after these things that God did
tempt, or that is, try or test Abraham. Another test, another of many,
and this time was a very severe test, not that the others weren't,
leaving his home and family and trials with Lot and others, but
perhaps this was the ultimate test try his love for his Lord,
see who he was willing to give up, to who he was willing to part
with, rather than part with his Lord, to prove his love to the
Lord. And so it is with every one of
God's people, or tried in that way, or will be, He said, if any man loves father
or mother, husband, wife, son or daughter, or even his own
life more than me, he cannot be my disciple. And for our comfort,
though, know this, that if you belong to the Lord when the time
comes, you, like Abraham, will pass that test. His grace is
sufficient. can or will, you doubt it, you
doubt yourself, and you have good reason to doubt yourself.
But don't doubt your Lord's grace. It is sufficient. After many
trials Abraham went through, trial upon trial, and our Lord
promised these. He said, in the world you shall
have many trials, many troubles, many tribulations, which are
the trial of your faith. which proves your Lord to you
and proves your trust in Him, proves His grace is sufficient,
proves that you have indeed been made to bow to His will in all
things. To say like Job, the Lord gave
and the Lord hath taken away. To say like Eli, it is the Lord. And only God's people and we'll
do that. But it is a trial of your faith.
It must be tried. Abraham and all of God's people,
like Abraham, was a heathen, an idolater. But the Lord loved
him. The Lord chose him. The Lord
redeemed him. The Lord regenerated him. The Lord changed him. The Lord
called him. The Lord called him and called
him to go through many trials not only to prove his faith,
but to glorify his Lord as a testimony to his God. He left home. He sojourned in a strange land
as a pilgrim. He went through troubles after
trouble, after trial after trial in his home, in his family, among
his family and in the world. in his own heart, his own inward
struggles with sin, his own unfaithfulness, his own failures, his own sinfulness,
all of which all of God's people will go through all of these
things. There is no temptation, the Scripture says, no trial
that hath taken you but such as is common to man. But God is faithful. Hope. God is faithful who will
not suffer you to be tempted or tried above that you are able. But will with that temptation,
whatever it may be, whatever that trial is, whatever the trial,
no matter how difficult, no matter how deep, no matter how fiery,
how painful, will with that trial make a way to escape, to bear
it. What is the way? Who is the way? Our Lord said, I am the way.
Christ is that refuge, that escape that you may be able to bear
it. You will. You will. Know this, Peter said,
that the same afflictions sent by God accomplish or are accomplished
in your brethren throughout the world. They all go through the
same thing. And so Abraham went through his
most difficult trial of all. And when it was over, do you
remember? It says he rejoiced. He rejoiced. Our Lord said, Abraham
rejoiced to see my day. And he saw it. And he was glad. It was a trial that was his toughest
to date. But after he went through it,
he rejoiced in God his Savior, didn't he? He and Isaac both. Then twenty years go by. Twenty
years of relative peace. And then chapter 23. And Sarah,
his beloved long-time bride, his wife, his companion, his
friend of almost one hundred years. She had 127 years allotted to
her by the Lord. 127 years, it said. These were
the years of the life of Sarah. She lived a long time, didn't
she? The Lord gave her strength. The Lord gave her exceptional
beauty. She was beautiful to look at,
even when she was 100 years old. The Lord gave her 127 years,
but that's all. Not a day more. That was her
allotted time, and we have an allotted time. We don't know how long. Some
are given just hours on this earth. Children, babies die.
Some are given a few years, 10, 15, 20. Some more. Sarah lived all her days. She
didn't live past those days. Our days are determined. The
number of our months are with thee, Job said. Thou hast appointed
our bounds, and we cannot pass. And I'm glad we don't know. Aren't
you? I'm glad we don't know. We leave
that with our Lord. It's appointed, though. Our days
are appointed, and so is our death. It is appointed unto man
who wants to die. And then after that, something.
That's why the Scripture says no matter how long we live, whether
it be a few years or many, we will die. Death comes to all
the sons of Adam. We know it's coming. Our loved ones are going to die. If we don't die before they do,
they're going to die. But would you tell me when you're
ever ready to give them up? No matter how old your parents
become, how feeble, if you love them, you're never ready, are
you? You're not ready. And that's
why the Lord doesn't tell us. Our loved one, if we're married,
if we have a Sarah, if we're married to an Abraham, if we
don't go first, she will. Or he will. We have a couple
in here that have gone through this. And though we're ready, I mean,
though we know it's coming, and though we should be prepared,
it doesn't lessen the sorrow when it happens, does it? It says, Abraham, verse 2, Sarah
died in the land of Kurjah, Arba, the city, the same as Hebron.
Abraham came, the original Bible scripture says he came in to
mourn for Sarah. He came in where her body was
laid in a tent. He came in where her body was
to view it one more time and to weep for her. The death of a loved one is great sorrow. And there's
weeping. There's a mourning. And there's
nothing wrong with that. Abraham did. He's the father
of the faithful. The Lord wrote this for our comfort.
The Lord wrote this story of Abraham who went through this
deep sorrow of losing his beloved bride of many, many years. And
he mourned over her greatly. And he wept. Weeping is different
than just merely crying and weeping. Our Lord wept, didn't He? Our
Lord wept. You weep over those you love. You sorrow over those you love. And so he came in to mourn, to
weep over his longtime companion, his friend, his helpmate, his
bride of so many years was gone. And he's not going to see her
face. He's not going to hear her voice. He's not going to
feel her embrace. He's not going to hear her laughter
ever again upon this earth. Now, you tell me if that's not
sad. There's an empty chair in his
tent. There is an empty bed in his house. And that house is not empty. So Abraham goes in to view his
beloved bride, his lifelong bride, one last time. And he weeps. And he sorrows. but not as those who have no
hope. His weeping endured for a night,
but oh, joy is coming in the morning. He sorrowed not as those who
have no hope, because Sarah knew the Lord. Sarah knew the Lord, or rather,
Scripture says, was known. by the Lord. The Lord chose her
too. Sarah is spoken of in Scripture. She is listed in that hall of
faith in Hebrews 11. To receive strength, to receive
mercy, to receive grace. The Lord knew Sarah. The Lord
foreknew Sarah. Loved her. Known by her Lord. The Lord came to her like he
did Abraham. Called her, told her about the
promises like he did Abraham. made her to laugh. She said,
and I can't help but laugh when I hear or read that, she said,
the Lord has made me to laugh. Rejoice in God, her Savior. You
know, there are two ladies in Scripture that were so blessed
to bear precious seed. One in the Old Testament, one
in the New. Sarah bore that promised seed, and then Mary in the New
bore the seed. of whom Isaac was a type. And the Lord made her to laugh,
revealing that promised seed to her and most surely revealing
Christ to her. Do you think that Abraham told
her about what happened up on Mount Moriah? Don't you know
that when he came down from that mountain, do you think Isaac
could withhold that from his brother that he loved? Don't
you know that both of them told that blessed story of substitution. Abraham wasn't about to tell
Sarah what he was going to do, like he wouldn't tell those young
men what he was going to do, else they might try to stop him.
No, and that's a picture, as we know, as we heard, of the
sacrifice made between the father and his son, and no one could
enter into it. But when they got back down, they told Sarah
what the Lord had done, how the Lord had spared and how the Lord
had provided that ram caught by his horns in the thicket,
and he was a substitute for Isaac. Oh, and Sarah rejoiced too in
God her Savior and the Lord and Christ who was to come. She rejoiced. And she heard, you know, we looked
at how Abraham was told about Rebekah's birth up there, chapter
22. At the same time, that for those
of you who weren't here, at the very same time the son was being
sacrificed, his bride was being born. And Abraham heard that
and he rejoiced. And so did Rebekah. Right before she died, someone told
her, hey, Bethuel has given birth to a baby girl named Rebekah. And Sarah, being a godly woman,
a believing woman, knowing that God had promised Isaac a bride
and would have seed as the stars of the sky and the sands of the
seashore, knowing that he must have a bride and taken from his
people, thought to herself, she hoped, she thought, that could
be his bride, which the next chapter is about. And so she had hope. She died
in hope. She died in faith. She died in
peace. She died believing, hoping, trusting
in her God and her Savior, entrusting in the seed, the promised seed
he was to come. And so Abraham weeps, as you
will, as some of you have, as we all have for our beloved one. And he sorrows, but not without
hope for Sarah. He's going to see her again. He's going to see her again.
And we're talking about beautiful. And then he rises up. Verse 3,
it says, Abraham stood up before his dead. He was weeping. He was sorrowing. There was a
time for mourning. But then there was a time to laugh. There was
a time for sadness and sorrow. There was a time to rejoice.
I believe he encouraged himself in his God like David did at
the loss of his family, the loss of his child, the loss of his
son. He encouraged himself in his
God, in the promises of God, as David, the blessed, blessed,
blessed, blessed verse of Scripture, David said, although everything
is just not so with my house, all these troubles, yet God has
made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure,
and this is my salvation. Not only eternally, but right
now. And he began to make preparations.
There's a burial to arrange. There's some things to be prepared,
some things to be done. There's other people involved.
There are others for Abraham to care for. Life will go on. You don't think it will at the
time of this such great sorrow and sadness, but life will go
on. And the Lord will give you the strength to go on living. And we need not give up. We don't
know how much longer we have. Do we? Abraham lived 38 more
years. He married again, and he had
six sons. So it's not over until the Lord
says it's over. And he had joy again. He rejoiced. He had another to love. He did.
And I say to all those who go through these things, you have
reason to live. You have cause to go on. You
have those that love you. You lose a loved one, behold,
your mother and your brother that love you. So he rises up,
Abraham rises up, and he witnesses a good testimony before all the
sons of death and everyone. Before everyone that came in
the city and in the gate, he witnessed a good testimony. That's
why these trials come. As a testimony to our Lord. As
a witness to Him. Brother Scott said this one time.
He said most believers have one opportunity to go through one
great, deep trial. with which or through which to
testify of their Lord's grace and mercy and bow to His will
before others and show them who they trust. Most people have
one. But Abraham had many, being the
father of the faithful like Job. And he rises and witnesses a
good testimony, a good profession at his wife's death. And he buys
her a burial plot. He buries her now, mind you.
This is what God has told us to do throughout the scriptures.
He did not cremate her. He did not burn her precious
body. That body was too precious. These bodies are to be treated
with respect. They were the temple of that
one we loved. That was the temple, that was
the tabernacle that we embraced, wasn't it? That we kissed. that
embraced us and kissed us. That's the body our Lord gave
us. And do you know what? It's the same body except glorified
that he's going to resurrect, but perfectly without sin, without
blemish, without spot. So we're to treat these bodies
with great respect and tenderness and kindness and And hope, and
we lay it in the grave, and the reason we bury our dead is not
to cremate them, it's because we bury them in hope of the resurrection. We bury them face up. Why? Looking unto Jesus. That's why
we do that. We're not heathens. We're not
Egyptians. We don't burn our dead. We bury
them. The Lord buried Moses. The Lord
buried his son. And that's what we did. I didn't
used to know much about it and why we should bury as opposed
to cremation, but now I do. And this is the way we treat
our dead, with respect, in hope of the resurrection. So Abraham
bought this and he spared no expense. And he bought her resting
place, her final resting place. He bought a cave that the meaning
of means double, because he's going to be buried there too,
right beside her and some others. Now, let me tell you the real
story. Let me tell you why this all
happened. Let me tell you this gospel story
that's found here. The reason this is written and
the reason everything is written in the volume of the book, Christ
said, it is written of me. The beloved husband, the beloved
Christ's husband to his beloved bride. How he came for his bride,
given by the Father to him. You know that Sarah was of his
skin, of his father. She was his sister. Given to
him by his father. but not the same mother. But
given by the Father, Christ came for his bride, heathen like Sarah,
and he married her and entered into a blessed and eternal union
with her that not even death is going to part with. And he
loved his bride like Abraham. Abraham loved her, though not
as faithful as our husband, yet he did love her, and he loved
her to the end. And our Lord, oh my, He loved
her beyond that, all the way to eternity. And He loved His
bride, He loved her to the end, and He became bone of our bones
and flesh of our flesh, made of a woman, made under the law
to redeem us that were under the law. He came to be touched
with the feeling of our infirmity, tempted in all points like as
we are to become one in our suffering. and one in our temptation and
one in our blessed husband that we have. He came to mourn with
us and to mourn for us. He came to weep with us and to
weep for us. He came to live with His bride
and He came to die for His bride. The bride of Christ, you see,
like Sarah, was dead. When he came to his bride, she
was dead, like this story. In Adam all died. We were dead. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath loved us with, bestowed upon us. He loved us even while we were
yet sinners. Dead in sin. Dead in trespasses
and sin. We died in Adam. In Adam all
died. Well, here's the good news. In
Christ's call, I made a lie. I came to Mindy the other day
with some good news and some bad news. I said, which would
you like to hear first? She said, oh, I don't know. But I told her the good news
first. I said, I love you. And I hope that made the bad
news okay. The Lord comes to us with the
bad news first. that in Adam all die. And everything and everyone around
you is going to die. But good news in Christ is going
to live. And everyone in Christ is going
to live. And that way, once you've heard
that, like Brother Scott said, once you hear the good news,
there's not really any bad news. It's just temporary, the bad
news. And so our Lord came for his
bride who was dead and trespassed in sin. But first, the Lord had
to live a life after these things. Our blessed husband, like Abraham,
had to endure many things, suffer many things, he said. The Son
of Man must suffer many things. Oh, but our Lord suffered and
endured willingly for his blessed bride. Willing. I love that verse
over in John 11 when the Lord came to Lazarus' tomb. And it
says he groaned and was troubled. And the margin says he troubled
himself. Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning. Our Lord knew that He was going
to raise Lazarus. That's why He waited all those
days. But He said, I did this, He did this for our sake, for
their sake. He knew what He was going to
do. He was going to raise Lazarus. But he still came, and loving
him so, he still wept at his tomb, and it still says that
he troubled himself. He put himself through a great
deal of trouble for a forlorn woman, didn't he? That's why
we sang that song. Why would he love me so? Why
would he come to marry such a bride as I, as me? Why would he do
that? Why would he do that? Only in
light of that, only thinking about what you are, will Christ
really be precious to you for doing what He did for you. I'll
tell you why. Because that's the man He is.
Because that's just the man He is. Because it became Him. It's
very becoming of this gracious Lord to marry such a bride as
that. To die for such a woman as that.
After these things, like Abraham, after our Lord endured so many
things, Before God, Satan, the law, and man, like Abraham, he
stood up. Verse 3, he stood up. Our Lord stood on this earth.
Job prophesied of his coming. He said, I know that he shall
stand at the latter day on this earth. I know that my Redeemer
liveth. Job, in the midst of all his
sorrow and his trouble and his sin, his trials, his great hope
was in his Redeemer who sent this time. who would come and
redeem him from his sin, and not only that, but bring him
out of this veil of tears and sorrows and death, that death
would be swallowed up in victory through his redemption. He said,
I know he'll stand on the latter day on this earth, and I'm going
to see him. Is there hope of a tree? Yes.
Is there hope for me? Yes, if you're in that tree. if the root of the matter is
in you. So our Lord stood up. He stood on this earth as our
surety, as our covenant head. He stood. He stood like Abraham,
it says here in verse 3, before his dead. And he had something
to say before the heathen, before these sons of Heth. That's who
these sons of Heth were. He had something to say, an announcement
to make, a pronouncement to make, a purchase to make. a price to
pay, a place to redeem, to secure, to ensure for His beloved to
rest in peace forever. You see the story? He said in
verse 4, I'm a stranger here and a sojourner with you. Our
Lord came. He's not of this world. Like
Abraham and Sarah were strangers and pilgrim, our Lord was not
of this earth and He said neither are we. He came unto his own,
and his own received him not. Down in verse 7, Abraham stood
up and bowed himself to the people of the land. He did it once,
he did it twice. He bowed down to, but he humbled
himself. They said, Abraham, thou art
a mighty prince among them. Oh, a greater prince than Abraham
came, the prince of peace. King of kings, the Lord of lords.
Abraham owned that land that the children of Heth were on,
but yet he humbled himself to serve them, dig wells and do
all of this for them in his land. The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof. The inhabitants thereof. But our Lord came and
he humbled himself. He bowed himself. He made himself
of no reputation. He said, I am come, verse 4,
Abraham said, I am come to bury my dead. I'm going to bury my
dead out of my sight. And you know why Christ came? He came to bury His dead. He
came to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. He came to put away
the penalty of sin by being made sin. Penalty of sin is death. The soul that sinneth must surely
die. Christ came to pay that penalty, put away death. He came to put away the power
of sin, the power of sin, the soul-damning
power of sin. So Christ endured the fire of
hell and thus put away that damning power. He came to put away the
effects of sin. You know, Abraham, Joseph was
the first to embalm anyone. The Egyptians embalmed their
dead. Before that, they never did.
They never did. It's an Egyptian practice. Abraham
had to get that body in the ground fast. He had to put it in the
ground or else it would start to corrupt. And that's part of
the sense in which he said, I've got to get my beloved out of
my sight. I don't want to see her like
this. For what it's worth, I don't
much like open caskets. It's not the way you want to
remember your beloved. Not at all. But you won't. Time has a way
of erasing all that. The way that you see her again,
or him, But Abraham said, I want to put this corruption away out
of my sight. And you know, sin and the effects
it has on us are unbearable in the sight of our Lord. And the
Lord's got to put away this corruption out of His sight. He's got to
make a new creature. He's got to kill us that we might
live. He's got to bury us that we might be resurrected with
Him, to walk in newness of life. This whole man has got to be
killed and buried. And we are. Doesn't the Scripture
say that? We're crucified with Christ, buried with Him, but
risen. Risen. He said, I've come to
bury my dead. And Scripture says, John, this
is one of our favorites, it says, you're dead. Colossians 3.3. You're dead. Reckon yourselves
to be dead, Paul said and Romans said. You're dead. The old man
is dead. In the sight of God, he has been
buried with Christ. And your life is ended with Christ
in God. That old man has put out that
corruptible, and this corruption must actually
put on incorruption. It must be buried. It must be
buried. I have come to bury my dead.
Our Lord came to like Abraham, to bury his dead, to put away
sin by the sacrifice of himself, and to buy and to purchase a
permanent resting place for his beloved bride. There's a man
named Ephraim, and I'll hurry, there's a man named Ephraim in
this story who owned this piece of land. He owned a vast portion
of land that Abraham chose to bury his bride in. And Abraham
wanted that piece of ground. And Apram owned it. And it was
an expensive piece of ground. And he told all the people, I
have come to buy and this is the place I want. And that's
what I'm going to buy. And treat him for me. To sell
me this place. Well, Apram said, no, I'll give
it to you. I'll give it to you. He loved
Abraham, his friend, this great man. He loved him. He said, no,
I'll give it to you. And Abraham said, no, we can't do that. Can't
do that. So he had to purchase something
that was going to be absolutely sure, and a transaction made
before many witnesses to secure that place forever, to know beyond
a shadow of a doubt, to have it in writing, with his
name on it, that he had purchased this place so that nobody, if
somebody gave it, they could come take it away, couldn't they?
No, if it belongs to Abraham, you're not going to take it from
him. And all these witnesses testified that. and write it
down and seal it. It's mine, and you can't have
it back. And this is where I'm putting
my money. Who is he from? Well, I believe
he may represent the law. The law. The law of God that
has many demands, like that nearer kinsman in Ruth whom we have
to whom Boaz had to deal with, whom our Lord had to deal with
the law. But the law can't give us life. The law can't give us
a final resting place. The law cannot give us acceptance
with the Father. The law cannot give us entrance
into glory. The law can't give it. As much
as it would like to, as much as it loves and respects our
Lord, the law can't give it to us. Christ has to pay for it. Can you see why this was
written? He has to pay for it. And so he asked the price of
that land, and April said in verse 15 and 16, 400 shekels
of silver. 400 shekels of silver is a vast
sum. I forgot what it was. I looked
it up. At today's prices, it was a vast sum. Abraham was rich. Abraham was
a man able to pay the price. He had the price to pay, and
our Lord is rich. Oh my, and he had the price to
pay, the price of our redemption. And you know something, we're
not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold.
or from our vain tradition received from the fathers, from our works,
or from our whatever it may be, we are redeemed with one thing,
the precious blood of the Lamb, which is like silver, the redemption
price. We are bought with a price. You
are not your own. You are bought. And it says,
Abraham, in verse 17, the field of Apron, which was in Machpelah,
which was before Mamre, the field, The cave, the trees, and everything
around. He bought it all. He said, I
own it all. Now, lock, stock, and barrel.
Trees, land, cave, I own it all in nature. And he announced this
before all these people and before the merchant, the one who was
going to record it in a book to give him deed and title. He
needs to read his title, sure, and ours. And he did. He bought
it on. And oh, Romans 14, 9 says, to
this end, Christ both died and was buried and rose again, that
he might be Lord. Died and rose and revived, that
he might be Lord both of the dead and the living. He bought
it on. He didn't redeem every son of
Adam. He didn't lay down His life for
every son of Adam. He didn't shed His blood for
every son of Adam. He purchased His people. But
our Lord, because Christ laid down His life for His people,
God hath given Him all that. But our Lord bought His people
with a price, His own precious blood. And He made sure, that's
who He is, our surety. And it says in verse 20, the
field, the cave that is therein were made sure unto Abraham for
possession of a burying place. He made it sure. A final resting
place for his beloved bride. And do you know who else was
buried in that cave? Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah,
Jacob, Leah, the big cave. They were all buried in that
cave together. So all of God's people. You know where? About
past this spot. You know where Sarah died? Hebron? That's the city of refuge. It just so happened the Lord
brought her to her final resting place and had her lay down and
rest in peace in a city of refuge. In Hebron, in the cleft of the
rock, under the shade of a great tree, there they all are, resting
in peace. And so shall we. Because our
beloved husband, the Lord Jesus Christ, came for us, loved us,
died for us, loved us to the end, loved us to death. paid
the price, purchased our pardon, obtained our eternal rest. That's
the story. That's the story. And someday we shall go to Him.
Someday. He's coming to us. All right. Stand with me. Our Lord, this is most assuredly
Your Word. the Word of our living God, and
though the world scoffs and mocks, O Lord, Thou hast made us to
laugh with a different kind of laughter. Holy hilarity, Lord,
a wonderful laugh of amazement, joy and rejoicing in God our
Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ and His wonderful redemption. Oh, we thank You. of revealing,
for opening our blind eyes and giving us hearts of flesh, taking
away stony hearts and opening deaf ears and quickening us together
with Christ. Oh, it is by grace that we are
saved. Dead and trespassed and sinned, but God, whose great
love were with the beloved husband, sent the beloved husband to his
bride to raise her from the dead by her eternal resting place. Lord, we thank You. Thank You,
thank You, thank You for Your blessed Word that gives us hope,
hope in Christ. And we have a sure hope, a good
hope through grace, through Christ. Strengthen our hope, Lord, in
Him. Strengthen our faith in Him. Remove all doubts and fears
and worries and let us rest in our blessed Lord and His promises
that we are in His seed, that we are in Him who loved us and
shall ever be with him someday. In Christ's name we meet here
tonight and give thanks. Amen.