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All right, Genesis 35. Look at verse number two, Genesis 35 verse two, the memory verse. And Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, put away the strange gods that are among you and be clean and change your garments. The title for the sermon this morning is change your garments. That's the title for the sermon. Let's start off with verse number one, Genesis 35 verse one. Actually, before we read verse number one, let's go to Genesis 34. Let's just refresh our memories as to what's leading up to the events of Genesis 35. Genesis 34 verse 30, you will remember how Simeon and Levi went into the city of Shechem and killed all the men, right? They had deceived them, they went in and killed all the men. And this is how Jacob responded to them in Genesis 34 verse 30. And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, you have troubled me to make me to stink 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 shall be destroyed, I and my house. And so we end the chapter with Jacob having this great fear that the people, the Canaanites will gather themselves together for the wickedness that his sons had done and try to slay them, try to destroy them. And so then God steps in when we go to Genesis 35 verse one, Genesis 35 verse one, God steps in, of course, looking after Jacob. He already told Jacob that he will curse those that will curse him, that will bless those that bless him. And so the Lord steps in here in Genesis 35 verse one, and I can't help but think about how important these words are. And God said unto Jacob, arise, go up to Bethel. Now if you were here for the previous chapters when we talked about Bethel, you guys know what that means, right? That's the house of God. When we have the word Beth there, that means a house. And the word El is a reference to God. So he's saying, look, arise and go to God's house. And of course, this was a place that Jacob has been at before. It's the same place that Abraham had returned to when he had gone into Egypt by mistake. And he says, arise, go up to Bethel, or you might say go to the house of God, or as we would say as New Testament believers, go to church, God is saying, and dwell there and make there an altar unto God that appeared unto thee when thou fled us from the face of Esau, thy brother. Just a reminder that when he did flee from the face of Esau, he came to Bethel, he set up a pillar, he anointed it with oil, and that he made a vow to give a tenth to give his tithe to the house of God. And so this is the situation. God is saying, look, go back to Bethel. And I'm just again reminded about the importance of this. And, you know, I don't think it's any coincidence that in the previous chapter we saw, you know, Jacob's daughter Dinah, you know, given to fornication. I don't think it's a surprise that we see the sons of Jacob, you know, committing such great wickedness of murder and slaying these men in innocent blood. And the instruction that God says, look, go back to church. And when we saw with Abraham, you know, God instructed him to go back to church, go back to the house of God, go back to Bethel when he found himself in Egypt, found himself in a tough situation where the Pharaoh had taken, you know, his wife, you know, the attempt to take his wife Sarah to be his own wife. And one thing you immediately notice, guys, is when you're at a church, when you're at a church and you're a child of God, you're going to find yourself in tough situations where you shouldn't have been in the first place. You're going to start making mistakes. You're going to be far from God. You're going to, you know, be worldly as it were, right? Like Dinah, the situation that Dinah found herself in, the influences of the world, the influences of the daughters of the land when they should have been in church. And brethren, something that's going to keep you grounded in life, something that's going to keep you away from weakness is coming to church, you know, as often as you can, coming to as many services as you can. And we take this application, we take the principle, of course, they're not having a church service, you know, three times a week like it is there. But that's the principle. That's the lesson that we can take for ourselves. When you start missing church, when you start avoiding church, you're going to become worldly. You're going to start making some major mistakes. You won't have God's word being preached to you. You won't be gathered with believers that can provoke you unto love and good works. All right. And so Jacob takes heed, all right, I've got to go to church, I've got to go to the house of God. Look at verse number two. And Jacob said unto his household, and this is some strange things are going on here, unto his household and to all that were with him. So it's not just his family, it's his servants, it's everybody. He says, put away the strange gods that are among you and be clean and change your garments. He says to his family, he says to those that are under his authority, hey, clean up. Hey, it's time to go to the house of God. You know, we've got to put this wickedness behind us. Why do they have these strange gods? I have no idea. I have no idea what's going on, right? I mean, we know that Rachel had stolen some of the idols, the false gods from her father. You remember that story? So maybe that's one reason why some of these gods were here. Don't forget when they destroyed that city in the previous chapter, they took the spoils with them. They took captive the women and children. They took, you know, the possessions. They may have very well have taken the strange gods with them as well in the spoils, okay? Or it just might be like Dinah, just being influenced by the people of the land. It might be that they just made friends and the people introduced these, you know, Jacob and his household to these false gods. And so the first thing that he says, look, put away the strange gods. We're going to the house of God to worship the true God. We're going to the house of God to worship God Almighty. And that's the first thought I want you to have when you come to the house of God, you're coming to worship, you're coming to serve, you're coming to be in the presence of God. And you say, where is God? Well, the church is called the body of Christ. You know, Christ has taught us when we serve one another, when we love one another, we are showing love and service to Jesus Christ. You know, the Spirit of God is in our midst today. And you know, you ought to desire when you come to church to hear from the word of God, to hear from Jesus Christ, to sing these hymns that we sing, and be motivated to live more godly, to live more righteously, to clean yourselves up. It says, look, put the strange gods away that are among you, and be clean, and be clean. And brethren, I can't emphasize this more, but before you come to church, go and confess your sins to God. Make sure you have no account with God, have a clean account with God, so you're walking in righteousness with the Father. Because when you're in sin, when you have unconfessed sin in your life, you're going to be separated from the Father, right? He dwells in light, you're walking in darkness, and you can't have fellowship one with another. You need to be clean spiritually. You need to make sure you come to the house of God. Honestly, before you step in here, before you greet the brethren, just take a few moments to confess your sins to God, whatever you haven't confessed yet, okay? Come in with a clean, come in with a pure heart. And then it says here, and change your garments. Change your garments, okay? So obviously, the way they were dressed, and you know, when it says be clean, obviously it's referring to the inside there, but then it says change your garments, it's referring to the outside, okay? And I would just say to you that no doubt his household, his servants were dressed like the people of the land. No doubt they were dressed in a way that would not please God. Whatever it is, whatever way they were, maybe showing their nakedness, right? You know, maybe they had their skinny jeans on, right? Maybe the girls had their low rider jeans on or whatever. Maybe the women were wearing pants, and the men were wearing skirts, I don't know. But he says, look, you got to change your garments, okay? We're going to the house of God. It's time to fix things, guys, right? And so this is very clear. And like I said, the title for my sermon this morning is change your garments. And we have several garments that I want to go through. So we're going to move away from Genesis 35 for now, but keep your finger there. And let's go to Matthew 22, please. Matthew 22, because there are many garments that we need to put on as Christians, okay? Many garments that we need to put on. Let's go to Matthew 22. Matthew 22, verse one. And it says here, Jesus speaks a parable. He says, And Jesus answered and spoke unto them again by parables, and said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding, and they would not come. This is a reference to the Jews. The Jews were those that they went to first, but they would not come to the wedding in the parable. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden. Behold, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen, my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready. Come unto the marriage. But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise. And the remnant took his servants and entreated them spitefully and slew them. And again, this is a reference to the Jews, right? God sending his servants, God sending his prophets to preach to them, to come into the marriage, but then they would take the servants and slay them. Verse number seven, And when the king heard thereof, he was wroth, and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burnt up their city. Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out unto the highways, and gathered together, all as many as they found, both bad and good. And the wedding was furnished with guests. And this is just a picture of soul winning, right? We go soul winning, we go to the bad, we go to the good. It's the same message to all, hey, you're all invited to the wedding. And some people say, well, I just know I'm not going to heaven because I live the bad life. Well, you're one of the bad that's invited to the wedding, right? And even those that say they're good, they say that I'm righteous. Well, actually, you're invited to the wedding, but you need to come humbly, right? You need to have the right, we'll soon see you have to have the right wedding garments. And it says here, and the wedding was furnished with guests, verse number 11. And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there was a man which had not on a wedding garment. So this man's at the wedding, this parable, and he's not dressed properly. He's not dressed for the wedding. Verse number 12, and he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called, but few are chosen. For many are called, but few are chosen. You know, when we go and preach the gospel, we go to many, we go to all, okay? But few are chosen. What's the few that's been referred to? Who are the few that are chosen? Those that have the wedding garments on, okay? They're the ones that are allowed to be part of the celebrations. And of course, if you don't have the wedding garment on in this parable, you're cast into, you know, out of darkness. You're cast into hell, as it were. Say, what is that wedding garment? You know, what is it that's been referred to? And you know, I believe Jesus is referring to Isaiah 61. You don't need to turn there. Just read it to you. Isaiah 61 verse 10. It says, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God, for he have clothed me with the garments of salvation. He have covered me with the robe of righteousness. Look at this. As a bridegroom, decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. So there we have the reference of a wedding between a bridegroom and a bride, and they're dressed with the clothes of righteous, the robe of righteousness. And the Bible calls this the garments of salvation. The garments of salvation. The first thing you need, the first garment you need to put on, you know, is that garment of salvation. If you're not saved, you need to have the right wedding garments on. If you don't have the right wedding garment on, you're going to be cast into hellfire. Of course, we need the garments of salvation as the very first thing that we have put on. And praise God, once you have it on, you can't take it off. Wait, once saved, always saved, okay? So that's for the non-believer. But what about us as believers? Please go to Revelation, Revelation chapter 3 for me. Revelation chapter 3. And of course, I've preached on this recently when we're going through the seven churches in Revelation. But Revelation chapter 3 verse 4, because it's not just the wedding garment that we put on. It's not just the righteousness of Christ that we put on. Yes, that's our position before God. Yes, that means we're saved. But we also need to put on our garments in the way that we walk, right? We need to put on undefiled garments as we'll look at here. Undefiled garments, which is a reference to how we live or walk our Christian life. Revelation chapter 3 verse 4, it says, Thou hast a few names even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. You see, as we walk, we are also to have a garment that is white. A white garment in our spiritual walk. Drop down to verse number 18. Revelation chapter 3 verse 18. The Bible says here, I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, look at this, and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eyes of, that thou mayest see. You see, this church, of course, Jesus is preaching to church, he's preaching to the saved, and he's saying to these saved people, you're naked, you haven't got the right garments on. Of course, that's not the garments of salvation, it's the white garments of their spiritual walk. They are naked, they are naked spiritually, they are showing their shame spiritually, and Jesus says, put on some clothes, walk in righteousness, walk after my ways, and brethren, we are commanded to put on a garment every single day of our lives, that garment of righteousness. We talk about walking in the new man. I'll quickly read to you from Ephesians 4 22. It says that ye put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And look what it says here, verse 24. And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. So the second garment that we need to put on is our undefiled garment, the new man. We need to take off the old man, which is defiled, which walks after the lust of the flesh, which is sinful, which is rebellious against God, and we must put on our new man. Every day there's that battle between the old man and the new man. Every day there's that battle between the spirit and the flesh. And we need to remind ourselves, I need to get rid of that old man so I can walk in the undefiled garments and walk with Jesus Christ, be counted worthy of my walk with him. And again, that has to do with you confessing your sins before God, being clean, making sure your garment's constantly clean when you sin against the Lord. Now, can you please go to John 13? Go to John 13 in your Bibles. Let's look at another garment that we should put on when we come to church. Another garment that we should put on. John chapter 13 verse 3. John chapter 13 verse 3. It says here, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God and went to God, he riser from supper, look at this, and laid aside his garments and took a towel and girded himself. Jesus Christ came to his supper, he put away the clothes that he was wearing, and instead he girded himself with towels. You know, he girded himself as a servant. And verse number 5. After that, he poureth water into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with a towel wherewith he was girded. The third garment that you need to put on or you need to have when you come to the house of God is the garment of service. The garment of service. We see there's a time to be served. Yes, there's a time to serve. And we see when Jesus, out of all people, the God of the universe, the creator of all things, setting a godly example for us when he's there gathered together, you know, with the believers, gathered together as it were for church. You know, he puts aside his garment and he puts on his garment of service. He girds himself with a towel, he washes the feet of his disciples. And brethren, when you come to church, you need to have that garment of service. You need to come in and say, well, how can I serve my brethren? How can I wash their feet as it were? What is it that I can do to help them? What is it that I can do to edify them, to give them hope, to give them joy? What is it that I can do for the brethren? That's how you need to come to church. Jesus Christ setting that perfect example for us. And look, he's not asking us to wash each other's feet, okay? You know, that's a pretty low task. You know, you'd give that to your lowest servant to do. And yet Jesus Christ was humble enough to do even the lowest task that a servant would be required to do in those days, wash each other's feet. You know, that means there's a bit of dirt, brethren, you know? It's not a pleasant thing to do. And you know, when we deal with brethren in the church, guess what? There's a little bit of dirt on us. You know, you think you're coming to a church and we're all perfect and someone does something wrong. You're like, ah, man, I knew church was filled with a bunch of hypocrites. Yeah, you know what? These guys had dirty feet, you know? And Jesus was still a servant enough to help them wash their feet. And brethren, just because people make mistakes in church, just because we get annoyed at each other sometimes, it doesn't mean you're not any less of a servant. You're still called to go and help that brother. You're still called to go and serve that sister, regardless of how dirty you think their feet are, okay? We're called to put on the garments of service. Please now go to Ephesians 6. Ephesians chapter 6. I've got two more garments to go through here. Ephesians chapter 6 verse 13. Ephesians chapter 6 verse 13. Of course, this is a very familiar garment that we all need to put on and it's the garments of warfare. The garments of warfare. Ephesians chapter 6 verse 13. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. And listen brethren, we're called to stand in the evil day. This day, this day, today is an evil day. We live in an evil generation and if you want to stand firm, you need to put on the whole armor of God, okay? You need to put on some weapons of warfare, some armor, okay? You need to be like a soldier. Verse number 14. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth and having on the breastplate of righteousness. How is it that we fight this fight? We need to be people of the truth. We need to be people of righteousness, right? We need to be walking in righteousness. And so verse 15. Your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. You know, our feet need to be ready to give the gospel to anybody that crosses our paths. Prepared for that, right? Prepared to give the gospel. Verse number 16. Above all, taking the shield of faith, right? Being strong in the faith, having faith in the Lord where if ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. That's the garments that we need to put on, brethren. I mean, a lot of this is similar to the garments that we might put on, like let's say the fruits of the Spirit. A lot of these things are similar. These are good characteristics. These are things that we should be striving for to live godly, okay? To live godly, to live righteously. A lot of these things may not even seem like weapons of warfare. But in order for us to fight a spiritual war, we must put on this clothing. We must put on all of this armor for you to be able to stand up against the devil. And brethren, there's nothing more that the devil would want but to take down this church. To take down each person here, each family in this church. We're a soul-winning church. We're a church that loves God. We're a church that preaches the whole Bible. There's nothing more the devil would want but to take us down, okay? Those fiery darts are pointed at you right now, okay? And if you don't put on the garments of warfare, you're going to fall. You're going to fail. I don't want to see you fall. I don't want to see you backslidden. I don't want to see you away from the house of God. Make sure you put on the garments of warfare. And the last one, which I'm not going to go into much detail because I preached on it last week, is put on garments according to your sex, okay? Put on garments according to your sex. Deuteronomy 22 verse 5, the woman shall not wear that which retaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment, for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God. Think about the clothing that you put on, okay? Not just the spiritual, not just the inward, but also the clothing on the outside. Let that be a representation of you seeking to live righteously after the Lord God, all right? So make sure you put on your garments, okay? You put on those garments. Change your garments if you have to. Change your garments if you have to. Please go back to Genesis 35 verse 3. Genesis 35 verse 3. Genesis 35 verse 3. And so, you know, that family needed a lot of work. You might say, oh man, I need a lot of work. My family needs a lot of work. Yes, so did Jacob's family, okay? You're amongst, you know, other people that God has used, you know? And I don't care how dirty your garments are right now. God can still use you in a mighty way the same way he used Jacob. You just need to change your garments, okay? Make sure you keep those garments nice and clean. Verse number 3. He says, And so obviously they give him the strange gods, but they also give Jacob their earrings. Now I don't really understand this. I mean the Bible has positive mentions of earrings for women. And there's never any really positive mention of earrings on men, okay? So I don't know if these are men taking off the earrings, all right? I don't know if this is just a fashion thing, you know, in the land of those days, right? They were all, they were wearing earrings, and they're like, man, yeah, we need to take this off, right? Whatever it is, maybe these earrings were some type of tribute to the strange gods. I don't know, I don't know. But they take off the earrings as well. They realize this is unclean, and they give them to Jacob, and then Jacob hides them under the oak which was by Shechem. Now, you know, I've read that, and I've thought, well, why doesn't he just destroy them? Why is he kind of hiding? Why is he kind of burying them or something like that? I don't think, I think it means well. I think what's happening here is that Jacob is taking these things that these people were attracted to and hides them. He buries them somewhere where they will never find them again. I think that's what's going on, right? Jacob is like, we need to get ourselves right with God, and I don't want to go back to the old ways. I don't want to go back to these having these strange gods in my house by being unclean. So I'm going to take these things that have, that defiled us, I'm going to take these things that made us unclean, and I'm going to hide them never to be found again. I'm not, you know, nobody in my house is going to dig up and find where this place is. I think that's what's going on, right? I think Jacob's embarrassed by what's happened, and he just wants it out of sight. Okay, verse number five. And they journeyed, and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob. Okay, so you remember Jacob was afraid that they would come after him, but they didn't come after them, right? God brought a terror of God upon them, okay? He made these people in these cities afraid to even go near Jacob. So Jacob had a safe journey. And verse number six. So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan. That is Bethel. He and all the people that were with him. And I love that. He takes all the people that were with him, you know? And fathers, you know, you have authority over your family. You know, you have your wife. You have your children. You ought to take your whole family to church, okay? It shouldn't just be you. It should be you, he, and all the people that were with him. And you know what? If you're in a position where you have servants, you have people that are under your authority, that are not from your household, bring them to church as well, okay? That's what it should be. You should be the leader. You should be setting the standard and saying, yes, I'm going to go to church, but I'm taking my whole family with me. And it's a sad thing. And I think back at some of my old churches where I would see men come to church on their own, you know? I'm not just saying one service or something. I'm saying they're constantly just coming to church on their own. Where they used to come to church with their wife and kids. And then the kids grow up and they're like, Dad, I don't want to go to church anymore, okay? Now look, Jacob just does it. I mean, his kids have grown up, okay? His kids are able to kill, fight, right? We've seen this before. These are mature people now. The kids have grown up and he's still able to have the authority to lead his home to go back to church. It's such a shame and it makes me sad when I see that. When I see children grow up into church, and I hope this never happens to me. You know, when my kids turn around and say, Dad, I don't want to go to church or whatever. You know, kids, I hope that never happens, right? All right, but listen, it can happen. And this is why you need to take authority today while you can, okay? If your family don't respect you today, they're not going to respect you, especially your kids aren't going to respect you when they grow up, okay? Because as kids grow up, they're going to notice more and more faults in that. They're going to notice more and more, my dad's a man, all right? He makes mistakes. He's a sinner. And if they haven't accepted that from the beginning, your authority, you know, they're just going to, they're not going to respect you as they get older. And so we see that at least the people here have a respect to Jacob and they come with him to church. Verse number seven. And he built there an altar and called the place El Bethel because there God appeared unto him when he fled from the face of his brother. So it's interesting that he kind of calls the place El Bethel, okay? So again, Bethel, Beth was a house. El was God, house of God, God's house. And then he calls it El Bethel, okay? So he calls it, you know, let's say the God of the house of God, right? That's what he's saying, right? He just wants to acknowledge God when he comes to the house of God. And again, we come to the house of God. We come to acknowledge God. We come to worship him. We come to give him service and reverence. Verse number eight. But Deborah, Rebekah's nurse died and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak and the name of it was called Alonbeketh. So it's just, you know, who's Rebekah? Rebekah was Jacob's mother, okay? Now when Rebekah was given to Isaac as a wife, you don't need to turn there, I'll just quickly read to you. Genesis 24 verse 59. It says, and they sent away Rebekah their sister and her nurse and Abraham's servant and his men. So you may remember that story when Rebekah went to marry Isaac. You know, they sent a nurse with her and so it's mentioned here in verse number eight that, well, now they name her Deborah. Rebekah's nurse passes away and she's buried beneath Bethel. So it looks like she was living in Bethel. That's what I gather from there, okay? So they're on their way to Bethel. They make it there and Rebekah's nurse had died and she was buried there. Verse number nine. And God appeared unto Jacob again and he came out of Padanaram and blessed him. And I love this, you know, God again just reaffirms the blessings to Jacob, reaffirms the promises of the coming Messiah in verse number 10. And God said unto him, thy name is Jacob, thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name. And he called his name Israel. Again, reaffirming what we saw in Genesis 32. Remember when Jacob was wrestling with Jesus Christ, Jesus says the same thing to him. He says, and God said unto him, sorry, and he said, thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel. For as a prince, and that's what Israel means, a prince. For as a prince, thou has power with God and with men and has prevailed. And so Jacob takes on this name now, Israel, a prince that has power with God and with men. And it says in verse number 11, and God said unto him, he says, look, I've given you a name, now let me tell you my name. He says, and God said unto him, I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins. And so this is the name which God had revealed himself in the Old Testament days to Abraham. You know, it was God Almighty. And of course, when Moses leads the children out of Egypt, God introduced himself that new name of Jehovah, of Jehovah God. And so we see that God's name is God Almighty. You know, when we think of God, we think about the being which is God. But God is also his name. Okay, God is also his name. And you know, it says, and God said unto him, I am God Almighty. Okay, but what does it say? He says, be fruitful and multiply. Say, wait, wait, that's the commandment that he gave Abraham. I mean, sorry, Adam. That's the commandment that he gave Noah, right? And now he's given it to Jacob. God, don't you know Jacob's already got 11 kids? All right, and you're telling Jacob be fruitful and multiply? Wow, I mean, what does God want then, do you think? You know, and we've got our 11th child on the way. You know what God is telling me today? Be fruitful and multiply, right? Don't stop, keep going. And you know, it's amazing how our society has changed, right? How society says don't have kids. You know, that's what's going on, right? Before, it was just have two or three kids. But now it's like, don't have kids. And now it's like, kill your kids when they're in the mother's womb, okay? No, God says be fruitful and multiply. I know you have 11 kids, but keep going, says God, right? Don't stop, you know? And I think the lesson there is, you know, have as many children as God allows you to. You know, as much as God blesses you, you know, allow God to step in and do that. That's his desire. You know, it's not like Adam's the first man and he needs to replenish the earth or that Noah's off the ark and everyone's been killed except for his family. Look, there's a lot of people on the earth already at this point in time, okay? And Jacob has already a bunch of kids. But he goes on and says this. And I believe this fruitful and multiply, yes, is the physical. And yes, has to do with his children as well. And so the nation of Israel will grow. But I believe this also has a spiritual connotation here. Because then he says a nation, and we know what that nation is, that's the nation of Israel. But then he says this, a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee and kings shall come out of thy loins, okay? So let's talk about the physical first, right? It says here a nation. So we know about the Old Testament nation of Israel. When they would come out of the land of Egypt, God would establish a covenant with that nation, right? And they would be God's people, okay? And then it says and kings shall come out of thy loins. And of course, we think of the kings of Israel, the kings of Judah, the kings of Israel, right? That would eventually come out of the loins of Jacob, right? And so yes, I do believe we can take that as a physical commandment as it were, you know, quite a literal physical commandment from God. I believe we can apply that. But remember, it was never God's intention for Israel to have kings, okay? It was never his intention. His intention that the Lord God would be the king of Israel. And it was the demand of the people, you know? It was the demand of the people desiring to have kings over them, okay? So this is where I believe this is actually the greater truth that's being taught here is a spiritual lesson. And again, when it says here, a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee. Now this will blow the, this blows the minds of the dispensationalists, okay? Because the dispensationalist believes that God only has that one physical nation of Israel, okay? That is God's people, right? And they're to be separated, to do nothing with the Gentiles. God has a plan just for Israel. But is that what God says to Jacob? And remember, Jacob is Israel, okay? He says, a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, okay? And the immediate thing that I think about is, you know, what God said to Abraham in Genesis 17 four, he says, as of me, behold, my covenant is with thee, speaking to Abraham, and thou shall be a father of many nations, many nations. What's the teaching there, brethren? Well, that the nation of Israel would not just be people made up of one nation, but the nation of Israel will be made up of many nations, okay? Say, well, how does that make sense? Because there's a spiritual Israel. There's the Israel of God, which we're all part of. We've all been grafted in by believing on Jesus Christ. No difference between the Jew and the Greek. No difference between the Jews and the Gentiles. We all are part of that same holy nation, okay? And guess what? We all come from different nations. We all come from different backgrounds. And we see a great picture of this in Revelation 7 nine. It says, after this, I beheld and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands, and cried with a loud voice, saying, salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the lamb. Praise God for that company of people in heaven, of all nations, of all tribes, of all tongues. And of course, what did Jesus Christ say in Revelation 1 six? And have made us, or the teaching here, is that he's made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, and to him be glory and dominion forever and ever, amen. And so brethren, when you read verse 11 in Genesis 35, verse 11, and it says to Jacob, a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee of Israel. You know who he's talking about? He's talking about you, okay? This is a passage for you. This is not a passage for some people in the Middle East that has nothing to do with you. No, this is a passage for all those that believe on Christ. And when it says that, and kings shall come out of thy loins, that's you, okay? God has made you kings and priests. Praise God, we're of the royal family, okay? I don't care about Queen Elizabeth and all the news, right? The magazines on the newspaper racks, field revolve, what's going on with the royal family. Everyone wants to know, who cares? This is the royal family. This is the holy nation. We're the priesthood of God. You know, we're the children of God. We're going to be the ones that inherit the mansions on high, the streets of gold. Hey, there's no kings on this earth that live on streets of gold. We're going to have that benefit. We're going to have those blessings when we get to heaven. Brethren, when you read these passages, you know, don't just over read them. These are promises for you. What a great thing that we can be a family with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Verse number 12, please. Genesis 35 verse 12. And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land. And God went out from him in the place where he talked with him. And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone, and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon. So just a quick thought here. And one of the offerings of the Bible, which are sort of very little known about, that we don't, you know, a lot of people don't really preach on, is the drink offering. Okay, there was a drink offering. And this is the first time that we see something like this. Okay, this is the first time where Jacob takes a drink and basically just pours it. Okay, I don't know if he pours it and say here, yeah. So he pours it onto the pillar of stone that he creates there. And that's the Bible calls, you know, a drink offering. Okay, and so something you'll notice when God gives the law to Israel, you know, that a drink offering would be offered. Okay, sometimes when it comes, not every offering, but for some offerings. Now the drink offering would never be a loan though. When God creates the old covenant with Israel, it's always associated with an offering, like a meat offering, like an animal offering. And so they take a drink and they just pour that unto the Lord. Now, it's not preached on. And look, I don't have, if you guys have some thoughts, let me know. Okay, because it's not really well defined for us. And a lot of these offerings, a lot of these carnal ordinances that people used to do many times is a type of something else, right? And this is something that I like to look at whenever they would do practices. I would say, well, what's that a picture of? How does Christ fulfill that? What is that a picture of Christ? And sometimes the Bible is very clear and tells us what those things are. And sometimes it's left to our imagination. You know, God wants us to think about it and to contemplate it. And so we don't really get anything in the New Testament, you know, affirming what the drink offering is. I personally like to think that it's a picture of the blood of Christ. Okay, that's what I think. You know, I can't be overly dogmatic about that. I do believe this is a picture of Christ, you know, pouring out his blood for us, you know, being saved and being cleansed by his blood. Even a picture of the soldier that, you know, spit Jesus on his side, and it says blood and water, you know, mingled with water came out of his side. I think that's what's being pictured, okay. But anyway, I just thought it was interesting. This is the first mention of the drink offering that we see about in the Bible. Verse number 15. And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him, Bethel. And they journeyed from Bethel. And there was but a little way to come to Ephra, and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labor. So Jacob listens to God, right? Be fruitful and multiply. Rachel is now pregnant with a second child. Verse number 17. And it came to pass when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not, thou shalt have this son also. And it came to pass as her soul was in departing, for she died, that she called his name Benonai, but his father called him Benjamin. All right, so it's a sad story. Rachel giving birth to the second son, that being Benjamin. And of course, we know the story of Joseph later on. We'll learn about Joseph and his son Benjamin. I mean, sorry, his brother Benjamin, his full-blooded brother Benjamin there. But Rachel passes away in childbirth. And the first thing I just want you to think about there is just be thankful for your mothers, all right? Because even in today's age, women die in childbirth, okay? It is a difficult process. It is hard on the body. And we see here, Rachel is going through hard labor, hard labor. And just be thankful for your mothers. They went through hard labor to give birth to you, to give you life. Even if your mother's unsaved, she still put a life on the line to give birth to you, okay? And it's a sad... I can't remember what it is. I think in hospitals, I think it's like one... I might have this wrong, but I think it's like one in a thousand women will die in childbirth, even in hospitals where people are... There's the medical system around them. It's just a reality of life. Sometimes to bring life into this world, it may require the life to pass away. So I don't have much more thoughts on that, but just be thankful. Be thankful for the mothers that you have, even if your mother was not the best mother, even if she gave you a hard life, was an unbeliever, did not cherish you, did not raise you up in nurture. Just be thankful that she gave birth to you, because this is a risk on the life of ladies to give birth to children. Verse number 19, And Rachel died and was buried in the way to Ephra, which is Bethlehem. Quite interesting fact there. So Rachel was buried in Bethlehem, where Jesus Christ of course would be born. Verse number 20, And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave, that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day, and Israel journeyed and spread his tent toward the tower of Edah. Verse number 22, And it came to pass... Now this is a very wicked sin we're about to read. And it came to pass when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben... Now who was Reuben? He was the first one. Firstborn of Leah, the oldest brother, the oldest son. That Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine, and Israel heard it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve. And so Bilhah was the maidservant of Rachel, Rachel who had passed away. And then the oldest son Reuben commits adultery, well it would be adultery from her part, right? With his father's concubine. Again the concubine there was that wife that he would take of a lower status, right? And of course she gave birth to some sons as well unto Jacob, which also make up the twelve sons of Jacob. And so this is a very wicked sin. Keep your finger there and turn to Genesis 49 please. Turn to Genesis 49. Keep your finger there. And I mean such a wicked sin. You know basically taking one of your father's wives, you know, and committing fornication or adultery as it were there. But I guess what I want to say to you Brevin is this, you know, should Jacob have had multiple wives? No, he messed up, right? He made a mistake, okay? But look at Genesis 49 verse 3. It says, this is when Jacob speaks to Reuben. And again Reuben, the oldest, the firstborn, he says, Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, okay? And the beginning of my strength. Now when I think about this, I think about how Jacob, you know, I love Reuben, right? He saw this as his firstborn. He calls him his might. It seems like Reuben was a strong man, right? Maybe a strong leader, you know, maybe strong overall. The beginning of my strength. Look at this, the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power. What I'm trying to say here before we read verse number four, is that Reuben has everything going for him, okay? He's strong of mind, he's strong in the flesh, right? He's the firstborn, he's a leader. But look at verse number four. He says this about him, unstable as water. Thou shall not excel because thou wentest up to thy father's bed, then defiles thou it's. He went up to my couch, okay? And what I want to say there to you, brethren, is that, you know, there are some sins you can commit and, you know, they're not going to have lasting effects. Some sins, like every sin has some level of effect, okay? You go and you confess to the Lord, the Lord will forgive you. But there are some great sins, there are some great wicked sins that will affect you for the rest of your life. It's not that God will not forgive you. Of course, God will forgive you for the sins you've committed. But again, the consequences of sins can mess up your life, okay? Reuben had everything going for him, okay? He could have had a successful life. He could have excelled greatly in his life, okay? But because of the sin that he committed, taking his father's concubine, it said there, unstable as water, thou shall not excel. You're not going to be the top dog, right? And later on, we know that the top child, you know, the one that excelled the most was Joseph, okay? It was Joseph. But you can see Reuben messed up his life, okay? And for those, for the children, for the teens, please be careful. Don't mess up your life. Don't commit such a wicked sin like fornication or adultery because it can mess up your life. It can cause you to not excel in life. And you'll be looking back at that one time, that one major sin you committed and say, you know, have major regrets for it, okay? Again, not to say that God can't forgive you. God will forgive you. And I'll just read to you a passage in Numbers 14, 18. It says, the Lord is longsuffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression. Look at this. And by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. And this is important for adults, for fathers. Keep this in mind. If you commit a grave sin, okay? Jacob taken on multiple wives. Guess what? That iniquity, the consequences of your sin, can have lasting effects unto the third and fourth generation, okay? If Jacob had not taken multiple wives, guess what? Reuben would not have slept with one of the concubines, okay? So we see, yes, Reuben did wrong, but so did Jacob, okay? And there are consequences to our sins, you know? Be careful, you know, I wouldn't want my sins to have lasting effects on my children, you know? And so we need to keep clean. We need to keep ourselves pure and not committing these major sins. Back to Genesis 35, verse 23. Genesis 35, verse 23. We're almost done now. Verse number 23. Sorry, we just lost my spot here. Okay, it says here, the sons of Leah. So now we're going through the 12 sons once again. The sons of Leah, Reuben, Jacob's firstborn and Simeon and Levi and Judah and Ishakah and Zebulun. The sons of Rachel, Joseph and Benjamin. The sons of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid Dan and Naphtali. And the sons of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Padan Aram. And Jacob came unto Isaac his father unto Mamre, unto the city of Arabah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned. And the days of Isaac were in 104 score years. So how long did he live? Four score, 80, right? In 100, 180 years lived Isaac, long life. And it says here, Isaac gave up the ghost and died and was gathered unto his people. Again, a great picture of going to heaven, being gathered with the people, God's people, being old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him. The last thing I want to leave you with guys, look at verse number 29 again. It says, and Isaac gave up the ghost. And if you know your Bibles, the Lord uses the word ghost and spirit interchangeably. Okay, so what is the definition of death according to God? Is when the spirit or the ghost leaves the body. Okay, leaves the body. But go back to verse number 18 again. And the other person that we saw die in this passage was Rachel. And it says there in verse number 18, and it came to pass as her soul was departing for she died. Okay, so what else leaves the body when you die? The soul. Okay, the spirit and the soul leaves the body. And if you're a believer, it goes to be with the Lord. Okay, praise God for that. The only thing that I wanted to bring to your attention there is the doctrine of soul sleep is a stupid doctrine. Okay, I mean, I don't know who believes in this stuff. Is it the Seventh-day Adventists? JWs? JWs believe this? I mean, I've even heard so-called Christians, right? Say no, no, the soul remains in the body when it's dead. No. Yes, there are a lot of passages that tell us the ghost leaves, the spirit leaves, yes. But we saw in verse number 18 that the soul departs as well. Okay, so what's in that grave is just the physical body. Just the physical body, the soul and the spirit, if you're saved, has gone to be with the Lord, you know, gathered unto your people as it were. So I'm excited to pass on, you know. I don't want it to be anytime soon. I've got a lot of work to do on this earth, but I'm excited to be gathered with my people in the future, you know. So as Christians, we should never be people that be there. Okay, all right, let's just leave it there. Let's pray.