I please God to bless our souls
together this evening as we meditate in his word. Let's turn to the
book of Genesis chapter 28 and we'll read verse 17. The book of Genesis chapter 28
and reading verse 17. And he was afraid and said, how
dreadful is this place. This is none other but the house
of God, and this is the gate of heaven. This is, of course, what we might
term a unique account in the word of God. But it gives to
us, thankfully, much instruction and teaching. And so we have
this part of Jacob's life. Jacob was now on a journey seeking
for a wife. His father and mother had directed
him in this way where he was to go. It wasn't long before that of course
he had taken the blessing that Esau thought was his. In actual fact, it wasn't because
Esau had sold his birthright to Jacob when he wanted just
a dish of pottage lentils and he was so exhausted. And when
Jacob asked, give me for this your birthright, he gave it.
So in actual fact, the birthright was Jacob's and so he took hold
of that which was his. We know it was probably in a
deceitful way but nonetheless it was his because Esau had given
it to him. But we know how annoyed and angry
Esau was and now Jacob is going to find a wife and of course
he wasn't sure whether Esau would Chase him or whether he would
send someone to murder him It's alright to read this account,
but here he was traveling across a pretty hard country and he
traveled all day and he come to a place where he was tired
and the Sun was setting and he needed to lie down and sleep
and And so he took the stones in that place and made a pillow
for his head. It wasn't a very comfortable
bed, was it? No nice mattress or sheets or
blankets. There he was, lying down on the
earth with just stones for his pillow. But nonetheless, that
was the place. And in that condition, the Lord
was going to bless Jacob. And we should therefore, in our
lives today, we might think, well, the Lord will never bless
me in this kind of position that I'm in, or will ever come to
me and favour me. And especially in the hard position
that I find myself in. God has his way. God has his time. And what we
know is this, God's time is always right and God's way is always
perfect. And so it was here in the life
of Jacob. And Jacob, as we read, and he
took the stones of the place and put them for his pillows
and lay down in that place to sleep. Well, God gave him sleep. And while he was sleeping, he
had that amazing dream which we read of together in his 28th
chapter of Genesis and he dreamed and behold a ladder set up on
the earth and the top of it reached to heaven and behold the angel
of God ascending and descending on it behold the Lord stood above
it you see here was Jacob with his vision The Lord stood above
it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham, thy father, and the
God of Isaac. The land whereon thou liest,
to thee will I give it, and to thy seed. And thy seed shall
be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad
to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south.
And in thee, and in all thy seed shall all the families of the
earth be blessed. And behold, I am with thee, and
will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will
bring thee again into this land, for I will not leave thee until
I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. Well, it was
an amazing time, wasn't it? And it was Jacob then, blessed
with this wonderful dream. It was a wonderful dream. And what happened then? Jacob
awaked. He woke up. Out of the sleep. And what did he say? Surely the
Lord is in this place. And I knew it not. well sometimes we come into situations
and what a favor when God meets with us when God speaks to us when God
directs us we perhaps never thought or never realized that that would
occur and yet here it was occurring to Jacob in a most remarkable
way. And there was no doubt in Jacob's
mind and Jacob's heart as to what had occurred. Surely the
Lord is in this place. And I knew it not. He'd had this
vision. He'd had these words spoken by
God. And what an amazing scene it was as he saw this ladder
From earth to heaven, the connection as it were between earth and
heaven, the angels of God ascending and descending on it didn't stop
there. There was the Lord. The Lord
stood above it. And of course it was the Lord
who was addressing Jacob in his situation. Well, what a blessing
for us if we have an occasion when Almighty God addresses us. It may not be like this, it may
not be in a dream. Maybe it's you and I going about
our work, maybe walking down the street. Whatever it may be,
it's a great blessing to have the Lord come. and speak to us,
it may not be as lengthy as this address was to Jacob, but perhaps
it would be a very short word. I am with thee. Yes, I am with
thee. That's a great direction, isn't
it? And if God speaks to us, what
would the effect be? What was the effect here upon
Jacob? What was the effect? Well, the
effect was he trembled. He trembled. God had spoken to
him. The Almighty God had spoken to
him. He trembled and he trembled in this way. He was afraid. He wasn't afraid
of God as an enemy. No, he was afraid because God,
the Almighty God, had condescended to come down and to address him. Well, that will make us, you
and me, tremble, you know, when we think of the greatness of
God and our utter unworthiness. Jacob must have felt like that,
mustn't he? Utterly unworthy of any notice from God. God had taken great notice of
him and come and spoken to him and addressed him. with regards
to the family that he would have. Remember here he was, no prospect,
no wife, no children. And yet you see, God came and
told him and he brought back to his remembrance who he was,
the God of Abraham, his father, the God of Isaac, his father.
Yes, and Jacob would have been aware of how God had appeared
to Abraham, how he'd appeared to Isaac, and therefore to have
had such a gracious and a glorious introduction. And then to be
told, the land were on their lives, to thee will I give it,
and to thy seed. Now we should remember that everything
is at God's command. God has control of everything. And he can give you and me everything
that we need. Not everything that we want,
but everything that we need. This great God will provide. Yes, he does provide for his
people. He provides all their needs.
What a mercy that is, to think that this God provides for your
need, and provides for my need, in every detail. And so here
he is, God speaks to Jacob in this way, and he tells him, the
land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed. And it wasn't gonna be taken
away, it was given. What a wonderful favor to have
such a gift. And so then he then goes on to
tell him not only about his land but about his seed. Thy seed
shall be as the dust of the earth and thou shalt spread abroad
to the west, east, north and south. And in thee and in thy
seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And then
he comes and speaks these wonderful words. And behold, I am with
thee. There's no greater blessing,
is there, for us as humans on this earth to have this great
encouragement. And behold, that means we are
to observe. That means we are to know that
Lord is with us. Behold, I am with thee and will
keep thee in all places within thy ghost. And bring me again
into this land. Now, it was necessary, wasn't
it? That Jacob had such a promise. Because we know that when he
went to serve Laban, he was deceived and it was hard work. And no
doubt he was remembering these promises. See, when the Lord
God speaks to our heart, It's for a reason. God doesn't,
we might say in a right way, God doesn't waste words. God
doesn't waste promises. God gives us words. He gives
us promises. Those that you and I will need.
We'll need to plead them before our God. We need to hold them
fast. What a blessing then, if the
Lord has given us a word, a promise to hold fast to. Hold fast that
which we have, yes, the gift of God. Let us not throw it away. Let us not despise it. The tendency
may be to despise it and say, well, that wasn't very much.
And that wasn't really what I expected. In any event, it wasn't what
I wanted. But my friends, if God's given
it, however small it is, what a wonderful thing to receive
anything from the good hand of our God. What a blessing, isn't
it? And so let us tonight look back
in our lives and see whether God has given us a promise Spoken
to our hearts. The word of life. It won't disappear. It won't be taken away. It may
be tested. It will be tested. But you and
I can rely upon it and we can hold it fast. And so here, Jacob
in this place, this remarkable place, the Lord looked upon him
and the Lord blessed him. So let us realise, the Lord is
in every place. Let's not think that because
we find ourselves in a certain area, in a certain place, that
God is not there. Because God is. And I can tell
you, some of my greatest blessings have been in foreign lands, where
the Lord has been mindful and has been
gracious. The Lord knows where we are,
he knows where we're going, he knows what we need. And so here
was Jacob then, blessed for this wonderful promise, for I will
not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee
of. And of course The Lord was to
be with Jacob right down to the end of his journey. And so he
will be with the whole church of God. And so with this background,
we find that Jacob's woken. He realizes the Lord has been
with him. The Lord has spoken to him. And what an occasion that is. How humbling it is. And we understand,
can't we, when he said he was afraid. It's really put like
this. God was speaking to him. His
Father in Heaven was speaking to him. And as we think of that,
perhaps in a natural way, we know that our Father speaks to
us, has spoken to us perhaps, things of encouragement and well
we were very thankful for them and here we find Jacob thankful
for these great words that God has spoken therefore he says
and I was afraid and I said how dreadful is this place well Wherever
the Lord comes, wherever the Lord is, wherever the Lord meets
with his people, we can think of it as a solemn place, isn't
it? A solemn place where God comes. God comes down. He condescends
to come to us where we are. And you know, sometimes God has
come in the midst of A worldly scene, but in that place we worshipped. What have we said? In essence,
how dreadful is this place? It's a solemn place because God's
here. God's met with me. God's spoken
to me. God's encouraged me. God's directed
me. God's helped me. Yes, when God
helps us, when God hears our prayers, when God's helped us,
can we not say, well, yes, I understand a little of what Jacob says here? How dreadful is this place? Because God was there. God was there. Well, it would
be a wonderful favor in your life and my life if we are able
to bear a humble testimony. The Lord has met with us and
the Lord has spoken to us very often in an unlooked for scene,
an unlooked for situation. But the place, the ordained place
for God to come, the ordained place for God to bless, The Lord
knows how he will bless and where he will bless and when he will
bless. And so here was Jacob, not long having left his home,
his home with his parents, going out now, travelled already many
miles, I think some 40 miles or so he travelled to get to
this place. Far off from home, no cars or
transport, walked it, no way of just rushing back home. No,
he was dependent upon his God being with him. And then God
was with him. You may remember that Isaac,
when he'd sent Jacob forth, he'd said, and God Almighty bless
thee. God Almighty bless thee. That
was the desire. And that was what had happened.
In a very short time, there was Jacob blessed. And so he comes
and so it says, how dreadful is this place. And then he expands
on it, what it is, what the place was to him. He says, this is none other but
the house of God And this is the gate of heaven. We might
ask the question, well what is the house of God? What is the
house of God? The house of God to you and me
will be the place where God meets with us. God's provided this building
which we often refer to as the house of God, but of course it's
only bricks and mortar. And in essence, if God never
meets with you in this place, it's not the house of God to
you. But if God does meet with you in this place, you will understand
that it is the house of God to you. And so here, in this place,
God had met with Jacob, and to him it was the house of God to
him. None other. It couldn't be anything
else, because God had met with him. But again, what a mercy
if you and I can testify of those places which have been to our
soul the house of God. And how is that determined? Like this, we've bowed down and
worshipped. That's how it's been determined.
We've known that to our soul it's been the house of God, because
God's met with us, and God's spoken to us, and God's encouraged
us, and God's directed us. And we can say, this is none
other but the house of God. Now, Jacob was blessed with this
evidence in his life and you and I need this evidence in our
lives to be able to testify that this is the house of God whether
it's here in this place or other places it may be in your homes
it may be in your workplace it may be in some far-off place
and yet the place where God condescended to come and to meet with us. So here we have this statement.
This is none other but the house of God. What is it? To Jacob's
soul, what was it? A holy place. A holy place. God had met with him. God had
met with him. A holy place it is when God meets
with us. Because it's that wonderful meeting
between our soul and God. This is none other but the house
of God. What had Jacob seen? He'd seen
that connection between earth and heaven. It was illustrated
to him by means of a ladder reaching right from the earth to heaven. My friends, today, what is our
great and blessed connection between our souls and heaven? None less than the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's our great and blessed
connection. And what a mercy if the Holy
Spirit has come to us and shown us that way. That way to heaven,
the only way, through the Lord Jesus Christ. What a mercy to be blessed in
this way. The Word of God directs us and
encourages us to look to Him as that great and merciful and
blessed Saviour. And the Apostle Paul knew very
well the favour and the blessing of this condition. He tells us
in the first chapter to the Ephesians, and he says this, verse 16. Cease not to give thanks
for you. Make it mention of you in my
prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. You see, although Jacob was asleep,
the eyes of his understanding were enlightened. That ye may know what is the
hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his
inheritance in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to us ward who believe this to Jacob was the power of
God and to our hearts it will be the power of God it'll be
a holy place when the Lord comes and speaks to us exceeding greatness of his power
to us who believe according to the work of his mighty power
which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and
set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places far above
all principality and power and might and dominion and every
name that is named not only in this world but also in that which
is to come and has put all things under his feet gave him to be
head over all things to the church which is his body the fullness
of him that filleth all in all. It's summed up like this, a fullness
resides in Jesus our head that ever abides to answer our need. Every need that you and I have
is fulfilled through Christ. And so Jacob here, he gives this
statement, there is none, but this is none other but the house
of God. And this is the gate of heaven. You see, if you and I go through
the gate or go through a door, well, it's perhaps going into
the house, into a place. And as we go through this gate,
this gate is the entrance into the way of life, the way of eternal
life. And so what a blessing as Jacob
saw it like this. This is the gate of heaven. What it really means is God had
come and revealed himself and spoken to Jacob. And he realised he'd entered
in at the gate. It's perhaps the beginning of his journey.
What a mercy, if you and I have entered in at the gate. Perhaps
the beginning of our spiritual journey. And it's like this. Jesus has revealed himself to
us. Yes, it's the beginning. And
you know, there is a right way that's through the gate, or through
the door, the Lord Jesus says, I am the door. That's the only
way of entrance into the way of life. Pilgrim's Progress tells
us that those who climbed up over the wall, they didn't go
through the gate. There's only one entrance into
the way of life, and that's through the Lord Jesus Christ. and that
through His great and glorious and finished work, that's the
only way, if the Holy Spirit comes and directs us to our need
of a Saviour. What a mercy that is, what a
blessing that is. And we see that He is the door. I am the door. I am the door,
says the Lord Jesus Christ. And so may we be thankful if
the Holy Spirit has brought us into that way, the right way. The Apostle also, when he wrote
to the Colossians, he also speaks in a very similar way. Again, in the first chapter,
he says, For it pleased the Father that in him, that's the Lord
Jesus Christ, should all foolness dwell. What does that mean? It
means that everything that you and I need is to be found in
Christ. Don't look anywhere else. To
be found in Christ. And so he says, And it pleased
the Father that in him should all foolish dwell, and have he
made peace through the blood of his cross. Now here's a great
truth, isn't it? And if Jesus is revealed to you
and me like this, as we enter through the gate, that He is
our peace, and there's no peace outside of, through the blood
of His cross, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you and
I are under the blood, my friends, there's peace. If we're not,
there's no peace. And we need peace, and we must
be under the blood. So the apostle here tells us,
have He made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him, to
reconcile, to bring back to God all things unto Himself, by Him
I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven,
and you, you and me, this word is directed to, and you that
were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works. Is that true? Of course it's
true. It is true. It's a blessing if
you and I know it's true. And to think that this great
and glorious God has very graciously come and reconciled us. We were alienated. We were against
God. We fought against God. We didn't
want to submit ourselves to God. We weren't prepared to do that.
We wanted to have our own way, like a little spoilt child. And yet here we see these gracious
and glorious words. And surely this is again the
gate and here was Jacob, you see, blessed with this revelation. And let us not forget, the psalmist
tells us about Jacob. He found him in a desert place,
in a waste-hounding wilderness. Here it is. He led him about. He instructed him. He kept him
as the apple of his eye. My friends, when God has found
you and me, he keeps us. He's with us. He's round about
us. And therefore the apostle, as
he wrote to the Colossians, speaks these words, in his sight." Very humbling,
isn't it? If we realise how unworthy we
are. Less than the least of all saints
was the Apostle's description of himself. And under the influence
of the Blessed Spirit, it'll be the description of you and
me. Less than the least of all saints. The chief of sinners,
utterly unworthy of any notice from Almighty God, and yet this
great and glorious Saviour looks upon us. He looked upon Jacob.
He came to him in a most amazing way. And my friends, whatever
word the Lord may speak to you and me, it's an amazing way,
it's an amazing blessing. It's an eternal blessing. That's
the truth. It won't be removed. Once in
Him, in Him forever. That's the eternal favour of
God and so here is this word, then let's read it again. If
you continue in the faith, in the faith, grounded and settled,
and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye have
heard and which was preached to every creature. Well, through
the grace of God, you know, we will heard the glorious gospel. Have we been blessed with living
faith to believe it? Are we grounded in the truth
and settled in it? What a mercy. Therefore, if we've entered in
through this gate, and this is the gate of heaven, it was the
beginning of the heavenly journey, the beginning of the heavenly
journey, there must always be in your life and my life a beginning. There'll be an end, but there
must be a beginning and there must be a right beginning. We
don't want to have clambered up some other way. We don't want
to have avoided or tried to get round the Word of God and the
truth of God. We want to be found walking in
that which is right and that which is God-honouring. And so
here was Jacob then in this condition. And he rose up, he got up, he
realised that God had met with him. It's very humbling when
you and I can testify that God has met with us. That God has
spoken to us, the Word of Life. What a blessing. And here we
see Jacob getting up, He rose up early in the morning. We can
imagine, can't we, lying there, head on those stony pillow, contemplating the great promise
and word that God had come to his heart and the things that
he had seen. It's a good thing when God comes
to us, perhaps, and we are in our bed, and we're able to lie
in our bed, and we're able to think of the truths that God
has revealed to us, that our soul rejoices in it. Well, there's
no lying in bed then, is there? And the dawn comes, we get up,
oh, we're thankful to be able to remember what God has done,
perhaps to write it down, and perhaps to tell someone about
it, at least the desire not to forget it, And Jacob rose up
early in the morning and took the stones that he had put for
his pillows and set it up for a pillar and poured oil upon
the top of it. He wanted that to be a place
that he would remember. He didn't want to forget this
wonderful occasion. In the lives of the children
of God, we look back, do we not, in our life to situations, to
places, and times when God met with us. Yes, what we might term it as
a way mark, a mark where God met us in our journey of life. Well, have we got some way marks
in our life to remember, to strengthen us in our journey? As we travel
on through life with many ups and downs and perplexities, can
we lay hold upon God's promises? Go back in our mind to perhaps
a place where, perhaps not physically, but perhaps mentally, we placed
a pillar. A pillar to remember it was in
that place that God met with my soul. A place of remembrance. And so here was Jacob. He poured
oil upon the top of it and he called the name of that place
Bethel. The name of that city was called Laz at the first. Well, it's good, isn't it? If
you and I in our spiritual life have a Bethel, perhaps one little
Bethel, what a blessing that is. If you can say yes, I do
remember God did meet with me. God did speak to me. It's a Bethel. Don't despise it. Bless God for
it. May we have many Bethels that
we can remember. Thou shalt remember all the way
the Lord thy God has led thee. That was spoken of Israel all
those 40 years in the wilderness and my friends God's people today. by his grace, they remember all
the way the Lord has led them. And it's God's work and it's
God's leading and it's God's voice. So in some small measure,
we can understand what Jacob experienced on this wonderful
occasion. To be able there to be strengthened
and encouraged in our faith and to think of what Jacob said,
How dreadful is this place. This is none other but the house
of God. And this is the gate of heaven. Amen.