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Chapter 15, beginning at verse 41.
There is one glory of the sun, 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, and its own in dishonor. It is raised in glory.
It is song in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown 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. Howbeit 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 flush 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 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? Oh 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.
Are we going with these verses? I'd just like to make a comment in connection with resurrection. Not to go back, but this morning we spoke a great deal concerning the resurrection of our Lord Jesus in relationship to what it means to us. The result of it, the fact that it's Christ, the first fruits afterward, they that are Christ that is coming. If Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain, you're still in your sins and so on. But I would like to just say for a moment that I believe it's good to look at God's part.
Because the resurrection, the Ascension, and the glorification of Christ are God's Amen to the work of Calvary. It tells us that God hath raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand. And I think it's good to see that, to see God's side of it, the Lord Jesus who offered himself without thought to God. God has raised him from the dead as a proof that he is satisfied with the work that the Lord Jesus accomplished on Calvary's cross.
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And so he has not only raised him from the dead, as I say, but he's seated him at his own right hand. And if you ever doubt whether God is satisfied with the work of Calvary, the work of Atonement, just look up by faith and see where he is now, a living Savior, risen and ascended and glorified. And God rejoices that his Son, who glorified him here in this world, is now seated there with a crown of glory and honor.
And God is going to be glorified in the fact that in a coming day, as a result of it, heaven is going to be filled with the fruit of that work. The Lord Jesus is going to see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. God is going to rejoice as He views that vast family all with and like His Son.
And not only that, but there's a day coming when the Lord Jesus will come back in power and glory.
And on this very planet where he was spit upon and nailed to a cross and crowned with a crown of thorns, on this very globe, God is going to see that his Son is vindicated. The one that he raised from the dead and seated His own right hand is the one who's going to come forth and every eye is going to see him. And I say God is going to be glorified in that. So I say that's just God's side of it. We think often when we take up the truth of our side and what the result is and the blessing. And certainly that's all part of it and good to take that aspect up, but to see that God has been completely glorified and satisfied.
And God raised him from the dead because one of the hymns is an expression God is satisfied with Jesus.
We are satisfied as well. Wonderful.
We didn't do much, but we did enough on verse.
40 But I'd like to just bring in a little portion that will go along with it. There are also heavenly bodies, and bodies earthly, but the glory of the celestial is one, the glory of the terrestrial is another. I turn to Psalm 19, verse one to four.
The heavens declare the glory of God and the firm that showeth his handiwork.
Day on the day uttereth speech and night under night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. So it says in Romans. I believe it's chapter one. I forget the verse near 20. They are without.
Excuse, I can really say.
There are none. Who will say I did not know there will be none and the judgment seat of Christ.
They will be speechless.
They know there's one God. Creation tells them what? The heavens speak louder even. And they all have heard if they believe as much as God tells them in creation even.
He'll give them more truth and they will be saved, no doubt in my mind about that, wherever they are. Just a thought goes along with that portion.
There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, another glory of the stars. One star differs from another star in glory. That takes us back to the first chapter of Genesis, doesn't it? Let's turn to it first chapter of Genesis, the book of beginnings. The whole seed plot is in Genesis. You'll find it throughout the Word of God.
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It's very beautiful and Genesis 1.
First, I think it's 16. Genesis one verse 16.
And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night. And he made stars also. That's you and I. You know, there are wandering stars, but that's in Jude. That's not us, but stars also. But I think it's so beautiful. And why the moon? You know, we don't have to question why the sun?
The Son of righteousness, the Son is himself in all that beauty and heat and attraction. But the moon I would turn just to one verse, Psalm 86, Psalm 86, and then I think that'll pretty well bring it out.
It's like a Psalm 86.
I'm sorry, 89 and verse.
37 Psalm 8937. It shall be established forever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Say lie. The moon is placed up there to tell us the sun shines. The moon has no light of its own. If they would have only read the word of God, not only many things, they would have known without billions of dollars.
But they would have known what the moon is. It's one grand reflector they brought back.
2-2 bags of boondocks. One went to the East Coast, one went to the West Coast. The one to the East Coast was lost in route. The one to the West Coast and the University of Southern California. They examined it. It did not hit the front page.
Why should it? Way back in Section 2, about fourth page at the column at the bottom little article, they discovered what it was. It's made-up of particles like unto glass. One grand reflector. Isn't that beautiful to see it?
The first boarding show us that presently the Lord has given to us a body that is suited for the dirt, but that coming scene, He's going to give us another body that is suited for heaven. Just like the angels, you know, they have glorified bodies that are suitable for heaven. So the Lord's going to give us a glorified body suitable for that place, the heavenly boss.
And when he contrasts in verse 42, having drawn his illustration from the creation that we see about us, he says, so also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption.
That's this body corruptible.
It is raised in incorruption. The resurrection body will not be.
Capable of being corrupted.
It is sown in dishonor, is raised in glory. And how much dishonor?
Attaches to this body the way we use it and so on, but it is raised in glory.
It is sown in weakness. We know how weak we are. We can get sick and get into an accident and become bedridden and so on. Its weakness. It is raised in power. Think of the power of the resurrection body, what it will be. It is sown a natural body. A.
A body to house the soul.
It has raised a spiritual body.
Body like unto Christ.
And so it is written, the 1St man Adam was made a living soul. I want to back up and say when it says it is.
Raised the spiritual body. Doesn't mean it's a spirit, but it's a spiritual body.
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The body has not flesh and bones, as spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see me have. And so he ate before them, to demonstrate it was a real body, but a different.
Kind you might say a different order of body, a raised a spiritual body that's ahead for us. There is a natural body. We're in that now and there is a spiritual body. He's in that now. He's the only one that's in that.
And so it is written, the 1St man, Adam was made a living soul. God breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of life and he became a living soul.
But the last Adam, if you go back to John 20, it says he breathed into his disciples the breath of his resurrection life and said, Receive ye Holy Spirit.
A spiritual body.
There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. We're not in that yet. And so it is written. The 1St man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam a quickening spirit, a life giving spirit.
Just as Jehovah in the beginning in Genesis 2 breathed into Adam's nostrils of breath of life and then became a living soul, that means the never dying soul. The animals don't have living souls like Adam had. They have souls that die us. When they die, their body dies. They have souls and bodies, but they don't have spirits. And we have a soul, a body and a spirit. And we know God. We're capable of knowing God and having fellowship with God.
But we need a new life. And so that's been given to us. And in resurrection, the risen man breathes into their nostrils the breath of his resurrection life. That's the life we've been brought into as to our spirit and our soul, but not yet as to our body that's coming. And when that that's what we're dealing with here in Revelation in first Corinthians 15 is the spirit, the spirit, the body that is spiritual. Second man is the Lord from heaven. 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. That's us. We're just like Adam was. And as is the heavenly that's us. We're heavenly people. Such are they also that are heavenly. That's the character of the Christian. He's a heavenly man, not an earthly man. And then it goes on to the resurrection. As we have borne the image of the earthy where we bear it right now, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly when that resurrection day comes.
Will bear the image of the heavenly man. The Lord Jesus will have bodies just like this, incapable of sinning and incapable of corruption and incapable of dying. Immortal, which means incapable of dying and incorruptible means incapable of of corruption and going into death and sinning. And that will that will be passed that that resurrection body breathed into them by the risen Christ himself, his own resurrection life. That's a picture of it.
That's a little different aspect than the coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 where he dwells within them. John 20 is the character of life that the Christian has now the risen life of Christ. But in Acts 2 wherein dwelt of the Holy Spirit when he in John 20, he breathed into them and said, receive ye the Holy Spirit. The article isn't there. Receive the Holy Spirit. He's there characterizing that risen life of Christ.
But in the Acts two he is given to us to indwell us and to remain with us forever. The one is the character of life and the other is the full character of Christianity and wealth of the Holy Spirit. That's why I don't like any comments to be made about this body being evil in any way. Even the the body that we have. We have a sin nature yes, but that's not the body. The body is not sinful. Asceticism was practiced and he still practiced at times by those that think that the body is evil and they have to punish it.
And they have to do things that are lying on a bed of nails, or crawling up a flight of stairs on your knees, or punishing this body. It's not this body. If one is a Christian, he's in dwelt of the Holy Spirit. And it is, it is the habitation of God by the Spirit. But we have a sin nature which will be gone entirely at the rapture.
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It might be helpful to stay in connection with your comments to just clarify something as a differentiation between the Lord Jesus as a man and what we will be when we get to glory. Because the Lord Jesus is not only man, but he's also God, and we will never attain to deity. And the reason I say that is we will never be omnipresent. We will never be omniscient, we will never be omnipotent, we'll never be almighty, all seeing, all knowing.
We will have bodies, as we've been saying, that aren't subject to physical hindrances and time and things like that that govern us now. But there are things that are reserved for deity alone. So I just say that as a little addendum to your remarks. Very good, very helpful too.
Very needed. I remember a remark by Brother Don Bilasole concerning the 1St man, Adam and the last Adam and the first man and the 2nd man. Because you'll sometimes hear people talk about the second atom. There's no such thing. The first atom was the leader of the human race, and the last atom is the Lord, the leader of the new creation race. But as to the 1St and 2nd man, there are others to follow.
His comment? There are others to follow, but there'll never be another leader of a race. What do you mean others to follow?
Explain we're well, we're following. Well, the reason I'm asking that is because I've heard it stated that there's a third man, and that's wrong. The 2nd man is the last Adam. There's no other man to succeed him. That's why I asked what do you mean by others to follow as though there was a third and 1/4 and 1/5. So I don't think Brother Dawn meant that. I think he just meant that we're all following. I see as men. But I've heard that taught and it's wrong that there's a third man. Like the Antichrist is likened to the third man. Absolutely.
Wrong. Christ is the last man of the last Adam, the 2nd man, the 2nd man in character, and the last Adam. And we we partake of that one who is the 2nd man on the last Adam, We partake of his character.
I like the thought introduced in the book of Romans there talking the fact that how we will be conforming to his image. We want to know about that new body wealth. We will, we know. Perhaps we can turn to those well known verses in the 8th chapter of Romans. They often quote part of it but not all of it. Romans chapter 8 we often start off by saying and we know that all things work together for good. We see texts on our homes. Many homes have that text.
With that, with that little part of the verse on it would be read it carefully. We find that these verses go on and on together with continuous thoughts. It sets that for and we know well first of all, the writer here say this with certainty. We have some 56800 people in this room this afternoon. Can we all say it with certainties in our hearts rather than just quoting? But to actually say it that we know. So here it says we know that all things there's no doubt about this year. We know that all things work together for good.
To them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. Do we know that? And we do know it. We see the sequence of events that the writers try to tell us here. He said for whom He did foreknowing, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first born among many brethren. Or we have been predestinated brethren to be conforming to that image, to be like Him.
To think like Him, to walk like Him, to act like Him in that days. And then He goes on to tell us in verse 30, moreover, whom He did predestinate them He also called, and whom He called them He also justified, and whom He justified them He also glorified. We see the progress here from predestination to call. Have you been called?
Yes, you have, haven't you? Have you been justified? We know we have. And then it goes on and it's let's hear that to whom he justified. And I enjoy a thought a brother brought out one time. He said these are all in past tense and he looked at me one time and he said you have a glorified body. Oh, that was a tough question for me because he says have been glorified and I couldn't answer him that right away. And he knew that I couldn't answer him And he looked at me with a smile and he said the word of God. Look at it as it's done. It's like the children you often use the phrase it's as good as done.
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We know there is no changing of that we have been justified and we shall be glorified. And that that word glorified, we often apply it to the departed Saints. Now they do not have a glorified body. They're not yet scripturally glorified. Not until the rapture will they be glorified. They'll have that glorified body. Glorified is a term that applies to the full.
Man, body, soul and spirit, and the only one that's glorified.
Now is the Lord Jesus Christ, but soon we'll join him, and then we will be glorified.
In Ephesians first chapter, third verse 4-5 is something that's very beautiful. Our brother brought out the part of predestination and blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ, according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation.
Of the world, that we should be holy without blame before Him, in love, having predestinated us until the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.
You know, to be chosen.
Specifically, before anything was made, that is. That really puts us into the realm of what we're talking about.
It was in God's pleasure, His will, and His purpose that you be sitting here today in Christ and on your way to glory. It's wonderful when you think about it. Don't try to understand it, believe it, that's all it's true. That's a good passage to show to those that think you can be lost again after you've been saved. How could one that's been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world ever be lost?
That's God's work and it shows the under the nonsense of that because those that feel that way, that you can be lost again, feel that my salvation does depend to some extent on me, and that's not the case. The only part I have in it is that I believe. I have faith, I believe in it, but God, it's God's work from beginning to end, isn't it? But he has not predestinated anyone to help. No, he hasn't. No, we never could say that, no.
That's going too far in the other direction.
Away responsibilities.
We learned from Psalm 110 that the Lord will be in the dew of His youth.
When we see him and we learn from Philippians Chapter 3 that we're going to be like him.
And so we put those two scriptures together, we would learn that.
Some of the Saints, like my father, has passed away at the age of 90, old and bearing the marks of decay in his body. When I see him again, he's going to be like the Lord Jesus, and I have confidence from those two scriptures that I'm going to see him in the dew of his youth.
Is everyone in Christ? Part of the bride is going to be 33 1/2?
Pretty good thought, I don't want to start an argument.
One thing we know for sure that the last verse of Hebrews 11 Says.
That they without us should not be made perfect, so that we're going to be made perfect. And when that moment comes, those that have passed on before, whether Old Testament Saints or new, will also be made perfect. That's the day of glory. That's when we'll get the glorified body.
Could one ask a question then in regards to what we've been hearing as to our changed bodies, glorified bodies? And someone explained a little bit, and I've heard this before, I think, but I think it's good to have it rehearsed again as to that which took place at the Lord's desk there in Matthew 27 and verses 52 and 53.
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Read the portion.
I'll read 51 And behold, the veil of the temple was rent and twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent, and the graves were opened. Many bodies of the Saints which slept arose and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.
These were those that had died just fairly recently so they could be recognized and they died again with something like Lazarus. That's not the rapture or the resurrection that will partake of it. The rapture, it's a special event to prove the resurrection of Christ and just to show in a little way the power of resurrection, lest there be any doubt in the minds of his own at that time, or even as a testimony to the Jews to show that there was, there was a power there, a tremendous power.
But it's interesting that the graves were open here at the resurrection of these ones because they came out with their natural body. When Lazarus was raised from the dead, the Lord Jesus said to them, roll away the stone. There was something that was hindering Lazarus coming forth. The closed graves were hindering those Saints in Jerusalem that had died to come to come forth. But it's interesting that as we've been saying, when the Lord Jesus comes and gives the shout.
We're going to have a body that's not subject to physical hindrances. And if you just notice as you go on in our chapter.
Where he says in the 52nd verse that or in the 51St verse, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed comma part of the same sentence in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Because we have bodies now that are subject to physical hindrances. And if I can illustrate it this way, here we are sitting in this Convention Center this afternoon, and above us there's a ceiling and a roof and things that are hindering these natural bodies.
From ascending to meet the Lord Jesus in the air. But when the Lord Jesus gives the shout, there's going to be an instantaneous change so that this ceiling and the roof above us or whatever is above us at the time is not going to be a hindrance for us to rise immediately to meet the Lord in the air. Now what about the Saints who've died in faith? They're going to be raised with those bodies. And it must be so because.
That 50 fathoms of water or that 6 feet of earth or wherever that body is today, there's a physical hinders. And I don't want to press this, but you do not read the rapture of the graves being open because they won't need to be opened because the Saints will be raised with bodies that won't be subject to that 6 feet of earth or whatever is a hindrance to them. And so that takes care of all the difficulty. We wonder well, there's.
Several 100 people sitting in these seats this afternoon. Most if not all of us are ready to go at the rapture. Will it be a difficulty to leave this room? No. There's going to be in the moment, in the twinkling of an eye, an instantaneous change. And we'll have that body. And has been said we're going to when we meet the Lord, not only going to be with Christ, but like Christ. Let me tell a little story about a sister I used to visit in the hospital in Smith Falls. She's been with the Lord many years now, but.
She lay on a hospital bed for many years. Her body was weak, rocked with pain. And every time I went in to see her, a glad smile would light up on her face. And she would always begin the conversation by saying, Jim, I've just been lying here considering the fact that any moment I'm not going to be just with Christ. I'm going to be like Christ. What a comfort. What other comfort would a person who'd laying on a sick bed for years have?
If they didn't have that hope of not only being with Christ, but what it's what thrilled her soul was to think that she was going to exchange that body of pain, that vile body, that body that breaks down. She was going to exchange it for a body of glory.
Like unto his body of glory. And brethren, it is going to happen. We talk about it, but it is going to happen. We shall not all sleep. Thank God we know that those who are have have been laid in the grave. Those who have died in faith, thank God we know they're going to be raised, but we shall not all sleep. And when Paul in the 4th chapter of First Corinthians, First Thessalonians said, we which are alive and remain, who is he referring to?
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He was referring to himself in the Thessalonian believers. Now later on he realized that he was going to lay down his life for Christ. But when he wrote to those Thessalonian believers and said we which are alive and remain, he was expecting the Lord Jesus to come at any moment and take him and those Thessalonian believers away to meet the Lord in the air. Now brethren, can't we claim that for ourselves? If Paul could say it in his day, how much more do you realize we've never been closer to the Lord's coming than we are at this moment?
We're just on the eve of the Lord's return, and we're going to exchange it all for a meeting in the air where we'll never get weary, we'll never have to go out and get a drink. We're never going to have to go to our rooms to go to bed and get some rest. Thank God for the comforts and mercies that we enjoy on a weekend like this. But there's a meeting in the air, brethren, where all those things are going to be done away, and our sole occupation will be himself and his praise. It does say the dead in Christ shall rise.
First, I put it lightly and I apologize for it. They're in the Lord's Head Start program and they will go before us. What Kelly said, and I think Darby too, that infinitesimal difference of time, it's almost simultaneous, but they do go first. That's wonderful. Those that are in the ground, you know, are in the sea or in the.
Atmosphere floating around. They've sent up capsules now they want to prevent the Lord just in those capsules.
But they pay a lot of money to have them float around. But anyway, that's another subject. But those that are have taken the Thessalonians, they were waiting for the Lord from heaven. How long ago? Almost 2000 years ago.
You think they're disappointed? No. It'll be just like overnight. You know when he comes. And it's not a long, dreariest time.
It's they will not be disappointed. Let's just say a word about this expression sleep, lest there be any confusion in our minds, because there has been confusion down through the ages when it speaks of the Saints sleeping. It never has to do with the sleep of the soul. When a person dies, whether they die in faith or whether they die without Christ, they are in a place of consciousness the moment they draw that last breath.
We won't take time to go over to it, but you know very well from the story the Lord Jesus told in Luke's gospel as he pulled the curtain aside, two men died. Now, when we tell the story of a man living on earth and the story ends with his death, there's no more we can say. But the Lord Jesus didn't stop with their death. They died, but he pulled the curtain aside to show that they were each in a place of consciousness.
One was in a place of conscious torment and the other was in a place of conscious bliss. Now I only point that out to show that there's no such thing in Scripture as soul sleep. When he speaks of sleep here, it's simply the sleep of the body, and it's only those who died in faith in Scripture that are referred to as asleep. You get that in the Old Testament with Abraham and others who died in faith, they're referred to as sleeping.
Because in connection with the sleep of the body, sleep is a temporary state of things. When we go to our rooms this evening and we lie down and go to sleep in the normal course of things, we have every expectation that it's only temporary. In a few hours we're going to rise up and we're going to go on our way, come back to these meetings or whatever. It's temporary. And when one dies in faith, it's only a temporary thing.
I remember it was a great comfort to me to stand at the grave of my father and to realize that this was not the end of the story. This was not the end of the story, and that I would see my father again in resurrection. We laid the body in the grave, but it's only for a little time. And so it says, we shall not all sleep, that is, we may not all die. We're looking for the Lord Jesus. My father was looking for the Lord Jesus to come. He wasn't looking for death. He was looking for the rapture.
00:40:07
And so we're not all going to sleep, but we are all going to be changed. As we said, the dead are going to rise with those changed bodies. We're going to get an instantaneous change. And then it says that we're going to be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord? So I just say again, when it talks about the sleep of those who died in faith, it is always simply the sleep of the body, not the sleep of the soul.
The Lord Jesus told the dying thief.
Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. If the soul was asleep, what would paradise mean to him? He was conscious. The long sleep. Long sleep? It's not true. I mean, the body's left. The souls are not sleeping.
Let's add a few things to that.
The ones that die in faith it says sleep, but the ones that die without Christ is torment. Yes, there's a great difference between those two. The the possible could say to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. But to depart and go into a lost eternity is a travesty.
But even in Luke 16, the rich man and Lazarus, after they died, they were both a conscious.
Memory. The rich man saw Lazarus and Abraham's bosom, that I had five brothers, and so on.
They weren't. I mean, the idea of soul sleep is nonsense. It's not not true. They they were very much awake as to where they were and some suffering torment and others in the Abraham's closet place of blessing and type, a rich man was naked and Lazarus was unclothed.
There's the difference, Lazarus never be late naked in the in the heavens, but the rich man was naked. He'll never be otherwise. So they do not have their bodies, yet they're there in spirit either in a place of conscious enjoyment of Christ or a place of conscious torment. They do feel the rich man who died, he, he felt pain, he felt physical thirst. They do feel in that way.
Lazarus was comforted. He felt the comfort of being in Abraham's bosom. But they do not have their bodies yet. For the Saints we get those glorified bodies at the Rapture, where the wicked dead, they will be raised bodily at the great White Throne judgment, to stand there for the last condemnation and to be cast bodily into the lake of fire. And they will have a body that will exist, not live, but a body that will exist forever.
In the lake of fire, in the in the bottomless pit, in a place of torment. What an awful thing it will be for us. We will have a body of glory that will enjoy that spear and realm of heaven for eternity. I believe that we said it before we repeat it. We don't intelligently speak of the Saints that have departed as being in glory. No, they are not there yet. They're absent from the body present with the Lord. But being in glory means in the glorified state.
And that includes the body, and that will take place at the Rapture.
Scriptures before us mentioned the different flush. I was thinking perhaps this could be an example of the change. The Lord tells us that there is a difference between the flush of the birds and of the fish and so on. If we think of that. The body is made specifically for the type of media that it survives in. A fish can do anything outside the water. A man can swim like a fish, but can stay underwater like a fish, because our body is not made for that.
Nor can a man or a beast fly like a bird. And the Lord made one specifically for that. And when that shout comes, we'll see that new bodies. You know, the other day in our newspaper, it said something about they discovered some new Galaxy 100. I don't know things like that though. My mind too well, hundreds of millions of light years away. Well, you think about our physical body.
If we could travel at the speed of light, if we could, we know we're nowhere near that. How are they to get there? How are we as men to get there? But with that new body, we don't know where that is, isn't it? That heavenly body that all things will be reviewed for us and forward to that new, not just the body itself. That really is only a small part of it that but to be in the heavenly places what Christ is. Oh what a blessed thing it is for us. And if you think about that.
00:45:24
All these scenes of problems and difficulties that we face today really should seem small. You know, I was thinking on on the way here and some of you may have heard that we left. We traded 1010 inches of snow and ice for this sunny weather here. I wasn't sure that was a good thing or not. But on the way here, we encounter a lot of difficulties. We see people really got upset at the way that we have such a long wait at various places. But you know, I looked at it and say I wasn't happy neither, but it was just something temporary.
I was not going to live in the airport. Whether it stays well or not is really not my problem. In fact, it's Uganda with all the people waiting the the whole airport looked like a garbage dump. You got children throwing candies all over the place, you know, wrappers and all. Well, that was my home. I know my wife would be pretty upset at seeing that. And, you know, some of us would be forced to clean up. Well, that was just the airport. It wasn't our responsibility. We're just the travelers, you know, in this case, we're strangers and pilgrims in this world.
We're just moving on in, brethren, what are we dwelling on to be dwell on the problems. Do we look at it and that we do then we will feel the problems and difficulties in this world. When we look ahead of brother mentioned earlier with our vision, what is our vision here? It tells us that it should be the eternal, it should be word crisis. And if that's what we want to be and know that we soon shall be there.
All these things around us should become very little of a problem when we read, and I'm going to read it again, verse 49, as we have borne the image of the earth, we do bear it, every one of us. There's that image right here. We shall also bear the image of the heavenly. I want to put a question to all of us.
What impact does that have on your soul?
What does that mean to you? That you shall body, soul and spirit bear the image of the heavenly Be just like Christ. Just like Christ? What does that mean to you?
Will that result in a change of your life?
Will that result in?
A difference it ought to let's just read a verse or two, Chuck, and to show what impact this ought to have in first John.
Now I know in first John 3 here he's looking on to more than just the rapture is when he appears and so on. But the principle is here. First John chapter 3 and verse 2.
Behold, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Now notice this, and every man that hath this hope in him.
Purifieth himself even as he is pure. Now it's interesting in John's Gospel, the Lord Jesus simply said to the disciples, and it's recorded by the apostle John that he where I am, there ye may be also we're going to be with Christ. But it's John that later develops the fact, as we said earlier, that not only are we going to be with Christ, but we're going to be like him. And when he comes back to appear in glory, we're going to appear in glory with him.
He's going to declare I and the children whom God hath given me. But as brother Chuck raised the question, what impact does this have on our lives? But I believe, brethren, hear what we find. It is in the measure in which you and I enter in, in our souls to the fact that we are one day going to be with and like Christ. In that measure, it will have a practical purifying effect on my on our lives. Why is it so often I'm a careless Christian?
Why is it so often I don't act in the character and dignity of a Son of God now? Because I don't have in my soul the enjoyment from day-to-day of the truth, the hope of the Lords coming, and the fact that I am going to be be like, be like Christ in that measure. It's going to have that impact so that my walk is in accordance with one who is just passing through this world as the sun and as an air of God.
00:50:06
But if we lose sight of the end of the goal, it's that verse that was just quoted again, and I can't stress it enough. Where there is no vision, the people perish. If we have a vision of what's ahead, then every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure. I heard of a young man, just a little story. I heard of a young man who had a motto on his bathroom mirror. It simply said, perhaps today.
I thought that was very good because he wanted to be reminded every day when he got up and looked in the mirror that this might be the day of the Lord's return. And brethren, if the truth of the Lord's coming and these things we've been Speaking of, the glory that's ahead, if that is a reality in our soul, if we really say perhaps today in our souls, then we will have that proper character and it will have the impact Chuck was Speaking of.
Before we get too far away from a few, whether we're going to go speaking.
I would like to have a comment or two on when one deceases.
The Saints will say he or she went to be with the Lord, which is common.
Or you hear from the world. Oh, I don't think he made it.
God's Word says to.
Save.
One or the other is to bring Christ down from above or raise Christ up from the dead to that. Comment on that please.
Somebody repeat it please.
Somebody who heard it.
What do you want? Come to the mic, There's one right there.
As I was saying.
The world says after someone deceases, oh he or she went didn't make it and the brethren will say he or she went to be with the Lord. God's word says to.
Say one or the other is to bring Christ up again from the dead or.
I'm sorry, I can't remember what I said. Up again from the dead or down from the heavens.
Can I have a comment on that please?
Whenever I preach a funeral, I always commence.
She is not here. I want to emphasize that she is not here and I point to the the coffin. We're not talking about someone laying there then that we can get into it all the truth. But I don't quite get your question. You never bring Christ down.
The thought I think you had never We always go up and heaven is up.
Brought up many times in Scripture. So when you say she is not here, she's risen, and that doesn't mean she's got her body yet, her spiritual body in that sense, her heavenly body. But she is absent from this body, present with the Lord. And you can pound away on that and never be lost with that thought.
That person is not risen. You didn't mean that. That person is departed to be with Christ, which is far better. But that person will not be risen until the Lord comes and takes us home. You mean the body? Yeah, The body, Yeah.
But she's just as much with Christ. That's right. Yeah.
When the world says she didn't make it mean she died, she didn't. She didn't continue. It's not a failure on God's part in any way. Question is, did she die in faith? Did she? Did she goes to be with Christ? If she died without faith, she goes to her own place, which is a place of torment, and that's sealed the moment a person takes that last breath.
Often too, when the world say she didn't make it, they really mean that that was final. Because the world has no hope. They lose that person forever.
00:55:08
And you will find a contrast, a figural for those who are lost. There's no hope. You see the wailing there, see the crying, the sorrows. Whereas we're not we're not made without any feelings neither we see the sadness that a Christian funeral, but yet we know that it won't be long that we will be together. So the difference is is great. We see some laughters. Perhaps we see the big difference in knowing that we soon and as I I, I enjoy the hymn there.
There's a hymn writer I think is in the back of the book. There is that I can remember that. I think it's hymn #19 that sets about.
Yes, there yet another morning my spirit may be free as absent from the body at home. O Lord, were they. O sleep, O rest, how precious, as guarded by thy care. I'm waiting for thy promise.
To meet thee in the air. Since you quoted that, there's a mixture in that verse between what happens at death and what happens at the rapture. And this person that wrote this hymn evidently believed in soul Sleep. Oh, sleep. Oh rest. How precious. What's precious about the body sleeping?
It's, it's, it's wrong. It's not a scriptural. It's a mixture of what happens at death with what happened. The, the Protestant reformers believed that when a person died, they, the Lord came to take them home. They mixed the rapture, which takes place for all of us with what happens to each individual at death. And that's, that verse is a mixture. I've crossed it out in my book. I don't sing it.
Because it's wrong. I go to the next one and it's a lovely hymn by that wife's favorite, but not that verse. And I know on the 28th revision, the KLCS had it. That verse is missing. They've taken it out because it's wrong. I was going to say something. I said I don't want to say that, but since you brought it up, I had to say something. It's not a correct. I'm glad you did.
There's nothing worse than to take a funeral where majority and perhaps all.
I have no hope. It's a dreadful thing really. Now I should give teeth and weeping. And you know, the the woman was lost. Her son was saved. In fact, the meeting was in his home. But I think they were 5 or 600 whalers. And you know, the minute I started to talk, they wailed. And finally I just stood there and I said there shall be.
Weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. I hope you are not practicing for that. And you know, when one started to wail after that husband took her out and I had peace and quiet and I could give a gospel. Couldn't say much about the woman. Not that we don't sorrow at a Christian funeral because Paul said in the Fourth of First Thessalonians he didn't say we sorrow. We don't sorrow, but we sorrow not as others who have no hope.
And that's what makes the difference. We sorrow. In fact, I sometimes think the Christian in a way sorrows deeper than the unbeliever, because our affections have already been awakened. And there's a love when when one of our loved ones or a brother or sister and Christ passes away, there's a bond and a love there that the world doesn't know about or understand. And so well, we may sorrow deeper yet The difference is we don't sorrow with despair.
The unbelievers sorrow with despair because deep down they have a conscience that makes them realize that there is an eternity and that they will never see that one again. Or they might put on a bravado and say many things, but deep down it's really despair. I used to I say that because I used to think we should become callous to those things. But when you see the Lord Jesus at the grave of Lazarus after 30 some years of life here, he wasn't callous to sin and its effects, and he loved Lazarus, He loved Martha and Mary.
And he lifted up his voice and wept at the grave of Lazarus, as he entered in to the effects that sin had brought in and the sorrow that had resulted in that little home. He wept with them. And so we weep with those that weep. We feel it when one we know and love passes away. But isn't it tremendous to think that it's not with sorrow because we death has become our servant now to simply bring us into the presence of the Lord Jesus?
01:00:17
I'd like to get on in the next reading to 1St Thessalonians 4. Let's look at verse fifty of our chapter. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. That is the state in which we now are, cannot enter into His presence because we need a change as to the body.
Neither does corruption. This body is a corruptible body inherent in corruption. Behold, I show you a mystery. This is one of the mysteries. I think this is the only passage that really gives us what we're going to see right now. We shall not all sleep. We should not all die or sleep, but we shall all be changed. I think the is the only place that actually speaks of the change at the time of the rapture. We shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.
Trump For the trumpet shall sound of the dead shall be raised incorruptible, A body that cannot die. And we shall be changed. We the living shall be changed. For this corruptible, that term applies to one who has died in faith. They have a corruptible body must put on this new body. This incorrect able must put on incorruption. And this mortal, that's the living St. every one of us is in a mortal body that is capable of dying and will die if the Lord doesn't come before that.
Must put on immortality a body that cannot die. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, the term corruptible and incorruption applies to the body and mortal and immortality. When this mortal shall have put on immortality, that applies to the the one who is living at the time of the Lord's coming on what this mortal should put on an immortal body and the the corruptible puts on an incorruptible body, that's one who's died at the time of the Lord's coming.
They, it's not that there's an incorruptible body and an immortal body that so they're different, but it describes the state they were in when the Lord came. They were either in a corruptible state where the body has gone into corruption, or they're in a moral state where the body is capable of dying. We're in a moral state right now.
So when this corruptible should have put on incorruption, this mortal should have put on immortality. The first one there's a resurrection of the dead. The second one, there's the change of the living. Saints 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, the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Where 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, the resurrection proves that everything we do here for Christ will be rewarded and meet with His approval, and so we will not. It's not done in vain.
No, I didn't expound all that, so I left it up to you. An unbeliever can die bravely, but only a Christian can really die victoriously and triumphantly. Just let me use an illustration from history. In the days of of Nero, the Roman Empire, of the Roman emperor, he had soldiers that went out and gave their lives bravely in the service of their emperor and their and the empire. They died bravely. But the Christians who were thrown to the lions or killed in other ways in the Coliseum, they didn't just die bravely, they died triumphantly.
And we know from history that those triumphant deaths were often more of a testimony than the person's life had been, because the unbelievers looked on with the wicked looked on, and they knew there was something more than just hope in this life. They knew there was something, some substance to what these people possessed. They knew their soldiers could die bravely, but they never really seen people die victoriously and triumphantly, many of them singing.
As they went into eternity, I remember one time I had an elderly aunt and she was in the hospital in Smiths Falls and she was drawing near the end. And the contrast really struck me because as I stood by her bedside and she gently drew those last breaths, a smile crossed her face and I knew she was home with the Lord, absent from the body, present with the Lord, left this life in the conscious enjoyment of Christ.
01:05:05
As I stood there, I thought of what had happened just a night or two before in that same hospital hall, just a few rooms down the from her room, there was a man who had passed away as well left this life. He was a well respected man in the town of Smiths Falls. He was a businessman who had had some success and so on. He was respected as a charitable person. But he drew near the end, and I'll never forget as long as I live, the whales.
That filled that hospital hall as he came to the end and realized he was without Christ. He wailed and cursed with his last breaths. What a contrast. But for us brethren, Oh death, where is thy sting? Death has simply become our servant. As I said, to bring us into the presence of the of the Lord Jesus, my father in the last week of his life. His breathing was difficult, his body was weak. He said I just want to go home.
He was looking forward to it. Death had No Fear for him. In fact, he was looking forward to it. If the Lord didn't come in the meantime, all he wanted to do was draw that last breath and know that he was at rest with the Lord Jesus. Only a Christian can die in that, in that way. So I say again, the man of the world may die bravely. The Christian dies victoriously.
Why does it say that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God?
Well.
I would turn to Luke 24. The Lord had to convince his apostles who he was, that he was a man, the man Christ Jesus, and he said.
1St 382438 Why are you troubled? Why do thoughts arise in your heart? Behold my hands and my feet. It is I handle me and see. For a spirit hath not flesh and bone, as you see me here.
No blood. Go ahead. See me. Have what? See me have, he said.
You miss Ready. I just quit. You're reading Darby. No, I'm not reading the King James.
Yes, sorry I only got one eye. I do the best I can.
I.
This body is corruptible. It cannot inherit a corruptible thing, cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. It's just that simple. Has to be changed. It has to be incorruptible.
I heard a preacher once say when the Lord comes the rapture, I want to be by a graveyard and I want to see the the earth fly. Well, it ain't going to fly, brother. It's not going to fly. No, that that body that raises is raised is a body that won't disturb the earth one little bit.
I had a client who requested to be buried the nearest plot to the entrance to the cemetery. When the Lord comes. He wanted to get out quick and all wrong Thoughts. I won't tell you his religion.
A mystery and scripture is something that was secret, unrevealed. This detail that we have in this passage, unrevealed in Old Testament scriptures, it's it's a secret now revealed. And so we can believe it now. It's not a secret to us anymore. It's told us what it is, that how we're going to get our resurrection bodies and how they're living are going to be changed. I think it's the only passage that speaks of the living being changed at the rapture.
So we can go back and understand what both Job and David said.
In connection with this, and they must marvel, Job must have marveled when he recorded by inspiration those words in my flesh. I shall see God. He must have wondered what have I written? He didn't understand it in the light of what we have in the New Testament and what we've had from the Scriptures before us this day, David said I shall be satisfied when I awaken thy likeness. We understand it explained here in first Corinthians 15 and Philippians three, I think, and other places.
01:10:08
And so we go back and we enjoy this, but they must have marveled at it. But brethren, we are going to be satisfied when we awaken our likeness in flesh. We are going to see God. God hasn't left us in any doubt because though in the Old Testament they penned many things that they desired to look into and couldn't because the full revelation hadn't been given yet. What Marx? Christianity is intelligence. He's abounded unto us in all wisdom and prudence. Or really the thought is intelligence.
And we don't have to be unintelligent as to what lies beyond this life. We know what lies. We stand at the grave of a loved one who's died in faith. Do we have to speculate? Michael Faraday was lying on his deathbed. The great scientist and a friend came to him and said, what are your speculations for eternity? He said speculations. I rest uncertainties. I don't have speculations for eternity. I have certainties given to me from the word of God.
And so we have certainties. We preach a funeral. We don't speculate where this person is. We have certainties. We're looking for the Lord to come. We look at the condition of the world breaking down around us. Do we have? Do we? Do we have?
Uncertainties as to what is, what is ahead. No, we have certainties because He's given us these things in His Word, given us the Spirit of God so that we can enjoy them and understand them, illustrated them from the Old Testament. Brethren, we're the most blessed people on the face of the earth.
But eternity is not a leap in the dark. We have light as to what is ahead in 52, verse 52, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump. Now, the twinkling of an eye is not a wink. It's not even a flick. It's even faster than that. And you know, the wise Greeks tried to get a different term to use in this portion 52.
They used the thought of a.
Flap of a hummingbird's wing, single flap. And then they also said the the note of a heart string and one other was the buzz of a gnat, but they couldn't really grasp it, nor can we. It is so quick. It's going to happen. And the Trump shell sound, I think that's a beautiful thought that that brings in.
I think it's.
Numbers 10, probably verse 3.
They assemble at the Trump, the sound of that trump #311 Three, I think, I don't want to turn to it, but there is a Trump and they all assemble. So that's the thought here. When the Trump, the last Trump, we all assemble up to glory. It's beautiful, isn't it, to see all this tie in with Old Testament.
We've already had before us. The mystery was not revealed in the Old Testament, but I'm just looking at Proverbs 11 and verse seven says when a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish, and the hope of the of unjust men perish it. They did seem to have a sense that it was all over for the wicked. They didn't know what had happened to the believer, though I suppose they were in the presence of God consciously.
But the first man who knew that was the dying thief. He was the first one to know while he was still living.
Where he would be when he died with Christ isn't that wonderful to know? And now we have that assurance too, with Christ. I'm glad you said brought that up, Tom, because we don't want to give the impression that the Old Testament Saints didn't have hope. They did have hope, and David refers to his hope. They didn't have the certainty, as you say, that we do, nor did they have the understanding of just what all that hope entailed. And so we have a far greater understanding of that.
But yes, they did. They did have a hope, but there was always a little bit of uncertainty connected with their hope. And there was a little bit of a veil there, a darkness that they didn't really penetrate. But they did have hope. They thought that the dead praise thee. Not like they didn't know what state they would be in.
They knew God would, but they didn't know how. We know how. There's a lot of difference, isn't there? We know how He did it.
01:15:01
Gave us life eternal someone said, I know it when the Lord comes the the dead shall be raised what happens to us who are alive well this chapter tells us we shall be changed and that the state the the power put forth into changing us is no less than the power put forth to raise the dead and.
Both bring us into likeness and His presence.
But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, the power of Satan, which is death, is not.
Diminished or gone? Is it? What's this? What's this victory? It's brings it out in Hebrews too, I think, very clear. It's not that. It's not that he's destroyed Satan's power. Not yet.
Hebrews chapter 2. Have to get there fast.
A.
Sorry, get it?
OK, verse 14.
I think I'll read it. OK OK, for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same. I think it's that through death he might annul that should not be destroyed annull him that has the power of death that is the devil, in other words.
As to those that belong to Christ, it's a null. That power can't touch me. Death. That's the difference. It isn't destroyed yet, it will be.
I think it's a nice point to bring out. And then it says in John or in Romans 8 where more than victors, What's the rest of that? I could turn to it through him that loved us more than what is more than a victor.
Well, the rest of it tells it, doesn't it, that we're not only conquerors, because when they conquer, they got to occupy and they're not done. Iraq enough, said you, you don't. The Hitler conquered, but he had to occupy.
Keep them down. They're always resisting, but not with us when we conquered, when the Lord conquered the devil, Satan, he's done with us unless we invite him, then as far as he can do something. This is then what you have in the last verse where it says always abounding in the work of the Lord. This goes back to what Chuck raised earlier. What is the impact that this truth should have on us? We ought to always be abounding in the work of the Lord. Why?
Because as much as you know it, that your work, your labor, is not in vain in the Lord. If there's no resurrection, if we have no hope beyond this life, even if it was hope in Christ, but only for this life, why would we labor? Why would you give up present advantage? Why would a man go over to Africa and leave the comforts of home to spread the gospel to those who've never heard it before? If there's no, if there's nothing beyond this life, if it's all over when it's over down here?
Then you don't give up those things. But he says there is something beyond. There is a resurrection there. We are going to be with Christ. There is a harvest. The fruit is going to be displayed. Maybe we don't see the fruit of our laborers. Now, brethren, you give out tracts. You labor for the Lord in some little corner of the vineyard that He's placed you. You say I never see any fruit, I never see any results. Don't look for fruit this side of glory. It's true. The Lord does sometimes. Let us see fruit to encourage us.
And that's wonderful. We rejoice in that. But if we're simply looking for fruit this side of glory, we're going to get discouraged. But be assured that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. There's a day when it's all going to be brought out and it's all going to be displayed for his glory. And so in flight of the fact that he's risen from the dead, that we're looking for the resurrection, we're going to be there with and like Christ. All these things that we've discussed in these two readings.
Now he brings it down to a practical exhortation because, brethren, if we sit here and we take up this truth and we go out tonight and it has no impact.
It doesn't increase our desire to serve the Lord and the little spear He's given us in connection with the gospel, helping the Saints of God, whatever it might be, then we've wasted our time if it hasn't had that practical impact. And so when he's all done here explaining so very, very carefully.
01:20:11
How this is all going to take place then, he says. Now you go on in light of this.
And you faithfully serve the Lord and know that your labor is not going to be empty or vein, but there's a day coming when it'll all be displayed for the glory of God. What a day it's going to be. Brethren, young people, I want to say something. You don't have to go to India or Africa or Romania or far off Sudan to be a missionary. If you're the Lords, you're here for purpose and the mission field starts where your front yard ends.
And if there are children in your home, the mission field is right there and you don't have to go any particular place. You'll find subjects everywhere. If you look to the Lord to do it for you, He'll reveal the need and give you the power too. It's a wonderful thing to realize you have worked where you are. Yes, Sir, I want to read the last few verses of First Corinthians 3.
I'll start with verse 20 and again the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise.
Brother John Jonathan has told us about this man that has written as very evil book and it's the fastest selling book. He's one of those thoughts of the wise, that they are vain, worthless, of no value, not subject to God. Therefore let no man glory in men, for all things are yours, all things are yours. Let that sink down into our souls, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life.
Or death, or things present, or things to come. All are yours. Ye are Christs. Christ is God's. Let that sink down into our souls.
18 in the appendix.
I.