Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20080831.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Genesis: Explaining The Foundations Of History
Part VII: Explaining God's Plan To Bless Men Regardless Of Apostasy
L. Renouncing The World And Doing God's Will For Lasting Value
(Genesis 22:20-23:20)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

In the last several months, several believers in our Church have told me of their desire to do something with their lives that will be of lasting, eternal value.

We are not the only ones to have such a lofty desire. Moses, in the ninetieth psalm, viewed the brevity of human life, and so pleaded that the Lord might "establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it." (Psalm 90:17b,c)

God of course bountifully answered this man's request. Even secular historian, Edward McNall Burns, in his book, Western Civilizations: Their History and Their Culture (sixth ed., 1963) noted that "Of all the peoples of the ancient Orient, none with the possible exception of the Egyptians has been of greater importance to the modern world than the Hebrews. It was the Hebrews, of course, who provided much of the background of the Christian religion -- its Commandments, its stories of the Creation and the Flood, its concept of God as lawgiver and judge, and more than two-thirds of its Bible." (p. 100). One only need recall that it was Moses' writings of the Pentateuch that formed the foundation of all of this information to see the profound influence his writings have had on our world!

However, we may be wondering how that can apply to us today, how we can expect God to establish the works of our hands like He established the work of Moses' hands.



Accordingly, we ask, "What can I do with my life that will be of lasting value?!"



(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "What can I do with my life to make it have lasting value?!"
  1. 1 John 2:15-17 explains that lasting value to ones' life arises from renouncing this world and its lusts to do God's will for his life.
  2. When Sarah died in Genesis 23:1-2, Abraham practiced this truth with tremendous force in light of his culture, Genesis 23:3-20:
    1. Abraham renounced the world, saying he was a sojourner, 23:3-4:
      1. Abraham had learned back in Genesis 15:8, 13-16 that he would not possess his land inheritance in his current earthly, mortal life.
      2. He also recalled God produced his son Isaac from his and his wife's essentially "dead" reproductive systems, Hebrews 11:11-12a.
      3. Thus, Abraham trusted God Who had "raised" such systems would resurrect their entire bodies to fulfill His land promise to them (Heb. 11:13-16), so he claimed he was but a sojourner in this life!
    2. Abraham renounced the world's false pride in bowing to the Hittites:
      1. The Hittites were of Canaan's cursed line who were set to serve other Semitic people like Abraham, Gen. 9:22-26; 10:15; 23:3-4.
      2. God had also told Abraham that the Hittites in Canaan were set to be displaced by his seed 400 years after his death, Gen. 15:13-21.
      3. Regardless, Abraham renounced his pride, and bowed to Hittites to request land to buy for Sarah's burial, Gen. 23:7, 12 (1 John 2:16).
    3. Abraham renounced this world in separating from his Haran kinfolk:
      1. In Abraham's culture, one's burial occurred where his kinfolk lived, cf. Bible Knowledge Commentary, Old Testament, p. 66.
      2. Though having just heard of the growing family of his kinfolk back in Haran in Genesis 22:20-24, Abraham renounced that cultural identity to bury Sarah in Hebron in God's land of promise, 23:1-4.
    4. Abraham renounced this world's Hittite belief in a permanent, gloomy afterlife by not using a Hittite tomb for Sarah's burial, Gen. 23:5-9a; Trevor Bryce, Life and Society in the Hittite World , p. 178-181.
    5. Abraham renounced Ur in using the cave of Machpelah, Gen. 23:8-9:
      1. In Abraham's homeland of Ur, regular folk were buried under their homes while royalty were placed in an underground chamber apart from a room for their slaves who were slain or killed themselves to join them in death, Jean-Pierre Isbouts, The Biblical World, 2007, p. 29; McGuire Gibson, Univ. of Chicago Chronicle, v. 20, No. 3.
      2. Thus, the way people in Ur buried their dead revealed their past status, Harriet E. W. Crawford, Sumer and the Sumerians, p. 157.
      3. Yet, Abraham altered all this to show his faith opposite pagan Ur:
        1. In Genesis 17:6, 15-16, God had promised kings would come from Abraham and Sarah's line, so Abraham chose a chamber for burial to reflect their future royal status in the resurrection.
        2. However, it was not a man-made chamber, but, a cave God had made, for God would be the One to produce this royalty!
        3. "Machpelah" means "double cave" (Baba Bathra 58,770 in the Talmud), and Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela (1163 A. D.) and Dr. Seev Jevin, Dir. of Israel Antiqs. Auth. (via news agency NAI) testify of a double cave at the site, a 1st room of 11.5 feet by 13 feet joined to a smaller oval room, I. S. B. E., s. v. "Machpelah".
        4. Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela wrote that in his (Middle Ages) era, no grave was in the 1st room, but in the oval room were 3 sets of paired graves -- the Genesis 49:29-31 patriarch couples, Ibid.
        5. Thus, Abraham did not have slaves die to join Sarah in a lasting underworld in the 1st room as in pagan Ur; rather, he used only the 2nd "royal" oval room of the double cave so later patriarchs could join him and Sarah in natural death in hope of rising as God's royalty after Israel possessed the land, Genesis 15:15-21!
    6. Abraham renounced this world by parting with his money to buy the cave and field of Machpelah to edify future generations of patriarchs!
      1. Abraham bought the cave and the field where it was located, Gen. 23:9, 16-17. He wanted only the cave, but Hittite law made the party who owned most of the property pay taxes on the whole, and Ephron the Hittite who sold Abraham the cave did not want to pay Abraham's taxes, Genesis 23:10-15! (Ibid., Bib. Kno. Com., O. T.)
      2. So, Abraham parted with his money for land God would later give him to edify future generations of patriarchs by how he was buried!
  3. Consequently, Abraham's choice to replace loving this world with doing God's will has both yielded and keeps yielding much fruit!
    1. Abraham's burial of Sarah at Machpelah led to the burials of two more generations of royalty patriarchs there, Gen. 49:29-33; 50:2-7, 12-14!
    2. These burials led 4th generation royalty Joseph to cause Israel to take his mummy with them from Egypt in the exodus to put in his tribal lot when they entered Canaan, Gen. 50:24-26; Joshua 24:32; Heb. 11:22.
    3. As we view Abraham's example in Sarah's burial, it still leads us now to cease loving this world and do God's will, Heb. 11:13-16; 12:1-2!
Lesson Application: (1) May we trust in Abraham's God, Jesus Christ, for salvation from sin, John 3:16: 8:56-58. (2) Then, may we like Abraham renounce this world to do God's will for our lives.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

Starting the evening of August 16th on my vacation, God applied this message in a way that affects our whole body.

I got a call from a believer in another region of our state who had read lots of material from the Internet of the supposed conflict in Luke 2:2 between Quirinius' Syria governorship and the the census date. It had led him to wonder if the Bible was errant! I explained this issue was long touted by Liberal Theology, but that Dr. Harold Hoehner's book, Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ , that I had in my library at my Church office supplied the answers he needed.

I offered to drive to the Church to read the information to him over the phone, but he initially declined, not wanting to be a burden! However, due to his troubling doubts, he finally consented to my repeat urgings, so I drove here and read the passage to him for his benefit!

Well, as I was on my way here, I passed another church where an event was occurring that caused me to recall a host of issues and concerns about the ministries of me and our Church. Yet, being on an emergency run, I had to refocus on getting to the Church. I then saw God teaching: "Don, I pulled you out of your 'rest' and brought you past this event on an emergency discipling run to Nepaug Church so you might see I want you to focus on feeding My flock My Word from that local body I assigned you versus getting side-tracked by anything else!"

The next Monday, I learned that same night that Reverend Rick Warren from his Saddleback Church had questioned presidential hopefuls Barak Obama and John McCain on national TV! I have long held pastors should not dabble in politics like that, but focus instead on Bible teaching, so I again saw God indicating my need to focus on that calling for the sake of believers at the national level!

The next Monday, we received an e-mail from missionaries Gene and Carol Trudeau in the Philippines telling how "westernizing" is keeping some of their tribal folk from Bible teaching! Again, God pointed to the need for Bible teaching versus getting detracted by things of this world for the sake of people at the international level!

So, as it affects them by way of our web site, for the sake of God's people at the local, regional, national and international levels, God wants me to keep my ministry focus on Bible exposition.

God's will for your ministry must then fit within that focus!

May we each then cease loving this world to do God's will!