The Better is Guaranteed

Sovereign Grace Family Church iconSovereign Grace Family Church

4 views

0 comments

00:02
I want to invite you to take out your copy of God's Word and turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and we are going to again demonstrate that the chapter divisions are not always set in the best of places and we all know that those chapter divisions are not inspired of God.
00:35
They are placed there much later than the original text and so today we're going to ignore the chapter division and we're going to look at chapter 4 beginning at verse 16 and we're going to read to chapter 5 verse 5.
00:52
But before we do that I have just a few introductory comments. In 2015 scholar
01:02
Michael Heiser published a book entitled The Unseen Realm.
01:11
The subtitle of the book was Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the
01:19
Bible. Now I have some issues with Heiser's work and I have some areas where I would wholeheartedly disagree with him but there is one area that I think
01:37
Heiser really did a service to the church. I think there's one area that he pointed out something very important.
01:46
In his work he stated on various pages that the reality is in the modern church that most
02:00
Christians live functionally as anti -supernaturalists.
02:08
Basically what he means is this, while we affirm that God exists and we claim on some level that He's active in our lives and that something is going to happen when we die, but that doesn't work itself out in the reality of our lives.
02:27
We don't live like we believe it. We don't live in light of the supernatural. We don't live with that as our motivating focus daily and what happens is we tend to live like the world that lives an anti -supernatural life.
02:45
And while you may think Heiser was somewhat exaggerating, I can tell you this, I've seen it.
02:53
People will say, yes God exists, yes I believe something is going to happen when I die, yes of course I believe Jesus was the
02:58
Son of God, but then their lives do not testify to the supernatural reality of that truth.
03:06
You live like everybody else, but you say you don't. You look at the world just like everybody else, but you say you don't.
03:16
And so today what I want to show you in this text is that I truly believe that Paul is pushing us toward a supernatural worldview that will change the way we interact with the natural.
03:34
A supernatural worldview, a worldview that looks to the unseen thing, that looks to the eternal thing, that looks to this life as transient as it is, looking forward to the eternal, that will change your life.
03:52
And it will deal with the hyper -skepticism of this age. We live in a hyper -skeptical world where every single aspect has to be explained apart from the supernatural.
04:03
Yet the very scriptures we believe in, the very scriptures we hold to were written by people who lived in a world of the supernatural, and they weren't afraid to proclaim it.
04:16
Sorry, I'm preaching already, I haven't read the text, but this is the heart of today, that we understand the distinction between the now and the not yet.
04:28
The distinction between the transient and the eternal. The distinction between the seen and the unseen.
04:34
And live for that which is eternal. So let's stand together, we'll read the text.
04:44
Paul begins in verse 16, continuing his thought from the previous verses which we've looked at in weeks prior.
04:56
And so he begins with this connecting word, so. He says, so we do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
05:13
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comprehension.
05:21
As we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen.
05:26
For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
05:35
For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
05:49
For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling. If indeed by putting it on, we may not be found naked.
05:58
For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened. Not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed.
06:09
So that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is
06:19
God, who has given us the spirit as a guarantee.
06:25
Father in heaven, even now Lord as I seek to preach your word,
06:32
I admit again my inadequacy for the task. And I admit my failures.
06:40
And I pray, oh God, that in light of my inadequacy, in light of my failures, I pray that you would keep me from error.
06:48
Not for my own name or for the glorification of self, but for the sake of your name, for the sake of your people, and for the sake of your truth.
07:04
I pray, oh God, as my brothers already prayed, that the believer in the room would be edified encouraged, even if needed, rebuked and reproved.
07:17
And I pray for the unbelievers here, whether they be young or old, whether they be member or non -member.
07:24
Lord, if they realize today that they have never bowed the knee to King Jesus, that today would be the day that they repent of their sin, they turn to the
07:35
Savior and receive him as the glorious one, the only one who can save, the one at whose name every knee will bow.
07:47
And we pray this in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen.
08:09
As I was preparing this message this week and I was reading through the text and trying to better understand what
08:17
Paul is saying here, I just began to consider how the worldview of the writers of this text, of course the
08:25
Apostle Paul being the writer of this text, but the worldview of the writers of Scripture in general is much different than our modern worldview.
08:36
A few years ago, Dr. R .C. Sproul wrote a book called The Consequences of Ideas.
08:44
If you've never read that book, it's a relatively small book on the subject of the history of and the ideas behind philosophy have truly influenced the way we think and see the world and how many of us don't even realize certain categories that we think in that are influenced by the thoughts of those who have come before us and we've sort of had them ingrained in us.
09:10
Oftentimes when we look at people from other countries, we don't understand how they even see the world because they've been brought up in a mindset that isn't like our own.
09:19
And you often talk about, we often talk about the juxtaposition between the western mindset and the eastern mindset and the distinctions by how we even see the very simple things as being and existence.
09:34
And as I was thinking about that, I was thinking about Paul's writing of this text and just trying to, in my mind, consider just how deep the supernatural worldview of Paul and the other scripture writers really was.
09:55
They not only believed that God is real, but they functioned in their lives with that reality as the very central aspect of their understanding of everything.
10:15
And so we come to today's text and Paul is comparing and contrasting the seen from the unseen, the tangible from the intangible.
10:25
I've already said that a few times, but what we're going to see is he's going to use three examples. He's going to use an example from psychology, he's going to use an example from architecture, and he's going to use an example from attire or clothing to illustrate the reality that this temporal world is not all that there is.
10:47
Sometimes I think we live like it is. Sometimes I think we live like this world is it.
10:53
And this world is everything. And therefore, if we're going to find our happiness, we've got to find it in this world.
10:59
If we're going to find our satisfaction, we've got to find it in this world. If we're going to find whatever it is that's going to placate us, satisfy us, make us happy, anything is going to be found in this world.
11:13
And Paul wants us to know that this world is not all that there is. Why? Why is he stressing this point?
11:20
Why is he here in the text? Well, for those who haven't been with us, we've been going verse by verse through 2 Corinthians and we need to understand that this section of text comes on the heels of the exposition of his own suffering.
11:32
Paul has been discussing his own suffering. He's been defending his ministry in light of his own suffering.
11:39
And he has been defending himself against those who would say that his suffering somehow calls into question his own ministerial qualifications.
11:49
In fact, if you want to just very quickly in chapter 4, since you have your Bibles open, look back at verse 1.
11:55
What does he say at the beginning of verse 1? He uses this phrase. He says, Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart.
12:07
We do not lose heart. Now, just what did we say in the very first verse that we read today? Verse 16.
12:13
So we do not lose heart. This is Paul's theme. This is
12:18
Paul's motivation for this chapter. And as we're going to be talking about even tonight in our hermeneutics class, as we begin to look at things like context and we begin to build out, we need to look right in the center of where we are and build out from there, understanding what the context is that got us to this point.
12:35
And Paul's point in this chapter is that he is facing things that should make him give up.
12:42
He's facing things that any normal person would just throw in the towel. And he's saying,
12:49
But we do not lose heart. And why?
12:57
Why is it that Paul can say this? Why can he say it repeatedly? Why can he bookend this chapter with the phrase,
13:04
We do not lose heart. Well, he tells us here, beginning in verse 16, the reason why he can move forward, the reason why he cannot give up, the reason why he cannot, as the
13:14
King James says, faint not, is because he understands that there is a world, a reality, that actually is real, that is beyond this reality.
13:33
There is something better. And let me say this, there is something that is more real, it is more fixed, it is more stable, it is more reliable, it is more tangible, it is actually something that is everlasting, and it's better than this.
14:00
I promise you, there are so many Christians in the world who say they believe that, but do not live like it's true.
14:08
We do not live like the reality of the world beyond this one is actually true.
14:15
I say that because I know where I was. I grew up in church.
14:21
I grew up in this church. I've been in this church since I was seven. There's only like three people that have been here longer than me.
14:30
Jack and Shirley, Paul and Mom. Outside of that, maybe a few others, but that's basically it.
14:38
But the whole time I was here, from seven to nineteen, when I did get saved,
14:45
I'd hear the words, I'd sing the songs, I'd go about all the expressions of faith, but I did not really believe in the world beyond this one.
14:55
Now there was something in me that maybe hoped for it. I kind of hope it's going to happen. I remember one night
15:01
I was talking to a guy, he was a karate instructor. You guys know how to do karate. I remember I was talking to him, and I asked him, I said,
15:06
What do you believe in? Because I knew he wasn't a Christian. And he said, Well, I kind of hope and believe that the
15:12
Bible's true. Because, you know, it sounds like a good thing, you know, if there's something beyond this one. You know, the sad part of the reality is so many
15:20
Christians live with that same attitude. It's not a sure and certain thing, but it's just a kind of a hope.
15:27
I'm hedging my bets. It's a pie -in -the -sky hope. Think about how many people just live with just sort of a vain, well,
15:38
I'm going to hedge my bets. What is the old Pascal's wager? You remember Pascal's wager?
15:45
I'd rather believe and find out I'm wrong than not believe and find out I'm wrong. You've heard that wager before.
15:51
It's better to believe and then find out at the end you were wrong. It's better for that to happen than to not believe and to find out you're wrong.
15:58
And there is some truth to that. I mean, at the end of the day, if you don't believe and you're wrong, it's really bad.
16:06
But Pascal's wager is not enough. It's not enough just to sit back and say,
16:13
Well, I'm going to believe with the vain hope that maybe something might be there. I'm going to believe the lie because the lie sounds good.
16:24
You understand, that's what the new atheism accused Christians of doing. If you're unfamiliar with the new atheism, back in the early part of the 2000s, there were men like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens.
16:35
And those men came out strong, pushing for a new version of atheism that was very harsh against belief and belief in God.
16:42
And they said, You know it's not real just as well as we do. You're just living like it because it satisfies your need for existence and your need for something beyond this.
16:52
But you know it ain't real. And the sad thing is they were right for many people.
17:00
Many people don't believe it's real and you know they don't believe it's real because they don't live for it. You want to know something very interesting, though?
17:13
Just this last week, and you can check my homework on this. I know I'm right. Just this last week,
17:20
Richard Dawkins was interviewed on a European news show.
17:28
And Richard Dawkins, one of the most outspoken atheists in the last 50 years, said,
17:35
I'm a cultural Christian. It's his own words. Look it up. He said, I'm a cultural Christian. He said,
17:41
Because I like what Christianity does. I like the music. I like the cathedrals. It looks good, it sounds good, and it's much better than Islam.
17:52
Go look it up. He said, It's better than Islam. He said, Because Islam does this, Islam does that. I'd much rather live in a
17:57
Christian country than a non -Christian country. And there were people so excited. Hey, man, Richard Dawkins says he was a cultural
18:04
Christian. Isn't that great? And I sat back. I said, No, it's not great. And here's why it's not great.
18:10
Even though he is saying something that is true, and that is Christian living is better than any other type of living.
18:16
That's right. But what's not true is that you can be a cultural Christian and it affects your eternity.
18:23
Richard Dawkins is going to the same hell that he was going to before, even if he says hymns are beautiful and cathedrals are great.
18:32
You understand the reality of the unseen realm, because he denies all of that. The reality of the unseen realm, the reality of the life beyond this one, the reality of the true
18:43
God who sits on a true throne with his true son who sits next to him, holding all things together by the word of his power, that truth must be acknowledged, believed, and submitted to.
18:55
It cannot be simply that I like the hymns and I like the look of churches. No, that's foolishness.
19:01
If you have an anti -supernatural Christianity, you have no Christianity at all. If you have a
19:09
Christianity that denies the God of the Bible, your Christianity is worthless.
19:17
You may say, well, I would never deny that. But do we deny it with how we live? Do we deny it by how we behave?
19:26
Is your life truly governed by your understanding that this one is not all there is, but that there is a life yet to come?
19:38
It will affect how you behave. It will affect your marriage. It will affect your parenting.
19:45
It will affect how you deal with other people in this church. It will affect how you deal with people outside of this church. It will affect how you deal with your parents.
19:52
It will affect how you deal every relationship in your life will be affected by this.
19:59
That's why I say this is so important. Because if we go about our lives with an anti -supernatural behavior, it doesn't matter what we say, it matters how we behave, because our behavior truly shows what we believe.
20:16
A little fired up again. I see it so much. And not in a sense that I'm pointing fingers at anyone individually or meaning to go around and say you and you and you and you.
20:28
No, I'm just saying in general, there is this lackadaisical approach to the supernatural.
20:38
I'll say two. Oh, now I'm going to get in trouble. I just departed my notes.
20:49
Some of you know what cessationism is. Some of you don't. But for very quick, cessationism is the belief that there are certain spiritual gifts that are not operable today.
21:00
Things like tongues and healings and things like that. In general, I would say I'm basically cessationist.
21:06
I do believe there are certain gifts that are not operable the same way they were in the first century. But the danger that has come is that much of our cessationism has caused us to live and behave like we don't believe in the supernatural anymore.
21:22
And that's the danger. If you can't read Scott Phillips' book, and when he goes to the jungles of the
21:30
Tao tribe and he's seeing God work through him and the preaching of his word, if you can't see miracles in that because your cessationism has brought you to an anti -supernaturalism, then you need to give that up.
21:46
I recognize there are people who do foolish things like Todd White who goes around pulling people's legs and saying, oh, I'm making his legs grow.
21:52
No, that guy's a nut bar. He's absolutely a false teacher and he's dangerous. You don't need to listen to him. I can say that because I used to be a magician.
22:01
I know how magic tricks work. You know, I was a professional magician for several years. I could follow him around and do the same thing he does.
22:09
It's false. It's fake. It's a fraud. But God is still working even in the midst of the fools.
22:19
God is still doing supernatural things. When we pray for your uncle, we're praying that God would supernaturally fix his body.
22:28
When we pray for your granddaughter, Paul, we're praying that God in his supernatural work would reach down and heal her of that breast cancer because we believe he can.
22:40
And if you don't believe God can do those things, you have stopped being a supernaturalist.
22:47
And understand, that's what Paul is addressing here. He's addressing those who live for the here and the now and the only here and the now, and they will not see the supernatural.
22:56
They will not see the things that are eternal. They're only concerned with the transient and the things that are right here.
23:05
I can't help but to be moved by the importance of this for our own day.
23:11
And I realize I've jumped ahead of exposition and application, which is dangerous, and in my hermeneutics class
23:16
I'm going to chastise myself. But you understand where I'm coming from.
23:25
This is such an important reality that we must be able to look at our world and say there's a veil we can't see through yet, but that doesn't mean it's not there.
23:37
Brother Andy often talks about when we pass through that veil. That's a phrase he brings a lot, and a lot of his messages will include that phrase, when we go past the veil.
23:46
You know what he's talking about, the veil of death, the veil of this reality, the veil of this world.
23:52
One day we're going to pass through the veil and we're going to know more about God in that moment than we've ever known before.
24:00
We're going to know more about reality in that moment than we've ever known before, and it's going to be more real than this has ever been.
24:13
So, with all that as our introduction, let us now look at the text.
24:19
Paul is giving us a subdivision of experiential history. That's a big phrase. I wrote it.
24:26
He's giving us a subdivision of experiential history, and the subdivision is this, the now and the not yet.
24:33
The now and the not yet. That's the subdivision of experiential history.
24:40
He gives it to us in three ways. I'll put it up here on the screen. He's going to first give us a psychological subdivision of experiential history, which includes the inner self, the outer self, affliction and glory, the seen and the unseen, and the transient and the eternal.
24:52
That's verses 16 to 18. He's then going to give us an architectural example of the subdivision of the now and the not yet, with the tent and the building, and then he uses the word tent again for our heavenly dwelling, separates the two.
25:06
And then finally, he's going to give us an apparel picture of our heavenly reality.
25:12
And so let's begin with verse 16, looking at the psychological. He says in verse 16, so we do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
25:31
Now, Paul is here describing a very simple reality that we all understand, and that very simple reality is that our life can be divided into two.
25:44
Now, I'm not going to argue or debate what's known as the tripartite view of man or the bipartite view of man, meaning man is only body and soul, or man is body, soul and spirit.
25:57
I don't even think that's what Paul has in view here. But that is a theological debate that people have.
26:02
Is man body and soul, or is he body, soul and spirit? Should he be divided into two, or should he be divided into three?
26:09
I don't think Paul is dividing it in that sense anyway. I think Paul is saying that there is the aspect of us that is now, and there's the aspect of us that is forever.
26:20
There's the aspect of us that will waste away, and there's the aspect of us that won't waste away.
26:28
Because that's the example he gives. He says our outer self is wasting away.
26:34
Our inner self is being renewed day by day. Let me ask you a question, everybody over 40.
26:43
Is that first sentence right? Your outer self is wasting away? I remember when
26:49
I was in my 20s. Man, I felt good. You know what I miss from my 20s? Waking up and feeling refreshed.
27:00
Everybody said amen. You know what I'm talking about, right? Once you pass a certain age, sleep is just moving you from tired to tired.
27:12
And so we have this outer self that's wasting away. And it's not just the physical here.
27:19
This is the part that I want to get. This is why I don't think Paul is talking about the soul and the spirit and the physical.
27:25
I think he's talking about literally this life. This plane of existence wears out.
27:34
And even in our soul and our mind, we wear out. I mean, look around.
27:40
Don't we all begin to lose some of our faculties? Doesn't our psyche begin to lose some of its quickness and some of the sharpness that we had when we were younger?
27:52
And all of that begins to fade away. But there is an aspect of us that doesn't wear out.
28:00
There's an aspect of us that is going to live forever. So instead of it wearing out, like every day, the physical, every day, this realm, we're wearing out.
28:10
But every day, we're actually getting more and more renewed in the spirit because that is the reality that's the forever.
28:20
Beloved, the closer we get to that day, don't we long for it more?
28:28
Because the reality is as we get closer to that day, this earth and this world and this body and this mind wears out.
28:43
So Paul is making the distinction again between this realm and the next realm. Our existence here is wearing out, but there's something that is actually getting better.
28:54
There's something that's actually getting renewed. Paul defines it as our inner self, our inner man.
29:04
And then he says this in verse 17. He makes a distinction not just between the inner self and the outer self, but he makes a distinction between what this world gives us and what we have to look forward to.
29:19
He says, For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond comparison.
29:26
I want to say something about that. He's comparing affliction and glory as I have on the screen.
29:36
And he says affliction has two descriptive terms.
29:43
The first descriptive term of affliction is light and the second descriptive term is momentary.
29:52
Now, I want to say this about that. Sometimes affliction feels heavy and ongoing.
30:05
Amen? Sometimes affliction really has a weight that seems overwhelmingly burdensome.
30:16
So Paul is not. I want you to understand whether you're suffering today, whether you're going through a time of difficulty today, whether you're still grieving today, whether you're still suffering today,
30:25
I want you to know this. I believe it to be true and I believe if Paul were here he would say this same thing. He is not trying to diminish your suffering.
30:35
What he's trying to do is trying to show the comparison between the now and the not yet.
30:41
Because what you have now is affliction. But when you compare the affliction of now to the glory of then, it will be comparatively light and momentary because what will be there will be weighty and eternal.
30:57
That's the distinction. That's how we define the distinction.
31:04
That is not to say that your pain is irrelevant. That is not to say that your pain is intended to be overlooked.
31:11
It's not intended to say that your affliction doesn't matter. But what it is to say is that we are to view everything and every affliction that we have in light of eternity.
31:25
And Paul says this light momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory which is beyond comparison.
31:43
What's he trying to get us to do? He's trying to get us to look at the not yet.
31:50
He's trying to get us to look beyond this world. It's the only way you can do it.
31:58
If you are suffering, if you are hurting, if you are in anguish, if you are in despair, if you are in affliction, beloved, the only place to look is to God and to eternity.
32:17
Because if we look here to try to find some satisfaction here, we probably won't find anything.
32:25
And whatever we find itself will only be light and temporary. So Paul is calling us to look at that which is weighty and eternal.
32:37
And of course, I can't help read this passage without reading the passage that I think is
32:42
Paul's parallel passage in Romans 8 .18 which says, I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
32:55
That's the same, almost the same thing. When you compare the two, it's light and momentary in comparison to that which is heavy and eternal, weighty and eternal.
33:15
But then he goes on. He says, as we, and again verse 18 connecting to verse 17, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen, for the things that are seen are transient but the things that are unseen are eternal.
33:33
Paul is focusing on his point which is the unseen realm. Anyone looking at his ministry on the outside might look and say, look at all his failure, look at all his struggle, look at all his pain, look at all these things.
33:48
And Paul is saying, yes, all of that is true but look at my ministry through an eternal perspective and you will see
33:54
God working. And so he moves then into chapter 5 very quickly with the word for.
34:10
The word for here is the connecting word which transfers the idea moving forward.
34:18
He says, we are looking at things that are seen, we're looking at things that are unseen and eternal for we know.
34:30
And this is chapter 5 verse 1. For we know that if the tent, that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God.
34:44
Now what's he talking about here now that he moves to the architectural example? The tent, of course, is the physical body.
34:52
It's this life, it's this world. And he says, if we know that if this is destroyed we have a building and this is an interesting play on words here.
35:06
Because the word tent literally means what we think of as a tent. And what is something that we know about a tent?
35:13
A tent is meant to be temporary. A tent does not provide very much security.
35:20
A tent does not provide very much protection. A tent does not provide an eternal or even a structural dwelling that's meant to last.
35:29
A tent is temporary. And he says, if this tent, that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a oikodomain.
35:42
An oikodomain literally a building. Think of the word domain, it's in there.
35:48
We have a building from God. A house not made with hands eternal in the heavens.
36:04
Tents are temporary and vulnerable but buildings are permanent and secure. This age is temporary and vulnerable but the age to come is permanent and secure.
36:15
That's the distinction Paul is making. And let me say this, it's what we long for. We all long for permanence and security.
36:25
Amen? In fact, we have a mirror of that.
36:32
We have a mirror in this world of something that's supposed to represent permanence and security.
36:40
You probably want to take a stab at what it is. Ooh, praise the
36:45
Lord. Marriage. Marriage is supposed to be permanent and secure.
36:59
What do we say when we bring the two people up? Till death do you part.
37:08
Right? We make this permanent covenant before God.
37:16
By the way, you know the Bible says God hates divorce. You know why? Because divorce is destroying that covenant which was made and it was made for the purpose of demonstrating the glorious goodness of God in the gospel.
37:32
The Bible tells us that marriage itself is a picture of the gospel. Why? Because the marriage is supposed to be permanent and secure because it points us to something that's even more permanent, even more secure, greater, which is our salvation which comes to us through Jesus Christ.
37:48
He is our husband. We are his wife. We are the bride. He is the groom. And in that we have this beautiful picture of permanence and security.
37:56
And I think it's what everybody in one sense or another wants. We desire it. We know it's necessary. We know it's important.
38:06
And one day we will have it in its perfection. I want to tell you this. I say this sometimes to my wife.
38:15
And you shoot me if you want to. The Bible indicates that we won't be married in heaven.
38:25
Jesus said it. I can't get around it. I know the Mormons do, but you don't have to worry about them.
38:33
But the Bible indicates we won't be married in heaven. I made my wife a sign. It says,
38:39
I can't be married to you in heaven, but can I sit next to you when I get there? And I love my wife. And I hope to spend eternity as her friend.
38:52
But having said that, though, marriage is permanent in this world, but it's not permanent forever.
39:00
But it points us to the greater permanent thing, and that is our relationship with Christ. And no matter what happens in this world, no matter what happens to this tent, no matter what happens in our mind, in our heart, or to our body,
39:18
Paul is saying here we have a permanency to look forward to, a security to look forward to.
39:30
And while we do things to point towards permanency and security, nothing is going to be like that.
39:37
And he is saying we have this house made without hands, eternal in the heavens.
39:47
This is our permanent and secure reality.
39:54
And it's a reality. It's not something that just might happen. This is a certain thing, according to Paul.
40:02
It's worth living for. It's worth dying for. And then he says this.
40:10
Again, comparing the two. Verse 2, he says, For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling.
40:17
Is there any more real words in all the Bible than those? That there are times we're in this life, we just long for the next life.
40:26
We long for this dwelling to be given to its permanent state. We long for this dwelling to change.
40:33
We long for the next life, because this life, sometimes the momentary afflictions don't feel momentary.
40:39
Sometimes the pain doesn't feel like it's ever going to go away. And we say in our hearts we're looking for this heavenly dwelling.
40:51
And that's when he begins to change his analogy somewhat to clothing. When in verse 3 he says,
40:57
If indeed, by putting it on, we may not be found naked.
41:08
That verse comes out of nowhere, and it sounds a little weird. As I was struggling with it this week,
41:14
I was trying to come to a conclusion on what Paul is saying. And I do think
41:19
I understand what he is saying. Paul is dealing with a people.
41:25
Again, he's dealing with the Corinthians. They're seeing people die. They're seeing things happen. They're seeing all this world around them and the struggles that they're having.
41:33
And he is saying to them, When we leave this tent, we're not going to be found naked.
41:40
We're not going to be left out. We're not going to be put out as some kind of need.
41:46
You're not going to be in need. But in fact, all of your needs will be fulfilled. You are going to be in a situation where it is all new and all glorified.
41:59
Notice again, he follows up the very next sentence. For while we are still in this tent, we groan being burdened, not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
42:15
He's talking about the life beyond this one. And not to get too far into the weeds of theology here.
42:28
And in the weeks ahead, I am going to deal with this more because Paul says more about this as we go. But when you die, that's not the end state for you.
42:41
When you die, your spirit leaves your body. And I'm going to make that argument next week.
42:47
If you want to hear my argument for the intermediate state, that when you die, your spirit is actually with the
42:53
Lord, I believe that's true, and I believe Paul makes that argument. We'll see it next week.
42:59
But understand, that's not your final stop. Some people believe it is.
43:05
Some people believe you die, your spirit is with the Lord, and that's it. There's nothing else. But that's not true, is it, church?
43:11
What happens next? The resurrection. When you die, you are waiting on one event.
43:20
And that event is that you be re -clothed. That event is that you be re -given a new and glorified body.
43:29
And in that glorified body, you will enter into the eternal state which will not be some celestial place where you're simply floating around on a cloud playing a harp, but it will be a physical reality and a physical glorified body where you will exist forever in a new earth.
43:51
I used to really wonder about heaven when I was a kid, always kind of thinking, well, are we just going to be floating disembodied spirits?
43:58
No, we're not going to be naked. We're going to have a new tent, but it's going to be a permanent dwelling.
44:05
See, that's the point he's making. It's not as if we're just going to go into this weird celestial cloud.
44:11
Or like the Buddhists believe, we're just going to go into nirvana, which means to simply go into nothingness.
44:17
Always wondered about that. I mean, how do you convince people to follow? Well, what are we looking for?
44:23
Looking for nothing. What's great about that? Well, nothing. But that's the hope.
44:35
But that's not the hope. The Bible says God has put eternity in the hearts of men. That means that every man longs for that which is beyond this.
44:45
Because if there's one thing that marks this world, it is temporary.
44:51
Everything you've ever owned, everything you've ever had, everything you'll ever have is temporary.
44:59
But there is coming a forever. There is coming an eternal.
45:07
The transient will give way to the eternal. The temporary will give way to the forever.
45:15
And the seen will give way to what then is even greater seen. And I said all that to get to verse 5, because verse 5 is one of the most important verses that we could ever read.
45:32
Because in all this talk about the transient and the eternal and the seen and the unseen, he gets to verse 5 and this is what he says.
45:39
He who has prepared us for this very thing.
45:44
What very thing? The eternal state. He who has prepared us for this eternal life. He who has prepared us for this which is permanent, not temporary.
45:53
He who has prepared us for this very thing is God who has given us
45:58
His spirit as a harabon. The Greek word harabon means a pledge, a down payment, or as some of your
46:13
Bibles translate, a guarantee. The word guarantee here means this.
46:23
When you were born again, and I pray that you have been, and if you haven't been,
46:30
I pray God would give you that gift of new birth. When you were born again, the
46:37
Spirit of God came into you and He placed upon you a seal that says you are
46:50
His. Just this last week, a documentary came out.
47:00
And it was a documentary trying to disprove the doctrine of eternal security.
47:06
I'm going to do a response to it because I feel like it needs to be responded to. And I do believe in perseverance of the saints, which is the doctrine which sometimes is called eternal security.
47:22
But understand this, if there is one thing that God doesn't do,
47:29
God doesn't fail. And if God has placed
47:35
His seal on your heart, you belong to Him. And He who began the good work in you will complete it in the day of redemption.
47:47
He will not fail. If it were up to you, it couldn't help but fail.
47:57
But praise God it ain't up to you. Praise God, He is the one who gives us the ability to persevere.
48:05
Praise God, He is the one who walks us through the valley of the shadow of death. He is the one who carries us through to the end.
48:16
To the one who is able to keep you from stumbling. That's the one we worship.
48:26
I have to find my comfort in Him. I don't trust me. Y 'all shouldn't trust yourselves either.
48:36
Not for that. Not for eternity. You've got to trust the one who has eternity in His hands.
48:46
And that's God. He calls the Spirit our guarantee.
48:53
He is in fact our guarantee. Turn to one final verse and we'll look at it and then we'll draw to a close.
49:00
Turn to Ephesians chapter 1 verse 13. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 13 says this.
49:22
In Him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised
49:34
Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory.
49:49
That's the promise that we have. That is the promise that we have.
49:56
So beloved, how should we then live? We live in light of that eternal reality.
50:02
We live in light of that eternal promise. There used to be a phrase, you may have heard it, especially those of you who have been in church for a long time.
50:15
There used to be a phrase that said, don't be so heavenly minded that you're no earthly good. I want to say to you this morning that's an impossible thing.
50:24
You cannot be so heavenly minded that you're no earthly good. Because if God's eternal reality is what is on your mind, it will drive you to earthly good.
50:41
Why would a man like Scott Phillips, and if you don't know who that is, that's the missionary we support.
50:50
We only support one missionary and his whole family because we want to give all of our missionary funds to one person that we trust in, and we trust
50:57
Scott is doing God's work. Why would a man take his wife and his numerous children, well they have like 20, why would
51:07
God, or excuse me, why would Scott take his wife and his beautiful children to a potentially disease inflicted death in the jungles of Indonesia and say to Mike and I when he was here that he just wants to die in the jungle, that's where he wants to be.
51:43
Why would a man do that? The answer is because he's living in light of eternity.
51:54
The Bible says faith is the assurance of things hoped for and it is the conviction of things unseen.
52:01
Beloved, this is in fact the unseen realm. This is what we must have conviction over.
52:06
If we are going to live for Christ in this world, it must be empowered by the world to come to be able to say to this world
52:17
I know that the better is guaranteed and that guarantee is in me.
52:31
The Holy Spirit of God lives in my heart as a guarantee.
52:38
Is that what drives you today? Are you living in light of eternity today?
52:45
I pray you are. Let us pray. Father in heaven, your word tells us if in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all men to be the most pitied.
53:16
So I pray today for anybody in this room who is only living for this life and their
53:23
Christianity and their faith is only based on this life and they do not have an eye towards the things to come, that they are not living in light of eternity.
53:32
I pray, oh God, that you would by your mercy and grace Lord, cause us to have an eternal perspective.
53:40
Cause us to see that which is unseen through the eye of faith. To have assurance of things hoped for and conviction of things not seen.
53:50
Lord, give us faith. The faith that comes through you alone. I pray it in Jesus' name.