I would like to read two readings from the Old Testament, from the book of Genesis.
And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward Haran.
And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took one of the stones of the place, and put it under his head, and lay down in that 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, the God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon 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 east, 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 whithersoever 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 it not.
And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.
And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.
And he called the name of that place Beth-el: but the name of the city was Luz at the first.
And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, 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, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that Thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto Thee.
And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came from Paddan-aram, and blessed him.
And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and He called his name Israel.
And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins.
And the land which I gave unto Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.
And God went up from him in the place where He spake with him.
And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where He spake with him, a pillar of stone; and he poured out a drink-offering thereon, and poured oil thereon.
And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Beth-el.
Shall we bow together in a word of prayer?
Lord, we do want to thank Thee that Thou art with us, and that Thou hast gathered us in the name of our Lord Jesus, Thy Son, the Messiah.
And Lord, as we are here in this place, we thank Thee for the provision Thou hast made for us this morning—provision that will, Lord, meet every single need: spiritual, mental, physical, material. We take that provision by faith this morning.
We pray that none of these things—the bugs, or anything else, worries, fears, things from the night—will in any way come between us and hearing Thy Word, in such a way that something will get into us. It will be that Word of Thine, living, active, and sharper than any two-edged sword.
Dear Lord, we commit ourselves to Thee. We thank Thee for that anointing for speaking and for hearing. By faith we stand into it, Lord, for this time; and we touch that rock which is our Lord Jesus, and command those rivers of living water to flow out and meet our need this morning. We ask this in His precious name. Amen.
Now, I am taking as the theme for this time a little verse in Romans 9:23:
That He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He afore prepared unto glory.
God might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He afore prepared unto glory.
And I am thinking very much about the life, character, and way of Jacob, because there is really no personality in the Bible that has had greater effect on all that followed than Jacob. Indeed, God gives the name of Jacob and Israel to His redeemed people forever. We are the Israel of God, and that is the most wonderful thing.
There must therefore be quite a lot in the life of Jacob which has very real significance for all of us. Last night I spoke about the love of God and Jacob: the love of God being behind the election of Jacob, the choice of Jacob. The love of God, its determination and jealousy, means that once the Lord sets His love upon us, He has a jealous determination that we shall finally come to the end He has for us.
And now, this morning, without going over anything of what we have said, I want to talk a little bit about the purpose of God concerning Jacob. This will take one or two times, because the purpose of God for Jacob is of tremendous significance for all of us who are named with his name.
It says in Romans 9, concerning Jacob, that the purpose of God according to election might stand. So God had a very real objective, a purpose, for Jacob’s life.
What was that purpose? We have it contained in the two readings that we have read together in Genesis: Genesis 28:10-22 and Genesis 35:9-15.
Now, that purpose was fivefold. We shall only deal with some of the matters this morning, but it was fivefold:
So here we have a fivefold purpose of God for Jacob: that he might possess a land promised to him by God; that he might become a people; that he might be a blessing; that he might have power with God, and therefore also with men; and that he might build the house of God.
So I want straight away to consider the first of these, and maybe the second. Maybe we will cover a number of them and give ourselves more time for the last, upon which there is so much to say.
First of all, a land to be possessed. Genesis 28:13:
And behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed.
And Genesis 35:12:
And the land which I gave unto Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.
This land was not any land that Jacob chose. If he had chosen, for instance, the fertile Nile Delta, it would not have been God’s promised land. If he had chosen the great fertile area of Mesopotamia, it would not have been God’s chosen, promised land. If he had gone further northwest and chosen Europe, or some fertile area of Europe, it would not have been the Lord’s promised land.
The land that was divinely given and promised was clearly defined. It had clearly defined boundaries. It was covenanted land. God said, “Within that land, I will give you everything. Outside of that land, nothing.” As simple as that.
Jacob’s grandfather Abraham had not learned that lesson too well. Although we always understand Abraham to be a man of faith—and he was—there came one of those great collapses of faith in his life when he went down into Egypt.
Now, the interesting thing is this: Jacob finally went down into Egypt, but there was this difference. God led Jacob down into Egypt, whereas with Abraham, it was because there was a famine in the land.
Some people never believe that there can ever be a famine while in God’s will. They believe in the prosperity gospel. They believe that when you are in the will of God, everything is always, at all times, overflowing.
Now, it is absolutely true: this land is a land flowing with milk and honey. It is a land watered by the rains of heaven. You do not have to pump it up with the foot, as you do in Egypt. I lived for three years in Egypt. I know it only too well. I have never, ever wanted to go back.
That is a land that is as flat as a pancake—at least the delta area—and you have to pump everything up with the foot, with wheels, or with donkeys: forever going round, a poor bullock blindfolded, going round and round and round, pulling up the water, pulling up the water.
God said, “No, you do not have to do that. In this land which I promise you, there are not only these, what we call in rabbinic studies, the eight species—the eight different fruits—so fertile, so abundant; but it is a land watered from the heavens by God. You do not have to pump it up. It is God-given. Everything is in that land.”
Abraham, when there was a time of famine, was tested to the hilt. If he had only trusted God and stayed within the land, he would have dwelt on the faithfulness of the Lord and would have had Elijah’s experience a thousand years earlier. Ravens would have fed him and his family, or a brook would not have dried up. But he went down because it was the natural thing: “There is plenty over there and famine here. It must be the will of God to go down there, since God is not doing anything here.”
And this is how we all argue in spiritual things. We often think the grass on the other side of the fence is greener. So, if we go down there, we will be in plenty.
And we can be in plenty, but we can also lose the presence of the Lord. And that is what happened with Abraham. He got into a whole great mess over his wife. You remember the curse that came upon Pharaoh’s household, and how miraculously God delivered Abraham.
Now, the wonderful thing about this land concerning Jacob was that he learned his lesson. He never got out of that land.
Jacob may have had a lot of things about his character that would not do, a lot of things that we do not find attractive; but there was one marvellous thing about this man. He had a shrewd appreciation of God, a shrewd appreciation of the things of God, and a kind of spiritual logic: that if God does this, and this, and this, it must be the best thing.
A land covenanted. If you look in Psalm 105, you will find again that the psalmist speaks of this matter. Psalm 105:6-11:
O ye seed of Abraham His servant,
Ye children of Jacob, His chosen ones.
He is the Lord our God;
His judgments are in all the earth.
He hath remembered His covenant for ever,
The word which He commanded to a thousand generations,
The covenant which He made with Abraham,
And His oath unto Isaac,
And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a statute,
To Israel for an everlasting covenant,
Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan,
The lot of your inheritance.
An everlasting covenant, confirmed to Jacob—an everlasting covenant.
All the grace and power of God is within the boundaries of that land: from the great sea, the Mediterranean Sea, over to the great river, the river Euphrates—actually a tributary of it, not the actual river, as some people think—from the north, from the mountains of Lebanon, the river Litani in the south of Lebanon, right down to the river of Egypt, what we now call the Wadi el-Arish, which is in North Sinai.
God said, “Within these boundaries is land I covenant to you forever. It is covenanted. I promise it. I give it to you.”
Within these boundaries you will find iron and copper, and water from heaven. You will find fruitfulness. You will find fertility. You will find all that you need within this land. The nation shall live.
Now remember, when He spoke to Jacob there was no nation. But He was almost saying, “Within these boundaries it will be here that the central point of this nation will be. This will be their land. This will be their territory. Here they will be able to get their livelihood. Here they will be able to live, multiply, and increase.”
Within these boundaries the kingdom will come into being. Here God will bring in the man after His own heart, David, and will set up the kingdom. In this land, not outside of it—no kingdom outside of it—but within these boundaries there will be the kingdom of God: the king, the throne.
Within these boundaries you will find the city of God, that place which He afterwards said to Moses, “I will cause My name to dwell there forever.” There you shall bring your offerings. There you shall worship Me—not any hill or place that you shall choose.
You cannot choose somewhere in Babylon, somewhere in Egypt, or somewhere in Syria. But within this land, I will bring you to a particular place, a particular mountain, a particular city; and in this city I will cause My name to dwell there, and there the house of the Lord shall be built, and nowhere else.
Within these boundaries, then, a nation. Within these boundaries, a kingdom with a throne. Within these boundaries, a city, the house of God. And within these boundaries, the Messiah.
Later on, one of the prophets was to say:
But thou, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Which art little among the thousands of Judah,
Out of thee shall One come forth unto Me
That is to be ruler in Israel;
Whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.
Bethlehem you will not find in Babylon. Bethlehem you will not find in Saudi Arabia. Bethlehem you will not find in Syria. You will not find it in Egypt. Bethlehem was within these defined boundaries of promised, covenanted land; and it was there that the Messiah, who is Lord of all, blessed for ever, should be born.
And also another prophet said—well, I had better read it. In Isaiah 9—it has just gone out of my head:
But there shall be no gloom to her that was in anguish, as in the former time He brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali; but in the latter time hath He made it glorious, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
Zebulun, Naphtali—where are these tribal areas? Not in Babylon, not in Egypt, not in Syria. They are within the defined boundaries of this land. Where is Galilee? Galilee is within the defined borders of this land.
God had promised everything. Here the finished work of the Messiah would be accomplished. Here, all the outshining of the glory of God: the Word become flesh, dwelling among us, so that we can behold His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father. All this was within this land.
Now, I hope you get hold of this. God had a purpose for Jacob, and this purpose was inextricably involved with a certain portion of earth which God promised and covenanted to Jacob and to his seed.
Within those borders, everything provided; outside of those borders, nothing provided. It is not that God would not keep them when they got outside of those borders, but the purpose of God could not be realised.
Whenever God did anything outside of those borders, it was always toward this land. He always led Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees toward this land. He always brought His people through Moses and Joshua up out of Egypt into this land. When they were in Babylon, He brought them back to this land. His purpose could not be fulfilled except in this land.
Now, what has all that got to say for you and me? Why does God call you and me Jacob and Israel? Some of you will say, “Well now, are you going to tell us we should all go and live in Israel?”
Well, if you have got Jewish background, you should. But if you have not, we will let you off.
No, we do not need everybody coming to live in Israel. We have got enough cranks—not to say that you are all cranks—but, I mean, we have got enough Christian cranks. It is like a magnet that draws every crackpot in the world there. Everyone has got a bee in the bonnet somehow, and they are drawn like some magnet to Jerusalem.
We have to spend our time praying that God will deliver us from them and send them all back to where they came from. But no, we are not talking about that.
There is a place for this land. I believe that there all the final miracles of world history are still going to be fulfilled within the borders of this land. That is a remarkable thing.
But now we have gone beyond the borders of some geographical entity. We have entered the dimensions of some spiritual reality. What is the land which God has covenanted and promised to every born-again believer? It is the Lord Jesus.
And those boundaries are absolutely defined. Within those boundaries, God covenants everything; outside of those boundaries, nothing.
So within the Lord Jesus, God says, “I will give you every single thing you need.” There, within those boundaries of the Lord Jesus, you will discover the nation of God, the people of God—you might say, His household—one body in Christ, in Christ.
There, within those boundaries, you will discover the throne of God. You will find the authority of God: the name of Jesus, which is above every name, given a place far above all principality and power, and every name that is named; everything having been placed under His feet, and His having been given as Head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.
A throne. A kingdom. Kingship. You and I are offered kingship in the boundaries of this land, if we will only follow the Lord right the way through to the end.
If we will only follow His steps into our little mini-Gethsemane, and into our own mini-Calvary—and through our mini-Calvary, without being irreverent—to our own resurrection and ascension, and finally to His glory.
We have to be identified with Him in everything if we would come to the throne. But we will say more about that on another occasion. I am only saying: this is what we find within the boundaries of this land.
We find the city of God within the boundaries of this land. Oh, how wonderful it is at the end. It says, “There is no temple therein: for the Lord God the Almighty, and the Lamb, are the temple thereof.”
The whole city has become a sanctuary. It is not only the city of God; it is the house of God. Where? In the Lord Jesus, as we are joined to God in Him, as we have come to know Him. How marvellous.
Outside of this city, nothing. Oh, you can know His salvation. You can know His blessing. You can live in Egypt, you can live in Syria, you can live in Babylon spiritually, you can live at the ends of the earth spiritually, and still know the Lord with you. The Lord will not forsake you.
But you will not know the city of God. You will not know the house of God. You may have your synagogues. You may have your places of fellowship. You may have your places of blessing. You may have your experiences of God’s deliverance and of God’s grace anywhere in the earth, because God maintains His relationship to us as children, as Father to children.
But when it comes as Builder to living stones, you must be in this land. You cannot wander off. You must be within this land of the Lord Jesus. You have got to understand that there are clearly defined boundaries. Go beyond those boundaries, and you will not know any of that building work.
That is why it is so important for us, in light of the coming of the Messiah, to understand that we have got to be in Christ. We have got to be growing up into Him as Head. We have got to be coming to that full maturity in Him. We have got to be being built together as a habitation of God in the Spirit.
All these things are necessary if we are really going to know what it is to be in that building of which the Messiah is the top stone, which will come into its place with shoutings of, “Grace, grace, unto it!” I want to be in the building.
Some people do not understand that the city of God is smaller than the kingdom of God. London is a capital city; the British Isles, the United Kingdom. The capital city is smaller than the United Kingdom.
Washington—you are not a kingdom, very sadly; you are a republic. And I know you are all very proud of being a republic. But it is very hard for anyone who is in a republic, and republican in that way—not politically—to understand what it is to be a kingdom.
But even in a republic, you have only got one capital city: that is Washington. And that is much smaller than the republic. So we need to understand some of these things.
Now come again and have another look at this. Do you see how God starts to give us everything in the Lord Jesus? Just take a few Scriptures. We will only have time to look at one or two, no more.
Colossians 2:9-10:
For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,
And in Him ye are made full,
Who is the head of all principality and power.
Is that not marvellous? You are made complete. You are made full. Where are you made full? Outside of Christ? No. Detached from Christ? No. Where are you made full? Where are you made complete? In Him.
So when you learn by faith to abide in Him, even when there is famine, God will meet with you. And sometimes, even in the Lord Jesus, there are times of shortages, times of famine, times of pressure, times of conflict. Never forget that. There you are tested as to whether you are going to stay there by faith.
Again, if you want to look at another word, look at Ephesians 1:3:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
Some people believe in a second blessing. I think there are thousands of blessings. I am sure you do. I am thankful for a second blessing, and I am also thankful for a third blessing, and a fourth blessing, and a fifth blessing, and a sixth blessing. There are wonderful experiences of the Lord.
Some Christian people are so frightened of an ecstasy. They say, “Oh, nothing like that, nothing like that.” I am all for ecstasies. Really, I am all for them. I say it unashamedly. I am all for them because we get too few of them.
To be caught up to the third heaven, even if it means a thorn in the flesh, is something worth having. Thank God, in this dreary routine, dull, heavy life, full of conflict and difficulty, there are times when God catches us up to the third heaven and we are bowled over.
We have to say, like a friend of mine, “Don’t, Lord—no more, no more. I’ll die.” Thank God for such experiences. I am not going to despise them. I am all for it. I am going to be thrilled if I hear of anyone who has had an ecstasy here during these days. God bless you with a few.
There are such things as being caught up into heaven in the Spirit. There are such things when the Lord touches our spirit with His Spirit, and there is a touch of glory—glory. We are transported out of this body, as the apostle Paul: “Whether in the body, or out of the body, I know not,” he said.
Thank God for such things. Do not despise them. Cherish them, but do not put too much on that sensational high peak. The great thing is going on.
And that means you come down from the high top of transfiguration to meet an epileptic throwing himself into the fire, that has to be delivered—demonic situations, things that belong to the valley. We have to come down and go on with God.
Well, I can only say this: what does the Scripture say?
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us—hath blessed us—with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
Where? In Christ. Outside of Christ, no blessings; inside of Christ, every blessing. These are blessings that last.
What is a blessing? Well, I love the Hebrew word, asher: happiness. I know, again, people say, “Now be careful, be careful. Happiness?”
“Unless you are deeply sad and afflicted and in adverse circumstances, God is not pleased with you.” But to be blessed of the Lord is to have happiness. It does not mean that it is all bubbly and effervescent all the time, but, oh, to know the blessings of the Lord.
Where are they? Some people seem to think they have got them all at conversion. Well, it says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing.” But listen, let us be just sensible for one moment. No human being could contain all the blessings of God at one time.
This nonsense about getting it all at conversion. Of course, we get it all at conversion, but the grace of God holds it all back. We would be dead if we had it all. We would be laid out flat. We would be knocked completely out. We could not contain it. We could not discover it. We really would be sort of overwhelmed, like someone drunk.
No, God in His mercy gives us everything. What does He give us on the basis of? The Passover Lamb. How did He get them out of Egypt into that land? On the blood of the Passover Lamb, because the Lamb had been sacrificed for them.
He took them out of Egypt into the wilderness, out of the wilderness into the promised land; and every single city that fell before them was because of the Passover Lamb. It was not their greatness, their zeal, their devotion, or their knowledge that gained them the whole land. It was the Passover Lamb.
That is why they kept the Passover before they went out of Egypt. That is why they kept the Passover when they came to Gilgal, just before they possessed the land. It was the atoning death of Another that was the basis for everything.
Well, I love this: blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Marvellous.
And I think of another Scripture, if you are ready for it. We will only be able to take just these few. Philippians 4:19:
And my God shall supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Where does He meet every need of yours? According to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus—in Christ Jesus, not outside; in Christ Jesus. What does He mean? Every need of yours according to His riches—riches of glory.
Well now, praise the Lord. That is yours and mine. Will you please notice, this is not spiritual needs met only. Some people have got the idea that the Lord only meets spiritual needs. Mental needs, physical needs, material needs—God does not do that kind of thing. He did it in the New Testament, but He does not do it any more.
They say that belongs to the canon of Scripture. Once the canon of Scripture was closed, God ceased from many of these other things. From now on, He treats us only as disembodied spirits.
This is not true. The Lord is still the Lord that heals you. The Lord is still the God of a sound mind. The Lord is still the One who can meet every single need of yours: spiritual, mental, physical. Praise the Lord.
And where does He meet these needs? Not outside of Christ. You get out of the will of God, out of Christ, out of the land, you will not find these needs met. But in Christ, these needs will be met.
I am not saying that He heals every single person, that He meets every single financial need. But what I am saying is this: God has given a promise that whatever problems we face, He will give to us what we need for His will to be done in our lives, and for us to be conformed to the image of His Son.
That may sometimes mean a bit of adversity. That may sometimes mean a bit of affliction. That may sometimes mean an inexplicable problem, like a thorn in the flesh, that we say, “Oh God, deliver me from this thing, or it will finish me,” and God says, “No, My grace is sufficient, for My power is made perfect in weakness.”
Well now, I say this is all very wonderful. Everything is within the Lord Jesus. Nothing is outside of Him.
Now we come to the last point I want to make. You see, most people will go with us thus far, but it comes to the point of possession.
I know companies of people who sit there singing hymns and saying, “Everything is ours in the Lord. Everything is ours in the Lord. We have got it all. Praise God.”
They do not even say it like that either. They say, “When I was converted, I got it all. Don’t need anything else. There is nothing else.”
When people tell me that they have got everything in the Lord at their conversion, they are stating a theological fact. The whole of this promised land was covenanted to this people in its entirety, but they only got what they put the soles of their feet upon.
When those priests went down into the river Jordan with the ark of the covenant on their shoulders, as soon as the soles of their feet went through the water onto the riverbed, then there was—whatever it was, an earthquake or whatever it was—up at what we now call the Damia Bridge, and immediately the river Jordan was cut off, and they went over on dry ground.
If they had waited for some little indication from the Lord that it was His will—“Now, don’t let us make fools of ourselves taking the ark of the covenant into this water. We must not do that. Let us just pray. Now Lord, be gracious, be gracious. As we move towards this river Jordan, let it go back, just back a little, so that we shall come in; and it will go back, and we shall come in a bit more; and it will go back”—no.
Many, many believers are like that. They say they are walking by faith; they are not. They are walking by sight.
They had to get their feet wet. And as soon as they got their feet wet, God did it. It was not their devotion, their zeal, or their knowledge; it was their faith in Him. He was the One who did it.
And the moment they did it, now they come out the other side and get to the first great city of Jericho. They could easily have said, “We are going to get this. Soles of our feet. Do you see that? How those priests went in—as soon as the soles of their feet went through the water and touched the ground, it was done. It is going to be absolutely marvellous.”
And then Joshua said, “Here are the instructions: once a day round for six days; one time a day, and on the seventh day, seven times. No talking.”
I can hear some of them saying when they got into the tents that night, “I am not happy with this. This is not faith. God said, ‘Everywhere the sole of your foot comes down upon, that will I give you.’ What is all this six-days nonsense? Joshua is not like our Moses.”
“And seven times on the seventh day? Does he want us to get sunstroke? And why can’t we praise the Lord? We are the Lord’s redeemed people. We should be praising the Lord from the beginning. And he said we are not to say a word until the last moment on the seventh time round on the seventh day; and then we blow the trumpets and shout a great shout.”
And, of course, the walls came down. You see, God is sovereign about this matter. Some people think that all they have to do is take something by faith, and if it does not happen, they are terribly disillusioned.
There are things which you take by faith, and in an instant God gives it. And there are other things which take seven days and seven times round on the seventh day. And there are other things which take four hundred years.
They never took Jerusalem for four hundred years. Now, whether it was a failure on their part to put their feet down on it, I do not know. But how did they finally get it in David’s day? Because Joab, who was shrewd like Jacob, said, “Let my men climb up the shaft into the city.” And the moment they put their feet down, the city was taken.
You know, many of us have got strongholds in our lives that we cannot take. We say, “No, no, no, no, no. I know the Lord is everything, but somehow or other this is too powerful. My background, my temperament, what I have inherited from father and mother, grandparents and ancestors, is too much.”
I am always being told this by people. They come up and tell me, “I am a special case.” They do not say, “I am a special case,” but they start telling their story because they are, in their eyes, a special case. They are something unique.
The Word of God applies to every other child of God, but not to them, because they have inherited great-grandmother’s very difficult temperament. They have got traits of character that have come from father, who was a blackguard. And somehow or other they just cannot come through.
Listen, there is no stronghold or fortress in your life that cannot be taken by simple faith in the finished work of the Lamb. This land is covenanted. God has solemnly covenanted. Everything is yours in the Lord Jesus; outside of Him, nothing.
Therefore, there is nothing from background, nothing from your genetic history, nothing from your circumstances. There is no difficulty, no problem, that can meet you that He cannot touch and solve. Praise God. But you have got to use your feet.
This is why C. T. Studd, when he first got hold of this, said in a prayer meeting, “Thank You, Lord, that I have got—I take size fourteen.”
In Joshua 1:3, it says:
Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, to you have I given it.
Now, do you know, many of them could well have had the idea, “Oh, do you remember Moses? Do you remember what the Lord said to Moses? The Lord said to Moses, ‘The angel of My presence will go before you and drive out the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Hivite, the Jebusite, and every other -ite. They will all be driven out by the angel of My presence, and you I will lead into the land, and you shall possess it.’”
You know, you could have got the idea, “How wonderful spiritual things are. God has done everything. It is all in Christ. It is all done. All I have got to do is sit there and pray. We’re done.”
They would have still been sitting on the other side of the Jordan River, singing hymns of praise and meditating on what was theirs, to this day, if God had given them such long lives—if they had done that.
And I know many, many believers who sit there singing hymns, praising God, believing the Bible, and all the rest of it. Nothing ever happens in their lives. Nothing ever happens in their lives. Then they have got the cheek to say they do not want an ecstasy. At least that would be something.
At least there would be something that you would have, that you could say, “God has led me and touched me.”
This possessing of all that is ours in the Lord Jesus does not come by just sitting down and saying, “Praise the Lord, it is all ours.” It comes in the face of satanic antagonism and opposition by putting your feet down in faith and saying, “Not because I am anything, but because of the finished work of the Lamb, this is mine.”
“This is mine, and this, and this, and this will come to pass in this place, over this problem, in this situation.” Say it. You overcome by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of your testimony.
You do not say, “Oh Lord, please do this,” but you say in faith, “This is so.” God starts to work. The soles of your feet have gone down upon that situation. Maybe it will be seven days. Maybe it will be a few years. But you mark my words: it will be yours, and it will be yours forever.
Well now, I do hope you get hold of this, because it says in Hebrews 4:1-3, in a warning to Christians:
Let us fear therefore, lest haply, a promise being left of entering into His rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it.
For indeed we have had good tidings preached unto us, even as also they: but the word of hearing did not profit them, because it was not united by faith with them that heard.
In other words, faith did not come into the word of hearing, and it was done.
I know people who tell me that they are crucified with Christ and have not spoken to another believer for ten years. They are not crucified with Christ. It is a sentimental theology, that is all.
I know other believers who say that they have the power of the Holy Spirit, and they are sitting under a problem that is strangling them in their home life. They have not really got the power of the Holy Spirit.
I know other people who are compromised in business relationships, who yet in the assembly will take part and say that they are moving with God. They are not moving with God. It is a lie.
We can talk about all these things we have, and God will never forsake us, as I said last night. That is why I spoke about Jacob and the love of God. He does not forsake us.
We can go on our way swindling, extorting, expressing what we are naturally—strength of will, strength of natural resource and talent. God can go with us all the way. But let me tell you one thing: you are not possessing what is yours in Christ. You are not possessing that land.
That comes through faith, and it comes through faith in realistic, practical situations. May God help us on this thing, because all of us have blind spots. We are forever trying to get the fleck of sawdust out of our brother or sister’s eye when we have got a log-jam in our own.
A land to be possessed. Now, if we have got more time, I will go on to a second thing about this purpose of the Lord: it is a people to be produced, a people to be produced.
God’s purpose for Jacob was not only that he should possess a land and know all that was within it—the purpose of God fulfilled—but it was also that he might become a people, that one should become a thousand, and the little one a strong nation.
That was the purpose of the Lord. You will find that, if you want to, in Isaiah 60:22, that I have just quoted.
Now, fruitfulness and multiplication lie at the heart of God’s purpose. It is a very interesting thing that the first words that God ever spoke to man which are recorded—the first words that God spoke to man which are ever recorded—were, “Be fruitful and multiply.”
That was the first thing the Lord ever said, as recorded. He may have said something else, for all I know. But for the purposes of the Word of God, the first thing God ever said to a human being was, “Be fruitful and multiply.”
After the flood, the first thing God said to Noah and the other seven that came out of the ark was, “Be fruitful and multiply.”
When God got hold of Abraham in Ur of the Chaldees, He said, “Look up. See the stars. Your seed shall be as innumerable as the stars. Look down. See the sand. Can you count the grains? Your seed shall be as innumerable as the sands, as the grains that make up the desert.”
Now, that is some promise, in my estimation. It is remarkable.
Now, what did our Lord say? Well, we can only again touch on this matter, but believe me, it is a very important matter. John 15:16:
Ye did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it to you.
Fruitfulness. What is the will of God? He elected us. He chose us. Why did He choose us? That we might go. He appointed us that we might go and bear much fruit, and that our fruit should remain.
Now, some people will immediately say to me, “Now, what do you mean by fruit? We are not going to have that kindergarten, superficial stuff, are we? That belongs to our elementary days in evangelical circles. You know, about evangelism. We want the deeper thing. Evangelism is kindergarten, love. It belongs to Billy Graham crusades and all that kind of lark.”
Well, to put your heart at rest, fruit, first of all, is character. Is it not? The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, and so on.
But now, just wait. Have you ever known a single fruit—thank you—have you ever known a fruit that has not got within it seed? Well now, do not listen to the devil. Have you ever known a fruit that has not got seed within it?
And what must fruit do? It must fall into the ground and die. Then what happens? The seed within it multiplies. Multiplies.
I cannot bear this business amongst the Lord’s people that we are not the least bit bothered that we have never led another person to the Lord. And some people make deeper things in the form of escapism. They say, “Oh, but we are only concerned about the deeper things of the Lord, following the Lord. The way is very unpopular, you know. We are going the whole way with God.”
I praise the Lord if you are going the whole way with God. But when you come to the Lord, will there be another single soul there in the household of God, in the family of God, because of you?
I want you to know that at the heart of your election lies this purpose of multiplication and fruitfulness. Do not despise it.
I have never yet known anybody led to the Lord by some Christian who is just forever spouting Scripture. I know many of them. They are known in their office to be sometimes the most difficult person in the whole office. But they are Christian. They go at least once or twice a day on Sunday to a meeting. They read their Bibles. They believe it, the world says. But, oh boy, are they prickly.
I do not see that they will ever win a single soul to the Lord. When a person is just crabby, self-centred, inward-looking, dark, and heavy, how on earth is anyone ever going to be won to the Lord?
It is when the world sees love, joy, peace, longsuffering, faithfulness, self-control—these things—that the world becomes attracted. “How can this person, in this time of bereavement, have this kind of experience? How can they, in this problem, when they have talked to you like that at the bank, react in this way? What is it they have got?”
“How is it that, when everything else is so full of tension and pressure, this person has peace? This person has love. This person has joy.” This love, joy, peace—this fruit of the Spirit—becomes the seed of the church.
You will find this, if you want to look at it, in just two places that I will give you in the book of Acts. Acts 6:7. Very interesting. I do not know whether—well, I know most of you are good Bible students. I reckon you must have underlined this at some point or another.
Acts 6:7:
And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem exceedingly.
Now, I want you to ask yourself a question: how does the Word of God increase? Surely the Word of God is the Word of God. It cannot increase. We do not believe in some doctrine of adding to Scripture, do we? No, we believe that this is the Word of God. How can the Word of God increase?
Surely it can only mean one thing. It is what James speaks about when he says, “Receiving the implanted word.” So, once it has got inside and the word of Christ dwells in you richly in all wisdom, it begins to grow. And as it grows, it multiplies. There are more people with the Word of God.
Oh, dear brother, dear sister, have you ever influenced another soul to the kingdom? Have you been multiplied? God saved you—one. Have you become two?
And now I want to ask you another question that may be as hard for you to bear hearing as my first: have you got even a little concern that you have not become two?
Or do you use these deeper things as a form of escapism from facing reality—that there is a blockage somewhere in your life? It is the old Jacob. No, not necessarily a swindling, exploiting, extorting, deceiving Jacob. Maybe it is just you manipulating the things of God, energising the things of God, somehow or other seeking to build the work of God. I do not know. Think about it.
You have got the same thing again in Acts 12:24:
But the word of God grew and multiplied.
Now, that is even more wonderful. The Word of God grew and multiplied. Oh, if only the Word of God would grow in me and multiply. If only the Word of God would grow in you and multiply.
What does it mean? It means that the Word of God has to do its work. We come to Him, we hear His words, and we do them. That is how it goes. The Word of God grows and multiplies.
That is why I love this word, coming back to Jacob. Listen, in Isaiah 43, a word you know, verses 1-3:
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.
Fear not, verse 5:
Fear not; for I am with thee:
I will bring thy seed from the east,
And gather thee from the west;
I will say to the north, Give up;
And to the south, Keep not back:
Bring My sons from far,
And My daughters from the end of the earth;
Every one that is called by My name,
And whom I have created for My glory,
Whom I have formed, yea, whom I have made.
Here is the purpose of the Lord: not only that Jacob was created, that Israel was formed, that we were redeemed, but that, going through the trials, we might discover the Lord. Not only that, but that our seed should come from north and south, from east and west; that the Word of God might grow in us and multiply.
Someone says to me, “Well, just wait, just wait. It is very well for you to say this. How? I long for this.”
I will tell you: you will never multiply till you give.
I have never ceased to marvel with the Jordan, because all those waters—life-giving, fertility-producing waters—that pour twelve months of the year out of the base of Mount Hermon, from the eternal snows that have somehow or other in the summer melted into deep, deep wells within that huge mountain—wherever that water comes, it brings life.
They even pipe it all the way round, down the Jordan plain, down to the Negev in the south, the desert, the steppe land. It is all green wherever that water comes.
But all those tons of life-giving water pour into the Dead Sea and become sterile. Not a polyp in the flesh in the Dead Sea, not a shrimp, not a crab, not a fish. Nothing lives in the Dead Sea. Nothing.
How, then, can all those tons of life-giving water pour into the Dead Sea and become sterile? Because the Dead Sea has no outlet. It takes all and gives nothing.
Can you take all the life-giving properties of the Lord Jesus, all that great resurrection power and life of His, and turn it into sterility? Yes. How? By being like sponges, always soaking in, taking in, taking in, taking in, taking in, and never giving.
You must give what you take in. Even if you are very young in the Lord, start to give and share what you have of the Lord, however small. Share it. Give. Find some place, even if it is only babysitting or something else, somewhere you can give; and you will find something will come in. As you give, you get back.
Give, and it shall be given unto you; pressed down, shaken together, and running over, shall they give into your bosom. It is a law with God. You give and you get.
Well now, I just want to touch on two other things, and that will leave us plenty of time to talk in the next session or two about this fifth point. I want just to mention, because we are going to take these two matters up again fully later in the week, the third purpose of God for Jacob’s life: that he should be a blessing.
Now Jacob was not naturally a blessing. He was a naturally strong-willed, self-willed, strong-souled man. He was not a blessing to others. He stole their blessing. He did not give a blessing; he stole it.
I want to tell you something. I know many, many believers who steal blessings, but do not give them.
Oh, I could go and do my journeys round. I can show you, in any given company, people who are like whirlpools. They suck everything into themselves. They are all the time, everlastingly, having to be ministered to. It is always them: “My pain, this, that, the other.” They steal blessings; they do not give them.
Oh, how wonderful it is when a person is in a company and you cannot even smell the smell of burning on them. You do not know they have gone through a trial. They are just a blessing. All you get is the Lord.
Now, I am not saying that when we have needs we should not open up. That is a very necessary thing: that when we have got real needs, we should open up and share them with our brothers and sisters, and say, “Pray for me. Lay hands on me. Will you please pray that this problem I have got in my life, God will somehow break and meet?”
Sometimes we have problems we should not have because we have never opened up to our brothers and sisters. Sometimes we are too proud to. Sometimes we are too reserved to. Sometimes it is not that; we feel it is not spiritual. “I should not have a problem. What will they think of me if I open up and find the kitchen sink too much?”
“Oh dear, they will say, ‘Poor sister, she is nowhere spiritually. She cannot cope with her child.’ All those other mothers will say, ‘Poof! Don’t think much of her.’ I keep it quiet.” But when we open up, God can really do something.
I am not talking about that kind. I am talking about the everlasting problem. It is not problems; it is the person who is the everlasting problem. They have got their attention. They have got to be the centre of everything. They will destroy a blessing in any company.
They are always robbing people of their birthright, robbing people of their blessing. People cannot enjoy what is there. Do we not know it? No sooner are we sitting down at a meal, and the phone has gone, and it is so-and-so again for the umpteenth time.
Oh, we can love people. Jacob was just like this. He was not a blessing to others. He stole their blessing. He did not give; he acquired.
Some Christians are acquisitive. They are all the time acquiring. They do not give. They are not here to give. They judge everything by what they get. And indeed, half of our Christianity is based on what we get and what we give.
In the end, something happened to Jacob. He became a blessing to others. One of the most beautiful things in the book of Genesis is Jacob blessing his sons. My, what he gave them. Not always too palatable, I should imagine, to them; but my, that prophetic gift.
How he blessed them at the end of his life, and how true the blessing was of each one. And how he took those two sons, those twin boys of Joseph, and blessed them. Marvellous.
And the most beautiful thing of all was when he stood in front of Pharaoh and blessed Pharaoh. Jacob became a blessing by the end of his life, thank God. That Jacob became an Israel.
Now, to be a blessing, to be a happiness to others, means that you must have spiritual history. You must have deep dealings with God. You must know the ways of God. There is costly experience. Jacob had all of