1 00:00:00,000 –> 00:00:07,100 You’re listening to a sermon from Pastor Colin Smith of Open the Bible. 2 00:00:07,100 –> 00:00:16,440 To contact us, call us at 1-877-Open-365 or visit our website at Openthebible.org. 3 00:00:16,440 –> 00:00:17,440 Let’s get to the message. 4 00:00:17,440 –> 00:00:19,440 Here is Pastor Colin. 5 00:00:19,440 –> 00:00:25,000 Please open your Bibles at Second Corinthians in chapter five as we’re beginning a new 6 00:00:25,000 –> 00:00:31,160 series today entitled Don’t Lose Heart. 7 00:00:31,160 –> 00:00:39,000 As we gather for worship today the world is torn with increasingly ominous conflicts. 8 00:00:39,000 –> 00:00:46,779 We watch the news, we wonder what will happen next, it is easy to lose heart. 9 00:00:46,779 –> 00:00:51,939 There’s a huge moral shift that is taking place in our culture from a basis in God and 10 00:00:51,939 –> 00:00:58,540 His Word to a basis in us and our desires and as we see it happening so quickly it is 11 00:00:58,540 –> 00:01:01,340 easy to lose heart. 12 00:01:01,340 –> 00:01:08,360 There’s a growing drift in many churches becoming more about us than about God, more 13 00:01:08,360 –> 00:01:15,160 about gathering the crowd than honoring the Lord and it is easy as we see that to lose 14 00:01:15,160 –> 00:01:17,779 heart. 15 00:01:17,879 –> 00:01:24,500 And on top of all of that, there are the personal burdens that many of us bear and carry, long 16 00:01:24,500 –> 00:01:32,339 struggles over health, the endless round of treatments and the draining effects and the 17 00:01:32,339 –> 00:01:36,580 wondering if you are ever going to get better. 18 00:01:36,580 –> 00:01:44,099 For others, the distress over loved ones, life at home has been soured perhaps by some 19 00:01:44,519 –> 00:01:49,860 member of the family, you don’t rest, the place that was once a place of refreshment 20 00:01:49,860 –> 00:01:55,940 and recuperation and restoration is no longer a place of peace. 21 00:01:55,940 –> 00:02:01,040 And some of you would say today, you know, my life is not what I want it to be. 22 00:02:01,040 –> 00:02:04,860 This is not what I signed up for at this stage of my life. 23 00:02:04,860 –> 00:02:13,119 I never thought that I would find myself here, and it is easy to lose heart. 24 00:02:13,139 –> 00:02:16,960 So if you have the Bible open in front of you, you will notice that the title for our 25 00:02:16,960 –> 00:02:28,979 series is taken directly from 2 Corinthians 4, where Paul says, so we do not lose heart. 26 00:02:28,979 –> 00:02:33,500 And if you are like me, you might read these words and say, really? 27 00:02:33,500 –> 00:02:34,500 We don’t lose heart? 28 00:02:34,500 –> 00:02:36,279 Well please tell me how that is possible. 29 00:02:36,279 –> 00:02:40,000 How am I supposed to live in a world like this and not lose heart? 30 00:02:40,119 –> 00:02:45,759 How am I supposed to face the pressures that are around me that sometimes seem to overwhelm 31 00:02:45,759 –> 00:02:47,119 me with discouragement? 32 00:02:47,119 –> 00:02:52,559 How am I to carry that without losing heart? 33 00:02:52,559 –> 00:02:59,020 Well the answer to these questions is in the verses that follow 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 34 00:02:59,020 –> 00:03:00,119 16. 35 00:03:00,119 –> 00:03:07,720 Verse 16-18, the end of chapter 4 really gives us the headline on how we do not lose heart 36 00:03:07,720 –> 00:03:09,979 and why we do not lose heart. 37 00:03:09,979 –> 00:03:16,240 And then the answer is delivered in full in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 which is going to 38 00:03:16,240 –> 00:03:18,080 be our focus. 39 00:03:18,080 –> 00:03:23,979 So let me just draw your attention very briefly to the headline which is in three contrasts 40 00:03:23,979 –> 00:03:26,339 at the end of chapter 4. 41 00:03:26,339 –> 00:03:32,320 Verse 16, Paul speaks about our outer self and then our inner self. 42 00:03:32,820 –> 00:03:40,919 Though our outer self, the body, is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day 43 00:03:40,919 –> 00:03:42,820 by day. 44 00:03:42,820 –> 00:03:48,919 Verse 17, he has a second contrast between what he calls our present affliction and then 45 00:03:48,919 –> 00:03:51,279 our eternal glory. 46 00:03:51,279 –> 00:03:59,080 This light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all 47 00:03:59,080 –> 00:04:00,800 comparison. 48 00:04:00,839 –> 00:04:06,199 And then in verse 18, the third contrast is between what is seen and passing and what 49 00:04:06,199 –> 00:04:09,020 is unseen that lasts forever. 50 00:04:09,020 –> 00:04:14,759 We look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen, for the things 51 00:04:14,759 –> 00:04:16,760 that are seen are transient. 52 00:04:16,760 –> 00:04:18,480 That is, they’re going away. 53 00:04:18,480 –> 00:04:22,839 But the things that are unseen are eternal. 54 00:04:22,839 –> 00:04:25,019 So here’s the headline. 55 00:04:25,019 –> 00:04:30,079 We’re dealing with the outer self, that is, all the pressures and stressors that are part 56 00:04:30,079 –> 00:04:32,339 of life in the body. 57 00:04:32,339 –> 00:04:37,940 We’re enduring this present affliction, that is, all of the circumstances of life that 58 00:04:37,940 –> 00:04:40,920 may bring pressure to bear upon you. 59 00:04:40,920 –> 00:04:46,619 And we face the raw discouragement of what is seen, that is, the world so often in conflict 60 00:04:46,619 –> 00:04:49,760 and the church so often in compromise. 61 00:04:49,760 –> 00:04:55,440 Put all of this together, and it is very easy to get discouraged. 62 00:04:55,440 –> 00:04:59,559 But Paul says, verse 16, we do not lose heart. 63 00:04:59,619 –> 00:05:01,299 Why, how? 64 00:05:01,760 –> 00:05:07,440 Well, because our inner self is being renewed, because there is an eternal weight of glory 65 00:05:07,440 –> 00:05:12,399 that far outweighs all of the afflictions that are around us, and because we fix our 66 00:05:12,399 –> 00:05:17,200 eyes on what is unseen, not what is seen. 67 00:05:17,200 –> 00:05:20,359 Now that’s the headline. 68 00:05:20,359 –> 00:05:26,380 And any good headline in a newspaper or in a magazine will make you want to read the 69 00:05:26,380 –> 00:05:29,540 article that is underneath it. 70 00:05:29,600 –> 00:05:36,459 And 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 16 through 18 with these three contrasts is the headline 71 00:05:36,459 –> 00:05:45,920 that whets our appetite for the full explanation of why as Christians we do not lose heart, 72 00:05:45,920 –> 00:05:50,519 which is given to us in 2 Corinthians and chapter 5. 73 00:05:50,519 –> 00:05:55,779 And that is why we are going to camp out in this chapter, 2 Corinthians and chapter 5 74 00:05:55,779 –> 00:06:04,380 for the next seven weeks because 2 Corinthians chapter 5 is the extended answer to 2 Corinthians 75 00:06:04,380 –> 00:06:11,019 chapter 4 in verse 16, in other words, it tells us how not to lose heart. 76 00:06:11,019 –> 00:06:16,760 Now, I have two headings today as we take the first step in this new series that will 77 00:06:16,760 –> 00:06:22,519 frame the first part of our answer as to why we do not lose heart. 78 00:06:22,519 –> 00:06:24,059 And here’s the first. 79 00:06:24,059 –> 00:06:32,320 What we have in the first verses of this chapter is a healthy dose of realism about the Christian’s 80 00:06:32,320 –> 00:06:42,040 life on earth, a healthy dose of realism about the Christian’s life on earth. 81 00:06:42,040 –> 00:06:51,859 For we know, verse 1, that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have 82 00:06:51,859 –> 00:06:54,920 a building from God. 83 00:06:54,920 –> 00:07:01,839 Now, earlier this year we had a whole series in which we were thinking about the soul. 84 00:07:01,839 –> 00:07:05,540 This series begins with the body. 85 00:07:05,540 –> 00:07:10,980 Always remember that God has given you life through the union of your soul and your body. 86 00:07:10,980 –> 00:07:18,600 He knit them together in your mother’s womb, and here God speaks about the body as a kind 87 00:07:19,600 –> 00:07:22,100 for the soul. 88 00:07:22,100 –> 00:07:26,359 The body is our earthly home, verse one. 89 00:07:26,359 –> 00:07:34,920 In other words the body is pictured here as the house in which your soul lives. 90 00:07:34,920 –> 00:07:42,359 Now the obvious question then is what kind of house is the body for the soul? 91 00:07:42,359 –> 00:07:48,100 And the answer is we live in a tent. 92 00:07:48,320 –> 00:07:54,540 This tent that is our earthly home, verse one. 93 00:07:54,540 –> 00:08:01,239 Now think about this, God does not say that your body is a fort, He does not say that 94 00:08:01,239 –> 00:08:08,320 your body is an impregnable castle, He says the very nature of your body in which your 95 00:08:08,320 –> 00:08:18,619 soul dwells is that it is like a tent, that is it is to be compared with canvas, ropes 96 00:08:18,619 –> 00:08:27,440 and pegs, a fragile structure, an adequate housing for the time being but never intended 97 00:08:27,440 –> 00:08:30,959 to be your final home. 98 00:08:31,160 –> 00:08:35,780 Now think of this tent that is your body. 99 00:08:35,780 –> 00:08:42,280 It is made of tough canvas, it has strong ropes, it can handle some heavy weather, even 100 00:08:42,280 –> 00:08:53,640 Gale Force storms, but it is only canvas and the ropes can fray and they do have a breaking 101 00:08:53,640 –> 00:09:00,799 point, think of your nerves as being like these ropes. 102 00:09:00,799 –> 00:09:08,440 There are limits to what your body can take, there is a delicate chemical balance in your 103 00:09:08,440 –> 00:09:14,799 brain that is rather like canvas that can tear. 104 00:09:14,799 –> 00:09:23,820 Your central nervous system can carry a certain load, but it also, like the ropes, has a breaking 105 00:09:23,820 –> 00:09:26,000 point. 106 00:09:26,219 –> 00:09:31,340 When you see this, and it is very important to grasp it in the Word of God, I live in 107 00:09:31,340 –> 00:09:37,960 this body which is a tent like structure, not a fort, not a castle. 108 00:09:37,960 –> 00:09:46,940 When you see this, it will not surprise you if the children of godly parents sometimes 109 00:09:47,859 –> 00:09:55,880 conditions and disorders that are hard to bear and even harder to diagnose. 110 00:09:55,880 –> 00:10:00,900 Their bodies are only tents. 111 00:10:00,900 –> 00:10:05,859 When you see this, it will not surprise you if you were to find out that a missionary 112 00:10:05,859 –> 00:10:12,479 who is serving God and is pursuing Godliness is also on antidepressants. 113 00:10:12,479 –> 00:10:13,659 You see, you hear these two things. 114 00:10:13,659 –> 00:10:15,700 You think, well how are these two things possible? 115 00:10:15,719 –> 00:10:19,380 If you think it’s not possible to hold these two things together, it’s because you’ve not 116 00:10:19,380 –> 00:10:22,799 understood that the body in which we live is like a tent. 117 00:10:22,799 –> 00:10:26,880 It’s a fragile structure for the best. 118 00:10:26,880 –> 00:10:32,359 It will not surprise you if someone who was respected in Christian ministry has to step 119 00:10:32,359 –> 00:10:38,099 back because of particular pressures that have come to bear perhaps in relation to family 120 00:10:38,099 –> 00:10:39,099 life. 121 00:10:39,099 –> 00:10:43,119 The bodies are only tents. 122 00:10:43,119 –> 00:10:52,919 So I am calling this a healthy dose of biblical realism about the Christian’s life on earth. 123 00:10:52,919 –> 00:10:57,659 Some of us have gotten into difficulties and confusion and found it difficult to make any 124 00:10:57,659 –> 00:11:02,559 sense of our own experience because we have got the idea that somehow these bodies are 125 00:11:02,559 –> 00:11:05,679 like forts, or they’re like battleships. 126 00:11:05,679 –> 00:11:07,820 But God says that is not the case. 127 00:11:07,820 –> 00:11:11,619 Your body is like a tent. 128 00:11:12,299 –> 00:11:20,960 Second, in this tent which we live, this body, Paul says we grown. 129 00:11:20,960 –> 00:11:25,580 Look at verse 2, in this tent we grown. 130 00:11:25,580 –> 00:11:32,359 Verse 4, he says it again, for while we are still in this tent, long as we’re in the tent, 131 00:11:32,359 –> 00:11:38,880 we groan being burdened. 132 00:11:39,380 –> 00:11:42,440 Now I know that some of you are enthusiastic campers. 133 00:11:42,440 –> 00:11:46,960 I mean canvass is just sounds wonderful to you, you’re the kind of folks that say forget 134 00:11:46,960 –> 00:11:51,440 your fancy hotel, I’m not even interested in renting an RV. 135 00:11:51,440 –> 00:11:55,780 I like the canvas, and the ropes, and the pegs, and I like my fire right out there, 136 00:11:55,780 –> 00:12:00,340 and cooking my bacon and doing my s’mores and all this kind of things and all the rest 137 00:12:00,340 –> 00:12:01,340 of it. 138 00:12:01,340 –> 00:12:06,859 Well I expect Paul thought very well of tents too because you remember that he was a tent 139 00:12:07,200 –> 00:12:11,599 camper, but listen none of you who are such enthusiastic campers are doing it year round 140 00:12:11,599 –> 00:12:13,179 right? 141 00:12:13,179 –> 00:12:18,760 And if you were, you would soon be groaning. 142 00:12:18,760 –> 00:12:24,520 Groaning because of the difficulties of life in the body is part of the Christian life, 143 00:12:24,520 –> 00:12:32,059 and here’s what I want you to get today, being more Godly doesn’t change this. 144 00:12:32,059 –> 00:12:40,719 You see, some of you know what it is to groan because of a particular fragility of your 145 00:12:40,719 –> 00:12:48,280 body or of your mind, but here’s what happens, you say, oh if I prayed more I wouldn’t 146 00:12:48,280 –> 00:12:50,580 be like this. 147 00:12:50,580 –> 00:12:54,719 Oh if I was a better Christian I wouldn’t be in this condition. 148 00:12:55,580 –> 00:13:02,900 Oh if I had more faith I wouldn’t be struggling in the way that I am right now. 149 00:13:02,900 –> 00:13:09,520 Well let me submit this to you, I don’t think many people have ever prayed more or been 150 00:13:09,520 –> 00:13:17,320 more godly or had more faith than the Apostle Paul, and if he groaned in his tent then none 151 00:13:17,320 –> 00:13:23,419 of us should be surprised when we find ourselves groaning in ours. 152 00:13:23,419 –> 00:13:28,940 All Christians grow under some frailty that arises from the body. 153 00:13:28,940 –> 00:13:35,340 This is part of the nature of the Christian life on earth, but becoming more godly does 154 00:13:35,340 –> 00:13:41,440 not make this experience less, it doesn’t take it away, w,e carry that burden, we do, 155 00:13:41,440 –> 00:13:44,520 Paul says that. 156 00:13:44,520 –> 00:13:49,400 Now as if this weren’t humbling enough, that our body is compared to something as lowly 157 00:13:49,479 –> 00:13:55,280 and as fragile as a tent, and that we’re reminded here by the apostle, this great spiritual 158 00:13:55,280 –> 00:13:59,440 leader, that the best of us that are most godly are going to experience groaning in 159 00:13:59,440 –> 00:14:00,440 the tent. 160 00:14:00,440 –> 00:14:07,919 Here’s another dose of healthy medicine, that the tent itself will eventually be taken down. 161 00:14:07,919 –> 00:14:18,039 We know, Verse 1, that if the tent that is our earthly home is … destroyed, literally 162 00:14:18,500 –> 00:14:20,380 taken down. 163 00:14:20,380 –> 00:14:26,119 Now friends, think how easy it is to take down a tent. 164 00:14:26,119 –> 00:14:30,820 If you want to take down a house, you have to bring a bulldozer and it’ll take a bit 165 00:14:30,820 –> 00:14:37,840 of time, but to take down a tent, all you need to do is you just loosen a few ropes 166 00:14:37,840 –> 00:14:41,119 and you pull up the pegs. 167 00:14:41,200 –> 00:14:48,320 And there it is lying in a heap on the ground. 168 00:14:48,320 –> 00:14:56,140 One day, the tent of your body will be taken down and this is a very apt picture. 169 00:14:56,140 –> 00:14:59,760 God himself will slacken the ropes. 170 00:14:59,760 –> 00:15:08,280 God will pull up the tent pegs and there will be the tent that is your body and it will 171 00:15:08,400 –> 00:15:12,719 be, as it were, there in a heap on the ground. 172 00:15:12,719 –> 00:15:19,719 Now, Thomas Boston says, I think, rather beautifully, he says, always remember you have no security 173 00:15:20,840 –> 00:15:22,979 in this house. 174 00:15:22,979 –> 00:15:24,820 One day you are going to be moved out of it. 175 00:15:24,820 –> 00:15:31,719 One day, the tent is going to be taken down and you are going to be forced out of doors. 176 00:15:31,719 –> 00:15:36,900 Now I want you just to notice before we move on here that Paul says, if the tent that is 177 00:15:36,940 –> 00:15:40,659 our earthly home is destroyed. 178 00:15:40,659 –> 00:15:47,659 And I think that he says, if, because another possibility was always in the mind of the 179 00:15:48,700 –> 00:15:55,700 apostle, and that was, that the Lord Jesus himself might return in glory while he was 180 00:15:56,719 –> 00:15:59,780 still alive. 181 00:15:59,780 –> 00:16:05,780 Indeed, Jesus Christ may come before your tent is taken down. 182 00:16:06,359 –> 00:16:08,739 That’s a wonderful thought. 183 00:16:08,739 –> 00:16:14,580 But that does not keep Paul from facing the reality that has been the experience of every 184 00:16:14,580 –> 00:16:21,580 Christian for more than 2,000 years, at some point the tent gets taken down. 185 00:16:23,219 –> 00:16:27,020 And I pause there for a moment. 186 00:16:27,020 –> 00:16:34,020 I wonder how you’re getting along with this wonderfully inspiring and uplifting message 187 00:16:34,979 –> 00:16:38,679 that we are sharing here together today. 188 00:16:38,679 –> 00:16:41,099 Actually, it is really important. 189 00:16:41,099 –> 00:16:44,080 Really important. 190 00:16:44,080 –> 00:16:51,080 We desperately need a healthy dose of realism about the Christian’s life on Earth and here’s 191 00:16:52,400 –> 00:16:52,760 why. 192 00:16:52,760 –> 00:16:58,619 If you start out thinking that the Christian life is going to be like heaven on Earth, 193 00:16:58,619 –> 00:17:01,679 you will not follow Jesus Christ for long. 194 00:17:02,260 –> 00:17:03,400 You want. 195 00:17:03,400 –> 00:17:07,000 You’ll become the kind of person who often hangs out in church, who spends years and 196 00:17:07,000 –> 00:17:12,680 years going round and round and round in circles saying, why am I suffering? 197 00:17:12,680 –> 00:17:15,400 Why is there so much evil in the world. 198 00:17:15,400 –> 00:17:18,239 Why is my life so hard? 199 00:17:18,239 –> 00:17:23,199 You will become like the rocky ground that does receive the seed but the soil is very, 200 00:17:23,199 –> 00:17:28,920 very shallow and so when the seed grows up and then the sun begins to beat down on it, 201 00:17:28,920 –> 00:17:30,660 what has grown becomes scorched. 202 00:17:30,660 –> 00:17:35,880 It doesn’t last because it does not have an adequate root. 203 00:17:35,880 –> 00:17:40,599 Listen to how Jesus describes the Christian life on earth. 204 00:17:40,599 –> 00:17:50,800 If anyone would come after me, he says, let him deny himself and take up his cross and 205 00:17:50,800 –> 00:17:53,359 follow me. 206 00:17:53,359 –> 00:17:54,359 Deny yourself. 207 00:17:54,359 –> 00:17:58,160 You’re not going to get everything that you want here on earth. 208 00:17:58,160 –> 00:17:59,160 And take up your cross. 209 00:17:59,160 –> 00:18:02,920 You’re going to have to carry some things that will be very, very difficult. 210 00:18:02,920 –> 00:18:07,060 And that’s part of what it’s like to follow me. 211 00:18:07,060 –> 00:18:12,579 That does not sound to me like the Lord Jesus Christ promising a wonderful life on earth. 212 00:18:12,579 –> 00:18:19,040 He is not saying follow me and I’ll give you everything you ever wanted. 213 00:18:19,040 –> 00:18:22,599 Here’s the problem that we are facing, folks. 214 00:18:22,640 –> 00:18:30,280 It is really hard to be a Christian if you get following Jesus mixed up with the American 215 00:18:30,280 –> 00:18:31,959 Dream. 216 00:18:31,959 –> 00:18:35,680 And that is what has happened so widely in our culture. 217 00:18:35,680 –> 00:18:38,979 People have confused these two things. 218 00:18:38,979 –> 00:18:45,500 And so when life does not work out in the way the dream has been cast, you are perpetually 219 00:18:45,500 –> 00:18:51,160 disappointed and you are always losing heart. 220 00:18:51,219 –> 00:19:00,359 So, please take on board this word of biblical realism, this healthy medicine that God gives 221 00:19:00,359 –> 00:19:06,060 to us to enable us to endure in life in this world, so that we will not lose heart. 222 00:19:06,060 –> 00:19:11,160 Please don’t make the mistake of thinking that following Jesus in this world will be 223 00:19:11,160 –> 00:19:13,560 like life in a palace. 224 00:19:13,560 –> 00:19:19,619 The life of a Christian in this world is like life in a tent. 225 00:19:19,619 –> 00:19:26,540 It’s a fragile structure that will one day be taken down. 226 00:19:26,540 –> 00:19:34,959 And the experience of the Christian in it includes a great deal of groaning. 227 00:19:34,959 –> 00:19:42,060 Now I say to you that if you believe this, what God is saying in 2 Corinthians, in chapter 228 00:19:42,079 –> 00:19:49,979 five in verse one, if you believe this, this healthy dose of biblical realism will greatly 229 00:19:49,979 –> 00:19:55,199 help you so that you do not lose heart. 230 00:19:55,199 –> 00:19:56,199 We need it. 231 00:19:56,199 –> 00:19:58,219 We need every part of the Word of God. 232 00:19:58,219 –> 00:20:03,780 And we desperately need what is before us in the scriptures today. 233 00:20:03,780 –> 00:20:06,439 Now, that’s the first point. 234 00:20:06,439 –> 00:20:07,680 Here’s the second. 235 00:20:08,040 –> 00:20:14,579 First, a healthy dose of realism about the Christian’s life on earth, the second, a marvelous 236 00:20:14,579 –> 00:20:20,979 gift of revelation about the Christian’s life in heaven. 237 00:20:20,979 –> 00:20:26,520 A marvelous gift of revelation about the Christian’s life in heaven. 238 00:20:26,520 –> 00:20:27,520 Verse one again. 239 00:20:27,520 –> 00:20:39,780 Oh, that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, 240 00:20:39,780 –> 00:20:47,959 a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 241 00:20:47,959 –> 00:20:53,239 Now Paul is using here a very simple picture and it’s a very wonderful one. 242 00:20:53,239 –> 00:20:56,560 You can teach this to your children, you can teach this to your grandchildren. 243 00:20:56,739 –> 00:20:59,199 Uh, wonderfully simple. 244 00:20:59,199 –> 00:21:00,439 uh. 245 00:21:00,439 –> 00:21:03,599 Christian is the owner of two homes. 246 00:21:03,599 –> 00:21:05,380 That’s true of every Christian. 247 00:21:05,380 –> 00:21:08,439 The Christian is the owner of two homes. 248 00:21:08,439 –> 00:21:12,739 The home that you are living in now, the body, is the temporary one. 249 00:21:12,739 –> 00:21:20,160 It is canvas, it is ropes, it is pegs, but you have another home that is more enduring 250 00:21:20,160 –> 00:21:22,859 and more substantial. 251 00:21:22,859 –> 00:21:24,540 It doesn’t say you will have another home. 252 00:21:24,540 –> 00:21:25,979 It says you do have another home. 253 00:21:25,979 –> 00:21:26,979 We have this. 254 00:21:26,979 –> 00:21:28,979 It’s already there for us. 255 00:21:28,979 –> 00:21:35,800 The date of your moving to the new home has not yet been given, but it is already known 256 00:21:35,800 –> 00:21:37,040 to God. 257 00:21:37,040 –> 00:21:42,599 Now, what exactly is this new home that the Christian has? 258 00:21:42,599 –> 00:21:46,640 That’s a very important question. 259 00:21:46,640 –> 00:21:53,140 Nobody that I have read on this question, uh, deals with it or answers it better than 260 00:21:53,560 –> 00:22:00,339 Charles Hodge, the great teacher from Princeton in an earlier century. 261 00:22:00,339 –> 00:22:07,099 And he asks in his book on 2 Corinthians, what is the building into which the soul enters 262 00:22:07,099 –> 00:22:11,339 when the present body is taken down? 263 00:22:11,339 –> 00:22:17,780 What is the building that Paul is referring to here into which the soul enters when the 264 00:22:17,780 –> 00:22:21,640 present body, the tent is taken down? 265 00:22:21,640 –> 00:22:27,319 And he gives three possibilities that have been put forward by various writers over the 266 00:22:27,319 –> 00:22:28,400 years. 267 00:22:28,400 –> 00:22:30,880 The first is heaven itself. 268 00:22:30,880 –> 00:22:38,160 The second is the Resurrection body, and the third is some kind of temporary body, an intermediate 269 00:22:38,160 –> 00:22:45,140 body, so that, as Paul says, we are not found naked between death and resurrection when 270 00:22:45,140 –> 00:22:47,400 Christ returns in glory. 271 00:22:48,099 –> 00:22:52,640 Now, having laid out these three, very quickly Charles Hodge, and surely rightly, dismisses 272 00:22:52,640 –> 00:22:58,780 the third one, an interim or temporary body, the Bible nowhere teaches that, and besides, 273 00:22:58,780 –> 00:23:03,000 in this passage, Paul says that the new house is eternal. 274 00:23:03,000 –> 00:23:08,300 So if the new house is eternal it could hardly be something that is interim or temporary. 275 00:23:08,300 –> 00:23:13,180 So that leaves two serious contenders here of how we’re to understand this. 276 00:23:13,180 –> 00:23:18,280 Is it the resurrection body that is being spoken of or is it heaven itself? 277 00:23:18,280 –> 00:23:24,680 With regard to the resurrection body he points out that the resurrection body is the gift 278 00:23:24,680 –> 00:23:29,520 of Christ to all believers when Christ returns in glory. 279 00:23:29,520 –> 00:23:33,339 In other words, Christians who die have to wait for it. 280 00:23:33,339 –> 00:23:41,540 Always remember that only one person has the resurrection body right now. 281 00:23:41,560 –> 00:23:48,359 The only person who has the resurrection body right now is Jesus Christ. 282 00:23:48,359 –> 00:23:53,000 Peter, James, John don’t have it, they’re still waiting for the time when Christ returns 283 00:23:53,000 –> 00:23:55,859 in glory and all of his church will be brought together. 284 00:23:55,859 –> 00:23:59,660 The whole family will get this marvelous gift on that great day. 285 00:23:59,660 –> 00:24:05,959 So our believing loved ones who have died and are with Christ do not yet have the resurrection 286 00:24:05,959 –> 00:24:06,959 body. 287 00:24:07,920 –> 00:24:12,800 They are waiting that further joy that yet lies ahead. 288 00:24:12,800 –> 00:24:15,400 Now I take a moment on that for this reason. 289 00:24:15,400 –> 00:24:25,780 In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, Paul is answering the question, what happens when a Christian 290 00:24:25,780 –> 00:24:28,280 dies? 291 00:24:28,280 –> 00:24:33,819 What happens when the tent is taken down? 292 00:24:33,819 –> 00:24:40,040 When the tent is taken down, what in the next moment is the experience of the Christian 293 00:24:40,040 –> 00:24:41,719 believer? 294 00:24:41,719 –> 00:24:43,560 What happens to your loved one? 295 00:24:43,560 –> 00:24:50,619 What will happen to you as a Christian the moment after you close your eyes in death? 296 00:24:50,619 –> 00:24:55,739 Now obviously the answer to that question, what happens next, is not the resurrection 297 00:24:55,739 –> 00:24:57,060 body. 298 00:24:57,060 –> 00:25:01,459 That awaits the time when the Lord Jesus Christ will return in glory. 299 00:25:02,339 –> 00:25:07,119 The answer to the question, what happens next when the tent is taken down is laid out in 300 00:25:07,119 –> 00:25:08,900 full in verse eight. 301 00:25:08,900 –> 00:25:18,420 To be away from the body is to be at, notice the word, home with the Lord. 302 00:25:18,420 –> 00:25:23,660 So I am convinced with Hodge and with many others that the home that is being referred 303 00:25:23,660 –> 00:25:28,939 to here, the building, relates to heaven itself. 304 00:25:29,099 –> 00:25:33,500 He’s using the same language as the Lord Jesus himself did when he said, 305 00:25:35,680 –> 00:25:37,000 What’s the next word? 306 00:25:37,000 –> 00:25:44,439 House are many rooms and if it were not so, I would have told you, but I go to prepare 307 00:25:44,439 –> 00:25:44,939 a place for you. 308 00:25:44,939 –> 00:25:48,219 Jesus speaks about this as the house. 309 00:25:48,219 –> 00:25:54,160 That when the soul leaves the tent which is the temporary house, it goes into the 310 00:25:54,739 –> 00:25:56,180 Father’s house. 311 00:25:56,180 –> 00:25:59,300 And Paul is using the same language here. 312 00:25:59,300 –> 00:26:03,680 He’s saying, we know that when the tents that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have 313 00:26:03,680 –> 00:26:10,180 a building from God, a house not made with hands, which is eternal in the heaven. 314 00:26:10,180 –> 00:26:15,900 So the Christian then is a person with two houses. 315 00:26:15,900 –> 00:26:21,959 The first house for your soul is the body, which is like a tent. 316 00:26:21,959 –> 00:26:29,500 And when that house is pulled down, you will move into the other house, which is in heaven. 317 00:26:29,500 –> 00:26:32,400 The house that Jesus has prepared for you. 318 00:26:32,400 –> 00:26:39,839 Heaven is the house into which your soul will enter when your present house, the tent is 319 00:26:39,839 –> 00:26:41,140 taken down. 320 00:26:41,140 –> 00:26:46,300 Now, the contrast, which is what Paul is getting at here between these two houses could hardly 321 00:26:46,380 –> 00:26:48,140 be greater. 322 00:26:48,140 –> 00:26:55,839 The tent is a house to lodge in, but the building is a home to live in. 323 00:26:55,839 –> 00:27:02,959 The tent is a fragile structure with many difficulties and limitations, and it will 324 00:27:02,959 –> 00:27:04,959 eventually be destroyed. 325 00:27:04,959 –> 00:27:11,760 The building is an enduring structure that Paul says here will be eternal. 326 00:27:11,839 –> 00:27:19,160 In this earthly tent there is a great deal of groaning, but in the house that is not 327 00:27:19,160 –> 00:27:27,500 made with hands, verse four, he tells us what is mortal will be swallowed up in life. 328 00:27:27,500 –> 00:27:28,880 Beautiful! 329 00:27:28,880 –> 00:27:30,359 Marvelous! 330 00:27:30,359 –> 00:27:41,079 Now understand this – God is using language that we can grasp to help us begin to understand 331 00:27:41,079 –> 00:27:46,420 something of what otherwise would be completely beyond us. 332 00:27:46,420 –> 00:27:51,099 So try to take in this picture by which God is speaking to us – two things happen when 333 00:27:51,099 –> 00:27:54,119 a Christian dies – it’s like moving house. 334 00:27:54,119 –> 00:28:01,040 There’s a leaving and there is an arriving. 335 00:28:01,040 –> 00:28:08,400 Think about the leaving – in the leaving your soul is separated from your body. 336 00:28:08,420 –> 00:28:10,660 Nobody likes to think about such a thing. 337 00:28:10,680 –> 00:28:14,599 Nobody likes the thought of leaving. 338 00:28:14,599 –> 00:28:16,280 That is why death is an enemy. 339 00:28:16,280 –> 00:28:20,719 That is why it’s spoken of as the last enemy, even the last enemy of the Christian, the 340 00:28:20,719 –> 00:28:22,400 last one to be defeated. 341 00:28:22,400 –> 00:28:26,719 It is the undoing of our nature, it’s the tearing apart of what God has joined together. 342 00:28:26,719 –> 00:28:29,160 He made your body–soul unity. 343 00:28:29,160 –> 00:28:35,599 The interface between your soul and your body is so complex as to be almost unfathomable 344 00:28:35,599 –> 00:28:37,599 to separate your soul from your body. 345 00:28:37,800 –> 00:28:43,160 Feels like it’s the undoing to take the soul out of its house, and it is. 346 00:28:44,880 –> 00:28:52,040 And that is why Paul speaks of longing to put on our heavenly dwelling that we may not 347 00:28:52,040 –> 00:28:55,780 be found naked, verse 3. 348 00:28:55,780 –> 00:29:01,780 Or in verse 4, we groan and are burdened not that we would be unclothed. 349 00:29:01,780 –> 00:29:08,140 The thought of simply being a sort of lost spirit without a home is an appalling thought. 350 00:29:09,420 –> 00:29:16,500 Nobody in their right mind would want their soul to be separated from their body. 351 00:29:16,500 –> 00:29:25,920 And if death was only the leaving of the soul from the body, it would be terrifying indeed. 352 00:29:25,920 –> 00:29:31,560 But the whole point here is that the apostle is saying when your soul leaves the tent, 353 00:29:31,560 –> 00:29:37,920 when your soul leaves the body, that the leaving is immediately matched to an arriving. 354 00:29:37,920 –> 00:29:42,839 Your soul moves into the new home that he’s describing for us here. 355 00:29:42,839 –> 00:29:50,939 Christian brothers, sister, when God takes down your tent, your soul will not be lost 356 00:29:50,939 –> 00:29:54,479 in space without a resting place. 357 00:29:55,060 –> 00:30:00,520 The moment your soul leaves the tent of your body, it will be at home in the building, 358 00:30:00,599 –> 00:30:05,880 the place that Jesus Christ has already prepared for you to be absent 359 00:30:05,880 –> 00:30:11,800 from the body, verse 8, is to be present with the Lord. 360 00:30:14,839 –> 00:30:22,900 I expect everybody’s got some story of moving house, and might enjoy swapping some of these 361 00:30:22,900 –> 00:30:24,199 stories in the next week. 362 00:30:24,239 –> 00:30:28,459 Ricciarda and I have only done that once in all of our married lives. 363 00:30:28,459 –> 00:30:35,619 16 years serving church in London, and 18 years being blessed to be here. 364 00:30:35,619 –> 00:30:36,819 That was our one move. 365 00:30:36,819 –> 00:30:44,760 We left a house, that was and still is owned by the church that we served and love in London, 366 00:30:44,760 –> 00:30:49,459 and came and bought the house that we have here and we have been there 18 years 367 00:30:49,459 –> 00:30:53,739 and are so grateful for it today. 368 00:30:53,780 –> 00:30:55,920 You know what it’s like. 369 00:30:55,920 –> 00:30:57,979 Leaving is never fun. 370 00:30:57,979 –> 00:31:02,760 Here we’re a congregation of people we really loved. 371 00:31:03,439 –> 00:31:10,560 And a home to which we’ve brought home our two boys when they were born and full of memories 372 00:31:10,560 –> 00:31:14,180 and leaving that house wasn’t easy. 373 00:31:14,180 –> 00:31:19,140 And it was made worse by the last time that we were there. 374 00:31:19,140 –> 00:31:22,800 It all came back to me just thinking about it this morning. 375 00:31:22,839 –> 00:31:31,599 Six months before we left our house was flooded and so we lived for some months really effectively 376 00:31:31,599 –> 00:31:35,859 in what was a rebuilding job that was going on there. 377 00:31:35,859 –> 00:31:39,500 We felt that it was right to stay rather than to move out. 378 00:31:39,500 –> 00:31:44,079 But I’m just saying this because you know the process of leaving as we’re thinking about 379 00:31:44,079 –> 00:31:49,000 what this end of life can be like is sometimes very difficult. 380 00:31:49,000 –> 00:31:53,199 And I remember the last day I closed the door. 381 00:31:53,199 –> 00:31:55,640 It’s imprinted on my mind. 382 00:31:55,640 –> 00:32:00,199 Karyn and the boys had gone ahead with the car, and they’d gone down to her folks, and 383 00:32:00,199 –> 00:32:04,359 our stuff was all on the high seas somewhere and we hoped that we might one day see it 384 00:32:04,359 –> 00:32:05,359 again. 385 00:32:05,359 –> 00:32:10,680 And having said goodbye to everyone and finished up everything, we wanted to leave the place 386 00:32:10,680 –> 00:32:13,119 as best we could. 387 00:32:13,119 –> 00:32:21,000 And I came out the door and there I am with my suitcase and got on the train and it was 388 00:32:21,000 –> 00:32:22,000 raining. 389 00:32:22,000 –> 00:32:24,420 It always rains in London. 390 00:32:24,420 –> 00:32:31,119 But it was just a great day and I thought, you know that’s exactly what it feels. 391 00:32:31,119 –> 00:32:33,760 Leavings no fun. 392 00:32:33,760 –> 00:32:35,520 No fun. 393 00:32:35,520 –> 00:32:39,280 Arriving, was a different matter. 394 00:32:39,280 –> 00:32:40,400 Very different. 395 00:32:40,400 –> 00:32:41,479 Wonderful. 396 00:32:42,400 –> 00:32:45,400 Now let me just give this personal caveat for a moment. 397 00:32:45,400 –> 00:32:49,959 The problem for us was that there was some distance in between. 398 00:32:49,959 –> 00:32:54,500 We found and folks here who were involved at the time and some of you prayed at this 399 00:32:54,500 –> 00:32:58,959 time I’ve always been grateful for that, that there had been a delay and a glitch in the 400 00:32:58,959 –> 00:33:07,479 process of our application or the church’s application for a Green Card for us and we 401 00:33:07,479 –> 00:33:08,479 were stranded. 402 00:33:08,520 –> 00:33:13,900 When our stuff was gone, we were out of our house, we had ended with one church, we had 403 00:33:13,900 –> 00:33:20,920 not legal permission now to begin here, and that was our position in no-mans’ land for 404 00:33:20,920 –> 00:33:23,199 ten weeks. 405 00:33:23,199 –> 00:33:29,000 That was not an easy time as you can imagine, moved in with my folks, but grateful for their 406 00:33:29,000 –> 00:33:36,280 kindness we had a sense of we have no home, we’ve left one and we can’t get to the other. 407 00:33:37,280 –> 00:33:41,859 And eventually, a great day came and with great thankfulness to God, we made this long 408 00:33:41,859 –> 00:33:44,319 journey that took awhile and 4,000 miles. 409 00:33:44,319 –> 00:33:47,400 That’s a long way to go. 410 00:33:47,400 –> 00:33:53,959 And I say that for this reason, that in great contrast to that experience I want you to 411 00:33:53,959 –> 00:34:02,160 take this in, however difficult the last days in the tent may be for you, and sometimes 412 00:34:02,160 –> 00:34:10,199 the leaving is hard, however difficult the last days in the tent may be for you, the 413 00:34:10,199 –> 00:34:16,879 moment you leave will be the moment you arrive, the moment you close your eyes will be the 414 00:34:16,879 –> 00:34:22,979 moment that you see the full glory of the Savior you have loved and trusted all these 415 00:34:22,979 –> 00:34:29,360 years, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, you will never be stranded 416 00:34:29,360 –> 00:34:31,219 in no man’s land. 417 00:34:31,260 –> 00:34:37,260 When you’re out of the one house, you’re into the other, it is an instant house move, think 418 00:34:37,260 –> 00:34:40,679 about your story of moving house, how many people would have liked to have experienced 419 00:34:40,679 –> 00:34:47,959 an instant house move, like that, and that’s exactly what he’s describing here and out 420 00:34:47,959 –> 00:34:53,500 of that tent with all its sagging structure, and all of the difficulties as it’s being 421 00:34:53,500 –> 00:35:00,260 tken down and into the glory of the home that Jesus Christ has already prepared for 422 00:35:00,280 –> 00:35:08,419 you and has it ready, it’s yours and it’s there in the heavens. Matthew Henry just grasps 423 00:35:08,419 –> 00:35:14,560 this so helpfully, he says, Death considered merely as a separation of soul and body is 424 00:35:14,560 –> 00:35:22,580 not to be desired, but rather dreaded, but considered as a passage to glory, the believer 425 00:35:22,580 –> 00:35:27,580 is willing to die rather than to live, to be absent from the Body that he or she may 426 00:35:27,600 –> 00:35:39,979 be present with, the Lord. An immediate translation, in which you change the tent for the building, 427 00:35:39,979 –> 00:35:52,540 earth for heaven, the temporary for the eternal and the pain of groaning for the joy of glory. 428 00:35:52,540 –> 00:35:58,620 And then the apostle Paul just caps it under the inspiration of the Spirit, he says this in verse 429 00:35:58,620 –> 00:36:08,780 five, and he who has prepared us for this very thing. That is, he who has prepared us 430 00:36:08,780 –> 00:36:16,139 for this marvelous and instantaneous translation. When the tent is taken down, and you enter into 431 00:36:16,139 –> 00:36:25,100 the building, he who has prepared us for this very thing is, say it with me, God. Oh, don’t 432 00:36:25,100 –> 00:36:33,419 you thank God for that. He has prepared you. Not, He is preparing us, he has prepared us. 433 00:36:34,139 –> 00:36:38,939 Jesus says, I go to prepare a place for you. It’s done. It was accomplished on the cross. 434 00:36:38,939 –> 00:36:46,699 How has God prepared us for this? He sent his son into the world to prepare the place for us. 435 00:36:46,699 –> 00:36:54,540 He sent the spirit into our hearts to prepare us for the place. The one who has prepared us 436 00:36:55,100 –> 00:37:02,219 for this is God. And that’s why he says here, that he has given us the spirit in our hearts 437 00:37:02,219 –> 00:37:10,939 as a guarantee of what is to come. Isn’t this amazing? In the Old Testament they had this 438 00:37:10,939 –> 00:37:20,540 tabernacle which was a tent. And you remember that the glory of God, God’s own presence, came down 439 00:37:20,540 –> 00:37:30,379 into the tent. And you say, why in all the world would God who made the earth and the heavens 440 00:37:30,379 –> 00:37:35,340 and all things, why would this great and glorious God want to live in a tent. 441 00:37:37,179 –> 00:37:40,860 And yet the Old Testament tells us that that was where His presence was found. 442 00:37:42,300 –> 00:37:46,540 And you see how that goes through to the New Testament in this very verse that we’re in today. 443 00:37:46,540 –> 00:37:54,379 What’s your body like? It’s like a tent. And the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the Almighty 444 00:37:55,020 –> 00:38:03,659 God, God Himself by the Spirit has come down to live in the tent of your body. 445 00:38:04,860 –> 00:38:16,939 Christ in you, the hope of glory, God with you in all the groaning, and difficulty, and 446 00:38:17,580 –> 00:38:25,260 pressure of life in the tent. God makes his home with you in the tent until the day 447 00:38:25,260 –> 00:38:33,899 when you make your home with him in the house.” And I call this a marvellous gift of revelation 448 00:38:33,899 –> 00:38:40,300 of the Christian’s life in heaven because God didn’t need to tell us anything about what lies 449 00:38:40,300 –> 00:38:44,219 beyond death. He could have just said, now you, you trust me, you trust me in the Christian life and 450 00:38:44,219 –> 00:38:47,979 as far as what lies beyond I’m not telling you anything, you just need to trust me on it. 451 00:38:49,260 –> 00:38:54,939 But he doesn’t do that. He pulls back the curtain just a little 452 00:38:56,860 –> 00:39:03,020 so that we may be given a glimpse of what is yet to come. And why does he do it? 453 00:39:03,020 –> 00:39:12,300 So that we will not lose heart. Let’s pray together. 454 00:39:15,979 –> 00:39:16,860 Father I pray 455 00:39:18,939 –> 00:39:23,020 for the person who has come here deeply deeply discouraged today 456 00:39:24,939 –> 00:39:29,500 wondering what You are doing and wondering why things are happening in life 457 00:39:29,500 –> 00:39:38,860 that Your Word may find a resting place and may prove the means by which the Holy Spirit 458 00:39:38,860 –> 00:39:45,179 brings strength and help and comfort and hope and patience and perseverance 459 00:39:46,860 –> 00:39:53,419 in all that is faced in life in this world and we thank you for this miracle of grace 460 00:39:54,379 –> 00:39:59,419 in which, by Your Son and through Your Spirit, You have prepared Your people 461 00:40:01,020 –> 00:40:07,899 for what is yet to be and that we are able in all of our struggles here to look up to You 462 00:40:09,179 –> 00:40:16,219 and to find our hope and our strength in You, hear our prayers, in Jesus name, Amen. 463 00:40:16,219 –> 00:40:16,860 Amen. 464 00:40:20,139 –> 00:40:23,820 You’ve been listening to a sermon with pastor Colin Smith of Open the Bible. 465 00:40:23,820 –> 00:40:36,459 To contact us call us at 1-877-Open 365 or visit our website, openthebible.org.