Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

Open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 32.

As you turn there, we will find in this passage of Scripture one of the most unusual occurrences in all of the Bible.

This passage contains an event that is so rich in instruction for you and I

With that introduction, lets read Genesis chapter 32 starting in verse 22 down through 32.

I would like for you to make note of the phrase found in verse 24, “And Jacob was left alone and there wrestled a man with him..”

Jacob was left alone and wrestled with the Son of God.

Let’s Pray

As we look in the Scriptures we find Jacob exemplifies the plight and struggle of the old man (nature) against the new man.

The Bible tells us in Galatians 5:16,17 “17 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.”

When we read the life of Jacob we see a gradual progression in His life from carnality to spirituality but then this defining moment.

And as we would be honest in our own Christian lives, we are often found in the same way.

I want us to look this morning at this particular event recorded for us in this chapter 32 and glean from it these steps to victory; Moving from Carnality to Spirituality.

I dare say we need to see many move from living carnal lives to living spiritual lives.

We need to see many walking in the Spirit and not yielding to the flesh.

Before we come to this point in the Scriptures we would need to understand a little bit concerning Jacob’s life.

Jacob was one of two sons born to Isaac and Rebekah.

Jacob at his birth was named ‘heal catcher’ because of the firm grip he had on his brothers heal even from womb.

And we find as he lives out his life, he firmly lives up to this name of supplanter --- trickster ---- or heal catcher.

He is described as a supplanter and quickly maneuvers his older brother Esau out of his birthright.

We then find that he further connives with his mother and deceives his father lying to his Father no less than 3 times to receive His brothers blessing.

These two serious offences land him being sent away under the guise of finding a bride from mother’s brother Laban.

But really this was to allow him to get away from his brother, because Esau had vowed to murder Jacob when His father Isaac died according to Genesis 27:41

Jacob further is found on the way to His Mother’s homeland to be so low and dejected as to have to use a pillow of rocks to sleep upon.

It is at this time that God opens his eyes in a vision and Jacob vows to follow after God but only with conditions.

Jacob comes providentially to the house of his Uncle Laban and there begins to be taught of God, about his carnality and trickster ways, As Jacob is deceived multiple times and ends up in a family situation with two wives and two concubines all fighting for Jacobs affection.

He is driven from this situation after God gives Him a clear command to return to the promised land, where Jacob realizes he must confront Esau whom he has deceived.

In all of this because of His own actions he has lost the opportunity to his mother, 20 years has passed.

Which brings us to this very text.

God has been working in the life of Jacob to bring him to this pinnacle point in his life.

And is here that we see the wrestling from carnality to spirituality.

I want you to note first:

I.

The Personal Work of God

The Bible tells us in verse 24, “And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.”

Might I say this, that every one of us need alone time with God.

There is something to be said for personal time seeking the Lord to move forward spiritually.

The Bible tells us that Jacob is found here to be alone.

Earlier in this passage in verses 9-11 we find that Jacob had already prayed and sought the Lord’s face and yet here was his answer to that prayer… a meeting with the Lord.

In these verses we see the personal work of God in a life of an individual.

A. The Man that wrestled with Jacob

This man was no ordinary man.

This was a Christophany; a preincarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ.

For this man is described as both man and God according to verse 24, 28 and 30.

And so it is that only one Person fits that description and that is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ.

So we see not only The man that wrestled with Jacob in the Personal Work of God, but secondly we must make note of:

B. The purpose of the wrestling

Why would God come to wrestle with Jacob?

First, we would have to say because God loves Jacob.

All that come to Lord Jesus Christ, come to Him under the banner of His love.

It is the marvel of all marvels that we come to understand this truth that ‘Jesus loves even me.’

I am so thankful this morning that I can declare without a doubt that God loves me and desires for me to walk uprightly before him.

Might I say this morning also, that God loves you and desire for you Christian to walk uprightly.

There may be someone here this morning that is lost and you do not know the Lord Jesus, You do not know that Heaven is your home and as the Bible declares it plainly your sin has separated you from You God.

God desire you to turn to him and receive Salvation from corruption and damnation to come by receiving Jesus Christ as your Savior.

The Bible says in I John 4:19 “19 We love him, because he first loved us.”

So often it is that children see the difficulties they have with their parents, the wrestlings appear to the child or young person to be unloving.

But this is far from the case for God loves Jacob.

And it is true even this morning that the Lord Jesus Christ loves you and therefore strives with you against your carnal nature.

Your Pastor as the undershepherd of this church in service to the Lord Jesus Christ may preach the Word of God and in that preaching it wrestles with you against your carnality.

This is certainly the most loving thing that Pastor could do.

No doubt the work of the Holy Spirit strives with the Carnal Christian but He does so out love for you to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.

What was the purpose of the wrestling?

Certainly because God loves Jacob but:

Secondly, we would have to say because Jacob needed to be broken.

Such are some of us here this morning, there is a need for us to broken before God, To be disarmed of our pride and self sufficiency; those carnal attributes that are contrary to our fellowship with Him.

Jacob was God’s chosen vessel to father the nation of Israel.

As such, even His name would be changed in this very event.

As God’s servant, he must have this encounter with God.

You might be thinking why must I be here on this earth, why must i deal with these things, why must I live in this way.

So it is with you and I, that we must be broken by our Savior.

The Lord Jesus Christ must be preeminent in our lives.

When the Lord Jesus Christ was asked what the greatest commandment was that God had given his response was, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” in Matthew 22:37

This is what Jacob needed to be broken by the Lord.

You and I can rejoice this morning concerning this passage because of The Personal work of God in our lives.

The fact that He loves us and will not allow us to stay in the state that we are.

I am reminded of the verse found in Philippians 1:6 which states, “6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:”

But notice secondly,

II.

The Prominence of Our Pride

It does us well when we look at Jacob to see ourselves.

When we come to this passage we can’t help but notice the stubbornness of Jacob.

It should be understood that at the start of this wrestling that Jacob was not wrestling at the first to receive a blessing but rather was resisting the One who was assaulting Him.

Warren Wiersbe stated this concerning this passage, “The Lord wanted to break Jacob and bring him to the place where he would honestly say, “Not I, but Christ” (Gal.

2:20).”Wiersbe,

W. W. (1993).

Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the Old Testament (Ge 32).

Victor Books.

Jacob’s pride was so prominent that we see he refused to surrender.

We, so many times, are blinded by our own pride and self sufficiency.

As Jacob met the Lord in this way he strove the Bible says, “...until the breaking of the day.”

And I thought, Why is it that we resist the Lord so often and so long?

The Bible tells us to do quite the opposite,

In James 4:7 we are told to, “7 Submit yourselves therefore to God.

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

In James 4:10 we are told to, “10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”

John the Baptist stated in such a powerfully succinct statement, John 3:30 “30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”

You see you and I must recognize this morning that the battle that ensues in our heart and minds is this matter of carnality versus spirituality has to do with the Prominence of Our Pride.

Are you willing to admit to yourself and before God that your wrestlings have to do with pride?

You see your answer to that question will tell alot about where you are in this struggle from Carnality to Spirituality.