Let's open our Bibles now to
Genesis chapter 49. Genesis 49. We'll begin our reading in verse
28. All these are the 12 tribes of
Israel, and this is that their father spake unto them and blessed
them. Everyone, according to his blessing,
he blessed them. And he charged them and said
unto them, I'm to be gathered unto my people, bury me with
my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
in the cave that is in the field of Machpeliah, which is before
Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the
field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burying place.
There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife, and there they
buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah. The purchase of the field and
of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth. And
when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered
up his feet into the bed and yielded up the ghost and was
gathered unto his people. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, we bow before you,
a grateful and a thankful people. Oh, how we thank you, Father,
for your mercy and your grace to your people that you purposed
to us in your son, through his blood, through his obedience.
Father, how we thank you. And Father, how I thank you for
this opportunity that you've given to us to meet together,
to open your word and study it, to have Christ preach to us.
Lord, as we prepare to look into it, would you be pleased to Send
your spirit upon us and enable us tonight to truly worship thee. Father, I pray that you would,
in this hour, not leave me to myself. Father, for your great namesake
and for the good of your people, don't leave me to myself. Father,
give me of your spirit. Enable me to rightly divide the
word of truth, to preach Christ in clear and simple terms that
would bless the youngest child and the oldest believer here.
Enable us to see Christ, I pray. Father, I thank you for these
last few days of Bible school we have with our children. Father,
how we beg of you that you'd be pleased to take your word
and to sow it in their hearts. That you'd be pleased to cause
it to grow to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ in your time. Of
all the Things that we ask for our children. Chiefly, above
all else, how we pray mercy for their souls. That you'd be pleased,
Father, to be merciful to them. And that you'd cause us to be
faithful, to teach them the scriptures and always point them to Christ
our Savior. And Father, we pray a blessing
for those that you brought into the time of trouble and trial. We pray for Andrea and Marvin
as they're going through this difficult, time, others, Father,
who are recovering from surgeries and preparing for surgeries and
going through deep waters of uncertainty and difficulty. Father,
I pray you'd be with your people. You promised that you'd never
leave nor forsake us, and Father, I pray you'd give them a fulfillment
of that promise. In all these things we ask and
we give thanks in that name which is above every name, the name
of Christ our Savior. I've titled the message this
evening, The Death of Our Brother Jacob. This is a subject that
I think about often, death. And I've been particularly thinking
about the death of believers a little more probably than normal
here recently. Because here just in the past
two or three weeks, I preached two funerals for two of our sisters. So this subject of the death
of a believer has been on my mind, on my heart, and Lord's
given us a good text to look at and consider this subject
this evening. Now, Jacob was talking to his sons. He knew
that in just a few moments, he was gonna die. I sometimes wonder
if I knew that, if I knew in a few moments I'm gonna die.
What would I say to my family, my children, as I gathered them
around. Well, we know what Joseph or
what Jacob would do because we've spent some weeks studying what
he said to his sons, a blessing that he gave to his sons. And here in our text this evening,
he gives some instructions to his sons about his death and
his burial. And there are a few things I
noticed about this that will be real blessings to believers
when it comes our turn to face death like this. Number one is
this. Jacob died calmly and confidently. He's not making excuses for things
in his life, is he? But he's dying calmly and confidently. Verse 28 says, all these are
the 12 tribes of Israel and this is it that their father spake
unto them and blessed them. Everyone according to his blessing,
he blessed them. Now here Jacob's dying and he's
blessing his sons. He's getting ready to leave this
world and he's blessing his sons by pointing them to Christ. Each
one of these blessings are a picture of Christ pointing them to Christ.
But now think about Jacob's life up till now. Other than Abraham,
Jacob has taken up the biggest part of the book of Genesis than
any other individual character, other than his grandfather, Abraham. We know about Jacob. Jacob hardly
did anything right the first time. I mean, just hardly ever.
The man was a cheat and a scoundrel. He was just always looking for
an edge. He was always looking for an
angle that he could get something over on somebody and get something,
you know, on the chief or something that didn't belong to him, you
know. Even if he had to be dishonest to do it, I mean, just, I mean,
maybe he didn't want to be dishonest, but he just couldn't help it.
He was just, this is just the way the man was. The man deceived
his own father and cheated his brother out of the birthright
Even though he knew God had already promised the birthright to him,
that wasn't good enough for him. He had to deceive his father
and cheat his brother. Jacob loved his family. There's
not a question about it. But the man was a weak leader.
He was not a good husband. He was not a good father. Yet
Jacob is dying in peace. Now, how can that be? Well, it's
because Jacob died trusting Christ. You know, throughout his life,
this is the thing that remained consistent with Jacob. Yes, he
was a cheat. Yes, he was a scoundrel. He was
a deceiver. But Jacob trusted God. He trusted
God. Jacob died trusting the covenant
God. Many times throughout his life,
you think back to Jacob saying he trusted in the God of his
fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac. Abraham trusted in the
covenant God, the God who made promise to him, the God who made
promise that his seed would have all the land of Canaan. The God
of promise that promised Abraham, you're gonna have a son, even
though you and Sarah are too old to bear children. Abraham
believed God. The word covenant means promise. Abraham believed the promise
of God. He believed the covenant God, and Jacob died trusting
that very same promise. Genesis chapter 28 Genesis chapter
28 Beginning in verse 12 here. Here's
Jacob. He's on the run, you know from
his brother Esau after he cheated him afraid Esau's gonna kill
him and In verse 12, he dreamed and behold a ladder set up on
the earth and the top of it reached to heaven And behold, the angels
of God ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood
above it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham, thy father, and
the God of Isaac. The land whereon thou liest,
to thee will I give it, and to thy seed. And thy seed shall
be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad
to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south.
And in thee and in thy seed shall all families of the earth be
blessed. And behold, I am with thee, and
will keep thee in all places where thou goest, and will bring
thee again into this land, for I will not leave thee until I
have done that which I have spoken to thee of. Now God here promised
Jacob, just like Abraham and Isaac, that his seed's gonna
have this land. But much more importantly, God
promised Jacob, the Savior's coming through you, in thy seed,
shall all nations of the earth be blessed. That's Christ. That's
not Jacob. That's none of his 12 sons. That's
Christ. The Savior's coming through him.
And Jacob died trusting God's promise. The Savior is coming
to save him from their sins. Now God made that same promise
to all of his people. If almighty God promised to save
you, you're saved. Isn't that right? If God promised
it, it's done. If God promised to save you,
you're saved. Then you can die in peace. Now
look over Genesis chapter 48. Jacob died trusting the Lord
who had led him his whole life long. Genesis 48, verse 15. And he blessed Joseph and said,
God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk. to God which
fed me all my life long and to this day. That word fed means
shepherded. For all of Jacob's life, the
Lord had been a shepherd to Jacob. He fed him, he led him, he kept
him from falling off a cliff, he kept him from going places
he ought not be going. He led and fed Jacob all his
life long just like a shepherd does with his sheep. Now Jacob's
on his deathbed and he's dying with no worries. Because he knew
this, even now that he's on Jordan's bank, the Lord's not gonna leave
him alone now. The shepherd's not gonna leave
him alone now. Jacob knew that the Lord would lead him over
Jordan, the same way that he led him everywhere else he went
in his life. Through every danger, toil, and snare. Through every
good day, through every bad day, the Lord always led Jacob. And
he's gonna lead him here too. So he died without any worries.
Jacob died trusting. that Christ had redeemed him.
Now here's why he can die in complete peace. There's no sin
that he can be charged with. Look in Genesis 48 verse 16. The angel which redeemed me from
all evil blessed the lads and let my name be named on them
in the name of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow
into a multitude in the midst of the earth. And Jacob says,
the angel which redeemed me. And you notice that word angel,
the A is capitalized. Jacob's talking about a name
here. This is the name of Christ. He's the angel, the messenger
of God. And Jacob said, he's redeemed
me from all evil. From all evil that I've done,
from all evil I wanted to do, from all evil I would do, from
all sin. The son of God did that now.
He did the same thing for all of his people, didn't he? Well,
if the son of God has redeemed you, you are completely redeemed
and you can die without any worries for your soul. You've been redeemed.
Now Jacob knew he was dying and he spent his last moments on
earth blessing his sons and telling them of Christ who was coming.
And I know he did it, hoping they'd trust in him the same
way Jacob did. He told them, oh, the lion of
the tribe of Judah is coming. every blessing that God has for
a sinner is gonna be found in this one who's coming. Now you
trust him. That's what Jacob died trusting. And this also stuck out to me. Jacob was not sad that he was
dying. There's no sadness in this at
all. And I know the Lord, he brings many of his people to
that point where he's weaned us away from the world and the
things of this earth just don't bring us that much pleasure anymore
so that we're finally ready to die. I wish I had a nickel for
every time Jim Meadows quoted this verse to me. Ecclesiastes
12 one. Remember now thy creator in the
days of thy youth when the evil days come not, nor the years
draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure. Jim said,
I got no pleasure left in anything here anymore. I wish the Lord
just come take me home. That's Jacob. Jacob was not sad at the
thought of dying because he had an expectation of glory with
Christ, joy with Christ. And if you're a believer, nothing's
changed from the day of Jacob until today. Things in the world
have changed a lot, but nothing's changed between God and his people.
If you're a believer, if you trust Christ, you can die with
the same peace of soul that Jacob had. A number of weeks ago, our sister
Sandy Holbrook called me and she told me I have cancer. It's in several spots in my body
and I don't know, they don't know if they have any treatment
that will work for it or not. And just a few weeks went by
and I got a call that Sandy had died. Suddenly, the Lord called
her home. But in the interim, from the
time Sandy first called me and told me she had cancer, in that
conversation and all the subsequent conversations we had, Sandy made
this abundantly clear. She did not care what the Lord
did with her. She really didn't. She didn't
care if the Lord healed her or if the Lord used this to take
her home. She did not care. And she said, I'm equally satisfied
either way, whatever the Lord has, that's what I want. Now,
you know, most people say, well, you know, I'd like to be healed,
but if not, I'm satisfied with that too. But that's not what
Sandy said. She said, I'm equally satisfied with either one. Whatever the Lord has ordained
for me is good with me. Now that's a statement, isn't
it? That's a statement. And that kind of peace can only
come from faith in Christ. That's the only way. If we trust
Christ, there are no negatives. None, zero, none. No negatives
in our debt. Now for our loved ones left behind,
there's negatives in there. There's sorrow, there's mourning,
they're gonna miss ya. But for the believer, there is not one
single solitary negative in death. Now I'm gonna show you that in
a couple scriptures. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter
seven. We'll read this one and I'll
quote the rest of them to you. You're familiar with them. But
for the believer, there are no negatives in death. Ecclesiastes
seven. Verse one. A good name is better than precious
ointment and the day of death than the day of one's birth. Now we rejoice on the day a baby's
born, don't we? And we mourn when one of our
loved ones goes home. But scripture tells us, for the
believer, the day of death is better than the day of one's
birth because you've left this world of sin. You've left this
body of sin and gone to be with the Lord. It's better. David
said in Psalm 116 verse 15, precious in the sight of the Lord is the
death of his saints. This is not a sorrowful thing,
it's precious. Precious to the Lord. He brought
one of his children, one of those that he shed his blood to redeem,
he's brought them home to him. It's precious. Paul in Philippians
1 verse 21, said for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. There's no negatives. It's all
gain. It's all gain. And then Revelation
14 verse 13, blessed, not cursed, not sorrowful, not in a bad spot,
blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. And if we die trusting
Christ, and if we could look at death the way the Lord looks
at it, we'll die in peace and calmness. All right, number two. Jacob died as part of the family
of God. Look what he says back in our
text, Genesis 49, verse 29. And he charged them and said
unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people. And then verse
33 says, when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons,
he gathered up his feet into his bed and yielded up the ghost
and was gathered unto his people, his people. Jacob said, I'm gonna
be gathered to my people. Now Jacob's people were Abraham
and Isaac and Rebekah. And here's what I know about
them, they're with the Lord. See, Jacob had good reason to
expect glory with Christ and to be with the rest of the family
of God. who's with Christ in glory. Now, if you're a believer, you're just as much a part of
the family of God as Jacob was. I mean, we tend to think of the
patriarchs, you know, they're way up here and, you know, I'm
way down here, I'm like a second class citizen. But if you're
a believer, you trust Christ, you are just as much a part of
the family of God as Jacob, as Abraham and Isaac and David.
And if you're part of the family of God, Who's your father? Almighty God is, isn't he? Now,
is the Almighty, is he ever gonna allow anything to happen to you
that's harmful for your soul? He's your father. Will he let
anything happen to you that's harmful to your soul? Of course
he won't. Then you have no worries, do
you? Not for your soul, you don't. If you're part of the family
of God, Christ the Savior, is your older brother. And our older
brother died to go to prepare a place for us. Look at John
chapter 14. Christ died to make his people
fit to enter straight into heaven the very moment our bodies die.
This is what he tells his disciples in John 14. Verse two. In my Father's house are many
mansions, dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself,
that where I am, there ye may be also. Now if Christ died for
you, this is his promise. I'm gonna come when it's time
and take you out of this world to be with me where I am. Is there any loss in that? Is
there any negative in that at all? To be taken from this world
of sin and be taken to be with Christ? Not one, is there? Since that's true, since that's
the promise of our Savior, let not your heart be troubled Verse
one, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. Even when we face this time of
the death of our bodies, let not your heart be troubled. Trust
Christ. Trust him to do what he promised
to do. If God's made you a part of his family by his adopting
grace, then every other believer of all generations, they're your
family. And you're gonna spend eternity
with them. And you know what you're gonna be doing with them?
Worshipping the Lord together. Now I know this, like I said
just a minute ago, I know Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, I know they're
with the Lord. I know Moses and Elijah, they're
part of the family of God, I know they're with the Lord. You remember
how they appeared from heaven at the Mount of Transfiguration?
I know Stephen the martyr is in heaven, the Lord stood up
to receive him, didn't he? I know that. We know that because
that's what the scripture tells us, where they're at. Well, the
rest of the family is going to be there too. In the same place,
accepted just as much, with the same glory, with the same righteousness,
with the same perfection, with the same... Is the word access? To Christ? Your dad thought like this. Dale
told me one day. He said, There was a day that
Abel was the only believer in heaven. I said, yeah, I reckon
so. And he said, well, there are no degrees of glory, right?
I said, yeah. He said, so when everybody's
there, everybody's gonna see Christ the same way Abel did. No degrees of glory. Now, one's
not gonna be closer than the other. Isn't that a blessing?
The rest of the family, who died trusting Christ is gonna be there
with him too. Look at Revelation chapter seven. Revelation seven, verse 13. And one of the elders answered,
saying unto me, what are these which are arrayed in white robes?
And whence came they? And I said unto him, sir, thou
knowest. And he said to me, these are they which came out of great
tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in
the blood of the lamb. Therefore are they before the
throne of God. The whole family, they're all
before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his
temple. And he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among
them. They shall hunger no more, neither
thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them nor any
heat. for the lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall
feed them and shall lead them under living fountains of waters
and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. Now there's
no worry to go and be with Christ like that is there? None whatsoever. Now one more scripture, 1 Thessalonians
chapter four. You know this matter of the death
of our bodies It's something that we'll all face unless the
Lord returns first. And I want to give you something
to hang on to. Now this is something that's going to happen and I
want to give you something concrete to hang on to and comfort your
heart in that moment. If you die trusting Christ, you
have an expectation of a glorious resurrection when you'll be made
just like Christ, body and soul. And you know why you can expect
that? God promised it. 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 13. But I would not have you to be
ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you
sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe
that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep
in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you
by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain
unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent, we will not precede
them, which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and
with the trump of God. And the dead in Christ shall
rise first. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with
the Lord. Wherefore, Comfort one another
with these words. Let these words comfort your
heart that you can die in peace. See, the scripture gives us a
lot of comfort for the believer, doesn't it, in the death of our
bodies. So that when it's time, every single believer can say
this with our brother Simeon. Lord, now let us thy servant
depart in peace according to thy word, according to all the
promises of your word. That's what Jacob's telling his
sons here. Then here's the third thing, look back in our text,
Genesis 49. Jacob died expecting to have
rest in Christ. In verse 29, he charged them
and said unto them, I'm to be gathered unto my people. Bury
me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron
the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah,
which is before Mamre in the land of Canaan. which Abraham
bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a possession
of a burying place. There they buried Abraham and
Sarah, his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah,
his wife, and there I buried Leah. The purchase of the field
and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth."
Now look back at Genesis chapter 23. Genesis 23 is the account of
what Jacob is talking about here. Now Jacob is insisting that he
be buried in this cave that Abraham bought in the land of Canaan.
Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca and Leah, they're all
buried there in Canaan. Now remember, the Lord promised
he's gonna give the whole land of Canaan to the descendants
of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And Abraham believed God's gonna
do that one day. Now he died not having received
the promise, but he expected it, didn't he? Isaac and Jacob
died the same way, believe in the same thing. It didn't happen
in their lifetime, but God didn't say, you're going to possess
it. He said, your seed is going to possess it. And they believe
that God's going to give this land to their descendants. So
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, now they all died in faith, believing
God's going to do what he promised to do. And here's how they viewed
that land of Canaan. Now, none of them ever owned
it, but they viewed the land of Canaan as a land of promise. This is the land God's promised
his people. This is the land of rest that
God's promised to give us. So all these men, when they died,
they didn't want to be buried where they were in Egypt or,
you know, some other place. They wanted to be buried in the
land of promise. Our seed's coming here one day.
Our seed's going to possess this whole place one day. I want to
be buried in this land of promise. I want to be buried in this land
of rest. And they were. And Genesis chapter
23 gives us the account of the very first funeral that's ever
recorded in the scripture, the funeral of Sarah, a believer.
Verse one. And Sarah was 107 and 20 years
old. These were the years of the life
of Sarah. And Sarah died in Kirjath Arba, the same as Hebron, in
the land of Canaan. And Abraham came to mourn for
Sarah and to weep for her. And Abraham stood up from before
his dead and spake unto the sons of Hath. saying, I'm a stranger
and a sojourner with you. Give me a possession of a burying
place with you, that I may bury my dad out of my sight. And the
children of Beth answered Abraham, saying unto him, hear us, my
lord, thou art a mighty prince among us. You're a respected
man among us. And the choice of our sepulchers,
bury thy dad. None of us shall withhold from
thee his sepulcher, but thou mayest bury thy dad. Now Abraham
wanted to buy a grave for Sarah. And these men said, we've got
sepulchers prepared for ourselves. You take any one you want, you
can have it for free. And Abraham said, no, no, I'm
not gonna do that. I'm not gonna have it for free.
I'm gonna purchase it from you. Verse seven, and Abraham stood
up and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children
of Heth. And he communed with them, saying,
if it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight,
hear me. and entreat for me to Ephron,
the son of Zohar, that he may give me the cave of Machpelah,
which he hath, which is in the end of his field. For as much
money as it's worth, he shall give it me for a possession of
a bearing place amongst you. And Ephron dwelt among the children
of Heth, and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham, and the audience
of the children of Heth, even of all that went in the gate
of the city, saying, nay, my Lord, hear me, the field give
I thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it thee, and
the presence of the sons of my people, give I it thee, now bury
thy dead, bury your dead in it. Now, Abraham might be like all
of us, you know, he had a cemetery plot, you know, picked out, he
had a spot already picked out where he wanted to bury Sarah,
and then ultimately he would, you know, be buried there too.
It was a cave that belonged to this man Ephraim, And Ephron
said, Abraham, I'm not taking money from you. You can have
it for free. Abraham won't hear it. Verse
12. And Abraham bowed down himself before the people of the land.
And he spake unto Ephron and the audience of the people of
the land, saying, but if thou will give it, I pray thee, hear
me. I will give thee money for the
field. Take it of me and I'll bury my dead there. And Ephron
answered Abraham, saying unto him, my Lord, hearken unto me. The land is worth four hundred
shekels of silver. What is that betwixt me and thee?
Bury therefore thy dead." And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron,
and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver which he had named,
and the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels
of silver, current money with the merchant, and a field of
Ephron which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field
and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in
the field, that were all in the borders round about, were made
sure unto Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children
of Heth before all that went in the gate of his city. Now Abraham insisted, I'm gonna
buy this field and this cave for what it's worth, full price.
And Ephraim said, well, okay, it's 400 shekels of silver, which
I'm assuming is a lot of money. And Abraham waited out where
everybody could see. He paid the full price for this. Then the field belonged to him.
and he felt comfortable he'd bury his dead there. Now, the
children of Israel, hundreds of years later, when they came
into the Promised Land, they took possession of that land.
You know what was built in this town where Abraham fought his
field? One of the cities of refuge was
in Hebron. A place of safety from the avenger
of blood was built right there where Abraham's family was buried.
And that city of refuge, that's given to us as a picture of the
believer hiding safely in Christ. We can hide in Christ, safe from
God's wrath. It all fell on Christ. He shielded
his people from all of it. They built one of those in a
city where Abraham buried his family. And this burial tomb,
you remember how God promised Abraham, now your seed's gonna
own this whole land. They're gonna possess it all.
That tomb, was the only bit of land Abraham ever owned in Canaan. A tomb, a gravesite. The Lord
had provided a place for the body of his people, the bodies
of his people to rest while they waited for the resurrection.
While they waited for the rest of the family to come in and
take possession of that land. Now here's the gospel picture
that's here. This is what Jacob was trusting
in. The father, He elected a people unto salvation. He elected a
people to save from their sin, but those people could not be
saved for free. Even God could not say, I'll
just ignore their sin. I'll ignore the price of their
sin. I'll just wave my hand. I'll just, I'll just declare
they're free. I'll give them salvation for free. Even the
father could not say to his son, son, here's these, Souls, I elected
unto salvation. I've given him to you for free.
He couldn't do it. The father's holy. The father
chose a people to save, but now they're a sinful people. They've
broken God's law. They're being held in the prison
house of sin. They rebelled against God, they're
enemies of God, and God's justice got a claim on them. And God's
justice will not let them go unless the full price is paid.
There can't be a discount here. Even God cannot say, I'm just
gonna get out the key and open up the prison house and let them
out for free. Justice has got to be satisfied. The full price
for sin must be paid. So the Lord Jesus Christ, Son
of God, the Father gave him those people to save, and he agreed
to redeem them, knowing full well what it would cost him.
He agreed, he shed his life's blood to pay the price of their
sin. He weighed out that full weight
of their sin. He weighed it out in his precious
blood in front of everyone at Calvary. There he was hanging
between heaven and earth for all the world to see. Not just
then, but now. Now, this is the preeminent moment
in human history. There's the son. set forth before
us in his words, suffering and dying to put away the sin of
his people. And you don't have to look far to see he paid the
price in full. He did not give up the ghost
and die until the price was paid. The father gave his elect to
Christ and Christ purchased them. He bought them lock, stock and
barrel with his precious blood. Now they're his possession. Just
like that field was Abraham's possession and nobody could say
it wasn't. He met the price, didn't he?
Those people that the father gave the son to redeem, they're
his possession. Nobody can say they're not. He
bought them. He paid the price. The redemption of God's elect
was made sure by the blood of Christ. Just like this field
and the borders, everything in it was all made sure unto Abraham
because he paid the full price. God's elect are made sure. Their
redemption, their eternal life, their glorification with Christ
throughout the ages has been made sure by the blood of Christ. That's the redemption that Jacob
died trusting you. And that's why he could die in
peace. That's why he wanted to be buried
in that cave, because what that cave pictures, it pictures redemption,
full and free. in Christ our Savior. That's
the gospel message from the death of Jacob. And like I said, we're
all gonna face it. But if we die trusting that gospel,
this gospel that we preach, that God's given us to preach and
believe, now that's good enough to live by. And it's good enough
to die by, isn't it? Oh, I pray God give us faith
to believe it. Let's bow together and pray. Our Father, how we thank you
for this glorious picture of Christ, our Redeemer. How we
thank you, Father, that you would condescend in pity to your people,
remembering our frame, that you give us comfort to face this
time of death that will eventually come for all of us. Father, we
thank you. We pray that you would cause
these words to take root in our hearts and our minds and bring
them to remembrance when we need them. How we thank you for a
savior who saves his people, who keeps them, who leads them,
who guides them, and he will come and get us when it's time.
Father, how we thank you. Father, we ask you forgive us
of our many sins. We ask you that you'd forgive
us of our weak faith and our murmuring and complaining that
you would see us and hear us only in our Lord Jesus Christ.
For it is in his blessed name, for his sake and his glory we
pray. Amen. All right now, Lord willing,
Sunday we're going to have a dinner to honor our high school graduates.
So if you men would set up the three tables we have in the vestibule
before you leave, I would greatly appreciate it. All right, Sean.