2 Corinthians 5:1 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands… I. ALL THINGS SUBLUNARY ARE CHANGEABLE. 1. God has condemned this world to dissolution (Hebrews 1:10, 11). The individual house or tabernacle must be dissolved. Our fathers, where are they? "It is appointed for man once to die." Neither wealth, temperance, nor medicine can protect the frail tabernacle from dissolution. 2. All our enjoyments are liable to the same change. They stand on two insecure legs, insufficiency and uncertainty. 3. It never was God's design that this clay tabernacle should stand for ever. What a mercy it is for Christians that they are mortal (John 17:24). II. HEAVENLY THINGS ARE PERMANENT AND ETERNAL. 1. The building itself is eternal; the leprosy of sin has never affected its walls; no curse hangs over the New Jerusalem. Adam was expelled from Paradise, and the Jews were expelled from an earthly Canaan; but the redeemed shall never be expelled from heaven. "I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out." 2. The perfections of heaven are eternal also, entire exemption from all sin. What does the proud man think of this? Is it a blessing to be humble? What does the covetous man think of this? Is it a blessing to be delivered from the bondage of a greedy disposition? Good men, in proportion to their being good men, love that heaven because there is no pride, envy, malignity, temptation. III. THE CHRISTIAN DUTY OF EARNESTLY DESIRING THE HEAVENLY STATE. 1. A calm and settled conviction of its existence. "We know!" 2. A deep sense of our need of it (ver. 2). 3. The exercise of walking in the road that leads to it.Conclusion — 1. We must all die, our tents must be struck soon. The man who loves this world will not be pleased at this conclusion, but the Christian man will be delighted at it. 2. The believers' best days are yet to come. There is an eternal house which the Saviour has gone to prepare. (A. Waugh, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. |
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