Now, my text this morning is
1 Corinthians chapter 15. But before we go to there, go
to that passage, I want you to look back at the passage that
Brother Ron just read in John chapter 5. We're talking about
what I've labeled the glorified realm of salvation. We've talked
about salvation, I believe, in all of the the scripture concerning
the eternal realm and the legal realm,
the spiritual realm, and now we're in the final stages of
that, the glorified realm, which refers to the final glorification,
final glory, heaven's glory, the final glorification of every
person who dies in Christ, who's found in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And of course, in 1 Corinthians 15, the problem there was that
false preachers had come along and crept into the church, or
sometimes they raise up out of the visible church there, scripture
says. And they were denying the bodily
resurrection of the faithful, the believer. The bodily resurrection,
that's what they were doing. And so we're going to look at
that, or start looking at it this morning. We've got a lot
of scripture there in 1 Corinthians 15, so I'm not going to promise
you that I'll get through it all today. But look at the book
of John, Gospel of John, chapter 5, verse 28. Christ says, marvel
not at this. That means don't be amazed at
this. For the hour is coming. That's
the appointed time. God appointed that time. in the
which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice." Now that
grave there is not necessarily referring to the Rose Hill Cemetery
out here where the headstone is. Those are graves and all
who know Christ will be risen. That's true. But the grave is
just a general way of talking about death and the corruption
of this body. There are some who were, for
example, in World War Two that were blown up at sea and disintegrated
and they're in the grave, but they don't have, you know, their
actual physical body may not be in a hole out here at Rose
Hill with a tombstone. You understand what I'm saying?
So he says, and all that are in the grave shall hear his voice.
That's the voice of the Son of God in his second coming, his
return. And he says in verse 29, and
shall come forth And then he says, they that have done good
unto the resurrection of life, that's eternal life, and they
that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation. Now
what is that teaching us? Somebody says, well that sounds
like salvation by works, doesn't it? In other words, is God going
to, when you're raised from the dead, and he says they that have
done evil, they're going to be raised too. But they'll be raised
in a different way unto the resurrection of damnation. They that have
done evil. But now they that have done good
unto the resurrection of life. So does that mean that when I'm
risen out of the grave, when I'm raised up out of the grave,
that I'm going to stand at judgment? He talked about judgment here.
When he says in verse 27, God hath given the Son, Authority
to execute judgment also because he's the son of man. He's the
messiah. He earned that rights what he means there Because he
saved his people he did the work So does that mean that when we're
resurrected out of the grave? We're going to stand before God,
and he's going to judge me based upon my doing my doing good,
and how do you how do you? Reconcile that with for by grace
are you say I? through faith in that not of
yourself. And some people say, well, that's just talking about
he's gonna judge us based on our rewards or judge our works
so that we'll get more reward. That's not what it's talking
about. It's not even the context of this. And besides, the Bible
doesn't teach that. I challenge anybody to show me
one verse, Revelation included, that teaches that. It doesn't.
What is he talking about? Well, what you have to find out
now, what you need to know and what I need to know is what is
a biblical definition of doing good. What is that? What does God call doing good? See, this has nothing to do with
how we look at each other. You know, I may look at you and
say, well, that's a good person, or he's doing some good, or whatever.
And we use that term rather loosely. What does God say? God, the judge
of all. Now, here's what God says. You
can read so many scriptures on this, but I'll give you just
one example. Romans 3 and verse 10. There
is none righteous, no, not one. And then it goes on to say, there's
none good, no not one. Christ told the rich young man
in Matthew 19, there's none good but God. So who are these good
people? Or who are these that have done
good? Well, go all the way back. You don't have to turn there,
but go all the way back to Genesis chapter 4. And there's two men,
one named Cain, one named Abel. And they both came to worship
God. Seeking acceptance. And they
both brought an offering. What did Cain bring? He brought
the works of his hands. He worked hard out in the field.
He was a farmer. And he brought to God the best
he could do. And he was rejected. What did
Abel bring? He was a shepherd. He brought
a lamb. And slew that lamb. And presented God the blood of
the lamb. And he was accepted. And Cain
got angry. And he murdered Abel. He got angry at Abel. And when
the Lord spoke to Cain, you remember what he said there in Genesis
4? He said, Cain's countenance, it says, his facial expression,
the anger, just come out on him. And the Lord said, Cain, why
are you angry? You know that if you do well,
that's the word used, if you do well, you'll be accepted.
Well, he could have said, well, Lord, I did the best I could.
Well, Cain, the best you could do is not good enough. You've
got to do well. What is it to do well? Well, Abel was accepted
based on what? The blood of the Lamb. That's
a picture of Christ, isn't it? That's a picture of All the lambs
slain throughout the history of man in the Old Testament.
Pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ. A testimony that we are sinners
and cannot earn anything from God based upon our good works
because we have none. Cannot earn anything from God
except damnation based on our best works. The only way to do
well in God's sight, to do good in God's sight is to come before
Him pleading blood and the righteousness of His beloved Son. And that's
what this means. Christ had already said that.
Look at verse 24. Or verse 23 rather. That all men should honor the
Son. That's what it is to do good.
Honor the Son. Don't honor yourself. Honor the
Son. He says, He says that all men
should honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He that
honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which has sent
me. That's what it is to do evil. Honoreth not the Son. Plead your
own works. That's evil in God's sight. And
he says in verse 24, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that
heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting
life. Believing on him. Submitting
to him. Like Abel, bringing the blood.
Not a literal lamb, the blood of bulls and goats cannot take
away sin. Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ who put away my
sins on the cross through the shedding of his blood and established
the only righteousness whereby God could be just and accept
a sinner like me. That's what he's talking about.
And shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto
life. And then that's when he says
the hour is coming. Now, when the dead shall hear the voice
of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. They're going
to be resurrected. They're going to pass from death
to life. Well, what's that all about? Well, look over at 1 Corinthians
15. What is he talking about? Well,
as I told you, in 1 Corinthians here, the church at Corinth,
there were false preachers. who had come in denying the literal
resurrection of the dead. And so that's what the subject
of 1 Corinthians 15 is, this whole chapter, 50 some verses. The resurrection of the dead.
And these false preachers, now you understand, they claim to
be Christian. They claim to be disciples of
Christ. You know, there's a lot of people who claim to be disciples
of Christ, but who are not. They deny the doctrine of Christ,
the truth of Christ. but they denied the literal resurrection
of the dead. Look at verse 12. He says, now
if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some
among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? Some of them were
saying, apparently these false preachers had gained a little
following within the church. That always happens, isn't it?
When heresy arises, there's always a little following. It always
comes about. And so what does the Apostle
Paul do as he's inspired by the Holy Spirit in writing this letter?
Well, the first thing he goes to, and this is great, this is
just marvelous and amazing, how he goes about this. He doesn't
start by trying to prove a logical argument based upon man's experience. That's what most people do when
they argue religion anyway, isn't it? They give man's philosophy,
man's experiences, You know, things that they think, man's
opinion. To prove the resurrection of the dead, here's what he does.
He goes to the great and unique truth of the gospel of the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look back up at verse 1. He says,
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel, the good
news of God's grace. which I preached unto you, which
also you received." These were professing believers. And wherein
you stand, those who are truly saved stand firm. He says, by
which also you're saved. The gospel, the power of God
and the salvation. That's that spiritual realm of
salvation. That's the work of the Holy Spirit
to bring a sinner to saving faith in Christ. To like Abel, to come
before God pleading the blood of the Lamb. Rejecting your own
works, repenting of your own dead works, but honoring the
Son. And he says, if you keep in memory,
if you hold fast what I preached unto you, unless you believed
in vain. The apostle John spoke of those who believed in vain
in 1 John chapter 2 when he talked about they went out from us,
but they never were of us. They were professors, but they
really had never believed the gospel. And that was proven because
they left it. And that's what Paul's saying
here. If you're truly saved by God's grace, if the Holy Spirit
has done His marvelous, miraculous, invincible, powerful work in
your heart, You're gonna keep this in memory. You're gonna
stand firm in this. You're gonna continue. I know
whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he's able to keep
that which I've committed unto him against that day. We just
sang it. That's from 2 Timothy 1 verse 12. He's able to save
to the uttermost. This final glory that we're talking
about, that's salvation to the uttermost. And he says in verse
three, for I delivered unto you first of all, That which I also
received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the
scriptures. The scriptures, the word of God, and of course Paul's
referring to the Old Testament here, is a testimony to the glorious
person and finished work of Christ. Christ, the Messiah, God in human
flesh without sin. Emmanuel, that's who he is. And he died. That's to be attributed
to his humanity. It was an act of his entire person.
Explain that to me. You can't. Don't try. But he
died. And he did it in a scriptural
way. As a propitiation. A sin-bearing
offering. Sacrifice. Substitute. Surety. To pay our sin-debt. The sin-debt
of his people. All whom the Father had given
him, he called them. His church. He redeemed the church
with his own precious blood. He did it according to the scriptures.
He brought forth an everlasting righteousness of infinite value
whereby God could be just and justify the ungodly. And verse
4, that he was buried. Why was he buried? Because he
died. This was no hoax. This was no scheme of man. And
that he rose again, the resurrection on the third day according to
the scriptures. He rose according to the scriptures. His resurrection was the final
consummation of the success and victory of his great work of
redemption to save his people from their sins. How do you know
he saved his people from their sins? How do you know his death
got the job done? How do you know the debt is paid
in full? He rose from the dead on the third day according to
the scriptures. And so what Paul does now from
verses five to 11, he recounts all the eyewitnesses that saw
that great event or who literally actually saw the Lord in his
resurrected glory. And this is the glorified Christ. And he talks about Peter, that's
Cephas in verse five. He talks about others. He was
seen of more than 500 witnesses, Paul wrote here. Verses 5 to
11 the glorified Christ Christ Jesus Christ the resurrected
Christ walking around talking eating with others in a glorified
body a Glorified body and there are eyewitnesses and so Paul
is making sure that we understand that this issue of the resurrection
of and our final glorification, and literally the resurrection
of our bodies, what Paul called in Romans 8 the redemption of
our bodies, is all founded upon one thing, one person, and that
is the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why
is that so important? Because that means righteousness
has been established, and righteousness demands life. Now sin demands
death, but righteousness demands life. It demanded his life. He fulfilled righteousness. He
had to come out of that grave. And the Bible says that as sin
hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now
from verses 12 all the way down to 22, what he's talking about
is the resurrection of Christ, and by virtue of His resurrection,
the resurrection of all who are His, who belong to Him. By God's
electing grace, by God's redemptive grace, and God's regenerating
grace, all who are in Christ And what he's saying here is
this, that the resurrection of Christ himself as our substitute
and surety is so vitally connected to our own resurrection, the
resurrection of our bodies, that you cannot believe one without
believing the other. That's what he says. Let me just
read him, verse 12. Now if Christ be preached that he rose from
the dead, how say some among you? that there's no resurrection
of the dead, but if there be no resurrection of the dead,
then Christ is not risen. You can't believe one without
the other. I went to a seminary where they did not believe in
the literal resurrection of Christ. They believe it was just some
spiritual idea. If Christ be not risen, look
at verse 14, now listen to this one. If Christ be not risen,
then is our preaching in vain. I've been doing this for 30 years,
in vain if Christ be not risen. And your faith is also vain,
worthless. You see it all hedges upon the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that resurrection
is the consummation and the fulfillment of all that He accomplished in
His obedience unto death, the cross. If he didn't rise from the dead,
if he wasn't raised from the dead, then we have no righteousness.
And if we have no righteousness, there is no immortality. And
if there is no immortality, there is no final glory. Eat, drink,
be merry, tomorrow you die. You know what he says? He says
that later on. Look, verse 15, he says, Yea,
and we are found false witnesses of God, if Christ be not risen.
Because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ,
whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. If
the dead are not risen, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ
is not risen, then the dead are not risen. You see, they go together.
His resurrection is the ground of our resurrection. And so he
says in verse 16, for if the dead rise not, then is not Christ
raised. And verse 17, and if Christ be
not raised, your faith is in vain. You're yet in your sins.
Your sins are not... If Christ has not risen from
the dead, our sins are not taken away. We sing that chorus, did
you hear what Jesus said to me? They're all taken away. Your
sins are pardoned and you're free. They're all taken away.
Well, if He's not risen, they're not taken away. They're right
there with us. And the sin demands death. In verse 18, then they also which
are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. Our brothers and sisters
in Christ who have already experienced physical death, which he calls
sleep, we talked about that last week, he says they're perished. They're just gone. If Christ
be not risen. Verse 19, listen. If in this
life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
Now why is that? Because our hope in Christ separates
us from the world and brings on the persecution and hatred
and derision of the world, even our families. How many of you
have had to, don't raise your hand, how many of you have had
to separate from your families over the gospel? Now if Christ
is not risen, you're among men, you're the most miserable. I
understand that, don't you? But now verse 20, look at this.
Here it is. But now is Christ risen from
the dead. Now this is Paul speaking, writing
by the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit. And his testimony
is that Christ is risen from the dead. Hallelujah. He's risen. We serve a living Savior. And
become the firstfruits of them that slept. The firstfruits mean
the first crop. If the firstfruits were good
in their harvest, then the whole crop would follow. You know what
that means? That means there's not gonna
be anybody in hell for whom Christ died, was buried, and rose the
third day. The whole crop's gonna follow.
He's the firstfruits. Verse 21, for since by man came
death, that's sin in Adam. He says, by man came also the
resurrection of the dead. That's righteousness in Christ.
For as in Adam all die, all whom Adam represented, even so in
Christ shall all be made alive. Now this made alive here doesn't
mean living in damnation. This made alive here means they're
living in glory with him. Who is the all here? All who
live in glory with him. It's all for whom he died. It's
all whom he represented. If it's all without exception,
then everybody's going to be risen unto glory. And you know,
he just said in John chapter 5, that's not going to happen.
Some are going to be resurrected unto damnation. So who's he talking about? He's
talking about believers here. Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.
So the next section of this passage, from verse 23 to verse 28, he
brings about God's foreordained order of things. Now what is
the order of this glorification? What happens, alright? Let's
get into this. Verse 23. He said, but every
man in his own order. Now God has set forth the order.
God has determined how things are going to happen. We don't
know the times, you see, but God does. And he says, Christ
the firstfruits, there's the foundation, all right? Afterward,
they that are Christ, that's a possessive, they who belong
to Christ at his coming. So in other words, Christ came
the first time. as the substitute and surety
of his people, he was made sin, that is, our sins, the sins of
his people were charged, accounted to him, he came under the obligation
of the debt of his people, our sin debt, and he paid that debt
by his own death, but he didn't stay dead because the debt was
paid. Righteousness established, he raised again. Now, when he
comes again the second time, and he's coming, alright, all
who are in him will be risen too, verse 24. Then cometh the
end, and notice he's talking about one coming here, one second
coming here, not two. And he says, he shall have delivered
up the kingdom to God, even the father, when he shall have put
down all rule and authority and power. That's all rule and authority
and power that stand in opposition to him. He's going to put it
all down and he's going to present his people to the Father. Here they are, Father. All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose what?
Nothing. But raise it up again at the
last day. Here they are, Father. The whole
election of grace. Here they are. And verse 25 says,
For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
Talking about his reign right now. See, Christ has always reigned,
but here's his reign as God-man over the earth to do two things. That is to bring all his sheep
into the fold, whom he redeemed with his precious blood, and
to put down all enemies under his feet. And that's going to
be finalized when the last one of his sheep are brought into
the fold and all the last enemy is dead. And then he'll come
again. Verse 26, the last enemy that
shall be destroyed is death. There's the end of death. When
Christ comes again, there's the end of death. All death. Now
we're already made alive in Christ spiritually. That's spiritual
salvation and legally. We're not condemned. We're justified
before God. But we still have to suffer the
infirmities of this body of death. Alright? And that's not over
yet. Next year, some of us will not
be here unless the Lord comes back again before next year.
But we are dying every day. As the old preacher said, I am
a dying man preaching to dying men. And that is the way it is.
But when He comes again, that is over. That is over. No more of that. Doesn't that
sound good to you? It does to me. That is over.
And he says in verse 27, for he hath put all things under
his feet, but when he saith all things are put under him, that
is manifest that he's accepted which did put all things under
him. Now that's talking about the father being over the son.
Not that the son is not equal to the father in the nature of
his divinity, but for the purposes of salvation, the son of God
subordinated himself, became subservient to the father. to
save us from our sins. And so he says, when all things
shall be subdued unto him, that is all. You know, Paul wrote
in Hebrews chapter 2 that all things are really already under
him, but it's not finalized in our experience because we still
see rebellious people. We still see opposition. But
when he comes again, all things will be literally experientially
subdued unto him and then shall the son also himself be subject
unto him that put all things under him that God may be in
all and all." What that means literally is that's when the
son comes to the father presenting his church. Here they are. That's
what he means. And so he says in verse 29, now
he says, else what shall they do which are baptized for the
dead if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized
for the dead? Now, people read that verse and come
up with all kinds of wild ideas. The Mormons, you know what they
do with that verse. They say that you can be baptized for
your dead relatives. And if they died lost, you get
baptized for them and then they'll be saved. And that's why, anybody
ever done any genealogies? They tell me, I don't get involved
in that, because I know where my genealogy comes from. I can
go right back to Adam. But if you're into that, and
I understand that, curiosity and stuff. Everybody wants to
think that George Washington was their forefather or whatever.
But anyway, they tell me that the Mormons in Utah have one
of the best libraries for genealogies that you can explore to find
out your family tree. Well, here's the reason why.
They think you can be baptized for the dead. But that for there
doesn't mean in place of. First of all, baptism is not
salvation for anybody. You can be baptized. Who was
the preacher that said he's baptized so many times in the creek the
tadpoles knew him by his first name? You can be baptized that
many times and it still won't save you or wash away your sins.
It's the blood of Christ that washes away our sins. It doesn't
mean when he says baptized for the dead, it doesn't mean baptized
in place of, as a substitute for the dead. That wouldn't save
you or them or anybody. But to be baptized for the dead
means that we're identifying with the dead. They died in Christ. What is my testimony when I'm
baptized in this pool back here? That I died with him. And that
I was raised again with him. You see, that's what he means,
baptized for the dead. In other words, if there is no
resurrection of the dead, there's no resurrection of Christ, what's
the meaning of being baptized? What does it mean? I am testifying
that when he died, I died. When he was buried, I was buried.
When he arose, I arose. And I am identifying myself with
the dead in Christ. My brothers and sisters who have
gone on to be... I am identifying... When you
were baptized, you identified your fellowship with old Abel.
He is dead. He is asleep. His spirit is with
the Lord. You identified with it. Abel
is my brother in Christ. Now if the dead rise not, what
use was that? It was for nothing. So look at
verse 30. He says, and why stand we in
jeopardy every hour? Why am I putting my life on the
line, Paul says, preaching this gospel if the dead rise not?
I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I die daily. I'll put my life on the line
daily. If after the manner of men I have fought with beast
at Ephesus, they put wild beast on him at Ephesus, what advantage
it me if the dead rise not, let us eat and drink for tomorrow
we die. That's how important this is now. Be not deceived,
evil communications. corrupt good manners. In other
words, he's saying don't go out and eat and drink tomorrow. No,
that's not the way. That's evil communications. He
says awake to righteousness and sin not. Awake to Christ. Righteousness means life everlasting,
you see. And sin not, for some have not
the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. But
some man will say, now listen to this, now here's where it
starts and he gets into some of the issues of the resurrected
body. He says, some man will say, how
are the dead raised up and with what body do they come? There's
the two questions. How are the dead raised up? And
with what body are they raised up? Will we have the same body? Is that how it is? Now let me
tell you something about this subject. And I'm gonna go through
the rest of 1 Corinthians 15. I'm not gonna do it all this
morning, don't get scared. There's a lot here, isn't there? But there's two things that I'm
sure of when you get into this subject. Number one, you're going
to find that there is a lot of undue downright comical speculation
on it. A lot of it. And I don't know
how much of that you've heard or even how much you might believe.
The second thing I know about this subject is that when we're
done with it, and we will be done with it, you'll have a lot
more questions that I can't answer because the scripture doesn't
answer them. All right? Let me just take a
few minutes to start what he says here. First of all, how
are the dead raised up? Well, look at verse 36. Here's
how the dead are raised up. Thou fool, that which thou sowest
is not quickened, made alive, except it die. Now, how are the
dead raised up? They're raised up through death.
Our death Our death is the way that we're raised up. You say,
well, what does he mean by that? Well, what he means by that,
and he uses this analogy, look at verse 37. He said, and that
which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be. What's he talking about sowing
here? He's talking about believers dying and their bodies being
planted in the earth, like a seed. And He says, what you sow, that
body that you plant in the earth, is not the one that shall be,
that glorified body. They are not the same. That is
what He is saying. But bare grain it may chance of wheat or some
other grain, but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him,
and to every seed His own body. Now you know in those verses
there is a lot there, but let me give you an illustration of
it. Heard somebody talking about growing tomatoes All right, I
love tomatoes summer tomatoes. I can't wait till the first one
comes Give me a tomato sandwich But now and I know Russell He'll
always bring me some tomatoes and several others will bring
me some and I love them now if Russell came over to my house
So I've got some tomatoes for you, and he held up and there
was just a bag of tomato seeds there I'd be very disappointed. Wouldn't you? But you know what? Without that seed, there's no
tomato. That seed has to go into the ground, doesn't it? And what
does it, it germinates. It's the equivalent of death.
It actually dies. And from that seed comes that
ripe, red, delicious, juicy summer tomato. Now if you take a seed
and put that tomato beside it, they don't look anything alike.
But that's where it comes from. And that's what Christ is saying
here. That's what He's saying through Paul. That this body,
this resurrection body, it starts with the death of this old vile
body. Alright? It starts with the death
of this old vile body. And listen. He says we'll each
have our own individual bodies. We'll recognize it. We'll recognize
each other. But that new body, that resurrected
body, will be so much better and so much more glorious. It'll
be nothing but beauty and holiness with no flaws. As John said in
1 John 3 and verse 2, we'll be perfectly conformed to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Does that mean we're all going
to look like Christ? No. That means we're going to be
perfect in ourselves. in ourselves. And then look at
verse 39. He says, now all flesh is not
the same. There's as many differences here
between us. He says, but there's one kind
of flesh of men, but we're all human beings, aren't we? Another
flesh of beasts, there's animals. That's another kind. If you want
to talk about natures, this is what he's talking about here.
There's the nature of humanity. There's the nature of animals.
Fishes, another of fishes, another of birds. I mean, you know, that's not
going to change. You're still going to be human.
I'm still going to be human. We're not going to be little
gods. I hear these people talking about God in regeneration creating
a divine nature. You don't create divine natures.
Divinity cannot be created. If it's God, if that nature is
the nature of God, it has no beginning, no end. And it doesn't
change. You see that? And we're going
to be human. Now, to me, that kills the theory
of evolution. I mean, you can eat Kentucky
fried chicken three times a day the rest of your life and you're
still not going to grow feathers. You're going to be a human being.
And that's not going to change. Then he goes to the heavens,
verse 40, there are also celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial.
There's the heavens and there's stars, moon, sun, and then bodies
here and there. But the glory of the celestial
is one, the glory of the terrestrial is another. They have different
manifestations of glory. There's one glory of the sun,
the brilliance of the sun. Christ is called the son of righteousness
who comes with healing in his wings. I love that. What a glory
that is. And another glory of the moon.
We're like the moon. We shine in the reflected glory
of the sun. We shine in the glory of Christ.
It's not our own light. The moon doesn't shine with its
own light. It shines in the glory of the sun. Another glory of
the stars. You know, a lot of times the
preachers of the gospel are called stars, not movie stars now. Some
of them think they are, but I'm talking about they're stars in
the sense that they preach the gospel. For one star differeth
from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of
the dead. Look at verse 42. It is sown
in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. Now let's turn
to John chapter 12 and I'm going to close here today and we're
going to pick up with this next week. We're going to talk a little
bit about what this glorified body is like as much as the scripture
tells us. But I want you to see how important
this truth is. that this glorified body is sown
in death. And look at what the Lord says
in John 12, and look at verse 23. He says, and Jesus answered them
saying, now what it is, they had asked a question and they
wanted to see Jesus, and Jesus answered them saying, verse 23,
The hour has come that the Son of Man be glorified. Now that's
what we're talking about. He's talking about himself as
the Messiah being glorified. Here he stands in his body of
humiliation. Alright? Even without sin it
was a body of humiliation because he had the infirmities and weaknesses
of the flesh, human being. Christ was every bit human without
sin. He cried, he sorrowed, he suffered,
he hurt, he got hungry, he got tired. Everything that you go
through, except his was without sin. All right? But now he says,
the hours come when the Son of Man should be glorified. Well,
now how's that going to take place? Look at verse 24. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, except a corn or a seed of wheat fall
into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth
forth much fruit. How's he gonna be glorified?
He's got to die. He did it. And you know, when I think about
him doing it, it really, you know, we have a natural fear
of death. We do. That's a human thing. And that's
okay. There's a legal fear of death
that I believe is removed by the spirit in the preaching,
in the application of the gospel. That's fear of condemnation.
But we have a natural fear. But when I think about our Lord
saying these words, it kind of alleviates my fear of death. And I hope and pray that, I guess
that's called dying grace, and I hope it grows. But He says
it's going to bring forth much, but when He dies, He's going
to be resurrected. Well, look down at verse 31. He says, Now
is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from
the earth, that's the cross, will draw all unto me. And this
he said signifying what death he should die. In other words,
there's fruit there out of his death. First of all, his resurrection. That's the first fruits. And
then secondly, the resurrection of all for whom he died. He said,
I'm going to draw them all unto me. That's regeneration and conversion.
That's the new birth. But that's just the earnest.
Remember last week? That's the down payment of the
resurrection of the dead. Here's the surety of it. All
right. Let's sing as our closing hymn, O Master, Let Me Walk With
Thee. Hymn number 437.