Connect with Skip - Skip Heitzig

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is Connect with Skip Heitzig, and we're so glad
you've joined us for today's program. Connect with Skip Heitzig
is all about connecting you to the never changing truth
of God's Word through verse by verse teaching. Before we
get started, we want to invite you to check out
connect with Skip dot com to find resources like full
message series, sermon outlines, and more. While you're at it,

(00:22):
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will help you gain a deeper understanding of what awaits
believers in heaven and unbelievers in hell. It's an encouragement
for those who have said yes to Jesus and a

(00:43):
sobering picture for those who have not. Get your coffee
when you sign up today at connectwiskip dot com. That's
connect with Skip dot com. Now let's get started with
today's message from pastors Skip Heightzig.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Now I want to just clear something up because toward
the end of our study last week, we talked about
the place where Abraham almost sacrificed his son Isaac. It
was one of the mountains God said he would show him,
which was Mount Mariah. Mount Mariah, back then in Abraham's time,

(01:19):
was simply a hill that rose up as part of
the landscape. There was nothing much around it except a
little township called Salem, eventually called Jebuse, eventually called Jerusalem.
But it was the peak of a mountain. As years
went on, a temple was built on that mountain. It

(01:42):
was the Temple of Solomon. Later on the Temple of Nehemiah,
rebuilding the Temple of Solomon. Later on it was enlarged
by Herod, and in the New Testament a temple was
there as well, but much larger. If you were to
look at the mountain through history, you would have to

(02:02):
picture toward the base of the hill. That's where the
city began Jebuse, Salem, and then Jebus. When David occupied
that territory and eventually Solomon built the temple, he built
it up on the slope of the hill. As the

(02:23):
city extended outward upward on the hill. The temple was
built not on the top, but on the slope of
the hill. Follow me. The top is still here. The
city's down here, somewhere up in the slope that little
town or that temple was built by Solomon. It was
destroyed by the Babylonians. It was rebuilt under Ezra and Nehemiah.

(02:48):
When Herod the Great got into town, he wanted to
make an extravagant place, so he built a retaining wall
on part of that slope, filled it in and made
it flat. Thirty five acre platform. Thirty five acre flat
platform called the Temple mount. If you go to Jerusalem

(03:10):
today and you stand on the Mount of Olives, you
can look at it, the Temple mount. That flat platform
from the days of Herod the Great is still there today.
But that temple platform, and where the temple stood on
Mount Mariah is not the top of Mount Mariah. The
top of Mount Mariah is still further to the north,

(03:31):
on the outside of the city walls. It rises, it peaks,
and then it goes back down. Where the temple stood
is not the top. Where Golgatha was is the top
Gaugatha is the place Jesus was crucified. You follow me now.
In Abraham's day, again, there were no temples, there were

(03:52):
no buildings. It was just rolling hills and topography. When
God said take your son and sacrifice him on the mountain.
The top of Mount Mariah would naturally be the place
he would have taken Isaac. So we have a picture
of Abraham sacrificing his son, or almost whom God calls

(04:17):
his only begotten son. He was dead in Abraham's mind
and heart for three days until the angel stopped the
knife from being plunged in It would have been on
the top of Mount Mariah. And when Jesus was sacrificed
by his father, it was in the same spot where

(04:38):
Abraham almost sacrificed his only begotten son. So I wanted
to clear that up because I did have a few
questions last week about where the temple stood. Was that
the top or not? And it was not. So I
hope that clears it up. Now we're going to pick
up in verse fifteen and finish verse down to verse
twenty four, and then into chapter twenty three. Now I

(05:01):
have a question for you as we begin. Do you
want fellowship with God? How many would raise their answer?
I want it, I really want fellowship with God. Okay,
now I raise my hand as well. But I wonder
if we understand what we're saying we want, because the
idea of fellowship is to share like experiences with another person.

(05:27):
Abraham in chapter twenty two enters in to the deepest
form of fellowship with God that I believe is possible. Now,
listen to what Paul says in the New Testament. Then
I'll get back to this. Paul the Apostle in Philippian
says that I might know him, that I might know him.

(05:47):
I want to know God. That's what we raised our
hand just a minute ago and said, I want to
know God. I want a fellowship with God. I listen
to what he says, that I might know him and
the power of his resurrection. We're going on, Yeah, yeah,
I want some of that. I want a fellowship with
that too. I want power in my life that I
might know him, and the power of his resurrection and

(06:10):
the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable even unto
his death. Okay, now we're going Ah. Now wait a minute.
The first part I like, not too sure about part two.
Resurrection power. I want that fellowship with God and resurrected power.
Want that, want power in my life. But what about

(06:32):
the fellowship of suffering. You see, for a moment in time,
Abraham and God were in the same club they both
knew what it was like to sacrifice their son. They
were on the same page, in the same club, in
the same activity, in deep sorrowful fellowship with one another.

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That's the deepest form of fellowship. I bring that up
to offer this possibility. What about seeing your times of trial,
your times of suffering, your times of heartache, as an
opportunity to meet God in a way you could not
meet him any other way. I'm going to fellowship with

(07:17):
God in this deep dark valley, this horrible, awesome moment,
this terrible time of sacrifice and loss. How about that
I might know him and the power of his resurrection
and the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable even
to his death. We're at a period of loss in

(07:38):
Abraham's life in chapter twenty two, the offering of his son.
He didn't go through with it, but for a period
of time he was willing to do so. And in
his own mind, his son was dead for three days
before that resurrection, so to speak of hope, when the
Angel stayed his hand and he didn't plunge that knife
into his son's heart, and as I mentioned last week,

(08:01):
all of heaven must have stopped in amazement to look
on earth and see how a man could love God.
But thousands of years later, on the very same piece
of real estate, all of heaven marveled to see the
demonstration of how God could love mankind in offering his

(08:23):
only begotten son on the cross. Now, in verse fifteen,
it says the Angel of the Lord called out of
heaven to Abraham a second time, and he said, by myself,
I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done
this thing, you have not withheld your son, your only son, blessing.

(08:47):
I will bless you, and multiplying. I will multiply your
descendants as the stars of heaven and as the sand
which is on the seashore. And your descendants shall possess
the gate of their enemies, your descendants Abraham in other words, well,
one day occupy the land of their enemies, the Canaanites.

(09:11):
They're going to occupy it. It's going to become the
Promised Land, not the land of Canaan. It'll become Israel.
In your seed verse eighteen. In your seed, all the
nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have
obeyed my voice. Verse eighteen is the very first occurrence

(09:34):
of the word obey in the Bible. And I told
you that. I tell you whenever we have the rule
of first mention, here's the first time obeyed is noted.
Here is God from heaven noticing and rewarding Abraham, not
for how he felt, not for how he thought, but

(09:57):
for what he did. He's obeying God. It's a huge,
huge thing. It's the evidence of faith. True faith will
be faith that obeys. It's obedient faith. Because you obeyed.
It's not that you thought you would obey. It's not

(10:18):
that you just had pleasant feelings about me, but you
did what I said. All of Abraham's life required obedience.
Now he believed God, and it was countered to him
for righteousness. But that faith that he had was shown
by obedience. For example, God had said to Abraham, leave

(10:41):
your hometown or of the Chaldis. Did he do it? Yep?
You say, well, he didn't go all the way. He
went to Haran. Yeah. But when God finally said leave
Heran and go to that land of Canaan, did he
do it? Yes? When God told him to wait by
faith upon the promised son, did he do it? Yep?

(11:02):
And when God told him to sacrifice his son on
Mount Moriah. Did he do it well? He went to
do it, and he obeyed, and he would have done it,
but God again stayed his hand. God noticed his obedience.
It's the long obedience in the same direction. Now draw
your attention to the phrase your seed in verse eighteen.

(11:22):
Very very important. Here's what I want you to know.
In the Bible. There's four ways the term seed is fulfilled.
There's four different definitions of Abraham seed.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
You're listening to connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we get
back to Skipp's teaching. In his book Is God Real?
Lee Strobel, author of the New York Times best selling
book The Case for Christ, provides a rational exploration the
proof of God's existence and the basis of our eternal hope.
Writing to skeptics and believers alike, Strobel turns his critical

(11:56):
mind and expert interviewing skills to perennial questions, how do
we know which God is real? And if God is real,
why does he seem so hidden? Is God real? Along
with two messages preached by Least Roble at Calvary Church,
are our thanks for your gift of at least fifty
dollars today to help share biblical teaching with more people
around the world through connect with skip Heitzig. Go to

(12:19):
connect with skip dot com slash offer or call eight
hundred ninety two to two eighteen eighty eight and request
your resources when you give at least fifty dollars today
to reach people around the world through connect with skip Heidzig.
Let's continue with today's teaching with pastor skip.

Speaker 2 (12:36):
Number one his natural seed, his natural descendants, physical descendants
of Abraham, i e. The Jewish people. That's the seed
of Abraham. Number two natural dash spiritual seed. These are
believers in Christ toward Jewish people Romans Chapter nine, ten,

(12:57):
and eleven, as opposed to those who believe not the
seed of Abraham. Number three usage of the term seed
the spiritual non physical descendants of Abraham. That is, anybody
who by faith believes in Christ and is justified by faith,
like Abraham was non Jewish, but gentile. That would be

(13:22):
me and most of you, your spiritual descendants of Abraham.
Romans nine mentions that. Galatian Chapter three mentions that. And
here's the fourth application, the ultimate seed, who is Jesus Christ.
All of those are used in various applicational forms in

(13:44):
the Bible physical or natural, natural, spiritual, three spiritual, and
number four the Ultimate Seed who is Christ. I'll just
give you that reading Galatians in Galatians, and you don't
have to turn to it. You can write it down
if you want, because it'll be done by the time
I get to it. Galatians three sixteen. Now to Abraham

(14:04):
and his seed were the promises made. He does not
say and to seeds as of many or plural, but
as of one, And to your seed, who is Christ.
Now all of the world was to be blessed to
Abraham's seed, and that means physical descendants of Abraham, spiritual

(14:27):
descendants of Abraham, as well as the ultimate Seed Christ.
All of the above were true. Think what we would
be missing if the Jewish people were not around, if
there were no Jewish people, Well, Number one, we'd be
missing our Bible. I couldn't say turning your bibles tonight
because we would have no bibles to turn. Two, we

(14:51):
would have no Ten Commandments. That was part of the
covenant God gave to them. The Ten Commandments very important
to us. It's the basis of our jurisprudence system most
Western civilized nations. Number Three, we would have no savior.
He came through the lineage of the Jewish nation, and
without a Jewish Jesus, we would have no Christianity, no salvation.

(15:13):
He's the ultimate seed. And so that promise really is
of the Gospel. In your seed, all the nations of
the earth will be blessed because you have obeyed my voice.
So Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose
and went together to Beersheba, and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba. Question,

(15:34):
why does verse nineteen say Abraham return to his young men?
How come Isaac didn't return? Remember what Abraham said to
them back in chapter while we're in chapter twenty two
last week, he said, the lad and I will go
up yonder in worship, and we will return to you.
So why doesn't the text say they both returned, just

(15:56):
Abraham returned. I don't quite know, but it is interesting
that though obviously Isaac returned as well because he wasn't sacrificed,
there is no mention of Isaac from the time of
this almost sacrifice until we see him in a couple

(16:16):
chapters when he reappears with his bride, his gentile bride.
There's an absence and then he appears again as he
meets his bride. As he comes again with his bride,
and with his bride we see them. It's just something
to note. Maybe it means something, maybe it doesn't. Maybe

(16:38):
it's one of those little fingerprints of the Holy Spirit,
because obviously the sacrifice on Mount Moriah is indicative of
the sacrifice of Christ on the same place. And it's
just interesting that he is not seen here but will
be seen again when he appears with his gentile bride again.
That could just be a wonderful little by the Holy Spirit.

(17:02):
It came to pass after these things. It was told
Abraham saying, indeed, Milka has also born children to your
brother Nahor. Now there's a list of names, twelve sons
that Nahor had. Now get these names. Huzz his firstborn,
Buzz his brother. So the first two boys, Huz and

(17:25):
Buzz boy, if they were around today, wouldn't they get ridiculed?
Kim you well, the father of aram Hes said Hazo,
pill Dash, Gid laugh and Bethel. Well, how many of
you do you know anybody who's having kids soon? Are

(17:45):
any of you here gonna have children soon? Are you? Congratulations?
Does any of those names appeal to you. You raise
your hand. You're looking for biblical names. You're thinking forget
it right, good move, I dare you try this one
hill Dash. I'm just kidding. Now, it says Bethel. Well,
now look at verse twenty three. Bethelwell begot Rebecca. These

(18:07):
eight Milka bore to Nejor, Abraham's brother. His concubine, whose
name was Yuma, also bore Tiba Gaham. They hash and maka.
There's another one maka. Now why is this little information
given to us? Because the narrative is going to show

(18:28):
because the promise seed is Isaac, and Isaac and a
couple chapters is going to get married. And now we
have a hint of betha Well, who's going to have
a child named Rebecca, and Rebecca will have a brother
named Laban, and all of these characters are very important
in the next few patriarchs Isaac and Jacob. Now we

(18:50):
get to chapter twenty three, and it's an obituary. Chapter
twenty three, it's the death of a princess. Sarah dies
in this chapter. Sarah Originally her name was Sarah I,
which meant contentious. God renamed her thankfully to Princess Sarah

(19:11):
means that she's one hundred and twenty seven years old
when she dies. Okay, you're thinking it's about time that
she dies. When you get to one hundred and twenty seven, okay,
that's like old. I got an email today from a
friend overseas. I don't know how true it is, but
they're trying to corroborate a family from the country of Georgia.

(19:35):
These ex Soviet states that there's a woman I saw
her picture even that she's going to be one hundred
and thirty years old, they say on July eighth, and
so they're trying to make they're trying to contend with
Guinness Book of World Records because the record holder is
one hundred and fourteen year old woman from Japan, and

(19:56):
they're saying, look, we have the documentation. She's going to
be one hundred and thirty year years old July eighth.
And you know what, honest, I don't know when the
picture was taken, but she didn't look that bad. I
mean for one hundred and thirty Yeah, you're just if
you're just breathing air, you're looking pretty good. But this
lady didn't look too bad. So it says Sarah lived
one hundred and twenty seven years. These were the years

(20:19):
of the life of Sarah. So the death of a princess,
Abraham's princess, as some of you, most of you will
remember back to September sixth, nineteen ninety seven, when the
People's princess, she was called, died. Princess Diana, the most
photographed woman in the world, died in a car crash.
When she died, it was such a huge deal. A

(20:40):
million people showed up in person lining the streets of
that death march. Is that flowery casket drove in that
glass hearse to her burial place. Two point five billion
other people billion watched it by television. It was a
huge deal, People's princess. But here we have Sarah. Now

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she's a big deal. And here's why. As the wife
of Abraham, she's the mother of the Jewish nation. There's
no other woman in the Bible where her age is mentioned,
her death and her burial and burial place is mentioned
besides Sarah. And it's because of who she is. She

(21:24):
occupies such a huge place in the Bible. In fact,
women are told to emulate her. She's an example to women.
Now I find that interesting. Here's something you might find interesting.
Nowhere in the Bible is married, the mother of Jesus
ever given as an example for people to follow. Did

(21:44):
you know that she's never held up as a supreme example,
But Sarah twice in the Bible. Is once is Isaiah
chapter fifty one, where the children of Israel told to
look back over their own history, remember where they've come from,
and Abraham and Sarah are listed in that. The other
is First Peter chapter three, where the outward woman isn't

(22:09):
to be emphasized, but the inward woman is to be emphasized,
and Sarah is given as a beautiful example, once again
an example to be followed. Now, here's what I love
about the language of the death of Sarah in chapter
twenty three. Follow me number one. The language is straight
forward language. It talks about death very openly and plainly.

(22:33):
You know why, because death is a fact of life,
That's why. And the lesson for us in the straightforward
language of chapter twenty three is we should learn in
preparation for our own death or the death of people
in our family, is to learn to talk about it openly.
In many families it's not discussed. Don't talk about it.

(22:55):
I don't want to talk about it. Well, if you
don't talk about it, then you're not going to deal
with it until that person dies. Then you have to
deal with it. Better to talk about it and get
the right attitude about it first. So it's straightforward language.
Second thing I want you to notice is we work
our way through chapter twenty three. It's personal. Sarah is

(23:19):
mentioned by name. She's not called the dearly departed or
Abraham's loved one, but she's personalized. Again. I think that's huge.
Number three, Sarah is not given into the hands of
specialists who handle the body and handle the funeral, but

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she's in the loving hands of her husband, Abraham, who
seeks to bury his wife. I'll tell you one of
the things I'm grateful for I lost my father and
my mother and my brother is the ability at my
mother's death to be next to her and not have
her at the hospital, but be next to her in
the last week of her death, and to take care

(24:03):
of her and to watch her leave earth and go
into heaven. That was wonderful, painful, but wonderful holy ground
I feel. And so Sarah lived one hundred and twenty
seven years. These were the years of the life of Sarah.
So Sarah died in kuriath Arba, that is Hebron in
the land of Canaan, and Abraham came to mourn for

(24:27):
Sarah and to weep for her.

Speaker 1 (24:32):
Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heidzig. We hope
you've been encouraged in your walk with Christ by today's program.
Before we let you go, we want to remind you
about this month's resources that will help you confidently respond
to questions and challenges to God's existence. It's Lee St.
Trobels book Is God Real and two messages he preached
on the topic at Calvary Church. Request your resources when

(24:56):
you give fifty dollars or more to support connect with
Skip Heitzig, call eight hundred nine two two eighteen eighty eight.
That's eight hundred ninety two to two eighteen eighty eight,
or visit connectiskip dot com slash donate and did you
know that you can get a weekly devotional and other
resources from pastor Skip sent right to your email inbox.

(25:17):
Simply visit connect with Skip dot com and sign up
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verse by verse teaching of God's Word here unconnect with
skift Heidzig.

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