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[0:00] I ask your attention to the chapter we read, Genesis chapter 32, and the last line of verse 29.

[0:13] The 32nd chapter of the book of Genesis, and the last line of verse 29. And he blessed him there.

[0:25] And Jacob asked him and said, Tell me, I pray thee thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name?

[0:37] And he blessed him there. Jacob was doing what the Lord told him to do.

[0:49] And that was to return to his country and to his kindred. And as we read in this chapter, the coming to, going in that direction, brought him that he should indeed meet his brother Esau.

[1:12] And all that that meant brought Jacob into a most fearful state. As he would appease him for the wrong he felt he did when he had the blessing of his father Isaac.

[1:32] So the message that came to him brought fear that Esau cometh to meet thee and four hundred men with him.

[1:44] And it caused him to pray. And he presented in his prayers the promise that the Lord had spoke to him when he lay not only under the stars of Bethel, but also in the direction that he gave him to indeed return.

[2:05] In the 31st chapter, And the Lord said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy fathers and to thy kindred, and I will be with thee.

[2:19] But it wasn't quite as straightforward when he was to know that his brother was coming and all the past history and the way that he had obtained the blessing would have come up in his mind and brought fear and trembling to him after all these years.

[2:39] So he prays over it. So he prays over it. And reminds the Lord of the words that he gave him for his comfort in time past.

[2:51] And I want to leave the history. I'm not very good at scriptural history, biblical history, but rather to look at the experience.

[3:04] And Jacob was a type of every child of grace. And the place where he was, because that is the place where he was blessed.

[3:17] And it was this. Jacob was left alone. And being in that place, he was left alone.

[3:27] He wrestled with a man until the breaking of the day. I believe we could truly say that the person of Christ was the man who he wrestled with.

[3:42] I can't believe it was an angel. Because I can't see where angels have the authority to bless the people of God. If angels have the authority, whose blessing is it?

[3:57] But God alone has the blessing which the children of God seek for. They wrestle for. Blessings do not come, my friends, easy.

[4:12] Sometimes they have to be wrestled for. Answers of prayer don't come easy. They have to be wrestled for. We sang that here and I purposely did because it says, wrestling prayer can wonders do.

[4:28] And the blessing of that, of course, is it's not down to the fleshly prayers, but to the spiritual prayers. Holy Ghost indicted prayers. Now the blessing then that he sought for was to be wrestled for also.

[4:44] In this verse 26, he said, And let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.

[5:00] Wonderful faith, my friends. Wonderful faith. Blessed place to be in. My friends, it's not confidence of the flesh.

[5:12] It's a spiritual confidence. There's to be a continuing in prayer, watching unto the same. But there is also to be at times, a prayer, as it were, as the wrestling spirit of the soul, before the Lord.

[5:29] There was to be a prevailing, not a forsaking. The day was approaching, the dawn of the day was approaching, but still he wrestled.

[5:41] He wrestled all night. It may be that some have wrestled all night, but it may be this too, in a spiritual sense, it's night in your soul.

[5:52] And when it's night in your soul, and the Lord gives you a spirit of prayer, you will wrestle all night, until the sun rises. And who's the sun? But the sun is the sun, but the sun of righteousness.

[6:03] And then the blessing is gained. But it struck me in the night season, as we looked at this, as I trust the Lord, drop that word in, it was the place that seemed so important.

[6:20] And he blessed him there. And I thought of how it is with the Lord's people, how it is recorded in the word of God, of others of those, of like precious faith, the places they were in, and the situations they were in, the circumstances they were in.

[6:40] The Lord didn't deliver them out of those circumstances, or places, but it was whilst they were there, he blessed them. There were some deep places, were there not, and is it not so with your soul, and mine, my friends, that we are brought into very deep places, that they're brought there, because the Lord's going to bless us there.

[7:01] And he blessed him there. He didn't say, well I'll send the blessing, at another time, you go on your way, with your wives and your children, and you meet Esau, and all that, and the blessing will be yours.

[7:15] It's there, in the, at the breaking of the day, the sun arose, we read, or as it follows on, and as he passed over Peniel, the sun arose, the sun arose, the sun rose upon him.

[7:33] Now you think of some of them places, that you've been in. And indeed in those places, they've been places of blessing. You know when those, dark times come, when those trials appear, when there's a crook in the lot, when there's matters which, oh, this old nature, rebels, shrinks from.

[7:58] And we wonder whether the Lord, could ever possibly have mercy, in putting us in such places. But it is, it is in those places, that he blesses his people.

[8:10] I told you before, we had a pastor, Hanover, that used to use an expression, and it is true of an experience, that there's a coming down, to the blessing. There's that which, the Lord is pleased to, put before his people, the pathway they are to walk, this wilderness way, this dark way, this distressing way, but it's in that place.

[8:34] And at the season appointed, according to the purposes, and will of God, that he blesses his people. You think, and the Lord direct our mind, and yours also, into places in the word of God, that might encourage you.

[8:52] You think of disobedient Jonah, or to take it to Tarshish, would have gone there, if he would have had his way. But he was, not to have his way.

[9:05] And he was put over, the side of a boat, and the Lord prepared a whale, to swallow Jonah. What did he say? At the, bottoms of the mountains he was.

[9:19] Couldn't get farther from his God, couldn't get farther from help either. And he moans, and he prays from the, from the whale's belly.

[9:32] Pours out his heart, as it were, in prayer. Read it before you, lay down your head tonight. But it was there, that he blessed him.

[9:44] It was, you know. He didn't bring him out, and bless him. He brought, he blessed him where he was. I thought about that dear man. Who can imagine?

[9:56] I use the word very carefully. Who could consider, who could possibly, ponder over such a, extreme situation. no matter what, the world, all its doubts about these things are.

[10:11] It was there that he proved, salvation, was of the Lord. It wasn't when he was on the boat. Blessed, blessed occasions, these are, you know.

[10:23] My friends, and it is so, with the child of God. there's a place, where he's appointed to bless. Well, we'd love him to bless, the people of God, in his house, wouldn't we?

[10:35] And so he does. Blessed be his name. We would love him to be blessed, under the ministry, the word. That is what we pray for.

[10:45] The Lord bless his word, to our souls, and then we shall be blessed. We've been blessed, in his house, time and time again. But he did not only in his house. It's when we've been in our own house, or it's been in, times of difficulty.

[11:01] It's in trial. It's in opposition, my friends. And it's in these places, that the Lord brings his people in. And why does he do it? Well, my friends, it's very well to sing sometimes, that Satan trembles, when he sees the weakest saint, upon his knees.

[11:21] But it is in those places, the Lord decrees the blessing, and appoints the place, and he blessed him there. Wonderful blessings, my friends, that come from the Lord, and they're real blessings.

[11:37] He obtained it. He wrestled for it. The honour and the glory, wasn't down to Jacob. It was to his gracious God. But it was in the place.

[11:48] Weakness. I can't describe it. Would it be right to try to? What it must be like to wrestle all night? Literally.

[11:58] But I would think this, my friends, as he wrestled all night, he came to the breaking of the day, and he would have been weak. He would have been weak.

[12:10] But it was in that weakness, that time of great need, in that place where he wrestled. Have you got a spot of ground? Have you got a place?

[12:21] You read some of the old saints of God's accounts, and they used to go off, and find a place, where they could wrestle with their God. There's been some places in our lives, when you could, it's a place, a spot of ground, where you've wrestled with your God, and he's pleased to bless.

[12:44] And he blessed him there. My friends, all these things are left on record to encourage us. Jacob was left alone.

[12:55] No help in self. No help from his men servants, or maid servants. No help from his 11 sons. It was him and this angel, this man that he wrestled with, the person of Christ.

[13:12] And it was the blessing that he was to give him. And he blessed him there. My friends, what would be, I said somewhere on Sunday. I don't know if it was here, or in the afternoon.

[13:27] I can't remember. My mind went to Solomon. And Solomon was raised up of God to build a temple, as you know.

[13:39] But it wasn't about the temple that I was led to consider, it was the fact that the Lord spoke to Solomon in a vision of the night. And he said to Solomon, Ask what I shall give thee.

[13:55] The hymn writer said, If Solomon for wisdom prayed the Lord before and made him wise. You know, I said at the time, I wonder what we'd answer.

[14:06] What would we answer? What would be the answer that came from our spirit, our soul, before the Lord? If the answer, if the question was put to us, what would you ask for?

[14:19] Well, we'd know what the world would ask for. But what would a child of God ask for? What would, indeed, what would we each in this house of God tonight ask for?

[14:33] It's not for me to say, it's this or that. My friends, you know what you, what your soul desire is. All my desires are before him.

[14:46] And my friends, the secrets of those desires, the Lord knows. Have they been the matter, the substance of your prayer? You've laid them before the Lord time and time again.

[15:00] And perhaps you've come into times when you felt, well, I keep on asking, but I don't seem to get. I've often thought of that poor man who sat at the pool of Bethesda.

[15:16] 38 years, the scriptures tell us. I wonder what he thought, we probably know what he thought as he saw these others that obtained the blessing.

[15:26] He said, Sir, whilst I am coming, another stepeth down before me. You know, my friends, he didn't miss the blessing, if that's a right way of explaining it.

[15:39] He waited 38 years for it, but he didn't miss the blessing. The Lord Jesus Christ was the giver of the blessing. He said unto the man that lay there, take up thy bed and walk.

[15:55] And this he did. And there was the blessing. There was strength put into him. And he was restored. There was the blessing. He had no need to go into the troubled pool anymore.

[16:08] He had no need to take his place in hopes of a blessing. But Christ came. And I've often said to you in that chapter in John's Gospel, it says, and Jesus knew that he was a long time in that case.

[16:26] Often you know these long, drawn out trials and cases, places that the people of God come into, the longer they go on, you know, the greater the temptation.

[16:43] And of course, looking at it from a natural side of things, and we so often do, we give place, do we not, to unbelief. And we say, well, because it's so long, therefore it isn't for us.

[16:57] My friends, this is experience, this is the exercise, I believe, of every believer. Every grace-taught soul, the matter, becomes more and more impossible to the children of God.

[17:15] That is, to their own natural mind of things. And though, I hope you don't wait 38 years, and some may have to wait 38 years, but the longer you wait, the more impossible old nature would indeed prevail you to believe that you won't get the blessing.

[17:39] Oh, those temptations, it's not recorded of that man. The temptations, what would have come against his hope? Because he laid there in hope.

[17:51] He laid there in hope. There was the cure that came if he could only get into the pool. There was the blessing that he sought for. There's what all the rest of them sought for.

[18:04] And the first one in obtained the blessing. And he waited. Look, as if it was, well, perhaps today might be the time of blessing. That this might be the occasion when I shall be found in the pool and not someone else.

[18:21] The pool of Bethesda I'm talking about. And then that day dawned when the person of Christ came. No more means.

[18:34] The Lord does use means. But the Lord does not need to use means. He uses the means of grace for a blessing.

[18:46] And he blessed him there. That will make you love the means of grace. That will make you love the gatherings of the people. That will make you love the Lord in the house of the Lord and the place where his honour dwelleth.

[19:01] And he blessed him there. The times appointed come. And the soul is blessed in that house of God. But my friends you might say well then the Lord uses the means.

[19:14] But my friends that he might bless you indeed but he'll bring you to the place of blessing. He'll guide your footsteps to the place of blessing.

[19:25] If you're in that exercise state of Jacob when he said I will not let thee go except thou bless me the Lord will bring you to those places where he'll bless you.

[19:36] And he may not be in his sanctuary. I remember once I well I can't go into details it's too personal but oh I had to fall under the will of God in a matter and sometime afterwards I heard a sermon preached and oh that man's sermon come right into my heart into my heart and I felt I could say this the Lord knew that I needed to listen to that and he put it all right within me.

[20:13] I knew then the pathway that I was to walk was according to the will of God and not according to my wishes or desires or leanings or anything else.

[20:27] It was a sweet confirmation to that though I had done it with the most reluctant spirit I had to fall under that will and purpose of God for me yet the Lord showed me that I did what I did was right and I was thankful for that blessing and he blessed him there.

[20:49] oh that the Lord would so teach us by these means. When you come into these places you think it's the frown of God upon you.

[21:04] When you come into the trial when you come into the trial of faith when you come into those dark places you long to be blessed in the good places in the times of night and gladness when you would pray the Lord that the sunshine of his love might flow in and so on.

[21:24] That you might find your sins forgiven. That you might have a view of the preciousness of the person of Christ Jesus. That you might know and have your assurance that you're going to glory when you die.

[21:40] There's so many things that the Lord's people want to be blessed with but the very exercise of a soul is found in the prayers and supplications of what they ask for and the Lord brings them to their places.

[21:59] Oh has there not been, I could speak of dear ones I know who have been laid on a bed of affliction the most unlikely say the world why don't he raise them up and send them to his house and bless them under the gospel well that is what he does do.

[22:19] But sometimes he takes them out of the means of grace lays them on a bed of affliction and bless their soul there. And Christ is made precious. My friends they wouldn't miss the affliction for anything.

[22:34] They wouldn't change the place. They joy and rejoice in it. You think I thought also during the day of the apostle we often are reminded aren't we of his thorn in the flesh and how three times he tried to pray it away but it was with the thorn in the flesh that he blessed the apostle and he said unto me my grace is sufficient for thee.

[23:05] My friends he didn't take it away to bless him he blessed him in there. This is what this dear man Jacob was to know and I believe this is what the people of God shall find.

[23:17] It's in the place not out of the place. In other words God prepares a place where he'll bless his people. It doesn't and it never will be conducive to old nature my friends but it will be according to the will of God and he blessed him there.

[23:39] Well wherever that may be in your home this house of God in the night seasons where it's only your soul and God in the matters as you go about this world of sin and woe well my friends it's unlimited isn't it but the Lord blessed you there and he blessed him in the book of Ruth now it must close the time's gone in the book of Ruth we find this it's an encouragement to those who love the house of God the second chapter of the book of Ruth we find that having come now to Bethlehem and Naomi and Ruth were to be housed once more in Bethlehem we read this in the second verse of the second chapter let me now go to the field and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace she said unto her go my daughter and she went and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers and her hap or it happened as the margin says and her hap was to light on a part of the field belongeth unto

[25:01] Boaz who was of the kindred of Elimelech and behold Boaz came from Bethlehem and said unto the reapers the Lord be with you and they answered him the Lord bless thee it's in the field of Boaz it's in the gospel field Ruth was to be found in the gospel field you and I had this privilege the gospel field and it was there that he blessed and he blessed him there amen the closing hymn 109 lord i approach thy throne of grace where mercy does abound desiring mercy for my sin to heal my soul's deep wound oh lord i need not to repeat what i would humbly crave for thou dost know before i ask the thing that i would have mercy good lord mercy i ask this is the total sum for mercy lord is all my suit oh let thine mercy come in 109 amen time oh

[27:13] The mercy does about Tis my mercy for I sing To hell my soul's name To hell my great water Reclose the water The time they play The blood of the sea

[28:15]  In the fallen cross The heavenly God Thy water The sacred God The sick I ask This is the water The sun For the sea In the fallen cross The sacred God The heavenly God The holy God The heavenly God The heavenly God The heavenly God my dear lord with the pathways in which we are caused to walk and the deep places which thou does bring us into lord we pray for grace we pray for wisdom too we beg lord that thou would make them places of blessing lord we think of dear hezekiah lord suffered that deep affliction given that sentence set thine house in order for thou shall die and not leave the lord the armies of sennacherib was around jerusalem and there in his weak condition lord what was the issue by these things men leave and in all these things is the life of my spirit oh how he had to mourn lord oh he had to rejoice thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption for thou has put all my sins behind thy back lord who would choose a path like that who would be willing to fall into deep affliction and what would seem to be very serious affliction and then his enemies at his gate almost seeking his overthrow would have destroyed him the sentence of death upon everything and there was the forgiveness of sins there was prayer answered lord there he could say by these things men live lord we often misjudge think that this cannot be in the hands of our god any means of way of grace or mercy or mercy but it's all dark and lord often we have to say and jesus has not come but blessed be god he does come and in coming grants the blessing lord encourage thy waiting people encourage thy seeking ones encourage those in deep paths lord lord they that go down to the sea and ships that do business in great waters these see the works of the lord lord we pray therefore that thou would hold us up when we're down that thou would encourage us to wait on thee and for thee and we pray this lord not for our sake but for jesus sake grant us the blessing and our lord take us to our homes in peace and abide with us and may the grace of the lord jesus christ and the love of god the father and the fellowship and the fellowship of the holy spirit remain with us each both now and forever amen