2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and
I would like to read from verse 1. We'll read down through verse
10. 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and
verse 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
thyself same 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 labour, that whether
present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must
all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one
may receive the things done in his body according to that he
hath done, whether it be good or bad. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this
reading from his word. How do we, as the Lord's people,
How do we as the Lord's people differ from those around us? How do we who are chosen of God,
justified and redeemed, quickened and called, joined together with
Christ, holy in the sight of God, all these great effects
of mercy, How do we differ practically and evidently from those around
about us? Not externally. We can't look
at someone and know whether that person is saved or unsaved. Not by having easier lives than
other people. We all know that that isn't true. Not by enjoying continuous runs
of victories and successes in our natural life and circumstances. Again, we know that's not true. Not having the answers to the
problems we face in life. It's not that we have all the
answers and can give those answers when we are challenged or troubled.
Not by being free from weakness in this flesh and the deceit
of sin, because again, those are part of our experience. Not even by profession, because
there are many who profess Christ, but it is a different Christ,
a different gospel upon which their hopes are pinned. Now we
differ in one key feature, one characteristic that distinguishes
us from all else, and that is that we have faith in Christ. We have reason to trust him,
and we have solid grounds to hope in the promises of God for
eternal life. We differ in trusting Jesus Christ
as the one upon whom our eternal security hinges. Here in these
verses in the opening of 2 Corinthians chapter five, the apostle Paul
is continuing as he was in chapter four to speak about his role
as an apostle and a gospel preacher. and the confidence that undergirds
his ministry and his activity, his work. And yet what he has
to say regarding and concerning himself applies to all the blood-bought
children of God and it applies to you and me. And I'm not going
to even attempt, I can't unpack everything that's in these 10
verses in the time that we've got before us tonight. But I
want to just look at three points that might help to open up this
passage for us. And the first one is this. We
have been made by God to enjoy eternal life. We have been made by God to enjoy
eternal life. I asked at the beginning, what
makes us different? Well, the Lord God has made us
to differ. Verse 5 tells us, He that hath
wrought us for the selfsame thing is God. And that's a key verse
in this passage. That word wrought in there, we
don't use it very much. I'm not sure about our American
brothers and sisters here tonight. I don't know whether you use
the word wrought iron, but it's pretty much the only time we
use the word wrought these days. And we speak about wrought iron
fences. And basically what we're saying
is that it's iron work that has been hammered into shape. And that's what God has done.
He has hammered us into shape. He is working us. He is preparing and forming us
for eternal life. He that hath wrought us, made
us, formed us, prepared us for everlasting life is God. It's what Paul is saying here.
And we have an earthly body now that will and must dissolve and
return to dust whence it came. But Paul is telling us that he
has and therefore we have a building of God or a building that God
has prepared. That's what he says in verse
one. And God is the creator. God is the architect, the designer
of this building of God that we have. It is a house not made
with hands. It is eternal in the heavens. So the Apostle Paul is saying
here that he has this confidence undergirding his labours and
his service and his outlook on the world and on life. which
sees that God is making of him something that will enjoy glory
everlastingly. And this is what he says to the
Corinthians here in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. But he uses the same
idea when he speaks to the Ephesians. He says, we are God's workmanship. created in Christ Jesus to serve,
to honour, to glorify, to worship, to live with and to enjoy Christ
Jesus forever. And he says the same to the Romans,
in his epistle to the Romans, we are crafted vessels of mercy,
aforeprepared unto glory, that we might partake in the riches
of his glory. And that's the first point that
I want to make here, that the Apostle Paul is stressing that
God has made us to differ. He has worked upon us to make
us fit for eternal life with him. And the second thing that
the Apostle points out is that we, he and we with him, we believe
that that God has wrought upon us, that we have a house in heaven. We believe that to be true because
we have been given faith to believe it. When God made us a new creation,
to that end that we should dwell with him everlastingly in heaven,
he gave us the earnest of the Holy Spirit as a token, as a
foretaste, as a down payment or deposit if you like, as evidence
of more that is to follow. And faith in Christ is a divine
gift given by God to those that he has wrought upon, that he
has worked upon, that he has prepared for glory. So that despite
being flesh and fallen and sinful and incapable of discerning spiritual
things, the gift of faith has been given, the Holy Spirit has
been given and that gift of faith quickens and enables spiritual
sense and awareness. And that little verse that speaks
to us in verse seven here, 2 Corinthians 5, verse seven, for we walk by
faith, not by sight. This explains a lot to a believer
because all our spiritual understanding and all our spiritual discernment
comes from the faith that we have been given. Without faith, we cannot please
God. So God gives us faith and by
that faith, we walk. And that's what this verse is
telling us. We walk, we live, we have an existence, a spiritual
existence because of the faith that we have been given. We have
spiritual life and we walk in that spiritual life. We live
and we follow Christ. Now I'm sure that we all know
that it's a narrow road but we're walking it. We know that it's
rough and steep and that at times it is poorly lit but we're walking
it. We're on the road with Christian
in Pilgrim's Progress and we're heading home to glory. However,
and this is something that is worth remembering, there's no
visible or tangible or physical evidence that proves this to
be the case. There's nothing that we can see,
touch, handle or experience with the natural senses that can in
itself confirm our spiritual life in Christ. And that's why
often people are challenged about their assurance. Because there's
nothing that we can see and touch and handle and hold. It's by
faith that we enter into the experience of these things. Our
present security and our inheritance of eternal joy and happiness
and heaven is perceived only through faith. A man died 2000 years ago on
a Roman cross and by faith we believe that that fact has secured
for us the promises of God and earned for us and bequeathed
to us all that Christ is and all that Christ has done. And
that's not a vain hope. It is assured to us by the revealed
character of God, by the fact that God is God, that He is omnipotent
and omniscient and all-glorious. His purpose and His truth are
revealed to us in Scripture that these things are so. It is gained
for us by the success of the Son of God. We believe that Christ
was successful on the cross. That is what our hope is built
upon. It is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit, given to us
as an earnest and it is received by faith. We believe it to be
so. And here's just the third point
and I'll be quick. That faith that we have been given and the
fact that God has wrought this work upon us and given us this
heavenly hope, that faith in itself gives us hope and knowledge
and confidence that in God we will have all that he has promised. The Apostle Paul talks about
confidence in this passage. That if, or rather when, our
earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved, we have a building
of God, a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. We have eternal life, we have
eternal glory, we have everlasting happiness laid up for us in heaven
with the saints. And we're confident, says Paul,
that whether we live or die, we are acceptable to God, being
cleansed from sin by the blood of Christ and wholly justified
by the righteousness of Christ. And our service or our labour
is acceptable to God, being the fruit of grace in our lives and
the evidence of Christ in our hearts. And we're confident,
says Paul, that when we appear before the judgment seat of Christ,
as we all shall, everyone may receive the things done in the
body, according to that which he hath done, whether it be good
or bad. And that little phrase there
ought to be a cause of great concern to all who have no faith,
no hope, and no reason to believe that their sins are forgiven,
taken away. However, it proves to be of little
concern to them because their understanding is darkened and
they are alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance
that is in them. That's what Paul says in Ephesians
4.18. But to us who believe it is the
cause of great joy. It is the cause of great joy
to the people of faith because by faith we know that we have
passed from death unto life. We know that there's no condemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus. We know that righteousness has
been imputed to us. We know that Christ abideth in
us by his spirit which has been given to us. We know that he
shall appear and we shall be like him for we will see him
as he is. Some people tell us that believers
will be ashamed at the judgment seat of Christ. Why would we
be ashamed? Because our deeds are evil? What
evil deeds are those? The forgotten ones? The ones
that are cast behind God's back? The ones that have been sunk
in the sea of His forgetfulness? The ones that have been cleansed
and forgiven and carried away on the cross by Jesus Christ?
No. These are the days of which the
Lord spoke to Jeremiah when he said, Our sins are gone. What about our good works then?
Yes, we have all the good works ordained that we should walk
in them. We have the righteousness of God. We have the holiness
of Christ. We have the purity and perfection
of the vessels created to honour. We have the well done of Christ. We have the sincere title of
good and faithful servant. Better than that, we are the
sons of God. The Lord Jesus Christ told us, We'll not have 90% of
the kingdom, or 80%, depending on how good we've been or not,
or what we've done or not. we shall have the kingdom prepared
for us and if we have grace we shall have glory, untarnished,
unlimited and undiminished because we have Christ and we are joint
heirs with him and he is all our glory. May the Lord bless
these thoughts to us. Amen.