Bye. Now, I want you to turn
with me this week to Genesis chapter 28, the passage that
we read earlier. Now, we've been looking at the
Old Testament Scriptures because of what our Lord Jesus Christ
said in John's Gospel, chapter 5, verse 39. Speaking to the
scribes and Pharisees, he said, you search the Scriptures, for
in them you think that you have eternal life. And that's right.
In the Scriptures is eternal life. And then he said this,
he made this remarkable statement. These Scriptures are the ones
that speak, that testify of me. The scriptures testify of Christ. That's what they're for, everywhere.
This is why we have the scripture, is to testify of Christ. It's
not God telling us how to live, it's God telling his people how
he saves them from their sins. And why do they testify of Christ?
Because Peter said, there is none other name under heaven,
given among men, whereby we must be saved. There's none other
name. And what is this about salvation? We're sinners. And
God is holy. And God's justice must condemn
sin. So how must I be right with God? How can I be right with God?
There's nothing I can do. There is no lengths I can go
to. There is no sacrifice I can make that will pay the debt.
but Christ has paid the debt for his people. That's why it's
important. This is about eternal life. This is about salvation. Believing
the gospel of grace is not a lifestyle choice. Oh, what things are you
into? Oh, I'm into this, and I'm into
that, and I do these things. Oh, I just also happen to believe
the gospel of God's sovereign grace. It's not a lifestyle choice. It's totally life transforming.
It's totally different from anything else. It's important. It's about
the only way to God, who is Christ. The only way. And this is the
most important thing of eternity. Being right with God for eternity.
And Christ is the only way. It's about the only way to the
eternal bliss of heaven. eternal bliss of heaven. It's
about justification, being declared right with God, legally just
with God. People pursue philosophy, the
philosophers of this world are always trying to work out what
is it all about, and you know there have been great philosophers
who've committed suicide because they've discovered that there's
no meaning to it, so they've committed suicide. But Christ
is the wisdom of God. He's made unto his people the
wisdom of God. He's wisdom from God. He is the
wisdom of God. He is the ultimate philosophy,
if you like, without being irreverent. He is the ultimate philosophy
of the universe. He's the wisdom of God. He's
the righteousness of God. We're told that we must be as
righteous as God is to go to heaven. How holy must we be?
As holy as God. God will not accept anything
else. Where are you going to get that holiness? We're told,
follow it, pursue it. Go after it, seek it, the righteousness
of God, the holiness of God, without which no man shall see
the Lord. It's only in this one of whom
the scriptures testify. He is our sanctification, because
we don't sanctify ourselves in any way whatsoever. God sanctifies
us in Christ, choosing us in Christ, making us holy in Christ,
imputing his righteousness to us, imparting a holy nature to
us. sanctification from God, and
redemption. Oh, what a debt there is to pay,
but he's paid redemption's price for his people. This is why it's
important. This is why knowing these scriptures
which testify of Christ is so vital, and to know him, and to
be found in him, and to be hiding under his presence. You know,
it is described in Isaiah 32, is it, as a great and mighty
rock, the shadow of a mighty rock in a weary land. And he's
that rock, that hiding place from the judgment of a just and
offended God. And we've seen how the scriptures
testify of him in examples. The scriptures testify in people,
in places, in things, in events. And we've looked at Adam, how
Adam testifies of Christ in going down into sin for the love of
his wife and Christ. was made sin for the love of
his wife, the church, his bride. He loved his church and gave
himself for it that he might purify his church and make it
holy and without spot before him. We've seen how Abel and
the blood of Abel that was shed by his brother That blood is
a mark of, is an indication of the blood of Christ which speaks
better things than the blood of Abel. The blood of Abel cries
out for justice, the blood of Christ cries out for forgiveness.
And Enoch who walked with God and was not. How did he walk
with God? By faith. How else could he have done?
Without faith in Christ, it is impossible to please God. And
Noah speaks of Christ, testifies of Christ. For Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord, and built an ark when God destroyed
all flesh, all air-breathing flesh. And Abraham, We're sampling,
we saw Abraham, and how he was promised a son, and last time
we were together, how he went to the lengths of sacrificing,
or being ready to sacrifice that son, thinking that this son of
promise, Isaac, was the one in whom the seed would be redeemed,
but God showed him, he had a sacrifice of his own. Pictured in that
ram, the Lamb of God. Every page, all for the purpose
of revealing the mystery of Christ, to the elect of God. We're here
in sinful flesh, don't we know it? Don't we know it? Every day,
we're here in sinful flesh. But if we're children of God,
we have a new nature by the grace of God. He's given us a believing
heart. He's made us willing in the day
of His power to believe Him. And we're on a journey to eternity. We're walking with God by faith. Hebrews 11, all those people,
by faith. They walked with God by faith.
And what was that faith in? The Lord Jesus Christ. they were
looking to him. It was the faith of Jesus Christ
that saved them, and he had given them faith to believe in that
and look to it. So now we're just sampling, I'm
not making this a series on Genesis, but I want to look at unworthy
Jacob today. Unworthy Jacob in chapter 28
of Genesis. The name Jacob means supplanter,
deceiver. In what did he supplant and deceive?
He was the younger of the two twins. Esau was the older one,
the first one to be born. Esau was the one that should
have had the birthright of the blessing of the Father as the
firstborn. Oh I know political correctness
today would be up in arms at the very concept of this and
would tell us what an ancient and unfair book the book of the
Bible is. I'll just leave people who bother about such trivia
as that just to wallow in their own musings. The scriptures declare
that it was the firstborn that was to be given the blessing
of the father but Jacob had deceived his brother and his father Jacob
had stolen the birthright. He'd conned Esau, and there's
no excuse for Esau's weakness and stupidity, but he'd conned
him out of his birthright. So Jacob is the supplanter, the
deceiver. And if you want to know where
I get that from, what was Jacob really like, then let's ask Jacob. What do you reckon of your life,
Jacob? and this was a question that was asked of him by Pharaoh
when he went down into Egypt at the end of Genesis he went
down to Egypt and you know all the story of Jacob which we might
come to later in coming weeks But he'd gone down into Egypt
because of the famine and Pharaoh met him, the father of the one
that had saved Egypt and all these people, Joseph, Joseph's
father. And he said to him, he said,
how old are you? You know how we look, we love
to say to old people, you know, there's a certain age when it's
not, it's not polite to ask somebody's age, but when people get older,
they like to be asked, how old are you? You know, my, my mom
likes to be asked how old she is. Oh, I'm nearly 91. People,
when they get older, they like to be asked how old they are.
And Pharaoh said to Jacob, how old are you? And Jacob said this,
the days of the years of my pilgrimage are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days
of the years of my life. Few and evil. That was Jacob's
own testimony. What do you think about your
life in the flesh, Jacob? not very long and full of evil,
full of sin. Is that not us? Is that not us
by nature? Every one of us. And when it
comes to who should be deserving of blessing, we wouldn't judge
Jacob as worthy of blessing, would we? He wouldn't be our
choice, but thank God. It is God's choice. He is gracious,
he says, to whom he will be gracious. And he will have compassion upon
whom he will have compassion. Oh, I don't like that. That's
not fair, says the worldling. Well, you can like it or dislike
it, all you like. It's a fact. It's a fact. God
is the God of the universe, and God will be gracious to whom
he will be gracious. Here is unworthy Jacob, and he's
fleeing from Esau, who's determined to kill him. He's going where
his parents, Isaac and Rebekah, had told him to go, to Paddan
Aram, to go and seek a wife, not from the daughters of Canaan,
but from those that were of his own family. Go and seek a wife
there. He's fleeing from Esau, he's
entirely alone, and God comes to him and speaks to him in a
dream. Look at verse 11. He lighted
upon a certain place and tarried there all night because the sun
was set. Can you imagine how dark it must
have been? I don't know if there was a moon up, but how dark it
must have been. And it can't have been a very comfortable
place. He had no camping equipment with him. He just lay down and
he needed something to rest his head on. And there was nothing
other than the stones of the place. Do you know, I love getting
into bed and having a soft, fluffy pillow to rest my head on. Don't
you? Yeah? Can you imagine having
to lie down on a pile of stones for your pillow? Wouldn't it
have hurt your head? Can you imagine that? Pile of stones
for a pillow. That's right. So that's all he
had was a pile of stones for his pillow. So he put them for
his pillows and lay down in that place to sleep. And verse 12,
and he dreamed. God sent him a dream. And behold,
what was in the dream? A ladder set up on the earth
and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels
of God ascending and descending, going up and down the ladder.
A ladder is a very useful item. Of all the things I've owned
in my life, it was like a major milestone when I got myself my
first proper ladder. This great achievement, I've
actually got a ladder now. It's so handy for doing things
like you need to get up to the gutters, then you've got a way
of doing it. You stand on the earth, you cannot
jump that high. Oh, a ladder is a very useful
piece of equipment. It's great for bridging gaps.
You see the Arctic explorers, the Antarctic explorers who go
off on those places and Everest explorers where there's snow
and ice. And you know, they take a ladder with them. Why? Because
there are these great crevices that they can't get across. And
the ladder is such a useful thing to get across. It's good for
bridging gaps. What's its spiritual meaning?
Its spiritual meaning is Christ. You say, what an unlikely picture
of Christ. A ladder? A ladder is a picture
of Christ. But it is. How do we know? John
chapter 1 verse 51 right at the start of Jesus' ministry he's
called Simon Peter he's called Andrew his brother they've gone
and got Philip and Philip has gone and got Nathanael and as
Nathanael's coming to Jesus, Jesus looks at him and says behold
an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile and Nathanael says
how do you know me? And Jesus says, while you were
still under the fig tree, meditating and praying, I saw you. And Nathanael
knew that this was one who was God. He said, behold, he said,
surely you are the son of God. And Jesus said to him, because
I said that to you, you've believed. He said, you'll see greater things
than this. He said, you will see the son of man, and you will
see the angels of God ascending and descending upon the son of
man. Is that not a direct referral
to verse 12 of Genesis 28? Jesus, our Lord Jesus Christ,
is what is pictured in this dream. The one who bridges the gap from
earth to heaven. The one alone who bridges the
gap from earth to heaven. This reveals Christ. How shall
a sinner like you and me attain to heavenly glory? Is that not
what we want? We all stand on the threshold
of eternity. We're all moving closer and closer
and yet we're earthy. We're of the earth, says Paul
to the Corinthians in the end of 1 Corinthians. And God is of purer eyes than
to behold iniquity and cannot look upon sin. He must punish
and judge sin. How are we going to bridge that
gap? Only by a suitable ladder. and a suitable ladder is one,
look at it in verse 12, a ladder set up on the earth and the top
of it reached into heaven. That's the ladder we need. A
ladder that is firmly grounded on the earth and yet it reaches
up into heaven. reaching up into heaven. And
by it, the blessings of God coming to us by his angels. What are
angels? Ministering spirits. Are they
not all ministering spirits? They bring the blessings of God,
every blessing in spiritual places in Christ. This is a gap between
earth, sin, the flesh, lostness, the fall, and the bliss of heaven. This is a gap which is enormous.
This is a gap that is mediated, that is bridged by the one mediator
for, as Paul writes to Timothy, 1 Timothy 2.5, there is one God
and there is one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ
Jesus. Not the many men, the man. There's only one, Christ Jesus.
There's only one ladder. Have you seen that ladder? Have you seen it? Where do you
see it? Look at verse 17. Look down at verse 17, Jacob
was afraid and said, how dreadful is this place? How full of reverence
is this place? This is none other but the house
of God. But Jacob, you're not in a temple.
Jacob, you're not in a tabernacle. You're not in some holy place.
Jacob, you're just in a desert wilderness place with nothing
there but a pile of stones for your pillow. And you say, this
is the house of God? This is the gate of heaven? Surely,
this is what people would call the most God-forsaken place on
earth. Ah, no, in the purposes of God,
this is the house of God. Because why? Because here, in
this wilderness place, God revealed his son to Jacob. God revealed
the Lord Jesus Christ to Jacob in that ladder. God revealed
the source of all the blessings of God to Jacob in that ladder,
coming by those ministering spirits. He said, this is the house of
God. This is the very house of God. This is where Christ is
revealed to his people. It's where God chooses. It doesn't
matter where it is. I tell you, the least likely
places on earth where you are to be able to say, this is the
house of God, are those that the religious world calls the
house of God. They call it the house of God,
I tell you. You know, people say, oh, oh, so-and-so's a Christian,
oh, does he go anywhere at all? I say, no, he doesn't, there's
nowhere that he can go. Oh, surely he must go, try to
go somewhere, there must be some sort of a church. Go to any sort
of a church rather than go nowhere. Do you know, that's completely
opposite to the advice I would give. I would say, unless You
can find a church where there is a faithful pastor preaching
the true gospel of grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. Stay at home
and listen to the internet. Do not go to the religion of
this world. Do not go to the Christianity
that is manufactured by those whose God is their belly, who
are in it just for what they can get out of it. Do not go
to those places, for they will do nothing other than corrupt
you. Oh, but they have good fellowship there. No, they're just a social
club. Don't go there. This is the house of God, where
God meets with his people. Paul said this, describing where
he found God, because it wasn't he that found God, it was God
that found him. He said, it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother's womb. It pleased God. It didn't
please Paul. Paul was Saul of Tarsus heading
to Damascus to take prisoners. It pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me. He called me by His
grace. I didn't choose Him. He called
me by His grace. What did it please Him to do?
To reveal His Son in me. That's what God does for His
people, by His Spirit, to reveal His Son in me. Here, as we gather,
two or three, as He's promised, in His name, Or even, I know
there'll be some in this situation, alone, at home, listening on
the internet. Just alone, one on their own.
Just like Jacob, in this lost wilderness, alone. This is the
house of God, where Christ is revealed. Elijah was alone in
a cave, fleeing from Jezebel, and God appeared to him. And
there was a great wind, and there was a great earthquake, and there
was a great fire, all the sorts of things that you would think
would manifest the majesty of God. And was God in the earthquake,
the wind or the fire? Not at all. In what was God heard? In that still, small voice of
calm. Still, small voice of calm. Anybody listening to me who gets
any comfort whatsoever from the numbers that are joining with
them, I'm telling you, you're utterly deluded. Put that to
one side immediately. One sinner alone with the grace
of God revealed to him is in the house of God, as Jacob was. How is sinful Jacob to attain
to eternal glory? How is that promised seed, because
you remember those verses we read in the middle there were
all about that same promise to Abraham and to Isaac, the seed
would be blessed in him, there would be in him all the families
of the earth shall be blessed, that's talking about the salvation
of the Gentiles isn't it? All the families of the earth
will be blessed. How is it to happen? How is the seed to be
blessed in him? Only by this ladder, only by
Christ. The ladder is revealed. Behold,
a ladder set up on the earth. This ladder is the only way to
God. It's the only bridge between
sinful earth and glorious, holy heaven and the God who is there.
And God is standing above, speaking grace to Jacob. Philip Henry,
related to Matthew Henry, the commentator, wrote these things,
six things of this ladder. Found them and I think they're
worth repeating to you. Number one, this ladder was a
living ladder. The ladder I've got in the garage
is not a living ladder. It's a pretty inert piece of
metal. Aluminium. Aluminum for any Americans listening.
It doesn't rust. I can leave it out in all weathers
and nothing ever happens to it. It's not living. This is a living
ladder. Our Lord Jesus Christ is a living
Lord Jesus Christ. He lives. I know the charismatics
love to wave their arms in the air and sing this and they don't
know what they're singing because the Jesus they're talking about
is not the Jesus of Scripture. But our God is a living Lord
Jesus Christ, he's a living ladder. Hebrews 10.20 says we come by
a new and living way which is consecrated to us through his
flesh, through the veil that is his flesh. And what does that
mean? It means that our ladder Our living ladder, our living
way, had to be man. He had to be set up on earth
to be the way. When Jesus said, I am the way,
the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father but by me,
he could not be the way unless he was set up on the earth, unless
he became man. He's a living ladder. Secondly,
he's a long ladder. the ladder I've got is okay for
getting so far but it's not a very long ladder you get those which
have got pulleys on them that go very very high he is a long
ladder because he is the ladder that spans the gap between the
holy God in heaven and sinful man on earth and how wide is
that gap how wide is that gap you know the more the child of
God knows of God The more the child of God knows of God, the
more we know how holy he is, how high, how majestic, how he
dwells in unapproachable light, how we in our sins cannot ever
approach him, how much we deserve his condemnation. The more we
know of him, the more we know. Like I've told you many times,
Job, God said that compared with other men, Job was the holiest
man that ever lived. But, but, Job was a sinner. Job had heard of God with the
ear, but now he says, I've seen with the seeing of the eye. He
says, I've seen. And now he says, I abhor myself. because I've seen what you are.
I repent in dust and ashes because he'd seen who God is. The more
we know of God, the more we know what sinners we are. The reason
why people around us don't know they're sinners is they think
like that psalm says, I can't remember which one it is, is
it 59 or 14? It says, where God says, you
thought that I was altogether such in one as you are. People
think that if there is a God, He thinks like they do, and therefore
they don't think He condemns sin, because they don't condemn
sin. They don't think they're sinners. They have no concept
of sinfulness, because they don't know the true God. They think
He's just such and one as they are, but He isn't. He's holy.
He dwells in unapproachable light. But God, in seeking to save his
people, set up the ladder to heaven on earth. Galatians 4
verse 4, when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth
his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem those
who were under the law. The Lord Jesus Christ came. Rejoice! The angels said, didn't they,
to the shepherds, you know, good tidings of great joy to you and
all, for unto you is born this day, unto you is made man this
day in the city of David, Bethlehem, a Saviour which is Christ the
Lord, the Promised One. That's why rejoice! He's come. Anna and Simeon rejoiced when
they saw him, this little baby. The salvation of God has come,
by whom we shall be redeemed and stand in our flesh. I know
that my Redeemer liveth, said Job, in the midst of his suffering,
and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth, and
the worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. Is that your testimony? Can you
say that? He's set upon the earth, made
of a woman, made under the law, but he's always in heaven. He's
on earth to redeem man. Why? Because man sinned. It must
be by man that redemption is accomplished. The price of sin
is life, and the life is in the blood, and therefore the blood
of a man must be shed for the sins of men. It cannot be any
other way. There must be a body prepared,
as Hebrews 10.5 tells us. He's in heaven because the sacrifice
needs to be of infinite value. You see, God in himself, a spirit,
could not suffer for sins. God alone in his holiness as a spirit could not suffer,
he could not pay the debt to his own justice of the sin of
his people. And man, a man, no man could
ever satisfy that justice of God for the sins of his people. But Christ, the God-man, set
upon earth, but reaching into heaven, suffered divine wrath,
and by his infinite Godhead, because he is the fullness of
the Godhead that Paul tells the Colossians in him in Christ in
that man dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily in his
infinite Godhead he's satisfied divine justice on the cursed
tree Galatians 3.13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of
the law, being made a curse for us. He came. He had to. He had
to be a man. He had to shed his blood. He
must be God to deal with God, and he must be man to deal with
man. He is, as we sang in one of the hymns, Immanuel. What
does Immanuel mean? His name was Immanuel, God with
us. Think of it, people, human beings.
There was a man, Christ Jesus, 2,000 years ago, who walked this
earth, and he is God with us. He is a long ladder. Thirdly,
he's a lasting ladder. I'll skip over these. He's a
lasting ladder. He doesn't change. He doesn't
change in any way. He wasn't just a ladder for Jacob.
He's a ladder today, the same, yesterday, today, and forever.
He is exactly the same. I am the Lord, I change not.
Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. He came in to establish
everlasting righteousness, says Daniel. Everlasting. The ladder that he is, bridging
that gap, set up on the earth and reaching into heaven, is
an everlasting righteousness, an everlasting ladder. He is
able, therefore, to save to the uttermost. Fourthly, he's a free
ladder. He's a free ladder. He's open
to all who come. Do you know the only thing that
keeps you out of heaven? Oh, they'll say, those that hate
our doctrine. It's your doctrine of election
that keeps me out of heaven. No. No, it's only unbelief that
excludes. It's only unbelief. I know this
is a mystery, but this is true. No one will ever be able to accuse
God and his sovereign grace for barring them from heaven. It's
their own unbelief. Their own unbelief. He is the
open door. Listen to what the scripture
says. Revelation 22, 17. The spirit and the bride say,
come. and let him that heareth say
come and who is he talking to? let him that is thirsty come
thirsty for what? thirsty for the water of life
thirsty for spiritual life and whosoever will whosoever will
whosoever wants to come Let him take of the water of life freely.
He's a free ladder. He's a firm ladder. Fifthly,
he's a firm ladder. Steadfast. He's an anchor of
the soul. He's a mighty rock in a weary
land. You know, when you put a ladder
up, you're always concerned that it's going to slip. You often
get somebody to hold the bottom of the ladder. Could you come
and hold the bottom of this ladder for me? There's so many accidents
happen with ladders, ladders domestically. But this is a firm
ladder, a steadfast ladder. This isn't going to be moved
in any way whatsoever. And sixthly, this is a fitted
ladder. It's fitted for its, it accomplishes
its purpose. 2nd Timothy 1 verse 9, He has
saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given
us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Isn't that a blessing?
That we're saved and called with a holy calling. Now isn't this
a blessing not according to our works? Where would you be if
it was according to your works in any measure? I'd be nowhere. I'd be cast out, not according
to our own works, but according to his own purpose and grace. It's perfectly suited to accomplish
its purpose of getting us to heaven. After the flood, those
great rebels that grew up because of sin, Nimrod, they built Babylon
and they built the Tower of Babel, and the Tower of Babel was an
attempt to get from the earth to heaven, a tower that will
reach into heaven, and God confounded them. This is no Tower of Babel,
this is God's ladder from earth to heaven. Now let's apply it.
Do you see the gap? Do you see the gap that exists
between where we are as flesh and the glory of heaven? Do you
see something of how high God is and how base we are as sinners? Do you see your need? Do you
see yourself standing, however young or old you are, standing
on the threshold of eternity? You know, summoned out into eternity
at any moment, do you see your infinite need to be right with
God? Well, where will you get that
need? Philippians 4.19, My God shall supply all your need. All your needs! Yes, you have
material needs now, and we give us this day our daily bread.
There's nothing wrong with that. We need God to provide what we
need now. But our needs, truly, are eternal
spiritual needs. And My God shall supply all your
need. according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Grace
and peace, says Peter, be multiplied unto you through the knowledge
of God and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine power
hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness."
He's given us all those things. All things. He's given us the
gift of God. through the knowledge of Him.
How? Through the knowledge of Him, through the knowledge of
Christ, that has called us to glory and virtue, whereby are
given to us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these
ye might be partakers of the divine nature. If you are a partaker
of the divine nature, God's going to welcome you. into that eternal
glory of his by that ladder that he set up on the earth and reaches
up into heaven. All of these blessings come to
us through this ladder by his ministering spirits. What must
we do? Look at verse 12. Look at verse
12. He dreamed and behold a ladder. And behold a ladder. Do you know
often that word behold is used of Christ. Look. Look. Behold the Lamb of God, said
John the Baptist to two of his disciples as Jesus came. I'm
telling you all these things, but he's coming. Look at him. He must increase. I must decrease. Look at him. Behold the Lamb
of God. And here, behold a ladder. Look. Look. When the children
of Israel were bitten by those serpents in the wilderness wanderings,
Numbers 21, they were bitten by those serpents, and Moses
was told, make a brass serpent that looks just like the thing
that's killing you, and setting up on a pole, and hold it up,
and say to the people, look, and all that looked lived, and
those that would not look through unbelief, they died. A brazen
serpent. What were they told? Look. Look. Look unto me, says God
in Isaiah 40. Look unto me, all ye ends of
the earth, and be ye saved, for I am God and there is none. Look,
behold, a ladder. Behold the Lamb of God. Verily,
verily, said Jesus to Nathanael, I say unto you, hereafter you
shall see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and
descending upon the Son of Man. Look at this ladder. Look at
Christ. The Scriptures testify of Him
here. But it calls for a response,
doesn't it? When we see these things, when we hear these things,
We don't remain passive. It isn't, like I said earlier,
just a lifestyle choice of a philosophy that we choose to follow. Look
at verse 20. And Jacob vowed a vow, saying,
if, now that word, as I keep telling you, the translators
did an excellent job but I think that word would have been better
translated since since since or because God will be with me
and will keep, because he's promised hasn't he? God has promised earlier
he says I will be with you I will not leave you, verse fifteen
until I've done that which I've spoken of, I'm going to be with
you don't be afraid, I'm going to be with you, I'll keep you
and he says because 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, will keep me, your God shall supply all your needs.
all your needs, so that I come again to my father's house in
peace, then shall the Lord be my God." This is my God. Doesn't
God often declare, I will be their God and they shall be my
people? And Jacob said, yeah, I've heard
that. I've seen something here and nothing will ever be the
same again. This is conversion, isn't it?
Isn't this a picture of conversion? He'd known things about God.
He'd seen his father Isaac and his grandfather Abraham and what
they did and how they taught them about the gospel of grace. I'm absolutely convinced, you
know, that whilst, yes, everything was in picture and in type, by
faith they saw what was coming. They looked to Christ. How could
Abraham not have seen Christ so clearly in that ram caught
in the thicket on what was now, we know, Mount Calvary? You know,
how could he not have seen it? Jacob had done all this, but
he himself had not had this encounter with God. He had not seen for
himself And now he knows. And God has revealed Christ to
him. And God has shown him that he is his God. And he says, I
will be your child. I will be your people. I will follow you. And he says,
and this stone which I have set up for a pillar shall be God's
house. That's what Bethel means, the
house of God. And of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely
give the tenth unto thee. Oh, it's teaching us to tithe,
would say the legalist. No, it's not. Nothing of the
sort. What it's talking about is this,
though. It's talking about complete commitment. If you've seen this
ladder, if you've seen the gap that this ladder bridges, and
how Christ ministers to you through this ladder, I'm telling you,
nothing is ever the same again. Nothing ever can be the same
again. This is conversion. This is seeing
the truth of the gospel of grace. Having seen what I've seen, says
Jacob, nothing will ever be the same again. You are my God, and
I will be your child. It's a statement of commitment.
And we make, when we see the Gospel, we make statements of
commitment. Baptism is the statement of commitment,
of the people of God believing, and they want to declare to the
world around, I am Christ's child. I am a member of his bride. I am a member of his church.
I am one of his people. I am identified with him. I believe
that when he died, I died in him. So I go down into baptism.
I believe that when he rose, I rose with him to newness of
life. I believe that I am in him and I am committed to him.
But it isn't just a one-off initial commitment. It's an ongoing commitment. And though we're in the flesh
and we fail constantly, it's an ongoing commitment. Oh Lord,
help me, help me to live for you, help me to put off the works
of the flesh, to put on the works of the Spirit, to put on, to
bear the fruit of the Spirit. Be with me, help me, strengthen
me. I want to live for you, I want
to walk with you, as we've seen with Enoch and others. It's a
commitment, and what follows from it is the willing obedience,
albeit with falls and trips and stumbles, for we are but flesh
until we leave this life. But nevertheless, having seen
what Jacob saw here, every child of God sees this ladder. because
this ladder is Christ. And every true child of God knows
where they are, knows where they need to be, and knows the only
means of getting there is the Lord Jesus Christ. And it results
in absolute, lifelong commitment to him, to serve him. By God's
grace, by God helping us, we will so do. This is what Joshua
said to the people, choose you this day whom you will serve.
Whether you're going to go along with this world that we're in
or whether you're going to serve our God. And Joshua said this,
as for me and my house, I don't care what anybody else says,
but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.