All right, I'll ask you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to Psalm 121. Lord willing, I'm gonna be preaching
out of Genesis 24, but before we look at Genesis 24, let's
look at Psalm 121. I will lift up mine eyes into
the hills, From whence cometh my help? My help cometh from
the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy
foot to be moved. He that keepeth thee will not
slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper. The Lord
is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee
by day nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee
from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The
Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this
time forth and even forevermore. Our Father, we thank you for
this evening Lord, for the privilege to be able to read your word,
I ask you now to bless it. Bless, I pray, as we consider
your scriptures, Genesis 24. Lord, as we soon shall partake
of your table. Lord, bless this evening of our
hearing of the gospel for Christ's sake. All right, now I'll ask you to
take your Bibles and turn back to Genesis 24. Genesis 24, as
we continue going through this passage of scripture, it sets
forth the calling out of the bride of Isaac, beautiful picture
type of how the Lord calls out his bride. The servant of Abraham has been found at a well. A woman,
after he's prayed, has walked up while he was praying. She came up and he watched her. She went over to fill up her
pitcher with water. He asked her for a drink of water.
And she said, I'll give you a drink of water. And she said, I'll
water your camels too. And that was exactly what the
servant of Abraham had asked for. And the Lord was pleased
to bless it. He put it in the servant's heart
to ask. He put it in Rebecca's heart
to respond. Just exactly like that. He asked her, what family was
she from? She said, I'm from the family
of Nahar, Bethul, my daddy. And he thanked the Lord, blessed
the Lord for blessing his journey, for giving him good speed. That's
what he asked, Lord, would you give me good speed? That was
his prayer. Well, now, after he prayed, In
verse 27 of Genesis 24, he said, blessed be the Lord God of my
master Abraham, who has not left destitute my master of his mercy
and his truth. I, being in the way, the Lord
led me to the house of my master's brethren. And the damsel ran
and told them of her mother's house these things. Now, we're
going to look at the unfolding of a conversation that's going
to take place between the servant of Abraham and the family of
Rebekah. Now, Rebekah had run home to
tell her family what had happened. In the scripture, we take up
right here, verse 29, Rebekah had a brother. His name was Laban,
and Laban ran out under the man, under the well, and he came to
pass when he saw the earring and bracelets. upon his sister's
hands. And when he heard the words of
Rebekah, his sister, saying, thus spake the man unto me, he
came unto the man, and behold, he stood by the camels at the
well, and he said, Come in, thou blessed of the Lord. Wherefore
standest thou without? For I have prepared the house
and room for the camels." Now, he was accommodating, but really,
the part that gives some insight of his motive. Now, this is what
all the commentators said, and I find no reason not to think
that this is probably not so. It said, verse 30, came to pass
when he saw the earring and bracelets upon his sister's hand, and when
he heard the words of Rebecca, his sister, saying, thus spake
the man to me, he came to the man. I don't doubt, again, that
he's being kind, hospitable, but it could have been that there
was a hope of gain there. We're all prone to see things
like this, but whatever the reason, Now the servant of Abraham has
a place. It's of the family of Abraham. And the scripture says in verse
32, 33, the man came into the house and he ungirded his camels
and gave straw and provender for the camels and water to wash
his feet and the men's feet that were with him. And there was
set meat before him to eat. But he said, I will not eat until
I have told my error. And he said, speak on. Now it's amazingly beautiful
to behold the miracle of the grace of God in the calling out
of God's people. And here's this servant. that
is being now graciously and generously treated by Rebecca's family and
all of the needs of himself, those that were with him, his
camels are being cared for. And they tell him, they lay before
him all this food. They've got him something to
eat. But he said, now, I've got something more important that
I've got to do. The servant of Abraham, as the
servants of God, was taken up foremost with his master's business. There was something upon his
heart, according to the working of God Almighty, that he preferred
above everything else. Number one, it was God's will
and Abraham's interest. What he said was, I appreciate
everything you're doing. I appreciate the food, I appreciate
the lodging, I appreciate your kindness to me, to my servants,
to these animals, I appreciate everything you're doing. But
he said, I'm not gonna eat. I'm not even gonna respond to
the hand of your graciousness and satisfy the desires or the
needs of myself before I tell you of my commission. There's something that's more
needful to be spoken of than this eating. I've gotta tell
you why I'm here. And the servant said, well, speak
on. You know, what a blessing to be consumed with the Lord
and to hear one relate with anxiousness the glorious message of Christ. What he's doing right here is
gloriously setting forth how God calls his people. And that's the important thing. And he said, I'm not gonna be
distracted with this. I appreciate what you're doing,
but I can't. I gotta tell you concerning the
grace of God to send me the Lord that blessed my efforts and has
brought me to this place and moved this woman to say what
she did. He said, the cares of this world,
are just gonna have to take second place. And so we desire to be
anxious and forthright and steadfast in our mission. The Lord Jesus
Christ said of himself, he said, my meat is to do the will of
him that sent me and to finish his work, so one whose heart
has been made to behold the glory of Almighty God in the message
of the gospel, the calling out of God's sheep. That's the issue. That's the only issue it can
be. First Corinthians 1, 22 to 24
says the Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom,
but we preach Christ crucified. Under the Jews, a stumbling block.
Under the Greeks, foolishness. But under them, which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom
of God. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2,
2, for I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. And when we hear that, Jesus
Christ and Him crucified, that entails the whole, the scope
of the glorious gospel that God Almighty chose a people, put
them in Christ before the foundation of the world. The Lord Jesus
Christ redeemed them by the shedding of His blood. The Spirit of God
calls them out of darkness. So when we say Christ and Him
crucified, we're speaking of the entirety of the message of
the gospel. And that's what God's people
want to hear. Tell me about him. Tell me about the Lord that has
loved me with an everlasting love and the one that came into
this world to save his people from their sins. 34 and 35, here's
what he told them. He said, I am Abraham's servant. And the Lord has blessed my master
greatly and he has become great and he has given him flocks and
herds and silver and gold and men's servants and maid's servants
and camels and asses, you know. What a glorious confession that
was made by this messenger of Abraham. When he set forth, he
said, I'm Abraham's servant. But to hear one confess, I am
the bond slave. I am the servant of the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is what Paul said, Romans
1.1. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle, separated under the gospel of God. This
is what he says when he wrote the letter to the church of Philippi,
Philippians 1.1. Paul and Timotheus the servants
of Jesus Christ to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at
Philippi with the bishops and deacons. Titus 1.1, Paul, a servant
of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith
of God's elect and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness. You know, this is the highest
of callings. Who are you? name any office you want to,
any vocation you want to, you know, but to say I'm the servant
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It gets no higher than that.
He is my Lord, I am his servant. So that's an honest and sincere
confession of humility. I am the Lord's servant. servant, but that's truly the
characteristics, a characteristic of God's people. That's what
they desire to be. That's what they willingly desire
to be. I am his bond slave. My ear bored with all of his
mercy and compassion. I love him. He loved me first,
I love him, I love him. So Abraham was this servant's
master, a beautiful and fit type of Almighty God and the relationship
of his people to himself. He's the sovereign of heaven
and earth and all regenerated by his grace are in subjection
to him, the master, the master of his people. He's their creator,
yes, but he's their Lord. He's my God. He's my king. He's
the bridegroom. He's my priest. He's my redeemer. It's just on and on and on. I am his servant. And so God's servants clearly
set forth him. He is the God of heaven and earth.
David, where's your God? My God's in the heaven. He does
whatever he wants to, all as he will. He says, they say, as
Nebuchadnezzar said, he said, all the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed, I'm sorry, as nothing. And he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven among the inhabitants earth. None can
stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? Then in verse
36, he continues his story. He said, and Sarah, my master's
wife, bear a son to my master when she was old, and unto him
hath he given all that he hath." Now here, the servant set forth,
now, I am Abraham's servant. And he said, Abraham's wife,
when she was old, we saw that past childbearing age, He said,
my wife, my master's wife, Sarah, bore him a son. And my master,
Abraham, that's got all these things. God's blessed him, verse
35, giving him flocks, herds, silver, gold, everything. He's
given everything unto his son, Abraham. Isaac. Isaac now has
all that is his father's. So Isaac, in wealth and power
and purpose, was equal to Abraham. Abraham's the daddy, he's the
son, but everything the daddy's got, the son's got. And all that
Almighty God was pleased to give, which was everything he gave
to the son. All power, give me all power, That's John 17, two,
in heaven and earth. Why? That I should give eternal
life to as many as the father has given him. So here we consider
him who is the fulfillment of the type of Isaac, the Lord Jesus
Christ, God's son in covenant, mercy and grace, and the one
in whom the father first trusted. Here's the father's will. Here's
the Father's will, that of all that He's given me, I should
lose nothing. This is the Father's will. The
Father has a people that He's chosen. He gave them to me, the
Lord Jesus Christ, and entrusted Him with the work. Now you redeem
them. Now you save them. And the Father
trusted Him. And so here's my master's son. He's got a son, one that he's
given everything to. And he says in verse 37, 38,
my master made me swear, saying, thou shalt not take a wife to
my son of the daughters of the Canaanites in whose land I dwell,
but thou shalt go into my father's house and to my kindred and take
a wife unto my son. Abraham, obviously directed by
the Spirit of God, told his servant, he said, now you go find a wife,
this is where I want you to go. You go to my kindred, and I want
you to take a wife, not of the daughters of Abraham, not of
the ranks of the rejected, no. but a wife for Isaac was to be
sought among Abraham's kindred. I say that among the ranks of
the rejected. Years ago, I know I've told this
story years and years ago, the Lord was pleased to reveal himself
to me while I was pastoring a Southern Baptist church. And I crossed
paths with Brother Henry Mahan. My mama introduced him to me. They were having a meeting at
Kitchens Creek. I was passing a little church down in South
Louisiana. Just didn't know anything. And I came in in the process
of time. The Lord was pleased to reveal
himself. Brother Henry and I had a wonderfully close relationship. He was in my home. I was in his
home many, many, many times. And Lord revealed himself to
me. And while I was hearing these
things, I began to preach them there. And it happened, it fell
out providentially that I was invited to come to this convention
to speak. speaker, and I got up and I took
a text, and the text was, and the Lord was, it pleased the
Lord to save as many as were ordained to eternal life in the
Book of Acts. They asked me to vacate the pulpit
then, and a second guy came up, and this is what I'm getting
to right here on this. Don't go to the, don't go. I'm not
looking for a bride among the people of Canaan. The second
man got up and he told me, told the people, he said, here's how
we're building our church. He said, we give out these cards. Y'all, you remember me telling
y'all this illustration, I know you do. We have these membership
cards, and we give them to all our members, just hand them all
out, and we just tell them, go everywhere you want to, and get
people's names, just walk up and get their names, get their
names, get their names, address, phone number, and then turn it
in to our church office. And those people are enrolled
into our assembly. They're enrolled in our church.
And he said, we're looking to have 1,000 new members this year. And I thought to myself, this
is what I thought. Here I was in Louisiana. I thought, you
know, if that's all it took to increase the numbers of an assembly,
Chuck, I could go down to the Superdome. Wasn't he having a
football game and handing out cards and have somebody filling
them out for me? Man, I could get no telling how
many. If that's all it'd take, if that's all it'd take, just
put your name on a roll. And he said, I want you to go
find a bride for my son, but don't go to the land of Canaan. Don't go to the daughters of
the rejected. The bride of Christ was to be
found among the chosen family of God. those that were loved
and chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. And
Abraham's servant was obedient. He went, he prayed, he asked
the Lord, but he didn't know who the bride was. He didn't
know where she would be found. He's asking the Lord for guidance.
And Abraham had told him, he said, God will send you spirit.
His angel. He'll guide you and direct you.
We're doing the same thing tonight. I don't know who the bride of
Christ is. I said I have a good idea on
some that the Lord's been pleased to save, but If there's someone
here and I don't know, I don't know who she is, but we seek
the bride among those who are the chosen family of God, but
we do it in the exact way that the Lord instructed us to do,
to do it. You go in all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature. And so he continued his story
here, verse 39 to 49. I said unto my master, peradventure,
the woman will not follow me. And he said unto me, now I've
read over this verse right here, and just listen to the surety
of it. This is the glory of this passage. He asked, what if I go, and no
one wants to come. He said unto me, the Lord before
whom I walk will send his angel with thee and prosper thy way. Now that's an encouragement right
there. And thou shalt take a wife from my son of my kindred and
of my father's house. Then shalt thou be clear from
this my oath when thou comest to my brethren, and if they give
not thee one, thou shalt be clear from my oath. I'm thinking to
myself, this is liberty, this is freedom. This is a promise
that you can rest in right here. You preach the gospel. You make
that your concern. You make that the issue. The only issue. You preach the
gospel of God's grace. You tell them what God has purposed,
what Christ has done, what he's fulfilled, what he finished,
where he is, he's coming back. You tell them of Christ and his
glory. And the Lord has promised the
bride will come. She will come. She'll be made
willing in the day of God's power. You do that and let that be your
issue. You do that. And if you never
see anybody come, If I never see another person that confesses
the Lord, if I never hear one more person ever come up to me
and say, listen, I hear what you're saying, I believe the
gospel that you're preaching, and I wanna confess the Lord
in baptism. Baptism doesn't save you, but it's an open confession
before the world. This is my heart confession right
here, and I'm gonna confess Him the way He said to confess Him.
You preach the gospel, and if I never see another one, God's
word still stands. God's word is sure. The bride
is gonna come. All that the Father has given
me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. But if I never see another one,
if I never see another one out of my family converted, if I
preach the gospel, and let that be my issue and that's my concern,
then thou shalt be clear from this my oath when thou comest
to my kindred. If they give not thee one, thou
shalt be clear from my oath. And I came, he said, this day
unto the well. and said, O Lord God of my master
Abraham, if now thou do prosper my way, which I go, before I
stand by the well of water, and it shall come to pass that when
the virgin cometh forth to draw water, and I say to her, give
me, I pray thee, a little water of thy pitcher to drink, and
she say to me, both drink thou, and I will also draw for thy
camels, let the same be the woman whom the Lord hath appointed
out of my master's son. And before I had done speaking
in my heart," he didn't say this out loud. He wasn't trying to
say it out loud so somebody could hear it, maybe kind of give them
a little nudge. No, he said, I was, I was, before I had done
speaking in my heart, before Rebekah came forth with her pitcher
on her shoulder, and she went down under the well and drew
water. And I said unto her, let me drink, I pray thee. And she
made haste and let down her pitcher from her shoulder and said, drink,
and I will give thy camels drink also. So I drank, and she made
the camels drink also. And I asked her and said, whose
daughter art thou? And she said, the daughter of
Bethuel, Nahor's son, whom Milcah barren to him. And I put the
earring upon her face and the braces upon her hand. I bowed
down my head and I worshiped the Lord and blessed the Lord
God of my master Abraham, which had led me in the right way to
take my master's brother's daughter unto his son. And now, if you'll
deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me. And if not,
tell me. that I may turn to the right
hand or to the left. Now, this was the question of
the steward to Abraham. What if she won't come? Oh, how
we've doubted, thinking there's so few that believe our report.
Who have believed our report? There seems to be so few that
do come, but they're the Lord's, and he's gonna have them. He's
promised that. Our issue is the preaching, the
supporting of the gospel. And the Lord told Abraham to
tell the servant, I'll send my angel and you'll prosper. You'll
prosper your way and she will come. How thankful that we know
that the requirement of drawing the bride is not our efforts
and not our ability to to speak words of wisdom and try to manipulate
people. We just tell them what God has
done. Tell them the truth of God's
gospel and the responsibility of calling out God's servant.
That's what it is. You preach the truth. That's
what we told Timothy. Preach the word. Preach the word. Preach
the word. Don't let anything else distract
you. You preach the word. Be faithful to do that. Satan
has lied to men, telling them that he's got a will and he's
got an ability to choose and he's got this free will to do
whatever. But it's calculated to give man
all the honor. This servant right here, He did
what Abraham told him to do. He asked the Lord to bless it,
and God blessed it, and he praised and worshiped the Lord. So as
the steward of Abraham had faithfully laid out the message of Abraham,
his master, and of his son, we lay out the truth of Christ.
This is what we do. We tell them what God Almighty
has said concerning Himself and we just, we rehearse it, is what
we're doing. And he pressed the family. He said, now, I've told you why
I'm here. This is why I came. I'm here
because this is where I was led to. He said, now, that last verse,
if you'll deal kindly and truly with my master, you tell me.
And if not, tell me. Tell me what you want to do,
that I may turn to the right hand or to the left. But he said,
I'm here to find a bride for my master's son. This is what
we're here for. This is what we're here to do.
We're here for the calling out of the sheep. The Lord Jesus
Christ has got a bride, and he's going to have her. And he's commissioned
ministers to preach the gospel. and people, God's people come
and they hear that message over and over and over and it's just
as fresh tonight as it was the first time when God revealed
himself to them through that gospel. I pray God bless this
to our hearts for Christ's sake.