Alright, let's look back here
in chapter 24 and talk about, instead of a
bride for the son, a bride for the heir. And when we talk about types of the Lord Jesus Christ, not one of the types is perfect.
And the reason being, You know, God uses earthly stories and
uses man and their situations and people to teach us heavenly
truths. And the very fact that our characters
are people, and since people are imperfect, then the type
can't be perfect. And he takes these things that
happen in the world and makes them perfect illustrations of
the Lord Jesus Christ. But still yet it's a good picture
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this story of Abraham's servant seeking a bride for Isaac, Abraham's
son. Abraham would be a type of the
Father, the Heavenly Father. Isaac would be a type of the
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the servant, sometimes I
say he's the Holy Spirit, other times I say he's the preacher
or the servant. The servant here is the preacher,
the one that preaches the gospel, goes with the message about the
Son, to get a bride for the Son, for the heir. And Rebecca, whom
he goes after, goes after a bride, She's typical of the sinner who's
brought to Christ, and she's unaware that she's even being
talked about, and sent after, and got somebody going after
her. She don't have a clue what's going on. But God knows, and the Father
knows, and the Holy Spirit and the servant's gonna go. He's
gonna go. Now Abraham was a very, very
wealthy man. And his son, Isaac, was the heir
of everything that Abraham had. And he sent his servant, he sent
his servant, his special servant, the one that took care of Abraham,
took care of his house, he sent his servant to find a bride for
Isaac. And this bride would share in
with all the riches, and all the glories, and all the wealth,
and all the inheritance that Isaac had if she just brought
home to Isaac. She's going to have everything
he has. And he's the heir of everything. The Lord Jesus Christ
is God's begotten, only begotten Son of God. And he's the Son
of God. And he's the heir of everything. And I'm going to show you something
over here in verse 35, talking about how wealthy Abraham is.
Look here at verse... The servants tell him... Abraham was an atheist. Now listen. Then he goes on to
say this in verse 35. And Sarah, my master's wife,
bore a son to my master when she was old. Now listen to what
he says here. Unto him hath he given all that
he has. And the father, God's son, the
son of his love, The Scriptures tells us in John 3.35 that the
Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hand. Now what does that mean when
He's given everything into His hand? Can you think of anything
that's not in His hand? The Scriptures tells us plainly Eternal life to as many as the
Father has given Him. And our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Scriptures tells us that He buys us. We buy Him and pray
Him. So I'll tell you what, He controls
and has His hand over everything. God said, here it is son, it's
yours. It belongs to you every time
that has heaven in it. Every time that's in heaven.
Every time that's on earth, it's yours. Every time that has breath,
it's yours. If it don't have breath, it's
yours. If it's in the heavens above, it's yours. If it's in
the earth beneath, it's yours. If it flies through the air,
it's yours. If it's down in the sea, it's
yours. So He gave Him everything. And
listen, and our Lord Jesus Christ is King and He's Lord. God decreed
Him to be King. God decreed Him to be Lord before
this world ever began. And then He is Lord by His death
when He arose from the dead and ascended and sat down at God's
right hand. And God in His sovereign mercy
has chosen Out of every tribe, every kindred, and every nation,
a people to be the bride of His blessed Son. And I tell you what,
beloved, enjoy Him in everything that He purchased and everything
that He owns. Now I want you to look at a couple
of things with me here, just a minute. Back over here in these
first four verses. I want you to notice this. The
eldest servant, the root over their heads, he sent him. And
he sent him swearing, verse 2, that you'll take a wife, not
of the daughters of the Cainites, among whom I don't blame your
wife or theirs. They're cursed. But now watch what he said. But
thou shalt go unto my country. Do you know what that means? The earth is poured,
and the fullness thereof. This servant ain't going to go
anywhere that does not already. And go to my kindred. Go to another
of my kindred. Or my son Isaac. Or my... Well, look what the servant says
now. You know, the servant, he had a lot of questions about
what he's supposed to do. And look what he said in verse
5. Maybe, just maybe, the woman
will not be willing to follow me unto this land. Oh my, what am I going to do
if she's not willing to go? Huh? What if she's unwilling
to leave her home? Leave her family? Leave her mother? Leave her father? And go and
love a person? And marry a man? And give herself
to a man that she's never seen? Huh? And she don't know him? That's not a penny. What if she's
not willing to go? Do I need to bring your son down
into the land? I need to bring him to her? No. He said, no, don't you dare do
that. No, no. You bring her to Him. He ain't gonna go to her. You
bring her to Him. Don't take my son. And don't
you bring him down. And don't you dare take him back
down into that country and take him down the street and say,
anybody want to be the son of this, the wife of this man? Don't
do that. My son's got all the power. My
son's got all the wealth. My son's got all the rights. And I'm sending you to get a
wife to bring to Him. You're not taking Him over there.
And that's one thing the preachers have done. They have made Jesus
accessible. Accessible. And yet, never made
Him the Savior. Never made Him the Redeemer.
Never made Him God. Never made Him the Christ. that
they will bring him down as low as they possibly can get him
until somebody accepts him on the terms that they won't accept
him on. Ain't that right? If you don't
want Jesus by standing up, sit down. If you don't want Jesus
by coming to the front, get on your knees there. You don't have
to get on your knees. If you want Jesus, just raise your hand. You want Jesus? Just mumble a
sinner's prayer. You want Jesus? Ask, believe,
and confess. He sort of said, if she don't
come, there are no circumstances. My
son's going to stay right here where he's got all the power
and the glory. And if she comes here, she's
going to come here because of who he is. Huh? And I tell you, look what Abraham
told him. He said, oh no, in verse 6, don't
you dare bring him again. Now watch from there again. Don't
dare do it. And look what he told him in
verse 7. The Lord God of heaven which took me from my father's
house and from the land of my kin. He shall send his angel before
thee. By yourself. The angel of the
Lord is going to go before you. That's what God's preachers,
I tell you what, we don't have to go, we don't go forth into
this world alone. We're never alone. I know sometimes
it seems like we're left alone in the pulpit, but I'll tell
you one thing, we don't go forth on a fool's own to persuade men
to love and believe We don't do that. We don't use
our powers of persuasion. And we certainly don't use rhetoric
and our ability to make up fly words. But I tell you what happens
is, the Spirit of God goes with us, and the Spirit of God...
That can quicken a man. Only the Spirit of God can... Only the Spirit of God can give
a man the heart to love, and come, and believe. Ain't that
right? Oh my, it would be awful. You're either left or run me
off if I tried to use my own ability to try to get somebody
to accept Jesus. If the Holy Spirit can't do it,
none of us will ever be able to bring a sinner to Christ.
You hear about people all the time, I can't tell you how many
souls I've brought to Jesus. The Holy Spirit in this world has ever brought
a sinner to Christ. Not one man has ever done it.
A man preaches the gospel, but the Holy Spirit's got to do the
work. Ain't that right? Oh my. And I tell you, God, the
Holy Spirit, He goes with us and He gives men eyes to see.
And I used to see the wealth and the glory and the power of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Then he gives him a heart to
love him. Oh, so she ain't willing. In
the day of his power, his people, he said, go to my country, his
people shall be made willing in the day of his power. And
you hath he quickened. Together, who were dead in trespasses
and sins, together with the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh my. And I tell you something, this
bride had been chosen. The servant hadn't even got over
there yet. But this bride's already been chosen. That's why Paul said, Brethren,
we're bound always to thank God for you. Because God has from
the beginning chosen you unto salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. And I tell you, as servant,
he's going to go and he's going to do what? And he will endure
in all things to tell the bride about her beloved. And ain't
that the way it is, beloved? We don't care where we have to
go, who we have to preach to. It makes no difference. And we're
convinced of this. The bride will hear the voice. of that servant when God wills
for her to hear it. Huh? And I tell you what, she'll
hear that message of her beloved through the message of that servant.
And you know what? And the bride will come. Look
in John. Keep this and look in John chapter
10. Look in John chapter 10. You know, that's what I love
about the gospel. That's what I love about it.
We can go somewhere and preach. You know, when we get open door
every once in a while, and people will come in that's never heard
the gospel. I know I was down in Florida. The house where we were staying
at, the man and woman who let us stay there, the man and woman
who owned the house, he told me there one evening, he said
the first time he had ever come to a service, He knew a man,
and the man invited him to the services at a conference. And
Don Fortner and I were down there preaching. And he said, the first
time I ever heard the gospel and heard it, he said, I heard
it through you. And he went and told me all about what happened
in that service that day. And then his wife was telling
us outside a couple days before that, and you wouldn't believe
how she described it. But that's what he said, and
you know I didn't have any idea, and that's been years ago. And
he's been there ever since. The gospel learned him, Joe.
He can't go anywhere else. What do you know about it? When they
hear that noise, they've got to come. Look what he said here
in John 10. And Jesus walked in the temple
in Solomon's porch. Then came the Jews round about
him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If
thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Our Lord answered, I told you,
and you believe not. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye
are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. You know why they didn't
believe? They weren't sheep. But what
does our Lord say the next time? My sheep hear my voice. I know them. I know them! I know where they
are, I know who they are, and I know what voice that they heard,
and what voice will cause them to come. And he said, I know them, and I give unto them an eternal life. And they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which
gave them me, was like this bride given to Christ. She got to hear. And she's going to have to come.
She don't even know somebody's went after her yet. She don't
know that Isaac exists. Nobody's able to pluck them out
of my father's hand. I and my father are one. Alright, back over in our text.
Well, here went the servant. He took off. And he went to the
place, into the land that he was supposed to go in. And then
down, look at verse 10. And the servant took ten camels
of the camels of his master, and departed. For all the goods
of his master were in his hand. And he arose and went to Mesopotamia,
and took ten camels to deal down without the city by a well of
water, at the time of the evening, even the time that women go out
to draw water. this day and show kindness unto
my master Abraham. Behold, I stand here by the well
of water, and the daughters of the men of the city come out
to drink water, draw water. And all listen to what he says
now here. He's going to pray. He's going to pray. Behold, I
stand here by the well of water, and the daughters of the city,
the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water.
And then he said, Oh Lord, God, I'm a master. I pray that you
send me good speed. He began to pray. That's the
first thing he said. He began to call on God. I'll
tell you what, in verse 14 he said, Let it come to pass. that I may drink, and she shall
say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also. Let the same
be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac. And thou
wilt, by shall I know, that thou hast shown kindness unto my master,
not even to me. Mercy. I'm done speaking. Rebecca! And next thing you know, he's
no young man, just a pretty woman. A beautiful young woman. That's
what he said. Oh my! She was beautiful. It tells us how beautiful she
was. And then in verse 17, the woman, the servant ran to meet
her and said, Let me, I pray thee, drink a little of thy pitcher.
Water of thy pitcher. And as the faith said, that's
what I want to do. I'm going to ask you to let me drink. And she
said, drink my Lord, and she hastened and let down her pitcher,
and gave him drink. And when she had done giving
him drink, she said, I will draw water for thy camels also, until
they have done drinking. And she began to get water for
her camels, just exactly like he asked the Lord to do. And
then all down, it got down there in verse 24, she said, the servant
says to her, Whose daughter are you? Tell
me. Is there room in thy father's
house for us to lodge? And she said, I am the daughter
of Bethuel, the son of Milcah. Which she bared her hand. Yes,
we have everything that you need. Everything that you need. And
I tell you what, he opened his heart to the Lord and the Lord
even before he was done speaking. There she was. Huh? I'll tell
you, ain't that something? Oh, if we just had free, oh,
God would do that for us sometime. But I tell you what, when it
came down, and she said, Lord, let that woman, who I asked for
a drink of water, she lets me, pitch. And then after that, she gets
water to wash all my clothes. He said, let that be the one.
Before he got through speaking, there she was. There she was. And I tell you, the opening of
the heart to Christ. Spiritually dead. The conviction
of sin. Repentance toward God and faith
toward the Lord Jesus Christ. All these things are impossible
with men. Impossible. Just like with this
woman, it's impossible. So how in the world is he going
to know? God's got to go before him. God's got to make him understand.
And that's the way it is that we preach. We preach. It's only God that reveals the
Lord Jesus Christ to the heart. It's Him. We can teach the head. I can instruct a man's head. But only God can come and speak
to man. Only God can do that. If he can
write into stone with his finger. And he can write on a rock with
his finger. He can take his finger and man's
heart will know it's God inside that heart. Now be no doubt in
his mind who's got his hand. And I'll tell you what, and everybody that believes in the Lord Jesus
Christ, you know what the first requisite is? He has to live
until he's born. Dead men don't come. Well, how
are they going to live? Our Lord shall say, I say unto
thee, live. Can these bones live? Lord, thou
knowest. Oh, they have to be born of God. Presence in the same faith are
all the gifts of God. All the gifts of God. We don't
have anything that God didn't give us. I tell you, right now,
everything we feel, everything we experience, everything we
believe in, everything we rejoice in, God causes that to happen. It's impossible for me and man
to do it. God does it. We understand that. Out of shadow of a doubt. Well,
now look down here in verse 32. The servant was welcomed into
the house And the man came into the house
and he uncoated his camels and gave straw and provender to the
camels. That's the first thing they did
for him. Made him feel welcome. I don't have anything to say
until I tell you what I'm doing here. Oh my! He accomplished his mission and
declared his message. And that's what has to happen.
And that's the way the preachers of Christ are. We're on a mission. It's nice to have the world's
comforts. I'll tell you, it's nice to have
them. And have the world's love. But we don't have to have them. The world has them. Where we
stay and who we stay with. We're called to go and get our
message. And we got to tell that message
when we get there. Huh? Oh my. And he went down
there. Our mission is to make Christ
known. To make Christ known. And so
he declared to Rebekah and her kindred the glory of Isaac and
his master and everything that was in his master's hand. You
see that servant had one message. He said, I come here, I come
here for one thing. To get a bride, to have a wife
for my master's son. That's what I'm here for. And
until that's accomplished, I don't care what else happens. That's
what I got to do. That's what I got to do. And
all he said, they told him to speak on, and then look what
he begins to tell. He said, Lord, he started out
with the Father. The Lord has blessed my master
greatly. He has become great. He has given
him flocks and herds and silver and gold, men's service, maidservant,
camels and ashes. And said, My master's wife bear
a son to my master when she is old and unto him hath he given
all that he hath. And my master made me swear,
saying, Thou shalt not take a wife to my son of the daughters of
the Canaanite in whose land I dwell, but thou shalt go unto my father's
house to my kindred and take a wife unto my son. And he went
through everything him and Abraham had talked about. Well, he just
laid the case out and he told them what needed to be done and
what he wanted to do. Look down here in verse 15. You know the question. The servant heard their words,
he worshipped the Lord, bowing himself to the earth. Oh, thank
you Lord. Bless you Lord. You saved one
of your sheep. You got a bride. You found a
bride. And look what they did. You know what he started to do
for her? And the silver brought forth
jewels of silver. Now we know silver is the redemptive
price of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then he gave her jewels of
gold. That representative deity. Then he gave her a raiment. The
righteousness of Christ. Hold on, you got to have some
special clothes on to go back up yonder. You got to be dressed
right. So he gave her a raiment. And
he gave also to her brother, to her mother. And they ate and
drank that night. But look what happens in verse
55. Her mother said, let the damsel
abide with us a few days. In the margin, it says a full
year or ten months. With a few days, and after at
least ten, after that she shall go. Oh, mama, and brothers, and
said, oh, please, honey, don't go. Stay with us just a little
while longer. Don't be in such a hurry. This man, you got plenty of time. And oh, look what happens now.
He said in verse 56, he said unto them, hinder me not, don't
hold me up. Seeing the Lord hath prospered
my way, send me away that I go to my master. And they said,
I'll tell you what we'll do, we'll carve a damsel and ask
what she wants to do. And they carved her back in verse
58. And said unto her, let that go
with this man. She said, I'll go. I'll go. Yes sir, I'll go. And I'll tell you something. They didn't stop until they got
all the way back to Isaac. Huh? Oh look what happens now. Get
down here. In verse 61. Oh you've got to
see this. And Rebekah rose in her damsels,
and they rode upon the camels, and followed the man. The servant
took Rebekah, and went his way. And Isaac came from the way of
the royal Laha-Roy, for he dwelt in the south country. And Isaac
went out in the evening tide, and he lifted up his eyes, and
he saw, and behold, the camels were coming. And Rebekah shut
her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the candle. She
jumped off the candle. For she hath said unto the servant,
What art thou to meet us? And the servant said, It is my
master. Therefore she took a veil, and covered herself. Oh my! I've got to cover myself to come
into my master's house. And the servant told Isaac all
the things that he had done. Now listen to this now. Isaac
brought her into Mother Sarah's tent. Just as quick as she heard
it was Isaac, she jumped off that camel. It ran just as hard
as she could go. I'll go. When she got there,
she couldn't wait to get there. And he took Rebecca and she became
his wife. And listen to this now. And he
loved her. Don't talk about her loving him. He loved her. Oh, he was comforted. He was comforted. That's the way it happened. There
you go. Oh, I'm going. Who is that? That's my master. It's like Simon
Peter said, John said, that's the Lord up there on the shore.
Peter just jumped in the water. He didn't wait for the boat to
get there. He jumped in the water. He is the one that had war three
times, but he is the first one to get back. I tell you what, we can do so
many things, but immediately we come to Him. We come to Him. In the precious, precious name
of your blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in Christ. Thank you for the
gospel. God, you make it clear, you make it plain. You make it real. Keep them as you know them. Keep us in your love. Keep us
in your care. Amen. Amen. upon Jesus, look full in his
wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely
About Don Bell
Don Bell is the current pastor of Lantana Grace Church in Crossville, TN.
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