All right, let's open our Bibles
to the book of Philippians chapter three. I want to read the last two verses
of Philippians chapter three, verses 20 and 21. Concerning the subject that we've
been dealing with in the past few messages, what is the Christian
life? What is it to live like a Christian?
What's a Christian's life supposed to be like? And here in verse
20, look at it with me, the Apostle Paul writes, For our conversation
is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be
fashioned, or conformed, like unto his glorious body, according
to the working whereby he is able. even to subdue all things
unto himself." Now, we've talked about how in Philippians chapter
3, the Holy Spirit by the Apostle Paul has shown us that the Christian
life, the life of grace, the life of a disciple is a high
calling, an upward call. Paul said that in verse 14, I
press toward the mark. For the prize of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus, that mark is perfect, perfect conformity
to Christ. And it's a high calling to strive
to be conformed to Christ in our character, in our conduct,
in our thoughts, in our deeds, our walks, striving for perfection. Something we will not attain
in this life, but something which by the Spirit of God we desire
and aim towards. And many times in our lives we
know, we see how far away from it we are. Think about that.
You as a believer, if you're a true Christian, you've been
convinced of sin. You've seen yourself. I know
by experience and by the Word of God that as you grow in grace
and in knowledge of Christ, you also grow in knowledge of your
own sinfulness, don't you? Your own weakness. And you just
wonder, how in the world could it ever be possible that I could
be perfect in myself? Well, we read it there in Philippians
chapter 3, in three words there in verse 21. Now, notice those
three words. He is able. The Bible doesn't
say you are able or we are able. It says he is able. Christ is able. Christ is able
to do what we are unable to do. The disciples asked him one time
after he confronted a young man who was religious, self-righteous. And they asked this question,
if he cannot be saved, who can be? And Christ answered them
and said, well, what's impossible with men is truly possible with
God. God is able to save. Christ is
able to save to the uttermost. That means to the nth degree
all that come unto God by him. And there's a verse there in
John 17 that our brother read a while ago. There are many verses
in this chapter that fit with what I'm preaching this morning.
on the glorification of a believer, that one day our vile bodies,
the bodies we exist in right now, you sitting there, me standing
here, our vile bodies will be changed, transformed, and be
made likened to Christ's glorious body. And we will be sinlessly
perfect in ourselves. What we are already in Christ,
perfect, righteous, just, we will experience within ourselves
when we're glorified. And verse 24 of John chapter
17 shows us that it is a sure and certain thing in the life
of a believer. Now, why is it sure and certain?
Now, Ron mentioned this. This is truly our Lord's prayer.
And I want to tell you something. His prayers, you know, sometimes
we pray for things, but our prayers even have to be cleansed by the
blood of Christ. We've never prayed a perfect
prayer. We pray on the basis of and through the One who is
perfect, Christ, our Great High Priest. But there are things
I pray for that I just don't know if it's God's will or not
to give me or to do. We pray for physical healing
to some of our dear brethren who are sick. But here's what
we have to say, Thy will be done. God hasn't revealed to us His
will in that area. We know God's will as He's revealed
it in the Scriptures. There are many things we pray
for. But you know Christ, the Son of God, when He prayed, His
prayer was perfectly consistent with the will of God. And you
know why? Because He is God. He is God. And look what He prays here in
verse 24 of John 17. He says, Father, now look at
this, I will, the sovereign Redeemer, I will, that they also whom thou
hast given me be with me where I am." Now how do you know as
a believer that you will one day be finally glorified? Because
God's Word says it and our Savior prayed for it. I will. It's a product of His sovereign
will. He says that they may behold
my glory. Now we see His glory now, don't
we? The Bible says when we're born
again By the word of truth, we come to see the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ. We see that glory. We see how
God can be just and justify the ungodly. We see the glory of
the person of Christ, who he is. He's God-man. He's our one
mediator. He's our great high priest. He's
our intercessor. He's our sin-bearer, our sinner.
He's our justifier. He's our Lord. We see all of
that. And we see the power of His work,
His precious blood for the forgiveness of all of our sins. It's faith
in Him that cleanses our conscience so that we're not guilty before
God because Christ has taken our guilt and satisfied justice
on our behalf. We see the glory of His righteousness
which justifies us before God and entitles us to eternal glory. But even now we see through a
glass darkly, don't we? We see through a glass dimly,
the scripture says. We don't see it like we're going
to see it. That's what he said. This is
what our Lord's saying, that they may behold my glory. Then
we'll see him as he is, John said. We'll see him through perfect
eyes. Without any hindrance. Without
any, sometimes we, think about this, sometimes when I study
the word, I have to force myself to do it. Somebody says, well,
that sounds bad. But it's true, I'm just being
honest with you. Do you have it any better? Sometimes when
I pray, I have to force myself to pray. I have to take time
out and make myself do it. There are other times it comes
easier than others. And even at the easy times, I'm
still not perfect within myself. Now I see through a glass, but
then I'll behold His glory. without any hindrance of the
flesh, any hindrance of sin, any thought of sin, any motive,
any selfishness. It will all be just the pure
glory of the Lord of glory. How do I know? He said here,
I will that they also be with me where I am. And this perfection
that we strive for, it's a calling of the mind, it's not mere intellectualism,
but it's the heart. It's a desire of the heart that's
been placed within us by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.
It's the very fiber and center of our being as elect, as redeemed,
as justified, as regenerated sinners. He spoke of it. Go back to Philippians 3. Look
at verse 14 again. He speaks of it here. I pressed
toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus. You didn't even have a desire.
to press, to strive toward that mark until God the Holy Spirit
brought you into a saving knowledge of Christ. You had a desire to
establish a righteousness of your own before. You had a desire
to applaud yourself, bring attention to yourself, but to strive to
be like him. And he says in verse 15, let
us therefore as many as be perfect, be thus minded. Here's an act
of the mind, a mind that's been changed, a mind that's been brought
to faith in Christ and repentance of works, dead works and idolatry,
a mind that's been sanctified by the truth of God that's been
implanted upon our heart. And we can't get away from it.
And God won't take it away from us. And he says, and if in anything
you be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
If you're a believer and your mind goes elsewhere, God's going
to bring you back. God's going to teach you. He
will not let you go. Remember, I've said this, our
salvation is not sure and certain because of our hold on him. It's
sure and certain because of his hold on us. He said, no man shall pluck them
out of my hand. So he says in verse 16, nevertheless,
where to we have already attained? Now, what have we already attained?
We've been chosen of God. We've been redeemed by the blood
of Christ. We've been justified by His righteousness. We've been
called by the Holy Spirit. We're already perfect in Christ.
We've attained perfection in Him, but not in ourselves. He says, where unto we've already
attained? That's the foundation. That's
the basis of our striving. Let us walk by the same rule.
What rule? Well, God forbid that I should
glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us mind
the same thing. Let's all be about the same business.
To glorify God. There's the unity of the church
right there. We're all here to glorify God. We're all here to
worship Him. We're not here to make a name
for ourselves. We're not here to bring attention to ourselves.
We're here to glorify God. And everybody's here with that
desire is one. That's right, we're one. We're
here to exalt Christ. We never tire of the preaching
of Christ and Him crucified. We're here to exalt Him in His
person and in His finished work. We're here to promote the salvation
of sinners. We can't save sinners, but we
want to be instruments used of God as He saves sinners by His
power. We want to be good witnesses
of Christ. We want to be ambassadors of
Christ. We want to reflect His glory. We want to edify the body
of Christ. We want to be instruments to
cause the church to grow, not divide, not to diminish, but
to grow. All of these, you see. And in
this striving to live like Christians, the Spirit has given us in the
new birth a new motive. Our motive is grace and gratitude. Not works and self-righteousness
and legalism. We're not mercenaries. We're
not hirelings. We're not here to earn our keep. That's right. Not with God now. We have to
earn a living here on earth, but we don't have to earn our
acceptance with God. We're accepted in the Beloved.
We don't have to earn our favor with God. Christ is our favor.
We don't have to earn our reward. Christ is our reward. We don't
have to earn our righteousness. He is our righteousness. You
see what I'm saying? Christ earned everything that
we have by way of blessing and eternal life. He earned it. We
didn't earn it. You don't earn it. That's work,
you see. He earned it. And then we have
a new goal. And that goal, as I said, is
to be conformed to Christ. We didn't have that before. We
wanted to be conformed to men. We wanted to be conformed to
religion. We wanted to be conformed to society, but not Christ. But
now we want to be like him. And then we have new desires.
New desires that we didn't have before. As I said, to worship
Him, honor Him, serve Him, to love Him, to obey Him, to love
one another. Well, here in verse 20, now look
at this one. Here's another. Here's another part of Christian
living. My friend, in Christ, we have a new home. We have a new home. A new homeland,
you might say. We talk about homeland security.
We've got it. We've got homeland security in
Christ. We've got a new country. And
that's what Paul's saying here. Our conversation, that word conversation,
means citizenship. When we live like Christians,
we live as citizens of another country. We're in a foreign country,
that's what he's saying. We're citizens of another country,
and we're going home. We're on our way home. You say,
well, I might not make it. Well, if it was up to you, you
wouldn't. If it was conditioned on you, you wouldn't, or me.
But you see, our going home is a matter of God bringing us there.
He brings us. He's established it. He founded
it. Christ told His disciples, I
go to prepare a place for you. He prepared it. You didn't prepare
it. He said, I go to prepare a place for you. He said, if
it weren't so, I would have told you. He said, I'm gonna bring
you there. I'm coming back and I'm gonna
bring you there. That's what Paul's talking about in these
last two verses here. Look here, he says, for our,
who are the our there? He says, our brethren. Back in
verse 13, he says, brethren. Who are the brethren? They are
those who have the same Father. In Christ, God is our Father.
He is our Savior, our Redeemer. He is the One who chose us. He
is the One who sent His Son to redeem us and justify us by His
blood on Calvary. He is the One who sends forth
through Christ His Spirit to bring us in the new birth into
the family personally and by experience. He says, It's the
same brethren of verse 17. Look at verse 17. Brethren, be
followers together of me. They're described in many ways
throughout the scriptures, but here in the book of Philippians,
it starts out in verse 1 of chapter 1, they're described as saints
in Christ Jesus. What is a saint? A saint is a
sinner saved by the grace of God. A saint is the one who is
sanctified. That's what the word literally
means, sanctified one. What's that mean? You were set
apart. God set you apart before the world began in divine, sovereign,
unconditional election. God set you apart on the cross
when He sent Christ to die for your sins, to satisfy your debt,
pay that debt in full, and give you a righteousness that answers
the demands of His law and justice. God set you apart when He sent
His Spirit to give you life, to regenerate you, convert you,
and in the new birth bring you to faith in Christ and repentance.
And God has set you apart in his preserving power. He's keeping
you. You're in Christ. You're a kept
person. He's keeping you in spite of yourself, in spite of myself.
And God will set us apart in glory when he comes again to
gather his church unto himself and change these vile bodies
and make them like his perfect body. They are called those in
whom God has begun a good work. When God, when the Holy Spirit
births us again, regenerates us, that's the beginning of that
work in us, and God is the one who began it. And the Bible says
He'll perform it to the end. He began it, He continues it,
He'll complete it. They are those in whom God is
working to do His good pleasure. You realize if you're a believer,
if you're a regenerate person, if you're one whom Christ redeems
and in whom the Spirit has done his work, that God is even right
now working his good pleasure within you, not your good pleasure?
You see, if I had my way, how would things be? But God's going
to have his way within his people. In Philippians chapter 2, they're
called the shining lights in this dark world. Me? A shining
light? That's what the scripture says.
Sometimes I don't shine as brightly as I should. But anybody who's
a testimony to the grace of God, a sinner saved by the grace of
God, is a shining light in this dark world. Over here in Philippians
chapter 3 and verse 3, he describes them. Who are these brethren? Paul said, for our conversation,
our citizenship. Who are they, our brethren? Who
are they? Look at verse 3 of Philippians 3, where the circumcision,
that's the new birth. That's just another word for
the new birth. Circumcision of the heart, spiritual circumcision.
And he says we know that because we worship God in spirit. We
worship God as he reveals himself, not as we think him to be, not
as the world says he is, but as we know him to be by his revelation
of himself in Christ. You don't know God without Christ.
That's right. You can't see God as Father,
as Redeemer, without Christ. You remove Christ out of the
way, you're an idolater. You remove Christ out of the
way, it's evil, it's wicked, it's religion. You see what I'm
saying? We worship God in spirit. He
is spirit. We worship him from the heart,
sincerely, lovingly. And he said we rejoice in Christ
Jesus. Our confidence, our boasting
is what that really is. Our assurance is not in ourselves,
but in Christ Jesus and what he accomplished. And we have
no confidence in the flesh, in ourselves. That's what the flesh
can produce and accomplish. We don't have any confidence
in it. That's the hour here. And then he says over here in
verse 20, for our conversation. Now, as I said, that word means
citizenship. It's the only time in the New Testament that word
is used. Our citizenship. That's where we belong. You see,
we're headed to where we belong. That's what he's saying. It's
our home. And he says our conversation
is in heaven, not here. You know, people talk about pie-in-the-sky
religion. That's not what this is talking
about. This is no pipe dream. This is no type of thinking or
philosophy that says it doesn't matter how you live, what you
look like, what you do, or where you are on this earth. Nothing
like that at all. It's just saying that we're to
live here on this world as foreigners, sojourners, pilgrims. This world
is not our home. We're citizens of a better country,
the Scripture says. Just like Abraham, when he traveled
through the desert, see, he wasn't searching for a home in this
earth. He wasn't searching for real estate. He was headed toward
a better country. He was headed toward heaven.
We're pilgrims and sojourners in this wilderness called the
world. just like Israel in the Sinai Desert. And this is the
goal of the high calling of God, the upward call. This doesn't
mean that we don't have responsibilities in this world as citizens of
a nation, members of a human family, but this world is not
our ultimate goal. Somebody said God has placed
us on earth to glorify Him here in this time. We should vote,
we should pay our taxes, become involved in the affairs of time.
However, we should never allow our citizenship here to put our
citizenship in heaven in the shade. That's what he's saying. Not to eclipses. Somebody said
some people are so heavenly minded they're no earthly good. Well,
that shouldn't be the case with us. But on the other hand, we
don't restrict citizenship functions to time. We are citizens of a
better country. This world is not our home. And
the main evidence, now listen to this, the main evidence of
our citizenship in heaven is this, it's a knowledge, a love,
a trust, and a loyalty to the Savior. Now that's right, look
back at John 17, at Ron Redd, in our Lord's Prayer. He's talking about his own personal
glory after he finishes his work on the cross. He will be glorified. He will ascend into the heavens
and take his rightful place at the right hand of God, seated
in the heavenlies, ever to live to make intercession for us.
And he says in verse 2, As thou hast given him power over all
flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast
given him. He is the sovereign giver of life to everyone whom
God has given him. But now look at verse 3, And
this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom thou hast sent. Do you know Christ? When Paul
came to know Christ, look over at Philippians 3 again. When
he came to know Christ, here's what he did. Over here in verse
7 of Philippians 3. When he came to a saving knowledge
of Christ and him crucified, who Christ is and what he accomplished
at Calvary, he says this in verse 7. But what things were gained
to me, those I counted lost for Christ. Everything's lost for
him. You see, I must have Christ, else I perish. I can do without
anything else. All the things that we in this
world try to strive for and hold dear. Now listen to me, and there's
nothing wrong with trying to better yourself and this world
and all that. But here's what you've got to
realize. You know you can really do without any of it. But you've got to have Christ
and Him crucified. You can't do without Him. If
you don't have Him, you have nothing. If you have Him, you
have it all. Now that's right. You see, none
of the things of this world are going to bring about forgiveness
of sins. None of the things of this world are going to justify
you before God. None of the things of this world
are going to make you righteous, not even religion. Man's religion
will make you worse off, the Scripture teaches, not better
off. It may help you to keep the civil
law so that you don't end up somewhere incarcerated, but it
will not save your soul. It will not keep you out of condemnation. And that's what Paul is saying
here. Verse 8, Yea, doubtless I count all things but lost for
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for
whom I suffered the loss of all things and do count them but
done, that I may win Christ. Paul says here, look back at
verse 20, he says, for our citizenship, our conversation is in heaven
from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, there's a great contrast
here between those that he just mentioned in the parenthesis
that verse 18, look at verse 18. He speaks here of another
class of people, many who walk, of whom I've told you often and
now tell you even weeping that they are enemies of the cross
of Christ. They're enemies. He said, whose end is destruction,
whose God is their belly, that is, their own self-desires, what
they want. And he says, and whose glory
is in their shame. What they glory in and plead
as their salvation, what they lift up as their righteousness,
is really their shame. They just don't know it. And
he said, who mind earthly things. Now, there's a great contrast
there, isn't there, between those And the ones he describes in
verse 20, what are we doing? Huh? We're looking for a Savior. We're anticipating the Savior
to come. What does that mean? That means
this, men cannot be our goal. Men cannot be our rule. Now,
men should be our examples in Christian living, but Christian
living means being a disciple of Christ, not of men. So whom
do we follow? Only those who point us to Christ.
and Him crucified. Only those who declare Him honor
Him openly, honestly, and clearly." Now, you think about this. Now,
look back at verse 20. Our citizenship is in heaven.
That means this. That means our names are registered
in heaven. The Lamb's Book of Life, as Scripture
calls it. There's a registry in heaven. That's a symbolic
way of saying that our names are written in the Lamb's Book
of Life. We've been redeemed. by the blood of Christ. We've
been adopted into His family. We've been born into His country.
You know, that song, Proud to be an American. We all know that
song. It's sung quite a bit around
the Fourth of July. Well, let me ask you this. How
did you become an American? And there's nothing wrong with
being proud to be an American. How did you become an American?
Well, you either become an American by birth, And that's probably
what most of you were. You were born into a family,
into the country, the United States of America, and you became
Americans by birth. Some become American by adoption. In fact, we see that more and
more about little babies in foreign countries being adopted by American
parents, and they're brought over and they're adopted into
the family. They become American citizens. Some become Americans
by choice. They move here, they get a visa,
they live here so long, they take a course and they make a
pledge. Now, that's how you become an American. The Bible teaches
about being a citizen of heaven. How did you become a citizen
of heaven? Well, let me tell you something. It's all three
ways. That's right. You become a citizen of heaven
by adoption. We were adopted into his family.
It's the adoption of grace. In fact, this kind of adoption
is really a strange thing. Because you know when parents
adopt a child, they go through it, it's almost like if you could
look at all the children, they would look for the prettiest,
the best, the most well-behaved. But this adoption of grace is
not like that at all. God adopted the worst. The worst
of the lot. That's right. That's what he
told Israel when he talked to them about his redemptive power
in their earthly lives. He said, I didn't choose you
or love you because you were the best, the most, the most
powerful. You were the least. That's the
way God adopts His children. The worst of the worst, you see. It's an adoption of grace. We
were adopted into His family. And then we were redeemed by
the blood of Christ. We were bought and paid for.
You see, He exchanged our sins for His righteousness, and He
gave us His robe of righteousness. He made us what we are as citizens
of heaven. And then we're brought into the
kingdom of heaven as citizens by birth, by the new birth, regenerated
and converted. And that's when we actually,
by our experience, enter into the kingdom, by our knowledge
given to us in Christ Jesus by the Spirit. And then it's by
choice. We do choose to be citizens of
the kingdom of heaven. But listen to me, it's not like
becoming a citizen of America and a person who sees all the
good things about America and they want to move here from another
country and then they choose their own, as they say, free
will to become an American and they make that place. But that's
not the way it is in this choice. First of all, God chooses us. He chose us. Christ told His
disciples that. He said, you didn't choose me,
I chose you. And then by the power of His Spirit, He makes
us willing to come into His kingdom by faith. And faith is not a
choice you make, it's a persuasion that God gives you. He persuades
you and He makes you willing. As an American citizen, you have
certain inalienable rights of citizenship. That means rights
you're born with. The Declaration of Independence
starts out this way. It says, We hold these truths
to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights,
and among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Well, you have the same rights as a citizen of the Kingdom of
Heaven. When you come into the Kingdom of Heaven, you have life.
Christ is our life, and he's given us spiritual life. He is
our eternal life. This is life eternal. That's
a right every citizen of heaven has. Somebody said there are
some dead Christians. Not really. There may be some
who act dead. But if you're a Christian, you
have spiritual life given you as a gift from Christ. And then
liberty. You have full liberty as a citizen
and as a child of God. If the Son, therefore, makes
you free, you'll be free indeed, the scripture says. He says,
stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ has
made you free. You have free access to God through
Christ. Unhindered? That's right. And then what about the pursuit
of happiness? Well, as a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, our
happiness is not what we desire, but what glorifies God. Our happiness is not what pleases
us, but what exalts our Savior. Our happiness is not what promotes
us, but promotes the salvation of sinners to the glory of Christ.
It edifies the church, brings growth and grace and knowledge
for ourselves. It means we live by a heavenly
standard, not the world standard. What the world does is up to
the world. God tells us what to do. We live by God's grace. We live by His love. We live
by His word. We wear heavenly clothing. We
all have the same uniform. The imputed righteousness of
Christ. There's not one, listen, there's not one child of God
here this morning who's more righteous than another. Because
our righteousness is Christ. Now there may be some who are
more mature. There may be some who are more obedient. They may
be some who are more dedicated. But let me tell you something.
You see, our maturity, our obedience, and our dedication is not our
righteousness before God. And we better thank God every
day it's not. Our righteousness is Christ. Should we be more
obedient, more mature? Should we be more dedicated?
Of course we should. We ought to live like citizens
of the kingdom of heaven. We ought to be striving toward
the mark of the high calling. but not to establish righteousness
and holiness, but because we have one in Christ. And that's
the difference. Our inheritance is in heaven,
not here on earth. We worry about the inheritance
here on earth, but we shouldn't. As citizens of heaven, he says,
here we look for a Savior. In contrast to those whose end
is destruction, they're going to see a judge. We're looking
for a Savior. That means we eagerly await the
Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. We wait in anticipation, expectation,
with hope for a bright future eternal in Christ. We eagerly
await the arrival of our Savior so that we can receive and welcome
Him. We don't wait in dread and terror. The thought here is not
what most preachers preach. You know what most preachers
preach when they talk about the second coming of Christ. They
say, when Christ comes again, is He going to catch you doing
something you shouldn't be doing? You heard that. That's not what
the thought is here. Now, He will catch some unaware,
as the Scripture says. But we live our lives in eager
anticipation of His coming. And what kind of waiting is it?
It's a waiting in faith, looking to Christ, the author and finisher
of our faith. It's a waiting in patience. That's
endurance. It's eagerly awaiting for our
Lord and Savior. And look at verse 21. Now listen
to this. He says, "...who shall change our vile body, that it
may be fashioned like unto his glorious body." Now this vile
body, when Christ returns, the church will be resurrected and
glorified. And this change will not take
place gradually, but instantly. Instantly. Paul said in 1 Corinthians
15, "...in the twinkling of an eye." That's how instant. And
what is the nature of this change? Well, that's a hard subject. We know a little bit about it,
but not much. When he says he will change our vile body, literally,
you know what that's saying is he will change the body of our
humiliation. That's what that is. The body
you exist in right now is the body of your humiliation. Now, some of you young people
can't enter into that right now. But pretty soon a little time
will pass and you're going to find that this body will humiliate
you more and more and more and more. Is that right? It will. Even the healthiest of you. Sometimes
it's coming. It will humiliate. It's the body
of our humiliation. And if you die by what someone
says is an accident in your youth, that's still a testimony to the
humiliation of this body. It's destructible. It's corruptible. When this body goes to the grave,
it will become corruptible. Go out and dig them up. What
do you think you'll find, those who've been dead for a while?
It won't be a body of glory, will it? It's the body of our humiliation.
And he says that it may be fashioned or conformed, that's the word
conformed, to the glorious body of Christ. That's the body of
his glory. Now, let me say this. This physical body is not intrinsically
evil or vile. We're not of that heresy that
cropped up in the beginnings of the New Testament that teaches
that there's sin in things, and therefore there's salvation in
avoiding those things. There's nothing wrong with the
human body except one little three-letter word. Sin. You see that? Sin is what brought
this damage, this corruption. And therefore, salvation is not
in dialing an 800 number and getting the new dial. Salvation
is in taking care of the matter of sin. And there's not but one
way to do that, and that's looking to Christ, who conquered sin
and Satan and the grave. Our body, when this change comes
about, will correspond to the resurrected body of Christ. And
he had a physical body in his resurrection. He ate. He told them, look at the scars.
Then the regenerated person's body will truly reflect his status
with Christ. We need not try to pry into the
details of this change, nor attempt to define all the differences
between the two states of the body, because John said it, it
doth not yet appear what we shall be. It doth not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know we'll see him as it will be like him.
Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15, called it a spiritual body, not as to
substance, but as to quality. You know, when we think of spiritual
body, we think of a ghost or something flying through the
air, flitting through the air, walking through, walking up. I don't
know what the spiritual body is going to be like, but it's
going to be a physical body. There's going to be the spirit,
spiritual life. We can't describe it. We know
it's going to be eternal, sinless, completely controlled by spiritual
desires from God. It's going to be like Christ.
There will be no pain, no sorrow, no tears, no disappointments. This corruptible body is a hindrance
to our spiritual desires right now. Just like I said, our prayer. Get on your knees to pray and
your knees start hurting. You sit here and you determine
you're going to worship God this morning, you're not going to
think anything but good thoughts, and all of a sudden here comes
something shooting through that mind. Or here comes the sinus condition. It's a hindrance, isn't it? Sin
within us, it's a hindrance. But when we're transformed, it'll
be a body suitable, as one writer said, to the highest aspirations
of our perfected and glorified humanity in Christ. That's right. Now how? According
to the working whereby Christ is able even to subdue all things
to Himself. That's an effective working.
He is able. You see, there's no way that
we're going to get there of our own power, of our own goodness,
of our own merits. It's all by His power, His grace,
His goodness. And that's it. Lord, if you don't
bring me there, I won't make it. That's it. He is able. Alright.