Let's take our Bibles and turn
back to the book of Genesis chapter 24. Genesis 24. We've been considering this chapter
and it's concerning the servant of Abraham seeking out a bride
for Isaac. This is a beautiful picture,
type. of the Lord Jesus Christ, bride,
being called out, called out of darkness, unbelief, through
His servants, through the Lord's servants, through the preaching
of the gospel. This is how God has been pleased
to call His people, please God, through the foolishness of preaching. And I've said many times, not
foolish preaching, but what the world considers foolishness. You're telling me that God calls
his people only through the preaching of the gospel. That's exactly
what I mean. That's how he calls his people.
He calls you by our gospel. That's what Paul said to the
church at Thessalonica. So the servant of Abraham has
faithfully laid forth the message that was given him concerning
the finding of a bride for Isaac and all the requirements of Abraham
that were given, had been adhered to, and now he's waiting. He's
waiting to hear concerning Rebecca's willingness to come. And having
pressed the servant, Rebecca's father and brother, they're going
to They're going to give an answer. The servant of Abraham has pressed
them for an answer. And they say in verse 50, we're
going to look at verses 50 to 60, Lord willing. Verse 50, 51,
then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, the thing proceedeth
from the Lord. We cannot speak unto thee, bad
or good. Behold, Rebekah is before thee.
Take her and go. Let her be thy master's son's
wife, as the Lord hath spoken." Now, obviously, the impression
has been made upon Rebecca's family that this is of the Lord. They've heard what the servant
said. He gave us what we looked at
last time. He gave them very detailed. account of exactly what happened
when he came to the well, and his camels were there, and Rebecca
walked up, and he spoke to her, and he said these things, and
she said these things. And so having heard exactly how
it went down, he told them what he prayed. He said, I've prayed
in my heart, and I asked God. And she said just exactly what
I asked the Lord to say. So they're saying, well, obviously,
this thing is from the Lord. And we can't speak unto thee
bad or good. Really, we can't say one way
or the other. If this is the Lord's doing,
they felt compelled to not interfere. And seeing what had transpired,
it would be disrespectful for them to say their opinion one
way or the other, pro or against. If this is the Lord, you know,
we can't, but can't speak against this. Verse 52, and it came to
pass that when Abraham's servant heard their words, he worshiped
the Lord, Jehovah, the triune God, the God of covenant mercy,
bowing himself to the earth. Now, I want you to notice again,
this is the third time that this servant has been found worshiping,
praising the Lord. Notice that spirit of thankfulness
and worship that is found there. He knows the gravity. He knows the seriousness of this
issue. And he's here to find a bride
for his master's son. And he's wanting to absolutely
be thankful everything that has transpired. When he first came
to the well, praying, Lord would you give me good speed. Prayed,
let the woman say these things. She says it, he thanks the Lord
for it. He asked her, who are you? What's your daddy's name? She
told him. Oh, that's Abraham's kindred.
He thanked the Lord for that. And here they, he's hearing what
they have to say, and their willingness. They said, it said, you take
her, you take her, verse 51, you go and let her be thy master's
son, and it came to pass. He heard that thankful. The scripture
says in 1 Thessalonians 5, 18, in everything, give thanks. I was talking to
a dear, dear brother, friend today in another state, and we
were talking about this very, very verse right here. And what
we go through, we go through things. Things happen. But all things are ordered by
the Lord. He worketh all things. Notice how many times the scripture
about all things. And we know that all things work
together here in 1st Thessalonians 5 to 18, in everything. And if our situation, as I've
said so many times before, if it happens to fall under the
category of all things or in everything, give thanks. For this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you, that we give thanks. is giving
thanks, worshiping, oh, the blessing of being able to behold the hand
of the Lord directing our steps. He rules in the army of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth. And as I said, working
all things after the counsel of his own will. Therefore, we
rejoice in the blessed privilege to be able to give thanks for
His mercy and compassion. Whatever we go through, whatever
we go through, the Lord ordered that. He ordered that. And we may never know why. All power, John 17, 2, is given
unto the Son to order all things. Why? That all that the father
had given him would come to him. He orders everything. He puts
people together. He moves this. He raises up a
nation. He puts down a nation because
he's got a people. He knows where they are and he's
going to save them. So he's ordering our steps. He's the shepherd, we're the
sheep. And verse 53, and the servant
brought forth jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment
and gave them to Rebekah. He gave also to her brother and
to her mother precious things. Now, without a doubt, these jewels
of silver and gold were given as gifts the earnest, the tokens
of love concerning the betrothal of Rebekah to Isaac. But these gifts, she's the bride,
she's the bride to be. And so this servant who has all
of Abraham's goods with him, everything he's got's Abraham's,
And he gives these gifts unto Rebecca and to her family. But these gifts, are these not
precious types and pictures of the gifts of the Lord Jesus to
his people? He has a bride, the bride of
Christ. Those that believe, they are
the bride. How long have they been the bride?
They've always been the bride. I've loved you with an everlasting
love. I will betroth you unto me, everlastingly, eternally. Nothing has ever changed with
the Lord. Has he always been the bridegroom? Nothing ever
changes with the Lord. Has he always had a bride? Nothing
ever changes with the Lord. I change not. So he gives, this
servant gives unto Rebecca these gifts, these tokens of betrothal. This is the earnest to you. When
you marry my master's son, everything that he's got's yours. Everything I got's Glenda's.
Sorry, it's my wife. It belongs to her. Why? By our
union, by our marriage. And here's a betrothal, but let
me ask you this. She had not physically seen him
yet, and she's got these gifts, but you think about the gifts
that we have right now from the Lord. Think about the gifts that
we've got. I just jotted down a few things
that came to my mind. What do we have? We have Him. We have the Lord. I'm your God, and you're my people. So we have Him, and He's laid
down His life. We have the gift of redemption. He's given us redemption. The Spirit of God has given us
life. The life of Christ. We've got
His name. We're Christians. They were first
called Christians in Antioch. We have His love. He said in
Song of Solomon, you've ravished my heart with one of your eyes. That love that's always been.
And let's think of this gift. We have peace. We have peace
with God. What a gift. Pardon. We have his presence. We just
sang this song. I will never, never, never forsake
you. Where two or three are gathered
together in my name. I am in the midst of you. We have his promise. We have his promise. I go to
prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place,
I will come again, that you may be where I am. And he's coming,
he's coming. And then the scripture says the
servant, verse 53, and the servant brought forth jewels of silver
and jewels of gold and raiment. Now that raiment was given by
Abraham's servant, but now you know where I'm going with this.
Does, is that not set forth? in glorious type and picture,
the wedding garment, which is worn by all that had been chosen
in the Lord Jesus Christ and redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ,
that wedding garment, the robe of his righteousness, robed in
his obedience. All these blessings that's been
bestowed upon God's people, we've got the earnest of his spirit
and that blessed promise of eternal life in him, all these spiritual
blessings, these gifts that were given to her, they meant something. Ephesians chapter one, all these
spiritual blessings, you've heard this so many times, but they
bear being mentioned again, chosen in him before the foundation
of the world that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love. What a gift. Predestinated unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good
pleasure of his will. Accepted of God in the beloved. in whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of his grace, and then we have the mystery of his will made
known unto us. A mystery. What is the mystery of his will? Here's what scripture says. I'm
getting this all from Ephesians 1. That in the fullness of times,
He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both of
which in heaven and are on earth, even in him. Departed saints,
saints that are still here on this earth, in the fullness of
time will all be together. When the Lord returns, he's gonna
come with the saints that have gone before us. The dead, they're
gonna rise and meet their bodies of bodies that's gonna be changed
in the twinkling of an eye. And we won't precede them, but
we'll all be changed. We may not all sleep, Paul said,
but we're gonna all be changed. That's a glorious thought. And
that I was talking to some of us when we were on vacation.
See that hand right there? This hand right here will be
in glory. It's going to be changed. Job
says, with these eyes, I'm going to see God. I'm going to see
God. It's going to be changed. It's
going to go from corruption to incorruption. I don't know what
that means, but I know flesh and blood is not going to inherit
the kingdom of heaven. I know that. But with these eyes, Job
said, I'm gonna see God. And this mortal's gonna put on
immortality. It's gonna be changed. But there's
gonna be personality. I told you before, on the Mount
of Transfiguration, do you know the apostles knew that that's
Moses and Elijah right there? That's Moses. They knew them,
they knew who they were. They never met them before, but
they knew them. They were brethren. They were
the family, and they knew them. They knew who they were. That
in the fullness of time you'll gather together in one, being
predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all
things after the counsel of his own will, that we should be to
the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ. With all these
blessings pictured by the gifts that were given To Rebecca, we've
received, oh, graciously received the gift of faith to believe
this. We believe God. Abraham believed
God. Faith, without which no man shall
please God. He gave gifts to Rebecca and
her parents. They were these precious gifts. These gifts were set forth as
a token of the sincerity of the one that had sent this servant.
the honor of the one that had sent. This wasn't done in secret. This wasn't done behind closed
doors. The servant provided for any
loss that would be incurred by Rebecca's family because of her
leaving. Abraham wasn't gonna be indebted
to him. He gave him the tokens of his wealth and his honor. Verse 54, and they did eat and
drink, and he and the men that were with him and tarried all
night, they rose up in the morning and said, send me away unto my
master. The report of the servants had
been faithfully set forth. And you know, he told them at
first, they wanted to eat. They wanted to eat before this,
and the servant told them, no, we ain't gonna eat until I tell
you what I gotta tell you. First things first. I'm gonna
tell you why I'm here. I'm not gonna be distracted by
all of this. And so they did. And then they
sat down and they ate, and the consent's been given, the
gifts have been exchanged, and they ate, and they got them a
good night's rest. I thought about this scripture.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all
these things will be added unto you. Let's seek first the kingdom
of God, his honor, his glory, his praise. Well, rising up the
next morning, the anxious is the servant to get back to his
master's son, Isaac. He wants to bring this bride,
this woman that's been found and that the Lord has been pleased
to have caused you know, cross his path, but then before he
leaves, a situation arises. Verse 55 to 57, her brother,
mother said, well, let the damsel abide with us a few days, at
least 10. The marginal says a full year
or 10 months. And after that, she shall go. And the servant says in verse
56, he said unto them, hinder me not. seeing the Lord at the
cross of my way, send me away that I may go to my master."
And they said, we'll call the damsel and inquire at her mouth. Now while this, when I first
read that, it, you know, I first thought, crossed my mind, are
they changing their mind? The request probably would have
been, I would say, as far as custom was at that time, maybe
within the bounds of that which would have been acceptable. It
would probably be, in their minds, they're, okay, wait a minute,
wait a minute, wait a minute, you're taking her right now. We want
you to take her. You're going to take her now?
I mean, does she have any time to be able to spend and let us
say our goodbyes? Who knows? We may never see her
again. And whatever would be appropriate,
but we were thinking maybe 10 months to a year. And the servant
says, no, no, no, no, the delay was more than the servant could
allow. What he's saying is this. In
verse 56, he said, you hinder me not seeing the Lord has prospered
my way. I was sent here by my master
and the Lord has prospered my way and now, now is the time. that we have to go. And they
said, well, what we'll do then, hold on, let's just say, wait
a minute, let's just talk to Rebecca about this. And I thought
to myself, well, you know what? I thought that that would have
been a wonderful idea. I mean, the father said she can go and
her brother said she could go, but have you asked her? Have
you asked her? What do you think? They said,
well, let's just call the damsel. And they called Rebecca. and
said unto her, wilt thou go with this man? And you know, that's
the question that is laid before when the gospel is preached.
This is the question right here. Will you go? I've set forth the
glory of God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. I've told
you about God who's chosen a people. Christ has redeemed those that
the Father gave Him in electing grace, and the Spirit of God
will certainly call them out and make them willing in the
day of God's power. And you know me, you've known
me long enough to know this, I'm not going to even insinuate
that it's left up now to a man's decision. Who decides? God decides. But when God gives
a heart made willing, all that the Father giveth me shall come
to me. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. So this question right here,
they ask her, do you have a will to go? Will you go? Do you want
to go? You know when God's people come
in heart, when they bow, when they trust, when God gives them
a new heart. He takes, he removes a heart
of stone. He removes a heart of stone.
What does that mean? That means he removed the heart
of stone. Does that mean he took it out?
It means he took it out. There's a new heart. There's
a new heart in every believer. A new seed of affection, a new
will, a new spirit, a new love, a new desire. There's a new man
created in righteousness. That new man is in an old body
of flesh. But there's a new man there.
There's a new heart. That old heart doesn't rule.
And that old flesh that was corrupted in the fall, it's still corrupted. But sin doesn't have dominion
anymore over a believer. He's got a new heart. A new will. My friend I was talking
to, I told him, I said, I kind of just got to thinking about
an old jalopy that's got a brand new 426 Hemi in it. And that Hemi runs, and it's
a great engine. That which is born of God sinneth
not. It's a new man. But this old
body, I can bear all this out in Romans chapter seven. Paul
said, I see in me. The will is present with me.
how to perform that which I find not. In my flesh, in me, that
is in my flesh, I see, that new man, I see no good thing. Oh,
wretched man, the things that I do, why do I do that? There's a battle going on here.
Why do I do this? So they come to that point. Will
you go? Do you want to go? She said,
I will go. I will. I will. go. She's the one that the servant
had asked, you know. When Abraham sent him, he prayed,
venture the will, the woman will not follow me. And they ask her,
will you follow? Will you go? And she said, I
will go. I've heard the report concerning
Abraham's son, and she's seen and she's received the tokens
of the betrothal, and now she's gonna go. Her family's saying,
no, stay with us, stay with us. Let me ask you this. When God
called you out of darkness, You ready to leave where you were? Your family will say, won't you
sit here for 10 months or a year? No, I can't. I'm going, I'm going
right now. I'm going now, I will go. And
look into this beautiful type and picture. This is the question
that is now set forth to those regenerated by the grace of God.
Will you come? The Spirit has made you willing. Made you believe by faith from
above. You know that the Lord died.
He died for you. And all the justice and wrath
of God has been poured out upon the person of your blessed Redeemer
and Savior. Do you see Him as your only hope
of life? Do you desire to, you know, I
want to see, I want to be with him of whom I've heard. Will you go with this man? Will
you go to the God-man mediator? Will you leave your house of
bondage and come to him? If you will, it's not because
of your own strength. I can tell you that, like I said
before. You desire because he's given
you a heart to come, and now what you're doing is you're coming
to him. I want to apprehend that for
which I have been apprehended. I want him, the vessel of God's
mercy, the one that possesses that new heart and desire for
Christ, that's what they want. There's a heart of every believer. I want to see him. I want to
see him. There's a struggle, I know there
is. There's an old man that's in that flesh, that old brother
Scott used to say, we were created to never die. And there's a battle
that's going on. But I'm telling you, there's
a brand new heart in an old flesh body that hadn't changed. I have the same old carnal loves
and affections, and it is. But these precious promises, heir of God, joint heir with
Christ. You know, sometimes I, well,
no, not sometimes, I just can't wrap my head around that. The
depth, everything that's owed to him justly by his obedience, He's mine. Mine. Rebecca entered that unknown
path. Just like God's people do, they walk by faith and not
by sight. She never saw him. Everything
she knows about him, she heard. That's all we know of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Faith cometh by hearing. So much
that the Lord's been pleased to not reveal to us, but what
he has taught us. We know it. Paul said, I know
whom I have believed. And I'm persuaded he's able to
keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. So
here she is. She's left. Rebecca's leaving
for a natural husband, an illustration of our precious Savior. I think
about this in Philippians 3.13 as I close, forgetting the things
which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which
are before. I press toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Last two verses. And they sent
away Rebekah, their sister, and her nurse, and Abraham's servant
and his men. And they blessed Rebekah and
said unto her, thou art our sister. Be thou the mother of thousands
of millions. He told them what promise God
had made to Abraham. Abraham's son Isaac was the promised
son of God, and Isaac shall thy seed be called. So whatever God
had promised to Abraham, he promised to Isaac, and then next on to
Jacob. Thou art our sister, be thou
the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the
gate of those that hate them. I'm gonna, they're praying for
her. All they're doing is they're
going to repeat what they heard the servant promised. The bride
of Isaac is going to be the mother of thousands. gave to Abraham,
then to Isaac, and then to her being his bride. And then they
said at last, that last thing, let thy seed possess the gate
of those which hate them. They've been talking about her
being the mother of thousands of millions. Spiritually speaking,
there's a people of God. There are the people of God with
thousands of millions and let thy seed, and he's speaking now
of Christ, let thy seed, the one through whom, it's gonna
come through Isaac. She's gonna have the child. Let
thy seed possess the gate of those that hate him. Now, the
gate, I looked this up to find out what this meant. The gate
of a city represents the security of the city, and also all of
the judicial decisions. Often the powers that would be,
they would sit in the gate that would enter in. And whoever controlled
the gate really controlled the city, whoever was there. So the security of the inhabitants
of the city were actually, humanly speaking, in the hands of the
gatekeepers. Well, spiritually now, Rebekah be the bride of
Isaac, Abraham's son. That promise to Abraham was the
promise to Isaac, as I said before. So by union with Isaac, Rebekah
would be the mother of thousands of millions. And spiritually
speaking, this number has set forth the entire spiritual kingdom
of Christ. Rebekah, thy seed, she said,
The Lord Jesus, what she's talking about, he said, now, we're praying
this. Let thy seed possess the gate. Now, I told you that whoever
held the gate held the power. The power of that gate was the
security. That gate's closed. That city's
safe, gate wide open, borders wide open. But let thy seed, let the Lord
Jesus Christ, possess the gate of those that hate them. Remember
that scripture that says the gates of hell shall not prevail
against the church. The power, the power of hell
is not going to, not going to destroy the church. This gate
that they're talking about, thy seed possesses the gate. of those that hate God's people.
God Almighty has Satan bound. His power, the gate of those
that hate the children of God, who's in control? This is what
they prayed for. Thy seed, you're gonna have myriads
promised. But the one through whom, the
one that'll come through your lineage, the Lord Jesus Christ,
He's gonna possess the gate, the power. Satan has no power
but that which is delegated to him by God. This is our prayer
for you. That God Almighty rules and reigns. The gates of hell are not gonna
stop the will of God to call all those that God's given unto
you. This was a beautiful, beautiful, prophetic prayer, praying for
Rebekah. Look at the picture of who she's
going to marry. She's a picture of us. Rebecca's
a picture of the bride of Christ. Isaac is a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And this is the prayer that she
was saying. We're praying that your husband, great husband himself, the Lord
Jesus Christ, possesses the gate of those that hate God's people.
And he does. Satan cannot stop the Lord from
calling out his elect. And for that, I'm thankful. I
pray God bless this to our hearts, for Christ's sake.