When Paul says here it is written
the first man Adam was made a living soul in verse 45 The last Adam
was made a quickening spirit in this comparison of our bodies
being raised from the dead Compared to a dead seed springing up into
life That Paul makes in this chapter. He says there's a natural
body and And there's a spiritual body, and he compares it again
to a plant. And he's answering the objection
from verse 35. Remember that, what he's saying
here is in answer to this objection, some men will say, how are the
dead raised up, and with what body do they come? And so he's
focusing on that aspect of the resurrection. What's it gonna
be like? What body are we gonna? Occupy
and the beautiful thing about that is is That's a natural result of what
Christ did for us we're gonna be like him His answer to that
objection is just spectacular it's so beautiful what just this
Comparison itself is so beautiful We're gonna be transformed like
a dry dead seed transforms into a beautiful flower or a tree
or whatever. Just think of the beauty. What's
most beautiful in this world is the, you know, the Lord himself
is a gardener. He made a garden in the beginning,
didn't he? And he began to bear our sins in a garden. He compares
his sheep to a garden. He talks about the good seed
that he planted and nurtured. and gives life to, and so it's
such a beautiful comparison. Flowers, and we all, to some
extent, love to grow things, I think, or to at least enjoy
what is grown. I think it's some of the most
beautiful things I've seen in the world, or just a gardenia or a hibiscus or some
wonderful, you remember what the Lord said about Solomon.
Consider the lilies of the field, even Solomon in all his glory
doesn't compare to one of those beautiful flowers that the Lord
made. That's this comparison we're
talking about. That's what we're reminded of
here when he talks about us rising from the dead and in corruption
and glory. The Lord taught the parable in
Matthew 13 of how that he planted good seed in his field. He said,
the field is the world. And there's good seed in the
world, and the enemy sows tares in the world. The world is not
everybody. God's world of his elect is not
everybody that lives on this planet. He loves his world. He
loves his garden because he planted good seed in his garden. But
he don't love the tares. Doesn't sound like it, does it,
when he says he's gonna rip them up and burn them? That doesn't
sound like love to me. God doesn't love everybody. He
loves his garden that he planted. Beauty the fruit that is produced
And he gets glory in That and listen to the listen to this
beautiful return over there with me Matthew 1337 I think I'm gonna
be brief tonight, so let's look at this together Matthew 1337
He told the parable of the good
seed and how that the enemy sowed the tears and the You know, his
servants asked, you know, do you want us to pull up the tares?
And he said, no, you'll tear up some of the wheat. If you
try to pull the tares up, you'll tear some wheat up with it. And
that's such a clear picture. We don't try to determine who's
wheat and who's tares. That's not our business. That's
his business. He said, let them grow together
and I, at the time of the harvest, I'll separate them. That's his
business. But look, in the explanation
in verse 37, he explains that parable. And he says this, he
answered unto them, he that soweth the good seed is the son of man. It's Christ, it's the Lord of
glory. He is the one that plants the field, the world, the garden. The field is the world. God so
loved the world. He does he loves his garden doesn't
he he loves the good seed. He loves his plants his fruit
is increase The good seed are the children of the kingdom,
but the tears are the children of the wicked one Okay, God so
loved the world does that mean he loves the tears the enemy
that sowed them is the devil and The harvest is the end of
the world and the reapers are the angels, as therefore the
tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in
the end of this world. Nobody loves a weed, do you? I hate weeds. They are the bane
of this earth, are they not? If you depended on the fruit
of the earth that you yourself grew, The weeds are the enemy,
aren't they? They're sown by the enemy, sucking
the very life from your own body as you try to reap a harvest
from this earth, this cursed earth. So shall it be. The son of man shall send forth
his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things
that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast him
into a furnace of fire. Just like the ark didn't say,
smile, God loves you on the outside of it, God's not gonna shed a
tear when he burns up the wretched, tares, and evil, God-hating wretches
of this world. Religious as all get out, but
hating the son of God as he's revealed in his word. But look, there should be wailing
and gnashing teeth, but look at verse 43. Oh, how beautiful
this is. Then shall the righteous shine
forth as the sun. We're not gonna be then what
we are now. We're gonna shine forth as the
sun in the end. in the kingdom of their father,
who hath ears to hear, let him hear. We're gonna shine. In the
true experience of what this picture represents, we're told
there is for mankind an earthly natural body and a spiritual
body. Because our Lord Jesus Christ
gave himself for us and redeemed us, body, soul, and spirit, and
took up his life again from the dead, we shall be raised also,
and we will shine forth as the sun, like him. Did not his countenance
shine forth as bright as the noonday sun when he met Saul
of Tarsus on the road to Damascus, and when he transfigured himself
before them on the mount? the one who is called the lily
of the valley and the bright and morning star, we shall be
like him. And so we're told there's an
earthly, natural body and a spiritual body. What comes first for us
and for the Savior was a natural body. The Lord, and we'll try to, talk about what we know from
scripture here and not speculate beyond that. But what come first
even for the Savior? He, like us, was made of a woman.
He was earthy in the sense that he was sustained by food, meat,
bread, water, just like we are, and was subject to death. He breathed the same air as we
do. He walked in the same dirt we do. He was flesh and blood
just like us. But what came next? When our
Lord was crucified and risen, He was raised with a spiritual
body, incorruptible, and so will we be. So will we be. We don't know everything about
that, but we know some things. Our Lord's spiritual body is
described by John Gill in his, and everything he said about
it now is based on what's revealed in scripture. So listen to me
about it. Just because it's a man, you'll think of scripture as
I tell you what he said about this. But it's interesting the
way he said this. He said that our Lord's body,
when he was raised from the dead incorruptible, And of course,
he was not corruptible in the sense that we are anyway. He
wasn't subject to corruption. His body didn't decay because
he had no sin. He was sinless. But a body that
was subject to die like ours. He was able to die. How does
God die? Well, he becomes a man. He's
the God man. And he had a natural body like
ours, born of a woman. But when he was raised, the way
John Gill put it is he was the same in substance but with different
qualities. We're gonna be raised flesh and
blood. And he was raised flesh and blood. Didn't he say that?
Look and see that I have flesh and bones just like you do. And
he said to Thomas, reach hither thy finger and behold my hands and reach
hither thy hand and thrust it into my side. He wasn't a ghost. but he was no longer subject
to weakness or fatigue or thirst. He wasn't dependent on food and
drink anymore, though able to partake of them. And we will
be too. The scripture says we will dine
with our Lord in glory. I believe that's literal. Food
is not just to stay alive. It's one of the most pleasurable
things in this world. God made it that way. God made
it that way. but no longer subject to corruption
or death, no longer bound to the earth or limited in the ways
that natural flesh is. You remember how the scripture
says that he was subject to our infirmities. Not after he was
raised, he wasn't. And we won't be either. We're
gonna be raised like him. We have this knowledge about
what's written of our Lord after he rose. But there's still a
lot of mystery about this. Thus be careful to add now that
our Lord, even in an earthly body, even in a natural body,
he shone gloriously at the Mount of Transfiguration. He was still
the Son of God. His deity was able to shine forth
even from that natural body when he dropped the veil of his flesh. He was able to defy nature by
performing miracles and had all of the divine power that he's
ever had to bless and to curse. Did he not bless the little children
that were brought to him and curse that fig tree? To forgive
sins, he had power, the authority and the ability on earth to forgive
sins in a natural body. So don't think he was just a
man when he had a natural body. He's always been the God man.
To give life to whom he would, he had that power. We don't have
any of that. And even as man, even as natural man, the Holy
Spirit was given unto him without measure. He's the God-man through
his nature. That's his nature, God
and man. And though his human body was
subject to our infirmities for a time, he's always been God. Always been holy. Always been
the perfect, righteous, holy lamb of God. and he's always
been on the throne. He came down here for a while,
but didn't he say, I have all power? He's still on the throne,
wasn't he? He still was in charge when he
was down here. In distinguishing between the natural
and the spiritual also, Paul speaks of how the Adam was made
a living soul. He depended on power outside
of himself to make him live, to make him the soul that he
was and is. Genesis 2.7 is clear about that.
He was made a living soul. But Christ, and notice the word
made is in italics, Christ is a life-giving spirit. He's the
one that gave Adam the living soul. Adam was made a living
soul, but the life came from Christ, who is life-giving. Not receiving life, but the one
who gives it. What a great contrast and what
a beautiful honoring of our Lord in a comparison like Paul did
in, Hebrews when he compared the
greatness of Christ compared to Moses as he that builds the
house is greater than the house And this is similar to that He's
the one who gives Natural life and spiritual life and that didn't
change when he was made of a woman he still claimed to have that
power and Showed that he had it exercise that power. And to this very day, he does
that. If you're gonna have life, he's gonna give it to you. The difference between the first
Adam and the last is life and death, darkness and light. And that pertains to all of us
now in that we bear the image of the earthy now. The first
Adam, fallen, sinful, corrupt, dying. We're sitting here dying
as we sit here. The difference between the first
Adam and the last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the difference
between impotence and omnipotence. It's the difference between corruption
and incorruption, between creation and creator. The difference is
vast. The difference is infinite. So
now first we've borne the image of the earthy, but once the body
of this death dies, And because Christ was raised the first fruits
of many, many sons, we who are his will be raised and henceforth
we will bear as our text plainly declares the image of the heavenly. You're familiar with how Paul
put that in Philippians 3.21. It's one of my favorite scriptures. For obvious reasons listen to
that who shall change our vile body That it may be fashioned
like into his glorious body That's what we're talking about when
we say bearing the image of the heavenly As he is so are we in this world But in body That's another thing
now we're gonna be raised and fashioned like unto his glorious
body. According to the working whereby
he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. They questioned
Paul in our text and said, how is he gonna raise a crinkled
up old dead dry corpse? The same way he made the universe.
The same way He subdued our evil, corrupt, vile, God-hating will
and brought us to His feet in salvation. The same power whereby
He's able to subdue everything. His will is done in this whole
universe. So of course, when He says that
He'll do that, He'll do that. Now here's a mystery in our text. A mystery that the Lord had revealed
to Paul. And I'll be honest, I don't know
the timing of when Paul was caught up into the third heaven and
saw things unlawful to even utter. Maybe that's when this was revealed
to him or maybe some other way. I don't know the timing of which
came first here. But Paul understood a mystery
here that if we didn't have this, we wouldn't know this. Even though all of us will not
die physically, some believers will still be alive when the
Lord returns. He said, now, we which are alive
and remain. He talks about those which are
alive and remain. So this analogy of seed and plant
will not apply to them. They'll never be planted in the
earth. Whoever's alive when our Lord returns, that analogy won't
apply to them, but they're still gonna be changed. You see how he words that? Look
at verse 50 in our text again. Now this I say, brethren, that
flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither does
corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery. I know this. However God revealed
this mystery to Paul, God revealed it to him. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.
So this is an exception to the analogy, but there's no exception
to the transforming power of God when he comes And as he said
in Romans chapter eight, those whom he justified them, he also
glorified. It's already done as far as God
is concerned. But we will experience that.
We were glorified. We're made in the very image
of Christ himself. We shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed in a moment. Dying is a process. This is not. This is not. In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, at the last trump, and for the
trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible. The dead, those who are in the
grave when he comes, they shall be raised, but not like they
were, incorruptible with a spiritual body, with the image of the heavenly,
and we shall be changed. We're not coming out of the ground,
but we're gonna be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of
an eye. We're all gonna be like Christ. The dead shall be raised
incorruptible, just as in the analogy, sown in corruption,
but raised in incorruption. But when Paul says we in verse
52 there, he says we shall be changed, He's speaking in terms
of how that the Lord Jesus Christ could come back at any moment.
We which are alive, when he comes, he's including himself in that.
And that's how we ought to think. He wasn't wrong about that. Just
because he did end up dying physically before the Lord came back, he
wasn't wrong to think in terms of Christ may come back right
now. We should think that way too.
We, which are alive and remain, we're gonna be changed. We're
gonna be changed. Look how he uses the word we.
Turn with me to 1 Thessalonians 4, and you'll see what he's talking
about when he says we here. He does that in another place
too. 1 Thessalonians 4.13. 1 Thessalonians 4.13. But I would not have you to be
ignorant, brethren, Concerning them which are asleep, I'm glad
we're not ignorant about that, aren't you? Man, that's a good
thing to know about. Concerning them which are asleep,
that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. Yes,
we're gonna be sad. Yes, we're gonna be, a part of
our heart is missing. But the hope of life and one
day fellowship in the very presence of Christ, The hope of that transcends
everything that we feel. The sufferings of this present
time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be
revealed in us. I would not have you to be ignorant,
brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you saw or not,
even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that
Jesus died and rose again, that's what gives us hope. Our faith,
the God-given faith in Christ and Him crucified and risen. Even so, them also which sleep
in Jesus will God bring with Him. With Him, those are key
words, aren't they? So shall we ever be with Him.
He said, I'll never leave you no forsakers. We're with Him
now. It'll just be more glorious then because the former things
will be passed away. But we're always with Him. With
Him, He's gonna bring them with Him. That's the most beautiful
thing I can think of. For this we say unto you, verse
15, by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain
unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
You see, he's including himself there again. We which are alive. For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and
with the trumpet of God. So that trumpet, I think that's
his voice. That's the power compared to
the piercing sound of a trumpet. with the trump of God and the
dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
And so shall we ever be with the Lord. He writes this again with the
expectation of the Lord coming back at any moment. but we've
got to live that way. He wasn't wrong to say it like
that. Just like Paul, we expect the
Lord at any moment. He said in an hour when you think
not, do you think he's coming back tonight? Well, probably
not. Maybe he will. Maybe that's it then. Maybe that's
the time. So when he says we in our text,
he's talking about all who are physically alive. When the Lord
returns, though they are not sown as in the analogy, they
also will just as surely be changed. In a moment in the twinkling
of an eye changed. Isn't that wonderful? You know
how when you're looking forward to something and you're just
agonizing over it, it's just killing you. You want it to happen
so bad, it's just killing you. Something you've prayed about.
You want to see somebody saved. And every night you come before
God and bury your heart. Maybe something else. But you
bury your heart before God and you pour out your soul and you
beg God. Whatever he does is right, but please God, please.
please have mercy, please don't let him go. And then it happens. And I don't even remember any
of that anymore. I don't remember hurting about that. I don't remember
suffering over that. It's over. Everything's different
now. Concerning that specific thing,
I don't sit there and think about, oh, how I suffered praying for
so and so. No, it's gone. That's how this is. In a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye, Sorrow for God, we sing that
song, I think that's accurate. Sorrow for God, love's purest
joy is restored. In a moment, remember this word
changed. You know how I love that word.
Anybody who has any idea what we are loves the word changed.
If God's shown you what you are, Remember this word when you're
sick of yourself. When, like Job, you can say,
I abhor myself. Remember this word changed when,
like David, your sin is ever before you. Remember this word
changed when you would do good, like Paul, but how to perform
that which is good you find not. And the things that you would
not, those are the things that you do. Changed. In a moment, changed. Remember it when you come to
your senses on a rare occasion in this flesh and realize how
selfish you've been. You know, we don't notice that.
We don't even notice that about ourselves, but every once in
a while, maybe God turns a little light into our black hearts and
we realize we've been selfish. We've been so proud and haughty.
We've been so self-righteous. How gracious and kind the Lord
has been to me and yet I've been ungrateful and cold and worried
about the things of the flesh instead of the things above where
he sits on the right hand of God. Remember this word, when
you see yourself dying before your very eyes, If you're over
50, you're starting to see that. Maybe earlier. You see yourself
dying. And you know it. When you're
young, it's hard to see that. It's hard to see that. But when
you do, if you ever come to that place where you do, I'm dying. And you know, it's fine. It's
fine. Why? Changed. This body's got to go for me
to be with my Savior and like my Savior. And so that's okay. That's okay. When you feel the
pain of the corruption in your flesh, the grip of mortality,
the wages of your sin upon you, remember this word, changed. But don't just remember the word
change. Remember the one who did it for you and will do it
for you. We're already transformed, aren't
we? He's changed us. But we also look forward to that
time when we shall be changed. Remember
the one who did it. Think of seeing him face to face who loved you with an everlasting
love, and with loving kindness drew
himself to you and gave himself for you. The one who said, I'll
come again and receive you into myself that where I am, there
you may be also. When bearing the image of the
earthy weighs on you, Remember what we said while ago
that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
With the glory that shall be revealed in us what we shall
be like him Forever You reckon we're gonna think
about how bad it was We don't even do that now Much less when we're perfect God help us to see You remember
when I just said, Lord, give him eyes to see. He was hopeless. Look, we're dead, we're goners.
Lord, open his eyes that he might see. May that be our prayer for
each other. Amen, let's pray.