Faith Series: Faith Changes How We View Life

Faith Series: Faith Changes How We View Life

2 Corinthians chapter 5. We want to begin the reading in verse number 1. In beginning in verse 1 we read for we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon. That mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident knowing that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labor that whether present or absent we may be accepted of Him.

Father, in these moments together we do pray that you would speak to us through your word. You know our hearts, you know the motives of our hearts even at this time, Lord. You know the longings of our hearts, you know the deepest desires, Lord, and we pray that we will find every desire met, every need met in our hearts today through what you will show us in your word and how you will help us to apply it to our lives. We pray in Jesus’ name.

To briefly recap what we've been seeing in this series on faith recently, we have seen that faith is putting our entire weight on the Lord. We've seen that that is something that we do because we consider God and His word to be trustworthy. We consider Him to be trustworthy, His word to be true. If you take me at my word then you have confidence that what I'm saying is true to you. You wouldn't knowingly, I don't think you would knowingly just say well I'm going to listen to the lie that He told me. No, I'm going to listen to Him because I believe He's telling me the truth. I mean we do that in every area of life, don't we? And so God cannot lie, He has given us the truth.

And we've seen that faith operates, God is looking for genuine faith that it operates or is energized by love. Our response to His love. That is what faith is to be seen, true faith is to be, a faith that is operating by the power of love. Now we notice that faith obeys God's commands. Faith taking God at His word. Also by extension is a faith that is obedient to His commandments, right? We saw that. We saw that a genuine Christian faith is childlike in nature. Childlike in that what God says, we just take Him at His word simply. Don't question Him. Don't think we know better than Him. Don't walk it out according to our own understanding and try to put God's stamp of approval on our own understanding. No, just simply take God at His word.

We saw that when the Lord Jesus Christ called that little child into the midst. He pointed out the humility of that child. He pointed out the simple humility of the little child. We noticed that faith has to be also willing to receive reproof. Add the mission, right? Faith is willing to receive those reproofs and those admonitions knowing that it comes from the loving heart of the Father. Sometimes it's used, it comes by instrumentation of other believers, even that speak to us. Hearing a message preached, the Holy Spirit convicting and moving in our hearts.

We saw also that faith has to be tried, has to be tested. Faith must be tried and tested. And so it must be exercised, we saw as well. It must be nourished. We must be nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine. Faith has to be exercised and strengthened and nourished because the Lord spoke to His disciples that in the end said, oh ye have little faith. Can have faith, but it can be little. Faith must be tried. It must be exercised. It must be purifying.

And we saw also that faith results in, last week, we saw that faith results in the reverential fear of God. Noah took God seriously when He said what He said, and he based life's actions upon what God had warned of. He feared God not in a panicked kind of fear, not in an, I'm afraid God doesn't love me kind of fear, or that God is mean or something like that. No, simply that when God says something, He's going to do it, and therefore I must take God's warning seriously. He means what He says, and so he was moved with fear to prepare the ark for the saving of his households. And for anyone else who would turn from their mocking and scoffing to trust in God, despite the fact they had never seen a flood which He warned of.

That's the nature of faith, isn't it, you know, faith sees the invisible, not well what this is all the things I've proven. No, our faith is, we came to faith in a, we came to put our faith in God because God has given us the ability to reason certain things, but faith is beyond reason. Faith is not reason. It's, we reason may lead us to a point where we say I need to put my faith in God, but we can never reason our way to heaven. We must believe. We must believe.

And so today we're looking in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 at how faith changes how we view everything. Faith changes. Faith is the lens that we must view everything through now. We must view everything through not the lens of merely reason. That doesn't mean that God is unreasonable. I'm not saying that. But we must view everything through the lens of His Word. We must, we must think biblically about things if we have faith. We must think scripturally not just think, well however our depraved heart would want to think naturally. We must think scripturally. We can't let conscience be our guide. We can't let our follow our heart so to speak unless our heart is following God's Word. But faith changes how we view the temporal things. It changes how we view people around us. It changes how we view sin. It changes how we view everything. Faith in God's Word does.

If you ever heard the expression, I'm sure you have, that he's looking at that or she's looking at that through rose-colored glasses. Looking at this particular thing. You know we say that about a number of different situations. You might think somebody's in, thinks they're falling in love and a relationship with someone they want to marry. And they have rose-colored glasses. You know that person can do no wrong in their eyes. Right there everything is just wonderful. Well, it's true that love covers a multitude of sins. And hopefully that continues on into married life. But there might be things that do need to be addressed that we can't just sort of gloss over and look at them all the way through rose-colored glasses, we need to look at them as they actually are. And work through those things together if it's going to be a marriage that's built upon truth and Christ, if those things can't be resolved, you don't need to start it and start off with the wrong foundation. Right?

So, another situation, have you ever noticed, I don't want to get off in the weeds with this. But I'm just giving you some natural illustrations. You notice how people don't think their dog is ever going to hurt you? You notice how they say, oh, he wouldn't hurt anybody. You know, the dog is bearing its teeth at you and without each of your life. You know, oh, well, feet feet won't hurt you, you know, or whatever. And yet, they're looking at that with, they're not looking at it honestly, right? This dog is showing anxiety, he's showing aggression, he's about to literally just a step away from eating me alive. But we're just thinking this dog, it hurt you by. My child would never do anything like that. What's the first thing you see when a crime is committed? You know, the mom and dad, I didn't think they would never do anything like that. And even with the facts, right in front of them, they would still look at that child through rose-colored glasses. They could do anything like that. Video evidence, oh, they didn't do it. You know, I guess now we've got the excuse of AI and those, they probably doctored the video.

Well, as Christians, we do not want to view, we don't want to view things through rose-colored glasses. Looking at things through God's word is not looking at them through rose-colored glasses. It's looking at them as they really are, as they really are in the light of eternity, not just how it feels or what people's opinions are about something at a given moment in time. Because as you and I both know, how I feel about things and what people's opinions in general are about things change like the wind. It changes up and down constantly. You can't anchor anything into that. You can't use that as an anchor for your soul. So, we must not view things through rose-colored glasses, but we must view things through the lens of God's word.

You know, I was just thinking about what I just said about one thing I had thought about this week is you wouldn't want somebody. You wouldn't want somebody to think something of you that wasn't the truth, would you? You wouldn't want someone to think of you, something that they heard someone else say about you. You wouldn't want someone to think of you what they had a whim or an impression or a thought of their feeling. If there's something that you think that is bothering you about me, just, you know, just come talk about it, right? Unless you're trying to hide something that's what you want to do. Let's talk through this and work it out. I don't want you to listen to somebody else's opinion about the matter. Well, this is certainly how God wants us to think. He wants us to think of Him as He has revealed Himself to be. He doesn't want us to create a false God of our own imaginations. He wants us to take Him at His word and view Him and view all of life that we encounter through that same lens.

At the end of chapter 4, 2 Corinthians chapter 4 Paul says, while we look not, we look not at the things which are seen. Of course, he's not saying we don't see things that are happening around us. We do. But our gaze, our focus, that focus of our lives is not on the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal. That's not where our gaze is. Our gaze is not fixed on temporal things. But the things which are not seen are eternal. Wasn't it said of Moses that he endured as seeing Him who is invisible? We are, I mentioned just a few moments ago, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.

As we look, yes, we see the temporal things. We see the wars. Or we hear about the wars and rumors of wars. We see the physical needs. We see the weather. We see all these. We see people in our relationships that, you know, on the job or family. We see many things of the temporal realm, don't we? But our primary focus, our gaze, should be on the things which are not seen. The things which are eternal. And as we are looking properly as the Lord would have us to the things which are eternal in nature, then we'll better understand the things how we should relate to the things that are temporal. How we should engage with the temporal matters and relationships of life.

It's in this context that certainly Paul is saying that the affliction, these brethren, we're facing. Don't look at that affliction just from a temporal perspective. Look at it from its eternal perspective. Because if you look at it, that's what he was telling the Thessalonians this morning. Don't just look at this thing, this difficulty you're facing. And get overwhelmed. Comfort one another with God's words. Think about it through the lens of God's Word. I'm going to give you some more things to think on and to apply in your lives. It's what he's going to be looking at in chapter five. I'm going to leave you with some things, you know, meditate on these things. Say, La, meditate on these things. View the temporal through the lens of the eternal.

And Paul says in verse one here, for we know by my faith, we know by faith, by looking at what God has revealed to be true. And we take Him at His Word, we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. This is the same way that Noah knew that a flood was coming. He just trusted God with childlike faith, with simple, simply, but seriously taking God at His Word. And trusting that what God said, He was going to do. He's not going to say something in bluff. He's going to do what He says He's going to do. And so he took it seriously. And so here we know if we take God seriously too, like Noah did, like Moses did, seeing Him who is invisible. If we take God seriously at His Word, but with simplicity of childlike faith, we can know that if our earthly house were dissolved, we have an eternal building, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. We have a house, an immortal tabernacle, if you will. It's not if you will, as he says here. We have an eternal building. This is not the temporary body that we're in, but it's the ultimate body we will receive.

For we groan earnestly, and in this we groan earnestly, desiring to be clothed upon with our house, which is from heaven. So what we believe, what we know to be true by faith affects our view. It affects our desires, even, doesn't it? We're groaning for something that we believe to be true. If you believe something to be true, then you pray for it, right? You ask for it. You ask that God would bring it to pass. That God would make it a reality in your life that ultimately that He would come back, even so. Come Lord Jesus. We pray for that, not some idle prayer that we, you know, in temptation, we're saying some words or something like that. No, this is a simple childlike faith. I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back, and I pray. Come quickly. I pray even so come Lord Jesus.

Have you ever been building a house? Or maybe I haven't had this situation specifically, but maybe some of you have, or you know someone who has them. Have you ever heard somebody refer to it? I don't like this term because it's not actually biblical, but they say our forever home. We're building our forever home. And that means that's the one they're going to die in, right? That's the one they plan to die in, but I've seen so many people who built their forever home. And it wasn't the one that they ended up staying in. Things happened. Things changed. But while you're building that, let's say the home that you plan to live in, Lord willing, for many years and maybe even till you die. And while you're building that home, you're living in a single wide trailer, or a travel trailer, or something like that. Well, thank God for the travel trailer. Sure, it's a lot better than living out in the woods, right? It sure is a lot better than living in a little, you know, hut that you've put together of mud and sticks. But you don't want to live in it forever. You don't want to be there forever. You're looking forward to the day when that house is finished. When that house is ready, and every day, every day when you get up, you think one day closer to living in that house. So I've been so nice. Well, I can just imagine now how big my bedroom is going to be, you know, and how wonderful it will be to be in this, you know, bigger than this little trailer. And that's a, those are both temporal things there, obviously. But it's a, maybe as I was thinking about it, a good parallel, as good as a parallel can be, perhaps, to the spiritual reality of what we're talking about.

Thank God for this body, but it's wearing out. Thank God for this body, but it's temporal. Thank God for this body that He's giving us, but it is, it's waxing old as a garment does. It's, it's failing. And one day it will have served us well in whatever God wanted us to do, but it's not forever. We, we lay up treasures in heaven. We're to lay up treasures in heaven. We saw recently that physical exercise, profit, little, bodily exercise, profit, it's little, but we are to exercise ourselves rather unto godliness, aren't we? We're to exercise ourselves with eternity in view. There's this, there's a, there's the lens of God's word as we're looking forward to eternity. So we might be living in the proverbial travel trailer right now. And we, and we must give thanks and we ought to give thanks. We ought to thank God for what He's given us. But just don't live like this is the most important thing. It's just, this body is a means by which we may serve God. In fact, it's not even our body anymore is it? It's not even our body. Our family isn't our family. Our house isn't our house. Our, our vehicles are not really ours. They're all loaned to us from God temporarily. Temporarily. And so we need to view them that way. We need to view them through that lens. We need to view it through the lens of one day we will receive as believers an eternal house. I'm really looking forward to that house. That will never fade away. God has put a desire for that eternity in our hearts, hasn't He? That eternal dwelling with Him. He's put that in our hearts.

So we noticed that here we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon. It affects desire when we believe something. When you really believe something, you're gonna want it. When you really believe it, you can't divorce faith from desire. They go together. If you don't really desire what God desires for you, then you're not really taking Him at His word. You really believe what He says, right? And so this is what we desire. This is what we groan for. We earnestly desire.

Now, look in 1 Peter chapter 1, please. 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 7. Verse 7 says that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Having not seen, you love. Well, we love Him, of course. John will tell us because He first loved us. But how does our love grow for Him? How does our love get stronger? Well, it gets stronger in correspondence to faith getting stronger, doesn't it? Faith and love grow together. Faith and love grow together because the more He tries us, and the more we trust Him as He's trying us because we know He loves us. And then we love Him more because we know that He cares about everything in our lives. Even through the trials, we take that trial not as a sign of God's disfavor, but as a sign of His love for us. We know that all things are working together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose. So as we know that, and as we are growing in that faith, we're growing in love and desire to God. It can be truly said of us whom having not seen, you love. In whom though now you see Him not, yet believing you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

If we take God seriously and we believe that God will do what He says He will do, we shouldn't be surprised when trials come, should we? We shouldn't be taken aback and think it's some strange thing concerning the fiery trial. Because God has told us, because He loves us, He chastens us. Because He loves us, He's doing these things in our lives. When we miss the point is when we get our eyes too much, when we get our eyes, we see the temporal things, but we get our eyes on temporal things instead of seeing God in the fiery furnace, we might say, seeing God in the trial. And that's when we get off. That's when we lose sight of what we should be looking at things.

Verse 3 in our text though says, if so be that being clothed, we shall not be found naked. If so be that being clothed, we shall not be found naked. Well that's our expectation isn't it? That's our anticipation. That's our hope. We're not going to be found naked. We haven't any more seen this promise than Noah saw the flood. He didn't see it, but he saw it by faith. He didn't see no more, any more than, not any more than we can see this eternal house. We just take God at His word. Son, daughter, I have an eternal house reserved for you. A tabernacle. This is going to replace the temporal one that you now have, is going to be far better, and you'll be in my presence. We just take that by faith. And if we do take it by faith, then we truly take it by faith. We're going to earnestly groan for it. Lord, are you coming back for us today? Please come again. Lord we want to wait patiently for your coming. Help us to be patient. But at the same time we can have both things. We can have the patience as well as the desire to meet the Lord.

We are. If we view the glory of that ultimate house that we will receive, it will change the way we look at this temporal house. It will change the way that we view this one. How's the world view this one? The world views this body as this house is something to show off. It views this house of this body as something to be preoccupied with, to give all the nation's strength. What are we going to put on all these things? That's not to be our preoccupation. God already knows you have need of these things. One day you're going to have a house that doesn't need all those things. It's going to be perfect. It's going to be glorified. Take care of the body. Be a good steward of it. But don't worship it. Don't serve it in the lusts, even that through sin can come through that body. But you'll instead remember as a servant of righteousness and the holiness, you'll remember to serve God for things that matter eternally. Not just saying, well, how comfortable can I make myself? You know, comfortableness is killing us, isn't it? With just being comfortable. We just want to be comfortable. We want to serve a comfortable God. We want a comfortable Bible, a comfortable church. We just want to feel real comfortable in whatever we want to do. And then we want to put Christianity on that. That's not the Christianity God describes in His word. He describes that we're going to face trials. We're going to face struggles. We're going to face temptations. We're going to have fiery trials. All the will-good, godly, shall suffer persecution. Now the degree of that may, as we said this morning, vary from geography to geography. And the type of the persecution may vary. But nonetheless, it's going to happen. If you name the name of Christ, if you stand upon the promises of the Lord and you stand up for Jesus Christ, there will be trouble. You will not be liked. You may even be run out of town like Paul was, or run out of certain institutions. You may not be well accepted for that.

But we read in verse 4, for this, for we that are in this tabernacle, do groan being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed. You see, it's not so much the hatred. It's not a hatred for this tabernacle as much as it is. The emphasis really is upon the love and desire and earnest longing for the eternal one. It's the same thing with Christ. We want to meet the Lord not because we want to get out of here so much as it is that we love His appearing. That's what we're looking for. It's not just, well, things are getting pretty bad. Well, I guess about time for Jesus to come back. I hope He hurries up because it's getting pretty bad here. Well, certainly we have thoughts like that. We have thoughts that things are getting bad. I think I put in the bulletins last week, the way that Martin Luther spoke back in his day. He thought the Lord was going to have to come back real soon because things were just all out of sorts. But the greatest desire, not to say that that's not a part of it, but the greater desire is to meet the Lord, to meet the Lord, to receive that which He has promised.

So He says here, not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now, He that hath wrought us for the same thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. He's given unto us, and we've preached on this before. I know, but the Arabon. It had the idea of the, even the ring. I think even now that word is used for an engagement ring in the Greek language, the idea of the purchaser, maybe putting down a deposit of money to seal a contract, or given an engagement ring. This is a pledge, a promise that I've given to you and the earnest of the Spirit that I intend to return for you. I intend to return for you. Jesus said He would go away, but He sent another comforter that would be with us. But what is the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives? The role of the Holy Spirit in our lives is to remind us what the things Jesus has said. That our Lord has said to us, and that we would be looking for Him. That we would be looking for Him. We see that in the type of the oil in the lamp, right? And our lamps need to be burning, right? We're not going to be with us. With oil as we're anticipating the Lord to return. The bridegroom to return.

We see that having received this earnest of the Spirit, He is going to help us in this desire. And in this longing, He's going to feed that with words, brought to our remembrance. And then with the empowerment to live out in obedience to those words that we are given in God's Word, that we take by faith. And now, enabled by the Holy Spirit's earnest that has been given to me as an earnest to now live for Christ as I wait for Him to return. We're not our own, remember? And the Holy Spirit will remind us of that, you're not your own. You belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. You belong to Him. You're bought with a price. Don't grieve the Spirit of God. Don't grieve the Holy Spirit. Don't grieve the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. Instead, submit to Him. Submit to His dealings, His wooings in our lives. That's what we're called to do. And we ought to do as He will feed that blessed hope that we have. He will encourage us in that blessed hope that we have as we look for the Lord.

And here in verse 6, we read, therefore we are always confident, knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. That's what I want to think of it. We're at home in the body, but we always are confident knowing that we are absent from the Lord. It's almost like that is not almost like it is. It is the reality is He is our home. He is our forever dwelling place, the Lord is. And we have just not yet seen Him face to face, but we love Him, even though we haven't seen Him. We know as we're confident that even though we're home right now in the travel trailer, so to speak, that our true home is with the Lord. Our true home is to be present with Him. Don't we talk about people when they pass as Christians as their home going. Their home going. We're going to the Father's house. We're going to dwell with our Savior, Jesus Christ. And then the Scripture shows that the saints will then come with Him. When He ultimately sets up the new heaven and the new earth, the saints will return with Him in glory and ride with Him on white horses. What a future we have. We haven't seen it yet, but we walk by faith, don't we? We walk by faith. Walking by faith, walking in the Spirit, our hand in glove. Walking by faith and walking in the Spirit. We walk not by sight.

The world walks by sight. The world makes the world when I say the world. Obviously we're talking about those who know not the Lord in this world. Those that live according to the course of this world who think the way that we used to think. But don't think any longer because now we think by faith, right? We walk by faith. But those that are in this world, those that are in sin, how do they think? What I'm going to eat, what I want to drink, what is going to make me comfortable. Let's go make it easier. Let's go to what is going to make life in this travel trailer more comfortable. Because I really only have hope in this life. So I want to make it last as long as possible. But we don't think that way anymore, do we? We know this life no matter what we do, it's not the ultimate one. It's just a temporary one. The eternal one is the one we're looking for. That's how we're thinking. What is set our affection on things above? Not on the things on the earth.

We are confident Paul says, verse 8, I say and willing rather to be absent from the body, both confident and willing. That's the desire, faith and desire to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labor that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him. You know, men like David, even before they never met the Apostle Paul, they never read a single New Testament scripture that we have. How often do those words come back to your heart and mind? Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer. Well, that is a heart of faith and I see desire in it too. Lord, I want to be pleasing to you. I want my life to bring glory and honor to you. Not only in the things people hear me say on the outside, but even when I'm thinking on the inside, I want to be holy. I want to be pleasing. I want to live acceptable in your sight. That is how faith changes the way that we… That's an example of how faith changes the way we view things. The world says, I just don't want to get caught. Faith says, I want to please God. I want to be pleasing in His sight.

So, may we, as Paul would say in another place, long to hear those words. May we long to have this tabernacle to be with Christ, this eternal tabernacle that the Word has promised, but may we long to hear those words from His mouth. Well done. Now, good and faithful servant. Now, it's been faithful in a few things. I'll make thee ruler over many things. Well done, now, good and faithful servant. Oh, certainly. I know there will be things that will be burned up, but will there be something to present of gold, silver, and precious stones? If there is, it will be simply by faith. Lord, I took you seriously, it's your Word. I took you at your Word. I yielded to, instead of grieving the Holy Spirit, and it was all grace. It wasn't because of me. It was because of your faithful dealings with me. It was because of the faithful reminders of the Holy Spirit. I was bringing the Word back to my remembrance, and enabling me to obey, enabling, strengthening me in, doing the things that you tell me to do in your Word. May God help us to see that, to see everything from eternity, the eternal perspective by faith. To view it through the lens of God's Word, help us not, may the Word help us not to view it through the lens of God's Word. The lens that we used to view it through is this going to make me more comfortable? Is this going to bring me trouble then I don't want to do it? No, may we submit ourselves to God's Word. May we submit ourselves to His will. May His desires be our desires. May we desire, above anything we could possibly desire for this temporal body, may we desire the eternal one that He's promised us.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for these moments. Lord, as we walk, surrounded by the temporal, may we think, help me, Lord, for as a child of yours, as a Father, as a husband, as a pastor, help each one of us here today to think from the perspective of the eternal by faith. May we view the things that we are hearing about, that we are coming in contact with, that we are maybe tempted by, we are asked to give an answer about things. May our thoughts, very thoughts be pleasing to You, as they are informed by Scripture, and may our very words be pleasing in Your sight, as they are the words of truth, not merely our own thoughts or words that will help us to be viewed more highly in the opinions of men, but may they be words of truth, even if they are not accepted well, may they be words that would be pleasing in Your sight. We pray now and ask these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.