I think that what people had
a harder time with than anything else when they heard the apostles
preach was the resurrection. They mocked. They made fun of
the resurrection. And when Peter wanted to get
someone to take Judas's place, he wanted someone who was a going
to be with him a witness of the resurrection. And do you know
every believer is a witness of the resurrection? You might not
have seen it physically, but you're a witness of the resurrected
Christ, of the living Christ. And he's made himself known to
you. What a blessing to be a witness
of the resurrection. I'm preaching him whom I'm bearing
witness to. In verse 20, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, but now is Christ risen from
the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. Now the fact that he was risen
from the dead, tells us that he did in fact die. And before his death, he had
a physical life. And in that life, he lived perfectly. Don't you love to think of the
life of the Lord Jesus Christ before anybody else knew him?
I love to think of him working in a carpenter shop. I have heard people say he never
made a mistake in his measurements when he was making whatever it
was he was making. He had the limitation to the
flesh in the sense that he got tired. I don't know whether that's
true or not, but remember when he was wearied with his journey
and set on the well, he was tired. And I love to think of him obeying
his parents. I love to think of him playing
as a child. I love to think of him working
out this perfect righteousness that no one knew about. Not even the members of his family.
They did not get it. But yet, here he was working
out this perfect righteousness in his life. He obeyed God's
law perfectly. Isn't that an awesome thought? At the end of his life, he was
nailed to a cross. And he hung there on that cross
until he died. Why did he die? If I answer this correctly, I'll
say because of the purpose of God, first of all. He was delivered by the determined
counsel and foreknowledge of God. I love the way Peter begins
the sermon on Pentecost. And turn with me there for just
a moment. This is where he begins. You know, I wish preachers would
begin where Peter did. He said in verse 22, ye men of
Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of
God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God
did by him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know him
being delivered by the determinant counsel and for knowledge of
God. That's why he died. The determinant
counsel. and foreknowledge of God, you
have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." Now
he was delivered by the foreknowledge of God, but that doesn't take
away the responsibility of man. He said, you've taken him with
wicked hands of crucified and slain him. Now he was nailed
to a cross because it was God's eternal purpose. And he was nailed
to a cross because of sin. who his own self bear our sins
in his own body on the tree. If I'm a believer, every sin
I've ever committed, he bore in his own body on the tree. It was lifted off of me and he
bore it. He became guilty of the commission
of all of those sins. And that is why his father slew
him. Now, there's something radically
different from him and me. I can't bear your sins because
I've got sins of my own. He had no sin of his own. That's
why he could bear our sins. And what did he do when he died?
He completely satisfied all the claims of God's law against sin. That's why he died. The soul
that sinneth shall surely die. All the sins of God's elect were
made to meet upon him. He bore them in his own body
on Calvary's tree and he put them away. The moment he died,
complete satisfaction was made. He was delivered for our offenses.
He was raised again for our justification and get this, The God of glory
is completely satisfied with you if you're in Christ. He's not looking for anything
else. You are complete and God is completely satisfied with
you. You're a sweet savor to him because
of the death, the burial, and the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The fact that he was resurrected
from the dead means God is completely satisfied with what he did and
everybody he did it for. So Paul says, now is Christ risen
from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. Now, the first fruits means the
guarantee of the resurrection of every believer. The reason
you're going to be raised from the dead is because Christ was
raised from the dead for you. Now, if Christ doesn't come back,
we're all gonna die. Our bodies are going to decay. But we have this promise, every
believer will be raised from the dead. There will be a final
resurrection, the resurrection of the believer, the resurrection
of life, and the resurrection of the unbeliever, the resurrection
of condemnation. Everyone is going to be raised
from the dead. But some man will say, how are
the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?
Haven't you ever thought that? How are the dead raised up? And
what are they gonna look like? With what body will they come
when they're raised from the dead? And evidently, this man had a bad attitude in
asking this question because Paul says fool. Thou fool, asking
this question in the manner they did. Now, they had asked about
this, and Paul is giving the answer, and he says to this person
who asked this seemingly simple question, fool. So there was
something wrong with them asking this question, or at least in
the manner in which they asked this question. Now, you put your
body in the ground, It goes through the process of decay. It decomposes. Some bodies have been burned
and their ashes are scattered all over the place. Some are
buried at sea. They sink down. The fish eat them. Bigger fish
eat the fish that ate them. And even bigger fish eat those
fish. And they spread all over the ocean. How's he gonna be raised from
the dead? That seems incredible. And I believe the person who
asked this asked this in a kind of incredulous fashion. With all of these different scenarios
of death, with what body will they be raised? And that's when
Paul answers them, thou fool. That which thou sowest is not
quickened, except it die. Now, what is interesting is we
have resurrection going on continually. Every time a plant grows. There
was a death in that seed, and its life is raised from that
death. We're living around resurrection
nonstop. Remember when the Lord said,
except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth
alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. Turn with me for a moment to
Mark chapter 4, verse 26. And he said, so is the kingdom
of God as if a man should cast seed into the ground. And he
should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring
up, spring and grow up. I love this next phrase. He knows
not how. Can I understand how life comes
out of death? No, but it does. That's just
something we believe and we see on a continual basis. Every time
a plant grows, a seed has been cast into the ground, it dies,
it rots, it decays, and life comes out of that seed. And that's
why Paul says, you fool. You're around resurrection nonstop. There's no excuse for you not
believing in the resurrection of the dead. And you remember
in the Church of Corinth, they had been saying, how say some
among you that there be no resurrection of the dead? You're around resurrection
constantly. The life of the plant comes through
the death of the seed. This is the resurrection. Every time a plant grows, there
is resurrection. Thou fool, that which thou sowest
is not quick, and except it die. Verse 37. And that which thou
sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be, but bare grain. It may be a chance of wheat or
of some other grain. Now, you don't put a whole stalk
of corn into the ground, the big shock and stalk. You put
one piece of corn. What comes out is not what went
in. It's something totally different,
something that you would have never known would happen. You
take any seed and you put it in the ground. Well, a seed doesn't
come out, but a plant, sometimes a big tree, you put an acorn
in the ground, what's gonna come out? A big oak tree. What comes
out is not what came in, what you put in. And that's what he's
talking about when he's talking about this resurrection, this
resurrected body. That which thou sowest, thou
sowest not the body that shall be, You don't put a whole oak
tree under the ground, you just put an acorn. And the oak tree
comes out. Verse 38, but God giveth it a
body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.
I love the fact that every seed God made, God knows exactly what's
gonna come out. If you see a bunch of seeds,
can you say, well, that one's an apple seed, or that one's a, an oak's
gonna grow out of that, just a thousand different seeds, and
you don't know what's going to come out of those seeds, but
God does. Because God made those seeds, and from those seeds are
going to come life after they die in the ground. God giveth
it a body as it hath pleased Him, to every seed His own body. Now all flesh, remember the question
is what kind of body are we going to have in the resurrection?
All flesh is not the same flesh, but there's one kind of flesh
of men, Another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another
of birds. All different kinds of flesh.
They're not the same. There are also celestial bodies.
That's talking about in the heavens. There are stars. There are satellites. He wasn't talking about satellites.
Asteroids, sun, moon, different bodies celestial and bodies terrestrial. There are mountains. There are
big sequoia trees, big redwood trees. There are little bushes. There are differing things. Celestial bodies, bodies that's
terrestrial. But the glory of the celestial is one, and the
glory of the terrestrial is another. They're different in their glory.
You know, the sun shines a whole lot brighter than the light that
a firefly makes at night. They're different. There's one glory of the sun,
another glory of the moon, another glory of the stars, for one star
differeth from another star in glory." Now, I've actually seen
where people use this verse of Scripture to say there's differing
degrees of glory in heaven. One star's going to shine brighter
than another star. That is so offensive. That is
so contrary to everything the gospel says. And yet, most churches
teach that you can earn a higher reward in heaven by your works,
and we're building materials here on earth to send up to heaven
to make sure the size of our mansion is big enough." Now,
that is utterly offensive and contrary to the gospel. One star differing another in
glory is just saying they differ. So also is the resurrection of
the dead. It's sown in incorruption, oh no, it's sown in corruption,
it's raised in incorruption. Now you're asking, what kind
of dead, what kind of body am I gonna have? Well, here's the
first thing, it's sown in corruption. You get old, your body starts
going downhill, you're gonna die, and it's gonna
corrupt. You're going to decay. You're
going to smell. Your body's going to be turned
into a pile of dirt at some point. It's sown in corruption. And
that's because of sin. If there were no sin, there would
be no death. But because of our sin, we're
going to die. And that is sown in corruption. It's raised. in corruption. What is raised up will be essentially
different than what had died and was buried. Now he's continuing
the imagery of the seed with death and resurrection. It's
sown in corruption. It's sown in decay, the result
of sin. Now the Lord's body never decayed.
I love thinking about that. His body never went through the
process of decay for this one reason. The second he died, complete
satisfaction was made. All my sins were put away. The
law was perfectly honored. Right then, the moment he died,
perfect satisfaction. But when you and I die, it's
not like that. We start to go through the process
of decay. It's sown in corruption, but
it's raised in in corruption. Now what does that mean? I'm
not real sure. I know that I'm going to be raised
in a body that doesn't sin and I'm going to be raised in a glorified
body, a body with Not even subject to sin or corruption or decay
or anything else. He calls it a spiritual body
on down. But it's raised in incorruption. Verse 43, it's sown in dishonor. It's raised in glory. Now the fact that I die, what
does it say about me? It says I'm a sinner. There's
no honor in death in that sense. It says I'm a sinner. Why do
I die? You know, people say, well, what
did they die of? Cancer or heart disease? They died because they're
sinners. That's why people die. It might be different means of
sickness, but you think of death. Life is a great mystery, and
death is a great mystery. Somebody's alive, then they're
dead, sown in dishonor. But how's it going to be raised?
It's raised in glory. It's sown in weakness. How weak
is death? It's strong in the sense that
you can't prevent it. It's very strong. No matter what you do,
you can't prevent yourself from dying. It's not going to happen.
But you're so weak before it. You can't, these bodies are so
weak and then what is weaker than a dead body? A dead body
can't do anything. It's sown in weakness and corruption
and decay and dishonor and disgrace. But how's it gonna be raised?
In power. The power of God is going to
raise every body. That resurrection, the believer
is going to be raised incorruptible, perfect. No sin, no pain, no
tears, no bad memories, no conflict. Raised a spiritual body. perfectly conformed to the image
of Jesus Christ. Oh, we put the body down. It's dishonor. It's because of
our sinfulness. But oh, when it's raised, it's
sown, verse 44. It's sown a natural body. We're
in a natural body right now. Steve read that passage of scripture
in Genesis chapter six and God saw the wickedness of man was
great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of
his heart was only evil continually. That's God's testimony. And it
repented the Lord that he made man, and it grieved him in his
heart to see man had become so wicked, so evil. And that describes
you and I. You know, the Bible cannot be
understood apart from Genesis chapter six, verse five. The
gospel's meaningless apart from Genesis chapter six, verse five. But it's raised a spiritual body. Natural body, that's what we
have right now that we're living in. It's raised a spiritual body. We don't really know what that
is, but whatever Christ's body is, that's what it is. Now, He
ate. Remember when He ate the fish
and the honeycomb? He said, Flesh and blood. I'm flesh and bones. I'm real.
I eat. He did this in a glorified state,
but it was a glorified spiritual body. Now, what all that is,
we don't know. But we love thinking of the Lord
in that light. And we're going to be raised
a spiritual body, not subject to the limitations of this body.
When I'm raised from the dead, it'll still be me, but it'll
be with a spiritual body. A body without sin, without the
effects of sin, still flesh and blood and bones. Still blood,
I guess, pumping through my body. I don't know. I don't know what
all is involved in a spiritual body. But I do know this. Whatever
kind of body Jesus Christ has, that's the kind of body I'm going
to have. I'm still going to be me. You're still going to be you.
Somebody says, well, will we recognize each other? I guess. I don't see why not. But the
thing that is, we're not the attraction there. He is. And
we're all going to be looking upon him and his beauty and his
glory. And our connection with each
other is going to be because of our connection with him. And
we're going to admire everybody that looks just like him. You
see, the great end of predestination is going to be realized. Whom
He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among
many brethren." What kind of body are we going to have when
we're raised from the dead? It's going to be a spiritual
body, and it's going to be a body perfectly conformed to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Salvation is of the Lord. How dependent are we on the Lord
to raise us from the dead? Well, that's how dependent we
are on Him for everything else in salvation. Just as dependent
as we are on Him to raise us from the dead, we're dependent
upon Him for everything else. It's shown, verse 44, a natural
body. It's raised a spiritual body.
There is a natural body. That's the one you're living
in right now. And there is a spiritual body. And so it's written, I love the way Paul continually
goes to, it's written. It's written. Thank God for it
is written. We're not dependent upon men's
thoughts, men's views, men's philosophies. You think of all
the philosophies of death, like reincarnation. Most of the world's
population believes in reincarnation. that you're going to be reincarnated
into another life and it'll be a better life if you're good
in this life, it'll be a worse life if you're not so good and
you're just going through this continual cycle. How many times,
how many lives you go through, where you get that? Yes, that's
what most people believe. Somebody says, well, how do you
believe in resurrection? Plants are resurrected every day. This
is God's way. Do you think it's a thing incredible
that God should raise the dead? Is anything too hard for the
Lord? Oh, his ability to do this. And so it was written, the first
man, Adam, was made a living soul. The last Adam was made
a quickening spirit. God formed Adam. from the dust
of the earth and breathed life into him. Now that's the scriptural
account. I know there are other accounts
of life, somehow life just through chemical reactions, all of a
sudden there was a one cell organism and all of the life forms of
the earth came from that one cell organism. It's a lot easier for me to believe
what God says in his word. God formed Adam from the dust
of the earth and he breathed in him the breath of life. The
first man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam, the Lord
Jesus Christ. I love the way he's called the
last Adam. The last Adam is what? a quickening, life-giving spirit. Adam, in his life, was still
totally dependent, but the Lord Jesus Christ has the same life
in him that his father has in him. As the Father raises the
dead and quickens them, He has life in Himself. He's utterly
independent. He has no needs. He doesn't need
to eat and drink and sleep and have shelter the way you and
I do. He's utterly independent. The Lord Jesus Christ is utterly
independent. He doesn't have needs the way
you and I do and He has made a quickening spirit, a life-giving
spirit. That's talking about spiritual
life. That's not talking about physical life right now. It's
talking about spiritual life. If you have spiritual life, it's
because He gave it to you. He quickened you. You see, He
represented you before time began. He came to this earth to obey
the law for you, and He kept the law for you. He died for
you. He put away your sins. He was
raised from the dead for your justification, and He quickens
you. He gives you life. This is the
life of God in the soul, a spiritual life. He's a quickening spirit. As the Father quickens whom He
will, even so the Son quickens whom He will. Verse 46, how be
it? That was not first which is spiritual,
but that which is natural. Afterwards, that which is spiritual.
Now, I love to think about this. I was born into this world, dead
in sins. My natural man came first in
my experience. Born dead in sins. Afterwards,
that which is born of the Spirit. It's the Spirit that quickens.
Life comes through the Spirit of God. The natural came first,
but spiritual life came from God the Holy Spirit, quickening
us in the new birth. How be it that which first which
is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterwards that
which is spiritual. The first man, verse 47, is of
the earth. Earthy. I love that description,
earthy. Clod of dirt. made from how many
different minerals, I can't remember, I've read it, the composition
of the human being, but you're gonna end up dirt. Dust thou
art, and to dust thou shalt return. God's promised that. The first
man is in the earth, earthy. Earthy. And the second man, the second
Adam, is the Lord from heaven. I love His name, Lord. He's the Lord from heaven. That means His will's always
done. He's the dictator. He's the controller. He's the
Lord from heaven. The first man is nothing but
earthy, but He is the Lord from heaven. He's heavenly. And how
many times did He say during His earthly ministry, I came
down from heaven? If I said that, people would
think he's insane. And I'm sure they thought that
when the Lord said it. But when the Lord said it, it's
true. Talking about his eternal existence. And he came down from
heaven. He said, I came down from heaven,
not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And
this is the father's will, which has sent me, that of all which
he has given me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up again
at the last day. Now as the earth, verse 48, as
is the earth, such are they that are earthy, and as is the heavenly,
such are they that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image
of the earthly, We shall also bear the image of the heavenly. We're born in the image of the
fallen father, Adam, and we came into the world with his corrupt
seed. We look like him, but we shall also bear the image of
the heavenly. The end of predestination. perfect
likeness to Jesus Christ in all ways. David put it this way, in Psalm
17, 15, as for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness. I'll be satisfied when I awake
in thy likeness. What body are we going to have
in the resurrection? How does God raise the dead?
Well, he does it by his power, the same way he raises a plant.
It's the work of Almighty God. With what body will we have?
A perfect, glorified, spiritual body. What about all this? Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter four. Verse 16. For which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish,
Yet the inward man is renewed day by day for our light affliction,
which is but for a moment. Worketh for us a far more exceeding
and eternal weight of glory while we look not at things which are
seen, but at things which are not seen. For the things which
are seen are temporary. They're temporal. They will not
continue. But the things which are not
seen are eternal. Now, I love the way Paul calls
his life and our life a light affliction. Now, wait a minute,
Paul. Everywhere you go, You know you're
going to get tied to a post and beat. You're going to be stoned. You're going to be cast into
jail, having your feet put in stalks. You're going to be robbed
by robbers. You know when we talked about
perils of robbers, it seems like the Lord would keep that from
happening to him. Here he is going out to preach
the gospel and he's having robbers attack him and false brethren
attack him. You'd think the Lord would preserve
him from all that, but he didn't. He didn't, he had every trouble
that a man can have. I mean, he was a despised man.
His life was so difficult. He said, I don't have a home
to go to. He was a street person. He said,
we don't have sufficient clothing to deal with in the coldness.
We don't have sufficient food. I mean, he had a very rough life
and he calls it a light affliction. Why is it light? Because it's just for a moment. Temporary. Life's going to be over real
soon. Our light affliction which is
but for a moment and then eternity begins. Now the light affliction
is working for us, not against us. It's working for us. Whatever happens during the days
of this light affliction, it's working for us. And we know that
all things, that includes everything, and we know that all things work
together, not separately, but together for good. to them that love God, to them
who are called according to His purpose. It's all part of what
Paul calls that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And I love this language for
our light affliction, which is but for a moment. If you take
a century and put a second beside of it, that would not even compare
to the difference between time and eternity. Our, over just
like that, our light affliction, which is, but for a moment, worketh
for us. And here Paul uses language that
I'm sure he doesn't know what it means. We don't want to know
what it means, but we know it's glorious. It works for us a far
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. That's one of those things I
don't know how to comment on. but the weight of glory that's
awaiting every believer, an exceeding, eternal weight of glory. Now, you just got about another
second, then begins eternity. And then you're gonna have this
far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. You don't even
remember this place. You won't remember what it is
to be a sinner. You'll be beholding the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ
and you are going to have a body just like his. You're still going
to be you, but you're going to be in a glorified, perfect body. And there's no time in heaven. But
every day, you're gonna say, this is the greatest day ever.
And then the next day, you're gonna say, this was better than
that. And go on and on and on for eternity. Our light affliction,
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory. I love the fact that he calls
it eternal. It's eternal this way and that way. However long
I've been in Christ, that's how long this glory is. It goes eternity past, eternity
future. It's an eternal weight of glory. Now look what he says in verse
18. While we look, not at the things which are sin. but the things that are not seen. For everything you can see is
temporary. Temporal. You know, all these
relationships, these family relationships, they won't be in heaven. You won't look at your spouse
now in the same way in heaven, you're gonna look at everybody
else just like them. People who worship the lamb, people who
are bowing before him. And there are things we don't
see right now. For instance, I can't see my justification. I can't look within my heart
and say, yep, I'm justified. Look how clean that heart is.
Can't do it, I can't see it. But I believe it. And that is
the evidence of things not seen. Faith is the evidence of things
not seen. I can't see Christ physically
right now. He is eternal. One day I'll see him, and I don't
know how that is gonna be, but I'll see him. I can't see my
new man. I'm aware of him. I'm aware of
a new man. I wouldn't be looking to Christ
if I didn't have him, but I can't see him. I can't see that new
man that does not commit sin. I can't see him, but he's eternal. He's the one who will be in heaven. Beloved, you can stand anything
for a moment. What is your life, James said,
a vapor? A breath of air that vanishes
as soon as it comes out of your lungs. A vapor that appears for
a very little while and vanishes away. Soon it will be over And
because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, you
will be sinless, glorified, perfectly conformed to His image, always in His presence. So, how are the dead raised? By the
power of God. what kind of body they're going
to have. Whatever kind of body the Lord Jesus Christ has, that's
what kind of body they're going to have. And eternity will be
spent worshiping Him. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord, we're so earnestly
looking forward to being raised incorruptible, given this spiritual
body that doesn't sin, that has no pain, no tears, no conflict. How we thank you for the hope
we have in Christ Jesus. Lord, enable each person here
to believe on our son and trust him for everything in their salvation. Lord, we can't do that except
you enable us. So speak to each person here,
old and young, and reveal your gospel unto us. In Christ's name
we pray. Amen.