Turn with me again to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5. I really have something to say tonight. I really have something to say to you tonight, something I'm Happy, very happy to say, but before we get into this, let me start by saying that this message right here is for God's true people. All right, let me preface by saying that this message tonight is specifically for true believers. Not every person on this earth is a true believer. And the reason is because not every person on this earth is one of God's true people.

God has an elect people that he chose before the foundation of the world. They are in themselves sinful people. God's people are sinful people. They're not holy rollers. They are sinful people just like everybody else. Just exactly like everybody else in their nature. And in their flesh, they are no different from any other sinner on this earth. And they have to endure, God's people have to endure the same judgment from God for their sins that every other sinner on this earth has to endure. Same one. There is one judgment from God that every soul on this earth must endure, no exceptions. None, no exceptions. And it's because every soul on this earth is a sinner against God.

But in God's goodness and in his mercy, because this is who God is, God is good, And God is merciful because of who he is because of his grace. He chose for some of those centers to endure that judgment in Christ because he's good. Every soul has to go through it. Every soul has to go through the judgment and punishment and condemnation of God, but God. chose for some sinners out of this world, out of every tribe, nation, kindred, and tongue from all over this world. He chose for some to endure that judgment in Christ.

They are called the elect. That's the wording of God, the wording of scripture. They are called the elect and they're called that because That's what the election was unto. It was unto enduring the judgment of God in Christ. They were elected to be saved and be spared in Christ.

If you look at verse 10 right here, 2 Corinthians 5 verse 10, it says, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Why the judgment seat of Christ? It's because He is God Almighty. Jesus Christ is God Almighty. All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him. Call His name Emmanuel because God Almighty is with us. God was manifest in the flesh. He is God Almighty and all judgment, John chapter 5 says, has been placed in the hands of God the Son.

All judgment. The same judge of all people He is the advocate for God's people. All right. The judge of all people is also the advocate for God's people, which ought to give God's people a lot of hope. If the judge is also the advocate, that ought to give us a lot of hope.

He was the intercessor for God's people. He was the intercessor for God's people. He made intercession for God's people by being the atonement for them. He was their atonement. I think in our Bible classes this morning, one of our classes talked about an atonement. Anybody talk about an atonement? What that means is he was the covering for them as they pass through the judgment. That's what an atonement is. It's a covering. It's a shield for God's people, for God's people, God's elected people elected to be saved.

Their judgment took place in Christ as he was condemned and crucified and killed on the cross of Calvary. Christ was condemned and crucified and killed because his people were in him. And therefore the sin of His people was in Him. He was bearing the sin. Why did He hang on that cross? Why did Jesus Christ die on a cross? Sin was in Him. Whose sin was it? It was the sin of all of His elect people.

It was pressed into Him and God the Father saw the sin of God's people in Him. And judged Him and condemned Him. us in him. Verse 10 says, 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. In him Every one of his people received the reward for what they had done, whether it was good or bad.

And as it turned out, everything that his people had done was bad. And he hung there in their place. His body hung there in the place of the body of his people. And he received in his body what was owed to the bodies of his people. He was their substitute. He stood in their stead.

It was all bad. There was none good. No, not one. So all of them had to receive a punishment from God. And it was a punishment that no man or woman is able to bear. No man or woman is able to bear this punishment from God. The only way that this particular punishment can be survived is in Christ. It's the only way. So in Christ, every elect soul of God is blessed. Only in Christ. And outside of Christ, every other soul on this earth is cursed. Period. And it's because they have not yet received the judgment of God. They were not in Christ enduring that judgment on the cross. If you were placed in Christ by God the Father, judgment's over. It's over. Breathe a sigh of relief. It's over.

But outside of Christ, men and women are still going to have to endure this judgment. There is still a judgment to come. And they're going to have to endure this judgment alone. And that judgment is an eternal torture and condemnation of death that will never die. It will never end because the judgment will never be satisfied. The judgment will never get to a place where it says, that's enough.

Okay. That's enough. We sinful men and women are not able to satisfy the judgment, but Christ is. And Christ did. Christ put an end to the torture and the condemnation and the death of his people. He put an end to it for his people because he was able to do that. And he arose from it. And God said, I'm satisfied in him. I'm satisfied in what he did. But no man or woman will be able to satisfy that judgment in himself or herself, so it'll continue forever, all right?

So the end of a soul outside of Christ is a horrible end. And therefore, that's why I say that everything that I have in this message Tonight, it doesn't apply to a soul outside of Christ. Everything that I have to say tonight is only for a soul that the Father chose to save and the Son died to save and the Spirit has now quickened and called to that salvation. This tonight is only for God's true people in Christ.

And how can we know if God included us? and placed us in Christ? How can we know if we're one of the ones that Christ accomplished this for? Here's how we can know. God will give us a single eye on Jesus Christ. He will give us a single look to Jesus Christ.

We will not look to ourselves. We will not look to the law. We will not look to religion. We will not look to deeds and works and we will not look to anything but Jesus Christ. He will bring the message of Christ to us, and he will preach the finished work and only hope of Christ to us, and God's spirit will cause us to say, I believe that, and I'm renouncing everything but him. I need him. What do you need? Him. Don't you need him and your good deeds, and don't you need him and, no, I need him.

If God gives us a single eye, a single need, a single hope on Jesus Christ alone, that's called faith. That's what it is, that's faith. Faith is not in ourselves, faith is in Jesus Christ. Faith doesn't cause a sinner to look to himself, it causes a sinner to look to Christ. We're born into this world looking to self. And when salvation comes, when the quickening happens, all of a sudden self, You throw yourself out the window, and you look to Christ alone.

And if God gives that to us, if God has given that to us, then this message is for us. All right, now, that's my introduction. It took up half my time, so I won't be an extreme amount of time, but that's my introduction, okay? Let's begin reading in verse one, and let's read these verses one more time, all right?

2 Corinthians 5, verse one, it says, 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 the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore, we labor that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. 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, last Monday morning, I was talking with my dad on the phone while I was driving over here to my office. And we were talking about something that happened in his life. And I pointed out, while we were going back and forth on this, that I'm almost the same age now that he was when that happened to him.

And he said, Man, those 25 years have flown by. It's amazing that time goes by as fast as it does. And we had a little, yeah. I was thinking about the fact that you all just, didn't we just celebrate me being here for 10 years? That's almost four years ago. Time is just flying by. Well, I got to my office and started getting a little work done and I had a phone call with Brother Christoph. And at one point in our conversation, he said, he said, the thing that I'm starting to realize is just how quickly this life is going to go by.

And after hearing both of those statements from both of those men, I got to thinking about the fact that both of those statements are sad statements to humanity. And that is us included because we are humanity. Those are sad statements. That is a sad thought. I believe we would all, if we really take a minute and stop and think about it, I think we'd all have to say that's kind of a sad thought. When all that we know and can perceive of life is the life that we have right now here on this earth, to think that this life with our loved ones and our spouses and our children and our brethren You know, to think that it's gonna go by so quickly that we're just gonna be shocked, wondering where did all the time go?

We can't help it. To our humanity, that's a sad thought. We have a time here. Like others have had their time before us. And our times are overlapping. And I believe many are going to have their time after us, but this is our allotted time on this earth. We have a beginning, we have a middle, we have a, you know, a pinnacle, we have a heyday, and then we have an end.

And I hate to tell you this, but if you're 25 years old or older, your beginning is gone. It's gone. And if you're 50 years old or older, your middle is gone. And if you are 75 years old or older, you should have bought a burial plot 10 years ago. I thought about that. I mean, for the record, I'm 49. I'm 49 and holding. I got one more year in my middle and I'll take it. But as fast as time is going, it just was like, man, there's going to come a point where I'm like, now, how old do you need to be before you buy a burial plot? This is what I'm getting at. Okay.

The end is coming. The end is near for each one of us. It's a reality that we're all gonna have to face. We need to face it. We're all gonna have to face it. And after having both of those conversations on Monday and personally entering into the sadness of this reality, from a human point of view, from a human point of view, I also immediately entered into the joy of that reality and the comfort of that reality for God's people. For God's people, based on the word and promise of God that we've been given faith to believe. The joy and the comfort that God has has given to us. It made me want to bring a message to you on this because I know that all of you, just like me, you need the joy and the comfort of God's word concerning this reality.

The end of our humanity on this earth. And what I want us to see is if we're God's people, the end is not the end. It is not the end. And I pray the Lord will really help us enter into the reality of this. Look at verse one right here, it says, for we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, that's this body that our soul lives in here on this earth in our humanity.

This is the best illustration I know to to show the difference in a soul and a body. I am my soul. You are your soul. Cut my arm off and I'm still me. Cut that arm off and I'm still me. Cut that leg off, cut that leg off, I'm still me. This body is just the house that my soul is living in.

And verse one says, we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God in house, not made with hands eternal in the heavens. We already have a body made for us by Christ, a building of God. Here, Paul calls it a house. But in John 14, our Lord called it a mansion. He said, in my father's house are many mansions, a dwelling place for our soul. And he said, I'm going to prepare one for, I'm leaving, I'm going to prepare one for you. Look at 1 Corinthians 15, go back a page or two to 1 Corinthians 15.

Verse 49 says, and as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Look at verse 44. It's sewn a natural body. It's raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there's a spiritual body. Go back down to verse 50, it says, now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery.

We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. The thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. He said in one twinkling moment we're going to realize this victory that Christ earned.

Turn with me over to Philippians chapter 3. Philippians 3 verse 20. It says, For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body. according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

When the time comes for this body to lay down, all that will happen is we will step out of this body and we'll step into that body. That's what will happen. Go back to 2 Corinthians 5. Verse 1 says, 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.

What he's saying right there is God's people don't have a death wish. We don't have a death wish. You know, we talk about wanting to leave this world to go be with the Lord. People say that I'm ready to just go be with the Lord. That doesn't mean we're ready to die. That doesn't mean we just, you know, we're just hoping to hurry up and die. I just like to hurry up and die. That's not what God's people want at all. They don't want anything to do with death. All that God's people want is for death to be swallowed up of life. That's all they want. And that is what's going to happen. That's what that moment is. When we leave here, we're not going out into the world of the dead.

Matthew 22 says, God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are just as alive right now as they ever were. Now just, you know, maybe the Lord will help you enter into this. We know that because right now we're attached to death and in that moment death is no more, swallowed up of life. So we know that they're more alive now than they ever were on this earth. But just so we can comprehend it, Abraham right now is just as alive as Brandon Coffey.

There are people who we can think of, who our brains assess, determine, whatever the word is you want to use. Yeah, that's an alive person. And then there's some people who our brains compute, well, that's a dead person. Well, Abraham. OK, let's take Abraham. What do you compute of Abraham? Abraham is just as alive right now as that man is right there. The only difference is he's here and Abraham's there. He's walking by faith right here. Abraham is walking by sight right over there. That's the only difference.

Roy Baldwin, was here. Well, I need to do. I'll use Roy. Okay. Roy was here and now he is there right now. You can say the same thing about Abraham and Roy Baldwin that you can say about Brandon and Obie. Are both computed in your mind, are both of these two men with us? Are they alive right now and with us? Yes. Roy Baldwin and Abraham, are they alive right now and with us? Yes. Yes. Our Lord said, Martha, he that lives and believes in me, he that lives in me and believes in me shall never die. Never die. Alive right now? You mean alive right now? Yes.

Verse 4 says, We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed without a body. but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the self same thing as God, God did this for his people, who also hath given unto us the earnest of his spirit. Our Lord has given us his spirit to believe these things as a down payment on his promise to us.

Think about what I'm saying right now. How can a grown, educated man or woman believe this? I mean, how can you possibly believe this? Here's the only way. God has given his spirit to us to convince us of the fact that these things are so. You really believe that? Yes, I really do. These things are so, that is the down payment of his promise to us, the earnest of his spirit. I give you my spirit now.

Verse six says, therefore, we are always confident knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we're absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

That's all that takes place in that moment. When it's time, that's all that happens. We just go from here to there. I can only imagine, you know, this came from, and I'm out of time, but I'm just gonna take the rest of it. But this came from me being sad at the thought of this life flying by. Because I'm human. And then being comforted by this idea that this reality, that the end is not the end. It's just not the end. It's here and there. You know, I can only imagine, I think of these different illustrations.

I was just right now thinking, Luke is not here. He went up to Maryland to preach. He's not here. This morning, he wasn't here because he was there. I don't know where he is right now, but he's not here. But he's there. Wherever it is, he's there. Is he really there? Yeah, wherever he is right now, that's where he is. I mean, an alive being of a person, yes, that's where he is.

I can only imagine that when my time and Hannah's time is over here and it's time for us to leave this world, I can only imagine that our girls will be sad. You know, I hope they will be. But I can only imagine that they will be, and understandably so. The Lord has already called my mother. I was sad, understandably so.

And I believe in my heart that when that time comes for us to be gone, they'll be sad. But two weeks ago, Hannah and I went to California. And I can promise you, our girls were not sad. The only time that it appeared that they might be sad is when the possibility came that we might not be able to go. Then they got sad. But honestly, you understand what I'm saying?

The two of you didn't sit around all weekend moping and crying and wishing that we were back, did you? The reason is because we were not gone. We were just there. I hope the Lord will let us get a hold of this, because the time is coming, and it's gonna be one by one.

And who knows, you can look at the older people and say, well, it's gonna be y'all first. How do you know? How do you know? Well, we're gonna need this. We're gonna need a single eye on Christ. We're gonna need hope in the blood of Jesus Christ, and then we're gonna need the comfort of knowing that he that lives and believes in Jesus Christ is never gonna die. And as this happens, and as this takes place, may God give us the reality of the fact that our loved one is not gone. He or she is just there. That's it, just there. I'm gonna, I gotta stop, but... All right, go to Philippians 1. Go to Philippians 1. Philippians 1 verse 21, it says, the apostle Paul said, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor. Yet what I shall choose, I know not for I'm in a straight betwixt two having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better, far better.

How you know that Paul? He said, because I was there. I was there. I was carried up to the third heaven. He said, I know that because I was here and then I went there and now I'm back here. And literally in this moment right now, he's back there. And he said, I can tell you from firsthand experience being both here and there, there is far better. It's far better. Verse 24, nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. He said, I'm happy to be here because it's more needful for you.

But he said, anytime the Lord brings me over there, don't weep for me. Don't weep for me. It's paradise. I was caught up into paradise. We already read in 1 Corinthians 15 that when that time comes for us to go from here to there, there's going to be no sting in it. There's going to be no pain in it. There'll be no sorrow in it. Not for us.

Isaiah 43 says the Lord himself will come get us for the transaction. I'll come get you and carry you. Revelation 22 says these sayings are faithful and true and they must shortly come to pass. And our Lord said, behold, I'm coming quickly. It's going to be quickly time. It is but a vapor. What is this life? It's a vapor. It's a, it's a vapor. And here's what I'm going to leave us with.

If verse 10 in our text is settled, and what that said, you don't have to turn, but what it said was, we all must stand before the judgment seat of Christ. If our judgment in Christ is already settled, then we have something to be happy about. We really have something to be happy about. We have a joyful comfort to look forward to, knowing the end is not the end.

It's not the end, it's just the end here. And it's the glorious beginning there. And that glorious beginning will never have an end. Down here, if you're 25 years old or older, your beginning's gone. Not there. When we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we're all going to say, what a beginning. There's only one day. There's no night there. Everybody will say, it's my first day here. And this is what it will be. We will all be there, all of God's people, all of us. Will any be lost? None. None of them are lost.

All of God's elect people, all of God's redeemed people will be there together. Forever. The humanity sadness is gonna take place here for each one of us because we love each other. And as God plucks you, and if you're still here when God plucks me, you're gonna be, I hope you're sad, but I believe you're gonna be sad, and I believe I'm gonna be sad. But as soon as we get there, we won't be taken from each other anymore. We won't be taken out of the presence of Christ. We're all gonna be there together forever with Christ in his kingdom of paradise. And that's happy news. That's happy news, okay. Amen.