Good morning, everyone. Turn through to Genesis 28. Genesis
chapter 28. Now, you all are probably very
familiar with this story. This is the story of Jacob and
his ladder. The Lord brings Jacob to a certain
place, and he has a dream, a vision of this ladder. This is a well-known
story. I have always looked at this story through the lens of
Jacob being a type of a believer. type of the elect. And he absolutely
is. I wouldn't take anything away from that. He absolutely
is. Very clear picture of the Lord revealing himself to a man.
But I want you to look at it from a different lens this morning.
I want you to look at it through the lens of Jacob being a type
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're going to read for a
minute and then we're going to go verse by verse and talk about
what that type is here. And I think we're going to see
it through a few things. Who the Lord is, his purpose, and
what he's accomplished for his people. all in this story right
here. So take a look, pick up in verse 1. I'm sorry, not verse
1, look at verse 10. And Jacob went out from Beersheba
and went toward Haran. And he lighted upon a certain
place and tarried there all night because the sun was set. And
he took the stones of that place and put them for his pillows
and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed. And behold, a ladder set upon
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, 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 the families of
the earth be blessed. And behold, I am with thee. and
will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and I will
bring thee again into this land, for I will not leave thee until
I have done that which I have spoken to you.' And Jacob awaked
out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place,
and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said,
How dreadful is this place! This is none other than the house
of God, and this is the gate of heaven. For its purpose, what
brought Jacob to this place this place this night where he lays
down and he makes a pillow or a stone his pillow what brought
him to this place look back up in verse 1 of Genesis 28 and
Isaac that's Jacob's father called Jacob and blessed him and charged
him and said unto him thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters
of Canaan Arise, go to Pedanaram, to the house of Bethuel, thy
mother's father, and take thee away from them to the daughters
of Laban, thy mother's brother." Jacob, the type of the Lord Jesus
Christ, his father goes to him and he blesses him, and he charges
him, he gives him a command, and this is his command, go fetch
your bride. This is a type of the covenant
of grace. The covenant took place in the eternities past between
the father and the son. The father looked at the son
and said, I have a people. They're my people, and they're your people.
And I'm giving them to you. You're going to live for them.
You're going to die for them. And you're going to bring them back
to me safe and sound. And the son said, I will. This
is the covenant of grace. And this is his covenant. This
is his charge. Go fetch your bride, the church, the elect
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's his purpose in coming,
that he would glorify himself through the salvation of his
people, the redemption of his people. Now, what's interesting
here is we get a beautiful description, a very accurate description of
the bride, the church, those that the Lord came to save. Look
here, he says, go to Padanaran. Padanaran, what does that mean?
Padanaran, when you look at it, means a field or a plain and
the implication there is that it is a low place, a low place. And that's where the Lord comes
to us at. We're in a low place. We've fallen. The bride has fallen
in Adam. Now if you've heard this before,
and I'm going to say it again, this is a common phrase, if you're
wrong on the fall, you are wrong on it all. So we have to begin
here. What happened in the garden? What happened when Adam fell?
Adam was created upright, he was created innocent, And the
Lord gave him one command. He said, you can eat of all the
fruit of all the trees of this garden, except for this one tree,
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When you eat thereof,
you shall surely die. An upright and an innocent man
with one command. Not ten, not many, but one command.
And he couldn't keep it. He ate the fruit, he sinned against
God, and he died. He didn't die physically, he
died spiritually. And he has passed down that dead,
evil, sinful nature to every son after him. Now understand
what that means, dead. That means that the spiritual
faculties of a man born in this world are all that of a dead
man. You guys have heard this before, but it bears repeating
again. We have to understand what happened here. Can a dead
man believe anything? Can he trust anyone? Can a dead
man perform any works whatsoever? Can a dead man repent? He cannot. Adam died, and that's where the
Lord found us. And that's who he came to save.
That's who he's coming after, is this fallen people. These
people who have fallen in Adam. And they are dead in and of themselves.
Dead in trespasses and sins. And their spiritual faculties
are all that of a dead man. Dead man. We can't save ourselves. Now, he gives another description. He says she's from the daughters
of Laban. And the description gets even worse, to be quite
honest. You know what Laban means? It means white. white. Now we normally associate that
word in the scriptures as a good thing, right? Fine linen, clean
and white, the righteousness of the saints, the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's true, we normally do.
It's a negative thing here. In the Old Testament when a man
was covered in leprosy from the top of his head to the sole of
his foot and everywhere in between, you know how he appeared? White
as snow. That picture of sin, that picture
of total complete depravity, sin. That's the picture that's
given to the bride here. She's a sinner and she's nothing
but sin. The leper when he went around
he had to cover his face Because if he came in contact with anyone
else, he would infect them. If he drank from a cup, they
had to break that cup. They had to destroy it. If he
ate from a plate, they had to do away with that plate. He infected
everything he touched. And that's us, by nature, folks.
The heart is evil. And that means that everything
that comes from us is evil. And this is one of the chief components
of the bride here. She sins sick. There's nothing
she can do about it. And she's all sin sick. There's
no good flesh on her. She's to pray from the top of
her head to the sole of her foot and everywhere in between, most
especially including the heart. But he gives this description,
and this is where things get better. This is the one thing
the bride has going for her. She's from the house of Bethuel.
Bethuel, you know what that means? It means the filiation of God.
Now what does that mean? What does it mean to be the filiation?
It speaks of one person being derived from another. So my daughter,
Macy Greenleaf, she is of the affiliation of Aaron Greenleaf.
She is my daughter. And this is the bride. This is
the church. We are of the affiliation of God. We have always been in
an eternal union with the Lord Jesus Christ. A union that never
had a beginning and will never have an end. Now let me give
you a scripture here. I know everybody's, that's a
strong statement. Let's give you a scripture to
back it up. Ephesians 1-4. according as he hath chosen us
in him. We need to understand this to
begin with. The bride is a chosen bride. She did not choose her
husband. We would not have chosen him. He chose us. She is a chosen
bride, but when was she chosen and where? According as he has
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. Where were we when
we were chosen? We were in Christ. The elect
have always been in eternal union with the Lord Jesus Christ. You
know what that means? That means that his history is our history.
That means everywhere he's been, that's where I've been. Everywhere
he is right now, that's where I am right now. We're of the
affiliation of God. That means when the Lord looks at me or
every other member of the elect, you know what he sees? He sees
his darling son. And that's it. That's what it
means to be in Christ. There's another way we can look
at this, too. We are derived from God in the new birth. Now
I'll give you this scripture, 1 John 5 verses 4 and 5, for
whatsoever is born of God overcometh not the world. I'm sorry, excuse
me. For whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh
the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the
world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
Now let me backtrack this thought. Here is the chief hallmark of
the bride. The bride, the one who the Lord has come to save,
this is him. They have life. Spiritual life. Those things that they could
not do before, they can do now. I couldn't hear before. I was
dead. I can hear the gospel now, and you know what? It's good
news to me. It wasn't at one time. It was hard. It was hard,
and I warred against it, but now it's good news to me. I can
hear. I'm alive. I can see who the Lord Jesus Christ is, and
I love him as he is. I'm not blind anymore. I can
see. But here's the chief hallmark of the church. She has life.
She has these faculties. And here's the evidence of that
life, the only evidence, faith, faith, a simple reliance, a simple
childlike reliance on the Lord Jesus Christ alone to do everything
in my salvation. So how simple is that? Let me
give you an example. My son Tucker. When he was young, let's say
he was three, if he got hungry, you know who he went to? He went
to Jamie Greenleaf. And he didn't ask where she was
going to get the food from. He didn't ponder how she was going
to come up with the money to buy the food, nor how she was
going to go get the food, what transportation method she was
going to use. All he knew was when he went to his mother, she
was going to feed him. And that was it. A simple, childlike
reliance. And you know what? She fed him
when he was hungry, and when he wasn't hungry, she came to
him and she fed him anyways. Because she's a faithful mother.
That's faith. Just a simple, childlike reliance
on the Lord Jesus Christ alone. And this is the hallmark of the
church. This is the bride. Faith. The evidence of things
not seen. I can't see that I was elected
before time began. I can't see any of those things. What I can
see, he is all my hope. being found in Christ is my only
hope that he paid my debt and I am no longer responsible and
I have his righteousness." That's it. Now, there is a bride or
a daughter that's not to be taken and what Isaac says is, thou
shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. Now, Canaan
also means a low place, oddly enough. You say, I thought that
was the first descriptor of the bride. It is. Every man, woman,
and child ever born in this world is fallen in Adam. What makes
the difference for the bride? The unmerited love of God and
the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. That's it.
But there is no difference between the elect and any other man out
there. We are all fallen in Adam. It's the unmerited love of God
and the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Now,
this word Canaan is translated another way as well. I want you
to see this. It is translated also as merchant. Merchant. Now, that is the daughter that
will not be taken. The daughter that will not be
the bride, the merchant. Now, what does a merchant do? Merchant
buys and sells, right? That's what a merchant does.
This is the daughter that will not be taken. This is the one
who has something to buy with. I have something that comes from
me that makes me attractive to the Lord. You must show me favor. You must be merciful to me because
I, and fill in the blank whatever you want, because I mustered
faith, because I made a profession of faith, because I had a good
experience, because I walked down the aisle, because I begged
for mercy. If anything is conditioned on what man does, you have to
do this for me because I, fill in the blank, that's the merchant. They can come up with something
that demands that the Lord show them favor. The merchant will
never be the bride. The bride is absolutely bankrupt. The bride has nothing to buy
with, nothing to pay with. Ho, everyone that thirsteth,
come to the waters, and ye who have no money, no money, come
by, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Prerequisite
there is thirst. Do you have a need of the Lord
Jesus Christ? You have a need for him to save
you with absolutely no help from you. That's prerequisite. And
you can come with nothing. The only person who will be given
to it. Grace is free. You have to have nothing to buy with.
Just a bankrupt, empty-handed sinner. The merchant will never
be the bride. Now, to fetch the bride, what
did Jacob have to do? I think you're there in Genesis
28. Look at verse 10. And Jacob went out from Beersheba
and went toward Haran. Beersheba is where Isaac lived.
And the Lord Jesus Christ, to fetch his bride, he had to leave
his father's house. He couldn't stay there. He had
to leave the immediate presence of his father, and he had to come
to Haram. That means scorched, parched, dried up. He had to
come to this world of sin and death. And in doing that, he
made his first stoop. He stooped when he was made man. Now look at this real quick.
I want you to look at Galatians 4. Galatians 4, pick up in verse
4. But when the fullness of time
was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under
the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons. He was made of a woman. The Lord
Jesus Christ, the infinite God, was made man, and he dwelt among
us. He was born in a body. a body. And as man, he was subject to
human conditions. He knew what it was like to be hungry. He
knew what it was like to be tired. He knew what it was like to be
lonely, to be sorrowful. He knew the sting of betrayal.
As man, he was subject to human conditions. As God, he was limitless. Absolutely limitless. He remained
the sovereign of the universe. Everyone and everything still
sat in his hands and he was controlling everything. He was controlling
his own death. When He died there on the cross, He was no victim.
It was just His will coming about. He was doing exactly what He
had purposed to do, and everyone else was doing exactly what He
purposed them to do. He never stopped being the sovereign
God. He never stopped being holy. He never stopped being omniscient,
all-knowing. He never stopped being omnipresent.
He was there on the cross, and He was everywhere else all at
once. He never stopped being God, and yet He was made man.
He was the God-man. And He became subject to His
own law. subject to his own law. And you know what? For the one
time in history, the only time in history, a man kept it. The God-man kept the law, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He established the righteousness. I say the righteousness because
there isn't your righteousness and my righteousness and the
righteousness of someone else. We don't have a righteousness. There
is one righteousness, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ alone.
That's it. He established that righteousness. He was made under
the law. Why? To redeem us that were under
the law, that were under the curse of the law. We were born
under a law that we couldn't keep. Not that there is anything
wrong with the law. Let me put that out there. There's
nothing wrong with the law. The law is holy. Look at the
law. Is that not how a man should be? Should he not be not killing,
not murdering anybody's character, not stealing, not lying, loving
the Lord his God with all his heart and all his soul and all
his mind? Of course he should be. That's exactly the way he
should be. We can't keep that law and we never have. Never
once. But he kept the law for us. And
he redeemed us through his work. Now, here's a question. What
if the Lord Jesus Christ would have come to this earth, lived
a perfect life, established a righteousness, and then ascended back to his
Father? Would that have done us any good? No. Why? Something had to be done
about our sin. And because of that, he had to
make his second stoop. The second stoop is seen in verse
11 of your text. Go back there. And he lighted upon a certain
place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set.
The night before our Lord's crucifixion, where did he tarry all night?
The garden of Gethsemane. What happened in the garden of
Gethsemane? Turn over to Luke 22, I want you to see this. What happened in the garden of
Gethsemane? Luke 22, pick up in verse 41. Luke 22, 41. And he was withdrawn
from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down and prayed.
And the scriptures report he made this prayer three times.
Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless,
not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto
him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony, he prayed
more earnestly. And his sweat was as great was,
as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground. What
was in this cup that would cause the God-man to sweat great drops
of blood? What is so disgusting, so revolting,
that is in this cup that the Lord had to send an angel down
to strengthen him because he was so heavy, because he was
so sorrowful? What is in this cup? Now, many have said that
this is the Lord's wrath. his wrath that was to come that
was going to be poured down upon him. I wouldn't take anything
away from that. But let's understand who this is here, folks. This
is God. This is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is not afraid of physical pain. He is the mighty Savior. This is his work that is to be
done. What's in this cup where he would say, if that cup can
pass from me, let it pass from me. What's so revolting that's
in that cup? 2 Corinthians 5.21, for he the
father, hath made him, the son, sin for us, the elect, who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. My sin was in that cup. The sins
of the elect were in that cup, and swirling around in that cup
was all that natural hatred for God, all that natural rebellion
so disgusting, so revolting, that the God-man swept gravestrops
of blood and said, if that cup can pass from me, if there's
any other way, let that pass from me. We're so used to our
sin, it doesn't bother us. But he drank that cup. He was
made sin, the sin of his people. And this was his second great
stoop when he was made sin. And because of that stoop, the
third stoop was absolutely necessary. That third stoop is also seen
in verse 11. Look there. I want you to look
at verse 11 as in the light of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Savor every word. And he lighted upon a certain
place and tarried there all night because the sun was set. And
he took up the stones of that place and put them for his pillows
and lay down in that place to sleep. Jacob came to a certain
place. The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ
was his certain place. It was the place he absolutely
had to go. There was no other way. This
was his time. This was the purpose for which
he came. This is where his glory was going to be manifest, and
he was going to redeem his people on this cross. This is his certain
place. Jacob was in the dark this night. The sun was set.
On the cross, it says there was a great darkness that covered
the earth for three hours, darkness that could be felt. That darkness
is typical. It's typical of a few things. Number one, the darkness
of our nature. At one time, man was left alone
to do what he wanted to do with God. The restraints were removed.
What did we do? We murdered him. That's the darkness
of our nature. Darkness of what it was like
to be forsaken by God, because that's what was happening on
that cross. God was forsaking God. He did not have his father's
smile. He did not have his father's
favorable presence. He had his frown. His father's
wrath was being poured down upon him. He suffered an eternity
in hell on that cross, times 10,000s and 10,000s and 1,000s
and 1,000s. The Father's wrath, reserved
for his people, was poured down upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Also the darkness of this fact
that we really don't know what went on there. This is a transaction
that happened between the father and the son, and we just don't
know exactly what was going on on that cross. Jacob was alone that night. The
Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross alone, completely without
his father's favor. All his apostles had abandoned
him. He went alone. Jacob was poor that night. He
didn't have a tent. He didn't have a blanket. He
didn't have a pillow. The Lord Jesus Christ was made poor. He
was stripped of his clothes, literally. He was stripped of
his righteousness, literally. And he was stripped of all favor
and communication and communion with his father, literally. But finally, in that last stoop,
Jacob slept with a stone for his pillow. And when the Lord
Jesus Christ shouted, it is finished, and he gave up the ghost, They
took his body down off that cross, they wrapped him in fine linen,
and they put him in a royal sepulcher, a royal tomb. Why? Because his
suffering was over, his time of humiliation was over. He's
the conquering king. He's done what he came to do,
and he's put in a royal tomb, and at the entrance to that tomb,
they rolled a stone. And there the greater Jacob lay
flat with a stone for his pillow. The god man died. But in doing this, he did what
no mere man could ever do and has ever done. He rested on a
rock. What do I mean by that? On that
cross, he trusted and rested in his father completely. Now,
we have to understand this. Whatever faith we have, whatever
faith I've been given is completely God-given. I didn't muster that.
That's not natural. Whatever faith I have, whatever faith
you have, it's God-given. But here's my confession. I believe,
help thou my unbelief. But folks, somebody had to trust
God completely. Somebody had to trust him all
the way to the grave. And this man trusted him all
the way to the grave. What did he trust that he would
do? That he would honor the covenant. You said if I'd lived for them
and I established their righteousness, you said if I took on their sins
and I died for them, you'd raise us back up. I did it. And you know what? He trusted
his father all the way to the grave. And you know what he did?
Jacob didn't stay asleep, did he? Look down here. Look at verse 16. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep
and said, surely the Lord is in this place. On the third day,
his father raised him from the dead. Why? Why did he raise him
from the dead? Because the very justice of God
demanded it. You want to know why? Because
the sins of his people really were put away. Gone. The punishment has already been
meted out. It is finished. That means there's nothing left
to do. Absolutely nothing left to do but trust the Lord Jesus
Christ alone. That's why he was raised from
the dead. Because it really is finished. You want something
to do? Rest. It's the hardest thing you'll
ever do. That's all there's left to do. Rest. Nothing. Trust the
Lord Jesus Christ alone. That's it. In his ascension,
40 days later, he went back to his father. And where he is right
now and what he is doing right now, I believe you've seen verse
12 there. Look at verse 12. And he dreamed, and behold, a
ladder set upon the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven.
And behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it."
Now, we don't have to guess who this ladder is. We find out in
John, John 151, speaking to Nathan, he says, And 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. This ladder is the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's pretty self-evident. What does the ladder do? It's
pretty simple. It bridges the gap between a
low place and a high place. And it acts as a point of access
from that low place to that high place. Here's the scripture that
sums up this God-man ladder here. There is one Mediator. There
is one God and one Mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ. He is the Mediator. And he sits
right now as the mediator for his people. He is our great high
priest. And everyone he died for, everyone
he accomplished that work for, we are in him. That means we're
seated in the heavens right now with him. And here's his intercessorship. Here's what he does. To his father,
he just shows him the nail prints in his hands and his feet. He
says, forgive them. And the father says, they're
forgiven. They're forgiven. I'm pleased. I am absolutely
pleased. He's our ladder. The world will
tell you there are many ways to God. You can come as a Calvinist,
you can come as an Armenian, you can come bringing free will,
no will, whatever you want. There is one way to God, and
that's in Christ. And that's trusting Him alone.
That's it. I'm gonna leave you there.