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[0:00] Then in verse 25, For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth, and though unto my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another, though my reins be consumed within me.

[0:30] Now this evening we're continuing our resurrection studies, and perhaps this is the most familiar and the best loved verse, with reference to the resurrection, that it is in the whole of Scripture.

[0:48] And in these words we have Job's triumphant testimony, and his joyful assurance. His triumphant testimony concerning God's delivering him out of all his troubles, out of all his distresses, including all that sin has brought upon him, and all the sicknesses and all the poverty that he suffered under the afflicting hand of God, we find him giving expression to us as words of triumph, victory, and joyful assurance.

[1:30] And it is believed that this man lived and ministered nearly 2,000 years before Christ was born in this world.

[1:42] And here we are nearly 2,000 years after Christ was born in this world. And just as Job required a triumphant testimony and a joyful assurance 2,000 years BC, so we today require the same triumphant testimony and the joyful assurance 2,000 years after Jesus rose again from the dead.

[2:15] Compared with Job, we have tremendous privileges. We have tremendous insight into and access to information that was not so readily available to Job.

[2:35] We have the benefit of hindsight. Job had the privilege and the blessing of foresight. He could see that his God, his Redeemer, was to come in the flesh, and he could see that his Redeemer was to suffer in flesh and that his Redeemer was to die, was to be buried, and was to rise again from the dead on the third day.

[3:04] Job had this tremendous privilege and blessing of foresight through the spirit of prophecy. And by that very same spirit, we are blessed with the great privilege of hindsight.

[3:21] And he had the wisdom of foresight, and we have the wisdom of hindsight. That is, all of the things that Job hoped for were fulfilled and came to pass and told us at times.

[3:36] And all the things that we expect have already occurred and will occur in ourselves another day.

[3:49] And so this is the day today, this Sabbath day, which is the harbinger of the eternal rest that God has prepared for his people.

[4:02] There remaineth the rest, therefore, for the people of God. and this rest is already begun by the institution of the first day of the week.

[4:15] The God's day, the Sabbath day, Sunday, the first day of the week. Jesus rose again from the dead and he rose again in the newness of life.

[4:30] In newness of life. Jesus rose again from the dead and he was wearing his best clothes. He laid aside the death robes and he left them in the tomb.

[4:47] He laid them aside and left them in the tomb. And he put on new garments, new clothing, new and blessed and glorious raiment, being reconstituted, his body being gloriously resurrected and gloriously transformed.

[5:10] He rose out of the tomb, gloriously changed, although he remained the same as he was. There was a half-wit in the parish of Forklos, in the Black Island.

[5:26] And he came to his minister and he came on a Saturday evening and his minister asked him what is it that he wanted.

[5:39] He was a frequent visitor to the nuns. And the minister asked him what is it that you are coming to see me about tonight. And the half-wit said to the minister, I've come, he says, to ask you if at all possible you could give me another shirt.

[6:05] The one I have is getting old and tattered. And the minister duly found for him a better one and gave it to him. And when they parted, the half-wit said to the minister, you know minister, he says, the saviour rose from the tomb on the Sabbath dressed in his best clothes.

[6:25] And it's only fitting that I should go to church in my best clothes, he says. And Jesus therefore rose from the dead on the third day, on the Sabbath day, the first day of the week in his best clothes.

[6:41] He rose in his heavenly, in his glorious garments that he was to take to heaven with him.

[6:55] So listen in it, I think, for ourselves. The half-wit had a good point. I think that we should present ourselves in public before God in our best possible clothes.

[7:07] Well, here we have Job's faith and expectation, Job's triumphant testimony and his joyful assurance. I know that my Redeemer liveth.

[7:26] Now, these are extraordinary words. They're extraordinary words because they're spoken by this man out of the midst of extraordinary sufferings and adversity and sorrow.

[7:43] And it's out of such experiences as these that some of the most precious thoughts thoughts and the most precious words have been spoken by some of the most precious saints of God.

[8:00] And this man was one of God's precious saints. Job was one of God's jewels. Job was one of the precious sons of Zion.

[8:14] Job was one of the most precious sons of Zion. He said, I know that my Redeemer liveth. Job's confidence. Firstly, Job's confidence. My Redeemer. And this expression, my Redeemer, is derived from the Hebrew goel.

[8:32] This word goel just simply means redeemer. And to redeem simply means to buy back. To buy back the forfeited inheritance.

[8:45] To avenge the death of his brother. And the goel is called the avenger of blood. And to vindicate the character or to defend and protect the rights of another.

[9:00] And the cities of refuge were established for this purpose. That the goel, the Redeemer, the defender of the character and the rights of the innocent, would be accomplished by the Redeemer.

[9:16] Now then, it's easy to apply this to ourselves. We have forfeited our inheritance by our sin. We have forfeited our God-given inheritance. Our God-given inheritance of righteousness and holiness.

[9:33] Our God-given inheritance of heaven. We have forfeited that inheritance. But to Jesus, our Redeemer, has come down from heaven to buy back our inheritance for us.

[9:48] He says, I am come that ye might have life and that ye might have it more abundantly. Now we say that the goel has power to avenge the death of his brother.

[10:05] And here we see Jesus, the Redeemer, taking bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh and becoming the elder brother. And he said, He was able to destroy the works of the devil and able to do it through his own death on the cross.

[10:28] And by it he condemned sin in the flesh. He abolished death and made an end of sin. And he conquered all his enemies, triumphing over them in his cross, making a show of them openly and leaving behind him an empty tomb.

[10:49] Jesus is our goel. He is our Redeemer. He is able to buy back for us our inheritance. And he is able to give us a new inheritance.

[11:02] He is able to provide for us a new heaven and a new earth. Well, a power to vindicate the character of another.

[11:13] And Jesus does that. He is the advocate with the Father who makes intercession for us according to the will and the mind of God.

[11:26] He justifies us freely by his grace. He pardons us absolutely and cleanses us completely. He pleads our cause any man's sin.

[11:39] We have an advocate with the Father. Christ pleases us the righteous. Not that he pleads our innocence before God, that he pleads our guilt before God, and he pleads his own sin-atoning redemption work as the ground of his appeal to God for our justification, pardon, and cleansing.

[12:06] He ever lives to make intercession for us according to the will of God. I know that my Redeemer lives, he says.

[12:18] I know that my Redeemer lives. And there are two sources of knowledge, internal and external. And first of all, there must be external, an external source of knowledge before there can be an internal source of knowledge.

[12:35] I know. There's a ring of assurance and confidence about these words. I know, I know, says, that my Redeemer lives.

[12:46] There's no hesitancy, no dupe, no doubts in his mind. I know that my Redeemer lives. Job had access to the writings and to the oral traditions handed down by the fathers.

[13:06] And Job had experience of God in his life before this. He had experiences of the mercy and the love and the protection and provision of God.

[13:19] and therefore his knowledge had an external source from a testimony about it. And it has this internal source by divine enlightenment of his own mind, divine enlightenment of his mind to know and understand God.

[13:36] I know, he says, in spite of my present terrible condition. Nevertheless, he says, I know that my Redeemer lives.

[13:50] I know about his mercy. I've experienced his pardon. I experience his love day by day. I have experienced his salvation. I know that my Redeemer lives.

[14:03] I know that his blood and righteousness are sufficient to save me. I know although I'm reduced, although I'm dramatically and drastically reduced in my state and standing as to my personal health and to my personal wealth as to my property and possessions, notwithstanding how reduced I am and how miserable I am and how sick and diseased I am and how near the gates of death I am, nevertheless I know that my Redeemer lives.

[14:45] And this language, obviously, is the language of appropriation. It is the language of possession. It is the language of one who is cleaving fast to God.

[14:56] The one who has taken possession possession by faith of all that God is in terms of being a Redeemer. It is the language of faith.

[15:09] God who was hiding himself from him in his adversity. Job in his adversity couldn't see God because of his adversity. Know how easy it is for us to deny God when things don't go right or well with us.

[15:27] It is very easy for us to say that there is no God. It is very easy for his wife to say to him, curse God and die. It is very easy for her to say that in the midst of Job's adversities and sicknesses and poverty and reduced stake.

[15:46] It is easy for her to say that. But how much more easy would it have been for Job himself to say that she wasn't suffering anything in the same degree as he was. And if it was easy for her to say it, how much more easy was it for him to say it?

[16:01] And how easy it is for us to say that when things go against us, when we say with Jacob all these things are against me, how easy it is for us to say God has forgotten me as the psalmist has said.

[16:15] Will God cast off whatever are his mercies between God and forever? And how easy it is for us to say that in the midst of our adversities and so on sufferings in this life.

[16:28] It's easy for us to speak against God. But here's a man out of his abandonment and dereliction of body and family and property.

[16:41] He lost his family, he lost his property, all his family, all his property, all his health and all his wealth. And yet, out of that abysmal state, he is able to say, I know that my Redeemer lives.

[17:01] For words of triumphant testimony and blessed assurance and joyful assurance, I know that my Redeemer lives.

[17:15] In the midst of all his adversity, still he was able to trust God. He was able to believe God and trust God. I know, he says, that my Redeemer lives.

[17:30] Yes, he knew that God was the living God. He knew that God was the only living and true God and that besides him there was no other God.

[17:46] And Job was prepared to stake his all upon this. All that he knew and experienced of God in his life before, he was able to stake all his future upon this God.

[18:04] Job's experience would tell him that God was dead, that God had no longer any interest in him, that God had forsaken him and abandoned him.

[18:17] And contrary to all that his experience told him, Job was prepared to believe in God as the living God, that God was the living, the self existent God, that God had life in himself and he was able to give life to everyone who came to him.

[18:40] The Father hath life in himself, says Jesus, and hath given unto the Son to have life in himself. And he hath power to give life unto as many as the Father giveth me.

[18:57] I know that my redeemer, my redeemer, not the redeemer or our redeemer, but mine, all the difference that makes.

[19:08] As Paul puts it, who loved me and gave himself for me. It's a me in salvation. It's a my in redemption.

[19:21] My redeemer, not simply a redeemer or the redeemer, but my redeemer. Oh, what a difference that my means. How sweet and how important that little word my.

[19:35] How great are the importance and consequences of little things. My is the little word that links Job to the great redeemer.

[19:51] the little word my is the word that links the believer to the redeemer.

[20:03] My redeemer by divine gift. My redeemer by divine gift. And we can look back over the 2,000 years that have passed and we can see God in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.

[20:19] we can see Jesus in his redemption sufferings in his body and in his soul when God made his soul an offering for sin.

[20:30] When Jesus suffered in our room and stand when he was in the process thereby of making an end of sin my sin and you so that we can say I know that my redeemer liver he had a clear understanding of it I know that my redeemer lives he had an inward assurance of his understanding just like the apostle Paul you remember what he said I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day Paul had assured knowledge and assured convictions not I think or I hope or I hear but I know I know that he is the almighty

[21:30] I know that he is the all merciful the long suffering God who was able to say I know his merit as to the one who is God in my nature I know his merits I know that I am accepted to God in him I know that his blood speaketh peace and better things than that of evil I know his love and compassion you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ argues the apostle though he was rich yet for you sakes he became poor that he through his poverty might become rich and there you have Jesus in all the abandonment of his state and condition upon the cross in the midst of all his dreadful sufferings he suffered therefore you for me to be my redeemer

[22:37] I know Job says his faithfulness I know his faithfulness that he will not forsake me utterly I know his faithfulness to his word and his promises I know his faithfulness to his sins and then second he then observed notice the blessings Job hoped for see how he acknowledges his own mortality he felt his own life was soon to be at an end he was aware of uncertainty of death he speaks of world decomposition speaks of death but over against all this his being sown in weakness he understood what Paul tells when he said that our body which is corruption is sown in corruption and soul in weakness it will be raised in power and raised in glory

[23:43] I know that my redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for myself yes he was standing as aware at the gates of death at the gates of corruption ah but yet even at the gates of corruption he was able to say though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh I shall see God you behold God in a body worms destroy but this very body which worms would destroy he believed that it would be reconstituted that his body would be reconstituted in a glorious body that it would be sown in weakness and corruption but that it would be raised in power and in corruption and in glory he would behold

[24:58] God and the body worms destroyed a body new changed and glorious a body sown in corruption but raised in incorruption shown in weakness but raised in power expected his redemption to be effected by his redeemer who says I am the resurrection and the life either believers in me though he were dead yet shall he live yes I am he that was dead says Jesus and behold I am alive forever whole and Job associated his resurrection with Jesus second coming and that he shall stand that day upon the earth that Jesus will stand at the latter day or the last day upon the earth his faith in the goel the redeemer was of such a character as that he was convinced and assured that this body that was so initiated by disease and sickness and eventually sown in the ground and given to the worms and corruption that his redeemer would raise enough raise out his body out of the grave and give him a new and a glorious body

[26:38] Job fully expected to see his redeemer in his resurrection body whom I shall see oh yes blessed as a pure in heart Jesus says for they shall see God we shall be like him says the psalmist and says John the the the the the seer it's wonderful for us to see some of the world's great men but incomprehensible greater is it to see the redeemer who is called wonderful counselor mighty God everlasting father prince of feet no wonder he wished that his words were now written verse 23 oh that my words were now written oh that they were printed in a book but they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever that the master engraver would take a steel chisel and chisel out in some prominent rock this great saying of

[28:04] Job I know I know I know that he shall stand as a latter day upon the earth and though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh I shall see God whom I shall see from myself and mine eye shall behold and not another oh that my words were now written oh that they were printed in a book that they were engraved with an iron pen and lead in a rock whatever that the man with the hammer and chisel would engrave these words in the rock and fill these letters with lead that they might stand out and that they might be read as a memorial to Job's triumphal testimony and joyful expectation that

[29:08] Jesus whose O.L. His Redeemer would stand in the lot of day upon the earth and that he would redeem Job from the worms of the earth and from all the abasement and humiliation of death and the grave and that he would reconstitute him spirit and body in the likeness of himself that we might be conformed to the image of his son oh that my words were now written for I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand with the latter day upon the earth is your experience like Job's do you know scripturally and experimentally that Christ is Goel the Redeemer and that he liveth that he is the living

[30:10] God is this great truth your hope and your consolation in the midst of your followers and suffering is this your hope life is passing on passing on your life is passing on like a river and all of us are being carried away by the river of life and soon will be swept out into the ocean of eternity how solemnly change to pass from time to eternity and the gospel reveals a glorious resurrection for those who obey it and it proclaims our shameful ignominious death for all those who remain impenitent and who remain disobedient to this heavenly work who cast aside this glorious gospel this glorious good news that our redeemer lives do you believe that my redeemer lives can you say that can you say it in the same confident assured way that

[31:37] Job said oh what a glorious day this day is this sabbath day is a glorious day every sabbath day is a glorious day god god wedded israel to the sabbath day because it was a day that contained so many rich and precious blessings for israel it was the day that god ceased from his own labour and rested the seventh day and hallowed it the sabbath day is a glorious day a day of glorious opportunities glorious privileges for the children of men because on the sabbath day there is proclaimed the glad tidings of great joy the glorious gospel of the grace of god that bringeth salvation to land i know that my redeemer lives and that he shall stand upon the earth do you know that do you believe that that jesus is the savior and he is able to save unto the uttermost all who come unto god by him saying he ever liveth to make him to sacrifice for them amen let us pray we pray that it may please thee to give us that knowledge and that conviction that earth gives thy servant job that hope and glorious expectation that he knew his redeemer live we pray that you

[33:32] Thank you.