This morning, you have your Bibles, take them, please turn your Bibles to Genesis, the first book of the Bible, and we are turning to chapter 25 this morning and considering together the first 18 verses of Genesis chapter 25 as we close, really our study of the life of Abraham this morning. A challenging section, but I believe a very helpful section as we look at what the Lord is showing us at the conclusion of the life of Abraham. So let's give our attention this morning to the word of the Lord. Genesis 25, verse 1. Dedan. The sons of Dedan were Asherim, Letushim, and Lamim. The sons of Midian were Ephah, Ephir, Hanah, Abida, Elda'ah. All these were the children of Keturah. Abraham gave all he had to Isaac. But to the sons of his concubines, Abraham gave gifts. And while he was still living, he sent them away from his son Isaac eastward to the east country. These are the days of the years of Abraham's life, 175 years. Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years and was gathered to his people. Isaac and Ishmael, his sons, buried him in the cave of Machpelah in the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar, the Hittite east of Mamre. The field that abraham purchased from the hittites there abraham was buried with sarah his wife after the death of abraham god blessed isaac his son and isaac settled at beir lahai roy these are the generations of ishmael abraham's son whom hagar the egyptian sarah's servant bore to abraham these are the names of the sons of ishmael named in the order of their birth nebaah the firstborn of Ishmael, and Kedar, Adbil, Mibsam, Mishma, Duma, Masa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Nafish, and Kadema. These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their villages, and by their encampments, 12 princes according to their tribes these are the years of the life of ishmael 137 years he breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people they settled from have a lot to shore which is opposite egypt in the direction of assyria he settled over against all his kinsmen may the lord bless the hearing this morning of his word as i mentioned the charge in that case last week was elderly abuse likely to inflict bodily harm or death. It really was a tragic case of an 80-year-old man who was beaten. What interested me was during the careful screening of the voir dire, where they make the selection of the jurors, the attorneys wanted to survey very carefully how we felt about older people. They were concerned about perceptions. They were concerned about all of the jurors' perceptions of older people. Well, when the DA got to me, she says, now you're a pastor. She says, surely you have some kind of feelings about older people, don't you? I have feelings about older people. I have good feelings about older people. I didn't tell her about somebody giving me the, an older person giving me and flipping me off at Lowe's the previous week, but that did happen. But I realized again how little respect that we have in our society for older people. That that kind of question would even be asked, right? We are a culture that values youth. We are a culture that values the body, that is obsessed with beauty. And it's tragic. It's tragic that here was an older man who was beaten up, and the lawyers are concerned about public perception of older people. They've got to get the right kind of people. Now, some of their motivations on each particular side would have been different. But they had to get the right kind of people appropriate who were going to be somewhat objective with this and who cared about older people. But it's sad. It's sad, the time that we've come to. We've come to a time when, you know, even the medical system today, we're getting to the point where we see signs that our own medical system and our own system here in the United States is looking at older people like there's a point at which they're just not worth it to treat anymore. The lawyers knew this public perception. The lawyers addressed it the best way they could. But have you ever thought for a moment about how tragic it is that for an unbelieving, just think about the unbelieving older generation, what they have to experience as they go through life and they see this play out before them, but then the realities that they deal with, the realities of emptiness and the realities of loneliness, and pain and suffering and loss and a society that no longer sees any real use for them. This is their struggle. And imagine then going to your deathbed with no real peace. Imagine entering into eternity. You're on the brink at the very end of your life. You're on the brink of death. And I've seen this in hospitals. I've been and I've seen the differences of how believers and unbelievers look at death. but many having no comfort of the gospel many having no peace as they approach this and i want us to think about that for a minute why do i raise this it's because the christian today has an entirely different perspective i've heard many of my older brothers and sisters tell me that as they get older they struggle with feeling like they're useless, with really understanding purpose and questioning anymore whether God indeed cares for them. And we wonder, what is God like to us in our twilight? I mean, what is God like to us at the very end of life? What is God like to us when life is expiring, when we see the end? If the Lord has blessed us with a long life and we're in those years, what is His thought toward us then? what does the Lord give the believer through every stage of life? What does the Lord promise to those who love him? And that's what I want to explore today from Genesis chapter 25. I wrestled with the purpose of this text. And as I gave thought to it this morning, here's what struck me. We've been considering the life of Abraham for a long time now. And at this point, maybe you think, I'm ready to move on, Pastor. I'm ready to study somebody else. We're ready to get into Jacob and Esau. That's next week. That's exciting stuff. As a matter of fact, I heard through the grapevine an older person say, Pastor, I'm so glad you're finally getting Abraham into the grave. I would be glad to skip this this morning. I think it's a tough passage. But as a preacher, I have to pause and think through, why does God give us passages like this? All these names that I have, you know, in Western, I can't even pronounce properly. And it struck me. It's almost as if the Lord is saying to us this morning, wait a minute, stop. I'm not done yet. I'm not done telling you about the life of Abraham. You have looked at all of his life, his start in the faith. looked at all that I did at the start, at the beginning of his life. We studied that. We spent a lot of time with that. All of his struggles along the way, all of the way that the Lord preserved him all the way through. But I want you now to consider with me for a moment the end of his life. I want you to consider what the ending of a life of faith looks like. I want you to consider consider when it's all said and done the whole story what i've done for you the whole way through and then it really dawned on me this is a very powerful passage we just saying psalm 116 precious in the sight of the lord is the death of his saints now if even their death is precious in his sight. What about the last days of his saints? What about the last days of his saints? And we can't be too hard on older people because we're, if the Lord stays us, we're all going to be one. God gives us a glorious summary this morning of the ending of Abraham's life. And I really realize how beautiful this is and that what the Lord is encouraging his people with is to see the life of faith the blessings that that the lord gives of his people in this life as they travel the whole way through because he doesn't want us to look remember what paul said in romans 4 i don't want you to study abraham and think that i'm recording all of this for abraham he's the father of the faith in other words you who have the faith of abraham this is your story and that's what makes this so beautiful this morning one more sermon one more sermon on abraham look at the whole picture at this point in abraham's life uh he's witnessed a lot sarah has died um abraham remember purchased the cave a kind of down payment on the land sarah went into this cave her body is there and in the last chapter we had the beautiful beautiful bringing of a bride to isaac the lord continuing his salvation plan and bringing and preparing a bride and how what a wonderful chapter that was uh to preach god's hand of blessing has been evident the whole time in fact that's how chapter 24 began and and that really needs to help us with today because chapter 24 began by saying God blessed Abraham in everything. You ever stop and think about that? God blessed him in all things. That blessing doesn't change and it was never something that Abraham deserved. When God called him out of Ur of the Chaldeans, he called him and he said and made the seven promises, this is what I'm doing for you. Nothing will stop it. And so now we have what the blessed life looks like at the end. Look at verse 1. We read that Abraham took a wife and named her Keturah. And then it goes on in verse 6 to describe these sons and these grandchildren and this host of people here of all of these nations that are mentioned surrounding the death of Abraham. Now, a lot of discussion has been made in the commentaries and the writers on just when this occurred. And I believe the whole thrust of this this morning, when we get too bogged down with questions like that, we miss what the Lord is really showing us. What the Lord is showing us this morning as we look at this passage is He wants us to consider what the hand of His blessing looks like on His saints. Who was Keturah? Well, if you were to study the genealogies, which I know you all do in your spare time. The sons born to Keturah. This is 1 Chronicles 1 verse 32. Now the sons born to Keturah, Abraham's concubine. Chapter 25, we have some skeletons that have come out at the end. Some skeletons in the life of Abraham that we didn't really know and didn't have a lot of insight that were going on throughout the course of life. And you'll notice in verse 6 that Abraham gives gifts to the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had. That's in the plural. Now we're getting a sense that this was a lot more than we realized. It was Hagar and Keturah, and it sounds to me like a lot more. Concubines were female slaves or mistresses in the household. It was a commonly accepted practice at that time. And it was an area that we know in Abraham's life that caused him considerable grief. And it always does. When you do things in life that are outside God's design, expect grief, expect consequences, expect pain. God didn't approve of this. He may have allowed it. He didn't approve of this. And I want you to notice here this whole area of this grief i want you to think about what's happening to him in this text how does abraham close out his life what i want you to see is in the last moments of abraham's life what shines here is that abraham is really beginning to see and experience the promises now hebrews tells us that he greeted them afar off but it also says something else hebrews tells us that he saw the promises the son has come the land he's in deposits have been given but there was something else all along the way as abraham traveled through that now we see at the end of life something that god had said from the very beginning that was the the real heart of the abrahamic covenant this covenant of grace how that would unfold throughout history the real heart of it would be that he would be the father of many nations now remember what romans told us about the body of abraham abraham was a hundred years old and we read that he did not consider his own body, already dead since he was about 100 years old. He didn't waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. God strengthened his body. Now, Sarah dies. Did that stop? He lawfully marries Keturah, which I think is important but then there's something else here that the text really shows us what does he do he starts fathering nations he starts fathering nations these were major people groups and if you look at some of the names you'll recognize some of them of sheba and the asherites and the Tushites, the Midianites, you remember Moses and Jethro, you remember Zipporah. It's no surprise then that another entire genealogy brackets the death of Abraham. All of a sudden now you have 12 other nations mentioned right after the death of Abraham with the Ishmaelites and you'll notice that 12 more. Verse 18 goes on to then describe how all of these spread through their territories you you're having major nations spread out over the face of the earth so look at the look at the picture here he dies nations before are mentioned and nations after are mentioned now what did god tell abraham to do with his son ishmael well one of the most painful things that abraham ever had to do in life remember with his first born son was to do what send him away you remember that scene in genesis chapter 16 it was it was a painful scene the lord told him to send away his son and you remember what all of that represents the new testament we looked at takes that and it says that represented for all of us to understand it. It represents Abraham's own efforts in trying to secure the promise himself. And instead, God would supply the son. And in that very chapter, a baby was handed to him from Sarah, which was a remarkable thing at a hundred years old, that God supplied that son. But that other son, the son of the bondwoman, had to be cast out. God wanted Abraham to rest on the promise and marvel at the grace demonstrated that god would send his son in the fullness of time his son the beloved son the son of his choosing here we are at the end of life what's he doing when you look over the course of your life i'm sure some of our older brothers and sisters struggle with this they look over the course of life and you look back and you realize how many stupid things you've done. I talked about last week the importance of training children and the importance of protecting them, overseeing and not handing them away to unbelievers. That could be distressing, couldn't it? A lot of failures along the way, A lot of things that you have done that you're ashamed about. I can't imagine having to bear all of those things in my conscience if I was an unbeliever. How many things I wrecked. I mean, it's almost universal now when I'm at the gym and I'm listening to people talk that they're on their second, third, fourth marriages. And the damage of how many kids are involved in all this. I can't imagine bearing all of that failure if I had no knowledge of the Lord's forgiveness. I had no gospel peace. And I look back over the course of my life and everyone can't hide it. If everyone's honest, you've done things that are absolutely shameful. From the beginning, God said he was doing something for great father Abraham. God was strengthening him all along the way in faith, reassuring him after all of the failures, after all of the mess-ups, after all of the weaknesses that he was with him. Even at one point in Genesis chapter 15, God coming down saying, why are you fearing, Abraham? Stop fearing. I am your shield, and I am your exceedingly great reward. I've decided I'm doing that. you. So here's the picture. What do you have at the end of his life? He honors the Lord's design for marriage, takes a wife, but in faith, in faith is strengthened and fathers at the end of life six more nations right in front of you. And look at verse six. He gives gifts to all of these sons of these concubines over the course of life and these by sons by Keturah. And notice how it reads, while he was still living, he sent them away from Isaac, his son, eastward to the east country. We read in verse five that everything he had, he gave to Isaac. Now what does this mean? What is this? Not only is this a posture of repentance, I believe, but it's a whole scene of resting on the divine promise at the end of his life. And do you see it? God didn't have to come and say, Abraham, you send these sons away. You send these sons away like you did Ishmael. Abraham does it. Abraham packs them up. Can't imagine this situation. Can't imagine this thing. he packs up his sons he loads them with gifts and he sends them to the east you think what is going on here abraham's believing what's he believing that through the one son the nations of the earth would be blessed through the one son the son of god's choosing the son that god raised up the son that was a miraculous son you know isaiah mentions these nations listen to isaiah 60 the multitude of camels shall cover your land the young camels of midian and ephah all those from sheba shall come they shall bring gold and incense they shall proclaim the praises of the Lord. All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together to you. The rams of Nebaioth, all these names are mentioned right here, shall minister to you. They shall ascend with acceptance on my altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory. Did you just hear what isaiah prophesied the promise was they would dwell in god's house they would come now when you stand back and you begin to look at the mess of all of this and you look at the mess of his life that he fathered many of these sons and he did it illegitimately god took all of these messes throughout the course of this man's life and he turned it all into the fulfilling of the very promise that he said that he would fulfill from the very first moment when he was in Ur of the Chaldeans it's an overwhelming I will Abraham I will make you a father of many nations and here he is in the land now picture the scene end of his life he's got the sun he's got the land he's got nations surrounding his death nations why does this matter for us today well not only are you one of those nations that have come but God fulfilled his promise and here in the land look what he's done when God has determined to bless us by grace, when God has from the beginning set us apart to Himself and begins the work, when God starts the great project, none of our failures, none of the mishaps, none of the rebellions will prevent Him from His ultimate determination from the foundation of the world to bless His people. none of it and what joy and purpose that gives us till our last breath to believe him to trust him and to rest by faith in the son of promise in the true son of god knowing that everything that we have everything he has already declared is ours this is this is a glorious section to show us this a fine close to a life of faith seeing the promises now that's the first thing this is how the life closes in life but i want you to notice now what god says to us about it in death about this life it gets better look at verse 7 and 8 i think they're some of the most exciting verses in genesis here's how the single great summary statement of the life of believer goes here is what it is look at verse 7 these are the days of the years of abraham's life 175 years abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age an old man full of years and was gathered to his people did you notice there it says that he died a good old age why does that matter why does the lord want you to consider that because after god made the covenant of grace do you remember what he said to abraham after he had passed through the pieces he said something glorious ask for yourself talked about israel he'd bring him back you shall go to your fathers in peace you shall be buried in a good old age god made another promise the promise was this i will sustain you the whole way through and nothing at all will interrupt you from having this blessed life and dying at the good age that i have determined for you that was before hagar that was before all those events that was before some of the lying that went on. There was the later lying with Abimelech. God said that. I will sustain you. Here he is, 175 years. Remember, he was 75 when God called him out. There's a reason that round number of 100. The Lord is telling you something here. 100 years in the land, he sat in that land. Abraham's days were perfectly numbered by the Lord. And why is that important? When you begin to step back and survey his life, what a hard life it was. There's nothing easy about that life. Called to leave his family and his father and his mother and go to a land that he had never seen before in fear, constantly in fear for his life, in constant threats, in constant dangers. And he faced the problem of the fear of his own life. And so he lied. He tried to live by faith, was constantly messing up and bumbling around and all god said the whole way through is you're gonna die at a good old age it will happen from the beginning he said that and here we are and what should you be saying look at how every single day every breath is perfectly numbered and fulfilled by the lord for you and it's almost i feel like god is is in some way screaming yelling look at this i uphold every aspect of life i did it for him i'll do it for you and you need to know this nothing takes away what i've determined nothing takes away nothing adds to nothing takes away oh you may suffer consequences for your actions, but nothing ultimately takes away what he's determined. You don't add a day, you don't subtract a day. He wants you to know he fulfills the days. None of us die too soon or late. Nothing cuts it short. Now imagine how that should affect us if we believe that. It's not going to promote your responsibility. of course. But think of when all the afflictions and the trials hit and the sorrows. Think of the struggles of living in a sin-cursed world. Abraham saw it all. He saw what happened to Sodom, the grief that that brought him. He saw what sin did to his family. He saw what not trusting, where it led him. And what was the reality the whole way through? God never left him nor forsook him. Never once. There are so many Christians today that act like God turns off and turns on his favor. I'm not done yet. The years were perfectly fulfilled. Then God promises something else. Promise something else to Abraham. Not only will you die in a good old age, this is the great part of the sermon. This is my favorite part of the sermon. But you will die in peace. you will die in peace. I want everyone to look at verse 8. Now, every translation tries to add explanatory words to help us with this, but sometimes they're just not helpful. I want you to look carefully at verse 8. We read that he breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man and full. Translations try to help us understand full of days or full of years. cut it. He died satisfied. He died fulfilled. He died full. That's the meaning. Notice he didn't say he died carefree or it was just a life absence of distress. No, no, that's not what he's saying. The whole story of life, his life, when it was all said and done from beginning to end, And from the calling to the end, it was a full life, satisfied life, surrounded with peace the whole way, God's peace. Now, I don't know if you realize what God has done for you. I don't know if you think about this. What price did it cost to enjoy that when he gave his son? But do you realize this is a peculiar blessing that the Lord gives his sheep? You realize that this is something that he gives his sheep. You say, so unbelievers go to their graves all the time. They seem full. They seem satisfied. And I say, no, they're not. Not even close. You know they cannot have and they do not have what you take for granted you do have. They don't have faith. They don't have a Savior. And if they're going to their graves with no faith and no Savior, what is completely absent from the heart and the mind that the Lord has promised to secure for His people? Peace. There looms over them, Hebrews says, a fearful expectation of judgment. And they have nothing to cling to. I have seen this. It is the greatest tragedy. I have sat in beds of people dying who don't believe. And it's hard. What does God do for the believer? Justifies him. He works throughout all the course of one's life. And what does he do? He justifies, he gives them peace. He trains them with this peaceable fruit of righteousness that guards the hearts and the minds so that John says the benefit of that for you is that you go to your graves in hope and that's not wishful thinking you go to your graves with the removal of fear instead what does he give you he gives you confidence that he loves you and that you have the assurance that he will receive you john said that love has been perfected among us in this that we have boldness in the day of judgment confidence toward god and god again not writing this for Abraham. I want you to see this. I was studying Calvin on this and there's been a repeated thing that I keep coming across that he says that you'd never really expect. And I think reformed people can be remiss in not saying this. Maybe because we're a little too nervous about the prosperity, guys, and rightly so. But listen to Calvin. We get it even better than Father Abraham. Let us learn that we may not become weary in our course or our lives to rely on His support. Here it is. That the Lord has promised us a happy issue of life and one truly far more glorious than that of our father Abraham. Faith is the preserver of a tranquil mind. I see that repeatedly. He's promised you the issue of a happy life. I'm not done. Not quite. Verse 9 tells us he was buried in the cave of Machpelah. There stands Isaac and Ishmael. His body goes into the grave. There's one last thing that stands out in that text. If you look at verse 8. Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age. An old man full of years. and was gathered to his people. Now, there's only one person in that grave. There's only one person, Sarah. That's not referring to the burial. Body goes into the cave next to Sarah in anticipation of the resurrection. But I'm reminded of something that our Lord said when he was walking on the earth, something he said about Abraham. Concerning the resurrection of the dead, Have you not read what was spoken to you by God? I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. His soul was gathered with those who shared the same faith as Father Abraham. In other words, he was gathered with Adam. He was gathered with Abel. He was gathered with Enoch. He was gathered with Noah. He was gathered with Shem and Job and all of those who had already preceded. He was gathered ultimately to the son. He was gathered to Jesus. And that's exactly what the Lord promises his sheep. This is exactly what he promises, that when you die, the body goes in the ground. One day that's coming up. When you die, you are gathered to your people. Think of all those today who've gone before us at this point in history. know if you use the statement in hebrews of a cloud of witnesses you have the patriarchs and they're all saying the promises are yes and amen they're all validating it's true moses david rahab what more shall i say for time would fail me to tell of gideon and barak and samson and jephthah and also of david and samuel and all the prophets they're waiting for the resurrection of the body and then hebrews says this all these having obtained a good testimony through faith they didn't receive the promise god having provided something better for us that they should not be made perfect apart from us you know what that means right you've got to come in before they're finally perfected they are waiting for the sons of god to be revealed They are waiting to see you. And when the child of God dies, he immediately is gathered. I can't imagine what that's going to be like. There is another gathering. You'll notice that Ishmael was gathered to his people. And we need to remember that those who are not gathered to the Son of God have a different destiny. And that's why we preach. This is why we're doing this, calling people to come to faith and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ because this is the life. Who would not want that? Who would say, I want to do it my own way? All the way through, God reached down from the beginning. God reached down. God grabbed this man. And God pulled him out of Ur of the Chaldeans. And by grace, he called him. By grace, he made promises to him. By grace, he justified him. By grace, he continued to the end to work to sanctify this man from start to finish, upheld and preserved. And what we've studied throughout all these months is true of every believing saint. This is your story. This is the story of those who believe. If you see that today and you believe that, then shouldn't your light somewhat shine, especially if you're older. In the prayer group the other day, one of the ladies asked for a prayer. And she says, I want you to pray for our older generation that they would be a blessing to the younger generation and not complain. Be a blessing. Why? What do you lack? You're completely satisfied. Completely satisfied. You have a Savior. Abraham looked through Isaac for the future son to come. Today we look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. May we then demonstrate that we know God and believe him because he has satisfied our lives in the life of his almighty son. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we bless your name today and are thankful for the kindness that you show to us all the way through. We don't deserve it. And when we begin to grasp how great grace really is, it's the story of your relentless, pursuing, unwavering grace that when the project is started, you will see it to completion. And we're so thankful that you give us the life of Abraham. May we, Lord, share in that same faith, trusting you, believing, resting in the promises of the gospel and in the Lord Jesus Christ. And when that hour comes, that we would have the certainty and the assurance that we will be gathered to the people of God in glory. Thank you, O Lord, for hearing us this morning, and thank you for blessing us with a very blessed life. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.