that I ain't met him yet, that
God's been better to than me. I've yet to meet the person that
God's been better to than me. I mean, you'll argue about that,
Paul, but no, I've never met anybody that the Lord's blessed
and been better to than me. Never has. Brother Clay Curtis,
Pastor Clay Curtis, pastor's in a firehouse. In some little place in New Jersey. But I tell you, they're fixin'
to make an offer on a beautiful, beautiful building up there.
Beautiful building. And if the Lord blesses them
to get it, we need those of us that'll be able to help them
come up with a down payment Help them every way we possibly can
because it is absolutely a beautiful building. Wonderful place for
them to worship on the main road. And the Lord's blessed this man's
ministry. Oh, he has blessed it. So Pastor
Clay or Brother Clay, you come on, bring the Lord's message. Let's be turning in our Bibles
to Genesis chapter 28. And before I start to get into
our text, I want to thank you, thank the brethren of this church,
and thank the men who've preached. It's been a feast of heavenly
food, and a feast of fellowship, and a feast of earthly food.
It's just been a feast, and I needed it. And I thank you very, very,
very much. Thank you very much. Let's begin
reading here in Genesis 28, and we'll begin in verse 12. And Jacob 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 behold, the Lord stood above
it. Now I want to look at this maybe
a little differently than you might be accustomed to looking
at it. It's a little different than what I've looked at it and
what I've preached on it before. Rather than just looking at this
ladder as being a type of Christ, I want you to see here the Lord
in heaven, above, the Lord in heaven, as being Christ in His
divinity, the Son of God. And Jacob in the earth, being
Christ in his humanity, the son of man. And this ladder representing
the unity of these two persons, these two natures in one glorious
person. And it just opened this text
up to me. It was just a blessing to me
to see this. And I hope it will be to you.
I'll show you what I'm getting at. But here's what I want us
to get. By making Himself one with His
people, by the Son of God coming down and making Himself one with
His people, by going to that cross and accomplishing our redemption,
He's made His people one with God our Father and with Him. We're one with Him. He said,
Father, thou in me and I in them that they may be made perfect
in one. And that's what He's accomplished.
All right, let's go back to verse 1 of this chapter. We see a picture
here, God the Father calling and blessing the Son of God with
this work. He trusted this work to his Son. Verse 1 says, Isaac, there's
the Father, he called Jacob, there's the Son, and he blessed
him. He blessed him. Isaiah 49.1 says
something remarkable. The scripture says, it's Christ
speaking. And he says, listen to me, O
Isles. Hearken to me, ye people from
far. The Lord hath called me. The
Lord hath called me from the womb of the morning, from the
bowels of my mother, hath he made mention of my name. And then he tells us what his
name is. In verse 3 he says, He said unto me, Thou art my
servant, O Israel. He called Christ Israel. I thought
that was the name that God gave Jacob later. It is. I thought
Israel was the name of all God's elect, Jew and Gentile. It is.
But the reason that's our name is because that's first Christ's
name. That's His name. That's His name. He's the firstborn. Whom God foreknew He did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be
the firstborn among many brethren. Esau came first in time, like
Adam. Adam came first in time. But
with God, Jacob was the firstborn. And with God, Christ His Son
was the firstborn. He's the firstborn. The elder
shall serve the younger. And he gave him a charge to go
forth and to take his chosen bride from among his brethren. Look here in verse 1. And Isaac
charged him and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of
the daughters of Canaan. God told his son who he would
not take a bride from. And he said, Arise, go to Padanerim,
to the house of Bethuel, thy mother's father. Go to thy brethren. That's who they are, his brethren.
And he said, take thee a wife from them. And that's what Christ
did. He came and took a wife. He knew
who he was coming for. He come to save his chosen people. His name shall be Jesus for he
shall save his people. He didn't come hoping somebody
would believe on him. He came to save them and bring
them to believe on him. No accidents. God the Father
sent him with a blessing. He sent him promising to bless
him when he finished this work to fulfill all covenant blessings
to him. And he would give these blessings
to his people. Look here in verse 3. And God
Almighty bless thee, speaking to Christ, and make thee fruitful.
and multiply thee that thou mayest be a multitude of people. The
marginal reference says that you might be an assembly of people.
John saw that general assembly and church of who? Of the firstborn. And what did he see? A multitude
no man can number. I'm gonna make you a multitude
of people, God said. Verse four, and I'm gonna give
thee the blessing of Abraham to thee and to thy seed with
thee. Paul said the promise was made
to Abraham and to his seed, and his seed is Christ. And here
you see Jacob, a picture of Christ. God said, I'm gonna give you
the blessing of Abraham to thee and to thy seed, his people,
his elect. And he says here that thou mayest
inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave
unto Abraham. And therefore the Son of God
obeyed. The Son of God came down. He made himself of no reputation.
He took upon him the form of a servant. He came down. Look
at this, verse 10. Jacob went out from Beersheba. He went out from Beersheba and
he went toward Haran. Whenever Christ came down from
heaven, the Son of God came down from heaven. He never left the
bosom of the Father. He never ceased being the Son
of God, God the Son. But when he came down, he left
Beersheba, the well of the oath. That's where he left. And he
came to Haran. He came to this scorched, dry
land, this cursed place, full of cursed people who were dry
bones like Brother Gabe preached to us. Cursed people. Dry, scorched,
that's what it means. Why did the Son of God unite
his deity with humanity? Why did he become the God-man? What was the purpose of this?
Well, as the Son of God, he's representing God. As the Son
of God, he's representing God. He came to declare the righteousness
of God. He came to declare God just and
the justifier of his people. And as the Son of Man, he's representing
his people. He came to fulfill all righteousness
for his people, to fulfill the law for his people, to justify
his people, and to do it from a holy heart all the while. All the while. By one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners. We were made sinners by one man's
disobedience. When Adam disobeyed God, all
his people were in Adam. And so we disobeyed in Adam.
There's our unrighteousness. And then when we were born of
Adam, born of his corrupt seed, we became a partaker of Adam's
corrupt nature. That's our unholiness. And so
when God calls his child and he's going to purge the conscience
of his child, and he's going to impute to you in the court
of your conscience, He's going to first charge you with sin.
He's going to first make you to see your sinner. When he does
that, when he imputes sin to us, brethren, he doesn't make
us sin by imputing sin to us. Adam made us sin by his disobedience. And he's imputing to his child
what we are. We are sin. And that's why he
imputes sin to us. Oh, and so by the obedience of
one shall many be made righteous. When Christ obeyed, his people
obeyed. There's our righteousness. And
when we're born of his incorruptible seed, we're made a partaker of
the divine nature, holiness. There's a new man, Paul said,
that's created after God in righteousness and true holiness. So when God,
in the court of your conscience, charges you with being the righteousness
of God, he's doing it because that's what Christ made you,
by his obedience. That's what Christ made us by
his obedience. That's why he came to this place.
It's so beautiful, brother. Now, when you look at the law
of God, you know, and I don't know, we have to speak of it
in ways like this because it's just so hard for us to comprehend. But you have a, really you have
a positive side, a righteousness that has to be fulfilled. And
scripture says, and the righteousness of the law is love, loving God
and your neighbor as yourself. And then there's a negative side.
The soul that sinneth must die. The wages of sin is death. And
where you look to see both of these aspects of the law fulfilled
is at Calvary. There you see the one man who
loved God and his neighbor as himself. And the way that he
did it, the way he fulfilled the positive aspect of the righteousness
of the law is by being made sin for his people and bearing the
eternal death that we owe to justice on the cross and thereby
satisfying justice, satisfying the negative side. We got to
be holy. He did it with a perfectly holy
heart without spot and without blemish offering Himself through
the eternal Spirit to God at the same time. That's amazing.
That ought to shut our mouths to ever saying that we've ever
fulfilled any law or ever done anything whereby we could come
to God but any work we've done. That ought to end it. That ought
to end it. That ought to end it. All right, let's look now. I
want you to just see what I told you and go to Hebrews 2. I want
you to see this in the scripture. I always want to show you in
the scripture. It says here in verse 9, we see
Jesus, Hebrews 2, 9, who was made a little lower than the
angels for the suffering of death. We see Him now crowned with glory
and honor, and that was His glory and honor, to do that work. And
it says that He, by the grace of God, should taste death for
every elect child of God. And for it became Him, it became
Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, and
bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their
salvation perfect through suffering, to accomplish this work perfectly
through the death of the cross. Now watch this, for both He that
sanctifieth And they who are sanctified are all of one. For which cause? He's not ashamed
to call them brethren. Look at verse 14. For as much
thin as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself
likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy
them that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage. He took not on him the nature of angels, He took
on him the seed of Abraham. God's elect seed. He took on
him the nature of the seed of Abraham. Wherefore, in all things,
in every way, It behooved him to be made like unto his breath. Was he made of a woman? Was he
made under the law? Was he made sin? Was he made
a curse? He was made to stand as the one
elect Jacob in the place of all God's elect Jacobs. representing
God's elect Jacobs. That's what he was made to do.
All right, now let's go back to our text. He did this that
he might reconcile us to God and be a faithful high priest
to succor us and comfort us as he ministers to our hearts. Now
look here. So the God-man went to the cross
to be that one Jacob representing God's elect Jacobs. And our text
says in verse 11, and he lighted upon a certain place. The cross
of Calvary is a certain place. It was a certain place because
God determined before the foundation of the world that Christ would
go to that cross. He was delivered by the determinant
counsel and foreknowledge of God. Nothing about the cross
was by accident. He went there on purpose. He
went there on purpose. And while he was bearing that
cross, he was bearing separation from God, because he's made sin,
for he made him sin who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. God said throughout the law,
if you go through the law, and you'll find in the law places
where God told a judge how he must judge. He was very clear
to the judges, and he said, when somebody comes into your court,
If that man's guilty of a crime, you don't impute righteousness
to that man. And if he's righteous, you don't
impute sin to that man. You charge him with what he is.
Now, think about it. Every judge we have that sits
on a bench, you want a judge that's going to take a man that's
not guilty and charge him with sin? You want to judge who's
going to take a man who's guilty and charge him with righteousness?
We'd take a man off the bench. Christ came forth to declare
the righteousness of God. He came forth to declare God
righteous. And God made him sit on that
tree. He made him sit on that tree so that he might justly
pour out that eternal death, that the wages of sin that we
owe, he might pour that justice out on him. And I'm telling you,
when he bore that, it was night, it was darkness. The sun didn't
shine. Look here in our text, verse
11. And he tarried there all night because the sun was set. He tarried there all night in
the darkness. It says that from the ninth hour,
six hour, there was darkness to the ninth hour. And that's
when he cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And
he said in Psalm 22, it's for this reason, thou art holy, thou
art holy. And he said, but I'm a worm and
no man. You know, there was a place in
Isaiah 41 where God makes a promise to his people. And he tells you
and me, fear not thou worm, Jacob. You know why he can make that
promise to me, Obie? because he made that promise
to his son. Fear not, thou worm, Jacob. And
when he was on that cross, he went to that cross saying, he
said, I gave my back to the smiters and my beard, my face plucked
out the hairs of my beard because God is with me. He will justify
me. He's near that'll justify me.
He went to that cross trusting the promise of the father. He
went to that cross as the perfect believer. He's the Son of God,
but He's the perfect believer. And He went to that cross trusting
the Father, trusting the Father. And when He laid down His life
there, what was He doing? Verse 11 says, He took the stones
of that place and put them for His fellows. He took the stones of this place,
His elect people, And he put them for his fellows. He laid
down on them. He was laying down his life for
his people. Hard as an adamant stone. Hard
as an adamant stone. Dead as stones. And he's laying
down his life for his people on that cross. You know, I picture
Jacob laying on those stones. And when he's laying on those
stones, Jacob is between those stones and the Lord in heaven.
And when Christ laid down his life on that cross, he's between
God and his people. Laying down his life. No comfort. You think there's any comfort
laying on those stones? No comfort on that cross. Agony
on that cross. And look at this, what it says
here. It says, and he laid down in that place to sleep. When
you think about Christ dying to save his people, do you think
about when he cried, it's finished, and gave up the ghost? That's
how, that's what I've always thought about him. You know,
him paying the wages. He said, it's finished, and he
gave up the ghost. He died. But you know the death that we
owe to justice is called the second death. It's called the
worm that never dies. It's a living death. And when
our Savior was on that cross as our substitute, as that one
Jacob bearing sin for his people, that living death he was suffering
in that separation from God was that worm that never dies. He
was bearing the living death for he died the second death
first. And when he cried out, it's finished, and gave up the
ghost, he was putting the exclamation point on it for me and you to
show us it is finished. It is finished. It's done. Now, when he was doing that,
I'm going to show you what got my attention and made me look
at it this way. You notice in verse 13, it says
the Lord stood. He wasn't seated. The work's not finished here.
He stood. And that's what got me looking
at it this way. While Christ was laying down his life bearing
that curse and separated from God, at the same time, he's offered
himself to God through the eternal spirit without spot. And I see
here in this that Son of God united with the Son of Man is
that ladder. He declared to Nathanael, he
said, you're going to see heaven open and the angels of God ascending
and descending upon the Son of Man. He didn't mention a ladder.
See, the Lord in heaven, the Son of God, and Jacob, the Son
of Man, He is that ladder. He is that ladder. And this ministering,
he said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to
the Father but by me. And then when you see this ministering,
you see here there was a promise made from God to Jacob, and there
was a promise from Jacob made to the Lord. This is all in Christ. This is what he was doing on
that cross. This is what he was accomplishing when he was offering
himself through the eternal spirit, when he was bearing the sins
of his people. He was fulfilling the covenant promise of God to
his people, and he was fulfilling the faithful covenant of his
people to God. He was doing that. He was doing
that. Look here. Look here. Here's
the promise God made to Christ, and this is the promise Christ
freely gives His people. And this is what He was accomplishing.
This was that promise going from the Lord down to the Son of Man. Verse 13, Behold, the Lord stood
above it, and He said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father,
the God of Jacob, the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give
it unto thy seed. There's no maybes here. The promises
of God are yes and amen in Christ. And it's because Christ accomplished
this for God the Father on the cross. So that He can say this
to us, the same as God the Father said to Him. I can't even get
my mind around this, but just trying to stumble through it.
But look here, verse 14. 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'm with thee, and I'll keep thee in all places
whither thou goest, and I'll bring thee again to this land,
and I'll not leave thee until I've done that which I've spoken
to thee of." The Son of God, Christ is the Son of God. He's
sustaining his humanity with these promises on the cross.
This is the promise he's sustaining himself with on the cross. This
is the promise he's fulfilling for God on the cross so that
he can make this very promise to us. And at the same time,
look at this, here's the perfect faith and fidelity of the Son
of Man to God. Look at verse 20. Jacob vowed
a vow saying, if God will be with me and keep me in this way
that I go and 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. Just see that as the Son of Man
fulfilling perfect faith to God while he's the Son of God fulfilling
that promise. You see what I'm saying? I hope
that's clear. Now look at this. And He suffered
that cross. He suffered in a perfect faith
and fidelity. And when He suffered that cross,
He fulfilled both sides of that covenant. Both sides of that
covenant. For God and for His people. The
Son of God, the Son of Man fulfilled it. And here's what He declared
by that work. Look here, verse 16. Jacob awaked
out of his sleep. And so did our Redeemer. He awaked
out of His sleep. And here's what He declared by
His death, burial, and resurrection. Surely the Lord is in this place. God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto Himself. That's what He declared. Look
here. He declared He's the tabernacle,
the true tabernacle. He's the house of God and He's
the straight gate. Verse 17. Look at the second
part. This is none other but the house of God. This is the
gate of heaven. He's the minister of the true
tabernacle, which the Lord pitched to not man. He said, enter ye
in at the straight gate. This is who he is. This is Christ.
And look at verse 18. And Jacob rose up early in the
morning. Early in the morning on the third
day Christ arose. Alright, now what's he doing
now? What's he doing now? God raised him and he raised
himself. He's sitting down at the right
hand of the Father and he's the head over all things to the church,
his body. And he's filling all in all. You know we really believe Christ
is working in the midst of his people as real right now as he
did when he walked this earth. Most people don't believe that.
I've been dealing with a banker and he's a religious man. And
I've been dealing with him and he just don't understand how
we get along without bylaws and all this, you know. And I said,
we believe Christ is working in the midst of his church. He
does it through the gospel and he rules the hearts of his people
and he brings us to obedience and to rest in him and wait on
him and trust him. He said, but who keeps you in
line? That same Lord, that same head,
he keeps me in line. Keeps all his people in line.
Look at this now. We see a picture of it here.
Verse 18. And after he arose, this is what
he did. He took the stone that he had
put for his pillars and he set it up for a pillar. And he poured
oil on the top of it, and he called the name of that place
Bethel, the house of God. And the name of that city was
Luz at the first. Christ is risen, and he's now
taken through this gospel, he's taken those very stones that
he laid down his life for, that were dead stones. And He's building
us up and making us lively stones. He's building up His spiritual
house. That's what He's doing right
now. And what He's doing is He's making His people the church
of God. The pillar. He set up a pillar. He's making us the pillar and
ground of the truth. That's what He's doing. I heard
some pastors this week talking and I've talked several over
the past week. Told me about their children
raised under the sound of the gospel. Heard a gospel preach,
some of them made professions of faith and what have you. Got
older, went to college and went out and became successful in
the world. But just swallowed up in the
world. Don't have any desire for the gospel or anything. And
I looked in the eyes of this man and I thought, and I could
see the hurt, I could see the pain, and I began to think about
my children. I began to think about all the
young people that we have in our congregation. And I sit here
this whole week seeing these young people here, young and
old. Don't ever leave the sound of
the gospel. Even if the Lord hasn't given
you faith, if you could just If you could just get this in
your head, if nothing but in your head, sit under the sound
of the gospel, because if God does something for you, He's
going to do it through this Word. And if He does, you'll find out
later the only reason you sat under this gospel is because
He held you there. But stay under the sound of the gospel. I'm
telling you, there's nothing in this world you could achieve
or accomplish, anything that's as great an honor as to be a
son of God. to be united with his people.
He said, I'm going to make my people a joy of many generations. I turned 45 this year, and I
was just thinking about back in, I was raised under the gospel. And about 85, Brother Henry Mahan
and Pastor Henry Mahan and Pastor Scott Richardson came down, and
other faithful men started coming down, and I started getting every
message I could get that Henry preached. My grandfather listened
to them, he'd pass them to me and I'd listen to them. And the
Lord had made those older men a joy to this younger generation. And now I see it, you know when
you get 45 you start seeing things all different. And I see those, Brother Scott's
with the Lord, Brother Henry's about to be with the Lord. And
I see those men that were The young men, now they're where
they were. And I'm a young man. They call
me the young man. And these young preachers, you
know, I pray God will make us a joy to that next generation. Don't leave the gospel. Remember
when you young people, remember somebody younger is looking at
you. They're watching you. Redeem the time. Teach them Christ. Be a witness to them. Alright, look here. He does this
work by pouring the Spirit out on us, the Holy Spirit out on
us and making us one with Him. Bethel, the house of God. This
is what He promises the Father down at verse 22. This stone
which I have set for a pillar, that is His people. This house
I have built up for you shall be God's house. Only Christ could
make that promise and make it effectual. He says, And of all
that thou shalt give Me, Remember what he said, of all the Father
giveth me, they're going to come to me. I won't cast them out.
Of all thou shalt give me, I'll surely give the tenth unto thee.
Do you know what the tenth was? The firstfruits. Of his own will,
he's begotten us with the word of truth that we should be a
firstfruits of the Father. And Christ is saying, of all
these that you've given me, I'm going to give them all to you,
Father, the firstfruits. He's not going to lose one. Look
here. What happens when He reveals
this in us? What does He do? He gives us
the spirit of faith. Have you ever thought about how
He gives faith? When His spirit is formed in us, when it's Christ
in you, you've got the gift of faith. Because he's faithful,
and when he's formed in you, you have the spirit of faith.
And you say what Jacob said there, if he's going to give me, keep
me in this way, and he's going to keep his people in Christ's
way. If he's going to give me bread to eat, he's going to give
us bread, Christ the bread. And he's going to put Christ
the righteousness of Christ upon us, that raiment upon us. And
he makes you to say, and he's going to bring me to my father's
house in peace. He makes you to say, then he
shall be the Lord my God. And then he does this. He gives
you the spirit of love. He's loving. When he's in you,
you're going to have the spirit of love. You're going to be consecrated
to him and to your brethren, constrained by the love of Christ.
And he makes you say, everything he gives me, the first fruits
are his. Everything. For the gospel's
sake to spread it and for the good of his people. Oh, isn't
that pretty? Thou in me and I in them, that
they may be made perfect in one. Thank you so much. Boy, that's
wonderful. That's absolutely wonderful.