Good morning, brethren. Good
morning. I might get a little louder and a little quieter.
Thankfully, Brethren Kingsport sent the new mixer board. Kim
and I had a few minutes yesterday to our busy schedule to get it
hooked up. So we'll be seeing how it works
today. Looking in Genesis 25. I'm gonna
make a reminder of this. for a few weeks. I had to be
talked over weeks and weeks to do this. Whenever we make our
offerings, they're in the box with a whole board in the top
of it. That's why we have it. Try to
place your checks or cash or whatever you have you give in
an envelope. You ain't got a seal on the bag,
you can tuck it in and then right on the outside of it, not your
name. I'm gonna tell you it's getting
Wednesday. Not your name. I'm gonna probably
tell you again next Sunday. Not your name. Just write the
amount that's on there, and that way we can have two people count
the money, and it's not a burden on the second one to know who
gives what. I ain't equipped for that. Never
have been. Lord didn't put me in there,
didn't give me that ability. But as we can, put it in the
envelope, write the amount on the outside, just the amount.
And then you still get your letter at the end of the year, how much
you file Uncle Sam's taxes or whatever. Anyway, the envelopes.
And speaking of that, there's some brethren down in Florida. I gotta teach you. So I was telling
Karen this morning, I said, I don't know where to start. And I said,
I finally just got backed into a corner. I don't know what to
do. I said, Lord's gonna have to do it. And I'll just pray
he does it. And I thought, why didn't I start
there? I gotta be taught too. A brethren down in Florida, hurricane
come through, in case y'all don't own a TV, or turn on the radio,
it was a pretty big one. Fifth largest one to hit the
state in recent history. And some of the brethren there
in Apopka had some significant damage to their homes. And y'all
don't really experience this, but I do. One of them, ah, camera's
on it. I wanna talk to them, I don't
wanna talk to the world. We'll take up an offering for Florida. I'm sorry, it's just, I've had
the week I was supposed to have. Paul wrote to Corinth and said,
now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have ordered
the churches of Galatia, even so ye do. You take it up first
day of the week. You lay in stores as God hath
prospered you that week. That way, whenever I show up,
I don't have to be part of this gathering. Y'all take care of
that. You gather together and whoever you approve, we'll send
them with your liberality to Jerusalem. Y'all gather together.
And then poor saints, he wrote from Corinth to Rome, So it's
our duty to minister them in carnal things for the poor saints
which are at Jerusalem. So we'll gather together an offering over the next couple
of weeks to send to them. That'll be the right thing to do. Now
if you want to go, Brother Clay sent out an email to us saying,
which is a little bit easier for them, if anybody wants to
go down there and help, Southwest has tickets for each team. Fly
down there and go help them. Or if you want to send the money
of your own accord, go ahead. Go ahead. But as the Lord prospers
us, we'll take our offering up for them. All right. Genesis
25. Kind of preaching a funeral this
morning. I look forward to preaching believers funerals. I don't look
forward to missing my friends, but if there's a believer that
I know dearly and I've looked in their eyes and preached Christ
to them and it's time for them to go home and they go home. They give up the ghost. I look
forward to that. That's a time of rejoicing. I'll
close and tell you why. In the closing, I'll tell you
why. I look forward to that. Well, Abraham died. I just want
to preach this message second. We'll do it first. Genesis 25,
verse 7. And these are the days of the
years of Abraham's life, which he lived. And hundred, three
score, and 15 years. Then Abraham gave up the ghost.
and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years, and
was gathered to his people." There's much to be said here
in just two verses. What we read is Abraham was old and he died,
but verse 7 says this concerning the days of the years of Abraham's
life which he lived. The days of the years. All those
days, they added up to 175 years. But you know we are instructed
to live this life one day at a time? Do you know that we physically
wake up with only today? Do you know the time is always
right now? Do you know that? Has it ever
been different for you? If the Lord saved us, this is God's sheet. If the Lord
saved you, you don't need to wallow in the guilt of yesterday. It's forgiven. There is therefore
now No condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. They walk after the
Spirit. Not they did walk. I used to walk. Not well, tomorrow
I'll walk. Right now. Today, there's no
condemnation. You got some hang-ups from 13
and a half years ago? Let it go. Get over it. Stop it. Don't worry about yesterday.
And we don't need to have anxiety for tomorrow. Oh, what am I going
to do next week? Oh, what am I going to do? Tomorrow
ain't promised. Tomorrow's not promised. James said, go to now
ye that say today or tomorrow we'll go into such a city and
continue there a year to buy and sell and get gain. Whereas
you know not what shall be on the morrow for what your life. It's a vapor that appear for
a little time and then vanish the way for you ought to say
if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that. My father
always said, the days are so long and the years are so short.
Boy, that gets more true as older I get. Days are getting kind
of quicker too. As the years speed up, the days
speed up. But we only have today. Today's the day given, and we
ought to wake up in the morning knowing today's the day the Lord
gave. And be thankful and praise Him,
having a soft and tender heart. Well, yesterday I was pretty
grumpy. I didn't talk about yesterday, I'm talking about today. Have
a soft and tender heart today. David wrote that in Psalm 95,
for he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and
the sheep of his hand. Today, if you will hear his voice,
harden not your hearts. Some stone, buddy. I mean, just
cold stone. You ever wake up that way? Oh,
if you hear his voice. You might hear about him, you
might hear some jabbering. Was that the thunder? That's
what people said when the Lord spoke from heaven, wasn't it? Was that
thunder? Maybe that was a plane breaking the sound barrier. If
you hear His voice, that'll soften your heart. If it's a small day,
what if ain't got much going on today? Some of us can't do
much. I know most of y'all's retired. You ain't got a lot
on your plate. What if it ain't much you can
do? Don't be discouraged. Seek the Lord's voice in a song
or hymn. Paul wrote to us in Ephesians
5, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving
thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank the Lord for that day.
And don't despise the day of small things. Zechariah told
us that. Who have to despise the day of
small things? Might not be, maybe I can only be kind to somebody
today. Maybe I can only have a soft
heart towards a brother or sister today. That's huge, isn't it?
It's huge, that brother or sister. Don't despise the small things.
Abraham lived all of his years one day at a time, and we sure
should too. We should wake up in the morning
seeking Christ, our daily bread, and getting after it so we have
physical bread. Whatever he's gave us to do,
searching for his mercies that are fresh, that are anew every
morning, and finding grace for today. Grace for today, for today. Today's the Lord's day. Every
day's the Lord's day, but we're meeting in his house today to
hear about his son. That's a precious day. That's
good. We ought to give it all we got.
We ought to listen with everything we have in us. We ought to dwell
on the message with everything we have in us. Go home like the
Bereans and look us up, not look up somebody else, look this up.
You don't get notes no more, but I'll send them to you one-on-one
or you have to decipher them. It's like hieroglyphics. Go look
it up. Search these things out. Today's
the day we're given. Abraham lived one day at a time, and
he lived 175 years worth. He was old. He's old. Verse 8 says, Then Abraham gave
up the ghost and died in a good old age, an old man and full
of years. Was God the Holy Ghost rubbing
it in to Abraham? You're old. You're long in the
tooth. Many days. No, no. There's much
more said here. This is the promise that the
Lord made to Abraham back in Genesis 15. Did you know that?
Genesis 15, 15 said, Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace. The
believer dies in peace. I can't say enough for nobody
else. Believers die in peace. And thou shalt be buried in a
good old age. When you're putting that ground
just like your Savior was. Abraham, you're going to be at
a good old age and you're going to be at peace. So this is our
final resting place. But they just started resting
at the Lord's. They've had a foretaste. Well, now it's eternal rest in
Him. You're finally with Him. This is an old man. He was at
the end of life, finally. But he had been old for a long
time, hadn't he? He was at the end of that race. Paul said,
Know ye not that they which run a race Run all, but one receive
the prize. Everybody's running the race.
Only one person wins it. So run that you may obtain. Get
off your laurels and get after it. That's just plain. Quit being
lazy. Lord's people ain't lazy. We
said run. It's gonna wear you out. And every man that striveth
for the mastery of his temperate and all things, now they do it
to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. When
we wake up in the morning on a new day, today's the Lord's
day. We've been put something in our
hands to do. Now be like those that's running
a race and run, get after it. Do what's put in your hand to
do. Paul said, I therefore so run, not as uncertainly. He said, I'm running and I'm
giving all I got and I know exactly what I'm doing it for. I'm doing
it for the Lord. Brother Todd's got a good article in the bulletin.
If y'all get a chance, get you one, read it, it'd be good for
you. Paul labored more than them all. It wasn't him bragging.
It wasn't him being proud. He did. He traveled more, preached
more, and he wrote more than they did. But that's what was
put in his hand to do, so he did it. But he got old. That's when he was young. He
was in that season of life to do those things. That's what
the Lord had in his hand that day. But a new day came, and
he was old. And he wrote to Timothy. He said,
For now I am ready to be offered at the time of my departure is
at hand. I'm about to die, Timothy. I fought a good fight. I finished
my course. I've kept the faith. That race
is almost over. It's hard at the end sometimes.
You get tired at the end. You get winded at the end. David
said, I was young and now I'm old. It happens to all of us. Time moves only one way and you
won't always be young. And it said his years were full.
Full of years is in italics. He was full. You get that? Abraham had a full life. A full life. It seemed so boring
until he turned 75. He was old then at 75, but those
last hundred years, boys, that's something to talk about. Can you imagine having him tell
you his life story in five minutes? If you could just go sit down
with Faithful Abraham. Say, Abraham, what was your life like? That'd
be something. He had a full life. He traveled
extensively. He finally made it to the land
of Canaan. When he got there, there was a drought. He lived
through famine. Famine. Not what I could eat.
He lived through famine. He went through drought. It drove
him to another continent. And he got there and he had to
run in with Pharaoh. That was his own fault. That was his doing. After Pharaoh kicked him out,
he came back to Canaan. Well, everything's fine now. No, he
had some family trouble. Lot left. That one that worshiped
God with him, he took off. He left. Then he got in a mess
of trouble. And Abraham had to go to war.
He had to go to war, get Lot back, and he won. Oh, what war
stories he had. 318 of them. Went after four
kings and defeated five kings. He just got through doing that.
The battle's finally won, and he observed the Lord's table
with the Lord's high priest, with Melchizedek. What's up? What do you look like? How tall
was it? Tell me, Abraham. While that was happening, just
as soon as that finished, King Sodom offered him great things. I'll make you rich. And he said,
you take your money and you beat it. I want nothing to do with
you. Leave me alone. Immediately after
that, he got scared. He feared greatly. He's worried
about going broke. And the Lord said, fear not,
Abraham. I'm your shield and I'm your exceeding great reward.
The Lord spoke to him. He heard him. This whole time
the Lord's telling him over and over with everything going on,
you and Sarah are going to have a son and salvation is going
to come to this earth in human flesh through that boy's offspring.
Christ will come. He's going to crush the serpent's
head. He's going to give his people life. He shall not lose
one. Being told those promises, Abraham
hated his wife. Like his father Adam, he went
into Hagar. the works of his hands. I was
saying that the other day. The Pharisees, they always trace
their lineage back to Abraham, don't they? Boy, they come short
of the kingdom of God. If they'd have kept going back
to Adam, Lord might have taught them something. If they'd have went back to when
we fell in the garden, Abraham had another run-in with the ruler
about this time of Bimelech. He was telling Sarah to say he
is his sister one more time. But this time that king didn't
run him off. This time the Lord saved that king. And they became
friends years later. They worshiped God together.
Boy, that's a good story. And look what the Lord did. About
that time Isaac was born, but Hagar and Ishmael, they had to
go. What a trial. It was so hard. But that had
some hope in it, didn't it? The Lord promised he's going
to bless Ishmael. He said, I'll make him great.
You send him out in the desert. Give him a jug of water. Send
him packing. Then he had to take Isaac up
to be sacrificed. What a triple trial that was.
Abraham already went through this, in a sense, by sending
Ishmael away. He'd lost one he loved, sent it away. And now
he had to sacrifice the promised son. He had to physically do
it all the while. All the while, thinking of the
Lord that's coming. And how this is a picture of
Christ having to willingly lay down his life too. Isaac willingly
laid down his life. We'll look at that next time.
He was obedient unto death. Christ was gonna be obedient
unto death. You got that in your heart, and then you physically
gotta kill your son, and you already sent one of them away,
but you gotta believe the promises of God. That's a trial. That's
a trial. And the Lord said, look behind
you, there's a ram caught in a thicket. You think that story he told ended
on a good note? It ended on Christ, didn't it? There was some peaceful
years after that. The Lord was gracious and let
Abraham and Isaac and Sarah live peaceably. Live peaceably. That's precious, isn't it? And
Sarah died, what grief. The one you've been married to
for a hundred years is called home. Like we will, Abraham rejoiced
for his beloved wife, but boy, he missed her. He was thankful
for her. He was thankful she was without
sin, with her redeemer, but boy, he missed her. His flesh missed
her. You think in all these years,
there was a time that Abraham might've thought, I want to go
home. I want to be with the Lord too. Surely from 75 to 175, there
was a point where he said, I just, I'm tired now. This race is wearing
me out. I just want to go home. You think
he forgot the promises of the Lord and he wanted to either
eject himself for this world or he thought this was the it.
This is it. Lord's going to kill me right now. I bet it crossed
his mind. How could I imagine such things? It crosses my mind,
doesn't it? Paul said, for me to live is Christ, but to die
is gain. And we're selfish. We want gain. Don't we? But we forget to live as Christ.
This is His doing. We're alive because of Him. To
serve Him, to serve His people. That's the reason we're here.
That's why He's kept us here. I got to touch on this. Suicide
is wrong. And it is the epitome of selfishness. It's man serving himself. Now
that can be hard and I hate it. It's so. To leave all the troubles
behind for others to deal with. All the work left to do behind
for others to deal with. And add more pain in doing so.
Pain for those around you. That's shameful. Like all selfish
things, it really isn't self-serving. Like all things that are real
selfish, it really don't help you out none. To take your appointed
time into your own hands, only to escape this world's sorrows,
only to find out much, much more sorrows await. Eternal gnashing
of teeth. The Lord killeth and maketh alive. That's his business. That ain't
my business. That ain't your business. That
ain't nobody else's business. That's the Lord's business. The Lord
killeth and maketh alive. He bringeth down to the grave.
He's the one that bringeth up. If you're going to be raised
from that grave, He's going to be the one to do it. It's appointed unto men once
to die, but after this the judgment. 137 years old when he saw the
promises of God come to pass over and over and over again.
You think I made it 137 years? That's old. I'm going to hang
it up. I'm not useful to serving the Lord anymore. I'm old. Wait
a second. Wait a second. Look at verse
1. Genesis 25 verse 1. Then again Abraham took a wife
and her name was Keturah. They had six sons together and
those sons had sons. They had grandchildren. He's
up in his 140s and he had six sons. Three times the amount
he had before that. Six sons and a bunch of grandchildren.
And he was old. Paul said, being not weak in
faith, he considered on his own body now dead when he was about
a hundred years old. This is 40 years later. Old man. One of the old writers said after
Isaac was born, Abraham was rejuvenated. I believe that to be true. You
ever seen somebody saved by the grace of God? They're a new creation. There's something new in them.
They might not be dunking basketballs, They might not have the ability
to do something like that, but they have the joy like a little child
in them. They have the eagerness to learn
like a little child, that's so. It's true. What about someone
that's walked with the Lord 10 or 20 or 50 years or 150 years?
You hear the promises of God are fulfilled. You get to see
Christ exalted one more time. You get to have the gospel preached
to you one more time, and that puts a little pep in your step.
You have a little bit of joy, don't you? You're rejuvenated. Have life in you. Abraham had
six more sons in his 140s. What's that mean? There's a whole
lot. Old Gil had some explanation of these names and people, and
he lost me. He's lost other faithful preachers
over the years, too. He didn't know what he was talking about.
Most other people don't. It means something. We ain't got no light
on that yet. I'll tell you what it does mean.
He was fruitful in his old age. No matter what the Lord is pleased
to do in Providence, while we are on this earth, his people,
his servants, they are profitable. No matter what we think, they
are. If we're his child, his servant, we're profitable to
the kingdom of God, to his glory, to our good. How can I illustrate
that? Y'all know Brother Gene Harmon.
Lord took that ability of him to preach away. He physically
can't do it no more. And so he went and sat underneath
David. And you know what a blessing that is for David? Just to have
that man there. Not that he fills in and preaches.
He can't do that no more. And he is an encouragement. He
can fill in sometimes. But just that he's there. Faithful. Faithful. Day in and day out. Having the
Word. And it gets more simpler as he gets older. The Lord will
take care of it. God will provide. But David gets
to look him in the eye and preach to him. I think about Brother
Henry there in Rocky Mount. He went to go sit underneath
Paul. His son wouldn't grace that to him. And he couldn't
hardly make it up the steps. Little six-inch step, and he
was faithful. I know some of you have a hard
time making it here to service every day, and there's a whole
bunch of able-bodied people that ain't got no excuse not coming.
Faithful, faithful. That's encouraging to me. I look
out and see you all looking in the eye. That's a great encouragement
to me. Serving God. There was a time Miss Shelby,
she watched our children. She's done a lot of things. physically
to help. Now she's on the other side of
the country. You know what a benefit and a blessing she is to my wife
and to me and all the troubles we're going through right now
to lean on her and she's all right. It's all right. I have
a word of comfort. What a blessing. It'll get sweeter
as we get older. That's what happened. Right now,
Kimberly's laboring 18 hours a day, seven days a week. That's
hard. Sweetness will come in the years to come. It will. I
like bananas. I was accused the other day that
nobody's ever seen me eat fruit. I ate fruit, just wasn't y'all
sleeping. I like bananas. I don't like
bananas when they're green. I don't like to eat them that
way. I don't like fry them up, don't like green bananas. I really
don't like them when they're just kind of yellow. I don't even
like them when they're really yellow. You know when I like
a banana? Call me weird, but so, I like them whenever they're
real old and real dark, got spots all over them. Why do I like
them like that? I got a sweet tooth. When fruit
gets some age on it, it gets more sweeter. And it gets more
tender as it gets old, if it's God's fruit. Some fruit just
gets harder and dried up like them jujubes. They turn into
rocks, don't they? God's fruit softens and sweetens
as the years go on. Paul wrote to us, he said, the
fruit of the Spirit is love joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law."
You know, all of those fruits of the Spirit, they manifest
in action. Love does something. Long-suffering
suffers a long time, doesn't it? But every one of those is
an attitude. You get that? It manifests in action, the fruit
that God gives, but every bit of it comes from a new nature.
A new attitude. That's where it springs from,
isn't it? Turn over to Psalm 92. Those that are lords, they're
going to get sweeter and more fruitful as they age. And they
will produce sweeter fruit in the latter years. They will. Bob, you're going to get sweeter.
Do you know that? You'll be sweet someday. Each
one of you is going to get sweeter and sweeter. Psalm 92. Verse 12. The righteous shall flourish
like the palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar in
Lebanon. Those that be planted in the
house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of God. That'd
be a message I'd like to get out to the whole world. You want
to flourish in the courts of God? You're going to be in the
house of the Lord. He's going to plant you there.
Those that be planted like a seed in the house of the Lord shall
flourish in the courts of God. They shall bring forth fruit
in old age. They shall be fat and flourishing.
Why? What are they going to do with that? To show that the Lord
is upright. He's my rock, and there's no
unrighteousness in Him. What God does is right. My body's
breaking down, and yours is breaking down. We come into this earth
breaking down, don't we? That's right. That's right. What refuge do we have? Christ
is my rock, and he's righteous. He's holy. Well, that's real
simple, isn't it? That's sweet fruit. That's sustaining
fruit, what that is. Oh, that's a heart that God's
done something in. I ain't talking about the cells
I had down at the grocery store. I'm talking about Christ and him crucified,
what he's done for his people, how that lasts eternally. That's
precious fruit, isn't it? Get more simple. Pastors, there's
a plain and simple. I want to be plain. I want to
be a simple sugar. I want to be plain. There's a good prayer for me
and you. Turn over to Luke 13. Luke 13, verse 6. I feel like an old man. I got
a fig tree at the house. I thought I killed it. Now I
think it might be alive. It's haggard looking. It may
make it. I don't know. I feel like that
fig tree out front of my house. He spake also this parable, verse
6, Luke 13, 6. He spake also this parable. A
certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came
and sought fruit thereon and found none. And he said to the
dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking
fruit on this fig tree, and find none, cut it down. Why comberth
it, the ground? Why is this even planted in the
ground? Why is it there? This is a waste of nutrients, kill
it, cut it down. That one that dresses the vineyard,
he answered, said unto him, Lord, let it along this year also,
till I shall dig it about and dung it. What's that mean? I'm
gonna go out and put some mulch around it. I'm gonna put a berm
around it, that way all the water Even if it's just a little bit,
we put to good use. It'll catch all the water. Let
me wring it about. We gotta do that here. I mound
everything. I come from where it's wet and my tomato plants
are suffering. Every time I plant something
in the ground, I mound it up. Shed that water. Oh, this here is
a desert where fig trees grow. You gotta dig down a little bit
and put a ring around it. Let me dig it and dung it. What's
that? We need to see us. We need to
see what we are. and we need to smell what we
are often. The Lord has to dig our ears
so we can hear what we are, what dung we are, what dung our righteousness
is, all them good works we had. It's filthy rags. When we're
showed that, when we're ringed, got our bell rung, and we're
dunged, we see what dung we are, we'll bear fruit. That's when
the fruit starts growing. And if it bear fruit, well, and
if not, then after that shall cut it down. If the Lord exposes
sin, what's the first thing the Holy Spirit convicts us of? The
sin we are. Convicts us of sin. We start
seeing Christ's righteousness. What's that? That's called fruit.
That fruit's going to be old and say he's righteous. Judgment's
done. It's finished. Back in our text,
Genesis 25. Abraham had a full life. It was
busy. It was action-packed, wasn't it? But it was also full of something
else. Genesis 25, verse 8. Then Abraham
gave up the ghost and died in a good old age, an old man, and
full, full of grace, full of tenderness, full of long-suffering,
full of love, full of thankfulness. Thankfulness. Lamentations 322 says, it's of
the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions
fail not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. I'm
full of faith. That's how he died. Believers
die full of faith, full of the faithfulness of Christ. Full
of looking to him. We'll see next hour. He left
it all to Isaac when he did this. You take your burden to the Lord
and leave it there. If today's all we got today. Take your burdens
to the Lord, leave them there. Give them all to Isaac. What
happened after this long day-by-day life was full? Verse 7 says,
And these are the days of the years of Abraham's life, which
he lived a hundred, threescore, and fifteen years. Then Abraham
gave up the ghost and died in a good old age, an old man and
full, and was gathered to his people. You have a ghost. You
have a spirit in you, and it's going somewhere. That's proof
right there. That's all. What happened? Were we just wearing
food after this? This one verse is good enough
proof. The Lord said so. He gave up the ghost. What's
that mean? You've got spirit in you and it's going somewhere.
The end's coming. For the child of God, what happens
to the end? I don't want to talk about what happens to those who
don't believe. God doesn't spit in his face all their whole lives
or pretended like they worshiped him. What happens to God's people,
those that he saves? They're gathered to our people.
When the believers die, we are gathered to our people. Back
in Genesis 15, it says, you will be gathered your fathers in peace.
Does that mean his physical father? No. No, his spiritual fathers,
not his physical fathers. We don't leave our family and
leave our lives here. We go to our life. We go to our
family. Abraham closed his eyes and sleep
here. He was present with the Lord. He said, hello, Job. Hey,
Rahab, how you doing? Jonah, good to meet you. He was
with his family. He was gathered to his family.
Some people said, what about the body? Are we going to be
spirits floating around? Paul answered that bluntly. He
said, some man will say, are the dead raised up? How are they? What about the body? Do they
come in? He said, thou fool. He said, God giveth it a body
which hath pleased him. And to every seed his own body.
What am I going to be like before the resurrection? But after I
die, if it's a big span, whatever pleases the Lord, And to the
child of God, that's a good answer. That's all I need to hear. He
said, I've got to prepare a place for you. That place will be just
fine. He's the one preparing it, won't
it? Well, what happens then? Then there's a funeral, wasn't
there? Verse 9 says, And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried
him in the cave of Machpelah. We remember that, don't we? Double.
Received the Lord's hand double. Machpelah. In the field of Ephron,
the sons of Zoar, the Hittite, which is before Mamre, the same
place he was buried where Sarah was buried. The field which Abraham
purchased of the sons of Heth, there was Abraham buried and
Sarah, his wife. There was a funeral there. Isaac
and Ishmael showed up. We haven't heard of Ishmael in
a long time, have we? Just like the multitudes, he
showed up to save face. He showed up for himself. It's
not written that that son returned after being cast out into the
desert and begged for mercy, was it? Father, I'm sorry. I mocked your true son. Have
mercy on me. Let me be a servant in your house.
Let me feed the hogs." Did he do that? It's not recorded, is
it? Not once did he plead to just show up for services. I
won't say a word. Just let me come hear you preach.
Please, daddy. You're the only man preaching
the gospel in this part of the world that we know of. I want
to come hear you. I won't say a word. I'll set the back. I'll
leave some services over. He didn't come petitioning that,
did he? But he sure showed up during the funeral. Oh, I was
a pallbearer for Abraham, for daddy, or whatever else he could
exalt himself for. People curse God's people and
his preachers their whole life, whole time of their life. And
the second they die, they show up with ties and good cologne
on at the funeral. Oh, that's so sweet. I loved
them. They're in a better place now. Hogwash. I told you I'd end it. Well,
I'm happy about a believer's funeral. See what testimony? We're the epistles, Paul said.
We're his epistles. We're the Lord's epistles. We're
a testament to Christ and him crucified our whole life is.
Whenever we leave this world, he saw it's such a shame. We
might be sad over some things, but for believers, that's good.
That's good. How does the word where the Lord
reference the death of a believer? It's blessed. Blessed are they
that die in the Lord. It's precious. It's precious
in His sight. And Paul said it was gain. To
die is to gain. That's how the Lord describes
the death of a believer. It's blessed, it's precious,
and it's gain. And whenever He sees fit, He'll do that. But
what about us? Whether it be our first day believing,
or this is the day of today, or our last day on this earth,
or anyone in between, this is the day which the Lord hath made.
We will rejoice and be glad in it. Amen. All right, let's pray
together. Father, give us our daily bread
today. Oh, be gracious to us today.
Be merciful. Forgive us for our sin today. Allow us to see your forgiveness.
We can get over our guilt and our anxiety and see Christ. who
bought us with his own blood. Make us fruitful, Lord. Ring
us, dung us, and allow us to walk through this world today,
not with a hard heart, but with a soft heart, loving as we have
been loved, showing kindness as you've been kind to us. What a wonderful example you've
given us in our brother Abraham. Our shortcomings all about us,
Lord, but allow us to run the race you've given us. Thank you
for this day. It's in Christ's name that we
ask it. Amen. All right.