Ultimate Fitness, Part 3

And I not preach after that beautiful singing by the body. If you would
take your Bibles and turn to Second Corinthians once again.
Second Corinthians. We find ourselves once again
in chapter four, five. I’m not just pulling your leg.
We have been in this great section that begins in chapter four,
verse 16. The course is down, as you will
recall, all the way to chapter five, verse 10. We’ll wrap up
this particular section today, Lord willing, and then press
on to the next great section of this epistle. I’ve used this
illustration. It’s been helpful for those coming
in who maybe haven’t been with us for a time. Essentially, if
you conceive of God’s revelation as a great, giant, concentric
circle and inside of that is his written communication to
us, his word. is the next concentric circle. Inside of that, the New Testament.
Inside of that, 2 Corinthians. Inside of that, this great section
on ministry, which began in chapter 2, verse 12, and courses all
the way through chapter 6, verse 10. But inside of that, we have
found ourselves for several weeks in this great section that we
have entitled Ultimate Fitness. The illustration that I began
with was in our fitness crazed generation that we find ourselves
in where vitamins and supplements and all kinds of herbs and everything
that we do centers around health and breathing better air and
sleeping better and taking care of our bodies and exercising
more when really the ultimate fitness program is not a fitness
program for the body. It’s a fitness program for the
soul. And essentially what Paul does here is play off of the
physical body. And that’s what we find. That’s
the great theme that we find tying these all of these verses
together from chapter four, verse 16, all the way through 510 is
the body, the physical body. And so what we’ve the subtitle,
if you will, is spiritual vigor in a physical frame. That’s what
we want. We don’t want to just survive. It’s funny in our day
and age, tolerance is supposed to be a good thing. You know,
we’re supposed to be tolerant and everybody wants to be tolerated.
I don’t want to be tolerated. Tolerate means just somebody’s
just putting up with me. I don’t want to just survive.
Likewise, I want to thrive. And Paul says God wants us to
thrive. Paul doesn’t want us to just
muddle along through our Christian life, having come to Christ,
having become a Christian. He doesn’t want us to just coast.
He wants us to thrive. And Paul has already, in this
great section that we focus on, he’s already given us, we’ve
already looked at some of those elements of Thriving, some of
the ways that we are to thrive in this body. Look at the encouragements
once again for thriving. In chapter four, verse 16, Paul
gave us there at the outset the promise of spiritual restoration. Look at verse 16. Therefore,
we do not lose heart. But though our outer man is decaying,
yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. Look down at the
second encouragement. In chapter 5, verse 5, we have
the pledge of a faithful God. The pledge of a faithful God.
Now, He who prepared us for this very purpose, that is, this spiritual
renewal that has already begun and will not be stopped. He who
prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us His Spirit
as a pledge. God infused into us, gave us
the gift of the Holy Spirit, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit
to guide us, to encourage us, to instruct us as a pledge. As a pledge of what God has begun
in us, He Himself will complete. Thirdly, the third great encouragement
from this section is the preference of being with God. That’s the
encouragement we have, is this inward longing to one day shed
these bodies and to be with God in glory forever. Look at verse
6. Chapter 5, verse 6. Therefore,
being always of good courage and knowing that while we are
at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by
faith and not by sight, we are of good courage, I say, and prefer
rather to be absent from the body than to be home with the
Lord. These are great encouragements. These are encouragements that
Paul has given us, not just to muddle along through the Christian
life, but so that we might thrive, so that we might eagerly live
these Christian lives as long as God has us here to bring Him
glory in all that we do on this earth. But there’s a fourth. And in order to pick up the context,
You know what I would like to do. I want to go all the way
back to chapter 4, verse 16. Let’s read it in full and we’ll
pick up the last encouragement. As we close today. Paul writes,
therefore, we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying,
yet our inner man is being renewed day by day for momentary light
affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far
beyond all comparison. While we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen are eternal. For we know that if the earthly
tent, which is our house, is torn down, we have a building
from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
For indeed, in this house, we grown longing to be clothed with
our dwelling from heaven in as much as we having put it on will
not be found naked. For indeed, while we are in this
tent, we grown being burdened because we do not want to be
unclothed, but to be clothed so that what is mortal will be
swallowed up by life. Now, he who prepared us for this
very purpose is God. who gave to us the Spirit as
a pledge. Therefore, being always of good
courage and knowing that while we are at home in the body, we
are absent from the Lord for we walk by faith and not by sight.
We are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent
from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore, we
also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing
to him. For we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may be recompensed
for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether
good or bad. Spiritual vigor in a physical
frame and Paul has given us great encouragements to not just muddle
along through the Christian life, but to sail through the Christian
life, looking heavenward for eternal glory, looking for a
new body, looking for an end to death, looking for glory unspeakable. Paul doesn’t want us to just
muddle along. God doesn’t want us to just muddle along. God
would have us to thrive in this fourth encouragement to please
God The pleasing of God is our ultimate goal. That is the final
great encouragement of this section. Look again at verse nine. Therefore,
we have is our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing
to him. Paul ties this just as he did
The third encouragement, just as he did the second encouragement,
he ties it all together into this great section on ultimate
fitness. And he says, therefore, we have
as our ambition now in a lot of circles, ambition gets a bad
rap. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. Context determines whether ambition
is a bad thing. The word lust is used in the
same way, sometimes in a good sense, mostly in a bad. But even
a man who aspires to the office of eldership is said to literally
lust for the office to serve Christ in that capacity. And
so the context there determines how that word is being used.
He who desires to serve as an elder desires a good thing. And
so here to ambition, which can be inordinate, it can be out
of control and unchecked. You can grow overly aggressive. You can mow down everyone in
your path in order to accomplish your goals. But it can also be
a legitimate goal. Blended with solid effort and
therefore a good thing. The Puritans especially held
this word ambition in particular contempt. William Ames said using
this word as part of a definition of pride. He said this pride
is an inordinate affection for one’s own excellence. This affection
for one’s own excellence is called boasting when it is directed
toward the good things that we have directed toward the things
we pretend to have. It is called arrogance. Directed
toward the things, pardon me, if it seeks fame and esteem from
others, it is called vainglory, a very popular Puritan word. If it is concerned with dignity,
it is called ambition. Another Puritan writer wrote
of ambition. Speaking specifically of it,
he said ambition is gilded misery. A secret poison, a hidden plague,
the engineer of deceit, the mother of hypocrisy, the parent of envy,
the original of vices, the moth of holiness and the blinder of
hearts. And so you say, well, you know,
ambition, I don’t want to have anything to do with that, certainly.
And so the idea and the subsequent disdain for ambition was certainly
understandable, especially since it was built on such passages
as first Timothy six, nine and 10. Those who want to get rich
fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful
desires which plunge men into ruin and devastation. And so
that kind of ambition, the desire only to get rich, no wonder they
saw it as a bad thing. But as one said, there’s a central
place in the Christian life for noble ambition, for a passion
for what is excellent, For a yearning to do that which is honorable,
there is a good side to ambition. The word literally signifies
to love honor, to be ambitious and then ultimately to make anything
a point of honor. To set one’s honor in doing or
attaining some thing or some goal. Paul used it. He even urged others to be ambitious. which makes Paul the interpreter
of the Puritans and not the other way around. Romans 15 20 said,
I aspired, I was ambitious to preach the gospel, not where
Christ was already named so that I would not build on another
man’s foundation. Paul was ambitious. Paul was
ambitious to proclaim Christ. 1 Thessalonians 4.11, he urged
it upon those Thessalonian saints when he said, make it your ambition
to lead a quiet life, to attend to your own business, to work
with your hands, just as we commanded you. A verse that I never tire
of reading because it is such timeless advice. Much trouble
in the church would be abated if we heeded this one simple
verse. Make it your ambition to lead
a quiet life. Attend to your own business.
And he’s not talking about your job. Work with your hands just
as we commanded you. Paul says ambition isn’t a bad
thing. All ambition is not wrong. A sincere and a zealous drive
to be like Christ is a good thing. Possessing a burning desire To
promote the gospel as far and as wide as you can is a noble
cause. Longing for holiness is right
and good. Seeking to please the Lord is
what God Himself would have us desire. Ambition, all ambition
is not wrong. So Paul says, looking again at
verse nine, therefore, also we have as our ambition, whether
at home or absent. to be pleasing to him. The question
here is what is referred to here by home or absent? Because to
make things even more interesting, if you look back at chapter five,
verse six, there’s a subtle play on words here in verse nine that
picks up the thoughts that Paul had already uttered. The play
on words here is literally whether we are at home or away from home. Those of you in the Greek class
in the Bible Institute will understand that in a few weeks time, you’ll
be able to look at that and see, aha, so simple. Paul says, whether
we are at home or away from home. To make things even more interesting,
Paul flip flopped his metaphor, look back at verse six. Therefore,
being always of good courage and knowing that while we are
at home in the body, home is the body. We are absent from
the Lord. Absence is being apart from the
Lord. While we live in these bodies,
we are absent from the Lord, though this is a home of sorts,
a temporary home. We called it a tent. I am supposed
to tell you that all camping is not bad. I’m supposed to encourage
you that camping is a good thing and it’s good to sleep in the
dirt and to have dirt in your food and dirt in your eyes when
you wake in the morning and coyotes howling outside of
your tent. It’s a good thing. And I commend it highly to all,
which ruins the metaphor, by the way. Because when Paul says,
we are in these tents, these earthly tents, Paul says, you
know what, look, you’re roughing it. You’re roughing it. All the
way as you course through life in these tents, you’re roughing
it. When you get home, when you get
really home, home to heaven, when you take on that eternal
body that God is going to give you, then you’re home. Then you’ll
know that you were just on an extended camping trip here. Look at what he says. While we
are home in the body, at the end of v. 6, we are absent from
the Lord. V. 7, For we walk by faith, not
by sight. We are of good courage, I say,
and prefer rather to be absent from the body. And here, absence
is from the body. And to be at home with the Lord.
Home here is with the Lord. And so, Paul flip-flops the metaphor. And what on earth could he possibly
mean here in v. 9? Obviously, The nearest context
would be that of verse 8. But ultimately, either way, either
way you want to take it, the meaning is the same. Wherever
we are, Paul says, whether you live here in these bodies or
whether you’re absent from these bodies, whether you’re in heaven
or whether you’re absent from heaven, wherever you are, the
ultimate desire, the burning desire, the ambition is to be
the same. to please the Lord Jesus Christ. It only makes sense that we would
desire to please and perform more pleasingly in front of the
Lord, doesn’t it? I mean, doesn’t that just ring
true with our hearts? Because since we were 18 months
old, we have sought to be what the Puritans called the eye-pleasers,
right? The child, you walk into the
room, He’s reaching for the electrical plug, which he knows he shouldn’t
touch. And he walks in the room, you
walk in the room and he sees you and immediately the hand
recoils. We have sought to be eye pleasers.
But Paul says the real test is who we are when we’re away from
the Savior. Are we desiring and pursuing
the same glorious things that we would be if we were in the
Lord’s presence? That’s the bottom line, what
Paul says. Whether we are in heaven, living heavenly lives
in glory forever, or whether we are here now just having begun
our Christian walk, what’s our desire? The truth is we’re always
before the Lord. His eyes are always upon us.
That’s Paul’s point. We aspire with everything in
us to conduct ourselves in God honoring, Christ honoring ways,
whether we’re before him in heaven or apart from him here on earth.
Paul uttered similar thoughts to the Thessalonian believers.
He told them that God had not destined us for wrath, but for
obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who had died
for us so that whether we are awake Or whether we are asleep,
we will live together with him. Either way, Paul says we were
to have this sound and this noble desire, this healthy ambition,
regardless of where we are as Christians in heaven or on earth,
to honor the Lord with our lives. Look at verse 9 again. Therefore,
we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to
be pleasing to Him. What a great desire, isn’t it?
Don’t you know in your own heart the smile of the Lord? Don’t
you remember even in those early moments of becoming a Christian,
those early days, a beginning to sense God’s grace and to feel
the sin dropping by those habits? dropping by the wayside by God’s
grace, being nourished by His Word and sensing and feeling
the smile of the Lord, the acceptance, the fact that God was pleased
with you. And it’s only because we’re in
Christ, we know that. But our desire is to always be
and to do that which is pleasing to God. It means acceptable. And with the exception of Hebrews
10, 6, which I’ll cite momentarily, the word is used only by Paul
in the New Testament eight times. And usually when he’s talking,
it’s that which is acceptable to the Lord. Just go on a brief
tour with me in your mind’s eye. Romans 12, 1. Therefore, I urge
you, brethren, by the mercies of God, present your bodies a
living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God. which is your spiritual
service of worship. All that life is, is worship. When we walk out of here, the
worship service doesn’t end. Your devotion to God doesn’t
end. All of life is an opportunity to glorify and please Him in
all that we do. Romans 12, 2. Do not be conformed
to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind
so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is
good and acceptable and perfect. You know what? The world needs
to see what a Christian is. The world needs to see what God
desires. The world needs to see how He
would have you live. And everything that we do begins
to examine life in light of those things. How would God have us
to live? Romans 14.8 says it. Ephesians 5.10 says that we are
trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Most of our life
is spent just thumbing through the pages of Scripture to learn
what is right. What would God have? Philippians
4.8 Pardon me, 418. I’ve received everything in full.
I have an abundance. I am amply supplied. You know
what’s interesting here? He’s probably tying in the same
verse that was read here this morning from 2nd Corinthians.
He’s probably tying in that same verse because Paul is writing
there in 2nd Corinthians 12 to the Macedonian churches in general. And here to the Philippian church,
he says, I’ve received everything in full. I have an abundance.
They responded. They responded as God would have
them to. And he said, I am amply supplied,
having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant
aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God. Colossians 3.20 Here’s one that
will make the children squirm. Children, be obedient to your
parents in all things. Why? For this is well pleasing
to the Lord. It makes God happy. Not to mention
your parents. Urge bond slaves to be subject
to their own masters in everything, to be well pleasing, not argumentative. He tells us how to be a good
employee in Titus chapter 2 verse 9. Just as ambitious men of the
world desire and strive after fame, as one said, so Christians
ought to long and labor to please Christ. That ought to be our
great desire, our great ambition, is to make, if no one else, Christ
happy. Love to Christ. The desire to
please our Lord Jesus Christ. to be pleasing to Him in our
lives. That’s what should stir our hearts.
That’s what should motivate us. That’s what should wake us from
sleep in the morning. That’s what should oversee our
lives in guiding us. As one said, it is impossible
for those who regard the presence of Christ or being with Him like
heaven itself should not desire and labor to be pleasing to Him. You remember when you first came
to Christ, you remember how lonely, how broken, how hopeless, how
hell bound, how utterly confused and bewildered you were. And
then you came to Christ and Christ opened his arms wide. And even
though everyone else would reject you, if they knew At the core
of your being, who you were, Christ opened his arms wide.
He received you gladly. He called you to himself and
he loved you. It’s impossible. It’s impossible
to think of being in Christ’s presence and not eagerly desiring
to please him. And so in this world, we take
His Word and we learn of it and we dig into it and we examine
every part and we nourish ourselves and others and we feed ourselves
and we build ourselves up in the faith. And we do so by prayer,
communing with God Himself. We fellowship with our fellow
saints. We walk with them on this earth,
encouraging them, strengthening them, challenging them. And they,
us, All the while, we are careful, ever more careful to obey God
and His precepts and eagerness to root up and to be rid of all
sin as we know it. And to love toward others that
takes over our lives and our hearts and loves not only the
lovely, loves not only the Christians in our midst, but loves those
that are unlovely, loves those outside the faith. Paul leaves
it vague here for a reason. He just says that we we desire
to be pleasing to him and he could have enumerated a hundred
different commands. He could have gone into great
detail here, but he says our great desire, our one great desire
is to be pleasing to him. And it is very similar to a current
fad. And you can tell by this current
fad that an adult didn’t come up with it. Adult didn’t come up with this
campaign because if an adult had said, look, we’re going to
make these cool bracelets, we’re going to make them out of rubber
like these shoes. I mean, where on earth? I mean,
I suppose rubber was a great improvement for wooden clogs,
but they’re still clogs and they’re made of rubber. Well, now we
got these bracelets and they’re stamped in their color and they
say WWJD. It took me several years to determine
what that meant. I thought it was a cult for a
while. But now it’s cool. And that’s why you can tell that
an adult didn’t come up with this, because it’s cool and the
kids like them. But it’s essentially the same
point. We desire to be pleasing to God. What would Jesus do? We desire to look into God’s
Word and to find out what Jesus would do. What is pleasing to
the Lord? Paul essentially says here, what
would Jesus do? What is pleasing to the Lord?
And that we are to wrestle with it and to think on it and to
examine our hearts and our lives and to walk with Christ. offers us another great motivation.
A great motivation for doing so. And if you would look at
verse 10. Paul says in verse 9, Therefore,
we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing
to Him. For we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed
for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether
good or bad. Here Paul states another great
motivation for seeking to please the Lord, and that is accountability.
Paul reminds us that one day we will all stand before the
Lord. But I want to take you for a minute. I know that we’ve
read the entire passage, but I want to take you back to chapter
4, verse 16, because I want you to see how the word we… In
fact, I want to go beyond just we, but I want to look at all
the pronouns in this section. We and us and our. And I want to point out to you
that not a single time is the unbeliever in view here. Not
a single time. This isn’t the general judgment
of all mankind. This is an accounting, an accountability
for Christians. In chapter four, verse 16, Paul
said, we do not lose heart. That is not something that an
unbeliever can do. An unbeliever wallows in heartlessness,
an unbeliever wallows in misery and despair and hopelessness.
At the end of verse 16, our inner man is being renewed day by day.
There’s no way. There’s no way that an unbeliever
can say that his inner man is not being renewed. This is a
Christian grace. Momentary light affliction is
producing for us an eternal weight of glory. An unbeliever can’t
say that. We look not at the things which are seen, verse
18. An unbeliever can’t say that. Verse one of chapter five, we
know that if this earthly tent is torn down, which is our house,
we have a building from God, an unbeliever can’t say that.
Look at verse two in this house. We groan. Certainly that seems
like an unbeliever might be able to echo that, but not with the
same sentiment. We groan, longing to be clothed
with our dwelling from heaven, and an unbeliever does not have
that promise. Skip down to verse five, he who
prepared us for this very purpose is God. That is not something
an unbeliever enjoys that promise. An unbeliever doesn’t have the
Holy Spirit. An unbeliever is not absent from the Lord in the
sense that we are longing and expectantly to be with the Lord. But look at verse nine. Therefore,
we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing
to him. That is not something that an unbeliever can say. This
section is not talking to unbelievers. It’s not talking about unbelievers.
The great context here that what Paul is considering is Christians
longing for heaven. The bottom line is never once
is it spoken of as unbelievers here, these pronouns, the bottom
line, not all humanity is in view here in this section. Rather,
it is believers, Christians that are in focus here. All humanity
will be judged. And in a very real sin has already
been judged. But here it is those who are
in Christ who are summoned before the righteous judge. So in what
sense are they called to appear before Christ as a judge? We must all appear. We are far more motivated, aren’t
we? to live lives that are pleasing and God-honoring, knowing and
keeping mindful that one day we will stand before Him and
that every aspect of our lives is in full and plain view of
God Himself, who will one day call our lives and rerun the
tape. Paul says that this great evaluation
is not only mandatory when he says must, but it’s comprehensive. And it says that literally we
will be made manifest, not just called to appear, but we will
be revealed for who we are. We will be seen for who we are,
not just to appear, but that it means that in time we will
be fully seen for who and what we are. I used to have this philosophy
in the work world. I’d have people as a supervisor,
I’d have people come to me and complain that so-and-so wasn’t
pulling his weight. You know, I’d say all I can do is watch.
I can’t take your word on it. I can’t just go and fire in for,
you know, being what you say is. But I would try to encourage
them with this. People will eventually be seen
for exactly what they are. And for the most part, I was
right. I mean, there were all there’s always those that seem
to just skate by and get promoted and do this and go here and somehow
outlast the eyes of men. The people, for the most part,
are generally seen. But you know what in God’s economy?
Every time. Every time there’s no trickery
of God, there’s no fooling him, there’s no skating by. We will
be seen, all of us, in time for exactly what we are. As one pastor
said in that day, the full truth of their lives, character and
deeds will be made clear to each believer. Each will discover
the real verdict on his or her ministry, his service, his motives,
all hypocrisy and pretense will be stripped away. All temporal
matters with no eternal significance will vanish like wood, hay and
stubble. And only what is to be rewarded
eternally will a value will be left. See, what Paul says is that this
isn’t this isn’t a judgment on whether you go to heaven or not.
This is a judgment on your life and your ministry, your life
as a Christian. Certainly there will be those who arrive in heaven
that are spurious, they’re doubtful, they’re not true Christians. But this judgment is a judgment
of recompense, this judgment is a judgment of repaying us,
if you can even imagine it, for our service to Christ. And there
is some of our service that Paul intimates here that is noble
and good and will be greatly honored. And there’s some of
our service that is putrid. It’s worthless. We went through
it in a half hearted manner. We had a bad attitude about it.
We didn’t do it well. We didn’t do it as unto the Lord
and the Lord will not honor it. He will not bless it. He will
not reward it. Paul faced a similar set of criticism,
earthly criticism. And in chapter 4 of 1 Corinthians,
he said, I am conscious of nothing in myself. Yet, I am not by this
acquitted. You know what he said? He said,
you know, as far as I look and I see my life, I think I’m doing
a pretty good job. But that isn’t the final stamp
of approval. The one who examines me is the Lord. Therefore, do
not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the
Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in
the darkness and disclose the motive of men’s hearts. And then
each man’s praise will come to him from God. Paul says, you
know what? Let God be the judge on our various ministries. There’s a time coming when we
will stand before God and we will be made manifest. He will
see our hearts. He will see our motives. And
he will repay. We must all stand before the
judgment seat of Christ and the New Testament. That little word
there is used of the judges seat where the Roman judgment, the
Roman judge sat in judgment in this lofty seat that was elevated
above the crowds. It was a tribunal in a very real
sense, primarily to administer discipline, but also to bestow
praise and honor upon those who came before it. In the Greek
culture, as one said, it referred to an elevated platform on which
victorious athletes received their crowns. It reminds us of
the Olympics, doesn’t it? In the New Testament, though,
it was used of the judgment seat of rulers, Pilate and Herod and
others. A person was brought before a bema, a judgment seat
to have his or her deeds examined in a judicial sense for indictment
or exoneration, but also for the purpose of recognizing or
rewarding some achievement. That’s the sense that’s being
used here. Not that God, after you have lived a life proclaiming
Christ, calling on Christ, is going to send you to hell because
all sin has been judged already, as we’ll see in a moment. All Christians will be summoned
before Christ to be fully revealed in their character. Verse 10
says, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so
that, for this very purpose, each one may be recompensed for
his deeds in the body. The Apostle here tells us why
Christians are to strive and to labor and to have this ambitious
spirit, because the wages on the next world will be according
to their efforts in this and their deeds. Romans 2 echoes
this sentiment when it gives the positive spin on this. Because
of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you’re storing up wrath
for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous
judgment of God, who will render to each person according to his
deeds. To those who, by perseverance in doing good, seek for glory
and honor and immortality, eternal life. But for those who are selfishly
ambitious and do not obey the truth, wrath and indignation. There’s a fascinating point that
when he says we must all. Appear before the judgment seat
of Christ, he goes on to say so that each one may be recompensed. Each one. You know, the bottom
line is we’re not going to be judged as part of a great group.
There are people that love to hide, you know, hiders, they
kind of hide behind people and think that they can just walk
in as a one big, great big group. We’re not going to be judged
as people, groups, those who were formerly judged Gentiles,
those who were formerly a far off now brought near. We’re not
going to be judged as a group of Gentile believers. We’re not
going to be judged as nations. We’re not going to be judged
as Americans, as coming from a so-called Christian nation.
We’re not going to be judged as part of a denomination, Baptist
or Presbyterian, whatever. We’re not going to be judged
as a church, Providence Bible. We’re not going to be judged
by our race, our socioeconomic class, our gender, nothing like
that. We’re not even going to be judged
as families. Rather, we all individually, each one must appear so that
each one may be paid back. So that each one may be recompensed
for his deeds in the body and that recompense means to pay
back what is due. God has put Himself in a position
of obligation. As He sees our lives play out,
He will render what is due. A recurring theme for Paul. Ephesians
6-8, knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he
will receive back from the Lord. There are pretenders and they will be sorted out in
eternity. But not here, not now. This judgment, this is the evaluation
of those who are in Christ, saved by His grace, yet imperfect,
but secure for eternity. If you have placed your faith
in Christ, if you have grown in grace and sense the Spirit
of God within you, if you are feeding and nourishing yourself
on God’s Word and if you are communing with God in prayer,
no wonder Paul says, examine yourself to see whether you are
in the faith. Paul says in verse 10, we must
all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one
may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what
he has done, whether good or bad. Believers, as I said, are
not going to be judged for sin at the judgment seat of Christ
here. Every sin of every believer has already been dealt with.
If you are in Christ, the words that we sang today are for you. I don’t often pick the songs
that we sing. I did so today for a specific
reason for this very passage. To remind you that my sin, oh,
the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin, not in part, but the
whole. The sins that were committed
before Christ, those that have been committed since the ones
that I constantly come and confess before the Lord. My sin, not
in part, but the whole is nailed to the cross and I bear it no
more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Oh, my soul.
Before the throne of God above, I have a strong and perfect plea. A great high priest whose name
is love, whoever lives and pleads for me, my name is graven on
his hands. My name is written on his heart. I know. that while in heaven
he stands, no tongue can bid me thence depart.” Do you want biblical data? 2
Corinthians 5.21, which passage we’ll be in in a while. 2 Corinthians 5.21, He made Him
who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become
the righteousness of God in Him. Galatians 3.13, Christ redeemed
us from the curse of the law. 1 Peter 2.24, He Himself bore
our sins in His body on the cross. 1 Peter 3.18, Christ also died
for sins once for all. The just for the unjust so that
He might bring us to God. Ephesians 1.7, in Him we have
redemption through His blood. The forgiveness of our trespasses
according to the riches of His grace. And are we to assume that
we’re going to waltz into heaven to stand before a throne and
be cast to hell? There is no double jeopardy for
the Christian. If you are in Christ, if you
rest assured that your sins and your only hope for your sins
is Christ and Christ alone, then this is not the beam of seat
of judgment. This is not the beam of seed
of casting anyone to hell. This is the recompense of those
who are in Christ who have served Him. And what motivation it gives
us. What great motivation it gives
us to get out there and serve Him with a more noble character.
Paul had this very thing in mind in 1 Corinthians chapter 3. If
you would, I know we’re ending soon. 1 Corinthians 3, I want
you to turn quickly in closing. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 11. No man can lay a foundation other
than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if any
man build on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones,
wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident. For
the day will show it because it will be revealed with fire.
And the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has
built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s
work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be
saved through fire.” There is so much foolishness that we engage
in. There is so much emptiness. mundane things of the world that
we get caught up in. Some of the things we do certainly
out of necessity, but some of the things are just time wasters. Glorious opportunities for ministry
are out there waiting for us to take up. And we fritter away
our time as if it’s infinite. Of those of us who are in Christ,
we are all in process. We know that there isn’t a single
saint of God. Whether Christ returns or when
they’re alive or receives them upon death, there isn’t a single
one who will have achieved anything approaching moral perfection
in this life. Our only hope is the Lord Jesus Christ and his
finished work on the cross. But it is also true that having
begun in Christ, we will be found in a state of progress in Christ. There will and there always must
be growth in grace, progress in holiness, advance in the knowledge
and love of God. And that is why we check our
hearts in this life. And as Paul urges, do we desire
to live a Christ-pleasing life? You know what? You can’t even
desire. You can’t even desire to do good and to please Christ
without God having already done a work of grace in your heart.
Let’s rejoice before him. Our merciful God, we do take
great encouragement from this verse. We do desire to please
you, those of us who know Christ. No, father, as that old song
goes. Oh, that I had given him more.
Lord, each one of us knows that sentiment. Each one of us longs
to better please You and better serve You and to more glorify
You. And our only prayer to You, Father,
is grant us the grace. Grant us the grace, we pray in
Jesus’ name, Amen.