of course I came here so I'm going to repeat one I've been
asked to do, so I'm going to repeat it. In my arms, in my wings, Before this day could walk without
me, This day could lie without me. I've been waiting for you all
my life. I've been waiting for you all my life. I've been waiting for you all my life. O'er the land of the free and
the home of the brave? More than God loved or wondered,
He gave us any praise. The Lord is good, like no other. Please have a seat. If you would like, this morning,
you can open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 24. Genesis chapter 24. I'm very
sorry that you don't have the opportunity this morning of hearing
Brother Bruce Crabtree preach again. I know you would have
enjoyed it. And also realize that this too
is of the Lord. No accidents with him. He doeth
all things well and we bow to his will. And I also want to
tell you this morning how much I appreciate your kindness and Well, just your kindness and
your loving spirit and how you've received us, just like we were
part of the family. I thank you. It's been a joy
to be with you. Now, our text this morning is
going to be Genesis 24, where we have the account of Abraham
sending his servant to take a bride for his son Isaac. I'm going
to talk about a bride for Isaac. We're seeking the bride, seeking
the bride. And I believe this portion of
Scripture can only be rightly understood in light of some of
the things that's been said before, that's gone before in this portion
of Scripture, especially concerning God's dealings with Abraham For
you see, in the history of Abraham and Isaac and so forth, we see
in picture and type the work of the triune God. We see pictured
the work of the Father, the work of the Son, and the work of the
Holy Spirit as they go about accomplishing the salvation of
sinners according to that eternal covenant of mercy. And we see this in verse 1 of
chapter 24, and Abraham was old and well stricken in age, and
the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. You know, here
we see, you see something, the Lord had blessed Abraham in all
things. Where do our blessings come from? Where do our blessings come from?
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us." You see, he's the blessed. That's the origination of it,
with God the Father. He blessed Abraham in all things. Look unto Abraham. Look unto
Abraham, your Father. For I called him alone and blessed
him. I tell you, when someone's blessed
of God, they're blessed, aren't they? They're blessed. And if they're not blessed of
God, whatever else they have, they're not blessed. They're
not blessed. And then, of course, we see the
work of the son in Isaac. You go back to chapter 22. We
won't go back there for time's sake, but you recall when God
told Abraham, take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you
love. Take him to a place I'll show
you. Offer him there for a burnt offering. There we see the father
giving his well-beloved son as a sacrifice, giving him up to
death. And of course Abraham did that.
He set off and went there and was about to slay Isaac when
God stopped him. And he looked behind him and
behold a ram caught by its horns in the bush. And he took the
ram into place in the stead of Isaac. We see the Son offered
by the Father in that glorious doctrine of substitution. The
ram dying in the place of Isaac, and He was delivered, and God
was satisfied. And redemption was accomplished
when God sent His only beloved Son into the world to bear the
sins of His people, to die for them, to honor His law and His
justice. Salvation was accomplished. God
was pleased. He had pleased the Lord. to bruise
Him, to bruise Him. And it's through His blood that
we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Now mark that, it's
through His blood, plus or minus nothing. It's the blood, it's
the blood that maketh atonement for the soul. So you see, that's
essentially where we are here. And all whom the Father chose
and the Son redeemed, in this eternal covenant of grace made
before the foundation of the world, the Holy Spirit, in agreement
with the triune God, shall invincibly bring to Christ, through the
preaching of the gospel, all whom the Father chose and the
Son redeemed." And that's what we're talking about this morning
in this text. That's what we have pictured
here. It's a picture of the work of the Spirit in bringing the
elect sheep, the people of Christ, the Bride of Christ, to the Bridegroom. To the Bridegroom. I want to point out to you, as
we go through this, I want you to watch this now, that this is accomplished using
God's appointed means. God uses means to accomplish
His purpose. He doesn't have to, but He's
purposed to do so. He's ordained the means as well
as the end. As well as the end. And the means
that He has ordained for gathering the sheep of Christ, the people
of God, is the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus. It
pleased God by the foolishness of preaching. Now to please God,
we'd better pay attention to it. I want to know what pleases
God, don't you? I sure do. Well, verse 2, Abraham
said to his eldest servant of his house that ruled over all
that he had, Put I pray thee thy hand under my thigh. That
was a form of taking an oath in those days. This servant obviously
was a trusted servant of Abraham. I know some people think that
he was Eleazar, whom Abraham sometime before thought was going
to be his heir. We don't know, and it's really
not important, but he was a faithful servant of Abraham. And it says
that he had control of all of Abraham's goods. Had control
of all of them. And he says in verse 3, He says,
and I'll make thee swear, I'll 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. Now, just any bride won't do. It's not Abraham is not sending
this servant out just to fill a vacancy, if you will. He's not to take a bride of the
daughters of the Canaanites. Canaanites were peddlers. He's not peddling. He's not seeking
a peddler at all. Not at all. He says, you go to
my country and you go to my kindred and you take a wife for my son
Isaac. Now, this servant, I know in some respects he can represent
the Holy Spirit in a picture of him, but I believe he more
closely represents a preacher of the gospel here. You'll see
this as we go through. This preacher is entrusted with
the goods of his master. And he's sent to seek the bride
for the son, and he knows the difficulty of the task that he's
about to undertake. So before he takes this oath,
he seeks to have some clarification. And if you look at verse 5, it
says, And the servant said to him, he said to Abraham, he said,
Peradventure, the woman will not be willing to follow me into
this land. Must thy needs bring thy son
again into the land from which thou camest? Suppose I go down
to your father's house. the land of your kingdom. And
this warlord won't come. I suppose he won't come. Now, should I take Isaac down there?
Should I come back and get Isaac and take him down there? Now
watch this verse 6. Abraham said unto it, You beware
that thou bring not my son thither again. What's he talking about? Listen,
the preacher must never, never, never bring down the sun in order
to get results. Don't do it. No, sir. Don't you diminish the sun whatsoever. Don't you take him off his throne.
Don't you dim his glory and his beauty, his attributes in any
way whatsoever. Don't you bring my son down. And don't bring him down again.
Don't crucify him afresh. No, don't do that. He died once.
He'll not die. Don't do that. Oh, no, don't
do that. Just don't you do that. Don't
bring my son down to win approval and to get results. Look at verse
7. The Lord God of heaven, which took me from my father's house,
and from the land of my kindred, and which spake unto me, and
that sware unto me, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land.
He shall send his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife
unto my son from thence. God's in control of this thing,
and He'll send His angel before. He'll send His angel before thee. What's here for you, you see,
is the Holy Spirit of God. God's going to send Him before.
Your pastor prayed a few minutes ago, and we do every time we
stand up here, don't we? The Lord sends His Spirit. make
the hearts of the people receptive to the Word. I tell you, that's
where the results are accomplished. It's when the Spirit of God goes
before and prepares the hearts of the people to receive the
Word. You know, in the parable of the sower, several different
kinds of ground worked there. Rocky soil, thorny soil. There
was some good ground that the seed fell upon. You remember?
You ever stop to think how that ground got to be good? That's the work of the Spirit
of God. That's His sovereign work. That's the Spirit of God going
before and plowing up the ground and making it ready to receive
the seed of the Word. That Ethiopian eunuch was in
his chariot. reading the Word, and on the
way back, when God sent His messenger to him, why in the world would
he stop and have this man come up in his chair and talk to him?
The Spirit of God had been at work upon him. That's why. Who
opened Lydia's heart to receive the things that Paul spoke? God
did that. The wind bloweth where it listeth. You hear the sound of it, you
can't tell where it's coming from. You can see the effects
of it. That's how you know he's been at work. He's sovereign. He's sovereign, and he'll prepare
the ground. He knows the elect. We don't. He knows who the bride
is. We don't. And he'll prepare,
he'll prepare the ground to receive the Word. Yeah, God will send
his angel before. The results are all dependent
upon him, not upon the preacher, not upon the preacher. Now look
at verse 8. And if the woman will not be
willing to follow thee, then thou shalt be clear from this
my oath. If she won't come, you be clear.
Remember what God said to Ezekiel about the watchman? Now you warn
him. They won't hearken to you. I'll judge them. You be clear. You be clear of this oath." And
he says it again, only, "...bring not my son thither again." Boy,
we can't overemphasize. I cannot overemphasize that point. Don't bring the son down. Don't
bring the son down to get resolved. We see it happening all the time.
We see it happening all around us. And all God delivers for
bringing the Son down. Well, the servant understands
now. Verse 9, the servant put his
hand under the thigh of Abraham, his master, and he swore concerning
that matter. And the servant took ten camels
of the camels of his master, and he departed. For all the
goods of his master were in his hand, and he arose, and he went
to Mesopotamia, and to the city of Nahor." Now, notice what he
took. You see what he took? He took
ten camels of the camels of his master. He took his master's goods. He didn't provide anything, Brother
Bob. He didn't provide anything. And he didn't go over to the
Canaanites and borrow anything to take along either. He took
ten camels of his master's goods. Now that's what we come bearing
before you, the master's goods. The master's goods. I wish I
did, but I don't have anything of my own to give you. And if
I could give it to you, it wouldn't do you any good. But my master's
goods, now they'll do you well. They'll do you well. No question
about that. And he made his camels to kneel
down. He came to that city and he made
his camels to kneel down without the city by a well of water at
the time of the evening, even the time that women go out to
draw water. Here he stopped by this well
and it was time for the women to come out. And he didn't know
how he was going to go about this business. He didn't know
exactly who to look for. This bride that God has appointed
for Isaac, she's not going to come out with a mark on her forehead.
How's he going to know? Well, it's going to have to be
revealed to him, and there's only one that can do that. So
he prays. He prays to God. He's the one
that can do it. Isn't that right? And when your
pastor prepares this message to bring to you to speak of the
goods of his master, he bathes it in prayer to God the Father
that he'd do the work, that he'd apply it. You see, look at his
prayer. Look at his prayer. And he said,
verse 12, O Lord God of my master Abraham, I pray thee. Send me
good speed this day, and show kindness unto my master Abraham. Lord, Lord, will you give good
speed, and have mercy for Christ's sake. Behold, I stand here by the well
of water, and the daughters of the men of the city come out
to draw. Behold, I stand here this morning with the well of
living water, You've come here to draw, haven't you? Let it come to pass that the
damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee,
that I may drink. And she will say, Drink, and
I give thy camel's drink also. Let the same be she that thou,
that, watch it now, that thou hast appointed for my servant,
for thy servant Isaac. It's not my appointment, not
one that I pick, one you've appointed. And thereby shall I know that
thou hast showed kindness unto my Master, unto my Master." Well,
it came to pass. Before he had done speaking,
that behold, Rebecca came out, who was born
to the fool, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother,
with her picture upon her shoulder." Isn't that a coincidence? Isn't that a coincidence? And
you know what? Verse 16, she was very fair. She was very fair to look upon,
a virgin neither did any man know her. And she went down to
the well, and she filled her pitcher, and she came up, and
the servant ran to meet her, and he said, Let me, I pray thee,
drink a little water of thy pitcher. And she said, Drink, my lord.
She hastened and let down her pitcher upon her. and gave him
to drink. And when she'd done giving him
drink, she said, I'll draw water for that camel's also, until
they've all done drinking. And she hasted and emptied her
pitcher into the trough and ran again into the well to draw water
and drew for all the camels. Listen, we read over that right
quick, don't we? That's no small task. You know how much water a thirsty
camel can drink? And he had ten of them. That's a pretty good sign, isn't
it? That's a pretty good sign. Oh my, I'm telling you, she did just exactly what he'd
asked God that she wouldn't do. Now, I know, I know what would
happen in our day, don't you? I know exactly what that servant
would have done, or the servants of this day, maybe I should say. He prayed that she do this, and
behold, she came out and she did it. She watered those camels.
She gave him to drink. I'm telling you, in our day, they'd have had her
baptized or sprinkled. Her name entered on a roll, loaded
on a camel, and headed for Canaan's land. Wouldn't it? You've seen it,
haven't you? Somebody begins to show a little
bit of interest or something in the message. You see, maybe,
maybe, just maybe, the beginnings of the work of the Spirit of
God in opening the eyes and the heart and revealing the things
of Christ and revealing ourselves to somebody gets a little bit
condensed of sin, and boy aren't we quick to enroll them, aren't
we? But what you need to do is get baptized, go in the church
and give you something to do, put them to work. This master
is a little wiser than that. Verse 21, the man wondering at
her held his peace to wit whether the Lord had made his journey
prosper for us. Now, beloved, here's the attitude
we better take. We're very anxious to see the
Lord gather in His people and bring them. Let's not be too
quick. If the Lord's at work, He'll
bring them in due time. We don't have to hurry them along.
We don't have to try to speed things up, nor do we have to
assist God. He's able. He's able. And if this is what it is, This
is her? She'll come. She'll come. He won't. Held his peace. Hold
your peace now. Hold your peace. In verse 22,
verse 22, it came to pass, as the camels had done drinking,
that the man took a golden earring, or half a shekel weight, and
two bracelets of her hands of ten shekels weight of gold, and
he said, Whose daughter art thou? Now, he gave her some presents
and I'm not sure what these represent, but they have some bearing. Perhaps they're a sample of the
precious things of Christ that he showed to her. I believe that
might be it, don't you? A sample of the precious things.
She's getting a taste. She's getting a taste of the
Son. And he said, whose daughter are
you? Whose daughter are you? Tell me, I pray thee, whose daughter are you? Is there
room in thy father's house for us to lodge? She said to him,
I'm the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah, which bears
Nahum. Well, it's Abraham's natural
family. But that's no great distinction
to say who she was, because they were all idolaters. They're all idolaters. Whose
daughter are you? Whose son are you? Now, if you're going to be the
master's wife, you're going to know where you came from. And
where are you going to? Whose daughter are you? Whose
daughter are you? I'm the son of Adam. Say that in love. Say that with a kind of bated
breath. But she said, moreover to him,
we have strong preventer, nothing room to lodge in. She was gracious
wasn't she? She was a gracious lady. And the man bowed his head and
worshipped the Lord. He found out who she was. God
had led him right straight to the family of Abraham. Right straight, and he bowed
his head and worshipped. Verse 27, he said, Blessed be
the Lord God of my master Abraham, who hath not left destitute my
master of his mercy and his truth. The law came by Moses, but grace
and truth came by Jesus Christ. I, being in the way of the Lord,
led me to the house of my master's brethren. Brother Paul, you servant, I
wonder how you came to be here, all the way from up there. I know exactly how you came to
be here, don't you? The Lord led me to the house,
my master's brethren. Yeah. Well, verse 28, the damsel
ran, Rebecca ran, told these things of her mother's house,
told them all these things. Rebecca had a brother. His name
was Lavin. You run into him later on. He
and Jacob spent a lot of time together. Laban ran out unto
the man unto the well, and it came to pass, when he saw the
earing and the bracelets upon his sister's hands, and when
he heard the words of Rebekah his sister, saying, Thus spake
the man unto me, that he came unto the man, and, behold, he
stood by the camels at the well, and he said, Come in, thou blest
of the Lord, wherefore standest thou without? For I have prepared
the house and room for the camels." He's impressed with what he saw.
He's impressed with what he saw. And verse 32, And the man came
into the house, and he ungirded his camels, and they gave straw
and preventer for the camels from water to wash his feet,
and the men's feet that were with him. And there was set meat
before them to eat. But he said, But he said, I will
not eat until I have told mine errand. And they said, Speak
on. Now he's not going to be sidelined
or distracted. Let's party. Let's make a little
whoop-de-doo here, and then we'll get down to business. No, let's
get down to business first. Let's get down to business first.
He's on an errand for his master, and that's got to come first. We're going to seek first the
Kingdom of God. These things will be added later.
There's time and place for them. Time and place. But we've got
to take care of the errand first. And they told him, they said,
speak of verse 34, and he said, I'm Abraham, sir. Whoa! They
didn't know who he was up to this point. I'm Abraham's servant. I'm a servant, but I'm Abraham's servant. You know that name carries some
weight around that place. What Paul said in 2 Corinthians
5, he said, now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though
God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's name, be
you reconciled to God. I'm a servant of Christ. I'm
an ambassador of the King. You're an ambassador of the King.
You've got to carry the message of the King. Nothing, the servant's
nothing, but the Master is. I don't have anything to say of
myself, but I've got something to tell you the Master told me
to say. Isn't that right? Look what he says now, watch
what he says. He said, I'm Abraham's servant, and the Lord hath blessed
my master greatly, and he's become great, and he hath given him
flocks, and herds, and silver, and gold, and menservants, and
maidservants, and camels, and asses. And Sarah, my master's
wife, bare a son to my master when she was old. Now watch,
here's the key. And unto him hath he given all
that he had. Turn over to Hebrews 1, and I
want you to look at this. Here's the key. We're talking
about the Son. Here's the gist of the message. The earth is the Lord's, and
the fullness thereof. The worlds are they that dwell
therein. It all belongs to God, and He's
given it to His Son. All that He hath, He's given
to the Son. Hebrews 1, 1, God, who at sundry times and in diverse
manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
hath in these last days spoken unto us by Son, whom He hath
appointed heir of all things. He's the heir. It all belongs
to Him. It's all His. Every single bit
of it is His. It's His. There's no question
about that. Our Lord Himself said, all things
are given unto me. And no man knoweth the Son but
the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son.
And he Whomsoever the Son will reveal." All things is given
to him. Yeah, he's given all that he
hath. All that he hath to the Son. And verse 37, he said, And
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 unto my father's house, and to my kindred, and
take a wife unto my son. You know, as he goes As he goes
through this thing, he relates just exactly what is taking place.
I'm going to read through it without much comment here, but
I want you to notice as he goes through this, he doesn't add
anything or he doesn't take anything away. He doesn't embellish it. He tells exactly what transpired
between him and the Master, between he and Abraham, and what his
mission is. Verse 38, he said, Thou shalt go into my Father's
house, to my kindred, and take a wife of my son. And I said
to my master, Peradventure, the woman won't follow me. And he
said unto me, The Lord before whom I walk will send his angel
with thee, and prosper thy way, and thou shalt take a wife for
my son of my kindred, and of my Father's house. Then shalt
thou be clear from this mine oath, when thou comest to my
kindred, and if they give not thee one that thou shalt be clear
from my oath. And I came this day into the
well, and said, O Lord God of my master Abraham, if now thou
do prosper my way, which I go, behold, 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, Most drink
thou, and I will also draw for thy camel. Let the same be the
woman whom the Lord hath appointed out for my master's son. And
before I had done speaking in my heart, behold, Rebekah came
forth with her pitcher on her shoulder, and she went down into
the well, and she 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 she said, Drink, and I'll
give that camel's drink also. So I drank, and she made the
camel's 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 bracelets upon her hands, and
I bowed down my head and worshipped 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." Just a clear statement
of what's going on, what's happening, what he's there for, what it's
there for. Now, here comes down to this,
verse 49. You heard the message? You heard the message. The Son's
been described? The Son's been described. And
now if you deal kindly and truly with my Master, now you tell
me. Tell me. And if not, tell me. One way or the other, you tell
me, that I might turn to the right hand or to the left. You
going to receive the message? You going to honor the message? Are you interested in being the
bride of the Master's son? Tell me. Tell me. You don't want it, I'll go elsewhere.
You want it? We'll get on with it. Chapter 50, Laban and Bethuel
answered and said, The thing proceedeth from the Lord. We
can't speak unto thee good or bad. I tell you right here, here's
a perfect example of a fence straggler. They can't deny the truth of
the message. Don't really have any interest in it. But they
can't deny that it's on authenticity, that it's God's message, that
it concerns His Son, that it's all of grace, that it's all in
Him, that He's the heir of all things, and they acknowledge
that it comes from God. They just don't have any interest.
We can't speak We can't speak unto thee good or bad. Yeah? All right. That's what you want. But here in verse 51, Behold,
Rebekah, before thee taketh, they're afraid. They don't have
really any interest in themselves, but they're afraid to oppose
God. That's good. But here's Rebekah. You take
her and go, and let her be thy master's son's wife, as the Lord
hath spoken. Well, if once the Lord's will is ever
revealed to us, we best not resist it. Whether we like it or not,
we best not resist it. Now here she is. Let her be your
wife and son. It came to pass that when Abraham's
servant heard these words that he worshipped the Lord, bowing
himself to the earth. And the servant brought forth
jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment and gave them
to Rebekah. And he gave also to her brother
and to her mother precious things. And, boy, they ate and they drank.
He and the men that were with him and tarried all night, they
rose up in the morning. And he said, Now send me away
to my master. You know what it came for? I'm going to go back. I've got to get back. And her brother and her mother
said, let the damsel abide with us a few days at the least ten.
After that she shall go. If you look in the margin there,
it tells you they talked about ten months or a year, not just
a few days. I don't know if you find it so,
but I do in almost every case, that one of the greatest hindrances
in people coming to Christ comes from the family, one way or the other. You know,
there's lots of different approaches to that. Don't leave our church and go
over there. Are you sure you want to do this? Natural family, quite often. Man's enemies will be those of
his own household. His own house. And they just didn't want her
to leave. Didn't want her to leave. Let her stay a year and
then she can go. And he said, verse 56, he said
to them, now don't slow me down, hinder me not. Seeing the Lord
hath prospered my way, you send me away that I may go to my master.
And they said, well, we'll call the damsel and quiet her mouth.
I'm sure she'll want to stay a while before she leaves. They called Rebecca, said unto
her, wilt thou go with this man? You know, all this time, from
the time she'd met him at the well, she'd been sitting back
outside, out of the limelight, listening to everything that's
been being said, pondering it in her mind. Everybody else was busy and active
and talking. Well, here's what I think about
this situation. She's just sitting there. I find that so often the case
I see, you know, you preach the glory of the Redeemer, the majesty
of His person, the freeness of His grace, the excellence, beauty,
and glory of Christ. And you see somebody over here
talking, somebody over here moving, somebody over here squirming.
They're hearing what's being said, but there's somebody sitting
there not making a sound and not making a move. It's either
not hearing a thing. I don't be too quick to judge. We can't see the heart, can we?
We cannot see the heart. They called Rebecca, they said
to her, she'd weighed these things. She'd heard, she'd heard this
servant describe the majesty of the Son. He's the Master's
Son, and the Master's giving everything. Everything. It's all in His hands. It all belongs to Him. All belongs to Him. She'd never
even seen Him. And she's being asked leave home
and family and travel hundreds of miles to go to a person she's
never seen. What about you? You've heard
of the majesty and the glory and the beauty of the Son, haven't
you? Have you ever seen him? You've heard him described, haven't
you? And some have said, well, yeah,
you see, you can go. Yeah, you ought to go, but no,
you ought to wait a while. Well, I'll go when I get ready."
Well, what about you, Rebecca? Will you not go with this man?
Will you go to be the bride of one you've never seen? Just having heard a description
of him? I will go. Now my dear friends, you listen
to me, I know, I know the gospel is preached here. I know the
message of the master is preached here. The excellency of the person
of the son. He's taken the bride into himself.
He's been described to you. He's been described to you, hasn't
he? And we know that God has has
set his love upon a people and chosen them unto salvation from
before the foundation of the world. And in time the Son died
for them and redeemed them unto himself. And the Spirit of God
through the preaching of the gospel is at work drawing them
right now. And they'll come, they will invincibly
be drawn unto the Lord Jesus Christ through the description
given of him in the gospel, the declaration of his person. and
they'll come, but I'm telling you right now, if you wait for
something to get a hold of you and physically drag you to Christ,
you'll never come. Right here is what it comes down
to. Will you go? Well, there's no doubt about
Rebecca's answer. I'll go." We don't, we're not brought to
Christ against our will. That servant didn't tie her up,
load her on a camel and take her, drag her back to Isaac.
No, sir. She went willingly, lovingly,
and if you ever come to Christ, you come the same way. There's
no one here that has come who has come any other way. I'll go. And I'm going to keep on going.
I'm going to keep on going. And look, 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, and let
thy seed possess the gate of those that which hate thee, and
Rebekah arose, and her damsels, and they rode upon the camels,
and they followed the man, and the servant took Rebekah, and
went his way." She left with a man she'd known for one day,
going to a place she'd never been, to be the bride of a man
she'd never seen. And you know, They rode upon
camels. You reckon we'll ever get to
Christ? It's a slow process through desert
land, isn't it? But bless God He'd give His angels
charge over you. You'll get there. You'll get
there. And you know how she was going
to get there? I want you to look at this now. They rode upon camels and followed
the man. That's what Paul said to Thessalonians
was, you became followers of us and of the Lord. Now like I told you before, it's
not that the servant was anything. It was himself. But he's Abraham's
servant. And he's leading to Isaac. And he's got the Master's words. And if you're going to go, if
you're going to go to Isaac, you're going to have to follow
the man. He knows the way. He knows the way. And you'll go there being carried
and being led." What? Being carried and being
led. Verse 62, "'Isaac came from the
way of the whale, Lahairoi, for he dwelt in the south country.
And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at eventide, and
he lifted up his eyes and saw him. Behold, the camels were
coming.' About that same time, Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and
when she saw Isaac, boy, she came off that camel. For she
said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field
to meet us? And the servant had said, It
is my master. There he is. Therefore she took
a veil and covered herself. And the servant told Isaac all
the things that he had done. And Isaac brought her into his
mother Sarah's camp. And he took Rebecca, she became
his wife, and he loved her. He loved her. And Isaac was comforted after
his mother's death. He loved her and he was comforted. he shall see of the travail of
his folk, and he'll be satisfied. He loved her, and he died for
her, and he loves her still. And now, his death, when he sees
the beauty of his pride, made so by He's satisfied. He's satisfied. Where's the servant? He dropped
out of the picture. His work's done. His work's done. When the bride comes to Christ, He has the preeminence that it
pleases the Father, that in Him should all fold to Him. Please
God, that He should have all the preeminence. The servant
just drops outside. Where'd he go? I don't know.
Probably after another bride. Probably after another. Probably
led by the Spirit. Well, I hope you'll take that
home and look it over and pray the Lord will bless it to your
heart. But that's what we're doing. That's what we're doing. We're seeking the bride, not
just any bride, but we're seeking the bride of our Master, the
one God has appointed. We deliver the Master's message,
and we describe our Lord as best we can. We're faltering. We have
this treasure in earthen vessels, but we describe him as the Lord
enables, and it comes down to this. where you go, and every
single one of his people will return this answer. I'll go.
I'll go. Others are going to say, I'm
not interested. Well, just tell me and I'll be on my way. Because
somebody's going to be there. Somebody's going to come. Somebody
better point of God to be proud of his son. He died for him. He redeemed and sent His Spirit. He sent His angel before the
world to prepare their hearts to receive this message. Will you go? I'll go. I'll go. Will you? He's leaving today, and after
another bride, I hope the Lord blesses you well. And I hope
one of our daughters has let down her picture. What's that number, Brother Joe? Let's stand and we'll sing a
couple of verses and be discouraged. Sing the first and the third
stanza. While the clouds are falling
in a passing by Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry Do not rest me now. Rest me only in Thy presence. Help me find rest. Fill my wounds before the King. I don't know why, why on earth
are we falling to our last goodbye.