So great a Savior, God in love
has blessed me. Tender, tender, I'll depend thee
on, on me. But because you have the grace
to call His name, the Lord will love you. He will spread your
faith, He will bless you, He will lead you by His law. He will forever love you, now
and forevermore. I have a lot of material I want
to cover with you tonight, so I'm just taking one hymn, getting
right into the message. 1 Corinthians 15, life after
death. That's what the apostle deals
with here, 1 Corinthians 15. But first, he reaffirms the gospel. First, several verses, at least
twenty-four, twenty-five verses, he reaffirms the gospel, because
there is no life after death for those who do not know and
believe the gospel. There's only eternal death for
those who do not know and believe the gospel. Look at verse one. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel which I preached unto you. He already declared
it, the first fourteen verses, and when he preached there for
eighteen months, he said, I preached it. I declare again unto you
the gospel which also you have received. The gospel, you not
only heard it, but you have received it, you believe it. And a man
can receive nothing except it be given him from above. You
have received it. You believe it. And wherein you
stand, you believe. You love this gospel, you believe
it, and you persevere in it. Continue to hear it and believe
it. We don't. By which, that is,
by the gospel, you're saved. By what? By works? No. By whatever? No, by the gospel, by believing.
That's how we're saved, simply by believing, trusting Christ. If you keep in memory, or the
word is told fast, Something you keep in memory, something
that's on your mind, in your heart, something you've laid
hold of, something you cling to, something you truly, whatever
you truly love and believe, it's on your mind, it's in your heart,
whoever or whatever. You're saved if you hold fast. As he said in another place,
hold fast the beginning of your confidence. He said fast. Simple
gospel. Hold it fast. Persevere in it. Read on. If you keep in mind,
if you hold fast what I preached unto you, no other gospel can
be said to the gladiator but the gospel I preached. unless
you believe in vain, unless it's just head knowledge and it's
not true heart faith. Four, read on. He said, I deliver
it unto you, first of all, that which I also receive. This is
the same gospel that Paul said that I heard. And Ananias preached
it to me, and I heard the others, the Lord preached it to me. And
he said, and I receive it by His grace, and I believe it.
Here it is, here's the gospel. How did Christ die for our sins
according to the scripture? Not just the fact that he died,
but how he died according to the scripture. how Christ died according to
the scripture. In other words, Christ died over
in Mark 9, I believe it was. He said, Son of man must suffer
many things, must, because it is written. Christ came, Christ the God came
to live as a man. Yes, he did. And you know why he did that.
He came to live, to establish righteousness. to live according
to God's law perfectly, and then impute that to all who believe. And all who believe, they're
counting. That's right. They're simply
believing. But it's the supernatural work of the Spirit to do that. Christ came to live, but that
wouldn't have profited us unless He died. Because our sins would
be paid for. And so Christ came to die. And
all of this is... The whole purpose for Christ's
coming, to live His life, His death, and what that does, is
all written throughout the Scripture, from Genesis to Malachi, the
Old Testament Scripture. Genesis 3, 15. Christ died according
to the Scripture. This is the gospel, how Christ
came to be the woman of seed, to crush the serpent's head.
According to the scripture. Do you understand that? Christ
came to be that Passover lamb next to the square. According
to the scripture. We must have a lamb, without
shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. But it's not
blood of bulls and goats. But it's the blood of God's precious
blood. So he came to die as a Passover
lamb, according to the scripture. And on and on it goes. He came
to be the leper's cleansing in Leviticus 13. And on and on,
according to the scripture. He came to live and to die according
to the scripture. Verse 4. And he was buried, and
then he rose again. The third day, according to the
scripture, he was buried. We're going to see the necessity
of burying a body in a mosque. And he rose again, according
to the scripture. Psalm 16 says, Thou wilt not allow thy holy
one to suffer corruption. See corruption. Isaiah 53, 10 says, He shall
prolong his days. Christ died, was buried, and
rose again, and the key words are according to Scripture. Why
Christ did it. What he did by coming. What he
did by dying. Where he is now. Send him back
to the throne. And what he does now. What all
that means to us. Now, all that Christ said and
did depends upon the fact that he rose from the grave. All right? All that he said and did depends
upon his resurrection. And Paul now deals with this
all the way through here, his resurrection. All of our salvation,
all that we believe, depends upon the fact that that man named
Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified, died, and buried, it all depends
on the fact that he rose again. If he didn't, this book is a
lie. He was the biggest impostor that
ever lived. It's all a hoax. And what we're doing is inviting
That's how serious it is. And that's how everything hinges. That's how important the resurrection
is. So Paul says this in verses 5 through 8. He said he did. He was seen of Cephas, dead of
the twelve. And after that he was seen of
about 500 brethren at one time. I've heard the greater part remain
under this presence, three or four hundred or more people,
right now. And he asked them all, he said, they'll tell you,
they saw him alive. Not just 12 disciples, but 512. Psalm 8, at one time, they all
saw, not a different, so that their story of conflict, they
all saw him saying, and I'll tell you, he's peaceful. That's
a great, proud witness of that. For you know, after that verse,
7, after that he was king of James, then of all the apostles
again, and last of all he was king of me, Paul said. I saw
him as one born out of due time. I saw him also, the risen Lord. He is indeed risen. All right,
now jump down to verse 12. Paul says, now if Christ be preached,
then he rose from the dead. How does some I'll say some among
you that there is no resurrection today. There were some in the
church of Corinth there who were not believers, mind you, but
false brethren, just pretenders, or those who were there to get
a good meal or something, those who were there for nothing better
to do. They brought up the question,
I don't believe in that resurrection. They didn't see it, obviously. They didn't believe it. So some
were saying there's no resurrection of the dead. So read on, verses
13 through 19. If there be no resurrection of
the dead, then Christ is risen. And if Christ be not risen, our
preaching is vain. What I'm doing right now is the
most worthless thing on earth. This is the most vain and useless
occupation on earth. If Christ, if that one man Jesus
was mad at, did not rise from the grave, you need to spend
your money elsewhere. Save your money. But if he did,
then that makes this the most important occupation. Bring on
it. Yay, verse 15. Verse 14, your
faith is faint. What you claim to believe, it's
written through this. If you've been right, you're
trusting in a dead man. Yeah, and we're found false witnesses
of God. We're saying all this about God
and God's Son, God's salvation. If we've testified of God that
He raised up Christ, whom He raised not up, it's true that
the dead rise not? I'm reading, read verse 16. If the dead rise not, then Christ
is not right. But if Christ is not ready, your
faith is vain, you're yet in your sins. If there's a state
of sin, and God is holy, and sin must be taken care of, if
Jesus the Father didn't rise from the grave, and you've still
got sin on you, I don't know what you're going to do about
it. That's what he said. If God is who He is, then we
say, read on. Then they also which are fallen
asleep in Christ are perished. Verse 18. All who died, saying
they believed Christ, just died. Just died. Like a dog. You'll never see them again. Seriously. If Christ did not
die, you'll never see them again. All that they believed and hoped
and all their comfort was a lie. It's serious, isn't it? If Christ
be in our life. Freedom. Verse 19, if in this
life only we have hope in Christ, if all our hope in this life,
everything we do, if we've devoted our lives to this thing of following
Christ, and He didn't rise, we're miserable
people. What have we done? Look over
at verse 32. Paul says, after the manner of
men I fought with beasts. In other words, Paul suffered
all manner of persecution and affliction and was literally
beaten, stoned. If the dead rise not, he says,
verse 32, let's eat and drink tomorrow, we die. What are we
doing here tonight? Let's go. You got to grab it
while you can. This is it. Life is short. Play
hard, you know. This is all we got. Better get
all you can. If Christ didn't rise. That's what the world thinks.
That's what the world's doing. And so, if Christ didn't rise,
then the world's right and we're wrong. We're eating up food.
And we better get out there now and get some of this famed, fortunate
woman. Verse 20. But now, He is Christ. He is risen from the dead. Paul
said, I've already told you. He was seen of the apostles.
He was seen of 500 at one time, and I saw Him. And I'm telling
you, He is risen from the dead. And he's become the firstfruits
of them that slept. And so, since he is risen from
the dead, everything he said and everything he did is true. And all your hope in him is real. And all who died in him are still
living. And if we only had hope in Christ
in this life, boy, we've got good hope. And if all the world's
got is hope in this world, then, oh my, they're of all men the
most miserable. If we've got hope of an eternal
life, more abundant, oh, what a wonderful life we have. Everything Christ said and did
is true. All that he said and did. Oh
my, I want to take you, just quickly, would you quickly go
with me and look at some things he said. John 6, John 6, just
look, you got to turn quickly with me so we can see these things.
Everything, since Christ arose, everything he said and did is
true. Everything he said is true. He said it, he said, heaven and
earth will pass away. But my word, not one word. And
this is for you, those of you who do believe. Verses 38 and 39, he said, I
came down from heaven. I came down from heaven. He came down from heaven. He
wasn't there before, and he came down and went back. I came down
not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And
this is the Father's will which has sent me. This is God's will.
This is God's purpose. This is God's eternal purpose.
That of all which He had given me, that God gave Christ a people,
chosen people. And every one of them, Christ
said, I'm not going to lose a one. All that He had given me, I should
lose nothing. I'm going to raise it up again. That's right. Everyone
that Christ gave me, everyone that believes me, I'm going to
raise them up. In the resurrection, they're going to rise from the
grave. Doesn't matter how long their bodies have been laying
in the grave, they're going to rise. Doesn't matter where they're
thrown into the sea. Other than those parts of the
sea, doesn't matter how long. Verse 47 and 48. Verily, verily,
of a truth, of a truth, I say unto you, I say unto you, is
that the risen one, whoever liveth, he that believeth on me hath
everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Chapter
8, quickly. Chapter 8. Since he rose, everything
he says here is true. Verses 23 and 24. He said unto
them, You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world,
I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you that
if you shall die in your sins, for if you believe not that I
am he, you shall die in your sin. Verse 51, no? Verse 51. He said, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, if a man keep my sayings, if a person believes
me, and trusts me, no matter how weak that faith is, they're
never going to see death. Now, it's not even going to taste
like death. He said, he called it sleep,
it's not death. He talked about the death of
those that are unbelievers, death. But to believers he said, he's
not dead, he's sleeping. Sleep is never painful. Sleep is never a bad thing. Sleep is never agonizing. It's
agonizing if you can't go to sleep. Sleep's always blessing. Sleep's always repression. If
you have a good sleep, you always wake up repressed and renewed.
Well, this thing of death is, you're talking about renewal.
It's the ultimate renewal. And everyone who sleeps, They'll
wake up for the regeneration. Chapter 14, quickly. Chapter
14. Every believer, that is. Look
at this. Now, he was leaving, and Peter
and the apostles were in trouble. Men, flesh and blood that they
were, quickly forgetting all that he said. He reminds them. Verse 1. Let not your heart be
troubled. You believe in God. He's not asking, do you believe
in God? He says, do you believe in God? I know you do. I gave it to you. I know you
do. I know your heart. You believe
in God. Believe also in me. I'm the God-man. In my Father's
house and many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you. Our Lord does not raise
false hopes. He says, men, that's a lie. And
I go to prepare a place for you. Who? Those of you who believe. He doesn't name a particular
name, does he? For you. Who's he to you? Whoever you
are. Whosoever believes. Read on. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that
where I am, there you may be also. It weren't so, would it? But
it's up. And you know the disciples, how
they were all worried and troubled. And Thomas said, Oh, Lord, we
don't know where you're going. Philip said, Oh, show us a father. Look at verse 9. Jesus said unto
him, Have I been so long time with you? And yet hast thou not
known me, Philip? He that hath seen thee hath seen
thee. Now these are just a few select
verses. Chapter sixteen, verse thirty-three. Our Lord ended up that great
message to His disciples. He said in verse thirty-three,
These things have I spoken unto you, that in me you might have
peace. In the world you shall have true
pleasure. All right, back to 1 Corinthians
15. So, everything he did and did
is true. All those promises he made to
us will be true. You'll never see that. That's what he said to Martha
at And in her brother's grave, she was weeping as we all do
at the death of a loved one. She said, Mark, didn't I tell
you that you could see the glory of God? He that believeth in
me shall never die. Never. It's not a figure of speech. And we're going to see why, because
there's a new light within that does not yet appear. They will. All right? We have hope and confidence
that we'll live forever with Christ and the resurrection.
Look at verses 20 through 23. Now is Christ risen from the
dead. He's become the firstfruits of them that slay. That is, the
first man to rise from the grave. For since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection of the dead. As in Adam, all
die. All those in Adam must die. This
body must cease to live the function and lie in a great bus. That's
the wages of sin. That's the consequences of sin. Everyone in Adam, but now, wait
a minute, in Christ, all those in Christ, shall all be made
alive. Everyone shall be made alive. All in Adam shall die forever,
but all those in Christ shall live forever. That's simple. Read on. But every man in his
own order, Christ the firstfruits, and afterward they that are Christ's
at his coming, those that belong to him, they'll all rise. That's
what he said. That's the Father's will. Everyone
he'd given me, I'll raise it. Verse 24. And then come at the
end, the end of the world, the end of this earth, which you
shall destroy, the heavens, that is the permanent, and the earth,
And he will have delivered up the kingdom to God, the spiritual
kingdom, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule
and all authority and power. All right, down to verse 35.
Now, some of these unbelievers were still raising objections.
They wanted to argue. They wanted to question. So, verse 35, some man, he said,
will say, well, how in the dead race? What kind of body did that
come from? Evidently, this was a gainsayer,
an unbeliever, arguing that. Well, how? You know, skeptical,
cynical. How? Prove it. Show me. So, Pop
goes and calls him a fool. The next verse, you fool. You fool? In other words, it's
foolish to not know this. Everything bears witness of how
it happened. Read on. That which thou smowest
is not quickened except it die. Everything on earth bears witness
to the Resurrection. You ever thought about that? Everything that, every plant
has seed. And though that plant dies at
sea, it brings forth everything. Even animals die. And what do
they become? Organic matter and soil, which
is necessary to bring forth plant life and so forth, and all that
we eat in the farm, our food and so forth. Everything bears
witness of the reservation. Everything. It doesn't matter
how insignificant it is. And some things can stay dead
for years, seemingly. When you go buy seed corn or
beans or whatever at the hardware store, they're dead, aren't they? They're dead. Or aren't they? Well, how do you know? There's only one way for that
seed to live again. Put it in the ground. See, it's
dead. The only way for it to live is put it in the ground,
but now who determines if it's going to live? God. God gives the entry. God gives the entry. Look at
verse thirty-eight. Verse thirty-seven and thirty-eight.
That which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body, thou don't
sow a whole stalk of corn. But you sow one seed, one seed
corn. Now, sow is not the whole body,
but bare grain, it might be wheat or some other grain, whatever
it is, but you just sow one little seed. How much does it bring
home? Does the end result of fruits
even resemble, not, doesn't even really resemble what you plant?
Especially corn, seed corn, real shriveled up, you know, just
a shriveled up bed thing, put it in there, several months later,
huge. Corn gets to the size tens, but
I figured out in Iowa, most beautiful sight you've ever seen. How many
ears of corn on a good stock of corn? Five. How many grains
of corn on an ear of corn? I can tell you some marvelous
things about here at home, but we don't have time. What I'm trying to say is, God
giveth it a body, verse 38. God gives it a body as it is
pleased Him. Every seed is on the body. All
right? Now, what kind of body will we
have in the resurrection? This is for those who believe,
and yet There's nothing wrong with asking
that. So Paul answers, this is for us. This is for us. He says there are different bodies,
different types of body. Verse 39, all flesh is not the
same flesh. There's one kind of flesh of
men, another flesh of beasts, another of fish, another of birds. That's obvious in this life,
right? There are also, verse 40, celestial
bodies. celestial, meaning the sky, celestial
bodies, that's the sun, moon, star, and bodies terrestrial,
planets, Earth, Saturn, Venus, so forth. All right? No extraterrestrial, mind you.
Is there like one of the planets Absolutely not. Absolutely not. So how do you know it's real? If you reach back. The new God is going to destroy
the heavens. That's all the solar system. There's not another solar system.
There's one sun. That's what the scripture said.
He put one sun in the sky. I don't care what science said.
It's a concerted, united conspiracy by scientists to try to disprove
God. So they can find life on another planet? Well, if you don't believe that,
sure. But if you read the Bible, you know men who read the Bible
3,400 years ago, they know the Earth was round. If they'd read their Bibles thousands
of years ago, they'd know something about the star, Orion. We've read how the Jews spoke
of Orion, the star. Well, there's not life on other
planets because Christ is going to be Lord of the redeemed, and after God destroys the heavens
and the earth, And all things, He's going to create a new heaven
and a new earth, where He will have righteousness, where in
the redeemed of Christ dwell all those who have been bought,
redeemed by the blood of Christ, every one of them coming, unto
Him that loveth us and has washed us from our sins, his own blood.
Christ died for us, right? He took not on Him the nature
of angels, but on the seed of Abraham. And he became a man and came
on this earth. There's no other, there's no
life on this planet. No. This is further proof, and
I didn't mean to get off on that. He absolutely refused to believe
that there is God. He refused. But! He believes
there's life out there, somewhere, that's superior to us, that can
save us from this mess. So he doesn't believe in God. Think about it. He refuses to
believe that God is supernatural life, the only one who can save
us out of this mess. But he believes, you know, there's
some little E.T. out there. Tell him all about
it. Man is an idiot. He believes in anything but God. That's his practice. He doesn't
want a God, doesn't want a judge, doesn't want a maker, doesn't
want a ruler, doesn't want a sovereign, doesn't want this man to wrangle
when you cry, doesn't want to bow to me, doesn't want to be
dependent. That's just man's practice. But I don't believe,
if you don't, surely you don't give any credence at all to science. Paul dealt with it. He said,
if science falsely sowed cotton. That's what he said to young
Timothy. He said, don't get caught up in it. Estimate it. Don't dwell on it. Go on. All
right. And that ought to answer all
of them. Those questions you might have about that. All right,
verses 41, it says, one glory of the sun, another glory of
the moon, another glory of the stars. One star differs from
another star in glory. The north star has preeminence
among the stars, and the sun now has preeminence over the
moon. All right. So also, verse 42, is the resurrection
of the dead. It's sown, this body is sown
in corruption, it's raised in incorruption. It's sown in dishonor. It dies,
it starts smelling bad, stinking. It's got to be bombed to keep
it from it. Well, it's raised in glory. It's sown in weakness. ravaged
by disease or age, raised in power, newness, life, flesh,
news, morning news, a good news, eternal news, raised in power. eternal power. It's sung in the
natural body, verse 44. It's raised in the spiritual
body. There is a natural body. That's
what you dwell in right now. But you're going to lay that
down. It's got to die. It's moral. It's corruptible.
But there's a spiritual body. There's a spiritual body, and
you're going to have that. All right? It's written, he says,
the first man, Adam, was made a living soul. Adam was created
happy out of dust. God took the dust and created
Adam, made a body out of dust. And God said, dust you are, dust
you are. But now the new body is not made
out of dust. I don't know what it's made out
of, but it's flesh and bone, but the bones will see that.
But it's not made out of dust, but the first man was. And man,
it says, the first man was made a living soul. And the best I
can read on it, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
The last Adam being Christ, the second man. God deals with the
whole human race in two federal heads, two men. God deals with
a whole human race and two men. All are born from Adam. We all
came from Adam, the seed of Adam. So in us is death. By one man, sin entered into
the world. Romans 5. And death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men for all of sin. We're all born sinners because
we're sons of Adam. But now Christ, He was not born
man. He had not the seed of man anyhow.
He wasn't created from the dust. He wasn't created from Mary's
egg or Joseph's bird. What was He? He's a God, but
He had a body. flesh and bones and blood, all
right? But he's a quickening spirit.
He gives this spiritual life. Now, even animals, animals, you know, Indy says,
her cat has human qualities. You know, animals show emotions,
don't they? Oh yeah, my dog is just as sad
as he can be when we're leaving. He knows when we're packing our
bags. He looks around. He won't even
look at me in the face. I can't hardly look him in the
face either. They have emotions, yes they do. They're sad, they're
happy. My dog grins when I come walking
out. Animals have these emotions.
It's something of a soul. It's something that animates
that body that they live in, all right? But no man... Man has a soul which animates
the body, but the soul, that sinner, must surely die. But now when God puts in a man
his spirit, that's eternal. And that's the best stuff in
this fragment, this new life, this new creature created in
Christ Jesus through the Spirit, God who is Spirit, puts his Spirit
in you, a new creature, the Son of God. Born again from above,
not dust, a spiritual life created in us that cannot die. Cannot
die. Isn't that what John said? Cannot
sin because his sin is in him. This is a creature that can't
even sin. He can't die. And I can't describe
it. I'm doing the best I can. But
this is a spiritual life. You can't kill God. Just like
Christ couldn't lay down his flesh and blood body, but you
couldn't kill him. His spirit is without sin. Spiritual life. Alright? But man lost, and that spiritual
life has something to do with being in God, with God, knowing
God, life of God, communion with God, the holiness of God. Alright? Adam lost that. And he became
dead in trespasses. And that's how we're born, until
we're born again. Are you with me? That's as simple as I can make
that. Verse 46, he says, now that was
not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural. We're
born, except the man be born of water, come out of your mother's
womb, and blood. So the first thing we dwell in
is the earthly body, verse 46, that which is natural, and afterward
that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth,
earth is. The second man, that's the Lord from heaven. You see, Christ didn't die. He
could not die of natural He could not die. He could not
die. Christ said no man takes my life.
He can't do it. He can't kill man. He didn't
believe it. He said he'll never die. And
he had all power. Nobody could touch him. Nothing.
Hunger couldn't touch him. Nothing could touch him unless
he willed it. So he laid his life down. The
second man's the Lord from heaven. As is the earthly, such are they
also, verse forty-eight, that are earthy. As is the heavenly,
such are they also that are heavenly. As we have borne the image of
the earthly, here we are in flesh and blood, we shall also bear
the image of the heavenly. All right, now what is this new
body going to be like? What's this new body going to
be like? Well, we already have this new creature in us waiting
to be born out of it. This is not science fiction,
this is scripture. There's this new creature, created
in Christ Jesus, within us, that's bound by this cocoon called flesh. There's this worm within us that's
someday going to be metamorphosis, transformed, mounted up on the
wings of the eagle. It's not going to be a butterfly,
much more glorious than that. We shall mount on the wings of
eagles," he said, flying in the face of the sun. Yes, we will. John said this,
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, right now. But it does
not yet appear what we shall be. He said it doesn't appear there
because we're so flesh and blood, so bound by the flesh. But there's
new flesh and a glorified body which we will have in the resurrection.
Read on. Verses 49 through 53, he tells
us something about it. As we're born in the image of
the earthly, currently we shall marry the image of the heavenly.
Now this I say, brethren, flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God. The life of the flesh is in the
blood. When Christ rose from the grave,
he said, touch me. He said, the spirit hath not
what? What'd he say? The spirit hath not flesh and
bone. He said, look. He spilled all that. He poured out
all that. It's at the mercy seat. He had
flesh and bone. The flesh and blood can inherit
the kingdom of God. The life of the flesh is in the
blood. But now this new flesh, this new life, it's going to
be flesh. But it's not going to have blood in it. Do you see? There's not going to have blood
in it. How's it going to live? Spirit of God. There's going
to be blood. Spirit of God. It cannot inherit
the kingdom of God. That's what corrupts us. You
know, everything, every disease that enters our body, the method
of death, whatever it is, has to do with blood. Either you
are cut and bleed to death, or germs enter your bloodstream
and kill you or something. Blood, blood. The life of the
plague depends on the blood. If the blood goes bad, But now,
the new place is not going to depend on that. It's going to be by the Spirit of God. Read
on. I'll show you a mystery. Verse
51. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be chained. Maybe he's talking about John
and some others. But Peter didn't sleep. He walked in. Elijah didn't sleep. We don't think dead. We shall
not all sleep, but we all will be changed. Yes, we will. And he's writing this to us future
believers, the Lord may come tonight. In that case, none of
us here will sleep. None of us here will be laid
to the ground. We'll all be changed. So he's writing this to future
believers. We shall not all sleep, you see
that? But we shall all be changed.
Every one of us will be changed. Verse 52, in a moment, in a twinkling
of an eye, at the last trumpet, and the trumpet, he said, shall
sound. He said, the trumpet shall sound. Scriptures all the way through
talks about the trump sound. And people, he says it a twinkling
of an eye, in a moment, a twinkling of an eye, if you just blink
your eyes about five times, how quick is that? We'll be changed,
he said. The dead will be raised incorruptible.
We'll all be changed. There's not going to be one moment
of fear when the trump will sound. No, no, no, no, no, no. Trumpets
sound pretty often, but the whole world who knows not Christ would
be fearful. That's what the scriptures talk
about. They shall cry for the rocks and the hills to fall upon
them. When the trumpets sound, and every eye shall behold him,
the scriptures say, All the kindreds of the earth shall wail because
of him," Jeremiah said. Those unbelievers are going to
be filled with fear. But not believe it. Not for one
moment. Just like death is not a fearful thing for the believer.
I've watched several die. And never once has it been an
excruciatingly agonizing, kicking and screaming, epistemic piece
of life. The giver is the abode. Peace. Mark the end of the perfect
man. The end of that man is what?
Peace. You'll die peaceful. You'll die
peaceful. And so will you. But don't worry
about that. You don't need dying grace if
you're not dying. And when it comes time to die, you'll have
it. And you'll just be glad to go. You have to die. The loved ones won't, but you
will. And, but now when Christ comes and then Trump's around,
we'll all be changed immediately. We'll be programmed. That's how it's going to be.
Nothing to fear. Nothing to fear. And we'll all
be changed. And this corruption must put on him corruption. This
mortal must put on immortality. I quoted, what kind of body is
it? Well, our Lord had a mortal. He came back. and spent 40 days
on this earth in his glorified body. Yeah, he did. And I've told you that when he
appeared to his disciples, he said, touch me, handle me. He said, spirit. They thought
they'd seen a spirit. They didn't recognize him at
first because he was so, evidently, so glorious and beautiful. And
he changed, yet they did recognize him when he revealed himself.
It's me. It is I. Mary, it's I. Mary,
it's I, he said. And she recognized him. And she
was overcome with his beauty. And he said, the Spirit hath
not fleshed him. He said, touch my hand. But hold my hand. My
hands will have hands. My feet will have feet. He said,
children, do you have any meat? They came to eat, and they had
a piece of fish there. And he ate in front of them. They all watched him eat. We'll
eat. Scriptures are full of stories
of how we're going to eat the feast, the marriage supper of
the Lamb. And we'll eat. Now listen to this. When God
first created this earth, And after he created man, man
was his last creation, verse 1 on 6th verse. After he created
everything, when he created the animals, he said, this is good.
I say it too, don't you? I look at God, oh, it's so good.
And he made all this, and when he finally created man, the pinnacle
of his creation, man, in the image of God, the image. of God, in our image, he said,
image, that means a body, in our image. He said, it's very
good. David said, I'm fearful of one
of them tonight. Even though I have sinned, I'm
fearful of one. This is an amazing creation.
So the new creation, and when God says something's good, it's
good. When God says something very good, that means you can
move on. So, we're going to have a body
like Adam and Eve, except without the body. And without any possibility
of it falling, because we're going to have a righteousness,
infused in us by Christ himself, the righteousness of God, perfect,
not liable to trouble. And that's what Paul says here
in verse 54, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption,
this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought
to pass the same as written. Death has swallowed up the dead. Oh, death, where is thy sting?
There's no sting for the believer. Christ said, remove it. Christ died and came back from the grave,
and he said, there's nothing to fear. I remove the sting of
sin. Because verse fifty-six, the
sting of death is sin. The worry, this is the reason
the world doesn't want to leave this world, whether they know
it or not. This is the reason the word of unbelievers go kicking
and screaming and do everything they can to hold on here, because
in their subconscious, believe it or not, know it or not, there's
an angry God that they're not peaceful. And they're not going
to have peace. God says there's no rest. I'm not going to leave you, because
this is all ahead, and they're going to face it, and we know
it. And they don't believe it, but they've seen it. Even though
they won't admit it, their conscience fights it. And not for the believer,
but for the believer. And that's no death, where is
thy sting? No grave, where is thy victory?
There's no victory in the grave. The grave doesn't have us. The
grave doesn't have any of our loved ones, any believers who
went there. There's some bones lying there,
but they're not there. They're not there. They're with
Christ. To be absent from the body, there's
no purgatory either. There's no soul's plea. The scripture
says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Thanks be to God. Why? How? How is all this true? God has
given us the victory, thanks be to Him, through our Lord Jesus
Christ, through our Lord. So our Lord is the victor. Here's some things that have
run through your mind, have run through your mind about death, about
the resurrection of man, life after death. Will we know each
other? Absolutely. Perfectly. Oh yes. We'll know. When I see John here, I'll know
it's John. I'll know it's John. I'll know
everybody there, though I've never met them before. Faith in Moses and Elijah. How
did they know Moses and Elijah? Mary. How did Peter, James, and
John know Moses and Elijah? They never met them. Never seen
a picture of them. They knew each other. They saw Samuel. Samuel came
and prayed. We'll know Moses, Elijah, Christ. We'll know each other. Yes, we
will. We'll know every believer there. There won't be a stranger.
There ain't gonna be a stranger there. All of a sudden, we don't
know how Mary died. Whatever the thief on the cross
is saying here, that there's Abraham, Joseph, Jacob, David,
Solomon, Bathsheba. We don't know. It won't be good for us. We'll
know even as we go. What relationship will we have? What will be the relationship?
They won't be the same. They won't be the same. There's
no marriage. Our Lord said there's no marriage or any marriage.
There won't be husbands and wives. There won't be fathers and mothers
and sons and daughters. None. No male and female. That's just the way it is. That's
what Christ said, and Christ said no. Jew or Gentile, male
or female, no marriage given in marriage, no old or young. There's no inequality. We'll
all be created in the image of Christ as He is. We'll be like
Him. And, now listen, the thought
of not having the same relationship with someone you knew well and
loved may trouble you, but don't let it. Because, you see, we'll
know as we've been known. We'll know as we've been known.
We'll know that in that former life, we're going to love. That
in that form of life that God Almighty gave us this precious
person to be our husband or our wife or our son or our daughter,
in His good purpose, in order of balance, in His good purpose,
some soul, you see, it's all connected. Abraham and Sarah
got together and had an Isaac, and Isaac and Rebecca got together
and had a Jacob, and Jacob had a Joseph, and Joseph had an on
and on you go, you know. If Abraham hadn't had Sarah and
Sarah hadn't had Abraham, we wouldn't have it. We're all sons of Jacob. We're
all interconnected. Abraham knows now that Sarah
was his wife in order for Jacob to be born. another son of God. We'll all know that it's all
according to God's purpose. And we'll love perfectly. There's
no respective persons with God. There's no favorites with God.
All of His sons are the same in His love. He loves them perfectly.
We won't love somebody more. We won't appreciate somebody
more. We won't be more happy to see someone than anybody else.
We'll be just happy to see everybody. You understand? We'll know each
other, we'll know what relationship we have, how it was, but it's
going to be a perfect model. We'll see the goodness and the
wisdom of God in creating this relationship in order for certain
things to transpire, you see. But we won't, you know, if my
mother's there, I'm going to be happy to see her again, but
she won't be my mother. That's what Christ said, who
is my mother? Christ loves Mary Magdalene as much as he loved
Mary Josephine. Right? And in glory we'll have that
same knowledge of Christ, that same love of Christ, equally
for everyone. We won't be more happy to see
one person than another. And this is the Scripture said,
the Scripture said that we're going to say amen to the death
of the wicked. We may see someone who was a
former relationship partner. But since we know, as we've been
known, we know that they weren't God's own, so we'll
be able to say amen to any unbeliever, no matter if that's my husband,
my wife, my mother, my father, my son, my daughter, and a former
wife. They're an unbeliever. Does that make sense? It troubles us now because we're
bound by the flesh. We're so, we're respecter of
persons. We love our own, but then we'll
have perfect love. Perfect love. That's the best
I can do with that. Knowing all according to God's
will and no respect of person, perfect love, equality, a new
heavens and a new earth. The Scriptures talk so much about
the, in the text, I'm going to close with this. The Scriptures
talk so much about a new heaven and a new earth. We're in growth
and life. It's going to be much like this
one. When the children of Israel finally went into the promised
land, they saw beauty that they'd never seen before. I believe
that was typical. Everything about the killing
of Israel was typical of us hearing into that, right? Well they,
some spies came back from there and said, carry one bunch of
grapes. The grapes of Eshom. It took
two men to carry one bunch of grapes. Sit down. They came back
and started to tell him, you can't believe what's over there.
I don't believe that. So they brought back one bunch
of grapes. Grapes that big, I can't even
tell you how big. I can't believe it. It's going to be much like this
one. We're going to eat and drink. It's going to be a city. A new Jerusalem. I believe it. It's going to be a city. This scripture talks about us
going in and out. We started these things in the
Revelation. Going in and out. Here's what's going to make it
just marvelous. Jesus Christ is going to be with
us. You know. You see, this is why when we
get the glory, we're not going to be so excited about it. seeing
any particular person. Somebody asked, my wife, we were
sitting on the beach, and my wife asked my dad, said, when
you get to heaven, who or one person would you really, really
like to sit down and talk to? And that's not a bad question,
because I'd like to, right now, sit and talk to David. All I'd
love to do is listen to David, Abraham, Moses, and on and on. Paul, wouldn't you? But then,
there's only one person. We're all going to know what
Moses knew, and David knew, and Paul knew. Yes, we're all going
to be the same. There's one person that's going to captivate everybody.
There's one person. I know I'll see Moses sometime.
I know Daniel and Samson, and I'll see you, but I don't want
to have much time to meet her. I'm looking for the wrong type. Oh, there, there you are. We're going to be so captivated.
Him, who's above all. He's the fairest of two thousand.
Who's a bright and morning star. And we're all going to want to
hear a word from Him. Nobody else. And so it says this in
verse 58, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable,
let nothing and no one bother you. Be unmovable. In this abounding,
growing, that is, in the work of the Lord. The work of the
Lord, that means what you're doing right now. This is how you're growing.
This is the work of the Lord, that you believe, that you worship
Him, that you provoke one another to love, so much more if you
see the day approaching. Because you know, you know your
labor's not in vain. How do you know? The highest
of leaders. There's a man, there's a Lord,
Jesus Christ. All right, I hope that was a
comfort to you and I hope it was interesting in a way. Let's
stand. Our Father, thank you for your
word. Without it, we'd be in darkness, even as others. Without it, we'd have no hope,
no peace, no comfort. Well, we'd be dead without it.
Your word is life. Your word is spirit and life,
and we believe that you've given us of your spirit and given us
this new life, though it does not yet begin.