Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - If a Man Dies, Shall He Live Again?

Episode Date: April 26, 2023

There’s nothing more inevitable in life than suffering, and there’s no book in the Bible, and maybe no work of world literature, that faces the issue of suffering with more realism, integrity, and wisdom than the book of Job. In the middle part of the book, there are long speeches by Job, and most of the time he’s expressing confusion and anger. But there are two places where, in his wrestling, Job wrestles through to remarkable faith and insight. In this one, Job comes to grips with three resources we’re told Christians have in order to face suffering. These three resources are to know 1) the comfort of the presence, 2) the challenge of the glory, and 3) the joy of the resurrection. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 20, 2008. Series: Job - A Path Through Suffering. Scripture: Job 13:20-24; 14:7-17. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. The English word for hope can can note uncertainty, but the Christian concept of hope is a life-changing, joyous certainty of future with God. Today on Gospel in Life, Tim Keller is teaching about Christian hope and how what we believe about the future can transform our present reality. The Scripture this morning is from the book of Job, chapter 13 and 14. Only grant me these two things, O God, and then I will not hide from you. Withdraw your hand far from me and stop frightening me with your terrors. Then summon me and I will answer, or let me speak and you reply. How many wrongs and sins have I committed? Show me my fence and my sin.

Why do you hide your face and consider me your enemy? At least there's hope for a tree, if it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail. Its roots may grow old in the ground, and its stumps die in the soil, yet at the center of water it will bud and put forth shoots like a plant. But man dies and is laid low. He breathes his last in his no more, as water disappears from the sea or a riverbed becomes parched and dry.

So man lies down and does not rise. Till the heavens are no more, men will not awake or be roused from their sleep. If only you would hide me in the grave and conceal me till your anger has passed. If only you would set me a time and then remember me. If a man dies, will he live again. All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come. You will call and I will answer you. You will long for the creature your hands have made.

Surely then you will count my steps but not keep track of my sin. My offenses will be sealed up in a bag. You will cover over my sin." There's nothing more inevitable in life than suffering. And there's no book in the Bible, and maybe no work of even world literature that faces the issue of suffering with more realism, integrity, and wisdom in the book of Job. And we're looking at the book of Job right now, these set of weeks. And what we've seen is that Job is a devout believer in God, a pillar of his community, and suddenly and inexplicably everything is taken away from him. His God, a pillar of his community, and suddenly and inexplicably,

everything is taken away from him. His wealth, his health, his family, and he's plunged into darkness. And in this middle part of the book, where we are now, and where we have been, we'll be for a little bit of time, there are these long speeches by Job, and true to form, true to reality.

Most of the time, he's basically expressing confusion and anger. But there are two places, and this is one of them, and we'll look at the other one next week. There's two places where in his wrestling Job wrestles through to a couple of high points of remarkable faith and insight. And in this one, what we see is Job coming to grips with three resources that everywhere in the Bible, we are told that Christians have in order to face suffering. There's three resources that everywhere, from the Old Testament, the New Testament, we're told these three resources, Christians have in order to face suffering.

And these three resources are the presence, the glory, and the resurrection. It's the resources are to know the comfort of the presence, to know the challenge of the glory, and the joy of the resurrection. Presence, glory, resurrection. Let's take a look at them. First, the presence.

Right here in the very beginning, Job's praying. And he says, grant me these two things, though, God. But when you look a little more carefully, you'll see it's really just one thing. Because in verse 20, he says, I don't want to hide from you. Verse 24, he says, I don't want you to hide for me. What is it he wants? He says, I want you to summons me. Now to summons means to be brought into the presence of someone. And that's what he wants. He says, don't hide your face for me, he says.

And the Hebrew idiom, what that means is I want your companionship. I want your presence., I want your presence. Maybe I've sinned against you. If that's the case, I want it out, I want it be dealt with, but I don't want you to be my enemy. I want to know you're not my enemy. I want to know you're with me.

I want to be in your presence now. This is a development. This is progress. Because earlier on, you saw Job asking for an explanation. Why is this happening to me? Give me some reasons. But now, he is not asking for an explanation, he's asking for vindication.

He's asking not so much for answers, but for the personal presence of God. He says, I don't really need all the answers. If I knew you were with me in it, and walking with me through it. I wouldn't need all the answers. I don't need the explanation. As long as I know that you are for me in it and walking with me through it. Now at this point, Job is being very wise. There was a writer named Joe Bailey who wrote a book some years ago. I may not even be in print anymore, but Joe had a number of tragedies in his life.

He and his wife lost three sons over the years, one in infancy, one as 20 some year old. I forget where the other one or how the other one died. But as a result, he wrote a book called The View from a Hirst. And I don't even know if it's still in print, as I said, but there's one very striking passage I read many years ago. And this is what he said. He was right after one of his sons died. He says, quote, I was sitting torn by grief.

Someone came and talked to me of God's dealings, of why it happened, of hope beyond the grave. He talked constantly. He said things I knew were true. I wished he'd go away." And he finally did. Another came and sat beside me. He didn't talk.

He didn't ask leading questions. He just sat beside me for an hour. Or more, he listened, when I said something, he answered briefly, he prayed simply and left. I hated to see him go. Now, here's what Joe Bailey is getting at, and it's really important. If you're not suffering, you know, if you're actually having a nice life, then suffering is an intellectual puzzle. Why has God allowed we've been suffering in the

world? See, it's all academic. But the experience of suffering is not basically an intellectual puzzle. It's a journey. It's not like how do we put a human being on Mars? See, that's an intellectual puzzle. It's more like how am I gonna get over this mountain pass? How am I gonna go up into this mountain range and get over to the other side? Now, if you're trying to go over a high mountain pass, a dangerous mountain pass, it would help to have a map. Information's great.

But it's even more important is your own strength, your own hardy hood. If you have a map and you don't have the actual strength, you're going to die up there in the cold. So in other words, if you have the map, the information, but you don't have the strength, you're going to die. If you have the strength, but not the map, you still might get through, actually, pretty much could. And that's what Bailey was trying to say. He was trying to say, I didn't need a map. I didn't need an answer. I needed the personal presence of people, of friends. I needed the

empowering strength and presence of friends, people who were for me in it and were walking with me through it. That's what I needed. More than anything else. I've told you this other story, but you'll see why it's so crucial. And why it says the very same thing. Seven years ago, a group of my friends from my old church in Virginia had a surprise party for Kathy and me in the middle of the summertime when we were passing through. And they had a little celebration in our honor. It was really sweet, really nice. And at one point, something like 15 or so people stood up. And they all decided they were going to share one thing

they could remember that had the most lasting impression, something for my ministry that made the most lasting impression on them. This is now a ministry, like 20, 25, 30 years ago. So they all stood up and they shared what most stuck with them. You know, this is now, the ministry is like 20, 25, 30 years ago. So they all stood up and they shared what they, what most stuck with them. And it was a, Kathy and I were amazed. It was a real rebuke to my young minister self. And the reason it was is because young ministers, more than anything else feel like what you need is a great sermon. That's what you need. You need answers. You need a map. You need somebody to get up there and tell you what it all means.

And so the main thing we want to do is, young ministers, we want to be in that study, we want to read those commentaries, we want to work on that sermon, and yet we keep getting called out to nursing homes and hospitals. We keep getting called out to funeral homes and to people's homes.

And it's such a distraction from from from what you really need but what happened in that little Reception was nobody got up and recalled anything I ever said in any of my sermons And probably some of them have heard me use this story and they said, oh, I can remember some of the things from your sermons. I said, that's not the point. I wasn't the main thing they came to mind and said what they said is, when my dad died, you came to the emergency room at MCV and we sat down and I never forget when we talked about this.

Or somebody says, when my son was arrested, you came to the prison, to Petersburg, prison to jail, and we sat down and never forget because we talked about that. And you see they didn't need a map, they didn't need information. You know, three points and a wonderful conclusion. What they needed was somebody who, they knew was for them in it and walking with them through it. Otherwise, you're going to die up there in that pass. They're going to die in the snow. They had somebody walking alongside of them. Now, hear me. In order for Job to get this, and he's being smart about this. He says, you know what I

realized? I don't need the answers. If I had the answers, I could still die. If I had the map, I could still die. I I had the map, I could still die. I need strength, I need power. I need to know that you love me. I need to know you're not my enemy. I need to know you are for me in it and you are walking with me through it. And if I had that, then I can handle everything else.

You don't have to tell me anything else. But in order to be assured that God was with him and for him, he needed a miracle. He needed a vision. He miracle, he needed a vision. He says, I need a vision. We don't. You realize you and I do not need a vision in order to get that assurance,

in order to get the strength to get through that mountain range, to get through your suffering. Only Christianity of all the major religions says that God did not in in response to suffering, give us a three-point sermon with a great conclusion, telling you what it all meant, as if our brains could have taken it in any way. He came Himself.

Only Christianity of all the major faiths has the audacity to say that God and Jesus Christ came down and He entered into this world of suffering. He's been lonely, He's been betrayed, He's been tortured, He's been a victim of political injustice and discrimination. He's been killed, in other words, He didn't give us a sermon. He came down into the EOR, He came down into the prison, he came like a lover. And he has already given you and me in Jesus Christ if you receive it.

What Job needed to get through his suffering. It's already there. And you know why? Here's why. He said, but he still hasn't given us the reasons. No, but here's the important thing. You still don't know, even after you receive this resource. You still don't know when you see the suffering of God in Jesus Christ. What's sounding? But you still don't know what the reasons for your suffering is, do you?

But now you know what the reason for your sufferings isn't. It's not that he doesn't care. It's not that he doesn't love you where he never would have come down. And that's the first resource, his presence. That's what you need. Now, the second resource that the Bible talks about is glory. What's that about? Well, in this next section, he starts off, Job starts off with a metaphor. And I'm going to be brief about this point because even though he's moving toward an idea that the Bible says is crucial when it comes to suffering, Job uses this metaphor negatively and he's feeling pretty hopeless and then he bursts into the third point but we're not there yet, we're on the second point. But what he does is he talks about, he starts up saying, there's hope for a tree.

At least in a tree, there's hope when it's cut and lacerated and suffering. Now what he's talking about is a very important theme in the Bible that suffering is like pruning. See, one of the great paradoxes of biological life is that vitality and productivity requires pruning, say, laceration, stress. If you take a fruit tree or you take a vine and you just let it go, just let it have a happy life, it'll never be very fruitful. What you have to do, and some of you've either done this,

or you've seen people do it, and it's kind of scary to onlookers, is you have to hack the thing, you have to cut all its beauty off, all its leaves, all its flowers, everything off, and it looks like it's been destroyed, but it's only if it's pruned, only if it's cut, does it what become thicker and fuller? Thicker, stronger, actually literally stronger,

bearing more fruit and fuller, more fruitful and more beautiful. Now the Bible says over and over again, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, that in the same way suffering produces glory. Just as a tree that's cut actually sprouts back and even is better than it was before, suffering produces glory. You know what the word glory means?

It's the very same thing as the pruning. Glory means literally weight and beauty, lastingness and beauty. And we're told everywhere in the, that glory and suffering go together. That's the reason why we read, if you suffer, you are blessed for the spirit of Christ's glory rests on you. First, Peter 4, or 2 Corinthians 4, our present sufferings are not worthy to even be compared to the glory that is being, pardon me,'s at Romans 8, our present suffering is not worthy to be compared

to the glory that will be revealed in us, or second Corinthians 4, though outwardly, we are wasting away inwardly we're being renewed day by day for our light and momentary afflictions are achieving for us an eternal way to glory beyond all comparison. How is it that suffering produces glory, or that pruning produces strength?

Well, let me give you another inspired text. It's a little less inspired, but it's very good. This is from the Velveteen Rabbit. Real isn't how you're made, said the skin horse. It's a thing that happens to you when a child loves you for a long, long time. Not just to play with you, but really loves you. Then you become real. Does it hurt? Ask the rabbit.

Sometimes. That's why it doesn't often happen to those who break easily or have sharp edges or who have to be very carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are real, most of your hair has been loved off, your eyes drop out and get loose in the joints, you get loose in the joints, and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all because once you are real, you can't be ugly except to people who don't understand. When you're real, you don't mind being hurt. Okay, well, is that just fairy tale nonsense, you know, kind of a poignant sweet, but what is that all about? No, no, no, look, if you've ever been around people who, and there are plenty of people, some of you maybe, if you get into your 20s or 30s and you've never really suffered, maybe you've been lucky, maybe your parents worked incredibly hard to shelter you, meaning well.

But whenever you're around people that have not suffered, you know what spiritually, emotionally, they're lightweights. They don't have glory. When the floods come and they are inevitable, the troubles, the problems, the difficulties, they're going to be swept away. They're not lasting. Or if they're your friend and the floods come to you and you start to melt down because they don't know their own weakness, they don't know what's in their own heart, they're going to say, what's the matter with you, pull yourself together, or maybe they'll just get uncomfortable and they'll just leave.

Why is there so much pain and suffering in the world? And how do we handle it in a way that won't destroy us, but could actually make us stronger and wiser? Those are the questions Tim Keller explores in his book, Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering. The book doesn't provide easy answers, but is instead both a deeply theological and incredibly personal look at how we can face pain and suffering.

Walking with God through pain and suffering is our thank you for your gift to help Gospel on life share the hope of the Gospel with people all over the world. So request your copy today at GospelOnLife.com slash give. That's GospelOnLife.com slash give. Now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. I remember when I was in Philadelphia, I taught at a seminary. And we, Kathy and I went to a church, which was filled with young ministers and seminary. And so we heard a lot of sermons.

And one of the things that Kathy that by young ministers is just preparing. And one of the things that Kathy and I always was interesting is you know I used to teach people do this, do this, do this, do this when you're preaching. So and it's amazing she would say how you can have sermons that are technically just right and yet utterly forgettable. As soon as they're done I don't remember a thing that was just said.

And I remember one day she says the words don't have any weight. There's no glory to them. They don't last. And I said, why do you think she says, I don't think a lot of these people have suffered? Or else maybe they have it and they're not preaching out of their suffering. No suffering, no glory. Your words don't last. Your words don't last. Your friendships don't last.

You're not going to last when the floods come. No suffering, no glory. And that is one of the challenges, one of the resources that when it happens to you, you know that one of the things God's doing to you is he's making you real, making you someone who's going to be there no matter what. Something with roots, that the more it gets cut, the more fruit it bears, and the more beautiful it gets. Well, now that's not all, though, because he means that's obviously not Joe's main point, because even though he uses the pruning illustration that elsewhere in the Bible is applied to

human beings and say, just as the tree is pruned and yet brings up shoots, so human beings, but he runs into a problem here. He says, now wait a minute, at least for a tree there's hope. If he's cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail. Its roots may grow old in the ground, but it will spring back up, you see. But when man dies, even the most virile man, see. No roots, just gone. See, he's despairing.

He says, I, he says, you know, this isn't a little bit of suffering. I'm being decimated. He says, my health just gone. He's despairing. He says, this isn't a little bit of suffering. I'm being decimated. My health is gone. I'm being wiped out. And I don't see any hope in all of a sudden in verse 13. Wildly, a wild longing comes up in his heart. This is one of the most striking places in the book of Job. After having just said, there's no hope for me.

There's no hope for human beings. Well, we're late into the ground, we don't have little roots, you know. We just go into the ground and we stay there." You see, the tree though has got roots, not us. There's no hope, and then suddenly in verse 13, he basically says, but if only you would hide me in the grave and conceal me till your anger has passed. If you would then set a time and remember me, if a man dies, shall he live again, when all the days of my hard service are over, I will wait for my renewal, which is the word for resurrection to come. You will call me from the grave and I will answer you."

Now, all commentators say this is astounding and it doesn't make any sense. call me from the grave and I will answer you. Now all commentators say this is astounding and it doesn't make any sense. Why would Job all of a sudden say, wait a minute. Okay, maybe I deserve to die. I'm a human being, you're God, you know, I'm not perfect. So put me to the ground, put me in the grave, but when my time of, he says, hard service

and that is a word for prison labor, when I've paid my debt, when I've gone into the ground and paid my debt, remember me. You know what that means? Put me back together. Remember, reattach me. Restore me. Call me.

Dead men don't get up, but call me and I will. After I've done my hard service, call me. Call me. That man don't get up, but call me and I will. After I've done my hard service, call me and I'll get up, I'll come. I know I can't. We're in the world. Did Job get any idea that this is possible? Not only in his time, was there nobody else talking about this, but his own logic says it can't happen. You see this in verse 7, you know? He says it says it in Paul. But there must be some reason why he even has the hope. There must be some reason, and there is.

And you know what it is? It's one of the most moving verses now to me in the book of Job. He says, you will call, and I will answer, you know why? For you will long for the creature your hands have made. This word for longing means intense desire, yearning, love, almost lust. And here's what he's saying. I know that you love me, and I believe your love is so intense that you won't let me stay dead. I know it doesn't make any sense. I know it doesn't make any sense. Resurrection, nobody's told me anything about a resurrection, but what I know about you, I work this out. Your love

I think means that someday you could call me even though I'm dead and your call would resurrect me. And that's my hope. Now where is he getting an idea like that? I'll tell you something. It's an amazing statement. It's a daring statement. I know you long for me. How could he say that?

Well, he knows. He knows that God is a God of infinite love. And so he's having this moment in which he realizes that. And he says, if God loves me the way I know, if God is as great as I know he is, and therefore his love is as great as I know it has to be, he someday will call me and I will be restored. Boy, if this is true, this is the best of the three, right? See, it's one thing to know God's with me. It's another thing to know He's with me forever.

It's another... It's one thing to say, God is strengthening me. He's making me lasting and strong through suffering, right? It's another thing to say He's making me everlasting. If resurrection is true, then it takes the other two resources and scales them to infinity. And it is true. See, plenty of religions promise paradise. Paradise is a kind of spiritual future, right? Buddhism, Hinduism, reincarnation, Islam, all the religions basically promise paradise. They promise

a spiritual future and what is paradise? It's a consolation for suffering. It's a consolation for the life you had but lost or maybe the life you never had but always wanted. It's a consolation for the life you had but lost, or maybe the life you never had, but always wanted. It's a consolation for the life you always wanted, but that's not what the Bible promises. The Bible doesn't promise consolation for the life you've always wanted. It promises restoration of a life you've always wanted, because the Bible does promise the New Testament through Jesus Christ does promise resurrection, which is New Heavens and New Earth, a new material creation, the restoration of ordinary life, embracing, eating, dancing, real life. Resurrection means everything's sad that's happened to you will come untrue.

You're not just being given a consolation prize for the life you always wanted, you're getting the life you always wanted. You're getting the life you always wanted. That's what the Bible says. And if that's the case, do you know what that means about evil and suffering? Let me tell you. Some years ago, I once had a really vivid nightmare right in the middle of my night that all my family was killed. And I woke up, bow bolt up right in bed,

turned around, there was my wife fine, I suddenly realized it was a dream. Now, not only did that dream memory, the memory of all of them lying dead that I had in my dream, not only did that dream memory not detract for my joy in the possession of them that I had in my dream. Not only did that dream memory not detract from my joy in the possession of them that I had there, but it enhanced it. I went to bed grumpy about them.

I went to bed. Why do you have to do that? And what does she have to be like that? And what does he have to be like that? When I woke up, oh, they're here. My family. You know, what happened? My having lost them in a dream made the delight I had in possessing them even greater.

You know what resurrection means? It's that. Resurrection means everything sad is going to come untrue. And that at the moment of resurrection, when the life you have always wanted is finally yours, the real life, material life, this life, therefore all evil and suffering will become like a dream. And that means that this won't just be a defeat of evil or a consolation for evil, but this actually is the utter defeat of evil because only all the evil and suffering you have ever experienced and that the world

is ever experienced will only make the eventual glory and joy greater. See, that's absolute defeat. That's the most radical defeat possible. It's not we're just going to forget it. It's not we're just going to be consoled for it. It's not we're just going to be compensated for it. It's going to be in some way brought into that glory and make it even greater for it having happened. Greater than if it hadn't happened. And that's the reason why there's a place where C.S. Lewis says in the great divorce, this amazing statement, he says, they say of suffering, no future bliss can make up for it. But see, that's, he says, that's not true.

For resurrection and eternal life, once attained, will work backwards and turn even all your agony into glory. And of course, Tuskegee Fsky says, I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for. That all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small Euclidean mind of man.

That in the world's finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, that it will make it not only possible to forgive, but to justify all that has happened. How is that possible? Is the resurrection possible? Yes, and here's why. Job says, you call, if you call me from the grave, I will answer.

And centuries later, because you longed for me, right? Centuries later, after Job said that, Jesus Christ stood at the tomb of His friends Lazarus, who had died, and Jesus wept. He longed for his friend. And he looked around and he saw the religious leaders looking at him. And he knew that if he did what he wanted to do, and they saw it, they were going to have to kill him. He knew that if he did what he wanted to do, and they saw it, they would know they have to kill him. They

have to stop a man who does this stuff. He knew that the only way to get Lazarus out of the grave was to put himself into it. But what did he do? He called out of longing for his friend. Lazarus come forth and Lazarus came forth. But the only reason why he was able to bring Lazarus out of the grave was because he was willing to put himself in. Jesus did the hard service. We can't do it. Jesus has done the hard service.

Jesus has put our sins in a bag. Jesus has covered over our sins. Jesus has put our sins in a bag. Jesus has covered over our sins. Jesus lost the face of the Father. The Father did turn his face away from Jesus. Jesus was a man and he got all that we deserved. He put himself into the grave and took what we deserved so that someday he will call to you. If you believe in him, he will call to you and you will answer because he longs for you." That's what the Bible says about this. Behold, I tell you a mystery, says St. Paul,

we will not sleep, but we shall be changed. In a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, there's the call. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed, for when the perishable has been closed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written shall come true, death has been swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is thy sting? Oh, grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through Jesus Christ to the Lord.

Amen. That is pray. Our Father, these three great resources, your presence, your glory, and the resurrection. These three amazing resources are ours. Job longed for them. He had hints of them. He had no assurance that they were real. He had no assurance that they were not just figments of his imagination, but we have that

assurance. We've got what Job longed for to take us through the mountains. We know about the resurrection because we've seen Jesus' resurrection, and we know here with us in our suffering because Jesus Christ died on the cross. And Father, we ask that now because of the gospel, we can know the comfort of your presence and the challenge of your glory and the challenge of your glory, and the joy of your resurrection. And as a result, face our sufferings in a way that turns us and our entire past,

and everything that's ever happened to us to glory. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Thanks for listening to today's teaching from Dr. Keller. If you were encouraged by this podcast, we invite you to consider becoming a gospel and life monthly partner. Your partnership helps more people access resources like this podcast. Just visit gospelandlife.com slash partner to learn more. This month's sermons were recorded in 2004 and 2008. The sermons and talks you here on the

gospel and life podcast will preach from 1989 to 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.