Particular thing let's read from God's word.
So we're going to turn to the book now, Genesis chapter 28,
and I want to read from verse 10 to the end of the chapter,
reading, of course, from the King James Bible.
And the words will come up on screen for those who are online.
And we welcome our online community.
And for those who are waiting patiently on a copy of the
Bible, we thank you for your contact and we'll get to you as
soon as possible. Genesis chapter 28 will read
from verse 10. Genesis chapter 28, verse 10.
And Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran,
and he lighted upon a certain place and tarried there all
night, because the sun was set. And he took off the stones of
that place and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that
place to sleep. 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. And behold, the Lord stood above
it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the
God of Isaac. The land were on thy lies.
To thee will I give it, and to thy seed, and thy seed shall be
as the dust of the earth. They shall spread abroad to the
West, and to the east, and to the north and to the South.
And in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the
earth be blessed. And behold, I am with thee, and
will keep thee in all places where thou goest, and will bring
thee again into this land, for I will not leave thee until I have
done that which I've spoken to the of.
And Jacob awake out of his sleep.
And he said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it
not. And he was afraid, and said, How
dreadful is this place. This is none other but the House
of God, and this is the gate of heaven.
And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that
he'd put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and
poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that
place Bethel, but the name of that city was called Loz at the
1st. And Jacob vowed to vow, saying,
If God will be with me and will keep me in this way, that I go,
and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, so that I
come again to my father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be
my God, and this stone which I have set for a pillar shall be
God's house. And of all that thou shalt give
me, I will surely give the 10th unto thee.
Amen will know. God will stamp with His own
approval and blessing this reading of His own precious and
infallible Word. Amen.
My text tonight is taken from Genesis chapter 28 and the verse
17. It reads as follows.
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. I've entitled this message
Gospel Lessons in the Gate of Heaven.
Genesis chapter 28, verse 10 opens with a very lonely
sentence. This is what it says.
And Jacob went out for Bathsheba and went towards Hara.
Now Jacob is not a spiritual hero, young people, he's a
fugitive on the run from his home.
Jacob remembers the younger brother of Esau, his twin.
Jacob was the one who grasped his brother's heel at birth.
His name means supplanter. True to his name, he lived his
life by grasping for things. He bought Esau's birthright for
a mess of pottage or literally a bowl of Stew.
He also received his blind father to steal the blessing
meant for his brother Esau. His deception.
This betrayal fractured his family and now as a result, he's
running for his life. Esau, remember, intended to kill
him and therefore his mother sent him away from Beersheba
toward Haran. So picture a man in his 40s.
He's leaving the land of promise.
He has nothing in his hands, He has no assurance in his heart.
He is all alone. This man who grasps for things
now walks empty handed into the unknown.
For the first time in his life, he is all alone.
No mother to scheme for him, no father to bless him.
He has no brother to compete with and take from.
It's near dark, it's unsafe to travel on.
The sun is setting, so Jacob takes some stones for a pillow,
has the sky for his canopy and the ground for his bed, and he
goes to sleep. He has nothing.
He has no altar, no priest, no temple, no prayer is recorded
here. And yet why did Jacob slept?
God comes to him. God acts in free suffering,
grace. God gives Jacob a vision, and
the Scripture tells us clearly what the vision is.
Look at verse 12. And he dreamed.
And they hold the ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it
reached to heaven. And they hold the angels of God
ascending and descending on it. Jacob seized this ladder in his
dream. This ladder set on earth.
While its top is reaching into heaven, angels are ascending and
descending upon it. The movement is continuous.
Heaven is not closed, heaven's not distant.
Heaven is not inactive. God's realm is actively engaging
with the earth. See, this is not Jacob claiming
toward God. This is God coming to Jacob.
This is God opening heaven to Jacob.
At the top of the ladder stands the Lord himself, and it's the
Lord who speaks. And Jacob hears the same
covenant voice that speak to Abraham and Isaac.
Interesting enough, God doesn't rebuke Jacob.
He doesn't mention his deception or his schemes or his guilt at
this point. Instead, he affirms the promises
about the land, the promises about Jacob's descendants, and
the blessing that God is pledging upon Jacob.
See, this is sheer grace. Jacob has done nothing to merit
this and when Jacob awakens, he is undone.
He is overwhelmed. The fear of God is in his heart
and mind. This is what he said.
Look at verse 17 and he was afraid.
That means he was terrified and said, how dreadful is this
place? This is none other but the House
of God, and this is the gate of heaven.
Now, there's only one reference to the gate of heaven in all of
the Bible. And I want to try and bring for
the next 20 minutes, gospel lessons from the gate of heaven.
I want you to see three things. This would come to me, the
revelation that's so important. Now I want you to think of
Jacob. And he's sleeping.
Remember, he's got the sky for his canopy, the ground for his
bed, stones for his pillows. And while he sleeps, he has this
dream, it says in verse 12, 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.
In Old Testament times, God often spoke via and through
dreams. Notice in the dream here the two
places that's mentioned. If you look again at verse 12,
it mentions the earth and it mentions heaven.
Two places, earth and heaven, and in between these two places
there's a vast difference. There's a great separation.
We only have to think of Genesis 1 and one, then the beginning.
God created the heaven and the earth, and over there in the
book of Revel and Book of Hebrews, in Hebrews Chapter 11
and in the verse 3, we read this through faith.
We understand that the world's were framed by the word of God
so that things which are seen were not made of things which do
appear. I don't know about you, but
sometimes I look up into the night sky and I see the moon and
I wonder how far away is the moon from the earth?
And I see certain stars in the sky and I often think of what's
beyond that. You see, the Bible talks about
the 3rd heaven, young people, and whenever we look up into the
sky, we're seeing really the aerial heavens.
And if we were to get a big telescope, if Mark could set
something up for us, we could maybe look out unto beyond our
Galaxy, to another Galaxy called a Andromeda.
And beyond that there's many more galaxies.
You see, our solar system is vast.
It's so vast we can see the moon and the stars in a good night.
But there's loads of galaxies beyond that which we cannot see.
And even if we had a telescope, we wouldn't be able to see them
because there's such a vast difference between us on Earth
and what's really in the heavens.
And the reference here is not to the aerial heavens or to the
spatial heavens, but it's to the 3rd heaven, the place where God
dwells. So there's no way of reaching
it. There's no way of bridging this
vast difference over there in the Gospel of Luke, in Luke
chapter 26, whenever the rich man died and was buried, and
inhale, lift up his eyes, being in torment, this is what Abraham
said to him. And besides all this, between US
and you there's a great gulf fixed, so that they which would
pass from thence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that
would come from thence. You see, not only is there a
great distance between earth and heaven, but for those in the
eternal bliss in the 3rd heaven with God, and for those in a
place we'll call eternal burnings in hell, there's a
great gulf fixed that no man can pass from themes.
I wonder, have you thought is there a way to bridge the gap?
How do we get from earth to heaven?
That's a good question. How does heaven come to earth?
That's an equally good question. Well, look at the dream.
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. You see, ask yourself, what does
this ladder represent? The ladder set up on earth whose
top reached into heaven? The direction of travel is
crucial. This is not man claiming to God,
this is God providing access to man.
The latter could be interpreted as a stairway.
And when we compare scripture with scripture and come to the
New Testament, there was a man by the name of Nathaniel, and
the Lord Jesus spoke to him. And this is what he says in John
chapter 1 and in the verse 49. Nathaniel answered and said unto
him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, Thou art the King of
Israel. Jesus answered and said unto
him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee unto the fig tree,
Believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things
than these. And he saith unto him, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven
open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon
the Son of Man. You see, the Lord Jesus
explicitly identifies Himself as the fulfilment of Jacob's dream.
He is the latter. He is the stairway.
This is not poetic language, young people.
This is a direct interpretation of Genesis 28.
This is Scripture interpreting Scripture.
So Genesis 28, verse 12, Jacob's dream is interpreted for us by
the Lord Jesus in John chapter 1, especially in the verse 51.
And what did Jacob see? He saw heaven open.
He saw the angels of God ascending and descending on the
Son of man. And the Lord Jesus is the Son of
man. He's the latter.
He's the stairway to God. It is Christ.
No one else can take us from earth to heaven.
No one else can come from heaven to this earth.
That's why the Lord Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, the
life. No man comes unto the Father but
by me. That's why Paul and Peter
preached. Neither is our salvation in any
other, for there's no other name under heaven given among men
whereby we must perceive. This is simple, this is
fundamental, this is plain and basic.
Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone and Christ
alone as revealed in the Bible alone to the glory of God alone.
Let me tell you a wee story. We all love a wee story.
Way back in the Great War, 1914 to 1918 and one of the trenches
in the British Expeditionary Force, soldiers faced a
bombardment of German shells and at once trench there was a
soldier called Bert and Bert was well an average size of a
soldier and as the shells fell and exploded Bert, he was
gravely injured. There was another big soldier
there, he was called Tiny Jim. He was 6 foot 3 and he ran to
Bert, realised the case was hopeless.
Bert was not going to make it. He got some sandbags and put
them under Bert and got an old coat and wrapped it round him.
And Bert said this to Tiny Jim. Tiny Jim, can you tell me how to
get to heaven? Well, Tiny Jim says, well, Bert,
I don't know, son, but I'll go and find out.
And he asked the other man in his trench.
They're part of an English regiment.
They said Bert is dying. He, he asked me the way to
heaven. I don't know the answer.
Can anyone tell me so I can tell him?
Not one of his men, you Tiny Jim left his post, went to another
trench, met some other soldiers, men from the 36th Ulster
Division, and he asked them, explaining that his platoon had
been hit with shells and one called Bert was dying and he
wanted to know that way of heaven.
Can any of you tell me? One of the soldiers smiled.
I know the answer. He was from Northern Ireland.
He pointed out a New Testament. He pencilled John 3 and 16, and
he says, go to Bert, Tiny Jim, and read this first to him and
Tiny Jim went. They read the verse over and
over again. John 3 and 16.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life. A peace come over Bert.
Bert's face began to smile and shine.
He kept repeating in a very faint voice, Whosoever,
whosoever, whosoever, whosoever until he died.
There's nothing more important in this life.
There's nothing more important than preparation for the world
to come. It's fatal.
Every individual, multitudes, do not know Jesus Christ, do not
know that they're sinners, do not know that they have souls,
that they need to be saved. And yet there's no greater need.
And yet there's no greater answer.
And it's not ritual. It's not becoming religious or
having riches or being respectable or following rules.
No, there's a principle here, the gate of heaven.
The gate is not heaven itself. A gate speaks of access.
It's the point of entry between the two realms.
And Jacob realises that this place, this ground that he is
on, has become a meeting place between heaven and earth and God
has broken into Jacob's world. God and grace has taken the
initiative to come to him. The gate of heaven is not a
place. The gate of heaven is a person.
It's the Lord Jesus, not the church, good as it is, not the
ministers of the gospel, not the building, not human morality,
not ritual and ceremony. The gate is Jesus Christ
himself. Notice what Jacob said in the
text. This is the gate of heaven.
Jacob doesn't say this is one of the gates to heaven.
It's not what the religious world tells us.
It's not what the false cults tell us.
One gate, one point of access. The Bible says First Timothy
2:00 and 5:00. For there's one God and one
mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
You see, remember, sin created a a barrier separation between
heaven and earth, and only a saviour who's both fully God and
fully man can bridge that gap. False cults and false religions
tells us that there's multiple gates, that there's multiple
saviours, that there is multiple ways to God.
But I want to tell you tonight that's contrary to this book.
This book says Jesus saith I am the way, the truth, the life.
No man comes unto the Father but by me.
The latter is singular. The stairway is singular, Christ
is singular, grace is singular. 1 gate keeps salvation from
becoming anything to do with human achievement.
It ensures that salvation remains a divine gift.
There's a revelation that's important, a revelation of two
places and one way to get from earth to heaven, That is Christ.
The latter notice. Secondly, there's a recording
that's so instructive. If you look back, it says verse
13. And behold, the Lord God stood
above it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham, thy father, and
the God of Isaac. Now notice this carefully.
You see, sometimes you read in the Bible, I am the Lord God of
Abraham, thy father, and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.
But there's no mention of Jacob here.
At least I don't see it. It's not in verse 13.
Jacob's name is not recorded. Why?
But it's recorded in other places.
Why is it not recorded here? Because at this point, Jacob's
not saved. At this point, Jacob doesn't
know God. At this point, Jacob's not in
the right relationship with God. Jacob's 40 years of age and he's
not saved. Jacob's an old schemer.
Jacob's a deceiver. He has no thought, fear, or love
for God. Jacob's not seeking God.
That's why God in sovereign grace takes the initiative and
speaks to him. And God reveals himself to him.
And Jacob understands this because what does Jacob tell us?
He tells us here. And Jacob awaked out of his
sleep. And what did he say?
Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not.
Why? Because he didn't know the Lord.
He was not in a covenant relationship with the Lord.
Yet Jacob's not praying to God to meet with him, and yet the
Lord comes and speaks to him, and Jacob hears the voice of the
Lord, and what does he hear? I am the Lord God of Abraham,
thy father, and the God of Isaac.
As I've told you, Jacob was about 40 years old.
Did you know that he'd heard the voice of the Lord God before
over there in the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter 26 and
in the verse 24? And the Lord appeared unto him
the same night and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father.
Fear not, for I am with thee and will bless thee, and multiply
thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake.
He's now hearing it again. And even though we heard the
voice of God before, it meant nothing to him until that night.
This night God came and spoke. And in this particular night,
even though he'd heard the same words before, he realised the
Lord God was in this place. He realised that God was
speaking and ministering to him. And what was God saying to him
when he spoke? I'm the God of Abraham thy
father, and of the God of Isaac. He's really saying to Jacob, you
need to be in a right relationship with me, Jacob, and
you need to be in a right relationship with me tonight.
Doesn't the Bible say, behold, now is the accepted time, now is
the day of salvation. Proverbs 27 And one says, boast
not thyself of tomorrow, for no man knoweth what a day may bring
forth. And in Romans 10/17 we hear
those lovely words. Faith cometh by hearing and
hearing by the word of God. Here's the Lord Jesus Christ in
the fullness of his person and work, and he's presented to
sinners as a gift to be received.
Remember what we read over there in John's Gospel in John chapter
one it says He came unto his own, and his own received him
not, but as many as received him to them give me power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which
were born not of blood, not hereditary, nor of the will of
the flesh, not of your own will or the will of man, nor of the
will of man, but of God, not Pope or priest or preacher, but
of God. Let me ask you tonight, have you
received Jesus Christ as He, your Lord and Saviour?
Are you in a covenant relationship with Him?
Can the Lord say I am the high God?
I remember on one occasion not so long ago, I held out a £20
gift in a meeting. There was about 150 to 180
people there and I I said I want someone to come up and take this
gift. Nobody moved, nobody came
forward. They must have all believed it
was a joke. They must have all believed it
was a trick. They must have believed it was
fake money. I held it up.
I even said John White, it's here and nobody moved.
See, they didn't believe it. And because they didn't believe
it, they didn't receive it. Jacob believed what God said.
I'm the God of Abraham, I'm the God of Isaac.
But Jacob, I'm not yet your God. And yet that very night was the
night that Jacob was saved. Jacob received him by faith and
I believe the promise here of blessing that's spoken about the
land is literal and real. The promise about the seed and
descendants is messianic In in verse 14, he said in thy seed
shall be as the dust of the earth, and I shall spread abroad
to the West and to the east and to the north and to the South
and the knee and in thy seed shall all families of the earth
be blessed. And of course that links in to
Genesis or Galatians chapter 3, verse 8, and the Scripture for
saying that God would justify the heathen through faith
preached before the gospel on the Abraham, saying in thee
shall all nations be blessed. And God not only promised a
literal real land and promised a seed in descendants that were
more numerous than the sand of the sea and the stars in the
sky, but it was a promise about God's presence, God's
protection, God's provision, God's purpose for Jacob.
Look at verse 15. And behold, I am with thee is
not tremendous, and I will keep thee in old places where thy
ghost and I will bring thee again into this land.
For I will not leave thee until I've done that which I've spoken
to thee of as a story told of a woman that tried to get her
husband out to the House of God, tried to get your families out
this year into the House of God. It was a Sabbath evening.
She wanted them to come and hear the gospel.
The preacher was the late Reverend Sam Workman.
The place was Abbot's Cross. Reverend Sam Workman told this
story many times. Now the name of the man was
called Ivan Thompson. Nobody would know him here, at
least I don't think so. And he Sunday evening he was
watching a film or watching a football match and this is what
he did. He didn't want to go to the
meeting and not going with my wife.
I couldn't be bothered with that.
Listening to that Hellfire preacher, definitely not.
So he changed the clocks and he put the clocks forward to let
the wife be deceived that it wasn't the right time to go to
the meeting. But anyway, the wife still
wanted to go and she says no, no, we'll just go on even though
we're late. So whenever they arrived, the,
the folks had already gathered into the church and one of the
deacons came over to the car and was trying to get them into the
car park because the car park was almost full.
And the the Deacon said, oh, the, the church has started just
for a few minutes. They're singing the first hymn
and Reverend Workman will go to the first prayer, but come on in
anyway. And Ivan Thompson told the man
they would only come in if you promise me a seat in the back.
That's not a problem. Come on in.
So he went in and he, he looked, he knew very greatly there's not
a seat at the back because they fell from the back to the front.
And he looked around, no seats. So he marched Avon Thompson and
the wife right up to the front seat that was empty.
Avon Thompson had to sit and listen to the preaching of the
gospel. And at the end of the meeting,
the Reverend Workman said this. Come just as ye are.
And Avon Thompson shouted out, What did you just say, preacher?
Reverend Workman repeated it. Come just as ye are, come just
as you are. Is that real?
Is that all you have to do? That night Ivan Thompson was
converted. And Ivan Thompson, like old
Jacob that night, discovered that Jesus Christ is the only
gate to heaven. And no matter what the false
cults say, and no matter what false religion teaches, it's not
rules of a church, it's not a righteous life, it's not church
rituals. It's a personal relationship
based on faith with Jesus Christ.
And this was the night that Jacob came to Christ, the night
of his conversion, a Sinner awoken out of his sleep by a
dream, a dream about earth and heaven and a ladder.
And he discovered who the ladder was.
His identity. There's none other than Christ.
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
Do you believe this tonight? If you believe this, have you
received it? If I held up £20 here, would you
come up and take it because you believe it's real?
God's word is infallible. God's word is inerrant.
God's Word is clear and plain. God's Word is impregnable.
God's Word is authoritative. See, the Lord is here tonight in
the midst of the twos or threes. You can't see him, but he's
speaking. Can you hear Him speaking?
He's asking you, telling you I'm the Lord God of heaven and
earth. Are you mine and am I yours?
Notice one final thing as we finish.
There's a realisation that's so illustrative.
See, Jacob's life was changed. There's a great changed in here
life. His salvation I believe was
validated. The Rascal became redeemed.
Notice what he did. It says that Jacob rose up early
in the morning and took the stone that he'd put for his
pillows and set it up for a pillar.
So the stone that was pillows became a pillar.
And he poured oil upon the top of it.
And what did he name that place? And he called the name of that
place Bethel. What does that mean?
It literally means the House of God.
Beth has to do with house. L has to do with God.
Beth L means the House of God. It's a picture word in the
Hebrew. But the name of that place was
called loves. At the first, the word loves
means separation. And the night before, Jacob was
in this place of separation. He was cut off from God.
He was not saved. And yet now his name is changed.
Now his nature has changed. There's a story told about Queen
Victoria, who went out to a place that made rags into some
sort of hankies and paper cloth. And she's seen the bunch of rags
that were lying and filthy and dirty.
And then she saw the clean ones. And after a few days she got
this parcel sent from this particular place.
And these rags had been made white using some sort of
chemical process. And she was really amazed.
The blood can make you cleaner. The blood can make you whiter.
The blood of Jesus Christ, the Bible says, cleanseth us from
all sin. And if you trust Christ as Lord
and Saviour, get a full, free and forever pardon.
You have peace with God, you're adopted into God's family.
And a great change takes place because if any man be in Christ,
he's a new preacher. Old things have passed away and
all things have become you. Not only a great change here,
that's illustrated a great commitment.
Look at verse 20 as we finish and Jacob vowed A vow saying if
God will be with me, see, remember, he's just a new baby
in Christ. He's a wee bit of doubt creeping
in there. If God will be with me and will
keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat
and raiment to put on so that I come again to my father's house
in peace, then shall the Lord be my God.
Here's the response of Jacob's faith.
It was not to earn God's favour, but it was to respond to the
favour. The faith was real.
Oh yes, it might mean a bit immature.
Jacob thought he was alone that night.
But heaven opened. Heaven came to where he was.
He was fleeing judgement. He was a fugitive.
And yet he found mercy because he found and discovered the true
gate of heaven. He found Jesus Christ, the place
where God and men must meet. The realisation that's
illustrative. He was changed and he made this
commitment. The vision that he saw, the
voice that he heard, and the vow that he made was all made in
this place that he called the House of God, the gate of
heaven. I asked you tonight, do you know
Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour?
Do you know that He's the only ladder to heaven?
And is your faith and trust in Him that you can testify to a
change in your life, and that you too have made this
commitment? You vie A vie, and your vie will
be that you're going to live for the honour and glory of Jesus
Christ, not to earn God's favour, but as a response to it
out of love. This is what I'll do for you,
Lord. Is that true of you this
evening?