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170.
And shall we see the?
President Grace.
Of our hearts tree.
Lord.
We're reading in Second Corinthians chapter 5. Maybe we could start with verse 5.
Two Corinthians 5, starting at verse five. And he that hath brought us for the self, same thing is God, who also hath given unto us 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. 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 hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. But we are made manifest unto God, and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. For we commend not again ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that you may have somewhat to answer them, which glory in 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.
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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 which died for them, and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we know man after the flesh. Yeah, 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 create creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new.
And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us unto himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath 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, Dad, be reconciled to God, for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that.
Yesterday we were talking about the body.
And the house not made with hands eternal in the heavens.
And that we're going to be transformed into.
And.
Verse five begins, He says He that hath brought us for the self same thing as God.
Who also have given unto us the earnest of the Spirit and I think this is helpful to understand the Spirit of God is in US and testifies to us the reality of this these things so that Paul can say here in verse six. Therefore, we are always confident that beautiful brethren, the confidence of faith.
Verse eight We are confident, I say, and willing rather, he said.
So the confidence of faith, no doubting there, goes along with that verse that we read this morning in the meeting. God is not given unto us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and of a sound mind. We have so much in this world to make us question everything almost.
You don't know what to believe when you read what's put out as news. You don't know whether to believe it or not. But here's something, brethren, we can be confident about. These are realities. This body may get sick, it may even die, but we have confidence that we have a building of God. Oh brethren, that should fill us with consolation.
And faith to go on amidst whatever he has called us.
To go through in this light.
I like to call it Christ confidence because it's the faith that we have is in a person and we have confidence and it it grows over time because every time you prove him out, your confidence grows because he doesn't fail you ever. And every time you prove him out again and again and every hitherto you have in your life as you travel through and travel down the path of faith, every one of those moments.
Increases that confidence where you can say I have Christ confidence about all of these things. You may have doubts and as our brother said, certainly the news and what the world reports. We don't know what to believe about those things, but we can misunderstand the word of God. We can have wonder about what something actually means or how to apply it in our life and so forth, but never about Him.
Christ confidence, no one can take that from you. self-confidence. Now, each one who has a skill and a job, who's learned to do it well, you have some self-confidence about that. If you're a Christian, you also know that the Lord helps you do your job. But the self-confidence you had because you have a skill to repair a car or fix a computer or do whatever you do fine, even that can be taken away. But no one, no one can take Christ's confidence from you.
Because it's aimed at Him. And even when you start with a weak faith and at times you may have a weak faith, it's in someone who has no weakness at all. And Christ confidence will get you through things and difficult times in a way nothing else can. If you think about it in that fashion, not just being confident, but having Christ confidence because it's himself that gives that to you. So you may face something.
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And you don't know why and you're going through a difficult time and you don't like it. And you may even crowd to the Lord. I don't like this. It's painful. It hurts me, Lord, but I choose you, I trust you. And it makes a difference. That confidence, that's Christ confidence. It's from him. It's out of him. And it cannot fail you ever because he can't fail you. And every time you test Him and he likes be put to the test.
I'm not saying tempting God, I'm saying you put him to the test because He says in His Word something and you stand on it. He cannot fail you. He will not fail you and that will increase your confidence. So if the Lord doesn't answer your prayer, Sam.
Is that going to shake your confidence? No. I think that is important because Paul asked the Lord three times. Lord, take away this throne in the flesh.
Lord says no.
My grace is sufficient for these. So there's times when he doesn't answer because we ask according to our need. We're told to, but it doesn't mean the Lord's going to always give the answer the way we want. I think that's important to understand. But even no is an answer. And you can have a piece about that. Then you know, you know what he says about the matter. But then there's people who pray and they get discouraged because they don't get any answer.
Well, what does the Lord say about that? He himself tells two stories, the importunate stories, one about a judge and one about a neighbor. It's as though the Lord says to us, Pester me, these two people in the stories were pestered until they give in. God says, pester me. He's not like the judge, He's not like the neighbor who does it out of irritation, but he wants us to come back.
I was talking with a brother once. I said doesn't appear that way, that he asks us to pester him about something. Yes, he does keep coming, Keep coming, keep coming. It may take years and years. You it, your prayer may be answered after you're dead, especially about a soul being saved. So you go. But if he says no, like brother Bob said, you stop if you get a clear no. OK, OK, Lord, you've told me your grace is sufficient. I can accept that.
And we need to accept that. But if he doesn't say no, don't stop, don't stop. How many people have heard stories where they prayed for a child or a grandchild or something, and then they get saved After grandma's gone, after grandpa's gone down the road, they get saved. Well, those prayers even followed after death.
Pray, pray, pray, pray until you hear no or the Lord says yes.
That's what I believe is the meaning of the instant in prayer. It doesn't mean pray through your sleep in 24/7. It's the sense of not giving up.
The Lord wants that from us. He wants this kind of thing, a child who keeps coming, who keeps coming. It honors God, and God says in his word, he that honors me, I will honor.
If you.
Deflating buying a house and you come to some agreement with the house owner to buy the house.
The next thing that happens is some money.
Down payment as expected, as a proof of your seriousness about your intent to buy the house. It's also called earnest money, and that's what's in view here. God has purpose. He has wrought with the intent that we are going to have a Tabernacle for our new our new lives.
That is going to be ours, and we're looking for it in this chapter. And so He says He has brought us for that purpose. So what's the proof, What's the earnest that God will carry through with His purpose?
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What's it say He says He hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit, And so the Spirit of God has been given to us as an earnest, as a proof, as a demonstration of the seriousness of what he purposes doing for us.
And the result of that earnest of the Spirit, it produces confidence. And how far does that confidence go? Or even through death? Even through death, It's not simply present request of the Lord or confidence that the Lord is going to be doing this or that in our lives. But he says we're confident, I say, to be absent from the body.
That is, we're confident because of that what has been given to us, that even if we die.
That is, our present body is separated from our soul and spirit. The earnest is proven beyond a question of a doubt that God is going to fulfill, and we are going to enjoy that which is given to us, that for which He has wrought, that we will have that building.
God not made with hands eternal in the heaven.
Uses the term earnest as well in Ephesians chapter one. And there again, it is a down payment, so to speak, the security to show that he's going to complete a work. And so in Ephesians chapter one, and we could just read the last part of verse 13, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. Which or who is the earnest of our inheritance?
Until the redemption of the purchased possession. And so you and I have an inheritance. And in this sense it's shown to be the everything that Christ has.
The inheritor of and so he will inherit all created things and beings. That's all his. He made the purchase at the cross, He bought the field and everything in it. But the creation is still under the power of sin.
And Satan, and he says that you are going to inherit it as well. You're going to inherit this scene, all created things. You're where heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ. Now how do you know that you are going to be enjoying that inheritance? How do you know that you will be with Christ inheriting it? You have the indwelling spirit of God. He's given the earnest of the Spirit.
And because you're indwelled with the Spirit of God, the Spirit works with you to show you to that you will inherit, that you will enjoy the creation when it set free. So this is one of the things that the Spirit of God does is show us that.
Because we have the earnest of the inheritance. It's the down payment, as our brother Dawn has said. I just want to point out there's another couple of things that the Spirit does.
The Spirit of God has given us for the purpose of and in chapter one of Second and 2nd Corinthians, we might just read it's a couple of verses there, verse 21 Now he which establisheth us with you in Christ hath anointed us, is gone, who hath also sealed us. So we're anointed with the Spirit, we're sealed with the Spirit, and he's given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
Three things.
And so when it speaks of the anointing, it speaks of us having the discernment by the Spirit to discern between good doctrine and bad doctrine. We have the unction of the Spirit. We're not going to go into it, but it's first John chapter two. He goes into that. We know all things. We have the capacity to detect false doctrine. We're anointed with the Spirit. But then when it comes to being sealed with the Spirit, that has the sense of being eternally secure.
When you believe the gospel of the grace of God, you were sealed with the Spirit. The Spirit came.
To indwell you and the work is complete. It's sealed. It can never be undone. You're perfectly secure. When it speaks of the earnest, it speaks of how you have. God has given you the Spirit as a down payment and He will fulfill all of His promises. So you don't. You're not currently ruling over the inheritance, but you will rule over the inheritance. You have the earnest of the Spirit. You know you do not have a glorified body. Your body is not glorified right now, but it will be glorified. How do you know?
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You're indwelled with the Spirit of God. It's the earnest, it's the down payment. He will finish the work.
How do I know that I have the Spirit?
When I asked that question in, in Africa, well, you have to speak in tongues and then everybody knows you have, then you know you have the Spirit of God if you can speak in tongues. Well, I've never spoken in tongues, so maybe I don't have the spirit. So how can I know that I have the spirit with the earnest? I understand the earnest of the spirit and I understand why I, how I can know I have the spirit, but I, I pose that question, how can I know that I have the Spirit of God?
What did you tell those brother?
I said the right thing.
Well, I like there's a verse in Galatians 3 verse 14. I don't know, maybe this may have some input on that.
Galatians 3, verse 14. At the end of the verse it says that we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
Through faith.
I think faith and trusting what the word of God says.
Is what gives me confidence to know that I have the Spirit of God. But maybe someone else can expand on that.
Scripture says faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So the starting point is the word of God. God speaks.
And when there is a reception of that by faith.
Then God works in us to give us confidence.
Because his word says so. So how do I know I have the Spirit?
Because the Word of God tells me I have the Spirit. There are many, many things that I know simply because God says so. I don't need some external proof of them. I don't need some feeling.
It's based on faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God and when we accept the word of God.
That's true. That's a matter of faith then.
There are many things that we have confidence of knowing simply because we read it. It's God's word, He says it, God says it, I believe it. That settles it. And if we try to introduce proof.
That goes beyond that simplicity. We're going to introduce doubt.
We will inevitably be looking for something external or in us that gives us that confidence. But that's not the way God works. And what Tim says IA 100% agree. And Galatians is in keeping with that fact that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
And God by the Spirit that dwells in US, speaks to our hearts and says that's true. And so the Spirit of God has his place in it. But the place that it gets us fuzzy is when we start asking God for something external to prove it to us. And so there are many instances in Scripture where people said, well.
Don't let there be any water on the fleece.
So God didn't get water on the place. Was that enough? No. Well, then put snow water on the place. And so it's an example of someone that was looking for something to confirm from God that he really meant something. And the Scripture shows us that that's not the way of confidence. That's not the source of faith either. And it's God has said.
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Could I just continue that with Romans 8 just to continue the question, I don't have a comment, but just Romans 8 and verse 15 and 16. I'll read it says for ye have not received the spirit of ******* again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry ABBA. Father, the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
Do these verses relate to the to the question?
If so, how do they relate? How does that work?
I think we can say when the Spirit of God has liberty in our life, he will produce the the understanding and the enjoyment of our relationship. So it's dependent on whether the Spirit of God is free to do what he will do, and that is to produce the enjoyment of the relationship of knowing God as our Father. So that is that is you might say that somewhat subjective in the sense that.
I actually feel that God is my Father. Nothing wrong with subjective truth, but subjective truth has to come by way of faith. In other words, it has to be based upon the Word of God. And the Word of God just told us that the Spirit of God will give us a sense of knowing God is our Father and we will enjoy that relationship with God. I wonder if we can just jump back to the chapter.
And continue, because sometimes we get a little bit hung up on.
You know these things and we we, we can't just roll right along into the chapter. And would it be possible for us to do that? I think that's what we have in verse seven. We walk by faith.
Not by sight. We tend to base our convictions on what we see.
You have eyes in your head, yeah.
Use them, but don't go by what you see, go by what God says. And as Don has said, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And that's so important for us. We are, especially in these Western nations, are geared to believing when we see something.
Brethren, we walk by faith, not by sight. Doesn't mean we shut our eyes. No, you use your eyes, but what controls your life is not what you see. It's about what you see in the Word of God and read. And God produces faith in that way. It's it's very important to be challenged in our souls. Why do I believe that?
Is there a verse that gives you to understand that? And as to Tim's question, I like to think that there are evidences of the Spirit of God. We have in Galatians chapter 5, the fruit of the Spirit, Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering, etcetera. That list of nine things that will be evident in the life of a believer. But it's not for us to be looking at ourselves, brother.
That's not faith, that's sight. We don't walk by sight, we walk by faith. And I like to think of the testimony of Scripture as to that.
Abraham, God said come outside your tent and look at the stars. Your descendants are going to be like the stars of heaven and multitude and like the sand by the seashore. And he didn't even have one son, and he was getting up in years.
Everything indicated the opposite. He chose to believe God.
When there is no evidence for it and that's what it comes down to when God says something in his word, brethren, do you believe it or do you say I don't know See, I know what that's I know that says that, but I I just don't know is that her response rather than this is a test and I think that little verse seven is so key to having this confidence.
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With the Lord our brother, who read from Romans the Spirit, bearing witness with our Spirit.
That's a real experience. You may say it's subjective, but it's an objective truth. It's true. Anybody who's been saved very long has experienced moments where the Spirit of God does bear witness, and that is a real thing. It happens and you experience it, and along the way it's part of the work that He does.
In this idea, we live in a world amongst evangelical Christians where those who are charismatic and so forth are taking over the evangelical world. And there are plenty of false teachings in the you. You can get a young Christian that is told that if you don't have the evidence of speaking in tongues along with the baptism of the Spirit, you're, you might not even be saved. And the others who will say, OK, you're saved, but you don't really have the spirit until you have this, this evidence, this external evidence that people see.
It was brought up when I was a young Christian, that harness figure where we work. And this fellow was there and I said, well, this is strange miracle that's taking place here. These people around you that are Christians in this place are leading souls to Christ and you're not. And you say you have the spirit and they don't. So that's an even greater miracle. Explain that to me. He didn't have an explanation. He finally came back and said, well, I guess you have the spirit, but you don't have the fullness of the spirit. So there are people who try to teach those things and if they get a young believer in their hands, it can be confusing and they they, they say things and do things.
That appear to be miraculous or supernatural, and they may be, but not from the Lord.
It's not about trying harder to believe.
Or thinking maybe I haven't tried hard enough.
It's like brother already brought out.
Faith cometh by hearing, Hearing by the word of God, exposure to the word of God.
Will produce this change. The only thing left to do is not to fight it.
Not to resist it. It's not trying harder to do something. Is it safe to say that?
I was going to comment that the Spirit of God and the Word of God always agree.
And when we encounter.
These situations where a person says he's directed of this spirit and we find it contrary to the clear teaching of the Word of God.
We can.
Correctly conclude that the Spirit of God is not directing that person.
Another thing that we might comment on is the Spirit of God doesn't occupy us with ourselves or our spiritual growth. It the Spirit of God is a person, a divine person.
In dwellings a believer, we don't have two divine persons inside of our bodies, we have the Holy Spirit of God.
And he is very carefully grieved. We have the exhortation. Ephesians 4. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. We're never told to pray for the sealing of the Holy Spirit that took place when we believed the gospel of Christ, His death, His resurrection, His precious blood.
The Spirit of God sealed us, giving us eternal security and as mentioned, a foretaste of what we are going to enjoy in that coming day. And He doesn't direct our thoughts inward unless we have grieved Him by what we have done, or the way we have acted, or some angry word that proceeds from our lips. Spirit of God.
Is grieved and we need to confess where we have failed. I don't want to get away from the chapter, but we're we are exhorted to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The best example I have given is I think it's Doctor Burtons comments on the Spirit of God. Here I am in in Bob Tony's house and he's invited me to come and I have a room there.
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I have the key for the room and.
I, my wife and I, we occupy that room and enjoy the hospitality of Bob and Barbara. But supposing Bob came and said, John, here are the keys for all the rooms in my house.
You are more than welcome to enter any of them.
At any time when I fill the house now I have access into every room. That's what the Spirit of God wants to do in our lives. He wants to have full control. Sometimes we say, well, there's, there's a part there that I just want to keep for myself. I, I have a special.
Aspiration to do this and.
I want to have my own control of this part of my life. Then the Spirit of God is not occupying you with with your eternal inheritance and he's not at liberty. There's some hindrance there or how easy it is for us to grieve the Holy Spirit of God. And what happens then? We only know too well.
We are miserable, and rightly so.
A Christian can be the happiest person in the world, should be, but he can also be the most miserable, because if the Spirit of God is grieved in my life, I can't enjoy the things of the Lord and I can't enjoy the world as I did before, so I'm miserable, and rightly so. How careful we should be that divine guest, not an influence as we have in the Pentecostal system. It is a divine. He is a divine person.
Dwelling in the body of the believer until the day of redemption. Visions 4. What's the day of redemption? I thought you already had the redemption of your soul. Yes you do. The redemption of the body, as we've been Speaking of is something future. So how precious that now in Christianity, not so in the Old Testament. Another thing I might mention is we don't have another baptism of the Holy Spirit.
I think we're clear about that. The baptism of the Holy Spirit took place at Pentecost, the 2nd installment under in the time of Cornelius in Acts chapter 10. But not another baptism of the Holy Spirit, but joined into the body when a person believes the gospel of his salvation. Is that right, brethren? I enjoyed reading in the book of Acts the other night.
It said about Stephen that he was full of faith.
And full of the Holy Ghost, full of faith. That's a topic, isn't it?
It has turned with me to Revelations Chapter 3 a minute.
Look at verse 20 in Revelations chapter 3 and 20. You're in the in the message to Laodicea and Leo Dicia. He had looked at him and he says thou art Luke warm.
In verse 16 and neither cold nor hot, and I will spew thee out of my mouth. The Lord has diagnosed this day and age. He is diagnosed easier to every one of us sitting in this room in the last day and ages of our condition. And when he gets down there in verse 18I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire. And he gets down to verse 20. He says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and Sup with him, and he with me.
You just got done saying and talking about the condition of my heart, the condition of your hearts, that door there. This, this is about the church. I don't want to take it right now and use it in the gospel. That's perfectly fine. We don't see the word salvation here. We don't see the words born again. We don't see quickened, etcetera, etcetera. He's knocking at the door. He himself is the door. I am the door. If any man enter, any shall be saved.
In an unsaved one in this room can stand and look at that door all day. If they don't enter in, they're never going to get saved. It doesn't any good and good to have a knowledge and look at it, but this is written to the Christians, isn't it? This is the written to the last day and age of the body of Laodicea and he's saying I'm knocking at your door. I've paid the price I own. I am the rightful owner of your body like we've been reading about in Second Corinthians.
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He bought it and he purchased this body. It's his, he says. You have locked the door from the inside.
Are you going to unlock the door and let me come in and Sup with you? The two that were walking on the road to Emmaus, if you turn back to Luke and read about it, they were scaled across your eyes and they didn't know who was walking with them, but he was talking to him about everything and it was just fill in their hearts.
When they got done, they said, did not our hearts burn within us? Do you have heartburn for the Lord?
You don't need an Alka Seltzer for that heartburn.
Hey, that's, that's what he's saying here. Come on. Do you have a little part of that house that has one of the doors that's still locked and you don't give him the keys to that little room? Thank you, John.
Are you hiding that little bit in there and carrying it with you as a Christian still?
That's what he's boiling down to.
You know, some of these things that we look at here and we read and we understand there's two passages in the Word of God that just thrill me once found in Ephesians and it says about His eternal purposes, and He has had an eternal purpose for each and every one of us.
And when it is all said and done, he is going to glorify in how everything has taken place.
And he had an eternal purpose in that passage in Jesus Christ. When I go to Isaiah 55 verses 8:00 and 9:00.
It says for my thoughts and my ways are above your thoughts and your ways. And when I can't understand a scripture, I give it over and just trust in faith. Like our brother said that he said it, it is finished, it's done. He rightfully owns this body and he should be at that door and be able to come in to any part of this house. Yes, I have to.
Look at self with self examination.
Getting back to our chapter here, verse six it says.
Whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. Verse 8 says we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. That's what happens when a person comes to the end of his life, that's a believer. The moment he is absent from the body, he is present with the Lord.
That wonderful confidence to know for a person that is a real believer. But then he says in verse 9, because we need to keep going brother, and wherefore we labor that whether present or absent we may be, it should be acceptable to him.
So we labor and the next verse talks about the judgment seat of Christ, something that's going to take place.
In the future.
Where everything in the believers.
Life is going to be reviewed. So he's talking about that in verse 9, whether present or absent.
We labor that we may be acceptable to him. Oh, brethren, what does he say about it? You know, in our culture here in the United States, we're so here so much about you. Do your thing.
You do what you want to do. Everybody should respect your rights and your desires. Hey, that doesn't cut it when it's talking about our lives as believers, brother. And it's not what we want. It's not what we find pleasant. It's what He wants for us. And we should live our lives constantly in view of that moment when we're going to stand in His presence and everything.
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Absolutely everything is going to be evaluated at the judgment seat of Christ. This is one of the motives, brethren, that we're talking about in this chapter that is very important to keep before us.
Lord help us, Brandon.
Just go back for a moment to the eighth verse and relate an incident that was recounted by our brother Ralph Reed.
Who now is in the Enola, PA assembly? Ralph had a position where he often would.
Get together with administrators of various hospitals. On one occasion he was touring a floor with the main hospital administrator and a nurse came running out of one of the rooms very distraught, and the hospital administrator went over to her and said what seems to be the problem.
And she said I promised my patients wife.
That I would record his last words and he only said two things and I just don't understand what they were. And I'm afraid I can't communicate that to her. And the administrator in the presence of our brother Ralph Reeb said, what were those two words? And she said absent and present.
So.
The administrator turned to Ralph. Do you have any idea what she might be talking about? Ralph happened to have a pocket testament opened to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5. Read this first And she said, I'm so glad that I can report that to his wife. So that gave her joy.
When she heard those words and that last message communicated to her.
In these verses that we've read, 3 conditions. One is that we are at home, or should say present. We are present in the body. So right now we're present in the body. We're alive. We're not at home yet. To be at home is to be.
Completely.
There with our spirit, our soul and glorified body, then we'll be at home. And so we're present, it says in the body or we're absent where we're absent from the Lord. And then a little bit later on it says in verse 8, absent from the body.
That's the second condition or to be present with the Lord. So those three conditions are possible, but the encouragement that's given here, the motive in chapter 5, these first nine verses really and the verse nine is the conclusion of what he says is that wherefore we labor, we should labor in view of the fact that our bodies will be glorified. We're going to be in the presence of the Lord, will be just like him.
And because of that, with confidence, we're always confident. Verse 6.
And in verse eight, we are confident because of our confidence and faith. We labor because we know regardless of what takes place in this scene, we're going to be just like Christ. Our bodies are going to be glorified. So it should be a motive for us, and it was a motive for the apostle Paul. You'll notice verse seven has brackets, and that is it's a little bit of a parenthesis where we walk by faith and not by sight. So these things have already been said.
Are appreciated by faith.
In verse eight he says willing rather. Sounds like he'd prefer that, doesn't it? I had the privilege on Thanksgiving Day to visit a little bit with Billy Jennings. The first thing she said to me was I'd like to go home to be with the Lord.
I think she is willing rather to be absent than to be present. I've heard other dear Saints say the same thing. I'm ready to go. I want to go home.
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What's so encouraging about that is it's because faith is is in operation so the word of God is enjoyed and it's become a reality to the soul. And so it says here when we walk by faith, well, what an encouragement it is when we do come into.
The company of those who are practicing the truth that the Spirit of God has put before us today.
That we have this wonderful hope of leaving the this body of, of sin and corruption and being being able to be transformed into that new body. And So what a wonderful thing it is when that faith is operating and when it displays itself in expression what our brothers just mentioned.
Faith and operation. I asked your dear mother, what are you going to say when you see him? She says I'm going to fall at his feet.
She's looking forward.
To a moment in the near future where she can fall at his feet.
It's a reality to her.
Well, the next motive that he speaks of is the judgment seat of Christ. And he says here we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. And I believe Brother Bob mentioned it's very close to the time of the rapture. We might just refer to it in Revelation chapter 22.
The rapture oftentimes in Scripture is spoken of, and very soon thereafter it's spoken of, in connection with the judgment seat of Christ.
And so in chapter 22 of Revelation verse 12, behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me. That's really referring to the judgment seat of Christ. It will take place very quickly right after he comes for us. And so it's a motivation for us. We ought to be motivated to live for Christ and to use every hour of every day for his glory. And so Brother Gordon used to say, Brother Gordon Hale used to remind us that we were.
Every day of our lives we were preparing to meet the Lord, and we were preparing.
A gift to give him. He would use a little illustration of a little box. We're going to present our lives to the Lord and we're going to say at the end of it all, at the judgment seat of Christ will present a little box to him, as it were. This is what I thought about you.
And this is the present. This is how I use my life for you. If we live 70 years, we have 25,550 days. And how did we use those 25,550 days? Maybe we get more, maybe we get less, but they were to be used for Him. And so there's the thought here that we're going to stand before the Lord and we're not going to be judged judicially for our sins. He's not going to.
The the judgment for our sins took place at the cross of Calvary, and Christ bore the judgment for our sins in His own body on the tree. So we're never going to face the Lord Jesus as a judge for our sins. He will. What He will review is our works here and our motives. There's different things that He will review, but here he's going to review it says the things done in His body.
Anything that we've done in our body before we were saved and after we're saved.
All will be reviewed and the Lord will delight to review it and to reward whatever He can reward. And then there will be that rejoicing. And so he brings this in as a motivation to live for the Lord and to live every hour for His glory. Then that last motivation, as we've already mentioned in verse 14, the love of Christ constraineth us, or it compels us.
So we have three things that compel us to live for Christ in this world. One is that our bodies are going to be glorified. We're not our place is not in this world. It's in the heavens itself with God's man. And we have the fact that we're going to we're working as it were in this scene that we might bear fruit for him and that our lives might bring glory to him be reward will be displayed.
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His appearing, and then we have also the motive of love, affection for Christ, and it compels us to live every hour for His glory, for His honor.
In verse 10, it says that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he had done, whether it be good or bad. So it's pretty clear that it's not a question of our persons, it's a question of our works that are going to be reviewed in that day. And it is something to stop and think and that's why we encourage.
Believers to read the scriptures.
To have God's view of things, because only what's according to the word of God is going to last.
In that day.
Of the judgment seat of Christ.
I would like to make a comment and I hope it's not going to be confusing, but I think it's important that the judgment seat of Christ has various sessions.
Now I'm going to explain what I mean. This time of the judgment seat of Christ, it's the question of the believers lives, the works that are done, it's all going to be manifested. But now look at verse 11.
And he says knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men it indicates that there's going to be other sessions when the Lord Jesus is going to sit on a throne. We know in Matthew chapter 25 at the end is called the when he's going to sit on the throne of his glory and all the nations, the living nations are going to be gathered.
Before him as the sheep and the goats, and he is going to separate them.
According to how they manifested faith in the messages message delivered to them by the messengers, that's another session of that same judgment seat. And then of course, there is the judgment seat of Christ at the great white throne. It's the Lord Jesus that's going to sit on that throne and he is the one that's going to judge. Can you imagine the terror, the abject terror that's going to be on the face of someone like Idol Hitler?
Or Mussolini or Stalin, when they come to see Jesus. Here comes Pontius Pilate, if he was never saved, to think that he condemned him to that death of the cross and he's going to see him. Abject terror on their faces. This motivates us to preach the Gospel to the lost. And so, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.
Oh, brethren, how important it is, these motivations to think about it. But here in verse 10, it's talking about our lives as believers that are passed in revision. And I want to give you another verse because there's several places in Scripture where the judgment seat of Christ for believers are mentioned. It's in First Corinthians chapter 3. And it's very helpful, I think, to understand this.
It says.
Verse 10.
According to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master Builder, I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon. But let everyone, every man, take heed how he buildeth thereon. So we're all builders.
And I think that's so good. Tim mentioned that yesterday. We're all ministers. I cringe rather than when we look at certain ones who say are in the Lord's work.
We are all in the Lord's work. Even if you have a secular job, you should do that hardly. As to the Lord, you're in the Lords work. And so we're going to have that Lord, that work manifested in that coming day. Let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon for other foundation can no man lay, and that is laid which is Jesus Christ.
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Now if any man build upon this foundation gold.
Silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sword it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built, thereupon he shall receive a reward. Not only does the work remain when the fire has done its testing.
Job. But there is going to be a reward given on top of that. But then there's another case here in verse.
15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss. There's going to be a sense of loss in that day, but he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire. It's not a question of our salvation. It's the question of the.
Works being tested. So I just put those there. One other further verse in chapter 4 I'd like to mention because somebody mentioned about motives and the Lord's going to address motives as well. Look at chapter 4 and verse five. He says judge nothing before the time until the Lord come, who both will bring to light.
The hidden things of darkness and will make manifest. Here it is.
The councils of the heart, and then shall every man have praise of God.
It's beautiful, brethren, even sometimes I want, maybe I have the right motive, but it doesn't work out. God looks not only at the work, but He looks at the motive behind it. And I think that is encouraging to us too.
There's another aspect of it as well in chapter 12 of Matthew.
He says, the Lord himself says in Matthew chapter 12, verse 36 But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. So he's speaking at the day of the judgment seat of Christ. And so those idle words, those words that ought not to have been spoken.
He'll pass judgment on, as it were, and we might just clarify that there are two kinds of judges, and there are judges in the land that have authority judicially to imprison people and to find them and so on. But you and I will never face the Lord Jesus in that character. There are other judges that are judges that state fairs and in other matters at an art studio or something, they would judge the work and the quality of the work. And so in that sense, the Lord Jesus will review.
Our lives and judge the motives, the quality of the motives that were we acted upon the words that we spoke, the deeds that we did and how we labored in the Christian testimony did we labor according to the instructions given to us in the word of God. Yet is a man not crowned except these strive lawfully and so he has given us the guidelines and so this is.
Part of what the Apostle Paul was Speaking of here.
In connection with the motives or the judgment seat of Christ, the deeds done.
That everyone may receive the things done in His body according to that He has done. And it's a marvelous thing. Our consciences will be absolutely, perfectly clear, and we'll see things just the way He sees them at the judgment seat of Christ, because we will not have the flesh.
And we'll have a private audience, everyone of us with the Lord, and after that audience with the Lord.
All of those things that are not of profit that we thought we did for the Lord. They'll go on to the burn pile and we'll they'll never be mentioned ever again. And so it's to really the apostle Paul had made mistakes himself in life and I believe he uses this, he states this and by the Spirit inspired of the Spirit to just as a motive to say it's all going to be sorted out at the end.
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And what was done for him, he'll sort it out perfectly and then there's going to be a reward.
And so it motivated them to live every day and every hour for the glory of the Lord.
You might mention one more aspect since we're mentioning different aspects, and that's in Romans 14, and it has to do with personal exercises. And sometimes it's easy to look at someone and be critical of a particular exercise they may have, but in Romans 14 it says in verse 12.
So then, every one of us.
She'll give a count of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another anymore, but judge this rather that No man put a stumbling block block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. And I know we do have to at times pass judgment on something that we see. I'm not Speaking of that so much if it's unscriptural or or just wrong. You know, we don't. We just don't stand idly by and allow it in faithfulness. We may have to say something, but there are.
Matters of personal exercise that we have as individuals and we're each going to give an account. The Lord said to Abraham, walk before me and be perfect. So in Genesis 17. So there is that aspect to just to to round out what we've been hearing, which has been very good.
But.
When we're we have the judgment seat of Christ is really a manifestation.
Our walk and waves every everything will be manifest as mentioned not.
For any judicial inquiry. But there is such a thing as a saved soul and a lost life. And the prime example that we are often referred to is Lot. We're going to meet Lot in the glory, without a doubt.
Second, Peter tells us he was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked every day. He was in the gate of Sodom, where he should never have been. His whole object was present advantage in this world. He lifted up his eyes, yes, but not any higher than the horizon of this world, and he got what he wanted.
The fields of ****** he moved in that direction, picked up a woman that I don't think was a believer, sat in the gate of solemn Sodom lost his testimony and his family.
Was escaped with the skin of his teeth. A believer who lived for the present advantage and the things of this world, and he received them but all.
A saved soul. But what was there there that the Lord can could commend in his life? Well, he's in the glory and the Lord the least thing that we do for him.
Even a thought upon his names is recorded in the annals of eternity and will be rewarded. And so.
We can.
Commit everything into the hands of the Lord, knowing that our work will be remembered by him. But there's a warning there. We have it in Jonathan too. You know, when David gave the list of his mighty men who were rewarded when he established the Kingdom, those that had shared his rejection in The Cave of Abdullah. The name of Jonathan is conspicuous by its absence.
His name is not there yet. Jonathan truly loved David and encouraged him, but there was a failure there. He didn't share the rejection of David and there was a loss there in the life of Jonathan. A little word where our time is gone. It's a little word of encouragement for each one of us is we can all look look at our lives and find flaws.
Maybe wasted time, wasted years, but the Lord has promised that he can restore the years that the locusts have eaten. And and so it may be that there has been a journey that we have been on and part of that journey seems to be barren. But faith and willingness to be found in, in the, in the, in a path that's in obedience to the Lord. We don't want to put limitations on what the Lord can do from this point.
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On and so I want to encourage each one of us to walk by faith. That's what we've had here. These all of these things come to us. We come into the enjoyment of them like they walked by faith. God can bring much blessing into our lives. We don't have to look back.
And and suffer.
Emotionally, we're going to we're going to have a sense of loss at times, but I just want to encourage each one of us.
There's the, there's the, the future. Whatever time the Lord reads us here, I think the fact that the Lord says in that verse we read, every man shall have praise of God. There will be something in every believer that God will reward.
We welcome still thy faithful word. The cross shall meet its short reward, For soon must pass the little while Then joy shall crown thy servants toil.
And we shall hear the Savior say, Arise, my love, and come away.
See #282.
Master, we would.
Love to see the sea of darkness.