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Man, 2 Corinthians chapter 5 really picks up from the same thought as 2 Corinthians chapter 4. And if you remember, 2 Corinthians chapter 4 had to do with not fainting in the face of tribulations, persecutions, trials, troubles. And the reasons why Paul and his associates did not faint and they kept going, part of it was because they said, seeing we have this ministry, we faint not. It was about other people and loving Christ and loving other people that kept him going when he felt like quitting. And he also knew that all of his troubles and trials were temporal. The things that are seen are all temporal. The things that are not seen are eternal. He continues that here, if you would, jump down to verse 13. It says, for whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God, or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. So he's talking about doing things for God and doing things for other people. But let's start in verse number 1 in chapter 5. It says, for we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. And remember, this is coming right off of verse 18 in chapter 4 where he said, 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. Four, four is a conjunction there, right? So the four is flowing into verse 1 of chapter 5. We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle, what's he talking about? He's talking about the body. So Paul here, he says, we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle, referring to his physical body, he says, we know that if this body were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. He's talking about the fact that there's going to be a future body given to him in heaven. He's going to have a spiritual, eternal body. He's saying this physical body, when it's dissolved, is going to be replaced by a spiritual body, an eternal body, one that's not made with hands. Look at verse 2, for in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven, if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle, he's saying those of us that are in this physical body were alive on this earth, do groan, being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed. You know, it's not that we just want to die, like just kill us now, you know, we just want to get out of this body, we want to die. He's saying not that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. He's saying it's not that I just want to die and get out of this body, it's that I want to get to heaven, you know, I want to be with Christ, I want to be with the Lord in heaven, I want to have that new body that comes with that. And he says here in verse 5, now he that hath wrought us for the self same thing as God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit, therefore we are always confident, knowing that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith not by sight, we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Now let's back up a little bit here. It says in verse 5, now he that hath wrought us, wrought means made us, he that made us or he that hath wrought us for the self same thing as God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Now what does the earnest mean? Earnest is sort of like a down payment or some money that you would put down when you make an offer to let them know that you're serious. You're not just putting an offer out there that you're going to renege later. By putting down the earnest, it means not only am I offering you something, I'm going to follow through on that offer. So we right now have the earnest of the Spirit, meaning that we have our Spirit that has been saved and that is just the beginning of the deal. Right? When we believed on Jesus Christ and our Spirit was made alive, our Spirit was quickened, when we were spiritually saved, that's only just the earnest. That's only just a little taste of what we have coming. Because we're going to get the whole package, which is going to be a brand new body, soul and spirit, we're going to be living in heaven in perfection, okay? Whereas right now, the only thing perfect about us is just the Spirit. We still have the sinful flesh, right? And this is such an important doctrine that we can't emphasize enough that when you get saved, it's your Spirit that gets saved, but your flesh is the same old flesh from before you got saved. And this is where people get all messed up on doctrine and where they get messed up on salvation because they say, well certainly when you get saved, there's going to be a change in you. And if there's no change, you must have not gotten saved. Well here's the thing, of course there's a dramatic change when you get saved because the Bible says in verse 17, therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new. But what you have to understand is that this dramatic change takes place on the inside, not necessarily on the outside. I mean if a person gets saved, you don't look at them and say, wow, you look better already. I'm starting to see your flaws disappear in faith. Look, it's not the physical flesh, it's not the carnal mind, it's not the outward man that changes when they get saved. Now the Spirit undergoes a dramatic change. It goes from being dead to alive, right? It's a brand new creature on the inside. And so when you get saved, you are now possessing this inward man, this new man, a saved, perfect, regenerated spirit, but the flesh is still there. And that's why the Apostle Paul talks so much about the struggle between the flesh and the Spirit, how the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary, the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would. What does he mean when he says you cannot do the things that you would? He's saying you can't do the things that you want to. Why? Because if you're saved, you want to do what's right on the inside. The Bible says in Romans 7, I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I find another law warring in my members. So what it is is that when you get saved, the Spirit on the inside is regenerated, and man, you want to do the right things, you want to serve Christ, but that doesn't mean that you're necessarily going to do it. Why? Because the Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. So there's a battle going on between your regenerated, saved, righteous spirit and your unregenerate, unsaved, carnal flesh. And so this is the flesh versus the Spirit, right? It's a battle. Now, when we go to heaven, the battle's over, because at that point, the flesh dies and our Spirit goes to heaven and we'll never sin again. The only reason that we sin right now is because we're walking in the flesh, okay? That's why he says if you walk in the Spirit, you'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh. But if we walk in the flesh, we're going to fulfill the lust of the flesh. So this is why a person can believe on Jesus Christ, be saved, and on their way to heaven, they're a child of God, but then you'll see that person continue in the same sins that they were doing before they got saved. How is that possible? It's because they're walking in the flesh. They're not walking in the Spirit. They're not putting on the new man. And it really should be no surprise that if somebody gets saved but they don't go to church and they don't read their Bible and they're not singing hymns and they're not praying, why would we be shocked to see them walking in the flesh when the first thing they do in the morning is turn on the radio or turn on the TV or just follow after that which is carnal and worldly? Well, how could they walk in the Spirit if everything that's coming in is fleshly and carnal and worldly, right? If you want to walk in the Spirit, you've got to feed the Spirit. You've got to make an effort, a conscious effort, to put on the new man, right? Jesus said, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up the cross daily and follow me. So our default mode when we wake up in the morning is going to be carnal. We've got to make the conscious effort to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, put on the new man, walk in the Spirit, not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Look, if it were automatic, everybody would be doing it. But if you look around today at Christians, do you see 99% of Christians walking in the Spirit or do you see 99% of Christians walking in the flesh? It's because they're not putting on the new man, they're not reading their Bible, they're not listening to good preaching, they're not praying, they're not singing hymns. When you live after the manner of this world and everything is carnal, then you're going to be carnal, okay? But deep down, even in the most carnal Christian is a desire to do what's right. Even the most carnal, backslidden, worldly Christian who gets far away from the Lord, if they're truly saved inside of them, they know it's wrong and they want to do what's right. That's the Spirit talking. Now if you have no voice inside of you ever telling you to do what's right, then yeah, you're not even saved then. If you have no desire, if you just say, I have no desire to serve God, I have no desire to go to church, I have no desire to read the Bible, I have no desire to win people to Christ, then you're not even saved. Because that means the Spirit's not even there, okay? So we don't want to go too radical in saying, oh yeah, you know, people that get saved, they can be exactly the way they were before they were saved. That's true outwardly, but on the inside, there's a dramatic change that's taken place. Because the Spirit is a new man, okay? But when you see people walking in the flesh, well then yeah, you're going to recognize that same old Steven Anderson, and then when he walks in the Spirit, you're going to see the new Steven Anderson, right? And that's what we're looking for in our lives. We want to walk in the Spirit so that we'll not obey the lust of the flesh. So the Bible tells us God has given us the earnest of the Spirit. But we don't have the whole package yet, right? Because it's only when the second coming of Christ occurs, or if we die and go to heaven, will we actually be free from the presence of sin in our lives. You know, right now, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Okay, everyone has sin. Even the apostle Paul struggled with this in Romans 7 and elsewhere in Scripture. It's a struggle that we have as believers. So the Bible says that because we have the earnest of the Spirit at the end of verse 5, therefore we are always confident, knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. Now why are we confident? Because we have the earnest of the Spirit. So the earnest of the Spirit is actually twofold, because God has regenerated and quickened our dead spirit and brought it to life, but then we are also indwelled by the Holy Spirit. God's Spirit actually dwells inside of us. And because we have God's Spirit living inside of us, and our spirit has been quickened, you know what the Bible says in Romans 8 16? The Spirit itself, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we're the children of God. So we've got our spirit and the Holy Spirit telling us, you're a child of God. You're saved, right? We know that we're saved. We know that we've believed on Jesus. We know that we in the inward man desire to serve him and love him. We know that there's a new man in there, even if he isn't always in control. The Bible says, because we know that, therefore we are always confident, knowing that whilst we're at home in the body, we're absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. So we have confidence that we know for sure that we're going to heaven. We don't have to wonder about it or hope so. The Bible says in 1 John 5 13, these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. And he says, in fact, we're so confident, I'll take it a step further, we're willing. We want to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. We're looking forward to getting to heaven. Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory? Hey, we're always confident. We know where we're going and so we're not afraid of death because we know that while we're at home in the body, we're absent from the Lord. But that when we're absent from the body, we're going to be present with the Lord. I was out soul winning yesterday and this lady asked us a question. She said, well let me ask you something, you know, if you're saved and you die, do you go straight to heaven or do you have to wait, you know, until the resurrection and the end times? Are you just asleep in the earth? And we told her, we said, no, you're going straight to heaven. And she said, well, yeah, that's what I believe too. But it seems like a lot of people around me have been mixed up on this. And the thing is the Bible says that when we're absent from the body, we're present with the Lord. And the Bible talks about people giving up the ghost when they die and the spirit leaving the body, the body without the spirit is dead. And the apostle Paul said, I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. That's why he said for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. So Paul didn't say, man, I just have a desire to just go lay in the earth because I'm just so tired of everything. I just need a break. I just need to soul sleep for a couple thousand years, you know. No, he's saying, look, I want to depart from the body so I can be present with the Lord. He said, I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ. And of course, in the book of Revelation, we see that up in heaven, the souls of them that were slain for the word of God are up in heaven and they have not yet received their bodies yet. They've not yet been bodily resurrected, but the souls are up there in heaven. So if you're saved and you die today, your soul will go straight to heaven. You'll be consciously in heaven awaiting the end times, because remember, they're waiting. They said, how long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season till their fellow servants also and their brethren, which should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. So he said, you know, they need to wait a little bit longer. So they're up there, they're waiting and so forth. So soul sleep is not a biblical doctrine. He says, we're confident, I say, in verse eight, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labor that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. So look, he's not laboring so that he can make it into heaven. You know, oh man, we've got to work hard so that we can be saved. We've got to work hard. No, no, no. We're not saved by works. For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. So he's not saying, man, we work hard so that we can get there. He's like, no, no, we're always confident. We already know, we already have the earnest of the Spirit. He's not going to back out on this deal. We believed on Christ, we have eternal life. But why do we labor then? We labor that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. We want God to be pleased with us. Just like a child should want their parents to be pleased with them. A child should not only obey because they're afraid of consequences. Now obviously we have to discipline our children. The Bible says, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourges every son whom he receiveth. And so obviously we discipline our children, but we don't want our children to only love us and obey us because of discipline. We want them to do what's right because they want to please us, because they love us. The best motivation for doing the right thing is love, not fear. Fear is important and it has a role to play, but love is greater. And so we should want to please the Lord. Children should want to please their parents. And the Bible says here that whether present or absent, we labor that we may be accepted of him. We want to be acceptable in his sight. We want to prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. We love Christ. We want him to be pleased with us. We want him to say to us, well done, thou good and faithful servant. We want to be rewarded by him and cast our crowns at his feet. And we want him to be pleased with us because we love him. Now the Bible says in verse 10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Now this is a verse that is misused and it's actually twisted to teach something that it's not teaching. Now here's what some people will try to make this verse teach, that somehow God's going to punish us when we get to heaven. You know, at the judgment seat of Christ, we're going to receive punishments doled out for the bad things that we did. That is not true. How do we know that's not true? Because the Bible goes on and on about how we are forgiven and as far as the east is from the west, so far has God separated us from our sins. His sins will not be mentioned unto him, the Bible says in regard to forgiveness in Ezekiel 33. And so over and over again, the Bible teaches that our sins are paid for, they're forgotten, and it's a done deal. So what is this talking about? Well keep your finger in 2 Corinthians 5 and let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 3. 1 Corinthians chapter number 3 is a good passage to compare this to when we talk about the judgment seat of Christ receiving the things done in our body according to what we've done, whether it be good or bad, right? What does that mean, good or bad? Let me show you what it means. If you look at 1 Corinthians chapter 3, it says in verse 11, for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. So the Bible's telling us that the judgment seat of Christ, our works are going to be tried by fire. They're going to be tested to see whether they're good or bad, to see what sort they are, okay? And some people's works are going to be like gold and silver and precious stones in that if you put those things in the fire, they come out the other side unscathed, right? If you put gold, silver, and precious stones in a fire, they come out cleaner and purer and they are still preserved. Whereas if you put wood, hay, and stubble into the fire, it's consumed. It's burned up. There's nothing on the other side of that fire. It comes out just ashes and dirt and waste. Does everybody understand? So there are two kinds of works that are going to be tested on the judgment seat of Christ. There are those that are gold, silver, and precious stones and there are those that are wood, hay, and stubble. Now the wood, hay, and stubble is that which does not have eternal value. It doesn't last. It doesn't abide. It's just things that we did that were worthless eternally speaking. And the gold, silver, and precious stones are the things that we did for Christ that have lasting, enduring, eternal value. Now the wood, hay, and stubble is not sin because is there anything bad about wood in the sense of sinful or wicked? I mean there's nothing wrong with wood. Wood is a wonderful material. Is there anything wrong with hay and stubble? No. Hay and stubble are useful items. They're not sinful or wicked things. But when it comes to abiding the trial by fire, they're not going to make it, right? Because they're just temporary items. They don't have the enduring quality of gold, silver, and precious stones. So when we get to the end of our lives, all of our accomplishments are going to be either gold, silver, and precious stones or wood, hay, and stubble. Let's say that you went out and built a great business and made all kinds of money. That's not a wicked thing to do. That's not a sinful thing to do. That's not even a bad thing to do. But does it have eternal lasting value? Do you think God's going to reward you when you get to heaven and say, oh, you built a great business. Well done. Great job. Oh, you went to the Super Bowl and got the Super Bowl ring and you made a touchdown. Well done, now good and faithful servant. Give me a high five. That stuff's not going to matter. None of your athletic achievements are going to matter. None of your financial achievements are going to matter. None of your relationship achievements are going to matter. Nothing that doesn't have eternal value is going to matter. Only things that are going to matter are going to be things that you did that had eternal value where you were serving Christ. And not only that, even things that you did that would seem to have eternal value, like for example, winning a soul to Christ or studying your Bible or being a prayer warrior or maybe giving alms to the poor, helping people. Even those things, donating money or something like that, you might not even get a reward for those things because the Bible says that if you do those things to be seen of men, you have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. So you might produce all this soul winning that you did. Hey, look at all the soul winning I did. And then God puts it in the fire and you're like, whoa, why is that burning up? Well, you already had your reward because you went around bragging and praising yourself right? The Bible says, take heed that you do not your alms, alms is when you help the poor and give money, take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them, otherwise you have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. So a lot of the stuff that's going to go through the fire as wood, hay and stubble is all the stuff that you did for personal glory, accolades, for the praise of men. You already have your reward. Enjoy it buddy because you have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. So the test of our works is what did we do, what did we accomplish, God's going to test it and say, well, let's, you know, were you doing it for the right reason in the sense that you did it not for the praise of men, but you actually did it out of love for Christ or love for the lost or for the right reasons. So your works are going to be tested to see whether they're good or bad. This is a statement on the quality of your works, okay? So the Bible says in verse 14, if any man's work abide which he has built thereupon, meaning that it makes it through the trial by fire, if it's gold, silver and precious stones, if any man's work which he has built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. So you get rewarded for the eternal things you do. Verse 15, if any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so is by fire. So what's the Bible saying here? That if you get to heaven and you don't have any works of eternal value, you don't have any gold, silver and precious stones, everything you did is classified by the Lord as wood, hay and stubble, you're still going to heaven. You're still saved. Why? Because salvation is not by works. It's not of works lest any man should boast. The Bible says, but did not work it not, but believeth on him that justified the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. So you yourself shall still be saved, but you will suffer loss. What does it mean to suffer loss? It means you're missing out on something. You've lost something. What is it that you're missing out on? Rewards. Because if your work abides, you receive a reward. If your work doesn't abide, you suffer loss, right? So we need to decide that we're going to spend our lives doing things that have eternal value because we don't want to get to heaven and suffer loss and not have any rewards. We want to be accepted of him. We want him to say well done. We want to receive a reward and of course he gets all the glory. So the Bible is saying there that you can still be saved without producing works that are good works, gold, silver and precious stones, but your works are going to be tested of what sort they are, whether or not you're going to get rewarded based on those things. That's what the judgment seat of Christ is all about, okay? Now go back to 2 Corinthians 5 and put your finger there, but then flip back to Leviticus chapter 27 because I want to show you that throughout scripture the words good and bad, they often aren't referring to something righteous versus something sinful, but often the words good and bad are just referring to the quality of something. What is the quality, okay? So the Bible says in Leviticus chapter 27 verse 9, and if it be a beast, whereof men bring an offering unto the Lord, all that any man giveth of such unto the Lord shall be holy. Look at verse 10. He shall not alter it nor change it, a good for a bad or a bad for a good, and if he at all shall change beast for beast, then it and the exchange thereof shall be holy. And if it be any unclean beast of which they do not offer a sacrifice unto the Lord, then he shall present the beast before the priest, and the priest shall value it, whether it be good or bad. As thou valuest it, who art the priest, so shall it be. So what does the good or bad have to do with the value of something, right? Because he's saying, look, if you bring an animal, they're going to valuate it and see what the value is. What is it worth? Is it good or bad? It's not like good doggy, you know, because it sits and rolls over. He's looking at the quality of the item, not its obedience or something like that, right? Because if they're going to sacrifice this animal on the altar, they probably don't really care whether it's a good boy or a bad boy, you know, as far as obviously not a dog, but if it's a calf or if it's a goat or if it's a sheep or if it's one of the animals they sacrifice, they're not looking for it to be obedient. They're looking for whether it's good or bad. What are they looking for? You know, they're looking for any sickness in it. They're looking for if it's well built, if it's fattened up, if it's got good muscle tissue that they can have some meat out of the thing, right? What's it worth? Not only that, he talks about a house being good or bad, okay? If you would, jump down to verse number 14, and when a man shall sanctify his house to be holy unto the Lord, then the priest shall estimate it, whether it be good or bad. As the priest shall estimate it, so shall it stand. So the estimate or the appraisal of a house is whether the house is good or bad. What are we looking at? Quality. The quality of the house. Okay, I know how many square feet it is, but what's the quality like? What's the workmanship like? Is this a good house or a bad house? Is this a good lamb or a bad lamb? Is this a good goat or a bad goat? That's what we're talking about quality. So if you would, flip back over to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. And so what God's saying about appearing before the judgment seat of Christ is that our works are going to be judged, the things done in our body, whether they are good or bad, okay? If they're bad, what happens? They're burned up and we suffer loss. If they're good, then we receive a reward at the judgment seat of Christ. But what we don't receive is punishments for the bad things that we did in heaven. Boy, I just can't wait to be absent from the body, to be present with the Lord, to get my butt whipped for every bad thing I've done my whole life. That doesn't fit the context of the passage, folks. Okay, this is supposed to be an encouraging passage here. Now let me tell you something. When I was a kid, I heard preaching that said, hey, when you get to heaven, God's going to play every bad thing you've ever done on a big screen. And you're going to have to give an account for why you did those things. Who's heard that kind of preaching before? Yeah. And it isn't true. Now I do believe that the unsaved will have the books open and they're going to be judged by their works. And they're going to be called out for the sinful, wicked things that they did. But being saved is that we're saved from our sins, and we don't have to undergo that, okay? And I remember just sweating as a kid, like, man, how am I going to explain that? You know, thinking about stuff that I did and just wondering how I'm going to explain it. Okay. But now think about how silly it is if I died when I was 37 years old. Think about this now. Let's say I die, well, nothing up to sleep, folks. Let's say I died when I'm 37 years old, and then I stood before God and He's like, why did you do that when you were seven? You know, the stuff I was afraid of back then. Why did you push that girl off the swing? Why did you steal those fruit snacks? You know, why did you take a fifth cookie when mom said you could only have four? Don't you think it would be silly to be rebuked and called out and punished for what you did when you were five years old or 10 years old or when you're 37? It's like, okay, is there a statute of limitations here? You know, can I live this down? Folks, now let me explain something to you that would make absolutely no sense. Okay. Remember, we talked about earlier in the sermon how there's the flesh and there's the spirit, right? The body and the spirit. And Paul said he delighted in the law of God after the inward man, right? But that his members, his body, his flesh were getting him to do wrong things. Now in that description of the strife between the inward man and the flesh, in Romans 7 he said, when I do what I would not, it's no longer I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. He said it's no longer I that do it, it's sin that dwelleth in me. Why? Because he's saying, you know, the real me is the inward man, the spiritual man. Now remember, we've got the flesh, which is our same old sinful flesh from before we were saved and we've got the new man, which is the spirit. Well, what happens when we die? When we die, the flesh dies, right? For good, it's gone, over, done. So which part of us goes to heaven? Does our flesh and blood go to heaven? No, the Bible says flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. So which part of us is going to heaven? The spirit. Okay. Is the spirit the guy who did the wrong stuff? No. Was it the spirit or the flesh that did all the bad stuff that we did in our lives? It was the flesh. And that guy's already dead. So what in the world sense would it make for the spirit, the new man, the new Steven Anderson to walk into heaven, man, it's great to be here, present with the Lord. And God says, wait a minute, I got a bone to pick with you, buddy. Because what about this that you did wrong, this that you did wrong, this that you did wrong? You're punished for those things now in heaven. Heaven where you're punished for all your sins. Well, you know what I'd say? I'd say, well, I didn't do that stuff. I didn't push that girl off the swing. That wasn't me. That guy, you know what? The guy who did that is dead. He's dead. I didn't do that stuff. The stuff that I did was the right things. Okay. Because the Bible says, whosoever is born of God does not commit sin. And his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he's born of God. That was the old sinful flesh carnal Steven Anderson that's already dead. The new creature is incapable of sin. Old things are passed away. All things are become new. So I would just say, well, I didn't do that. Why did you do that? I didn't. Okay. Now the things that we're going to receive, the Bible says, look down if you would at 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he had done whether it be good or bad. According to the things done in his body, whether it be good or bad, it's only the stuff that we did that we're going to get rewarded for or that we're going to have tested. Not the stuff that we didn't do that some other guy did that's dead and gone and it wouldn't make any sense to punish the new man for what the old man did when he's already dead and gone. There's no punishment here. We're going to receive the things done in our body according to what we've done whether it be good or bad. So God's going to take a look at our works that we've done and he's going to see what the quality is. And if the quality is good, we get a reward. If the quality is bad, we don't get a reward. But we're not talking about sin, we're talking about the work that we did. We're not talking about crimes that we committed. Another parallel passage to go to on this, keep your finger there, flip over to Revelation chapter 11. Revelation chapter 11, the Bible says in verse 17 of Revelation 11, we give thee thanks O Lord God Almighty which art and wast and art to come because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and has reigned and the nations were angry and thy wrath has come and the time of the dead that they should be judged, watch this, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets and to the saints and them that fear thy name small and great and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. So the wicked are being punished and the saints, the saved, the prophets, small and great are being rewarded. So the judgment seat of Christ is where we only get either rewarded or we get nothing. Those are the two options. We're not getting a beating. We get rewarded or we get nothing. Okay, now the great white throne of judgment where the unsaved are judged is the exact opposite. They can't get a reward. Even the good things that they did, they can't get rewarded. They can either just basically get punished much or more or even more. It's basically just a determination of how severe of a punishment they get. It's basically just a sentencing hearing is what it is. They've already been declared guilty. They're condemned already, the Bible says. He that believeth not is condemned already, but it's a sentencing at the great white throne where the books are open, they're judged by their works and they are sentenced for how bad their punishment is going to be in the lake of fire, but it's a one-way valve because they cannot get any rewards and we're not going to be punished or beaten or go to purgatory. Look, that's a false talk. There's no such thing as purgatory. There's no purgatory. There's no temporary damnation. There's not a temporary time in hell and God is certainly not going to give us a physical beating when we get to heaven. I mean, you say, well, you know, there's got to be a punishment. Folks, our punishment comes on this earth. If we're Christians and we go out and do bad stuff, we'll reap what we sow on this earth. He'll punish us on this earth whom the Lord loveth and chasteneth and scourges every son and we receive it. What is the purpose? Stop and think about this, folks. What is the purpose of God punishing his children? What's the purpose of me punishing my children? The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 11, we verily had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much more be in subjection unto the father of spirits and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, watch this, but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness. Why does God discipline us? Why does God chastise us for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness? Now let me ask you this, if I go out and do something bad and then God punishes me and then I get right with God because I'm like, okay, God's chastising me because I've done wrong, now I'm going to do right, hasn't God's chastisement accomplished its purpose? Okay, now let's say I died, my soul goes to heaven, I stand before God and I've already shed the sinful carnal flesh, the old man's dead and buried and I stand before God and he says, all right, I've got to punish you now for the bad stuff you've done. Is that going to make me more holy, getting that punishment? I'm already holy. The Bible says, you know, when we see him, we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is, okay, you know, I mean, we're already there, we're already in heaven, we're already made perfect, the Bible says, the spirits of just men made perfect in that congregation in heaven, what is punishment going to accomplish? Why beat a perfect man, right? The new man's perfect. Why beat him? Why punish him? Why send him to purgatory? You know, the only purgatory I need is death because the moment I shed this sinful flesh, I'm purged of all my sins at that point. It's all gone at that point, right? So we don't need purgatorio and we don't need a temporary little stint in hell or whatever and you say, come on, who believes that stuff? Oh, I don't know, just like a billion Catholics, you know, and there are even some goofball Baptists out there who teach this crazy stuff that people are going to go to hell temporarily and stuff like that. Folks, if you die and wake up in hell, you're toast, it's over, you know, there's no, you're not getting out. So, you know, man, I hope that preaching was right, that this is temporary. It's not temporary, all right? It's permanent. So the Bible said, now here's, you say, well, why are so many people goofed up on this? They're misunderstanding it because they're misapplying the next verse. So it says in verse 10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he had done, whether it be good or bad, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. Now, if we stop right there, think about this. What they're doing is they're reading it this way. Well, we've got to appear before the judgment seat of Christ and we know the terror of the Lord. So we better mind our P's and Q's and we better not drink drugs and chew and smoke and gamble and what, but folks, that's not what he said. What he said is knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. We persuade men. What does he mean when he says we persuade men? He's talking about getting people saved. Like when he said in the book of Acts, remember King Agrippa, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. And if you remember, this passage is talking about how we have this ministry of reconciling the lost to Christ. In chapter 4, he said if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost. At the end of chapter 5, he said we have the ministry of reconciliation and so we beseech you in Christ's name, be ye reconciled to God. Beseeching someone is like persuading them, begging them to be saved, right? Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. Look, that doesn't mean, hey, we're so scared of the Lord, that's why we're going to go out soul winning. Because if that's what it meant, that would be implying that the only good work is soul winning. And it would also be implying that the big thing that you get punished for at the Judgement Museum of Christ is not soul winning. That doesn't make any sense, folks, because I can think of a lot of other sins besides not soul winning, drinking, fornicating, adultery, theft. The Bible says because of blasphemy, pride, foolishness, because of those type of things, the wrath of God comes down on the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore like unto them. What actually makes more sense, since he says, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, is that we know what they have coming to them, so we persuade men. He's not saying, oh man, we're so scared to death of what's going to happen to us, so we better go out and win people to Christ. No, we're so scared to death of what's going to happen to them. They ought to be scared to death. They ought to be terrified. It's not like, oh, so why are you guys out knocking doors today in Chandler? Oh, because we're terrified. We're terrified. I mean, what's going to happen if we don't come down here and knock doors and preach the Gospel? Wrong. You know why we're down there knocking doors and giving the Gospel is because we know the terror of the Lord and we know the fate of the unsaved, so because we love them, we want to get them saved because if our Gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost, and that's in the context here of this passage, that if our Gospel's hid, it's hid to them that are lost. The God of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe in Him. Look, we're always confident. We're always willing to go be in the presence of the Lord. It's the lost that are doomed and we've got to get them saved, okay? So he says, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, he says, but we are made manifest unto God and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences, for we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance and not in heart. So what does he roll right into right after saying, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men? What is it that he rolls directly into? A discussion about how we're not doing this for ourselves, we're doing this for you. So that again fits the context because he says, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest unto God and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. And then he says, of course, that he's doing it that they may have somewhat to answer. Verse 13, whether we be beside ourselves it is to God or whether we be sober it is for your cause, verse 14, for the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then we're all dead. And that he died for all that they which should live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again. Now that's the key right there in verse 15. What's he saying? Look, we as Christians should not live for ourselves, right? Don't live for yourself but live unto him that died and rose again. And why else are we doing it? Because we know that if one died for all then we're all dead. So again, the same theme from chapter 4 is carried into chapter 5 of doing it because we love Christ and because we love others. We love Christ, we love others, that's why we keep going, hey, we're not in it for ourselves. Now, let's go back to the judgment seat of Christ. If you're at the judgment seat of Christ and you're missing out on rewards, let me ask you what is the colossal reason why you're missing out on rewards at the judgment seat of Christ? It's because you were in it for yourself. Because if you just spent your whole life on sports and business and everything to fulfill your appetites, you're in it for yourself, amen? And let's say you even went to church and served God but you did it all for glory. You gave alms to be seen of man, you prayed out loud openly to be seen of man, you fasted to be seen of man, you went soloing to be seen of man, you preached to be seen of man. If you did it for outward glory, what does that mean? You're in it for yourself. You're in it for yourself. So what's the colossal difference between being rewarded at the judgment seat of Christ and missing out on rewards? It's the difference between being in it for yourself versus being in it for Christ and others. Does everybody understand the big difference? Because if you're in it for Christ and in it for others, you're not making a big show of it where you want to get all the glory. You're in it because the love of Christ constrains you. It's the love for other people that wants you to go out and win people to Christ, okay? So therefore, he's saying, look, we're going to appear before the judgment seat of Christ. We're going to receive a reward for the things done in our body, whether good or bad, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord. We persuade men. I mean, look, we want to get people saved because we love Christ and because we love people. He's not saying, oh, man, we're so terrified of God beating up on us when we get to heaven. Folks, it's just not going to happen. It's a crazy doctrine to think that God's going to beat you up when you get to heaven or whip you or punish you or run through all your sins with you. You call that being saved from your sins? I thought his name was called Jesus because he'll save his people from their sins. I thought as far as the east is from the west, God has separated us from our sins. I thought the Bible said, if thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, oh, Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. And let me tell you something. If the apostle Paul had to stand at the judgment seat of Christ and give an account for his sins, he'd have some serious sins to give account to as well. And so would I, and so would you. But thank God that God has cast all of our sins behind his back. Thank God that as far as the east is from the west, so far as God separated us from our sins. Thank God that our sins will never be mentioned unto them. Thank God for Hebrews 10, 17, their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. That's what salvation is, friend. So we do it for other people and we do it because we love Christ, not because we're scared for ourselves of some punishment or purgatory or whatever that isn't there. Look what the Bible says. It's the love of Christ that constrains us. Why push yourself? Why go soul winning? Why drive so far? You know, why go to church three times a week? Why read the Bible so much? Why pray? The love of Christ constrains us. Say, are you doing that stuff because you have to? Are you being forced? Yeah, I'm being forced by love. Love is forcing me. Right? I mean, that's what he's saying. The love of Christ. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we have to do it because our love just forces us because it's like we can't be any other way. We have so much love in our heart. We have to. I mean, how can we, how can we have our love burning for our savior and not do what he tells us to do? How can we have love burning in our heart for the lost and just let them sail off that cliff without warning them of hell? So the Bible says in verse 16, wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh, yea though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more, therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away, be old all things are become new. And again, let me just reemphasize this. This is talking about the spirit, this is talking about the new man. Some people will use this verse to say, well, if people aren't living right, they're not a Christian. And we've all heard this verse used, well, you know, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature and this guy's not living right, so he must not be saved, he must not be a Christian. Here's the thing about that though. If this verse, we're talking about your lifestyle, then when it says old things are passed away, be old all things are become new, you know what that would mean? That would mean that every saved Christian lives a perfect life because it says all things are become new. That would mean that when a person got saved, everything about their life changed. Just every sin is gone, I mean, just the first day, they're just reading their Bible, praying, no sin, I mean, folks, that's ridiculous, that's crazy. So when he says, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature, old things are passed away, be old all things are become new, that's talking about the spirit, that's talking about the inner man, okay? That's talking about that part of us which is saved, the spirit, not the carnal sinful flesh that's going to be shed someday, okay? So like I said, is there going to be a change when someone's saved? Absolutely a massive change on the inside, on the inside. But is there going to be a dramatic change on the outside? I hope so. And sometimes you'll see people get saved and they have a dramatic change on the outside. Why? Because they're walking in the spirit. So the new man is shining through and you're like, wow, this is great, this guy just got saved and he's turned his whole life around. Zacchaeus, you know, whatever. But look, that's great. And that's the ideal, that's what we'd love to see happen when people get saved. So let me ask you this, is that your life story? Probably not. Okay, why? Because the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. And so, yes, sometimes there's a dramatic change, other times from the outside you don't even see a change. But there is a change on the inside or else the person didn't really get saved. But it's just that we can't see that because it's on the inside. Yes? I'm not sure what you mean by that, so we'll have to talk about that later. So 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 18 says, and all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. Now stop and think about this. If supposedly verse number 10 is telling us that we're going to be punished for our sins at the judgment seat of Christ, then what sense would it make a few verses later to say that he was not imputing their trespasses unto them in verse 19? I mean if I'm standing at the judgment seat of Christ and getting in trouble for sinful things I did, that sounds like my trespasses are being imputed unto me. But he said, no, no, no, our trespasses, our sins are not imputed unto us, elsewhere it says the righteousness of Christ is imputed unto us. So when we're judged at the judgment seat of Christ, our works are good or bad, that's the quality of whether we get a reward or whether we suffer the loss. So he says there, not imputing their trespasses unto them and have committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Committed unto us means he's trusted us with that. He's relying on us to get it done. He's trusting us. He's committed unto us that responsibility. Now then, verse 20, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us. It's like God is beseeching you. It's like God came to your door and asked you to be saved. It's like God presented the gospel to you by us, right? Because we're doing it in Christ's stead, right? We're doing it in the place of Christ. Let's say that my wife and I had a big argument, right? And let's say I hired some courier service to come and bring flowers and bring chocolates and to basically beseech her in my stead, be reconciled to your husband. Now she's not going to just fall in love with that guy and just, oh, thank you, you know. Why? He's just a messenger. Okay. He's doing it on my behalf, right? He's pleading with her, be reconciled to him. Okay. That's what we're doing when we preach the gospel. We're going to people on behalf of God because Jesus Christ is not going to walk up and down the streets of Phoenix, Arizona, but we are. And when we preach the gospel to people, it's like God is speaking to them. It's like God is reaching out to them. It's like God is begging them to be saved because he sent us to beg for him, to preach for him, to persuade for him, to beseech for him. We are there with that reconciliation ministry. We are ambassadors for Christ, verse 20, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. Why? For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So this is what it means to be saved, folks. Our trespasses are not imputed unto us. The righteousness of Christ is imputed unto us. Okay. This doctrine of imputation, sometimes the Bible will use the word imputed or sometimes it will use the word reckoned or sometimes it will use the word counted, right? Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. It was imputed unto him for righteousness. It was reckoned unto him for righteousness. So three different words the Bible uses about Abraham believing on the Lord and it was imputed, it was reckoned, it was counted. Think about a computer, computer imputed, right? So these words are related. Think about reckoned, reckoned. What is a reckoning? A reckoning is a balance of the accounts. If we were to have a day of reckoning, right, we're balancing out the books. And when we think about counting, what do we think of when we're counting numbers or counting money? Or we would think of an accountant as being someone who counts, right? So basically, it's like a ledger that an accountant would have and on the positive side of the ledger is all of our good works, right? And on the negative side of the ledger is all of our sins. Well, bad news, all your good works are as filthy rags. They're in confederate money. You know, all your positive, all your good money, it's all junk bonds, okay? It's all stocks and failed corporations. This is on your positive side of the ledger. It's all in a foreign currency. It's in Zimbabwean currency, okay, where it's worth nothing, right? But man, boy, you've got some U.S. dollars on that negative side of the ledger, okay? You've got some serious debt racked up, some negatives, right? This is the unsaved man. He's got all his confederate cash and he can't pay off this massive debt in U.S. dollars. Everybody understand? What Christ comes in and does is he cooks the books, right? Christ comes in with this massive balance in U.S. dollars. He's got liquid assets, hard currency that he comes in with, right, and he has no debt. He has nothing on the negative side of the ledger, right? And here's what he does. He switches accounts with you. He takes all your garbage, junk bonds, and toxic assets, right, and he took that stuff to hell for three days and three nights and rose again. He conquered it all. He paid for it all. It's all done. Jesus died on the cross to straighten out your books, all right? He died on the cross to pay off your debt, okay? Then not only did he pay off all your debt, but then he takes all the good stuff that he had, all the righteousness, and he imputes that unto you. So you don't even walk away from salvation at a zero balance. You don't go from being horribly in debt to having a zero balance. He actually puts some money in your account. You're in the black, okay? You have not only had your sins washed away by the blood of Christ, but now you have the righteousness of Christ imputed unto you. And so if at the judgment seat of Christ somehow you were to be punished, well, you just say, well, let's take a look at the books, because actually my portfolio actually looks pretty good, Lord, you know. Why? Because I've got all of Christ's riches right here, you know? People have used the acronym for grace, God's riches at Christ's expense. That's what it means to be saved, folks. And so thank God for our salvation. Thank God we've been passed from death unto life. Thank God that our sins and iniquities will he remember no more. Thank God for the opportunity to serve him and be accepted of him and to earn rewards from him. And thank God for the opportunity to pull someone else out of the fire. Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. So why are you so confrontational, soul winning? Because we know the terror of the Lord. We persuade men. Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer. Father, thank you so much for this great chapter, Lord. We thank you for your word and we thank you for trusting us, committing unto us the ministry of reconciliation, Lord. I pray that we would not let you down, Lord. I know that many of your children are letting you down, but Lord, let it not be us. Help us to do our best, Lord, to teach all nations and baptize them and teach them to observe all things that you commanded us, Lord. Help us to preach the gospel to every creature. Help us to faint not. Even when things get hard, Lord, help us not to faint. There's too much riding on the work that we're doing, Lord. Keep us strong in you and in the power of your might and it's in Jesus' name we pray amen.