Good to see you again. One thing I've learned about
preaching. Over the years. It really doesn't matter how
long I preach. As long as that I that I know
when I'm done before you know it. That the Lord enabled me
to. Speak. And when he's given me
enough to say, sit down. I couldn't believe that was so
fast. Chris, when you preached, I thought, that's over? I tell
you, you said what the Lord gave you, and it was powerful. Powerful
message. All of them have been powerful. Turn to Genesis chapter 29. Genesis
chapter 29. The title of this message is Jacob Rolls Away the
Stone. Jacob Rolls Away the Stone. The Word of God is full of stories,
especially here in the Old Testament. to teach us the gospel. They're not written for our entertainment. They are not written just as
a history lesson. These things are written that
you and I may learn and come to know Jesus Christ. What would
we really know about the priesthood of Christ the intercession of
Christ apart from the Old Testament, what would we really understand
about the Passover? Christ, our Passover, sacrificed
for us. Except for the Old Testament
when we reach back and we can see it in picture and in type. And we have a better understanding
of his person and his work through the pictures and the types that
the Lord Jesus Christ really gave us, so our Lord gave us
these types of pictures of himself in the scriptures. So I want
us to look at a few things here in this chapter and hopefully
God will enable me to glorify Christ and feed the sheep and
warn the lost. Now it says in verse one that
Jacob, it says, then Jacob went, over in the margin it says he
lift up his feet There was a snap in his step that wasn't there
the day before. You see, Jacob lay down that
night. He lay down at night. He lay down in darkness. He lay
down in the dust. And he had stones for a pillow.
And that night, God appeared to him in a dream. And God stood,
it says, above the ladder. And those of you who've been
taught, you know that ladder represents the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only mediator between
God and man, and any access we have to the Father, we have through
Jesus Christ. There is no coming to the Father
apart from Jesus Christ. It's an impossibility. It's an
impossibility to even know God apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. So Jacob laid down to sleep,
That night, and he had, God gave him this dream, and God's standing
above this ladder, and we know this ladder represents Christ,
and God revealed himself to Jacob this night. Isaac had taught
him about God, but now God's gonna teach him about God. There's
a difference. You young people were growing
up here, you've been taught in the Bible class, But there's
a real difference when God takes hold of you and He teaches you
who He is. He reveals to you who He is. That's a world of difference.
That's a saving difference. That's a saving difference. This
is when a sinner comes to know God. When God reveals Himself
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Apart from Christ, we cannot
know God. No man knows the Father saved
the Son. and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. This
is when God applied the covenant blessings of Abraham to Jacob,
standing above this ladder, which represents the Lord Jesus Christ.
Apart from Christ, we cannot claim any of the blessings of
the covenant of grace. Apart from Christ, we can't do
it. In Christ, All the promises of
God are yea and amen. Jacob laid down a guilty man.
He laid down a man on the run. You know the story, he tricked
Father Isaac, gave him the blessings, and Esau said, you know what? When my father dies, I'm going
to kill him. And it's told to Rebecca, and
she calls Jacob. She says, you need to get out
of town for a while. And in a few days, when things
cool off, I'll call you. I'll send for you. Well, as far
as I know, they never saw each other again. Well, he's on the run as well
as looking for a wife. Jacob laid down a guilty man,
he woke up a new man. He woke up a new man with the
promises of God given to him. He had the promise of God's presence
given to him. That will put a snap in your
step. To really have the promises of
God and the promise of God's presence given to you. I don't know anything. that'll
put a snap in a center step than that. I don't know of anything. Now, there's something I want
to point out on our way to this well of Jacob removing the stone. I don't want to overlook it.
It's the providence of God. The providence of God in bringing
all this together. So often when we speak, We think
of the providence of God, we think of the big things, don't
we? Oh, that was providential. The obvious things, you say,
oh, that was providential. Well, the providence of God is
in all the details. It's in all the details to bring
things about. I was watching a fishing show
one time years ago. A man was trout fishing the headwaters
of the Allegheny River, and he said this. He said, would you
believe this is the beginning of the great Allegheny River?
You could jump across it. It's only three feet wide. It was only three feet wide.
If we could see all the little things coming together to bring
about the providence of God. God's hand is in absolutely every
minute detail that concerns everything that exists. I started saying
me and you, but it's everything that exists. His hand is in the
minute detail of the path of an earthworm as the path of a
nation. God is in everything. Everything. Now I want us to take a notice
here of a few of those things. It says in verse 2, And he looked,
and Jacob looked, and behold, a well in the field. And lo,
there were three flocks of sheep laying by it, for out of that
well they watered the flocks. And a great stone was on the
well's mouth. And there were all the flocks
gathered, and they rolled the stone from the whale's mouth,
and watered the sheep, and put the stone again upon the whale's
mouth in his place. They would do this daily. And
Jacob said unto them, my brethren, whence be ye? And they said,
of Haran are we. And he said unto them, know ye
Laban the son of Nahor? And they said, yes. Yeah, we
know him. You know, think about this. Jacob
heads out through the wilderness. This is a long distance between
these two places. Someone said it's about 400 miles.
I don't know, but it's a long distance. He runs into some men
and they know Laban, the very man he's looking for. The timing
of that. The timing of that. It's like Moses being put in
that basket. You know, Pharaoh sent out a
message to kill all the kids, children, the male children.
And after about three months, his mother saw she couldn't hide
no more, so she put him in a basket, put him in the water. And lo
and behold, there comes Pharaoh's daughter. And Moses' sister is there. And she finds that basket, the
favor's daughter finds it, looks in it, sees that baby, and he's
crying, gets her heart, and she says, find me somebody to take
care of this, the nurse. And she goes and gets Moses'
mother. And pays her for it. She said,
I'll give you your wages. I mean, the providence of God
is amazing. It's amazing. in verse six, I want you to notice
something here in verse six. And he said unto them, is he
well? Is Laban well? And they said,
he's well. And behold, Rachel, his daughter,
cometh with the sheep. Well, I tell you, he just got,
it's just his lucky day, isn't it? It's just his lucky day. Yeah, right. Right. That's the providence of God
in all this. You know, one time, this is how
I feel about this word lucky. One time when I was a boy growing
up, I was probably about 10, 12 years old. I was standing
by my mother and something happened. I said, darn it, she slapped
me right in the mouth. She said, don't you ever say
that again. She smacked me right in the mouth. I tell you what,
if we use the word lucky, somebody ought to slap us right in the
mouth. There's no such thing. No such thing. It's like that
poster I saw in the barbershop. It had a poster there of a lost
dog. It had a lost dog. It has one
eye. It had three legs. It was deaf,
and it went by the name of Lucky. There's your Luck. There's your
Luck. Ask that rabbit what he thinks
of the Lucky rabbit foot. No, no, no, no. The hand of God is in all the
details. It's in all the details. Now, I want you to look here
now at this stone problem. Let's get to this. In verse 7,
and he said, Jacob said, lo, it is yet high day. Neither is
it time that the cattle should be gathered together. Water the
sheep. He's telling these shepherds that are there, go ahead and
water the sheep. Go ahead and water them, then feed them. And
they replied, we can't until all are here. Personally, I think they were
on a bit of the lazy side. And they didn't want to put forth
any more effort than necessary to remove that great stone that
lay on that well. While this conversation is going
on, look what happens in verse 9. And while he yet spake with
them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she kept them. What do you know? Here comes
Rachel with her father's sheep. And when Jacob sees her, it's
love at first sight. When he sees her, it's love at
first sight. Oh, I tell you what, we're gonna
see the power of love here in a minute. The power of love. It says in verse 10, listen.
When Jacob sees Rachel, he, listen, he rolled away the stone so those sheep could drink. Jacob didn't ask for help. He didn't ask those other shepherds
standing there to help him. There's a great stone, it's called
a great stone, laying over this well. And when Jacob sees Rachel,
it's love at first sight, and Jacob by himself removes this
great stone for Rachel. Well, when I read that the other
day, I couldn't help but think of Hebrews
chapter one. Turn over there. Hebrews chapter
one. Hebrews chapter one. Look in verse 3. Who being the brightness of His
glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding
all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself
purged us from our sins. When He had by Himself purged
our sins. Brethren, there was a great stone
of sin that had to be taken care of before we could drink of the
water of life. Jesus Christ, by himself, removed
that great stone of sin that kept the sheep from drinking.
He did it, and he did it by himself. He's the only one who could do
it. He's the only one who had the strength to do it, the power
to do it, the right to do it. He's the only one who could do
it. No one else could do it. Those other shepherds couldn't
do it. They weren't going to do it. And they couldn't do it.
Rachel couldn't do it. You know, the church can't remove
sin. You know, the Catholicism, they do their hocus pocus and
say, I resolve you of sin. No! Jesus Christ is the only one
who can absolve us, who can put away our sins. No one else can
put away our sins. And our sins is what keeps us
from God. The issue is not hell, it's my
sins. It's my sins. A man said to me
years ago, he was talking to me and he was, He was afraid
of dying. I was working with him. He was
afraid of dying. Going to hell. And I asked him
one time, I said, what are you the most afraid of, hell or God?
He said, hell. I don't want to go to hell. I
said, well, if you find favor with a judge, you don't have
to go to prison. You fear the wrong thing. Christ said, don't
fear a man who can cast your body, who can kill your body. Fear him. who cast body and soul
into hell. It's God. It's God. Don't fear a place. It's the
right fear of a person. And that person is God Almighty. And the only thing that keeps
standing between me and Him is my sins. They've got to be put
away. And they've got to be put away.
Now listen, they've got to be put away properly. The natural
man doesn't care how God saves him as long as he don't go to
hell. But the believer wants a just God. I don't want an unjust
God. I just want another devil on
my hands. You want a just God who puts your sins away justly.
That way nothing's coming back. Nothing's coming back. I don't
have to look over my shoulder. I don't have to look over my
shoulder. I can go to sleep at night. I can sleep. I don't have to sleep with one
eye open. No, I can sleep at night. Oh,
Jesus Christ is the only one who can remove that great stone
of sin. Jesus Christ tread the winepress
of God's wrath alone. I didn't get in there with him. You didn't get in there with
him. Now, representatively, we were in him, but he did it alone. He did it alone. He's the only
one who could take such a wrath and come out of it. We can't. We can't. That's why hell's forever.
We can't satisfy justice. No one could help him. Being
God, he was able to do it by himself. God taking my place. Isn't that amazing? Amazing love. Amazing grace. How sweet the
sound. Amazing grace. Christ loves his
church so much that he gave himself for her. Only the Lord Jesus Christ can
set us free from the power of sin, the guilt of sin, and someday
the presence of sin. Only he can do that. And he did
it. He did it. But now there's another
great stone that's got to be removed. You see, Jacob, Jacob loved Rachel. Loved Rachel. He says to Laban, there in verse
15, and Laban said to Jacob, where Laban said to Jacob, because
thou art my brother, shouldst thou therefore serve me for naught,
tell me what shall thy wages be? This is a beautiful picture
here. And Laban had two daughters.
The name of the one was Leah, and the name of the other was
Rachel. Leah was tender, and Rachel was beautiful and well-favored.
Jacob loved Rachel, and he said, I'll serve you for seven years.
Here's my wages. Here's my wages. Her. I don't know if I can say, I
don't know if it's saying this properly or not, but we are his wages. He earned us. He earned his bride. He earned her. But now, listen,
there's a problem. There's a problem. Leah's in
the way. Leah's in the way. Look down
in verse 26. You know the story. Jacob worked
for seven years for Rachel. And then it came time for him
to have Rachel and to have this feast. And he wakes up in the
morning and there's Leah. There's Leah. And Jacob said,
what do you do? And Laban said, it must not be
so done in our country to give the younger before the firstborn.
You've got to fulfill the law of the firstborn. There's a law
here. They called it custom. And with them, custom was law.
There's a custom here you've got to take care of first. And it's Leah. I cannot give you, Rachel, until
you take care of this custom, this law concerning Leah, the
firstborn. Our Lord came into this world.
When he came into this world, he came into this world to fulfill
the law of God on our behalf. The law had us. The law of God
had us. And the Lord Jesus Christ, for
him to have his bride, he's got to fulfill the law. He's got
to redeem us from the curse of the law. He's got to obey the
law in our place, in our stead. He's got to do that. But not
only does he have to do that, he's got to die. Because the
law said, the soul that sinneth shall surely die. And he did. He did. He satisfied the law. He removed that great stone of
the law that stood between us and Him. Him having us. Now this
reminds me of another stone. That great stone of death. That
stone of death. It's appointed unto man once
to die. There's no getting around that. You know, God keeps His
appointments. It's appointed unto men once
to die, and after this judgment, it says in Ezekiel 18, 4, Behold,
all souls are mine. As the soul of the father, also
the soul of the son is mine. And the soul that sinneth, it
shall die. Have you sinned? I have to die. I've seen it in
Adam and by myself. I've seen it. We all have to die. Stats show
that one out of every one person dies. That's one stat that doesn't
lie. They all die. We all die. Now who's going to
roll that great stone of death away? Who's going to take the
sting out of death? Who's going to take victory away from the
grave? Not me. Not you. We don't have the power
to do that. But our Lord does. Our Lord does. 1 Corinthians 15, 55, O death,
where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, the
strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God which gives
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. He's removed that
stone of sin. He's removed that stone of the
law. He's removed the stone of death. Jesus Christ died the death,
his bride deserved to die. And he gives her the victory
through his death. Our Lord became bone of our bone,
flesh of our flesh, lived the perfect life of obedience to
God's law, died the death that she deserved, his bride deserved. But it doesn't end there. He's
got to rise again. A dead Christ is not going to
save anyone. A dead sacrifice is not going to save anyone.
A living sacrifice does. John said, I saw a lamb as it
stood in the midst of the throne as it had been slain. Christ
is a living sacrifice. He's our living Lord. Now who's going to roll that
stone away from that grave that he's in. He was buried. He was buried. It says in Mark
16, 1, and when the Sabbath day was passed, Mary Magdalene and
Mary the mother of James and Salome had bought sweet spices
that they might come and anoint him. And very early in the morning,
the first day of the week, they came into the sepulcher at the
rising of the sun, and they said among themselves, Who shall roll
us away the stone from the door of the sepulcher? Who shall roll
away this stone? They know there's a big stone
on the mouth of that grave. You see, in that grave is the
water of life. And for us to drink of the water
of life, that stone must be removed and the water of life must flow
out of it. Christ must come out of the grave
in order for us to drink. Catholicism, they worship a dead
Christ and a Virgin Mary. They got married on the throne
and Christ in the grave. Well, first of all, Christ is
risen. He's seated at God's right hand. And Mary did not stay a
virgin. She had children. She was a virgin
when she had our Lord, but after that, they said, we know you,
the carpenter, so we know your brothers and sisters. We know your brothers and sisters. Our Lord must come out of that
grave. He must come out of it. Well, it says in Matthew 28,
2, God sent an angel. God sent an angel to remove the
stone showing his acceptance of Christ, person, and work.
The Father has accepted him. The water of life flowed out
of that grave. Now there's another stone problem
that's got to be taken care of. One more stone problem. It is written in Ezekiel 36,
26. A new heart also will I give
you, and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will take away
the stony heart out of your flesh, and I'll give you a heart of
flesh. That stony heart must be removed
before we can drink of the water of life. I can't remove it. All the preaching
that I can do from now until I die, I can't remove that stony
heart. That's a work of God. That's
a work of God. There must be a new nature given
to receive the water of life. There must be. There must be
a new nature given that hungers and thirsts after righteousness. You know, to hunger and thirst
after righteousness is to hunger and thirst after the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is our righteousness. He is the Lord our righteousness.
If you have a real hunger and thirst after righteousness, you
have a real hunger and thirst after Jesus Christ. Righteousness
has a name, and that name is Jesus Christ. That name is Jesus Christ. And
only the Lord Jesus Christ can remove that stone. Only He can do it. It's the work
of God. It's the work of God. Now in closing, when Jacob, there
in verse 11, when Jacob, when he saw Rachel, you know what
he did? He kissed her. He kissed her. You say, well that was the custom
of that day. There was more than a custom in that kiss. Boy, there's
more. I tell you, I shouldn't tell
you this, but don't tell Vicki I told you this. I better take
a drink of water before I do that. Our first date. She's going to shoot me. Our
first date, we went out. We went to a movie or something.
We came home. She opened the door and she said
goodbye. I stuck my foot in the door. No, you're the one. You're the
one. And I gave her a kiss. That was
forward, I know. I look back on that and I think,
what were you thinking? I wasn't. But when Jacob, when Jacob, when
he saw Rachel, This is more than a custom kiss here. This is a
kiss of love. She had His heart. He loved her. He loved her. Enough to work
14 years. He worked 7 years and it says,
because of His love to her, they seemed like but a few days. Apply
that to the Lord Jesus Christ. Apply that to His love for us.
He said, don't feel sorry for me. Oh, he loved his church. He loves his church. It was not
a problem to work and come into this life and keep the law and
to suffer. That was not a problem. Love makes service easy. It's
easy to serve the one you love. It's easy to bow to the one you
love. A wife who loves her husband,
has no problem him being the head of the house. It's when
that love is absent that you have a problem. He kissed Rachel. He expressed
his love to her. Can God express his love to us
any more than he has than Jesus Christ at the cross? Can love be expressed any more
than the sacrifice of Christ? And he says he wept, that is,
he rejoiced over her. He saw her as beautiful, it says. Let me see. I can't remember what verse it
was. She was well favored. Is it verse 17? Oh, yeah, look
at this. In verse 17, Leah was tender
in her eye, but Rachel was beautiful in his eye. She was beautiful
and well favored. She was well put together. Now
I'm not dumpster diving here, I'm just, I'm gonna make a point.
She's well put together. The church of the Lord Jesus
Christ is well put together. There's not a blemish, I'm telling
you, there's not a blemish in her. Not a blemish. Let me read you something, I've
already got it marked here. In Song of Solomon chapter 4,
I'm just gonna read verse 7. What a chapter. But this is how
our Lord sees his bride. You, who believe, which make
up the bride. Thou art all fair, my love, there
is no spot in thee. And then she describes him in
chapter five, and she says, his mouth is most sweet, yea, he's
altogether lovely. You know what makes for a great
marriage? When neither one of you see a
blemish in each other. When you can't see a blemish
in the one you love. Even when you age and the blemishes
are coming on at a breakneck speed, you can't see it. Problems begin when you start
picking at those blemishes. When the Lord looks at his church
He says there's no spot in her. She is absolutely beautiful. She is well put together. She's
well put together. We see ourselves as sinners,
and we should, and we do. He sees us as beautiful and rejoices
over us. That's all you can say. After Jacob removes the stones,
that stone, and he reveals to her that, you know what he reveals
to her after he removes the stone? I'm your near kinsman. I'm your
near kinsman. Jacob came from the promised
land, He came from His Father's house, and He came with the covenant
blessings of Abraham. Our Lord came from His Father's
house. He came from the promised land. And He came with the covenant
blessings of His Father. And you know, you know, what's His is ours. He came with
the covenant blessings. And what belongs to him belongs
to his bride, his wife. I was talking to a young couple the other day. I'm going to marry
them, Lord willing, in May. And they came to me for some
advice. They wanted to talk to me. I
said, the first thing I can tell you is stay under the gospel.
Stay under the gospel. No matter what else you acquire
in life, sooner or later you gotta lay it down. Everything I know, this is one
thing I've learned after 63 years, one thing I know. The only knowledge
that I have that's worth having is what I've gotten from the
word of God. I was in the machine shop world
for 40 years. You know I've laid that down? I don't need it no
more. But the knowledge that I have
of Christ, the excellent knowledge that I have of Christ is only
gonna grow. it's only gonna grow. We will never exhaust knowing
God in Christ. You can't exhaust infinite wisdom
and infinite knowledge. God is infinite, so we'll never
exhaust knowing God. We'll never exhaust knowing God.
Can't do it. But I said to them, stay on the
gospel. And I said, if there's one thing
I can tell you, When you two get married, it's no more we,
I mean, it's no more I, me, it's mine, it's ours. It's us. I said, if you two, you two,
I said, become one. I said, if you become one, you
can walk through all your problems as long as you're not the problem. As long as you're not the problem. What I've seen over the years,
one of the biggest causes of divorce is when two people never
become one, they stay independent of each other. If you stay independent
of each other, you're going that way and that way. You're not
going the same direction. But if you become one, You both
have the same thing. You're going in the same direction.
You have the same love for each other. You have the same goals.
That's one. And we are one in Christ. And
what's His is ours. All things are yours in Christ.
All that the Father's given Him is given to us in Him. He's given
to us in Him. And I say to you who've not yet
drank of the water of life, drink. Drink. Come and drink of the
water of life freely. The stone's been rolled away.
Come and drink of the water of life. Scott Richardson said this,
I've never forgotten. Oh sinner, why will you die when
the water is so close by? when the water is so close by. You may not want the water of
life, but it's interesting, you want to take the next breath.
That air is not yours. The food you'll eat today is
not yours. Why would you take the blessings and not the blesser? I say to everyone in here that's
never believed on Christ, Drink of the water of life. The stones
have been removed. He's removed them by his life,
by his death, by his resurrection, by his ascension. He's seated
at God's right hand. Come and drink of the water of
life freely. All right, thank you.