Second Corinthians 5.1, for we
know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved,
we have a building of God, and house not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly
desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven.
If so be that being clothed, we shall not be found naked,
For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened, not
for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality
might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for
this selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest
of the spirit. and we'll stop there tonight.
Let's ask the Lord to bless us together tonight. Father, thank
you for this precious word, these promises, Lord, that we cling
to, looking to you, trusting you, looking forward to being
with you. Help us to see, Lord, and think
upon, and rejoice in your precious blood has washed us from our
sins and made us fit, made us meet to
be partakers of your divine nature, your heavenly kingdom. Thank you for the redemption
of these bodies that we will experience before long. Don't
let us, Lord, put so much of our heart into now and things
of the flesh, but always looking unto you, the author and finisher
of our faith. Bless us to worship you tonight,
Lord. Don't leave us to ourselves to just try to struggle with
the vanities and cares of this world in our minds and hearts,
focus our hearts and minds on you, things above where you sit
on the right hand of the majesty on high. In Christ's name we
ask these things, amen. Now the beginning of this chapter
would be, I believe, clearer. It will be if we start reading
in chapter four, verse 16. Let's do that to sort of lead
up to our verse one here before we consider it. Chapter four,
verse 16, for which cause we faint not, because of the knowledge that we have that the
Lord Jesus will raise us up, previously spoken of there. We
faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man
is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which
is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which
are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen are eternal. For we know, we look at things
that you can't see. This world has no way to do that.
Only the eye of faith that God gives can see that which can't
be seen, can look on things above, can know, not just speculate
about it, not just debate about it, but to know in our hearts,
by the earnest of the Spirit mentioned in our text tonight,
that we're His and He's ours. And we know the consequences
of that. And so we're able to rejoice, we're able to see that,
we're able to look at that which can't be seen, and rejoice in
our Savior together. And I pray he'll give us the
grace to do that tonight, for we know that if our earthly house
of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Now there's a
couple of illustrations in this verse, and we'll see that Lord willing, but think
about this just on the surface of this verse. If the thing that
we fear the most in this world, if the thing that this world
fears the most, every person fears the most, we know that
if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, that
means destroyed. If this body is destroyed, and
it's gonna be destroyed one way or another, We have a building of God and
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. So that which
is most feared, most dreaded, well, what just about anybody
would consider the worst thing that can happen to, it's absolutely,
literally the best thing that can happen to a child of God.
It's the best thing that can happen. We look forward to it. We look for that, for that heavenly
body. This is called our earthly house that we dwell in now for a couple
of reasons. This house is made from this
earth. The Lord from the dust of the
earth made Adam and then Eve from Adam. But also, this body
is earthly in the sense that it's never gonna leave this earth.
This body as we know it, it's bound to this earth. It's gonna
stay here as far as we know it. This body is for this earth,
it's made for this earth, and this body as it is cannot inherit
eternal life. It can't leave here like it is.
So it's earthly. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 15, and I believe this will put a lot of perspective
on our text tonight. First Corinthians 15, verse 35. But some man will say, how are
the dead raised up and with what body do they come? Now this is talking about the
resurrection. Paul is talking primarily about if we die, when
we die, where we're gonna be, what's gonna happen to us immediately.
But the resurrection is certainly involved in that. And so we'll
talk about that a little bit more in a minute. But when this
body is raised up, what body are we going to have? That's
talking about this new house that we're going to dwell in. And look, he says you're a fool
if you think that way. And the reason for that is, is
because the answer to that question is right in front of your face.
Notice what he says. Some man will say, what body?
You're gonna decay. That's the thought here. You're
gonna decay. You're gonna not be presentable. It doesn't matter
how good a job the funeral home does on you. It's not gonna be
long that you don't want somebody like that coming out of the grave.
And they're thinking, what in the world? That doesn't sound good. But
he says, you fool. That which thou sowest is not
quickened except it die. In other words, you watch this
happen every day. You watch things die and be reborn
completely different all the time. These illustrations are
right in front of your face. You'd have to be a fool to think
like that. You think God is limited to what you look like when you're
rotting in your grave? Do you think that? When the proof
is right in front of your face? Look at verse 37. That which
thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, This
is something you see all the time. You see, you know, we take
miracles for granted, don't we? Nobody can do that but God. Nobody
can bring life from death but God. You know, and I hate to pick
on, well, I won't even talk about that, but people take miracles. Babies are born. That's a miracle
of God. That's not you making something,
that's God bringing something for. But he's talking about here a
miracle that we witness all the time. And then we sit here and
limit God, we say, well, that body's rotted, he can't bring
that up. Really? He does it every day, right in
front of your face. You're a fool to think that way. God giveth
it a body, verse 38, as it hath pleased him. He's not limited.
Just whatever he wants it to look like when it comes up, that's
what it's gonna look like. Even a certain kind of plant.
It's gonna come up that kind of plant because God has ordained
it that way, but it's not gonna look like the one right next
to it. God giveth it a body. What's it gonna look like? What
God pleases. What God wants it to look like.
That's what it's gonna look like. So what are you gonna look like?
What body are you gonna have when you come out of the grave?
Whatever God wants. And you're a fool to limit him
in that. People are skeptical, you know,
what about Noah's Ark? You know, there's no way. You either believe God or you don't.
If he's God, then it's kind of easy. It's not a question of
believing things. What things do you believe? It's
who do you believe in? If he's God, by God's grace in
your mind and heart, then you're not gonna have any trouble with
the things. He does what he wants to do. And you know that he will
and can and should and does. As it has pleased him into every
seed, his own body, not just every type of seed, but every
particular seed, his own body. You've watched this happen over
and over. And you're really gonna sit there and say, what body
are they gonna come forth with? They're gonna come forth with
the body that God gives them. Just like everything else. All
flesh is not the same flesh. Verse 39. There's the flesh of
men, there's the flesh of beasts, another of fishes and another
of birds. Everything has a different body
and God gives it to them. There are also celestial bodies
and bodies terrestrial. But the glory of the celestial
is one and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory
of the sun and another glory of the moon. You see this all,
the miracles are right in front of your face. What God has done,
what the power of God So that men, even by nature, even by
the things that are made, we're without excuse. The stars, not leaving the stars
aren't the same. Why not? Because God chose the
body that every star would have. So also is the resurrection of
the dead. That simple? It is sown in corruption,
it's raised in incorruption. It's sown in dishonor, it's raised
in glory. It's sown in weakness, it's raised
in power. It's sown a natural body, it's
raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there
is a spiritual body. You see what our text is talking
about? This earthly tabernacle is gonna be dissolved, but we
have another house. And God made that one just like
he made this one. but he made it different. It's
different in wonderful ways that it'll be a delight to consider
if the Lord gives us grace. The first man, Adam, was a living
soul, but the last man, Adam, was a life-giving spirit. Adam
lived, but the last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the one
that made him live, gave him life, quickened. To quicken means
to make alive. Howbeit, that was not first which
is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that
which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth
earthy, and the second man is the Lord from heaven, the one
that does what he wants to, when he wants to, with whom he wants
to. And we're gonna question him and what he's able to do.
As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy. and as
is the heavenly. Adam represented every man that's
ever born into this world, and so we're all earthy. But those
who are born of the Lord Jesus Christ, born from above, born
of the Spirit, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image
of the earthy, verse 49, we shall also bear the image The heavenly
we are predestinated to be conformed to the image of God's Son That's
what our text is talking about Now this I say brethren that
flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God this is an
earthly house And that's all it's good for The way it is now
Neither does corruption inherit incorruption A Bible commentator
that I get a lot of good thoughts from on the scriptures seems
to teach, though, that this building of God is not this building of
God spoken of in our text. In verse one, it's not our resurrected
bodies, but that it's just us being spiritual creatures. It's
a glorious body that we will inhabit awaiting our resurrected
bodies. But that's a mistake I think
that many make in countless religious fairy tales that are told without
understanding. When we're in glory, we're not
awaiting anything. When we're with Christ and like
Christ, our waiting days are over. Our waiting days are over. I
think it was Tim James, Bob will probably know this for sure. I believe it was Tim James that
said one time that when our loved ones die, when D left this earth,
we were already there. Eternity is not another timetable. It's not an alternate timeline.
Eternity is altogether separate from time. It's not subject to
time. Everything is fulfilled there.
That's why the scripture says we're already seated in the heavenlies
in Christ Jesus. This is one reason that God calls
those things that are not as though they are. Because God
inhabiteth eternity. Isaiah 57, 15. Our earthly house
shall be dissolved. Destroyed, demolished is the
word. And notice that the word tabernacle
is attached to the earthly house, but never in all of this passage,
in all of this chapter, is the word tabernacle attached to the
heavenly house that he speaks of. That's because the word tabernacle
is teant. The word tabernacle in verse
one is there in contrast to the word eternal in verse one. This
is a dwelling of a tabernacle dwelling, not the house that
our Lord builds, and there's two different illustrations here. It means a tent, you can live
in a tent, but not for very long. You're not gonna live, that tent
is gonna be blasted by the sun, and it's gonna bear the weight
of many snows, and before long it's gonna decompose, just like
these bodies do. It's the house of this tabernacle. It's our home for now, but it
was never meant to be permanent for the believer. You know, and
I'm all for looking as nice as we can and taking care of these
bodies, but people cut their faces and their bodies and stretch
them and patch them, you know, try to patch them up. It's like
trying to keep a sandcastle, you know, when the tide comes
in, it's trying to keep that sandcastle intact. That's a battle you're not gonna
win. Unless you know the Savior, you're gonna win it when he gives
you his new body. I love that song, waiting for
my body that will never sin. Losing is winning if Christ is
your king If he's your Savior now you remember
how the Lord told Jacob it was not until Jacob was broken and
crippled and helpless That the Lord Jesus said to him you've
prevailed with God To lose this earthly battle of
physical life is unspeakable victory For the saints of God Look at all the contrasts in
this verse. Tabernacle, house, house. Earthly, heavens. Dissolved, eternal. It's not that our earthly tabernacle
was not built by God, but it was always a temporary dwelling.
The expression of how this new house is built, and we see there's
a couple of illustrations going on here. One of them is that
our body is a house, it's like a house that's built, that we
live in. Somebody said we don't have a
soul, we are a soul. We have a body, and there's some
truth to that. We're both because God is gonna, our Lord Jesus
redeemed both body and soul. He's gonna have both. but not
like we are now. He's got a new body for us, a
resurrected body, a perfect, sinless, incorruptible body. But the other thing here is that
this earthly house is built by God, but not by the hands of
men When he talks about a house not
made with hands, the illustration changes a little bit. Then there's
the comparison between a house that we build and a house that
God builds. You see the difference there?
This house that God built is not made with hands. It's different
in that a house that we build is gonna be imperfect, it's gonna
be temporary, but not the one that God builds. The hands of men here is an allusion
to the illustration that compares our bodies, old and new, to physical
structures, houses built by men. But our Lord, listen to Matthew
7, 24. There's for whosoever heareth
these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a
wise man which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended,
And the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that
house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. You
see how he compares us to our bodies, our life, to a house,
and that's what he's doing in our text. And everyone that heareth
these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto
a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand. And the
rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and
beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall
of it. In similar language, our text compares our earthly bodies
to a house built by man. And a house built by God is different
with regard to the stability and permanence of it, the eternality
of it, the quality of it, what it can withstand. Look at verse two in our text.
For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with
our house, which is from heaven. We prefer it, we look for it.
That means that this earthly house must be dissolved, and
yet we desire it, we're fine with it. Look at verse three. If so be
that being clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we that
are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened, not for that
we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be
swallowed up of life. We groan. Now, this word is a
sigh. We sigh. It's a sigh. We know what this sigh is because
we do it, don't we? He says we do it, and we do,
and we know what it is. It's a sigh of weariness, but
also a sigh of longing. And both of those things are
in the text. We're not speculating about that. Why do we sigh? Well,
first of all, he says, earnestly desiring. We sigh desiring something. We sigh because we desire something
that hasn't happened yet. Now this sigh is not a complaint.
That's not. Worship that's not honoring to
the Lord to complain It's not going around saying woe is me
and complaining about all of our ailments and you know all
of our problems Look with me at Romans 8 18 Romans 8 verse 18 There's a key
couple of words there that I want us to see with regard to this
side because when we do this we need to understand that This sigh is really worship.
We sigh because we're looking for that which the Lord promised.
And it's not a complaint, and it's important that we understand
that. Look at verse 18 of Romans 8. For I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation
of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of
God. For the creature was made subject
to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected
the same in hope. Because the creature, the creation
itself, also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption
into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know
that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together
until now, and not only they but ourselves also, which have
the firstfruits of the Spirit, Even we ourselves groan within
ourselves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our
body. That's the sigh that's in our
text. We're waiting for the redemption
of this body. That's a sigh of worship, not
complaint. Notice a couple of key words
there. Within ourselves. We don't go around groaning to
everybody. We groan within ourselves. And it's not complaint, it's
dishonoring to our Lord to complain about where we are, how we are. We're exactly where and how our
Lord has ordained. Notwithstanding our sin and the
messes we get ourselves into, but the Lord has situated us
as we are. The Lord Jesus Christ prayed
to his Father, don't take them out of this world. Of course,
he will do that when it's time, but keep them from the evil.
He has a purpose for us being here. But we grow, we bow to Him in
our situation, in our life, and we grow within ourselves, having
a desire to depart and be with Him. Because that's way better
than this. You see how that's worship. I
just want to be with Him. That's not complaint. But look
at our text, earnestly desiring to put on our new clothes. Here's
another illustration. It's like a house made with hands
and a house not made with hands. And then here we have clothing
as opposed to nakedness as an illustration. And Paul expresses
here that we're not ever gonna be unclothed. You see that? We're gonna have a body, whether
it's this one or the other. We're not ever gonna be unclothed.
Some teach that we're gonna be disembodied spirits floating
around for some period of time. In different ways, they teach
it and call it different things, but that's refuted here. Just
like a body was prepared for our Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord
has a body for us. and we're always gonna be in
the body he wants us in, here and there. And I like that, don't
you? That's an understatement, liking
the way God does things. But notice there's a second reason
that we groan. We groan because of a desire,
that's what we've seen, but secondly, we groan because of a burden.
You see that in our text? We also groan because we're being
burdened. in verse four, let's see, yeah. For we that are in this tabernacle
do groan, being burdened. So that's another reason why
we groan. You can learn a lot about this burden that he speaks
of by reading the whole seventh chapter of Romans. If you're
familiar with that chapter, you'll know generally what I'm talking
about. Here's part of it. Romans 7.22, I delight, Paul said, in
the law of God after the inward man. But I see another law in
my members, warring against the law of my mind. And that's burdensome,
isn't it? And bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin. I'm free and bound at the same
time. That's burdensome. Nobody in
this world feels this burden but the believer. We've grown
being burdened, don't we? But here again, it's worship
because we're looking for that freedom promise to us. And listen
to what he says. I'm brought into captivity to
the law of sin, which is in my members. And then in verse 24,
oh, wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me? Who shall
save me from the body of this death? You see the burden that
he's talking about in our text? The burden of our sin. the burden
of the consequences of our sin that we experience in these bodies,
the burden of how our sin limits everything that's good, our view
of Christ, our sight of Christ, our understanding of Christ,
our faith in Christ. It's the body of this death.
And he says, who's gonna save me? And then he answers his own
question in verse 25 of Romans 7. He says, I thank God through
Jesus Christ, our Lord. We're going to be saved by the
Savior because he's a Savior that actually saves. He don't
try to. He saves. So then with the mind,
I myself serve the law of God. But with the flesh, the law of
sin, and that's a burden we're going to carry for a while. The last phrase there in verse four, where he says, not
for that we would be unclothed. He's saying there, it's not just
that we want to die. You know, nobody wants to die.
That's not something to look forward to. But what we look
forward to is life. To live is Christ. And to die
is game. That's what we're looking for. Not death itself. We don't have
a death wish. And that game includes no sin,
no disappointment, no sorrow, no pain. The former things will
have passed away. A great burden forever lifted.
You see what our text is saying? Mortality, think about this phrase
in our text, mortality swallowed up of life. What a beautiful
way to think about this. And notice here, it doesn't say
death swallowed up of life, and I don't like to nitpick words
and, you know, Talk about what the definition of is is and things
like that, that people do tend to do with the scriptures sometimes.
But there is a blessing here, I believe, in the language of
this. Mortality is swallowed up of life. You know what mortality
is? It's not just that death is swallowed up of life, but
our liability to death is swallowed up of life. Meaning not only will we be alive,
but we will be such in the Lord Jesus Christ that we cannot ever
die. We are more than conquerors through
him that loved us. That's where our loved ones are
now. They're not just alive, but their mortality, their liability
to death is gone. It's swallowed up by Christ who
is our life. More than conquerors. Verse five. in our text, now he that hath
wrought us for the selfsame thing is God. Let's consider that first
phrase first. You talk about glorious now,
you think about this. This thing that wrought
us, of wroughting us for the selfsame thing. That means in
the original language, to do that from which something results. In other words, God did all of
this, all of this with us, brought us. He did all of this for that,
for that result. that our liability to death is
swallowed up, that we're gonna be like our Savior forever. We're
gonna be with Him forever. We're gonna know what life is.
This is a body of death. We've never experienced life,
really, not fully. We do in Christ, there's experience
involved in the Lord making us alive in Christ, new creations,
in Christ Jesus, the life of Christ dwells in us. I live,
Paul said, but yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. We experience
that. We do. But we're not gonna look back
down here and say, boy, that was, you know, then we're the
good old day, you know. No. We're gonna find out what
life really is then. when mortality is swallowed up.
In our last verse here, verse five for tonight, it says, God
has wrought us, he has done all of that to bring about a result. The self same thing that Paul's
been talking about in this passage. Of giving us true life, real
life, eternal life, a new body, a real body, a glorious body,
He shall change these vile bodies and fashion them like unto His
glorious body. And He's doing all of this to
accomplish that result. That's what our text says. All
of our life, all of our trials, all of our experiences, our opportunities
to honor the Lord, even our failures to do so, all that we experience
in this life is not the point. It's not that we don't care.
It's not that we're not concerned with the way we spend this life.
We want to spend it honoring the Lord Jesus Christ. All that
you do, do all to the glory of God. But it's not the point. There's a result that's gonna
be brought about by this. This life is God just doing something
in order to do something else, in order to bring about a result.
And that result is that we will be with him and we will be like
him. And look at the last part of
verse five. Has he not given us a taste of that in this life?
Does it not ring true in your heart that that's the case? Has
your grip on this world loosened any at all in the last 10 years?
Have you seen a little bit better the vanity of all of this? And
look, I don't dismiss the fact that to live is Christ. I'm not
a miserable person, are you? But I'm sighing, I'm sighing. I sigh being burdened and I sigh with a desire to be
with my Savior. and I know you do too, but he's
given us, does not the spirit within us bear witness with our
spirit that we're the sons of God even now? He's given us an
earnest. We know enough to groan, don't
we? We know enough about it to desire it. We know enough about
it for this life to be a burden in a sense, rather than the point
of it all. Thank God for that. Romans 8,
17, if children, then heirs. Heirs of God and joint heirs
with Christ. If so be that we suffer with
him, that we may be also glorified together. That is what this is
for. Amen, let's pray.