Would you turn back to Genesis
23, I want to preach on the burial of Sarah. The burial of Sarah, and in this
passage of scripture, an entire chapter is devoted to the burial
of Sarah, and that lets us know that burial is important. God took great care in the burying
of his son, didn't he? Some would argue from this chapter
and other places that cremation is wrong. You ought not be cremated. Well, we don't have a scripture
saying it's wrong. So if somebody tries to be dogmatic
about it, the Bible's not dogmatic about it. As a matter of fact,
Asa, King Asa, a good king, was burned. And when they got Saul
back from the Philistines, they burned the bodies of him and
his sons. I personally would rather be
buried. There's a whole chapter devoted
to burial. And in this passage of scripture,
we're going to learn the gospel. This isn't just talking about
ancient burial practices, but from this passage of scripture,
we're going to learn once again, the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Sarah was 127 years old when she died. And she is the only woman in
Scripture where they give her age when she dies. I don't know
how significant that is, but it is the case. She is one of the people mentioned
in the Hall of Faith, in Hebrews chapter 11. That lets us know
that this woman was a woman of faith. uh... she's spoken of
in Galatians chapter four to teach us of law and grace and
she's actually called the free woman there. She's used as an example of how
a wife is to be in first Peter chapter three in subjection to
her husband. Peter uses her as an example
where she called Abraham Lord. Now, when She was in subjection
to her husband. It's because that's what she
wanted to do. That's so important. The only
way you can submit yourself to somebody is if it's because that's
what you want to do. And her subjection was not a
Stetford wife subjection. She was quite a character, actually.
I love it when she came up with that bright idea for Abraham
to go into her servant, Hagar. And Abraham agreed to do it. They had Ishmael. And I love
the way she spoke to Abraham, my wrong be upon thee. This is
your fault. You shouldn't have done it. You
shouldn't have listened to me. You're the one in the wrong.
I think I've heard something like that before. And she was a hard nose with
the way she dealt with Hagar. She was so hard on Hagar that
Hagar had to run away. She heard that she was to have
a child supernaturally. She had already gone through
the process of menopause. The Lord was speaking and she
started laughing. She didn't believe it. I love
the way the New Testament account says, through faith, Sarah received
strength to conceive seed. I think it's interesting that
the New Testament account is always different from the Old
Testament account. You find out what the flesh did in the Old
Testament and what the spiritual man does in the New Testament.
But she laughed, and when the Lord said, why did Sarah laugh? Right to the Lord, she lied,
said, I didn't laugh. Nay, thou didst laugh. Sarah
was a very interesting woman, to say the least. She was the
one who kicked Hager and Ishmael out, cast out the bondwoman her
son, have him hit the road. She was rough on him. And some
have suggested that she did this because she understood what Hagar
and Ishmael represented, perhaps, but I kind of doubt it. I think
she just didn't like him and wanted him out of the house.
She was a strong woman, and she dies at 127 years old. She dies after a long marriage
with Abraham. We know that she was a very beautiful
woman. The scripture points that out.
And we know that she was a very forgiving woman. Think about
this. Abraham had his wife put into
a harem twice, once with Pharaoh and once with Abimelech. And
she had to been a very forgiving woman. And I admire her immensely
for that. And really, I suppose the key
to a good long marriage is forgiveness and respect. Well, she forgave
Abraham and she demonstrated much respect for Abraham. Chapter 23, verse one, and Sarah
was 170 or 107 and 20 years old. These were the years of the life
of Sarah. And Sarah died in Kirjath Arba. The same is Hebron. You see,
this is the promised land. Abraham didn't have it yet, but
it was promised to him. And this same place where he
was going to bury her would later be a city that was used to be
a city of refuge, Hebron. And Abraham came to mourn for
Sarah and to weep for her. Now just the fact that he mourned
and wept the way he did tells you they had a good marriage.
He was burying his wife. He was burying his best friend.
He was bearing the love of his life, and he was greatly grieved
in burying this woman. And he came to mourn and to weep,
and it's natural and appropriate to mourn and to weep. When Lynn dies, I'm gonna mourn
and I'm gonna weep if I'm alive before her, and if I die before
her, I hope she mourns and weeps. The point is, this is appropriate
if you love somebody. Somebody says, well, God took
Sarah at his ordained time. God was sovereign in removing
her. Should you mourn and weep if God did this? Yes, yes, you
should mourn and you should weep. Abraham mourned and wept at the
death of his beloved wife, Sarah. The wise man said, there's a
time to mourn. And this was the time to mourn.
And you who are married, if you don't die first, you're going
to be burying your spouse. And you're gonna mourn and you're
gonna weep. And it's gonna be very difficult,
just like it was for Abraham. Verse three, and Abraham stood
up from before his dead, and spake unto the sons of Heth."
Now remember, this is not his homeland at this time. It's been
promised to him, but it's not his yet. He's dwelling as a stranger
in a strange land. And he says, I'm a stranger and
a sojourner with you. I'm not really a part of this
land. I'm from somewhere else and it
doesn't belong to me. I'm a stranger and I'm a sojourner
with you. Give me a possession, something
that's mine of a bearing place with you that I may bury my dead
out of my sight. Now, one of the things that strikes
me throughout Abraham's dealings with the sons of Heth, and this
man he gets the graves from, is how respectful he was toward
them, and how humble this man was in all of his dealings with
them. Now, this is Abraham. One could
argue that, humanly speaking, this is the most significant
man to ever live, Abraham. Obviously the Lord Jesus Christ
is infinitely more significant, but as far as men go, Abraham
is called the father of the faithful. Abraham's called the friend of
God. And yet when he deals with people, these people, he deals
with such respect and with such humility in his requests. And that teaches us that we ought
to treat everybody respectfully and everybody with humility at
all times. Abraham did. Verse 5, And the
children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him, Hear us, my
lord, thou art a mighty prince among us. Literally, a prince
of God is what my marginal reading says. He made no attempt at hiding
his worship of the living God. They knew he worshiped God. Hear
us, my Lord, thou art a mighty prince among us, a prince of
God. In the choice of our sepulchres, bury thy dead. None of us shall
withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy
dead. We want to give you this sepulchre. We don't want to have you pay
for it. You're such a blessing to us.
You've been such a blessing in every way. We want to give you
this sepulchre. Now, I love the way Abraham refuses. He won't take it for free. And
that's very significant. I love the way they recognized
him as a prince of God. He made no attempt at hiding
his worship of the living God. And I couldn't help but think
about that time when the King of Sodom came to Abraham after
Abraham had delivered all the goods and brought back the spoil
in the battle of the five kings. And the King of Sodom said, here,
you take the spoil, just give us our family. You take the spoil,
it's all yours. And Abraham answered, I've lifted
up my hand to the Lord. the most high God, the possessor
of heaven and earth." That's how he identified God. He said,
I won't take a thread even to shoelash it from you, nor will
I take anything that's yours, unless you say, I made Abraham
rich. I'm not gonna have that. This
is the way he dealt with people. They knew of his worship. of
the living God, but at any rate, these men were so high on Abraham,
they said, we're not gonna sell you a sepulcher, you take whatever
you want, it's yours. Verse six, here is my Lord, our
mighty prince among us, in the choice of our sepulchers, bury
thy dead, none of us shall withhold from his sepulcher, that thou
mayest bury thy dead. Verse seven, And Abraham stood
up, and notice again his humility and his respectfulness towards
these people. 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 treat me to Ephraim, the son of Zohar, that he may
give me the cave of Machpelah, which he hath, which is in the
end of the field for as much money as it is worth. He shall
give it me for possession and a burying place. Now there's
a particular cave I want. It's called Machpelah. That means
double. And it's where the word comes
from, she hath received at the Lord's hand double for all her
sins. Not only have your sins been
forgiven for Christ's sake, you've been justified. Now think of
that, that's what you've received at the Lord's hand, double for
all your sins. Not only are they forgiven, Not
only are they put away, not only will you not be condemned, you
stand before God absolutely just. Now this cave that he wants,
he's going to bury Sarah in and Isaac and Rebecca will be buried
in this cave. Jacob and Rachel will be buried
in this cave. But he said, I wanna pay full
price for it. He didn't say, do you give discounts
to churches? Abraham would never do anything
like that. The Lord doesn't need discounts. Do you give churches
discounts? No, no. That's the answer. Somebody comes up to you, do
you all get special price for church? No. I remember when I worked in printing,
people would always come up saying, do you give discounts for church?
I always loved saying, no. They were shocked. What's wrong
with you? What's wrong with you? Nothing. That's debasing to the
Lord to think that, well, you give, like he can't, he's got
plenty of money. He's got a whole lot more money
than you do or anybody else does. And he doesn't need discounts.
I think it's disrespectful toward him to use that kind of language
and that kind of thinking. Abraham said, no, I want to pay
full price. Verse 10, and Ephraim, and Ephraim
dwelt among the children of Heth, and Ephraim the Hittite answered
Abraham in the audience of the children of Heth, even of all
that went into the gate of his city, saying, nay, my lord, Hear
me, the field give I thee. I'm not gonna take money for
it. I'm giving it to you. And the cave that's therein,
I give it to you in the presence of the sons of my people, give
I it to thee. Bury thy dead. Verse 12. And Abram bowed down himself
before the people of the land." Now think of this. Look how it's
pointed out, how respectfully and with what humility Abraham
demonstrated when he was dealing with these people. He bowed himself
down to them, acted so respectful and treated them with You know,
they obviously had a lot of respect for him, and he obviously had
earned that respect by the way he treated them over the years.
They saw that, so they had a high view of Abraham. And he's speaking
to Ephraim in the audience of the people of the land, saying,
But if thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me, I will give thee
money for the field. take it of me, and I will bury
my dead there." I'm not looking for a free cave to bury my dead
in. I want it to be mine by possession. This is very important. This
is part of this gospel type. I want this to be mine by possession. And Ephraim answered Abram, saying
unto him, my Lord, hearken unto me. The land is worth 400 shekels
of silver. And I'm not really sure how much
money that is. Somebody I read said it was worth
a lot. And they even said that this
could be considered an exorbitant price for it. I don't know. But
he asked, he said the thing was worth 400 shekels of silver. And what is that betwixt me and
thee? Bury therefore thy dead. It's not even worth considering.
You just take it and bury your dead. And Abraham hearkened unto
Ephraim. And Abraham weighed to Ephraim.
The silver which he had named in the audience of the sons of
Heth, with everybody watching, he was going to make sure that
this is above board, transparent, no trickery going on here. He
wanted everyone to see I'm paying the exact price it's worth. Current money with the merchant.
This is interesting. This is the first time a financial
transaction is mentioned in the scripture, right here, when he
pays for this grave, this sepulcher. Verse 17, and the 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 in all the borders round about, were made sure. They were made sure. unto Abraham for possession in
the presence of the children of Heth before all that went
in the gate of his city." Everybody saw this. And after this, Abraham
buried, sir, his wife in the cave of the field of Mechpelah
before Mamre. The same as Hebron is going to
later be a city of refuge in the land of Canaan. And the field
and the cave that is therein were made sure. There's that
word again. They were made sure for a possession,
a purchased possession of a burying place by the sons of Heth. Now, this story is not given
to teach us ancient burial rites. It's given to teach us the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Teaches us other things, but
this is the primary teaching. Assure possession for a resting
place. Something made sure. This is how an eternal resting
place is made sure. And you know, I want my eternal
resting place to be made sure, don't you? I don't want anything
questionable to be about it. I don't want there to be any
questions. I want it to be made sure. Now, like Sarah, you and
I will one day die, maybe soon. I love what James compares our
life to. What is your life? It's even
a vapor. Now, when you go out to your
car tonight, you're gonna breathe and that vapor's gonna come out
and it's gonna be gone just like that. That's how stable our life
is. That's how small it is in comparison
with eternity. That's how much impact me and
you have, about like a vapor that appears just for a couple
of seconds and then it's gone. And after that, we are going
to spend eternity either in heaven or in hell. Now, I want my resting
place that ensures me being in heaven forever to be absolutely
made sure. Now, four things I wanna point
out about this resting place for Sarah. Number one, The place
Sarah was to rest was in the promised land of Canaan. It's what God had already promised
Abraham the first time he appeared to him. It was in the promised
land of Canaan. Now, Paul said in Galatians 3.18,
if the inheritance, eternal glory, heaven, likeness to Christ, acceptance
in the Beloved, eternity in His presence. If the inheritance
were of the law, it's no more by promise, but God gave it to
Abraham by promise. Now, here is the point. The only
sure resting place is that which God has promised. And this promise was made before
you were ever able to do anything good or bad. I love that scripture
in Romans chapter nine, verse 11, for the children being not
yet born, neither having done any good or evil that the purpose
of God according to election might stand, not of works. but of him that calleth." Now,
for me or you to have a sure resting place, it's gonna have
to be founded on the eternal promise of God. Now, when David was dying, most
of you are familiar with this, these are his dying words. 2 Samuel 23, verse 5, these be
the dying words of David. Although, it begins with these
words, although my house be not so with God. Now, many have thought
that he's talking about his Family. And his family was a mess. It was a mess. And much of that
mess was David's fault. In so many respects, David was
a rotten parent. I mean, look at his history,
the way he did, and he had nothing but rebellion from his children. He had his children trying to
kill him. His house was a mess. But you
know, there were members of his house that were so with God. What about Abigail? What about
Bathsheba? What about Solomon? He was God-delighted in Solomon. And so there are many people
of his house that you could not say, it's not so with God. What
David is talking about, I really believe specifically, is this
house, himself. Although my house be not so with
God. And David was painfully aware
of his sin. He said, my sin is ever before
me. He said that. Although my house
be not so with God, yet hath he made with me everlasting, eternal covenant. Not one that was made in time,
one that was made before time. According as he hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world. Now, my resting
place is founded in the eternal promise, in the eternal covenant
of God. And here's what he said about
that covenant. Although my house be not so with
God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things and sure. You think of how your salvation's
ordered. whom he did foreknow, them he also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be
the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called. Whom he called, them he also
justified. Whom he justified, them he also
glorified, ordered in all things and sure. And here's what David
said about this. This is all my salvation. Do you feel that way? Would you
say the same thing David did? This is all my salvation and
all my desire. And then he ends it with kind
of a curious, I don't know what, I mean, it's the perfect way
to end it, but I've always thought, what a way to end this, though
he make it not to grow. Though he make it not to grow.
Is he ending up with a negative kind of? No, not really. You
see, The Bible does teach growth and grace, but it doesn't teach
growth and salvation. I can't get any more accepted.
I can't get any more justified. I can't get any more loved. I
can't get any more holy than I am in Christ Jesus. It doesn't
grow. You know, the true church doesn't
grow. It's, I'm talking about the church
of God's elect. It never adds a member. It never
loses a member. It's always the same. It doesn't
grow. Now, this place of her burying
was in the place that God promised before. And that is our salvation. Now, the second thing that I
would point out about our burying place is first, it's the place
God promised. But second, full price was paid. Full price was paid. And my dear friends, the church
is called the purchased possession. full price has been paid. And my resting place is sure,
my eternal inheritance is sure, because the full price has been
paid by my Redeemer on Calvary's tree." We don't sing, Jesus paid
a half, the other half I owe. We sing, Jesus paid it all, all
the debt I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
he washed it white as snow. I can't express sufficiently
my utter contempt for that teaching that says that Jesus Christ can
pay for your sins and you might wind up in hell anyway if you
don't do your part. There's not a drop of gospel
in that message. My hope is that Christ paid for my sins and I
will be in heaven. If you tell me he can pay for
my sins and I might wind up in hell anyway, you've taken the
only hope I have and I know that's where I'll wind up in hell if
that's the case. You take the gospel out of the gospel. It's
no longer gospel with that kind of thinking. That's why I despise
Hey, you know, people try to act like they're doing it out
of love for God and love for men and trying to, but what they're
doing is making the gate wider than it is for a wicked motive. There's no good motive in doing
that. And as far as that goes, just,
what if you went up into the store and said $20, the thing
you wanted to pay for it, and you paid him the $20, and he
said, well, you're not getting it. Yeah, there'd be a fight
then, wouldn't there? Yeah, I paid for it. It's my,
the Lord paid for his church. It is his purchased possession. And that is made so clear in
this passage of scripture. Abraham said, I want it to be
mine. I want it to be my possession. I want to pay the current price,
what it's actually worth. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ did. He purchased. The blood of Christ is so infinite,
it's so glorious. But I know this, the price was
paid. When he said it is finished,
the price was paid. Now the third thing that I would
notice about this resting place, it's actually in a city that's
gonna be a city of refuge. This place where they buried
her is one day going to be one of the six cities of refuge. Now, what's a city of refuge?
There's six of them in the Old Testament. Well, if you, and
it's given to illustrate the gospel, if you accidentally killed
somebody. Now, if you killed somebody with
malicious intent, you weren't protected, but if you accidentally
killed somebody, that person's relatives had the right to kill
you. They were called the avenger
of blood, and they had every right to put you to death, and
they wouldn't be prosecuted for doing it. But there was only
one place of safety for you if you killed somebody. You know
what it was? The city of refuge. And if you were in the city of
refuge, that avenger of blood could not touch you. You were completely protected. You know what you had to do though? You had to stay in the city of
refuge. If you got outside of the city, you were fair game.
He could have been out there waiting for you. And as soon
as you walk out, he'll kill you. You have to stay in the city
of refuge. Now, what does that tell me?
I love what John said, abide in Christ. Don't go outside of
Him. The only place I want God to
see me is in the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't want to stick a finger
out of the city. I want to simply be found in Him. Now, that's
the only place of safety, to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ,
the city of refuge. She was in a place of protection.
What protection in the city of refuge? She was in a place of
promise. She was in a place of purchase.
She was in a place of protection. And look at verse 20 of our text. Actually, first it's said in
verse 17, and the 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 in all the borders
around about it, were made sure. They were made sure. In verse
20, and the field and the cave that's therein, which were made
sure unto Abraham for a possession of a burying place by the sons
of Heth. I always am interested in looking
up the definition of each word. And this word, made sure, is
usually translated arisen or raised up. Why is my resting place sure? Because Jesus Christ was raised
from the dead. That's it. All my salvation is
in Jesus Christ being raised from the dead. You see, when
he was raised from the dead, it's because all sin was put
away. It was blotted out. It was made
not to be. And God raised him from the dead
because he was completely satisfied with what he did. God is completely
satisfied with every believer. All of our lives, we try to measure
up, don't we? No measuring up here. God is
completely satisfied with me. I have no sin. and I have the
righteousness and merits of Jesus Christ as my personal righteousness
before God. That's what makes the believer's
resting place sure. Somebody's thinking, do you mean
we are in some kind of rest between the second coming of Christ and
after we die? No, I don't mean that. Because
the Lord did say to the thief, today thou shalt be with me in
paradise. So all these soul sleep and things
people say, I don't know where people come up with that, but
I know the Lord did say, today thou shalt be with me in paradise.
But my eternal home is because of the promise of God, the purchase
of Christ, the protection of being in Christ, His glorious
resurrection. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for the
gospel of thy dear son. And Lord, we so anticipate and
look forward to your return Lord, when you say, behold, I
come quickly, our hearts reply as even so come Lord Jesus. And
Lord, how we thank you that we can look forward to your return
because everything that you require, we have in your son provided
by yourself. And we give thanks. As we face
this coming week, we ask that you would enable us to walk with
you to conduct ourselves before the world the way Abraham did
before the children of Heth. And Lord, we ask that you would
open up doors for your gospel to be preached according to your
will. Bless this assembly, bless us
for Christ's sake. In his name we pray, amen.