Genesis chapter 28, let's read
this together starting at verse 1 so you get the whole picture
here. Remember last time Jacob and Esau, Jacob had gone into
the tent. Isaac had instructed his son
Esau to go out and fetch him some venison or hunt it down,
bring it to him. But Jacob and his mother devised
another plan where he, Jacob, would get the blessing and Isaac
blessed Jacob. When he did, he did it without
realizing it was Jacob, but later realized once it was Jacob that
this was God's will. Esau came in afterward and he
was extremely distraught because he missed out on the blessing
of the birthright. He had previously sold it to his brother Jacob
for a bowl of red pottage, but now he blamed his brother for
his loss even though it was his own fault. And Isaac realizes
now this is the one God had always intended to give the blessing
to. And that's where we're going to pick it up here in Genesis
chapter 28. Genesis 28 verse 1, And Isaac called Jacob, and
blessed him, and charged him, and said to him, Thou shalt not
take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Padon
Aram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother's father, and take
thee away from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother's
brother. And God Almighty bless thee,
and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude
of people. And give thee the blessing of
Abraham to thee, and to thy seed with thee, that thou mayest inherit
the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham. And Isaac sent away Jacob, and
he went to Padon Aram, unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the
brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother. When Esau saw
that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paden-Aram,
to take him a wife from thence, and that as he blessed him he
gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the
daughters of Canaan, and that Jacob obeyed his father and his
mother, and was gone to Paden-Aram. And Esau seeing that the daughters
of Canaan pleased not Isaac and his father, then Esau Then went
Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had, Mahalath
the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Nebajoth,
to be his wife. 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 pillow, and lay down in that
place to sleep. And he dreamed. And behold, a
ladder was 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, 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 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. 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 but the house of God, and this is the gate
of heaven. And Jacob rose up early in the
morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and
set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he
called the name of that place Bethel. But the name of that
city was called Luz at the first. 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 raiment to put on, so that
I come again to my father's house in peace, then shall the Lord
be my God, and this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall
be God's house. And of all that thou shalt give
me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee. I think Jacob had
a small view of this whole encounter at the end of this chapter. He
called the name of that place Bethel, house of God. It was
Luz at the first, and Luz means separation. But Bethel, of course,
means house of God. And so he understood something
about the fact that God's presence was with him here in this place.
God's presence. And to him, it was an awe. He
was awestruck by that. And so I want to go through this.
I don't have time to fully expound this chapter, but there's really
three main lessons I want to give you from this chapter. First of all, I want you to see
here in this chapter that, if you miss everything else, that
salvation is by grace in Christ alone. It's by God's grace alone,
exclusively. It's by promise. Notice how God
didn't put any conditions on Jacob when he made these promises
to him. He gave him the promises without
conditions. How could God do that? Jacob
was a sinner. because he had determined to
do that before. And he would bless Jacob in the
Lord Jesus Christ. All the meritorious basis for
those blessings came through the Lord Jesus Christ. And so
he could make those blessings unconditioned on Jacob because
the Lord Jesus met all the conditions in himself. But the first lesson
we're going to get from this is taught in the first Four verses
where Isaac blesses Jacob. He reaffirms the blessing on
Jacob and sends him to get a wife from the land where Rebekah lived
before. Rebekah came from Haran. Remember
Haran is that place where Abraham was before he left after his
father Tira had to die and then God took him out of that place.
That was the land of Haran. That's where Abraham's brother
lived and that's who Laban was a son of Bethuel, Abraham's brother. But in any case, he sent him back to that land
where Rebekah's family lived in order to get a wife for himself. Isaac had never been there. Remember,
Abraham had sent his servant to find a wife for Isaac there.
But in this case, God in his providence would send Jacob back
to Haran. What does this teach us? Well,
first of all, the first lesson is that the children of promise,
Jacob was a child of promise. A child of promise, meaning God
gave promises to him. God determined before to give
promises to Jacob. Before he was born, God said
the elder shall serve the younger. Jacob was the younger. And in
Romans 9, God said that he loved Jacob and hated Esau. So these
blessings, the promises of God were determined before and that's
why he's called a child or son of promise. In Galatians 4.28
it says, Isaac and all who believe on Christ are children of promise.
But the first lesson is that the children of promise are taught
by God to not have fellowship with idolaters. That's the first
lesson. Isaac sent Jacob away to Padan
Aram to get a wife. He told him, do not take a wife
from the daughters of Canaan. Canaan was a son of Ham who was
a son of Noah, but Canaan was cursed. And all the people in
that land, the Canaanites, were cursed. They were idolaters.
To take a wife from the daughters of Canaan would be to take a
wife who was an idolater. And so, God teaches His children,
the children of promise, through Isaac here and by scripture here,
not to have fellowship with idolaters. Isaac blessed Jacob, at first
thinking he was Esau, but after realizing what he had done in
blessing Jacob, he reaffirmed God's blessing to Jacob, and
then he sent Jacob away from Canaan to get a wife. He admonished
him not to take a wife from the daughters of Canaan, but to take
a wife from among his mother's brethren. Why was Isaac so concerned
that Jacob find a wife in Haran and not in Canaan? Why was that
such a concern for him? Well, to teach us this very important
lesson. All of God's children are taught
in their hearts to have no fellowship with those that reject Christ
in unbelief. To have fellowship is to worship
God and to serve God with them. In other words, we're not to
attempt to worship and serve Christ with those that reject
the gospel of Christ by holding to their own works. Because that's
what idolatry is, isn't it? What are idols? In the Old Testament,
idols were things you could see, feel, and touch. They were the
work of men's hands. Stone, wood, and other things. And men fell down and worshipped
them. But in the New Testament, it teaches that the works of
our hands in order to make ourselves acceptable to God, in order to
obtain God's blessings by what we can do, by what we are, anything
that may be called ours in order to earn that from God, that's
called idolatry or works. And so we're not to hold any
fellowship in terms of serving God and worshiping God with those
that teach a mixture of grace and works. We are not to be unequally
yoked with unbelievers in that way. And so this is taught in
several places in scripture. If we are able, if we are content
to worship God where the gospel is mixed with works in the teaching
and preaching of it, then we prove by that that we have no
need of salvation by Christ alone. If we can live content under
the hearing, the preaching of a works-based gospel, even if
it's just a little leaven, in Galatians 5 Paul says, a little
leaven, a little works mixed with grace, leavens a whole lump.
Because grace is either all of grace or it's none of grace. And so the last words in the
epistle of the Apostle John in 1 John 5 verse 21 say this. These are the last words of the
Apostle John when he wrote that epistle. Little children, keep
yourselves from idols. And that's what he's referring
to. The worship of God. with those, or with the heart
or mindset of trying to come to God on the basis of what my
hands can do. And my hands just don't mean
these hands. It means what I think I can do in order to please God.
The Apostle Paul in In 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 14, the Apostle Paul
says this. Be ye not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light
with darkness? And what concord hath Christ
with Belial, or the devil? Or what part hath he that believeth
with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? For you are the temple of the
living God. As God has said, I will dwell
in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they
shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among
them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean
thing. And I will receive you, and I
will be a father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters,
saith the Lord. So that's the Apostle Paul writing
in the New Testament how we're to separate ourselves from those
who teach and preach and hold to the doctrine that something
I do can make me pleasing to God. It cannot. It cannot. There's nothing more strongly
taught in scripture than this. Is that salvation is by grace
alone in Christ alone apart from all that you are and all that
you can do. Christ came to save sinners.
If you're not a sinner, unable to do one thing that God requires,
then you are not one that God will save. God has to convince
you this. If we worship God with those
that reject the Gospel, we compromise the Gospel, don't we? We cannot
be saved when we cannot worship God and we cannot serve God while
living under a principle of works. We're either saved by grace alone,
in Christ alone, or we're saved by our works apart from Christ.
These two cannot mix. So all the religions of the world
throughout time believe they can be saved by what they do,
either with Christ or without Christ. Either with Christ's
help and their help, or some mixture of the two. But the Gospel
is that Christ made a full answer, a perfectly complete answer to
God that fulfilled God's law and so by the grace of God for
his people in spite of their sins without any merit of their
own the Lord saves them for Christ's sake. He saves them because he
views Christ and sees in him all that he requires of them.
This is the gospel, and it's the most blessed truth that ever
a sinner heard. But those who find themselves
unable to do something to attract God's attention to them by something
they do, something they say, feel, experience, any of those
things, deny the gospel of Christ. Paul said it in Galatians 5,
a little leaven leavens the whole lump. If you can be justified
by what you do, and in that case it was circumcision, if you can
be justified by that, then you're under the curse. You've fallen
from grace. Idols are the works of men's
hands. That's what they're called throughout
the Old Testament. And in the New Testament, it's
shown that that corresponds to trying to be justified before
God by what we do. And this little leaven wiggles
itself in to our thinking in every way that it can. It tries to wiggle in there.
So that we take some confidence in what we are, what we've done.
We listen to ourselves pray or we think about what we've done
for the Lord and we take some measure of glory in that. That's
just an attitude of pride, spiritual pride. We think we're doing better
now than we used to do. We look at that and take some
measure of satisfaction. That's just spiritual pride. A blindness of heart that doesn't
acknowledge the holiness of God that He cannot accept anything
from us unless it's through the Lord Jesus Christ. God accepts
nothing from a sinner. He only hears His Son. And so
idols are those things. Idols are also finding no need
for Christ. Living without a need to be saved
by Christ is indifference. And that is itself idolatry. If you find no need for Christ,
then you are content with yourself. You're content with the world.
And if you're content with yourself, then you don't need God. And
therefore you're worshipping yourself. You're worshipping
these things. That also is idolatry. You see no beauty in Christ.
You find beauty and satisfaction in your own wicked thoughts.
And the things of this cursed world And also, justifying yourself
in your perverse lifestyle is idolatry. For example, if you
justify your perverse lifestyle and you make your sin to be no
sin by justifying it, saying everybody does it, it's okay.
What are you doing? If what you do is not sin, then
you don't need a savior, do you? But the Lord Jesus came to save
sinners. And if you're not a sinner, Jesus
said, then you're blind. You're blind, and your sin remains. And so, we have to be a sinner
in order to be saved by the Savior of sinners. So, to attempt to
live before God by works is idolatry, and we're not to have that. We're
not to have any part in that. Not a mixture of a little bit.
We're to forsake it, and to purge the leaven from our heart, and
from our lives, and from our worship, especially our worship
in the Gospel of Christ. We believe the Lord Jesus Christ
as He is revealed in this book, in the Gospel. And that's it.
Our only hope for glory is what God thinks of Christ. We don't
come like those in John 7, verse 21-23 saying, Lord, Lord, have
I not prophesied in your name? Haven't we done many wonderful
works in your name? We've done it all in your name,
Jesus. All these things. We cast out devils in your name.
And Jesus said, He shall say to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you that work
iniquity. There's nothing that blinds like
this blindness of self-righteousness. In Revelation chapter 2 it says
the Lord Jesus speaking to the Apostle John and to his people
throughout time. He says, I know the blasphemy.
That's speaking against the Lord Jesus Christ and God. To say
you're a Jew means to say, I'm born to Abraham. I'm a Jew. But they reject Christ. They
claim to be Jews, but they're not true Jews. They were not
Jews in their heart because they went about to establish their
own righteousness by their works and their personal obedience.
Trying to fulfill God's requirements and conditions in themselves.
But we must abandon all that we are because our best thoughts
and works are filthy rags in God's sight. Filthy rags. Repugnant and revolting in God's
sight. We must look to the one... The
Lord Jesus Christ, and look to Him only with the eyes of God-given
faith. We must find, when we see Christ,
there is all that God requires for sinners. There is the honor
to God's glory and His righteousness, and all that He is, is God. And
we must worship God in Him. So, idolatry is to look somewhere
but to the Lord Jesus for salvation. To look somewhere but to the
Lord Jesus for satisfaction and peace before God and joy before
God. It can be anything. My experience,
my spiritual experience, my spiritual works, what I do, my prayers,
my tears, even my decision, my will, all those things are nothing
but idolatry. In Galatians chapter 4, it says
that Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia. Remember who Hagar was?
That was Ishmael's mother. And so Ishmael's mother and Ishmael
and all of Ishmael's children were under this same covenant. Hagar was Mount Sinai in Arabia
and answers or corresponds to Jerusalem which now is. All who
serve God under this principle of trying to gain acceptance
or blessing from God by their works are called the children
of the flesh. Ishmael was born after the flesh,
not after promise. He was not born by promise, he
was born after the flesh. And Abraham realized that was
not going to bring the child of promise into the world. God
had to do that. And so throughout scripture we
see this, and I could go on and on. It says in Isaiah 45 verse
20, listen to these words. All they have no knowledge that
set up the wood of their graven image and pray to a God that
cannot save. All they who do that have no
knowledge, no spiritual knowledge, no faith, that set up an idol
and pray to a God that cannot save. And in the next verse,
in verse 22, the Lord Jesus says this, And so that's the opposite. It's the opposite of looking
to Christ. The opposite of that is looking
to a God that cannot save. In the Old Testament, idols were
physical images made with men's hands. But in the New Testament,
idols are the thoughts and the works of men's hearts. They serve
themselves. They don't serve God, but they
serve themselves. And so we see this throughout
scripture. Now, the second big lesson here. The second big lesson
in Genesis chapter 28. If you look at this, I just went
through the first four verses. Isaac cautioning Jacob, do not
take a wife of the Canaanites, an idolater for a wife. You're
joining yourself with someone who doesn't believe Christ. who
thinks that they can be acceptable to God and they can obtain blessings
from God by something that they do, something they look to other
than Christ. They find satisfaction in that.
They have no interest in Christ. Don't do that. And so, He gave
him that charge and sent him away. And then in verse 6, Esau
saw that Isaac had blessed him and sent him away. And told him
not to take a wife from Canaan. And they made that charge to
Jacob. And so Esau heard that and he
wanted to please his father. Esau wanted to please his dad.
But he didn't really want to please God. And so what did he
do? He left. He didn't want to take
another wife. He already had two from Canaan.
But he thought he'd go to the daughters of Ishmael and take
a wife from there. But remember, Ishmael, he was
the son of Hagar, the slave woman. And so by this very act that
Esau did here, he proved, over and over again, he proved that
he was a slave. because he married a slave woman's
daughter. Hagar was a slave woman. She
had a son after the flesh, not of promise. It was a slave corresponding
to living by works, trying to keep God's law in order to make
myself righteous before God. And Esau married into that family. He took her to himself and he
found delight in her. How can you find delight in someone
who doesn't hold to Christ only? I can't live a day without learning
something, hearing something, thinking something, and learning
again that my salvation is complete and perfect in the Lord Jesus
Christ. What is a slave? Spiritually, what is a slave?
A slave is someone who works. for salvation, trying to earn
something. A son of the slave is someone
who tries to be saved by bringing something to God, to get something
from Him, instead of coming to Him out of free grace. A son
is someone God gives salvation to out of free grace. That's
whose God's sons are. He gives it to them out of free
grace for Christ's sake. But a slave works in an attempt
to earn that acceptance from God. So the second lesson is
this. All, like Esau, who make alliances in their heart with
idolaters, with those that try to live by keeping the law and
compromising the gospel, all they are not the children of
promise. Now, we all lived our lives this
way before the Lord saved us. We were all idolaters before
the Lord saved us. I never worshipped an idolater,
you might think. I didn't worship Mary and all
these stupid looking things that people hang on their neck and
put in their yard and things like that. That's not the point. Those are just outward things.
Sure, that's idolatry. But men are idols in their heart. Men who believe in evolution
serve the idol of their own intellect. They're so biased against the
truth that they've suppressed the God who created the world
that they won't accept any data or look for any data that supports
that. So they deny it all. They trust
their intellect. They trust science. Truth comes
from science. We figure things out by measuring
things and observing things. We predict what happened before
and we decide what we are and we find ourselves at the very
pinnacle of evolution. And that's what idolatry is in
that sense. And there's idols, all sorts
of ways we make idols. But Esau proves that all those
who can marry or find fellowship with or make alliances with those
who are idolaters are themselves compromising the gospel and are
not the children of promise. A son receives salvation by grace. A slave works for it. Remember
the prodigal son? He left his father. He wasted
his living on harlots. He spent all that his father
had given him. And then he came to himself in
that faraway country. And God brought him back. And
his father looked and saw him and ran to him and fell on his
neck and kissed him. and said, bring the best robe
and put it on my son, and shoes for his feet, a ring for his
hand, and kill the fatted calf. All that speaks of Christ and
him crucified. Preach the gospel to him. But
the older son, who didn't go out with harlots, and didn't
waste his father's living, he comes to his dad and he says,
what? What are you doing? I have served
you all these years, and you didn't give me anything? That's
a slave. In his heart he wasn't a son.
He was a slave. And so God teaches us. This is
the way Esau was. He tried to please his father,
perhaps. He still held out hope that he
could obtain a blessing from him in this life. But he showed
a total lack of spiritual understanding. A complete lack of faith. We
cannot obtain God's blessings by pleasing men. And he thought
to please his dad. He didn't. God gave the blessing
to Jacob. What would have Esau's proper
response been? If the Lord says, all the promises
of God in Christ are yea and amen, what are you going to do
then? You're going to go to Christ
to find everything, aren't you? You're going to ask God, give
me of this living water. In fact, give me the grace even
to ask for it. To understand who it is that
promises it and gives it. You're going to go to him for
everything, aren't you? Esau should have gone to Jacob.
Oh, that was too humbling. He hated Jacob. In fact, he envied
him and wanted to kill him. He did exactly what all those
do who are not the children of God. He determined to kill his
brother. And that's exactly what the unbelieving
world did to the Lord Jesus Christ. They hated him without a cause.
They envied him because he had the respect of poor sinners.
And they wanted that respect for themselves. He had the honor
of God and they didn't. But they thought they could earn
it. And so they saw the son and they killed him. out of envy,
just like Esau in his heart wanted to kill Jacob, to whom the blessings
were given. And so we, until God bows us
and makes us submit ourselves to Him, to the Lord Jesus Christ,
unconditionally to His righteousness, this is all my hope before God,
I come to you, Lord, asking that you would receive me for Christ's
sake alone. That's what the heart of a son
does. That's what the heart of one humbled by God's grace does. But Esau was a profane man. He
married those Canaanite wives who worshipped idols. Those cursed
people. He was spiritually dead. He couldn't
figure it out. Insensitive to the truth of God. He had no regard for the birthright. Even though the birthright was
the gospel. Look at Galatians chapter 3.
I want you to see this in Galatians 3, so that you know I'm not just
pulling these things out of the air. He says in Galatians 3,
in verse 7, Now, he says, Know ye therefore that they which
are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. Not the
children born to Abraham, but the children who believe Christ.
He says, and the scripture, verse 8, and the scripture, foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached the gospel
unto Abraham. And here's the gospel. In thee
shall all nations be blessed. That's the gospel. What does
he mean? In thee, in Christ, who would come through Abraham,
all nations, not just Jews but Gentiles, would be justified
by his grace, by his righteousness. That's the gospel. God has provided. He's seen our need in our sin. in our offenses against Him.
He saw that need and He saw to it to fill that need. And that
need, that fulfillment of our need was the Son. His Son. He
gave Himself. He gave His Son and Christ gave
Himself for us. And in Christ we see our need
fulfilled. He's the Lord Jehovah who met
our need. He justifies the heathen. That's
the gospel. God gave an answer to justice
in Christ. And Christ brought all that God
required for His people. But Esau couldn't see it. He
saw the things of the world, and he wanted the dominion over
his brother. He wanted riches in life, the
good things of the earth, and ease in this life. And so he
held a low regard for the birthright. He trusted in his place as the
eldest son, thinking that that would ensure his father would
bless him. He was content. with his self-confidence as the
firstborn and as being able to provide for his father the things
that he liked, that he would receive that blessing. And he
was only thinking in so far as earthly blessings. He was like
King Saul. In 1 Samuel 15 30, when Saul
asked Samuel, come back with me, honor me now before my people. Because Saul was more concerned
about losing respect of the men that followed him, than he was
about losing the blessing of God. He was just like Saul. He
was just like those unbelieving Jews in Jesus' day, who looked
for an earthly kingdom. And when Jesus discovered their
hypocrisy and corruption in their heart, and told them that the
kingdom of God is within you, and told them that unless they
come to God by Him, they would be lost, then they envied him
and killed him. Because they lost the respect
of the people that went and worshipped the Lord Jesus Christ. They had
no heart like John the Baptist, who said, I must decrease and
he must increase. They wanted the attention that
belonged to Christ for themselves. And so when Esau lost his father's
blessing, He couldn't handle it. He could not submit to Jacob.
He only wanted to kill him. He persecuted him and hated him
and tried to kill him. That's why Jacob left. Jacob
ran away. He went away because he was persecuted. Then Esau had nothing but the
blessings of this world. He was left with the bitter fact
of facing a life and eternity without Christ. And now the third
lesson from our text today is in the ladder that Jacob saw.
It says in verse 10, Jacob went out from Beersheba as he was
going to Haran, and he lighted upon this place as the sun was
setting that night. And because the sun was setting,
he took up the stones of the place and put them for his pillow
and lay down in that place to sleep. 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. And then in verse 13, 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. That's the gospel, isn't it?
He said the same words we just read in Galatians 3.8. And then
the Lord said this in verse 15, And behold, I am with thee, and
will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will
bring thee again to this land, and will not leave thee until
I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. This is amazing,
isn't it? The third lesson is this, God
makes himself known and blesses his people with all spiritual
blessings in Christ alone. Now the latter The ladder here
that went from the earth to heaven. This is a picture. It's a vision
that Jacob had. It wasn't a physical ladder.
There was no real ladder that went from earth to heaven in
a physical sense. But God appeared to Jacob here
in Christ. And made himself known to Jacob
in Christ. And in Christ he promised Jacob
these blessings. Promising to be with him, to
keep him, not to leave him. And so our God and Father gives
us all blessings in Christ. John, the book of John, a couple
of verses in the book of John. When Philip had been called,
when Jesus called the disciple Philip, then Philip, first thing
he did as he went, he told Nathanael, he told Nathanael that he had
found the one of whom Moses in the prophets and in the law had
written. God had written about him. And so, Philip goes to Nathanael
and tells him these things. In John chapter 1 and verse 45,
Philip findeth Nathanael and said to him, We have found him
of whom Moses and the law and the prophets did write, Jesus
of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Verse 46, John 1, 46. And Nathanael
said to him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip
said to him, Come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to
him and said of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom
is no guile. Now that's true of every child
of God. A true Jew, an Israelite indeed,
and in whom is no guile, because the Lord Jesus said he was in
Christ. That's the only way we can have
no guile. Nathanael said to him, When knowest thou me, Jesus answered
and said to him, before that Philip called thee, when thou
wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. And listen to these words
that Nathanael said. Nathanael answered and saith
to him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of
Israel, the Christ. Here Nathanael confesses Jesus,
the one before him, to be God's Son and Christ. Amazing. Jesus answered and said to him,
Because I said to thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest
thou? Thou shalt see greater things than these. And he saith
to him, listen carefully, Verily, verily, I say to you, Hereafter
you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and
descending on the Son of Man. Isn't that amazing? The latter
is what? It's the Son of Man. Right? And who is the Son of Man? It's
the Lord Jesus Christ. How did He become the Son of
Man? Why is He the Son of Man? Is He the Son of God or is He
the Son of Man? He's both, the Son of God and
Son of Man. Look at John chapter 3 and verse
13. Jesus said the same thing, slightly
differently, to Nicodemus in verse 13. Nicodemus is completely
puzzled. How does a man become born again?
I don't understand it. The Lord Jesus shut Nicodemus
up. He could not do it. He could not bring it to pass.
He was utterly unable to make himself a child of God and he
was helpless. He stood before the Lord Jesus
Christ outside the kingdom and helpless to do one thing about
it. He said, how can these things be? And this is what Jesus said,
verse 13. No man hath ascended up to heaven,
but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is
in heaven. Here the Lord Jesus takes the
whole panoramic history of redemption and condenses it into a single
verse of scripture. The Son of Man had glory with
the Father before He came into the world. God sent His Son into
the world. He took upon Himself flesh and
blood because the children were of flesh and blood. And he who
was equal with the father didn't think it robbery to be equal
with God, but he made himself of no reputation and took upon
him the form of a servant. And in the form of a man he came
and bore our sins as his own. And then in obedience to God,
with those sins, endured the wrath of God in order to make
satisfaction to God and honor his law for us. That's the Son
of Man who came from heaven. The Son of God, made taking on
flesh and blood, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem
them that were under the law. The Son of Man. He had glory
with the Father before he came. In John 6.62, Jesus tells the
Pharisees who are opposed to him, he says, What and if you
shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before? The Son
of Man had glory, but now He comes. He's made lower than the
angels. He who is man, who is predestined
to have dominion over all things, but we don't see it in us, but
we see it in Him who was made man because He came and was made
lower than the angels that He might taste death for every son. And now He's given glory by the
Father and He's seated in glory. And so we see the Son of God
descending. bearing the wrath of God because He bore the sins
of His people, answering God in justice, fulfilling His law,
and because He did that, He rose from the dead. Having died for
our sins, He rose from the dead, ascending up, and there He was
giving glory and honor, and His dominion is an everlasting dominion
and shall have no end. That's the Son of Man. He descended
first. It says in Ephesians 4, 8 and
9, and that he might ascend up above all things. And God has
given him authority. Look at Ephesians chapter 1.
Has placed him over all principalities and powers. He says in Ephesians
1 verse 20. This great mighty power of God
by which He raised Christ from the dead in verse 20, which He
wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him
at His own right hand, the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ,
chosen from eternity, appointed from eternity to stand for His
people as Christ and answer God for them. He says He has He has
set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above
all principality and power and might and dominion in every name
that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which
is to come, and hath put all things under His feet. the Son
of Man, and gave Him to be the head over all things. To the
church. That's why He was given all this.
That's why He did this. He came to bring His people to
God. To save them from the curse. to deliver them from their enslavement
to Satan, and sin, and this world, and death, and all of our enemies,
the Son of Man. And so, in John 3.13, he speaks
of the same thing. The One who descended is the
Son of God. He took on flesh and blood as
the Son of Man in humiliation. He was made lower than the angels,
bearing our sins and fulfilling God's law for us. And then because
he did that, he rose again, ascended up, and there he sits, the Son
of Man, Jesus of Nazareth, on the throne of heaven, the Son
of God and Son of Man. And Jesus tells Nathaniel, you'll
see greater things, you will see the Son of Man. The angels of God ascending and
descending on the Son of Man. And this is what Jacob saw in
Genesis 28. He saw Christ, God's Blessings to His people, His
revelation of Himself to His people is in the Lord Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. That's the Son of Man. He came
to die in order that He might take the place as man and bring
His people to God with Him and give them, the church, all things
with Him. All the promises God made to
Abraham, He made to Christ and to Abraham in Christ and all
those. Every sinner, every ruined sinner,
believing Christ is also a child of Abraham to whom these blessings
are given. And so back in Genesis 28 we see this. God goes down
the list. Listen to these blessings. He
says, I am the Lord. He says, the Lord God of Abraham
thy father and the God of Isaac. The God of all those who are
the children of promise who are given to Christ in eternal election.
And looking to Christ in their lives by faith, by God given
faith. And so he says in verse 14 of
Genesis 28, Now listen to this verse. I'm going to read to you
in Hebrews chapter 12. And see if this doesn't correspond to this blessing
of Abraham. Now it's no doubt. That God made the nation of Israel
as the dust of the earth and the sand of the sea. But that
was not the end purpose in which God had in view in this promise.
This is it. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse
22. You, you who believe Christ,
you who have been saved from the idolatry of your own works
religion. He says, you are come unto Mount
Zion and unto the city of the living God. The heavenly Jerusalem,
not the earthly Jerusalem. To an innumerable company of
angels who ascend and descend on the Son of Man. And to the
General Assembly, not Jews only, but to Jews and Gentiles, the
Church of the Firstborn. All those who were redeemed by
the blood of the Lamb, they're the Church of the Firstborn.
Like the Israelites were redeemed out of Egypt, the Firstborn out
of Egypt. which are written in heaven,
our names were written before the foundation of the world,
in the Lamb's book of life, and to God the judge of all, and
to the spirits of just men, made perfect. We're justified by the
blood of Christ, we're perfected by his one offering, and we've
been made perfect, conformed to his image, and to Jesus, the
mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling
that speaks better things than that of Abel. That's what we're
come to, innumerable company of angels, and to the church
of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, an innumerable company
of God's saints. In glory. That's the number.
They're like the sand of the sea. So many that they cannot
be counted because of their multitude. In verse 15 of Genesis 28, and
behold I'm with thee. What did Jesus tell his disciples?
I send the spirit of my father to you and he will be with you
and he will be in you. That's Christ. Christ in you,
the hope of glory. Paul the Apostle said in Galatians
2.20, I live, but it's Christ that lives in me. It's the Spirit
of God in us. He says, I will be with thee
and will keep thee. The Lord is going to keep his
people. He's going to preserve them. What he started, he will
finish. Faithful is he who calleth you, who also will do it. He
who fulfilled the everlasting covenant in His blood, He's going
to work all things in us according to that will, that covenant.
In Hebrews chapter 13, 20 and 21. Here He says, I'll be with
you, I'll keep you in all places whether you go, and I will bring
you again to this land. What land? Well, here it was
the land of Canaan. But what is the land of Canaan
in scripture? It's the land of eternal salvation in Christ.
Hebrews chapter 4 teaches us that. Canaan is that rest we
enter into by faith. It's looking to Christ. We are
eternally saved in Christ. He is that land. He is our rest. He is what God has promised.
All the blessings of God are in Him. To look outside of Him,
to look apart from Him, to look anywhere else from Him, is to
seek a blessing apart from Christ. But in glory, everything is given
to Christ, just like it is now. He's the heir of all things.
The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His
hand. Everything is in the hand of the Son of God, the Son of
Man, because He made Himself of no reputation. He's the Lamb
slain and He sits on the throne and God has given everything
to Him to give to His people. And that's why it's there. I'll
bring you into the land and I will not leave you. I will not leave
you. I will never leave thee nor forsake
thee. Lo, I am with you always. Isn't that the promise of Jesus
to His people? I will never, no, never leave
you. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing. Why? Because it's God's eternal
will. And because Christ purchased
us with His own blood. He will have His purchased possession. He will give us all that was
given to Him. This is what God has done. So
he says, all that I have spoken to you of, all that God has said
in his word, will be fulfilled. Jesus said, heaven and earth
shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. That's what
God said to Jacob, because he said it in Christ to all of his
people. And here it's foreshadowed in all that he said to Jacob.
Jacob did nothing to deserve this. All was done by the promise
of God, the purpose of God in Christ. And so God makes Himself
known to us in His beloved Son, our Savior and our God and Lord.
Let's pray.