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Tall and free.
Nothing ye our soul is hard to.
Not forget.
Of being.
Our story.
Of gods more and more.
In thy breasts we are happy in 1000.
Killer.
In the crowd and all of them.
We can give it to the Lord, make it endure.
Wandering.
The floor. It was not my.
Our God and Father, we come before thee again at the end of these meetings.
And thank you for the very happy time we've had. Surely we can sing the words of this middle hymn. In Thy present we are happy. In Thy presence we are secure. In my presence. All afflicted we can easily endure. And so, Lord, we just pray as we had this last meeting, that it might be encouraging for each one of us. We might be built up in our most holy faith. And we pray to that. Thou just give journey mercies home for us, without us still carrying.
And that we might have a renewed desire to go on for thee in July has come, we ask in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Still have quite a bit to cover in First Corinthians 15, but perhaps we could start at verse 35.
1St Corinthians 15, verse 35.
But some men will say, How are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come? Thou fool, Thou which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die. And thou which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but fair grain. It may chance of wheat, or some other grain, but God giveth it a body as it pleased him, and every seed, his own body. All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.
There are also celestial bodies and 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 another glory of the moon, another glory of the stars. For one star differeth 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 in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown in natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
00:05:33
And so it is written, the 1St man Adam was made a living soul. The last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
I'll be it that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterwards that which is spiritual. The 1St man is of the earth earthy. The 2nd man is of the is the Lord from heaven.
As is the earthy stuff are they also that are earthy. And as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have formed 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 doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. At the last trump the trump 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 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.
I suppose most of us at times in our lives have encountered what was going on, no doubt among the Corinthians and perhaps other students, and that is questions being raised about things that they did not understand but wanted to enter into, but not in the right way.
That is, those who quibbled about the resurrection and denied it would argue, well, what happens in resurrection, as it says here in verse 35, how are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come?
Have we ever seen someone with a glorified body? No. Do we know exactly what it will look like? No. But Paul uses natural things to explain spiritual ones here, pointing out that when we sow and reap, we see that very simple picture.
We put a seed in the ground, it dies, we don't recover it again, but what grows from it is characteristic of that seed, and it is not characteristic of another one.
And so when you and I have glorified bodies, they will be characteristic, I believe, according to this chapter, but they'll be, as it says further down here, celestial bodies, not of terrestrial body, not a body that is suited to this world, but a body suited to that world. It will be a different in, in that sense, a change body, but not a brand new body. It'll be changed.
And So what a wonderful thing that is.
We don't know all about it. We don't know what it will look like, but as our brother brought out in the last meeting, we can have confidence in the Lord, in all that He is and all that He is doing and all that His resurrection means, and leave the way that our bodies will be raised and what they look like in that day. We can leave that with Him because He knows exactly.
What he's going to do?
And I believe that's the force of what we have in these next few verses.
00:10:01
Yes, that's important because.
The Resurrection.
It shows that the body will be raised. Anything less than that is some form of reincarnation. And I believe the apostle deals with that in because we know certain Eastern religions would hold that depending on my performance while here on earth, I might be resurrected as a pig.
That the apostle deals with that. That what will be resurrected is my body. Notice what Job says. Job 19.
And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another, Job says. The eyes that I have are the eyes that will see the Lord.
If Job has brown eyes, I'll see them in glory and you'll still have brown eyes, the same eyes, the eyes that I have now. If the Lord takes were to come now, these eyes would see the Lord. If the Lord doesn't come for another 50 years and I.
Door When I'm raised, God can take that dust and form my eyes, and my eyes will see the Lord in his glory.
I can well remember, and this is quite a few years ago now.
Stood in a Funeral Home.
Cite a young man whose father had gone to be with the Lord.
His father was not an elderly man, at least not by the standard that I look at. At this point in life. He was only 60 years old.
And he had had cancer for quite some time, and during the course of that disease, the cancer had so ravaged his body that the family decided, probably wisely, that.
To open the casket in the Funeral Home would give such a false impression of what he really looked like that they'd better have a closed casket and put a picture of him on top.
Probably some of the rest of you have been at viewings in a Funeral Home under similar circumstances.
His son was about the same age as I was at that time, and I said to him, addressing him by name. Well, I said, the next time you see your father, not only will he look a lot better than his body does now, I said, he won't even have white hair.
While his father was one of those, probably a bit like me, whose hair went Gray and then white rather sooner than some other people did. And his son said, well, I don't remember him with anything but Gray or white hair, which was probably true. But if you looked at the wedding pictures of, and I'm sure he'd seen a wedding picture of his father, his hair was totally dark. I said. He said, oh, I don't care if he has white hair up in heaven.
Well, I said yes, I know you wouldn't mind, but God does because that white hair is a symptom, a sign of aging, and that won't exist there in the glory. He'll have a glorified body, fashion like under His glorious body. But I don't think any of us will have any trouble recognizing Him in that glorified body, or anyone else for that matter.
The natural man says that is impossible.
But why is it possible? Because there is a risen man in the glory with a glorified body, and it's absolutely impossible that it couldn't be that way with us. Because if he has raised our Lord Jesus Christ and he has a glorified body, it has to happen to us too, doesn't it?
So we will all be like Christ, but has been said I believe actually, so we'll all retain our individuality because every one of us were chosen in crisis individuals. We were called and saved as individuals. We're taken care of along the path of faith as individuals and well collectively will be the bride, the Lamb's wife, the city and so on. Yet as I I say, I believe from other scriptures that we will retain our individuality.
00:15:08
I don't wanna go too far with an illustration or an application, but we find on the Mount of Transfiguration a little preview of the coming glory. There were men there from three different eras of time. There was Moses, Elijah, and the disciples, three of the disciples. And we don't leave that they needed any introduction. We find that the disciples who were there, they immediately recognized without the Lord telling them.
Far as we read who these men were, we don't read that Moses and Elijah needed any introduction. And so I believe on that basis and other Scriptures. We took this up in Lawrenceville last weekend when we spoke from Revelation 20 and 21, how that there are little hints that we will be like Christ, yes, but retain our individuality. Now you say, how can that be? Well, I don't know, but God can do it.
But I would like to say this too about our glorified bodies while we're on the subject. While those bodies will have capabilities that are far greater than the physical bodies we have now, there are three things that we will never attain to that are reserved for deity. We will never be all knowing. We will never be all powerful and never omnipresent. We will never be omniscient, omnipotent, or omnipresent. Those things are are for Deity alone. Yes, there will be capabilities.
We'll have bodies of glory like unto His body of glory, but those things are reserved for God and Christ Himself.
There will be a lasting mark on the body of the Lord Jesus when we see Him, and that is the nail prints in His hands.
The nation of Israel, when they're restored to the land, they will say, they'll look upon the Lord Jesus, they'll say, What are those wounds in thy hands? And then I saw in thy hands those of which I was wondering in the House of my friends.
So he will never lose that. You and I will have bodies of glory and, uh, humiliating marks that we've achieved down here will be gone, but not so with the Lord Jesus.
People sometimes look at us when we believe in the resurrection and consider us to be rather backwards and superstitious. It's interesting to me that God's opinion of the people who don't believe in the resurrection we have in verse 36.
How does he start off full?
Same class of people who don't believe in God fool or said in his heart no God. So whose opinion matters most to people who criticize or gods?
MMM.
You said, Bill, God hasn't left himself without a witness either.
You know, uh, Doug, you could probably give this analogy better than I can, but I'll try. So when you take a corn seed not too long from now and plant it in the ground.
It begins to absorb moisture.
And it's not very long before the life that's in that seed sends out a little root.
When a shoot begins to go up.
And if we would go out there with a shovel and the corn was knee high, say, we could find that little seed coat still there, but it would be dead.
It's uh, I think it's Gen. 12 where the Lord said except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and abide it alone. But if a diet bringeth forth much fruit and so is that plants coming up.
And then there's a silk and a tassel. I'm at corn and it's pollinated at harvest time. Why? Maybe they'll be 3 or 400 kernels on that ear. And that is much fruit.
And this I I find it tremendously interesting to drive around and and look across the cornfield that's just spiking out of the ground. That always makes me smile because there are millions and millions of witnesses that the resurrection is real.
Now I I know that a corn plant is not nearly as valuable as the Lord Jesus.
But God has not given us, uh, without, with given, given this to us without witness. And I just just do that sometime pull up a corn plant when it's about ankle high and you'll find that little seed in the, they're about two inches or so down right, Doug, There it is.
00:20:18
Debt, but it bringeth forth much fruit and it's a some of you kids that wonder, I I wonder what this means. How could God do that?
Does, and it gives us millions of witnesses and examples. We can look at that and trust God. We know exactly how. No, God said it, I believe it. That settles it.
That God's everyday miracle.
That you take the seed that has no life. You put it in the ground.
Little bit of warmth.
Which which brings into life. Without it we would have no food.
You mentioned.
Not believing in resurrection. It's happening every day all around us and only God can do it. That's why they took that sheep and waved him. This is resurrection.
Only God can do it. Satan has the power of course, sin and death.
That the Lord Jesus Christ, God through Christ has the power of resurrection.
Happens every spring.
Actually, the seeds do have life in them. They when you plant them, if they're a dead seed they won't germinate. Uh.
So.
It's uh.
It's like the Lord Jesus, he was that corner wheat that fell into the ground and died. And uh, we have the example of his resurrection.
I was interesting, I read a number of years ago that they discovered some wheat in the pyramids somewhere that they calculated was 1000 years old and they planted and they were able to germinate a few to make a study if it was still the same.
We characteristics that we have today and they found out it was so it's a miracle 1000 years in the ground and planet and it it it sprout.
So there'll be no problem when the Rapture takes place for able to be raised for Adam for all those Old Testament Saints that have been gone for thousands of years.
They've returned to dust, but God is going to take that dust and He's going to bring it forth again. Not a new body, but a changed body, not in the way it was laid in the grave. So your wheat is a good illustration. And I believe it because God has spelled it out in His Word. I appreciate what Bernie said because I don't understand it. I don't understand how it's all going to happen, but I believe it because God has told me enough so that by faith.
And the Spirit of God, I know that it's true. You know, these things, as we've said in these meetings, they're so beyond what we are used to in the natural and physical realm that if, even if God tried to explain it to us further, we couldn't grasp it. But he has told us enough so that by faith we understand that these things are very real and that they are going to take place. But if we could, if he told, if he was able to tell us everything.
And we were able even to understand everything, we wouldn't need faith. It really does take faith to count on it, doesn't it?
It's a strange thing and uh, in nature that not only the seeds that go into the ground that dies, but also things like the butterflies and the caterpillars.
They get transferred and there's no understanding of how that works.
We might say logically that, you know, a little part of the Caterpillar turned into a certain part of the butterfly.
But it it doesn't work that way and so it's a total miracle.
Or something even if we don't think about.
It is amazing. Now we are going to still look like ourselves. We're not going to transform like a butterfly, but.
Still in concept, in danger around us. It's it's a tremendous miracle that that science, they just shrug and go just the way it is. They have no clue how.
00:25:18
And so when we recognize this, and again, we probably should keep moving a little in this chapter, but down in verses 42 to 44, we have.
The truth that is well recognized that the body is sown in weakness, in corruption.
In dishonor, and we see that in our own bodies. We see it sometimes when we're even younger. We see it more and more as we get older. Those bodies are characterized by weakness and corruption. And ultimately it says dishonor. Why dishonor?
I can well remember when I was in university, and that was quite a few years ago now. I did not study philosophy, but some of my classmates did and I remember they came one day and they raised the question. They said our philosophy professor was raising a big question today in the class as to why in creation everything had to die.
Why does everything have to die?
Oh, yes, he admitted that there were trees in this world that are thousands of years old and so on. And there are animals that live much longer than human beings do, at least at this point in the world's history. But ultimately, no matter what it is, eventually it dies. And he raised that question almost in disgust about what kind of a creation have we got that everything has to die?
Well, I remember trying to share with them the answer from the Word of God and, uh, it was a bit like fall in Athens where some mocked and some said we will talk about this again. And a few of them said, yeah, that.
That makes some sense. Maybe. Maybe the Bible is right after all.
But everything that you and I experience in this life, as far as our natural bodies are concerned, tends toward these three adjectives, doesn't it?
And even if perhaps we're born with a good constitution and we have relatively good health, no matter who we are, we have to recognize that if the Lord doesn't come, it's going to come to an end down here. What a blessing thing it is when it says.
It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power so and in dishonor, raised in glory sow, and in corruption raised in incorruption.
The future is where it is at, if we could use that common phrase for the believer. But it's not that which comes first. That which is natural comes first.
And we see that in the Word of God, we see very frequently that God allows man to see the results of what is natural, and then brings in what is spiritual. God allowed man to see what is natural in Cain, but then he brought forth a man by the name of Seth, and it says then began men to call upon the name of the Lord, and so on. And the number of times in the book of Genesis you see how that the first born in a family.
Was seldom if ever the prominent one. It was usually the second son or a younger son that took more prominence morally and spiritually. Why? Oh, because God had this precious truth before him. The 1St man is Adam, and he's a failure. The 2nd man, as it said here, is made a quickening spirit. The first manners of the earth, earthy, made of earth.
The second man is the Lord from heaven.
You and I are bearing the image of the earthy right now. We are bearing the image of that which is natural. But there is a coming day when we will bear the image of the heavenly as Christ does already.
Good morning, John. You'll have to.
Pipe up a little louder. I didn't catch that.
It's correct to say that the 1St man is sinful.
00:30:04
Well, he is, no question about that. But the chapter doesn't use that word. It simply uses the word natural and earthy and and so on. Because I believe that while sin was ultimately the cause of death, God had in His purposes that He was going to allow that which was natural, which eventually ended up in sin in order to introduce that which was.
Far surpassing it. And that is.
That which is spiritual. And so I think it was mentioned the first day of the meetings that.
While man deplores the effect of sin in this world, and God could have prevented it, he allowed it because sin entering this world eventually resulted in far more blessing than a sin had never entered. But it does not use that term in this chapter, I believe for a reason, because it is simply contrasting Adam and Christ.
And that which is natural and that which is spiritual. But of course you can't separate the corruption and the weakness from the sin which was the cause of it.
But we are going to inherit the Kingdom from the heavenly side and that they will be completing corruptibility.
And I see we only have 10 minutes or less left. This meeting ends at a quarter two. I think it'd be helpful to just speak a little bit about from verse 51 where he explains a little bit how this is going to all take place. In verse 51, he says, behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. We've spoken of that. But then he's going to fill in a little detail as to how this is going to take place in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.
I want you to notice this. The 1St division kind of breaks it up a bit. But let, let me go back. We shall not all sleep. Notice this next. We shall all be changed comma in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Now I believe, brethren, that when the Lord gives the shout and we're called home, it's all going to take place very quickly. But I believe it's also significant that He connects the moment of the twinkling of an eye with the change of the body. Why?
Well, here we are today. We're sitting in this this room. If the Lord Jesus were to give the shout before this meeting is over, and he may, there's something above us to hinder our bodies in their present physical condition from rising to meet the Lord in the air. There's a ceiling and a roof and so on, something that these bodies could not go through. Not only that, but when the dead in Christ are raised at that time.
There may be 6 feet of earth over them. There may be several fathoms of water. There may be a city or a building long built over that that graveyard. There's something that would physically hinder them from rising from the dead at that time. The dead in Christ are going to be raised with their glorified bodies. We know that from First Thessalonians and other places. We're going to undergo a instantaneous change.
So that when we rise to meet the Lord, whatever is above us at the time is not going to be a hinder. If we were to go back to the time when the Lord Jesus appeared to the disciples in resurrection, He came and stood in their midst when the doors were closed for fear of the Jews. And we're going to have bodies of glory like unto His body of glory. We're never going to attain deity, as we said earlier.
But those four walls and closed door were not a physical hindrance to the Lord coming and standing in the midst of the disciples. When we get that instantaneous change in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, I say, whether it's the dead raised with their glorified bodies, or you and I which are alive and remain caught up to meet the Lord, whatever is above us is not going to be a hindrance. So some have questioned and wondered how again, how all this is going to be. But there's an order. God has given an order. The Scriptures give us an order in these things.
And I think it's helpful to see that order.
Lord Jesus, uh, was crucified and rose again. There were those that were raised from the dead, from among the dead, but their graves were open so that that was visible and they walked in the streets of Jerusalem again. But that won't take place with Saints. Now when the Lord Jesus comes, we don't, the graves will not be open. We just go, as Jim has been explaining. We'll just go through. We've got a question for you, Jim.
00:35:10
Uh, when and John 11.
The when Lazarus was raised from the dead, he said, take away the stone and uh, of course, uh, you know what happened. And then he called Lazarus.
He called Lazarus by name and he came forward. Did he have to take away the stone because it was an earthly body and he had and he couldn't go through that stone. I, I believe that's right. I believe he came forth with the same body. He had gone into the grave.
And so the SO necessarily had to be removed. Let let me just say too, that it's interesting, other than the incident that Ken just mentioned, there were three individuals that we read out that the Lord raised from the dead. There was Lazarus in his prime, the widow of named son and a 12 year old girl. But it's very interesting that in Scripture you never read of the Lord raising from the dead an elderly person. Why? Well, I don't believe it would have really been merciful. It was really those who had their life on earth ahead of them.
But suppose he had raised a person who was well, I'll, I'll pull it 95 years of age and with they wouldn't have had much longer to live naturally speaking on earth. Perhaps when they died, they had aches and pains and some malady and they were beyond that. So he he never raised an elderly person from the dead. I don't believe it would have been merciful because those he raised from the dead and those that were raised that Brother Ken.
Mentioned that went into the holy city and showed themselves to the brethren at the time.
They returned, I believe, back back to the grave in time. Now, in contrast to that, at the open tomb, when the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, the stone was rolled away too, but not for the same reason. Why was the stone rolled away at the at the tomb of the Lord Jesus? Not so the Lord Jesus could come forth in resurrection. As we said, He had a body and resurrection that wasn't subject to physical hindrances.
But the stone was rolled away so that there would be ample testimony to those who came early to the sepulchre and so that the Angel could declare He is not here, he is risen. Peter and John could see he had risen from the dead. Mary and the other ladies could see that he had risen from the dead. It wasn't so the Lord could be released from the tomb. It was to give testimony. So I just say that Lazarus, it had to be. It came out with a physics, the same physical body.
With the Lord, it didn't have to be, but God made sure the stone was rolled away so that there would be ample and complete testimony as to His resurrection.
Jim, just a comment. The Lord in his human body walked on water. I said the Lord in his human body walked on water. I can't see how the stone would be of any more of a obstacle, but I'll just leave it there. Yes, very good.
Now, Jim, if, uh, some of us that are a little bit overweight, we have to worry about our overweight when that time comes? No, I don't think so.
Uh, I don't wanna bring any levity into this meeting, but there's a brother in Egypt Bill knows and well, brother onstate and he's a quite a heavy brother. And one time at the meal at the conference, some were talking about the Lord's coming and they said, well, you know, the Lord may come before this meal is over. And someone said, well, maybe we shouldn't eat so much. And they all looked at auntie and said, well, he's gonna go. So I don't think the rest of us have to worry. Well, that's just a little smile. But but we're again, we're going to undergo a tremendous change, brother.
And brethren, we're not going to have bodies that feel the limitations and the pain and the discomfort that we feel now. Can you imagine not having when we get to heaven? We're not going to have something to bother us either as to our surroundings, either as to something physical or something within. Now there's a worry. There's always a worry of care. Some of us are thinking about things that are going to transpire this week. And we're concerned and we're.
We're we're starting to plan. There won't be any worry or care. Nothing from within, nothing physically, nothing about our surround brothers, Doesn't that thrill our hearts? Doesn't that make us want to live for Christ now, To not go home as it were, the same way that we came. I'm not talking about whether it's down the 401 or not, but to go home with a renewed desire, brethren, to live for Christ now, as we've been saying in these meetings, in view of what is ahead.
00:40:13
We have no if if we've had some inkling by the Spirit of God from the word as to what's ahead. It's just an inkling what we really what, what's ahead and what's ahead very soon is very real and it is far beyond anything that we can anticipate. And I can't tell you when the Lord is coming, but one thing I know at the end of these meetings, we are closer to the Lord's coming than we've ever been before. And that ought to rejoice our hearts and cause us to say Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus.
But Brother Jim just described.
Verse 57. The victory.
That's what we have. We've been talking for the last couple of days about the victory.
And the last verse, the conclusion is not in vain.
Maybe we could close by singing 300 and 23323.