Let us turn together in both to the book of Genesis as usual on these Sunday mornings and to the 24th chapter we have been reading our way through this chapter and we come to it for the third time this morning and although the theme of the exposition from the chapter really embraces the whole chapter we are not going to attempt to read it as you know it's the longest chapter in the book of Genesis and one of the longest in the Bible but we will pick up from where we left off last Lord's Day morning and we will begin at verse 50 and read to the end of the chapter Genesis 24 from verse 50 if you're a visitor we encourage you to follow the reading in your own Bible or the one you'll find in the rack in front of you Verse 50, Laban and Bethuel answered, that is, they answered the description by the servant of how he had so wondrously been led to find Rebekah as the bride for Isaac. Laban and Bethuel answered, this is from the Lord. We can say nothing to you one way or the other. Here is Rebekah. Take her and go and let her become the wife of your master's son as the Lord has directed. When Abraham's servant heard what they said, he bowed down to the ground before the Lord. Then the servant brought out gold and silver jewelry and articles of clothing and gave them to Rebekah. He also gave costly gifts to her brother and to her mother. Then he and the men who were with him ate and drank and spent the night there. When they got up the next morning, he said, send me on my way to my master." But her brother and her mother replied, let the girl remain with us 10 days or so, then you may go. But he said to them, do not detain me. Now the Lord has granted success to my journey. Send me on my way so I may go to my master. Then they said, let's call the girl and ask her about it. So they called Rebecca and asked her, will you go with this man? I will go, she said. So they sent their sister Rebecca on her way along with her nurse and Abraham's servant and his men, and they blessed Rebecca and said to her, Our sister, may you increase to thousands upon thousands. May your offspring possess the gates of their enemies. Then Rebecca and her maids got ready and mounted their camels and went back with the man. So the servant took Rebekah and left. Now Isaac had come from Beer-le-Haroi, for he was living in the Negev. He went out to the field one evening to meditate, and as he looked up he saw camels approaching. Rebekah also looked up and saw Isaac She got down from her camel and asked the servant, Who is that man in the field coming to meet us? He is my master, the servant answered. So she took her veil and covered herself. Then the servant told Isaac all that he had done. Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebecca. So she became his wife, and he loved her, and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death. thus far the reading of God's holy and inspired words. Now as I mentioned a moment ago in the introduction to the reading, this is the third occasion on which we have come to one of the great chapters of a book that is full of very great and significant chapters for our instruction, Genesis chapter 24, the longest chapter in the book of Genesis. It seems as though it is the Holy Spirit's intention to linger lovingly and long over every detail of the unfolding events of this search for a bride for Isaac. Even in our reading this morning you must be impressed by the intimate detail of the description of almost every move that the servant has made in order to find a bride for his master's son. We saw, you will recall, in our first study of the chapter, some of the general lessons of the chapter as it is an essential part of the chronicle of man's redemption and as it showed the consistency of Abraham's faith and religion and the character even of gospel revelation. And last Sunday we saw, secondly, the subject of guidance that fills this great chapter from the beginning to the ending in verse 67. A guidance that is guarded by God's will and governed by his unfolding purpose and grounded in prayer and praise. and guided by the use of sanctified common sense and finally guaranteed by God's unfailing purpose. It's a chapter that gives us still the principles basically of biblical guidance and how we are to find it in our lives as believers today. But this morning we come to a third theme. from this chapter, the theme of marriage. A marriage that is contracted in the Lord from beginning to end. And indeed probably no other marriage in human history has ever been so important as this one. And indubitably that's why the Holy Spirit lingers long and lovingly over every intimate detail in the preparation for this marriage and finally in its glorious accomplishment. And that's why we would do well as believing men and women and young people this morning to study the principles that guided the preparation of this marriage and its accomplishment that we might learn from it ourselves. You see, these principles still apply in substance to Christian marriages still. And those of you who are young men and women of marriageable age in the congregation, and there are several of you here today, need to give particular attention to these principles, but also those of us who are married, that we might see again how God so wonderfully has prepared a marriage partner for us and rejoice in his goodness and seek to enrich our own marriages as we do so. There are four things, in fact, that I want you to share with me and to see in this great passage. A marriage contracted in the law. Now first of all I want you to notice that there was obedience to the Word of God and I refer you particularly to verse 2 and to verses 6 through 8 and verses 37 and 38 and we'll be looking and reading these verses in just a moment. The first ingredient in a marriage contracted in the Lord beloved is that it is a marriage that came about in obedience to God's words. Now so important it seems to me is this principle in chapter 24 of Genesis that it is repeated in a threefold way. Do you notice in verse 2 that Abraham said to the chief servant in his household I want you to swear by the God of heaven and the God of earth that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I am living." And again if you notice in verses six and seven early on in the chapter Abraham further instructs the servant upon the servant's question should I bring your son to that land in the event that his bride-to-be will not come back to our land Abraham says the Lord, the God of heaven who brought me out of my father's household and so forth. He will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there. and if the woman is unwilling to come back with you then you will be released from this oath of mine only do not bring my son back there and if you turn on a little further once more the principle is being repeated in verses 37 and 38 where the servant is recounting his mission To Bethuel and Laban and the household of Rebekah, my master, he said, made me swear an oath and said, You must not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live, but go to my father's family and to my own clan. and get a wife for my son from there. Now you see, so important is this principle that there is a threefold emphasis upon it in the chapter. That the bride for Isaac cannot be any bride that Abraham and the servant will choose, but only one who fulfills certain conditions. Now, how did Abraham come to this conviction? Well, you notice that in the opening verses there's no direct and immediate revelation from God to Abraham concerning this matter of a bride for Isaac as in many former instances. For instance, there was a direct revelation given to Abraham to leave the land of Ur of the Chaldees and separate himself from his kindred in Mesopotamia and go to a land that God would show him. That was by divine revelation. It was by divine revelation that God came to Abraham on another occasion when he'd separated from Lot and said, the whole land that is before you that you can see in the length and breadth of it I will give to you and to your descendants after you but in this matter Abraham was left to exercise what seems to be his own judgment but you must understand it wasn't his own judgment in the end but all God's dealings with him that had gone before this had led him to understand God's will in the matter of a marriage contracted in the law. that not any bride would do for his son Isaac. But there was to be a special line developed through Isaac and his descendants, through which eventually the Saviour, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the seed of the woman would come, and through whom all the nations of the world would be blessed. It was therefore, you must understand, inconceivable that Isaac could be married to a heathen woman, a pagan who had no regard for the true God of covenant salvation and no interest in the covenant promises. And it was clear to Abraham that no suitable wife could ever be found among the Canaanites. and that this profoundly important choice of a bride for Isaac must be the choice of a woman who had come to faith in this great God who had revealed himself to Abraham, who had been instructed in his ways all her life, who wasn't even a recent convert. but one who knew personally and served and loved the Lord Jehovah as Isaac did in order that their children, their covenant seed might be brought up in that line of promise. Now you understand then that his choice was guided by God's word. And beloved, this became a continuing principle from this time forward in the life of all God's people. You remember what Moses, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote in Deuteronomy 7, verses 3 and 4, instructing the Israelites in this matter, he said, Do not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your sons away from following thee to worship idols. And all through the Old Testament Scriptures, where Israel was living up to its great heritage in the Lord, that principle is re-established again and again, until you come to the New Testament Scripture that we read this morning in 1 Corinthians 7, where Paul says, among other things, A Christian woman is free to marry anyone she wishes, but he must belong to the law. The great choice of marriage is first of all established according to the counsel and the holy will of God in this matter. And Abraham was acting in accord with what God had already revealed of his will. Now let me ask you this morning, you who are young people in the congregation, is the primary concern for you in the matter of a mate for you to go in accordance with God's word and promise that your partner in life should not be, in other words, an unbeliever. Are you concerned this morning that you should not put yourself even in a compromise position where you go so far in a relationship with a person of the opposite sex that marriage begins to be an inevitable thought in your mind? Just think what would have happened in Isaac's case if he had been led in that wrong direction and moved more and more toward marrying a woman in whose heart there was no faith in the living God. And it leads, you see, inevitably to disregard in that marriage for God's word and work and church and kingdom and leads, as Moses said, right into the arms of an overt paganism. And I must lay upon your conscience, young men and women, this morning, as it is my duty to do as a faithful pastor, that obedience to God's word is the first principle in a marriage contracted in the Lord. in order that the importance of covenantal unity within the family might be preserved and that the gospel might spread by your evangelism first within your own family and through it out to the needy pagan world. And that is the first principle of all and none should ever replace it. Though I want you to notice secondly with me that trust in the Lord is another feature of this marriage contracted in the Lord, the second ingredient in it, if you like. Now look at verse 7, for instance. The Lord, the God of heaven, says Abraham to his servant, he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there. In other words, what comes out is Abraham's faith and implicit trust in the Lord that he will guide the unnamed servant to the very choice the Lord is planning for his own son. His faith shines out in this great transaction. And you notice that it is in response to the servant's question that he says this. The question in verse 5, what if the woman is unwilling to come back with me to this land? And Abraham is saying, even in that event, when you are released from your oath that I have solemnly engaged you to, I am persuaded the Lord will have something better in mind." And it's a truly prophetic response in every sense in the light of what later happened. As you read the remarkable account of how the servant was guided first to the city of Abraham's own brother Nahor and then to the very woman at the well who was in the direct covenant line of faith to Rebecca, Abraham's grand-niece, and how the very family were moved, on the recounting of all the circumstances, to agree to her departure without any delay, to go to be the husband of a man that she had never seen in her life before. All of it is an illustration of the implicit trust of Abraham in the provision of God. And the key idea, as we have seen in the whole passage, is that God, the Sovereign Lord, is going before the servant to prepare his every step. And this is further confirmed by the servant's trust in the Lord, you remember. Where in verse 12 his prayer is so remarkable, we looked at it last Sunday, O Lord God of my master Abraham, give me success today, he prays. And then in verse 21, when his prayer has been remarkably answered, the man watched her closely, says the narrator, to see if the Lord had made his journey, what, successful! And what the servant is looking for, you see, is not success in a human sense, but that success that is the fruit of implicit trust in his own case, in his master's God. He is a man of trust unblemished in the Lord. And as you realize this, you look on his wondrous journey, and you see it not as an aimless wandering in the sands of Mesopotamia, but a well-planned expedition, every part of which is an expression of his faith in God. Now, of course, neither of these men could see the outcome of the chain of events that they were setting in motion, but each of them, you understand, had grown sufficiently in the school of faith to know that if they act in obedience to God's will and revealed word, trusting in Him, then the outcome may safely be put in His same hands. Now that's the lesson. Faith places the outcome with God where it truly belongs. And again I say to you, young men and women in the service, is that what you're doing in your search for a life partner? Are you seeking a godly spouse? Well, having obeyed the word of God, trust in the Lord, my dear young friends. And the truth of the hymn comes out so simple and yet profound to us again this morning Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. Trust, along with obedience to God's word, is the key to the guidance in every circumstance of life, and preeminently in this instance, in the search for a marriage that is grounded and contracted in the law. Now the third principle follows hard on the heels of the first two, and I suggest to you that it is dependence upon the Holy Spirit, and you see it particularly in the longer section, verses 13 through 27 of the passage. It's the third ingredient in this marriage contracted in the Lord. Now briefly notice several things about the servant's attitude and actions that show his entire dependence upon the Holy Spirit of God. The first one is quite simply that there is a desire to do God's will in the mind of this man as there evidently was in the mind of Abraham who had sent him out. If you look at verse 12 and again at verse 21, you see it in the word success that I drew your attention to. Lord, he said, give me success this very day. And when the Lord has answered that prayer in verse 21, he blesses and praises God for making his mission successful. But you see, the use of those words shows that the bent of this man's heart and mind was all in one direction. To do God's will, there was a desire. to do God's will. It's not the servant's success and ideas that he has in mind there, but the Lord's prospering of his actions so that indeed he will be led into the very providential place at the providential time to find the very choice that God has before appointed as the bride for his master's son. And similarly, all through the servant's subsequent accounts of these events, you find him giving all glory to God. Do you know, the name the Lord occurs some sixteen times in this chapter, as all glory is heaped upon the name of the Lord, whose will has been done in these matters. And the first ingredient of dependence you see upon the Holy Spirit is a desire to do God's will. Now you notice, secondly, for instance, in his conduct, the use of a sign in verses 13 and 14. We looked at that last Sunday under the theme of guidance. And the question is, is it always appropriate to ask for a sign? I'm searching for a spouse, Lord. I want to set certain circumstances in place so that when they come about, I will indubitably know that she's the very girl of your choice. He's the very man that you have appointed for me to marry. Is it right to do that? Now I suggest to you we should be very careful here. Because you see the servant did not ask for a supernatural sign as we saw last Sunday morning. He asked for something very ordinary. Something that would reveal to him the character and qualities of the girl that he was seeking as bride for Isaac, his master's son. Let her do certain things, he said to the Lord in prayer. Very ordinary things. that would show unusual qualities of character, extraordinary characteristics in this young woman. As we said, a woman of great kindness and of an outgoing disposition that was evidently one of the great qualities that was desirable in that patriarchal line. Hospitality to strangers that the truth of God might then be communicated to them. through the Ministry of Hospitality. There was an industriousness about this young woman as she watered 20 camels. Each of which you remember drank about 20 gallons after a long journey in the desert. What industry in this young woman. Very ordinary things. And I think what it teaches us is this, but in our praying we should certainly ask the Holy Spirit to give us right views and understandings of that person to whom we are attracted and feel led. And as the relationship develops to give us that sanctified common sense that says, Lord, I see the matching of these qualities in this person with the qualities that I'm aware of in my own life and the deficiencies as well. So there is the use of the sign. Then thirdly, there is the timing. Before he had finished praying, verse 15, Rebecca came out. Now isn't that remarkable? Do you remember that Abraham had to wait thirty years for his prayer to be answered, that he might have a son in the covenant line? But here, instantaneously, while he was yet praying, the Lord heard him and answered him instantaneously. And what it teaches us, you see, is this, that God is in control and what best accords with his holy will for us determines when and how our prayers are answered. And faith learns to lead the timing in his hand. You may have waited a long time for the answer to your prayer for a spouse, or for some important decision in your life, and it may seem very agonizing to you, but there is a long delay. But remember, my dear brother and sister, that all your steps are being ordered of the Lord as the servants were in this instance. and whether the prayer is instantaneously given or is a long-term answer, equally it will be wonderful when it comes, because faith learns to leave the timing in the hands of God to whom it belongs. Now there's a fourth and final aspect of the servant's attitude that shows his dependence upon the Spirit of God, and it's what I'd call sensible caution in verse 21. He watched her closely to learn whether or not the Lord had made his journey successful. You see, here is a man who was not boiled over. by first impressions. He'd seen the very words of his prayer, the very script of his prayer, taken up and used on the lips of Rebecca as she said, drink my lord and I will draw water for your camels as well. The very thing that he had asked had come about. But he did not give himself up blindly to what had happened. He watched her closely to learn whether or not the Lord had made his journey successful. Still he used his judgment and discretion in the matter. He tested circumstances. He weighed the whole situation carefully, you see. And this is not an indication of lack of faith in a believer. It's the expression of the depth of his commitment to the will of God. And I say to you in this decision and in all others, remember that God does not bypass the Christian's mind. He's given us a renewed mind that we might think through the situations that we're facing in a godly way. And it might have been that the woman said, well, I've done 10 camels and that's enough. But she went on, and she watered twenty of them. I'm sorry, five camels. She watered all ten of them. He watched her. He saw the spirit in which she did it. Not grudging in any way, but willing service was being rendered. He saw in her unfolding the beauty of what we would say today is a Christian character. And that's what we need to remember in all our decisions. You see, all our forward movements especially the major ones in our lives, need to be worked through on the principles of Scripture, entrusted to the Lord as we have seen, and approached in dependence upon the Spirit's guidance. And in my experience, when the Lord gives the green light, usually it is the combination of the message of Scripture confirming our action, the exercise of faith and trust in the Lord, and the opening doors of opportunity, all coming together by the Spirit's action to give us increasingly the inward conviction that is tested and proved over a period of time. And when we see these things happening, we may be sure normally we are on the right road. Now this is what we finally see as we finish this morning. There is agreement in the contract. And you'll notice there are a number of verses that I put down on the sermon note sheet this morning that confirm that agreement. It's the final ingredient in a marriage contracted from beginning to end in the Lord. You see we have the picture at the end of the chapter as we read this morning of the servant being fully persuaded in his own mind that God is in these events from beginning to end and you find the account again and again sets him out as bowing before the Lord in worship and praising his name that he has shown his covenant kindness to the servant and not forsaken his master Abraham in this vital matter of the choice of a bride. But the final test is still before him at this point. Would the other parties involved in this decision also see the hand of God and be equally convinced that the Lord is in these events? Because, humanly speaking, it was extremely unlikely that this family would let Their beloved daughter go with a strange man across 500 miles of wilderness and scrub into a land they had never seen to marry a man that she had never set eyes on in her life before. The difficulties were immense from the human perspective. but you see the focus shifts now on the reaction of Rebecca's own family as the servant presents the evidence in that long section verses 34 to 48 to her family, to Bethuel her father and Laban her brother And do you notice what he does in that section? He sets out the Lord's blessing upon Abraham, his great wealth and prosperity. The fact that the Lord, the God of heaven and earth, has given him in his old age a son who was almost supernaturally conceived. Is not this the mark, the servant is saying, of God's favour and blessing upon Abraham? And then he recounts the wonderful way in which he has been led, the remarkable guided journey of the servant from beginning to end and there is a transparency about his account and honesty and sincerity and absence of any kind of coercion in the matter as he sets the events out and says to them now where does this leave me I need to know if the Lord indeed has prospered my journey." And verse 50 provided the answer. Laban and Bethuel answered, this is from the Lord. How beautiful it is. The agreement of all the parties to the contract. And you see, that too is an almost certain evidence of God's hand being in a decision. Even the important decision of marriage, though alas, this does not always take place, where each of the parties are sensitive to the Lord's direction. The servant was. Laban and Bethuel were. Rebekah herself was, as they came to her and said to her at such short notice, Will you go with this man? I will go, she says. And I think nothing in all this recorded history of Rebekah so puts her in the line of faithful Abraham as those three words, I will go. as Abraham when asked to do the most difficult things have said you remember to the Lord I will do it immediately without delay and then Isaac himself setting eyes upon her at the end of the chapter loves her and he too agrees to his part in the contract as well each of the parties sensitive to the Lord's direction. Well, as we finish this morning, there are few greater privileges, beloved, than to know God's guidance for our lives. Yet, this is the real possibility set out before each of God's children here today in marriage. in your career, in your family, in your choice of housing, in Christian service, even down to the years of retirement. God is willing to lead you in all these choices, step by step by step. And it begins with obedience to God's Word. And it continues in a trusting attitude to Him in every circumstance. And it expands in that spirit of dependence upon the Holy Spirit's leading. And it ends with the consensus of those who are involved that this is from the Lord. And you know the secret is to walk with him today so that he can put us wherever he wants us tomorrow. at the right time and in the right place. And you can summarize the whole of this chapter by walking with God today in order that the needs of tomorrow may be provided by him in his sovereign grace and purpose for his people and these principles still apply in Christian marriages and again I exhort you who are young people and your parents where appropriate to pay close heed to the importance of a marriage contracted in the Lord that you may see as Isaac saw again with wonderment the principle he first discovered on Mount Moriah Jehovah Jireh the Lord is again providing and you may see it too. Let's pray. Our Father, we are thankful for these principles that surround and embody a marriage contracted in the Lord. Father, we are thankful to have them set out before us from this passage and to know that we may lead a guided life in the major decisions of our lives as well as in the minor and may learn as the servant and Abraham did that lesson of the school of faith to walk with you today in order that the cares of tomorrow may be provided for in a rich and wonderful way that we may rejoice as the parties did In this case, so long ago. For Christ's sake we pray. Amen.