Genesis chapter 24. This is our second study concerning
a bride for Isaac. We saw in this last week, as
far as we went, a beautiful picture of Abraham who had grown exceedingly
rich. had sent his servant, Eleazar,
I would imagine who he was, Eleazar, to send to get a bride for his
son Isaac. And we saw him load up his camels
and go off into Mesopotamia, probably eleven or twelve hundred
miles or so from the land of Canaan. And he came here to Abraham's
old country to Abraham's relatives, his brother's house. And he had
his camels to kneel down there at the well and pray to the Lord
to lead him to a bride for Isaac. And the Lord did that. Rebekah
came here to the well, and this servant asked her these two questions,
and she answered them. And he put on her these precious
jewels, a ring of gold on her face, and these beautiful golden
bracelets on her arms. And she runs back to her mother's
house and tells her there what this man had said and what he
had did, and these precious jewels that was now upon her. And as
she stood there, no doubt meditating in her mother's house, of what
had been said, what she had heard, and looking at these precious
jewels that belonged to her future husband. I imagine she was overjoyed
concerning all of that. And that's where we stopped in
our studies last week. And that was a wonderful story
in itself. But there's more. There's more
instructions for us as we look at it this evening, this morning.
And I want to begin there where we left off last week. Rebekah
came back to her mother's house, and the servant was still out
at the well. And here in verse 29, let's begin
there and read this to you again. Rebekah had a brother, and his
name was Laban. And Laban ran out unto the man
and to the well. And it came to pass, when he
saw the earring 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 blessed
of the Lord, wherefore standest thou without? For I have prepared
the house and room for the camels. And the man came into the house,
and he ungirded his camels, and gave straw and forbender for
the camels, and water to wash his feet and the men's feet that
were with him. And there was set meat before
him to eat. But he said, I will not eat till
I have told my Aaron. And he said, Speak on. And he
said, I am Abraham's servant, and the Lord hath blessed my
master greatly, and he is become great. And he hath given him
flocks, and herds, and silver, and gold, and menservants, and
maidservants, and camels, and asses. And Sarah, my master's
wife, bore him a son, bore a son to my master when she was old,
and unto him hath he given all that he hath. And my master made
me swear saying that thou wilt 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. And I said unto my master, What
if the woman will not follow me? And he said unto me, The
Lord before whom I walk will send his angel with thee, and
before 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 my oath, when thou comest to my kindred,
and if they give thee not one, thou shalt be clear from my oath. And I came this day into the
well, and I said, O Lord God of my master Abraham, if now
thou dost prosper my way which I go, behold, I stand here 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 saith unto
me, Both drink thou, and I will also draw for thy camels. 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, Rebecca came forth with her pitcher on
her shoulder. And she went down into the well,
and drew water, and I said unto her, Give me, I pray thee, to
drink. And she made haste, and let down her pitcher from her
shoulder, and said, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink
also. So I drank, and she made the
camels also to drink. And I asked her, and said, Whose
daughter art thou? And she, The daughter of Bethuel.
And she said, The daughter of Bethuel, Nahar's son. whom Malchah
bare unto him, and I put the earring upon her face, and the
bracelet upon her hand. And I bowed down my head, and
worshipped the Lord, and blessed the Lord God and my master Abraham,
which had led me in the right way to take my master's brother's
daughter unto his son. And now, if ye will deal kindly
and truly with my master, tell me. And if not, tell me. that I may turn to the right
hand or to the left. Then Laban and Bethuel answered
and said, The thing proceedeth from the Lord, we cannot speak
unto thee, bad or good. Behold, Rebekah is before thee,
take her, and go, and let her be thy master's son's wife, as
the Lord has spoken. And it came to pass, when Abraham's
servant heard their 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. He gave also to her brother and
to her mother precious things. And they did eat and drink, he
and the men that were with him, and tarried all night. And they
rose up in the morning, and he said, Send me away unto my master. And her brother and her mother
said, Let the damsel abide with us a few days, at the least ten. After that she shall go.' And
he said unto them, Hinder me not, seeing the Lord hath prospered
my way. Send me away, that I may go to
my master.' And they said, We will call the damsel and inquire
at her mouth. And they called Rebekah and said
unto her, Will thou go with this man? And she said, I will go. And 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 which hate them. And Rebekah arose
and her damsels, and they rode upon the camels, and followed
the men, and the servant took Rebekah, and went his way. And
Isaac came from the way of the whale, Laheroa, for he dwelt
in the south country. And Isaac went out to meditate
in the fields at the even tide. And he lifted up his eyes and
saw, and behold, the camels were coming. And Rebekah lifted up
her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel. For
she had 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. Therefore she took a veil, and
covered herself. And the servant told Isaac all
things that he had done. And Isaac brought her unto his
mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife,
and he loved her. And Isaac was comforted after
his mother's death. I want to consider some things
with you this morning, some more things to look at concerning
these verses that I read to you. And just to get into it, the
first one is this. I want you to consider this point
with me this morning. And when you and I were lost
in our sins, and even after the Lord saved us, and probably even
today, you and I were ignorant and are ignorant of all of the
things that had to come together to save us. All the things that
had to be arranged and worked together to bring us to hear
of the Lord Jesus Christ and come to Him. We see this here
in Rebecca's case. Look at everything that had to
take place before she even heard of Isaac. All these details here
that had been worked out and she knew nothing about. She had
no conscience of all of these things that must come together
in her hearing of her future husband. Verse 13, I read it
to you last week, and here this servant reiterates it today. She had to go to this particular
well. It couldn't just be any well.
It had to be this particular well where this servant of Abraham
would be. And it had to be this particular
time that he would be there. She was unaware of that, but
it must take place. Somebody would say, now Bruce,
she probably went there daily. Well, we don't know that she
did. She had maidens to go draw water for. She didn't have to
go there herself. Maybe she went there once a week.
But if she went there every day, let's suppose she didn't go there
this day. Let's suppose this day she would
have been sick. Let's suppose she would have
sent somebody in her stead. What if that had happened? This
had to come to pass. Because this servant prayed to
that end. Lord, let this woman come to
this well today, at this particular time. So she had to be there,
or she could never have heard of Isaac. Look what else must
take place. Not only does she have to come
to the well, what she would say in response
to his request. Now, ain't that amazing? She
had to answer his response exactly as he asked the Lord for her
to answer. Lord, when she comes out here and I say, give me to
drink, her exact answer will be, drink, drink. Ain't that amazing? And you'll
see here in verse 21 that I read to you last week, this servant
waited to see if this woman was going to respond in the exact
manner that she must respond. Not only that she says, give
me a drink, but she says also, and I'll water your camels. And
she says that exact thing without even being conscious that that's
exactly what she must say. So he waited to see if this was
the woman, if the Lord had prospered his journey. Isn't this a sobering
and awakening thought? If Rebecca, unknown to her at
the time, had not answered exactly as she did, She could not have
been Isaac's wife. Now ain't that a sobering thing?
She must answer, just as she did. What if she had denied this
man a drink of water? What if she had said, I don't
know you, and I'm weary of strangers, and I'm going to the house? What
if she had said that? What if she had laid down her
picture and gave him a drink, And when he had finished, put
the pitcher back on her shoulder and go her way. What if she had
watered half the camels and got weary and said, I'm tired, I'm
going home? She would not have been Isaac's
wife. All of these things must come together for her to be considered
as Isaac's wife. Ain't that amazing? It's a sobering
thought that Rebekah was unaware of these things. And yet, whether or not she would be Isaac's
wife, was dependent upon these things. I thought as I was studying this,
when Zacharias, you remember the little short fellow called
Zacharias? Zacchaeus? and he wanted to see
who the Lord was, and he just happened to find a tree. And
I thought, what if there hadn't been a tree there? He couldn't
have got up to see the Lord. The Lord would never pass through
under him and said, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down. That tree was dependent upon
his salvation. Ain't that amazing? What if the
woman of Samaria had not come to the well that day? That's
where the Lord was setting. What if she had not come? See
what I'm saying? You and I have no idea. We see
more now than we did when the Lord saved us, but we certainly
had no idea when we were lost all the things that must take
place in our life. The providence of God. We talk
often about the Lord working in our hearts, preparing our
hearts, and how necessary that is. But how also is the providence
of God? moving people and moving things,
bringing us to the place to hear the gospel of Christ. We have
no idea how much is involved. There were two things Rebecca
heard concerning Herbie and Isaac's wife that
must have humbled her in gratitude. There's two things Rebecca heard
concerning this that must have filled her heart with gratitude. I mean, when she began to think
about this, you know, what if I hadn't have done what I did?
She sat there and listened to this servant as he rehearsed
this. And she heard everything he was
saying. And he was saying, he was telling them. I said to the
Lord, This woman that comes out to the well, and this woman that
says this, and this woman that does that. And you think she
began to think in her heart, what if? What if? What if I had been in a bad mood
and said, no I'm not giving you a drink. I'm doing this for myself. What if? What if? Why did she
do what she did? Why did she say that? Why did
she water the camels? Why did she meet all these conditions? And I'm sure, just like you and
me, she began to think about that. Well, here's two things
that had to fill her with a humble gratitude when she heard this
servant talk about these things. And here she found out exactly
why she did what she did and said what she said. She found
out why she was at the well that day. She found out why, she says,
my Lord drank. She found out why she watered
those kennels. And here's these two things that
she heard him say. First of all, in verses 33, when
she said this, And here in verse 39 and 40,
look at this again. Here's why she did this. Preadventure
the woman will not follow me. And he said, Abraham said it
to me, the Lord before whom I walk will send his angel with thee
and prosper thy way. She went there unconscious. And
when she took that off of her shoulder to give him drink, she
was unconscious of what she was doing. When she watered those
camels, she was unconscious that an unseen power had directed
her steps. Ain't that why she did what she
did? That unseen messenger had secretly
worked, making sure that all things came together for her
to hear the message of Isaac. There are some people that come
here. I trust there is. And if you ask them why they
come here, they probably couldn't tell you. But they can't stay
away for long. They may not even understand
anything hardly that they've heard here. But they keep coming
back. Why did they do that? They probably
can't even tell you. But there's an unseen influence. There's an unseen power, unknown
to them, directing their steps, leading the blind by a way that
they don't even know themselves. It's the Lord, the angel of the
Lord. Me and Larry often talk about
this. Both of us, when we were lost, we went and bought a Bible. I went and bought a Bible. I
think Joe thought I was going crazy. And if you had asked me,
why in the world are you going to buy a Bible? I wouldn't have been able to
tell you. I have no idea why I went and bought a Bible. And
when I sat down to read it, the first place I went to this well.
This is the well, you see. And why I went to this well,
I have no idea. But now I know. Now I know. And I remember turning over to
Romans chapter 2 and verse 4. After thy hardness and impenitent
heart, you treasure not wrath until the day of wrath. And I'm
telling you, I slammed that Bible shut and my heart was trembling
within me. That's the first water I ever
drew out of this well. But why did I do that? Why did I come
to this well, this unseen power? God was secretly bringing me
here and eventually to meet the Master who has met so many people
at the well. And why some people come here
to this well? Is this not a well? When the
Lord's people assemble, and we sing, and we read, and we pray,
and we preach His Word, this is a well! And there are people
coming to the well that have no idea why they're here. But the Lord, in His secret providence,
in His goodness, has led them here. Now, I believe that, don't
you? And all the things that has to
come together for the Lord to bring a sinner under the sound
of the gospel is amazing, and only the judgment will tell it.
I don't know why I left Tennessee and came all the way to Indiana
for the Lord to save me. But that's what He did. And I
bet you if you look in the way the Lord dealt with His providence
in arranging for you to come under the sound of His gospel,
you'll be amazed at it. But it's Him that does it. And
whatever condition that had to be met, He made sure it was met. That's something to think about,
ain't it? Those people that they get up
and they purpose to go hear the gospel, and they never do. Something
always hinders them. Something legitimate, it seems
like, always hinders them. The way is always blocked. And
those obstacles are never moved until finally they just throw
up their hands and they never go hear the gospel. But boy, when that angel goes
before and prepares everything and brings it together, oh, what
a wonderful thought. What a wonderful thought. So
therefore, the first thing she could know was Why did all these
things come together? Well, she heard this servant
say, the Lord will send his angel, and he's going to make sure everything
comes together. Ain't it a miracle that he just
come to this well? Just accidentally? And there
she was, come to the well. And secondly, she heard this.
Here in verse 43 and verse 44, she heard something else that
made her realize why she was there that way, and why she said
and did what she did. Look at it in verse 43. He was
reiterating his prayer here to them. He said, Behold, I stand
by the well. speaking to the Lord. 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, that I
pitch her to drink, and she say to me, Both drink thou, and I
will draw for thy camels. Let the same be the woman whom
the Lord hath appointed out. Oh, you say, Bruce, there you
go again. There you go again. Talking about election again. Soul, I can't help it. I can't
help it. But it's everywhere. I'd never
talk about it if it ain't in the text. But here it's in the
text. Everywhere we look, you see it. We just started a study a few
weeks ago in Ephesians 1, and studying on election, all the
way over there in the New Testament. Here we come to the first book
of the Bible, and here's Abraham's servant that sat under Abraham's
teaching and was taught the truth, and what does he believe? He
believes in election. The woman whom thou hast appointed. And I tell you, he believed it
so much, he even prayed that way. This was his prayer. He was praying to the Lord when
he said this. Praying in his heart too. And
he said, Lord, let it be the woman whom thou hast appointed.
I tell you, if you want to know what a man believes, Spurgeon
said, you go listen to him pray. He may talk and argue one way,
but when he goes to the Lord in prayer, I'm telling you, you'll
find out his theology. This was this man's theology.
He's talking to the Lord about election. What the Lord had done
and whom He had appointed. And now he comes here in verse
44 and he's preaching it to these people. He's preaching election
to these people. And I tell you, he's not hesitant
about this. And I just wonder what Rebecca thought about this
as she stood there and listened to all of this. She may not have
even realized at this time that she was Isaac's future bride. But she had to know this, whether
she is his future bride or not, she had to know this, that whoever
that bride was, it was one whom the Lord hath appointed. She
come to understand that, didn't she? And if it comes down to this,
that I don't know if I'm one of his or not. I don't know if
I'm one of his sheep or not. If I don't know that, I know
this, he has some sheep. He has some sheep. Ain't that
comforting to your heart? If I'm not one of them, if he's
passed by me, alright, that's his prerogative. But I can take
some comfort in this, bless God he has some sheep. And that conquers
Jesus' heart Himself. Now let me ask you this question,
just talking to you about these things this morning. How could
Rebecca have known, and this is so important because this
is coming out of my heart. I want to know this myself. And
seeing how she recognized this will help me to recognize it
and help you to recognize it. How could she have possibly known
or had any assurance at all that she could be the appointed one. I mean, boy, whoever is going
to be Isaac's wife is blessed because Isaac is rich. Everything
Abraham has is his. He is a prince in the land of
Canaan, the land of promise. And for him to send over here
in this foreign country to a bunch of aliens and take a wife to
himself, oh, how blessed But it was going to be the wife appointed
of the Lord. How could she know? How could
she have any confidence that she was the one that he had appointed?
First of all is this, and let me give you two ways, but first
of all is this. She was hearing the message of
Isaac. Abraham sent his servant over
there. And he said, now I'm not sending you to make this woman
willing. I'm just sending you with this message that I am rich,
God has blessed me, and I've given it all to Isaac. And all
I want you to do is tell them that. And the woman that hears
that and becomes willing to be his wife and follow you back
here, that's the woman I've appointed. That's the woman God's appointed.
Well, here she was. And what was she doing? She was
hearing, Glenn. She was hearing of Isaac. And as she was hearing this,
and you see there, I read it to you. I know some of you sort
of said, Amen, under your breath when I read verse 35 and verse
36 to you. That was the message. That was
his message. My master Abraham has become
rich. He's great. He's a prince down
there, and God has blessed him with all these menservants and
maidservants and donkeys and sheep and goats and silver and
gold, and He's given it all to Isaac. That was the message.
And here Rebecca was hearing this message. And don't you imagine
her heart began to go out after Isaac? Don't you think it did? Don't you think she began to
have some secret longings for him that she had never seen and
never met? Bruce, you say, how in the world
could you prove such a thing? Well, it's here in the text.
I tell you how I know that she heard and she began to secretly
long for Isaac and desire to be his bride. Because when her
brother and her mother come to her and said, will you go with
this man? Will you go be Isaac's wife? Will you leave your near
family and your best friends and this house that you were
raised up in? Will you leave all and follow this man that
you never met to be a person's wife that you've never met? Will
you do that?" And you know what she said without any hesitation?
I will. Don't tell me she hadn't been
thinking on that. A woman would be silly. to have
marriage proposed to her and not think about the fellow she's
going to marry. She had been thinking about it. And Bud, when
she got the chance to go, she said, I'm going. Daughter, you
didn't have to answer that quick. A sister, I thought you loved
me. You're not even going to think about this? I've done been
thinking about it. I heard what this man said about
Isaac. I know something about his riches. Abraham's made him
rich, and he's a prince. I'm willing. I'm willing. What am I saying? I'm saying
this this morning. God in heaven is rich beyond
measure. Rich beyond measure. Heaven is
His. The earth is His. The world is
His. Everything and everybody in it. All the gifts that man possesses,
All their abilities, their life, their breath, their movement,
their mental capacities, all belong to God. And He has given
all of these things to His Son, Jesus of Nazareth. All of it. God is rich in spiritual blessings. He is rich in mercy. He is great
in His love. It has no bounds. His grace is
abundant and abounding where sin abounded, grace did much
more abound. His goodness endures forever.
His faithfulness is established in the very heavens. With Him
is forgiveness of all manner of sins. He is rich in life eternal. He can give it to a number that
no man can number and never be diminished. And God is everlasting
salvation, eternal, never-ending salvation for the soul here and
the body hereafter. Listen to this, God is peace,
He is rest, He is joy, He is strength, He is everything that
is good, He's everything that's pure. He's everything that's
desirable and lovely and pleasant and decent and satisfying, both
for time and all eternity. God is all of these things. My
God shall supply all your need according to His riches, His
riches in glory. And you know something? This
great and everlasting God, This Father has given everything He
has unto His Son, Jesus of Nazareth. Now, ain't that amazing? Everything! Bruce, everything! The Bible
says, The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things unto
His hands. Everything is in the hands of
the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth. He hath appointed Him heir. Of
all things. God has appointed him heir. And
in spite of this, now listen to this, and in spite of his
exalted greatness, him being a prince and a savior, and in
spite of his riches, he is exceedingly meek and humble. And the Father has sent out to
seek a bride for His Son. And the Lord Jesus longs and
wishes and desires to be married to that bride. Ain't that a humbling
thing? That He is so rich and He is
so great, and yet He's seeking a bride for what reason? To share
His greatness with. To share His riches with. That's
a humbling thought, ain't it? That's a humbling thought. He
desires to share his riches. You know something? I don't think
that when this servant came here and was talking about these riches
and brought these tokens to Rebecca that he was toying with her emotion.
I don't think he was toying around with her emotion. He was telling
her sincerely and honestly that Isaac has become great, and now
Abraham is seeking a bride, and Isaac is waiting to be married. He's waiting to be married. And
what's he going to do to his wife? He's going to share everything
that he has with her. Everything that's Isaac's becomes
Rebecca's. Everything that Christ is, all
that He has, becomes ours through our union with Him. Oh, what
a wonderful thought. Lay aside everything for just
one minute this morning, and let me ask you this question.
What do you think of Jesus Christ? What do you think of Him? You've
never seen Him because He's in heaven. But are you hearing Him
Are you hearing about Him? And as you hear about His greatness
and His riches and His willingness to lovingly share these things
with His bride, does your heart have a tendency to go out after
Him? Do you long to be married to Him? Have you begun to think
since you've heard of Him that none other would ever satisfy
you? If you cannot be married to Him,
if you cannot be saved by Him, then you'll never be saved because
you know there is no other. How do you feel about Jesus Christ
at this point? Are you hearing about Him? I
tell you, one of the ways that she knew that she was appointed,
she heard about Isaac. I mean, she heard now. She heard.
She really heard in her heart. And her heart was starting to
go out after Him, as she heard. You remember when the Apostle
Paul was going into Antioch, him and Barnabas to preach, and
they were preaching to this whole group of Jews. And there were
some Gentiles there, listening. And Paul was preaching that Jesus,
the Son of God, had come into this world, and they had crucified
Him. And they had buried him. And
God had raised him from the dead and exalted him there in heaven
at his right hand. And Paul said this about him. He said, I'm preaching through
this man the forgiveness of sin. And by him all that believe are
justified from everything. You're cleared from everything.
You can stand before God and not have a charge to be brought
against you. That's what he was saying, through this man. Oh, what would it mean to you
this morning, dear soul, to leave here and have God to bear witness
that He did not hold a sin against you? Wouldn't that be wonderful? Couldn't you leave here rejoicing?
But Paul said, through Jesus Christ, through this man, through
His grace, through His blood, I preach unto you the forgiveness
of sin. Well, these Gentiles were standing there, and they
began to think, this is not for me. You know, he's preaching
to the Jews. But I'm a dead dog Gentile. I'm
an alien from God. But one of them got enough nerve
to go ask Paul. And he made this wonderful request,
can you preach this to us next Saturday? And Paul said, I'll
tell you what you do. You go home and tell all your
friends. You get all your relatives and all your acquaintances together,
and you'll be back here next Sabbath day, and I'll preach
this to you." And the next Saturday, all of them came together, and
the city was full of people. The whole city came together.
And Paul stood up and he started to preach this gospel concerning
God's Son, how rich in grace and mercy that He is. It made
the Jews mad. And Paul said, alright, we're
going to turn from you and we're going to turn to the Gentiles.
And then Glenn, he quoted that verse that you quoted to us this
morning in the Sunday School class. Paul said, for God has
said this concerning His Son, I have set thee as a light to
the Gentiles that you should be for salvation to the ends
of the earth. And you know what was said in
the very next verse? When the Gentiles heard this. What kind of attitude did that
put them in? If you're concerned about standing before God in
your sins, and you were told about forgiveness for your sins,
a sure and certain forgiveness, how would that make you feel? They were glad. And they glorified
the Word of the Lord. And listen to this, as many as
were appointed to eternal life, they believed. Rebecca, how do
you know that you could be Isaac's wife? I've heard about Isaac. I've heard about Isaac. Hear
and your soul shall live. Your soul's salvation is not
in doing, it's hearing. It's hearing. Hear and your soul
shall live. What must I do to be married
to Christ? Are you hearing of Him? Is your
heart going out after Him? Well, you've got a good evidence.
That's a pretty good evidence that you're appointed. Here's the second way that she
could have known, and I like this because I thought about
this. How could she have known that she was appointed? She was
hearing the message, the appointed message. And secondly, she had
some of Isaac's goods, some of his treasures, upon her already. Did she not? She had this gold
ring on her face, a nose ring or an earring, gold bracelets
on her arms. Where did she get those? Those come from a far country.
Those belong to her husband. And he sent them there by his
servant That he, by giving her these things, may see that Isaac
is exceeding rich. And not only is he rich, he's
very generous. He's very gracious. He's very
kind to send these things to me. And she could conclude from these
tokens that she must be his. She never had them before. They
weren't hers. They were brought to her and
given to her by Isaac's servant in order to persuade her to be
Isaac's wife. And it's these things that she
saw on her and the words that she heard that made her willing
to go be married to Isaac. You can't believe on a Christ
that you've never heard of. Until you hear something of His
riches, until you hear something of His love and His grace and
His ability and His power, you'll never come to Him. When this servant brought these
tokens and put them on Rebekah, he was earnest about this. The
servant would have never been allowed, as I said a minute ago,
to toy with Rebekah's emotions. These were given to her in earnest. And she could know when she looked
at these treasures, when she felt them, and was so conscious
of who they were, He earnestly desires me to come to Him. He
earnestly longs to marry me. How do you know? Here are His
things. Here are the tokens of His love, His goodness, His generosity. And she believed. Now let me ask you this question.
Has any of the treasures of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, been
put upon you? I mean, are you conscious that
He's put some treasure upon you? His jewels? You find any upon
you? Let me give you two or three
right quickly. The first one is this. Here's a jewel. Do you
fear God? Do you fear God? You say, I'm
just a creature. I'm a fallen creature. And God
is the Creator. He's my Judge. Oh, I cannot bear
to even think of standing before Him in my sin. I fear Him. I fear His power. I fear His
justice. I fear His wrath. I cannot stand there. I tremble
to think about it. Oh, I tremble to think of offending
Him. I fear God. Do you fear God? In your heart of hearts? Not
just hell. A lot of men fear hell that don't
fear God. But do you fear God? You know
what the Bible says about the fear of God? It's the beginning
of wisdom. You're beginning to be wise if
you fear God. And you know what else the Bible
says about the fear of God? You'll never hear the message
until you fear God. Whosoever among you that feareth
God, to you is the word of this salvation sent. But where does this wisdom come
from? If you fear God, you're beginning to be wise. Well, you
know what the Bible says about wisdom? You know where it's at?
In Jesus Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. If a man is wise, it's because
Jesus Christ is beginning to make him wise. He not only is
our wisdom, God hath made him our wisdom, but it's him that
gives us wisdom. Wisdom to what? Fear God. Oh,
what a gift! What a precious token of the
treasures of Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters, if you fear God.
If you fear God. That's the things of Christ upon
you. That's not by nature, is it? There's no fear of God before
our eyes by nature. So if you fear God, Jesus Christ
is the cause of it. Because He's the wisdom. Are
you conscious of this? And this is sort of elementary,
but I thought about this, and this makes sense. You find this
through the book of Acts. Are you conscious of this this
morning? That your very existence, your being, is dependent upon
Jesus Christ, the Son of God? If you haven't been conscious
of that before, see if you're conscious of this this morning.
The Scripture says this, that he upholdeth all things by the
word of his power, speaking of the Son of God. And it also says
this about him, God not only created all things by him, but
by him all things are held up. They have their existence by
him. All power is given to me in heaven
and in earth. Thou hast given him power over
all flesh. Do you know where flesh gets its
existence? Do you know where flesh gets its being? Do you
know how flesh is held up by the very power of the Son of
God? No man liveth to himself, and
no man dies to himself. If we live, we live unto the
Lord. If we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live or die, we are
the Lord's. Listen to what Paul says in Acts
17.25. The Lord is not worshipped with
men's hands as though He needed anything, but boy, I tell you,
we need Him. Here's what He said. Sin that
He giveth to all, life and breath and all things. Would you do something with me
this morning? Just do this. Just take a big deep breath.
What if you can't let that out? You'll die. Every single breath
is in your nostrils. That's what the Bible says. If
your heart skips, it will pick up and go right on. But if you
can't take every single breath, you'll die. And where does that
breath come from? Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
gives you every single breath. God has put that in His hands.
Are you conscious of that this morning? That you have your very
being, that you move about and you breathe because the Son of
God gives that to you? Everything you have, your mental
capacity, your natural gifts, everything He gives to you constantly. Now you think how great He is.
Do you think how exalted God has exalted this man? That the
breath of every human being is in His hands and power. See how easily He can disperse
of a man? Just withhold it. I'm not going
to let Garrett take another breath. If Jesus says that, Garrett will
never take another breath. I tell you, He's mighty, ain't
He? And yet to think how good He
is. How generous He is that He gives to you breath, to you breath,
to you breath, and to me breath. Ain't He generous? Ain't He good?
Don't I have a tendency to melt your heart towards Him? When
you are conscious of this? Thirdly, and quickly as this,
are we conscious of this? Are these things of Christ upon
us? Are you conscious that there
is such a thing as eternal life? I mean, have you been made aware
of that in your heart? Just as Rebecca looked at those
things and said, my, look at that! And she fell on them, couldn't
get her mind off of them. Are you conscious in your heart
that there is such a thing as everlasting life? And when this life is over here,
Those who have this life will go to heaven and live in everlasting
bliss and holiness and never perish. Are you conscious of
that this morning? Well, let me ask you a question.
Where is this life found? Huh? Larry, what did you say? It's in Christ. It's in Christ. Did you just memorize that? Did
you just say that because we said it? Has Christ hung that
upon your heart? Are you conscious of this life
eternal, and God has put this life in His Son? Well, you've
got to thank you Christ upon it. And what about this? Are you conscious of this, that
there's such a thing as salvation, being saved from sin, saved from
condemnation, from the awful judgment of God? Are you conscious
that there's such a thing as being washed and made new, and
being reconciled to God and looking upon His smiling face. Are you
conscious of that this morning? I'm not talking about turning
over a new leaf and just getting a few acts together. I'm talking
about starting that with a new book. Where's such a salvation to be
found? It's in Christ, ain't it? It's
in Christ. Are you really conscious of that
this morning? You're not just playing with this? You're not
just playing around with these gifts and these precious treasures
of Christ? Where did those come from? If
these things are hanging up on you, where did they come from?
You didn't have them by nature, did you? There was a time when
you knew nothing of where life was, and you didn't even care.
You didn't know anything about being washed and reconciled to
God and loving Him and enjoying Him. There was no hope. There
was no faith. There was no love. There was
no comfort of the Spirit and fellowship. There was none of
those things. But they're hanging there now,
aren't they? And you can't deny it, can you? You can't deny it. They're there. And I tell you,
somebody put them there. Somebody come and hung Him on
you, hung Him on your heart. And who was that? Isaac sent
Him there by His servant. Lastly, and I'll close on this,
I'll quit, I'm always keeping you too long anymore, but look
at this. In verse 54 and verse 55, boy,
here's flesh. Here's flesh. We're talking about
these good things and hearing and her willingness to go. And maybe somebody gets the impression
this morning, boy, that's so easy. That's so easy. Well, it's
not all that easy. As a matter of fact, it's impossible
apart from grace to leave self, to leave sin, to leave this world
and go off to be married to Isaac. And look here in verse 54. They
ate and drank, the men that were with him, carried all out, and
they rose up in the morning and said, ìSend me away to my master.î
And her brother and her mother said, ìLet the damsel abide with
us a few days, at least ten, and then she shall go.î And he
said, ìI canít do that. I canít do that.î And he said,
ìRebecca canít either. Itís now or never.î Is that what
he said? It's now or never. I'm going
back to my Master. Are you going to deal kindly
with Him? Are you going to be honest with Him? If you don't,
then let me know right now, because I'm going to seek somebody else. And that's my message to every
lost man. That's the message of the church
to every lost man. Will you come to Christ? Will
you come to God by Jesus Christ? Will you come right now? Tell
me yes or no. Let me go home to think about
it. No, there's no time. Now is the day of salvation.
Ten more days and I'll give you my answer. No, right now. Five
minutes to twelve. What's your answer? What's your
answer? Will you bow your heart right
now? Will you give up yourself right now to be married to Jesus
Christ? If you don't, then tell me. I'm His servant. He sent
me to tell you to come now. And if you say, no, I'm not going
now, then tell me, because I'm going to go tell Him. And I'm
going to say, Lord, they said no. And you know what He might
say? That I've got another wife. I've
got another bride. You go seeking them out. You
don't want Him to say that, do you? You don't have a choice, do you?
No, not really. You don't have a choice, really. If you want to be married to
Christ, if you want Him to be your Lord and your Savior, then
there's going to have to come a time and a place where you
surrender to Him. Now, He's not going to have an
unwilling wife. He's not going to make you or force you to marry
Him. He wants somebody to love Him and serve Him willingly and
lovingly and graciously. Is that you? Is that you? Say them what Rebecca said. And
say it in truth. I will. I will. I'll go. I'll go. And boy, off they went. Off they
went. And you know, I imagine and sometimes
I wish that they would have wrote what they experienced from the
time they left Mesopotamia until they got back to Isaac. But that's
a long way to ride on a camel. And they had robbers? And they
were loaded down with all these jewels and all these men laying
in the way to rob them? I tell you, there's thieves that
are laying in the way to rob you. You're on your way to your
husband. You're on your way to see him
and be married to him. But I'm telling you, there's
all kinds of thieves. that's going to rob you of your joy.
They're going to rob you of the truth. They're going to rob you
of your assurance. They're going to rob you of your
comfort. They're going to rob you of your sight of Him. But you've got to stay on these
old camels. Follow me. I can say that. Follow me. I
read His Word. Follow me. I spend time in secret
prayer to my Lord, follow me. I go to the public worship and
ask Him to speak to my heart, correct me. You follow me. Get on this old ugly camel and
follow Him. And we'll go together to the
Lord Jesus. And boy, when they got there,
when they got there, Isaac came from a whale. Here's another
whale. He was by this whale. Leheroa, the whale. And his servant
had been telling her all kinds of things about Isaac. You wouldn't
travel 1,200 miles without this woman saying, tell me some more,
tell me some more. All I could tell you about him,
and the half would never be told, wait until you see him. Wait
until you look into his handsome eyes. Wait until you see how
he can really love you. You just wait. Boy, they got
there where they were. She saw this guy coming across
the field and she said, who is that? That's my master. That's
my master. And he lifted up his eyes and
he saw the camels coming. Both of them lifted up their
eyes to get there. And she let off that camel. And he tucked
her into his mother's tent. And then he was comforted. He
was comforted. See, we talk about the bride
longing for the husband. Or you, you have the husband
longing for the bride. And you have the husband refusing
to be comforted until he meets his bride. And she's with him. And they sit down at the marriage
supper. We talk about the church looking, looking for the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And David said, I shall behold
His face in righteousness. I'll be satisfied when I do that.
and all we shall see Him as He is, and all the joy that goes
along with that, the expectation. But how is the Lord Jesus Christ
going to feel when He sees His church? What's meant by that
Scripture that says, for the joy that was set before Him?
I'll rejoice over them with joy. I'll rejoice over them with singing.
What's this about Him descending from heaven with a shout? What's
that all about? I tell you, he'll be just as
happy to see us as we will be to see him. I imagine when Rebecca got there,
don't you imagine that she didn't have on a fang of her own? I
mean, she had these ten camels just loaded down with all kinds
of precious jewelry and garments. And don't you imagine when she
got off that camel and walked up to Isaac, he looked at her
and he recognized everything she had on to be his. And she was so beautiful because
she was decked out in his things, his goods. And when Jesus Christ
sees his church, you know why she's going to be so beautiful?
Because he dressed her. He put on the robe of righteousness
and clothed her with the garments of salvation. It's His jewels,
His love, His grace, His joy. And He'll look at her and you
know what He'll say? You're so beautiful. I just love you to
death. You're so beautiful. Well, you
know why I'm beautiful, Master? I'm dressed in your thanks. God bless this message.