And in God's house. That's the scripture way of saying,
hey, some of the songs. Cycles in the early church song
song. All right, Genesis. Seven, turn there first, Genesis
27. As you know, I love the Old Testament
types. I think some of you, if not most
of you, love them as much as I do. Types of Christ I'm talking about,
because all of the Old Testament stories are pictures of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's why they were written.
That's what Christ said. They are they which testify of
me, he said. But I have to ask myself when
we do these studies, what is the benefit? What's the benefit
here? I don't want you to go away merely
being impressed with something something you haven't seen before,
and just go away and say, wow, wasn't that interesting? That
would be of no benefit to us. And I can honestly say from my
heart that when I study these, that I don't, not for a moment,
think, they're really going to be impressed with this. Not at
all. There has to be a purpose for
this. not merely being impressed with something new. And I've
said this so many times, I believe that there are many reasons for
preaching the tithe. Number one, this is what these
are the scriptures our Lord preached from. These are the stories which
our Lord and the apostles preached from. They didn't have a New
Testament. All of their preaching was from
the Old Testament. And I guarantee They preach Christ
from the Old Testament. And the scripture says, faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Well, faith,
what faith is, the basis of faith, is believing who Jesus Christ
is, that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Son of the living
God. That's faith, that he is the Messiah, that he is the Redeemer,
that he is our righteousness, that he is our everything in
salvation. That's faith. That's faith in
a nutshell. It's believing Christ is all
our salvation, all right? And that that man that walked
this earth years ago named Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the Christ
sent from God and the only one. And we don't look for another.
And the Old Testament, you see, bears witness of who he is, tells
very clearly who he is, where he would be born, what he would
be like, what he would say, what he would do, where he would go,
who he would save, how he would die, and where he would go after
he died, rise from the grave, and all that would even follow
that. And faith is believing the record, and the Old Testament
is the record. Telling us that this one is the
Christ, all right? And these types convince me.
They convince me when I see very clearly in an obscure, hidden,
Old Testament passage, when I see very clearly a picture of Christ. There's no doubt at all. that
it speaks of Christ, I say, this is God's word. This is God's
word. No mere mortal man could have
made something up so marvelous. And that's, I could go on and
on with that, but I'm going to stop with that. All right, now
this is a story, a story of Jacob and Rachel. We've looked at this
before, it's been a long time, and we did not did not look at
it fully, we just glanced at it. The story of Jacob and Rachel,
this is a picture of Christ and his church, Christ and his bride,
Christ and his people. Very clear picture. And if the
Lord will give you attentive hearts, you're going to get a
blessing, I guarantee you. We're going to look now at the
beloved and blessed son. Look at chapter 27 of Genesis,
the beloved, highly favored, blessed son of the father, the
favorite son. Look at Genesis 27, verses 27
through 29. It says, Jacob came near. And I mean, yeah, Jacob came
near and Isaac kissed him. Jacob kissed him and Isaac kissed
him, his father. And Jacob smelled, or Isaac smelled
the smell of Jacob's raiment and blessed him. And he smelled
sweet to the father. Sweet smell and savory. The father
liked the way he smelled. And he blessed him and he said,
this is the smell of my son is the smell of the field which
the Lord has bled. And then he gave this blessing
upon the son. Therefore, God give thee of the
dew of heaven, the fatness of the earth, plenty of corn and
wine. And here's a prophecy concerning the Son. Let people serve thee,
and nations bow down to thee. Be Lord over thy brethren. Let
thy mother's sons bow down to thee. Cursed be everyone that
cursed thee, and blessed be he that blessed thee. And that's
precisely what the Father says concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's his altogether lovely, only begotten, well-beloved son, whom
he has blessed, who is a sweet-smelling savior to the Father. Everything
about him, God the Father approves of and blessed him and has pronounced
this, from the beginning, pronounced this blessing upon him and made
this prophecy concerning him. I think of Psalm 2. He said,
I'm going to give you the heathen for your inheritance. All nations
are going to bow down before you, and I'm going to bless them
that bless you and curse them that curse them. That's precisely
what God the Father said concerning God the Son. All right, now,
but there's another son who's a reprobate. Look at verse 41.
Esau. It says, verse 41, Esau hated
Jacob. because of the blessing wherewith
his father blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, the
days of mourning for my father are at hand. In other words,
my dad's going to die and I'm going to kill my brother. He hated Jacob because the father
loved him and blessed him and said that he would rule over
his brethren. So Esau hated him. And that's precisely what Man
thinks of the Lord Jesus Christ and what man did. He did take
the father's son and slay him. But you know, I thought about
this. The thought struck me. You know that every chosen one, everyone who was chosen by God
the Father was hated by his brother Abel. It's hated. I can't wonder as it. Was it shows a lot of problems
so it's hated by you know I mean Moses. Hated by. Joseph. Hated by. Jacob. Hated by you saw. David. Was hated by his brother
his older brother and on and on it goes. And that's the way
it is. Those whom God chooses, man rejects,
especially the chosen one, God's elect, Christ. He said that,
didn't he? Marvel not, men, if the world
hates you, know that they hated me first, because the Father
had chosen me. Well, here's the sent son. He comes to obtain a bride. Look at chapter 28. Chapter 28, verses 1 through
4, Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and charged him, gave a charge
to him and said unto him, now here's his specific order. Thou
shalt not take a wife and daughter of Canaan. You'll not go unto
those unbelieving women in Canaan. You arise, you go to Hadarim,
to the house of Bethuel, thy mother's father, and take thee
a wife from thence, for the daughters of Laban thy mother's brother.
And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply
thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people. And give thee the
blessing of Abraham to thee, and to thy seed with thee, that
thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger,
which God gave unto Abraham." You notice what he said in verses
1 and 2. He did not Say, go down to that
man and invite whoever is willing that if they will take you as
their husband, that you will take them as your bride. He didn't
say go down and invite, did he? He didn't say go down and ask,
did he? What'd he say? Go take her. Go take her. Not invite, not ask, but go take
her. And this is exactly the charge that God the Father gave
to his son before the world began in a covenant. He said, I have
a people. They're my people, my chosen
one. And I've given them to you for a bride, your church, your
people, believer. Now you go and you go find them
and you take them unto yourself. You take them. There's no asking.
There's no invitation. of the taking Christ takes them
lays hold apprehends his home you remember the story over chapter
twenty four when Abraham's. Abraham said his servant to get
a bride for us remember that. Well Abraham said his servant
who's a picture of the Holy Spirit or a picture of the preacher
who sent to to look for a bride for the son Well she didn't know
the servant didn't know if she was going to be willing. The
father said she would. But nevertheless he was upset.
He couldn't bring her. That servant could not. Just
lay hold on her and bring her. She had to be made willing by
the angel of the Lord. And God did. But now here The
father sends a son, says, you go down personally and you give
her. You go down and you take her
to your son. No invitation, no asking, you
take her. And that's exactly what God the
son did. Came to this earth in search
of his sheep and apprehended them all. Now the promise of
the father, look it down in verse 15, chapter 28, verse 15. God the Father makes this promise
concerning Jacob. He said, Behold, I am with thee,
and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will
bring thee again into this land. I will not leave thee until I
have done that which I have spoken of thee of. I'm with you, I've
sent you, and I'm going to bring you back again, and I'm going
to do just exactly what I said I would do. No doubt about it. And so it is with God the Son.
There's no doubt whatsoever. Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning. And he sent the Son down here
in search of his bride, in search of his church, in search of his
sheep. And God the Father said, I'll
do it. God the Son said, I'll do it.
And it was done. All right, look at the Son's
vow to the Father. verses 19 through 22 there. He
called the name of the place Bethel, that is, the house of
God. The name of the city was called Luz at first. And Jacob
bowed about, saying, If God will be with me and will keep me in
this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and raiment
to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace,
then shall the Lord be my God. And this stone, which I set for
a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that thou shalt give
me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee." Does that need a
comment for you? If you read it with me, God the
Son said, if God will be with me, he'll be my God. He'll be
my God, and I will surely build his house. I'll build his church,
and there'll be a remnant of it. Tenth, a remnant, according
to the election of grace. The only begotten well-beloved
Son bowed Himself to the Father's glory. And Christ, there is no
bread to eat and raiment to put on. He was made peace, verse
21, for us by the blood of His crop. And the Father brought
Him back to His house and His people, and He built the church.
All right, now chapter 29 is our story. You see how it all speaks of
Christ. It all builds up, though, to this story here. You see,
that sounds like, Brother Roy, sounds like the Father knew for
a fact that Jacob was going to find a bride. Doesn't it? Doesn't sound like there's any
doubt about it, does it? There's not. There's not. And neither is there any doubt
about God's people. Known under God, Acts 15, 18,
are all his works from the beginning. And the foundation of God standeth
sure. Having this field, the Lord knoweth
them that are his. And he wrote their names in a
book. And he gave them to his son,
and he did what was necessary. And it's all building up. The
father made the promise. The father made a prophecy concerning
the son. Father told his son where to
go and who to go to. Gave him explicit orders and
directions to go, where to go. And that's a picture of Christ
coming to this earth. All right, the Son comes. Here comes the
Son. Chapter 29. Jacob goes in search of his bride.
Let's look at verse 1. It says, Jacob went on his journey. Jacob took a journey. He came
into the land. and of the people of the East.
He came into the land, took a journey. He came to his own, is who he
came to. He came to his own kindred. Look at John, Chapter 1. John,
Chapter 1. I don't want to quote this for
you. I want you to search the Scriptures. You see,
John, Chapter 1. Our Lord Jesus Christ took a
journey, left the Father's house, left the throne of God, came
to this earth. in search of his bride. And it says in John chapter 1
verse 11, he came unto his own, came unto his own, and his own
received him not. We're going to see in a little
bit how that these shepherds didn't know who he was and didn't
care. And even some sons in the family hated him. Somebody received him. Somebody
received him, verse 12. As many as received him, to them
gave he power to become the sons of God, or in this case, the
bride. Even to them that believe on
his name, know who he is, the Father's well-beloved son, the
Chosen One, the Lord over his people. Why? Why do they receive
him? Why? Why does anybody believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ? Why? Free will? They were born,
not of blood, that is, not because they were born in a certain family,
not of the will of the flesh, not because they decided to,
not because anybody prayed them into heaven, nor of the will
of man. Man's will is bound by sin, it's
not free. But they received him because
they were born of God, that's why. That's why. All right, go
back to our text now. So Jacob comes to his his own. Look at him here in verses two
and three of these shepherds, verses two and three, chapter
twenty nine, he looked and behold, a whale in the field. Just happened to be a whale there,
and he goes to this whale and there were three flocks of sheep
lying by the well. They were all lying around this
well. Out of that well, they watered the flocks. This is where
all the flocks received their water. But there's a great stone
upon the well's mount. This was a kind of a different
well than what we are used to. It was not a deep dug well, but
it was kind of in a cave. probably a natural spring of
some sort, in a cave, and the entrance to that cave was barred
by a huge stone that they rolled over to protect it from whatever,
predators, you know, wild animals and all that. All right? Well,
there's this huge stone over the mouth of the whale. And here
were all of these flocks laying around outside this well. It was in the middle of the day,
we're going to say. A hot part of the day. And I believe they
were thirsty. And obviously, these shepherds
weren't giving them anything to drink. Look at verse 3. And this is where all the flocks
gathered, and they needed to roll the stones from the mouth
for them to water the sheep. But it wasn't
being done. So here were all of these sheep lying about the very mouth
of the whale, but they were thirsty and they were hungry and these
good-for-nothing shepherds weren't watering them. I don't know what
they were doing. They were playing cards or what they were doing,
but they weren't doing their job. They were supposed to be
taking care of the sheep. But here comes a good man, Jacob. In our Lord, the scripture says,
in Matthew 9, it says, when he saw the multitude, listen to
this, I'm quoting Matthew 9, verse 36. He says, when he saw
the multitudes, he was moved with compassion upon them, because
they fainted, they were weary, and were scattered abroad as
sheep having no shepherds. And our Lord came as a good shepherd. We read it there in Ezekiel 34.
He said, I'll gather my sheep. I'll feed them. The shepherds
that are supposed to be watering them are not watering them. They're
watering themselves. They're supposed to be feeding them.
They're not feeding them. They're getting fat off of them. They're feeding
off of them. They're not feeding them. And
what a picture this is of all the false prophets and preachers
throughout the land who are making a name for themselves rather
than the Lord Jesus Christ, who are getting rich and so forth
off of poor widows' houses and so on and so forth. And our Lord
God, there's a, well, Our Lord owns this whole world. In Psalm
24, though all the world is not his sheep, all men and women
are not his sheep. We read that in Ezekiel 34, didn't
we, where he said, I'll judge between cattle and cattle. I'll
tell you who's my sheep and who's not. That's what that was all
about. I have sheep and then there are
goats. I have sheep of my pasture and then there are those who
look like sheep. But they're not, they're ghosts.
They're mine who really believe and trust me, and then those
who seem to believe, but they don't. They're wheat and they're
tares. They come up together. I'm the
one that'll judge. You see that? I'm the one. He
said, I know my own. I know my sheep. But I like Brother Bill Clark's
illustration of the sheep in Africa. Don't you? And if someone
doesn't know it, Brother Bill Clark, missionary to Africa,
said there were goats over in Africa that looked just like
sheep. Sheep and the goats, you had a hard time telling them
apart. But he said there's one way that you could tell them
apart. The goats would walk around with their tails sticking straight
up in the air. Goats always have their tails up in the air. Like,
look at me, sheep have their stuff between their legs. And
that's a perfect picture of the difference between true believers
and unbelievers. Though these may look like sheep,
if they have any semblance of pride and vainglory and self-righteousness,
they're not God's sheep. But now God's people are humble
and broken and look to Christ and Christ alone and not to themselves.
The earth is the Lord's, though, and the fullness thereof, and
the world and they that dwell therein. And Christ, our Lord,
shows compassion upon the whole world to an extent.
Does he not? He said that the rain falls on
the unjust as well as the just. He said, I call my son to shine
upon God and haters as much as I bring God and others. I cause
the food to grow for those that Don't never give me thanks as
well as those who do. So he has compassion on all,
but now. His special love, his saving
mercy, his saving grace. The son of his love is sent to
his people and his people only. And the only thing that makes
them different from the goats. Is this saving grace and this
saving grace? That's the only thing that makes
him different. Else they would not love him either. They would
not love him unless he first loved them. They would not call
upon him unless he first called on them. They would not choose
him unless he first chose them. They would not believe him unless
he gave him. That's what makes them sheep. That's supposed to
go. The sheep of his pasture are
his chosen people, his bride, his elect. And like everyone
else, when he found them, they were without God. They were without
life. This woman didn't have a husband, had no hope of one.
And Jacob comes to her. And like these sheep here, there
was a great obstacle between them and water. And the shepherd
had to remove the obstacle. Sin. All right, look at this.
Look, these sorry shepherds here says they were supposed to feed
the flock. And our Lord said, and he, Jacob,
when he came to them, he demanded some things of them. Look at
verses four and five. All right, look at verse four
and five. Jacob demanded of them. He's not asking them for information. He's not he's not just merely casually talking to him, making
conversation. This is the man of God, and he's sent by God,
and he knows what this is all about, and he knows who these
fellows are. He was sent to this particular place. He knows who
these men are. They're a bunch of starry, no-good
shepherds. But he demands of them. He says in verse 4, My
brethren... Now he knows who they are. They didn't know him, though,
did they? Wesley where you from. They said of her and our way.
He said of them do you know labor the son of my home I said we
know. We know. What about it. Says is he well as he well. Here
comes his daughter. This reminded me of John chapter
8. If you want to turn with me, I'm going to look there at John
chapter 8, when our Lord came to these pretended shepherds
in Israel, when he walked this earth. Now, you know, if these
fellows had really known Laban, they said they knew him, didn't
they? Jacob said, do you know Laban?
They said, yeah, we know him. If they'd known Laban, they'd
have known Jacob. They surely would have recognized And surely
they would've heard the accent, the language, the speech would've
given him away that he was Laban's relative. And we'll see in a
minute that everybody in Laban's family knew who this was. Rebecca's son. So if these fellas
had known Laban, they'd have known his son, too. Huh? But they didn't. They should
have. Well, there were many false prophets
in our Lord's day when our Lord walked this earth. Many false
prophets and false teachers and preachers. There's even more
now, false preachers. And the Lord confronted them
in verse 23 of John 8. He says, You're from beneath.
I'm from above. You're of this world. I am not
of this world. Look down at verse 38. He said,
I speak that which I've seen with my father. You do that what
you've seen with your father. And they said under him, why,
Abraham's our father. Oh, is it? Christ said, if you
were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham.
And now you seek to kill me, a man that told you the truth,
which I've heard of God. Abraham wouldn't have done this.
Abraham didn't do this. The Lord himself, Christ himself,
appeared to Abraham that day. You remember? Christ came to
Abraham. And when Abraham saw him, he
fell down. at his feet, killed the fatted
calf, you remember? Took him into his house. That's
when the Lord made that promise to him. Well, verse 41, he says,
you do the deeds of your father. Well, they said unto him, we're
not born out of wedlock, born of fornication. We have one father,
even God. I can hear these fellows now. Christ said unto them, if God
were your father, Now see here, God's not the father
of mankind. Look who he says these fellows
are children of. If God were your father, you'd
love me. For I proceeded forth and came
from God, neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why don't you
understand my speech? Because you cannot hear my word.
You're of your father, the devil. Verse 47, He that is of God,
heareth God's word. So these fellows that Jacob came
to, if they'd known, really known Laban, they'd have known Jacob.
They didn't. They didn't. But now while Jacob
was talking to these pretended shepherds, here comes Rachel. Somebody's coming. The bride's
coming. She's going to know him. She's
going to know the son. He's going to make himself known.
She wouldn't have known him either unless he'd revealed himself. I couldn't help but, in light
of this story, couldn't help but think of all those Pharisees
bringing that woman that caught in the act of adultery that day.
You remember? All those Pharisees that grabbed
that woman caught in adultery and brought her in where Christ
was preaching and threw her at His feet and they all stood around?
After it was all over, they all left. Well, Jacob, Jacob demanded of
them. And look at verse back in our
text now, Genesis 29, Genesis 29, verses seven and eight, Jacob
demanded and commanded these men. He said in verse seven,
it's high noon, it's high day. And well, they said this, they
said, no, it's yet high day, neither is it time that the cattle
should be gathered together. I'm sorry, forgive me. He's the
one that said this. Water the sheep, go and feed
them. So here's what Jacob said. Jacob tells him, I want you to
water these sheep and I want you to feed these sheep. I know
you don't think it's time, I know it's not time to gather them
all in, but I want you to water these sheep and I want you to
feed them. And here's what they said, verse 8. They said, we
can't. No, all the flocks have to be
gathered together. Until they roll the stone from
the well of Mount Bay, somebody else needs to roll the stone
away. And then we'll water the sheep. We can't, but we won't. And isn't that exactly what we
read back there in Ezekiel 34? He pronounced woe on those shepherds.
He said, you feed yourselves and not the flocks. He said,
I'm going to come, I'm going to feed my flock. I'm going to
water my flock. He says, as for my flock, you
eat that which is they eat that which is trodden with your feet
and drink that you found with your feet. He said, I'm going
to set up one shepherd over there and I'm going to feed them. They're
going to know that I'm their Lord and they're my flock. Now. There's a great stone on
this well. Covering the well's mouth. And
these pretended shepherd. would not remove the stone. And
Brother Steve, apparently, was a huge stone. They could not. It says, this tells me that it
took several of them to remove this stone. And so they didn't
even attempt it. The stone was too big. It's not
tiny. We can't. We're busy. No, we won't do it. Besides, we can't do it. Well,
that's true. That's true. These pretended shepherds and
pretended preachers, man cannot remove the obstacle. Man can't
do anything about this stony heart. Man can't do anything
about the sin problem. Preachers can't do anything about
it. There's only one that can. Only one that can. All right,
now Rachel's going to meet her husband, her son, the first night. It says, while he gets spake
with him, while he was speaking with these shepherds, Rachel
came with her father, Sheep. Well, she kept him. She was a
shepherd herself. Apparently her brother, if you
read on later by yourself, if you read all the way over to
chapter 31, you'll see that her brothers were worthless too.
They hated Jacob. She's the only one to keep her
father, Sheep. But you know, Christ is in all of this. Christ
is every part of this. He is every part of this story.
Christ is Jacob. Christ is the well. Christ is
the water. Christ is Rachel, who kept the
father sheep. But in our story here, Rachel
is the beloved one's bride, future bride, who represents the church. And what do we do? help keep
the sheep, huh? Shepherd is, uh, church is a,
is a keeper of its own, is it not? So Rachel came. All right, it says Rachel came,
all right? Now, Rachel came. Who was there
first? Huh? Rachel's gonna come to Jacob,
isn't she? She's gonna meet Jacob. Why? Because Jacob came to her first.
Huh? And our Lord said this in John
chapter 6, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Preachers only quote half that
verse, don't they? The rest of that verse says,
and he that cometh to me, I'll know why it's cast out. That's
how preachers, most preachers, false preachers quote it. They
say, he that cometh to me, I'll know why it's cast out. But the
first part of that verse is, all that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. All that the Father giveth me
in a covenant of lecture before the world began. All that the
Father wrote on in that Lamb's Book of Life before the world
began. All that the Father gave to me in a covenant to save them
shall come to me. They will come to me. And he
that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. Because the
Father gave them to me. So Rachel came. According to
the prophecy, the father had already said, you're going to
go to my brother's house and you're going to find a wife.
Take her. Where is she? She'll come. And it was according to the promise
of the father. Go. Take. And he said, I will perform it.
God said, I will perform what I said. Well, somebody says,
well, how will people come if you don't invite them? If you'll notice, we don't give
so-called altar calls. We don't give so-called invitations
after the service, inviting people to come accept Jesus and all
that stuff. Why? How are people going to
come if you don't invite them? Salvation is not an invitation.
Salvation is a divine call. an absolute sovereign call which
his sheep cannot resist. It's not an invitation, it's
a command. Like this story here, the father
says, go take a bride. He sent the son down here to
a specific place to find a specific bride, and she came, buddy. There
was no doubt about it that she was going to come. What if she's
not willing? What if she comes? And she doesn't like what she
sees, or she rejects it. What if she's not willing? We're going to see in a minute
that this woman was absolutely made willing. She wasn't asked
anything. She never spoke a word. Now, modern women wouldn't
like this sort of matrimony, but God's church does. given
a choice, we would not choose Christ. He makes the choice for
us, doesn't he? He makes us willing. Psalm 110
verse 3 says, Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy
power. Thy people shall be willing.
Thy people shall be willing, not of the will of the flesh,
but they're born of God. Thy people shall be willing,
when? In the day of his absolute irresistible
power. power gospel power when the day
God says go to his son speak to my sheep speak to that lost
sheep that I have chosen now you're going to notice here Jacob
did it all he did it all this woman just standing there she
just comes and there Jacob is waiting on her and Jacob does
all of that look at verse 10 Jacob does it all verse 10 came
to pass when Jacob saw Rachel Jacob looked on Rachel. Here
she comes. There's this crowd of men standing
around the well, okay? Here comes Rachel. She's tending
to her sheep. She's not looking at those men. She's not interested
in any of those men. She's seen those men before.
They all look the same to her. So did this Jacob fellow, I'm
sure. He didn't look any different
to her, I'm sure. Here's just another man at the
well, another one of these shepherds at the well. No difference. She's
come to water the sheep, all right? She's not looking at him. She's not looking for a man,
I guess. Not looking for Jacob. But Jacob's standing there at
the well, and here she comes, and he looks at her. He saw her. Who saw who first? Jacob saw
her. He laid eyes on her, John. He
set his affection on her, John. He decided to have her, John.
Not her him, him her. Jacob saw Rachel. The daughter of Laban, his mother's
brother's sheep, and the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother.
He saw it all. He knew who it all was. And look
at this. And that's exactly what our Lord
does. He looks on us first. We don't look on Him until after
the fact. And then look at verse 10. It
says, He saw her. I believe he's talking
to these other fellas at a distance. He says, who are you? Demanding
these things. Who are you? And we were listening. Do you know Laban? Yeah, we know
him. We know him. Here comes his daughter.
Oh, OK. There she is. So he's been waiting
on her. He's not interested in them.
They're not interested in him either. But he set his eye on that woman.
And here she comes. And he doesn't wait on her to
come to him. He goes near to her. He goes right up to her.
Right in her face. He went near to Rachel. That's
what you do when you love someone, though. You go near. You must
get close. Love must get close. Come near
to those who are dear. You don't wait on them. They
might not have you. Depending on what kind of man
you are and whether or not they'll have you or not, huh? You go
up to them. Go near. Woo them. That's what Jacob did. Look at
verse 10. He went near and single-handedly,
see? Single-handedly. Doesn't say
anybody helped him do that. Doesn't say, will y'all help
me here? This is a big stone. It says Jacob. I got Jacob all wrong. He's not
some little weakling that I thought he was. Not some little bookworm
mother's boy. He's a man. God never did choose
a little weakling mother's boy. I had him all wrong. I had him
pegged all wrong. He's a man. See that screen?
You're cheating me, Dwight, aren't you? There. Rolled the stone away from the
well now. All of this is no mere coincidence. that our Lord went
to Lazarus' tomb that day. The stone was rolled away, and
other things we're going to see. And he, look at this, Jacob watered
the flock of Laban. He did the watering. He does
it all, Stan. He does it all. He looked on
her. He went near to her. He rolled the stone away, and
Christ by Himself purged our sin. Christ Himself took away
that That which was against us, ripped the veil in two. Christ
himself rolled the stone away, took away these stony hearts,
and Christ himself is the water. He waters his own flocks. And
look at verse 11. How near did Jacob get? Just
how close did he come to Rachel? But if you really love someone,
what do you do? Huh? He's not satisfied with just
going up and saying, I love you. He kissed her. He kissed Rachel. I mean, buddy,
he grabbed her up in his arms, swept her up in his arms with
a warm and firm embrace, and he kissed her with the kisses
of his mouth. You're mine. And you will like
it. Oh yeah, this is a man. This
is a man's man. And this woman knew it. She knew
it. Now notice he hasn't asked her
a thing. Hasn't he? He hasn't asked her
a thing. Can I kiss you? He didn't even ask her a thing.
He said, you're mine. and laid hold on her, and kissed
her, and lifted up his voice." Now it doesn't say what he said,
but I think I know. I think I know. I think he said,
I thank thee, O Father, that thou hast heard me, that you have brought this one,
this one that you've given me, according to your promise, according
to your covenant. Thou art God, and beside thee
there is none else, and you've done exactly what you said you
would do, exactly as it was prophesied. Truly known unto you are all
your works from the beginning. You said, Come, and she'd be
here, and here she is. She's mine." And it says he wept. A stone rolled away, lifting up the voice and weeping.
It's exactly what the Lord did, exactly. So these are tears of
joy, is what they said. And now look, now, he still hadn't
asked her anything. She still hadn't done anything.
Jail, she just standing there. Jacob did it all. And Jacob told
Rachel, verse 12, Jacob told Rachel who he was, that he was
her father's brother, that he was Rebecca's son. He revealed
himself to her after the fact. After he saw her, after he chose
her, after he loved her, after he embraced her, he said, I am
that I am. I'm your husband. You're a near
kinsman. That's who I am. I'm your near
kinsman. And you're my bride. Well, did
she object? Now, wait a minute. Now's her
chance. If this is all by chance, now
she's got to be willing. I mean, she's got to make her
choice. Rebecca ran. They're not running away from
him. She's running with joy to tell her family. My husband has
come. The son has come, the promised
son. And she ran to tell her family. Oh, this is a hand. I believe she said, Come see
a man. Come see a man. What a man. And he loves me. And I love him. And I'm going
to be his bride. He said so. He said so. Are you willing? When you see
him, you would be too. If he kissed you, you would be
too. This is the gospel, isn't it?
Huh? You see the gospel clearly? in all of this, election by the
Father, redemption by the Son, irresistible grace of the Holy
Spirit. Truly, all that the Father giveth
Christ shall come to Him, every one of them. Every one of them
will come to Him, because Christ came to them first. That's why.
All right. Let's stand. Our Father, we thank you for
this glorious picture of yourself, of your son, of our salvation,
the gospel. We know it so. Those who have
heard your effectual call, those who have The Son has come near to and
kissed and embraced them through the preaching of the Word. They
know salvation is up to the Lord, that they've been made willing
on the day of His power. And this is all a glorious picture
of Christ Himself, of our salvation. We're so glad that salvation
is by Your divine, sovereign will and power. We're so glad
that You've made the Son, the Son of Your love, great shepherd
and husband, or else we would not have chosen him at all. We'd be but goats. We ask that
you do this for others. We ask you for the glory of God
the Father and the glory of the Son, in whose name we pray. Amen.