Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church Broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world.
so that all may know Christ. Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church, located in Kernersville, North Carolina. chapter 5, our subject this morning. quickly is obviously A love that leaves us no choice. A love that leaves us no choice.
Now, I will, as I'm always, try to be respectful of your time, but you have missed a lot of church recently. But I am going to get it. I know we've had a wonderful service. Thank you for letting me share my heart. And I know we're a little bit maybe later than we normally are when I begin preaching, but I'm going to be very respectful of that.
But I do want to make sure that we don't disrespect God's word. That's the one thing we shouldn't hurry through, okay? And I appreciate Brother Jacob reading our passage and where we're leading up to is verse 14. Where it says that the love of Christ constraineth us. What is going on here in 2 Corinthians chapter 5?
If I can give you a little bit of context, and I normally always try to. Paul is writing here to Corinth. This is not his first letter. And he has visited there. It was a rough visit.
It was. a visit where there was a lot of problems to deal with. We believe there was even a third letter written. to Corinth, but This second letter that Paul has written. There were many that had come into Corinth that were questioning Paul's authority.
They were false teachers. And by the way, nothing has changed. There are still false teachers. And the worst false teachers are the ones who are just barely false. When they're just nuts, you can tell it.
But when they got eighty percent truth. And 20% falls. That's the danger. And false teachers had entered. They accused Paul of weakness.
They accused him of his integrity. They boasted in themselves and In the book of 2 Corinthians, Paul is defending his ministry, his motives, his message. His authenticity. Um in a sense. And by the time we reach chapter five, Paul had just spoken about suffering in chapter 4.
He says we have this treasure in earthen vessels, talking about us. This earthen vessel is our physical bodies. He says that there is a value in us. Even though it's just earthly, the value is Christ in us. He describes persecution and pressure and perplexing.
And he says in chapter 4 that the outward man is perishing. And so he tells us that we have a treasure in earthen vessels, but there's things coming at us, and there's difficulty coming at us, and persecution, and our bodies wear down, and we get weak, and we get mentally and physically weak, and all these different things. And so, in light of that, because the body is temporary, and because suffering is real, and because serving costs us something, we have to live in light of eternity, not just the present. Can I have an amen right there? Chapter 5 answers three major questions.
What keeps Paul going, despite the fact, and we know from God's word that Paul suffered greatly? What keeps Paul going? It tells us in verses 1 through 4, it's the promise of the resurrection. The second question is: what fuels his confidence? How can a man like Paul, bearing so much, having so many people against him, how can he be so confident?
And he tells us in verses 5 through 8 that it's the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God. And then what motivates his ministry? And In verses 9 through 15, Paul Makes it clear that it is the judgment and love of Christ. That motivates his ministry.
So, I want to jump in and I want to share it quickly so that we can. Properly lead up to the fact that the love of Christ. is what constrains us this morning. At least it should. Number one, I want you to see the promise.
of our eternal home.
Now, I'm going to explain this to you maybe a little bit different than it's been explained to you, and because I think at first glance we'll say, okay, I understand, but I need to make sure that you really understand. Verse 1, Paul says, For we know. Notice, we know, not we think or we hope. He says, We know that if our earthly house. of this tabernacle were dissolved, We have a building of God.
A house not made with hands, that is eternal in the heavens.
So he brings up two things. An earthly house. and a building of God.
So, what are we talking about here?
Well, this earthly house, our body. Is the earthly house. What he speaks of here, he says the earthly house of this tabernacle. Our body is the earthly house, our soul is the tabernacle that is in the earthly house. If you understand, say amen.
That's why the body says, the Bible says, the body tells me a lot. The body says, that's why the Bible says that our body. is the tabernacle. Literally, that is where the Holy Spirit indwells. This is our tabernacle.
This building is not the church. You are the church. This building is not the temple. Your body is the temple. Would love to say a whole lot about that right now, but I just got too much to go.
So what is this building of God?
So Paul says there's an earthly house Where the tabernacle lives. It's our physical body where our soul dwells. He says, But we do know that if something happened to this physical body, if you've been saved by the grace of God, if the Holy Spirit indwells you, we know that although this tabernacle is inside of this earthly vessel, if this earthly vessel is dissolved, if we die, obviously when we pass away and our earthly temple, our body is put into a grave and it begins to disintegrate. And all these different, if it dissolves, Paul says, we have a confidence. We know exactly what happens.
We have a building of God. That means it's not made by man. It means it's not temporary, but eternal. What does he say? A house not made with hands, eternal.
And where's it at? In the heavens.
So let me explain this if I can, real quick. What is he talking about here? He's talking about my mansion over the hill of glory, preacher. No, that is not what he's talking about. Although we Do you have a dwelling place in heaven?
And don't get me wrong, what he's talking about here, this building of God, is the glorified resurrected body that every one of us will receive at the resurrection.
So, right now you and I are in earthen vessel. Not so hot. But in the resurrection, you and I will receive. A glorified Body.
Now, why is this important? This earthly house is our physical body. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 16. I want you to notice this in the chapter 4. I want you to look at this verse.
For which cause we faint not, Paul says, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. This physical. Building this earthen house, you would call it. Obviously, we have this word house here, and in the Greek here, it literally means a temporary dwelling. But notice we have an earthly house.
But in heaven we have a building of God. Do you notice the different terminology? We don't just have a house here and a house there. No, we have a temporary house here, like a tent, like a shack, like a man-made dwelling that can pass away. But in heaven, we have a building that's been built by God, and whatever God builds never decays.
Earthly is temporary. Heavenly is eternal. Earthly is perishing. Heavenly is permanent. Earthly is weak.
Heavenly is glorious. Look at what Paul says, 1 Corinthians 15. For this corruptible must put on incorruption. And this mortal must put on immortality. Listen to me this morning.
That is resurrection body language. Paul says, being absent from the body is present with the Lord. What does it mean? It means that the building of God is a full, resurrected, glorious body that I will get in the resurrection. You say, preacher, why is this even important to me today?
Well, because I want you to understand doctrine here. We have three states. Here it is. First, there is the present state. We're in an earthly vessel.
Then there is an intermediate state. You say, What is that? That's if we die and we are saved, the Holy Spirit lives inside of us. We have an intermediate state where we are now no longer an earthen vessel, we are in the presence of the Lord. Can I have an amen right there?
But we have not gotten our resurrected bodies yet at that time. And so, when obviously Jesus returns, when the church is resurrected, and when those who know Christ are resurrected, then we will receive our resurrected heavenly bodies.
So, Paul here is not just longing for heaven, he's longing for resurrection. Paul knows that when he dies, if the Lord hadn't come back yet, he's going to be with the Lord. But Paul's looking even past that. He cannot wait to this old physical, wretched, sinful body that makes me want and desire everything that's not right for me, everything that's against God. Paul is tired of fighting it.
He's tired of being weary in it. He's tired of fighting that flesh and all the stuff that comes with it. He says, I can't wait for the promise of an eternal home. We have a building of God. Not made.
with hands. Notice promise number two here. I thought this is interesting. Verse 5, we have the promise of the Holy Spirit. No, we're getting there.
But you got to listen to me before we do. Verse 5, he says, Now he that hath wrought Us for the selfsame thing. The one who did this is God. Who also Hath given unto us. Along with That means not only are we promised a heavenly home, not only are we promised a resurrected, glorious, new body.
But he's also done something else. And that means what he's going to do then. He has also done something else.
Now, look at verse 5. Who also hath, not will, hath given unto us the earnest of the what, church? Spirit. Therefore, Paul says, We are always confident. Knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we're 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. That means, along with the promise of a glorified body, we have been given the down payment of the Holy Spirit of God. Amen. You say, Preacher, why is that important? You got to understand, some of you that have been in church 30 years, 40 years, whatever, this might not be new to you.
This is new to a whole lot of people sitting here. Sure. And don't you think they have the right to know? You say, Preacher, why is this important? This is how Paul says, It doesn't matter what's going on around me.
It doesn't matter how my body is decaying. It doesn't matter all the persecution and all the things coming at me. Not just what's coming at me physically, but what's coming at me demonically and everything that goes on in this life, this temporary life. He says, I can have confidence in the middle of all this that I am going to heaven, that I am going to get a resurrected body. And I'm not just confident because God said it, although that would be enough.
I am confident that that's going to happen because God gave me a down payment. The Holy Spirit, God Himself, Paul says, lives in us. And because He's done that, I am confident of what He'll do in the future. Listen, even though we don't see the Lord physically. What does these verses say?
Paul says we don't walk by sight. We walk by faith. Even though we don't see the Lord physically, we don't walk by sight, we walk by faith. What does it mean? It means this: because the Holy Spirit lives inside of me, that's all I need to know: that what God has promised in the future, God will do because of what He's done for me in the present.
I want to read you a passage. Just listen to me this morning, Ephesians chapter 1. It's not on the screen for you. in whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth. The gospel of your salvation.
In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit. of promise. which is the earnest of our inheritance. Until The redemption. of the purchased possession.
Unto the praise. Of his glory. Listen to me. The Holy Spirit is heaven's engagement ring placed on the finger of the believer. Amen.
It's good. Confidence is not personality. Confidence is possession. We are confident because we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. Notice Paul says we are confident and We Are willing.
Notice number three. You say, oh, okay, preacher, this is a whole lot of doctrine. Hold on. Look at verse 9. We see the promise of our accountability.
Now, Paul's getting somewhere. Look at verse 9. Wherefore? Because God's done all this. We labor that Whether present or absent, whether I'm in this earthen vessel or whether I'm with the Lord, we may be accepted of Him.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. That everyone may receive the things done in his body. According to that he hath done, whether it be good, uh-oh. Or Bad.
Now some of you are getting real nervous because this passage can be very confusing. Because we'll stand up here and say, Aren't you glad you've been forgiven by God? Amen. And then we say, You're going to give an account for everything bad. And you're like, who?
Let me explain. We labor and we work and we serve. Because we've been promised A new glorified body. We've been promised a heavenly home eternal. We know that because we've been given God.
In us, the Holy Spirit. We can be confident with that. Because we were given the Holy Spirit of God. And because we were given the Holy Spirit of God, that means that we have been promised that we will be in the presence of the Lord. Which means that if I am in the presence of the Lord, I am going to have to give an account for what I've done.
Amen. Do you understand? Paul says, Hey, I've been promised a new body.
Well, I'm not going to get a new body and not have a heavenly home.
So, if I'm going to get an eternal body, I'm going to have an eternal home. And the way I know that's going to happen is because he gave me the Holy Spirit now. And because I have the Holy Spirit now, that proves that I'm going to be in the presence of God. And if I'm going to be in the presence of God, that means I'm going to have to give an account. for what I've done.
Let me read you this verse, Romans 14:12.
So then every one of us shall give account of himself. to God So what is this judgment? Seed of Christ. We know what we would call the BEMA seat. was not a criminal bench in the Bible.
It was a reward platform. You say, preacher, what do you mean? The judgment seat of Christ to you and I who are saved is not condemnation. It is evaluation. Are you listening to me?
If you've been saved by the grace of God, Paul just told us that every one of us who have been saved. will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And give account for what he's done good, for what he's done bad. But you need to understand something because of the blood of Jesus Christ. that was applied to you at the moment of salvation.
You and I are not judged with condemnation. We are judged with evaluation. What does Romans tell us? There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
So why preacher is this? Listen to me. Grace saves us from hell, but it does not save us from accountability. We are going to give an account. Evaluation.
Not condemnation. And let me give you a little bit of insight. You and I. Are going to wish we had given him more. I want you to notice number four, we see the promise of coming judgment.
Which leads us to Something different. Look at verse 11. Knowing, therefore, Paul says, the terror of the Lord. We persuade men. We are manifest unto God, and I trust also are made manifest in your conscience.
Paul just said we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. The word terra is this Greek word phobos. Any of you know what we get from that word? It's where we get our word phobia when a person has a fear or a terror of something. My wife has a terror, a fear of spiders.
I was going to say a lot of things.
Okay. I have a fear of a low-carb diet anyway. Listen. What is Paul saying here? Because Paul knows that Christ is the judge, and every believer will give account and evaluation.
This means that every non-believer will also give an account.
Now look at me. If you're saved. We've been promised an eternal home a resurrected glorious body. We have the down payment of the Holy Spirit, which means I know I'm going to heaven, and I know I have an eternal home, and I know I have a glorified body. But if I'm going to heaven to meet my Savior who I have served, there is going to be an evaluation.
Why would Jesus say serve me and then not evaluate it? Look at me. If God did not evaluate our service, He wouldn't be able to reward us.
Some of you are like, well, I thought I was free of. No, you and I will give an evaluation for what we've done good and what we've done bad. And you say, well, I don't like the fact that he's going to evaluate maybe what I didn't do for him or what I did wrong. Yeah, but dear friend, if he doesn't evaluate at all, there will be no reward.
So the evaluation is there so that he can reward his children. But the great white throne judgment, the terror of the Lord. Is the fact that any person who doesn't know Jesus will not be judged with evaluation. They will be judged with condemnation.
So we have the promise of coming. judgment. I know you're looking like it's raining really hard, preacher.
Well, you don't want to leave right now because of that, so. It's only 11.15. Calm down. Notice what Paul says here in this verse. We are manifest.
Unto God. Do you know what's going on here? Paul is saying, God knows me. Paul is saying, listen, the reason I persuade men, what were they accusing Paul of?
Well, you're just doing this for money, you're doing this for fame, you're doing this to have control. No, Paul says, no. The reason we persuade men is we know what's coming. The reason we tell people and share the gospel and live for God and preach God's word and witness and all those things is not for any other motive than to know judgment is coming. Paul says, God knows my heart about this.
I'm manifest unto God. Notice what he says: I hope I'm also manifest unto you. He says, I hope that you can also see my motive in this. My motive is nothing from what I'm getting. My motive is because I don't want to see you die and go to hell.
You say, all right, preacher, so where are we going with all this? Number five. I want you to see the power of Christ's love. We come to verse fourteen. Paul says For the love of Christ.
constraineth us. Paul says, You doubt my motives, but let me tell you why I do what I do. Why I continue amidst persecution and Why I care and why I travel and Why I go through everything I do. He says, the love of Christ. constraineth us.
Listen to me because we're almost done, believe it or not. The word constraineth, you need to understand what it means. It literally means what controls, what compels, what governs. If I can make this very clear. It is not just what motivates, it's what mandates.
To constrain means I'm not just motivated by it, it means I'm mandated by it. It literally means what constrains us makes our decision for us. You say, Preacher, what are you saying? Here's what's very important. Listen to me, you've got to get this.
Paul just said the terror of the Lord is coming. Paul just said we're all going to have to stand at the judgment seat of Christ and give an account. Yet, do you notice Paul does not say what causes him to serve God and what makes him serve God and what motivates him to serve God and literally what constrains him is not the judgment seat. Yeah. Paul says, I don't do what I do because I'm scared of the judgment seat.
In fact, Paul says, I don't do what I do because I'm scared of what God might do to me. There's a whole lot of Christians that do what they do because of that. That's right. Do you get what Paul is saying here? He's letting them know: listen, judgment is coming, and God, there is terror with the Lord, but that's not why I do what I do.
There's something greater than his judgment. Do you know where I'm going with this? There is something greater than his judgment. It's his love. Paul says, I'm not constrained because one day I'm going to have to face them.
Paul says I'm constrained because he loves me. It's not his judgment. It's not his condemnation. It's not even his evaluation that motivates Paul. Paul says, What motivates me?
What has made my decision for me is the love that Christ has shown me. Can I ask you something? What motivates you? Paul does not say it's the rules of Christ that constrains me. He doesn't say it's the restrictions of Christ that restrains me.
He doesn't say it's the demands of Christ that restrains me. He doesn't even say it's the obligations of Christ that constrains me. In fact, notice. It's not even giving account. That constraints Paul.
It's just simply The fact that he is so overwhelmed. With how much Jesus. Loved him. Yeah. What constrains you?
Why do you do what you do? What Paul is saying here is: the love of Jesus Christ has already made my decision for me of how I should live. The love Jesus showed me, Paul says, has already made my decision of who I should live for. The love Jesus showed me, Paul says, has already made my decision. Of what my motivation should be.
This word constrained is the idea of being hemmed in, pressed on all sides. It's like a river between the banks. A river can't just spread aimlessly, it has to move forward and it's constrained. And can I give an even better? I know this will shock some of you, but I worked almost three summers on a ranch, two summers in Colorado, one summer in Wyoming when I was a kid.
And I loved riding horses. I roped, I fixed fence, and I know that that's hard for you to believe. And I used to always have cowboy boots on and and belt buckles, but when you're fat like me, My dad called those buckles a naval destroyer. That's what he called it, because when you bend over, those big cowboy buckles will cut right into your belly right there. And so I had to get out of that years ago.
Everywhere I went I had a lasso and I just I loved it. And let me tell you the one time that I hated And I'm talking about the ranch in Colorado that I worked on had 90,000 acres. I hated branding. You'll hear sounds. When you brand cattle, if you've never down there, never been around it.
You will hear sounds if you're not used to it that will haunt you. Those cows crying. You're just pss. We used to have to round them up and we'd ride horses and we'd get them all and obviously this big old fence and you have to work them into this big old fence and then it has a system that gradually as you shove them through it has to go down down down down to single file single file so they can do what needs to be done and that's what Paul says all the things in my life that are that are coming at me and all the things that would motivate maybe like money maybe like fame maybe like all those things the love of Christ is so powerful in my life It just shoves all the rest of them out of the way. And it gets down to where the only motivation I have.
Okay. for what I do. It's the fact that Jesus. Loved. Me.
I want you to notice number six the Christ, excuse me, the price that Christ paid. Verse 14, he says, For the love of Christ constraineth us. Because We thus judge. In other words, we've thought this through. That if one died for all, which is exactly what Jesus did.
Then we're all dead. In the beginning of verse 15, and that He died for all. Love was measured by sacrifice. There is no greater motivation than Calvary. And I love the logic of God's word.
If Christ died for all, that means that all needed somebody to die for them. And if Christ died for all because all needed somebody to die for him, which meant all couldn't save themselves, I'm part of the all. And so are you.
So that makes it real personal if you think about the logic. It means if Jesus died for all, it means he died for me. And if he died for me, it means I needed salvation and I couldn't do it for myself. It means I needed somebody to pay a price that I couldn't pay. This verse means that the love of Christ directs me because the love of Christ was displayed to me.
Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kerwin Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web. at Kerwin Baptist Church.com.
Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin Broadcast today. God bless you.
