In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith explores the narrative of finding a bride for Isaac in Genesis 24. He highlights the role of Laban, Rebecca's brother, in providing hospitality to the servant who is seeking a bride for Isaac. The servant shares the glories and riches of his master's kingdom, symbolizing the Holy Spirit wooing believers to become the bride of Christ. Rebecca, despite having a comfortable life, chooses to embark on a challenging journey to meet the man she is to marry and become the heir of the kingdom. Pastor Chuck emphasizes that just as Rebecca faced trials on her journey, believers also face trials in their journey through life.

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh, let Him have the things that mold you And His Spirit, like a dove Will descend upon your life and make you whole Welcome to The Word for Today, the broadcast ministry of Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California. Pastor Chuck is currently leading us on a verse-by-verse study through the entire Bible. And on today's edition of The Word for Today, we'll be continuing looking at a beautiful love story that symbolizes the Holy Spirit wooing the bride as we pick up in Genesis, chapter 24. So let's follow along as Pastor Chuck continues sharing with us this narrative of finding a bride for Isaac. Now, Rebecca had a brother whose name was Laban. We'll find Laban in the story further when Jacob goes to escape from the anger of his brother Esau. He is the one that Jacob dealt with, the brother of Rebecca. And Laban ran out to the man by the well. Now, we do know of the story later on that Laban was of a greedy sort. And having this characteristic, the wages and the deception and all of Jacob later, it could be when he saw these huge gold bracelets, 10 shekels of gold, that's a lot of gold. And when he saw these huge gold bracelets and this golden nose ring, he thought, ooh, wow, this guy must be loaded, you know. And so he comes running out to meet him at the well. So it came to pass when he saw the nose ring and the bracelets on his sister's wrist, you see, and he heard the words of his sister Rebecca saying, thus the man spoke to me, that he went to the man and there he stood by the camels at the well. And he said, come in, oh blessed of the Lord. Why do you stand outside? I've prepared the house and a place for the camels. Then the man came to the house and he unloaded the camels and provided straw and feed for the camels and water to wash his feet. That is, Laban provided the straw and the feed and the water to wash the feet. And that was, of course, customary. After a long journey across the deserts, the most relaxing thing you can do is wash your feet and the feet of those that were with him, the men that were with him. And food was set before him to eat, but he said, I'm not going to eat until I've told you about my errand. And they said, speak on. And everyone is excited at this moment. This guy is here on an errand. And they realize that the name Abraham has also already been mentioned. And so they're willing to forego dinner for a while to hear his story. He said, the Lord has blessed my master greatly and he has become great. And he has given him flocks and herds and silver and gold and male and female servants and camels and donkeys. And Sarah, my master's wife, bore a son to my master when she was old. And to him he has given all that he has. Now again, in seeing the picture of Eliezer as the Holy Spirit wooing now the bride for the son, as he testifies of the glory of his master, of his master's kingdom, all that his master possesses, and he has a son. And he has given his son everything that he has. We begin to hear the witness of the Holy Spirit of the glories of God's kingdom. The beauty, the glory, the riches, the wealth of the kingdom of God. And God has a son whom he has appointed heir of all things. And the Spirit is here to woo you to Jesus Christ, to be the bride of Christ, that you might be joint heir with him of all of the wealth and the glories of the eternal kingdom of God. And so you see the picture beginning to come together. And it's getting exciting as he tells of the glory of his master and of the riches and the wonders of his master's kingdom and of the master's son, whom he has appointed heir of all things. And I would imagine that he began to describe the master's son in some beautiful terms. Rebecca is listening intently because she probably figures at this point that there's something interesting going on here. Now my master made me swear, saying, You will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites in whose land I dwell. But you shall go to my father's house and to my kindred and take a wife for my son. And I said to my master, Perhaps the woman will not follow me. But he said to me, The Lord before whom I walk will send his angel with you and prosper your way, and you shall take a wife for my son from my kindred and from my father's house. And you will be clear from this oath when you arrive among my kindred, for if they will not give her to you, then you will be released from my oath. And so he rehearses this experience with Abraham and his commission to get the bride. And this day I came to the well, and I said, O Lord God of my master Abraham, if you will now prosper the way in which I go, behold, I stand by the well of water, and it shall come to pass that when the virgin comes out to draw water, and I say to her, Please give me a little water from your pitcher to drink. And she says to me, Drink, and I will draw for your camels also. Let her be the woman whom the Lord has appointed for my master's son. But before I had finished speaking, in my heart there was Rebecca coming out with her pitcher on her shoulder. And she went down to the well and drew water, and I said to her, Please let me drink. And she made haste and let her pitcher down from her shoulder and said, Drink, and I will give your camels a drink also. So I drank, and she gave the camels a drink also. Then I asked her and said, Whose daughter are you? And she said, The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor's son, whom Melchah bore to him. So I put the nose ring on her nose and the bracelets on her wrist, and I bowed my head and I worshipped the Lord and blessed the Lord God of my master Abraham, who had led me in the way of truth to take the daughter of my master's brothers for his son. Now, if you will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me. And if not, tell me that I may turn to the right hand or to the left. Now, this is it. He's right down to business. Will you let her go and be his bride? Tell me now. Because if not, then I've got to go someplace else. Don't you know? Let me know. So Laban and Bethuel answered and said, The thing is of the Lord. We cannot speak bad or good. How can we say anything against that? Obviously, God is in it. Here is Rebecca before you. Take her and go and let her be your master's son's wife, as the Lord has spoken. And it came to pass when Abraham's servant heard their words that he worshipped the Lord, bowing himself to the earth. And so we find that Abraham's faith in God had certainly influenced his household. And here is his servant following the example of Abraham, worshipping God on these different occasions. And then the servant, upon getting now the promise of the bride, he goes out to the pacts and he starts bringing in all of these golden jewels and silver jewels and beautiful raiment for the bride. And he also gave precious things to her brother and to her mother. And even so, as we have been committed to Jesus Christ, to be the bride of Christ, responding to that wooing of the Holy Spirit, once we have responded and consented, we then begin to receive the marvelous gifts from the Holy Spirit. Those gifts of God and the gift of the Spirit Himself, which becomes the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. So, here's a portion of the wealth. Here's a sample of the wealth of my Master. He starts bringing in all of these glorious clothes and these glorious jewelry and says, hey, this is just a sample. What's waiting for you? The gifts of the Spirit, that work of the Spirit, which is just a foretaste of the glory that awaits us when we arrive in the heavenly kingdom. The seal with the Spirit of promise, the earnest of the inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. The down payment, so to speak. The foretaste of the glory of God's eternal kingdom. And so, as the Spirit testifies to us and to our hearts of Jesus Christ, with Peter we say, whom having not seen, yet we love. And though we haven't seen Him yet, we rejoice with a joy unspeakable and full of glory because of the witness and the testimony of God's Spirit, of the glories of God's eternal kingdom that are ours as the bride of Jesus Christ. The inheritance that is ours as His bride. And so, the gifts of the Spirit, just sort of a foretaste of that glory and power and that love that is ours eternally as the bride of Christ in the kingdom of God. And he then and the men who were with him ate and drank and stayed all night. Then they arose in the morning and he said, Send me away to my master. But her brother and her mother, and I'll see your dad isn't involved here, but the brother and the mother said, Oh, let the young woman stay with us for a few days, at least 10, and after that she may go. Delay her going. Now, they are a type of the world that is always seeking to cause you to delay your commitment to Jesus Christ. You know, of course, everybody wants to be saved someday. Boy, when I die, I want to die the death of the righteous. I don't want to die as a pagan, as a heathen, as a sinner. I want to die the death of the righteous. But, you know, later. I want to live a little first. Oh, what a misstatement. You're dead in your trespasses and sins, and what you're really saying is I want to stay dead a little longer. You don't really know what living is until you live in Christ. Paul said, For me to live is Christ. And when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, he that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. But wait, not yet. Delay. But the servant says, No, no. No delay. Do not hinder me. Since the Lord has prospered my way, send me away so that I may go to my Master. So they said, We will call the young woman and we will ask her personally. And then they called Rebecca and they said to her, Will you go with this man? The big question. And Rebecca said, I will go. The Spirit gives you the big question. Will you commit your life to Jesus Christ? Will you begin the journey towards Him? That journey that will one day lead us into His very presence and the glory of His kingdom. Will you consent? Will you go? And it always comes down to the personal application. They asked her personally, Will you go? And she responded, I will go. So they sent away Rebecca, their sister, with her nurse and Abraham's servant and his men. And they blessed Rebecca and they said to her, Our sister, may you become the mother of thousands, of ten thousands, or of billions, really. May your descendants possess the gates of those who hate them. So they sent her off with a blessing. May you just have a jillion kids, you know. Your descendants, may they just multiply on the face of the earth. Then Rebecca and her maids arose. Now she had a nurse and she had maids, so the family was probably pretty well to do. She could have stayed in comfort there. But she is now getting on a camel, one of the most awkward beasts to ride there is, to begin a journey of some 500 uncomfortable miles that she might meet the man that she is to marry and to become with him the heir of the kingdom. But it is a real trial to ride a camel. She's got 500 miles on this beast before she comes to the man who she is to marry. So we begin our journey through life. And we have trials. We have testings. But always in trials we are pointed ahead to the rewards that lie ahead of us. So the Lord points us ahead. And I'm sure that as they were riding along and Rebecca began to get weary. It's going to take almost a month to make the journey. As she begins to get weary, I'm sure that Eliezer just sort of got his camel up next to her and he began to talk of Isaac and of his gentle, beautiful nature. And began to talk of the wealth and the glory and the wonders of his master so that Rebecca was just sort of encouraged and strengthened along the way. And even as the Spirit watches over you so carefully and when he sees you getting a little discouraged, he comes and he begins to relate to you a little of the glories of the kingdom that await when we arrive. The encouragement along the way by the Spirit as she is making this journey. But you see, every test, every trial is bringing her closer to her desired destination. Even as God uses the trials and the testings in our life, but all of them are for the purpose of bringing us closer to that desired destination when one day we will no longer see through the dark glass, but we will then see face to face the Lord we love. And so in her heart was the anticipation of the meeting of this man. I haven't seen him, but oh my, what he tells me about him sounds wonderful. And already she was in love with him just by the descriptions of the servant. Even as we're already in love with Jesus just by the descriptions of the Holy Spirit, whom having not seen we love. And so you don't curse the trials. You count it all joy because these are the instruments that are drawing me closer to Jesus. Every testing, every trial forces me closer to Jesus. That's the purpose. That I'll not just become independent of him, but that I will be forced to him. And these trials force us close to Jesus. Now Isaac, verse 62, came from the way of Ber-le-Hiroy, for he had been dwelling down in the Negev, the south, which in Hebrew is Negev. And Isaac went out to meditate in the field in the evening. He was a man of deep spirit. He wasn't a very prominent person, but he was one of the meditative types. And in the evening went out in the field to meditate and he lifted his eyes and looked and there the camels were coming. Now to show you a little bit of the character of Isaac and how he differs so much from me. When Rebecca lifted up her eyes and she saw Isaac, she fell off her camel. For she had said to the servant, who is this man walking in the field to meet us? Now Isaac can count. He counts the 10 camels, so he figures it's Eliezer, but there's a lot more people than Eliezer left with. He left with only a few of the servants. And now he sees Rebecca, her maids, the nurse and all, and he no doubt realizes, hey, he was successful. Now I would have been so curious as to what she looked like. I wouldn't have walked through the field to meet her. I would have been jogging at least, but probably running at full tilt. And the servant said, it is my master. You know, I get impatient with Jesus. I wish he would run to meet us. He seems to just be walking. I want to meet my Lord. I want to get on with the kingdom. But he walks. Have patience, brethren, to the coming of the Lord. Establish your souls, for the husbandman is waiting for the complete fruit of harvest. And so it seems that the Lord is walking to meet us when I wish he were running. It's my master. So she took a veil and covered herself. And the servant told Isaac all of the things that he had done. He rehearses now for Isaac the story of meeting Rebecca, the leading of God. Then Isaac brought her into his mother's tent, and he took Rebecca, and she became his wife, and he loved her, even as Jesus loves you. And he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother's death. Interesting, his mother had died three years earlier, which would indicate that he had been mourning his mother's death for three years. He was probably very close to his mother. It was not until Rebecca came that he was comforted of his mother's death. We'll return with more of our verse-by-verse study through the book of Genesis in our next lesson as Pastor Chuck briefly looks at the dispersion of the sons of Abraham. And we do hope you'll make plans to join us. But right now, I'd like to remind you that if you missed any part of today's message, or perhaps you'd like to order a copy for that special friend or loved one, you can do so by simply contacting one of our customer service representatives, and they'd be more than happy to assist you with the ordering details. Simply call 1-800-272-WORD, and phone orders can be taken Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time. Once again, our toll-free number is 1-800-272-9673. 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Now may the Lord be with you and watch and keep you in His love. Fill you with His Spirit. Cause your life to abound in all things in Christ. Keep you, day-by-day, in this journey towards our Master. And that glorious day when we shall see Him face-to-face. In Jesus' name. This season, give the gift of God's Word. When thinking of gifts this year, consider The Word for Today's selection of resources. Call The Word for Today for assistance in finding materials that share the Gospel and reflect the true meaning of Christmas. Bless other believers and share your faith. Let's get the Word out in these last days. And right now, The Word for Today would like to enhance your holiday gift-giving by offering you the Gospel of John Coffee Table Gift Book, illustrated by Rick Griffin for only $10 plus the cost of shipping. Or call us at 1-800-272-WORD. Again, the number to call is 800-272-9673. Or visit us online at thewordfortoday.org. 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