In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the story of Jacob and his journey back to Bethel. Jacob is called by God to return to Bethel and make an altar there. The preacher emphasizes the importance of putting away any idols or false gods in our lives before we can truly worship and serve God. He highlights the need for believers to live differently from the world and to reflect their faith in their actions and appearance. The sermon encourages listeners to examine their own lives and make the necessary changes to fully commit to God.

Now, I turn to the thirty-fifth chapter of Genesis, and I hope you have your Bible open there and also that you have our notes and outlines. If you do not have them, we do have a set for you and love to send them to you. Now, I'm reading verse one, chapter thirty-five of Genesis. And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee, when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. Now, God is calling this man back to Bethel. I have a little book. The title of it is, Back to Bethel. I attempt to cover a great deal of the life of Jacob, and especially dealing with this experience that he had at Peniel, and then the change that took place when he went there. Now, the fact of the matter is, he's now, after this experience, he's prepared to go. You see, he didn't have faith to move out before. Now, will you notice, verse two, Jacob now begins to take the leadership. Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments. Now, there are several things that they are told to do here. They are, first of all, to put away the strange gods, and we are almost shocked at that. You will recall that when Jacob fled with Rachel and Leah, that Rachel slipped out the family gods, that is, these little images. She sat on them, on the camel, that luggage that was to go on the camel's back. She just crawled up on top of it and sat down, because underneath were these little images. Now, I would assume since it was the home of Jacob, he knew of the living and true God, God had called him. You would think that he would say that when he did find out, and he did not know at the time she had taken them. He was very honest when he told Laban that God's, those little images weren't in his entourage at all. That's probably the one time up to then he told the truth. He really didn't know, but they were there. Now, when they were discovered, I think that probably we'd all assume, well, Jacob got rid of them, but he didn't get rid of them. And we find this entire family are worshiping these images. This man, Jacob, now for the first time, and he's the one to take the leadership, he says, now let's get rid of these false gods, these strange gods. And they're false gods. That's the first thing. You've got to put away that which is wrong. There is today too many folk that six days a week they are serving some other god, and on Sunday they serve the Lord. We have a lot of fundamental believers like that, friends. They have their strange gods. And then they wonder why on Sunday they're service in the church and why it's not a thrilling experience. Well, friends, you're going to have to put away your strange gods. Now, I don't know what yours might be, but whatever they are, it could be covetousness. I tell you, there's many a good fundamental businessman today that's out after every dollar he can get. And I tell you, he gives more devotion to getting the dollar than he does to serving the Lord on Sunday. And he wonders what's wrong with his spiritual life. If you're going to come back to Bethel, where you met God at the beginning, then, friends, you've got to put away those things that are wrong. Then he says here, Jacob says, and be clean. Now, that for the believer today means confession of sins. You have to deal with sin in your life. You can't come in on Sunday and ignore the week that's just passed. After all, you take a physical bath and use a deodorant. And today we have spiritual B.O. in our churches, because there's no confession of the sin, the cleansing. And that's the cleansing. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's 1 John 1.9. There must be the confession, and he'll forgive, but they must be confessed. Then do you notice something else? He says here, change your garments. Get rid of the old garments. Now, garments speak in scripture of habits. In fact, they do today. We hear of somebody having a riding habit, and football players have a uniform. That's the habit they use. And the child of God's dress should some way mirror who he is, who he belongs to. Do you wear the habits of the Lord? Can you be detected in business or in school or in the neighborhood as being a little different? Your life is a little different. You're wearing a habit. The day that this man went back to Bethel, he started living for God. And up to then, I don't think so. He says, let's go back to Bethel, and that's the thing that we must do.