All right, if you would now,
let's open our Bibles to the Genesis chapter 23. Genesis chapter 23. And Sarah was 107 and 20 years old. These were the years of the life
of Sarah. And Sarah died in Kirjath Arba, the same as Hebron in the
land of Canaan. And Abraham came to mourn for
Sarah and to weep for her. And Abraham stood up from before
his dad and spake unto the sons of Heth, saying, I'm a stranger
and a sojourner with you. Give me a possession of a burying
place with you that I may bury my dad out of my sight. And 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 sepulchers, bury thy dad. None of us shall
withhold from thee his sepulcher, but that thou mayest bury thy
dead. And Abraham stood up and bowed himself to the people of
the land, even to the children of Heth. And he communed with
them, saying, if it be your mind that I should bury my dad out
of my sight, hear me and entreat 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 field. For as much money as it is worth,
he shall give it me for a possession of a burying place amongst you.
And Ephraim dwelt among the children of Heth. And Ephraim the Hittite
answered Abraham, and the audience of the children of Heth, even
of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying, Nay, my
lord, hear me. The field, give I thee, and the
cave that is therein, I give it thee. In the presence of the
sons of my people, give I it thee. Bury thy dead. And Abraham
bowed himself before the people of the land, and he spake unto
Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, But
if thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me. I will give thee
money for the field. Take it of me, and I will bury
my dead there. And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him, My
lord, hearken unto me. The land is worth 400 shekels
of silver. What is that betwixt me and thee?
Bury therefore thy dead. And Abraham hearkened unto Ephraim.
And Abraham weighed to Ephraim the silver, which he had named
in the audience of the sons of Heth, 400 shekels of silver,
current money with the merchant. And the field of Ephraim, which
was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field and the cave
which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field,
that were in the borders round about, were made sure unto Abraham
for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before
all that went in at the gate of his city. And after this,
Abraham buried Sarah, his wife, in the cave of the field of Machpelah
before Mamre. The same is Hebron in the land
of Canaan. And the field and the cave that
is therein were made sure unto Abraham for possession of a bearing
place by the sons of Heth. Thank God for his word. Let's
bow together before our Lord. Our Father, we come before you
this evening. We come before you empty, we
come before you helpless to do anything for ourselves. We come
before you, Father, seeking a blessing from your storehouses of grace. How we beg of you that you would
meet with us in the person of thy spirit and that you'd enable
us to hear word from thee. That you'd enable us to hear
with the ear of faith and a heart of faith that would lay hold
upon the Lord Jesus Christ as he's preached unto us. Father,
I beg of you that you not leave us alone. Don't leave me alone,
I beg of you, as I stand to attempt to preach your gospel, the gospel
of your dear son to your people. And Father, be with those that
hear that they might be enabled to hear and to believe. Father,
how we thank you for the countless blessings that you have so freely
bestowed upon this congregation. You've blessed us so mightily.
You've blessed us with your word. All these many, many years. Father,
we are so thankful, but we beg of you that you not leave us
alone. Not tonight, not in the days and weeks and months and
years ahead. Don't leave us alone. Father, keep blessing your word.
Keep meeting with your people. Keep calling out your sheep by
the preaching of your word. Keep blessing your word as it's
preached in this city. In this place, in this dark,
dark day, Father, cause the light of the gospel of your Son to
shine forth brightly, to get glory to your name and be a blessing
to your people. Father, we thank you for the
blessings of this life that you've given to us as well. You've blessed
us beyond measure. We're thankful. Knowing everything
we have is what you've given to us. We thank you for our children,
our homes, our families. Father, I pray that you bless
each home, that you bless each one here with your mercy, your
grace, your leadership, your presence. And Father, we dare not forget
to pray for those that you brought in the time of trouble and trial.
There are many, those that we know of, those that we don't.
And Father, we're thankful there's no hard cases with thee, that
you're able, you're able to heal, you're able to deliver, you're
able to comfort. Father, that's what we pray for
your people that are in the deep waters, the darkness of the valley,
till you see fit to deliver them, Father, comfort their hearts
with your presence, we pray. All these things we ask in that
name which is above every name, in the name of Christ our Savior,
amen. All right, if you still have
your Bibles open there, Genesis chapter 23, I titled the message
this evening, The First Funeral. In our text this evening, we
have an account of the first funeral that's recorded in the
scriptures. And after reading this chapter, I saw four truths
about the death of a believer that I want us to look at. I
certainly see death for all the sons of Adam in this chapter. I also see comfort for the loved
ones of a believer who has died and gone to be with the Lord.
And also I see comfort for a believer who's facing death. Now our comfort
in death, the comfort that I want to give you tonight concerning
death, applies only to the death of a believer. This good news
is not for everyone. There's no comfort in death for
a believer. This comfort is just for those
that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I can't give anyone comfort
concerning the death of an unbeliever because the scriptures don't.
The death of an unbeliever is so sad. It's just too sad to
spend a lot of time thinking about because there's no hope.
There's no hope left for them. There was while they were living,
but not once that they're dead. And we have a loved one who dies
that does not know the Lord. The only thing I know of that
we can do is look to the Lord to provide grace and comfort
that's sufficient for the pain and loss that we feel for this
loved one that did not know the Lord. But all that being said,
the rest of what I want to say concerns God's people. There's
much comfort here regarding the death and the funeral of a believer. The first thing I see here is
the certainty of death. This is something I hope that
we get settled in our hearts, in our mind, the certainty of
death. Verse one, Sarah was 107 and
20 years old. These were the years of the life
of Sarah. And Sarah died in Kirjath Arba, the same as Hebron in the
land of Canaan. Now Sarah is given to us in scripture
as a renowned woman of faith. Sarah was a sinful person, just
like all of us are, but she was a woman of faith, wasn't she?
And all of us can identify with Sarah in this way. Sarah had
faith that wavered. She sure did. Remember when the
Lord promised Abraham, you'll have a son. Sarah's going to
give you a son your old age. Sarah was listening behind the
tent. And Sarah laughed in unbelief. But Sarah also had genuine faith
in Christ, didn't she? Her faith wavered. But in the
Hall of Faith in Hebrews chapter 11, it says of Sarah that she
judged him faithful who promised. She believed God. She judged
him faithful. God's going to keep his word.
Now Sarah was a woman of faith. She lived in a sinful body of
flesh. Sarah was a spitfire. You remember
when she told Abraham, well, God's promise is a son, but it
can't be by me. I'm too old. Abraham must mean
that the Lord must mean you go marry my slave, Hagar, and have
a son by her. So Abraham did. And then, Hagar
had the son, and Sarah's mad. And she said, Abraham, my fault
be on you. I know I told you to do it, but
you should have done it. You should have known better. I mean, this woman's
a spitfire. I kind of like her. I like Sarah. She was a woman
of faith that lived in a sinful body. And I tell you why her
faith wavered and why she died. She's a sinful woman. Death demands
sin. Our flesh must die because of
the sin that's in us. And sin, after 127 years, killed
Sarah's body. But what's true of Sarah is true
of you and me too. Sarah didn't die one second sooner. I mean not one second sooner.
The Almighty God determined for her to live before the foundation
of the world. Sarah did everything that the Lord intended for her
to do, and only then did she die. And not one second sooner. And the same thing applies to
you and me. Sarah died because sin demands
death. Even for people who have faith
in Christ. Look over at 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Someone might be wondering, Frank,
I thought you said you were going to give us some comfort concerning
death here. There's no avoiding this thing of death. Our flesh
must die because of sin. But here's the comfort. You know
that's a blessing to a believer. It's a blessing to a believer.
when this body dies. The flesh has to die so that
we can put on a new body, a sinless, perfect body. Look at 1 Corinthians
15 verse 49. And as we born the image of the
earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. For this
I say, brethren, the flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom
of God. Neither does corruption inherit
incorruption. We cannot go to glory in these
bodies like we are. Verse 51, behold, I show you
a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound and
the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed. For
this corruptible must put on incorruption. And this mortal
must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on
immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that's written,
death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The grave doesn't have any victory,
does it? It has no victory over the death
of a believer. Our bodies must die for this
reason. So we can trade this clay shell
for a holy, sinless body, just like the body of our Lord. So
for a believer, it's a trade up, isn't it? It's a trade up.
The death of this body is a trade up. There's no death or there's
no victory for the grave. Yeah, there's an empty shell
laying in the grave, but the grave doesn't have a victory.
The only thing we've lost is we've lost that sinful shell.
and we traded it to go be with the Lord. We've got to die. This body's got to die before
that will happen. All right, number two, look back at our
text. I see here sorrow when a loved one dies. Verse two of
Genesis 23. And Sarah died in Kirjath Arba,
the same as Hebron in the land of Canaan. And Abraham came to
mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. Now let me take some pressure
off of those who suffer very real sorrow when a loved one
dies. I want to tell you it's okay.
It's okay to mourn, it's okay to cry, and it's okay to be brokenhearted. I talked to a dear friend of
mine not so awful long ago whose spouse had died. Some of us would
think, well, they died a pretty long time ago. You ought to be
over it. She's not. And I saw her and we began to
talk and talk about her husband. And she said, I don't, let's
not talk about him right now. I'll just cry. And I said, that's
okay. Just cry. We'll cry together. And she said, people tell me
I ought to be over this by now. Some of you may not know this,
but Frank Tate has a temper. I wanted to find out who it was
that said that and go wring their neck. I mean, I really did. I
mean, that's probably not right, but that's the way I felt. It's
okay to mourn. In the for what it's worth category,
Matthew Henry wrote this. He said, not only is it lawful,
it's our duty to mourn the death of our near relatives. That is
what Abraham, the father of the faithful, did. Now, does that
mean Abraham didn't believe God? He didn't trust God? He went
to weep and mourn for Sarah? Absolutely not. And if you weep
and you mourn when a loved one dies, now you listen to me, you
listen to me, you don't have weak faith. Just because you
weep and cry does not mean that you have weak faith, any more
than Abraham, the father of the faithful, did. We mourn. at the death of a believer, one
who was our loved one. But now listen, we do mourn,
but we don't sorrow as others that have no hope. We mourn,
but we also have comfort. Our loved one who believed Christ,
who trusted the Lord, they're not with us now, but they're
with the Lord. I mean, you think of that. They're with the Lord. And that's
our comfort. Now we mourn over our loss, and
at the very same time, while we're weeping, through our tears,
we rejoice, don't we? Our loved one is with the Lord.
See, our mourning, it's not out of control. It's tempered by
our comfort that our loved one is with the Lord. That comfort
is real. That's a comfort only someone
that trusts Christ can understand, but that comfort, knowing that
our loved one is with the Lord is real. But let's not forget
this, when we have friends who've lost a loved one, their pain's
real too. Their pain is real too. We miss
our loved one. They're gone, we miss them. We
miss conversations with them. We miss dinners with them. We
miss holidays with them. We miss normal days with them.
Jay and I sat down to eat tonight. It's just a normal day. Just
the two of us. House is quiet, just the two
of us. And I thought, I like this. I like this. We'll miss
those things someday. We miss the touch of our loved
one. We miss the look of their love. We miss those things. We
have real pain and genuine comfort at the same time. So let me take
all the pressure off of you. It's okay to mourn. Abraham did. Abraham did. You know, our Lord
made our bodies able to cry. You think of that. The Lord made
our bodies able to cry. It's a relief valve, isn't it?
It's a relief valve for our sadness, and I'm told keeping that in
and trying to be all stoic about it and not let it out can be
bad for you. But I don't know about that,
but it sounds reasonable to me. But the whole point of this is
this. It's okay to weep and to mourn. That's what Abraham did
when Sarah died. The third thing I see here is
the burial of a believer. Skip over to the end of the chapter,
verse 19. We'll look at these middle verses
in just a second. And after this, Abraham buried
Sarah, his wife, in the cave of the field of Machpelah before
Mamre. The same is in Hebron in the
land of Canaan. And the field and the cave that
is therein were made sure unto Abraham for possession of a burying
place by the sons of Heth. Now, Abraham bought this cave
to use as a grave for Sarah, a tomb for Sarah. And in the
years that followed, Abraham, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, Leah,
and Joseph are all going to be buried in this cave. Maybe there
were others, but scripture tells us of those. I find this very,
very, very interesting. And I always have found it very
interesting. And now I think I got some light on why it happened. This burial tomb is the only
property in the land of Canaan Abraham ever owned. God came
to Abraham and his father's house. Abraham never heard of the Lord.
He was an idolater. And God said, Abram, get out
of your father's house and go to the land I'll show you. The
next day, Abraham, his little ragtag bunch got off and started
walking, didn't they? And I'm sure he thought, I'm
going to a place God's going to give me. God's going to give
me this land. And God did promise Abraham. Your descendants are
all going to have this land. They're going to own all of it.
But the only bit of it Abraham ever owned was this cave, this
field and this cave that he bought as a cemetery. Eventually, Israel, God's people,
are going to own the whole of the land of Canaan. But the first
thing he gave any of them was this cemetery, a place where
God's people would be buried. See, the Lord provided a place
for the bodies of his people where they could rest in peace
as they waited for the resurrection. It's the first thing the Lord
provided for them, a place their bodies could rest waiting for
the resurrection. And Abraham laid Sarah's body
to rest in that promised land, that land of rest that God promised
to give to his seed. Sarah was the first one to rest
there. Her body was. All right, here's the fourth
thing. And this is the main point of the whole chapter. Here is
the gospel of salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ. The body of
a believer rests in the grave in hope. Verse three. And Abraham
stood up from before his dead and spake unto the sons of Hath,
saying, I'm a stranger and a sojourner with you. Give me a possession
of a burying place with you that I may bury my dead out of my
sight. And the children of Hath answered Abraham, saying unto
him, Hear us, my Lord. Thou art a mighty prince among
us, and the choice of our sepulchre is bury thy dead. None of us
shall withhold from thee a sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy
dead. I want you to notice here the respect Abraham uses as he
deals here with the sons of Heth. He's bowing to them several times. He bows to them. He speaks with
so much respect for them. He wouldn't take advantage of
them for anything. He's being very careful to show
respect to them and deal with them honestly. But also notice
the respect that the sons of Heth, how they dealt with Abraham
with great respect. They called him a mighty prince
among us. That tells me Abraham conducted
himself, while he is a sojourner in this place with the sons of
Heth, he conducted himself in such a way he earned the respect
of people in that community. And you know, that ought to be
said of every believer. When it comes time for a funeral,
for a visitation for us, that ought to be said of every believer. He lived his life in such a way
that earned the respect of people, believer and unbeliever alike,
just like Abraham did. And Abraham came and told him,
I want to buy a grave for my wife, Sarah. And these men said,
Abraham, take any sepulcher you want. We've all prepared sepulchers.
You know, at that time, they didn't just dig a hole in the
ground like we do. They carved out a cave, or they prepared
a place in a cave, and this was gonna be the sepulcher for them,
for their family. And those men said, no, all of
us have prepared a sepulcher for ourselves. You just pick. Anyone you want, any of us will
give you our sepulcher for free. And Abraham, in verse seven,
stood up and bowed himself to the people of the land, even
to the children of Heth. And he communed with them. Saying,
if it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight,
hear me and entreat 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 field. For as much money as it's worth,
he should give it me for possession of a burying place among you.
And Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth. And Ephron the Hittite
answered Abraham and the audience of the children of Heth, even
of all that went in that gave the city, saying, nay, my Lord,
hear me. The field give I thee, and the
cave that is therein, I give it thee. In the presence of the
sons of my people, give I it thee. Bury thy dead. Now they
went, these people apparently went and told Ephron what had
gone on here, what Abraham had wanted, and Abraham had a place
all picked out where he wanted to bury Sarah. People do that. I don't know. Some Janice's parents
gave us, they had bought plots, you know, and they said, well,
we're going to be buried in North Carolina, so y'all can have them. We went
out to look, and we were going to be buried. It's the weirdest thing,
isn't it? I mean, it's just weird. But
Abraham had a spot picked out. He thought this would be good.
I can come and sit here, you know, and consider being buried
in an area. He had a place all picked out, belonged to this
man Ephron. And Ephron heard what was going
on. He came to Abraham. He said, Abraham. I'm not going
to take money from you. You just have it for free. It's
yours. You can have the cave and the
field. It's free. And it was such a sign of respect
and kindness on Ephron's part, wasn't it? He's just not going
to make money off somebody's grief. This man he respected,
Abraham. And I'll tell you, I respect
him. This is all I know about Ephron. But I respect him a great
deal for it. He did not try to take advantage
of Abraham's grief. He said, I'm going to give it
to you for free. And Abraham wouldn't hear of it. Verse 12.
And Abraham bowed himself before the people of the land, and he
spake unto Ephron, and the audience of the people of the land, saying,
But thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me. I will give thee
money for the field. Take it of me, and I will bury
my dead there. And Ephron answered Abraham,
saying unto him, My lord, hearken unto me. The land is worth four
hundred shekels of silver. What is that betwixt me and thee?
Bury therefore thy dead. hearken unto Ephron, and Abraham
weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience
of the sons of Heth four hundred shekels of silver, current money
with the merchant. In the field of Ephron, which
was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field and the cave
which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field,
that were in all the borders round about, were made sure unto
Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth
before all that went in at the gate of his city. Now Abraham
insisted, I'm going to buy this land at the full price for what
it's worth. And Ephraim said, you know, Abraham,
I don't want your money. It's worth 400 shekels of silver,
and that's a lot of money. I don't know how much money that
is, but I read it's a lot of money. But Ephraim said, what's
that between me and you? Just take it. I don't want your
money. And Abraham, he's just insistent here, he's being respectful,
but he's being insistent, I'm gonna pay for this thing. And
he weighed out 400 shekels of silver, and he did it where everybody
could see him doing it. So everybody would know he paid
the full price for that field. And the field was his, it was
made sure it was his possession that he buried Sarah there. Now
fast forward many, many years later, when the children of Israel
came into the Promised Land, and they finally took possession
of all the land. And there was a town there, they
renamed it Hebron, the town there where this field was in a place,
they renamed Hebron, where that's where Sarah was buried. You know
what they did with that town, Hebron? They made it one of the
cities of refuge. The place of safety from the
avenger of blood. You know, if two men were out
working in the field, they were chopping wood, The axe flew off
one of his handles, hit the other fellow in the head and killed
him. That man's brother, family, whoever it was, they could kill
that man. He didn't do anything wrong.
I mean, just the head of his axe came off, you know. But they
could kill him, and the law would say nothing about it. That man
had one choice. He had to run to the city of
refuge. If he was in the city of refuge, the avenger of blood
could not touch him. That man hiding in that city
of refuge is a picture of the believer hiding safely in the
Lord Jesus Christ. When we hide in Christ, we're
safe. Safe from God's wrath against our sin. God's justice cannot
touch us because it's all been poured out upon Christ our substitute.
That's the city where the first funeral took place that's recorded
in scripture in the city of refuge. Sarah was resting. Her body was
resting in a place of safety and peace, wasn't it? All right,
that's the story. Here's the gospel. Here's the
gospel picture we have of salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ. Before
time began, the Father elected a people that He would save from
their sin. And He gave those people to His
Son. But those people, they could
not be saved for free. They were sinners. They had a
price on their head. And even the father could not
say, I'll ignore the price of their sin. I'll ignore that their
rebellion against me. And I'll just declare them to
be righteous and free. The father chose those people.
He's going to give them to his son. But even the father could
not say, son, I give you these souls for free. He couldn't say
it. The father could not say to his
son, son, I love you so much. You're daily my delight. I love
you so much. I respect you so much. I'm going
to give you these people for free. You see, the people that
the Father chose to save, they're sinners. I mean, willing, vile
sinners. They willingly broken God's law
and they're being held. They're being held in the prison
house of sin. They've got a sin nature that
has rebelled against God. and they're being held by sin.
They cannot get themselves free from it. The justice of God has
a claim on them. They've broken God's law and
God's justice has a claim on them and God's justice will not
let them go unless the price is paid. So even God, the Father,
could not say, I'm going to take my people and set them free from
the prison house of sin and set them free from my justice for
nothing. The Holy Father could not say
that. Justice must be satisfied. The price for their sin must
be paid. So the Lord Jesus Christ told his father, I'll pay the
price. You tell me what the full price
is, and I'll pay the price for the sin of my people. You think
of the respect. We saw the respect that the sons
of Heth and Abraham had with each other. You think of the
respect. God the Son showed to His Father.
He fully submitted Himself to everything the Father gave Him
to do. In order to redeem His people from their sin, the Father
said, Son, you're going to have to be humiliated. You're going
to have to suffer the humiliation of becoming flesh. You're going
to have to live in the weakness of human flesh and submit yourself
to that. You're going to have to suffer
the humiliation of being born as a baby. being born as a man,
as one of the creatures, one of our creatures, born under
the law, and you're going to have to obey it. You're the lawgiver,
but you're the ones going to have to obey the law. You're
going to have to suffer man's hatred. Man, you've come to save
your people from their sin. You've come the fulfillment of
every Old Testament type and picture and promise of the Messiah,
and you're going to have to suffer man's hatred. They're going to
hate you without a cause. They're going to slander you
and they will not believe you. And the son said, I'll go. And
he came and did that. He suffered all that humiliation
in the midst of all the... I mean, can you imagine what
it was like for the Holy Son of God to live in the cesspool
of this world, constantly surrounded by sin, constantly surrounded
by unbelief and hatred? In the midst of that, he obeyed
God's law perfectly. He had a heart that loved his
father perfectly. And when the appointed time came
for the price to be paid, Christ came to redeem his people by
his own blood. In the sight of all of creation,
the son weighed out the full price for sin where everybody
could see it. He was hung on Calvary's tree
between heaven and earth for everyone to see. And anybody
with any sins can look at that transaction going on at Calvary
and they can see the full price has been paid. The full price
for the sin of God's people has been paid by the blood of Christ,
by His death as a substitute for His people. The Lord Jesus
Christ agreed, the Holy Son of God agreed to suffer the humiliation
of being made sin for His people. The Father made the sin of His
people to belong to His Son And the son suffered everything justice
demanded for that sin. He suffered until justice was
satisfied. And when the price was paid,
when justice was satisfied, when the father said it's enough,
the son gave up the ghost. The father gave his elect to
his son and he purchased them. He purchased them with his blood.
They are the purchased possession of the Son. He bought a lot of
stock and barrel. Several times in our text, verse
17, it says, everything that was in the field, all the borders
round about were made sure unto Abraham. Verse 20 says the field
and the cave that is therein were made sure unto Abraham. The redemption of God's elect
was made sure. It was made sure unto Christ
by His own blood. by His own blood. Let me give
you a few ways here. In our text from Genesis chapter
23, there's a few pictures, how redemption in Christ is made
sure to God's people. Abraham paid that full price,
didn't he? He paid the full price for the cave and the field and
everything that was in it. And he did it in front of all
those witnesses. So nobody could ever say, you know, Abraham got
sweet deal on that. He didn't really pay what that
was No, everybody had to say, that cave and that field, that
belongs rightfully to Abraham. The Lord Jesus Christ redeemed
His people. He paid the full price for all
of creation to see. And everyone can see His people
belong to Him. His people belong to Him. And
when it comes time for their bodies to die, you reckon He's
forgot them? Do you reckon he let something
bad happen to him? He couldn't stop it? No, they belonged to
him. And all that happened when their bodies died, it's the Lord
bringing his purchased possession to be with him. That's all that
happened. See, the cave that Abraham bought,
the name of the cave is Machpelah. And the name mean, Machpelah,
it means double. Now, it's not an accident Abraham
picked out that cave. Of all the caves, of all the
sepulchers that the sons of Heth had prepared, Abraham picked
out this one, the cave named Machpelah, which means double. That tells me, it's a picture,
the redemption price is paid. Redemption is sure. It's so sure, Isaiah said in
Isaiah 40 verse 12, she hath received of the Lord's hand double
for all her sins. Double. Now the Lord didn't pay
more than the price of God's justice demanded. But the blood
of Christ did make the salvation of God's people double sure.
Double. The blood of Christ gives God's
people the double cure. The blood is used to pay the
redemption price. The price is paid. There's no
more sin debt. And being washed in that blood
makes God's people clean and holy. It gives them a brand new
nature that cannot sin. Being washed in the blood gives
us a nature, now the debt's paid, and were washed in the blood
to make sure there's no more sin. There's no more. Redemption in Christ is double
sure, isn't it? Debt's paid, and it gives His
people a new nature. Well, the second picture I see
here, salvation in Christ is made sure. When Abraham said,
I want to bury my dead, and I find it interesting, he says it twice,
I want to bury my dead out of my sight. That's just interesting
to me. I would just say I'm going to
bury my dead. Abraham said I'm burying him out of sight. And
he said that as a picture of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ
made the redemption of his people. Sure. Because he took their sin
away from them and he buried it out of sight. He buried it
out of his father's sight. The blood of Christ. He didn't
just hide the sin. You know, it's still there. It's
just hidden. The blood of Christ made the sin of God's elect to
not exist. anymore. Redemption in Christ
is made sure. You know why? There's no sin
left to condemn him. It's been buried out of sight.
And the proof of that is the resurrection of Christ. Our Savior
was made sin for his people. He suffered and he died. And he was buried. He was buried. And after three days, the Father
raised Him from the dead. You know why the Father raised
Him from the dead? Because all that sin that had been charged
to the Son, all that sin that had been charged to the Lord
Jesus Christ that made the Father so angry, that made Him pour
out His wrath upon His Son, all that sin's gone. So He raised
Him from the dead. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification as proof His sacrifice justified
the sin of His people. Unless you're alive and reign
when Christ returns, every one of us is going to follow our
Lord that very same way. Just like Sarah, it won't be
127 years, but at God's appointed time, our bodies are going to
die. We'll come together, those of us that remember you, we'll
come together to weep and mourn and bury you out of sight. And
then we're going to wait. And one day, just like our Savior,
the Lord's going to bring you out of that grave. See, until
then, the bodies of believers, you know what they're doing?
They're just waiting. They're resting in the grave
until the Lord returns. Just like Sarah, her body is
still there resting in that cave in the promised land. And when
the Lord returns, he's going to raise the bodies of his people.
They're going to be raised from the grave in incorruptible bodies. Not like these. I mean, we'll
look like ourselves. We'll know each other, but we're
going to be in a body just like the body of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And we know that so, there's not a question, there's not a
doubt about it, because scripture says Christ is the first fruits
of those that arose. If he's the first fruits, that
means there's many more fruits gonna follow. All of his people
are gonna follow him out of the grave, in the resurrection, just
like the resurrection of our Savior. So we gather together
at a cemetery, we bury the bodies, of those believers that knew
Christ. You know, just like Sarah, we need to remember this. They're
resting in the grave in hope. We're not putting them in the
ground, and the grave's one victory here. No, all their bodies are
doing are resting in hope until the resurrection when Christ
returns. That's what 1 Corinthians 15's all about. There's no sorrow. I mean, there's sorrow in that
we miss them, but there's no loss here. The grave not want
a victory, their body's just resting. Now listen, their bodies
are resting, but their souls aren't. Their souls don't sleep. Don't ever let anybody make you
buy into this thing of soul sleep. When a believer dies, the body
rests. The soul goes to be with the
Lord again. To be absent from the body is to be present with
the Lord. And what body are they in? I
don't know. I just know they're with the
Lord. That's what scripture says. But I do know this. When the
Lord returns, he's going to take those perfect souls that are
with him. He's going to join them to a perfect body that he
raises from the grave. The body is going to fit the
soul. They're both going to be perfect. And that's how we're
going to spend eternity with the Lord. I'm telling you, that's how this
thing's going to end. That's how it's going to end.
And that's good comfort for us, isn't it? We go to the cemetery
and we bury a beloved believer, a beloved husband, a beloved
wife. All our hearts mourn. We're going to weep. We're going
to weep. But we're comforted. We're comforted in this. They're
better off. I think about this my own self.
When someone I dearly love knew the Lord dies, I don't know what order I think
it, but it all comes, I guess, to mind all at one time. They're
better off. I'm not. They are. And that's just the way it is.
It's sorrow and comfort together. And when the time comes for the
death of these bodies, we may know it's coming, we may not
know it's coming. But that moment, When the believer faces the death
of our bodies, it's comforted. This is our comfort. We'll soon
be better off. We'll soon be better off. I've
seen a number of folks die. I've seen a number of folks take
their very last breath on this earth and die. It's not pretty. It's not pretty,
is it? But when you watch a believer
take that last breath, their body is fighting for life. I'll tell you why their body's
fighting for life. God made these bodies for living,
not for dying. That's why their body's fighting
for life. And when they take that last
breath and the struggle's finally over, you know what you can say? They're better off now. I hope I'm able to remember that
in my last breath. What's the struggle now? But
when you take that last one, I'm going to be better off. And
that's our comfort in it. This gospel of Christ that we
preach, that we believe. It's not just doctrine, it's
not just points of doctrine that separate us from other folks.
It's good enough to live by. It gives life. I mean, it gives
life. It gives instruction. It's good
enough to live by. And Gary's good enough to die
by. If any message is not good enough to die by, it's not the
gospel. Our gospel is good enough to live by and to die by. As far as I can tell, that's
the message from the first funeral that's ever been recorded in
scripture. And I hope God will bless that to you. Let's bow
together. Our Father, how we thank you
for your word. How we thank you for the precious gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ that there's life in him, life eternal. How we thank you for the life-giving
power of your gospel. How we thank you for the comfort
of your gospel that points us away from ourselves and points
us to our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, I beg of you that
you cause each of us here this evening to be enabled by thy
spirit to leave here looking to trusting in and resting in
Christ our Savior. It's in His precious name, for
His sake we pray, amen. All right, Sean.