I was reading the other day a
book that turned with me to 1 Corinthians 15. Charles Spurgeon wrote lectures
to his students and just one of the things that he told his
students. He's a man that showed some interest
in wanting to preach He told them, he said, the Lord taught
by illustration. And he said, I want you to illustrate
your messages. He said, look everywhere for
illustrations. Look in nature, just look. He said, God's speaking all the
time. And he said, teaches the Lord
taught by parables, illustrations. And Jimmy, I wouldn't embarrass
you for anything. I'll just go ahead and be upfront
about it. He knows I mean it. I always try to do it, but I
don't mean it. But as the Lord entrusted his
people, as God the Father entrusted his people to the Lord Jesus
Christ, he gave to the surety, the one who would answer for,
provide for, defend, guide, direct. He entrusted the bride, the church,
to the Lord Jesus Christ. The father did. That's what he
said. And I began to think about my children, each of my children. I've got three girls. And you
raise, you know, your children. You raise these girls, I remember,
as they came up. In time they grow up and they
get married. And what a father has to do is
he has to entrust the care of those kids to a husband. And there's the comfort of knowing
that there's a husband that loves God, believes God, and provides
for your child and then your grandchildren. I thought about
that. Jimmy is a faithful, faithful
man. I thank God Jimmy, Sammy, Tommy,
my grandsons, and Gabe. Isn't that comforting to know
God would give and provide for, that's the way he does his children,
provide for, can you think of a greater surety? The Lord Jesus Christ himself. I pray that God speak to us because
this message, 1 Corinthians 15, I'm gonna begin in verse 35,
there is some beautiful, beautiful illustrations, and that's what
I was building up to. This is a message Illustrations
going to teach you. I'm going to preach Lord willing
on the resurrected body. What nature? Body. We're going through this book.
Now Paul had previously dealt with the certainty of the resurrection. And now having declared the fact
that there will be a resurrection. Those that sleep in Christ are
going to be raised, but those that know not the Lord are going
to be raised too. We're all going to stand before
God. And we're all going to have to give account. Now, for all
those in Christ, their account will be given by their surety. By the one who answers for, who
has eternally stood. in agreement with an everlasting
covenant of grace and said, I will answer. Anything that they need, look
to me. That's what he said. Whatever
their need, I'll provide. Whatever answer they have to
give, I'll answer. That's an advocate. That's a mediator. That's somebody
that'll say, if you've got a question concerning them, You come to
me and you ask me, I'll answer for it. The Lord Jesus Christ,
whoever liveth to make intercession is the surety. And so Paul said
there is a resurrection, but then he begins in verse 35 and
he says, But some, some, man's in italics
here, but some will say, how are the dead raised up? Here's
what they're asking. Some are going to say, how can
it be? How can it be that the dead,
now we're dust, we're corrupted, creatures that have a body that's
going to go back to the dust. And what if one was in a nuclear
blast? What if they were just annihilated? There was absolutely nothing
left that we could find. What if they were burned? What
if a wild animal got them and ate them? And what if something
happened? How can it be that everybody
is going to race? And with what body do they come? What kind of body will it be? How is it possible for life to
come out of death. Now, obviously, we're all familiar,
we're all looking around here and we're all familiar with one
kind of body. Everybody I'm looking at right
here has got two eyes, two ears, a nose, and a mouth, and you're
looking back at me and we have what we're familiar with. We
have what's called a natural body. And these bodies, every
one of these bodies are sustained by four main absolute necessities. There's four things that all
of us absolutely have to have. Number one, we have to have air.
We have to have food. We have to have water. And we
have to have sleep. These, now that, you just, everything
else is optional. But now those four things, you
just, you know, I mean, eventually, now some of them are more, you
know, needful right now. Air would probably be it. You
just try to go ahead and hold your breath as long as you can
and then, you know, you're going to take a breath in just a few
minutes, naturally. But if something happens and
your air is cut off, you ain't going to make it. And then food,
water, you know, water's next, food's next, sleep, you can try
to go quite a few hours, you know, without sleep. But eventually,
you're going to go to sleep. Your body is just, that's a natural
body and that's the way we think. That's about, now, but concerning
this spiritual body. We're gonna have a, there's gonna
be a body that's absolutely different. Some will say, how are the dead? How is it that they're right?
And what kind of body? Paul says in verse 36, fool,
thou fool, that which thou sowest, is not quickened, except it die. Now he's saying, he said, now
unwise, he's not being sarcastic, he's not being mean, he just,
he says, now listen, unwise one, unbelieving one, you that are
ignorant of the power and ways of God, which is all of us, we're
all like that. Old fool, when the Lord spoke
to his disciples, old foolish, slow of heart. Have you not heard? He was just an unwise one, not
being mean and everything. He said, now think like this. Now here's the illustration I
was talking about. He said, that which thou sowest. Fool, that
which thou sowest. Now you start thinking about
farming. Now you've got to, whether you
plant, you know, What are you going to plant in your field?
Corn, wheat, whatever you want to plant. Flowers, whatever you're
going to do. Whatever you're going to do. Here, what you sow,
what we all sow in the ground doesn't spring up or come to
fruition in life unless it goes through a process of death. You plant a seed, you take a
kernel of corn, and what happens, you put it in there, You water
it, fertilize it. Now it's going to die. That kernel
of corn, it's going to have to go through a corruption. It's going to have to go through,
and going through that corruption, after it goes through that process
of dying, the next thing that is marvelous about it, just a
little old shoot comes out of it. I mean it died and the next
thing you got this blade and the stalk and the full ear and
then therefore, Paul says, you're asking what, how can it be? How can it be? And what kind
of body will it be? He said, unwise one, what you
sow, what you sow has to die. in order that life would come.
So therefore we conclude from what we naturally observe that
a seed can't or a plant whatever can't come forth unless that
seed that was planted. You say well I'm gonna hang on
to this kernel of corn and you know because this is the only
security I got. Well you ain't gonna have much. You've got to plant it and for
life to come back, for a stalk of corn to come back, grow up
and get two ears, pretty natural. Three maybe, every once in a
while you'll find it. But for that to come, you're
going to have to put that seed in the ground. It's going to
have to be put in, it's going to have to be covered up, it's
going to have That's just the way it is. Listen, dying, we're
dying creatures. Dying is a vital part of life. We, just like that kernel of
corn, we got to die. This is God's way. Death is not
the annihilation of life. Death, like that little kernel
of corn, is a A changing over. It's a passing over. It's a new
formation of life. The Lord Jesus, speaking of His
death, said in the resurrection, verily, verily, I say unto you,
except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth
alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. We are, unless the Lord comes
back and we're standing on this earth, we're going to die. But
we look at death as being the most horrible thing that could
happen to us, not according to these scriptures. Without that,
will not come forth in a new body, a resurrected body, 37,
38. And that which thou sowest, thou
sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance
of wheat or some other grain, but God giveth it a body as it
hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. When we plant
a crop, we don't plant the mature stalk. We don't cut a long row
there, six feet, whatever tall, and lay a whole stalk of corn
in there. We plant the seed and in time
the plant appears just as God gives every seed its own kind
of body. Look at an acorn, a little old
acorn seed. put it, can you imagine that
little old acorn seed, that there's an oak tree in that thing? Can you imagine? Man, being down
in South Louisiana, I've seen some of these beautiful oak trees
and they, I mean they're this kind, they send out these limbs
that just seem like they're not but about that high off the ground,
they just go way out there, just Strong root system, just beautiful. Oak trees, little old bitty acorn. He said, Almighty God gives that
body, gives that seed, that which it shall produce. And God provides
sovereignly, not only for that seed, but for every one of his
people. And except for past experience. Now you can look at a little
kernel of corn. I can look at a kernel of corn
and I can tell you just about what that stalk is going to look like.
It's going to be a stalk of corn is what it's going to be. I can
look at an acorn and I can tell you just about what an oak tree
is going to look like. from experience. But if I've never seen, if you
show me a seed that I've never seen before, I say, look at that,
what kind of seed is that? I don't know. I don't know, I've
never seen one of those before. They said, well tell me, tell
me what the plant's going to look like. Well, I don't know. I don't know
what it's going to look like. Well, why not? Well, I just,
I don't know. I've never seen one before. I'm
going to have to plant it and find out what it's going to look
like. Just except for past experience, how could any of us determine
what type, what kind, what is the plant going to produce? What
is it going to look like? What is it going to come through? We know based on scripture. Job, turn with me. to Job chapter
19. We've read this passage before,
but let's just, Job 19, verse 25, 26. Here's what Job said. Now this is what the Spirit of
God moved on Job to write. He said, verse 25, Job 19, 25,
I know that my Redeemer liveth. You know what he just said? He
said, I know that Almighty God everlastingly chose me in Christ. And I know He gave me to the
Redeemer. And I know that the Redeemer, who is the Son of the
living God, who agreed in covenant grace to come into this world
and be made flesh and as a man bore my sin in His own body and
redeemed me, laid down His life for the sheep, And I know that
the Spirit of God, based on the revelation of Scripture, is going
to call me out of darkness, has called me out of darkness, because
He knows something right here. God's taught Him something. So
there's a man ruined in the fall because he needed a Redeemer.
I know that my Redeemer, the one that came in here and died
for me, And the Spirit of God that called me out of darkness,
I know that my Redeemer is alive right now. And that he shall
stand at the latter day upon the earth. I know he's coming
back. Can you imagine all that's said in that one verse of scripture?
And he said, though after my skin, worms, destroy this body,
I know I'm gonna die. And I'm gonna go back to the
ground. I'm gonna go back to the dust. Yet in my flesh, in
my flesh shall I see God. Now that right there is a marvelous
revelation of what's going to happen. This is what I know.
I'm going to die and I'm going to be planted and I know that
my Redeemer is going to come back. I'm going to see him, and
I'm going to see him in my flesh. Now, what is that flesh going
to be like? Well, here's what I do know.
I know that we can't tell right now by our present bodies what
this flesh, I know it's going to be flesh. That's what the
Spirit of God said. I know it is. I know we're going
to have a body. I know we are. We're going to
be flesh, but it's going to be changed flesh. I know that we're
all going to be changed. That's what Scripture says. And
we'll be changed, we'll be flesh, we're going to see God, and we're
going to know each other. Matthew 17 on the Mount of Transfiguration,
when Peter, James, and John were standing there with the Lord,
and the Lord allowed that which veiled His glory for them just
to behold, garments shown brighter than the noonday sun. And Peter
just made a statement, you know, he said, let's make three tabernacles,
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elias, one for Elijah.
You know, which he foolishly said. You don't know what you're
saying, Peter. God spoke from heaven. This is
my beloved son. You hear him. You hear him. How
did Peter know that was Moses and Elijah? We'll know each other. We're gonna be flesh. It's gonna
be changed. We're gonna know each other.
We're gonna recognize each other. And though we know that our bodies
will be the same bodies, changed bodies, nowhere does the Spirit
of God teach us how they're going to be changed. But life and the
redistribution of life is a great mystery to us right now. We understand
part of it. I understand the part that it's
flesh. I understand that Scripture says it's going to be changed,
but I don't know how it's going to be changed. I know that we're
going to know each other. There's some things that we do
know, but there's some things that the Spirit of God hadn't
told us yet. But we believe them. We rest in them. Look at verse
39. All flesh is not the same flesh. There's one kind of flesh of
men, flesh of beasts, another flesh of fishes, another of birds,
celestial bodies, bodies terrestrial, but the glory of the nature,
let me say it like that, of the celestial is one, the glory of
the terrestrial is another, there's one glory of the sun, another
glory of the moon, another glory of the stars, and one star different
from another star, we recognize that there's differences, there's
differences right now between the flesh of men and the flesh
of animals. It's just a difference, it's
just It's flesh, but it's a different kind of flesh. A fish is different
from a bird. A fish possesses flesh, a body,
that is adapted to be able to get under the water and take
in water into its mouth and somehow it's got gills And somehow that
water passes over those gills and that fish takes oxygen. That fish has got to have oxygen
just like that bird does, just like I do, you do. But he gets
it a different way. Now you put a bird under the
water and put me or you under the water and just suck in all
the water you want to and I'll tell you what will happen. We
ain't going to make it. Why? It's just, it's different.
Does a fish have flesh? Yeah. Does a bird have? Yes.
What kind of man? Yes. And the sun. I'm looking up there and that's
the sun. And then I look at the moon. It's a celestial body too,
but it's different. The stars are different. So you've
got celestial, you've got terrestrial, you've got men, you've got fish,
you've got birds. And they're all different in
their glory, in their bodies. Look at verse 42. So also is
the resurrection of the dead. It's sown in corruption, it's
raised in corruption. There's a difference in all kinds
of Bodies, they're different, heavenly, earthly. There's going
to be a difference in the resurrected body compared to our body now. Now, it's sown corruptible. That's what he said. It's sown
corrupt in corruption. It's sown, and here's what it
is. We're liable to age. We're liable
to sickness. We're liable to weakness. But
the scripture says it's going to be raised incorruptible, exempt
from decay. It's going to be buried and liable
to go back to the dust. But it's going to be raised with
an eternal existence with no possibility of decay or sickness
or disorganization. Look at verse 43-44. It's sown
in dishonor. It's raised in glory. It's sown
in weakness. It's raised in power. It's sown
a natural body. It's raised a spiritual body.
There's a natural body. There's a spiritual body. Our
bodies are sown in dishonor. Disgrace, reproach, and shame
because of sin. Sin has corrupted. It was shaping
an iniquity. to totality of all of our natural
thoughts and words and deeds are motivated by sin. Sin is mixed with everything
that we do. But in the resurrection, we're
going to be raised, the scripture says, in glory, in a garment
of incorruption, adapted to, just like a fish is adapted to
live in the water, breathe in the water, We're going to be
raised in a resurrected body that is going
to be adapted to glory. Just like that fish is adapted
to water, we'll be adapted to glory, adapted to the world. Eternal glory. Fashioned like
unto the glorious body of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sown in weakness, liable to all
of the infirmities of this world and life, raised in power. The word power right there means
miraculous ability, force, and strength. What does that mean? I don't know. I don't know. But just like I know that I'm
looking around and I can look at some of these other things.
I can look at a fish. I can look at a bird. I can look at the
sun. And I said, now these are all different, but they're existing. God made them to exist just like
they're existing. And that's wonderful. But he's telling me that in the
resurrection, he's going to make this body, and it's going to
be flesh, And I'm going to know it's flesh. I can feel that. I know that's flesh. It's going
to be flesh, but it's going to be changed flesh. And it's going
to be adapted to a new world in which we're, his people, going
to live forever. And that body is going to be
changed to adapt to that. Sewn a natural body. Scripture
says, verse 44, a natural body, that is, a body that is generated
and sustained by air, food, comes from another body, it was made
from something else, another natural body, a body that needs
all these elements limited to time and place, but it's going
to be raised A spiritual, now here's the word we want to make
sure, a spiritual body. We won't be ghosts. We won't
be insignificant nebulous things, kind of just floating around.
It's going to be a body. It'll be a spiritual body with
no physical need of being sustained. That's what that spiritual, raised
a spiritual body, that is, John Calvin said this on this, he
said truly, body with the same substance, flesh, though changed
and said to be spiritual in respect to its quality. It'll be a really
flesh but it'll be something that we don't realize, like that
strange seed that I, tell me what that seed, I don't know
what that seed's gonna, it's gonna come forth with something.
I know that because it's a seed. That seed came from somewhere
and it's gonna make something. I don't know what it's gonna
say. But Philippians 3.21, who shall change our vile body, that
it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body. Scripture
says, there is a natural body, This is the last verse of this
message. There's a natural body. There's
a spiritual body. There's a natural body that is
animated by, or it moves by, or it's sustained by breath,
food, just naturally. But then there's a spiritual
body, a body that is not earthly, but it's a It's a celestial,
it's glorious, it's the same body, changed. It's not exactly identical to
what we're looking at right here, but we're not told everything
about the change. It's not completely different,
but it's different. and all the elements of the former
that are referred to in the Word of God associated with the latter,
all I can tell you is from what we just read concerning Job.
This scripture in 1 Corinthians tells us what it's gonna be like.
It's gonna be different. Job said, I know that in my flesh
I'm gonna see God. Spirit of God revealed through
Job something to God's people, what their bodies will be like
And though they've gone through all the natural changes and processes
in the grave and the corruption, they're going to come out. It doesn't matter how they went
in. I've been in funerals, you have
too, where they just say, well, it was a clothes casket. Some
people go through and they're cremated. But I can tell you
this, for God's people, they're going to come back in
this body that God Almighty is going to change. It's going to
be this flesh right here, this flesh. You can sit here and ask,
well, what age are we going to look like? I don't know. It's going to be
this body, with these eyes that are failing, and these ears that
are failing, this flesh that is failing, this body that's
going down, and Almighty God is going to take it just like
a seed, and He's going to put it in the ground, and it's going
to corrupt, it's going to rot. But when Almighty God speaks,
when the trump of God sounds, That sprout's gonna come out,
and it's gonna come out gloriously, changed, a new body. And we're
gonna see Him, and we're gonna know Him, and we're gonna be
like Him, and we'll be forever with Him. Oh, the glorious anticipation
of seeing Him. Death, for a believer, where's
your sting? Grave, where's your victory?
We are more than conquerors through him that loved us and gave himself
for us. May the Lord bless these words
to our heart for Christ's sake. Amen. All right.