We're going to read from verse
one in Genesis chapter 35, and we'll read down to verse 21. And God said unto Jacob, Arise,
go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar unto
God that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of
Esau thy brother. Then Jacob said unto his household
and to all that were with him, put away the strange gods that
are among you and be clean and change your garments and let
us arise and go up to Bethel and I will make there an altar
unto God who answered me in the day of my distress and was with
me in the way which I went. And they gave unto Jacob all
the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings
which were in their ears. And Jacob hid them under the
oak which was by Shechem. And they journeyed, and the terror
of God was upon the cities that were round about them. And they
did not pursue after the sons of Jacob. 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 Elbethel, because there God appeared unto him when
he fled from the face of his brother. But Deborah, Rebekah's
nurse died and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak and
the name of it was called Alon Bachuth and God appeared unto
Jacob again when he came out of Paddan Aram 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, and 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 he talked with him, even
a pillar of stone, and he poured a drink offering thereon, and
he poured oil thereon. And Jacob called the name of
the place where God spake unto him Bethel. And they journeyed
from Bethel, and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath. And Rachel travailed, and she
had hard labour. And it came to pass, when she
was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not,
thou shalt have this son also. And it came to pass, as her soul
was in departing, for she died, that she called his name Benoni,
but his father called him Benjamin. 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. Amen. May the Lord bless
to us this reading from his word. I wonder if you have noticed
with me how often the Lord returns to Jacob to confirm and to reconfirm
the promises that the Lord had given him. I'm sure that when
you read these verses with me, you'll be thinking to yourself,
There's a lot of repetition here. We've read these verses so many
times before. And yet I think that there is
a purpose in the Lord returning to Jacob and, as I say, reconfirming
these promises to him. Because it seems to me that the
Lord visited Jacob at times in his life when he was under great
stress and anxiety. For example, when Jacob was fleeing
from Esau many years before, the Lord had met him here at
this place, Bethel or Bethel as we now call it. And when he
was returning to face Esau and he wrestled with a man whom we
believe to have been the Lord Jesus Christ in a human form,
we find that the Lord again came and reconfirmed these promises. And now that these sons of Jacob,
these boys of his own family had perpetrated this murderous
act upon the men of the city of Shechem. And Jacob was anxious
and fearful for what that might mean. Here, once again, we find
that the Lord comes and, as it were, reassures his servant by
a reiteration of these promises. And I think the lesson there
for us is to remember to remember. Remember to remind ourselves
or to be reminded of God's promises to us. And that's what we find
in the Gospel. The Lord God has given to His
church and His people great and precious promises in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And at times when we are anxious,
and at times when we are concerned, and at times when it seems as
if the stresses and problems and pressures of this life are
coming upon us, whether we're younger or whether we're older,
because you don't have to be very old to feel anxious and
to feel stressed. Remember the promises of God
in Christ to you. They will be a help when you're
anxious or when you're afraid. Now some people think that the
gospel is for people who are not Christians. but the gospel's
for you and for me today. The gospel is for us today. And I want us to have that immediacy
when we come around the word of God. I want it to be a thought
that, what is the Lord saying to me in this verse, in this
passage today, right now? in my circumstances, in my need. Because the Gospel as it is preached
to us, the Word of God as it is read to us, reminds us every
day of the promises of God towards us. Whether that's the promises
of salvation or the blessings of salvation. And every time
we hear the Gospel preached, we are reminded that the Lord
Jesus Christ has won for us wonderful blessings. The blessings of salvation
and the inheritance of God. We are heirs and joint heirs
with the Lord Jesus Christ. This is our possession. These
promises are real and they are true. ours. So let us remember
them as we hear the gospel preached. The Lord Jesus Christ has done
everything required to redeem and deliver and protect and secure
our lives for time and for eternity. And because of what the Lord
Jesus Christ has done, Peter is able to say, we have given
unto us these great and precious promises. So let us remember
these exceeding great and precious promises when we have to face
difficult situations and perhaps when we feel afraid. Let them,
these promises, as God repeated them to Jacob, let us in the
gospel hear them repeated to us for our comfort and for our
encouragement and for our help. Did you notice that when Jacob
went to worship, he removed all the idols from the people? Perhaps these were idols belonging
to some of the family members or to the servants that Jacob
had, or indeed, perhaps they belonged to the women and the
children that were now part of Jacob's group, those that had
come from Shechem after the crime that was committed there. They
were to get washed and they were to put on clean clothes. They
were to give up their idols, they were to get washed, and
they were to put on clean clothes. Because that was what they did
before they went to worship. Does that mean that we should
all get washed and put on clean clothes before we go to church?
Well, it might be a good idea if we did, but that's not really
what this is saying. What it is telling us is that
in order for us to worship God properly, we must be prepared
for that worship. We must be clean in our souls. We must be pure in our hearts. We must be righteous and holy
in our spirit. And we must have no other gods
before Him. Now that's a big ask. And indeed,
it's too big for any of us individually to be able to do for ourselves. But that is exactly what the
Lord Jesus Christ has done for all his church, for all his people,
and for you and for me, if we trust in his completed work. When he died on the cross, he
washed away our sin. He obtained for us an everlasting
righteousness like a garment, like a robe, like clean clothes
that we wear. And He ensured that in time He
would come and reign in our hearts as our God and as our King. It's
what we call conversion. We've had a couple of big words
already today. So we've had intercession and we've had conversion. This
is our conversion. This is the change that takes
place when the Lord Jesus Christ comes into the heart and life
of a boy or a girl or a man or a woman. and He gives us that
forgiveness of sins and He shows us that we are right with God
through His work. When the Lord Jesus Christ does
that, we are then able to worship God properly because we can thank
Him and we can praise Him for all that He has done for us in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And finally, just a little thought
here. We discover two deaths and we
discover the birth of Jacob's 12th son, Benjamin. Rachel was the wife that Jacob
loved and she died in childbirth. with Benjamin and her two children
were then Joseph and Benjamin and of course as this story unfolds
about Jacob and the children of Israel both Joseph and Benjamin
take on a particular interest and prominence in being the children
of the wife whom Jacob had loved from the very beginning, this
lady Rachel. And there is a very real sense
of sadness in Jacob's life at this time. And it shows us that
our lives are not immune from sadness, from the losses and
the griefs of this world and loss in this world. And so we
find Jacob burying his dead and grieving for his loss. And we will all, at some stage
and at some time in our life's experience, lose a loved one. And we will be sad for that loss
and for the space that has been left in our lives. But how wonderful
it is to know that those who love the Lord and trust him for
salvation have just gone on to heaven before us. That would
be Jacob's hope for Rachel, that she had just gone into the presence
of God and he soon would follow her to that place. So that soon
we shall be gathered together again with those that we love
in God's presence, in the place that he has prepared for us. And we have that hope in Christ. So once again, remember God's
gospel promises to us when we're in trouble. Remember that our
fitness for worship comes from what the Lord Jesus Christ has
done for us. And remember that we have a solid
hope in the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life in heaven with
his church and with his people. Amen.