought to thank Him for in His goodness. One thing is the blessing of a Christian home. One thing is the privilege of sitting like this under the sound of His Word, and many other things I could mention. But if you go on and reject the Lord Jesus, why those privileges that were are yours, why it'll they'll be taken away. And there are people who sat in meetings like this who will be in a lost eternity.
Oh, how dreadfully solemn. But if you've really received the Lord as your Savior.
By the Lord's mercy and his grace will never, never leave you. Now this makes very certain to us the security of the believer, the one who has put his trust in the Lord Jesus as Savior is eternally secure. He can never be lost. And God assures here about Solomon that his mercy wouldn't depart from him.
Because it tells us he shall be my son.
And if you have been born into the family of God, if you have received Christ and you're one of God's children by new birth, why, I'll assure you of this. He'll never give you up. You'll be in glory just as surely as God has spoken.
But you know, you can have an easy path there, or you can have a hard path there.
It can be a path where you can enjoy the Lord's company, or it can be a path or in self, will you choose your own way? And then sometimes we have to reap for these decisions, these wrong decisions that we make because we're determined to have our own way.
And so it tells us here that if Solomon a worthy part, and he did depart in the end of his life, as we know, if he departed, that God would chase in him with the stripes of the children of men and with the rod of men. You know, the Lord does have to deal with us.
But it says whom the Lord loveth, he chasten us. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth. He deals with us for our own good. He loves us too much to let us have our own way. Mr. Darby once said the worst of all chastisement is that God should leave us to our own ways. And perhaps when we're young, we don't all together think that because we think to have our own way is about the best thing we could imagine.
But in reality, it's the very worst.
We can be very thankful when the Lord doesn't let us have our own way, because if He did, we'd only wander from Him. We get into things that could cause us all kinds of sorrow and trouble. He loves us too much to let us go that way. And so He deals with us in His goodness, in His grace, and in His patience. And so I say again, so that each one will understand just what I'm going to speak about. The grace of God is His unchanging.
Merited favor that is always toward us, even in all our mistakes and failures as believers. But His government is that we don't get away with anything. We may think we do, but in reality we don't. But there's another side to the government of God too, and that is that He delights to bless, and that if we seek to walk with Him the joy and the peace that He can give us in that pathway, I don't say it's without trouble.
00:10:05
Joseph had his troubles, but I do say that in the path of seeking to follow the Lord, there is a joy of his company that no one can fully appreciate in its fullness. Just as we might say, I'd rather go over a rough Rd. in good company than a smooth Rd. in bad company, wouldn't you?
Of course you say I would. It wouldn't matter too much if the road was rough if I was in the best company.
That I really wanted I'd forget about the road because of the company that I was in. Well, you and I have the privilege of walking in the company of the Lord. And so in connection with reaping and sowing as we have it in Galatians chapter 6, it tells us he that saw to the flesh, sell of the flesh reap corruption. He that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. So you'll notice there are.
Kinds of sewing there, sewing to the flesh or sewing to the Spirit, going our own way or seeking to walk in a way that is pleasing to the Lord. Well, as I said, I'd like to trace a little bit of this in connection with the life of Jacob, and perhaps it'll be a blessing to some here.
Because as I look into the faces of you, dear young people, with life before you, how I desire from my heart that you would go on for the Lord, that you would really live for Him, that you would experience in your soul the blessing of His company. I know you can never continue in the past if all you have before you is pleasing your parents or your brethren. That will never sustain you when the problems arise.
You must have the Lord before you.
You must have the sense of his company, you must have his approval. Have often said we do a lot of things to be accepted. We like to feel that we're accepted. But who do we want to be accepted by? Who is the one that really counts most? Why? If you have a girlfriend or a boyfriend that you love very much, why? To please them.
Has priority over what others might say or think because.
If you really love that person, why you want to please them, even if somebody else might laugh at you a little bit? Why, that friend means enough to you that you can bear a little bit of twitting to please your friend. Well, when we think of the Lord Jesus and what He means to us, surely.
To have his approval, Paul said. I labor that whether present or absent, we may be accepted or agreeable to him. Is this our desire, dear young people, to be agreeable to the Lord?
Well, let's turn then back to Genesis and we'll trace a little bit of the life of Jacob, Genesis 25.
Genesis 25 and verse 23 And the Lord said unto her, This is unto Rebecca, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels. The one shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger.
Well, here we see the grace of God. Before these children were ever born, God had a purpose of blessing in connection with Jacob.
I wish to say here that when we speak about predestination, there's no such thing in the Bible as anyone being predestinated to be lost.
God shows us that he does predestinate some for blessing, but as far as the lost are concerned.
He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. It's just like this. If we'll say some men broke into your home and stole your goods, and you offered to pardon every one of them and they all refused, then if you were to choose one or two of them to show kindness to the others, couldn't say, oh, we did, we didn't have a chance. They did have a chance and the gospel is offered.
Whoever will. But here we find again the sovereign grace of God, the grace of God that said that there was a special place for Jacob that the elder would serve the younger. And so even as to our birth into this world, why don't.
00:15:00
Orders, all these things. We're not all put in the same nation, we're not all put in the same city. We're not all put in the same meeting. We're not all given the same measure of ability. But the Lord gives to each one what He sees is right and best. Have we learned to accept this from Him?
That's a grand starting point, isn't it? Are we counting upon His grace? Are you living your life wishing that you were somebody else and that you were in another place and that you had different you had different friends and that you were just made a little differently and all this sort of thing?
Well, I'm sure if this is the way you feel that right from the start you're not a very happy person because first of all, you haven't seen His grace. Now that has marked out a place for you and a place in which you can glorify Him. Oh, how good it is when we learn to accept.
Our circumstances from the Lord, there's absolutely nothing that happens by chance in your life and mine. The two things I say run parallel through our lives, the grace of God and the government of God, the sovereignty of God and the responsibility, our responsibility as individuals. So here we find first of all, that God gave a special and a certain place.
To Jacob, wasn't that his grace?
And can you accept the circumstances of where you are as being ordered? By His Grace, He has put you in a certain place. Perhaps it's because He wants you to be a special light in that place. I visited many cities, but I've never yet visited one where all the lights were down in the center of the city and none on the back streets.
No, there were always lights on the back streets. Perhaps not as many as in the center of the city, but there were lights.
All through the city, and we're thankful for them. And the Lord places each one of us in a place where he would have us to be. And so Jacob had a chosen place for him that God had marked out, and this was even before he was born.
I've been I've enjoyed the 139 some where we read thine eyes did behold thy substance yet being unperfect. And in thy book all my members are written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. God was your body being formed. He knows all about you, dear young people. And so here we find grace.
That chose Jacob for a very special place.
And if you have acceptable accepted the Lord Jesus as your Savior, you can certainly say that grace has chosen you for a very special place. If you had been born into the most influential family in the United States, if it were possible for you to climb and be president of the United States, I would say your position is not half as wonderful as being brought into the most humble family.
And brought up under the sound of God's Word, the privilege of being gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus, and early in use to receive the Lord as your Savior. That is a blessing that can't be measured according to the way men measure things. So here we find grace that shows this special place for Isaac, for Jacob, brother. Now turn to the 29th verse of this chapter.
Perhaps I had read the 28th to and Isaac loved Esau because he did eat of his venison, but Rebecca loved Jacob.
Jacob saw it porridge, and Esau came from the field, and he was faint. And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage, for I am faint. Therefore was his name called Edom. And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.
And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die, and what prophet shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day, and he swear unto him, And he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave he saw bread and pottage of lentils, and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.
Now here we find something about Jacob not appreciating the fact and a full way that God had.
00:20:01
Given him this place he God had said before he was born.
The elders shall serve the younger. But now we find Jacob here takes to do a little bit of scheming.
Isn't this very much like us? We know all that God has purpose for us, but somehow we think we've got to take things in our own hands, and if things don't work the right way, we have to try another way. And so we find here that Jacob, instead of counting upon God who had given him this place, he does something that is the beginning of a very bitter feeling between him and his brother.
And you know, sometimes instead of counting upon God, we do little things that may soul roots of bitterness and sorrow, and then we have to reap as Jacob did in his afterlife. For this, couldn't he have counted upon God to have worked this out? But instead of this, he resorted to scheming.
Young people, aren't we prone to do this? Aren't we so often just like this? And we we try some scheming of our own, something that really hurts a friend or someone else. And we think we've got to take things into our own hands and work them out. And so this was the beginning of a sorrow. This is the beginning of what he was going to have to reap in the governmental ways of God.
Grace had given him the first place in that home.
The elder shall serve the younger, and he was the he was the younger that was promised to him. He didn't need to take this and try and work it out for himself. And hasn't God promised to undertake for us? It doesn't mean that we don't have a responsibility, but our responsibility is just to walk in the back path of obedience and to commit our way to the Lord. And when we do, some of us who are a little bit older can look back.
Say, oh, and we committed a thing to the Lord and prayed about it. How wonderfully He came in and worked things out that were absolutely impossible. But this didn't change the purpose of God by any means. Oh no, it was still true, because God doesn't go back on His word, just as He said to.
About Solomon, my mercy will I not take from him. Jacob's failure wasn't going to change the purposes of God because the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. But he did bring some trouble into his life. And perhaps this is a little warning to us about trying to do things in our own way. Just a couple of other things to notice here too. And that is.
There was something in the parents that.
Hadn't fully been judged either. And we can see that it says here Isaac loved Esau, but Rebecca loved Jacob. Oh, I just say this to parents. It's a bad thing when parents have a special favorite and especially when one parent favors one child and the other parent favors another child. That really works havoc in many homes and so.
While there was definitely a responsibility on the part of Jacob.
Why? We can see that this sort of thing began by the parents example. And may I just say a little word to those who are parents? Let's be careful that we don't sow the seeds of this kind of thing by being unwise, the mother having one favorite and the father having another favorite.
Let's learn to love our children as those whom God has given to us to bring up for him and to enjoy in a way that's pleasing to Him. So when we see the roots of this in what took place here and then on the part of Esau, it was certainly wrong for him to despise his birthright and to sell his birthright for a massive pottage.
This was a very serious thing.
But you know, young people, you can sell your birthright, and I believe you have a birthright when you're born into a Christian home. The Bible says about when there's a Christian parent in the home. It says elsewhere your children unclean, but now are they holy? It means when you're born into a Christian home, you're born into a place of privilege. Do you despise it? Do you say, oh, I wish I could get away from the restraint?
My parents holding me down.
Well, he saw despised his birthright, he despised what was his and being the first born in that family. And on this part he was sowing the seeds of sorrow in his life too. And I just say this little word to those who are unsaved.
00:25:06
Don't despise your birthright, thank God if you have a Christian father and mother.
The greatest heritage you can have is to have parents who love you and who desire you for the Lord Jesus.
So we see here this sad thing that Jacob now schemes to get this blessing. Well then if you turn over to the 27th chapter.
I'll just read the first few verses here. And it came to pass that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son. And he said unto him, Behold, here am I. And he said, Behold, now I am old.
I know not the day of my death. Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver, and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison, and make me savory meat such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, that my soul may bless thee before I die. And Rebecca heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son, and Esau went to the field to hunt for venison.
And to bring it. And Rebecca spake unto Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak on the Esau, thy brother saying.
Bring me venison and make me savory meat, that I may eat and bless thee before the Lord, before my death.
Well then, we find passing on a little farther.
To the 29th verse we see the blessing that Jacob received here.
Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee. Be Lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee. Cursed be everyone that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesses thee.
Well, here we come to another page in the history. God had said at the very beginning that the elder would serve the younger. Jacob had schemed to get his birthright, get the birthright from Esau, who was the first born. And now we find here that he does a little more scheming. He schemes to get the blessing from his father. Was this necessary?
Hadn't God said that the elder would serve the younger?
He could have committed this to the Lord. He could have left this situation. Oh, you say, but his father would have blessed his brother. Are you sure he would have? Couldn't God have hindered that? He wasn't able to find any meat for venison that day. Peter couldn't catch any fish, even though he was a good fisherman one night. Because as our brother Brown used to say, the Lord said, none of you fish swim into Paul's net, into Peter's net tonight.
And the Lord could have kept him from getting venison too. The Lord can overrule impossible circumstances. Dear young people, that's what I really believe is important. Some of us who are a little bit older and look back on our lives, we see how God is coming in the most miraculous ways. We're ashamed to think of times, how we thought we had to do something when we prayed about it. We could hardly believe the answer when it came. And God could have overruled.
Whole situation. There was absolutely no need of him to make this little plan and deceive his poor old father to try and get the blessing, because God had already said that the elder would serve the younger. Again we see the grace of God.
God's purposes in connection with Jacob could not be altered. Jacob was to be the one who was to be the one, shall I say, whom his brother would serve? And was God going to go back on his promises? Never. I say again, all the promises of God in him that's in Christ are yay and in him.
Amen to the glory of God by us, so we can safely count upon Him.
And now we find again this sad situation in the home coming up, the father wanting one thing from his son Esau, and the mother wanting something else, and so putting it into the mind of poor Jacob to do a little bit of scheming and deceive.
Poor old Father. And so shall we say It's never right to do evil, that good may come, it says.
00:30:11
In Romans chapter 3, that those who say that it says their damnation is just. In other words, to think we've got to do something wrong to get good is a denial of the very character of God, because he hates sin and he delights in holiness.
So here the plan seemed to work. And perhaps you say, well, I've tried some of these schemes too sometimes, and they work too. They work. I've seen them work out. Well, maybe for the time they do seem to work. It worked out here and Jacob did get the blessing.
But God would have overruled it. He received it anyway. But what about the government of God? Oh, this created a still greater breach between him and his brother that was going to lead for sorrow to sorrow, and not only to himself and to his mother and to those in that generation, but the very trouble that's existing right now.
Over in Israel and in those Arab countries is part of the result.
Of what we're reading in this chapter, there were seeds of bitterness that were sown that are still bearing fruit. You can't tell how far a bad action will go. The sad results of it may go on for generations to come, even among the Lords people. Sometimes an unkind act will go on and carry even into the next family.
Oh, how sad to see here what took place all you say. Well, the main thing was it worked. All it wasn't the main thing.
God was going to see to it that Jacob received the blessing, and all he did by this was to bring sorrow upon himself and upon his family. For if we were to go on at the end of the chapter, we'd find out that Jacob had to leave home.
Says here in the 43rd verse of this 27th chapter.
Now, therefore, my son.
Obey my voice, arise, flee thou to live in thy brother to Heron, and tarry with him a few days, until I, brothers fury, turn away, until I, brothers anger turn away from thee.
And he forget that which thou hast done unto him, then I will send and fetch thee from thence. Why should I be deprived also of you both in one day? And so here we find that his mother has to send him away, and she never saw him again. He didn't return in her lifetime. She died before he returned. Her favorite son was gone because she tried this little trick and thought it was going to work. And it.
To work for the time being, but the reaping was kind of better when she tried this thing and when he did run run away and escape from his brother, his brothers anger has not turned away and so can't we see here then the grace of God has God-given up Jacob? Oh no. All through the scripture we read about the God of Jacob.
The grace of God is unchanging.
Not affected by what we are, because it fools from the heart of God. The blessing all depends upon Christ, and upon what Christ has done. But the government of God, that which happened in the life of Jacob, certainly has many, many lessons for us.
So we find he goes away the 28th chapter in the 10th verse.
And Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Heron, and he lighted upon a certain place and tarried there all night, because the sun was set. And he took of the stones of that place and put them for his pillows, and lay down in his place to sleep.
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 Jacob. The land were on thou liest to thee will I give it, and to thy seed, And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the West, and to the.
00:35:00
And to the north, and to the South, and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land. For I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew.
Not And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place. This is none other but the House of God, and this is the gate of heaven.
Well, we won't read all that it says here, but here you find Jacob now running away and putting his head on a pillow of stones. And dear young people, we can do this. We can make a pillow of stones for ourselves. Instead of having a soft pillow to lay on. We can make a pillow of stones. But does the Lord forsake us in that case? Oh, isn't this beautiful? The Lord comes and he has a dream, and he sees that ladder with the top reaching up to.
And the Lord on the top of the ladder saying, Jacob, I'm not going to give you up. I still love you and I'm going to bless you and I'm going to bring you back to this land. I'm going to give you what's necessary and you're going to be made a blessing to others. This is the God of grace. This is the God we have to do with. Dear young people, have you made a mistake? Have you failed?
God is standing on the top of the ladder. You may have made a pillar of stones.
The sun may have set upon you, like it said on Jacob here, but God will not turn his face away to the one from the one who belongs to him. Beautiful and lovely example of the grace of God and all these wonderful promises. Give them to Jacob at a time when we could least expect it. He was running away, and he was.
Running away because of his own fault.
Because of what he had done in order to provoke his brother.
Well, what does Jacob do? Well, he doesn't seem to learn anything by all this. Instead of this, he starts to bargain with God. Notice what he says here in the 20th verse. And Jacob vowed a vow saying if God noticed the if, if God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on.
So that I come again to my father's house in peace. Then shall the Lord be my God. Here we find he bargained to get his birthright. He bargained to get the blessing, and now he's doing it again. He's not learning, is he? God hasn't changed, but he's just doing things to bring the government of God upon himself, saying God has made all these promises, and if he keeps his promises.
He'll be my God. Perhaps, dear young people, pardon me for speaking very personally. Perhaps you say, Well, if the Lord will grant a few requests that I really want, if you'll give me a partner, and if you'll give me a good job, and if you'll do this for me, then I'll turn to the Lord. Then I'll follow him. This is what Jacob was doing.
He was really starting this plan of bargaining was bad enough to bargain with his brother.
Was bad enough to deceive his poor old father, but now to actually bargain with God?
But we do that sometimes, but God won't allow us to go on in that way without having to read. If you and I want something from God, don't bargain with Him. Just cast yourself upon His grace. Because I want to tell you this, that there isn't a single blessing that will ever come into your life that you deserve.
Not one. All that I can say that I deserved was the judgment of God.
And everything that comes that is good comes from the heart of God and undeserved. Jacob was slow to learn this. I'm slow to learn it. Perhaps you feel the same with yourself. It's hard for you to just accept this. But dear young people, I say it is a blessing when we realize that we can count upon God, that we can count upon Him.
The father My father used to have a little saying sometimes.
God is doing the very best for everyone of us according to our state of soul. He wants to, He wants to fill our lives with happiness and joy. How about our state of soul hinders not the blessing, because all the blessings come from His heart, but the enjoyment of these things depends upon a state of soul, depends upon our walk.
00:40:22
So here we see Jacob. Poor Jacob, he starts to bargain with God.
Well, I might just mention in passing here that the sun set on him and he lay on this pillow of stones. His mother had said, just go away, Jacob, for a few days until your brother has changed his attitude. But how long was it before Jacob came back? 20 years? 20 years? And maybe when we start on a wrong course.
We don't ever think.
About how long we may have to bring things upon ourselves in our foolishness. But the Lord hadn't spoken just once to Jacob. He had had opportunities to learn something. But instead of this, he pursues a course. And dear young people, don't pursue a course of self will. Even if you think that you're missing out on something, I beseech you don't.
Don't follow a course of self will. It cannot bring that which you really seek after. Well, let's turn over now to the 29th chapter here and the 18th verse.
And Jacob loved Rachel and said I will serve these seven years for Rachel, I younger daughter. And Laban said it is better that I give her to these and that I should give her to another man. Abide with me.
And Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed unto him but a few days for the love he had to her.
Well, I won't read all the chapter, but I think many of us know the story pretty well. And now Jacob's getting his turn of being deceived. He deceived his father. He schemed in this ways that we've been speaking about. Now it's going to start to come back on him.
And this is a pretty touchy point with young people too, isn't it? We can do a lot of scheming in this direction too, can't we? Scheming for a wife, scheming for a partner. There. This was Jacob's plan now. He had schemed to get the birthright. He'd schemed to get the blessing. He'd bargained with God. And.
Now he starts to scheme to get a wife. It's just a whole character of his life. Instead of trusting God, instead of counting upon His grace, we see constantly Jacob taking things on himself and thinking that he can work them out.
And so we all know the story quite well that he seemed to get Rachel, and at the end he got Leah instead. And so he had to serve another 14, another seven years. Things didn't work out as he had planned at all. But couldn't he have counted upon God? Hadn't God stood on the top of the ladder? Did this blessing that God had promised to Jacob have?
No, the Lord on the top of the ladder, said Jacob, I'll be with you, I'll bless you, and I'll bring you back to this land. He promised to take care of him, but Jacob still thought he had to work it all out in his own way. And so he begins to reap even a little more for what he had sown. But again I say.
The grace of God still went on with Jacob, still was interested in him and in his blessing.
And dear young person, if you're a true child of God, He's interested in you, no matter how many disappointments and frustrations you've had in your life. I want to tell you the Lord cares and He is going to come in and blessing in His own way. But we can have a great many lost years. We only have, as one often says, and the scripture says we only have the rest of our time, a little time left.
To spend for the Lord. And may the Lord grant that the little time that we have that's left, we may seek to spend it for him. So we find if you turn over to the 30th chapter and the 30th verse. For it was a little which thou hadst when I came. He's talking to Laban. Jacob is talking to Laban here, and it is now increased unto a multitude. And the Lord hath blessed thee since my coming.
00:45:08
And now when shall I provide for mine own house also? And he said, what shall I give thee? And so on. Well, I won't read the whole chapter. But now we find Jacob again starting to scheme. He schemes now to get the flock from Jacob, from Laban rather.
He's going to work this out too, so that when he leaves, he's going to have plenty of riches to carry away. He schemed for his wife, now he's going to scheme for his possessions too. And so he worked some tricks on Laban and stirs up Laban to have pretty bad feelings toward him because of the tricks that he did too. Oh, can't we see this whole plan?
Did God forsake Jacob? Oh no, God's eye was still upon Jacob.
He loved Jacob, it tells us in the last book in the Old Testament. Jacob have I loved. God's love is unchanging. Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. But here we see the grace of God that goes on with Jacob.
Provides for him. Had God promised to provide for him what was necessary? Yes. Did he have to play tricks on his employer in order to get these things? No, he didn't have to do that. God had promised to do this, but he had puts him ifs to it and he didn't have enough confidence to count upon God. And so again, he's taking things into his own hands.
Let's turn over now to the 32nd chapter.
The 24th verse.
And Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him. 32nd chapter and 24th verse. They wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. 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 bless, 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 thou hast power with God and with men, and has prevailed.
And Jacob asked him and said, Tell me, I pray thee thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou just 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 Pennual, the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.
Well, here we find the restoration of Jacob. Jacob had done all this scheming, but now he's coming to the point where he's going back to meet his brother, and he's afraid. 20 years he he realizes.
May not have changed the attitude of his brother, and I haven't time to read the whole story, but he gets all kinds of things together to try and win his brother back and he didn't need to do that at all. Wasn't God able to work in the heart of his brother? Of course you say, well, somebody's against me and I got to do something. Well, God shows here that he was totally able to take care of this whole situation.
And God did take care of the whole situation when he met his brother. His brother was not unkind to him at all. Instead of this, his brother showed kindness and embraced him at this point, even though later on, as I said, the House of Esau and all her posterity were enemies of Israel. At this point the King's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water. He turneth it whithersoever he will.
Is somebody against you? Pray about it.
God can change their whole feeling towards you. He is the disposer of hearts. Every, every man's attitude is in his hand. But Jacob had something to wrestle about, and that is he had to have it out with the Lord. And if there's anyone here and you've got away from the Lord, will you seek to have it out with Him? Will you really get before Him?
And have the whole matter out with him.
And be restored. Oh, I tell you, there will be blessing. For this was the point, as you noticed when I read, when after those 20 years the sun rose upon him and he called the name of the place Peniel, which means the face of God. That means that for 20 years he'd been living out of communion with the Lord. And we can spend a good part of our life out of communion with the Lord.
00:50:21
But here we find Jacob's restoration. He's brought back now.
Happily restored to the Lord, He calls the place Peniel. But notice again we see the government of God from this point on. Jacob was lame from that point. He limped. He limped. That's why it tells us that he worshipped leaning on the top of his staff. And you know, sometimes the Lord has to speak pretty loudly to us before we have things out with him. But it's a good thing when we do, even if we have to limp the rest of our days.
Much better than that, he should leave us to our own ways. So here we find Jacob restored, and the sun rose upon him.
Well, as I say, Esau's attitude was changed. But again we find poor Jacob, he told his brother he was going to come there, and he didn't come. Things weren't thoroughly cleared up. And Jacob, not just altogether at this point, because, you know, when we get away from the Lord, sometimes these old weaknesses follow us.
These old weaknesses follow us just as they did here with Jacob. And then in the next chapter he had to reap the results of it in his household. His household had only seen a bad example from their father. Their father had been a scheming, planning man. And so when they come to Shechem, we find that Jacob has something to reap in his household. The government of God. The government of God.
Oh dear young people.
For speaking so plainly to you. But God has written these things in his word. For our blessing, for our admonition. God wants us to have happy and fruitful lives.
And then after Jacob had learned some of these lessons, then in the 35th chapter.
Notice this.
The first verse. And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar unto the Lord that appearest unto thee, when thou flattest from the face of Jacob thy brother. Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments. First we find him restored to the Lord.
Now we see him restored to.
The place where the Lord would have him because pineal means the face of God. Bethel means the House of God. And now we find, if I could put it that way, sort of his public restoration. He needed to clean up things were going on in his household. And he says, now put away the strange gods and let's go up to Bethel. And here we see.
Jacob brought back now.
How the government of God had followed him. He's even reaping it now in his household. And dear young people, can I say this plainly to you? Perhaps you know, you get away from the Lord. You may get married. And maybe the partner that you choose in that state, when you're away from the Lord, will bring some gods into your household. There will be some things brought in that will not be for the happiness and blessing of your household. The Lord restores, but.
We reap what we sow We reap what we sow. Well, just another passage here. Turn on to the 42nd chapter of Genesis.
The 36th verse.
And Jacob, their father said unto them, may have bereaved my children.
Joseph is not, Simeon is not, and he will take Benjamin away. All these things are against me. Jacob looks back now over his life, and he's thoroughly discouraged. He says his reaping time is not so pleasant. He said I've had to reap it in my own home now, and everything seems to be against me.
All but God was not against him. God's not against one of his own, our brother read this morning.
If God before us, who can be against us? And I want to tell you young people, if you're truly the Lord's God is never against you. He's for you. If he deals with you, it's in love to bring you back. And Jacob is being brought back and Jacob has brought down to he's brought down to Egypt to see Joseph.
00:55:08
He's brought into a place of blessing there, but he has to look back in his life and he says.
Few and evil have been the days of the years of my pilgrimage. Did he have an easy path? Did his scheming really get for him what he had expected? It never does. It never does if you want to have the enjoyment of the blessing of God and your soul. Dear young people set out like dear Joseph did, and I just say a few words about Joseph at this point.
On the other hand, you see Joseph.
He was one of the sons of Jacob and Jacob and Joseph had a desire to please the Lord and to please his father. He had the Lord before him, and he was an obedient boy. Oh, you say he had troubles too, but the troubles that Jacob that Joseph had were altogether of a different kind. I won't say that you're going to have an easy pass if you're a Christian, but as I said a few moments ago, if you go over a rough Rd.
Company with someone you love, it's not that unpleasant. It's awfully nice to be in the company of somebody you love. And that was Jacob's. That was Joseph's path. Joseph walked his life in communion with the Lord, and so when his father sent him down to his brethren, he went in obedience. When he was put into the pit, you don't find one word.
Of complaint with him at all, it says the Lord was with him.
When he got down to Egypt, why he was forgotten by the Butler and he didn't get a fair deal from the captain of the guard, but nevertheless the Lord was with him. And what was the blessing in Josephs life? The grace of God and the government of God went on in Joseph's life too, but what was the result?
Joseph turned to be a blessing.
Not a not a source of sorrow, but he turned to be a blessing in Egypt because God provided through Joseph corn in that terrible famine. He he turned out to be a great blessing to his whole family.
And his time down there in Egypt worked not for sorrow, but for blessing, and his whole family came down, and everyone of them were blessed in and through. Joseph. His old father returned and stood side by side with Joseph and rejoiced in the goodness of God. What a difference.
And dear young people, I'm not telling you if you follow the Lord that everything is going to be easy, but I am saying this and I trust it'll speak to each one of our hearts. The in the world ye shall have tribulation, but all to go through the trials and difficulties of life.
In company with the Lord, in the enjoyment of His presence, in the consciousness of His grace, is altogether different from trying to work things out according to our own plans and in our own way. And as I look at you this afternoon, and I'm sure it's the desire of the heart of God and it's my desire for you that you would find in the path of faith that joy which the Lord is able to give you.
Mr. Darby once said.
There are joys in the path of faith only known to those who walk in it. And if you want to have a happy path, put the Lord 1St and then He'll do for you what He wants to do. And it's my desire for you. He'll bless you and He'll make you a blessing.
You may say, well, it's not easy. No, it isn't easy. Joseph had his hardships, but it was a which would you rather be? Would you rather be Joseph or Jacob? Would you rather be Joseph with his trials or would you rather be Jacob with all those things that he brought on himself and, and a lot of other people too because of his willful ways? Well, may the Lord speak to our hearts.
And in that coming day, we're going to meet both those man glory. We're going to meet Joseph.
And we're going to meet Jacob in Yonder glory. They're both going to be praising the Lord. But I see again, dear young people, the Lord wants you to have a pathway where you can walk in his company. And if there's anyone who has strayed away, may the Lord grant if it's not taking place in the last few years, that you'll get the pennial today, that you'll see the face of God, that you'll find that he is sufficient. And even if you do have.
01:00:04
Sorrows that you've brought on yourself. I tell you it's well worthwhile to get the Pennial and see the face of God.
And be restored to him, and go on the rest of our time for him.