Good morning. Genesis 25. Now this chapter
provides a few details at the close of Abraham's life. And what he does is he sets his
household in order and then he gives up the ghost and he dies
in a good old age. And now this chapter tells us
of another concubine another concubine that Abraham had taken. And her name was Keturah. And
we're not told specifically when he took her as his wife. It seems chronologically from
when they put it here that it was after the death of Sarah.
But we're not necessarily told that. A lot of times in the scriptures,
the writer will finish a whole thought without interrupting
with little details. And then they come back. when
it's relevant, they'll come back and add some things that we should
know at that time. And this is the time to know
that. This is the time. Now it's appropriate
because it's highlighting the difference between the sons of
Abraham and Isaac. his son. It's putting a difference.
It's highlighting for us that God has made a distinction between
all the other sons of Abraham and this one son, Isaac. Why? Because the promise of God
to Abraham was that in Isaac shall thy seed be called. In Isaac, all the promises would
be fulfilled through his lineage, in him. And so Abraham sets his
household in order and he dies and our attention now is turning
and staying with Isaac. Now this is made very clear in
this chapter that going forward we're going to be looking at
Isaac. So let's read the first five verses. Then again Abraham
took a wife, and her name was Keturah. And she bare him Zimran,
and Jochshon, Midan, and Midium, and Ishbak, and Shua. And there's six sons. Six sons. Every time I see that number
six, I always think of that is man. That's the number of man.
He comes short of perfection. The number seven is complete
and perfection. And man was created on the sixth
day, and man fell, and he always comes up short of perfection. And here's these six sons according
to the flesh. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Man is not perfect in himself. He's incomplete. He's a sinner.
He's fallen in Adam. And then you take Jokshin, who
begat Sheba and Dedan. And then they tell us three sons
of Dedan, which were Asherim, Latushim, and Leumim. There's
another six. And then the sons of Midium,
Ephah and Ephur, and Hanak, and Abida, and Eldah. All these were
the children of Ketorah. And then it says this. And Abraham
gave all that he had unto Isaac. So we're told of all these children,
but stamped at the end of that, boom, everything was given to
Isaac. What about all these other children?
Everything was given to Isaac. And then you include Ishmael
in there, and there's eight sons in all from three different women,
but only one son was given all that Abraham had. Now, we'll
come back to that in a moment, that all there. Look at verse
six. But unto the sons of the concubines,
which Abraham had, and so that's plural, That means more than
one concubine, because some have said that this Keturah was Hagar,
but it says concubines. Hagar and Keturah, Abraham gave
gifts and sent them away from Isaac his son while he yet lived
eastward unto the east country. Well, what is this east country? Who are these men now? Well, they came to be called
the children of the east. Children of the East. Now turn
over to Judges 6. I just want to show you some
things from these Children of the East and what this signifies
to us. Judges chapter 6. Judges comes
after the first five books of Moses and then Joshua and then
Judges. Judges 6 and we're going to pick
up in verse 33. Then all the Midianites, that's
Midian, one of the sons of Keturah. Then all the Midianites and the
Amalekites and the children of the east were gathered together
and went over and pitched in the valley of Jezreel. So these
are enemies. These sons of Keturah, they became
the enemies of the people of Israel who were of the posterity. of the lineage of Isaac. And they made war with Israel
throughout their history. They made war. They're the enemies
of Israel. They're the enemies of the people
of God. And these children of the East,
they picture a number of sinful things to us. They picture worldliness. They picture this flesh, this
carnal, wicked flesh. And the East pictures false religion. That's where, when you look at
the East, there's all manner of false, idolatrous, wicked,
fleshly religion. The doctrine of devils and of
the imagination of man's heart is seen just flowing from the
East. You think of the religions from
the East, and it's very corrupt. It's very wicked. It's a plurality
of gods. And in the West, the Lord has
has established more of a foundation of one God, of the God of Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob, the true and living God, which is revealed
unto us in the face of Jesus Christ, of Christ. And so these children of the
East, they picture false religion. They picture fleshliness and
and in this world. Now look at Judges 6 verse 3
and here's a description of what these children of the east, these
sons of Abraham from Keturah, what they did. And so it was
when Israel had sown, when they planted their grains, whether
it was wheat or barley or rye or spelt or something like that,
they planted their food that the Midianites came up and the
Amalekites and the children of the East, even they came up against
them. And they encamped against them
and destroyed the increase of the earth till thou come unto
Gaza and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox
nor ass." And so that's a description of false religion. That's what
false religion does. To you, that would embrace the
lies and embrace false religion. It destroys the sustenance and
worldliness. It destroys the sustenance. You're
not going to find any righteousness in false religion. You're going
to be left hungering and thirsting for righteousness, because that
is found in Christ alone. That's given to the people of
God in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. And so this is describing
what false religion and worldliness does to anyone that embraces
it and trusts it and puts their hope and confidence in it. Our
hope as believers is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look at verse
five. For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they
came as grasshoppers for multitude. For both they and their camels
were without number. and they entered into the land
to destroy it. That is the effects of dead letter
worldly religion without Christ. Whatever it is. whether it comes
from the East, or even it's called Christianity. If it's without
Christ, if all your hope is not the Lord Jesus Christ and Him
alone, it's dead letter religion, and it destroys and defiles,
and there's no righteousness in it. No righteousness in it.
And we've recently gone through Genesis 24. And that's where
the father sent out a servant with his riches to seek a bride
for his son, his son Isaac. And we're told back in Genesis
24, verse 10. You can leave judges now. Back
there in 2410, that the servant took 10 camels of the camels
of his master. And we saw that was a picture.
of the strength, of the blessings, of the provision of God for his
people in seeking the bride for his son, Jesus Christ. All right, those camels picture
the provision and the blessings of God given to us in Christ. And that servant went with that
provision, the strength of those 10 camels, just 10 camels, and
goes through the wilderness And it carries those riches seeking
the bride, the bride for the son. And then she heard that
word and she received that word being blessed of the Holy Ghost.
That's what the Lord does for his people. He blesses the word
to the heart of his people by the Holy Ghost. And we hear that
and Rebecca was adorned Two bracelets of gold were put on her wrists
and a jewel was placed on her forehead as an adorning of the
bride of Isaac. Just as we are adorned with the
riches of the gospel, the fruits of the Spirit are born in us
who were dead and made alive by Christ. She was excited, she
received it, she believed the word, seeing the treasures and
the riches on those camels that were born. And she went with
that servant back through the wilderness on those same camels
that carried her through the wilderness to the waiting arms
of her husband. And that's a picture of the gospel,
how the Lord blesses his people richly. in the gospel. We rejoice in what Christ has
done. This is our treasure, our hope. We believe that word and
it carries us through the wilderness of this world to the waiting
arms of our Savior. who provided all this for us,
all this for us. And so there's his camels. And
then back up, well, we left judges. But in verse 5, it says that
that vain dead religion, that love of this world, comes with
their camels without number. And they enter into the land
for one purpose, to trample down and destroy the sustenance, to
ruin it, to eradicate righteousness from the land. And they come
with all their strength and everything, and it shows us we can't defeat
them. We need a savior. And that's what God did in Judges
6 there. He raised up a judge, Gideon. And Gideon, by Gideon
he destroyed and overthrew the enemy. Again, a picture of Christ. The world and false religion
comes with a multitude of camels. When the furnace is open, it's
just a fine mist of black dust just permeating everything, just
full of lies and hypocrisy. And yet the Lord will not be
denied the salvation of his people. He shall save them. There will
be this gospel, this simple good news triumphing over all the
works of evil. In our text it says Abraham gave
them gifts and sent them away from Isaac his son. But Abraham
gave all that he had unto Isaac. And it's a picture. It shows
us how that God who created all things All right, everything
lives and moves and has its being by our creator, God and creator. And he provides for that which
he's created. He gives the sun and the rain.
Matthew, he said, you've heard that it has been said, thou shalt
love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, love
your enemies. Bless them that curse you. Do
good to them that hate you. And pray for them which despitefully
use you and persecute you. that ye may be the children of
your father, which is in heaven. For he maketh his son to rise
on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just
and on the unjust. When we heard the gospel and
when he made his gospel word effectual in our hearts, we were
enemies in our minds and our hearts against God. And yet he
blessed that provision unto us. And so we don't know who we're
talking to in the world, even though they're an enemy today,
the Lord may use his, he may bless them. and open a door to
preach the word and save them and deliver them the same way
he delivered you and I out of darkness and give us life in
himself. So Abraham, he gave them a temporal provision, just
a temporal gift. That's all that these things
were, what he did not give them was the covenant blessings. That
was given to Isaac. And that's what's meant in verse
5, and Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac. Well, he couldn't
have given every piece of gold and ointment or spices that he
had. He gave some to the others. So
what is that all? That all is taking in the covenant
blessings which was given to Isaac and not to these other
sons at all. And so that's the focus of this
all. It's not temporary riches. Isaac
certainly did receive the lion's share of, he received a worthy
portion, a double portion of Abraham's riches. He got everything,
the tents, the men servants, maid servants, the cattle, the
riches, the spices, everything he had except for a few things.
But the emphasis there is on the precious everlasting truths,
the promises of God made unto Abraham. that in Isaac shall
thy seed be blessed. Shall thy seed come, the promised
seed. And so Abraham, or Isaac rather,
was given the promise of the land, but he didn't receive it
just like his father Abraham. He looked for that. Jacob didn't
receive it either. Neither did the 12 sons of Jacob.
They never received that land, but they had the promise. Because
they looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder
and maker is God. They looked for that heavenly
city. And in Isaac, he received the promised seed of woman that
the Messiah would come through his loins, through his lineage. And Isaac would be given that
same gift of faith that Abraham was given by God. What gift is
that? The gift of faith. The gift of
faith. He received that as well. It
says this, that, what sayeth the scriptures? Paul says in
Romans 4.3, Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him
for righteousness. Isaac believed God and he received
that same precious gift of faith whereby he believed God and God
imputed righteousness unto him. Graciously, by grace, without
his works, without him doing anything, God graciously imputed
the righteousness of Christ to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob,
to his twelve sons, and that same blessing is our blessing
who believe Christ. God has imputed righteousness
to us, not because of our works, not because we're better than
anyone else, but because God chose to be gracious unto us
in His darling Son, and He gave us to Christ before the foundation
of the world. And Christ came graciously, willingly,
in the flesh, made like unto His brethren, and suffered and
died to put away the sin of His people. And He accomplished that
redemption. And all the blessings that we
have are not gained by our hand. They're given freely by Christ. He gained it. He earned it for
us. He did everything, everything
for us. And so we that believe, brethren,
are brethren, brethren with Isaac. As Isaac was, we are the children
of promise. Paul says in Galatians 3 verse
26, for ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. And then again in verse 29, if
ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the
promise. So these blessings, these precious,
precious blessings that go far beyond carnal earthly riches
are the promises of God made unto us, given to us in Christ. And that's our inheritance, an
eternal inheritance which neither moth nor rust can destroy, and
thieves cannot break in and take it. All the camels of the world
could come trampling through here, and they still will not
take away that promise that we've been given in Christ. The hope of eternal life. The
hope of eternal life in our Savior. So, as mentioned earlier, this
chapter is making clear that the narrative is staying with
Isaac. It's staying with Isaac. Our
focus is gonna be going from Abraham to Isaac. Why? Because in him, shall the seed
come and all the scriptures are teaching us of Christ. They're
all given to bring us to Christ. He is the salvation of his people. You cannot be saved apart from
Christ. Without Christ, there is no salvation. There's no other righteousness
in any other. He is the name given to us under
heaven by which we must be saved. God has given us Christ Jesus
alone. He said to the Jews, search the
scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life. That's
what we do by nature. We look into this word as a how-to
manual, how to get myself saved, how to earn the blessings of
God and the favor of God. That's not what this is. This
is a book declaring Christ by whom we hear how He saved us,
what He did to obtain eternal redemption for His people. Not
what you and I need to do. We can't do anything except ruin
it. That's what we do. But Christ is the successful
Savior, and He finished the work, and He blesses His people. And
we're blessed and fed in Him. And we don't want for any other
righteousness. There is no other righteousness. They just trample
and ruin and destroy that which was planted. if they can, if
God permitted. But thanks be to God, he has
not allowed it. He saves us by this precious gospel. Now we're
told that it's all of Christ. So we see in Isaac a picture
of our Lord, of Christ. Listen, or you can turn to Colossians
chapter one, Colossians one and verse 16. We see that all things
were given by the Father to His Son. All things are for Him and
by Him. Colossians 1 verse 16 For by
Him were all things created, that are in heaven and that are
in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers. All things were created by Him
and for Him. And he is before all things,
and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body,
the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he might have the preeminence. For please the
Father that in him should all fullness dwell. The Father has
given everything to his Son. And just as we see the preeminence
of Isaac who is preferred before all his brethren, so Christ is
the preeminent one. All things are in his hand. He
is the last Adam. in whom we stand and have our
eternal inheritance. We're not standing in that body
of sin in Adam anymore. We're delivered from that body
of sin. We're delivered from that judgment.
We're not under the covenant of works anymore. We're in the
body of Christ. What a joy that is. And we stand
in Christ, our head's inheritance. We stand complete in Him. And
He shall not fail. He cannot fail. He is Almighty
God. He is the Savior of His people
who triumphed gloriously over all our enemies, putting down
and destroying their camels, frustrating all the wickedness
that they would work in us. He delivers us time and time
and time and time again. And He shall not fail. He shall
deliver us unto the Father in that day. Behold, I and the children
which thou hast given me. None of them is lost. None of
them is lost. Now, another thing we see while
if you're in Colossians, turn over to John 3. John chapter
3. Here's the testimony of John
the Baptist concerning Christ. John chapter 3 in verse 31. This is his testimony, John the Baptist's
testimony of Christ. He that cometh from above is
above all. He that is of the earth is earthly,
and speaketh of the earth. He that cometh from heaven is
above all. And what he hath seen and heard,
that he testifieth. He is a faithful, faithful servant
of the Father. Faithful servant. And no man
receiveth his testimony. That's just fact. No man, by
nature, receives the testimony of Christ. Look at the next verse. He that hath received his testimony
hath said to his seal that God is true. So what the Lord's saying
there is, by nature, you and I will not turn to Christ. We
will not receive his word and believe him. But you that do,
God has done that. That's what he's saying there.
God's made the distinction. God graciously turned your wicked
heart and brought you out of darkness into light to behold,
to believe Christ, to receive him. Because no man receives
them, but if you do receive them, it's by God's grace and power.
It's by his, it's his glory. For he, verse 34, whom God hath
sent speaketh the words of God, for God giveth not the spirit
by measure unto him. The father loveth the son, and
hath given all things into his hand. Just like we see with Abraham
giving it to Isaac, all is given to him. All is in the hand of
Christ. Everything necessary is done
in Him. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life,
and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the
wrath of God abideth on him. It's not Christ plus. Salvation
is not Christ plus, what you and I do or don't do. It's Christ
and Christ alone. And he that hath the Son and
is trusting Him alone, you have life. You have life. You shall
not come short of that which you seek in Christ. But you that
would come with Christ, plus your works, plus these other
religions, plus trusting all these other things that you're
doing, thinking you're doing something, you don't have the
sun, he says. And you don't have life. And
you'll come short of that which you seek. You will be ashamed
in that day. But you that trust Christ, you
shall not be ashamed. You shall not be ashamed in that
day. You have life right now in Jesus Christ. Now, and then
one last thing is, Abraham sent those other sons
away. Thanks be to God who did not
send you away from his son because Christ has all. He's all and
is all and has everything that we need. And we weren't sent
away by the father. Bless God, praise God, you that
believe him. Because that's the grace of God
that has done that for you. Now, let me show you one more
thing. Go back to Genesis 25. One last
thing here. Let's read verses 7 through 10. And these are the days of the
years of Abraham's life which he lived, and 103 score and 15
years. A score is 20 years. So that's
175 years he lived. Then Abraham gave up the ghost
and died in a good old age, an old man, full of years, and was
gathered to his people. And his sons Isaac and Ishmael
buried him in the cave of Machpelah in the field of Ephron, the son
of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre. The field which
Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth, there was Abraham buried
and Sarah his wife. And so here we are back at that
grave, which was purchased by Abraham for his wife, Sarah. And we saw that's a picture of
the purchased burying place by the husband for his wife. And
what is our burying place? Christ, who paid the price, the
demanded price for our life. Christ laid down his life. He
purchased a burying place for you and me that believe Christ,
the bride of Christ, his wife. And we were buried with him,
we died with him, and we're buried with him, and we rose again. When he rose from the dead, we
rose from the dead. It's done, brethren. There's
nothing stopping it. You're seated right now in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus, right now with him. It's done. Nothing,
nothing can stop that. You're his, and you're his. So there's that burying place,
but there's also a picture here of what we, look for. We know that when Christ returns
we shall be raised from the dead. Right now this flesh is a trouble
to us. Right now this flesh is an enemy. The closest enemy we have is
this flesh. It's corrupt. It's vile. It's
dead. It doesn't receive the things
of the Lord. We walk by faith in the new man.
In the new man, that's what's in us of Christ. That's the down
payment you've received of your eternal inheritance. The Spirit
of God has given you life in the new man. of the incorruptible
seed of Christ. But here's this picture. Who's
burying Abraham there? His sons Isaac and Ishmael. And Ishmael is a picture of this
flesh. He was first born. He was born
before Isaac. He's fleshly and of the earth.
And he's that enemy that would trouble, that persecuted Isaac
and troubled him. But there he is with Isaac, a
picture of the new man, the grace of God. and they're burying their
father. In other words, when we die,
this flesh will be buried and the new man, but the soul will
go and immediately be with the Lord forever. And then at our
Lord's return, we shall be raised up with a body like unto our
Savior's body. For we shall see him as he is,
and we shall be transformed in a moment, in the twinkling of
an eye, Paul says, and we shall be forever with the Lord. And so it's laid in the grave
now, it'll be laid in the grave. These bodies will go back to
the dust from whence they were formed, but we shall be raised
again by the grace of our God in Christ. And so I look forward
to that day, and I know you that believe Christ look forward to
your inheritance as well. We have it now, but we shall
have it more fully in that day. Praise be to God.