Turn to Job chapter 14. I'm going to deal with just a
couple of verses tonight. We're going to deal in chapter
14, verse 14 and verse 15. That's what I want to look at.
If a man die, shall he live again? And that word again has been
supplied by the translators. If a man die, shall he live?
All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change
come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer
thee. Thou wilt have a desire to the
work of thine hands. I titled this message, A Change
Is Coming. A change like no other change
is coming for every one of us. We go through a lot of changes,
I know that. We go from a baby to a teenager,
adult. If the Lord lets us live, we
can grow old. But the greatest change happens
when we die. And what a change that is. And
in verse 14, Job asked this question. one which we ought to be interested
in if a man die shall he live really it's not if a man die
it's when isn't it it's it's when a man dies unless the lord
comes back but even then there's going to be a change i'll show
you that lord willing here toward the end we know that one day
And believers live in the reality of this, I know that. We live
in the reality of this, that one day we shall die and leave
this world, never, never to return to it. You know, Job says there
in verse 10, Man dieth and he wasteth away, yea, man gives
up the ghost, and where is he? His body's laid in the grave.
How many bodies have we, over our lifetime, seen laid in the
grave? No bodies are still in that grave. That person's not,
but that body is. The body's still in the grave.
We know that when the body goes to the ground, it goes back to
the dust, but the spirit, the scripture says, goes back to
God who gave it. And when this happens, a great
change will take place. Our souls, which is us, I am
a soul, I don't have one, I am one. Our souls shall be separated
from this corruptible body and go to be with the Lord. Our souls,
and I've never been so impressed with this as I was when I was
watching my father. God extracting the soul from
the body. That's never happened. We've
never experienced that. We've experienced a lot of things,
but never that soul, me, myself being extracted from my body,
taken out of it. What a change. What an experience
that has to be. What an experience. Now we see here that Job has
a knowledge. He gives us this knowledge of
a coming change. And it starts when we die. He's speaking of when we die.
If a man die, when a man die, shall he live? Well, the short
answer to that is yes. Yes. Yes, he will. Job knew that this change was
coming. He didn't shun it. Not think about it, he thought
about it. And I do believe that every believer thinks about this
often. Especially as we grow older,
we think about this this often. To answer this question though,
if a man dies, shall he live again? We have to face this. Sin made man mortal. If Adam had not sinned, Adam
would still be walking on this earth. Had not sin entered this
world, no one would have died. The whole human race, all that
has ever lived, would still be on this earth. Sin entered, and death entered
by sin. And it made us mortal. It made
us mortal. Though we are mortal, though
every human being is mortal, they do not cease to exist. I thought about this today. Do
you know that everyone that has ever been on this earth since
Adam and Eve, every person that has been born is still alive?
Every person is alive. Their bodies are dead, their
bodies are laid in the grave, but they are still alive. Once
we have life and come into this world, we never cease to exist. We haven't existed. Now, it will
either be with the Lord or it'll be under God's wrath. It's one
of two places. It's not a purgatory out there
somewhere. We're not hanging out there somewhere and see if
something can happen and bring us back. We're either with the
Lord or we're in hell. That's just putting it simple.
That's, that's, that's the truth. That's the way it is. But everyone,
every person, billions right now, there's what? Almost 8 billion.
How many billions have lived? They're still alive. That's real
to me. That's, I'm telling you the truth.
They're still alive. Every one of them. Now we have
here, this question if a man dies shall he live and the answer
is yes he will live he will live but we have here the believers
position until this time comes until our time comes to die I
don't know when it will be God has marked our day our time to
come into this world and And to leave this world, I was reading
one commentator, someone I really didn't know, I was reading him
on the internet, and he was saying that God did not mark our times.
I stopped right there, I didn't read him no more. I didn't read
him no more. You don't know what you're talking
about. Job said, he has set our bounds
that we cannot pass. David said, my times are in thy
hand. God who created all things, God
who brought us into the world, has set our time, a time, he
must not read Ecclesiastes, a time to be born and a time to die. There was a time for me to be
born, October the 11th, 1955. And there's a time for me to
die. I don't know that yet. I don't know. But it's there. And I'm very
comfortable with that. I'm very comfortable that God,
my Father, has set the time to bring me home. I don't look at
it as dying. I used to. I don't now. It's
a homecoming. You know, when we have funerals
here, it's Carnation Day. It's a homecoming. It really is a worship service
when we have the funeral of the believer. It's a worship service. They're with the Lord. Do you
ever really stop and sit down by yourself and think about those
who have gone? What they're doing. The fact
they're with the Lord. They're away from all these wars
and commotion and all this stuff that's going on. They're completely
gone from that. That ought to make us happy.
I know we sorrow over the loss of their company, but my soul,
what a joyful time to be with the Lord. It's a very real thing. Very real. But here we have the believer's
position until this time comes to die. He says, all the days
of my appointed time will I wait. not anxiously, not nervously. I'll wait patiently. I'll wait
in service of Him. I wait. You know, the phrase
here, all the days of my appointed time, my appointed time means
my appointed warfare. That's what it means. My appointed
warfare. We have an appointed warfare
on this earth. We are soldiers of Christ, aren't
we? Are we not styled as soldiers
of Christ in the word of God? Is he not the captain of our
salvation? Is he not the captain of the
host of the army of heaven and earth? The saints in heaven,
saints on earth, all the holy angels? Listen to Ephesians 6,
12. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood. Our warfare is not against flesh
and blood. Your warfare is not against somebody
at work that's bugging you. That's not your warfare. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places. We wrestle with things we can't see. we wrestle
with spirits we can't see it would shock us just like it did
that young man when elijah asked the lord to open his eyes and
the whole hill was full of angels flaming chariots you think it's
not the same today it's the same it hasn't changed second corinthians
10 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. We're not fighting
with, you know, we're not fighting with guns and swords and whatever. We're not fighting that. That's
not what we fight with. For the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal, but mighty through God, through the pulling down
of strongholds. What I'm doing right now is the
greatest weapon we have, preaching the gospel. It conquered you,
didn't it? It conquered me. the preaching of the gospel 1st
timothy 1 18 this charge i commit unto thee son timothy according
to the prophecies which went before on thee that thou by then
mightest war a good warfare it's a warfare he says here all the
days of my warfare on this earth whatever it be Job didn't realize
at that time Satan was behind all this. He wasn't privy to
that conversation that went on between the Lord and Satan. But
it was a war going on. There was a warfare going on
right there. Job was right in the middle of it. He was right
in the heat of the battle. We're in a warfare. While we go through this warfare,
we are waiting for our change. What do they call that in military?
Furlough. You get to go home. Your time's up. I know back when
I was in school, they had the Vietnam War going on right before
I graduated. It was four years. If you're
drafted, you get four years. And then when that was up, you
didn't read a list, you went home. We have a time in this warfare,
and think of it like this, we have a short time in this warfare
to honor the Lord Jesus Christ, to be a soldier for the cross
of Christ. And in a little while, you and
I are going to be taken off the battlefield. I think of that
every time a believer dies, I thought the first thought, one of the
first thoughts I have is they met the Lord. They see him now. But another thought I always
have is this, they're off the battlefield. When Henry passed,
I thought he's off, that old warrior is off the battlefield.
Paul said, I have fought a good fight. I have kept the faith.
And then he said, I'm ready to depart. God took him off the
battlefield. We're on the battlefield. This
is it. We'll never battle like this again, ever. And I would
that God would give us the courage to be a good soldier in this
battle, be completely sold out and committed to the captain
of our salvation. But now listen, although our
life on earth is a spiritual warfare, we are willing to fight
a good fight of faith and wait with anticipation for our change
to come. It's coming. We're willing to
wait and fight a good fight of faith while we wait until our
change comes. And for some of us, it's a lot
closer. Now, we don't know when anybody, anybody can die at any
age, we know that. I've been to plenty of funerals of all
ages. But Spurgeon said this, the young may die, but the old
must. The old must die. And so it's
not as long for some of us. But a change is coming. Listen,
and it's a positive change. It's a positive change for believers. Let's not look at it as death
and dying and departing and leaving family and leaving this. No,
it's a positive change. It's all positive. For me to
live is Christ, Paul said, and to die is gain. And he's saying
that in a business sense. It's an accounting sense. In
other words, when you put it all together, it's all a profit. It's a profit for me to die,
Paul says. It is coming. Now we know this,
we know this, and this hit me right before coming out here.
The first change that we have undergone is the new birth, born
of God. That's a change, isn't it? That's
a real change, to be born of God, to be quickened, to be made
alive in Christ, to have spiritual life, to have an interest in
Christ, to have a love for Christ, to believe on Christ. That's
a real change from what you used to be, from the way you were
born. You and I were born with an enmity in our minds toward
God. We were enemies in our minds toward God. But not now. Not now. Some of you have a real love
for Christ, don't you? You have a real love for Him.
That's a God. That's because the love of God
is shared abroad in your heart, that's why. But he says here, I'll wait till
my change comes. And he takes comfort in this.
While he suffers in this warfare, he takes comfort in this coming
change. Death is an appointed change. And I say what a change it is.
I've never, of course, you know, we haven't gone through this,
but it's gotta be, it's gotta be just an unbelievable experience.
Has to be. We change in the way we exist. We go from living in a mortal
body. You could go out here and fall
down, hit your head and die. We're so mortal. There's a thousand
things in a minute that can kill us. We're so frail, we're so
frail. Anything can just, if the Lord
allows it, can kill us. But we change in the way we exist.
We go from living in a mortal body, made from dust of the ground,
depending on water, food, air. We depend on these things to
live day by day. Because of this body, this body
depends on it. We depend on it. We're given to sickness. But when we die, We change from
that to a spiritual body that does not need any of these things
anymore. We don't need to eat. We don't
need to drink water. Christ is the water of life.
Christ is the bread of life. We have Him. He is our life. He said, I am life. I'm your
life. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear. That's it. We don't eat for this
body to live. That new body will not need food
to live. It doesn't need water. It doesn't
need these things. Christ is these things to us. He's these things to us. We don't
need Him. I can't even begin to imagine
the body that we will have. It'll be a body of flesh and
bone, just like His. I'll show you this in a minute.
It'll be a body like His. It'll be a powerful body. Powerful
body. able to, I don't even want to
get into that because that's what my head. And then listen,
we go, here's another change. We go to that unseen world. We listen and we read the word
of God. You listen to me preach every
week. We think about it sometime during the week and then we're there. One day we were
there. We go to the unseen world, to
the saints in glory, in God's holy presence. That's where we
go. And then we change in experience
from sin and sorrow, all time being molested by sin, to eternal
bliss and holiness, a state of complete righteousness where
no sin will ever enter in, no sorrow, no sadness, no tears.
Revelation 21, one through five, that's all gone. You're not going,
nobody's going to call you and say, so-and-so has got this or
got that or sick. Would you pray for them? And
that's all gone. It's gone. Then we change in the company
we keep. Here we must mingle with the unbelieving world. You
know, you'd have to go out of the world not to. But there everyone
believes the same. Everyone believes the same God.
same gospel, there are no different denominations there, there are
no different denominations, there are sinners saved by grace, they
are the ones there, those saved by grace. So we change the company
we keep, and the New Testament sheds a lot of light on this,
and I want you to turn over to 1 Corinthians 15, I was going
to read a lot more to you, but I shortened it, because I know
I won't get through all this. Look in verse 50. I was going
to start back in 35, but you go home and read that. But in
verse 50, now this, I say, brethren, that flesh and blood, you see,
Christ said, touch me, for spirit has not flesh and bone. You see, the life of the flesh,
the scripture says, is in the blood. The life of the believer
is in Christ. It's not in blood. Now this I say, brethren, that
flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, neither does
corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed. There's a real change coming
now, and it's going to come for every one of us. It's going to
happen in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump,
for the trump shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible,
and we shall be changed. He's talking to believers here.
He's writing to the Corinthians. He's not talking about a bunch
of unbelievers. Well, this corruptible, this body of corruption I have,
remember Paul said, Oh, wretched man that I am. That's what he's
talking about. This corruptible must put on
incorruption and this mortal Sin made me mortal. This mortal
must, it's an absolute must, put on immortality. I gotta lay
off the mortal. I gotta lay aside the mortal
part. God's gonna lay it aside. So when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on
immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,
Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which gives
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. A change is coming. We're gonna be changed. This
mortal is gonna put on immortality. And this corruptible, this old
corrupt body I've got, I'm gonna be given an incorruptible body.
Incorruptible. Listen here. Our bodies will
be gloriously transformed. Philippians 3, 20 and 21, listen. For our conversation is in heaven,
even now. you call on the Lord you pray
that conversation was in heaven well if we get a hold of that
that would be sobering wouldn't it from whence also we look for
the Savior the Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our vile body
it is a vile body just don't take a bath for a few days I'm serious it stinks it stinks
it's it's was it was a Martha said that Lord he's been dead
four days now and he stinketh who shall change our vile body
now listen that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body you
know he appeared and I'm not gonna get out on a branch here
but when the disciples were gathered together he appeared in the room
right there with him He appeared right there. With that body, with that body,
with that body of flesh and bones, a body you can reach out and
feel, He appeared right there in our presence. And He's going
to fashion our body like His glorious, powerful body. According to the work whereby
he is able to subdue all things to himself. How is he going to
do this? The same way he subdues everything to himself by his
power. That's how. David looked for
this change. Boy, that God would enable us
to catch this spirit and attitude all the time. Psalm 1715, As
for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be
satisfied when I awake. with thy likeness not when I
awake and see you when I wake with your likeness I get rid
of this old man it's old corruption when I wake with God's likeness
this change worth waiting for isn't it it's worth waiting for
John tells us when we see him we'll be like him he says there
in first John 3 and first john chapter 3 verse 2 beloved now
are we the sons of god i'm looking at the sons and daughters of
god some of them i'm looking at some and it does not yet appear what
we shall be this is not it this is not it but we know that when he shall
appear We shall be like him, just like him. We shall see him
as he is. And Job knowing this, he longs,
listen, he longs to be restored. and to have that unbroken fellowship
with God. See, right now he's sitting there
scraping sores. He's got maggots on him, and
he is just stinking up the place. I mean, he just putrefying sores. And he believes and feels that
God's against him for whatever reason. Not that he's going to
perish, but that God's against him. And he longs for this, this
unbroken fellowship with God. And he says here, verse 15, thou
shalt call. This is his hope. This is his
hope. I don't, you know, at this point,
Job doesn't believe he's going to come out of this. You know,
he's just going to, this is going to take him to the grave, but
he's going to go to the grave in hope. If God takes me out
like this, I've still got hope. You can see his undying hope.
Thou shalt call, and all he needs to do is call. Lazarus, do you want me to save you? He said, Lazarus, come forth.
And the dead came forth. When I preach, I preach with
this kind of hope. that the Lord will call some dead sinner out
of darkness into His marvelous light, and they'll believe. They'll come to the Lord. Like
Lazarus coming out of that grave. He had grave clothes. He was
wrapped about with grave clothes, napkin on his face, and yet he
walked out. He came out of there. And the
Lord said, Unwrap him. Loose him and let him go. Thou shalt call in John 5 28
29 marvel not at this for the hours coming into which all that
are in the graves Shall hear his voice that is the Son of
God and shall come forth They that have done good Those whom
the Lord has saved He's made them good. Oh He has wrought
all our works in us We know that we know if we do anything good.
It's the Lord in us and They shall come forth, they have done
good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done
evil unto the resurrection of damnation. But he's going to
call, and they're going to hear his voice, and they're coming
out of the grave. But Job says this, Thou shalt
call, and I will answer thee. I noticed something here, something
missing here. God called Adam, what did he
do? He went and hid. He said, I heard your voice,
and I was afraid. Job said, thou shalt call, and
I'll answer. I'll answer. He knows he's at
peace with God. He knows that. He knew he would
not be left in the grave. Job believed there would be a
resurrection. He believed there would be a
resurrection of the dead. He said, my Redeemer liveth.
Job 19, I know my Redeemer liveth, and he shall stand upon the earth
in the last days, and I shall see him in the flesh with my
eyes, and my eyes and not another. I want to see him. Now I don't
know, listen, I thought about this, I don't know that Job knew
what Paul knew. And here's what I'm saying, Job
was one of the oldest books in the Bible. Job knew that he one
day was going to die. I believe he knew he was going
to sleep in that grave, and one day God's going to call him out
of it. But then we get to the New Testament, and you and I
have more life than Job had now. We have more life. Paul said
to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
I don't know that he knew that. He knew that he was going to
sleep, and the Lord was going to call him out of that sleep,
and he would be resurrected and called up to glory. But you and
I know that to be absent from the body is to be present with
the Lord. You know, we're not going to
be in under the ground. My body is, but I'm going to
be with, and you're going to be with the Lord when he calls.
I'll answer thee. Thou will have a desire. That
word desire means yearning or panting. Can you, you can't imagine
God yearning. I can't imagine God yearning
over me. to have me in his presence. You know, however much you and
I want to keep our loved ones in our presence, we don't want
them to die. We want them to live. We want them to stay with
us. But God's desire for his children to be with him is far
greater than our desire to keep them here. And his family is
different. His family is his family. You
know, we got family members that are unbelievers. Now, we who
believe are family in Christ, but he has a desire, a yearning for us to be with him. I can't imagine that, but that's
what that word means. That's what the meaning of it
is. I will have a desire to the work of thine hands I'm a work
of your hands I'm a work of your grace I'm a work of God and God
will not forget the work of his hands or his grace listen to
Ephesians 2 10 but we are his workmanship created in Christ
Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we
should walk in them but we are his workmanship You know, you
take back in the beginning in Genesis, when God created Adam,
he created his body from the dust of the ground. Can you imagine
that sculpting that went on? That crafting, crafting the hands
and the eyes and the nose and everything, every part of the
body. He didn't just slam it together. he meticulously made
the body and it's fearfully and wonderfully made even with sin
in it look at it it's amazing well how much more those whom
he has created in christ jesus he has meticulously created us
in him we are his workmanship a believer is the workmanship
of god what the believer is and God calls us listen he calls
us from death to life we know that as Paul said to be absent
from the body be present with the Lord and someday he's gonna
call us to glory and then someday he's gonna call our bodies out
of the ground we're gonna have a new body a spiritual body if
you go back and read Corinthians 1st Corinthians 15 starting verse
35 and you'll see them as Paul breaks down those different bodies
That which is first, he said, is natural than that which was
second is spiritual. We are going to have that spiritual
body. He's going to call us to glory. And we're going to be their body,
soul and spirit. But in a more powerful, unimaginable
way. And he says, I will answer the
not afraid to answer as Adam was, but he said, I'll answer
the You'll have a desire to the work
of your hands. And when you call. Job took so much comfort in that,
in his pain. Nobody here, I've never known
anybody suffer like that. But yet while he's down there
scraping, he's got hope. And I'm going to go to the grave
in hope. I'm going to rest there. I'm going to sleep. And when
he calls, I'm going to answer and I'm going to be in glory.
And all this is going to be over. And all of that is because of
the Lord Jesus Christ. who live for Him and every one
of God's children. He lived for them, produced for
them a righteousness, shed His blood to wash away their sins,
rose for them, rose for their justification, ascended on high,
and right now He intercedes for you. You know, I've had different
ones here and different ones at other places call me and ask
me to pray for them. And I do. But there's one greater
than me that prays for you. He prays for you. And you know
one of the things he prayed for you? Do you know what it is?
John 17, Father, I will that they be with me where I am. That
they may behold my glory, the glory I had with you before the
world was. And God's going to answer that prayer. He's going
to answer that prayer. We want to fight and try to live,
and yet we're resisting. And I know now, listen, if I
get sick, I'm going to the doctor. But there comes a time to realize,
it's the Lord's will for me to be where He is. It's His will. One old preacher I was reading
this week, one old preacher, he was dying. This is supposedly
a true story. He was dying. And he was going
in and out of consciousness. And as he was going out, which
appeared to be unconscious, a friend called him back, kept calling
him, trying to wake him up. He said, God's calling me. He
said, God's calling me. Would you quit calling me back?
Would you quit? Will you quit calling me back?
Just shut up. God's calling me. I'm ready to
go home. I'm ready. I'm ready. There's a change coming. Everybody here be ready for it.
I'm looking for it. All right.