Corinthians chapter 15. How are the dead raised up? How
are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come? These are some of the questions
that Paul is going to answer by the Spirit of God giving Him
the words to write. And He tells us how this will
take place, why it must take place, and who will get the glory
for it taking place. I've titled this, Resurrection
Victory. And that's what the resurrection
will be for God's people. It will be a victory. Let's begin
in verse 35. We'll just go through this, try
to get as far as we can. I'm going to try to finish the
chapter. Verse 35, some man will say, how are the dead raised
up? And with what body do they come?
Now the Lord Jesus taught us that all men are going to be
raised. All men shall be raised from the dead. He said, Marvel
not this, the hour is coming in the which all that are in
the graves shall hear His voice and shall come forth. They that
have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done
evil unto the resurrection of damnation. That's the two kinds
of resurrection that this one resurrection will be. Those that
have done evil will be those outside of Christ who never believed
on Christ. And even their very best deeds
will be judged evil by Christ because it does not measure up
to the righteousness God demands. Those who will be raised to the
resurrection of life will be judged to have done good. And
the good that they will have done will be the good that Christ
did on our behalf. He did it for His people and
will be found in Him having His righteousness. So everyone's
bodies shall be raised. Everyone shall be raised. Those
that do not believe on Christ shall be raised to the resurrection
of damnation. But those who are in Christ by
God's grace shall be raised and God will give us a new body glorified
without sin and we will reign with Christ forever and ever
and ever. Now first of all, it's unbelievable
to a natural man that the dead could be raised. He sees a dead
man and he sees the lifeless corpse and to him it's unbelievable
that a dead man, a dead body could be raised to life again. But the scripture says it's possible. because with God all things are
possible. Christ bought this right. And
so He answers the question, how shall the dead be raised up? He says, verse 36, He says, you
see it happen all the time. Thou fool, that seed which thou
sowest is not quickened except it die. Our God has made the
seed and its germination And it brings forth life as an illustration
to illustrate the resurrection of the dead. So that it will
be a witness against us. Every time you've eaten a vegetable,
it will be a witness against you that you knew there was going
to be a resurrection of the dead. You saw it. You saw it. You partook of it in this life. and it will be a witness against
us. God designed that seed for that purpose. That seed is cast
into the ground, and it dies, and a change takes place, and
then it is quickened. It comes to life. A tender plant
comes out, and from that comes much fruit. You know, when the
time came that the Lord was going to be glorified, the time came
for Him to go to the cross, He used this same analogy. Look
over at John 12. The very same analogy in John
chapter 12. He said, 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. You see, Christ Jesus is the
seed. He's the seed after which all
natural seed, vegetable seed was patterned. Christ Jesus came
into this earth with all His fruit that He would ever bear
within Him. That little seed that's cast
into the ground, it has all the fruit that it will bear within
that seed. And when Christ came into this
earth, He had all His people, all God's elect in Him. That's
the seed he would bear. But Christ had to die. He had
to go to the cross and lay down his life in the place of his
people to pay the debt all his people owe to the law. And so he went to the cross.
He laid down his life. He died. He said, except that
corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it'll bite alone. If
he had not died, he would have remained alone. But if it die,
it brings forth much fruit. When that seed dies, it's quickened
to life and it brings forth much fruit. There's more than just
that one seed then. Now there's many more fruits
that are produced from that one seed. So Christ gave His life
and from Him come all the fruit that He produces, His people,
that He redeemed, that He gives life to, that He quickens. He
came out of that grave. He died and was quickened. And
so all His people died in Him and were quickened in Him. So
that we're legally righteous before God, we're alive before
God. And all His people shall be quickened. In our experience of His grace
and in the resurrection, we shall be quickened to life by Him.
By Him. So he used the same analogy and
Paul uses it to show us that we must die. Our bodies must
be changed and we must be quickened to life. He says, that which
thou sowest is not quickened except it die. You get it? It's so simple. The seed's not
quickened to life until that seed is buried and dies and a
change takes place and it's quickened and it comes forth. That's what
has to happen to every person. We have to die. We have to die. And we're going to be raised
again. We're going to be quickened to life again. You see, the man
who doesn't believe on Christ hopes that death will be the
end. But death won't be the end. He'll be raised to the resurrection
of damnation. And hell won't be the end. Hell
won't be annihilation. Hell will be suffering for eternity.
But those raised who were His saints, who rested in Him, who
trusted in Him, who endured the reproach and ridicule of Him
for His sake from the ungodly, they should be raised to the
resurrection of life, just like a seed comes forth out of the
ground. Alright, secondly, Paul answers the question, with what
body do the dead come forth? What body will we have when we're
raised? Verse 37, 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 to every seed His own body. Now when you sow a seed, He says
here, when a seed is sown, you're not going to sow that which shall
be. When you sow a seed in the garden, you don't go out and
plant a corn stalk. with the tassels and the ears
and all that. You don't plant that. You plant
a single seed. That's all you plant. That's
all you plant. And it goes into the ground,
bare grain. It goes in shriveled, and it
looks like it's dry, and it doesn't look like it could ever produce
any life, could ever come from it at all. That's how you're
going to go into the grave. That's how I'm going to go into
the grave. And we're not going to look like we could produce
life. We're not going to look like we will be. But God gives
it a body as it pleases Him. And so it shall be when God raises
the dead. He'll give a body as it pleases
Him. You remember, do you recall, is He going to even do this for
the people that are resurrected to damnation? They will have
a body. Do you recall that rich man in hell? He said, He asked
for somebody to dip their finger in water and put it on his what?
His tongue. You'll have a body in hell. And
God will give you the body that He's pleased to give you. But
for His saints, He's going to give a body as it pleased Him.
Everything about salvation is as it pleases God. That's it. He pleased God to make you His
people. He pleased God when the time was come It pleased God
to reveal His Son in me. It pleased God to save through
the foolishness of preaching. The pleasure of the Lord prospers
in Christ's hand. Everything about salvation, it
pleased God. And so it will be at the very
end, God's going to raise and give us a body as it pleases
God. And to every seed his own kind.
That means we're going to be raised after our kind. You know,
when a seed comes up, if you planted a bean seed, you're going
to get a bean. You're not going to get some other vegetable.
You're going to get a bean. If you planted a pea, you're
going to get a pea. Not going to be a bean. Well,
we're not going to come forth and be angels, floating around
with these pictures you see. We're going to be human beings.
We're going to be human beings. When Christ was raised, Christ
had a real body. And we're going to have a real
body. It's going to be our body. Job said that way back there
in the first book of the Bible. Job knew even then how he would
be raised and that he would be raised with his own body. He
said, though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my
flesh, in my flesh, in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall
see for myself. And mine eyes shall behold Him,
not another, though my reins be consumed within me. Though
I'll be, my old body will be gone, but He'll raise me with
a new body, as it please Him, and it'll be my body. I'll see
Him with my eyes, with my own eyes. And he gives two more illustrations
then to show us that our body will be far superior. It will
be our own body, but it will be far superior in excellence
and in glory than what it was on this earth. He says there,
verse 39, all flesh is not the same flesh. Now that's the principle
he's teaching here. All flesh is not the same in
quality. in superiority, in excellence. All flesh is not the same. And
he gives you an example. He says there's one kind of flesh
of men. There's another flesh of beasts.
The flesh of men is superior and has more glory than the flesh
of beasts. And another of fish and another
of birds. He says there's also celestial
bodies. That's heavenly bodies. And there's
terrestrial bodies. That's earthly bodies. Now he's
talking about glory, but the glory of the celestial is one,
the glory of the terrestrial is another. We're going to be
raised from one glory to another glory. From the glory of the
terrestrial to the glory of the heavenly, even above the terrestrial. There's one glory of the sun,
another glory of the moon, another glory of the stars, for one star
differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection
of the dead. The point of this illustration
shows that though we will be raised with our own body, for
God's saints, the body that it will please God to give us for
Christ's sake will be far superior to the body we have now, far
more excellent, far more excellent in glory. It will be a glorified
body. Now, how then will the bodies
of God's saints be sown and how will they be raised? How will
they be sown and how will they be raised? Well, the way our
bodies will be sown in burial shall be of Adam. The way they'll
be raised shall be of Christ. Look, verse 42. It is sown in
corruption. It's raised in incorruption. 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 is a natural body and there
is a spiritual body. And when he talks about our bodies
being spiritual, he's not saying our bodies are going to be a
spirit. When our Lord was raised, He came and talked to His disciples. He came and ate with His disciples.
He had the same wounds He had. It was His body. They touched
His wounds. We'll touch His wounds in glory.
But it was a glorified, it will be a glorified body with all
these excellent qualities that Christ shall give us. And so
it's written, the first man Adam was made a living soul, the last
Adam was made a quickening spirit. Adam was a living soul. That
means all he could produce was a living soul. I'm a living soul. All I can produce is a living
soul. But Christ was made a quickening spirit. That means He gives spiritual
life. He can quicken to spiritual life. Christ is going to make everything
new. We went into that grave corrupt, but we're going to come
out incorrupt. This starts in this life. Inwardly,
Christ quickens us with a new spirit. The Spirit of Christ
begins to dwell in us and we have a new spirit. God promised
He'd give us a new spirit. We have a new spirit. Incorrupt. Born of incorruptible seed. And
that new spirit is without sin. And you don't read of that getting
more and more conformed to Christ. It is what He created. But the
body will be changed also. And it will be made incorruptible.
It will be quickened and be made holy and righteous and incorruptible
and glorified and spiritual by Christ. Only Christ can do that. Well, when you see that only
Christ can do that, just know only Christ can do the rest of
salvation. Only Christ can put away sin. Only Christ can make
us righteous. Only Christ can send forth the
gospel. Only Christ can edify His people
and quicken His people and add His people to His church. Only
Christ can preserve His people. Only Christ can raise His people.
This is Christ's work. This is Christ's work. And it's
a perfect work, verse 46. Howbeit that was not first which
is spiritual, but that which is natural, and after that which
is spiritual. That natural body we came forth
with at first was everything it will be when it goes in the
grave. Morning. That natural body, you got it first, is corrupt,
it's dishonorable, it's totally without strength. And when it
goes in the grave, it's going to be that same way. But after
we're born in the new birth, Christ gives us new life. Well,
God's saints go through life with that natural body full of
that corruption. But when we lay down this body,
He's going to give us a new body just like He gave us a new spirit.
Without corruption. Without corruption. Verse 47. The first man's of the earth,
earthy. That's Adam. The second man's
the Lord from heaven. That's Christ the God-man. Christ
the God-man. As is the earthy, such are they
also that are earthy. And as is the heavenly, such
are they also that are heavenly. As we have borne the image of
the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. We
were born of Adam, we bore Adam's image. We bore his image, conceived
in sin. The nature he produced was unholy. And we came forth guilty under
the law, unrighteous and unholy. No man can change what he is
by our first birth. I can't change my nature, you
can't change yours. I can't change my standing before
the law, you can't change yours. As are the earthy, such are they.
As is the earthy, such are they that are earthy. But thanks be
to God's grace, free grace. God put some in Christ, and by
Christ's work, He's going to make His people bear the image
of the heavenly. He comes forth and gives you
His image. We're created, the new man. He
creates within. He's created in righteousness
and true holiness. That's the righteousness of Christ
and the holiness of Christ. We had nothing to do with it.
But that's what He created within us, the new man. And we're constantly
renewed in the knowledge of Him that created us in His own image. Constantly renewed in knowledge
of Him. That One that created us in His image. And after we
die, He's going to make our body to be in His image. And that's
when it will be brought to pass that we are perfectly conformed
to His image. Perfectly conformed to His image.
People make that conformity to His image to be a work of man.
That's not a work of man. That's a work of Christ. It happens
when He perfectly conforms you in that new man who is righteous
and holy. You don't get more righteous
than righteous. You don't get more holy than holy. That new
man is created in righteousness and holiness. That's what Christ
created him in. And that won't be complete until we're raised
with a body that's righteous and holy. And the whole work
will be the work of Christ. Then we'll be perfectly conformed
to His image by the work of Christ. By the work of Christ. Fourthly,
we see that all this change is absolutely necessary. It has
to happen. Watch. Verse 50, Now this I say,
brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of
God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. First of
all, we won't go into glory the same flesh and blood as we go
through this life. We will be flesh and blood. He
just said that. But it will be a different kind
of flesh and blood, a glorified flesh and blood. And also when
we go into glory, we won't be corrupt. We'll be incorruptible. We'll be holy and righteous.
Why is that a necessity? Because God is holy and righteous.
God can have no dealings with a sinner, period. That's the
message of this whole world. That's the reason He created
this world. That's the reason He sent Christ into the world.
That's the message of this Bible. It's to teach us, brethren, to
come into God's presence, which we all are going to come into
God's presence. But to be accepted of God in His presence, to live
and abide with Him, you've got to be holy and righteous. And
God didn't trust that work to you, and He didn't trust that
work to me. We fell in Adam. We became unholy
and unrighteous, and that's the end of that story. There's nothing
else you can do. We did it all in Adam in the garden. That's
what man did. We ruined ourselves. and all
that we ever knew left in ourselves, though we may take on religion
and try to have a form that makes men think we're godly and holy
and righteous, but for God it's unholy and it's unrighteous because
it's of our hand and not of God. So he sent forth Christ to do
a work we couldn't do because he's holy. The stars are not
pure in God's sight. The stars are not pure in God's
sight. You go as far as you can away
from man and find the star that is as pure as it can be, never
touched and polluted by man. That star is still not pure in
God's sight. Everything came under the curse
by our sin. Whosoever offers a sacrifice
to God, it must be perfect to be accepted. There should be
no blemish therein. You and I can't do that. Thou
shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God. You and I can't do that.
But God clearly says to enter glory, to enter His presence.
He says, who's going to enter? He says, he that hath clean hands and a pure heart. That's righteousness
and holiness. A clean hands and a pure heart. Righteous and holy. who hath
not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully." Anybody
here that can fit that bill in themselves, by themselves, by
their religious works? Nobody. Only Christ. Only Christ and those that are
in Him. "...There shall in no wise enter
into glory anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination
or maketh a lie, but they that are written in the Lamb's book
of life." Why did God write their names in the Lamb's Book of Life?
He wrote our names in the Lamb's Book of Life so that that one
name who's on the cover of the book, the Lamb, would get all
the glory for saving everybody in that book. Christ came forth and made Himself
to be the Lamb, to go forth and bear the sins of His people and
put that sin away to satisfy the law for His people. That
we might be righteous and holy. That's the only way. He's the
only one. And He did that work with clean
hands and a pure heart. He who knew no sin. He who knew
no sin. And then He willingly gave Himself
to be made sin for us. That He might make us the righteousness
of God in Him. He's going to get the glory for
that work. That's His work. That's His glory. We're not going to share in it.
But you see why this change has to take place? You've got to
be perfect to enter God's presence. And then lastly, we're told how
and why God's saints shall be changed. Behold, verse 51, Behold,
I show you a mystery. Now this is something you can't
figure out, I can't figure out. It's a mystery. But it's hidden
from the carnal man. In that sense, it's a mystery.
He thinks that you have to be able to explain everything in
great detail, and he ought to be able to at least do it himself
in some way, and he ought to be able to explain it before
he'll believe it. That man will go to hell. There's
a lot he can't explain. Most men don't have any idea
how an engine runs, and they get in a car and turn the ignition
and expect it's going to crank every time. Most people, there's
tons of things that happens to you by a physician. You have
no idea how that medicine is working or what it's doing. You
take it anyway, expecting to get better. We don't understand
everything there is to know about God, but we believe Him and we
trust He'll do what He said He'll do. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed. Sleep means we shall not all
die. But we all shall be changed. When our Lord comes, some will
still be alive on this earth. But we all will be changed. This
change will come quickly. He says, verse 52, 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. Now the dead will be raised first.
They'll be raised first. God's saints will be raised incorruptible.
And then those that remain, are still alive, shall be changed.
Incorruptible. And this day now is going to
come as a thief in the night. It's going to come as a great
surprise. No man knows the day Christ is coming. But you and
I who believe, we're expecting it to come. We know it's coming. So when we see it happening,
we're going to recognize what's taking place and be glad. But
that man who will not believe God, he won't expect it at all. It'll come when he least expect
it. Just like Noah's day, they'll
be marrying and giving in marriage and going about their everyday
labor and have their minds set on this world like a pig in a
pig trough. And then it'll happen. And they'll
be totally taken in surprise to be standing before God naked
in judgment. and found without Christ, found
without a righteousness, found without a holiness. I'm telling
you, believe on Christ today, this is going to happen. It's
already happened with Christ and with many, but it's going
to happen in the last day. In the last day. And this change
is going to take place. It says, this corruptible must
put on incorruption, this mortal must put on immortality. And
here's how and why. It's because Christ is victorious.
Verse 54. 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. He took this from Isaiah 25.8.
It says there, he will swallow up death in victory. And the
Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces, and the rebuke
of His people shall He take away from off all the earth, for the
Lord hath spoken it. And it shall be said in that
day, Lo, this is our God. We've waited for Him. And He
will save us. This is the Lord. We've waited
for Him. We'll be glad and rejoicing in His salvation. While the reprobate's
crying and screaming and trying to hide himself, that's what
you and I will be saying, who believe Him. This is our God.
He's come to save us. He said He would come. We've
been waiting on Him. This is Him. He's come. And He's
going to do this because He's victorious. He cannot fail. Now how did He give us this victory?
How did He accomplish it? Verse 55, O 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. The sting of death is sin. Death's
sting, the thing which makes death certain, is sin. The wages
of sin is death. Everybody here is a sinner. Everybody
here is going to die. And left in our sin, we'll die
the second death. Eternal damnation. The strength
of that sin is the law. We broke the law in Adam in the
garden. That's where we became sinners. And then God gave the
law. He didn't give that law to save
us. He didn't give that law for you to work out a righteousness
by. He gave that law to make sin abound. To make you seek. what a sinner you are when He
gives you eyes to behold. He gave it so that if a mouth
may be stopped, then all the world become guilty before God.
So when Christ came, there were three things He had to take care
of. He had to take care of sin, He had to take care of the law,
and He had to conquer death. How did He conquer that death?
By conquering the other two. He came forth and He put away
all the sin of His people. He bore our sins away to a land
not inhabited. He died the death we owe. And doing that, He justified
His people from our sin. And He satisfied the law. He
gave the law in precept and penalty everything the law demanded so
that the law has absolutely nothing to say to anybody for whom Christ
died. God's saints who cast all our
care on Christ are dead to the law and the law is dead to us.
Read Romans 7. That's exactly what he said.
That being dead wherein you were held, the law is dead to us and
you're dead to the law. That means we're free from it.
It has nothing else to say to us. Sin has been finished. Sin has been made an end of.
It has lost its governing power through the Spirit, through the
grace of regeneration. It has entirely lost its damning
power over His people. And one day in the resurrection,
He will make sin be gone forever from His people. And that law
is fully satisfied. He did it honoring His law, upholding
His righteousness, upholding His justice. And doing so, He
abolished death. And the last day, when He summons
us to come forth and tells the grave that the grave is obliged
to let us free, and we step out of that grave into glory, the
last enemy will have been destroyed. And we will give the victory.
We'll say this victory was freely given to us by God through His
Son, Christ Jesus, who worked it all for us on the cross and
in us by His grace. and He'll get all the glory forever
and ever. We'll be singing forever and
ever. We're more than conquerors through Him that loved us. This
is our God. He will save us. That's our message. Now brethren, this victory is
so certain. It's so guaranteed. It's already
happened. The victory has already been
accomplished. All that remains is for Him to come forth now
and to show you and I in the resurrection that death is conquered. completely conquered. It's conquered
now. It's conquered now. Our brethren
who've left us, who've already died, they know it's conquered.
And you and I are going to find out one day in that resurrection
that death's conquered. Sin, the law, death, it's all
conquered. So knowing this, he says now
verse 58, this ought to make us labor in Christ's cause with
great fervency and great, great zeal. Great strength because,
look, He says, Therefore, my brethren, my beloved brethren,
be you steadfast, immovable, 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. We're going to be with
Him. Nothing's going to move us from
Him. Nothing's going to stop His work from being done. His
Word's going to go forth. He's going to accomplish this
work when He's called that last elect child He's coming again.
He's going to conquer death for us. Fully, finally, forever.
So nothing we're doing here is going to be in vain. This is
the work he's talking about. He's not talking about now if
we're out, we're trying to build a civilian state and leave our
legacy in the earth. He's not talking about that.
That work's going to be in vain. But what work you do in the cause
of Christ to spread his gospel for his kingdom, for his house,
that work won't ever be in vain. No, no. I pray God will bless
that. Make us labor in the cause of
Christ. Amen. All right, brethren, let's stand
together. Father, we're so thankful that
you make the unbelievable believable to Your people. You give us faith
to see this is the reality. This is the evidence. This is the substance. These
are the things we're hoping for. And Lord, You show us and convince
us and persuade us that everything that You've promised, You have
brought to pass. And You shall bring it to pass.
Make Your people believe this and make Make that lost, elect
child, see it, delight in it, and join us in this cause. Cause
us, Lord, to send forth your gospel, sparing no expense, sparing
no labor, sparing nothing for your sake. Knowing you'll provide
strength in the spirit, you'll provide abundance in the hand,
you'll do whatever's necessary, and this work will not be in
vain. We'll be with you one day, reunited with our brethren, Most
of all, reunited with our Savior to rejoice in Him forever. Give
us a sight of it, Lord. Make us see it now by faith and
strengthen us by it. Forgive us our sins, Father.
We ask you in Christ's name. Amen.