Okay, Genesis chapter 28. What we're going to look at tonight
is Jacob. Isaac is getting old and he is
going to bless his children. And actually the part that we're
going to look at is starting in verse 10, but just to give
you a little bit of background before we get to this actual
lesson. The name Jacob means a supplanter,
which is kind of like a deceiver, a trickster. And he's well-named
because of several of the incidents that he pulled over on his father,
with the help of his mother, and on his brother Esau. So what
we're going to see in this section is God's working grace to this
one called Jacob. God will accomplish His good
pleasure towards His elect people in like manner, which what we're
going to see here is that He brings His people down and then
prepares them for the blessings. That's the way God works. He,
you know, regenerate or unregenerate, The Lord will humble His people
and make them fit to receive the blessings. Because by nature,
it's all about us, it's all about self, and we're not interested
in the things of God. So the Lord has to bring us down.
He's got to do as He did to Saul of Tarsus. He's got to knock
us off our horse and prepare us for a blessing. In Genesis 28, starting in verse
10, and Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. And he's doing this because one of
his father's requests, too, is because he's running for his
life. He's scared because he stole the birthright from his
brother Esau. So he's out in this, between
Beersheba and Haran, he's in this desert. He's got really
nowhere to hide, nowhere to go. And he lighted upon a certain
place, verse 11, 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. So he's all alone, he's by himself. He's in a desert, cold, he's
struggling, he's unable to plot or scheme anymore. And then he dreams this dream,
and behold, a ladder set up on the earth, 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 Lord God of Abraham, thy father, and the
God of Isaac. the land wherein 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, to the north and to 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 where thou goest, and 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 awaked
out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place,
and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said,
How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house
of God, and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob rose up
early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for
his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon
the top of it. And he called the name of that
place Bethel, but the name of that city was called Luz at the
first. and Jacob vowed a vow saying
if God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go
I will give and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put
on so that I come again to my father's house in peace then
shall the Lord be my God and this stone which I have set for
a pillar shall be God's house and of all that thou shalt give
me I will surely give the tenth unto thee. So we've kind of We're
kind of in this story as it specifically focuses on Jacob and his, I don't
want to say wilderness wanderings, but he's in the middle of nowhere.
But we're going to look at just a couple things. Jacob, he's
brought down to then be exalted. But let's look at Jacob's condition.
As we said, he went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. So he's alone, he's in the desert,
he's cold, he's struggling, he's unable to plot or to scheme anymore,
as he had done so before. That's Jacob's condition. Why
is he in this condition? Why is he out here by himself
with no family because he's loved of his father, he's loved of
his mother? What happened? As we mentioned, he's here and
in this situation because of sin and deception. Sin and deception. Jacob's name means, as I said,
supplanter or one who deceives and plots to his own advantage
and to the disadvantage of another. Turn back to chapter 27 and look
with me at verses 35. Actually, Let's go back to chapter 25 of
Genesis. Let's go back a little earlier.
25 and verse 29. Jacob is the younger. They came out. You know, Jacob
was holding on to Esau's heel as they were born. And Esau was
a man of the field, and Jacob was more of a homebody, if I
could say it that way. And there's a whole lot more.
We went over four or five chapters before we get to this lesson.
There's a whole bunch of stuff in there, and I was reading different
things and reading commentaries, but reading this, and there's
a lot of stuff that goes on that's really hard to explain. But I
do know one central theme to the whole thing is that God,
His purpose and will is being done. Even though Jacob is a
rattlesnake, he's full of mischief, he's full of plotting and scheming. And the Lord is still going to
be glorified in all these things. But in Genesis 25 and starting
in verse 29, And Jacob sawed pottage, and Esau came from the
field, and he was faint. 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 your birthright, because Esau was the firstborn. And maybe
not in our day and age, but in this time, the firstborn was
very important. You received the blessings from
your father. You received many things. Many things. So Jacob,
his brother, instead of just giving his elder brother food
to help him out, he schemes, he plots, he goes, sell me this
day thy birthright. And Esau said, behold, I am at
the point to die, and what profit shall his birthright do to me? Well, Hebrews tells us that Esau
despised his birthright. He knew the importance laid to
it, and to get rid of it so quickly, that's a whole other story. were
concentrated on Jacob. And Jacob said, Swear to me this
day, and Esau swore unto him, and he sold his birthright unto
Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and
pottage for lentils, and he did eat and drink, rose up, went
his way, and thus Esau despised his birthright. So we see a little
bit of character of Jacob. He plots, schemes, instead of
just helping his brother out, he wants something, he wanted
something. Now turn to Genesis 27. And it
started in verse, Well, let's start with verse
1, Genesis 27. And it came to pass that when Isaac, the dad,
was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he
called Esau, his eldest son, and said unto him, My son. And
he said unto him, Behold, here am I. And he said, Behold now,
I am old, and I know not the day of my death. Now therefore
take I pray thee thy weapons thy quiver and I bow and go out
to the field and take me some venison and make me Savory meat
such as I love and bring it to me that I may eat that I'm that
my soul may bless thee before I die Okay, so that's the setting in
this first part of this chapter So Rebecca Isaac's wife verse
5 heard When Isaac spake to Esau his son, and Esau went to the
field to hunt for venison and bring it. And Rebekah said unto
Jacob her son, the younger one, saying, Behold, I heard thy father
speak unto Esau thy brother, saying, Bring me venison, make
me savory meat, that I may eat, and bless thee before the Lord.
Before my death now therefore my son obey my voice according
to that which I command me go now to the flock Fetch me thence
two good kids of the goats and I will make them savory meat
for your father such as he loves and you shall bring it into your
father that he may eat and And that he may bless thee before
his death. And Jacob said to Rebekah, to his mother, Behold,
Esau, my brother, is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. My
father perventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a
deceiver, and I shall bring a curse upon me and not a blessing. And
Rebekah says, Just do what I say. So she goes and gets the food
ready. And verse 16, and she puts the
skins of goats upon Jacob's hands and upon the smooth of his neck.
And she gave the savory meat and the bread which she had prepared
unto the hand of her son Jacob. Verse 18, and Jacob came unto
his father and said, My father, and he said, Here am I. Who art
thou, my son? You can't see. He's very old. And Jacob said unto his father,
I am Esau. Just flat out, lied. I'm Esau, your firstborn. I've
done according as you've badest me to do. Arise, I pray thee,
and eat of the venison that thy soul may bless me. And Isaac
said unto his son, How is it that you have found meat so quickly?
And then he lies again, because the Lord thy God brought it to
me. And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that
I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not. So he's skeptical. Jacob went
near to his father and he felt him and said the voice is Jacob's
voice but the hands are the hands of Esau and He discerned him
not because his hands were hairy as his brother Esau's hands.
So he blessed him And he said art thou my very son Esau and
Jacob said again I am so Why Jacob in the condition he's in
because our sins gonna find us out and Our sin's gonna find
us out. He's there where he is because
of sin and deception. And lastly, verse 35 of Genesis 27, Esau
comes in right after Jacob leaves, and Isaac says, who are you?
He says, I'm Esau. And he goes, well, I just blessed
Jacob. And Esau's livid. Esau's gonna
kill his brother. and verse thirty-five he saw
said i brought our jake our eyes except i brother came with subtlety
and have taken away that blessing and he saw said is not he rightly
named jacob for he has supplanted me these two times he took away
my birthright and behold now he has taken away my blessings
and he said has found not reserved a blessing for me So Esau is
very upset. So Jacob, not only is he a deceiver,
not only is he a supplanter, not only does he scheme, but
he's a coward. He hears his mom says, Esau is
going to kill you. So this is why Jacob is in the
condition and the location that he's in. He's alone in Haran with his thoughts. Probably not very pleasant. He's alone with his deeds. Not very pleasant. And he's alone
with God. That is a good place to be. I
know it might seem harsh, it might seem cruel, it might seem
whatever, but in God's method of grace, this is where he brings
a sinner that he's about to redeem. Alone with your thoughts, your
deeds, and with God. We can't scheme. We can't pick
and choose how we want it, when we want it, where we want it.
As I was reading this the other night, in preparing this last
night, I thought about, as I mentioned to you before, I thought about
my older brother. He said, I was talking to him one time, and
he said, well, when I'm ready for mercy, I'll ask for it. And I just said, then you never
will. You never will. If you try to
prepare yourself, if you try to get, as it were, and like
my brother's trying, he was trying to get all of his ducks in a row. God's just going to knock that
stuff out. He's going to knock it out. What He does is it's
you and your thoughts and your deeds and they didn't have to
tell Jacob what was going on. He was there. He knew why he
was there. And God. He listened to his mother. She
couldn't help him where he was at now. His dad couldn't help
him where he was at now, and he certainly couldn't talk to
his brother. He was trying to kill him. But let's look now
at God's good work. And he dreamed, and behold, a
ladder set up on the earth. The top of it reached to heaven,
and behold, the angels of God ascending and descending. Turn to John chapter 1. Who is
this ladder? Well, we're going to have to
guess. John 1. We don't have to guess
who this ladder is, because there's only one way from earth to heaven,
and that's on this ladder, and this ladder is Christ. John 1,
verse 50. Jesus answered and said unto
him this latest the person he was speaking with Nathaniel and
he said because I said unto thee I saw thee under the fig tree
believe the style Thou shalt see greater things than these
and Christ said verily unto him verily verily I say unto you
hereafter you shall see the heaven opened and angels of God ascending
and descending just like Jacob saw and Ladder set up from the
earth and on the top of it reached to heaven and behold the angels
of God ascending and descending on it The angels of God ascending
and descending upon verse 51 the Son of Man Now when I was
growing up, you know, we sang that song we are climbing Jacob's
ladder. We sang that song and all that
accustomed Well, what did it mean it meant? You know, in my
mind, I got this ladder, just like these pictures of the Ark,
just like the pictures of the Tower of Babel. Not a picture of Christ. Never taught that. And that's,
as we've seen time and time again, when Moses wrote, Abraham wrote,
these men wrote as they were moved by God, Christ said, they
wrote of me. And Christ himself says, you
think that's something. You'll see the angels of God
ascending and descending upon the Son of God, Son of Man, me. So God's good work is that the
desperate, the found out, the sinner who is alone with himself
and knows his condition before God, He shows him that ladder. He shows him that ladder. Only
God knows how to bring us down, break us, so that He will prepare
us for the sweetness of the honey out of the rock, which is Christ.
That ladder. He dreamed, and behold, a ladder
set up on earth. The sinner is quiet and still,
then God comes in revelation of Jesus Christ, our only hope,
Christ the latter, which carries the sinner from the earth to
heaven. There's only one path. There's not many paths. There's
not many ways of righteousness. There's one faith, one baptism,
one Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnate
in the flesh, standing upon terra firma. Well, the one part of
the ladder was on the earth. God, the son from the earth. And yet, though he was God, man,
he never ceased to be God of glory over all, heaven and earth. Standing upon terra firma as
the son of all righteousness, yet still in the heavenlies as
our mediator, though man, yet he did not cease to be God. I
don't understand it. I just know that is the way that
God and the only way God can save a sinner is. I think I heard
something I read a marquee or whatever, and when I read that,
I thought their thought of God is too small. Their thought of God is too small. And all these, I don't know if
we call them theologians, but all these people trying to discredit
the virgin birth and trying to discredit the miracles of Moses.
Well, it was just, you know, clay that made the sea red. Or
it was just they had all these different scientific... Their
God's too small. Their God's too small. Ascending and descending or what
he is saying there when he in this dream and God's good work
of grace He dreamed that if you held a ladder set up a ladder
Not many ladders one ladder set up on earth and the top of it
reached to heaven Showing us plainly that there is only one
pathway to reach glory and that is through or upon Christ and
His great spanning work of redemption Now, if He shows you, leaves you alone with your thoughts,
with your deeds, no help. No help. That's a good place to be. Because
more often than not, what we do is we'll pick up the phone,
or we'll call somebody to try and help us through a situation,
or try and encourage us, or whatever it might be, and that is okay,
but when God is dealing with a sinner, it's best hands-off. Hands-off. Because redemption
and salvation is extremely personal, and it's between God and that
person. God and that person. But that
night, that time in the desert, will not last forever. He's promised
to show you the way of salvation. Christ, the ladder. The ladder. And not only that, look in verse
15, if He shows you Christ, He's shown you yourself, He's shown
you Christ, He's going to show you the accompanying promises
that are through Christ. Look at these. Look at these
promises in one verse. And behold, I am with thee, day
or night, sickness and health, rich or poor, in your highs,
in your lows. Basically what he says, his grace
is sufficient. His grace is sufficient. I am with thee. And he says secondly,
and will keep thee in all places. I will keep thee. Turn to John
chapter six. John 6, I will keep thee. I am with thee and I will keep
thee. John 6, verse 37, All that the
Father gives me shall come to me, and him that come to me I
will in no wise cast out. He's going to keep you. Once
saved, always saved. Eternal security. Whatever phrase
people use. Biblically, he says, I will keep
you. Whither thou goest, and we'll
bring thee again into this land, brought to the land, to the promised
land, to glory. John chapter 14. John chapter 14 in verse 1, let
not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to
prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that
where I am, there you may be also. He's going to bring you. We're going to be brought. We're
going to be kept. Now that's encouraging to me because you
don't have to go around with me where I work, whether you
go with me as I'm working or when I'm off, and you're going
to see a sinner. You're going to see a sinner
saved by grace. A sinner who's tempted just like
you are, who gets angry at things just like you do, who struggles
with things just like you do, who worries about things just
like you do. All these things. Well, you're older, you should
be. Yeah, I should be, but I'm a sinner saved by grace. But
He's promised to you and to me that He's with us, He will keep
us, and He'll bring us back. We'll be brought back. We will
be brought with Him to glory. And then He also says, For I will not leave thee until
I have done that which I have spoken to thee of." He's guaranteed
the completion of His work for us. He said in Matthew 121, His
name shall be called Jesus for He shall. Not try, not maybe,
He shall save His people from their sins. So, this is a four-fold
accompanying promises through God's good work which is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's with us, He will keep us,
He will bring us home, and the work that He's done for us shall
be completed. It cannot fail. Now, in verses
16 through the end of this chapter, we see the results of conversion
and enlightenment. The results of a sinner being
converted and being made aware of himself, his surroundings,
his God, her God. Look at this. I'll just read
it through here and then we have a couple of points. 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. Fear or reverence
for God when God saves a sinner. They're just not flippant about
the scriptures and about God. One of my customers
was in the other day and they're They got this, behind them, they
had this Xerox copy of a person's face. You know, one of those
things you've got to stare at, and all of a sudden it all starts
focusing in, and as soon as it hit me, I thought, oh boy. Well,
there was a man there, like Henry said, looked like Wild Bill Hickok.
I don't know, he had a beard, had some thorns on his head and
stuff like that. It's just ridiculous. People think they've got that
stuff hanging all over their place. They feel protected, or
they feel more spiritual or whatever. No. He gives his people a fear or
reverence for him. Read on. And Jacob rose up early
in the morning and took the stone that he had put for pillows and
set it up for a pillar, poured oil on it, on the top of it,
and he called the name of that place Bethel. He vows a vow. Basically, he's worshiping. He's
worshiping. And he calls the name of that
place the house of God. So, worshiping God is not the
place. The house of God is where His
presence is and not a structure. And then we see in verse 20,
And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will
keep me in this way, that I go, and give me bread to eat, and
raiment to put on, so that I may come again to my father's house
in peace, then shall the Lord be my God. And this stone that
I have set for a pillow shall be God's house. And all that
thou shalt give me will I surely give the tenth unto thee. Obedience
and a readiness to serve. These are not, you choose and
pick what you want to do. This is what God, to some degree,
all of God's people, when He reveals Himself, and He reveals
the promises, and He reveals the gospel to us, this is what
His people do. They reverence Him, worship Him. You can't make it here when we
gather together. Worship Him. and obey Him, and a readiness
to serve. Lord, here am I. Jacob, where's
my son? Here am I. Send me. And we also see an acquired heartfelt
knowledge that all we have is really His and from Him. And this stone which I have set
for a pillar shall be God's house, and all that thou shalt give
me I will surely give the tenth unto thee." All that God gives
me, we realize there's an acquired heartfelt knowledge that all
we have is really His and from Him. Like Job, it's tough. It is definitely tough. I haven't
seen it all and I haven't been through it all, but I've been
through a few things, Melinda and I have, as well as you have. But the Lord gives you that attitude
and spirit like Job. The Lord's given, the Lord's
taken away. Blessed be His name. It's His. Thus, we're not too terribly
upset as we have less and less of this world and its desires. And actually, we desire more
and more of Him. If I could say what would be the definition
of growth and grace, it's desiring to be more like Him, to be in
His presence with His people, sing His hymns, read His book,
and less of the world. You know, Henry always said,
you know, hang on to this world with a loose hand because it
comes and it goes. It's here today and it's gone
tomorrow. And in Christ we, the script
Paul says, we move, live and have our being. So I close this
and I ask you to pray for me as your pastor. I pray for you
that God would help us to see clearly ourselves. to see Him clearly, to see His
grace more clearly, and to see the way of peace in Christ more
clearly. And that happens most often when
we spend a good, long, cold night in Haran. If He's got you, He's
not going to let go of you. There's going to be struggles.
Without question, because the world does not understand this
gospel. The world does not care about this gospel. That's okay. He cares for you. And if He cares for you, He has
every person's thoughts and minds and wills. He does whatsoever
He pleases. And He does all these things
for His people. Bruce, would you close us please?
Let me know that you bring us lower so we can see you.