TITLE: BETWEEN HEAVEN & EARTH – Four Reasons for Our Sojourn!
TEXT:
If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my struggle I will wait,FOUNDATIONAL INQUIRY: What is the purpose for our protracted stay?
Until my change comes.
TRUTH CLAIM/CONTEXT: Job may be the oldest book in the Bible. Chronologically, Job probably lived closer to the flood and creation than Moses (who wrote the first five books of the Old Testament); which means his understanding of God was at least as good as Moses, if not better!
The book has sweeping application ... we all reap heartache and toil in this life, thus a universal need exists among men. It's a reminder:
- of man's inability to cope with suffering alone,
- of man's inadequacy to earn approval through effort,
- of man's impaired understanding of the things of God, as-well-as a reminder that ...
- man's pride widens the gulf between himself and his God.
Job's friends embody the widely accepted notion that struggle indicates something is wrong with the person or their life!
God answers the need of Job's heart, spreading light in the midst of his suffering.
Redeemed man is caught ...
- somewhere between heaven and earth,
- somewhere between the temporal and the eternal,
- somewhere between the natural and the supernatural
Man fears death because of uncertain future. When we cut down a tree, it may sprout again. When we're cut down, will we sprout again? If so, why doesn't God take us home at the time of our rebirth?
Job makes two points in v. 14: first, the promise of resurrection (he says: 'until my change comes,' in answer to his own question 'will he live again'); second, the purpose for our hiatus here ('all the days of my struggle / will wait').
Let's address the latter ...
FOUNDATIONAL INQUIRY: What is the purpose for our protracted stay?
I. OUR STAY MAKES HEAVEN MORE HEAVENLY!APPLICATION/CHALLENGE: Each man must surrender his concerns to the glory of Jesus, and proclaim, "if lying in the dust of this age elevates my Lord by so much as a micron, let me remain choking and prostrate until the end." Or, "if living on earth forever would procure more glory for Him, then let it be my heaven to be excluded from heaven." [Charles Haddon Spurgeon, paraphrased]A. Nothing makes a time of rest as sweet as healthy toil
B. Nothing makes safety as desirable as exposure to threat
C. The polluted streams here only sweeten the promised nectar of glory
D. Our pock-marked paths pale in the radiance of heaven's golden highways and
E. Our battered armor only renders more wonderful the victory to come, when we are welcomed into the congregation of overcomers.[GOLD] Purity comes with time and toil. The higher the quality of gold, the moreII. OUR STAY ALLOWS US TO EXPERIENCE FULL FELLOWSHIP WITH CHRIST!
trying has been its journey. In the jewelry industry, worth is based on purity.Fellowship with Christ is so desirable the worst sorrow is a small price for procuring it. Our fellowship with Jesus would not be full or complete fellowship if we were not to tarry awhile.III. OUR STAY IS FOR THE GOOD OF OTHERS!
He was baptized with a baptism of suffering among men (He bore our stripes); thus, we likewise must be baptized with tribulation, if we would share a sense of His kingdom. [cf. Philippians 1:29]Why would we want to enter heaven before our work is finished? It may be we're yet commissioned to bear the gospel-light to one who yet cowers in the midnight of their own wilderness.IV. OUR STAY IS ALSO FOR GOD'S GLORY!Paul said we are God's workmanship, in which, by our trials in service, He will be glorified ... that we hold out against the testing of our faith with joy is His glory.[SPURGEON] "A tried saint, like a well-cut diamond, glitters much in the King'sI believe it is the Westminster Catechism which says, "The chief end of man is to glorify God."
crown." Nothing honors a man as much as the testing of his work. [cf. James
1]
Posts
