that God has reserved for his
people, for that city for which Abraham looked, and that kingdom
for which we look. But there seems to be in this
day some unwritten rule that you just don't talk about death. It's not in good taste. preach
about death and about judgment and about eternity. Oh, when
someone dies for a few days, we consider the subject and the
preacher brings a message of comfort to the family. But death and eternity and judgment
is reserved for those days when someone dies. But I think that the subject
ought to be dealt with more often. Richard Baxter once said, I preach
as one who may never preach again. I preach as a dying man to dying
men. And so I want us to look tonight
at the book of Job, chapter 14, in which Job deals with this
subject of death, eternity. You know, it's said of Abraham
that he dwelt in tents with his sons looking for a city. He had no place really here to
call his own. He owned no property. He was
just a sojourner, just passing through, looking for a city,
looking for a city, looking for that city built by God. David said this, I'll be satisfied
when I wake with his likeness, and yea, though I walk through
this valley of the shadow of death. I fear no evil, for thou
art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil,
and my cup runneth over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow
me all the days of my life, and I'll dwell in the house of the
Lord forever. That's my goal. That's my ambition. That's my desire. And here in
this 14th chapter of Job, Job asks some questions. And I've
dealt with several of these before, but there's a couple that I want
to deal with more fully at the end of the message. So I'll move
quickly through the first part of Job 14. And the first question that Job
asked follows Job's description of our, really, our nothingness. Our nothingness, our frailty. The nothingness of this flesh,
the vanity of this flesh. He says in verse 1, man, first
of all, is born of a woman. Flesh, that which is born of
the flesh is flesh, and that's all it is. flesh. And he's short of days. He's
a few days. His life at the longest is just
a few days. And all these days are full of
trouble. Pain, sickness, heartache, disappointment,
disease, pain, tears, full of trouble. He comes forth like
a flower, temporary. When you grow flowers in your
yard, you enjoy them while you can because they ain't going
to be there long. Not long. And that's the way it is with
us. We're not going to be here long. We come forth like a flower. All flesh is his grass, and the
glory of man is a flower of the field. The grass withereth, the
flower fadeth. Only thing that's eternal is
the glory of God, the name of our God. Man's like a flower,
and he's cut down. Another descriptive term is man
fleeth also as a shadow. Nothing is frail as a shadow,
flimsy and frail and No substance. That's the way the fleshly life
is. He's born of a woman. Just a short time on this earth. So frail. God helped me to know
how frail I am. That's what David prayed. He
knows how frail I am. Teach me to number my days that
I may apply my heart to wisdom. Cut down like a flower. fleeth
like a shadow, and continueth not, and the place thereof knoweth
no more." You will be surprised how quickly people forget. And here's his question. Lord
God above, God of holiness, reverence, and power, that's your name,
holy and Almighty eternal, no beginning
of days, no end of days, no pedigree, eternal gospel, always the same. Do you open your eyes upon such
a wonder? Do you even look at such trash? Do you care about this trash? This, your eternal Man's just,
you're holy. Man is filthy, drinks iniquity
like water. You're God. He's a product of
the flesh. Do you ever look at such a one?
Sometimes when you're feeling, when we're feeling our importance,
it's good to read that. David said, Lord, when I consider
the heavens, sun, the moon, the stars, the work of thy hands,
what is man that thou art even mindful of him? The preachers
today preach like God is concerned about this mass affliction. And
I'm sorry. I'm sorry, that's just not so. Just not so. But there's one way that I know,
undeniably so, that God does look upon some of Adam's race
in kindness, in tenderness, in mercy, in love. There's one undeniable
way that I know that God does take notice of some of this fallen
race. He gave his son. He gave his
son to redeem some of them. That's right. Not all of them.
Not all of them. Judas was a son of perdition
from the beginning. He'd been better for you than
never been born. Isn't that what it says? Pharaoh was raised up by God
to demonstrate his power and might. and judgment than better
if he had never been born. He was never an object of affection. There are reprobates born reprobates,
born to serve God's purpose, to do his will. Esau sought repentance with tears
and never found it because God said, I hate him, I hate I love Jacob, and I hate his
son." Isn't that what he said? That's so. Unbelievers, he that
believeth not on the Son, the wrath of God abideth continually
upon them. It says that in the Scripture. And most of this fallen, corrupt,
God-hating, Christ-rejecting, Christ-crucifying race is under
the wrath and judgment of God, like it was in the days of Noah. That's right. God said, My spirit
shall not always strive with man. God looked down from heaven
and saw that every imagination of the heart of man was evil
continually. And he said to Noah, I'll destroy
this world in my wrath and judgment, but Noah. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. One of God's sheep. Dost thou
open thy eyes upon such a one? Thank God. Thank God. Son. He'll have a people out
of every tribe and kindred and nation and tongue unto heaven.
Then the second question. You open your eyes upon such
a one and bring me into judgment with thee? Now if he had said, do you bring,
if Job would have said, do you bring me into judgment before
thee? Do you understand that? Because we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ. And over here in Revelation,
John wrote in Revelation chapter 20. He wrote verse 12. I saw the dead, small and great,
stand before God. Stand before God. I can understand
that. Do you bring me into judgment
before you? But that's not what he asked.
Do you bring me into judgment with you? I saw the dead, small
and great, stand before God, and the books were opened, and
another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the
dead were judged out of those things which were written in
the books according to their works. And the sea gave up the
dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead
which were in them, and they were judged, every man according
to his work, and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.
This is the second death. I understand that kind of judgment. And Job did too. But these are
the things that amazed him. He said, do you open your eyes
upon one like me? And are you actually going to
bring me into judgment with you? With you? Shall I dwell, shall
I stand, be able to stand in the presence of God, with God? That's what Scripture says. Ephesians
2 talks about us not standing before Him, but sitting with
Him in judgment. He said to the apostles, you'll
judge the world. You'll sit on 12 thrones and
judge the world. Ephesians 2 talks about what
we were in verse 4, it says, who is rich in mercy for his
great love, wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in
sin, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace you are
saved, and hath raised us up, and made us sit together in the
heavenless in Christ." That's a whole lot different from standing
before him, isn't it, sitting with him, seated With Him? Who shall stand in His presence? He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart, who has never lifted up his soul to vanity, who has
never sworn deceitfully, who's that? That's us in Christ. Righteous
as He is, with His spotless garments on, I'm His holiest God's son. One other, Revelation 21, if
you don't want to turn to it, listen to it, verse 3. Now here's
a different picture. A while ago we saw John saw the
dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were
open. And they were just out of those
books, and they were cast into the lake of fire, but those fellows
stood before Him. Now here's those who stand with
Him, sit with Him. Listen. Revelation 21, 3, I heard
a great voice out of heaven saying that Behold, the tabernacle of
God is with me. He'll dwell with them. They'll be His people. God will
be their God. God will be with them. You bring
me into judgment with you. You see what I'm saying? God will wipe away all tears
from their eyes. No death in hell here. There'll be no more death, no
more sorrow, no more crying, no more pain. The former things
have passed away. Oh, how awesome. But that leads
to the next question. Verse four, but who can bring
a clean thing out of an unclean? How are you going to make me
clean? Who shall stand in his presence,
he that hath clean hands? But we read a while ago, we're
not born with clean hands. Here's a problem. Who can bring
a clean thing out of this unclean? Not one. No preacher can do it.
No church can do it. No theology can do it. No law
can do it. Christ can do it. God is holy and we're unholy.
How can we be holy? God is righteous and we're unrighteous. How can we be righteous? God
is just and we have sinned. We're deserving of his wrath
and judgment and hell. How can he be just and be justified? Christ is the answer. Our Lord Jesus Christ came down
here and Through His blood, He cleansed
us from our sins. By His perfect obedience, He
made us righteous. He justified us before God. He
took the most unclean and made them clean. The most sinful and
made them holy. The weakest and made them strong. The most imperfect and made them
perfect. Amazing grace. How sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. I was lost, but I am found. I was blind, but now I see. He
made me see. He made me clean. The blood of
Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. I didn't mean to be rude, but
a fellow asked me one time, he said, Do you believe you'll see
John Wesley in heaven? I said, I won't be any more surprised
to see him than I will see you. Is that a pretty good answer? John Newton said the most amazing
thing he'll experience in heaven is to see himself there. And
I'd recommend we quit worrying about Mr. West and start thinking
about Mr. Mahan and Mr. Pennington, Mr. Howsam, Mr. Echols, Mr. Traber, Mr. Ropes. Isn't that right? I'll be amazed to be in heaven.
I'll be amazed to see the Apostle Paul in heaven. That murderer? You say, you're talking about
the Apostle Paul. I'm talking about a murderer. That's what I'm talking about.
Man, it killed God's children and God's safety. And he's going
to be in glory. But I'm still going to be amazed. I'll be amazed to see anyone in his presence
because it takes the power of God to save folks like us. It takes the will of God, the
purpose of God, and the blood of God, and the power of God,
and the spirit of God. It takes the very power of heaven
to keep us safe. That's right. Not only save us,
keep us interested. Keep us safe. Everybody in here
is going to hell if he can, but God won't let you. That's just
so. Every one of your children, now
listen, I know you got the sweetest children on earth, but if you
didn't put some restraints on them, ain't no telling what they'd
do. And if God didn't put some restraints
on his children, ain't no telling what they'd do. That's right. Restraining grace. Provenient
grace. John, you know these words. Saving
grace. Particular grace. Redeeming grace. It's all grace. Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean? You can walk down 40 aisles and
join 40 churches, and it won't put away one thing. But when
Christ died on that cross, he put away all the sins of all
the elect of all ages. Wiped them clean. And then he comes to another
question down here, but let's read some. He says in verse 5,
seeing man's days are determined, the number of his months are
with thee. His bounds are set. He can't pass. The day of death
is set. God has decreed every second
of our lives and not one more, no matter what you do, turn from
him that he may rest till he shall accomplish as a hireling
his day. Now watch. There's hope of a
tree. If you cut it down, it'll sprout
again. A tree can be cut down and fall
to the earth and start growing again. It says, here's the reason. Though
the root thereof wax old in the earth and the stalk thereof die
in the ground, yet through the scent of water It'll bud, bring
forth boughs like a plant. In other words, that tree, God
sends a little rain. The water, it grows again. Why? There's life in that tree.
The tree, the life of the tree's in the tree. Even after it fell,
it still has whatever's left that responds to the water. But
man, now here verse 10, but man dies. and wasteth away and giveth
up the ghost, and where is he?" Now, wait a minute. If this body,
if that tree falls to the ground, there's life in the tree, and
water will make it sprout again. But this man dies, and no life
in this body. Life's gone. Spirit, the life
of man is in his spirit, not in his body. Somebody says, we
have a soul. No, you don't. You are a soul.
You have a body. soul dwelling in. When the soul
leaves, the body just goes down and starts getting immediately
cold. It'll never, never, ever, ever,
ever, ever live again. By any power on your part of
the doctors, they'll spend an hour trying to get somebody to
live. The spirit's gone. Gone. Where is it? Well, Paul answered that. He
said to be absent of the body, to be present with the Lord.
Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Christ said to the thief on the
cross, today you'll be with me in paradise. When our loved ones,
when our loved ones close their eyes here in death, the body
is still here and we tenderly kiss it and love it. and put
it away and honor it. I hear people say, I don't care
what you do with my body. Now, wait a minute. You hold
on a minute. I know that's all, that's just
talk. But you see, a wife or a husband,
these are the hands that they held. And this is the face they touched.
They never touched my soul. touch this body. When somebody
comes up and kisses a body, you see, you ought not do that. You
do what you want to do. Don't pay attention to people
popping off about things they don't know anything about. That
body you love, you see what I'm saying? And you treat it with
tenderness and be and kindness and put flowers around the grave.
That's not paganism, that's affection. You can get so theological accurate,
you can be a fool. and turn people against you and
your God. Be tender where people hurt and where death comes. Be tender. That's right. I'm telling you the truth. And
they love that body. They love it. And 2 Corinthians
5, but that's not the soul. But you know, I've never seen
a soul. But I have seen some bodies.
I've seen some eyes. Soul looks out of the eyes. I
know that. But 2 Corinthians 5 says, We
know if our earthly house and this tabernacle were dissolved,
we have a building, a house not made with hands eternal in the
heavens. For in this we groan, earnest the desire to be clothed
upon with our house, which is from heaven. If so be that being
clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we that in this tabernacle
do groan, being burdened A lot of burdens. The older you get,
the more burdens you have. Not that we would be unclothed,
but clothed upon that mortality might be swatted up of life.
Now, He that wrought us for that selfsame thing is God, who hath
given unto us the earnest token of His Spirit. Therefore, we're
always confident, knowing that while we're at home in this body,
while we're at home in this body, I'm not the body, I'm at home
in the body. See what he's saying? We're absent
from the Lord. We're not in glory. We're here
in this body. We walk by faith, not by sight,
but we're confident of this and willing, rather, to be absent
from this body and to be present with the Lord. And that's when
Job says, man, man dies and where is he? Where's the life? The
life's in the tree there, you see, but the life's not in this
body. Life's in the spirit. I'm going
to be with God. And this body, it decays. It goes back to the dust. As the waters, listen, verse
11, fall, fail from the sea, and flood decayeth and dries
up, so man lies down and rises not till the heavens be no more.
They shall not awake nor be raised out of their sleep. Oh, that thou wouldst hide me
in the grave, Thou wouldst keep me secret, until thy wrath be
passed. That thou wouldst appoint me
a set time, and remember me. Lord, remember me." Now his next
question, if a man dies, shall he live again? Shall he live
again? Oh, yes. Yes. You know, many of my friends
believe strongly that the Lord's coming in their lifetime. But
I've known men in the past who believed that, and they died. I hope and pray that he will.
That would be wonderful if he came tonight. Wouldn't that be
wonderful? I'd be glad. I'd be glad to bypass death. I really would. I'd be happy
to, and I'd be happy for you too. But we need to remember
it's appointed unto men once to die. And we've got to die. You've got to die. There's only one way to get to
glory, and that's dying, unless Christ comes. And it's got to
come, and we need to prepare for it, looking to Christ, studying
the Word, praying for wisdom, understanding, patience, grace,
but we've got to die. And he says here, now listen,
this is comforting, it'll help you, now watch, stay with me.
All the days of my appointed time, I'm in my appointed time,
I'll be free scoring ten pretty soon. How many years beyond that,
I do not know. But that's the average age. And
all the days of my appointed time, well I wait, I wait, looking
to Him, trusting Him, believe in Him, waiting upon Him. I'm waiting for His call. He
determines these things. God determines them. I'm glad
He does. I'm thankful. My times are all His. And I wait
till my change comes, till I change residences. It's like moving
out of an old house into a new one. I'm going to move out of
this old house. It's falling down. I'm going
to move into a building not made with hands eternal in heaven.
I'll be moving. I'm waiting until the change
comes. Until I change places of residence. Until I change where I live. I'm living here. I'm going to
someday live with Him. I'll wait. I'll wait. And thou
shalt call. Now there are three calls that
God and His people He calls them in regeneration. Abraham, get thee out of thy
father's house. He called us one day, called
us by the gospel. He called us by the gospel. He
called us to faith. He called your name. I told you
about that this morning. He called us. And then someday
he's going to call us in death. He'll call us away from this
earth. Our Lord said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the time
cometh now is when they that are in the grave shall hear the
voice of the Son of God and live. That's regeneration. But one
day he's going to call us to leave here. And then he's going
to call the third time. He's going to call and this body's
going to come out. A new body. My spirit's going to join this.
This body's going to be made new. I'm going to be myself in glory
and you're going to be yourself. We're going to recognize and
know one another, rejoice to see one another. You know when
Moses and Elijah came down and appeared and talked with Christ,
Moses was Moses. This was thousands of years after
he died. When Elijah came down, he was
Elijah. This was a long time after he
ascended to heaven. And we're going to be us in glory.
I'm going to give thanks to Him for saving me from my sins. I'm not going to be somebody
else. I'm looking forward to seeing people whom I love in
a perfect body, just like Christ. I'm looking forward to, you know,
when we see one another and we rejoice in the presence That's
what Paul said about the church at Thessalonica. He said, what
is my crown of rejoicing? It's you in the presence of the
Lord when He comes. And I'm going to run up to them
and say, I'm glad to see you again. And they're going to say,
well, it hasn't been that long. It's just like that. It's just
yesterday I left. I said, what time to God? Time
shall be no more, that's what scripture says. Hours and days,
it seemed like a long time since they went away. But when we go
away, when he called, he said he'll call at the end of my appointed
time, he'll call. And it'll seem like a moment.
It's like going to bed at night and sleeping. The next morning,
you've been there six, eight hours, but it seems like a minute.
That's the way our death will be. And he said, he'll call,
and I'll answer him. I always did. You know, I did.
When he called the first time, called me out of sin, out of
darkness, into his kingdom, I came. Called me by his gospel. When
he called the second time, and we die and go to glory, when
he said, come, you came. And when he calls the third time,
out of the grave, we'll come out. And listen to this, now
watch this great statement. And thou, God, will have a desire
to the work of God's hands. You know what that means? God
will have a desire, the fulfillment of his desire, the fulfillment
of his purpose, the work of his hands. What are the work of his
hands? Our souls were marred by sin
and he made them new, like the potter. made the clay into a
beautiful vessel. And our bodies were destroyed
by sin, and he's going to make them over again. And in body
and soul, we're going to be just like Christ. That's right. And his work is not complete
until it's so. God has set out, like I said
at the beginning of this message, God who made the heavens and
the earth and said it's That God is going to make a people
out of this race just like Christ someday. We don't look much like
Christ now. We don't act much like Christ.
Soul and body. But someday, He's going to conform
us perfectly to the image of His Son and at that time, He
that has begun a good work in you will perfect it when Christ
comes. And He's going to have the desire
to the work of his hands. He's going to say, good, it's
good, it's perfect. This is what I set out to do,
make you like Christ. You see that? He'll have the
desire of the work of his hands. Now, old Job's a human, and humans
make statements like this in verse 16, and this is the last
For now thou number'st my steps. Job's a man of limited knowledge
and human fears, just like us. He said, Lord, I know you number
my steps. All my ways you know. All my
paths you know. My goings and my doings are known
to thee. My thoughts, nothing hid from
God. He knows us inside and out. He
knows our motives, our thoughts, our desires, foolishness, our
silly words, our thoughts before we think them, our deeds before
we do them. Job says here, you number my
steps. I don't take a step without his
perfect knowledge of it. Do you also look at my sins? Is that also, Lord, in your vision? You number my steps and you know
my ways and everywhere I speak. Do you also watch over my sins? Do you look upon my sins, my
imagination, my thoughts, my failures?" You know the answer
to that question? No. No. I remember your sins no more.
God doesn't see our sins. I know that's very difficult.
human nature and human wisdom to even get a hold of, but the
Scripture says, it says here, my transgressions are sealed
up in a bag, dumped into the deepest sea, sewed up, done away
with, put away, remembered no more. Past, present, and future. There's no such thing in the
life of a child of God, in the eyes of his God, as sin. For
in Christ there is no sin and we are in Christ. That's so. He watches my steps and numbers
my steps and orders my steps. But this sin business Christ
took care of a long time ago and put them away. And they are
no more. Now that's I remember your sin. Death is not so hard to talk
about when you talk about it in the light of Christ, in the
light of hope. Talk about death only as loss,
but to die is not loss, it's gain for a believer. And when
we talk about it and think about it and study it, it'll be a good
time. It'll be a glad day when we leave
here and go to be with Him. Bless the word to our hearts. Help us to enter into this peace
that David knew. I'll be satisfied when I awake
with thy likeness. Help us to enter into this desire
and rest that Paul talked about when
he said, I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is
far better. And this daily walk, as Abraham
of old, who was a sojourner, he was looking for a city which
hath foundations, will never be moved, whose builder and maker
is our God. Lord, give us a rest. and a peace and a joy pertaining to this critical time,
old age and death. Give us peace. Enable us to say,
Lord, thy will be done. In the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ we pray, amen.