The Christian's Ambition

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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April 14, 2024

00:01: Make your way to chapter 5 and hold your place at verse 6.
00:26: The title of today's message is The Christian's Ambition. And when we think of the word ambition, our minds often divide between both the positive and the negative examples of ambition.
00:46: We realize there is such a thing as positive ambition.
00:53: The diligent student who devotes himself to study to succeed in a chosen field has what one might call a positive ambition.
01:04: The persistent worker who comes early and who stays late to get ahead shows a diligence and an ambition.
01:15: That is good. In fact, if you go back into the Proverbs and you read through the Proverbs, you will see often that type of ambition is encouraged.
01:25: Proverbs chapter 10 verse 4 says, Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth.
01:33: And so there is this reminder that if we don't have some form of ambition to do better, if we don't try harder, if we don't seek to grow, then we're not doing what we ought to do.
01:44: And so there's positive ambition. But certainly there is also negative ambition.
01:52: The politician who's willing to say anything to get a vote, we would say is ungodly in his ambition, selfish in his ambition.
02:08: The promotion chaser who's willing to step over others in his pursuit of his own prosperity.
02:16: The proud person who wants all the accolades to be pointed in his direction and will not allow anyone else to be given any sense of respect or gratitude.
02:27: Those are negative forms of ambition and we would say they are ungodly and even sinful.
02:32: Well, in today's passage, Paul is going to describe himself as having ambition.
02:41: In fact, that is the very word that some translations choose to use. But I will argue that it is the most righteous of ambitions that Paul is describing.
02:53: It is the most righteous of pursuits because he will tell us in this text that it is his ambition to please the
03:02: Lord. And he reminds us that there is actually coming a cosmic evaluation.
03:12: You realize that? That there is coming one day an actual evaluation of our life.
03:19: Have we sought to please the Lord? We are going to stand before him, as Paul says in this text, and give an account.
03:30: So let's stand and read. Again 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and we are going to read verses 6 through 10.
03:46: So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the
03:54: Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the
04:03: Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
04:11: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
04:28: Father in heaven, I pray even now that as I seek to preach this text, that I would do so with a holy urgency,
04:37: Lord, reminding every man and woman under the sound of my voice, every child, Lord, that they will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
04:47: And Lord, while our ultimate evaluation will be the question, what have we done with Christ? Have we received him in faith or have we rejected him?
04:57: Lord, we will also be judged according to what we have done. And Lord, may it be that we not confuse the two, but also not forget that both are vital.
05:11: And Lord, today as we seek to understand this text, I pray that you would keep me from error.
05:17: Lord, you know that I am a fallible man and capable of preaching error and I don't want to for the sake of my conscience, for the sake of your name, for the sake of your people.
05:27: Keep me from error, I pray in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen.
05:46: We continue this morning in our expositional study, verse by verse, through the epistle of 2
05:53: Corinthians and we find ourselves in a section of the text which serves as a bridge from one part of Paul's argument to another.
06:03: Paul has been describing, as we have been studying the last several weeks, the steadfastness in his ministry that exists in light of the adversity.
06:14: Paul faced a tremendous amount of adversity. Paul faced a tremendous amount of adversity, not only physical adversities, he had physical maladies, not only the adversity of those who hated the gospel, who would persecute him, who would arrest him, who would torture him, who would stone him, who would imprison him, not only did he deal with those things, but he also dealt with a tremendous amount of difficulty within the church.
06:37: He dealt with those who would accuse him, he dealt with those who would say his teaching was wrong, he dealt with those who would undermine him, he dealt with those who would come behind him and preach something different than what he had preached, and he would have to go, and he would have to go back to those churches or write to those churches to correct the things that had happened, and therefore, over and over and over in his letters we find him struggling with adversity, yet he remained steadfast.
07:03: He said in chapter 3, as we've already seen, that we do not lose heart, he said that twice,
07:09: I said it was chapter 4, he said we do not lose heart in verse 1, we said we do not lose heart in verse 16, he considered himself and his suffering to be light in comparison to the glory that he would receive when he was with the
07:26: Lord, a glory that was guaranteed to him by the presence of the Holy Spirit within him, we read that last week in our last verse last week, was that God has given the
07:36: Holy Spirit to the believer as a seal of their salvation, a very guarantee, a down payment that he will in fact bring it to completion in the day of the
07:47: Lord Jesus Christ. So now, he is going to continue expanding on this idea of being confident, he's going to continue to expand on this idea of being steadfast as he continues to talk about his ministry, and we're going to see, after we get through verse 10, we're going to see that he actually begins to describe in more detail what the ministry actually is, he calls it the ministry of reconciliation, and he gives us one of the most powerful expressions of the gospel in chapter 5, verse 21,
08:23: I look forward to getting there, I'm going to do an entire sermon on just verse 21, where he says, God made him who knew no sin to become sin for us, that we could become the righteousness of God in him, and we see in that the doctrine of imputation, the imputed righteousness of Christ, which is given to those who believe.
08:40: But before he gets there, before he gets to the part where he's going to talk about persuading others and being an ambassador for Christ, before he gets to the ministry of reconciliation, he's first going to conclude this section that he has been going through, where he's been talking about why he remains confident, and he's going to give us in today's text an answer as to why he is able to remain confident even in the midst of his affliction.
09:10: Keep this in mind for today in the sermon. This is really the heart of everything today. In the midst of suffering,
09:17: Paul remained confident. That's the word that is used in the King James Bible, the ESV says he was of good courage.
09:25: What does that mean? What does the phrase good courage mean? The word, the
09:31: Greek word that underlies that, which is translated confident in the King James Bible, it's translated good courage in the
09:36: ESV Bible, is the word that we could translate as bold. We could translate it as having confidence and firmness and purpose in the face of testing.
09:51: That's what Paul is saying. He says we are always confident. We are always bold.
09:57: We are always of good courage. How? Beaten, cast out, expelled, mistreated, misunderstood, stoned, shipwrecked.
10:03: How are you able to do it, Paul? Well, he tells us in this passage, and he gives us three reasons why he's able to remain confident.
10:15: The three reasons he's able to remain confident according to this passage is, number one, he knows his condition.
10:22: Number two, he has a singular ambition. And number three, he recognizes the coming evaluation.
10:33: So let's look at these three things, and I guess I want to say this from the front.
10:39: There is a portion in this where I'm going to take a theological detour for just a few moments. I hope it doesn't end up costing me all of the time of the sermon.
10:47: In my mind, I know I might, so I'm going to try to reduce my desire to chase too many rabbits this morning because there's a few theological asides in this text.
10:56: I want to stick with this, though. I worked really hard on the alliteration. But I really think this is
11:04: Paul's point. Why am I confident? Why can I say I'm of good courage? One, I recognize my condition, where I'm at and where I'm going.
11:12: Number two, I recognize what I'm shooting for. What is my goal? What's my ambition? And number three,
11:17: I recognize one day I'm going to face Christ and give an answer for this. So really, that's the short part.
11:22: Now we're going to expand that out and look through the text. So let's look first at how
11:27: Paul remains confident. He knows his condition. Look with me again at verse 6.
11:34: He says, So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the
11:42: Lord. This is an interesting statement by the Apostle Paul because, in general,
11:48: Paul does not seem to identify himself as being separated from Christ at all. If you read through his letters, he talks about Christ's spirit indwelling him.
11:56: He talks about Christ engaging him and leading him and being with him and never being separated from the love of Christ.
12:03: Do you remember Romans chapter 8 says, Neither height nor depth nor angels nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.
12:13: So we understand when Paul thinks of his life, he thinks of himself already as being hidden in Christ in God.
12:19: He said that in the book of Colossians. So when we think about Paul identifying himself, he would say,
12:24: I am with the Lord. The Lord is in me. I am seated in heavenly places with him in a spiritual sense.
12:31: So there is this unique connection that he has as a believer with the Lord. Yet in this passage, he says something so odd.
12:38: He says, We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the
12:44: Lord. And so we have to understand that within the context of what
12:49: Paul has been saying. If you remember last week, he's been talking about the juxtaposition of the now and the not yet.
12:57: Remember we talked about that. He's talking about the distinction between this life and the life to come.
13:03: The distinction of this mortal flesh and the immortality that we are going to put on in the new heaven and the new earth.
13:09: Doesn't he say that in 1 Corinthians 15? He says this mortal flesh must go away and this mortal must put on what?
13:16: Immortality. Right? So he understands a two age model of the universe.
13:22: This age and the age to come. He understands the world as being this and what's to come.
13:29: And what he's saying in this passage is that we know that while we're at home in the body.
13:34: And remember he talked about being in the body like being in a tent. The tent's temporary. This body is going to go away.
13:42: He says while we're at home in this body, we are away from the
13:47: Lord. Now again, why would he say that?
13:53: He says it because it's true. Even though the Spirit of God lives within us.
13:58: Even though we are currently seated in heavenly places with Christ. Even though all of those things are true.
14:06: We are not in our final condition. Amen? We are not where we are going to be.
14:15: And therefore Paul sees a distinction between the now and the not yet. And he says
14:21: I understand my condition. My condition right now is I'm at home in the body. And being at home in the body,
14:28: I am away from being able to be in the direct presence of the holiness of Almighty God, seeing
14:37: Him as He is, being as He is. As the Bible tells us, when we see Him as He is, what does it say?
14:43: We will be as He is. The beatific vision, when we see Christ, we'll be as Christ.
14:49: We'll get glorified bodies. He says right now we don't have that. Right now we do not have glorified bodies.
14:57: We have bodies that hurt. We have bodies that ache. We have bodies that break down. And we have bodies that eventually will give up and die.
15:05: We have bodies that are so frail, one germ can enter our body and create an infection and kill us.
15:12: We have bodies also that are able to simply stop functioning. A friend of mine messaged me yesterday and asked for prayer.
15:22: He goes to a university up a little north of here in Tennessee. And he said a 25 -year -old man in his school had a heart attack and died.
15:33: Out of nowhere. No extraneating circumstances that anyone is aware of.
15:40: I mean, don't we all realize just how frail we are? Incredibly resilient.
15:48: I mean, you see the things people survive and you say that's amazing, but yet at the same time how incredibly weak we can be.
15:56: Paul says, we know that while we're at home in this body, we're away from the
16:02: Lord. We are not what we're going to be. We're not in the condition we're going to be in.
16:08: Which leads to his next point, verse 7. And I almost really, almost just said, I just want to preach verse 7.
16:16: Because what results from that? What results from being in this body and not being in the presence of the
16:22: Lord as Isaiah was in the presence of the Lord in Isaiah chapter 6 when he saw the Lord seated on his throne, high and lifted up, train of the robe filled his temple.
16:27: We don't have that every day. We don't wake up in the morning and we see the glory of the Lord seated on his throne. We don't have that.
16:33: What do we have to do then, church? We have to walk by faith and not by sight. That's the condition
16:42: Paul is in right then. And we might say Paul had it different than us because Paul did have a certain specific type of apostolic connection to the
16:51: Lord that we don't have. He had a certain specific thing where he could actually hear the Lord speak to him. He had a certain thing where he could have visions and these different types of apostolic gifts that we don't have.
17:01: And yet he still said those were not the things he was trusting in. He had to walk by faith and not by sight.
17:09: By the way, just for a moment, this might be a thought for some of our charismatic friends who are always looking for something to look at to believe in God.
17:19: I want to see the miracles. I want to see the healings. I want to hear the tongues. I want to do this or that. Beloved, we are said to walk by faith and not by sight, looking for those things to satisfy our curiosity about the existence of God or to satisfy our desire to know whether or not he's listening.
17:39: No, Paul says we walk by faith. That doesn't mean blind faith, beloved.
17:47: That doesn't mean that you are to simply believe because someone told you to believe or because someone convinced you, but rather you are to believe in the facts.
18:00: Jesus either raised or he didn't. That's a fact. And Paul says if it is be not true, then there's no reason to believe. Jesus was either sinless or he's not.
18:08: And if he's not sinless, he's not the Savior. So there are certain facts that we have to place our trust in.
18:14: And those facts become the very foundation of our faith. And we walk by the faith in those facts.
18:23: God exists. That's a fact. God created the world. That's a fact. Man sinned and brought death, disease and destruction into this world by sin.
18:34: That's a fact. God has condemned this world because of sin. That's a fact.
18:40: But God in his mercy sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law that he might redeem those who are under the law and give them the adoption of sons.
18:49: That's a fact. And so we walk by faith in the facts.
18:55: We walk by faith in the truth. That's what it means to walk by faith because I can't see
19:03: Jesus. I've never seen him. He never came to my house and sat on my porch like some pastor in Jacksonville said he came to his house out on his porch.
19:09: One guy said Jesus showed up playing a saxophone at the end of his bed like Kenny G. It's just nonsense.
19:24: And, you know, people get so excited. Oh, this man saw Jesus. One, he didn't. And two, even if he did, that's not what we're supposed to walk.
19:32: I'm not supposed to walk by your experience of seeing Jesus playing a saxophone at the end of your bed. I'm supposed to walk by faith in the word of God that tells me
19:39: God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law that he might redeem those who are under the law and give us the adoption of the son.
19:45: That's what my faith is based in, not your experience. And so, therefore, when
19:53: Paul says I walk by faith. And not by sight. He's not saying
19:58: I'm a fool, he's not saying I'm blind, he's just saying I don't use my eyes to see Jesus, I understand that Jesus is there by faith and I trust in him.
20:09: And that is how I'm able to live in this life away from him because I know he's there.
20:15: I'm away from the Lord, but he's there. I can't see
20:21: I can't go get a CAT scan or an MRI and see the Holy Spirit living in my heart, but I know he's there.
20:28: You see what he's saying, he's saying, I can't see the experience, but I know he's there. That's what it means to walk by faith and not by sight.
20:47: And some people get upset about that, they say, well, we can't see God, why should we believe that he's there? Romans one, by the way, if you ever have anybody ask you that question and you don't quite know where to go.
21:00: Maybe in your mind right now or in your pen, in your hand, reach down and write Romans one beginning at verse 18.
21:07: And just start reading. For the righteousness of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who, by their unrighteousness, suppress the truth for what can be known about God, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived and the things that have been created and therefore they are without excuse.
21:30: Every man knows God exists. So he says, how do you know God exists the same way you do?
21:37: Because even though I can't see him seated on his throne, even though I'm not Isaiah and I don't see the seraphim surrounding his throne, what
21:43: I do see is I see the world he created and I know that he did it. You know, the
21:51: Bible says no one has ever seen God, which is confusing because, you know, you think Moses saw God and Abraham saw
21:58: God and Isaac saw God. And you say, but the Bible says no one has seen God. Well, we have to understand
22:03: Trinitarian doctrine to understand it's talking about God, the son, Jesus Christ. He is the one who makes the father known. But in reality, the father himself, when we look at that passage,
22:13: John 1, 18, no one has seen the father, the only begotten son, he has made him known. We have to understand.
22:20: Living by faith in God is what everybody's done. Read Hebrews 11. What is the what is
22:26: Hebrews 11? It's called the Great Faith Hall of Fame. And what do you read over and over? They believed it even though they didn't see it.
22:33: Abraham believed in a world, in a city made without hands. Even though he didn't see it.
22:40: He believed it, even though he didn't see it. Beloved, we walk by faith.
22:48: And not by sight. That's the condition
22:55: Paul is in now, as he's writing, he says, we are at home in the body, we are away from the
23:02: Lord, therefore we walk by faith, not by sight. But then verse eight adds an additional thought.
23:11: And this is where the theological excursus comes in. Because he says this, yes, we are of good courage.
23:19: He said the same thing. Yes, we are confident. But then he goes this, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the
23:31: Lord. Here's the thing that Paul is saying in a very simple way, and we're going to get to the theology of in a moment.
23:38: But in a very simple way, Paul is saying this. Yes, I'm bold because I'm walking by faith in this body that's apart from the
23:45: Lord. And I'm confident also that if and when I leave this body, still going to be with the
23:51: Lord. Still going to be with the Lord. Leaving this body is not going to separate me from God.
23:58: They can separate my head from my shoulders, but they can't separate my Lord from my heart. That's what he's saying.
24:04: He's saying, I'm confident that no matter what comes, even death, I don't have to be afraid.
24:11: Because whether I'm here and I'm apart from the Lord or I depart the body and I'm with the
24:18: Lord, either way, I win. Because when I'm here, I'm doing the Lord's work.
24:23: And if I die, I get to be with him. I cannot lose. Why am
24:30: I so bold? Because I've already won. He says something similar in Philippians chapter one, he says, for me to live.
24:41: This is Philippians 121. He says, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.
24:48: How can dying be gain? As for the believer, it is gain because he goes on to say this, he says, if I'm to live on in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me.
24:58: If I keep living, I keep working, I keep doing the Lord's work. No one can stop me, put me in prison,
25:06: I start a prison ministry, I'm going to keep doing it, right? You're just going to keep on preaching the word, you're going to keep doing it.
25:12: You can't stop the minister of God who seeks to proclaim God, right? Nail his lips shut, he's going to learn how to read
25:19: Braille. That didn't make sense. Sign language. Sorry. That's it, sign language, he's going to learn to do it and start a writing ministry.
25:32: But notice what he says in Philippians 1, he says, yet which I choose, I cannot tell. I'm hard pressed between the two.
25:38: My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.
25:46: Very similar to what he's saying here in 2nd Corinthians. He's saying, listen, I have confidence.
25:51: Why? Because while I'm here, I've got work to do. While I'm here, I'm empowered by the spirit to live by faith, walk by faith, not by sight.
25:59: I'm empowered to do that. That's my life. But hey, if this life so ends and it ends immaturely or prematurely, guess what?
26:05: I'm with the Lord. I can't lose. That's confidence. When you walk into a game knowing you're going to win.
26:12: When you know the fight's fixed and he's going to take a dive, you know you are going to win.
26:19: I know that's maybe a weird analogy, but the fight's been fixed. Our enemy is destroyed. Jesus has already won.
26:26: Right. The fight changes everything. Confidence level goes way up when you know you can't lose.
26:35: So I said there was a theological excursus and I won't spend a lot of time on this because I don't want to.
26:43: Lose the momentum of the text, but there is a lot of questions that people come and ask about what happens when we die.
26:53: And a lot of people use this passage in 2nd Corinthians to prove that there is an intermediate state between death and resurrection.
27:02: Now, I believe that there is. I want to say that up front. I believe when you die, your spirit is with the
27:10: Lord, your body is in the ground. And I believe that's this condition you are in until the
27:16: Lord returns and your body and your spirit reunite in the resurrection.
27:21: Your body is then remade as a glorified, immortal body. And at that point, you enter into the eternal state, which is referred to in Revelation as the new heaven and the new earth.
27:31: Right. I believe we're going to live in the new earth, the new Jerusalem. Right. We are. That's what we have to look forward to.
27:37: Now, a lot of people then come to all kinds of weird doctrines. The Roman Catholic Church has the doctrine of purgatory that in between you're suffering for your sins.
27:47: And some people believe you have to suffer in purgatory to continue paying for your sins. There's nothing biblical about that.
27:53: There is nothing biblical about any idea of purgatory that that the word purgatory comes from the word to purge.
27:58: It means to burn away your sin. Jesus has either paid for all of your sin or you're in trouble. If you have to pay for any of your sins, you're eternally lost because one sin will send you to hell.
28:10: One sin is worthy of eternal condemnation. If you don't believe that, what was what happened in the garden?
28:16: One sin brought death, destruction and disease into the world by one man, death into the world and death through sin and death spread to all men because all men sin.
28:25: Right. One sin is worthy of eternal condemnation. Purgatory is a lie. It's not found in the
28:31: Bible. It's based solely or partially on a intertestamental book out of the
28:37: Apocrypha. And even that, I don't think it really proves the point. But having said that, there are those who believe that when you die, you are asleep in the ground until the resurrection.
28:57: That doctrine is called the doctrine of soul sleep. Anybody ever heard of that?
29:03: I was at a funeral recently for a friend, and that friend was part of a church that taught that.
29:10: And the funeral was really it was really just an apologetic for that position. It was the strangest funeral
29:16: I've ever been in because it really didn't talk about the blessings of eternal life. It talked about the reality that right now she's with her body in the ground.
29:25: That was the argument. That particular doctrine has got a fancy name, psychopenicia, the sleeping of the soul.
29:35: I understand where it comes from, because certainly Paul does use the word sleep to refer to the person who has died.
29:44: 1st Thessalonians 4 says, right, those who are asleep will be raised. So I understand where the doctrine comes from.
29:49: I get it. But I think there is too much evidence to the contrary that something happens when we die.
29:57: In fact, I'll give you just a few thoughts on this. And again, this is where I'm not going to take too long. I'll give you a few verses just to consider for anyone who might be wondering about this.
30:06: What happens when we die? Is it immediate or do we go in the ground and stay there until resurrection? I believe there is an immediate transfer of condition.
30:15: That the immediate transfer of condition is that those who are with the Lord, meaning saved.
30:20: I'm sorry, those who are saved are immediately with the Lord, conscious and waiting resurrection.
30:27: Those who are outside of the Lord are conscious and suffering, but not their final suffering.
30:33: Their final suffering is yet to come at the great judgment. All right. So here's a few passages just to give you some thoughts.
30:43: When Jesus was on the cross, Jesus had the man next to him. And you remember what the man next to him said,
30:51: Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus response to him was,
31:00: I say to you today, thou shalt be with me in paradise.
31:09: Now, that's not proof, but that is a pretty compelling argument that something was going to happen right then and not thousands of years in the future.
31:21: Today, thou shalt be with me in paradise. In Acts 17,
31:29: I'm sorry, excuse me, Acts 7. When Stephen is being stoned, by the way, who is
31:38: Stephen? He's the first Christian martyr. He's the first one to die for his faith after the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.
31:46: During his stoning, in Acts chapter 7, it says he looked and the heavens opened and he saw the
31:55: Son of God seated. I'm sorry, standing at the right hand of power. Right.
32:00: And what did he say? Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
32:09: Now, you could say, oh, well, Stephen was wrong. I don't think Stephen was wrong. I don't think he was wrong. In the
32:20: Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells a very compelling story about two men who died.
32:28: One was a rich man, the other was a beggar. Now, some people call this the parable of the rich man and the beggar.
32:39: And if you want to argue that it's a parable, go talk to Brother Mike or Brother Andy.
32:45: I am convinced it is a true story based on several little factors, not the least of which being it's the if it is a parable, it's the only parable in all the
32:58: Bible that uses a perfect or uses a proper name. He's called Lazarus. He's actually said there was a man named
33:04: Lazarus who begged at the table of the rich man. So a proper name is used.
33:10: That doesn't prove it. But I think it lends to the idea that this is a story, not a parable. But if you listen to the story, the story is so clear that when the poor man who in that story is the believer, when he dies, what happens to him?
33:30: His spirit is accompanied by angels to go where Abraham is. And if anybody's faithful, right, that's the point.
33:38: Abraham is the faithful one. And they call it Abraham's bosom because they're going to be with him. And it's immediate at death.
33:45: It's not a future reality. It's something that happens right then when he dies. His his spirit is accompanied by angels to go and be with Abraham.
33:57: The real frightening part of that story, though, is the other side of it, the man who died and went to Hades, he simply closed his eyes and opened them in torment.
34:07: No angelic escort. So there's a few verses,
34:13: I'll give you two more and we'll move on. Revelation, chapter six.
34:21: Verse nine. Now, and I want to say from the outset, I realize Revelation is used, uses figurative language.
34:27: Brother Mike's going to be preaching through Revelation. I'm excited about hearing hearing that study when he does that in a couple of months, he's going to start.
34:34: And and but we've talked about this passage, at least on this. I know we agree is we talk about a lot.
34:41: But notice what it says in Revelation six. When I opened or excuse me, when he opened the fifth seal,
34:47: I saw under the altar the souls of those who'd been slain for the word of God and for the witness that they had borne.
34:54: They cried out with a loud voice. Oh, sovereign Lord, holy and true. How long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?
35:04: What do we get out of that passage? One, we see the souls of men with the Lord before judgment.
35:12: Because that's because it just said, when are you going to judge? Obviously, judgment hasn't taken place yet. And these souls of these departed martyrs know that they're departed martyrs.
35:23: So not only are they souls, but they're self -identified souls. They know how they got there.
35:29: And they know judgment hasn't happened yet. Again, I maybe
35:34: I belaboring this point, you understand what I'm saying? There are souls in heaven around the throne of the Lord who know how they got there and they're waiting on the judgment.
35:44: That has to be a picture of what we call the intermediate state between death and judgment.
35:53: Last one is James 2 26. This one is not so much an argument as it is simply
35:59: James makes a point that I think all of us should recognize. James says, for as the soul,
36:08: I'm sorry, excuse me, for as the body without the soul is dead, so too is faith without works dead.
36:17: James is just making a general point. And what is the general point? Death occurs when the soul leaves the body.
36:27: Death occurs when the body without the soul is dead. So faith without works is dead. Therefore, something happens in the division of soul and body at death.
36:39: And James is using that to make his argument about faith and works. So there's just a few verses to consider.
36:47: Now, having said all that, the reason why I brought that out is because somebody said, why didn't you just use Paul's point? Paul says basically the same thing.
36:53: We'd rather be away from the body and home with the Lord. Yes, but in Paul, in the context of 2
37:00: Corinthians 5, Paul here is using that, but he's not making that his argument.
37:06: Therefore, if somebody says, why do you believe in it? If you run to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and you look at verse 8 and you make your argument from there, it might not be as strong as you think.
37:15: Because if you look at the whole context, he's talking about the now and the not yet. He's talking about the here and the coming.
37:22: And someone might say, well, see, he's not really talking about the intermediate state. He's really actually talking about the coming resurrection.
37:29: I think, having looked at this all week, spent time with it, I do think Paul could be referencing the intermediate state here.
37:36: But I wouldn't base this as my primary text. I would show all those other things I just showed and then come here and say this agrees with all of that.
37:45: I wouldn't start here because this is usually the way people start the argument. Well, Paul said it, to be absent from the body is to be present with the
37:52: Lord. That's not what he said. He didn't say to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. What he says is we would rather be away from the body and be present with the
38:01: Lord. And you say, well, what's the difference? If you say to be and you start the sentence that way, it does identify it differently as some sort of a proof text.
38:11: And I don't think it's a proof text. Are you getting my point? When you look at this from a hermeneutically, you got to be honest about the context and follow the contextual argument.
38:20: Is this helping at all or did I just lose everybody? Well, let's get back. I don't want to lose you. I think it all agrees with this point.
38:30: Going back to 2 Corinthians 5, getting us back into the context here. Paul has this as his confidence.
38:37: Whether I'm here or whether I'm dead. Whether I'm in this body or whether I'm in the next body or whether I'm even in the state between bodies.
38:49: I am confident. Because I'm going to be with the
38:54: Lord. Now, all of that was his condition.
39:00: That was point number one. Now, let's look at point two. Out of that comes a singular ambition.
39:09: Notice what he says in verse nine. So whether we are at home or away, still in the same context, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
39:25: Whatever Paul's condition. In this life or the life to come. In the body or in the intermediate state, whatever
39:34: Paul's condition, his condition is to please, his desire is to please the
39:41: Lord. The word to please there is the word that means to be acceptable.
39:49: In fact, I can just quickly show you, you don't have to turn there, but if you read Romans 12, where it says that we don't want to be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of our minds so that we are able to discern the will of God, what is acceptable and perfect, the word acceptable, it's the same word.
40:07: So when Paul says, it's my desire to please the Lord, what he's saying, it's my desire to be acceptable to him.
40:14: It's my desire to be acceptable to him. He says the same thing in Hebrews chapter 12, when he says, therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship.
40:31: You ever think about that? Do you ever think about that your worship can be acceptable or not? And guess what?
40:38: You don't get to decide. And I know I've said this before, but honestly,
40:44: I want you to hear it again. People will sometimes come out and say, well, I didn't really enjoy worship today. I say, it's OK, we weren't worshiping you.
40:55: I mean, really? The goal of worship is not that you be satisfied and that you love every song or that you feel like everything was to your liking or the sermon was short enough or not long enough or whatever.
41:09: The goal of worshiping is that we be acceptable to God. We are offering ourselves to him.
41:16: We're not asking him to offer himself to us. He already gave himself up for us. He's done what he's going to do.
41:22: And what he has done is perfect and holy and righteous and just, and everything that we do is a failure, even our best worship.
41:29: But yet we still seek to be acceptable to him. We seek to please him not only in worship, but in every area.
41:36: Let me say this. If you're only worried about it being acceptable to God two hours on a Sunday morning and the rest of your life, that doesn't matter.
41:42: Guess what? That should frighten your heart because that's known as hypocrisy.
41:49: If the only time you seek to be acceptable to God is when you are here and when others are watching you, you know what the word hypocrisy comes from?
41:57: The word hypocrisy, the Greek word means to be on stage. Literally, the word means under judgment, but it means to be under the eyes of someone, to be watched by someone.
42:07: Hypocrisy means to be looked at. Right. The actor on stage was the one who was under hypocrisy.
42:14: He was under the watching eye of the crowd. And that's what hypocrisy is, that we only seek to be acceptable to God when it's for the purpose of pleasing others.
42:27: The Bible says you can't please God and man. And you got to make a choice. We must seek to please him.
42:40: Now, when we see this, we make it our aim to please God. Some people will come to the conclusion, and it's a dangerous one.
42:50: Well, if I'm justified by faith, doesn't that mean that what
42:56: I do doesn't matter? You ever hear somebody say that?
43:04: By the way, that's the argument of the Roman Catholic Church against the reformers. Because the reformers said we're justified by faith alone.
43:11: And the Roman Catholic Church said, no. It must be that your faith has these works that accompany it.
43:19: And these works that accompany it are actually bringing about your justification.
43:25: So you can't be justified by faith alone. And the reformers said, no.
43:31: The reformers said, we are justified by faith alone because the Bible teaches justification by faith alone.
43:39: And really, if you want to know why the Bible teaches justification by faith alone, here's the reason. You're justified by faith alone because you're justified in Christ alone.
43:49: His work is what saves. His work is what brings about your justification.
44:02: But in that, in that is a life change.
44:11: And beloved, if Christ has not changed your life, you don't know him. So therefore, justification is not faith plus works equals justification.
44:27: But faith in Christ alone equals justification, and out of that will flow the works of the kingdom.
44:35: For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourself, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
44:43: For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, that he determined beforehand that we should walk in them.
44:54: God has already determined that you should walk in his good works. So beloved, it's not as if your works do not matter.
45:05: Your works do matter, and we're going to see this. I'm just wondering if I should see it today, because verse 10 is so packed that I feel like if I were 45 minutes into a 50 minute sermon here.
45:17: Not that I have to stop at 50 minutes, but I'm just saying if I go, if I get into verse 10, I see everybody's nervous.
45:23: Because understand this, justification by faith alone does not mean that we do not care how we live.
45:41: It does not mean that we have our celestial ticket punched, that we walked forward, we signed a card, we shook a hand, we said a prayer, or we were baptized, and after that nothing changed.
45:52: If we have been born again by the Spirit of God, the new ambition of our heart is to hear our
46:02: Savior say, Well done, my good and faithful servant.
46:09: And that becomes the overriding motivation of the heart, the ambition of the soul, to hear our
46:15: Lord say, Well done. I'll ask you today, do you care? Do you care?
46:27: To hear your Lord say, Well done. Do you long to hear your
46:34: Savior say, Well done, my good and faithful servant?
46:40: You say, I'm a failure. I don't know how
46:45: I could possibly hope to hear such beautiful words. It has to begin with Christ, because while our works will be evaluated, our salvation will not be based on our works.
47:05: Our salvation will be based upon the work of Christ. And the works that we do flow out of faith in him.
47:17: Beloved. That's how it works. There's a book, it's called the
47:26: Lamb's Book of Life, and the names written in that book.
47:32: Are the names that Jesus died for when he was on the cross and when he said.
47:41: It is finished. What he meant was that every sin.
47:49: That you deserve God's wrath for. He paid the price for you.
47:57: And the righteousness that you so desperately were needing. He provided to you.
48:06: And now the life I live and what Paul says, the life I now live, I live by faith in the son of God who gave himself for me.
48:17: So my life is now lived in Christ, in God, and every good thing that flows out of me.
48:26: Flows out of faith in Christ, only one life will soon be passed, only what's done for Christ will last.
48:37: Beloved, I have so much to say about the judgment, I think I'm going to hold it for next week, but understand this. In the judgment.
48:47: The primary question will be, what have you done with Christ? But your works do matter, what we do in this life, what we do in this body do matter.
48:58: Because he says, we will have an evaluation, so beloved, are you ready to stand before the
49:07: Lord today? Are you truly ready in your heart of hearts to stand before the Lord today?
49:14: If you don't have him, you're not. If he is not in your heart, if you have not received him by faith and repentance, you are not ready for that day.
49:25: So I pray that you would turn and trust in him. Let's pray.
49:33: Father in heaven, so much wanting to say, so much needing to say, and yet so much was said.
49:43: So I pray, Lord, that what was said, it was heard. I pray that it was enlightening to the heart, it was challenging to the soul, and Lord, even more so,
49:52: Lord, that it might drive men and women to repentance. To recognize that first and foremost,
50:02: Christ is our Savior, so we make it our desire to please him, and in pleasing him, we seek in every way to do what you've called us to do.
50:15: And Lord, if we have been living without a concern, if we've been living in such a way that we live for the foolish things of this world and not for Christ, Lord, I pray we would repent.
50:26: And make the pursuit of Christ the priority of our life. Make it our ambition to please him.