Turn back to Genesis 24. We read those first ten or so verses. In this text, We're reminded that God has made
promise to Abraham concerning his son, and he's made good on
that promise. If you will turn back to Genesis
15, Just hold your place there in
chapter 24 and turn back to Genesis 15. In verse 1 we read, After
these things the word of the Lord came unto Abraham in a vision,
saying, Fear not, Abram. I am thy shield and thy exceeding
great reward. And Abram said, Lord, what will
thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is
this Eleazar of Damascus? And Abram said, Behold, To me thou hast given no seed,
and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And, behold, the Lord of the
Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thy heir. but he that shall come forth
out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought
him forward abroad and said, look now toward heaven and tell
the stars if thou be able to number them. And he said unto
him, so shall thy seed be. And Abraham believed in the Lord,
and it was counted, and he counted it to him for righteousness. Now, as I said, God has made
good on this promise. And a son by the name of Isaac
was born. And in our text here in chapter
24, Isaac has grown up. He's not a baby. He's not a boy
anymore. And the time has come, according
to the customs, for Abraham to choose a bride for Isaac. And he sends this head servant
to fetch her. He sends him to get this bride for Isaac. And as we think about this, I
want us to remember something. I always, when I come to the
Old Testament, remember this verse. First Corinthians 10 and verse
11, now all these things happened unto them for in samples, illustrations. And they were written for our
admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. This is not just a record of
history, not just a myth or a fairy tale. This is something God did
in the life of Abraham and Isaac and all these people to show
you and I something. For us, upon whom the ends of
the world are come. So there can be no doubt in this
text that Abraham is here a type of God the Father. And Isaac as this unique son,
born to Abraham, and Sarah in their old age, he is undoubtedly
a picture and illustration of the Lord Jesus Christ. But what I want us to see this
morning is what this man Eliezer says. He is the head servant
in Abraham's house. And he is a type of the Holy
Spirit sent to call out the bride of Christ, the church, the elect
that were given to Christ before the world began. And when we remember all about
Abraham, we remember that Abraham, that he gave some things, and
I emphasize the words things, he gave some things both to Ishmael,
and the children of his concubine Keturah after Saru's death. But he gives this to Isaac here
in our text. He makes a distinction with Isaac. Because God views not all of
these other children as Abraham's son. And God speaks to Abraham
when he says for him to take him up on Mount Moriah. He said,
take Isaac, thine only son. And he is a type of the Lord
Jesus Christ. But what I want us to notice
is what Eleazar's message was. In other words, that's the title
of my message this morning. Eleazar's message. What is it that he says to whomever
The woman is that he knows God has made the wife of Isaac, or
to be the wife of Isaac. And you turn back and look with
me in 2434, Genesis 2434. When he comes to Rebekah, And he begins to tell Rebecca,
and not only Rebecca, but all of her family, they hear this
from Eleazar. In verse 34, he said, I am Abraham's
servant, and the Lord hath blessed my master greatly, And he is
become great, and he hath given him flocks, and herds, and silver,
and gold, and menservants, and maidservants, and camels, and
asses. And Sarah, my master's wife,
bear him a son, bear a son to my master when she was old, And
unto him hath he given all that he hath. Look over in chapter 25 and verse
5. And Abraham gave all that he had to Isaiah. In other words, the inheritance
that Abraham gave to Isaac was the best, the most, and assuredly
the inheritance of the heir. And look what it says when it
says that Eleazar was to be sent down to Rebekah in verses 5 and
6. He says, and the servant said
unto him, peradventure, the woman will not be willing to follow
me unto this land. Must I needs bring thy son again
unto the world and from whence he camest? And Abraham said unto
him, Beware that thou bring not my son thither again. In other words, if she won't
come, don't you dare take Isaac down to her. Beware that he go
not down thither again. In other words, just like the
Lord Jesus Christ, and it emphasizes it in Hebrews, he came to this
world once. He offered one sacrifice for
sins. He appeared at the end of the
age once. And he will not be coming back
again to do again what he once did. It is a finished work. Beware that you do not take him
down again. And that also signifies beware
that you do not bring him down to their level or to her level. You make sure you bring her up
to him. And then it says, Abraham gave
all he had unto Isaac. Now whatever this teaches us, it teaches us that everything
that God has to give, everything that is worth having, and everything
of His grace is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything that any person has
received, they received it as a gift from God, but you can
have many gifts and still not have all. Many people. Think that because
they have health or wealth or fame or fortune, they have more
than other people. But the truth is that nobody
has more than those in Christ. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
2, I mean chapter 1. When Paul is writing to the Ephesians, and in the midst of all that
he's saying here in these first 14 or 15 verses of Ephesians
1, He says this in verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. In other words, everything that
is important, everything that is necessary to our soul's salvation,
everything that will last, God has in grace given to his
people all spiritual blessing. every possible blessing for time
and eternity which the Spirit of God has to behold, to be bestowed. And he says that in light of
the fact that all material things will melt with a fervent heat. One day the things that men desire
more than anything else, fight after, kill over, and seek to
have above all things, such as money and property and houses
and land, all things that are material and temporal will melt
with a fervent heat. So our Lord says this in John
6, labor not for the meat which perisheth, for the meat, but
for the meat that endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son
of Man shall give unto you, for him hath the Father sealed." He says again, the Father loveth
the Son, and hath given him all things, or hath given him all
things into his hand. And the knowledge of this, the
knowledge of this and the belief of this is the only thing which
will subdue our covetous nature, our fleshly desires, our jealous
hearts. the knowledge that we have all
things. So Paul writes to the Corinthians
and he says that God has given us his spirit, he has given us
his grace, and by his spirit he has revealed to us the things
that are freely given to us in Christ. So he says this to all people,
that he has saved by his grace. He that spared not His only Son,
but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him
freely give us all things? If He's given us His Son, surely
He will give us freely all things. And he writes this, he tells
us this in Hebrews 1, God hath in these last days spoken unto
us by his Son, whom he hath appointed the heir of all things. The heir of all things. So that Paul writes in Romans
chapter eight, he says, if we be children, if we be the children
of God, if we be children, then heirs, heirs of God, join heirs
with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may
be also glorified together. In other words, if Christ is
the heir of all things, and he is, then those who are joint
heirs with him, children with him, they are also heirs of all
things. Paul writes to the Corinthians,
he says, therefore let no man glory in men, for all things
are yours. Whether Paul, or Apollos, or
Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present,
or things to come, all are yours, and you are in Christ, and Christ
is God's. Then he says this to the Colossians. Wherefore, there is neither Greek
nor Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond or
free, but Christ is all and in all. Now, when he says there that
he has given us in Christ all blessings or all spiritual blessings,
what does that mean? Blessings. I hear a lot of people
say today, when you say, greet them, they'll say, bless you. But blessing, the word itself
is the word that we get eulogy from. It means to be commended or it
means to be spoken of religiously as a benediction or in regard
to benefit or fair speech. In other words, God has spoken
happy things to us. He's given us all spiritual blessings. And just like when Eliezer speaks
to Rebecca and to all our family and describes all that he has
given, Abraham has given to his son Isaac, those things are spiritual
things that he tells his people. In other words, it's this message. God is great. Abraham is just
a picture of God's greatness in a small way. God is great. He owns all things. He does all
things. And he has grace to give to some
people. And he hath given all he has. to the Lord Jesus Christ. If we have Christ, then we have
all he has. The blessing these are blessed
with are spiritual. and they are said to be spiritual
to distinguish them from temporal blessings. Spiritual blessings
are solid and substantial and lasting blessings and concern
the good of the soul and of the spirit of man. If God gives them, they have
to be good. If God gives them and calls them
all spiritual blessing, there can't be anything else. They are all agreeable to and
are to be desired by spiritual man, and they are very comprehensive,
and they take in all the fullness of grace in Christ. Now, it's a real easy thing in
our day to hear men and women talking
about having Christ, but You've got to be saved by Christ
but, or you've got to be saved by Christ and. But the truth is, if we have
Christ, we have it all. So that the apostle is led to
write and say, speaking of completeness, that all things are in Christ
and ye are, what? Complete in him. All the blessings and sure mercies
of the everlasting covenant. all the things pertaining to
life and godliness, such as justifying righteousness, faith, peace,
pardon, adoption, sanctification, eternal life, every grace. If we have Christ, we have it
all. One old writer said this, he
said, the saints are blessed in heavenly places. That God
blesses them is in heaven, and so is Christ in whom they are
blessed. And the completion of their blessedness
will be in heaven. their hope is laid up, their
inheritance is reserved, and this phrase may denote the safety
of them being out of reach of any enemy, any sin, of the world,
to deprive them of them, as well as the nature of them, for there
we read, in heavenly places. So this distinguishes these blessings
from an earthly kind. But most of all, turn to Psalm chapter 22. Psalm 32. Now there are many blessings, all spiritual
blessings, that belong to the people of God. But look here in Psalm 32, verses
1 and 2. The psalmist says, blessed is
he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputes not iniquity, in whose spirit there is no God. That simply means that there
is no guile concerning how God blesses us and saves us, which
is in Christ Jesus. This is the way. Blessed is he
whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered, Blessed
is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Now, I do believe that the way we find out something
about the blessedness of what God has done for us as sinners,
it lies, at least in part, in some way in the matter of imputation. The psalmist, David, is a psalmist,
and Paul writes in Romans 4, look at Romans 4 with me, Because Abraham is again mentioned. Abraham and David. He says, what shall we say then
that Abraham, our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath
found? Paul was a Jew. Abraham was called
the father of all the Jews. He says, If Abraham were justified
by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. But for what saith the scripture,
Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness? Now to him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness, even as David also describes
the blessedness. the blessedness of the man unto
whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed
are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. right at the center. I surely
don't say this is all blessings. But when David and Abraham and
others speak about blessings, they speak of imputation. And in the Bible, there is a
threefold imputation that cannot be denied. Number one, the imputation
of Adam's sin to all our race. It says, when Adam sinned, all
sinned. And it's just as real, it is
just as factual, it is just as true, though we were not there
to feel it, though we were there not to see it, that we were not
even there bodily to do it. It says, in Adam all seeing. Some people say, that's not fair. That's not a blessing. But in
truth, it is a blessing because if God deals and can deal justly
with all in Adam, in the imputation of Adam's sin to them, then he can deal with us on the
same principle in grace. He says, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute
sin. Do they sin? Yes. Were they a part of that original
sin? Yes. Are they sinners in themselves? Yes. But God has blessed them in not imputing their sins to
Him. That's almost unbelievable. That's almost too good to be
true. But God being just, he has to
deal with that sin in somebody, in some way, and that brings
us to the second imputation. God has imputed the sins of his
people to Christ. Isaiah says it like this, The
Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. The Lord has charged
to him. The Lord has reckoned to his
account. The Lord has held him responsible. The Lord has brought him to death
for the sins that he didn't sin, but the sins of his people. And that imputation is just as
real as the imputation of Adam's sin to this race. And we see
the consequences of that. And the Holy Spirit makes us
aware of the consequences of Christ being made sin for us. And then there's the third imputation. When Paul says, And we are made
the righteousness of God in him. That is the imputation of Christ's
righteousness to all his people. Every one of them. Righteous in the same way because
righteous in the same person. not righteous because they have
done righteous or because they are righteous in themselves,
but they are made the righteousness of God in him. I read just recently where somebody
wrote, God, something like this, I'll
just put it like this. God makes a person righteous
and then he sees that righteousness in them. But it says that the righteousness
of God by which we are made righteous is in him. Always in him. And there is nothing that the
Spirit of God does. In this life, whereby we are
made personally and practically righteous, the Spirit of God
reveals what we have in Him. What do we have in us? Paul said,
O wretched man that I am. What do we do day by day, hour
by hour, minute by minute? Sin. And so the messenger comes, like
Eleazar, and he reminds us. God has put everything in His
Son. He that hath the Son hath life. This is the record that God hath
given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. And it goes on and on and on. The whole book of the Bible,
the whole scriptures, all are saying what Eleazar said, everything
is in Christ. Somebody says, but what about,
everything is in Christ. Because you see, an heir, An
heir gets what he gets by relationship, not by doing. He gets what he
gets because he's the child of so-and-so. That's why the Bible speaks of
the heirs of grace, the heirs in Christ. And because he says
in Ephesians 1, I mean in Colossians, I'm just stumbling, 1 Corinthians
chapter 1, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus who is made unto
us. wisdom, and righteousness, and
sanctification, and redemption, that according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Now you just think
about Rebecca. She's just wandering around there. Tending to the cattle, tending
to the house, tending to all the things, under the watchful
eye of her brother Laban. Then one day, up rides a stranger. But he's no ordinary stranger.
He's the emissary. He's the representative of a rich man far away. And he's come for a bride. So
he says to her, and this is really all that counts, My master's
wife bore him a son in his old age. A master who's very rich, who
has all things. He's given his son all that he
has. And if you marry his son, you get it all. I'll never forget this as long
as I live. I was, I've told you this many
times probably, but I was sitting in Shoney's in Kentucky one night,
one morning. And up drove a Cadillac like
I've never seen before. Everything that could be coated
and gilded with gold, it was like that. It was like a Cadillac
Cadillac. And in walked a woman that was
dressed to the nines. Just, you could
tell her clothes were not Kmart. And she walked in with jewels
and gold and all things such as that. And she walked in and
she sat at the table next to me. And I was thinking, man,
who is this woman? But when the waitress came to
her and asked her what she would like, when she opened up her
mouth, I knew right then she came from the head of the holler. She was just pitiful. Her language was as backwoods
as mine. And I thought, where in the world
did she get all this? It dawned on me. She married
it. She married it. And that's the
way you and I are as sinners. We are wayward, wandering, hopeless,
helpless, vile sinners who have been made righteous by God, who
have been blessed with God, who have all that God has to give
in grace. Because we're married to His
Son. Married to His Son. In Christ is the forgiveness
of all sin for a believer. In Christ is all righteousness
given us as a gift. So that God says, this is the
gospel. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for
all her sin. Comfort her. In Matthew 9, it says that that
man's sick of the posse, first thing that Christ says to him,
and behold, they brought to him a man sick of the posse, lying
on a bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith,
said unto the sick of the posse, Son, be of good cheer. Your sins are forgiven. If Christ is all, then there
can't be anything else. If He is all, then we have nothing
that we can boast about. If God has given us all He has
to Christ, why would anyone seek it anywhere else? If He has given all to Christ,
why should we want anything else? Whenever God first came to Abraham
to give him this promise, He reminded Abraham, and we read
it there in Genesis 15, that he came to Abraham and he
said, fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding
great reward. So when men talk about Rewards
in heaven? Such foolishness is that? I tell
you, I have the reward already. Because in Christ, we have all
that God has to give. We have all forgiveness for time
and eternity. We have all righteousness. Oh, what a blessing. when he enables us to know and
be assured and feel that in our hearts. And he reminds us of it in our text, that everything
that God has to give, he gives in Christ. You say, what about? I don't
want to hear it. Eliezer's message is like the gospel message. And
it's like the message that the Holy Spirit takes and he puts
to our heart. that if we have Him, we have
it all. We have all spiritual blessings.
He has made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, peace,
pardon, everything. And that's why the bride is pictured
I think it's in the song of Sodom that Brian is pictured on, coming
out of the wilderness, leaning on her blood. We're just leaning
on Christ. Just have all because we have
Him. That's the good news. Our Father, we thank you. We thank you in Christ. We pray that you would take this
stumbling and stammering and make it a message of sweetness
and joy and peace to every heart, to know all is in him, and to
know that we have him. And having him, we have it all. We pray that this might not only
be our salvation, but our comfort. a reason for serving him, a reason
for glorifying him. We ask it all in his precious
name. Amen.