We walk by faith

Last week when we were in 2 Corinthians 5, 1-5, Paul had written about this present body and he referred to it figuratively speaking as an earthly tent and as a house. He also wrote about the new body that we'll have in heaven and that the Lord intends to give us.

As we get into the passage that Courtney read for us here, verses 6-10, Paul writes about our present courage, to bring it to summary here, that we now walk by faith. He makes that statement. Being in this body means that we'll be away from the Lord and vice versa. That is, when we are with the Lord, we'll be away from this body. He writes that we will stand before Christ. That's the quick summary of what this passage covers. But we're not going to stop there. I won't now say the closing prayer and dismiss you. We'll instead go into the passage.

You have on your handout the poetic pattern like this, and some of the things that you'll notice is two references to being of good courage. Additionally, the we are statement repeats itself, and we'll of course be looking at that in more detail. And then finally, he has the beginning statement, at home in the body, absent from the Lord, and then he reverses those, absent from the body and at home with the Lord. And we'll of course be taking a look at that.

Now this being of good courage, what is good courage? And by the way, what's the difference between courage and crazy? How about this, right? Never mind that those two animals are at different hemispheres in nature, but you get the idea. Courage is when we do something based on principles greater than our natural selves. Here we have a soldier who is in the Middle East carrying another wounded soldier through zipping gunfire and bullets whizzing by.

Why would he do such a thing as of a principle greater than just his natural instincts and his natural self? The Apostle Paul did something similar. When he had himself subject, he says, as we'll see shortly, three times by the time he wrote this letter to shipwreck already and again at the 27th chapter of Acts, the fourth time. that we know of, that he was subject to being shipwrecked. Why would he continually put himself in that position of having that opportunity? Why?

It's a courage. As a matter of fact, a good courage to do something based on principles greater than his natural instincts, what he would naturally do. He might say, no, last time I did this, I got in a shipwreck and I think I'll stop. No, instead he continued to put himself at risk. When we see a good principle looming larger than the danger before us, that's good courage. That's good courage.

Paul writes to the believers at Corinth about being of good courage. And in this passage, as we saw in the poetic pattern, he actually says it twice. And there's a good reason for him saying it twice, for him to write about our being of good courage twice, because of what we know. He spells that out, and the second time, because of what we prefer. Very interesting the way he puts that.

Our being of good courage is for here, now on earth. Will we have to be of good courage when we go to be with the Lord face to face? No. We won't have dangers and hazards in front of us there. Good courage is for here, because of what's there. The good courage is for here. And what we know by faith is for here too. You know that as wonderful and great as faith is, as important as it is, there won't be faith in heaven. We'll see the Lord face to face. Our preference, as this passage makes clear, is for there with Him.

Does the Lord have purpose in our being here? Yes, as it's been put If you've got a pulse, you've got a purpose. The Lord has purpose for you if you're here. He does. We can stand assured in that. But there is a preference for being there if we fully understand what the Lord has for us there. Again, Paul uses this word knowing in the passage.

Back when we were in 2 Corinthians 4.14, we point out that God does most certainly intend that we do know what has been revealed to us with clarity.

From time to time, I've encountered Christians, and you may have as well, who have said, oh, we really can't know anything for certain. We can't know what the Bible means. We can't really know anything. You know, I kind of would like to believe that this is true, and I'd kind of like to believe that the Bible's true, but we just have no certainty. The reality is scripture emphatically states that we do have certainty about these things.

Knowing this and knowing that occurs two dozen times from Romans to 2nd Peter. Often with the Greek grammar having this idea, because you know. You most certainly know, and it's because you know that I'm going to tell you this. In addition to that, Paul asks, Do you not know? 15 times between the book of Romans, 1 Corinthians, which we've already studied, and the book of James. And those three books, 15 times, do you not know?

Built into the grammar and sometimes additionally supported by the context is, of course you do. Do you know? And of course you do. There is a certainty. There is a certainty intended in what God has revealed for us. Not an, I hope so, not a, oh, that would be nice if that were true, but for sure. No doubt about it. We pointed out last time that knowing in Romans 6, 3 through 11, do you not know? And of course you do. Knowing this, which is a because you know, and again, in verse 9, knowing this, and it's because you know.

Our knowing with certainty is a knowing that is lived out by faith in the spiritual facts that God's revealed, because He loves us, including our knowing Him personally. It's lived out by faith, lived out based on what God's revealed. So what are we knowing that allows us to be of good courage?

We know that living in these bodies that we have right now means that we're living in a temporary body. I hope you know that. You're not going to be always in this thing, which some of you may think that's really good. But it's a temporary body. It has us away from the face of the Lord for now. This is short-term parking here, right? Short-term parking in this thing.

Even though we are away from, absent from the Lord in these bodies, and certainly in a physical sense, He is ever so close to each one of us, spiritually speaking, all the time. All the time. It isn't a matter of, God's up there, and I'm down here. and he's up there having a great time and all kinds of people worshiping him and I'm down here and I'm having a miserable time. Right? I'm having just a terrible time and God's up there partying it up. No. The Lord is with us spiritually all the time.

Christ lives in and through us. That's God's intent. The lives in us is absolutely certain. The lives through us, that's what God has in mind. We were identified with Him. That's a spiritual closeness. Identified with Him in His death, His burial, His resurrection, ascension, and seating in the heavenlies. You don't get closer spiritually than that. There is a closeness. There is an intimacy with the Lord and what He has done. Not only that, we are being made into His image.

Two different processes. We're being conformed Romans 8, 28, and 29, through all the things that God works together for good. Not that all things are good. Some things are just plain lousy and worse. But God works all things together for this good that we're being conformed to the image of the Son. The second one is that we're being transformed into His image, growing from glory to glory. We're being made into the image of the Son. So the closeness between the Lord's image and what we're being made into is ever smaller. He says here, we walk by faith. I kind of expanded a little bit and stating we are walking by faith. Each moment that we walk in fellowship with the Lord, we're walking by faith. Our walk here is entirely by faith.

People in this world tend to rely on their senses. People in this world, a lot of times, even have flawed physical senses. But nonetheless, people rely on their senses here. That's the generalization. What they see, what they hear, what they smell, what they touch, and what they taste. It's not that we don't have those physical senses, we do, but the believer's picture of reality is not just based on what those five senses here on this earth indicate, right? We see beyond what our five physical senses would tell us. By faith in the truths about the spiritual realm and about time beyond this earth as revealed in God's written word. You have this diagram here which we've brought over from last week. A believer has the capacity for seeing both physically, to whatever degree you have that, and spiritually.

Spiritually through God's word. Spiritually because of the indwelling Holy Spirit. We have the capacity by God's enabling to see and hear and touch and taste and smell into the spiritual realm. And that capacity is because of what God's Word is revealed and because of the Holy Spirit working in us. Between the written Word, which was inspired by the Holy Spirit, 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the believer. We have visibility into the spiritual realm. The Holy Spirit has had the action of bringing God's Word to us and bringing the truths of God's Word into us so that we have visibility into the spiritual realm.

We have insight into things that the world cannot see, cannot even begin to see. When Paul wrote to the Ephesians in chapter 1, he wrote to them and said, I pray that the eyes of your hearts, having been opened, that you might see. And he wants them to see the spiritual realities, to see the spiritual realities that are revealed right there in God's Word.

Now, are we seeing things? Are we imagining things? Is this some sort of spiritual hallucination? Are we imagining things that aren't really there? No. We have faith in the living word, Christ, through the written word, the Bible. We have faith in the living word through the written word. We are to live by faith in Christ, the Son of God. He does the living for us and through us. That is how we walk by faith, not by dependence upon only what we see and sense physically.

This is from the middle of Galatians 2.20, and I've kind of expanded it so people are more certain to get the right idea. It is no longer I who does the living, I don't do the living, right? It's no longer I who do the living, but Christ does the living in me. Christ does the living in me. And the life which I am now living in the flesh, I am living by faith in the Son of God. are walking by faith. The walking that we do by faith is always by believing what God has revealed in His written word.

Is seeing believing? Or is it because we believe that we see? I would say it's the latter. It's because we believe that we're allowed to see. We believe in what God has revealed intentionally because He loves us. We see because we believe in what He has revealed through His Holy Spirit's work in us alongside His Word. It is through His written Word that we behold Christ, that we are transformed from glory to glory. Christ, the living Word, is the one we behold and then are transformed. God does the transforming as we do the beholding. Galatians 2 20 Has this and it's also on the slide there on page 2 of your handout.

I Have been crucified with Christ and by the way, that's the first step in your new spiritual history The history that you used to have that's your life story. This is your new spiritual history It replaces your life story I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who do the living. I don't do the living anymore. It's not my job. But Christ does the living in me.

I'll put it this way, and I'm glad you're sitting down because I don't want anybody to fall over, but hear me out. You're done here. Yeah, you're done here. You're through. Your job's over. You got nothing else to do. Go ahead and be seated in the heavenlies. You're through here. You see that? You're done. Why? It's no longer I that does the living. I'm through. I'm done. Christ is the one who does the living here. I don't live here anymore. I live up there. He lives here. It's his job.

It's not my job to live here. You know the hassles that you're going through? It's not your job to deal with them. the problem that you're going to have tomorrow morning. It's not your job to deal with that problem. It isn't. That's Christ's job. It's not yours. You're through here. You're done. Resign. Turn in your resignation. Go to heaven. Stay there with Him. There. Let Him do the living here. That's His job.

Christians have been sold, both literally and figuratively, a great deal of mysticism in our day, which is not from the Lord Himself. Some of the terms you might see are spiritual formation. It's become real popular. Even some of the schools, where I would have said a generation ago, hey, that's a pretty good school. No, not anymore. They're selling this stuff.

That somehow you get spiritually formed apart from the Word of God. That you somehow empty your mind instead of filling it with the Word of God. How will a young man cleanse his way? Psalms asks. By taking heed according to your Word. Not by emptying it. Emptying your mind in order to somehow have fellowship with Christ Emptying your mind is Christian Buddhism. It's not biblical Christianity.

God intends that our mystical beholding the Lord, the Lord of glory, in our intimacy with the Lord, the living word is to be centered upon and through his written word. That's God's intent. Now, we have a lot of talk of the word preference in our day. Paul speaks of a spiritual preference. Paul says that one of the reasons for his being of good courage is because he has a spiritual preference for being absent from this body while being present with the Lord. Now, it's important that you understand that Paul doesn't have some sort of a death wish.

He says, of course I go out on all these shipwrecks. I can't wait till the Lord takes me out of this body. No, that's not the point. It's not that he doesn't value this life and the opportunity the Lord has placed before him. No, he does. He does. But it's a matter of where his hope lies and where the Lord is. Where am I seated? Where's my citizenship? Where is my ultimate hope? You see, if your life here depends on what you have here and this is all you've got, then you have no hope. And the best thing you can hope is that something bad doesn't happen.

I can remember talking to one of my coaches in college. And it was for a PE class that I had. And I'd just finished jogging around the track a couple miles. And so I came to report in. And somehow or another, the conversation got around to dying. And so to press the point, I remember bringing up to Coach Noonan there with several other people standing around.

And I said, well, I don't feel like I'm dying yet. But one day, we're all going to die. And all of a sudden, his face got real serious. He says, boy, I don't want to die. I don't want to die. Because Coach Noonan had no hope. We as believers are not in that place. Do we have a death wish? No, and I don't recommend it. But you know, ultimately, I'm not in desperation.

Because at that moment, whenever the Lord appoints that moment to be, I'm going home. I'm going home. During the period of the Reformation, one of the believers was sentenced to be burned at the stake. And as he was headed out to be burned at the stake, one of the other Christians noted, that guy's running. He's going like he's going to his wedding or something. And suddenly he realized, well, in fact, he is. He's going to be with the Lord. He was going to be with the Lord. His preference. His preference to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. So it comes down to this question, where's home? Where's home for us? Now, certainly most of us have a place that we call home. And it's actually a good thing. I hope you do have a place that you can call home. It's a good thing. Home, after all, holds for us this idea of comfort and security.

This last Thursday night, I was asking the group at the Bible study over at the Matthews, you know, what does home mean to you? And it's interesting, all these different ideas come out because it's a valuable thing for us to think through. Comfort, security, an environment that has good memories, a sense of enjoyment for us. Some of those ideas were some of the things that were brought forth. Home means a lot of things. And it's interesting at different times where I've pressed people to say, what does home mean?

It's amazing. People can go on for a long period of time, keep talking about all the different things that home means to them. And those are all good things. They really are. But while Paul says in this passage that we're home in this body, our ultimate home is really in heaven, where we are now blessed by Christ. seated with him, have a citizenship, and have a home with him.

There where we already are, because after all, remember what I told you earlier? We're done here. We're through. We have nothing left to do. It's the Lord's to do. He does the work. It's not mine. The things that we're going to go through, Let him take care of it. That's not our job. Be there with him.

Now, spiritually ambitious. You've got a slide here that looks like that. Toward what are we to be ambitious? I have a picture here of a very ambitious little infant with a slice of watermelon that almost dwarfs him. Paul says that our ambition is ultimately to be pleasing to the Lord, right? Our ambition is to be pleasing to the Lord. To do that, that requires that we know what pleases Him.

Have you got your list? Have you got it down a notebook somewhere? Get out the binder. Oh, all three sets. The list of all the things that please Him. Is that what we're looking for? Matter of fact, when we come to church on Sunday, isn't it a matter of getting more and more on that list of things that pleases Him, and making more detail of it, and getting lots of notes? I mean, we aren't called the Church of the White Binder for nothing, right? No. What pleases Him? What is it that pleases Him?

Some people scratch their heads. Some people say, what do I have to do to get the Lord to do what I want Him to do? Well, that's not the point at all. Guess what? What we've talked about already. Without faith, it is impossible to please Him. Now let's turn that around. With faith, it is possible to please Him. As a matter of fact, it's an essential, it's a requirement. Faith is essential to our pleasing the Lord. You can come here in this building and sit here Heaven sakes, you could do it every day of the week, I suppose. Bring your sleeping bag. Bring your pillow. Please don't start a campfire in the hallways.

It makes a mess. Just coming here, just to be here, is not what pleases the Lord, is it? Do we need to develop a list, or is there something else going on? No, it's faith. You don't need the binders. You don't need, well, go ahead and have binders, but you don't need a big long list with three volumes of big thick binders that are three inches across, listing all the things that it takes to please the Lord.

You got one word, faith. Believe Him. Trust Him. Faith isn't something that we contribute to what God has done. We don't add to what God has done with our faith and call that good. We don't work to achieve faith. Ah, finally, I've got faith. Or, now I've got enough. Now my faith is of the right quality. No, that's not it at all. Faith is placing our confidence in what God has done and in His work through Christ as He's already told us in His Word. It's our trust in what he's done, not God being pleased with what I've done. It's not, Lord, I really am working hard at believing you. I'm going, how's that looking? It is not my own effort to try to believe more. It's depending on him more.

The last couple of verses in this passage, there will come a day. There'll come a day. There'll come a day, I hope it's today, when the Lord calls us home. I would love it to be today. But there will come a day, maybe soon, when the Lord calls us home. Even if Erica doesn't get to finish college, it would be OK. There will come a day. What kind of a day? There'll come a day when each of us will stand before the Lord. I don't often ask this, but how does that make you feel?

It will be a day, that day that's coming, when we will see Him as He is, face to face. will be like him as we read last week in 1st John 3 verses 1 and 2. The very end of that passage when he appears will be like him because we will see him just as he is. A body like his because after all we were identified with him in his resurrection. A character like his because The Lord has taken the time now to conform us, to transform us into His image. Like Him in character, like Him in body, we will be like Him, for we'll see Him as He is.

It will be a day when, in fact, days like we know them won't matter anymore. We won't be looking at the clock, setting the alarm. We won't be saying, when is that pastor gonna be done? I am dying for lunch, right? It won't be any of those kinds of days anymore. What will matter on that day is the faith that we placed in him on this day. Why does this day matter? Because of that day. That day I'm talking about. That day when days don't matter so much.

We have, as we repeated from last week, this list of biblical crowns and rewards. Scripture lists, and in some cases there's more than one passage in support of it, five crowns and three rewards. It's possible there may be more, but this is what Scripture certainly identifies. And it's also, I think, valuable for us to know that this is a Stephanos crown, a victor's crown in athletic competition. So it's not a royalty crown. We won't be being rewarded with royalty crowns. That's not what it'll be. It'll be a crown, at least this was more in character with what the victor at an athletic competition received in New Testament times. And you might say, what am I going to do with this thing? Especially if I get three, four, five of them? Heavens sakes, what am I going to do? Put all these flaky golden crowns on my head?

No. The indication we have from scripture is that those crowns will be a capacity to glorify the Lord forever. So what's done now as the clock ticks here on earth, what is done now as the calendar page is turned and the birthdays come and go, What's done now while we're here does have an eternal effect.

It'll be a capacity to glorify the Lord forever. Oh, don't worry. Every one of us will glorify the Lord forever with all the capacity we have. None of us will be disappointed in that respect. But a capacity forever to glorify the Lord. Now, the last part of this passage.

Judged based on works. Uh-oh. Is that a frightening thought? Oh no, are we going to be judged based on our works? I thought we got rid of that works thing. By grace are you saved through faith and not of works. Whatever happened? Why is he saying this? This is shocking news. Nobody's fallen out of their seats yet. Okay. Yes, but. Here's a yes, but.

The works are those that He does through us by faith in Him as He does the living in us. As I told you, we're done here. So what is He going to reward you for? For what He does in you. For what He does through you. You're done here. It's no longer I who live, Paul says, but Christ who does the living in me. One more thing. There are no works that God desires or expects us to do that He has not already prepared for us ahead of time. So, how many works are you going to need to do today that God hasn't prepared ahead of time? Zip! Nothing! Nada! How many works does God want you to do out of your own effort and strength and determination? None. Zip. Relax.

And one more thing, when it comes to that reward, eternal reward, He is motivated to reward us to the full. He is motivated to reward us to the full. One of the last things that Jesus says in the last chapter of the Bible, in the last chapter of the book of Revelation, He says, I am coming quickly and my reward is with me. I want to give you your reward.

Our salvation is not at issue, just rewards, rewards for what He does in and through us for works that He's already prepared. He does not ask us to do anything for which He has not energized and enabled and empowered us to do and prepared in advance. So you're through. You're done here. It's not your job. Christ will have no interest at all in rewarding us for our own efforts, even if other people might be impressed. Instead, he'll be greatly interested in rewarding us eternally for what he has done in and through us in time. Reward us forever for what happens in moments here. And all we did was trust him.

Isn't that sweet? Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that we're done here. Where do I address the resignation letter? We're through. And we thank you that we can trust you for all these things. There's nothing that you have not made in our position, made in our empowerment, that you have asked us to do. You are completely sufficient and adequate for these things. Who is adequate for these things? We are, but only by God's doing. Thank you for the sufficiency that we have in you. In Jesus name, Amen.