And if I had the choice of preaching
or just reading, it would be reading, because that's the most
important thing. But there's the reason I wanted
us to read this. This is so important. This chapter
is important to us for two reasons. One, it obviously, as you saw,
gives us the history of Abraham's posterity. The Lord has spoken
to Abraham and said, Abraham, I'm going to bless you. Your
seed is going to be as the stars of heaven, the sand that's by
the sea shore, innumerable, and to your seed I'm going to give
this land of Canaan. And this gives us the history
of where that wife come from that through the seed should
come. Where was Isaac going to get
a wife? He must have a wife. He wasn't allowed to take one
from the Canaanites. He was to go into Abraham's family,
his old country, and this gives us the history of that. Where
Abraham got his wife, how he got her, and where he got her
from. And then being brought there, they had Jacob. Jacob
had the twelve sons, his twelve sons, and there was the twelve
tribes that populated the land of Canaan. So this is very important
from the historical standpoint. It carries on and shows us the
posterity of Abraham. But probably just as important,
if not more important, this has a spiritual truth. that teaches
us. Just as Abraham sent for a bride
for his son, God the Father has sent his servants, his preachers,
and they are seeking a bride for his son. And I think it's
very telling, we have this here in the 24th chapter. But we remember
in the 22nd chapter that the scripture says Abraham offered
up his only begotten son. You remember that. Hebrews chapter
11 tells us that very thing. He didn't actually put the knife
in his son when he laid there upon the altar, but in his heart
he did. And the Scripture says, he that had received the promises
delivered up his only begotten son, offered him up, and he received
him in a figure raised from the dead. When he took Isaac off
of that altar and put that ram on there and he stood, he saw
Isaac raised from the dead. He delivered His only begotten
Son. And how fitting this is that
we read in Romans chapter 8 and verse 32 that God spared not
His own Son. Ain't that familiar language?
We read almost the same thing concerning Abraham and Isaac.
Before Isaac was to obtain a bride, Isaac had to be put on that altar
and he had to raise. And before Jesus Christ could
have his bride, He must be delivered up of the Father, and raised
up from the dead. And now He is exalted there in
heaven among that heavenly host, and the Father has sent His servants
out to get a bride for His Son, Isaac. Go ye unto all the world,
and preach the gospel. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. Who are those who believe? They're
the bride of Christ. They're the church, His member.
All of those who believe the gospel message, they make up
this bride of Christ. Now let me read you some passage,
and there are so many concerning Christ having a bride. Let me
just read some, but I've got Mark down here. You remember
when the Apostle Paul went preaching to the Corinthian people, stooped
in idolatry. But he said, when I came to you,
I didn't come with excellency of speech. But I came with one
message, Christ and Him crucified, that your faith should not stand
in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." He preached
the gospel to them and they believed it. And here is what he wrote
back, his second letter to them, and says, I have espoused you
to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Those who believe the gospel
are Christ's wife. And listen to Isaiah 54, 5. Thy
maker is thy husband. The Lord of hosts is his name,
and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole
earth. The believer has a husband, and
it's his Creator and Redeemer. Listen to John chapter 3. Brother
Glenn read this to us a couple of Sundays ago. John the Baptist
said, I'm not the Christ. I'm just sent before Him. He
that hath the bride is the bridegroom. The bride has a bridegroom. But
the friend of the bridegroom which standeth and heareth him
rejoiceth the calls of the bridegroom's voice. Listen to Hosea chapter
2. I will betroth thee, I will engage
thee unto me forever." No divorces, forever. Yea, I will betroth
thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving
kindness, and in mercies. I will betroth thee unto me in
faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord. Engage you. I'm engaged to you, he said.
Listen to Revelation chapter 21 and verse 2. I, John, saw
the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Adorned with perfect
righteousness, the garments of salvation. The garments that
her bride is provided for. You ladies, you go out to get
married and you go pick out your own dress, don't you? Your husband,
the bridegroom doesn't do that, but it's not that way with the
church. The bridegroom picks out her dress. He clothes her
in himself, in his own righteousness, prepared as a bride adorned for
her husband. Let us be glad and rejoice and
give honor to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come." The Lamb
has a wife. The Lamb has a wife. The marriage
of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready,
and to her it was granted that she should be arrayed in fine
linen, clean and white. So the bride, the bride and the
bridegroom, Christ and his church, and everyone who believes the
gospel, they make up this bride. Come
hear the revelation 2110. I will show you the bride, the
Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the
Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city,
the holy Jerusalem, sending down out of heaven from God, having
the glory of God upon her." She's docked out. She's the bridegroom's
bride. Here's why. And as you and I
look at this 24th chapter, the reason it's so beautiful is because
it shows to us in type, in shadow, this beautiful picture of God
sending His servants out to get a bride, to get a wife, for His
only begotten Son. Now let's look at it, and I promise
not to keep you too long. First of all, in chapter 24,
in verses 2 through 9, I want you to notice something about
this servant. First of all, we want to look
at him. Because I want you to notice that it wasn't his idea
to do this. It wasn't that he was just thinking
one night while he was laying on his little cot in his tent.
You know Isaac, he's in his mid-thirties now. And he doesn't even have
a girlfriend. And what I think I need to do
is become a matchmaker. I need to find my master a wife. He didn't do that at all, did
he? It never came into his mind to do that. He was just a servant,
is all he was. Abraham was a great man. We are
told in the 23rd chapter that these men among whom he dwelt,
these tribes, they said, well, you are a prince among us. You
are a great man. You are a man of great character
and prestige. This servant would have never
presumed to think he had the privilege or the right or the
authority to go looking for a bride for someone as great as Isaac. It never came into his mind to
do that. But Abraham is the one that laid
upon his servant the responsibility to go find a bride for his son
Isaac. And I want you to notice here
what an awful dilemma that he put his servant in from the very
beginning. He tells him there in verse 3,
he said, now here's the terms I'm sending you to get a bride
for my son Isaac. And here's the terms, here's
the condition. Number one, you're not to take a Canaanite among
whom we dwell to be Isaac's wife. Now that would have been an easy
task. You go out there and look for
a beautiful virgin among the Canaanites, And you find one
suitable for my son." He said, don't you do that. Don't you
do that. And secondly, he told him he
had to go all the way to Abraham's old country, in the land of Mesopotamia. That's where Abraham lived, and
that's where he came out of, and that's where Abraham's relatives
was. He said, you go there, eleven,
twelve hundred miles, to my relatives. And you take a wife from them.
And thirdly, he wasn't allowed to take Isaac with him. Now see
what a dilemma he put him in? He's not allowed to take a wife
from the Canaanites. He had to go all the way back
to Abraham's old country, but he had to go there with this
message that Abraham had become a rich man, God had blessed him,
and he had given all these riches to his son Isaac. And the woman
must believe this message and come here to where Isaac was."
What an awful dilemma Abraham had put this servant in. Leave her father's house, leave
her friends, leave her country because she believed this servant,
and come and marry a man that she never had met? Abraham said,
that's the task I'm sending you on. Wasn't that a dilemma to
put him in? And know this, look how serious
Abraham was in laying down these terms. We're told there in verse
3 that Abraham said, you put your hand under my thigh. That's
the way they had it back then, taking a note. And he said, I
will make you swear to these terms, to these conditions. You're
going to have to take an oath that you're going to do, and
you're going to meet these terms and these conditions. And as
you follow this servant, as I read this to you, you may have noticed,
he began to feel the weight of this responsibility almost immediately. The first thing he done when
he reached that country, he began to seek the Lord in prayer. Oh
Lord, prosper my way. Prosper my way. And when he saw
that the Lord began to prosper him just a little, When he gave
him just a crinkle of a hope that I'm prospering here, he
bowed his head in worship. He was so full of joy that the
Lord had prospered him in his cause. But notice here in verse
5. Here's a good question. And notice
what he asked Abraham here in verse 5. And the servant said
unto Abraham, What if the woman will not be willing to follow
me into this land? Now that's a good question. It
shows you by this question that he asked that he knew something. And what did he know? By asking
this question, this servant knew that he wasn't being sent there
to trick this woman. I'm not going there to trick
her into coming here, and when she comes here, then she realizes
what in the world have I done? He wasn't allowed to trick her.
He knew that he wasn't being sent there to kidnap this woman.
That would have been an easy task. Just hide and find the
most beautiful woman and make sure she's a virgin and kidnap
her and bring her back. He knew he wasn't allowed to
do that. He knew that he could not force her to come. He wasn't
allowed to do that. He must tell her the truth and
she must believe the truth and willingly leave her family and
her father's house and her friends and come to be Isaac's bride. And you can tell by this question
that he asked that he was already beginning to feel the weight
of this responsibility. And don't you imagine too that
he began to feel his inability? All I've got is this message,
and I'm just a servant. I don't speak that well. I don't
look that good. How am I going to convince somebody
to come back here? What if she's not willing to
come? Is there any alternatives?" He began to feel the weight of
this, didn't he? And to beat all, he had to swear
to it that he would abide by these terms and these conditions. Well, you can imagine here and
here in verse 7 and 8 what a relief this was. What a relief this
must have been to this servant when Abraham told him these two
things. Look here in verse 7. The Lord God of heaven, which
took me from my father's house and from the land of my kindred,
and spake unto me, swearing to me, saying, Unto thy seed will
I give this land, he shall send his angel before thee. And thou
shalt take a wife unto my son from this." What a relief this
was. You know what Abraham is telling this man here? He's telling
him what he's experienced himself. Here's what I've experienced,
he said, myself. Let me tell you something about
the power of God, he said. I was over there in that land
myself. I was an idolater myself. And the God of glory appeared
to me. And He convinced me to leave
that land, my father's house, all that I had, and come into
this land. And if He's able to do that to
me, He'll do it to her. He'll do it to her. God is going
before you by His angel, and He's able to make her willing
in the day of His And I've told you all this so many times, but
I never get tired telling you this. This is my experience.
I have often said, if the Lord dealt with everybody like He
dealt with me, if He brought every man's heart down and bowed
it like He bowed my heart and broke my heart and drove me out
of my sins to Christ, if He dealt with everybody like He dealt
with me, He'd save everybody. Now, that's the truth. That's
the way I felt, because I was dead in trespasses and sins.
I loved my sin. My will was bent to stay in my
sins. But I tell you, the Lord come
to me, and He worked with me effectually, though He did it
so secretly, and when He was finished with me, you know where
He left me? On my face, saying, Lord, be merciful to me. Lord,
save me, save me. And that's what Abraham said.
The Lord shall send his... In other words, he said, there's
two messengers involved here. I'm sending you, and you're a
messenger. You're going to tell them about
me. You're going to tell them about my son. But there's another
messenger. You can't see him. He's an angel. But he's going before you. And
when He does His work, He'll make your work so effectual that
you shall take a life. What does that remind you of
when you read that passage? He shall go before you and you
shall take a life. It reminds me of John 6, 37 when
I read that. All that the Father gives to
me shall come to me. It is written in the prophets,
they shall all be taught of God. Every man that hath heard and
learned of the Father, He comes to me. He comes to me. So that's the first thing, but
there's something else here in verse 8 that must have been such
a relief to this poor servant. Abraham says this to her. If
the woman will not be willing to follow thee, then thou shalt
be clear from this my oath, only bring not thy son hither again. He's worried about this, wasn't
he? He's concerned. And what Abraham tells him is
this, it's not your responsibility to go over there and make that
woman willing to come. You've got nothing to do with
that. Your responsibility is this, you go tell them about
me. Tell them how God has blessed
me and made me rich and that I've left all my riches to my
son, my only begotten son, and you're seeking a wife for my
son. That's all I want you to tell
him. And when you've told him that, then you leave it up to
her as to whether or not she'll come. That's none of your business.
You don't have to concern yourself with that. If she does not willingly
come back with you, I won't blame you. You've relieved yourself
of your duty. You've done your duty. A fellow
called me one day and he said, what's success? Well, I knew
what success was because I'd already talked to old Todd Nye,
but he gave me the best definition of success. Success is not winning
a bunch of souls. We love to do that. I'd love
to see this church full. But you know what success is?
Being faithful to the truth. And that's what Abraham is telling
his servant. You be faithful to the truth. You be obedient to what I tell
you to say. And that's success. That's success. First and foremost, success is
not getting a positive response. But success is being faithful
to the truth that God has entrusted us with, the gospel. Obedience. Obedience. That's first and foremost. Now, what have we said up till
now? Well, we've said this. This year has given us a wonderful
picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. He come to this world. He lived
for thirty-three and a half years. He died. He rose again. And He's
now in heaven. surrounded by this heavenly host,
an innumerable company of angels. But he's not seeking a wife among
them. He's seeking a wife in this world
where he used to be, where he was born and where he lived for
a time. And he's sending his preachers
out to preach the gospel. And that's all they have. They
feel the weight of this message. They feel the responsibility
to be faithful. But they dare not stoop to using
gimmicks and man-made traditions and commandments. All they have
is the gospel. They come and preach it to this
lost and dying world. And those who believe it become
Isaac's wife. They become Christ's bride. And
those who believe it not will stay over there in Mesopotamia
and die without a husband and die in their sins. That's the
message that we have here up until now. Now let's go on. Look
in verse 10. Look at this. I want to say something
about these camels. Look at the camels in verse 10.
And the servant took ten camels of the camels of his master and
departed. For all the goods of this master
were in his hand, and he rose and went to Mesopotamia, to the
city of Nahar. And he made his camels to kneel
down without the city by a well of water at the time of the evening,
even the time that the women go out to draw water. Now these
camels were loaded down. with the goods of Abraham. Not
everything that Abraham owned. My goodness, ten camels would
have not held everything that he had. But he got all these
treasures, different treasures out of his storehouse of treasure. All these jewels and these earrings
and bracelets and garments. And he loaded these ten camels
down and he took off to find a bride. Now, these camels represent
to us the preachers. See, that's what you have to
look at when you come to these places. The Holy Spirit just
mixes all this up. And that's why it's a picture
on the top. And you can't press it too hard, but you just look
at the beauty of it. I asked some of you the other
night about a camel. Have you ever seen a pretty camel? Everybody
said, no, I've never seen a pretty camel. I never have either. We went to the zoo one day, and
I started to pet one. He had his big old long ugly
head stuck over the fence, and I ran up to pet him, and he spit
snot all over me, in my face. And I thought, you ugly creature.
You wretched, ugly creature. And that's what a camel is then.
He's just a wretched, ugly creature. You know, in Deuteronomy and
Leviticus, I forget, maybe in chapter 10, I'm not for sure,
but you know they were called unclean animals? The Jews weren't
allowed to eat them because they were unclean. They're not only
ugly, they're unclean. That's the first thing about
these camels. They were unclean animals. Ugly animals. And number two, all they were
fit for is for what they used them for here. If they don't
do this, they're fit for nothing. But they're fit to carry these
precious jewels. They're fit to carry the treasures
and the goods of Abraham's house while they go seeking for a bride. You ever wonder why this servant
didn't take some Arabian stallions and take the harnesses and overlay
it with pure gold? and hook it to an ivory wagon,
a chariot, and have the driver to be decked out in his beautiful
garb and his gorgeous apparel? Maybe with some soldiers riding
in behind him on their white stallions, dressed to the hilt,
come prancing along? You know why they didn't do that.
You know why they took these old ugly camels instead of all
the elegance and the chariots? Those chariots and those white
stallions and all the gorgeous apparel those men were wearing,
that would have never appealed to Rebecca. Those are manly things. Women don't like chariots. They
don't care for these dancing horses and men on them. That's
manly things, ain't it? Laban would have probably liked
that. But I tell you, this servant wasn't seeking a man. He was
seeking a woman. And she would have never been
impressed with all the elegance and the arrogance of that manly
pomp if he came riding in on those stallions and big chariots
making a show. You know what impressed her?
And here's the way the Lord is. The Lord's wise. When He comes
to us, He has the very thing that He knows that will impress
us. When was she impressed? Well,
she wasn't impressed with those old ugly camels, was she? I'll
tell you when she was impressed. When this servant was talking
to her, and he turned to that camel that was nailed down there
at the well, and he opened his bag up, and he took this beautiful
gold earring out of it, and he took these beautiful gold bracelets
out of it, and she saw those. That's what impressed her. He
showed her something that appealed to her nature as a woman. Now don't tell me you girls don't
like rings and bracelets and necklaces. You do, don't you?
I don't have any of them. Never wear them. They don't appeal
to me. Don't even like them. I wouldn't wear a ring in my
ear, one in my nose, on my toes. They just don't appeal to me.
I like chariots. I like people to get on a chair
and watch them raised or something like that. But these other things
don't appeal to me. What am I saying? I'm saying
this, the Lord knows what appeals to the heart of a real sinner. Only God knows what will impress
the heart to the point where the poor, needy sinner will give
himself up to be married to another. God knows what impresses that.
And it's the message of redeeming grace and redeeming love that
is in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. That's what will
impress the sinner. the merits and the worth and
the glory of the person of the dear and blessed Son of God. Oh, that I may know Him. Why,
Paul? Because He is glorious. He is
precious. And in Him are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge and assurance. In Him is the treasure of God's
love and forgiveness of all sins and life eternal. and acceptance
and everlasting salvation, everything that appeals to the heart of
a real sinner, that is fitted to bend his will and bring him
to heaven, is in the Lord Jesus Christ and the message concerning
Him. You'll send a preacher to a seminar.
Nothing wrong with that, I guess. Teach him to speak eloquently.
Teach him to use proper gestures. Dress him up and dock him out.
But he will not impress the heart of the real sinner. Well, you
say, Bruce, we see them all the time doing that. They're not
only filling church buildings, they're filling stadiums to come
in here and these preachers preach. Yes, they are. But I tell you
this, they're not reaching the heart. They may reach their curiosity
and some flashly emotions, but I'm talking about something that
appeals to the soul of an individual. That's what God's after, the
heart of an individual. God is our Creator. He's our
life. He's our sustainer. He's our
true joy and happiness, yet we've sinned against Him. And in sinning
against Him, we've alienated ourselves from Him. And we will never be satisfied
until we hear and believe that Jesus Christ, God's own Son,
hath reconciled us to God. That's the only message that
will reach our souls and restore unto us this joyful fellowship. Nothing else will reach the soul.
Nothing else is designed to reach the soul. Everything else is
designed for this body, this flesh. Here's what the Apostle
Paul said, when we were enemies, We were reconciled to God by
the death of His Son. Much more, being reconciled,
we shall be saved by His life. And not only so, listen now,
but we joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we
have received the reconciliation. What does it do when we hear
this message? It reaches the heart and it brings joy. Look at all the religion we have
around us today, and yet the majority of people
are spoilt, they're self-centered, they're proud, and they're miserable.
We live in the most unthankful and miserable generation probably
this country has ever known. We've got a church on every corner. Our economy up until the last
few days has been rather well. But what do these people do?
They complain. All they do is complain. They're
not thankful for anything. And why do they complain? The
majority of people are miserable. Religious and irreligious, they're
miserable. They have been told how good
they are, how much they deserve, and their self-esteem has been
built up to the point where now it's all but consumed them. But
are they happy? No, they're miserable. Absolutely
miserable. There is but one thing that truly
appeals to the needy soul and causes it to rejoice. Just one thing. One thing. And God knows what it is. Here we have humanity. It is
without God and without hope in this world. Sinners by nature,
sinners by birth, sinners by practice, and sinners by choice.
And in its sinfulness and alienated condition, it's trying to be
happy. Everybody wants to be happy.
And it seeks every man-made avenue to obtain its end. But then it's
faced with this awful truth that death is coming. And a long eternity
is coming. And the consequences of my sin
is coming. And in the light of these awful
truths, what happens to the world's happiness? It's crushed. What happens to its self-esteem?
It flees like the fog before the morning sun. Oh, but let the heart finally
hear that there is a real redemption that there is a real salvation,
sure and certain, a salvation from sin, a salvation from wrath,
and that God, for the sake of His only begotten Son, has forgiven
all, has forgiven every sin, and promised not to hold a thing
against me. and has received me and will
be a merciful and everlasting Father to me and will, when this
life is over, receive me unto His house forever. And that is all to be found in
God's Word. It's not man's opinions. It's
not some gimmick that somebody's come up with to make us feel
better for a while. But this is found in the truth
of God's Word, and the sinner, upon hearing such news, you know
what he says? You know what he thinks in his
heart? This is just what I need. This is just what I need. This
just suits my case. This appeals to my very nature. This dispels my torment and fears,
and this causes me to joy from the low bottom of my heart. Ain't that what you think when
you hear it? Those publicans and the harlots,
they lived in their sins. Brother Glenn told us of one
this morning. They wouldn't come out of their sins. And one of
the reasons they wouldn't come out of their sins, they heard
the message of these Pharisees. Self-righteous message. You're
going to have to do this and you're going to have to do that.
The Pharisees didn't have any good news. They had good news
if you were holy, but they had no good news for sinners. They
had a gospel for good people. And they went out to these publicans
in the harlots and just discouraged them to death. They said, there's
no hope for us. You don't have anything to encourage
me. I'm a sinner. So you know what they said? We've
left strangers, so we'll just go on after them. No hope for
us. We'll just die in our sins. That's
what they said. Therefore, they wouldn't turn
from their sins. What was they to turn to, Moses? And then they began to hear a
different message one day. that Jesus of Nazareth was preaching. This man from Galilee was preaching
this message that there's a new birth. There's salvation from
sin. There's forgiveness for all manner
of sin and blasphemy. There's a way back to God and
I am that way. And you know what they begin
to do? They said, we've got to hear
more of this. This just suits my case. This appeals to my heart. And they began to draw near to
hear the Lord Jesus, and they came in such droves, they came
in such droves, that the Pharisees said, this man receiveth sinners,
and he eateth with them. They come to the Lord Jesus.
Why did they come? Why did they come out of their
sins? Because he had a message of salvation. He had a message
of reconciliation and forgiveness. And they began to flock to hear
him, and the Lord Jesus disloved it, didn't he? He disloved it.
Do you know what he said to himself? This is my bride. This is my
bride. And do you know what they said?
This is my husband. This is my husband. Oh, he has
a message that appeals to my very nature. There is but one
thing that will oppress and appeal to our essential being. It's
not man-made. It's not devil-made. But it's
that treasure that is sent from a far country. Even the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ. What did Paul say about it? We
have this treasure. And where is it? It's on these old ugly
camels. On these old ugly camels. You know a preacher shouldn't
be too pretty. If you're too pretty, shave your
head or something. Get a pot belly. Do something.
Be like Brother Cody told us about the women down there in
Yucatan. When a man goes looking for a wife, he wants one that's
half ugly. That's what a preacher should
be. Half ugly. He don't need to be looked at
and gloryed over. It's what he's packing. If he's not packing
these precious treasures, he's fit for nothing. Don't get your
eye on the camel. Be good to him. For Christ's
sake, be good to him. Water him. Give him some provisions. Give him a stall to get in all
the elements. But don't do anything for him
if he's not packing these treasures. Set him off to get a job. Don't be overly impressed with
a servant. Listen to his message. Don't be repulsed by the ugly
camel. He's burying some precious jewels. Now, in closing, two quick things
in closing. Two questions in verse 23. Look
in verse 23. Two quick questions. He asked her a question, and
then after she had answered, then he put on her these precious
jewels. But he asked her these two questions.
Here's two good questions. First of all, in verse 23, look
at this. And he said, Whose daughter art thou? Whose daughter are
you? Well, that's a good question.
Whose daughter was she? Do you know whose daughter she was?
Bethuel. Do you know who Bethuel was? He was son of Abraham's brother,
Nahar. You remember when God called
Abraham out of error of the Calvary? He didn't call Nahar. He called
Abraham. And He said, Abraham, you come
out away from Nahar. I want you to get away from your
father's house. Get away from Nahar, and I'm going to make
a covenant with you, and I'm going to give you the land of
Canaan. Rebecca wasn't part of that covenant.
She is a stranger from that covenant. You know who she was, really?
She was a spiritual Gentile. That's who you and I are. God
brought the Jews out and made a covenant with them, but He
passed by the Gentile nations. We were without hope, weren't
we? Led away into these dumb idols. We didn't have the Word
of God. The promises was not to the Gentile world. Christ
was a Jew. Paul said, remember, you being
in time past, Gentiles in the flesh, you weren't called circumcision. You weren't among the circumcision.
You was without God, without hope in this world. Let me ask
you this question. Who are you? Who are you? That's a good question. Who are
you? That's a question we're going to have to answer him.
Are you a child of fallen Adam? Are you without hope, without
God in this world? Is that who you are? Answer that
question in yourself. Answer it right now in yourself.
Who am I? I'm just a sinner. That's who
I am. I'm a child of fallen Adam. That's
who I am. Without hope in this world. If
God leaves him in myself, I'll die that way. That's who I am.
Who are you? Who are you? Secondly is this,
is there room in your Father's house for me? That's a good question. You got any room in your Father's
house that me and my servants can abide there? Let me ask you
this. It may sound a little bit Arminian,
but listen to this. Is there room in your heart for
Christ? There's been room up until now for everything else.
There's been plenty of room in there in time past for the devil
and worldly lusts and sins and pleasures. Will you turn your
heart upside down this morning and empty it out and say, Lord
Jesus, come in? Oh, come in and bring your jewels
of mercy. Bring this grace! Save me! Set upon the throne of my heart!
Ain't that what he said? I stand at the door and knock
if any man hear my voice. Have you heard his voice this
morning? Have you heard his voice? Is there room in your heart for
him? Bruce, how do I open the door? Well, open it this way. God be merciful to me a sinner.
That's a good way to open it in. Lord, cleanse me from all
my sin. Wash me from all my iniquity.
That's a good way to open it in. Lord, search me and know
my heart and cleanse me. Is there room there? She answered those questions.
He took these jewels out and he put one on her face and put
these two bracelets on her. And you know what she did? She
couldn't contain herself. She ran. She left her bucket
here at the well and ran back to her. Who does that remind
you? Don't that remind us of another case? Where the Samaritan
woman said, Who are you? I'm Christ. You're speaking to
Him. I'm crying. And she left a water
pot there and went back and told those I found to cry. Well, she
did the same thing here. And I tell you, you answer these
two questions and answer them before the Lord who you are. And you empty your heart out
and come to Him with empty heart and empty hands to be filled
with Him, your Husband. And I tell you, you'll see what
He'll show you. You'll see. He'll show you His treasure.
It may not be much in proportion to what he has, because he is
exceedingly rich, but it will be enough to satisfy your soul.
God bless His Word.