You know, we dealt with this
last week when asked the question, what is man? You know, man is
born of a woman, is a few days and full of troubles. And tonight,
we wanna look at a question, starting at verse 14. We left
off last week with him, God taking him to the grave. And he asked
this question, if a man die, shall he live again? All the
days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come. Thou
shalt call and I will answer thee. Thou will have a desire
to the work of thine hands. For now thou numbest my steps.
Doest thou not watch over my sin? My transgressions are sealed
up in a bag, thou sowest up mine iniquity. And surely the mountain
falling cometh to naught, and the rock is removed out of his
place. The waters were the stones, thou washest away the things
which grow out of the dust of the earth, and thou destroy the
hope of man. Thou prevailest forever against
him, and he passes thou changes his countenance, and sendeth
him away. His sons come to honor, and he knoweth not. They are
brought low, but he perceiveth it not. But his flesh upon him
shall have pain, and him soul within him shall mourn. You know,
Job asked the question, if a man dies, shall he live again? There
are some questions not worth asking. That's why Paul said,
you know, don't give heed to endless fables and endless genealogies. And when they are answered, nobody's
better off for knowing the answer to it. There's no profit in it.
But there's some questions that are asked that the answers to
them will have eternal consequences to them. Some eternal, soulful,
needful questions. One of the questions is, how
shall a man be just with God? How can man be just with God? You ever find the answer to that
question, you know the gospel. You know the gospel. And then
he asked this question, David did. He said, what is man, Lord?
What is man that you're mindful of him? What is man that you're
mindful of him? And here's one of those questions
that people, everybody, sooner or later, ask themselves this
question. whether they know God or whether
they don't. But here's one of those questions that everybody
asks. If a man die, shall he live again? If a man die, will
he live again? And this is something that people
ask from their hearts. They ponder it, they debate it,
they argue about it. Some say that when life is over,
you're just like an animal, you cease to exist. Some people say,
you know, that they have soul sleep. But most majority believe
that there's not no way in the world that God could send a man
to hell or whatever. But I do know this, will a man
live again after his body, after his body has been dissolved and
disintegrated into the dust? When he's been put in the ground
and he goes back to dust and his bones are gone and there
ain't nothing left of him, shall he live again? Shall he live
again? Will he live again after he's
disappeared off this earth? Is there a life beyond this veil
that you and I live in? Will a man live again after he
draws his last breath? Or will he just cease to exist?
That's why I ask this question, will a man live again? But the
question that should be asked, should be asked, will I live?
Will I live? If I have life in Christ, I'll
live again. Everybody's gonna live again.
It's the quality of life that man's gonna have. The question
should be, will I live? Steve read last tonight, back
in the study, John 14. He told the disciples, he said,
I'm going away. And the world ain't gonna see
me again, but you're gonna see me. You're gonna see me. And he said, because I live,
I live, even though the world will assume me, because I live.
I've left this world, I'm sitting in God's right hand. I've went
through the grave, I've went to the cross, I went through
the grave, and I've left this world, and I'm sitting down in
God's right hand. And he said, because I'm living,
I'm living, you're gonna live too. And so will a man live again? Look over at Psalm 88 with me. Psalm 88. You know it's a, in verse 10, oh will I live? Oh yes, everybody
in this building's gonna live on. But it's a question of where
we will live and the life that we'll have after this life. God,
David asked this question. Wilt thou show wonders to the
dead? If a man is dead, will you show him wonders? Shall the
dead arise and praise thee? Yes, they will. The Lord's people
will. Yes, they will. And there's only
one place to find this question and to answer this question.
You can't get it in philosophy. No, no, you can't get it in philosophy.
And I want you to turn with me to Acts chapter 17. Look over
here in Acts 17. This is what I'm talking about. The question is, shall we live?
Now here's the thing. Every soul that's ever brought
into this world, whether they live an hour, or whether they
live a hundred years, every soul's gonna live on somewhere. Men
are gonna live on. And when it says, you know that
there's a, when Christ talked about hell, where the fire never
is quenched, and the worm never dies, Now when he talks about
the fire that's never quenched, he's talking about the wrath
of God that's never ever through upon men that die without Christ. The fire of God's judgment just
beats on them, and their womb, that conscience that they have,
will always eat on their conscience and all that they did to bring
them to this place. They'll actually justify God
in those days. And I tell you then that another
side of it is, that if we have Christ, and Christ has us, if
Christ bought us by his precious blood, and if he saved us by
his powerful, blessed, effectual grace, and has done something
for us in our heart and soul, we will live again. In fact,
this body will go to the grave, but the spirit will go to Christ,
who gave it. But the thing is, it's just,
yes, every man is going to live somewhere, and he's going to
live eternally. That rich young, that dives that
was in hell, he didn't ask to get out. He just asked for some
water. Just asked for some water. And
I, here's the thing, I tell you what, can the dead, you show
wonders to the dead? Dead sinners he does, when he
gives them life, he shows them wonders. He shows the wonder
of his grace, the wonder of his power, the wonders of his love,
the wonders of his blood. And shall the dead arise and
praise thee? Yes, one of these days we will,
we'll arise and praise him. We certainly will. But look what
it said here. In verse 18, Paul's disputing
with a bunch of Jews in the market. And then in verse 18 of Acts
17, then certain philosophers of the Epicureans of the Stoics
encountered him and some said, what will this babbler say? That's
what they call Paul, a babbler. He's a babbler. He's not a preacher,
he's not an apostle. That's what the world thinks
of people that preach the gospel. And other some, he seemeth to
be a center-forth of a strange God. Why is he a priesthood when they
said he's a strange God? Because he preached unto them
Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought
him unto Erebus, saying, May we know this new doctrine whereof
thou speakest this? For thou bringest certain strange
things to our ears, and we would know therefore what these things
mean. Boy, wouldn't you love somebody to pick you up and ask
you them kind of questions? Oh, wouldn't it be something?
And Paul stood up. He said, you fellows are all
superstitious, but the unknown God I'm going to make known to
you. And that's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about that
he says that he preached unto them the resurrection, that there
was life, that Christ was dead, but Christ lives. And I tell
you, because of the resurrection of Christ. And then we read there
tonight, Brad read it, when they said, you know, tell us what
authority you do these things. He said, you tell us of John,
where'd he got his authority? And they reasoned. They began
to reason things out. Can you find out whether you
got life or not by your reason? They began to reason. Said, if
we say he's of God, then they'll say, well, why didn't we believe
him? And if we say he's just a man,
then we're afraid of the people because they all says he's a
prophet. So they say, well, we don't know. So they figure out
a way to get out of it. They reasoned. Can you get life
by reasoning like that? No, no, life comes by union and
because of Christ and what he'd accomplished. Only in the gospel
is the answer. That's why Paul said, I mean,
when our Lord Jesus stood outside Lazarus too, he said, Lazarus,
come forth. And you know what? The dead heard
him, dead came forth and he saw the wonders of Christ. And the
dead praised him from then on. That man was dead, praised him.
And that's the exact, that's why Paul said, behold, I show
you a mystery. We're not gonna all die, but
we'll all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. And
then back over here in Job, look what else it says now. Oh, if a man dies, shall he live
again? He said again there in verse 14. Said, all the days
of my appointed time will I wait till my change shall come. What
are we going to do about this life that we're going to enter
into? What are we going to do about living again? Well, we're
going to have to do like everybody else does, wait. That's why Job
said, I'm waiting. I've got an appointed time. I've
got an appointed time. And there's going to be a day
that my change will come. I'll be changed from this body
to a given new body. I'll come out of the grave. And
look what he says. I'm going to have to just wait.
I'll wait. I'll wait. Brother Henry Mahan
used to pray every day for years and years and years. Lord, let
me wake up with you in the morning. Got old and got feeble. I want
to be with you. He said, Paul said, Paul, why
in the world are you leaving me here so long? He said, you're
just going to have to wait, Dad. You're just going to have to
wait until your time. And that's what we all have to do. We just
have to wait. Wait. Oh my, until my change
come and my discharge come. And you know when the end will
come? when you're appointed time. Let us wait. Let us wait in readiness. Our Lord said, watch. Let us
wait in calm confidence and wait in hope. Hope, blessed hope. And I'll tell you what, look
what he said in verse 15. He said, you gonna call. Oh,
after I die, my appointed time's come. You gonna call. You know
what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna answer. When he calls, believe me, you'll
answer. Whether you're in the grave or
whether you're on the earth. When he calls, he says, when
you call, Lord, I'll answer. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and who calls us to approach unto thee. And he said,
oh, when my time comes, till my change come, he said, you
called, I'll answer. And he said, you know what? You're
going to have a desire. You desire to bring us out of
the grave. You desire to have us go through
this day. It's your desire, your will,
and your power to see to the work of your hands. This work
is what you did. It's the work of your hands.
And Lord, you will pay attention to it. And you will have appointed
time for it. And when you call us, we're going
to answer. We're going to answer. We just can't get our mind around
things like that. We just can't. We got too much
of this with us. Just can't get our mind around
it. Oh, we're the works of his hands. Philippians 1, 6 says,
God that begat a good work in you. When God begins a work in
you, it's a good work. It's an eternal work. It's a
work of grace. It's a work of power. It's a
work of mercy. And God began a good work, and
it's a good work. Everything God does is good.
And He said, and He will perform that work. We're confident He'll
perform that work unto the day that we appear with the Lord
Jesus Christ. Huh? Oh my. Oh, He has an interest
in us. You called, I'm gonna answer.
You called, I'm gonna answer. Oh my. And then look what else
we find out about God. In verse 16, He said, for now
thou numbers my steps. Until I leave this world, you
got my steps numbered. I've got so many steps. Over, I believe it's in Kings,
I don't know exactly, but there's a fella named Caesarea. Anyway,
a man told him one time, there's nothing but a step between you
and death. A step. And we had God's numbered
our steps. How many steps you reckon we
got in this world? I got this Fitbit and it tells
me how many steps I make a day. You know how many he made the
other day? 1,300 and something, almost 14,000
steps in one day. And guess what? God counted every
single one of them. That just goes to show you how
interested he is in us. He let a miniature of feet hit
the floor. He knows how many steps you're
going to take that day. And you know He's counted our steps from
the day we started walking as babies. When we took our first
step, until we step in glory, we have so many steps. And He
said, I've got them numbered. He said He numbers the areas
of our head. Now He tells us His numbers are steps. We may be much slower in steps.
Our steps may be much slower, much smaller. It's much shorter, but God's
got them numbered. And then look what he says. Dost
thou not watch over my sin? He said, you've even looked at
my sin. You've even looked at my sin.
You saw my sin. You saw my sin. You saw my sin. All of it. That means that God's
watching every step we take, every thought we think, every
motive we have, everything that goes on in our life. He knows
it. And oh my, do you watch over
my transgression? And then look what he says now.
He says, you took all of them and you sealed them up in a bag.
Sealed them up. And you sewed up all my iniquity.
Got them all together and put them somewhere else. So many things tells us about
our sins being gone. He said he said you wash my sins
and then when you rest them just put them all in a bag and You
sealed it you sealed it Shona's got this machine and when we
she buys a bunch of stuff she got this machine she can She
puts this in his plastic bag and sucks all the air out of
it, and seals it real good. That's what God did with our
sin. He put it in a bag, and when
God seals something, it ain't gonna get out. And he ain't gonna open the bag,
and when we get to the end of the way, and we get to the end,
he's not gonna open the bag and say, look what a mess you made
out of everything. He's not gonna do that. That bag's sealed up,
and we're not wearing that, but it's sewed up. Sewed up, oh my. Oh, I'll tell you, sewed up in
a bag. I'll tell you, oh, what a wonderful,
wonderful thing. And all our sin, God noticed
every one of them, and then he took all away, but if he And
this is the thing about it, from one outside of Christ, and even
knows us as a believer. Here's the thing about it, when
God brings the evidence against you, you better believe me, he's
got it. And so he had all this evidence
against us, and he took all that evidence that was against us,
and he put all that evidence that was against us, all of our
guilt, all of our sin, all of our transgressions, all our,
and he charged him to the son of his blessed son. And now, now we say, who shall
lay any charge, charge to the God's elect? Who's gonna condemn
us? It's Christ that died. And then
there's gonna be an end to all things. Look what it says here.
There's gonna be an end to all things. Look what it says in
verse 18. And surely the mountains falling comes to naught. He said, these great big mountains
out here that everybody, we stand in awe and wonder at them. The
mountains coming, falling, they'll come as to nothing. And the rocks
removed out of his place. He said, God's gonna move everything,
he's gonna destroy all of this. He said, it ain't gonna amount
to that, great big mountains always melt. He said, when they
fall, they won't amount to nothing. The rocks gonna be removed out
of his place. And he says, the waters wear the stones. The waters
wear the stones. And then look what else he says,
and you wash away the things which grow out of the dust of
the earth. And I tell you, when he talks about washing the dust
that comes from things that come from the dust of the earth, do
you know how many things has been on this earth that don't
exist anymore? I know over at Jumpin' Branch,
Some of you may know where that's at. It's over close to Clifty,
but there used to be a big community there, and a big meeting house,
and they'd have pie suppers, and they'd have revival meetings
in that building. And Mary's grandmother, she lived
real close to that, had a real nice house and she'd walk down
there. And then if you went over to Clifty, Clifty liked one vote,
weren't a house there, two houses or three houses, one vote. Come
one block, one vote, then they voted the capital of Tennessee. Because that's how prosperous
it was back in the days. They called it the tie box. They
was bringing timber out of there. They had a train coming through
there. I mean, that place was booming.
Coal was being dug out of the ground. And now there ain't nothing in
neither one of those places. Absolutely nothing. You couldn't
tell anybody was ever there. You know why? God took it back
to the dust. That's what it's gonna be for
us one of these days. Well, these days, 100 years from now, they
say, wasn't there a place, you know, that used to be over some
such thing? I seem like somebody told me
about that. Who all lived over? Well, there was a bunch of folks
from what I understand. None of them live right now.
But that's how life changes. That's how life changes. He washed
away so many flowers. You know how many trees have
been washed off the earth? How many forests have been just
ripped back to the dust? How many birds and fish and cattle
on a thousand hills have lived and then they're gone? And they
come out of the dust of the earth and they all went right back
to the dust of the earth. And God said He just washed them
away, just washed them away. And then look what He says about
man. Now this is talking about an earthly hope here, and thou
destroyest the hope of a man. You know, you know what motivates
people, moves people to achieve things is hope. Hope. He hopes that I'll be able to
get up tomorrow and I'll do better tomorrow than I did today. And
it motivates man to achieve. And then time begins to wear
a man down and he's hope with him. He's hope with him. You
think about all of the wealth that's been accumulated. All the great cities that existed.
All the great art that's been produced. All the great literature
that's been written. All the great kingdoms that existed. Man's hope caused him to accomplish
all of these things. I'm going to make a painting
that's going to sell for millions one of these days. That's his
hope. Another one says, I'm going to start a company, and I'm going
to have all kinds of people working, and they have this whole, and
they motivate them to achieve things, and to accomplish things. And yet, when it's all said and
done, they're gone. They're gone, huh? Everything
they accomplished is dissolved and decaying and wearing out. How many great cities? Let's
go through the Bible. There's Babylon. There was four kings in Babylon.
There's Darius, Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and what was the
other ones? Three great kings. Rule the world. Rule the known world. Go find
Babylon now. What about the Greek Empire? Alexander the Great come from
there and he conquered the whole world when he was 29 years old. And what about Rome? You can
go to England right now and you can go see roads that the Romans
built in England. You can see baths that the Romans
built. You can see aquabats that the
Romans built. And now Rome is just a little old bitty
city in Italy. Huh? What about Nineveh? Oh my. God said all these folks
have all this hope. And he said he destroys it. If
your hope, if your hope's not in Christ, you've got no hope
whatsoever. None. And then look what he says
in verse 20. He says, you prevail forever
against him. You know, Scott Richardson used
to say, you know, if you're going to
fight God, you're going to get your gun out against God. You just
well put it up, stack it up. That's what it says here. You're
not going to prevail against God. That's what he's saying.
You prevail against man forever. You prevail against him. You
know, who in the world can God not, can He prevail over me?
Can He prevail over you? He certainly did prevail over
me. Did He prevail over you? Did His power prevail over you?
Did His authority prevail over you? Is that your motive? Is
that your desire? For Christ to prevail over you? He said here, God prevails forever
against man and his false hopes. And He passes. He passes by. And you'll change His countenance.
And when I tell you what, you'll change His countenance. He'll
go from being young to old. And then look what he's saying.
And then you send him away. You just send him away. You send
him away. I don't want you. I don't want
you in my presence anymore. I'm gonna put you away. Send you
away. Send you away. And then look what happens. You
know, he prevails forever against man. For all time, men come and
go. He may be big, he may be strong,
he may be a powerful politician, he may be a billionaire, but
one thing about him, he passes and he changes. And God said,
get out of my sight, get away from me. And I'll tell you, he
changes his countenance. Tell you something about how
men change their countenance? Cheeks that were once rosy get
ghostly white. Eyes that used to sparkle, They
get glazed over. Lips that once kissed and spoke
are now frozen and motionless. Thou sendest him away, put his
body in the grave. But the question is, where's
he spend eternity at? Is he spending it with God or
with the devil? But look what else he says now.
Then look about what happens to his children. After he's gone,
God sends him away. God puts him in the grave. Job
started out asking, will a man live again? So he's been talking
about this. And he said, his son's come to
honor. He said, he don't know nothing about it. Absolutely
don't know anything about it. He's gone, he don't know anything.
His son's come to honor, he don't know it. Or they're brought low,
and he don't know that either. He don't perceive anything about
what's happening to his children. Oh my, he doesn't know it with
him. I'll tell you, there's an end to all things. And I'll tell
you this, but his flesh upon him, his children. Now he's talking
about his children, but his flesh upon him shall have pain, and
his soul within him shall one day mourn. You know, worldliness
is foolishness. And I want you to turn, and I'm
gonna close with 2 Corinthians chapter 5. St. Corinthians chapter 5. Of all
the value in this world, there's nothing, nothing to be valued
and nothing more precious, nothing more blessed than the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's worth more than 10,000 worlds
like this one. Everything that's in this world
will one day be gone, be washed away. And if a man dies, shall
he live again? And yes, he will. Yes, he will. But
look what he said here in 2 Corinthians 5.1. For we know that if our
earthly house of this tabernacle, this tent, were dissolved, we
have a building of God. This is a worldly house. A clay pot. We have a building
of God. God's building. A house. This earthly house is dissolved.
But God built a house for us. A house not made with hands. And listen, how long is it gonna
last? Eternal in the heavens. For in this we go on. Oh Lord,
close upon us with our house which is from heaven. Oh, closes,
closes, closes, closes. Huh? Oh my. So go ahead, go back
to the dust. Go back to where you come from.
You know, with the coming of this world, nothing we gonna
leave with it. But oh my, if you, we have the Lord Jesus Christ,
and he has us. You see, that's the thing about,
I and my beloveds, and my beloved's mine. H.E. James says, every
time he say, boy, we got to have him, don't we, Donny? I said,
yes, we do. But here's another side of it.
He has to have us too. He has to have us too. He has
to have us too. And Lord, have me, just have
me. Have me, have me, have me, oh
Lord. You think about God in Christ
having us, having us. Our Father, thank you for another
service, for another worship, for another time to look in your
blessed, blessed word. Oh Lord, I pray that you was
honored. I pray you is magnified. I pray your saints was blessed. Lord, we've got such a thing
to look forward to. Oh God, our life, our future,
our future is perfect. Our future is so glorious. This
old earthly tent, this old tabernacle, it's dissolving away, Lord. It's
just dissolving away day by day, month by month, year by year.
But Lord, you got us a building, a house already made for us.
a place to dwell, where this old body will have a new, and
this building that you built for us, Lord, is eternal in the
heavens. Thank you for that blessed hope
you give us. Oh, if a man dies, shall he live again? Lord, we
live now. We live because you're the resurrection,
because you're the life. We live because you gave us life. We live because united to you,
we have life. We live because, oh God, you
gave us life, eternal life, salvation, blessed life, glorious life,
full life in our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you. God bless my dear
brother and sisters as they leave this evening. And God bless those
who weren't with us today. Daryl and Joyce and Houston and
Aubrey and others couldn't be with us through their weakness
of body. God bless them. Lord, keep us
and preserve us till we can come worship again for Christ's sake.
Amen. Amen. He's the savior of my soul. My Jesus, He's the Savior of
my soul. He's the Savior of my soul. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. He's the Savior of my soul. He's the Savior of my soul. Amen. Another one's this. Did you hear what he said to
me? Your sins are gone. They're all gone away.