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Paul Mahan

Looking For The Lamb's Wife

Genesis 24
Paul Mahan June, 15 2025 Audio
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In "Looking For The Lamb's Wife," Paul Mahan explores the theological themes of divine election and the sovereign grace of God in the pursuit of a bride for Christ, using Genesis 24 as a typological narrative. He emphasizes that the overarching purpose of God in creation is to form a people—a bride—for His Son, Jesus Christ. Key arguments are made regarding the role of the servant, who is sent to declare the greatness of God and find the bride, paralleling the ministry of the gospel today. Scripture references like Ephesians 1:4-5 and Romans 8:30 underscore God's intent for sovereign election and divine calling, asserting that individuals are chosen before the foundation of the world to receive grace through faith in Christ. The sermon highlights that the true bride of Christ is marked by a willing response to the gospel, which prepares their hearts through divine agency, underscoring the practical significance of understanding one's identity in Christ and recognizing the urgency of responding to His call.

Key Quotes

“The reason for everything is God's purpose to have a kingdom of people. They're called the bride, the wife of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

“You cannot preach the gospel without talking about God's sovereign election of a people.”

“The power of God is His Word. And all we do is stand up and declare it and stand back like Simon Peter at Pentecost and watch the salvation of the Lord happen.”

“Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.”

Sermon Transcript

Auto-generated transcript • May contain errors

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Go back with me now to Genesis
24. This is a type which, that is,
typifies it, illustrates it, shows it, it's a picture, a shadow,
the Scriptures call them, of spiritual things. This is a long
story, many verses. We will not deal with every verse,
but It's a long story, and it tells the age-old story of God
the Father's purpose to have a people, a bride for His beloved
Son. That's the reason God created
everything. It's for His glory and to have
a kingdom, a people, a bride, a wife for His Son. And when it's all over, there's
going to be a marriage supper of the Lamb. And the Lamb's bride
or wife is going to be there, and it's going to be a glorious
occasion. And what I want, what I pray, my heart's desire this
morning is not that you be merely interested in the story and amazed
by it. It is amazing. But that you,
the Lord, might speak to your heart, male and female, and that
you might ask yourself, am I the bride of Christ? Am I of the
kingdom? Have I heard His voice? Has He
spoken to me? So, verse 1 begins, Abraham was
old and well stricken in age, and the Lord had blessed Abraham
in all things. Well, our God is eternal. Old before time. Eternal. Blessed. The blessed
God. Abraham made a covenant. You read it with me. He made
a covenant, he swore, he made his servant swear by the Lord
God. He made a covenant in which, an oath and a covenant in which
his servant would go to find a bride for his beloved son. Abraham had one begotten son,
well beloved, only begotten son, a miracle son, who is a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ. who has one son, one only begotten
well-beloved son. And as I said, the reason for
everything, someday we're going to see that. But the reason for
everything is God's purpose to have a kingdom of people. They're
called the bride, the wife of the Lord Jesus Christ. They came
down here to redeem them all. They were given to the Father,
betrothed. And they're going to meet Him.
They're going to hear Him. preached in the gospel. This servant,
now how is the bride going to be found? Well, Abraham sent
a servant to do what? Just declare a message. Just
declare or speak of him, the father, and the son. That's all the servant was to
do. You hear me? I am a servant. The Lord has many. Christ has
called, and how shall they preach except they be sent? Called many
prophets, apostles, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. And their
mission and their message is one thing. They do one thing. They preach The greatness of
our God, our holy and sovereign God on the throne. He is one
beloved son, the only Lord and Savior of sinners. That's their
message. That's their message. So he sent
this servant, this servant. God is chosen by the foolishness
of preaching. Would this woman have come without
this servant going to preach? No. She would never have heard
of the Father. She would not have heard of the
Son, right? It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching.
Every one of God's people are going to hear the preacher, the
preaching of this one message. Now, what's his name? What's
his servant's name? It's not mentioned. His name
is Eliezer. But it's not mentioned here.
Why? His name is not important. But what he's doing is. This servant is a key figure
in all of this. He's chosen by Abraham, he's
sent by Abraham, and this woman is not going to come. She's not
going to meet the Son unless she hears this sermon. He's not
important, his name's not important, but what he's doing and his message
is life or death. She's got to hear it. We cannot, people, we cannot
take a hyper-Calvinistic, hard-shelled, fatalistic view about if they
want to be elected, they're going to be saved no matter what. No,
we can't. That's not right. This servant was burdened. He
prayed and prayed and prayed. Did you hear his voice when he
was praying? Oh, Lord God. And Paul said, My heart's desire
and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. That's the true servant of God.
And that's the way we all need to be. Maybe the Lord will hear
us if we do. The Lord heard this man. He prayed
with all his heart. The Lord heard him. The effectual,
fervent prayer of a righteous man. And the preaching of a not-returned
boy. They got to hear it. Got to hear
it. It's an amazing story of God's
amazing grace and power. in sending a messenger to a stranger,
to a strange land, a message of the Father and the Son and
the purpose of a marriage to an unknown man, to an unseen
man, in a strange place, a young girl, She hears, she believes, she
desires to marry this man whom she's never heard or never seen
and go to a place she's never been. And she goes. Like that. No hesitation. That's amazing. And that's what
the gospel does for sinners. That's the power of God. Follows
this man. She follows this man. She follows
this man all the way until she finally sees the son. Who wrote this book? Amazing. All right. How is the bride?
How is she known? How is Christ's bride known?
What about you? Are you one of the brides of
Christ? Am I? How is she known? And some of you have a little
outline I gave, but how is she known? Well, look now at verse
4. He said, Thou shalt go unto my
country, to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son. Not other
people, but my people. You're going to go to my people.
God has an elect people. There you go again, preacher.
That's exactly right. That's what I'm told to preach.
That's where the gospel starts. You cannot preach the gospel
without talking about God's sovereign election of a people. Nobody's
going to be saved if God hadn't chosen them before the foundation
of the world. Nobody's going to come unless God who chose
them draws them. They're just not going to do
it. Why? Dead. This woman had never heard of
Abraham, had never heard of Isaac. She didn't want to go there.
She had a family, had friends, had a land that she loved. She's
not leaving unless God in His sovereign power, through this
angel we're going to see, powerfully moves her to come. She's just
not coming unless God does it. That's why we do what we do.
That's all we do. We don't resort to anything else.
There's one thing that's the power of God to make sinners
willing in the day of his power, and that's the gospel, the word
of God. She's appointed, though, verse
4, verse 7, the Lord God of heaven, Abraham said, which took me from
my mother's house, from the land of my kindred. Abraham recounts
how God brought him. He was 75 years old. He's about like my wife's grandmother. She was in her 70s. Virgie, I
don't know how old Virgie was, in her 60s. But you can't convince
a 60 or 70 year old person of anything. You can't make them
do anything. God does. He must. And he does. Abraham recounted
that when the Lord called him, the Lord didn't ask him just
to come out. What happened? He came out. See,
we don't beg and plead with people. We don't resort to gimmicks and
tactics and tricks and try to entice them and bribe them and
sneak the gospel in on them. That's denying the power of God
is what that is. The power of God is His Word.
And all we do is stand up and declare it and stand back like
Simon Peter at Pentecost and watch the salvation of the Lord
happen. It's His power. It's His glory. Not the preacher's.
Verse 7, he said, Under thy seed will I give this land. He, verse
7, shall send his angel before thee. That's the Holy Spirit.
You see that? The Holy Spirit. And what does
it say? I sure hope he brings a wife
back. Oh no, no. Thou shalt take a wife. And what this story, you know,
no type is perfect. You understand? And don't come
up later and ask me questions. Just enjoy what you hear this
morning, okay? It's too big, it's too glorious,
too many things. You know why there are thousands
and thousands of types of Christ in Scripture? Because no one
type is perfect. No one type can tell all the
facets and aspects of our Lord's person and work. It can't do
it. That's not perfect. But, all right, he says, his
angel, that's the Holy Spirit, he shall send his angel before
thee, and thou shalt take a wife unto my son from thence. He was,
and the servant kept saying, what if she's not willing? What
if she doesn't come? He said, don't, don't beg her,
please. No, no, no, no. That's not one
of, that's not mine. If she doesn't come, that's not
the one appointed. Right? She's not willing. Well, then that's not the one
appointed. Because the one appointed is made willing. You understand? Sure he did. Sure he did. Look at verse 14. And so he prayed,
Oh, let it come to pass the damsel to whom I shall say, let down
thy picture. picture, I pray thee, that I may drink." Does
that sound familiar? Irene, does that sound familiar
to you? Does that story sound familiar? The very thing happened
with our Lord Jesus Christ at Jacob's well. At a well. And she shall say, drink. She's
going to say everything he asks the Lord to make her say and
do. Let her be the one thou hast
appointed. It says the same thing in verse
44. Erecha came forth, the one of God appointed. Okay? Oh, as
I said, though she's an elect, though she's appointed, yet this
servant has a heavy burden, a heavy desire, an urgent message for
her. It didn't make his desire less. It didn't make his burden
any lighter. It didn't at all. It encouraged
him, but still, Not a servant of God. Just say,
well, I'll get this over with and go home. Where was she? Where was this
bride found? Where did he find her? Look at verse 11. The man came
with his camels to kneel down without the city. Does that sound
familiar? Outside the camp. The church,
the well, the place where the gospel is preached, is very seldom
right inside, right in the middle of town. It's usually outside
the camp, outside the place where modern religion is, like a tabernacle in the wilderness.
And verse 11 says, He was by a well of water at the evening
time when the women go out to draw water. He was at a well.
Are you with me? He was at a well. And you know
it says, it speaks of this well, I forget how many times, ten
times. It says a well, look at verse thirteen. Here I stand
by the well. And he kept calling it the well
after that. The well, the well. What is this well? Well, the
Word of God is the water of life, right? And the Word, the water
of life, is Christ Himself, the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the water of life. It's drawn from a well. Now,
we're just saying, oh, Christ is the deep, sweet well of life. Yes, He is. Christ is all this. He's the sun. He's the water.
He's the life. He's the servant. Isn't it? It's His power. He's the Father. He's all, you
know. And this well, you could say,
is the heart of God, the mind, the soul of God, the well of
God. But there's a psalm that says,
with joy, the people of God will draw salvation out of the wells,
plural, of salvation. You're sitting at a well this
morning. You're sitting in a place where the water of life is preached,
where Christ is preached. It's a well. You know what Isaac's
occupation was? A well driller. And it lets the Lord build the
house. They labor in vain to build it. And he dug this well.
And he's the water. But it's his well. It's his church. And this is where you're going
to hear the water of life. And this is where all of God's people
are going to meet. And there's whales. He has whales
everywhere. There's one in Kingsport. Right
now, there's a man preaching in Kingsport, the same message.
Right now in Fairmont, West Virginia. Right now in Houston, Texas.
Right now in Pikeville, Kentucky. Right now, all over the place,
there are men by a whale looking for the bride. Looking for the
bride. This is a whale. Thank God for
this whale. Rebecca met, heard the truth
at a whale. Rachel, Jacob's wife, heard the
truth at a whale. She met her beloved husband.
That woman at the whale in John 4 met the Christ at a whale. And so have you. I'm the bride. where I heard
it. Bless God through these places where Christ is found. Well,
look at this. Her heart was being prepared.
Verse 7, he said, The angel of the Lord will go before thee,
and thou shalt take a wife from thence. Her heart was being prepared. Listen to this in 2 Chronicles
And you know, I forgot that I preached just a couple of weeks ago from
1 Samuel 1 on Hannah the bride. I forgot that. You remembered, I'm sure, but
I forgot. But listen to this. You remember we read this in
Hezekiah's Passover. You remember that message? I'm
sure you do. But it said, Hezekiah rejoiced
in all the people that God had prepared the people. God had prepared the people.
Remember that? In 2 Chronicles 30 it says that it was the hand
of God to give them a heart to do this. This woman was being prepared
to hear the Word of God. She'd been prepared. My dad used
to call it grace before grace. Listen to Luke chapter 1. This
is the way God does things. He prepares the people. And this
is what John the Baptist, his father
said, he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah
and turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, the disobedient
to the wisdom of the just to make ready a people prepared
for the Lord. Isn't that wonderful? I don't preach at a chance. I
preach according to a purpose, according to a promise, according
to power. Preach with power, not, oh, I
sure hope. Oh, no, no, no. Somebody is going
to come. The people that are prepared,
the people that He chose, the people that He elected, the people
that He appointed unto salvation, the people prepared, and they're
going to hear the gospel. And my pastor said, this is grace
before grace. Her heart is being prepared.
Servant prays. Look at our text. In verse 14. What a prayer. Oh, my. He said,
let the damsel, let the damsel that I say unto her, let down
thy picture. I pray that I may drink. Let
that be the one. Let that be the one appointed.
Let down thy picture. What's his picture? What's a
picture? I need to bring a glass up here.
I keep wanting to use a vessel. What was his picture? It's an
empty vessel. What's that? His heart. His heart. And God's got to empty
these hearts. It kept saying that she let down
her picture. These proud hearts have to be
broken. These hearts have to be broken. The lofty looks of
man shall be brought down. Never been a prouder generation
in the history of the world than this one right now, especially
young people. Spoken of in Isaiah chapter 3, it says the daughters
of Zion are haughty, walking around like there's somebody
and something. What God's got to do is bring them down. Show
them what they are. Show them their need of mercy,
of salvation. Show them that they need Christ
more than anybody or anything. And He's got to empty this heart
that's full of the world, that's full of sin. He's got to empty.
He's got to break this heart. He's got to make you an empty
vessel, a thirsty soul. I kept talking about her picture,
her picture, nine or ten times. He let down her picture. Let
it be the one that when I speak to her, she'll let down her picture. Let it be the one that I'm preaching
to. Rebecca, let down your picture. Let that be the one. If she does,
I know God did it. This servant, no, I can't do
this. I can't do this. Oh God, you
can. Can these bones live? The Lord
thou knows. So she's being prepared. Her
heart must be broken. Before she knew Isaac, before
she met Isaac, before she heard the Word, she is interested in
what this man is doing here and what he's saying. Do you hear
me? She attended to the words of this man. She had respect
for and reverence for this man and served him and his camels. What are these camels? 10 times
it talks about camels. 10 camels. How many camels did Abraham have?
More than 10. 10,000 times 10,000 and 1,000
and 1,000. What's that talking about? These camels brought Abraham
the servant, brought all his men, brought all the goods of
life. These camels bore up all these things to the bride and
took her and them all the way back to the Son. What are these
camels that bear up the people of God and the ministers of Christ?
The angels of God attend to Preaching the gospel
in his people. And they've carried you all your
life. Carried you to the point where
you heard the gospel cry, brought me here. And we've entertained angels
unaware of it. But this woman was interested
in this man, and she reverenced this man, respected this man,
and heard what he was saying, and attended him. He said, let
down your picture. And she did. She did what he said. And the Lord said to Ezekiel,
He said, They're talking about you, and you play a good instrument.
They're not going to do what you're saying. He told Isaiah,
He said, They're not going to hear you. But bless God, some
people do. And God sent a no-name, worthless,
former railroader to this place, and bless this holy name, I've
seen some young virgins let down their pitchers. Oh, the Lord did it. I know He
did it. And I'm waiting and hoping. Got the same message. Same message. I'm waiting and hoping that He'll
do it again. I know He will. Well, she heard the message.
Listen to the servant's message. Verse 33. Verse 33. Look at it. Now, the man came
into the house. Verse 32. They had him into the
house, as God's people ought to do. servant of God, shouldn't
it? The Lord blessed that house.
Did he bless this house? Lydia had Paul over every time
he came. The widows had Elijah in their
house, Elisha, all the time, didn't they? Did the Lord bless
their house? Save the children. He did. The whole house. And the man came into the house,
verse 32, and ungirded his camel and gave straw and provider for
the camel and water to wash his feet, the men's feet that were
with him. You see, there were other young
men and all the men that have come here to preach the gospel.
Blessed are the feet, how beautiful the feet. And there was set meat,
and some of you, you really have, you've housed and you've kept
some of these preachers of the gospel haven't you? And I'm thankful
to God that you have. But you were blessed, weren't
you? You were blessed. Wouldn't you like to have Cody
Gruber back in your house? Just one more opportunity. Dear Saint. They sent meat, verse
33, they sent meat before him and he said, I will not eat Until
I told my Aaron, I'm not here to eat. I'm not here to socialize. I'm not here, you know, just
to win friends and influence people and have a good time.
I'm not here for that. I'm here to do one thing. I'm
here to tell a message. I've got something on my heart
that's got to, I'm like a bottle that's got to give vent. I'm
not here to socialize. I'm here to tell a message. You
understand that? That's the true preacher of Christ.
That's all the true preacher of Christ. He said, speak on. And he said, I am Abraham's servant. I am a servant of the Father. Wisdom of God, God by wisdom. A man would not know God by wisdom
if God had chosen by the foolishness of preaching to save them Servant
of God. Preacher. The Lord hath blessed
my master greatly. He has become great. He's speaking
about the Father. I'm here to declare the greatness
of our God. I'm here to declare the eternal
God and Creator and Father of His people. Listen to Psalm 145. Great is the Lord, and greatly
to be praised. And His greatness is unsearchable.
One generation shall praise thy works to another and shall declare
thy mighty acts. I will speak, David said, this
is what I'm going to speak of, the glorious honor of thy majesty. Don't holler preacher, then I'll
just holler louder. David said, I'll be more violent.
if that's offensive to some, I'm going to speak of His Majesty,
of His wondrous works. And men like me and like Gabe
and Marvin and on and on shall speak of the might of Thy terrible
acts and will declare Thy greatness. We're not standing up begging
sinners to accept a poor peanut God and a Jesus outside their
door. No, Isaac was back home with
the Father, wasn't he? And the Father kept saying, don't
bring him down to their level. Don't do it now. Remember that?
Beware. He's not to come here again.
He's already been. He's not coming back. He's seated
on the throne. Christ is seated on the throne.
We're not to bring Him down to men's level. We're to lift Him
up. Declare His might and His glory. God's going to bring men
to Him. We don't bring Him down to them.
He's going to call them, and they're coming to Him. And like
Rebekah, when this story's over, she's going to hit her knees. Say, who's this man? And the
servant's going to say, that's who I've been talking about. That's who sent me. I've got to holler this. Oh,
man. Now, we speak of His greatness.
It's no great God that's a bystander and hopes and wishes and prays
that man will do something for Him. That's no God at all. That
wasn't the message of his true servant, and it's not my message
either. Look at verse 35. The Lord has
blessed my master greatly. He's become great. He's given
him flocks and herds and silver and gold and maidservants and
camels and asses. What did Abraham need? Did he
come here hoping that they'd do something for Abraham? What does Abraham need? He's
rich in houses and land. Psalm 24. Psalm 24. This is Genesis 24. It says,
The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. The world and
they that dwell therein. He said, If I was hungry, I wouldn't
ask you. I don't need anything from you. I don't need your money.
It's not your money. It's my money. It's my world. It's my everything. And I'm the
one who decides if you have anything. This is the God of the Bible.
Lord over all. Owner of all. And this servant
said, this is my master. I'm not here to get anything
from you. I'm here to tell about him. And he's got a son. He's got one son. Look at it. Sarah, my master's wife, bear
a son to my master when she was old. I'm here to tell you about the
woman's seed. I'm here to tell you about the
eternal Son of God, who declared in Isaiah 7 that a virgin shall
conceive and bear a son. and call His name Immanuel, God
with us. The only begotten, well-beloved
Son of God, born of a woman, made of a woman, made under the
law, to redeem them that were under the law. The Lord Jesus
Christ is His name. He is as ancient as the Father.
And unto Him hath He given all that He hath. All that the Father
hath, He hath given to the Son. Don't you love that? You love
this. If you do, you're a Rebecca. She's listening intently. She's
sitting right there listening. And the Lord is preparing her
heart. The Lord's making her, Polly, making her fall in love
with a man she's never seen before. And the only way she knows this
man, she's hearing about him. And Peter said that, whom having
not seen, you love. And though you see Him not, you
rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. How could
you rejoice and get excited over a man you've never seen? That's
the power of God. That's it. It happens to every
one of these people. And my Master has given him all
that he hath. And what does the Scripture say?
Because he took upon himself the form of a servant, was obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross, God has given him a name above every
name. Christ said, All authority is
given unto me in heaven and earth. Isn't it? Now go. This is what he told his servants
in the end. All authority is given unto me in heaven and earth.
Now go, preach this gospel. Preach me. And my bride is coming. So this was the message. And
my master, verse 37, made me swear, don't take a wife. No,
no, we're looking for his people. Go to my father's house, verse
38, in my kitchen, and take a wife to my son. For the transgression of my people,
God says, he was smitten. And God, Christ himself, said
he's going to send his angel in the end to gather his elect
from the four corners of the earth. And they're coming. How
did they come? Preaching. Preaching Christ. All right, she heard this message.
She heard this message. And I had a hundred other verses
to quote to you concerning his glory. Look, just briefly, look
at, look at, back at verse 11, or verse, let's see, where is
it? I can't find it. Oh, verse 10,
I'm sorry. Look at verse 10. Servant took ten, ten camels
of, the camels of his master, which represent the angels of
God, and departed. And all the goods of his master
were in his hand. Were they? All of them? No. There was a portion of all.
But all of them, you can't. The earth is the Lord's. Abraham
was rich in houses and land. This man just brought a few,
a little bit of gold and silver and precious stones. You understand? Just a little bit. Just a token. But the riches of Abraham were
vast. And I cannot declare unto you,
no man is sufficient, the unsearchable riches of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The half has not been told, and it never will be told. It's not
going to be told this morning. You're going to see something
of the beauty of Christ, a little bit of the beauty of Christ,
if the angel of God helps us. that pearl of great pride, the
gold and silver and precious stones that are Christ himself,
his person and his work. A little bit. But no, the riches
of Christ are past finding out, sir. We're going to see them
someday. We're going to see them someday. And we're going to say
with Sheba, I didn't hear that, but it far exceeds the glory
of Abraham. And he bedecked her with these
gold jewels. She heard the message. How do
you know if you're a bride of Christ? You're appointed, you're
elected, but you're going to hear the gospel. You're going
to be found at the well. Your heart's going to be prepared
to hear it. You're going to hear the servant of God, the preacher
of God, preach a sovereign God, and a Christ who is Lord over
all, and all things in Him. You're going to hear that. And
she was called. Look down at verse 57. She was called. Look at verse
57. They said, we will call the damsel.
Inquired her map, and they called Rebekah. They called her. What
does Romans 8 say? We know. We know, God's people
know, that all things, like this story, work together for good
to them that love God, who are the what? The called according
to His what? Purpose. You remember how this
started? That's how everything started.
For whom He did foreknow, He did predestinate. And whom he did predestinate,
he called. God's going to call you to preach
the gospel. Look at verse 50. Laban, his brother and her father,
or Rebecca's brother and father said this things of the Lord,
we can't speak against it, good or evil. Behold, verse 51, Rebecca's
before you, take her, go, let her be thy master's son. No,
no, no, no, that's not the way it works. We're not born of bloods
or the will of the flesh or the will of man. Nobody's going to
get you anything. This is not anybody's decision.
It's not even yours. Are you with me? Not of the will of the flesh.
No, no, no. It's the will of God. You've got to be called. He's
going to call you personally. He's got to speak to you personally.
And here's what he said. Look at verse, they said, verse
58. Wilt thou go with this man? Wilt thou go with this man? Now
listen. She's been listening to his message. She has a home. She has a family
she loves, a father and a mother, a brother, as far as we know,
sisters and others that she dearly loves, and a home and security. She's still living with her parents,
and she has all the fineries. They do not like him for anything.
And when she hears this message, of this great father and his
son, which is the gospel of Christ. And all this time, the Lord is
preparing her heart. And then when the question comes,
will you go? What does she do? She says three words. I will
go. Wait a minute. Laban and Bethuel,
her mother, tried to persuade her. Look at verse 50. Five,
her brother and her mother said, Let the damsel abide a few days,
at least ten. That meant what they meant was
a year or so. Let her stay here a while. She doesn't have to
go right now. She doesn't have to go right now. There's plenty
of time to get married. Oh no, there's not. You don't
know that at all. The servant said, No, today. You'll wait till this or that.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Seek to be married to Christ
before you're married to a man or a woman. If Christ joins himself to you,
you're joined to him, you know everything's going to be alright.
And I promise you, he'll bring you, if you're meant to be married,
he'll bring you a good man. He'll bring you a good woman.
Seek first the King of God. There's no tomorrow. No promise
of the future, is there? He said, don't hinder me. No,
no, this is right now. Right now. So he asked her, they asked her,
Rebecca, are you going to leave your father and your mother?
You love us. Are you going to leave your home,
all the security and, you know, you're taken care of and all
this finery and Mesopotamia that you grew up in, this place. You
have all these friends and you have all these connections and
all the finery of life and all these places you know and people
you know so well. Are you going to leave all that
and go to a place to see a man you've never seen before, to
marry a man you've never met and never seen? Are you going
to go with this man? How are you going to trust this
man? Do you trust this man? Follow this man? Are you going
to go with him? Count the cost, Rebecca. She
said, I'll go. Thy people, Psalm 110.3,
shall be willing in the day of thy power. And when Christ came calling
his people, he didn't ask, he didn't beg, he didn't plead.
He said two words, follow me. What did they do? Every one of
them, they followed him. And she followed this man. She
followed this man for a month through the wilderness to a place
she'd never seen before. She trusted him. Did the Lord bless that? Oh,
did he. Oh, did he. She was made willing. And let me close with this. Look
at verse, here's the end of the story. I pray it's the end of
our story. Verse 61, Rebecca arose. And you hath he quickened who
were dead and trespassed in sin. He's raised us up and made us
sit together in heavenly places. He's brought us to a well and
heard the gospel of Christ. She arose and her damsels Others. Why did they bring so many camels? Why did Abraham say, take ten
camels? But if you're just looking for
one bride, that's not all that's coming. There's going to be a
bunch of them. Isn't that beautiful? That's
what it says in Psalm 45 about the king. It's all about the
king. It says that the king's daughter is all glorious. She's
going to be brought and her damsels. There's going to be a bunch of
them with her. Isn't that something? We're going
to be there. Me and you and I are going to be there. I believe
the Lord brought us to the well and heard a man that the Lord
sent, a trustworthy man. We followed him all those years.
We're going to be there together. I'm telling you, there's nothing
but this. Nothing. This is what we need. Us and our daughters and our
sons. She arose. She followed. She followed. This man, can you follow a man?
If he's preaching Christ, you can. If God sent him, you can.
If God sent him, you better. And the servant took Rebecca
and went his way. What way is he going? Where is
he headed? Where is he going? What does
he want for her? One thing. To meet the son that he loves.
The one he's been preaching about. And a one month trip through
the wilderness. What were they talking about? What was Rebecca when she's asking
a question? Now tell me again. What's he look like? I can't
describe him. You just have to see him. What's his voice like? No man speak like this, man.
What about where he lives? Not that I'm interested in that,
but him, but still, where he lives. Streets of gold. But that's not who you're going
to They went out and looked at verse, they came, verse 62, Isaac
came, where was Isaac? Verse 62, where was it? At well. I preached the whole message
on that, remember? Lahore, I can't even pronounce it. Had trouble
then. At well, Lahore. You try it. That's where he dwelt. And Isaac went out to meditate,
to pray. And he lifted up his eyes and
saw, and behold, the camels were coming. Started to name this
message. The camels are coming. The angels
are coming. You know that? Who are they coming
for? The bride. He'll come, the Lord's going
to come, like Isaac, with His angels, with 10,000 of His saints,
10,000 times 10,000, and we're going to meet Him in the air.
That's what the Scripture said. This is no fable. This is the
truth. The truth is more wonderful and
glorious than any of these types of things. Look at it. So, Rebecca lifted up her eyes,
and when she saw Isaac, she cut down off her camera. She fell down. She said to the
servant, what man is this that walks in the field? The servant
said, that's my master. That's him. It's him. And she took a veil and covered
herself. Oh my. And Isaac said, told, and the
servant told Isaac all things that he had done. And I guarantee
you, Isaac said, well done. Well, no. No good faith. You
did what the Father told you to do, and here she is. And he
brought her into his mother's, his heiress' tent, and took Rebecca,
and she became his wife, and he loved her. How long did he
love her? To the end. And this story of Christ and
his bride has no end. We will live happily ever after. with Christ our has he called. I pray. He has. Okay, let's saying and closing
number four fifty two.
Paul Mahan
About Paul Mahan
Paul Mahan has been pastor of Central Baptist Church in Rocky Mount, Virginia since 1989; preaching the Gospel of God's Sovereign Grace.
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