Verse 37 of 1st Corinthians 15
and that which thou sowest thou sowest Not that body that shall
be But bare grain it may chance
of weed or of some other grain Now the Apostle begins this analogy
in verse 36, so let's look at it again thou fool and Let's start with verse 35 because
that's what he's answering specifically in in our text tonight Some man
will say how are the dead raised up and with what body do they
come? This is an objection to The doctrine of the resurrection
And of course, it's with any kind of mockery of the Word of
God and they're ridiculing they're saying well We don't want people
coming out of the grave. When people die, they rot, they
decompose. So it's foolish to say that they're
gonna rise from the dead. They're gonna be nothing but
bones before long, and not long after that, not even well-defined
bones maybe. And so that's, It's an objection
that represents the way people think in terms of spiritual things. They think in carnal terms. It's
the same thing with salvation. Salvation is a spiritual miracle
that God performs on a sinner, but they wanna make it some fleshly
thing, walk an aisle, say a prayer. Getting baptized is part of being
saved in religion, coming down and making all kinds of decisions
after you make that one all-important decision. It's all fleshly, it's
all outward. It's the way that our Lord rebuked
the Pharisees, is it not? You clean the outside of the
cup. It all has to do with the outward, but the problem is on
the inside. And it's something that only
God can do something about. So you see their objection here. It's a fleshly thing. Why get
hung up on what kind of body they're gonna have if God says,
I'm gonna raise you up? The promise of our Savior is
I will raise you up again at the last day. And they're like,
oh, that don't make any sense. You're gonna be rotted. You're
thinking in fleshly terms about the God who created the universe. He can create a universe, but
he can't raise somebody up from the dead? And that's the way Paul argues
here, you fool. How foolish is that? You have
evidence of God's miraculous power all around you even now,
even in earthly things. Verse 37, that which thou saw. So he begins that analogy in
verse 36. Look at what's happening around
you. It's an analogy between the resurrection and gardening
or farming. And Paul insists here that those
who deny the resurrection are missing God's truth that is displayed
before their very eyes. This isn't done in a corner.
God shows you every day that He has the power to do this.
There's no excuse. The heavens declare the glory
of God. The firmament showeth His handiwork. With this comparison, Paul is
specifically addressing this objection to the resurrection
that it can't be because the body decays after death and it's
not fit to come out of the grave. Paul's first rebuke is to draw
their attention to the way God has ordained that fruit is born
in the earth, something that's easily observed, a seed. like
our bodies, dries up and dies. It shrivels up. And the only
way for that seed to ever be anything but dead is to bury
it and wait on God. It's the same with the resurrection.
When he gets good and ready, he'll do this. Just because you
haven't seen it happen yet, you know how it's gonna happen if
you think. Interesting to think how the
scripture describes the saving of a sinner the same way, by
this same analogy. God's word is the rain that falls
from heaven. And we complain sometimes that
it's raining, but that rain has a purpose from God. He sends
it for a reason. It causes the earth to bring
forth and bud that spiritual life from the dead. That sinner's being, as the scripture
says, born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by
the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Then there's
the death of this body and another transformation. But the same
analogy is used a little differently. Also described as a seed being
germinated and made something other than it was. Other, we're
gonna be changed, Paul said. And the next lesson in this beautiful
admonishment that Paul gives here is our verse 37 here. Not
only must a seed die and be sown, showing what God does with us,
we're gonna die. It is appointed by God unto men
who wants to die. But there's after this, there
is that which is after that. But that seed, when it dies,
it shrivels up and it's not in any way beautiful to look at.
But bury that seed and wait on God. And know this, we've never
seen anything so beautiful as a sinner who has died and been
buried and has raised from the dead and has been made exactly
like the Son of God. We've never seen anything so
beautiful as that with these eyes, ever. Glorious, made in
the image of the heavenly, made to be like Him who made us to
begin with. We've witnessed what can be witnessed
of God giving spiritual life by the raining down of His word.
Invincible gospel that he said will accomplish what he said
it to do We've witnessed what can be witnessed of the Holy
Spirit giving life and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ But this sowing and raising This other sowing this other Death At first we're made dead
to sin and alive unto God, but then when this body dies and
it's sown in corruption and raised in incorruption, we've never
witnessed that yet. We've never seen that happen. But it's foolish to say that
it can't just because we haven't seen it happen. There's a whole
lot we haven't seen God do. We haven't even seen everything
he's done in this earth. There's things that you and I
will never lay eyes on. We've seen the dying part. We've seen the shriveling and
drying up. In this analogy, we've seen the
sowing. But all we've seen of the rest
how God illustrates That for us on the earth We've seen a
beautiful lily and we know that Solomon in all of his glory was
not arrayed like one of those The difference between the bulb
and the flower is immeasurable. It's miraculous But even more so than that will
be the difference between these vile bodies in Christ's glorious
body. You can't measure the difference.
You can't even imagine it. Look at verse 38, God giveth
it a body as it hath pleased him, and that's what he's gonna
do when he raises us out of the grave. That's enough for a believer,
isn't it? Because he doeth all things well.
We don't need particulars. We don't need to know exactly
how Happens because we know who's doing it God God giveth it a
Body as it hath pleased him as a believer what pleases him pleases
us And to every seed his own body
Not only every different type of seed that comes up differently,
but every seed of the same cat comes up a little bit differently
aside from the clear wisdom of the creative power of God that
makes all of this happen, whether earthly or heavenly. We see that
around us. We see that he does as he pleases,
that he's almighty in creation. But consider also how that this
body in which we will stand before him will be, as this verse says,
of the wheat or other grain, It pleases Him. It pleases Him. Because of what Christ did for
us, that's true, spiritually, eternally. He's gonna raise us up and be
pleased with what we are, who we are. Because of the redemption
of us, body, soul, and spirit, by the precious blood of Christ,
we will finally stand Having died, having been sown in corruption,
we will stand incorruptible. We'll stand face to face with
God Almighty in a body that pleases Him, no longer in the body of
this death. We will be pleasing unto Him
insomuch that we'll stand in His very presence, free of sin
or shame or guilt. We can't even hardly imagine
that, can we? We can't imagine it at all, really. Free from any scars of the fall,
free even from the potential to fall again. Now, it does not yet appear what
we shall be. But we know we're gonna be like
the sea. That's good enough, isn't it?
That's good enough to know that. But we shall see him as he is. But you see the power of Paul's
persuasion here, showing the power and prerogative of God
and giving life and fashioning bodies. He does all of these
things. To ask with what body shall a resurrected sinner come
forth is foolish in light of the power of God, which is fully
on display all the time. God gives whatever bodies please
Him. That's the answer to your question
right there. With what body? Whatever pleases
Him. But to question His ability to
do that makes you a fool. That's the answer, you know,
by the way, to most objections of fleshly sinners against God
and his truth. The answer to almost every objection
is our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Was that not the answer to the
objection raised in Romans chapter nine when Paul said, thou wilt
say then, who hath resisted his will? saying basically it's unfair
for God to love the one or hate the other if it wasn't us, if
it's in his control, if it's all up to him. And Paul responds,
in effect, God does what he wants. He said, I'll have mercy on who
I want to have mercy on. And what if God is willing to
do this with one and that with another? He's God. which thought is carried also
into the next point in our text. Look at verse 39. All flesh is
not the same flesh. Let's read a few verses together
here. Here's the next point of this. First of all, you can't
have anything. There can't be life unless something
dies. We can't live without food. And
in order for us to eat, there's got to be death. Same with spiritual things. There's
got to be death if there's going to be life. And then secondly,
God raises up whatever body he wants from that death. And then
thirdly, there's different kinds of flesh. What you see now and
what's going to decay in that grave is not what you're going
to see when God raises us up. There's one kind of flesh of
men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another
of birds. These are created beings, living
beings. There are also celestial bodies
and bodies terrestrial, inanimate things that God creates that
are glorious, by the way. The mountains, the moon and the
stars and the sun, which he's going to mention particularly
next, but the glory of the celestial is one glory. and the glory of
the terrestrial is another. There's one glory of the sun
and another glory of the moon and another glory of the stars,
for one star differs from another star in glory. Every day, God
made it just like he wanted it. And look at it. We can't do anything
like that. So why would we limit ourselves
in thinking of what God has said he will do? Why would we limit
our thinking to what we can understand? We can't make a star. We can't make water, we can't
make anything. He's saying, you fool again,
you fool. Just look around you. What vulgar sinners call Mother
Nature is the creative power and sustaining power of God Almighty
on display. We just say, well, oh, it's Mother
Nature, you know, that all this is just the result of an explosion.
And just because you see miracles every day doesn't make them less
miraculous. A miracle is something only God
can do and not man. Is water then a miracle? Can
you make some of that? Has anybody in all of our scientific
knowledge over centuries, have we learned to make one drop of
water? And look back again at verse
38. When you look at the different
species of animals, also, but listen, God's power on display,
verse 38, God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him. All of
those things mentioned in the next verses that we just read,
celestial, terrestrial, living creatures, God giveth it a body. as it hath pleased him. I like
that, don't you? It pleases us too, some people
anyway. But he did it like it pleases
him. And we question, you know, why
did God do that? And why did God make dogs? Because he likes dogs. It's that
simple. It pleased him. Why did he make things at the
bottom of the ocean that you and I will never, nobody, no
man will ever see? because it's not all about man.
He made it for himself. He wanted to. It pleased him
to do it. Look what he has done and think
what he can do and swallow your foolish objections concerning
what God might or might not do with us. Verse 42 in our text,
so also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption
and is raised in incorruption. Different kind of flesh, different
kind of body. And you may already be thinking,
are we gonna have an actual body? Well, we're gonna come to that,
I believe we will. We have one kind of body now,
we'll have another kind of body then. That's clear from the context. According to the same power,
wherewith Christ is also able to subdue all things unto himself.
He does what he wants to. Now our bodies are corrupt. They
are subject to the consequences of our sins. So consider that
part. It's sown in corruption, it's
raised in incorruption. He's gonna say that several times,
but with different Factors in the next few but he's gonna say
so and raised so and raised. Here's the first one sown in
corruption Our bodies are subject to the
consequences of our sin which is death Physical death the word in our
text is perishable and Perishable well that really brought
it home to me Because what I thought of when I thought of the word
perishable our bodies are going to be Like a banana that went
bad in the refrigerator That's kind of graphic isn't it, but
that's the truth these bodies are perishable But that makes it all the more
glorious the next part We will be raised and incorruption. And this word incorruption teaches
us something about what perishable is. There's two parts to this. Being corrupt is not just dying,
not just deteriorating, but the reason we're deteriorating is
because of what we are, what we're made of. This is the body
of this death that Paul referred to. He was referring to the evil
within us, but also that's who we are. That's our persona. We will be raised in incorruption,
and that word means perpetuity. That's what we think. We're never going to age. Not
one cell of our body is ever going to die. If there are cells,
we don't know that then. no deterioration, no diminishing,
but also purity. That's why there's no deterioration. That's why there's a perpetuity
of youth because of what we're made of in pure, perfect, holy
like our Lord. We know from scripture that we're
going to be like God's son. We will be like him because we'll
see him as he is. Flesh and blood can't inherit
the kingdom of God. It won't be this flesh and blood.
It'll be a different body, but a body. And we can't understand that,
we've never seen a body like that, but we've seen, as Paul
points out so forcefully here, all different kinds of bodies,
and God made all of them. He's gonna make that one too. Look at verse 43, it's sown in
dishonor, and it's raised in glory. Those are interesting
opposites, aren't they? not only deteriorating and impure,
but corrupt in another way, dishonorable. We die because of our sin. We
die having failed miserably to ever do anything that we were
made to do. That's terribly sad, isn't it?
God made man to glorify him. We have never done that. Not
any of ourselves. If we ever glorify him in worship
or service or whatever, it's not I, but Christ that dwelt
in me. This part's got to go now. It's worthless. It's less
than worthless. It's an affront to God. People say that when they die,
they want to leave a legacy. I want to leave a legacy behind
me. You're going to leave a legacy, all right. A legacy of sin and shame and
regret Now we finally remember our loved
ones, and rightly so. This is not about that. But honestly,
before God, what are you gonna be proud of when you're at death's
door? What are you gonna look back and say, well, I at least
accomplished that? Really, as a believer, are you
gonna do that? I hope nothing. I hope there's nothing like that
that you'll look back on. Paul said, oh, wretched man that
I am. And with our last breath, we
could say that very thing, because it'd be true. Oh, wretched man
that I am. Who shall save me from the body
of this death? But raised in glory, raised in
glory, Raised hearing the words from God, well done, thou good
and faithful servant. Raised with a crown of righteousness, which is the righteousness of
our savior. Raised with a white robe that's
been washed in the precious blood of God's lamb. In that same verse, we have the
next set here, sown in weakness. Weakness. We just getting weaker,
aren't we? Weaker and weaker and weaker.
And finally, our body won't even be able to breathe again. We'll
be so weak. Not only physically, but mentally
weaker. Strength of purpose and will
wanes all the time. such as it is in the first place.
And us dying is our body losing its last bit of strength, but raised in power. Dying is
not a bad thing. Raised in power, raised in glory,
raised in incorruption. I don't know what this power
is. I don't know what power we will have as glorified saints, but I know
that whatever power it is, it'll be expended in praise to Christ. I guarantee you that. I know it means that all of the
weaknesses of this flesh will be gone. All the inabilities will be abilities. All of the foolishness will be
wisdom. All of the failure will be perfect
success. I don't know how to describe
it to you. Except to say that Christ is
all in making it happen And he's all As the goal of it the reason
it happens For his glory to the praise of the glory of his grace It's sown a natural body It's raised a spiritual body That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. And that which is born of the
spirit is spirit. Now believers are both in this
world. As far as our soul is concerned,
we have two natures. The fleshly nature called the
old man in the scriptures and then there's the new man. They're
not the same. They're not mixed. There are two, you can't read
Romans seven without realizing there are two Pauls in that chapter. There's the one who loves the
law of God and desires to please God. And then there's the one
that can't do anything good. There's the one that wants to,
and there's the one that doesn't. That's when he cried, who's gonna
save me? Look at the mess that I am, look
what a rich I am. But these bodies are not spiritual
in any way. Natural, flesh, and subject to
all these things that have gone before, deterioration, corruption,
weakness. What is a spiritual body? We've got to at least think about
that. We have loved ones who, That's what they are now, a spiritual
body. What is that? Isn't that interesting?
We tend to think of body and spirit as opposites. There's
tangible and intangible. There's the flesh and there's
the spirit. They're two different things, they're separate. How
can a spirit have a body? Is this the glorified body that
our Lord was raised in after he died on the cross and was
buried and rose again? I don't know. He must have hidden
his glory to some extent. We wouldn't be able to look at
it. Like on the Mount of Transfiguration, they were blinded by the glory
that shone from his face and his very robes. His righteousness
was too bright for human eyes. But when he rose from the dead
now, he rose from the dead, and he's the firstborn of the dead.
We're gonna be raised with him, just like him, because of him. And having risen from the dead,
he said, reach hither thy finger, Thomas, and behold my hands. And reach hither thy hand and
thrust it into my side. And be not faithless, but believe. Well, the only way we can answer
what is a spiritual body is with the words of scripture, it doth
not yet appear. We don't know what that even
is. But it's enough to know for now that we will be just like
our master. We're gonna be just like our
savior. You know, it's a wonderful thing
to think about, but impossible to understand how that those
that we love, my dad and those that have died among us here
in this congregation, and loved ones that we've lost that
knew the Lord, that died in Christ. What do they even know of the
concerns that we have? What do they even know of that which brings our hearts
so low on this earth? It does not yet appear what we
shall be. But we're going to be like him.
We're going to see him as he is. And I thought about this,
what's the ultimate goal of everything for a believer? In life right now, how you conduct
yourself, what's your goal in that? People make resolutions,
they say, I'm like this now, but I want to be like this. What's
your goal as a believer? to be like Him. I just want to be like Him. Even in whatever aspects, I don't
even know what that means. I want to be like Him. I know
that much. Followers, imitators of Christ. When somebody offends us, as
we've offended him so many countless times, we want to be like him. Forgiving, even as God, for Christ's
sake, hath forgiven us. I want to be like that. When we pray, I want to be like you. Lord,
teach us to pray. When we suffer, oh, to be like Him who said,
Father, not my will, but Thine, be done. I want to die like Him. Sending
Father into Thy hands, I commend my spirit. Our spirit is not ours to give
like he did but the Lord will take it But Stephen died a little
bit like the Lord Jesus When he said Lord Jesus received
my spirit received my spirit They stoned Stephen at 759 and Calling upon God and saying,
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Whatever the circumstances of
my death, I want to be like that. I want to be like the Savior
in that. And once gone from this world
and being received by him who loved me and gave himself for
me, I want to be like him. And we will be, won't we? We'll
know what that means then. He will have wiped all tears
from our eyes. And we'll be like him for eternity. Oh, to be like him. The goal of everything. now and
in eternity, to be like you. Let's pray.