To you, the word of God. I always say to folks the first time I see them, it is English as it ought to be spoken. I hope we shall not have any too great problems with my English—English English.
I want to read just in one or two places in the Word of God this evening. First of all, in the letter of the Apostle Paul to the Romans—the Roman letter—chapter 9. We will read from verse 10.
And not only so; but Rebekah also having conceived by one, even by our father Isaac—
for the children being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth—
it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
Even as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
For He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.
So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy.For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, For this very purpose did I raise thee up, that I might show in thee My power, and that My name might be published abroad in all the earth.
So then He hath mercy on whom He will, and whom He will He hardeneth.Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth He still find fault? For who withstandeth His will?
Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why didst Thou make me thus?
Or hath not the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?What if God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction;
and that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He afore prepared unto glory, even us, whom He also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?
As He saith also in Hosea, I will call that My people, which was not My people; and her beloved, that was not beloved.
And it shall be, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not My people, there shall they be called sons of the living God.
And then, in the Old Testament, in the prophecy of Malachi, chapter 1, from verse 1.
The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.
I have loved you, saith the Lord.
Yet ye say, Wherein hast Thou loved us?
Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob;
but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness.
Chapter 3, and verse 6:
For I, the Lord, change not; therefore ye, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
Shall we bow together in prayer?
Father, as we come to Thy Word, we are very conscious that apart from Thee we can do nothing—not in my speaking, nor in our hearing. Unless Thou, Lord, art the enabling power and grace of both speaking and hearing, all will be to no avail.
And, Lord, Thou knowest how amongst us, Thy people, there is so much hearing of Thy Word and so little doing of it. We pray, O Lord, that Thou wilt grant this night that we might know Thy presence both in speaking and in our hearing.
To that end, Lord, we praise Thee and worship Thee that Thou hast made provision for us in our Lord Jesus Christ of that anointing, both for speaking and for hearing. We thank Thee that that anointing is made practically and realistically available to us in the Person of the Holy Spirit.
O Father, by faith may all of us appropriate and take hold of that anointing which we need for this evening. Overcome all our problems of tiredness, of scatteredness, of the thoughts of the day, or many other problems that may clutter our hearts or minds.
We place it all under the feet of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we take Him to be Head over this time tonight and Head over us all. And, Lord, we praise Thee that Thou wilt release Thy Word in such a way that it will do its work in our hearts and in our lives. There will be a consequence from it, and we give Thee thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
I want to underline two verses in Romans 9. First, a phrase in verse 11:
That the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth.
And again, in verse 23:
That God might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He afore prepared unto glory.
I want to speak in these times that we have together, as the Lord leads, upon the life of Jacob.
There is no character or personality in the whole Bible who has left a greater mark upon all that follows than Jacob. He has left an ineradicable, indelible mark upon the whole history of God’s people.
We are always reminded of him by the title which God gave to Himself: the God of Jacob. We hear it not once, but again and again and again and again—the God of Jacob, or the Mighty One of Jacob.
Or we are reminded of it when we hear the words “the house of Jacob.” We are always hearing about the house of Jacob, especially in the Old Testament. His very name, Jacob and Israel, has been transferred to the whole people of God, to the redeemed community of God, so that God calls us Jacob.
But now thus saith He that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel: Fear not, for I am with thee.
And so on: when thou goest through the waters, I will be with thee; the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; and when thou passest through the fire, it shall not kindle upon thee, and so on and so on.
It is interesting. Moses is a tremendous character, but God never called us Moses. Abraham is a tremendous character, but God never called His people Abraham. Samuel is a tremendous character. All these men marked turning points in the economy of God, but never did their name get given to the whole redeemed community of God forever and ever, throughout eternity.
But this one man, Jacob—God took his name and refers to His redeemed people, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, as Jacob and as Israel. Jacob and Israel.
And that, I feel, must have tremendous significance. If God calls every born-again believer Jacob, and every born-again believer Israel, there must be something in the life and character of Jacob which is of tremendous and vital significance to us all.
If we could only understand God’s dealings with this man, if we could only understand how God took hold of him, why God persevered with him, what God did with him, maybe we would begin to understand something about our salvation. Maybe we would begin to understand something about the eternal purpose of God for His elect people. Maybe we would begin to understand something more of the dealings of God and the ways of God with His own.
So that is why I want, in these times, to talk about this remarkable man, Jacob. And what I want to talk about, without any further introduction this evening, is the love of God and Jacob: the election of Jacob.
There is only one explanation for the choice of Jacob on the part of God, and that is divine love.
You will wrestle with Scripture backwards and forwards. You will bend over backwards; you will bend over forwards to try and find some rational reason, some explanation, as to why God took hold of this man Jacob. You will find none whatsoever except for one simple, seemingly illogical explanation: God loved him.
And at the heart of every single person who has been saved by the grace of God is the same inexplicable reason.
Why did God take hold of you? Why did God take hold of me? Why did He manipulate our circumstances? Why did He finally corner us? Why, when He has got us, does He never leave us? Why, even when we go into the far country, is He with us—hidden, but there? Why does He finally, in the end, corner us on a deeper level? Why does He change us from Jacob into Israel?
There is only really one explanation, and it is this:
Jacob I have loved.
If you look at the Scriptures, you find it in Malachi 1:2-3. We read it a little earlier:
Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob; but Esau I hated.
Many people tell me that the Old Testament ends with a curse, and this is because they are legalistic. They look at the last verse of Malachi and understand it to be a curse. It says, “Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”
But when you really understand the little prophet Malachi, it is not about a curse at all. The last word of God in the old covenant is that He loves Jacob with an everlasting love and will not let him go.
Indeed, He says one of the most remarkable things in this little prophecy:
For I, the Lord, change not; therefore ye, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
And you would think then that He would say, “Therefore I have given you up. You change so much. You are one day hot, the next day cold. You are one day with Me, the next day against Me. One day you are obedient; one day you are rebellious. One day you are following Me; one day you are departing from Me. I change not, but you—I can never count on you.”
But the Lord says, “I, the Lord, change not. Therefore, all ye sons of Jacob, ye are not consumed.”
In Romans 9:10-13 we have, I suppose, one of those passages of Scripture in the whole of this ninth chapter of Romans which is not often read today amongst Christians. If it is, it is skipped through very quickly without comment. It is one of those passages which falls very strangely on democratic modern ears.
The whole thing is to do with election. And we find it very hard in the twentieth century to somehow reconcile the love of God with this. Yet the Lord said quite clearly:
The children being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God might stand—a purpose of God according to election might stand—not of works, but of Him that calleth.
It was said unto her, that is, Rebekah, The elder shall serve the younger, even as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.
What an extraordinary matter this is.
So this evening we come to what I feel will be both a marvellous message and a very confusing one to many. The marvellous side is: God loves us. And the confusing side is this: He chooses us.
And He chooses us because He loves us. He does not choose us because we are going to be useful, or because we are superior, or because we are elite, or because we are not going to be any trouble to Him, or because He will not have to persevere with us.
He chooses us because He loves us, and we cannot understand that. So we are immediately face to face with the mystery of election. Any child of God who does not sooner or later come to stand in the presence of infinite mystery concerning their salvation has not understood their salvation.
The election of Jacob is totally inexplicable unless it is because of the love of God.
Now, if you turn to Deuteronomy, we get a little clue in this matter. In Deuteronomy 7:6-10:
For thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a people for His own possession, above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth.
The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all peoples:
but because the Lord loveth you, and because He would keep the oath which He sware unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Now mark these words:
The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people, but because the Lord loveth you.
There is divine reason. The Lord set His love on you and chose you because He loves you.
Do not ask me why some people love some people. It has been an everlasting miracle to me to see who falls in love with whom.
I stare—I try not to be rude, because I was brought up in Britain—but I stare sometimes for hours at a person, when they are not noticing, to try and see what it is that some friend has found in them.
I see them as pleasant people, sometimes intelligent people, sometimes capable people, but I cannot understand how sometimes some great two-hundred-pound hunk of masculinity goes all soft and sentimental and somehow can start to talk baby talk, and I do not know what else. He does not do it with anybody else.
But somehow he set his love on that one and chose her because he loves her. There is no other explanation.
And there is no other explanation for the love of God for you. He did not choose you because you were going to go right on to the very end.
Some people believe that the election of God is based on His foreknowledge, but this is to do injustice to God—as if God is so utilitarian, so mean, that somehow or other He will only choose those whom, in His foreknowledge, He knows will go through with Him.
This is not what the Bible says. The Bible says, before they were even born, before they had done either good or bad, God loved Jacob. He set His love upon him and chose him.
And when that decision was made before times eternal, it set the whole scene for Jacob’s life. God, on His part, would never give up.
He would not become partaker of Jacob’s sins. He would not be party to his swindling. He would not be party to much else that was wrong and evil in Jacob. But God had made a decision concerning Jacob, that the purpose according to election might stand.
He never backed out or backed down.
Now, I find this simply marvellous. Because when I look at this man Jacob, there are some facets of his character which are not exactly attractive.
I must say straight away that much injustice has been done to Jacob. He is often portrayed as some slimy swindler, extortioner, exploiter—ugly, unlovable, unattractive. I do not think so.
I think Jacob was an incredibly attractive person. Certainly, it seems that none of Laban’s daughters had any problem over marrying him, and he was penniless. So there must have been something attractive about the man.
Furthermore, let me just say this in his defence. Abraham is often looked upon as some noble, upright, marvellous character. But it was Abraham who, when he went down into Egypt in disobedience, said to Pharaoh that his wife was his sister.
She was his half-sister. But however much people argue in favour of the nobility of Abraham, the fact remains: though she was his half-sister, he deliberately told it as a lie, and got into a lot of trouble. Jacob never did anything like that.
You never read anywhere of even Isaac, who never did anything original in his life. Even he lied about his wife to Abimelech and got into trouble. But you do not find that with Jacob. So do not do Jacob too much injustice.
The man had tremendous business acumen—tremendous business acumen. And the whole story of his life was simply this: he had a great regard for the things of God, but he was unable to cope with his own natural strength and will.
Esau despised his birthright. Not Jacob.
If you want to read the story, of course you have to turn to Genesis 25:24-26. You read the whole story of Jacob.
Now, I suppose most of you know that this name Jacob, in Hebrew Ya’akov, comes from the same word as heel. But it is a pun, a play on words. It means someone who supplants, someone who catches hold of another, because when he was born—they were twin brothers—he was born with his arm wrapped round his brother’s heel.
So he was called Ya’akov. It was a play on heel: one who supplants, one who twists. And it was exactly Jacob.
When his brother came in one day, hungry, panting almost from hunger, and asked for some of the stew that Jacob was cooking, Jacob said, “Certainly, but you give me your birthright first.”
And Esau said, “You can have the birthright.” And Jacob said, “Sign on the dotted line.” Not a ladle of stew would he give Esau till he had got it in writing. But the moment he got it in writing, Esau could have all the stew he wanted.
Later on, you remember the story of the deceit that went into getting the blessing. It was Rebekah’s idea. And even Jacob said to his mother, “Do you not think Father will know it is me when he hears my voice and touches me?”
“No,” she said, “I have got all that in hand. We will have all that so that there is no problem. Your father is so blind he will not be able to see who it is, and he is half deaf now. He will only faintly hear. It will be okay.”
And you know the story of how the blessing was stolen.
Now, God had said, “The elder shall serve the younger.” So we know that it was the will of God that both the birthright, that according to Semitic custom should have gone to the firstborn, the elder, and the blessing that should have gone to the elder, should in fact both have come to the younger.
So you might immediately say to me, “Then what was wrong?” What was wrong was not the fact that both the birthright and the blessing came to Jacob. It was the way it came.
And if you and I, as a people of God, do not learn something about this, we are going to learn nothing. All the problem with us is that we seek holiness with the wrong motives. We seek sometimes a second blessing for the wrong motives. We seek a baptism of the Spirit for the wrong motive. We seek some kind of thing for some other reason.
We know it is the will of God that this and this and this and this should be true about me. We know that this and this and this should be true about us as the people of God, as the church of God, as the redeemed community of God. But it is the way we get it.
And, you know, we cannot help it. I suppose there are more neurotics amongst Christians than any other community in the world, because we cannot help it. We have a strength of will, and a strength of character, and a natural energy, and a natural resourcefulness that just comes out again and again and again and again.
We become our own worst enemy. We spend our whole life, on one side, longing for the purpose of God to be fulfilled both in ourselves individually and in the people of God corporately, and we ourselves frustrate and hinder the purpose of God at every turn.
And here, right at the very beginning, we have the story of Jacob. Jacob, from this point of view, is very much like you and me.
It is true, of course, that God, in one sense, has taken Jacob, as we have often said, as the lowest denominator, so that not one of us will feel left out.
Jesus said a most remarkable thing in John 1:47:
Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and saith of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!
Now, you will know that this whole little portion is all to do with Jacob. We shall refer to it again later. You remember He said later to this Nathanael, “You shall see heaven open, and angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” This was a direct reference to the dream of Jacob at Bethel, when he saw what he called the house of God, when he saw a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, and angels ascending and descending upon it.
But what I am interested in this evening is this: Jesus said, when He saw Nathanael, “Behold, an Israelite”—using Jacob’s wonderful name of grace—“in whom there is no guile.” And in Greek, He used the word, “in whom there is no Jacob.”
Behold, an Israelite in whom there is no Jacob.
Guile! Do not think you have not got it. If you think you have not got it, you are just deceived.
There are many people who tell me how pure they are on certain things, but in actual fact they are not at all. Guile is all there. They arrange conversations, manipulate little booklets so that they get into the hands of people at the so-called right time, arrange telephone conversations, arrange circumstances—guile, guile, guile, guile, and more guile.
Not the Spirit of God. It is not the Lord. It is us. We are trying to get the birthright. We are trying to get the blessing. We are not trying to get it for ourselves; we are trying to get it for somebody else.
I find the wonder of God’s love for Jacob in this fact: He never said, as He could have done, “Israel I have loved.” If He had only said, “Israel I have loved, Esau I have hated,” it would have made it all much more simple for many, many Christians.
But He said, “Jacob I have loved.”
Now, I do not know how much you know about yourself, but this is the first thing about why God calls us all Jacob and Israel. It is because He has elected us. He has chosen us. He has set His love upon us and chosen us because He loves us.
You will never find any other explanation. Try.
I have been now going with the Lord for some—I do not know how many years—thirty years it must be since I was saved, at least. And I have tried to find an explanation again and again and again.
I used to think I was rather clever in the Lord’s work. I used to think that I had zeal and devotion. I used to think, I suppose, that is why the Lord really saved me. Now, I would not say this normally publicly—not in those days—but privately I used to think there must be some reason why the Lord saved me.
Very few of us really believe that there is no good thing in us. It takes us years to come to the place where we see even our Christianity is so much sham. It is self-manufactured. It has no foundation. It can be swept away.
And then, when we come to that kind of position and that kind of recognition, we are face to face with divine mystery: the love of God.
Jesus said:
You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and that you should bear much fruit.
I do not know how you feel about your conversion or your salvation, but I can only speak for myself. For myself, I only know this: that behind my conversion, behind my salvation, lies the mystery of election.
Do not ask me to explain it. I know that man has responsibility. I know that man has a will—a free will. I know that he must take responsibility in some way or another. And how these two things come together, I do not know.
One brother said to me they are like the two tracks of a railroad. They never come together, but both are necessary if the train is going to run.
I cannot explain it. But what I know is this: that somehow or other, behind my conversion is the mystery of God’s election.
In other words, my conversion, my salvation, did not actually begin on the day that I made a decision. Did yours?
No, mine goes back before the Garden of Eden. Mine goes back into times eternal. Mine goes right back, before there was a creation, before there was a universe, before there was anything, into the very heart of God.
And somewhere there, in the mystery of His love, my name was taken hold of—and yours. Your names were written in the Lamb’s book of life before the foundation of the world, the Scripture says.
Now someone is going to say, “Oh dear, you are a Calvinist.”
I am. I always upset people by saying this, but I am—theologically, I am. People get terribly upset.
But if you mean I do not want to take a name and label myself with some name, what I must say is this: when it comes for me to choose between whether it is the sovereignty of God or my will, I have to choose the sovereignty of God—for myself.
Now, I understand entirely others who have had quite a different experience. But you see, when I take certain Scriptures—I want you just to look at them for one moment. John 6. I will only give you one. I am not going to labour this point, so fear not. I am not going to cause a lot of trouble and controversy.
But John 6:37-39:
All that which the Father giveth Me shall come unto Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.
For I am come down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.
And this is the will of Him that sent Me, that of all that which He hath given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.
Now I defy anybody to get out of that. That is not some little gospel that goes into before times eternal and on into the ages yet to come.
Do not ask me to explain it. The Lord Jesus said that somewhere back before times eternal, the Father gave the Son a company of people.
And the Lord Jesus said:
All that which the Father hath given Me shall come unto Me; and him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out.
Now we often hear the last part of that verse quoted by someone. We often hear the first part of the verse quoted by others. But we rarely hear it as the full verse that it is.
Jesus came to do not His own will, but the will of Him that sent Him. And this is the will, He said, of Him that sent Me: that of all that which He hath given Me, I should lose nothing, but at the last day should raise it up.
There could not be anything more comprehensive, more conclusive than that. Your very body raised up.
The Lord Jesus said in one place—what did He say? Hang on, I am just trying to get it right. I know what it is, but I just cannot get it right. In one place He said, “The very hairs of your head are numbered.” Yes, the very hairs of your head are numbered. In another place He said, “Not one hair of your head shall perish.”
Now every one of us is losing some hairs every day. We grow more, but I mean, it is amazing to me. What did our Lord mean? Did He mean actually not one single hair? I am sure He did not mean literally, legally, that we might have thought. But I think more likely He meant, “Look here, think of your hair. They are always having some coming out. As we get older, more come out than grow.”
But the fact remains that not one single jot or tittle of your being is going to be lost. You are saved—spirit, soul, and body. And that is why He said, “At the last day, I will raise it up.” What a salvation!
I begin to reel back at that kind of thing. You see, we as the Lord’s people, we have such small conceptions sometimes, and we all departmentalise sooner or later.
I knew a couple when I was first saved. They have since gone to the Lord. Both their sons have become famous servants of the Lord in Britain. But I remember that marvellous man, for he was a servant of the Lord too.
He greatly encouraged us in our early days and was with us all the way through all the battle and the conflict and the ostracism and everything else. He stood like a rock with us.
But I remember how he told me the story of his conversion. Let me just take one moment to confuse you a bit more. He said that he was a captain in the Merchant Navy—a blackguard, absolutely.
He used to come home drunk. His wife used to lock herself in a room till he had sobered.
But one day, coming back drunk, he managed to open the front door, staggered across the hall, and fell in a drunken stupor on the floor of the lounge. He rolled over on his back, made a few very unpleasant noises which were heard throughout the house, so his wife told me, and lay there for the rest of the night in an absolute drunken stupor.
The next morning, he came round with a hangover—converted.
Now, do not just look at me. He came round converted—that was his own words.
And his wife said to me, “You know, I could not believe it. I came in; he was sitting there, holding his head, sitting in an armchair, and said, ‘Can you tell me, have we got a Bible in the house?’”
And she said, “Charles, you are not now going to blaspheme even that sacred book.”
And he said, “No, I would like to read it.”
Two weeks later, sweeping up the corridor, she leaned on the top of her broom, wondering about the change in her husband that was so apparent. And in that moment, she was converted.
Now, of course, both of them naturally believed in the sovereignty of God. What else?
I mean, I know many have gone forward in Billy Graham crusades, and many have gone forward in other things. I believe it is absolutely right. People have been marvellously saved. They have signed a decision card and been gloriously saved.
It is stupid to rule it out, as if God only saves people against their will, almost. That would be silly. But the fact of the matter is this: whether we like it or not, God struck the Apostle Paul down.
People try to wiggle out of this by saying, “Well, you know, when Stephen died, he probably had his conscience pricked and made his decision then.” Well, I mean, that is not in the Book.
The Apostle Paul said that God said to him, “You are a chosen vessel.” And when He spoke to Ananias, He said, “Do not be afraid. He is a chosen vessel.”
Now, I honestly am not trying to confuse you on this point at all, or to raise what is, after all, a very controversial matter. But what I am saying is this.
You cannot understand why God calls His redeemed people Jacob and Israel unless you understand that at the very root of its use is this whole mystery of election. And the mystery of election can only be explained by the inexplicable love of God.
That God might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He afore prepared unto glory.
Afore prepared—a vessel of mercy. I look at Jacob, and I see only one thing: a vessel of mercy, nothing else. The mercy of God.
And what else do I see? I see a vessel of mercy, afore prepared unto glory. And what more do I understand? God, that He might make known the riches of His glory upon this vessel of mercy, afore prepared unto glory.
There are so many wonderful things about this matter, but I want to go on to just two more, and then I am going to finish. And it is this: the only explanation for the election of Jacob—the choice, God’s choice of Jacob—is the love of God. The only explanation for God’s choice of you is His love.
When we speak about the love of God and Jacob, there are two things that come out in his life. And it is this: the strength and determination of God’s love.
It is, at one and the same time, both the most wonderful thing in the whole wide universe and the most fearful thing to be loved by God.
Now, did you hear that? It is at one and the same time the most wonderful thing in the universe and the most fearful thing to be loved by God.
Many Christians, especially American Christians, only understand that it is wonderful. They have never recognised the fearfulness of God’s love.
But I want to tell you something. Once God sets His love upon a human being, He will move heaven and earth, but in the end He will get you.
That is why I believe in the future of the Jewish people, because the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. In the end, He will bring them back into the elect people of God.
Why? Because it is both the most wonderful thing in the world to be loved by God and the most fearful thing. If you do not surrender to Him, God will allow circumstances to come into your life, problems to come into your life, difficulties to come into your life, adversity to come into your life.
But in the end, even if it is on your deathbed, you will have settled the issue. He will wait a whole lifetime till finally you say those wonderful words: “Yes, Lord. Have Your way.”
God loved Jacob into Israel. When he swindled his brother, his twin brother, out of the birthright, God still loved him. He did not condone it, but He loved him. He knew what it was going to cost him. He knew what he would go through to come to a recognition of this nature of his, but He loved him.
When he deceived his old blind father into giving him that blessing, and swindled it out of his twin brother’s hand, God loved him. He did not condone it. He knew that it was going to mean that he would be torn away from his home and would never see his mother again. He would see his father, but never his mother again, whom he loved so greatly.
When he spent twenty years swindling his uncle Laban and being swindled in return by his uncle Laban, God was with him all the way through.
Until one night, he was alone. Behind him, Laban; and in front of him, Esau—and nothing but trouble.
And then the Lord had cornered Jacob. Finally, finally, Jacob was caught.
You know, we have such an incredible self-life, such resources within our natural life, that in the end God has to bring us to a place where everything has gone wrong, where we are ashamed of everything, until finally we are ready, in sheer desperation, to allow God to have His way.
In fact, we get to the place where we get hold of God and do not let Him go. Whereas before, it was all bargaining.
When God first came to Jacob, God said to him, “I am the God of your grandfather and your father.”
And Jacob said, “Oh, how fearful is this place! This is none other than the house of God and the gate of heaven.” He set up a pillar, poured oil over it, and called upon the name of the Lord.
And then he said, “Now listen. You are the God of my grandfather and my father. If You bring me safely right away through all this, feeding me, clothing me, and bringing me back to this place, then—oh, the magnanimity of it!—then You shall be my God, and I will build You a house here.”
Now, of course, we understand how awful that is. But this is exactly what you and I do all through our Christian life. We are always bargaining with God.
“Oh God, oh God, I am in a fix. Get me out of this and I will do this for You. Get me out of this and this, and I will give You this and this and this. You can have my life.”
It is a terrible cost, but I shall give You my life if You will do this.
You know, God is so gracious. He does not grumble, He does not get angry, and He does not forsake us. He says, “The bargain is struck.”
Now, do you think that God is going to play ball with Jacob? No. God knows exactly what He is going to do. He knows that Jacob cannot face up to it now.
Jacob has got to go a whole long way until finally he comes to a place where he does not say, “Oh God, oh God, You are here this night with me, and I with You. You help me with my brother Esau, and You shall be my God, and I will build that house I told You now, and I will give You a tenth of everything.”
No, no, not at all. This time he is so desperate that he gets hold of the Angel of the Lord in a wrestling grip that the Angel of the Lord could not get out of.
And the Angel of the Lord said, “Let Me go.” And Jacob said, “I will not let You go unless You do something.”
And when the Angel said, “What is your name?” Jacob could have said, “My name? Oh, do You have to know that?” He could have said, “I am Abraham’s grandson. I am the son of Isaac.” But he instantly said, “Jacob.”
Then the Angel said, “You are no longer Jacob. You are Israel.”
Israel, which we believe either means—and it may well deliberately have two meanings in Hebrew—either “he perseveres,” that is Jacob, or “God perseveres.” He persevered with God, or it can mean God perseveres.
Is that not true? Who persevered? God. And He persevered until Jacob became so desperate he knew there was no alternative.
You know, when we first start out in this Christian life, we have got alternatives. Let us face it. We often think, “I could go back. I could go back. The grass is greener over that side of the fence. I could be having a wonderful time if I went back. But I will stay with the Lord. I will support Him.”
But there comes a time, because the love of God has set itself upon us—His love is set upon us—there comes a time when there is no alternative. We cannot go back, we cannot go forward, something has got to happen.
Oh, this strength and determination of the love of God.
Now, I said that I would only speak for an hour, so I must get a move on. Isaiah 43:1—listen to these wonderful words. Here is strength and determination, is there not?
But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed thee; I have called thee by thy name; thou art Mine.
When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee:
when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel.
What determination there is in the love of God. I find this a tremendous comfort. It is both the most wonderful thing and the most fearful thing, because once God has set His love upon you, He will not let you go.
Do not think that those backsliding years are somehow or other just outside of God’s hand. If there is no other way of getting you, He will allow you to go into your Babylon, and there to be cured of your idolatry forever.
He will do it another way if He can. But if you will not let Him, His love is so tremendous, He will let you go into your furnace of affliction. He will let you go to eat the bread of adversity. He will let you go till you are eating the husks of the swine, till you come to yourself.
And then, after a long journey back, you will find Him. He has been there all the time, planning everything, arranging everything, hiding His hand, but always there.
The father could have gone right down into the far country to get the prodigal son. His love was so great, He could have easily done it, but He did not. He just waited.
So this love of God is so tremendous. And I find it again in Isaiah 44:1-5:
Yet now hear, O Jacob My servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen:
thus saith the Lord that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, who will help thee: Fear not, O Jacob My servant; and thou, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.
For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground: I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring:
and they shall spring up among the grass, as willows by the watercourses.
One shall say, I am the Lord’s; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel.
Is that not marvellous? One shall call himself by the name of Jacob, and another shall subscribe himself by the name of the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel.
Has that not happened to you? You may be Gentile, but if you have been saved by the grace of God, you become partakers of the commonwealth of Israel, and you have been brought by the grace of God to the place where you are surnamed with the name Israel and called Jacob—called by the name of the Lord.
Look again in the same chapter, Isaiah 44:21-24:
Remember these things, O Jacob; and Israel, for thou art My servant: I have formed thee; thou art My servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of Me.
I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto Me; for I have redeemed thee.
Sing, O ye heavens, for the Lord hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and will glorify Himself in Israel.
Is that not beautiful? The Lord will redeem Jacob and will glorify Himself in Israel. You are a Jacob whom He has redeemed, and an Israel in whom He will be glorified.
Oh, that God may do this work. Well now, this jealous determination of God is the factor in Jacob’s life. And before we come to look at the purpose of God for Jacob, with all its significance for us; before we look at the face of God and Jacob; before we look at Jacob the overcomer, we must first recognise this foundational factor: the love of God in the election of Jacob.
Jacob had many, many miles to travel, trials to pass through, deep valleys to be crossed, till he became Israel.
But it was the love of God that was to be the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the ending, the Amen, of the purpose of God for Jacob.
Now, dear one, that is what you are, whether you know it or not: you are a vessel of mercy. And whether you know it or not, behind your being a vessel of mercy is the election of God. And behind the election of God is the love of God.
You have been chosen by God with a tremendous, tremendous objective in view.
Vessels of mercy. Now, I am always asked—and I will just spend one minute on this—I am always asked by people, “Well, what about ‘Esau I have hated’? What a dreadful thing.”
Yes. But I want to tell you something. First of all, love is eternal and hate is transient.
Secondly, God made promises to Esau, which He kept—wonderful promises. He said, out of him there will come both kings and tribes. He will live in the presence of his brethren all through his life. He has.
And thirdly, thousands of Esau’s sons have become children of God. So remember that.
But you still cannot get away from the fact, however much it confuses or perplexes you, that God says about you, “Jacob I love.” God loves you.
“Well, you see, I cannot know that.” That is just the problem. Most of us cannot really believe that God loves me.
We can only believe that He loves the kind of pious projection—the kind of artificial façade I put up, because it is a lovely, beautiful person there, you know, sort of. I smile, say the right things, do the right things, but inside I am very different.
I want to tell you something. That person behind the façade is the one God loves. The other is a sham; He cannot sanctify it.
But it is true. God has never saved a sham in His life. He does not sanctify shams. He does not fill shams with His Spirit.
How can He get you from Jacob into Israel if you are trying to be something else at the beginning?
Trying to project something to others—all this kind of sham godliness, this sham piety. We have ways of walking, ways of praying, tones we use, all kinds of things. It is all such a lot of rubbish. God deliver us from the whole thing.
It is the most effective way of stopping Jacob becoming Israel. I would rather have a rough diamond like Jacob. Actually, he was not such a rough diamond; the problem with Jacob was that he was a bit polished. But still, that is by the way.
I would rather have the Jacob that God could get at, swindling and all. God had something to get hold of with the man. Jacob was nothing but himself. That is why he became Israel.
He was not all pie in the sky. It was no sort of wonderful ecstatic idea, all sort of, “You know, I have got it all. I have been sanctified.”
These sanctified people are an awful nuisance. You know, these so-called sanctified people—they are not human beings.
Well, it is true, is it not? They are just not human beings. They are little spiritual machines, little bits of spiritual mechanics. They say the right thing at the right place and smile at the right time, and everything is right—but it is not true inside.
Ask their children. No, it is true. Ask their children. I get children come to me and tell me about their so-called godly parents. My word, I learn something.
They look so pious in the assembly, but the kids—I do not believe they are lying. They have seen through it. They know what goes on in them.
So why not be ourselves? Right down to the bottom. Then we are Jacob. Then God can get His hands on you.
The Angel of the Lord says, “Just wait. I will get My hands on him.” Jacob thought he was getting his hands on the Angel of the Lord, and the Lord had planned the whole thing.
He had done such a marvellous work that, when it came to it, Jacob would not let Him go. The Angel had superior power. He only had to touch him in his thigh, and He dislocated his hip for the rest of his life.
The love of God.
You know, if you only began to realise that God loves you, you would become yourself. For the first time, perhaps, you would become yourself.
You would say, “God loves me. God loves Jacob. He loves me. I do not have to try and be something. He loves me. He is the God of Jacob.”
Then God can start such a work in you, and maybe you will not have to go the long, long way that Jacob went.
But even if you do, God will arrange it. You will come to your Jabbok sooner or later. Even if it is on your deathbed, you will get there.
Because the love of God is behind your election: a vessel of mercy, afore prepared unto glory.
So do not think your marriage is a mistake, even if it is. Do you get what I mean?
You deliberately went out and said, “I am going to marry that man,” or you went out and said, “I am going to marry that girl.” And you knew very well that God was not in it. You have done it. “It is a mistake, it is a mistake.”
It is not a mistake. God was behind it. It is the only way you, with your strength of will, will ever come to an end.
That dear husband was the best thing you ever got. And that wife is the best wife you ever got, because that is the way God is going to bring you to your Jabbok.
That job you chose—you now wish, “Oh, I had only not chosen that job.” But you chose it. You would not listen. You chose it. Now it is like a millstone round your neck. Thank God, He arranged the whole thing for you.
At the bottom of the sea, He will catch you. And then the millstone will go, finally—but not till you have learnt your lesson. You will come to your Jabbok.
It is afore prepared unto glory: vessels of mercy, afore prepared unto glory. Do you not get it? God, in His wonderful mercy and grace, has afore prepared us for glory.
So He knew what was in us, knew the strength of our will, the strength of our character, the incurable resourcefulness of our natural man or woman. And He is with us all the way through.
A vessel of mercy, afore prepared unto glory.
Well, when you finally get there, it will be then that you will see the first part of the sentence: “God, that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, afore prepared unto glory.”
There will come a day when all that is so poor will finally shine with glory. God has done it.
Now I finish, and I finish with this one little story. I remember years and years ago that extraordinary woman of God, Mildred Cable. I had the privilege of knowing her because I originally thought that God was calling me to that part of the world.
She and those two other sisters, Francesca and Evangeline French—these trio of very genteel women—used to go, sort of without any man, all around Central Asia, where no servant of the Lord had ever been before, at least not for thousands of years, preaching the gospel, leaving tracts, seeking to do the work of God.
And I remember this marvellous story that Mildred Cable once told. She said, “You know, jade is the most precious, precious thing. And it has been brought a thousand miles to Peking.”
“And sometimes, when it is there, the master craftsman, the jade smith, the master jade smith, will sit and look for an hour without saying a word, just looking at that piece of jade in its rough state.”
“He will go away, wrap it up in a cloth and go away, and then he will come back perhaps a week later, unwrap the cloth, and sit looking at the jade for another hour or so, and wrap it up.”
“You know what he is doing? Most jade has a fault. And those of you who know anything about antiques, especially jade, will know that the whole art of the jade smith is how to cope with the fault.”
“Sometimes you will have a beautiful piece of green jade with a great brown blotch in the centre. That is a fault.”
“When the jade smith is finished with it, the fault becomes the focal point of the beauty. He has made the little brown-yellow mark into a bird sitting on a lotus, or sometimes a frog on a leaf, or something else.”
“But the whole glory of the jade smith is to look and look and look until finally he has the complete picture in his mind. And then the work begins—drip, drip, drip—for months on end. Then slow polishing, polishing, polishing, until finally a work of art emerges, and the fault is the focal point of the whole piece.”
Jacob into Israel. That is what God does.
Do not think, “Oh, if I had only not gone that way. If only I had not gone this way. This and this and this about me.” God has it all in hand.
You are a vessel of mercy, afore prepared unto glory, and that Master Jade Smith has been watching and watching and watching. He knows exactly what He is going to do, and He has the picture of the finished piece in His mind.
And now He will work, and He will work, and He will work, and He will work, until even the mistakes and the faults in your life—
David sinned with Bathsheba. It was the most terrible thing that man of God ever did: to murder her husband in cold blood and commit adultery with her.
But when he had suffered and when he repented, you know what happened? Bathsheba became the mother of Solomon and of Nathan. And these are the two lines in the Messiah, of Mary and Joseph. Both came through Bathsheba.
The fault finally became a point of grace and beauty.
May God do this with us. Shall we pray?
Now, Lord, very simply, we bow in Thy presence. We ask Thee to make Thy Word a living reality to us. Do not let it just go over us or around us, but Lord, let it find a lodging in us.
And we pray, Lord, we cannot retain all that has been said, but we do pray, Lord, that what we need shall come to us in living power now, and what we do not need will be retained in our spirit until that day when we do need it, and then it will come into revelation.
Do this for us, Lord, we pray, and we ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Shall we sing a hymn? One hundred and one.
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.