Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Faith, Hope & Love P28 (06-22-20)
Synopsis
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Ponder over this scripture. How much time do you and I spend on things that are temporary, the seen things, when the Lord tells us to keep our eyes on Him and things that are eternal? We know our bodies are wasting away. Anyone over forty certainly has a greater understanding of that, and certainly someone in their fifties. But we are told to number our days so we may gain a heart of wisdom. We need to evaluate our priorities in life and invest in things that last forever, in worthy ministries to get the message of God’s grace into the hearts of men. We need to invest our money, our time, and our treasures on eternal things. Yet, oftentimes our attention gets all enamored over big buildings, a big church, a big stadium, and our mind drifts away from things unseen, the things that really matter eternally. As Jesus said, where your heart is, there your treasure is also.
When we think also about the fact that inwardly we are being renewed day by day, that makes us think about eternal life that is in us. How true it is that we think we are so young, until when we are over forty and our body has aches and pains that seem to linger more than we would like, days instead of hours. Or, we look in the mirror and we see strands of gray and white or no hair at all or bulging sags under our arms and what looks like see-through skin. But inwardly we are being renewed day by. Our mind is always growing in grace and knowledge of the Lord until the day we die and see Him as He really is.
So we have this hope in us, of eternal life, and of the day we shall see Jesus face to face, and be transformed in a twinkling of an eye and have a glorious eternal body like his. So we can share this hope, not just of what is going to happen on that day, but also for the here and now as well. The eternal things that do not wear out is the life of God in us, that joy and peace and hope in a fallen world. When you know that in Him, you have peace and experience that peace, you want others to experience the same. So you invest in this, because this is something that can never be taken away and never gets old.
Transcript
Let us move on in John 14:2-3.
John 14:2-3
2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
Did we not finish studying that he has a house available for us up there? We know that when this earthly tent is destroyed, we have a building from God? Jesus told us the same thing here. Jesus is already there and he has already prepared a place for us.
The issue to me is this. In my understanding of the scripture, on the day that this heart of mine stops beating, the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come for me and take me to be with Him forever. He has got a home prepared for me. My glorified body is the house that I am going to live in. That is already prepared for me. I believe that is what happens at death. I do not believe it is a lonely experience. I believe that the Lord Jesus comes. I think he says, “Let us go home”. And He takes me home and He escorts me home. That is what I believe is true.
I believe that is not only true spiritually but I think that at that moment, I will receive my eternal house, the dwelling I am going to live in, this heavenly dwelling talked about in 2 Corinthians 5. “We know that when this earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God”. It is already there. And He tells us this. “I have already prepared it for you. I have already gone to do that and one of these days I am going to take you to be with me”. I do not know about you, but that to me takes away all the fear of death. It takes away the sting of death. It takes away the wonderment. I do not like heights. Will I be frightened when I go up? All these fears in my mind are alleviated when you realize you are going to be in the bosom of Jesus, carried tenderly by Him into the presence of God, receiving all the things He has already promised us we are going to receive and to be with Him forever, that sting of death that has been totally taken away in Christ Jesus.
In 1 Thessalonians is where some of the passages are confusing. Now, we are declaring in 1 Thessalonians with the end times. So, let us see the contrast between this passage and what we just talked about, and see if you can make them come together.
1 Thessalonians 4:13
13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.
In the book of Thessalonians, you are dealing with this subject of the return of the Lord. If Jesus was there talking to me, or Paul was talking to me about the return of the Lord, and he is going to come and take you to be with Him, and telling you just what we are talking about, what Jesus has already prepared for you, and one of these days when you die, you will be absent from the body and present with the Lord and you will be with Him forever. He is going to give you your home and you are going to have the house you are going to live in. Your most natural question will be, what about those who are already dead? What is going to happen to them? You say that the Lord comes back, which you say you are going to do, and this will happen to me, but the Lord did not come back yet when my mom and dad died, so what will happen to them? That is the most natural question to ask. What about those who already died and who died before the Lord comes back, you are talking about? This instruction would have come to people with the idea the Lord could come back right now. So 2000 years ago, this instruction to those in Thessalonica. This could happen tomorrow. So the most natural thing to ask is what will happen to those already dead?
1 Thessalonians 4:13-14
13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.
Jesus rose and God is going to bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. Is this anything at all that is contrary to what He talked about in John we talked about. “I go and prepare a place for you. I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am”. That is all he is saying. God is going to bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. Paul is just amplifying that, that we believe Jesus raised the dead, and so God will also bring back those who have fallen asleep in him. You are going to be in the arms of Jesus and you are going to be receiving your new glorified body.
1 Thessalonians 4:15
15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
In other words, we are not going to go first. The ones who are dead, they are already there. What else can that mean except for when people come down and think that is, that at this rapture, because the next verse, something is going to happen to the dead.
1 Thessalonians 4:16
16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
That is true. It just got through saying the dead in Christ will rise first. So we will not precede those who are dead in Christ because they are going to rise first. So what is going to happen at your physical death? The Lord is going to come down from heaven, with a loud command, the voice of an archangel and the trump call of God. He will do exactly what he said he was going to do. I have prepared a place for you. I am going to come back. I am going to take you with me so you will be with me forever. We can look at that and say that is going to happen at the time of the rapture.
I believe the context is that is what happens at death. The reason I say that is let us look further. After that, after this event takes place. If, at the rapture, it takes place in a split second, how could you be talking about before and after? It will be so fast there will not be any before and after. When two things snatched away at the same time and one happened a split second earlier, you would not say, “he went first”. There would be no need to mention that. In context, remember what this is answering. It would be answering a person who is asking about what is going to be taking place at the time the Lord comes back, and asking the question when, about what about those who are dead. This is what he is answering. Certainly, those of us who are left until the coming of the Lord. So you have those who are left and then you have those who died before the coming of the Lord. Those who are left will not precede those who have fallen asleep. When you tell somebody that those of us who are left will not precede those who have fallen asleep, that means everyone who have fallen asleep have preceded those who are still alive. Those who are left will not precede those who have fallen asleep. Those fallen asleep in the Lord are absent from the body and present with the Lord. We are told that. That is what we live by faith in. I prefer to be absent from the body but as long as the Lord wants me here in this body, I will serve him. But my desire is to be away from here and in the presence of God. In other words, those who have died over these past 2000 years certainly have gone before those that will be here when the Lord returns.
1 Thessalonians 4:15
15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
Just as Jesus said in John 14, I will come to get you.
John 14:2-3
2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
Then after that, those who are still alive and are left. If the rapture occurred instantaneously, there will not be anybody left, those who are still alive and left. That means those who are still around the time of the Lord’s return will be caught up together with them. So if you are caught together with somebody, that means someone is already there and you will be caught up with them. Now if all of that happened in a split second, this is nonsensical talk. It is ridiculous, mundane talk. You are already there. The loved ones, the saints, are already there. Paul is not in heaven without a body. He has received his heavenly body just like those of us who will die before the coming of the Lord have received our home in heaven. He has a place prepared for us. We are not homeless up there. We have our body.
1 Thessalonians 4:17-18
17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
I do not know about you, but those are great encouraging words. Those who are dead already in the presence of God. Are they up there incomplete? No. They are complete. How can you be complete down here and be incomplete up there? How can you have a home down here and be homeless up there? You are absent from the body. Your spirit has gone to be with God and immediately it says, “clothed with heavenly dwelling”. So we have our bodies. We are complete up there. “We see him as he is and become like him”. Another marvelous passage of truth. We are going to be like him. That is amazing.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
The older you get, you realize that outwardly you are wasting away. You cannot stop that. You can do tummy tucks and all that, but that body is going to the grave. You can have plastic surgery all over this face but it is going to the grave. I think the best thing to do is to get the top of my head and pull a bunch of skin and tie a knot to it. At any rate, we are wasting away. We are getting old. That is hard for youth to believe. And that was hard for me to believe as a youth. You are doing the 200 year plan. But when you reach 40, your eyes do not do what they used to do. Then you hit the 50 year mark, and you are wasting away.
But inwardly we are being renewed day by day. I do not feel any different inwardly. I feel as young as I ever did. But when I look in the mirror, it is a shock. Inwardly, I feel just like I did as a child. I think it is evidence of what eternal life is going to be like. When we have eternal life, then I will be out of this body. In Christ, I am on the eternal plan. It is a wonderful thing to realize what is going to happen to you. What is fading away is not the inward. What is fading away is outward.
How many people have we known? This lady who was 96 years old died this year. Inwardly she was renewed day by day. She was at the seminar learning about the Lord, just three days before she died. Now, she is out of that body and present with the Lord with a new glorified eternal body. It just makes my heart leap for joy when I hear about it.
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. So we do not need to keep our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. I think of when the apostles and Jesus were talking. The apostles were so impressed with this temple, with bricks and mortar.
Mark 13:1
1 As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”2 “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; everyone will be thrown down.”
When we went to Israel, there was not a stone piled up on top of a stone.
We are impressed with outward things. We are impressed with church buildings. Our mindset is, “Boy, we have got to have a big building I can go to on Sunday”. We spend millions upon millions upon millions of dollars on outward buildings. Just like we spend millions on this outward building. Like I say, we are for it like it is going to be there forever. If we lose hair, we want implants. Woman aren’t satisfied with the size of anything. We are constantly remodeling our bodies, pampering our bodies. This outward is going to go away. You put a body into a grave. It is dead as a hammer. There is nothing glorious about a dead body. But we dress it up. And we paint it up. We do all this stuff and then have an open casket. Walking by and everybody looks in and says, “Does she look sweet?” That is a dead body, folks. Where is our sense of reality. That is a dead body. There is nothing sweet about a dead body. It is dead. It is gone.
Instead of being preoccupied with what we can see, let us be preoccupied with the eternal. What we see is temporary. What is unseen is eternal. So, the message of Christ is what is eternal, folks. What is eternal is this message of Jesus. When we are presenting the message of Jesus you are talking about an eternal consequence. You are engaged in eternal things. When you give to the proclamation of Jesus, you are investing in an eternal deal. When you incest in building, you invest in a building that is going to fall down. You put clothes on boys. Those clothes are going to wear out. Your body is going to wear out. Only what you put on the inside will remain. Yet the emphasis is always on what is going on the outside. We have this and that program. Look at our big building going up. And everyone oohs and awes. Yet, Jesus says, “one of these days I am going to tear this temple down”. Of course, he was talking about his own body. But he was also talking about the temple.
We get our eyes not on what is unseen but what is seen. We support things that are seen, not unseen. I wonder sometimes where are our priorities in life. Whether it is yours or mine, where are our priorities? I think they are, quite frankly, in our pocket book. Many times, the way in which we invest our time and our talent and our treasures, where we invest, is an indicator of what is really going inside of us down under the skin. Because if we are not willing to invest in those things eternal, then how can we say that I love the eternal life that has been given to me in Jesus Christ. I love the fact that one of these days I am an eternal person yet I am going to spend all my money, time and treasure on temporal things. I do not understand this. It is time for the Christian world to wake up. Where are you spending time, treasure and talent? On the temporal or on the eternal?
As I studied these scriptures, my heart was pricked on what my heart was on, that we fix our eyes on what is seen not unseen. Where are our eyes fixed? Are they fixed on the seen or the unseen? Are they fixed on what is temporary? Or fixed on what is eternal? The message of grace, of this total provision of God, which is what grace is about. It is about the fact that God has done it all. He is so gracious and merciful to us. He has done everything there is to do. He wants us to walk by faith in that truth. Yet, I look at our ministry and other ministries that may be teaching the finality of the cross, the reality of the resurrection, those are eternal truths that can change you eternally. How much are we behind this? How much are we really behind it? How much are we really willing to sacrifice in our own life to see this message perpetuated? And I wonder sometimes about that.
I have to sit back and wonder if, with many, many people, why the cost of a cup of coffee a day is more important than investing those dollars in a ministry that is proclaiming Christ Jesus, that you can be a part of a team, a radio family, a group of people who stand up in this dead country that we live in and say, “I am here to see that this message of grace is perpetuated across this land, country and world. I am here to help with that. I am willing to help more than the cost of a cup of coffee a day”. I have to stand up and say, “What is it worth?” I have to look in my own life, and see what I spend things on. How does that compare to what I give to this ministry? I not only give my life to this ministry, I give my finances to this ministry. At times, as much as I give, I could be giving more instead of doing this over here. For this over here is temporal but this over here is eternal. So it comes down to prioritizing ourselves and our life here. Do we really believe what we say we believe? If we believe what scriptures say here, “we fix our eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen”, the eternal things, how much are we involved in investing in eternal things? It sure is easy to invest in the stock market. But that is not eternal that will go up and down as a yoyo. But we will invest in that. But to invest in the eternal life of people, to invest to help people to come to know Christ as Lord and Savior and to grow in His grace, which is so vitally important. Is there anything more important than that? Yet we say, “Well, I will do that later”.
That is part of what Romans 8:22-25 is talking about.
Romans 8:22-25
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
That is what we are waiting for. We are waiting for that day when we are free out of these bodies, out of this world in which we live, to eternally walk with Him. Folks, how can there be a greater investment than to help people enter into that eternal life, that enables a person to look forward to something, to realize that there is something to look forward to? There is hope. That is what this hope is about. Yes, there is a zoo down here. But there is hope. What I want to do now here is not to glory in this place down here. It is the world I am in, but I do not want to be in it. But I want to be in it to help people to see the hope that is available to them right now here on this earth and the hope that is available to us the day we are absent from the body and present with the Lord.
2 Peter 3:11-13
11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.
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