Turn with me, if you will, to
Genesis 24. Bruce, I'm so blessed by your
message. I've been there. I've been there. I've been there. Somebody very, very, very precious
to me was dying and a brother asked her, he said, what's your
hope that you're going to go? be with Christ. She said, I have
two things. She said, I know, I know I'm
a great, great sinner. And I know the Lord Jesus Christ
is my only hope, my only Savior. You can go into eternity with
those two things. God never lets us get above being
a sinner, does He? Never lets us get over being
a sinner, never lets us. But He also never lets us get
overlooking to Christ. Never lets us get over it. Bless
His name. Oh, what a Savior. What a Savior.
I want to bring a message this morning. I hope I don't preach
too long. A Bride for Isaac. A Bride for
Isaac. You know, this chapter here is
more than just a historical story. It's one of the fullest revelations
of God's electing love and grace that you'll ever find in the
scriptures. It's just a beautiful portrayal of God's love for His
blessed church, His bride, and the brides being brought, being
brought, to Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ, the sinner being
brought to Christ. And let me give you four things
before I get into the message here and deal with it. Abraham's
here and he's a type of our Father. Isaac here, he's a type of the
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Eliezer, the servant of Abraham,
he's typical of the Holy Spirit. that Bruce talks about going
and dealing with them. And then Rebecca, who ends up
being Isaac's bride, is a type of the sinner being brought to
the Son. Now let's see if I can make that
good. But here in chapter 24, I'm going
to read the first five verses, and then I'm not going to read
any more. I think as I go to the places as I describe them,
you'll be able to follow along very easily. Abraham was old
and well stricken in age, and the Lord had blessed Abraham
in all things. And Abraham said unto his eldest
servant of his house that ruled over all that he had, Put, I
pray thee, thy hand under my thigh. And I will make thee swear
by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that thou
shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites
among whom I dwell. But thou shalt go unto my country,
and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac. And the servant
said unto him, Peradventure, the woman will not be willing
to follow me unto this land. Must thy needs bring thy son
again unto the land from which thou camest? And Abraham said
unto him, Beware that thou bring not my son there again. There again. The first thing
we see about this bride for Isaac, it was the father's purpose to
have a bride for his blessed son. It was the father's purpose.
The father said, I want you to go and bring a bride home for
my son. I want you to go find a bride
for her. And it was the Father's will and purpose. And it originated
with Him. That's where this business of
salvation originated. It originated with God. When
it says in Genesis 1-1, in the beginning was God. The only thing
that didn't have a beginning was God Himself. And everything
else started with Him. Everything originated with Him.
And before you and I ever was, God said, I'm going to have a
bride for my son. God said He had a purpose and
who shall disavow it? And He gave us this grace and
purpose in Christ before the world ever began. Our Lord Jesus
Christ said He worketh all things after the counsel of His own
will. And so God had a purpose. He had a will. And that will
was, I've got a son. And oh, I've got a blessed son.
I've got a lovely son. I've got a precious son. My only
son. And I want him to have the most
beautiful bride that there is anywhere, and I'm going to send
somebody to go get her. And you know, it says, for whom
he did foreknow. What did he do? Damn, he did
predestinate. And I'll tell you what else he
said here in verse And it originated with Him. God hath purposed,
and who's going to disavow it? He stretched forth His hand.
Who's going to stop Him? He does according to His will
in the armies of heaven. No man can stay His hand or say
unto Him, what are you doing? But look what He said again in
verse 4 here. He said, Thou shalt go unto My
country. The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof. Everywhere you go it belongs
to Him. I know men's divided it up and they put their titles
on it and they get... Scott talked about these fellas
getting these great big mailboxes and putting their name on it
and putting no trespassing signs all over it. But listen. You know what, we're going to
end up in a six foot hole, about six foot long, and about two
and a half, four foot wide. That's where we got on this plot
of ground we're going to own before we leave here. We get
a title to it, we say it belongs to us, and we make payments on
it and all that. This earth and all that's in
it belongs to Him. He said, go to my country. Well,
where can you go where God's not? Where can you go where God's
my steady foot? Where can you go where God don't
see you? David said, if I want to get
away from you, he said, if I go into darkness, he said, it's
just like light. If I go down to hell, he said, there you go.
He said, if I send up, he said, there's no place that I can go
to get away from you. And that's something, that's
another thing about the Spirit when He gives us that spirit
of adoption. We don't want to be anywhere God ain't. We delight
in being in His presence. We delight in knowing that He
knows us. What a blessing that God knows
us. He knows us inside and He knows
us outside. He knows the intimate thoughts
of our hearts. He knows what we think before
we think it. And He said, go to my country. And it's all His. And then He says, and go to my
kindred." You know how long we've been
his kindred? He said, go to my kindred. Oh my. You know how long we've
been, he said, Jeremiah, before you was ever formed in the belly,
I knew you. Paul said, would it please God
who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace? Oh, listen, before we ever were,
when we were in our mothers' wombs, and when we were in our
fathers' loins, and in our grandfathers' loins, and our great-grandfathers'
loins, God knew us. He said, Go among my kindred. He said, Go to people that belong
to Me. And now, you talked about that
union. He is our brother. He is our
eldest brother. He is not ashamed to call us
brother. He said, I and the children which
Thou hast given Me, go to My kindred. Go to them that I foreknew. Go to them that I foreloved. Go to them that I have loved
with an everlasting love. And I am going to draw them with
cords of everlasting kindness. So that's the Father's purpose.
Now look with me now over here in verse 35. Now he's done with Dan. I'll
tell you the story. He went down there and he asked
the Lord to direct his paths and lead him to the woman. And
Rebekah came out and drew water for him. And he used that. He
said, Lord, if whoever comes and brings water, he said, let
that be her. But when he got there, Look what he did now. Look at
the son's position here. Verse 34, he said, I am Abraham's
servant. I'm the father'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 men's servants, maid's servants,
camels, and asses. Now listen to this. And Sarah,
my master's wife, bare a son to my master when he was old,
and unto him hath he given all that he hath. He said, you know, my master's
got everything, and he's given all that to his son. Everything that the Father hath
belongs to that Son. And not only was He like that,
but He was a supernatural born child. He was a gift of God. He was sent from, you know, and
He was supernaturally born. And then He says, listen, He
says, My Father has given everything into His hands. Look over here
in Genesis 25 and verse 5. You know, the Father loveth the
Son. Our Savior said this Himself. The Father loveth the Son and
hath given all things into His hands. He said all flesh has
been given unto Him that He might give eternal life to His ministry
that has given Him. If God's got anything at all
in this world that He's going to do for a man, He does it through,
by and because of His Son. Everything that we have, You
know why God blesses us? He don't bless us because we're
here. He don't bless us because we pray. He don't bless us because
we read the Bible. And we do that because He's already
blessed us. But the only reason we get a
blessing is for Christ's sake. I've never earned a blessing
in my life. People get up and say, I know
God's going to bless me today because I did. If God blesses
me or blesses you, He blesses us for Christ's sake. And bless His holy name. He's
got a full hand, and people have been taking out of it since Abel,
and his hand's just as full as it was the day he stretched it
out. But look what he said here. Chapter 25 and verse 5. And Abraham
gave all that he had unto Isaac. Oh boy. You know in Colossians 1.16. You all read
that one of these days when you get home. It says, All things
were created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things.
And by Him, all things consist. And you just look at how many
times it says, by Him, by Him, by Him, by Him. By Him. And oh, bless His name. By Him,
we stand before God today. And oh, the Father loveth the
Son. And oh, the fullness of the Godhead. dwells in Him. And you're talking about wealth
and all opposition. We just can't exalt Him enough. God gave Him a name. Gave Him
a name of every name. In fact, God gave Him a name
that nobody else can ever have and nobody else can ever use. And He gave Him such a name That
one of these days, these are going to bow to that name. And
every tongue is going to confess to that name. And I'm telling
you something, beloved, I've done bowed to that name. I've
done confessed that name. And I've delighted in that name. I find courage in that name.
I find rest in that name. I find strength in that name.
I find hope in that name. I find all I need in that man
that God made to be His blessed Son and send Him into this world.
I don't need nothing else. If I want to talk to the Father,
you know who I talk to by John? His Son. If I need anything from
the Father, who do I ask for? Oh, look what Father loves him
and gave him everything. All right, let's look at the
bride now. Let's look at the bride. You know, the father said, go
bring a bride to my son. Go get a bride for my son. Go
into my country to my kin and take a wife unto my son Isaac.
Now, this woman had no idea No idea that somebody was going
to come on to hunt her. She was over in another
part of God's country. She had no idea that there was
a father. She didn't have an idea of a
father. She didn't know anything about
the son. She was over there minding her own business, doing whatever
she was doing. She had no idea that somebody
was on his way, going to make a trip just to look for her and
her alone. She just got out. Now, ain't
that the way it is with us? We went on about our business,
doing what we've done, and then one day, like you said, the spirit
of bondage came on us. And we said, how in the world,
what am I going to do? What am I going to do? And that's
what she was. She was off. Before she ever
knew anything about the father, before she ever knew anything
about the son, she was already chosen to be the bride, already
chosen to be a joint heir with the son. And here's another thing,
that bride was far off in another country. If she's going to be
brought, somebody's got to go find her, somebody's got to go
convince her, and somebody's got to bring her all the way
back. She can't get back by herself. She don't know the way. Oh my,
you know what our Lord Jesus said? My sheep hear my voice. And boy, when they hear that
Savior's voice. My father-in-law, let me stop and tell you a story.
My father-in-law's 93 years old now. He'll get around as any
of us in here. And he was 75 years old and he's
sitting right there, second pew. And I preached one morning on
the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live. Seventy-five
years old. It was in the month of May. I
got through and I was stepping out of the pulpit like this here
and he said, Donny, Donny. He stood up and said, Donny,
Donny. He said, I heard his voice today. I heard his voice today, 75 years
old. Remember me, remember me. And oh my, he didn't have any
idea. We were chosen in Christ, when? Before the foundation of the
world. All that the Father giveth me, they're going to come to
me. Oh my. And our Lord Jesus Christ said,
He said, I pray not for the world, but for them that thou hast given
me out of the world. He said, Father, I love them.
I pray for them. I pray for them. And just like
Eve was in Adam, when Adam was first created, we were in Christ
before the foundation of the world. In Christ. And that's why we are born of
that incorruptible seed, that seed of Christ. That's an incorruptible
seed. And just like the Good Shepherd,
He's just not gonna quit until he finds that sheep. And when
he's found it, you notice it didn't say found him, but he
found it. You know what he does? He lays
it on his shoulder. And I'm gonna tell you something. He said the
government is on his shoulder, not shoulders in Isaiah 9, 6.
Government's on his shoulder. He got the government on this
shoulder and he's got us on that other shoulder. And he can carry
all of us at the same time. What a Savior we have. And okay,
let me go down here to the servant's proclamation. Here's what the
servant said. This is the Holy Spirit. Now look what He does.
Look what He does in verse 32. Oh my! Here's the Spirit's mission. And the man came into the house,
and he ungirded his camels, and gave straw and provident to the
camels, and water to wash his feet, and the men's feet that
were with him. And there was set meat before him. But he said,
eating. And he said, I will not eat until
I have told mine Aaron, I got one mission and I'm not going
to stop until I get that mission done. And he said, speak on. He said, I'm Abraham's servant.
Here's the first thing. Abraham gave his authority. He said, you go and you swear
to me. You're going to do one thing,
and I'll tell you what, Abraham gave him the authority, the Father
gave him the authority and the power to go do this. And then
look what he said, I'm Abraham's servant. He was sent of the Father.
He was sent of the Father. You know in John chapter 4, 1
John chapter 4, it talks about Christ being sent twice. And
this is our confession of faith, that God sent Him to be the propitiation
for our sins, and God sent Him to be the Savior of the world.
And so our Father sent His Son. We didn't send after Him. He
sent Him. He sent Him to us. He sent His
Son. And He sent the Holy Spirit into
the world. And He is sent by the Father.
And then look what else. And He says, And the Lord hath
blessed my Master greatly, and He has become great. And He hath
given Him flocks, and herds, and silver, and gold, and men's
servants, maidservants, camels, and asses. And Sarah, my master's
wife, bore a son to my master when she was old, and unto him
hath he given all that he had. And my master made me swear, I've got a task to do, got a
task to do. Thou shalt not take a wife to
my son of the daughters of the Canaanites in whom I dwell, but
thou shalt go unto my father's house to my kindred and take
a wife unto my son. So you see, He was sent by the
Father. He had authority from the Father's
house. He was sent in the name of the
Son. Sent to talk about the Son. Not
talk about Himself. And I tell you what, you want
to find out how a preacher, if the Holy Spirit is in a man,
preach Him. He's going to preach Not himself. He's going to preach Christ.
And this is why you know the Spirit of God. And then He declared
the Father's purpose. The Father sent me into this
place to fetch a bride for my Father's Son. For my Master's
Son. He declared the Father's purpose.
And He did not speak of me. I ain't going to eat. I'm not
going to do anything. Until I tell you what I'm here
for. And oh, look what he did down
here in verse 53. He revealed the things of Isaac. And down in verse 53. And you
know, they said, oh listen, I've told you how he stood by the
well of water, and the virgin came and drew water for him,
and he said, and then she took him home, and their name was
Rebekah. Ken folks to Abraham and Laban, And all listen what
he does now. And the servant brought forth jewels of silver, jewels of gold,
and raiment, and gave them to Rebekah. He gave also to her
brother and her mother precious things. Do you know what he did? He said, He brought forth all
the riches that belonged to Isaac. He said, I want to show you what
my master has. And he brought forth jewels of
silver. Silver in the Scriptures. The foundation of the tabernacle
was on silver. Silver is redemption. Redemption. Then he brought forth
the gold. That talks of His glorious deity.
Oh, he's a gold deity. And you know, people down here
go crazy over gold. And that's what we're going to
walk on in heaven. God says, listen, it's so worthless
up here, I'm going to have you walk on it. And we ain't going
to pay attention to the streets. You know what we're going to
pay attention to? Him that sits on the throne. Now you think
about that. People want to be going on about
streets of gold. Remember me. That's all we're
interested in. Listen, we're going there not
to walk on streets of gold, but to see Him and enjoy Him. Who's going to pay attention
to the streets? We're going to pay attention
to Him. And that's what he said. He said, look at my master. Look
at all this silver. That's how precious His blood
is. That's how precious His power is. That's His redemption. And
then took the gold and said, this is His deity, this is His
power, this is His glory. Look at there, look at all this
gold. And if you think that's something, look at these clothes. Look at these clothes. Now listen,
let me put that on there. Woo! You ever see such a dress
in your life? Remember when old Bunyan's progress,
you know, and he got up there and the burden rolled off, and
him and Christian and Hopeful were going through there, and
they got there. The bright, shining ones came
and clothed them, you know. And one of them looked up there
and said, Oh, that's a beautiful... Oh, you're shining! Oh, what
a glorious garment you've got on! Oh, that's beautiful, beautiful!
He didn't see his, but he saw his. He turned around and said,
Oh my, what a garment you've got on! And that we know. Oh
my, look at this glorious garment. This wondrous righteousness.
This blessed, glorious righteousness of Christ. If He shines like
the sun, how must our righteousness shine in the presence of God? And it's all of His making. And
now, who don't say, listen, here, let me see if it fits. Let me
see if it fits. Stretch out your arm, let's see
if it fits this way. Stretch out your arm, let's see
if it fits that way. See if it fits up, see if it will button
up. And put it on him. Put it on
him. And then put some shoes on his
feet. And put a ring on his finger, this covenant. If I wasn't in a Baptist church
this morning, I'd shout. Grace Church. Well, you know,
y'all have heard me holler a time or two. But oh my. And he gave all of these things
to Rebecca. She didn't ask for them. But
can you imagine how she looked at him and said, oh my, oh my,
oh my, oh my, oh my, oh my. Oh my, then look what happens
to her. He guides her all the way home. Look down at verse
61. You know, and Rebekah arose and her damsels
and they rode upon the camels and followed the man, followed
the man, followed the Holy Spirit. And the servant took Rebekah
and went on his way. And I'll tell you something,
when he got down there, he didn't go down the street hollering,
my master is looking for a bride. Anybody here interested in him?
He's a wonderful fellow. He loves everybody here in town.
He just wants to know which one of you wants to be his bride.
That's not what he said. No, no. And he didn't ask or
seek for anyone and everyone. He went to one particular person. And then look at the power of
the message. You remember that the servant said this, said,
what if she's not willing to go? What if she's not willing
to go? What am I going to do then? You
want me to go get your son and take him up? Nope, nope, nope,
nope. My son's staying right here. My son's here in my place. He ain't going nowhere. You're
going to bring hurt to him. You're not going to take him
down nowhere. You're not going to take him from his position.
You're not going to take him from his wealth. You're not going
to take him from that place of power. We're not going to bring
Christ down. He's not on sale. He's not a
piece of merchandise. And oh my, look what it says
now, the message, the power of the message, you know, the power
of the gospel, how powerful it is. And look how it attracted
her, look in verse 58. And oh, she showed her all of
those things, and in verse 54, and they did eat and drank, he
and the men that were with him, in verse 54, and tarried all
night, and they rose up in the morning, and he said, Send me
away unto my master. And her brother and her mother
said, let the damsel abide with us a few days. Let her stay just
a little while. And then after that she can go.
And he said unto them, hinder me not, seeing the Lord hath
prospered my way. Send me away that I may go to
my master. And they said, we will call the
damsel and inquire her mouth. So they called Rebecca over and
they said, And they said, Rebecca, will
thou go with this man? What'd she say? She said, I will
go. I will go. Oh, but honey, we
want you to stay this little while. No, I got to go. Oh, I
got to go. And I... Oh my... It was... Oh, it attracted her.
The gospel is the power of God to us. It's the wisdom of God
to us. We see the glory of God in the
gospel. And the gospel's the power of
God. And oh, look how it attracted Rebecca. He didn't just not...
He didn't have to plead with her. He didn't have to beg her.
He didn't have to say, will you please go? He just says, time
to go. Will you go? I will go. I will go. In the day of His
power, His people are made willing. And I'm going to tell you something.
Every day is the day of His power. And He keeps us willing, willing,
willing. He keeps me willingly coming
to Him. Keeps me willingly looking to
Him. I'm doing just exactly what I
want to do. And, oh, it was the goodness
and glory of the Father and the Son that won her. It wasn't she
was afraid. No, no. And they said, oh, please
stay just a while. But, oh, she is ready to go.
And she left everything behind. She left her father. She left
her mother. She left her brother. She left
her family. She left everything behind. You
know why? Because she was told about her
master's son and saw, saw his redemption, saw his deity, and
saw them beautiful clothes. She said, I'm going to go over
there. I'm going to go over there. And I'm telling you, this is
something else to her. She trusted everything to Abraham's promise. She accepted everything by faith
because she hadn't seen Him yet. And then when she went home,
look what happens. Look what happens. Verse 63. Well, in verse 61, let's start
there and finish up here. And Rebekah arose in her damsels,
and they rode upon the camels and followed the man. And the
servant took Rebekah and went to his way. And Isaac came from
the way of the well Lehiroi, for he dwelt in the south country.
And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide.
And he lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, the camels were
coming. He looked up and saw them coming. And Rebekah lifted
up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off her camel. She jumped off the camel. For
she had said, this is why she did this, for she had said to
the servant, what man is this that walketh in the field to
meet us? Who is this? And the servant said, it's my
master. It's my master, it's who I brought you home to see.
You know what the first thing she did? Put a veil over her
face. He's holy and he's glorious.
It's not why he's, you know, I want to I want to present myself
in the right way, in some humility. And look what he said now. And therefore she took a veil
and covered herself. And the servant told Isaac all
things that he had done. And look what happens now. She
found a husband, found her true life, and found all that she
needed in him. And Isaac brought her unto his
mother, Sarah's ten, and took Rebekah. And she became his wife. And listen to this. And he loved
her. He loved her. Didn't talk about
how much Rebecca loved him. Talk about how much he loved
her. Loved her. And Isaac loved her. Isaac loved
her so much. And just like that servant took Rebecca home
to Isaac. One of these days, you know,
our Lord said in John 17, 24, He says, Father, I will that
they whom Thou hast given Me may be with Me where I am. What for? That they may behold
My glory. That's the only reason we're
going to Go feed them and see His glory. Thank you all so much. Thank you very much for letting
me come. Paul, thank you for inviting me. Thank you all for
everything you've done. You're just a precious bunch
of folks. God's people ain't nobody like
them nowhere. Love you, every single one of you. God bless
you and keep you.