Sermon Tone Analysis

TEXT: Genesis 35:1-3

TOPIC: Back to Bethel

BIBLE SURVIVORS SERIES, Message 4

Pastor Bobby Earls, First Baptist Church – Icard,

September 30, 2001

SLIDE 1

I want to invite you to take a trip with me today.

A trip Back to Bethel!

Take God's Word and turn please to Genesis 35.

As your finding Genesis 35, I want to ask you a question?

Has there ever been a time when you loved Jesus more than you love Him right now? Has there ever been a time when you were more excited about the things of God than you are today?

Has there ever been a time when you were closer to the Lord than you are at this very minute?

I read about a farmer and his wife who were driving to town in their pickup truck.

The farmer was sitting behind the wheel in silence.

His wife was sitting over against the door .. as far from her husband as she could get.

After several miles she said, "You know dear, when we were first married we didn't sit this far a part."

Without blinking an eye he said, "I’m not the one that moved."

So to you who are not as close to God as you once were .. God says, "I'm not the one who moved."

The Bible says, "draw near to God and God will draw near to you."

GENESIS 35:1-3 “1 God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there.

Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” 2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments.

3 Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.””

SLIDE 2-4

Jacob had crashed.

Spiritually he had hit rock bottom.

He had moved into a pagan town.

His daughter had been seduced by a pagan prince.

In revenge his sons had massacred all of the males in an entire village.

Furthermore, his family had forsaken God and fallen into paganism and idolatry.

Jacob needed his fire rekindled, his faith rejuvenated, and his family reclaimed for God.

We find in this chapter God's remedy for backsliding.

What we’re going to discover as we get back to Bethel, is that the way forward for the child of God is often backward.

John Maxwell has written a book called, “Failing Forward.”

Sometimes that’s exactly what we have to do.

That’s what Jacob had done.

If you feel frustrated with your Christian life.

If you think you need to draw closer to God.

If your looking for something that can help renew your commitment to God, then let’s get back to Bethel.

SLIDE 5

I. THE SUMMONS TO BETHEL, Genesis 35:1

"Then God said to Jacob, 'Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.'"

Do you remember Bethel?

Bethel for Jacob was the place of revelation where he first saw a vision of God.

It was the place of regeneration where he first heard the voice of God.

It was the place of reservation where he first made a vow to God.

For twenty years Jacob had been spiritually unfaithful, spiritually unfruitful, spiritually unfit because he had gotten away from Bethel.

You remember that Jacob had made a promise to God concerning Bethel:

SLIDE 6

"Then Jacob made a vow, saying, 'If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God.

And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God's house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.'" (Genesis 28:20-22)

Jacob had promised God that he would regularly come back to Bethel, the house of God.

But he had not kept that promise.

Because of that, he had gotten into a backslidden condition.

Do you have a Bethel?

Do you have a place and a time that you can go back to where you first met God, where you repented of your sins and received Jesus Christ as your Lord and as your Savior?

Every saved person has a Bethel, a place where he went from being lost to being saved; a place from where he went from being a sinner away from God, to becoming a son in the family of God.

Often I have asked people if they have ever been saved.

Frequently people will respond, "Oh, I have always been a Christian."

Friend, if you have always been a Christian, then you have never been a Christian.

That's like saying you've always been married.

Just as there has to be a point in time where you go from being single to married, there has to be a point in time where you go from being lost without God, to being saved with God.

God wanted Jacob to get back to the place in his life when God first became real to him.

Back to Bethel, the place where Jacob first met God.

SLIDE 7

II.

THE STEPS TO BETHEL, Genesis 35:2-3

"Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, 'Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments.

Then let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me in the way which I have gone."

I want you to know that there's only one door that a backslider can walk through if he wants to get back to God.

That is not the door of remorse, it is not the door of regret.

It is the door of repentance.

There are two things that every backslider has to do if he wants to come back to God and get right with God.

He has to clean out, and he has to clean up.

That is exactly what Jacob and his family had to do.

SLIDE 8 A.

They Removed False Gods, 'Put away the foreign gods that are among you.' (v.

1b)

An idol is anything that is more important to you than God.

Someone has defined an idol as any person or anything that has usurped in the heart the place of preeminence that belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ.

We Americans have many idols.

There’s the idol of position.

There’s the idol of possessions, the idols popularity, of pleasure, prosperity.

But the greatest idol of all is personal.

It is the idol of self.

We are a selfish people.

Our focus is on ourselves.

Years later, the descendants of Jacob would hear Joshua declare this same challenge from Joshua 24:15.

“Choose you this day whom you will serve.

Whether it be the gods on the other side of the flood, the gods of your fathers.

But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

SLIDE 9B.

They Replaced Filthy Garments,

"Purify yourselves, and change your garments."

(v.2b)

Now it really shouldn't surprise you that they had on filthy garments.

They had gotten away from the worship of God.

They had gotten away from the work of God.

They had gotten away from the word of God.

Spurgeon said, "Backsliders begin with dirty Bibles, and they end with filthy garments."

But you see, it was only after they had cleaned out and cleaned up that Jacob could then say, "Then let us arise and go up to Bethel."