Since Christ is all, and Christ
is that river, like that river of water that came from that
rock that was smitten. That river is God's love, God's
mercy, God's grace. that's found in the Lord Jesus
Christ. His gospel ever flows our thirst
to assuage that river. Job chapter 14. Job 14. This is, as you know, the oldest
book in the Bible. Job lived around the time of
Abraham, so this book, this story is at least 4,000 years old.
And he asks some very Vital questions, the most important questions,
the questions of all questions. That no one today is asking,
or few anyway. I remember one of the brethren
preached a message on the questions that nobody's asking. And they're
asked in the book of Job, how can man be just with God? How can he be clean? That's born
of woman. Here in chapter 14, he asks that,
and then he asks in verse 14, if a man die, shall he live again? If a man die, shall he live again?
To die is certain. Shall he live again? Is there
anything after this life, the hereafter? Is there? How can we be sure? Well, Job,
this book, answers that question. If you want something to read,
start reading the book of Job. It's a very difficult book to
read, very difficult. And understand this, that some
of the things that some of those men said weren't right. It takes great wisdom. to know,
and God said that of his friends. They said some things that weren't
right. And even Job got in a hole in a pit and was
complaining. But that's all right, let's begin.
Verse 1, man that is born of a woman is a few days and full
of trouble. Why does he say man that's born
of a woman? Aren't all men born of women?
Aren't all women born of men? Well, no. The Son of God, though made of
a woman, born of a woman, made under the law, He was the begotten
of God. The only person to ever live
was not of the seed of man. Those that are born of God are
not a few days and full of trouble. They're going to live eternally
with no trouble. But every single human being
that's born of a woman is a few days and full of trouble. Those days, the few days that
we have, are full of trouble. And here's the thing too, Christ
is in all this. Christ was born of a woman, and
Scripture said, especially at Lazarus' tomb, says he groaned
in spirit and was troubled. If you read the margin, it says
he troubled himself. He knew what he was going to
do. He knew what he was doing when he came here. He knew what
he had to go through. And Scripture says, for the joy
that was set before him. But he put himself through every
trouble. that we will go through. Touched
in every point, tempted in every point as we are, without sin.
He troubled himself. Would you go through trouble
if you didn't have to? No. He did. And he's called a man
of sorrows and acquainted with grief from his youth up. And
he did that, not only as our covenant head, as Adam, but as
our Mourned of a woman, touched to the feeling of our infirmities.
He put himself through everything we could possibly go through. And for the glory of God. He
never once complained. He never got in a hole like Job.
He never cursed his day. But he blessed God every day. And he's our substitute. God
was well pleased. But we that are born of a woman
are a few days and full of trouble. Days. Just days. Turn to Psalm 91 with me. I was speaking on the phone to
a dear sister who's going through some deep, deep troubles. and
her and her husband, and I told them to read Psalm 90 and Psalm
91. Just read it. Just keep reading. But, Psalm
90, I'm sorry, Psalm 90. We're a few days, a few days
and full of trouble. In verse 4, it says, a thousand
years in thy sight, but as yesterday, when it's past, as a watch in
the night. Job, in another chapter, he said, my days are as a weaver's
shuttle. I never knew what that meant
until I went with John to J.P. Stevens. He used to work on those
looms. How many RPMs does that thing
go? It just goes so fast you can't...
It's amazing how fast it can go. And that's our year. Verse 5, Thou carriest them away
as with a flood, they're like asleep. You go to sleep and you
wake up and you're old. In the morning, they're like
grass, which groweth up. In the morning, it flourishes
and groweth up. In the evening, it's cut down. Verse 7, the days
of our years are threescore years and ten. That's 70. I think we lose sight of these
verses. I know we do. I know the world,
Scripture says, their secret thought is they're going to live
forever. 70, 75, they say 70 is a new 60 and 60
is a new 50. No, it's not. People just think they're younger
than they are. They're not. We're going to die.
We're going to die. Born to die. That's the title
of this message. I don't want this to be a morbid
message, especially to our young people at all. I want it to be
a message of hope. hope, and joy. But the fact is,
we start dying when we're born. And there have been a lot of
very young people dying. There have been some die at birth, and some
died in youth, infants. Some died in their youth, teenagers,
and on and on it goes. Young die like the old don't.
We just don't know. And here in Job, he says, God
knows, only God knows. Few days. And so that's why Psalm
91, he told us to teach us 90, teach us to number our days,
to number our day. One time I did, not too long
ago, I did, I numbered my day. I ain't got many left. Maybe
five years, maybe. If by reason of God-given strength,
80. But they're full of trouble.
Our days are full of trouble. Born to trouble. Why? Because
we're born in sin. We're born in a sinful world
with sin in us. And here's the thing, man's a
sad creature. He really is. He's born to trouble. He's born to die. He's a few
days and full of trouble. And the thing that we are born
in, that we love and pursue, that sin, is the thing that gives
us all our trouble. And it's the thing we go after
with all our zeal until God does something for it. And we cause
ourselves trouble. We're full of trouble. There's
troubles that God sends for our good. There's troubles that other
people cause us. Troubles within us. Troubles
without us. Troubles of the worst kind. Troubles
that we cause. We're just in trouble. Full of
trouble. Somebody said there are three
kinds of troubles that people think about and worry about.
Troubles we used to have. We ought to forget that. But
sometimes it's almost impossible if it was trouble you caused. And then the troubles we're in
right now and then the troubles we expect to have. Now let me
say this before I go any further. Job got down in a hole, in a
pit, in captivity to his own self-pity. And God sent Elihu,
the young preacher, to rebuke him to the Word of God. And he
did. Job cursed his day. Job was okay
until chapter 3, I believe it is. It says, then Job opened
his mouth. And that's when he got in trouble.
But I'm not being critical of Joe. Oh, no. He's a better man
than I am. And I haven't gone through what
he went through. I'm not being critical of Joe.
But I do know this, that if we dwell on our troubles, we'll
stay deep in a hole. And that's part of our trouble.
Our troubles get worse when we dwell on them. Whereas, if we'd
be more thankful, Paul was in prison when he said, in everything,
give thanks. Paul and Silas, you remember, they were in prison.
They'd just been beaten. You're talking about troubles.
He said, Brother Silas, let's start singing of the mercy and
the grace of God. Our God is so good to us. These
are light afflictions compared to what our Lord and Savior went
through for us. Let's sing, Brother Silas. And they did. You know
what? Their troubles temporarily went away. So that's part of our trouble,
dwelling on our troubles. Well, let me get off our trouble.
But go on, it says in verse 2, he comes forth like a flower,
he's cut down. You know, the flowers, we love
the flowers. Many of us plant flowers. It seems as you know,
you plant annuals. We love annuals. They don't last
a year. Some of them don't last a month. Morning glory. Don't you love
morning glory? That's a good picture, isn't it? Bride in the
morning, then they're gone. Where'd they go? Where'd they
go? That's man. That's all of us.
And cut down, fleeth as a shadow. You know, a shadow is never in
one place very long at all. A shadow is always moving. Shadow. And continueth not. Doesn't God?
This is the oldest book in the Bible. You know where David got
Psalm 8, where he said, what is man that thou art mindful
of him? He got it from Job. David read the books of Moses,
David read Job, David read Ruth's prayer, Hannah's prayer. He says, and does thou open thine
eyes with such a one and bring me into judgment with thee? What
is man that thou art mindful of him? What is the son of man
that he would even think on and visit him? Verse 4, who can bring a clean
thing out of an unclean? Not one. Not one. You see, God doesn't get a clean
thing out of this old sinner. He has to kill this old sinner.
He has to create a new creature. He doesn't bring a clean thing
out of an unclean. He puts away the unclean thing.
and creates a clean new man. Not one. Nobody can change a leopard's
spots, an Ethiopian's skin. He can't do it. So he has to
make a new creature, then. Create it in Christ Jesus. Verse
5. See his days. Man's days are
determined. The number of his months are
with God. Thou hast appointed his bounds
that he cannot pass. Turn from him, turn from him
that he may rest. His days are determined, days. Number of his months are with
the Lord, determined. When you read people this verse,
when you quote this verse, they say, that's fatalism. No, it's
not. It's fact. It's truth. It's God. It's our
God who works all things after the counsel of His will, known
unto God all His work from the beginning of the world. This
is God who has predestined and predetermined every single thing,
down to the hairs on our head. And what comfort this is. What
comfort this gives us that our days are determined, the number
of our months are with the Lord. And the instrument, whatever
it is, that God is going to use to kill us. And it's God that's
going to kill us, not things. These things are like a sword
or something in His hand, but He's the one that does the killing.
He said so. And for that reason, we shouldn't
fear a thing. We should fear God. Our Lord
said that. Don't fear Him, man. He kills
the body, which is not man anyway. It's God. Read Psalm 17 for yourself. It says man is His sword. Not one single person has ever
died of anything that God didn't send it. That's hope. That's comfort. It's not fatalism. That's comfort. That's faith,
not fatalism. But our days are determined with
God, the number of our months are with thee, maybe year, days,
certainly, maybe months, maybe years. We cannot pass that. Well, if you eat right, you can
make... No. And if you think that, God may
try you on it. Whatever it is you trust, whatever we trust,
God may try you on it. I've seen Him do that with His
people. He gives strong delusions to
the world, you know. Look at me, I'm 80, I'm 90 years
old. What? Because I do this, because I
do that. And he lets them keep on, keep on. Strong delusion. And just heaping up wrath, that's
what they're doing. Turn from Him. When God turns,
this is Psalm 92, Moses. I wrote this in Psalm 90, that
God turns from him and his days are gone. I read this to a dear
brother, it says that the God in whose hands our breath is, that he determines when he stops
our breath, and that he may rest till he has, verse 6, till he
rests and accomplishes his day as a hireling. Who do we take
orders from? Who do we work for? A hireling.
We work for somebody. Who are we serving? Well, whether
we know it or not, we're serving God's purpose. We're His instruments. Yes, we are. Everybody is. Everything is, whether they know
it or not. Like hirelings. And when our
day is done, when God's through with using us for whatever purpose
it is He's using, it's over. It's over. And we need, by His
grace, to find out. You know how we can best serve
him. Verse 7, there's hope of a tree if it be cut down and
it will sprout again, that the tender branch thereof will not
cease, though the root thereof wax old in the earth and the
stalk thereof die in the ground, yet through the scent of water
it will bud and bring forth boughs like a plant. There's definitely
an application of Christ here and he's that tree of life. It
was cut down. Roots out of dry ground. Isaiah
53. It grew up. It was a tender plant.
Yet he was cut down. And he didn't die. I mean, he
did die, but yet he lived forever. But in the context here, Job
is asking can a man live, or a tree, you cut a tree down and
it might just start growing again. Poplars are pretty, however you
want to, good or bad about that. We cut a bunch of poplars down
and man, it won't be any time until the sprouts come up. I've
known, we planted some locust posts. Ron, you know anybody?
been out in the country. Locust post, you plant one in
the ground, I mean you cut that post down, you plant it in the
ground, a fence post, and it starts sprouting. If there's
water, there's hope of a tree. What about man? And he goes on
to say, man dieth, verse 10, and wasteth away. Man giveth
up the ghost. Giving up the ghost. People are
all Take it up with ghosts and spirits. Ghost is a biblical
word. It's not quite a silly cartoon
character. It's a biblical word. It's another
word for the spirit. Interestingly, all four Gospels
say Christ gave up the ghosts. All four Gospels. When he bowed
his head, he gave up the ghosts. All four Gospels. Men toys with and and trifles
with and makes a cartoon out of a serious thing. But there's a spirit in it. Well,
he gives up the goat. Where is he? Sleep is a strange
thing. It's a wonderful thing and yet
a strange thing. Here we are, active, our brains
working and talking and mouth really working. We're talking
and doing things and that and the other and you get tired.
God's so good. We get tired and we lay down
and fall asleep. And you're not thinking, you're
not talking, you're not moving. It's strange isn't it? That's
proof right there. That we have a spirit, a soul,
something that animates this body. That when this body lays
down, where are we? Huh? We're still living somewhere. Okay, that's proof of it. Man gives up the ghost, and Job
goes on to say, man wastes away as the waters fail from the sea,
and they will someday, and the flood decayeth and dryeth up,
man lieth down and riseth not till the heavens be no more.
They shall not wake, nor be raised out of sleep. Job has been, his
body has been in the grave 4,000 years. Job, where is it? You couldn't find one atom of
his body left anywhere. Not one particle of dust is left
of his body. 4,000 years. We're going to read at the end
of this how God's going to bring it all back together. God made
everything out of nothing. He took the dust. What do you
make out of it? Dust thou art and dust thou shalt return. And
every single person, though they're ashes or dust, they're scattered
to the wind, you can bring it all back together. And if we're
still around, and I'm getting ahead of myself, but I can't
help it. I want to. This hope, Job is
bemoaning himself. Job is down in a hole here. Oh, oh, oh, oh, Job, let's get
to our hope real fast, okay? Our chain. I determined that. I said, I'm not going to dwell
on our troubles, I'm going to dwell on our hope. And so, how many billions, if
not trillions, of persons have died and been laid in the grave?
Everybody died. How many? The very dirt we're
walking on right now is people. That's right. Now look at this. Verse 13, that
thou wouldest hide me in the grave. Hide me, O my Savior,
hide, till the storms of life be past. Do you know what Colossians
said? I can't wait to get to this.
Here's what Paul said in the book of Colossians. Listen to
this. He said, you're dead and your life is hid with Christ
in God. Somebody died 2,000 years ago
and we died with Him. Jesus Christ. Buried with Him. Crucified with Him. Buried with
Him. Risen with Him. Seated. You say, I wasn't born
yet. I know it. But we're in His heart, in His
mind, in Him from the very beginning. He says in verse 13, he says,
oh, that thou wouldest hide me in the grave. Oh, we're dead
and our life is hid with God in Christ and that thou wouldest
keep me secret. David one time said, remember
not the sins of my youth. Keep back thy servant from presumptuous
sins, secret sins. No, your sins are secret. They're
hidden. They're covered. They're forgotten.
They won't be brought to mind. God said so, didn't He? Their
iniquities, I don't remember no more. They're gone. They're
gone. Job, they're gone. Read on. It says in verse 13, Till thy
wrath be passed, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time. For what,
Job? To arise and remember me. Lord, would you remember me? And you come back for all your
people. Job's desire, his heartfelt desire was, would you remember
me? You remember somebody else saying that? Did God remember
Job? Yeah. Will He remember those
who ask Him to? Yes, He will. I remind you of
one of the worst fellows who ever lived. A thief on the cross. He never did one good thing in
his life. born of a woman and born to trouble, and all he did
was cause people trouble. Lived in sin, died a sinner,
and his last words, Lord, remember me. And the next words he heard was,
today. Today, shalt thou be with me
in paradise. What's it take for the Lord to
remember you? I'm just asking. What's it take for the Lord to
hide your sins? Just ask Him. Keep them secret. Just ask Him. Point me a set
time. There is a set time. Verse 14,
if a man dies, shall he live again? Shall he live again? How do we know the answer to
that question? Job, he believed it. He lived by faith. He did. He lived by faith. He believed.
All the Old Testament saints, they had the same faith we do.
They looked to the Christ who was to come. They believed the
same God we believe. They had the same hope in His
mercy, in His grace, in His forgiveness of sin through the blood of a
lamb. They all had the same faith as we do. They looked to a Christ
that was coming. We look to a Christ that did
come and is coming again. Same faith. One Lord, one faith.
Our Lord said, Abraham saw my day. He was glad. It says Moses
wrote with me. To Him give all the prophets
witness. Every believer from time, every sinner since Abel
was saved one way. That's Jesus Christ. He said,
I'm the way. Though He wasn't born yet as
a man, yet He was the Lamb slain before the foundation. How do
we know? Now Job believed by faith. We can know by facts. Not just faith, but by fact.
Not only from the Word of God, the promises of God, but God
was manifest in the flesh. God became a man. His name was
Jesus. He's called the Christ. He lived
on this earth as a man. Sunday's message are those three
broad facts. Do you remember that? Three broad
facts. His existence in history cannot
be denied. Nobody can deny it. Can't if
they want to. The calendar, men can't get away
from the calendar. A.D. and B.C., A.D. and the year of our Lord. His
existence in history cannot be denied. Okay? What he did cannot
be denied. His word, they can't put it away.
The things that he's done, undeniable. Okay? And they said he rose from
the grave, and there were 500 people at one time said they
saw him. 500 people. Now, there's lots of liars, but
500 people get together. We saw him. But like the song says, you ask
me how I know he lives? I just spoke to him this morning.
Did you? Did he speak to you? I'm beholding His glory right
now, as we speak. Aren't you? How else can you account for
this? This is not dead religion. It's the living Lord, His living
stone, living stones. How do we know that man will
live again? Because of Jesus Christ. If a man could just,
the people say, if somebody could just come back from the grave
and tell us, he did. He did. He did. But his people know,
they believe. So here's what Job said. If a
man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed
time will I wait, till my change come. It's a song of Job 19.
Job 19. You know we've got to read this.
Job 19. And after they talked some more,
Job said this. Well, I know this. Job came to
this conclusion. Job chapter 19. He said in verse 23, Oh, that
my words were written. They were printed in a book,
Job. They are, and we're reading them. Bless God, we're reading
them, Job. That they were graven with an
iron pen and laid in the rock forever. Job, they are. The rock, that rock is crying.
He is the Word, Job. Made flesh. Verse 25, Job says,
I know that my Redeemer liveth. See, there's only been one Redeemer.
That's Jesus Christ. Job knew Him. Job knew Him. And Job believed in Him that
was to come. I know He liveth and He shall
stand at the latter day upon the earth. And so after my worms destroy
this body, 2,000 years later, his body was totally gone. The
worms had eaten it up. Yet he says, in my flesh, I'm
going to see God. He's going to raise my flesh.
I'm going to see him for myself. Verse 27. Mine eyes shall behold
him, not another, though my reins be consumed within me. If a man dies, shall he live
again? Job says, yes, he will. And I'm going to just wait until
my chains come. Verse 15 in our text. Don't you
love this? He said, thou shalt call. Lazarus,
come forth. John Sheasley, come home. And you'll come home. Or John
Sheasley, rise from the grave. The day he calls will be a glorious
day, won't it? Like the day he called us from
death unto life, from darkness to light. How do you know he's
going to call you? I'll tell you how. Here's what
Peter said, give diligence to make your calling An election,
sure. Can you know that you're one
of the elect? Yeah. Yes, you can. Yes, you can. Yes, you can. Here's what Paul said. Now go
over to 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians. Here's what
Paul, the apostle, wrote. He said in chapter 1, knowing,
verse 4, Brethren, beloved, your election of God Because our gospel
came unto you. See, this is how He calls us.
This is how you're born of God. This is how you're born again.
Our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power,
life-giving power, and the Holy Ghost and much assurance. He
became followers of us, received the Word with much affliction,
and so forth. Go over to chapter 4. Chapter 4, you were called. Who the Lord calls from the grave
in that day when He comes are those He called from the grave
by the Gospel. Right? That's who He's going
to call. That's who's going to be with
Him. That's who He's going to call forth. into his marvelous
kingdom. Now look at this. This is wonderful.
And then we'll turn to 1 Corinthians 15. We'll close. The 1 Thessalonians
4, verse 14. We believe that Jesus died and
rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus. Not die. They don't die. Our
Lord said they don't die. They sleep. Rest, eternal rest. God's going to bring them with
him. Don't you love thinking about that? that a multitude
of heavenly hosts, all our beloved, if we're still here when Christ
comes, all those we've known and loved that's gone before
us are going to come with him. Wouldn't you want to? We're going
to get, we're going to get midday. Your dad and mom says, let me
come too. Let's just everybody go. Let's
everybody go. It's going to be a joyous reunion.
They're going to come with him. And George and Margaret, Ed and
Joyce, all of them with us. Read on. It says, verse 15, This
we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive
and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent or
go before them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, Like, you know, they talk about a secret
rapture. Every eye shall behold Him, it
says. There's lightning from one end of the heaven to the
other. There's a shout, a trumpet. That's not very secret, is it?
It says they're going to call for the rocks and the hills to
hide them from the face of Him. We're already hidden in it. Verse
15, the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel. Michael, the archangel, what's
he going to say? The bridegroom cometh, and whoever the bride is is going
to run to meet him with the trump, the trump of God. And he said,
the trump shall sound. Oh boy, like a Rahab hearing
those trumps. It chills up her spine. The dead
in Christ shall rise first. If we're still here to see this,
we're going to see our brethren come out of the graves in their
new body. And we which are alive and remain shall be caught up
together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
So shall we ever be with the Lord. Comfort one another with
these words. 1 Corinthians 15. You know these
verses. This is just wonderful. Job says,
he's going to call me. Call me from the grave. And I
will answer thee. Look at 1 Corinthians 15. It
says in verse 51, Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all
sleep, but we shall all be changed. Oh, don't you look forward to
that. We lay down this body of death. 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. We shall be changed. A glorified body. And this corruptible
must put on incorruption. We must die and this mortal must
put on immortality. But when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on
immortality, then shall be brought to pass that wonderful, blessed
saying in Isaiah 25, death is swallowed up in victory. Death
is so sad. I've been thinking lately that
we're going to have some funerals here. We've got to start having
some funerals. We've got some old people. We're
going to have some funerals. We've got more old people than
young. We're going to start burying some people. But death is swallowed
up in victory. Swallowed up in victory. Oh,
death, we're all going to sing it and shout it. Oh, death, where
is thy sting? Oh, it hurts so bad. Oh, grave,
where is thy victory? While the sting of death is sin,
strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, sin has
been put away. He's given us a victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ. He brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. And so Job says, and I love this,
Job says, I'm going to wait. Till my change come, he's going
to call and I'll answer. I'm here. And Job says, thou
wilt have a desire to the work of thy hand. Where did that come from? Well,
I think Isaiah got that from him. Where Isaiah said, he shall
see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. You'll see
what He has done. He shall perfect that which concerns
Him. And that's the work of His hands. Great salvation given
to our Lord Jesus Christ in His hands, which He accomplished
for all His people. And He's not going to lose one
person that He came to save. Like he did with the gospel,
he's going to call them back from the grave. He's not going to
leave you. He's going to remember you. You have his word on you. Okay, stand with me. Our Lord
and Savior, thank you so much. These are just a few words in
a vast ocean of thy fullness, which is thy gospel, which is
so great salvation that is in Jesus Christ our Lord. We glory,
we marvel. In your blessed word, we take
great comfort and hope in these words. Oh, you've given us many
exceeding precious promises that we might escape this corruption. And we thank you. We thank you
for what we know. And we want to grow in grace
and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh Lord, send thy
word to our hearts and minds and souls. Let us be rooted and
grounded in it and comforted by it and walk according to it.
For our comfort and for your glory. Until we meet again, we
give thanks in Christ's name. Amen.