The Rivers of Godby Pastor Jim Feeney, Ph.D.
Summary: Feeling spiritually dry? in a personal desert place? God is ready and willing to pour out streams, springs, and rivers of life-giving spiritual water on your parched soul.
Deuteronomy 8:7For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land — a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills.
•• This is God’s intention for His people --
• to bring us into a good land
• to bring us to streams and pools of water
• to bring us to flowing springs
• to refresh us from the rivers of God
Psalm 78:15-17He split the rocks in the desert and gave them water as abundant as the seas; [16] he brought streams out of a rocky crag and made water flow down like rivers. [17] But they continued to sin against him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High.
Psalm 78:19-22They spoke against God, saying, Can God spread a table in the desert? [20] When he struck the rock, water gushed out, and streams flowed abundantly. But can he also give us food? Can he supply meat for his people?” [21] When the Lord heard them, he was very angry; his fire broke out against Jacob, and his wrath rose against Israel, [22] for they did not believe in God or trust in his deliverance.
•• Here we see God bringing His people towards the promised land --
• In the desert He gave them abundant water. It can be the same for your desert, if you’ll by faith seek and receive God’s living waters.
• In the desert He brought His people “streams out of a rocky crag”. If your life seems “rocky”, God is ready and willing to bring His streams of blessing into it.
• In their helplessness and need, God “made water flow down like rivers”. In your times of need, the refreshing, life-giving rivers of God’s blessing are available to you.
•• But watch the warnings here, too --
• They sinned and rebelled against God in the midst of His provision of rivers of water.
• They spoke against God, essentially and ungratefully saying, “Can’t God do more?”
• In their rebellion and disbelief, they “did not...trust in [God’s] deliverance.”
•• The lesson to us is: Don’t overlook and underappeciate the present rivers of God in our lives, the present blessings of God, His present provision in our rocky places.
Isaiah 44:2-4This is what the Lord says — he who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you: Do not be afraid, O Jacob, my servant, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. [3] For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. [4] They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like poplar trees by flowing streams.
•• God gave them natural water. More importantly, for them and us, He poured out on them Spirit-ual water. He poured out His Spirit and His blessing on His people. And God is the same today. He is ever ready to pour out His Spirit on you. •• Where? On dry, thirsty ground. Thirst for the living waters of God's Spirit. • The result? God’s blessing. Isaiah 41:17-18 The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. But I the Lord will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. [18] I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs. •• Search for this water ... God will answer! • Are your heights barren? Search for God’s living water, and He’ll make His rivers flow into your barrenness. • Are your valleys parched? Seek after God’s water, and He’ll cause springs to burst forth in your parched land. • Is your devotional life dry? Search for God’s water, and He’ll turn your personal spiritual desert into refreshing springs and pools. Isaiah 43:18-21Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. [19] See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. [20] The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, [21] the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise. •• Don’t dwell on the past. God likes to do new things in the lives of His people. Look ahead! •• In the desert wasteland, God will “give drink to [His] people”. • You say, “Well, it’s been awfully dry.” Remember, God says, “I am doing a new thing.... Don’t dwell on the past.” Get ready for God’s “new thing” in your life. Look for His water in your desert and His reviving streams flowing into your wasteland. Jeremiah 17:7-8 But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. [8] He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit. •• Trust God. Have faith and confidence in Him. • You’ll be like a tree rooted by His rivers of water. • You’ll have no fears of the heat. • Not only will you survive times of drought, you will stay green and continue to bear fruit. John 7:37-39aOn the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. [38] Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” [39] By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. •• You don’t need to travel to find the rivers of God. They are within everyone who will: (1) Thirst for them... (2) Believe in Jesus... (3) Come to Him... (4) and drink deeply of the Holy Spirit offered by Jesus. And that Holy Spirit, whom Jesus likened to “streams of living water,” will change your life.
The Internal Struggle And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of the LORD (Genesis 25:21-22). As we meditate on the words of our text, I want to point out the first prayer was that of Isaac. What was the source of that prayer? I want you understand that the wife is a type of the church, and what was wrong was that she was barren. This is what we all are by nature spiritually. In a spiritual sense we are barren. Isaac entreated the Lord, and his wife Rebekah conceived. A new conception took place, which leads to the new birth. In a typical sense, in a type of the new birth that takes place in the soul, the barrenness was removed, and life was conceived. The children struggled in her. When the Holy Spirit breathes new life into our souls, there becomes a struggle, and I will tell you why this is. That old nature does not leave, and a new nature is born within. Now, we have exactly what we read here: “and the children struggled together within her,” and we get into that spiritual struggle, that spiritual warfare, and there is a blessed thing about this spiritual struggle. She went to the Lord, and now we want to see the beauty of what the Lord told her. We read in verse 23: “And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.” I want you to understand the blessedness of what we just read. The elder shall serve the younger. That old man of sin, which is still in our hearts and still struggles for the mastery, will serve the younger, which is the new man of the heart. We never get rid of that old nature, that old man of sin, and it is a constant warfare throughout our entire spiritual journey in this life, but the elder will serve the younger. There are two classes of people in us. Two classes of people are conceived in us as we understand the new birth. I want to take you with me to Galatians 5:17, where we read about this same struggle: “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” Do you see the two natures, the two classes of people? You have a desire to be perfect. We have a desire to serve the Lord with perfection, but we are not able to. On the other hand, the evil that we want to do we are not able to do either. Cannot in the original means “God forbid.” In other words, the Lord forbids us. He comes with His restraining grace, and He forbids us from doing the things we want to do. These two natures are two people. These are two natures, two types of people who now dwell within us. This is what we learn from the birth of Jacob and Esau: the elder shall serve the younger. Now, I want you to see how the spirit of that old nature is a spirit of self-exaltation. This is a continual battle for the children of God. Proverbs 8:13 says: “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.” That is the fear of God. That is the new nature, but the old nature is the nature of self-exaltation, and there is a constant, ongoing battle between that Jacob and that Esau throughout our entire lives. We read in 2 Thessalonians 2:4: “Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” That is what was born in Genesis 3, when old Satan told Eve: You shall be as God. That is that old nature. That is what we are by nature. We want to know what is good and evil. We want to decide what is right and what is wrong. We do not want to come under authority. We do not want to submit to the Word of God. Now I want you to see how this spirit of self-exaltation goes forth in Satan’s gospel because it is a humanistic gospel. That old nature is a nature of self-exaltation. We read in Malachi 1:1-3: “The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob. And I hated Esau.” They could not understand why the Lord loved them. They felt His chastening hand. They felt that spiritual struggle in the soul, and they were unable to see that the Lord loved them. The Lord gave an example of how He loved His people We see here: how can the Lord love me? The Lord sees my wretchedness. He sees my pride. He sees all of these things within me that I struggle against day after day. Then I have to cry out and say, How can the Lord love me? The Lord says though: I see two people in you. I do not only see that fallen nature and that wretched attitude of yours, but I also see that longing desire of the new man. I also see Jacob in there. I love Jacob, but I hate Esau. The Lord is saying that He hates that old fallen nature, but He sees also that new man of the heart. He sees that contrast, that warfare that He placed there. The Lord can love Jacob because He can separate between Jacob and Esau. He can separate between that old nature that is always trying to exalt self, and that new man of the heart, which is after Christ, which is after godliness, that new man of the heart, which is Christ formed in you. FOR OUR FIRST POINT, let’s consider what God reveals that He hates in the character and in the strain of Esau. God says He hates Esau, in other words, I hate that which is of the old nature. I hate that old man of sin. FOR OUR SECOND POINT, let’s consider what God reveals that He loves in the character and in the strain of Jacob, in other words, in that new man of the heart. Esau is a type of that old nature. He is a type of the harlot church. He is a type of that which is laid waste spiritually, that which is spiritually barren. Rebekah was barren, and that is what brought Isaac before the Lord to entreat Him for the barrenness. I want you to see this in Malachi 1:3: “And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.” There is nothing of the old nature, about old Esau, that will ever gain the Lord’s blessing. Everything about that old nature is going to be crucified. It is going to be cut down because it has that self-exalting tendency. It is pride. It is just the opposite of godly fear. That is why the Lord says He hates it, and He has laid it waste and made it desolate. Any time we are left over to our old nature, we find that our hearts are barren because the Lord hates it. The Lord loves that which is of the new creation within the soul. We read in verse 4: “Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever.” How often in our own human strength, when the Lord starts bringing us down, and He starts bringing us into the valley of humiliation, that that old nature has a tendency to strive in our own strength. We are going to build in our own strength, and we are going to do all these things in our own strength. That old Esau is still in there, but when the Lord works grace in our hearts, we are going to find that he is going to serve the younger. He is going to serve the new man of the heart. In other words, he is not going to have the mastery. The old expression goes: When the going gets a little tough, we just gear down. We just go into a lower gear, put on more strength, and we keep going. The reason the Lord puts that burden on us, though, is to get us to stop walking in our own strength. He wants us to start walking in the strength of the Lord. He wants that new man to be in the mastery. He wants the old man to serve the new. The elder shall serve the younger. Is this not true as we see in our own hearts, and as we see that spiritual warfare going on? As long as we are striving in our own strength, we can have a financial difficulty, and we can have all these things come upon us, and our solution is to work longer hours or work a little harder. For some reason, the harder I work, the behinder I get because the Lord says you are going to build these desolate places in your own strength, but He is going to tear them down. This is because He wants us to build in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our building must not be in our own strength. This is why we see the Lord tearing down while we are building. Hosea 5:14 tells it so beautifully. “For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him.” He does this because everything of the flesh must be removed. That old Esau has to be crucified. It is the border of wickedness. It is the border of working in our own human strength, and the Lord will tear down. God says the Esau nature shall forever experience His indignation. The Lord hates Esau. He hates that humanism. The Lord has indignation against that old nature, and it will never gain the mastery. When the Lord begins the word of grace in the soul, it is a constant warfare, and old Esau is always striving for the mastery. The Lord says though that He will break them down. God will bring that old nature into desolation no matter what we build. No matter how we try to build in our own strength it always comes to nothing. Now we see that when we come to the right place as Jacob did—I will not let you go unless you bless me—we are now no longer going forward in our own strength. Then the Lord will bless us. How do we identify this Esau in our own hearts? Esau was to inherit the birthright. By nature, our old man is going to want to inherit the birthright. Esau becomes a type throughout the entire Bible. Esau’s birthright made him an heir to every blessing—temporal and spiritual—but he forfeited it. He threw it away. He despised it. Adam in the creation was to inherit all eternal blessings, but he despised them. That old Adam, that first Adam, sold our souls. This has spiritual significance with Esau, who sold his birthright for one serving of pottage. The Esau within us builds but not upon God. Ever since the fall that old man of sin wants to build on his own strength. I want you to see this in Hebrews 12:16-17: “Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.” Esau sold his birthright, and this is what you and I have done in Adam. Does this tell us that Esau was unable to repent? No, he wanted Isaac to repent of the blessing he had pronounced on Jacob. He wanted Isaac to reverse the blessing he had pronounced on Jacob. He wanted to ignore the fact that he had sold his birthright. In their old nature they seek repentance, and they have much remorse over the consequences of sin, but never any remorse over sin. Esau was seeking repentance on the part of Isaac, and that is our old nature. We want repentance on the part of God. We want God to repent of the evil He said He would do to us for our sin, but we do not have remorse over our sin. Esau is a type of the person who comes under the call of the gospel, but he uses the things of God to satisfy the lusts of his own flesh. That is what you and I will do by nature. By nature we want to come where God says in Malachi 1:4: “They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness,” that is of lawlessness. We see in the gospel today: I want salvation. I want to accept Christ. I want to be saved, but I do not want to repent. I do not want to show any remorse over my past sin. That is old Esau, and that old Esau is within the heart of every one of us. Esau’s broad-road approach to serve God with a selfish motive is for temporal blessings. That is where we are naturally. Christ’s church does not receive temporal blessings from the Lord when she is walking in God’s favor, but this world is not her resting place. As we walk in the favor of God, we will receive the blessings that are temporally needed to supply us with the needs of this life, but the Lord is not going to give us to build a big empire in this life. The Lord Jesus Christ has to be our inheritance. Esau will try to manipulate God for gain. Have you ever noticed that in your heart? That wretched Esau who is in us would manipulate God for gain rather than out of a motive of love. We see in John 6:26-27: “Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.” Do you understand what they were doing? They were seeking the Lord, but they sought Him for profit, not out of a motive of love, not out of a motive of wanting to have God’s fellowship. Satan likes to play tricks in our hearts. That old man of sin, that old Esau, is still in here struggling and fighting. The spirit lusts against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit. The new man says, I want to seek the Lord, and the old man will join right in and say, Fine, but the motive is to get something in your hip pocket, rather than out of love. That old struggle goes on in the heart. The Esau within us is not motivated by a desire to serve the Lord out of love, but out of pride and lust. The Lord speaks of Esau in Obadiah 1:3: “The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?” Christ is that rock and this is saying that the pride of your heart will deceive you to believe that your are dwelling in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the crucified Saviour, but it is out of pride, not a motive of love. That self-exalting always tries to gain the mastery within our hearts. The motive of the old Esau is always there to try to get something for the flesh. This is the constant struggle of spiritual warfare. Verse 4 says: “Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the LORD.” That old pride that was born in paradise is an ongoing struggle for a child of God. The children of God always have to fight against that old Esau. The Lord said to Moses in Exodus 33:21-22: “And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by.” The Lord told Moses He would put him in the cleft of the rock. I want you to see the difference. Esau says, I will climb up and I will dwell in the cleft of the rock, but with Moses, the Lord put him there. It is the work of the Lord. It is what the Lord has done for us. The Lord searches the hearts and tries the reins. We read in Obadiah 1:6: “How are the things of Esau searched out! how are his hidden things sought up!” The Lord does not allow us to go on in the pride of our hearts. He searches it out. How does He do this? While we are going on in pride, the Lord puts His thumb on us. He puts a weight on us, and He brings us down. He brings us into the valley of humiliation to where we have to start crying out to the Lord. He has seen the pride of our hearts, and He brings us down in humility. The true church has suffered much at the hand of Esau. If you and I understand the spiritual warfare spoken of in Galatians 5:17, we you know what it is to suffer much at the hand of Esau, because it is a constant warfare. We read in Luke 23:4-5: “Then said Pilate to the chief priests and to the people, I find no fault in this man. And they were the more fierce, saying, He stirreth up the people, teaching throughout all Jewry, beginning from Galilee to this place.” The scribes and the Pharisees were strangers to the true work of grace. When the Lord Jesus Christ was preaching the true work of grace, they became so furious, stirred up out of jealousy, and they crucified Him. God told Edom (that is, Esau) in Obadiah 1:10: “For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.” When the Lord gives us that victory over pride, that old nature of our heart, he will be cut off. The elder will serve the younger. That old man of sin will serve the new man. As soon as you become the light of the world, walking in the ways of the cross, you become a reproof to every Esau. Among God’s own people, Esau is still fighting and has not yet been cut off. If you start showing by your walk of life that you are now serving the Lord out of a motive of love, and that the old man is serving the younger, you will find that even many of God’s dear children will turn against you. In them Esau still has not been fully slain. Does this mean that we now start writing bitter things against them and start saying that they are not children of God? Oh, be careful. The Lord says: I have loved Jacob. I have not beheld iniquity in Jacob. It was not because Jacob was better. It was because Jacob had that new man of the heart, and the Lord had worked grace in his soul. We read in Luke 6:22: “Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.” When men do this to you, do you now have the right to start passing judgment and say, Well, they put me out, so they are the guilty ones? No, the Lord often uses His own dear people to give you the sorest trials. The sorest trial that ever came upon the Lord Jesus Christ must have been when He saw Peter, His own beloved apostle, cursing and swearing and denying that he ever knew Him. Can you imagine how the powers of hell came against our Lord and Saviour to tell Him: That is the one you are dying for, and he is cursing and blaspheming your name? Why do you want to die for a man like that? Did Christ condemn Peter? No, He turned and gave him a look of love. You and I have to be so careful not to pass judgment against another man. I do not care if we think he is a believer or not. The Lord knows, and we must commit it into the hands of the One who judges righteously. I want you to see how a walk of humility is a reproof of Esau’s pride. I have had some of God’s very dear children reprove me by far the sharpest. Why? For revealing their sins. How? By the fact that I would not join them. The minute I told a woman over the phone that I would not talk business with her on Sunday, she replied: Just a minute, do not forget that I am a Christian! The most grievous reproof they get is by the fact that you are not willing to join their sin. Sometimes it is Christians who are the most offended. We see in John 6:26-27: “Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.” What is our motive for serving the Lord? Is it because we stand to gain, not necessarily temporal things, but are we serving the Lord to earn heaven? Is it for our profit? Old Esau loves those because it is a selfish motive. If I am serving the Lord to go to heaven, the Lord is not pleased with me. The Lord wants me to serve Him because I love Him, and I desire to be with Him, and to serve Him because it is His pleasure. He wants me to serve Him because that is His holy will. This is why I serve the Lord. If all I am doing is serving the Lord because it is profitable for me, it is not pleasing to the Lord. FOR OUR SECOND POINT, let’s consider what God reveals that He loves in the character and in the strain of Jacob, in other words, in that new man of the heart. As we examine our hearts, we have to look for what the Lord hates, but on the other side of that same principle, He also teaches what the Lord loves within our hearts. When He has worked the work of regeneration and has worked in us the new man, then there are also things in us He loves. The Lord caused Jacob to walk in the way of brokenness. A broken and a contrite spirit the Lord will never despise. That is what He loves within us, when we see the power of sin, and we see the power of Esau within us, and it gives us a humble and a contrite heart before the Lord. It brings us into a brokenness, and He likes to see this every step of our lives, that every decision we make, and every step we take, is with a heart broken in His will. I want you to see this in Genesis 32:31-32: “And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh. Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew that shrank.”
He halted upon his thigh because in his wrestling with the Lord, the Lord had put His finger upon him, and he had found that his own strength had failed. We are all by nature as Esau as a result of our fall in Adam. We are looking to build. Malachi 1:4 says: “Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever.” There is the mercy of God. As we in our old nature begin to build in our own strength, the wonder of grace and the mercy of God is that He does break that down. Jacob by nature was no better than Esau. We see this in Genesis 27:36: “And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing.” The name Jacob means “deceiver” and “supplanter” and “trickster.” After God touched the hallow of Jacob’s thigh, He asked Jacob in Genesis 32:27: “And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.” When Jacob replied, he was confessing before the Lord, My name is supplanter, deceiver, trickster, liar. In other words, My name is sinner. He was not able to build on anything in himself. He had to come as a sinner before God. He had to come and confess that he was nothing but a sinner. That is the working of grace. He is confessing that God could justly condemn him to hell. The Lord tears us down to bring us to brokenness, a broken heart and a contrite spirit. The word thigh is taken from the Hebrew word, Yarek (yaw-rake'), which means to be soft—the thigh (from its fleshly softness). The thigh is the softest part of the flesh. Our text says God “touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew that shrank.” Jacob was left alone with God after he had sent all he had over the brook. I want you to understand the difference between Jacob and Esau. Now Jacob is not building anything in his own strength as his strength was now gone. We read in Genesis 32:22-24: “And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two womenservants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok. And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had. And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.” Jacob had to let loose of everything in this life. If we love father or mother, or husband or wife, or children more than God, we are not worthy of Him. Jacob demonstrates this. He had to put everything across on the other side of the brook, so it was now just Jacob and God. God takes us alone and wrestles with us to reveal the distinction between the Esau church of self-sufficiency, and the Jacobs who halt upon their thigh. That Esau in us has to be slain. It has to be cut off. The Lord brings that distinction now. We now halt on every step we take. When the Lord caused Jacob’s sinew to shrink, he had to bring one foot up and stop, and then bring the other foot forward. This is teaching us that in a spiritual sense we are not sufficient of ourselves to be able to walk in our own strength. We take every step and come to a stop, and have to again step forward with the other foot. We must get the right foot forward, and that is the leading of the Lord. When everything is sent over the brook Jabbok, Christ alone is all that matters anymore. We must get to the point where we put aside everything—my wife and my children and my cattle and my property—and now it gets to be a personal matter between Christ and me. Now that old man of sin is crucified. Now it comes to the point where Christ is all in all. When Christ says in Luke 14:26: “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple,” that word hate means love them less. We must love Christ above our husbands and our wives. We must love Christ above all other things in this life. We have to be able to lay it all aside. Then we understand what Jacob said in Genesis 32:26: “And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.” Now the wrestling was between him and the Lord. This is not only Old Testament religion, the same was true in the time of Jesus as we see in Matthew 15:24: “But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” This woman of Canaan came to Him and wanted Him to heal her daughter, but He put her away, giving her no hope, no encouragement. Verse 25 says: “Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.” She did not back off. It was a wrestling match between her and the Lord. It was a matter of old Esau being cut off. Continuing in verse 26 we read: “But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.” After Jesus touched her thigh, after all of her strength had come to an end, then we read in Matthew 15:27: “And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” She had to confess that she was as a dog. Jacob had to confess, I am Jacob. As old Esau gets slain, and as Jacob begins to halt upon his thigh, as that new man of the heart begins to function before the Lord, then we have to come before Him as humble and contrite sinners. Jesus replied in verse 28: “Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.” As Jacob wrestled, God touched the hollow of his thigh. We read in Genesis 32:25: “And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.” God wrestles with His dear children to exhaust all of their own strength. He wrestles with us in prayer because everything of Esau, everything of our old flesh, has to be broken down. A wrestler’s strength is not in his arms, not in his chest or shoulders, it is in his thighs. When the Lord shrank the sinew of Jacob’s thigh it meant he was no longer wrestling in his own strength. Now he comes to wrestle in faith, the faith of Jesus Christ. No person can be a wrestler without strong thighs. When “Jacob's thigh was out of joint,” he was at the end of himself. He had no strength in the flesh. This is the difference between Esau and Jacob. Esau was strong in himself, but Jacob’s strength was broken. This is where God’s love for Jacob was revealed. We read in Malachi 1:2-3: “I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.” The love God had for Jacob was revealed at Penuel when He touched the hollow of his thigh. It was revealed when He slew old Esau. If you and I know what it is for the Lord to work His grace in our hearts, and to slay that old nature, and to bring us to the point where we understand what it is to walk in the strength of the Lord and not in our human strength, that is where we see His love. God left Esau over to wrestle in his own strength. That is our old nature. We read in verse 4: “Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down.” The Lord says, Go ahead and build, but I will tear it down. When that new man of the heart has gained the mastery, and when that old Esau has come to serve the younger, then we will understand the words of the psalmist in Psalm 127:1: “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” Now we start living by trusting in the Lord. When every true Jacob finds his thigh out of joint, he learns Jacob’s language in Genesis 32:26: “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.” Now we come before the Lord as needy creatures, and as needy, hungry souls, and we seek the help of the Lord. God tries our faith as He did Jacob and the woman of Canaan. We read what Jacob said in Genesis 32:26: “And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh.” Jesus said to the Canaanite woman in Matthew15:24-26: “But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.” The Lord makes as though He will remove Himself and leave us desolate to reveal what is in our hearts. This woman would not let go until she was blessed as we read in verse 27: “And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” He is going to bring us to where we confess with our mouths and from our hearts that we have no strength without Him. The woman would not let go until she was blessed. Jacob would not let go until he was blessed. This lesson is not a one-time experience. Genesis 32:31 says: “And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.” The lesson Jacob learned at Penuel he remembered every step he took for the rest of his life. When you and I have been brought into the schools of Christ, and when that old Esau has been slain, and as we start walking as before the Lord, we are going to remember every step we take. That weakness in that thigh is manifest every step we take. We are no longer able to build in our own strength. We are unable to walk in our own strength. We cannot take one step without being reminded how He touched the hollow of our thigh. Jacob’s strength in himself was never regained. He was broken, and halted upon that thigh every step he took the rest of his life. That is the work of grace in the heart. The elder shall never again gain the mastery. Jacob’s religion was the Apostle Paul’s religion. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10: “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.” That is the gospel. How did the Lord touch the hollow of the Apostle Paul’s thigh? He gave him a thorn in the flesh and a messenger of Satan to buffet him, lest he should become exalted, lest he should be raised up in pride, lest old Esau should get the mastery. That is why he had to walk as Jacob walked, halting upon his thigh. Jacob could take pleasure in the fact that he was unable to walk in his own strength. Jacob, when he learns to walk with that brokenness, learns to understand that in his weakness is his strength. Now he sees that he is walking in the strength of the Lord. Romans 5:6 says: “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” When you and I understand that we are without strength, we see our strength in Christ. Broken human strength is needed to become strong. Before you and I have been broken, old Esau has the mastery, but as the Lord casts him down, Jacob understands what it is to walk in the strength of the Lord. Luke 1:49-51 says: “For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name. And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.” See where the difference is. See what He does to that Esau. Those who fear Him are those who hate evil, those who hate pride that keeps rising up in their own hearts. Therefore Paul admonishes to be strong in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. We may be strong. We may be stronger than any man on the face of the earth, but not in our own strength. We are going to be strong in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. We read in 2 Timothy 2:1: “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” That is where our strength lies. That is where all strength lies in the work of grace. When I am weak, then I am strong. I rejoice in infirmities because I understand that is the way of grace. I understand that is the way of the work of the cross, taking up our crosses daily and following our Saviour in the way of the cross. It is the way of crucifying the old man of sin.
Are you aware…that when we were born, we were given life…and this life, according to the Bible, is like a race. Listen to what the Apostle Paul had to say as he neared the end of his life.
Paul compared life with that of a race. Also, the writer of Hebrews said…
How is life like a race?
a. Life like a race has a challenging course (life has its ups and downs).
b. Life like a race has a judge or judges. Jesus is our judge.
c. Life like a race has a finish line (In the end, we will spend eternity either in heaven or hell).
You and I as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are created by God to win this Christian race…to be winners in the Lord…to one day stand in eternity robed in righteousness, wearing a crown of glory, and blessed with eternal honors and rewards.
TODAY, I AM GOING TO SHARE SOME PRINCIPLES ON HOW TO WIN THE CHRISTIAN RACE.
BEFORE I PROVIDE THESE PRINCIPLES, I NEED TO CLARIFY A FEW THINGS.
I. FROM THE WORLD'S PERSPECTIVE, WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE A WINNER?
From the world's perspective, winning is based upon…
a. Intelligence - The smarter you are the more respect you receive.
b. Wealth – The more money you have the happier you will be.
From the world's perspective, winning is based upon intelligence, and wealth.
FROM GOD'S PERSPECTIVE, WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE A WINNER?
From God's perspective, winning is not based upon speed (swift), strength (strong), intelligence (wise), and wealth.
From God's perspective, winning is based upon our effort to please God. We win when we do the best we can to please God.
You see…the world views people as successful if they are the best...number one…head of the class. But God is more concerned with us doing our best to honor Him.
If we want to win the Christian race…and become spiritual champions, then we must do our best for God.
ILLUSTRATION:
Britain's Derek Redmond had dreamed all his life of winning a gold medal in the 400-meter race, and his dream was in sight as he ran in the semifinals at Barcelona Olympics of 1992.
He was running the race of his life and was nearing the finish line when all of a sudden he felt a sharp pain go up the back of his leg. He fell face first onto the track with a torn right hamstring.
As the doctors were approaching, Redmond fought to his feet and began hopping to the finish line.
When he reached the stretch, a large man in a T-shirt came out of the stands, brushed aside a security guard and ran to Redmond, embracing him. It was Jim Redmond, Derek's father. "You don't have to do this," he told his weeping son. "Yes, I do," said Derek. "Well, then," said Jim, "we're going to finish this together."
And they did. Fighting off security men, the son's head sometimes buried in his father's shoulder, they stayed in Derek's lane all the way to the end, as the crowd rose and clapped and wept.
Derek didn't walk away with the gold medal, but he was a winner because he did His best.
My friends, from God's perspective, winning is not based upon being number one…We win when we do our best to please God.
NOW, I AM GOING TO SHARE SOME PRINCIPLES ON HOW TO WIN THE CHRISTIAN RACE.
FIRST, TO WIN THE CHRISTIAN RACE, WE MUST RUN WITH CONFIDENCE (SELF-WORTH).
We will never become a champion until we see ourselves as a champion. As Christians, we are champions and winners in the Lord. We are WORTH a lot to God.
Listen…the Bible tells us how important we are.
We are children of God.
We are related to the creator of the World. We belong to a royal family.
Unfortunately, though, some people walk around looking and acting like failures. They live defeated lives because they do not value themselves. They believe they have to many flaws and imperfections for God to love them.
ILLUSTRATION:
Have you ever noticed the pockmarks, or dimples, covering the surface of a golf ball? They make the ball look imperfect. So, what's their purpose?
An aeronautical engineer who designs golf balls says that a perfectly smooth ball would travel only 130 yards off the tee. But the same ball with the right kind of dimples will fly twice that far. These apparent "flaws" minimize the ball's air resistance and allow it to travel much further.
Most of us can quickly name the physical characteristics we wish we had been born without. It's difficult to imagine that these "imperfections" are there for a purpose and are part of God's master design. Yet, when the psalmist wrote of God's creative marvel in the womb, he said to the Lord, "You formed my inward parts (Psalm 139:13) and "Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed (vs. 14). Then he said, "I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made" (v. 14).
If we could accept our "flaws" and "imperfections" as part of God's master plan for us, what a difference it would make in our outlook on life.
The "dimples" we dislike may enable us to bring the greatest glory to our wise and loving Creator, who knows how to get the best out of our lives. What I am trying to say is this…To win the Christian race, we must run with confidence (self worth)…we must value ourselves…understand that we are special to God…we are worth a lot to Him…because we are His children.
Sure, we all have some "flaws" and "imperfections", however, we cannot let these things get us down, for we are valuable to God.
When we start valuing ourselves the way God values us… then we will be on fire for the Lord. We will live passionate spiritual lives and will be on our way to winning the Christian race.
SECOND, TO WIN THE CHRISTIAN RACE, WE MUST RUN WITH THE RIGHT MOTIVATION.
Why do we want to be a Christian? Why should we live our lives for God and follow His will?
These are all excellent reasons to want to live our lives for God.
However, one of the greatest motivating factors for living our lives for the Lord is the GRACE OF GOD.
The apostle Paul was motivated to live his life for God and work hard in serving Jesus Christ because of the GRACE OF GOD. To Paul, the greatest thing in all the world was the grace of God, the fact that God loved him so much…that God forgave his terrible sins…that God allowed him to follow and serve His son…that God allowed him to proclaim the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
All that Paul was and all that Paul did was by the grace, the undeserved favor of God. As he himself declared: "by the grace of God I am what I am."
A big motivating factor that should inspire us to live good Christian lives…to run the Christian race… is the grace of God.
What is the grace of God?
Simply…the Bible says that "the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 3:23). When we sin, we deserve death (because sin is an offense against God and must be punished). However, God had a plan to help us be forgiven of our sins. God, mercifully sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross to take away our sins. Paul says, "God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8).
Because of our sins, we deserve spiritual death. However, Jesus died in our place so that we may live forever. Jesus gave His life to give us life.
ILLUSTRATION:
On August 16, 1987, Northwest Airlines flight 225 crashed just after taking off from the Detroit airport, killing 155 people.
One survived: a four-year-old from Tempe, Arizona, named Cecelia.
News accounts say when rescuers found Cecelia they did not believe she had been on the plane. Investigators first assumed Cecelia had been a passenger in one of the cars on the highway onto which the airliner crashed. But when the passenger register for the flight was checked, there was Cecelia's name.
Cecelia survived because, even as the plane was falling, Cecelia's mother, Paula Chican, unbuckled her own seat belt, got down on her knees in front of her daughter, wrapped her arms and body around Cecelia, and then would not let her go.
Nothing could separate that child from her parent's love—neither tragedy nor disaster, neither the fall nor the flames that followed, neither height nor depth, neither life nor death.
Such is the love of our Savior for us. He left heaven, lowered himself to us, and covered us with the sacrifice of His own body to save us.
Why should we live our lives for God and follow His will? We should live our lives for God because He loved us so much that He sent His Son to die on the cross to save us from our sins! The grace…the undeserved love that He shows us should motivate us to run the Christian race with all of our hearts!
THIRD, TO WIN THE CHRISTIAN RACE, WE MUST TURN SETBACKS INTO COMEBACKS.
ILLUSTRATION:
In 1996, Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with cancer. Doctors gave him only a 50% chance of survival since the cancer had spread to his brain and lungs.
But after four rounds of chemotherapy and two operations, Armstrong turned his setback into a comeback.
Only three years after being diagnosed with life-threatening cancer, Lance Armstrong won one of sports' most grueling cycling events--the Tour de France.
In our lives, we will experience setbacks…some setbacks may be emotional and some may be physical and some may be spiritual. When they come, we shouldn't become angry and bitter, instead, we must turn our setbacks into comebacks.
The Christian life is by far the best life to live, however, it is not a problem-free life. Troubles that arise. However, we can triumph over our problems…we can turn setbacks into comebacks just like Lance Armstrong did.
Why do we experience trials and tribulations? We experience trials and tribulations in order to grow and mature in our faith.
Our suffering develops perseverance; and perseverance will build maturity and maturity will produce character. So suffering is designed to make us better people.
How should we handle difficult times? How can we rebound from setbacks?
Pray and believe that God is with us.
Choose to be joyful.
Never give up.
CONCLUSION:
Brethren, to win the Christian race, we must run with confidence, run with the right motivation, and turn setbacks into comebacks. If we do these three things, we are on our way to winning the Christian race.
If you are not a Christian, you are not even in the race. You have no hope to stand in the victory circle to receive your crown of life. So I would like to encourage you to give your life to the Lord today, by believing in Jesus, turn away from your sins, confessing your faith in Jesus and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins.
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