Well, if you have your Bibles, let's take them and turn to the Old Testament book of Job. And in this message, we're going to be looking at a topic. And the topic is eschatology, the doctrine of last things and the Old Testament. And I'm going to be looking in the course of this message at a number of passages And this one in Job and in the 19th chapter will be one of those that we will come back to. And I'm going to read now Job 19 verses 25 through to verse 27. And so let me invite you as you're able, let's stand in honor of the reading and the hearing of God's word. Again, I'm reading from Job and chapter 19, beginning in verse 25. We're in the inspired Penman writes. For 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 and mine eyes shall behold and not another. Though my reigns be consumed within me. May God bless today, the reading and the hearing of his word and let us join again in prayer. Let's pray. Gracious and loving God, as we ponder today, the teaching of thy scriptures on the doctrine of last things, and as we listen to Job and other of thy inspired writers, give us light, give us the light of inspiration of illumination by the Holy Spirit that we might hear the God-breathed word as it comes to us that which is inspired and as our own minds are illumined to see it and understand it and treasure it. We ask this in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen. You may be seated. So we're returning to this afternoon series on eschatology, the doctrine of last things, and we've noted a distinction between personal eschatology, summed up maybe in the question of what happens when I die, and cosmic eschatology, which is what happens at the end of history, at the end of the ages. And thus far, we've been looking at passages from the New Testament, primarily from the New Testament. And someone might ask, well, what about the Old Testament? We believe in a Bible that is a 66-book canon. The 39 books of the Old Testament, the 27 books of the New Testament. Is there continuity between what we read about in the Old Testament and what we find in the New Testament? So we've talked about things like the New Testament says, Paul, 2 Corinthians 5.8, to be absent of the bodies, to be present with the Lord. Or we were looking recently at 1 Thessalonians, at the second coming of Christ, that the departed souls of the saints will accompany the Lord when he comes, and then they will experience the resurrection first, and then those who are alive will be caught up together with them in the air, and they will experience the resurrection, and it will be glorious at the second coming of Christ. Do we find explicit teachings like this about what happens at the end of a person's life, who's a believer, at the end of the ages? Does the Old Testament teach the hope of a final resurrection at the end of the ages. And you might say, well, okay, Pastor, you're raising this as a question. That implies that maybe there are some people who would say that there's a lack of continuity between the Old and New Testaments. And indeed, there are some pastors in the Old Testament especially in the Psalms, that seem to talk about death as being a sort of end for human existence. They talk about the silence of the grave. So someone dies, they go to the grave, and that's it. It's sort of a, sometimes these passages are cherry picked to support an idea of annihilation. So what passages am I talking about? There's several in the Psalms. Psalm six, verse five. And you can listen to these, you can turn to some of them, you can jot them down and look at them later if you'd like. And maybe you've been, maybe when we've done our reading of the Psalter before, the beginning of worship services, or when we sing the Psalms, you come across some of these and maybe it's caused you to say, Hmm, what does that mean exactly? Again, the first one, Psalm six, verse five, for in death, there is no remembrance of the, this is the Psalm is speaking to the Lord in death. There is no remembrance of the, in the grave, who shall give the thanks with the implication being, if I die and I'm in the grave, I will not remember you. and there will be no one living. If I die, I will not be among those living who will be giving you praise. What about Psalm 30 and verse nine? What profit is there in my blood when I go down to the pit? There it uses the Hebrew word shakat. Shall the dust praise thee? Shall it declare thy truth? And again, the implication is if I die and go to the grave, Yo, I'm not going to have the capacity to praise you any longer. Psalm 88 has a couple of passages within it that speak to this. Psalm 88 verses four and five. Read, I am counted with them that go down to the pit. There it uses the Hebrew word bor. I am as a man that hath no strength. free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more, and they are cut off from thy hand. So those that go to the grave are remembered no more by the Lord and cut off from his hand. Also in Psalm 88, verses 10 through 12, The psalmist writes, wilt thou show wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah, the question is posed there. Shall thy loving kindness be declared in the grave? Ba-keber is in the grave there in Hebrew. Or thy faithfulness in destruction? Verse 12 of Psalm 88, shall thy wonders be known in the dark and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? Also, Psalm 115, verse 17, the dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence. That's a pretty stark statement. The dead praise not the Lord. How do we make that fit with, for the believer, 2 Corinthians 5, 8, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. And beyond the Psalms, although that's the place we see this sort of sentiment most often, we see it in some other places. One of those is Isaiah chapter 38, verse 18. For the grave, and there it uses the word sheol, cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee. They that go down into the pit, the Hebrew word bor, cannot hope for thy truth. So how do we explain, first of all, passages like these? Well, some of these passages express questions. They're not making declarations. They're asking questions. They're asking the questions of human existence. Well, when I die, what happens to me? And so sometimes some of these are simply posed as questions. Some of them are statements from persons who are drawing near to death. and they are asking the Lord to preserve their lives. And as part of their petitioning, they are saying, Lord, keep me alive so that here on earth, I might continue to praise and serve thee. And in some cases, I think the inspired penman of scripture are recording or stating things with which they do not necessarily agree. but they're allowing a hypothetical person to state their doubts, their challenges, even their despair, even expressions of what are called nihilism or nothingness, and they're showing what unbelieving people sometimes say. as they struggle with death and they pass through trials that might lead to death. And we see something like this in some places in the scripture, like in the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon often quotes things that he doesn't, he says things that he doesn't agree with. He'll quote people who say there's no meaning in life, everything is vanity. He doesn't believe that, he knows it's a no God. means our life is not lived in vain, but he will say all is vanity. He's stating these things, even if he doesn't agree with them. On the other hand, though, we will acknowledge that there were some Jews who, on the basis of some of the passages that I've just read, came to the idea that there is no life beyond this life. There were some ancient Jews that believed that we live only for this life. And they did not believe that when you die, your spirit goes to be with God. And they did not believe that there would be a final resurrection at the end of the ages. In fact, there was one sect or group of Jews that are spoken of a number of times in the New Testament. and who even challenged the Lord Jesus Christ. And they were known as the Sadducees. And they were a group of priests who kept the temple worship going in the temple in Jerusalem. And believe it or not, they did not believe in life after death. They did not believe in the resurrection. And one of the ways we know that is the case is because if you look in your Bible at Acts chapter 23, when Paul was arrested in Jerusalem and he was put on trial before the Jewish Sanhedrin, Luke tells us that Paul looked around at the Sanhedrin and he noticed that some of them were Pharisees who believed in the resurrection and life after death, but some of them were Sadducees who rejected this. And so we have this statement. If you were to look at Acts chapter 23, verse six, describing Paul on trial before the Sanhedrin, Luke says, but when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee, of the hope and resurrection of the dead, I am called in question. See, the Pharisees believed there would be a general resurrection at the end of the ages. Paul was a Pharisee and the son of a Pharisee, he had become a Christian, and he believed that Christ was the first fruits, the first evidences of the general resurrection that would happen at the end of the ages. But he knew there were some Sadducees there in the Sanhedrin who didn't believe in the resurrection. And so we continue to read Acts 23 verse 7. And when he had so said, there arose a dissension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the multitude was divided. Verse eight, for the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit, but the Pharisees confess both. So the Pharisees, the Sadducees rather, believe it or not, were naturalists in the first century. They didn't believe in angels. They didn't believe in the work of the Holy spirit. They didn't believe in the resurrection of the dead. They believed you live this life before God, and then you cease to exist. And so there were Jews up to the first century who probably based in part on some of those passages I read from the Psalms and from Isaiah 38, 18, who had a sort of a nihilistic view of human life. Now, are those passages, those passages we talked about, and other passages within the Old Testament, are they in continuity with the teachings we find in the New Testament? And I want to suggest that they are. I've already told you, I think those scattering of passages in the Psalms, I think once we understand them in context, that they're often questions, They're often the statements of a hypothetical person in prayer who is despairing, or they are hypothetical statements of someone who's an unbeliever, who doesn't believe in life beyond this life. I think once we understand those in context, then that weakens the view that they're giving authoritative doctrine. And like I said, on the other hand, there are passages in the Old Testament that are clearly in continuity with what we find in the New Testament. Let me give you a few examples of this. One is David's, King David's mourning for the loss of his son. And you know that account in 2 Samuel after David committed adultery with Bathsheba and arranged the murder of her husband, Uriah the Hittite. that Bathsheba was expecting a child from their union. And as part of the judgment, part of the chastisement of God, that child died. And when the child was near death, David had been mourning and he had been fasting, and then the child died and David stopped mourning and fasting And he was questioned about this by some of his advisors around him. And in 2 Samuel 12, verse 23, David said this, or he was asked by his advisors, but now he is dead. Actually, this is David, sorry. But now he is dead. Wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? So he said, I can't bring my departed son back again. And that sounds quite a bit, doesn't it? Like Luke 16, when the rich man is told between us there's a great goal fixed, or when he tries to say, send Lazarus to warn my brothers. And Father Abraham says, you cannot go from, people can't go from where we are to where they are. So he says that, can I bring him back again? And then David says this, I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." And that statement that David makes is important. For one thing, he affirms that his son was among the elect. He believed that his son was among the elect. And he believed that his son had therefore departed to be with the Lord. He knew that his son would not return, There was a great goal fixed, but one day, presumably at David's death, he would go to be in the place where his son was. And so that statement there in 2 Samuel 12, verse 13, verse 23, rather, may be the closest Old Testament passage to 2 Corinthians 5.8, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Another passage that I would point to that shows the continuity of the Old Testament's teaching with the New Testament's would be the passage that we read earlier from the book of Job, from Job 19, verses 25 through 27. And many people know Job. They know the story of the righteous man's suffering. Many people believe, many scholars believe, historians, that the book of Job is actually perhaps among the oldest writings in the Old Testament. In fact, some people believe that Job was written before the time of Abraham. And so it's thought by many to be very ancient in its content. And so what do we find that Job says? Verse 25, I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. Who is his Redeemer? Well, I think Job has some sense of the second person of the triune God. And perhaps it was hazy in to his mind at this time, but he believed that his Redeemer would stand at the latter day at the end of the ages upon the earth and then he here prophesies about the final resurrection and though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God he's talking about the breakdown of his old body but the renewal of him receiving as a believer a resurrection body and experiencing the resurrection to life. And even what we could call the, the, the, the beatific vision of God in my flesh, shall I see God verse 27, whom I shall see for myself and mine eyes shall behold and not another though my reigns be consumed within me, though he has passed through death and his body would go the way of all flesh and all earth and break down, yet there's a hope here of a personal resurrection and seeing the Lord. Another passage that we would point to would be from the book of Daniel, Daniel chapter 12. And of course we know Daniel, the great prophet the great interpreter of dreams who was carried off into Babylon at the time of the exile. And in Daniel chapter 12, Daniel prophesies about a general resurrection at the end of the history that will encompass both the righteous and the wicked. And so listen to what he says, Daniel 12 verse one, and at that time shall Michael stand up the great Prince, which standeth for the children of thy people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to the same time. And at that time, thy people shall be delivered. Everyone that shall be found written in the book. So a couple of things about this. We're gonna look at verses two and three in a moment, but in verse one, first of all, we have an emphasis upon the role of Michael. at the end of the ages. Who is this Michael? Well if you would, he's called here a great prince. If you were to look back a couple chapters in Daniel 10 verse 13 he is called one of the chief princes and presumably this is one of the chief princes among the angels of God. In the book of Jude in the New Testament in verse 9 he is called Michael the archangel. There's a hierarchy of angels and Michael was among the leaders, the princes of the angels. And also in Revelation chapter 12 verse 7, there's a description of a war in heaven. And I think most interpreters believe that this is a description of the prehistorical battle that took place in heaven. when Satan and other perverse angels rebelled against God. And it says in Revelation 12.7 that Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. A reference to how Michael and other obedient angels who did not rebel against God defeated Satan and those angels that did rebel against him. I believe this is something that happened in prehistory. That is before what is recorded for us, the events that are recorded for us in later parts of Genesis that give us a history of humankind. But these are things that happened in greater antiquity, I guess we could call it. So Michael is involved there and he is standing up. And this might also bring to our mind what we looked at recently in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 16, which says that the coming of Christ, the Lord shall descend with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. And so that mention there of the voice of the archangel, in light of Daniel 12.1, we might say that is Michael, the voice of Michael the archangel. And then you'll notice, looking back at Daniel 12, it talks about God's people being delivered. And they are everyone that shall be found written in the book. What is that? The Lamb's book of life. This is the elect. God will intervene at the end of history in a time of trouble. He will come and he will keep his elect. And then verse 2 of Daniel 12, and many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. What is being described there is a general resurrection at the end of the ages. and two resurrections. There are those who are raised to everlasting life, and there are those who are raised to shame and everlasting contempt. Now you see there in verse two, the word many, many of them, and some would say, well, does that mean only some partial number of the dead? Some of the dead will simply remain in the grave. And I think it's meant to be taken as some, meaning not all will experience the resurrection of life, some, not all will experience a resurrection to shame and everlasting contempt. All who have lived will be raised, but only some to the resurrection of life, only some to the resurrection of shame and everlasting contempt. And Daniel 12 too lines up perfectly, does it not, with what we read previously in this series from our Lord. In John 5, 28, 29, they who are in the grave will hear his voice, They will be raised to the resurrection of life or to the resurrection of damnation. And then he speaks especially about those who are raised to the resurrection of life. Verse three, Daniel 12, three, and they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as stars forever and ever. This is the eternal. bliss of the risen saints who shine as the brightness of the firmament and they shine like the stars forever and ever. And then also, let's look finally at Isaiah and look at the last chapter in the prophet Isaiah. Daniel didn't speak much of the, resurrection to shame and everlasting contempt. But Isaiah in the very last chapter of his prophetic book, he really ends with a description of the end of the ages. This is from Isaiah 66, beginning in verse 22. For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. So this is the vision of the end of the ages. There's gonna be a new heaven, new earth. The redeemed saints will worship God forever and ever. And also though, there is the experience of the reprobate, the wicked. Verse 24, and they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh. And there is Isaiah's prophecy of the eternal conscious punishment of the wicked at the end of the ages. So, What do we say having looked at these passages? We can think of Augustine of Hippo, the great North African theologian, and he famously said, or is paraphrased as, what is in the Old Testament concealed is in the New Testament revealed. And many of the things that were spoken of in the Old Testament are then explained more clearly in the New Testament. We can conclude that the New Testament teachings make plainer and clearer what we read in the Old Testament. There is indeed continuity, agreement, harmony between the Testaments. And this is the case certainly with respect to eschatology. What this tells us is the view of the Sadducees was in error. The Sadducees and anyone who suggests that There's no life beyond this life, and there is no resurrection at the end of the ages. That view is a heretical view, and it is rejected. The Lord Jesus Christ rejected this view during his lifetime. This will be the last passage we'll look at in Matthew 22. Matthew 22. And you may remember this passage. Matthew 22 is filled with reports of controversies, people who tried to enter into controversies with the Lord Jesus during His final ministry before He would go to the cross. And one of the groups that came to try to entrap Him and try to catch Him saying something they could criticize Him for were the Sadducees. And look at this description. This is Matthew 22, verse 23. The same day came to Him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection. That's in continuity with what we read in Acts 23. And they asked him, saying, Master, Moses said, if a man die having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up seed unto his brother. This was a practice called the Leverite marriage. that a brother would have to marry his wife, the wife of the brother, the widow, and produce children that would be counted as this man chose. So they bring this theological conundrum. No one raised this with Ben on last Friday, trying to give someone a really hard theological question to try to answer. They gave him some hard ones, but they didn't pose this one to him. And so they ask us to remember, to imagine, the Sadducees do, they ask the Lord to imagine that there were seven brothers. And the first, when he had married a wife, died, verse 25, deceased and having no issue, left his wife to his brother. Likewise, the second also, the third unto the seventh. And last of all, the woman died also. And they said, aha, we've got you. Jesus, you believe in the resurrection. Therefore in the resurrection, whose wife shall she be of the seven? For they all had her. A woman's married to seven men in this life. She dies and goes to heaven. Who is her husband there? Aha, we've got you. And Christ answered, verse 29. He said, ye do err, not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God, for in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. This verse is a reputation of the Mormon theology, isn't it? Once we pass through this life, marriage is a temporal relationship and in heaven, One neither marries nor is given in marriage. Does it say that we become angels? That's another kind of folk, you know, he's a little, you know, he's a little angel in heaven. He had to go, he had to leave here on earth and be an angel in heaven. No, it's not what Christ taught. We don't become angels when we go to heaven. We are men, we're men here, we're men in heaven, but we're men who would have a resurrection body. And we'd be living in a glorified state. And so we would be like the angels, as the angels in heaven. And then Christ says, but as touching the resurrection of the dead, this is Matthew 22, 31. Have you not read that which was spoken to you by God saying, I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And it's interesting here, given our study on Sunday mornings through the patriarchs, Christ uses a proof text from Exodus chapter three, verse six, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. And he makes the point that in the Old Testament, when they talked about these patriarchs, they talked about them as if they were still alive. Why is that? Because they are still alive. Do you know right now, Abraham's spirit, is with Christ. Isaac's spirit is with Christ. Jacob's spirit is with Christ. The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, he is the God of the living. They did not cease to exist. They did not go to merely to silent grave. Their bodies are in the grave. but their spirits are with Christ. Their righteous souls are right now with the Lord awaiting the final resurrection. And we can say that for all the great departed saints. That's where Peter and Paul are. Their spirits are with Christ awaiting the resurrection. And that is indeed our glorious hope. Amen. Let me invite you to stand together. Let's join in prayer. Gracious God, we pray that you would watch over us as we go through this life and we have to experience losses. We think of our sister, Jessica Breeden, who lost her husband and the funeral that was held last week. And we will go through seasons. We lose parents, spouses, grandparents, even some may taste the bitterness of losing a child. But help us, Father, to know that if we are in Christ, that to be absent of the bodies, be present with the Lord, and to know that this is taught by all the scriptures, the whole counsel of God, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, speaks with one voice. Help us to hear this, to believe it, and to be comforted by it. We ask this in Christ's name, amen.