All right, brethren, I ask Brother Chef to read that passage. I want to preach from there. Genesis 24. I pray the Lord to bless us today. This is such a beautiful picture. An allegory is historical facts. It's things that really happen to illustrate gospel truth, to illustrate the gospel. And that's what this is. This is just amazing in itself that God orchestrated the lives of men and women in the Old Testament to give us pictures of Christ and God's grace and how he saves. That in itself is amazing.

That should show us God's absolutely sovereign over us and everything. He painted us a picture here using the lives of men and women. But in this passage now, we see an allegory of the grace of God in saving his elect. It's an allegory of how God the Father saves those he chose as the bride for Christ his son and brings us to Christ his son. That's the picture here.

Abraham called Eleazar, he was his servant, and he sent him down to Mesopotamia to find a bride for his son Isaac. Abraham represents God the Father, and Isaac represents the Lord Jesus. Abraham's servant, Eliezer, represents you and me who he's called, who are witnesses, particularly his preacher, but all of us are his witnesses. And Rebecca represents God's elect, a chosen child of God, who together we make up the bride of Christ, the church of the Lord Jesus.

I've titled this A Bride for the Son. That's why this world's held in store right now. God the Father will have a bride for his son, and he's calling that bride, each individual child, to Christ. Now let's see what we can learn from this. First of all, God calls his servant. And God sends his servant, and we have a very specific purpose for being witnesses. We have a very specific purpose. He said there that, verse two, Abraham said to his eldest servant of his house that ruled over all that he had, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh. And I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven 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 God does everything in this world according to his eternal purpose. We have a picture of it right here. Everything's according to God's eternal purpose. And that purpose is, to save a people that he chose by his grace to be the bride of his son, to be his son's bride, Christ our husband.

There are people in this world who God the Father chose freely by his grace. You that believe, believe because that's so. He called you, he did this for you and brought you to Christ. But there's still people in this world that God the Father chose to save. who are yet lost, they gotta be called. But they're gonna be called to Christ, and you that have been called know Christ is our husband. The reason husbands and wives exist is to glorify Christ, is to glorify Christ as the husband and his elect who he saves as the bride. That's why husband and wife exist.

Isaiah 54.5 says, is thine husband. The Lord of hosts is his name, the redeemer, thy redeemer, the holy one of Israel, the God of the whole earth shall he be called. You know Ephesians 5, a woman's husband is her head because Christ is the head of the church. It pictures the relationship of Christ the head with his bride.

And the scripture says, Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it That's the real purpose of it is to show a picture Christ gave his life he loved his bride his church and gave his life for her and and the scripture says We're members of his body of his flesh and of his bones for this reason For this call shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife and they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

God created Adam and he put him in a deep sleep and he took a rib out and he made a woman out of Adam and he brought her to Adam and he said, this is now your wife. And he did all of that to picture the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ came down, and he went to the cross, and he was in a deep sleep, as it were. He died, he laid down his life for his people, and out of his wounded side, he made a perfect, righteous, virgin bride in his perfection, in his righteousness, in his holiness.

And now he's calling that bride to himself, and he's doing it through the preaching of the word that exalts him. I love how when you read through that, it just struck me, listening to it, how that you hear what the Lord's gonna do, and then Eleazar asks the Lord to do what he will do, and then he repeats to them what the Lord did, and that's really what we're sent to do. We're sent to tell sinners what Christ did for us and Repeat it repeat it repeat it You know if you think I'll repeat messages or I'll repeat the same phrases or the same subjects whether it's as I'm preaching one message I keep repeating it or or just over time. I repeat the same path. It's cuz that's what we're supposed to do to put you in remembrance and to repeat, repeat, repeat the same message, just like you see Eliezer repeating over and over and over what happened, what the Lord did. That's what we're to do, because that's how God's gonna save his people. We're saved through the preaching that exalts Christ.

When he sent forth his disciples and his apostles into the world, the charge is this, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. The church today, the so-called church, I'm just talking about the visible church that is mostly false, they think the charge is to go and make disciples. Well, that will come, but the charge, number one, is preach the gospel of Christ. Preach the gospel of Christ.

And that's what we have here. We have God's servant going forth, picture of his preacher and his people sending the gospel forward, for which God's gonna save his people. That's the purpose of God. That's why this world's in store right now. Now, the second thing I want you to see is when the Lord calls us to preach him, he makes us faithful. He does, so that we cannot compromise. We cannot water down this gospel. We cannot take the offense out of the gospel. It wouldn't be the gospel then.

Look here, verse five, Abraham had made him swear that he would take this bride from among God's chosen people. Now look, and then in verse five, the servant said to 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? Must I bring your son down to her? And Abraham said unto him, beware that thou bring not my son thither again.

What if you're preaching and a sinner's not willing to believe the gospel? Do you bring Christ down? Do you put some of the work into the sinner's hand? Do you tell the sinner it's of his will and that he can keep the law and it's partly Christ and partly him? Do you bring Christ down?

No, that wouldn't be the gospel. That wouldn't be the gospel. Listen, Paul said, Christ sent me not to baptize. Well, Paul, you baptized some people you just said you did. He's saying, that's not my chief purpose. I'm not sent forth to try to make converts. If a man thinks that's the purpose, if a church thinks that's the purpose, you know what they'll do? They'll make it happen. They'll change the message to make it happen. They'll water it down so people aren't offended. Christ said, Paul said, Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel.

Not with wisdom of words. Not trying to craft it to make it appealable to men, because that would make the cross of Christ of no effect. For the preaching of the cross, it is to them that perish foolishness. There's nobody willing to believe the gospel. There's no sinner willing. None, and the bride that Christ saved, she's not willing of herself to come. But unto us which are saved, it's the power of God, because the power that made us willing is God, and he did it through this gospel.

He said, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise. I will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. That's what God's doing when a man hears the gospel. A man thinks he has his ideas and he thinks he's wise and prudent. Boy, he's studied himself up and he knows, and God's going to make a man ignorant and stain his pride. He's going to do it through this gospel.

Why is he doing that? because he's not going to have any wise men in his church. He's not going to have any scribes in his church. He's not going to have people that can go around boasting about how much they know and how they did what they did and all that. He said, where's the wise? Where's the scribe? Where's the debater that wants to argue?

Had not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? After that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God to save by the foolishness of preaching. He said, the Jews require a sign, the Greeks seek after wisdom. That's all religion in a nutshell right there. You got half of them trying to do works to be seen, a sign that people can see that makes them say, oh yeah, I'm saved. And the other half are intellectual, just wanting to boast in their knowledge. That's all religion all under, all summed up. but we preach Christ crucified. That's our message.

Unto the Jews, a stumbling block. Why are they stumbling over Christ? Because a man that's trying to come to God by the works of the law, he can't get over this stumbling block that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it. It's a stumbling block.

And the Greeks, the Greeks just think it's foolishness. It's too dumb. We're just a bunch of country bumpkins. Y'all just wanna talk about the blood all the time. Speak some intellectual things. But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. This is why he's saving through this gospel.

Eleazar said, what if she's not willing? None are. None are willing. But the false preacher thinks the solution to that is And think of the pride in this. I can word this just so to where they won't be offended and they'll come. That's pride. That's a man thinking he has the ability to speak with such wisdom of word that he can make another sinner willing to believe when God says they aren't unwilling.

When God says the powers of him, not of us, and a man's gonna say, oh, I think I can do it. We're our own, with our tongues we'll prevail. God condemned in the psalmist. The powers of God, not of us. So get this now, if a man brings Christ down and he takes the offense out of the gospel, the powers of God, he has to bless the word preached. And if a man rejects that truth of God and he decides he's going to bring Christ down, and he's gonna worry it just so. Nobody's gonna be saved through that message because God's the power that saves through the gospel. And if the message being preached is not Christ and exalting him and abasing the sinner, God's not gonna speak and save anybody through it. Well, preacher, if that's true, you mean most of the people in the world aren't saved. I didn't say it, God did. God said there's a remnant according to the election of grace.

Paul said in Galatians 5.11, he said, our brethren, if I preach circumcision, if I just brought Christ down, if I just gave men something to do and made them think it's partly of them, he said, then I wouldn't suffer persecution. He said, but then the offense of the cross is ceased.

It's no gospel at all. It's no gospel at all. God only saves by his power, and he only saves through the message that he sent the message he made his preacher preach, which gives God all the glory in his son, and then God in power speaks and saves his elect. That's how I say, a man that, if you hear a message and it's not giving God all the glory, if it's putting something in that sinner's hand, that's not the power of God. The power of God didn't make that man preach that, that man made himself preach that. And the sinners that are there that are claiming they believe God under that message, that's not the power of God either.

That's a sinner that did that by himself. You get what I'm saying? We can't bring Christ down. Now here's the third thing. The power by which sinners are saved is entirely of God and not of us. And the way we know that I said this over and over the way we know that and what makes a man willing to preach Christ is God has made you experience the power He called you by his power through this message and you experienced it And so, you know, he's the only one that can call by his power and we see it right here Look at Genesis 24 6. I Don't know what I do with my water You know anybody sees a glass of water I could use it Genesis 24 6 look here now We're waiting on God to save by his power because we've experienced that power The Lord did that by his power and made us know it.

I look what Abraham said. He's answering that question Abraham said to him beware that thou that thou bring not my son down there, don't bring him thither again, the Lord God of heaven, which took me from my father's house and from the land of my kindred, thank you, Seth, Sean, and took me 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. You see that? Abraham said, I know he's going to go before you and I know he'll make her willing because he did it to me.

That's the only way we know this power is true. When I hear somebody preaching and they're not giving God the glory and they're not exalting Christ and they're exalting sinners, one thing I know about that person right away is they hadn't experienced the power of God. If they did, they wouldn't be preaching that. That's just so And he said, and if, verse eight, and if the woman will not be willing to follow thee, then thou shall be clear from this my oath, only bring not my son to there again. And the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham, his master, and swear to him concerning the matter.

Go to 2 Corinthians 4. I go here every time when I make this point, but it just illustrates it. It just shows it. 2 Corinthians 4. 4-5, listen to what Paul said here. He said, 2 Corinthians 4-5, we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.

How did you come to do that, Paul? What made you willing to do that? For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He knew that because God had worked that power in him. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.

You know, I'd love to see all sinners saved. I would. I'd love to see this building jam-packed like it was in 2018. I'd like to see us having to look for a new building. But brethren, that's not going to happen by watering down the gospel. That's not going to happen by preaching an offenseless, watered-down message. We've got to preach Christ. We've got to preach Christ.

Abraham said, he took me from my father's house. When the Lord speaks in power, man's leaving father and mother Sister and brother, they leaving everybody. When he said, he took me from my land. You could be, you could love the land you got, but ain't nobody love the land they grew up on more than me. I hunted and fished, I was eat, sleepin' and breathin' huntin' and fishin'. I loved it.

When the Lord calls you to where he's gonna send you, you goin'. And it's that power that makes you know he alone can work that another sinner. So you preach him. You preach him. Christ is head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all, and you hath he quickened, who were dead. He did it.

We were walking according to the course of this world under Prince of the power of the air, but God, who's rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sin, quickened us together with Christ. Well, what about my faith? That's not of yourself. It's the grace of God, lest any man should build.

We're his workmanship created in Christ Jesus. If he ordained that you're gonna believe Christ, he's gonna come and work it and make you believe him. If he ordained that you're gonna walk the rest of your days by faith, constraining your heart by the love of Christ, you're gonna end up being his workmanship. And by his grace and power, he's gonna make you walk by faith. and be constrained in your heart by his love.

That's just so. I believe that or I wouldn't preach this. I would not go through getting shot at by the areas you get shot at and all the things. I wouldn't do that if I didn't know God could save them in an instant, if they're healed. All right, now, I'm gonna have to hurry up here.

Next, we see here how dependent we are on God all the time. We're dependent on God. Verse 10, the servant took 10 camels of the camels of his master and departed, for all the goods of his master were in his hand. And he arose and he went to Mesopotamia and to the city of Nahor. Abraham was rich, and Abraham loaded up his servant with riches, everything he needed, and sent him away. Now listen. We don't have any sufficiency of ourselves. We don't have any ability in ourselves, period, for anything. Our sufficiency is of God.

But when Christ sent those 70 disciples out, he told them, don't worry about provisions, don't worry about clothes on your back or nothing. He said, go preach. And when they come back, he said to them, when I sent you without purse and script and shoes, lacked ye anything? They said nothing.

He's gonna provide for his servant. He's gonna provide for you who know him. Listen, he provided his son. He spared not his own son. He delivered him up for his all. Shall he not also with him freely give us all things? All things. Paul said, it says there, all the goods of his master was in his hand. Did you know that everything that belongs to Christ is in your hand? It's yours.

Listen to this now, 1 Corinthians 3.21. The Spirit of God said, let no man glory in men. Don't give a man glory by being fearful that a man's gonna, you know, do anything. He said, for all things are yours. All. Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death, are things present or things to come, all are yours, and you're Christ, and Christ is God's.

It don't get more secure than that. You're not more provided for than that, you'll never be. You know, when I start looking at myself, and I start looking at my bank account, I start looking at bills and all that stuff, I can get shook, I can get pretty shook up. But you know, I have to say this, Throughout my life, I've always had enough. Every day I have what I need. It's just always been that way. When I didn't think it was gonna be a possibility I was gonna be able to pay this, the Lord put it in my hand.

It's just how it's gonna be. He said, I'll give you grace for today. Don't worry about tomorrow. I'll give you grace for today. I don't mean be foolish and live above your means Go out and spend, God's gonna bless me. Be reasonable, live below your means, but you don't have to worry about it.

The Lord is going to provide for his people. He gave his son, all right? So we depend on him for all our provisions, but we also depend on him to bless this word. So we pray to him to bless it. I'm not gonna read it all, but verse 11, he goes that well. And he asked the Lord, verse 12, O Lord God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day. Show kindness to my master Abraham.

Behold, I stand here by the well of water. The daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water. Let it come to pass that the damsel to whom I shall say, let down the pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink. And she shall say, drink. And then she'll say, and I'll give your camels drink also. Let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac. Thereby I'll know that you showed kindness to my master.

And it came to pass before he'd done speaking. It always does. He said he knows what you have need of before you ask him. And while you're asking, he's answering it. He's providing. He drew you to him to ask it of him. That's the only reason you asked it of him. He gave you the need and he drew you to ask him to meet the need, and so all the while, he's giving you what you need, and then he'll give you what you need. That's what he's doing all the time.

But I love this right here. Eliezer prayed to God and said, show me she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac. That's what God's elect are, those that he's appointed for his son, the Lord Jesus. Isn't that a wonderful thought? God appointed you to salvation. He appointed you and predestinated you to be adoption, to the adoption of children. That's so of everybody he saved.

The reason we believe is we were appointed to believe. And God predestinated us right to the spot. Eleazar standing by the well. I'm standing by the well. I'm standing by Christ, the well of life, begging God, Lord, please, call one that you've appointed, make me know that's one you appointed.

I'll tell you this, what she did was very gracious. It was very gracious. And that's one thing you're gonna know when it's a person the Lord has appointed, that he saved, is they're gonna love grace. They're gonna absolutely love grace. They're gonna delight that God saves by grace apart from anything in us. And they're gonna be gracious, because grace makes you gracious. Grace makes you wanna, you know, nothing makes you wanna be more merciful to somebody than knowing you're saved entirely because God's merciful to you for Christ's sake.

What makes a peacemaker? When the Lord's made you see how he made peace between you and God, That makes you a peacemaker. You don't like to fight. You don't want to offend anybody or be at odds with anybody. You want peace because you see what it took to give you peace with God.

It took God coming and laying down his life. But I'm just saying, those that are appointed, they're going to love grace. And God is going to call every one of them. It's no doubt. You remember when the Lord told Abraham and Sarah they're going to have a son. Sarah laughed, and the Lord said, is anything too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed, I will return unto thee according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. And he did it. At the time appointed, the Lord's gonna send his gospel and quicken his child.

Why? because we've been predestinated unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ himself according to the good pleasures of his will, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance because we were predestinated according to the purpose of him that works all things after the counsel of his own will.

So you pray, you keep praying to God and asking God, Lord, Will you call that one you've appointed? Will you make it known that's one I've appointed? Will you show us who your people are? You know what they're gonna do? They're gonna come love and grace. They're gonna come bow down. They're gonna come to the well. They're gonna come to Christ. And he's gonna be all their life, all their salvation. And God'll make it known.

So the other thing is we gotta wait on the Lord. Look now, verse 21, she appeared to be the one. She answered just like he said, and she appeared to be the one. But it says, verse 21, and the man, Eliezer, wandering at her, held his peace to wit whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not. He didn't know for sure. He didn't jump the gun. He didn't, he didn't, he just held his peace.

Wait on the Lord, wait on the Lord. You know, you're gonna want somebody to be saved so badly. You want them to believe so badly. You want to see them confess Christ. Don't you put your hand to it. The Lord said, if you put your hand to it, you'll corrupt it. Don't you put your hand to it. You wait on Him. You wait on Him. And we can't be distracted. We can't get sidetracked. Our mission is to preach Christ. We're sent here and we've been assembled to give everything we can to this cause of sending this gospel forth. Look at verse 33.

And there was set meat before him to eat. This man had been traveling a long time, he's hungry. They put meat down, but he said, I will not eat till I have told mine Aaron. And he says, speak on. This man wouldn't even eat, because he said, I gotta tell you why I'm here.

There's this little small picture of the fact that don't get distracted, don't think you're here build you a fortune and build you a name and all build up an estate and put down roots in this place. Our Lord never even owned a piece of land while he walked here. Our mission here is to preach Christ. We're here to tell people the errand we're on. We're to speak of him.

And when he did speak of what he was there for, You go back, read it yourself, verse 34 through 37. He didn't say anything about himself. All he did was talk about Abraham and Isaac. He talked about Abraham and Isaac and all their riches and what good masters they were and everything they had. That's our errand, is to brag on Christ, to speak of the wealth of Christ and his riches of his righteousness and his holiness and his free forgiveness and his eternal redemption and what he does for his people. That's what we're to preach. Now here's the next thing.

I'm just about done, y'all. I'm not gonna go through this all. I just gotta show you this. God's word never returns void. We saw that this morning. But it's not for lack of folks trying to get in the way. Her family really was trying to get in the way. Laban, her brother, and her mother, all through from verse 61 to 67. But saving faith is not because a family pressured you. Saving faith is not making a decision because mom and daddy coerced you into it, or anybody else for that matter. It's not to please men. It's not to please the preacher. It's not to get your name on a church. Well, it's none of those things.

They called Rebecca and said unto her, verse 58, They called Rebekah and said unto her, wilt thou go with this man? That's what it is right there. Will you go with Christ? Will you throw it all into his hand and commit it all to him? Will you go with Christ? Sinners can't be sprinkled into the family of God. You can't be, anything be done by another.

It's a personal matter between you and God, between you and God. As many as received him, to them gave he privileged power to become the sons of God, to them that believed on his name, which were born, not of blood, it wasn't family relations. Nor of the will of the flesh, it wasn't family pressuring you. Nor of the will of man, it wasn't even your own will, but of God, but of God. It's personal.

The Spirit's gonna make you behold Christ for yourself. And everything He's gonna reveal to you that He is, is gonna make you know that's what I'm not in myself. He's righteousness, I'm unrighteousness. He's holiness, I'm unholy. He's perfect, I'm nothing but guilty, hell-deserving sinner. And that's how the Lord's gonna make you know you need Him. You need Him. You can't be saved without him. He's the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by him. None.

And she said, yes. God's word never returns void. How come she said yes? Abraham told us, the angel of the Lord will go before you. He'll make her willing. She heard, and she was willing. Everybody God saves, it's because he made them willing. Thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph. That's what we saw this morning. All that the Father gives of me, Christ said, shall come to me. They're gonna all be taught of the Father. They're all gonna be taught of him, and they're all coming. So Rebecca brought, she's brought to Isaac, just like all God's elect gonna be brought to Christ. And it says there in verse 64, she lifted up her eyes and she saw Isaac.

I picture this, I picture a Hollywood movie when I read that. I picture, you know, they're driving along on them camels and that long, And you see the beautiful landscape out across there. And she looks up, and boy, there's this good-looking man standing there, and he's just built. And she looks up there, and she's like, who is that? That's him. She's like, covered herself up. She jumped off that camel, and she's running across that field, and he's running to her across that field. That's how it is when the Lord brings you to Christ. You say, who is this? Who is this? Oh. And he's drawing you to him and he's coming to you.

Just like that father saw his prodigal son afar off. And then when he brings you to him and you're married to him, you're never going to be divorced from him. He don't put away his The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. He don't ever put away his child. He's the one thing needful that'll never be taken from you, never. All right, that's it. I pray the Lord bless it, brethren. Brother Adam.