Appearance/Faith

[0:00] Please take your Bibles and go to 2 Corinthians or 2 Corinthians.

[0:13] If you're visiting with us or misplaced your Bible, you can pull up that black Bible in the chair in front of you and go towards the back and go to page 142.

[0:30] We're starting in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, page 142 in that black Bible. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, we're going to start in verse 16 and go into chapter 5, verse 10.

[0:46] So those three verses in chapter 4, verse 16, 17, and 18, and then we'll jump into chapter 5. This section goes together, that's why we're doing that. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, starting in verse 16, I'll read and then we'll do our study.

[1:04] And remember, I'll translate things back from English and then also I'll throw in some Greek translation for you that I did this past week. So that's why it would sound kind of odd, but I am reading from the New American Standard.

[1:16] Therefore, we do not fail. But though our outer person is being destroyed, yet our inner is being renewed day by day.

[1:31] For immediate, insignificant affliction is producing in us an eternal weight of glory, far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.

[1:42] For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen eternal. We know that if the earthly tent which is our house is being destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, chapter 5, verse 2.

[2:03] For yes, indeed, in this we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, and that if we put it on, we will not be found naked. Indeed, for while we're in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed, in order that the mortal may be swallowed up by the life.

[2:27] Now the one who produced this in us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the down payment of the Spirit. Therefore, being always confident, and knowing that while we are at home in the body, we're absent from the Lord, verse 7, for we walk by faith, not by appearance.

[2:48] We are confident, and rather, we resolve to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore, also we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.

[3:05] For it is necessary for us all to appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive, according to his deeds, what he has done, whether good or bad.

[3:19] In the movie Finding Nemo, Disney movie, Marley and Dory, they're trying to find Nemo, and there's a part in the movie where they have to go through this canyon.

[3:37] Dory was told, if you go through this canyon, well, they see all these dead fish, and Dory forgets, you're supposed to go this way. It appears, it looks a lot better that way, it's just beautiful, nice, shallow waters, beautiful waters.

[3:53] You go down the alley, it's dark, dreary, there's dead fish everywhere. So Dory says, well, let's go this way. Or Dory says, I think we have to go this way. Marley says, no, no, no, we're gonna go this way.

[4:05] So you end up, if you watch the movie, that's what ends up happening, they go this way, not through the canyon. Because what appears to be bad, is actually good. You've heard the accusations that's come against Judge Brett Kavanaugh from Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.

[4:30] It's important to remember the same principle. Whether you agree with what's happened or not, one does not embrace what appears to be true. We trust facts presented.

[4:44] Now at times, it can be hard to decipher the difference. That's true. But once again, you just don't go on what appears to be true. You can't base it upon appearance because that can be dangerous.

[4:56] Outward appearance is not final. It just can't be. Or as the old saying goes, you just don't judge a book by its cover.

[5:11] Appearances can be very deceiving. You never know. What seems to be an ugly duckling might just become a swan. And we see this seemingly paradox.

[5:28] You're supposed to boast in your weakness. And you're boasting in the Lord. Are you crazy? No. That's the principle that Paul gives. That's the theme of 2 Corinthians.

[5:41] Weakness is actually strength. And we'll see the same paradox today. If you haven't figured it out yet. We walk by faith and not by sight.

[5:55] Appearance slash faith. I'll emphasize the word appearance even though I know sight is actually a better word to use when you're singing the song. We walk by faith and not by appearance.

[6:06] Sight. That's better. Sight. Sight. Sight. That's better. Okay. That was good. A statement for you. We walk by faith, not by appearance.

[6:17] We live a life of faith. We live a life of faith in light of the eschaton, which is the resurrection of the dead and the final judgment of Christ.

[6:29] We trust God and His work. That's what eschaton means. Eschaton is Greek for last or end things. So the eschaton is the last things, the final judgment when Jesus comes, all that, the future.

[6:48] So we live a life of faith in light of the eschaton because the eschaton has happened now. Not totally. There's some yet to come.

[7:01] That's coming. It's hard to see. It's there. But some of it's now. And we live a life of faith in light of the eschaton.

[7:12] We trust God and His work. And that work is hidden. We do not walk or live merely by all sights and appearances. Instead, we walk by faith.

[7:25] Not by some leap of faith. But by the truth of promises. Promises that are all yes and amen in Jesus Christ. So we don't make a leap of faith.

[7:37] Well, I don't really know if it's true, but oh, here we go. No. It's based on factual evidences, promises that are true. Some have come true.

[7:49] Some are yet to come true. God truly works in a way that is contrary to appearance and expectation. The greatest way.

[7:59] The greatest way He's done that is at the cross. The weak, timid, crucified Christ.

[8:11] Remember, we've been kind of pointing up here in the message. This is the thought process. This is the place where the cross is. I mean, you would think that God shows His defeat.

[8:22] That God's like an idiot to do this? Ridiculous? Remember, it's just the opposite. It's wisdom.

[8:33] It's truth. It's love. It's mercy. It's compassion. So you can't base it all on appearance.

[8:44] No, no. The evil one, He rules by appearance. The deceit of outward appearance. It's all about what looks awesome on the outside.

[8:56] That's exactly the way our world thinks. Is it not? We live in God's spoken word of promise, and He was faithful to His word by having Christ die and rise.

[9:08] We walk trusting in truth, in spite of the hardships and troubles that lay before us, the appearance.

[9:23] I dedicate this message to people suffering around the world, but I specifically dedicate this message to Ann Bartsch and to Karen Milton.

[9:35] This is for you. Our outward appearance is not final. We trust and hope in God and His good purposes for us, in spite of our troubles, in spite of our circumstances.

[9:51] Again, the greatest display and example of this is Jesus. Because by all sights and appearances, He looks like a loser.

[10:03] A man of sorrows is what the prophet Isaiah called Him. And yet, He was the very Son of God.

[10:18] We can see unseen things because we see now by the Spirit and by faith. Not because we're really clever. Not because we're quick-witted.

[10:29] Not because we're astute. No. God has done a work in our hearts that now we see with our ears. We see the glorious Christ that's spoken to us from the Word.

[10:44] We walk by faith, not by appearance. And by the way, Paul's going to give us nine different points. Hmm.

[10:55] By faith, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. It's too many. Listen to this guy. By faith, there's number one. By faith, we are being renewed day by day.

[11:10] Look at chapter 4, verse 16. Therefore, we do not fail. A better translation is fail instead of lose heart. He's talking about failure. But before, he used the same word, talking about moral failure.

[11:23] Here, he's talking about mortal. In his weakness, in his suffering, it looks like he's a failure because Paul was suffering. He was weak. That's what the apostles were all about.

[11:36] He says, no, no. Therefore, because we have this ministry of the glorious Christ, we don't fail. Why? Our outer person is being destroyed, yet our inner person is being renewed day by day.

[11:50] Not simply a physical versus non-physical thing. I mean, it's that. But even more. He's talking between the present age and the age to come.

[12:01] The outer has to do with the present and the now. The inner has to do with the future. It's being destroyed. Paul was thrust over and over again into suffering, hardships, death.

[12:17] We are constantly thrusted in times of suffering, hardship, trials, and difficulties, and yet, that's why he says, day by day, we're being renewed. Trouble will never be removed.

[12:32] May never be removed. But God does indeed deliver us. Now, we usually think of deliverance as the removal of the trouble, right? Not necessarily the case, though. It happens in the inner person by faith and hope in Christ Jesus, or as Luther says, quote, God removes the person from the evil and not the evil from the person.

[12:56] Because all of it has a foretaste of glory, of the eschaton. Deliverance happens. How? He changes us from the inside out. The inner person is part of that which is yet to come.

[13:13] What we're going to have in the resurrection. And it's in this inner person that we have deliverance, because God is working in our hearts by the Spirit.

[13:25] Friends, the eschaton is here, but it's hidden in Jesus Christ, the word of the gospel, and it's hidden by the Spirit who works in the heart. So this inner person is the new person, present in the heart of the apostle, by the power of the Spirit, who created a whole new Paul.

[13:47] God recreates us in the Spirit, a whole new Vicente, a whole new Travis, a whole new Karen, a whole new Anne, a whole new person.

[14:02] God's work by His Spirit is not just a one-time thing. It was a daily experience for the apostle. Each day he was made new, and he does the same thing to us as his followers, renewed day by day, taking one day at a time.

[14:21] Yet it's interesting, God doesn't give us strength in advance. You don't get a prepaid strength phone. You don't do that. He gives you strength in the thick of it.

[14:34] That's exactly what Paul is dealing with. Which leads to the second one, by faith, number two, we suffer to have glory produced in us.

[14:46] Verse 17 of chapter 4, for momentary or temporary, light, insignificant affliction. Affliction. No big deal.

[14:58] You read what Paul's saying here? It's almost offensive. Affliction, burden.

[15:09] He produces this striking contrast between suffering and glory. And notice he says, producing in us an eternal weight of glory, weights, gravity versus lights and trivial.

[15:29] His burden was no burden. It was light in comparison to weightiness. And the idea of this weight, it has us think about the word in the Hebrew, in the Old Testament for the word glory, which is kavod, which means weightiness.

[15:51] He's saying that God uses suffering to produce glory in our lives. That's what he's saying. God was working in Paul through the means of suffering to bring an eternal weight of glory.

[16:10] God uses suffering as a means transforming us and renewing us. Now you would think with Paul calling affliction, I mean, so you're calling sexual assault that's temporary?

[16:30] You're calling my suffering, I broke my back, temporary? You're calling cancer that's insignificant? That's what Paul's calling it. Compared to the weightiness of the glory of God being produced in you.

[16:50] Do you have your New Testament glasses on? Do you have your New Covenant glasses on? Can you see how all these sufferings and afflictions are just light and trivial compared to the work God is doing in your heart because of these sufferings and trials?

[17:07] Through these sufferings and trials. Now, he's not saying, I think I have those, yeah. He's not saying suffering is vain or pointless, but in the hands of God it works in eternal weight of glory.

[17:23] Notice, beyond all comparison, we share in Christ's comfort only as we share in his suffering and as we suffer, we share in the weighty glory of Christ into whom we place our trust, our hope, and our confidence.

[17:40] The weightiness of the glorious Christ. Remember how he called Christ the glorious Christ in chapter four? We trust him. And when we have this perspective on things, we're able to see things differently so that by faith we see unseen things.

[18:01] Number three, notice how he contrasts human perception and appearance with God's work in Christ. The seen things is the present fallen world.

[18:12] The unseen things are God's promises, the resurrection. We look not at the things which are seen, the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen eternal.

[18:27] This age to come is present now with its promises found in Christ. Affliction is temporary, but the reward is eternal, and the reward is Christ himself. Those who have been liberated from the God of this world, of this age, by the creative work of God in their hearts by Christ, they have their eyes open so they can see very, very clearly.

[18:54] Well, how do we know, how can we tell between the temporary things and the unseen things?

[19:06] How do we know the things seen are temporary, but the unseen are eternal? Like, what's the gauge by which we can do this? Simple. Through the word of the cross.

[19:19] God's glory, God shows his glory in trouble. What's the greatest way God showed his glory in trouble? The cross. Where you would think God had failed.

[19:32] Where you would think God was ridiculous in doing some absurd, crazy, preposterous thing by having the God-man die? No.

[19:45] It's wisdom. It's grace. It's glory. God shows his glory in trouble. That's why we look not to the visible things, painful things or joyful things, but to the invisible things.

[20:07] How God is working in us by his spirit just like he worked in Christ by his crucifixion and resurrection. Now, it's not that Paul self-inflicts himself.

[20:20] Okay? He's not doing that. I'm suffering for Jesus, right? Yeah. 39 slashes with a wet noodle. Come on. You know, that's not what he's talking about here. He understood the purposes behind suffering, pain, trials, difficulties in this life.

[20:36] He understood that God uses it as a means to change us, to renew us. That's eternal because that happens on the inside. He changes you, preparing you for the resurrection body that you will have.

[20:54] So, if God is using troubles and tribulation in this way, then we should say, Lord, bring the troubles and fire of faith worth more than gold in my life.

[21:10] from James chapter 1, right? Change me. Prepare me for eternity. That's hard to do when you're in bed and you can't move.

[21:25] That's the reality of what Paul is trying to say to us. Leading to number 4. By faith, we have an eternal building. Chapter 5, verse 1, he begins, for we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is being destroyed, how it should be translated, so he's talking about first living in this tent.

[21:47] This is just a tent. This is just a temporary thing. We're only guests upon this earth. He says, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

[22:06] So this tent, if, when, it's destroyed. Paul was confident that he had a building from God, not made with hands.

[22:18] The eternal dwelling we have from God is one of those unseen things. We're confident that the resurrection is yet to come. It's just temporary. It's not our work, it's God's work.

[22:33] That's why he says it's not made with hands. It reminds us of what Jesus says, destroy this temple and I'll rebuild it in three days. This temple is not made with hands. He was talking about himself. He's the temple. But it's this house that endures into eternity.

[22:48] It's unshakable. That's why he says the end of verse 1, eternal in the heavens because God was the one who made it just like he recreated us.

[22:58] So it's our immaterial home in heaven grounded in Christ and his glory. I mean, what a promise. All our yes in Christ, we have such surety that our heavenly habitation presents the eschaton as a matter of true hope.

[23:15] That's what we have. We have true hope of a resurrected body that this tent is just being destroyed and yet God's doing it work from the inside out.

[23:26] which leads to the fifth one. We, by faith, we live by faith because we long for Christ in the eternal clothing.

[23:38] He changes his comparison now. He starts from tent to building. Now he goes from being unclothed to clothed. Notice what he says in verse 2.

[23:50] Yes, indeed, in this, that is the tent, we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven. Paul had such hope, yes.

[24:03] He had hope in the eternal dwelling. He had hope in what is to come. But guess what? He was restless. Are you restless?

[24:14] As you're suffering, are you restless? Paul was restless. Why? Why did it bring him uneasiness? It drove him to prayer, arising from deep within his soul because he longed to be clothed with the heavenly dwelling for the resurrection is both our redemption from slavery and our arrival into the promised land.

[24:38] He's trying to give us a picture here. This, this is the true exodus. This is the true redemption from slavery. This resurrection.

[24:50] This is the true arrival into the promised land. That's why he says here, if we are clothed, verse 3, if we are clothed so that we will not be found naked.

[25:02] What's he talking about here? He goes, talking about being naked means being separate from the body. Being clothed is someone where you have the body and the soul together. In other words, gospel hope is a resurrected body, not some bodily existence of a naked soul like wandering all over the body.

[25:19] No, it's not like that. To be clothed with Christ is our salvation and that clothing involves the same clothing Jesus put on when he was resurrected.

[25:32] So with us. Our hope is to be clothed. It's not an end. It's a fulfillment. In other words, the resurrected body is the fulfillment of bodily life.

[25:45] We were meant to be like this. We were made to be like this. This thing that we're in was not the intention that God had necessarily.

[25:57] Why? Because we've fallen. Sin has marred everything. It's distorted everything. the new humanity, the new creation, the new resurrection.

[26:10] That's what we're meant to do because in that body, in that time, that's when we have true relationship with God. And we get a taste of it now. A taste now because we're changed in our hearts.

[26:26] So, verse 4, he unpacks it a little bit more for us. For yes, indeed, while we're in this tent, we groan, we're burdened because we don't want to be unclothed but to be clothed in order that the mortal may be swallowed up by the life.

[26:43] He groans. He's burdened because he longed to be with this immortality and made him restless. So with us, we are restless pilgrims longing to be clothed with the hope of bodily immortality.

[26:59] We long for the resurrection. Do you not long for the resurrection? Do you not long to be with Christ? Do you not long to be with your Savior?

[27:12] And once we're clothed, he says, the mortal, which is a death, is swallowed up by the life in that it is consumed by larger realities, says one writer.

[27:27] Death spawns life. Interesting. Interesting. So it's not really a matter of escaping death. Death is not a race.

[27:41] It's conquered. Bodily existence doesn't end. It's fulfilled. That's what he's talking about here. And we, this is a promise that we have by faith.

[27:54] Again, not a leap, just into nothingness. It's true to the promises of God that he's given to us. So number six, we have by faith, we have the down payment of the Holy Spirit.

[28:09] How does God guarantee all of this for us? Notice what he says. Now, he who prepared, actually a better way to translate it, he who worked or produced this in us, this very purpose is God.

[28:24] He's setting this up. God made Paul for the very purpose of life and immortality.

[28:35] This is God's end and purpose for us. He recreates us, working in us. In order to be resurrected, he begins from the inside out. Afflictions, they work, and he turn away to glory in us, encompassed within God's greater work.

[28:52] That is, he's creating us for immortal life or producing in us something that will last for eternity. That's something that's glorious. Okay.

[29:06] So how does God guarantee this? Two ways. First, which is what he's mentioned before in previous passages and really throughout other letters, the resurrection of Jesus, right?

[29:20] The fact that Jesus physically rose from the dead, that's the first guarantee we have. By the way, friends, this is why we are not liberal theologians. This is why we believe in the physical resurrection of Jesus.

[29:35] He physically rose from, not some spiritual resurrection. He physically, a new body physically rose from the dead because if he didn't, your first guarantee goes bye-bye.

[29:48] The first guarantee we have is the physical resurrection of Jesus because he physically rose, we will physically rise. But here's a second one.

[30:01] This comes here from this verse. The guarantee, the Holy Spirit who is the down payment of the resurrection, the eschaton, which is broken into the present.

[30:13] You have the Spirit now. He resides inside of us now. He's within God's people now.

[30:26] The Spirit is the guarantee that it, resurrection, will happen. The guarantee that God's gracious salvation will be completed is found in the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.

[30:44] We trust that by faith. Again, not some leap of faith. Nothing there, I'm just gonna, no. The truth, the factual brute facts of the Word of God has told you you have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of you.

[31:02] It's dwelling inside of you. He's dwelling inside of you. That's the fact. He keeps going and going. We have three more.

[31:14] Number seven. By faith, we have confidence in this life. Think about it. Look at what he's established. Notice what he says in verse seven, excuse me, verse six. Therefore, in the midst of tragedy, greatest adversity, he has confidence.

[31:38] Now, I think you have of great courage. There's another way you can translate that. Of good courage or being confident. Now, it's not because Paul thought he was awesome.

[31:50] No. He knew that God remade him for resurrection and gave him the Spirit. Paul knew that. By the way, remember, every time Paul says us and we, he's not saying that we, the Corinthians, he's saying we, the apostles, us, the apostles.

[32:05] He's talking about himself as an apostle and their mission as apostles. But he also invites the Corinthians too. But Paul had such security in the future.

[32:17] He expectantly waited for the final judgment of Christ. So this confidence, it was given to him. He didn't muster it up inside himself. I gotta be confident, gotta be confident.

[32:29] He didn't do that. We can know that God's work in Christ is given to us with the same certainty and surety that Paul had.

[32:41] So look at what he presents. If God is remaking us each day using afflictions and sufferings as a way to mold and shape us for eternity, and if we have an eternal building from God not made by hands in the heavens of which the Spirit is a guarantee, you daggnappin, of course we should be confident, right?

[33:06] I mean, it's like, boom, I can go, man. I am immortal until God is done with me. Notice, look at what he says, therefore, always being confident and knowing, he's about to unpack this, what's called intermediate state that we given a term between death and the resurrection, knowing that while we're at home in the body, we're absent from the Lord.

[33:38] Paul longed to be in the Lord's presence, the presence of the crucified yet now risen Christ. He belonged to Christ, he wanted Christ. And then he kind of like stops in verse 7.

[33:55] for we walk by faith, not by appearance. It's like, he stops what he's saying and yet the most interesting part about this verse, it actually sums up the entire letter of 2 Corinthians.

[34:14] I actually thought about making this the title of 2 Corinthians. Walk by faith, not by appearance. walk, in terms of how you travel, living life.

[34:27] Living by faith means you're not merely living by appearance. What does he mean? How does that connect with being absent from the Lord, present in the body?

[34:40] How does this all connect together? Father, we live in God's spoken word of promise and he was faithful to his word by having Christ die and rise.

[34:52] We walk trusting in truth in spite of the hardships and troubles that lay before us. So we don't walk by appearance. And he doesn't mean not simply a human faculty that like sight but a sight in reference to the outward, the visible, the present world or the things which are seen.

[35:20] Now, he does not mean he didn't regard practical matters. Oh, we just walk by faith, not by sight. Oh, that's just, we don't deal with that.

[35:31] He doesn't mean that. Nor does he close his eyes to problems of life. You know, like, well, I'm having a problem. Well, brother, you just need to walk by faith, not by sight.

[35:44] Well, he wouldn't, Paul wouldn't say something like that. Paul does not mean you don't regard practical matters. It doesn't mean you just close your eyes to the problems of life, nor did he refuse to make plans.

[35:58] Well, brother, I'm just going to walk by faith, not by sight. So if something happens today, I'm just going to drive and see where it leads me. If it leads me home, great, praise the Lord. No, no. He made plans. I plan on eating lunch today.

[36:09] How about you? I still got some minutes, so don't you look at your clocks. So you look at your watches. He made plans. He was going to visit the Corinthians, right?

[36:22] So it's not like he closes his eyes to practical matters. It's not like he closes his eyes to problems. It's not like he refused to make plans. No. Outward appearance is not final.

[36:37] This must be embraced, especially when it comes to affliction and suffering. We hope in God's good purposes for us, just like the psalmist, in spite of our troubles and external circumstances.

[36:56] That's what he means. The greatest display of this is in the gospel, is in Christ. outward appearance is not final.

[37:10] It looked like Jesus was defeated and yet he rose from the dead. It looked like Jesus was a failure and yet he actually atoned for the sins of his people.

[37:28] He was a substitute. attitude. But this was the danger. The danger for the Corinthians and the danger for us, friends.

[37:40] The danger for the Corinthians was the temptation to measure everything by appearance, just like our world.

[37:52] out. See, this is why Paul was suspect to the Corinthians. Hmm.

[38:04] What about that guy Paul? And that's why those super apostles, that's why they look so attractive to them.

[38:17] Because they had it all together. human wisdom, strength, honor. But see, that was the problem.

[38:31] They relied on human wisdom and strength and believed their leaders should do the same. No trials. No suffering. Buck up, little buckaroo.

[38:47] Because that just shows you're just so weak. weak. And Paul says, no, I will admit my weakness. I will actually boast in my weakness.

[39:01] Because when I boast in my weakness, I'm boasting the Lord because in my weakness I am strong. So he was happy.

[39:14] He was happy, he was content, he was satisfied, and yet at the same time, he was restless. Verse 8. We are of good courage.

[39:26] We are confident. No, no, I prefer rather to say we resolve. He says prefer rather. You could actually translate the verb there. We resolve to be absent from the body and to be home with the Lord.

[39:46] Now, he says. This is the intermediate state between death after death and resurrection. Oh, I just want to be what he says now.

[39:56] See, friends, it's not that we want the fountain of youth. We're not looking for that. it's not us trying to stay or look 25 again.

[40:09] No offense, Michael, sorry. We want Jesus. What makes this house from God home is Christ.

[40:22] That's who we want. That's who we want. That's why we walk by faith, because we want Jesus. And so he's talking about this intermediate state between death and resurrection, which is a better life, and yet the resurrection is definitely your best life later.

[40:42] Not your best life now, your best life later. That's the resurrection, friends. By faith, we're doing this. We have two more. These are, quickly go through these, because he just puts them right after the other.

[40:58] By faith, we desire to be pleasing to him. Look at what he does here in verse 9. Therefore, also, we have as our ambition, no matter where I am, no matter what I'm doing, my passion, he says, our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to him.

[41:17] God has done his work in us, which brings about our work of walking in faith. That is, faith with good works for God. God. Interesting.

[41:32] Paul's not seeking after the attention or the honor of the Corinthians. Now, he sought after the attention and honor of Christ.

[41:44] He sought to please with his whole person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He sought what he was made to be. Remember? He was made to be one who loves Christ from the inside out.

[41:56] So with you, you've been made to love Christ. You've been made to want Christ. You've been made to long for Christ.

[42:07] So be who you are. Be who God has made you to be. Walk by faith, not by appearance. Be who you are. Live who you are. The new creation in Christ by the Spirit.

[42:19] Paul was like, my whole person. It doesn't matter whether I'm absent from the Lord or whether I'm with the Lord. I just want to please him. My whole person. That's who he was.

[42:30] Because he knew that's the work that God started in him already. God done that in you. You do it too. Be who you are. By faith, he says, we desire to be pleasing to him.

[42:45] And so look at this. God has done this work. He's taken these sufferings and these afflictions, a weightiness of glory. He's longing for this resurrection. He's longing for Christ.

[42:56] He knows Christ is going to do this. He wants to please Christ. He knows God's going to do this. He knows the spirit is a down payment of all this. Therefore, he has nothing to fear. That's why I have verse 10.

[43:07] By faith, we will face Christ's judgment. There's no fear. Let it come, he says. Notice, for it says we must all appear.

[43:19] It is necessary for us all to appear. before the judgment seat of Christ. His work of salvation also includes his work of judgment. He says that each one may be recompensed or receive for his deeds what he has done.

[43:36] It's exposed. Your plans, your intentions, your motives, your affections, your thoughts, they're all laid open and bare in Christ. Paul welcomes that.

[43:49] Do you? I mean, for those of us who are in Christ, our deeds are judged, not our position before God, but our labor or deeds, our character, not our destiny, our reward, not our status.

[44:07] Good or evil, he says. Evil meaning despicable, contemptible, heinous, abhorrent. What have we done that signified God's work in us?

[44:20] What have we not done that contradict his work in us? What about your unbelief, your coveting, your pride, your greed, your envy?

[44:34] What about that? What have we done that signified the work that God does in our hearts? What have we not done that may contradict his work in us?

[44:49] But what about the belief, the self-denial, the humility, the grace and love and compassion we show? Paul has no fear.

[45:02] He knows that God was doing a work in him. He knows that God was changing him from the inside out. He had no fear. He was resolved because he walked by faith.

[45:12] in Christ we've been made new persons. Afflictions are merely insignificant compared to the work God does in and through troubles. Longing for the resurrection, we desire Christ and want to please Christ, knowing that he will judge us for how we displayed our love for Christ, for his body, for his people.

[45:35] Once again, it brings us back to the two implications that always comes up every single week. As we look at these verses, how is this going to affect how we love each other within his church and how does that affect how we're going to proclaim his grace to the world?

[45:53] It always happens. It always brings us back to how we interact with each other and how we proclaim this gospel truth to the world. Or, let's put it different way, do we live by appearance or by faith?

[46:13] Father, we thank you and we pray that our two sisters, Ann and Karen, found such great hope and encouragement from your word today.

[46:29] And may they take each day at a time in renewing us day by day, remind us them, us, that suffering and trials there for but a moment.

[47:03] They're insignificant to the weightiness of the glory that you're producing in us. We look to the unseen thing of our heavenly dwelling.

[47:16] We long for that. We know we will be clothed in that because we have the Spirit. and yet no matter here or with you, we want to please you because we love you.

[47:38] So we have no fear. You will make known the intentions of our hearts and the motives of our hearts. We're ready for that. So we give you our heart. We give you our lives.

[47:49] And even today we say once again, we resolve. take us, change us, produce in us a glorious weightiness beyond anything we've ever seen.

[48:13] If you would, please, take some time and let your mind ponder and dwell on these things. After a few moments of pondering, thinking, we'll do our time worshiping and our giving.

[48:37] We'll worship again singing a couple songs together. prayer. And our closing prayer. But just as a reflection for you to think, let this truth, these truths sink deep into your soul.

[48:59] So it will affect and infect your thinking today and this whole week. you will walk by faith, not by appearance, by sight.

[49:14] Do that if you would, please. do that or I might but there are the ones that are doing well.

[49:30] May her and they will give you