Post to the 24th chapter of the
book of Genesis. Genesis chapter 24. I'd like
to read the first eight verses. First nine verses, if you please.
And Abraham was old and well stricken in age, and the Lord
had blessed Abraham in all things. And Abraham said unto his eldest
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 and 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 into my country
to my kindred, 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 thy needs bring thy son
again unto the land from whence thou camest? And Abraham said
unto him, Beware 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 sware to him concerning that matter." The true preacher of the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ is like this Eleazar of Damascus. Now Eliezer, the servant, the
trusted servant of Abraham, that one whom Abraham had put under
him a head of all things that he had in his house, the Lord
had mightily blessed Abraham, and the scripture says the Lord
had blessed Abraham in all things, and he put this Eliezer over
all things, and Eliezer is sent to find a wife. for his master's
son, Isaac. And the desire, I said that this
Eleazar is like a true preacher of the gospel. The preacher's
desire is that he might find the elect of God and that he
might preach to them. Paul said, I endure all things
for the elect's sake that they might obtain the salvation that
is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. So we find that the preacher
of the gospel is out, that he may find the Lord's people, that
he may present them unto Christ in the day of his appearing as
the bride, the Lamb's wife. Now Eliezer, the faithful servant
of Abraham, before he started out, he communed with his master. He talked with his master Abraham,
and Abraham gave him, as it were, his marching orders. Now, beloved,
there's a great lesson here. And what is the lesson? Well,
I think before we engage in any actual service that we should
commune with the Master. We should see the Master's face.
We ought to talk with Him. We ought to hear from Him. And
we ought never to go forth and plead with men for God until
we have first pleaded with God for men. Do not attempt to deliver
a message ever. if it be on an individual basis
or if it be the preaching of the gospel publicly which you've
not first yourself received through the Holy Spirit in your heart.
Lean upon and depend upon the Lord to give you that help that
you must have to go on any errand that he will send you. Abraham's
servants spoke and acted acted as one who felt bound to do exactly
what his master had told him to do. And his one anxiety was
just to know the wishes of his master, to know the commission,
to know what it was that he was supposed to do. And we get, this
servant got his orders from Abraham, his master, and we get our marching
orders from our Master, the Living God, and we should look to Him
and commune with Him. Now the first thing that I want
to call your attention to this morning is, I want us to think
upon this errand which the servant was sent, and this weighty and
joyful errand that he was given. He was a joyful, it was a joyful
heir and indeed the marriage of the heir, Isaac, would indeed
be a joyful event. It would be a joyful event. It
was an honorable thing for this servant to be entrusted with
the finding of a wife for his master's son. I say it was an
honorable thing. Now, oftentimes a gospel preacher
is just spoken of as, well, he's just a preacher. All he is is
just a preacher. Well, we know that it's a very
small thing in the esteem of some to preach the gospel of
the grace of God. But I'd like for you to turn,
holding your finger here in Genesis, to the book of 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. The book of 2 Corinthians chapter
5, and I'd like for you to look here as I read a few verses,
and I think you'll get a little different idea about the preaching
of the gospel and the work that God has entrusted us with, those
that he's called and put in this position. In 2 Corinthians chapter
5, beginning with verse 18, and all things, Paul said, are of
God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and
hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation." That's the
preacher of the gospel. That's the man whom God has laid
hold of and burdened to preach, who, like Paul, can say, woe
is me if I preach not the gospel. Paul says that the Lord has given
to us the ministry of reconciliation, to go to witness that God was
in Christ. When Christ came into this world,
when God gave him a body in the womb of the Virgin Mary, Christ
coming into this world, not to do of his own will, but to do
the will of his Father that had sent him. We're to witness that
God was in Christ, and that when God sent his Son into the world,
it was to reconcile men unto himself. It was to reconcile,
of course, the world of the elect unto himself. It was to reconcile
those that the Father had given as a love gift unto the Son before
the foundation of the world. It was to reconcile these that
were dear unto the Father. And so it says, and not imputing
their trespasses unto them. Now this is the work of the ministry,
to go out and to set before men the fact that when Christ came,
he came into the world to do a work that would satisfy God,
do a work in that that he would bear the sin of all of the elect
that he would bear their sin to that gory tree, and that he
would suffer the vengeance of God on their behalf, their sin
being imputed to him, him dying in their room, in their stead,
in their place, and not imputing it unto them. You see, our sins
were imputed to our federal head, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our sin
is not imputed to us. David said, blessed is the man
to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. God's people have no
sin charged to them. Their sin was all charged under
their substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul says, and he's
committed unto us the word of reconciliation. God has given
us the word to preach, the word to testify of, the word to proclaim,
the word to herald forth of this reconciliation, of this glorious
gospel, of this message of pure, free grace. God has given us
this word. You see, a preacher has to receive
a word. He has to receive words from
God whereby men and women would be saved. He's a man to whom
God will entrust words. You remember Peter when he went
on one of his journeys? The Lord said, you hear Peter,
because he'll have words whereby you may be saved. He'll have
words in his mouth that'll come out. They're from the living
God. They're from the Spirit of God. And these words, God
will use them in your reconciliation. Now then, Paul says in verse
20, we are ambassadors for Christ. As Eleazar was an ambassador
for Abraham, we are ambassadors for Christ. as though God did
beseech you by us. And so just a preacher? Just
a preacher? Well, God did beseech you by
us. We come, listen to it now, we
pray you in Christ's stead. We're here in Christ's stead.
You can say, well, we lightly esteem the preacher of the gospel
if you want to, but we're here in Christ's stead. We're here
in his room. We're here in his place to testify
of this great reconciliation. that took place before the Holy
Father and all of his elect, that took place in the body of
his son when he was nailed to the tree. And so he says, we
pray you in Christ's stead be reconciled to God, be reconciled
to God through this reconciliation which God has provided. For,
in verse 21, he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
And so, beloved, I just wanted to read those verses so that
you would see that it was an honorable thing for this servant
to be entrusted with the finding of a wife for his master's son.
But, beloved, what an honorable thing it is. to be one in whose
mouth God would place words whereby men and women would come to experience
experientially this resurrection on this reconciliation which
God has provided on the behalf of these people. Now, this servant
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. This, beloved, was his errand. Now this work this man undertook
was a business upon which his master's heart was set. There
must be a seed. God had said in Isaac shall thy
seed be called. Isaac was now 40 years old and
Abraham was old and well stricken in years. Isaac was a single
man and Abraham he very naturally reached to see the promise beginning
to be fulfilled that in Isaac his seat would be called, and
he wanted for his servant to find a wife for Isaac. Now, this was serious business
which he committed to his servant. But, brethren, sister, let me
impress this upon your mind that this is nothing compared to the
responsibility that hangs on the preacher of the gospel and
on the church that supports that preacher and, as it were, enables
that preacher unties his hands so that he can preach. All of
the great father's heart is set on giving to Christ a church
which shall be his beloved's forever. Now Isaac must not be
alone. Isaac must have one to come alongside,
to be a helpmate for him. Isaac must be comforted. Isaac
must have a one to come alongside, to be his companion. And Jesus
must not be alone. His church must be his companion. The father sends 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 our hearts, till our hearts
and other hearts are wedded to the Son of God." Notice this
Aaron was more weighty because of the person for whom the spouse
was sought. Isaac was indeed somebody. Do you agree with me? Isaac was
somebody. He was a man born according to
promise. Not after the flesh, but he was
born by the power of God. And in Christ, all that are one
with Him, their spirit life, their life, as it were, because
of the Spirit of God and the regenerating work of God in their
hearts, it comes by promise and the power of God and it springs
not of man. Now Isaac was himself the fulfillment
of promise, and he was also the heir of the promise. And infinitely
glorious is our Lord Jesus as the Son of Man, the Son of God,
who shall declare his generation. Where shall a helpmeet be found
for Christ? A soul fit to be married to the
Lamb of God. Fit. to be married to God's Christ? Where shall we find a heart fit
to be wedded to such a glorious one as the Lord Jesus Christ? How and where can we find men
and women who can worthily recompense the love that's so amazing, so
divine as that of Him who died the death of the cross? Who is
fit to dwell in glory with this glorious one? What a weighty
errand then have we to fulfill to find those who shall be linked
forever in promise to the sacrificial and risen Christ. What a dignity
will be put upon any of you who are married to the Lord Jesus
Christ. What a dignity! Salvation is
indeed to be married to the Lord Jesus Christ. In Romans 7 and
verse 4, Paul said, Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become
dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married
to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we
should bring forth fruit. unto God. And 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. To what height of eminence will
you be lifted to by becoming one with the Lord Jesus Christ,
by being married to the Lord Jesus? Will you take this man,
this God-man, to be your husband? Will you take him to be your
lawful, wedded, spiritual husband? Will you have this man to be
your confidence, your salvation, your all in all? Will you have
this man Christ? Well, what must she be to whom
his master's son shall be a spouse? What must she be? Abraham's son,
Isaac. What is this woman to be that
would be a spouse to Isaac? Well, first of all, she must
be willing. She must be willing to leave
the Ur of the Chaldees and come up where Isaac is. She must also
be a beautiful woman. She must be one that would be
beautiful from the standpoint that she would be fair to look upon from the flesh.
Where shall we find one who has this willing heart? This was
the question. Abraham said, you go to my father's
house. You go down to my father's house, and you look there for
a wife, for my son Isaac. Well, where are we going to find
this willing heart? This willing heart, only where
the grace of God has wrought it, only where the grace of God
has prepared one, only where God has gone before by His angel
and by the work of His Spirit in the heart, only then will
we find one who is willing. In the day of God's power, hearts
are made willing. Hearts are made willing to repent,
willing to believe, willing to lay down their self-righteousness,
willing to trust fully to the Savior in the day of God's power. Well, how can I find beauty?
How are we going to find beauty among the sons of men? Well,
marred as our natures are in and by 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 Christ in the natural man. And at the
same time, there's a terrible unfitness and unworthiness about
all natural men. The Spirit of God in regeneration
implants a love which is of heavenly origin. The Holy Spirit of God
comes, and when the Spirit of God comes into a man, And when
the Spirit of God takes up His abode in the heart, when one
is baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ, when the
Holy Spirit lives in an individual, there is a love in that heart
toward God. There is a love there. There's
a principle of love. It's implanted in the heart of
the sinner. And I remind you again this morning
of Ezekiel chapter 16 and verse 14. where it says, 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. So think also about this, that
our comeliness before God is the very comeliness of our substitute,
the Lord Jesus Christ. We are made willing, we are made
willing by the work of the Spirit in our hearts, and we're made
beautiful by His comeliness, by His comeliness that had been
given to us, His righteous merit having been given to us. We are
accepted in the beloved one. We have standing, right standing
before God in and through the merits of our Redeemer, that
lovely Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, think also with
me, if you will, what she will become who is to be married to
Isaac. Well, she's to be endowed with
all his earthly goods. In verse 36, the scripture says,
Isaac had all that Abraham had. The servant told the family of
Rebekah that Isaac had become the recipient of all that Abraham
had. Abraham was a wealthy man, God
had blessed him in all things, and Isaac had all that Abraham
had been given. And in John chapter 3 and verse
35, it says, The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things
into his hand. The Father loveth the Son, and
hath given all things into his hand. Speaking of Christ. Now
then, this one, what is she to be? This one that is going to
be married to Isaac, what shall she be endowed with? All of the
earthly goods of Isaac. She is to be Isaac's delight,
his love, his friend, his companion, and she is to be joined to Isaac.
Now, when a sinner is joined to Christ, what does Christ endow
him with or what does Christ make of him? Well, first of all,
his delight is in him. Christ delights in that one that
is wedded to him. Now, the reason Christ delights
in him is because Christ has made an investment in him. Christ
gave himself for that one. Christ loves his people and has
given himself on the behalf of his people And these that have
been given to the Son, Christ delights in them because he's
the firstborn among many brethren. And these are like him in nature,
in that they have the new nature of God. And they're like Christ
in that they're bowing their knee to the Lordship of God Almighty
every day of their lives, submitting themselves unto God as Christ
did in His life. And they respect and love the
Word of the Father even as Jesus did. And so He fellowships with
them. Christ fellowships with them.
Is that a small blessing? Beloved, it's a great blessing.
It's a tremendous blessing. This age knows nothing about
it. This religious world knows very
little about fellowship with Jesus Christ. But I've often
said, bowing before the Lord, may not be anybody else in the
whole community, in the whole area, may not be anybody else
in miles of where I'm at, but Lord that wants to fellowship
with you, but I'd like to. I'd like to. I'd like to have
your fellowship. I'd like for you to fellowship with me. If
you're looking for someone to fellowship with, here I am. I'd
like to fellowship with you. And so the Lord does fellowship
with these people. And he hears their prayers. He
hears the cry of their hearts. He hears the desires of their
heart as they are breathed out to Him in prayers. And then He
accepts their praise. We offer praise unto Him. And
what a comely and lovely thing it is for the people of God to
praise their Redeemer. And the Lord Jesus accepts that
praise as we offer it in His name. Now He works in the believer. He works with the believer. and
the believer is able to glorify Christ as the Lord Jesus works
in and through him. He makes the believing man joint
heirs with himself of all that he has. And remember that he,
like Isaac, has been given all things, everything has been given
over into the hands of Christ, and believers are made joint
heirs with him. Now consider, if you will, in
the second place, the fear which is here mentioned in verse 5.
Peradventure, the woman will not be willing to follow me unto
this land. Peradventure, the woman will
not be willing to follow me to this land. Now this is a very
serious and very grave and common difficulty. Many, many times
we hear people talking about the unwillingness of men and
women to hear the gospel, the unwillingness of men and women
to receive the message of the gospel and to come out, as it
were, out of sin into the faith of the gospel. But she must be
willing. Force and fraud are out of the question here. She
must be willing. There must be a true will or
no marriage. Here was the difficulty. Here
was a will to deal with. This is our difficulty still.
She may not believe my report. She may not be impressed by what
I've got to say about Abraham and Isaac. She may not be impressed
at all. Now, he would say, Abraham sent
me. He would describe Isaac and his wealth. Would she believe
him? Would she be impressed with what
he had to say about his master and his son? This is a sad fact. Isaiah said, who hath believed
our report? God said us, the Bible says,
be you reconciled to God. We're labors together with him,
but men will not believe our report of Calvary. of God's Son
with its wealth of mercy, Calvary with its wealth of mercy, men
will not believe it. They won't believe the record
that God hath given of His Son. In 1 John 5 11 it says, And this
is the record that God hath given of His Son eternal life, and
this life is in His Son, and he that hath the Son hath life. We tell a wonderful story. We
tell a wonderful story indeed when we preach the gospel, the
old gospel of redeeming grace. Here is a heavenly marriage place,
beloved, within your reach. But with a sneer, men turn aside
and will not have the man. They will not have the man, Christ
Jesus. Their will is not to come to
Him that they might have life. But beloved, this woman was made
willing in the day of God's power, and so are all of the Lord's
people. Another difficulty, she was expected
to feel a love to one she had never seen. This woman had never
laid an eye on Isaac. She didn't know anything about
Isaac. She didn't know him, but she was expected to love him
enough to leave her home and house and to come and to give
herself to Isaac. She would hear in one sentence
about Isaac and she must love him enough to leave her family
and go to a distant land to marry Isaac. Now, beloved, this could only be because she recognized
the will of God in the matter. God had to do a work in her heart. God had to prepare her heart.
to receive the messenger and his message and then to be willing
to go. There is one whom we cannot see
and yet who has won our love because of what we believe concerning
him as God's people. We have never seen Christ. But
we love him because we believe the testimony and the record
of the Word of God. We can say, whom having not seen,
as Peter did, we love, in whom though now we see him not, yet
believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Now men say, you ask too much
of us when you ask us to love a Christ that we have never seen. We don't expect you to believe
him and the wonderful things about him unless God, by the
Holy Ghost, has worked a miracle of grace upon your heart. The
man or woman who will follow God's servant to be married to
this man, the Lord Jesus Christ, must be one of God's elect, or
he will never, never be moved to marry the Lord Jesus Christ. You'll never be persuaded to
quit your sin, to quit your old associations, and join yourself
to our beloved Lord until God does more in you than He does
in other men. until God visits your heart and
until God does a specific and certain work in your heart to
incline you toward his son, then you will not believe the gospel.
Rebecca may refuse to make so great a change to lead a pilgrim
life. That will never do for me. She
could have said, that will never do for me. Me going off like
this, following you, a stranger, and going off to marry somebody
that I know nothing about, Well, I won't leave this settled house
and farm and kin to go out and ramble around all over through
the fields wherever the flocks may roam to graze. I'm not interested
in doing that. I'm going to stay right where
I am. It does not appeal Hear me to
natural men and women that it would be a good thing to be in
the world and yet not be of it. That doesn't appeal to men and
women. And unless the Lord renews the heart, men will always prefer
the bird in hand of the life present. than the bird in the
bush of the life to come. They always would prefer this
world to the things of God. Now the things of God, eternal,
immortal, boundless, these are of no importance to the men of
this age. They're no important to the natural
man, to whom the things of God are foolishness. Natural men
and women, they have no, listen, you could never be induced to
go after Christ as this woman could have never been induced
to go from earth to Canaan for such trifles as eternal life,
heaven, and God. Even our voice irritates men
and women. We speak to very unwilling ears. And God must do something, even
as He did in Rebekah. God must do something in the
people of our day. How much we see that in our relatives.
How much we see that in our friends, people around us. Having no regard
whatsoever for God, His Christ, and the truth of His grace. And
beloved, as we begin to speak, we know that our voice irritates.
It irritates them. And because their ears are so
unwilling to hear the message. Well, the third thing I see is,
I want you to notice this suggestion of the servant in verse five.
He says, now I go down there, but peradventure she won't come,
and if she won't come, must I needs bring thy son again unto the
land from which thou camest. Other words, if she won't come
up, should I come back, get your son, and take him down to her?
Now if she'll not come up to Isaac, shall Isaac go down to
her? This is the suggestion, I believe,
of religion in our day and time. If the world will not come to
Jesus, then let us become like the world. Let us have a Christian
world. Let's just 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 just join them. Let us join them. And that's
what's happened. The world has become so churchy and the church
so worldly that you can't tell where the one begins and the
other one let off. Let us revise our doctrine, somebody
said. It's too severe. Our doctrine
is too severe. And let's, if we can, pare off
the edges. of those truths that are unpleasant
to the natural man. Moderate the dogmatic tone of
infallible revelation. Undermine the old faith and bring
in some new doubt. For the times are changed, don't
you know, preacher? And the spirit of the age and
day suggests that we abandon everything that is too severely
righteous and too surely of God. Abandon it! and give it up and
let us go down to the world. To wait for people to be born
again? To wait for God to do something in them? That takes
too long. We must have them now. We need them now. The church
needs them. We can't wait for God to do a
definite work in them. We just need now to some way
or another embrace them and to just receive the unregenerate
as if they were already the people and children of the living God.
Come into the church, all of you, converted or unconverted.
It's true you don't believe the gospel, but we don't believe
it either. And so therefore, just come on in. You do believe
something, don't you? Well, yes, they believe something. You say preacher people don't
really talk that way, do they? Well, how'd we get in this mess?
I ask, how did we get in this mess? Rebecca wouldn't come up. So we went down. That's what
we did. That's what the church has done.
They went down. They wouldn't wait on God to
go out and do a work as they preach faithfully the gospel
and do his work and bring in his people. They wouldn't wait
on the Lord to do that. We've got a business to run.
We've got an edifice and we've got a structure here and we've
got to have the means and the money and we must have the people. And if you're not successful,
then what are you? Well, beloved, we can't wait.
We gotta take Isaac down to Rebekah. Well, notice what Abraham thought
of the proposal in verse 6. Abraham said unto him, Beware
thou that thou bring not my son thither again. Beware, I don't
want you taking my son back down there. Jesus said, you're not
of this world even as I am not of the world. We are not of this
world by birth from above, not of this world in life, not of
this world in object, not of this world in spirit. God's people
are not of this world. Let not the people whom the Lord
brought up out of Egypt return to the house of bondage. Bring
not my son thither again. In effect, Abraham would argue
like this. This world, this, you taking
Isaac back down there, would be to forego the divine order.
In verse 7, if he brought Abraham out, is Isaac to return? No,
beloved, this cannot be. The way of God is to sever his
elect from the world, the elect are a people formed for himself.
who shall show forth his praise in the earth. God's plan is not
altered. He will still go on calling those
whom he did predestinate. If Isaac could do good by going
back, why did God call Abraham out? Why did Abraham leave if
Isaac was to go back? If there's no need for the church
to be separate now, then what have we been doing throughout
all the ages? Why has the church always taken
the position? Us and them. Why has the church
always stood and said, we are separate from the world. Those
that are friends with the world are the enemies of God. That's
the position of the scripture and of the early church. Well,
brethren, there are two seeds, the seed of the woman and the
seed of the serpent, and the difference must be maintained
even unto the end. Isaac must never renounce his
walk with the living God that he might find a wife. He must
never go back that he might just prosper after the things of the
flesh. To the spiritual man, God is
always first. So whatever you have or don't
have, turn not aside whatever you might gain. Whatever you
might gain by it, don't turn aside from following the Lord
and from following hard after the truth of Holy Scripture.
Now, beloved, count the reproach of Christ greater riches than
all the treasures of Egypt. The need of the hour is to have
Abraham's spirit. That spirit that says, no, you
don't go back down and you don't take my son back into bondage.
And we'll have that when we have Abraham's faith, when we believe
God and believe his word. The God that took me from my
father's house, he's swearing to me saying, unto thy seed will
I give this land. That's the covenant promise.
If she won't come out and up to Isaac, what is she worth to
Isaac? What would she be worth? She
wouldn't be anything. She's 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, and she will not mind a journey on a rough camel's back in getting
to her husband. if she's worth having, if she's
a true child of God. True converts will separate from
the world and will love the truth and will love the people of God.
God will do a work in them sufficient to whereby this will be the case.
You need to wait on the Lord, pray over your message, preach
your message, preach it faithfully, and God will do a work. Are you
afraid that preaching the gospel will not accomplish God's work,
will not win souls? Are you despondent as to the
success in God's ways? Well, in verse 7, Abraham said
he'll send his angel before thee. God will send his angel before
thee. You're not going to run in vain.
Be a steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord. For as much as you know that your labor is not in vain
in the Lord. And so you stay on the Lord.
The Lord will direct you. God will save by the gospel still. And that's the only way He will
save. By the gospel. Only let it be the gospel that
we preach. Only let it be the gospel. There's
no need to go down to Egypt for any help. There's no need to
invite the devil to help Christ. This is shameful. We don't need
it. God doesn't need it. We need
to trust him. We need to wait on him. We want
to see prosperity. Oh, how we would love to see
it. How we'd love to see God at work in the hearts of men. When the church of God would
be resolved to never seek the help of the world in any way,
just simply to lean wholeheartedly on the Lord and to go God's way
in everything. How wonderful this would be,
but we'd like to see prosperity, but don't let prosperity get
out in front and the desire for it. Let's wait on the Lord. And
lastly, I'm going to have to hurry here, I want you to notice
how that Abraham, how that he told his servant in verse 8 that
he would absolve him from all responsibility in this situation
if he just went and did exactly what he told him to do. That
he would absolve. If this woman wouldn't come back
up there, that he would absolve him of all responsibility. Now I said, this is verse eight.
Let me just read this eighth verse to you at this time. I
want you to get this fresh in your mind. And like I said, this
will be the last thing we'll talk about. And I want you to
see this. And if the woman will not be willing to follow thee,
then thou shall be clear from this my oath, only bring not
my son thither again. Now there's no need to go down
to Egypt. When we come to die, listen to
me now, we need to be faithful to God. We need to be faithful
to Him. When we come to die, this will
be the consolation of our hearts. We preach Christ. We preached
Christ. We preached not ourselves, but
Christ Jesus the Lord. We preached Christ. We stayed
close to the gospel. We did not handle the word of
God deceitfully. We did not play the fool. We
did not become a politician in order to increase our congregation.
We did not depart from the faithful proclamation of God's truth as
it is in the Lord Jesus Christ. If we've been true to God, even
if there just have been a few gathered in over the years, our
Master will give us full absolution. The Master will absolve us. Keep
to the gospel. If the people are not converted,
that you will still be clear. The true servant of God is responsible
for diligence and faithfulness, but he's not responsible for
success or non-success. That's not in the realm of our
responsibility. Somebody said, are you a successful
preacher? And, you know, if you measure
by the world's standards, of course we're not successful.
But if you're successful in the eyes of the world, nine times
out of ten, you're not going to be in the eyes of God. If
you're successful in the eyes of God, you will not, nine times
out of ten, you won't be in the eyes of men. But if you preach
the gospel and stay to the gospel, beloved, God will absolve you
in the end. Results? are in God's hand. If I preach the gospel, men will
not believe, their blood will lie upon their own heads. When we go home to be with the
Lord, if we faithfully told out the message of free grace and
dying love, we will be clear when we stand before God. Old
George Fox, he was an old preacher, he came to die, and his last
words, I'm clear, I'm clear. I'm clear. Well, beloved, it
would be wonderful to be able to say that. It's my highest
ambition to be clear of the blood of all men, to be clear of those
to whom I preach and to bear witness. Well, what more can
we do? If after all, men will not have
Christ and his gospel and his rule, it's their own concern,
it's their own nature that will not, they will not come to him. The gospel is not hid that men
cannot come, it's hid because men will not come. It's their
own concern. 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 the ages, even
the Messiah, the seed of the woman who would bruise the serpent's
head. She will not miss it. by divine
sovereignty, she will not miss it. She will come up to Isaac. She will come up. She will believe
the message of Abraham's servant, and she will come up to Isaac. What about you this morning?
Will you be married to the Lord Jesus? Will you love one whom
you've never seen? Will you be joined to Christ?
Would you in your heart be married to him? Would you be one spirit
with the Lord? Would you be? Well, this morning
he came into the world to save sinners, I tell you that this
morning, and he cast out none. Everyone that can get to him,
he said, I will in no wise cast out. If you get to me, everyone
that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and they that come
to me, I will in no wise cast them out. I'll not cast him out. Come to him, he that believeth
and is baptized, Mark 16, 16 says, shall be saved. Will you
believe? Can you believe this morning? Can you believe the
gospel? Will you be baptized in the name of the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit? Will you be joined? Will you
take this man to be your spiritual husband? If so, salvation is
yours. It's yours. If not, he said,
he that believeth not shall be damned. If you refuse the substitutionary
work of Jesus Christ, you have refused your own mercies. God will clear me in that day
of your blood, your blood be upon your own head. And this
morning, if you hear the gospel, he was made to be sin for us.
He knew no sin, but that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. He, Jesus Christ, has made unto
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. If you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved. Can you believe
on him? Can you trust him? Can you depend
upon him? If you believe not, Your blood
be upon your own head. It shall not fall upon this preacher. God said, as Abraham, and I believe
that this is true throughout the word of God, the teachings
of scripture, that if you just preach the gospel, then the responsibility
lies with those that have heard it. And you've heard the gospel
today, and we leave the responsibility with you before God. May God
do a work in your hearts. There was a lot of material.
In this, I had to cover it very rapidly, but I trust that the
Lord will give you in your own hearts something that you can
hang on to in the coming week, something you can meditate on
and think about, something that will refresh your heart and give
you some spiritual nourishment in this barren and wasteland
which we pilgrimage. Let's pray. Father, in the name
of Jesus, would you enable us to receive and enable us to contain
and retain the message, Lord, that you've given us today? Might
Christ be glorified, and might those today that have heard this
message, might they see how that the Spirit of God has come out
to seek those for whom the Son died, and may they feel in their
hearts that willingness this morning to embrace with the faith
which you've given them, the Lord Jesus Christ. Save some
poor sinner here today. Make them willing as Rebecca
was to go up, to go up to Isaac. Might they come up to Christ
today. We pray it in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen.