THE REFORMED WITNESS HOUR
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Dear radio friends,
The celebrations of a world
apart from Jesus Christ at the end of the year are the vain celebrations of a
fool attempting to escape reality. The
passing of another year tells every human being that he is just that much
closer to the moment when he must stand before the living God. It brings the reality of death, the loss of
things, everything of this life. And it
brings the reality of judgment, and, if one is yet in his sins, of condemnation
before a holy God. The drunkenness and
the partying of a New Year’s Eve is that of a fool hiding from reality. It were better for men and women to make
their way to the house of God, for their neighbors to be invited with them, on
such a night in order that, coming to God’s house, they might consider their
latter end, and might learn to count their days, to apply their hearts unto the
wisdom that is to be found alone in Jesus Christ.
As the people of
God, will we join the world in their celebrations? No.
Well, then, are we a bunch of morbid people, with a sourpuss
religion? No. As the year comes to its close, we
celebrate. We celebrate God’s glorious
promises. We celebrate the wonderful
thing it is to belong to Him in life and death.
And we come to God’s house to celebrate.
Not to bring the offering of a fool but truly to rejoice and to praise
God for His grace.
What would we
celebrate at the close of a year as people of God? Well, we would celebrate God’s
faithfulness. You may look back over the
365 days of this past year—its sorrows, shame, and weariness—and you must say
this concerning those days: “God was
faithful. There was no shadow of turning
with the Almighty. He was ever faithful,
ever true.”
Still more. We celebrate the fact that we are closer to
the moment when we shall see Him face to face.
Our glorification is now closer than it was a year ago. We are closer to home.
Still more. We celebrate the purposes of God that have
been accomplished. There have been no
setbacks in His kingdom, no failures, no shortfalls of expectations. But God again has performed all His good
pleasure.
Still more. We celebrate at the end of the year our hope,
which is the day of the Lord Jesus Christ, when the heavens shall be parted and
the Lord shall descend and we shall see Him and we will be with Him and be like
Him.
It is to the hope
of the return of Jesus Christ and the victory that is in Christ that the words
of Job long ago pointed. Our text today
is found in the book of Job, chapter 14:14, where he says under inspiration of
the Spirit, “all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change
come.” Job, in the Bible, was the man
who suffered. He was a tall cedar tree
of faith for sure. But he grew by the
riverside of tears. He had an unusual
and humanly unbearable load of trouble and pain—the death of his ten children,
and horrible pain in every part of his body, going down into the depths of his
soul. His sufferings brought him to the reality
of the brevity and the frailty of life.
He says in chapter 14:1, 2 that “man that is born of a woman is…full of
trouble…. He fleeth also as a shadow,
and continueth not.” He says again in
verse 7 of the 14th chapter:
“There is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again,
and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.” Yet, of man, he says in verse 10, “But man
dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth
up the ghost, and where is he?”
But in the midst of
those sufferings that were sharp and painful, Job had hope. He had a hope that would never make him
ashamed. He was remarkable. Job had full knowledge of the resurrection of
the body in the final day. He says in
chapter 19 that he will see his Redeemer in the final day in his flesh. He had a sure hope. He had a hope of the resurrection unto
eternal life in Jesus Christ the Lord.
He knew that he would be changed.
He is not referring in our text today (14:14) to a change to a more
prosperous earthly condition. He is not
talking about coming out of ruin to success, out of sickness to health. But he shall be changed, in a moment, in the
twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, when the trumpet shall sound. He knew he would be changed when Jesus
returned—changed from death to glory, changed in the last day to a body like
unto the Lord’s glorious body. In that
hope he lived. In that hope he
waited. And in that hope he had the
victory. And so do we.
He says, “All the
days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.” We are appointed or allotted by God the exact
amount of time we will live on this earth.
In His book, God has set the moment of your death. He has determined how far your life will
run. Job says in verse 5 of the 14th
chapter: “Seeing his days are
determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his
bounds that he cannot pass.” We read in Hebrews
9:27, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the
judgment.” God is God. Nothing can change that. Your days are measured by the Creator. Our time, not known to us, is known to
God.
There is something
very beautiful about that, for us as children of God. In Psalm
31:15 the psalmist sees the beauty of it and he says, “My times are in thy
hand.” The amount of time each one of us
is given is determined by the wisdom of God.
And that amount of time always corresponds in God’s wisdom to what is
necessary to prepare us for glory. God
does not simply give us length of days, as if days and time on this earth are
in themselves a blessing. No, God
measures days in terms of accomplishing what His wisdom requires to be
performed in our life. And then, when
the perfect measure that God has infinitely decreed for us is full, then God
comes and He says, “It’s time.
Come! Come to be with Me.” Even as Jesus prayed to His heavenly Father
in John
17, “Father, I will that they be with me where I am, that they might behold
my glory.” That time for our life may be
one month. It may be two years. It may be ten years or twelve. It may be sixteen, seventy-five, or
ninety-two.
Notice that we are
told two things about the allotted time that each one of us is given as a child
of God. First of all, God measures it in
days. God does not count time in years,
months, or decades, but in days. He says
in Deuter-onomy, “As thy days, so shall thy strength be.” In Psalm
90, we are taught to pray, “Teach us to number our days, that we may apply
our hearts unto wisdom.” You may look
this up for yourself. You will find that
always the Bible emphasizes the day of life.
So does Job in this chapter. In
verse 1 he says, “Man that is born of a woman is of few days.” Again, in verse 5 he says, “Seeing his days
are determined.” And in verse 6: “Turn from him, that he may rest, till he
shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day.”
Have you already
counted the coming year as yours? Are
you looking five years ahead? God counts
in days. That teaches us the shortness
of our human life, especially as it is compared to glory and eternity. Human life is short. Man thinks that he is forever ( Ps. 49),
he believes that his houses are for aye, that his dwelling places are for
generations. He builds for years. But it is a day. Infancy is daybreak; youth is sunrise;
adult-life is noonday; sickness and arthritis are sunset; old age is
evening. It is but a day.
And as a day, our
human life now constitutes many different changes. How much can come in a day? In weather—in the morning it may be clear; at
noon clouds. How sudden can the change
come from health to sickness, from peace to worry, from prosperity to adversity. And we are of limited strength. You go about a day and that is it, you need
rest from God.
The second thing
that Job teaches us about our life is that our present time is a time of
warfare. In the Hebrew we could
translate the verse this way: “Till all
the days of my appointed warfare I will wait.”
“My appointed warfare”—meaning that, although we have the victory in
Jesus Christ and eternal life in Him, nevertheless this present life is a time
of war for the child of God. Ever since
the fall into sin, time has been in turmoil, turmoil because of sin. Not turmoil in heaven. Not turmoil before the throne of God. But upon earth, for us, it is now turmoil
time. And you cannot get away from
it. That is true of the Christian. That is true of the life that is in Jesus
Christ. That is true for all those who
are in Christ. Now is the time of
hardship, of watchfulness, of combat.
Christ does not dress you in silk right now. He does not seat you on a throne today. In Christ you are in battle fatigues. You fight against sin. You are to endure hardship for Jesus’
sake. And you are to stay awake and
fight the good fight of faith.
That earthly life
of warfare for the child of God, as to its length, is determined exactly by
God. Do not say, as men do, “I cheated
the guy with the black hood and the sickle.
I cheated death. I’m a good
driver.” God, who numbers the hairs on
your head, numbered also your days—how long and how many they shall be. And you shall not live one minute longer than
He has willed. Do not say that a person
died before his time. Ecclesiastes
7:17, “Be not over much wicked…why shouldest thou die before thy
time?” That verse does not mean that the
moment of death is changeable. But it
looks at death from our point of view.
We live so many years. And the
Bible says that if you are grossly wicked, if you are reckless, if you give
yourself over to the vials of sin, then from a human point of view you may well
die sooner. But still God has appointed
our time. He has appointed the time when
we shall die.
God tells us that
for a reason. He tells us, Do not live
thinking that you will always have time—time for this spiritual deed, time to develop
this spiritual discipline. But use each
moment in service to God, to do what is pleasing in His sight.
I was once told
that a good musician learns to go for something on each note. It is not just a note. But he makes each note that he plays clear,
distinct, the very best that he can make it.
Child of God, you must go for something in each moment—God, His glory,
and His service. Do not put off
repentance. Do not say, “Tomorrow,
tomorrow.” The Word of God says, “Turn
now.” Your breath goes out. You do not know if you will draw another
breath after the one you have. The great
enemies to the Christian are sloth, carelessness, indifference, and
apathy. These are awful sins. And they are the sins of presumption—that we
think that we have time to begin daily personal prayer life; that we have time
to begin daily Bible reading; that we have time to perform those deeds of
humble service in the church. Death may
be sent to you at any time, as far as you know.
Knowing that your time is appointed by God, be diligent now to use that
time.
God says that there
will come a great change. The words of
Job, “All the days of my appointed warfare, I will wait until my change
comes.” There will be a great change. From time to eternity; from turmoil and
battle to calm and peace; from struggle and weariness to everlasting joy and
praise; from this short life to unending full glory. Death will make the change. In death God makes my change. Plainly Job is thinking of death as marking
the end of his earthly time and the beginning of a great change in him. He did not see death as the end. But he saw it as a change from one life to
another. He saw that death is indeed
unavoidable. Death makes an unalterable
change. Our time on earth is over. We never get it back. We never go back. It is finished. But we are brought to another life, a life
that the apostle Paul says, for the believer, is far better. A great change comes to all men and women
when their appointed time of life is over and death puts them before the face
of God. The eyes close in death, maybe
suddenly. Or, maybe, it was
expected. But when physical death comes
and the breath is gone from the body and the mind stops and the blood does not
flow and the body becomes cold and then stiff, a change takes place. We enter into another place. We come before God.
For the wicked it
is dreadful. It brings them down to
hell. Jesus says there shall be weeping
and gnashing of teeth. There shall be a
flame that does not die. And the fire is
not quenched. There will be chains of
darkness forever. And the words from the
throne of God: Depart from Me, ye
cursed, into everlasting darkness reserved for the devil and his angels. In a moment the wicked are cast down. Will it be tonight? When they are laughing and drinking and
cursing and defying God will they be called from this life? No tears can quench these fires. No time can finish its punishment. Death is terrible to the wicked. Flee the wrath that is to come. Repent!
Find refuge in Jesus Christ. How
terrible it would be to leave this life in wealth and pleasure, with glasses
filled to the brim and blasphemy upon your lips and your heart not changed!
Change will come to
the believer. Psalm
17, “When I in glorious righteousness shall see thee as thou art; thy
likeness, Lord, when I awake, will satisfy my heart.” What beauty!
How shall I describe it? The
angels, on the first day of creation, worshiped when the light appeared out of
the darkness, and when on the second day the clouds and the atmospheres hung
over the earth. And on the third,
fourth, fifth, and sixth days the angels stood in awe and worshiped before
God. There is something marvelous about
a sunrise. It captures your soul.
But now, think of
this. There comes a time when we shall
no more see through a glass darkly but we shall see face to face, when sorrow
and sighing and death and sin and tears will vanish and we will behold the King
in His glory. All the burdens and all
the sorrows of this life will fall away.
What a change! Ushered, by Christ
the King, to stand before the throne of God in
And we see now,
from this side, only the body changed.
The loved one does not hear, does not talk, does not respond. The body decays, and we must bury our
dead. Death is horrible. All of man’s beauty is consumed away.
But faith in Jesus
Christ sees and knows: I shall be
changed; I will see Him; I will awake in righteousness; I will enter into
Father’s house of many mansions; I will be clothed in immortality. Job says in verse 15: “Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine
hands.” We shall be changed to glory, to
eternal life in the presence of God, to the place of feasting and joy and
happiness. And the body, too, will be
changed. For at the day of Jesus’
return, in the end of all time, Job says in verse 12: “Man lieth down, and will rise when the heavens
are parted.” Jesus Christ will appear on
this earth. He will stand before the
graves, and the bodies of the saints shall awake and be changed like to the
glorious body of Jesus. The Spirit of
God shall blow upon our graves. And
these bones will live.
All the days of my
appointed time, says Job, I will wait till my change comes. Job was resolved to wait, literally
hope. He means that his life was
determined by God. And when death comes,
he will be changed. This truth would
sustain him in his troubles. This truth
would cheer him in his unutterable sorrows.
This truth would guide him each day.
It would keep him from making too much of the things of this life. It would keep him from making this life the
treasure of his heart. He means that he
will be patient. He will wait for God’s
time. “Let God do His work in my
life. I will wait. And I will ask only that I might obey
Him.” Job’s troubles tempted him, pushed
him to impatience, to desperation. “The
suffering,” he said many times, “must stop.
Another moment of this grief is too much.” But then Job said, “No. No. I
will plant both of my feet in the promises of God. God rules.
God holds my life. God determines
the length of my life. I am content in
the time that God gives me. And in God’s
good time He will change me. At that
right and perfect moment, when the work of His hands is complete, I shall be
changed.”
That is our hope
tonight. Wait a little while. God knows the end of your life. He has arranged the content of your life. He is at work in your life. He is preparing something for another time,
for another place. His goal is not here
below, but His goal is above. And when
He is finished with you, He will come.
He will change you.
And you will have
all that your heart could imagine of the blessedness of Jesus Christ. And you shall have much more. You will have life eternal. You will be embraced in the bosom of the
eternal God. Until then, be patient, be
obedient, use the time that God gives you, get ready. Dress yourself each morning in the light of
God’s Word. When He shows you your sin,
go to the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
When you struggle with sin, flee to Him for His strength. When your heart is broken, turn to Him for
His matchless love and mercy and celebrate His faithfulness.
As the year ends,
this day has drawn closer. As the
minutes pass, the time when we shall be changed comes closer.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank
Thee for Thy precious Word. Bind it to
our hearts through Jesus Christ, Amen.
Last modified: Jan. 11, 2008