All right, let's look again,
Genesis 31. We'll pick up reading in verse
36. And Jacob was wroth and chode
with Laban. And Jacob answered and said to
Laban, what is my trespass? What is my sin that thou hast
so hotly pursued after me? For as thou searched all my stuff,
what hast thou found of all thy household stuff? Set it here
before my brethren and thy brethren, that they may judge betwixt us
both. This 20 years have I been with thee. Thy ewes and thy she-goats
have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock have I
not eaten. That which was torn of beast I brought not unto thee.
I bear the loss of it. Of my hand didst thou require
it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. Thus I was in
the day the drought consumed me and the frost by night. and
my sleep departed from mine eyes. Thus have I been 20 years in
thy house. I served thee 14 years for thy two dollars, and six
years for thy cattle, and thou hast changed my wages 10 times. Except the God of my father,
the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac had been with me, surely
thou hast sent me away now empty. God has seen my affliction, and
the labor of my hands, and rebuked thee yesterday night, And Laban
answered and said unto Jacob, these daughters are my daughters,
and these children are my children, and these cattle are my cattle,
and all thou seest is mine. And what can I do this day, unto
these my daughters, or unto their children, which they have born?
Now therefore come, thou and let us make a covenant, I and
thou, and let it be for a witness between me and thee. And Jacob
took a stone and set it up for a pillar, And Jacob said unto
his brethren, gather stones. And they took stones and made
an heap and they did eat there upon the heap. And Laban called
it Jirgar Sehaduthah, but Jacob called it Gilead. And Laban said,
this heap is a witness between me and thee this day. Therefore
is the name of it called Gilead. And Mizpah, for he said, the
Lord watched between me and thee when we are absent one from another.
If thou shall afflict my daughters, or if thou shalt take other wives
beside my daughters, no man is with us. See, God is witness
betwixt me and thee. And Laban said to Jacob, behold
this heap and behold this pillar, which I have cast betwixt me
and thee. This heap be witness, and this
pillar be witness, that I will not pass over this heap to thee,
and that thou shall not pass over this heap and this pillar
unto me for harm. The God of Abraham, the God of
Nahor, the God of their father, Judge betwixt us. And Jacob swear
by the fear of his father, Isaac. Then Jacob offered sacrifice
upon the Mount. He called his brethren to eat
bread and they did eat bread and tarried all night in the
Mount. And early in the morning, Laban rose up and kissed his
sons and his daughters and blessed them. And Laban departed and
returned unto his place. All right, let's bow before our
Lord together in prayer. Our God, we bow before you this
evening, humbly and carefully approaching thy throne of grace. And Father, how thankful we are
that we can approach your throne of grace confidently in the person
of our Lord Jesus Christ. We dare only come before you
in his person, pleading his name. We dare only plead his obedience
as our only righteousness. We only dare come before you
pleading the blood of thy son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who was
sacrificed for the sin of your people. Father, we come this
evening desiring to be able to worship you this evening. Father,
I pray that you would send your spirit upon us, enable us to
worship, enable us to hear word from thee, be enabled by thy
spirit to by faith see the Lord Jesus Christ, to trust him, to
love him, to rest in him, to find in him everything that we
need. Father, bless us. Without thee,
we can do nothing. We can't worship. We can't pray.
We can't call upon thee. We can't see. We can do nothing
without thee. Father, we beg your spirit that
we might be enabled to truly worship tonight. And what we
pray for ourselves, we pray for your people everywhere, wherever
they might meet together this evening. Father, bless your word
and cause it to go forth in power as a light that would shine out
in this dark, dark day in which we live. And Father, we thank
you also for the many physical, material blessings. How freely
and abundantly you have blessed this congregation. Father, we're
thankful. Knowing everything we have has come from thy hand,
of thy mercy and thy grace and not our merit. Father, we're
thankful. And Father, we pray a special blessing on your people
that you brought into the time of trouble and trial. We're thankful
you brought Janie back to us this evening, and Father, I pray
you continue to watch over her and heal and strengthen her.
Father, we call out to you for little Novi, as she's there in
the hospital in Cincinnati, that you would give the doctors and
nurses the understanding what to do to treat her problem and
to restore her to health quickly. We pray you'd be with her and
her family, especially in these days. And father, all these things
we ask in that name, which is above every name, the name of
Christ, our savior. Amen. All right. And I've titled the message this
evening, the God of Jacob and the gods of Laban. And I don't
want to spend too much time on the gods of Laban. I want to
spend the majority of our time looking at the God of Jacob.
so that we'll know him and trust him. But I do want us to see
something about the gods of Laban. I want us to see that. So we'll,
if the Lord saved us, if Lord's been merciful to us and let us
see anything, we'll see how the Lord has been so gracious in
delivering us from worshiping these weak and impotent idols. I just, as I read through this,
this chapter this week, this is the thing that just stood
out to me, the contrast between the God of Jacob, and these gods
of Laban. Now Laban had gods, plural. He didn't know the one true and
living God, but you know, no son of Adam does by nature. We
don't know God. By nature we trust the different
idols that we have made up and worshiping manmade idols produces
some very sad results. Most importantly, worshiping
an idol brings damnation to our souls. But you know, it also
produces very sad results in this life. The first thing I
saw was this. Laban's gods made him think that
the glory belonged to him. Verses one and two, and he heard
the words of Laban's sons saying, Jacob has taken away all that
was our father's and of that which was our father's, had he
gotten all this glory. Laban and his sons thought that
the glory that the idol gave them was material possession,
all the sheep and different things, wealth that they had. But they
also thought this, really the credit belongs to them, since
they're the ones that earned it. Now, that makes absolute
sense if you're worshiping an idol on the grounds of a rewards
basis. Now, the idol's part of the equation,
but man's got to get the glory if man earned whatever the idol
gives him. I mean, they really thought that the glory was theirs.
And if you think that the glory belongs to you because of what
you've earned from the idol, you have to think it could be
stolen from you, too. What if somebody comes along
and does better than you, pleases the idol better than you? It
could be stolen from you. That's what they thought happened
with Jacob. They thought Jacob had stolen all their glory, all
their father's glory. And if that's what you believe,
that you're gonna get what you get from the idol because of
what you earn. You have to live in constant fear. You have to
fear that what you've earned from that idol could be lost
at any time. Worshipping idols just leaves
people in constant fear. The heart of false religion is
to worship to get something from God. To do what you do, to live
the way you do to get something from God. The true living God
is to be worshiped for who he is, not what he gives us. Job taught us that, didn't he?
When Job lost everything, what did Job do? He worshiped. He worshiped. So number two,
number one, Laban's gods made him think that the glory belonged
to him. Number two, Laban's gods made him a dishonest businessman.
Verse seven, Jacob talking to his wives, he said, your father
has deceived me and changed my wages 10 times, but God suffered
him not to hurt me. I got a new job one time and
I was working for a man who made a big show of religion and had
an interview. And the interview was over. The
moment the man asked me where I attended church, I told him
that the name Baptist was in the church that I attended. I
went to a Baptist church. I had a job. I knew it. The interview
was over. The rest of it was just formality.
I had the job. And I thought, huh, that's kind
of interesting. I told my dad about it. And this
is what he told me. He said, you be careful. He said,
the most dishonest, most lazy, worst people I've ever worked
with are people that make a big show of their religion. He said,
the worst I've ever worked with He said, you watch him. And he
ended up being right, in case you're interested in knowing.
That's what Laban's doing. He's a dishonest businessman,
but he wraps himself in religion, hoping if he wraps himself in
a big enough show of religion, people won't notice how dishonest
he is. And that shouldn't surprise us. It shouldn't surprise us
if a man is dishonest in his business dealings when he's dishonest
in his religious dealings. If he's dishonest in his worship,
he's gonna be dishonest in all the other walks of life, isn't
he? It's just dishonest to say that a man can do something good
enough to please God. That's dishonest. Our conscience
tells us better than that. Our conscience tells us we don't
do good enough to please God. But if we insist on this religion,
we're lying to ourselves, we're lying to other people, and we're
lying to God. Now, if you think you can get away with being dishonest
with God, you're gonna be dishonest with men, too. If you're thinking
you're sneaking this thing by on God, that you're really, you
know, making God think that you're better than you really are, you're
gonna think you can get one by on men, too. That kind of, it
just shouldn't surprise us. This kind of religion just produces
dishonesty. And here's the third thing. Laban's
gods made him think He could lose his gods. You know, now
Jacob has fled. He's on his way back home and
he didn't tell Laban he was gone. Somebody comes and tells Laban,
you know, Hey, Jacob has left. He's took all his stuff and he's
left. And Jacob or Laban gets his posse and chases Jacob down. Look at verse 25. Now Laban overtook
Jacob and Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountain. Laban with
his brother and pitched in the Mount of Gilead. And Laban said
to Jacob, what hast thou done? That thou hast stolen away unawares
to me, and carried away my daughters as captives, taken with the sword.
Wherefore didst thou flee away secretly, and steal away from
me, and didn't tell me? Why, I might have sent thee away
with mirth, and with songs, and with tavern, and with the harp.
Now there's Laban's dishonesty again. That's a lie. He wasn't
going to throw a party for Jacob, and just give him a blessing.
No, that's a lie. Verse 28, and you haven't suffered
me to kiss my sons and my daughters. Thou hast now done foolishly
in so doing. It's in the power of my hand, do you hurt? But
the God of your father spake unto me yesterday night, saying,
take thou heed that thou speak not to Jacob, either good or
bad. Now there's Laban's dishonesty again. He says it's in my hand,
do you hurt? He knows good and well it's not.
God spoke to him and said, don't you do Jacob any hurt. Don't
you even speak to him at all, is what God said, good or bad.
Don't you do him any hurt. He knew better than that, it
wasn't in his hand to hurt Jacob. But now verse 30, here's the
real issue. He'd just been going through
all this other stuff, kind of this emotional plea or whatever
it was. Here's the issue, verse 30. And now, though thou wouldest
needs be gone, because thou sore longest after thy father's house,
I think he's kind of making fun of Jacob saying, Oh, you're so
homesick. You know, you gotta go home yet. Wherefore has thou
stolen my gods? Now that's the issue. This is
the issue. This is why Laban's made this
trip. Somebody has stolen his gods and he's afraid. And if you look back here, we
read this earlier. Rachel, his daughter's the one
that stole his gods. Verse 14 and Rachel and Leah
answered and said unto him, is there yet any portion? or inheritance
for us in our father's house? And are we not counted of him
strangers? For he has sold us, and he's quite devoured also
all our money. For all the riches that God hath
taken from our father, that's ours and our children. Now then,
whatsoever God said unto thee, do. Now look over verse 19. And Laban went to shear his sheep,
and Rachel had stolen the images that were her father's. Now those
images that she stole are teraphim, And what they are, they're little
carved images of little gods. And Laban had several of them,
several different images, several different gods. I bet you, if
you didn't have one before, by the time Jacob started getting
all these sheep, I bet you somebody carved old Laban out a sheep
reproduction god. He wanted to quit having Jacob
get all these sheep, you know. I bet you he had a rain god,
he had a health god, he had a wealth god, all these different little
carved gods. And it kind of seems like, that
Rachel stole him so she'd get something of an inheritance.
She's not going to get any inheritance. Maybe she could sell these little,
you know, figurines and it'd be some sort of money, some sort
of inheritance for her. It could be Rachel's covering
her bases. I mean, she grew up in this,
worshipping these little carved figurines. Maybe she's covering
her bases and thought, you know, I'm going to take these idols
with us. They might be some help to us. Maybe the God of Jacob
will help us some. I don't know why she took them,
but she took them. And Laban is in a panic. He's in a panic
to get these things back. His main concern is not kissing
his grandsons and his daughters goodbye. It's getting these idols
back. Look at verse 31. And Jacob answered
and said to Laban, because I was afraid, I didn't tell you I was
leaving because I was afraid. I was afraid for adventure that
thou wouldest take thy forest, thy daughters from me. With whomsoever
thou findest thy goods, let him not live. Before our brethren,
discern thou what's thine with me. You find whatever it is with
me that belongs to you, and you take it to thee. Now Jacob said
that because he knew not that Rachel had stolen them. And Laban
went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent and into the two
maidservants' tent, and he found them not. Then when he out of
Leah's tent, he entered into Rachel's tent. Now Rachel had
taken the images and put them in the camel's furniture and
sat upon them. And Laban searched all the tent,
but found them not. And she said to her father, let
it not displease my lord that I cannot rise up before thee,
for the custom of women is upon me. And he searched, but found
not the images." Now, I don't know what significance
all that has to do with Rachel saying, you know, the custom
of women was upon her. I don't know. But this is what
I do know. And I think this is the most
important thing. Laban was in a panic to find his idols and
he couldn't find them. Now, if he couldn't find his
idols, what's going to happen? Remember he was out getting ready
to shear his sheep when they came and told him Jacob had left
with everything. Well, if you don't have his idols,
maybe he's not going to get a good yield when he sheared his sheep.
Maybe he won't get a good harvest of all his other grasslands or
whatever. Maybe he's going to lose out on his investments.
He's in a panic here. And here's the point. Men who
have idols expect their idols to be right where they put them. Men want to leave their idols
in a particular place. They want to go out and do their
dishonest business dealings. But their God's back over here.
He's not going to see this is what's going on. I'll just go
over there and get him on Sunday. I wonder where my idol is. I
go get him when I need him, kind of just like the little Buddha,
rub his belly for good luck or something. If you have a God, that stays
where you put them, you don't have a God. You got an idol. If you're putting your trust
in an idol that can only go where you put them, that idol can be
lost, it can be stolen, and any spiritual blessing that you hope
to get from that idol can be lost or stolen too. Now that's
Laban's gods. Now that's just, you know, you
can just apply that to every idol that men have ever made
up. It's true of all of them. Now let's look at the God of
Jacob. You know, just like Laban, his gods made him dishonest. The God of Jacob makes his people
good employees. Look at verse six. Jacob tells
his wife, you know that with all my power, I've served your
gods. And later on when he's talking
to Laban, he said, you know, if I was watching your sheep
and a beast killed them, he said, you didn't suffer that loss.
I did. I suffered that loss. I stayed
out there all day and all night in the heat of the day and the
cold of the night. If any of your sheep were stolen, anything
happened, I always made you whole. I never one time took anything
from you. I might have been out there hungry.
I never killed one of your kids to eat it. Never did. Now that's
a good employee. And Laban constantly was trying
to cheat Jacob. Now I know Jacob was a deceiver.
But Jacob still worked hard for Lathan. He said, with all my
might, all my power, I've served your father. And you know, that
ought to be true of every believer. It ought to be truly said of
every believer, this is the best employee in the place. Whether
we got a good boss or a bad boss, it ought to be so. And here's
why. Because the believer is serving the Lord, not our boss. That ought to be true. Now our gospel is spiritual.
Our Savior's kingdom is spiritual. That's what he told Pilate. My
kingdom's not of this world. It's a spiritual kingdom. And
God's blessings to his people are spiritual blessings. Now
the Lord absolutely provides for his people physically, doesn't
he? Everything we have, God's given us. When someone is sick,
like Novi up there in Cincinnati's sick, we pray for her. The Lord's
the one who's able to heal her. I mean, the Lord provides and
blesses his people physically in those ways. But God's blessings
are spiritual blessings. Our God produces salvation in
the heart. First and foremost, that's what
we're seeking. That's the first and foremost blessing God gives
his people is salvation in the heart. But salvation in the heart
is going to have an effect on our conduct here below, because
it's our heart. It's our nature that directs
our conduct, isn't it? Our citizenship, the believer's
citizenship, is in heaven. But now that heavenly citizenship
directs our steps here below. We don't want to bring shame
upon our king, upon our God. Our citizenship affects our walk
here below. We worship and trust our God
by faith. This is a spiritual relationship.
And if God is our God, now he's going to direct our steps here
below. And that what scripture says,
steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. He's going to direct
our steps. So it should be truthfully said of everyone who trusts God,
this person, this is a good, honest, hardworking employee. And the reason it should be said
is because whatever's in our heart has to direct our conduct. Has to. Here's the second thing. If we know the God of Jacob,
here's why we know Him. The God of Jacob reveals Himself
to His people. Now, you remember when Jacob
left his father's house. He's on the run. He's all by
himself. Remember, he stopped there at Bethel? And Jacob left that place. That's
where he first met God. That was 20 years ago. 20 years
ago. And now when God comes back to
Jacob, this is how he identifies himself to Jacob. Verse 13, I
am the God of Bethel. Where thou anointest the pillar
and where thou vows to bow unto me, now arise and get thee out
from this land and return unto the land of thy kindred. Now
someone might wonder, all right, there's the God of Jacob and
there's the gods of Laban, all these false gods, these false
idols. How will I know? Am I worshiping the God of Jacob?
Or am I trying to worship one of these idols? How can I tell
the difference? Well, here's how you tell. God always reveals
himself to his people so that they know who he is and so that
they know how God saves sinners. That's what happened at Bethel.
Remember when Jacob was there at Bethel and he had those stones
for a pillow and as he was dreaming, he saw that ladder that reached
from heaven to earth. Bethel, that's the first place Jacob
ever met, met the Lord. And when the Lord revealed himself
to Jacob, he showed him that ladder. He showed him a picture
of Christ that reached from heaven to earth and the angels ascending
and descending upon it. The picture God showed Jacob
is the way to heaven. The way into the presence of
God is by the Lord Jesus Christ. He came from glory as a man. He came to earth. and he established
righteousness for his people. He saved his people from their
sin and they're gonna go to God by him. That's what the God of
Bethel. The God of Bethel identifies
himself to his people as the God who does all the saving.
He's the one that does all the saving for his people. And the
God of Bethel is a covenant God. It was at Bethel, God told Isaac,
you've heard of the covenant that I made with Abraham, your
grandfather. and Isaac, your father, you've
heard of that covenant. At Bethel, the Lord told Jacob, you're part
of that covenant. This is my covenant with Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. You're part of this covenant
too. But Jacob had always been part of the covenant. God's eternal,
God didn't change his mind. But at Bethel, that's where the
Lord let Jacob in on what his eternal purpose was. His covenant
would be established with Jacob too. And that's what the Lord
does for all of his people. The father chose a people to
save. The son came and he saved those people. Now they're saved.
The debt's paid. They're saved lock, stock, and
barrel. But when God meets his people, he lets them in on what
he's already done for them. It's what he's already done.
He's already accomplished his eternal purpose. He lets them
in on it by the preaching of the gospel. Now here's the difference
between the idols, the gods of Laban and the god of Jacob. Men
put their idols right where they want them to stay. So they'll
always know where to find them. Well, you know, God's people
always know where to find him too. The difference is the God of
Jacob puts his people where he wills for them to be. He told,
he told Jacob, now you get up out of here and you go back,
back to, back to your land. He said the same thing in verse
three, the Lord said unto Jacob, return unto the land of thy fathers
and to thy kindred. You return there, you go there,
because that's where I'm commanding you to go, and I will be with
you. Now Laban thought he knew right
where his gods were, didn't he? He wanted to be there so he wouldn't
lose them. But you know Jacob, wherever he went, he knew right
where to find his God. He knew right where his God was,
because God said, I'll be with you. And he makes that same promise
to all of his people, I will be with you. Now that's a precious promise
to the people of God. I'll be with you. When you go
to the valley, I'll be with you. When you go to the mountaintop,
I'll be with you. When you're young and when you're
old, I'll be with you. When you're strong and when you're
weak, when you're healthy and when you're sick, I'll be with
you. Whether you're out there burning
heat of the day like Jacob was and the drought and the heat
is, is just beating him down or whether it's the frost that
comes at night. God said, I will be with you no matter where you
go. I will never leave thee or forsake
thee. Laban could lose his idols at
any time. And I understand why he's miserable. That would be
so miserable, wouldn't it? You think you could lose all
those, your hope of eternal life, you could lose that any moment
just because you misplaced a figurine? That's miserable. God's people
don't ever have to experience that misery. Because God said,
I'll be with you. I'll be with you. You don't have
to look far. I'll be with you. And then here's
the third thing. The God of Jacob is the sovereign
God. In verse seven, Jacob's telling his wives, your father
have deceived me. He's changed my wages 10 times,
but God suffered him not to hurt me. If he said thus, the speckled
should be thy wages and all the cattle bear speckled. And if
he said thus, the rain strength should be all the higher. Then
bear all the cattle rain straight. Thus God has taken away the cattle
of your father and he's given them to me. Now the Lord saw, the Lord saw
what Laban was trying to do to Jacob. And he wouldn't let Laban
do it. He's trying to deceive Jacob
and change his wages and cheat him. And the Lord would not let
Laban prosper from it. You know, Laban came to Jacob,
he said, all right, he said, all the spotted lambs will be
yours. Well, then all the lambs are born spotted. All the best
ones and the strongest ones, the most healthy ones, they were
all born spotted. And Jacob saw, or Laban saw,
this isn't working out. He said, let's change plans.
All the spotted ones will be mine. Well, then they were all
born ring straight. All the good ones, no matter
what plan Laban came up with, all the good lambs, all the best
ones belong to Jacob. Now, who did that? I mean, was
that just an accident? Was Laban just experiencing a
run of bad luck? I mean, what? God did that. God did that. Our God is sovereign over the
most minute detail. Even the color of lambs that
are born this season. Our God's sovereign over that.
And here's the thing. God's sovereign, all these little
details that go on, all of his creation, it's at the same time
too large and too intricate for our minds to be able to comprehend.
how our God is sovereign over every event going on in his creation.
And what's God's purpose behind it all? It's not just that he's
sovereign over everything, but he sovereignly worked all those
little minute details together for one purpose, the glory of
his son and the salvation of his people. God's working everything
that happens so that his people will come to know Christ. so
that they'll believe him, so they'll be fed, so they'll be
comforted. God does all of this. All the
rest of the world is just there for the good of God's people,
for their salvation and for their benefit. Now that's a comfort
to God's people. God is sovereign in salvation
and he always accomplishes his will. Always. Now that's a comfort. My eternal destiny is not in
my hands. It's in God's hands. And I can
rest in this. If he left it in my hands, I'd
mess it up and lose it in a heartbeat. He'll never make a mistake. He'll
never mess it up. I can't even run a bad luck that
will destroy me because there's no such thing. No such thing
as good luck or bad luck, is there? God brings every event
that happens in his creation. He brings it together for the
eternal good of his people, for his glory. Now that's comforting
to God's people. Even when Lord brings about events
that hurt us, that scare us, that are painful to us, even
when God sends trials, severe trials, it's not bad luck. Matter of fact, it's not bad.
It's my loving father's will for me. And that's something
we can rest in. And you know, even if a person
doesn't know God and doesn't worship God, you know, God's
still sovereign over everything they do too. Look at verse 24. And God came to Laban the Syrian
in a dream by night and said unto him, take heed that thou
speak not to Jacob, either good or bad. You know, it ought to
be starting to dawn on old Laban here. God's the one who's in
control of all this. You keep trying to scheme and
harm Jacob. God's the one, it should have
occurred to him. God's the one that's in control
of this thing. He's in control of everything. And here we're talking about
the events of providence, the events of our lives. God's sovereign
in those things. But there's something more important.
I don't like to say that God's especially sovereign in salvation. I've said that before. I don't
really like the sound of that because that almost makes it
sound like there's degrees of sovereignty. You know, God's more sovereign
in salvation. He's sovereign over these other
things. So I'm going to try to always say it this way. It should
be especially noted by sinners that God is sovereign in salvation. You know, I think it should be
especially noted because Sinful men and women are fine to have
God sovereign over, you know, what blessings come my way, whether
a tornado knocks my house down, whether, you know, but not in
salvation now, that's gotta be up to me. It should be especially
noted by sinners that God's sovereign in salvation. And that should
be a special comfort and assurance to God's people. Our God is sovereign
in salvation. That's the only way a genuine
sinner can be saved. See, if I'm a sinner, this is
what I know. I need the God of Jacob. I need God to choose to
love me just like He loved Jacob, even though I've never done anything
to deserve it. I can't choose God and never will choose God.
I can't do anything to earn God's love. But what a blessing to
my heart to know that God of Jacob chooses to love sinners. and save them by His grace. If
I'm a sinner, I know this. I need Christ to die for me on
purpose. I need Him to choose me. I need
Him to willingly die for me. And I need Him, I need it to
be His will, not mine. I need Him to choose me and die
for me on purpose. If I'm a sinner, I don't need
God to die for everybody and leave it up to them to decide
whether to accept him or reject him. If he does that, I'll never
be saved because the will, the sinful will, the sinful nature
that we received from Adam will never choose God, never choose
him. So I need God to save me. I need
the father to choose me. I need the son to save me, and
I need the Holy Spirit to apply that salvation to my heart without
ever one time asking my permission. I need him to do it because that's
his will. And that's what the sovereign
God does. That's what the God of Jacob does. Now that's the
God. I want to be my God. That's the
God, I can trust my salvation to that God, can't you? And since
God is sovereign, His will is always done. And that means all
of his people shall be saved. They all shall appear with him
in glory and not one of them will ever lose the blessing of
their salvation. They won't misplace it and it
won't be stolen from them. See, that's the only God a sinner
will ever truly worship is a sovereign God. I can't manipulate Jacob
or Laban could manipulate his little gods. Couldn't he? He
could turn them whichever way if he wanted, he'd carve a new
one if he wanted, you know, he could manipulate his gods. You
can't manipulate sovereign God. That's the only God a sinner
will ever worship is a sovereign God. And I'm thankful that God
of Jacob is sovereign. All right, here's the last thing.
The hope of God's people is the sacrifice of Christ. Look over
here at verse 43. Laban answered and said unto
Jacob, these are my daughters. These daughters are my daughters. These children, they're my children.
These cattle are my cattle. All that thou seest is mine.
Oh, I mean, I just can't believe this. I mean, this guy really,
I think he believed what he's saying. He's just honest with
himself. These are all Jacob's. Jacob's, they're Jacob's wives.
They're Jacob's children. They're Jacob's cattle. And he
says, now, what can I do under these, my daughters or their
children, which they bore? And he says, this is all mine,
but Jacob, I'm gonna let you have it. Cause you know, I don't
want to have a war here and harm them. Well, he just can't quit
being dishonest. In verse 44, he says, now, therefore
come down and let us make a covenant. I am thou and let it be for a
witness between me and thee. And Jacob took a stone and set
it up for a pillar. And Jacob said unto his brethren,
gather stones. And they took stones and made
them a heap and they did eat there upon the heap. And Laban
called it Jigar say Hadutha, but Jacob called it Galiad. And
just in the two different languages, they meet. It means the same
thing, a heap of witness. And Laban said, this heap is
a witness between me and thee this day. Therefore was the name
of it called Gilead. And Mizpah, for he said, the
Lord watch between me and thee. We're absent one from another. If thou shalt flick my daughters,
or if thou shalt take otherwise beside my daughters, no man is
with us. See, God is witness betwixt me
and thee. And Laban said to Jacob, behold
this heap, and behold this pillar, which I have cast betwixt me
and thee. This heap be a witness, and this pillar be witness, that
I will not pass over this heap to thee, And now shall not pass
over this heap and this pillar unto me for harm. Now Jacob and
Laban set up this pillar of stones and they're making this covenant,
this peace covenant. And they ate a meal on this heap
of stones and this pillar and they made a covenant. I'm not,
we won't cross this, this, this line here to do one another harm. And that was supposed to be a
symbol of peace to them. But look what Jacob did in verse,
Verse 50, well, yeah, verse 54. And Jacob offered sacrifice upon
the mount and he called his brethren to eat bread and they did eat
bread and tarried all night in the mount. Now Jacob knew you
can make all the promises you want. You can make all the promises
of peace that you want, but there's not going to be any peace without
a blood sacrifice. We can promise God all we want.
Oh, I'll not do it again. And if we did that, we'd be just
like Laban being dishonest. Of course, we're going to do
it again. There can't be peace because we promise I won't do
it again. The only way there can be peace, peace with God
is a blood sacrifice. I mean, this, this looks like
a, a pretty, you know, good religious ceremony that we're setting up
this pillar and these stones or having a meal on or making
this promise to each other. Jacob knew you can go through
all the religious ceremonies you want. but there can't be
any peace. There can't be any salvation
without a blood sacrifice. And I can apply that to us today.
You can learn all the facts about the Bible that you want, but
there's not going to be any peace without a blood sacrifice, without
the sacrifice of Christ. You can gain some head knowledge
of good and true doctrine and why I strongly encourage you
to do it. but there's not going to be peace without the blood
sacrifice of Christ. That's what Jacob knew. There's
got to be a blood sacrifice and Laban still didn't get it. He's still worshiping his gods.
Plural. Look at verse 53. This is what
Laban says. The God of Abraham and the God
of Nahor and the God of their father judge betwixt us and Jacob
swear by the fear, fear of his father, Isaac. See Laban's talking
about the God of Jacob and the God of Nahor and the God of their
father, like three different gods. It's all these different
gods. All these different gods, you know, watch between us. And
Jacob swore by God. He was worshiping God and trusting
his care to God. That's why Jacob made that sacrifice
and offered that sacrifice. As far as I know, I didn't really
check this real carefully, but as far as I know, That's the
last we ever hear of Laban. That's not the last we hear of
Jacob. Because God's with Jacob. And we're gonna see more of Christ
through the rest of Jacob's life. That's who I want to be, my God,
and you, the God of Jacob. All right, let's bow together. Our Father, I thank you for this
time that you've given us together. And I beg of you, Father, that
you take your word as it's been preached. that you would apply
it to the hearts of your people for your glory, that we might
see more of the glory of Christ our Savior and rest in Him, hope
in Him, find our peace and confidence and assurance, not on what we
do, but in who our God is and what He has accomplished for
His people. It's in the precious name, the holy and high name
of our Savior, we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, Sean.