himself to Jacob. Jacob was one of a long line
of people chosen by God unto salvation. We know that grace
is not hereditary. The Lord says to us in John chapter
1, the Spirit of God says to us by way of the pen of John,
the inspired disciple, but as many as received Him. Have you
received Him? Well, as many as have received
Him as prophet and priest and king, as the only Savior, as
the only propitiation between us and God, the only satisfaction
of divine justice. But as many as received Him,
to them, God gave the power to become, to acknowledge, and to
say, we're the children of God. And then He goes on and He says,
which were born, regenerated, which were born
again, who've experienced the new birth, which were born, not
of the will of the flesh, because every person's will is carnal,
opposed to God, opposed to the things of God, enmity against
God, and powerless to do anything of a spiritual nature because
we're flesh. And then he says, so it's not
of blood. And then he says, and it's nor
of the will of the flesh. We're quite corrupt, quite unable
to do anything for God. Our will is opposed to the Lord.
And he says, nor of the will of man, Parents, we call on the
name of God to do a work of grace in our children and grandparents
in the hearts of our grandchildren, but we teach them the gospel,
we bring them to sit under the sound of the gospel. When our
children were under our roof, they had to come to church whether
they wanted to or not. There wasn't a choice. That's
just the way it was. But we knew we could not convert
them because grace doesn't run in the bloodline like that. I'll
tell you this, if God is going to save them by His grace, He'll
save them under the sound of the truth. So it is our responsibility. It is your responsibility. And
those of you who are watching, it is your responsibility to
get your children and your grandchildren under the sound of the Gospel.
I've always said, Nancy and I have always said, if you're going
to eat our food and live in our house, you're going to come to
church. And just put that down. That's
the way it is. That's a hard and fast rule.
But we can't make them believe. Now that's an impossibility.
Well, we're like Adam. He didn't make Abel believe,
he couldn't do that. God caused Abel to believe. But
Adam and Eve, they couldn't get Cain to believe. That's a work
of grace. Abraham had Isaac, but before
him he had Ishmael. Ishmael, he was a son of Abraham
as much as Isaac was. And I'm sure Abraham spoke to
him about the things of God, but he couldn't cause him to
believe. A parent can't bring about the miraculous, mysterious
work of regeneration. That's an impossibility. David couldn't convert Absalom
Though he loved Absalom with all of his heart, and it broke
his heart what Absalom did and the way he wound up. Oh, Absalom,
my son Absalom. And you read that and you just
hear the grief in his voice. But he couldn't save Absalom.
No parent can talk a child into regeneration. That's God's work. We teach them
of Christ. We teach them of the Gospel of
good news, of the good tidings, the glad tidings of great joy
that God sent His Son into the world. He sent Him to save sinners. And God, consistent with His
own justice, saves sinners through the bloody sacrifice of the Lord
Jesus. And we preach that and we teach
that. And we spend time with our kids
and our grandkids. We talk to them about these things.
But only God can do the work. That's just the way it is. And
so the verse ends there in John 1.13. Not born of blood, nor
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. But of God. James says, of his own will begat
he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits
of his creatures. Well, having said those things,
it is nevertheless a fact that God often saves multiple people
from the same family. And of course, that's His business
as well. Abraham and Sarah were believers,
saved by the grace of God. Jacob could look back to his
grandparents, his paternal grandparents, and say they knew God. And I'm
sure that both Abraham and Sarah talked to Jacob about these things. And of course, Isaac, Isaac,
father who loved the gospel. And Rebecca, Jacob's mother who
loved the gospel. These were faithful to set forth
the very truth of God. By the way, in that passage in
John 1 that I've been quoting from, First of all, verse 11
says, he came unto his own, and his own received him not. And
then, but as many as received him, it goes into that. But the
next verse, which sometimes we don't connect them together,
but we all learn to connect the dots. To keep it in the context,
the next verse says, "...and the Word was made flesh, and
dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, as of the glory of
the Only Begotten, the Father, full of grace and truth." So
the question arises, how was the Lord Jesus formed in the
womb of Mary? By the work of the Holy Spirit.
And that's how Christ is formed in us. by the work of the Holy
Spirit, mysteriously and miraculously. And so the Lord reveals Himself
to Jacob in a dream. And as we spoke last week, our
Lord Jesus is that ladder from earth to heaven. By Him we come
to God, and by Him God comes to us. You know, God came from
heaven one day. That's the Lord Jesus. He's the
Son of God. He came to save us from our sins. And He did just that. And so
by Him, we approach God. By Him, God approaches us and
we're not consumed. God is a consuming fire. That's
what the Scripture says. And yet God comes to us and He
doesn't destroy us. He's a tender, loving, heavenly
Father because of this ladder. And He sends His mercies and
His blessings upon us by way of this ladder. And we send our
petitions and our prayer requests and our thanksgiving and our
worship to God by way of this ladder. And then God made various
promises to Jacob concerning the seed, that is Christ Jesus. He's the promised seed. He's
the one who blesses all kinds of people throughout all the
world. In Him we're blessed. In fact, if you go back to a
very familiar portion of Scripture that we all know in Ephesians
chapter 1, it says that we were blessed in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus. Always remember
that. We were blessed. We're blessed. In Christ Jesus. Out of Christ
Jesus, there are no blessings. Out of Christ Jesus, there's
no love of God. Out of Christ Jesus, there is
no salvation. It's all in Him. And then, note especially verse
15. Note what God said to Jacob. And if you would, just kind of
put your name in here. That's what I did. And behold,
I am with thee, Jim." Listen, these promises that God
made to Jacob, He also makes to the sons of Jacob, and that's
us. We're the sons of Jacob. Behold,
be amazed. Be startled even. This is astonishing. I am with thee. Right now. Right now. This is the Lord's continual
and uninterrupted presence with us. This is our heritage. His
uninterrupted presence. I'm thankful for the grace of
God given to me in Christ from before the foundation of the
world, and I'm sure you are too. Well, we're justified by that
grace. That's free grace that demanded
nothing of you but everything of your surety, your Savior. I'm thankful for God's electing
grace. I'm thankful for the redeeming
grace of the Lord Jesus who paid my debt. He took my place. He died the death that I deserved. He bore all of the wrath for
me and for all of His people. And I'm thankful for the work
of the Holy Spirit, who came to me through the Gospel. And I'm thankful that that grace
that God gave me in Christ Jesus, that's still my grace. That's
still my grace. God declared His blessed, gracious
presence to Jacob. Behold, I am with thee. I am
with thee. No, never alone. No, never alone. He promised never to leave me. No, never alone. What a glorious
promise. would to God we would realize
the infinite goodness of the Lord in that marvelous declaration. No wonder it is preceded by that
word, behold. And I actually tried to emphasize
the word behold as I was reading these verses. because the word
behold is used four times in this context. Look at verse 12. And he dreamed and behold a ladder,
behold a Savior, behold Him. And the top of it reached to
heaven, and behold the angels of God who were ministering spirits
sent to those who shall be the heirs of God's salvation. Behold. Behold the angels. And look at
verse 13. And behold, the Lord stood above
it. Who is speaking these promises? The eternal God is speaking these
promises. Behold. These are not just the
words of Moses. These are the words of God. And
then he gets down here in verse 15. And behold, Jacob, I am with thee. And you can say that at any point
in your life, you sons of Jacob and daughters of Jacob. You can
take that and hold on to that promise. The Lord said, I'm with
thee. I'm with thee. Wherever you go,
wherever you go, I'm with you. And I'm going to bring you back
to the promised land. And He will take us to the promised
land of everlasting heaven. And He says, for I will not leave
thee. I will not leave thee until I've
done that which I've spoken to thee of. Reminds me of that verse
in Philippians. He who hath begun a good work
in you will finish it. to the day of Jesus Christ. I'm
not going to leave you. I'm not going to leave you. The Lord never begins a work
without giving His Word. He'll finish it. If He started
a work, He'll finish it. And nobody can frustrate His
purpose. Oh, what a very timely promise
to Jacob. This is what Jacob needed to
hear. And it may be one of the Lord's
children here tonight, one of the sons of Jacob, a sinner saved
by grace. This may be the very word you
need to hear tonight. The Lord says, I will never leave
you. Others may leave you. Others
may forsake you. Your mother and your father may
forsake you. But the Lord says, I won't. Your
names are written on the palms of My hands. And eternity even
can't erase those names. He's like the high priest of
Israel who bore the twelve tribes of Israel upon His shoulders
and upon His breastplate. We're on His heart. We're on
His shoulders to be carried by Him. I will not leave thee. Now you take that and when you
go home tonight, see if you can't rejoice in that. I'll never leave
you. I'll never leave you. Look at
Isaiah 43. Isaiah 43. Look at verse, I'll start at verse one. Isaiah chapter 43 and verse one. But now thus saith the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob, O supplanter, O cheater, O deceiver, I've got something to say to
you, Jacob. Thus saith the Lord that created
thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel. And here's what
God says. Fear not. Why not? For I have redeemed
thee. I bought you. I took care of
your indebtedness. I paid your ransom to my own
justice. And I've called thee by thy name. Look at this. Thou art mine. Does that help you a little bit?
God says, you're mine. You're mine. And therefore, He continues,
when thou passest through the waters, remember what He said,
I'll never leave you, Jacob. He says, when you pass through
the waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers, they
shall not overflow thee. And when thou walkest through
the fire, Daniel, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall
the flame kindle upon thee. Why not? Because I am the Lord
thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. In fact, he says, I gave Egypt
for your ransom and Ethiopia and Saba for thee. I'll give
nations for you. I'll destroy nations to save
my people, God says. And here's the reason, because
you were precious in my sight. You've been honorable and I've
loved you. God values His people. He holds
us in high esteem. That's difficult to grasp. We're precious in His sight.
A lot of times, we're not even
precious in our own sight. We look in the mirror of God's
Word and we see we're sinful and we're wicked and we're ungodly. And God says, you're precious
to Me. Therefore, I'll give men for
thee and people for your life." And he says again, fear not.
And again, because I'm with you. I wonder why God keeps repeating
this. Maybe it's because we need to
hear it. We forget. I am with thee. I will bring thy seed from the
east and gather thee from the west. God says, I'm with you. Go back to the text. I'm with
you. And so, Jacob gets these promises
from God. He says, I won't leave you till
I've done that which I've spoken to thee of. And I'll tell you,
how long is the Lord going to be with you? Till He takes you
home to glory. till you're safely inside the
gates of heaven, till you're at the very throne of the Son
of God. And He's not going to leave you
then. You'll be with Him then. Yeah. Verse 16, Jacob awaked out of
his sleep. He said, surely the Lord is in
this place. I didn't even realize. And he's
afraid. He said, how dreadful, how awesome
is this place. He says, this is none other but
the house of God. And this is the gate of heaven.
You know who the house of God is? That's Christ Jesus. He's
the tabernacle of God. God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto Himself. and he's the gate of heaven.
One way to God, one way to heaven. And Jacob rose up early in the
morning, took the stone that he put for his pillars, he set
it up for a pillar, he poured oil upon it. And then he makes his vow to
God. And then, verse 1, chapter 29, Jacob resumes his journey
Now watch, and Jacob went on his journey and came into the
land of the people of the east. Now if you have a margin center
column, I should say, notice the marginal note. In my Bible,
in my Bible it says, pertaining to verse one, in the Hebrew,
lifted up his feet. He lifted up his feet. He kind
of kicked his heels. This is altogether a different
fellow. When he began his journey, he's
all alone. He's broken hearted. He's not
going to see his dad again for a long time. And he'll never
see his mother again. Of course, he doesn't know that.
And Esau's on his trail. Esau says, I'm going to kill
my brother. You wait till I get a hold of
him. And Jacob is running. He's fearful. But he's not fearful
anymore. The burden has rolled off his
back. Oh, when we go to the Christ
of the cross, there as Christian did, the burden rolls away. Now
he's, the burden is gone. Oh, he's rejoicing in the Lord.
Well, you know, Jacob, you got a long ways to go. It's 500 mile
journey. It's okay. I can make it. And he does. He does. Oh, this is a truth that should
cheer us and encourage us and give us strength. To know that
the Lord is with me, I'll undertake anything. If I feel like God's
in it, I'll even get up in front of people and preach to them. If I know He's in it because
He'll give me the strength to do it, Mr. Spurgeon said, whatever we undertake, God is
with us in the undertaking. Now you can take that into the
secular life, whatever you do, whatever your job is, do it with
all your might, do it for the glory of God, the Lord is with
you. The Lord is with you. He says,
whatever we endure, God is with us in the enduring. He said,
even whithersoever we wander, wherever we wander, God is even
with us in our wanderings. No wonder Paul wrote by the inspiration
of the Spirit, if God be for us, who can be against us? If God is for us, what can we
not do? What can we not endure? What
disease, what illness can we not bear up under? If God is
with us, I think this is exactly what
Paul meant when he wrote in the book of Philippians, I can do
all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. You say you can't do it? Oh,
I know you can't. But the Lord is holding you up.
I read a cute story today. There was an older preacher. He was riding a train going somewhere
to preach. And there was also a younger
preacher there. And they got to talking. And
the younger preacher said, I just don't know that I can go any
further. He said, I'm so discouraged. And the older
preacher, Vedran, he said, but the Lord is with you. He's holding
you. He said, I know, but I don't
think I can do it. And the old preacher reached
in his pocket and pulled out a New Testament. out of his shirt
pocket and he reached in his britches and he pulled out a
pocket knife. And he opened that pocket knife
up and he set it on top of that New Testament. He said, do you
believe, do you believe I can make this knife stay right on
top of this New Testament even though this train is rocking
and reeling? And the young preacher said,
alright, what's the trick? He said, it's no trick. He said,
I can make this knight stand right there on top of this New
Testament without even piercing it. The young preacher said,
I don't believe you can do that. He said, I'm doing it right now.
He said, yeah, but it's your hand that's holding it up. And
the preacher said, you're exactly right. and if I take my hand
away, it'll fall." And he said, that's the way it is with all
of us. Who do you think's holding us up? Who do you think is supporting
us? Who do you think is keeping us
going? Who gives us the power? Who gives us the grace? Who gives
us the strength? But our God, His hand, holds
us up always. Always. And Jacob, boy he realizes now
he's not alone. Now he's got no hitch in his
giddy-up. Any of y'all ever heard that
expression? Got no hitch in his giddy-up.
You know what that means? A hitch in your giddy-up means
you can't get going. You got a hitch. I'll tell you
what, there's no hitch now. Oh, it's giddy up! Going right
on. He's going in search of a bride.
And you know what? He finds her. Of course, he gets
more than he bargains for. He gets two wives. He gets two
wives, but we'll get to that next week as we continue our
studies about Jacob. You take this home with you.
The Lord is with you. And like that preacher holding
up that pocket knife on top of that New Testament, you just
remember, you're not holding yourself up. It's not you. It's Him. And He says, I'll never
leave you. I'll never forsake you. Boy,
I tell you, that puts a little giddy up in me. And I hope it
does in you. Well, let's pray. Lord, You're
so good to us to open to us the Word of God and these blessed
promises that are ours in Christ Jesus. And we're so grateful. Lord, send us away rejoicing
in Yourself, full of thanksgiving, full of confidence in our glorious
Savior. We bless You and we praise You,
Father, for Your amazing free and sovereign grace to all of
Your people. And Lord, thank You for Your
free and sovereign grace to me. And thank You for holding me
up lest I fall. and You will hold
me up, You'll keep me in the palm of Your hand until I enter
into glory. What a promise! Thank You, Lord. For Jesus' sake, Amen.