If you are trying to follow the
scripture reading schedule that I gave you many years ago, our
reading Sunday morning was Genesis chapters 24 and 25. And as soon as I read this 24th
chapter of Genesis, I hoped God would give me a message for you
from this passage, and I believe he has. So if you'll turn in
your Bibles to Genesis 24, and just hold them open on your laps.
Obviously, I'm not going to read the entire text, verses one through
67, so I would urge you to read it again at your leisure as soon
as possible while the message is still on your mind, and we'll
just pick up some highlights here in Genesis 24. God's promise to his church is
this. I will give you pastors according
to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. And he tells us plainly what
kind of men those are who are pastors according to God's heart.
They are faithful men, men who faithfully declare the message
of redemption and grace in Christ for the glory of God. God's servants,
God's servants are not hirelings. They serve God's people and God's
interest in this world as pastors according to God's own heart.
Here in Genesis 24, God the Holy Ghost gives us an allegory from
the history of Abraham and Isaac. The historical facts recorded
in this chapter are written to teach us spiritual truths, as
are all the events and all the records of the Old Testament
scriptures. Abraham was now an old man. Sarah was dead, and Isaac was
not yet married. He had neither wife nor children.
So Abraham called his servant Eliezer and sent him down to
Mesopotamia to find a bride for his son Isaac. In these 67 verses,
God gives us a picture of grace, his saving grace in Christ, the
salvation of his elect, and the picture of the work of every
faithful gospel preacher. Abraham could have gone down
to Mesopotamia himself, He was certainly able to do so. He could
have gone down to get a bride for his son, Isaac, but he chose
to send his servant, Eleazar. And without question, the Lord
God could save his elect without the use of any man. That's not
even a question. But it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. So then faith cometh
by hearing and hearing by the word of God. In this chapter,
God shows us how his servants are to go about this business
of seeking a bride for his dear son, the Lord Jesus. The title
of my message is A Bride for Isaac. In this story, Abraham's
servant seeks a bride for his master's son, Isaac. Abraham
clearly, it seems to me, represents God the Father, our covenant
God. Isaac represents our Lord Jesus
Christ, our Savior. Eliezer, God's servant, represents,
or Abraham's servant, represents God's servants, gospel preachers.
who are instruments in the hands of God the Holy Ghost, sent to
seek his elect, sent to seek chosen sinners and bring them
to the Lord Jesus. Rebecca, of course, represents
every true believer, all who are born of God, made to be chaste
virgins in Jesus Christ, holy and pure before God, brought
by the power of God into union with Christ and married to him.
Every true gospel preacher, like Eleazar of Damascus, is sent
of God to find a wife for his son, the Lord Jesus. That's our
business. We have no other business in
this world. Would to God I could persuade
every preacher over whom I have any influence, this is our only
business. We have no business other than
this in the world. We ought not be concerned about
any other business. In this chapter, the Holy Spirit
shows us plainly what God's servants are sent to do and shows us plainly
how we are to do it. Now, there are some things in
the scriptures that are not given as clear words of instruction.
I preached to folks in Alaska last week on the Lord's Table,
and there's a lot of things that we can't say. We can't say that
you should observe the Lord's Table every week or every month,
just often. We can say that you observe the
Lord's Table with unleavened bread and with wine, representing
the body and blood of our Savior, for the scripture clearly teaches
such. And there are many things about which the scriptures do
not give specific instruction, and in those things we ought
to be very lenient in our attitude toward people who may do things
differently from us. But with regard to the ministry
of the gospel, With regard to the work of the ministry, God
gives us very specific instructions, specific instructions to be followed
to the letter. And he gives them to us not only
in the letter of the word, but in pictures throughout the word
of God and by the examples of faithful men. Throughout this
chapter, Eliezer, Abraham's servant, spoke and acted like a man who
must do exactly what his master sent him to do. He must go exactly
where his master told him to go. And he must say exactly what
his master told him to say. He had a work to do and he was
honor bound by his oath to his master to do that work. Now let's
look at the story. First, understand this. The servant
of God is sent into this world for a specific purpose. In verse
four, we read that Abraham said to his servant, go take a wife
unto my son Isaac. That's what God tells his servants
in all things to do. Abraham was a wealthy man, greatly
blessed of God. He was a man whose son Isaac
was the heir of all that Abraham possessed. Abraham trusted his
servant Eliezer to find a bride for Isaac, to find a bride for
Isaac from among his own people, a bride who would share with
Isaac all the riches of his father's house and his father's kingdom
and all his glory. Before I proceed, I have to say
this because it needs saying. He is wise who seeks his bride
among his own people. You mothers and fathers and now
grandmothers and grandfathers, urge your sons and daughters
to seek for a companion, one who worships and serves God with
them. Insist that they make for their
companions people who worship and serve the Lord our God. The
Apostle writes with clarity, be ye not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light
with darkness? Now get the picture that's given
us here in Genesis 24. The Lord Jesus Christ The only
begotten well-beloved Son of God is the heir of all things. God the Father has given all
things into the hands of his Son. The Father loveth the Son,
we're told in John 3, and hath given all things into his hands. Christ our Lord is the sovereign
king of the universe by divine design, by divine decree, by
right of his obedience unto the father as our substitute and
our representative. So that as our covenant head,
he sets ruler over everything, having all power and all dominion. And there is in this world a
people chosen out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. who
must be brought to Christ as his bride, heirs of God and joint
heirs with him of all that he possesses. A people chosen by
him from eternity, a people to whom he has given all spiritual
blessings from everlasting, a people to whom he has given life and
salvation from eternity. They must be brought to him and
brought to him they shall be. Just as Abraham sent Eliezer
to find a bride for Isaac, God calls his servants and sends
them forth into the world to find his elect, the chosen bride
for his son. And he does that by the preaching
of the gospel. I've said this to you from the
first day I came to be your pastor. This local church, has one purpose
for existence. Every true gospel church has
one purpose for its existence, just one. We are to be a sounding
board for the gospel of God's grace. It is our business to
preach the gospel of God's free grace in Christ Jesus. Our Savior
said, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every
creature. I know sometimes folks want to
argue with us concerning the gospel of God's grace and our
teaching of God's sovereignty and salvation. And they say,
well, if I just believed that God's going to just save his
elect, I wouldn't preach to anybody but them. Me too, if I knew who
they were. But I don't know who they are.
And so the Savior sends us to preach the gospel to all men. And as we preach the gospel to
all men, he calls out his elect. We come to preach to men that
God Almighty in Christ has reconciled a people to himself, scattered
through all the earth. And we are God's ambassadors,
as though God did beseech you by us that you be reconciled
to God. You quit your rebellion and be
reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Gospel preachers are sent of
God to seek out his elect from among the fallen sons and daughters
of Adam. We are seeking Christ's sheep.
We do not seek the salvation of all men. We know better. We
seek the salvation of God's elect. The work we're sent to do Oh,
it's a joyful, joyful work, but a weighty responsibility. Like
Eliezer, God's servant gets his directions from his master, and
he has a definite work he's sworn to do. It's a delightful work,
how delightful it is. Whenever I have the opportunity
to marry a young couple in love, it's a delightful time. They
hear the weddings, instruments, the music playing. It's a delightful
time. But this is also a weighty, weighty
responsibility. It's the business which has been
upon our master's heart from eternity. Isaac was now 40 years
old, maybe older. And there's no one to declare
his generation, no one to carry on his name. No one with whom
he could share the riches of his inheritance. So Abraham sent
Eliezer down to Mesopotamia to fetch him a bride so that the
covenant God made with him might be fulfilled. Nothing was more
important to Abraham than that Isaac have a bride and a seed
to follow him. Nothing was more important to
Abraham, therefore nothing was more important to Eliezer. And
yet Eliezer's work was nothing compared to that God's servants
are sent to do. Our great father's heart is set
upon giving Christ a church, which shall be his beloved bride
forever. The God-man must not dwell alone. As God said to Adam, I'll make
a help meet for him. So the Lord God determined that
his son should have a companion meet for him. The father's determined
to find a bride for the bridegroom, a recompense for the Redeemer,
a satisfaction for the Savior. And he has called chosen men
to do the work. No wonder Paul said, We have
this treasure in earthen vessels. God has put this business into
the hands of worthless flesh, like you and me. He's put this
treasure in the hands of earthen vessels. And yet, though ours
is the most delightful work in the world, it is the weightiest,
most important, most awesome work in the world. I preached
for this passage to you many years ago when we were giving
the exposition of Genesis. And I went to bed with it on
my mind last night. And it's common with me when
I'm preparing to preach, which most of the time, I preach all
night long. I wake up and things come to
my mind. How come? Because I stand here. to speak in God's stead to immortal
souls. Now nobody can grasp what that
is except the man who knows what that is. The man who is called
of God to seek a bride for his son has an indescribable weight
of responsibility. And yet, as we read this chapter,
you can't help noticing that throughout the chapter, Eliezer
carried this burden on his heart. He had to represent and speak
for Abraham and Isaac before a people who did not know his
master and didn't know his master's son. That's exactly what God's
servants are called to do. Isaac was an extraordinary man.
He was a man born according to divine promise, not after the
flesh, but after the power of God. He was born specifically
to fulfill a covenant promise that God made to Abraham. He
was the heir of the promise. And all others for whom the covenant
was made, all for whom the covenant was made, depended upon their
union with Isaac for everything in the covenant. Isaac, you'll
remember. been offered as a sacrifice to
God back in chapter 22 upon Mount Moriah. He wasn't a figure raised
from the dead, and Isaac was everything to Abraham. In all
of that, he is a picture of our Redeemer. What a weighty errand
we have, who were sent of God to find a bride for his son.
the fulfillment of the covenant, the heir of the covenant, the
crucified risen substitute, our exalted Lord and King. Who shall
be a bride for the Son of God? That one Eliezer sought, that
one who would be brought back to be wed to Isaac must at the
very least be exceedingly beautiful and perfectly willing to be Isaac's
wife. She must at the very least be
exceedingly beautiful and perfectly willing to be Isaac's wife. I
go where you send me. We go as I speak as your messenger
and God's messenger into the four corners of the earth. As
God opens doors, opens opportunities, I try to seize everyone. But
as we go, we go seeking sinners. sinners chosen of God and redeemed
by Christ's precious blood to bring to the Lord Jesus a people
exceedingly beautiful in His sight and a people willing to
be His. Where are you going to find such
people as that? None of Adam's fallen race are
fit for him. None of Adam's fallen race are
acceptable to him. None of Adam's race are beautiful
before him. And none are willing to have
him, willing to trust him, willing to come to him. But that which
is impossible with men is possible with God, for with God all things
are possible. And by the power and grace of
his spirit, As the gospel is preached, the Lord God makes
sinners willing in the day of His power. And those sinners
made willing in the day of His power are made by Christ to be
chaste virgins before God. That's how they're described,
seated around the throne of God. Every one of them, every one
of those 144,000 surrounding the throne are chaste virgins. Chaste virgins, perfectly pure,
because in Christ, by His righteousness and by His grace, His righteousness
being imputed to us in free justification, His holiness being imparted to
us in the new birth in sanctification, we who are gods are made beautiful
before Him. with through, he says, my beauty
that I put upon thee. So that the very beauty, the
very righteousness, the very holiness of God's Son is yours
if you're Christ. The servant of God is sent into
the world for this specific purpose. It's the most delightful and
the most honorable work in the world. But it's also the most
demanding, the most weighty, the most awesome work in the
world. Nothing is more important than what God's given me to do. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing is more important than
what God's put in our hands to do the preaching of the gospel
of Jesus Christ. There's no place in this work
for half-heartedness. The work of the gospel ministry
demands all the servant's heart, all his talent, all his energy,
all his care, and all his time. It demands the whole of a man,
the whole of a man. I say to young preachers and
men who express some interest or desire in preaching, Don't
even think about doing this unless you're willing to give your whole
life to this. You subject everything to this. Everything. Everything. Every
care, every relationship, everything. Everything. Here's the second
thing. In verses 5 through 9, that man who is sent of God to
seek a bride for his son can never accomplish his work by
compromise. In verse six, Abraham said, beware
that thou bring not my son thither again. I'm sure Eliezer was full
of questions. But in these verses, he expressed
a most reasonable fear. And he asked the most reasonable
question. He said to Abraham, peradventure, the woman will
not be willing to follow me unto this land. Must thy needs bring
thy son again into the land from whence thou camest? What if the
woman's not willing? What if she's not willing to
leave her home, her family, and her country to love and marry
and give herself to a man she doesn't know and she's never
seen? What if she does not believe the message I bring? If the woman
will not come, if she will not come up to your son, shall I
bring your son down to the woman? Now, carefully notice Abraham's
instruction. It's important. Abraham says
to Eliezer, understand this, God will go with you and God
will prepare the way before you. That's what he said in verse
seven. He said, he shall send his angel before thee and thou
shalt take a wife unto my son from thence. I never go anywhere
to preach including here to you. I never come into this pulpit
to preach to you, and I never go somewhere else to preach,
but what I don't ask of God that he will go before me and prepare
the way for his word. That's the promise that God made
by Abraham to Eliezer. He will send his angel before
thee, and thou shalt take a wife unto my son. You see, Eliezer's
success was a matter of certainty because nothing depended upon
him. God went before him and God sent
him for the accomplishing of his purpose for the fulfilling
of his covenant. You see, God's servants don't
go into the world to do the work God's given them by their own
power or by their own strength or by their own ability. And
every servant of God, every servant of God knows that. He says, who
is sufficient for these things? We can't persuade many women
to trust Christ, to love Christ, to come to Christ, not by logic
or persuasion or eloquence or emotion. Only the Spirit of God
prepares the heart of men. Only He quickens whom He will. Only He gives men and women ears
to hear, and eyes to see, and a heart to believe the gospel
of His grace. God the Holy Spirit awakens the
dead. He reveals Christ. He gives faith
in Christ. He effectually turns His own
to Christ by the preaching of the gospel. you hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and in sins. And Eliezer was assured
by Abraham that his labor would not be in vain. He said, thou
shalt take a wife unto my son from thence. We never have to fret about the
success of our labors. We never have to fret about the
success of our labors. God will save his elect. Our only responsibility is to
faithfully deliver the message God's given us and to faithfully
give ourselves to the work God's committed to us. I want you to
turn to a couple of passages. Hold your hands here in Genesis
24 and look at 1 Corinthians chapter 4. You turn to 2 Corinthians
4. I'll just read a couple of verses in 1 Corinthians 4. 2
Corinthians 4. In 1 Corinthians 4 Paul says
to the Corinthians as they argued and debated and fussed about
whose preacher and who's not and who's sin of God and who's
not. He said, let a man so account of us as the ministers of Christ
and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required
in stewards that a man be found faithful. Now look at chapter
4 of 2 Corinthians. Therefore, seeing we have this
ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not. but have
renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. God's servants are
not crafty, deceitful men. They deliberately, constantly
denounce matters of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor
handling the word of God deceitfully, using the word of God to make
it say what we want it to say. But by manifestation of the truth,
commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight
of God. But if our gospel be hid, it
is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world,
and I can't think of any reason in the whole of scripture, I
can't think of any reason contextually, any reason grammarily, why our
translators translated the word God here with a lower G. There
is only one who is the God of this world, and he is God indeed. And if the gospel we preach is
hid from men, it is hid in those in whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves,
Now let me read that in all the ways it can rightly be translated. Sometimes in translating there's
several ways something can be accurately translated and all
of them exactly right. We preach not from ourselves,
about ourselves, or for ourselves. But rather we preach Christ Jesus
the Lord from Christ, about Christ, and for Christ. and ourselves
your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. The bride has already been chosen
The bride will hear the voice of her beloved through the gospel
we preach. The Savior said, my sheep shall
hear my voice. And the chosen called bride will
come to Christ. The preacher's responsibility
begins and ends with faithfulness. The preacher's responsibility
begins and ends with faithfulness. Now you can mark this down as
a matter of fact. If a man is called and sent of
God, God will supply that man's needs. I've been preaching the
gospel now since I was 17 years old. I'm 67. You can do the math. In all those years, I have never
asked anyone for anything except God. And before I will ask anyone
for anything except God, I'll quit. God provides our needs. I am insulted. I'm insulted. Someone says, what would it cost
us to have you come preach? And I tell them, I'm insulted.
It won't cost anything. Don't cost anything. Well, what are
your expenses? God will take care of them. I
just don't do it. I just don't do it. How come?
God provides the needs of his servants. God will protect and
preserve his servant in his work. God will order his steps and
God will crown his labor with success. And that man who knows
his sense of God will endure and overcome all things for the
salvation of God's elect. Whatever God puts in my path,
that's all right. I was talking to a dear friend
yesterday, Brother Fred Evans' mother, She and I, her husband,
been dear, dear friends for a long, long time. And she watched the
message Sunday morning, and she called just weeping, delightful. And Fred's dad, Fred, last several
years has gone through a lot of things. The couple's gone
through a lot of heartache, a lot of trouble. And she said, she
said, I like what Brother Scott said. I'm on my way home, this
is just bumping the road. This is just a bump in the road.
And whatever it is that God puts in your path, it's just a bump
in the road. You shouldn't get too upset with
it, too concerned about it. God's servants will not allow
anything to turn them aside from the pursuit of the work God's
put in their hands. He must find Christ's bride wherever
she is. and tell her about her Savior. And when he does, that makes
every pain and every labor worth everything. Once the servant
has delivered his message, he's clear of all responsibility.
Look at verse 8. Abraham said to Eliezer, if the
woman will not be willing to follow thee, then thou shalt
be clear from this my oath. You see, we're not responsible
for the salvation of sinners. We're only responsible to proclaim
the gospel to men. God twice in the book of Ezekiel,
chapter three, and again in chapter 33, speaks to his servant. And he says, thou, O son of man,
I've set thee a watchman upon the walls of Zion. And he said,
the watchman is responsible to watch for the sinner. And when
the enemy comes, he's responsible to sound an alarm, to give a
clear sound of alarm. And if he does, he's delivered
his soul, whether anybody pays any attention to him or not.
If he doesn't, then those men who perish, their blood will
I require at your hand. Paul said, woe is unto me if
I preach not the gospel. That's a weightier statement
than any man has ever realized, I think. Eliezer was strictly
forbidden to make any concession or compromise of any kind. God's servants are strictly forbidden
to make any concession or compromise of any kind. Whether the woman
comes or doesn't come, whether Isaac has a bride or doesn't
have a bride, Isaac's honor must be maintained. Look at verse
six again. Abraham said unto him, beware,
be absolutely certain that thou Bring not my son thither again. And he repeated himself forcefully.
In verse eight he said, no matter how things turn out, bring not
my son thither to me again. Now I take that to mean there's
something more important to God than the salvation of sinners.
There's something more important to God than the salvation of
sinners. And that that's more important
to him is the honor of his name and the glory of his son. If
men will not come up to Christ, we dare not bring Christ down
to men. We cannot alter our message or
even trim off its rough edges. We dare not even alter our methods
to suit the world. I'm fully aware that your pastor
is out of touch with the tides. That's not by accident, that's
by determination. And I urge you, should I drop
dead before I finish this message, when you seek another pastor,
seek a man who will not bend with the tide, no matter the
cost. Any other man is not worth having.
You'd be better off to go stay at home. We cannot alter our
message. We can't even trim off the rough
edges. And we dare not alter our methods
to suit the world. First and foremost in this world,
we are representatives of the Lord of glory. The honor of his
name must be paramount. Just suppose for a moment, let's
just suppose, that Eliezer were to compromise. and bring Isaac
down to Rebekah. Isaac, now, Rebekah says she
wants to marry you, but she's very comfortable down here in
Mesopotamia. Her dad, he's well off, and her brothers and family,
she just can't bring herself to leave him. But she'll marry
you if you'll come down here. That would make Rebekah more
important than Isaac. And that's what preachers and
churches have done in our day. They make men and their pleasure
more important than God and his honor. That would be a virtual
denial of God's covenant, his promise and his power. He couldn't
get Rebecca to agree, so he gives in to her. Isaac, if that had
been the case, would never have had Rebecca's heart. If she weren't
willing to forsake her family for Isaac, if she's not willing
to give up everything for Isaac, he'd be better off without her. And I've got to meddle a little
bit here again, because I know we live in this stupid, insane,
crazy society that has the idea that somehow men ought to follow
women rather than women following men. I say to any man who thinks
of marriage, don't dare, don't dare allow yourself to follow
a woman. You don't do it. Homes are not
built by women. They're built by a man and a
wife in subjection to her husband. That's how homes are built. Well,
we do it another way. Well, you can have it, but you
won't build a home. It ain't going to happen. It ain't going
to happen. And if Isaac were willing to come down to Rebecca,
she'd be better off without him. Any man willing to follow a woman
isn't worth the name husband or man. There's no need ever
under any circumstance for any reason for such to happen. I
have just one daughter. I know you can imagine the pain
with which I saw her leave from under our roof. Pain with great
delight and great joy. It is her privilege and responsibility
to cut the apron strings and the daddy rope and to be a wife
to her husband and a mother to her children. And there's no
reason ever under any circumstance for any reason for God's servants
to make concessions or compromise with the world. God will save
his elect and he will save them by the naked truth of the gospel
preached in the plainest terms possible. Compromise never will. Compromise only ruins the souls
of men. I preach to you as far as I know
it, and to the best of my ability, the truth of God. I'm not ashamed
of its peculiarities or its offense. Indeed, that which the world
finds most offensive is the very thing in which I glory. I deliberately
cut myself off from preachers who deny the truth of God, lest
I be numbered among them. And I deliberately cut myself
off from those who even associate with such men who pervert the
gospel. Faithfulness to God requires
it. Faithfulness to my calling requires
it. And faithfulness to your soul
requires it. Anything else is serving me. Faithfulness to God demands a
clear, decided, identifiable separation from Babylon. God
helping me, I cannot, I will not bring Christ down to men.
I preach a gospel, we preach a gospel that brings men up to
Christ. It's called the gospel of God's
free, sovereign, saving grace in Christ. Now some folks are
confused as to how you spell that. You spell it T-U-L-I-P. Total depravity, unconditional
election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and the absolute
preservation of all God's elect. I don't court the favor of men,
and I can live with their frowns. I labor and preach as I do because
my eye has something else in view. Soon I'm going to stand
before the bar of God, either guilty of your blood or free
of your blood. It can't be both. Third, that
man who is called of God and sent of God to preach the gospel
knows the work he's called to perform is too great for him. Eleazar came to the place where
men and women came to draw water and realizing the great weight
of responsibility and knowing that humanly speaking, the work
was impossible. In verses 13 and 14, he sought
the help of God by sincere prayer. He said, Lord, what am I going
to do? Here I am in Mesopotamia. Lord,
let it be that the woman who comes And I see her to be a fair
lady, to draw water at this well. And I say to her, give me something
to drink. And she's, well, sure, I'll give you water to drink
and I'll water your camels too. Let her be the one. And as he went
to that place, God Almighty brought Rebecca out at just the time
to draw water from the well. It was an unusual time of day. It wasn't the normal time to
come out and water the cattle. But God arranges things as he
will to cause the chosen sinner and the messenger of grace to
cross paths at exactly the time appointed for the saving of his
elect. This is impossible with men,
but not with God. Let no man attempt to deliver
a message in God's name, which he hasn't received from God the
Holy Spirit. And let no man plead with men
for God until first he pleads with God for men. Having said
that, let me hurriedly give you a couple of more things. God's
servants must seek and wait for God's direction. Just wait for
God's direction. Look at verse 21. The man wondering at her hailed
his peace. Looks like maybe God's answered
my prayer. Here comes a beautiful young
lady. And it's not time for anybody to draw water yet. And he just
stood there wondering, but he kept his mouth shut. He said,
let's wait and see whether the Lord hath made his journey prosperous
or not. Verse 27. I being in the way,
the Lord led me to the house of my master's brethren. I repeat,
God brings his elect and his messenger together at the appointed
time of love. When the time comes for God to
call one of his own, somehow or another, wondrously, God causes
the chosen redeemed sinner to cross paths with a faithful gospel
preacher. and does his work. What wonders
God does in providence to make that happen. And perhaps the
most difficult thing on this earth for us to do is to simply
wait on God. To wait on Him without becoming
negligent and irresponsible. Some folks are negligent of responsibility,
and they do nothing. So, well, we'll wait. God's going
to save his own. He doesn't need any help from
us. He doesn't. He doesn't. But God just might
take what you do, and what you do, and what I do, and what we
do together. Imagine this. Imagine this. God
just might use us. He just might use us for the
saving of his elect. Let us then give ourselves to
the labor and give ourselves ardently to the work, waiting
on God, compromising nothing. Wait for God to do his work and
learn this too, God's servant must never allow himself to become
sidetracked. Verses 29 through 51, get down
to verse 33, meat was set before Eliezer. But he said to Rebekah's
brother and her father and her mother, I will not eat until
I've told mine errand. Eleazar welcomed, was welcomed into Rebecca's house.
And they wanted to entertain him, like folks do. They wanted
to make him comfortable. But he said, I have something
I have to take care of. How many men I have seen, men
with ability, men with promise, Men whose ministries seem to
be so promising. I've seen them ruined because
they got sidetracked. Just ruined. I mean, just ruined. Sidetracked with love of money.
Sidetracked with political issues. Sidetracked with trivial matters. I mean nothing. Nothing. Sidetracked with nothing. Nothing. But it's something that makes
them stick out. Sidetracked being novices because
being novices are lifted up with pride. Sidetracked with ambition. Want to move up in the world,
especially in the religious world. Sidetracked with the cares of
this world. I'm getting older now. My children
are getting older. About time for them to get married. I've
got to make some changes. The servants of God, the servants
of God, what a word. God make me that. They are men
on a mission. who care nothing for the comforts
of this world, the honors of this world, the riches of this
world, or the cares of this world. Paul said to the elders of Ephesus,
I have coveted no man's silver or gold. He said, none of these
things move me, neither can I my life dear unto myself. that I
might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have
received from the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the
grace of God. His singular purpose was to make
Christ known. God make that my purpose for
existence in this world, just to make him known. And those
that have not been turned aside by the cares and comforts of
the world are still in danger. I'm talking now to your pastor. I'm 67 years old and I'm as much
in danger today as I was 50 years ago, maybe more so of being sidetracked
by the subtle craftiness of Satan. He does everything he can to
turn faithful men aside from the message they're sent to declare.
Look at verses 34 through 41. When Eliezer spoke to Rebekah
and her kindred, he spoke of nothing but Isaac, the excellence,
the riches, and the glory of Isaac. And the servants of God,
like Eliezer, had just one thing to declare, Jesus Christ and
him crucified. Always preaching for a verdict.
It came down to this. He said, he said, will you send
her with me or not? And Laban said, let's call Rebecca
and ask her. And Laban and Bethuel said, will
you go with this man? And she said, I will go, I will
go. We must preach the gospel, pressing
upon sinners the urgent necessity of believing on the Lord Jesus
Christ, of turning to Him, of trusting Him. And one more thing,
in verses 61 through 67, we read Rebekah arose and her damsels
and they rode upon the camels and followed the man. And the
servant took Rebekah and went his way. And then in verse 64,
she saw Isaac and lighted off the camel. In verse 65, she saw
Abraham and said, who's that? That's my master. And she took
a veil and covered herself. Verse 66, and the servant told
Isaac all things he had done, and Isaac brought her to his
mother's tent and took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and
he loved her. Before Abraham, Rebekah covered
her face, but when she saw Isaac, she leaped into his arms. Love
at first sight. I know a little bit about that.
I know a little bit about that. First time I saw that girl sitting
there, I know folks think I'm crazy. I said, as soon as I get
my driver's license back, I'm gonna ask her out. And we hadn't
been dating just a little while, and I told her I wanted to marry
her, and she thought I was crazy. But here we are. Here we are. She saw Isaac, she said, I've
got to have him. I've got to have him. I can't
live without him. For him, I'm so glad I left everything
back home, everything. And Isaac took her into his mother's
tent and was comforted. And the Lord Jesus takes us as
His own and is comforted, satiated, seeing the travail of His soul
and is satisfied. And Eleazar, he came home and
he brought Rebekah from down in Mesopotamia and he presented
her to Isaac. as I have hope of presenting
you to God my Savior, a chaste virgin in Christ. Pure and chaste
by his righteousness and his grace. Amen.