One of the great benefits of the Old Testament Scriptures is the way we get to see examples of how the Lord deals with His people in the everyday affairs of life. We see both His faithfulness to us in those everyday affairs, and we also see our faithfulness or lack of faithfulness to Him, as we see in the many examples that were given in this Scripture. We have certainly had that privilege with Abraham and all the things that are written of him and seeing what a man of faith is like in the world. How does he get on? How does God deal with him in his failures and in the times when he obeys the Lord? Tremendous encouragement to us. Much about his life, of course, is quite extraordinary. None of us are going to be asked to offer our child as a burnt offering on Mount Moriah. And that, of course, is very peculiar to Abraham. But we saw, even when we studied about that recently, that there was so much that we could relate to. Because there are many things that God asks us to do that we do not want to do. And we saw how Abraham responded faithfully in that situation. And God brought grace to him. And we can certainly relate to the promise as well that God would provide the sacrifice that we need in order to take care of our sins. Because we are not able to do that. Mount of the Lord. It was to be and has now been provided. But today we come to chapter 23 and we come to an experience in Abraham's life that is indeed very common to all and that is bereavement. Now do you children know what the word bereavement means? We don't use that word every day. So what is bereavement? Well, you're bereaved when someone or something that you love is taken away from you. especially when they die. It's all used especially in death. On Friday, our family experienced bereavement when our little doggie died. And so she is gone from us now. We are bereaved. Everyone who lives in the world is going to experience bereavement because we live in a world that has fallen into sin where everyone dies. And every time someone dies, all the people who are close to that person experience bereavement. Okay, something is taken away from them, a relationship in this case. In Genesis chapter 23, Abraham experiences bereavement. So I'm going to preach about bereavement today. And we will see that there is much for us to learn as we read of Abraham's experience. Please give me your attention then as I read to you from Genesis 23, because this is the word of God and it's important for us to receive it for our help. Genesis 23, beginning in verse one. Sarah lived 127 years. These were the years of the life of Sarah. So Sarah died in Kirjath Arba, that is Hebron. in the land of Canaan, and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. Then Abraham stood up from before his dead and spoke to the sons of Heth, saying, I am a foreigner and a visitor among you. Give me property for a burial place among you that I may bury my dead out of my sight. And the sons of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him, Hear us, my Lord. You are a mighty prince among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our burial places. None of us will withhold from you his burial place that you may bury your dead. And Abraham stood up and bowed himself to the people of the land, the sons of Heth. And he spoke with them, saying, If it is your wish that I bury my dead out of my sight, hear me and meet with Ephron, the son of Zohar, for me, that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he has, which is at the end of his field. Let him give it to me at the full price as property for a burial place among you. Now Ephron dwelt among the sons of Heth, and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the presence of the sons of Heth, all who entered at the gate of his city, saying, No, my lord, hear me. I give you the field and the cave that is in it. I give it to you in the presence of the sons of my people. I give it to you. Bury your dead. Then Abraham bowed himself down before the people of the land, and he spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying, If you will give it, please hear me. I will give you money for the field, take it from me, and I will bury my dead there. And Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him, my Lord, listen to me. The land is worth 400 shekels of silver. What is that between you and me? So bury your dead. And Abraham listened to Ephron, and Abraham weighed out the silver for Ephron, which he had named in the hearing of the sons of Heth, 400 shekels of silver, currency of the merchants. So the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field and the cave, which was in it, and all the trees that were in the field, which were within all the surrounding borders, were deeded to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the sons of Heth, before all who went in the gate of his city. And after this, Abraham buried Sarah, his wife, in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre, that is Hebron, in the land of Canaan. So the field and the cave that is in it were deeded to Abraham by the sons of Heth as property for a burial place." And there we will conclude the reading of God's holy and infallible Word. May He bless it to our understanding. Well, as we look at this account, we have gracious words from our Heavenly Father to help us in times of bereavement. He has given us this account and many other things in His Word as a loving Heavenly Father to guide us in those times of sorrow so that we will know how to sorrow as we ought and we will have comfort and help in those times. So we need to see here first of all that bereavement is a time for mourning before the Lord. Abraham provides us with a very good example of this. If you look at verse 2, which we read, you see that he deliberately came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. Now it is uncertain what it means when it says that he came to mourn. Where was he? Where did he come from? Was he out of town or what was the situation? Did he just merely go to the place where her body was laid? Is that all that it means? It doesn't really matter because what it definitely means is what we need to know that Abraham came in order that. He came before her dead body in order that. he might mourn and weep. It was something that he deliberately set out to do. It was a deliberate action on his part. It has become popular in the modern world, at least among some people, to suppress our tears and our sorrow when we lose a loved one. Now, of course, there are times when it is necessary to do such suppression. But sometimes Christians can feel as if they're compromising if they weep. or that they ought to be ashamed of their tears in these times. But this is completely inconsistent with Scripture and what we see in Scripture of godly people. In the Scripture, the godly are seen mourning in times of bereavement and weeping. And to make it certain that this is acceptable in God's sight, we even have the example of our Lord Jesus Christ at the tomb of His friend Lazarus. who wept as he saw the sorrow of all who were around the tomb, even though he knew that in moments he was going to raise this man up. Now, of course, you don't need to feel guilty if you're someone that doesn't weep about anything. So you don't weep when you're at a funeral or something, but you mourn, you see, in the way of you have sorrow in the loss, according to the way that you express your sorrow. In fact, we may even say that mourning ought to occur when we are bereaved. It arises out of the love and the appreciation that we had for the one that was taken from us. We are meant to love one another. not only to do good to one another, but also to delight in each other, in the company of one another. What would it say about Abraham's marriage to Sarah, which was perhaps over a hundred years, if he had no mourning when she died? In many ways, it would be a great dishonor to Sarah. It would show that she was not important in this man's eyes. Wicked King Herod, anticipating that when he died, that no one would mourn, that they might, in fact, rejoice and celebrate, wanted to make sure that there would be mourning, and so he arranged that many people would be killed on the day of his death to make certain that there would be sorrow in the land on the day that he died. that backfired on him because he was dead and no one wanted to enforce the command that he had given. And therefore there was rejoicing all the more that such a wicked tyrant had died. But you see rejoicing at one's death shows contempt for the one who has died. Weeping shows that you miss the one who has died and that there is a great loss in the world because of the one who has died. Mourning also properly arises out of our reverence for God. Death is not natural. It is a punishment that God has inflicted upon the sons of mankind. Death is a disruption of the natural order that God has created. It is an enemy according to Scripture. It is a way of a hardened child to be punished by his father and to bristle up and pretend like the punishment does not disturb him in any way. It is a curse and it is supposed to hurt. We are too smart. We are to feel the hurt. when we experience the curse. We are certainly not to grow bitter or angry at God, because we know that we deserve every bit of sorrow that we have and affliction in this world. And that the punishment is for our good, if we are God's people. The affliction is for our good. But we are to cry, not as those who are angry, but as those who are broken because of the sin that is in the human race that has brought all of these things upon us. There is no place for a hard heart and there is no place for an artificial smile. Bereavement is a time for a broken heart and a time for weeping. But of course it is important to compose our thoughts in a way that pleases the Lord when we mourn. Mourning is not an excuse to do whatever you want and have an excuse for it, to abandon self-control, but it is a time to come humbly and in a holy way before the Lord. And here again, Abraham is a great example. The Lord has given us guidance in His Word about our mourning for the dead. So let us consider first some of the things that we are to avoid, a couple of things, and then we'll look at some of the things that we are to do when we mourn. First of all, we are not to engage in any superstitious or idolatrous rites in our mourning. For example, in Leviticus 19.28, it says, You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you. I am the Lord. Very sadly, this pagan practice of cutting oneself has revived in our land and in our day. And this is something that is decidedly not pleasing to the Lord, and something that is expressly forbidden. Sometimes people also want to pray for the dead. This has been a vain tradition of men for many years. They will want to burn candles for them or they will want to try to communicate with them in some way. Now there is a poetical way to speak to address the dead in a way of mourning, as David did when he said, Oh Absalom, Absalom, my son Absalom. But he was not in any way trying to talk to Absalom as if Adam could hear him. Speaking to the dead is expressly forbidden in Scripture. Secondly, we must not mourn in an excessive way. I mentioned that already, but I want to really drive that home. In which we become bitter toward God, or in which we curse God because someone has died. Job is a shining example in this matter. After all of his children were taken away from him by death, we are told that he definitely mourned. He mourned greatly, but not so as to become bitter toward the Lord his God. In Job 1.20-21 it says, Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head. And he fell to the ground and worshipped. And he said, Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. What an example! You see how he resigns himself to the Lord's sovereign will. The Lord is the one in charge of who lives and who dies, of who he gives and who he takes away, of what he gives and what he takes away. He recognizes that God has brought his calamity and his mourning. He accepts what God has done with meekness and humility. And we know that this was pleasing to the Lord, that what Job said was pleasing to Him, because verse 22 goes on to say to us, in all this, Job did not sin, nor charge God with wrong. So see that you do not charge Him with wrong either, and that you did not become excessive in your mourning so as to turn into bitterness. Now let us look at some things that we ought to do when we mourn. Several things. First of all, it is a time to seek, to be comforted by the Lord. Any time there is sorrow, it is an occasion for you to draw near to your Lord and to find comfort in His grace. 2 Corinthians 1, 3 and 4 calls our God the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort who comforts us in all of our tribulations. This is who He is and this is what He does. He is the Father of mercies. He is the God of all comfort and He comforts us in all of our affliction. Paul goes on to explain in 1 Corinthians 1 how God sustained him in the many various sorrows that he experienced. If you know anything about Paul, you know that his sorrows were extreme and many great difficulties that he had to face. Yet he says that even as the sufferings of Christ abounded in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. Verse 5, in other words, it's a wonderful thing, the more terrible the suffering that you experience, then the greater the consolation that God gives to you in those times. That's why those who have suffered most often know the Lord better than those who have not suffered so much. Morning is a time to know Him in ways that you had not known Him before. And not only that, but you are also to use morning as a time to comfort others. This is something that Paul speaks about in 2 Corinthians 1 as well, for he says that one of the reasons that the Lord comforts us is, verse 4, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. If you're around godly and holy people in times of bereavement. You know that many times as you go to try to comfort them, they end up saying all sorts of things that comfort you. Because God is ministering His grace to them at that time. He's bringing comfort to them. And they have all these rich things to say that God is bringing into their life at that time. And it can be a great encouragement. It is through their tears. They speak about the grace of God and their trust in Him. They comfort their family and the people around them with those words of marvelous comfort. Besides that, you should use morning as a time of thanksgiving to God, even for the dead and what they have meant to you and what they have been in the world. It's very natural to do this when you are bereaved. Your mind immediately thinks of all the things that that person has done and all that they meant to you. It's the way that your mind goes. When David lamented the death of Saul and Jonathan, he expressed much grief because of their death. And in a sense, he heightened his grief by expressing how thankful he was for what they had been in life, and especially Jonathan, his loyal friend. But even of King Saul, he says, 2 Samuel 1.24, O daughters of Israel, he says, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet with luxury, who put ornaments of gold on your apparel. And of Jonathan, he said, 2 Samuel 1.26, I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan. You have been very pleasant to me. Your love to me was wonderful, surpassing the love of a woman. So do not hesitate to remember, even though it increases your pain, do not hesitate to remember how precious that person was to you. Because it is honoring to God to give thanks for them. So don't shy away from thinking about how What a great gift they were and how precious the relationship was that you had with them. It honors the Lord for you to acknowledge these things as His gift to you. Your sorrow is in part gratitude, an expression of gratitude to your God for what people have been to you. And on top of all this, morning is a time for repentance. As you remember the dead person, there are often regrets that arise about things that you ought to have done and did not do. About things that you never dealt with. About ways that you treated them that you ought not to have ever treated them. You remember your neglect. You remember your harshness. Perhaps there was even deception or wrongs that you never even settled with them. Ideally, you should deal with these things before a person dies. But if it was an occasion where you were not able to do so, or in your sinful neglect you did not do so, then now is the time to do it, during the time of bereavement. Morning is the time for you to own up to your sin, to confess your faults before God and perhaps to others during that time of tenderness. Do not go on trying to suppress your wrongs. Suppression is no way to deal with your sin. Repent of it before the Lord and come to Jesus for forgiveness. He who covers his sins, Proverbs 28.13 says, will not prosper. You try to hide them? You cannot cover your sins. Jesus' blood and atonement is what covers your sins. Not you. Not hiding. Not pretending. It's Jesus who cleanses us from all of our sins. And this is a time to get to Him and to find that true cleansing that alone can bring relief in your suffering. He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. And yes, If you have been harboring resentment toward the dead for wrongs that they have done to you, then you need to let that go in the time of bereavement. Again, those things many times come to your mind. All of the wrongs that they had done to you, maybe over your whole life, maybe their hypocrisy toward you, whatever it is, it doesn't matter as far as you are concerned that they cannot repent. If you want to flourish in the Lord, then you have to let go of those wrongs that were done to you. God will deal with them about it. And you should have left it to Him long ago. You're even supposed to do that with someone who is an active enemy against you. According to Romans 12.19, it says, Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. For it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. That means you leave it to God to deal with them. You don't carry that thing around in a bitter, resentful heart that's harboring all this poison. Poison is milling around inside of you. It's no way to live before God. No, leave it to God. Put it in His hands. Say, Lord, You take care of my enemies. You deal with them. The only reason that David could say what he said about Saul who had chased him and pursued him and tried to kill him and treated him very, very unjustly for no wrongs that he had done. The only way that he could speak highly of Saul and his death is because David long ago had put away that bitterness, you see. And that's why David prospered in his life. If you keep on hanging on to your bitterness, it will eat you up. It will bring trouble to the people around you that you are supposed to be a blessing to. Hebrews 12.15 says, Looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled. Why would you hold on to something that is poison and that brings destruction to you and the people that you love? What would be the point of hanging on to that? Give it over to God. Let it go. Give place to wrath. God will repay. So yes, don't settle, you see, for shallow mourning. That's not what we need to have. We need to have true mourning where we enter into what this person meant to us and how glad we are for them and deal with even those wrongs and those difficult things that we have done to them or they have done to us. Gloss over things. Bereavement is no time to do that. It's a time to enter into appropriate sorrow before the Lord. Now let us move on to what else we learn about bereavement in our text. Secondly, that bereavement is a time for us to remember that we are pilgrims and strangers in the earth. Do you know what it means to be a pilgrim and a stranger? A pilgrim and stranger is simply someone who is not a resident citizen of the place. He may be a resident, but he's not a citizen. He is someone who is just there temporarily. He realizes that he has no ownership. He does not have a permanent abode in the land of his sojourning. He's only there for a time. What better time to remember that that's what we are in the earth than when someone we love dies? In their passing from this world, we have the stark reminder. We are not here in this present world forever. only for a very short time, a fleeting breath. As the one we love has gone, so also we will go. This world is not our permanent habitation. Psalm 90 brings this out very powerfully in the words that we do well to remember when someone dies. Psalm 90 begins by talking about how the Lord who is everlasting is our dwelling place. He is the permanent place that we have. The Lord Himself is the place of permanence and eternalness where we go, the everlasting one. But as for us, We are destroyed under God's wrath. Verse 9. For all our days have passed away in your wrath. We finish our years like a sigh. The days of our lives are seventy years, and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow. For it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knows the power of your anger? For as the fear of you, so is your wrath. You see what that's saying? God is our everlasting dwelling place, but because we have sinned against Him and we have rejected Him as our God, we are cut off from Him. And we spend our days in the world dying. That's what becomes of us, that we die. What then are we to do when we see our loved ones swept away because of the curse of death in this world? Well, verse 12 tells us. So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom, What does it mean to number our days? Well, it means to look at how long your life is. The number of your days. How long? It's very, very short compared to eternity. And when we gain a heart of wisdom, when we recognize that, a heart that does not suppose that we're going to be here forever, and that does not live the way Psalm 49 talks about it as if our houses and lands are forever. A heart that realizes that this is only a blip. yet that what we are doing during our brief time here will count for all eternity. Look, this is the testing ground. This is the place where the field is that we bring forth fruit. The harvest comes on the day of judgment. And then forever, what we have done here will have bearing on what we have in eternity. A wise person will take this to heart. Because a wise person considers, he numbers his days. He realizes how short a time we have here. Whenever loved ones are taken from you, it's a time to remember that you are only a stranger and a pilgrim in the earth. Now you can see in our text, in Genesis, that Abraham does just this. He confesses this to the people around him when Sarah dies. Verses 3 and 4. It says, Then Abraham stood up from his dead. Okay, he was there mourning. And he stood up and spoke to the sons of Heth, saying, I am a foreigner and a visitor among you. There it is. A foreigner and a visitor. A sojourner and a stranger. Give me property for a burial place among you that I may bury my dead out of my sight. You see, although God had promised to give Abraham that land as His everlasting possession, Abraham recognizes that he does not yet possess it in that way. He is only presently a foreigner and a visitor. He knows that he has not received the land that God has promised to him, and now that knowledge has been brought to him in a vivid way by the death of his beloved wife Sarah. We know that God was pleased with this confession because Hebrews commends Abraham and his sons for saying this as an expression of their faith. In Hebrews 11, 13, we've looked at this before with Abraham. It says, These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them. So they weren't like some of the TV preachers that think we get it now. They realize we don't have the promises yet. That's yet to come. You see, it says, they embrace them and confess that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. They're looking for what God has promised. And truly, if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, if that's what they were talking about, they would have had opportunity to return. They could have gone back there. But he says, now they desire better. That is a heavenly country. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God. For He has prepared a city for them. Their faith is seen then, and that they recognize that this is not their final destination, but their destination is what God has promised to them. They have their eyes set not on what they possess now, but on what they shall possess according to His promise. We also know that the Lord wants us to know that our lives in this present world are not our final destination. We're told this many times in Scripture. In Colossians 3, 1 and 2, Paul says, If then you are raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things on the earth. dwelling place is with God. I've been restored to God now. That's where my eternal dwelling place is. My eternal dwelling place is not in this present world that is perishing. As I told the youth in Moncton last week, we need to have an eternal perspective. We need to look at how our lives now are going to affect us in a thousand years or in a million years. What's the point of wasting away our time here if it doesn't count for all eternity? Here also how Jesus warns us not to set our affections on this present world so that we lay up treasures here, as if this is where our storehouse is. He says, lay them up in the world to come, Matthew 6, 19. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on the earth, that clinging little hand that's grabbing everything and holding on to it. He says, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. He spells out plainly what this means in Matthew 6, 24-25. Not that it wasn't already clear, but he expresses it further. He says, no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. So is your master, is your dwelling place in this present world? Or is your dwelling place in God Almighty? She says, you cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore, I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat and what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Instead of concerning yourself so much with gaining these things in this world that you can't keep, you should concern yourself with serving God in this world. He is your eternally abode. Do the will of King Jesus. When you see that this world is not your own, when you see how fleeting it is, it will make it much easier for you to treat others in this world in ways that please God. Because you're not holding on to everything. You're not in competition with everybody trying to grab this and grab that. You see that this was true with Abraham. Though he called himself a foreigner and a stranger, the men of Heth said, Oh no, Abraham, you're a prince among us. Like, we delight in having you among us. He had lived among them for a while now and they have come to highly regard Him because they can see very obviously time has shown them that He was not out to get what was theirs. It's very evident that in Him there was no scheming. There was no grasping, there was no deception, no hostility, no intent to seize what belonged to them, even though he had a huge standing army with him. He respects them as the rightful owners of the land at this time, because he knows that God has given it to them. And he's fine with that. He's not disturbed about that, even though it's been promised to him. Hence, they are happy to offer him their own tombs to bury Sarah. You see how Abraham shows great courtesy towards them. how He bows in an Eastern way in respect and politeness to them, and He insists upon paying the full price for the tomb for Sarah. Now, I'll have more to say that in a moment about why he does that. But for now, I just want you to see how a man lives toward others when he does not regard this present world as his final destiny. It's hard to say for sure if Ephron is actually offering to give the land to Abraham without charge when he says, I give it to you. Probably he is just following the customs of the day, which some have witnessed even in later times, people that saw that same kind of dealing when they would begin a negotiation by saying I give it to you and then and then saying things like you know what is that between you and me when they when they name the price and sometimes even maybe offering giving a fairly high price when they said that you know we're both we're both wealthy men this is just a trifle you know you give me 400 shekels that's that doesn't mean much between us does it you know we could take that or leave that you know it doesn't really matter whether I even get that money or not And, you know, that kind of way is... And it was a politeness, though, about it. They were doing this with deference to one another and respect. But what is clear here is that Abraham is dealing with them in the way that they speak. He's even in a place where he changes his language a bit to use the language that they use as he's speaking. And it's clear that he is highly respected and that he is courteous and that he is dealing uprightly because he knows that this present world is not his home, that he's going to be judged for how he lives here and that this world is only for a moment. So do you respect what belongs to other people? And that's an important thing. You know, even there's a lesson for us here is we have the use of this nice facility, this building. We need to be careful that we show respect for the property here, that it's not our own. And we need to do that with all property that we've been given. You see, it kind of works opposite. I mean, you make the things of the world more important that belong to other people when you have high regard for God as your eternal dwelling place. Because you're concerned about how you're treating your neighbor rather than about what you want to do with the things that are around you and abandoning yourself in that way. You restrain yourself because of your regard for other people and for what they own. This is the way of true wisdom. When we are bereaved of the one that we love, we see in a fresh and vivid way that we're not here forever. And that helps us to be generous and to be godly and obedient, caring toward others. As Paul reminds us in 1 Timothy 6, godliness with contentment is great gain. For he brought nothing into this world and is certain we can carry nothing out. You truly cannot take it with you, so you might as well be generous. Step out of the way and let them have the last piece of cake, for example. Because what difference is it going to make in eternity? It will make a positive difference if you let them have a cake in eternity. Right now, you won't get to have the cake. But you can pass it by because you have great treasure in heaven. In verse 9 and 10, Paul goes on to warn us against the dangers of covetousness. He says, those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. So I'm always grasping for what is mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, and not regarding others. You see, it's going to bring me into trouble is what that's saying. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. They got so caught up in their grasping that they lost sight of God as their dwelling place. And they forsook him. Verse 11 tells us what to focus on instead. This is still 1 Timothy 6. But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. That's the stuff you're supposed to have as your treasure. It says, fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life to which you are also called and have confessed a good confession in the presence of many witnesses. There needs to be a change in us, brothers and sisters. We've got to set our focus in the right place. In verse 17 and 18, He tells you what to do if you're rich, the way Abraham was. He tells you how to lay up treasure in heaven. He says, command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, not to trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy. So yeah, you can enjoy those things, but don't be all proud and puffed up and arrogant and selfish. He says, let them do good, that they may be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. You know, rich people can be a tremendous blessing to other people and still have their riches. I've known rich people that would, you know, give cars away to people and they would have lots of people over to their beautiful homes and entertain them and have meals that those people couldn't afford themselves. And they're a great, great blessing to the people around them as rich men. And there's few rich men though that are like that. And this brings us to our next point when you see that this world is not your final destiny Then it is time to set your hope on what is your eternal destiny? That's our third point. I've already spoken of that as we think about not this world, but the world to come. But see that bereavement is a time to bury our dead in hope of our eternal inheritance from the Lord. That's how we bury people that we love. You can see in our text that Abraham is very concerned about burying Sarah in the land that God has promised him. Well, why is this? We've already seen that he is not interested in burying her in one of the tombs of the sons of Heth. He insists on actually purchasing the tomb. They said, you can use our tomb. You can put your dad here. We'll give you a space in our tomb. No, no, no. I want to buy. I want to buy this. He keeps on insisting. They keep, oh, you can use our tombs. No, no, I want to buy a burial place, you see. And it's not, he didn't want property for livestock and for growing crops and orchards and vineyards and things. He wanted property for burial. Now, why is he making a thing of this? Well, you see that he makes negotiations before the elders of the city to purchase Ephron's tomb, and that he pays full price for it. He's wanting to make sure that there's no question. This is his land. You see, this is his burial ground. You see how it's spelled out in verses 16 through 20? That he pays in full is seen in verse 16. Abraham listened to Ephron, and Abraham weighed out. the silver for Ephron, which he had named, exactly what he had asked. He didn't even negotiate. In the hearing of the sons of Heth, 400 shekels of silver, currency of the merchants. So he used the standard currency that was in vogue at that time. Everything was upright. He receives clear title to the land before the elders, verse 17 and 18. So the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field and the cave which was in it, and all the trees that were in the field, which were within all the surrounding borders, were deeded to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the sons of Heth before all who went in at the gate of his city. So there were adequate witnesses. Make sure that everyone knew this belongs to Abraham now. And that the purpose of acquiring the land for the funeral was for burial is seen very clearly. burial place in Canaan verse 19 and 20 it says after this Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre that is Hebron in the land of Canaan so the field and the cave that is in it were deeded to Abraham by the sons of hath as property for a burial place that was the purpose but why is Is Abraham so deliberate and so careful about buying this land from these men and making sure that it was fully his own? It is symbolic. It is because Abraham buried his dead in hope of the promise that the God of heaven had given to him that this land was his everlasting possession. Burying his dead here was symbolic of his trust in the promise of God that this land would be His land and that of His household. Not just the land of His descendants, but that He and Sarah themselves would rise from the dead and walk on this land again. Therefore, they were buried in this land. God did not tell Abraham that He would raise him from the dead in so many words. But instead, He told him that He would give him this land as his personal everlasting possession along with his descendants. And that meant that Abraham would live again. And Abraham believed that. This is the way that God communicated to him that he would live again. That this present world that he was in was not the end, but that God would raise him up to give him an everlasting possession of the land. Abraham wanted his descendants to believe this promise too. So it was not only a personal expression of his hope, but it was also an expression of his hope for the sake of his descendants so that they too would trust in the promise of the resurrection and the inheritance of the land as an everlasting possession. Years later, Abraham's great-grandson, having hope in the same promise, makes the people of Israel swear to him that they will bring his bones to Canaan. In Genesis 50, verse 24, we read, And Joseph said to his brethren, I am dying, but God will surely visit you, here's his hope in the promise, and bring you out of this land, the land of Egypt, to the land of which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And Joseph took an oath, he had them swear, from the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here. God will visit you in order to deliver you. And when he does, carry my bones to this land, because this is our land. You see, this is exactly what they do according to Exodus 13, 19, when Moses leads them to the promised land. All of this confirming the hope that this land will be given to Abraham and his seed is an everlasting possession. It is a promise of resurrection. It is a promise of everlasting life. And you see that it is when bereaved of Sarah that Abraham especially fixes his eyes upon this promise. Burial itself was an ancient and universal custom of the hope of the resurrection of the body, that we would stand again and walk again. And it was in all cultures really that we find, almost all at least, that we find burial. And Sarah and Abraham you see, are going to stand again, and they're going to stand in the land that God gave them as an eternal possession that they have not even possessed yet. God means what He says, and that's what He promised, and that's what He will do and what they know that He will do. My brothers and sisters, this is similar to your hope if you are in Jesus Christ. When you're bereaved, do not sorrow as those who have no hope. The Lord has assured us as His people that we shall inherit the earth. Psalm 37. In Psalm 37, we're told that the meek will inherit the earth. Read Psalm 37. The whole thing is about this idea of we're going to inherit the earth forever. In 37, 9 through 11, it says it twice. For evildoers shall be cut off, cut off from the earth, cast away. But those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall be no more. Indeed, you will look carefully for his place, but it shall be no more. But the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. And likewise, Psalm 37, 22, for those blessed by him shall inherit the earth, but those cursed by him shall be cut off. You know who repeats this promise? It is the Lord Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5.5. Blessed are the meek, He says. Those who have come depending upon God for their salvation, who are meek and humble. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. There is no question about it. God has promised it. He will do it. We honor Him by believing His promise. And bereavement is one of the times when that promise is brought before us in a way that is very tangible. We read in 1 Thessalonians 4 that we are to comfort one another with this very assurance. We read this before. I'll read it again. 1 Thessalonians 4.13. Paul says, I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren. It's about this promise. I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep. In other words, those that have died in this world. Lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. See, they're going to be cut off, so they don't have this hope. He says, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. They're going to die and rise again. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout. with the voice of an archangel. When Jesus comes to inherit the earth, at the last day He's going to come and He's going to judge. And He comes with the trumpet of God and it says, And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall always be with the Lord. Now what does he mean when he says meet the Lord in the air? It's very important to know what that means. That word is very clear in the original as a word that was used when you went to meet a dignitary that was, say, coming into your city. If a king was coming, then all the people would go out to meet him. And then they would escort him into the city. That word would be used, for example, when Jesus comes in in the triumphal entry and they escort the king into the city. So you're not going out to hang out with him out in the outside area of the city. It's not that we're going up in the clouds and we're going to be floating around there somewhere and all over the place. No, we're going to meet him to escort Him as He comes to judge the earth and to establish His everlasting Kingdom that He has promised and that God has promised to Him. Jesus Christ inherits the earth. And we inherit it with Him. He has given the nations as His inheritance. So you see, when He comes to receive it, we get to go and meet Him. Even the very creation itself will be restored in that day. Romans 8, 19, 23 explains how the creation eagerly waits for this glorious day when we are resurrected to inherit the earth. It's not going to be wiped out. It's going to be purified and refined and restored in all of its glory and beauty. It says the creation is looking forward to this. It's saying, I can't wait for this day. Listen, Romans 8, 19, for the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. When they're raised up out of their graves, there's Sarah and Abraham, all the people, and they're gathered up before the Lord to meet Him. He says, for the creation was subjected to futility. Not willingly. The earth didn't want to be cursed. It didn't want to have all the storms and all the earthquakes and dead things and all. But because of Him who subjected it in hope. He put it under curse, but with plans and hope that He was going to restore it. Because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty or the freedom of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves. eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body, the resurrection. That's what we're waiting for. Dominion will be restored. The full beauty of the earth and all of its glory without the curse and without death will be ours. It will be the possession of Jesus Christ and our possession with Him. You see, it is an everlasting possession. How comforting, how encouraging it is to meditate on these promises when we are bereaved. That person who is in the Lord is going to come back. It's so hard to be separated from our loved one, but it is so encouraging to know that this is not the end when they leave us. Not at all. It is another step toward and closer to obtaining the promised inheritance. Already they are gathered to the risen Christ in their spirit. And soon the day will come when the trumpet sounds and their bodies and our bodies will go to meet Him in the air. And He will come to inherit the whole earth for His people. And He will reign forever and ever. All because of His grace who came to redeem us and to redeem the earth. that we might be with Him forever. Here's what the Lord Himself declares about this inheritance in Revelation 21.5. It says, Then He who sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said to me, Write, for these words are true and faithful. And He said to me, It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega. He's the everlasting One that we dwell in, right? Where He is, there we are. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit what? You know what it says? Shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, and abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake of fire, which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. they're going to die again and be cut off. But you see, this is our marvelous hope in Christ when we bury our dead, that He will make all things new, and that we will inherit the earth with Him, and with Abraham, and with Sarah, and with all who have drunk of the fountain of the water of life. This is our hope when we bury our dead. But what a dreadful thing it is to miss this inheritance. What a dreadful thing for there to be such a glorious inheritance and for you to be fixated only on this present world. And to live without God in this present world is an alien and a stranger to Him in whom we can dwell forever. and to have no hope of this resurrection, but to have rather the certainty of a destiny eternally separated from God under His wrath and judgment and His vengeance. He says that He will give the fountain freely to whoever thirsts. You don't have to meet some standard to have this access to this life. He says that it's free to you to come and drink. It doesn't matter how great a sinner you have been. If you want to be forgiven and you want to be transformed, come to Jesus. and drink of the fountain. Listen to what he says in Revelation 22, 16. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you of these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David. David died. Jesus is the root and offspring, the King that comes up forever to live. He grows up out of that root. The bright and morning star that never loses its light. He says, "...and the Spirit and the Bride say, Come! And let him who hears say, Come! And let him who thirsts, Come! Whoever desires, let him take of the water of life freely." You have absolutely no reason to refuse Him. It is only your wickedness and your corruption, not your demerit, that keeps you away from Him. You can be the most wretched sinner in all the earth. That does not keep you from Him. What keeps you from Him is your own corruption that makes you not want to come to Him. He says, come and drink and live. It's the very thing He promises to take care of, is all that sin and all that corruption, all that guilt, if you come to Him. He calls you to come, so see that you do not refuse Him. Let's have this as our hope, that we may bury our dead and when we ourselves are buried, that we have that hope that we're going to live forever in this kingdom. Please stand. Gracious Heavenly Father, what a wonderful thing it is that we have such a glorious hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. We see how Abraham in testimony of his hope, that he was hoping in what you had promised him, bought this burial place in the land so that his family could be buried in the place that you had given to them forever. Father, I pray that you would help us to have that same faith that Abraham had, that we would be confident that when you say that we will inherit the earth, that we will. When you say that you are our dwelling place, that you are. And Father, we pray that we would also believe when you say that if we refuse to drink of the fountain of the water of life that Jesus gives, then we will be cut off. We will not inherit the land. We will not inherit the earth. We will die in our sins and we will be punished in misery and forever and ever away from your presence. Father, have mercy. We pray that you would work in those that perhaps have not come to you. and that they would come to you for the water of life. Not coming to you is feeling that they have to measure up, but coming to you knowing that they do not measure up, and that in Christ we have all that we need, not only for forgiveness, but also to be a servant to you. Father, we pray that you would work powerfully among us as your people. And we do pray, Lord, when we are bereaved, that you would help us to renew all of the things that we spoke about today, Lord, that we would mourn and that we would find your comfort and be able to comfort others and that we would deal with our sins and deal with all the things that we need to deal with and be thankful for all that that person has been. And Father, that we would draw near to you at that time, that it would be a precious time, though a sad time. We also pray, Lord, that we would realize that we're not here for long, and that eternity is a long, long time, and that we would see how fleeting this life is in our bereavement, and that we would turn then to that which is everlasting, and we would rest there, that we would live as those who are not possessing this world, but as those who are going to possess it in Christ Jesus. laying up our treasure in heaven. We pray this in Jesus name, amen. Let's prepare to come to the Lord's table. You can be seated as we do so. There's so many excellent things that we are able to consider and that's appropriate for us to consider whenever we come to the Lord's table. There's so many things we talk about. There's the unity of the people of God before Christ. There's the things that Christ has done for us, the promises that we have, all these things. But today, one of the things that we focused on in the sermon was the hope that we have, that we and our loved ones will be resurrected and will inherit the earth. The Lord's Supper, Jesus refers to this. when he's instituting the Lord's Supper. And we're given insight into this in Matthew's Gospel, where Jesus says that He will personally eat and drink with us in His kingdom. It's going to be sitting across the table from us, as it were, literally. Something that we're to look forward to with living hope whenever we come to the table. That as surely as we eat at this table of the Lord on the earth, We're going to eat with him at his table in glory when it's all renewed. Listen to Matthew's account of the institutional Lord's Supper where he tells us about this, how Jesus spoke of this hope. It's Matthew 26, 26. And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, Take, eat, this is my body. Then he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them, saying, Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. He's making a distinction. He's saying, you eat here, but I'm not going to drink the fruit of the vine, not until we are together again, and I eat it with you. Remember what we talked about. He comes back, we go to meet Him, we come with Him, escort Him, and then we will sit down with Him forever at His table. And it says, when they sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. You see how Jesus sets His hope before us that we will keep coming to the table in this manner until the day when He comes to drink wine with us. We have every reason then, whenever we come to the table, to renew our hope. Because at this table, the Lord is showing us that we have communion with His sacrifice. See, that's how it goes together. He's saying, this is my body given for you. This is my blood shed for remission of your sins. Because we have communion in that sacrifice, then it spurs us and gives us a foundation or ground for our hope that when he comes, because we have participation in his sacrifice, we're going to be able to meet him and to enjoy that coming and to eat. in His everlasting kingdom on earth with Him physically present. So this is a wonderful promise to us and a basis for our faith that is represented right here. That His body was broken and that His blood was shed for the remission of our sins. That's how we know that we have a right and a title. to eat with Him in heaven. We eat at this table in faith that we may eat with Him in eternity. What a glorious expectation it is. When Jesus is physically present with us, all of our enemies are going to be cast out. We're going to have complete dominion over the earth. There won't be the storms and the death all the troubles that we have now. He's going to be ruling us with wisdom. We won't have the sins that now plague us. It's going to be an amazing time. We can't even begin to fathom what this is going to be like. Our sin will be eradicated and our eyes will be clear so that we see God as He is. We see His beauty and His glory and majesty. It's going to be the most delightful vision that we've ever encountered. It's amazing what we have to look forward to. We will see His love and His wisdom and His grace and His power, His holiness, His justice, His purity, His kindness in ways that we've never been able to see that now when we're with Jesus in glory. So if you're trusting in Him for your salvation, You're welcome to come and eat at this table in this present world with full assurance that you will eat at his table in the world to come. But first you need to declare that you are trusting in him before the elders and be willing to submit to Christ authority as a member in good standing as someone that confesses Christ publicly before his church and is a part of his people. If this is not so then I ask you to refrain from the supper. But if it is so, then come with rejoicing. Let's ask God's blessing as we prepare to come. Gracious Heavenly Father, we pray that you would bless us as we prepare to come to the table. Father, we pray that you would give us a strong assurance in what Christ has done 2,000 years ago. We have represented here that He came in a body, was crucified in that body, and His blood was shed for the remission of our sins. And it was a covenant that you made, where you said that you would forgive our sin and remember it no more, forgive our iniquity and remember our sins no more. And we praise you, Lord, that that covenant is sure and true. And Father, coming to this table, we wish to seal this covenant. We wish to show our affirmation of this and to receive your affirmation that these things are true and that we might have confidence that we will welcome Jesus Christ and sit down to eat with Him in eternity. We thank You, Lord, that it is a sure hope that our bodies will be raised. If we are in Him, we will dwell with Him forever and ever. We pray, O Lord, that you would give us a renewed sense of hope because, Father, it is our hope. It is the reality. And we pray that it would be strengthened to us, Lord, that we would have a sense of it, that we would realize what is prepared for us, the things that you have prepared for those that love you and that have been reconciled to you through the blood of the cross. Father, help us to put away our unwarranted fears. and to come with the confidence that belongs to those who have been washed in the blood of Jesus Christ. No sin remains when He has cleansed us. No sin will remain in our lives practically when He is done with us. We thank You, Lord, that the guilt is totally taken away and that You are renewing us day by day. We praise You, O Lord, for the assurance and the hope that it is ours, it is our title, We are going to inherit the earth. We thank you, Lord, in Jesus name. Amen. Now, the blessing of our Lord. Now may the God of hope fill you with joy, all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.