All right, brothers, we'll turn
back to Genesis 28. Genesis 28. As we've been going through Genesis
for quite a while now, we recently saw that Jacob, deceiver, trickster,
cheat, he was instructed by his mother to dress like Esau, the
firstborn. to feel like Esau, the firstborn,
to smell like Esau, the firstborn. The only thing to bring in his
hand is bread in one hand and the savory venison of the firstborn
of Esau in the other hand. And to only speak what his mother
told him to speak. Don't tell about the arrangements
you made a long time ago. Hush. Leave that. That's your doing. That's all
bondwoman stuff. You leave that alone. You just
say what I tell you to say. We saw that. Jacob had been instructed
from birth, faithfully, as Abraham faithfully governed his house,
Isaac faithfully governed his house, and Jacob was taught from
a young age what the gospel was, who God was, who man was. The
seed that was to come, singular, not as of many, Christ was gonna
come. A man was gonna come and crush
a serpent's head. And now, you know how old Jacob
was about this time? Whenever he put on his brother's
garments and all that, do the math, about 77 years old. We
think he's 17, don't we? That's what coloring books tell
us. He's 14 years old, dumb and young. No, he was plum grown.
77 years old. It says in Genesis 27, Verse
41, and Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his
father blessed him. And he said in his heart, the
days of mourning for my father are at hand, daddy's getting
ready to die, and then will I slay my brother Jacob. Soon as daddy's
gone, I'm gonna kill him. Didn't care that Rebekah was
still living, did he? Didn't say nothing about Rebekah.
He said, soon as daddy's gone, I'm gonna kill him. Rebekah told
Jacob to flee to her brother Laban. until Esau calmed down. She said, you go to him. And
Isaac instructs Jacob here in the beginning of Genesis 28 verse
one. And Isaac called Jacob and blessed
him and charged him and said unto him, thou shalt not take
a wife of the daughters of Canaan. There's such a headache. There's
a headache whenever Esau got married to some of them. And
there's a headache. The women of Canaan are loud.
Women in this world are loud. God's children, his daughters,
are quiet. Women in this world are mannish.
God's women are feminine. You understand that? Women in
this world want to be seen. They want their face out there. God's brides, his women, they
hide their face. And it's painful. That's what
Rebecca said. It grieves me. I can't take it.
I just can't put up with another one in this house. Send him away.
Go have him get a good wife. He said, don't you take a wife,
thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. 7 verse 2, arise and
go to Padneram, the house of Bethul, thy mother's father,
and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban, thy
mother's brother. And God Almighty bless thee. He gave him instruction.
And then he gives his prayer for him. This is the second time
Almighty is mentioned in scripture. The first time the Lord spoke
of himself. This is the first time a man Gives this title to
God. He ascribes his almightiness. Why? Because he knew something
about almightiness. And he said, the almighty God bless thee. Oh, I hope God saves you just
like he saves me. My 77 year old son. Make thee
fruitful. Multiply thee that thou mayest
be a multitude of people and give thee the blessing of Abraham. What is that? I will give you
his covenant of grace in your hearts. To thee, and to thy seed
with thee, that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger,
which God gave unto Abraham. Jacob wasn't a believer yet,
but he obeyed, didn't he? He obeyed that instruction. What's
that instruction? How does that apply to us? This
is for another day. I don't think there's any young
folks getting ready to get married. If it's on the horizon, you heed
me and come talk to me. Be not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers. That's just so. Don't do it. Don't go finding a wife in this
world. Don't go finding a husband in this world if God's done something
for you. And I know who I'm talking to. It's been on my heart greatly. I know I'm talking to a lot of
married people whose spouses aren't here with them today.
I'm aware of that. I'm aware of it, and I'll tell
you plainly, you that have already done that, God's plain spoken
on that too, what to do, love them to Christ. Love them to
Christ. But those that currently are,
you can tell with conviction and experience, the young people,
and with tenderness and compassion, not just God says this, oh, son,
don't marry an unbeliever. Go find you somebody that's loved
the Lord, go find somebody that loved Christ before they loved
you. That's good. You ain't gonna go wrong. You
ain't gonna go wrong. That's good instruction. Why? What was the purpose of that?
A healthy, wealthy life without woes and troubles? No. For this
call shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined
to his wife and the two shall become one. But this is a great
mystery. And Paul said, I speak not concerning just fleshly things. I speak concerning Christ and
the church. That's what he's talking about. Look at verse
seven. And Jacob obeyed his father and his mother. and was going
to Pandaram. He did what he was told. What
did Esau do? There was good instruction given,
wasn't it? Isaac was God's prophet that
day. He was the voice of God sent to speak to his child. And
he said, listen to me. What I'm telling you is right.
You pay attention. And Jacob did it. He did it. Lord blessed
him down the road, didn't he? But what does Esau do? Look in
verse eight. And Esau, seeing that the daughters of Canaan
pleased not Isaac, his father, he had already been married to
Judith, a Hittite, for about 40 years at this point, Esau
had. He saw that it didn't make daddy
happy. Then went Esau into Ishmael. Who's Ishmael? The very one that's
against Isaac. And took unto his wife, which
he had, Mahathel and the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son. He
went and took a child of Ishmael to be his bride. On purpose. On purpose, isn't it? This isn't
an if-then statement. This isn't quid pro quo. It's
just good common sense, isn't it? If you willfully disobey
God's word, and you bud against it, and you bud, God says this,
bud, bud, bud, bud, bud, bud, bud, and you expect to be blessed
by it, God to bless it, you're a fool. You're a fool. If you adhere to God's word,
God said this, he said, cry out to me, all you the ends of the
earth, be ye saved. I take him at his word. If you
believe his word and follow his word, you can expect to be blessed
by it. Now, follow in Proverbs. You can have money and all that
stuff and well-behaved children, but that's all you're going to have.
You'll perish with those things. They'll burn. But if we get that spiritual
meaning of that and heed his voice that thundereth, Lord will
bless that. He will. Now, Jacob arrives where
God's voice is going to be heard for the first time in his ears.
He was not seeking the Lord. You get that? Everybody says,
I was looking for God. No, you wouldn't. I can't say it more
sarcastically. I can't say it more plainly.
I was out looking at every church there was. I'm going to find
God. No, you wouldn't. What was Jacob looking for? He was dodging
trouble. Well, my brother, my big, strong,
strapping brother is going to kill me, and he can't. Well,
get out of dodge, buddy. And I'm going to find a good
wife that makes mommy and daddy happy is going to be good to
me, good to deal with. That's what he's doing. There's
a twofold scramble. He's getting out of trouble and
going into something better. That's what he was doing. Just
doing what mommy and daddy told him. 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 of the stones of
that place and put them for his pillows and lay down in that
place to sleep. An old man went out in the desert
and went to sleep on some rocks. That's what happened. That's
what it says, isn't it? There's only one reason why Jacob's out
there in the desert alone. There's only one reason why Jacob's
out there in this wilderness away from his home, away from
his family, fleeing for his life because of his sin. his deceit,
his conniving, isn't it? That's the only reason he's out
there. It's the only reason Esau's wanting to kill him. It's the
only reason he's fled, because of his sin. What we are, we're
proud, we're covetous, lonely, unhappy, depressed, button. And where we are, away from God,
under the curse of the law, law's chasing us. Remember, we looked
at Esau as the top of the law last time. We're without strength.
We can't do nothing about it. We have no help. We're without
hope. We're out sleeping on a pile of rocks. That's because of our
sins. Our sins have separated us from a holy God. That's important. People's worried to death about
everything underneath the sun. You've offended a holy God. That's
a problem. You got that? Nothing else matters.
Well, what about so-and-so? No, so-and-so don't matter if
he makes you hear that. How undeserving and unworthy
is Jacob and every one of us Jacobs, isn't it? And we know
it. David said that God is just and
condemning us, and he's clear when he judges us. It's right. And every man who's an object
of God's love and God's grace, we judge ourselves. I don't need
no man to judge me. I got a new man in me. I know
what's right. It's written on our hearts, isn't
it? And you know what happens when we judge ourselves? We shut up. Her mouth stopped. I was talking
to my pastor about this yesterday. I said, how in the world I ain't
got a leg to stand on to condemn anybody. You know what I am? Worse than that, you know who
I've offended? What I've done? I didn't believe
God. I had unbelief. That goes to the top of the list.
That's worse than anything else. Drugs, pedophilia, murder, whatever
you think of, it ain't as bad as not believing God. It all
stems from that. That shuts us up. We start, stop
yapping to everybody else, to stop correcting everybody else,
to stop giving instruction to everybody else, because we need
to be instructed. We need to be forgiven. We start forgiving
everybody else because we want to be forgiven, don't we? And loving
because we've been loved. And it justifies God. It shuts
us up when we judge ourselves, and it justifies God and his
righteous judgments against us. Jacob's brought down. He's brought
low. There's no possessions. It's
cold. If you don't insulate yourself
between rocks, put some newspapers out of your thing, put some straw
down, it's gonna pull that heat right out of you. Goes from hot
to cold, don't it? It's thermal down here. Learn that in Job
2. Hard conditions. Bed of stone.
Bed of stone. That's just sad is what natural
man says, isn't it? Isn't that horrible? Isn't that
sad? No, it's not horrible. That's good. That's a good place
to be. Wrought to your wits end is the
best place you can be. God might speak to you. If he's
sent to trial, he might be pleased to speak to you. Look at verse
12. Genesis 28, 12. And he 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. The angels
of God were going up and down from heaven to this earth on
a ladder. There's a way that seems right
unto man, and the end thereof is death. Mankind, false religion
that'll send men and women to hell, says, well, there's a ladder
there. All you got to do is climb it. Uh, no. You can't climb it. You're dead.
Can a dead man climb it? Look at a dead person and say,
all you gotta do is climb that ladder. Go with Queen Anglin.
And say, Miss Queen, just climb that ladder. You'll be there.
Well, she can't do that. She's dead. We can't either.
That's not what it's talking. This ladder's a person. Turn
over to John 1. John chapter 1. I make good on
this ascending and descending. We looked at this before we went
to John for a while as well. John chapter one, verse 45, the
Lord called out Philip, saved him. John 1, 45, Philip findeth
Nathanael, saith unto him, we found him, of whom Moses in the
law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of
Joseph. This is God, according to the
scriptures. We found him, we found him. And Nathanael said
unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? What
are you talking about? Philip saith unto him, Come and
see. Come and see. Whenever you want to profess
to your friends and neighbors, and that's putting a lot of burden
on me, I know what I'm saying from my end. I'll cry about it
later. But when you want to have something good and concise to
speak to people, to tell them the gospel, it takes the almighty
power of God to speak through you to say, come and see. Come
church with me. You don't need to explain and
have a theological dissertation set around your coffee table
with a Bible open. God won't bless it. He's gonna bless through
the preaching of the gospel. That's it. But God says so. I think Kevin's saying so. God
said so. Phillip's sitting there saying, we found Almighty God.
And he said, I don't believe a word you're saying. That's
just two men talking. Phillip said, come and see. Come
and see. Verse 47, Jesus saw Nathanael
coming to him and saith unto him, Behold, an Israelite indeed,
in whom there is no guile. Wow. That's a statement, isn't
it? Nathanael said unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus
answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when
thou wast under the fig tree I saw thee. I planted a fig tree
not too long ago. You know, they don't get that
big. So he wasn't standing up, like really stretching it out
underneath that fig tree. He's down. Where was Jacob laying
down? Wouldn't he? Down on the ground,
not uppity and proud, not up on their high camel, brought
down off that high camel. Wouldn't he? He said, I saw you
underneath that tree. Verse 49, Nathanael answered
and said unto him, Rabbi, thou art the son of God. Thou art
the king of Israel. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, because I said unto thee, I saw you under a fig tree, thou
believest. That it? You're going to see greater things
than me seeing you when I wasn't standing there. He's acknowledging
his omnipresence. And the Lord said, you're gonna
see something greater than that. And here's the first, verily, verily. Remember
us looking at this? The very first, truly, truly.
God Almighty says, pay attention. This is doubly true. This is
horrendously important. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
hereafter you shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending
and descending upon the Son of Man. Does that mean he's going
to be standing there and angels are going to be landing on his
head and then flying back up and just a highway of angels?
No, it ain't. On Christ, you are going to see all the angels,
the servants of God, coming and going. They're going to come
up, take their marching orders, and they're going to go back
down and execute it on him. All the blessings are going to
come from heaven. It's going to be on him. All the prayers are going to
go back up on him, upon him. You're going to see that, Nathaniel.
You'll still be thankful he saw you under the fig tree. You want
to have Christ revealed to you. Turn over to John 3, just to
page 2. The Lord told Nicodemus, he said,
you must be born again. You will see the kingdom of God,
you're going to be born of the water. If you want to enter into
these things, verse 9, John 3, verse 9, Nicodemus answered and
said unto him, how can these things be? How can that happen? And Jesus answered, said unto
him, Art thou a master of Israel? And knowest not these things?
You've been walking around this town the whole time telling everybody
how uppity you was, and all the stuff you knew, and I've read
this one and that one, and I know this and I know that, and I'm
high up the rankings, and I'm a member of the Sanhedrin. He said, you've
been barking these awards you have given yourself this whole
time, and you don't know this? This is basic. Seriously. Maybe you ought not be teaching
in Israel. Hmm. He said, you don't know this.
They are the master of Israel. No such things. Barely, barely,
truly, truly of a truth. I say unto thee, we speak that
we do know. You think these things, you read
them in a book. I know it. And I testify we've seen and you
received not our witness. I said, you gotta be born again,
you don't get that? You didn't receive it? If I've told you
earthly things, that's what's gonna happen in your heart, and
you don't believe me, how should you believe if I tell you heavenly
things? All these wonderful things to come. That's what he told
Nathaniel. And no man hath ascended up to
heaven. What'd that latter do? Ascend
and descend is what the spirit of the angels of God was doing
on it, wasn't it? He said, no man hath ascended up to heaven,
but he that came down from heaven. even the Son of Man, which is
in heaven. Now you mean to tell me God Almighty
walked this earth and he was fully man? Yep. He was made like
his brethren. He was made like us because he
had to be like me to be my substitute. And at that same time, it was
as if he was not God. He was 100% man. At the same
time, he was completely God as if he was not man. He was in
heaven because his father heard him always. Yes. How is that
possible? Something had to span a great
gulf, didn't it? Something had to be touching earth and touching
heaven at the same time. and you're going to see the Lord
at the top of that. You're going to see him above you. You're
going to be down low, laid down, and see him high and lifted up.
Look at verse 14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal
life. How are you going to have eternal
life? Climbing that ladder? He said ain't nobody went up it but the one that came
down it. He's going to have to get underneath your mirey pit,
pick you up and carry you up that ladder. That's what's going
to have to happen. We're going to believe him. Believe him.
Back in our text, that ladder is Christ that Jacob saw. Genesis 28 verse 13. That word was made flesh and
dwelt among us. He came down to here, didn't
he? That ladder didn't spring up out of the earth. It was there
between earth and heaven. And he was full of grace and
truth. in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be
equal with God, but he made himself a no reputation. Why wasn't that
an emerald encrusted staircase? That's a ladder. That's a carpenter's
tool, isn't it? He said, I'm a ladder? He said,
behold, verse 13, Genesis 28, 13, and behold, the Lord stood
above it. The Son of Man must be lifted up. God must be exalted. We must ascribe glory to him,
strength to him, see him as the holy God. That's what Isaiah
saw. He said, in the year that King
Uzziah died, I also saw the Lord sitting upon the throne high
and lifted up, and his train, the things that declare his glory,
it just filled the temple. It was all over the place. Most
of the seraphims, each one had six wings. Twain covered his
face, and Twain covered his feet, and Twain did he fly. And they
cried one another, saying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of
hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. That includes ladders. Stuff that's not appealing to
men. Like, oh, that ain't good. Maybe they could have a hovercraft,
a ladder. He's the ladder. That's what
those angels of servants of the Lord were ascending and descending.
Solomon wrote to us, the wisest man, born of Adam, said, Who
hath ascended up to heaven or descended? Who hath gathered? That's speaking of the same person.
Is that you? I haven't went up to heaven. I ain't come down
from heaven. He said, Who hath gathered the wind in his fists?
Can't catch the wind. Who hath bound the waters in
his garment? Whose voice sets on the waters? Can you scoop
up water in your garment? Who hath established all the
ends of the earth? What's his name? What's his son's name,
if thou can tell? This is precious. We know. We
know his name. We know that one standing at
the top of the ladder. That is the ladder. He's all things. We know him. That's precious.
That's unique. That is not common in this world.
There's a remnant that knows it. Christ is the mediator. That's
the go-between. He spanned that great gulf between
man that offended God and the holy God that was offended. He's
the only thing between us and him. You better hope he is. He's the firmament that's between
us and him, the covering that's between us and him, and the mediator. Paul told Timothy, he said, there's
one God and one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ
Jesus. He was in heaven, and he was
in earth. A body was prepared for him, and the Father heard
him always. That's who he was. Then in verse 16, Jacob said,
it says that Jacob awaked out of his sleep and said, sure,
the Lord is in this place. Well, he saw the Lord at the
top of that ladder in heaven, and he woke up and said, he's right
here. He's touching both, isn't he? He's at the top and on earth.
What does a ladder do? I strive to be simple. I do. I'm going to be playing. Children
are listening. Y'all need to understand these
things. What's a ladder do? It takes things from down low,
up high. And then you go up a ladder,
and you bring things from up high, and you bring them down low.
Do we understand what a ladder is? You know what a ladder is,
don't you? Blessings come down from where blessings are. Blessings
are above. The source of all blessings is
above, isn't it? And it comes down the ladder. Christ, he's
the conduit, the means, the way. Paul told us there in Ephesians
1, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ. That's how they come to us. Well,
we're gonna take up that ladder. What's the only way a holy God
can hear our prayer? for mercy. What's the only way
a holy God can hear our petitions to be with us and don't leave
us to ourselves? What's the only way our praise
can be accepted? Wherefore he is able to save
them to the other most that come unto God by him. There's a means. He's the means. seeing he ever
liveth to make intercession for them. For such a high priest
became us, that go-between, that one that's between God and man.
He's the high priest, that office just represented him. Who's holy,
harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher
than the heavens. That's right, ladder reaches
from here to heaven, don't it? Higher than the heavens. There's one
ladder, and it's unsupported, touching earth and heaven. There's
one way. The Lord said, I'm the way. Tom
said, we don't know where you're going. What's the way, Lord?
He said, I'm the way. And then he spoke to his sheep.
It was commonplace. Everybody knew in town how sheep
were handled. They all knew what a sheepfold
was. Everybody knew these things. And he looked at them and he
said, I'm a good shepherd. And he said, I'm the door. A few
men will go in and ask me, by me, I'm the door. I'm the way. One of them, one door. There's
one ladder. There's one mediator between
God and man. Only one way that our praise goes up and his blessings
come down. It's through him, isn't it? What are we told? What do we hear when we see the
Lord Jesus Christ high and lifted up? When we're brought low, he
reveals himself to him, the person, who he is, high and lifted up,
and what he's come to this earth to do, the work being made like
us, make an intercession for us now. We are told of his promises. Do you know that? This ain't
just something that happens. You get electrocuted, and you're
sitting there buzzing for a while. The Lord teaches His people. They're ought to be taught of
God. He teaches us His promises. The Word of the Lord, who changes
not, is what He tells us. Look here in verse 12, Genesis
28, 12. And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder
set upon the earth, and the top of it reached to the heaven.
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 sing. That's the same thing he told
Abraham, wouldn't it? That's the same thing he told
Isaac, wouldn't it? That's the same thing he told
Jacob, wouldn't it? God changes not. The gospel don't
change. The good news don't change. Verse
14, and all 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. You who know God.
Through you and our preaching of the gospel, Lord fitly framed
us together. We preach Christ and Him crucified.
That's the only way any family on the face of this earth is
gonna be blessed. It's through truth, not through half-truth,
not through partial truth. You want half a cure? Through truth. Same thing he
told Jacob, ain't nothing but what he tells us. Go into the
world and preach the gospel, baptize folks, then teach them.
Nothing's changed, hasn't it? What God speaks to Jacob in this
verse, verse 15, is his promise to all believers in Christ Jesus. This is just fabulous. This is
fabulous. Verse 15. And behold, I'm with
thee and will keep thee in all places whether thou goest. I'm
not going to be here and you've got to come to me. I'm going
to be with you. You see that? You may come and
go. I'm going to be with you no matter what. 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. So I've made
you the seed that you made like Christ. He says, I am with thee. How is he with him? In covenant
mercies. This is a covenant God speaking
to him. He said, I'm with you in the mercies I promised you.
I'm with you in that grace that redeems and in constant love. I mean, a love that dwells in
us. I'm with you. My love is shed
abroad in their hearts, he said. We read that in Romans eight,
don't we? All things work together for good to them that love God.
Not to everybody. then that are called according
to his purpose." Notice he loved before he foreknew it. He says,
I'm with thee. And he says, I will keep thee.
There ain't a one that God's chosen, that the Father chose. There ain't one that the Lord
Jesus Christ came and bled and died for and was risen for. And
there ain't a one who's brought by God the Holy Ghost to believe
on Christ that will ever perish. He said, I'm going to keep you.
What about you keeping you? You can't keep you. He said,
I'm going to keep you. If I had to keep me, I'm in trouble. He
said, I'll keep you. I'm with thee. I will keep thee.
And he says, I'll bring thee into this land. Canaan's just
a picture, a type of heaven, of eternal bliss with with the
Lord Christ, our surety. He's going to bring all of his
sheep to glory, to himself, and make them like him. And in heaven,
there's going to be plenty of room, but no vacancies. We've heard that a lot, haven't
we? He ain't going to lose one. It ain't going to be overcrowded.
His resources ain't going to be exhausted, and he ain't going
to lose one. Every place prepared is going to be occupied for those
to whom he prepared it for. He said, they're mine. I ain't
gonna lose one. They shall come to me. And he
says, I will not leave thee until I've done that which I've spoken
to of thee. Our Lord shall not fail. You get that? He doesn't slumber
and he doesn't sleep. He don't do things halfway. He
ain't slack like man is. He ain't lazy and he ain't nodding
off. This is almighty God. He said,
I will do it. I will not leave thee until I've done that which
I've spoken of thee. Pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hand. He's gonna accomplish that, what he's come to do. Verse
16, and Jacob awakened out of his sleep, and he said, surely
the Lord is in this place, and I didn't know it. I didn't know
it. What's our Lord say? What's he
command? Awake! Wake up! You know how people
can sleep through that? The power of God's word, because
they're asleep. I stole it from Paul Mahan. He
got me good, I walked right into that one. How can they sleep
through such a thing? Because they're asleep. They're
not awake yet. Oh, that God would show Christ to them and wake
them up. Wake them up. Then you'd be like John the Baptist. Something's going to happen.
You ain't going to lollygag through that one. Lord's going to do
something. Empower it. And you know what
they're going to declare if God wakes us up? I didn't know nothing.
I know people that's been saved their whole life. That's too
long. It's too long. You remember a
time when you didn't know God and you was at war with him?
Like, I was playing religion, but I hated God. I knew facts. I didn't know a person. That's
what Jacob just said, wasn't it? He was sleeping on Christ
the solid rock, and he said, I didn't know it. He was carrying
me this whole way through. I didn't know it. I was dressed
up like him. That's how I got that blessing. I didn't know
it. I'm 77 years old and didn't know squat. Been in church my
whole life. He said, I was right there with him. I didn't know.
I didn't know. I never knew. He said, I was
around the truth my whole life. I slept on that rock. The one
that the builders rejected, I was rejected. Make a pillow out of
it. Just something you wad up and stick underneath your head.
Sleep on it. Drool on it. Snore on it. He said, I never even knew. I'm
a man of unclean lips. I abhor myself. He realized God,
who he was, he saw him, he saw who he was. He said, I didn't
know. I didn't know. Verse 17, and he was afraid and
said, how dreadful is this place? That's not, that's a, it's a
dreadful place, it's a horrible place. The Lord's a terrible
God, it says. Does that mean he's bad? No.
With fear and trembling, we approach him. This is the Almighty, that's
who Isaac just told him about. He said, God Almighty be with
you, and he was. And they said, well, this ain't
pretend, and this ain't poor little Jesus, and this ain't
we're gonna clap our hands and sing some tambourines and put
spotlights up on top of a hill. That stuff about blinded me last
night. Got a tree forest up there and lots. This ain't a party. We're in the presence of Almighty
God. He was afraid and dreadful of
this place. He said, there's none other but the house of God.
That's what this is. This is God's house. How do you
know this is God's house? That's where God is. It's where he lives. It's where
he meets with his people. And this is the gate of heaven.
It's the gate of heaven. That's why he named that place.
There was a heartfelt reverence. There was worship. There was
seriousness. There was adoration for the first
time in Jacob. And that is life changing. It's life changing. Just like
Paul, I know your election of God, brethren. I've seen it in
you. You don't see it. You don't know it. I do. I've
seen that growth in grace. I've seen that growth in love
and more forgiveness and mercy. I know those things. I see it.
Verse 17, 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. Jacob rose up early in the morning.
You know, mommy woke him up. He's 77. Mommy come wake him
up. She said, hey, get up. You gotta go. Esau's gonna kill
you. He woke up on his own now, didn't he? He didn't sleep in
till noon. He got up early. Why? He was
a servant. He was God's servant. Jacob rose
up early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had
put for his pillows and set it up for a pillar and poured oil
upon top of it. Lord said, you put that oil anointing.
He says, that's mine, sanctified, it's mine. And isn't that poetic? Our Lord's masterful with words.
He invented words, and he's good with them. Jacob went from a
pillow to a pillar, something that wasn't worth just sleeping
on, to something that he magnified God and worshiped a holy God.
Isn't that something? Verse 19, he called the name
of that place Bethel. house of God. The name of that city was
called Luz at the first. Jacob called that place Bethel,
the house of God. He called it the gate of heaven.
That's what he called it. That can't be a church building.
That's not just a physical location. That's what men call the house
of God. But this can only be where God actually dwells. The
house of God is where God is, where God dwells, and where he
reveals himself. The gate of heaven's the door.
Do you know what a gate is? Do you know what a door is? What'd
the Lord say? I'm the door. If any man enter
in, he shall be saved. James said, this is it. This
is the gate. And he professed Christ, didn't
he? He set that stone up, poured oil on it. He says, God did this.
God did this. Those who know him profess him.
You know that? They do. He said, go in the world
and preach the gospel and baptize folks. They're going to profess
me in believer's baptism. And whenever you know him and
you see him and you see what you are and you hear him say,
therefore, shall they confess me before me and him while I
confess also before my father, which is in heaven, but whosoever
deny me before men, Him I'll deny before my Father which is
in heaven. And you'll say, where's that
water? I'm gonna confess it. I know who he is. This is easy. Take a Lord's table, bread and
water, his broken body. That's what touched the earth.
His shed blood, that's what was seen as our covering, what the
Lord looked upon. We'll take his table then, won't
we? We've discerned his body, we know what we are, why he had
to die, that it was my sin that put him on that cross. And I
left to myself, I cried, give me Barabbas, crucify him, I don't
have this man ran over me. But God, but God, I was just
sitting there asleep on a stone and he woke me up. gave me a
dream, showed me his son. Some of you have seen the Lord
high and lifted up. Not the fact, you can go ask a stranger on
the street, and they'll say, oh yeah, Jesus is in heaven.
You've seen the person. Not the theory, the person. Not
the studying of Theos. You've seen God. He spoke to
you, his voice has come to you. And you've confessed him before
me. Jacob had Christ revealed in him, but he was still a sinner.
He was still Jacob. He was a young believer. At 77
years old, he was a young believer. He made some mistakes. He worded
things wrong. Look here, verse 20. And Jacob vowed a vow, saying,
if God will be with me and will keep me in this way, that I go
and will give me bread to eat and rain to put on me. Boy, he's
asked for a lot now. He was sleeping on a stone 20 minutes ago. Now
he's like, yeah, I need some food. I need clothes. You have
to be with me and keep my way. So that I come again to my father's
house in peace, I need you to mend all them bridges I burnt.
Then shall the Lord be my God. Is that him bow and vow, is that
what men ought to do? Don't you bow and vow, you can't keep that.
What's he saying in ignorance? Like that blind fella, he's a
prophet. Well, we know better, we know he's, he's, he's sin
of God and he don't know no words. What's Jacob saying? The Lord
keeps his word, he's gonna prove himself to me, he's my Lord and
my God. And what's the Lord gonna do?
He's gonna prove himself to Jacob, that he's faithful, isn't he?
What's he gonna do to you? Do we just, we're saved one day
and we're perfectly full grown saints right then? No, God's
gonna have to prove it to us over and over and over again.
Just cause we're old don't mean nothing. God's gotta teach us,
cause we gotta be little children in his kingdom, don't we? And
there was commitment, though, total commitment. He said, if
this happens, Lord, we, my God, that's not what he's saying.
He's declaring the best way he knew how to, because look here
at verse 22. He said, and this stone, which I have set for a
pillar, shall be God's house. This is where we're going to
worship him. And of all that thou shalt give me, I shall surely
give a tenth unto thee. He learned that from Abraham,
didn't he? When Melchizedek came, he said, give him a tenth. How'd
he come about that number? I don't know. It's probably all wadded
off. He said, give me one closest to him. He ain't got a walk for
it. Give him that. Well, that's a tenth of everything you got. I don't
care. Give it to him. But I got to thinking, those commentaries
that are a picture in time, what's my saying that day? Give him
a tenth. That's serious, buddy. If that's
all we give the Lord, just keep it. That ain't nothing. We're
under the law. That's nonsense. I got 10 fingers.
What if the Lord said, give me a finger? Which one you want
to give him? A thumb? I play guitar. I need
this left hand. I can probably make it without
this pinky finger or something. That's serious, isn't it? A tenth.
He can have it all. It's his. It's his. I'm going
to need some raiment and some food. I'm going to need him to
be with me. I'm going to need him to make it through. But it's
his. That's total commitment. Total commitment to the Lord.
That's what happens. If God saves somebody, they went out from
us because they weren't of us. People can't walk away from the
gospel. If it's good news to them, you can't leave it. You
can't. It's impossible. It's against
instinct, isn't it? Because there's a new nature
put in them. You was asleep, God woke you up. Showed you Christ. And then promised to you, I ain't
gonna leave you. I'm gonna stay with you the whole way. And I'm
gonna keep you till you're made just like Christ. That's a good
place to be, isn't it? Amen. All right, brother Mark. We're going to observe the Lord
today. Trevor and Cass, if you two would,
come hand out the elements.