Book of 2 Corinthians - Ch. 5, Vs. 1-21 (04/15/2001)

The Earthly Journey and the House Not Made With Hands

I have a story to read to you to begin. A dear old lady from the country went for the first time on a railroad journey of about 50 miles. Through an interesting and beautiful region she had looked forward to this trip for a great pleasure.

She was to see so much and enjoy it all so greatly, but it took her long, it took her quite a while to get her basket and parcels all adjusted and her seat comfortably arranged, the shades just right, and only then in settling down to enjoy her trip when the conductor called out the name of her station.

She had to get up and hustle. She said, oh my, if I had only known that we would be here for so soon, I wouldn't have wasted the time fussing. We are so near the end of the journey that there's no time to waste fussing.

For we know that if our earthly, this is Corinthians 5, 1, 2nd Corinthians, we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we would have a building of God and a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens.

Roger that didn't say we may have a building of God. We have a building. What does it mean dissolved, Richard? Alright, is that what happens when you die? Alright, we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle be erased, we have a building of God.

It's ours right now. We have it. Not made with hands. Roger, what kind of a house is that not made with hands? Alright, not made with man's hands. Built by God. That is the pleasure and will of God that his people should be for a short time remain in this earthly tabernacle of the body.

It's God's will that you're where you are. That this earthly tabernacle of the believer's body sooner or later must by death be dissolved. We know we're all going to die. That after the dissolution of this house's house earthly tabernacle of the body, all the faithful have eternal habituation, habitation, a building of God not made with hands in the highest heavens.

Do you know that? Some of you don't know it. June, you know that. Arthur, you know that. That it is both the duty and interest of every sincere and serious Christian to labor for the certain knowledge and full assurance of this happy privilege and be able to say verse 2, for it is for in this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with the house which is from heaven.

Do you groan for it? Don't say yes, yes, unless you do. The older you get the more you groan. What did she say? All right. Spoken like a true mother. We're in 2. No, we're in 5. Excuse me, 5. Second Corinthians 5, verse 2.

I didn't realize you wasn't with us. Memory's short, isn't it? He's much older than I. He calls the glory of immortality which we will be as it were clothed with a garment heavenly not that the substance of it is heavenly but rather the glory of it.

What's the difference between the substance of and the glory of, David? If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. Now what's it talking about, Richard? Debbie? What? All right. You cannot be in God's presence except in the righteousness of Christ.

For we that are in this tabernacle do groan as your children grow older being burdened not for that we should be unclothed but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Unclothed. It's not the unclothing of our soul by death that we desire but the clothing of it with the glorified body.

If it might be the will of God we should be glad to have mortality swallowed up of life without death as will be the case with those who are alive when Christ comes. What is the difference between being alive and being dead when Christ comes, Greg?

That's not what I was after. The Christian. What's the difference between the Christian being dead and a Christian being alive when he returns? John, you got here just in time. What's the difference between a Christian being dead and a Christian being alive when Christ returns?

It's just death, isn't it? For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God and a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. 2nd Corinthians 5 1.

We have that house. I want to read my first thing over. A dear old lady from the country went for the first time on a railway journey of about 50 miles. Is mom and papa listening? Through an interesting and beautiful region she had looked forward to this trip with great pleasure.

She was to see so much and enjoy it all so greatly but it took her some time to get her basket and parcels adjusted, her seat comfortably arranged, the shades just right, that it was only now that she could settle down to enjoy her trip.

When the conductor called out the name of her station now she had to get up and hustle around and she said oh my goodness if I had only known that we would have to be here that we would be here so soon I wouldn't have wasted my time fussing.

We're so near the end of our journey that there is no time for fussing. If so be, verse 3, if so be that being clothed we shall be found 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 in immortality.

It's not the unclothing of our soul by death that we desire. We're not desirous of death but the clothing of it with the glorified body. If it might be the will of God we should be glad to have a mortality swallowed up of life without death as well as be the case for those who are alive in Christ's coming.

Verse 5, now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame is God who also hath given us the earnest of the Spirit. Now Greg what is the earnest of the Spirit that we have right now? Richard? Jesse, what's the earnest of the Spirit?

What is that that we have? The Holy Spirit. He has given us the earnest of the Spirit, the down payment. We have that right now. We have the part of the whole. It's not something that's set aside of the whole, it's part of the whole.

The earnest of the Spirit, the down payment of the Spirit. You have it right now, Joy. Who also hath given in addition to the fitting for eternal glory, he has given us the earnest of the Spirit to sustain us here.

What if you did not have the Holy Spirit? Roger, that's right. It's so much better than the Old Testament. Yes. Alright, we cannot grieve the Holy Spirit away. That knocking on the door is for the sinner to repent.

It's not for the unsaved to be saved. It is for the sinner. If we have sinned, he's always there able to forgive and will forgive. Therefore, we are always confident, knowing that whilst we are at home in this body, we are absent from the Lord.

You cannot be both places. We are all. Therefore, we are always confident, always confident. Debbie, are you always confident? There's little places that you don't, that all of us don't walk with him.

But we are always saved. We are always part of him. That a Christian is not in his own proper home while he travels in the body and lives in this earthly tabernacle here below. His birth and family are from heaven.

His treasure and inheritance is in heaven. His kindred and relations and best friends are there. Now, I know that I may open up a bag of worms. Not really, but I'm going to ask it anyhow. We know that our relations are there.

We know that our friends are there. We know our family is there. Will you know your family in heaven, but the earthly family? What about those not saved? It's so hard for people and preachers to make the transition between earthly family and heavenly family.

They know the difference, and there will be a difference. We will know everybody in heaven as you know your family here. In heaven, you will not know them as your earthly family. You cannot, because then you'd have to remember earth and all of the things that go with it.

So, you will not lack any relation or any, there won't be any family reunions as you have here. There'll be one big reunion all of the time of the heavenly family. The reason I bring that up, I heard a preacher this morning.

He is supposedly a very outstanding preacher, although I disagree with some of the things he says. But he says, you'll know your mother and your father as your mother and father. You can't, because your mother and father is God.

You want to say something? That's right. What about two families in Kentucky that are feuding? Roger? A few sisters I'd like straightened out, but that's no no. Verse 7, for we walk by faith, not by sight.

That faith is for earth, sight is for heaven. You don't walk by sight here and please God. You walk by faith. Totally. Sight is for heaven. That till we have sight is a great advantage that we have faith.

That if we now have faith, we may be well assured that we shall have sight. Do you understand the difference between faith and sight? Faith is for now, sight is for then. We are confident, and I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

That our happiness in the world to come lies in the being present with the Lord. That we are present with the Lord as soon as the soul quits and takes its leave and farewell of the body. That a state of separation from the body to much more preferable to the Saints than that of dwelling in the body.

That this desire, preference, and choice arise from that confident assurance which they have of a better state and their interest in it. Verse 9, wherefore we labor that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him.

That is, it is a gracious person's great attribution, ambition, and desire. His aim and scope, his desire and endeavor, that living and dying he may find acceptance with God and his actions be such as God may well like and approve of.

You can know that right now. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether they be good or bad. Notice the necessity of a future judgment.

That's real, Greg. It's coming. We must, willing or unwilling, it will be. The universality of this judgment we must all, the person by whom and before whom we must stand, judged of Christ. The manner of this judgment all must appear and be made manifest, both persons and actions.

When I stand before the judgment seat of Christ, I will not be asked anything of what Arthur did and why he did it. I'll answer for myself, not even my wife. The matter about which we shall be judged, the things done in the body, the things done in the body while you're here.

It's important what you do, what you do not do. The end of all of this Inquisition, to be punished or rewarded according to our actions, that there will certainly come a day when every person that ever lived in this world shall be judged by Jesus Christ.

We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. I find myself, and I'm sure you do too, thinking about somebody that I dislike. You'll get yours when you stand in front of Christ. Now that's mixing metaphors, but I shouldn't think like that.

That's going to be whether I want it or not. And when I stand there, it won't be for anybody else. That every man's judgment and sentence that the great day shall proceed and be pronounced according to what he has done in the flesh, be it good or bad.

I've got food or bad. That every one may receive the things done in his body. Greg, do you realize that, well I hate to make it on such a wide scale. Right now. Right now you're alive. Right now. Whatever you're doing right now, you'll be judged for.

Jesse the same way. Arthur the same way. Whatever you're doing right now, you can't plan for the future to come to the Lord. You cannot for the past come to the Lord. It has to be right now. The forgiven sins are gone.

If there's sins that you have not asked forgiveness for, they will be there. But you'll still be saved. It's not necessary that you ask forgiveness. But my, my, to go to Christ without it is an awful thing.

That every man's judgment and sentence that the great day shall proceed and be pronounced according to what he has done in the body. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest unto God.

And I trust also are made manifest in your conscience. Paul is saying I trust that I am clean in your conscience. But that really is not paramount. It's in God's conscience. By conscience with God. The terror of the Lord, what terrible punishments he will inflict upon the wicked.

We persuade men to flee from wrath to come, manifest unto God. He sees our sincerity are made manifest in your conscience. Commend ourselves to your conscience as sincere. You cannot fool your conscience.

Don't try. For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance and not in heart. We commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf.

They're proud of Paul. They're proud of what he's done. You may have somewhat to answer for them which glory in appearance but not in heart. Who is that, David? You cannot fool the Holy Spirit. Commend not ourselves.

Paul means that he did not say that this is this to gain their applause. He wasn't trying to do that. Occasion to glory on our behalf, just ground of commending us as true and faithful servants of Christ.

In appearance and not in heart, in the outward show of virtue which had no place in their hearts, these were the vainglorious boasters who opposed and slandered Paul. For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God.

Or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. That wicked and carnal men account representatives account and represent the Holy Servant of God as a sort of madman. Have you ever been called less than glorious?

The Love of Christ and Living Unto Him

For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then we're all dead. While we thus judge that if Christ died for all then are all then are all even the best of men naturally dead in the state of spiritual death and the liability and death eternal.

For had any man otherwise Christ had not needed to have died for him. If you could obtain righteousness without Christ, then Christ didn't need to die. And that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again.

If he died, if he died for all, now the all here is not the universal all. It is all of his children, whatever nationality they are. That they which live should not live unto themselves, Greg you can't live unto yourself anymore, but unto him which died for them and rose again.

They that who live, that all who live upon the earth should not henceforth from the moment they know him live unto themselves, seek their own honor, profit and pleasure, but unto him in all righteousness and true holiness.

Now we know that, but we forget it once in a while. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh, yea though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. David what's he mean by that verse?

That a bare knowledge of Christ after the flesh will do us no good. So you know him, so what? Be of no comfort or advantage to us as to our eternal salvation. It is not a fond affection for his person and memory.

It's not a fond affection for his person or memory. Well that's true, but it starts here. But obedience to his laws that Christ valued, his values that he had. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.

He is a new creature, whether he acts like it or not. If he's in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold all things become new. All things Debbie, all things become new. That this new creation wrought in man by the Word of Spirit of God is an indubitable evidence of his interest in Christ and title to salvation.

By where the new creature is, for where the new creature is, there shall all the saving graces of Spirit be. And all things are of God. My, my, my. All things. We can stop right there today. All things are of God.

Did you realize that all of this creation, I'll bring it down closer, that Corsicana is for God? He made all things for himself. All things. That you're going through this life one day at a time, one step at a time, and all of it is to bring glory to God.

Whether you do or whether you don't makes no difference. But it's all going to bring glory to him. The old creation. It's just here to bring glory to him. All things are of God who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.

That does not say that he reconciled himself to us. Roger, what would that mean? He reconciled himself to us. Everything. Life itself. Everything you have, everything you possess, every place you go. It's all for his glory.

That is, all those things aforementioned belonging to this spiritual creation are of God as the author and efficient cause of them. To wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing the trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

In these words the Apostle gives us a short but full account of the grand doctrine of the sinner's reconciliation unto God by the death of Christ, which is the principle and subject and substantial part of the gospel.

The Ministry of Reconciliation and Christ Made Sin for Us

Today we are honoring his resurrection. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's stead that we reconcile, be reconciled to God. The minister's office and employment declared they are ambassadors for Christ, ambassadors from God to man, and as ambassadors they have their mission, their commission from a great prince.

Last verse, for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin. He became the final sin offering. He was the offering himself. He carried the offering up to the altar and laid himself on it. The spotless innocentcy of our Lord Jesus Christ as mediator declared he knew no sin.

That is, practically and experimentally, he knew it not as to commit it in the least degree. He was a pure, innocent, sinless person. Theocratically and spectatively, he did no sin. He well understood its nature, its effects and fruits.

None knew the bitter fruits of sin so well as our blessed Savior. He has already experienced it. Anything from anybody. The last part, well you read it, that didn't get copied. For he hath made him to be a sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made righteousness.

If he had not been made such, we could not be such. Does anyone have anything to say, to add, or take away? Well, to begin with, I cannot cause anybody to be reconciled to Christ. That's between Christ and that person.

They reconciled to Christ. So the ministry of reconciliation means what, David? So the message of reconciliation is given to us. Well, let's stand and we'll be dismissed.