Bible, once again, from the book of Genesis, the twenty-third chapter. Genesis chapter twenty-three, we'll just be reading a few verses out of this chapter, and then we'll be going for our primary chapter for this evening, the twenty-fourth chapter of Genesis. I could just say as we begin that It's been my privilege once again to be in your part of the country, to be with you, dear saints here. I've enjoyed it, and I've profited from it, and it's my prayer that you have all profited as well. I don't know if you notice or not, but I enjoy what I do. It's the Lord's work, and he's the one that's doing it, but I enjoy it. And so I enjoy being with the Lord's people, and I like nothing better but to spend my time teaching His Word. And if I'm not teaching it, then the next thing I like to do is study it. So consequently, I have to study it to teach it. It's good that I enjoy doing both. Genesis chapter twenty-three, verse one. and Sarah was a hundred and seven and twenty years old. These were the years of the wife of Sarah, and Sarah died in Karah Arba, the same as in Hebron, in the land of Canaan, and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. And Abraham stood up from before his dead and spoke unto the sons of Hathain. Now the rest of this chapter is built tells us mainly about the dictating for the peace of land that Abraham is seeking to purchase from the people of this area. And it finally ends up in verse nineteen. And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before men, the same as Hebron in the land of Canaan. And the field in the cave... that is in it were made sure unto Abraham for possession of a bearing place by the sons of Heth. Now Abraham will buy this for four hundred shekels. I know that you are used to hearing the word shekels, but in my new scope there they put a long note over the E making it shekel. That's why I say shekel when I see it, I read it that way. But anyway, it's four hundred pieces of silver. He is purchased this cave in a land in which God promised that would belong to him. But still Abraham sees himself as a stranger and a sojourner in this land. Now there's just a couple of things that we're going to take note of in this chapter. We'll do that even before we start our reading in chapter twenty-four. The first thing is we want to notice the order that is being given to us. Now you remember from last night that I mentioned that this beautiful picture, this very explicit type of our Lord Jesus Christ is unfolding for us in chapters twenty-two, twenty-three, and twenty-four. And it's going to continue to unfold before us this evening in these two chapters. In chapter twenty-two in last night's lesson, we looked at the offering up of Isaac as the type of our Lord being offered up. Now, you'll remember just some of the parallels that we've already noted. Both Isaac and our Lord were children of promise. Both Isaac and our Lord... were thee called an only son. Now we notice that technically Isaac was not an only son, but the Lord said, Take now thy only son, Isaac, whom thou love us. Both are called an only son. Both were named before their birth. Both are children of joy. When our Lord was born, the angels declared that there was joy upon the earth. in this Savior that had been born, Isaac, his name means laughter or joy. Also in last night's lesson, remember that Isaac bore the wood upon which he was to be sacrificed, just as our Lord will carry his own cross. Both are forsaken by their fathers. Our Lord will try out from the cross, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And both, as far as we can tell, probably were offered up in the very same location in the Mount of Mariah. This is the location where the city of Jerusalem will later on be built, and it was outside of the gates of Jerusalem where our Lord was crucified. And in both cases, both will arise from a place of death and will rejoin their father in a new and even richer relationship. Now the difference, of course, that we see, Isaac did not feel the knife. He was not actually killed, but he did rise up from this place of death to rejoin his father. And now we are going to carry on with this type. In chapter twenty-three now we find the death of Sarah, or the laying aside of the wife. Now Abraham is going to be the father of this one nation in particular. He is going to be the father of many nations. If we were to study follow through, we'd find that Ishmael becomes a great nation. Abraham will marry again and he will father many more sons and these sons will become the heads of many nations. So Abraham is the father of many nations, but particularly he is the father of the nation of Israel. So we can see the wife of Israel being laid aside. Now if we carry this forward through the Old Testament, you'll notice that I've made reference to the outline to Acts From the Apostle Paul, of course, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Acts thirteen forty-six, we read these words, and Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, It was necessary that the Word of God should first have been spoken to you, but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life. Lo, we turn to the Gentiles, before the Holy Spirit will move. these apostles, the disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, will move them out to claim a wife for the Son. We will see throughout from the book of the Gospels into the book of Acts we see how that God has laid aside the wife, which is Israel. This actually begins back in Matthew the twelfth chapter where our Lord calls them an adulterous nation. who is seeking after a sign. He said, you're a wicked and adulterous nation, seeking after a sign. Then in the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, our Lord gives the seven parables that speak of a time period covered between the first advent of our Lord when he set foot upon the earth, to the time in which he will set foot on the earth again in his second advent. That entire time period is included. Within that time period, we have what is known as the dispensation of the church, the time in which our Lord Jesus Christ is claiming a bride for himself. In the book of Acts, the gospel reaches out first to the Jew. This is the time of the church. Yes. In Acts chapter two, it will have its beginning, a birthday at the day of Pentecost. But through Acts now we're going to see how the Holy Spirit is going to direct. He said, go first to the lost sheep of Israel. They went first to them. But now as a nation, Israel has totally turned away from God. And so now they said, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. Many Jews, of course, made up the early church. Those saved at Pentecost were Jews, most of them probably by birth. Some are proselytes. But for the most part, they are Jews. But nationally, we see their rejection in the Gospels. And then the total program is now set in motion. The church and the book of Acts and the wife has been laid aside. The same wife that is being spoken of back in the book of Hosea. I have a quote given there from Hosea. We read in Hosea. You remember Hosea the prophet? was a man who was told to go take a wife of whoredoms. He did so. This wife bore him children. Then this wife would leave him and commit adultery against him. But then the Lord would speak to him and say, Go, yet love a woman. Go and love this same woman that has committed adultery against you. But take her back to you. And this is the theme of the book of Hosea. that God has set aside his wife. Jehovah has set aside his wife. And then at a later time, he is going to take her back to himself. In chapter five of Hosea in verse five, we read, And the pride of Israel thus testified to his faith. Therefore shall Israel and Ephraim, actually what's being spoken of is of Israel and Judah. What was the split between the two? Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity. Judah also shall fall with them. They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord, but they shall not find him. He hath withdrawn himself from them. Now, you might be wondering, why is this important to kind of establish this before entering into Genesis Chapter twenty-four. Well, remember we're dealing with a type. We're dealing with a picture now in chapter twenty-four of the Lord and His bride, the church. But first of all, we notice that in the Old Testament, Jehovah will speak of his adulterous wife is that which has been put away from him. He has cut her off. The word cut off can also be translated divorce. Jehovah has divorced his wife, laid aside his wife later on, then in the tribulation in the millennium, he's going to bring this wife back to him. This is the picture of the Old Testament relationship between Jehovah and his adulterous wife. In the New Testament, we have no such teaching. In the New Testament, we are given a permanent relationship between the Son of God and his bride. There is no divorce spoken of when we enter into this New Testament relationship. And when we look concerning Isaac and his bride, we are going to see this. Now before we go into twenty-four, we'll just take one more note concerning what we see in chapter twenty-three. We see that Sarah has left a good testimony in first Peter chapter three verses five and six. We might just read this as we're kind of following through we might picture standing at her grave side the cave in the field of Macapila in these verses first Peter chapter three verse five for after this manner in old time back in the Old Testament the holy women I'm talking about holy women overall also who trusted in God adorned themselves being in subjection unto their own husbands. Even as Sarah, now Sarah here is given to us as not only one of these holy women, but Sarah is being used as the example of all the holy women. She is a holy woman, obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose daughters ye are, those who are sisters in the faith, They can look to Sarah as the example of being a holy woman whose daughters ye are as long as ye do well and are not afraid with any terror. So the last will and testament of Sarah is that she was a holy woman who was in subjection to her husband. She has died and she has been laid aside. Now we also notice that Abraham is going to buy this cave. Now, if we read the whole chapter, we would find that Abraham is going to dicker a little bit with the men of this land. Now, the dickering here is not over the price, but the dickering is over the fact that the princes of this land want to give Abraham this burial place. They say to Abraham, you are a prince among us. They recognize him as being a mighty man, a man whose hand or who God had his hand upon him. And they recognized this and they said, Abraham, you can just have whatever flock that you want. But Abraham said, no, I will buy it. Abraham would owe no man anything, but he was going to pay for it. So finally they get down the line and finally the man says, very well, this cave is worth four hundred pieces of silver. Well, actually that was his high price. As you know, back in the old days, they would dicker over the price. And so they would set the high price and then they would finagle back and forth until they got down to a fair price. Abraham did not dicker. He simply took that high price and went ahead and paid it. He was not going to owe anything to the people in this land. This gives us an important lesson to remember that we are to owe no man anything. provide things on us in the sight of all men, as we see in first class, Romans, four, twelve, second Corinthians, eight, twenty-one, and then we are to owe no man anything, the reference to in Romans, thirteen, eight. Now many times I always get asked the question, whenever I open things up to question and answer period, that is what is known as theological suicide doing that. But invariably someone says, well, what about buying a house? Because you can't hardly buy a house unless you owe money on it. Well, actually, in buying a house, you don't owe money. Right now, I have a note, a lady in my Bible study, we were praying about a house, and she just happened to have one and came up to me and said, would you buy my house? Talking about an answer of prayer. I said, well, I can't because you... See, the creditors don't recognize my employer. And I said, well, I can't. And she said, well, don't worry about getting a loan from someone. All just the house was paid for. I'll just work up a note and you can just pay me directly. So this is what we do. But if something should happen where we couldn't pay, she could easily sell that house for much more than what it is worth. We really don't owe her anything. We really could pay her much more for the house than what the note is for. So we are not in danger here of not being able to pay this woman back. In the case, and it be the same case with you who own property. Now, however, a friend of mine, when he was in high school and college, liked to dress well. Now, I have nothing against dressing well, but he always liked to shop at Brandeis there in Omaha, so you probably know something of the price range, and he just had a charge account, and he just run up the charge account. Well, after you buy a pair of pants and wear them, you cannot sell those pair of pants then for what you paid for them or what you charged for them. You cannot get that money back. Now he got into a bit of a problem because he ran that charge account up to the extent where there was way too little money and way too much credit. And this is where we get into problems. And I know that in the certain amount of marital counseling that I have done, I have found this to be one of the primary reasons behind a marriage breakup, finances, money. And I also talked with the Marriage Counseling Center in Colorado Springs, used to be the children's home for children. And I was talking to them about this and they gave me three causes for a marriage to break up. One of them was money. Well, that's why whenever I enter into marriage counseling now, I say, you have any credit cards? And they say, yes. I say, lay them out on the table. They do it. I take a scissors and snip them all in half. And then I just turn to Romans. Chapter thirteen in verse eight and I say, oh, no man anything. Get out from under. If you don't have cash, you can't buy it. And if you need it, pray about it. Certainly the God who created heaven and earth by speaking a word can take care of our little measly needs without charging and snaggling and getting into trouble financially. So we see a good principle here given to us by our father in faith, Abraham. He would owe no man anything, but he would pay cash right across the board. He was even with all mankind. Later on in time when his people would go back down into Egypt, nobody back in Canaan could say, well, those Israelites, they left us high and dry. owing us money or owing us for this, that, and the other things. Unfortunately, there are many times in which the world looks at Christians and say, well, if that's Christianity, they try to finagle their way out of their debts. They go through courts and things like this to get away from paying what they owe. Beloved, let's be very careful that we are honest in our dealings with the world. We are to give a good, honest report to those who are around us. The world should never be able to point the finger at a Christian and say, you're dishonest. You're just a little shady. You're a bit of a schnuck. We need to be sure that we keep everything above board. Now let us read from Genesis chapter twenty-four. Keep in mind now, this takes place after the offering up of Isaac, after the wife has been laid aside. We now have this story. Abraham was old and well stricken and age, and the Lord had blessed Abraham at all things. And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, Now you remember back a while ago in one of our lessons, we saw that the eldest servant, the first servant in the household was Iliaser. But notice Iliaser's name is not mentioned in all of this big chapter of Genesis twenty-four. All we have is the eldest servant, the first servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had. Put I pray thee thy hand under my thigh, and I will make thee swear by the Lord the God of heaven, the God of earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell. But thou shalt go unto my country and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac. And the servant said unto him, Suppose the woman will not be willing to follow me unto this land. Must I need bring thy son again unto the land from where thou cameest? And Abraham said unto him, Beware that thou bring not my son there again. And the Lord God of heaven, who took me from my father's house and from the land of my kindred, who spoke unto me, and who swore 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 there. 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 there again. And the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham, his master, and swore to him concerning the matter. 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 rose and went to Mesopotamia under the city of Nahor. And he made his camels to kneel down outside the city of a well of water at the time of the evening, even the time when women go out to draw water. And he said, O Lord God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day, show me kindness unto my master Abraham. Behold, if I stand here by the well of water and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water, and 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, Drink, and I will give thy camel's drink also. Let her be the one whom thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac. Whereby shall I know that thou hast shown kindness unto my master. Now in verse twenty-seven, and he said, Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, what he has just prayed for, just came to pass with this damsel Rebecca. Rebecca is a beautiful damsel and a virgin. And she came and she filled exactly what he had prayed for. So he says, Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who has 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. Notice These words, I being in the way the Lord led me to the house of my master's brethren. Verse thirty-four. And he said, This is where he is talking to Rebecca, to her brother Laban, and to this household. And he said, I am Abraham's servant. And the Lord has blessed my master greatly, and he has become great. He hath given him flocks in herbs, and silver and gold and men's servants and maid servants and camels and asses. And Sarah, my master's wife, bore a son to my master when she was old, and unto him hath he given all that he had. Now let's go over to verse fifty-three. And the servant brought forth jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment, gave them to Rebecca. He gave also to her brother and her mother precious things. And they did eat and drink, and the men that were with him, and carried all night. And they rose up in the morning, and he said, Send me away unto my master. And her brother and her mother said, Let the dams abide with us a few days, at the least ten. After that she shall go. Now notice these words. And he said unto them, Hinder me not, seeing the Lord hath prospered my way. Send me away that I may go to my master. They said we will call the damsel and inquire at her mouth. Now notice these words. And they called Rebecca and said unto her, wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go. And they sent away Rebecca their sister and her nurse and Abraham's servant and his men. And they blessed Rebecca and said unto her, thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions. let thy seed possess the gate of those who hate thee, who hate them. And Rebecca arose in her damsels, and they rode upon the camels, and followed the man. And the servant took Rebecca, and went his way. And Isaac came from the way of the well of Le Hoya Roy, for he dwelt in the ye. And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the even tithe. And he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and behold, the camels were coming. And Rebecca lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she alighted from the camel. For she had said unto the servant, What man is this, that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master. Therefore she took a veil and covered herself. And the servant told Isaac all things that he had done. And Isaac brought her into his mother, Sarah's tent, and took Rebecca. And she became his wife, and he loved her. and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death. Have you ever noticed in the Old Testament how that many of the patriarchs and key figures had more than one wife? They would either have what we call a first class wife and then a concubine or a second class wife, or they would have several wives and several concubine. Abraham was married to Sarah. He then took a second class wife Hagar. We see then in the life of Jacob. Jacob was married to the two sisters. And then both of their mates became second class wives. And on down the line we see Moses was probably married somewhere in the neighborhood of three times. Moses, according to Josephus, was married while in Egypt. We don't know that from Scripture, but just from history, but we know then during, in Scripture, that he was married at least twice. King David, a very key figure in the Old Testament, had many wives and concubines. And then, of course, Solomon is very famous for all his wives and concubines. But you'll notice that there's one very key figure in the Old Testament that only had one wife. Guess who that was? Isaac. Why do you suppose that is? Do you think it was coincidental? Now remember, we're unfolding here a picture of Christ in the church. It is an Old Testament type that is going to come and bring real impact. The truth of this is going to carry forward to the New Testament with real truth and real teaching for our hearts. Isaac is the one that was offered up. The wife has been laid aside. And now we have Abraham sending his servant, a servant that shall go nameless in this chapter, sending his servant to find a wife for his son. We're going to carry this typology out just a little bit, step by step. If you'll follow along in the outline, you'll notice in part two, Bride for the Son, A and B, the type of Christ and his bride, number one. An oath is made in verses two to three. Long before Rebekah ever saw that camel train coming across the desert. Long before Rebekah knew anything about Abraham, Isaac, the servant, or anything what was going on. Already a covenant had been made between the Father and the Son and the servant. Now the Father, the Son, and the servant then is involved. A covenant is going to be made primarily between the Father and the servant to go and get a wife for my son. And verses two and three. This is why in Ephesians chapter one, verses three and four, we read the words, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Why? How come according as he has chosen us in him. before the foundation of the world, that we should walk before Him, or that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. When were we chosen? When did the covenant take place? Before the foundation of the world, before time began, before this universe came to pass, a covenant had been made in the Godhead. God would be saying to the Spirit, so to speak, you will go and search out a son, a bride rather, for my son. There is coming a time when out of all the peoples of the earth a bride will be claimed for my son. Before the foundation of the earth, before you and I ever knew what was going on, the Godhead had determined it. And so it is, even in our picture, the type is established. A covenant has been made. He said, I will make thee swear you must do it you must follow these instructions and so off the servant will go now we are going to take note of the servant as a type of the Holy Spirit now as we've already noted the servant's name is not mentioned this is very important as we're going to see as we go through this list notice first of all that the servant is sent by the Father We just flip over to the Gospel of John. We'll take note of a few key passages of Scripture concerning the service. In John chapter fourteen and verse twenty-six, we read, But the Comforter, who is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will sin, in my name, he will teach you all things and bring all things to remembrance whatever I have said. Unto you, just as the servant, first servant, eldest servant of the household of Abraham is sent to search out a bride, so also is the Holy Spirit come into this scene to search out a bride in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is going to be sent with a purpose. John chapter sixteen tells us then what the purpose is of the Holy Spirit. The purpose of the servant is To seek out a bride is going to extend even more than this, in the case of the Holy Spirit, verse seven. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth that it is expedient for you that I go away. For if I go not away, the comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he has come, he will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, of sin, because they believe not on me. of righteousness because I go to my Father and ye see me no more of judgment because the Prince of the world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Nevertheless, when he the Spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he shall not speak of himself. Notice those words. He shall not speak of himself. But whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. The Holy Spirit does not come in his own name, but he is going to speak the things concerning the Son. This is what the servant did. Remember how we read in our text? The servant came, and as soon as he found Rebekah, what was he going to say? He talked about the Father's Son. No mention of his own name. He didn't come up to Rebecca and say, listen here, Rebecca. I am a very important person. I am the first servant in the house of a very wealthy man. I am really a hot shot, big shot, whatever. Nope, didn't do that. He did not speak anything concerning himself. He only spoke concerning the Master's Son. And now we see that this is the function of the Holy Spirit in the world today. The Holy Spirit does not enter into the believer to bring attention upon the Holy Spirit or upon the believer either, but to simply magnify the Son of our Heavenly Father, to magnify Him. The Holy Spirit, our Lord, is there. He'll come into your heart and He'll teach you things concerning me, concerning our Lord. So what is the response of the true born again Christian today to those who would take the Holy Spirit and would emphasize solely what they call the working of the Holy Spirit? What is our response going to be? It's very simply, does it honor the Lord? Is what you're doing honoring to the Lord or does it honor the man? Is it honoring or uplifting the Holy Spirit? The function of the Holy Spirit is to honor the Son. There is no jealousy in the Godhead. The Holy Spirit is not upset because he must honor the Son. This is his function. It is three in one God. This is God honoring God. There is no problem there. They have no problem in the Godhead. But what do we see with those who want to magnify the Holy Spirit? It is completely out of line with the Holy Word of God. From the time we established the type here in the Old Testament clear up to the New Testament, it is out of line. Now God used certain signs and wonders to establish to an evil and adulterous nation that seeketh after a sign, the Jews, to establish to them that a new dispensation has been entered in, no longer law but grace. to establish that now the Holy Spirit was indwelling mankind. But we can see from a careful study of this Holy Book that when this book is completed and handed over to the church, so to speak, there will be no longer a need for these signs. Why? If you want to know that you have the Holy Spirit in you, You do not have to go in a closet and hide and wait for an emotional feeling to take over when you suddenly start speaking in a prayer language, otherwise known as babbling like an idiot. But all you have to do is open this book and read it. You know how I know the Holy Spirit's in here? This book says so. And according to the instructions of this Holy Book, I can see the Holy Spirit working, not in signs and wonders and miracles and babbling and carrying on, I can see the Holy Spirit working in a day-by-day victory over sin. And the Holy Spirit, while it works in you and I, is going to tell us every day more and more of Jesus, the Christ our Lord. The Holy Spirit is always going to speak well of Him. Our Lord, while he walked upon this earth, never had a healing meeting. His meetings were always word meetings. He preached the word. Then his healing put a confirmation upon it. Once again, an evil and adulterous nation seeketh after a sign. Beloved, the church is never called an evil and an adulterous nation. We are his bride. Therefore we are not to behave ourselves like an evil and adulterous nation and be seeking after signs. It is contrary to the words of our Lord. It is contrary to the function of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and our lives. The first servant of Abraham came bearing gifts, ten camels full, treaded across the desert waste, bearing gold and silver. and jewels and a change of raiment. In Ephesians chapter four, we read that the Holy Spirit also comes to us bearing gifts. We read there how that He will lead captivity captive. Ephesians chapter four, verse seven, but unto every one of us is given grace. As you know, that word comes from the Greek word keras. Also, it will come in the form of chrismata. which is where we get the modern day word chrismatic. I was talking to a man one time, he came up to me and he said, are you chrismatic? I said, yes, I am. He said, oh, that's terrific. Praise the Lord. I said, hold on there. I got a hunch you're on the wrong wavelength. I said, I'm chrismatic because God has given to me grace. That's what the word means. He says, you're the one that's mixed up. The word is grace. And God has bestowed upon me grace. Through every one of us is given grace. He said, I believe in the grace of God. He says, oh, that's not what I was talking about. And I said, I know what you're talking about is the work of our adversary to bind all the churches together and pave the way for the Antichrist. He really got upset then. I said, you want to know something else? I can prove it from this book. And I opened up my Bible and off he ran. He says, well, I won't be seeing you anymore. I said, well, I didn't think so. Hmm. Yes, we are prismatic in the technical and the true sense of the word we are. To every man and to every one of us is given charisma, prismatic, according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and he gave gifts unto man. And he has given to us gifts. For the purpose of edifying... one another. Me to edify you. You to edify me. And we ought to be looking to the Lord as to how we can perform in this function to edify one another. Yes, we're never given to edify myself. Why? Once again, the servant does not speak concerning himself. As a servant of Jesus Christ, I am to speak always of him. Not of me. I am not to be putting my feelings in how I feel. Do I feel good? Do I feel sad? I am a servant of the Lord. I must be concerned about how you feel. And then you will be more concerned about one another and how I feel. We are more concerned with the other than we are with ourselves. This is the functioning of the Holy Spirit in our lives. This is the reason why we are given gifts. We're given gifts to bestow them on one another. The Holy Spirit has come and decked us with gifts. The servant was sent with an urgent message. In Second Corinthians chapter six and verse two we read, Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. This is it. The Holy Spirit or the servant in Genesis chapter twenty four, the family said to him, why don't you wait? Give us a little more time with our daughter or with our sister, Laban and his sister, because they understood that probably they would never see their sister again, which is right. They wouldn't. So they said, give us another ten days. What does the servant say? Hinder me not. My message is urgent. It demands an immediate response. Therefore they will put it to the girl herself, to the bride. He was sent with a message to be received. In John one twelve we read, To as many as received him, to them gave he the authority or the power to be called the children of God, even to them that believe on his name. Here is the working of the Holy Spirit. Here is the working of the servant. It is an urgent message. And if the Holy Spirit is working in our lives today, we will see how that we are to be giving this urgent message. Christ died for the ungodly. Christ, when we were sinners, Christ died for us. And there is the good news. To go out and tell a lost and dying world, a world that is being derailed on every hand, a world that is being dissolved, go and tell them. I've got good news for you. Turn aside from your path of wickedness. Turn to the cross and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is an urgent message. And down the line, in number three, I have a point here, the Holy Spirit as it works through us, we have a responsibility to tell. In Ezekiel three-nineteen, the watchman of the city is told to tell the people. That if you see the enemy coming and you tell the people, then you'll be clean from the guilt of those people. But if you don't tell them, then the guilt is upon you. You and I have a responsibility to tell. You and I can't save a single soul. But we're to tell it. We're to go out and tell it. Not long ago, a brother was asking me, he says, why do you go door to door? Does he ever see any results? He said, well, not yet. Not that I know of. He said, well, why do you do it? Because the Lord said, go preach the gospel to every creature. He didn't say, save them, because I can't save them. I couldn't even say myself. But we give them the gospel. Go tell them. It is an urgent message. A message to be received. Finally, we see concerning the Holy Spirit that he took the bride back to the groom. We read that Rebecca went with the servant. The servant took her to the groom. Second Thessalonians, we read how the Holy Spirit is going to do this with the bride of our Lord. Second Thessalonians chapter two and verse seven. We read what would appear to be somewhat of a complicated text, but really isn't. For the mystery of iniquity does already work. There is an iniquity that is already at work. Only he who now hinders will continue to hinder until he be taken out of the way. Iniquity... Excuse me. My good supper is coming to remember. That he that is now hindering this wickedness right now. He that has got this wickedness in check right now is going to be taken out of the way. And when that happens, and then so that wicked one be revealed, then the Antichrist is going to come on the scene. The Holy Spirit in that day... is going to be taken away. And when the Holy Spirit leaves, the Holy Spirit's going to take you and I with him. Because we're the reason the Holy Spirit's here in the first place. The servant back in Genesis twenty-four didn't take off and leave Rebecca back there. He took Rebecca. That was his purpose. The Holy Spirit came to take a bribe. And very soon, the Holy Spirit's going to take that bribe. to be forever with the Lord. And then the great wrath of God is going to pour out upon the wickedness that shall flood over this earth like a great water that's been crashing through a broken dam. We have the responsibility to tell the lost their loss. We are to do so by a directed path that the Lord would lead our way just as the Servant back in Genesis twenty, just as he was under a directed path, he went in the way in which the Lord had instructed him. He was in the way and the Lord prospered him. The Lord will prosper us too. We will see real fruit in our lives as we are in a directed path of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now we want to notice some things concerning Rebecca. as a type of the church. Rebecca is a fair virgin. We see in the book of Ephesians how the Lord is going to present us or we are going to be presented as a chaste virgin, as this special, beautiful bride, bought with his own shed blood. One day we will stand in His presence. What a glorious thing that will be. But you will notice that Rebecca is going to say yes after hearing the testimony and under the influence of the servant. After Rebecca sees all this great wealth, under the influence of the servant speaking to her heart, she is going to answer, I will go. Now notice, first of all, we have a covenant is made, the servant is going to have an influence on her decision, and then she is going to make this This is why we read in first Peter chapter one and verse two concerning the Lord's bride. In first Peter chapter two or chapter one rather verse two we read elect or chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit. Sanctification remember means set apart. through the sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of blood of Jesus Christ, grace unto you and peace be multiplied. We all got saved under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Isn't that right? I did. I know the Holy Spirit came and convicted my heart. So under the conviction, under the convicting work and the influence of the Holy Spirit, that through the sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience, and sprinkling of blood. In view what was before her, she could see what the choice would be. So they put it to the woman. An example of this is Acts sixteen, fourteen. We read a heart of a heart whom the Lord had opened. It was Lydia, a cellar of purple, that they met outside of the city of Philippi. So as they entered in, they found a heart whose heart the Lord had prepared. She believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and was baptized. She then has given the decision, Will thou go with this man? I see this. It's probably one of the most profound verses in all Scripture. Will you go with this man? Rebecca could have said, Where are we going? All I see is a lot of empty camels now, all the stuff down. A lot of empty canals, desert sand, some mountains off in the distance. Where are we going? Will you go with this man? And she said, I will go. And so it happened in the lives of all of us who know Jesus Christ as Lord. There was a time in which the Holy Spirit spoke to our hearts and said, Will you go with this man? And then we saw that the glories of heaven far outshined anything here on this earth. Suddenly it was like a great light just broke through the darkness and we can see, well, I go with this man. He's a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. When he walked on this earth, he had no place to lay his head. Will you go with this man? But today, He has ascended up on high, making intercession on our behalf. We've never seen him. Rebecca never saw Isaac. She had to make this choice without ever seeing. Isaac never courted her. Isaac never actually spoke to her. Isaac never came and put his arms around her. Will you go with this man? Well, I've never seen Jesus actually. I see him here in his word, yes. I've never actually physically felt his arms around me, but there are times when it seems it that way. Will you go with this man? All those who are truly born again have come to this time when they said, Yes, I will go. For I can see and following in the footsteps of the man of sorrows, that there is a glory that lies ahead that far out shines anything on this earth. Yes, I'll go with this man. Notice that she received different raiment. The servant brought out jewels of silver, jewels of gold, and raiment. In Revelation nineteen eight we read of the linen clean and white, which is the righteousness of the saints. Our Lord has clothed us in his righteousness. And one day when we are His bride, He is going to close us in a linen clean and white, the righteousness of the saints, the perfection of God is going to be our clothing, a new raiment. And then notice she showed subjection to her Lord. Verse sixty-five. Now all through this chapter we've been establishing this picture of Christ in the church. Do we dare skip verse sixty-five in doing this? I say not. Let's look at it. For she said unto the servant, What man is this? That walketh in the field to meet us. And the servant has said, It is my master. Therefore she took a veil and did what? Covered herself. People sometimes say, Well, the women's head covering can't be very important. It's only spoken of in one text in the whole Bible. There it is. We established this picture all the way through, and what do we have? We have Rebecca showing subjection to our Lord. She took a veil, and she covered herself. And so it is in First Corinthians chapter eleven. This is not just idle words in First Corinthians chapter eleven. As our brother had pointed out Sunday, this is doctrine. This is a picture of Christ in the church. We want to establish this today in the local testimony. For we read, every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head. But every woman that prayeth or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for that is even all one as this she was shaven. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head for as much as he is the image and glory of God. The man represents what? The image and glory of God. So what are we to do? But the woman is the glory of man. When we all come together to worship, does it make sense that we uncover the glory of man? Of course not. Dear Mary came into the presence of the Lord Jesus and took the glory of man and put it down at his feet. She wiped his feet with her hair. That's where the glory of man belongs. Belongs down at his feet. We need to cover it. We uncover the man's head because the man's head... is the glory of God. For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. The woman is towards man and man towards God. We need to establish this picture. It begins in type back in the Old Testament. Someone say, oh yes, but that's just back in Bible times and it was a custom then. Why do you think it was a custom? Most of the customs of ancient times you can trace back to a scriptural principle, except for those, of course, that you trace back into the pagan religion, which is a counterfeit of the truth. But most of the customs you can trace back and find their origin somewhere in the Word of God. And I could cite several examples, but we're almost out of time this evening. She showed her subjection. She covered herself with a veil, and then she entered in to this relationship with her Lord, with Isaac. Isaac is a type of Christ. You'll notice in verse sixty-three, and Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the even tide. It has been suggested that the field could also speak to us of a field of blue. The even tide would be the last moment of this dispensation. Why is he there? He is there to be alone. He is there to see his bride is coming from a distance. One day very soon our Lord is going to step into a field of blue, into the heavens above us. And in that time, in the last moment, in the even tide of this dispensation, he is going to claim his bride. I don't know what all is going to take place before our Lord comes. I know that all prophecy needs to be fulfilled in Scripture for the rapture of the church has been fulfilled. I know that our Lord has given us this promise, not of his soon return, but of his imminent return. He's going to come at any moment. I don't know how much time that we're going to have left on this earth. If I had my preference, we would have been gone a long time ago, but I don't have anything to say about it. But I know it's going to be a beautiful moment. Even here in our picture, can you see Isaac out in the field and looking, and there comes a camel train. Can you kind of see how perhaps his heart might have jumped a beat and smiled, swept across his face and began to look? Here comes His bride. What a glorious moment it's going to be when you and I step in the presence of a Lord. When I got married, I'll never forget. Weddings and funerals to me are just kind of ceremonies ordinarily. I preach the wedding and I preach the funeral, and I can't say that I really like doing either one. But I'll never forget one particular moment in my wedding. When I was standing there up on the stage and a friend of mine was standing there and he was more nervous than I was, he was going to perform this wedding. He was shaking and kind of wondering what he's all shook up about. But I was standing there and my brother was there as the best man, a couple of friends of mine. We looked down the aisle and the other girls came down and I thought, well, that's very nice. But then my bride came down the aisle. You know, they could have shot off an atom bomb next door and I would have never known it. All I could see was my bride. Well, that was the most beautiful, the most joyous sight I had ever seen. There was my bride. How do you think it will be when the Son of God claims his bride? After all that's gone before, after the offering, after the laying aside of the wife, Jesus Christ our Lord is going to claim His bride. And beloved, it's going to be forever. We're going to enter into the most beautiful relationship that's ever been known in the whole universe. In the book of Revelation, it says there in chapter three to one of the churches, it says that all the earth, all those who worship Baal, all the wicked ones, says, all those will know that I have loved these. Our Lord will say, you're my love. You're that special one. The wife's been laid aside and later to be reclaimed, but here is the bride entering in to that permanent and eternal relationship. Oh, what a glorious thing that will be. And how important it is for us today to maintain the picture of Christ in the church in everything that we do. When we come together to meet in our family situations, in our marriage situations, we should all be heading in that same direction, establish this beautiful picture because it is exactly that. It's a beautiful picture. And it's an important one. It ought to grip our hearts. It ought to grip our hearts in such a way that we would just be saying, Lord, help me to do that. Help me to serve thee in this very beautiful and very important way. You'll notice that Isaac never again went to the place of death. The servant went past Moriah. Isaac never did. The servant went and got the bride and brought them back. They went right past that mountain of Moriah. Isaac never went there. Isaac was at home waiting for his bride. Let me just close this meeting in this series in Philippians chapter three with just one last word of encouragement. We remember that Rebecca would see all the things that were before her and she had to go. You'll notice Once again I quote C. H. McIntosh, if the report concerning the future were true, attachment to the present was the worst of folly. It is true that our glories are ahead. Attachment to this present evil age is pure folly. Verse ten, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable unto his death. if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after. If that I may apprehend, that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind. and reaching forth unto those things which are before, all the glories of heaven lie before. What then are we to do? I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. May we all be found day by day, moment by moment, pressing forward to that day in which we will be forever with the Lord. Let's close in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank thee this evening for this lovely picture that we have of our Lord Jesus Christ and of His Church, of His Bride. Father, make us realize our blessings in Him, cause us to understand, to grasp hold of this truth. We belong to Him. We are His Bride. It is the highest calling of all the universe. We are one with Him. Oh, Father, teach us to crucify the flesh, that we might yield to the Spirit, that we might give totally to Him, a total surrender of all that we are and all that we have. Father, may we lay it on the altar, keep us from crawling off that altar of sacrifice, but keep us looking to the one who loved us and gave himself for us. All Father, we're so thankful for our future. Make us patient. Cause us to patiently wait for the hope that lies before us. And cause us at the same time to anticipate any moment.