In this sermon, the preacher discusses the concept of our spirit being clothed with a flesh and blood body, allowing us to live in this world. However, he acknowledges that our physical bodies will eventually deteriorate and be taken down. God's plan is to clothe our spirits with an eternal house, described as being of great size, strength, and beauty. The preacher emphasizes that in the spiritual realm, our true nature cannot be hidden, unlike in this world where appearances can be deceiving. He also warns against relying on pre-written sermon notes, as they hinder the preacher's ability to interpret and convey the message that the Holy Spirit is directing.

Desolate, you never leave us down. Just when things seem they're in the pits, Lord, you begin to speak and encourage the hearts of your saints and of those who are listening to you. And we praise you for that, Lord. It's so wonderful, so wonderful. And Lord, as we're here this morning, we think of the news in Israel, Lord, and the hatred and the things that Satan inspires between races and people, Lord, and in Ireland and England and all over the world, just promoting hatred and bitterness. But Lord, we know you are supreme, and you are speaking to the Arab people, and you are speaking to the Israelis, Lord, and we've seen them come together in the Feast of Tabernacles. And we thank you, Lord, for this, promise keepers, because we know that's what you're doing. You're tearing down these things that men cannot do with politics. You are doing it by bringing people together in Jesus Christ, who's the only way we're ever gonna get together. And I praise you for it, Lord. I give you thanks for it, and I look up, Lord, because I know the best is yet ahead, and you've kept the good wine until now. So we're very encouraged, Lord, today. And we pray for each family represented here, Lord. I thank you what you're doing in my family. I pray you'll do it in everyone's family, Lord. There'll just be some sovereign actions of God that we'll just look and behold and be amazed at what Jesus has done. And I thank you, Lord, for the encouraging things that we see, and praise your name. We pray today for the jail services, Lord, that your spirit will be there, Lord, and to bring Jesus Christ to the needy in the jails, Lord, and keep the workers safe on the highway, we pray. And we pray for those over in the house, in the sanctuary, for those working with the children, Lord, to bless them and strengthen them, and the children, help them to understand, Lord, what we're teaching in this church. And we pray, Lord, for the people coming back from Pasadena today. Your hand will be on them, Lord, to keep them safe on the highway. Thank you, Lord, for your bountiful blessings to us this day in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. We'll turn in our Bibles to the fifth chapter. I'll read verses one through six of 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians 5. For we know that if the earthly tent, which is our house, is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven. Inasmuch as we, having put it on, shall not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed in order that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now he who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge, therefore being always of good courage and knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. Now the burden of this morning that I feel from the Lord is a simple one and I want to describe it so we don't get buried in a pot full of words here. It is that we're working on a building. We're working on a building. And this building is something that is going to clothe our spirit in the day of the Lord. Let's go over that again. We're working on a building, a house. And this house is our reward. This house is going to clothe our body in the day of the Lord. And what this house is like depends on our behavior. That's it, that's the burden. And you see, it's very important because if we were just gonna die and go to heaven and that was it, and we think of the external, we would like to be in the paradise of God, we'd like to be in a place where there was no dread, no fear, no having back-breaking work to do. Most of us don't do back-breaking work. Maybe some do, but people who live on the farm know what I'm talking about. People in other countries know what it's like to work till when you get through hoeing, you can't stand up straight. Be no more of that. We'd like that. That's something to look forward to, a place of peace. But this is talking about, as you can see, this is not the same thing. This is talking about something that is coming to us, not something that we are going to. Now, if our hope was just to go to paradise, and I'm sure we'll be in paradise someday, we haven't lost paradise, then there's nothing we could do that would change paradise. Paradise is paradise. God created it. It's beautiful. It's perfect. It was on earth in the beginning. And whether you serve God or whether you don't, paradise is paradise. And if you go there, you've made it. You're safe. You're not in hell. But this is a different concept. In this concept of the house from heaven, this is something that we change. This is something that we change, that our conduct will determine the kind of house we get. Now, that's the burden of this morning. And that's an extremely important concept. It's true that God is restoring to his church. If it's in with the verse in Galatians that says, as you sow, you're gonna reap. See, that's hard to put into a context of heaven. Either you go there or you don't. I mean, what reaping? You know, either you're there or you're not. It's perfect. But if how we behave is going to determine the kind of a body we receive in the day of resurrection, then you're talking about a whole different ball game here. I mean, this is an altogether different thing. There's no receiving it by grace or good old Jesus will do it for me when I get there. It's not that. It's a simple mechanical process of working on a building, of creating your future. Today, by the way, you are behaving yourself you are creating your future. And there's no changing that. It has nothing to do with mercy or grace. God's mercy and grace helps us to work on the building. It doesn't build the building if we don't work on it. You see, it doesn't build. Mercy and grace do not build the building for you. They help you build the building. Mercy and grace help us to live so that we'll have a building. Now, if you think back to Genesis, that was the problem. And God put the first man and the first woman in the garden. He put them in there without clothes, except for their body. Now, the body itself is a clothing. That's why it says, refers to our body as our house, doesn't it? In this house, we groan. See, our body is a robe, is a house for our spirit. But it is a shame to be naked. The Bible says that many times, but they didn't know that. They were oblivious to this fact. And so they were in the presence of God having no consciousness of sin. But there was a tree in the garden called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Now, people are teaching today that that was a bad tree and we shouldn't eat of it. That's not what the Bible teaches. The Tree of the Knowledge of Evil is a good tree. It says it was in the middle of the garden with the tree of life. It says he put things in there that were good. It was a good tree. Well, what is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? Well, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is the knowledge of good and evil, surprisingly enough. And according to Hebrews, the fifth chapter, the sign of Christian growth is that we're able to tell the difference between good and evil. That's the sign of Christian growth. That you can tell the difference between having your senses exercised to discern good and evil, and the inference is that you will have the strength to choose the good and reject the evil. Now, that's a hallmark of maturity. That's the spirit of judgment. And we want that. We want to know the difference. But you see, God feeds that to us a little bit at a time. If God showed you or me right now the whole personality, our personality, as God sees it, we'd probably quit in discouragement. You know? It would rain on our parade. It would really rain on our parade because we fancy that we're pretty good, you know? Till the next challenge hits us, and we're like, oh man, I'm not there yet. But when I get over this one, then I'll be an example for the whole church to follow till the next challenge. So, we're not there yet. But you see, as God shows us our worldliness and our lustful drives and our selfish ambition, boy, that was a tremendous message that Ed Bartz, whoa, did that open my eyes to some things. Electioneering. Electioneering. Wow, you know? And that hit our church, and it hit Ed's church, and it hit Alabama. All three churches, bing, bing, bing. And Audrey says, wait till I get home and tell you what Fuchsia Pickett said because she nailed these things. She said God revealed to her that this was how Satan was gonna work in our day. And I mean, if Ed didn't nail that thing, in Alabama, the way, I don't know if you were here, Sonny, but the idea is that there will arise in the church someone who has an idea, this is the way the church should go. And if it doesn't go that way, you know, that's electioneering. And what is it called in James? It's called selfish ambition. But it hit Alabama. The way it hit there was that they have someone that is suffering from cancer. And, you know, young fellows in dire straits and someone rose up in the church. And the idea is that if the whole church will fast and pray, this person will be healed. Well, the elders aren't getting that in prayer, but this one person is. And so the idea then is to, I don't know whether they said to the person, but I would say to the person, if you have a burden to fast and pray, you should do that. And the response was no, unless the whole church does it, it won't work. Well, see, when you come up with something like that, you put pressure, pressure on the elders. They're hearing one thing from God, and here's somebody that's got a better idea. And so it's caused problems in Alabama. And then it came on the same thing, but on a different subject matter in Wisconsin. And what it caused, and then the person that is moving on this then gets other people interested and their minds are all off the Lord. And so the elders have a choice, either go with the pressure or do what you think God is telling you. How many see that? I think it's a very important thing. And it's evidently, I mean, if it would adhere in them, Wisconsin with Alabama is something that is prevalent in our day. It's this electioneering. I never heard of that. But you see, as the Lord's spirit of judgment keeps moving in, things become, we see things that we didn't see before. But there is the presence and virtue of Jesus Christ to come in and clothe us. See that? You get a little deliverance and then more of Jesus. A little deliverance and then more of Jesus. And this way we're creating what? A house. See, we're building a house. Now in the case of Adam and Eve, God was not ready to clothe them with a white garment. He wasn't ready to do that. So what did he tell them to do? Don't partake of the knowledge of good and evil because in the day you do, what's gonna happen? You're gonna die. Because God knew that they, what did God know would happen when they partook of that? What did God know would happen the minute they ate of that tree? They would see immediately they were naked. Then what would they do? They would try to clothe themselves and what else? And hide from God. So God in his wisdom knew if we're gonna keep this fellowship which is eternal life, eternal life is fellowship with God. And if I'm gonna keep this with this people and they're, I don't want them understanding at this time that they are not complete in the spirit realm. They're in a shameful condition and I'm not ready to clothe them. How many see that? And so they disobeyed and in Adam's disobedience, Roman says, we all died in Christ's obedience. We're all made alive. So God is not showing you, he's not showing me all the things that are wrong with us, thank God, but a little bit at a time. Now, when he does show us something wrong, then we have a choice, don't we? We have a choice. Either I will justify my behavior or I will go to God and I will get Jesus Christ. Now, that's how you build your house. And you see that in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 17, which is really, should be in chapter five because it has to do with chapter five. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 17. Now, notice this. This is how you build your house. And you want to do that because you don't want to come down the day of the Lord and imagine they bring your house in and the thing is shot through with all kinds of poison, you know? Because we're going to reap what we sow. I mean, Galatians says that. If you sow to the Spirit of God, you're going to reap eternal life. But if you sow to your flesh, you're going to reap what? Death, corruption, destruction. Galatians, the sixth chapter. Now, that's talking about this building. That's talking about the robe that you're going to be robed with in the day of the Lord. You're going to be robed with the robe of your own creation. Now, in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 17, our momentary light affliction, aren't you glad it's momentary? Does it seem like it's going on forever? It's producing. Now, there's the key word. King James says, it's producing. Your affliction. June was talking about chastisement, I understand, this morning. Don't worry about it. It is producing something. It is producing something. It's not a random set of sorrows that are coming on you because God doesn't love you, or He likes to see you suffer, or He doesn't care. They're designed. It's a curriculum. They're very specifically designed to get at the things in your personality that are not right in God's sight. Do you see that? Our momentary light affliction is producing. Now, whether your affliction, your trouble, produces a house depends on how you respond. It depends on how you respond. If something comes up, and that's the business of a preacher, is to keep interpreting for you the things that are happening to you. The preacher doesn't start out to tell you, you should do this, you should do that, and this is the game plan, this is the way it works. That's not the business of a preacher. That's the problem with buying your sermon notes. How many know you can buy sermon notes? You can buy sermons for a whole year, and they don't cost much either. And then all you have to do every Sunday is get up to bed at the last minute, eat your sausage and eggs, break out the sermon for that day. It's got illustrations, it tells you when to cry, when not to. Everything's there. Anecdotes. Just read it. Pick up your money at the end of the month, you've got yourself a job. But the problem is if you do that, you can't interpret, because you don't know what the Holy Spirit is saying to the congregation. See, if I am in the Spirit, if I am hearing from God, and I think this is what God told me to talk to you about today, then God should be dealing with at least some of you about your afflictions and the significance of them, and should be inspiring you to go on with the Lord. It should be hitting you where you live. If I'm in the Spirit, then all I'm doing is interpreting the things that God is bringing your way. That's why everything in the ministry must be done in prayer. It must be done in prayer. You can't figure it out with your brain, bring people down to an intellectual level, get their minds on themselves, and begin to try to do something. That isn't the way the Kingdom works. The Kingdom works as the Holy Spirit interprets, and it works together with the circumstances of your life, and the end result is to bring you to the full stature of Christ. That's the purpose of it. That's the purpose even of evangelism, is to bring people, to bring in the body of Christ. That's the purpose of evangelism, is to build the body of Christ. The purpose of every ministry is to build the body of Christ. All right, now, verse 17, our momentary light affliction is producing. It's creating something. It's building. It's producing an eternal weight. See the contrast between the word momentary and eternal? See? That's not in there by chance. Your afflictions and my afflictions are distressing, but they are momentary. You say, yeah, well, what's momentary? Well, in God's sight, 15 years is momentary. 20 years is momentary. I mean, he gives the earth 6,000 years to get the message about Satan's fall. That's nothing to God. Six days. It's momentary. Your affliction is momentary. You say, oh, goodness, I'll never get out of the woods here. Yes, you will. It's just momentary. But what you're working on is eternal. The house you're building is going to last forever. Forever. And a billion years from now, it'll just be starting. So it makes sense to buy the best car you can. It makes sense to turn every affliction into virtue, into this house. And it will if you take it right. Now, how do you take an affliction right? How do you make it work for you? You let it drive you to the limit. You're the Lord. You can respond all kinds of ways to afflictions. You know, you get a boss and then you love him and everything and all of a sudden there's another boss comes in and you don't like him at all. Well, that can throw you into such a tailspin. It's all you talk about. Oh, I've got a new boss and he's terrible. He doesn't like me and he's this and that and he's unfair and everything. Probably this is all true. But you see, God wanted that. You were too comfortable with the first boss and God had something better for you. So he gave you one to drive you to the Lord. And if you let that boss, that new boss, drive you to the Lord in prayer, which you would not have prayed prior to this, you're building a house. But if you spend your time cursing the boss and talking about him and creating revolution in the office and everything else, you're adding nothing to your house. You're adding nothing to your house. So every affliction, every problem, every worry is producing. If you let it, it's producing for you an eternal weight of glory. God wants to clothe you with more than this body. This body is a clothing of our spirit. Otherwise we'd be a spirit walking around here and you couldn't even see us. But what this body is a house, it's a clothing, but it's temporary. And God has another body, the Bible often refers to it as a robe, something to robe your spirit with, a house to cover your spirit with. And this that you have, you had no control over. It was born of your parents. You had no control over it and it's temporary anyway. But now you've got a chance to create for yourself an eternal body, an eternal robe, an eternal house, which the Lord will give you when he comes and you'll enjoy that for eternity. Does that make sense? That's a very, very important part of the gospel that the Lord is restoring in our day. It's a very important thing. And I want all these things that I teach, I'm very, very desirous that the children from the age of nine on up understand these things thoroughly. And I want to charge all the teachers. I haven't pushed much in time past because I'm too busy working out what God was showing me. But I feel the time has come in our church that the message that we have here is not known to most Christians. They need to hear about that. They need to hear. The whole body needs to hear. People, you're not going up into a happy land to walk on a gold street and live in a golden mansion. Your mansion's going to clothe your spirit and you've got to build it. Well, how many Christians know that? But they need to know it. And so I want to urge all the teachers to teach your students, young and old, what we are learning here. Teach them. And not some other curriculum that came from some other source that knows nothing of what we teach here. Does that make sense? All right, now, our momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, meaning that anything we can think of or compare it to bogs down. It's just not, it's like the Bible verse says, eye has not seen or ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love him. But God has revealed them unto us by His Spirit. Now, God has things for you and for me that are marvelous beyond all marvels, but we have to wait on the Lord to find out what they are. The things which are seen are temporary. The things which are not seen are eternal. So what we're saying today is readdress yourself. You say, well, you say that every Sunday. Yeah, I'll say it every Sunday, hopefully till my stents wear out in my left main descending artery. I hope every day from now until then, I keep reminding you, don't get occupied with this world. It's passing away and take advantage. Let this world be like a carburetor so that these incidents that happen, fire up your engine and keep you going toward God. Don't get bogged down in the things of this world. Let them, you know, people, there's a lot to talk about in politics and there'll be more, it sells newspapers and commercials on television and so on. So examine this thing and dissect it and run it back and forth till everybody will be so sick of it they won't even want to vote. And it's all nothing. Yeah, I was reading in the New International Version, James, how many of you would have said, this is, woe to you, say I'll go into a city and I'll buy and I'll sell and I'll be there a year and I'll make gain. And he says, woe to you for your life is but a vapor. You remember that? And, but in the New International Version, it says mist, mist, your life is a mist. And that stopped me cold. I looked at that, somehow vapor never did anything for me. And I thought, here I've been telling the people that they're mud balls and I'm overshooting it. We're not even a mud ball. We're a mist. Hey, mist. I'm glad, maybe that's why we're called mister. I don't know. But anyway, here you're talking about, you're going to go into the city, you're going to buy and sell and make a million dollars and come back home and everything. You're a mist, buddy. You're just a mist. Oh boy, that's kind of deflating. That's what the New International Version says in James. What is your life? You're a mist. So we get all stuck on ourselves. But we got an opportunity here to become something more than a mist. Something that has a weight. Something that has eternal weight. Something that will last forever. Something of value. Something that we will treasure and we'll be so glad. So leave us not yet occupied with what the papers want us occupied with. And let's keep, you know, all this goes on. That's fine and all that. But it isn't going anywhere. But what we've got is going somewhere. It's going somewhere. So let this world and afflictions be the carburetor. And just let it get the gas in there, fire up and drive you right toward the Lord. Don't get bogged down with it. It has no significance other than it's bringing the sons of God to perfection. That's all the significance this world has. All right, in chapter five, verse one. We know that at the earthly tent, which is our house. Now, what's that talking about? What's that talking about, Sarah? This there, where I just read. That's earthly tent, which is our house. What's that talking about? I didn't think you knew. I bet none of the kids in the front row. Michelle, you're not a kid. You don't know, do you? Come on, Grace, you know. What's it talking about? It says, for we know that at the earthly tent, which is our house. What's it talking about? Lana? Yes. I won't do any more than yell at you. It's talking about your body. That's your tent. So when it says to take the tent down, we know that at the earthly tent, which is our house, your body is a house for your spirit. If you didn't have it, we couldn't see you. You'd just be a spirit. You'd be more of a mess than you are. All right, which is our house is torn down. What does that mean? What does it mean to tear down your house? You die. Now, aren't you glad that I explained that? Because otherwise you're just reading a bunch of words that don't mean anything. All right. We have a building from God. Whoa, if you die, we have a building from God. A house, now we're talking about another house. We're not talking about this house, PJ. We're not talking about, we're talking about another house. Okay? Eternal in the heaven. So it's not here. It's up there with God. This house is up there with God. For indeed in this house, now what house does he mean there in verse two? No idea. Anybody. Our body, he's talking about our body. Okay? It's kind of important you know that, otherwise this will be so much spinach. You want to know what he's talking about. For indeed in this house, that is in our body, we groan. Groan. Now most of us probably don't groan. But you want to remember that Paul's life was not a comfortable American life. Things you must suffer for me. And Paul, because Paul had been a cruel person. He had killed Christians. He had tortured them. He had brought them into prison. And when God saved him, all this was on his conscience. And God said to him, I'm going to show you how much you're going to suffer for me. You've caused a lot of people to suffer. The Lord didn't say that. But he said, I'm going to show you how much you're going to suffer. So Paul's life was all suffering. I mean, he was like Jesus. He was rejected by people. He's in prison. He's in all kinds of, he was beaten by the Jews. He's been fasting and prayer. One time they let him out of prison. They brought a city over the wall in a basket. I mean, he wasn't exactly a nice retired minister. He was suffering. And so it sounded pretty good to him, this idea of getting another body. That sounded pretty good to Paul. He thought, yeah, of course, if we're all happy and we're all well-fed Americans, we're not so hot on this. But if the day comes when we're in a lot of suffering, it'll seem a lot more attractive. All right. Longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven. We're going to get another body. We're going to get another body. And that body is being built by our afflictions if we're taking them right. It's not just going to happen. You have to wash your robe. The Bible often refers to this body as a robe. Sometimes a house. "...inasmuch as we having put it on shall not be found naked." Now, if you don't have a house, if you don't work on a house, in the day of the Lord, you're going to be a naked spirit. You'll just be a spirit. No house. That's what he's talking about here. So I will not be found naked. Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve. God had a wonderful white robe of glory. Every time you see the angels, they're in a white robe. Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration is in a white robe. God has a white robe for you. That robe is your righteous behavior. Let's look at that for a minute. Hold your big toe here and we'll turn over to Revelation 19, verse 8. Revelation 19, 8. I knew somebody would try it. Giovanni's doing it. He's got his big toe in there. Revelation 19, 8. "...And it was given to her..." And this her here in 19, 8 is the first fruits of the bride. These are the ones that are going to be in the first resurrection. So you want a gun for that because that's a great reward is to be raised when the Lord comes. That's a great reward. It has to be attained as Paul says. "...And it was given to her to clothe herself..." See that? How many see that? Clothe herself. Clothe herself. That reminds us of Jesus. He said, I have power to lay my body down and I have power to take it up again. And if you serve the Lord and become full of resurrection life in the day of the Lord, you'll have power to take up your life again. The Lord wants to give things into the hands of His saints as soon as we're ready. Okay? "...Fine linen..." That's that house. That's the clothing. "...Bright and clean..." Now notice it doesn't say white and clean, but bright and clean. How many know why that is? It's because Adam and Eve, before they sinned, were righteous in God's sight, and God had fellowship with them. But they were not bright. I don't mean by that, intelligent. I mean, the righteousness was not that that reached out and touched the environment and created righteousness around it. It was just a passive kind of righteousness. The righteousness was they had never done anything wrong. Okay? God knew that in the warfare that goes on among spirits that this would never last. Never last. And by the way, spirits will be like that forever. Don't think that when we go into eternity that we all lay around like teddy bears. The spirit realm is always vital, always pushing, always moving, dynamic. And what God is creating is rulers. And that's why He is creating rulers. If it wasn't for the fact that the spirit realm is dynamic and always will be dynamic, if everybody was going to be a teddy bear and just kind of flop around, there'd be no need for rulers. But because spirits are spirits and they always have wills, desires, that's why a third of the angels fell because heaven has that firmament. And the angels aren't going to change, you know. There were some that chose the Lord to do His will. There were others that chose to defy the Father. Angels have that power of choice. They can sin or not sin. There is such a thing as elect angels, you know. And so what God is creating in you and me is not a passive righteousness. It isn't just that we've been forgiven by the blood of the Lamb. It isn't just that we've been made as though we have never sinned. If that were the case, we would be no good as rulers because we would be untested. We would not have the brightness, the strength to command righteousness. And God is creating sons who throughout His universe will wear crowns of life and righteousness and they will command, they will rule. When the Bible says rule, it means rule. It's not talking about some Sunday school thing where you wear a Reynolds wrap crown. It's talking about powerful potentates, rulers that command the universe of God and command the angels, command all things. Thou has put all things under His feet. I shall crush them with a rod of iron. As a flowerpot, you'll be broken like a flowerpot struck with a rod of iron. To him that overcomes will I grant to rule the nations with a rod of iron. Rule, thou, in the midst of thine enemies. That's the nature of the spirit realm. And you'll either rule or be ruled. And so when it says, instead of saying linen, fine linen, finely woven linen that is white, it says bright. Because these are people who in this sordid world we live in with the demonic population, the temptations of the flesh, the temptations of the world, business as usual is one of the worst temptations we have in America. If you knew this afternoon that you stood in danger of the police coming to your home and checking out to see if you were doing things right with your children the way you were supposed to be in terms of the United Nations Child's Right Charter, for example, you would see all the things that I'm saying here differently. If you were living in the peril of your life, you would see all these things differently. So I have to tell them to you now as a faithful steward of the mysteries of God, but they may possibly mean more to you later. But I want that in your spirit. I want this thing about rulership and brightness down in your spirit that God is teaching you to overcome, to conquer that which is wrong. When the temptation comes to disobey God, there should be something rising up in you that's more than white. It should be bright. I will not do that. I don't care what happens. I will not disobey God. I don't care what my flesh or the world or people or anything say. I will not disobey God. God wants that in your spirit. He wants that in the spirit of every ruler. So don't be slothful about these things. Very important. For the final in and out, here the King James says is the righteousness of saints in Revelation 19.8. And, of course, in preaching today, imputed righteousness is swollen. It's a perverted thing that has overlapped and conquered sanctification till all we have is justification by faith. And sanctification has been just pushed right out of the scene by a bloated justification. So when people read in their Bible and they see the righteousness of saints, they assume imputed righteousness. But the term here is not righteous. It's not the term for righteousness. It's the term for righteousnesses. So what it's saying is this linen is not your clothing because Christ is righteous. It's not that clothing. You're not righteous here because God sees you through Jesus. You can't get kings or an army out of people that are sitting and God sees them righteous because Jesus is righteous. You're not clothed in white here because you're identified with Jesus. That would be of no help in an army. No help in rulership. I'm still weak. I'll steal if I'm tempted enough. I'll lie if I'm tempted enough. I'll hate if I'm tempted enough. There's people I haven't forgiven. I know I should read my Bible, but I don't. I know I should serve God, but I don't. But God sees me through Jesus. Good old Jesus. That's no use in an army. That's no good for God's purposes. I don't think God doesn't love people, but it's useless for God's purposes. This word, the Greek term, is not the term for righteous. It's the term for righteousnesses. Righteous deeds. This white linen, this house from heaven is the righteous deeds of the saints. It means somebody hurt you, and instead of becoming angry and seeking revenge, you went to the Lord, and the Lord took that out of your heart. That's a righteousnesses. That's what gives you a robe that has brightness to it. It shines out in brightness. You're not just forgiven, you have learned to overcome evil with good. How many see that? Can you see the vast difference there is between imputed righteousness and righteousnesses? They're almost not connected. They're discrete things in the sight of God. They don't merge. The role that imputed righteousness... If I say the term imputed righteousness, how many know what the word imputed means? Sarah, you know what imputed means? See, madly we preach. Imputed means that God gave you something. He just said, okay, you don't behave yourself well, but I'm going to say that you're righteous. That's what the word imputed means. It means assigned or ascribed. I'm going to call you righteous even though you're not. Okay? You may have seen a bumper sign on a bumper that says, Christians are not perfect, or Christians are not something or other, just forgiven. Have you ever seen that on a bumper? That comes around on bumpers once in a while. Christians are not perfect, just forgiven. Well, what that's talking about is imputed righteousness. We're perfect by imputed righteousness. God sees us as righteous because Jesus is righteous. Okay, now where that's important is when we first get saved, we can't meet God's standards at all. We can't do anything right. We don't know anything right. We can't do anything right. We're just a mess. How many are a mess today? Don't raise your hand. But the purpose that that serves is to give us a start. Otherwise, we'd have no start. We couldn't get anywhere with God. God would look down and say, You are a mess. Check. Check it out. I am. Well, how am I going to pray? God can't even hear me. So God says, Okay, I'll give you a jump up on this thing. A jump start. I'm going to call you righteous. And that's the place that imputed righteousness or assigned righteousness plays in our salvation. God says, You're righteous. Therefore, we take heart. And God hears our prayers and we're confident and we have no condemnation. But a person living in imputed righteousness is worthless as far as ruling is concerned. He can't rule in righteousness because he is not a righteous person. He is righteous legally, what a lawyer might call de jure righteousness. It's a de jure righteousness. It's a righteousness as a legal state. But the person themselves hasn't really changed very much. Now, that's a very important thing in salvation because otherwise we couldn't start. Now, when we come to de facto or actual righteousness of personality, there's no relationship between that and legally imputed righteousness. There are two different things. One is a legal state. A legal state. It's a legal state. God says, You are righteous. That's not true, Lord. I'm a mess. I know, but I'm God and if I want to call you righteous, I'll call you righteous because of Christ. I'm going to give you Christ's righteousness as a covering. That's what the Word of God told me. Okay. So what's there? What's next in the hip parade? What's next in the hip parade is God starts changing your personality from chaos to what God wants. Now, that's why the Bible says if any man be in Christ, there's a new creation. So we've got two things we're dealing with. One is a legally assigned imputed righteousness, which won't get you a house, by the way. And the other one is a new creation. Now, how many can see that a legally imputed righteousness and a new creation are two entirely different things? One is a legal state. That's what God decreed. That didn't change you at all. But today, that kind of righteousness, which we call imputed righteousness, because it's imputed to you or it's put in your account, has swollen and it has encompassed everything till the idea is I'm perfect because God sees me perfect. Therefore, I'm a king and priest with God and will rule forever. And I'm all these things. Maloney sauce. You can't impute eternal life to anybody. You can't impute a robe of righteousness to anybody. You can't impute a ruling with Christ to anybody. You can't impute that which can only be sown and harvested to anybody. The only thing in the new covenant that is imputed is your initial state before God so that you can start. But then, if having received this righteousness by faith, you do not then enter in to the program of the new creature, you have made the grace of God of none effect. If you're still lying, still stealing, still not praying, still not serving God, still talking foolishness out, never making any growth, you're the same person you were five years ago, still trusting in imputed righteousness, you've made the grace of God of none effect. You're useless in the kingdom purposes of God. I don't say God doesn't love you or anything of the kind. And as far as being saved, I don't know whether you're going to go to paradise or what. I'm not here to say that. I don't know. All I know is you won't get this house we're talking about because this house is the righteousnesses of saints. And every time you take an affliction, something bad happens to you, and you turn that toward the Lord, you say, you see it as an opportunity. Maybe you're too kicked in the head that you can't see anything as anything, but at least if you just will pray and not blame people. Don't seek revenge on people. Maybe they meant to do you harm. Mostly, people don't mean to do us harm. They don't do it deliberately, but even if they did, it cuts no ice. That's not our battle. Our battle is not against people. It's against the devil and against our own personality. And that's why we see, and Diane has talked about what seems so tremendously unjust. It seems so tremendously unjust, and that is someone hurts you. Okay, they do something to hurt you. They frustrate you. Something unfair. Something that is just unfair. Hey, people, if you try to get justice and fairness in this life, good luck to you. I've never found it, and I don't think it's possible. But anyway, let's say you're hung up on this, and it's got to be fair, and it's got to be just. Okay. But it isn't. And so, you develop bitterness, anger, and it begins to cook in you. You don't deal with it. You just feel, I've been treated unjustly, and I have a right now. Okay. You know what? And this Diane brought this out, and it seems so unfair. But God judges you for the way you have responded. God judges you in terms of your bitterness and your spirit of revenge that has made a spiritual dwarf out of you. Now, doesn't that seem unfair? Because I didn't hurt myself, and I didn't ask to be hurt, and because I was hurt, I've become bitter, and now God, I don't even know if He's judging my enemy. All I know is He's judging me because I'm bitter. Now, does that seem to you fair? Don't you think God ought to say, well, that's all right, honey. You have a perfectly good reason to be bitter, and I'm going to get that character that did that to you. But that isn't what He does. And He doesn't even talk to you about that character and say, let it go. Just let it go. I can't let it go. Well, Christ can help us let it go. And if we don't, we're in the woodshed with God. So, God judges us for our response to afflictions, just and unjust. Somebody robbed you. Somebody hurt you. You say, God, get them. God says, I'll take care of them. Vengeance is mine. You get it out of your heart. Well, I'll get it out of my heart when you squash them. No, it doesn't work like that. And as long as you wait for God to squash them, nothing's going to happen in your direction except condemnation from the Lord. And the Lord doesn't want you under condemnation. There's no condemnation to us, provided we keep jumping these hurdles. There's no condemnation to those who walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh. So, our topic this morning was a very simple one. It's not something that the average person cannot understand readily. The average child cannot understand readily. Our spirit, at the present time, is clothed with a flesh and blood body. That's why we can be seen. That's why we can live in this world. It's because our spirit is clothed. If your spirit is ever unclothed, that is if you die, you can't participate in the things of people on the earth so far as we know. What goes on in the spirit realm, I don't know because I can't see it. Anyway, we have to have a house. But we know this house is getting old. We know that someday this tent is going to be struck. It's going to be taken down. And God's plan is to clothe your spirit with an eternal house that you will enjoy and the size of it and the strength of it and the beauty of it and some that have visions say that various personality parts show as colors. See, in this world, we can hide from people what we are. You can see someone that is big and strong and handsome and in his heart he's just going nowhere. He's mean and selfish and small. You can see a woman that is really beautiful and in her heart she's a dried up little lemon. We can hide these things. We can't tell by looking at people. But in the world to come, they say, I haven't been there. I'd love to be, but I haven't been there. I almost went there a month ago, but I didn't manage. I heard about a fellow 90 years old and this is a true story. One of the pastors was telling and he had a heart attack or something. He was in the hospital and the next thing he knew he saw the guy walking in the street and he's 90 years old. He said, what are you doing? He says, oh, those church people. I saw the light and I was ready to go and they called me back. Well, anyway, I guess that happens. But those who have been there say that everything is transparent. What you are is transparent and some say that the personality, parts of your personality show forth in different colors. We haven't seen. Eye has not seen. Ear has not heard. We don't know. It says this glory is inconceivable. We don't know, but we know our God is good and we know our God is loving and we know that if we will faithfully endure these afflictions with a good heart and a good attitude that when we get that, we are building that house and every time we take a step of righteousness there's another brick goes up there, another brick goes up there, another refinement, another thing, so that when that body finally comes down every aspect of it we look like we want to look. We look like we want to look. We want to show forth the glory of the Lord and we have that chance now and God keeps us free from condemnation by imputed righteousness just as long as we keep on building our house. Praise the Lord. Is that clear? Alright, shall we stand? Maybe you're here this morning and some affliction has got to you. You're not on top of it this morning and instead of letting it be a carburetor that is running your engine in the direction you want to go toward the Lord you're allowing it to oppress your mind and depress your mind. That's what the altar is here for. Come and tell the Lord. Say, Lord, I'm going to take this thing and I'm going to turn it into a carburetor. Instead of letting it bow me down and fill me with all depression and negative thoughts, I'm going to turn it toward the glory of the Lord because the Bible says all things work together for good to them that love God. And you can stand on that. You know, when the Bible says, all things, people, it doesn't mean put it on. It means, oh, but that's terrible. Yeah, I know. But it's temporary. It's temporary. And that that you're building in the heavens before God that you're going to be clothed with the works that you have done. You're going to look like what you have allowed yourself to become. Now think of that. Young ladies, I want you to think of that. Because I know you all want to be ravishingly beautiful. And if you want to be ravishingly beautiful then it's the inner man of the heart. You get him ravishingly beautiful in the day of the Lord your whole personality will be ravishingly beautiful. Think of that. You don't want to be ugly. You want to be ravishingly beautiful and you can be if you cultivate the inner man of the heart. And always give glory to God. It will change your personality and you will have that wonderful tent from heaven. So if you're bowed down this morning about something, this is the time to come. Let it be a carburetor for you. Let it be something that's going to get your engine going toward God so that you don't walk out of here saying, yeah, I know, but this happened to me and if they hadn't done that, no, we don't want to do that. And never mind the politicians and never mind Clinton and never mind the rest of it. Don't get your mind down on all this garbage. Don't talk about it. Don't fret yourself. Let it all say, hallelujah, thank you, Lord. The nation's in a mess. I'm going to let you press me up toward God so that I can light a candle in this darkness and not just curse it. Anybody else needs to come this morning? And just tell the Lord. Just let him turn that affliction into a wonderful robe of righteousness. Lord, we come unto you this morning and we thank you, Lord, that you do impute righteousness to us. You do call us holy and righteous, Lord, because we're in Jesus Christ. Now help us, Lord, now to convert that imputed righteousness into an actual righteousness of personality. And I pray, Lord, if there's anyone in here that's bowed down and depressed with negative things, hatred or bitterness or whatever, doubt, fear, worry, dread, and they're able to cast that off this morning and walk out of this church and let that negative thing, that affliction, be a source of building a wonderful house in the presence of God. Just grant that this morning, Lord, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. Alright, those that want to come up and stand behind these and give them a good climate of prayer, Audrey and the Deaconesses aren't here, so maybe some of the others would like to come up if you have a minute and just stand behind them and pray. Give them a good cloud of glory up here and praise and worship. If you have to go, God bless you. You can stay at your seat there and just worship the Lord. Stand, maybe have a little background music there. Praise your name, Lord.