Well, Genesis chapter 28 this
morning, the gospel in a ladder, in a ladder. The gospel, the
good news, concerns the way to the tree of life. You know, the
tree of life is about the life of God. It's the true life, it's
the true fundamental meaning of life, it's the life of God.
God is the source of all life, and the Tree of Life symbolizes
that which is the life of God. And we need to know, as sentient
beings made in the image of God, what is the way? How do we find
it? Man was shut out of the Garden of Eden, where in the midst of
the Garden was the Tree of Life. He was shut out for disobedience,
for sin, for breaking that fellowship with God. He was shut out of
that paradise of fellowship with God there in Eden. And when God
drove him out, he put a marker there at the east of Eden, and
basically it was a gospel marker. You see, There is a way to the
tree of life. You can't just walk up to it
and eat of it and live. There is a way, but God must
guard that way, and God must show that the only way is the
Lord Jesus Christ. The only way is a lamb, a lamb
who is slain, the lamb slain from the foundation of the world,
that all of the lamb sacrifices of real lambs symbolized. that
their blood symbolised the blood as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot, dying to redeem His people, the elect of God,
from the curse of the law, from the curse of their sin which
says the soul that sins, it shall die. all in a sacrificed lamb. That's the Gospel, and the whole
of the Scripture is about that Gospel. If you want to know what's
the Scripture about, it's that, and nothing else really. There
are all sorts of other things you will learn on the way, but
its purpose, and the purpose of God in giving it, is that
we might know the way to the tree of life. in the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is the Lamb of God. Behold, the Lamb of God. If you
are a sinner, which you undoubtedly are, for all have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God, and you desire peace with God
and the presence of God, then you must come to Him by that
only way. No man comes to the Father, said
Jesus, but by Me. For He alone is the way. His
blood is the only way that a man should be just with God. And
humanity, ever since the Garden of Eden and the Fall, humanity
is divided into the majority which is seeking their own way
to the Tree of Life, their own way via a false god, via an idol,
whatever sort it might be. Every religion of this world,
all of the humanism, all of it is man seeking his way to the
Tree of Life by a false god. a figment of his imagination.
That's one part of humanity, the majority. And then there's
the little flock, the minority. Right from the start, the minority
that calls upon the name of the Lord, that seeks fellowship with
the Lord in the way that the Lord has prescribed. Adam and
Eve learned that way and taught it to their children. But Cain
didn't believe. Abel did. He brought a lamb.
He believed. Then there was Seth. He called
upon the name of the Lord. And Enoch, and Noah, and Shem,
and Abraham called out of Ur of the Chaldees. They were living
in the world, but they were not of the world. And so it is to
this very day. The people of God, the people
who believe God, are living in this world, but they're not of
this world. They're seeking, as Abraham did,
a heavenly city. He looked for a city. He went
out looking for a city. What? With great buildings and
magnificent art? No. A city which has foundations,
whose builder and maker is God. God put him in a wilderness separation
from the world. He got on peaceably enough with
his neighbours, but he wasn't of them. He wasn't one with them,
no, He was separated from this world. As all of the people of
God down all of the ages, as we read in Revelation chapter
7 verse 3, the angels are told, the angels of wrath with the
punishments and judgments on the earth, they're told, hold
back. Don't pour forth the just judgment on this world yet until
every single one of the people of God has been sealed in their
foreheads. It's that seal of God, of gospel
grace, that seal of the knowledge of God, that you know it when
the rest of the world doesn't know it. God's seal of redemption,
of redeeming grace, not having the mark of the beast. The rest
of the world has the mark of the beast, which enables them
to trade and commune and to have fellowship in this world. The
mark of the beast. So it continues to this very,
very day, right from then, back in the beginning of Genesis.
How we understand the world today, if you understand it rightly,
if you understand it in the light of God's revelation, it all stems
from Genesis. That's it. As somebody once wisely
said, if you're wrong on the fall, you're wrong on it all. You will have a wrong understanding
of everything. Look at this world and everything
that's going on, the wrong thinking that there is. The wrong thinking.
I read a report that the BBC is, in place of schools being
closed down, is doing lessons for children, and that one of
the lessons has been reported as teaching young children that
there are a hundred different gender types, not just man and
woman, male and female created he them, we read at the start
of Genesis, not hundreds of gender types, that you can be whatever
you want to be, that's the philosophy of this fallen world. Anyway,
in Genesis chapter 28, and basically from Isaac and Rebekah, we saw
them going for a wife for Isaac, and Rebekah comes back, and from
them is born two brothers, Jacob and Esau. And like Cain and Abel,
sons of Adam and Eve, Esau and Jacob were twins, born to Rebekah. Chapter 25 and Verse 23, And the Lord said unto
her, that is, unto Rebekah, Two nations are in your womb, and
two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels, and
the one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the
elder shall serve the younger. He's speaking of Esau and Jacob. The elder shall serve the younger. Both of these men are grown now,
and both men are sinful. as all men are. There's none
righteous, no, not one. Both men are sinful. And Esau,
the elder of the two, he took heathen wives against the wishes
of his parents. And in chapter 26 and verse 23,
have I got that right? Hold on a minute. 26 verse 35, that's it. End of chapter
26. The wives that Esau took, he
took wives. Judith, the daughter of somebody,
the Hittite, and Bashamath, the daughter of Elon, the Hittite.
And it says of them, they were a grief of mind unto Isaac and
Rebekah. The wives that Esau took were
a grief of mind unto Isaac and Rebekah. But what about Jacob? He was a good boy, wasn't he?
He wasn't a cause of problems to his parents, was he, like
Esau? Well, don't get too excited, because Jacob was a sinner too.
Jacob was one who had robbed his brother's birthright. Esau
was the older of the two, and in the law of inheritance and
descent, Esau was the one whose was the birthright, by right.
But look at chapter 25 and verse 29. Jacob sod pottage, he made a
tasty stew. And Esau came from the field,
because Esau was a hunter, and he was faint with hunger. And
Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red
pottage, for I am faint. Therefore was his name called
Edom. And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. You
see, he deceived his brother, he took his brother's birthright,
he robbed his brother of his birthright. And Esau said, behold,
I'm at the point of dying. If I don't get something to eat,
I'm going to die. And what profit shall mine birthright do to me?
I don't really think anything of it anyway. And Jacob said,
swear to me this day. And he swore to him, and he sold
his birthright unto Jacob. He was a birthright robber. Secondly,
secondly, chapter 27, verse 35. Chapter 27, verse 35, he, Esau,
said, sorry, Isaac said of Jacob coming,
Esau came to be blessed of his father and he said, your brother
Jacob came with subtlety and has taken away thy blessing.
And Esau says, is he not rightly named Jacob because his name
means, Jacob means supplanter, the one who gets in where he
really has no right to be. He's the supplanter. These two
times, he took away my birthright, and behold, now he's taken away
my blessing. Haven't you reserved a blessing
for me? He was a supplanter. He was a birthright robber, a
supplanter. He was a deceiver. Chapter 27,
verse 19. Chapter 27, verse 19. This was all with Rebecca's help. He goes in, Jacob dressed up
as Esau, trying to smell like Esau from the field. He says,
Jacob said to, Isaac asked Jacob, who are you? And he says, I am
Esau, thy firstborn. He lies, he lies, he's a deceiver,
aided by his mother, Rebecca. And then he's a fugitive running
away from Esau, because in chapter 27, And verse 41, chapter 27,
verse 41, Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his
father had blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, the
days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then will I slay
my brother Jacob. And in verse 44, She said, go
away and stay until your brother's fury has turned away. He's furious
with Jacob and he's determined that he's going to kill him.
That was Esau. Jacob was, as Paul wrote to the
Ephesians, the Ephesian Christians, the Ephesian believers, in chapter
two, verse three, he tells them what they were before they believed
the gospel. He says, you were by nature a
child of wrath, even as others. That's what they were in their
natural state, children of wrath, even as others. And just like
the Ephesians, those Ephesians were chosen of God before the
beginning of time. and they heard the gospel and
believed it, and that's how Paul knew that they were the elect
of God. And Jacob likewise. Jacob was
loved of God from before the beginning of time. Why? It doesn't
seem fair, does it? It's sovereign grace. This is
the grace of God. The grace of God. God chooses
whom he will. Jesus said to the disciples,
you didn't choose me, I have chosen you, that you should go
and bear much fruit. No, Jacob was loved of God before
the beginning of time. This is sovereign grace. You
take it up with God if you don't like it, but that's the truth
that is revealed. Look at Romans and chapter 9,
the book of Romans chapter 9 and verse 10. But when Rebekah also had conceived
by one, even by our father Isaac, for the children, being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God, according to election, might stand not of works, but
of him that calleth, it was said unto her, to Rebekah, The elder,
Esau, shall serve the younger, Jacob. As it is written, it's
written in Malachi, this is what's written there, God said, Jacob,
meaning all the people of God, symbolizing all the elect of
God, all the sinners saved by grace, the multitude that no
man can number, Jacob have I loved. But he saw, have I hated, have
I left to himself? By comparison, it's like hatred.
What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? The natural mind might think so. God forbid. God forbid. He will have mercy on whom he
has mercy. This sinner, Jacob, as of all
God's elect multitude, he's a sinner. He doesn't know God, but he must
meet with God. He must hear the call of God. He must trust the salvation to
be accomplished in Christ. He must walk on with God, growing
in grace and the knowledge of our God and Savior. And he must
finally be taken to glory. That's the case of all the multitude
that God chose in Christ before the foundation of the world.
Here he is, Jacob, fleeing because of sin. Esau had sworn to kill
Jacob. We read that just a moment ago.
He said, I'm going to kill. He purposed in his heart to kill
his brother. I will slay my brother Jacob,
he said. And in verse 46 of chapter 27, Rebekah said to Isaac, I
am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob
take a wife of the daughters of Heth such as these, which
are the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do to
me? She was in such a state of upset and grief because of what
Esau and his wives were doing to her. So Isaac charges him
to go away. In verses 1 to 5 of chapter 28,
Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and charged him and said,
don't take a wife from the heathen women around us here, but go. Go to your mother's brother,
Laban, back where Rebekah came from, and take a wife of the
daughters of Laban. And God bless you and go with
you. And he sent him away. Meanwhile Esau got worse, verses
8 and 9, seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his
father, then went Esau to Ishmael, you know, the son of Abraham,
and took unto the wives which he had, he added to the wives
he already had, Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's
son, the sister of Nebijoth, to be his wife. But Jacob obeyed,
verse 7, Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone
to Paddanarum. He didn't know God. Jacob didn't
know God. He had seen his parents' faith,
and no doubt Isaac and Rebekah had taught their boys the gospel,
as Adam and Eve taught their boys the gospel. But so far,
neither believed God. All Jacob knew was that his deceit
had driven him from home. Here he is, fleeing. He can't
stay at home, he's away from home. He's fleeing from home,
the place he really wants to be. But he knew what it was that
had driven him there. It was his own deceit. It was
his own deception of Esau. It was his own lying to his father. All of these things. How could
he untangle the mess? Don't so many people find themselves
digging deeper and deeper into sin? and wondering, how on earth
can I untangle this mess? How can I go back and undo everything
that's happened, and make amends for what has happened? The answer
is, he can't. He couldn't. Neither can any
of us. When that realization comes upon
us, he can't go back and untangle it. His sins have separated him
from his family. Think about that, his sins have
separated him from his family. Worse than that, worse, Isaiah
59 verse 2, the prophet says this, your iniquities have separated
between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from
you that he will not hear. God is perfectly just in condemning
you and me as we are because we're all sinners. Psalm 51 verses
3 and 4, David's psalm of repentance when it was brought to his attention
by Nathan the prophet, that he was the man that had murdered
the husband of Bathsheba so that he could have her for his wife.
And David says, I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin
is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have
I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest
be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
Before the judgment seat of the Holy God, none of us will find
any excuse whatsoever. as Paul writes to the Romans
when he speaks in chapter 3 about there being none righteous, no,
not one, and he quotes Old Testament scriptures, indicting man for
the sin that is in man. And he says in verse 19 of chapter
3 of Romans, he says, now we know that what things soever
the law says, the law of God, the perfectly righteous standard
of God. What it says, it says to them
who are under the law, that's you and me, that every mouth
may be stopped. What's your excuse? Every mouth
stopped. No excuse. You cannot bring an excuse. And
all the world may become guilty before God. Let God be true and
every man a liar. You can wriggle all you like,
but every mouth is stopped before the justice of God. So then,
here he is, fleeing because of sin, and he comes to a certain
place. He lighted upon a certain place.
Obviously, in the purposes of God, it wasn't just anywhere. It was the place of God's choosing.
God meets with Jacob. Look at verses 10 to 15. And
Jacob went out from Beersheba, where his mother and father lived,
and he 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 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 God
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 to the east to the north and
the south and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families
of the earth be blessed. And behold, I am with thee, and
will keep thee in all places whither thou goest. And I 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." There's the
promise of God to Jacob. Jacob must have seen Isaac worship
the true God. He must have seen it. He must
have heard the promises of God. Isaac will have taught him the
promises that God had given to him and to his father Abraham,
and he must have been able to compare it with the Canaanite
idolatry all around, the Canaanite disbelief of God all around.
And he must have seen the grief that Esau's wives brought upon
his parents because of their idolatry, because of their departure
from the true God, or their refusing to hear anything of the true
God. And no doubt Isaac wished him
to meet God in Beersheba, where God had appeared to Isaac. Look
back at chapter 26 and verse 23. Back at chapter 26, verse 23,
Isaac, having had lots of trouble over wells with the inhabitants
of the land, went up from the last place to Beersheba. And
the Lord appeared unto him the same night and said, I am the
God of Abraham thy father. Fear not, for I am with thee,
and I will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's
sake.' And look what he did. He builded an altar there, and
he called upon the name of the Lord, and he pitched his tent
there. He settled where God met with
him. And there Isaac's servants digged
a well, that they might live there and worship God in wilderness
separation from the heathen Canaanites around them. But nevertheless,
Jacob saw it, and Isaac no doubt taught the gospel, he preached
the gospel there, he must have done to his household there around
the altar that he'd built. What was the altar for? That
a lamb might be sacrificed, a lamb speaking of Christ who would
come, the seed in whom God would bless all nations of the earth,
the seed that would come from them. So he appeared to Isaac, but
God's revelation of himself to a sinner is not mechanical by
human descent, not to any of you listening now, it's not mechanical
by human descent, it's of sovereign grace entirely. John 1 verse
13 says, who were born, people who are true believers, born
not of blood, it isn't by physical descent, genetic descent, born
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but of God. It is God who is sovereign in
this matter. As Jesus said to Nicodemus, the wind bloweth where
it listeth. The wind blows where it wants,
and you hear the sound of it, but you can't tell where it's
come from or where it's going to. So is everyone that is born
of the Spirit. The Spirit of God comes and reveals
the truth. It's not of him that willeth,
Romans 9.16, not of him that wills, nor of him that runneth,
but of God that showeth mercy. We're absolutely at the mercy
of God. Lord, be merciful to me, the
sinner. Lord, show mercy to me. Lord,
I believe, help thou mine unbelief, because if you don't help me,
I'm lost. Help mine unbelief. Here in a
wilderness, here in this place, in Genesis 28, Jacob is alone. He is away from the place where
he might have expected God to speak to him, where Isaac and
Rebekah no doubt wanted God to speak to him. But here, where
he is, alone, God speaks and reveals redeeming grace. You
see, our God is omnipresent. Where shall I flee from thy presence? Psalm 139, is it? Yes, I think
so. Wherever I go, you are there. God is omnipresent. God speaks
and reveals redeeming grace. Where will you find him? Where
will you find him? In a church building, perhaps?
You know, I've always... I mean, it would be very nice
to have a building, and lots of our friends in America have
some very nice buildings, and if it's right to have this sort
of envy, I envy them for the buildings that they have. But
you know, I have heard some talking a little bit enthusiastically
about the sanctuary. I'm sorry, the place where the
people meet is only the special place where God meets with his
people when the gospel of his grace is being preached there.
There's nothing about that space that's any different to the space
that I'm sitting in now. If the word and truth and gospel
of grace is being preached, this is the house of God. This is
the place where God meets with his people. See, wherever you
are, God can meet with you. Do you know where I think it
was for me, above all else, thinking back, you know, we've been involved
with religion a long time, but I think where I really learned
the true gospel, for me, it was probably listening to sermons
on cassette tapes in a rental car, on summer evenings in a
lay-by outside of the city of Bath in the west of England in
the 1980s. I used to get great bagfuls of
tapes from Bill Clark sent over from America and I used to take
a dozen of them away with me in the car and I was away on
business because the Navy had headquarters buildings in Bath
and I used to go and have meetings with them and stay in a hotel
and then of an evening I'd drive out, especially a nice sunny
summer evening, light evenings, and I'd sit and I'd listen to
three or four sermons just sitting in a lay-by before driving back
to the hotel. Are you going along, you know,
like I was? There you are, you're going along
like everyone else, and then in that place, God arrests you. Can you think of it, what it
was for you? You know, maybe entirely alone, maybe in a great
big crowd. But God arrests you and reveals
his grace to you and shows you the truth. You know, as Paul,
again, I've got to come to Ephesians 2, he describes to them, you
has he quickened. Chapter 2, verse 1, who were
dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the
children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation. You were just like everybody
else. Conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others. But God, there is the
arrest. There's the arrest. It wasn't
me, I didn't decide. God, who is rich in mercy. For
his great love wherewith he loved us, he has loved his children
with an everlasting love, we read in Jeremiah. He's loved
us with an everlasting love. There was never a time when he
didn't love his people. He loved us before the beginning
of time. Even when we were dead in sins, He's made us alive,
quickened us, made us alive, together with Christ. For by
grace are ye saved. That's the arrest of God. And
has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. That's now in truth. The deal's
done, the transaction's over, we're sitting in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus, that in ages to come, he might show the exceeding
riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus,
for by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God. And I could go on reading and
reading, but we hadn't time. There's no goodness in you when
God saved you. none whatsoever. While we were
yet sinners, says Paul in Romans 5 verse 6 to verse 8, while we
were yet sinners, this is how God commends his love to us,
not when we were showing signs of being different to the rest,
but while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We're stripped
of all our resources to buy any favour with God. You know, no
confidence in the flesh, stripped, there's nothing. Paul's religion
became as done to him in terms of value, it was of no value
whatsoever. What the hymn says, nothing in
my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling, naked come to
thee for dress. So the way to God is revealed
to Jacob in this desolate place, this Place of Bethel, as he calls
it, the house of God, Bethel, the house of God. Here in this
deserted place where he only has stones for a pillow, the
way to God is revealed. In verse 12, 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. It's a dream, yes, he's having
a dream, but nevertheless, God uses dreams. to speak to his
people? How is a justly condemned sinner,
remember Jacob's fleeing because of his sin, how is a justly condemned
sinner to enter the holy presence of God? God dwells in heaven. God is there in heaven, in sublime
holiness, in unapproachable light. How is a justly condemned sinner
to enter the holy presence of God? And the answer that God
gives him in this dream is via a ladder. There is a ladder.
It's the most obvious image, isn't it? If I want to get up
on my roof, I get the ladder out and extend it. Don't worry,
I'm not planning to do it any moment soon. A ladder standing
on the earth, a ladder standing on the abode of sinners and of
sin, but reaching into heaven, the presence of God, the abode
of God. the holiness of God. And on that
ladder are angels going up and down. What are angels? Angels,
we read in Hebrews, are ministering spirits. They're doing the bidding
of God to fulfil the purposes of God. Are they not all ministering
spirits? They're ascending and descending
on this ladder. They're coming and going from
earth to heaven and from heaven to earth. and God is standing
above the ladder and he's speaking promises of grace to Jacob and
to all the people that Jacob, all the sinners that Jacob represents. What is this ladder? What is
this ladder speaking of? This ladder typifies the Lord
Jesus Christ. Moses wrote the first five books
of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy,
those, the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses, And he wrote
those, and the Jews greatly revered what Moses, they wouldn't listen
to Jesus, they said, no, we've got Moses, we'll listen to him,
and Jesus said to them in John 5, 46, he said, had ye believed
Moses, ye would have believed me, for he wrote of me. When Moses wrote this about Jacob
seeing a ladder in a dream, when Moses wrote that by the inspiration
of the Spirit of God, he was writing of Christ. This ladder
is Christ. because God reveals the truth
of Christ, the truth of redeeming grace in Christ, in pictures,
in types, historical pictures, true stories, true accounts of
history, in types, in dreams, in the prophets, in the poetry
books of the Old Testament. God reveals to His saints how
the promised seed of the woman, Genesis 3.15, Christ, Christ,
the Messiah, would come and redeem his people from the curse of
the law. Had you believed Moses, you would
have believed me. Oh, I want to believe. I want
to believe. The blind man. I think I alluded
to it in my prayer. The blind man. Jesus said to
him, and it might have been more than one blind man, what do you
want from me? What do you want me to do for
you? And the blind man said, Lord, that I might receive my
sight. Oh, make that your prayer. If
you don't believe the truth, pray this, O Lord, give me spiritual
sight, give me that sight of the soul, which is faith, to
believe the gospel of grace. So God does reveal the truth
of Christ in pictures and types, and here the ladder is Christ,
and we know that because turn to John chapter 1, John's gospel
and chapter 1. There's Jesus starting to gather
some disciples and Philip and Nathanael, verse 45 thereabouts. And Philip, verse 45, found Nathanael
and said to him, we have found him of whom Moses in the law
and the prophets did write. You see, he knew it, didn't he?
He knew the truth of it, that Moses wrote of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He says, we found him, he's Jesus of Nazareth, a little,
what would the Americans call it, a two-bit town in Galilee,
nothing good there, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said to
him, can there anything good come out of Nazareth? And Philip
said, well, come and see. And Jesus saw Nathanael coming
to him and said to him, behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom
is no guile. Nathanael said to him, how do
you know me? How do you know me? And Jesus
answered and said, Before Philip came and called you, when you
were under the fig tree, I saw you. Because here is God in human
flesh. And Nathanael saw it, and Nathanael
believed. And Nathanael answered and said
unto him, Rabbi, Teacher, you are the Son of God, you are the
King of Israel. Jesus answered and said unto
him, Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, did you
believe? You shall see greater things than these. Now look what
he says, verse 51. He said to him, Verily, verily,
this is true. I say unto you, Hereafter, ye
shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending
upon Jacob's ladder." No, upon the Son of Man. Christ is Jacob's
ladder. Christ is the Son of Man. Christ
is the ladder that Jacob saw in his dream. by redemption's
price that was paid, redemption's price, the price of freedom,
the price to liberate those who are bound in captivity of sin,
by redemption's price paid by his, Christ's, precious blood,
the blood as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, Sinners
are justified and have access. The sinners whom the Father gave
to the Son, the sinners that God saved from the curse of the
law, they have access to God, from sin on earth, the foot of
the ladder, to holiness in heaven. This is why He became flesh and
walked among us, that He might accomplish this. We are accepted
in heaven in the Beloved. We are accepted in Him. Through
Him is the way into heaven. He is the door into heaven. He
says in John 10 verse 7, I am the door of the sheep. You come
in and out by me. I am the door of the sheep. He
is the only way. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. John 14, 6. No man comes to the Father but by me
because the chasm, the chasm from this sinful earth to the
holiness of heaven is too great. You cannot possibly cross it
in your own strength. And all the divine promises are
ministered by that way alone. Look in verse 13. Behold, the
Lord stood above it and spoke, I am the God of Abraham thy father
and I'll give you this land and your seed shall be as innumerable
as the dust of the earth and you shall spread all over and
in thee all nations of the earth, all the families of the earth
shall be blessed. That's Gentiles coming to faith,
to trust Christ. All of the divine promises, access
to heavenly bliss is there by Christ's redemption. The land
whereon you lie, I will give it you. That land was a picture
of heaven. And God said, I'll give it you.
And in Christ, heaven is the possession of all his people.
I will give you this land and to your seed. Jesus said, just
before he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life, he says,
I'm going away. I will go and prepare a place for you. In my
father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. He's given it to us. Heaven, the promise of heaven.
He says, for now I will be with you. Verse 15, behold, I am with
you and will keep you in all places where you go. All places,
wherever you go. Read Romans 8, 28. We know all
things work together for good to those who love God, who are
called according to his purpose. He's with us. He's with his people.
Also in verse 15, he says, I will keep you. I will keep you, you
will not be lost. It isn't for you to keep yourself,
He will keep His people. John 6, this is the will of the
Father that of all He has given me, all the people, the elect
of God that He has given me, I should lose nothing but should
raise it up at the last day. If Christ has died for you, if
you were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world,
He has died for you. His shed blood has paid redemption's
price for your sin, to release you from the curse of the law,
that you might be made the righteousness of God in Him, and therefore
you might be kept until He takes you to heaven. And there will
not be one missing, for of all that He has given me, I should
lose nothing. And meanwhile, he says, I will not leave you.
I will not leave you. I will be with you. I will keep
you. I will go with you. Hebrews 13 verse 5, I will never
leave thee, nor forsake thee. God will not forsake his people.
Here, finally, quickly, Bethel, the house of God, verse 16, Jacob
waked out of his sleep and said, surely the Lord is in this place,
and I knew it not. Read the article by Don Faulkner
that I put in the bulletin. And he was afraid, he was overawed
by the sense that God had met with him. How dreadful. He doesn't
mean how terrifying in a bad way. He means
how awesome is the idea that the sovereign God of the universe
has met with me and spoken to me and revealed heavenly things
to me here. This is none other, Bethel, this
is none other, what? This deserted place? This is
none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven.
And Jacob rose up early in the morning and made a vow to God,
since you've said you will be with me, etc. Bethel, is where
God is, it's where God dwells, it's where God reveals himself
to sinners for the purpose of gracious salvation. It's anywhere
and everywhere that God chooses to speak saving grace to your
soul, the souls of his people. You know, how is it that we see
the glorious light of God? He who caused light to shine
in the darkness at the beginning has shined in our hearts, the
hearts of his people, to give us the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It's where Bethel,
the house of God, is where he makes you willing to believe. It might be in a church building.
It might be in a big meeting. It might be in a car, in a lay-by,
listening to tapes. It might be as you read something,
a sermon written down maybe 200 years ago, and it speaks to you
in a way that nobody else has ever spoken to you. but the fact
that you believe it shows that you're of the elect that Christ
died for. We are bound to give thanks all
the way to God for you. Brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. Have you been to Bethel? Has God revealed himself to you
there? Not a physical pilgrimage, but where you are, has the omnipotent,
omnipresent God spoken gospel grace to you and given you faith
to believe it. That's my prayer, that he might,
that he would. Amen.