A wife for Isaac

Q: What does the Bible say about how Isaac got a wife?

The Bible describes how Abraham sent his servant to find a wife for Isaac, emphasizing the importance of choosing from among his own people rather than the Canaanites. In Genesis 24, Abraham, being well advanced in age, sent his servant to find a wife for his son Isaac. He specifically instructed the servant not to take a wife from the Canaanites, who were seen as ungodly and cursed, but rather to go to his own kindred. This act signifies the seriousness of the covenant and God's promise to Abraham regarding his descendants. The broader picture reflects God's providence in seeking a bride for His Son, Jesus Christ, drawing parallels between obtaining Isaac's wife and Christ’s bride – the Church.

Q: How do we know God's promises are true?

God's promises are true, as seen through His faithfulness in the covenant with Abraham and the assurance of Isaac's descendants. The certainty of God's promises is demonstrated through His covenant with Abraham, where He assured that Isaac would have descendants who would inherit the land. Abraham's confidence stemmed from his own experiences and the unchanging nature of God's word. This assurance is echoed in Scripture, where God confirms the future generations through Isaac, indicating a continuity of His grace. The ultimate fulfillment of God's promises is seen in the New Testament through Christ, who secures His bride from the elect, reaffirming His faithfulness across generations.

Q: Why is preaching the gospel important for Christians?

Preaching the gospel is crucial for Christians as it fulfills God's command to share the message of salvation with the elect. Preaching the gospel is a serious command from Christ, as reflected in the Great Commission. It is not merely an option but a divine mandate, reflecting the same urgency that Abraham's servant felt in seeking a bride for Isaac. The apostles understood the weight of their mission, as expressed by Paul when he said, 'Woe is me if I preach not the gospel.' This responsibility to declare the truth is essential for calling the elect into a saving relationship with Christ, emphasizing that the gospel message is the means by which God draws His people to Himself.

Q: What does it mean for someone to respond willingly to the gospel?

Responding willingly to the gospel signifies a transformation in the heart that aligns with God's calling, as individuals cannot come unless moved by Him. The notion of willingness in responding to the gospel underscores the mystery of God's sovereign grace. The servant's concern about whether the woman would be willing to follow emphasizes that such decisions cannot be coerced. In similar fashion, individuals who are called by God experience a change of heart, leading them to willingly believe and respond to the gospel. The Holy Spirit works in believers' hearts to make them receptive to the message, thus they come to Christ by faith, not through external pressure or manipulation. It is a divine invitation that transforms their natural resistance into a desire for salvation.

Q: Why didn't Abraham want Isaac to return to his homeland?

Abraham forbade Isaac from returning to his homeland to ensure that the covenant promise remained distinct from the ungodly influences of the Canaanites. Abraham's directive to his servant not to take Isaac back to his homeland highlights the importance of spiritual separation from the Canaanites, who were idolaters and under God's curse. This instruction underscores the seriousness of maintaining the integrity of God's covenant. Abraham recognized that the land promised to his descendants was significant and that exposing Isaac to foreign influences could jeopardize the divine plan. Therefore, he emphasized finding a wife from his own kindred, assuring that the covenant line would be preserved amid a corrupt culture, a principle which echoes the call for the church today to remain distinct from worldly influences.

Let's just, instead of reading
this entire chapter, even half of it, let's just begin here
in Genesis 24 and verse 1, and look at it as we go. So you'll
have to keep your Bibles open. And I've got one or two more
passages of Scripture as we go, we'll look at. But this is where
the Lord really moved upon Abraham to get Isaac a wife. That's our
subject this evening. A wife for Isaac. Of course,
a church for Jesus Christ. It's what we're looking at, this
picture of salvation. Abraham was 140 years old at
this time. Isaac was 40. Sarah had been
dead about three years or so. And Abraham was going to send
his servant. I'm not for sure what his name
was. It was his elder servant in his house. I think I know
his name, but I'm not for sure, so we'll just call him Abraham's
servant. He's sending his servant to the land Abraham came out
of to take a wife for Isaac. And that's where you and I want
to look at a beautiful picture of salvation, and we'll get about
half of it tonight. Let's look at verses 1 through
verse 4. 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, your hand under my thigh, and I will make you swear
by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that thou
shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of Canaan,
of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell. But thou shalt go unto
my country, unto my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac." Now, it was time here for Isaac
to get his wife. And the Lord had already told
Abraham that he was going to bless his seed. Muldeflown exceedingly. That seed wasn't through Abraham's
first child. It wasn't through Ishmael and
the slave lady, the slave woman. And it wasn't through Abraham's
second wife, Ketua, whom Abraham married after Sarah had died. But the Lord was to bless Abraham
and all his prosperity through Sarah's son Isaac. So Isaac must
have a wife. that the seed may prosper and
the Lord give this land to. And that's what we're going to
see tonight. Jesus Christ must have a church. This is a beautiful
picture of the Lord Jesus sending His servants out to bring His
people to Himself. And that's what we'll see this
evening. Here in verse 1 through verse 4, I want to see two things
that's really awakening. Really two awakening thoughts
here in verses 1-4. The first thing it is, how serious
all of this is. This is a very serious thing
that's ready to happen. Abraham tells his servant, he
said, I want you to put your hand under my thigh. And I want
you to swear to me that you'll go find Isaac a wife of my people. You will not get a wife among
the Canaanites from which I dwell. But he said, you will swear to
me that you will do what I am asking you to do. That is a very
serious one. It brought an oath. Abraham made his servant swear
that you will get a wife for Isaac, my son, in the place that
I am sending you to. And you know this servant began
immediately to feel the burden of that. Over here in verse 12,
he gets there finally and he says, Oh Lord God and my master
Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day and show
kindness unto my master Abraham. So he felt the seriousness of
this. That the master made him swear
that he would go into this foreign land and get a bride for his
wife. Now what does that tell us? Well,
it tells us when we go looking, as it were, for a bride for the
Lord Jesus Christ, when we go preaching the gospel, that's
a serious thing, isn't it? When the Lord Jesus sent His
apostles out just before He went back to heaven, do you remember
what He told them to do? Go unto all the earth and preach
the gospel to every creature. You know that wasn't a request.
In Acts 10, Peter said, He commanded us. He commanded us that we should
preach the gospel and declare that it was He that was ordained
to be the judge of the quick and the dead. A serious thing
for the Lord to command His preachers to go preach the gospel. And
the apostle Paul said it like this. Paul said, he didn't call
me to baptize, but he called me to preach the gospel. And
then what did he say? Woe is me if I preach not the
gospel. Necessity is laid upon me. So this is not if we feel like
it is. This is not if you have nothing
else to do. But this is a commandment of God our Savior that the gospel
must be preached. And I tell you, I hope that you
feel like I do. Not only you that teach and we
who preach, but I hope this church feels the burden of, in every
means we can, of getting the gospel of Jesus Christ out to
poor lost sinners. That's what we're doing on the
internet now, isn't it? That's what we're doing as a church.
Go and preach the gospel. How serious this thing is of
preaching the gospel. That's the first thought that
we have. An old was behind this man going and finding a wife
for Isaac. In verses 3 and 4, here's another
thought that's very awakening. Why did Abraham tell his servant
here not to seek for a wife among the Canaanites? He made him swear
to this. He said, don't you seek a wife
for Isaac among the Canaanites for whom I dwell. Now why did
he do that? Well, the Canaanites were an
ungodly, idolatrous people. And they had already been cursed
and they were going to be run out of their land. They were
going to become extinct. The Canaanites were. You remember
all the way back in Genesis 9, when Noah's son and Canaan uncovered
their father's nakedness, and he cursed Canaan? He said, Cursed
be Canaan, a servant shall he be. So Abraham told his servant,
he said, Don't you take for my son one of those cursed people? God's going to drive them out
of this land, give it to His people, and they're going to
become extinct. Don't give it to them. Where
did He tell them to go? What He told them there in verse
4, He said, You go to My country and to My kindred, My people. Now, that's a beautiful picture
of us, of two kinds of people, brothers and sisters, that's
in this world. And it's a serious thing to think about. In this
world, you have two kinds of people. You've got the non-elect,
and you've got the elect. You've got the non-elect that
lives in this world, and they live in their unbelief, they
live in their disobedience, and you know something? They live
under the curse. Cursed is every man that continues
not in all things that's written in the book of the law to do
them. They're cursed when they live. They'll be cursed when
they die. They don't believe the gospel.
They won't hear the gospel. They die lost. The Lord's going
to bring them up to judgment. And here's what He's going to
say to them. Depart from me, you cursed. You cursed. That's one of the people that's
in this world. And you know something? We've proved this before. Jesus
Christ is not taking His bride out of those people. Is He? We've proved before that none
of the non-elect, none of those that's left out of the covenant
of grace, they will ever be saved. And it's their own fault. Leaving
them out did them no harm. But I'm telling you this, they
live under the curse and they'll die under it. And then you've
got the other kind of people. The Lord Jesus calls them His
sheep. He calls them My vessels of mercy. And that's who He's taken His
bride. That's who His bride is. They
don't even know it. Just like this woman here. They're
just going along about their business. And you know something?
By nature, they're just as bad as the none of that. You can't
tell any difference out of them by nature and by practice. Abraham
said, you go to my house and my kindred and you take a wife
from them. You know they were just as bad.
They were idolaters. You remember when Jacob went
and got his wife, Rachel, and he was coming back into the land
of Canaan, Rachel stole her dad's gods, her little idols. Remember
that? They were idolaters too. When
the Lord saved Abraham out of that place, they were idolaters.
So when we talk about the elect of God by their very natures
and by their very practice, they're just as ungodly as everybody
else. They're children of wrath even
as others. But the Lord will take them from
that place. The Lord will take them. They're
His sheep. He comes to save His people from
their sins. And that's why He said He tells
us, He tells you and I to go into all the world. You preach
the gospel to everybody. To everybody. But notwithstanding,
where is He going to find His bride at? Among His people. Among His sheep. Among His vessels
of mercy. That's an awesome thought, ain't
it? Awesome thought. The people that God left out
of His elect and grace, you know they are going to live in this
world until finally, just like the Canaanites, God is going
to drive them out of it. He is going to drive them out of it
into darkness. But His people that He has given to His dear
and blessed Son to be His bride, He is going to save them. And
that is what this chapter is about. That is what this chapter
is about. Now look in verse 5. That's an awesome thing. That's
an awesome thought. And boy, we see this poor servant
here. He began to feel the weight,
the responsibility that was put upon him. Now I want you to look
at this. This tells us that because look
in verse 5 at the first question he asked. Look in verse 5. He
was so concerned about this and no doubt felt a responsibility
and his inability. And here's the first thing he
said. The servant said unto Abraham, Preadventure perhaps, the woman
will not be willing to follow me unto this land. Must I need
bring thy son again unto the land from whence thou comest? Man, that's a good question,
wasn't it? What if she's not willing to follow me? What if
she don't want to come? What if she don't have a will?
You're telling me that I have to go over there and tell this
woman to come over here and marry Isaac sight unseen? That she's
going to leave her own land? She's going to leave her father's
house and come over here and marry a guy she don't even know?
What if she's not willing to do that? And you know this tells
us something, don't it? This tells us something. The
very question that this man has tells us that he knew that this
woman was going to have to come knowingly and willingly. That
she was going to have to believe him and be willing to come and
marry Isaac. If she wasn't willing, she wouldn't
come. And he couldn't trick her. Doesn't
that tell us that he can slip in the back door and deceive
her and get her to come? He couldn't pull some kind of
gimmick on her. He had to be honest with her.
He had to be up front. And he said, wait a minute now.
My master Abraham, I'm going over there and I'm going to tell
this woman the truth. And Isaac, you won't let him go with me.
You tell me to be careful not to take him back over there.
Why does she not want to come? Boy, that's a good question,
isn't it? That's a good question this man asks. Why is she not
willing? Well, I think I'd have asked
that too, wouldn't you? He began to feel the weight of
this, so he asked this question. What if she's not willing? I can't make her willing. Ain't
that what he said? What have I to do to make her
willing? I can't get in her heart. I can't change her mind. I can't
win her affections. How am I supposed to do this?
What am I supposed to do if she's not willing? I tell you, if God
in heaven has not taught us anything, if there's ever a time when you
and I thought that we can make the gospel effectual, we learned
better, didn't we? We learned the helplessness to
affect anything, and that's what this man here was feeling. What
if she's not willing? What am I going to do then? Well, Abraham said one thing
about it. If she don't come with me, if she don't come with me,
don't you take my son back down there. He's not to go down there
where I came from. If she don't come back, you're
free from your oath. But don't you take him back down
there. And brothers and sisters, ain't this so? Jesus Christ walked
this earth one time. He died upon Calvary's tree.
And He's now in heaven. And if we're saved, we're going
to come to Him. We're going to come to Him by
faith. We're going to come to Him surrendering our wills to
Him. But there's one thing about it. He's not going to come back
down here. Say not in your heart, who can bring Christ down from
heaven. We come to Him by faith. We ain't going to see no vision
of Him. He ain't going to appear to us. We've got to come to Him
by faith. He'll never come back down here
until He comes in the clouds of heaven. Don't take my son,
and Christ will never come back down here to save and convert
any sinner. We're going to have to come to
Him, aren't we? We must come to Christ. We must come to Him. By faith, we must come to Him
willingly. That was his concern. And I just
feel the burden of this. And Abraham knew that he was
under burden. That's why Abraham told him twice, don't you take
my son down there. If I die while you're down there
looking for a wife, and she won't come, don't you come back here
and take him back down." And man, he felt the weight of that. He left thinking, oh, my soul.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Well, Abraham gives him some
things here to help his servant. He tells him some things. He
tells him these three things, three or four things here, that's
going to greatly encourage his servant. to make his servant
know that when he returns from this foreign country, he's going
to have a wife for Isaac. He's going to have a wife for
Isaac. And this sets that servant's heart at ease. And I hope it
sets our heart at ease that we seek the wife of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Look in verse 7. Here's what Abraham told his
servants. 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, that swore unto me, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this
land, he shall send this angel before thee, and thou shalt take
a wife unto thy son." From Phineas. Abraham said, I'm going to tell
you four things. And when you consider this and believe it,
you believe what I'm telling you, you're going to know that
when you return, you'll have a wife with you, Christ. The
first thing he says, he told him his own experience. Look what he said. The Lord God
of heaven which took me from my father. Abraham said, now
listen, you know where I'm from. I'm from the same place I'm sending
you. There was a time when I was where Isaac's wife is now. And the Lord brought me from
there. He took me from my father's house.
He took me from that land, and He brought me here. And if He
did that for me, He'll do it for her. That's his personal
experience. What's your personal experience?
If I asked you how the Lord brought you to Himself, how the Lord
got you out of your sin, how the Lord brought you from your
self-love and self-trust, what would you say? He took me. He
took me. You know why some people won't
preach effectual calling? You know why people don't believe
in irresistible grace? They've never experienced it.
When you experience that, you tell others about it. And when
you experience that, you say, if God dealt with everybody like
He dealt with me, He'd save everybody. You believe God could save everybody
if He willed to do it. You believe men are so powerful
and so mighty that He can't take them if He's pleased to take
them. You believe anybody so dead in sin and held so captive
by the devil, He can't take them. Abraham said, that's not my experience.
He took me. He took me. And Abraham said,
listen, the same one that took me, he has fire to take her. You shall come here with a wife.
That's the first thing he said. And the second thing, look here
he says, in the second part of verse 7 is this. He spake unto
me. He took me from my father's house,
and from the land of my kindred, and which spake unto me. How did he take him? He took
me. How did He do that, Abraham?
He spoke to me. He spoke to me. Now, this is
not just saying, you know, the Lord is speaking. The Lord is
trying to tell you something. I mean, when Abraham said the
Lord spake, I mean, He spake in such a mighty way to me. Well,
let me show you. The whole chapter 24, we're told
in the Scriptures about this very incident that Abraham was
talking about. He spoke to me. And let's look
at it in Acts chapter 7. And look here how the Lord took
Abraham from his father's house and from his kindred. Look in
chapter 7 of Acts. This is where Stephen was being
preaching his message just before he got stoned. Look at it. Then said the high priest, Are
these things so? Speaking to Stephen the deacon.
And Stephen said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken. Now here
it is. The God of glory appeared unto
our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he came
unto Sharon. And he said unto him, Get thee
out of thy country, from thy kindred, and come unto the land
which I shall show you of. Then came he out of the land."
Now look at this. He's spake unto him, but it wasn't
just that he's spake unto him. The God of glory appeared unto
him. God came forth and His presence
was with His Word. When He spake, His glory appeared
in that voice. And it got Abraham's attention.
It was irresistible. And he said, Abraham, get out!
And it went home to Abraham's heart. He didn't sit and think
if he's going to do it or not. He didn't make some decision.
No, he got out. And he came into the land of
Sherman. That's the difference, isn't it? That's the difference.
When God speaks to the heart and His glory, His presence accompanies
that Word. Then when people come out, and
that's what He was telling His servant here, listen, the God
of glory spake to me. And when He speaks that way,
you'll go looking for a wife. When He speaks to her, you'll
bring her here. Because when God appears to somebody,
He gets their attention. Galen Wanda sings that song,
hearts of stone will have to crumble. Hearts of stones melt
when the presence of God attends His Word and power that way. Look over here in another place.
Look in Isaiah chapter 64. And look in verse 1. Isaiah chapter
64 and verse 1. Isaiah had been having a terrible
time, bless his heart. He had been going preaching to
everybody. Sixty-three chapters he had written. He had been complaining
that nobody believed his report and the arm of the Lord wasn't
being revealed to anybody. And he said, Lord, I preached
my heart out. I prayed about this. And he said, I've not affected
anything. Not affected anything. It's just
a dead letter to people. It's not converting the lost.
Well, here's how he prayed. And look how he prayed. Oh, he
said, I've preached, I've reported, but oh, that thou wouldest rend
the heavens, that you would rend the heavens, that you would come
down yourself. Well, what's going to happen
when the Lord comes down and accompanies His Word? "...that
the mountains may flow down at thy presence, as when the melting
fire burns, the fire causes the waters to boil, to make thy name
known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy
presence." See the difference? We preach and we witness, we
testify, we write articles, we do everything we can. And what
does people do? Most people just go on about
their business, don't they? And they will until the God of
glory accompanies His Word. That's what we want, isn't it?
That's what we pray for. And when that happens, brothers
and sisters, something will be effected. Something will be effected. Look at the third thing quickly
over in Genesis chapter 24. Look at this. Here's something
else. First of all, he tells him that
the God of glory appeared to him. He touches Him. God took
Him. He appeared to Him. He's spaking His Word. Spaking
power. But now there's another reason
that Abraham was going to give his servant to comfort him and
encourage him to know that when he comes back, this bride is
coming. He says you're right in the middle
of verse 7. He said, this is the promise,
until thy seed will I give this land. Now if you study back over
in Genesis chapter 17, you'll remember that God had promised
the land of Canaan to Sarah and Abraham's son Isaac. And he said,
in Isaac, through his seed, through his posterity, I'm going to give
this land of Canaan to his posterity. Well, what does that tell us?
If God is going to give this to Isaac's seed and all his posterity,
Isaac must have a wife. God has promised, I'll give this
seed to Isaac and all his posterity. Well, he's got to have a wife.
So if God has promised it, then God's going to have to fulfill
this promise. And that's what he told his servant. God is going
to give this land to my seed, Isaac, and his wife and all their
children. So be encouraged by that. Now,
what is this a beautiful picture of? Oh, brothers and sisters,
has not God promised to populate heaven with Christ's seed? Has
He not said that He's going to give a great host, and has already
did so, to His Son to be saved by Him? That's a promise to the
Son, therefore they must come. All that the Father gives to
me, all that the Father has given to me, He's still given to me,
and they shall come unto Me. That's a big encouragement for
us, ain't it? The promise must be fulfilled. Look back over
again in Isaiah, and just hold Genesis 24, and look back quickly
over in Isaiah chapter 49. This is the Father speaking to
His Son, the Lord Jesus. And I love to read these intercourses
between the Father and His Son, and you see several of them in
the Old Testament Scripture. The Father talking to His Son,
and the Son talking back to His Father. And you get a lot of
information. They call this insider information. Nobody there but the Father and
His Son, and He lets us in on it. Look in Isaiah chapter 49. Listen, O islands, unto me, and
hearken, ye people, from far. This is the Lord Jesus speaking.
The Lord hath called me from the womb. From the bowels of
my mother hath He made mention of my name. His name shall be
called Jesus. He said that, didn't He? And
He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword. No man ever spake like
this man. In the shadow of his hands hath
he hid me, and made me a polished shaft. In his quiver hath he
hid me, and said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Christ, O Israel,
in whom I will be glorified. I have glorified thee, Father.
That's what he said to me. Then I said, Christ said to his
father, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for
naught. And in vain, that's what he seemed
to have done in all of his preaching to those Pharisees, didn't seem
to accomplish very much, did he? Yet surely my judgment is
with the Lord, and my work with my God. And now saith the Lord
that farmed me from the womb to be his servant," look at this,
"...to bring Jacob again to him, though natural Israel be not
gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of my Father, and
my God shall be my supreme." This is what the Father said
to His Son. It is a light thing, my son, that you should be my
servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserve
of Israel. I will give you for a light to
the Gentiles that thou mayest be my salvation unto the ends
of the earth. Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer
of Israel, and His Holy One, to whom man despiseth, to him
whom the nations abhoreth, to his servant of rulers kings shall
see and arise." The princess also shall worship the cause
of the Lord that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and
he shall choose thee. Thus saith the Lord in an acceptable
time, have I heard thee? In the day of salvation have
I helped thee? I will preserve thee, my son.
I will give thee for a covenant of the people to establish the
earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritage, that thou
mayest say to the prisoners," look at this, Go forth. Who's going to say that? Christ
is going to say that. The Father said, Son, I promise you this.
I'm going to give you a whole bunch of prisoners. And here's
what you're going to say to them. Go forth. Come out of the prison. Come to me. And you're going
to say to the devil, let them go. You're going to drag him
from the heart and you're going to set upon that heart yourself.
Say to the prisoners, go forth. To them that are in darkness,
show yourself. Come out of your darkness, come
into my light, walk in my light. They shall feed in the ways,
and their pasture shall be in all places, I place it. They
shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor sun
smite them. For he that hath mercy on them
shall lead them, even by the springs of living water shall
he guide them. And I will make all my mountains
away, and my highways shall be exalted. Behold, these shall
come, they shall come. They're going to come from afar.
And, lo, these from the north, and these from the west, and
these from the east, over the land of Shinem. They're coming
to Christ. Ain't that encouragement, brothers
and sisters? Here we are looking for His bride. We're looking
for a wife of the Lord Jesus Christ, the dear and blessed
Son of God. And here we have this promise. They shall come. They're coming from the east,
they're coming from the west, and north and the south. The
Father has promised He's going to populate heaven with the bride
of Jesus Christ. And if He's promised, just as
sure as He promised it to Isaac, He promised it to His Son. And
I don't think He'd get Isaac a bride and let His Son go without
one, do you? Let's back up with the last thing,
over in our text again. Genesis chapter 24. This is the last thing he told
his servants. The last part of verse 7. And
to thy seed will I give this lamb. That was the promise. And
he shall send his angel before thee. He shall send his unseen
messenger before thee. Now, I wonder who that could
be. We'd have to look upon it as the Holy Spirit, wouldn't
we? He's unseen. It's Christ the Spirit working,
going before. Why does He have to go before?
He's going to prepare her heart. He's going to lead him in the
right way. He's going to have everything set up that when this
servant comes there, everything eventually is just going to fall
in place. Haven't you seen it that way?
Oh, we've all experienced that, haven't we? The Lord went before
us. And he prepared the heart for the testimony. This unseen
messenger, he's going before you. And he's a sovereign messenger. He's unseen. You'll never see
him. But he'll be working in her heart. He'll be working in
her mind. And when he goes before you and does his mighty work,
you shall bring a wife for Isaac. You shall. I love these shouts,
don't you? Just all through the Scriptures,
don't you? You shout. You shout. And then he goes on
here, let's finish this right quickly. Before we quit, let's
go on just a few more verses. And if the woman will not be
willing to follow thee. Well, that's an impossibility.
But he said that. He said that. If you're not willing.
Well, you go out and preach the gospel. There's a lot of souls
out there. And if you're going to argue about it, we'll say,
well, if they're not willing, then just leave them alone. But they'll
be willing. They'll be willing. For the sake
of argument, if you won't shut up, if she ain't willing, then
you're free. You've delivered your soul. If
they're not willing, you're clear from yoke. Only bring not my
Son to them. That's the third time he said
that. Don't you take my Son to them. I tell you, the Lord's
not going to compromise in preaching His gospel. Do you know that?
I mean, it's the gospel that brings men to Christ. And you
ain't going to bring Christ down here. or any other gimmicks. Just forget about it. You are
going to have to take the truth, the whole truth and nothing but
the truth, and people are going to have to believe it and willingly
come to Christ. And they will come if they are
His people. And the servant put his hand,
boy the servant, that must have satisfied Him because here in
verse 9, the servant put his hand under his thigh of Abraham
his master and swore to Him concerning this matter. And then the servant,
now look at this, just a few more verses and we will quit. And the servant took ten camels
of the camels of his master, and departed, for all the goods
of his master were in his hand. And he arose and went unto Mesopotamia,
and to the city of Nahar." He loaded these ten camels down
with these precious jewels that Abraham had given to his son
Isaac. Now, there is a thought, and you have often thought since
we first looked at this, that they wanted to eat camels. Leviticus
chapter 11 tells us that they were unclean animals. They chewed
the cud, but they didn't part the hooves. They had the way
their hooves are made. So they were unclean. Isn't this
a good description of the preachers? I mean, just a long-faced, ugly
animal. That's all he is. And you know
here's why this is so important that the preacher is not appealing? Here's what's so important that
he's just really a voice crying in the wilderness. He's just
an earthen vessel. What if they'd have loaded ten
white, beautiful stallions? And put the martingales on them,
the fancy bridles and the saddles, and here they went riding in
over there with those five beautiful white stallions loaded down.
Where would this woman have looked? Man, what beautiful horses. I've
never seen such a horse. But you've got these old ugly
camels. And then the emphasis comes on this. What are they
packing? Goods. Look at the goods. What's
in there? These old ugly camels. Love our
preachers. Pray for our preachers. But don't
esteem them more highly than you should. Don't put your confidence
in them. Don't believe everything they
tell you just because they're preachers. They're just camels. They're just old earthen vessels. That's all they are. It's the
treasure that's inside. That's what's real. That's what
you get out of it. We have this treasure, an earthen
vessel. And then in verse 12, look at
this. Verse 11. 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 women go out to draw water. And verse 12,
here is what he said. Here is where you and I are at
today, brothers and sisters. I trust you believe everything
I have told you. I proved it up here in these verses. You
say, Bruce, I believe all of that. I believe the Lord is going
to get his people. Here is where we are right now.
You and I find ourselves in the same place this servant found
himself. He believed all of this. He knew God was going to work
it out. But what does he do? He prays. Look at him in verse
12. And he said, O Lord God of my
master Abraham, I pray thee Send me good speed this day and show
kindness unto my master Abraham." Somebody said, if I believed
what you guys believed about election and effectual calling,
I just wouldn't pray. I just wouldn't preach. I wouldn't
do nothing. God's going to bring them anyway.
That ain't the way we think, is it? We preach, and not only
do we preach, we pray. Oh, Father, give us good speed
today. Take these weak vessels, take
the weak things that we say in and of themselves, and bring
them forth with power and increase the glory of your dear Son, the
Lord Jesus. And I tell you, he didn't stop
there. Look on in verse 13. Behold, I stand near by the well
of water, and the daughters of the city come out as they come
out to drink water. Let it come to pass that the
damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee,
that I may drink, and she shall say, Drinking, I will give thy
camel drink also. Let the same be she that thou
hast appointed for thy servant Isaac, and thereby shall I know
that thou hast shown kindness unto my master.

A wife for Isaac

What does the Bible say about how Isaac got a wife?

How do we know God's promises are true?

Why is preaching the gospel important for Christians?

What does it mean for someone to respond willingly to the gospel?

Why didn't Abraham want Isaac to return to his homeland?

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A wife for Isaac

What does the Bible say about how Isaac got a wife?

How do we know God's promises are true?

Why is preaching the gospel important for Christians?

What does it mean for someone to respond willingly to the gospel?

Why didn't Abraham want Isaac to return to his homeland?

Sermon Transcript

About Bruce Crabtree

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