Part 39
the keeper of the gate asked, "Who is there?" I answered, "I am Charles Spurgeon, a poor sinner who has no sanctification or perfection of his own to talk about, but who is trusting alone to Jesus Christ, the sinners' Savior." The gatekeeper said, "Oh, it is you, is it? Come in! We know you well enough, we have known you these many years!" And then I went in directly. I believe that is the best way of praying, and the way to win the day. It is when you have got on your fine feathers and top-knots that the Lord will not know you! When you have taken them all off and gone to Him as you went at the first, then you can say to Him–
"Once a sinner near despair
Sought your Mercy Seat by prayer.
Mercy heard and set him free,
Lord, that mercy came to me"–
"and I am that poor publican who dared not lift so much as his eyes towards Heaven, but smote upon his breast and cried, 'God be merciful to me, a sinner,' and he went home to his house justified rather than the Brother over there who talked so proudly about the higher life, but who went home without a blessing." Yes, my Brother, you are strong when you are weak, and you are perfect when you know that you are imperfect! And you are nearest to Heaven when you think you are farthest off. The less you esteem yourself, the higher is God's esteem of you.
Again, in order to have power with God, we must have simple faith. Nobody who doubts can prevail with God. Thepromise is not to the waverer, for James says, "Let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord," The man who gets the blessing is the one who fully believes in God's promise and who so believes in it that he acts upon it. I shall never forget the faith of a certain member of this Church, who is still living. About 18 or 19 years ago, I was very ill, indeed. Most people thought that I would die, but, one morning, very early, this good Brother came down to my house and asked to see my wife. It was just about daybreak and when she saw him, he said to her, "I have been all the night wrestling with God for your husband's life. We cannot afford to lose our Pastor and I feel sure that he is going to live, so I thought I would just walk here and tell you so," "Thank you, thank you," said my wife, "I am very grateful for your prayers and for your faith." It is not everybody who can pray to God like that! And we fail to obtain the blessings that we seek because we do not pray like that. But, dear Brothers and Sisters, if we were to believe God just as we believe our friends–if we were to give God as much trust as we give to our husbands and our wives–how strong in faith we would be! He deserves a thousand times more confidence than we can ever repose in the very best of our relatives or friends and if we have faith in His promises, we shall certainly overcome Him! If you trust Him, He cannot fail you. It is possible for even a good man to fail one who trusts him, but it is quite impossible for God to fail the soul that has relied upon Him!
I am sure that if we ministers only believe God more and preach more in faith, He will honor us more. I fancy that if God were to give us Pentecostal blessings, it would be seen that many of us are by no means ready to receive them. Suppose there were 5,000 persons converted in one day here, most of the churches round here would say, "There is a shocking state of excitement aver at the Tabernacle. It is really dreadful!" The very "sound" Brethren would feel that we had gone off into Arminianism, or some other error and I expect that some of you would say, very dolefully, "Oh, dear!
Dear! Dear! Dear! We do hope they will all stand." The first thought that would be excited in many Christian minds would be one of suspicion! I am sure that if we reported that anywhere in England, 3,000 were brought to know the Lord in one day, there is not one Christian in ten who would believe that such a thing was possible! And there is not one in a hundred who would think that it was true! And we ministers would be very much of the same mind.
I was preaching in Bedford, and I prayed that God would bless the sermon and give me at least some few souls that afternoon. When I had done, there was an old Wesleyan Brother there who gave me a good scolding, which I richly deserved. He said to me, "I did not say, 'Amen,' when you were asking for a few souls to be converted, for I thought you were limiting the Holy One of Israel! Why did you not pray with all your heart for all of them to be saved. I did," he added, "and that was why I didnot say, 'Amen,' to your narrow prayer." It is often the case that we preachers do not honor God by believing that He will give great blessings and, therefore, He does not honor us by giving those great blessings! But if we maintained a closer adherence to the Truth of God and had a firmer confidence that God's Word shall never return unto Him void, He would do far greater things by us than He has ever yet done!
To this sense of our own weakness and our full belief in God, we must add earnest attention to His Word. Brother,you cannot expect
God to listen to you if you will not listen to Him. And when you ask of God, you must not imagine that He will give to you what you ask of Him if you do not give to Him what he asks of you. If a man loves to sin, his prayers cannot register with the God of Holiness. When God says to a man, "Such-and-such a thing is to be done," and the man says, "I will not do it," the next time he goes to God in prayer, it is very likely that the Lord will say to Him, "As you did not do as I wished, I shall not do as you wish." The toleration of any known sin deprives us of power with God–and the neglect of any known duty prevents a man from succeeding when he is on his knees. If you would prevail with God, you must have "a conscience void of offense." You must go before the Lord confessing your sins and saying, "O Lord, help me to do Your will in all things! I am perfectly willing to do so and I wish to be Your loyal, obedient servant in all things." If you do that, you will find that whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.
In addition to all that I have said, the man who is to prevail with God must be a man who is terribly in earnest. Whatan earnest man
Jacob was in that night of wrestling! What a grand utterance that was, "I will not let You go, except You bless me"! Cold prayers do, as it were, ask God not to listen to them. When you pray for anything, if you do not presentyour petition with earnestness and fervor, you cannot expect the Lord to hear you. Some people, when they pray, are like the little boys in the street who give runaway knocks at the door–and off they go! But the man who prays rightly gets a hold of the knocker on the Door of Mercy and he knocks, and knocks, and if there is no answer, he knocks again and again, and if there is not, then, an answer, he knocks again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and the longer he is kept waiting, the more loudly he knocks till, at last, you would think that he was going to carry the house by storm and make the doorposts jump out of their sockets, he knocks so hard! That is the kind of man who wins the day with God–the man who will not let the Lord go until He blesses him! The prayers of John Knox brought down upon Scotland such copious blessings because they were the prayers of a man whose heart was all on fire with sacred earnestness, and who prayed with his whole soul and spirit. Our Lord Jesus, Himself, said, "The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force."
To all these qualifications for power with God we must add holy importunity. Wrestling is not merely laying hold ofa man and then letting him go. I wonder how Jacob did hold that Man who wrestled with him until the breaking of the day? I guarantee you that he had a tight grip on Him and I expect that, sometimes, it was especially leg-work, and then arm-work, and then loin-work, for, when men wrestle in real earnest, all their sinews, muscles, bones and limbs are brought into play. So it must have been with Jacob that night, and he kept on holding the Angel fast, and saying in his soul, if not with his lips–
"With You all night I mean to stay,
And wrestle till the break of day"– and, therefore, the blessing was given to him because he kept on struggling for it! There are some mercies which never will be bestowed except in answer to continued, importunate prayer. O
Brother or Sister, if you know how to keep on pleading, you are the one who has power with God! You will be called Israel if you can spend the whole night in resolute, determined, humble, believing importunity! The blessing must come if you feel that you cannot do without it, because it is for God's Glory that it should be bestowed upon you!
And, dear Friends, there is great power with God when, in importunate prayer, we at last come to tearful entreaty.In Hosea 12: 4, the Prophet tells us that Jacob "had power over the Angel, and prevailed; he wept, and made supplication unto Him." Moses does not tell us that in the Book of Genesis, but Hosea also had the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and he gives us this interesting item concerning Jacob's wrestling, that, "he wept." I think I see the Patriarch covered with sweat through his great exertions in wrestling, but, in addition, his heart is breaking within him and he is sighing and crying all the while–and the hot tears are falling on the Angel's hands and I think it was the tears that finally won the victory. You remember that when our Lord Jesus Christ was in the Garden of Gethsemane, "He offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared." And the man who knows how to weep, if not actually, yet with real spiritual tears– theman whose soul gets stirred up to a passionate agony of desire– is the man who has power with God! If we have any such members in this Church–and I believe that we have many who really do weep over the souls of sinners–they are the men and women who will bring down the blessing in answer to their prayers and tears!
Brothers and Sisters, if you are in the habit of weeping over your unconverted children and, in your pleading with God for their salvation, are in the habit of weeping unless the blessing comes, you are sure to get the blessing sooner or later! You are the very strength of the Church! You are the lifeguards of the Church and God will be sure to give innumerable blessings in answer to those prayers and tears of yours! May we have many such Church members, for these are people who have power with God!
IV. I close by briefly noticing TO WHAT USE THIS POWER
MAY BE TURNED.
Whenever this power with God is given , it will bring down many blessings upon the person who has it and it willalso make him the means of great blessing to others. My time has almost gone, so I will only dwell on that second point.
Abraham was a man who had power with God, but there was poor Lot living over in Sodom, just as a great many professed
Christians are doing today. I hope they are God's people, but I cannot make them out. They like worldly amusements and they like worldly talk–they are like Lot in Sodom. I wonder how they can endure the foul atmosphere in which they live? I have often said that the Grace of God can live where I could not. There are some people with whom I should not like to live, yet I trust the Grace of God is in them. At least, I hope so, I must not judge them. But, dear
Brethren, if ever that part of the Church which is like Lot in Sodom gets a blessing, it must be through you who are like Abraham and have power with God! Pray for your poor inconsistent Brothers and Sisters–entreat the Lord to prevent them from going any further into sin. Ask the Lord that they may not be destroyed with Sodom in the day of His vengeance, and the Lord will hear you, and bring
Lot safely out of Sodom, though it may be that Lot will have to lose all that he has and lose his wife, too, before he will get out.
You will get him out if you know how to pray for him.
Moses was another man who had power with God. You remember that when the Israelites made the golden calf, the Lord said to Moses, "Let Me alone, that My wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of you a great nation." Was not that a wonderful opportunity for Moses? He was to be made into a great nation, and all the rest of the people were to be destroyed. But you recollect how Moses pleaded with the Lord and he did not plead is vain. The Lord said to him, "Let Me alone, that I may consume them," but it seems as though Moses stood up and grasped God's hand, in which He held His rod of vengeance, and at last the Lord said that He would pardon the nation and spare them in answer to the plea of Moses, the man who had power with God.
And there was Aaron, too, when the plague broke out among the people who had murmured against him and Moses, and thousands were being struck dead. At the command of Moses, he took a censer and filled it with burning coals and incense–and ran into the midst of the congregation just where the death wave had come–"and he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed." Aaron, the high priest with his censer, had power with God. The Lord Jesus Christ, Aaron's great Antitype, is continually exercising this power on the behalf of His people, and He also helps some of His servants to do the same work–Martin
Luther, to wit. How he seemed to stand with the censer of the Gospel between the living and the dead and, in other dark times and perilous ages, God has raised up many eminent servants to whom He has given that same censer of the Gospel which pours forth a sweet savor of Christ as they also swing it to and fro, standing between the living and the dead! Oh, that God would give power to many of you, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, in some such way as this! Recollect the power that the early Christians had with God to get Peter out of prison. If you have power with God, it is an engine which you may burn in all manner of ways for the blessing of your fellow Christians and of poor outcast sinners.
Therefore I charge you to seek it! And when you get it, hold it fast and walk humbly before God that He may not take this power from you, but may you be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, for Jesus' sake! Amen. –Adapted from The C. H. Spurgeon
Collection, Version 1.0, Ages Software, 1.800.297.4307
PRAY THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL USE THIS SERMON
TO BRING MANY TO A SAVING KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS
CHRIST.
Ge 32:29 • He Blessed Him There
ERMON 3219
"He Blessed Him There"
"He blessed him there."
Genesis 32:29
JACOB had said to the Angel, "Tell me, I pray You, Your name."
In answer to that enquiry, he was gently rebuked. The Angel did not come to ratify Jacob's curiosity, but He came as a messenger from God with a blessing–"and He blessed him there." There are a great many things we would like to know when we read the Bible. But if we read it so as to find salvation, that will be much better than having our curiosity gratified. When we come to hear a sermon, too, we should like, perhaps, to meet with some fine passages, or to have some telling anecdotes that we could carry away with us. But if, instead, the Lord's messenger shall give us a blessing from God, Himself, it will be infinitely better! The disciples, after the Resurrection, wanted to know from the Savior something about the times and seasons, but He did not tell it to them. He said to them, "You shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you." That was far better, far more valuable to them–and though for the time it might not please them so much, yet, for all practical purposes, it enriched them far more! Angels' names we can afford to leave, but God's blessing we must have and we cannot do without it!
Let us just think, for a minute or two, WHAT THIS BLESSING
WAS WHICH JACOB GAINED AS THE RESULT OF A NIGHT
OF PRAYER.
I wonder whether anybody here has ever spent a night in prayer.
Is there a man among us who has ever wrestled with the Angel for so long? Alas, I am afraid to put the question and ask for an answer lest I should only gain one through your silence! Brothers and Sisters, it is not easy to continue for a whole night in prayer. It has been well observed that it is easier to hear a sermon two hours long than to pray for an hour. The more spiritual the exercise, the sooner we tire. Joshua was not weary of fighting in the valley, but Moses' hands began to grow weary with holding them up in prayer. Yet surely there have been times in our lives, as in that of Jacob's, when a night of prayer would have been becoming. Surely we have been in as great straits and struggles as he was and have needed the benediction of Heaven as did that much-tried Patriarch. Perhaps it would be well, before long, to try to accomplish this feat and wait, from sunset to sunrise with God. The old knights, before they took a higher degree of knighthood, spent a night in some church and were supposed to be in prayer. He that shall really spend a night in prayer shall win celestial blessings. He shall lie down a Jacob, but he shall rise up a prince! There is a distinct advance from Jacob to Israel, from being a supplanter to being a prince! Prayer gives an incalculable blessing and this is the advance Jacob gained–an incomparable advance in spiritual things.
But besides that, he gained as the blessing attending that night's prayer, deliverance out of great peril. He thoughtthat he and his would have been slain by Esau, but the Angel blessed him and not a single lamb of all his flock was hurt, neither were the women and children put to the slightest fear! Prayer brought down Heaven's shield to cover Jacob in the hour of danger!
Again, he got what was still better under some aspects, reconciliation with his brother. He had done his brothergrievous wrong, but his brother forgave him. I do not know, but I think a Christian would almost sooner be exposed to peril than live under a sense of having committed an injustice. It is a great relief to your mind, when you have done so, to find it all set right again. To think, "I did that man a wrong, but it is gone and forgiven forever," is a blessing worth praying all night to obtain!
Happy was Jacob, also, to have the breach healed between himself and his brother. To meet him, fall upon his neckand kiss him–to feel that being so near akin they should no longer be divided in heart. Are you divided from your brother? Has any root of bitterness sprung up to trouble you? Have the friendships of life been curdled by dislike? It were well to have a night of prayer to get them back again–and again to serve side by side with your fellows. I take it to be a vast blessing to a Christian to be delivered from the temptation to retaliate, to be saved from all hardness of heart and bitterness of spirit. The Angel, when He gave Jacob that, blessed him, indeed!
Besides all these blessings–in addition to having risen in rank before God, to having had his wrong amended, to having been forgiven by his brother, to being restored to friendship–I do not doubt that from that night a blessing rested upon Jacob's heart and the dews of that night fed his soul for years to come! He was anointed with fresh oil from that moment! And as he rose, limping upon his thigh, he was not merely a better man by title, but better by nature! He had been away in a far-off country with Laban and much of the dew of his spirit had gone from him. But now that he had got back again into Canaan, the Angel sealed his return by giving him the blessings of the return!
Such were the blessings of Jacob and I should not wonder if there is someone here who has said, "I know in a measure, personally, what those blessings are and wish I enjoyed them to the fullest."
My prayer, Beloved Brothers and Sisters, is that even tonight God may bless you! According to your necessity, may He shape the blessing, but oh, may He bless you, indeed, and bless you here!
II. Now, secondly, let us enquire, WHAT WAS THE PLACE
WHERE JACOB GOT THIS CHOICE BLESSING?
And the answer comes, first, it was a place of very peculiar trial.
He had just got out of Laban's clutches to fall in the way of Esau.
He had fled from a lion and now a bear met him–and he feared that his wives and children would be utterly destroyed by his revengeful brother. It was a fearful trial and the mere fear of it must have left scars on his heart. Yet, "He blessed him there." Is not this a very usual circumstance with the people of God, that their severest trials are the times of their choicest mercies? I remind you how often this has been the case, and how true Cowper's words have been–
"The clouds you so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head."
Believe that, for the present trial in which you are, perhaps, now entering, it shall be written, "He blessed him there where He tried him." He will bless you there, where He is trying you–in the waters, in the furnace when you are being refined again and again, and the hot coals are being heaped upon you–He will bless you there! The disciples feared, we are told, as they entered into the cloud, but it was there that they saw the Savior transfigured. And often we fear the cloud into which we enter when we are only passing into the secret place of the Most High, where, under the shadow of the Almighty, we shall have yet more delightful visions of Himself!
If we were wise, we would begin to welcome trials. We would rather fear to be without them for, up till now, what do we not owe to the furnace, to the rod, to the threshing-flail? Scarcely has a mercy of any great spiritual value come to us at all except by the way of the cross! I am sure I may look upon every choice blessing I have enjoyed as having come to me in rumbling wagons like the good things which came from Egypt to old father Jacob. We have been blessed in places of trial–let us not, therefore, dread to go to such places again, but go on our way towards Heaven feeling that whatever difficulty we meet with shall only be another of the spots in which God shall bless us. "He blessed him there."
It was also a place of pleading. That is most noteworthy. "He blessed him there," where he had spent a night in prayer. Where he had a wrestling match with an unknown Stranger. There where he would not let the Angel go. There where he held Him fast until he gained the benediction. "He blessed him there." If you are short of blessings, resort to the place of mighty prayer–
"Beyond your utmost needs
His love and power can bless!
To praying souls He always grants
More than they can express."
All things are open to the man who knows how to pray importunately. "The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force." Mark you, Jacob's wrestling was no child's play. I have seen painters attempt to depict it and only now and then have they caught the true idea. But one of them represents
Jacob as trying most lustily to give his antagonist a back fall and, no doubt, he did tax his strength to the utmost until, in the dead of night, he was faint–faint with the toil he had gone through.
Begging of God must be real work. It is said of begging that it is the worst trade in the world, but a man who is to make anything of prayer must throw his whole soul into it. Your prayers that have hardly life enough in them to live, your words that hang like icicles beneath your tongues, that are scarcely heard even by yourselves, how do you think that they will be heard by God? If there is not enough prayer in us to stir our own hearts, how can we expect that God should be moved by our entreaties? It was not so with Jacob–"He blessed him there." There he prevailed, and if you want a blessing, you must get it in that way. When you get to the state that you will take no denial–that you would sooner die than not be blessed–you shall get it.
Again, in addition to its being a place of trial and a place of pleading, it was a place of communion. Do you recognize it? Jacob called it, "Peniel"–that is, "the face of God"–because there he had seen God face to face. O Beloved, these are things to feel rather than to speak about! To see God! Blessed, indeed, are "the pure in heart" when they get this benediction fulfilled in their experience and come so into union with Christ as to be able to look to God with an eye that is not blinded with fear! Oh to speak with God, pouring out our hearts before Him and to hear Him speaking with us, the promise no longer lying like a dead letter on the page, but leaping out of the page as though alive, as though God had just spoken it and we were hearing it from His Divine mouth! Do you know what this blessing means? Can you read Solomon's Song through and stay, "I understand it"? Is it your experience that you have ever fed on the body and blood of Christ, having His very life in you? If you have, then you have seen God and it will be said of you, "He blessed him there." Brothers and Sisters, we miss a thousand blessings because we are too busy to commune with God!
We are here, there, and everywhere, except where we ought to be.
We are running to this and to that instead of sitting with Mary at the Master's feet. He blessed Mary as she sat there, and there, too, will
He be sure to bless us–
"Oh that I could forever sit
With Mary at the Master's feet!
Be this my happy choice–
My only care, delight and bliss,
My joy, my Heaven on earth, be this–
To hear the Bridegroom's voice!"
But once more. Where Jacob got the blessing, it was a place of conscious weakness. The Angel touched the sinew inthe hollow of his thigh. While he got the blessing, he got lameness, too, and he might be well content to carry that lameness to his grave! I have often found that the place where I have seen most of my own insignificance, baseness, unbelief and depravity has been the place where I have found a great blessing. Did you ever try to preach and fail in the doing of it–and then found that God blessed you there?
Have you ever tried to be earnest with the Sunday school children and were earnest, too, but in your own judgment you made a fool of yourself? Have you not found that God blessed you there? Is it not one of the greatest blessings that can occur to us to be made to think little of ourselves? May not God be enriching us most when He is emptying us and preparing us for the largest possible benediction when He is making us to see how destitute in all things we are?
The most unpleasant places to us in life are often the places where the blessing comes most. "He blessed him there." He took the rich man from his palace and made him live in a cottage, but, "He blessed him there." He took the strong man from his vigor and laid him on a sick bed. But, "He blessed him there." He brought down the man of full assurance into a state of trembling and anxiety, but, "He blessed him there." He brought the man of busy usefulness down to be a patient sufferer, unable to stir hand or foot for the Lord he loved so well, but, "He blessed him there." He took the man of good repute and allowed his character to be evilly spoken of–and his good name to be withered–but, "He blessed him there."
It is often so. We limp with lameness, with shrinking of the sinew, the precious thing wherein our strength seemed to lie! But that may be the very way to a benediction which otherwise we would never have received.
I would then encourage each one of you to seek a blessing, wherever you may be. I think most of you have been in the house of trial–seek to get a blessing there. The place of pleading, at any rate, is open to you all–get a blessing there. The sacred spot of communion–we may get the blessing that is always to be found there. And I suppose most of you have had your times of tumbling, of stripping and getting very low–may you get a blessing there!
III. So I turn to notice very briefly that THERE ARE OTHER
PLACES WHERE CHRISTIANS GET BLESSINGS besides the place where Jacob won his.
Beloved, there is a place (how shall I speak of it?) where the Lord has always blessed us. It is of old in eternity. God isso glad to bless
His people that He began doing it long ago! "Long ago," do I say?
He began before time began! He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. When the Decree was given, when the Covenant was established, when the Election was determined, He blessed each one of us there, if indeed we are
Believers in Jesus–
"Sons we are through God's election,
Who in Jesus Christ believe
By eternal destination,
Sovereign Grace we here receive!
Lord, Your mercy
Does both Grace and glory give."
I might point to a thousand spots all down the line of history and say that all of us who are in Christ were blessed there! But I will only linger at the Cross and say, "Where Jehovah was made a curse for us and suffered in our place, He blessed us there! And at that open, empty tomb, from which escaped the living Savior whom the bands of death could not hold, He blessed us there! He who died for our transgression, rose again for our justification and by His Resurrection–He blessed us there! And when He stood on Olivet about to depart and pronounced the blessing upon His disciples, He blessed us there! And as He ascended up on high, leading captivity captive–from His royal chariot He cast down lavishly with, both His hands ten thousand gifts for the sons of men which He had received even for the rebellious, that the Lord God might dwell among them–He blessed us there! And up in Heaven where He sits till His work is done, He points to His wounds, and points to our names, and reminds the Father of His eternal love to us! He has blessed us there, for He has raised us up and "made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."
But as there are places in your own experience, Beloved, where He has blessed you, I would take some of you back inyour history to the moment when you first knew the Lord. I often try to refresh your memories about that–and I do not think I can do it too often.
Where was the spot when, laden with woes and sins, you saw Jesus
Christ and looked to Him and at once were lightened? Where was it? When was it? Twenty years ago, perhaps. With some of us, more than that! With others, only two or three years ago. With others of you, perhaps, it is only a week ago! Well, whenever it was, when He led you to see the Savior, He blessed you, there, as you never had been experimentally blessed before! I should not wonder if the day is marked down in your diary, though there is little need it should be, for it is marked on the tablets of your memory and you will never forget it. O blessed spot! O happy moment when Jesus first met with me! He blessed me there! Well, since that time, have there not been other places where He has blessed you?
I might mention every trial you have had and say, "He blessed you there." I might mention every benefit you have received and say, "He blessed you there." But time would fail me. Only I will remind you that when you have been prompt to obey your Lord and keep close to Him–and have not allowed any cloud to come between you and Him, He has blessed you there! If you have kept up that spirit of obedience, take care to let your eyes be to Him as the eyes of a handmaiden are to her mistress, for He will bless you there! And have you not found that when you have been most empty and had least self-reliance, He has blessed you there? When you have been very weak and little in your own esteem, and felt that you were nothing, and less than nothing, and ready to die–has
He not blessed you there? When you have been kept low, without an ambitious thought, down on the very ground before Him and have been afraid to look up from a sense of unworthiness, has He not blessed you there? Oh, then, keep to the low places! There is no place so safe as the Valley of Humiliation– "He that is down need fear no fall, He that is low, no pride."
He has blessed you there! It would be difficult for me to say where God has not blessed me. Wherever He has led me, wherever
He has directed me, seeking His blessing I have found it and, therefore, will I bear my witness to His faithfulness.
Well, by-and-by, when your time will come to die, He will bless you there. Before that time, you may be a sufferer, but He will bless you there. You may lose the dear husband who now is your strength, or the beloved wife who now is your comfort, but He will bless you there! You may have to go to the grave with one child after another–and you yourself may be very weak and scarcely have life left within you, but He will bless you there! What He has been He will be. If God could change, we might doubt, but since
He never changes and is without shadow of turning, let us look back through the many days since we first met Him and He met us.
Remember that we have been held up till now and that He has helped us in every time of need! And then ask– "After so much mercy past, Will He let us sink at last?"
What I am saying is very commonplace and might suggest itself to anybody here. But, at the same time, when you get into trouble, it does not always suggest itself and you have need to be reminded of these simple principles. He blessed you there, and in such places
He will bless you again!
One more word about that, and it is this. Has not He often blessed you in the House of Prayer? Has He not blessedyou in listening to the Gospel? I know He has. Never, therefore, neglect the House of God. Has He not blessed you at the Prayer Meeting? Cannot you say, "He blessed me there"? Well, then, let us see your face there as often as possible! Has He not blessed you at the Communion
Table? Oh, if there is under Heaven an ordinance that is Christ's mirror. If there is under Heaven a hand that can withdraw the blind and pull up the lattices and let us see the King in His beauty, it is the Lord's Supper! He has often blessed us there! Let those who despise the Table of the Lord stay away–but those who have got the blessing will wish to be there often and come again and again, saying, "Sirs, we would see Jesus."
IV. We have seen what Jacob's blessing was and where God blessed Jacob. We remember where He has blessed us and now, in the last place, let me ask, IS NOT THIS ONE OF THE PLACES
WHERE WE MAY EXPECT HIM TO BLESS US?
Is there a man here who, never, to his own knowledge, had a blessing from God and who is saying, "I wish God would bless me, even me"? Are you willing, if God helps you, to give up all your sins? Would you wish to be clear of them? Well, Soul, if you desire that, God will bless you right now! For, if you would be rid of sin, God also wishes you to be rid of it–and so you and He are agreed.
He will be sure to blot your sins out and tread them under His feet through His dear Son, Jesus Christ. Do you say that you need a blessing? I will put another question to you. Are you willing to have Jesus Christ be your Savior, not in part, but altogether? Will you let Christ be the first and the last? Will you take Him not to be a makeweight, but a Savior who can save you from head to foot, who can give His blood to cleanse you, His righteousness to cover you, Himself to be All-in-All to you? Soul, if you will take a whole
Christ, He waits to be received by you! Only trust Him and He is yours! "To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God."
There was a soul, once, that wanted Christ and, "He blessed him there!" There was a soul once that wanted to be rid of sin and, "He blessed him there." There was a soul that said, "Lord, save or I perish!" And "He blessed him there." There was another whom said, "God be merciful to me, a sinner" and, "He blessed him there!" There was one that cried to Him and He did not seem to hear–but at last she came in the crowd and touched His garment's hem–and He blessed her there! And there was another whom He called a dog. "Yet," she said, "the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table," and He blessed her there! O anxious, seeking, timid, trembling Souls, do trust in Jesus! Rest in Jesus and He will bless you now–and you shall go on your way rejoicing!
It was with a young man [In this paragraph, Mr. Spurgeon was evidently describing his own experience at his conversion and afterwards] a day of seeking and he entered a little sanctuary and heard a sermon from the words "Look unto Me, and be you saved."
He obeyed the Lord's command and, "He blessed him there." Soon after, he made a profession of his faith before many witnesses, declaring his consecration to the Lord–and "He blessed him there."
And soon he began to labor for the Lord in little rooms among a few people and, "He blessed him there." His opportunities enlarged and, by faith, he ventured upon daring things for the Lord's sake– and "He blessed him there." A household grew about him and together with his loving wife he tried to train his children in the fear of the Lord–and "He blessed him there." Then came sharp and frequent trials and he was in pain and anguish, but the Lord "blessed him there." This is that man's experience all along–from the day of his conversion to this hour! Uphill and down dale his path has been a varied one, but for every part of his pilgrimage he can praise the Lord, for, "He blessed him there."
There may perhaps, be some Christians here in trouble. Brother, Sister, I do not ask you what your trouble is, and I do not want to know. But there is a little text I would like to whisper to you–"Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you." Will you not trust to Him after that? If so, He will bless you there! Is your trouble concerning temporal need? Let me put this passage into your mouth as a sweet morsel, "Your Father knows what things you have need of before you ask Him." Suck that down and He will bless you there! Oh, what a blessing will come out of the marrow and fatness of that thought! Is there a poor Christian here who says, "I feel half ashamed to go to the Communion Table. I am so unworthy"? You never were worthy and never will be! Turn your eyes again to the Cross! Look to the Savior for worthiness. He will bless you there! "I feel so cold and chill," says another. Think of the Savior's love to poor, dead, cold sinners such as you are and He will bless you there! If you are very cold, it is no use thinking of the cold in order to get hot–the best thing is to go to the fire. And if you feel dull and dead, do not try to get better by looking within and examining yourself–fly away to Jesus Christ and He will bless you there! Let all of us now say, "Dear Lord, meet with us, show us
Your hands and Your side." And if we come to His Throne in that spirit of desire, He will bless us there!
The Lord be with us all, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
Ge 33:9 • I Have Enough
ERMON 2739
"I Have Enough"
"Esau said, I have enough. Jacob said, I have enough."
Genesis 33:9, 11
IT is a very rare thing to meet with people who say that they have enough, for those who have most generally desire more, and those who have little feel that contentment is a thing which cannot reasonably be expected from them. For any person honestly and truthfully to say, "I have enough," is so unusual a circumstance that I do not remember having heard it often. I have done so a few times, at long intervals. This being the case as a rule, it is very remarkable that there should be, in this chapter, a record of two persons who each said, "I have enough." It is specially noteworthy that this was said by two brothers, for, generally, if one of two brothers is contented, the other is of quite a different disposition.
One may be of a very happy and easy-going spirit, but the other possesses enough worry and care to have stocked the two. But here are two brothers, twins, yet each one says, "I have enough."
It will appear to you as a still more singular fact if you remember that these brothers differed so greatly from one another in other respects. The one was described by the Apostle Paul as a "profane person, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright." Yet he says, "I have enough." The other was a man who had wrestled with God and who had power with God and with men as a prince! He also says, "I have enough." It seems to me as if, on that occasion, the blessing of their father Isaac rested upon them both, for you remember that, although Esau did not receive the great blessing– the Covenant blessing–that having gone to Jacob who secured it by deception, yet Esau did receive a great blessing of a temporal kind which Isaac pronounced upon him with all the fervor of a father who loved his son most ardently. Esau thus received what he most wanted, for he cared very little for the spiritual blessing–not being a spiritual man–and when he obtained the temporal blessing, that satisfied his heart and he said, "It is enough." The blessing of a graciousfather is, indeed, a blessing and though it may not always come as we could wish, in the spiritual fashion, for all sons arenot
Jacobs, yet, nevertheless, it does come in some fashion or other.
And, thus, upon Esau there fell the blessing which his father Isaac pronounced upon him when he said, "Behold, your dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of Heaven from above."
I am going to try to show you that although these two different people did each say, "I have enough," and although the meaning of their words was in some sense, alike, yet there were great differences as to the innermost meaning of the very same words when they came out of different mouths.
My first observation is that HERE IS AN UNGODLY MAN
WHO SAYS THAT HE HAS ENOUGH.
There are some unconverted men who are content with their present possessions–it is not always or often the case,but it is so sometimes. Contentment is not altogether a spiritual gift. It is possessed by some men who make no pretense to spiritual attainments. You must admit that it is so and it is always unfair and unjust, because it is false, to say that merely moral men have no moral virtues, for they sometimes have excellences which, for what they are, shine very brightly and put to shame the defects of professing Christians! A Bristol stone is not a diamond and it is not worth anything like the price of a diamond, but if you were to say that it was not like a diamond, and that it did not shine, youwould do it a gross injustice. Paste gems are not real jewels, but they are made so remarkably like the genuine article that if you were to say that they have no brilliance, you would be denying that which is a matter of fact. And, in like manner, there are unconverted men whose natural excellences are bright and shining and ought not to be denied. And, though they are not the people of God and in the day when God shall make up His jewels they will not be numbered with them, for they are mere counterfeits and imitations, yet there is much to be seen in them which we should admire and of which we ought to confess the excellence.
There are some men who have not the Grace of God in their hearts, who, nevertheless, are not always fretting and worrying, as certain other people are. It is a comfort for their families that they are contented and it is well that even an Esau should say, "I have enough." It is good for Jacob that Esau should say it and it is good for Esau, himself. It is well for a man's wife and his family that he should be of a happy temperament and of a contented spirit, instead of being, as some are, perpetually grasping, grinding, scraping and doing everything they can to get more to add to what they already possess. Well, then, if even unconverted men sometimes say, "We have enough"–and we do occasionally meet with such persons– what a shame it will be if those who have the Grace of God within them should fall short of even that contentment which worldly men have attained–and should need such persons as these to set them an example in such a matter as this!
Notice, next, that it is sometimes the case that ungodly men are contented, as Esau was when he said, "I haveenough." This may be because they are persons of easy disposition who are readily pleased. There are some of whom we say that, "they are easy as an old shoe" and, generally, such people are not worth much more than an old shoe. These very easy-going people never do much in the world, but, still, for all that, they are happy in their easy mode of life. They are naturally satisfied with less than contents others.
They look on the bright side of things. They are cheerful from their bodily constitution, being endowed with good health. And their mental conformation, which is not quite so brisk as that of some others, but more calm and quiet–possibly more stupid, too–enables them to say more readily than others do, "We have enough."
I have no doubt that sometimes ignorance is a help to contentment. Hence the common saying, "If ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise"–which I will not stay to pull to pieces, though it is open to criticism–for a great mistake lies at the bottom of it. But there are some men who are contented with what they have because they do not know of anything better. They are perfectly satisfied with their present sphere in life, for they were never out of it. They have always lived on the old farm where their father lived before them and where their ancestors have lived for many generations– and they do not know of anything better than that. I would not like to transplant the tree that grows so well where it is and I would be the last to wish to inject cares, anxieties and ambitions into the heart of a man who is naturally contented with his lot.
I do not say that this was Esau's case, however. I think he was contented and said, "I have enough," for quite another reason.
Some are contented because they are utterly reckless and only consider present pleasure. They live from hand to mouth and never calculate what may happen tomorrow. Laying by for a rainy day seems to them to be preposterous. If they have sufficient for the passing hour, it is quite enough for them. In some respects, how like this vice is to the virtue which the Christian ought to seek after! Yet it is a vice as we see it in the ungodly, for they are careless, heedless and reckless as was this man, Esau, who, coming in hungry and faint from the chase, sells his birthright for one mess of red pottage, not knowing and not caring what the spiritual value of that birthright might be, but selling it straightaway that he might satisfy his hunger! There are some who are contented for this reason, that they do not exercise thought, they do not give due consideration to their true condition and they say, "We have enough," because they have sufficient for the time present. Such contentment as that, I do not commend–if any of us have it, may God deliver us from it!
Yet let me notice, next, that in the contentment of unconverted men, there are some good points. For, first, it mayprevent greed in them. When a man says, "I have enough," you do not expect him to be one of those who grind the faces of the poor and who must compass sea and land to get more wealth to themselves. Now, in Esau's case, he declined his brother's present until he was pressed to accept it–and I have no doubt that he honestly declined it on the ground that he had enough. His brother had planned this gift to propitiate his favor, but he tells him that he does not need it, that he loves him without the present–and he has enough–so does not require it. It is a good thing for a man, even if he has not the Grace of God, to be so contented with the things which he has as not to be covetous of the things of others, for covetousness is a great sin and is condemned in that Commandment which says, "You shall not covet anything that is your neighbor's." So far, contentment is a good thing if a man is so satisfied with what he has that he does not covet that which belongs to another!
It is also right and proper that he should not have any envious illfeeling towards others. If others are better off than they are, some people straightway find fault with Providence and are envious and jealous of the person who appears to be more favored than they are.
Esau was not of that mind, for he said to Jacob, "I have enough, my brother. Keep what you have unto yourself." There is another sense implied in the Hebrew, "Be that to you that is yours. May it do you good. May you use and enjoy it yourself!" I like to hear a man say, "My motto is, 'Live, and let live.' I have enough and I wish others to have enough, too. And if another man's 'enough' is larger than mine, I am glad he has it. If he is capable of more enjoyment than I am, let him have it–why should I not rejoice in his joy and thus suck out of the sweets that belong to him some sweetness for myself by being glad that another is not as poor as I am, or so sick as I am, or so feeble as I am, or being glad that there are some who can excel myself, even in the point of earthly happiness?" So far so good, Esau, that you should say, "I have enough."
Still, there is an evil side to this contentment, as you must have seen in many who have possessed it. In some people ithas led to boasting. They are so satisfied with everything they have that they are quite sure that nobody else owns anything half as good as what they have. If they have a horse, there is never another horse within a hundred miles that can trot like theirs! If one should go faster, it is because their animal was a little out of condition that day. They think there is no such a farm as theirs, or no such a trade as theirs, or nothing in the world that can be compared with what they have.
And they are even foolish enough to tell you so! This very contentment that they have breeds glorying in the flesh and glorying in their own possessions–all of which is evil and obnoxious in the sight of God.
We have also seen it lead to a contempt of Divine things–and this is even worse. Esau says, "I have enough," yet he had lost his birthright, he had lost all the blessings of the Covenant, he had lost all part and lot in God and goodness. It is an awful contentment when man can be satisfied without God! What a terrible peace is that when a man is in a peaceful state of mind although he is unsaved! It is like that dreadful calm, in the tropics, of which we have sometimes read, where there has been no wind for many a day and the very deep is rotting–and everything seems stagnant and full of death. There are some men who have reached that kind of contentment in which their conscience is seared as with a hot iron.
They want no Heaven–earth is their Heaven. They desire not to be carried by angels into Abraham's bosom–to fare sumptuously every day, here, is enough bliss for them. They are content not to have the children's portion and to be scourged because God loves them–they wish to have the lot of the bastard who is without chastisement and who is not acknowledged as a son! They have their portion in this life–and that is the worst thing about this kind of contentment–for it argues that God is giving them here all the joy that they will ever have.
Looked at from that standpoint, there was something very dreadful in Esau's saying, "I have enough." If you could have put
Jacob in Esau's place, with Jacob's convictions, with Jacob's knowledge of God, with Jacob's desire to be on good terms with God, do you think that he would have said, "I have enough, for I have these camels, and cattle, and sheep, though I have not God"?
Oh, no! Jacob would have said, "Enough, my Lord? All this is nothing without You. I promised You if You would give me bread to eat, raiment to put on and bring me again to my father's house in peace, I would be Yours–but I cannot be content without You." So he grasps the Angel of the Covenant and he says to Him, "I will not let You go, except You bless me," for he felt that until God blessed him, he could not say, "I have enough."There is no real contentment to a truly-awakened man until he is at peace with God!
And it is a horrible thing for any man to be perfectly satisfied while he is under God's wrath and in danger of eternal destruction–as he certainly is unless he has believed in the Lord Jesus Christ! I would like to put a few very sharp thorns into the pillow of any easygoing people here who are content out of Christ. I would even wound you that you may come to Christ for healing, and smite you that you may resort to the great Physician for the cure which He alone can work, for it is a dreadful thing that you should be at ease when you have such grave cause for disquietude. "There is no peace, says my God, to the wicked."
II. Now I must pass on to the better part of my subject. HERE IS A GODLY MAN WHO SAYS THAT HE HAS ENOUGH. This is Jacob.
I will begin by remarking that it is a pity that this is not true of every Christian. It is a sad thing when a man is godly and yet does not say, "I have enough." The Apostle does not say that contentment in itself is great gain, but he says, "Godliness with contentment is great gain," so that it is not the contentment without the godliness that is the gain and, on the other hand, any form of godliness that does not bring contentment with it should be gravely questioned. A godly man who does not yield ready assent to all
God's will ought to pray to be made a godlier man. That man who says, "I am a Christian," and then murmurs, ought to pray to God to forgive his murmuring and to make him more of a Christian. It should be a distinguishing mark of a child of God that even when he is in the greatest agony, and his prayer has the most of disturbance in it, it should never go beyond the line laid down by Christ Himself, "If it is possible, let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless not as I will, but as You will."
Your heart is breaking, you say , with your troubles. It needs more breaking for, if it were broken, the trouble wouldnot break it!
Where our selfishness and our self-will come in, there our sorrows begin. What is needed is not the removal of trouble, but the conquest of self. When the Grace of God has brought us to sing from our hearts the verse we sang just now, all will be well with us–
"Father, I wait Your daily will.
You shall divide my portion still!
Give me on earth what seems You best,
Till death and Heaven reveal the rest."
When God's will and our will are contrary to one another, we may be sure that there is something amiss with us. We are never right till God's will becomes our will and we can honestly say, "The will of the Lord be done." Therefore it is a sad thing when a Christian cannot say, "I have enough." But it is a very sweet thing when he can truthfully say it. Then does he really enjoy life–when he thanks God for what he is and for what he is not–when he thanks God for health, and also for sickness–when he thanks God for gains, and also for losses–when he sings a song in the night, as the nightingale does, as well as a song in the day, as the lark does.
He then proves that he does not follow God for what he gets out of Him, as stray dogs will follow a man in the street who feeds them, but that he follows God out of sincere love to Him because God is his Master and he belongs to Him. It is true blessedness, a little
Heaven begun below, when the Christian, looking all round, can say of all temporal things, "I have enough."
It is a still better thing when the Christian has more than enough.
Jacob was in that condition, for he felt that hecould give Esau all those goats, sheep, camels, cows, bulls and asses and yet be able to say, "I have enough." It is a blessing when a godly man feels, "I have more than enough for my own needs, so I am glad that I can help my fellow Christians. I have great joy and delight in aiding the poor and succoring the needy." When you can sing, with the Psalmist, "My cup runs over," mind that you call somebody to come and catch what spills, for if you let it run to waste, it may be said of you, "That man cannot be trusted with a full cup." So let it run over where those with empty cups may come and catch it, to moisten their parched lips! It is a good thing when the Christian, even though he has but little, can say, "I have not only enough, but I have a little to spare for others who have less than I have."
The charm of Jacob's, "enough," was that God had given it to him. Esau says nothing about God, but Jacob says,"God has dealt graciously with me, and I have enough." That is indeed a blessing which we can see comes to us from God when, on every mercy there is the mark of our Father's hand! What are bursting barns if the wheat comes not from God? What are the overflowing wine vats if the juice of the clusters is not from God? What is the good of your gold and silver if God has cursed it? But what a blessing it is when God has smiled upon it all and says to you, "My child, I give you this because you are My child. I make you My steward and I entrust these earthly things to your keeping because I believe that you will use them for My Glory and for the good of your fellow creatures." This puts a sweetness into the cup which, otherwise, would not have been there, so that it is a very different thing to be a child of God and to have enough–and to be a child of the devil and to have enough! May God grant that we may, each one, know what it is to say with Jacob, "The Lord has dealt graciously with me, and I have enough"!
The correct rendering of our second text–as you may see by the marginal reading of your Bibles–is that Jacob said, "I have all things." Esau said, "I have enough," but Jacob said, "I have all things." And, as Matthew Henry says,"Esau's enough was much, but Jacob's enough was all. He that has much would have more, but he that thinks he has all, is sure he has enough." Well, he who believes in Christ has all things, for what says the Apostle? "All things are yours; and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's." They are all yours in this sense–that all that will be good for you, God must give to you–He has pledged Himself to this. "No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly." He will therefore not withhold any good thing from you, so that all that is good for you, you are sure to get. All things are yours in the promises and in the Covenant–for that God who took you to be His portion, has given Himself to be your portion–and He is "God all-sufficient."
All things are in Him and, in possessing Him, you have all things!
Oh, what privileges are yours, for, listen! God Himself is yours.
"I will be their God," He says, and that is more thananything else that we can say. Even though all things are yours, you get beyond that when you can say that God is yours! The Eternal Father gives
Himself, with all His glorious attributes and with everything that belongs to Him–to you! He gives His very heart to you, "for the Father Himself loves you." The Son of God has loved you and given Himself for you,and He gives Himself to you. All the merit of His atoning Sacrifice, all the love of His heart, all the wisdom of His head, all the power of His arm, all are yours! His very life is yours, for He says to you, "Because I live, you shall live also."What an inheritance you have, then, in the Christ of God and in the God of Christ! But then you have also the Holy Spirit to be yours. "He dwells with you, and shall be in you," as in a temple.
All light He will bring to you. All life He will maintain in you. All comfort He will bestow upon you. All guidance and all quickening
He will give to you! There is nothing which the Spirit of God can work which He will not work in you, according as you may have need of His Divine operations. Thus Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all being ours, what a blessed portion we have! I do not wonder that Jacob said, "I have enough," or that he said, "I have all things."
Blessed be the name of the Lord who has made it possible for any son of man to say as much as this!
While I was studying this subject, I met with a sweet poem by that choice daughter of song, Miss Havergal. Each verse is upon this subject–"Enough." I will read the verses, one by one, and add only brief remarks, hoping that you may drink in the fullness of their meaning and say with Jacob, if you are indeed a child of God,
"I have enough." The poem begins thus–
"I am so weak, dear Lord, I cannot stand
One moment without You!
But oh, the tenderness of Your enfolding!
And oh, the faithfulness of Your upholding!
And oh, the strength of Your right hand!
That strength is enough for me!"
There is to be none of your own strength, you see, and none that you can borrow from your neighbors. You may have many trials, long pilgrimages, great burdens, but God's tenderness will enfold you, God's faithfulness will uphold you, and God's strength will, indeed, be enough for you!
As I read that last line, I felt as if I could fall on my face and laugh as Abraham did. Omnipotence enough for me? I should think it is! It is enough to uphold this great globe which God has hung upon nothing! It is enough to sustain yon unpillared arch of Heaven which stands firm by the Divine might! It is enough for yon sun that has burned on through all these ages, and whose light has never failed! It is enough for the universe which is almost illimitable! It is enough for every living thing that breathes! It is enough for cherubim and seraphim, and all the angelic host! Then, of course, it is enough for me–a little gnat dancing up and down in the evening sunlight! Suppose a giant should lend me his strength and say to me, "It will be enough for you." I should think it would– but that would be little, indeed, compared with the Almighty God saying to me, "As your days, so shall your strength be." Yes, my
Lord, "Your strength is enough for me."
The next verse of the poem is–
"I am so needy, Lord, and yet I know
All fullness dwells in You.
And hour by hour that never-failing treasure
Supplies and fills, in overflowing measure, My least and greatest need! And so Your Grace is enough for me."
You remember how Paul says the Lord spoke to him– "My Grace is sufficient for you: for My strength is madeperfect in weakness"?
Think what Grace there is in Christ Jesus our Lord–electing Grace,