I want to take just a second
and set before you the picture in Genesis chapter 23. Sarah is a picture of the church. We're told that in Romans 9.
We're told that in Galatians chapter 4. Sarah was given to Abraham by
his father. She was the daughter of his father,
not of his mother. We read that in the previous
chapter. She was given to him of his father to wed, to be his
bride. And through his life, he made
provision for her. And at her death, after her death,
he purchased a place, a resting place for her to go. And then it says that in that
day, he knowing this, that they both would be raised together. Now the subject of the chapter,
chapter 23, is the death of Abraham's beloved wife, Saba. The whole
chapter is dedicated to that. And we know that she's a picture
of the church, a figure of the church. And in seeing this common
bond between her and myself, I find it interesting. I find the particulars of her
death to be interesting to me and also instructive. Now, let
me give you three things by way of introduction that will help
you to understand and benefit by what it is I intend to say.
First of all, I want to say the obvious. Death is the lot of
every man. You and I are on our way to the
grave. It's our lot. We're not going to get out of
it. We live like we're not going there, but that's where we're
headed. That's where we're headed. And the older we get, the more
evidence we see of it. I feel it in my bones. I see
it in the mirror. I'm on my way to the grave. Believers,
unbelievers, rich, poor, black, white, male, female, bond or
free, I don't care who you are, you're headed for the grave.
We're all headed for the grave. And I don't feel like this is
a point that I need to labor on and verify, seeing we have
no ancestors that are still walking around. It ought to be pretty
obvious to us that we're on our way to the grave. And I find
this to be a common denominator throughout the scriptures of
men I read in their genealogies. They were begotten. They were born. They lived. They begat children and they
died. They died. Death is the common
lot of all mankind. And secondly, I want you to understand
this, that we die for a reason. Death is not natural. Man was
not created to die. He was created to live. God breathed
in his nostrils the breath of life. He was created to live.
Going to this grave is not natural. If you're waiting around for
something to all of a sudden just overwhelm you and you can
just lay back and say, well, that's my lot. That's where I'm
headed. It ain't going to happen. It's not natural. It's not natural. It's just not natural. In the
book of Ecclesiastes, the preacher calls our attention to the fact
that there is a time and a season to everything under heaven. Nothing
here is left to chance. Nothing here is left to circumstance,
but everything is ordered and governed by God who worketh all
things after the counsel of His own will. And the first two things
that the preacher tells us about these times is this. He brings
to our attention there is a time to be born and a time to die,
ordered of God. Ordered of God. All times, all
seasons, all things. This death is not natural to
us, it's appointed. It's appointed to us. Paul would
have us to know in his letter to the Galatians that it is God
who separated him from his mother's womb. God did that. There was
a time to be born. There was a time when God purposed
something in the Apostle Paul and caused him to be separated
from his mother's womb, caused him to have being in this world,
brought him in for a purpose. His birth was according to the
purpose of God, and so it is with his death. It says in Hebrews
11, speaking of believers, these all died in faith. And then in
Acts 17, speaking to a people full of superstition, full of
idolatry, full of this world and this world's wisdom. Paul
declared to them what he called the unknown God because he was
unknown to them. They didn't have a clue who the
living God was. They didn't know anything at
all about God. God was just a concept to them. God was pictured and
figured in different kinds of statues and animals and snakes
and all sorts of different things. Some of them didn't have figures.
Some of them just had philosophies and things that they presented.
That's why they gathered there, just to hear or to tell some
new thing. These things, they didn't attribute
life to these things. These things were a concept of
good and evil. And it was the philosophy behind
them that they wanted to discuss and they wanted to talk about.
And Paul stands before him and he says, you don't know the living
God. The living God is not a concept. He giveth to all life and breath
and all things. And He hath made of one blood
all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth. Now listen, determine the times
before appointed. That's the difference between
our God and that statue. He appointed the times. He determined
the times before appointed, and He set the bounds of their habitation. Death is the common lot of all
men, and death is according to the sovereign appointment of
God. And then thirdly, death is not natural. Death is penal.
It's a punishment. It's a punishment. Listen to
this. Romans 5, verse 12. How often
we read this and just slide right over the top of it. Don't even
think about it. By one man, sin entered into
the world, and death by sin. That's where death comes from. Death by sin. And so death passed. Passed in God's judgment. Passed
upon all men. For that all have sinned. Sin,
James said, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. And if
there was such a thing as sinless perfection to be had among the
sons of Adam, they would not die. They would not die. Death is not natural. Man was
not created to die, but to live. He was made a living soul. Death
is the penalty for sin. He said, the soul that sinneth
shall surely die. And it's set forth in the Scriptures
in a fourfold way, this thing of death. Now, just hang with
me here. I'm going to bore you for a few
minutes with some details, and then I'm going to try to plug
it all in the same thing. He tells us, first of all, that
death is a universal curse over all men. By one man, sin entered
into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned. It's a universal curse. Paul
tells us over in the Corinthians, as in Adam, all die. Ain't that
what he said? That's universal you can get.
All die. All right? Secondly, death is
set before us in the Scripture in a natural sense. Individually,
we all die. One by one. Everybody from Adam
to present date died. One at a time. They live some
of 960 some years. And then they died. And some
of them lived two days. And then they died. But they
all died. They all died. They all go to
the grave. And our spirits depart from these
bodies. And then thirdly, it's set before
us in a spiritual sense. He said, you hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sins. Dead in trespasses and
sins. You were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. He describes that death in a
spiritual sense. We're dead spiritually before
God. Well, just the same as that corpse
has no sense of life in it laying out there in the casket, so living
sons of Adam have no concept of spiritual matters at all.
None. None. You can stand in the plainest,
simplest of terms and set these things. See, it says right here,
God hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.
Yeah, but it don't mean that. What does it mean? What does
it mean? I don't care how simple your
terms are. I don't care how clear your illustrations are. I don't
care how wise and how educated that son of Adam is to whom you
speak. He has no concept of spiritual
things. And your words just go out and
fall on the ground. They just bounce off of him. Bounce off of him. It's sent
before us as a death. Our spiritual condition is a
death. You can't climb up out of the grave. Man has no ability. Lazarus laid in that grave. He
was a dead man. His only hope was that the sovereign
God of glory in the person of Jesus Christ would step up before
that tomb and call him out. And that same thing applies to
us in a spiritual sense. We're dead in trespass by nature,
the children of wrath, even as others. Preacher, don't you believe
that a man has to choose God? Yes, God will give him life,
He will. But if He doesn't give him life,
he's going to choose what he is. He's going to stay in the
confines of his nature, and he's going to love darkness rather
than light. And then fourthly, death is set before us in an
eternal sense. That final judgment of men is
called in Scripture the second death. Now, if you want to read
something that will make the hair stand up on your arms, you
go over to the book of Revelations and read about the second death.
If that don't jog you, if that don't shake you up, you're unshakable. Of that second death, he says
in Revelations 20, verse 12, he said, I saw the dead, small
and great, stand before God. And the books were opened. And
another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the
dead were judged out of those things which were written in
the books according to their works. And the sea gave up the
dead which were in it. And death and hell delivered
up the dead which were in them. And they were judged, every man,
according to their works. And death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written
in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. And if
you need to know or have a little insight into what that lake of
fire is, you can go back to verse 10 of that chapter and look at
this. He said, And the devil that deceived
them, talking about deceiving the nations, was cast into the
lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet
are, and shall be tormented, now listen, day and night, forever
and ever. But I'm telling you something,
if that don't scare you, you've got a real problem. You've got
a real problem. This second death is permanent.
Permanent. No grace. No mercy. No possibility. No possibility
of grace. No possibility of any ease of
torment. They tormented. How? What kind?
I don't know. I don't know. I don't know if
that fire is literal or figurative. Who knows? Who knows? I can tell
you this much. The only thing I know about that
suffering that sin causes is when I look at my Savior and
His suffering was real suffering. It wasn't figurative. It was
real. It was real. But death and all of its representations
is penal except as it concerns the children of God. It's not penal to them. It's
not a penalty to them. The angel of his covenant himself
moved John to pen these words. I want you to hear them. You
can find them if you want to read through them after a while
in Revelation chapter 14. But listen to what he says. Blessed are the dead that die
in the Lord from henceforth. Blessed. Blessed. All men, I want you to hear me,
all men are not blessed in death. I go to the funeral homes, Winston
and I went to a funeral of a fellow, and I won't call his name, but
we sat in there, and this man had no character of attending,
no dedication, no interest in the things of God. He attended
occasionally and did things occasionally, But I went to his funeral. And
you'd have thought they were preaching the funeral of Peter
or Paul or somebody. They took this man, well, he's
not suffering anymore. He went to a better place. And the relatives and things
began to want to get some ease of mind, to get some ease of
spirit. And they're thinking in their
mind, well, he's not suffering anymore. He went to a place where
there's no suffering. Not if he didn't go in the right
place, he didn't. His suffering ain't even started.
There's nothing in this world that you can suffer that could
even compare with the sufferings that you'll suffer in hell. All
men are not blessed in death. I've heard men and women console
themselves with those words, gone to a better place. I think sometimes what they really
mean is that they're gone and they won't have to see them suffer
anymore. And they don't want to think about that suffering
in that awful place. It's not a blessing to unbelieving
men and women. Death is the end of all hope.
It's to them an open door into eternal woe. He said, depart from me, you
workers of iniquity. I never knew you. take them out,
cast them into the lake of fire, into outer darkness where there
will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. There is nothing
I can imagine worse than dying in our sins. But to the believer,
dying is a blessing. Blessed are they that die in
the Lord. And in the Lord is the key phrase
to that blessing. Who die in the Lord. This blessed
man He came as God the Father blessed us. That's how that blessed
man came to be. He blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus according as
He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.
We were blessed in that God purposed to put us in Christ. That's how
you get in Christ. God puts you in Him. Of God is
He made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
He blessed us in the appointment of a mediator and a covenant
surety. Old Mephibosheth laid down there,
couldn't walk, crippled from the fall, had no hope. Saul the king had died. His house
was being destroyed. All of his sons put to death
as David ascended and took the throne. But what Mephibosheth
didn't know is that before all of this took place, Jonathan
made a covenant with David. Now, David said his dying words.
He laid down that bed and he said, although it be not so with
my house, yet God hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things and sure. You see what I'm saying? We're
blessed in that God appointed for us an everlasting surety
and the eternal covenant of faith. Blessed us. And He blessed us
in the appearance of this man, Jesus Christ, this covenant head,
this mediator on this earth, who lived and died for us to
give us both the righteousness of God and cover us and take
away our sins by the sacrifice of Himself. And then He blessed
us with the gospel of His sovereign grace in Christ, calling us out
of darkness. He could have left Abraham and
Sarah right where they were at, but He didn't. He called them
out. He called them out. Calling us
out of darkness. Calling us out of this world
and its awful curse. Calling us out from among our
kinsmen. And this gospel He blesses in
covenant confirmation. That is, He brings us to embrace
the Lord Jesus Christ. And He writes those laws upon
our minds and hearts. He doesn't write it on there
for me to love my brother love my father and mother and that
type of thing, but He causes me to see that law exalted and
honored and accomplished in every jot and tittle in the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's how that law is written
on this man. It's written here satisfied.
That's the only way you can rejoice in the law of God, is for it
to be satisfied. And it's satisfied in Christ.
And in Christ Jesus, and seeing that law satisfied, I love it,
I see it, I honor it, I want to do it. But I don't do those
things to be accepted of God. I see them already accepted.
I see them already accomplished. He blesses us in a covenant confirmation,
and He blesses us with the gift of faith. You know, the Bible
says we're kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last day. I'll tell you when we really
know something about salvation, when He raises His body from
that grave. That's when you're going to know
something about salvation. I mean really know something about it.
He said we're to be encouraged, he said, Paul did, by a cloud
of witnesses. And so we run this race set before
us looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Now
turn with me to Hebrews chapter 9. We're chosen. We've been made
provision for. justified, called, preserved,
and God's elect go to the grave as no other men and women can.
They go to the grave and die in faith. They die in faith. And in the Old Testament, from
the very beginning, all true blessings came through the death
of a substitute. In the garden, Abel's altar,
on and on in the continuing sacrifices of the Old Testament under the
law. Now watch this in Hebrews 9,
verse 24. Christ is not entered into holy
places made with hands which are the figures of the true,
but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God
for us. Nor yet that he should offer
himself often as a high priest entereth into the holy place
every year with the blood of others, Or then must he often
have suffered since the foundation of the world? But now once in
the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself." Now listen to this, "...and as it is appointed
unto all men, wants to die, and after this the judgment." Does
that sound familiar? So Christ was once offered to
bear the sins of many. It was once appointed unto Him
to die. That's what He said. Offered
to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for Him shall
He appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Christ died to fulfill our appointment
with death. How did He do it? How did He
do it? He become the curse. That's what
Paul said. He hath redeemed us from the
curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written,
Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. He was made, Paul
said, to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. Everything that can depress a
sinful soul and cause him worry and grief has been taken away
in Christ. It's gone. It's gone. What do I dread about death?
The end of life? Life just begins. Life just begins
for the believer. He has eternity. He has eternal
life. Eternal life, I know, speaks
of the quality of it, but it also speaks of the length of
it. It's forever and ever and ever. Everything that causes him worry
and grief. Judgment? There is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. There is
no condemnation. There is no judgment. Sin? He put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. Cast our sins, he said, as far
as the east is from the west. Put our sins in another place,
he said, at the bottom of the sea. The depth of the sea. Put
our sins, he said, behind his back. Behind God's back. You won't find them there. You
won't find them there. And he can't see them there.
Put away our sin. Suffering. What about suffering?
Well, we suffer, but we don't suffer penalties. Our suffering is called light
affliction, is what Paul called it. Light affliction. He said
rejoice. Rejoice when you suffer. We suffer for Christ's sake.
We don't suffer as those who had no hope. Our sufferings are
temporary, they are light, and none of them are a penalty. What
is it that causes me grief? Darkness. Christ has given me
light. Fear? David said, Yea, though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no
evil. And Paul said of the believer
that he is complete in Christ, who is the head of all principality
and power, circumcised with the circumcision not made with hands,
putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision
of Christ, buried with Him in baptism wherein also ye are risen
with Him through the faith of the operation of God who hath
raised Him from the dead." Now listen. Listen to what he says.
I just read you a little background to it. Colossians 3 verse 1,
"...if you then be risen with Christ, Seek those things which
are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set
your affection on things above, not on things of the earth, for
ye are dead." Now just let that sink in. You're dead. That's
what Paul said. Quit thinking about the things
of this world. Quit patronizing the flesh. Quit giving the flesh what it
longs for. Quit doing those things because
you're dead. If you're in Christ, you are.
You're dead. Already judged. Already condemned. Already punished. Already put
in a tomb. The understanding of faith that
is if one died, then all are dead. That's what it says over
in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. He said, we account that if one
died for all, then we're all dead. We're all dead. God cannot
for sin twice demand, first at my surety's hand, and then again
at mine." We're dead, he said. And your life is hid with Christ
in God. And when Christ who is our life
shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory. We died in Christ, and He was
laid in that grave, but He did not stay there. He was raised,
and he says in Ephesians chapter 2, He hath quickened us to gather
with Him, raised us up, and made us sit together with Him in heavenly
places. Raised from the dead. Ushered
into glory with His holy angels. Death is not a curse to the believer.
It's His gate into glory. Now with this understanding,
Let me give you just a few things here in this death and birth
of Sarah to put a little icing on the cake. The land in which
she was laid, I want you to think about this. God would not have
His beloved Sarah to lay in a borrowed tomb. Abraham wouldn't do it.
He wanted to buy, he wanted to possess this land in which his
beloved bride would be laid. He wanted it as a possession.
And I tell you this, that grave into which we're laid, every
one of us is going to go out here and be buried in some form
or fashion. Whether they burn us in an oven
or put us in a box or lay us in a sepulcher, one way or the
other, you're going to be buried. And this body is going to go
back to the dust from which it was taken. But let me tell you something,
that ground into which you're put, you own. Ain't that what
Paul said? It's yours. How did it get to
be yours? Your husband bought it. He bought
it. He bought it. This blessed rest
into which we enter is a resting place purchased of Christ. His
beloved bride will never be disturbed because he owns the place where
she is committed to. This place is called Kirgath
Arba. It means City of the Four Giants. Now, I'm going to give you a
little homework. Go home and read. You're going
to have to go through the Scriptures a lot. I spent all afternoon
just chasing rabbits with this, that, and the next thing concerning
this message. But you're going to run on to
that word, Gath. That Gath, that's the place of the Amokans. That's
the place where Goliath and his three brothers are from. Okay? It means city of the four giants
in Joshua chapter 14 and verse 15. If you want to read about
it over there, it's probably the city of the ancestors of
Goliath and his three brothers. But what I found interesting
is in Joshua chapter 14 and verse 15 that Caleb, who was mocked. You remember when they came up
to the promised land and Joshua and Caleb went over and they
sent some other spies over? And Joshua and Caleb come back.
Joshua was the general. He always stood with Moses. Caleb
was the only one there. He said, Let's go. Let's go.
And they said, Yeah, but there's giants in the land. Huh? We can't go in there. There's
giants in there. There's walled cities in there.
We can't overcome that plague. And God calls their carcasses. He didn't provide for them a
resting place. He said, your carcasses are going
to fall in the wilderness. He didn't even honor them with
an honorable burial. He just let them drop where they
fell in the wilderness. And they wandered around there
until every last one of them was gone. Gone. But here in Joshua
chapter 14, the children of Israel have come into the land. And
Joshua now is older by many, many years. Forty more years
he wandered around out there in that wilderness. And he was
a fairly old man when he came into Canaan the first time. Now
he's forty years older, Glenn, and he comes into Canaan. And he told Joshua, he said,
all these years have passed by. And he said, and I wanted to
come in at the start. But we would not. God prevented
us from coming in. But he said, I'm as strong right
now as I was the day I first approached this place, and I'm
ready to go take them down. And he said, if you give me that
mountain where them giants are, that's the one I want right there.
That's the one I'll lead into battle. And Caleb went up and
he said, whoever among my army will take that city of Gath,
take those giants, take those amulets down. Take them down. All of them. He said, him will
I grant to marry my daughter. And they did. And they went in
and took him down. Went in and took him down. But
listen to what he says here. And the name of Hebron before
was Kerjath Arba, which Arba was a great man among the Amakans. These were giants, these Amakans.
Which Arba was a great man among the Amakans, And the land had
rest from war. He took those giants down. It
was called the City of Four Giants. But when the children of Israel
entered in, they said, it ain't going to be called Kurgetz Arba
no more, because the giants are gone. We're going to call it
Hebron. Hebron means the name of two. The name of two. One man. Two men, one name. Talking about his church and
himself, bear the same name. The last enemy, he said, that
shall be destroyed is death. What once was controlled by the
intimidating giants now falls into the hands of Judah. Caleb
represented Judah, which is the tribe of Christ. It's his possession. And its name is changed to Hebrew. That name means by association. Two. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and
their three wives all lay at rest in that same tomb. All by
association with Christ. And the name of the grave itself
is of special interest to me. He calls the name of that grave
Machpelah. Now this was really interesting
to me. This is the name of the cave she was laid in, and Machpelah
means to bring one side to fold it over. One side touches the
other. When He lays you in the tomb,
and that flesh goes back to the earth He gave, He turns you over
into a oneness of eternity with Christ. He folds. It means to
fold over. To fold over. We go to that grave
and we're folded over into eternity. God turns the next page. He turns
the next page. And He folds it over. It's the
place where one side touches the other. And it's where we
go to be with Him. And something else here is interesting
to me. Hebron was set apart under the
law of God. You can read about it as you
go through the books of Moses. There were cities of refuge appointed. Hebron was a city of refuge. I bought it pretty good. It sends
us to the grave. But when we get there, the grave
to us is not an ushering in of woe. It's a city of refuge. Pursued
by the avenger, we find the grave a sweet refuge. And then think
about this. In confirmation of God's giving
his seed the land for an inheritance, the first place and parcel he
really can call his own is the place he himself and his beloved
bride are laid to rest. laid to rest. One day, by the
appointment of God, we will give up the ghost and these bodies
will be taken out and buried in the earth. But the earth in
which they are laid is ours by inheritance, bought by the blood
of Christ. And as surely as they go back
to the dust of the earth, they will be raised again by the glory
of God and stand on the ground in which they rested. It will
be theirs. It will be theirs. After death
and hell are cast into the lake of fire and God has accomplished
all things, John said he saw a new heaven and a new earth. I don't have to doubt it. Here
is the revelation of Jesus Christ and His Apostle who gave witness
of what was revealed to him. And he said there was a new heaven
and a new earth. Well, the first heaven and the
first earth passed away. And he saw the new Jerusalem,
the whole bride of Christ, the church of the living God coming
down out of heaven as a bride adorned for her husband. And
he said, I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold,
the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them,
and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with
them and be their God. God Himself, Revelation 21. shall
wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more
death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more
pain, for the former things are passed away." And in that chapter
in Revelations, I want you to look this up and give this a
little study during the week. He said there is going to be
no more sea. No more sea. You know, covering
the chaos And darkness, whatever you want to call it,
in the very beginning was a sea. Darkness was upon the face of
the deep, he said. There was no seeing into it.
There was no discovering what was beneath it. It was just a
sea. It covered everything. A sea
of darkness. A sea of mystery. When God judged this world and
destroyed this world, He did it by causing a sea to cover
every ounce of land that there was. In His declaration of hope
in the creation of the world, He caused a body of land to be
resurrected up out of the sea. Judgment in that is often described
as the boisterous waves of the sea. Ungodliness is called the
foaming up of the waves of the sea. Jude uses it to describe
the hideousness of sin. Foaming out its impurities as
those waves come down. But in glory, he said, in this
new earth, there will be no more sea. No more judgment. Nothing out there to threaten.
He says in the book of Job that he commands those proud waves.
He said, you can come this far, but come no further. Come no
further. And that day, they're not even
going to come that far. There's not going to be any seed.
There's not going to be any judgment, no threat of judgment. There'll
be no sinners here to threaten. Judgment's passed. It's all gone. It's all gone. Is that figurative
or literal? I'll leave that to you.