Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Tonight is study #31 of Genesis, chapter 28, and we are continuing to read Genesis 28:16-19:
And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely JEHOVAH 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 had 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 Luz at the first.
We have been spending a good deal of time looking at Jacob’s departure from the land of Canaan. He was on his way to Haran, and still in Canaan at this point. But he has been awaked. He has awakened from his dream in which he saw a ladder set up on the earth and the top of it reached to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. We saw that this whole dream applied to the Lord Jesus Christ and God’s salvation program and the commissioning of God’s elect as messengers of the Gospel.
Then he awaked out of his sleep, and we spent a good deal of time discussing how that fits in with the time of the end when the virgins that were sleeping were awakened by the cry, “The bridegroom cometh,” and how it fits with the parable of the wheat and the tares, wherein the tares were sown among the wheat while men slept. And we saw how God likened the church age to a time of “sleeping.” And the end of the church age, which was the beginning of God’s wrath as judgment began at the house of God, was the time of “awaking,” and that is what this account identifies with, so it would fit in with the period of time beginning at the 13,000th year of earth’s history in 1988 through 1994, when God took the seals off His Word, the Bible, and information came forth concerning Christ’s coming and the need to depart out of the churches, as was said to the virgins, “Go ye out to meet Him,” and so forth.
So Jacob awaked and he recognized that this was a dreadful and fearful place, because God was a God to be feared, and he said, “This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” Of course, a gate is a door, and a door is the entry point into a house, and he had already said it was the “house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” So he was really saying that this was the way into the kingdom of heaven, as “house” and “kingdom” are synonymous. “This is where someone can find entrance and make their way to God at this location.” Of course, everything mentioned here is identifying with Christ, including the ladder and the gate. As Jesus said in John 10, “I am the door.” Let us turn there, in John 10:7-10:
Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
Jesus said, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved,” This is clearly speaking of salvation, and salvation can only occur when someone enters into the kingdom of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the doorway, and that is why it is significant that He is “the word made flesh.” If Christ is the door of heaven (and He is), then the Word of God, the Bible, is the door to heaven (and it is), and that is why it declares in Romans 10:17: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” This would be saving faith, the faith of Christ, that would come into a person’s life by the Word of God. The entrance into heaven would be ministered unto people. The elect became messengers, those “angels” ascending and descending upon the Son of man, according to John 3, or ascending and descending the “ladder,” according to Genesis 28, would carry the wonderful news of the Bible, the message of God. They would carry it as His faithful messengers, and whenever it reached the ears of a chosen one predestinated before the foundation of the world unto salvation, God would bless His Word. Of course, it was in His own timing. Not always was it immediate. In most cases, people would hear the Word, and He would not immediately bless that Word to save them, although He could do that. But at some point, it would eventually be applied – that day, the next year, the last day of their life – and save them, ministering an opening into the glorious kingdom of heaven, and they would be brought into the fold. The Shepherd would have found another lost sheep of the house of Israel, and He would have kept careful watch over them as He continued to search the earth, sending forth His Word to find the rest of the lost sheep.
And I have to say this again. I know I say this a lot, but it has to be said. God has now completed that process. He has saved the last of the sheep; the last one whose name was recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life has been found. It was all accomplished before May 21, 2011, Judgment Day and the day the door shut. On that day that He shut the door to heaven, He shut the Bible.
Now the Bible is open, and the seals are off, as far as revealing its secrets and mysteries to those who have become saved. There is no shutting of that portal. There is no resealing of the book, once God took the seals off. The seals remain off. But as far as that aspect of the mighty work of the Lord Jesus Christ that “ye believe,” it is done. And the Bible does say that the fact that we believe is the work of God or the work of Christ, and that work has ceased. That work has ended. Remember, the Lord Jesus said this fairly directly in John 9 when he was asked about a blind man, and it says in John 9:3:
Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
That is, they were asking Christ if this man was blind because he sinned. Christ answered that it was so the works of God should be manifest in him. Then it says in John 9:4:
I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
Compare that verse with John 6:28-29:
Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
It is God’s work. Man cannot do that work because if we do the work of belief, we come under the condemnation of the Law because no man is justified by the works of the Law. God commands to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, so it is a work, just like the commands not to kill or steal or bear false witness, or anything God commands. Any attempt or actual act of obedience is a “work.” That is the definition of a “work” in the Bible – to keep or attempt to keep any commandment of God. So we cannot do that work. All kinds of people do attempt to keep the work of belief, but they fail at it. It actually brings them under the wrath of God when people start down that road of keeping the Law, but they have to keep the whole Law, and no one can do that. The only “work” that results in salvation is the “work of God” in the lives of His people: “This is the work of God, that ye believe.” And Christ said, “I must work the works of him that sent me,” and that is the work of God. He is talking about His salvation program. He must perform the work of saving “while it is day,” the day of salvation. The day of salvation was the time period wherein the Lord Jesus Christ performed the work that “ye believe.” That is when He was saving sinners.
Then it says, “The night cometh, when no man can work.” And He is referring back to Himself and His work – that ye believe. There comes a time when this work will no longer be done, and it is called “the night” here, and during that “night,” no man can work. Then it says in John 9:5:
As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
Of course, some people mistakenly think He was referring to His physical time in the world, and then He left the world in 33 A. D. But did He cease to be the light of the world when He went back to heaven in 33 A. D.? Of course not! He has been the spiritual light of the world all throughout the New Testament era, until the end of the Great Tribulation period, May 21, 2011, the 23rd year to the very day and the 8,400th day of the Great Tribulation. We know that is when the work of Christ “that ye believe” ceased, because immediately after the Tribulation, the sun was darkened. The moon did not give her light. You see, the light of the world went out. The work of salvation was finished.
We can prove this another way, if we turn to the parable of the workers that were hired to work in the vineyard. We read in Matthew 20:5-7:
Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us…
So he hired them, and they went to do the work. Then we read in Matthew 20:9-12:
And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny. And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house, Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.
You see, that is important because they were hired at “the eleventh hour,” and the workday ended after that “hour.” So we know that the workday was 12 hours because it says they only worked for an hour. They worked from the eleventh to the twelfth hour, and then the workday ended. That ended the day of salvation – that is what it is picturing. That last hour in which the group of idle workers were hired and worked that last hour of the day are representing all those that God utilized during the Great Tribulation period, because He likens the Great Tribulation to one “hour” of judgment, and we can see that a few places in the Bible. So this “hour” was the last hour of the salvation program of God. That is, the day of salvation had extended for century, after century over the course of the church age, and then God brought judgment on the churches. But the day of salvation was not over because there was still that “hour” of Tribulation. And during that last “hour,” God stretched forth His hand the second time, and He sent these idle laborers. They were new laborers. They were just standing around outside, and God commissioned them, and they went forth. And God saved the great multitude, which completed the salvation of everyone He intended to save, and then that twelfth hour arrived. And that was the end of the day. The work whistle blew, and the workday was over, and everyone went to get paid.
By the way, the 12-hour day would begin at 6 AM. The eleventh hour would be 5PM, and the twelfth hour that completed the workday would be 6 PM, so it extended from 6AM until 6PM. What comes at 6PM? The evening or “night” comes, and Jesus said in John 11:9:
Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day?
Someone might say, “That is wrong. There are 24 hours in a day.” He was not talking about the length of a day or the total number of hours in a day. He was talking about the “workday,” or the day of salvation. Again, it says, in John 11:9-10:
… If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.
That last verse has application to those that are stubbornly and rebelliously insisting…and it is their will and, really, their lustful desire…that God must still be conducting His salvation program. They are actually trying to adjust two major programs: God’s salvation program and His judgment program. On one hand, they are trying to extend His salvation program: “Oh, God is still saving, because the sun is still in the sky.” I am sorry, but that is what they see with their physical eyes, but you cannot base the Bible’s doctrine, which is a spiritual book, on physical criteria. No – that is no good. But they deny the spiritual teachings of the Bible with a “wave of their hand,” even though these things cannot be denied, as they are taught by the Bible itself. And, yet, they deny it and they say, “God’s salvation continues until now, and it will continue to that last day – whenever that may be.” And, yet, they give no answers for verse, after verse, after verse in the Bible, and then they do not want to discuss these things or engage in any kind of dialogue about it. For example, they would not call EBible’s Open Forum on Youtube.com or our free conference call, or even ask in our Facebook group. They do not want to put forth their positions because they can be shown from the Bible to be erroneous and false, so that is the last thing they want do go.
But they are saying, “God, you cannot end your salvation program – you must extend it.” At the same time, they are saying, “God, you cannot begin your judgment program – you must delay it. You have to push it aside.” Then they say, “God is judging the churches.” It is just ridiculous how many times they will look at a passage that clearly has in view God’s wrath upon the world, and they will twist it and turn it to the churches. Why are they so eager for everything in the Bible to point to the (judgment on) the churches? It is because they are outside of the churches. They are not a part of it, and their family is outside the churches, so it does not “touch” them. So they use that old trick of pointing the finger at others. And if you are pointing at someone over there, then you are not looking at yourself, are you? So they are constantly pointing at the churches as a means of avoiding the fact that judgment is where they are – and where we all are – and none can escape the judgment that is upon the whole world. We are all experiencing Judgment Day. We are all going through the wrath of God.
The only difference between the elect going through the wrath of God and the unsaved going through the wrath of God is the manner in which we are “enduring” as we go through it. That is, Noah and his family experienced the flood, did they not? They were on the earth while the flood waters rained down and lifted up the ark, and they remained on the earth. They were never raptured and taken out of the world. But, you see, the same “water” that destroyed all that were outside the ark did no harm or damage to those inside the ark, because they were within the ark, and the ark represents Christ. So the elect of God are “in Christ” as we are experiencing the same wrath that everyone else is experiencing. And, ultimately, it will destroy everyone else, just as the flood waters destroyed everyone outside of the ark. But we will endure and come through it. Then God opened the ark and they came out to a newly dried earth, which spiritually pictures the new earth. And that will happen for all of God’s people.
I do not know if we can get back to Genesis 28 at this point. But just to see where we will pick up our study next time, it says in Genesis 28:17:
… this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.
God is in control of the gate or the door. He opens the door, and He shuts the door, according to His schedule and timetable for the earth of “times and seasons.” Everything has a time and a season. There is a time to love, and a time to hate, and so forth. There is a time in which God saved, and now there is a time in which God judges. Everything is in its proper time and season. And when God saved, the door was open. Actually, at the very end, He threw the door wide open, a great and effectual door wherein the great multitude was able to enter into the kingdom of God. And then the door shut. He shut the door. These are actions of God, accomplished by the will of God. They are actions that are in the spiritual realm. They all have to do with His Gospel program. None could see the door that was wide open, and none can see the door when it is closed. The Word of God, the Bible, reveals the condition of the door, which is why the people of God are likened to doorkeepers, as God opens up our eyes to understand what the Bible says regarding the door’s status, and we share it with everyone as they approach the “door,” or come to the Bible. We had that great privilege of saying, “Yes – go to God and beseech Him for mercy,” in the days leading up to May 21, 2011.
But since then, we have the sorrowful task (which is our responsibility and duty) to tell people the truth: “I am sorry, but the door is shut. God has shut the door. We are living at the time of the end and the time of His wrath and judgment upon the world. May it be that you were outside the churches and, perhaps, he saved you and your family before He shut the door.” Then we say, “Having had mercy,” and that work of God had to have been done prior to May 21, 2011 during the day of salvation when He was still doing that work. But now the night has come when no man can work.