I Will Wait Till My Change Come

Job 14. There's another one of those, I say obscure, it's not obscure, it's in the Word of God, but it's another one of those things you come across and you're like, whoa, what is that? I think I know what that's saying, and you look at it, and you look at it, and it expands more beautifully than you can imagine. This one verse, verse 14, We're just gonna look at this one verse and then it seems to stand alone in its utterance. It's just like he's talking about other things and then boom, he says this, makes this statement, but I believe it has a deep and wonderful truths for the sinner who needs or wants saving. I think it's that intense. It's that beautiful. Verse 14 of Job 14. If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come. Till my change come. That's just beautiful. Till my change come. That's just beautiful. As I said, this seems to stand alone, though it's In the context, we'll take a little bit more of a look at it in the earlier verses of the chapter, but let's just look at it kind of phrase by phrase. If a man dies, shall he live again? If a man dies, shall he live again? There's two answers to that, no and yes. no being naturally, humanly. There's no such thing as reincarnation. There's no Egyptian afterlife. They put all these things in these tombs for them to open up. They found them, they're still there. They're still there.

There's no reconstitution into something other than corruption, other than our flesh. Let me show you that. Look back in chapter 14, verses 1, 2, 3, and 10. Verses 1, 2, 3, a man that is born of a woman is a few days and full of trouble. That means his days are numbered. He comes forth like a flower and is cut down. He fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not. Not. He's not going to continue, you know, humanly. So the answer is, if a man dies, shall he live again? No, he's not going to.

Look at verse 3. And dost thou open thine eyes upon such a one, and bringest me into judgment with thee? Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? And look at verse 10 of the same chapter. But man dieth and wasteth away, Yea, man give up the ghost, and where is he? Now it also turns, if you would, to Hebrews 9. Hebrews 9 states it emphatically. Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 27. It is appointed unto men and women, boys and girls, once to die.

That's it. But after this, the judgment. So humanly, If a man dies, shall he live again? No, he's not going to be reincarnated. You know, just some of these Eastern philosophy fallacies, it's not going to happen. We have one life. That's why we're going to redeem the times, because the days are evil. And if you stop and think about your life, you can get depressed because you're like, boy, I've wasted a lot of time on a lot of silly things, worried about a lot of things that, as Henry says, Mayhead, we worry about and 98, 99% of the things never It's vain imaginations. That's why we're to take every thought captive and bring it to the obedience of Christ. So the first answer, if man dies, shall he live again?

No, he won't. No, he won't. Not in and of himself. Secondly, yes, he will. Yes, he will. Divinely and sovereignly, not of ourselves. What do we have to do? What do we have to do with salvation? We did nothing. He gave us grace to receive it, to repent, believe. So this is the same thing with resurrection, the resurrection glory that we'll experience in Christ. What did we do to earn that? What did we do to gain it? Absolutely nothing.

So yes, man will live again, divinely and sovereignly, not by ourselves, when the body puts on incorruption, immortality, a body just like Christ. Look, turn with me to Luke chapter 20. Luke chapter 20. Because the resurrection, and I never really thought about this until this verse, but the resurrection, if you don't believe in the resurrection, that really questions God and who He is and His promises, but more so it questions who He is. And you'll see what I'm saying here in a minute. Luke chapter 20, the last part of verse 36 through 38. and are the children of God being the children of the resurrection. That's how we're gonna live again.

Now that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, the burning bush, when he called the Lord, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, for he is not a God of the dead, but of the living, for all live unto him. See, if you call in question the resurrection, you're saying God, he's not the God of the living. But he is, that's one of the primary, it's a foundational character, attribute of God. He's the God of the living, not the God of the dead. That's why he can be the God of Abraham, Isaac, Japheth, and so on and so forth. And I'd never really seen that, but that's the truth.

Well, why do we need to be resurrected? Because sin has left such a mark. upon us, such a tangled web which we cannot untangle ourselves. We're doomed. We're dying. As the scripture says, we're dead in trespasses and sins. So if a man dies, shall he live again? Not in and of himself, because we're all about death. We're born in sin. We're born dead in trespasses. We're born dead to the things of God and grace, but in Christ, in Christ.

So the second part of that is, then what are we to do then? Well, the second part of, look at verse 14. So we know that if we're his, if Christ has died, yea rather is risen, he is risen for all his children, his church is elect. But look at, what are we supposed to do?

Let's listen to what Job says. All the days of my appointed time will I wait. That's waiting is tough. We'll wait on this stuff to get done for the church. We'll wait on this stuff. You got to call somebody. You got to, you know, get bids and this and that. And sometimes they'll get back with you. Sometimes they won't. It's the same with the house. Wait, wait, wait. It seems like that's a good thing. We'll wait on the Lord, says David. So many places in Psalms. But look at let's take a look a little bit more specifically at this. All the days of my appointed time.

Now that, there's three things that that could mean, and it means all of them. And I looked this up in the Hebrew, and I don't understand how it could mean three things, but it does mean three things, and it makes sense. It makes sense. The first one, all the days of my appointed time has to do with warfare. has to do with warfare.

And aren't we soldiers of the cross? Aren't we soldiers in Christ Jesus? We put on the breastplate, the armor, we put on all these things. So we're in a constant warfare. So it means appointed times could mean warfare. Are soldiers in a fight? Or soldiers in a campaign? And it also could mean worship.

So we'll look at these all separate. All my days of my sojourn, of my earthly living, all the days while I'm here. Why? Because we only have one life. One human life. We will have spiritual life, yes. We have one life to live and may it be found to the praise and the glory of his grace. So first of all, all the days of my appointed time could mean all the days of my journey, of my soldier, of my earthly living. Daily, but look at how he says that. All my days, not, here's our problem. Here's our problem.

Daily, not off and on, but daily walking with our God in Christ by grace through faith. Not with fits and starts, like this parable of the sower, came up, oh I believe that, and then you don't ever see him again. even more frightening is that, oh, they love it, they love it, and then the world, something in the world gets a hold of them. Their job, extracurricular, any soft stuff gets a hold of us, and then we start paying more attention to that than worship in our appointed time, and we fall away. We fall away, and then there's scriptures for that. We've seen that happen among us. They were not of us. Certainly they would have stayed with us, but they left us. So this is not fits and starts. Not with fits and starts, not hot then cold, and especially not lukewarm, because that's potentially being spewn out of the mouth of the Lord.

Revelations 3.16 talks about that.

Not indifference. Do you care? Do we concern what goes on in this church? Even the physical attributes, are we concerned about that? And most of the situations, and I say this myself as well, we're concerned about our own homes and then this comes last.

And sometimes that's right, sometimes it shouldn't be. Sometimes you need to just let stuff go and make sure we're attending to the things of the grace of God. And you say, well, this is nice. Well, if you don't know, we know what it's like to not have a church. We know, we remember what it's like to meet in a home and to meet in the storefront. And as Henry said, you need to try to get a building because in this country, you do that, it looks like a cult.

And it is true. It's very true. All the days, let's go back to our text, all the days of my appointed time, they are appointed, it's appointed once to die and in a judgment, all the days. So all the days, let us rededicate, let us renew, let us refresh our desire for Him and His truth and fellowship with those of like mind. And I know there's generation gaps and that's a real thing, it is. Try. Let's try to fellowship with people like mine.

Not just, you know, we do it once a week and sometimes twice a week, but there is no, if this is taken away, if this building is taken away, this church folds, what do we have? We're going to have to move. Maybe some of us can, some of us can't. Get to the age where you, I can't, I can't do that. So the way we take her, As he says in the Old Testament, her walls, the church is beautiful.

And I think there's a lackadaisicalness which comes into all believers. I don't want to be here. I want to be somewhere else. Well, maybe there's one word, not even a preacher, but maybe somebody else in fellowship. Iron sharpens iron. If you're not there, it doesn't sharpen itself. Iron sharpening iron. How important it is to get together with those of like mind. as much as possible.

Secondly, this appointed time, this word appointed could also be related to soldiers in the time of warfare. So the meaning could suggest while we wait upon Christ we fight daily, we die daily to self, we feed in order to get strength to fight towards the citizenship that we have in heaven and grace. So basically we stand our ground We hold on to the truth. We wrestle and don't let go until he blesses us.

Like old Jacob, right? How concerned are we for the teaching, for the truth, I'm sorry, for this place and for each other? Are we willing to fight? Are we willing to stand up? Are we embarrassed about the size of this church? Are we embarrassed about how this place looks? Are we embarrassed about one another?

Thirdly, again, this daily pointed time could also be rendered according to the Strong's worship. It had it in there, it had these three things, you know, warfare. It's obviously the pointed time, but it also refers to worship, gathering together, seeking fellowship, daily prayer time, daily closet time. daily in this holy volume, the Bible, daily asking for grace and looking for ways to do good. Basically, what he's saying, I think, is all the days, is he going to live or die? Answer that question. Am I saved? Do I know him? Am I going to be resurrected?

Okay, if that's the case, all the days of my appointed time, and they're not going to be easy. I'm going to be tough. We're getting, you get older. You can't do, we can't do the things we used to do. And Linda and I are always quoting what Peter said about his latter end. He said, he got taken where he didn't want to go. I don't want to go to a nursing home. Not too bad. You may end up in a nursing home. We may get taken where we don't want to go. That's this flesh. I think about some old sisters.

Lucille particularly, from her home, for all her days, she had two suitcases, and she shared a room. She didn't have her own room. She didn't have any money. She didn't have her own room. It wasn't like Chateau Girardeau. It was a nursing home on Kings Highway, and she had half a room. She was content. She was content. which made me content, which made, which slew me. Every time I'd go see her, I learned, I thought, well, I'm gonna need to help her. I couldn't help her, she helped me. Every time I visited, she helped me.

So this, basically, it's seeking the things of Christ, the things of grace, the things of peace, and the things of hope. This can be had for the believer for the asking, not doubting. A double-minded man who doubts is unstable. He's not going to get anything. Ask, not wavering. Lord, teach me to daily trust you and worship you. And God, make us willing in the day of your power. Don't fret about it, what's going to happen. He's gonna take care of you. If you're his child, he's going to take care of you. Have you answered that question?

If a man die, if a man die, if a woman die, if a child, shall they live again? Only in Christ. Only in Christ. And lastly, look at the end of this verse here. If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait. Till my change come. Will I wait? Here we go. Here we go. Will I wait? I will wait and I will not worry. Doesn't sound like us, does it? We worry all the time. I will wait. I will not waver. Steady. Steady. I will wait and I will not whine or murmur. A lot of times we think, I'm not murmuring. Get an outside source to listen to you and be honest. That's our problem. We don't want to offend one another. You're whining, I'm whining, we're murmuring. You know, that's what we do.

But simply, solely wait upon our Redeemer, our living, rising, compassionate Savior. One author said, I don't even know who it is, I wrote it down, Patience can only exist where there is hope. Think about it. Patience, true patience can only exist, godly patience can only exist where there is hope. I'm going to live again. Now look at this last part.

All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come. Now Job, I think, is Job supposed to be the oldest Bible, oldest book in the Bible? And I mean, from what I've read, I mean, I don't, okay, this man knew about the resurrection thousands of years before Christ was even on the earth. This is what he's talking about, till my change come.

When my darkness will become light in the Lord, I will wait for my sinless body, which will be raised up in resurrection glory, and in sunshine, S-O-N, not S-U-N, sunshine, S-O-N, I will wait to see him face to face and be made just like him. What, right in the middle of the, if a man died. Oh, right in the middle of this. I will wait till I may fully and freely and unconditionally worship. my all and end all. So all these things, warfare and all these different things until my change come and what a glorious change.

And he talks about this in here and other places in Job and he also talks about it in that great glorious resurrection passage in Corinthians 15. So I'm just gonna reread this. I just love, look, I got a circle here in my Bible. If a man or woman die, shall they live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait. I'm not going to run out before the Shekinah Glory. I'm not going to run out before the cloudy pillar, which Moses said. Moses said, we don't want to do that. If you don't go with us, let us not go.

And that's in everything. We consult him far too less, and then we're licking our wounds when we get disciplined, we get chastised. And we're like, well, yeah, we question his grace, his sovereignty all the time. If a man dies, shall he live again all the days of my appointed time? Will I wait till my change come? What a happy thought, till my change come.

And I know there's people here we want to see, and I know there's grandchildren we want to enjoy, and I know there's each other. There's these things, and that is the flesh. I mean, there's nothing wrong with enjoying one another's company, or our neighbor. There's nothing wrong with that.

But it's like Mary and Martha. Martha was a believer. But Christ said, you didn't choose the right thing. Mary did. And we need to be conscious of that. It's not a matter of, do I know the Lord sometimes? It's a matter of am I making the right decisions? Because we reap what we sow. That's still a biblical principle. So may He direct us. Wait.

My appointed time. I get a little older and I'm thinking, oh man. To be honest with you, I think about how much time do I have left? I don't know how much time. Pushin' 70, and that's the scriptures, you know, three score, you know, that's about where it's at. Some are older, some are less, but that's, you know, what am I doing? How am I, am I continuing the main thing? Am I being faithful to the work here and to you all? If I'm faithful to the work, I'm faithful to you.

I may not know everything, we may not do a lot of things that we should, but may we be here and may we be hearing the truth And may we have our children hear the truth. It is so important. But God be the glory. I'll wait. That's all I can do. Will you wait with me? May we wait here and just look for that change, that glorious change. All this will be forgotten. All this will be forgotten. We'll look forward to seeing him face to face. And then we'll see him as he is. That's a thought that we need to continually remember. So let us close in prayer.

I Will Wait Till My Change Come

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I Will Wait Till My Change Come

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