Let's turn to Genesis chapter
35. Last time we were here, in Genesis
34, Jacob was in great distress. Let's read that verse, Genesis
34, 30. And Jacob said, To Simeon and Levi, ye have troubled
me to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land.
Among the Canaanites and the Perizzites, and I being few in
number, they shall gather themselves together against me and slay
me. And I shall be destroyed, I and
my house. And what the Lord is picturing
here, or what's pictured here for us, is Jacob's sin, which
is manifested there in the fruit of his body, Simeon and Levi. It's a picture of our sin, that
which we produce that causes us trouble and distress, that
troubles us, that will bring us into destruction and death. And so Jacob here, he's lost
all hope. He's lost all hope. He might
as well say what Jeremiah the prophet said in Lamentation 3.18.
My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. He sees his sin. He sees how it's a stench. It's a filthy stench unto God,
and He's fit to be destroyed, and that's true of me, of my
sin. My sin makes me to stink. The
fruit that I produce with this body, with my thoughts, my heart,
my actions, makes me to stink before God, and I'm fit for destruction. But what's comforting here for
us, and it's a miracle of God's grace, is that he doesn't abandon
Jacob, and he doesn't leave Jacob to the will of his enemies, to
be destroyed by them. Jacob said, but now look at Genesis
35 verse 1. And God said. Jacob said. And God said unto Jacob, Arise,
go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar unto
God. Go, worship God. You that are
sinners, worship God. Be turned to God that appeared
unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. And so here's Jacob despairing
of hope. And yet God intervenes. God comes
in there graciously and sovereignly intervening and turning Jacob
from what he's looking at, his sin, and turns him from the flesh
to the true and living God. And that's what the Lord does
for us. When he makes us to see our sin, when he brings us into
dire straits to know what we are by nature, how that we stink,
it's that he may be gracious to us. Because then he comes
with his word and turns us from dead things that cannot save,
turns us from trusting this flesh or just going on indifferently
to the Lord, and turns us back to Christ, turns us to the true
and living God. So let's trace out the grace
of God here in reconciling Jacob. God reconciles Jacob here, and
it's according to his promise made unto Abraham, Isaac, and
now Jacob. And that's our hope. Our hope
is the promise of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the promised seed,
which is Christ. So in this, we see that God is
the first cause of all things. It isn't what you give to God,
it's what God does for you, sinner. It's what He does to save you. It's His mercy and grace that
turns you. That's why you're turned. That's
why the Lord brings us into dark places and dark seasons and difficulties
and troubles because it's He will be gracious to you. It's
to make us to see our need of Him. That's what He's doing when
He does that. It's to make us despair of ourselves
that we might find our all in Him. It's a very gracious thing
that he does. It's very kind that the Lord
does this for us. He's not beating us over the
head because we're sinners. That's true, we are sinners,
but it's that he may be gracious to us. And so, God said unto
Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make there
an altar unto God that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest
from the face of Esau thy brother. And the Lord turns him from being
overwhelmed and overcome with his despair and his fear and
worry that this is it, destruction's come upon me, I'm getting what
I deserve. And he turns him from that to
the one whom later Jacob would describe as the angel who redeemed
me." Later on when he's talking to Joseph, when Joseph's a grown
man, he refers to God as the angel which redeemed me from
all evil. That's Christ. He is. He is the Word of God. An angel is a messenger carrying
the Word of God. Christ is that Word of God. He
is the angel of angels. He is the Son of God. He is the
messenger of God. The Word of God that redeemed
us from all evil. from the destruction and evil
that we deserve, that we've brought upon ourselves, he's the angel. He's the Word of God. He is the
Son of God who redeemed us from all evil. And so God speaks to
Jacob and what he does is he's returning him to the beginning. He's returning him to the gate,
as it were, where Jacob first saw the true and living God.
Where God first revealed himself to Jacob, God is now bringing
him back to that very place of beginning, which is the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the Lord's showing us here
that we begin in Christ, and brethren, that's where you end.
And everything in between is Christ. It's Christ. If you believe Christ and you've
lost your way, if you've gone away and gone into sin and darkness,
return to Christ. That's what he's showing us in
his word. Look to him. Go back to him. Trust him. Believe him. He is the salvation
of God from beginning to end. Now additionally, of note here
in this work of God, we see that when Jacob deceived Isaac to
get the blessing of Esau. He deceived Isaac and Esau gets
angry with him and Jacob flees from him. What has Jacob's sons
done now? In chapter 34, we saw they deceived. What they did to Shechem was
deceitful in telling him to be circumcised so that he could
marry their sister. They deceived him and put him
to death. Well, now that they've deceived,
just like Jacob deceived, and Jacob fled and went to Bethel
there, Well, now that they've done this
deception, now that they've sinned, they're also being driven to
Bethel. This is the first time they're
going to go to Bethel. And Bethel simply means the house
of God. Beth is house of L being God,
house of God. And this is where the Lord revealed
himself to Jacob. Let's see that. Turn over to
Genesis chapter 28. In Genesis 28, this is when Jacob
fled from Esau his brother. After Jacob had fallen asleep,
it says in verse 12, Jacob dreamed. And behold, a ladder set up on
the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold,
the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And behold,
the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham
thy father, and the God of Isaac. and 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, and to the north and to the south.
And in thee and in thy seed shall all families of the earth be
blessed. And so this blessing here is
in reference to the blessing that Isaac gave to him when he
when he deceived Isaac and took it from Esau his brother. This is that blessing of Abraham
and Isaac and of Jacob that the promised seed should come through
him and it's according to election. Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. And so God, loving Jacob, having
chosen Jacob, gives the blessing to Jacob. And now He reveals
Himself to Jacob, making Himself known, saying in verse 15, 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." And so this ladder that we see here,
this ladder is Christ. This is Christ. We see God in
heaven and man on the earth and the only way that we know God
and have fellowship with God is through that ladder which
is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one and those promises
made to him are in Christ so that God will not leave us and
will not abandon us to be destroyed as our sins deserve. And I know this ladder is Christ
because our Lord tells us that this ladder is Christ. When He
spoke to Nathanael, it says in John 1.51, He saith unto him,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven
open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of
Man. Just like that ladder which Jacob
saw. That ladder is Christ. Christ
is how we know the true and living God. Christ is how God reveals
himself to us. It's for Christ's sake that God
is merciful to us and doesn't destroy us. And so now, the seat
is found once again in Jacob. But this time, Jacob's not departing
from the land. This time, God is establishing
Jacob in the land, not according to his works, but because God
will be gracious to him. And so we see here what the Lord's
showing us is that he's merciful to us according to sovereign
grace, according to his sovereign will and purpose. He's gracious. And just as we see him, while
Jacob was fearful and terrified that he was going to be destroyed
by the Sheikah mites and the people of that land, God interposed. God called him and turned his
eyes from dead things to living things, to the Lord. We see this
in the scripture, 2 Thessalonians 2.13, we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you unto salvation. How did he choose? How do I know
that God chose me? Through sanctification of the
Spirit. He separated you apart unto this
Word, to hear this Word, to believe the Word of Christ and belief
of the truth. God did that for you. He made
you to hear. He gave you the hunger and thirst.
He brought you into darkness. He brought you into trouble like
Jacob was stressed and distressed that that that he might reveal
himself to you mercifully whereunto he called you by our gospel to
the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the
second thing we see here in Genesis 35 is we see the immediate effect
of God's word which he spoke to Jacob. The immediate effect
here and so in verse 2 we see him hear that word of the Lord
and he goes and preaches that word to his family, to his household,
to his brethren. He preaches this word. Then Jacob
said, verse 2, unto his household and to all that work with him. You see, when God has a people,
he's going to raise up a man. He's going to send a preacher
to preach to that people. Though it be a small group, if
he has a people there, he's going to give you his word. He's not
going to leave you in darkness. He's not going to abandon you.
He does all things for the sake of the elect. And so Jacob preaches
the word, and we're going to see that his word is made effectual
in their heart, just like the Lord made it effectual in Jacob's
heart. Let's look at verse 2 again.
First, the people are called to repentance. Verse 2, then
Jacob said unto his household and to all that were with him,
put away the strange gods that are among you and be clean. and
change your garments. Let me just say, when it says
change your garments, it's just like Paul saying to you, put
off the old man and put on the new. These are spiritual words
being spoken here. And what we see is that Jacob's
household was full of idolaters. That's what we are by nature.
We are idolaters trusting false gods, trusting gods that cannot
save us. You know, when Jacob was in Paddan
Aram, the scriptures never speak of him making an altar unto God. He never worshipped God. He never
made an altar. And what his household knew of
the true and living God, we don't really know. There's only a few
things that are mentioned. It's clear that something of
the Lord was known because even Laban spoke of the Lord and Laban,
his father, the brother of Abraham, came out of where they came from,
from the land of idolatry. They came out of that together.
And so they knew the Lord. They had a certain sense of the
Lord, I should say. And so even Laban had a certain
sense. You know, even Balaam, who was
called by Barak, Do you ever wonder where did this guy come
from? How did Balaam know anything about the Lord when Barak called
him to curse the children of Israel coming out of Egypt? Some think that he was descended
from Laban, that he came from Laban's lineage, and that's perhaps
where he knew some of the things that he knew, but he didn't know
it in spirit and in truth. He didn't believe himself, but
this household of Jacob was full of idolatry. Even Rachel, when
they were leaving, she took the teraphim from her dad. And that
teraphim is false gods, idol gods that were made by man's
hand and man's device here. And so Jacob calls his hearers
to repent from their idolatry. And that is the first thing that
the Lord calls his people to repent of. And what I mean by
that is we trust false idol gods. We trust in vain things that
cannot save. That's where naturally we're
trusting something we've done with our hands, some god we've
invented, something we've made, and the first thing the Lord
does is says, be turned from that. Don't trust those things. Everything you're trusting in
is vain and false. be turned from that and we have
an example of that in scriptures when Paul was preaching to the
Greeks in Athens What did he say to them? He said, for as
much then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think
that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone, graven
by art and man's device. And that speaks to us today.
Maybe we're not whittling little idols, but we're trusting in
the things of man's device, in the things that we do. And we
think, God will only be merciful to me if I do something. I've
got to earn my salvation. And the Lord's saying, repent
of that. That's not how I save my people.
I don't save my people by your works and man's device. And yet
that's how man thinks by nature. And verse 30, well Acts 17, 30,
and the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth
all men everywhere to repent. Be turned from trusting your
idol gods. Be turned from trusting that
your hand saves you. And he does that, that we would
be done with that, that we would hear Christ. That's what I mean
when I say repentance. It's not fix yourselves and put
away all your sins. It's look to Christ. Stop trusting
your hands, stop trusting your ideas, stop trusting your works,
and hear Christ. That's how God saves. That's
what he means when he says, but seek ye first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness. What is the kingdom of God? We
saw that's the preaching of the gospel. Hear the gospel. Hear the good news of God and
seek his righteousness. What is the righteousness of
God? The Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord is turning us to Christ. It's not work harder, try harder,
you better get this right and figure it out or else you're
going to hell. No, it's hear Christ. Look to Christ. And he's
turning us, he's giving us repentance from dead things and he says
those things that man is first pursuing by the law to make himself
righteous, he says you seek my righteousness and all these other
things you're worrying about, all these other things you're
striving for, they'll be added to you. The Lord will deliver
you from wicked works and dark things and evil. Trust Him. He's able to do it. He gives
His Spirit. He gives His Word. He bears fruit
in you to turn you from dead things. But He does it by us
looking to Christ. And He'll teach you and instruct
you in the heart. He'll teach you what to stop
doing and to walk away from. He'll do that. Don't pursue that
first. Pursue Christ first. His righteousness
and all these other things you're worried about. He'll settle them.
He'll make them clear and plain to you. Trust Christ. Keep walking
by faith in Christ. Secondly, Jacob calls him to
faith in God. He says, repent of what you're
trusting in, and now he calls him to faith in God. Verse three,
Genesis 35, three. And let us arise and go up to
Bethel, and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered
me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which
I went. Here he is persuading his hearers
to faith in the angel who redeemed him from all evil. He's declaring that he's saying,
let us arise. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Let's go and worship God at the
altar of God, which is Christ himself. And he's telling them
what God accomplished for him. What do we do when we are preaching
the Gospel? We are telling you what Christ accomplished for
His people. I know the world preaches it
as a work still undone for you to make effectual, for you to
do something, but that's not the Gospel. The Gospel is finished. The works are finished. Christ
has accomplished redemption. Let us arise and go and worship
Him. who saved us, who delivered us
from darkness. We see that accomplished work.
He calls him God who answered, past tense, who answered me in
the day of my distress and was with me in the way which I went. All this time, Christ has been
merciful and gracious to you for Christ's sake. He's gathered
you. In those times when you've prayed,
Lord, reveal yourself to me. Lord, if you're real, please
show me, teach me, have mercy on me, save me. And here you
are, to hear his word. and to hear what he has accomplished,
what he works in his people, what he does to save his people. And Jacob saw these things, and
he laid them up in his heart, but there was a veil, there was
a blindness, still a darkness, and today was the day when the
Lord lifted that veil, and he saw, he heard the word, he remembered
the Lord, he was brought, by the grace of God, he was brought
to remember the Lord, And the Lord spoke to him and he now
goes and speaks to his hearers, to his family. And so we preach
the same thing that we see in the scriptures. That's what we
preach unto you. Look to Christ and live. Rise
up and follow Christ. Believe Him. And the Lord takes
that word and makes it effectual in the hearts of His hearers,
in the hearts of His people. And so we're declaring unto you
what Christ has done. Christ came in the flesh when
we were yet sinners. And He went to the cross and
died for us, for His people, bearing their sins and put them
away. And He rose again for our justification. And now the Lord
sends forth His word, declaring what He's done and accomplished
for you. Believe Him. Believe Him. And you that are
His, you do believe Him. You trust Him. Continue in that. Follow Him. And thirdly, We see
that the people did what they were exhorted to do. Verse 4,
And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in
their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears. And
Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. So God
here, the picture here is that the Lord worked life, faith,
light in them. They heard what Jacob said. And all those pictured in that
physical thing of them taking their idols, strange gods, giving
them to Jacob. And then it says they gave them
the earrings of their ears. That has something to do with
what they were hearing and how they heard. It was something
related to those strange gods. They were given ear to false
gods. Now they weren't given ear to those false gods. They
were given their ear by faith, by the grace of God, to the Lord,
to his word. And they were being turned from
that. And Jacob put them under the
oak. An oak is a tree, and it's a
picture of the tree that our Lord was crucified upon. Our sins are hid under that.
They're nailed to the cross. They're put away by Christ on
the cross, where his blood was shed, where his blood fell upon
the ground. That's where our sins are laid,
under that cross, where the blood of Christ covers them. And his
blood, brethren, speaketh better things than that of Abel. What
does Abel's blood speak of? Vengeance! Avenge me! I've been murdered by my brother
Cain. What does Christ's blood cry? Have mercy. Have mercy upon
them, Lord. I've shed my blood to put away
their sins. Have mercy. So their obedience
to the word pictures the grace of God. You that believe, it's
because your heart has been circumcised by the Lord. He's lifted that
veil of flesh that covers the heart, that keeps us from hearing,
that prevents us from hearing, and he removes that veil and
tunes our ear to Christ. You know, you think about Jacob's
sons, I don't know what they heard. Most of them were starting
to be grown men. Some of them probably had families
at this time. They could have gone their own
way. But the Lord demonstrates powerfully here His grace, His
word which is given unto us whereby we are delivered from going our
own way and delivered into the way of the Lord. It's the same
thing. This is a demonstration of grace. His whole family heard this word
and believed. and walked in the faith of Jacob. Before that, it was just Abraham,
and then just Isaac, and then just Jacob. But now, all 12 of
his sons here, or I don't know if Benjamin was born yet, but
his sons all here, and they follow Jacob. They believe. They walk
in faith. And it's such a picture of the
Lord's grace in saving his people and working the obedience of
faith in us. And then the next thing we see
here is that God reveals that he protects those that he calls,
he provides. Verse five, and they journeyed
and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about
them and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob. That very thing that Jacob despaired
of, and was fearful of, I'm going to be destroyed. They're going
to come out against me and they're going to destroy me. That very
thing, God said, nope, they won't touch you. They won't touch you.
And it pictures our enemies. By nature, the devil, sin, the
grave, death, all your enemies, we fear those things by nature
that they're going to destroy us. We're not going to survive.
We're not going to be able to deliver ourselves. And yet God
says, I've put them away. They won't touch you. Christ
says, put away. He's defeated all our enemies. For this cause, the Son of God
was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil.
It's all put away. The sin is put away. The deceit
is put away. The grave cannot hold us. Death
cannot hold us. We're delivered for Christ's
sake. And so where the Lord reveals
faith in his people, he gives his word, nothing shall harm
you. That doesn't mean you won't have trouble in this flesh. It doesn't mean we won't have
difficulties or sorrows or failures. But in eternal things, those
things are all for our good. And in eternal things, those
enemies that are too mighty for us, they will not destroy you.
They've been defeated already. Fourth, God purposed Jacob's
repentance all along. It was always purposed to return
him to Bethel. And so God saw to it. He brought
it to pass. In verses six and seven, so Jacob
came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is Bethel,
he and all the people that were with him. And he built there
an altar and called the place El Bethel, God, the house of
God. Because there God appeared unto
him when he fled from the face of his brother. Now this is the
place where Jacob had departed from that land. He had gone out
there and this is what God told him when he was in Paddan Aram. that word that he preached to
his wives. This is that word back in Genesis
31, 13, where he told Rachel and Leah, he said that God appeared
to me saying, I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointed the
pillar, and where thou vowedst to vow unto me, now arise, get
thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred. And there's two things that I
see in this. One, it speaks of our reconciliation to God by
Christ. All things that we lost in Adam,
in the garden, all things that we by our sin destroyed, well
Christ reconciled all those things. He restores us to fellowship
and life and salvation with God. So it speaks of reconciliation
and two, it shows us that when we depart from the Lord, there's
only one place to go. back to the Lord, to Christ,
from whence you departed, go to him. There's not another salvation. There's no other blood of sacrifice
for your sins. There's one Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ, go to him, go to Christ. And so Jacob had come
out of Panoram, but he hadn't yet returned to Bethel. He hadn't
yet gone to that place where the Lord revealed him. Some say
he had been now in that area of Canaan for about seven years.
When he saw Esau and was restored back with Esau, when he went
to Succoth and built the booths for his sheep and dwelt near
Shechem, about seven years had probably transpired. And so now
God moves him to finish the journey. Finish, keep going, keep going,
don't stop. And he brings him to Bethel,
that place where he first knew God and first worshiped God. And just so you see this, there's
a pattern here in this. God did this for Abraham too.
When Abraham was brought into Canaan, there was a famine in
the land and he went down to Egypt. And then it says this,
when he's coming up out of Egypt, Genesis 13, three and four, And
Abram went on his journeys from the south even to Bethel, unto
the place where his tent had been at the beginning between
Bethel and Ai, unto the place of the altar which he had made
there at the first. And there Abram called on the
name of the Lord. And so, brethren, our Lord is
repeating this. This is our hope and our salvation. It's Christ. We begin in Christ. He's the gate. He's the one who
we first enter in, and He's our end. He's the author. and the
finisher, the beginning and the end. He is our salvation, brethren. It's by Christ that we are reconciled
to God. And He's going to keep us looking
to Him all the days of our life. There are times when we wander.
There are times when we grow cold. There are times when we
grow indifferent. There are times when we're found
in folly, and in sin, and in darkness, and where we're not
to be. And yet the Lord graciously brings us to Christ. If you're
brought to Christ, rejoice. Give God thanks and ask Him,
beg Him, Lord keep me right here. with Christ, in Christ. Keep
me right here in Christ. Because we're just like the patriarchs. As we see how God deals with
them, that's how God deals with us. Just like that pictured for
us, given to us in examples of their life. He's showing you
how He deals with you. How He gives His word. How He
interposes graciously. How He turns us to Himself again. The Apostle John wrote, if we
say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not
in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And
he gives you that word that you would know turned to him. Turn
to him. Don't pick up something to try
and ingratiate yourself to the Lord again. Look to Christ, believe
Him, trust Him, go to Him and stay upon Him. Fifth, in this
work, God completely restored Jacob. He reconciled Jacob. It
says in verses 8 and 9, Genesis 35, 8 and 9, But Deborah, Rebekah's
nurse, died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak,
and the name of it was called Alon Bakuth. And God appeared
unto Jacob again when he came out of Paddan Aram and blessed
him. These two verses are connected. Don't separate these two verses. We haven't heard of Deborah being
mentioned since Jacob left. since Jacob left Canaan, right? Whatever was going on back home
was all forgotten. And he goes out on this journey
for a long time, fleeing from his brother Jacob. But as soon
as he returns, now we hear of Deborah again. It just picks
up right where it left off. And you might think, well, what
about everything that went on in Paddan Aram? And all the struggles
he had with Laban, and meeting up with Esau again, and all that
happened there, and Shechem, and just all these things. What
about those things? Those things amount, brethren,
to wood, hay, and stubble. It's just burned up. Burned up
and forgotten. Just put away. Just forgotten
like that. Turn over to Hebrews 11. Look
at Hebrews 11. And we see examples of this very
thing. Hebrews 11 and go to verse 29.
We'll read two verses. Hebrews 11, 29. By faith, Israel passed through
the Red Sea, as by dry land which the Egyptians, as saying to do,
were drowned. By faith, the walls of Jericho
fell down after they were compassed about seven days." Now, these
two verses here are connected. But what happened between Israel
coming out of Egypt and going through the Red Sea and those
walls falling down around Jericho? What happened? They wandered
in the desert for 40 years. Wandered around in the desert
for 40 years. They saw miracles They saw the
Lord dealt with them and showed them many wonderful things but
that 40 years doesn't even appear here in the things of faith and
the things of of Grace here and it shows us that that wandering
around for 40 years was wood hay and stubble That's just burned
up and forgotten But the Lord worked wondrously by faith they
came out of Egypt And by faith they entered into the land of
promise, and the walls fell down before them. And what the Lord
has done here is he's reconciled Jacob. He's, all those things,
all the foolish works, the wicked works, the folly of Jacob and
his household, it's all put away. Put away, covered over, and forgotten. And that's what the Lord does
for us. You that hear him, look to Christ. He's put away the
sins of His people. It's covered by His blood under
the tree. It's put away forever. Look to
Christ. He came up on the other side
there and it speaks of another tree. It's just the resurrection. We look back at what God has
done and all our sins are forgotten and put away. Look to Christ
and live. so we see here in the close of
this chapter the Lord repeats his promise to Jacob again verse
10 and got so Genesis 35 10 and God said unto him thy name is
Jacob thy name shall not be called anymore Jacob but Israel shall
be thy name And he called his name Israel. And God said unto
him, I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation
and a company of nations shall be of thee. And kings shall come
out of thy loins. And the land which I gave Abraham
and Isaac, to thee I will give it. And to thy seed after thee
will I give the land. And so the promises of God, brethren,
they're all given in Christ. If you're His, you're His by
faith. He reveals faith in you that
trusts Christ. You're kept by Him. You're reconciled
to God by Him. You know the true and living
God and worship Him in spirit and in truth. by Christ, for
Christ's sake. He's your righteousness and your
acceptance with God. So I pray the Lord bless that
word to your hearts and that he rejoice you as he rejoiced
Jacob there graciously. I pray he does that for us, brethren.
Amen.