Now, you might recall last week
at the end of our lesson, we saw six reasons why we don't
quit, why we don't quit preaching the gospel, why we don't quit
supporting the ministry, why we don't quit attending the worship
service, why we don't quit living a life of faith. And one of those
reasons was that we have a good hope of the resurrection. We
have a good hope of future glory. And we know because of that hope,
we know that this world, this physical life is not all that
there is. And the believer expects one
day to leave this world and go be with Christ, which is far
better. And that expectation enables us to keep this life,
both the joys of this life and the trials and troubles of this
life, helps us keep all the things of this life in their proper
perspective. And Paul continues to deal with
that thought of our future glory here in chapter five in verse
one. He 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. Now, there are some
things that we know. You know, I've told you before,
I like to know things. I mean, I like to know. Now we
know in part for sure, we prophesy in part, but there's still some
things that we know. Paul said in Romans 7, for I
know that in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.
Now I don't know much, but I know that, that in me dwelleth no
good thing. I'm like our brother Job. Job
said, I know that my Redeemer liveth. Now I know that. Paul
said in 2 Timothy verse 1, I know whom I have believed and I'm
persuaded. I'm confident. I'm persuaded
because I know him. I know whom I have believed and
I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. Look over in 1 John chapter 5. Now, these are some of the things
we know. 1 John 5 verse 18. We know that whosoever is born
of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself,
and that wicked one toucheth him not. And we know that we
are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. And we know
that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding,
that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that
is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God
and eternal life. Now we know those things. And
just as surely as we know those things, we know that when this
body dies, it'll go back to the dust. The believer will not be
homeless. We're not going to be left homeless.
We're going to have a house. We're going to dwell in the building
of God. Now, how many times have we heard
Brother Henry tell us we have a body and we are a soul and
the soul is living in just a temporary body. That's why Paul calls it
a tabernacle. It's a tent. Tents aren't meant
to be permanent dwelling places. They're temporary dwelling places.
And that's what this body is. It's not going to last very long.
It just isn't going to last very long, just like a tent is not
going to last very long if you leave it exposed to the elements
forever. It just doesn't last. But you know this body is quite
a tent, isn't it? This body is a tent that's been
made by God. This tent has quite an architect. And God's allowed us to live
in it, but we're bad renters. We've ruined the foundation,
just utterly ruined it, and it's falling down. We're the ones
that made it temporary. And when it falls down and is
destroyed, the child of God is going to have a dwelling place
made by God. eternal in the heavens, made
by God in righteousness. And the believer is going to
inhabit that building immediately. Not a moment's just we're going
to leave this body and go to the building made by God immediately. As soon as this body dies, the
new man that's been created in Christ Jesus is finally going
to be free to depart this fleshly tent and immediately go to a
new house, a new body. He finally is not going to have
to bunk with this old man anymore. You know, this week we had a
work, we had a event we put on for some of our bigger customers
and we take them out to Shawnee State and put everybody up in
a room, you know, we have our show and things. And some people
didn't show up. So unexpectedly, I got a room
by myself. I didn't have to bunk with somebody
that snored. The guy's going to have to bunk
with snores. I mean, so I knew I wasn't going to get any sleep
that night. I didn't have to bunk with that guy. And I was
happy. That's the way the new man's
going to be when he leaves this body. I'm not going to have to
bunk with that guy anymore. Free to go and inhabit that tabernacle
that's been made by God. And we know this because this
is the promise of God. We have this promise of God.
That's why we know this. We don't know it. I don't know
anybody that's done that. Never talked to them. There are
people there now, but I've never talked to them. They can't come
back and talk to me. So I don't know it because I
know someone that's experienced it. I know it because it's God's
promise in his word. And we long to have the fulfillment
of that promise, don't we? That's what Paul says in verse
two. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with
our house, which is from heaven. Now, we know how to groan, don't
we? Just groan and complain. We know
how to groan. We groan about everything. The
difficulties of this life is just difficult. We groan. But this is not talking about
groaning and complaining, you know, like we all do. This is
talking about the believer, not just having a pity party, but
groaning under the burden of sin, groaning under the corruption
of sin, groaning about carrying around the sin nature that we're
born with. We cry, we groan with the Apostle
Paul and we say, oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? We groan under inspiration of
the Holy Spirit who makes groanings for us, makes intercession for
us with groanings that cannot be uttered. We're groaning in
the spirit. Essentially, the believer's groaning
because he feels naked, not being clothed, not physically being
clothed with the righteousness of Christ yet. We're not being
made just like Christ yet. It's not just that we are desiring
to die so we can escape the troubles of this life that make us groan
and complain. We're groaning because we long
to be like Christ. And what death is going to do
is strip us of this flesh. and enable us to be clothed in
the righteousness of Christ. See what he says in verse 3?
If so be that being clothed, we shall not be found naked.
Now, like I said, the very moment that a believer dies, we're going
to enter into the presence of God the Father. We're going to
enter right into His presence and not be ashamed. Now, if I
went into His presence like I am now, I'd be ashamed. In this
body of sin, there's reason to be ashamed. But when a believer
dies, he's going to go into the presence of the Father and be
accepted because we have been made just like Christ. We will
leave here and go into his presence clothed in perfection, in glory. And believers who are still alive
when Christ returns, they're not going to be ashamed either.
They'll instantly be changed, clothed upon with that same glory
that believers right now are clothed with. You see, the Lord
is not going to expose his people. He's not going to publicly expose
you naked. Adam did that, didn't he? Isn't
that what the first Adam did? He exposed us, made us naked. And we're just like him, trying
to find fig leaves to cover our nakedness. Christ comes and clothes
his people. He's not going to make us ashamed.
Not with fig leaves. He doesn't close us with something
like that. He clothes us with himself, with his perfection
and his glory. And the moment we die, the believer
dies, that's what we're going to be clothed in, glory and honor,
the glory and honor and perfection of our Lord. So verse four, he
says, 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 we groan in this body of sin, it's just No wonder we groan. It's such a burden. But we're
not groaning and just like I said a minute ago and desire to die,
you know, just so we can. That's the only way of escape.
You know, these bodies, God put in these bodies a desire to live,
didn't he? That's why we all just go right
now and jump off the bridge. There's a desire in these bodies
to live. You know, Sean just got a brand
new baby daughter. And he's got another one that's
awful little. He's got these two baby girls. You have no desire
to die. He wants to raise those girls
and teach them and be with them and love them. Absolutely, he
doesn't want to die. But at the same time, the believer
doesn't fear death. We don't fear death. Matter of
fact, we look forward to it with some anticipation. We don't fear
it. We don't necessarily desire to die at this very moment. But
we do look forward to it with some anticipation. Because the
death of this body is going to lead us to being changed into
the image of Christ. And when this body dies, mortality,
death is going to be swallowed up of life, just instantaneously
swallowed up, and it'll be never seen again. You'll never experience
that again. But until then, until that day,
we've grown under the burden of sin. Now, what's the best
remedy? for this groaning, this groaning
under this burden, is to look to Christ. You look to Him. Look
to the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world. That
is the remedy for this groaning. See here verse 5, Now he that
hath wrought us for this selfsame thing is God, who also hath given
unto us the earnest of the Spirit. You see, we look to Christ, the
one who made us fit to be in the presence of God. That's the
reason that the child of God can be so confident about facing
death. Because of who did all the work,
who did all the work in your salvation, who prepared you,
wrought you for this. If Christ has done all the work,
then you can be confident and rest in him. See, the word wrought
here is prepared. The one who has prepared us for
this is God. One of the writers I read this
week said this. Everyone who's destined for heaven
is being prepared for heaven while they're still on this earth.
You're being prepared for heaven. What did our Lord tell his disciples
before he went to the cross? I go to prepare a place for you.
I'm preparing a place for you and preparing you for the place.
And that takes the work of God. That is his work. It takes the
work of God to make us partakers of the divine nature, to be fit
to go into the presence of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. It's all of the Lord. If the
Father elected you and the Son redeemed you and the Spirit called
you, you will be glorified. You will not be left ashamed.
You'll not be found guilty. So until then, we've been given
the earnest of the Spirit, bearing witness to our souls of Christ,
pointing us to Christ to look to Him, because that's the remedy,
looking to Him. And the earnest is part of the
down payment. It's the down payment that guarantees you'll receive
the rest of the payment. And we have the earnest of the
Spirit. We enjoy the grace of God. We
enjoy peace in Christ. We enjoy the comfort. We have
joy in our Savior. We have that now. That's the
earnest. And that's just the taste of the full payment that's
to come. And we'll receive that full payment
when we leave this body and go be with the Lord. And knowing
that, having that promise of our Savior, makes the child of
God confident. See what Paul says in verse 6?
Therefore, because we know this, therefore we're always confident,
knowing that whilst we're at home in the body, we're absent
from the Lord. Now here's another thing that
a child of God knows. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, we
know this. That while we're in this body,
we are absent from the Lord. But that's not going to be forever.
We're not always going to be absent from him. We're pilgrims
on a journey, but that journey has a start time and appointed
start time and an appointed time to end. When that appointed time
comes, whenever that day is in the will of the Lord, that journey
is going to be finished and the Lord's going to take us home
and we'll be home with the Lord. And that gives us confidence
to endure the difficulties and persevere during this pilgrimage.
You know, we don't have a promise that the pilgrimage is going
to be easy, do we? We have a promise of where the pilgrimage is going
to end with Christ in his presence. So we're absent from the Lord.
Now, we do have the presence of the Lord now, don't we? We
pray for his presence every day. We pray for his presence. Lord,
don't leave me alone. The presence of our Lord is the
only thing that makes this life bearable in the first place.
It's His presence. And we do have His presence,
don't we? But not like we expect to one day. Not like we're going
to have His presence one day. Now we see Him with the eye of
faith, don't we? Then we're going to see Him face
to face. That's what Job said. My Redeemer liveth and I'm going
to see Him with these eyes. I'm going to see Him, not with
the eye of faith anymore, with these eyes, face to face. Now,
we hear Him in the Word, don't we? In His Word, we hear His
voice with the ear of faith. And that day, we're going to
hear it from His lips. Oh, what a day. What a day. And when we see Him
for ourselves, have His presence, I promise you this, we'll be
satisfied. would be completely satisfied.
So verse seven, he goes on, he says, for we walk by faith, not
by sight, we're walking on this pilgrim journey by faith. And
it's a good thing that we walk by faith, not by sight. Because
if we walk by natural sight. We would quit, just quit, just
sit down and quit, because all we see with these eyes is the
result of sin in this world. We see grief, we see pain, we
see hardship, we see death. The songwriter said change and
decay and all around I see. And that's all I can see with
these eyes is decay and change and sin. But the believer doesn't
walk by sight. We walk by faith, by faith that
looks to Christ. So our conduct is regulated by
looking to Christ. Our attitude is regulated by
looking to Christ. Our hope of salvation comes from
looking to Christ. Our expectation of this future
glory that Paul's talking about comes from looking to Christ.
And even though a believer looks at death with some expectation,
there is still some fear of the unknown in there. In this flesh,
there's some fear of the unknown. This is something that we haven't
experienced before. But that fear will vanish and
we'll be fully confident when we're looking to Christ. Our
brother Peter was confident walking on the water in the midst of
a storm, confident when he was looking to Christ. When did Peter
get in trouble? When he started looking at the
storm and started looking at the waves, he started sinking
and becoming very unconfident, very fearful. He's confident
when we're looking to Christ. And that day of our death, the
death of this body, maybe it'll be stormy. Maybe it'll be calm.
I don't know. But we'll face it confidently
when we're looking to Christ. Just don't take your eyes off
Him. Because verse 8, Paul says, we're confident, I say, and willing
rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the
Lord. We're confident in this. We walk
by faith, not by sight. So we're confident. and willing
to leave this body because we're confident when we leave this
body, we'll be present with the Lord. At the very moment the
soul of a child of God departs from this body, we are immediately
in the presence of our Lord. Now, there is a heresy that's
been taught for generations about soul sleep, where people will
tell us that when a person dies, their soul sleeps completely
unconscious of anything. until the resurrection. Well,
that teaching is a denial of scripture, just an utter denial
of scripture. We just read it. To be absent
from the body is to be present with the Lord, not unconsciously
sleeping somewhere, enjoying the presence of our Lord. What did our Lord tell that thief
on the cross? Today shall thou be with me in
paradise. And that day he enjoyed the presence
of the Lord in paradise. And, you know, these folks that
teach this soul sleep, they will say, well, what body do they
have? You know, how are they clothed? Because there certainly
doesn't appear they're clothed with the body that they'll be
resurrected in. It hasn't been resurrected yet.
Well, I don't know. Scripture doesn't tell us. But
I thought this morning when I was going over my notes. Do you care? Honestly, do you care? If we're in the presence of our
Lord, do you care? Do you care what body you're
in? Do you care what the surroundings look like? Do you care? The point
is always the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the point. The point is
not that I'm going to live in a mansion. The point is not that
we're going to walk on streets of gold. The point is we have
his presence. I'm telling you, if we look in
his face, how could you take your eyes off of that glorious
sight to even see what the rest of the surroundings are? It's
beyond me. I do not know. The point is the
Lord Jesus Christ to be in his presence. He'll take care of
the rest. And someone who's been born from
above, whose home is above. That's what we're traveling.
We're going home. Our home is above. It's not here. It's above.
Someone whose heart is above, who finds their treasure above
where Christ sits. Someone whose affection is set
on things above is willing to leave this earth and depart and
be with Christ, which is far better. So verse nine, Paul says,
wherefore, we labor that whether present or absent, we may be
accepted of him. I look this word labor up. This
is interesting. We labor. And that word labor
means to strive. From a sense of love, it's not
striving to go earn a paycheck, it's not striving to earn the
acceptance of the father, because Christ has already done that
for us. This is striving from a sense of love. And the believer
does just that. Strives in the service of our
Savior. No matter where we are, no matter
where He's put us, no matter what it is He's given us to do,
we strive in His service. Whether it's in life or death.
Whether it's in this body or out of this body. Our one desire
is to win Christ and be found in Him. Look at Philippians chapter
3. That's the one desire of a new
heart. that God has created is to win
Christ and be found in Him. Philippians 3 verse 7 But what things were gained to
me, those I counted lost for Christ? Yea, doubtless, and I
count all things but lost, for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things, and do count them but done. that I may win Christ,
and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which
is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know
him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings,
being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might
attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I
had already attained, either were already perfect. But I follow
after, I strive, I labor, I follow after, if that I may apprehend
that for which I am also apprehended of Christ Jesus. Now brethren,
I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind, and reaching forth, striving
unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark of the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. That's the
desire. of the new man, the new heart,
to strive, to labor, to be found in him. Now, verse 10, and I'll
quit. 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, the day of judgment is a
real day. It's a day that's been appointed
by God, and it's a real day. It's not a figurative thing.
And all men, all sons of Adam, must appear before the judgment
seat of Christ. It's appointed unto men once
to die, but after this to judgment. That is a real day. And we know
that the Father has given all judgment to the Son. That's why
Paul calls it the judgment seat of Christ. Now, not one son of Adam, this
verse can scare a person to death, because not one son of Adam. can stand before the judgment
seat of Christ in himself, uncondemned. To read this, that we're going
to receive the things done in our body, whether it be good
or bad, well, that's going to scare anybody with any sense
to death because we've never done anything good. All we've
ever done is bad. We must be condemned to stand
before the judgment seat of Christ in ourself. Now, that's so. Well,
then how come we said a minute ago that a believer can face
death with confidence, even with some expectation of after death
is the judgment and there's no way I can be uncondemned in myself? Well, because this is the judgment
seat of Christ, not only is Christ going to be the judge. All judgment
is going to be relative to Christ. Look back at Romans chapter two.
All judgment is going to be relative to Christ. In Romans 2 verse 16, in the day when God shall judge
the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel, all this
judgment is going to be done relative to Christ. Our Lord
Jesus Christ has already been judged of the Father. He's been
sentenced. He died. He was condemned for
the sins of his people. He's already been condemned.
So the law has no more claim on anyone who's in Christ because
he's already been condemned. He's already been judged. He's
already been put to death. So the law has no more claim
on anyone in Christ Jesus. So we don't have to fear the
judgment. And everything our substitute did We did. If he's our substitute, that's
right, isn't it? Everything he did, we did. Well, what did he
do? He did perfect righteousness.
He never sinned. He completely satisfied his father,
completely, perfectly righteous. And we did the same. If he's
our substitute, when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ,
Christ is going to say, you never sinned. You're perfectly righteous. because of who our substitute
is. If we are in Christ, we have no sin. And a person who has
no sin doesn't have to fear the judge, does he? Look over Romans
8. Romans 8, verse 1. There is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the spirit. For the law of the
spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law
of sin and death. I'm free from those things because
I'm in the Lord Jesus Christ, because he is our substitute.
Look at Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews 10 verse 12. But this man. After he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified." The Lord Jesus Christ has made his people,
everyone he died for, perfect. Well, perfect people don't fear
the judgment, do they? We've been made perfect in Christ.
Now, outside of Christ, that judgment would be terrible, horrible. Every public sin, every private
sin, every private sin of thought, word and deed, everything is
going to be made manifest to all. And you talk about shame.
And those sins will receive their just wages, eternal damnation. But in Christ, there's joy and
peace and no fear. All right, Lord bless you.