Now, Genesis 24 is a very long chapter.
I'm honestly not sure how many weeks we're going to be in this chapter,
but oftentimes in the Bible,
there's a literal application to something,
what the Bible is directly talking about,
but there's also symbolism talking about something else.
And in this chapter,
there is a literal interpretation of Abraham sending off his servant
to get a bride for his son Isaac.
That's the literal interpretation,
and we're going to cover that in the future.
But what I want to do is cover the symbolic nature of this chapter.
And you know what?
I'm not trying to overly talk about soul winning,
but honestly, this chapter very much speaks about soul winning
in a symbolic sense.
Okay?
And so I don't try to, you know,
it's funny because on Sunday we had a men's preaching day in Manila.
We had four guys preach.
Three of the sermons were about soul winning,
and one was about salvation.
It's just, you know, what we do, what we talk about,
but honestly, this is what this chapter talks about symbolically speaking.
And to understand this,
there are basically four main characters in this chapter,
and Abraham in this chapter, symbolically speaking,
represents God the Father.
Okay?
Now his son Isaac, his only son Isaac,
represents God the Son.
Right?
I mean, that's not hard to see.
If Abraham represents God the Father,
it makes sense that Isaac represents God the Son.
The servant that Abraham sends represents a saved person
who's going soul winning or a soul winner.
He's told to go out and bring a bride for his son,
and Rebecca who ends up being the bride,
she represents an unsaved person that gets saved.
Okay?
Just think about how obviously, you know,
there's Jesus Christ and there's the bride of Christ,
and saved people make up that bride of Christ.
And so basically she's not the bride of Isaac yet,
but then once she's brought on to Isaac,
she becomes the bride of Isaac.
And so in a symbolic sense,
she becomes the bride of Christ.
So, you know, even just mentioning that,
you can see there's a lot of symbolism.
You can see how this really ties in with soul winning,
and we're going to look at four basic points,
things we already know about soul winning,
but just things that are very clearly mentioned here
in Genesis 24.
Point number one is we are commanded to go.
We are commanded to go and preach the gospel.
Genesis 24 verse 1,
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,
Put I pray thee thy hand under my thigh,
and I'll make thee swear by the Lord the God of heaven
and the God of the earth,
that thou shalt not take away from my son
of the daughters of the Cainites,
among whom I dwell.
Now, let me just say this,
that you can tell with him putting his hands
under his thigh,
that this is obviously a custom of that land
to make some sort of oath or agreement.
Verse number four, notice this,
But thou shalt go unto my country,
and to my kindred,
and take a wife unto my son Isaac.
So as I said, Abraham represents God the Father,
the servant represents a soul winner
or a saved person that's going out with this command,
thou shalt go, right?
And when it comes to soul winning,
we are commanded by God to go, right?
Now, the whole reason why he represents a soul winner
is because he actually does go.
Because every saved person is commanded to go.
So really, it represents a saved person
that has a command.
It's just this specific person,
saved person symbolically speaking,
actually does the commandment and goes,
which is why he also represents a soul winner
or a saved person going soul winning.
Go to Matthew 4.
Matthew 4.
Matthew chapter 4.
So one thing we see in Genesis 24
is just quite simply,
we are commanded to preach the gospel.
Of course, we know that,
but it's kind of cool to see a chapter
that maybe you've never tied together with soul winning
and just see how,
man, God's even telling us in the book of Genesis,
go out and preach the gospel.
We can see that all the way back in Genesis 24.
Matthew 4 verse 18,
And Jesus walking by the Sea of Galilee
saw two brethren, Simon called Peter,
and Andrew his brother,
casting a net into the sea,
for they were fishers.
And he saith unto them,
follow me and I will make you fishers of men.
And they straightway left their nets and followed him.
So Jesus uses an example they can understand
because they are actually fishing at this time.
And he uses that symbolically to represent
being a fisher of men.
Now, of course, as they're fishing,
they're going after the fish.
What he's saying is,
hey, if you become a fisher of men,
instead of going after the fish,
you know, throwing in your reel
and trying to bring those fish in,
you're gonna be going after men.
And of course, we do that by using our feet
and going from location to location,
knocking doors, walking to people in the park, right?
But we're the ones going after them.
And the commandment has always been
that we go reach the loss.
Go to Matthew 9.
Matthew chapter 9.
Matthew chapter 9 verse 35,
And Jesus went about all the cities and villages,
teaching in their synagogues
and preaching the gospel of the kingdom,
and healing every sickness
and every disease among the people.
But when he saw the multitudes,
he was moved with compassion on them
because they fainted and were scattered abroad
as sheep having no shepherd.
Then saith he unto his disciples,
the harvest truly is plenteous,
but the labors are few.
Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest
that he will send forth labors into his harvest.
And he says, there's just few people,
few labors doing the work of soul winning.
You know, these past several days,
you know, we got a lot of people saved.
Just as a church here,
we got over 60 salvations this past week.
You know, we did great work.
But you know, it's not like we have
a whole lot of people doing the work.
Now at our church, most everybody is a soul winner,
but it's still a small percentage of Pampanga.
I mean, I think we had 20 people
that went soul winning during the event,
but there's like 2 million people in Pampanga, right?
So I mean, 20 is a very small percentage of 2 million.
And the reality is there's just very few people
that are doing the work, that are laboring.
And what the Bible says is pray
that he's gonna send forth labor.
So if he's sending people, well, they're going, right?
So you command somebody to go and you're sending them.
They go, you send, right?
So it's the same thing that's being stated there,
going as he's sending them.
Just like Abraham sent his servant, right?
Go to Matthew 10, Matthew 10.
Matthew 10 is the famous chapter on soul winning,
right after Matthew 9, verse number five.
These 12 Jesus sent forth and commanded them saying,
go not into the way of the Gentiles
and into any city of the Samaritans, enter ye not,
but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Once again, he says, go, right?
You're never gonna see this commandment in the Bible
to just gather a bunch of lost people into a church building
and then preach the gospel to them.
It's always you go and do it, right?
Now that's the method of kind of the generic Christian
non-denominational type, the Billy Graham sort of atmosphere
where basically you gather together a bunch of lost people
and one person preaches a sermon
and supposedly like 20% of a crowd
of like a hundred thousand people get saved.
First off, soul winning doesn't work that way.
You preach to a hundred people at one time
and you're not getting 20 people saved, right?
When you preach to large crowds,
it just doesn't work, right?
No, of course, we take any opportunity we can.
I mean, if I get a chance to preach to hundreds of people,
if they invited me to preach to 50,000 people the gospel,
I'm gonna do it, right?
Of course, we take every opportunity.
Do it at a wedding, do it at a funeral,
any chance you get when we go to the park,
if there's 20 people that wanna listen,
by all means, we're gonna do it.
But as you add more people, the percentage of people
that are gonna get saved in that group is gonna be less
because a lot of people are gonna fade out in the crowd
and oftentimes people just have questions or things
that are kind of holding them back.
And you start adding a lot of people,
there's a lot of distractions.
It's just not the method that the Bible ever speaks about.
I wish it would work that way.
I wish that we could just plan some event,
have a thousand people come here because of free food,
preach the gospel, we got 500 saved.
It doesn't work that way.
The 500 gets saved by us just spending a lot of time,
week after week after week after week.
Even in a week where he did a lot of soul winning,
we still got 61 salvations, I think, this past week.
That's less than one eighth of 500.
I mean, it's gonna take a long time to get to 500.
We're gonna get there this year, no doubt about that,
but it takes time.
It's not something we can do immediately.
The Bible always says, go.
And here's what's interesting about this.
Jesus was preaching to a large crowd.
And what he says is, there's just too many people.
Right, I mean, you don't see Jesus stop
when he preaches to 10,000 people.
Right, he feeds 5,000 men plus women and children.
You don't see him preaching the gospel.
I mean, if the gospel really worked that way
and it would really be that effective,
he would have probably just preached the gospel.
But what he says is, we don't have enough laborers.
Now, I'm not saying nobody can get saved in a sermon.
I'm just saying the vast majority of people get saved
when someone one-on-one talks to them.
That's how I got saved.
That's how most of us got saved.
And what I've seen is people that get saved from preaching,
they usually hear like 50 sermons before they get saved.
It's not just one sermon and they get it.
It usually takes a lot more time to absorb it.
It's just not the main method.
By all means, if you can get unsaved people
to listen to preaching, then by all means, that's fine.
We would let unsaved people come to our church
and they could stay here for months
as long as they're not causing problems.
By all means, that's fine.
Right, I mean, an unsaved person would be welcome
to be at our church, and then over time,
sometimes those people will end up getting it,
but honestly, someone just talking to them one-on-one
would be a much better way for them to get saved, right?
That's what we see in the Bible.
He says the laborers are fused, so he says,
go, because there's a lot of work to do.
Go to Matthew 28, Matthew 28.
Matthew chapter 28.
Yeah, I think a lot of people,
because I think it's just very clear in the Bible
that the basic method of soul winning,
that you just go out and you preach to people.
I think people try to change it because it's hard work.
It's not easy.
You know, when we do our soul winning events,
we rejoice at these events.
We have a great time.
It's exciting, but the reality is,
as you're preaching the gospel over and over again,
oftentimes you fight against the flesh
because it's tiring, you want to relax, you know.
It's not easy to do.
Preaching over and over and over again.
I'm always very excited at these events, though,
because regardless of how difficult it is,
at the end, you're like, man, you know,
20 people got saved or whatever, you can rejoice.
But it's not like it's always fun during it.
I mean, sometimes it's very tiring, right?
I mean, I enjoy preaching the gospel.
Don't misunderstand me, but sometimes if you preach
to several people in a row, it's like, man, again?
It's like, I'm tired, I want to rest, I want to relax.
At the end, you're always thankful to do it,
but here's what I'm saying.
I think a lot of people,
they want to try to change the methods
because they don't want to do the work.
It's hard, it's not easy, right?
Matthew 28, verse 18.
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying,
all power is given onto me in heaven and in earth.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
And, you know, this is obviously the Great Commission,
but the word I'm focusing on there in verse 19 is go.
And he says, go ye, ye is plural, right?
This is a commandment for all of us.
Anyone who's saved has that commandment
to go and preach the gospel.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations.
Go to Mark 16, Mark 16, Mark 16.
We'll look at one more place
and we'll jump back into Genesis 24.
Mark chapter 16.
You say, Brother Sucky, why didn't Abraham
just wait for the bride to come to Isaac?
Because he knew it wasn't going to happen.
He says, I've got to send out the servant
to bring her back, right?
And just like God sends us out to do the soul wedding,
same thing.
Mark 16, verse 15.
And he said unto them, go ye into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature, right?
And we preach the gospel to every creature
and if they accept the message
and they receive the message,
then they then become part of the bride of Christ, right?
Is a terminology that the Bible uses.
Same thing in this story with this woman.
You know, once she decides to come back,
she becomes the bride of Isaac, right?
Now, turn back to Genesis 24.
Genesis 24.
And the first thing we see in Genesis 24,
and we're not going to look at every verse.
There's so many verses in this chapter,
but the first thing is that the servant,
the saved person, symbolically speaking,
is commanded to go,
just as we are commanded to go to preach the gospel.
Point number two,
this is the only way for Isaac to find his bride
and it's the only way for this woman
to end up finding Isaac,
just like this method of us going and preaching the gospel
is the only way to bring unsaved people to salvation.
They're not going to do it on their own.
The only way for them to get saved and come unto Christ
is as soul owners go and preach the gospel.
And also the only way for Jesus
to be able to get part a bride of Christ, right?
Get more saved people is we do the work.
Jesus cannot go after them on his own.
The difference when he walked this earth
is he was God and man, right?
Born of the Virgin Mary.
And yes, he was preaching the gospel while he was here.
We see that in scripture.
He's not going to preach the gospel now, right?
When he went up to heaven,
no more is he going to preach the gospel.
The angels aren't going to do it.
And so there's no way for him to get people saved,
go after them,
and there's no way for them to come unto Jesus on their own.
It's the method of soul owners going, right?
This is the only way.
Genesis 24 verse 16,
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 and came up.
So this woman, Rebecca,
it doesn't just say she's fair.
It says she is very fair.
Fair is a word to mean very maganda, very beautiful, right?
She's very beautiful.
Not just beautiful, she's very beautiful, right?
We talk about fair weather, you know, good weather.
This woman is very attractive, the Bible states.
She's not only very attractive, she's a virgin, okay?
These are good characteristics for a woman to have.
Verse 17,
And the 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.
And 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 under the trough
and ran again on the well to draw water
and drew for all his camels.
I believe earlier it said he brought 10 camels with him.
But realize she's drawing water,
getting water for these camels
and camels drink a lot of water at one time.
And there's 10 of them, right?
This is not just turning on the faucet
and then five minutes later you got water.
I mean, even that big trash can
we have in the bathroom with extra water,
that takes a long time to fill even with a faucet.
For her to actually get enough water for all those camels,
this is taking a long time.
I don't know the exact time,
but this is taking more than an hour in my opinion.
This is taking a long time to get all that water
and look, she's putting in a lot of hard work, right?
And what I'm saying is here's a very beautiful one.
She's a virgin and she's a hard worker.
I mean, this is Proverbs 31, right?
This is like a virtuous woman.
I mean, the big thing that's highlighted in Proverbs 31
in my opinion is that she's a hard worker.
That's what you really see mentioned in Proverbs 31.
This woman has everything a guy could ask for
and yet she doesn't have a husband, right?
I mean, she's like the perfect...
Look, if this woman existed in 2022,
every single guy at our type of Baptist church
would be very interested in this woman
and yet she doesn't have a husband.
And you see what the Bible's showing us here
is that the best of unsafe people
can still not get saved on their own.
Even if they have all the perfect characteristics.
I mean, they don't drink, they don't smoke,
they read the scriptures, they pray to God,
they're doing every single thing right,
yet they still cannot find Jesus.
They still can't find Isaac symbolically speaking
without a soul winner doing the work.
Go to Acts chapter 8.
Acts 8.
Let us look at a couple examples
of pretty much the perfect unsafe person.
And of course, when I say the perfect unsafe person,
I'm not saying that they're sinless
because everybody's a sinner,
which is the whole point
why they can't go to heaven on their own.
But when you look at unsafe people in Acts 8,
you're looking at a man who reads the scriptures.
That's a rare thing.
I mean, he's a good guy.
If anyone could get saved on their own,
then in Acts 8, here would be an example.
Acts 8 verse 26.
And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying,
Arise, and go toward the south,
out of the way that goeth down
from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.
And he arose, and went, and behold,
a man of Ethiopia and eunuch of great authority
under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians,
who had the charge of all our treasure,
had come to Jerusalem for to worship.
So he's putting in great effort
to go to Jerusalem to worship,
was returning and sitting in his chariot,
read Isaiah the prophet.
Then the spirit said unto Philip,
Go near and join thyself to this chariot.
And Philip ran thither to him,
and heard him read the prophet Isaiah,
and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?
And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me?
As we talked about on Saturday,
unsaved people do not understand the Bible.
He says, I cannot understand this
unless somebody guides me.
Now, when you get saved, though,
and you start reading the Bible as a saved person,
you realize, I don't need somebody to guide me.
I can actually understand this book on my own.
But an unsaved person reading the Bible
is gonna have the opinion, I just don't get this.
I need somebody to teach me.
It just goes over my head.
But isn't it true once you get saved
and start reading the Bible?
Oh, it makes sense.
I mean, obviously there's deep things,
but in general, the Bible makes sense, right?
And it says, And he desired Philip
that he would come up and sit with him.
The place of the scripture which he read was this.
He was led as a sheep to the slaughter,
and like a lamb done before a shearer,
so opened he not his mouth.
In his humiliation his judgment was taken away,
and who shall declare his generation?
For his life is taken from the earth.
I mean, he's reading about the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's reading prophetical scripture,
and the eunuch answered Philip and said,
I pray thee of whom speaketh the prophet this?
Of himself or of some other man.
I mean, if there's a place in the Bible
that you're gonna get saved from reading on your own
in the Old Testament,
it's gonna be a prophecy of Jesus Christ,
and yet goes straight over his head.
He doesn't get it.
He doesn't understand it.
You say, why?
He's not saved.
He doesn't get it.
I mean, David would often prophesy as well
about Jesus Christ, and you know what?
An unsaved person reading that would be like,
oh, is he speaking about himself?
I mean, what is he talking about?
Now, as a saved person,
you can understand these things
when you read the scripture,
but as an unsaved person, he reads this.
He does not get it.
Then Philip opened his mouth
and began at the same scripture
and preached unto him Jesus,
and so Philip uses that scripture
and explains it, and boom, the eunuch gets it.
Why?
Because as an unsaved person,
he needed somebody to guide him,
and look, this is the only way
for an unsaved person to come unto Christ,
for Rebecca to come unto Isaac,
is that a soul winner intercedes
between Jesus and the unsaved person
and brings the unsaved person to Jesus Christ.
Go to Acts 10.
Acts 10.
I mean, obviously, you go to soul winning,
you get a lot of people saved,
and people come from different backgrounds,
and I'm not saying we know everything
about people that we talk to,
but many people that I've gotten saved,
I mean, seem like very nice people.
You know what I mean?
They really seem like decent,
good, upstanding people,
because honestly, those that actually listen
to the gospel usually are living actually
more clean lives, I think.
Usually, they're the ones that actually want
to hear the word of God,
but I think many people, we get saved.
They don't drink.
They don't party.
They don't smoke.
Even though they might listen
to some bad music in movies,
I think a lot of them are trying,
not to, they feel bad about it.
I mean, they're really trying to do right,
but so is this Ethiopian eunuch.
You can't get saved on your own,
and yet they're just not saved.
Why?
They need somebody to explain it.
You know, the most, the example I have
from personal experience that really resonated
with me about this is a woman
I got saved in Guyana,
and I was in Guyana for a couple weeks
on a missions trip like five years ago
or something like that,
and this woman literally finished
every verse I read.
Acts 16, she finished quoting it.
Romans 6 23, she finished quoting it.
I mean, because you know what?
When people sometimes will quote John 3 16,
sometimes it's kind of awkward
because you kind of want to read it to them
because sometimes they misquote
and you want to be able to stop
and explain what it means and everything,
but every verse, she was quoting.
She knew everything, and she wasn't saved.
She literally knew all the verses on faith alone,
and she wasn't saved.
I mean, it was one of the strangest conversations
I ever had because she got saved so easily.
I was thinking, should I spend more time?
I mean, she, because she understood it so easily.
I mean, it was less than 10 minutes,
and I was literally like,
I don't know what else to say
because she's like, oh, you can never lose it.
Then it's, you're saved forever.
It's one time.
It's forever.
It's a free gift.
It's like she already knew all the verses.
It's like she just needed someone to explain it,
and she got it so easily.
I mean, I was, because my gospel isn't usually short,
and I was like, I don't really know what else to say.
She said, you're saved forever.
You can never lose it no matter what you do.
I mean, it all clicked with her immediately when I said it
because she was already reading the scripture,
and she already knew the verses.
It's just she wasn't saved.
You know, what that tells me is there's a woman
who probably has never heard the gospel before,
or if she heard it, it was at a very young age or whatever.
She just read the scripture.
She was trying to do what was right,
and yes, she wasn't saved,
and what's sad is this was not a young woman.
I mean, this was a woman who was probably in her 50s or 60s,
and it's just like, man,
can you imagine if someone like that goes to hell
because the soul winners in Guyana or wherever
are just too lazy to preach the gospel?
Someone who's ready, who knows the scriptures,
who's trying to do right,
because look, you don't memorize all these verses
as an unsaved person
unless you're trying to do what's right.
I mean, she's obviously zealous trying to do what's right,
and yes, she was unsaved,
and she just needed someone to explain it to her.
Same thing with this Ethiopian eunuch.
Go to Acts 10, Acts chapter 10, Acts 10.
And so that one more example,
the story of Cornelius, Acts 10, verse 1.
There's a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius,
a centurion of the band called the Italian band,
a devout man and one that feared God with all his house,
which gave much alms to the people
and prayed to God all way.
Here's a man who's giving alms, which is not the tithe,
but it's when you help people out in need.
He feared God with all his house,
so his entire house fears God.
They're trying to do right.
When it says he's a devout man,
you think of someone being called devoutly religious.
Being devout can be a good or a bad thing.
So for example, the people that crucify themselves
are devout to what they believe in,
but it's not in a good way.
But this is a man in a good way is devout,
meaning he probably reads the Bible every morning,
praying to God, trying to do what's right.
He's a devout man.
Verse 3, he saw in a vision evidently
about the ninth hour of the day
an angel of God coming into him and saying unto Cornelius.
And when he looked on him, he was afraid and said,
What is it, Lord?
And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms
are come up for a memorial before God,
and now send men to Joppa and call for one Simon
whose surname is Peter.
He lodged with one Simon at Tanner,
whose house is by the seaside.
He shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do.
And when he says he shall tell thee
what thou oughtest to do,
it's referring to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I'll prove that to you by Acts 11.
Go to Acts 11 because Peter retells this story.
And we're going to see the same thing in verses 13 and 14.
Basically the same as verses 5 and 6 in Acts 10,
just worded a little bit differently.
Acts 11 verse 13,
And he showed us how he had seen an angel in his house
which stood and said unto him,
Send men to Joppa and call for Simon
whose surname is Peter,
who shall tell thee words whereby thou
and all thy house shall be saved.
What is it that he oughtest to do?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Peter preached the gospel to this unsaved person.
And we're seeing that Peter was sent.
Peter went to preach the gospel
and that was the only way for this person
to come on to Christ.
Even though he feared God,
even though he's giving alms,
even though he's trying to do right,
and yet he could not find the Savior on his own.
Just like Rebecca was pretty much the perfect woman
for a saved person trying to serve God
and yet she couldn't find a husband, right?
Go to Genesis 24.
Genesis 24.
And let's drop down to verse number 37.
And the Bible reads,
And my master made me swear,
saying, Thou shalt not take a wife to my son
and the daughters of the Canaanites
in whose land I dwell.
But thou shalt go unto my father's house
and to my kindred,
and take a wife unto my son.
Here's the thing.
Rebecca can't find a husband on her own, right?
The servant intercedes and helps her.
But Isaac can't find a wife on his own either.
Now here's the thing.
Isaac, symbolically speaking,
is representing the Lord Jesus Christ.
I think Isaac was probably
a pretty good catch-two for girls, right?
Probably a hard-working guy,
good-looking guy, nice guy.
He's probably the exact perfect guy
that a godly lady would want to marry
and yet he couldn't find a wife.
So you've got Isaac who can't find a wife.
Rebecca can't find a husband.
And both of them are a great catch.
And what the Bible's trying to show us
is that, you know what?
Unsaved people, no matter how good they are,
cannot come unto Christ.
And look, Christ on His own
cannot bring unsaved people to salvation
because He's not preaching the gospel to anybody.
Yeah, I understand.
God is all-powerful.
But you know what?
He specifically states certain things in scriptures
and He states that people get saved
by soul winners going and preaching the gospel.
And so symbolically speaking,
you've got two perfect people pretty much
and yet they cannot find a spouse.
Why?
Because you need the soul winner to intercede.
Go back to verse number five.
Point number one,
we are commanded to go and preach the gospel.
Point number two, that is the only way
for an unsaved person to get saved.
It's an only way for Christ
to find more people to make up that right of Christ.
Point number three,
the people we talk to have the opportunity
to accept or reject the gospel.
Just like Rebecca had the opportunity
to reject going to Isaac as her husband.
Notice what it says in verse five.
And the servant said unto him,
Peradventure the woman will not be willing
to follow me onto this land.
Lest I needs bring thy son again
unto the land from whence thou camest.
And the servant says,
okay, I got this requirement.
I got to bring back a wife.
So let's say I find the perfect woman.
What if she refuses to come?
What do I do?
And symbolically speaking with soul winning,
what it would mean is,
what if we knock on a door,
we walk up to someone
and you know what,
they're not interested in listening to the gospel.
And what you're seeing is,
there is a possibility they won't be interested.
Go to verse number 57, verse 57.
And Abraham retells that
and he says, yes, you know what?
There's not a guarantee.
There's not a guarantee
that she's going to come.
And what you're seeing is,
there was an opportunity
to accept or reject for Rebecca.
Verse 57,
And they said,
We will call the damsel
and inquire at her mouth.
And they called Rebecca and said unto her,
Wilt thou go with this man?
Are you going to go, right?
Symbolically speaking,
are you going to go to the Savior?
And she said, I will go.
She made the choice to marry Isaac.
And look, unsaved people,
they have a choice.
There's no guarantee
they're going to get saved
when we talk to them,
but they have a choice
when we talk to them.
Some don't even want to listen to us.
Most people do not want to listen to us,
especially door to door, right?
Most people are not interested in listening, right?
They have their choice.
And look, in this story,
Rebecca was not required to marry Isaac.
She was given a choice.
And the servant made that statement.
He's like, what if I find the perfect woman
and she's just not willing to follow?
There was that possibility
that she would not go.
Just as when we talk to unsaved people,
they have their choice as well.
And here's the thing,
the servant explains the message
to Rebecca and to the family.
And she's got that choice
to, you know, accept or reject.
Here's the thing,
we preach the Gospel
and explain it very thoroughly,
but then they've got that choice.
And many people hear the Gospel,
they don't believe it.
They choose to reject it.
They decide to believe something else.
They decide not to come under the Savior.
You know what?
They have that free will choice.
Verse 59,
And they sent away Rebecca their sister
and her nurse,
and Abraham's servant and his men.
And they blessed Rebecca
and said unto her,
Thou art our sister,
be thou the mother of thousands of millions,
and let thy seed possess the gate
of those which hate them.
And Rebecca rose in her damsels,
and they rode upon the camels
and followed the man.
And the servant took Rebecca
and went his way.
And Isaac came from the way
of the well of the hyroi,
for he dwelt in the south country.
And Isaac went out to meditate
in the field of the eventide,
and he lifted up his eyes and saw,
and behold, the camels were coming.
So he lifts up his eyes
and then what's happening?
Well, the servant has brought this woman
to Isaac.
Just like we are bringing people
on to the Savior.
We preach the gospel.
We try to get them to believe.
We end by having them call
in the name of the Lord.
We're bringing them to the Savior.
Go to Acts 26.
Let us look at an example
of someone who rejects the gospel message.
Acts 26.
Acts 26, verse 26.
For the king knoweth of these things
before whom also I speak freely,
for I am persuaded that none of these things
are hidden from him,
for this thing was not done in a corner.
King Agrippa, believeth thou the prophets.
I know that thou believeth.
This is Paul preaching to King Agrippa.
Then Agrippa said unto Paul,
Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.
My opinion, verse 28,
is one of the saddest things
is one of the saddest verses in the Bible.
Because as soul winners,
we have all experienced this.
There are many times you preach to people
and, you know, sometimes you preach to people,
you don't think they're going to get saved
and they end up getting saved.
And man, you're joyous afterwards.
Sometimes you talk to people
and you think they're going to get saved.
And then Paul, he thinks there's a chance.
Now, Paul was not ignorant.
He's been doing this for a long time.
So you can tell by their body language
and how they respond.
I'm sure Paul, as he's explaining it,
he's saying he can tell Agrippa's hearing this.
It's making sense to him.
And he's like, I know that thou believeth.
And then Agrippa's like,
Almost thou persuadest me.
Now, in the modern versions,
they just changed this
and they destroy this story
because in the modern versions,
Agrippa mocks Paul,
like in the NIV, and says,
You think you can make me become a Christian
in such a short time?
Well, that doesn't even make sense
because Paul is an experienced soul winner
and we can tell if someone is interested or not, right?
Like, you know, today I was soul winning.
I got one person saved,
but I also preached to someone
who just was not paying attention.
They started looking at their phone.
Their eyes start looking around.
It's like their nonverbal cue to say,
I'm not interested anymore.
Please leave, right?
When you're experienced at soul winning,
you notice those things.
Paul was more experienced than us.
I'm sure he could tell
by the way that Agrippa was looking,
by his reaction.
I'm sure he could tell,
Hey, this is making sense to him.
And then the sad words,
Almost thou persuadest me, right?
Here's Agrippa with his chance
and he chooses to reject the message.
And Paul said, I would to God
that not only thou,
but also all that hear me this day,
because Paul's preaching to a lot of people
at this time.
There's Agrippa, there's Festus,
but there's other people.
We're both almost
and altogether such I am
except these bonds.
And he's saying,
I wish everyone was not just close
to being saved,
but just as I am,
except not arrested like me, right?
I want them to get saved
and not be arrested like me, right?
And as far as we know,
we will never see King Agrippa one day.
Now, I hope I'm wrong.
I hope that Agrippa ended up getting saved
and we don't hear about it.
I just kind of feel like
if that happened,
the Bible would tell us that.
I could be wrong.
I hope I am.
But the reality is that
when someone first hears the gospel,
that is when it's really on their minds.
And when they have this attitude,
one day I'll think about this.
As time goes by,
it just kind of fades out, right?
The word's sown in their hearts
and if they don't deal with it then
and just put it to the side,
usually it just completely fades out.
Now, there's exceptions to that,
but usually if they don't get saved at that time
or soon after that,
they're probably never getting saved, right?
Hopefully one day they'll hear the gospel again,
but honestly, that's probably usually not the case.
As far as we know,
Agrippa never got saved.
Say why?
Because just because people hear us
and listen to us
does not guarantee that they're going to get saved.
Go to Genesis 24.
Genesis 24.
I wish everybody we talked to automatically got saved.
That would be great.
But that's just not the case.
I wish that 90% of people we talked to get saved,
but that's not the case either.
Many people hear it
and they just either aren't interested.
They kind of...
You know, I don't know.
Partially I feel like because to be honest,
I had a higher percentage of people
getting saved in America than here.
Less people listen to me,
but when they listen,
they're more likely to get saved.
I feel like some people are just kind of curious.
Oh, this guy's speaking Tagalog.
And then I realized five minutes in,
they really don't care
about what I'm saying.
They're just kind of curious, right?
So for me, I'm like,
I kind of wish, you know,
that they would just not listen at all
if they're not really all that interested, right?
But what I found is
a lot of people, they listen
at least for part of it
and they just fade out.
Or even if they listen to the end,
many people hear it at the end
and you ask them,
well, what do you have to do to be saved?
And they still say,
gumo anang mabuti.
Or they're like,
hindiya koshur, right?
Where they're like,
I hear what you're saying,
but I'm just not sure, right?
And look,
Rebecca had her choice to accept or reject.
Just like unsafe people have that choice as well.
Point number one,
we are commanded to go.
Point number two,
this is the only way for unsafe people to get saved.
Point three,
they have an opportunity to accept or reject
when we go and preach them.
And point four,
what do we do if they're not interested
or we just move on
if they're not interested?
And that's what we see here in Genesis 24.
Because let's go back to verse five
and look at what's being said here
in the reaction of Abraham.
The servant said unto him,
peradventure the woman will not be willing
to follow me onto this land.
Must I needs bring thy son again
onto the land from whence thou camest?
He's saying,
if I find the perfect woman
and she does not come onto Isaac,
should I bring Isaac onto her basically?
Right?
Verse six,
And Abraham said unto him,
Beware that thou bring not my son thither again.
He's like,
don't take my son there.
The Lord God of heaven,
which took me from my father's house
and from the land of my kindred
and which spake unto me
and the swearing of me saying,
unto thy seed will I give this land.
He shall send his angel before thee
and thou shalt take a wife on my son from thence.
And if the woman will not be willing to...
So he's saying,
the commandment is,
you go and bring the woman to Isaac.
Right?
Which is what we do when we go soul winning.
We bring them to the Savior.
The Savior doesn't go
and meet them at their level.
They've got to come to the level of the Savior
and believe on Jesus.
Right?
Verse eight,
And if the woman will not be willing
to follow thee,
then thou shalt be clear from this my oath.
Only bring not my son thither again.
What he's saying is,
hey,
if the woman refuses to come,
you know what?
My commandment to you,
you're free of it.
You did your job.
I sent you out to get a wife
and you find a woman
and she's unwilling to follow
and she's the perfect woman.
Because here's the thing,
as we go out soul winning,
we're looking for those
that are the right candidates.
And he can tell Rebecca is the right candidate
because this is a woman that's a hard worker.
She has a good attitude.
He's like this.
And he's wondering in the story,
which we'll talk about as we later on
as we actually explain this in a literal sense.
He's wondering,
is this the woman?
Right?
And as we go soul winning,
we think the same thing,
especially as we go soul winning in parks.
Kind of looking around,
which one is most likely to get saved?
Right?
Because if there's a lot of people at the park,
I don't try to talk necessarily
to every single person
because some people I make a judgment on.
Especially as we had our event at Astor Park,
there's a lot of people there.
Right?
There's this one guy who had like
tattoos like everywhere
and he looked like he was some sort of criminal.
I just thought he's probably less likely to get saved.
And then they were like,
I think they were doing drugs at the park
or something like that.
Him and his buddy and just I was like,
yeah, there's a reason I didn't talk to that guy.
I mean, he literally looked to me
like he worshipped the devil.
That's the only person at Astor Park
I would have said that about.
That guy looked like he might worship the devil.
And you know what?
I decided not to talk to that guy.
You say why?
Because there's hundreds and hundreds
and hundreds of people to talk to at the park.
Right?
And so you kind of make your choice.
And in the story,
he sees this woman
and look,
if this woman was just an ungodly woman,
just, you know,
cursing and using the Lord's name in vain,
he's going to know
that's not the one that God's chosen.
Right?
But he looks at Rebecca
and she seems like the perfect one
and he wonders in the story.
He's like,
is this the woman?
Same thing as we're going soul winning.
We're trying to find the right person.
And you know,
sometimes you start talking to someone
and you realize they're just not interested or whatever.
You realize they're not the right person.
And so here's the thing.
If someone is not interested
or if during the conversation,
they, you know,
fade out or whatever,
what do you do?
Well, you're clear from this my oath.
Meaning God has commanded us to go out
and preach the gospel.
And the blood is on our hands
if we don't do what God says.
We're responsible for that.
But here's the thing.
What if we go out soul winning
and nobody gets saved?
Is that our fault?
No.
Because we did what God told us to do.
I mean,
if this servant did his job
and the woman refused to follow,
that's not his fault.
Because he did exactly what Abraham said.
Because he's asking them the story.
What if she refuses to follow?
What if I find the perfect woman for Isaac
and she refuses to follow?
You're clear from this my oath.
And here's the thing.
As we go soul winning,
if people don't get saved,
we're clear from the commandments.
I mean,
we did our job.
If you preach the gospel to a family member
and you try your whole life
and they never get saved,
that is not your fault.
You don't have to feel guilty
like you didn't do enough to get them saved.
Look,
if you tried preaching the gospel to them
and they never got saved,
and then they...
Because, you know,
many times with family,
you preach the gospel,
they don't get saved,
and then they completely shut that door.
And there's no opportunity.
It's like,
what are you going to do?
Right?
Now, of course,
we keep trying.
We hope that opportunity will come.
But here's the thing.
God's not going to hold you accountable
if someone does not get saved
and you did your part.
Right?
If we go door to door in these neighborhoods,
and at some doors they're not interested,
well,
we tried.
We don't have to knock on that same door
every single day for the next 10 years
until they get saved.
It's like,
we did our job.
We're clear from this mouth.
Hopefully, when we knock again,
six months later,
they will listen.
But if not,
it's not our fault.
Genesis 24,
look at verse 21.
Verse 21.
Genesis 24, verse 21.
And the man wondering at her
held his peace to wait
whether the Lord had made his journey
prosperous or not.
Now,
here in verse 21,
it says the man held his peace.
And to hold your peace,
what that means,
it's a phrase,
it's an expression.
He didn't say anything.
He held his peace.
He didn't say anything.
Right?
And what he's trying to find out in verse 21
is did the Lord make my journey prosperous?
He's trying to find the right woman
and he thinks he might have found her.
And he's right.
This is the right woman.
Same thing as we go soul winning.
But what's kind of interesting
is kind of the dual application
because holding your peace
literally means not saying anything.
But I can't help but think
holding the gospel of peace,
meaning not preaching
the gospel of peace to someone.
Because as we go soul winning,
we're trying to figure out
is this the woman?
Is this the person we can get saved?
And it's like you walk up,
you realize they're not.
It's like you hold the gospel of peace.
You don't preach to them.
Now going door to door,
we just ask everybody.
But if they're not interested,
we just move on to the next door.
As we go to parks though,
we're trying to find out
and you're looking around
who's the right person to talk to?
I'm going to hold my peace here.
I'm going to actually say something to this person
because I think they might get saved.
Go to Matthew 10.
We'll get just two more places.
Matthew 10.
I mean, yes, this chapter is a very literal application
in Genesis 24.
I think the symbolism of soul winning
is very interesting in Genesis 24.
Look, this is one of those chapters
where you realize no man
could have written the Bible.
You know what I mean?
Like no man could like write this
and put all this symbolism in
and have everything fit like this.
It's just obvious this was written by God.
Take off the dust of your feet.
And look, when we come to a house
and they don't want to receive our words,
you hold your peace
and then explain the gospel of peace
at the next door.
Same thing we saw in Genesis 24.
And you don't have to turn there for sake of time,
but the Bible also says
a man that is in heretic
after the first and second admonition reject.
So as we preach the gospel,
if they want to argue with us
and don't want to listen,
then it's like we just move on.
And this happens.
We talk to some people
that want to do like all the talking.
The example I gave the other day
from Astra Park
was that woman who told me
she was a missionary
and she was doing like 80% of the talking
and then she really had a problem
with faith alone.
And she's like, no, it's not.
You can't just believe.
And she went to a Baptist church.
I was like, it's like,
faith alone is so foreign to you, right?
I mean, she went to a Baptist church.
She's like, it's works.
You got to do work.
She can't just believe, right?
What do you do?
Well, you just move on to somebody else
because there was plenty of people
in the park that wanted to listen.
She didn't want to listen.
She wasn't willing to receive the words.
And we move on.
You say, well, Brother Stuckey,
are we accountable
if they don't get saved?
No, you're clear from this my oath.
That's what Abraham,
which represents God the Father,
is saying to the person
who represents the soul owner,
the servant, right?
And look, we are servants
of God the Father.
We are here to do his mission.
We are the ones given
the ministry of reconciliation.
We are sent out
to preach the gospel to people.
And this is the only way
for people to get saved.
They've got a choice
when we preach the gospel.
And if they don't want to get saved,
we just move on.
It's that simple.
I mean, nothing new in this sermon,
but it's just very interesting
how Genesis 24
tells us everything about soul winning
that we already know
from other scriptures in the Bible as well.
Let's go to the word of prayer.