Cartwright, David: Ministry 91-07 ~ Gen 32v24

You know, one of these days the invitation is going to end. This could be the last time that God's glorious invitation be extended to you. What will you do with it? Turn with me, please, to the book of Genesis, chapter thirty two this evening. Genesis chapter thirty two. And we'll pick up our reading in verse twenty four. Genesis chapter thirty two, picking up our reading in verse twenty four. And Jacob was left alone. There wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. 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. 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? He blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Pheniel, for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. And as he passed over Pheniel, the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh, he limped. Therefore the children of Israel ate not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh unto this day, because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank. I'm sure that the Lord will bless this portion of his word to our hearts this evening. There are certain times and certain sicknesses that the doctors or medical people call the crisis hour or the crisis period. Sometimes the doctor will say, we will know what we can expect, or we will know better in the next twenty four. Sometimes they will say thirty six, forty eight hours, sometimes seventy two hours. We will be able to determine then when they have passed this crisis period. Sometimes the patient will take a turn for the better, sometimes they will take a turn for the worse. But you know, as it is in the physical, we have crisis periods in our life, so it is in the spiritual. There are also crisis periods, a time of crisis, a time when we... We decide what we're going to do with Jesus Christ, we decide whether we're going to accept him or reject him. We have to come to a crisis period in our life. I believe that in the life of Jacob, this was his crisis period. This was the time when Jacob, because of what the scripture says, was finally confronted with the Lord. Oh, he had had experiences before, but this, I believe, is the crisis period in the life of Jacob. Jacob that night did not expect to have a wrestling match. The men and boys, and even some of the ladies who like wrestling, would appreciate this, but this was not the kind of wrestling match that you see on television. This was something that was far deeper. This was something that went a lot longer, and there was no referee. I want to consider with you this evening this crisis period, this wrestling match that Jacob had. For a few moments, we want to look at this man. I want to suggest, first of all, that there was the bad name that Jacob had. Now, consider with me his name. Jacob means supplanter, rascal, crook. Any one of those would suit the name that Jacob had. Jacob means supplanter. And he had a bad name, and he had a bad reputation. You know, my friend, that is exactly what is true of the sinner. The Bible tells we are all born in sin and shapen in iniquity. The Bible declares that every one of us, as we're born into this world, we are born with a nature that is sinful. A nature that is pro-sin, the nature that is attracted to sin, a nature that is drawn to sin. A nature that will respond to sin. Now, some parents try to shield their children from bad things and bad people. My friend, you could move your family to some island here in the Bahamas all and live there all by yourself, and your children be shielded from all outside influences, and that would still not prevent them from doing bad things. You could teach them every day the importance of being good, and it will still not prevent them from doing bad things, because the Bible says, the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? And the Bible tells us that we are born with a nature that is prone to sin. That's why you can try your best. You can try to turn over a new leaf. You can try all kinds of, of reformation. You can, you can say, I'm not going to do those things anymore, and for a while you may not. But you find yourself lapsing right back into it. You know why, my friend? Because, you see, we must face the biblical fact that we are born with a sinful nature, a nature that is prone to sin, and the Bible says, in fact, Jesus said to the religious leaders in John chapter eight and verse forty four, he said, you are of your father, the devil, and his works you will do. In first John three ten, the Apostle John writes these words. He says, in this the children of God are manifested, and the children of Satan, or the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither is he that loveth not his brother. And then when you come to the second chapter of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul writing to the church at Ephesus, he writes these words. He says, you hath he quickened, you hath he made alive who were dead in trespasses and s- and sin, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, wherein in time past you had your desires in the lust of the flesh and of the, and the lust of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. It doesn't matter how kind and how nice and how refined we may be. That is the condition of the sinner. The condition of the sinner is the same. We have a bad name. We have a bad start, my friend. We don't start good, you know, we start bad. Every one of us starts bad. But you'll notice how this was manifested in the life of Jacob. Jacob, Jacob was a rascal. He lived up to his name. One time, his twin brother Esau, the older brother, because he was born first, he comes out of the field, and uh, Jacob has been cooking. Jacob was a homeboy. Jacob likes to s- like to stay at home and cook. Esau would go out and hunt. And Jacob was home cooking a meal, and uh, Esau comes in and he is, he's hungry and a- and he's tired, and uh, he says, my brother, he says, give me something to eat. Now, any brother would have responded and said, yes, I understand you're hungry, I realize you need something to eat, and so here it is, my brother, let me put a plate of food. He says, I'll give you something to eat if you sell me your birthright. That's how bad Jacob was. A brother would automatically or should automatically give his other brother or his family something to eat. He says, you can have it, but you get it for your birthright. And Esau, listen, my friend, there are some people just like Esau. You see, they're trading their soul for a li- a mess of pottage, just like Esau did. That's as much as you think about your soul. That's as much as some people think about their soul, because every time they get, every chance they get, they're in the bar room and they're drunk. And they're drinking away their life, and they're selling their soul for liquor. What are you selling your soul for? Esau sold his birthright for a plate of food, a mess of potash, some stew. What are you selling your soul for, sir? What are you selling your soul for? What are you giving it away for? Is it going cheaply? And then later on, when Isaac is going to bless the sons, oh, I wish I had time tonight to speak about this family, but I don't, and I won't get into it. Isaac is about to bless his sons, and you know, before he blesses them, and here again, Isaac sends Esau out, and he says, I want you to go and hunt some and hunt some of that venison, and I want you to cook it, oh, that savory meat like you'd cook it. And while he is going, Jacob and his mother hatch a plot, and he comes in with the skins of animals upon him, and he comes in dressed in his brother Esau's clothes, and she cooks the food like she know- knew Esau would cook it. And Jacob comes in, and he, he, he, the only thing he could not do, he could not talk like Esau, but his father was blind and he couldn't see, and so he brings him the food and the, and, and old Isaac says, he says, the voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau. He was depending upon his feelings, and his feelings deceived him. And my unsaved friend, listen here tonight, don't you depend upon your feelings for salvation, because your feelings will fail you. You don't feel saved, you get saved by faith. You get feelings, but not they, you don't can't, can't depend upon feelings. You know why? Because a dead man can't feel anything. And the Bible says you're dead in trespasses and in sin. So don't expect to get feelings before you get saved. Don't expect to feel your salvation or feel your way to God. You got to trust the Lord. And Jacob supplants Esau twice. When Esau finds out the truth, Esau is angry, and Jacob, Rebekah, and Isaac have to send Jacob away, and he goes away. And he leaves with his brother angry with him. His brother wanting to kill him, his brother plotting if he ca- could to kill him, he would. And so Jacob leaves. He's gone for a long time, and he is, he has become a wealthy man. But let me tell you something, dear friend. The Bible says, whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. And Jacob, Jacob, he sowed deception with his father. And he met his match in Laban, his father-in-law. They were two rascals. They were two deceivers. He got deceived with his wife, and later on, when those sons came with that, with that coat that was dipped in the animal's blood. He was deceived again. Young people, don't ever think that you can sow sin and not reap it. Young man, don't ever think that you can sow your wild oats and not reap it. You're going to reap it. That's what the Bible says. Whatsoever a man soweth, that, that, that shall he also reap. He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. He that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life eternal. And so Jacob had a bad name. Oh, my friend, tonight without Christ, you have a bad name. You need to have a change of name. But then we see the burden that Jacob carried. He's returning, and his soldiers, his men that he sent, the scouts that he sent ahead, they've come and they've said, your brother Esau is coming to meet you, he's got four hundred men. And the Bible tells us that Jacob's heart was disturbed. Go back a bit for a, for a few moments, but go back, please, to the, uh... seventh verse. Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed, and he divided the people that was with him, and the flocks and the herds and the camels into two bands. Jacob had a burden. You see, my friend, there's only one way to get rid of the burden of sin. You can come to meetings, that's good. I'm glad you come to meetings, I'm glad you come, but that's not going to get rid of the burden of sin. Jacob tried to pray. Jacob tried to scheme. Jacob tried all kinds of, of things. He, he, he separated the groups. He, he got the best of the cattle, the best of the sheep, the best of the animals, and he sent men ahead with them as a present for his, his brother Esau. Oh, my friend, listen, you can try everything you can to evade your soul's salvation in the crisis hour. You can try all of these things, but you cannot, my ca- friend, you cannot, you cannot purge, you cannot ease a burdened, guilty conscience with sin by trying to do things. You can be, be nice to your family. You can take the preacher out fishing and talk to him and be friendly with him, but that's not going to ease the burden of your sin. Jacob had a burden on him that was heavy. And I want to say, sir, that the older you get, the heavier the burden of sin gets. It's not going to get any lighter. His heart was burdened, his soul was burdened, his conscience was troubled. And after he had made all of these plans, after Jacob had gone through all of this, he had divided the company, he had sent on the best of the animals to give as a present to his brother Esau, and he had, he had done all of this, but he had not been able to ease the burden of his conscience. Oh, how many people tonight have the burden of their sin upon them? I don't know how you live. I have seen some people so burdened. I have seen some people so burdened down where they couldn't even sleep. I've seen people so burdened down with their sin that they've been, that they've become miserable. My friend, listen, you're carrying a burden tonight that you needn't carry. You're carrying a burden tonight that you should not bear. That burden is the burden of sin. Are you like Jacob? And I can tell you tonight, in the words of that beautiful song, burdens are lifted at Calvary. Jesus will meet you there. But thirdly, we see the battle that he fought. It says in that verse that Jacob was left alone. He was alone. It's a terrible thing to be alone, isn't it? And he's alone in the night. You know, as I think of this, I think of another scene. It's at Calvary. For you see, there at Calvary, the Son of God was alone on the cross. And he looks up into the glory to see the face of his father, but he doesn't. And in those hours of suffering on the cross, in those hours of darkness, the Lord Jesus Christ was all alone. As he's bearing the burden of our sin so that he cries from the cross, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He was alone. He was alone on Calvary, forsaken by the Father, so that you, my friend, may not be alone in your sin. So that I might not be alone in my sin. The Lord Jesus Christ paid the debt of sin that you and I owed on the cross. He paid it. Oh, that whole old gospel hymn is beautiful. Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Jacob is alone. Do you feel alone tonight? You know, one of the things that we find and in our visitation while we've been here to the shut-ins and so on, one of the things they say, you know, it's hard being alone. And of course, we can always say to the child of God, we're alone, yet never alone. You see, because the Lord Jesus Christ suffered the loneliness of Calvary, the isolation from his father, so that he might, so that you and I might never be alone. And he says to the child of God, he says to the Christian, he says to the believer, he says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Never alone. But Jacob was alone, and yet he was not alone. It says in that uh twenty fourth verse, and there wrestled a man with him. Jacob was settling down for the night when the man grabbed him. He got a hold of him. It's dark. It's night. And an unknown man grabs Jacob. I believe this is, this was an appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. A theophany, as we call it, a Christophany in the Old Testament. And he grabs Jacob. And Jacob fights back. That's what some of you dear people have been doing for a long time. You've been fighting back. God's been trying to get you to get, give your heart and life to Christ, and you've been wrestling like Jacob wrestled. You've been fighting and you've been battling. You've been putting it off, and you're miserable. Sometimes you can't sleep at night. Sometimes you toss from side to side. Sometimes you wake suddenly in the night, and you look around to see if your Christian wife is there, afraid she may be gone. God wrestling with man. You see, my friend, God is so concerned with us that he's willing to, to, to move. He's willing to take a hold of us, maybe not physically like Jacob was, but he's willing, my friend, and he comes to us, and he shakes us, and he calls us. He wants to get our attention. He may not do it like he did with Jacob. But God has been trying to get your attention. God is trying to say to you, I love you, I want to save you, I want to give you my son, I want you to have eternal life, and you're wrestling with God and you're fighting. He's not your enemy, you know, he's your friend. He loves you. Some people will battle, and some people will wrestle, and some people will, will put it off and put it off and put it off. I know what some of you believers are saying who did the same thing. And you know one of the first things you say, I don't know why I waited so long. Amen? I know some of you saying, I know what you're talking about because I had that same experience, and I was a miserable person. But you see, Jacob resisted, and Jacob resisted, and he was a strong man, and he resisted, and this went on, this, this silent wrestling match went on during the hours of the night. Oh, how long have you resisted, sir? How long have you resisted the strivings of God, the Holy Spirit? How long have you resisted the Word of God? How long have you resisted the Christ of God? And you wrestle on. And then the Lord touched Jacob on his thigh, and suddenly he can't staunch himself any longer. He's weakened. I say this lovingly, but sometimes God has to touch us, to wake us up to our need of salvation. Sometimes it's in an accident. Myron Walker, who was a good friend of mine, maybe some of you remember Myron. Myron was a good singer. Myron was a man who sang in some of the and played in some of the big bands and the dance scenes in Nassau, got into drugs. His body became messed up with drugs, as it were. He came from a Christian family. He had a praying mother, godly aunt, Nurse Blanche Smith. Some of you older ones remember Nurse Blanche Smith. Godly woman. One day, Marin was in a terrible accident, and he almost died in that accident in the hospital. He was laying on his bed there, and Sister Blanche Smith, Nurse Blanche Smith is on. She gets us in. She says, Marin, all you can do now, son, is to look out. God is trying to get your attention. My friend, God is trying to get your attention. He may have to touch the hollow of your thigh. He may have to touch you in the thing that you like most, and the thing that you d- desire most. And they see Jacob, Jacob reveled, Jacob reveled in his strength, that he could fight any man. The Lord touched him. Myron gave his heart to the Lord. And oh, what a gracious, lovely Christian he became. Use the talent he used to use for the, for the devil, he started using it for the Lord. Till the Lord took him home two years ago. His body had been weakened by his, his lifestyle into drugs and so on. But when time he had after that, he gave his talent to the Lord, sing- singing for the glory of God. But God had to touch him. There are some people who get saved. The deathbed of a loved one. They realize that loved one is going out into eternity. That loved one loves the Lord Jesus Christ, and that loved one is, is, is looking forward to being with Christ, and the Lord takes that loved one. And the person standing there knows that they will not, cannot promise to meet that loved one in heaven because they don't know the Savior. Oh, my friend, it says God touched him. God is touching you tonight. Maybe he's touching you through this message. He's touching you through some incident that's happened. But he touched him, and Jacob could no longer wrestle. And the Lord says to Jacob, let me go now. Jacob says, no, sir. Jacob realized this is something. This is no ordinary man I'm wrestling with. He says, I will not let you go until you bless me. Oh, my friend, that's what God wants to hear from your lips tonight, from your heart tonight. Lord, I'm going to stop wrestling. Lord, I'm going to stop fighting you. Lord, I'm going to stop battling you. I'm going to let go, Lord. I want you to bless me. I want you to bless me with your salvation. That's what I want. My Bible says, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. My Bible says, he that heareth my word and believeth him that sent me, says the Lord Jesus, hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death into life. My Bible says, my friend, but as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but nor of blood, but of God. My Bible says, my friend, but what saith it, the word is nigh thee in thy heart and in thy mouth, that is the word of faith that we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus is Lord and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. My friend, tonight God is saying to you, what do you want me to do? Will you not say like Bartimaeus, Lord, that I might receive my sight? Will you not cry out like the Philippian jailer and say, Lord, I want to be saved. What must I do to be saved? Oh friend, listen, that's the cry that God wants to hear from your lips. The cry that comes from a heart that realizes that, that God is speaking, that God is touching, that God is moving in the light. The blessing that he saw. The greatest blessing that you could seek tonight, the greatest blessing that you can receive is the blessing of God's salvation. And the Lord said to him, what's your name? You see the Lord wants you to admit your sinful condition. What's your name? My name is Jacob. I'm a ras. I'm a supa. The Lord said to him, your name's gonna be changed. Changed. No longer Jacob, but Israel, a prince with God. My friend, let me tell you, one of the first things that comes when you accept the Lord Jesus Christ is you get a change of name. From a child of Satan to a child of God. Oh, you don't change your physical name, but hallelujah, you change your spiritual name. The Bible says in two Corinthians five five uh, seventeen, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things have passed away, and behold, all things have become new. He got a new name. And the Bible tells us that as he went out into the day, he walked with a limp. He had a new walk. Everybody knew something had happened to old Jacob. Jacob was limping. No longer could he walk straight. He was halting upon his thigh. He had a limp. They knew something had happened to him, and when you accept the Lord Jesus Christ, my friend, people of Spanish Wells are gonna know, because you're gonna have a new walk. You get a new name, you get a new walk. And the Bible says the sun rose upon him, went into a new day. You get a new day, my friend. You change your direction. You change the direction when you accept the Lord Jesus Christ from the broad road that leads to hell to the narrow road that leads to life eternal. He got a new name. He had a new walk, and he went into a new day. And Jacob had his crisis hour. Jacob, the Lord had to touch him to bring him to himself. I ask you tonight, sir, this may be your crisis hour. This may be the hour that God has brought you to. Young man, young lady, teenager, this may be the hour that God has brought you to. What will you now do with this? What will you do? The Lord says to you, you're saying to the Lord, I, I, I want something. I want to be blessed. The Lord says, I can give you my salvation. Are you willing now to accept the Christ of God? Are you willing to stop wrestling, to stop battling, to stop resisting? The Bible says, God says his spirit will not always strive with man. My friends, stop resisting, stop battling, and give in to the Lord and say, Lord, I'm tired. I'm tired. I'm gonna stop battling. I'm gonna stop fighting you. I'm gonna trust you as my personal savior. Will you do this tonight? Will you be like Jacob and say, Lord, I'm gonna hold on to you until you bless me. I'll not let you go. And praise God, he got the blessing that he asked. Shall we bow for prayer? I wonder tonight if there's somebody here, the Lord has been speaking to your heart. You're not saved. You've been wrestling, you've been battling. Maybe you've been trying, like Jacob, to, to appease the Lord, like he did with Esau. Maybe you're trying to... turn things around to... make yourself to ease the conscience, ease your, the burden of your heart. My friend, listen. Only when you give your heart and life to Jesus Christ will that burden be taken away. That burden be lifted. Would you not give your heart and life to the Savior now? Would you not accept him? Would you not receive him? Would you not trust him? Before we go to prayer, I wonder if there's somebody here, and God has spoken to your heart, you'd like us to remember you in a word of prayer and then have a word of counsel with you afterwards. Anyone, before we go to prayer, I'm not saved, but I want to be. I'm tired of this fighting, I'm tired of this wrestling. Lord, I'm giving in tonight, coming with all my burden, and let you save me. I want you to save me. Anyone, before we go to prayer. I'm not going to prolong this part of the meeting. If you want to be saved, if you're really concerned about it, you can see somebody after the meeting. Brother Don has gone next door by the office. Go over there and meet him there. But it's for you to decide, what are you going to do with Christ? Father, we thank thee for this lovely story of a man that was a bad man. A man that would had a bag full of tricks. A man that sought to get away from the Lord until, Father, thou didst meet him face to face, as he could say, I have seen the Lord face to face. And then Jacob cried out, I will not let you go until you bless me. Oh God, we pray tonight for these dear ones who may be here under the sound of your word, who are not saved, Lord. May they stop resisting. May they stop battling. And may they reach out and touch the Lord, and let the Lord touch him, touch them. May they trust the Savior tonight, Lord, and be saved. Again, we thank thee for thy precious word, and pray, Lord, that you'll save souls even this night, in this place. We pray, Father, tonight for that soul that may be one step away from hell, one step away from eternity. Lord, save them now, we pray. We ask thy blessing upon thy word in our Savior's ever precious and worthy name. Amen. One hundred and ninety four, I think it is. Jesus is passing this way. Is there a heart that is waiting, longing for pardon today? Hear the glad message proclaiming, Jesus is passing this way. My friend, Jesus is passing this way. He's coming your way right now. Will you trust him? Will you receive him? Will you acknowledge him tonight as your personal savior? One hundred and ninety four. I'm gonna ask that we sing the first and the last, or the third and the last verses. We leave, we'll eliminate verse two tonight. We'll sing the first, third, and fourth stanzas, then the meeting will be over. Don't forget, you're concerned about your soul. We're here, and we'd love to share with you tonight how you can find peace with God and salvation through faith in Christ. One ninety four, one, three, and four.