The Judgment of the Believer

Why We Look Forward to Heaven

2 Corinthians 5:1-21

Audio MP3

January 22nd  2012 AM

Pastor Craig Ledbetter

Bible Baptist Church, Ballincollig, Cork, Ireland

www.biblebc.com

 

I.       Introduction (Philp 3:13,14)

 

A.    The Christian life is so worth living! Not just because of the blessings that God gives us in this life, but because of what lies ahead for the Bible believer!

B.     This is a continuation of the truths were learned about heaven two weeks ago

C.     As I looked at 2Corinthians 5, I saw such a desire of the Apostle Paul to go to be with the Lord Jesus, that I wanted to discover all the reasons why it is in my heart too!

D.    I constantly am reminded that there is nothing in the past (the good old days weren’t really all that great), that can compare what is in the future of every born again child of God!

E.     If you spend all your time reminiscing and living in regrets because of all the things that happened (or didn’t happen) in your past, then you have not learned about the Christians Future!

F.      This morning, I want to look at the Christian’s desire to go forward, to stay focused on the future, and what we lose when we get our eyes off of the future!

 

II.    Message – Why We Look Forward

 

A.    Why a Christian Loves Heaven (2Cor 5:17, 1)

 

1.      Because We have Been Forgiven (2Cor 5:17)

 

a.       Our past has been repaired

 

1)      Maybe that is nothing to you, but to the Bible believer, it is the greatest gift ever!

2)      The wages of sin condemned us to an eternity in hell

3)      But the gift of God is eternal life

4)      The forgiveness of sins

5)      Making peace with GOD

6)      Being born again into the family of God!

7)      God can’t even remember my past (Heb 10:17)

 

b.      There is no condemnation (Rom 8:1)!

c.       There is NONTHING in our past that compares with a Christian’s future

 

1)      From the moment you got born again

2)      Your destiny changed

3)      Your heart rested

4)      You were filled with the Holy Spirit of God

5)      And everything you do now actually counts

 

d.      No wonder Christians look more forward than back!

 

2.      Because Life is Temporary (2Cor 5:1)

 

a.       No Matter who your are, or how good life may be at the moment… It is SO short

b.      Your life that you so cater to will dissolve one day – melt into the ground

c.       We spend all our time worrying about spots and hair-colour and fingernail shapes and fat and verucas and brand names and what restaurant to eat at and

d.      Not enough time in worship, and praise, and praying, and just resting in God’s grace!

e.       Life is like a vapour, a race that is over way to quickly, and then it is gone

f.       A Christian looks at life like God does – very brief!

 

3.      Because We have a Better Home Waiting (2Cor 5:1)

 

a.       We actually have something much better ahead of us

b.      It has been simply GIVEN to us at Christ’s expense! Didn’t earn it at all!

c.       Our first home is amazing

 

1)      Where we live right now

2)      Is amazing

3)      DNA, 75 trillion cells, all working together

4)      Heart pumping 35 million times in a year

5)      Every day the 5 litres of blood in your body travels 12,000 miles!!!

6)      According to Scientific American, our minds have the potential store and remember over three million hours of TV shows! And not just remember what we saw, but what we smelled, heard, felt, worried about, and desired!

7)      Our lives, this flesh is amazing

8)      But it aint NOTHING compared to what God has in store for those who love Him!

9)      This body is constantly referred to in the Bible as a tent, a tabernacle – a shell

10)  And it will be dropped one day!

 

d.      Our second home is going to blow us away!

 

1)      The first body is earthly – smelly, decaying, rotting, needing medicine and constant maintenance

2)      Our second body, new body is heavenly – eternal – waiting in heaven for us

3)      For so long, people have sought the fountain of youth – the ability to live forever

 

a)      Would YOU want to live forever in your body as it is?

b)      Do you think if people lived a million years in the state they are in that they would get wiser and more moral and kind? Nope!

 

4)      We need a replacement and boy does God have one for us!

5)      And THAT body will make us forget every ache and pain and struggle we ever had!

6)      EX: Drive around in an old Ford that constantly needed attention: leaked oil, ran through petrol like a sieve, constantly hesitated, would die unexpectedly. And then you get you your first new car… a 2,012 model! Do you actually think you would go around complaining about what you USED to drive, or would you just relish the thrill of driving around with no hiccups at all anymore? Which one???

7)      The body we will get will never die, will not be able to sin, will never hurt or ache or grow old. It will go anywhere we want, and will always be fresh and healthy and full of life! It will be just like Jesus’ body is now!

 

B.     Why We Can’t Wait to Go There (2Cor 5:2,4-8)

 

1.      We are not like people who talk about heaven… No! We DREAM of it!

 

a.       Christians are very different than just “religious” people!

b.      Yes, we like it here.  We love our families, and our churches, and our Bibles…

c.       But this world just doesn’t have the lustre and attraction to us like it does most everyone else

 

1)      Paris doesn’t excite me

2)      Las Vegas couldn’t attract me any more than a slurry pit would

3)      I enjoy a football game, but you couldn’t get me to spend a €100 for tickets, ever!

 

d.      Our passions and excitement are all passing fads

e.       Our affections aren’t on things HERE

f.       We are different - peculiar

 

2.      Notice that we “groan” for our new home, new bodies

 

a.       Like an old bridge, groaning under the weight of lorries and heavy burdens

b.      So do we groan

c.       Don’t judge a Christian by their groanings (not grippings) – that is a normal thing, to look forward to when there will be no more burdens

 

3.      Because God’s Holy Spirit dwells in us and is pulling us home (2Cor 5:5)

 

a.       He groans that we would know that THIS LIFE is not all there is

b.      A man’s life does NOT consist of the THINGS which he owns (Luke 12:15)

 

4.      A Christian realises (especially the older they get) just how much BETTER heaven is going to be than this life down here, and will be better than things are right now!

5.      The Christian gladly announces, to die is gain (2Cor 5:6-8)!

 

a.       At home in this body means we are away from the Lord Jesus

b.      BUT, the moment we die is when we leave this home, and move to be with Jesus!

c.       AND BOY are Christians CONFIDENT of that move!

d.      It WILL take place, on the authority of God’s own promise (John 14:3)!

 

6.      We look forward to moving on like you would look forward to moving into a better house with better heat and more room

 

a.       Compared to heaven, we are living in cardboard boxes!

b.      Compared to our new bodies, we are in a body of death right now – dying, rotting, decaying, falling apart

 

7.      We love His coming – His appearing!

8.      We actually can’t wait for Jesus to come back! We look forward to it!

 

C.     What We Lose When We Get Our Eyes Off Of The Future (2Cor 5:2-4,9)

                                                                                                             

1.      Some serious thoughts here!

2.      Paul here compares waking up in heaven to a man getting new clothes

 

a.       Some will find themselves naked! With nothing to show for all of God’s investment in our lives!

b.      Some will find themselves honoured, and clothed with awards!

 

3.      A Christian can never be CONDEMNED, or cast away, but CAN be ASHAMED, and can LOSE out on rewards that were available to him!

4.      Talking about REWARDS as a Christian: Crowns, Treasures in heaven, Position of Government

5.      We need to take very seriously the coming judgment on all believers (Eccl 12:13,14)

6.      God will judge our:

 

a.       Secrets (Rom 2:16) – sin of presumption is to do things and not think it will cost you

b.      Laziness (Rom 12:11) – think you don’t need to work hard

c.       Wandering eyes (Matt 5:28) – think no one knows what you look at

d.      Idle words (Matt 12:36) – think your words don’t matter – well, they do!

e.       Our heart attitudes (Heb 4:12) – don’t care about your attitude – well GOD cares!

f.       How we lived (1Cor 3:11-18) – can’t defile and ruin this life without getting the OWNER upset (1Cor 6:19,20)

g.      Faithfulness to the end (Act 20:24) – God can’t bless our START, but he sure blesses our FINISHING!

h.      Are you living a life that is acceptable to HIM, or to your friends??? (2Cor 5:9)

 

7.      The Judgment Seat of Christ (2Cor 5:10; Romans 14:10-12)

 

a.       Where we will either be honoured for a life lived for Him, or ashamed for living life for SELF!

b.      There are crowns for faithful Christians (1Cor 9:24,25)

 

1)      Five of them are available to be won as a matter of fact

2)      Such honour for sinful rebels like we are

 

c.       There are treasures that can be stored up in heaven (1Cor 3:12-15)

 

1)      Priceless treasures unknown in this life

2)      More priceless than the best gold and gemstones

3)      Mansions, a city with no night, people you love and who love you!

4)      The very presence of Jesus Christ will be worth it all!

 

d.      There are positions of authority, next to Jesus that are awarded (Luke 19:15-17)

 

1)      You give positions of authority to those who have earned it, right?

2)      The same with Jesus and granting places next to HIM!

 

e.       We can EARN rewards, or we can LOSE them

 

1)      We labour, work at earning them

2)      We had better fear losing them (Rev 3:11)

3)      We will have to answer for how we messed up God’s gifts to us

4)      EX: Your Dad loaning you the family car… and you not bringing it back home! You will have to answer for what happened to it!

 

8.      Rewards are why Christians look forward to heaven!

 

a.       A bag of money doesn’t thrill us

b.      Even a bank full of money is nothing compared to what is in store for the simple loving believer in Jesus Christ!

 

9.      That’s why Christians judge themselves – keep under their body – work at controlling their tongue, and filling their life full of serving and busy-ness – so that we DON’T blow our future! (1John 1:9;

 

D.    Causes A Grave Concern for Others (2Cor 5:11,14,15)

                                                                                              

1.      The Christian KNOWS the future - Knows (5:1); Always Confident (5:6,8);

 

a.       We know our destiny

b.      We know our Saviour

c.       We know purpose – to honour and glorify and worship

d.      And we know not many are ready for eternity

 

2.      We don’t only worry about ourselves, but about others!

3.      We worry about unsaved (Luke 14:23)

 

a.       We go out of our way to interrupt people’s lives and to persuade them to repent and live for God

 

1)      John the Baptist yelled, “FLEE! FLEE from the wrath to come!

2)      Jesus came preaching, “REPENT! For the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

3)      Jude said, “of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.”

4)      There is a judgment of the Christian – serious business

5)      AND there is a judgment of the unbeliever – of the lost, called the GREAT, WHITE THRONE Judgment of all the unsaved dead (Rev 20:10-15)

 

b.      That’s why we all need to take fists full of tracts and get them into people’s hands, and get people talking about hell and about the righteousness of God, and about morality, and about the authority of the Bible, and just who Jesus Christ really is!

c.       That’s why we all need to go out soul-winning on Saturday afternoons even for just 1 hour – to persuade men and women, boys and girls that there is an eternity ahead, and so, so few are ready for it!

 

4.      We worry about the backslidden – those who are discouraged, and too beat up by life to keep going!

 

a.       We keep bothering them, keep praying for them

b.      Encouraging them, exhorting them

c.       And pulling them back

d.      Because we know it matters how long they stay out of the race!

 

5.      Look at what Paul says about the Christian life now

 

a.       It is a constrained life (2Cor 5:14) – not living any old way we want now

b.      It is a concerned life – concerned that people are dead in their sins and under the wrath of God (5:14)

c.       It is a reconciling life (5:18-20) working at bring sinful man back to an all holy and righteous God, who wants to save them instead of condemn them!

 

6.      I look forward to heaven because of all the people who I have had the privilege of turning to God, and to His Son!

 

III. Conclusion

 

A.    The Christian life is so worth living! Not just because of the blessings that God gives us in this life, but because of what lies ahead for the Bible believer!

 

1.      If you spend all your time reminiscing and living in regrets because of all the things that happened (or didn’t happen) in your past, then you have not learned about the Christians Future!

2.      This morning, we have taken a good look at the Christian’s desire to go forward, to stay focused on the future, and what we lose when we get our eyes off of the future!

 

B.     Is it true in your life?

 

1.      Do YOU look forward to Heaven? I do!

 

a.       Because I have Been Forgiven

b.      Because Life is Temporary

c.       Because I have a Better Home Waiting – it is going to blow us away!

 

2.      Do You Have that, “Can’t Wait to Go There” Attitude?

 

a.       Do you groan for it?

b.      Do you ever sense God’s Holy Spirit dwells in you and pulling you home?

c.       You can tell just by what excites a Christian: Football, friends, money, or prayer!

 

d.      We look forward to moving on like you would look forward to moving into a better house with better heat and more room

 

3.      Do You Now Realise What You Lose When We Get Our Eyes Off of the Future?

 

a.       REWARDS as a Christian

b.      Crowns, Treasures in heaven, Position of Government

c.       God will judge our:

 

1)      Secrets (Rom 2:16) – sin of presumption is to do things and not think it will cost you

2)      Idle words (Matt 12:16) – think your words don’t matter – well, they do!

3)      Wandering eyes (Matt 5:28) – think no one knows what you look at

4)      Laziness (Rom 12:11) – think you don’t need to work hard

5)      Our heart attitudes (Heb 4:12) – don’t care about your attitude – well GOD cares!

6)      How we lived (1Cor 3:11-18) – can’t defile and ruin this life without getting the OWNER upset (1Cor 6:19,20)

7)      Faithfulness to the end (Act 20:24) – God can’t bless our START, but he sure blesses our FINISHING!

8)      Are you living a life that is acceptable to HIM, or to your friends??? (2Cor 5:9)

 

d.      The Judgment Seat of Christ is REAL

e.       We can EARN rewards, or we can LOSE them

 

4.      Will You Start Having A Grave Concern for Others?

 

a.       Worry about unsaved!

b.      Worry about the backslidden – keep them encouraged!