Job: Faith For Resurrection (Job 19:23-27)

The Resurrection Hope in Job and the Old Testament

The head of the body of the church, the firstborn from the dead. So in everything he is the head, and the fullness of God. He is pleased to dwell in him, direct and silent to himself.

All things, all things, all things together. He holds all things, all things, all things together.

Every stone that makes you stumble, and cuts you when you fall. Every serpent here that strikes your heel, to curse you when you crawl. The king of love one day will crush them all. And every sad seduction, and every clever lie.

Every word that worm children of the sky. The king of love will break them by and by. And you will rise up in the end. Christ will come again. There's nothing to fear, and everything to gain. And so we gather here to run.

Every footstep tells the story. As the people join the feet, the other we proclaim. His death until he comes, he's coming back again. And every time we break the bread. I can hear the song. In my heart, in my.

Of the resurrection. Our cheats, our prophets, our liars. Tens of hires. And I am a sheep who's gone astray. I have turned aside in my own way. Have mercy on me, son of David. Bodless, sacrificial lambs.

The temple clean on Tuesday. You told them what will be on Wednesday. You waited patiently. On Thursday, I'll drink this cup. Cause it is mine on Friday. Like a thief on the cross as he hung there dying.

For crimes there were no use denying. While the righteous judge hung right beside him. How could I not recognize you? How could I not recognize you? How could I not recognize my Lord? My Lord. Though the sky was stone.

The trees were standing stripped to the bone. You could hear creation go. But I write these words on an April day. And the earth is drinking the early rain. The hills remember green again. And we've heard this story all our lives.

Still we feel the pain of the crucified. And the end still comes as a surprise. But before the breath there in the tomb. Before our joy sprang from the womb. You saw a day that's coming soon. When the sun will stand and the moon will split.

Like a hole of a sea. Wherever Jesus plants his feet. And up from the earth the dead will rise. Like spring trees clothed in petals of white. Singing the song of the radiant light. Always be. Always be.

Always be with them. We will.

In Luke 24. It says now on the first day of the week at early dawn. They came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. But when they entered they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

And it happened that while they were perplexed about this. Behold two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing. And when the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground. The men said to them.

Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here but he has risen. Remember how he spoke to you while he was still in Galilee. Saying that the son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men.

And be crucified and on the third day rise again. And they remembered his words. Let's stand and rejoice together and sing. Oh what a day.

Let the joys be gay. Let the songs ring out. It is still a day. Many crowns.

And for the scripture reading this morning. Please turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. This is the resurrection chapter. And we're going to read beginning at verse 35 through the end of the chapter.

Verse 35. But someone will say. How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come? You fool. That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And that which you sow you do not sow the body which is to be.

But a bare grain perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body just as he wished. And to each of the seeds a body of its own. All flesh is not the same flesh. But there is one flesh of men.

And another flesh of beasts. And another flesh of birds. And another of fish. There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. But the glory of the heavenly is one. And the glory of the earthly is another.

There is one glory of the sun. And another glory of the moon. And another glory of the stars. For star differs from star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body.

It is raised an imperishable body. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

So also it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthly.

The second man is from heaven. As is the earthly, so also are those who are earthly. And as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthly, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.

Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed.

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.

But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

Let's pray together. Our Father, we rejoice in this day, this morning, and the gathering of people who are here together. We rejoice in this because it is an opportunity to be reminded again of your graciousness to us in the Lord Jesus Christ, your work on our behalf.

Not only in his sacrificial, atoning, and substitutionary death on behalf of your people, but also in that glorious resurrection he has done the work of securing, justification, and glorification to all who believe.

So Lord, we are thankful that you have done this in Christ. We look forward to the day when there is the consummation of all things, and we will receive the glorified bodies that have been described here in 1 Corinthians 15.

Thank you for Christ, and thank you for his work, and thank you for his resurrection from the dead. He is victorious, and it is the joy and delight and the glory of all of your people to be able to worship and adore the risen Christ, the risen Son of God, whom we love, and in whose name we pray.

Amen. Let's stand and sing together, Glorious Day!

Was filled with His graces. One day when sin was As black as could be Jesus came forth to be Born of a virgin Dwelt among men. My example is He. The Word became flesh And the light shined among us. His living He saved He justified Freely forever One day, His glorious day.

O glorious day His mountain One day they nailed Him To die on a tree Suffering anguished Despised and rejected Bearing our sins. My Redeemer is He. The hands that healed nations Stretched out on a tree And took the nails for me.

Living He loved me Dying He saved me Buried He carried My sins far away. Rising He justified Freely forever One day, He's coming O glorious day. O glorious day. One day the grave could Conceal Him no longer.

One day the stone rolled Away from the door. Then He arose over Death He had conquered. Now is ascended My Lord evermore. Death could not hold Him The grave could not keep Him From rising again. Living He loved me Dying He saved me Buried He carried My sins far away.

Rising He justified Freely forever One day, He's coming O glorious day. O glorious day. One day the trumpet will Sound for His coming One day the skies with His glories will shine. Wonderful day, my beloved One bringing My Savior Jesus is mine.

He saved my sins far away One day, He's coming O glorious day O glorious day.

In Matthew 28, verses 5 and 7 it says And the angel answered and said to the women Do not be afraid For I know that you are looking for Jesus Who has been crucified He is not here for He has risen Just as He said Come see the place where He was lying And go quickly and tell His disciples That He has risen from the dead And behold, He is going ahead of you Into Galilee, there you will see Him Behold, I have told you Christ the Lord My hope is...

The Challenge of Proving Bodily Resurrection from the Old Testament

Let's bow our heads before we begin. Take a look at God's Word Our Father, we ask that You would speak to our hearts through Your Word and accomplish Your every good purpose and pleasure in the hearts of Your people.

We pray that You would encourage those who are downtrodden and discouraged. We pray that You would strengthen the weak and the feeble and that You would encourage us and show us Your love and Your affection and Your eternal purposes.

We pray that You would fill our hearts with joy and with adoration for our great God and Savior the Lord Jesus Christ. In His name we pray, Amen. Well Christian, I have a challenge for you this morning.

If I were to ask you to make the case for bodily resurrection particularly the case that the Messiah had to rise again from the dead would you be able to do it? From Scripture? Let me narrow it down a little bit and maybe make it a little bit more difficult.

Would you be able to do it without turning to your New Testament? Would you be able to make the case for the doctrine of bodily resurrection on the last day from just Old Testament texts? That's a little bit more difficult, right?

Because we typically think that the Old Testament really doesn't draw out that doctrine and really doesn't contain a lot of information on the subject of resurrection. When we think of resurrection we think of the chapter that I read earlier 1 Corinthians 15.

We think of the resurrection appearances of Jesus. We think of the book of Acts and the proclamation of the resurrection there. But if I were to ask you to make the case for doctrine of bodily resurrection just from the Old Testament how successful would you be at doing that?

That's a bit more of a challenge. The New Testament is filled with all kinds of references to resurrection. We have the promises that Jesus made Himself that He would die and that He would rise again.

Then we have the proclamation of the apostles. We have the resurrection appearances in all of the gospels. Then we have the evidence of the resurrection contained in the documents themselves Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts.

And we have 1 Corinthians 15, which is the resurrection chapter. In other epistles, like Philippians and 1 Timothy there are references to the resurrection and references to that Christian hope. And the epistles promise not just bodily resurrection for the Messiah.

They not only talk about that, but they promise bodily resurrection for the believer. And then in the book of Revelation we see that bodily resurrection and the timing of it. So from Matthew through the end of Revelation resurrection, bodily resurrection is all the way through the New Testament.

We would even say that it's just part of the warp and woof of the New Testament. It's woven throughout. We could say that without resurrection there really is no New Testament revelation because all of New Testament revelation explains or exposes or expounds upon in some way the doctrine of bodily resurrection either the resurrection of the Messiah or the resurrection of all those who believe in Him.

So consequently when we think of the resurrection we think of the New Testament we don't often think of the Old Testament and so the doctrine of resurrection is sometimes treated as if it were a late addition to the plan of God some appendix or addendum that he sort of tacked on to the end of the book as if God took 400 years off between the Old Testament and the New Testament and thought to himself what can I do to really improve this.

And he came up with the idea of resurrection as if that was something late in the game it was something that he decided to do sort of in the 11th hour. But belief in the bodily resurrection is not a late development it is not something that is uniquely New Testament in fact it is a feature of God's revelation going back to the earliest times in the biblical record.

Now it is true to say that Christianity is a resurrection faith and we can say that without any hesitation because Christianity really is the fulfillment of Old Testament Judaism. So resurrection is not a doctrine that we tack on to Christianity as sort of an ancillary or secondary doctrine that is a nice thing to have as part of our faith as opposed to the Old Testament Scriptures.

Rather, since Christianity is the fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures we would expect that there would be reference to and explanation of bodily resurrection even in the Old Testament. And there is Jesus Christ is risen from the dead three days after he was crucified and he was raised in the same body in which he was crucified but it was a glorified and different a spiritual body, never to die again.

Now if he did not rise from the dead and present himself alive with many infallible proofs then he was a liar and his disciples are liars. And the New Testament is a book of lies and there is no need to believe in him.

Nothing hinges upon it, it is just a nice story or a myth or a fable. But if he did rise from the dead three days after he was crucified and present himself alive with many infallible proofs to his disciples then he is the divine son he is the son of God, he is the Messiah and eternal life and forgiveness can only be had through him so that the one who repents of their sin and trusts in him has eternal life.

Not because they have done anything to merit that but because another, namely Jesus has done everything on their behalf to merit that eternal life and to give them that eternal life. And so the one who has repented and placed their faith in Christ has eternal life and will be raised in a glorified body just as he was raised in a glorified body.

Christ is a risen Savior. And Christianity is a religion a faith a confidence in bodily resurrection not just of the Messiah but also of all those who have repented and placed their faith in Christ. And this goes back to the earliest times the earliest records even of the Old Testament there was belief in bodily resurrection.

And to show you that I would like you to turn back to the book of Job to the book of Job we're going to see here the earliest confession of belief in bodily resurrection the earliest one that can be found anywhere in Scripture Job chapter 19 now this is not a passage that you would normally expect somebody to preach on on an Easter or Resurrection Sunday of all the places to turn the book of Job, this is the book of suffering.

Right, did we miss something? This is the book of suffering. This is a book that describes one of the lowest points in the life of one of Old Testament Scriptures greatest men. It is a book about a man who loses everything.

He is mocked by his wife he is taunted by his friends he is attacked by the devil. And we're going to turn to a book that recounts the incredible agony of a man going through the deepest and darkest and most discouraging times that probably anyone has ever had to suffer through on Resurrection Sunday.

Now you might be wondering what's next? Ecclesiastes on Mother's Day? Then they're done that. So this is all upside. Then after going through Ecclesiastes on Mother's Day this is all upside. We're turning to the book of Job for two reasons.

First because we have been going through the book of Hebrews Hebrews chapter 11 and looking at this Hebrews Hall of Fame and though Job is not mentioned there he is certainly a man that would deserve to be mentioned there had the Holy Spirit decided to include him and he may even have been in the mind of the author when he gets to the end of Hebrews chapter 11 or towards the end and he says time will fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, and Samuel and the prophets he may as well have included the name Job there.

Because though Job is not mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11 he is that caliber of man, he is a man who had that kind of faith and he is a man of whom we could say by faith Job while in great suffering did not shrink back to destruction but instead confessed his conviction and his belief in his redemption, resurrection and his ultimate reward.

That's the first reason because it kind of fits in with the theme of Hebrews chapter 11. Second because for the last several weeks we've been talking about Abraham's faith and I've made the case that Abraham's faith was a faith that believed that God is a resurrecting or life giving God and this is key to understanding how Abraham responded both to the land promise as well as to the descendant promise, Abraham was willing to live in the land for a hundred years without ever receiving it because he believed that God would raise him from the dead and give him that land.

In the end, he believed that God raises the dead and Abraham was willing to offer up his son Isaac on that mountain even burning the body because Abraham was a man who believed in God's ability to raise the dead and that he could raise Isaac if necessary.

So we've seen how resurrection is keyed in with Abraham's faith and so this fits in right. Well with that I was explaining yesterday the gist of this message to somebody and they said in other words you're really just looking for an excuse to beat the same dead horse from a different passage.

And yeah that's not entirely wrong. That's kind of what we're doing with this Job 19. The question now that presents itself to us is a very intriguing one namely how much did the Old Testament saints understand about the doctrine of bodily resurrection.

How much did they understand about the doctrine of bodily resurrection especially at a time 2 ,000 years before Jesus came and lived and died was buried and rose again. How much could a saint living back 2 ,000 years before Christ have understood about bodily resurrection.

The answer to that is found in verses 25 through 27. Read them with me. This is our text and we're going to read it here and then I'm going to zoom out and give you a little bit of context before we jump back in and go through it in detail.

Verse 25. As for me I know that my Redeemer lives and that at the last he will take his stand on the earth even after my skin is destroyed yet from my flesh I shall see God whom I myself shall behold and whom my eyes will see and not another.

My heart faints within me now. That is the oldest text in scripture that describes the subject or speaks of the subject of bodily resurrection and it is quite magnificent. Job is the first book of scripture that was written.

A lot of people are surprised to hear that they think Genesis was written first because it deals with the things that happened in the beginning. But Genesis was written by Moses a long time after Job lived.

Job is the oldest book that you have in your scriptures and it can be dated with the early patriarchs even probably prior to Abraham at least contemporary at the latest a contemporary of Abraham. And my suspicion is that he predated Abraham and I'll give you a couple of reasons why.

First his lifespan fits in with the patriarchs and their lifespans early in the book of Genesis it says after all of the afflictions that Job suffered through in chapter 42 verse 16 that he lived for 140 years after his suffering.

140 years now before the suffering struck him he had he had fathered 10 children all of whom were adults at the time that the suffering struck him so he was old enough to have 10 adult children who were out of the house and living on their own at the time.

And then after his suffering he lived for another 140 years that puts his lifespan somewhere in the neighborhood the neighborhood of Abraham from here on out that's just an Abraham that puts his lifespan somewhere in the neighborhood of Abraham at 175 plus years which means that he would have lived between Noah and Abraham and from what we can tell he was not an ancestor or a predecessor of Abraham probably in a different lineage because he's not listed in Abraham's ancestry but he could have been another descendant of Noah and sort of on the side or a cousin in some way distant cousin of Abraham and probably lived at Abraham's time at the latest more likely before Abraham so he's somewhere between Noah and Abraham.

Second Job was a righteous man in that era and that would indicate that he had a knowledge and he worshipped a knowledge of and he worshipped the one true and living God which means that by the time of Abraham knowledge of God that had been passed on from Noah and his three sons had been largely forgotten it was mostly an idolatrous world.

You had these rare exceptions where God revealed himself to Abraham, Abraham was a Yahweh worshipper, God had revealed himself to Job, obviously Job is a follower of God and then you have like Melchizedek who lived at the time of Abraham to whom God had made himself known but for the most part by the time you get to Abraham's day knowledge of and worship of the one true God had been largely lost after the time of Noah so Job is probably prior to Abraham he had still understood this.

It is very possible that Abraham and Job's life overlapped and that Job and Noah's life overlapped. Third. Job's wealth is measured in terms of livestock and not precious metals and that is something that is consistent with other things that we read in Genesis about the wealth that Abraham had they weren't thinking in terms of gold and silver but they looked in terms of livestock meaning that since his wealth was measured by the amount of livestock that he had that that was the way they referred to that he was a contemporary of Abraham.

And then. Fourth many significant post Abrahamic events are not mentioned in the book of Job like for instance Abraham his descendants the land of promise the exodus the Jews Jewish holidays the sacrificial system the priesthood or the law of Moses.

And there are other indicators that it was an early book written before the time of Abraham or around the time of Abraham at least and I'll save those for some time when I'm preaching through the book of Job which nobody here is looking forward to.

So just calm down sometime after Hebrews it's a way off. The story of Job is familiar to us. He was a faithful and righteous man. He loved the Lord and the Lord granted for some undisclosed reason permission to the devil to attack Job and to attack his possessions and eventually his person in the first wave of Satan's assault raiding bands of Chaldeans and Sabians came in and swept in and killed his servants and took all of his possessions so that in a matter of one day everything he owned and almost all with the exception of one or two of his servants were destroyed and taken from him.

He lost everything and yet. And then a great wind struck the house in which all of his children were living at the time and present at the time and destroyed and wiped out all of his kids. So he lost all of his children and all of his possession and most of his servants all in one day.

Satan was trying to try him. Satan didn't take his wife for some reason. I'll leave that up to your speculation as to why. And Job responded. I'm not saying anything about any wives here. I'm just saying something about what the devil may have had in mind for Job's wife.

In all of that Job didn't curse God. He worshipped. And has that great statement at the end of chapter 1 verse 21. He said naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away blessed be the name of the Lord.

Chapter 1 ends with this magnificent statement. Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God. That's chapter 1 verse 21. Well Satan claimed that the only reason Job did not abandon his faith was because God protected his person.

And if he would allow Satan to attack Job and take away his health and make him suffer and be afflicted physically that that would cause Job to curse God. So the Lord gave Satan permission to do that only to not take Job's life.

And so in chapter 2 a second set of attacks comes Job's way. Chapter 2 verse 7 Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.

And he took a potsherd to scrape himself while he was sitting among the ashes. So with the pus oozing and itching from his skin in all of that misery his only relief was to scrape his skin and relieve some of the itching and the pain with that potsherd which itself would have been a very miserable thing to do but at least it would have given him some relief.

And his wife speaking like a foolish woman joined in the attack and said to Job curse God and die. And Job indicates that that was a foolish statement. And then his friends and I use that term in the loosest possible way heard of his suffering and came to visit him.

And then they sat down next to him. And the best thing they ever said to him is recorded in Job chapter 2 verse 13. They sat down on the ground with him for 7 days and 7 nights with no one speaking a word to him that was the best thing that they said to him was 7 days and 7 nights of utter silence because that was the extent of their wisdom.

And when they did open up their mouths to speak their folly poured forth like salt upon his already miserable wounds. Chapter 2 ends with this statement. His pain was very great. And then Job's friends comforters whatever you want to call them charged him with all kinds of sin dishonesty injustice theft lying sexual immorality adultery idolatry greed slander blasphemy and the list goes on.

And with every one of their accusations Job maintained his innocence. Not that he was perfect not that he was sinless but he maintained his innocence saying there's nothing that I have done having been God's friend there's nothing that I have done that warrants this happening to me.

This is not a quid pro quo between me and God. I've done nothing to deserve what has come upon me in the gravity of it. But his friends wouldn't have any of that. And every time Job would maintain his innocence they would double down and turn up the heat and bring more accusations.

And they would tag team this so that one friend would say something and Job would answer him. And then the next friend would speak and Job would answer him then the next friend. By the time we get to chapter 19 there on the second round of verbal attacks against Job he has reached the very bottom of his emotional and spiritual reserve.

This is the lowest point in the book. And his confession of faith that we find in verses 25 through 27 is truly a turning point in the book. For after this confession Job's despair is not quite like it is before this confession.

There's something about this confession and uttering what it is that he says that sort of serves as a light to guide him through at least the rest of the book. So from this point forward Job's discourses are much more hopeful.

And though he continues throughout the book to be lost in the fog of wondering why all of this has struck him which he never gets answered he ultimately knows that what he says in verses 25 through 27 is true and that in his bodily resurrection he will find his vindication and his reward.

This is why this is such a hopeful part. And I hope that you see you have to understand a little bit of the darkness and the discouragement and the depression of this so that it serves as a backdrop against which this wonderful statement verses 25 through 27 can shine.

We're not quite ready to get there yet. Chapter 19. This is where we're at verse 1. I want you to look at how Job recounts his sufferings 19. Verse 1 Job responded. How long will you torment me and crush me with words.

These ten times you have insulted me. You're not ashamed to wrong me. So he felt this emotional suffering that was afflicted by his friends and their verbal assaults and all other accusations of him of his sin.

Second he felt attacked and abandoned even by God. Verse 10. He breaks me down on every side and I am gone. And he has uprooted my hope like a tree. He has kindled his anger against me and considered me as his enemy.

And then he was abandoned by his friends and his family and his loved ones. Verse 13. He has removed my brothers far from me and my acquaintances are completely estranged from me. My relatives have failed and my intimate friends have forgotten me.

Those who live in my house and my maids consider me a stranger. I am a foreigner in their sight. I call to my servant. He does not answer. I have to implore him with my mouth. My breath is offensive to my wife and I am loathsome to my own brothers.

Even young children despise me. I rise up and they speak against me. All my associates abhor me and those I love have turned against me. You hear the despair. Well it doesn't end there. Look at verse 20.

His physical suffering. My bone clings to my skin and my flesh and I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth. Pity me. Pity me. Oh you my friends. For the hand of God has struck me. Why do you persecute me as God does.

Are you and are not satisfied with my flesh. So he expresses. There is physical anguish in the suffering that he was going through. Being tormented in excruciating pain. Wasting away. He continued to lose weight almost inexplicably to the point where he just says my skin is hanging off my bones.

He's a shell of a man. By this point he hasn't eaten a thing for at least a week as he sat there mourning and suffering his bone clinging to his skin. And he feels as if he has escaped death by the narrowest of margins.

Look at verse 20 where he says. I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth. You heard that phrase. Right. This is where it comes from. I've escaped by the skin of my teeth. My skin hangs off me by bones.

The last thing I have is my teeth. And by that it's a narrow margin. And his friends thought they were doing him a favor by insulting him and accusing him. Look at verse 22. Are you not satisfied with my flesh.

Is my physical suffering not enough for you. I sit here and you see what I'm going through. And yet then you come here and you just heap abuse upon me by verbally assaulting me insulting me. These ten times.

Is my suffering not enough to satisfy your blood lust. Do you have to come here and pour salt in these wounds figuratively in agony. Verse 23 and 24 a prelude to his hope. Oh that my words were written.

It's describing here what he is about to say. Oh that my words were written. Oh that they were inscribed in a book that with an iron stylus and lead they were engraved in the rock forever. Job would want what he says now to be written down and it has been gloriously so so that we can benefit from it.

It is for our encouragement and our edification and our instruction that all of his words have been written down. And he longs that this hope that he has which he expresses in verses 25 through 27 might be chiseled into rock written as it were which he says in verse 24 with an iron stylus and lead.

Oh that my words were engraved and chiseled into marble and then hot lead poured into them so that they would be doubly eternally secure. Right. That they might be chiseled into marble and they would last.

And then that lead would be poured in so that they might never perish. Now Job's hope expressed there in verse 23 and 24 has been fulfilled literally I think beyond what he probably could have imagined at the time as these words in verse 25 and 27 have been inscribed on monuments and chiseled into headstones and written over tombs in granite all over the world.

So many tombs that you would not even want to have to count them. These words have been inscribed in stone and written in marble more times than Job could have ever imagined because this is the hope of bodily resurrection.

Here it is again in verse 25 through 27 as for me I know that my redeemer lives and that the last he will take his stand on the earth even after my skin is destroyed. Yet from my flesh I shall see God whom I myself shall behold and whom my eyes will see and not another my heart faints within me.

There are three different elements to his hope there Job expresses his hope in his redemption verse 25 his resurrection verse 26 and his ultimate reward his redemption his resurrection and his ultimate reward.

Now that is a beautiful outline. It's a genius outline and I don't mind saying that because I didn't come up with it. I'm borrowing this or I should say litanizing this from Phil Johnson who preached on this passage and I don't think it can be improved upon.

I worked on it. I tried to come up with something like different alliteration and it just nothing worked. Job expresses the same hope that you and I have our redemption our resurrection and our ultimate reward each one of those verses.

Let's look at it beginning in verse 25. First of all I want you to see how these three things are connected. There is no ultimate reward if you are in the grave forever. And there is no coming out of the grave without redemption.

It has to be in this order redemption resurrection to ultimate reward. And these three things are tied together so that the one who is redeemed receives the ultimate reward. And there is no ultimate reward without resurrection because of redemption.