All right, Genesis 35, the title
of the lesson this morning, Going Up to Bethel. I had titled it Going Back to
Bethel, but God didn't tell Jacob to go back to Bethel, he said
go up to Bethel. And it just dawned on me, everything
that has to do with God is up. up. Everything that has to do
with us is down. Jonah, when he ran from the Lord,
he went down to Joppa. Israel went down to Egypt. But when he speaks of going to
Jerusalem, they go up to Jerusalem. And you know, when the Queen
of Sheba came to see the wisdom of Solomon, came to talk to him
and find out some things, one of the things that she was impressed
with that she saw was his ascent, how he went up when he worshipped. She was just impressed of his
ascent. And God tells Jacob, go up, arise. Get out of your place of comfort,
the place where you've been staying, and go up to Bethel. One of the reasons I wanted to
read the whole chapter here is that the scriptures over in Romans
and over in 1 Corinthians teach us that these things were written
for our learning. Look over in Romans chapter 15.
Since it's written for our learning, let's read it. I realize that
the most important thing we do is reading the word of God. In Romans 15, look in verse four. For whatsoever things were written
aforetime were written for our learning, that we, through patience
and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. Now turn over
to 1 Corinthians 10. In 1 Corinthians 10, in verses 5 and 6, "...but with
many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown
in the wilderness." Now these things were our examples to the
intent, we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. These things are written for
our learning and these things that are written were written
as examples for us either to follow or not follow. It's either follow it and do
this or don't do what they did. So these things are written for
our learning. Don't ever read the Word of God and say, well,
I've read that before. Maybe you have and maybe you
haven't. You know, there's things that I've read and then all of
a sudden it just jumped out at me that I've never read or seen
that before. For example, I was talking to Paul Mahan, and I
may bring this message in Crossville, but a few weeks ago I brought
the message out of Matthew where Peter walks on water. You know,
by faith, he steps out of the boat and he walks and he goes
toward Christ. He's actually walking on water.
And then it says, when they saw that the wind was boisterous,
it began to sink. And he cried, Lord save me. The
Lord saved him. And I have read that for 40 years. And I've preached
from it several times. But for the first time, as I
was telling Brother Paul, I said, I realized there's another man
standing there on water whose faith did not fail, the man Christ
Jesus. I said, he by faith walked on
water. As God, yes. But now as a real
man, he believed God so perfectly that he was able to walk on water.
And his faith never failed. And I thought that scripture
that said, My servant shall not fail. He'll not fail to redeem. He'll not fail to save. He'll
not fail to feed the multitude. He'll not fail to heal the sick,
give sight to the blind, raise the dead, and walk on water.
And His faith and His faithfulness is our righteousness. Everything
our Lord did, His obedience, His whole obedience was done
in faith, perfect faith. I said, of all the times I've
read that, I've always looked at Peter. And I said, to me,
the real message there is Christ. His faith, his perfect faith
never failed. And so that's why I say, when
you read the word of God, don't read it and say, I've read that
before. Well, maybe you haven't, maybe you haven't. And we always
need to read the Word of God, I think, and I try to do it,
is read it like it's for the first time. And read it as from
our Father. Not just read it as a book, but
as from our Father. This is from our Father. This
is to the children. Now let's get to Jacob. Jacob
was a man whom God loved. He said, Jacob have I loved.
Jacob was chosen of God. Everyone, and you know this,
but I'm going to reiterate it, everyone whom God saved, God
chose them. He chose, listen, if God saved
you, if He saved me, He chose me and He chose you personally. Personally. He thought upon me
personally. And he said, Jacob have I loved,
John have I loved, Judy have I loved, Doug have I loved, Peggy
have I loved. Put your name there if you believe.
Elect chosen of God. I'm thrilled for election. If
God hadn't chosen me, I'd be lost like the angels that are
lost. I'd be lost. I'd never been saved. He loved me. And then Jacob,
God revealed himself to Jacob. There's two brothers, Jacob and
Esau. Jacob I loved, before they ever
had done any good or evil. He said, Jacob I loved. God was
not influenced by their character. Jacob have I loved. And God revealed
himself to Jacob. You know, I have a good-sized
family, four sisters and two brothers. Why did God reveal
himself to me? And my sisters, they're religious, and my brother's religious. Now
my brother James, he believes the gospel, but why did he reveal
himself to me and to James? Maybe he'll yet reveal himself
to them, but so far he hasn't. God revealed himself to Jacob. He made himself known to Jacob.
And then when he did, Jacob made a vow there. And remember chapter
28? He vowed, if God be my God, if He keeps me and feeds me,
I'll come back here and I'll worship Him. Well, be careful
what you vow. You know, the scripture says,
if you're going to make a vow, make sure you do it. Jacob had
vowed this, but I tell you what, Jacob had let that slide for
a more convenient season. Remember when he met Esau? Instead
of going back, which he was headed back, he went over to Sukkoth
and then he ended up down at Shechem? And he built houses
and booths. He got a little sidetracked,
didn't he? I put this down here. I said, I want to look at how
Jacob got to this point, and it just dawned on me this morning. We sin on a sliding scale. We sin on a sliding scale. You
know how you get graded on a sliding scale? We sin on a sliding scale. Down. It always goes down. Down, down, down. It never goes
up. Never goes up. But here's how
Jacob got to this point. He took advantage of his brother.
Never do that. He deceived his father. Never
do that. He fled from his brother out
of fear. We should never have to do that. We should never have
to flee out of fear of a person. He feared Esau more than he feared
God. That's why he turned aside and
dwelt in Cheekum instead of going on back to his homeland there
where he was headed. And then when he did this, his
daughter Dinah was defiled. His sons, like their father,
deceive the men of Shechem and slay them. And Jacob realizes,
I've lost favor with the wicked." Of course, he don't call them
wicked, but that's what they are. He's lost favor with them. He said, you caused me to stink
in their sight now. We're in trouble. We're in trouble. God let all this come to pass.
You know about 30 years have gone by now when Jacob left to
this point. There's about 30, roughly about
30 years has gone by that he's been out there. And now here
in chapter 35, God says to Jacob, arise, arise and go up to Bethel. Not back to Bethel, go up to
Bethel, up to where God is worshiped, up to where God is. The best way, I thought, is I'm
just gonna give you some of my thoughts as I was studying. I
like what Pink said. He called these studies in the
Scriptures, studies in Genesis. And that's what we're doing.
It's just a study in the Word of God and some things that we
can learn. And here's one of the things
we need to learn. The best way to deal with our
problems is to go to the Lord. Go to the Lord. God said, rise,
go up to Bethel where I first appeared to you. You know where
the Lord first appeared to me, where I first learned who God
is? In the Lord Jesus Christ. When I read this, go up to Bethel,
I thought, John, go to Christ. Troubles, go to Christ. When
you have problems, go to Christ. the best place to go. Don't go
to Egypt. Don't go to Egypt for help. Go to the Lord. Go to Him. Don't go to the church. Go to
Him. My sister, my oldest sister,
said to me once, she goes, well I know I need to get back in
church. I said, no you don't. No you
don't, because I knew where she was headed. I knew she was going
back to Arminianism. I said, no you don't. What you
need is Christ. You need to go to Christ. You
need to go to Him. That's where you need to go. And then you'll notice here,
In verse one, worship is established again. He says here, Arise, go
up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar unto
God. This is where the sacrifice is
to be made. This is where the blood is to
be shed. This is where worship, you know, worship happens. You
know where worship happens? Around Christ and Him crucified. And you know the Lord Jesus Christ
is our altar. He's our altar. He's our sacrifice. His blood is the blood of atonement.
And that's when worship happens, is when we gather around the
Lord Jesus Christ and worship God. And he said, build an altar unto
God that appeared to thee. Build an altar unto the one that
revealed himself to you, not to these other gods. He was surrounded
by many gods, and God identifies himself here. He identifies himself
as the God who appeared to thee, as the God who revealed himself
to thee. When you fled us from your, when
you were on the run, you were on the lam from your brother. That's what was happening. God
reminds him of the time and place he appeared to him. And what
he's saying here is, you go back to the place I revealed myself
to you, I am the same God. I haven't changed. And all of these 30 years, Jacob
has been here, he's been there, he's experienced many things,
but God, God who appeared to him has not changed. You and I will go through a lot
of changes. You and I go through some experiences. But through
all our changes and all of our experiences, there's one who
does not change. He remains the same. And here's the command to rise,
go up to Bethel. There's a move to be made. Jacob
I believe this. I believe Jacob got too comfortable.
You know, he'd been moving around and he had no real dwelling place
and he goes over here to Shechem and he makes some friends and
he builds some booths, he buys a piece of land. He gets comfortable.
He's settling down. But God's purpose for Jacob is
not to settle down among the heathen. There's a move to be
made. There's a place to leave. You're
to leave these ungodly people. You're to leave false religion.
You're to leave these things. I thought, I thought when I heard
the gospel, I was going to a place in West Virginia where I lived,
and I thought when I heard the gospel, they would love what
I had to say. I thought they would. I remember
the problem that came of that. I was speaking to Henry about
it because I thought I could go in there and everybody would
be like, oh wow, they didn't. They didn't want to hear it. Henry said to me, You'll probably
have to leave that place. And I learned I had to leave. They wanted nothing to do with
it. And far as I know, no one came out of that place and believed
the gospel. No one. But God called me out
of it. He called me out of that place.
And he's doing that to Jacob. Jacob, arise and go to Bethel. You gotta leave Shechem. You
gotta leave this ungodly Place you're at. Go back to Bethel. And dwell there. I like that. Dwell there. Stay there. Live there. Never leave the gospel. Never
leave the gospel for better opportunity. It's a trial. It's not a better
opportunity. It's a trial. God sends trials
along. And I'm telling you, if a better
opportunity to come along to make a better living and it takes
you away from the gospel, don't do it. Don't do it. It's better to live in a one-room
shack with an outhouse and have the gospel than it is to live
in a mansion and not have it. Because that mansion, in a while,
will become an albatross right around your neck. And it'll be
a problem. Jacob, son of God, God's elect,
cannot survive in Shechem. No more than Lot can survive
in Sodom, and no more than Israel can survive in Egypt. The believer can't survive in
false religion, in ungodly company, can't do it. Our Lord said, come
out from among them. And you'll notice here when God
tells him in verse 2, and I'm not going to deal with all these
verses. There's no way. But God says to him after he
tells him to rise and go back to Bethel at the place that he
appeared to him, Let me read this, verse 1. And 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. 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. And
let us arise, and go up to Bethel. There's a purging that's got
to be done here. This sounds strange. Jacob's
speaking to his household. And he's saying to them, put
away the strange gods. You remember Rachel stole her
father's gods and took them with her. And Jacob, all the way even
up to this point, allowed her to keep them. Jacob, who is the head of that
house, allowed some things to go on that should not have gone
on. This should have been purged
a long time ago. But when God appeared to him again, and he
told him to rise and go back to Bethel, Jacob knew some things
had to be taken care of. God has no competitors. God has
no competitor in this matter of worship. So Jacob purges his
house of false gods. He says, put away the strange
gods. And that's little g. The gods
that don't even exist. That don't even exist. Here's
something, let me throw this out while it's on my mind. You know, God has made me the
head of the house, the husband, the head of the house. And if
God has saved a husband and, you know, the family, if he's
a husband and wife, but if that husband knows the gospel, he's
responsible for the leadership of that home, especially in this
matter of worship, especially in the matter of worship. And that's why Jacob has now
got to purge his house of these false gods. So he said, put away
the strange gods that are among you and be clean. And change
your garments. These are symbolic. Be clean. Separated. Put these things away
from you. And change your garments. Repentance.
I think I can see repentance here. Change your garments. Change your mind, your thoughts,
your ways, your speech. Change them. And then in verse 3 you'll notice,
and I'll wind this down, In verse 3, an acknowledgment of God's
mercies. Look here in verse 3. And let
us arise and go up to Bethel, and I'll make there an altar
unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, who has taken care of me and
was with me in the way which I went. Jacob acknowledges He
acknowledges that God was with him, that God kept him, that
God protected him. He acknowledges God's supremacy.
He acknowledges God's kindness. He acknowledges God's presence.
He takes none of it to himself. Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither
by thy help I've come. I've not come one step by my
own strength. I have not, and you haven't either. We haven't taken one step by
our strength. The steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord. They are ordered by the Lord.
And notice the willingness here. When God's in it, when God's
in it, He makes his people willing. There's a willingness here. It
is in verse 4. And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods. All! My goodness, how many did
they have? How many did they have? You see what happens when
you compromise a little bit? Here's what happens. You compromise
a little bit. So he loves Rachel. Rachel has
this idol that she grew up with, this God that she stole from
her father. It's an idol. And she grew up
with it. And Jacob says, well, okay. He
compromises a little bit, compromises a little bit. The next thing
you know, you got all the strange gods in the house. And God is
not going to have, as I said, a competitor. But he makes them
willing here. And they gave unto Jacob all
the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings."
Now he's not saying earrings are anything idle. You know,
you ladies like to wear earrings. But evidently, some of the earrings
they were wearing must have been used or must have been thought
of as charms or, you know what I'm saying, something of that
nature. And so they gave it all to him. And then he buried him.
He took him and put him away, buried him, put him underground.
He purged his house. And then, listen, Arise, go up
to Bethel, and Jacob speaks to his family, tells them what the
Lord has done, tells them he has appeared to him, he's spoken
to him, and he purges his house of all these false gods, these
false idols. He purges his house, and then
they journeyed. Then 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. Jacob said, you
have made me to stink. They're going to come and they're
going to kill all of us. But now listen, God controls
the heart. I mean every heart. There's over
7 billion people in this world. And you know God has power over
every heart. Not one of them is outside of
His power. In here, it says, the terror of God was upon the
cities. It didn't say the terror of Jacob. It didn't say the terror of Jacob's
sons. But here's what they knew. These
people in these cities, they had their false gods, but they
knew this. First of all, they didn't know
the God of Jacob, but they knew that the God of Jacob was stronger
than any God they had. And they knew not to mess with
him. We're not going to mess with
Jacob. Because the God he worships, the God he has, is stronger than
the ones we have. So they had the terror of God
was in their heart. And so he goes back. Jacob goes
back to Bethel, and they get back there, and God appeared to him again there
in verse 9. God appeared to Jacob, and he blessed him. After he
got back there, he blessed him, and he appeared to him. He reassured
him of the promises. God never changes. All these
30 years, Jacob is a rascal. Jacob is an enigma. I mean, he's just the things
that he went through and the deceptions. But this is God's
Son. This is God's elect. This is Jacob. And God here in
verse 9 and 10 and 11 and 12, God blesses him and God reassures
him of the covenant promises again. God does not change. You
and I stumble, fall, and one day we're up, one day we're down,
but God's the same, and the covenant of God in Christ is the same.
It does not change. But I'll tell you something else
here. Jacob goes back, and he goes back to Bethel, and you
think, well, boy, everything's fine now. Deborah dies, that's
the nurse, like a nanny. And then Rachel dies. And then
Isaac dies. He deals with all three of those
funerals. Just because we do come here and we do worship God,
we do give unto Him the glory due unto His name, it doesn't
mean that we are going to be exempt from troubles and heartaches
and trials. They're still gonna come. They
are still gonna come. I was thinking of, when I was
reading, looking at this particular part of it, I was thinking of
Henry. I was thinking he buried him
and Doris, buried two children and a grandson. He's had cancer. He's had back surgery. He had
a bad back and had to go through back surgery. And now here he
is, almost 93 years old, he's got a broken hip. I thought,
they don't stop until we finally leave. You go back to Bethel. Go back
to the place where God is worshiped. Preached and praised and honored
But you're still gonna have trials You still gonna have a heart
aches Until the Lord takes you out of here but We have God's
promise like Jacob I'll be with you and I'll keep you and I'll
feed you until I take you home