1-3 John - 1st John 2:28 Hope of Christ's return

So Roger sent me an email kind of in the middle of the week and said, Bob, you only have one verse to cover today anymore. And I said, that's okay. So we're going to do one verse today. Are we doing review next week? And then verse 29 of chapter 2 will be tied into chapter 3. And so it really fits better with chapter 3. The chapters and verses are not divinely given here. It's an act of the Spirit working through men to divide them however He chose. We've got an exciting verse today and I think we have time for plenty of discussion because this is really an incredibly important verse in context and also I think in terms of its incorporation to the minds and souls of the believer, including all of us here today. Let's first of all, I think it's best maybe to go back and set the stage for today's verse. So we're going to begin with verse 18, and this covers the last three weeks or so. 18 down through 28. Who'd like to read that, please?

Children, it is the last hour, and just as you heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many Antichrists have appeared. From this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, remained with us, but they went out so that it would be shown that they all are not of us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.

I have now written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father The one who confesses the Son has the Father also.

As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. This is the promise which He Himself made to us, eternal life. These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you.

Now little children, abide in him so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink away from him in shame that is coming. that when he appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. How many people feel that we can be ashamed when he comes? That's what the verse says. How many people feel we should not be ashamed when he comes? Does anybody question their salvation because of this verse? Okay, so interpreting this in context is so critically important. So let's see what this being ashamed might mean when he comes. That's what the verse says. Can't deny the verse. We just have to understand it in context. All right, let's begin here.

Little children, technion, which is thought of as a small child, but actually it kind of is a broader application to disciples. So it could be a small child in the faith, or it could not necessarily be one. I mean, if you think of Christ's disciples, we see metrics of their kind of trust and belief. we kind of levitate John a little bit higher than some of the others, the disciple Christ loved. Anyway, technion can apply to all of the above, although we tend to think of it usually as a small child, and then for the little children it's the grown man, etc. We kind of implied that it was someone young in the faith, but not necessarily. So, now in context, and that's why I asked Randy to read the other verses, it's in this dilemma of Or crisis of the times. What was the crisis of the times that you studied the last few weeks?

Antichrist. Deceivers. Antichrist. How do we define antichrist? I'm believers. The Antichrist will ultimately come. It's prophetically stated multiple times in the Bible. There will be an Antichrist. But everyone without faith, who does not have saving faith, is truly an Antichrist.

And these are deceivers, false teachers within the premises. And they're distinguished very clearly from the person of faith who is not abiding. We've got to make sure we distinguish those two. We can be saved, but not abiding. And when we look at this verse and interpret it, we've got to understand that very importantly.

So these are the false teachers, the seductive efforts of the false teachers to draw us out of the faith and ultimately make us question our salvation. Happens all the time, doesn't it? Even in today's age. Do you really believe this because of this?

I had somebody in my workplace on Friday say to me, we talked about this weekend in terms of Easter, Resurrection Sunday. Good Friday, etc. She said to me, you know, if I'd been raised as a Hindu, would I have a different view as to what this weekend's all about than if I had not been raised as a Hindu as I have been? My grandfather was a preacher and a black woman who I worked with and she reflected on her growing up. She's a believer and ultimately I think asked a very important question. She said, what does God do with people like that are raised in a different culture, who've never heard the message, when they die. Is that fair? Is God fair? He said, are you asking me these questions?

So I answered her in maybe the most humblest way possible. Nevertheless, we had a nice conversation about this. But anyway, these seductive efforts of false teachers are really those who not only are not saved, but question the faith and are there to draw us out. from the faith we responded to.

Abiding in Him. And when we think of abide, we're talking about hanging out. We're talking about and in all the truth that is from Him, in Him, and all about the Lord Jesus Christ. Abiding is not being in Christ is a good place to start, but it's more than just being in. We could have a very shallow knowledge of that. It's about everything that is from Him in terms of what his purposes are in our lives, and it's all about him.

So abiding is really an intrinsic then diagram with no overlap. It's a life. Abiding is a life, not a choice. We live by faith. When we live by faith, we abide. And when we abide, there's no question about what the source of that truth is within us. This is imperative. It doesn't say, oh, by the way, if you feel like it, abide for a while, right? No, Steve, as a believer, you're told to abide. And how do we abide?

Do we work harder at it? The pressure's really off, isn't it? Because the Spirit leads us in all truth. And Roger nicely reviewed that last week of Hal's listing of all the things the Spirit does to enhance the life of the Lord Jesus Christ within us. Do we believe these things are true or are we going to kind of question them and kind of work on our own power and strength to show that our lives have really been changed? The pressure's off.

All we have to do is believe. Yeah, Bob, you know, abiding is the natural reaction to God's truth. He tells you these wonderful things and you say, wow, Why wouldn't, why wouldn't I do that? Why wouldn't I? He describes all these things, who you are in him, and he asks you to, you know, there's several parallel words, abide, faith, trust, are all, you know, just kind of different parts of the same concept of trusting what he's done for you.

That's right. You know, the thing is about, about, and when Vicki and I were talking about this on Friday, this late in the day, and we were, you know, just kind of, again, perseverating over this issue, is God fair? And the problem is, you know, we all have this sin nature, and it kind of keeps showing up, doesn't it? But yet, remember, that sin nature is meaningless to God. The only thing we do by responding to that nature is not abide and get separated in fellowship.

And again, that's why this verse in context is so importantly determined to say what it really does say. This is the sixth time abide has been mentioned in the last ten verses. So this whole context about false teachers and how they're impacting us in terms of our day-to-day walk is the issue of abiding. Why is this so important?

In a sense, you're going to abide somewhere. It's like it says it's a faith operation. You're going to put faith in something. Are you going to put faith in what the false teachers are saying? Put faith in what God has revealed? What else is important about abiding? Abiding in fellowship with Him. Alright, it's the fellowship. It's really, you know, perhaps even another definition of abiding. It's the fellowship that we get from that. What's it separate us from? What's the Book of Galatians all about? I mean, the abiding nature is one that's separated from legal matters, either the formal Jewish law system and or any other legal system we would apply. Abiding is freedom from law.

It's fellowship. It's all about him. It's in him and ultimately from him. So it's so important because it separates us from this list of metrics that measures our performance. Isn't that sweet? Let's carefully and humbly reflect back on the previous verse, and Roger touched on this last week. I'm going to kind of give you maybe a little different twist on what Roger had said. In verse 27 it says, but the anointing which you have received from him abides in you. So kind of once saved, you've been given all you need to abide.

And you do not need that anyone teach you. Don't you love that? There's no one, not me, not Vern, not Mike, not Roger or Randy, I mean you don't need any of us to teach you. It's about His teaching you through the power of the Spirit in your life. Not that I'm not encouraging fellowship. And not that I'm not encouraging what we go about doing here at Holly Hills each Sunday and beyond.

But it's the same that anoints you who teaches you. And it teaches you all things. And all these things are true, and it's not a lie, versus these false teachers who are in fact leading you down an obscure and incorrect path. And it's just as it has been taught to you, you abide in him.

So this teaching is really part of the abiding because the teaching really requires that fellowship that we have with the Lord Jesus Christ. And again, I think it's really, really sweet to see that we don't need anybody to teach us other than the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

And it's all here. But you need right theology. And again, this importance of the abiding is this separation of our thoughts, our minds, our wills, again that diagram of howls in terms of this sinful nature feeding back into the will and the emotions and everything else we're about, or in fact the new nature feeding back. Ultimately the abiding is a life that feeds that one arrow coming back from below to our daily existence. You don't need any teachers. You need the Word of God and rightly dividing the Word of Truth.

Colossians 3.3, for you died and your life is hid with Christ and God. It's kind of the beginning of the abiding truth, isn't it? You know, it says we're died, we've been crucified, our sins have been forgiven. Thank you, Lord. Resurrection Sunday. And now our life is hid with Christ. It's fact. It's true. All right, when, okay, let's go back to the verse then. It says, when he shall appear. Now we're getting into kind of the interesting part here of the verse.

When literally can be translated if, and the uncertainty about if is not about the fact. I mean, what is this, a third present participle or is this second, I don't know which one it is. Which one is this, right? Well, when it's used with subjunctive tense, which is the way it's used, because it's going to be happening, it's assumed it's going to be true. But the issue is the timing of the event. When? I mean, the literal translation is if, actually, and that's what the inner literary Greek has, if. But when is what's translated here, and I think when is better because we can count it to be true.

It's just we don't know the timing of it, right, his appearing. appears or is being manifested so that we'll all see him. We is John here and all of them he's hanging out with. And by the way, all of us. This is written to all of us as much as it is to John and the church that John was ministering to. And we may have confidence. All right? Pleasant, active, subjunctive. We know now that we can have confidence And the subjunctive is again reflecting the fact that ultimately this will become true. It's just the timing that we're uncertain about.

Confidence. The ability to speak out with certainty, frankness, bluntness, publicity, implicated by assurance and boldness. This is a strong term in the Greek. Confidence is something that we can really count on. And we can reflect that with no uncertainties. Now, the fun part. Not be ashamed before him. All righty. Error. Error. Passive. Subjective. What's that mean? Randy.

Past action with ongoing results brought on Yeah, subjunctive here again, we think it probably reflects in something that's going to be true. Error's tense fact, right? It's something that's declared, that's true. It's typically something that historically is true, but can have ultimately interpretations or meaning into the future.

Now, to be ashamed is to kind of shrink back. I mean, I think we can, without overly defining being ashamed, kind of really know what that is. It's kind of like we see the elephant. We know what it looks like. We may be feeling different parts. We contrast this with 1 John 4, 17, where it says, Love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. How do we contrast that verse with this potential of being ashamed when he appears?

So when's he going to appear? I don't want to date, but what's... Are we talking about the great white throne judgment here? He's talking to the church, right? So we're talking about the rapture. So Christ is coming to gather his church, take them home with himself. We're going to leave the world as defined by Jerry Jenkins and all of the left behind series, right? So those are the false teachers leaving those behind versus those who have been taken up. So that's the rapture. That's the next scriptural event historically that's been defined. The Great White Throne Judgment is the final judgment for the unbelievers versus the believers.

So anyway, 1 John says that we can have boldness in the day of judgment. That doesn't say that we're going to be ashamed. So we've got to, again, interpret this for what it's worth. So what is there for the believer to fear anyway? What's this being ashamed at his appearance or manifestation all about in context?

Well, you've got your eye on yourself. What's that, Jack? You've got your eye on yourself as far as your faith is concerned, I should say. When you say, if you're not bold when he appears, you think, boy, have I done something wrong? There won't be anything like that. Do you think this is things we've done wrong or not done, if you will, the outward manifestation of the sinful nature? Do you think that's what we're talking about here? Yeah. I don't think so. Yeah. What's the source of shame? Well, here again, it's self. Okay, it's self. The old nature. Yeah, I mean, is the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our new life, as we've been recreated, is there any shame there? We're identified with Him, so how in the world could there be any shame? Because the Lord only sees us in Him.

So what's the verse saying, Margaret, if it says not to be ashamed? We won't be ashamed. Are you saying the verse is not true? No, I'm saying it is true, but I'm saying what it's saying is we're going to have confidence, we're not going to be ashamed. I mean, I think it's just stating a fact. We're going to have confidence because we're in Him. But okay, so how are you interpreting the verse then? Just what I said. It's a fact. And we're not going to be ashamed. We're not going to shrink away from Him. No, we're not going to shrink away or be ashamed because we have confidence. Any comments from the third base side of the field here, Steve? It seems, in my mind, it seems that it functions around where our position is. Well, positionally we're secure, are we not? If we've been saved once, we're always saved. So, we're okay positionally, I think.

This is conditional, and there is a possibility we would be ashamed. What are the circumstances that bear on us being ashamed? If we say that shame only comes from the old man, these are not sins. Abide was used six times in ten verses. So, let's think about this. the verb tense is passive. We will be ashamed. And ultimately, before the Lord Jesus Christ, it would only be our lack of fellowship that shames us. I mean, it's not deeds that we're... I don't think that's where the shame is going to come from. Sure, the deeds are a result of lack of fellowship.

And Mike says it well, Don. I mean, I think he thinks in terms of the rewards that the Lord's going to give each one of us are not white, red, and blue ribbons. But as well as we know Him here, how much abiding and fellowship we have with the Lord Jesus Christ here is going to be the metric of our reward system in heaven, and everybody will be satisfied. I think that's Mike's view, and I love it because I think it really doesn't say there are winners and losers. There are no winners and losers. We're all saved by grace. And when we stand before Him, when He comes or during being risen up with Him into the heavenly places, The only shame we'll have is the fact we haven't fellowshiped for with him. There's going to be no accounting of our sin.

That you didn't spend more time with him and know him better. And I think in context there's no other interpretation. John is writing to believers and calling them to abide in deep and convincing and continuous fellowship of the Lord Jesus Christ. show our shame and say, Lord, I don't think we're going to be handcuffed and put behind bars because of lack of fellowship.

But when we see him for who he really is, we're going to, I think, reflect on how well we've known him. We wish maybe we could have known him better. I don't know. Roger? Well, Bob, I have that experience sometimes. I'm sure we all do, teachers especially, when we study.

And you come across a piece and say, wow, why didn't I look at this a little bit more? Why didn't I dig down a little bit deeper? And we all have that kind of feeling that there's more there and we, for whatever reason, we exchange something else in our life for, you know, this is not to be a guilt feeling, but just, wow, I missed out on that. I could have seen there's more, so much there to see and understand.

Now remember, John is speaking to men and women walking in the faith at the time the text is given. He's saying, in your current situation, Randy, you know, how's your abiding going? How's your fellowship going? And, you know, the fact that you're kind of living in your sin nature, in part, like I am in all of this, you know, that could be shameful. I mean, the Lord Jesus Christ is a life I'm calling you to.

And right now, the way you're perceiving this, that lack of fellowship could be shameful with His appearing, because He's calling you to a much greater life of abundance and truth than, in fact, what you're living. Don't you think when we see him, at that point our sin nature will be stripped away from us? Absolutely. We won't have any possibility of being ashamed. Correct. It won't even be possible. And that's what I just said to Randy.

I think he's appealing to the current, you know, condition that we're in, saying you've been positioned above to fellowship and abide. Why are you in fact not? And by the way, the fact that shame comes from the old man, the old man's not present when we're resurrected with him, right? When we're risen up. So it's got to be reflecting on where we're at now about not abiding. Donna?

Well, I think you experience that in your day-to-day walk. I mean, if you're going along and you're struggling with something or you're agonizing over something, and the Lord opens your understanding that he's already taken care of the whole thing, that's your response. Lord, yeah, you know, You're right, I'm wrong. The fellowship's been broken because you're focusing in on the problem rather than the answer which has already been given. Right. Good. You need to have the same fellowship towards the son that the father has and then propitiate it on fire. A lot of theology in that statement, Jack. That's so true.

I mean, remember, he's called us to fellowship, and the shame could only be applied to the way we recognize our current condition. And that's Spirit-given. I mean, we all have the ability of the Spirit to convict us of that sinful nature, what it's all about. But yet, the purpose of the First Epistle of John is to call us back into fellowship. your favorite verse, Jack, I mean 1 John 1, 9, right? I mean the fellowship's restored immediately. We don't sit there and dwell on that.

That's right, that's Bud's verse. Bud, where are you? He switched classes. Bud switched classes. He's over at my dad's class. And we'll not ask why, right? We didn't spend enough time? No, we went past it. Oh, that's right. Past the critical verse. Fine, we love you. Sorry, Jack, you can climb that one too. Everybody okay with what this relates to? It's not about eternity. It's about our walk now. That's the whole theme of First John Fellowship.

And you have to keep reminding yourself because you want to apply it outside that. You get in trouble if you do that. And by the way, First John's going to get tougher as we go on. Remember, First John is black and white. There's not a lot of gray here. In fact, there's no gray in First John.

And you've got to be well-founded in Pauline theology to take John on and understand what he's talking about here. You can't fall back into legal systems. 1 John 3 is going to tell us whoever sins is not born again. Effectively, I'm paraphrasing, but it's really saying that. If you're sinning, you're not saved. Huh? John? What? What's that all about? I hope Roger is going to teach that around here. Randy, Bob and I are not planning to be there that day.

So kind of in bold print and kind of summarial in terms of this statement, this is our fellowship and how it's been manifested or not, not our eternal security. And again, as we think of heavenly rewards, the more fellowship we have with Him, the better we know Him here. And I think that will be reflected in heavenly places and everybody's going to be satisfied. Everybody will be perfectly content in heavenly places. And again, this is not an earthly metric.

This is all about the Lord and how he looks at the life that's been created for us and how we've responded by faith. Boy, that's a soft pillow, isn't it? It's an imperative to abide, but it has nothing to do with our eternal security. You cannot use this verse in any way to say this relates to whether you're saved or not. We've got a series of verses now, then I'm going to leave some additional time for discussion.

1 Thessalonians 5.23. Now, may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. What's it mean to be sanctified? What's that? Set apart. Does that mean we're prudish? We're sanctified or set apart.

By the way, being set apart is the creation of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ in each one of us. He sees the church differently than he sees people who are not believers. He set us apart for a very special purpose and that's to abide. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify completely and may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Is that in any way related to our eternal security? I don't think so. I mean, he's talking to believers, Paul's talking to believers, and ultimately I think this being preserved blameless at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, I think simply reflects on how that life is being manifested within each one of us.

1 Timothy 6.14, that you keep his commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ appearing. Okay?

So what commandment is this? We dealt with this months ago in 1 John. What's the commandment? Let's go back to 1 John 2. Brethren, verse 7. Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment, which ye had from the very beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.

Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you, because the darkness is past and the true light now shineth. And so he that saith he's in the light and hates his brother is in darkness and he that loves his brother abides in the light.

So this new commandment is really kind of, if you will, the life of the Lord Jesus Christ being manifested in us in terms of our love for the brethren. And the question I would ask you, how are you doing here? This is a life, again, so this commandment that you keep his commandment without spot is really a life that's energized by the Spirit. And that's the new nature, that's the new life. So there's not loving your neighbor as yourself as something that's impossible in the sinful nature. So, that's addressed by Paul nicely in 1 Timothy.

2 Timothy 4.8, Finally there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day, and not to me only, but also to all who have loved his appearing." So these verses all reflect his appearing. So if you will, rapture time, an immediate presence with the Lord. So what's this verse mean, that crown of righteousness?

We've kind of touched on this a little bit already, I think. Red ribbon, blue, gold, silver. It's a reward from the Lord. Are we working for rewards? I don't think so. His reward system is going to be entirely different than anything we can envision. Because I think when we work for rewards, where's the source of the power that's gaining these awards? This isn't me getting athletically trained so I can do the 100-yard dash more quickly. This is not resistance training so I get ripped and look more muscular. There's nothing earthly about this crown of righteousness.

This is the life, this is manifested in each one of us. And I've said this before, I'm sure we could get some argument about this, but I think when we're paying attention to how well we're doing, that's not sourced from the Lord. That's really sourced from the old man, the sinful nature. So let's live by faith and allow that life to be manifested in each one of us. That's a sweet message. And we're called by the same pathway that we're called to be saved from the very beginning, and it's faith. God rewards nothing but faith. So these crowns of righteousness, if you will, are our lives that have been manifested by faith.

1 Peter 1.7, that the genuineness of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes. Boy, look at the contrast. Gold, we think of gold is an exemplary mineral that ultimately can't perish. But here we're saying that the genuineness of our faith is much more precious than gold from an earthly perspective.

Though it is tested by fire that it may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation. Again, we're talking about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The test here is our faith. And again, at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, rapture related.

First Peter 5.4, and when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. And again, back to the point of everyone's going to be satisfied. Because all of us who are saved have at least some fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

But my job's not to measure Ingrid's. I mean, that's her responsibility by faith before the Lord. not to live in fear. The shamefulness only comes when we reflect on our inadequacy in the fellowship. And that's really out of the Adam nature, isn't it? There's no shame in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Can I have a question on the slide before? Okay. When it says May in the first of the slides? Under 1 John 1? No, on the last page. I don't quite understand the may there. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless. I didn't do a verb study on may in terms of the strength of the verb. Anybody have some insight there about may?

It's kind of equivocal, isn't it? Translation on that, it says in the very God of peace sanctify you wholly and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved and blameless. under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Read that again, Donna, could you? At the end of it, and I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So no verb may at all there, huh?

Does anybody else have any other translations? This is New King James is where that's taken from. May is in the American Standard. May is in it? Okay. You know, I don't know, so you're saying that this is... Well, it's more, I mean, it's kind of a fact. I mean, I kind of see that as a fact, which it may or may not. Yeah, because it may or may not, if there's a may. Well, you're saying it looks like it's conditional, that may not happen. Yeah. It will happen. Well, doesn't it depend on our, to some extent, our response to this too? I mean, I mean, if you're a believer, though.

But, you know, if God's sanctifying us, but our life doesn't reflect that sanctification, I mean, in other words, I think Paul's kind of encouraging you, I mean, by your faith, you know, you're going to be sanctified. in the new nature. I don't know, again I didn't study the verb tense here, but I think Donna's version leaves May out, right? Mine doesn't have it in there either. The first part of mine, I think this is what you said too, and the very God of peace sanctify you holy, it's almost like a benediction. You know, a prayer. As opposed to any possibility that it might not happen. It's more of a benediction kind of thing. And I pray, God, your whole spirit and soul and body.

But isn't the word, you know, Bernke's point, the word let is used that way sometimes, too. Let sounds like, well, you're kind of involved in that. Let, in many verses, let this be true of you and this and that. All those are already true of you. So there are cases where it seems like it's conditional, but it may not be.

And so I haven't studied it either. So I'm speaking without that. I mean, if there's any equivocation here, it would be inconsistent with an entirely large bulk of scripture, would it not? So the other translations leave me out. That doesn't make it look like it's a conditional thing.

So, Happy Resurrection Sunday. And keep looking down. I mean, again, positions never questioned here. And when we see ourselves as sins forgiven, crucified, buried, resurrected, that begins the Christian life. And ultimately, it's not a matter of any different principles. It's still one of faith in terms of the abiding.

And the more we abide, the less this earthly, shameful response is going to be part of our existence. And it's not cockiness, but it is a confidence, and that's stated in the verse. We can feel confident about the fact that ultimately as we abide, the shame will diminish over time. We're always shamed by our lack of fellowship, because it's never what any of us would want it to be. But this has really Nothing to do other than calling us to the abiding nature, which is by our faith in the risen Lord Jesus Christ. Any other thoughts, Ingrid? Don't you think any shame, as we would think of it, would cause us to hunger more to know Him, instead of feeling ashamed and saying, I want to know Him more. I don't know enough about Him. I want to find out more.

Yeah, and that's part of the work of the Spirit, is it not? Because when we in fact fall into old thoughts, old ways, old deeds, or lack thereof, we in fact are quickly remonished, forgiven, fellowships restored, and we move on. But it's the trials and tribulations, the lack of faith that calls us to a stronger faith. Remember, the will of God for each one of us is to be conformed to the image of his Son. And these periods of lack of fellowship, lack of faith, and trials and tribulations call us to a higher life.

It's a process. I mean, God's about eternity, and I think it's so reflected on the temporal when I speak. You're truly there. I mean, you get wrapped up in the present. In fact, there's a much bigger view that we need to have. Remember, our citizenship's in heaven. It's not here. This is our business address, but we're not there.

Any other thoughts about this verse? times and I've thought of shame and I've thought of shortcomings and failures but really what this process is doing fundamentally is it's removing all of the things that were temporary and were wood hay and stubble so that when we enter the presence of God moving forward from that point on we have only the things that we will glorify Him with word of the Lord's head and stubble will be gone. That's right, and we will not reflect on those at any time. We will be pushing forward and looking forward into eternity with rejoicing and bringing glory to Him. And so even if there were things, and I can certainly account for them in my own life where I'd be like, oh I'm ashamed of that, it is a tremendous thing that God brings down or brings into the equation. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that that he hath done whether it be good or bad.

So that's 2nd Corinthians 5.10 and Hal just did a beautiful job with that verse but let me see if I can quickly summarize this.

The wood, hay, and stubble passes away and we're not going to be that what's going to be judged is good or bad, we are not going to be judged. Because why are we not going to be judged, personally judged? We're in Christ. I can't believe that the scripture in any way says that all these deeds are going to be outlined for us and say, Margaret, what about this attitude at this time? The Lord asked me about that attitude.

I'll give him my thoughts on that. But believe me, there's no punishment in heavenly places. And the deeds, as Randy said, this wood, hay, and stubble are things I think a lot of times we think we're doing that's so great. And he's going to say, that's gone. And he sees all of us in Christ right now and for eternity, past and forward.

And there's just, this is not the Great White Throne judgment, which by the way, I'll go just a minute here. The world, to some extent, will be judged on their works. And there is some suggestion that the the stages of hell in some way reflect works under legal systems. I mean, everybody's in the absence of God, but the degree of punishment for those who are unsaved may, in fact, to some extent relate to what they've done in the earth, but not for us.

The only thing that's going to be different for us is, again, I think the crowns of righteousness. We can't define those for what those are, but you've got to believe they reflect the fellowship we've had with the Lord Jesus Christ here. And he calls us to a perfect fellowship, a perfect fellowship, completed work done once and for all. And we're called back to that. John calls us continually back to that fellowship about how we're abiding.

We all can be shamed about our lack of abiding, but this is nothing that relates to eternity in terms of being in the presence of the Lord and being fully satisfied. I've often thought that eternity wouldn't be very exciting if we spent all of eternity looking at what our actions and deeds were in this world.

It would be awful. It would be terrible. If it's back reflecting on us, eternity isn't eternity. It has to be that way. By God's very design, it can't be us reflecting back on all those shortcomings. It'll be awful. It'll be awful. Spending an eternity reflecting on... It's bad enough reflecting on right now.

Yeah, that's true. Tom, close us in prayer please, would you? where it applies and where it doesn't apply to us as believers. Especially in regards to who we are in your son and how we can approach him and have the attitude that he is our life. In Jesus name, it's precious. Amen.