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#35.
All the sorrows of the day are feeling.
How I can?
All of a sudden, the sorrow.
From around and from where again?
Oh, joy, and all of the triumph in the darkness through the.
Fronts and.
Now.
Resurrection.
I see my prayer to the left from.
Having some.
Judgment.
On the storm of Christ of Lord.
He didn't say all the musical soccer the most.
Certain time.
Never ever just thought of our Porsche. We must bring sunlight.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. See praying, Counting.
All the.
For everyone.
I saw.
Your father and.
We can jump to work.
It would know that.
Means of singing.
For the joy and spirit sung around.
00:05:21
Salvation.
And there's never.
Anything wrong?
Her screening is 15 and 29. Comment was made on that but we can go from there.
All right.
First Corinthians chapter 15, beginning at verse 29.
Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead? If the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead, And why stand we in jeopardy? Every hour I protest by by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. I die daily, if after the manner of man. I have fought with beasts at Ephesus. What advantages it me if the dead rise not?
Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Be not deceived. Evil communications corrupt good manners. Awake to righteousness and sin not, for some have not the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. But some men will say, How are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come? Thou fool, That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die. And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be.
But bear grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain, but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of man, another flesh of beasts, and other of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and the bodies terrestrial.
But the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun and and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars. For one star different from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption. It is raised in incorruption.
It is sown and dishonored. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is so a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written. The 1St man Adam was made a living soul. The last Adam was made.
A quickening spirit. How be it that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual? The 1St man is of the earth earthy. The 2nd man is the Lord from heaven, as is the earthy. Such are they also that are earthy, and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, neither does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.
00:10:11
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality.
Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren.
Be ye steadfast.
Unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, For as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
'S.
I have a short question on verse 56.
The first part seems fairly clear to me. The thing of death is is sin. However, could someone give me a few words on the strength of sin is the law? It's not as immediately clear to me.
And after he.
Sinned became a creature that wanted to do his own will in contrast to the will of God.
But it wasn't always apparent to man how serious was his condition, because there was no, as it were, law to tell him fully what he had to do or not do. Men died because of the consequence of sin, but when God introduced a law.
It made it very apparent that man didn't want to do the will of God.
And so, as it says, sin became exceeding sinful. The introduction of the laws. It says in this verse, the strength of sin is the law. The degree of man's rebellion against God was fully displayed through the use of the law. It was a teacher to man, and taught him how.
He was not what he might have thought he was without the law, and so it became that power used of God to show man what his true condition was.
Sometimes feel like this is a good illustration of it.
Man wants to do his own will.
But suppose I drew on the floor here a yellow line and said to everybody on that side of the room, don't cross the yellow line.
What is the first thing you want to do? Naturally? Everybody on that side of the room wants to cross the yellow line. Just because it's put there, it immediately raises within the soul. Why? Who says so? Do I have to? Does it make any difference? And yet what it does is expose by putting it there, exposes the condition of the natural heart with respect to God. And that's what the law did.
You put down the yellow line that do, do and do not from God and it makes manifest or it shows the power of the law to.
What a state man is in, in his unwillingness to be obedient to to God. I think a good example of that verse is in in the, in our country in the Wild West days, they didn't have any law. Anything went, you could do what you want, you could kill another person. But when the law came and said thou shalt not kill, that made that a sin. And it wasn't a sin until there was a law there to identify what it was.
And that's the point of that verse, isn't it? So the law entered that the offense might abound.
00:15:05
The offense was there, but the law showed just how far short man fell of God's glory. And that's why with the law came transgression, because to transgress is to break a known law. Perhaps I can use another illustration, Brother Chuck, if you were to come to the town of Smiths Falls, where I live, you might come down the Front Street, the Main Street of Smiths Falls, and you might drive 70 miles an hour. Now, even if there was no law that posted speed limit, you know in your own conscience.
That 70 miles an hour is too fast to drive down the street, the Main Street of Smith's Falls.
You have a conscience, and man, when he sinned, received a conscience, and there was sin before the giving of the law. Man knew that he had done wrong. Adam hid behind the trees of the garden because his conscience told him that he had sinned and disobeyed God. But if we but so suppose there was no speed limit in the town of Smiths Falls, and the police stopped you for driving 70 miles an hour down the Front Street, why you'd say there's no speed limit?
And not only that, how could the police levy a fine against you? There's no law that says how much over the speed limit you're going. But then they put a post, a speed limit and 30 miles an hour, or as in Canada, 50 kilometers an hour, is the speed limit down the Main Street of Smiths Falls. Now you drive 70 miles an hour. Not only does your conscience tell you that's too fast, but the law tells you. And not only does the law tell you, but it tells you how how fast, how much too fast you're going.
Now when the police stop you, they can put a penalty. There's a penalty, they can tell you you're going thus and so over the speed limit and the penalty is so much. So with the giving of the law, there were penalties. I know death entered by sin, that was the penalty. But there were further penalties levied when God gave the law, because now man knew how, just how far short he had broken God's law, come short of God's law.
And so when the person, when there's a speed limit posted, the person is not only doing wrong, but they're transgressing and there's a penalty and they, the police or the authorities can tell them just how far over they are. That's the strength of sin that came in with the law. As you say, Don, it showed man just how far short he came.
That the IT provokes the sin nature in us to put a limit on us. Look at Romans Chapter 7 and verse 8.
It says at the end of verse 8 for without the loss sin was dead, for I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came.
Sin revived and I died. So it's like you say, Jim, it, it does show.
Where we're wrong, but it does. The commandment provokes a reaction, just like that line, Don said. You draw and you say don't cross it, it provokes.
The lawlessness of that sin nature in me to do it. And so that's why the sin is this. The law is the strength of sin.
In terms of the old and the new creations that we've had before us to.
Adam and his race showed their rebelliousness and were provoked by the very putting down of a law. But the Lord Jesus, a holy person, came into the world with a holy nature and life. And what did he say about everything? He said, I delight to do thy will, Oh my God, He had a perfect pleasure in being submissive.
To every word of his Father, to word of God, and that's the life we've been given. We have been given a life, the life of Christ, which does not resent obedience.
It delights as the Lord Jesus did, to do the will of God. And when we are taken home to heaven and the flesh which is within us is left behind, then forever we shall delight to do the will of God. There won't be any provoking of us or anything that would make us say, oh, I don't appreciate having to do that or the other. The other thing the law shows that man could, left to himself, could never come up to God's standard.
00:20:07
And we spoke at the tables of stone last night on which the law was written, and they were really a picture of man's Stony heart. No response. You can clang away on stone with a hammer and chisel. The stone doesn't feel it. You may make a dent, but the stone doesn't feel it. And it was a picture of the natural man, the heart of man left to himself. And so the law, the giving of the law, showed not only how far short man had fallen, but that he could not. Without some other principle being brought in by God, he could not.
Measure up to God's standard.
Actually has clarified to me that my initial confidence about the first part of the verse was misplaced.
Can you say something about the first part? Because I read it wrong the first time and.
Just the this thing of death is sin. I thought I grasped that, but I realized I misread it.
When one comes to die.
If they don't have peace with God.
They're afraid to die if they don't know forgiveness for their sins.
There's a sense, I believe, that it's sin that God hates, and they don't have peace in their soul through the blood of Christ having covered those sins.
They're fearful to meet God. Why? Because of their sins.
And I know a brother, dear brother in fellowship, passed away when home be with the Lord many years ago. But what was such a comfort to him on his dying bed was first John 17. The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sinning. He repeat this over and over.
But if you don't have that assurance in your soul that your sins are gone.
Death is terrifying.
Because you're going to meet a holy God and your sins. Isn't that the sting of death?
After death, the judgment.
First, now the resurrection of the truth of resurrection gives us a hope and something beyond death that was unknown and unseen before the Lord Jesus went down into death and destroyed the power of death and he brought life and incorruptibility to light through the gospel. And so this list here in beginning in verse 29 of the sufferings and the things that the early Christians were subjected to.
And did not hinder them from taking their place as followers of the Lord, and rather those who saw their fellow men lives being taken from them.
Were encouraged to fill up the ranks and follow that that path that gave them a hope beyond this life beyond death. And so Paul speaks of the various things there in those in those verses. Brother Chuck has already commented on the being baptized for the dead.
I presume that some may have even been thrown to the lions and and when the others saw the faith of those face death so boldly and at peace and with joy and not afraid of death. Because that's the tool the enemy Satan hangs over the world and threatens him with. That's the power he got over man in the beginning when he got him to sin, it was death and he uses that tool.
Very effectively. But when we have resurrection power through the Lord Jesus, it takes that all that away and it gives us life that doesn't stop with death.
That's what gave the apostles such power in their testimony in the first days of the church, is that they were living in the light, in the power of resurrection life. And if you're going to live in resurrection life, that's beyond death.
Can you scare a dead man by saying to him, I'm gonna kill you? You can't scare him. He's already dead. And these men were living in resurrection life. And so they threatened we're going to kill you if you keep on preaching that in that name had no effect on them whatsoever. That's the power of resurrection life.
00:25:24
Baptized to a Jew, they'll tolerate one that embraces Christianity until their son or daughter is baptized in that hated name, and then they're put out of the house and have nothing to do with them, and they might even put him to death. Baptism is taking a stand on the side of Christianity. And they knew what that was and when that was was when someone in the family does that.
He says I belong to Christ now and I'm baptized and that that may oftentimes results in death.
But the true believer does. It doesn't fill his soul with fear any longer.
Nation to his brethren, some of which were introducing the idea that there's no resurrection from the dead. He first brings up the Lord Jesus in the previous verses and said if he if he hasn't risen from the dead in his body, then there is no resurrection and our whole faith is destroyed. Here He lives the practical consequences of it with respect to his life and others. If there's no resurrection then.
Let's eat and drink for tomorrow. We die and people live that way in the lower world. They don't believe.
And so they live with the idea that when I die, that's it, that's the end of everything. And some would like to believe that because they don't want to face the thought of having to do with God about their life. So their attitude toward life is lettuce. Eat and drink for tomorrow we die.
But as Paul says, evil communications corrupt good manners. That is, if you give wrong communications about the truth of God, you will lead people to wrong manners of life. But the truth is there is resurrection. And consequently, Paul said, why should I risk my life? Why should I face death daily if there's no resurrection? It's a foolish thing.
To do so, I might as well just get the most of life I can, and when I leave it, I leave it. But thank God, we know in this room that resurrection is, God is, and that we have life in Christ that is not touched by death, and our whole future lies beyond death. And so like Paul and like the others that Bob mentioned, they could confidently face the thought of death.
And go through it, as most of the apostles apparently did. They died the death of martyrs, and most of them were aware that that was to be. But they had seen the Lord in resurrection, and they were strengthened by the assurance that all was well.
Clearly as Christians as their baptism.
When they submitted to baptism they they had crossed the line and said I'm on his side and what are the consequences could be death.
Identifies with the death of Christ, and also connected with it is identification with Christ in resurrection.
So there is resurrection, as you say, and I just like to say that in, I notice in today's world increasingly as our country and in other places as well, they are abandoning Christianity and going back to paganism.
Interesting in Bolivia, I was told this last time I was there that the president of Bolivia now offers animal sacrifices to the sun God and moon God.
And to Mother Earth, it's a return to paganism. And when you have Hinduism and Buddhism, what is taught of times is reincarnation. In other words, a person who dies comes back in another form. The truth of God is resurrection. And it's really important to understand.
00:30:11
Death does not end it. There is resurrection.
And it's one of the best established facts even in human history, that Jesus not only died, but he rose again from the dead. In the beginning of the chapter. We had those witnesses one time above 500 brethren at once saw him.
In a court of law, two or three witnesses pretty well seals the matter, and we have abundant witnesses. Jesus rose from the dead. There is resurrection. It's a fact, and we have to face it.
I'd like to suggest, brethren, that we continue on in this chapter because time's going fast and we're not going to get through the rest of this chapter and the hour we have left. But it's it is tremendously interesting subject.
Just suggest verse 35. Some men will say how are the dead raised and with what body do they come So now they somewhat accept the fact that.
There's resurrection, but they're questioning how is it? What body do they come? And then the apostle gives an illustration that I think is very interesting. He says, thou fool, that which thou sawest is not quick and accepted die. And that which thou sawest, thou sawest not the body that shall be, but bare grain. It may chance of wheat or of some other grain, but God giveth it a body.
As it hath pleased him into every seed his own body.
The question often comes up.
In resurrection, are we going to know our loved ones?
Somebody was asked that and they said do you think we'll know less in that day than we know now?
We're not going to know them as we knew them here.
But the illustration is very interesting, he says. You saw a bear grain and you know, you sow wheat in the ground or you sow corn or in this part of the country you're so soybeans.
And that seed you put in the ground is not what comes out.
But what comes out, you distinguish it. You say that's wheat.
Well, that's not what you put in the ground, no, but you distinguish it.
And it's a little different, the corn that comes out of the ground and soybeans that comes out of the ground, it's different, it's distinguishable. And I think that's a lesson for us yet. Yes, we are going to know those that we have lost in death. They are going to be recognizable. And I like to think of it in this way, that the Spirit of God is in his people now, and he is developing those traits to be like Christ in US.
And I know, dear friends of mine, I've done rule for quite a while.
He's not going to have a Gray beard in that day. He's not going to have wrinkles on his forehead either. But am I going to know him?
I am convinced I'm going to know him by those traits, those characteristics that the Spirit of God is formed in him now and I enjoy that in him. Those will be there and I'm going to enjoy them. So we will know our loved ones that have died in faith in the Lord Jesus.
No, a female.
There are no females in heaven.
No males either.
They're different. You have to say, my you've changed.
You were much nicer looking than you were down here.
Had another thought about the the sewing too. If you never planted corn before, or wheat or any other grain, you couldn't take that seed and look at it and tell me what kind of body it was going to have after it sprouted. The only reason we know is we've had experience and we've seen what happens when you put corn in the ground and we through experiences we learn that. But you take in the first time and plant something and look at that grain, you have no idea what it might turn around.
00:35:01
That's an experiment that kids could do, take a bunch of seeds and put them in there and see what comes out of them. God knows and he gives it that body that it's going to have. That is the plant that grows. And so that's the issue here. We can't look on this side of, of, of death and look by nature and say what our new bodies are going to be like. But God gives it a body as it please him and he knows that. And so it's our trust in him and that's it's the resurrected body like Christ.
Our loved ones we will know those of other ages that we have never met down here. The amount of transfiguration.
Peter, James and John were up there and they saw Moses and Elijah. How in the world did they know him? They had never known them in life. But brethren, we shall know, even as we are known in that day. Wonderful to think about.
To that, God gave us a body, the body we're sitting in this room in that is perfectly suited to the world in which we live.
It's a body of flesh and blood, and it breathes air, and God made provision in this world to supply the oxygen that our bodies need, and so on. Yes, it's true that the whole system has been spoiled by sin, but when Adam and Eve were in the garden, they were earthly creatures, and their bodies were perfectly suited to life on earth. While we don't know the details, it's a wonderful thing to realize that in resurrection in a new creation.
God gives us that body which is perfectly suited to the environment in which we will live, which is heaven. And so we have now an earthly body suited to the earth. But that seed that God has planted in US of eternal life, when the body that's connected with it is is given to us, then it will be in every respect perfectly suited to.
Home, the Father's house, which is where we're going to live for eternity.
Only God could do that.
Man can't do that. We we couldn't even dream of the way it should be. But God knows and God says you don't need to worry about it. Don't raise a disbelieving question perhaps as to how it could, what body it could be. Don't limit me by what you are now and what you can see and know, but just trust me, I'm going to give you a body that's perfectly suited to.
The home that I'm giving to you.
Agree with that, but verse 50 puzzles me. Now I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. So I would take from that that the resurrection body doesn't have blood when it says flesh. That's what puzzles me.
I think some of these questions we're raising are beyond us. We'll just have to wait to see until we get there. All I say, brother Chuck in that regard to stick to Scripture is that when the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, he said to the disciples, handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bone as you see me have and to put that with the truth that we're going to have bodies of glory like under his body of glory.
We just have to leave it there.
In verse four of our chapter, it's called resurrection body is called a spiritual body. It is like you say Jim, you've shown in Luke 24 the Lord Jesus said.
Spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see me have. Flesh and blood is the body we have now, because the life is in the blood.
But in resurrection, spirit is the life of the body.
And that's why I think it's called a spiritual body. It's not blood.
So.
I think that helps to understand our body in that day. It'll be a spiritual body. Doesn't mean that it'll just be a spirit, because there will be. We will have bodies, Don mention in his address, like unto his body of glory. We're going to be like Christ in that day. We're going to have bodies of glory like Him.
00:40:09
Is an expression that is used earlier in the gospels, and it's a contrast when it speaks about the Kingdom of heaven. It is that man in his present condition, a man of flesh and blood. The state in which he's in has no place in God's Kingdom, and the only way a man can enter into the Kingdom of God is by new birth, which then introduces him to a new creation.
And so he uses that previously explained truth, which isn't exactly the point here, as much as to use that as a contrast and to say neither can corruption inherit in corruption. And there he is saying that the body in its corrupted state cannot inherit that which is suited to eternity, that which is suited to heavenly things.
And so he has man has to be transformed to have that body which is suited to glory and he will have it. So some might say, well, you know, I don't know how this can all happen because.
My body is corrupted and corruptible. And he's saying, well, no, that's not the case. You didn't enter the Kingdom of God through flesh and blood. You entered it by new birth, and likewise you won't enter into heaven.
With that corrupted body, it will be transformed so that you have a body of incorruption and then that final victory. Our bodies will never be subject to corruption again.
When Paul was caught up to the 3rd heaven, it was a temporary thing and so foreign a sphere of things was it to what he was used to on earth that he said he didn't know whether he was in the body or out of the body.
But there it was just a temporary thing. But when we are caught up to be ever with the Lord, as you said, Don, we're going to have bodies that are perfectly suited to that sphere of things. When we sit down in the Father's house, we're going to be perfectly comfortable, Tremendous to think about. Sometimes I sit down in the homes of my brethren and I feel comfortable there and they do everything they can to make you comfortable. But I'm not family.
I'm not, it's not my home. I'm not, there are things about it that I'm perhaps feel I'm not quite suited. Maybe I don't like the climb, the temperature they keep it at. It's a little different than my own home and, and and so on. But when I sit down in the Father's house to be ever with the Lord, I'm going to have a body that's suited to that sphere. And when God views his family, he's going to see them all just like Christ, his beloved Son, now the Lord Jesus.
Will remain the only begotten of the Father for all eternity. He will remain the center of everything and but we will all be like Christ. Eternity is not a melting pot. And I enjoyed the way another put it. He said we will all be like Christ, but we will all retain our individuality. And if I can just give you another little scriptural illustration that perhaps is a hint of that. You find that on the breastplate of the high priest there was a separate stone for everyone.
Of the 12 tribes, every tribe was an individual when you come to Malachi.
It says of God's people, they shall be mine in that day when I make up my jewels.
Then you come over to the to the Book of Revel, end of the Book of Revelation.
And on the one hand, in the description of the heavenly city, you have the church described as the Pearl, but then there's the the individual stones that make up the foundation of the city. And those individual stones, those gems, I would suggest, are a little hint that for eternity, yes, you and I are going to be part of the Church of God, the bride of Christ, but we are also going to retain that individuality.
That we have now and that we will have then. And so when we look at one another, we'll know even as we are known.
We'll know, we'll know individuals. However, our relationships as we've known them here on earth will not be the same. There are relationships that have been given to us for this earth and for the happiness and blessing of man here that our natural relationships that will not continue. But I say again, eternity is not a melting pot. We're all like Christ, but we retain our individuality.
00:45:07
Of the expression in John 14 of the Father's house, and Speaking of the many abodes in that house, and in connection with what you say about individuality, a father may have many children.
We knew a family in the Dominican Republic where they had 25 children. And you ask a father?
In that family, if it's a proper functioning family, which of those children is your favorite? I don't think he would be able to point to any of them. He would say every one of them has a special place in my heart, and that's the sense of the many abodes in the Father's house. None of us are like any any other of the redeemed, but each one has a special place that no one else can fill.
In the Father's house.
But getting back to this chapter here, it's interesting it tells in these verses following 394041. It's Speaking of different flesh and bodies. All flesh is not the same flesh. We've been speaking about the flesh we have down here adapted for life in this world. There's a flesh of men, there's another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, another of birds. There are also celestial bodies.
And bodies terrestrial, the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is other, is another. There is one glory of the sun and another glory of the moon, another glory of the stars. For one star different from another star in glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead. So all these things that we know in creation are an illustration of what is going to be in the resurrection. There's going to be differences, there's going to be.
Ways of distinguishing one from another.
Get the two groups of people that will be partake of the resurrection when the Lord raises the dead and these verses, first of all, it's the ones that are sown that is those if they departed in death, they're going to be raised farther down. Beginning in verse 51. There's something special that is brought out and that is that Paul himself looked forward to it not to even die, but to rather be changed in the.
The body that he had and to be made like Christ and he tells us how it's going to happen. But it's beautiful to see the hope that they, even Paul, had. We don't necessarily, as one brother said, we don't look for the undertaker, we look for the upper taker.
That is the proper Christian hope. But should the Lord take one in death, then He is going to raise them again.
So you have both groups here in this chapter.
Wonderful, isn't it? Just to notice three different things mentioned in verses 42, three and four.
What we are associated with now, that is in our bodies, is corruption, dishonor and natural.
But when the power of resurrection is applied to our bodies, the result will be in corruption, glory, and spiritual. What a wonderful thing, brethren, that for God's glory man in his present body has dishonored God and corrupted himself.
And in his natural flesh has no interest in relationship with God, but when God's work is done.
We will be vessels perfectly of honor, incorruptible vessels.
And spiritual and God will be To God be the honor, to God be the glory. May we just appreciate and thank God for what His plans are with respect to us.
00:50:05
Oh, we see the breakdown of everything here, don't we? And maybe there's somebody sitting in these chairs this afternoon and you feel a few aches and pains. You say I don't feel quite as chipper as I did a year ago at these meetings. And time takes its toll. But it tells us in the end of Philippians 3 that he's going to change our ought to read Bodies of Humiliation. This was brought home to me before Brother Charlie Little passed away. He for the last two or three years of his life, he became very feeble.
And anybody that knew Brother Charlie knew that he was always a proper gentleman, never went to the post office without his tie straight, every hair was in place, he shined his shoes every morning. He was one who was always a gentleman, dressed Immaculate, knew how to say the right things. But as he got more feeble, he found it hard to eat without getting his shirt and tie soiled and various things. And one day he said to me, he said, Jim, now I understand what it is when it, what it means, when it says a body of humiliation.
But he was encouraged to think that that body of humiliation, that body that was breaking down was going to be exchanged. He's with the Lord now. He that's not what he was looking for. He wasn't looking for death. He was looking for the Lord to come. But I just thought of that. Everything breaks down here. We sometimes sing a hymn. The world itself grows old, but Christ, our precious dust will take and freshly mold. And to think, brethren, that we're going on to a scene where everything is not only going to be perfect.
But it's never going to decay. When we bought our home some 20 years ago, I said to my wife, not being very handy, I said we're going to buy by the with the help of the Lord, we're going to buy a brand new home. So at least for a while it doesn't need any work or upkeep. It wasn't very long till I started having to get Ron's son-in-law Dave and and Paul in to do a little touch up here and there and so on.
Things breakdown and decay our homes. You buy a new home, it isn't very long. It needs some work on it. We just had to get a new roof. But we're going to a home, brethren, where nothing from within or without is going to decay. And if that doesn't encourage us and direct our manner of life now, then nothing will. And looking on to the glory John says in his epistle, everyone that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure, in other words.
The measure in which we look on to the day of glory. In that measure it will have a practical purifying effect on your life and mind now.
This is one of the things that he wanted to teach them was about that resurrection body. And so when he was right to them, because they didn't believe some of them among them, they didn't believe in that resurrection. He had written about the value of the resurrection in verses 2934, but 35 he started writing about that body and he compares it to that grain. And when you put a grain of seed in the ground, to all appearances it dies. But when it starts to grow, it becomes larger and it becomes more glorious, doesn't it? And that's the point that we're getting to hear that once we receive that new body and we go to heaven.
It's that glorious body that will last forever and forever without any corruption in it. That's the thing that we want to realize. What we're going to receive is the perfect body like unto his. And so later on in verses 51, towards the end, he starts to speak about that mystery of resurrection and he starts to teach them the truth for the first time. He opens up scriptures and he starts to think about those that are asleep that will be caught up in the air, and those that are live, that'll be changed in the moment, in the twinkling of the eye at the last Trump.
At the last Trump, what? The glorious appearing of Jesus Christ. That's what it's going to be. We're going to get to see our Lord and our Savior, aren't we? At that glorious appearing when he takes us up into heaven in our new body? And it's a beautiful thing that that body is recognizable, yes, like our brother said in Moses and lies in transfiguration, but it's a body that is capable of living out of this Earth's atmosphere, capable of living where there's no gravity. We see those when they send them up the spaceship, they have to alter that atmosphere inside that spaceship, that earthy body.
Maintain up there doesn't we're going to receive a body that's a spiritual body that will live forever flawless once we've raised been raised up off of the scene.
I know it's a little different, but just in connection with our remarks, we mentioned this morning in connection with the eternal state and we read that portion in Revelation and I know we're talking about our individual bodies, but it's interesting to to notice that when the bride is viewed in eternity 1000 years at least after she's been with Christ, she's viewed as a bride adorned for her husband and that a remarkable statement.
00:55:26
Now, if you were to come to my home and flip through some albums and look at my wedding pictures, you'd say there's a change, Jim Decay has come in. The aging process has been at work. If we were to look at our parents wedding pictures, we'd have no doubt it would confirm any doubts we had in our minds. We know that time brings in its changes, but brethren, think of a scene and eternity where a bride is never going to lose her loveliness and freshness.
For all eternity. And more than that, the relationship isn't going to decay either. You know, this is a day when family relationships breakdown. We don't see proper relationships between husbands and wives. We don't see proper relationships between parents and children, Earthly relationships breakdown and fail and so on. But to think there's a day coming when no, those relationships that will be there, the Christ and the bride, it's never going to deteriorate. She's going to be in the freshness.
Of bridal affections to his heart for all eternity. She's going to be viewed in the freshness of her bridal beauty for all eternity. Oh, brethren, it ought to spur us on to live for Christ now. That's what it means when it uses the word incorruption, doesn't it, Jim? Absolutely impossible to corrupt. Like to say something that I found quite interesting. I believe it is true.
That Mister Lundin used to say, and it was quite thought provoked, thought provoking when I first heard him say it.
He said in new creation there is no time nor distance. Think about it. I really believe it's true. I think Scripture bears it out, but it is something that is hard for us to understand. We had to get in cars to come to Saint Louis and to be here and it took time and we had to cover distance. New creation is not a question of time.
Nor distance. And I think that's why it calls our bodies in resurrection. It's spiritual bodies.
They're not subject to that when the Lord Jesus presented himself to his disciples.
On that first day of the week, the doors were shut. He didn't have to open the door to come into the midst of the disciples. No, He was just there at a moment's notice. And another moment He was with the two on the way to Emmaus. So it's not a question of time or distance. That's something that we can't hardly think about because we're so used to thinking in those elements.
Well this is perhaps are now didn't what we have in the 51St and 52nd verses where he speaks about the change and it's interesting that the in the moment in the twinkling of an eye is directly connected with the change of the body that's going to take place because here we sit in this hotel in the city of Saint Louis this afternoon and if the Lord Jesus were to give the shout this afternoon, which.
We ought to each be fully expecting and looking for and if he were, with these physical bodies, these natural bodies we have now.
There's something that's physically hindering us from rising to meet the Lord in the air. There's a ceiling above us, there's several floors above us, there's a roof on this hotel. And physically, without a change, we could not rise to meet the Lord in the air. But when the Lord Jesus gives the shout, there's going to be an instantaneous change take place. And those bodies, as Bob said, are not going to be subject to physical hindrances.
Just like the body of the Lord Jesus in resurrection. So this ceiling and the floors and the roof above us are not going to be a hindrance.
Now, what about those who are who have been buried? There's many buried at sea under many fathoms of water. There's many that are buried under 6 feet of earth, many that are buried under the twin towers when they collapsed and so on, who have died in faith. What about them? Well, they are going to be raised with bodies of glory. They're not going to be raised with the physical body that was laid in the grave.
01:00:18
They're going to be raised with those bodies so that that 6 feet of earth, those fathoms of water or whatever is between them and the cloud will not be a hindrance to them in that wonderful brethren, we're going to have those bodies. And so He's taken care of every detail. You say, how could it be? How can this be? He's taken care of every detail. So the dead in Christ are going to be raised with those bodies that aren't subject to physical hindrances.
And in a twinkling of an eye, we're going to have a change so that we can rise to meet the Lord in the air.
In fact, there is a sequence in First Corinthians or First Thessalonians chapter 4. It's kind of interesting to notice when it says in the in the twinkling of an eye, like you say, Jim, it's not speaking about the rapture. It's speaking about the resurrection. That's what's going to take place in the twinkling of an eye at here. It's interesting in First Corinthians or First Thessalonians 4, it says.
Verse 16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God. This directly relates to our chapter. And then notice the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, And so shall we ever be with the Lord. It doesn't mention here the change.
That's what we have in First Corinthians 15, because it's a question of resurrection, and our bodies that are connected with this first creation have to experience a change in order to be able to be caught up together. So it's going to happen at at any moment now.
At the last trump, the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed so this takes place at that time.
When there was the those who were raised at the crucifixion, it says the graves of that those were open and they came forth. When Lazarus was raised from the dead in John 11, they had to roll away the stone. When the Lord Jesus came out of the tomb and resurrection, it's true the stone was rolled away, but not so the Lord could come out in resurrection. He had a body in resurrection, as we've been saying, that wasn't subject to physical hindrances.
The stone was rolled away at the tomb of the Lord Jesus so that there could be ample and complete testimony that he had risen from the dead, that they could come in and see where he lay, and that there was testimony not to let the Lord Jesus out of the tomb like in the case of Lazarus, like in the case of those Saints that whose bodies arose. And don't take me to task for this because I'm not saying it dogmatically, but I will say this.
That at the rapture we do not read of the graves of the Saints being opened. Now I'm not saying they will or won't, but why don't we read of them being opened? Because they won't have to be. When the when Lazarus came forth, he came forth with a natural body. As was already said earlier in these meetings. When the Saints in Jerusalem came forth, they came forth with bodies that were later again, we assume laid in the tomb. In death they had to have their graves open. But when the Saints.
Raised with incorruptible bodies at the resurrection, at the rapture, it is not, will not be necessary for the tombs to be open again. Those who are buried at sea, will the sea have to roll back to let them out? No, they'll have bodies that won't that, that water won't hinder from rising to meet the Lord in the air. So it's important to see the difference between those who were raised then and the bodies that the Saints will have in the resurrection.
Call an attention to is the difference between an earth receiving an earthly body and receiving a spiritual body or a heavenly body won't need the the stone removed that that's an interesting point. It really confirms how the the Lord Jesus who was the first fruits of them that slept who was raised with the spiritual body of the new resurrected body is it's it's distinct, isn't it?
01:05:23
I might ask a question.
Upon our resurrection, or the resurrection of those who sleep in the Lord Jesus.
Is the body reunited with with the soul?
With the spirit I, I realize we've we've covered this a little bit.
There seems to be a distinction between.
The natural body and the spiritual body. I think we've heard it at funerals before, that the body will be reunited with the with the spirit.
Just a little clarification.
Has to be going earlier in the chapter.
Verse 15 Yay. And we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ whom he raised not up. If so be that the dead rise up, for if the dead rise not, then is Christ raised. That is, when we think of the Lord Jesus, He had to rise in his body, or the dead rise not.
And we ourselves are like him in that way.
When the Lord Jesus dismissed his Spirit in death, his Spirit was separated from his body, and James tells us.
The body without the spirit is dead. That's how we really have in scripture and knowledge of what death is in for natural death. It's the separation of the spirit and the soul from the body.
But when the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, he rose in the body, and His, if you will, the body was united with his soul and spirit, and he was a living person, living by a different principle of life.
Than natural life, but nonetheless living in the body. And so it will be for us. We shall.
Be changed if we are living at the rapture or our brethren who have gone before us who are asleep in Jesus.
They will have their bodies raised and transformed, and we shall together rise in the air to meet the Lord in the air.
It's important that there's, for example. Why is the body so important? It's because.
Christ died for our sins by taking our sins in His own body on the tree. His bearing of our sins is associated with His body, and in resurrection in that body in which we see Him, we see the fact that God has accepted the work of redemption at the cross, and the witness to us of it is His life in the body.
So we in contrast to us believers, because man has sinned in the body, so that body will be raised.
The person won't have life toward God. They won't be given life again, but they will be raised. The dead, small and great stand before God. And as Bob mentioned, every single grave in the world will be emptied.
Every single grave in this world, when the final day of judgment is done, there won't be a single grave with a body in it in this world. And the persons are raised to stand before God, to give an account of themselves as they were in spirit, soul and body before God is living on the earth. And then the second death comes, which is the separation of that whole person from God forever.
On that, our bodies are redeemed.
Just as our soul and spirit are redeemed, aren't they? They are. They are bought with a price, we're told where they're bought with a price. And so that's why I, generally speaking, believers in the Lord Jesus.
01:10:07
Bury their dead instead of like in heathen lands where they cremate. Cremation is becoming more of a practice in this country, but I think it's coming in more because we're leaving the principles of Christianity behind. But.
This body, too, is redeemed. It's been bought by a precious.
Blood of the blood of Christ. And so it's not to be mistreated. It's it belongs to the Lord. The body belongs to the Lord.
It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. the IT there refers but to both bodies, and it's the same. Also, I'd like to comment on verse 46 in connection with what's being said. How be it that was not first which was spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual? God is not going to create new beings in heaven.
To fill heaven in the coming day, he's going to raise the bodies of those who were natural first. You have to have existence as a a being and a natural body first. Then God is going to take in those bodies and change them and bring them to glory. That's beautiful, brethren, to think that how the God does that, you first have to have the natural body. Just in connection with Phil's question two in the comments Don made.
I look at Don Ruhl, and from my perspective, the physical is the person. I look at you, and I recognize you because you have certain features in your body. But from God's perspective, it's not merely the physical, it's the Spirit. And I say that because Paul in the second epistle refers to those who are absent from the body and present with the Lord. That is, they're in the conscious sense, like my father. He's in the conscious sense of the Lord's presence.
Not with the physical body, but he's there. Is he recognizable? Well, it's interesting when you have the story of the rich man and Lazarus. They were both two men who had left the body, but they were recognizable. And Abraham was recognizable in that state of things. And so there was recognition because that's really who the person. That's the person from God's perspective. From our perspective, it's the physical.
And that's how I recognize you, by certain physical features. And if those features change drastically, perhaps I don't recognize you right away. So just so, it must be that when the resurrection takes place, the rapture, the spirit and the body will be reunited. Not the body, as we've been saying, that was put in the ground, but that changed body. Now the departed dead in faith are absent from the body, but their spirit is with the Lords they're in, as we sometimes refer to it as their unclothed state.
And as Second Corinthians 4 tells us, these bodies are just tabernacles.
They're just temporary dwellings. A Tabernacle in Scripture denotes a temporary dwelling. These are just temporary dwellings for our spirit, for who we really are. When the body, what constitutes physical death again, is this body without the spirit is dead. But when the resurrection takes place, the spirit and the body are reunited and the person is now physically. They're consciously. They're consciously now, but they will be physically.
In the presence of the Lord and those who've departed aren't going to get there first. We're not going to get there first. We which are alive and remain will be caught up together with them, those as Bob who said, who are raised first, then we get the change. And with them we're caught up to meet the Lord in the air. And when we physically enter the when the Saints of God physically enter the Father's house, it is the Saints of God from.
Every dispensation who together.
Are ushered in with glorified bodies into the Father's house to be with and like Christ.
Last Trump and the Trumpet.
Twinkling of an eye.
Peace. There was 90 long blasts giving, and after hearing 90 long blasts, you heard the last one. You knew you'd heard the land of it.
01:15:09
There is no question about what we will know. That is the last trump in this chapter 15 we have last of all seen by Paul. We have the last enemy is death, we have the last Adam, and we have the last trump.
Comment has been made.
That this may be an allusion to the Old Testament.
Where the children of Israel, when they were going to break camp, the trumpet sounded as a means of communicating to the people that get ready to go.
And they then were to break camp and prepare to journey to the next location. And there was a last Trump, which was OK March. And in a spiritual way, brethren, we've already had, you might say, the first Trump.
We've been told get ready, at any moment we're going to go. And so everything in our lives should be ordered with the expectation that at any moment we're leaving this world and there's nothing more that needs to be done. And we're not going to have to say, oh, wait a minute, wait a minute. I've got to finish a few last tasks before we go. But the last trump is that which will, as it were, on God's side, says March, or in the case of the rapture.
Bring us up, the Lord calls and come up, hit her, as it were, to us, and we go into the air, and we we see Him. But it's important for us to have a sense that, as it were, the midnight cry has gone out, and we want to be ready with nothing in our lives that would be a hindrance to our souls. Of course, no matter what, we'll go. But spiritually, he that hath this hope in Himself purifieth Himself, even as.
He is pure.
Put it another way.
Well, just to go back to the verse that Bob alluded to, which is found in Romans chapter 8, which is on this subject.
Romans chapter 8 and verse 22.
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travail if in pain together. Until now. That's the present condition of things.
We live in a creation which is groaning animals grown because of our sin and the consequences it's brought on the creation. You see an animal suffer and you say, well, the man's responsible for that. It's man's sin that has brought that suffering upon that animal and and the whole creation groans and travels in pain. And verse 23, not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the spirit, even ourselves.
Grown within ourselves, that is, we have the Spirit of God dwelling in US.
As the earnest we belong to a new creation and that we have life in Christ. But still we groan because we're in these bodies and some of us, I suppose, woke up this morning with a lot of aches and pains and not feeling completely well and so on. So he says.
We're waiting.
For the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
When the Lord Jesus died on the cross, he died to save us completely.
Spirit and soul and body as God had created us and the transformation as to our spirit and soul has taken place with new life given to us. But our bodies have already been paid for in the work of redemption. God is not going to leave them behind as it were. They have to be transformed for all the reasons of corruption and and the spoiling that's taken place in them through sin.
And they're suited to the earth, they're mortal, and so on. And so they have to become immortal and suited to their heavenly spiritual home. And we're waiting for that, though that is the actual carrying out of that redemption applied, that's paid for at the cross, but applied to us, awaits the resurrection. And at the moment of the resurrection, then we'll be, as it were, the fulfillment of what we wait for.
01:20:09
The redemption of our bodies. And so we just to elaborate in a little different sense, I've enjoyed in my own meditations on the word of God. God created a physical universe first.
And then he created creatures that he was going to place man in responsibility over. And then he creates man by giving a body. And then within that body, his final act of creation is to breathe into that body the breath of life, and it becomes a living soul. And the whole history of that man, Adam and his race, finishes at the cross. That's the final end before God of the first creation.
It's all condemned, it's all in the thoughts of God judged, and the sentence has not yet been carried out. But from the cross on, God starts working, not in the physical outward creation, but he starts in the soul of a man and he begins a new work and he begins new creation there. And the whole process is reversed in the exact, I think, exact same opposites steps that is.
First, it begins within the man, as Jim said, we look on the outward appearance, but God works inside in the heart and he gives us life and new life through the work of redemption. But then the day is coming of which we're speaking about when we're taken to heaven and they have the redemption of our bodies and we have a transformation and we then will be in our perfect eternal state. But.
That's not the end. This has already been said of the story. God continues that work until the very last thing that he does was the the thing that he did in the very first of the first creation. That is finally he takes the whole universe itself and he burns it up in the end and destroys it with fire and introduces a new physical creation for the eternal state. And then his work is done. But it's nice to see it starts with that physical thing first and finally ends up in the the life given demand.
And the new creation begins with life given to man and goes on until you have the final new heaven and new earth, which I believe is the very last act of God to fulfill His purposes in creation through the second atom. Not only will we be done with the aches and pains and the physical limitations we have now, but they'll be full understanding too. Just take a minute and go back a couple of chapters to the 13th.
Chapter because I think this is beautiful to see. We've spoken of it in connection with how we'll be rid of physical things. But let's notice what Paul says in the end of the 13th of First Corinthians, verse 9. For we know in part and we prophecy in part. Don't we have to say that at the end of these reading meetings?
We know in part, and we prophecy in part, and maybe, if we're honest with ourselves, we skipped some verses because we really didn't have full understanding or didn't feel capable of explaining the truth of them. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child. I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. Now notice this. For now we see through a glass darkly.
That's the present, now the future, but then face to face, now I know in part that's the present, but now the future. But then shall I know even as also I am known? And maybe at the end of these meetings there's someone here and you say, you know, it's been a lot of things haven't been adequately explained or there's been some distractions. And I just didn't catch that. And I just don't seem to grasp certain concepts from scripture.
Certain truth. Never mind. Enjoy the things that the Spirit of God has made good to your soul.
And be encouraged to realize there's a day coming when we're all going to come to full maturity as far as our understanding and comprehension of Christ and divine things. Maybe this afternoon we'll exchange this reading meeting for the full understanding of First Corinthians chapter 15. But brethren, in the meantime, aren't we thankful that He has revealed these things unto us by His Spirit? We have the capacity now to take them in. We have divine life.
01:25:09
We have the Spirit of God, we have the full revelation of God in his written word. He's given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. The only thing is, there's still some physical limitations. There's some distractions and hindrances that come between, but those things are all going to be done away with the moment we rise to meet the Lord in the air. Could we sing 303 just like to say before we let you give out your hymn in Lemoyne, but.
The mystery in verse 51 is the fact that some of us are never going to die. And that was something that was not known before, and now it's revealed. And so in these verses from 51 forward, it tells how these corruptables are going to put on incorruption. It's like putting on a new garment. This mortal must put on immortality. And then at the end of 54.
Death is swallowed up in victory.
What? What number, Brother 23?
Is that right, 323?
The Lord himself shall come, and shall not break me.
From.
Laughter forever.
With the Lord.
Yeah, we can try it as we try a different tune and use the last verse for a chorus. The Lord himself shall come, and shall come with a word.
From God to order.
With the Lord.
Forever.
When so I have again being.
There with a mirror being dead.
On her eyes, on him forever.
I am satisfied with the spread.
Of our soul grimly blessed.
No, we can't, sweetheart. No.
I shall reign.
How far?
From.
01:30:00
Death on the end of the world.
Sing, also 94.
94.
The Lord is.
Really.
Born.
But now it's your take now under the screen.
And the love for his heart.
The Lord is president and.
Pray in your lives to thine of the Lord.
Amen.
Will turn.
People.
The Lord is resident.
Me.
I'm glad I saw it, pray.
I went there, All the rice and sausage shall pray in the Lord's day.
Last verse in First Corinthians 15 Therefore, my beloved brethren.
Be steadfast, unmovable.
Always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor.
Is not in vain. In the Lord we commend ourselves.