If you'll take your Bibles now
and turn with me to Genesis chapter 28, I'll read these verses once we
get started in the message. In Genesis chapter 28, we're
going to be looking at verses 10 through 19. But I want to say this to you
before we get into the study. Blessed is the man who can read
this book, this Bible, what we call the Word of God. Blessed
is the man that can read this divine book with the key of all
knowledge and understanding, the Lord Jesus Christ. It'll
benefit his soul. It'll benefit his soul. It'll
be a comfort to him. It'll be a pleasure to him. He'll
look forward to it. It's like sitting down to eat
a meal. Open this book. Is that one who's ever in the
bosom of the Father? That's what he said there in
John chapter 1. Who's in the bosom of the Father.
He's ever, ever in the bosom of the Father. Yet fully abiding
in the body of a man. Think about that. In him, Paul said, God has hidden
all the treasures. Wisdom and knowledge. In him. In this one person. Declared this person in Psalm
chapter 2 before the world began. He declared him. And he said,
it's going to be foolish. Y'all going to gather together
against him, but I've set my king on my hill. You're going
to gather yourselves together against him, and you're going
to plot and plan and do all these things. And he said, I laugh
at you. I laugh at you. Because I purposed
all things in him. Here's what they said to the
Jews in the book of Acts to him. Give all the prophets witness.
that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive
remission of sins." Those Pharisees who lived in
the days when our Lord walked upon the earth, they had the Old Testament Scriptures.
That was their Bible. They didn't have anything past
Malachi. They carried Genesis through
Malachi. I don't know what it looked like.
I doubt that it was a bound thing like we have. I think they carried
their things individually in scrolls, but that's what they
had. They had Genesis through Malachi. And what was written in these
books was their rule of faith and practice. I don't know how
many times they told the Lord, it's written, it's written. That was their rule of faith
and practice. They could tell you in great detail of the creation
of the world. Ask any one of them. They could
tell you the account of Moses in Genesis of the creation. They
could tell you that. They could tell you about Noah.
They could tell you about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They could
tell you the history of Israel. and their deliverance out of
Egypt. They could tell you about their journey through the midst
of the sea and of the perils of the wilderness and of the
giving of the law, of the crossing over Jordan. Just ask them and
come and conversate. How many people do you think
could do that today? A handful. These men, any one of them, you
ask any one of them, oh yeah, yeah, here's how that went. They
could tell you in detail how David came to be king and how
Solomon, his son, ruled in wisdom and glory. I dare say if you
were to read a verse, perhaps two, they could tell you who
wrote it. They could tell you, that's in
Hosea. That's in Hosea. Yet they knew
nothing of the Old Testament scriptures. Nothing. Nothing
whatsoever. The Lord said to them in John
5.46, Had you believed Moses? That's what we're studying tonight
in Genesis. Moses. Had you believed Moses,
you would have believed me, for he wrote of me. I thought he
was writing about the law. No, he was writing about me.
I thought he was, I thought he was setting down a moral code. No. No. He was writing about
me. You believe Moses, you believe
me, for he wrote of me. But if you believe not his writings,
how shall you believe my words? Now, I said all that to say this. This story is about Jacob, but
it's not about Jacob. It's about a ladder, but it's
not about a ladder. It's about angels descending
and ascending, but it's not about angels. It's about Him. It's
about Him. Now let's read this here in Genesis
chapter 28 beginning with verse 10. And Jacob went out from Beersheba
and went toward Haran. Now, I've told you many times
that Beersheba means well of the oath. And Iran, I don't know
if we've even discussed that name or not, but it means parched
place and it means place of the dead of this world. That's what
it means. And he lighted upon a certain
place. There's always a certain place. We talk about luck and talk about
circumstance and talk about this and that. Boy, I'm sure glad
I was in that place. What luck it was that I was there
instead of here. I was listening to them this
morning talking about hurricanes coming and floods. Boy, luckily
I wasn't there. Luck didn't have anything to
do with it. He was in a certain place and he was there on purpose.
And he lighted there. And he tarried there all night
because the sun was set. And he took the stones of that
place, and put them for his pillows, and laid 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 he said, I am the Lord
God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac, and the land
whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed. And thy seed shall be as the
dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and
to the east, and to the north, and to the south. And in thee
and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
Behold, I am with thee, and I 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." And Jacob awakened out of his sleep, and he said,
Surely the Lord is in this place. And I knew it not. And he was
afraid. And he said, how dreadful is
this place. There is none other but the house
of God and this is the gate to heaven. And Jacob rose up early
in the morning and took the stone that he had put for his pillows
and he set it up for a pillar and poured oil on top of it.
And he called the name of that place Bethel. But the name of
that city was called Luz at first. Now, the word Luz, from what
I can learn about it, there's not much said about it. It just
means almonds or hazelnuts. Evidently, it was a grove there of nuts, either hazelnuts or
almonds. And maybe because they were plentiful
around that place, maybe that's why they called the people there. Maybe they made a living picking
these things and selling them. I don't know how it got to be
named that name, but it was. But one thing I know for sure,
wherever God raises up His house, there's food for the soul. I
know that. Food for the soul. And the fruit
grows plentiful in that place. And men and women find food for
the soul. Now, I want to start tonight
with this man named Jacob. Jacob. Jacob's forced to leave
the blessed place and go to the cursed place. He's leaving the
well, the waters of the well. He's leaving that. He's leaving
the oath. He's leaving those things because
they don't mean anything to him. And he's going off here at his
parents' request into this land to take a wife, and here he is. And he's forced to leave home.
His brothers want to kill him. He listened to his mother, and
he was a finagler anyway. He plotted and planned and tried
to arrange things around just like we do. And he took his mother's
advice. She sided up with him. All these
things in time worked together for his good, but they weren't
working for his good right at that minute. His brother was
fixin' to kill him. Fixin' to kill him. Hated him.
So he left, and now here he is. He's out here in this solitary
place, lays down his head. What I said that to you for was
to make you to understand that Jacob wasn't just whistlin' a
tune out there and got tired and laid down. This young man
had a lot of things on his mind and on his heart. His brother
hated him. His mother had plotted and planned
and caused a disagreement between him and his father. And here
he sits. And now he's out here on his
way down to a city he don't know anything at all about. And he's
just tired and weary and upset. And there he is. There he is. And so he lays down on these
stones. But he left the blessed place. And he went to the cursed place.
Why? Why? We know he's God's elect.
Before he was ever born, he told us that. Before he ever did any
good or any evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand. Not of works, but of him that
calleth it was said unto her, the elder is going to serve the
younger. As it's written, Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I
hated. We know he's God's elect, and
we know God loved him, and not Esau. Why then would he lead him into
this parched land, this place of the dead of this world? Why
would he do that? Why would he do that? Because that's the condition
of every man born of Adam. That's his condition. Let me
tell you something. A lot of folks don't know this.
You think sometimes, well, he just keeps saying the same thing.
I say it over and over and over because nobody hears. I'm waiting
on God to open some ears. Sin is a revelation of grace. It's a revelation. I know that
we know that we're not perfect. I know that. There was never
a day in my life when I thought I was perfect. Never did. I know
that I'm not as good as some. I've known that all my life.
I've seen people around me. You don't have to look very far
to find somebody that looks a little better than you, does a little
better than you, and smarter than you, and sings better than
you, and carries on a conversation better than you. We had a whole
class full of them at school. I was that guy in the back row
that nobody wanted anything to do with. Sin, what it is, is a revelation
of grace. That has to be revealed to a
man, what sin is. It's a revelation of grace. All
men are sinners. All have sinned, Paul said, and
come short of the glory of God. That's just so. Men can jump
up and down about it all they want to, but that's just so.
Isaiah said we are all, all of us, all of us, including himself. as an unclean thing, and all
our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And Paul told the Corinthians,
In Adam all die. God looked down, David said,
from heaven upon the sons of men, and saw that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And
then David in Psalm 14 verse 2 says this, The Lord looked
down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there was any
that did understand and seek God. They're all gone aside. They're all together become filthy. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. Man is empty. He's empty. I tell you, when God builds a
fire in you, when God comes in and begins to do a work inside
you, and you begin, Jesse will tell you this, ask him after
the meeting. We've had conversations for hours about this. And you
begin to look inside for something, you're empty. And you look and
you search like you never searched before in your life, but it's
emptiness, there's just nothing in there. There's no hope in
there. There's no light in there. There's
no mercy in there. There's no love in there. You're
empty. Sin is a vacuum. It's a giant emptiness. It just
leaves man empty of spiritual things. In the parable of the unclean
spirit, the Lord said, when the unclean spirit is gone out of
a man, he walketh through dry places. That is that unclean
spirit seeking rest, but he doesn't find any. Matthew 12, 44. Then he saith, that is the unclean
spirit, I'll return to my house from whence I come out. It's
still my house. It still belongs to me. And when he'd come, listen to
what he said. He found it empty. Found it empty. Oh, it's swept. And it was garnished. You know what garnished means? You ladies I know know what it
means. You come and you fix this big meal and you get all this
stuff just right and then you take that little piece of whatever
it is and you lay it over there and you garnish. That's just
for decoration. That ain't to eat. That's just for decoration.
When he come back, he found this house empty, but it was decorated.
And it swept. Somebody come in and cleaned
it all out. They said, I'm going to turn over a new leaf. And
they come into the house, and they took a broom and swept it
all out. And then they hung some pictures,
some crosses and things. And the Last Supper put that
over here on this side and took a big family Bible and put it
out on the coffee table and did all these things. They garnished
the house. And he found it that way. He
found it redecorated, all these things on the wall. And he found
it swept and clean. And boy, he said, look here. Look how nice this is. I think
I'll go back and get my seven buddies. He went back and got
seven more. And our Lord said the last end
of that, the last state of that man was worse than the first. See, you see what I mean? Sin
is a revelation of grace. You're not going to pick that
up walking down the road. You're not going to discover
that reading a newspaper. What you'll do, you'll read the
newspaper where this maniac went over there and killed 12 or 14
people and shaked your head. What makes a man do that? Well,
you're worse than he is. Sure you are. God just restrained
you. You'd kill 12 and ate them. I
heard Brother Mahan made this statement one time about Christ. He said they even restrained
the men that killed the Son of God. If they hadn't restrained
him, they'd have put him in a pot and boiled him and ate him like
old natives over in Africa. That's exactly right. Exactly
right. I don't think we've seen any
kind of potential in this world as to what sin really is. Because
it's been restrained. God's held us back. He's held
us back. Man's house is empty of God.
It's empty of understanding, empty of light, and empty of
righteousness, and empty of hope. But man doesn't know it. He's
not aware of it. God has to show it to him. He's
too busy decorating and sweeping and renovating the house to notice
that nobody lives there. And that revelation of sin is
the first act of grace. That strong man-at-arm keeps
his palace and his goods at peace, and he keeps it with subtlety
and lies, and he keeps it by keeping men and women busy, preoccupied
with things, sweeping and decorating. But in the end, it still belongs
to the strong man. I don't care how you remodel
it. I don't care how much you sweep
it. It still belongs to him, and he still lives there. And he comes and goes as he pleases.
Stronger than he must come in and overcome those that live
there and spoil their goods. Set up his kingdom. Set on the
throne. You must expose the house for
what it is, and what it is is nothing more than a cesspool
of iniquity. Most of you all live out in the
country, so you're going to understand what I'm going to say. I was
building a house for my boss, and he was a wealthy man. I won't call him a rich man,
but he was wealthy, and he built this big, fine home, probably,
I don't know, a million and a half or so for the house, and then
he built this carriage house. And a carriage house back in
the day was a house off of the main house for the servants,
but they were select servants. And they could live there or
sometimes for honored guests. And they'd park their carriages
inside this place and bed down the horses. But then there was
a really nice home there. And that's what this was. Well,
the plan was we'd build the carriage house first because the main
house had all kind of custom cabinetry. And we were going
to go in there and make all these cabinets and do all this work
in this garage. So we got it shelled up and everything. And
so we decided to go ahead and get the bathrooms in it. And
we did that, put the septic tank in. But we still had a lot of
work going on. And somebody with a dozer or
a backhoe broke the sewer line. And he got stopped up. And so
the following morning, I had to go down and try to find out
where they broke it and get it fixed. And I had a young boy
helping me. They sent out from the shop,
and he was green as a gourd. He didn't know the first thing
about anything. And the first thing he did was
run over, and he said, what's this? And I said, that's a septic
tank. Well, what's in a septic tank? And before I could stop
him, he jerked that inspection lid on top. He jerked that thing
off, and it was bright daylight, and he couldn't see, and he got
down and stuck his head down inside that thing, and he just
fell backwards on the ground. In here is a cesspool of iniquity,
and when God exposes it for what it is, it'll turn your stomach.
You'll fall backward, won't you? It's what Paul called in Romans
7, coming to understand the exceeding sinfulness of sin. He began to see something of
its power, and something of its evil, and something of its hideousness,
sin. Every sin of every man is just
a glimpse into the heart of all men. Listen to this. I'm taking this straight out
of Scripture. Filled with, filled, not seasoned with, filled, F-I-L-L-E-D,
filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness,
maliciousness, full of envy and murder and debate, deceit, malignity,
Whispers, back biters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters,
inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding,
covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful,
who knowing the judgment of God, knowing, their conscience is
screaming, don't do that, don't do that. History's screaming at them,
don't do that. Who knowing the judgment of God
that they which commit such things are worthy of death, they not
only do them, but they have pleasure in the others that do them. That's
man's heart. It's a cesspool. I think cesspool's
putting it lightly. I don't even know how to... I
told them up in Ashland, I've yet to find a word to any...
Danville, rather. a word better than the word death
to describe the condition of the sinner. He's dead. He's just
dead. Now, there's three things that
the Spirit of the living God is sent to convince men of that
God has determined to save. He's going to convince you first
of sin. When you're convinced of sin,
not many are, but when you are, You're going to start to perceive,
you're going to begin to understand the necessity to be convinced
of righteousness. Nobody will be able to convince
you that God would save you. He might save that guy, but he
won't save me. He won't save me. You don't know
what I've done. You don't know what I am. You
don't know how I think. Once God convinces you of sin,
God will have to convince you of righteousness. That there
is a righteousness sufficient, sufficient to cause you to be approved of
God. And once He convinces you of
that righteousness, He's going to convince you that judgment
is satisfied. It's satisfied. all the whole
rest of your life, He's going to convince you of righteousness.
And if we're convinced of sin, we're convinced of righteousness,
we're convinced of that satisfied judgment. Having discovered his sin, God
speaks to Jacob of a ladder. And it's a ladder set up on the
earth in the midst of God hating miserable sinners in the midst
of emptiness and sin and evil where sin abounded, Paul said,
grace did much more bound. And this man by whom God will
establish His election of grace looks and there by the Spirit
of God he sees a ladder. Not a ladder for him to climb
up into glory. I heard an Armenian preacher
preach that one night and I just sat there and I couldn't believe
what he was saying. There are no men on this ladder.
I read it to you a few minutes ago. The only thing on this ladder
is angels that I can find. There are no men climbing up
this ladder. This wasn't a ladder for him
to climb up into glory. It was a ladder that provided
a way for God's ministers to ascend and descend and bring
to him the blessings of God. And I think you'll find that
word angel, you need to really look at that word when you read
it. It's always the same word. But angel doesn't always mean
angelic being. It means minister. Minister. But it always means minister
when you read it. So you're safe if you go there. When you start thinking about
these These different types of angelic
beings, sometimes angel doesn't mean that at all. Christ himself
is called the angel of the covenant. Did you know that? It simply
means he's the minister of the covenant. He ministers the covenant.
There's ministers. What are these ministers? Well,
Christ is the minister of the covenant. He descends from that
ladder and brings blessings to men and ascends back up to the
Father. Ministers of the Gospel do that.
God raises them up in His Spirit, gives them that message, and
they come back down, or at least I hope I do come down on a level
that I communicate with me, and I try. I try as best I can to
communicate with you in words that I know these words don't
enter into angelic language or eternal language,
but they're not meant to do that. That's why He called men to pray,
so they could stay on this level and communicate. He sees this ladder. He sees
a way for this empty center to be filled and a way for the blessings
wherewith God has blessed us to come down to me. At the foot of that ladder was
a man called Israel. The nation to follow would be
called his children. At the foot of the ladder was
a man. At the top was the Lord of Glory. The ladder is the way. It depicts
Christ the God-man. That's what it said there. Christ is the way. He's the God-man. At the top of this is His glorious
deity at the bottom, there's humanity, the God-man. And He so fused us together in
grace that neither man nor God can tell us apart. When He sees
you, He sees Christ. If you're a believer, He sees
Christ. When He sees Christ, He sees
you. That's hard to get a hold of, isn't it? I tell you, if
you ever get a hold of it, you'll rest. You'll rest. Looking with
eyes of discernment, penetrating vision, a vision
that Paul says divides us under soul and spirit, detects motives,
thoughts, and intents of the heart. And he sees only Christ. He's only Christ. And seeing
the sinner in Christ, he says, well done. I hope by the grace of God I get
to hear that one day. Well done, thy good and faithful
servant. How can he say that? Because
he sees me in Christ. That's the only way. There's
no hope. I know that men do what men value
as good things. I know that. But God doesn't
see like a man sees. Man looks on the outward countenance.
God looks on the heart. He discerns. And looking on your
heart, he sees only Christ. Only Christ. He sees us justified. Can you imagine this God who who looks through
to the heart, who discerns the thoughts and intents, who discerns
affections, from whose eyes nothing can be hidden. And he looks,
and as the judge of the universe, he justifies. It's God that justifies. He justifies us. Justifies. justified us in the
eternal purpose of God, who slayed His Son before the world began
to justify our election. God has saved us, Paul said,
and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace given us. Now listen,
in Christ Jesus, why did He give me grace when
I wasn't even born yet? I hadn't sinned yet. I hadn't
done any good. I'm just like Jacob. I hadn't done any good
or evil. I hadn't done anything. I wasn't formed yet. The world
wasn't made yet. Not according to our works that
we might do in time, but according to His own purpose and grace
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Justified us by an appointed
substitution and representation. by Him who appeared on this earth
to accomplish all that God's justice and holiness demand.
Perfect obedience, perfect sacrifice. It must be perfect, the Bible
said, to be accepted. It says He was delivered for
our offenses, raised again for our justification. Isaiah put
it this way, By His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify
many, for He shall bear their iniquities. And then Paul says in Romans
3 that God set him forth as a propitiation for sin through faith in his
blood to declare God's righteousness, that God might be just and justifier
of all those that believe. And then thirdly, we're justified
by faith when God the Holy Spirit takes the gospel of Christ and
applies that blood to our conscience and to our hearts. Seeing the suffering and sufficiency of Christ. Seeing that sufficiency of the
blood of the high priest. That old high priest took that
blood. Each one brought a lamb, just
like they was commanded to. They brought that lamb, they
handed it to the priest, and the priest did the operation
on it. He cut it up. He did what he
was commanded to do and all the details given to him. And he
took that blood, the high priest alone, and he went down beyond
that veil. That wasn't it. He had come back
out. He had come back out. God didn't accept that sacrifice.
You're still in your sins. The only way you can tell if
that sacrifice was accepted was by that resurrection. And that
was a picture of the resurrection when that high priest came back
out from under that veil without sin. That is, without the offering
for sin. And then lastly, I see on this
ladder the angels of God. And I believe these are pictures
of gospel ministers. I believe these are pictures
of Christ, angel of the covenant. We bring good tidings, glad tidings. But let me ask you this question.
Why a ladder? I called Don today. I said, this
question came to my mind. I said, have you ever dealt with
this? I know you've preached on it. Why a ladder? I know it's not for man to climb
up. That's not the picture. That's
not the doctrine. So why a ladder? Why these rungs? Why steps? Why not just a mountain? Why a ladder? He said, I don't
know. But he said, I'm going to find
out. Well, I said, this is the only thing I could come up with.
This question has been haunting me all afternoon. This is the
only thing I could come up with. And I believe this is what it's
there for. It's to show us that salvation
in Christ is an eternal, continual way. Above this ladder stood
the Lord of glory. This ladder, this way begins
with Him. When did it begin? It began in
eternity. And it stretches all the way,
all the way down to this earth. And it's sufficient. But think
of all the things necessary for this to become a way. Think of
all the things necessary for those angels, any way you want
to depict them. You can depict them as angelic
beings, you can depict them as Christ the angel of the covenant,
you can depict them as gospel ministers, any way you want to
look at it. But here's this ladder and here's these angels ascending
and descending up and down this ladder. There's no doubt in my
mind to bring these blessings down to Jacob. God's chosen. But before they can bring those
blessings down, man had to follow, didn't he? Man had to have promise
of redemption. A foundation had to be laid for
man's faith. These prophets, they laid the
foundation. We're built on the foundation
of the prophets and apostles. Blessed promises, pictures. That's
what we're looking at tonight, pictures. All these things had
to be done. Prophecies. It wasn't just any
Jesus that came. This Jesus who came had to fulfill
all that was written of Him. All the way through the four
Gospels, and you just keep reading it. And it came to pass, and
it came to pass. And this was fulfilled, which
Micah said. And this was fulfilled, which
Malachi said, and so on and so on. All the way through there.
All these prophecies. wrongs of purpose and destiny
and wrongs of appointment and wrongs of promises and pictures,
wrongs of prophecy, wrongs of incarnation, appearance, and
accomplishments, resurrection, wrongs of ascension and intercession,
wrongs of means and of the spirit of grace, the gospel of grace,
and the gathering of assemblies, wrongs of trials and persecutions
and chastisements, and wrongs of perseverance preservation
and wrongs of completion and perfection. Set up on the earth,
but the top of it reached all the way in the heavens. And the
way, the way, might not be as wide as some other way, but it
goes all the way. Reaches all the way. And over
that ladder stands the Lord. And to him who sees it, he says
this, I'm with thee. I'll keep you. I'm not going
to leave you until I've done everything that I've spoken to
you of." Boy, isn't that something? What
a promise. I'm going to leave you until everything I told you
comes to pass. What did he tell you was going
to come to pass? He told you he was going to make you just
like Christ, didn't he? He said, I ain't going to leave you until
that comes to pass. Oh, Jacob woke up out of his
sleep and he said, what a fearful place. What a dreadful place. What a wonderful place is this
place of the presence of God. And faith calls this place Bethel,
the house of God. We're gathered here tonight for
the same reason. The same reason. We built, I would hesitate to
call it a memorial, and yet it is. Yet it is. We invite men
to this place, don't we? We invite them to this place.
Why? Because we're persuaded God meets with us here. That's
why. That's why he called that place Bethel. And as we go on
in these studies, I'm going to have a message down the road
a little bit that I'm going to borrow from Brother Mahan is
called Back to Bethel. When he gets in trouble, he goes
back to the house of God. That's where he goes, back to
this place of revelation, back to this foundation, back to this
way, back to this house. Father, I thank you for this
opportunity to look into your word and to look at these glorious
pictures Sometimes we take these things,
these glorious things, and I think we take them for granted. What a privilege to gather in
a place where we're convinced that the presence of God meets
with us. And we can worship you and expect
your spirit and expect this power and glory. Expect to have visions
of these things because you've gathered us here. We thank you
for it. Bless the work here for Christ's
sake. Amen.