Worship the King, all glorious
above, and gratefully sing his power and his love. Our children defender, the ancient
of days, a billion in splendor, and girded with grace. O tell of His might, O sing of
His grace, Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space, His
chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form, And guard is His path on
the week of the storm. By bountiful care, what tongue
can reside? It breathes in the air, it shines
in the night It streams from the hills, it descends to the
plain And sweetly distills in the dew and honey Frail children
of dust, and feeble as frail, In thee do we trust, nor find
thee to fail. Thy mercies, how tender, how
firm to the end, Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend. Please be seated. Our scripture reading for call
of worship is found in Psalms 34. Psalms 34. Says this is a Psalm of David,
when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, who drove him
away and he departed. I will bless... This version,
by the way, uses Yahweh instead of the Lord, the original self.
I will bless Yahweh at all times. His praise shall continually
be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast
in Yahweh. The humble shall hear the earth
and be glad. Oh magnify Yahweh with me and
let us exalt his name together. I sought Yahweh and he heard
me and delivered me from all my fears. They looked up onto
him and were lightning and their faces were not ashamed. The poor
man cried. Yahweh heard him and saved him
out of all his troubles. This is what he does for us,
for every believer who's poor in spirit. The angel of the Lord
encamps round about them that feed him and delivers them. Oh,
taste and see that Yahweh is good. Blessed is the man that
trusts, or fear Yahweh, you his saints, for there's no one to
them that fear him. The young lions do lack and suffer
hunger, but they that seek Yahweh shall not want any good thing."
That means they shall not need anything. He shall provide everything
for them. Come, you children, listen to
me. I will teach you the fear of
the Lord. What man is he that desires life
and loves many days that he may see good? Keep your tongue from
evil, your lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil and do
good. seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of Yahweh are upon the
righteous and his ears are open to their cry. The face of Yahweh
is against them to that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of
them from the earth. The righteous shall cry and the
Lord hears and delivers them out of their troubles. Yahweh is near to them that are
of broken heart and saves such as of a contrite spirit. These are all evidences of the
Holy Spirit. This is evidence of salvation
when he gives us our broken heart and he gives us a contrite heart.
Only the Lord can provide that to us. Many are the afflictions
of the righteous. But the Lord delivers him out
of them all. He keeps all his bones. Not one
of them is broken. This is a reference also to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Bones not being broken. Evil
shall slay the wicked and they that hate the righteous shall
be desolate. Yahweh redeems the soul of his
servants. and none of them that trust in
him shall be desolate. Father God, we come before you
this morning in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, by his merits
and his merits alone. We come as a needy people, Father.
We are in need of you. We need to hear of Christ. We
thank you that we have a place where we can hear Christ preached.
We are in need of your Holy Spirit for both the messenger, Pastor
Greg, and us. We need our ears to be unstuffed. We need you to help us with our
distractions. We need to hear of Christ so
we may see him more clearly. We pray that his gospel will
be preached in all those places where you have gospel ministers
preaching Father God. And may all we do and say here
may all be to your glory to honor and glorify you Father. In Jesus
name we pray. Amen. Let's stand together once again
and sing the hymn that's on the back of your bulletin. Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness,
Thy beauty, O Lord, my glorious dress. Through words and deeds of writ, With joy shall
I lift up my head. this no age can change I know that some in the sky,
even in darkness we all might be, that Christ hath lived in thy
glory. Lacey's going to come sing special
music. like a river, attendeth my way
when sorrows like sea billows roll. Whatever, my Lord, Thou hast
taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Though Satan should buffet, though
trials should come, let this blest assurance control ? Christ hath regarded my helpless
estate ? ? And hath shed his own blood for my soul ? ? It is well, it is well with my
soul, with my soul ? It is well, it is well with my soul. My sin, O the bliss of this glorious
thought. My sin, not in part, but whole. to the cross, and I bear it no
more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
O my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. with my soul it is well it is
well with my soul for me be it christ be it christ
tends to live if jordan abides No pain shall be mine, for in
death, as in life, Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul. It is well with my soul. with my soul it is well it is
well with my soul but lord is for thee for thy
coming we wait the sky not the grave O trump of the angel, O voice
of the Lord, blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. And Lord, haste the day when
thy faith shall be sighed. The clouds be rolled back as
a scroll. The trough shall resound, and
the Lord shall descend. Even so, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well With my
soul, with my soul It is well, it is well With my soul Thank you, Stacey and Caleb.
The words of that hymn are on the back cover of your spiral
hymnal. Most of you know that the man
who wrote that hymn back in the middle part of the 19th century
had just lost all of his children to a shipwreck. And God gave
him the grace To say, though Satan should buffet, though trial
should come, let this blessed assurance control that Christ
hath regarded my helpless estate and has said, it is well with
thy soul. My sin, not in part, but my sin
the whole, was nailed to the cross. There's my hope. There's our hope. The Lord Jesus
Christ bore in his body upon that tree all the sin of all
of his people and put them away once and for all. We've come
here this morning to bow before him, to worship him, believing
that this is Jehovah Shammah, as we saw in the first hour.
This is where our Lord is. and where he's pleased to show
forth his grace and his glory. I hope you take your Bibles with
me and open them with me to Genesis chapter 24. Genesis chapter 24. I've titled this message, I will
go. I will go. That's what Rebecca
said. When her father and her brother
asked her, will you go with the man? She said, I will go. Our prayer this morning is that
the Lord will put that spirit of willingness and submission
in each of our hearts. If you've ever been brought by
his grace to say, I will go, before you will say it again
and again and again, I will go. The Lord The scripture says in
Psalm 110 verse three, makes his people willing in the day
of his power. He makes his people to differ.
He makes them willing. In the day in which he demonstrates
the power of his grace in their hearts, he causes them to say
with Rebecca, I will go. My hope this morning is that
someone for the very first time will be brought in the power
of God's grace to say in their hearts, Lord, I'll go. You've
made me willing. Lord, I'll bow. I believe. I'll
follow thee. It'll only be by God's grace
if any one of us ever say that. Man left to himself will not
follow after Christ. It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but it is of God that showeth mercy.
We come into this world dead in our trespasses and sins. We
have no interest in the things of God. We have no desire for
Christ, no love for Christ, no willingness to follow after him. Someone says, well, I exercise
free will every day. And every time you do, You are
only expressing your nature. You cannot act against your will. You can't. Everybody does. I
would say everything you do is because you're willing to do
it. And therein lies the problem. Man left to himself is not willing
to come to Christ. You can't do something you don't
have any desire to do. That's why the Lord has to make
us willing. Now, in this story, I want you to see Abraham as
a picture of God the Father. Eleazar, in this picture, in
this story, is a picture of God the Holy Spirit. Isaac is a picture
of God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Abraham sends Eleazar
to fetch a wife for his son Isaac. And when he finds in God's providence,
and everything that happens happens in God's providence, when he
finds in God's sovereign providence, Rebekah, who is a picture of
God's people, all of God's elect, are typified in Rebekah. And they asked Rebekah, are you
willing to follow the man? And Rebekah says, I will go.
I will go. We know that salvation is of
the Lord. And what that means is that God
saves. He does all the saving. God the
Father saved a particular people in the covenant of grace when
he chose them according to his own will and purpose before time
ever began. God the Son accomplished the
salvation of the Father's elect when he shed his precious blood
on Calvary's cross and finished the work of redemption. He actually
accomplished the salvation of God's people. God Most people believe in a God
who's offering them salvation and they have to decide whether
to accept it or reject it. That's not our God. That is not
our God. Salvation is by our God in election,
in redemption, and in regeneration. God the Holy Spirit has to come
through the preaching of the gospel There's our hope this
morning. Right now, we're preaching Christ
in hopes that the spirit of God will take the word of God and
make his people, thy people, Psalm 110 says, thy people shall
be made willing in the day of thy power. There's our hope that
this will be the day of his power and that he will make us willing. The Lord puts a willing and submissive
spirit in the hearts of his people. He said, a new covenant will
I make with him. I will write my laws in their hearts, impress
them upon their minds. No longer will a man have to
say to his brother, you need to know the Lord, for they shall
all know me from the least of them unto the greatest. The Lord
saves his people and he makes them willing and they come and
they bow and they believe. They just believe everything
that God says. This story goes all the way back
to Genesis chapter 15, when God makes a covenant with Abraham
to bless him with descendants. And Abraham has a servant whose
name is Eleazar. And Abraham says in protest or
in question, at least again to God, Lord, how can this promise
be? I have no child except for this
servant. And so Abraham say, perhaps the
promise will be through him. And the Lord says, no, you're
going to bring a child of your own loins. And he secures that
covenant with Abraham in the slaughtering of animals. and
which again is a picture of what the Lord Jesus Christ did in
securing the covenant of grace for the salvation of God's people.
And now in chapter 24, Abraham gathers again Eleazar, 50 years between
Genesis chapter 15 and Genesis chapter 24. So Eleazar had been
Abraham's servant for over 50 years. You can imagine the loyalty
and the relationship that these two men had. And Eleazar, Abraham
says to his servant, he said, I want you to go to my home,
where I came from, Mesopotamia, Ur the Chaldees. And I want you
to find of my household, a bride, a wife for my son, Isaac." And
Eliezer says to Abraham in the beginning of chapter 24, he said,
well, what if she's not willing? And the Lord says to, Abraham
says to Eliezer, he says, God will send his angel in front
of you. and he'll make her willing. But he said, if she's not, if
she's not willing, what you cannot do is take a wife for my son
from the Canaanites. And I'm going to have you make
a covenant with me to that end. And so he tells Eleazar to put
his hand on his thigh, and he makes a covenant with Abraham.
The picture there is that the thigh in the scriptures is where
the sword was held. And Eleazar is entering into
a verbal promise with Abraham not to take to his son a bride
from the Canaanites, that he will go to his people. What is
the Lord telling us here? Do not be unequally yoked together
with unbelievers. This covenant relationship that
God has with his people is for the good of him, the salvation
of his people. And he makes it, Abraham makes
it clear to Eleazar, you're not to take a wife from the Canaanites.
We see a picture of the thigh in the book of Revelation when
the Lord Jesus Christ comes triumphantly riding upon that great white
stallion. And the scripture says that on
his thigh is written, Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Ah,
what a picture of God's promise in salvation of his people. And so Abraham enters in to this
relationship and the scripture says that into this covenant
and the scripture says in our story that Abraham took 10 camels
with him and many gifts. And when he gets to where Rebecca
lives, He comes to a well and he has those camels kneel down
in the presence of this well. And we know what that well is
a picture of. These are all gospel stories.
These are salvation stories. This is what God is doing right
now spiritually in the hearts of his people when he makes them
willing in the day of his power. What is the number 10 representative
of in the scriptures? It's the law, isn't it? 10 is the law. What is a camel? It's a beast of burden. Some
are under the burden of the law, trying to earn favor with God
by their own law-keeping. And when Eleazar gets to where
Rebekah lives, he has these 10 camels kneel down in the presence
of a well. And we know what that well is
a picture of all throughout the scriptures. The Lord Jesus Christ
is that well of inexhaustible water of life. He's the spring
that flows clear as crystal from the throne and from the Lamb
of God. He's the one who said, if any
man thirst, let him come unto me and out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. Just as we cannot live physically
without water, we cannot live spiritually without Christ. But
in order for the water of the well to be drawn from, the camels
have to kneel down. That's exactly what happened
at Calvary's cross. The Lord Jesus Christ satisfied
in his perfect obedience to the Father all the requirements of
the law of God. You and I have never been able
to keep one of God's laws, not one single time, to satisfy the
justice and holiness and righteousness of God. Christ Jesus the Lord
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. The
law won't bow to you and me. The law will stand before you
and me in judgment. The law will declare you and
me guilty. And that guilty sentence is a
sentence of eternal damnation, a sentence of eternal death.
But what the law does in the presence of the well of life
is it kneels down, it kneels down. And by virtue of the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, he imputes that righteousness to
us. He said to Abraham, Abraham believed God in Genesis chapter
15, when this relationship begins, and God imputed it to him for
righteousness. He believed the promise of God.
God took the righteousness of Christ and charged it to his
account. And that's exactly what he does. The camels, the beast
of burden, kneel down in the presence of the water of life.
And then Abraham, Eleazar prays there. And he said, Lord, if
this is the place where there's a wife for my master's son, then
have her offer to me a drink of water. And Rebecca shows up. And Rebecca sees him over there.
Rebekah offers him water. And then not only does she offer
him water, but she offers to water his camels. And Eleazar
knows that this is the one that the Lord has chosen for his son. And so Rebekah, Rebekah takes,
takes Eleazar home with her. And he meets her father and her
brother Laban. You remember Laban? Laban's the
one. Now Laban is, is Rebecca's brother. And Rebecca is going to give
birth to Jacob. And Jacob is going to have to
flee from Esau and go back to the very place where Rebecca
comes from. And Laban's going to take advantage of Jacob as
his nephew later on. Right now, right now Laban is
Laban is still a deceiver. Laban says to Rebekah, he says
to Eliezer, he says, just let her stay here with us for a while.
Matter of fact, he says to him, let her stay with us for a year
and then we'll send her on. And Eliezer says, why? Why Terry? Why should we wait a year? The
Lord's already spoken. So Laban says, well, we'll ask
her. And here we have it. Look at verse 57. And they said,
we will call the damsel and inquire at her mouth. And they called
Rebekah and said unto her, wilt thou go with this man? And she
said, I will go. I will go. Calling is a picture of the effectual
call of grace given to all the bride of Christ, all that God
has elected in the covenant of grace, all that the Lord Jesus
Christ redeemed. The Spirit of God calls and they
respond by saying, I will go. This calling began with a promise
and that promise resulted in a covenant. The promise goes
back to Genesis chapter 15, when God said to Abraham, you will
have a descendant of your own loins and from him, from Isaac,
will be a great nation. And that covenant was ratified
when Abraham, under the instruction of God, took those animals and
put them to death and divided them. And the scripture says,
between the animals at night came a smoking furnace and a
burning light, which is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Prayers,
the smoking furnace is always the, smoke in the Bible is always
a picture of prayers. It goes up. And our Lord Jesus
Christ prayed for his people on Calvary's cross. He said,
Father, forgive them for they know not what to do. In John
chapter 17, our Lord prayed for us. When he said, Father, I pray
not for the world, but I pray for them which thou hast given
me out of the world. He prayed for Peter. What made
the difference between Peter and Judas on that fateful night
when our Lord was arrested and went to the cross? What made
the difference? Peter, I've prayed for you. That made the difference. And when you have repented, teach
the brethren. So there's the picture of the
promise that's made in Genesis 15. And the burning light. The
Lord Jesus Christ is the light of the world. So if the smoke
represents that which goes up to God, offered to the father
by the Lord Jesus Christ, then the light represents what comes
from heaven to us. The light of the gospel that
shines in the hearts of God's people, made willing by God's
spirit to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. This calling of
Rebecca began with a promise, the promise ratified by a covenant,
all pointing to the promise that God the Father and God the Son
and God the Holy Spirit agreed upon in the covenant of grace
before time ever began. The father said to his son, I'll
give you a bride. The son said to the father, I'll
pay her dowry. I'll redeem her. And the Holy
Spirit said, I'll go and make them willing. This is what this
is a picture of. And Abraham's relationship with
Eleazar in that covenant that he made with him is the same
thing. And Eleazar now is praying to the Lord. This always results
in the prayers of God's people. The promises of God. Peter put
it like this in 2 Peter 1, verse 4, whereby are given unto us
great and exceeding precious promises that by these we might
be partakers of the divine nature. Faith is just believing God.
Believes everything that God says. Someone said, well, how much
of the Bible do you have to believe to be a believer? If you're a believer,
you're going to believe every word of it. You don't believe every word
of it. You're going to know this is
God's word. I'm not here to convince you that the Bible is the word
of God. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. I would not dare
try to take his job. Oh, no. But when he does, when
he makes you willing, you'll know this is God's word. This
is his promises by his precious great and exceeding promises. He has made us partakers of his
divine nature. Turn with me, if you will, to
Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. Verse 13. These all died in faith, not
having received the promises, but having seen them afar off,
and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed
that they were strangers and pilgrims in the land." These
are these Old Testament saints. The promise had not, all the
promises of God, the scripture says, are yea, yes, and amen,
sure, in Christ Jesus. And so these Old Testament saints
had not yet received the promises, but they believed God. Abraham
believed God. And he's called the father of
the faithful. We've seen the promises. We've
seen the fulfillment of those promises in the coming of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We have so much more evidence
than Abraham ever had. Yet Abraham believed God and
God's people believe him. They believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Galatians chapter three, verse
16 says, to Abraham and his seed were the promises made, not unto
seeds, but unto seed as one, and that one is Christ. So the
seed of Abraham is the Lord Jesus Christ, and all the promises
of God are made sure in the work and person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the smoking furnace. He's the burning lamp. He's the
sacrifice of God. He's the one that the Spirit
of God, like Eleazar, is fetching the bride of Isaac
for. Psalm 45 verse 3 says, gird thy
sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with glory and with majesty. Here's our prayer. Lord, as Eliezer,
the spirit of God, a picture of the spirit of God, put his
hand under the thigh of Abraham. Lord, gird thy sword. Faith comes
by hearing and hearing comes by the word of God. If the Lord
is going to save us, he's going to do it through preaching of
the gospel. Call upon the name of the Lord and you shall be
saved. How should they call upon him in whom they've not believed?
And how shall they believe on him in whom they've not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher? God uses the foolishness
of preaching to save his people. That's the sword of the spirit,
which is the word of God. This is the means by which he
calls out And those whom have been brought by the grace of
God to say, I will go in the past are saying right now, as
they hear the word of God, I will go, I will go. The Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled
the law of God Notice he said, I will send... Abraham said to Eleazar, he said,
what if she's not willing? And Abraham said, God will send
his angel ahead of you and make her willing. There's the preaching
of the gospel. the Bible, angels are nothing
but messengers. And if you go to the book of
Revelation, you'll see that the seven churches of Asia Minor,
that God spoke to the angels of those churches, the pastors
of those churches. They're the ones that are going
to bring the message of God. We saw last Sunday, the cherubim,
the first mention of angels in the Bible, are the cherubim that
God put at the east side of the Garden of Eden. And what did
they have? They had a flaming sword keeping the way to the
tree of life. And that's what we're doing right
now. We're wielding the flaming sword of God's spirit, the word
of God, showing the way and keeping the way to the tree of life. God will send his angel. And through the message of that
angel, he'll make her willing. And you have to wonder whether
or not Rebekah had been praying. Because when Eleazar gets there,
you have to read the whole chapter to get all the details. I'm just
trying to give them to you in story form. But when Eleazar
asks for Rebekah for a drink, Rebekah runs to the well, the
Bible says. and gets the water from the well
and brings them to Eleazar. She'd never met Eleazar before.
This is a strange man in a strange country. And then after she gives
him a drink, she says, I'll go water your camels also. And she
runs back down to the well and brings bucket after bucket of
water for his camels. You just wonder, had this angel
that God had sent been working in the heart of Rebekah as well?
I think so. How oftentimes the Spirit of
God stirs the hearts of God's elect long before he ever calls
them to faith in Christ. It's called prevenient grace.
It's grace before grace. You see, God's people have always
been God's people. They've never been outside of
Christ in the sight of God. And so God deals with his children
before he ever brings them to faith in Christ, before he ever
brings them to that place where they say, I will go. Like Rebecca. Hey, they are being moved upon
by the spirit of God. Excuse me. So we see that this calling involves
a promise, it involves a covenant, it involves preaching, it involves
prayer. These are all the means by which
the Lord brings each of his people willing, like Rebecca, to say,
I will go, I will go. Turn with me to Luke chapter
14, please. Luke chapter 14. Why would one not be willing
to go. I believe this parable that our
Lord gives in Luke 14 answers that for every person that is
not willing. Do you remember when our Lord saw
Matthew? Matthew had a lucrative business.
He was a tax collector. He did well for himself. And
he's sitting there at the table collecting taxes. And the Lord
comes back and looks at him and says, follow me. And the scripture
says that Matthew got up from his table and followed the Lord. Now a man can receive nothing
except to be given to him from heaven. What made Matthew get
up from his business and follow the Lord? The effectual call, the word
of God. God himself had spoken to him. Many are called. The outward
call goes out to a lot of people, but few are chosen. What about Peter? Peter had a
pretty good business too. He had a fishing business and
he had several employees. And the Lord came down to the
shore of Galilee and Peter's wrapping up his nets with his
brother and his father. And the Lord says, Peter, follow
me, I'm gonna make you fishers of men. And the scripture says,
and he left his nets and followed Christ. What made him so willing? What made him to differ from
those who are not willing? Spirit of God. The Spirit of
God. What about when Naomi had gone
to Moab and her sons and her husband died in Moab? And now
she's got two daughter-in-laws and she says, I'm going back
to Bethlehem, the house of bread. And she tells her daughter-in-law,
she said, you all stay here, I'm too old, I don't have any
more sons. If you follow me, you're gonna be widows the rest
of your life. And Ruth, Ruth says to Naomi, oh no, I'm not
staying here. Your God is my God, and your
people are my people, and wherever you go, I'm going. What made
Ruth willing? Ruth later meets her husband and becomes
part of the lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ, doesn't she? What made her willing? The Spirit of God. Previous hour,
I mentioned the woman with the issue of blood. She came crawling. She was willing. I will go. I
will go. It's the work of the Spirit of
God through the preaching of the gospel that makes God's people
willing. And here in this parable, We
have the reason why men are not willing. Look with me, if you
will. Verse 15, and when one of them
that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him,
blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.
Then said he unto him, a certain man made a great supper and bade
many. The outward call is for all men
to repent and to believe. That's the outward call. And
all men are responsible to that call. But most will not respond
to it. And they'll stand guilty before
God for not doing so. They'll be without excuse. So here's a man who puts on a
great supper and he invites everybody. He invites everybody. He extends
the outward call for everybody to come. In verse 18, and they
all with one accord began to make excuse. The first one said
unto him, I have bought a piece of ground and I must needs go
and see it. I pray thee, have me excused. Here's the first reason why men
refuse to come to Christ. While they're not willing, they're
too invested in the things of this world. All of their treasures, all of
their investments, all of their influence, all of their pleasures,
all of their are invested in the dirt of this world. I have
bought a piece of ground and I must go and see it. No man can serve two masters.
And that's what, this is the first reason. This is many, many,
many people. They've got their eyes set on
the treasures of this world, not knowing, not knowing that
the gold that is so desired in this world is going to be paving
the streets in heaven. That's how worthless, that's
how worthless the treasures of this world are gonna be in heaven.
We're gonna be walking on it. But here's what man says, you
come to the supper, come to Christ, come and eat. All things are
ready. Notice he says, he said, he made a great supper and he
told the servants, he says, come, verse 17, come for all things
are now ready. Everything's provided, don't
bring anything. Come just like you are. You're poor, you don't
have shoes, your clothes ragged, you don't have any food, you're
dirty, come. Come just like you are. Don't
try to clean yourself up to come to this supper. Isn't that what
we do? Well, I can't come before God
unless I get things in my life straightened out. No. No. Come just like you are. All your sin and all your problems
Come. No, I can't. I bought a piece
of land, a piece of ground, and I must go see it. I've set my
affections on the things of this earth, not on the things of heaven.
Now there's the first reason that men will not come to Christ. Like Esau, they will sell their
birthright for a pot of soup. to fill their bellies. You know
what belly is a picture of in the Bible? It's a picture of
the flesh. So I'm feeding my flesh with the pleasures of this
world. I don't have any interest or time for the things of God.
This is why men won't come. Look at the second one, verse
19. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen and
I go and prove them. And notice the first one said,
I've got to go see this property. That's the way the flesh is.
It just puts its affections on things that it can see. And now
he's got, I bought five yoke of oxen. Now yoke is two oxen,
so now there's 10 oxen. And we know what 10's a number
of. It's a number for the law. An oxen, like a camel, is a beast
of burden. And I've got to go prove that
these oxens are capable. Also, the other thing interesting
about this verse is that five by itself, before we double it
to 10, is a picture of grace. And so this is what the natural
man does. In religion, he mixes law with
grace. He mixes works with grace. If
it'd be of works, it can no longer be of grace. Otherwise, grace
is not grace. But isn't that what men do in
religion? Double-minded and unstable in
all their ways because they've seen salvation as something that
they have to make a contribution to. I've got to go prove my oxen. And so this is not the irreligious
man, like the first one, who's bought a piece of ground. This
is the religious man who's trying to work his way to heaven with
the yoke of oxen that he has to prove. Always trying to prove
his salvation. Religious people are bad about
that, aren't they? Always competing with one another. Always pretending
to be something that they're not. Oh, the hypocrisy and self-righteousness
of religion. I've bought, I paid for it, five
yoke of oxen and I must go proof them. It's the second reason
men won't come to Christ. Either they're invested in the
world or they're invested in their works and in religion.
And the third one very simply says, I've married a bride, I
cannot come. I cannot tell you how many times
in my life I've tried to talk to someone about the gospel and
the first words out of their mouth was, oh no, I'm, and they'll
tell you what religious persuasion thereof. I'm not interested in
your bride. I've already got a bride. I've
married a bride. You know, I'm Jewish, or I'm
Muslim, or I'm this, or I'm that, you know, it doesn't, or I'm
of this denomination, or of that persuasion. You know, you don't
need to say anything else. I've already got things. I've
already got a wife. Not interested in your gospel. Do these three things not summarize
all the men of this world? who refused to say, I will go,
I will go. You see, the simple truth is
that you either fit into one of those three categories or the Spirit of God has made
you willing in the day of God's power to say, Isaac, Isaac. Yeah, I'll marry Isaac. I'll
be his bride. I will go. I will go. Eleazar lavished her with gifts,
and she went home, saw Isaac, and became his bride, and gave
birth to Jacob, and Esau, and you know the rest of the story. This is a picture of salvation.
a promise, a covenant, prayer, preaching, the bowing of the
law to the well. God using these means to make
his people willing. It's either I bought a piece of ground and
I must go see it or I bought five yoke of oxen, and I must
go prove them. Or, I've already got a wife. Not interested in yours. Or,
I will go. Our Heavenly Father, thank you
for your word. Lord, speak eternally more to
our hearts than what we've been able to Speak audibly. For Christ's sake, we ask it.
Amen. 54? You ought to come up here, brother,
and announce it. I can't hear. Number 334, let's all stand together. Be Thou my vision, O Lord of
my heart, Not be all else to me, save that Thou art. ? Thou my best thought by day
or by night ? ? Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light ? ? Be
Thou my wisdom and Thou my true word ? ? I ever with Thee and
Thou with me, Lord ? Thou my great Father, I Thy true Son,
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one. Riches I Thee have,
poor man's empty praise, Thou mine inheritance, Thou in all
ways. Thou and Thou only, first in
my heart, My King of heaven, my treasure Thou art. My victory won. May I reach heaven's joys, O
bright heaven's sun. Heart of my own heart, whatever
befall. Still be my vision, O good Lord. Thank you.