Good morning. Y'all we'll turn
to Genesis 49. I know there's some weather events there
in East County last night and a lot of people sick and a lot
of people occupied with other things and but I'm thankful for
the few that's here today. Lord might bless us. I pray we. Genesis 49, these are the last
words of Jacob. He knows he's going to die and
he's about to start talking. Last words he's ever going to
say. You know, we come into this world and we wait for a baby
to cry, but for that baby to cry, what does it have to do?
It's got to breathe in, right? What's the last thing you're
going to do? Breathe out. Jacob's about to take his last
breath. We're all close to taking our last breath. And if you don't
think so, close your eyes and listen. I'll tell you all about
my aches and pains and all the remedies and the things I'm doing
to not have aches and pains. What if we knew today was our
last day? What if you knew beyond a shadow
of a doubt, this is it. This is the last gospel message
you're ever gonna hear. How would we treat it? What would
we do? What would we think? What would
we say to those we love? Jacob had just talked to his
sons, didn't he? Wasn't too pretty. He had the
boldness to speak plainly, and the scriptures call that a blessing.
He blessed them. And they said, y'all ain't nothing
but sinners, just like me. You don't fall far from a tree.
That seems harsh, doesn't it? Is that harsh for somebody? Let
me ask you. What did Paul say? What does
Scripture say? I'm going to keep going back to that. What does
Scripture say? Am I your enemy because I tell you the truth? Was Jacob rough and harsh because
he told them the truth? They didn't want to hear that,
but he told them, didn't he? Because he believed God. Not because
he knew the truth. He believed God. That's why he
did it. Genesis 49 verse 28. Jacob's
last words. All these are the twelve tribes
of Israel. And this is it that their father spake unto them
and blessed them." He blessed them. Everyone according to his
blessing, he blessed them. And he charged them and said
unto them, I am 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 of 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. Whole
families went there. The purchase of the field and
of the cave that is there on was from the children of Heth.
Keep saying this is a purchase field. This is a possession.
This is a place to be buried, to be put in the ground. It was
an expensive place too. And when Jacob had made an end
of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed calmly,
confidently, and yielded up the ghost. That means the literal
translation of yielded up the ghost. It wasn't that he decided
to die like the Lord did and he gave up the ghost. It means
he exhaled, he gave his last breath, and was gathered unto
his people. Well, he ain't took his body
down there where his people was. No, he was gathered to his people
right then, to be absent from the bodies, to be present with
the Lord. That's my people. You like the Lord's people? I
love them. They're just like me. They go
through the same stuff I go through, isn't it? I talk to them on the
phone, and everything they think and experience, everything I
think and experience, there's some differences, obviously. I won't
be where they are. They won't be where I am, because
we're all going to be there looking to Christ. That's why. That's
why. We ain't going to go see sweet
old grandma, and I finally get to see my daddy again. I don't
know if he is my dad. I don't know if that was the
role he played while we was on this earth, but I ain't there
to see mom and dad. I'm there to see my father who
saved me, who purposed it from before time, and he sent his
son to die for me, and I see my redeemer. That's how I'm gonna
see him. That's how I'm gonna see the
father. Look at him right now. I'm gonna be just like him. Is that where
you wanna be? That's a good thing, isn't it?
That's a good thing. I love preaching funerals of
believers. I don't like preaching funerals
of unbelievers. It's a good thing, and funerals are a good thing.
We'll look at that next week. When my dad died, they'd have
three services. They couldn't fit all the people in the room.
And those people showed up just out of respect, because he's
a hard-working man, and he upheld his word, and he had a mustache
when he died. I loved it. He wasn't a woman
or a child. He had a beard, and people knew
it, and they respected him. And so they showed up to give
their last respects. Place was packed. A couple thousand
people showed up over three days. And you know what happened? They
preached the gospel to him. He said, this old dead corpse
is gonna honor God one more time. I can do something with it. You
put me out there and however many times it takes it, you have
funerals. And Henry preached the funeral
there at 13th Street, and then Tom Harding preached three nights
there at the funeral home, and then they took him to the graveside,
and John Chapman preached the graveside. Well, I don't want to cause a
fuss. I want to honor God. How about that? And it's a precious
thing. It's a good thing. We're sad.
We miss them. We don't mourn for the person
that's dead. We mourn if they died in the Lord. We mourn for
ourselves because we're selfish. That's it, isn't it? It's a good
thing. You know what the scriptures
say? What's the word say about it? There's three words that
God describes the death of his saints in. The first one's precious. He said in Psalm 116, precious
in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. If there
was a sealer right after that, I would be in total agreement.
Stop and think about that. God owns all things. He controls
all things. He does everything according
to his will and in his power. And he says to him, oh, this
is precious. This is special. Doesn't that
give you goosebumps? Do you wanna like what God likes?
If he's your God, you do. He said, this is a good thing.
This is precious in my sight when my saints die. He also says
it's blessed. How could that be? How could
it be precious? Well, we have to be blessed. If we was a problem
showing up, he wouldn't be happy about that, huh? We have to be
made like Christ, we have to be blessed. Revelations 14 says,
blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. Those that die in
the Lord, they're blessed. This is a good thing. This is
a good thing. So for a child of God to die,
it's a good thing. Paul said, for me to live is
Christ. He gave me something to do. We
ain't supposed to sit around and twiddle our thumbs and lay
in a hammock all day long. We're supposed to do something.
Go out and tell what he's done for us. Come hear about a man,
and work, and by the sweat of our brow, get our food, and we're
gonna do something. But that's Christ. But for me
to die is gain. That's what the word is. It's
precious in the sight of the Lord. We're blessed to die in
the Lord and it's gain. Why are we so scared of death?
And if you say you ain't, you're lying through your teeth. I ain't
never died before. I don't know what that's going
to be like. I have some apprehensions. I have unbelief. The day you
see me and I have no unbelief is the day you'll see me in glory. Old Barnard said, I ain't preaching
to you now, I'm telling you the truth. That's it. Kevin, I don't think
your faith is strong. No kidding. Why are we so afraid to die?
That's everything. People, somebody quits breathing.
I'll call the ambulance and scream and pray. And there's these prayer
lists to eons. I've talked about that a bunch.
It's nonsensical, okay? And it's unbelief is what it
is. I'd go to prayer, but I'd say, Lord, I ask you do these
things. I petition you. And what's that prayer end? With me, I don't
know about everybody else. Lord, your will be done. What
you're going to do is right. If you want to take this pain,
you want to take this illness, you want to take whatever, that's
right. And if you don't, that's right too. I don't need that.
I need Christ. And whenever I go home, it's precious in his sight.
I can't explain that, it's so. I just dwelled on it all week.
I'm blessed when I die, and it's gain. It's gain. And I hope this
corpse lays in a box somewhere, and a man of God stands up on
his hind two legs, regardless of the input of the nation around
him, and tells the truth about me, a dead dog sinner laying
there, and tells the truth about everybody in that room, and tells
them who Christ is, and what he did. I ought to get to my notes. Jacob's
last day on earth. What if it's our last day? He
speaks plainly and openly to his sons. It seems so harsh,
but it's not. God says it's blessed them. That
was a blessing to them. All the trouble they've been
through all those years, everything that was done, where are they
at? They're right there with daddy. That's a good time, isn't
it? Isn't that a good thing? We're experiencing not having
a child with us. That's an uncomfortable experience.
I look forward to when my children are with me. I hope they're there
and I can boldly, God will give me faith. I may die crying, screaming,
not even have my mind with me. I pray not, but I hope I can
boldly profess Him on my deathbed to them. Jacob had some confidence. Look here in verse 29, Genesis
49, 29. And he charged them. And he said unto them, I am to
be gathered unto my people. Last year I thought, that's as
close as I've ever come to death. It was to the point I told Kimberly
where the life insurance papers was and I gave her plain instruction.
Here's what is to be done. I said, I'm going home now. I
didn't think it'd end this way. Here's what's to be done. And
she said, okay. And then about as quick as I
went into that illness, I came out of it. But I understand this
a little bit more now than I used to. He charged them and said
to them, I am to be gathered unto my people. Jacob knew where
he was going. That's what's going to happen.
I'm going to be gathered with my people. He also knew what he was. He
knew he was a sinner. He had so many sad things happen
in his life. Pharaoh asked him, he said, how
old are you? And he told him, and he said, the days of my life,
oh, buddy, he goes, they've been few. And all the years of my
father's, I haven't made it that long, he goes, but it's been
nothing but few and evil. Few and evil have been my days.
I know that. I know what I am. But he knew
the Lord too, didn't he? And that's what he was looking
for. Paul said, for we know that if our earthly house of this
tabernacle will be dissolved, we know, I know, if this body
goes away, I have a building of God, a house not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens. I'm gonna be with him. That faith
of Abraham was described there in Hebrews 11. And he said he
took off a walking, didn't he? How did he wait on the Lord?
He walked. How did Paul wait on the Lord? He boxed and he
ran and he fought and he wrestled. Abraham, he looked for a city
which hath foundations. It's got a chief cornerstone,
whose builder and maker is God. That's what he was looking for.
He happened to have to go to a physical land, but that's what
he was looking for. That's every believer. That's every believer. We want to be with the Lord.
That's who we're looking for. That's where our desire is. This
is all my hope and all my desire is that he's made a covenant
with me and it's order in all things. It's sure. And I want
to be with him where he is. Here's the instructions that
Jacob gave. This is real important. Verse 29, he charged them and
said to them, I am to be gathered unto my people. Now, 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 of Ephron, the Hittite, for a possession of
a burying place. There they buried Abraham and
Sarah, his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebecca,
his wife. And there I buried Leah. And
what's he say? He put me right there with him.
God says, I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And he said,
I'm gonna go where Abraham went. I'm gonna go where Isaac went.
I pray God will bring you where I am, boys. I pray so. He goes, but I'm gonna be buried.
I'm gonna be laid to rest, as we say. And I know what the word
means. I'm sitting second bigger in
mammary. I'm gonna be put there where
all my brethren, where my people are, where those that have the
same father that I have. There's people I can't call brother
in this world. I guess I got them in Adam, but they have a
different father than I have. I can't call them a faithful
brother. They're father of the devil. They hate Christ. They hate the gospel. I pray
the Lord will make a new creation in them, make them born again.
I'm gonna be buried where my people's buried. Turn over there
to Genesis 23. I wanna read this whole thing.
I'll go quick with it, Genesis 23. This is where Abraham had
bought that burying place and he buried Sarah. You remember,
I was looking at this before, but I just wanna touch on a few
things in it. And there's a lesson in this. I wanna look at two
words, Machpelah and Mamre. We looked at it before, I wanna
look at it again. It'd be good for us to look at it again. And I want
to make a point here as to what Abraham did and how he did it
and how we we can learn from this. These things are written
for our learning. I want to learn something. I
want to be teachable and I want to learn something. Till I'm
brought home. Genesis 23 verse one and Sarah
was 107 and 20 years old. These were the years of the life
of Sarah and Sarah died. I wrote it down, too. Kirjitharba,
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 he spake unto the sons of Heth, saying,
I'm a stranger and a sojourner with you. This ain't my home. But there's business that has
to be conducted. Things still have to take place,
don't they? Give me a possession of your burying place with you
that I may bury my dead out of sight. We're gonna bury him.
And the children of Heth answered Abraham and sang unto him, hear
us, my Lord, thou art a mighty prince among us. Oh, we respect
you. You're great and we love you.
We just like your company. We like your countenance. You're
a joy to be around. You're an honorary member of
our society, of our community. Thou art a mighty prince among
us. 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. You just go pick which one you want. We love you." And
Abraham stood up and bowed himself. to the people of the land, even
to the children of Heth." Look at the humility here. He didn't
say, well, you're right, I am pretty good and you do owe me.
And you've just been, you've benefited by me being around.
He bowed himself. And why, how did that bowing
come? How did that humility come? In a heavy trial. His wife had
died and he needed a place to bury her in the ground. He bowed himself to him, verse
eight, and he communed with him saying, if it be in your mind,
if it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of sight, hear
me and entreat for me to Ephron, the son of Zophar, that he may
give me the cave of Machpelah. There's a specific one I want,
not just any old cave, not go pick which one you want. There's
a specific one. I want Machpelah, which he hath,
which is in the end of his field. He knows exactly where it is
too. And for as much money as it is worth, He shall give it
me for a possession of a burying place amongst you. I'm gonna
pay exactly what it's worth. Verse 10, 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 his city, saying, it's in front of everybody. Nay,
my lord, hear me. The field I give thee. I just
give it to you. That particular one you want,
that you know where it is, I give it to you. the cave that is therein
i give it thee in the presence of the sons of my people i give
i it thee buried i did i'm gonna do this i'm gonna give it to
you it's mine i'm gonna let you have it for free i i i you see
that and abraham bowed himself before the people of the land
he bowed again and he spake unto ephron 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." He tells him a second time, I'm gonna
pay you full price. I'm gonna pay for it. And Ephron answered
Abraham saying unto him, my Lord, hearken unto me. The land is
worth 400 shekels of silver. What's that between, remember
us looking at that? Remember how much I said it was?
It's however much you make in a year. It's a lot. Average entry-level income in
San Diego County is $126,000 a year for a couple or two to
survive on. So it's 130 grand for this plot,
burial plot. It's a whole bunch. And he's
saying, you consider, you count the cost of this. Now I'm gonna
give it to you for free. What a saint I am. He said, you count the cost.
Did the Lord count the cost when he came and laid down his life
for us, being made sin for us? That's why he told him, he said,
if you go to build a building and you ain't got enough money
to finish that building, they're gonna laugh at you. Because you couldn't do it. He
did it, didn't he? We'll see David and Goliath next
hour, Lord willing. Saul did the same thing. Do you
know what you're doing? Don't you, do you count the cost?
Do you know what the inheritance was, the reward was between David
and Goliath? The daughters of the king, king's daughters, that's
us. That's a hefty outcome, isn't it? He said, you consider this
for you buried it. I'll skip to verse 16. Abraham
harkened to Ephron and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver.
He weighed it. Weighed in the bounces, silver,
silver. Our Lord was betrayed for silver,
wasn't he? which he had named in the audiences of the sons
of Heth, 400 shekels of silver, current money, with a merchant. Current, or up to date, I'll
pay you full price. And the field of Ephron, which
is 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 it, were made shore.
It was made shore. unto Abraham for a possession
in the presence of the children of Heth before all that went
before the gate of his city. After this, Abraham buried Sarah,
his wife, in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre,
the same as he brought in the land of Canaan. And the field
and the cave that is therein were made sure unto Abraham for
a possession of a burying place by the sons of Heth. Abraham
paid full price for the resting place of Sarah. He paid full
price for the resting place of Isaac and Jacob and all his children. Jacob wants to rest. He wants to be laid to rest.
I want to be gathered into a place where the balance is paid in
full. You get that? Abraham didn't
come down and say, well, I'm a good fellow. You owe me. Give
me a discount. He didn't come down and say,
now do you give church discounts? We looked at it last time, we'll
look at it this time too. We don't give church discounts.
Pay full price. Why? My Savior paid full price. You want a discounted salvation? You want a refurbished version?
That's what's preached a lot these days. We'll clean up this
old man, you gonna refurbish it? I want a brand new plot,
nobody's laid in, paying full price. Because Christ paid full
price. There's a lesson there, we ought
to learn it. The gospel principle which drives the particulars
in Providence, it's tongue twist written. If we get the principle,
if we get the gospel message, it'll drive all the decisions
we gotta make, it'll drive the reactions we have to things,
because there's a new heart born in us. And we see the Lord, and
we see his gospel, and we see through those eyes with wine,
and our teeth's white with the milk. That's what we talk about,
that's what we see. And that'll drive how we walk.
People talk about walking by faith. Here you go, pay attention.
We walk by looking to him, and that influences everything we
do, and our interactions with our neighbors, and our interactions
with everything, with our loved ones. It drives it. I told you before, that's a good
illustration, that was two business partners. And as getting rid
of it, the one partner wanted more than the other partner had.
And so he sued him. And so the partner that was going
to get less had a lawyer too. And they said, well, you deserve
50-50. This was a multi-million dollar
business. And both of you was giving your life. You got up
early in the morning when nobody else was awake. You bled your
blood. You didn't do nothing. You're entitled to this. You're
entitled to it. You worked for it. You earned
it. And that fellow was a believer. And he told his lawyer, he said,
they want 75%, give them all of it. Give them the whole thing. He said, you're crazy. You're
a fool. He said, no, I'm not. Give it to him. He said, why
in the world would you do such a thing? He goes, that's what
my Lord did for me. He did all the work and he gave me everything.
He goes, and he's provided for me physically in this world.
This whole time I've been fed. I fed my family. I've got a lot
of understanding and knowledge of how to do this. I can do it
again if I wanted to. Let him have it. And that Lord said,
you're going to be in the hole because you got to pay me. If
you got half, I'd be paid for it. And he said, I'll pay you. This is right. What person walking
down the street would say that was a good idea? A child of God
would. Pay full price. That gospel and
understanding of Christ drives how we raise our children. It
drives how we react with our husbands and wives and the people
around us. And that's what our focus is until this body's shed
and we're gathered to the one that we've been looking at the
whole time. Back in our text or in Genesis
49, I want to look at two words real quick. Four minutes and
I'll be done. Genesis 49, verse 30. 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 of Ephraim the Hittite
for a possession of a burying place. You go back and look at
Genesis 23, 20, and that's almost verbatim. It's almost the same,
isn't it? That must be important. These
words must be important. What's Mamrie? What's Mamrie? I want to be right there before
Mamrie. It means vigor and victory. That's the root word of it. Life.
Lively. Not just a-live. Lively. Vigorous. I thought we was raised, we was
laid to rest. I thought we've entered our peace
and our resting place. Our life as believers truly begins
vigorously in victory. When we experience this death
and experience Christ's full victory, that's when it's really
going to start. We think we're alive now because
we breathe oxygen. That ain't the case. Memory,
vigor, victory. That's where I want to be laid.
Do you want to be laid there? Where it's done. It's finished. Everything's done. And Machpelah,
double. You remember last time we looked
at Machpelah where we turned? There's the same word, it's translated
a different way. Turn over to Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40. I want to be laid in Christ's
victory and bigger in his life. That's where I want to be rest.
That's where all my rest is, all my peace is, to be with him.
And I want to be buried in Macpela. Completely engulfed. You get
that? Buried. Not completely consumed. Completely buried. Isaiah 40, verse one. Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished,
that her iniquity is pardoned. She hath received of the Lord's
hand Machpelah for all her sins. Double. Double. I need the water and the blood.
Remember us looking at that the other night? Remember what it
was? I need to be bought with the blood, all my sins covered
and justified. I need justification and I need
to be sanctified. I need to be made holy, set apart
for His using and I can never sin again. And the Lord said,
go tell them after 39 chapters of giving them the business.
And he said, now go tell them, speak comfort to their hearts.
You got Macpila. You got double. It's done. It's
finished. Remember, this ties in real tight
with Wednesday night. You got to go back and listen
to it if you didn't. Double, double. Jacob said, you're gonna
take me and put me where my family is, my true family. This is my
mother, this is my brothers, right? And you're gonna lay me
down there, and it's gonna be in victory, and it's gonna be
in vitality, and I'm gonna get double. I must be laid with my brethren
in victory and in vigor in the land of double. Land of double. Verse 33, back in our text. I
was gonna go on there, The Lord comes for us. Go read
Isaiah 40, verse 10 sometimes. The Lord comes with a strong
hand and his rewards with him, his works before him. That's
when he comes to get us. That may happen today. Genesis
39, verse 33. And when Jacob had made an end
of commanding his sons, just like Abraham, he commanded his
house. Jacob commanded his sons. The gospel is not a debate. It's
not an open forum. It's a declaration. It's a command.
He commanded his sons, he gathered up his feet under the bed, and
he yielded up the ghost. He exhaled, he deceased, he expired,
and was gathered unto his people. What a calm, precious way to
die. To just gently pick our feet
up, put underneath the covers, close our eyes, and go to the
Lord. Go to our people, right then, gathered unto our people.
All the anxiety and the fear, we'll touch on this next hour. Unbelief, anxiety, fear, all
those things, it's sin. You don't believe God. If I'm
anxious, if I'm nervous, and there's things I dread, I'm gonna
have some pain coming, and I may not want that to happen, but
all those things are just sin, isn't it? What a blessing if
the Lord was to take that from us. Let us look to Him. We're
looking to ourselves rather than things if we have all those things.
If we believe Him and look to Him and just pull our feet up
in bed and lay down and go to sleep. That's what the Word says
too. The Lord changes the, the animation of that word. It's
not just death sounds so sad. He said they sleep. You afraid
to take a nap? Most people ain't afraid to take
a nap while there's preaching going on. It's just take a nap. Lay down. Time to go home. Love
y'all. I'm gonna command ya. All flesh
is grass. Don't you forget that. And behold
your God. Now, Lord's faithful. I trust him. He'll do as he sees
fit. I'm gonna go home now. That'd be a precious way. Isn't
that a good thing, to die that way? I'd rather do that than old Mr. Rogers who's clawed at his wife
and said, did I do enough? Did I do enough? Did I do enough?
Christ did it all, it's finished. Let's go home. That's a good
thing. All right, let's pray together. Father, thank you for
this word. Thank you for making us sons
of Jacob, showing us what we are and revealing Christ to us. Lord, we believe, but help our
unbelief. Make us walk through this world
as humble sojourners that believe you. Make Christ come out from us. He's in us, Lord. Let us walk
in a way that honors him and magnifies his name and his glory
and points all mankind towards him. Thank you for this hour. Lord, be with all those that
aren't able to be with us and it's of your will. Lord, but
we pray for them. It's because of Christ we ask
these things. Amen. All right, we'll meet again 1030.