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Bro. Bill Nichols
I think they go straight to the kingdom. It said if you're absent with the flesh, you're present with God.
So I think it's different than it was in the Old Testament. But I don't want to go there, that requires way more study than I have done.
In any case, I agree with you, it's interesting that he didn't ask for deliverance, he only asked for relief.
Maybe he knew that deliverance was not available. Verse 9,
And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron, the son of Zoar the
Hittite, which is before Mamre. Abraham's funeral brought together two sons who otherwise would have remained, probably, remained estranged from one another.
There's no guarantee that they would have ever, that Ishmael and Isaac would have ever been together at the same place, at the same time, other than this.
But they were brought together. We don't know the extent of the reconciliation. I suspect there's still some animosity between the two brothers.
That they came and they buried their father, but there was still some animosity between them. But that's my personal thought.
Do any of you have other thoughts on that? The animosity that they had was not so important as to keep them from burying their father, coming together for that.
And that's a good thing. I think there is probably still some animosity between them because their offspring has animosity.
And where does it come from? Where does the animosity between the Jew and the Arab, where does it, what causes it?
I mean, they're in the same place, they're in the same region. But there's a hatred between them, at least in one direction, that is, to me, not understandable any other way.
Why would you hate a group of people so much? Unless it carried back, way back to here.
And he was buried in the place he had purchased to bury his wife, Sarah, at Hebron. The field, back to the verse, the field which
Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth, there was Abraham buried and Sarah his wife. And it came to pass, after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son
Isaac, and Isaac dwelt by the well Leheroi. Now, we are now at the point in the text where there's a transition between Abraham and Isaac.
I just want to stop talking about Abraham, and in fact, he kind of did already, because as,
I can't think of his name either. Matthew said in his text, just in all of the things that were taught about Abraham were back in 24.
The only thing from here on out is just, he took a wife, had some kids, and he died.
No major things. So Abraham is blending out of the picture,
Isaac is moving onto the scene. But, before the text moves on to Isaac, we're given the genealogy of Ishmael.
And something came to mind today, or actually about three days ago, that I'm going to let you ponder while I struggle to read this passage.
What's the purpose of this information in the first place? Why is this information included?
The genealogy. The stuff that... Okay. Yes, they do.
And so, this gives them a pathway all the way back to whom? And gives them credence to their belief.
And in fact, they trace back to the elder son. They trace back to the elder son,
Ishmael. So, by the rites of inheritance, the inheritance should have gone to Ishmael.
That's the same reason we're given Jesus' genealogy, so that it can be traced. Okay, I'm going to accept that, and I'm going to accept that as...
That's not one of the things that I had included. But I'm going to accept... I think that's right, but that's interesting by itself, because why would
God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, have included a section in his text that would allow this other group to trace their ancestry all the way back to Abraham?
Okay. Well, both blessings were promised.
And now, this is something that I had not thought of. In the blessing to Ishmael, nowhere did it say there was a covenant between him and God.
Nowhere. But in Israel, in several places it does. That's where I was going, but I'm glad you brought that up, because it establishes two things.
Both were blessed according to the promises of God, and I did include that. But the second one is, in one there is a promise of a covenant promise, and in the other one there is not.
Abraham was blessed in many children. Ishmael was blessed with many, a huge nation.
Isaac was blessed, a huge nation, but only one had a trail from Eve all the way to Christ.
And that's kind of the pathway I wanted to take this morning. So, I want to read it, and then we're going to go to pick up that trail and analyze it as we go.
And thank you very much. I need to rewrite this now for Diane. I'll send her a copy after we get through.
Now these are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom
Hagar, the Egyptian, Sarah's handmaid, bare unto Abraham. And these are the names of Ishmael by their names according to their generations.
The firstborn of Ishmael, Nabav, and Kedar, and Adbil, and Mibsham, and Misham, and Duma, and Massa, and Hedar, and Tema, and Jetur, and Napfesh, and Kedam.
And those are all mispronounced, maybe, except maybe Hedar. These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names by their towns and by their castles.
Twelve princes according to their nations. And these are the years of the life of Ishmael.
A hundred and thirty -seven years. And he gave up the ghost and died, and was gathered unto his people.
And they dwelt from Havoth unto Sur, that is before Egypt, as they goeth toward Assyria.
And he died in the presence of all of his brothers. Now, this is kind of the pathway that you were taking.
One of the reasons for this information is a promise that God made to Abraham concerning Ishmael back in chapter 17.
That's, I think, where you were going. And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name
Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her.
Yea, I will bless her, and she will be the mother of nations. Kings of peoples shall be of her.
And here's Abraham's response. Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed. And he said in his heart,
Shall a child be born unto him that is a hundred years old? And shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?
Now, even though it's God that's talking, Abraham is not believing.
That might be a warning to us also. We don't believe because we want to believe.
We believe because God makes us believe. Now, God has given
Abraham plenty of opportunities to recognize things that he's going to do. And still,
Abraham is not at the point of belief. Now, we know that later on he is, because when he's asked to sacrifice this son that he doesn't yet have,
Ishmael, he just goes right ahead and does it. As if he believed what God said.
So, somewhere between here and there, something happened to Abraham. But back to Abraham.
At this point, he still thinks that his heir will be the son from his handmaiden,
Hagar. And he tells God as much. He says to God, Oh, that Ishmael might live before thee.
God told Abraham, You're going to have an heir. And Abraham told Ishmael, It's okay,
God. We've got it taken care of. We've figured it out. I've got an heir. His name is Ishmael.
Sarah and I worked that out, because you were a little bit late. We got it figured out.
Just help him along. And God said, Sarah, thy wife, shall be a son indeed.
And thou shall call his name Isaac. And I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant and with his seed after him.
So, now we've got the covenant. Who's it with? It's with Abraham. It's with Isaac.
And it's with his seed after him. God says,
No, Abraham. Your wife, Sarah, will have a son. You'll name him Isaac. He will be your heir.
And my covenant will be an everlasting covenant. It will be through him. It will not be through Ishmael. It will be through Isaac and his seed.
Okay, so there's no doubt that there's a covenant established to one, but not to the other. But he's not through.
He says, As for Ishmael, I have heard thee. Behold, I have blessed him.
And I will make him fruitful. And I will multiply him exceedingly. Twelve princes will he beget.
And I will make him a great nation. Now, if you go and count the sons of Ishmael, what do you find?
There's twelve of them. There's not thirteen. There's not eleven. There's twelve. God's promises are not to be taken lightly.
He promised Abraham that Ishmael would have twelve sons. And twelve sons
Ishmael had. When God promised something, it's as well as done.
He goes on. But my covenant, as if he hadn't said it enough, right?
But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time next year.
And then he left off talking with him. And God went up for Abraham. So his last word was what? I'll bless
Ishmael, but my covenant is not through him. There'll be a big nation.
There'll be many nations. They'll be blessed. But it is not. My covenant is not through him.
Now, I want to focus on two fragments out of this passage. One out of verse 21, which we just read.
But my covenant will I establish with Isaac. And the other one was from verse 19 a little earlier.
It said, and thou shalt call his name Isaac. And I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant and with his seed after him.
Okay, John, how long does this covenant last? Forever. And who is named explicitly in this covenant?
Isaac and Abraham. And then one whose name is not called. Now, we don't have any doubt of who this one is.
And if we did, it'll be cleared up for us in just a second.
That promise, just like the promise to Ishmael, is not to be taken lightly either.
God, in speaking to Abraham about Isaac, said, I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant and with his seed after him.
And I didn't response to what I knew was trying to bubble up. What seed is that?
And who is this seed? Oh, no. Abraham and Isaac with his seed after him.
Okay. Let me tell you what I thought.
And again, I want you to understand that it's your responsibility to check on everything I think.
Go through the scripture. But I'll point some things to you. Go back to Genesis 3, verse 14.
Genesis 3, 14. And the
Lord God said unto the serpent, this is just after the eating of the fruit and the meeting of the serpent and Adam and Eve with Jesus, or with God, the
Lord God. Because thou hast done this thing, thou art cursed, talking to the serpent, above all cattle, above every beast of the field, upon thy belly shalt thou go, and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed.
And it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. That's the first mention of a seed.
In one sense, we know exactly who these two seeds are. One seed, the seed of the serpent.
Who's that? Well, Satan is the serpent.
Okay, if you want to follow this through to a single entity sometime in the future, that will be the
Antichrist. But now, I'm not disagreeing with you. In fact, I'm going to agree with you totally in just a minute.
The other seed, the seed of the woman, who's that? That's Christ.
That's the Messiah. And if there's any doubt about that, Paul clears it up for us clearly, so that not even
I can misunderstand. In Galatians 3 .16, here's what he says. Now to Abraham and his seed were promises made.
He saith not to seeds as of many, but as of one.
And to thy seed, which is Christ. Okay, so that's one way to view the seed.
And it's clearly the correct way, because Paul identifies as that. It's clear that Paul understands that the covenant, which
God unilaterally made with Abraham, extended to Isaac and to Christ.
Let me do that again. The covenant, which God unilaterally made with Abraham, extended to Christ, made with Abraham, extended to Isaac and to Christ and to no others.
I was trying to get to that. And to no others. Now, Brother Mark, if the covenant extended to Abraham and to Isaac and to Christ and no other, how do you go about claiming the benefits of it?
Because we're in Christ. And that's the only way we have any access to the benefits of the covenant, is to be in Christ.
Now, we did this last week. There is no other way to receive the benefits of the covenant of Abraham, except to be in Christ.
Because the covenant goes to just these three. Abraham, Isaac, and Christ.
It doesn't go to Ishmael. It doesn't go to Mohammed. It doesn't go to anyone except Christ and those who are in Christ.
Now, there's a second issue in that verse that comes up. In addition, there is also the matter of enmity between the seeds.
Satan knew, as early as in the Garden of Eden, that his destruction would come about through the
Messiah. Because it was said, It shall bruise thy head.
The seed of the woman will bruise thy head. You'll bruise his heel. It'll bruise your head.
So Satan began his long campaign to prevent or to at least delay the outcome.
So what did he do? He seduced Eve's oldest son. And enticed him to kill his brother.
And he assumed that he had interrupted the line to the Messiah. But the line was not through Cain nor Abel.
It was through Seth. Was Satan surprised?
I suspect he was. Because he thought that Satan doesn't know everything.
Is there anyone that does know everything? Jesus and God, but not
Satan. So I answered my second question already.
What about God? Was he surprised? It was part of his plan. It was in his plan from the beginning.
So God continues to reveal more and more details about the lineage of the Messiah. And what does
Satan do? He continues to attempt to thwart God's plan.
We have all of the offspring of, I think it was
David. Or maybe one of the ancestors of David. Killed except one who the nurse carried away and hid out.
And he was the long remaining survivor. The long remaining thread through which that seed could come. We have the destruction of all of civilization.
All of the people at the great flood. Except for eight. And it was through that eight that the line ran.
We could go through hundreds of these. God cursed one of Solomon's sons.
Because he was so evil and said, No son of yours will ever thrive sitting on the throne of David.
Bingo. Satan thinks he has it now. Because it's already been said that it will come through the line of David.
It kind of did. Through Nathan and through the mother. But finally came
Calvary. And that struggle was over. Turn with me to John 19.
Verse 28. This is after the crucifixion but before Jesus' death.
After this Jesus knowing that all things were accomplished. That the scripture might be fulfilled.
Saith, I thirst. Now there was a vessel full of vinegar. And they filled it with a sponge.
And put it on a hypsum. And put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar.
He said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up the ghost.
So the question is, what is finished? His work. And what was his work?
To carry our sins to substitutionary death. Off Christ to pay for the sins of the elect.
That's what was finished. And it was finished so that the covenant to Christ could extend to us.
In fact, the alternate definition of the Greek word used here is paid in full.
The price of our sins have now been paid for in full. But there's something else that's finished here too.
And I hadn't thought about this until this week. Something else was finished here too.
Well, I won't let you wonder. It's Satan's attempt to prevent that death. That death is done.
Satan has already missed on the opportunity to do what? To interfere with Christ being born.
To interfere with Christ being crucified. To interfere with Christ dying. That, he's missed that.
So what's his purpose now? Okay, he kind of wants to do that, doesn't he?
To attempt, now he is free. Now he is free to focus his entire attention on an attempt to delay
Christ's return. That's all he's got left. He can't keep Christ from coming the first time.
But he, do you think he can? Do you think he can, do you think
Satan can delay Christ's return even by a second? Do you think he thinks he can?
Just like he thought he could interfere with the death, he thinks he can delay the return.
He's just like man. That's right.
And I never thought I'd ever hear in one of my
Bible studies a quote from Clint Eastwood. But I kind of like Clint Eastwood, it's okay.
You got permission for that quote. I think he probably felt like, and again this is my opinion.
When Christ was nailed to the cross, I think Satan thought he won. But when
Christ said, it is finished, I think he probably had second thoughts.
I think he might have said, wait a minute, what have I done? So I think,
I forgot your question. Let's look at the timing a little bit.
Romans 11, 25. Romans 11, 25.
For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part has happened to Israel.
Now look at the next phrase. Until the fullness of the Gentiles come in. And so all
Israel shall be saved. And so all
Israel shall be saved. As it is written, there shall come out of Zion the
Deliverer, and he shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant unto them, when
I should take away their sins. So what's that say? There will come a time, there will come a time when all of Israel will be saved.
Because it's written that there will come a time when all Israel will be saved. And we shouldn't take like promises of God.
What does it say? There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and he shall take away ungodliness from Jacob.
For this is my covenant unto them, that I should take away their sins. But that won't happen until when?
I want to count that right. No, no. It's just like sometimes you get an answer that's not what you wanted.
And so you don't mark it right away. You start to mark it, and you say, well, okay, that really was right.
It was the right answer. I just asked the wrong question. First, to whom?
Jacob. That is a reference to the descendants of Jacob, the
Jews. Have all of the Jews had all of their ungodliness taken away?
Has a Deliverer come out of Zion to do this? Not yet.
This clearly hasn't happened, but it will. Now, the next question would be, logically, well, when will it happen?
And my answer is, I have no idea. But I do know this. There is a number known only to God of the
Gentile elect that will be saved. God knows how many that is.
And that number, when reached, triggers the return of the Deliverer.
So what do we know right now? We know that the number is not yet reached. But we know that it is a number, and it will be reached because the
Bible said it would. Yes. I haven't studied that, so I'm going to give you my opinion.
My opinion is, at that time, it means every single Jew, man, woman, and child alive at that time.
Which is entirely different than it is now. Jews now can be saved. Into Jacob.
Jacob wrestles with God. Israel captures, in all
Israel, the believing faithful will be saved. But yet,
Jacob is a picture of those Jews who still wrestle with God and, in a sense, don't have that full salvation.
Yes, and I think that's the condition. I think that's the state we're in now. That there is the dichotomy between those that are
Israel and those that are Jacob. And Jacob and Israel, we know it's the same guy.
But one is Jacob, Israel in the flesh, and the other one is Israel in the spirit. So I agree with that.
And I may be wrong. But I think that this refers to the time after now, into the future, when the
Deliverer comes. And I believe personally that all the Jews at that time, that are living at that time, will be saved.
Now, that's kind of fuzzy in my mind, and I don't even know why I believe that. I didn't understand that.
Well, the word redeemed will always fit. Those that are redeemed, the ones from whom the price are paid, those are always.
But we say, okay, who are the redeemed? Right now, it's everybody that is of the elect.
There's different ways of saying it. But there are some Jews right now that are redeemed, and there's some
Jews right now that are not redeemed. There's some Gentiles right now that are redeemed, and there's some that are not redeemed. No, God knows what that number is.
And you've kind of got a scary thought tagged on to this if you think through it.
If the number of Gentiles, if there is a number of Gentiles to come in, and then the
Deliverer will come, then are there going to be any Gentiles after that?
I wish I had even said that. It's kind of floating through my mind that a
Deliverer will come. Now, I think that Deliverer is when Jesus returns again the second time, comes to rule his kingdom.
And that's triggered when the number of Gentiles are accomplished.
Now, if you follow that one more step, if the number of Gentiles to be saved is reached, and that triggers the return of the
Deliverer, and after that, who will be saved? It seems to me it would be a
Jewish only. But I may be wrong. I wish I hadn't started that. Well, it certainly is that.
Well, if there's a certain number of Gentiles that have to come to the
Lord before the trigger is set off, and the number of Jews remains the same, there has to be a certain amount of Jews born to be here to be redeemed.
Do you know what I'm saying? Do you know that? So, you're questioning whether any
Gentiles get saved? I think
I am, Brother David. Now, certainly that church age is what he's speaking to here.
That word, this mystery, this mystery is the church. Okay, now,
I'd say I like that better than what my brain was taking me toward. And that's why I kind of bailed halfway through and said
I wish I hadn't even mentioned it, because it's taking me to ground that I haven't covered thoroughly and I am stumbling about with.
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
And there was one that held off until they saw it, including all the Jews. They held off, unless the rapture didn't do anything for them.
My view is the rapture happens half the second coming. We go up, we witness it, and all come back with him right pretty much in a few days, except for me.
When they see the light of Jesus come that way, they see that with their eyes.
That is the sign that the Jew requires. And they get saved. And I think there has to be a bunch of Gentiles that see the same thing, and they believe because now they see it with their eyes.
They see it with their legs. Well, see, that's kind of what
I was thinking before, and I could see that I was leading myself into a different place. But I think something else that's interesting that you just brought up is, right now, the
Jews are blind in part. And after the rapture, when the
Deliverer comes, the Jews will no longer be blind in part. But the
Gentiles will. It'll switch. Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah. There's way... Yeah, and that was the part that was bothering me and making me hesitate.
The other part I was happy with. Okay, let's do one other quick thing, and then we'll be done, and we'll be running over.
That leads us to a third additional aspect of the concept of seeds. And in Matthew 13,
I'm not going to let you go there, I'm just going to start. It said, And Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house, and His disciples came unto
Him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. John, that's the one you were talking about.
And He answered, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of Man, and the field is the world, and the good seed is the children of the kingdom.
But the tares are the children of the wicked one, and the enemy that sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is in the world, and the reapers are the angels.
Therefore, the tares are gathered and burned in fire, so shall it be in the end of the world. And the
Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire, and there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Then shall the righteous shine forth as the Son in the kingdom of their Father. He who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Now, that was the parable that you were referring to. My question is, in all of this story, where are we?
We're obviously not involved in Satan's attempt to thwart the coming
Messiah. That was finished over 2 ,000 years ago at Calvary.
Nor have we arrived at the harvest at the end of the world, though there are indications that that's not too far away.
So where are we? No, no, no.
Where are you right now? Well, in one sense, you're with the Lord. I'm not going to argue with you about that. We're in the world.
Wheat mixed with tares. And our challenge is how to live as wheat amongst the tares.
And there's a lot of tares out there, and I had intended to do a follow -up, a redo of what we did last week about the struggle between two worldviews and the struggle between the followers of two gods.
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And the followers of a counterfeit god inspired by Satan, Allah.
A son followed by the other sons of Abraham. One through which the covenant comes.
The other through which the covenant is definitely described as not to come. And I want to leave you with this thought.
There is no mistake about it. These are not the same two gods. Even though there are people who say today that people that follow
Allah are following the same god that you're following. They just call him by a different name.
There's a lot of people that use that. But that is not the case. It is not the case that we're following the same god.
It's not even the case that that Allah guy is even a god. No, the god that the
Muslims claim to worship is by their own admission an unknowable god. A capricious god.
A god that cannot reveal anything about himself because he does not exist. He's not the god we worship.
He's a god that Satan has designed so that men will be unable to find the narrow way that leads to salvation.
But will go down the road that leads to destruction. And I'm over. And I apologize.