Open your Bibles for a few moments
back to Ephesians chapter 1. This is not my text tonight,
but I want to refer to this scripture in Ephesians 1 for just a few
moments. Now here in verse 3, the Apostle
Paul said, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ underscore, at least mentally, the word Father. For here in
these verses 3, 4, 5, and 6, the Apostle records the work
of the Father in the redemption of our souls. He says in verse
3 or verse 4 that he Or verse 3, that He blessed us. He's the
one who blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ. The giver
of every good and perfect gift is the Father. And verse 4, Paul
said He chose us. The Father chose us in Christ
before the foundation of the world. Not because we were holy,
but that we should be holy. And then in verse 5, he said,
the Father predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ. All whom He saves, He's going
to make like Christ. And then in verse 5, the last
line, the Father did this according to the good pleasure of His will.
He willed it. And then in verse 6, it says
that He did all this to the praise of the glory of His grace, for
His glory. That's why He did this, that
He might be glorified. And it says, He made us accepted. He made us accepted. We didn't
accept Him, He accepted us. Where? In the Beloved, in Christ. Now underscore that word, the
Beloved. At least mentally, you don't have to do it in your Bibles.
For in the next few verses, it talks about the work of the Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ, in the redemption of His people. The
Father will, this is the everlasting covenant of mercy. The Father,
from eternity past, will the redemption of a people. And those
people are all going to be like Christ. They're going to love
the things He loves and enjoy the things He enjoys and delight
in the things in which He delights and be like Him for all eternity. That's the kingdom of His dear
Son. They're all going to have the same wedding garment. They're
all going to be there to glorify His name. That's the everlasting
covenant. And the Father willed it and
predetermined it. He declares the end from the
beginning. From ancient times of things
that are not yet done. He calls those things true that
aren't even yet done. And He chose us and He blessed
us. All right, now it says here in
the next few verses, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Beloved, the
Beloved Son, this is my Beloved Son, the Son of His love. Verse 7 says, in Him we have
redemption. He redeemed us. He redeemed us. He put away all our sins, He
counseled the dead, He paid it in full, all of His people, His
elect. He didn't die for every son of
Adam, He died for the sons of God. He died for His elect, His
sheep, His church, His people. And we have redemption. We have
it now. It's not something we're going
to have later on. We have it right now. Christ already paid
for it. In fact, I've had redemption from before the foundation of
the world because He was the Lamb slain in the mind and heart
of God before He ever came to the cross. We have redemption
through His blood. Through His blood, not through
His blood plus our faith, His blood plus our church membership,
His blood plus our profession, through His blood. In His obedience,
we have a perfect righteousness. In His blood, we have a perfect
justification. We have the total forgiveness
of all sins, past, present, and future, and that's according
to the riches of His grace. Now, verse 8 says, wherein He
hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, verse 9,
He not only redeemed us, but verse 9 says, He enlightened
us. He made known unto us, Christ
made known unto us the mystery of His will. No man knows the
Father but the Son, He to whom the Son reveals Him. The Son
reveals the Father. The Son reveals the Gospel. The
Son reveals the mysteries of God. In Christ we have wisdom,
you see. He enlightened us. He illuminated
us. He shined in our hearts to give
us the knowledge of the glory of God. Where? In his face. They
said, show us the Father. He said, you're looking at him.
He that has seen me has seen the Father. No man knows the
Father unless he knows the Son. You hear people say, well, I
believe in God. Don't believe in Jesus. That's ignorance. No man has seen God. God dwells
in a light to which no man can approach. The only people who
know God, who worship God, who love God, are those who've met
Christ, and know and love and worship Christ, and bow to Him,
and dwell in Him. That's right. Christ. He's illumined. He not only redeemed us, but
He enlightened us. He's our priest, and He's our
prophet. He's our prophet. All right,
that in the dispensation of the fullness of time, He might gather
together in one, all things in Christ, both which are in heaven,
which are on earth, even in him." Now watch verse 11, "...in whom
also we have obtained an inheritance." He, Christ, redeemed us, bought
us, purchased us, paid the price, saved us, cleansed us, sanctified
us, enlightened us. opened our minds and hearts and
ears and eyes to see the glory of God in Him, the justice of
God, the righteousness of God, the holiness of God, how God
can be just and justify folks like us. I understand that in
Christ. When I see Christ, I see the
fulfillment of all of God's purposes. But not only did He redeem us
and enlighten us, He enriched us and inherited us. Look at
verse 11, "...in whom we have obtained an inheritance, sons
of God, joint heirs with Christ, an inheritance eternal, undefiled,
incorruptible, fated not away, reserved in heaven for you who
are kept by the power of God." He enlightened us. He enriched
us. Everything I need, I have in
Him. I have more than Adam had in the garden. I have more, because what I have
I can't lose. I'm enriched. I'm a joint heir
with Christ of all that God is and has. That's right. Being
predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh everything
and all things after the counsel of his own will. Now watch this,
that we should be to the praise of his glory. What the Father
did, He did for His glory. What the Son did, He did for
His glory. He saved them for His namesake,
that He might get all the glory and all the praise. And verse
13, now here you have the Holy Spirit. Down here in verse 13,
you underscore this word, that Holy Spirit. That Holy Spirit. Now, in whom, that is, in Christ,
you have redemption, enlightenment, your enriched inheritance, and
in Christ you trusted. You trusted him. You believed
on him. You laid hold of Christ. You rested in him. You ceased
from your labors and entered into his rest. When? After you
heard the gospel. After you heard the word of truth,
not just any word, the word of truth, the truth about God, the
truth about you, the truth about salvation, the truth about Christ,
you heard the truth, the word of truth. You've got to hear
the truth, the truth that makes men free. Who's the truth? Christ is the truth. He said,
I'm the truth. What is truth? I'm the truth. I'm the way, I'm
the truth. In whom you trusted after you
heard the word of truth, the gospel. That's the gospel of
God, the gospel of His grace, the gospel of His glory, the
gospel of your salvation. In whom also you believed after
you believed, you were sealed. Who did all this? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit regenerated these
old dead sinners. The Holy Spirit gave life. The Holy Spirit revealed Christ
to us. The Holy Spirit brought faith. The Holy Spirit shed abroad the
love of God in our hearts. That Holy Spirit of promise.
He did it. He did it. The Holy Spirit of
God came. Like Mary said to the angel,
I can't bear a son. I don't know a man. He said,
the Holy Ghost will come on you. And the power of the house shall
overshadow you. And that seed planted in you
is a son of God. And an old dead sinner, dead
in trespasses and sin, has no ears and no eyes and no life
and no understanding. And the Holy Spirit comes of
his own will, begat he us with the word of truth. and came with
the gospel, the word of truth, the seed of the word of God,
and gave life, and that holy thing begotten in us is Christ. Christ is our life. It's Christ. It's Christ. The Spirit of God
brought the word, and we heard it, and we were enlightened,
and we were sealed. And that Holy Spirit, verse 14,
is the earnest, He's the token, He's the pledge of our inheritance. He dwells in us and with us. He's our teacher and comforter
and paraclete until the redemption of that purchased possession,
until we enter into our inheritance, until God calls us home. raises
these old vile bodies, and we'll be satisfied when we're awake
with His likeness. And until that day, that Spirit
of promise, that Spirit of God who seals us, dwells in us, and
encourages us, we have the witness of His Spirit in us, we can rest. And why do you do that? Under
the praise of His glory. Now, I want you to turn to the
book of Genesis, chapter 21. I preached on this. I want you
to see something here, Genesis 21. I preached on this a week
or so ago. The message I brought you from
Genesis 21 about that blessed covenant that God revealed to
Abraham, which he said, Abraham, look at the stars. Look at the
star. Can you number them? He said,
no, I can't number them. So shall your seed be. Look at
the sands of the sea shore. So shall your seed be. It's going
to be us. People of God from every tribe,
nation, kindred, and tongue unto heaven. That's my promise. That's
my covenant with you. That's the covenant of promise
of all eternity. That's the covenant of grace.
And he demonstrated it to to Abraham by the casting out of
Hagar and the bondwoman and her son. And he said, the son of
the bondwoman cannot live with the son of promise. Christ is
the son of promise and Christ sees us. We're the sons of promise,
the miracle child, the work of God alone, not having anything
to do with this flesh. And our works and our human righteousness
cannot have a part with the Son of promise, with Isaac. That's very clear. Now, one thing
I tried to make clear to you from Genesis 21 is, actually,
Israel was never under a covenant of works. Adam was. God said to Adam, you do this
and live. You don't do this and you die. That's covenant of works.
But Moses was never under covenant of works. The children of Israel
were never under covenant of works. The Old and New Testament
is two revelations of the same covenant. That's grace. The Old and New Testament is
two revelations of the same covenant. Moses, the Levitical covenant,
is the covenant of grace in picture. Enticed, you see that? In sacrifices
and ceremonies. Moses never trusted those sacrifices. He wrote of Christ. And the people
who had no understanding trusted Him. The people who had no understanding
tried to find their righteousness in doing these things. But not
those enlightened people. They looked to Christ. They believed
Christ. And so when God told Him to cast out Hagar and cast
out the son of the bondwoman, He sang, The promised Son comes
when Christ comes. There's no more Sabbath day,
there's no more tithe, there's no more ceremonies, no more Passover,
there's no more feast days, there's no more of these things. Circumcision. Cast them out. But long as they
stood, they were pictures of Christ. They were types of Christ. And people who saw them for what
they were saw Christ. That's right. It wasn't a covenant
of works. It was a covenant of types and
pictures and examples of grace in Christ. And that's what that
Genesis 21 was about, is the work of the Father. In His mercy
and grace, in the covenant of grace in Christ, He blessed us
with all spiritual blessing, not in our works, in Christ. Christ alone. Now, then we looked
at Genesis 22. Genesis 22, and the message I
brought you there, when Abraham took Isaac up on the mountain,
we see the Son. In Genesis 21, the covenant of
grace, the work of God, cast out the bondwoman, cast out her
son, look to the child of promise, the gift of God, God alone, grace
alone, Christ alone. Now in Genesis 22, you have substitution. You have the picture of the work
of the Son. It says in verse 13, listen, Genesis 22, 13, "...And
Abraham lifted up his eyes, and behold, and looked, and behold,
behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went
and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering,
watching in the stead of his son." Substitution. That's Christ. See, that's what
Ephesians 1, Ephesians 1 says, the Father. chose us. The Father
predestinated us. The Father accepted us. The Father
did all of it. Grace, covenant of grace and
mercy. Christ came and redeemed us. Christ came and took our
place. Died in our state. That's what
the picture of Isaac and the ram. Now chapter 24. Here's the
picture of the minister of the Holy Spirit. Guess what Paul
wrote about, and Frank and I read about it in Ephesians 1. And
here is clearly a picture of the ministry of the Spirit of
God using His servants and His church to call out His elect. The Father chose them, the Son
redeemed them, and the Holy Spirit calls them through the gospel.
Now watch this. I won't keep you too long, but
I want you to see this in Genesis 24. And Abraham was old and well
stricken of age, in age. And the Lord had blessed Abraham
in all things. Abraham was mighty wealthy and
powerful. And Abraham said to his eldest
servant of his house that ruled over all that he had, Now put,
I pray thee, your hand under my thigh. That was a form of
swearing and commitment, contract. 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 the Canaanites
among whom I dwell, but thou shalt go to my country, that
country out of which God called him. Back to the country of Nahor,
Abraham's brother, father. Go to my country and to my kindred
and take a wife for my son Isaac. Now here's the first thing. Listen.
There's going to be a wedding. Going to be a wedding. Abraham has given everything
to Isaac. Put everything he's in. Isaac's
the heir. The Heavenly Father has given
everything to Christ. He's put all things in His Son.
Christ is the heir. Isaac's going to have a bride.
There's a bride out yonder that belongs to Isaac. He's going
to have a bride. Our Lord's going to have a bride.
There's going to be a marriage supper with the Lamb. He's going
to have a bride. She's already chosen. She's out there. She's
out there. She's already been chosen. And
there's going to be a wedding. And Isis is going to have a bride,
and the Lord Jesus Christ is going to have a people. So the
Lord, Abraham, called his servant. He said, I want you to go to
the land of my fathers and get a bride for myself. And God the
Father, through the Holy Spirit, calls out his servants, his faithful
servants, and sends them out to get the bride. That's right. All right. Now notice the next
thing. He recognizes the difficulty of that task. He said to Abraham,
suppose a woman will not be willing to follow me to this land. This
is a big task. I'm to find a woman to marry
your son Isaac? I'm to persuade her, here I am
an old man, I'm to persuade her to follow me? I'm to persuade
her to come to marry a man she's never seen? To come to a land
to which she's never been? Suppose she's not willing. Suppose
she's not willing. Peradventure, she's not willing
to follow me unto this land, to leave home and her parents
and her kinfolks and come here to marry a man she... Shall we
try something else? Must I, then, bring your son
again unto the land from which you came? Suppose now, instead
of going after her, I just take him down there. Let him find
his own bride. Abraham said nope Verse 6 beware
now that I'll bring not my son dither again Now watch here Watch
here the Lord God who called Abraham said Lord God who called
me out. He's gonna go before you and
He'll take you to the bride. He'll take you right to her now
listen The Lord God of heaven, which took me from my father's
house, and from the land of my kindred, which spake unto me,
and sware unto me, saying, Under your seed I'll give this land,
he'll send his angel before you, and thou shalt take a wife unto
my son from thence." The Lord God, he'll go before you. The
Holy Spirit will go before you. That's when we go out and preach
the gospel. We're not looking for goats to turn into sheep.
We're looking for sheep. We're looking for sheep. God's
children are out there. Those that the Father gave to
the Son are there. They're here. They're there.
They're where they are. They're where they are. And we go and
preach the gospel to every creature. And you know who hears that gospel?
His sheep. You know who believes it? His
sheep. You know who are willing to follow us? His sheep. The
Holy Spirit goes before us. Calls them out. In verse 8, Abraham
says to the servant, now it's a woman, be not willing. You
be clear. You be clear. You warn. It's
just what God said to Ezekiel. He said, you go warn them. And
they don't heed your warning. You're clear. Your hands are
free from their blood. Paul said, I'm free from the
blood of all men. I've not ceased to warn you. House to house and
preach the gospel. So it's not your responsibility
if they won't heal you. Hey, you're free. All right,
and the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham, his
master, and swore to him concerning that matter. And the servant
took ten camels of the camels of his master, and he departed.
For all the goods of his master were in his hands. Yes, sir,
the Lord, I tell you, he's put this treasure in earthen vessels.
We've got the gospel. We've got the truth. We've got
the glorious good news of Christ. We've got in our hands and in
our hearts and from our mouths the power of God unto salvation. That's right. Christ's glory
and riches is in this gospel that we're putting out. That's
right. This gospel. This gospel. We take the treasures and the
riches of God And we preach it. When you hear this gospel, you're
enriched. Enriched. You belong to him.
You're heir of God when you hear this gospel. See, this servant
had everything that my stone was in his hand. That's right. And he arose and went to Mesopotamia
and to the city of Nahor, 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." Now he's going
to pray. Here's an old serpent, servant of Abraham, been with
him for years, loved him. He loved Isaac. This serpent
loved Isaac. He's going to this strange place
to get the bride, the designated bride, the bride that Almighty
God had chosen for his beloved Isaac. And he's got to find that
bride. And he knows the impossibility
of such a task. And he prays. Listen to him.
He prays. He said, O Lord God, of my master
Abraham, I pray thee, be with me. Send me good speed this day. Show kindness to my master. Show
kindness to my master Abraham. Behold, I stand here by this
well of water, and the daughters of the men of the city going
to come out to draw water? How am I going to know which
one is the bride? How am I going to know? Tell
you what to do, Lord. Let it come to pass that the
damsel to whom I shall say, let down your pitcher, I pray thee
that I may drink, and she shall say, drink, and I'll give your
camels drink also. Let the same be she that thou
hast appointed for thy servant Isaac." Who appointed? He's talking to God now, isn't
he? He said, show me a sign, show me some interest on the
part of this woman. When this woman whom I don't
know and she doesn't know me, and I'm telling her about Isaac
and his glory and his riches and his greatness, let her respond
to me. Let her respond. Put some words
in her mouth that I'll recognize as being from you, that I'll
know if she's the bride. Would you do that for me? And
thereby shall I know that you showed kindness to my master.
All right. And it came to pass. I love this. I like it. It came to pass. It
came to pass. It will, too, by His grace. It
may take a while, but it'll come to pass. It really will. Before he had done speaking,
that, behold, Rebecca. Oh, boy. There's the beloved.
She didn't know it. Isaac didn't know it. The servant
didn't know it. Did anybody know it? God knew
it. I look out over this congregation.
I see people. You didn't know it. I didn't
know it. God knew it. You wandered in here somewhere
or other and heard the gospel. He brought you. He crossed your
path. If you want to hear it, He crossed
your path. He crossed your path. Just by accident, she came to
the well by the time He was there. And no accident is connected
with the saving of God's people. Man supposes and God disposes. That's right. Everything's on
purpose. Purpose. Oh, Rebecca came out,
who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, wife of Nahor, Abraham's
brother, with her water pitcher on her shoulder. She was very
fair to look upon, beautiful, a virgin, neither had any man
known her. And she went down to the well
and filled her pitcher. This girl didn't have any idea
what she was coming into. Think of the glory. Think of
out of her bowels came God's people through the ages. She
didn't have any idea. No idea. What a glorious future
God had purposed for her. She had no idea. She came to
draw water. And the servant ran to meet her,
and he said, Let me, I pray thee, drink a little water out of your
pitcher. And she said, Drink, my Lord. Drink, my Lord. I tell you this, God, there's
prevenient grace. There's grace before grace. Now,
don't you ever forget that. We don't hit people cold with
the gospel. There's grace before grace. There's
God preparing, God restraining, God keeping, God moving. Cornelius, Ethiopian eunuch. These people. God prepares the
heart. That's right. God creates an
interest. He sure does. This woman came
there and she responded. She said, drink my Lord. She
hastened. God's people are special people.
They're unusual people. Yes sir, God takes the starch
out of them and the rebellion out of them. And she responded
to that man. let down her pitcher upon her
hand, gave him a drink. When she done giving him a drink,
she said, I'll draw water for your camels also, until they
done drinking. And she hastened and emptied
her pitcher into the trough, and ran again into the well to
draw water, and drew for all the camels." Now, what's this
servant going to do? Come on, Rebecca, we're going down to
Isaac's place. You're it. No, he didn't. He's a wise old man. He's a wise
old man. He's been around a while. What
did he do? He wondered. He was amazed. We're
always amazed at the power of God, and the work of God, and
the mysteries of God, and the miracles of God. And he held
his peace. Don't rush him. Don't press him. Don't run ahead of God. Let God
tell her. Don't you tell her. Am I saved
now, brother man? How should I know? Aren't you going to make me a
deacon? I just got saved this morning. It's time for me to
start teaching, isn't it?" No, it's time for you to start listening.
You know, he held his peace. He felt like she was one of God's
elect, but he didn't know. He just kept quiet to wit whether
the Lord had really made his journey prosperous or not. Just
hold on there. And it came to pass as the camels
had done drinking that the man took a golden earring. a forehead. You know how those Indian ladies
and all, you still see them now, wearing the, this is what that
was, right here. A golden earring of a half a
shekel weight and two bracelets for her hands and ten shekel
weights of gold, and he said, whose daughter are you? Tell
me, I pray thee, is there any room in your father's house for
us to lodge in, me and my company? She said, I'm the daughter of
Bethuel, the son of Milcah, which he barren to Nahor. She said,
move over unto him, we have both straw and provender enough, and
room to lodge in. And the man bowed his head and
worshipped God. How wonderful when he's pleased
to make our efforts fruitful, prosperous. Thank God. Thank God. And he said, Blessed
be the Lord God of my father, my master Abraham, who hath not
left destitute my master of his mercy and his truth. I being
in the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master's brethren."
God led me. God did it. God did it. God did
it. God did it. The servant didn't do anything,
just a voice, just an instrument, just a tool of God, just a clay
pot. God did it. God did it. He knows
it. He knows it. And the damsel ran
and told them of her brother's house, these things. And Rebekah
had a brother, his name was Laban. And Laban ran out unto the man
unto the well, and came to pass when he saw the earring, the
bracelets on his sister's hands, and heard the words of Rebekah's
sister, saying, Thus spake the man unto me, that he came unto
the man, and behold, he stood by the camels at the well. And
he said, this is Laban, her brother, talking, Come in, thou blessed
of the Lord. Wherefore standest thou without?
I have prepared the house and the room for the camels." And
the man came into the house, ungirded his camels, gave straw
and provender for the camels, and water to wash his feet, and
the men's feet that were with him. And then they began to set
meat before him. But he said, this is a servant,
now here they're treating him so kindly, like a king. He's from Abraham. It's Abraham's
family. He's the Abraham's servant. Been
good to their sister, daughter, and they feast. A feast. Let's socialize and have a feast. And he said, no, hold it. Hold
it. I'm not here to feast. I'm here
on an errand. I'm here on a mission. I'm here
to find a bride for my master's son. First things first, I wish
we could learn how careful, listen to me a moment, how easily we
get sidetracked. How easy it is to become involved
in other things and neglect our true mission. That could have
happened here. This servant, here he is. He's on one thing
as uppermost in his mind, a bride for his master, a bride for his
master, a bride for his master, the happiness of his master,
the glory of his master. And these people want to turn
his interest. They want to feast and socialize
and have fun. And he said, no, sir. No, sir,
I'm not going to eat until I've told my Aaron. I'm going to tell my Aaron. I know
folks must eat, folks must provide for the body, but I know this
business of seeking first the Kingdom of God still holds true.
Seek ye first. I know that. I know that. I know there's things to be taken
care of, but these things will be there when you get back. There's
some more important things to take care of. I know that in
the ministry. I'm in the ministry. Primarily,
we're here to preach the gospel. Primarily, we're here to reach
out, John, to where the gospel and find His elect and exalt
the Lord Jesus and call men to Him. And it's too dangerous to
let these others socializing and all this other thing enter
in and take the interest away from the gospel, how dangerous
it is. And he wouldn't put up with it.
No sir. All right, they said, go on.
Let's hear what you've got to say. They said, speak on. And
he said in verse 34, I'm Abraham's servant. The Lord has blessed
my master greatly. He's become great. You just put
Christ's name right here in all these things. When this servant
is talking about his master, this is God's servant talking
about Christ. Talking about Christ. He's become
great. He's given him flocks. Herds,
and silver, and gold, and men's service, and maid's service,
and camels, and she-ices, and savor of my master's wife by
her son to my master when she was old unto him hath he given
all that he hath." Everything belongs to him, Isaac, the Christ. And my master made me swear,
saying, don't you take a wife to my son of these heathen, pagan,
Canaanites in whose land I dwell. You go to my father's house.
You go to my kindred. You take a wife for my son."
And I said, Master, perventually the woman will not follow me.
And he said, The Lord before whom I walk will send his angel
with you. He'll prosper your way. You can't
fail. Thanks be unto God who always
causes us to triumph in Christ, to one where the Savior of life
unto life, to others death unto death, but we are successful
and victorious. Always in Christ. You can't preach
the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit and the truth of
God without accomplishing God's purpose. My word will not return
to be void. It'll accomplish that whereinto
I sent it. It'll save or it'll damn. That's
right. Isn't that right? That's what
this old boy is saying. He's saying here that the Lord
will go before him. Go, send his angel with you,
he'll prosper you, verse 40, and thou shalt take a wife for
my son of my kindred, my father's house. Then shalt thou be clear
from this thine oath. How can a preacher compromise
the gospel when it's so clear? God must anoint the preacher
and make affection of the gospel and open the ear of the hearer.
We can't save anybody. When thou comest to my kindred,
and if they give not thee one, thou shalt be clear from your
oath." That's all right. Go your way. You've done what
I've called you to do. So, I came this day to the well,
and I said, O Lord God of my master Abraham, if now you prosper
my way, which I go, if, hold, I stand at this well of water,
and it come to pass that when the virgin cometh forth to draw
water, and I say to her, give me, I pray thee, a little water
that I pitcher to drink, and she say to me both, Drink thou,
and I also draw for your camels. Let that same be the woman which
the Lord has anointed for my master's son. And before I had
done speaking in my heart, behold, your Rebekah came forth with
her pitcher on her shoulder, and she went down to the well
and drew water. And I said to her, Let me drink, I pray thee.
And she made haste and let down her pitcher from her shoulder,
and she said, Drink. And I'll give your camels drink
also." So I drank, and she made the camels drink also. And I
asked her, and I said, whose daughter are you? And she said,
the daughter of Bethuel, Nahor's son, whom milk will bear unto
him. And I put the earring on her
face and the bracelet on her hand, and I bowed down my head,
and I worshiped the Lord, and I blessed the Lord God of Abraham,
my master Abraham, which had led me in the right way. to take
my master's brother's daughter to his son. And now, watch it
now, listen. Listen. And he says, and now,
if you'll deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me. My Lord's
not a beggar now. Tell me. If not, tell me. If you will, tell me. If not,
tell me that I may turn to the right hand and to the left. I'll
go somewhere else. I'll go somewhere else. I'll turn to the right or to
the left. If you'll hear me, if you'll deal kindly and graciously
and honorably with my master, not with me, it doesn't matter
how you treat me, it doesn't matter how you treat him. Now
you tell me, if you're not going to deal kindly with him, I'll
go to the right or to the left. He's not a beggar. Oh boy, I
tell you, he's not a beggar, he's a king. He's a king. You're not doing him any favors,
he's doing us a favor. That servant let that be known,
didn't he? He let that whole household know,
you're not doing my master a favor, he's doing you a favor. And you
tell me now, and I'll go one way or the other. He's not a
beggar. All right, now watch how they
respond. This is interesting. He received
a general agreement. And this is the way most folks
act in this day. It's the way they act. It's the
family doing the talking now, the brother and the daddy and
a whole bunch of them. And Laban and Bethuel answered
and said, this thing proceeded from the Lord. This is of God.
People always tell me, you're preaching the truth. Well, heck,
I knew it before you told me. I agree with what you say. That
don't make any difference to me whether you agree or not. I'm telling the truth. This is
God's Word. And this is all right, this is
what they're saying. They're saying, this thing proceeded
from the Lord. We can't speak good or bad. You
better. You better. They're on the fence,
aren't they? It's all right, what you're saying
is so. That's all right, it's so. We can't say good or bad.
Behold, Rebekah is before you. Take her and go and let her be
our master's son's wife as the Lord has spoken. It's all right.
We give our permission." Now, stay with me. The servant couldn't
read that. He couldn't read it. And we can't
too often. It came to pass that when Abraham's
servant heard their words, he worshiped the Lord. He bowed
himself to the earth. And he brought forth jewels of
silver and jewels of gold and raiment, gave them to Rebekah,
and gave also to her brother and to her mother precious things.
And they did eat and drink, he and the men that were with him,
and tarried all night, and went to bed and went to sleep, and
got up the next morning. And he said, all right, I'm ready
to go. Pack her things. Now's the day of salvation. Now's
the accepted time right now. I'm ready to go. And her brother
and her mother said, oh, hold it. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait just a minute here. They
said, let the damsel stay with us a few days. You know what
they're saying? A few months. A year. We want her to stay here. We're
willing. We're agreeing. You're talking
truth. You're telling the truth. You're
willing for it to be so, but not now. We've got plans. We've got things to do. We'll
let her go later in our time when we get ready. After all, we can't be too sure
about you. We want to look into you, your
background, and we're going to check on Isaac. We've got some
things to do." And he said, "'Hinder me not,
seeing the Lord hath prospered my way. Send me away, that I
may go to my master.'" Now, let me read you a verse over here
in Luke 9. This is what I thought of when I read that, when they
said, well, let's just wait. Wait a while. Got some things
to do first. Listen to this over here. And
the Lord Jesus said, follow me. And the man said, well, Lord,
suffer me first to go and bury my father. I'll follow you after
I've taken care of my business. And Jesus said, let the dead
bear their dead. You go right now and preach the
kingdom of God. And another said, well, Lord,
I'll follow you. Let me first go and bid them farewell which
are at home. He said, no man having put his
hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of heaven.
Come right now. Right now. That's what these
folks are doing, aren't they? Isn't that what it is? So they said here in verse 57,
they said, now here's where the matter's settled. Listen, they
said, we'll call Rebecca and we'll inquire at her mouth. And
they called Rebecca and they said to Rebecca, would you go
with this man? Now I'm going to paraphrase a little bit here.
Rebecca was convinced in her heart that this was a man of
God. Her brother and father all been
talking like she'd been listening. She hadn't said a word. Not a
word. You know, I always find when
God deals in grace with a man's heart, he shuts his mouth. That's
the first thing he does, he closes his mouth. When I hear people
who are doing a whole lot of talking, you know, they're not
doing a whole lot of listening. And she'd been listening. They'd
all been talking. She'd been listening. And she was convinced
that this man was of God. She heard him speak of the glory
of Isaac. She listened. She was listening
to him talk about Isaac. The beauty of Isaac. The glory
of Isaac. The riches of Isaac. The goodness
of Isaac. That man, don't you know he told
them about Isaac? How wonderful! What is your beloved more than
any other beloved? He told them. He's the greatest
young man in the world. He's the finest person on earth. He's this, he's that. He's altogether
lovely. He's this. She's sitting there
listening. Did that man talk about Isaac,
who wanted to marry her? She'd live forever with Isaac.
She'd be an heir with Isaac. Oh, she heard that. And she went
to bed that night after they got through with her, and she
lay there with her head behind her head, looking at, hadn't
said a word. Just meditating. She didn't sleep a wink. She's
thinking about Isaac. Her life here, how dull, and
no prospects of any future at all. And this man's talking about
the glory of Isaac, and life with Isaac, and all those things. Oh, my. And she didn't say anything when
her parents started talking about it later on. She was an obedient
daughter, a submissive daughter. But now, every eye is on her.
And she's looking into the face of this servant. And he looked
straight at her. And her parents looked at her.
And they said to her, will you go with this man? I bet she did everything in the
world to keep him laughing out loud. She said, I will go. I
will go right now. I believe Him. I believe Him. I will arise and go to Jesus
and He will embrace me in His arms and in the arms of my Savior. Oh, there are 10,000 charms. I'll go. The rest of you stay
right here. I'm going to ask Him. I'm going
to ask Him. And they sent her away, verse
59, and her nurse, the Abraham's servant and his men. And they
blessed Rebekah, and they said, Thou, thy sister, be thou the
mother of thousands of millions. Thy seed possess the gait of
those that hate them. That happened to, didn't it?
The mother of millions. Jacob and Esau. This goes right
on down, doesn't it? Jacob have a love. Rebekah. Let's read just a little bit
more. I'll let you go. This is so beautiful here. And Rebekah
rose, verse 61, her damsels, and they rode upon the camels
and followed the man. And the servants took Rebekah
and went his way. And Isaac came from the way of
the whale, Lahorah. for he dwelt in the south country,
and Isaac went out to meditate in the field at evening tide,
and he lifted up his eyes, and he saw, behold, the camels were
coming. And Rebekah lifted up her eyes,
and when she saw Isaac, she got off the camel. And she said to the servant,
What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And
the servant said, It's my master. And she took a veil and covered
herself. And the servant told Isaac all
the things that he had done. And Isaac brought her to his
mother's saver's tent and took Rebecca. She became his wife. And, oh, listen, he loved her. He loved her. And Isaac was comforted
after his mother's death. Our Lord has a glorious, everlasting,
sure, certain covenant of mercy and grace, he'll have a kingdom,
he'll have a bride for his son. The Holy Spirit, I mean, the
Lord Jesus Christ came down here and purchased those people, redeemed
them by his precious blood, paid the price, seated at the right
hand of God, interceding for them, and they're out here somewhere,
old and young and rich and poor and learned and unlearned, male
and female and born Scythian, black and white, every tribe, nation, kindred
under heaven. And God sends His servants to
find the bride. And the Holy Spirit goes before
them. And they go and they tell. What do they tell? They tell
about Isaac. They tell about Isaac. That's
that servant. He talked about Isaac. And I
tell you, when she saw him, she left that servant, too. She left
that servant and fell into the arms of Isaac. Now you go find
another one. That's right. She's found her
Lord. Isn't that beautiful? Successful
ministry. That's the key, though. Tell
them about Isaac. My master. How many times does
he say that in that one chapter? My master. My master. My master. My master.