Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #4 of Genesis, chapter 24, and I am going to read Genesis 24:3-6:

And I will make thee swear by JEHOVAH, the God of heaven, and the God of the 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, Peradventure the woman will not be willing to follow me unto this land: must I needs bring thy son again unto the land from whence thou camest? And Abraham said unto him, Beware thou that thou bring not my son thither again.

We spent some time looking at verse 3 in our last study, and we saw that the first thing Abraham focused on and wanted his servant to clearly understand was where he was not to look for a wife – not of the daughters of Canaan.  It was direct guidance.  There was no mistaking this: “Thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites.”  It almost sounds like a commandment of God, does it not?  It sounds like commands like, “Thou shalt not kill,” or “Thou shalt not steal.”  Here, it is said, “Thou shalt not take a wife…of the daughters of the land of the Canaanites.”  And it sounds like a commandment because it is actually a commandment in the Bible.  We also talked about that in our last study regarding how God has laid out this particular commandment.  He has stressed this principle all the way from the beginning, and it is really an eternal principle that the bride must be, as it says here, from Abraham’s kindred and Abraham’s country.  It was not to be a strange country or strangers, but a specific wife was selected in the sense that she must come from that area and not from other areas.  Why?  What is the point?  The point is that the daughters of Canaan are picturing  the women of the world, so it is really a twofold picture. 

First, on a natural or moral level, the people of God are not to be unequally yoked.  We are not to marry the unsaved because God has made a change in us.  He has translated us out of the darkness and into he light of His kingdom, and now we are to find a wife who is like-minded.  Or, a woman is to marry a man who is like-minded.  It must be a man or woman that is qualified according to God’s Word.  If a person is saved, the qualification would be that they are an elect child of God.   We cannot even just say that person is to be a “Christian.”  There are two billion so-called Christians in the world.  You know, for a long time, this is how people circumvented this commandment of God not to be unequally yoked, and they married “daughters of the land of Canaan” because the “daughters of the land of Canaan” had taken upon themselves the name of Christ and called themselves Christians, as the unsaved entered “en masse” into the churches and congregations of the world. 

Is everyone who says they are a Christian really a Christian?  Of course not.  We had people that said they were Christians because they were (water) baptized, but they never went to church.  We have others that say they are Christians, but they are part of congregations that have been false and apostate and corrupt for centuries.  They say they are Christians, and then they tell you that the evidence of having the Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues or falling over backwards and being “slain in the spirit.”  None of these things are indicators of being a true Christian.  They are indicators of false Christians that simply profess with their mouths.  Their idea of professing faith is easy to do.  They just say, “Yeah, I am a Christian,” when the census taker comes around and asks, “What is your religion?”  They answer, I am a Christian.  You can just check that box for me.”  Or, they went to church twenty years ago or they were baptized Catholic, and so forth.  It is just an easy thing to say, but that is not a true Christian.

So if a man is looking for a wife or a woman is looking for a husband and if they are not true elect Christians, they are more than likely going to marry someone like themselves because they have no real understanding of what it is to be a Christian.  But if they are true elect Christians, then they should have some understanding.  They should know the Bible is the holy Word of God, and that our only authority is the Bible and there is no authority except the Bible.  It is not a church denomination.  It is not certain theologians.  It is not confessions or creeds.  It is only the Bible.  They should know the church age is over, and so forth.  What a horrible tragedy it would be if someone that claims to be an elect child of God married a so-called Christian. 

Some may know a man they think is a serious Christian and they talk to him.  He understands the Bible is the Word of God.  He understands that Sunday is the Lord’s Day.  He understands election.  “Wow!  This is a serious Christian.”  And as they talk to him, he says, “I am going to take my wife to church, and we are going to raise our children in the church.”  They say, “Hold it! Hold it! The church age is over.”  God’s elect people that were part of the great multitude may be babes in understanding, but they know the church age is over.  They know because God commanded them to come out.  It has been widely taught.  Believe me, practically everyone in churches in the United States and many churches in other nations heard the news that the church age was over.  Family Radio was broadcasting this worldwide and tract trips were going forth worldwide, and the people of God were sharing these things.  They heard.  They may have put it out of their minds, but they heard.  Again, the elect child of God has to take into consideration these things: “It appears this person is qualified – the person is single and not divorced.  The person believes the Bible and understands some right doctrine, but that person has remained in the churches.” 

You can be sure God will test us on these things, from time to time.  He will test us.  “How badly do you want a wife?  How badly do you want a husband?  How badly do you want a family?”  Especially at this time, a person may think, “It appears that this might be my only opportunity.  I finally met someone I get along with and am attracted to, and we have other things in common.  This person understands the Bible.  How can I let this one go?”  But that is the test.  We must trust the Lord.  We must trust God.  So the response should be: “No, I am sorry.  This cannot be.  I cannot go out.  No – I cannot have anything to do with you.  I am sorry, but the church age is over.  God called His people out of the churches.  What fellowship can light have with darkness?  Anyone left in the churches after May 21, 2011, was bundled as tares for the burning.  You do not see these things.  You do not understand these things.  You would have me to come into your church and sit in a pew in your congregation and listen to your pastor.  Do you not understand that God is not there?  The Holy Spirit has departed.  God abandoned the churches after turning them over for their destruction to Satan, and Satan was ruling there for 23 years.  All of these things are horrible, and the churches are the most dangerous place to be on earth, and it is the last place I would want to be, nor could I ever be there.  It is not that I will not, but I cannot.  It is a matter of conscience.  I cannot deny the Lord, and that is what it would be.  Returning to the churches would be doing such wickedness and such evil, after He has been so good and kind and gracious to me by informing me of the end of the church age and the need to get out.  He also said that after I came out, I was not to look back.  Remember Lot’s wife.  He that is on the housetop, return not back into the house.  He that is in the field, go not back to get your clothing.”

Again, and again and again, the point was made to not enter into the house and to not enter back into the churches.  Why not?  It is for our own good.  That is the place where “the congregation of the dead” are, so why would we go back?  What would that say about us?  What a terrible failure of a test that would be.  For what reason?  To gain an earthly husband or an earthly wife and a temporal relationship that will also end?  These things are not forever, especially today.  There is divorce and all kinds of trouble, plus physical death.  A lot of time there would be trials and turmoil in that marriage, even if it continued.  And for that you are going to deny your Lord to whom you claim to be married?  You say you are part of the bride of Christ and, yet, you have no problem at all in leaving that marriage and denying the Lord and His love.  As the bridegroom, He would have us to love Him.  And how do we love Him?  “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”  That is how we enjoy the marriage relationship with our Bridegroom.  We keep His commandments. 

No – do not even consider it.  Do not even ponder it.  Do not even think about it.  Be as Joseph.  (And I am speaking to myself, too.)  When Potiphar’s wife sought to lay with Joseph and grabbed ahold of him, he fled and got him out.  And that is what we should do, of course.  You know, oftentimes sin does not appear that ugly.  It is not always that horrible thing that you cannot bear to look upon.  Oh, it is often very attractive, like a beautiful young lady or a handsome young man that appears to be the perfect wife or husband.  “Can anything be wrong with it?  Look how lovely she is, and look at all these qualifications that are met, except for one little detail.”  And there is God coming to you and putting a severe test before you.  You could be very lonely, so it would certainly be a test.  And, yet, if you are one of His, God will also give grace to pass the test and turn from it.  Do not feel sorry for yourself – you did not lose anything.  What you “lost” was a life of heartache.  What you “lost” was the awful feeling of having denied your Lord. 

Can you imagine having the understanding in your mind of what you should have done and, yet, having entered into a marriage and then being dragged back into a church?  And you are sitting there in that church, and you  heard all the doctrine about the end of the church age.  You heard Mr. Camping teach.  You read the book, “The end of the Church Age…and After.”   You understood the book.  You agreed with all the things about the end of the church age and after.  You enjoyed being (obediently) outside the churches, and you saw it all through the Bible and, yet, there you are, stuck in a church with the wife or husband you just married.  You are listening to the pastor and you know that God is not there.  But you are there because you have done wrong.  How long do you think it will take before a person with that kind of head knowledge will start wondering and thinking, “How can I get out of this?  How can I run away from all this and leave this place?” 

How can you?  Now what are you going to do?  You are married, and your husband would have every right to be upset with you if you told him a little while later that you want to come out of the church.  No – do not go down that road.  God has warned: “Remember Lot’s wife.”  She looked back.  By God’s grace, He is helping us.  Do not feel sorry for yourself.  You can feel lonely.  That is a natural feeling, but do not feel sorry for yourself and pity yourself, thinking that you deserve something.  You do not deserve anything.  Neither do I, nor any of us.  We do not deserve anything except death and the wrath of God ending in eternal destruction, but God has turned that around if you have truly become one of His, and He has given us abundant riches for all eternity to come.  Just a little while longer, and it will be here.  Patiently wait upon the Lord.  Yes, there will be suffering, but suffering for well doing, not for evil doing.  It is suffering in a good way for the things of God, as Christ suffered for us.  And now we have this opportunity to show forth in a small way our love for Him as He showed forth His love for us in an incredible way.

I do not know if I read this verse, but let us turn to 1Corinthians 7.  I meant to read this a little while ago.  It says in 1Corinthians 7:39:

The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.

Here is that command that we have seen in several places, as we saw with Abraham: “Go to my country and to my kindred, and find a wife for my son Isaac.  Do not go to the daughters of the land of Canaan.”  This is a principle: marry only in the Lord.  Of course, that is the first level of meaning or the moral meaning, and it does apply to us today as we live our lives.  We want to find someone who is like-minded.  If you are a single individual and you desire to be married, believe me when I say it does not look good as far as possibilities because there are so few elect that have a right understanding of these things.  So, of course, it is easy to think, “I will never find a wife,” or “I will never find a husband.” 

But do not limit the Holy One of Israel.  Is God able to provide a wife for one of His people or a husband for one of His elect daughters?  Of course, God can do that.  God is able to do that, so we must pray like we do in everything: “…in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”  And we can pray, “O, Lord, I do not want to be anxious about this.  I do not even want this to be on my mind.  Help me to cast this care upon you, for you careth for me.  Help me, Lord, to leave it with you and to wait upon you.  And if it is your will that I marry, may you lead me to this person or lead that person to me.”  Then just go about your duty and business in serving the Lord, and it could be that you could go on a tract trip and you meet someone, or you go to an EBible Fellowship Bible Conference and you meet someone.  Or, if you do not meet anyone on the tract trip and you do not meet anyone at the Bible Conference, but you go to your local supermarket and you meet someone.  Lo, and behold, it turns out to be an elect child of God.  We do not know everyone who is out there. 

It reminds me of my neighbor that moved in a few months ago.  There is a house next door and I had not seen the owners for many years because they rent it out to different people.  I saw a young man that recently moved in, and I said hello to him, and he said hello, and as he looked at me, he recognized me and called me by my name.  He called me “Chris,” and I said, “Yes? Do I know you?”  And he said it again, putting his hand over his mouth.  I was getting a little worried.  You know, all kinds of things run through your mind.  I was trying to remember where I could know him from, but then he told me that he listens to EBible Fellowship, and he said that was practically all he does.  I just thought, “Wow, wow, is that not wonderful?”  I mean we have had various types of people move in to the neighborhood, and some not so good.  But, here, someone moved in right next door who actively listened to EBible Fellowship.  I thought, “Wow, that is really great.”

So if God can do that…just think about it.  I live outside a major city, Philadelphia, and there are millions of people around here.  And if God can arrange to have one of His people (as far as I know) to move next door to another one of His people, can He do that with anyone at any time?  You see, we should not limit God.

But, again, we have to be realistic.  It is also possible that there is no one for us.  Some people are meant to be single and for that, too, we trust the Lord.  We just leave that to Him, and God is able to help, whatever our problem is.  He is certainly able to help us more than we are able to help ourselves, so we just wait on the Lord.  That is the Christian’s life for everything, from the very beginning in salvation, when we waited on the Lord.  And if God did save you, then you continue to wait for all kinds of things, whether it be a job or a wife or ministering to others.  We wait upon where to go to hand out tracts.  We pray for wisdom and we ask God for guidance and we wait.  We are always waiting, and the Lord blesses His people who truly wait upon Him.