Now the Word of God, the Word of God is the children's
bread. This is what we feed upon and
literally feast upon. The greater our need, the more
important it is to us. The Apostle Paul wrote these
words, listen to them while I read them, And that means all of this book,
Genesis to Revelation, all Scripture, is given by inspiration of God. It's God-breathed. This is God's
Word, literally, verbally inspired. This is the Word of God, preserved
by His good providence over the ages, through the generations,
and given by His grace to us. And all Scripture is profitable
for doctrine, for our foundation. for reproof, for correction,
to straighten us out, for instruction, edification, teaching, and righteousness,
that the man of God might be mature, we might grow up, and
that we might be thoroughly furnished unto all good works. In other
words, the Word of God is the children's bread for every need,
for every occasion. The occasion cannot arise. which
the word of God cannot meet. The need cannot arise which the
word of God cannot meet. The need cannot arise. The cup
is nowhere empty that this word can't fill. Man shall not live
by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth from the
mouth of God. And then Paul wrote, I want you
to turn to this, in Romans 15. Paul wrote this in Romans 15. He said, Romans 15, verse 4,
he said, And what things soever, whatever things, were written
aforetime, back yonder, back yonder in the Old Testament,
whatever was written back yonder, was written for our learning. Blessed is the man or woman who
can turn to the Scripture and find the message the message
that God has for him through some illustration or some type
or some picture in the Old Testament. Romans 15 forward. Whatsoever
things were written aforetime were written for our learning,
that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might
have hope. Now I've gone back to the book
of Genesis. and picked up the story of a
man who's most difficult to understand, this man Jacob. Most difficult
to understand. But I turn to Romans 9. There's
no doubt in my mind that Jacob was one of God's own. I don't
have any doubt about that at all. Jacob belonged to God. Jacob had a a relationship with
the living God. It says here in Romans 9, verse
10, not only this, but when Rebekah, as Jacob's mother, when Rebekah
also had conceived by one, even our father Isaac, the children
being not yet born, and neither having done any good or evil,
that the purpose of God, according to election, might stand not
of works, but of him that called it, it was said to her that elders
shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated." Jacob, strange, mysterious, difficult to understand
man, and yet one of God's own, one of God's elect, loved by
God. Jacob was loved by God. And Jacob
loved God. But Jacob, his very name means
supplanter, and supplanter means this, to take by force. When he was born, he had hold
of his, they were twins, you know, Jacob and Esau, and Esau
was born first, and his very nature was revealed in his birth.
He had hold of his brother's heel. He did, to take by force,
by plotting. That's what his name means, Jacob.
He plotted with his mother. Of course, I know the will of
God was in all of this, but he plotted with his mother to steal
his brother's birthright, Esau's birthright. And then he had to
lie to his old blind father, deceived him. And then he had
to flee from his home in disgrace. He had to flee to another country. But the hand of God was on this
man. The hand of God was on this man
in unusual fashion. But that's the way the Lord works.
He said, I'll be merciful to whom I will be merciful. I'll
be gracious to whom I will. The Lord shows utter contempt
for that which man puts a high premium on. Did you know that?
Turn to 1 Corinthians 1. Listen to what this says. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 26. Somebody says, well, why Jacob? Well, that's God's goodness.
1 Corinthians 1, 26. You see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many not many
noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty and strong, and the base things of the world and
the things which are despised hath God chosen, things which
are not to bring to naught the things that are, that no flesh
should glory in his presence, but of God are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." All right, Jacob,
supplanter, plotter, deceiver. Yet God's hands on him. God's
hands on him. And he had to flee from his home.
He had to leave the presence of his family and father and
others that he had deceived and leave out of fear for his brother.
But on his flight from Esau and from home, God appeared to him
in covenant mercies. I read about it a while ago over
in Genesis 28. God met Jacob in the way. Jacob met the Lord of glory,
and Jacob knew that he had met God. He knew it. He lay there
that night and saw that ladder. from heaven to earth, touching
the earth and ascending into heaven, the angels of God ascending
and descending. And Jacob said he was appraised,
and he said, this place, that God's in this place, the God
of glory's in this place. And Jacob called the name of
that place Bethel, Bethel. Remember that word, Bethel, B-E-T-H-E-L,
Bethel. Jacob called it Bethel, house
of God. This is the house of God. And
old Jacob, he met the Lord that night. There's no doubt about
it. I don't care what happens, he met God. He met God revealed
himself to Jacob. This wasn't some high-pressure
religious campaign. This wasn't a decision to accept
Jesus and go to heaven. Jacob met God that night. He
met the living God, the true and living God. Jacob met God.
God knew Jacob, and Jacob knew God. This was a private revelation
of God to the heart of this man. He said, God's in this place.
God's in this place. He wasn't deceived or fooled,
he wasn't manipulated, he wasn't coerced. God, by his sovereign
will, by his sovereign choice, that night appeared to Jacob.
And Jacob, as an object of God's grace and God's mercy, saw the
Lord. He saw the Lord. But point number one, that was
a revelation of the redeeming God. That's what that was. That
was a revelation of the redeeming God. Some people never had that. Some people never have had that.
Oh, they've got religion, they know some Bible, They've gone
to the big meetings, and they've made a profession or two and
rededicated several times, and they've taught Sunday school
and read the quartets and sang in gospel quartets and gone to
revival meetings, but they never met God. Jacob met God, Jim. Jacob met God. He met God. He had a revelation
of a redeeming Lord. met God, and he saw the way to
glory. That's that ladder. That's Christ.
That's that ladder. Jacob met God, personally and
privately, and God particularly revealed himself to Jacob. He
met God. This wasn't a game. This wasn't
no longer just a heritage or a tradition, but he met the living
God. He knew it and never got totally
away from it. But here's the first point. Things,
but things began to go wrong. They began to go wrong. Just
everything went wrong. You might say from the time he
left Bethel to the time I pick up the story after a while, everything
went wrong. First place, he married wrong. He married the wrong woman. And
that was a lot of finagling and pressure from different sources,
but he married wrong. He had a severe trial in marriage.
He married Leah because of a plot by his father-in-law. He married
the wrong woman. And then, later on, he married
Rachel. And Leah was the productive one.
She's the one that had all the children. Rachel didn't have
any children. God closed up her womb. That's all wrong. That
threw him. He had several children by Leah. Then his father-in-law turned
against him. They was in business together, and he turned against
him. Jacob prospered, and Jacob did
a little finagling there, too. But he got wealthy, and he had
to leave the country. And then he went down and settled
in a pagan country. He moved to the wrong part of
town. He was a big shot now, you know.
Had a lot of cattle. He's somebody, had two wives
and ten, eleven children, eleven sons and one daughter. So he
went down and settled in a place called Shechem. He built him
a house on the hill and became a citizen. Somebody said one
time, said Jacob's greatest error was when he became a citizen
of Shechem. But let me show you what happened
down there. Turn to Genesis 34. Show you what happened down there.
Things just began to go wrong for Jacob. And in Genesis 34,
his daughter was assaulted by one of the sons of the king of
the country. Dinah was her name. And she was
assaulted by one of the young men there. And it says in Genesis
34, 26, and Jacob's sons, Jacob's sons slew Hamor and Shechem,
his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of
Shechem's house and went out, and the sons of Jacob came upon
the slain. They slew all the males in the
city, verse 25. See the last line, Genesis 34,
25, slew all the males. And verse 27, the sons of Jacob
came upon the slain and spoiled the city because they defiled
their sister. And they took their sheep and
their oxen, their asses, and that which was in the city, and
that which was in the field, and all their wealth, and all
their little ones, and their wives took their captive. These
are sons of Jacob. Spoiled even all that was in
the house. Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, that's his two older
boys, you trouble me to make me distinct among the inhabitants
of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites, and I being
few in number, They shall gather themselves together against me
and slay me, and I'll be destroyed, I and my house." And they said,
well, should he deal with our sisters with a harlot? You see
the mess he's in? Old Jacob, child of God, Jacob,
one of God's elect, Jacob, who had seen the Lord, met the God
of all grace. But things had gone wrong. He
was a fugitive from his home country. There was a division
with his brother Esau. There was a rift with his father-in-law. He was in association with heathens
and pagans, and they turned against him. His sons had brought shame
upon him and his name, brought reproach upon him. He feared
for his very life Everything had gone wrong. All right, here's
my question. What does a man do when everything
goes wrong? What does he do? Anybody know
anything about that? Have I just got this message
for myself, or does anybody here need this message? I don't know, God gave it to me, I think.
Somebody asked Barney one time, why do you say what you say?
He said, well, God, the devil, or somebody tells me to say it. Does anybody know anything about
this? Everything goes wrong. Fellowships are broken. Attitudes
are bad. Flesh is indulged. Joy is gone. The joy is gone. When you pray, the heavens seem
to be brass. Old wounds are still open and
bleeding. Friends and associates and loved
ones have embarrassed you. Things have gone from bad to
worse. You're about ready to despair
even of grace. And that's where Jacob was, is
this man's in trouble. This man's in deep, serious trouble. This man is unhappy. Everywhere
he looks is blackness and darkness and frustration and defeat. Everything's
gone wrong. Or he had plenty to eat, he had
plenty to wear, he had plenty of money, that wasn't it. But
everything else had gone wrong. What do you do? All right, verse
1 of chapter 35, and God spoke. Thank God. He didn't have a friend
anywhere, but God spoke to him. He's God's friend. He's God's
child. And God said to Jacob, well,
how's God going to speak to you? and me. He's going to speak to
you through his word and through his servant. That's how he speaks
to you. God doesn't speak any less to
us today than he did to Jacob. He speaks more to us. We have
more of the revealed word. He speaks to you. You're in this
state and things have gone wrong and maybe nobody knows it but
you. Maybe you're putting up a good
front. But God said to Jacob, and I'm talking to his own. Now
Jacob's one of his own. Jacob's one of his elect. Jacob's
had a revelation of Christ. I'm not talking religious people.
They're never going to get right until they meet God. But I'm
talking to God's people. And God said, Jacob, arise. Now, what's to be done? Well,
first thing, a move to be made. A move to be made. Arise, God
said. Go up. Go up to battle. Rise. Jacob, get up. Get up. You're not to stay where you
are. You're not to remain where you
are. You've just been slowly sinking in that quicksand of
self. You're not to stay there and
feel sorry for yourself. You're not to stay where you
are and pout and stew in your misery. You're not to stay where
you are and give in to your despair. Get up! Get up. That's what he said. That's the
first words God said. Jacob! Get up. Get up. Stand up! And leave that place
where you are. Get out of there. Get out of
there. Leave that place of despair and
indifference and coldness and worldliness. Don't allow pride
to keep you in your pit. Don't allow that self-esteem. Self-esteem ain't nothing but
self-righteous pride. That's all it is. You got yourself
where you are, but there's no need to stay there. Get up. All right? The second thing is
this. A move is to be made, a move to a certain place. He said,
arise, get up, Jacob, and go to Bethel. Bethel. Where's Bethel? house of God. This is the place you met God.
This is the place where you were identified with the Lord God.
This is the place where His gospel, where His gospel was revealed
to your heart. That's where you need to go,
back where you started. Right back where you started.
Right back where you started. I'll tell you, I think one of...
I don't know how to explain it. I don't know how to deal with
it. But I look at my grandchildren,
the ones that are still little, and I see our Lord talking about...
He brought that little child up in front of His disciples.
His disciples were quibbling and arguing and caring about
who's going to be the greatest, who's going to sit on the right
hand, who's going to sit on the left. And the Lord brought that
little child up and he said, if you're not converted and become
as a little child, you're not going to enter the kingdom of
God. And I see my grandchildren, the younger ones, they're so
attentive and so obedient and so trusting and so genuine, you
know. And I think, I wish they didn't
have to become teenagers. I'm serious. I wish they didn't
have to become like some of you smart alecks out there. They
ought to be shot. Don't have respect for your parents.
You think you're bigger than you are. You got a man's body
and a peanut brain. I'm telling the truth. You're
rebels. Sniffing on dope and trying marijuana and staying
out at night. Slicing your parents and acting
like idiots. Ain't that right? breaking their hearts, just killing
them. Just killing them. I wish these
kids didn't have to grow up. But then I watch them, I watch
them, and maybe God brings them back to your lap again, you know. They get about 40, about 35,
and they get little brains, don't they? have children of their
own, and their kids break their hearts then. And they come back
and sit down close to you and talk to you. That's where old
Jacob was. He was one of God's little ones,
and he met the Lord. And then he grew up to be a teenager.
And he went out on his own, you know. He went out on his own. He thought he knew something.
Do it himself. He went out and made a fool out
of himself. Just made a fool out of himself.
And God said, now you come on back to Bethel. You come on back
in where you met me and crawl up in my lab. And put your arms
around the Redeemer. That's where you need to come
back to. That's what He said to us. Come on back to that early
day. I tell you, I hate for folks
to, I don't know, folks to get better jobs bigger houses and
get some influence. They get too big for nothing
but the blood of Jesus. They do. They get promotions
and they become high-muckety-mucks. They get too big for there's
power in the blood. Yeah, they do. They're important. But I'll tell you this. Jacob
couldn't survive in Shechem. Lot couldn't survive in Sodom,
Israel couldn't survive in Egypt, and one of God's little ones
can't survive away from home. He'll never be happy in liberalism,
modernism, or any other kind of ism. The only place he can
be happy is in the lap of his Lord as a little child. That's
right, just a little one making love to Jesus Christ. That's
what he said to Peter. You know, the Apostle Peter,
he mingled with the big shops, and he sat in the courtyard,
and he denied he knew the Lord. And then our Lord met him down
there by the river, and he said, You've left your first love.
That's your problem. That's your problem. That's your
problem. You've left your first love. And you've got to come back.
You can't survive away from that which is identified with the
Lord Jesus. And I said, you're still preaching
what you preached years ago? There ain't nothing else to preach.
And nothing else. Ain't no hope anywhere else.
We get to be doctors and masters of theology and we don't know
anything. And then watch here. He said, you arise. Get up. Go
back to the house of God. And something's to be done. He
said, you make an altar there to God. I guarantee you this,
when he built that altar, something very prominent was on that altar.
You know what it was? There's a lamb. There's a lamb
on that altar. There's a lamb on that altar.
Christ Jesus is that lamb. Here's where we've got to come
to. We've got to come back to that
childlike faith. We got to come back to the Lamb,
back to the cross, back to the praise of the Lamb, back to the
person of Christ, back to Christ Jesus, our substitute. The thing
to do is never leave it, but if you leave it, come back. Come
back. Come on back. Back to Bethel. And he said, make there an altar.
Make there an altar. Alas, and did my Savior bleed,
and did my Sovereign die, would He devote that sacred head for
such a worm as I at the cross. That's where I first saw the
light. That's where the burden of my heart rolled away, at the
cross. It was there by faith I received my sight, and I'm
happy all the day, as long as I stay there. And he said this,
watch this, now God said, Jacob, and here he says, Jacob, embarrassed
Jacob. He's drifted away from God, Jacob,
he's been in all this trouble and everything around him has
fallen in around his ears, and he said, Jacob, get up! Now come
on, get up! And go back to Bethel. Go back
to where you met Christ. Go back to where I gave you a
revelation of myself. Go back to the simple thing.
Go back home. Go back there where you felt
the power of the word, and the power of the cross, and the power
of the gospel, and the power of the blood, and the presence
of God, and the fellowship of his people. Go back! And make
an altar there. Now watch this. Unto God that
appeared to thee there's some memories to be revived. Remember
when you were just a hungry child and you wasn't a graduate theologian?
Remember when you were just hungry to hear any message? Remember
when you just couldn't wait to get to the place where they were
preaching the Word? Just couldn't wait. Now, a little different, isn't it? Remember
when somebody would pray, and you would pray with them? Remember
when somebody would read the Word, and you had your pen out,
and you just marked it? Hey, that's good. Did you see
that? You remember that? You remember when you liked that?
What happened? What happened? The preacher got too busy. Jacob
did too. Well, I got too important. I
mean, those fellas there, I used to, you know, get together with
the boys around the Word of God, but they, they don't, you know,
they, they're not big as I am. Man, I got too self-centered,
too worldly. They don't talk. You know, I
gotta, I gotta get along with the world. You fella gotta live
in this world. Yeah, that's right, gotta live in hell, too. Or heaven,
one or the other. Got too smart, got too good maybe,
too talented, too wise, too tired, too sick, too involved, too old. Some people get too old, too
contrary, or too whatever. But I'll tell you this, you'll
find the joy of the Lord where you left it. I'm telling the truth. Right
where you left it. Somebody said one time, You lay
that burden down where you picked it up back at the cross. Jacob, get up and go to Bethel. And you have two words there
that I skipped over on purpose, and I'm going to come back and
pick them up. And do what? And dwell right there. Dwell
there. Just a child. That was a simple
day. That was the days of revelation.
Simple days. That's the days of grace. You
go dwell there. Stay there. Don't leave it ever
again. Don't leave it ever again. Dwell
there and build you an altar and stay by the altar. The God
that appeared to the youth. And what's this? Now this is
what I like right here. The doing of it. And Jacob sent
to his household And all that were with him, everybody was
with him. Jacob spoke for his house. And all that were with
him, put away the strange gods from among you, and be clean,
and change your garments, and let us arise. We're going back
to Bethel. Jacob spoke for himself and for
his house. Like old Joshua, he says, for
me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. This is where
we're going to camp, where we're going to camp. And he immediately
went to Bethel, and it says that he built an altar. It says here
in verse 6, And Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of
Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people with him. And
he built an altar there, and he called the place El Bethel,
the God of Bethel, because God appeared to him when he fled
from the face of his brother. Oh boy, he came back home. Here I am, he said. Here I am,
back where I belong. There's nothing out there, but
there's a whole lot here. There's hope here, there's grace
here, there's truth here, there's God here, there's fellowship
here, there's warranty, there's nothing out there. You don't
prove anything out there. But now here, let me warn you,
his trials were not over. Look at verse 8. Rebekah's nurse, his mother's
nurse, died. And they buried her. Well, Lord,
I came back to Bethel, and look what happened. Deborah died. But that wasn't all. They buried
her under an oak, and the name of it was Alonbaca. And God appeared to Jacob again
when he came out of Petarema. paid an harem and blessed him. And God said, Your name is Jacob.
Your name will not be called any more Jacob, but I'm going
to give you a new name, Israel, Prince of God, Prince of God. But you know what happened? Rachel,
his wife, got with child, and then she
died. It looks like, you know, it looks
like the Lord may heat the fire even more in Bethel for his own
purpose and glory. But I'll tell you the difference.
Out yonder there are trials without God, here there are trials with
God. Now there's a lot of difference.
And it seems sometimes when the gold appears to almost be refined,
God will turn the heat up. But He's doing that for your
good and His glory. Look at verse 16. I'm going to
quit in a moment. But he said, And they journeyed
from Bethel. Genesis 35, 16. They journeyed
from Bethel, and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath. And Rachel travailed. She had
hard labor. And it came to pass, when she
was in hard labor, the midwife said to her, Fear not, I shall
have a son also. This son. It came to pass, as
her soul was in departing, for she died, that she named, she
called his name, Ben-Oni, Ben-Oni, which means the son of Massara.
But his father called him Benjamin, Benjamin, the son of my right
hand. And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to
Epah, which is Bethlehem. And Jacob set a pillar upon her
grave, that is, the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day."
Well, what was the result of his going back to Bethel? Well,
number one, God appeared to him again. It says in verse 9, and
God appeared to Jacob. In verse 10, God gave him new
assurance. He said, your name will be Jacob
no more, but Israel prince. New name. In verse 11, he confirmed
the promise. He said, I'm God Almighty, and
be fruitful, multiply the nation, and a company of kings will be
born of thee. And then verse 13, and God heard
him pray. It says, and God went up from
him in the place where he talked with him. Jacob talked to God.
Jacob talked to God. What's he saying here? Back to
Bethel. Arise, get up from where you
are. And your despondency and despair
and your doubts and all these things, go back to where you
met him. Back to your first love. Back to the days of sweetheart
love. Back to the days of that gentle childlike faith. Back to the days of that warmth
and glow of the presence of the Lord. Get back there. And while
there's still trials there too, but they're trials with the presence
of the Lord of Glory. And He works them for His praise
and your good. Our Father, oh, that we might
be just children, but children of trust and children of faith
and children of love for Thee. Lord, deliver us from this conceit
and self-righteousness and selfishness and worldliness, and attitude
of indifference. That which is of Satan, satanically,
subtly inspired, it takes us away from this place, this place
of your presence, this place of your power, this place of
your gospel, this place of your fellowship. It complicates us
and everything else, causes strife and division, discord, unhappiness. Lord, bring us back to Bethel,
back to the feet of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us, like Mary,
always be found at His feet, at His feet, sheltered and protected,
kept by His love, enamored with His presence, awed before His
countenance, grateful for His love, trusting in his word, resting
in his mercy. Do what you will. Use the message
for your own glory and our good. For Christ's sake we pray. Amen.