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2nd Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 15.
For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might, through the Thanksgiving of many, redound to the glory of God.
Which 'cause we faint nod. For though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, The things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. For we know that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God.
And how is not made with hands eternal in the heavens? For in this we groan earnestly, desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven, if so be that being clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this Tabernacle do groan, being burdened not for that we would be on clothes, but clothed upon.
That mortality might be swallowed up of life.
Now he that hath brought us for the self, same thing as God, who else was given on to wash the earnest of the Spirit? Therefore we are always confident, knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. Before we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
Wherefore we labor that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he has done, whether it be good or bad.
Verse 11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest under God, and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.
Verse 13 in.
But we having the same spirit of faith.
According as it is written, I believed and therefore have I spoken. We also believe and therefore speak.
And then in verse seven of our chapter 5, for we walk by faith, not by sight, and our verses close with the things which are not seen are eternal, but they're only seen by faith and.
That's the only way we're going to carry out our Christian life is on the principle of faith, because Christianity.
Is not known by what it can see. It knows it's known by what it believes, and faith gives substance to what we believe.
And that quote is from the 116th Psalm.
And it says.
100 Psalm 116 and verse 3. The sorrows of death compass me, and the pains of hell got hold upon me. I found trouble and sorrow.
Verse 8 For thou hast delivered my soul unto death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling, I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I believe therefore have I spoken.
Well, in the measure that we believe these wonderful things that have been brought before us in our readings, it's going to open our mouths to speak of those things to the lost. We've been delivered from death, but we only know that by faith. We we have life and resurrection, but we only know that by faith.
But faith makes it so real to us that that becomes the sphere of our life.
And that's what's on the apostles heart here when he closes this chapter. He's speaking about an eternal weight of glory and not getting turned aside by things that the natural eye can see.
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Begins on the other side of death, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and his resurrection, and that's where we're identified with him as well.
One who has passed through death for us.
And now lives in resurrection. But you can only enjoy that life by faith, because it what's beyond death cannot be seen to the natural life. If anyone could declare the things that are in these last three or four verses, it was the Apostle Paul.
If we were to go to the 11Th chapter of the same book, we could read about 6 or 7 or 8 verses of the most horrible things that he went through.
And so he could say for this our light affliction, which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
None of us.
Maybe some in the past after the Apostle Paul, but none of us have ever gone through anything like he did. But we can all join in with the 17th verse, the little affection that we have here in this world.
It's nothing really. It worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal way to glory, and I believe it's predicated on the fact that we.
Follow the verses that went before.
It's not just a casual statement that everyone of us, regardless of how we live, I don't believe that's true. The eternal weight of glory is for those that have passed through this life with Christ. It's not for everyone that is. It's not for the man of the world. It's not for those that are lost. It's only for the saved. It's only for those that believe.
For our light affliction and so every time we go through.
Difficulty in this world, does it ever make us think? If not, we should possibly do so. Think about that eternal weight of glory that's waiting for us. I don't mean if we go through something that we caused ourselves. You know, many of us do stupid things and we cause ourselves sore and difficulty, but that's not what this is talking about. This is speaking about those things that are caused because we walked for Christ.
Because we honor him. Because we testify for him.
And so he could say while he was here, take up your cross daily and follow me. That's and in Peter first Peter chapter 2, leaving us an example. I believe that's what this verse is all about.
In the 11Th chapter of this epistle.
1St I'll start with verse 22.
Are they Hebrews? No, he's talking about his enemies.
Those that were discrediting him, speaking against him, he says, Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I? Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I? Are they ministers of Christ?
But he says that, he says I speak as a fool. I'm more in labor's more abundant in stripes above measure in prisons, more frequent in deaths OFT.
Of the Jews 5 times received I 40 stripes save one thrice was I beaten with rods once was I stoned and left for dead he was thrice I suffered shipwreck a night and a day I've been in the deep in journeyings often in perils of waters and perils of robbers in perils by my known countrymen in perils by the heathen in perils in the city in perils in the wilderness in perils in the sea and perils among false brethren.
In weariness and painfulness, in watching as often in hunger and thirst, in fastings, often in cold and nakedness, beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. He says about these that he's talking about in verse 13 of Chapter 11. Such are false apostles.
Deceitful workers transforming themselves.
Into the apostles of Christ, and so on.
And yet here in our chapter 4, he says our light affliction.
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Light affliction.
If you and I would say that.
I would say that you'd say, well, you haven't had much. That's true. But we've just read the catalogue of what he went through and he says our light affliction, which is but for a moment.
But for a moment he says in the 15th chapter of the first epistle, he says I die daily. In the 1St chapter that we had before us earlier, he had the sentence of death in himself. He thought he was going to die.
Let the Lord delivered him, and he didn't die, but he was facing it. None of us in this room expect the doors to be burst open and, and, and an army come in here and haul us off to prison to die. We don't expect that. He says he was in peril every day. We don't expect anything like that. Some of our brethren in other countries do. If they would meet like we do, they they'd be apprehended.
But that gives a powerful force to this, our light affliction. He's comparing.
Anything that one can go through down here with the glory, that's what he's comparing. And he says our light affliction, but for a moment, comparing it with eternity, this is just a moment in time, just a drop in the bucket as far as time goes. It seems wrong to us, but he says he's looking at it in in the spiritual sense.
Our light affliction, which is but for a moment.
Worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight in contrast with light affliction, but for a moment eternal in contrast with that of glory.
Contrast with anything that we might have down here.
Why we look not at the things which are seen?
But at the things which are not seen.
Or the things which are seen are temporal.
Just for a time, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
There's so much that we can look at.
Down here, they're just temporal things.
But what we have ahead?
And what we have in Paul's ministry is to cause us to lift our highs above everything here to the glory seen above, where Steven saw the glory of God and a man there and he named him Jesus standing.
And he says I'm coming back. It could be before this conference ends. It could be before this meeting ends.
The shout will be given and I hope the room would be emptied. I hope no one would be left behind.
Wouldn't it be terrible if you were the only one still sitting in your chair and every other chair emptied?
Wouldn't that be horrible for you, for me, if that should happen?
With no hope of being saved. No second chance.
So these light afflictions, it depends on what we compare them to. If we compare them to glory, they're light affliction. But we what we noticed in the 1St chapter, he said he was pressed out of measure above strength when he compared the affliction to himself. It was beyond him owed any compared it to the glory light affliction and it's beautiful.
So we should not shrink from suffering, Brethren, I am afraid that that's what we're trained to do in this country. Get out of it. Suffering don't suffer anymore. And you have to. And naturally speaking, that's the natural reaction of our bodies. But may the Lord help us to evaluate opportunities to do something for the Lord if it means.
Affliction. Suffering.
Don't base your decision on whether you're going to have to suffer or not. Be willing to suffer for him sometimes. Say that the American Dream is self pleasing.
But the spirit of Christianity is totally the opposite. It is self sacrifice. What is the character of your life?
Self pleasing.
Or self sacrifice. Paul certainly was sacrificial. He says I've lost everything. None of us can say that, I don't think. But Paul had, and he didn't repent of it either, did he?
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I was thinking of what Paul says in comparative way to in Romans chapter 8 and verse 18 while reading from verse 17.
If children then errors, errors of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be glorified together. Or I reckon, and he did some reckoning here, some figuring, he says, I reckon that the sufferings of this present time.
Are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed.
In US, Oh brethren, it's the same conclusion that he comes to here in this chapter. Light affliction.
Present for a moment.
Eternal weight of glory just seems like when he talks about the glory, he runs out of adjectives a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Many words he uses to talk about that coming glory. Oh brethren, that's what we need to encourage us on through the world that we're passing. We're not going to be accepted.
We shouldn't expect to be accepted, but there's glory ahead, brethren, eternal glory. Here we are called unto His eternal glory, and we're getting bogged down in this present age with material things.
Lord help us, brethren. The Lord in his mercy, sometimes gives us a shake so that we can stop.
And reevaluate our lives. We really need to do that.
Interesting, isn't it, that?
The Apostle Paul had seen that glory.
And he couldn't tell us about it because it was beyond our feeble mental comprehension. But he uses every possible way to express it to us, as you just said. But then he says, I know what it is, I know what it is, the next verse. But the things which are not seen are eternal. He saw it. He couldn't see it with his natural eye. Neither can you nor I, but.
He saw it when he was caught up into that 3rd heaven.
And it was so magnificent that he couldn't possibly express it if he could have. In our natural state, we couldn't have understood it anyway, and we won't understand it until the Lord comes and takes us there. But he lets us look a little bit into that by the expression he uses in these two verses.
I enjoy thinking Brother Dave when he gets caught up to the 3rd heaven, he doesn't say anything about what he saw. It does say I will come to the visions and revelations of the Lord. So he must have seen something. But he does say something about the words he heard that they were unspeakable words. So we don't even know what he saw or what he heard, but he does say something about the words he heard.
Isn't that interesting?
The words that he heard I'd like to read in. I think it was referred to but in Hebrews Chapter 11, the first verse.
Says now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
That helps to understand this last verse of our chapter. Faith is the evidence of things not seen, you know, in the world. They say show it and I'll believe you. Show me and I'll believe you. They said to the Lord Jesus, come down from the cross that we may see.
And believe. And so in the world seeing is believing. But the Lord Jesus told Martha, if thou shouldst believe, thou should see the glory of God. And this is the way of faith. Believe to see. It's just totally the opposite. And that's what we have in our chapter while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. So.
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It's almost an oxymoron what we call.
That it's a contradiction. How do you see something that's not seen by faith? It becomes so real. Can you see him, brethren, we read, we had read this morning in Hebrews chapter 2 That the Lord Jesus as a man.
Sits in highest glory at their God's right hand. Can you see Him?
By faith, we can look right into heaven and see him right now.
It becomes so real to the soul because God tells us.
And faith is the evidence of things not seen that it says we're looking right into heaven right now. So our eyes here in our heads are made to see physical things. That's the way they're made. But through faith, we see beyond physical things. And as you look at physical things, these chairs, the nice wood floor, the gymnasium, the people around you.
Everything you see is temporal. It's for a time. But faith looks beyond what's seen and apprehends what's eternal. And if it's seen, this is something physical that I can touch or say it's mine, I bought it. That is temporal. It is just for a few brief moments of time here.
And what is our life? What is it, if we would live to even be 100 years old? Few people get up that high, but what is light? It is just a brief moment and then it's all gone forever.
But, brethren, our eyes now by faith look beyond the physical and apprehend that which is eternal. And everything we have as believers, properly speaking now, is not seen by the physical eye of nature. It is seen and apprehended by the eye of faith. And that's what I find that sometimes young people have.
Real hard time understanding that we don't have anything outwardly visible to track this down here and it's interesting that we like to have things attractive and nice that we appreciate in a material way and they're not wrong in themselves but I often it's interesting to see somebody new walk into the meeting room sometimes and.
Look around. Perhaps they're not used to the way we meet together and they look around and they train to find out where in the world is the pulpit in here and who is in charge in here. You're there. We're trained in this world to look for outward, visible things. Who's in charge in this meeting?
We say the Spirit of God is the one that directs and the Lord Jesus is present. But come on, where do you see Jesus? Where do you see the Spirit of God?
No, there's nothing outwardly visible to lay your eyes on. The building. Is the building special in Christianity? The material building where we meet meeting room? No, you can meet underneath a tree outside.
Would be all the same, but it's nice in the winter time to have a building we can meet in, not outside under a tree. And so, brethren, what characterizes Christianity is that it is unseen. It is eternal. It is something that will never, never pass away. That's why it's so important to your young people to get your sights set right from the beginning of your life.
Don't set your sights on things that are material, because they will be for a moment, and then they're gone and you won't have anything left. If you set your sights on that which is eternal, not seen from the physical eye, you will have something that lasts forever.
I believe that's why the apostle follows immediately into the next chapter, because the next chapter takes us out of this scene into a scene of glory. And so for we know that if our earthly house.
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This Tabernacle or dissolved well the Lord.
While he was here spoke about setting your affection on things above, and that was the apostle Paul. But the Lord says where your heart is, there shall your treasure be also. Well, here what we have this body of ours is just a house that we live in. That's not me, that's not you. The soul and the spirit are you, but it may be dissolved and we have a building.
A. A building of God and house not made with hands eternal.
It's interesting that he starts right out the next chapter with that eternal thing, which is what we are all looking for at this very moment. And praise the Lord, it might happen this afternoon.
I don't mean death, I mean to be taken. This is death. To be taken out of this scene where then we get the new body, a new house.
Would you mind if I corrected something you said?
My body is part of me. I'm spirit, soul and body.
And I live in this house.
And that's part of me right now. And I'm going to have a new house which is eternal in the heavens.
That's what he's talking about, isn't he? The resurrection body.
The house which is from heaven.
Dwelling Place.
That is not complete. The disembodied state of the Saints who have departed, they don't have a body. There's only one man in the glory that has a body today, and that's the Lord Jesus. He's full man, spirit, soul and body, and we're going to be just like that.
Says in verse 14 of the previous chapter, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus.
And shall present us with you Resurrection is has reached us as far as the soul and the spirit. We have resurrection life, but not yet as to the body and.
And it could be today, and then we'll put on our house, which is from heaven.
Eternal in the heavens. This body is is very temporary, isn't it? That's the burden of First Corinthians 15, isn't it, brother Chocolate? If there be no resurrection, then our faith is in vain if this body perishes.
Goes into non existence. The death of Christ is in vain because man is a tripart being.
And we're going to have this body and reservation. We have its redemption now, but not in reality. But we are waiting the redemption of our bodies.
That's even true of the unsaved.
Revelation 20 is it Great White Throne? The unsaved dead will be raised. You don't know the nature of the body they'll have, but they'll be complete spirit, soul and body and then set to the lake of fire.
That is not complete without a body.
That's why Christians believe in burial and not cremation.
Because this body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
It's not evil. Some of in the past they used to think the body is evil, so we're to punish you and to afflict it and all that.
And that's that's that's wrong.
So even if the body is reduced to dust, it's redeemed dust, isn't it? And he will take that same dust, even if it's reduced to dust and death, and he will take that to form the new body and resurrection.
In this we grow. How many of us know what that is?
All knew it very well and all of us have grown at times, been sick, have a lot of pain, had an accident, whatever it might be, but not in that new body that that resurrection body we won't grow anymore.
And groaning isn't wrong, is it? I often think of the difference between groaning and complaining. Complaining is wrong, but groaning is simply the recognition of the fact that things are not now what God wants them to be and has purpose to make them in the future. So we look around and we grow them. We feel things in the world that are wrong.
And we groan, the Lord Jesus.
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Groaned in spirit when he saw the terrible disorder. And if we don't grow, and when we look around in the world and see the misery that exists, there's something wrong. We should groan, brethren, We groan, it says. But that's not complaining. There's a difference.
Doesn't Romans 8 say that the Spirit groans with us? The Lord Jesus groaned at the grave of Lazarus, seeing the result of the work of sin and the death that came in. And so if the apostle says he didn't want to be unclothed, he didn't want to just the desire was that the Lord would come and take him rather than to die. That's what I believe it means. If so be that being closed, we shall not be found naked, for when we die, we.
Found naked but.
In this room this afternoon, if the Lord should come, everyone that belongs to him will have a new body.
The 3rd chapter of First.
John says, we know not what we shall be, but we know that when He does appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as is. We shall be like Him. We are going to be just like Christ. What a marvelous prospect to be not absent from the body as we have here, but to be changed into that glorious body like His.
1St Corinthians 15.
Christ is our righteousness.
And that's, I think that's typified in Luke 15 by the best robe. Christ is our righteousness, and we stand before God in that. But when the unsaved, dead, lost the great white throne are raised, they'll receive a body, but they'll be naked.
Naked before God, they have no righteousness of their own. When we're raised will not be found naked.
We have Christ as our righteousness.
But they don't.
Solemn thing when the final act is done to a person, and that is to raise him to stand before the great white throne, to be judged for his sins and cast into the lake of fire. He stands there naked in all his sins. It's a contradiction of terms. How can he be clothed with a with a body and be naked at the same time? Well, they mean two different things.
To the to the church in Laodicea. They'll know us not that thou art. What does he say?
Naked, naked.
As one of the terms he uses, let me read the verse. Because that thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked. That's a description of a mere professor without any real life.
He said I was naked and I did myself. And I was thinking too. Saul in the Old Testament when he prophesied, he was in an ecstasy and he passed off his clothes. He's naked. It seems consistent the way the word of God uses nakedness, referring to the unregenerate man, doesn't it? I think it's always consistent that way and it's never confused. I think it's good. I find it helpful.
To observe that the word of God is consistent.
When it uses figures and expressions, nakedness refers.
Very consistently to the unmanned and the unregenerate state, we have the washing of water. The word, the word of God is referred to as water, and it's a consistent thing. I think it's it shows the care of God for us as his people, that the word of God is not an arbitrary or an abstract thing that we need a college degree to understand.
We need to read the word of God and it is consistent and its explanation is consistent. And so it's not up to fanciful interpretation into our imagination. It's not up to me. It's up to the proper reading of the Word of God and.
The Word of God will interpret itself for us, and the illustration pointing to Adam in the garden after he had sinned, he sought fig leaves. Together, he and his wife, they clothed themselves with that. I heard the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid themselves because he said I was naked. His clothing does not clothe him.
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And then when the Lord clothed Adam and Eve later, it was coats of skins different entirely. That speaks of Christ. He's our only clothing. He's our only righteousness that can stand before God.
When it speaks of the believer in verse four of our chapter doesn't use the word naked, he used the word unclothed. And that is when a person dies physically, they're unclothed. And so it says for we that are in this Tabernacle, that is in this body do groan being burdened, not for that we should be unclothed, that is to die.
But clothed upon that, mortality might be swallowed up of life. And that's what will happen at the Lord's coming.
We will have a body of incorruption, of immortality. We will be clothed upon that way.
Here this afternoon we can say we do not wait to die. That is not the hope that is ever put before the believer. Our hope is to be clothed upon so that we may never see death at all, not even physical death.
I remember the time I said to his sister, she asked me is it wrong to ask the Lord to Take Me Home and I didn't have the right I didn't have the right answer and I mentioned that to brother here and I didn't. I said no, it's not wrong of the apostle Paul says to depart and be with Christ is far better. But this brother said to me, why didn't you say ask the Lord to come?
Ask the Lord to come, and you're not just asking something for yourself, but you're asking for the whole church.
That was the right answer, Bob. Thank you. I accept that correction. No, I think you gave that to me. No, you gave it to me.
Five, it takes us back to the purposes and heart of God to talk about these things. But who conceived it? Who purposed it for blessing? Who's interested in our eternal happiness? And having us with Himself? He says he that wrought us for this self, the self same thing is God, and so God has purposed it for us.
This body like under the body of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Immortal, celestial, and heavenly in its character, and so on. It's God, and it's the one that when we lay these things, lay hold of us. It produces a phrase and a Thanksgiving in our hearts to the One that would purpose such blessing for us, that He would have us in this way and in order to guarantee it, if you will.
To establish that it's his own, he says, I've given you the earnest of the Spirit.
And so it's his claim, the Spirit that indwells you and I puts the stamp of God's claim upon us. This one is mine. I have purposed it, It belongs to me, and I'm going to have it with my Son and glory.
For we are always confident for.
Knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight home in this body.
We haven't gotten there yet. Absent from the Lord.
Christianity is a faith system. As Henry was saying before, we walk by faith, not by sight. The only two things you can see in Christianity is baptism in the Lord's Supper. Those are the only two externals. Everything else is a faith system, isn't it?
Judaism.
A Jew could say to a Gentile here, I'll show you my religion, come to Jerusalem and I'll show you the temple. I'll show you the priesthood, I'll show you the the offerings and the altar and and everything connected with it.
I've been in a basement.
I could say to someone, come on, I'll show you our meeting room.
Not a very nice one. We don't have anything to show. Oh, I know Christendom. Christendom has all kinds of grand buildings. But that's not Christianity. That's not Christianity at all. That's Judaism.
And we've gotten to think that's Christianity. It isn't.
Studious example, don't we in the Doubting Thomas?
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Because thou hast seen, thou believable. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. And so as you say, Christianity is a matter of faith. Not not blind faith either, as some say. It's facing one that is real, facing a person, a person of Christ.
Faith is seeing him who is invisible.
It gives substance to that which is.
Believed.
Faith is the substantiating of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
That's what says, yes, this is so. That's the only thing that's really, really, all the other things are going to perish, pass away, but this last, this abides, this is forever. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. I think it is helpful to see that faith is not just something, some mysterious thing that I have that is hard to define, but it is based on something as solid as the Word of God.
Lord Jesus says heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will not pass away. So you are standing by faith, by believing God. You're standing on something that is sure than the world. We stand on the floor, we stand on in here. It's not that sure, but what we stand on by faith is far more solid. And I think it's really a challenge to us. It's because.
In our country.
And I think This is why people have been so terribly shaken by the events that have taken place is that this country has been looked like a solid government in solid country. It's not as solid as people like to think it is. There's only one thing that solid is the word of God. And you will only be solid if you stand on what God says. I think it is.
A real challenge to us brethren, to rethink issues in our life. It says here we walk by faith, not by sight. And in the measure that we walk with the word of God regulating and controlling our thinking and our decisions, everything in our life, your life will be solid.
What happens so often is that we look around.
And we calculate things by what we see. And there's some very astute businessmen that know how to make good money.
But brethren, they walk by sight, not by faith. They may be like the eagle, with tremendously perceptive vision, but that's not faith, that's sight. So there is a path which no fell N the vultures eye hath not seen, nor the fierce lion passed by it. It's the path of faith.
And I like to call attention to two figures in the Old Testament. Both were believers, Abraham and his nephew Lot. What characterized in general Abraham's life, not saying that he didn't have any problems, he did make some mistakes through his life, but was that he was a man of faith.
He believed God, He acted on what God had told him.
God gave him a son and said this is your only son. This is the son that I'm going to give you through whom you will be blessed. You will be a blessing to all nations. And he was 99 years old and he still hadn't seen a son. He chose to believe God, you and I in our lives down here, brethren.
Are constantly.
Have to come to the decision where whether we're going to believe the circumstances or whether we're going to believe God.
Far better to believe God.
But Abraham lived by faith a lot when it came time to separate himself from his uncle Abraham.
Lifted up his eyes and saw all the plains of Jordan, and chose according to the sight of his eyes. How did Lot end up?
It is tragic. It is awful. He lost everything. He's a saved soul. Because of what we have written in the New Testament, we know he was a righteous soul, but he lost everything he had in Sodom. He lost his wife, he lost his integrity, and his descendants have become some of the most bitter enemies.
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Of God's earthly people today.
What a commentary on walking by sight. Can you trust your own sight? You can't. Far better to trust God and what he has to say. There's any conflict of interest and what I think because of what I see and what God says. Always believe God.
Base your life. Walk by faith.
Based on what God says in His Word, you all live to regret it.
As you were saying, Bob, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, and if we leave the word of God out, we have nothing.
Too many have thought that, well, I get it by the Spirit telling me things, but if the Spirit of God were to tell me something, it would never contradict the Word of God. Never. It never has and never will. If we walk by the Word of God, we know, as you've already said, we've got the right path. Heaven and earth will pass away. But my Word, he said, will not pass away. That is eternal as He is.
Love someone and you have a choice. What do you say? Do you want to be present with him?
Or if you love them, do you want to be absent from them?
Well, any natural art that really loves the person says, well, I'd rather be present with that person than absent from them. And he brings out here Paul himself when he thinks about this matter. He said, well, to be here on this earth and the way he speaks is to be absent from the Lord. We're not physically in his presence and with him.
But one that has passed through death is said to be present with the Lord.
And Paul says, well, I'd really rather that but and elsewhere he said, but it's needful for his brethren. And so he wasn't sure whether he was going to be or not present. But I think another thing that's important to us recognize and accept it says present with the Lord.
Why you should say the Lord? He is the one who is in charge. We live under His authority.
To choose everything for us. When we accept the Lord Jesus Christ, we accept Him as Savior and Lord. We have to recognize that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. We find often in dealing with people, young people.
That they'll respond to some extent to the Lord Jesus as a Savior.
But when the issue of his lordship comes up, it is often the point of resistance to really accepting him. And here, even in the matter of life or death, a man in this world, he'll give everything for his life if this is the only life he's got. But for us, the Lord would say I'm in charge of that too. It's for me to decide. Paul didn't have the right to decide the matter, and he was content.
Even though he had his own feeling that would be better to be present with the Lord than absent. And yet when that matter came to a real point of issue, it's the Lord that has to say.
We know that we have passed from death unto life.
Because we love the brethren.
It's delightful to sit here together with.
So many of those who know and love and seek to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.
When I see brethren who are indifferent to the meetings, it causes me to wonder where they are in their spiritual life.
Because we know that we've passed on death into life. Because we love to be together.
To be with one another. We love the brethren in their company.
Since you mentioned that point, when we stay home, maybe it's to read the word, maybe it's to pray, but there's a meeting that night and but we're doing the Lord's things. We're at home. Maybe we're reading to our children, but we don't go to meeting.
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But we're doing the Lord's things.
Well.
We're missing what you just said, The fellowship of our brethren.
We're missing His presence in the midst of those who are gathered to His name. We can't have that alone at home.
He says I'll never leave thee, nor forsake thee. But Matthew 1820 is is something beyond that.
Where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them, and to stay home when one could be there. I'm not talking about as a legitimate reason for sickness or something like that.
But.
Just to stay home because one doesn't feel like it or whatever.
Something's wrong.
Something wrong with me? I do that right?
You don't stay home from work because you don't feel like going, do you? Not unless it's real bad.
Wherefore we labor the margin in my Bible says make it our aim.
I think that's a little more emphatic. Wherefore we make it our aim that weather present, whether we are here in our body or absent, pass through the article of death, we may be acceptable of him. Well, once we've passed through the article of death, I don't think there's going to be any possibility of making any change in our life.
And so.
Wherefore we make it our aim.
That we may be acceptable of him.
I think that's what we're really talking about this afternoon. While we're here in this, in this body, in this life, this is where we can be acceptable unto him. Once we've passed out of this life, everything has changed. Everything is stopped. And so for each and every one of us, not just the young, but possibly primarily primarily the young, because they have.
Quote maybe? Maybe.
A life ahead of him.
And what are they going to do with it?
And so the apostle in one place that says the time that is left, and I think that's to each and everyone of us, make it our aim that we might be acceptable unto him.
Isn't the force of this that our time of making ourselves acceptable is only now in this life where nothing is going to be changed once we cross into eternity to be with the Lord?
Says the bride. The bride hath made herself ready, and she was adorned in that beautiful white garment, and so there's no changing, patching up the unfinished business.
At the last, after we crossed the over into the Lords presence, we only have this time to get ready. And so we ought not to waste it, we ought to use it. The judgment seat of Christ is going to bring out the ready think the good things.
I think though, there's a little bit of balance here that should be brought in on this point. And that is we had this morning about the idea of not being willing to sacrifice ones life as it were for others. And I think there's something in these verses that includes the thought I'll read this, that verse in the new translation, it says wherefore also we are zealous.
Whether present or absent, to be agreeable to him. There's a certain sense, brethren, in which if it's agreeable to the Lord, to take our life and death.
We should be quite willing. And the difficulty, sometimes we know so little about it, but maybe it's hard to even comprehend it. But if you were living in Afghanistan today and we're in a jail, what's your thought going to be? You're sitting in the jail cell in Afghanistan this afternoon, not here in this comfortable room. And this chapter is being read. How do you see the chapter?
You might have to see it and say Lord.
My life is in your hands, and if it's your choice to glorify yourself through my death, that's agreeable. That's the acceptable path to take. And yet there's something in us that so naturally clings to life, this life, that we may not follow the Lord if it puts us, can I say, at risk.
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If the Lord were to choose.
To remove light or we would do anything, if you will, if passing through a circumstance that where life is at risk.
That we had anything to do about sickness, thought and is outside our control, as we would say. But there are things where we might have something to say about the matter or not. But here I think he's saying I'm Lord. I'm Lord of your souls, even your bodies.
And if I choose, is it agreeable to you if Paul says I'm zealous, whether life or death would be agreeable to him?