Greetings, brethren, and join
me in your Bibles. We're going to go back to Daniel
chapter 12, and we're going to segue into today's Bible class
lesson, which is entitled, What We Shall Be, which is, a phrase taken from 1 John 3,
verse 2, which I'll read before we go back to Daniel 12. In 1 John 3, verse 2, it says,
Beloved, he's writing to the brothers, the elect, the sheep,
the church. He says, Beloved, now are we
the sons of God. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall
be like him for we shall see him as he is. So he says, I don't
know what that's going to look like, but we know that there's
going to be a change. So go with me back now to Daniel
chapter 12. And we'll read the first couple
of verses there. And at that time shall Michael
stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of
thy people. And as we went through Daniel, remember he gives us
a view through visions of someone's coming. Someone's here and someone's
coming back. And now this verse is the someone's
coming back portion of that. He's already talked about Messiah,
the Prince coming and making an end of sin. And this is when
he returns and he stands for the children of thy people. And
there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there
was a nation, even to that same time at that time. Thy people
shall be delivered, everyone that shall be found written in
the book. So it's going to be a joyous time for the church,
for those whose names are found written in the Lamb Book of Life.
But for everyone else, it's going to not be that pleasant. And
in verse two, many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth
shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting
contempt. And then verse 3, and they that
be wise. Well, how do we acquire wisdom?
That is a blessing of God. We're blessed with all spiritual
blessings in Christ. Well, being wise about salvation
through the new birth is the essence of that. And they that
be wise, not of their own accord, They that be wise shall shine
as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness
as the stars forever and ever. So those that have been born
again, that have been busy about delivering the gospel, like Paul
said, I gave you what I received. That's all we can do. And no
telling what might have happened out of that. I got a letter from
a brother in Idaho the other day while I was out elk hunting.
I got back and had a nice letter saying he had been listening
to Daniel 11 and was happy that it seemed to be scriptural. So
good for that. But anyway, I wanted to call
your attention to this verse 3, they that be wise, shall shine
as the brightness of the firmament. So he's kind of has a vision
of this change that's going to take place. And so that's what
we're going to discuss in our lesson today. So that's our segue
into what we shall be from 1 John 3, 2. And, you know, there's many that,
In Jesus' day, there were Sadducees that didn't even believe in a
resurrection, telling him, well, this is how it ought to be. And
not based on anything true or scriptural, but Jesus said, you
err, not knowing the power of God or the scriptures, either
one. So all your conclusions are based in wrongness. And they
don't have any ability to understand that. And so that
takes us back to the beginning of our lesson, which we go all
the way back to Genesis in chapter one, and we find the Lord in
his creation mode. And he says, let us make man
in our image. Well, what would that be? Well, when we go to the New Testament,
we learn some things about God. It says, God is light, and in
Him is no darkness at all. So He has this element of light. And we find that when Adam and
Eve were placed in the garden, they had some connection to that. Many commentators believe that
they had some element of light as a covering. So as we go through
the Old Testament, we see that Moses, when he went up on the
mount to get the law, when he came down, his face shone and
it scared everybody. And he had to put a veil over
his face because they were afraid to look on him because he'd just
been near the Lord. And we found on the Mount of
Transfiguration, there were these on the Mount there, and they
appeared, and they were shining, and apparently they had a physical
form that enabled them to understand who that was, Moses and Elias. So we have those elements that
we want to kind of pay attention to a little bit, because Daniel
says, the wives are going to shine. And so when this resurrection
happens, when Jesus comes back, and many that sleep in the dust
are going to awaken, and the New Testament says that we which
are alive and remain shall be caught up with them. We won't
prevent or go ahead of them, but we'll be right along next
to them. You know, in Psalm 104, In verse
1 and 2, as we examine this part about
God being light and Him as no darkness at all, the psalmist
wrote of that very thing, you know, you wonder where these
New Testament writers, where do they get their stuff? Well, in Psalm 104, it says,
Bless the Lord, O my soul, O Lord my God, Thou art very great,
Thou art clothed with honor and majesty, who covers thyself with
light as a garment, and who stretches out the heavens
like a curtain. You know, we just don't have
a grasp of, we can't get a visual, physical grasp of that concept. He covers himself with light
as a garment. We think of light in physical
terms, and we have light from, here shining on us. So we have
all these concepts of light that are based on our physical interaction
with the light that we have here. But you know, God, when He creates,
the Old Testament and Genesis says, when God created something,
it was good. It was very good. God saw everything that he made,
and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning
were the sixth day. Well then, what happened? What happened next? We had the
fall. We had sin enter the scene. And Adam and Eve, who had been
created in the image of God, in His likeness created he, they,
them, or however that's phrased, now they said, oh, what happened?
We lost our covering. If that was a covering of light,
because it said God covers Himself with light as a garment, maybe
that's appropriate to how they appeared in the garden before
sin. And then they said, we're naked.
And so they tried to manufacture a covering out of the elements
at hand that they had to work with, which was apparently fig
leaves, which we've commented on that was a poor selection
because they're kind of scratchy and not very durable. So there we have that. So we
ended up, we were one way, then sin and the fall removed that. And then we have to be made different. And part of that is the new birth.
And we'll kind of examine a little bit of that here in a minute. Let's look at some things that we don't know because it's not
revealed. In 1 Corinthians 2.9 it says,
but as it's written, and where would that be written? The Old
Testament. I have not seen nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man the things which
God has prepared for them that love him. all spiritual blessings in Christ.
And then again, we read that part of that verse in 1 John
3, 2, where it says, Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and
it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when
he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him
as he is. So note this change that occurs,
the opposite of what we are described in Genesis in the fall. We're
changed from one thing to another, and then we're changed from that
fallen thing back to a condition more in line with how we were. It says, we were chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world. So we had a relationship
with God The elect had a relationship with God before the world was
created, before there was a garden, before there was an Adam and
Eve physically on the ground. But for us, it's impossible in
this life to comprehend an existence without sin. It's just so prevalent. It just
impacts every atom of everything that we connect with. And so
we just don't know what that would be like, what a world,
what ourselves would be like, absent the effects of sin in
us and our life in this world. And Paul wrote of that condition,
saying that the world which was created then was very good. and
now was totally impacted negatively by sin in the fall, even the
very ground being cursed. Weeds, stickers, thorns, all
those things that weren't there originally but came into being. You know, and Paul wrote in Romans
8.22, he says, we know the whole world, the whole creation, groaneth
and travaileth in pain together, waiting for the revelation of
the last sheep when all this stuff gets wrapped up. Our physical
circumstances, our appearance and our being in this world,
they're all impacted and affected by sin. And so how we will be
in the world to come will be quite different when sin is taken
out of the equation Although there seemed to be some elements
like on the Mount of Transfiguration, they were able to say, hey, I
know who that is. And they looked like men, but they were glowing,
shining garments. And you can find that in Matthew
17, Mark 9, and Luke 9 on the Mount of Transfiguration. These men were with Jesus and
it says they talked to him about his decease, which he should
accomplish in Jerusalem. The things which the prophets
desired and the angels desired to look into. We look at Matthew
17, one, After six days, Jesus took Peter,
James, and John, his brother, and bringeth them into a high
mountain apart, and was transfigured before them. He changed from
the way that he was physically to a more spiritual appearance
of what he really was. His face did shine as the sun,
and his raiment was white as the light. thyself with light
as a garment. And behold, there appeared unto
them Moses and Elias talking with him. And you know in Revelation
chapter 3 verse 5 says, they that overcome it shall be clothed
in white raiment. All these things are, they're
all talking about, it's like Daniel, they're all talking about
the same thing. It's not like nine different visions about
different things. They were all talking about the
same elements. You know, and our relationships
will be based on Christ, and as a spiritual family, and not
by earthly marriages, but by eternal blood. And you know, once we're in heaven,
marriage is, we don't need the type. Marriage is a type, a shadow,
a picture of the relationship between Christ and the church.
And when we're with Him, when the bride is with Him, we don't
need the picture anymore. It's like the sacrifices in the
temple. We don't need them anymore because
the Passover lamb came. So all those things are done
away with as a type. And so there's a big change, a big
change coming. Your name changed. They'll be
giving you a white stone with a name written. You know, the white stone, in
the old days, when someone was being judged, they would have stones and if you thought
he was guilty and needed to be condemned you would pick a black
stone and if you thought that person was innocent then you
drew a white stone and so we overcome by the blood of the
lamb and we get that white stone and and In the Greek legal system, that
would give the verdict. For one proclaimed innocent,
a black stone would declare a guilty verdict. So what information does Scripture
give us regarding our future existence? So we know, we have
maybe a hint about how maybe we were in the garden before
sin. Then we certainly know how we turned out after sin. and
all the things that we're subject to because of that. We have age
and disease and we get weaker and things don't work as well as
they used to. Well, in 1 Corinthians, Let's
turn to 1 Corinthians 15, verse 35. And we're not going to have time
to read all this, everything that I have, this kind of a lengthy
lesson, but we're just going to hit a few highlights out of
here. In verse 35, as we have borne the image of the earthly,
like we are here now, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. as it said in Genesis. Let us make man in our image.
And then we departed from that. In verse 44, it says, talking
about, it's sown a natural body, it's raised a spiritual body.
So there's a big change that happens to us because of the
new birth. There is a natural body and there is a spiritual
body. And then in verse 50, he said, now this I say, brethren,
flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. And that's
kind of a dual statement there. The works of the flesh that the
Bible talks about, it's not by works of the flesh which we have
done, but it's also flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom
of God. Neither doth corruption inherit
corruption. So we have an element of us that's
spiritual, which is compatible with the Lord, compatible with
Jesus, but we have a physical body that's not. Behold, I show
you a mystery. And he had kind of got a glimpse
of this that we'll read in a little bit if we have time. I show you
a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed. That's an important concept to
think about. We're going to be changed. In
verse 52 of chapter 15, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at
the last trump. And you know, we kind of went
through this in Daniel. There's not going to be like nine different
last trumps. It's just the last trump. That's
why it's called the last trump. For the trumpet shall sound and
the dead shall be raised incorruptible. and we shall be changed. For
this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal
must put on immortality. 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,
and where would that be? Isaiah 25, eight, in case you
want to look it up later. Death is swallowed up in victory. Victory. Wasn't that the message
of Jesus in Daniel? Jesus always wins. Victory in
Christ. The form we now are in is a physical
being. It's a vehicle for us to transit
this world in. It's a physical being that's
constrained by time and human physical nature and all those
elements are impacted by sin. After the new birth, we begin
to understand and to look at things from really from a spiritual
perspective that's born out of eternity. We see things in a
different way. We say, they were strangers and
pilgrims. They confessed. We're strangers
and pilgrims here in this world. Jesus said in John 17, they are
not of the world, even as I am not of the world, but they're
in the world. So we have to look at things from that perspective. We're in the world for a purpose. That's the way God chose to redeem
us. That's the way that he chose
to have his gospel. brought forth to engage the rest
of the elect as they come through time and at my appointed time. Jesus came in fulfillment of
the right time, as we say. And the form we're now in is a physical
being that's constrained again by human physical nature and
impacted by sin. And Paul called it this body
of death. That's how he looked at it. He
said, this is a body of death. He says, you know, It would be
okay if I left tomorrow. He said, for me to die would
be gain, but it is needful for me to stay here and bring the
gospel, because that's what God has purposed for me. But he said,
you know, knowing what I know now, it would be better to depart,
he said. Hebrews gives us an indication
that in the eternal purposes of God, we were in a different
state. And we kind of briefly touched on this a minute ago
because we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
world. So there's an element in the covenant of grace where
God gave Christ a people to redeem before they were here, before
the world was created, before all that took place. He said,
here are the children that I give to you. And he said, I'll redeem
them. And the Holy Spirit said, I'll
breathe into them the breath of life so that they can hear
the gospel and see the gospel and know the gospel. And I'll
give them a heart of flesh and they shall know you. His job
is to reveal Jesus to the Lord's people. So it says in Hebrews
2.14, and I just want to point out that sometimes it's just
really important to pay attention to the words that are in scripture,
because oftentimes we just read over them and gloss over them.
We don't really contemplate the depth of them. And remember from
our lesson in Luke where dive off, launch into the deep, there's
always more there than what meets the eye. In Hebrews 2.14 says,
for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood. So the children, you can't partake
of something if you're not there, if you don't exist, if you're
not an entity. The children are partakers of
flesh and blood He also himself likewise took part of the same,
that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death,
that is the devil. Children before partakers. Isaiah
8, 18. I just love this verse because
it's a prophecy of the Lord, the victorious Lord from Daniel
and all the other gospels. coming to the Lord. You know,
in Ephesians it says, I'm weaving, I guess. He says, he shall present
them spotless. He shall present the church spotless,
without wrinkle. He's presenting this church to
who? He's presenting it to God the
Father and saying, of all you gave me, I have lost none. In
Isaiah 8.18, it says, Behold, I and the children whom the Lord
hath given me are for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord
of hosts which dwelleth in Mount Zion. And we kind of looked through
John 17 a little bit already, so we won't go back there. But
in 2 Corinthians, Paul, he brings this out again. He says, you
know, we have this treasure in earthen vessels. We have a gift. by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's a gift of God. We have that
gift in an earthen vessel, that the excellency of the power may
be of God and not of us. And we're brought to understand
that through the new birth. Job, understand, now this is
interesting, you know, Job's one of the, many say that Job
is like one of the oldest books in the Bible. It comes kind of
near Psalms, so you think of it, chronologically, like in
chapters of a book. But Job is really ancient. He was probably a contemporary
of Abraham, or like that, would you say? And in Job, he clearly
understood that he was in a condition according to God's purpose in
this world, and that condition was a temporary condition. In
chapter 10 of Job verse 11, he writes about this and he says,
Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh. He understood that
he was a spiritual person, but in this world he was clothed
with skin and flesh, and has fenced me with bones and sinews."
Fenced is kind of an interesting word there, because it's a containment
kind of a thing, you know? Like, I have this thing within
me, but it's contained in this body of death, as Paul called
it. And then in verse 12, he says, "...thou has granted me
life and favor, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit." Well,
what is he talking about there? What visitation? He had a visitation
that gave him the new birth. A few chapters later, in chapter
14, verse 14, he says, if a man dies, shall he live again? He
says, all the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change
comes. He had a clear view of that,
that there was going to have to be a change because flesh
and blood could not inherit the kingdom of God. Paul recognized
that situation and that he was in a temporary situation. And 2 Peter 1.13 says,
yeah, I think it may, as long as I'm in this tabernacle. this body of death, to stir you
up by putting you in remembrance, knowing that shortly I must put
off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has
showed me." So he had been given a vision or some showing by Jesus. You're in this physical body
for just a short time later, then you're not gonna die pleasantly.
But he didn't look at that like, oh no, what can I do to head
that off? Maybe I better go out in the woods and learn how to
can meat and vegetables and stave off the inevitable. He says,
I don't know. He says, I'm in this tabernacle,
I'm gonna share the gospel and then shortly thereafter, I'm
putting this tabernacle off even as Jesus showed me. And then
I'll be with him, and that will be a good thing. Second Corinthians
5.1, Paul wrote, for we know that if our earthly house of
this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. And then on a
couple of verses later, in verse 4, he kind of describes this
thing that we endure. He says, for we that are in this
tabernacle do groan, being burdened. You know, the more you're, after
the Lord reveals Himself, after the new birth, the more you become,
sin becomes more aware to you, and you see It's just kind of
like the Scripture. You know, you didn't see Jesus
in this block of Scripture in Leviticus or Numbers. But now you do. Now, before,
you didn't see sin in this or in that. Now you do. And you
say, oh! And Paul says, you know, we're
in this fix where the things that The spiritual parts, the
things we want to do, we don't end up doing that. The things
we don't want to do, that's what we end up doing, and that's a
burden. That just gnaws on you. We're in this tabernacle we've
grown being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed, but
clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life. And
we mentioned earlier in Hebrews 11, 13, where in the Old Testament
patriarchs, they all died in the faith, not having received
the promises, but having seen them afar off, were persuaded
of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers
and pilgrims on the earth, which is essentially what Jesus said
in John 17. They are not of the world, as
I am not of the world. You know, that word pilgrims, or stranger, in the Hebrews,
in the Greek, rather, in the Greek word is paraepidemios,
which is translated either pilgrim or stranger in this chapter of
Hebrews. And in 1 Peter, it's as well,
and it's formed from two words, para and epidemio, which are
defined as an alien alongside. An alien is someone, we know
what an alien is, someone comes here not from America, they come
across the border and then they're alongside us. So that's what
that pilgrim and strangers means. That's what Peter wrote to the
elect, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontius and all those
places in Turkey. And that's what he was talking
about. You're there alongside of those people, but you're not
one of them. A resident foreigner. John 17,
11, I am no more in the world, but these are in the world. and
they're there according to his purpose. They are not of the
world even as I am not of the world. Philippians, we're kind
of moving along rapidly because I have a lot of scriptures to
go through, but Philippians 3.20 says our conversation is in heaven,
our manner of life, really, our spiritual manner of life is in
heaven from whence we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, they're talking about they're looking for his return. who,
in verse 21 says, shall change our vile body that it may be
fashioned like unto His glorious body. So there's gonna be a change
when He comes back. Sleep and the dusk come and then
we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together and
we shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye and all that. He'll
change our vile body that it may be fashioned or remolded
or reconfigured translated, whichever word you want to supplement there,
but, like unto his glorious body, according to the working, that
dunamos, power, is what that working means, whereby he is
able even to subdue all things to himself. There's not going
to be any condition. People are always, well, I'm
not buried in a cemetery and I'm not, you know. It doesn't
matter what your final decomposition process is or whatever. He's
able to subdue all things by his power. That word vile, he writes in
there, he who shall change our vile body. Well, when we think
of vile, we think of vileness. But really the word, it means
that our bodies in this world exist in a depressed state. And this verse further states
that this condition must be and shall be changed. We're going
to go from being in this body in a depressed state, impacted
by sin every moment, every day, all the things that affect us. it must and shall be changed.
And change is from the Greek compound word indicating that
a transfiguration will take place over the circumstance, the position,
the external condition in which we now are. All those things
will be overcome by this change and they will vanish and be replaced by His mighty power and will
be When we see him, we shall be
like him, who shall change our vile body like unto his glorious
body. If a man dies, will he live again?
All the days of my appointed time, I will wait for my change
to come. That's what Job said. When God
creates, it's good. The effects of sin and the fall
in the world and in man have resulted in flaws too many to
count. imperfections, deficiencies,
weaknesses, defects, and unbelief is the worst one of them all. And it must be overcome. That's why in Ephesians 119 says,
we believe according to the working of His mighty power. That's the
only way that defect of sin can be overcome, is by the working
of His mighty power. Otherwise, it's just never going
to change, and it's fatal. Imagine a body, imagine a form
with zero defects, without sin, without the effects of sin, and
presented without spot or wrinkle, a spiritual body, is what Paul
called it in 1 Corinthians 15, 44. Not like the seed of Abraham,
but as the angels and angels of God. We just can't imagine
how we would be if we were not impacted by thousands of years
of sin affecting every molecule, every atom of the world. And
Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians and he's kind of saying, you know
what? I kind of got a glimpse of how things will be, but I
can't really talk about it. I knew a man in Christ about
14 years ago, whether in the body I can't tell, or whether
out of the body I can't tell, God knoweth such a one caught
up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, whether
in the body or out of the body, I can't tell, God knoweth, how
that he was caught up into paradise, and he heard unspeakable words,
which is not lawful for a man to utter." Can you imagine? And Daniel got a little bit of
that, and he says, It troubled me. It was just more than, and
you know, Jesus says the same thing to the disciples. I have
a lot of stuff to tell you, but you're just not able to bear
it yet. You're just not there. It's just too much for you. And
as we grow in grace, and we see a little bit more, and a little
bit more, and a little bit more of all the things that God does
for us in grace, from the new birth, from before the foundation
of the world, all the things that He brings together to bring
every one of His sheep into the world, and intersect them with
His gospel, and breathe into them the breath of life, and
then to their final time in this world, The more we learn about it, the
more precious grace becomes. And he says, you know, of one, such a one, will I glory yet of myself? I'll
not glory but in my infirmities. The more you understand your
infirmities, the more you understand grace and what it takes to overcome
them. ailments and things, but sin. In 2 Corinthians 4.14 it says,
knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus Christ shall
raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you. And
while we look not at the things which are seen, and that's a
big difference in what we believe We don't really look so much
at the things that are seen, but at the things which are not
seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, they're physical. This world is just a vehicle
to bring the Lord's elect back to Him. But the things which are not
seen are eternal. And so, we must be changed. To live and thrive in an eternal
environment, we have to be changed. Because the stuff that we have
in this world is mortal. It's transitory. It's the opposite of eternal.
Nothing to wear out. No disease to debilitate. Everything
perfect and in harmony. I sometimes think about that,
I think. How much, how can that be? How can these things be? Everything in perfect harmony.
Everything works exactly as God originally purposed it. You know, we have a metaphor
of that kind of in the Old Testament. We're just show out of time here.
But in Deuteronomy, it says they went in the wilderness 40 years.
Their shoes didn't wear out. Their clothes didn't wear out.
They had manna from heaven. They had everything. Nothing
wore out. The shoes not waxen old on your
foot. I wear shoes out all the time,
not as often as Joanna does, because she walks a lot, but
she wears out a shoe every six months or so. They ate manna until they came
to the land of Canaan. The hidden manna, Revelation
2.17, whoso eateth this bread shall live forever. Whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. And eternal
life then is an integral element of the gospel, the results of
saving grace. Saving grace and the incorporating
of the elect into the realm of eternity are sovereign prerogatives
of God, which he promised according to his own will and purpose,
because in Acts, when Norman keeps reading this in 1348, as
many as were ordained to eternal life, believed by the working
of his mighty power. Time is like a bubble in eternity,
where the elect and the non-elect dwell until, like Job said, I'm
waiting for my change, and it'll be good change. Well, we're out
of time. Thank you for your attention.
Until next time, be eternally free because of the change.