If you have your Bibles with
you this morning, turn back to the passage that I read a little
earlier in Genesis chapter 28. This is the account of a dream
that Jacob had and the vision that God gave to him in that
dream. Now there was a time There was
a time when God communicated with his
prophets by dreams and visions. I could cite, if we had time
this morning, in the book of Daniel or Ezekiel or many of
the prophets. But in Hebrews chapter one, verse
one, Paul said, God, who at sundry, or various times, and in divers,
or different manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by
the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son. God spoke in unusual ways to
his prophets. God spoke to Abraham in a vision. I don't know if it was a vision
of the night or like a daydream or how it came to him, but he
spoke to Abraham in a vision. He spoke to Joseph in a dream. And he spoke to Moses, he said,
face to face. There was a time when God spoke
to his prophets through dreams and visions, and he often, in
those dreams and visions, gave such things that needed to be
interpreted. You remember he gave to old King
Nebuchadnezzar, he gave him a dream. He got a vision. But he couldn't
interpret it, and nobody under his command could interpret it.
He had to have Daniel to interpret the vision. And he often in those dreams
and visions, and you can, there again I'll cite Daniel and Ezekiel
and so on. And such as our text here in
Genesis chapter 28 needs to be interpreted. But you see, there's
nothing significant about a ladder set up on the earth that reaches
into heaven if we take this dream literally. You just cannot take
this dream literally. It has no meaning. And there's nothing to be gained
by seeing this ladder and then arriving at our own conclusions. I heard an Armenian preacher
use this text one time to illustrate a salvation made possible for
anybody who wants to climb up the ladder. That's not what this
dream is all about. But the Lord does not leave us
to draw our own conclusions, but he applies this dream to
Christ himself. In John chapter one, Verses 50
and 51. In the oddest place, I've read
this passage so many times and it just never did occur to me
what he was saying in this passage until I began this study back
here in Genesis 28. Our Lord said to Nathanael, because
I sit unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree. Is that what you
believe? Is that the basis of your faith,
because I said I saw you when you was out there under that
fig tree? Thou shalt see greater things
than these. And he saith unto him, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Hereafter shall you see heaven opened,
and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of
God. What are these angels back here
in Genesis ascending and descending on? The Son of God. Now that's what this ladder is
all about. Whatever this ladder is, it is
a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ who is himself the gospel ladder. Last week we looked at Ezekiel's
vision of the dry bones and this week I want us to look at this
vision of Jacob's ladder. And I have six things, I started
out with about 12 and I kept whittling them down until I got
down to six. But I have six things, if time
will permit, that are typified, pictured, in this ladder which
God the Holy Ghost reveals to us through this dream that he
gave to Jacob. First of all, this letter typifies
Christ as the one mediator between God and men. What is a mediator? What's that? That's a man whose assignment,
his office, is to make peace between two parties that are
separate. That's what a mediator is. He has to mediate the peace. He has to reconcile God and he
has to reconcile man. He's the mediator. And Paul said
to Timothy in 1 Timothy 2.5, for there is one God and one
mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. And as there is but one ladder
standing between heaven and earth, so there is but one mediator
between God and men. the man Christ Jesus. And this
ladder is Christ. Our text tells us that the Lord
stood above it. Who is the Lord? That's the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Lord stood above this ladder
and his presence was known at the bottom of it. Isn't that
the first thing Jacob said when he awoke? He said, surely God's
in this place, the Lord's here. The Lord's in this place. He
was at the bottom, He was at the top, and He's all in the
middle. As there is but one God, God
almighty, God eternal, God unchangeable, the just God, the holy and righteous
God. We have but one God, and this
God is just. He doesn't excuse sin. Sin must
be paid for. He doesn't wink at sin. We do,
but he don't. Every transgression must receive
a due recompense of reward. The soul that sinneth, he said,
shall surely die. God is just and God is unchangeable. God's never changed. God doesn't
change his mind when he saves a sinner. It was his intent from
the beginning to save the sinner. God doesn't change. He doesn't
change in his means. Situations change, don't they? Sure it does. Situations change. But God doesn't change. And the
situations don't change God. He reigns over the situation.
And God is almighty. God's eternal. He has no beginning. He's the just God, and He's a
holy God, and He's a righteous God. And then think about man. This mediator has to do with
God, and it has to do with man. Bawling, sinful, rebellious man. Unbelieving man. The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. He won't
take them. I don't want that. I don't want that. Unbelieving man. Unwilling man. You will not come unto me, our
Lord said, that you might be saved. Rebellious man, not subject
to the law, neither indeed can be. Ignorant man. He said, you
thought I was altogether such a one as yourself. Oh, what a
pitiful God, God would be if he was like me. You thought I was altogether
such a one as thyself. But he says, there's none that
understandeth and none that seeketh after God. They seek after their
God, their imaginary God, but not the God of Holy Scripture. These same men whose confession
is that they kept his law and did many wonderful works in his
name and preached in his name, in that day are gonna cry for
the rocks and the mountains to hide them from the face of him
with whom they have to death. Our Lord said, why do you not
understand my speech? Even because you cannot hear
my word. Ignorant man, dead man, you hath
he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin. Condemned
man, by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation. So that there's one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Christ alone is
our peace. We don't have Christ, we're not
at peace with God. Now that's just so. You can have
all the decisions you ever wanna make, you can exercise your so-called
free will all you want to, there's no peace between you and God
except in Christ. He is our peace. He alone can mediate the redemptive
will of God. He said, Behold, I come in the
volume of the book it's written of me to do thy will, O God,
by the which will we're sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all. Can you see Christ the mediator
in this letter? He's the mediator. There are
no blessings going to come down to man and no prayers going to
rise up to God apart from Christ. He's the mediator. And then secondly,
this ladder that God showed to Jacob in a dream teaches plainly
the goodwill of God toward man. It's the goodwill of God. Find
me another purpose for a ladder to reach from earth to heaven.
This is the goodwill of God. You see that ladder? That means
God intends to bless some. That's what that letter means. If God has no redemptive will,
no good will toward men, then why would he testify of a coming
redeemer? Why would he appoint a coming
redeemer? The angels declared plainly at
the birth of our Savior, they said, behold, I bring you good
tidings. They were going to announce,
they were talking about the coming of Christ into this world and
they said, we've got good news. Good tidings of great joy which
shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day
in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord. And
suddenly, Suddenly the heavenly host began to praise the Lord
saying glory to God in the highest and on earth now listen peace
Goodwill toward me Is Christ this ladder he said
he was He said that you're going to say yeah, it's not me seeing
you under the victory It's what I'm going to show you if it's
going to save your soul And I'm gonna show you Christ and on
him the very angels of God ascending and descending with the blessings
of God. Our Lord said in John chapter
three, verse 17, He said, for God sent not his son into the
world to condemn the world. His mission was not to judge. It was to save. That's good news,
isn't it? God, he didn't have to leave
his throne to condemn. We were condemned in Adam thousands
of years before we were born. That's what the scripture said,
in Adam all died. He didn't have to leave his Godhead
and assume the body of a man and come down here and accomplish
a work to judge this world. He came to save. That's why he
came. And there's just no other reason
for a ladder set up upon the earth that reaches into heaven.
So this ladder declares plainly the goodwill of God. I cannot tell you, because of the sham of religion
and because of its effect on men throughout this world, I
cannot tell you what a great privilege it is for any man to
hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. And then thirdly, this latter
typifies the sufficiency of our Savior. There is no need of anything
else but this latter. This ladder was sufficient for
the angels to do sin and us sin. Didn't need any help. Didn't
need any props. Didn't need any braces. I made my living as a
carpenter most of my life. And I'm going to tell you something.
On those big old two-story houses, and some of them with a finished
attic in them, you got that big 40-foot extension ladder up there.
I get thinking about being up there and up against that house
real close at the very top. I didn't want that bottom to
move. And sometimes I'd drive a stake in, keep this ladder.
This ladder's sufficient. You don't need a stake. I was
sitting in a window one time in a garage. I'll never forget
this. My brother was in the attic with
this little ornamental window, went up in the very gable of
this house. And I was on the outside, and I was standing on
the top rung of the ladder, and I pushed my body right up against
the house, and all I had to do was set that window in and run
some screws in it. And he handed me the window out,
and when he did, I went down one rung. The top rung broke.
And I went down one rung, and I was standing there like this,
looking at him, says, oh, the rungs on this ladder don't break.
This ladder is sufficient, it is all sufficient because this
ladder is Christ. His main purpose is to bring
things down from above and to take things up which are down.
That's the purpose of a ladder. Put a ladder up, you carry things
up that was down and you bring things down that were up. That's
the purpose of it. Father has blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly place, which blessings, he tells
us in James chapter 1 and 17, are from above and cometh down
from the Father of lights. That's how they get here. If
we're to have these blessings, they must come down from heaven.
And they can't come down from heaven except by this ladder,
which is Christ. He blessed us from the very beginning
before the foundation of the world. He blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. But not one
blessing's gonna come to me in a part from Christ. Christ said, I come down from
heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent
me. And this is the Father's will which has sent me, that
of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but raise
it up again at the last day. God's purpose and means by which
all shall be blessed come down from above in the person of his
son. And when he had finished the
work, ascended back into glory and us with him. He came down from God as our
appointed representative in head and wrought out for us a perfect
righteousness and then as our substitute died in our room instead
to satisfy the justice of God and declaring our God as just
and justifier of his elect. And when he finished the work,
he ascended back up into glory. He was delivered for our offenses
raised again for our justification. Let me tell you something that
may have never entered into your thinking. Faith is the gift of
God. It is the gift of God, the scripture
said, not of works, lest any man should boast. No man will ever believe unless
God enables him to believe. Is that right? That's what the
scripture says. Paul said to the church at Colossae,
he said, we give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ since we heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We continually thank God the
Father. Well, why? They're the ones that
believed. Why don't you thank them? because God enabled them
to believe. That's why. He said, because he hath made
us meet, that is, made us able to be partakers of the inheritance
of enlightened saints. Faith is the gift of your heavenly
Father, and it comes down from heaven via this ladder to all
its heirs. not going to be any faith given
apart from Christ. Is that right? He's the giver.
He's the author and finisher of our faith. That's what the
scriptures say. And then repentance is the gift
of God. It always follows the gift of
faith. Those who believe, repent. Is that right? You don't have... People don't believe and then
not repent. You can't do that. If you believe,
you're going to repent of what you are and what you've done. Repentance follows faith. And
when God gives faith, he gives repentance. What is it that leads a man to
repentance? The goodness of God? Where's
that goodness seen? In the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And if a person's granted the
faith of God's elect, it'll bear the fruit of faith, which shall
be evidenced by his repentance. And then here's another gift
of God, love. Love. Everyone that loveth, he
said, is born of God. He's born of God. And he knows
God. And this was manifested, the
love of God toward us, because God sent his only begotten son
into the world. So we can't even receive the
gift of love apart from that ladder, can we? By that ladder,
all the blessings of God come down upon men. And all the fruit
of those blessings rise back up to God. We love him because
he first loved us. and gospel preachings made possible
via this ladder, whereof he saith, when he ascended up on high and
led captivity captive, he gave gifts unto men. Now watch this. Now that he ascended, what is
it but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?
He that descended is the same also that ascended Up far above
all heavens that he may fill all things. And this one who
descended and ascended is he who gave apostles and prophets
and evangelists and pastors and teachers. Same one. Gospel preaching
made possible by our ascended victorious King, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And then thirdly, Jacob's ladder
typifies the sufficiency of our Savior. And fourthly, Jacob's
ladder was a standing ladder. It wasn't a ladder hung on the
hook on the shed. It was a standing ladder. Standing
ladder. How did it get standing? Did
men stand it up? Men build this ladder and then
push it up to heaven? Well, they tried that with the
Tower of Babel and it didn't work. so much for this ladder having
to do with men's works. Jacob's ladder was a standing
ladder, which tells us that the work of reconciliation is still
going on. As long as I was working on the
roof, I didn't take my ladder down. I lifted it up. I was using it. I had the wind
blow it down a time or two, but I didn't take it down. It was
a standing ladder. It tells me that this work of
reconciliation is still going on. This thing of blessings being
received by God and the fruits of those blessings rising back
up to God is still going on. It's an active ladder. He describes
this ladder as angels continually ascending and descending on this
ladder. Ladder's in use. It's in use. What if the ladder should be
taken away? Huh? All our hopes would be smashed.
Listen to this, if in this life only we have hope in Christ,
we are of all men most miserable. Talk about him here and worship
him here and sing about him here and then die like a beast. We'd
be of all men most miserable. So long as this ladder is standing,
we have a hope of life after death. We know that the means
of our being carried up to be with our Savior is in place,
and it's actively being used. And then fifthly, where this
ladder is revealed, God is present. God is present. When Jacob had
awakened out of his sleep, he said, surely the Lord's in this
place. This wasn't my dream. This had
nothing to do with me. The Lord is in this place. The Lord has spoken to me. The
Lord has given me this dream. I heard an old Nazarene preacher
talking about the mourner's bench at the front of the church, which
he called an altar. just to look like a picnic table
bench and set up here in the front. The older and rougher
it looked, the better they liked it. But he was talking to men,
this was kind of like an altar call, and he'd come down and
he was talking to the church and trying to get folks down
to the front. Now he said, this altar, he said, there's no efficacy
in this altar whatsoever. He said, it's just a place where
men meet God. Let me tell you something. You
find a place where men, sinful men, can come together with the
Holy God and you've found a place with more efficacy than you know
what to do with. And that's exactly what Jacob
saw in this letter. He said, oh, he said, this place
is a terrible place. This place unveils the God of
glory and sinful man. He said, the Lord's in this place. The Lord's in this place. Jacob said, when he awakened,
surely the Lord's in this place. And there's a time before our
conversion that he said we slept. He said, awake thou that sleepest. sleeping in the darkness of our
nature and walking after this world and according to the prince
of the power of the air. Paul said, all things that are
reproved are made manifest by the light. Wherefore he saith,
awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ
shall give you light. Where the Lord is present, the
ladder is seen and it's seen standing. And it's seen active. And it's seen carrying the blessings
of God. And our Lord said, where two
or more are gathered together in my name, there am I in the
midst. And then sixthly, where this
ladder is set up upon earth is called the house of God. Huh? Isn't that what Jacob said? He said, this is the house of
God. You find a place where you can
see the ladder. You find that place where you
can see what that ladder's for and where it stands and where
it reaches. You find that. You found the
house of God. Is that right? How important is it to gather
ourselves together to worship our God? Well, just from this
type alone, we can see that it's the only place where Christ is
both seen, felt, and desired. God's in his bosom. He built
a pillar the next morning. He took him stones and he laid
his head on it and he built a pillar. And then he anointed it with
oil as a testimony. We're commanded in the scripture
to forsake not the assembling of ourselves together as the
manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the
more as you see the day approaching. Jacob took the stones he used,
built a pillar, and poured oil upon it, and he called the name
of that place Bethel, the house of God. House of God. God's church is made up of all
his elect, And they're called his house if they hold fast the
confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. This
is his house. What's his house? This building?
No. His house is his church. And that ladder is set up from
his church. That's where you're going to
see the ladder if you see it at all. You're going to see it
there. You can see what it's for, where it goes, what comes
up and down the ladder. You're going to know all those
things, but you're not going to know any of them apart from
here, wherever God's house is. And then lastly, Jacob having
awakened out of his sleep, he had this to say. This is the
gate of heaven. Do you think of this place that
way? This is the gate of heaven. It's very apparent to me that
this ladder, although it was set up upon the earth, found
as its resting place the church of the living God. Upon this
rock, he said, will I build my church and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it. Christ and his church, he said,
are one. And his church is said to be
the pillar and ground of the truth. Would you see this ladder? Would you know its meaning? Go
to Bethel. Go to the house of God. That's
where you're going to find it. How important is it to have a
place where God's saints gather together, where the truth is
declared? It's of great importance. And
God shows us that in this letter. Now I hope that this is not the
last of these that I'll have. I want to, beginning next week
as our Sunday school lessons, I want to go through the types
in the Old Testament. And so we'll be looking at different,
some of them are dreams, some of them are things that God had
them to build, some of them are patterns. These are all mentioned
in the New Testament and declared to be pictures of Christ, and
that's what I want you to see. Because a little later on, you
get back over into the New Testament, and you'll find out just like
I did there in John, I find out that they were talking in Old
Testament language, but only those who were acquainted with
the Old Testament knew it. Nathanael was raised in the Old
Testament language, and when God told him, you're gonna see
heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending
on the Son of God, he understood what Jacob's Ladder meant. And
we will too. We will too, the Lord willing.