Verse nine of second Corinthians
five, wherefore we labor that whether present or absent, we
may be accepted of him. He's talking about present or
absent, having just written about being present in the body is
to be absent from the Lord, to be absent from this body is to
be present with the Lord. So that's why he's using these
words again. And this word labor, it's just
interesting. It's not talking about works
per se. This word labor here means a
love of honor, a love of honor. It also means ambition. So it's
your heart's desire and ambition to honor the Lord. And with that in mind, that fits
this context so well. Paul is saying here that while
we are present in this body, Our ambition, our desire, our
heart's desire is to honor the Lord Jesus Christ and honoring
him to be well-pleasing in his sight. We're not honoring him
to score points with God. We're not honoring him as a standard
of righteousness, to go about to establish our own righteousness
as he condemned in Romans chapter 10. as the Jews did, and he said,
God, I pray that God will save them. That's our lost condition
by nature that goes about to establish righteousness before
God, but it's our ambition. You see the difference? We don't
work to be accepted of him, but we, and the word accepted is
well-pleasing. We love to honor him. Why? Because it pleases him.
That's what you're in business to do when you have a master.
You do what you do to please the master. And so that's what
that's talking about. It's not talking about righteousness
before God. We just spoke recently from 2 Kings of how that the
scripture teaches of perfect righteousness in Christ. The
only human righteousness that measures up to God's standard,
that any sinner can stand in God's presence and be accepted
by, is Christ's righteousness. It's him personally, we stand
in him. It's not even that he established
a high standard that we aspire to, although those who serve
him want to please him, that's our text, but he hasn't established
a standard even. Our righteousness is not an achievement,
it's a person. He is our righteousness. He said, no man cometh unto the
father but by me. And that doesn't mean he's the
way to the Father in the sense that he, you know, here's Christ,
he's like a road to the Father. No, when he went before the Father,
having somewhat to offer, having his own precious blood to offer,
not the blood of bulls and goats, and not in a tabernacle made
with hands, but in the very presence of God himself, that's how we
come to God. That's our coming to God. That's
our acceptance with God, our high priest, just like it was
in the Old Testament in picture. It wasn't that the high priest
told us how to get into the hole. You're not going in there. He's
going in there. That's what happened when he shed his precious blood.
He went in there in that holy place, not made with hands. And
so that's our standing before God. We come to the father by
him coming to the father. So this word again, It's a love
of honor, and it's so that we might be well-pleasing in his
sight. It's to please the one who died
for us, which we saw in the same context, and Lord willing, we'll
speak of in a minute. But there, as we saw in 2 Kings,
there's that perfect righteousness in Christ in which we stand before
God, and the scriptures also identify behavior that is good
and right. and acceptable in his sight in
the sense that you're doing that which is right in the eyes of
God. But as we saw there, there are two different things. The
righteousness, the perfect, acceptable righteousness that's ours in
Christ, and doing that which is good and right in the eyes
of the Lord in an earthly sense, relatively speaking, are two
different things. We saw how that one king, he
did that which was right and well-pleasing in the sight of
the Lord until he didn't. Well, he wasn't a believer in
the Lord Jesus Christ, but he was able to do in his body things
that were right by God's design and by the influence, by the
way, of God's priest, Jehoiada. It's Jehoash, I believe we're
talking about. But we're justified by grace through faith without
the deeds of the law. By the deeds of the law, Romans
chapter three, there shall no flesh be justified in God's sight.
We're justified by faith without the deeds of the law, Paul said
in that same chapter. But also, James wrote in the
book of James that faith without works is dead. The faith that
God gives by grace that unites us to Christ, our righteousness,
all of our righteousness, our only righteousness, that faith
works. It causes us to want to be well-pleasing
in his sight. And that's what Paul's dealing
with here. He's speaking of the evidence of faith in believers
here. Because we believe entirely by
God's grace, we believe, We love to honor the Savior who justified
us fully and freely himself. Here's the kind of well-pleasing
that Paul's talking about in our text, Colossians 3.20. Children,
obey your parents in the Lord. Well, I misquoted that, that's
a different scripture. Children, obey your parents in
all things, Colossians 3.20, for this is well-pleasing unto
the Lord. If your children do what you say, does that mean
they're going to heaven when they die? We know better than that. But that is something that's
doing that which is right in the eyes of the Lord. It's like
worshiping him, being a witness for him, just to be an encouragement
to his people, doing anything good for his people. He said,
you've done it unto me. That's well-pleasing in his sight,
but it's not your righteousness. It's important we understand
it's two different things. And Paul is clearly speaking
here in our text of these good works that accompany salvation. It was Jehoash there in second
Kings 12 that did that which was right in the sight of God
under the influence of God's priest Jehoiada. But then when
Jehoiada died, he did everything wrong, evil in the sight of God. Look at verse 10 of our text.
We'll continue this thought. For we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things
done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it
be good or bad. Now, every man is personally
accountable before God. That's why Christ came. That's
why there's believers. That's why there's saints. That's
why there's people that are gonna go to heaven and be with him
because what he does in our body. You
notice the wording there, things done in your body. Well, that's
just semantics, Chris. No, it's not. Because your good
works are his work. Isn't that clear in the scripture?
Has he not ordained you into good works? Does it not say that
he worketh in you? And we've got these scriptures
all in the message here. We'll look at these. But every
man is personally accountable before God. There's nothing that
Paul preached and wrote more clearly than that a sinner is
justified by faith without the works of the law. So we know
that. We know he's not talking about
that here, where God's gonna count up your good and bad, and
if your good outweighs your bad, then you come on in. That's not
what he's talking about. And we'll see that in the context.
You don't have to go far to see that. Turn with me to Hebrews
chapter six, if you would please. Hebrews chapter six. He is speaking of the works that
accompany salvation. You're gonna stand before God
and what was done in this body is gonna be well under consideration
in that meeting with Him. But here's what we're talking
about, Hebrews 6-7, for the earth which drinketh in the rain that
cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by
whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God. The earth,
just like he's talking about his word comes down and it watereth
the earth, and there's life, and that's glorious, and it honors
God, it shows his glory. And we enjoy that, that's a gift
to us, That's blessing from God when it does that. You can be
a real good farmer, you may not get anything. That's the blessing
of God when it comes forth and produces. But that which beareth
thorns and briars, verse eight, is rejected and is now into cursing,
whose end is to be burned. Didn't our Lord say that? He
that abideth in me bringeth forth much fruit. But if you abide
not in me, what's gonna happen? You're burned up, you're burned
up. God has no respect unto you and
your offering as Cain. But listen, but beloved, we are
persuaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation,
things that accompany salvation. you're producing, you're bringing
forth fruit. It's not your salvation, but
that accompanies salvation. That's part of it, isn't it?
If you abide in him, you're gonna bring forth fruit. Now, what's
your hope in salvation? That you abide in him by his
grace, that God, of God, are you in Christ Jesus, which is
everything to you that you need. wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. But the evidence of that and
the result of that is fruit. And that receiveth blessing from
God. Look, this is clear that that's what's being said because
of verse 10, look at it. For God is not unrighteous to
forget your work and labor of love, which you have showed toward
his name, in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister.
Look, if you're in Christ and you're producing good fruit,
Christ is your righteousness, and you bear the fruit of righteousness.
What's the fruit of the Spirit? Love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
faith, without which it's impossible to please God. But by faith in
Christ, we please God. We're well-pleasing in His sight.
And that's what our text is talking about. You're not gonna forget
that. And we desire, verse 11, that
every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance
of hope to the end, that you be not slothful, but followers
of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. So he's clearly talking about
things done in this body. And God's regard for that. It's not salvation though, he
calls it things that accompany salvation. That's what our text
is talking about. The works that accompany salvation
are acceptable to God the same way our persons are. By the blood and righteousness
of Christ. Faith unites us to Christ who
is our righteousness and who has himself ordained that we
should walk in good works. Turn to Hebrews 11, if you're
still there at Hebrews 6, flip over to Hebrews 11, verse four. By faith, Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness
that he was righteous. God testifying of his gifts,
and by it, he being dead yet speaketh. By faith Enoch was
translated that he should not see death. It was not found because
God had translated him. For before his translation, he
had this testimony that he pleased God. He pleased God. But look,
verse six, but without faith, it is impossible to please him.
Faith is what unites us to Christ as our righteousness and our
sin offering. Paul called it the righteousness, which is by
faith without works. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently
seek him. The works done for us and the
works done in us, things done in this body, as our text refers
to, all of those works are of and by God. Ephesians 2.10, we
are his workmanship. created in Christ Jesus unto
good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. So it's not semantics. The things done in this body
by us are the work of God. They're the work of God. And
they accompany salvation. And we're gonna stand before
God and he's gonna say, well done. Isn't he? Is that what it says? He's not,
Now, how can he say that about us? Because of Christ, because
of Christ. Philippians 2.12, wherefore,
my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence
only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you,
both to will and to do of his good pleasure. That's the works
that he's talking about. salvation which God has ordained. And of course, those works are
relevant at the judgment. It's what God's done in us in
these bodies. And so when we stand before him,
we must personally be righteous before God. And that is a reality
before the very throne of God because of what Christ has done
for us. It's that simple. Now verse 11
in our text, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade
men, but we are made manifest unto God and I trust also are
made manifest in your consciences. Now think about this, this is
also directly in support of what we're talking about, these works
that accompany salvation and that this is a work of Christ
in these bodies. Because look, it says we persuade
men. What do we persuade men about?
What was Paul's message? Clean up your act, turn over
a new leaf. You've got to do better. Knowing
therefore the terror of the Lord, and that you're either a goner
or you're gonna be forever with Him in glory, based on what God's
judgment of you is, And knowing that, what do we do? We persuade
men of what? Come to the Lord, come unto the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's your only hope. Knowing
that Christ is the judge and his righteousness is inflexible
and true and his wrath is upon all those who reject him, we
persuade. What has the Lord taught us that
we are to teach men in order to impress upon them the gravity
of their condition before God? It's not do this and do that,
it's come to Christ. And no man can do that. We tell
men come to Christ, but you're not fixing to do it unless the
father which sent the Lord Jesus Christ, take you from where you
are and bring you to his son. It doesn't happen walking down
an aisle. It happens in here when God does a miracle of grace
in your heart. That's how that happens. We don't
persuade men to walk an aisle. No, we know the terror of the
Lord. We know something of His righteousness and we know what
He requires of a sinner. So we persuade men to come to
Christ, to find in the Savior all of their righteousness and
hope before God. And in His precious blood, who
are these that are arrayed in white? These are they which wash
their robes and made them white in the precious blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that how the Lord himself
persuaded sinners? Did he go around telling people,
you just need to pick it up. Your good ain't quite outweighing
your bad. No, he said, come unto me and
I'll give you rest. He said to that rich young ruler,
if you want to be perfect, if you want to be perfect, Get
rid of your false gods and come follow me, the only true God. Isn't that what he said? He didn't
say, well, there's one thing that you lack and you really
need to work on that one. No, if you wanna be perfect before
God, that happens in me. That happens when you believe
on me, when you follow me, when you come to me and I'll give
you Perfect righteousness. I am your perfect righteousness
by grace through faith. Is anybody thirsty? He said,
come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, he said,
shall not perish, but have everlasting life. How do we persuade men? God said, I've sent my messenger.
to testify unto you these things in the churches. You think that's
what happened here? You think we just kind of stumbled
onto this, that we just happen to be preaching the truth as
it is clearly revealed in scripture? Or did God send us? Did God set
this up? Did God make this happen? Did
he shed abroad what we see here tonight? I've sent my messenger
to testify unto you these things in the churches. What? I am. How many times we talk about
Sunday? How many times we see that? That when the setup is,
this is it. This is what matters. The next
word is I. Just so many times. Don't be
afraid. How in the world? It's me. It's
me. And this is it, word by word.
I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things
in the churches. What? I am the root and the offspring
of David. I'm that Christ that's been promised
from the beginning. The son of David, yet David's
Lord. I'm him. That's what I've sent my messenger
to say. Is that what we say here? We
identify somebody that is all of our righteousness and hope
and salvation. And he said this, look, and I'm
the bright and morning star. What was it Simon that said,
take heed, take heed, how long? Until the day star arise in your
hearts. And you see the brightness of
the glory of the Lord revealed in the face of his son. Just
keep listening until the day dawn, and that day star arise
in your heart. And listen to what he said next,
and the spirit and the bride say, come, come. Here's who he is. This is our
testimony. How do we persuade men? Seeing
the judgment and wrath of God, Here's who he is. He's the Christ.
He's the son of the living God. He's the light that shineth in
darkness. He's the light of the world. And what do we say next?
Come to him, come to him. The spirit and the bride say
come, and let him that heareth say come, and let him that's
thirsty come. And whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely. That's the only way you're gonna
be able to take it. You're not gonna take it in exchange for
anything you are, have or done, or have done. Freely, freely. The word manifest in this verse
11, I am manifest before God and before you, Paul said. It's
the same word that's in verse 10. So this appearing, appearing
that's spoken of in verse 10, is something Paul talks about
is kind of happening right now, isn't it? Now this may also refer
to a future event, I don't know. Although how do you refer to
a future event that happens in eternity? There's no past or
future in eternity. So I don't understand, a whole
lot about that. But he says, we're manifest right
now. We're appearing before him right now. Same word, manifest,
appearing and manifest. He said, I'm wide open to God
right now and to you, and to you. So whether he's writing
of a future judgment or simply that our works and our hearts
are always manifest in God's sight, the same necessity applies. And that's made even more clear
in the following verses what's necessary here. Look at verse
12. For we commend not ourselves
again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf,
that you may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance
and not in heart. Paul's calling these folks complete
hypocrites. Well, you're not supposed to
judge. That's not what that means. It's not that hard to identify
people that are just surface, because they're not speaking
the words that the Lord Jesus told us to. He said, whatever
I've told you, you go tell. And whoever listens to you and
hears you and believes you, I'll save them. They're not saying
what Christ said. They're not talking about an
almighty God. They're not talking about a sovereign
savior. He said, my hand's not shortened that it can't say.
They're not talking about him. It's clear that they're glorying
in appearance. It's all outward, isn't it? Everything
to do with religion. It's all a big show. And not
in heart. For whether we be beside ourselves,
like people, like they say we are, we're crazy. We're out of
our minds. We've lost it. It is to God. Or whether we be sober. if they're
wrong, it's for your cause. Now, Paul just wrote in the previous
verse that we are manifest and open book before God and before
you all. And so here he qualifies himself
in saying that. He says here, I'm not bragging.
When I say that to you, I'm not bragging or trying to convince
you of anything about me. He said, you already know me.
I don't need to do that. You know me. I'm open and honest
before all men and you know that and before God too. I'm just
reminding you, he's saying here, of the truth of it so that you'll
know what's what and have something to say to those who denigrate
us, denigrate our gospel, because the reason they're saying we're
beside ourselves is because of the Christ that we preach. And we're gonna fight that tooth
and nail, aren't we? For his honor, not for our reputation,
for his honor. So he said, I want you to have
something to say to them. Those that are just religious
in appearance only and not in heart. And who cares what they
say? That's what he's saying too.
Who cares? If we're crazy, then we're crazy to God, not them.
We're crazy before God. God'll be the judge of that.
If he says we're crazy, we're crazy. If they say we're crazy,
who cares? Who cares? That's what he means
by it is to God. But whether we're sober, if we're
dead serious, if we're in dead earnest here tonight, if the
truth in our hearts is that we're gonna declare the glory of Christ
if it kills us, then why are we doing that for your sakes?
It's God doing it for our sake, for my sake, your sake. That's
God doing that. And so you see the, there's a
lot in those couple of verses right there. Those that glory in appearance,
isn't it obvious? It's not real hard to, God will be the judge
of us. We're open, manifest before him. He knows everything. People that
say we're crazy and don't know what we're talking about in this
gospel, we're a cult. We get that. This is just a cult. Okay. Well, you don't know anything
about us, but God does. And we're okay with that arrangement.
That'll be just fine. You say whatever you want to
about us. It's not gonna be some jack-legged
preacher that's glorying in appearance and have no sincerity in their
heart, no love for God or anybody else but themselves that gets
to judge that. God does. Everywhere they go, you know,
it's all, and you can spot them from a mile away. When they go
into town, you know, they make sure everybody knows they're
a preacher in whatever way they can, the way they dress, the
way they act. They'll sit there at the table, you know, They'll
have an entourage sometimes with them. I guarantee you, you know the
names of some of them too. If we're not beside ourselves, if this is what it's all about,
if we're sober about this, it's for your sakes. It's so that
the gospel of the sovereign savior will go forth from here if it
takes all of us, given everything we have in order to make it happen.
Because what else matters? Here's our motivation. Not that
we might have a lot of good works to show for ourselves at the
judgment, as we've already said. That's not what the previous
verses are talking about at all. But here is our motivation, verse
14. Look at this. This wraps up this
whole passage so beautifully. For the love of Christ constraineth
us. Religion may be all about appearance
with no heart, but that's not how it is with God's people.
We're all to search our own hearts with regard to that before God.
We're not answerable to one another or this world when it comes to
that. That's between every man and
God. But as for God's sheep, his true disciples, his church, the love of Christ is like chains. That's what that
word is. But you talk about freedom. It's
not the bars of the bondage of the law that we're talking about,
but chains of love, chains of love. It's talking about the
bond slave when it says you're to go free and you say, no, I
don't want to be free from my master. I love my master and
I love his family. I'm not going anywhere. That's
that word. We're bound to Christ by cords
of everlasting life. And it changes our judgment on
things. It changes the way we think about everything, doesn't
it? Because we thus judge. What changes our judgment? The
fact that he died for my sins, according to the scriptures,
nothing else, nothing else. And the reason he did that is
because we're dead. And you think about the context
of that, of this passage. How are we dead? Well, we're
fixing to stand before God. One way or the other, aren't
we? If we stand before God without Christ, without his love for
us, without him dying in our stead, we're goners. We're dead. That's what death means. The
wages of sin is death, and where that's determined is at the judgment
seat of God. We were dead. We're gonna stand
before God and it ain't gonna take long for him to put me in
hell. He should have done it a long time ago. But Christ died for me. Christ
died for me. It is Christ that died. Remember
that word in verse nine, labor, it means love of honor, love
of honor. We love to honor the Lord Jesus
Christ because why? Look what he did for us. He gave
himself for me. That's why we do what we do in
these bodies. He performs that in us, he worketh
in us. And that's what we want, isn't
it? Don't we pray that way? We don't pray, Lord, watch, we're
gonna, you know, that's what Simon did. Look what I'm gonna
do. I'm not gonna betray you like these other men. I'll stand
with you. I will, I will, I will. Lord said, no, Simon, no. I will. I will. And that's us. We don't pray, Lord, watch what's
fixing to happen. I'm fixing to honor you. That's
not how we pray. We pray, Lord, keep the door
on my lips, guide my every step. Is that what he does? Is that
what he does for us? Turn my heart to you. Turn my
black heart to you. Take away the shine of this wretched
world from my heart and turn it to you. That's why the fact
that he died for us, That tells us that we were all dead. Why
else would he die in our place? Unless we're all dead before
God. When we stand before God, we're
goners. The wages of sin is death. We
are all manifest. That's that word appear. We're
manifest in the sight of God, the judge, and we will receive
the reward for what is done in our bodies. What will that reward
be? Death. We are dead men standing
at the judgment, unless, except the Son of God dies in our place
for our sins. And bears our sins in our place. Verse 21, we're gonna see that
next time, Lord willing. He bore my sins. Because he died,
In our place we live, we live before God. The sentence at the
judgment seat is not gonna be death. It's already been death. My sentence was imposed upon
the precious son of God. It's not our conscience that's
constraineth us. Is it? Your conscience ever stopped
you really? It is not the prospect of reward
that constraineth us. It's not fear of hell that constrains
us. I don't care how fiery a preacher you are. We preach against sin
up here. Well, that's all good and great. But you're not gonna stop sinning
whether you preach against it or not. You need a savior is
what you need. We preach Christ and him crucified. It is the love of Christ, love
that is defined in that he died. for our sins. Love that is defined in that
word so, he so loved us that he gave his only begotten son. That's the way you stand before
God and the things done in your body are good and not bad. He
died for me. Because of Christ crucified. Now, what by his grace are we
gonna do about it? That's the exhortation of Paul
there. What are we gonna do about it? God, give us grace to love,
to honor him. Amen.