2 CORINTHIANS 5 LIVING IN LIGHT OF ETERNITY2017 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 2 Corinthians 5 Living In Light Of Eternity

You are listening to Fervent Word, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2017.

As we look at 2 Corinthians chapter 5 this morning, the Lord is continuing something He's been focusing on for the past several weeks. And this wasn't really planned as I was putting the message together for this morning, but it's just, I think, something that the Lord has been wanting to focus on.

Over the past few weeks, as we've been looking at 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, we've been talking a lot about eternity. And that continues this morning, and it dawned on me as I was preparing this message and putting the slides together and the points. And I was thinking, you know, a lot of this sounds kind of familiar. Like I've shared this recently, and I began to look back over the past few Sundays.

And I think it's amazing how God has tied these things together and had this theme for us. And I think that is not just coincidence, and it's not just, you know, well, Jerry just, you know, eternity was on his mind, so that's what he chose to teach. But I would encourage you this morning that the Lord has organized this and coordinated this because,

well, He has something to say to us about eternity. And there is a need for us to consider eternity, perhaps to another degree and to a greater degree than we have been.

And so He's given us the month of August and said, I'm going to give you messages in the month of August from 1 and 2 Corinthians about eternity to help us look beyond this life and into the life that is to come. And so this morning, the title of the message is Living in Light of Eternity.

Living in Light of Eternity, in light of the things that Paul will tell us about eternity here in this passage, but also in light of the past several weeks and the things that God has been saying, well, there is an appropriate response for us in how we live our lives and the way that God desires for us to live.

And so we can look at these things and understand what is the appropriate response in the life that we are called to live. The first point we'll find is found in verses 1 through 5, and that is your eternity is guaranteed. And so as we begin to talk about how to live in light of eternity, first of all,

He lets us know and assures us of the guarantee that is eternal life for those who are believers in Jesus Christ. In verse 1, He says, "For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God,

a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Paul begins this passage saying, "We know." And his point, as we go through these verses, you'll see is very clear that there's this knowledge that we have that gives us great confidence,

that there's an absolute certainty. This isn't we speculate or we think or we hope in the idea that, you know, it's most likely going to take place this way, but, you know, there's a chance that it won't. You know, that's not what Paul is saying here.

He says, "We know this is something we are absolutely certain of." And what is it that we know for sure without a doubt?

He says, "If our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God." And here Paul is using the illustration of a tent and buildings to refer to our physical human body.

And you can seeright away how this ties back into what we were looking at last week in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Last week, the title of the message was Your Resurrected Body.

And there in chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians, we saw a lot of details about what God has in store for us in eternity and what God has in store for these bodies as He brings forth something new from this seed, which will be planted as this body comes to an end.

But the Lord has a resurrected body in store for us. And Paul is kind of hitting that same point here as he uses the illustration of a house. He says, "Look, if this house," he says, "Well, maybe there's a better word for considering our body, not so much a house. If this tent," he says,

"that the idea of a tent being so much more temporary than a house, if this tent is destroyed,

if this body dies, if this body is destroyed," he says, "here's what we know. Here's what we know for sure, without a doubt, absolute certainty, we have a new building from God, a resurrected body that God has promised to us." Now, this is especially important to understand what,

as Paul is talking about this, in light of what he had been talking about in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. And I want to rewind a couple of verses into 2 Corinthians chapter 4 just to give a little bit of the context of where Paul's mind frame is at as he's writing these things. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 16,

Paul says, "Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen,

but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal." And there the Apostle Paul in chapter 4 has been talking about the afflictions that he's going through. And he's describing in that chapter some pretty severe afflictions.

He talks about being pressed on every side and, you know, not crushed, but feeling the pressure. And he's under some great affliction. And yet he goes on from that to say, "Even though our outward man is perishing, even though we're going through all of these trials and difficulties," he says,

"we're being renewed within day by day." And then he calls this heavy affliction that he's been describing all of chapter 4, he calls it a light affliction because he begins to compare it to the weight of glory that is in eternity. And he says, "We're not looking at the things which are seen. As we're experiencing all these physical things,

as we're experiencing all the things and difficulties in this life, we keep focusing our eyes on the things that are not seen because those are the things that are eternal." And so from there, he goes in to say, "For we know that if this body is destroyed, so if these trials result in our death,

if these trials be our undoing, if this wipes us out and our body is killed, here's what we know in the midst of that. God has a new body for us, a building not made with hands that is eternal in the heavens. We have this promise and this guarantee of, well,

this new body that God has promised for us. And so this tent will be destroyed, but there's that permanent eternal dwelling that God has prepared." I like what Charles Spurgeon said about this. He says, "Many people are in a great fright about the future.

Yet here is Paul viewing the worst thing that could happen to him with such complacency that he likens it to nothing worse than the pulling down of a tent." Have you ever taken down a tent? Was it a really dramatic experience? No, it's just, "Hey, camping trip's over.

Pack up. It's time to go to our real home. This has been temporary." When I was young, I used to camp out in the front yard of our house. We didn't go to, you know, far exotic places, but I liked to just camp outside. Something changed over the years, and I don't like to camp or sleep on the floor or anything like that anymore. But I used to love it.

But when it came time to tear down the tent, it was just, "Okay, it's time to tear down the tent." It wasn't a big deal. It wasn't a dramatic event. And the way that Paul is addressing this and describing it, that's what he's saying. He said, "This is all temporary. This body, this life, it's all temporary. It's meant to be temporary. We're just camping.

This isn't home." But there is a home. There is a building. There is a being or not a being, but a body that God has prepared for you that is eternal. And that is the permanent dwelling place for us. And so Paul says in verse 2, "For in this we groan,

earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation, which is from heaven. If indeed having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life." Paul says, "In this we groan.

In this body, in this tent, we groan." We frequently are reminded of the limitations of this body. We're frequently reminded of the failures of this body. We're frequently reminded with aches and pains and difficulties that this body is temporary.

It's not permanent. And so we groan, he says, earnestly desiring for that permanent body, that permanent dwelling, that permanent habitation. Not that we would be released from a body altogether. That's not what we're groaning for, just to be completely released from any type of body,

but that we would be further clothed. So he switches up the illustration a little bit to talk about garments. This garment will be removed, but we're going to have a new garment to put on. So not unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality would be swallowed up by life.

And that's what Paul is describing. That's what we spent a lot of time talking about last week, that resurrected body that God has in store, that it's not that we have no body in eternity, but there's a new body that God has in store for His followers. Verse 5, "Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God,

who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee." So Paul here goes on to say, this is what we're looking forward to. This is what we're groaning for. And he points to God as the one who has prepared us for this as a way to say,

this is rock solid, stable. You can count on it. This is not, you know, Cousin Joe promised you that he was going to do something. This is God has prepared us for this very thing. And God has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

Along with this promise of the new body and the life in eternity, God doesn't just, you know, give us a promise that's a long way off and then leave us with just that. He gives us a deposit, a guarantee. This word guarantee, it could be translated deposit.

It could also be translated a pledge. But it's interesting. It's also a word that's been used to describe an engagement ring. An engagement ring. Think about it like that. That God has given you His Holy Spirit as an engagement ring.

Now, when you give an engagement ring, it is a promise. It is a pledge. I'm going to marry you. I'm going to be dedicated to you. I'm going to be faithful to you. I'm going to enter into this relationship with you in marriage. That is the promise of the engagement ring. And in a similar way,

God has given us an engagement ring in giving us the Holy Spirit. And God says, "I promise I will give you eternal life." And here's a deposit on that eternity. Here's a deposit on that resurrected body that I've promised to you.

Here's a guarantee so that you can have and hold onto and know that you have this life that I'm promising to you. It's, well, in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

And so this morning, it's appropriate for you to consider, do you have the Holy Spirit? Do you have this guarantee of eternity because, well, you have the Holy Spirit dwelling within you? If you have the Holy Spirit, understand that's God's promise. You're guaranteed eternity. You're guaranteed without a doubt, no questions.

You are guaranteed to have eternal life and all that God has in store for His followers in eternity. It's something that God has done and said in a variety of ways that the Holy Spirit in our lives and at work in our lives is the deposit. In Ephesians,

Paul talks about it as the Holy Spirit being the seal of our salvation. It's the guarantee, the promise. The Apostle John in 1 John chapter 4, verse 13 says this, "By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us because He has given us of His Spirit." The Holy Spirit within us,

the Holy Spirit at work in our lives is our guarantee of eternity. It's how we know that we are in the Father and that He is in us. It's how we know that we're believers in Jesus Christ. It's what God has given to usright now so that we could have this kind of certainty that Paul is describing.

And so the Holy Spirit in our lives is an important part of God's work and God's plan for us. And it's something that God gives to every believer in Jesus Christ. In Romans chapter 8, verse 9, Paul says it this way. He says, "You are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.

Now, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His." Here's what Paul says. You have the Spirit of God in you. But if you don't, well, that means you're not a believer in Jesus Christ. You've not received what God offers to you by faith in Jesus Christ.

But if you've received the salvation that God offers by faith in Jesus, then you have the Holy Spirit.

And so you have this promise and this guarantee, this deposit that God has said, "Okay, here's a little something to remind you and to let you know that I will be faithful to give you the everlasting life that I've promised to you."

And so every believer has the Holy Spirit. And if you don't have the Holy Spirit, you're not a believer. That is the reality presented by the scriptures. In John chapter 3, Jesus says, "He talked about the need to be born again by the Holy Spirit." He says, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit,

he cannot enter the kingdom of God." Born of water, speaking of the natural birth, but also born of the Spirit. That is, you must be born again by the Holy Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit who gives us spiritual life.

And he says, "Unless you're born again by the Holy Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God." And so there is this reality for us as believers. We've believed in Jesus. We've been born again. We have the Holy Spirit. We have the deposit.

And so you know, you know your eternity is guaranteed.

The Holy Spirit within you, the Holy Spirit at work in your life is your guarantee from God that He will finish the work that He began in you. Now, this is important to understand because sometimes, well, we get shaky in our faith. And in looking to eternity, we kind of can get freaked out about,

well, is it really guaranteed? And Paul says, "We can come back and remember God has given us the Holy Spirit. You have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. That's your guarantee." Sometimes we get shaky in looking at the future and looking at eternity because we're looking at the wrong thing as a guarantee.

You know what's not your guarantee? Your good works. Your good works are not your guarantee that you have eternal life. That's not the guarantee. That's not the for sure thing because, well, first of all, we fail and fall in our good works. We don't do all of the good works that we ought to do.

We should do. They're going to be wavering because of our sinful nature. That's not your guarantee. Your faithful church attendance is not your guarantee. Now, you might get pretty shaky if you think faithful church attendance is what is guaranteeing you entrance into eternity,

and then you miss some services. And then now, oh, I don't know if God is going to let me into heaven, or I don't know if God's going to finish the work because I missed those services. That's not your guarantee. Your guarantee is not your giving or your serving. It's not even, I would say, God's love. That's not your guarantee.

Yes, God is love, but your response by faith, receiving Jesus Christ and receiving the Holy Spirit, that's your guarantee.

That's how you know. That's how you can have the certainty that Paul has. We know, even though we're going through the hardest trials of our lives, we know if this tent is destroyed, my eternity is guaranteed. And so I can look at it and understand it's difficult and it's hard.

And I wouldn't water down the pain and the difficulty of the affliction. But at the same time, in light of eternity, it's just like taking down a tent. This life is going to come to an end, but there's an absolutely certain eternity that God has in store for me. Your eternity is guaranteed.

Well, moving on to verses 6 through 8, it brings us point number two, and that is, you will instantly be present with the Lord.

You will instantly be present with the Lord. Check out verse 6 through 8 again. It says, "So 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, yes, well pleased, rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord." Now, Paul, as he's talking about our guarantee, he goes from there into verse 6 to say,

"We are always confident." And you can understand Paul's confidence now because it's not based upon himself or his works or his anything. It's based upon God who promised, God guaranteed. So I'm always confident because, well, how faithful is God?

God is absolutely faithful to his word to keep what he said. Paul tells us to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 2. He says, "This is a faithful saying. If we died with him, we shall also live with him. If we endure, we shall also reign with him.

If we deny him, he also will deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful. He cannot deny himself." Paul says, "It's a faithful saying. This is something you can count on. If we died with him, if we died with Jesus, we shall also live with Jesus." Now,

when he talks about dying with Jesus, he's not saying for those who were martyred for the faith that, you know, you were burned at the stake or whatever for faith in Jesus Christ. That's not what dying with Jesus is referring to. Dying with him is referring to what is pictured in baptism.

Baptism represents the spiritual work within us as we believe in Jesus Christ. And it pictures that death, the burial, and then the resurrection. And in baptism, we are identifying with Christ and we're accepting that we were with Jesus on the cross. That is, he took our place upon the cross.

We died with him. We were buried and we were resurrected to newness of life that we could walk in newness of life with him. And that's what Paul is saying. If we died with him, he's talking about that spiritual experience of believing in Jesus. We're included with Christ at the cross. And that means that we will also live with him.

That means we have this everlasting life. And notice that as he says in verse 13, if we are faithless, he remains faithful. So even when we fall short, even when we mess up, even when we fail, God is still faithful. It's a faithful saying. If we died with him, we shall also live with him.

Now, as he has this confidence and as he expresses this confidence in the guarantee because it's God who promised it,

he goes on to explain there are only two options for us as believers in Jesus. There's only two conditions that we can be in, two states that we can be in. And we're in one or the other, and there's no other alternative. In verse 6,

he says, "We are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord." So option number one is we are in this body, this physical body that we haveright now. And if we are in this body, then that means we are absent from the Lord. Now, we have the Holy Spirit.

We have the presence of the Lord in the sense that God is here with us, but we are not in the full presence of the Lord. We will be. That's the promise of eternity. Butright now, as long as we're in this body, Paul says, we are absent from the Lord. And that's why he says, "We walk by faith,

not by sight," because it requires faith. We have to trust God at his word that he will be good on his guarantee, that he will give us everlasting life, that God is at work and is on the throne. But there will be a day that the faith isn't required because we will see God on the throne.

We will be there in the presence of God. And in that day, we won't need to walk by faith. We'll be able to walk by sight. But until then, we walk by faith because as long as we're in this body, we are absent from the Lord. But then he says in verse 8, "We are confident," again,

guaranteed, "we are confident, yes, well pleased, rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord." And so he now gives option number two. To be absent from the body means that we are present with the Lord.

And these are the only two options. Either we're in this body and absent from the Lord, or we're absent in this body and present with the Lord. It's one state or the other state. It's a toggle, not a slider.

And you're like, "What does that mean?" Well, it's a little web design talk for you. Think about it like a light switch. You have the kind of light switch that is a switch. You flip it on, you flip it off, and then you have the kind of switch that is a dimmer,right? And the dimmer switch,

you can turn it on, you can turn it off, or you can set it to anywhere in between that you want it to be. And so there's all this variety. And so a toggle, that's the switch. It's just on or off. It's one or the other. That's it. Or the dimmer, where it could be on, it could be off, or it could be somewhere in between.

We have a dimmer switch in our dining room at home, and it might as well just be a toggle. Might as well just be a regular switch because we either put it all the way on or all the way off. Same in here. We have dimmer switches on these lights, but they're either all the way on or all the way off usually.

But we like the flexibility of being able to set it somewhere different if we want to. When it comes to our condition as believers, our state, Paul says, there's only two options. It's a switch. It's either on or it's off. There's no middle ground. There's no other option. There's no other alternative.

Either you're in this body and absent from the Lord, or you're present with the Lord and absent from this body. Here's another example to consider. I usually have an image on the background of my slides,right? Pastor George saw this. He's like, "Did you get that from a Led Zeppelin album?" And I was like, "Who?" I didn't know who that was.

I was like, "I never saw this on an Amy Grant album, so I don't know what you're talking about, George." No, I'm just kidding. But anyways, I usually have the background,right? And then I have an overlay so that you can read the text on top of it. It's not too busy and you're able to read it. And as I set that overlay, I could set it to various degrees of opacity.

And I'm getting too technical. I apologize. But you could see the stages,right? These are 10% increments. So 10% opacity, 20%, and it gets darker and darker and darker and darker,right? And that's great. It's a little slider that I play with to figure out, okay, what's theright balance of how dark it needs to be so that you can see the words, but still see the image underneath. And I can change it according to whatever is appropriate.

And there's all of these options available for that.

When it comes to our condition, Paul says, there's no stages. There's no like 50% you're mostly in to eternity. You've got 90% of your new body and that's good enough. It's either all or nothing. It's all the way in or all the way out.

You're either in this body and in the presence of the Lord, I'm sorry, and absent from the presence of the Lord, or you're out of this body and in the presence of the Lord. I always like to use the illustration of the edge of the stage. And the edge of the stage is a lot like the life that you guys have,

that I have, that we are livingright on the edge of eternity. And we're walking alongside of it. Now, at any time, it doesn't take a long time. It just takes an instant and I'm in eternity. And that's how this life is,

that we're walking along the edge and then just in an instant, we're in eternity. Because at any moment, you and I could be there.

At any moment, we could just boom, we'reright off the edge. It wouldn't take much. One crazy pilot trying to land at the Corona airport could take us all outright here, just crashright into our building. Or that donut that you ateright before service, it's going to get to you. No, I'm just kidding.

None of us are promised tomorrow. None of us, we're so fragile.

This tent is so fragile.

Paul says, look, we're either going to be in this body and away from the Lord, or away from this body and in the presence of the Lord. And that could happen at any moment. That could happen in any second. We areright on the edge. It's not like we're way back here and eternity's there.

You're guaranteed this amount of time before you get off the stage, before you enter into eternity. We'reright on the edge. At any moment, the Lord could come back and we could be raptured. We could be caught up to be with the Lord. Or at any moment, we could just fall over dead. Because this is a tent.

This is a body. It's temporary. But in the midst of that uncertainty, in the midst of that, where we don't know, there is the reality that when we are gone from this body, instantly. So there's no staging area. I was introduced to this idea of a green room.

I don't know if you guys know what a green room is, but I was speaking at a church one Sunday and they took me into the green room. And I looked around and I was like, the walls aren't even painted green. Why do they keep calling this the green room? It's not green. And they had to educate me. Okay, it's not green because of the color, but that's what they call this staging area before you go on the stage.

Here, you have this opportunity here. There's a mirror in there. Check yourself. Is there anything in your teeth? Does your hair look okay? You need any water? Everything you need to prepare for going out on stage and for what is about to take place. That's what the green room is for. There's no green room for eternity. There's no like in between.

You go from here into like a temporary place and there you kind of really get ready for eternity. No, Paul's point is this is the green room for eternity. Right now, you're getting ready to spend eternity in the presence of the Lord. And if you're not getting readyright now, then you're not ready.

This is your opportunity to be ready to be in the presence of the Lord. This is where we are at. We'reright on the cusp. We'reright on the edge.

And we could be there at any moment. Thomas Constable, the commentator, says it this way. We are either in our mortal bodies and absent from the Lord, or we are with the Lord and absent from our mortal bodies. This is a strong guarantee that when we leave our mortal bodies, we will go immediately into the Lord's presence.

Straight before the Lord. That's where we will be at any moment, at any instant.

No special extra loading area or preparation area that we are either with the Lord and apart from this body, or we are in this body and apart from the Lord. That is our only two conditions. That is the only two possibilities for us as believers in Jesus. So in light of that,

in light of the guarantee that God has given to us for eternity, in light of the reality that we are either in this body and away from the Lord, or with the Lord and away from this body, in light of that, now as we move on to verses 9 and 10, we have point number three.

And Paul sets the example for us for how we should live in response to this doctrine that he's been sharing. And that is, make pleasing God your aim. Make pleasing God. Since eternity is guaranteed, since at any moment,

in any instant, you will be present with the Lord, Paul says, I make pleasing God the most important thing in my life. Verse 9 says, therefore, we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,

that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Paul says, therefore, because of the guarantee of eternity, therefore, because at any moment, any instant, I'm going to be in the presence of the Lord.

Therefore, I make it my aim. Paul says, we make it our aim. The idea of an aim here is it's a singular focus. Paul is not saying, okay, so sometimes I say this, it's on my to-do list.

And there's a lot of things that are on my to-do list that they're on my to-do list. They really are. But I don't really have any idea when I'm going to do it, how I'm going to do it. There's no realurgency to get it done. It's just, I don't know if I should admit that out loud, but if I say it's on my to-do list, that means,

yeah, I know I need to get to that at some point. I just don't have a plan in place to get to itright away. Paul is not saying it's on my to-do list to be pleasing to God. I mean, I know I'm supposed to do that. I know I need to do that. At some point, I'm going to get around to that. Paul is saying,

it's my single focus. Pleasing God is not just one item on my to-do list. Paul says, it is the only item on my to-do list. It is the thing that I'm driving for. The thing that I'm working for. It is the thing that I get up every day to do. I live my life to be pleasing to God.

He says, we make it our aim. Think about that idea of aiming. I don't know if you've ever aimed perhaps a rifle. Maybe you're in the FBI. You're tracking down bad guys and you aim. And what do you do?

You usually close one eye or you squinted at least a little bit because you need to focus out of the other one. Everything else needs to go out of focus. And you need to set your sights on your target. Everything else becomes secondary. The most important thing is your target. Maybe you're not an FBI agent tracking down bad guys.

Maybe you're at the country club and you need to do some shooting. I don't know why that picture makes me think of a country club. She stopped skiing for a second, had to shoot a target, and she's going to keep on going. But same thing. See the focus? Get even see your eyeball through the scope a little bit. It's kind of freaky looking. The focus. Everything else becomes secondary.

Everything else becomes out of focus. And I'm just focusing on that one thing, my target. Maybe you're not at the country club. Maybe you got a sweet hairstyle and you're throwing darts. Same thing. That aim. I don't know. I like the hairstyle. The way it kind of curls in the back a little bit.

Might be just jealous,

but same thing. You're throwing dart at the dartboard. You're aiming. Everything else is secondary. Your focus, your attention is that target. Paul says, that's the way that we approach pleasing God.

That's our aim. Everything else is out of focus. Everything else is secondary. And I'm setting my sights on pleasing God. That's my single focus. That's what's most important to me, that I would be well pleasing to God. And notice he throws in there in verse nine, whether present or absent.

There's the toggle again. Either I'm in the presence of God or I'm absent from the presence of God. But either way, the most important thing to me, the thing that I'm focused on, the thing that I'm aiming for is to be well pleasing to God. And how does Paul have this singular focus? How does he have this drive towards this?

Well, he goes on to say in verse 10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Paul says, I make it my aim. I'm focused on this.

I'm living my life to this end because of what I know about eternity.

I know that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Now, as Paul's talking about the judgment seat of Christ, he's not talking about the great white throne judgment that's referred to in the book of Revelation. And the great white throne judgment is the judgment for unbelievers.

It's the judgment to see whether or not your name is written in the book of life. And whoever's name is not written in the book of life is cast into the lake of fire. That's eternal judgment. That is the great white throne judgment. But as Paul talks about the judgment seat of Christ, he's not talking about that.

He's talking about a judgment that we will all experience at the judgment seat of Christ. It's not a judgment about eternity in the sense of whether or not you enter into eternity. This is for believers in Jesus. And eternity is guaranteed.

That's point number one. But this judgment is about what did you do and how well did you live your life? He says that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, good or bad. And so the idea here is not judgment for sin,

but an evaluation. You could think of it kind of like an annual review at your job. Now, you're not sitting down in that annual review to be fired, hopefully,right? But you're sitting down to be evaluated. How did you do with the tasks that you were given, with the responsibilities that you had?

How did you do? And there you give an account for how you did. In a similar way, we are going to stand before Christ. He says, we must all appear. This is not just for certain people or just for apostles or pastors.

This is every single one of us will stand face-to-face with Jesus

and have a one-on-one. And let me tell you, it's going to be a thorough examination of your life.

I wouldn't expect it to take the exact same amount of time as your life.

So it's not necessarily going to be happening in real time, perhaps, but I would suggest it's going to be a thorough page by page.

What'd you do this day? Why'd you do that? Why were you thinking that? How come you had that attitude? Why'd you use those words? Why didn't you do this?

A thorough

examination at the judgment seat of Christ. We are all going to stand before the Lord. And those things that we did for the Lord, those things that we did were pleasing to him because we made it our aim to be pleasing to God. Well, there's going to be rewards for that.

Now, for the things that were not pleasing, he says, whether good or bad, that word bad literally means worthless. So it's not, again, a judgment. Now, here you're punished for sin, but it's like that was worthless what you did. That was worthless. Those words that you said, that was worthless.

That course that you pursued, that was worthless. No reward for that.

And moment by moment, day by day, month by month, year by year, your life will be exposed before Jesus and you will give an account. He says that each one may receive the things done in the body for everything that we've done. We will give an account. We will stand before the Lord,

having our actions, our thoughts, our motivations, our words be evaluated. HAR Inside says, what a solemn reflection it is for a Christian to remember that everything he says and everything he does as a believer is someday going to be examined by the Lord Jesus.

And he will be rewarded accordingly.

Now, with that in mind, you understand why Paul says, we make it our aim to be well pleasing to God because I know I'm going to stand before God and give an account and be evaluated. And so Ironside calls this a solemn reflection. There is a solemnness to this,

the reality that we will stand before the Lord and the recognition that we do fall short. We do fail. And so we're so thankful for the grace of God and mercy of God. And yet at the same time, that covers our past.

That covers the ways that we've failed and not made pleasing God a priority in our lives up to this point. At the same time, it should spur us on looking ahead now.

But I want to live to please you because I know I'm going to stand before you and give an account. And you're going to evaluate all of these things. Check out what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 12, verse 36. He says, I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give an account of it in the day of judgment.

Every idle word, Jesus says, you were just kind of shooting the breeze. You were just chatting. And Jesus says, every detail of that conversation, you're going to give an account for it. That doesn't necessarily mean you can't shoot the breeze and talk about the weather or the fight last night or whatever team you're following or whatever,right?

It doesn't mean you can't talk about those things, but just reflect and understand you will give an account of that. That's how detailed and how thorough this time before Christ will be. You have a one-on-one appointment with Jesus to give an account for your life. Are you ready for that?

That's why Paul says, I make it my aim to be well pleasing. And here's the thing. You could be at this appointment three minutes from now.

This instant, you're in eternity. You're standing before Jesus and your life is being evaluated. Are you ready for that? Paul says, we make it our aim to be well pleasing to God because we are going to be in the presence of God instantly, at any moment, and possibly without any warning because our tent is so fragile.

Now we have the guarantee of eternity. We have the guarantee of this eternal body that God has prepared for us.

But we're going to be entering into that time, that evaluation, that judgment seat of Christ at any moment. And so Paul says, I have the singular focus. Make pleasing God your aim as you follow the example of the apostle Paul. Well, finally,

for point number four, we're going to be looking at verses 11 through 21. And don't stress out. I'm not going to actually go through every verse of that passage. But in verse 11, or sorry, point number four is live for him who died for you. Live for him who died for you. Verse 11 says, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord,

we persuade men, but we are well known to God. And I also trust are well known in your consciences.

Paul says, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord.

We usually refer to it as the fear of the Lord. That word terror means fear, the fear of the Lord.

Referring back to that solemn reminder that we will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And you know, there is a good and healthy and necessary fear that we must have of God. Not a fear like run away because he's just out of control and he's going to beat you,

but a fear of awe, of recognizing, I'm going to stand before my creator, the one who knows every detail about me, the one who knows that he's given me everything that I've ever needed, the one who's sent his only begotten son to die upon the cross for me. I'm going to stand before him and give account for my life.

And there's going to be no hiding. There's going to be no excuses. There's going to be no nothing except for full exposure before my God, before my creator. And there is a healthy fear that should be developed in our heart in light of that. Paul says, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord.

Again, it's that solemn thing that Ironside was speaking of. He says, because of that, we persuade men. Now he's going to go on from here to talk about the ministry of reconciliation and the rest of the verses here in this chapter. He talks a lot about this ministry of reconciliation.

Jumping down to verse 18, it says, now all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them,

and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. This idea of reconciliation, it means to make relationshipsright again, to bring a relationship back together. And to be reconciled to God is the idea of beingright with God by faith in Jesus Christ.

That's what Paul is talking about. And what he's saying is that God, what God wants most is for people to be reconciled to him. But what God has done is he's given us that ministry. He's placed it in our lap. He's given it to us as believers in Jesus.

Now we carry on the word of reconciliation. And it's us that God has entrusted this ministry to that we would help people getright with God. That's the most important thing to God. But he's entrusted it to us.

He said, that's what you're to be about. And so Paul, as he says, I make it my aim to be well pleasing to God. This is what he's involved with, persuading men to beright with God, to receive the gospel message, to have faith in Jesus Christ. In verse 20,

Paul says, now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. And so Paul here is describing his role in the ministry, his role in this reconciliation on behalf of God. We're pleading, be reconciled to God, getright with God.

We're helping people as ambassadors. We're representing God to the world around us in calling people toright relationship with God because of the fear of the Lord. I know what's most important to God. I know I'm going to stand before God one day.

He's going to do a thorough evaluation of my whole life and everything that I did and everything that I said. And I know the most important thing to him is the people around me and that they would be reconciled to God. And so that's going to be the biggest topic of conversation that whole time.

How are you involved in helping people be reconciled to God? That's Paul's ministry, but also it's our ministry. And as we stand before God, as they stand before God, that's what's going to be evaluated. Now check out verse 14. He says, for the love of Christ compels us because we judged thus that if one died for all, then all died.

And he died for all that those who live should no longer live no longer for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again.

Notice what Paul says here. The love of Christ compels us because Jesus died for all. And so we've all died in that sense that he took the place. He paid the price. He received the death and the punishment that we all deserve.

But it was not so that we could then just live whatever life we want to live. He says in verse 15 that those who live should no longer live for themselves.

In light of eternity and the guarantee that we have of this new body and this eternal life, in light of the fact that we will instantly be there in the presence of the Lord at any moment, Paul says, make pleasing God your aim and live for him who died for you.

Live for him. Who are you living for?

And if it helps, I would encourage you to think through this past week. Who have you been living for this week? For yourself? What's the most important thing to you day by day as you go about your business, as you live out your life? Who are you living for? For your pleasure,

for what you want, for your desires, for your plans, for your goals? Who are you living for? Is it for your spouse? You're doing what you do. You go about your day and everything is because what you want to please your spouse.

Your boss. Is that why you went to work this week to please your boss? Are you living for your boss? Who are you living for? Don't make the mistake and think that living for God means that we don't go to work and we just stay at church. And that's no, God wants you to go to work. And God has plans for you at work because,

well, the most important thing to God is that people would be reconciled to him. And there's people there that need to be introduced to him. And so he's placed us in these various places. He's called us to these different things.

But it's so easy for us to get distracted and begin to engage in those things that God wants us to be engaged in for ourselves or for others around us and forget

that everything that we do should be done for God and for his glory. In Colossians chapter 3, verse 17, the apostle Paul says, whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Paul says,

every aspect of our life, every action that we take, every word that we speak,

let it all be done in the name of Jesus. Let it all be done for Jesus. Let it all be done to please him. And so you still have those conversations and you still go to the same workplace and you still have many of the same routines, but the motivations and the perspective is completely different.

It's not for me. It's not for somebody else. It's for the Lord. And in the name of Jesus, I do these things. I'm living for him. I'm seeking to glorify him in the life that I live. When we live for ourselves,

recognize that we've forgotten we'reright on the edge of eternity. We've forgotten that at any instant, we're not ready for that conversation, that one-on-one sit down with Jesus at the judgment seat of Christ. When we live to please ourselves and we live to please others, we've forgotten that we're on the edge of eternity.

And that leads us away

from the things that are well pleasing to God. It leads us away from the things that we need to be focused on. And so here in Second Corinthians, Paul challenges us to live in light of eternity. Your eternity is guaranteed. And you're going to instantly be there at any moment,

present with the Lord. So make it your aim to be pleasing to God. Live for him because he died for you. It's a call. It's a commission for every one of us. Again, Paul says, every one of us will stand before the judgment seat of Christ as believers. Now,

of course, all of this that I've been talking about this morning, starting with point number one, your eternity is guaranteed. It would be appropriate for me to say this morning, your eternity is only guaranteed in Jesus. Your eternity is only guaranteed because of what Christ has done for you. And if you receive that, then you have the guarantee.

If you believe in Jesus Christ and receive his sacrifice upon the cross for your sin, then you receive this guarantee of eternity. But that's the only way to have eternity and to have the guarantee. In verse 21 here of Second Corinthians 5, he says, for he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us,

that we might become the righteousness of God in him. The whole point of this reconciliation and the only reason why reconciliation with God is possible because Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin, received the penalty for sin upon the cross, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

And we have the righteousness of Jesus Christ by believing in Jesus and receiving his substitution, his receiving the penalty on our behalf there at the cross. And it's not an elaborate ceremony or something that enables that. It is believing and receiving what Jesus has done for us.

And if you do that, you're guaranteed eternal life. And when this body is collapsed and destroyed, you will instantly be in the present presence of the Lord. And so make it your aim to be pleasing to God. Live for him who died for you.

As I wrap this up this morning, I want to reflect back. I mentioned it at the beginning of the message as well, how God has been speaking to us about eternity for the past several weeks. So four weeks ago, we were in First Corinthians chapter 9.

And the message then was run a prizeworthy Christian race where the Lord reminded us about the prize and the rewards and the things that God has in store for us in eternity as we run the race that he set before us. And so we were challenged by the Lord there to run, to become the best Christian we can be,

to strive, to seek, to pursue, to know the Lord and seek the Lord in a race like in the same way that the athletes give so much effort that we would give ourselves in that kind of way to walking with God and knowing him,

to receive that eternal crown with purpose and strategy in our run and our walk with God so that we might finish well. Then the next week, we kind of continue that in First Corinthians chapter 10. The message was learn from those who have fallen. And so in this idea and the picture of the race that Paul painted,

we saw then the, well, the concern for stumbling, the potential for being disqualified,

for not receiving any rewards because of a fall or because of causing others to fall. And Paul reminded us that many blessed people have fallen, that we're not guaranteed the rewards. We're guaranteed eternity,

but you need to understand you're capable of losing out and missing out on much of what God has for you. And even blessed people have fallen. We've seen that over the years. We saw that there in the Old Testament as we looked at chapter 10 of First Corinthians.

Blessed people fall because of sin. And so Paul said, take heed, lest you fall. Watch out for yourself because you're vulnerable to the same kind of thing. You can trip yourself up and miss out on what God has for you.

So flee temptation and run from the things that are not of God so that you don't get tripped up in the Christian life and the race that God has set before you. Last week, we continued talking now in First Corinthians chapter 15 about the resurrection and your resurrected body.

And Paul went through great details about your resurrected body. It's not going to be this body, but it's going to be a new spiritual body that God brings forth from this body. It's like a seed that's planted and new life comes out of it. Your new body will bear the image of Jesus. It will be incorruptible. And Paul also called us there with a challenge to say,

serve the Lord now with your current body because of this promise that is to come. Be steadfast, be immovable, and abound in the work of the Lord because you know it's not in vain. And see, the theme is God is working through all of this.

It's that idea of eternity and understanding and recognizing the rewards that God has for his followers who are faithful to run the race with eternity in mind, with eternity in view. And so he continues that here in Second Corinthians chapter 5,

living in light of eternity. Your eternity is guaranteed. And at any moment, at any instant, you will be present with the Lord. So make pleasing God your aim because you're going to stand before him and give account. So live your life for him, not for yourself, not for someone else, but you live to be pleasing to God.

Let's pray. God, I pray for each one of us here that you would stir us up.

And Lord, it is so easy because, well, the physical and the things around us are soright in front of us that we can get distracted by this life, that we can be focused on the things that are seen and that are temporary and forget about the things that are eternal.

But Lord, I pray that you would help us in our minds and in our hearts to have a clear grasp, an ever-present reminder of the reality of eternity, the reality that we will be there in the midst of eternity with you at any moment. Help us, God, to grasp hold of these truths, to believe them.

And Lord, may it impact our hearts and our lives in the way that we behave. Help us, Lord, to recognize when we are living to please others. Help us to recognize when we're living to please ourselves and not to please you.

Help us, Lord, when we're not aiming, when we're just kind of moseying in the general direction of you. Help us to catch that, Lord.

Help us to identify that and to bring back the focus that you desire, Lord, that you would be our passion, that we would be fervent about you and seeking you and loving you with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength.

And your goodness to us, Lord, is so far above and beyond all that we could ever deserve or ask. And yet you've provided it all. You've given yourself completely that we might have this life. You've given us the guarantee,

the Holy Spirit, and everything that we need to live the life that you've called us to live. So Lord, I pray that you would stir us up and help us to live it, looking forward to the eternity that you have in store for us. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching.

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