All right, if you would, now
open your Bibles with me to Genesis chapter 28. For those of you interested in
knowing the Lord willing, we're gonna observe the Lord's table
after the message Sunday morning. Look forward to that. Genesis
chapter 28. And Isaac called Jacob and blessed
him and charged him and said unto him, Thou shalt not take
a wife of the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Padan Aram, to the
house of Bethuel, thy mother's father, and take thee a wife
from thence of the daughters of Laban, thy mother's brother.
And God Almighty bless thee, 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 Padan 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 Padan Aram,
to take him a wife from Thense, and that as he blessed him, he
gave him a charge, saying, thou shall not take a wife of the
daughters of Canaan. And that Jacob obeyed his father and his
mother, and was gone to pay to an arm. And he saw seeing that
the daughters of Canaan, please not Isaac, his father. Then when
he saw under Ishmael and took under the wise, which he had
Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of
the Bejoth to be his wife. And Jacob went out from Beersheba
and went toward Heron. And he lighted upon a certain
place and tarried there all night. because the sun was set. And
he took of the stones of that place and put them for his pillows
and lay down in that place to sleep. 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 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 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. And Jacob awakened 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.
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. the house of God. 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. We'll thank God for
his word. Let's bow together. Our Father, oh how thankful we
are that you've given us this opportunity to come together
with our brothers and sisters in the middle of the week, to
come together out of this dry and dusty world in which we live,
and meet together and to worship our God. And Father, I pray that
you would enable us tonight to do that, to worship you, to worship
in spirit and in truth. Father, I pray that you might
speak to the hearts of your people tonight, that your people not
just hear the voice of a preacher, but Father, through your word,
would you speak to the hearts of your people, that you would
reveal your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, cause us to sing. Cause us to believe and give
us the faith to believe. Give us the eyes to see. Give
us a heart that hungers and thirsts after Christ our righteousness.
Father, cause us to run to him. Father, we pray your mercy and
grace be upon this people. How thankful we are that it is
your eternal purpose to be merciful to your people. Save your people
by your grace, through the obedience and the sacrifice of your son.
How thankful we are, Father, to know thy people shall be saved. None of them shall ever perish.
And Father, we beg you, would you be merciful to us? Would
you be pleased to reveal yourself to us? Would you be pleased to
call us, this people, to Christ? Father, I thank you for this
place. I thank you for this family of believers that you've called
together. Father, how you've blessed us all these many years.
Oh, how thankful we are. Father, we beg of you that you
not leave us alone now. If you'd ever leave us alone,
we'd surely fall. Father, continue to be with us,
continue to be merciful, gracious, continue to bless your word,
feed your sheep, call out your sheep. Let this be a place where
Christ is preached, where God is worshiped through the preaching
of God our Savior. Father, we pray a blessing for
those that you brought into the time of trouble and trial. how
richly and abundantly that you've blessed us, yet in this flesh
we're a poor and a needy people. We pray for your hand of healing,
comfort, direction, protection upon your people. Deliver, Father,
as soon as it could be thy will. In all these things we ask, and
we give thanks to that name which is above every name, the name
of Christ our Savior. Amen. And we're not gonna look at all
the first few verses of this chapter, As we read, you saw
that Isaac had blessed Jacob and he sends him away to go to
the same place he found a wife, go to Laban's house and find
a wife. He blessed him and sent him away.
But I do want you to see this in verse four. Part of the blessing
that he gave to Jacob in verse four, he says, and give thee
the blessing of Abraham to thee and thy seed with thee. And he
prays that Jacob would have the blessing of Abraham. Now, what's
the blessing of Abraham? Well, God blessed Abraham many
different ways, didn't he? But the blessing of Abraham is
God counted Abraham to be righteous. He made him righteous. He counted
him righteous because he was righteous. God made him righteous.
He was made righteous by faith in Christ, not by his works.
That's the blessing of Abraham. And that's what Isaac wanted
for his son. Isn't that what every believing parent wants
for their children? We pray God be merciful to them, that God
would be pleased to give them faith in Christ. I know I'm not
alone, and you parents understand this. Well, we prayed for them
before they were even conceived, but boy, after they were conceived,
did you pray for them, even before they were born on this earth,
how we prayed for them. Oh, that God would give our children faith
in Christ. That's what Isaac wants for Jacob,
is he sends him away. And in the story that follows,
it appears that the Lord answered that prayer. Many people think
this time where Jacob was in Bethel and he dreamed about this
ladder going from the earth to heaven. Many people say this
is the first time Jacob ever met God. It's the first time
he ever believed God. It's the first time he ever believed
on Christ. Now obviously Jacob had heard of God before, hadn't
he? He'd heard from Isaac. He'd heard from his mother, Rebecca.
But this could be that he'd heard of God. He knew his name. He
knew about him. He knew about the promise God made to Abraham.
But sounds like this is the first time Jacob actually believed
on God. He believed on Christ. At least
it is the first time that it's recorded. So we can look at this
story as a picture of the conversion of a believer. What happens when
God first reveals himself to one of his children? But we can
also look at this as a picture of what happens every time a
believer is enabled by God Truly worship him. I mean, I'm we didn't
we're not going through the motions of religion I mean truly worship
God that we felt like God just spoke to my heart What happens? When that happened, there's some
things that are similar and all this happened at a place that
Jacob named Bethel He said this is the house of God So the title
of my message tonight is let's go to Bethel Let's go to Bethel
I don't want us to just go through the motions of religion tonight.
I don't want us to do that anytime we meet. I don't want us to just
go through the motions of religion. I want us to go to Bethel. I
want us to hear from God, to meet God and truly worship Him.
I want us to go to Bethel tonight praying that the Lord be pleased
to reveal Himself to us. It could be someone's here tonight
like Jacob. You've heard of God before. but
you never heard from Him. You never met Him. You never
believed on Him. Maybe tonight we'll go to Bethel and you'll
hear from God. I hope so. I hope so. And I also
pray those of you who've been, by God's grace, believing on
Christ a long time. You've been hearing the Gospel
a long time. I pray tonight we're going to go to Bethel and you'll
hear from Him again. Your heart will be thrilled.
You'll be enabled to worship God from the heart You know that's
what Jacob did his whole life long? Seems like every time Jacob
got in trouble, every time something was going on, you know what Jacob
did? He went back to Bethel. That's where he heard. That's
where he was instructed. That's where he worshipped. He
kept going all his life long back to Bethel. Well, if you've
been to Bethel before, let's go again tonight. Let's go again
tonight. Now, if we truly go to Bethel,
And we hear from God, first thing is, we're gonna have to be alone. Look what it says here in verse
10, Genesis 28. And Jacob went out from Beersheba
and went toward Haran and he lighted upon a certain place
and tarried there all night because the sun was set. And he took
of the stones of that place and put them for his pillows and
lay down in that place to sleep. And here Jacob went to this place
and he's all alone. He's all by himself, nobody's
with him. And if Lord's gonna save you and me, and he's gonna
reveal himself to us, we're gonna have to be all alone. Just like
Jacob was on this night. It's a true story, it's kind
of funny. I remember being just a real little guy, and you've
heard preachers say this. If God's gonna save you, you
gotta be alone in your prayer closet. I can't tell you how
many times I've heard preachers say, I mean, I was just a little
guy. I didn't want to go to hell. I would like for God to save
me. And you know what I did? I'd go home and empty out my
closet and I'd sit in there waiting for something to happen. I would
do that. That's not what this means here
at all. I'm not saying there can't be
anybody else around because there can. You think of a whole congregation
of people listening to the gospel preached all at the same time.
You're in the midst of people but God speaks to you. You're
able to worship. God's speaking to you. You're
able to see. Individual believers, they're all hearing the gospel
of Christ. They're all hearing the same message, all at the
same time, and they're being blessed. But it's one at a time,
isn't it? Now, there could be a congregation
mixed, believers and unbelievers, and people are, some of them
are being blessed. Maybe there's a person here that
never heard of Christ, and the Lord just reaches down, and plucks
out one and reveals himself to that one. You don't have to be
the only person in the room, now do you? It could be in a
group of people, but you've got to be alone for the same reason
that Jacob was alone on this night. Why was Jacob all alone
this night? It was because of a sin, wasn't
it? He sinned against his father, he sinned against his brother
in deceiving them to get the blessing that Isaac intended
for Esau to have. He sinned against his father
and his brother. Now he's on the run so his brother doesn't
kill him. He's alone because of his sin. And his sin is his
fault. He's here alone and it's all
his doing. He can't blame anybody but himself.
And if Lord's gonna save you and me, Lord's gonna bless us,
we're gonna have to be alone for the very same reason. Our
sins have separated us from our God. My sins have done that. Not Adam's sin, my sin. And it's
all my fault. I'm the only one to blame. You
see, we have to be alone with God in this sense. I have to
be in need. I have to be in need. I've told
you this before. As long as I've understood language,
I believed the five points of Calvinism. I mean, I completely
and totally believed in the total depravity of man. Something changed
when I found out I was totally depraved. See that? I have to
be in trouble. I have to need God, and I have
to hear from God. God has to speak to me like I'm
the only sinner God intends to save. I have to believe on Christ. He is all of my righteousness.
He came and obeyed the law, and it's just like He did that just
for me. Me alone. I have to have Christ
as my righteousness. If I'm gonna be blessed and I've
got to be alone, God's gonna save me, I've got to trust Christ. I've gotta trust Him as all of
my redemption, just like I'm the only sinner Christ came to
save. I'm the only sinner He suffered
and died for. I have to believe Him. I have to cry with the public. God be merciful to me, the sinner. It's not just God be merciful
to us sinners, God be merciful to me, the sinner. Like I'm the
only sinner left that God's gonna save. Now I know others believe
on Christ. I know others need Christ. But
this thing is salvation, not group activity. God saves and
calls his people individually. By name, on purpose, one at a
time. You know, there could be, all
of us probably have experienced this. There could be so many
people in the congregation. We're all listening to the same
message, aren't we? And somebody leaves and says, it's like God
was talking just to me. I don't know if that message
was for anybody else, but that was for me. That's being alone
with God. See, that's being alone with
God. God's got to speak to me. If He's ever going to save me,
if I'm ever going to worship God. Now, the Lord revealed Himself
to Jacob, but Jacob was all alone at Bethel. And that's what we
need. We need to be alone. Nobody between.
This business is done between the Savior and me, me the sinner. Gotta be alone. All right, here's
the second thing. If we're truly gonna go to Bethel, we're gonna
meet God, we're gonna hear from God, we will believe that the
Lord Jesus Christ is the only way to God. God will give us
the faith to believe that Jesus Christ of Nazareth, he's the
only way to God. That's what we see in verse 12.
And he dreamed and behold a ladder, set up on the earth and the top
of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God
ascending and descending on it. Now I know Jacob dreamed this.
This is, you know, the Lord did that those times. He spoke to
people, revealed things to people in dreams. This is how the Lord
revealed this to Jacob. He's not going to reveal this
to you and me this way. No, he's going to reveal this to us by
spirit through the preaching of the gospel. And God reveals
to all of his people the same thing he revealed to Jacob in
this dream. The Lord revealed a picture of Christ, the Savior,
to Jacob. In this dream, he showed Jacob
that Christ is the only way to God. Now, if you look over at
John chapter one, we don't have a New Testament
explanation for every Old Testament picture. What we know is all
of the Old Testament speaks of Christ, doesn't it? In type and
picture and pattern. That's what the Lord told those
disciples on the road to Emmaus beginning the Psalms and the
prophets and all the scriptures. He spoke under the end of things
concerning himself. So we don't have, have to have
a new Testament explanation to know this is a picture of Christ.
But we do this time, this time our Lord tells us that he is
the fulfillment of Jacob's ladder. John one verse 51 and he saith
unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter, you shall
see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending
upon the son of man. The Lord doesn't say they're
ascending and descending upon a ladder. They're ascending and
descending on the son of man. Christ is the fulfillment of
Jacob's ladder. Jacob's ladder is pointing us
to Christ. That's what the savior is saying. So in the dream, Jacob
sees a ladder. That ladder touched heaven and
the bottom of it touched the earth. Now here's something I
know about ladders. Typically speaking, probably
every time we have a picture of Christ or we have something
being taught in the word of God, it's very simple. What I know
about ladders is very simple. Ladders take you from a high
place to a low place. That's the job of a ladder. If
you're up doing some work on the roof of your house, Isaac,
you don't want to jump off. That's a long way down to your
house, that one side is. You need a ladder to take you
from a high place to a low place. Christ is the ladder. He's the
ladder. He goes from heaven to earth.
He touches both of them, able to satisfy the need of both.
The need of God in heaven, the need of sinner on earth. Christ,
the son of God, came from heaven, and he came all the way to earth.
See, God in heaven, God the father, There was a sinful people that
he had purpose to save. And those sinful people were
on earth. They didn't know anything about him. They didn't know anything
about God. They didn't know anything about salvation in Christ. They
didn't know anything about the blood. They didn't know anything
about righteousness. They didn't know anything about how God is worshiped,
how to please God. They didn't know how a sinner
could be made righteous. So Christ came from heaven to
earth so that he could save his people from their sin. I want
to tell you, If the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, the only
begotten, appeared in human flesh and he came all the way from
heaven to earth to save you, brother, you're going to be saved.
He didn't waste his time. He didn't fail to do what he
came here to do. He came from a high place to
a low place to save sinners of low degree. Well, here's the
other thing about ladders. Ladders also, they take you from
a low place to a high place. You know, if you're going to
do some work on your roof, you need a ladder. You can't jump
up there. You need a ladder. I was talking
about doing some work on my roof. I'm just going to go up there
and see, you know, what that is. My son Clark didn't think
that was a good idea, and he made me promise not to do it.
He said, if you don't promise, I'm taking your ladder with me.
I can't get up on the roof without a ladder. Now if sinners like
you and me, in these sinful bodies, in this sinful world, bodies
made of the dust of this earth, if we're going to go to heaven,
and we're going to be with the Father, you and I need a ladder. We can't jump. We can't jump
that high. God requires perfect righteousness
in order to be in His presence. We can't produce the righteousness
that God requires. We can't produce the holiness
that God requires to be in His presence. We need a ladder, don't
we? We need a ladder that will bring
us from our low degree and bring us all the way to God. We need
somebody else to come. God requires righteousness. The
way you have righteousness is obey God's law perfectly. Well,
we need somebody else to come and obey that law for us. Because
we can't do it. Sin must be paid for. Without
the shedding of blood, there's no remission. Can't be animal
blood. Can't be sinful human blood. It's got to be pure blood,
sinless blood. We need somebody who's pure and
sinless and holy to be sacrificed for us, for our sin. He must
shed his blood to pay the debt of our sin because we can't do
it. We need a ladder. Christ is that ladder. He came
and he established perfect righteousness for his people. He obeyed the
law for them. And he did that for them as their
representative. Then they're righteous. I don't
care if you can't see it or not. They're righteous if Christ made
them righteous. Christ obeyed the law for them. And Christ
came, he sacrificed himself. All that he is, he sacrificed
himself and he shed his blood. He suffered and died. He took
all of the justice that God's God's wrath demands for the sins
of his people. He poured out his blood to wash
his people from their sin. He took his blood, he took it
behind the veil, and he offered it on the altar before the father.
And the father said, that's enough. The father said, my justice is
satisfied. The sin debt has been paid in
full. Christ is the ladder to God. He's the one who satisfied every
requirement for son of Adam to appear in God's presence. The
only way you and I can go to God is through the merit, through
the blood, through the sufficiency of Christ our Savior. Now I need Christ to be my ladder.
I don't need just any old ladder. I also, besides I need a ladder
that goes from heaven to earth. that comes from heaven to earth
and earth to heaven. I need that. But I also need
a strong ladder. When Jay and I were first married,
we were poor as church mice and just, you know, trying to piece
together the stuff that we need. And I don't know where I got
it. I mean, probably from the trash heap somewhere. I got this
wooden ladder. I mean, that thing, the wind
would just blow and it would shake. And that's a ladder. I
mean, I climbed around on that ladder. It's just amazing. You're
trying to balance all the time on that ladder. It's amazing.
I'd fall and break my neck. If I try to use that ladder today,
that's what would happen. I need a good, sturdy, strong ladder
now, you know. That's Christ our ladder. He's
the strong ladder. He has the strength. He's the
rock of ages. That's what we see. Our ladder
is the rock of ages. He has the strength to bring
any sinner and carry him all the way. from our sin and our
pit that we've dug for ourselves here below, and bring us all
the way to the Father. I want to tell you, if the Son
of God came, He came to suffer and die for you, then brother,
you're saved, you're redeemed, and you shall make it all the
way to glory. There are times you feel like
you're not going to make it, but you will. Because we're not
making it based upon our strength, are we? We're making it based
upon the merit and strength of Christ our ladder. He's going
to bring you to glory and present you faultless for His glory with
exceeding joy. Now if the Lord is ever pleased
to reveal Christ to us this way, He is the way to God. If you
come to God in Christ, you will be accepted. You will, whoever
you are, whatever you've done. If you come to God in Christ,
you will be accepted. If the Spirit's ever pleased
to reveal Christ to us that way, that He's all I need to appear
before the Father accepted, I'll believe Him. You will too. And we'll worship Him. If we
ever see that Christ is the way to God, we'll worship Him and
we'll have joy. Alright, here's the third thing.
Now, if we go to Bethel and we meet God, we hear from God, we're
gonna believe in the covenant God. Look at 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 thy seed shall all families of the earth be blessed. And
behold, I am with thee and will keep thee in all places where
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. And I say this frequently, that
our God is a covenant God. Covenant, it means a promise.
When we say that God is a covenant God, here's what we mean. We
mean that God has purposed what he's going to do before time
began. He promised, this is what I'm going to do. He did it before
creation. He's not reacting to something
that his creatures do. God purposed, this is what I'm
gonna do. I'm gonna create the earth and this is what I'm gonna
do with man in it. This is my purpose, this is my promise.
I'm going to save a people out of that fallen race by my mercy,
by my grace, by the doing and dying of my son. That is my promise. God's a covenant God. And that's
what the Lord's telling Jacob when he tells him, I'm the God
of Abraham. I'm the God of Isaac. God, when he appeared to Abraham
and when he appeared to Isaac, what did he tell him? He gave
him a promise, didn't he? He gave him a promise. I'm going
to give you this land. All nations of the earth are
going to be blessed in thee. God promised to bless them and
to keep them. He promised to give their seed
the land of Canaan. Well, how many years later was
when God first revealed himself to his grandfather, Abraham,
now God's revealing himself to Jacob. And since God doesn't
change, he's saying the same thing to Jacob, he said to Abraham
and Isaac. God doesn't change. He's given Jacob the very same
promise he gave his father and his grandfather. He promised
him that the Messiah is going to come through him, through
his seed. Sinful Jacob. Jacob the sublater. Jacob who's
all alone because of his sin. The Messiah is coming through
his seed. And he's going to bless every
family on earth. All nations of the earth are
going to be blessed in him. And Lord went on. He promised
Jacob. He said, Jacob, I'm always going to be with you. You're
going to wander here and there and to and fro. But Jacob, I'll
always be with you. I know you feel like you're alone
now, but you're not. I'm with you. I'll always be with you. He promised Jacob he'd bring
him everywhere he went. He said, Jacob, this is a good
promise for Jacob to remember later on in his life when he
keeps on deceiving people and supplanting people. Jacob, despite
your sin, despite your failures, I'll never leave you nor forsake
you. I'll be with you every step of
the way. I'm going to give you everything I promised to give
you. Not because you earned it. I'm going to give it to you because
I promised to give it to you. That's my covenant, Jacob. And
you know the Lord God makes that promise to all of his people.
Jacob's no different than every other believer. Our God is a
covenant God. He's purposed to save his people
before creation. He's purposed to show his mercy
and grace. He's purposed to lead and guide
his people all through their lives here below. He purposed,
he promised, I'm going to save that sinful people. It's not
by their works. It's by the merits of my son. They're not going
to be righteous in their works. They're going to be made righteous
by the obedience of my son. They're not going to be holy
and sinless because of anything they did. They're going to be made holy
and sinless by the sacrifice of my son. The blood of my son
is going to wash them white as snow. That's the father's promise. before time began. And then God
created the earth. And everything he's done since
he first created the earth, this is what he's been doing. Saving
his people from their sin. Everything that God does, that's
the purpose behind it. Somehow and in some way, almost
always that we can't see, everything God's doing, he's doing to save
a people that he promised he would save. Then the fullness
of time, God's son came in the flesh, and he redeemed a people
from all over the earth. Not just that little Jewish nation,
Jews and Gentiles alike, people from every nation, from every
tribe, from every kindred, from every language, Christ paid the
debt for those people, made them debt free. And all human time is, is this,
God keeping his promise. Ever since then, the Lord's been
calling His people to Christ through the preaching of the
gospel. And I'm telling you this, sometimes they come in a trickle,
sometimes they come in a great big rush, sometimes you think,
well, nobody's coming, nobody's here. But I'm telling you this,
I don't care what, I hate to use the term results, but what
results that we see, I'm telling you this, all of those people
that God promised to save, all those people for whom Christ
died, they shall be saved. They shall be brought to Christ.
And even though they're just like Jacob, they're going to
stumble and bumble and wander to and fro, and they're going
to be full of sin, despite their shortcomings, and there are many,
they shall make it safely to glory. You know why? Because the Lord is their shepherd. See, not only did the Lord promise
to save them, He promised to lead them. He promised to guide
them. He promised to protect them.
He promised to bring them to the father. Here's why I can
say God's people shall be saved because the Lord took the responsibility
of the salvation of his people. He took the responsibility to
do everything that's necessary to save his people from their
sin. Now he's going to do it. He's
going to keep his promise and he can't fail because he's God.
Now I know sometimes we worry, but let me give you something
comforting. The Lord will never leave nor forsake his people
because of their sin. Gary, he already put it away.
There's no reason for him to leave. The Lord will never leave
nor forsake his people because he grows weary of them. He's
loved them with an everlasting, unchanging love. He won't grow
weary of them. The Lord promised to save his
people. He's not going to leave them. He's not going to forsake
them because the Lord always keeps his promise. And when you
can't see and you don't understand, hang on to the promise of God.
Don't look for any evidence or any reason in yourself. Keep
hanging on to the promise of God. He'll never leave nor forsake
his people because that's what he promised to do. And if the
spirit is ever pleased, to reveal God to us as the covenant God
who is going to do what he promised to do. I'm telling you, we'll
believe on him. And we'll happily trust all of
our soul to him. All of it. All right, then here's
the last thing. If we truly go to Bethel, we're
gonna meet God, we're gonna hear from God, we're gonna have to
be awakened. We're gonna have to be born again
in the new birth. Look at verse 16. And Jacob awoke out of his
sleep and 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.
Now, when Jacob woke up, he realized who'd been speaking to him. He
realized where he was. He didn't know that when he went
to sleep, did he? But he knows it now. Now you and I are born
spiritually asleep. Our parents bring us to the surface. Maybe we got a cute girlfriend
brings us to the surface. Or a handsome boyfriend brings
us to the surface. When we first come to hear the
gospel, let's face it, we're all asleep. We're spiritually
asleep. And I'll tell you what it means
to be spiritually asleep. We can't believe anything. We
can't understand anything. We don't know what's going on
around us because we're asleep. We can't believe anything until
the Holy Spirit wakes us up, until He causes us to be born
again. You know, the scriptures use the picture of being waked
out of sleep as a picture of spiritual awakening, the new
birth. And we keep preaching Christ, we keep preaching the
Word, because this is the message God the Holy Spirit uses to give
life in the hearts of His people. And if God the Holy Spirit ever
wakes you up, gives you life, gives you faith so that you see
Christ and you believe Him. If He's ever pleased to reveal
Christ to you in God's Word, you will believe Him. See, I
don't have to beg you to do anything. If the Spirit gives you faith
in Christ, you'll believe Him. If He gives you life, you'll
believe Him. You won't be able to help it. You'll worship Him
because He's given you a spirit of worship. But now it takes
the Spirit of God to do that. Only the Spirit of God can give
us life. Only the Spirit of God can give us faith. And when he
does, we're going to say the same thing as Jacob said. The
Lord has been here all along and I didn't know it. The Lord
has been speaking here all along. He's been speaking through his
word. He's been speaking through the gospel. But I didn't know
it. I was asleep. I didn't know it. But now I do. Now I know it. Now I see him. Now I hear him. And we'll say
the same thing Jacob says. I'm afraid. I fear God. And for the believer, the fear
of God is not being afraid of being punished or something like
that. The fear of God is a reverence of God. Brother Todd Nyberg gave
the best definition of the fear of the Lord I've ever heard.
If you want to know, do I fear the Lord? Here's the fear of
the Lord according to Brother Nyberg. You fear God if you are
afraid to trust anything other than Christ alone. That's fearing
God, fearing the Lord. That's what Jacob says here.
I'm afraid to trust anything but Christ. I'm afraid of what
I've been trusting him for now. I should have been trusting Christ,
but I didn't know it. I should have been listening to God speak,
but I didn't know it. Now I do. And if God ever is pleased to
reveal himself to you, you'll fear God that way. You'll be
like Jacob and you'll be afraid to trust anything but Christ
alone. And then Jacob says this in verse 18. Jacob rose up early
in the morning and took the stone that he had put for his pillows. I've been studying this this
week and every night I've been so thankful for my pillow. I
just love my pillow. Do you even have stones for a
pillow? That's what Jacob had. He took those stones that he
put up 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, the house of God. 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 up for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that
thou shalt give me, I will surely give the 10th unto thee. Now
here's what Jacob is saying. If God is truly my God, I'm going
to keep worshiping. I'm going to keep trusting. I'm
going to keep being afraid to trust anything other than Christ
alone. If God is truly my God, I'm going to keep coming here.
I'm going to keep coming back to Bethel. I'm going to keep
hearing from God. I'm going to keep trusting God.
I'm going to keep worshiping God. Continuing in the faith,
that's the evidence God saved you. Now, if it's something I
made up by myself or some experience I had moved me to do something,
that won't last. But if you continue in the faith,
that's the evidence that God has saved you. See, that's Jacob's
not saying here. Now, you know, God, if he'll
be good to me and he'll keep me, he'll bring me back to this
place. Then I'll trust him. That's not what he's saying.
Jacob's saying, if Lord brings, if Lord keeps me and protects
me, preserves me, brings me back to this place in peace, that's
the evidence God saved me. If I keep trusting Christ, that's
the evidence that God has saved me. And that is what happened. all throughout Jacob's life.
Near the end of Jacob's life, you know the story of Jacob's
life, he'd been reunited with his son Joseph. Jacob was dying
and he called Joseph to him. And he told Joseph, he said,
God has shepherded me all my life long. Just like he promised
to do here. He fed him. He led him. He preserved
Jacob. He brought him everywhere he
went. He did everything that God promised that He'd do for
him. God has shepherded me all my life long. And something else if we meet
God. God gives us faith in Christ. You can take your copy of the
law and throw it out the window. Because you don't need it. You
don't need it. You'll be led by faith in Christ
and love for Christ. I thought this was very interesting.
Now Jacob said this hundreds and hundreds of years before
the law was given. Of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely
give the tenth unto thee. Now why did Jacob say that? It
wasn't because the law required it, was it? It was just because
that's what the Lord laid on his heart to give. He didn't
need the law to tell him what to do. If God saves you, you're
not going to need the law to tell you what to do either. You
live by faith in Christ, by love for Christ, and following Christ.
And sure enough, throughout his life, Jacob kept believing God. Bless his heart, he's still a
scoundrel. But he kept believing God. He kept coming back to Bethel. He kept coming back to the house
of worship, and God kept speaking to him. And it's not because
Jacob was any good. It's because the Lord never let
Jacob and led him and guided him and kept drawing Jacob back
to himself. And that's my prayer for you
and my prayer for me. Tonight and every night God gives
us from here on out that God will keep us. That He'll keep
us coming to Bethel. That He'll keep speaking to us.
That He'll keep drawing us to Christ. That He'll keep us being
afraid to believe on anything other than Christ alone. That'd be a blessing. Let's bow
together. Our Father, how we thank you
for this beautiful picture of Christ our Savior, the ladder
who came all the way to earth where we are, all the way to
the deep pit where we're found to redeem a people from their
sins. And that he's the ladder to bring us all the way to you,
all the way to the presence of the Father accepted. Father,
how we thank you. Father, I pray that each of us
would be like Jacob of old tonight, that you'd reveal yourself, that
you'd reveal Christ to us as the all-sufficient Savior and
cause us to trust Him and rest in Him, to be led by Him and
to follow Him and trust Him all the days of our life. For it's
in Christ's precious name, for His sake and His glory, we pray.
Amen. All right, Sean. Okay, if you would, turn to song
number 471 and stand as we sing Love Found a Way.