I remembered Abraham's own testimony,
and I want you to read what he had to say. Go back into chapter
24 and verse 7, and listen to Abraham's own words. as he spoke
to his servant, this was his oldest servant, Eliezer, and
giving him the commission to go and find the bride for Isaac. Chapter 24 in verse 7, listen
to Abraham's testimony. The Lord God of heaven, which
took me from my mother's house and from the land of my kindred,
and which spake unto me, and that swear unto me, saying, Unto
thy seed will I give this land. He shall send his angel before
thee, and thou shalt take a wife from my son from thence." And
as I read that and then re-read it, I thought, how different
this is from the usual testimonies that you hear in our day in religion
that's filled with, I. I decided. I did this. I let God save me. And Abraham,
here he is telling Eliezer, this is what God did for me. The Lord
God of heaven. In other words, the God who rules.
The God who governs all things. Which He took me from my father's
house. He didn't say I decided to leave.
I decided to let God save me. I decide to say yes to the call
of God. He gives all the glory to the
one to whom the glory belongs. He magnified the Lord. And I'll
tell you, there's an interesting word here, and it isn't a big
word here in verse 7. And I know a lot of times we
think, well, we immediately know the meanings of these more simpler
words. It's the word took. The Lord
God of heaven which took me from my mother's house. Here's the
definition of it. To lay hold of. To seize upon. To fetch. It even means to buy. And it means to snatch. What is involved in this word?
Effectual grace. That's what's involved in it. This is not Abraham just out
of the blue making a decision, well, I think I'll follow the
God of heaven. No. He says, God took me. Eleazar, God laid hold to me. God seized me. God fetched me
unto Himself. You remember during the ministry
of David, King David, when he said, is there any left of Saul's
household? And somebody said, yeah, there's
a son of Jonathan, Mephibosheth, but he's lame on both feet. And
David sent and fetched him. He fetched him. He didn't ask
him, you want to come live with me? You want to come sit at the
king's table? No, David said, go after him
and bring him home to me. And that's what God says about
all of His people. Through the Gospel of Christ
Jesus, God sends forth His Word that is proclaimed and the Spirit
of God goes out and He lays hold of sinners, the people of God,
God's chosen people from all eternity. He seizes us and He
brings us to Himself. And that's the experience of
Abraham. This is his testimony. God laid
hold to me. He bought me. You can take the
time to look in a Strong's Concordance. And I've often said if I were,
if I knew I was going to be exiled away from all the books, I'd
say, first of all, I want my Bible. And if there's another
book I could have, I'd like to have a Strong's Concordance.
And I could go from there. because it gives you the meanings
of words. You see, words in the Bible,
and we would do well to remember this, words in the Bible don't
necessarily mean what they mean today. They mean what they meant
back when this was written. And God's Servant Moses, God's inspired
servant Moses, in rehearsing or giving back the words of Abraham,
Abraham says, the Lord took me. He laid hold on me. He bought
me. That word took, and you can go
through it. It's used a bunch of times. in the Old Testament. It's like in Genesis chapter
2, the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden. He
took him. Adam, you want to go into the
garden? This is not left up to Adam. This is what God did. Or in chapter
2 and verse 21, the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon
Adam, and he slept, and God took one of his ribs. This is God
doing something, and what we understand by the grace of God
is that which most people in religion don't know. This matter
of salvation is God's act. It's God's work. God who chose
a people before the world began. These people were redeemed by
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God through His Gospel goes
after them and He seizes upon them and brings them unto the
Savior. That's the grace of God. It's
effectual grace. And indeed, he bought us. The
same word is used in Deuteronomy chapter 2 and verse 6. Ye shall
buy meat and water. Moses told the people, hey, we're
bought with a price. That being the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so the Lord took him. Took him out of Ur of the Chaldees.
It wasn't Abraham's idea. And I'll tell you something,
I don't know where the Lord found you, but wherever it was, it
was not you initially seeking Him. It was Him seeking you. Well, do we seek the Lord? Well,
sure. We just talked about, I found
a friend. Oh, such a friend? That's true. That's very true. We were found
of Him, and then we sought Him. This is the way it works. Don't
put the cart before the horse. It's the grace of God that's
effectual. It's God's salvation that always
gets the job done. And we get weary with hearing
religious people say, well, God's trying to tell you something.
God's trying to do something. God never tries to do anything. God acts. God conducts Himself
as God. And He goes after His people.
That's the reason we don't sing five stanzas of just as I am
at the end of the service. We don't sing any stanzas of
just as I am at the end of the service. Though there's nothing
wrong with the hymn whatsoever. But it's been abused and misused. God will draw His people. and
He'll find them even if they're in Ur of the Chaldees, and wrapped
up in heathen idolatry. Grace will find them. Abraham
said to Eliezer, The Lord, He came after me. He came after
me. And didn't the Lord come after
you? I don't know where you were, but He came after you. And He
found you. He found me, Head over heels
in religion. Free willism. Others he finds,
they're head over heels in outward wickedness and awful ungodliness. But neither one is better than
the other. We have to be found by grace. That's why the Lord
said, I was salt of them. or I was found of them that sought
me not." Well, verse one of chapter 25,
Abraham took a wife. I first read that, I thought,
he's an old guy. This is an old man. And yet he
took a wife. You know, God promised Abraham
a son, promised Abraham and Sarah a son. And of Abraham we read
in Romans chapter 4, and being not weak in faith, he considered
not his own body now dead. When he was about a hundred years
old, neither the deadness of Sarah's womb. Through old age,
Abraham had become impotent. but God restored his virility
so that he was not only able to beget Isaac, but this is a
permanent restoration. I'll tell you something, when
we're born of God, when we're given new life in Christ Jesus,
it is everlasting life and it's a life that'll never die. Here's
a man, he's well over 100 years old now. 140 anyhow. Maybe a little older. And he's fathering children. Six sons. Six sons by Keturah. Because that life that God gave
him, that God created within him, was a life that wasn't going
to die. And He begat more children. And the life that God has given
us in Christ Jesus, it will never end. It will never die out. We're by nature spiritually impotent. But God gives us life and the
result of that life is repentance toward God and faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And then we begin to breathe
toward God. We begin to seek His face and
pray and call upon His name. Who was Keturah? Don't know. Don't know. Most writers say
it's probably a maid in his house. Her name means incense for what
that's worth, incense. But he had six, Abraham had six
sons by her, and these were among the fathers of the Arab peoples. But notice verse five, and here's
a precious verse. And Abraham gave all that he
had unto Isaac. Here he's got these six new sons,
and of course they're getting grown by this time. So he's got those six, he's got
Ishmael, and he's got Isaac. But he gave all that he had to
one. That's Isaac. Because Isaac is
a picture of our Lord Jesus to whom God has given all things.
Our Savior was faithful to God to do that which God sent Him
to do. He came to do and finish the
work, the work of redemption. And when He finished that work
of redemption, He bowed His head and died. And God rewarded Him. God gave Him a name above every
name. At the name of Jesus, every knee's
going to bow. Every tongue's going to confess
that He's Lord to the glory of God the Father. And He gave Him
all things. Everything has been turned over
to Christ Jesus. He's the King. He's the Governor.
He's the Owner. He's the Possessor of everything. And all of His people will be
drawn to Him. And all of those who are not
His people will be judged by Him. And He Himself works out
God's purpose for all of the human race. because God's given
unto him all that he had. But you know, in a sense, Isaac
not only pictures the Lord Jesus Christ, he's a good picture of
us. Because you see, we're heirs
of God and joint heirs with Christ Jesus. And you know how many
spiritual blessings He's given to us? All of them. All of them. So that we will
never be in need of anything. We're enriched with His grace.
We're enriched with His mercy. And His providence and wisdom
directs us through this life. And sometimes it may seem like
we're meandering around and don't know where we're going. Probably
we don't know where we're going. We know the end, but we don't
understand why our path goes this way and then this way. Sometimes
it seems like it's going backwards, but He guides us all through
our wilderness journey. He gave all that He had to Isaac. He didn't give all that he had
to those other sons. As far as blood kin was concerned,
Ishmael was as much his son as Isaac was. And these other six
boys by Keturah, they were as much his sons as was Isaac. But
Isaac is the promise seed. There's something special about
that boy. God showed him grace. And he's
a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's a picture of those who
are converted by the grace of God. God gave to Isaac all that he had, or Abraham gave
to Isaac all that he had. In verse 6 is an interesting
word, but Over against, Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac,
but unto the sons of the concubines,
which Abraham had, he gave them some gifts, and then he sent
them away. He sent them away not from himself,
notice the scripture, but from Isaac his son. while he yet lived,
he made a separation. And Abraham, he was always willing,
by the grace of God, to make a separation between that which
is spiritual and that which is carnal. When God called him in
Ur of the Chaldees, he willingly separated himself from his family,
from his land, from his property. He separated himself. When the
herdsmen of Lot and his own herdsmen were quarreling, he made a separation. This isn't good. And so to Lot
and his herdsmen, Abraham said to Lot, choose whatever direction
you want to go and I'll go the other direction. Because we're
not going to stay together here. And he continued to make separations
like that. His wife Sarah, once Isaac was
born, got two, three, four years old, something like that. Sarah
said, you've got to cast out the bondwoman and her son. Is
he going to make that separation? Oh yeah. Did it hurt him? Was that painful? It was painful. But God said do it and He made
the separation. And with these, here are these
six sons of Keturah. I don't know what she said. I
don't know whether she objected and said, now what are you doing?
But Abraham, he sent them away because he did not want them
to have an ill effect upon Isaac. He made the necessary separation. There are also times in our lives
when we need to make a needful separation. Separate ourselves
from those who have no interest in the gospel. It may be dear
to us. It doesn't mean cut them off
altogether. But we have to be separate. The
Lord says, come out from among them and be you separate. Come
out from false religion. We can't walk arm in arm with
false religion. That's impossible. Can light
abide with darkness? Well, no. What's got to happen? There's got to be a separation.
A separation. People say, I don't understand
why you don't join the other preachers on the National Day
of Prayer and all that kind of stuff. Well, I can tell you why.
There's a necessary separation that must be maintained. We can't
compromise the Gospel. We're not going to compromise
the truth of God in order for peace. Oh, I enjoy peace like
anybody else, but not peace at any cost. Not peace at the cost
of the truth. Abraham was a man who was willing
to say, I separate. I'm willing to separate. And
he did. You can just look at his life. He's willing to do that. And so then we get down to verse
7. These are the days. of the years
of Abraham's life which he lived in 100, 3 score, and 15 years. Now watch this in verse 8. Several weighty statements. And Abraham gave up the ghost. He gave up the ghost. He's ready
to die. He's ready to die. Die cheerfully. Die willingly. to die in a very
easy and quiet manner. It kind of reminds me of the
words of the Apostle. Turn over to 2 Timothy 4. Don't
you love the way this is worded, the way the Spirit of God had
the Apostle Paul word this? In 2 Timothy 4, He says this, of course he starts
off in these last instructional words to Timothy. Preach the
word, verse 2, the instant in season, out of season, reprove,
rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will
come when they will not endure sound or wholesome healthy doctrine,
but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers
having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from
the truth and shall be turned into fables. But watch thou,
Timothy, in all things. Endure afflictions." Do you have
afflictions? Endure them. That's what God
says, endure. I wrote an article for the Bulletin
this Sunday about trials, difficulties that the people of God have.
Endure them. They come from God. And He's
promised grace sufficient for the trials. Endure afflictions. Don't fuss about them. Quarrel
with God's providence about them. Endure them. Do the work, he
says, of an evangelist. Preach the gospel of Christ.
Substitution. Satisfaction. Make full proof
of thy ministry. And he says, ask for me, for
I am now ready to be offered. And the time of my departure
is at hand. I have a departure time. And
it's already been fixed. And so do you. So do I. He says, I have fought a good
fight. I finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord,
the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me
only, but unto all them that love His appearing." Who's going
to get this crown? All of His people, because we
all love His appearing. Oh, Paul says, I'm ready. I'm
ready to hang it up. I heard a preacher say one time,
he's got one foot on a banana peeling right now. He's ready
to slip into the noose. He's going to suffer an awful
death. Go back to Genesis 25. So, he gave up the ghost willingly,
cheerfully, I know that God, you know, the Lord has created
us with a desire to live in order for the preservation of our race,
the human race. But there is such a thing as
dying grace that God gives to His people. And you're willing to go, Lord. Whenever
my work is finished, take me on home. And I'll go willingly. I won't go kicking and screaming. I won't fuss at the doctors,
why didn't you do more for me? No. I'll die right on schedule
and so will you. He gave up the ghost. It says
he died in a good old age. Yeah, 175. But he's still got
to die. Oh, he's lived a long life, but
he still must give up the ghost. The ultimate reason is sin. And then he says this. Watch
this in verse 8. and full of years and full of
years. There's another phrase very similar
to that, full of days. full of years and full of days.
It's only used with reference to several men, just a few men. Abraham, Isaac, if you take your
notes, I'll give you the reference. Genesis 35-29, and Isaac gave
up the ghost and died, and he was gathered unto his people
being old and full of days. And of King David, 1 Chronicles
29-27, and he died in a good old age, full of days, riches
and honor. Full of days. And in 2 Chronicles
24, a high priest by the name of Jehoiada. He's the one who
preserved the life of a young king named Josiah. And God used him mightily. 2
Chronicles 24-15, but Jehoiada waxed old and he was full of
days. He was full of days. Here's the
interesting thing about... Oh, and one more. Job. Job 42-17. So Job died being old and full
of days. Full of days. The word full means
I've had enough. I've had enough. As though they were saying, I've
had enough of this world. I've lived long enough. And we
have some people here tonight who are, some are older than
I am, but we're all getting up in years. As you look around
and you see the condition, the conditions in which we find ourselves,
the perverseness of our generation, of this time, of this era in
our history, Do you not sometimes think, I've had enough. I've
had enough of this. And this is the meaning here
of what the Spirit of God says about Abraham. He had had enough. Enough of this world. Enough
of sin. Enough of the rebellion against
God. Enough of false religion. I've
had enough. I've had a full life. I've had
a full life. And then it says, and he was
gathered to his people. Who gathered him? The Lord gathered him. It's time
to come home, Abraham. Fetched him again. And he was then gathered to his
people. Who do you reckon his people
were? Who are his people? Children
of God. You know, when the Lord comes
for us, we talked about Carolene. Apparently, He'll come for her
very soon. Though He may come for one of
us even before. We don't know. But here's what
He does. He gathers us unto His people. We just go home. I tell you what,
it's not many of our people down here in this world I know there
are many scattered around, but we don't know many of them. But
we're going to go to heaven where all of them are His people. We're going to be gathered to
His people, to the Lord's people. And then verse 9, Isaac and Ishmael. It's the last time they're spoken
of as doing something together. They buried Him. I tell you,
deaths do that. It brings a family together,
right? You come together. You're half-brothers. They're at odds with one another, but they love their daddy. They
come together. Well, then there's secondly the
death of Ishmael, and I won't spend much time here. And I read
you the dozen names of Ishmael's sons. You say, why would God
record their names in His Word as evidence that He kept His
Word to Abraham concerning Ishmael? God said, I'm going to give him
a seed. I'm going to give him people too. I'm going to make
of him great nations. Great nations. And the scripture says here of
Ishmael, His sons had, watch it down in verse 16, they had
towns that were named after them and they had castles named after
them. They were princes according to
their nations. In other words, each one of them
was a prince over a tribe of people. God gives mercies even to the
ungodly. They live because of the mercies
of God. Scripture says God sends His
rain upon the just and the unjust. Turn back to Genesis chapter... a couple of references. First of all, chapter 17. Abraham had prayed this back
in chapter 17 of Genesis verse 18. And Abraham said unto God,
chapter 17 verse 18, O that Ishmael might live before thee. And God
said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed, and thou shalt
call his name Isaac. I'll establish my covenant with
him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.
As for Ishmael, I've heard him. I've heard you. Behold, I blessed
him, and I'll make him fruitful. I'll multiply him exceedingly.
Twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make of him a great
nation. But I'm not making my covenant with him. See that? My covenant's not with
Ishmael. My covenant is with Isaac. My
grace is with Isaac. It's not with Ishmael. My covenant will I establish
with Isaac. That's what he says. And then
one other reference, chapter 16, verses 11 and 12. Back another page. Well, verse 10, the angel of
the Lord said to Hagar, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly,
and it shall not be numbered for multitude. And the angel
of the Lord, that is Christ, said unto her, Behold, thou art
with child, and shall bear a son, and shall call his name Ishmael,
because the Lord hath heard thy affliction, and he will be a
wild man. Literally, he shall be like a
wild ass. That's how he'll be. And Job
said every man is like a wild ass's colt. Rebellious. Untameable. This was Ishmael. Watch it. His hand will be against every
man, and every man's hand against him. And he shall dwell in the
presence of all of His brethren. He's like a wild ass is cold. He couldn't be tamed. He couldn't
be tamed. And He remained wild the rest
of the days of His life. And let me tell you something,
the only thing that can tame anybody is the grace of God. Grace can tame us. It's tamed
us when you say, I've still got a lot of wildness in me. Yeah,
but not like you used to. And now you seek the things of
God. And then the scripture says back over here in chapter 25.
Watch this. Verse 17, these are the years
of the life of Ishmael, and 137 years he gave up the ghost, he
died, he was gathered under his people, but it doesn't say he's
full of years. It doesn't say he's full of days. Because he loved this world,
and he loved the things in this world. And he didn't love the
God of his father. And you know what happened? He
was gathered to His people. That's a totally different crowd
of people. His people. Rebels. Unbelievers. Untamable. And His people dwelt from Havilah
to Shur, that is before Egypt, as thou goest to Assyria. And
He died in the presence of all of His people. All of His sons
gathered around Him. And He died as He lived, graceless,
godless, and Christless. Balaam said, let me die the death
of the righteous. That's what I want. Let me die
the death of the righteous. The death of a man who's resting
in the Lord, our righteousness. Christ Jesus. I don't want to
die the way Ishmael died. Oh, he had a lot of stuff. He
had much of the world all around him. And wanted more. Wanted to stay. He wasn't filled
up with it. He wasn't fed up with the world.
But the people of God, when we're thinking right, we say, Lord,
just take me home anytime you want. Because I've about had it here.
I love my family, love my physical family, love my church family.
But Lord, this world's in such a mess. You just take me anytime
you want. Be just fine with me. And of
course, He will take you anytime He wants, whether it's just fine
with you or not. He won't ask your permission
then either. He'll seize upon you and take
you on home to glory. Oh, I want to die like Abraham
died. I don't want to die like Ishmael
died. Well, let's pray. Lord, bless
the Word that's gone forth tonight. We're thankful for that seizing
grace. Grace that fetches us. Grace
that lays hold upon us. Grace that took us. Took us from
unbelief. Took us from rebellion. Took
us from false religion. Took us from wild living and
brought us unto Christ Jesus. Effectual grace. That's the grace
that we need, Father. Grace that gets the job done.
And we shall evermore give you the praise and the glory for
saving us through your free and sovereign grace given in Christ
Jesus our Lord, by whose stripes we're healed. In His name, Amen.