Genesis 23 Prepare for Negative World

And Tim, would you open us in a word of prayer?

Sure, Father God, thank you for this time together. Thank you that we can come during this time, be around believers and that we can hear a word from you. I pray that we would be hearing what you have to say in Genesis.

We thank you for the book of Genesis and we pray that you would speak through Pastor Jeff today.

As he teaches.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Amen.

Refusing Government Money and Living by Scripture

Four years ago, can you believe it's been four years since COVID? Four years ago, our church was faced with a decision to make. We were being offered what would have amounted to 30, $40 ,000 in PPP funds.

This was the government's willingness to give a loan to the church that doesn't need to be paid back. In other words, free money. But the thing is, the reason they were giving the money is because the government itself locked down the churches and other businesses.

So in order to keep businesses afloat, they would offer what was called PPP money. And the church had to decide, should we take government money?

What do you think we did?

We didn't.

Thumbs down on that offering. Yeah, we did not take the money. The reason that we chose not to do it is because when you take a gift, there are often strings attached, expectations that go with it. And one of the things that we were doing, even while they were offering that money, was meeting in here, even though the lockdowns were until May of 2021.

We had resumed indoor meetings as early as November of 2020, because we felt like the commands of scripture.

Were very clear.

Remember what some of those commands were? Why should a church not obey a government lockdown order? Because the command is, Hebrews 10 .25, do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together, which is the habit of some.

There are also things that the government was saying we could do from our homes that you actually can't do from your home. Sing one to another in Ephesians 5. Remember that? It says take communion, which by definition is the assembled body in communion with one another, remembering the Lord's body and blood.

There's also something very different, and I know it's important to listen to sermons online, but there's something very different about the gathered assembly and privileging the word of God, where God fills the preacher in the assembly to share what that congregation needs to hear.

And there's something spiritual that happens there when preaching in person happens in the church. Yes, you can listen to sermons online and still receive so many words from the Lord and be instructed in righteousness, but there's something about being in the presence of the Holy Spirit, where the Lord himself is in the assembly.

So to be told, well, you can do your church it just has to be online, is to be denied a fundamental aspect of the faith. So there was string, there were strings attached in that sense. Plus, you never know when the government could come knocking down the line for some other issue and say, well, wait a minute, you took $40 ,000 from Uncle Sam.

If you don't obey this new thing, we need you to repay that money. It might have been used on a building purchase or some expansion project and you don't have that cash any longer. And all of a sudden you're having to come up with quote unquote, the government's money to pay it back.

You see, it's not wise to take government money and mingle that with the funds of the church. And I think our church was very wise to reject that offer. Now, interestingly, in the year 1892, the government heard a case at the level of the Supreme Court between Holy Trinity Church and the United States.

The conflict was over a labor law where you were not allowed to pay the transportation of an immigrant coming to the United States because it would be like encouraging immigration, whereas immigrants were meant to support themselves or find a host family that could support them.

So the law was you can't pay the transportation or promise a job to someone overseas to bring that in as immigrants. However, Holy Trinity Church needed a pastor. It was an Anglican church and they spoke with the Episcopalians in England and sure enough, they arranged for an Anglican priest to come to the United States of America and be the pastor of this church.

And the labor law called that illegal. It went all the way up to the Supreme Court and when the Supreme Court heard the case, you know what they found? David Brewer in 1892 declared that this is not the spirit of the law.

We need to understand in Brewer's words, this is a Christian nation. And the spirit of the law was not to prohibit ministers from coming from the Church of England to the Anglican churches in America.

Of course, that is not within the spirit of the law. And so they overturned the lower courts and they allowed Holy Trinity to bring this Anglican priest to America, even though by the very letter of the law, it would have been outlawed by that immigration labor law.

Think about the reasoning of David Brewer, Supreme Court Justice. He said, this is a Christian nation. And in a later article that he wrote on it, he said, this is regarded as the most Christian nation in the world.

There is a privilege here to understand that this is not what the authors of the law had in mind. Okay, that's 1892. In 1892, to be a priest or a pastor or a church person was a privilege in society. Why is it that churches do not pay taxes?

It's because society has deemed the church to have such a benefit to the community in caring for people and holding marriages together, in marrying and burying and blessing the community that the church is privileged and doesn't pay taxes.

So the voice of a pastor or a minister would have greater authority in a matter of public dispute, for example. What kind of books should be put in the library? This tax exemption was evidence that churches were privileged in this country.

Recently, a book was introduced, maybe five years ago, written by Aaron Wren. And the thesis of the book is that somewhere around the 1980s into the 1990s, we moved out of positive world into what was called neutral world.

In the 1990s, the church was considered, pastors were considered a neutral thing. Maybe a benefit in some ways or maybe not in other ways, but not privileged or in any way to be regarded or esteemed. But around the year 2010 and certainly by 2015, we moved out of neutral world into negative world.

A better way to say it, in 1980, a pastor speaking or a Christian speaking into a situation would be given respect on account of their religion. If they brought religion into it, that would bring a little extra gravitas, more respect.

That's what was called positive world. But there was a shift in the 1990s to neutral world where it was neither a benefit nor a detriment to claim religion. By the 2010s, something shifted again and now we live in what's called negative world.

To claim religion is in the eyes of most people a demerit. Not something to be privileged, but something that lowers or lessens your esteem, makes your argument less weighty.

Isn't that an interesting thesis? I think it's right.

I think this country by and large regards Christianity now as a detriment. What made this country great is not celebrated, but rather is looked upon as colonization and imperialism and oppression. And the only lens by which people interpret America is the oppression of others.

1619 Project being a perfect case and example. So we used to live in positive world, but now we've come into negative world. In the text today, as we move into Genesis chapter 23, Abraham will refuse a gift offered to him that doesn't seem to have any strings attached.

In a situation in which the Hittites were favorable to Abraham and his tribe. But within some time that would shift and the Hittites would be some of the most wicked people on earth who hate the Israelites.

And in the book of Joshua, the war is to kill the Hittites who themselves are trying to kill the Israelites. Things change between Israel and the Hittites. From a positive world to a negative world. But notice what Abraham will do, and we're about to read it.

Abraham will refuse a handout in positive world because of his wise understanding that things might not always be that way. So for the good of the children of Israel, he wisely refuses. Now let's begin with Genesis 23.

Bob, would you read verses one and two for us?

Now, Sarah lived 120 years. These were the years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah died in the Karat.

Okay, so the ESV says 127 years. Is that what everybody's version has?

Yes.

127?

So she lived 127 years, which seems like a really long life, doesn't it? Like, wow, I'd love to get to 127. That'd be a good goal.

Yeah.

Maybe you wouldn't.

Bob's almost there.

Bob's almost there. Tim with the ruthless barb. That was a good barb. That was a good one.

I like it.

That was a good one.

I liked that.

What a good sport. But isn't it just a blip compared to eternity?

Yeah.

The days of our lives are so short and yet so significant. Did you know that this place where Sarah was buried is still a attraction and still holds the bodies of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca.

Leah.

Jacob and Leah.

Yes.

It was Leah that was buried next to Jacob. And then also of supposedly Adam's remains. Now, I don't know if that's true or not, but this term here, when you see the term Kiriath Arba, you see the title Kiriath Arba?

That means city of the four. And who are the four of Arba? Adam, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Arba. There was also a Hittite, probably a giant, one of the renowned men that is mentioned later in the text whose name was Arba, a renowned person from this area of the Hittites.

But Kiriath Arba exists to this day in a part of Hebron. Now, when the Jews wanted to protect this burial site of Kiriath Arba, which they call, is it Mechmash? No, Machpelah. Machpelah. They built a shrine, they built a building around to protect the bodies that were put in that cave because obviously these are some esteemed people, the fathers of the faith.

But after they did that in the first century BC, more than 700 years later, Muslims claimed that site as a mosque. And to this day, that mosque is called the Mosque of Ibrahim, Abraham's Mosque. And interestingly, they have guards posted that do not allow people to go down underneath into the caves.

Recently, in the year 2018, there was a group of Israelites who claim that when the guards were not looking, they actually snuck down into the caves underneath the allowed area and were able to look around in there.

Who knows if that claim is true or not, but what is certain is that to this day, these caves are known in Hebron, which is south of Jerusalem. It's just that there's a mosque right on top of it where they claim that this is the Mosque of Abraham.

So here you have Sarah laying to rest, waiting on the resurrection of the dead. And I don't mean soul sleep. I think her spirit is with God in heaven, but her body is laid into the tomb. But do you ever think about Sarah's life on earth and the faith that she exhibited?

Tim, would you turn with us, or you can look on your paper, to 11, Hebrews 11, 11. This is the faith of Sarah. We often think about Abraham's giant faith, especially after Genesis chapter 22, Mount Moriah, where he was willing to sacrifice Isaac, although God did not ask him to go through with it.

But Sarah herself is commended for her faith. Hebrews 11, 11.

By faith, Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful.

So when she first heard the news, how did she react? She laughed, right, which is why the name Isaac means laughter, yeah. But it seems that after that initial reaction, because it was kind of a crazy-sounding proposition that she was going to have a child at that age, but she did believe, because we're told in Hebrews 11, 11, she received power to conceive by faith.

She did believe the promise. She began to hold onto that promise, and it came to pass. So here we have the death of Sarah. Her short life, but her faith is a model for us and lives on in that way to inspire us.

Abraham, the Hittites, and a Positive World

Now, Mary Elizabeth, would you read three through six?

And Abraham knows that none of us will.

Okay, positive world or negative world? What'd you say, Rick?

Positive.

Very positive, right? Listen to how they respond to this request. He's sojourning down in the Hittite region, and he says, I am a sojourner and a foreigner. Give me property among you that I might bury my dead.

They answered him, hear us, my lord. This not meaning that they worship him, but that's just a term of honor and respect. They're regarding him as esteemed in that region. But they say more than that.

They've recognized the blessing of God on Abraham, and they say, you are a prince of God among us. Isn't that an amazing way to be treated and respected? Now, knowing what's gonna come of the Hittite relationship, this should be noticed.

Very positive toward him. Bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. They're willing to give him the best part. They want to honor him because they want the blessing of Abraham on their lives. They know that this is a man of God.

In fact, more than a man of God, they call him a prince of God. Church, I want you to understand something. We have been given a very unusual blessing in the history of Christianity to live in such a positive world.

Now, it may be changing here since 2015 or so, but to have lived in a world that was so positive toward our Christianity is not the case in most parts of the world. Our brothers and sisters who are Christians in Pakistan, or Saudi Arabia, or Nigeria, or Kenya, or Indonesia, or China, or India, so many of these brothers and sisters who are Christians are not living in a positive world at all.

They live under threat of confiscation of their goods, maybe even the taking of their lives. They don't live in a positive world. We have been so blessed to be born in a positive world where Christianity has been privileged, where a nation was built on the principles of God's word.

How many of you are thankful to have been born in the United States of America?

Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Lord. Yes, and it's been sad to watch it slowly drift away from positive world, but we do need to remember that the expectation that we're given is not for positive world. Matthew 10, 22, you will be hated by all for my name's sake but the one who endures to the end will be saved.

That's the expectation we were given. Anything above that base, to be absolutely hated, anything above that is blessing upon blessing. To be utterly hated by the world around us but to be loved by God is gain.

We have all that we need at that point, but to be loved by God and still be valued and appreciated in the world, that is just blessing upon blessing that most Christians have never had. Question, comment?

This suggests that the Hittites are aware that with Israel in their, how different that is from today.

Yes, that is such a good point. Yep, yep. But it's still the truth. Where Christianity has flourished the most, the countries have been the most blessed. There's actually a book called The Poverty of Nations by Wayne Grudem where he tracks how much the Protestant Reformation affected a culture and the financial difference that that made.

Even between Roman Catholic countries more to the south of Europe and to the east of Europe versus the Scandinavian, English, Irish, Scottish, Christian stronghold and Lutheran Germany and then the immigration to the United States from the Anglo world, which created the United States of America, have you ever wondered why there's a difference between the border at Mexico as to who moves in what direction?

How is it that the United States of America.

Became the destination country for the whole world and not south of the border? Well, Mexico was 99 .6 Roman Catholic, rejecting of the Reformation. The United States was all 13 colonies Protestant.

Even Maryland had far more Protestants than Roman Catholics. This was a Protestant country built on the word of God and to the extent that the culture was formed by the word, Sola Scriptura, the country was blessed.

And this principle even traces into other parts of the world as colonization reaches countries, South Africa, Australia, parts of India, you can see the financial difference that it makes. Now, we don't wanna fall into prosperity theology that you do well in order to get rich or give money to get rich and that kind of thing, but Wayne Grudem traces this out in his book to show that there is blessing by obeying the word of God.

That's really the simple principle there. And I think you're right, Rick. I think the Hittites recognize with Abraham around,.

Everything's better.

This is a godly man who's blessed and that they had a positive view. Now, for some reason, our country has gone insane and begun to hate the very thing that made it great. And we're shifting out of this positive world.

Counting the Cost and Refusing Entangling Gifts

Let's read about that. Rick, would you mind reading for us seven to nine?

Abraham rose and bowed to the Hittites, the people of the land. And he said to them, hear me and give it to me.

Now, is it wrong to accept a gift?

In principle.

No, nothing wrong with that, right?

Depends on whether the strings are attached.

That's the, yes. In principle, there's nothing wrong with it. It's not wrong as a rule, but it is unwise if we have not fully accounted for, look what I wrote in my notes. Same words you used. The strings attached.

The strings attached. So many people fall into, and this is not just national. Individuals, children, relatives fall into entanglements because of accepting gifts. You have to be wise about saying yes to a gift to account for possible strings attached.

It can cause horrible outcomes in families. Entire families are ruined because of inheritances and what people feel like they were owed based on what was accepted or given in the past. You have to think about strings attached.

So, did you notice here in the text that Rick read for us how Abraham couches this offer? He's got his eye on a certain tomb. He likes this tomb. He wants this one. Not something that we think about, but hey, it's probably a beautiful spot.

He thinks it would be fitting for his beloved bride that he's mourning. He wants to give her the best as a burial place. And for a remembrance. And he also knows this is where he's gonna be buried next to her in not too distant future.

So he says, for the full price. Did you catch that in verse nine? For the full price. From the very beginning, he's thinking this way. For the full price, let him give it to me in your presence as property for a burying place.

Very interesting. So, verses 10 to 13. Barbara, would you mind reading for us?

After the Hittite was sitting among the people and he replied to Abraham, he said, listen, bury your dead in their hearing. Listen to me, if you will. I will pay the price of the field. Accept it from me so I can bury my dead here.

Very good.

Did you notice that Ephron here owning the field even presses Abraham a little bit? And I would say if somebody's pressing you to take a gift, take extra pause and ask why. Think through why someone is pushing this gift.

Why is the government telling Cornerstone, we want to give you $40 ,000? We never said we had need of that. We never did have need of it. Why were they pushing it? And especially if they're pressing.

And they were.

When we didn't take it, they would call back, they would send emails, really wanting us to take that money. Why would the government want an entanglement with church? I thought there was a separation between church and state.

Wouldn't the establishment clause of the First Amendment give them a little pause from even trying such a thing? Evidently, they had an agenda. And the more they pressed, the more we thought, this is not wise.

We want no strings attached. We want to be able to do what the Lord tells us to do, whether it means be open when they say not to, or whenever the next thing comes, we will not be controlled by man because we are not servants of men, but of God.

And I think that there was wisdom in that. Now, notice here, Ephraim is pressing him. And he even says, no, my Lord, hear me. I give you the field. There's some reason why he said that. It might just be respect in the community.

He might be wealthy, and it's not really that valuable to him anyway, but there's some reason why he's doing that. And there is some spiritual significance behind the scene. So right now, Abraham is being tested.

God knows the future. He knows what the relationship will be like between the Israelites and the Hittites. Joshua 1 .5, it will not be a good relationship, but Abraham passes this test, just like he did in Genesis 22.

When he was tested, his faith was tested. Let's read his answer. Oh, and by the way, count the cost. I mentioned Luke 14, verses 28 to 30. Which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?

Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to mock him, saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish. The man who was unable to finish building the tower hadn't counted the cost.

In the same way, when you're being offered a gift, make sure you count the cost. It might not be a financial cost, ostensibly. There might be strings attached that will later only surface to show the problem.

So let's hear how he passes the test. Candy, would you read 14 to 16? 400 shekels of silver. Do you think 400 pieces of silver, which would be a pretty substantial bag, so when given the chance, Ephron ultimately does ask for a pretty hefty price.

You think that would be a pretty good amount of money? In that day and age, a bag with 400 coins in it, silver coins, I think that's a pretty hefty price. When Jesus was betrayed, how much did it cost to buy out Judas?

30.

30 pieces of silver. Interestingly, Zechariah was sold out for the exact same price. Zechariah chapter 11, verses 12 and 13, it says in that book that he was valued at the handsome price of 30 pieces of silver.

Throw it to the potter, he said in the temple. All of that was prophetic of Judas. Now, all that to say, humanity, the world, valued Zechariah the prophet and Jesus Christ himself at a price of 30 pieces of silver.

That's how valuable the prophet and the ultimate prophet, the son of God, were in the world, to the world. Now, Abraham pays 400 shekels of silver to buy land. Seems like he paid a huge price, a big amount of money to get a mere burial pot.

But I want you to understand something. It is godly, listen, to incur suffering that procures blessing for future generations. When we allow ourselves to suffer for the sake of generations that are yet unborn, we are acting like the man of faith here.

To give up some of the comforts of this life, Abraham sacrificed comfort. 400 shekels of silver could have bought him in the open market many more sheep. He could have many more feasts and parties. He could have bought more land and negotiated to get whatever the newest goods and services were in Hittite country, right?

400 shekels of silver, it's money. He could have bought things with it. But he so valued the future generations, he was willing to part with that money for their blessing. Now, for the rest of time, the world has written record that that land was purchased by Abraham.

So when Muslims, thousands of years later, build a mosque right on that site, it is written and recorded for us that no, this land belongs to Israel. The Jewish people, the descendants, the children of Abraham have a record in Genesis 23 of whose land that is.

All because Abraham paid the price way back when, not being able to see exactly how it would all unfold, but trusting God's plan. He was willing to sacrifice his own comfort to lay up an inheritance for his children.

They say that John Wesley, when he died, only had like 20 pence left because he gave all his money away. And that's good that he wasn't greedy. But I would say, according to Proverbs 13, 22, parents ought to leave an inheritance for their children to do the best they can.

Now, of course, there's many mitigating factors. The idea here is not that like the greatest heavenly reward goes to the richest person on earth. Like Elon Musk will be the most godly man because he leaves a trillion dollars to these kids, these nine or so kids that he had.

That's not the idea. But do you hear what the scripture says? Proverbs 13, 22. A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children. But the sinner's wealth is laid up for the righteous. A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children.

We don't know when the rapture will come. I hope it's in my generation. But when he comes, will he find faith on earth? I hope if I live to see the rapture, that he'll come and be pleased that I was trying to leave as much inheritance to my children as possible while giving to the church, while being sacrificial in how we live.

Don't believe the social justice poverty gospel that to store up wealth for your children is ungodly. Abraham purchased property in order that it would be a blessing for all generations. He left that inheritance.

So if you can have a house that when you die, your children inherit that house and they have a place to live or to sell and have better resources,.

This is a good and godly thing.

It says it right here in Proverbs 13, 22.

Yeah.

It says grandchildren.

Yeah, not just children. It should be a blessing that builds on itself. They say that the first generation that immigrates to the United States is usually doesn't have much wealth. But by the second generation, most can by hard work and being smart, working smart as well as hard, right?

So my grandfather immigrated in 1954 and he never did better than a janitor. He was a janitor at a high school, right? He worked that kind of job all his life. But my dad then was able to go to college and he was able to buy a mobile home when he was still in college and then work up from selling the mobile home to buy a duplex apartment complex, sell that and buy a fourplex and move up that way by buying and selling real estate because his dad gave him the opportunity by bringing him here, right?

So the idea though is now my grandpa, Paul Cleaver, who moved from Germany after World War II, his decision, his sacrifice has blessed me. And each generation should be blessed by the ones that go before.

And so what you wanna do is build a godly legacy that keeps building on itself until the Lord comes. That's what I think happens here. It's godly to incur suffering. Abraham took the suffering into his own generation to bless future generations.

A Burial Place, a Legacy, and the Hope of Resurrection

Now, lastly, verses 17 to 20. So the field of Ephron in Machpelah, which was to the east of Mamre, the field with the cave that is in it and all the trees that were in the field.

Notice he bought some land.

I love when the church takes ground, even if we end up selling it to get something else or if we can expand this property, to be buying property, to be gaining ground for the sake of the kingdom and the future of the church.

That's what's happening here. Notice, the field of Ephron in Machpelah, which was to the east of Mamre, the field with the cave that was in it and all the trees that were in the field throughout its whole area, was made over to Abraham as a possession.

It's an asset, that's a resource.

That's going to belong to the children of Abraham in the presence of the Hittites before all who went in at the gate of his city. After this, Abraham buried Sarah, his wife, in the cave of the field of Machpelah, east of Amra, Mamre, that is Hebron, in the land of Canaan.

Now, we know that ultimately God is gonna give them this whole land anyway. It's the promised land. But that doesn't change the fact that Abraham is living for us as an example of how to procure blessing.

It says in 1 Corinthians 10, everything that the patriarchs did and the people in the Old Testament were an example for us to learn from. We're to learn from this example. So all of Canaan ultimately will be the Israelites because coming out of Egypt, God will tell them, you need to go kill all the Hittites and take everything that they have because their wickedness has become a stench in God's nostrils.

Verse 20, the field and the cave that is in it were made over to Abraham as property for a burying place by the Hittites. And that land is still there to this day. It is still a testimony, a tribute to the faith of Abraham and a reminder.

Now, do you think we should pilgrimage there? Do you think if you could pray in the tombs.

Over Abraham and the four.

That you would get special blessing? No, that's what the Jews and Muslims fight over all the time. Who has access to that and whoever can get closer will be most blessed. No, but our God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

Abraham and all the patriarchs and Adam,.

They're in heaven.

They're not in that place. There's no special intercession that they're making from any earthly place. So we don't take pilgrimage to get special blessing. But that does remind us that the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob has given that land to Abraham's children.

Have you guys been praying for Israel recently? Because that land is under attack even to this day. They're living in negative world by all their neighbors. So one of the particular dangers, here's the application, of living most of our lives in positive world is the assumption that it will always continue this way.

The last decade or so has disillusioned many Christians of that, but surprisingly, there are still a great many who haven't recognized what's happening, how wicked the culture is turning and how much against the church as we've entered into negative world.

We need to alert one another. We need to start making strategic decisions that will bless future generations. We've got to create our own strongholds. We've got to take ground. We've got to plant more churches and start turning the entire culture back to positive world if God would allow it, if the Lord tarries.

Notice that Israel is still being blessed by Abraham's good decision. There is one island in the sea, in the desert of darkness in the Middle East, and it's Israel. Now, not many of them know the Lord, so the blessing is only material right now, but notice that when Iran shot 180 rockets at Israel yesterday, they blew them all out of the sky.

If they shoot 180 rockets back to Iran, it will devastate the cities of Iran. So it's not an equal fight here, and the only reason Iran did what they did is they knew that Israel would shoot them down, and they know that Israel has not been as aggressive as their proxies.

Israel is the one that's kept and made strong in the Middle East, but we still need to pray for them. But notice, Abraham's good decision is still blessing the children of Israel. We should bless Israel in the same way.

More importantly, though, the church. Focus especially on making investments that will bless the church for many years to come. Let's together build up the church, keep expanding and putting down roots to build up the house of God here in South Jersey.

Tim, can I call on you to pray, and we'll be done?

Absolutely. Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful message. Thank you for Abraham. Thank you for the gift of faith. Thank you for gifts that some people wanna give us, and thank you for the blessings that you've given us from our fathers who we don't even understand half of the blessing that's probably happened to us.

So we thank you for all of that. We pray that we can take ground in your name, that you would bless it, and that we would be a light to the world, and that we would turn the world positive again for your namesake.