Alright, Genesis 28, we'll start in verse 1. And it says, And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan? Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel, my mother's father, and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban, my mother's brother, or thy mother's brother. And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people, and give thee the blessing of Abraham, the blessing of Abraham to thee, that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham. So we'll stop right there. I said we'll read through verse five. I don't know why I don't have five on your paper. Let me just read it. All right. This is where we get into the blessing that's being passed on to Jacob from Isaac that was passed on from Abraham to Isaac. And this is the blessing that God gave after Abraham was to leave his land and that God says, I will make of thee a great people and you'll be as sand as the sea and the stars of the heaven. There was three. There are three men. We all know this. There are three men in history, the patriarchs, if you will, that are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And at the point when Jacob gets this blessing, Jacob is the last one. Out of him now comes the twelve tribes. And we'll talk about that in a minute. He is supposed to receive the promise of Abraham. Hebrews 11.9 says that Jacob was an heir with him of the same promise. That's talking about Abraham. The ninth word, by the way, in this section is in verse 3. The ninth word of the admonition is fruitful. Does anybody know what the number 9 stands for in the Bible? I just told you. Yes. Fruit. And so it's no coincidence that the ninth word of the admonition to the children of Israel, to the last one that would receive the promise of the fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, is the word fruitful. And then nine words from that, by the way, is the word multitude. So we can go back to Genesis in the beginning and we can understand when God says be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, that that's what God is interested in. God is interested in people. And that's a blessing. You know, I often wonder, David had the question to the Lord. He says, what is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visitest him? And of course, that should be a question in all of our minds at some point. I mean, not that we have self-pity or that we loathe ourselves like that, but you ought to look at yourself and consider all of the world and what God has done and then look at ourselves and realize, you know, what is man? What is man that God is mindful of us after all? Now, I did a lesson one time, and I don't know if everybody was here for it, but it was a Thursday night, and I was talking about what separates man from the rest of creation. And what separates man from creation is that man was made in the image of God. The angels weren't made in the image of God. Lucifer was never made in the image of God, although he was a great being. But man has a body, a soul, and a spirit. And there's something about that that I don't understand, but that's who God is. God is a body, a soul, and a spirit. He's a trinity. He's three in one. He's a Godhead. And so when He made man, there's something about man that God is willing to forgive their sins. And as the Bible says, even before Adam was created, I'm sure God in His foreknowledge knew what was going to happen. And he knew that he was going to be as a lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And so that's a great thing. And so God is interested in man multiplying. And all through history, future history, what's going to be going on is man is going to be multiplying and multiplying and multiplying. And I'm not going to talk about that this morning, but we've alluded to it many times. Pastors talked about it before that the universe out there, this black nothingness that's out there and all these planets are going to be inhabited someday. And God is going to be able to reign over all of it. There's no limit to his ability. And that's that pleases the Lord. But so anyway, that's that's the number fruitful. It was Jacob who produced the 12 tribes. Now, I just gave you the reference Genesis 35, 22, and whose name was changed to Israel. Go over to just go over to Chapter 32. You should know this if you've been saved for a while and you know the story of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But Genesis 32 and verse 28. But Israel, for as a prince thou hast power with God, and with men, and hast prevailed. Now we're not gonna go ahead and teach chapter 32, because we'll get to that eventually. But Jacob here is wrestling with God, and we'll get with that later. But he has power with God, so his name is changed to Israel. For as a prince thou hast power with God. So the definition of the name Israel is Prince of God. Okay? And so, what we also see though, before we get to that, I'll talk about, we have, we look backwards and we see who was Abraham? It's on your sheet if you want to cheat, but who was Abraham? What was Abraham, ethnically speaking? Well, he is a Gentile, right? He's from the Ur of the Chaldees. We would call him a Chaldean. And then we look, and we already read it in verse 5 of our text, Genesis 28, 5. It says, And Isaac sent away Jacob, and he went to Paddan Aram, unto Laban the son of Bethul the Syrian. So you've got a Chaldean and you've got a Syrian, both Gentiles. There were no Jews before Israel. You say, well, what kind of a race of people is that? Well, that's a race of people that God named. I don't like the term race, but it's a group of people that God named. And they were obviously also, if you trace the lineage, they come from Seth, or Shem, I mean, Shem. And so they were of the Asiatic lineage. But God here is making a special designation. It was passed on to Abraham, first Abraham, then Isaac, now Jacob, that this is going to be a special people. I'm going to be a father to these people. And we know from other lessons too that God, the Father, is married to Israel. Of course, currently He's divorced from Israel. And then he's going to receive them once again. So there are special people and they're called out and they're called out to be Israel. And we call them Hebrews. We call them Jews. But that's God's chosen people. This is where it happens. God is choosing it through Jacob. And he's naming that he's naming him Israel. God is the king. Looking in your notes, God is the king and he is their father. Go to Deuteronomy 32. Now, now, When we get saved, we become a son of God, right? And individually speaking, we become Christians. We become children of God. And so he's our father. But Genesis 32 6. I mean, Deuteronomy 32 6. We looked at this, an institute, actually. Oh, you all have beaten me for sure by now. I don't know why I can't get there. Genesis 32 and verse or Deuteronomy 32 6. Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? Is not he thy father that hath bought thee? Hath not he made thee and established thee? That's what's going on here in Genesis 28 and also in Genesis 32. Look at Isaiah 63. Isaiah 63 and verse 16. Doubtless thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not. Thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer. Thy name is from everlasting. And if you were in Bible Institute, you understand that we were in Matthew, I think it's chapter 6, where we get that great prayer, the Lord's Prayer. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done and all. We could go through the whole reciting of that. And churches this morning all across the country will be reciting that. And you know that's not for you. That's not for us. He is not our father in terms of our father corporately as a children, as a nation. Now, we can say that together, perhaps, and not stretch it too far as a church, that he's our father. But don't we know that we cry a different prayer unto the Lord? And we talked about it at an institute, and that is Abba, Father. He's my father individually. That's how Jesus prayed. When Jesus prayed to the father, he didn't say our father. He said, my father, right? And so that's the privilege you and I have, but we're talking about Israel and Israel is a nation. And as a nation, they are corporate. They're always dealt with corporately. All right. And so let's get back to this. God has placed the archangel Michael over Israel as one that standeth for thy people. Go to Daniel chapter 21. Daniel 21. Now this gets interesting. I wish I had come up with this myself, but I didn't. I won't tell you who did. Daniel 21? There is no Daniel 21. You're supposed to know that and turn to Daniel 12. I type my notes and I look at everything twice and three times. And then Mrs. Gordon says, there's no Daniel 21. Verse 1, Daniel 12, 1. And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince, which standeth for the children of thy people. And there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation, even at that same time. And at that time, thy people shall be delivered. Everyone shall be found written in the book. You know what that's talking about, right? That's talking about the tribulation time that's coming upon the children of Israel, the time of Jacob's trouble. All right. And so who is presiding as a prince over the nation of Israel? Michael. Yes, Michael, the archangel Michael. And so now turn over to second Thessalonians chapter two. Well, before you do that, You're in Daniel, I hope, still. Go to chapter 10. I just got away from there. Daniel 10, and look at verse 21. This is describing Michael holding off Satan. You know in the book of Revelation you've read about that Michael and Satan will be having a battle? Right? Who's gonna win? Michael's gonna win. And so, Michael has been fending off, he's the archangel, he's been fending off the devil for quite some time, actually. So, Daniel 10, verse 21, it says, yea, while as I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. That's not what I want. Help me out, Mrs. Gordon. Yeah, that's where I'm at, but that's not, I'm in 921. That's not where I'm at. All right, who wants to come up and teach for me? This is not working out this morning. Okay, 1021, but I will show thee, that was Gabriel. Gabriel was involved with Daniel, so I won't talk about that. But anyway, 1021, but I will show thee that thou which is noticed in the scripture of truth, and there is none that holdeth, now look at the wording, there is none that holdeth with me in these things but Michael your prince. Holdeth me in these things? Keep that word in your mind, but flip over to verse 13 or go up to verse 13. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and 20 days. But lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, and I remained there with the kings of Persia. You know what that's talking about? I won't get into it deep this morning because we don't have the time to, but that's talking about Principalities and powers, spiritual wickedness in high places. That's talking about what's going on somewhere else in this world that you and I don't see. You know the sci-fi movies that you watch? And you see all these kings out there and they're battling for possession and then the earth gets in because, you know, we're in the earth and they had to make a movie out of it. That's what's going on. There are kingdoms and things going on out in that universe that you don't know anything about. At the time of Daniel, you have an issue right here where there was a somebody called the king of Persia. And Michael and the king of Persia and Michael had such a had such a battle, and Michael's the strongest angel there is that he was able to hold him off for 21 days. All right, before you could get the message over to Daniel. So there's some really weird stuff like that in your Bible. But just just understand that you want to stay away from all that weird stuff, right? You don't want to get too deep into it, all the astrology and all the things that the world is trying to go out there. That's why Pastor warns about that. Not that I'm going out there anytime soon or that you are either that the world is exploring out there looking for more than what God has already told you in the Bible that there is. But, Michael, is that He stands for Israel. He fights for Israel. He was trying to get a message to Daniel. Now go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. And remember we talked about what he said, he holdeth. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. This is talking about the rapture. Everybody's interested in that. When is the rapture? How will I know if it's close and all that? And the Bible tells you a little bit about it in 2 Thessalonians 2. Let's just start in verse one. Now we receipt you brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him that you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us as that the day of Christ is at hand. That's the day of Christ. I believe some will argue this but I believe the day of Christ is talking about the rapture. Verse three let no man deceive you by any means for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalted himself above all that is called God, or that is worship, so that he as a God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember ye not that when I was yet with you, I told you these things? I always tell, I told pastor, I said, I wished I was there. You know, Paul acts like we know, you know, remember when I told you these things? Well, no, I wasn't there. I didn't hear that. I would like to be a part of that conversation. But we have the Bible, so we have enough. In verse six, and now you know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work. Only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way. Well, how many of you have ever wondered what that is? He who now letteth will let. Who is he that is keeping back the Antichrist from being able to come and sit in the temple in Jerusalem? What I'm suggesting to you this morning, if you compare that with Daniel, it might just very well be the prince of thy people, Michael. He may be the one that God is because he's over those people. All the way back to Genesis 28 here, or 32, he's setting up who Israel is, and he's establishing that he's their father, and that Israel is his son, and corporately, our father, which art in heaven, and he's saying, now, Michael, you be in charge of those people, because the devil, if you read Revelation chapter 12, I believe it is, the devil wants to go after those people. And he's been wanting to go after those people ever since they were a nation. And so Michael is standing there, and maybe right now, in that universe out there, there is spiritual wickedness in high places and warfare going on that the Bible tells us in Ephesians 5 that we're supposed to watch out for. Is it 5 or 6? 6, that we're supposed to watch out for and put that armor on, because there's a warfare, there's a literal warfare going on. And now Elijah and Elisha saw it. They opened their eyes, and Elijah said, open his eyes that he could see, and he looked up and he saw all that warfare, all those chariots and horses and things, that spiritual wickedness. And so, Michael, all I'm suggesting to you is some people say, well, that's the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit gets taken out of the way, then the rapture will come and the tribulation will start. It can't be the Holy Spirit, number one. And I won't give you all the reasons for that. But the Holy Spirit is still doing a work after the tribulation. And they say, well, that's the church. He who now let us will know then what's been going on prior to the church. Right? Israel was a nation prior to the church ever existing. So it couldn't be the church being raptured out here. So I'm just giving you something to chew on a little bit. It could be that Michael is taken out of the way and he is no longer standing in the way of the devil. You can come down and take care of business there. All right. So that's that. Let's go back to Genesis 28. Read six through nine. When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan Aram, I don't know if I say that right, but Paddan Aram, to take him a wife from Thence, and that as he blessed him, he gave him a charge saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan, and that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother and was gone to Paddan Aram. And Esau, seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac, his father, then went Esau unto Ishmael. and took unto him, or took unto the wives which he had, Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, Abram's son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife. So here's Esau hearing the admonition for Jacob. Now, we've already studied Esau. He's not a good man. The Bible calls him a profane man. The Bible says he can't even get repentance from what he did. And he's a fornicator. And so he's a worldly man. His number is six. His number is 13. And so here he is, he hears the admonition from his father to Jacob to go to your mother's side of the family, go to those Syrians and get yourself a wife. That will be better than the people in the land of Canaan. So what does he do? He doesn't do that. He doesn't say, well, I'm going to run there first and get me a wife. He goes to Ishmael. Now, who is Ishmael? We already know who Ishmael is. He's the son of Hagar. And Hagar is the bondwoman that was cast out, right? And so Hagar gets cast out and Ishmael is not to have, according to Genesis 21, 10, I put the reference, according to Genesis 21, he's not to have inheritance with Isaac. So he basically goes the opposite direction. Now, later on, we'll get to it when Jacob and Esau meet one more time after they've gotten their goods and Esau gets filled with his own goods. He doesn't even care. You know, he's not worried about, well, I'm marrying into the wrong side of the family or that I'm going with the cast out people. And obviously the lesson is there. Of course, we're not marrying people outside of our Christian faith, right? We're not looking to do that. But Esau is just another indication how profane he is. But when they meet up later, the statement from Esau to Jacob is, oh, I have plenty. I don't need any more. So he didn't take any of the gifts that his brother gave him because he had plenty. And so he was just, again, more worldly thinking. And that's all I'm going to say about that. Verse 10. And Jacob went out from Beersheba and went to Haran, and he lighted upon a certain place and tarried there all night, because the sun was set. And he took up the stones of that place and put them for his pillows and laid down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed. And behold, a ladder set upon the earth and the top of it reached to heaven and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. So this ladder which is set on the earth and reached to heaven represents Jesus. That's Jesus. Jesus has roots in the world from the fact that he became a man and he has roots in heaven because he's God. So He's the God-man. That's what we talk about, right? When you get saved, what you're doing is you're rejecting everything this world has to tell you about God and who He is and how to serve Him and what their holy books say, and you're choosing instead a man. And that man is, of course, Jesus. Jesus said in John 14, 6, No man cometh unto the Father but by Me. So you have this ladder and he sees this ladder and this is not just a dream. This is a real thing. This is something that appears and he's able to watch angels coming up and down on this ladder. And at the top of the ladder, God is at the top. And so it represents God being the mediator between God and men. And he's just like in the book of Acts chapter 7 where Stephen looks up and he sees God standing as well at that time. And he's able, and we talked about it, if you were here when we talked about Genesis chapter 11 with the Tower of Babel. And we said, what did those why did those people think they could build a tower that could reach into heaven? I mean, how stupid is that? Right. I mean, you can't build something that tall. Even today, we can't build something that tall. We've reached the clouds. We've gotten up to the clouds and with our buildings. And you can stand on top there and look around at that. But you can't get into heaven. So what did those people know back there in Genesis chapter 11 that maybe we don't know today? And do you remember that study? We studied about portals and doors and windows, how the Bible talks about that. Go over to Genesis chapter 7 and look at this. Genesis 7. Just a little reminder of it. The Bible talks about it right here in Genesis 7, 11 with the flood. It says, in the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, the 17th day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up and the windows of heaven were opened. Now, what windows and in what heaven, right? So you ask yourself, well, I don't know, that's just a metaphor, you know, that's just God speaking poetically. Well, maybe, maybe so, but not if you go on and study that through the Bible. You will realize that there are doors and windows in heaven. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, right? No man cometh unto the Father but by me. He also called himself a door. And that's how you get in through the door. He's the door. Go over to Psalm 78, Psalms 78. Psalm 78, 23. Though he had commanded the clouds from above and opened the doors of heaven. And then verse 24, and had rained down manna upon them to eat and had given them the corn of heaven. Now can you imagine the manna? Now it's possible God can do anything. God could have just made manna show up. but says he rained it down from heaven. You think it just fell from the third heaven all the way down through outer space, all the way down to the ground? There's something about what the verbiage here is about there are doors and there are windows. Look at Revelation 4.1. Jacob is here looking at a ladder. This ladder is reaching all the way up to heaven. He gets a similar vision of what Stephen got in Acts chapter 7. But Revelation 4.1, just another verse on this. We're not gonna do a whole study on it. But Revelation 4, and after this, I looked and behold, a door was opened in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me, which said, come up hither, and I will show thee things that must be hereafter. Now, going back to that lesson, just from memory myself, I believe that the Lord says He's gonna come in the clouds, right? When we get raptured, according to what the Bible tells us, we're gonna meet Him in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. And so what are we gonna do, just be sitting in a cloud? Maybe that's where the idea comes, well, what's heaven like? I'm just gonna sit and float in a cloud. You're not gonna do that with a harp and be bored to death. But you're gonna meet the Lord in the clouds. Why would we meet him in the clouds? Why can't he just... you know, snap his finger, blow the trumpet and then instantly, you know, absent from the body to be present with the Lord. Right. Isn't that what the Bible tells us when we die right now? We're going to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. But when we get our new bodies, when he meets us, we're going to meet in the clouds. So in the clouds, there's something about that part of heaven. And maybe that's what's going on in Genesis 11. When they build the Tower of Babel, they get the thought that, hey, these angels came down to us once before. These angels that these sons of God that saw the daughters of men, Genesis six, that they were fair and took of them wives, all of which they chose. And there were giants in the earth in those days. And God looks down. One of the few times God ever looks down is in Genesis six. And what chapter is Sodom and Gomorrah? Genesis? Somebody know? We're going to fight Brimstone. I can't remember the chapter right now, but both of those occasions, both of those occasions, you have people, men messing around with angels. in a sexual way. And so they're producing offspring. And God looks down and he says, it repented me that I made man upon the earth. And if it wasn't for Noah, God would have wiped everyone out. Because Noah is the only one in the whole world that found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And Noah, it was said of Noah that he was perfect in his generations. Meaning that I believe Noah and his family and his lineage did not mess around with those angelic beings. But those people had a knowledge of that. They see where they came from. And so when the flood happened and they came back and they tried to have a one world order and build that tower, that tower reaches up to the clouds, I believe. And in those clouds, those doors and windows of heaven, there's access there. Well, Jacob, getting back now to our text, Jacob is in a place that he calls a dreadful place after this. And he says that he's talking with God and he says that this is the house of God because he's seeing this door. He's seeing this opening. He's seeing a ladder that goes up to the clouds, I believe. I don't believe it goes all the way up to heaven. I believe, just like Stephen in Acts chapter 7, he looks up, he's being stoned, he looks up, and he sees God. He sees Jesus Christ standing on the right hand of the Father, I believe, ready to come back and start the tribulation time. But it wasn't the time, because they had stoned him and rejected the message. But how could he see all the way to heaven? Right? Probably, just like you see in the movies, a portal opens up in the sky, and it's a window, it's a door, and it opens up in the clouds, and he's able to see, pass right by the second heaven, right into the third. And so that's what's going on, I believe, right here. And this ladder represents Jesus, because he's both man and God. We know 1 Timothy 3.16, right? Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. And so it takes that for us to be able to have, the Bible tells us in Hebrews that we have a Savior that has been touched with the feeling of our infirmities. And so you can see Jesus throughout the whole Bible. Now Jesus, just because you see Jesus throughout the whole Bible doesn't mean that Jesus was always saving like He is today. We have to rightly divide, of course, and understand that God is dealing with, as we said, a nation here. A nation that is just about to be born, is just about to be started through Jacob, through his 12 sons. And so as a result, Jesus, I believe this is Jesus, God is Jesus, is dealing directly with Jacob in this situation. And it's a blessing to know that God is dealing directly with us. I mean, we have the opportunity to have, not only have him as our corporate father, but as our Abba father. You know, as the mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. He's the only mediator there can be. He's the only one that can. You understand that all the world's religions, if you take the people that they follow, the prophets they follow, like Mohammed. How can Mohammed actually help us in terms of getting to God? He was never he was never there. You know, you go to Romans, Chapter 10, go over to Romans, Chapter 10, real quick. Romans, Chapter 10, there's a strange thing that shows up in Romans 10. At least I've always thought it was strange. I don't do I don't think it's strange anymore. But Paul throws this into the gospel and he wants us to know this. And he's telling us in Romans chapter 10 about the in verse three, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness, talking about the Jews, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness. And you know who the righteousness of God is. I say who the righteousness of God is. Right. It's not what is the righteousness of God? Is it helping old ladies across the street? Is it, you know, loving my neighbor? No, it's a who? It's a man. It's Jesus. For they being ignorant of Jesus, you might slip his name right in there, of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. See, we submit unto a man, not unto a law. All the Jews want to submit to the law. They want to know what Moses said and what the prophets said. No, that's not what we're doing today. For Moses described the righteousness which is of the law, verse five, that the man which doeth these things shall live by them. But the righteousness, now here, look at this is what I said sounded strange to me for many years. But the righteousness which is of faith, that's what we believe, speaketh on this wise. It doesn't just jump to verse 13 and say, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It doesn't do that. It has something to tell you first. It says, say not in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above, or who shall descend into the deep, that is to bring up Christ again from the dead, but what sayeth it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and thy heart, that is the word of faith which we preach, and it goes on from there. So what it's telling you is you had, in order to have salvation, it had to be by somebody who was in heaven at one time, and also had been down at earth at another time, and had experienced all of that so that He could be a Savior to you. so that he could be touched with the feeling of your infirmities and that he could become a real high priest to you, that he could be a mediator between God and man because he himself is God and man at the same time. Now that is a mystery, right? You can understand now when Paul says, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. We can't grasp it. There's some things we just can't grasp. That's one of them. And it doesn't matter if you grasp it. It's just the fact. And so what you're hearing, what you're seeing all the way back here in Genesis 28 is you're seeing this illustrated by this ladder. And this ladder reaches up to heaven. That's God reaching up to heaven between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. And he's talking now with Jacob. Now, Jacob's dream was actually a supernatural vision. The ladder was real. We just talked about all that. It represents portals and doors that are located in the clouds. And that's how the Bible tells you. You say, well, you really believe that? Yeah, I really believe that. Say, well, have you ever seen one? No, and I really don't want to. I really don't want to see one of those portals open up and those alien ships coming down after me and those spiritual wickedness. And, you know, Michael's still up there and other angels are still up there fighting those things. We're being protected. We're being protected by God, but we're also being protected by God's army. But he was able to look up and see it. By the way, these doors and portals and gates and all these things are like the bars and gates of hell that Jonah talks about. You read about Matthew 16 and Revelation 118. And so Jacob's conclusion was, how dreadful is this place? Not how you know, like how scary is this place? How awesome is this place? How marvelous is this place? I mean, who in their lifetime ever gets a chance to actually get to see this firsthand? So he says, how dreadful is this place? There is none. This is none other but the house of God. And this is the gate of heaven. Now, see, it's not it's not a metaphor. It's not just poetic language. All right. This is a revelation in your Bible that this gate of heaven exists. And when you talk about loose Lucifer, not Lucifer, but but Satan and you go to Job and Job says God says, Job, OK, or to Satan, he comes and presents himself before the Lord with the sons of God. And he asked him the question, Where have you been? And he says, well, I've been going up and down in the earth, right? Up and down in the earth. And he's also able to go up and down in the deep. And so basically you have these areas that people get all weirded out about, like the Bermuda Triangle, right? And all these strange things happen in these certain locations in the world. And you say, well, what is that? Well, I don't know if all those stories are true. But all I know is that there are places like that in this world. And the devils know exactly where they are. And they come and they go and they come and they go. And I don't want to be around them. All right. And this is one of those places where it's not like that. This is this is called he calls this the house of God. And how dreadful is this place? Because God is here. There's angels going up and down this ladder. Now, angels, what about that? Well, the Bible says in Hebrews 1.14, just turn over there real fast, Hebrews 1.14. I won't get into an angeology study, but we had an institute years ago, when we first started the institute, we did a class on that, about angels in the Bible. You know, the Bible tells you not to get fascinated with them. You know, don't get too interested in them. They're just ministers. You know what the Bible says about you and an angel? The Bible says you're just a little bit lower. Right? Doesn't it say that? We're just a little bit lower. They're men just like us. Now they're men and they're different. They can fly and they live in heaven, of course, but they're not so different than us. We don't need to get too fascinated by them. But one thing that's cool about them is Hebrews 1.14. It says, Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? You know, isn't that a neat thing to think about that you may have an angel assigned to you? Maybe you have more than one. Maybe, you know, the Bible talks about, I was talking to Susan about it, wasn't I? About their angels does always behold the face of our, I forget the wording of it. Yes, about little children. You know, when little children are born, they're safe, right? You know what I mean? They're safe. They're not saved, but they're safe until they reach the age of accountability. Can you give that reference for me? Do you know where it is? because I'm not going to be able to think of it. It's okay. So when little babies are in that age between here and that age of accountability that Paul talks about where when the law came and it was revealed to me then sin revived and I died, he says. And so we get the knowledge of evil is what happens and we realize that we're evil and we make that choice to either reject that knowledge and still have a hardened conscience or to run to Jesus Christ. Now that, parents, by the way, is a good reason for you to train up your children in the way that they should go. The Bible tells us to do that. If you raise your children in church and they get to the point where they have that age of accountability, guess what they're going to realize right away? I'm guilty. I'm a wicked sinner. I've done wrong. I realize I'm going contrary to God. And so rather than not knowing what to do about that and just searing my conscience and going on my merry way like the rest of the world does, that little child will come to church this Sunday or this Thursday or whatever it is, and they'll hear the preaching and they'll say, I need Jesus. I know I need Jesus. And you won't have to do anything at all to prod them at all. Their own conscience, God and the Holy Spirit will be dealing with them, and they'll come to that knowledge of salvation. But prior to that, I do believe that, and it's in Matthew, that the Bible says that they have an angel. Go to Matthew 18.10, look at it. Matthew 18, 10, it says, take heed that you despise not one of these little ones. For I say unto you that in heaven, their angels, angels, plural, do always behold the face of my father, which is in heaven. Do you know that you, when you get saved, okay, let's just do it this way. When you're a little child and you're under the age of accountability, you have, according to the Bible, angels that behold the face of the father on your behalf. And they're a representation of you as a child in heaven. And so you're safe. You're innocent as a child. If you die in a car wreck, a little child dies in a car wreck or whatever it is, they go straight into the arms of their heavenly father that the angels have been holding his, be holding his face the whole time. But once we pass that line of accountability and we need to be saved, then we're, the angels are no, I believe this, the angels are no longer there. OK, then what happens? Well, then you get saved. And now the Bible tells you in Ephesians that you're seated together with him in heavenly places. You know what that is? That's you having a representation of you up in heaven. So that representation that left you from a child is now there again because you've been born again. All I'm telling you is that we got on that subject because of the angels. It says that the angels were going up and down this ladder. Why are they going up and down this ladder? What are they doing? Well, the Bible tells us in Hebrews they're ministering spirits. We just read that. And so we all have ministering spirits. It's great to know. I mean, I could tell you stories. One of the stories that come to my mind right now is an evangelist preacher that has passed away now. But he and his wife were traveling in a remote place. I don't even think it was in the United States, but they were in a remote place, and they were at night, and they were on one of these roads, you know, these roads that are on the side of a mountain where, you know, it's a curve, and there's really not much there, and it's dark, and there's no traffic lights, and there's really no people. If you break down, you're in big trouble. So they had an accident and what happened is they hit something. I'm going to lose all the details here, but I get this part of it. They hit something and crashed. And when they crashed, the wife went into shock. And you know what happens when you go into shock and it was cold and she would have died, right? She needed some warmth. And so he ran out of the car running like probably I would do, help, help, anybody around looking and scrambling to see if anybody in this darkness could come by and help. And he came back, now listen, take this for what it's worth, okay? This is a Christian preacher that I know of. who gave this story, that when he came back, he found his wife with a blanket over her. And he didn't have a blanket. There was no blanket in the car. And don't think that this is always going to be the case, okay? I'm just telling you how this happened. And he said, how did you get this blanket? Are you okay? And she said, I'm fine. You gave it to me. He goes, I didn't give it to you, I've been gone, I've been running around looking for help. She goes, no, I heard your voice and everything, you gave it to me. Now, that to me gives me chills. And that to me is talking about ministering spirits. These angels going up and down this ladder, what are they doing? Well, they're working on behalf of God. Now, let me give you the flip side of that. The pastor mentioned it a couple of weeks ago, I think, maybe not, but Brother Beard told him a story, told me the same story. about a person who was afraid of bears. Their whole life they were afraid of bears. And I might get this detail wrong too, but he's not here to help me out, to tell me if I get it wrong. But this person, years and years later, now, went to one of these booths, you know, at the carnival, where you can get your fortune and your palm read, and that's a terrible idea. If you want to bring in devils into your life, then do that. OK, if you want to bring devils into your life, read the horoscopes every morning. Say, well, reading the horoscope, that's just that's just fun. No. No, it's not. You're opening yourself up to communication there and interest on behalf of the spirit world. Ah, I see that John's interested in horoscopes. Get down there and get into him. And I won't get into this, but you say, can a person be, can a Christian be possessed by a devil? My short answer is yes. I'll give you the long answer some other time if you want to know it. But the short answer is yes. And so this person went into this carnival booth and this palm reader, or whatever you call them, said, oh, I see that you have a fear of bears. And they're like, who told you that? And he said, well, I see it in your whatever, this crystal ball. And that person was pretty freaked out. Now here's, so here's what I believe on that. You may have a ministering spirit as a, you may, you may not, but you may, I think there's evidence that you may have a ministering spirit as an angel that walks with you and goes with you. Of course, God does too. The Bible says the Holy Spirit is inside of you. That means Jesus is inside of you. And so the things you look at and do and the places you go and all that, God is there, right? And the Holy Spirit can be grieved by our lives. But these ministering spirits work on behalf of God as well. So what's to say that if you can have a ministering spirit that you don't also have a ministering devil that has been with you since a child and knows what your childhood fears are? and knows all the things you've ever looked at and done and all of your temptations and the things that easily beset you are. And they follow you around too, and they're hovering around. You know that man in the Bible that says that he swept and garnished out his place, and then the Bible says that seven more spirits came, and I wish I had the reference for that too right now, but seven more spirits came, more wicked than the first, and they filled him up again. Seven times worse. And so that's what I believe goes on. There's a spiritual battle. And so when you get to Ephesians 6 and you realize that, the Lord says, you wrestle not against flesh and blood. Hey, wake up. It's not these people around you. Don't worry about who still kills the body. Worry about who can kill the body and cast your soul into hell. It's all about your soul. And so you've got the spiritual warfare. No wonder we're supposed to put on a spiritual armor to guard ourselves against that spiritual battle that we we don't even see it. Well, that's just fun and games. All the movies we see and all the music we listen to and all the places we go and all the things we do. Oh, it's just OK. I'm OK. Look, look, I'm fine. Yeah, but not spiritually. And so that those I'm just saying those devils, that's why you want to protect your children. You don't want those devils anywhere near them. You as a parent have the opportunity to keep that stuff away. You have the opportunity to say to your child, no. No, you can't have that. No, you can't read that. No, you can't go there. No, you can't watch that. No, no, no, no, no. That's all you're gonna do as a Christian parent is say no all the time. But you're protecting them. You're protecting them against evil. Spiritual wickedness in high places. When does that start? Well, it starts around the age of accountability, I believe. What is that? Okay, go there. We might as well hit that subject a little bit deeper and then we'll move on. Say Matthew 12. It's good to have people in church with a Bible who know how to help me out. 12.45? So it starts in verse 43. It says, Matthew 12.43, When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. So this unclean spirit comes out of this guy, but this guy just goes right back to the Catholic Church. This guy just goes back to the Methodist Church. He's not going into Bible-believing preaching or anything. He's walking through dry places. Verse 44, Then he saith, I will return unto my house from whence I came out. And when he is come, he fineth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he and taketh with him, this is talking about the Spirit now, seven other spirits more wicked than himself. And they enter in and dwell there. And the last state of that man is worse than the first, even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation." So that's what can happen if we're not on guard. All right, let's go back to our paper so we can finish up. Verse 13-15, we just read that about the ladder. No, we didn't. It says, verse 13, and behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, thy father, the God of Isaac, the land where in the last to thee will I give it and to thy seed and thy and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth. And thou shalt 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 I will keep thee in all places, whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land. For I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. So it was the Lord on the top of that ladder. Now, one thing that's not in your notes that I'll say is that Jacob was not in a place of blessing. You know we talked about, I can't even remember his name right now, but the the servant of Abraham that went to look for a bride, and he found Rebekah. That servant was a faithful ambassador to Abraham. He was doing the will of his master. He was picturing the Holy Spirit. But here you got Jacob, and Jacob just got done deceiving his father. He just done stealing the blessing from his brother. Now he's conning again to run. He's running away, and he's going out, and here he is laying. He used to be in the tent. You know, he's a plain man dwelling in tents, and now he's out in the field. The Bible tells you all he has to sleep on is a rock. for his head. And so he's not really in the path of blessing like like the servant was when he was finding Rebecca. All right. But God, because of the covenant, that it's an unconditional covenant to the children of Israel. Because of that covenant that he made with them, he's coming to Jacob anyway and he says, I'm going to bless thee. And look what he says in 15, I bolded it, for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. And we look back at the beginning of our sheet and we know that it says in Hebrews 11, 9, that Jacob was heir with him of the same promise, talking about Abraham. So he was getting something that was promised to Abraham, but it was being given to him. So the Lord was on top of the ladder. His promise was that he would give Jacob the land, he would get the land, that his seed would not be as a dust of the ground, and that he would not leave him. That doesn't sound anything like your salvation or my salvation, right? That's a different promise. We're promised heaven, a home in heaven. We're promised to be sons of God. And he says, I will promise that until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. So God, right now, we talked about in the beginning that God is Israel's father. and that he was a spouse to the nation of Israel, but now, right now, he's divorced from Israel. For the last 2,000 years, God has separated himself from Israel. So, this promise that he says, though, understanding right division is essential when considering the promise, this promise has been postponed as of 2,000 years ago when Christ came and was rejected. Since then, God has offered his grace to the entire world. And a Jew must come to salvation just as a beggarly Gentile dog. And you've got that incident in Matthew chapter 15 of the woman. And I won't we won't turn to it because my time is running out. But the woman comes to Jesus and she's a Gentile. And and God calls her. Jesus calls her a dog. I mean, how nice, right? I mean, she's a begging woman, she's got a problem, and he calls her a dog. And she said, yeah, but even the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from the master's table. And so the Lord gives her mercy. That's a picture of you and I. We are getting mercy. The only reason we get mercy, the only reason we're saved is because God has turned away from His people. And He sent Jesus now, this is that ladder, He sent Jesus to come and be a Savior, not just to the Jewish people, but to the world. And so we call this the postponement theory, that's a theological term, the postponement theory. It's not a theory. God has postponed His workings and dealings with Israel for the last 2,000 years. We've talked about it in Bible Institute and dispensational classes, but if you get to, you take the whole Bible and you read it, and you get up to the New Testament, You get Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and then you get Acts, right? And in the book of Acts, we call it a transitional book because things are beginning to change. If you're here on Tuesday nights, you're hearing about that change. You're hearing how Jesus came and said, well, you heard it has been said at one time, thou shalt not kill. But I say, if you hate your brother, you've already committed murder in your heart, right? He's giving the intention behind the law. And these people are saying, hey, you know, who is this guy? He's trying to upset the apple cart of Moses. He's trying to change our ways. And the Lord says, Lord said, I didn't come to get rid of the law. I didn't come to destroy the law. I came to fulfill it. He's the fulfillment of the law. He never looked on a man to hate a man and hate it in his heart. He never looked on a woman to lust after her and commit adultery in his heart. He fulfilled every jot and tittle, the Bible says, of that law. And so, but because you get to the book of Acts, they rejected that message even after his death on the cross. You've got what we have Romans through Philemon, 13 books, the apostle Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles. So if you take Romans through Philemon and you just take those and tear those out of the Bible, and what you have is after the book of Acts, you'll have Hebrews. You'll have Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Hebrews. And when you do that, it makes perfect sense. Basically what you're doing is taking the Gentile salvation the last 2,000 years out of the Bible, and then you're just continuing on with what's happening with the Jews right from the tribulation on. And so that's what's happening here. I'm just pointing this fact out. The Lord says, I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken of. Well, wait a minute. Then God, when are you going to do that? I mean, Israel's got their country right now, but there's still Palestinians over there. There's still people that are being, and the United Nations is ruling over and saying they have right and you don't have the right. You have to share the land. They don't have total control. He said there, thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth. I don't see that happening. He said, you look to the north, to the south, to the east, to the west, it's all yours. And it's not all theirs. So when is this going to happen? You see, what I'm pointing out is there are people in this world, and you're not one of them, but there are people in this world that believe that we have replaced Israel as Christians, and we are just taking their place, and so therefore we read the Old Testament, and all the promises back there, even tithing, we're gonna get to tithing next week, but tithing, even that is for us, and it's not necessarily. And you get to all the promises of the health and the wealth and all that prosperity stuff. You see, people, even to varying degrees, think that they've replaced Israel, and they haven't. Go to Romans chapter 11. We've got to wrap this up, but go to Romans 11. I was going to read to you much of this chapter. I don't have time to, because we dealt so long with the angel thing. But Romans chapter 11 is a detailed understanding of what I'm telling you right now. Just look at verse 1, and we'll see if we can get a few minutes into it. It says, I say then, hath God cast away his people? Now this is because Paul is saying that, you know, you go back to chapter 3 and he says, what prophet is there then being a Jew? You go to Romans chapter 2 and he tells you that you're only a Jew in your heart. We're not talking about Jews anymore physically. And now you get to chapter 11, I say then, hath God cast away his people? God forbid. No, he hasn't. This promise given in Genesis 28 to Jacob is still going to have to happen, but it hasn't happened. For I am an Israelite. I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people, which he foreknew. What ye not with the scripture saith of Elias, how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets and dig down thine altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life? But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved unto myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal." Don't you worry about that. I'm taking care of it, is what he's saying. Verse 5, even so then at this present time, also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. What that's telling you is, is that if any of those Jews that got turned away from, that Paul said three times, henceforth I go to the Gentiles. The last time he said it was in Acts 28 is that that now if you're a Jew, no special favor. The favor is that you want to get in on. You want to be a remnant like the 7000 that God reserved, and you're going to have to get out of through grace like everyone else. Romans chapter 10 tells you there's no difference. And if by grace, verse six, then is no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work. What then Israel have not obtained that which he seeketh for the righteousness that we read about in Romans 10, that they go about establishing their own righteousness. Verse eight, according as is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear unto this day. And David saith, let their table be made a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a recompense unto them. Whoa. You mean to tell me that God is so vindictive that He, for the last 2,000 years, has put blindness over somebody's eyes and made a trap and a snare and a stumbling block? Yeah. Oh, the goodness and severity of God. Right? God didn't take kindly to them rejecting His Son. After all He's done for them to make them this promise He gave to Jacob, and all He did to put up with them through all their rebellions, and then they reject his very son and nail him to a cross? Well, he didn't take kindly to that. And what he says is, if you want to become a Christian Jew, if you want to be, hey Jew, I selected you, I became your father, I created you, I made you out of nothing. You didn't deserve any of it. That's a picture of us as salvation. We didn't deserve it either. I gave you all that and you want to reject that? Okay, hell for all of eternity. Say, that's not fair. Well, that's what you think. That's not how God thinks. So he says, I say, then, verse 11, have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid. But through their fall. Now, this is where you can say amen. But through their fall is come unto the Gentile. Salvation is coming to the Gentiles for to provoke them to jealousy. Now, if the fall of them be the riches of the world and diminishing of them, the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness? Yeah, that's future. There's going to come a day when the fullness, the fullness of the Gentiles hasn't come in yet. That's us. When that comes in, then God will rapture us out of here. But then there's going to be the fullness of the Jewish nation. There's going to be the fullness of Israel. And when that comes, we'll go back to the beginning of class where we said that all of this universe will be blessed and they'll be as the stars of the heaven and the sand of the sea. This earth will have it will be filled with people and that universe will be filled with people. Because that's what it's talking about in verse 12. For I speak to you Gentiles, verse 13, and as much as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify mine office. I'm a Jew and I magnify mine office that I am now to the Gentiles. The Gentiles are going to hear about Christ because you wouldn't. That is a provocation to a Jew. That's what the Bible is telling you here. It's provoking them to jealousy. If by any means I might provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them. For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead? Now I could go on and on and we could read all the way through maybe about verse 24. But you hopefully have read this passage before and you could just look at verse 20. It says, well, because of unbelief they were broken off. And thou standest by faith, talking about us. Be not high-minded, but fear. For if God spared not the natural branches, that being the Jews, take heed, lest he spare not thee." There's going to come a day when God says, okay, enough is enough. Nobody is hearing the words of faith anymore. There's a great falling away and the words of God are just being cast to the ground. You can't find the Bible anywhere. There's a famine for the