Amen.
Right, Genesis chapter 28, and last week it was a pretty long chapter 27.
We looked at the story of Isaac blessing Jacob and Esau and we went through it first at a
sort of surface level, if you remember, how Isaac we saw was anywhere between 100 to 150
years old, Jacob and Esau between 40 and 90 years old, how he sent Esau out for venison
before planning to bless him, Rebecca dressed up Jacob as Esau to deceive the now blind Isaac
and take the blessing, something already promised by God which, you know, Rebecca decided to take
Matthew into her own hands on, right. They succeeded, taking the blessing with some prophecies in there,
and we saw those initially fulfilled in the nations Israel and Edom, however then we also
looked at how this was a picture of the replacement of the elder, the physical nation with the younger
spiritual nation. Romans 9 making this clear among many other places in the New Testament and
we saw how yet again God was picturing this replacement all the way back in Genesis. We've
already seen a few pictures of this already, so this is something that's just been for me just
clearly pictured time and time again in the book of Genesis, and that for me was a very clear one
once you start to break here down, I think. I hope I, you know, I managed to explain that. I know I went
through it fairly quickly but I think it's all there, it was such a long chapter I didn't see a
good place to break that, and just to make it clear in that chapter, we saw that Jacob
represented the spiritual nation of believers who took the blessings from Esau, representing the
previous physical nation. The result was that he hated Jacob with Rebecca wanting to send him
abroad to find a bride, representing the gospel of churches going far and wide, and in fact that
picture we're going to see continues a bit into this chapter as well, but it finished that chapter
with verse 41, saying, and Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father
blessed him, and Esau said in his heart, the days of mourning for my brother are at hand, then will I
slay my brother Jacob. And these words of Esau, her elder son, were told to Rebecca, and she sent
and called Jacob, her younger son, and said unto him, behold thy brother Esau is touching thee, doth
comfort himself, purposing to kill thee. Now therefore my son, obey my voice and arise, flee
thou to Laban, my brother to Haran, and tarry with him a few days until their brother's fury
turn away, until thy brother's anger turn away from thee, and he forget that which thou has done to him,
then I will send him fetch thee from thence. Why should I be deprived also of you both in one day?
And Rebecca said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob take a
wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are the daughters of the land, what good shall my
life do me? And in Genesis 28, kind of continues from that point, where she's basically, you know,
put that idea to Isaac, and then verse one says, and Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him,
and said unto him, thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. I'd like to pray
forward to you, Father. Thank you for your word, thank you for this, another just great chapter in
Genesis here, with pictures, with just many things, many topics here that we could look into.
Help me to just preach to ones I've chosen to expand clearly and boldly now, Lord, for everyone
to just have attentive ears, for me to be fully your spirit, Lord, for everyone to be
fully your spirit, just listening to your word being preached in Jesus' name, for all this. Amen.
So remember that Esau had already done this, okay? Genesis 26, where he said,
thou shalt not take a wife, we just saw the daughter of Canaan. Genesis 26 and verse 34
said, and Esau was 40 years old when he took to wife Judith, the daughter of Birai the Hittite,
and Bashamath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite, which were a grief of mine unto Isaac and to Rebecca.
So the marrying of these unsaved, worldly women was a grief of mine to his parents, and that's
something we've already looked at, so I'm not going to preach that to death, okay? We've already looked
at that clearly. Verse two says, he said, so therefore he says in verse two, arise, go to Padanaram,
to the house of Bethuel thy mother's father, and take thee a wife from thence of the daughter of Laban,
thy mother's brother. So he's telling him to go to Padanaram, which is Mesopotamia, on the borders
of what is now northern Syria and southern Turkey, if you can picture that. And interestingly, if we're
continuing our picture of Jacob representing the spiritual nation, having replaced Esau representing
the physical nation who's trying to work for the blessings, Jacob receiving them by trusting
Rebecca, representing Christ, being sent out from the Promised Land to find a bride, the destination,
by the way, is right next to Antioch, where they were first called Christians. Acts 11 26 says of
Barnabas finding Saul, later Paul, and when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch, and it came
to pass that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church and taught much people, and the
disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. So that's just an added extra for you free of
charge about the pictures that we've been seeing, and them going out to the nations.
Now whilst sending him out, Isaac blesses Jacob again, and it says here in verse three,
And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee that thou mayst be a multitude of people,
and give thee the blessing of Abraham to thee, to thy seed with thee, that thou mayst inherit the land,
wherein thou art a stranger which God gave unto Abraham. So a blessing being given due to going
out to find a bride. Okay, why is that? Well, look, this can apply to a few things.
For me, we're still seeing the picture, and he's going out to find a bride, obviously picturing
going out to basically plant churches, but also you could apply it to soul winning as well, couldn't you?
Because when it's soul winning and or church planting, they kind of go hand in hand, don't they?
They really do. Turn to Matthew chapter 28. I want to just talk briefly about this point.
The early churches, especially Paul, were going out far and wide preaching the Gospel and planting churches.
They were doing both, right? If there was no soul winning, there wouldn't be any churches, would there?
Okay, if no one's soul winning, there aren't any churches, because churches is a gathering of believers, okay?
And if there were no churches, there wouldn't be any soul winning, because you need to be sent out
to soul win, and people need to be sent out, and so let's be honest, if there weren't any churches,
if there weren't any churches anywhere, you know, and someone had come and got you saved,
the reality of it is you probably would never get inspired and built up enough to be
regularly soul winning, would you? Okay, that's just the truth of it, isn't there?
Matthew 28 shows us that the Great Commission requires both. Said in verse 18,
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptize them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.
And lo, I am with you, all way even unto the end of the world. Amen.
If you're teaching the Gospel to all nations, that's all people, baptizing and teaching them the rest of the Bible,
well, you need kind of more than one church to do that, don't you? Okay, especially before we had sort of,
well, even recorded sermons or anything else. Look, you needed, look, it's not just by reading letters,
people need to be preached to, don't they? Okay, they need to be preached to, they need,
they need somewhere to be able to go, somewhere to congregate and everything else.
And if you're teaching them to observe all things, what's the first thing he's commanded, really, to
preach the Gospel? That would be the first thing, wouldn't it? One of the first things you want to
teach people is they need to learn to go out and preach the Gospel. I mean, we were saying that
today, we've got someone saved and, you know, to try and encourage them to get into churches, look,
you want to be able to get other people saved. You've got an eight-year-old boy here that seems
too distracted and doesn't really, just keeps coming up with random questions about the devil
and stuff. So, look, but you want to be able to get him saved, don't you? So, look, come to our church
and we'll show you how to get people saved, right? And that has, that's, you know, one of the first
things that people need to be taught to do. But how are you going to teach that if you're not doing it?
How are we going to teach people how to soul win and get people saved if we're not going out
and getting people saved? I mean, it'd be major hypocrisy, wouldn't it? Oh, come along and we'll
teach you how to get people saved, yet, you know, we don't actually show anyone how to get saved.
I know that sounds pretty simple, but you'd be amazed, right? How many people claim to be Bible
believing churches that believe the Gospel but don't actually preach the Gospel to anyone? And
then they're saying, oh, come along, come into church and we'll build you up in the things of
God. I remember a pastor once saying to me, who didn't soul win, incidentally, who said to me,
well, soul winning's only half the Gospel. When I was kind of in there, go, great, King James Church,
oh great, yeah, yeah, we've got to go soul winning. And he's like, that's only half the Gospel.
Now, he's right in a way, but the problem is that, yeah, it is only half, but you need to do that
first half, you have to do the second half. And he was obviously not doing the first half, and this
is kind of, you know, the classic, like they're just trying to poo-poo soul winning all the time,
aren't they? Because they don't want to go out soul winning. But a tree brings forth fruit after
its own kind. And we were, we as a church, were planted by a soul winning, church planting church.
Okay, our previous pastor, Pastor Thompson, is and will always be a soul winning
pastor of a soul winning church, but also they're a church planting church. I mean, I've lost count
how many churches they've got right now, and look, he wants to turn those churches into
churches if they're able and ready and they've got men qualified and stuff. You know, he's got
a heart for church planting. And we were planted by that type of church and will continue
to be that type of church. Okay, I believe, look, they brought forth half their own kind.
I'm inspired by our previous pastor with that. Turn to 1 Corinthians 3. We want to plant churches,
okay, we want to plant churches around, but we can't plant churches if we're not soul winning.
Now, what some people might say is, well, yeah, but, you know, I was saved, for example, by Pastor
Anderson, or I was saved by Pastor Jimenez, or I was saved by Kent Hovind, or I was saved by
Brother Hiles, or I was saved maybe here from a soul winner at this church, or maybe from
somewhere else or whatever else. But it doesn't really matter though, because we're all on the
same team. There have to be soul winners out there, we're all on the same team, aren't we?
So if someone's been saved by someone else, great, they need to get into a church.
They can get in that church, great. If they're not, and they were getting saved from a thousand
miles away, they still need to get in the church. Because what I've noticed out there is that the
division causes are desperate to try and find a way to pit churches against each other.
I don't know if you've ever noticed that out there. People just want to find a way of doing that.
I've noticed, like, reading between the lines of things sometimes, they'll just get these people
out there just trying to get some beef, trying to show some differences. Oh, he preaches that,
but he preaches this, and it's like, yeah, we preach the same on salvation, yeah? We preach the
same on the King James Bible, we preach the same on the important stuff, we preach the same on the
Trinity, etc. Those little minor differences, that trying to find some way of getting division is
just showing people what they really are, right? Because all they're really doing is just branding
themselves as a big, like, division-causing stamp on their foreheads. You ever seen these clowns
online and stuff trying to find a way? They're just basically saying, I'm a division-causer.
And it's like, sort yourselves out, you losers, you know? And these people are out there, right? They're
everywhere, and they're trying to find a way to cause that. Well, 1 Corinthians 3 tells us that
at the least these people are just carnal. It says in 1 Corinthians 3 and verse 3, for ye are yet carnal,
for whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are you not carnal and walk as men?
For while one sayeth, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are you not carnal?
So it's carnal at the least, right? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom
you believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? Because if you're saved, who is it that should be
up here? The Lord. It's the Lord, right? It's the Lord that really did the hard stuff. Yeah, yeah, look,
there's some great people out there who've preached the Gospel, got the Gospel out all over the place on
social media, still go out and preach the Gospel and everything else, but it's the Lord Jesus Christ
who's up here, right? I have planted Apollos' water, but God gave the increase. So then neither
is he that planteth anything, neither he that waltereth, but God that giveth the increase. So,
for example, if we go soul winning in Africa, yeah, and we get a load of people saved and then a genuine
soul-winning church gets planted there by another church, great, brilliant, yeah, amazing, great,
that's the best news for us, right? We're not, oh, we wanted them for ourselves,
that's not how it works, is it? We're all on the same team, they're soul-winning, they're planting,
they're doing the right thing, they believe the Gospel, great, amen, right? If a load of people
get saved in the UK having watched Pastor Shelley's documentary, one of his recent ones on the
sodomites, like, great, bring them in, they got saved, they need someone to come, yeah, great, we're not, oh,
well, they got paid, they should really be going out there, right? It doesn't work like that, does it?
Yeah, we're just all on the same team, everyone was striving together, aren't we?
But let me tell you what wouldn't be great, and that's save people getting watered
with the weed killer, that's what we don't want to see happen, do it? So we don't want to save people
ending up in a false church, we don't want to save people getting saved, people, we get saved and then
them to go off to some wicked clown church, some joke church, to some repent of your sins church,
or something like that, that we don't want, right? So therefore, what's the answer? Well, we need to
plant churches, and we need to soul win, and they go hand in hand, and that's why we need to
plant them, right? Where there are saved people, so whether or not they've been saved by people from
here, people from somewhere else, if there's saved people, look, for me, that's then a potential for a
church plant, if there's an area with some saved people, because you say, well, why don't you just go
out and, you know, plant the church with no saved people, because, let's be honest, a lot of this
nation, A, isn't very receptive to the gospel, and B, a lot of this nation, they're not really,
people, once they are saved, like, kind of ready to start going to church and serving God. So we're
looking for people that want to serve God, and want to do the things of God, and whether they've been
saved by Pastor Jimenez, Pastor Anderson, whoever, people from this church, people, it doesn't really,
it doesn't matter, does it? We want to save people, we want to plant churches, but here's the thing, is
that we would have no business planting churches if we weren't soul winning, so it wouldn't, so it
doesn't matter, like, because you get these, like, people that are like, oh yeah, well, you know, there's
some saved people, let's try and get a church plant from wherever, it's like, no, you need to be a
soul-winning church to even be a legitimate church, because without it, we're not a church, are we?
And we, like, why would we plant a church if we don't soul win ourselves, whether they're people
that we've got saved or not? And because it all goes hand in hand. In Revelation 2-5, Jesus said to
the church at Ephesus, remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works,
or else I will come unto thee quickly and will move thy candlestick out of his place except thou
repent. So for me, back in Genesis 28, the picture is really both, it's both soul-winning and church
planting, and they go hand in hand, and whether you're planting churches of people that have been
saved through someone else, or whether or not you're soul-winning and then someone else plants
a church, it's all the same stuff. Without the soul-winning, there is no church planting.
He said, he said, arise, go to Padanaram, to the house of Bethel thy mother's father, and take
thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban, thy mother's brother. And the result is then the
blessing and multiplication from God, because it's him that giveth the increase. Like we saw, verse
three says, and God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be
a multitude of people, and give thee the blessing of Abraham to thee, and to thy seed with thee, that thou
mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham. So talking about the
promised land representing heaven, verse five says, and Isaac sent away Jacob, and he went to
Padanaram unto Laban, son of Bethel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother.
When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him away to Padanaram, take him a wife from thence,
and that as he blessed him, he gave him a charge, saying, thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters
of Canaan, and that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padanaram, and Esau
saying that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father, then went Esau unto Ishmael, and
took unto the wives which he had, Maalach the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of
Nebaioth, to be his wife. So Esau's bitterness here continues, okay, that's what we're seeing.
The picture of the physical nation with their animosity toward the Gospel going out to the
Gentiles, that I think is continuing this picture we're seeing here. His animosity, his anger.
Verse six says that when he had seen that he had blessed Jacob, representing the children of the
promise, and how the wife, representing churches, was to be from out of the land, representing the
Gentiles. Verse seven says he saw that Jacob was obeying his father and mother, representing obeying
God. Verse eight, knowing that the physical nation pleased not God, for me, did Esau repent? Did he go
and join Jacob in doing the right thing? Say, look, I may maybe need to do the same thing, I need to go
and help him. No, he went to Ishmael in verse nine, representing the child of bondage, if you remember,
according to Galatians 4, to the law from Sinai with, or the trusting of the law from Sinai for
salvation, with Nebaioth, his first born, by the way, meaning heights. Just interesting there,
considering that we saw that he genderith, it's from Mount Sinai genderith under bondage, talking
about Hagar and then Ishmael Fromer, the Jews as the remaining of Israel were now known,
on the whole, just dug their hills into their work salvation, didn't they? And that's the picture there.
When they were replaced, did they go, okay, we need to get right? The vast, vast majority didn't.
Instead, they just went even more into their work salvation, into their just hatred and
scorning and attacking, and trying to teach their work salvation, and trying to Judaise the believers.
And sadly, they just went the other way. They trusted in their law, in their bloodline,
whilst rejecting Christ. And what were they really doing? They were turning on God.
Luke 10 to 16, you'd have to turn and it says, he that heareth you, heareth me, he that despiseth you,
despiseth me, and he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me. Just to make it clear,
people that despise the Lord Jesus Christ, that hate the Lord Jesus Christ, like what we call Jews
to this day, really they hate God. They hate God. Jesus Christ is God. They hate God. And it's not,
oh well, they just hate God the Son. No, they hate God. They hate God the Father. They hate God the Son.
They hate God the Holy Ghost. They hate the whole lot. They hate God, okay? They hate Jesus Christ. They hate God.
And he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me. They despise his disciples, though Luke 10 to 16
said that there as well. And they despise Jesus Christ. They despise God. In fact, Jacob was told to
flee in chapter 27 43. And he's also described as fleeing Esau by God in Genesis 35 1. It says,
And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar unto God that
appeared unto thee, when thou fledest from the face of Esau thy brothers. He's described as fleeing Esau,
which for me is picturing the scattering of the believers abroad, and the subsequent church
planting due to fleeing the Jews. So the result of him fleeing Esau is in finding a wife, like I said,
upright by Antioch. And that's the picture there for me, is then fleeing, and that's what we see
in the Book of Acts. And because really it's something that kind of pretty much seems to
characterize most of the Apostle Paul's missionary kind of life, isn't it? He's just fleeing the Jews
from one place to another. But every time he's fleeing the Jews, he's just going somewhere else, and
preaching the gospel somewhere else, and planting churches somewhere else, and then fleeing and going
somewhere else. And that's the picture we're seeing here. But aside from the continuing picture of the
replacement of Israel as a nation, it is a typical story of someone upset, someone angry, someone
envious, resulting in them rebelling. And we see that kind of in life, don't we? Christians do that,
kids do that, don't they, a lot? Yeah, they get upset, they get angry, they get
envious, a lot of the time they rebel. Adults do it at work, like we talked about, I think, last week.
You know, a lot of the time, you know, they get angry, they get envious of someone else, and they
just kind of start hating on the boss, or hating on the workplace. And people do that to God a lot,
don't they? They get angry at God for things not working out as they wanted, and then they start
rebelling against God. And obviously we don't want to take a leaf out of Esau's book here. But verse 10
says, And Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. Now Beersheba is down in the south
of Canaan, and we're talking about a 500 mile journey. So about 10 days if you were walking 12
hours a day. It's a pretty hefty journey, right? I don't know, if he was walking 12 hours a day, I don't
fancy 12 hours of walking every day for 10 days. So maybe it was a bit longer than that, yeah? So it was
a big journey he was going on. Like I said, it pictured just going out far and wide with the Gospel.
But it says in verse 11, He lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night,
because the sun was set. And he took of the stones of that place, and put them through his pillows,
and lay down in that place to sleep. Now I'm assuming that the hype was from the stones,
but something soft went on the top. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe he's just pretty hardcore
Jacob, and he just like lies down on stones. But I think the idea is, because if anyone kind of lies
or something flat, it's nice to have some a bit of height on your head, isn't it, for your neck.
So I'm assuming there's the stones, and maybe something soft on the top of that. And it says,
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. Now what an amazing dream, okay? And here I
believe we're talking about, obviously, the spiritual angels, with the Lord the Son of God
standing at the top, okay? It says in verse 13, and behold, and I say that just because sometimes
we see angels, it can be a messenger, and it can actually apply to the Lord Jesus Christ.
But here it says in verse 13,
So it's the same promises that Abraham was
given, and then we saw Isaac get them after him. Now we've already compared a couple of times, I
think, as we've gone through Genesis, to Galatians 3.16, that persona which said,
Which applies here too, the lamb being Bethel. Jacob did dwell there, by the way, for a time
in Genesis 35. However, he also gives it to the physical seed, and then eventually to the seed,
eternally, the Lord Jesus Christ, okay? So all the nations of the earth are blessed in Jesus Christ,
those that choose, obviously, salvation specifically. And in verse 15, where he said,
I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of, it's because there's an
eternal fulfilment, and for me it's because you'll never leave thee nor forsake thee, okay? So I don't
think that's ever happening. But verse 16 that says,
Now Abraham had already built an altar in Bethel in chapter 12 and called in the Lord here, which
could have been a moment of salvation. We talked about that in chapter 12. He went back there in
chapter 13, and now Jacob is there. It's an important place for sure, right, where he is.
And it says in verse 17,
Now when Jacob said dreadful, okay, he wasn't complaining about the hard pillows or something,
okay? That's not what he's saying. Dreadful being full of dread or fear-inducing, he then says it's
the house of God. See that there, yeah? Okay, everyone see that? He said,
Now turn to 1 Timothy chapter 3. Jacob here says that the place is dreadful and the house of God
in the same breath, didn't he? Yeah? Everyone saw that? And he was afraid and said, our dreadful is
this place, this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. And in case
you were wondering, you're also standing or sitting in the house of God. And note, by the way,
Jacob wasn't talking about the preaching in case you weren't, okay? So you are sitting in the house
of God and the house of God, which Jacob said back in Genesis chapter 28, was dreadful, okay?
And the New Testament church is the house of God. 1 Timothy 3.15 says, Paul says this to Timothy,
but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou ought'st to behave thyself in the house of God,
which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Okay, so there he's
clearly referring to the church, in here it's a New Testament church that Timothy's the pastor of,
as the house of God. Agreed? Okay. Well, in case you're wondering, if that's really what
Jacob was referring to, look at verse 18, and keep a finger please in 1 Timothy 3 because we're going
to be coming back there. But in verse 18 of Genesis 28 it says, and Jacob rose up early in the morning
and took the stone that he had put for his pillows and set it up for what? A pillar, and poured oil
upon the top of it. Now Jacob is really helping us to understand this picture here with the pillar
for me, okay? He's making it very clear. The oil representing for me the anointing of the
Holy Spirit, the church being a congregation of indwelt believers. So stay in 1 Timothy 3, like
I said, but why was he afraid? Why did he say in verse 17 that it was dreadful? Because he was in
the presence of God. Yeah? Because he was in the presence of God, he's woken up from this dream
where he's seen, for me, the Lord Jesus Christ at the top of this ladder, and he's like, how dreadful
is this place? And he calls the place a house of God, because he's in the presence of God.
But aren't we also in the presence of God here? You're in the house of God, you're in the presence
of God. Yes, we're permanently indwelt by him, but when you come to his house, you're coming to God's
house, and that should be awe-inspiring, shouldn't it? That should garner respect. That should, maybe,
cause a little bit of fear sometimes, a little bit of dread. And again, I'm not saying like
dread coming in because, ah, I've got to deal with all these people at church, or deal with, well,
Pastor Tabernus preaching again, or anything else. But because you're coming in the presence of God,
it said, 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 by the way, this is the gate of heaven here.
Back to the previous point, earlier, without churches sending people out, the Gospel would die out.
Without churches, people wouldn't be receiving the Gospel, they wouldn't be going to heaven.
It is the gate of heaven. Yeah, I know people have been saved by people thousands of miles away,
but do you know what? What I'm seeing around this nation is I'm seeing a lot of people getting saved
in South End, in the areas we're going out, and it's coming from a church, from a legitimate
church going out. And do you know what? And with that, and aside and alongside that,
those other churches preaching the true Gospel and getting it out on YouTube and social media
and all that stuff are the gate of heaven as well, aren't they? The church is the gate of heaven.
And you don't have to turn a bit, in 2 Corinthians 4-3, after reminding us that we've been given
the ministry of reconciliation, Paul says, but if our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.
It all comes back to the church. It always comes back to the church. The church is of
utmost importance. It's not just like a cool place to hang out. It's not just, well, you know, it's
cool if we can get to church now and again, maybe hear a bit of preaching. No, the church is massive.
The church is what it's all about. And without the church, there wouldn't be people getting saved.
There were no churches, no one's getting saved. The New Testament church is of massive importance, okay?
It's a great place to be, but it's a serious place to be, and it's God's house. When you come in here,
you're coming into God's house. Clearly described like that in the Old Testament, he's talking about
a place being God's house, and we see that that applies to the church of the living God in the
New Testament. And it can be scary too. Church can be scary, can't it? It should be sometimes.
Many people don't come to church, not because they can't be bothered. Some don't come to church
because they can't be bothered. Do you know why a lot of people don't come to church? Because they're
scared. Seriously, they're scared. And it's not that they're just scared of socialising, scared of the
unknown. Do you know why often it is? They're scared of the word of God. They're scared of sitting in
church hearing the word of God preached at them, and people fear that. And they fear being in the
house of God because of that, because it can be a dreadful place if you're tuned in. That shouldn't
stop you coming. It should inspire you to get right. But the house of God can be a scary place.
And some people have said to me, what are you going to preach today? They're thinking,
man, I got a whipping last week. What are we going to deal with this week? And some people maybe
skim forward on the Bible study going, what are we going to be doing in Genesis 29? See if I've got it,
if my calendar is clear. Because sometimes it can be a scary place. Sometimes when you know
things getting preached, and it's shaking you up, right? And the word of God should
inspire some sort of dread, shouldn't it? John 3 20, you don't have to turn and say,
for everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh the light, lest his deeds should
be reproved. And that's what the light of the word of God does, doesn't it? It reproves your
deeds. And that can be scary sometimes, because it's not really me that's reproving you.
It's God. And it's God shouting at you from behind this pulpit, God telling you to get right, God
telling you to sort things out, and that can be scary. But what's interesting about 1 Timothy 3 15
is that you feel like he's possibly really in 1 Timothy 3 15 referring to this point in Genesis 28,
where Jacob is calling the ground that he's on the house of God, and he sets up a pillar pouring the
oil representing the spirit of truth. And 1 Timothy 3 15 says, but if I tarry long, that thou mayest
know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God,
the pillar and ground of the truth. And of course we see the picture of it upholding the truth with
the pillar and ground. However, I don't believe there's a coincidence there that we've just seen
Jacob describe it as the house of God set up the pillar, it's the ground that he's on, he's
calling the house of God. And then we see Paul referring to the house of God, the pillar and ground
of the truth. So why is Paul, for me, referring us to here in Genesis, subtly? Well he said that
thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself, didn't he? That was the point in that verse.
He said that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself. And in Genesis 28 17,
the fear of God, the respect that we should have, is being highlighted, the importance of the house
of God as a gate of heaven is being highlighted. What a place it is, what a special place it is,
what an important place it is. And he said, and he was afraid, and said, how dreadful is this place,
this is none other but the house of God and this is a gate of heaven. And like I said, this isn't
just some social club, it can also be an extra social club, it's great. I love being
around God's people, yeah. It's not just a fun hangout, and it can be a fun hangout sometimes.
It's a house of God and it has eternal importance. What we do here, everything that goes on in this
place has eternal consequences. It's massive. And then therefore how we behave here
has eternal consequences, doesn't it? That's why when Paul said that thou mayest know how thou oughtest
to behave thyself, he's, I think, reminding us of the fact that you're in the house of God,
a place that Jacob described as being dreadful, a place that Jacob was in fear of.
And where he said to behave thyself, where he said that thou mayest know how thou oughtest
to behave thyself, he's ultimately talking about the things that he's written, isn't he?
Okay, and I think he goes on to write as well, because he's basically saying the point of this
writing. He said, these things write unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly. So the things he's
written in earlier in the letter and the things he continues to write in the letter, which included
dealing with false doctrine, church discipline, praying, being holy, dressing appropriately,
no women preachers, qualifications for the leadership. He goes on after this point to warn
about reprobates, the importance of reading, encouragement and doctrine, dealing with the
elder members, widows, paying and respecting the leadership, ordaining, being good employees,
spotting covetous reprobates and avoiding covetousness. Because church isn't a free-for-all, is it?
We don't make it up as we go along, it's a house of God and we need to remember to treat it as such.
And that's why in those pastoral epistles there's just so much that's applicable to running a proper
church. And that's why when people just go completely that way, and it's so clearly written,
there's so much stuff, and people are just like, yeah, we don't care what the qualifications are,
we don't care what it says about women preachers, we don't care. It's like, what on earth?
I mean, it's there, he's even said, so they ought to know how they ought us to behave ourselves,
in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
I think referring us to Genesis saying, this is a scary place. You're doing things how,
look, you're doing things how God wants you to do them, you should be trying to do things how God
wants you to do them, and he's a scary God, and you're coming to his house.
And look, we should be enjoying it here, okay? We should feel comfortable here, shouldn't we?
I hope everyone does, right? But he's reminding us to give God's house the respect it deserves,
isn't he? In everything we do, in our modes of kind of behaviour and operation and everything
else, and here's the thing, is that we should therefore, and he shouldn't have to give a list,
and he does it because every place is individual, of how to treat God's house with respect, yeah?
Do you think that Jacob, who was afraid and said, how dreadful is this place,
do you think that he just left a load of his rubbish there when he carried on on his journey
to Padanerab? Anyone think that Jacob just kind of left a load of junk on the floor,
left his kind of, you know, the things that he'd been eating, and just kind of left a load of food
waste, and I'm sure he didn't, right? Do you think that he left, you know, his empty cups,
bit of spillages, and just kind of left it there, how dreadful is this place, and then just kind of
kicked over a few things on the way out and went, well I'm in a rush, yeah? Do you think he just,
do you think he like used some crockery that happened to be there, and then just left it
for the washing up ferry? Well there are those angels going up and down, right? So like maybe
they'll come down, they're kind of like fairies, aren't they? I'm kidding if anyone wants to quote
me on this, right? Yeah, they'll just come and wash it all. I'm sure he did it, right?
And you kind of get what I'm getting at, and again, look, it's one of those, like these are
one of those messages you just need to do now and again, because you need to just remind people,
because in general, I'll do a kind of message like this, and then things get a bit better,
and then slowly they slip, and that is human nature, you know? I'm not trying to be too
mean or pick on anyone here, but say you're invited around to someone who you know who's
scary's house, I don't know, I'm sure you have pictures of someone in your life, someone
maybe in your past life, someone in your present life, maybe who's scary, okay? Maybe it's your boss
at work, maybe a respected family member, maybe someone that you don't want to give you a beat
down, you know? I don't know, maybe there's someone that you just think that guy could, you know, really
just like turn me inside out and, you know, upside down and everything else, right? Now, whether that
house was pristine or not, you would treat it with respect, wouldn't you? Wouldn't you? You'd treat it
with respect. If your kids dropped food on the floor, whoever, whether the house was like, you know,
polished and marble floor or not, you'd pick it up, wouldn't you? Yeah, that'd be pretty normal.
You wouldn't turn a blind eye while your kids were raiding his biscuit cupboard, for example.
You wouldn't be like, yeah, well, never mind, you know, it doesn't matter, we're on to number 20 now,
you know. You would be like, come here, you can't believe you're behaving like that, you know,
sorry about that, you know, that's how you behave, right? I think, okay, you would probably ensure that
you and your family greet his staff on the way in and out, wouldn't you? So say you went to
someone really scary and he actually has people working and serving in that place, you'd probably
make a point of like saying hi and go, say hello to him, you little brat, what are you doing? Just walking in and,
you know, turning the other way and everything else, right? Or when they say, how are you, just go
and find and walk off. That's just weird, right? And that sort of stuff, you would, wouldn't you?
Because you're in God's house, right, is what, you can see the analogy I'm saying here, right?
Especially if you knew that that scary person whose house you're in
has people coming in the afternoon after you leave as well. You'd be making sure, okay, like the pillows
are kind of back in place, I picked up everything, you'd be like picking the crumbs up off the
floor and everything. That's what you would do, wouldn't you? And I say that because, look, it is
starting to creep up again. And no, it's not part of the service, you're in God's house.
You're in God's house and do you think God, do you think God wants myself, my wife, some of the
other ladies in the church to cut short their soul winning so they can pick up after a load of
grown adults? It's starting to creep up and it's not the people's job who don't go soul winning, you
know, got the young babes and stuff like that to be picking up after it, but here's something that
we're starting, you're coming back and you're like, man, there's literally like food all over the floor,
things spilt, like stuff all over the side, tea cups just in random places around the church.
It's like, you're in God's house and I don't think he thinks, right, we need to get some full-time
cleaners because those adults just need someone picking up after them. And you know what, not
even for the kids because the adults should be picking up after their own kids. And every time
I've ever been to a church with my kids and I've been to some different churches, even like
I don't even know about this church, I've picked up after my kids.
So we need to like, and this is for your own good really, because does it really affect me?
No, but you know what, I think it affects God. I think he looks down and thinks, you're in my house.
Jacob said it's scary, said how dreadful is this place? And people do, and again, it's good
that you're relaxed, yeah, I want people to be relaxed, and I know I'm kind of talking to maybe
half the church here on a Wednesday night, you know, but the reality of it is, guys, you know,
we do need to treat the place with respect, don't we? We need to pick up after ourselves, we need to make
sure that we treat it as God would want it treated, and we need to give it that respect, and then when
people come in, they'll give it that respect as well. If the whole place is just like a bomb site
by soul-winning time, when new people come in in the afternoon, they're just going to think, yeah,
well, do what you like here, right? However, it should be clean, it should be tidy, we should be,
and there shouldn't really need to be anyone to clean up in between services, because if kids
can't clean up, they have parents to do it for them, and all adults here should be able to
pick up after themselves, right? And like I said, it is creepy up, but it's a mentality thing, and we
just want to get our head right with coming into God's house, don't we? We treat it with respect,
we do things right, we're not like these clown, you know, kind of do as you likey churches,
which are just like, yeah, well, I don't mind that bit, but I do mind, like, what does God
tell us to do? Well, let's submit unto them that have the rule over you, right? And you know what,
and I'll tell you what a normal church would want, is like, just pick up after yourself, right?
Okay, so it said, 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 it then says this in verse 18,
and Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillow, and set
it up for a pillow, and poured oil upon the top of it. So do you think Jacob said, oh, this is my
lying day, though, so I'll just crack on once I'm ready to roll off this comfy stone? I don't think
he did either. In fact, it said he rose up early in the morning, and just a quick point on that as
well, that shows respect to God as well, doesn't it? I mean, if you're coming to church on a Sunday,
and again, I know people come from far, some people just, you literally cannot avoid now and again,
you're going to have travel issues, especially, not just public transit, people that drive for hours away,
okay, and they can hit a diversion, hit a problem, hit an issue, and it can make a problem, right?
However, it shouldn't be a regular, should it? People just regularly walk in, like, what's that
showing to God? Jacob rose up early in the morning, took the stone that he put for his pillow, and set
it up for a pillow, and poured oil upon the top. He's basically serving God, right, going, right, this is the
house of God, and that's how we should be, should we? We should be here punctual on time, ready to serve
the Lord in the house of God. He rose up early, and by the way, he didn't have an alarm clock either,
okay, he just got up early anyway. You know why? Because he probably got up early every morning.
He'd just lie around in bed, rolling around, and covering, you know, putting a pillow, covers over his head.
He just got up early, so he got up early, right, and he called the name of that place Bethel, but the
name of that city was called Luz at the first. Now, Luz means almond tree, so basically a tree bearing
fruit, and again, you know, I think there's probably a reason there that it's a tree bearing fruit, it's
meant to be the house of God. Bethel actually means house of God. Jacob vowed a vow, saying if God will
be with me and will put me, I'm sorry, will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to
eat and raiment to put on, so I come again to my father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my
God. And this stone which I've 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. Now, remember that God has just said that he will bless
Jacob. It said in verse 15, and behold, I am with thee and will keep thee in all places whether thou
goest and will bring me again into this land, for I will not leave thee until I've done that which I've
spoken to thee of. So I don't think that Jacob is saying, well, let's wait and see if he does all this
stuff. In verse 20, I think what he's saying is, well, therefore I'm going to serve him. He's saying,
if God will be with me and will keep me in the way that I go and will give me bread to eat and raiment
to put on, so I come again to my father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God. I think he's
just saying, right, therefore. Okay, he said all this, therefore, right? And by the way, God's promised to
be with you too, isn't he? God's promised to be with all of us to not leave you. He said in Hebrews 12
5, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. He's promised to keep you in the way that you go, to bring
you into that eternal land. He said in John 10 and verse 28, and I give unto them eternal life and they
shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. So then, as well as your Savior,
will you also make him your God? Because that's what I think we're seeing here. I don't think this
is a point of salvation. I think he's saying, look, he's gonna do all this for me,
I'm gonna make him my God. He said, then the Lord shall be my God. And when you make someone your God,
you're basically saying, I'm ready to do what you want me to do, I'm ready to serve you, I'm ready to
worship you. And also, will you make his house your place of rest? Because I think for me, the pillow
here, will your pillow be in God's house? Will it be your house of rest? Will it be the
place that you're going to spend your time? And he said, in this stone which I've set for a pillar
shall be God's house of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee. So if
he's your God and he provides for you, he gives you what you need, then providing back, giving back to
God, providing for his house, should just be a no-brainer, shouldn't it? For me, this has always
been a no-brainer, pretty much from early on. I remember an old covetous friend of mine being
absolutely disgusted that I tithed to my first regular church. Disgusted. I mean, I remember
him snarling, he's like, you do what? You give what to that church? I mean, he didn't even know anything
about the church. It wasn't that he had a problem that, you know, in hindsight now probably wasn't
the best church, right? But he was just like, what on earth? But had I told him that I give 10% of
my income to a cancer charity, which claimed to do research before then developing very
expensive treatments, or had I said that I give 10% of my income to, like, Batsy Dog's home,
he probably would have been patting me on the back going, good on you! You know, what a great guy and
everything else. It's true though, isn't it? But the house of God, we've just read, is a gate of heaven,
isn't it? The work done here has eternal consequences. All the work we do at this church
goes much beyond any sort of research charities, any sorts of, even the few legitimate
charities out there. None of them even are a shade on what goes on from the house of God.
None of them. Show me a more worthwhile cause in the house of God. But then what's also great is
that the people of a church get to benefit from giving to God. So it's even better than just
shoving it to some charity that doesn't affect you at all. In fact, everyone gets to
benefit from it. I had to explain this recently to our accountant, because I've been doing
our returns and stuff like that with him, and because he just didn't understand it. The meals,
he's like, how much has been spent on eating out? And the prizes, he's like,
he's asked me, because he just asked for some clarifications of stuff, and I was explaining to
the prizes, for example, Amazon gift cards, you know, the refurbs. It's like, don't you just go into
some dirty dank old building and just make do? Isn't that what small churches like ours do?
Most churches, in inverted commas, because he's not dealing with the big mega churches, right,
he's dealing with, this is someone who specialises in church, most churches are selling things.
They're hiring out the premises every other day that they don't have services on, and you're lucky
if you don't end up with sandpaper instead of toilet roll. True, I've been in these churches.
You're lucky. I mean, going to the toilet is an affair, right? It is, right? It's like, man, I don't
want to have to go to the toilet in that church, okay, because it's pretty bad, right, whilst they
siphon off every available penny they can. He's like, what is going on here? Why is the toilet paper
like tracing paper? What's going on? But even if we did none of that, okay,
even if we didn't, you know, put on things, and what I explained, because I explained
this to the account, I was saying, the thing is that we have a great church of faithful tiling
members, and I said, and what happens is, for example, we do a monthly soul-winning marathon
when we go for a meal in a restaurant, and that encourages, we have great numbers and people that
we believe the labourer's worthy of his reward, and we end up with just great numbers every single
month. Every month we've got like 40 or 50 people meeting all over the kind of southeast,
going soul-winning, and, you know, and the prize and all that stuff, it's all because we want to
encourage, we want people doing the work of God. Yeah, we could go, right, it's all over, whole lot's
cancelled, and we get a few more staff involved and everything else, and start paying ourselves
big money and everything else, but that's not the point, is it? The point is that we want a church
where we're going out, we're doing stuff, we're fellowshipping, you know, and I hope everyone
enjoys the church, but even if we did none of that, the tithe is still a principle, that we see clearly
as early as Abraham and Melchizedek in chapter 14, but before that we see the equivalent of
financial offerings with Cain and Abel in chapter 4. I mean, what are they offering?
Basically, part of their livelihood. Whether it's the lamb of the flock, or it's the
fruit of the ground, they're offering of what they're being given ultimately by God, to be able
to provide for themselves, they're giving to God, right? We pay it, because if we don't, we're robbing
God, because he tells us to pay it. Malachi 3.8 says, will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me.
But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. I reckon if you could see the
amount of Christians that will complain and be like, just don't know why things aren't working out,
and just, I can't believe this is happening, or this has happened, or this, or why is this going on,
and why is that? And it's like, you're robbing God. He says to pay the tithe. It's a principle from
long before the law, all these prans that try and say it's got nothing to do with the law.
And you know what? Not for my benefit, it's for yours, because you don't want to rob God.
You want him to rebuke the devourer for your sake, and all he's talking about is giving
a tenth of what God provides to him, because what do we believe? We believe that God provides for us,
doesn't he? So if God provides for you, and he tells you, and we see the principle from earlier,
and we see the command in the Bible, for me, I've just never understood it, because it was such
a simple thing to understand from early on, yet so many people still just, and a lot of the time
it comes down to covetousness, doesn't it? They just cannot deal with the thought of giving 10%
of their income to God, and then they want to start questioning, well is it only money I've
earned from work? It's like, no, it's like, it's everything that you give me, I'll give you a 10.
It's pretty simple, isn't it? Yet how many people try and find any which way they can to justify
not paying to God the tithe? And then they wonder why life and things don't work out for them, right?
God will give you a chance, he'll give you some warnings, and then, as we know, things start to go
downhill. But here's the thing, it's not between you and me, it's not between you and the guys going
around with the offering thing, I've got no idea what people put in it. I really don't, I don't
care, it's because it's between you and God. But I wouldn't, I'd be doing a disservice if I wasn't
preached it from the pulpit. We don't police it. You could be a member here your whole life,
your whole life, and never pay a penny, and it's got nothing to do with me. That's your choice, however
I don't think that would be a very, very sensible thing to do, because it's God's house.
And back to what did Jacob say, how dreadful is this place? It should be a scary place.
And a walk in God's house robbing God is like, that's a bit scary, I think. But again, it's
between you and God. However, Jacob's decision is on the back of that. Verse 17, he said, and he was
afraid, and said, how dreadful is this place? This is none other, but the house of God, this is a gate
of heaven. And it's on the back of understanding, on top of that, that it's God that provides for him.
God provides for us, and we provide for him, and through his house. And like we said, and what
does a house do? What does God's house do? It has eternal consequences for people all over, not only
this town, but really all over this nation. And, you know, that's the tie. And, you know, it's come up
a little bit in a couple of studies, and, you know, like I say, we don't really, my plan was to do a once
a year on it, as and when it comes up in Bible studies we're talking about. If you don't understand it,
if you want to know more about it, if you're like, well, I just don't, I've got no idea, I don't really know,
just go back, and I did a sermon in January called Why, I think it's Why We Tied.
Have a look. If you've got any questions, you're welcome to ask me about it. Like I said, I'm not here to,
I'm not going to go, I can't, what have you not been paying? But if you want to talk about it, and if you don't,
it's between you and God, right? Okay, but it's up to you. Okay, on that we're going to,
we're going to finish up in a word of prayer.
Father, thank you, well, for just the clear things that we've got out of that chapter, Lord,
and not just obviously the pictures of that going out and church planting, which goes hand in hand
with Soul-winning Lord, and the kind of two sides of the same coin really there, but also
just, you know, the main principle there, that the house of God, well, it should be somewhere that we
have respect for, it should be somewhere that we sometimes come with not just a bit of awe,
but sometimes a bit of fear as well, Lord, but you still expect us to be here, you expect us to
fellowship, you expect us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, and we should
treat the house of Lord as such, we should treat the house of Lord with respect, and that would
include in our behaviour, and how we run the house of God, as those like myself in leadership, but
also, you know, how we treat the house of God when we're here, how we treat people in your house,
Lord, and also, you know, our sort of, our hearts and the way we respond to your command to
give the tithe to you as well, Lord, through your house, and help us to just have our
hearts right with you, Lord, help us to be blessed by you, those that, you know, all of us that are
just trying to live for you and do the right thing, help us to just be guided by you, help us
to do it all in the right way, help us to all get home safe and sound this evening, help us to
get back on Sunday, Lord, to come and worship you in your house, and Jesus known for all of this. Amen.