Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
For we know that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God and house not made with hands eternal in the heavens.
For in this we grown earnestly, desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. If so be the being clothed, we shall not be found naked.
For we that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burdened not for that way would be unfold, but clothes upon.
That mortality might be swallowed up of life.
Now he that hath brought us for the self, same thing as God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
Therefore we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.
For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and willing rather, to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
Wherefore we 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.
Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest under God.
And I trust also have made manifest in your consciences.
For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf.
That you may have somewhat to answer them with glory and appearance and not in heart.
For whether we be beside ourselves it is to God, or whether we be sober.
It is for your cause. For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead, and that he died for all that they which lived should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him has died for them, and rose again.
Wherefore, henceforth knowing no man after the flesh.
Ye though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed away.
Behold, all things have become you, and all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. To wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world under himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and have committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ and be reconciled to God, for it made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Thinking of this portion that came before me, especially in regard to.
What has been before us in our prayers and in the hymns that were given out just now as to?
It seems that the Lord is stirring up our hearts in regard to.
Being in the glory with the Lord Jesus.
Being home with him and at the same time being a feeling, the pressures of the wilderness and the being in a place of testing and trial.
And also that there might be an exercise to enter in to even now.
In measure, as we have the earnest of the Spirit to enter in to that which.
We're going to be in and all of its fullness when we're taken home to be with the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was thinking in the 4th chapter where we have the expression.
The Gospel of the glory in verse 4.
And the King James it says to the light of the glorious gospel of Christ. But it's literally the gospel of the glory of Christ.
And that opens up to us.
The one who is in the glory, the Lord Jesus.
And that great scene of glory and bliss.
And new creation which we're going to enter into in all of its fullness, but that which we can enter into now in spirit, that is, by the Spirit we can enter into these precious things at the present time and toward the end of the fourth chapter, the apostle.
00:05:15
Speaks of the inward man and the outward man in verse 16.
The outward man is perishing.
And the inward Man is renewed day by day. And that was my exercise that we might in the reading of this chapter and taking it up, that there might be in some measure that renewing of the inward Man.
The outward man is perishing, but the inward man is is being renewed day by day and in verse 18 while we look known at the things which are seen.
Of course we we can't help but see what's about us and our circumstances too. But they're not to be an object.
But the things which are not seen and I believe in this 5th chapter we have.
Some of these things brought before us that this the how, that we're going to be in that glory in glorified bodies.
And we're going to be there like Christ, and we're going to have everything brought out at the judgment seat. And while on the way, we would be exercised to be agreeable to him, pleasurable to him, and to live for him, and to be in the understanding and enjoyment and power of the new creation. Because if any man be in Christ, it's a new creation. And that's even now.
We know that it's going to be in full display in the coming days, but even now we are in new creation in Christ, and even now we are reconciled. So perhaps the Lord might be able to use this chapter to to.
Bring before us more and more the things that are eternal and divine. My own exercise is that I feel that the enemy is seeking to discourage and wear out. The Saints and circumstances get before us and we get occupied with and how we need to have the things that are eternal.
And divine before us, because the things that.
In connection with our circumstances are only temporary. It's only for a little while. And the Apostle speaks that in the end of chapter 4. And this 5th chapter really is a continuation, I believe, of that which he's Speaking of in the end of the fourth chapter.
To have the word eternal in this first verse and in the 2 verses preceding it.
One thinks of that verse we often quote. I think we heard it today in prayer. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms comfort there.
What we have by faith here is that which is eternal in this 18th verse of chapter 4.
My brother Harry Hale used to say to us that everything that we have that is sure and certain and lasting, we have by faith, many would say. You might tell me that Tokyo is the largest city in the world. And I could say to you, how do you know it, earthquake might have caused the city to crash down 10 minutes ago. That is things down here.
Can be shaken and will be shaken.
And do not endure, but what we have by faith does.
And we have a mathematical ratio expressed in that 17th verse that our brother was referring to.
It starts with our light affliction.
We don't always agree with that little word light there when it comes to affliction, when it gets the burning kind of hot in our own lives and.
That's normal and natural in these bodies that we are living in now.
And the Lord feels with it. Yesterday in the prayer meeting we read in Isaiah 63 that.
The verse that says in all their affliction he was afflicted, and the Angel of his presence bear them and carried them all the days of old. Then also in the 48th chapter of Isaiah says, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.
00:10:13
We are feeling these things so much nowadays, brethren, and it stirs us. Doesn't these afflictions. They're hard, they're difficult. But who is feeding them with us?
Oh, to think of the one who was their savior in that old dispensation, and bear those children of Israel the multitudes of them. He bear them, and He carried them all the days of old, and He brought them into the desired haven, that is, into the promised Land. In spite of all their failures and weakness, He bore with them, and He carried them, and He brought them in. He brought them out of Egypt, and He brought them in, And his ways were made known in the wilderness.
So it is with us, these afflictions, Who do they come from, and who is feeling them With us? Well, we don't always think they're light, but the ratio is expressed worketh for us. Well, I should read on our light affliction, which is but for a moment that's part of the the mathematical ratio. We're trying to bring out light and momentarily.
Then it worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, language that really is as grand as we can think of to put before us those things that are ahead, the glory, the eternal God.
And.
Those eternal things that are.
Ours in Christ even now, and lie ahead, and then in our chapter it begins with.
This body.
Changed and.
A house not made with hands, eternal in the heaven is these bodies that we live in. They're very temporary, what we are living in now as to the life sustained by this blood pump that we've got. But we're going to have a body like unto his own body of glory. That's part of the gospel of the glory and.
It will be an eternal body suited as we were singing in that first hymn. We shall behold thee as thou art, and thy full image bear. You and I are going to have that new body, like under that body of of glory that Christ has now in the glory.
There is another world. There is a world above, and I think we need to.
To consider that more and more beloved brethren, that world above where the Lord Jesus is now.
God has already.
Inaugurated.
Might say a new world.
We know when the in the beginning we read in Genesis one God created the heavens and the earth, this world in which we are living now, this, this universe. God began with the physical creation and then he made man and put him in it. But in the new creation, the world above, he begins with a man, the man Christ Jesus, and he's there and he's there in a glorified body.
And he's there as our forerunner, and this is the anchor that we have for our souls is passing through here. We know he's there as our forerunner because we're going to be there.
In the glory and in a glorified body. And so in our first verse it says we know that's certain. Now what we don't know is if our this earthly house is to be dissolved.
What is certain is that we have a building of God and house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
That's the body that God is going to give us. It's a spiritual body, financial, like unto his body of glory. It is this body, of course, but it's made.
It's be adapted to that glory, and in a spiritual way.
But is thinking of how it's presented here that the certainty is that we have?
00:15:03
This building of God and the uncertainty is if our earthly house.
Of this Tabernacle be dissolved, we know that man looks upon death as a certainty.
But with the child of God, we know it is, and so is it. It's only if it be dissolved, if it should be, because we're looking not to be unclothed when we're looking to be clothed upon to that house from on high. And so here the certainty is that we're going to be, we're going to have bodies conformed like into His body of glory. And the thing that we do not know is whether or not we will.
Pass through death here, but we know we're going to be in that glory with him and that body.
But you'll please explain to us.
What it means when it says we have a building, what does that mean? We have a building?
I believe it refers to the.
Body.
That we are going to be clothed upon, as he says in the verse 2, desiring to be clothable with our house which is from heaven. That's I suppose, he uses the word house as the thought of a of habitation. It's what we're going to abide in the body in which we're going to be found in. And it's it's we have it, I believe, in the sense that it's going to be fashioned like unto his body of glory as Stephen looked up.
Into heaven and Saul.
Jesus.
He's there in a glorified body, and that's the body we're going to have. I don't mean by that, that we're going to lose our identities.
But it says in the Philippians that will be fashioned like unto his body of glory.
Feeder in second epistle. Along that line, the first chapter feeder, second epistle, first chapter, first 13 and 414 sort of clarifies that he says, yeah, I think it me, as long as I'm in this Tabernacle, that's his earthly house, that's his body to stir you up by putting you in remembrance. Knowing that shortly I must put off this my Tabernacle.
His body. He's going to put this lap. So will we. In death, of course we'll exchange it. If the shout comes, it'll be immediate. Wonderful, isn't that thought? But put off this house, this body, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has showed me, Well, he's talking about death there. But as you say, not all of us will go through that.
It says it's appointed under Men once to die.
But the perfection of Scripture has kept the word all out of that verse. It isn't appointed unto all men once to die.
And it said that it wouldn't apply to us today, would it? Because I would say most of us don't expect that at all. We expect him. But we'll put off this Tabernacle, our house, our earthly house. It's a building, it's our lodging place, but we have a new one.
That will be put on immediate with the shelf on it.
Yes, you remind me of what was said about visiting.
Saint Who is really?
Apparently on their deathbed, or nearing it, or feeling pain and affliction and sorrow and longing to be home.
And sometimes we pray for them, and sometimes they ask the Lord to take them home. But that's not the best prayer. The best prayer is come, Lord Jesus, so that we don't pass through that article of death. We really shouldn't expect it, even though the doctor might say three months or three weeks or a year. No, we ought to be looking.
For the Lord to come for us, that's the very best. So the if is very encouraging in this verse.
We don't expect to have to do that. Of course, when he sends for us, it will be lovely too. But the very best is for him to come for us. Then, in connection with these bodies, it's it's in a brother was referring to Philippians 221. Who shall our Lord Jesus Christ? Who shall change our body of humiliation? It's these bodies that we live in that are going to be changed.
00:20:04
Even though they might be dissolved, even as Moses who was buried by God.
No man knew where God buried him, and then the Lord when he gave the.
Disciples A preview of the coming Kingdom, and especially in Luke, where.
We also have a glimpse of the Father's house, that home to the which we are going on that occasion.
He brought forth Moses and Elias and.
One of them, of course, was buried by God, and no man knew where and centuries before.
Time doesn't enter into the thought of God or affect him in any way. He brings Moses out, and he brings Elias out, who did not pass through death. So this is a preview of what is lying ahead of us. So we don't expect to die. But if we do, we have this building of God, this house not made with hands, eternal in the heaven. Meanwhile some of U.S. drone.
Isn't this another one of the grand truths of eternal security? It's throughout the word of God.
And how solemn it is when there are some who do not believe it, some who profess to be Christians and do not believe it. The KNOW. You know, there's no doubt about it. We have that these eternal things that the 18th verse speaks of. And we're joined heirs with Christ and everything is ours in Christ. But the wonderful part about it is you might look at that first Peter, this time, first Peter. The wonderful thing about it is.
That inheritance is eternal.
And notice how it works in verse 4. This is what we're begotten for.
To an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, But fadeth not away, and it's preserved in heaven for you. Well, isn't that precious? These eternal things are there. We know we're going to enjoy them. But notice the step further in verse five. You who are kept, You who are kept by the power of God through faith under salvation. Do we not have salvation? Of course we do. Of our souls. It's eternal.
But this is the salvation of our bodies. It's coming. That's what we're talking about, isn't it? The salvation of these bodies will be changed, rather like unto Him, so to be revealed. Wasn't it wonderful that not only is everything ours in Christ, because we're joint heirs, God has committed everything to Son, but it's kept for us. We're kept for it. That's eternal security. That's assurance.
We know.
We know when death takes one of our loved ones.
This is a very painful thing.
Thing for anybody?
But what a comfort it is that the body that is put in the grave.
It's really only the house, the shell.
That person, when that person was alive.
Every human being is a tripart human being, spirit, soul and body and when death takes place.
The Spirit leads that house, and Scripture does identify also the person with that house. Like a brother already indicated that Moses was buried. That was only his body that was buried there or an act. We find that.
Stephen was buried and he's identified with the body there. But we know that this scripture, especially in others, identify the person with the Spirit, and what a comfort it is to know that their loved one is not there in the grave.
We know from this Scripture absence from the body present with the Lord, or to depart, and to be with Christ in Philippians is so much better.
These scriptures in Philippians and here deal with the intermediate state between.
Death and resurrection. So the comfort is that we know that person to be in the presence of the Savior.
00:25:04
And naturally we love not only the spirit of that loved one that is departed, we also love the whole being, and we miss them very much. But what a comfort to know them to be with Christ, but now the groaning and the desire to.
Be closed upon.
You know, especially as people get older, we feel more aches and pains and.
People who are haltingly the eyesight gets poorer, memory gets poor, and all of this and then campaign. And it is not wrong, beloved, that even in those circumstances we longed for the clothing upon that is not death that is to be changed, to be brought into his glorious likeness. That is certainly true, as a brother already pointed out.
We ought to always look for the Lord Jesus to come in order that we see Him personally above everything else. That ought to be the predominant thought in our hearts and in our minds, to see Him as He is. But it is not wrong, according to this verse, that we long to be delivered from this body that gives us so much trouble at times, and suffering and pain, and to know that the.
The work of the Lord Jesus also is going to accomplish that. We will get a new body like unto the body of glory, and then we will be like him in everything. Already we have our soul salvation. We already are a new creature in Christ. Inwardly we have a new life.
But then we will be in every way like him. What a glorious prospect that is.
His desire here, isn't it that he might be clothed upon?
That is that he might have that body we've been speaking about that we will.
Have when the Lord Jesus comes, it wasn't his desire to be unclothed as he read as we read in verse 4. The unclothed state would be if the body is dissolved. Isn't it one if we if one is absent in the body present with the Lord is spoken of as being unclothed here, that is their body is asleep.
Sleep in Jesus is referred to the body. You certainly know that the soul is not asleep.
Very much in the in the presence of the Lord be, it's far better. And they're in the presence of the Lord, but they're unclothed. That is, the body is separated and the body is is laid away. And it wasn't his longing that that he'd be uncooled but clothed upon. Now to me that suggests that he wasn't just thinking of getting out of all of the difficulties.
That one has in this pathway in this life, it wasn't just to get free from trials or testings and labor and that, but he actually desired what we would be brought into or what we're going to be brought into when the Lord comes. It's more the positive side, isn't it? It wasn't just saying I want to get out of all of the difficulties of the pathway. You can get out of them by being unclothed.
If one is taken home, called to be with the Lord by, he is at rest.
At the time, he's no longer in a place of testing and trial and difficulties, but that would be unclothed, and he's not looking for that, he said. That isn't what I desire to be unclothed. Oh, if the Lord wills it that way, it is far better. But that isn't what he was looking for. What he was looking for is to be brought into that for which God has laid hold upon us, that we might be those many brethren conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ in every way.
Even as to our bodies, and I might say too that we have here, you might say 3 conditions, we have the.
Closed condition, closed upon.
And as we've been saying, that refers to our bodies being changed.
At the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and the unclothed, as we were saying, would refer to a believer departing the body and being with Christ, absent the body, present with the Lord. But in verse three he speaks about those who will be found naked, and that's not exactly the same as unclothed.
00:30:06
Naked, I believe, refers to one who is in an entirely unsuitable condition before God. Just as Adam felt when he sinned in the garden, he felt that he was not fit for the presence of God and he wasn't. Sin had come in, and God had the clothing to make him suitable to be with with the Lord. So the naked state would refer to those that are left behind, I believe when the Lord comes, when all of the Saints of God are clothed upon with those bodies of glory.
Those left behind are in a state of nakedness.
Wholly unsuitable for God's presence. And of course, they're lost.
And so and the apostle says in verse three, I believe that there's going to be two classes.
When the Lord comes, those are going to be clothed upon with glorified bodies, and those who are going to be exposed to the judgment of God is unsuitable for His presence, the naked. And as we speak of these things, we know that that we do not have in Scripture a definite time, day in or hour, and a year of the Lord's coming. And certainly it would it would behoove each and everyone in the audience today to know that they would be among the company.
Who are clothed upon with that body from heaven and not be found naked. Being found naked would be as a lost Sinner still in your sins and exposed to the judgment of God.
That's what he pleased to say. Like Isaiah on 61 and 10, he says, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful my God, for he hath closed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom, deck of himself with ornaments, as a bride of north or South of their jewels. So every true believer is close to that bond of salvation and.
How wonderful it is and curious to bring from our left praise and worship Thanksgiving to him. And receiving that body is, is you might say, in a sense, the culmination of our salvation, isn't it? As our brother ballman was reading in Peter, it's that salvation ready to be revealed. And if you'd gone on in Peter, you would see there that we have received the end of our faith, even the salvation of our souls that we have now, that we await that salvation. It's ready.
Everything has been accomplished.
It isn't that something has to be done. It's all a result of the work of Christ. It's a part of our salvation, the receiving of these glorified bodies. So our verse is our brother ready and Isaiah, I believe, fits in very well, and in that sense we are already clothed with salvation. But we're waiting that that final element, so to speak, of our salvation when we have the glorified bodies. Sort of like the prodigal he was given the best robe, but in a sense, I believe that would include the glorified body too.
We have the we have salvation as to our souls now, and we are reconciled and brought to God. But here, here it's the the culmination of it all, the salvation.
Well, we who are down here in this scene.
Are looking for the coming of our Lord Jesus.
And I would understand too from here.
That those who have been taken out of the scene.
To the Lord are also expecting the coming of our Lord Jesus.
The being fought upon will be for each one at the same time.
Now there's a warning in these thoughts for any who are not in Christ, for any who are still in their sins, because should they die in such a state, it's naked eternally. There are there's nothing to cover them at all, and that's why they cast as the blackness of darkness forever out of the presence of the Holy God. I was thinking of the last plea in the Revelation the Lord makes Revelations, chapter 3, verse 18.
He's making a plea in our day. It's really today. And notice what he says. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire. That's the righteousness of God. Of course the fire speaks of judgment and that's how you receive it. The Lord Jesus Christ went through that judgment for us. We have the righteousness of God through him in him that thou mayest be rich. We were talking about our eternal inheritance.
00:35:11
And white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed. And that's what our brother read from from Isaiah, the robe of righteousness. And that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. That's the plea, Of course, anoint thy eyes have that would bring in the spirit of God that thou mayest see. You can have your eyes open, but, oh, how solemn it is, if any do not hear this last plea of counseling of the Lord to all, because he's speaking to those who are religious.
Who are religious but lost And they think they're all right.
How solemn to awake in a lost eternity. Negative. That's the way they'll appear before the judgment seat. Before the Great White Throne. Pardon me? The Great White Throne. They'll be speechless. It's all exposed that there's nothing there. But there's sins. Well, it's a solemn warning. We're enjoying the better part of it.
But I trust there isn't any in their sins here today. If they are the Lord constantly to be closed, the best Grove of righteousness, then you'll have that body waiting, waiting you a new body where it's going to have it.
Now the unbeliever is also going to be raised in the second resurrection, or the resurrection unto judgment.
The first resurrection is the resurrection of the life. But it won't make any difference whether you look at a Sinner in his body here on earth, or when the Sinner is raised to appear before judgment. He's naked in either condition.
He is unfit for the presence of God. That's a very solemn thing, isn't it? We know that only the believer will get a body like unto his glorified body. But it's also a very solemnizing thought that that body that the unbeliever will have is not going to deteriorate or pass away ever for all eternity. And and in this body they'll be cast into hell. Very solemn thing, isn't it?
In the new translation of first verse one, it says this earthly Tabernacle house and I was thinking how that his brother Clem was pointing out to us. The last verses of chapter four are all a contrast between what is temporal, what is for a time and what is eternal. To live our lives for time would be the height of folly for a Christian.
The very body in which we live is a Tabernacle house. It's not called a building of God, a house not made with hands, that speaks of permanency, that speaks of something which will abide forever eternal in the heavens. But what we're in now is just a tent. A tent which can suffer and feel all the afflictions and the sorrows and the trials and difficulties of the pathway and every one of us is going to go through.
This kind of thing.
If none of us is exempt from it, we're all going to feel these things. We're all going to know what death means when our loved ones may be taken away. And all the all the kind of treatment that is received down here as the part of the Saints will be ours to feel. He felt it in all their affliction. He was afflicted. He felt it perfectly. But here we have that which is permanent and abiding.
And, O beloved Saints of God, to live our lives as though to set up our houses.
To ornate them and decorate them and all these things as though this is our home down here. It's all false. This is all passing. We're just passing through. It's just a tent, which you can set up in a moment and take down in a moment. That's what this we're living in just a tent, a Tabernacle house. But we have what is eternal ahead. That's our portion. And young people, we plead with you to consider your ways.
If you make this scene.
The object before your souls. You're making a tremendous mistake. What is the great emphasis today in the world?
You can hardly see an advertisement in that. It's feeling good. It's being healthy, it's building up your body, it's an exercise program and and all this kind of thing. They're living for time. They're living for temporal things.
00:40:13
And for us to fall into that kind of current of things, and not be living in the sense of that which is eternal and which is ours, and which is ours, and can never be taken away from us. Oh, what folly for a Christian to do that the Lord is rustling up our nests. He is sending trials and difficulties to make us aware that this is not our home. This very tent in which I'm living is soon to pass away.
And there's something on the head which is eternal. That's what he sets before us here.
To just live by faith, we have that I believe four times in the Bible, once in the Old Testament, and three times in the New. The just shall live by faith and the just. So you can put the emphasis on adjust and you can put the emphasis on live and you can put it on faith. The faith is what comes in here. So much, I believe.
Because of what we have had in the end of chapter 2, the things which are not seen.
Those are the things that we have by faith and through this whole of what we'll call the Christian age or the church period, the day of grace.
Faith is being tested.
Very, very much tested by God who gives the faith, He gives the faith, he tests the faith and he rewards for the faith.
Perhaps some have had these kinds of thoughts. It's rather common to us as we read the Bible and look back in the Old Testament and see how God blessed his people in baskets and store and kept them from many of the diseases which came upon the Egyptians if they walked well and went on with Him.
And now in this dispensation.
It seems, and I believe it's so.
That very often it's those who walk well and our devoted souls that suffer affliction and are not delivered out of those trials.
And then if we look on and read further in the Bible, we come to the millennial day, when miracles will be performed and those who go on on the earth obediently will be blessed very, very abundantly blessed for those thousand years, and if they're faithful, go on to the eternal day.
But today is the day of affliction. Today is the day of trials.
You look at Paul and you see it. Oh, how many things the writer of this epistle went.
Through the very first thing that was showed to him.
When he went to Ananias was how great things he must suffer for my namesake. Why is it?
Well, it's because we are blessed so richly.
And eternally through what we have by faith, and if we can see and enjoy what we have in the Newman in Christ, and that is eternal and secure.
Then we'll be happy even though.
Like Stephen Martyred could say, Lord Jesus receive my spirit and you read church history? How could those martyrs go through the fire and the flames? Well, they were looking on.
Like the Lord Jesus said to Thomas, blessed are they who have not seen me and yet have believed. That's the test today. We have not physically seen the Lord Jesus, but morally.
Oh, we look at this book and we see that blessed Savior who is the man in the glory, and we look onward and upwards there.
And down here in the bodies we grow, but we're going to get new ones, and it's the Lord's coming that will bring them to us.
So he puts before us all these wonderful things that we have by faith, and contrast them to the things that are down here with your physical and temporary. And which would you rather have? Well, to have the Lord and to have all that He has given us by faith will help us and encourage us. And it's not wrong to grow because we belong to the old creation as well as the new. We're kind of a peculiar people in that way, too, we have parted to creations.
00:45:21
But we don't have the new body. These old bodies are very much subject to the things that come upon us, come upon mankind in general, because of sin, even death itself. But even should the body be dissolved, that's nothing for God to bring that forth and to display it in glory. So we as we take to those who have gone before, mentioning Paul or Stephen or Moses or any of them.
They're going to have that body of glory.
And we're going to have our bodies of glory. We are living changed. And the sleeping Saints, the little stern child that was taken recently thinking of one of the most recent. And this is comforting too, when we think of those who have been put to sleep in Jesus, that in the three cases where we find that he raised the debt, they were in various stages.
That is.
The little girl, JIS daughter, had just gone to sleep, just passed away, and he went in and raised her up. Then he comes to follow on in this history to the young man, the son of the widow of Maine, who is in the coffin on the way to the cemetery, not buried yet. And he touches that fear and pulls him forward. Then we come on to.
The grief of Lazarus and Martha says he'd been dead 4 days by this time. He stink of dissolution had already set in. He raises each of them. And so it will be, I believe.
With the Saints, when the Lord comes, some will just have died, some will be on the way to the cemetery, some will have been buried for hundreds and even thousands of years.
But this one who has this power, will call them forth, and will be changed then the glory.
We have these things by face. That wasn't in God departable Lord Jesus Christ. It was passed past time. Blessed is involved, cursed and blessed and condemned the placement, and that by second we simply experienced what we already have. I separate them by realizing my habits, not by thinking I do to the end of it.
That one in Ephesians is the eternal purposes of God, so it looks back and half blessed in his purposes. Always been so as to our enjoyment of it. We can say according to this chapter, we know and we have these things, but that's faith.
I suppose it's Paul here the the he was drawn toward this.
That he desired. As you'll notice the wording is that 20 feet of groaning is groaning is in connection with desiring to be clothed upon. And again, in verse four, in this Tabernacle we've grown being burdened.
And he's burdened that his burden was that he might be closed in both cases. In other words, he was. He was so.
In the realization of what God had for him and all of his people.
He was in the enjoyment and realization of that gospel of the glory.
To such an extent that he wanted to be in it. He wanted that to come to pass. That's what he was. That's what he was anxious for. He was anxious for that time when when God's purposes were fulfilled. We see it, as I've already said in this in its might say, initiation in Christ being foreboding to the glory, but the fulfillment of all of God's purposes in regard to his people are still future. And that's what he was looking for. That was what he was anxious about.
00:50:02
Well, I suppose that's the way God would desire it. But we have to confess that we are more or less too often. Rather than being attracted, we're driven toward the glory, so to speak. That is, it's because of the difficulties of the past. And so in order to to escape the trials and so forth, we long for the Lord's coming. And I wonder sometimes if perhaps that is not why the Lord allows many afflictions so that we might.
Earnestly long for His coming. And because we don't really enter into his coming from the standpoint so much of being, of desiring to have all of the what he had purpose for his people to be fulfilled. If we were very comfortable and everything, we're quite well with us at all times and at ease. We might not be so attractive to that fulfillment of being taken up and being with the Lord Jesus and the glory.
So these afflictions are serviceable in that way, I'm sure that God allows it. And as our brother Clem said, it's the IT is not always tied in with those who are not going on well with the Lord. Those who suffer most severely might be those who are more for the Lord even than their brethren. But it is a word to all of us that that Edward, as it were, give us to be more taken up with what God has purpose for us.
In blessing and the glory and not down here.
That's born out first five. Let's put the sense brother, because it says now we that have run us in the self same thing as thought. So this suits the purposes of thought that he is bringing us through the circle path, that he might show forth his glory and his purpose of it. And so the desire for the believer that he might be clothed with light, that mortality might be swallowed up with life.
This is all in the purposes of God. This is desire that all of us should spend eternity with him in a place of blessings through sin, which came in and estranged us from God to lose that blessing. And so He brings us back, and He works the work in us, because it is modern will, nothing of which we can post, nothing of which we can say of ourselves. But He not only brings us to himself with faith in Christ, but He forms us and shakes us.
And gives us that desire.
Or immortality that we might be clothed upon with life. And I was thinking about the wonder of that word life at the end of verse 4.
Because we've been Speaking of death, of those who may die young or die in the middle-aged, or those who maybe have been in the grave for many years. And we've also hit the term asleep in Jesus. So on God's sight life is to be able to be with Him throughout all eternity.
And that is the eternal estrangement from him. And so this clothing which we're thinking about might be swallowed up with life means that we have that eternal life to be ready for the presence of God to be made since by his presence. And if man refuses to salvation, which God has to all for whosoever will, then God has no alternative. And then that's death. And that's eternal death, and so life and death.
In the sense of Scripture is not what we often think of in this scene, which is the life and death of our bodies.
The life that is suited for the presence of God through forgiveness in Christ, for its eternal, is training.
That fifth verse brings in two things that you've brought one of them so nicely that all this we're talking about weeping, wrought as we are now. For glory is the work of God, and it brings in a sense of the thought Paul has in Romans 8. If God before us, who could be against us, remember this is the work of God. Faith itself is the gift of God. But then he brings in that second thing the Spirit of God.
It's not wonderful. That's another gift. And the spirit of God here is brought in for the earnest enjoyment that we have. Isn't it true that it's the Spirit of God now that occupies us with the heavenly things in Christ? And so it's wonderful to see the two things brought in now in this fifth verse. God did it. It's all in the consoles and purposes of God before the foundation of this world, and it was by sun, no other way.
00:55:09
All in Christ, and by Christ. But God did it, and then He's given us the earnest of the Spirit of God. How wonderful it is, brethren, We have that one in us who will occupy us with Christ, and with heavenly the things we enjoy and well enjoyed fully soon.
Enjoy the 1St.
Chapter of this name, The Fiscal Second Epistle.
The first chapter in the 21St and 22nd verse.
Now He will establish us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us is gone. The anointing, I believe, is where power, who hath also sealed us, and that for security. And there's no one can separate us from His love, and give him the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. And so I believe that's for intelligence and enjoyment. Until this morning we can sit here and enjoy these precious truths.
And I was thinking of that verse in First Corinthians 10 and 13. It connects with the trials that we go through while waiting for the Lord to come, that says, but God is faithful, and how wonderful it is to be reminded that God is the.
And so we have His Spirit involvement to comfort us and to encourage our hearts, as well as to teach us to God's ways.
It was mentioned that God sends the trials to his people these especially in these days, perhaps in a more.
Felt way among us.
As a wonderful verse in the second Song of Solomon, I'd like to read in connection with that what is God's purpose in the trial?
Song of Solomon, the 4th chapter.
And the last verse, verse 16 awake.
Or north wind, and comes our S blow upon my garden at the spices there of me blow out.
We know what the north wind is for the gardener or the farmer. It just smells cold and prejudice.
The South wind can bring on really heat and drought, but here the spirit of God mentioning a week or north wind.
What does God expect from me when He sends me a trial?
That like the garden of spices, and it is said that spices have the peculiar character when they form their blossoms and their fruits. There must have come a time of the north wind or the hot summer wind blown over those spices in order to release the fragrance thereof.
That God wants from you and I in our trials, that we should send forth the fragrance of Christ in our lives in it and prevent the purpose of God is reached. Why he sends the trial. It's not just allowing it to come, but actually sending it as a current to this country. He calls for that north wind.
What is the Saint of God going to do?
You know there's a vast difference. You enter a hospital and visit them and here are groaning people.
Complaining people and they would just have your ear to have them pour out all their troubles for you and complete. When you go by a bit of the sin of God, a smile on the face, you know he's in pain.
But how? How he loves to talk about his Savior. We'll hear about him. The North Wind or the South has done its work and that's the purpose of God and beloved. Maybe our prayer be that God may not in vain apply. Wasn't that North Wind and salvage, But it bring out the fragrance of Christ in our lives.
Doesn't always work that way. A Christian has the flesh too, that can turn sour, bitter and discouraged with his heart. That's not what God leads us down for to suffer.
In tight the garden you're Speaking of, as long as Solomon would be the assemblies today. This says Bethany in the Lords time, would be the assembly today where those of his own are gathered and he could be in their midst and take up the fruit and enjoy it. But I was thinking, you know, the word Bethany has two meanings necessarily. So it's the House of affliction and it's the House of response. And both meanings are necessary.
01:00:15
Without the reflection of the affliction, you don't have that blessed response. Isn't it the afflictions that really put us on our knees and turn us to him? And then the response comes when he undertakes. So Bethany has that double meaning, and I believe it's necessary fiction. North wind response from the South breezes flow. He comes in and undertake.
You know, in Egypt we have often reminded ourselves the children of Israel were in the land of Goshen, which was very suitable for the occupation. And if the Lord would not have allowed the circumstances to change by raising up a king who knew who did not know Joseph, they would probably have been perfectly content to remain in Egypt.
But through these difficulties they remembered the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and they longed to be out of that place, to be in the land of promise. So we see there an example in the life of the people, the history of the people of God, how God uses these things. And there's also another side, and that is that.
That we have to like.
Hendricks already indicated be careful not to put too much emphasis on the body and.
We have to remember that in the things of the Lord we must not lean on the arm of the flesh on our natural.
Gifts and abilities, even physical strength and so on. And how often has the Lord like with Jacob, behold?
To touch the seed of his strength.
So that he would not continuously, as he had throughout his life, tried to secure what the Lord had promised him in his own strength and energy, by his own manipulation. And so we have to be mindful of that, that we do not lean.
Our own intellect.
And our physical strength or on our own emotions in the things of the law that we recognize, we are a new creation, that there are new things that govern our spiritual beings.
John says in his epistle he does not yet appear what we shall be.
That it is not manifest at the present time, and when we when we think of ourselves and the Saints of God, all of the Saints in this scene.
It isn't. We're not manifested now as to in the way in which God has purposed us to be when we're with Christ. I was thinking of that in this fifth verse. He that hath wrought us for this self. Same thing. We can't. We can't determine what we've been wrote for by looking round about down here. We have to look up into the glory and we see Christ in the glory and we can say God has wrought us with the self. Same thing.
That what he wrought us for to be there in the glory conformed to his image.
And not only that, but he's given us the earnest of the Spirit, that we might have some enjoyment of it.
Even at the present time that we might have, might be able by the Spirit of God.
To look into an open heaven and to see what God has purposed for us in Christ, and to know that this is what he has wrote us for what a grand purpose God has. And I I believe as we look round about, we looking round about, we are impressed with the weakness.
We're impressed with Feebleness.
And many things that would even dishearten us. But when we think of what God is wrought as far this South St. He hasn't taken us up just for a little while here, But He has taken us up for this and this to be eternally with Christ, and informed to His image in the glory and in every way suitable to Him, and for his pleasure and for his delight. That's what God has wrought as far. And He's given us the Spirit now that we might enter into these things in some measure. Because I suppose that's the fault of the earnings of the Spirit, is it not?
01:05:14
We don't enter into them in all of their fullness, but it's it's the same thing, but just on a lesser scale. I think of the little words, words of that hymn of Mr. Darby, when he says there are no stranger, God shall meet thee stranger thou in courts above.
But he's not meeting a stranger God. That is, he's meeting one that he has known and enjoyed. I believe that's the earnest of the Spirit. We can enter into these things now, even though we're not yet in the glory. We're even now, a new creation. And now we have the Spirit of God indwelling us at the earnest to give us to look on these things. You know, in the 4th chapter. I repeat that again while we look not on the things that are the scene, but the things that are not seen.
You know, we find that.
Some have the habit of window shopping. We just go around and look at things.
Well, I wonder if we could apply that to to the eternal and divine things. How much are we looking at those things?
We that's what Paul was looking at. He was looking at the things that are eternal and divine, and he became so.
Occupied and so attracted by them, he says. I wanted the end of them. I want to be there, where all of these things are. That's what his great desire. And he says God has wrought us for this very same thing.
Now it's only by the Spirit that we enjoy anything of God at all. It's every thought we have. That word and of God is the Spirit of God, and that's what makes us different from all others in this world. And it's a wonderful thought. Not only well the Spirit give us these thoughts today, we're doing something that most of this world wouldn't ever think of doing, of sitting here with the word of God, open the Bible, and feeding.
But it's the Spirit of God that does it. We can enjoy things, and we can discover things that this world can't know only by the Spirit of God. So we should make much of this wonderful gift, the Spirit of God who has indwelled us. And I was thinking in in First Corinthians the second chapter, it tells us that in verse 9.
That I have not seen, nor ear heard, neither entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit no other way. For the Spirit searches all things, yeah, the deep things that God. And now notice the 14th verse. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness unto him.
Neither can he know them.
They're spiritually discerned. And so, brethren, it's wonderful, the earnest of the spirit, because the spirits working here today in each one of us, and collectively to let us enjoy the things of God, the deep things of God that those in this world, the wisest of this world, can't know.
Mt 12.
212.
Call from.
The bottom.