You know the whole chapter has
67 verses in it, and I could not possibly read the whole chapter,
but I'll be referring to it throughout this message. But what I have
as my title is A Bride Sought and A Bride Found. A Bride Sought
and A Bride Found. In this chapter, Most people
see it as a historical story. But in this chapter, Genesis
24, we have one of the fullest and most blessed revelation of
God's electing love and grace for the bride that He has chosen,
the bride of Christ, the sinner. And we see that sinner is brought
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me give you how this
thing sets up. Abraham is a type of the Father.
Isaac is a type of the Son. Eliezer is a type of the Holy
Spirit. And Rebecca is the sinner brought
to the Lord Jesus Christ, brought to the Son. Very simple, very
plain, very easy to understand. And let me read these First four
or five verses again, and then we'll start. And Abraham was
old and well stricken in age, and the Lord had blessed Abraham
in all things. And you know, he blessed him,
Abraham, in all things, just like he blessed us in Christ.
All spiritual blessings are in Christ. And so God had blessed
Abraham. And Abraham said unto his eldest
servant of his house that ruled over all that he had, That's
why he's a type of the Holy Spirit. 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, or perhaps the woman will not be willing to
follow me into this land. Do I need then to bring your
son back into your land, Abraham? No, no, don't you dare take my
son back down there. But now let me tell you how this
thing started. seeking a bride for his son,
Isaac seeking a bride, or Abraham seeking a son for his, a wife
for his son. First of all, we see it was the
Father's will and the Father's purpose. Ain't that what it says
there in verse 4? He said that thou shalt go unto
my country, unto my kindred, and take a wife unto my son.
It was the Father's will and the Father's purpose. And you
know that God, before the world ever began, before He ever put
the stars in the sky and ever made the sun to shine, God willed
and purposed to have a bride, have a people for His Son. It
was the Father's will. All, you know, everything God
does, He does on purpose. And His will is going to be carried
out. And as Abraham said, I want you
to go and get a bride for my son Isaac. And the father's the
one that had the will. And what, did you reckon God
ever purposed anything that it didn't come to pass? Huh? We were chosen in Christ, when? Before the foundation of the
world. And the father had a will and he had a purpose. And whom
he purposed, He also called, and whom He called, He also justified,
and whom He justified, He also glorified. And one of my favorite
verses in all the Bible, the one that God used to reveal the
gospel to me and make my heart understand it, was this, that
God who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. So just
as Abraham had the will and the purpose to have a bride for his
son Isaac, God willed and purposed to have a people and a bride
for his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And believe me, they'll everyone
be there. He's gonna get them. And oh,
look what else he said there in verse one. He said, go to
my country. Go to my country. Where else is there a place on
this earth that don't blame the God? That's what he said, the Lord
God of heaven, the Lord God of earth. The earth is the Lord's
in the fullness thereof. The earth belongs to Him. There's
no place you can't go where it's not His country. I'll tell you
what, you know I'm setting foot right here, right now. And you
know where this spot belongs to? It belongs to God Almighty.
He blesses me to stand here. When I walk out the door, I'm
going to walk, and when I go to home, I'm going to be somewhere
where God is, that God owns it all. Huh? Go to my country. Where can you
go where it's not God's country? Then look what else he said.
He said to my kindred, go take to my kindred. Let me tell you
something else, we've always been the Lord's kindred. There
was a time we didn't belong to Him. There was a time we didn't
belong to Him. We've always been God's people.
That's why Paul said, would it please God who separated me from
my mother's womb and called me by His grace? He said, told Jeremiah,
said, before I formed you in the belly, before you was ever
conceived, I knew you and I called you to be a prophet. Huh? Oh my goodness. For whom he foreknew, then he
also did predestinate. We've always belonged to God.
I tell you what, that's something Folks fuss and fight over what
God does. Let me tell you something. God's
eternal and everything He ever does is based on eternity. He
chose us before time began and He'll have us after time ceases
to be. There never was a time we did
not belong to God. We're His kindred. Huh? Oh, we're His kindred. Go into
that and then listen. And then look what else happened.
Now here this Eleazar, the servant, he took off, and he took off
with everything for his master, went looking for a wife for his
son. But now look at about the son's
position now. Look over here in verse 35. You
know, let me back up a minute before we look over there. Here's
what happened. The servant left and he took
some The masters, his masters, Abraham's property and riches
and wealth went down there to find a bride for his son Isaac. Well, when he got down there,
when he got down there, he prayed and said, Lord, you please direct
my journey. And so he stopped at this well.
And Rebecca came to this well. He said, please park and send
the woman that's going to be my master's wife. And Rebecca
come out and he said, would you give me a drink of water? And
he did. He said, Lord, who do I ask to
give him a drink of water? She gave him a drink of water.
And he, she said, well, listen, I'll even get water here to water
your camels. And then you, we got plenty of
room in our house. You come to my house, you come
to my father's house, and we'll take care of you and we'll take
care of all your property. So that's what happened. So they
get down there and look what he says about the son. Look what he says about the son.
First of all, he said in verse 34, I'm Abraham's servant. 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 service, maid's service, camels, and asses. And listen
to this now. And Sarah, my master's wife,
bare a son to my master when she was old. And listen to this
now. And unto him hath he given all
that he has. Who do you think controlling
you know? It says about our Lord Jesus Christ. It says this about
him, thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And oh
my, look over here in chapter 25 in verse 5, look what it says
over here. And Abraham gave all that he
had unto Isaac. All of His wealth, all of His
power, all of His glory, everything that He had, He said, I'm giving
to my son. And God Almighty, before the
world began, He said, I'm going to put everything in my son.
Every soul and this world and all it is gonna be in my son's
hand now you keep Genesis 24 and go to go to Colossians with
me go to Colossians I'll give you a little while to get there
because it'll take me a minute to get there just a little while
to get there But go to Colossians chapter 1 and I want to show
you something about the Sun You know it pleased up. We are complete
in him. Who's the head of all principalities
and powers? But look what it says here in
Colossians chapter one. And look what it says down here
in verse 16. For by Him, Christ is the image
of the invisible God. For by Him, now watch this, I
just want to tell you now. For by Him were all things created.
Everything in this world was created by God Almighty, by His
blessed Son. Things that are in heaven, you
look at stars, sun, moon, everything up there, that blue sky, He created
it. And you look at everything on
this earth, all the creation around us, Christ created it.
Now watch this, whether you can see it or whether you can't see
it, whether it's somebody on the throne, whether it's a president
or whoever else it is, whether it's on the throne or dominion,
that means from sea to shining sea, from the north to the south.
And principalities and all the powers that exist in this world,
all things were created by Him and for Him. And listen to this,
He is before everything. And you know how everything keeps
on keeping on? By Him all things consist. And listen to this now. And He's
the head. He's the head of the body, the
church. And look what it says now. That in all things He might
have the preeminent, for it pleased the Father that in Him should
all fullness dwell. Oh, bless His holy name. I'm
telling you. I'm telling you. God in the time
past spake unto the fathers by the prophets. In these last days,
He's spoken by His Son. who is the image of the invisible
God. And he sat down at the right
hand of the majesty on high. So I tell you what, God gave
him a name that's above every name. And one of these days,
every knee, every knee, when this judgment, the day of judgment
comes, when this world winds up, God's gonna say, everybody,
everybody, on this earth, who's ever been on this earth, and
all of them will be raised from the dead, and they'll all stand
there, and God will say, bow the knee right now. Who are you
going to bow to? To Jesus Christ, the Lord of
glory. Why? So God gets all the glory,
because He put all His glory in His Son. And I tell you what,
And I've said this, I couldn't tell you how many times I've
said it. You've heard me say it over and over again. We bow
the knee right now to the Lord Jesus Christ. We attribute everything
to Him. Everything to Him. My life is
His. My breath is His. My time is
His. Everything that my soul is His. And if I had 10,000 souls to
commit to Him, I'd commit every single one of them to Him. because
he's got the name, he's got the glory, he's got the power. Bless
his name. Now look at what about the bride
now. What about the bride? The first
thing that he said over here was, he said, now go unto my
country, back over in Genesis 24, my kindred, and take a wife
unto my son. Now let me tell you what this
means. Before she knew it, Before she
had anything to have anything, didn't even know anything was
going on. She did not know this conversation. She did not know
Eliezer that was coming down there. She didn't have a clue
what was going on. But she is going to be Isaac's
bride. She's gonna be the bride of the
son and everything he had she's gonna get Huh, and let me tell
you something else about her. She was a far far far far away
And she didn't know Abraham she didn't know Isaac. She didn't
know the wheel. She didn't know the purpose She
didn't know anything about it what Abraham and Elijah was talking
about She didn't know he was on his way down there. She'd
had no clue. She was far off in another country. And oh my,
that's the way we were. We were so far off from God,
so far off in our experience. We know now about God's purpose
before the world, but I tell you, in our experience, we were
so far off so far off that we did not know that God willed
to save us. We did not know God's purpose.
We did not know the message about the Son. We had no clue about
it until somebody came and told us. And that's the way it was,
it was far off. And that's what our Lord, you
know what our Lord said about the world? He said, I pray not for the world,
But for those thou hast given me out of the world. Huh? Oh, ain't that what he said?
He said, I know my sheep. He said, I have sheep which are
not of this fold. And I know my sheep, and have
known of thine. And I lay down my life for the
sheep. And I'll seek those sheep, and
I'll find those sheep. He's like that product, you know,
it's like that sheep that was lost. He leads the ninety and
nine. He leaves all the ones already safe in the fold. All
the people already safe in the fold. He leaves all of them.
And he said, I got a lost sheep over there. And he went looking
for that lost sheep. Was there any danger he was not
going to find it? And he goes into the wilderness. And that's
where we were. We were in the wilderness of
sin. We was in the darkness of sin. We was in the wilderness
of this world. And our Lord Jesus Christ, He
come and found us. And you know what it says? When
He found it, He laid on His shoulder. And I said this before. Over
in Isaiah 9, it says He has the government of the world on His
shoulder. Just on one shoulder. Didn't say shoulders. So he's
got sheep on one shoulder and the world on the other. And he
can handle all of it. That's how glorious our Lord
is. That's how blessed our Lord is. Oh my. I'll tell you something. All that the Father gives me,
what's going to happen to them? They're going to come. They're
going to come. They're going to come. As Eve
was in Adam, When God made Adam, Eve was already there. God just
had to bring her out. God just had to create her. And
that's the way we were. We were always in Christ. God
just had to bring us to Him. And now let's look at what the
servant had to say. Look what the servant had to
say. First of all, down here in verse 32, you know the servant
had authority in the house. And Abel says that he ruled over
all that he had. He had authority in the house.
And this is the Holy Ghost, this is the service, this is the Spirit's
mission. First of all, he had all the
authority to go and do. Abraham sent him to do this. First of all, he was sent by
the Father. How did our Lord Jesus Christ come into this world? How did He come into this world?
God sent Him. God sent Him. When our Lord Jesus
Christ, even before He was born, they come and told Him that,
Mary, you're going to have a child. Who's He going to be? He's going
to be the Son of God. He's going to be the Holy One
of Israel. He's going to be for the consolation of Israel. And
I'll tell you why He come. And He's the Father sent Him.
The Father sent Him into this world with one mission. Well,
let me give you two missions. First of all was to honor and
glorify His Father in doing His will every moment of every day
of all of His life. Perfectly! And the second thing
was not only to honor His Father, but to save His people from their
sin. And our Lord Jesus Christ, that's
what they said about Him before He was ever born. Name Him! Why do you want to name Him?
Jesus! What's He going to do? Save! From what? They're sinned! And if He saves you, as far as
He's concerned, you ain't got no more sin. Ain't that what
He come to save us from? Oh, I love that old song we sang,
you know, about that mercy seat where we'll go where there's
sin and since will never ever bother us again. Oh, my. And I tell you something else,
He was sent in the name of the Son. He said, I want you to go
and get something for my son. I want a bride for my son. I want a wife for my son. And when the Holy Spirit comes,
here's what He says. Our Lord said, when the Holy
Spirit comes, He shall not speak of Himself, but He shall take the things
of mine and show them unto you. Now look over here in verse 32. Oh my. First of all, he was sent
in the name of the Son, sent by the Father, had authority.
And then he began to declare the Father, Abraham's, the Father's
purpose. And then verse 32. And the man
came into the house, in the Laban's house, and he ungirded his camels,
and gave straw and provender for the camels, and water to
wash his feet, and the men's feet that were with him. And
there was set food before him, set meat before him, to eat. But now listen to this now. But
he said, I'm not going to eat until I've told mine Aaron. And
he said, speak on. And the first thing he said,
I'm Abraham's servant. I'm not here in my own name.
I'm not here to do anything else but tell you what my master said. I'm not here to tell you anything
but what he told me to tell you. I'm not saying nothing else.
I'm not even going to eat until I tell you what I'm here for.
Huh? And then he said, and the Lord
has blessed my master greatly. And he has become great, and
he'd given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, men's service,
maid's service, camels and asses. And Sarah, my master's wife,
bare son. He's telling the father's will
and the father's purpose. To my master when she was old
and unto him hath he given all things. Now listen to this. And my master made me swear. saying, thou shalt not take a
wife to my son of the Doris the Canaanites in whose land I dwell.
I don't want my son to marry any of these heathens around
here. That's what he's saying. And oh my, and my master made
me swear thou shalt not take a wife to my son of Doris the
Canaanites where I dwell, but thou shalt go unto my father's
house and to my kindred and take a wife unto my son. So he declared
the father's purpose. And he did not speak of himself.
And oh my! And he says, peradventure that
the woman will not follow me. Now let me tell you something. He said, suppose that woman won't
follow me. Do you want me to bring my son
down? Bring him down to this country? He said, oh no, no,
no, my son's gonna stay right in the position of power and
authority. If that woman don't wanna go,
if anybody don't wanna go, you're free of that. And what
he's telling us is, and this is the thing, we cannot bring
the son down no matter what happens to anybody. Christ has gotta
get all the glory, all the authority, all the power. And we're not
going to bring him down and try to do our dead level. Arminium
would say this. Jesus right here. He's right
here. You come down here in the front
and accept him. That's what he says. Now you can't take my son
down there. Don't you dare do it. If the woman don't go, don't
take my son. I want him to stay right where
he's at. And that's what we do. We preach him right where he's
at. We're not gonna bring him down
to try to appease man's flesh and talk somebody into something. No, no. And then look what happens
here in verse 53. Oh, he didn't speak of himself and
look what he said. And the servant, now he's talking
to Rebekah, Rebekah's before him. And he says there in verse
51, let her be thy master's son's wife as the Lord has spoken. And Abraham's servant heard their
words, he worshipped the Lord, bowing himself to the earth.
Now watch what he does now. And the servant brought forth
jewels of silver. He's going to take the things
that belongs to Isaac and show them unto her. And he took jewels
of silver and jewels of gold and ramed it and gave them to
Rebekah. Oh my! He said, this is how wealthy
my son is. This is what you're going to
get. You know what silver stands for in the scriptures? Redemption. The tabernacle sat on silver
sockets. And that was the price of redemption,
short redemption. Redemption, blood redemption.
And then the gold represents Christ's deity, His power, His
glory, His wealth, His preciousness. And then that raiment that He
gave her, that tells us of the righteousness of Christ. Now
you get new clothes. You're going to be dressed in
something precious, something new. And I tell you, He said,
listen, you got silver, you've been redeemed. You got my master,
He's deity, He's God Almighty. And I tell you something else,
he said, he's got special clothes just for nobody but you, and
he gonna put it on you. And he took the things of Isaac
and showed them unto her. And then look what else it says,
he gave them to Rebekah. She didn't deserve them, she
didn't even ask for them. But he said, listen, I got something
to give you. And he gave it to her. Everything we got, God gave to
us. That's what I'm telling you.
He gave us redemption. He gave us Christ. He gave us
a robe of righteousness from the top of our head to the sole
of our feet. And oh my. And he gave them to
Rebecca. And let me tell you something
else now. And the Holy Ghost, let me tell you something, the
Holy Ghost cannot and will not have fellowship with us until
He makes known the Son, and the character of the Son, the glory
of the Son, and the wealth of the Son. And when He does that,
it tells in verse 61 that He takes her all the way back, all
the way to home. But I want you to see, and let me tell you something
else, He went down there after a particular person. Let me tell
you something he did not do. He did not go into the town. Listen, my master's really, really
wealthy, and he's looking for a bride. Anybody here want to
be married? Anybody here want to know anything
about my Jesus? Anybody here want to know about
the Lord Jesus? Anybody? Anybody want to be? Line up here! Just get in line, now we'll go,
we'll see, you know, and that's what they do, you know, people,
listen, he did not go down through there hollering, anybody want
my master's son? You're welcome to him. You can
have him on any terms you want. No, no, he was sent down there
to get one person. a particular person. And he went
to a particular person. He went to one person. And that
one person heard the message. She heard the message. Look what
it says in verse 58. Oh, look at the power of the message.
And they called Rebekah and said unto her, Wilt thou go with this
man? What did she say? I'll go. But now look what happened back
up here. Oh my goodness, look how it attracted her. Look what
it says up here in verse 55. And her brother and her mother
said, let the damsel abide with us a few days, a full year or
10 months, what she's saying. At least 10, and after that she
shall go. They're trying to get her. Stay
home, honey. Stay here with us a little bit
while. Don't go, don't go with him. Don't go and don't leave
us. Don't forsake your mama. Don't
forsake your brother. Don't forsake your house. Oh. And he said of them, hinder me
not, seeing the Lord hath prospered my way. Send me away that I go
to my master. And oh my, they tried to get
her to stay. Oh, they wanted her to stay.
And they said, I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll call her.
and ask her what she wants to do, what she's willing to do.
And they called Rebecca and said, under without go with this man.
And she said, I'm going. Mom, I know you want me to stay,
but I'm going. I'm going. I've seen too much. I've heard too much. I've seen
something about his glory. I've seen it. I'm going. And
I tell you, that's why I said, if she's not willing to go, And
that's what the gospel is. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. Oh, it attracted Rebecca. He
done no pleading with her. He done no begging. He done no,
please would you go, would you, please I want you to go. No,
no. All he done is just went and
told her. The Father's will, the Father's purpose, and the
Son's wealth, and everything about that Son. Oh my. It was the goodness and the glory
of the Father and the Son that won her heart. They never said
anything about wrath. No, no. If you don't go, do you
know what's going to happen to you? No, no. Oh, they tried to
get her to stay, but she's ready to go. Ready to go. And I'll
tell you this. I'll tell you, I remember years
ago, years and years ago. Oh, and somebody would, you know,
they'd have these meetings and people would go and get in people's
laps and cry over them, trying to get them to accept Jesus and
come to the front. And they would, you know, and
they'd sing every verse and everything they could possibly do to get
them to come up to the front, to make some kind of profession.
And, oh my, please come, please come. And they'd get in their
laps and cry and weep and all that. And people say, well, they
held on to the best till their knuckles were white. No, no,
that don't happen. When you hear the gospel, when
you hear about the Son, when you hear about His power and
His glory and His clothes, you're coming. You are coming. You don't
have to be begged. You don't have to be pleaded
with. All you got to do is hear the message. And that's what
she does. She heard the message. And that message had power. That
message had power. And oh my. She did for the glory
that was written. She left everything behind because
of the glory that was revealed of her. She saw the riches of
the throne. And here's something else. She
trusted everything to what Abraham promised. Abraham promised that
everything in my son, everything I have, belongs to my son. And
the father. made a promise to that son, I'm
giving everything to you, everything to you. And beloved, she accepted
it all by faith. She said, I'm gonna go. She hadn't
seen the son, she hadn't seen the father, but she said, I believe
that promise that he made concerning his son, and I'm gonna go. She
accepted everything by faith. And now look what happens. And in verse 61, And Rebekah arose, and her damsels,
and they rode upon the camels, and followed the man, and the
servant took Rebekah, and went his way. Oh my, when the Holy
Spirit comes to get you, you're going His way. He's like that,
he's like Bartimaeus that Gabe preached on on Saturday night.
He said after Bartimaeus received his sight, His scripture says
he followed Jesus in the way. That's what happens when God
does something for you. You follow him. You thought she
followed him in the way. Oh my. And they went his way. And Isaac, Isaac, that son that
had every power, all the glory, and all the wealth, and all the
riches, came from the way of the well of Laha Roy, for he
dwelt in the south country. And Isaac went out to meditate
in the field at evening time, like our Savior goes out to pray,
like our Savior went up in the evening. And he looked up, he
looked up, lifted up his eyes and looked up and he saw some
camels coming. He saw some camels coming. And
then Rebekah, she looked up and she saw Isaac. She saw him walking
around out there in the field meditating. And when she saw Isaac, she lighted
off her camel, for she had said unto the servant, what man is
this that walketh in the field to meet us? Oh my, Christ's right
there. What man is this out here walking?
Who is this? And the servant said, it's my
master. And the servant says, my master,
therefore she took a veil and covered herself. Oh my. Oh my. So Isaac saw her coming. And then look what happened.
And he saw her coming and when she saw him, she got off her
camel. She went running to him. Went
running to him. And she covered herself in his
presence. You know, she humbled herself.
And the servant told Isaac, All the things, and look what it
says now. And Isaac brought her into his
mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife. It's a great mystery. And listen to this. And he loved
her. He loved her. Oh my, huh? Oh boy, I'll tell
you what. And you know what our Lord Jesus
Christ said? Isaac loved her. And Christ loved
us with an everlasting love and with cords of loving kindness
he drew us. And it says Christ loved us and
gave himself for us. And then our Lord prayed this
in John 17, 24. He said, Father, I will. I will. that every one you give me, be
with me where I am, for one reason, what? To behold my glory. And that's why she saw the glory
of Isaac. She said, and you know what? Isaac said, oh, this is my wife.
This is my wife. And you know it says over in
Revelations, one of the brethren read it the other day. They read
it the other day and it says there that the bride had made
herself ready How she is clothed in white, and her robes were
washed white in the blood of the Lamb. That's how they made
their self ready. They washed their robes white
in the blood of the Lamb. You reckon, you know, that's
what, what if she's not willing? And I'll tell you one thing.
It was a day of power for Rebecca. It was a day of revelation to
Rebecca. It was the day of salvation for
Rebecca. It was the day of marriage to
Rebecca. And it was the glory of Christ
and the glory of Isaac that made her want to go. And if you ever
see the Lord Jesus Christ, you're coming. There's no way you're
not coming. I'm willing to leave it right
there. God's going to give His bride. They're all going to be dressed
in white. Dressed in white. Our Father, in the blessed, blessed
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for allowing us to
meet here today. Thank you for your gospel. Thank
you for your precious word. Thank you for something so plain,
so clear, so simple, so easy for us to understand. for those
who've got the understanding. Bless this word to our hearts
and our understanding. Bless it to the salvation of
sinners. And we ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen. Amen. Come and lead us in sands
of time are sinking. Okay. I think that'd be an appropriate
song. The sands of time are sinking.