Genesis

[0:00] In dependence upon the Lord for all needed help, I venture to draw your prayerful attention to Genesis chapter 35 and we will read verse 3.

[0:33] Genesis chapter 35 and verse 3. And let us arise and go up to Bethel and I will make there an altar unto God who answered me in the day of my distress and was with me in the way which I went.

[1:14] Anniversary day. Changing scenes. An unchanging God.

[1:27] It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. New every morning are thy compassions.

[1:38] Great is thy faith on us. It's a time as we've said before on these occasions of looking back.

[1:53] A prayerful looking forward in anticipation.

[2:07] And written over it all as I believe, I believe I quote it in prayer. Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever.

[2:24] Oh beloved friends. You've sung in that opening hymn such a beautiful hymn full of Jesus and all the movements of a saved sinner toward his Lord.

[2:42] I think it was about 15 if not more. It says something hymn. And my friend, what do we know of it? Do not we know something of these blessings?

[2:56] Does not Christ made precious to us? Is he not made the one thing neighbor? Do not we feel as we grow older? The more we need him.

[3:06] And the trouble is, the more we grow in age, the more we seem to grow in sin. You may say to me, well you should be ashamed of yourself.

[3:17] You shouldn't be in that pulpit. But my friend, it is true. In mercifully kept we hope from grosser outward sin of mankind.

[3:27] That we see sin where we never saw it before. We see it in our head, in our thoughts, in our words, in our motives.

[3:38] Oh and we see pride. We see, oh my friend, complaints sometimes inwardly. Oh, we need the blood. We need this dear Jesus.

[3:51] We feel to need him more than ever. Oh, what a mercy. I do hope I shall be helped to preach from this word this afternoon. It laid on my mind about the changing scenes in life as we go through day by day.

[4:07] And here is Jacob. And he has fled, as you know, from the face of Esau, his brother. Then there was reconciliation.

[4:18] But then we see, instead of continuing what God had told him to do, God had told him to go to Bethel.

[4:30] You remember earlier in the same book, in the book of Genesis, God came to him when he was in the land with Laban. And if I can just lay my hand on the very word.

[4:44] Here we have it. God said to him, I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointest the pillar, and where thou vowsest a vow unto me. Now arise, and get thee out of this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.

[5:04] So far, we might say, so good. And then, of course, though obeying the voice of God, he came into trouble.

[5:16] When they came and told him that Esau's coming against you with four hundred men. Poor Jacob! Didn't he sink low? Wasn't it a day of distress?

[5:27] Wasn't it a day of perplexity too? Because had not God spoken to him at Bethel, that in him and in his seed, that all the nations be blessed?

[5:37] And look, there's Esau with his sword. As you might say, I could almost see a picture of the graves, ready to receive every one that he got, from the oldest to the youngest.

[5:49] They'd be all slaughtered. But, oh, my friend, we may come back to that in a moment. We'll leave it just for the moment. How the Lord appeared for him. But, and this reminds us of a great danger, a very subtle danger.

[6:08] You know, when we're in trouble, especially when God sanctifies it, when we're stood up, starting to pray again, starting to wrestle in prayer, and come to the Lord, and seek his help and his mercy, and then things quietened down, all calmed down.

[6:32] We stopped. He doesn't go any further with his journey. Well, he did. And you know, it was a disastrous event, so I won't touch what happened, and shake him the awful thing that took place there.

[6:47] What danger is. And one of the dangers of the church is not so much, and it can be bad, I know, when there's trouble, when there are, there's a concern about nations, and the churches, and where there are difficulties, but when things just quieten down, there's the treacherous calm that the hymn writer speaks about.

[7:22] No movement. No concern. Very little prayer. Oh, yes, you pray. Oh, yes, you read the Bible. I know what it is, my friend.

[7:32] I'm ashamed to say it. I can be left in a state, yes, but you know, it didn't mean very much. Until the Lord starts to stir things up again.

[7:44] What a mercy. And this is what took place here. The Lord came to him, as we read in that first verse, that God said unto Bethel, Jacob, arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make an altar unto God that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau, thy brother.

[8:10] Wait. Is this a needful word for us? It's a denomination, L.A. I do want to be careful. I tremble as a minister.

[8:23] Lest I should say something wrong. That you know we can be asleep. We come regularly to chapel.

[8:34] Or we sing the hymns. We hear the word. We talk to one another. Father, and yet, very little spiritual life. We want to, I feel to need it, quickening, reviving, waking up, and this word, arise.

[8:53] Oh, may we be held. As I think of this word, arise, my friend, we might say, well, where should I go? To whom can I go? My friend, it's back to Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it?

[9:10] He said, arise. Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, put away the strange gods that were among you, and be clean, and change your garments.

[9:31] What? These, the family of Jacob, with strange gods among them?

[9:45] Yes, we read earlier of how this was discovered. Oh, my friend, how so, but, you say, but I don't bow down to things like that.

[9:58] I don't have something of metal or something fashionable after it, like a god. Oh, I'd have nothing to do with them. I know that. But you know, there can be something or someone in our life that takes far too much of our attention.

[10:24] It can, something that, I want to be very careful. There's nothing wrong in gardening, for example. That's very good and very right.

[10:37] But it can become an idol. I'm not speaking that against anybody. God knows, I'm not aiming at a soul here. It's what I know myself.

[10:49] I could be rather proud of my garden. and spend a little too much more time on that than perhaps reading the Bible. You see how things can creep in.

[11:00] I speak that very lovingly, very tenderly. We do read, they came unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand and all their earrings.

[11:13] I was, in my meditation and reading too, I was very surprised about this word earrings. earrings. They weren't just an ornament like some women would have. They were used in the Bible days, some of them, the heathen would use them as some form of, what can I say, making a god of them or setting them over far more than they ought to.

[11:42] I can't really describe it. But it will just remember remember that when Aaron made that molten calf, the people parted with their earrings because they used it in a wrong way.

[12:05] I have to leave, I don't know the clearer detail on that, but it is they made them as instead of God. Perhaps set their heart on them, perhaps showed off, we know not, they must leave that.

[12:20] But now, then Jacob said unto his household and all that within, put away the strange gods that are among you and be clean and change your garments.

[12:31] garments. My dear friend, I don't know why I'm saying what about your garments? You're not accusing us of being judged?

[12:44] No, not literally. But what about sin? What about the garments of our profession? Aren't they stained?

[12:56] Aren't they marred sometimes? Oh, friend, I'm searched with it. I tell you there have been times, I'm sad to say, but I will confess it.

[13:10] When I thought, as a minister said something, I said, what have I said? The stain, the mar. My friend, we need to pray.

[13:23] We are right in the care of our bodies and cleanliness. May we know the concern over the cleanliness of the soul, of our walk, of our conversation.

[13:38] Oh, may God help us. So here we have these strange gods among us, and be clean and change, and let us arise, says the dear man.

[13:51] When I think of that word, how, in other instances we have it, it seems to be an awakening call, and in times, not necessarily where, as I've just said, of being in a slumbering state, but in a time of great difficulty, where you say, I can't do anything, I can't go on, I can't manage it, I don't know what to do, I don't know where to go, I don't know how I'm going to handle this matter, and besides perhaps it's someone who died, and you say, I just can't go on, well my friend, let's just think of Joshua, when God said, Moses my servant is dead, now therefore go to sleep, now therefore give up, therefore arise, he's promised to be with him, help him, go forth dear Joshua, have not I commanded thee, be strong and of a good courage, but the

[14:53] Lord thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou goest, and think of Nehemiah, you see a bit of a sudden change there, you remember that he came back to Jerusalem, saw the slate of the city, wall broken down, gates burned with fire, very humbly, alone, not calling a lot of attention, did he go round that city, and then he gathered the people together, and showed them how the Lord had led him, and the Lord had led him in answer to his prayer, when he is a camp bearer, I must just tarry on it a moment, you remember, he was a camp bearer, and before that, or while he was there, this friend came back and showed him what the dreadful state Jerusalem was in, and he, what did he do, he said, I'm going to get up, I'm going to put that right, no, there'd be presumption, did he say, oh, well, look,

[15:57] I'm a king's cup bearer, nothing to do with me, I'm ever so sorry, no, didn't do that, he went down and prayed to God, confessing sin, waiting for God, and that moment when he stood before the king, that was God's time, and there didn't, I would read a prayer, who would have thought that a man could pray in front of a king like that, but he did, there's a king above the king on earth, there's a king of kings, and oh, my friend, there, I say, the dear man could speak to the people, and they said, let us arise and build, ah, but wait a minute, look about that, Gisham, look about those other people, those enemies, they're laughing at you, they say that if a fox gets over that wall, he'll knock it down, no, God is for us, nevertheless, we made a prayer unto God, and set a watch, because of them, and then another word came to my mind on this matter, when the

[16:59] Lord concludes in that 14th chapter of John, let us arise, and, now, this is where my mind goes into a blank, I must get it right, because it's so important, let us arise, and go over, no, John chapter 14, let us arise, and go hence, I think it is, let me see, that is right, yes, that is right, arise, let us go hence, friend, I shall not enlarge you, maybe, you'll be able to meditate on it yourself, but think what that hence is, the cross, the garden of Gethsemane, all those sufferings,

[18:03] I've read recently, the sufferings of Christ, my friends, some of the hardest things to bear, is if you're suffering pain, and they ridicule you, and scorn you, and laugh at you, and he had that, and perhaps some of you know what that is, Jesus knew what it was, we do too, let us therefore arise, says the word of God, and my mind also went to another direction, completely different, and that was the prodigal, I will arise, and go to my father, and say, father, I have sinned, and now he said therefore, arise, and go up to Bethel, and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which

[19:06] I went, he would never, and did never forget Bethel, what an awful thing it was, you say but God meant it, or God overruled it, when he stole the blessing, told a lie, and there covered his skin with the skin of an animal to make it feel rough, just like his brother Esau, and let me say this, God is not mocked, whatsoever man shall reap, sow, that he also reap, he deceived his father, and you remember how that later he was deceived over the matter of

[20:07] Leah instead of Rachel, you remember later when Joseph had gone and his brother had taken the coat of many colors and dipped it in the blood of a slain animal pretending that that animal had killed Joseph deceived him, we reap what we sow friend, but mind you, it's also if we do that which is right in the fear of God for the glory of God, not for the praise of man we should reap, I'll name this as an example, I know you'll say well you're a real old rambler, I can't help it friend, but I know this, that I had once years ago a dear godly friend, she was made, she was a widow, and then a daughter she was so fond of, likely to retire, went down with cancer and died, this dear old soul fell, fractured her pelvis, she was in hospital, I went to visit her, thinking I hope God will give me a word to comfort,

[21:09] I'm sure I shall find her very sad, oh what no, she sat up in her bed beaming, she sat up, tell the friend the Lord is good, and a stronghold in the day of trouble, he knoweth them that trust in him, my dear friend it was wonderful, it was wonderful, I said to her, how is it, I said I know why it's because you've been so good to others, and she had, she devoted her life in many way of cares and loves, I named that just in passing, there's two sides of that matter, he says there make an altar unto God who asked me in the day of my distress and was with me in the way which I went, but now you must bear with me because it's something laid on my mind that I'm to look more that I like to try and keep to the text, I will do my best, but I feel that so much instruction in this chapter that I want to use it as a, that verse is the background but to see because what do we find in this chapter, we find there's a family, we find there's journeys, we find there's four burials, there's two pillars, and we find there are changing scenes, now let me just look at some of these things with you, just briefly, we find of course he came to Bethel, and there he built the altar, and acknowledging

[22:47] Bethel, then there came a hand of death, Deborah, Rebecca's nurse died, the hand of death, we've just, well no, I'll put it a better way than that, the Lord had called one of his dear ones home from Tamborth Road, a dear Mr. Tom Roper, a pillar in the church, called him hence, the time comes, each year marks out, and so and so died, some of us have walked this path, and proved, we've not been left alone, God has been our helper, the miss, the loss, is indescribable, but my God shall supply all your need according to riches in glory, by Christ

[23:51] Jesus, and I mark this Alan because the oak of weeping, yes, there are tears at the graveside, when it's those that die in the Lord, is triumph, is victory, but there are tears, because we mourn the loss of those who we love, those who have been faithful to God and faithful to us, but here I say, we are reminded that God himself shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

[24:35] I go on a little further, they journeyed on, and there Rachel, in near birth, the child and dies, the sudden sorrow, the sudden loss, to dear Jacob, and you will observe the names, Ben-Oni and Benjamin, Ben-Oni means the son of my sorrow, Benjamin, the son of the right hand, God's gift.

[25:21] Here, I feel we have an experience, mingled experience sometimes, we feel like, in a loss, like, saying, Ben-Oni, the son of my deep sorrow, and yet mingled with it, it is well, it is well, and we know, that those who die in the Lord, they're with Christ, and we cannot wish them back, cannot, so there are these changing scenes, and yet, I said, there were the, what are the barriers, well, first, of course, they buried the gods, didn't they?

[26:12] Perhaps we've got something to bury, have we? something to burn, I do not know, and then, of course, we've got, as I Deborah, and then we've got Rachel, in the last verse of this chapter, we read Isaac himself died, Isaac lived the longest of the three patriots, that was the most peaceful, travelled the least, but my friend, his years, a long time, 180 years, was it not, he comes to the end, and we mark here, his sons, Esau, and Jacob, buried him, so there was still reconciliation, now, my dear friend, let us try and look at these distresses, as we may be held, you've been in distress sometimes, I'm sure, well, they take time 107, when they were in distress, they called upon the

[27:14] Lord, they cried unto their God, they sought the Lord, and the Lord heard and answered them, and delivered them, and brought them out of their distresses, oh, friend, it's been sometimes, we've known not what to do, it can be in so many different ways, can't it, it can be in physical affliction suffered by ourselves, it can be in physical affliction by a dear one, and then we feel so distressed with that, we feel we can't do anything to take that pain off, or we do what we can in caring, but we feel so to see a dear one in the pain and affliction or sorrow, we sometimes have distress because things are going against us, we are brought into a path where we've not walked heretofore, walking into a way that we cannot understand, we cannot find a way out of it, we cannot pass through it, but God upholds us in it, distress, oh friend,

[28:48] I say, I think of that time when David, he returned, mind you, he had done wrong, he went and joined himself with the Philistines, and then was not to be put into the army of the Philistines to fight against his own people, mercifully the way was made, hoped for him to escape, but he went back to his own city, and what did he find?

[29:13] Ashes, everything burned, where's my wife, where's her children, where's her dear ones?

[29:24] They're taken captive, gone, and the people, rising up, ready to stone him in their anger, and in their sorrow, and then Jacob, and then David, encouraged himself, in the Lord his God, but there was no way, there was no sign of relief at all, but God appeared, the power of God's word, I feel with dear David, it might have been a sense of how God had helped him, slay Goliath, and the times that had preceded this, when Saul was one side of the mountain, and he was the other, and it seemed that he was likely to be captured at any moment, and slain, but God washed over him in that distress, and I think that man's burden and sorrow was calmed right down with faith in

[30:25] God, that God would appear for him, how could it be, you say, you can't, you've only got a few men, and yes, but God is, God before us, who then can be against us, so my friend, how deep distress he was in, but God, he encouraged himself, and that's where we need to go, to turn to God, to look to God, to seek the help of God, to pray for a word from God, oh, my friend, may be granted to us, so, he says, was there answering the day of my distress, I suppose all of us have had these days of distress, have you a God to go to, have you proved that, but you may say, I'm in a distress, but there seems nothing, doesn't seem that God is appearing for me, my friend, there are times when our faith is to be tried, pray for patience, pray for

[31:39] God to give you that support, and that strength you so much need, that enduring grace, cast thy burden on the Lord, doesn't say he'll take it off, not necessarily, he does sometimes, cast thy burden on the Lord, and he shall sustain thee, mark that, doesn't say he'll take it off you, but he's going to hold you up, my friend, at our times, like dear Jacob, when he said, all these things are against me, he's in one thing on top of another, and then, I don't remember reading about dear Mr.

[32:23] Frank Gostin, I believe it was, I'm not sure if it was just prior to his ministry, or going to a ministry, it doesn't matter, in his life he was in deep trouble, and he went, I think he was on business, and he went, he said, Lord, if there's anything else, I shall sink, I shall rise, I'm finished, I don't say put that word exactly, but that was the illustration, well, something else did come, and what did the dear man say, sink I did, but into the everlasting arms, that's the secret, that's the secret, they're there, and we've got to go through much to feel them, but the mercy is they're there, and ever will be, and they will hold us up, and bear us up, and bring us through, I think they're going back to the distress of those that were in their boat, and they were at their wits, and neither did they know what to do, they cried unto the

[33:35] Lord, but had the Lord brought a calm, and brought them at last into their desired haven, days of distress, but also we read here of Bethel, the house of God, I believe many of us can say a certain spot, a certain chapel, had been a Bethel to our souls, oh, here comes another ramble again, but it comes, we're on a holiday, and my dear father-in-law and mother-in-law took us away right in the early days before I was preaching, and we were in the East

[34:37] Anglia, and we were taken, we went to a chapel, but didn't get on very well, in the afternoon father said, well we'll go somewhere else, a brook it was, in those days, there was a very godly pastor, for the moment his name eludes me, it doesn't matter, but a very dear man, well we were a little bit late, I was just about to pray, now I've never had it quite like this before, I'd never been in that place before, I sat down, and I felt a sacred awe, come upon my spirit, I felt, this is the house of God, they don't know me, nobody knew me there, but if ever there was a sermon, that was preached, it was that afternoon, was such a help to me, it was about

[35:41] Abraham, Abraham where God said, I am thy great reward, fear not Abraham, I am thy great reward, he would be a shield and help, I can't enlarge on the way how that came, in the path I was in at that time, it was so sweet, so sacred to my soul, well in fact when I got home I told my pastor, I said I think I must write, he said do write him a letter, I'm glad I did because within about six months he passed away, but I say friend that was a sacred thread, again, to use another illustration, you've heard it well before, that in the war years I was in Canada and had chicken pox and gave me a little leave, went through to the Rockies, traveled in the late afternoon and then when we got to Calgary for the last part of the journey in

[36:43] Boreal, it was pitch dark, I couldn't see a thing and when we reached the town of Banff I found a place to stay for the night and went to sleep and the morning woke up, I hadn't seen a thing and I drew the curtains and I gasped, there before me was an amazing scene, snow-capped mountains, blue sky, and there was my great God, so great, holding up all things by the word of his power and they came to me, yes, I believe this God is my God, oh my friend it was a sacred moment and then further still that he cares for me, he loves me, oh friend it was that was a Bethel, that God was there, some of you could speak of these things, tell it to the generation following, speak of these things where the

[37:48] Lord has appeared in most unusual places it may be, why it could be on a hospital bed, I've had a blessing there too, oh so we go on in our distresses at Bethel, it's the very present of God, it's not the matter of bricks or wall or buildings so much but we believe that there is that special token of God's presence where his people are gathered, even where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them and we prove it, oh how sacred it is, when you feel the Lord is here, when you feel, oh, and when the minister says well I must stop, oh you say no, oh when it's Sunday night and you think of Sunday morning, oh but my friend we have to wait to where we reach heaven itself, where congregations near break up and Sabbaths have no end, oh I, oh do bear with me, oh friend I don't know what to say,

[38:58] I've had such trouble, but oh can I say this, this strange that tune you've just sung, St. Clement, nothing to do with my name, don't take that, that took me right over the war years on the Pacific, on a troop ship in Canada, in war stricken London, often at night where we were gathering and or went to the church or chapels and in those days as you know it was only the one, just this version of the Bible and we often were closed, now the day is over, a memory I should never forget, sacred experience, let's say about a Bethel, have I told you this before friend, ah what does Mr.

[39:50] Raymond say you shouldn't use too many illustrations, use it very modestly with sort, well friend I can't stop on this one, we were coming back in the troop ship from Canada zigzagging away across the Atlantic to avoid submarine action and the there were only a very few of their men on but they loaded with American soldiers and Canadian soldiers going into war in Europe how it started I do not know, an open air testimony meeting those men were speaking of God of God's goodness you lose sight of denominations there, you don't even think of it and very sacred another that was another Bethel to my soul often wondered how many did come back, we don't know in this path of life and look back on the way and see where the

[41:03] Lord has come where he blessed me yes oh I must stop perhaps it just as well yes on one occasion I was critically ill it was a quincy doesn't sound anything very much but that's where an absence forms in the throat and it grows and unless something's done you die because you didn't have antibiotics it was so bad and serious that my mother at Tunbridge Wells was sent to my bedside at Wrexham in Wales a surgeon was called and he lanced it and mercifully I was bed now why did I tell you that because I got to get

[42:03] I had become friendly with another girl never gone very far never kissed but the Lord showed me that was not the right way just one more word there when we were on convalescence after that operation we attended a church service and I felt so low I felt God was angry I felt I was a sinner and then the pain started to flare up a bit mostly soon after that but the service was dead as hard as a seat I sat on but the last hymn son Eshuen son of my soul thou saviour dear it is not night if thou only was there Bethel the house of God for a man that had sinned or was going astray and the

[43:07] Lord chastened and brought us back let us rise and go up to Bethel I hope you will do this I hope you will go back in your mind I hope you will be proper of the few things of listening things I have spoken this afternoon to remind you of what God has done for you the help he has given you and the blessings yes sometimes even in the darkest hours oh friend some of the darkest moments have been the richest blessings of my life but I mustn't go on I'm sorry if I rambled I must leave it may God pardon anything wrong and bless his word to our souls amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen hesitate let me

[44:21] Thank you.