Amen. Let's turn in our Bibles tonight
to Job chapter 14. Job chapter 14.
We're going to read together the 1st 14 verses.
Let's hear the Word of God. Job chapter 14 reading from
verse one for those online, the words will come up on screen.
You can follow or you can get a copy of the Bible and read it
for yourself. Let's hear God's word.
Man that is born of a woman is a few days and full of trouble.
He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down.
He fleeth also was a shadow, and continue with not.
And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bring us
me into judgement with thee? Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean? Not one seeing his days are
determined, the number of his months are with thee.
Thy has appointed his bounds that he cannot pass.
Turn from him, that he may rest till he shall accomplish as in
hiring his day. For there is hope of a tree, if
it be cut down, that it will Sprite again, and that the
tender branch thereof will not cease.
Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock
thereof die in the ground, yet through the scent of water it
will butt and bring forth boys like a plant.
But man dieth and wasteth away. Yeah, man giveth up the ghost,
and where is he? As the waters feel from the sea,
and the flood decayeth and dryeth up, so man lieth down and
riseth not. Till the heavens be no more,
they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.
Oh, that thou wouldst hide me in the grave, that thou wouldst
keep me secret until thy wrath be passed, that thou wouldst
appoint me a set time and Remember Me.
If a man die, shall he live again all the days of my
appointed time, Will I wait till my change come?
Amen. We know God will stamp with His
own approval and blessing this reading of His own precious and
infallible word. Now my text tonight is taken
from Job 14 and 14. It reads as follows.
If a man dies, shall he live again all the days of my
appointed time? Will I wait till my change come?
And my theme this first Lords Day evening of 2026 even titled
Man's appointed time under Heaven.
Almost 4000 years ago, roughly, a wise man called Job who lived
in the land of Oz. This is what we read of him.
There was a man in the land of Oz whose name was Job, and that
man was perfect, upright and one that feared God and he shoot
evil. It was this man Job that uttered
these solemn words in the verse 14.
Now Job was speaking as a man acquainted with great sorrow and
deep grief. You see these words were spoken
in the depths of human suffering and pain.
Job had a personal interest in these words.
If a man die, shall he live again?
Why? Because there was a day in Job's
life when all his ten children, seven sons and three daughters,
died in the midst of the most dreadful circumstances.
The children were in the eldest brother's house, they were
having a party, and there was a great tornado came, tore through
the house, and all ten children died.
We read there in Job chapter 1 and verse 18 these words.
While he was yet speaking, there came also another.
This was another servant. And said, Thy sons and thy
daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest
brother's house. And behold, there came a great
wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the
house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead.
And I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
You see these words that Job spoke here.
If a man dies, shall he live again?
All the days of my appointed time when I wait till my change
come. These words were spoken of a man
who was in need of comfort, a man who was in need of counsel,
a man who was in need of clarity.
And it's amazing here that Job speaks of an appointed time.
Notice the words all the days of my appointed time.
Well, I wait. There's 29 references to
appointed time in the Bible. Three of them are found in Job 7
and 114 and 13 and 14 and 14. You see, whenever a man or woman
is suffering or in pain or in the midst of great grief, and
you only have to think of the grief that they make their
family is going through. Do pray for Marcus and Lisa at
this time I think of families who've lost their precious loved
ones in the Swiss ski resort disaster in Crohn's Montana.
The the latest count is that there's 40 dead, 117 seriously
injured with tremendous burns to their body.
The majority of them 16 year olds to 25, one of them at least
as a 14 year old. Could you just imagine the
horror and the agony and the pain?
And you see, when we suffer pain, when we are in agony,
we're tempted to imagine, we're tempted to believe that life is
random, that life is meaningless.
Now glory to God, the Holy Bible teaches us otherwise.
Life is not merely accidental. Life is not a nameless,
meaningless existence. We are not existentialist.
We're not self governed. No, life is an appointed time.
And Job is face to face with life in the midst of such horror
and agony of pain. And he comes, and he tells us
all the days of my appointed time, while I wait till my
change come. See, Job is face to face here
with God's sovereignty over life.
He's face to face with man's mortality because he knows that
life is of few days and full of evil.
He's face to face with the reality and the enormity of the
great eternity. Man's appointed time under
heaven. Think of these words in
particular. All the days of my appointed
time while I wait till my change come.
Four things very quickly. One, the fact of an appointed
time. All the days of my appointed
time. Do you know tonight that there
is an appointed time to man upon the earth?
Job said that 7:00 and 1:00 is there not an appointed time to
man upon earth. Are not his days also like the
days of an hireling? You see, that appointed time is
fixed. There's a God determined
lifespan given to every person. The word appointed in Job
implies A factual, fixed, determined span of life.
Life is not something vague. Life is not something flexible.
Life is set, it is fixed. Life, your life and mine is a
measured term. Job compares man's days to the
days of an hireling. That that means a hired worker.
A hired worker doesn't choose when or what time his work
begins. If the boss says 6:00 AM at 6:00
AM, he doesn't want you once again at 7:00 or 8:00 or coming
at noon time. A hired worker doesn't dictate
as long as days last to the boss.
Hey boss, I'm coming in at 6:00 AM but I'm going home at 8.
AMA Hired worker doesn't say to the boss when his day actually
ends. You see his time is assigned,
it's a sign by the boss. His day is measured.
You think of a hired worker and he works from the morning till
the evening. He works when he clocks in, the
work day ends when he clocks out.
And so it is with man. His days are numbered.
Remember in Psalm 90 we read in verse 12.
So teach us to number our days, that we apply our hearts unto
wisdom. Man's days is fixed, because in
Acts 1726 we read and have made of one blood all nations of men.
For to dwell on all the face of the earth, and half determined
the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation,
that they should seek the Lord, if happily they may feel after
him and find him that we be not far from every one of us.
See, our lifespan is not self determined, it is appointed.
And remember what we read in the book of James and James 4 and
14. Whereas you know not what shall
be in the Morrow. For what is your life?
It is even a vapour that appears for a little time, and then
vanisheth. The way for that you ought to
say, if the Lord will we shall live and do this or that our end
is certain, because over in the book of Hebrews we read in
Chapter 9 and verse 27. And as it is appointed unto men
wants to die, but after this the judgement.
So the appointed time is the full spam God has allocated to
each person. And it includes the day of
birth. It can and include the day of
childhood and youthful years even in the teenage years.
It certainly includes the days of waiting and wondering.
Can't wait till I grow up and leave school.
Wonder what I'm going to do. Days of joy and happiness, days
of suffering and pain, days of labour and toil, a day of 1's
death. If you think of the tombstone,
and some of us go around the various cemeteries and I do that
regularly and take a wee look at what's on the headstone, you'll
find DODDOB, the date of birth. You'll certainly find DoD, the
date of death. But in between that, those two
dates, it's usually a little dash.
Well, that lifespan is the dash between.
In Job we learn that an appointed time includes and
covers every period of life, health, sickness, joy,
happiness, sorrow and pain, labour and laughter.
Nothing falls outside of God's appointment.
He has appointed the day of our birth, the day of our death.
He's appointed the day of our destiny.
So then everyone of us will give an account of himself to God.
And this appointed time is not merely an existence, but a
profound period of testing and preparation.
It's a God ordained time. You see, you and I are here for
a purpose. Man's she fenders to glorify God
and enjoy him forever. We're born into this world so
that we can know God, so that we can be brought into your right
relationship with God, so we can be saved by God's grace and born
of God's Spirit and washed in the precious blood of Christ and
testify to the saving and keeping power of God.
That's the facts of the appointed time very quickly.
Secondly, think about the focus of an appointed time.
Who appointed the time? The answer, of course, of
Reformed theology and of Holy Scripture is very clear.
God alone appoints the measured time for each man.
It's interesting. Job never blamed chance.
He never blamed fate or circumstances.
He never claimed that his time was appointed by man or any
institution. You see the word appointed, What
does he say all the days of my appointed time?
The word appointed assumes an appointer, and the God of the
Bible is the one who appoints the seasons.
God is the one who appoints kings to rule in the throne and
removes them. Daniel 221.
God appoints the end from the beginning.
He also appoints man at time. We have already read there in
the book of Acts in Acts chapter 17 and have determined the times
before appointed and the bounds of their habitation.
This is not cold determination or cold determinism, but this is
a wise choice of God who appointed the measure time.
God alone. The way of God's appointed time
is he. God appointed time in wisdom, He
didn't appointed in cruelty. God's appointed time is
purposeful. You see, if life were random
without meaning, suffering and pain would be meaningless.
But God's appointed time has a purpose to it.
The waiting has a purpose because time is not appointed by
blind chance, but by a wonderful God.
Job never accused God of cruelty or of injustice.
Even in the death of his ten children.
Job acknowledges God's authority.
God has appointed the time, and Job knows that his suffering,
even his own personal suffering of health, has limits.
He knows that waiting on God has a purpose.
Life is finite, life is fragile, and he knows this, that one's
death, even if he were to die, is not the end of life's
existence. He asks the question if a man
die, shall he live again? And the answer, of course, is
yes, not only who appointed the measure time and the way of
God's appointed measure time is done in wisdom.
But think of what is God's appointed time.
You see, life, I believe, is a God-given temporary stewardship
to be lived before the face of God.
When we think of the day of our birth, when we think of the day
of our death, in between, the Bible describes life as brief.
We've already read in the book of James, and I'll read it
again. Whereas you know not what shall
be in the Morrow. For what is your life?
It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and
then vanisheth away. Life is like a breath.
It's like the steam that rises out of the kettle.
You see it for a second or two, and then it is gone.
But however long it seems, life is short.
We could live our life in our 20s and 30s forties, 50s,
sixties 708090 Remember what the Bible says.
Psalm 90 verse 10 Psalm 90 verse 10.
The days of our years are three score years and 10 and if by
reason of strength they be 4 score years.
Yet as their strength, labour and sorrow for this shouldn't
cut off and we fly away. Life is brief.
It's short when it's measured against eternity.
The day of our birth comes and goes and we grew up, but
eventually the strength of youth fades.
Opportunities past. Why?
Because time doesn't wait. What is life?
What is the measurement of time? Life is brief.
I'll tell you more than that. Life is not just short and
brief. Life's appointed, didn't we read
there in the book of Hebrews and Hebrews Chapter 9 and verse 27?
And so does appoint unto man wants to die.
But after this, the judgement, God is appointed not only the
day of our birth, but the day of our death.
Do you know tonight that when and where and the way that we
will all die has been set by God?
Aren't you familiar with the subject of death?
Death happens suddenly, sadly, young people die.
Christmas Eve, we were stunned with the tragic and sad death of
Callum McVeigh at age 23. Before that, in County Louth, I
think it was November 2025, five young people lost their lives in
a road traffic accident. Then we've just heard recently
of the death of a young man called Shane McCabe, who died in
a river tragedy in County Tyrone with George Bernard Shaw.
That said, 10 out of 10 die. Death can strike at any time.
Heart attack, brain malfunction. You could be driving the car and
unexpectedly and suddenly something had happened.
A tyre could blow out, the brakes could fail, somebody
could round a corner and run into you.
There's no guarantee death can strike us with a serious
illness. We're told it's terminal by the
doctor along of a got doc. Maybe 6 days or six weeks or six
months. We could die in our sleep.
I've known people to go to bed healthy and well and died in
their sleep. The wife is turned over and the
husband's dead, or the husband is turned over and the wife is
dead. Death can be due to an
unfortunate accident or an incident at work or on the
roads. You see, illustration after
illustration can be thrown out about life being an appointed
thing, not only brief, not only the day of our birth, the life
in between, but even the day of our death.
I heard about a young man in his 20s, He was married, he had one
little son, he was as strong as an ox, He loved the Lord, he
loved life. He was just newly married, had a
new baby son. The breakfast was over, he
kissed his wife goodbye, he kissed his little bit boy in the
forehead and he said some daddy will see you later.
And he went off to work, but he never come home.
Tragedy, terrible accident. Can you think of it?
Going to work. I'll see you later, son.
When you come home, you're not alive.
You're in a casket. It has happened to people at
work. It has happened to people coming
home from work. And we will have to think of the
late Matthew Arnold. Life is brief.
What is life? It's brief.
Life is an appointed thing. And I'll tell you better than
that. Life is proparity.
Why are we here? Amos 4 and 12 tells us.
Prepare to meet thy God. You see this life is not the
destination of man. Life on earth is proparity.
It's proparity for life and eternity with God.
And every day that we're given, all the circumstances that
arise, the situations that come to pass, are shaping our souls,
influencing us either towards a relationship with God or away
from Him. Every sermon, every tract, every
gospel witness that you come across in the street or on the
doors, you see, there's no neutrality.
No man liveth or dieth unto himself.
Neutral living is impossible. So I asked the question, if life
is brief and it is, and life is appointed and it is and life is
preparatory, that I asked this question, are you genuinely and
truly saved? Was there a time in your life
you were born again of the Holy Spirit knowing that the blood
mark was applied, that you believed in the Lord Jesus
Christ, that you received of Him by faith, that He's your Lord
and Saviour? Why do we exist?
Why are we on the earth? Here's the reason and meaning.
It's preparatory in preparation to meet God in the great
eternity. So then every one of us shall
give an account of himself to God very quickly, not when he
think about the focus of an appointed time, but think about
the fruit of an appointed time. See.
I asked a question. Sure was in the back of Job's
mind. What are you doing with your
appointed time? I believe the ungodly will waste
it. See, many live as if time was an
endless commodity. They spend it to themselves.
Men are lovers of themselves more than lovers of God.
Many who live for themselves neglect God in the things of
God. They ignore their sin, they
ignore their soul salvation, they ignore the Saviour.
And we have to say to them, this is a great act of folly.
You're wasting your appointed time.
This is a a dangerous thing. This is an act of rebellion
against the plan of God. If life is brief and God has set
that brief span for you and given you 10 or 20 years or
given you 80 or 90 years and life is appointed and life is
propriety, then it's a dangerous act of folly to waste that
appointed time. The unregenerate will rest it.
How many resent their time and earth?
They live a life of murmuring and complaining.
They asked, why is this life for me so hard?
Why this suffering and trouble? Why these limits?
I don't want to be a poor man. I want to be rich and famous.
Why? Why can't I be known in
Hollywood and across the world? I I want to be like, we'll call
her Britney Spears, or I want to be like Taylor Swift or I want
to be like David Beckham. You see, many as they journey
through life, they resent their life, they resent their
imitations, they resent their suffering.
And they're questioning the wisdom and the love and the
authority of God who gave them their appointed time because
they'd not be accountable for Britney Spears or Taylor Swift
or David Beckham. These individuals that are
named, they'll give an account of to God by themselves, but
you're only accounted for your own appointed time.
Sadly, the unregenerate rest full of murmuring and
complaining. Why is this?
Why is that? Here's Job in pain, full of
sorrow. He had lots to complain about,
but he doesn't resist. He doesn't resent, he doesn't
deny his time is appointed. What does he say all the days of
May appointed time? There's times he's full of
doubts, he has loads of unanswered questions, he's
accused by his friends of being a big Sinner.
Yet he doesn't deny his appointed time.
The unregenerate will rest it, the ungodly will wasted.
But listen to this, those born again will wait for it.
Look at the text, he says all the days of my appointed time
will I wait till my change come? Job's faith in the Lord is
shining forth here in this statement.
Job believes that his time has an end.
Job believes that the end of his life is not the end of
existence, because Job believes there's a change coming.
If a man dies, shall he live again?
And Job's answers Yes. Because all the days of my
appointed time will I wait till my change come?
Waiting is not a waste of time. Job lives in faithful submission
to the will of God. How will you and I live with
your appointed time? It's very important, the fruit
of an appointed time. What are you doing and what will
you do with God's appointed time?
Will you waste it? Will you rest it?
Or will you wait on the will and the outworking of God's
sovereign providential purpose? Think of this as we finish
tonight, the finality of an appointed time.
You see, every one of us, every person has an appointed time
beginning day of birth. Every one of us has an appointed
course, the span of our life, whether it's short or long in
our eyes, and we can walk with God, we can run the Christian
life. We could go on a journey, an
adventure with God. Every one of us has an appointed
course, whatever you how you describe it, but every one of us
will have an appointed end. Hebrews 927.
Again. And I quoted for the third time.
And as as. A point on the man wants to die,
but after this the judgement. You see, there's one question
you must answer in relation to your appointed time, and it's
this Are you prepared to meet God?
And what? Will you do with?
God, who's revealed himself in the fears and person and work of
his Son Jesus Christ. See the.
Question is. Not how long will you live?
How long have I to live? Only God can answer.
The question is not how successful have you been or will
be in life's journey? The question is not how much
money you will make on life's journey.
The question is this, are you prepared to meet God?
Are you ready to die if death should come unexpectedly and
take you away to meet God? Remember, death could come at
any moment, so therefore it's imperative.
Behold, now is the accepted time, Now is the day of
salvation that you're in a right relationship with God.
Have you? Repented of your sin.
Have you believed the gospel? Who or what?
Are you living for? Are you living for self or the
Saviour? Are you living for the glory of
God? Are you living for the glory of
gold? There was a young man he hired
out a. Private room in a fancy hotel.
He was very depressed. He was fed up with his life.
He wanted to end it all. He brought a rope, tied a knot
in it. This put it around.
His neck tied it to the. Ceiling light.
Got up in the chair, kicked the chair.
Away and as he plummeted. Down towards the ground.
Thankfully, in the mercy of God, the rope broke.
He lay in the floor. For a while he get up.
I don't know. What reason?
But he opened the drawer of the bedside cabinet in the hotel
room and discovered the words Holy Bible jumped out at him.
He picked it out and started. To read and his opening place
that he read was John chapter 3. And he came upon those words.
Marvel not that I say unto thee, you must be born again.
And thankfully, that depressed young man found Christ in that
hotel room. He started out on a journey.
And adventure with God, he discovered that the answer to
life is found in Jesus Christ. If a man dies, shall he live
again? And the answer to that is also
found in Christ because. Remember.
Jesus Christ did die in the cross, shed his precious blood,
but Jesus Christ didn't remain dead.
He rose again bodily from the dead One time he said mine are
has come the are of his death. And he suffered the horrible
death of crucifixion, the horrible death of shedding his
precious blood. But this man, after he'd offered
one sacrifice for sins forever sat down in the right hand of
God. And on the basis of that once
and for all sacrifice and the basis of shed blood, you and I
can have a full free and forever pardon.
And we can know the reality of we're born again.
And when our day comes to die, our death won't be in vain,
because as we wait for death to come, we're waiting in Christ.
We're waiting with gospel hope. We're waiting for a day of
resurrection, a day of reunion of soul and body, a day of
rejoicing when we'll be ready with loved ones.
He entered our world. He had an appointed time.
Appointed time to be. Born and appointed time to live
and appointed time to die. But he also had an appointed
time to rise again. If a man die, shall he live
again? The answer is yes.
How? The resurrection of Jesus Christ
broadly from the dead guarantees our resurrection.
As you think of time, the 4th day of January, as this day
draws to a close, do you know what?
Time is. Slowly and silently and steadily
moving on. And it's silently and.
Steadily and silently moving on, regardless of our activity.
We can ignore this. Appointed time.
We could mock it and laugh and say it doesn't really matter.
We can forget all about it and just carry on living.
But time will continue to move, and from the day of our birth
along our allotted course, it will bring us to the day of our
death. And Jesus said this, and I
finish If you die in your sins where I am, there you cannot be.
You know well. There's.
Two ways to die Die in Christ, die in the Saviour or die in
your sins. It's not what give great comfort
to the McVeigh family when they gathered last Monday over there
in Raffery Presbyterian Church, a packed congregation, because
many as 12-15 hundred gathered couple of 1000 live streaming
online. What gave them hope and comfort
in the midst of the death of their son and all the agony and
pain was it? Not this.
That the young man a couple of years before had received Christ
as his Lord and Saviour, and had testified that he was born of
God in love with Christ. The finality.
Of an appointed time. You have an appointed time.
Don't mock it, don't ignore it, don't forget it, because the
time is ticking silently. It's ticking steadily.
We could even say it's ticking. Stealthily, you're maybe not.
Aware. But time is moving on.
The fact of an. Appointed time.
The focus and the fruit. But I leave with you this
finality. You have to answer.
Whether you're prepared or ready to meet God or not, the.
Lord bless you. Thank.
You for coming. Thank you for listening if I
can. Help anyone?
Please feel free to come and talk to me in the Lord's name.