Take your Bibles this morning
and turn back with me to the book of Genesis, chapter 24. The book of Genesis, chapter
24. I would like to read the first
nine verses. And Abraham was old and well
stricken in age, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. And Abraham said unto his elder
servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had, Put, I
pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and I will make thee swear
by the Lord, the God of heaven, the God of the earth, that thou
shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites
among whom I dwell, but thou shalt go unto my country and
to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac.' And the servant
said unto him, Perventure, the woman will not be willing to
follow me unto this land. Must I needs bring thy son again
unto the land from whence thou camest? And Abraham said unto
him, Beware thou, that thou bring not my son thither again. The
Lord God of heaven which took me from my father's house, and
from the land of my kindred, and which spake unto me, and
that swear unto me, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land,
he shall send his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife
unto my son from thence. And if the woman will not be
willing to follow thee, then thou shalt be clear from this
my oath, only bring not my son thither again. And the servant
put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and swear
to him concerning that matter. Let me greet you all this morning
in Jesus' name. It's good to have each and every
one of you. here this morning. Let me begin this message this
morning by saying that the Church for many, many centuries has
applied this story of Abraham's servant going to look for a bride
for Isaac. They have applied that to the
message of the Gospel, how that the true preacher of the Gospel
goes out and ministers the Gospel and finds a bride for the Lord
Jesus Christ, finds the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
true preacher of the gospel is like this servant of Abraham
who is commissioned to go and find a wife for his master's
son. The preacher that God has called
is to endure all things for the elect's sake that they also might
obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal
glory. In short, the preacher is sent
after the bride, the Lamb's wife, who shall be presented unto him
at his appearing. Notice this servant received
his orders and his particulars from his master. And what is
the lesson that we're to gain from this? Before we engage in
any actual service for our God, we ought to look upon the Master's
face, and we ought to talk with Him and visit with Him as to
what His will and His desire would be for our life and for
our ministry. Never go forth to plead with
men for God until we have first been enabled to plead with God
for men. Do not attempt to deliver a message
which you have, not first of all yourself, received by the
Holy Spirit directly from our God. Now Abraham's servant spoke
and acted as one who felt bound to do exactly what his master
had told him to do. His one anxiety, I believe, was
to know his commission, to know exactly what Abraham wanted. Get the orders of the day from
God. Abraham got his orders, or Abraham ordered his servant,
and God will order his servants in this day. Now, first of all,
think of the servant's joyful but weighty errand that he had
placed upon him by Abraham. It was a joyful errand indeed,
because the marriage of the heir, Isaac, should be a very joyful
event. It was an honorable thing for
the servant to be entrusted with the finding of a wife for his
master's son. Now, somebody might say, well,
so-and-so's just a preacher, and that to many people is just
a small thing. and they esteem it to be a very
small thing, but Paul in II Corinthians chapter 5 In verse 20, it tells
us that even now we are the ambassadors for Christ, and we pray you in
Christ's stead be reconciled unto God. So this man is just
simply not an errand boy. He is somebody who is entrusted,
really, with finding a wife for his master's son, which is very
important. And he had a long journey to
make. He had to seek out a family, which he did not know, and to
find out of that family a woman whom he did not know, who would
be the right person to be the wife of his master's son. And
this, beloved, was his errand. Now note, this work this man
undertook was a business upon which his master's heart was
set. There must be a seed. Abraham will have a seed. You
remember back in Genesis 15 where Abraham, God said, you go out
and you look up into the heavens, and if you can tell the stars,
if you're able to number them, that's how many your seed is
going to be. And the Bible says Abraham believed
God, and it was accounted unto him for righteousness. So this
is a great undertaking. It's a business upon which Abraham's
heart was set, and certainly we know that God sent his son,
the Lord Jesus Christ, into this world, and he sent him into this
world on a mission, and that mission was to save his people
from their sin. It was to rescue, as it were,
his bride, from the hands of Satan and deliver them into everlasting
glory with him. Now Isaac was now 40 years old
and a single man. Abraham himself, the Bible says,
as we read it in verse 1, was an old man and was well stricken
in years. And he very naturally reached
to see the promise beginning to be fulfilled that in Isaac
should his seed be called. So this was serious business
which he had committed to Eleazar his servant. But brother, sister,
this is nothing compared to the responsibility that hangs on
the preacher of the gospel of redeeming grace. All the great
Father's heart is set on giving to Christ a church which shall
be His beloved's forever. Isaac must not be alone. Jesus
must not be alone. His church must be his companion. The father sent his servant to
find a bride for the great bridegroom, a recompense for the Redeemer,
a solace for the Savior. To that end, we tell out the
gospel, till hearts are wedded to the Son of God. Notice this
Aaron was the more weighty because of the person for whom the spouse
was sought. Isaac was somebody indeed. He was a man born according to
promise, not after the flesh, but by the power of God. And
in Christ, all that are one with him, that is with Christ, their
spirit life comes by the promise and power of God. and is not
of man. Isaac was himself the fulfillment
of promise and the heir of the promise. Infinitely glorious
is our Lord Jesus as the Son of Man, as the Son of God. Who shall declare His generation? Where shall a helpmeet be found
for Him? Where shall a soul be found fit
to be married to the Lord Jesus Christ? Where shall we find a
heart that is fit to be joined to Him. How and where can we
find men and women who can worthily recompense love so amazing, so
divine, as that of Him who died the death of Calvary, who is
fit to dwell in glory with this glorious One, What a weighty
errand have we to fulfill to find those who shall be linked
forever in holy union with the heir of promise, even the sacrificial
and risen Christ. What a dignity will be put upon
any one of you who are married to Christ. What a wonderful thing
it would be to be joined to somebody such as the Lord Jesus Christ.
Salvation is to be married to Christ. Romans 7 and verse 4
says this, He also are become dead to the
law by the body of Christ, that you should be married to another,
even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring
forth fruit unto God. So salvation is being married
to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's being joined unto Him. Further, the Scripture says in
1 Corinthians 6, verse 16 and 17, what? Know ye not that he
which is joined to a harlot is one body? For two, saith he,
shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the
Lord is one spirit. There is a union, an eternal
union formed between the Lord Jesus Christ and all those souls
who are begotten by His grace and Spirit. To what a height
of eminence will you be lifted to by becoming one with the Lord
Jesus Christ. O glorious position to be one
with the Lord Jesus Christ. Will you take this God-man to
be your husband? Will you be joined to him? Would
you be married to this God-man? Will you have this man to be
your confidence? Will you have this man to be
your salvation? Will you have this man to be
your all, in all? Well, what must she be to whom
his master's son should be espoused? Well, first of all, she must
be willing. And secondly, she must be beautiful.
Where shall we find this willing heart? Only where the grace of
God is raw. We know that no man ever willed
himself into the salvation of the Lord. That is to him that
willeth not. So we know that they must be
begotten of the will of God. All the sheep of Christ are begotten
by God's will. of his will, we're saved. It's
his will that determines our salvation. Only where the grace
of God is going to work will we find a willing heart. In the
day of God's power, hearts are made willing. In the day when
God does a work in a man's heart, he shall be made willing and
he will come as God draws his heart unto the Lord Jesus. How
may I find beauty among the sons of men? How are we going to do
that? Well, martyrs, we are by nature in sin. Only the Holy
Spirit can impart that beauty of holiness which will enable
the Lord Jesus to see comeliness in His chosen. There is an aversion
to Christ, an unwillingness to come to Him in the natural man. And at the same time, there is
a terrible unfitness and unworthiness in all men by nature. The Spirit
of God in regeneration implants a love which is of heavenly origin. And I remind you of Ezekiel 16
and 14. And thy renown went forth among
the heathen for thy beauty, for it was perfect through my comeliness
which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God. And so they were
known for their beauty, and it was through the comeliness which
our God had placed upon His people that they received their beauty.
Think also what she shall become, who is to be married to Isaac.
She is to be endowed with all of his earthly goods. In verse
36 of the 24th chapter, of Genesis, we read these words,
And Sarah, my master's wife, bare son to my master when she
was old, and unto him hath he given all that he had. Unto him
hath he given all that he hath. And in John chapter 3 and verse
35, the scripture says, The Father loveth the Son, and hath given
all things into his hands. And so as Abraham loved Isaac,
and gave all of his earthly possessions into Isaac, and his bride would
certainly be blessed with those earthly goods, even so the Father
loveth the Son, and hath turned everything over to him. Lock,
stock, and barrel, he's turned it over to the Lord Jesus Christ. She is to be his delight, his
love, his friend, his companion. Rebecca is to be Isaac's delight,
his love, his friend, his companion. The church is to be the delight
of Christ, is to be his love, his friend, and his companion. And when a sinner is joined to
Christ, what does Christ make him? Well, as we said, his delight
is in him. He fellowships with him. He hears
his prayers. He accepts his praise. And he
works in him and with him, and glorifies himself in him. He makes the believing man joint
heir with himself, as we said earlier, of all that he has,
and he has all things turned over to him. Next thing we consider
here is the fear which is mentioned in verse 5 of our text. Look at it. And the servant said
unto him, Peradventure, the woman will not be willing to follow
me unto this land. Must I needs bring thy son again
unto the land from whence thou camest? Now, this is a very serious
and grave and common difficulty. She must be willing. Force and
fraud are out of the question. There must be a true will or
no marriage can be had. And here was the difficulty.
Here was a will to deal with. This is our difficulty still. She may not believe my report
or be impressed by it." Abraham's servant would say. He would say,
Abraham sent me. He would describe Isaac and he
would describe his wealth. Would she believe him? Would
she believe what he had to say about Isaac? Well, this is a
sad fact. Isaiah said, Who hath believed
our report? Who hath believed our report?
God sent us, and said, Be ye reconciled to God. We are laborers
together with Him. Men will not believe our report
of God's Son, Calvary, with its wealth of mercy. Men will not
believe it. They will not believe the message
of His grief, the message of His love, the message of His
merit, is all disregarded by men. And the Bible says in 1
John 5 and 11, And this is the record that God hath given unto
us eternal life, and this life is in his Son, and he that hath
the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath
not life. We tell a wonderful story But
it may seem to some to be too good to be true that God would
send His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemn sin
in the flesh, by sending the Lord Jesus Christ of Calvary
to die in that body which He was given in the womb of the
Virgin Mary, to stand in our room and stand in place and to
suffer the judgment of God on our behalf, That is a story too
wonderful, it seems to be too true, it seems to be too good
to be true, and so the world looks at it and they hear the
message, but they will not believe it. Here is a heavenly marriage
placed within your reach. But with a sneer, men turn aside
and will not have this man. They will not have him. Men will
not have the Lord Jesus Christ. They will not come. Another difficulty,
she was expected to feel a love to one she had never seen before.
She was expected to feel love to Isaac, and she only had just
heard that there was such one as Isaac. She would hear him
one sentence about Isaac, and she must love him enough to leave
her family and go to a distant land to marry him. Well, this
could only be because she recognized the will of God in the matter.
How would she do such a thing? How would she do such a thing?
How would she be willing to love Isaac enough to leave her family
and go yonder and marry him if she did not recognize the will
of God in the matter? And my friend, if you hear the
gospel of redeeming grace, and you're in the fix that I know
you're in by nature, My friend, if you could just recognize that
this was a sovereign God that purposed salvation, and it was
the Lord Jesus Christ who was willing, who was willing and
able to purchase your salvation and to lay down His life in order
that you would be saved. Well, you must recognize the
will and the work of God in the matter of salvation even as Rebecca
had to recognize the will of God in this matter of her loving
Isaac enough to go up yonder and marry him. God had to do
a work in her heart. And God has to do a work in the
heart of every natural man before they can possibly come to know
the Lord Jesus Christ. God must do a work in you. He must bring you out of your
sin. He must deliver you. You must be translated out of
death unto life. You must be quickened, made alive
by the Spirit of God. And this woman's heart had to
be worked in or she wouldn't have been willing to come. There
is one whom we cannot see as yet. except by the eye of faith,
who has won the love of our hearts." Is that not true? We have not
seen the Lord Jesus Christ except through the word, by the eye
of faith. But yet He's won our hearts,
those of us that are in Christ, those that have been brought
into His bride, His family. Because of what we believe concerning
Him, we're now in union with Him. We believe, joined to Him,
everlastingly. We can say whom having not seen
we love, in whom though now we see him not, yet believing, we
rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Men say you
ask too much of us when you ask us to love a Christ that we have
never seen. Well, is that too much? When
we tell you the old, old story of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus
and His love, of Jesus and His mercy, when the Word of God is
proven to be true, well, do we ask too much that we would ask
a sinner to believe the message of the gospel? I think not. But
we know that because of the depravity of human hearts, they will not
believe it. and they will not fall in love
with Christ left to themselves. God must work a work in their
hearts. We don't expect you to believe
Him and the wonderful things about Him unless God the Holy
Ghost works a miracle of grace upon your heart. The man or woman
who will follow God's servant to be married to so strange a
bridegroom is one of the elect of God, is a picture of one of
the elect of God. And in congregations like this,
God the Holy Spirit often moves upon someone. who says, I don't
know exactly why I came in here this morning. I don't know exactly
why I came into this place. But the Spirit of God works in
your heart and draws your heart. And suddenly you feel that the
Spirit of God is drawing you like a magnet would draw steel
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And you can't help it. Your heart
is drawn to Him. and you become His worshipper
in your heart. Oh, that your heart would be
full of faith toward Him this morning. You'll never be persuaded
of the guilt of your sin, and you'll never quit your sin and
the old associates, and join yourself to the beloved Lord
Jesus Christ until God does more in you than He does in other
men. God must affect your heart and
draw you. Salvation, the Bible says that
God is the author and he's the finisher of our faith. He begins
the work and he finishes the work of salvation. Rebecca may
refuse to go and make this great change to lead a pilgrim life.
And that will never do. That will never do for me. She
could have said, I won't leave a settled home. I won't leave
a farm and kinfolk to ramble out over the fields wherever
the flocks may roam to graze. I won't do it. It does not appeal
to natural men and women that it would be a good thing to be
in this world and yet not be of this world. That doesn't appeal
to natural men and women. Unless the Lord renews the heart,
men will always prefer the bird in the hand of this life to the
bird in the bush of the life to come, if you please. Now the
things of God are eternal, immortal, boundless, and these are of no
importance to the average man, to the natural man. You can never
be induced to go from Ur to Canaan for such trifles as eternal life
in heaven and God. Even our voice irritates many
of the people of the world, and we speak to unwilling ears many,
many times. Well, notice this suggestion
of the servant in verse 5. Must I needs bring thy son again
unto the land from whence thou camest? If she will not come
to Isaac, shall Isaac go down to her? This is the suggestion
of the present hour. If the world will not come to
Jesus, then let us become like the world and less have a Christian
world. Quit telling men and women they
must be converted and come out from among sinners and be separate
from them. Let us join with them. Let us revise our doctrine, which
is said, you know, to be too severe and is unpopular and is
old-fashioned. Drop it. Tear off the edges of
unpleasant truths and moderate the dogmatic tone of infallible
revelation. undermine the old faith and bring
in the new doubt, for the times are changed, and the spirit of
the age and the days suggest the abandonment of everything
that is too severely righteous and too surely of God. to wait
for people to be born again, for God to do something in them,
that takes too long. We can't wait on God to bring
the spirit birth and the heavenly birth to men's souls, it takes
too long. Forget the difference between
the regenerate and the unregenerate. Come into the church, all of
you, whether you're converted or unconverted. It is true you
do not believe the gospel, but neither do we, so come on in. That's the feeling of the day
and the hour in religion. You believe something, don't
you? Anything will do. You say, preacher, nobody talks
that way. Well, yes they do. How did we
get in the mess that we're in, in America today? Where you have
all of the works religionists that we have,
men and women, hoping and trusting and being confident in their
own doings rather than in the grace of God. How did we get
into the fix that we're in? where folks will not look to
Christ, and where they believe that they can get saved anytime
they want to, without God being involved in it? How did we get
in this mess? I ask because Rebecca wouldn't
come up, I say. So we went down. That's what
we did. We went down, and our theology
went down. Well, may God help us that we'll
never do that in this place. But I know it's being done all
around us. Fourthly, notice what Abraham
thought of the proposal in verse 6. And Abraham said unto him,
Beware that thou bring not my son thither again. I don't want
you to take my son down to where I came from. Jesus said to his
apostles and disciples, You're not of this world, even as I
am not of this world. We're not of this world by birth
from above, not of the world in life, object, or spirit. We have been called out of the
world by the effectual sovereign grace of our God. Let not the
people whom the Lord brought up out of Egypt return again
to the house of bondage. Bring not my son thither again."
In effect, Abraham argues like this. This would be to forego
the divine order of things. If he brought Abraham out, is
Isaac to return? No, this cannot be. The way of
God is to sever his elect from the world, a people formed for
himself who shall show forth his praise, a peculiar people
people called to show forth the praise of our God. God's plan
has never been altered. He will still go on calling those
whom he did predestinate, and he will still go on separating
them from the world and from the ways of the world. If Isaac could do good by going
back, why did God call his father Abraham out? Why did he leave
that country if Isaac was to go back? If there's no need for
the church to be separate now, then what's it been doing throughout
all the ages in the past? The church has been separate
from the world and is to continue to be separate. Brethren, there
are two seeds in the world, the seed of the woman and the seed
of the serpent. And the difference must be ever
maintained, even to the end. God's people are God's people,
made the people of God because He pleased God to make them His
people. And those who are unregenerate,
those who are lost and in sin, they're separated by a great
gulf from God's true people. Isaac must never renounce his
walk with a living God that he might find a wife. He's never
to do that. To the spiritual man, God must
come first. So whatever you have or don't
have, turn not aside. Whatever you might gain by it,
don't turn aside to the ways of the world and to sin in order
to gain something that you don't need anyway. Count the reproach
of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt. The
need of the hour is to have Abraham's spirit, and we shall have it
when we have Abraham's faith. Abraham believed God. He believed
that what God had promised he was able to perform. He believed
that God called him out of the Ur of the Chaldees, and he did
not want his son to go back down there. He felt like it was to
return to the world for that to happen. The God that took
me from my father's house, swearing to me, saying, Unto thy seed
will I give this land. This land is the land that God
has made a promise in covenant to give me. If she won't come
out and up to Isaac, what would she be worth to Isaac anyway? Now, she is a poor wife who would
not take a journey to reach her husband. No, no, if Isaac is
to have a wife worthy of him, she will come away from Laban
and the rest of her family and she'll not mind a journey on
a camel either. True converts will separate from
the world and will love the truth and will love the people of God.
If you're genuinely born again, you will separate yourself from
the world and love the truth and the people of God. Well,
are you afraid that preaching the gospel will not win souls? Are you afraid of that? Are you
despondent as to success in God's ways? Well, in verse 7, this
servant was a little concerned about that. And the Lord God
of heaven, which took me from my father's house, Abraham said,
and from the land of my kindred, and which spake unto me, and
swearing to me, saying unto thy seed, Will I give this land? He shall send his angel before
thee. Well, there's your answer, my
friend. God's going before you. You're not going to fail, strike
out. God is sending his angel before you. And so this will
give and guarantee success. God will save by the gospel still. Only let it be the gospel that
we preach. There's no need to go down to
Egypt for help. To invite the devil to help Christ
is a shameful thing. We want to see prosperity? We
will see it when the Church of God is resolved never to seek
it in any other way except God's own way. Lastly, notice Abraham's
absolution of his servant in verse 8. I like this. In verse 8, And if the woman
will not be willing to follow thee, then thou shalt be clear
from this my oath, only bring not my son thither again. When we come to die, this will
be a consolation to us. We preached Christ and stayed
close to the gospel all of our days, did not handle the word
of God deceitfully, did not play the fool or the politician in
order to increase our congregation. If we've been true to God, even
if few have been gathered in, our master will give us a full
absolution. Keep to the gospel. If the people
are not converted by it, you will be clear. If you preach
the gospel and preach it plainly, that salvation's in a person,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and if men will have Him, they will
be saved, then, my friend, then you have cleared your soul. The
true servant of God is responsible for diligence and faithfulness,
but he's not responsible for success or non-success. Results are in God's hands. Apollos, he waters, Paul sows
and Apollos waters, but it's God that gives the increase. If I preach the gospel and men
will not believe, their blood will lie upon their own heads,
not upon mine. My hands are clean. When we go
home to be with the Lord, if I faithfully told out the message
of free grace and dying love, I shall be clear. George Fox,
an old preacher, when he came to die, his last words were,
I am clear, I am clear. It's my highest ambitions to
be clear of the blood of all men. And beloved, we are responsible
to see to it that the gospel in our day is preached and that
it's sent out in every way that we can possibly send it forth.
We're responsible to get the message out. And maybe the Rebecca's
that hear it, maybe they will or maybe they won't. But our
responsibility is to get out the message of the Word of God.
What more can we do? If after all men will not have
Christ and his gospel and his rule, I believe it's their concern
and they will answer to God in judgment for not having this
man. If Rebecca had not come to Isaac,
she would have lost her place in the holy line. Listen, Isaac's
wife would become the mother of that chosen seed in whom God
had ordained to bless the world throughout all ages. Even the
Messiah, the seed of the woman who should bruise the serpent's
head, is in that line. She will not miss it. She will
not miss it. By divine sovereignty, she won't
miss it. because God has sent his angel
before Abraham's servant that he was led directly to the house
and Rebecca was willing, made so by the work of God in her
heart. I say she'll not miss it. And
it's a wonderful thing if we can say in our own hearts this
morning, I'll not miss it either by the grace of God. I'll not
miss it. I will have what God, the Lord,
would have me to have. He sent His Son, I'll believe
on His Son. He sent out the Gospel message,
I'll believe it in my heart. He sent out the Word, and I'll
say Amen to it, and I'll believe that Word. What about you this
morning? What about you? Will you have
Jesus Christ or not? Will you believe on Him or not?
Will you trust Him or not? He came into the world to save
sinners, and He cast out none, the Bible says. He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. Will you believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ? Will you be baptized in His name? Will you follow the Lord Jesus? If so, the Bible says, salvation
is yours. If not, He said, He that believeth
not shall be damned. If you refuse the substitutionary
work of Jesus Christ, you've refused your own mercies. There's no mercy anywhere else
except in Christ. Well, God will clear us in that
day if we have preached the sermon, your blood be upon your own head.
My friend, this morning, if we preach the truth of God and the
grace of God and the message of the gospel, your blood be
upon your own head. The messenger has went out, told
the truth about Isaac. And will you have this man? Will
you have this man? Father, in the name of Jesus,
we ask, Lord, that you might be pleased to bless this message
this morning and use it in the hearts of these that have heard
it. And we do ask, our Father, that
you might receive glory and honor and praise unto yourself. for
all that is accomplished in this church through the instrumentality
of the brethren and sisters in Christ and this ministry. We ask it in Jesus' name and
for his sake. Amen.