The blessing to see again each of you in the house of God this morning for this conference on Understanding Bible Prophecy. We're covering the highlights of this textbook, of this course, that will appear in the video classes that will accompany the course, but it's the student's responsibility, those that want to take this course seriously, to go through all parts of it and to prepare to answer the review questions and to take the test, which we have prepared already and we'll be making available to the pastor. But we put a lot of work into the review questions and tests to guide the student into capturing what we consider to be the most important parts of the course. And so those will be available. We've covered a lot of ground. And we dealt with covenants. That's where we began in the interpretation of prophecy. And those were very lengthy sessions, and those are foundational kinds of things to help God's people interpret the scriptures for themselves, which is my passion, that each of the members of Fundamental Baptist Churches, of a Bible-believing church, will be a serious Bible student. And so we've dealt with that. We dealt with Daniel 2 and Daniel 9, two great prophecies that are keys to really understanding Bible prophecy. And again, those are foundational kind of things. Then we dealt with the rapture and the Millennial Temple yesterday, last night. This morning we want to deal with the resurrection body. The resurrection body, it's one of the, in the section on the events, future events of Bible prophecy, and one of those is the resurrection body. Resurrection bodies. So the bodily resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15 is the major passage on that. We want to read verses 35 through 50, which we've actually printed in the textbook. 1 Corinthians 15. But some men will say, how are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die. Paul didn't have much patience with false teachers. Doesn't look like. And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body which shall be but bare grain. It may chance of wheat or of some other grain, but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him. And to every seed his own body. All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes. Another are birds. There are also celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial. But the glory of the celestial is one and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There's one glory of the sun and another glory of the moon and another glory of the stars. For one star differeth from another star in glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It's on a natural body, it is raised to spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, the first man, Adam, was made a living soul. The last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit, that was not first, which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy. The second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy. And as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption, and he proceeds then to describe the rapture. But we see that Paul calls the man who doubts the resurrection a fool. God calls the atheist a fool. Doesn't beat around the bush at all. And It's not wrong to call a man a fool if he is a fool, or to say that he is foolish, what Jesus forbade, and Matthew is a cursing kind of thing, an angry kind of thou fool, reika. But if a man's a fool, he's a fool. It's not wrong to ask questions about divine things, but it is wrong to ask in a doubting manner. God doesn't accept doubt. Now, the emerging church glory is in doubt. Let's get together and express our doubts. They actually do that. No, God does not accept that. Without faith, it is impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, must believe. God doesn't accept doubt. and God wants faith. God requires faith. Anyway, so what we want to look at is the nature of the resurrection body. As I studied this morning, what is that resurrection body going to be like? Now, if you're born again, this is for you. If you're not born again, not for you. Not for you. For you, it is necessary to be born again. But this is for the born again, the born againers. And I became a born againer when I was 23 years old, 51 years ago. Take the Lord, it's never gone away. It's a supernatural work of God. You don't keep yourself, God keeps you. It's wonderful and glorious, but it's nothing compared to the future. The resurrection body, we have several lessons here directly out of I Corinthians 15. The resurrection body is related to the mortal body as wheat is to grain. The mortal body is the seed for the resurrection body. This is right in your notes there. And resurrection body, The seed, this is the seed. And when it dies in this planet, that's the seed for the resurrection body, verses 36 through 38 there, as we read. That which thou sowest is not quickened except it die. That which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain. He's talking about natural order of things and seed and what will come out of that seed. And so he's likening that to the resurrection body with the seed being the planting of the old body and the dead body. And which reminds us that we don't cremate. That's a pagan practice. Countless times I've walked down to the river there in Kathmandu and watched them burn the bodies. That's interesting. And they push the remains off into the river. It's not any kind of clean little hidden kind of deal like they do here, but it's all pagan. They don't believe in the bodily resurrection. And they're out there weeping and wailing. Oh, it's amazing. And burning that body, they believe it is releasing the spirit kind of thing. But it's all pagan. It's all pagan. In the Bible, they buried the bodies. It's not like God cannot resurrect the body if it's burned up or whatever. We know it deteriorates into nothing. But it's a spiritual issue. It's a faith issue, planting the body. the destruction of the seed. And so as the seed is different from the plant that springs from it, so the resurrection body is different from the mortal body. Different. We know that, that little seed, it's just, it looks nothing like, nothing like what is going to come out of that. And that is true with the resurrection body. And so the seed, The picture of the natural body being the seed of the resurrection body that's sown supports the practice of burial as opposed to cremation. The farmer does not burn his seed, he plants it. And so we bury the body of that deceased believer in testimony of our faith that he's going to be resurrected. It's a testimony of our faith. It's important. Don't let anybody deceive you with that cremation stuff. Number two, the resurrection bodies will differ one from another. Will differ. As we see in the scripture we read, God's a God of variety. And every individual has a different appearance and personality in this present world. It will be the same in the, in the resurrection. We will know one another, of course. If we're smart enough to know one another here, certainly we will be smart enough to know one another when we're a lot smarter. It's pretty simple. But difference, and this passage implies that the resurrection bodies will differ in, from one another in glory. They will be glorified bodies but differ in glory. It indicates that by talking about the different kinds of glory. And we see that very clearly in Scripture. We read in Hebrews 11, 35 of a better resurrection. Now, this is not talking about salvation, but this is talking about the believer's position. And it's very clear that it's not going to be just a perfect equality in the kingdom of God. 1 Timothy 6, 17, and 19 written to rich believers. and you are, by global standards, rich. And what's it say? It says that by doing good and communicating, you're laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. By doing good and giving, you don't inherit salvation. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." What percentage of our works is required for, is part of salvation? Zero, none. And, but there is a building of a good foundation against the time to come to lay hold on eternal life. And what it is, is laying up treasures in heaven. It's explained in Matthew 6, 19 through 21. And Jesus taught his disciples. He taught them. This is emphasized in scripture. He taught them to lay up treasures, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. And the context there is by giving and by putting Christ first. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you here. And then you're laying up treasures in heaven. And so we're talking about what we do in our Christian life, born-again Christian life, has something to do with our resurrection. Got to get a hold of this. God emphasizes it. If gifts and such were not important to understand, God would not emphasize it so much in Scripture. A better resurrection. and in Matthew 25, 14 through 23 in the parable of the talents, and several of the parables, but in that parable Jesus taught that believers that serve God faithfully and take their talents and multiply them in the service of God, they will receive greater rewards than, than the slacker, the Proverbs. Proverbs talks a lot about the slackered, the sluggard, and the spiritual applications. Slackered Christian. God doesn't like it. God's not satisfied with it, and doesn't want it. I don't want it. If I'm hiring somebody, if I want somebody for serving the Lord in the church, we don't want any slackered. We want diligent people. given their all to it. Oh, they're such a blessing. You could depend on them. and give them something to do, and then you don't even have to watch them. They're going to do their best, and if they have a question, they're going to ask it. That's important, too. But they're dependable. That's what God wants out of His servants. Faithful. It's required of a servant that a man be found. It's required. Faithful. It is required. Who requires it? God does. No messing around with God. And he's done everything in the world for our salvation, but he wants some serious service out of that deal. Serious service. Get on fire for the Lord. I often ask pastors, how many young people in your church are on fire for the Lord? And they say, well, what exactly do you mean about that? Which means they don't have any. That's what it means. They want to redefine it. You mean they're saved? No, I'm talking about on fire for the Lord. Are you on fire for the Lord? Are you a slacker? No, this is very important. God emphasizes 2 Peter 1, 4-11, which is not in your notes there, but oh man, what a passage. In 2 Peter 1, 2 Peter 1, 4-11, this is a passage, major passage on growing in the Christian life. There's many major passages on this, many major passages. And this is one. And they describe the Christian life in various ways. And here it is, adding things, adding. Verse five, beside this, giving all diligence, all diligence. No slackered here. Everything you got, you're giving everything you got to this business. What? Growing, adding. to your faith, that's all you have at the beginning, faith in Christ. Virtue, the virtue knowledge, and the knowledge temperance, and the temperance patience, and the patience godliness, and the godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity being the end of this process of growth. And it says, if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the works, in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But, and then it says verse 10, verse 11, if you do this and you give diligence to this, you'll be fruitful. But also verse 11, looking beyond this life, for so an entrant shall be ministered unto you. abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All these passages are saying the same thing. It's laying up treasures in heaven. It's not a way of salvation, obviously, but it's something very important. An entrance into the kingdom of heaven. What kind of entrance am I going to have? What kind of entrance am I going to have there before the saints and the angels? abundant entrance. You can have an abundant entrance, and obviously you can have one that's not abundant. Well, this is hard for us to understand. It seems like we're saved, joined heirs of Christ, everything's going to be the same. But the Bible's saying it's not. It's not going to be the same. that what we do doesn't save us, but what we do is very important in the Christian life, how you live it, with what zeal you live it, and passion. We need to have some passion. I was walking my walk, two-mile walk yesterday, and I saw this game going over there, and I stopped, and I walked over there with the hostages, you know, watching with their drink and stuff, watching. I said, what's going on? And they said, football. and very enthusiastic, like this is real important. And it's not, but that's passion. Those men have passion about that stupid thing. And yet the things that are important, a lot of people just are ho-hum. Don't be ho-hum, be passionate, diligent, giving all diligence. Because it's going to make a difference. We ought to want to do that no matter what. My wife says she doesn't care about rewards, and I know she doesn't, but the Bible says a lot about it. The resurrection bodies will differ from one another. Number three, the resurrection body is incorruptible. This is wonderful. Incapable of any kind, any type of corruption. Incapable. Deterioration or injury or pain or sickness or disease or infirmity or aiding. Thank the Lord. Thank the Lord for that one. No indwelling sin. No indwelling sin. The old man will be gone. Perfect joy, unblemished by even a hint of sorrow. Sorrow and sighing will flee away. Their mouths will be filled with laughter, their tongues with singing. There will be great joy, and that joy will be perpetual and unfading. Number four, the resurrection body is a glorious body. This is big. This is big here. A glorious body. And verse 43, who shall... Paul talked about that in Philippians 321, who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, like unto his glorious body, called a vile body. It's a vile body, it's a vile body. But it will be fashioned into his, like his glory, his glorious body, like Christ. The term glory, but what is that? Well, you can't understand that at all, of course, without knowing the definition of glory. It's a big word. It's one of the Bible's, one of those big words, but it refers to splendor and majesty of Christ's kingdom. Splendor and majesty and kingly wealth and Solomon and all his glory. The best description of glory we have in the Bible is Solomon's kingdom. Everything was gold. And silver was nothing. And when the queen of Sheba came, now the queen of Sheba was filthy rich. Sheba was a filthy rich spice kingdom in Arabia. She was filthy rich. She had everything she ever wanted her whole life. Surrounded by wealth, it was famous for gold too, as well as spices. She heard about Solomon and decided she was going to take a look for herself. So here she comes up through Arabia and all the way up into Israel with her Oh, her camels, no telling how many there were and everything that she needed along the way as they would be stopping along the way. She got there and she was so affected by what she saw that it said there's no more spirit in her. She nearly fell down faint. This woman that was accustomed to filthy riches, Oh, what a kingdom it was, Solomon. But that's just a little, tiny, little foreview of Christ. But that's glory. It was such a glory. It was the greatest glory this world's ever seen. The richest kingdom, the wise, the wisdom of Solomon, glory. And that is what it's talking about on one side, glory. the, the, the shining splendor is a major part of glory. And it, the Bible says in Colossians 3, 4, we shall, when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. We read of Solomon in his glory. We, we, Christ, when he was transfigured on the mount, his the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering in glory, white and glistering. Matthew says his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. That's resurrection glory. Daniel 12, 3 says it's described as shining as the brightness of the firmament, the brightness of the firmament. Glory. Glory is honor. Glory is the opposite of dishonor. It's sown in dishonor. It's raised in glory. So glory being the opposite of dishonor. This is vile. This is dishonorable, this body. Honorable, a beautiful shining person demands some honor. It's countless, the angels. They are glorious, and they shine, and just the appearance of them causes men to fall down. You ever fell down in the presence of somebody? No. No, nobody's that glorious. No, they're not. but then just one angel, his countenance at the tomb, Christ's tomb, his countenance was like lightning and his raiment white as snow. And for fear of him, the keepers did shake and became as dead men. What glory, just the sight of him, one angel. These guards, that's glory. It's honor. Every glorified saint will be altogether beautiful. There will be no common saints, though they won't be equal as we've seen in glory, but no common saints. And the resurrection to glory is described in Romans 18 through 23. This to me is the best description. trying to figure out what all this is. Romans 8, 18 through 23 describes resurrection glory. So Romans 8, 18 through 23, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. So we're talking about glory. trying to understand this word. For the earnest expectation of the creature waited for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of, reason, where are we? Of him who hath subjected the same in hope, verse 20, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God. There it is in a nutshell. Bondage of corruption, vile, into glorious liberty. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groaned within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to wit, the redemption of the body. What an amazing passage, infinite in education. But the present condition is described as vanity, bondage, corruption, groaning, and travailing. There, that's our present condition. Indeed it is. Indeed it is. And we can put on a smiley face and pretend like everything's absolutely wonderful. But this is really the reality. Vanity, bondage, corruption, groaning. And this we groan. The whole creation is groaning. There we are. But the resurrection is called the manifestation of the sons of God. And so if you're born again, you have been adopted as a child of God, calling on, in the same passage earlier, calling on God as Abba, Father, by the Spirit. It's the Spirit of God that shows you whether you're an adopted son. I can't give you assurance. I can show you where to find assurance in Christ and in the Word of God, but it's the Spirit of God that's got to show you that you're a child of God. But there's going to be a manifestation of the sons of God. We don't look like sons of God. Look like a mess, actually. Various degrees of a mess. It's true. It's what the Word of God says. It doesn't yet appear what the sons of God will be, but they will be manifested in the resurrection. And in verse 21, it's described as being delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. And like the lowly caterpillar, nobody respects the caterpillar. Most people don't even like little creepy crawly thing. Its main task is to eat. That's not supposed to be your main task, to eat. Or my main task, but it's an eating machine. But then it goes through that amazing transformation and it comes out a butterfly. That's resurrection glory, little hint of it. The redeemed saint, there's going to be just a magnificent change. In this present life, redeemed saint is constrained by severely limited intelligence, limited skill, limited memory, limited in space, limited capacity to enjoy life, limited joy. constrained by the necessity of eating and sleeping and attending to a myriad of mundane, repetitive chores. How hard it is just to go through four days of Bible conference. It's a real marathon chore for us because we're just so incredibly weak. That's the problem. And the resurrection will be liberated to vastly increased intelligence, and memory, and skill, and strength, and time, and space, and joy, capacity to enjoy life. God made life to enjoy, made all things richly to enjoy. We have an extremely small capacity to enjoy the creation of God because of our sin, our fallenness. We'll be liberated from that. being a slave to tedious chores. Mostly what we do is just tedious chores. Just the same things over and over again. And brushing your teeth. I hope you brush your teeth. But all those things just got to do them, but they're tedious, that we're slaves to that right now. We're not liberated. Charles Hodge said the future body will be abound with energy, endowed perhaps with faculties of which we now have no conception. Yes. John Phillips said when we receive our resurrection bodies, we shall be able to use all the vast unsuspected resources as yet untapped which God built into the human brain when he fashioned it with omniscient genius from the dust of the earth who can tell, who can tell what limits there will be to our achievements throughout the endless ages of eternity. intelligence and skill will be higher than the angels. Presently, Adam's children are lower than the angels. The angels are magnificent, but lower. And in Christ, in the resurrection glory, the redeemed saints will be higher than the angels, higher than Michael the archangel. He must be amazing, but higher than Adam himself doubtless was a genius in intelligence, perfect in memory, brilliant in understanding, highly skilled. God didn't make some stumbling dummy to be the head of the creation. The earth, He was magnificent. And so was Eve in their original creation, glory. And named all the animals right there, He didn't have to later say, Eve, what did I call that one? No. But all that's, if Adam could see his four children, 6,000 later this year, how deep, how we've deteriorated. and the resurrection of the genius will not be limited to a few as it is in this present world. The greatest feats in the natural body, the greatest achievement of musicians, athletes and mountain climbers and chess champions and inventors and engineers Those will appear to be surely like child's play compared to the resurrection skill and intelligence. The resurrected saint will probably be a glorified, doubtless be a glorified genius at everything. I suspect that in the resurrection, every saint will be the musical genius, have the musical genius of a David and Handel. He's going to seem like a child's play. musician, Handel. The Messiah! It's glorious. I think it's the apex, perhaps, what man can do in this present life, but it's going to be like child's play. Yeah, it will be. The broad intelligence of Solomon, who spoke 3,000 proverbs, whose songs were 1,005. who had knowledge of trees and beasts and fowl and creeping things and fish. And I suspect the glorious saint will be able to play a multitude of instruments, sing like an angel." We actually don't know if angels sing, but surely they do. Well, we don't know, do we? So we better not say surely. Ride a glorified horse with the wind. Yeah, we see them in Revelation 19. He will be able to quote, Ponder the deep things of God with phenomenal capacity. Learn and learn and learn and never forget. Leaky minds? No. Skillful beyond present comprehension. Be able to learn and then discuss anything he's ever learned in perfect detail. We can't do that. There are those that have been acclaimed with a great memory and they could go to any book in their big library and go to any little page and remember everything they read. Most of us aren't even like that. Can't remember what you heard last night. It's a fact, but it won't be. And the skills, God made all these things. God made man to be glorious, but he's fallen. But God made man to be glorious. He's made an image of God. He's a glorious creature. We can see a little hint of it even now. Ah, but nothing like what's coming. I mean, men that have been acclaimed, I read about this Paxon Hood, a singer, a prophet of song, known as the Silver Trumpet of Wales. His voice at Wales was a great sacred music kingdom at one time. It's described in the book by Ronald Reeves, A Nation of Singing Birds. It's great stuff. But this man, Paxton Hood, he was a singer A profit of song, the swell and cadences of his voice were like many voices which blend to make up one complete concert. He was like a whole concert, one man. He was not only a master of the deep bass notes, but had rich soprano kind of power. When Davis raised his voice to a higher pitch than ordinary, it increased in melody and power. and its effects were, quote, thrilling in the extreme. There were no jarring notes. All was the music of elegance throughout. He was, quote, an organ in human frame. Apparently Lucifer had musical instruments and great abilities in him. But here's a man that's called an organ, and that's a fallen man. We're just looking at the hints and then thinking about what it will be in the resurrection glory, the strength. It's called a powerful body in verse 43. We'll be hired an angel. One angel destroyed the whole Sennacherib's entire mighty army, mightiest army on earth at the time. Power. That power, powerful body. Verse 43, the Greek dunamis, from which we get dynamite, power. And raised above the angels, Hebrews 2, 6 through 9, in resurrection glory. Samson, we think of him, how he ripped up that gate with the sidebars, the whole deal, just ripped it up. carried it, for some reason, 36 miles up to Hebron, just because he could, I guess. I mean, they were laying wait for him. You're going to do Samson some damage here at the gate. We don't read anything about him because he comes along and rips up their gate. 36 miles uphill. And what's that? Little hint of future glory? Absolutely. We think of men like, I love to read about Eric Little, the Scottish Olympic runner who died in Japan, in China, but he loved to run. He was a great runner. quality, but he loved it, and he believed God was also pleased when he would run, because God made him to have that strength so that you get joy in long distance running. I've never had that strength. It's just torturous. Even walking two miles is torturous. Eric Little had the strength to get joy out of it. We shall literally run and not be weary. That's literal. Isaiah 40, verse 31. We'll stop there.