Right. So we're in Genesis 23 now and I'll give you a recap as I normally do from where we were last week.
And we were in Genesis 22 and we looked at the offering of Isaac and how Abraham responded straight away to God's instructions.
If you remember, he rose up early in the morning straight after they took that three day journey and we saw our Isaac represented the Lord Jesus Christ.
He arrived on an ass and carried the word and seemingly gave himself willingly to his father's will, at least.
And we saw Abraham make that great prophecy with verse eight saying, and Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.
So they went both of them together. And the prophecy showing that he had faith in the coming Christ to be that saviour.
And with that, the Isaac wouldn't have spent a day in hell.
So, you know, apologies also. I didn't take you to Hebrews 11, which confirmed that that offering up of Isaac by Abraham was by faith.
We're going to look there briefly in a minute, but Hebrews 11, 19 said, account that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure.
However, regardless, it was still a difficult thing to do, wasn't it? Whether that was the faith that he'd be raised up at some point or not.
And we saw that there's a reason that it was to be a burnt offering picturing Jesus Christ suffering in hell for us, how the scriptures are so clear,
how the scriptures are so clear, including Genesis 22, 17, where God said to Abraham that in blessing I will bless thee and in multiplying,
I'll multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, as the sand which is upon the seashore and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies.
And we compared that to Matthew 16 with the gates of hell not prevailing against, for me, the rock there, Jesus Christ.
The chapter finished with a bit of information about Abraham's brother and his offspring.
And in verse 20 says, And it came to pass after these things that it was told Abraham, saying, Behold, Milka, she hath also borne children to thy brother Nahor,
who's his firstborn, and was his brother, and Chemure, the father Aram, and Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlath, and Bethuel.
And Bethuel begat Rebekah, these ain't Milka, to bear to Nahor, Abraham's brother, and his concubine, whose name was Reuma, she bear also Teba, and Gaham, and Thabash, and Mayakah.
And then we're now into Genesis 23 and verse one, and the chapter begins with, And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old.
These were the years of the life of Sarah.
I'd like to pray before we continue.
Father, thank you for this great chapter of the Bible, a chapter here with some subjects which maybe some might find a bit morbid.
But help me to just preach them just in the way that you want it to be preached.
Anyway, Lord, help everyone to pay attention to be able to just focus on what your word is saying, Lord, and to get the application from it as well.
Jesus name, Pray with us. Amen.
OK, so the last time that we saw Sarah, she had given birth to Isaac at 90 years old.
And then they had the feast when he was weaned, so somewhere in her early 90s at this point.
And now we're around 35 years later, which considering the time span that Genesis covers is no real surprise.
You know, it goes somewhere like 2000 years through the book of Genesis.
At some point in between this sort of 35 year period, the events of chapter 22 with Isaac happened.
And now we're jumping forward to the death of Sarah, 127 years old.
And like I've said earlier, bear in mind that the ages are still decreasing from pre-flood.
Abraham dies in chapter 25 at 175 years old, not an age that we would see nowadays.
However, 90 is still a very old age to be having a first and only child.
And turn over to Hebrews chapter 11, because in all the excitement about Ishmael picturing the Jews, we didn't go there to give Sarah that extra credit in the bearing of Isaac.
And we're going to look at Hebrews 11 from verse 8, just to remind ourselves that Sarah was a great woman.
This is kind of like a eulogy for her, you know, and she did some great things.
And she was obviously, you know, one of the women of old that, you know, obeyed her husband, calling him Lord in her heart.
She's a great example.
She did some great things, Sarah.
And obviously we've looked at some of the blips in their life.
But having that child was something that required some faith as well.
It says here in verse 8, by faith, Abraham, when he's called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed and he went out not knowing whether he went.
By faith, he sojourned in the land of promises in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.
And that's something that we do now, don't we?
Sojourn instead of really making this our home, don't we?
Verse 10 says, well, we should do at least, for he looked for a city which have foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Verse 11 then says, through faith, it was through faith.
Also, Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age because she judged him faithful, who had promised.
And it's something that is easy to gloss over.
Having a child is massively taxing on a woman's body anyway, isn't it?
It's a big deal.
And look, you know, just one child, the first child often can be very difficult because it's such a shock to a woman's body.
And women get deficient in many things.
And in this country, they kind of give them free dental care for the period, you know, sort of during pregnancy and afterwards, just because, you know, a lot of things can suffer with that massive, you know, taxing on a woman's body.
And, you know, here, Sarah, she was like the equivalent of, like we said, somewhere, I don't know, I just guess there's something like, you know, up to 60 odd years old, the equivalent now.
I mean, oh, look, she was 90 years old.
Okay, so it's not that she wasn't.
However, just the fact that they seem to live, Abraham lived 175 makes me think, well, it's not quite like it is now, but she was still old.
She was still well past childbearing age.
And that was a big deal for her, wasn't it, as well?
A big deal to have that baby.
And how did she do it?
Well, faith in the promise of God.
So she judged him faithful, who had promised.
She, look, he made that promise and she had that faith.
And that's meant that she could get through that.
I don't think he just suddenly made her young.
That's not how it worked.
But she was able to get through having a baby at what was a very old age.
And, you know, just a little application there.
God has some hard tasks for us in life.
But do you have faith that he can lead you through them too?
Because sometimes it can be hard living the Christian life, can't it?
It's not always a better road.
And there are some things that, you know, that we kind of know that God wants us to do.
And maybe things, changes in our lives and other things that can be difficult.
But do you judge him faithful who's promised?
Because he has promised he'll help us through, doesn't he?
He does promise that he'll be with us and that he will help us through these things.
Well, verse 12 says,
Therefore sprang no even of one, and him as good as dead,
so many as the stars of the sky multitude,
and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable.
These all died in faith, not having received the promises,
but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them and embraced them,
and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
And we'll see in a bit how Abraham behaved as that stranger and pilgrim on the earth,
and briefly as we carry on and we go back through Genesis 23.
So if you go back to 23, Genesis 23 and verse 2,
which says, And Sarah died in Kirjathabah, the same as Hebron, in the land of Canaan,
and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.
So it was known as Kirjathabah at this point, named after, I think it was Arab,
who, according to Joshua 14, 15, was a great man amongst the Anakims.
It became known as Hebron after being conquered by Caleb, the son of Jephthah.
And it's about halfway between Beersheba in the south and Jerusalem.
And in the last chapter in verse 19, we saw that Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.
So at some point between then and now, he's travelled around 25 miles into the land of Canaan,
again from the outskirts, he was on the outskirts, and he's kind of back into,
sort of into, well, not central, it's a southern region at least.
Verse 2 says, let's just read it again,
And Sarah died in Kirjathabah, the same as Hebron, in the land of Canaan,
and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.
Mourning and weeping for a loved one is perfectly normal, isn't it?
And you shouldn't really have to say this,
but sometimes we do see these great manly men of God in the Bible weeping, don't we?
OK, and that is normal, as long as it's not every day, guys, you know.
And when you're mourning, you know, that could be normal.
But, you know, there are times when we do weep, aren't there?
And there are times when we mourn, and that's perfectly normal, isn't it?
Verse 3 says, And Abraham stood up from before his dead,
and spake unto the sons of Heth, saying,
I am 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.
Now, Heth being a son of Canaan, an ancestor, it seems of the eventual Hittites,
so Abraham is requesting somewhere to bury Sarah. Why?
You know, some might say it's the soul that matters, right? Who cares?
Well, it seems that the burials were important to them.
There are many examples of burials in the Bible.
I'm sure if you kind of, those of you that have read through the Bible,
think, yeah, actually, there's a lot of burials in the Bible, aren't there?
And sometimes great lengths were gone to for a burial as well. Why?
Well, firstly, this being the first burial that we see in the Bible,
let's note what Abraham says, right?
This is the first burial that we see, and he stood up from before his dead.
It said, And Abraham stood up from before his dead.
So he's mourning and weeping over her.
He got up and then he said this in verse four,
I am 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.
So the idea, I believe, is to bury the dead body out of sight.
No one wants to see their loved one decomposing, et cetera, do they?
OK, and you can probably imagine that wouldn't be very pleasant, would it?
So the idea is to bury them out of sight. That's why they get buried.
He then makes his statement, by the way, in verse eight, too,
where it says, And he communed with them, saying,
If it be in your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight,
hear me and treat for me to Ephron, the son of Zohar.
And something that you notice in the Bible is that burial takes place
as soon as possible after a death as well.
So it's not like here where sometimes it can be a long time after.
In Acts chapter five, you don't have to turn there, but Ananias is buried
before his wife, Sophia, is even aware that he's died.
OK, they just take him out and bury him.
And she returns three hours later to die and have an immediate burial herself, too.
OK, that's some quick burying, right?
That's kind of covert quick burying as well.
Now, it's not that... Look, with that in mind, it's not that I'm...
You know, I'm not going to preach against these sort of long, big planned funerals,
where as many people as possible are able to save the date.
You can see there being some good reasons for that.
But sadly, in our nation, they usually incorporate a load of alcohol
and pretty disrespectful behaviour, don't they?
That's usually what we see with funerals.
They're pretty... A lot of the time, they're pretty wicked affairs, really, in many areas.
But something I've noticed is that the funeral planning seems to replace
the mourning to some degree.
So if you've ever had to plan a funeral for a loved one, you'll notice...
I don't know. I've not just noticed this myself, but talking to others as well
and being around people that have done this, that kind of...
You don't really get to mourn because you're just suddenly busy doing all this planning
and contacting people and trying to make plans and everything else.
You almost replace the mourning with that.
So it becomes sort of this big deal in your life.
The funeral, the funeral, it kind of takes over everything.
You don't really have time to mourn.
And the problem with that is then sort of...
It can take a long time, the funeral planning,
and you're just trying to make this as big an event
and as, you know, as kind of well planned as you can do all this stuff.
And then there's this kind of big sort of emotional letdown, really,
this empty letdown afterwards,
where you're kind of a few weeks on, though,
and everyone just expects life to carry on now.
And if you talk to people that have been through this sort of thing
and, you know, they've maybe buried a loved one
and dealt with kind of all the planned stuff,
it's kind of two, three weeks later,
and then everyone else is like,
right, the funeral's done, let's move on.
And then it's kind of...
You're kind of like... You haven't really mourned yet.
And then, I don't know, I just think...
You know, for me, probably a quicker burial is probably a more sensible thing
because I don't think it's always that healthy like that.
It can be hard. People are kind of a bit... don't really understand.
And people kind of move on quickly, don't they, as well?
And for you, it's kind of like, yeah, I haven't even done the mourning.
I've just, like, been dealing with a funeral for however long, you know?
And I think that, if possible, probably a quicker burial,
like we see here and elsewhere in the Bible, is probably a good idea,
aside from the obvious lack of refrigeration reasons, as well.
So I'm not avoiding that being a good reason, as well.
But we've seen that Abraham asked for a burying place,
that I may bury my dead out of my sight.
Now, why didn't he just dig a hole?
Anyone wondered that? Why didn't he just dig a hole there and then?
Why go to the sons of Heth and ask for a specific place?
Because he wanted somewhere significant, didn't he?
To be remembered, and it eventually becomes a family burial place, as well,
being where eventually Sarah, Abraham, Isaac, Rebecca, Leah and Jacob were buried with...
If you're thinking, what about Rachel?
Well, Rachel being buried near Bethlehem, where she had died.
Now, jump forward to Genesis 35
for an interesting point about that burial of Rachel.
Here we see that it was a specific cave, so it said in verse 9
that you may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he had,
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, however, in Genesis 35, Rachel dies in labour on the way to Ephrath,
which later is Bethlehem, so is buried basically there and there at the time.
But Jacob does set a landmark upon her grave.
It says in verse 19 in Genesis 35, Genesis 35 and 19.
And Rachel died and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem,
and Jacob set a pillar upon her grave.
That is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day.
And nowadays people put all sorts of things from gravestones
to usually graven images of angels and other weird stuff on graves
and places where they've scattered ashes and stuff.
But the point is that the marking of insignificance of a burial place
is an age-old practice, isn't it?
Why is it an age-old practice?
I think likely because it's a sign of respect, isn't it?
A sign of respect, it's keeping them in remembrance,
the old saying, gone but not forgotten.
It's somewhere that you'll always think about them as well, isn't it?
So if a loved one has died, there's nothing wrong with having a place
where maybe you can go and think about them, right?
And it's somewhere that will always be there, that will always be a place
that if you go there, you're going to think about them.
It shows respect to them as well.
And just a quick point, just last point about burial and cremation.
Other than Saul and Jonathan, whose bodies were mutilated by the Philistines
and hung on a wall and then they were basically burned,
the common practice was burial, OK?
All over the Bible it's burial.
And even with Saul and Jonathan, their bones were still buried, by the way,
in I think it's 1 Samuel 31.
So for me, cremation, those burnt offerings,
really are just a picture of hell, aren't they?
I mean, that's what burnt offerings are, that's what really cremation is.
I know that people who are getting cremated aren't thinking about hell,
but that's really what it is.
So it's a strange thing to have done to your body after death, isn't it?
And look, I understand that people choose to do that
because land is expensive is a big part of it, isn't it?
And it's a lot cheaper.
But if possible, I would want to follow the example of burial myself
because I just think it's a bit of a pagan sort of picture of hell,
burning bodies and stuff.
But just in case you ever want to look,
obviously none of it makes any difference to the eventual resurrection, OK?
Because if you think these people who were buried that long ago,
do you think there's much left?
I'll tell you, there ain't much left, all right?
So God obviously gives us that bodily resurrection
with a glorified body regardless, OK?
However, let's keep going.
Verse 4 says,
I am 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 heath answered Abraham, saying unto him,
Hear us, my lord, thou art a mighty prince amongst us.
In the choice of our sepulchres, bury thy dead.
None of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre,
but thou mayest bury thy dead.
So Abraham asked for a burying place,
and they start offering their sepulchres,
which are basically graves of some sort,
whether caves, tombs, et cetera, OK?
And point being that there's less chance
of it being digged up in the future
if it's in a cave, hewn out of rock, et cetera, OK?
So you just bury someone in the middle of a field,
and I don't think that's going to last
necessarily for the long term.
I would say, like, hewn out of rock
and in caves and things like that,
they're going to last a lot longer.
Now, they basically say here, OK, yeah,
put her in one of our sepulchres.
That seems to be what they're saying.
They go, oh, you can choose any one of our sepulchres.
But is that what Abraham wanted?
Now, I'm sure that they were a nice bunch, OK?
I mean, they seem pretty friendly to him here,
but Abraham wasn't asking to share the sepulchres, was he?
OK, he says in verse four,
I am 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.
So he meant in your land, not in your graves, yeah?
He's like saying, look, I want a place to bury him.
He didn't say, can I share your graves?
And the children of Heth answered Abraham,
saying unto him, Here, ask my lord thou art
a mighty prince amongst us,
in the choice of our sepulchres, bury thy dead.
None of us shall withhold from thee a sepulchre,
but that thou mayest bury thy dead.
Now, did Abraham at this point start shouting
that he wants nothing to do
with their filthy Canaanite sepulchres?
He wants his own fresh cave.
Did he start, like, flying off the handle and stuff?
Well, he didn't.
It says in verse seven,
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 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 is worth,
he shall give it me for a possession
of a burying place among you.
And for me, look,
I believe there's various application here in this passage.
So Abraham was a sojourner with them,
but he wasn't about to share his family's burial place
with them, was he?
And first off, look,
we may be sojourners in this place, in this land,
but we don't have to let our families share death
with the children of the land, do we?
Because that's what I think we're seeing.
Or at least you could make an application there,
whether or not you think there's a picture there
of that or not.
We don't have to let our families share death
with the children of the land.
And just because we live amongst a load of God-rejectors,
we live amongst a load of fools who mock God,
because we do, don't we?
There's a lot of fools out there that mock God
who prefer to choose to believe
in the goddess mother nature,
because that's really what they believe in, don't they?
Some sort of goddess mother nature,
some sort of big bang, absolute just nonsense, yeah?
And that's the choice, okay?
Make it clear.
It's not because these people,
they've just read too much science.
They've chosen to believe that.
They've chosen to reject God
and choose some of the most preposterous ideas
for how the world began that you could really come up with,
that nothing exploded into something
and created all of this is ridiculous, yeah?
It's laughable.
But we do live amongst people like that.
And they prefer to put their faith
really in the latest ever-changing science God,
which changes every year or two anyway, right?
And it's like, well, I believe in something.
They're just choosing the latest science, the latest thing.
But if it's not that God denies, it's a false religion.
So sometimes it's not,
you kind of feel like I must just be surrounded
by all these people.
It seems to be more of a,
I would say probably a bit more, at least in this nation,
more of what you'll get amongst Brits in general,
amongst people that have maybe been here
for several generations.
But there are still a lot in this nation,
and amongst those people
that have been here for several generations,
there is still a lot that believe
in their work salvation God, aren't they?
And in one way or another.
So we've got all the work salvationists out there as well.
And we're surrounded by those, aren't we?
We're surrounded by work salvationists.
They're kind of the two options.
You've got the work salvationists,
and then you've got the kind of,
I don't believe in a God yet.
If there was a God,
it's probably work salvationists as well, right?
And then you've kind of got us in the middle, right?
And not even in the middle,
you've got us as a minority,
people that have their trust and faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ.
But we don't have to bury our families with them.
And when I say we don't have to bury our families with them,
we don't have to have our children share their graves,
do we?
We don't have to let our families,
let our wives, let our children,
let our wider families out there share the graves
of the unbelievers, of the work salvationists.
And you might say, well, it's too late for my brother,
sister, mum, sadly,
even sometimes adult children and other things.
Sometimes it can be tough.
You just think, well, I don't have a choice.
It's too late.
I came to this too late.
Well, turn to 1 Peter 2,
because unless you're 100% sure
that they've been given over,
there is still hope.
There's still hope.
Not forcing them to hear the gospel
every time you see them, okay?
That's not the hope I'm talking about.
So we'll go a bit far with that.
And I think you kind of do the opposite then, yeah, okay?
Just like, can I find another way
of cornering you with the gospel, yeah?
That's not gonna solve it.
You know, you preach them the gospel,
maybe they'll want to hear it again.
But in the meantime, you know what you need to do?
You need to show them God working in your life, yeah?
And that it's not just some latest trend
that you'll soon grow out of.
Because look, as much as people,
if they've heard the word of God,
they know it's the word of God,
they still, you know, I think human nature is,
you just want to try and find some way of explaining it.
So, you know, this family member
who's just putting their faith, you know,
and going to this church,
and now saying that, you know,
they know they're saved and everything else,
it's like, probably just a fad.
You know, and they're never happier
than when a Christian backslides, are they?
When you're no longer in that church,
when you're no longer doing the things of God,
they hope that you'll grow out of it,
get back to pleasing them by ruining your life
with alcohol, drugs, or whatever it is
that, you know, you were either into before,
or that the rest of the world is into.
They're never happier, are they?
They'd be much happier if you were just destroying your life,
you know, fornicating, drinking, or whatever else.
Well, first Peter 2.11.
Peter says this, he says,
"'Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims.'"
And that's what we've seen, you know,
is obviously, there's a big picture there
with Abraham and then with Isaac, with Jacob.
"'Being strangers and pilgrims in the land,
abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.
Having your conversation honest among the gentles
that whereas they speak against you as evildoers,
they may by your good works, which they shall behold,
glorify God in the day of visitation.'"
So did he say that they may by your good works
that you shall tell them all about,
glorify God in the day of visitation?
He said your good works that they shall behold,
because the idea is that with time
and with you just living for God,
they're going to behold, they're going to see,
they're going to see that over the years,
and it can be years, it could be many years,
that they're going to see those good works,
they're going to see that change in you,
not because you're constantly telling them
about how great you are,
not because you're constantly telling them
about all your soul winning or anything else,
they're just going to see that change, right?
They're going to see you being the opposite,
that difference, hopefully, to everyone else
if you're living for God, you're serving God,
you're reading your Bible, you're trying to grow, right?
They should hopefully see that then.
They shall behold.
You want your family and friends saved,
there's more chance if your behaviour is honest, isn't it?
Instead of having your conversation honest
among the Gentiles.
I do believe that sometimes you can have
some hard cases in life, can't you?
You can look out at the family, the unsaved family,
the unsaved friends, you just think no chance,
they've rejected, yeah, but are they reprobate?
Probably in the vast majority of cases, no.
So, what's the answer?
Well, have your conversation honest among them,
have your behaviour honest.
It comes down to you, there's some responsibility
there on yourself, right?
Because are they really seeing God working your life
where everything you say is a lie,
where he's just catching you out,
you're dishonest all the time,
you're still just acting the fool,
you're still just messing around with lies
and everything else.
He said, having your conversation honest
among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak
against you as evildoers, they're gonna speak
against what you're doing for the Lord.
They're gonna speak against your stance
on the word of God, your stance on whatever
the latest society sort of faux pas in the Bible are
right now, it's obviously sodomites and whatever else.
They're gonna talk about you as an evildoer,
but they may, by your good works,
which they shall behold, glorify God
in the day of visitation.
So if you're abstaining from the fleshly lusts,
so that in that day, when it's the most receptive time,
I think is what we're seeing here,
there will be a time when it's most receptive
that look, maybe they're gonna glorify God still.
Maybe there's a time when maybe they're down on their luck.
Maybe there's a time when they're very receptive
and you just feel like this is the right time.
Maybe there's a time where someone else
preaches them the gospel.
Maybe there's a time you don't even know about
where they've listened to you,
they don't really wanna hear it from you,
but things go downhill in their life, right?
And maybe they just go on YouTube
and look for a Bible way to heaven.
Maybe they go on and look for your church
or look for something similar.
You don't know, do you?
But I see that maybe how you live
and how you behave and everything else
is gonna have a big factor on that.
Along with that, though,
if you're just rebelling against everything in life,
are they really gonna take you seriously?
Or are they just gonna see it as a rebellious thing?
So if you're just, you know, because look,
the thing is is that there's probably no more real rebellion
than there is being a Christian, right?
Being a Bible-believing Christian
is as rebellious as it gets, really, isn't it?
Because the rest of the world
is all some form of work salvation or other, really,
or some sort of so-called atheism
with a little kind of fallback on work salvation
if you were wrong, yeah?
And then you got the grace through faith,
just believing it's salvation's faith alone.
Bible-believing Christian, that's pretty rebellious, yeah?
That's a straight gate, that's a narrow way, isn't it?
But however, if you're rebelling against
absolutely everything else in life as well,
I think that kind of discredits you a little bit, doesn't it?
He says this in verse 13,
"'Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man
"'for the Lord's sake,
"'whether it be to the King who is supreme,
"'one to governors, as unto them that are sent by him
"'for the punishment of evildoers,
"'and for the praise of them that do well,
"'for so is the will of God that with well-doing
"'ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men
"'as free and not using your liberty
"'for a cloak of maliciousness, but as a servants of God.'"
So yes, we're free in Christ.
The truth is set as free,
but we don't have to use that to make people feel lousy,
to scorn our unsaved family and friends.
And also, look,
if you're just constantly rebelling against everything,
you're not just a bad citizen,
you're just constantly breaking laws,
breaking rules, not paying your taxes,
not just, it's just a bad testimony.
And then they kind of, it's like, yeah,
so-called Christianity, look at these people.
Yeah, I don't want to be like that.
Who wants to live like, who wants to be one of these?
They just think everyone's a problem.
They think everything's, and it's like, look, yeah,
look, we know that the government's ultimately
a pretty wicked, right?
But we are still told to submit to them, aren't we?
To just be a good citizen, to live by the law
as much as possible, unless you break the law of God.
And with that, they have less and less stuff
to criticise you for.
And then they have to, at one point,
at some point in their life, they might maybe assess,
really, actually, I just hate them
because they're living for God.
I'm just speaking against them as an evil doer
because of what they're doing,
and that's where we want to get to with people.
It could be a long-term plan, can't it?
And it's not that you're constantly,
oh, just preach your gospel every week.
It might be, look, they've heard the word of God,
they know what the gospel is.
Yeah, sure, ask them, give them the chance.
We don't want to just ever shy away from it,
but sometimes, here, I think that's a long-term goal,
isn't it?
A long-term goal is that they may buy your good works,
which they shall behold, glorify God
in the day of visitation.
However, at the same time, we also can't let them
drag us out of the things of God, okay?
Make us compromise on serving God,
because that's a very real threat out there, isn't it?
And we definitely don't need to be burying
our families with them.
And back in Genesis 23, Abraham didn't want to bury
his wife and future family members
with the children of the land, okay?
He didn't want to yoke up with their burying place.
However, he also didn't make them purposeful enemies
either, though, did he?
So if you look, verse seven, it says,
And Abraham stood up and bowed himself
to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth.
So he showed them respect, he showed them manners.
He politely asked for a way to separate his family,
didn't he?
If you notice that, he bowed himself to them.
He, to the children of Heth, he bowed himself.
He asked them for a way.
He asked them nicely, we're going to see in a second.
Look, sometimes you're going to make enemies, okay?
And sometimes it doesn't matter how polite you are, does it?
Okay, sometimes you can be as polite as you can,
and people just want to hate on you,
especially when you're living for God,
you're doing the things of God.
But there are those out there where it seems
that they almost seek strife.
There are people out there like that.
And like it's a badge of honor,
they can claim persecution for Christ, okay?
And we want to make sure we're not like that.
But often it seems, you know,
as much as they want to claim persecution,
it's more likely sought out persecution.
And there are people out there like that,
where they're kind of almost trying to get persecution,
trying to find a way to get something
that appears to be persecution.
It's like, look at this persecution for Christ,
but was it really persecution for Christ?
Okay, and I'm not saying, look,
we don't need to shy away from the things of God,
but sometimes I've been around these people before
where they're literally looking for the persecution
one way or another,
and I don't think that's really what we're told to do, okay?
Turn to 2 Timothy chapter two,
where Paul is instructing Timothy not to seek that stuff,
but to avoid the strife where possible.
And in 2 Timothy two,
Paul's just been warning about the wicked people
in God's house and the need to purge them out, okay?
So he does make that clear, I believe, earlier on
in 2 Timothy two, before verse 22,
where we're going to start from,
where he says that, you know,
if a man therefore purge himself of these, you know,
and talk about being a vessel unto honor and meat,
and talking about basically getting these people
out of that, you know, getting people,
and ultimately it's God's house, I think,
out of the church.
He then says in verse 22, though,
flee all so youthful lusts,
but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace,
with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
So I believe that's always remaining after the purging
previously in the chapter.
He then says in verse 23,
but foolish and unlearned questions avoid,
knowing that they do gender strifes.
So he's saying to just avoid
all of that foolish, vain jangling, okay?
To avoid those questions
that are just geared up to cause strife.
And there's a lot of questions out there
that are just geared up to cause strife.
I mean, I notice it in this job, you know,
in the ministry now for, you know,
coming up to three years in January.
And in this job, people sometimes just ask you questions
because they want strife.
It's kind of like they pretend they're just kind of,
you know, just got an interesting question,
but really a lot of the time it's trying to gain some strife,
trying to get you to say something
that's going to cause some trouble or something else.
And the servant of the Lord must not strive,
but be gentle unto all men apt to teach patience.
He said to avoid those foolish and unlearned questions,
we've had them come into our church before
where they just kind of just want trouble, you know?
They come in and you could just see sometimes,
you preach in a church, you just look around,
there's like someone new coming in there,
you know, straight away you could just see
they're not for the church, you know?
They've come in, they just want some grief, right?
And then, and he said in the servant of the Lord
must not strive, but be gentle unto all men
apt to teach patience.
Now, he said to avoid striving, okay?
Contending, disputing with people.
And here's the thing,
sometimes the flesh just wants to strive, doesn't it?
That's the reality.
The flesh often likes striving.
Do you know what's very popular online
is people like watching striving, don't they?
I mean, you know, striving in one way or another
and not just fighting, not just physical fighting,
sometimes people love to watch a row,
love to watch a debate.
People just enjoy it.
It's a fleshly, it's a carnal thing, isn't it,
to watch that sort of stuff.
And also to get into it ourselves as well sometimes.
And especially when you feel like,
well, I've got the word of God,
I could absolutely smash you in an,
because you can smash people in an argument
with the word of God, can't you?
It's so easy.
And I had to pull myself away today
because I had a Jehovah's Witness on the door
where it would have been very easy
to have just gone, yeah, okay, bring your Bible out,
let's go, you know?
And I nearly got pulled in for a second
just to like, you know, for no reason, really,
and it's like, the flesh just wants
to smash this Jehovah's Witness,
but what a waste of my time.
And then when I finally managed to get away from him,
you know, and his nonsense,
and I can't remember what Bible
they were actually trying to tell me
was before the King James.
It was something just completely bizarre
that we've never seen before.
He had like some app with all these Bible versions.
I was like, get your New World Translation out of here.
Anyway, but point being that,
look, it's tempting though, isn't it?
It's tempting, because you know,
look, this Witness, he doesn't even know
what he's talking about.
He thinks 144,000 people here on Earth.
This guy's a clown.
But it's tempting, but what does it profit?
It doesn't profit at all.
But sometimes we want to strive, okay?
But we're told to be gentle unto all men,
apt to teach, patient, yeah?
He then says, in meekness,
instructing those that oppose themselves,
if God, peradventure, will give them repentance
to the acknowledging of the truth,
that they may recover themselves
out of the snare of the devil,
who are taken captive by him at his will.
Now meekness doesn't mean, okay, like whispering.
Doesn't mean, you know, well, I'm just a meek man.
I just, you know, I don't say much to people.
It means with humility.
It means with humility,
instructing those that oppose themselves.
Yes, we should be bold in the truth, okay?
Don't, you know, don't get mistaken about that.
Be bold in the word of God.
However, we should also not be arrogant
in ourselves, should we?
Okay, so bold in the word of God,
but it's not that you're something special.
It's that we've got the word of God, right?
And we should do it with meekness.
And for me, that applies to both preaching the gospel
to the unsaved, and I would say to those
that need explaining other doctrines of the Bible as well,
because there will be people that come in here
that maybe are saved and everything else,
but maybe just haven't ever been
in a church like this before.
Do I need to, you know, come,
and I've noticed before,
sometimes people are a bit shocked
when they maybe, they'll ask me a question
or say something and they're expecting me
to start banging like I'm not behind the pulpit now,
like smashing the table or something else.
It's like, we don't have to be like that when,
look, there's a difference with preaching, okay?
But however, when you're talking to people
and you're trying to instruct people,
they don't need you just kind of, you know,
sort of verbally smashing them around, do they, you know?
It's that and again you need to, but not that often, okay?
And look, this isn't talking about preaching, okay?
Preaching behind a pulpit, when with preaching,
Paul told Timothy to reprove and rebuke, didn't he?
And exhort, but he did tell him to reprove, rebuke, exhort
with all long suffering and doctrine.
He told him to preach the word,
be instant in season and out of season, okay?
That's basically whether it's fashionable or not,
you know, preach the word, and look, you know,
this isn't talking about preaching
to a church of believers from behind a pulpit,
but when you're out preaching the gospel,
and I would say just interacting with the world,
we want to try our best not to strive.
Not to strive, however, without compromising as well, though.
We don't have to compromise what we believe.
It's not, you don't just have to go,
oh, do you believe that?
Oh, yeah, yeah, I believe you.
Oh, yeah, let's agree with that, look.
But you can do it in a way, can't you, where,
as much as possible.
In Romans 12, 18, Paul said, if it be possible,
as much as life in you, live peaceably with all men.
Now, that's not always the case.
Like, for example, on Sunday,
some guy just started effing and blinding
and screaming and shouting at a couple of our soul winners,
and I don't think there was much of a way
of avoiding that, right?
But often it's not that, is it?
Sometimes, look, there's probably something
we could have said a bit better
and something that we could have done,
and we didn't have to strive,
but the flesh does like striving.
But if it be possible, as much as life in you,
live peaceably with all men.
And back in Genesis 23,
we see Abraham doing his best to do just that, don't we?
While still attempting to maintain the separation necessary.
And I don't think it's necessarily,
oh, he's just so scared of the children of heth.
I mean, Abraham, a long time before,
had 300 and however many it was,
like, trained armed servants that had grown up in his house
that were like the elite, that were hunting down,
you know, sort of battling kings
and taking back prisoners and stuff.
And I don't think he'd probably let all those guys go now.
I think he probably had a pretty big army, you know?
And he was, look, he wasn't, they weren't no slouches,
but that's not what he's there to do right now.
It says in verse eight, and he communed with them.
He talked with them, he spoke 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 eff on the son of Zohar,
that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he had,
which is in the end of his field.
For as much money as it is worth,
he shall give it me for possession
of a bearing place amongst you.
But another application here.
Abraham wants his own separate burial place, okay?
And I'm sure that he wouldn't have been doing
Canaanite rituals for Sarah, right?
And if you're wondering what I mean,
well, he didn't get a Canaanite dress-wearing priest
to do the last rites, yeah?
He didn't have a Canaanite knees up
after the burial or anything else.
And point being that when we bury our dead,
we don't have to conform to the world's rituals
and traditions, do we?
And look, many of us, I'm sure,
being at funerals and being involved,
and even maybe being involved in plenty of funerals,
it wouldn't be how God wanted it done,
but we know better now, don't we?
And if you ever have to plan and do a funeral
for a loved one, especially a saved loved one,
but regardless, you don't want to be getting involved
in all that Canaanite garbage.
Because what is it here?
Usually it's just, in England at least,
it's just a massive booze up afterwards,
what they call a wake, and it's just a disgrace, really.
It's the opposite of respectful, it's disrespectful.
I think funerals are, people are partaking in drugs
and stuff at someone's wake.
I mean, what an absolute insult that is to that person,
let alone just getting smashed and everything else,
and it's just a disgrace.
Playing nasty, worldly carnal songs,
oh, this was their favourite,
and it's just some absolute nonsense,
and it's dishonouring them, it's dishonouring God as well.
And we don't need to be a part of any of that stuff,
and also, just because you're using a crematorium
or something, you don't have to use their priest
or something else to do, you just make it clear
that look, if you're doing a burial,
and again, I know this might be,
you're thinking, when is this gonna happen?
Well, you never know, right?
But you don't need to start getting in the C of E guy
and all that stuff, all right?
You need to get these people out of there,
and I was at a funeral, and I was saved,
and it was horrible that it was an old friend,
and they had a C of E female vicar running the thing,
and it's just vexing your spirit,
listening to them so-called preach.
It's just appalling, you don't wanna be around
any of that stuff, right?
But anyway, so he wasn't, I don't think Abraham
wanted to get involved with any of that stuff,
and it says, and Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth,
and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham
in the audience of the children of Heth,
even of all that went in at the gate of the city,
saying, nay, my lord, hear me, this field give I thee,
and the cave that is therein I give it thee.
In the presence of thy sons and my people give I it thee,
bury thy dead, and Abraham bowed down himself
before the people of the land.
So he's still showing that respect, isn't he?
Look, Abraham's a saved guy,
I'm assuming these people aren't, right?
And look, he didn't have to be, he's still showing respect,
he's still trying to just be a good citizen
of their land, isn't he?
And it says that 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.
So Ephron is offering it for free.
But would that be a good idea for Abraham, do you think,
to take it for free?
There's an old saying that nothing is free in this world.
It's wrong, because salvation is.
Salvation's free, but there's not much else
that really is free in life, okay?
And when it comes to getting favours off people,
you need to be careful, as those favours quickly
get brought up at a later date, okay?
You start getting favours off people, you think,
oh, great, you know, they're offering me it for free.
Oh, right, this person, this old friend,
these people, you know, whoever it is,
they just said I could just have it.
And look, be very careful with that,
because I've noticed over the years
that many times when people give you something
and give you something for free, or do you a favour,
or do something else, it seems to get brought up
at a later date, and it seems to kind of be on their mind,
and it seems to get hinted at, and other,
and, you know, that's a dangerous place to be
when it's talking about this sort of thing,
and you're having a plot of land
in the middle of this Canaanite, you know,
sort of territory, and you could imagine
what probably would have happened further down the line,
right, that was our land, we gave it to you for free anyway,
we're having it back, and suddenly, you know,
the whole thing's ruined, and you've got all sorts
of problems that come with it.
But something we want to do as well
is when we are doing favours for people,
we want to be the opposite, don't we?
And because there is a, you can,
if you're doing favours for people,
and then you're afterwards reminding yourself,
after all I did for them, and I did this, and I did that,
well, it wasn't free, was it?
And we need to remember that,
because we don't want to be like everyone else, do we?
Look, you do something for someone,
you've done it for them, move on, right?
Okay, if you've said it was free,
they don't owe you nothing, right?
Unless you said to them, when you gave it to them,
yeah, but I'll tell you what,
I might bring this up at a later date.
You know?
Do you want to, oh, you're welcome to, boy, it's free,
but I might bring it up.
Oh, then fair enough, bring it up.
But we want to, look, we don't want to behave like,
sadly, so many people do, don't they?
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.
And Abraham hearkened 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.
So Abraham insisted on paying him, didn't he, as well?
So it seems that he was kind of saying,
look, you know, what's that between us?
Do what you want, but Abraham's, nah, I'm paying you.
I'm paying you the four hundred shekels.
And I think this is the first transaction
with money in the Bible, at least, you know,
if you want to call it money.
The first buying and selling.
And it's for land forbearing place.
That's the first thing we see, isn't it,
is land bought forbearing place.
Again, back to the original point,
look, there's a reason that people have done this of old,
yeah?
Because I think, and I'll just say that
just because you do sometimes get in our sort of groups
of people and people that are like,
ah, it's all, everything's pagan.
Anything that God didn't say in a scripture,
thou shalt do or thou shalt, you know,
something along those lines, it's like, it's pagan.
Pagan practices and everything else.
Everything you do is pagan, you know,
unless God said to do it.
Well, I don't think so.
I just think it's a nice way of respecting the dead.
And I don't think there's anything particularly bad
about what many people do still even in this nation,
unless you start adding the graven images,
unless you start adding the Canaanite ritual funerals,
unless you start, you know, any of that sort of stuff,
then I think you've got a problem, right?
But in terms of, you know,
finding a burial place that you can remember and even go,
you know, I remember like years ago,
this is someone just trying to like
completely attack Jack Chiles,
Pastor Jack Chiles,
where he used to be known as Brother Jack Chiles,
for like going and, you know,
going to his mum's gravestone and, you know,
and thinking about his mum and, you know,
praying and wanting the prayers to go through to his mum.
It's like, he probably was upset his mum had died, you know?
He obviously was close to his mum.
He was, you know, I think, you know,
in a way, I think he lost his,
possibly his sister or something, maybe even two sisters.
And he was basically like an only child and he was close.
And it's like, nothing wrong with that, is it?
People want to go and think about the dead and, you know,
they're those that they've lost in life.
I don't, some people can get like pretty hard-hearted
with this stuff, can't they?
Oh, let the dead, let the dead bury their dead, you know?
And it's like, yeah, like that's talking about
actually moving on and serving the Lord, yeah?
It's not talking about going and, you know,
and thinking about, you know,
loved ones and things like that, you know?
You can still think about loved ones, right?
And especially if they're saved loved ones,
oh, you know, you're going to see them again at least, yeah?
And that's a great thing as well, isn't it, to know,
but here, look, he's insisted on paying him.
He's, like I said, it's the first transaction
and Abraham, he did things fair and square
and he did things fair and square
in order to have that separation, didn't he?
So what's he doing here?
He's paying them the money, he's doing things right,
he's being a good citizen,
he's being honest and everything else
to be able to then have that proper separation.
Sometimes you kind of need to do that in life, don't you?
Live by the rules, do things right.
You're like, oh, but don't we need to be, like, you know,
on some commune somewhere
or don't we need to just be rebelling against everything
because then we're yoked up with the world?
No, when you do things proper and you do things right,
you're able to then have that spiritual separation.
Whereas when you're kind of in people's pockets
and taking what you can and everything else,
it's a bit hard to then separate yourself
from the world, isn't it?
And it's a good reminder with many things
and here's one that sadly that our world is full of
is people just in debt to false Jews.
I mean, most people in the world go through their life
in debt to false Jews, don't they?
Through their banks and everything else.
You know, and then it's hard to separate, isn't it?
It's hard to have that separation.
It's hard to separate from these people.
It's a good thing to have some sort of spiritual separation.
You can do that by trying to pay your way
and do things right and live within your means
and everything else.
And that's exactly what we see Abraham do here.
He didn't just go, oh, freebie, great.
No, he went, no, I don't want a freebie.
I want to make sure I paid for it
and then that's mine, that's my possession, yeah?
It says, 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 possession in the presence
of the children of Heth before all that went in
at the gate of his city.
So it was marked out properly.
It was properly agreed.
By the way, good idea when you're doing deals
with people as well, do it properly.
And I was saying this to someone recently,
I was saying, even when you're going into something
with just like a so-called friend
or sometimes there'll be like a sort of semi-business deal
or something else, you just, believe me,
you just want to kind of get those things marked out
early on, get a deal, get a contract in place,
even when it's like, yeah, but we're like brothers in Christ.
We're just going to like do this together
or help each other.
It's like, do it, do it properly.
Because it's easier to deal with that then
it is further down the line when you remember,
no, I'm sure that I paid for this and I did this
and I did that and I mowed that.
And they seem to remember something completely different.
And then you have all sorts of problems.
You're best just when you do these things,
do it officially.
That's what he's basically saying here
is that they made sure everything,
they made sure exactly what was made secure,
exactly what was his land, what was his trees,
what was all that area, it was done properly.
That's a good idea whenever you're doing stuff,
whenever you're doing transactions, trades, deals,
because believe it or not, money just turns people crazy.
And next thing you know,
when you're trying to sell that land
or if it'd gone, or something else had happened,
someone next door to the neighbouring land
and takes some land, if it wasn't all done properly,
they start encroaching on yours
and all these issues happen.
It's just good to do things properly, it says.
And 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
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.
And that's what they did, they made it sure.
It was all done, it was done officially.
That was the first kind of big transaction in the Bible.
It was for a burying place.
That was the first burial in the Bible as well.
Now, hopefully you kind of, you know,
I hope people agree with what I see
as some of the reasoning for that.
And I think there's, you know,
some of that's kind of quite clear there.
And that was Genesis chapter 23,
bit of a shorter chapter
and obviously kind of one theme in there,
but hopefully you got a bit out of that.
On that, we're going to finish in a word of prayer.
Father, I thank you for, well, a chapter in the Bible,
which just kind of helps us,
helps make a few things clear to us.
And, you know, what seems to be an age-old tradition
of burial, but also, Lord,
just the kind of pictures there of that separation
and separating, you know, even in death,
but also in life too,
having that spiritual separation from the world, Lord,
help us to learn from that,
help us to just take heed from that as well,
because so many don't do that
and have so many problems because of that, Lord,
and help us not to, you know,
not to neglect that for a bit of extra wealth,
for maybe a freebie or whatever else,
and just to understand that
there does need to be that separation, Lord,
to be able to live for you.
But help us do that in the right way, Lord,
that separation doesn't need to be, you know,
in a way where we're kind of just living alone
and living some sort of weird commune life.
It's a spiritual separation,
we need to be more like sojourners in the world
and not to be yoked up with the world, Lord.
And we thank you, Lord,
we thank you for salvation,
we thank you that we have the word of God,
that we're able to hear it preached,
we're able to study it, Lord,
and able to learn from it.
Please help us to just have a good rest of the week now,
help us get home safe and sound
and to hopefully make it for the Saturday soul
in your mouth and to get many salvation
and then back in church on Sunday.
In Jesus' name, for all of this, amen.