God is filling positions for His Kingdom even now, and He's been training us up to be blameless, and bringing His righteous saints to perfection since the days of righteous Abel.  We know that He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world and that we should be holy and without blame before him in love (Ephesians 1:4).  All those who have been given God’s Spirit were judged in their time just as we are being judged now in our time.

“The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.”   (1Peter 4:17)

We are qualifying even now to be ready to take up positions of teaching and leadership in tomorrow’s world.   We will have learned to be able to execute the duties and judgment of kings and priests in the millennium (Revelation 1:6, 5:10).  It is Jesus Christ, Himself, who is training us and guiding us into these qualifications.  Jesus said:

“In my Father's house are many mansions [offices, positions, place to abide]: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”   (John 14:2-3)

God is now filling “job-placement orders” for His Father’s Kingdom and He has chosen us to fill those appointments.  What does God see in me?  What does He see in you? He sees something! He knows that somewhere, somehow, in you there is something He wants and He will develop it and bring us to fruition.  We see this in the life of our Patriarch, Jacob.  We know more about Jacob and his life than any other man in the Bible.

What do we know about the God of Jacob?  We learn a lot about how God deals with us by observing how He dealt with His servants, the patriarchs and prophets.  As we look into the life of the Patriarch Jacob we see how God directed his life from youthful deception to faith in God at the end of his life.

“By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff.”   (Hebrews 11:21)

Jacob did not start life with faith.  He possessed a strong trait of cunning craftiness in seeking his own selfish interests.  All the tricks that Jacob foisted upon others came back on him in order to make him a true servant of God.  As a young man, Jacob had distinct character weaknesses.  Jacob’s life does not read like that of a holy man of God.  But that should not surprise us.  God is brutally frank in revealing the character of those He has called to perfection.  He reveals the sins and weaknesses of all the important men of the Bible:  Noah got drunk, Moses killed an Egyptian, David numbered Israel and committed adultery, Solomon loved many foreign women, Peter denied Jesus Christ, and Paul killed Christians.  We should not be surprised that Jacob had a few skeletons in his closet.

Protestant ministers think that God is sometimes deceptive – and therefore approves of such shenanigans in His people.  Protestant ministers believe that the Bible reveals that deception may sometimes serve the cause of righteousness and please God.  What they do not understand is that there is always a penalty for unrighteousness.

“Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.  They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing;  To show that the LORD is upright: He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.”   (Psalm 92:13-15)

God has a people and He is very specific about who His people are.  They are special to God.  Too many church people today think that they hold favor in God’s sight because of the corporate group with whom they attend.  But do they?  We did not choose God—He chose us.  What is it that makes someone special to God?

“For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.  Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified.”   (Romans 8:29-30)

There are serious consequences when we do not follow God’s lead.  Rebecca and her son, Jacob, never saw one another again as a result of their getting ahead of God in attempting to bring about His will.  That was a terrible price to pay for their deceptive tactics used on Isaac.  God does not change – so the way He dealt with Jacob must be a lot like the way God deals with us.  Jacob’s life is the story of God bringing him to the point of faith, and being able to be used in the Kingdom of God.

God is doing the same with us if we wait on Him.  King David prayed:

“Show me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths.  Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.”   (Psalm 25:4-5)

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Sermon:

"Teach Me Thy Paths"