Thank you. Okay, back to the book of Genesis. Turn, first of all, to Genesis
chapter 24. I fully intend to make this message short. I feel weary. I did no actual
physical labor today. I'm mentally weary. I know you feel that way quite
often on Wednesday night, but we'll try to make this short.
And as I've said so often, let's hope the Holy Spirit makes it
sweet. Genesis 24. Last time we studied in the book
of Genesis, we looked at the trials of Abraham. Abraham is
typical or represents a believer, every believer. We looked at the trials of Abraham
and the faith that God gave him to endure those trials. Abraham was an idolater, seventy-five
years old when the Lord called him. Abraham was not worshiping
God nor looking for God. He didn't believe in God at all. And that's the way it is with
every person God chooses and calls and saves. God chose Abraham, called him,
revealed promises to him, revealed his son to him, gave him faith
to believe him, and gave him the grace to follow him. It's
all the gift of God. God gave Abraham grace, faith
to endure those trials. And though Abraham's trials were
sometimes very hard, very hard, and grievous, yet, you know,
we read the Bible. We read the Bible chapter after
chapter. things appear to just happen
one right after the other. But no, this took place over
many, many years. Abraham's trials, though sometimes
were very hard and grievous, yet they were relatively few
compared to his long life of blessings. Look at chapter 24,
verse 1. It says, and well stricken in age, and
the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things." Abraham lived 175 years. And look at verse 35. Now verse
35 of chapter 24, which we will deal with Sunday, and I just
can't wait. I've dealt with it twice already,
but I can't wait to do it again. I heard Brother Bell preach from
this down at Fred Woods, and I just sat that high off my seat
the whole time, though I've heard this so many times. I love this
story. Abraham sending his servant to
get a bride for his son Isaac. Here is the servant talking about
Abraham. The Lord hath blessed my master greatly. He has become
great. He is a great man. And the Lord
hath given him flocks, herds, silver, gold, maidservant, camels,
and asses. Abraham was a rich man, no denying
that. But you know, Abraham had no
houses or lands. I bet he had the finest tent
money could buy, but he had no houses or land. He had no permanent
dwelling place, though he could have. He could have, once he
had reached Hebron. That's the promised land he could
have. Could have built him a home right there. God never said you
can't do that. But he was a pilgrim and a sojourner
because—why was he a pilgrim and a sojourner? Abraham is a spiritual type of
God's people, a spiritual type. Abraham is the father of the
faithful. Abraham is the father of the
Jews, spiritual Jews. And the Scripture says in Hebrews,
the Jews, the spiritual, God's believers, his people, have here
no continuing city. Well, we live in Rocky Mount.
We've continued to live here for many years now. Some of you
will continue to live here to the day you die. What does that
mean? You're not going to continue
here forever, are you? You're just living here for a
short time, relatively short time compared to eternity. And
really, you don't own anything here. Stan, you don't own anything.
I know you've got a place out there, a brick home and all that,
but you don't own that. Once you're dead, somebody else
is going to have it. Right? You can't keep it. You
can't keep it. It's borrowed. Besides, the bank
probably owns some of it, too. Huh? Well, that's what the spiritual
type is. We don't own anything in this
life, really. Nothing. It's all borrowed. We're living on borrowed time.
Right? Borrowed time. And we look for
a city, the scripture says, which hath foundations, whose builder
and maker is God. We look for an eternal city,
an eternal dwelling place. And I'm not talking about a cabin
in the corner of glory, I'm talking about Christ, to be there with
him. So Abraham is a spiritual type,
and that's the reason Abraham sojourned. You see, he came to
the promised land that God promised him. But he sojourned. He kept like a nomad moving around. Well, Abraham was greatly blessed,
though tried. Or Abraham was tried, but greatly
blessed. And so are we, aren't we? I can look over this congregation
and I see a people. I started to say fat and sassy,
but I better reserve that comment. I see a people who are rich and
increased with goods and have need of nothing. Right? Anybody in here that's needy,
that you don't know where your next meal's coming from? Not
a soul. We're rich. We live like kings. We live better than kings. There
wasn't a king of old who had an air-conditioned automobile
to ride around in. He rode on the back of a chariot or a wagon. We're rich and increased with
good. We've been greatly blessed by our God. That's why we meet
here principally, to give thanks. We don't need a better reason
to meet here once or twice a week than to just give thanks to our
God for all he's done for, right? Don't meet here as a show of
We meet here to thank God and praise God for who he is, what
he has done, and the learning of his Son. But though we are
tried, and at times these trials are fiery, like Peter said, painful,
they are really light afflictions. Like Paul said in 2 Corinthians
4, they are light afflictions compared to the eternal weight
of glory. Light afflictions, our trials. Someone who goes through some
grievous trial might say, it's not light. Well, it is compared
to eternity. Someday, I asked Teresa, she
was in our home the other day, and I asked her, we were talking
about her operation to have that baby, a C-section, which is no
minor operation, is it? Anytime they split you open,
it's not a minor operation, right? Brother Todd Nybridge said, anytime
they cut you with a knife, you've been stabbed. You've been stabbed. And it takes a long time to heal.
And the insides heal a lot slower. Well, we were talking about that
operation, which was no minor thing, and she was still sore
weeks, even a month or so afterward. And I said to her, I said, Yeah,
that was tough, but would you do it again? She didn't hesitate
for five seconds. She didn't say, well, let me
think about it. She said, I'll do it in a moment. And we go
to be with him. We don't even remember these
things anymore. Sure were difficult trials you went through on earth.
What trials? It seemed like I remember something
about it. Light afflictions compared to eternal weight of glory. My pastor said they're light
compared to what we deserve. Light compared to what some other
people go through. Light compared to the mercies,
or few compared to the many mercies we get. Besides, the Lord will
not put on his people, he says, Ellen, he says in 1st Corinthians
10, he'll not put on you more than you're able to bear, but
will with that give you a way that you're able to bear. Yeah, you do. It's happened.
He's proved that to you. Well, Genesis 22, now back there,
it says, after these things, after these things, previous to the trial with Isaac. It says, after these things,
God did try Abraham, tempt, the word is try, tried Abraham. Not to give him faith or, that's
not it at all, strengthen what God had already given him. Came
to pass after these things, Abraham had twenty-five or fifty years
before that of trials. God did try Abraham with Isaac.
We read that, didn't we, last time? What a difficult trial
that was to take his only son, fifteen to twenty, twenty-five-year-old
son, and take him up and was going to offer him as a burnt
offering. But we saw how God provided himself a lamb instead
of Abraham's son. A picture of Christ. Now, that was a tough one. That's
a tough trial. He lost one son, Ishmael. He almost lost another
one, Isaiah. Verse 1, chapter 23, verse 2,
after that, Sarah died. Or at least twenty years or so
had passed. Twenty years or so passed. See,
like I said, we read these things and think, These things happen
right after another. No. Twenty years or more passed,
and Sarah died. And nevertheless, that was a
tough trial. His wife died. His wife died. And it says in
verse 2, He came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. There's
nothing wrong with grief. Nothing wrong with mourning.
There's something wrong with you if you don't. person who is so calloused, I
just can't imagine someone not shedding a tear over a loved
one. There's nothing wrong with grief. Abraham mourned and wept
for her. There's nothing wrong with grief,
but uncontrollable grief now is the believers, not sorrows,
those who have no hope. David acted poorly when his child
was sick that one time. And he was admonished for that. But he got over it. But believers
not to sorrow as those who have no hope. Sorrow uncontrollably. Well, but this was a tough trial.
He'd been married to this woman over a hundred years. A hundred
years. The longer you're with somebody,
Ellen, the more you get attached to them, aren't you? The longer
you're with somebody. Right? It's going to be tough
to lose your husband, your wife, Barbara. Kind of attached to
them. Kind of grew on you, didn't it?
Like an old shoe. It's come to fit well. You're
one. It's going to be tough to lose
it, but you're going to. And there's not going to be a thing wrong
with you mourning over him. Why? Because Charles has a hope
in Christ, and you have the same hope, and you both have the same
hope of seeing one another again. So Abraham's wife died, and he
makes arrangements to bury his beloved wife. Look at verses
3 through 6. Abraham stood up from before
his dead and spake unto the sons of Heth, saying, I am a stranger
and a pilgrim. stranger and sojourner with you,
give me a possession of a burying place with you, that I may bury
my dead out of my sight. The children of Heth answered
Abraham, saying unto him, Hear us, my lord, thou art a mighty
prince among us, in the choice of our sepulchre, and none of
us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, that thou mayest bury
thy dead." Abraham said, I'm a stranger
and a sojourner with you. And so is every child of God.
See, Abraham was living in a strange land. Abraham was a chosen, redeemed
child of God living among these Canaanites. See, they were Canaanites. And so is every child of God,
a stranger and a pilgrim to this world, a sojourner in it. Abraham that says that he was
a mighty prince. Well, God's people are called
kings and priests under their God. Children of the Most High
God, princes of the Most High God. And now, from here on out, as with
every story that we've studied up to this point, we've seen
a type of Christ, haven't we? Every story. And it's no different
with this one. No different at all. Christ,
verse 3, this is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. It says,
Abraham stood up from before his dead. Christ stood up for
his death, for his people who were dead in trespasses and sins.
Stood up before them, the forerunner who went within the veil. Christ
stood up. He was lifted up. He was raised
up. He was raised up from the dead.
He is the firstborn from the dead. Christ was a stranger,
was he not? He was a stranger here. He came
to his own, his own received him not. Christ said, You are
from beneath, I am from above. He was a stranger in this place. But oh, he was a prince among
us, wasn't he? The son of the Most High God,
a prince among us. And though He was buried in a
borrowed tomb, per se. He owned the whole world. He
owned the whole world, and God had given this. This was all
Abraham's anyway, Stan. It belonged to him anyway. But
they were good-hearted and were going to give him some. It belonged
to him. You see, God had already given it to him. And they loaned
our Lord a tomb to lay his body in. He owns the world. He didn't
live in a borrowed tomb, that was his. Verse 7 says that Abraham
stood up and bowed himself to the people of the land, even
to the children of Heth. Abraham stood up and bowed, even
to the children of Heth. Our Lord, as I said, was lifted
up. He said, If I be lifted up, I will draw all men to myself.
Abraham stood up and bowed himself to the people, and all the people
listened to him. Christ said, If I be lifted up,
I will draw all men to myself. And Christ bowed himself. He
was lifted up on the cross. He humbled himself even to the
death of the cross, and it even says, As he hung on that cross,
he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. And he did this. Who
did he do this before? Abraham, it says, did this before
the children of Heth. Now, who are they? The children
of Heth. Well, they're people of the land
of Canaan. And as we're going to see later
on as we go through the book of Genesis, In the life of Isaac
and Rebekah, it says that the children of Heth, particularly
the daughters of Heth, were a vexation, were grievous to Isaac and Rebekah. Esau married one, two daughters
of Heth. They were heathen. That's who
they represent, heathen, Canaanite people, the children of Heth.
Well, who did Christ die for? The heathen, the ungodly, even
the children of Heth. Even children like us, who were
at one time children of wrath, even as others. That's who he
did this before, bowed or humbled himself, even before such heathen
people as we are. Now, we could labor to spiritualize
every single word and every single verse, but I'm not going to do
that. I'm not going to do that at all. Let's look at the whole
story, all right? Just the general picture here. Verse 8 and 9,
it says, Abraham communed with these people, saying, If it be
your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight, then
listen to me. And treat for me to Ephron, the
son of Zohar, that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which
he hath, which is in the end of his feet. For as much money
as it is worth, he'll give it to me for possession of a burying
place among you." Abraham intended to buy a burying place for his
wife, and he intended to pay the full price, whatever it took
to bury his wife. As much money as it's worth,
he's going to pay the full price for it. All right? Got that? All right, verse 10 through 13. dwelt among the children of Heth.
And he from the Hittite, he heard, he was out in the audience, answered
Abraham in the audience of the children of Heth, even of all
that went in at the gate of the city, saying, No, my lord, or
sir, hear me. The field, give I thee. The cave that is therein, I give
it thee. In the presence of the sons of
my people, give I it thee. I give it to you. Bury your dead,
and Abraham bowed down himself before the people of the land,
and spake unto Ephron, and the audience of the people, saying,
If thou wilt give it, I pray thee, now listen to me, hear
me, I will give thee money for the feeding. Take it of me. I will bury my dead. The man
wanted to give it to Abraham, but Abraham wouldn't have it.
And he says, now you tell me what it's worth. You tell me
what it is worth, what it will cost me. That's what I'm going
to pay. I'm going to pay the full price
of that field, not a penny, not a shekel less than it's worth.
I'm going to pay the full price for that field. Now, this reminds
me of another story. Anybody reminded? 2 Samuel 24. Turn over there. 2 Samuel 24. Turn over there. In the life
of David, the end of David's life, 2 Samuel 24. Look over there. And
this is the attitude of every true believer, as it should be. A similar situation in David's
life. Look at 2 Samuel 24. Look at verse 21. Verse 21, it says, And Aronah
said, and this was a fellow that owned a threshing floor, a piece
of land, and Aronah, David was coming into this town. And Rhona
said, Wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant? Well,
you hear David. David is king, came into where
he lived. And David said, I've come to
buy the threshing floor of thee, to build an altar unto the Lord,
that the plague may be stayed from the people. There was a
plague because David numbered the people. And Rhona said unto
David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seemeth good
unto him. Behold, here oxen for the burnt
sacrifice, threshing instruments, and other instruments of oxen
for wood. Cut these up with a kindling.
Here's the sacrifice. All these things did Aaron as
a king give unto the king. And Aaron said unto the king,
The Lord thy God accept thee here." In other words, what the
man was saying, here, take all this. You don't need to buy it.
Here, I want to give it to you. And the king, look at verse 24,
here's the key verse. David the king said unto Ron,
No, I will surely buy it of thee at a price, because neither will
I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which
doth cost me nothing. I will not offer that which cost
me nothing." And this is a picture. This is
going on today. Salvation today, so-called. Salvation
today is cheap, and so is discipleship. It goes with it. It's cheap. We've got worthless preachers.
preaching about a worthless Jesus to worthless people who do and
give worthless things to his cause. Right? Worthless preachers, and they
are, believe me, they're the most—it's two of the lowest people
on earth, first preachers and then there's lawyers. And I admit,
preachers are Worthless preachers preaching
a worthless Jesus—poor, pitiful, helpless Jesus that can't save
a fly or a flea—to worthless people who do and give worthless
things to this worthless one. Barnard used to say—Ralph Barnard
was a evangelists that passed through the South, came from
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, back in the—passed through the
South in the fifties and sixties, and then tore this land up like
John the Baptist, preaching the truth, the gospel. Tore a lot
of religious playhouses up and turned some religious people
into believers with the gospel. Martin used to say there, he
said, this religious world, time to sell Jesus for a dollar. Trying to sell him for a dollar,
and if you won't give a dollar, they'll take a dime. Cheap salvation. The Methodist
so-called church has for their slogan, Offer Them Christ. As if the Son of God, the Son
of the Most High God, who is seated on the throne of glory,
is in our hands to offer to people, to do with as they please. Won't
you please do something for They can sell their poor, pitiful
Jesus. They asked David one time, where's
your God, David? Here's our God. Here's our little
Jesus. We do things for him. David said, our God's in the
heavens, and he doesn't do what we please to do. We do what he's
pleased to do. He hath done whatsoever he pleased,
David said. Our God's in the heaven. He hath
done whatsoever he pleased. We're in his hands, not vice
versa. And these preachers today are preaching a salvation that
doesn't save. Aren't they? Cheap. You want it? I wouldn't
give a dime for it, let alone a dollar. Salvation you won't
save. You might have it today, you
might not have it tomorrow. Right? A gift, let's say it's a free
gift, they might take it back. Right? Their God's an Indian
giver. Give you salvation one day and
then if you're not, whatever, later on you take it back. A
cheap gift. A cheap gift some people will
refuse. They say God's in your hand or
Jesus is in your hands to accept or reject, to refuse or accept. I tell you what, when an old
sinner ever sees that his matchless worth It's not going to be any
choice to be made, is it? There's no way they can refuse.
That's what's called irresistible, John. That's why it's called
irresistible grace. When an old sinner sees Christ, he's irresistible.
They've got to have him. There's no rejecting to it. A
cheap gift you might reject, right? Blood, they talk about
blood that won't atone. They talk about a love that can't
help you. And people give things, do things for this Jesus and
this religion today that cost them nothing. They give worthless
things to a worthless cause. I've said this before, and I
don't care to say it again. Talk about this Lord's acre sale.
We're going to bake a little pie for Jesus. fifty cents worth of flour and
a dollar worth of strawberries. And we really are sacrificing
for Jesus, aren't we? Make a little pie or a little
cake. What a tremendous sacrifice. I said, if you really want to
make it the Lord's acre sale, everybody there give an acre
of their land. It cost the Lord's acre. And
raise up a gospel church there. People give used clothing. worn
out tools, have bake sales, garage sales, spaghetti dinners, and
talk about what they're doing for Jesus. David said, I don't
want to give to the Lord that which costs me nothing. I tell you what they're doing,
they're showing how much their Lord is worth, aren't they? They're showing how much their
Lord is worth. But I tell you, God's salvation is costly. It costs him, it's costly to
him, and it's costly to us. But neither one of us thinks
about the price, thinks it's too high, and both are willing
to pay it. Salvation costs our Lord his
own precious blood. That's what it costs. That's the reason anything we
add to it is despicable in his eyes. It costs nothing less and
nothing more than the blood of God's Son to purchase our redemption. Anything added to that is an
offense to a holy God. Genesis 20, look at verses 15
and 16. Ephraim said unto Abraham, My
Lord, hearken unto me, the land is worth four hundred shekels
of silver. What is that betwixt me and thee? Marry therefore
thy dead. What's a soul worth? Really. Really, speaking now,
souls is an infinite thing, so it's of infinite value, really. What's it going to take to purchase
this thing that's of infinite value? It's going to take an
infinite price, isn't it? An infinite sacrifice. A lot of money, a large sum back
then. The blood of Christ is of infinite
value and worth, and it purchased our party. Abraham said in verse
16, Abraham hearkened unto Ephraim. He heard what he said, but Abraham,
he weighed to Ephraim the silver which he had named, and all of
a sudden he had 400 shekels of silver, current money with a
merchant. Abraham paid the price in full. Abraham didn't say,
Well, I'll make a down payment, and I'll pay you the rest later. No, he paid it in full. He had
the price that was needed to pay for that land, and he paid
it off. He didn't make a down payment. Preachers today are saying, Jesus
did what he can, now the rest is up to you. That's partial
payment, isn't it? If he did all he can do, the
rest is up to me. Even if he paid $999, the bill was $1000,
he paid $999, the dollar left up to me. He didn't pay it all,
did he? Huh? And there's a real problem with
that, too, is I don't have a dollar. Sinners are bankrupt. They have
nothing, nothing in my hands. Nothing good have I, we sang
in that song, whereby thy grace to claim. How am I going to claim
his grace? I'll wash my garments white in
the blood of Calvary's Lamb." Blood? That price was paid by
Christ and paid in full, paid in full. And did you notice down
through there, and I'll hurry up and quit. Did you notice down
through there how that the people wanted to give, wanted to help
out Abraham? Did you notice that? They said,
take any of us. I said, here, here, Abraham's
going to bury his dead. And this is typical of Christ,
burying our sins or putting our sins out of his sight. He said,
I'm going to bury my dead out of my sight. Christ is going
to put away our sins. And people may want to help out
God in salvation. He won't have any help. He's
going to do it all himself. He's going to pay for it all
in full with his own money. I won't have any help. Christ
did it all. Hebrews 1 says when he had by
himself purged our sins, he sat down. He sat down. So Abraham paid
the full price, full price for full possession. Full price for
full possession. And the scripture says Christ
paid it all. When he had by himself purged
our sin, it says that in Hebrews 9, he obtained eternal redemption
for us. He said, you are not your own,
you are what? Bought with a price. Purchased. And silver, people,
as you know, we studied it there, we studied it in the tabernacle,
we studied it. Silver has always been the price of redemption.
typical of redemption, sockets of silver. Purchase, price of
redemption, and Christ, and that's a picture of blood, blood. Christ
purchased our redemption with nothing less than his own spotless,
sinless blood. And you know, we turn, we in
turn, we sit down and count the costs. That's what our Lord said
to do. He said, we're to count the costs. And when we consider his sacrifice
and his worth and our worthlessness, we consider nothing too great
a cost to be his disciple. Do you notice how the people
were made willing? These were heathen people. These were heathens. But they considered Abraham a
prince among them. Abraham had endeared himself
to these heathen people, and they were made willing to do
anything. That's a picture of how God's people are made willing
in the day of his power, and they see his matchless worth. And they consider nothing too
great a cost to be his disciple. Romans 12 says, by the mercies
of God, we are to present our bodies as living sacrifices because
it's a reasonable service. Verse 17, and I'll quit. in a minute. Verse 17 says, And
the field of Ephraim, which was in Machpelah, which was before
Mamre, the field and the cave which was therein, all the trees
that were in the field, that were in all the borders round
about, were made sure unto Abraham for possession in the presence
of the children of heaven, before all that went in at the gate
of his city. The field, everything was made sure. There is something
I want you to note here. of Ephraim, which was in Macpelah,
which was before Mammon. Why does the Lord go to great
lengths to tell us all this? These just endless genealogy,
or endless directions like those genealogies back there? Was that
useless, going down there talking about husband, buzz, and fuzz,
and their cuz, Isaiah or Isaac? No. This field, Machpelah and
Mamre, if you'll remember, that was where it all started. That's
where Abraham went when the Lord revealed himself to him in the
promise, and that's where he first built that first altar
under the Lord, the plains of Mamre. He built that first altar
there, and it's the place that Abraham kept coming back to.
He went down to Egypt, Terry. You know where he came back after
he got in a mess down in Egypt? He came back to the plain of
Mamre, where that altar was in the beginning. He came back. He kept going someplace, and
he'd come right back to this place. He'd go get in trouble,
and he'd come right back to this place. Now here he is again,
right back to this place. It seems like he's dwelling there
a little longer these days in his old age. What's that a typo? Like I said, that's where the
altar was. That's where Abraham first learned about how to worship
God. And that's all typical of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's where he heard the gospel. And to whom coming? We keep coming back to Christ,
our altar, the place of the altar, the place of the covenant, the
promised possession. We keep coming back to him. Sinners
keep returning to the altar, to Christ. Keep coming back to
him. And it's something else you need
to know about this cave. This is good. You know who else was buried
in that cave that he purchased for Sarah? Abraham was. He's buried in the same grave
that she went into, he said. And so was Isaac, and so was
Rebecca. And so was Leah. Nearly his whole
family was buried in this one cave. What's that we're talking
about now? Our Lord tasted death for us,
didn't he? He's the firstborn from the dead.
He entered the same grave that we go into, right? He doesn't
cause us to go into something. Abraham's wife, Sarah, went in
the grave. Well, he's going in, too. He's going to taste death,
too. Christ went into the same grave
we go. He went into the grave. But he removed the sting. He
removed the sting. Old death, where it grave, where
is thy victory? Death, where is thy sting? Christ
removed the sting. He went there. And so do all
his children. They'll go there, too. They'll
go there, too. But nothing to worry about. Our
Lord tasted death for us and removed its sting and its curse. Verse 19 and 20, it says, After
this, Abraham buried Sarah, his wife, in the cave of the field
of Machpelah before Mamre, the same as Hebron in the land of
Canaan. Hebron, that's where the word
Hebrew comes from, and that's where Hebron was, was in Judah. Jews, Hebrews, Judah, that's
the tribe our Lord came from, that's where it all came down
to. The altar, the grave, all of
it right there in Mamre, Judah, Hebron. 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 Abraham. Everything was made
sure. Because Abraham paid the full
price, and it was his by rights. Right? Full price for a full
possession. Abraham bought it, and it was
his, and his posterities belonged to him. Because of that price
that he paid. Expensive. It was expensive. But for the love he had for his
bride, it wasn't too much to pay. And
Christ paid it all, we sang, all the debt we owe. Sin had
left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. He
purchased our pardon in full. Now we're not our own. We're
bought with a price, and it's made sure, our salvation made
sure by our surety. All right, let's stand. I'll
dismiss this in prayer.