I'm going to ask you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Proverbs chapter
18. Proverbs chapter 18. Proverbs
18 verse 22. Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favor of the Lord." Almighty God has set forth his
word concerning a man and his wife. Genesis 2 24 says, therefore
shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave
unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh." Ephesians 5.25 says, Husbands,
love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave
himself for it. Ephesians 5.22, Submit yourselves
unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. Marriage is a wonderful,
wonderful institution, ordained of God and is a beautiful picture
of the union of the Lord Jesus Christ and His bride. Ephesians 5.32, this is a great
mystery concerning marriage, a man and his wife. This is a great mystery, but
I speak concerning Christ and the church. We have marriage
in this world as a picture, as a type, as a shadow of the eternal
marriage marriage that one day is going to openly be manifest
before heaven and earth. The marriage of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the bridegroom and his bride. Now we're meeting today for one reason, one reason, one
reason. to preach the glorious gospel
of God's grace for the purpose of the calling
out of God's elect, of God's sheep. All things work together
for good. to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to His purpose. In the last few
weeks, there's been some heinous things happen in this world.
Heinous things. Awful things. Evil things. Almighty God who rules and reigns
in heaven and earth, who orders all things according
to His will, You want to know why these things came about? Because God Almighty is calling
out His elect. You say, well, I don't see how
those things have anything to do with it. Well, they do because
they're in all things. May we today, by God's grace,
have our hearts settled. Everything is well with the believer. The Lord has a bride and he is
going to have his bride. The bride was given to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1.4 declares that this
bride, all of God's elect, Scripture says, Ephesians 1.4, this is
the truth concerning the bride of Christ. According as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love. Here's the fact. Christ has a bride. Here's a fact. The son is going
to have the bride. John 6, 37, all that the father
giveth me, all that the father giveth me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. Here's a fact. The son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, has redeemed his bride. He has redeemed her. He said in John 10, 15, I lay down my life for the sheep. He has a bride. He's going to
have her. He's redeemed her. And I'll tell
you this, his bride is going to be holy and without spot,
without blame, robed in his righteousness. Isaiah 61 10 I will greatly rejoice
in the Lord my soul shall be joyful in my God for he hath
clothed me with the garments of salvation he hath covered
me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decketh himself
with ornaments and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels the bride's coming And we're
doing one thing today. We as obedient servants of Almighty
God are preaching the gospel because that's the way he's going
to call out his bride. She's coming. She's coming. And
what we'll do, we'll just watch and just wait and just see what
God's pleased to do. Whoso findeth a wife findeth
a good thing and obtaineth favor of the Lord. I know this out
of every nation, kindred, tribe, tongue, his bride, a good thing. that was given to the son by
the father, that good thing. Whoso findeth a wife, findeth
a good thing. I'm telling you, his bride's
a good thing. The father gave her to him. She's a good thing, robed in
his righteousness, redeemed by his blood, made good only in
him, holy and without blame before him, in love. I want you to turn with me to
Genesis 24. Genesis 24, I made this statement. We're here today,
we're not ashamed of the gospel of God's grace, the gospel of
sovereign, saving grace. Electing grace, redeeming grace,
regenerating grace, keeping grace. Not ashamed of that gospel. It's
the power of God unto salvation. And I'm so thankful that we can
be here today, Neil, and preach it, and hear it, and declare
it. I'm so thankful that God gave
me a heart to want to be here today. In Genesis chapter 24, there
is a glorious story, true story, sent forth about Abraham and
Isaac, Abraham's servant and a bride, that this servant was
sent to go find for the son. And this story right here, I'm
going to deal with verses 1 through 58. I'm going to read most of
them, just so you know. I know when you thought, what?
Now I won't be that long. I'm going to read just a whole
lot of it and I'm going to make some comments. But I'm going
to tell you, in this passage of scripture, there's six things
that I want to look at concerning the calling out of the bride,
the responsibility of the servant that sent, the will of the father
that sent the servant, and the glory that's given to the son.
Six things that I want to set forth in this passage of scripture. Now, I want us to understand
something before I start. Abraham is a picture of the heavenly
father. The servant is a picture of God's
preachers. Not only God's preachers though,
I stand in this pulpit and minister. A believer sits in the pew possibly,
but he sits in that pew as a minister. You're in contact with people
every day. You cross paths with people every day. Let your conversation
be that which becometh the gospel. Walk like a believer. Walk like
a believer. Act like a believer. God Almighty,
The Father, the Servant, the Son, the Bride. Six truths set
forth in this passage of scripture concerning the calling of the
Bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm going to tell you something.
When we're done, by God's grace, and I do pray this, I pray that
it comes out and is a blessing to myself and to you as it has
been to me in studying it. I got done this morning, had
a message written out for today and this message right here I
got up this morning and rewrote this message and it was such
a blessing to me and I do pray. I pray that God bless it. I pray
that I don't stand in this pulpit by myself. That the Spirit of
God will bless this message to my heart and to yours. Six truths
set forth in the calling out of God's sheep. The bride of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Six truths. And in those six
truths, the responsibility of God's ministers, whether I'm
standing here or whether you're sitting there. Six truths. Here's
the first one. Christ has a bride according
to the Father's purpose and according to the covenant of God's grace.
Verses 1 to 4, Genesis 24. And Abraham was old. and well
stricken in age, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. And Abraham said unto his eldest
servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had, had a trusted,
trusted servant. God's servants are to be faithful,
faithful, faithful servants. And Abraham said to this servant,
put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh. It was just a way in
which sometimes we shake hands. I give you my word on this right
here. He said, I want you to put your
hand under my thigh, and we're going to enter into a covenant
right here. And he said, I will make thee
swear by the Lord, the God of heaven, God of earth, that thou
shalt not take a wife under 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." The servants
of Almighty God are sent. They're sent. I'm going to give
you pastors according to my heart. God's servants are sent to find
the bride according to the commission of Almighty God. We go into all
the world. The Lord commissioned us to this.
You go into all the world and you preach the gospel. Preaching
is the means of Almighty God in the calling out of God's sheep. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. As I've said before,
not foolish preaching, but what men consider foolishness. They say, this is it. This is
it. This is all you got. This is
all we got. This is all God's given us. This
is all we want. This is God's means. The bride is to be sent for and
obtained among the children of promise, not upon the Canaanites,
the doomed. Now, here's the thing. Abraham
told his servant, you make me swear by the Lord, the God of
heaven, by the God of earth, that I shall not take a wife
unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites of whom I dwell. Now, let me ask you this. Who
are they? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know who they are. But
I can tell you who I'm looking for. I'm looking for God's sheep
according to God's means of finding the sheep, preaching the only
message that God has given me to preach, and I'm going to wait
on the Lord. But I know who I'm looking for.
I'm looking for the children of promise. That's who I'm looking
for. I'm looking for God's sheep.
I can't make one a sheep. I'm not trying to make a goat
a sheep. I'm looking for God's bride. for his son according
to God's means. That's what I'm doing. Now, I
know this. God has given the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father has given the Lord Jesus Christ a bride
according to his purpose, according to the covenant of God's grace.
You go look for him. Don't look for him here in Canaan.
He said, you go back where I'm from and you find him there.
Here's the second thing I know. God's servants don't compromise
the message. Verses 5 to 9, and the servants
said unto him, Perventure 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, the
Lord God of heaven, which took me from my father's house, from
the land of my kindred, which spake unto me, that swear 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 thence if a woman will not be willing
to follow thee then thou shalt be clear from this my oath only
bring not my son thither again and the servant put his hand
on the thigh of Abraham his master and swear to him concerning that
master the servant said well master Abraham I'm going to do
just like you said But let me ask you this. Let's say I go
down there and I don't find one willing. What if one's not willing
to come? Must thy needs bring thy son,
verse 5, again unto the land from whence thou camest? You
want me to change the terms maybe? Maybe if she's not willing to
come, well, do you want me to come back over here to Isaac
and say, well, Isaac, she wasn't willing to come. I think you're
going to have to come down here. I think you're going to have
to come down here and just, you know, do it in a different way
than what I was sent. If the woman doesn't come willingly,
Abraham told him, he said, you listen to me. If the woman does
not come willingly, then you're clear. He said, but don't you
compromise the message that I just gave you. Don't you change the
terms on it. He said, verse 7, God's going
to send his angel, the Holy Spirit, before. And he shall bless, according
to my will, he said, you'll take a wife unto my son from thence. Don't you go down there and start
changing the rules and making, you know, maybe if we can't get
somebody to come, maybe we ought to just try something else, Mike.
Maybe we can try a different method. Maybe, you know, maybe
we start having bazaars and maybe we start having, you know, try
to get, maybe change our ministry some way. God's servants don't compromise
the message. We got one message. We preach
the gospel of God's sovereign, saving grace. Third point. God's servants know that the
work is too great for them. Who's sufficient for these things?
Look at verses 10 to 14. The servant took 10 camels, of
the camels of his master, and he departed. For all the goods
of his master were in his hand. You know, all the goods of the
master, gems in our hands. We got the gospel. This is it.
This is it. This is what we got. All the
goods of his master was in his hand. He arose. He went to Mesopotamia
under the city of Nahar. He made his camels to kneel down
without the city by a well of water at the time of the evening,
even the time that women go out to draw water. And he said, oh,
Lord God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed
this day and show kindness unto my master Abraham. Behold, I
stand here by the well of water. And the daughters, the men of
the city, come out to draw water. And it came to pass that the
damsel to whom--" no, 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 camels
drink also. Let the same be she that thou
hast appointed for thy servant Isaac, and thereby shall I know
that thou hast showed kindness unto my master." We know that
God has a people. We know that God has given that
people to the Son. He knows He's going to call them.
We know that. We know that if the Lord blesses,
His servant said, I don't know. I'm just asking. Lord, I'm just
asking. Would you allow it to be that the damsel that we're
looking for, the bride we're looking for, Would you allow
it to be that, Lord, I'm standing here where the women's going
to come and could she say these things? I'll give you something
to drink and I'll not only give you something to drink, I'll
give your camel something to drink too. Lord, would you allow that? God's people know. that there's
going to be, if God Almighty calls out His elect, there's
going to be some evidence of it. There's going to be some
evidence of life. And the evidence of life is going
to be in what they say. Out of the abundance of a man's
heart, his mouth is going to speak. That servant right there
was listening for something. I'm going to listen for some
signs of your blessing. I want to listen for some signs
of life. I want to listen to what this woman has to say according
to your purpose, Lord. You're going to send your angel.
Spirit of God's going to do something. And if the Spirit of God does
something, I'm telling you, you'll know it. You'll know it. You
let a believer be blessed by God Almighty. God called him
out of darkness, and let me tell you what you're going to hear.
This servant was listening for some evidence of life. Evidence
of life in a believer is going to be this. Number one, he's
not going to speak of any confidence in his flesh. You know what a
believer is going to say? Not by works of righteousness
that I've done. According to his mercy, he saved
me. You know what a believer is going to say? Salvations of
the Lord. Salvation is of God Almighty. God chose me. Christ redeemed
me. Spirit of God called me and gave
me life. If He wouldn't have given me
life, I'd have never come. That servant right there was
looking to the Lord for the Lord's blessing and the manifestation
of God's grace. That's what he was looking for
right there. Here's the fourth thing. God's servants must seek by preaching
Christ and wait for the Lord's direction, wait for God's direction. Verses 15 to 21, it came to pass
that before he had done speaking, that behold, Rebekah came out
who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, wife of Nahar, Abraham's
brother. with her pitcher upon her shoulder.
And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin. Neither
had any man known her. And she went down to the well
and filled her pitcher, came up, and servant ran to meet her
and said, let me, I pray thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher. And she said, Drink, my lord. And she hasted and let down her
pitcher upon her hand and gave him drink. I want you to notice what he
did not do. He didn't say anything to her. He didn't say, uh, think
you'd give my camel something to drink, too. I'll just wait. She said she'd
give me something to drink. Verse 19, and when she had done
giving him drink, I bet you he drank that water and he just
looked at her and just wondered. I wonder if she's going to say
anything else. I wonder if this is her. I don't
know. When she had done giving him
drink, she said, I will draw water for thy camels also until
they have done drinking. And she hasted and emptied her
pitcher into the trough and ran again under the well to draw
water and drew for all his camels. Now you listen to this. and the
man wondering at her held his peace to wit whether the Lord
had made his journey prosperous or not. You know, a sower went
to sow and he cast some seed and it
fell by the wayside. Some fell among stony ground,
some fell among thorny ground, some fell among good ground. That stony ground, that seed
sprung up quickly and it looked good. It looked good for a while. You know, but when the sun came
out, the sun of persecution, it just scorched it and it withered. It didn't have any root. That
seed that fell among thorny ground, it sprung up. And for a while
it looked good. But soon the cares of this world
choked it out. Don't lay hands on any man quickly. You wait on the Lord. And I can
remember coming up in false religion, somebody walked down the aisle,
make a profession of faith, I want to have them teaching Sunday
school next Sunday. No, let me tell you the best
thing that any of us could ever do. Just sit down and listen. And listen. This woman said all
the right things. She came out with all the right
things. She met the criteria according to her mouth. But that
wise servant right there that Abraham trusted, that man wondering
at her held his peace to wit whether the Lord had made his
journey prosperous or not. I can tell you this. I know for
a fact God's going to have his people. God's going to call them
out. They're going to be where the
Lord has placed them. I know that. But I know this. They're going to have to be kept
by God Almighty. If God doesn't keep them, they're
going to leave. And I can't keep them. We're going to wait on
the Lord. We don't rush into things. Wait. But this servant, waiting
to see if the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not, he
was kind. He was kind to her. This may
be her. It may be her. You know, I'm
always encouraged. You know, somebody shows some
interest in the gospel, I'm always encouraged. Who knows? This may be one of the Lord's.
This may be one of God's sheep. Who knows? But I can tell you
this, all I can do is keep preaching to him and wait, wait on the
Lord. He was kind, look at verses 22
to 31. Came to pass as the camels had
done drinking that the man took a golden earring, half a shekel
of weight, two bracelets for her hands, ten shekels, weight
of gold. He said, whose daughter art thou?
Tell me, I pray thee, is there room in thy father's house for
us to lodge in? She said unto him, I'm the daughter
of Bethuel, son of Milcah, which she bared to Nahar. She said,
moreover unto him, we have both straw and preventer enough and
room to lodge him. And the man bowed down his head
and worshipped the Lord. And he said, blessed be the Lord
God of my master Abraham, who hath not left destitute my master
of his mercy and his truth. I being in the way, the Lord
led me. to the house of my master's brethren.
And the damsel ran and told them of her mother's house these things.
And Rebecca had a brother, and his name was Laban. And Laban
ran out unto the well. And he came to pass when he saw
the earring and bracelets upon his sister's hands. And when
he had heard the words of Rebecca, his sister saying, thus spake
the man unto me, that he came unto the man. And behold, he
stood by the camels at the well. And he said, come thou blessed
of the Lord, wherefore standest thou without? For I have prepared
the house and room for the camels. There was kindness, there was
joy, there was rejoicing, you know, come in, come here. Here's my next point. God's servants
must not, cannot be sidetracked from their mission. Look at verse
32, 33. The man came into the house,
and he ungirded his camels, and gave straw and preventer for
the camels, and water to wash his feet, men's feet that were
with him. And there was set meat before
him to eat. But he said, I will not eat until
I have told my Aaron And he said, speak on. They came into the
house and they laid out a fine spread. Man, there's no telling
what was there. I don't know how long he'd been
on the road since he'd had a good home-cooked meal. But there was
probably some dishes that probably would have truly appealed to
his taste buds. Man, I could really get into
this. He said, here we are. Look what
I provided for you. And that wise servant said, I'm
not going to eat until I've told you why I'm here. I'm going to
tell you what my master has sent me to do. The issue at hand wasn't
to satisfy the servant. I'm not here to discuss things
and mess and stuff. I'm not here to talk about your
food. I'm not here to talk about anything else. I'm here to talk
about the Son. I'm here to talk about my commission
from my master. I got one message. I got one
errand and anything else. is going to play second fiddle
to this. Anything else that you bring up is irrelevant. Anything else that you want to
talk about has got nothing to do with the mission and commission
of God's servants. We get so sidetracked on so much
stuff. Man by nature gets off on issues. There was a wedding that a father
had made to his son. And he said, you go out, bid
the guests come in. They went out and bid the guests
come in. Come to the wedding. Come to the wedding. One of them
said, well, I got some oxen that I bought. Man, I wish I could
be there. But I got to go prove them. Well,
I'd come. I'd be there. But you know, I
got married. I'm just not going to be able
to make it. I wish I could. I bought this land. I've got
to go check it out. I'd be there but I, you know,
he sat down to that meal and he said, I'm not going to eat
until I tell you the errand that I'm on. I want you to understand
why I'm here. I want you to understand what
the issue is. I want you to understand what my master has sent me to
do. And then we'll talk about eating.
But first things first. He said in verse 34, I am Abraham's
servant. I am Abraham's servant. I am a messenger of my master. My master has sent me to find
the son's bride. I'm here to find a bride for
Isaac. And God's preachers have one
issue, one issue, one issue. We preach Christ, Freddy, and
Him crucified. That's it. That's it. Nothing
else is worth talking about. That, whatever it is, and it's
not this, is not the issue. He told them, he said, I'm going
to tell you what my issue is. Verse 35 to 49. He said, the Lord has blessed
my master greatly. He's become great. He has given
him flocks, herds, silver, gold, and men's servants, maid's servants,
and camels, and asses. He said, my master's rich, rich,
rich. And Sarah, my master's wife,
bear a son to my master when she was old. Unto him hath he
given all that he hath. He said, my master's got a son. He's a son according to promise.
He's a son according to God's promise. God's promise. Not by
the works of the flesh. I'm not talking about that boy
Hagar. I'm talking about Isaac. Not Ishmael. I'm talking about
Isaac. And my master made me swear,
saying, Thou shalt not take a wife to my son of the daughters of
the Canaanites in whose land I dwell. Thou shalt go into my
father's house, and my kindred take a wife unto my son. And
I said unto my master, peradventure the woman will not follow me.
He said to me, the Lord before whom I walk will send his angel
with thee and prosper thy way. Thou shalt take a wife of my
son, of my kindred, of my father's house. Thou shalt be clear from
this my oath when thou comest to my kindred. And if they give
not thee one, thou shalt be clear from my oath. And I came this
day. under the well. And I said, O Lord God of my
master Abraham, if now thou dost prosper my way which I go, behold,
I stand by the well of the water. It shall come to pass that when
the virgin cometh forth to draw water, I say to her, give me,
I pray thee, a little water of thy pitcher to drink. And she
say to me, both drink thou, and I'll also draw for thy camels. Let the same be the woman which
the Lord hath appointed. out for my master's son. And
before I had done speaking in my heart, behold, Rebecca came
forth with her pitcher on her shoulder, and she went down unto
the well and drew water. And I said unto her, let me drink,
I pray thee. And she made haste and let down
her pitcher from her shoulder, said, drink, I'll also give thy
camel's drink also. So I drank, and she made the
camel's drink also. I asked her, and said, whose
daughter art thou? And she said, the daughter of
Bethuel, Nahor's son, whom Milcah bare unto him. And I put the
earring upon her face and the bracelets upon her hands, and
I bowed down my head and worshiped the Lord and blessed the Lord
God of my master Abraham, which had led me in the way to take
my master's brother's daughter to his son, and now, and now,
If you will deal kindly and truly with my master, if you agree
with my master, if you agree with the commission of my master
that he gave me, that told me you come here and you do this
and this, I'm going to send my angel, the Lord is going to send
my angel before me, going to bless it. He said if you deal
well with his message, his commission to me, If you like, if you enjoy,
if you appreciate the message, then you tell me. And if not,
then you tell me that I may turn to the right hand or to the left.
What he was saying is this, I got one message. Before we sit down
here and talk about this food right here, before we talk about
anything else, I'm going to tell you what my master has told me
to say. And that's what I'm going to
say. He said, if you want to hear it, I thank God for that. If you don't want to hear it,
well then I'm going somewhere else. Because he said, I'm not
going to deviate from this message and I'm not going to get sidetracked
from this message. I'm not going to start talking about things,
messing stuff. I don't want to talk about that.
I want to talk about this. This is the issue. He said, now,
if you'll deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me. If not,
tell me that I may turn the right hand to the left. I'm not here
to waste the commission on my time and stray from my master's
instruction. I'm here to talk about the Son. I'm here to talk about Isaac.
Isaac is the heir of my master. My master is rich, rich. The Lord blessed him. He got
camels and gold and he said the son's going to have all of that.
Everything's going to be the son's. Everything's the son's.
It belongs to him. And he is my message. I'm looking
for a bride for him. I want to talk about his excellency. I want to talk about his honor.
I'm looking for the bride that God has chosen and given him.
That God's gonna call out. And when we preach, he told them,
he said, now if you deal kindly with my master, if you like,
he said, I'm gonna, here's what I'm gonna, I'm gonna preach sovereign
grace. I'm gonna preach God's sovereign
grace. And I'm telling you, God's people
are gonna hear it. He's going to give them ears
to hear and eyes to see. They're going to come. They're
going to come. Here's the sixth thing. Lastly, the servants of
God rest in God's power without compromise to accomplish God's
will. Verses 50 to 58. Now listen to
the conclusion of this message. After that servant, he laid out
just as clearly as he knew how to lay it out. He said, it's
what I'm here to say. Then Laban and Bethuel answered
and said, the thing proceedeth from the Lord. We cannot speak
unto thee bad or good. Behold, Rebekah is before thee.
You take her and go. Let her be thy master's son's
wife, as the Lord has spoken. It came to pass that when Abraham's
servant heard their words, he worshipped the Lord, bowing himself
to the earth. And the servant brought forth
jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, and gave
them to Rebekah. He gave also to her brother,
to her mother, precious things they did eat and drink. He and the men that were with
him, they tarried all night. They rose up in the morning,
and he said, send me away unto my master. And her brother and
her mother said, well, let the damsel abide with us a few days,
at least 10. After that, she shall go. 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. You know what
they'd done. They heard everything he had
to say. And they said, well, we give our blessing. We give
our blessing. Well, just let her hang around
here. Let her hang around here, maybe
10 days at least, you know. This thing is not, this is not
such a vital issue that we've got to deal with this today,
is it? I mean, I understand this is important, and I know you're
probably a man of God, and I understand all that, but let her stay for
a while, you know. No man. having put his hand to the plow
and look back is worthy. I'm going to show you the mark
of a believer. They said, we give you our blessing
but now let's just don't make this such a vital issue. We understand all these things
and it's, you know. He said, verse 57, they said,
we'll call the damsel. We give you our blessing, but
we call the damsel. Let's inquire at her mouth. Let's
ask her. And they called Rebecca and said
unto her, now here's my question to every one of us. Will thou
go with this man? And she said, I'll go. I'll go. Yes, I will. I'll go and I'll
go right now. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. Salvation is of the Lord. Of the Lord. The Lord walked
up to a man one day who was sitting by the table there at customs, had some
taxes, and his name was Matthew. And he walked by that man, there
was probably a lot of people sitting around, just a big old
place and he walked up to one man, one man. He walked up to
that man and he said, follow me. He put his back, put his coat
on and went straight after him. I have a commission from the
Lord. The Lord has commissioned me
to preach the gospel of God's grace. And by God's grace, that's
what I'm going to do. I'm going to preach the gospel. I have no other message. I have
nothing else. I don't want to cloud that. If
there's something else that's an issue, I don't want to talk
about it. I want to preach the gospel. And I know this, God's
angel is going to go before and is going to bless this message.
I know that. And God's going to call his sheep
out and they're going to come. And when God Almighty gives them
a new heart, they're going to say just what Rebecca said, I'll
go. I'll go with you. Lord, bless
these words to our heart for Christ's sake, amen.