Genesis 35, let's read verses
6 to the end of the chapter. So Jacob came to Luz, which is
in the land of Canaan, that is Bethel. He and all the people
that were with him. And he built there an altar and
called the place El Bethel, the house of God, because there God
appeared unto him when he fled from the face of his brother.
But Deborah, Rebekah's nurse died. She was buried beneath
Bethel under an oak. The name of it was called Alan
Beketh. It means the Oak of Weeping.
And God appeared unto Jacob again when he came out of Pedernarum
and blessed him. And God said unto him, Thy name
is Jacob. Thy name shall not be called
any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name. And he called his
name Israel. And God said unto him, I am God
Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation
and a company of nations shall be of thee. Kings shall come
out of thy loins. And the land which I gave Abraham
and Isaac, to thee I will give it. And to thy seed after thee
will I give the land. And God went up from him in the
place where he talked with him. And Jacob set up a pillar in
the place where God talked with him. pillar of stone, and he
poured a drink offering thereon. He poured oil thereon. Jacob called the name of the
place where God spake with him Bethel. And they journeyed from
Bethel. There was but a little way to
come to Ephrath. That's Bethlehem. Rachel travailed. She had hard labor. It came to
pass when she was in hard labor, the midwife said unto her, Fear
not, thou shalt have this son also. He had Joseph, remember,
and came to pass as her soul was in departing, for she died.
And she called his name Benoit. Now, that's the son of my sorrow. But his father called him Benjamin,
son of the right hand. And Rachel died and was buried
in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. And Jacob set a pillar upon her
grave. That is the pillar of Rachel's
grave unto this day. And Israel journeyed and spread
his tent beyond the tower of Edah. It came to pass when Israel
dwelt in that land that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his
father's concubine, and Israel heard it. Now the sons of Jacob
were twelve, the sons of Leah, Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, Simeon,
and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun. The sons of Rachel,
Joseph, and Benjamin. The sons of Bilhah, Rachel's
handmaid, Dan, and Naphtala. The sons of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid,
Gad, and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob,
which were born to him in Padanerim. And Jacob came unto Isaac, his
father, unto Mamre, out of the city of Arba, which is Hebron,
where Abraham and Isaac sojourned. The days of Isaac were 104 score
years, and Isaac gave up the ghost and died, and was gathered
unto his people, old, full of days. His sons Esau and Jacob
buried him." The title subject of this message is the journey
of trouble and sorrows. Jacob's journey is the journey
of every believer. So much is written of Jacob,
we've seen this over and over again, because Jacob represents
all of God's people, sons of God who are called the sons of
Jacob, that he loved, Jacob have I loved, and whom the Lord loves. He chases. He chases. Jacob had
many, many troubles. Many, if not most, were of his
own making, weren't they? Because of his own sinfulness
and foolishness. He was a sinner the day the Lord
called him, and he was a sinner the day he died. But God, rich in mercy, Loved
Jacob, kept Jacob by his mercy and power, and kept calling on
Jacob, and kept confirming his covenant to Jacob over and over. That's how you know God loved
him. He kept confirming to Jacob his covenant, which is the gospel. And if you keep hearing the gospel,
and it keeps comforting you, the sinner though you may be,
God must love you. He quits calling those He loves,
not those He doesn't love. Look at verse 5. It says, verse
5, and they journeyed. They journeyed. Jacob and all
of his son journeyed. Verse 16, and they journeyed
from Bethel. Verse 21, and Israel journeyed. Verse 27, so Jacob came and Isaac,
his father, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned or journeyed,
journeyed, they journeyed. Go over to Hebrews 11 with me,
Hebrews chapter 11. Our lives, like Jacob's, are
a journey through this wilderness. It's called the world. When the
children of Israel sojourned, journeyed, through the wilderness. It was called a wilderness of
what? Do you remember? The wilderness of sin, wasn't
it? That's what it's called. You
look at the map in the back of your Bible. It's called the wilderness
of sin. They journeyed through the land,
a sinful place. They were sinners, journeying
through a sinful place. And for 40 years, that's about
the average life of faith most believers go through, 40 years. All of God's elect have been
chosen out of this world. He said, I chose a people out
of every tribe, kindred, nation, and tongue under heaven. He chose
us out of this world to bring us out of this world. We're going through this world,
but did not our Lord say they are not of this world? Even as He's not of this world,
He's from above. And though we were born here,
we're born again. And He's taking His sons out
of this world. We have here no continuity. This is not our home. Look at Hebrews 11, verse 8. It says, well, yeah, Hebrews
11, verse 8. By faith Abraham, when he was
called to go out, called out into a place which he should
after have received our inheritance, obeyed and he went out, not knowing
whether he went. We know where we're going, don't
we? Yes, we do. Our Lord's told us. Verse 9,
He sojourned. That's a journey. A journey in
the land of promise as in a strange country. He's a stranger now. He was a stranger to God. So
were we. Aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel. Strangers. But not anymore. Brought now.
And there are no more strangers to the covenant of promise. But
now we've become strangers in this world. You see? Dwelling
in tabernacles, verse 9. Tents. These houses we live in,
they may be made of brick and stone or mine's plastic. But it's temporary. There's not
going to be left one stone standing on another. But there is a building made
without hands. It stands forever. We have a
dwelling place. Read on, verse 10. He looked
for a city. which hath foundations, whose
builder and maker is God." Look down at verse 13. These all,
this is a great cloud of witnesses, they all died in faith, looking
to Christ, believing God, believing the promises. They hadn't received
the promises, but having seen them afar off, were persuaded
of them. Are you persuaded? Do you know whom you have believed?
Not what. How do you persuade that God
is true in every man's life? And that He's able to keep that
which you've committed unto Him against that time. Read on, verse
13, embrace them. Have you laid hold of the Lord
Jesus Christ? Embraced the promises, embraced
the truth, loved the truth, confessed. Here's the confession of every
pilgrim. They were strangers, they confessed
they were strangers. Passing through. Passing through. You know when you're passing
through a place, you don't stop and get involved with the politics. You don't take up the causes,
do you? You don't fight their battles
and so on. Do you? No, you're passing through. They that say such things, verse
14, declare plainly that they seek a country. If they'd been
truly, if they'd been mindful of that country or where they
came from, which they came out, they would have gone back. But
they weren't. That wasn't on their mind. That's
not what was on their mind. Verse 16, they desire a better
country. Are you mindful of and think
about a better country? Do you long to be in a better
place? Wherein dwelleth... We're passing
through this wilderness of sin. We live in Sodom like lots, don't
we? Are you vexed with the conversation?
Are you vexed with yourself? Are you full of nothing but sin
and sorrow and trouble? Do you want out? Not just to
get out of trouble, but to dwell in a land wherein dwelleth righteousness. Do you want to be righteous like
the Lord Jesus? More than all these things, do
you want to be with Him whom your soul loveth? Verse 16, those that say these
things desire a better country, a heavenly, wherefore God is
not ashamed to be called their God. He hath prepared for them
a city. New Jerusalem is going to come
down from heaven. Seek a better country. Down in
verse 24, Moses, when he came to years, refused to be called
the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction. chose rather to walk through
a wilderness than to dwell in the tents of the wicked, didn't
he? Rather be a doorkeeper, David
said. How about you? He journeyed, so he journeyed,
sojourned with the people of God. So do all of God's people.
Go back to our text, Genesis 35. This journey of the believer
is like Jacob's journey. It's filled with sin, trouble,
and sorrows. All of which are a blessing to
God's people. Even our sins, people, even our
sins. Our sins drive us to Christ.
Our troubles and our sorrows drive us to the Lord. Not to
despair, but to the Lord. All of these things are a blessing
and make us desire a heavenly home without sin. Jacob was over
a hundred years old at this time. right now in this story. He read
it with me. He's over a hundred years old.
He'd already been through many troubles, hadn't he? You've read
these with me. Many. And as I said, if not most
of them, they were his own fault. And he knows that. He has troubles
in the land he lives in, troubles in his home. He has troubles
all around him, and his greatest troubles within him. Job 14, it says, man that is
born of woman is of few days, and full of trouble. Jacob lived
twice as long as you and I will live, but they were full of trouble. Thank the Lord that we only live
70 or 80 years. People used to live 800, 900
years. Can you imagine how many troubles? Job said, man is born under trouble. As sparks that fly upward, Oh,
you've been out sitting by the fire. When the sparks come out
of the fire, where do they go? Always shoot up. It's like man that's born to
trouble. As soon as he's born, he's trouble,
trouble, trouble, trouble. Born to trouble. Like the sparks
that fly up. We get ourselves into Trouble. And we run into trouble. If we
don't get ourselves into it, we're going to run into it. Trouble. Sorrows. Sin brought sorrow into
this world. When our Lord said to Eve, And
sorrow, sorrow, sorrow, because you've done this, sorrow. Now
sin's in the world and he said, you're going to have sorrows. There was no sorrow to sin. The
Lord said he's going to wipe away all sorrow someday. He was a man, he had to bear
our griefs and our sorrows. He was a man of sorrows, acquainted
with grief. He had to do that to remove our
sorrows. Now, Jacob and his family's in
this journey, and it's tough enough. It's tough enough. It's a long... We often talk about how hard
we have it. Up until a couple of hundred
years ago, There were no machines of any kind. People were on foot. Jacob and his family, a big family,
little ones, old ones, cattle, so forth, walked You know how
far they're going from Pananaram to the city? One thousand miles
on foot. Or riding on a mule. You ever
ridden a thousand miles on a mule? In a buckboard wagon? And we got it hard. I had to
drive 12 hours the other day to Orlando. in my leather coach
with air conditioning. It was tough. My back was killing
me. You don't know back trouble. You've ridden in a buckboard
wagon. I've ridden in a buckboard wagon for about a mile and I
got out. A thousand miles, troubles, enemies. Paul was on foot. Our Lord walked
on foot everywhere. Or they got on a boat. You ever
been in a ship for months? There's one man in here has.
You don't want to be in a boat for more than a few hours. No,
you can't. You don't know sickness like
that sickness. You'd think the flu was wonderful.
That's the seasickness, right? Oh, I know. On top of that long, long weary
journey, Rebecca died. Rebecca is, I'm sorry, Deborah
died. This is Rebecca's old nurse. This nurse had been with Rebecca
all her life. She's a lifelong friend and a
sister. Childhood nurse and a friend,
old friend of the family. Old friends are dear friends,
aren't they? Friendships to be cherished and valued, to let
nothing harm, to be honored, old friends. Rebecca died on
this journey. Bad enough, it's hard enough
that it's physically tough. And then, great, so they wept,
they all wept. Everybody loved Rebecca, I mean
Deborah, loved her dearly. And she died. What she died of?
You don't know. She died. And they all wept and
they buried her under this oak and they called it the Oak of
Weeping. In our journey, we've buried Some old friends of him. We buried some of them, and we're
going to keep burying them. We're going to keep burying them.
He's not even close to being over burying our loved one. There's much sadness in there,
weeping. Our Lord wept when he came to
Lazarus' tomb. Lazarus was his friend. And he
wept. Our Lord is a man of sorrows.
He's touched with the feeling of our infirmities. And he wept
over his old friend Lazarus that died. Everyone was weeping. If
you can't weep with those that weep, then laugh with those that
do. But right after that though,
right at Deborah's death, the Lord appeared to him. Look at
it, verse 9. Deborah died and so God appeared
unto Jacob again. Again. And He reconfirmed. What's He going to say to Jacob
and Rebekah? I mean Rachel and Leah and the
sons and all who knew Deborah and loved Deborah at her death.
What's He going to say to them to comfort them in their sorrow? What's He going to say to give
them some peace and some consolation? What's He going to say? Same
thing. Same thing He said in the beginning. He's going to reaffirm. He's
going to confirm. Paul and Barnabas went throughout
all the cities, went back. He said, let's go back and see
the brethren, see how they're doing. And it says, confirmed
the souls. They went back and they just
confirmed them in the faith. They kept telling them again
the same things, the same comfort, the message of comfort. He said,
verse 10, Your name is Jacob, but Your name shall not be called
any more Jacob, but Israel shall be Thy name. And God called His
name Israel. I sure don't feel like a son
of God, do you? Here I am. I'll be 60 this year. but not before Margaret. But
I'll be 60 this year. Margaret, I can't help you. You'll
always be older than me. I love that. But I'll be 60 this
year. I'm the same person when I came
here 26 years ago. I can't help it. I wish I could
do something about it. I wish I could not be a Jacob.
Don't you? I hate myself. I just hope you don't. But we can't, can we, John? That's
the same man that was when I first met him. That's the same woman
right there. That's the same exact people that had grown in
grace, but you're still you. And you don't think to yourself,
oh, I've grown in grace. No, you think, I've made ten
steps backward. Tammy, don't you think I'm no
better? You think your brethren are?
I'm just Jacob. But God said, your name is not
Jacob, it's Israel. And God called him Israel. So what does it matter, John,
what I think about myself? What does it matter what others
think about me? What does it matter? If God says, you're my
son. That ought to cheer me up. Oh,
dear Lord, forgive me for being me. Oh, he has. He did in the
beginning, he doth now, and he will always forgive you, you,
for being you. And that old man in God's eyes
is dead. He's dead. And there's a new
man creating the image of Christ. That's the one God sees and loves. Your name's not Jacob, it's Israel. God said unto him, I am God Almighty. That's what I call him all the
time. I find myself calling him that all the time, God Almighty.
I noticed my pastor, I listened to his old messaging, God Almighty.
Brother Marvin, every time he speaks of God, he says, God Almighty.
This distinguishes our God from the God in this world who is
not Almighty, who cannot save anyone. Our God is Almighty,
all-powerful. And he went on to confirm to
him, verse 12, I gave Abraham and Isaac this land The meek
shall inherit the earth, God told us. And I'll give it to
you. And he went up from him. He went
up from him. God went up from him. Who? Who came down and talked
to him? It says God came down and spoke
to Moses. Stood with him there. Stood with
him there. Who? God was manifesting there. Who? The Lord Jesus Christ. He's the
voice of God. He's the Word of God. The words, make flesh, dwelt
among us. God came down. His delights were
with the sons of men. Well, the Lord appeared to him
and spoke to him. And Jacob set up a pillar in
the place, verse 14, a pillar, where he talked with him, a pillar
of stone. What's that stone represent?
What's our pillar? What's the church? Pillar, the
ground of what? Truth. as it is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. That stone, the place where we
worship is Christ. The rock upon which we stand
is Christ. That rock is Christ. We bury
our dead in hopes that are built on nothing less than Jesus Christ's
blood and righteousness. That's a firm foundation. That's a rock that cannot be
moved, a pillar. Brothers and sisters, are you
tired? of this journey. Come back to Bethel. House of
God. Are you sad? Full of sorrows,
troubles, sin. Jacob came back to Bethel. It's
where the Lord spoke to him in the first place. Spoke peace
to his heart. That's where he spoke to him.
He comes back. What does he need? The same peace.
Nothing new. Same old promises. Come back
to Bethel. Your strength is to sit still.
You're on a journey, a long journey, full of sadness and sorrow and
troubles. And your strength is to come
here and sit still and be still and know that He is God. And you'll gather strength. for
this journey. That's what we're doing here.
That's what we're doing. God who said in the beginning,
Fear not, I am with thee. I will keep thee in all places
whither thou goest. Have you thought about that the
last few days? Have you thought about that verse? He says, I'll
bring you again into this land. I will not leave thee until I've
done that which I've spoken to you of. Have you thought about
that in the last couple of days, that verse? Have you? Seriously. Well, I just told
it to you there. Was it worth coming here to hear
that? He said, I will not leave you or forsake you. Have you thought about that?
You keep coming back and sit still and know, who did all this? Why did Deborah die? The Lord took her. The Lord took her. All right,
go on, verse 16. They journeyed, so they journeyed.
It was just a little way to Bethlehem, the house of bread. A little
way. Rachel travailed, Jacob's wife. She's hard labor. Hard labor. Ladies, I want you to think back
now on your sisters. all your sisters from 200 years
ago to the beginning of time. No hospitals, no epidurals, no nothing like that. Riding
in a wagon, pregnant, at the stop, hard labor, hard labor. You know how many women died
in childbirth? How many babies died? How many millions of babies
died in these journeys? Hard labor. Our Lord said that
to the first woman, Eve. He said that in chapter 3 of
Genesis. He said in childbirth, and this
is the way it's going to be for women. He said, I will greatly
multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou shalt bring forth
children." Sorrow. I thought about the sorrows of
barren women. You ladies who have had children,
blessed with children, you don't know the sorrows of those who
haven't. Great sorrows. It's within women
to want, to desire to have babies. That's just the way it is. If
the Lord doesn't give them, that's a great sorrow. And if you haven't
experienced that, you can't enter into it, can you? Great sorrow. Hannah wept. She went to God's
house and wept. She couldn't have children. She
was barren. Sarah, her reproach, she was
barren. But you know, our Lord said it
would be a blessing. Do you know how many women have
had stillborn babies? And I can't imagine, through
all those months, and that hope, and looking forward to that child,
you name it, set up your nursery, and it's dead. That'd be tough, huh? Maybe someone
in your head, I don't recall, and then raise one, and love it, and love it, and
love it, and love it. And it's break your heart and
spit in your face. Now that's sorrowing. My father-in-law
had two sons and both of them were nothing but trouble. He died Those boys giving him trouble.
Been better not to have one. So, you see, the Lord's trouble
either way and sorrow either way or lose a child. I don't want to go through that.
I might have to. You wouldn't wish that on anybody,
would you? And his wife died. His wife died. His child, his young love, his
first love, his sweetheart. Reckon he took her for granted,
Wesley, for the next 30 or 40 years he's married to her? He
doesn't now. He doesn't now. He'd give anything
for five minutes with her. Great sorrow. That's something
I had been through. We've got a couple of ladies
in here who have. Great sadness, loss of a mate, long time friend
and companion, lifelong mate. Who did this? Where's the comfort
in this? This needs to be a message of
peace, doesn't it? in this travail of tears, this valley of tears
and trouble and sin and sorrow. Where's the comfort in all that?
Well, who did all this? Who's reigning and ruling here?
Ask Eli. Eli, your sons are nothing but
trouble to you and the Lord's going to kill them both. What
did Eli say? Here's his piece. It's the Lord. Let Him do what seemed good. All of your children are dead. He didn't have any hope that
any of them were believers. Who did that? Chaldeans? Sabeans? God did that. Job, what's your hope? I know you're sorrowed, but not
as those who have no hope. Job, what do you say? The Lord
gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of
the Lord. It's great sorrow, isn't it,
to lose a mate? I wouldn't know, but I might. Brother Don Ingers did. If we
live long enough, listen to me, here's the lesson here. If we
live long enough, every one of us is going to go through this. If we don't die first, you're
going to bury Ron. Can you imagine living without
him? It's going to happen. It's going to happen. It's going
to happen. Roberta, you've been with Henry
a long time. You want to go first, don't you?
He wants to go first. Dad and Mom are fighting to go
first. Why? Don't want to be without
the other one. Sure don't want to lose a child
first, but it happens then. Tell me, is God's grace sufficient? Tell these people, because we're
going to go through it. Every one of us. Tell us, is
God's grace sufficient? Go ahead and say it, ladies.
Amen? Did He leave you? Did He leave you? He said, I'll
never leave you at the time when you need Him. Did He? Oh, happy. is He that hath the
God of Jacob for His help. We sorrow, but not as those who
have no hope. Henry Sword loves the Lord. I'm convinced of that. I'm more
convinced of that than I am of myself. He's been sitting right
there, all of you loving them. He's heard everything I have
to say. There's nothing I can say that he hadn't heard before,
yet he comes back and says, that's preaching, brother. Like it's
the first time he heard it. It's still good news to him.
He's going to die in peace. And you're right behind him.
Right behind him. And both of you are going to
be with the Lord forever. Comfort one another with these words.
Jacob lived 43 more years. He wanted to go right then. He
wanted to go right then. The Lord took his wife. Let me go too." You know he did. He's 105 years old. Not the Lord's
will. It's appointed unto man what's
to die. His days are determined, the number of his month are set.
Oh my. We need to have the sentence
of death written upon ourselves and everyone. We need to do that. Reckon yourselves dead? and everybody
and everything around us. I guess with man it's impossible,
but not with God. It's not, because it's going
to happen. Everyone and everything is going
to die, including ourselves. And He set up a pillar there
on her grave. And then, that's not it. His
oldest son, Reuben. Now Reuben is about 50
some years old. Now, surely his trouble with
Reuben is over. A brother we know well. Turn to 1 Thessalonians and it
will close with this. 1 Thessalonians 1. A brother
we know well. I will not use his name because
of this going out, being recorded. Faithful man. And he had several
sons. And he lost his wife in the old
age. He lost his wife whom he loved and had been married to
for many, many years. Dear, dear companion. Sweet,
dear Christlike lady. We all know and love. He lost
her. Great sorrow in his old, old
age. And one of his comments were
though, and he had two sons that were nothing but a heartache. Nothing but a heartache. I mean,
you can't believe how they treated that old man. You can't believe
it. You think, don't they have a
conscience? Stole from him. And he said, you know, in his
sorrow over his wife gone, He said, and those two boys are
going to kill me. Going to kill me. But who did this? It's the Lord. It's the Lord. See, He's showing us this is
not your home. This is a land of sorrow. Chapter
4, 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians 4, let's close
with this. Verse 13, I would not have you
to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, not dead,
asleep, who fell asleep in crying, that you sorrow not, even as
others which have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and
rose again. See, this is all our hope, isn't
it? He died and rose again. Even
so, them also which sleep in Him, believe in Him, that went
to sleep in Him, believing Him, God will bring with Him. I love thinking about that, don't
you? Not only will our Lord come to meet us, but everybody we
know and love. There, a big crowd of people. Read on. The Lord Himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout. Boy, we're going to be shouting
too. The voice of the archangel, the trump of God, and the dead
in Christ shall rise first. We'll see those graves open.
And we which are alive and remain, if we are when the Lord comes,
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with the
Lord. There's no sorrow there, is there? There's no sadness
there, is there? There's no grief here, is there?
There's no tears there, nothing but laughter and shouting. So
he says, comfort, comfort one another with these words. Comfort one another with these
words. In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, we'll be changed, be changed. All right.