[0:00] Welcome to our service this morning. We join together in worship of God and we pray that he would bless us as we wait upon him.
[0:15] We can sing Psalm 67, the first version of the psalm, Psalm 67. Lord, bless and pity us, shine on us with thy face, that the earth thy way and nations all may know thy saving grace.
[0:35] Let people praise thee, Lord, let people all be praised, for let the nations be glad whose songs their voices raise. Thou justly people judge, on earth rule nations all.
[0:50] Let people praise thee, Lord, let them praise thee, both great and small. The earth her fruit shall yield, her God shall blessing send.
[1:02] God shall us bless, men shall him fear, and to earth's utmost end. This sound to God's praise, the first version, Lord, bless and pity us, shine on us with thy face.
[1:17] Lord, bless and pity us, shine on us with thy face, that the earth thy way and nations all.
[1:44] May know thy sin is. Let people praise thee, Lord, let people all be praised, O let the nations be glad, their songs their voices raise.
[2:27] thou justly people judge, on earth rule nations all.
[2:43] Let people praise thee, Lord, praise thee, Lord, and your blessings, may shall live here, and yours are yours again.
[3:37] Let's join together in prayer. O Lord of God, we give thanks to the God of all grace that you have given to us this renewed opportunity to gather in your name and with your help to seek to worship.
[4:03] And we acknowledge that often our worship is hollow, and it seems to us as if it lacks the true power that we would seek to possess, that we are earthbound and worldly and our life fails to rise up from the circumstance of our own humanity.
[4:41] And yet, Lord, even in the act of worship, however much we decry its meaningfulness, we know that you are willing to receive it from us in the merits of Jesus Christ, the one who is the great intercessor of his people, the one who pleads our cause even when we find ourselves cold and lethargic in spirit.
[5:16] Lord, we bless you and thank you that you have made provision for all our needs, even in our most holy things.
[5:29] And we may think that only when we are embroiled in sin and when we are in need of approaching a throne of grace in order to receive mercy because of what we are or what we have done and the wrongs that we need to have righted, then we think that these are the times that we should acknowledge our need of a God who is able to meet us in that way.
[6:13] but we have to confess that what we are by nature requires of us to understand that there is no real moment in our human existence where we have the right of access based upon anything that is true of ourselves.
[6:38] the merit is entirely of your own provision and that in the passion of your son. We give thanks for the way in which the symbolism of the Old Testament the days and the hours and the sacrifices and the manner in which they are offered all said to teach us certain truths about our own inability.
[7:15] So we should remind ourselves of that even as we meet here in your name. So presence yourself among us in a way in which we could appreciate that we are indeed in your presence.
[7:30] We believe that there is never a place or a time when you are not there because you are the God who is spirit. You are infinite, eternal and changeable in your being.
[7:46] You are never present present in all the theatrics of our human existence and the scene of time our greatest moments and our greatest disasters the things that we feel shame for and things that make our cheeks burn with pride.
[8:13] You are always there to see us and to understand the nature that we possess and how spoiled it is.
[8:26] But you have made provision for it in Christ and we thank you for that. We pray for your blessing upon individuals, upon family members, upon fathers and mothers and grandfathers and grandmothers, children and grandchildren even great grandchildren.
[8:48] We pray for them as they experience need in this needy world and ask that you would manifest yourself to them as a God who is suitable to them, a God to whom they are indebted and upon whom they depend.
[9:07] For it is in you and you alone that we live and move and have out be, as a mother of old declared to our people who were so taken up with their idols, but in the midst of all that they believed to be true, the God of heaven and earth was lifted up.
[9:36] Just as he must be lifted up in our day of idols, we might despise such a thought and think that we are above that, but never this is, we dare not say never, but we acknowledge that the idolatry of our generation is equally so as it was in cultures that are so different to our own.
[10:09] the idols that we follow, the idols that we seek to glorify, the idols that we seek to serve, the idols that we seek to emulate, they are around us, they permeate the atmosphere that we breathe, breathe and we see them and yet we do not.
[10:41] We don't understand the effect they have upon our lives, the influence they exert, the paths that we are made to follow and the ends of these paths.
[10:55] Open the eyes of our understanding that we may cry out for mercy and seek that the God of all gods is the one to whom we must turn.
[11:08] Remember our homes, our families, our loved ones. Remember those who have need of you as their God in the sense that they are unwell, that they are experiencing the brokenness of body that old age brings.
[11:28] those housebound, hospitalized, those confined to care homes, those who are in hospices, those who are terminally ill, some we know, some we don't.
[11:42] Their journey is rapidly approaching an end. Prepare them for it, as you must prepare us all, that we may find ourselves ready when you come to give that call to us.
[12:00] We pray, Lord, for your blessing to be imparted to the grieving and the sorrowful, those who are looking upon empty places and who will never see them, filled again with those that you have taken from them.
[12:18] Their voices never to be heard, their presence never to be felt, except in the deep resources of our fading memory.
[12:30] We pray, Lord, for your wisdom to remind us that we too are like them, present on the scene of time, for however brief it may seem, it is brief, even the longest lived will look back on their life and count the years as if they were minutes, and seek in awe of how this life has been lived, and we pray, Lord, for wisdom, to seek that whatever we have as a consequence of our life lived in this world, that we would have the one thing needful that will never be taken from us.
[13:22] bless the gospel, bless the proclamation of it this day in our congregations, in our island, in our nation, a nation that has departed from the foundational truths that once was so marked in our midst.
[13:44] We pray for the nations of the earth, for the missionary activity of the church, in all kinds of situations where there are wars, where there are conflicts, where there are disasters, where there is the darkness of spiritual lack.
[14:10] We pray for provision to be made for them in such contexts. hear our prayers, O Lord, and bless those who would seek to serve you this day, encourage them as they proclaim Christ.
[14:28] Remember the congregations in our island where the sacrament of the Lord's Supper has been commemorated and those who would seek by faith to remember him in his death, encourage them as they stretch out trembling hands to lay hold.
[14:46] of these symbols that speak to them of their own sinfulness and what needed to take place in order for them to be rid of that sin.
[15:01] He died that we might live and the symbols that speak of that death impress themselves upon all who would seek to handle them.
[15:14] Continue to watch over us as our generation pour out your spirit upon us. That is the one thing that we must seek above all else, that your spirit would be poured out upon us in measures that would so impress us that it is the Lord and none else.
[15:37] Hear our prayers, pardon our sins in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Boys and girls, I wonder if your parents ever say to you, eat your greens.
[15:58] Have they ever said that to you? Eat your greens. I'm sure there are some who don't agree with that bit of advice.
[16:11] But I'm sure every one of you who has heard it, whether you agree with it or not, would or should know that mothers and fathers and grandparents mean you to have the best.
[16:30] You would do that because it's good for you. It's good for your body, good for your brain, I was told to eat certain foods.
[16:46] Now it might not be true for everyone, that vegetables are good. But the fact is that there is someone who tells us what is good for us and it's always good.
[17:03] He never asks us to do something that is not right and he never asks us not to do something without it being right.
[17:15] He's always right and he knows best what we should do and should not do. And that person is God. Whatever your mums and dads may say to you, I'm sure 90%, 95% of the time they're right.
[17:35] But God is always right. It's never wrong. and the reason I mention that is that the children of Israel when they were passing through the wilderness, God always spoke to them, telling them what to do.
[17:55] and when he told them to do something, it was always the right thing. When he told them not to do it, it was always right and proper that they didn't do it.
[18:11] He was never wrong, but they didn't always believe him. They didn't always do the right things that God told them to do.
[18:23] So as you've been hearing, because they were disobedient, God said, well, you will learn, you will listen, you will understand that what I am saying to you is always for your good.
[18:41] So for 40 years, he took them through the wilderness in order that they would learn, so that he would teach them, so that they would know that a God, who was their God, was always doing right and meaning them to learn.
[19:04] And after 40 years, they came to a place in the wilderness where God said to his servant, now he said, you will take my people across this river to inherit land that I promised.
[19:25] And he took them to the Jordan and he told his servant Joshua to lead them across the Jordan. And everything that God told to Joshua and all the instructions that he gave to Joshua, that Joshua then passed on to the people they followed.
[19:49] They did as God asked them to do. So he gave them an instruction, ask the priests to take the Ark of the Covenant where you meet with me, where you worship me and carry it into the Jordan.
[20:09] them. And when their feet go into the water, the waters of the Jordan will stop flowing.
[20:22] And that's exactly what they did. Very strange, very difficult for them to do. But because God had told them to do it and because at that moment they believed that what God was saying to them was right, they did it.
[20:41] And they followed the priests. And the priests stood in the water and the water stood up and stopped flowing and all the people managed to cross the Jordan with their feet dry.
[20:59] And then when every one of them had crossed, God told them that the twelve of them should take a stone from the river and put it up as a memorial on the other side to remind them, to help them remember what God had done.
[21:25] Isn't that strange that something as mighty a deed, something as wonderful, miraculous as that, that God said, take these stones and put them so that you'll remember.
[21:47] So that you'll remember. In other words, I know you. You have a record. You have a background.
[21:59] You have a history. history. You forget who I am, what I have done, and the power that I possess.
[22:11] But every one of them crossed, and once everybody was across, the priests carried the Ark of the Covenant out to the water, and the waters began to flow, as they ever did.
[22:27] All their enemies saw what happened, and they saw, and believed for themselves the power of God, and they trembled, and they were afraid, and they remembered the God who was such a powerful God.
[22:45] What does that teach us? What does it tell us? Well, it tells us several things, I suppose. It reminds us of God's mercy, God's patience, God's timing, power, that reminds us of our own forgetfulness, how ready we are to forget the most wonderful things that God has ever done for us in our lives.
[23:16] Something that we often say, oh, I'll never forget that. I'll never forget that. But God knows us best. I hope that you'll remember the next time you're being told to do something that is good for you, that you'll do it.
[23:37] But always remember that what God wants you to do is good for you. What God doesn't want you to do is something that is for your good as well, and that you'll always remember that.
[23:51] I'm going to sing the first time. Psalm 1. That man has perfect blessedness, who walketh not astray in counsel of ungodly men, nor stands in sinners' way, nor sitteth in the scornish chair, but places his delight upon God's law, and meditates on his law day and night.
[24:18] He shall be like a tree that grows near planted by a river, which in his season yields his fruit, and to his sleeve fadeth never.
[24:29] And all he does shall prosper well. The wicked are not so, but like they are unto the chaff which wind drives to and through. In judgment therefore shall not stand such as ungodly are, nor in the assembly of the just shall wicked men appear.
[24:47] For why, the way of godly men unto the Lord is known, whereas the way of wicked men shall quite be overthrown. The whole of Psalm 1, that man hath perfect blessedness, who walketh not astray.
[25:03] men mayf Walketh not just gain and counsel of ungodly your sin is in your soul nor sit yet in the stronger stream but please let this delight upon God so again it is on his lucky and nine he shall be like a sea that grows the earth planted by a river with Genesis is the hills his food and to sleep he gets in heaven and only judge shall cross the way the wicked are not so but like they are and to the sea which wind drives to the sea in judgment
[27:47] Thank you.
[28:17] Thank you.
[28:47] The wicked men shall quite be overthrown.
[29:01] I'm going to read from the Scriptures of the New Testament from Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians chapter 15.
[29:13] 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We'll read from verse 33. Verse 33.
[29:52]
[33:22] Amen.
[33:33] And may the Lord have his blessing to a reading of his word. To its name be the praise. Sing now from Psalm 39. Psalm 39, verse 4, down to verse 11.
[33:49] Amen. Amen.
[34:21] And so on.
[35:01] And so on. These verses, Psalm 39, from verse 4. My name and measure of my days, O Lord, unto me show. My name and measure of my days, O Lord, unto me show.
[35:29] What is the sin that I hear by?
[35:40] My friend, he will me know. Lord, thou my days, O Lord, unto me show.
[36:00] My name and measure of my days, O Lord, unto me show.
[36:12] Churchman, the best is for the humanity.
[36:24] Churchman walks in love in joy.
[36:36] Churchman konuşko NORSc与Check Mus与Body Churchman walks in love in the máioval.
[36:55] For whom are your children gonton! And now, O Lord, for with Thy heart, my hope is fixed on me.
[37:20] Free me from all my death's passes. The false Lord may not be.
[37:39] Damn was Thy opening of my mouth. Because this word was Thine.
[37:55] Thy stroke take from me by the rule of Thine and Thy define.
[38:13] When with repute the just thoughteth, man fought in equity.
[38:31] Thou wiser's beauty, Thine amour.
[38:42] For each man is ane deem. For a short while we can turn to this chapter that we read in Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 15.
[39:06] We can read at verse 42. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption. It is raised in corruption.
[39:19] It is sown in dishonour. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body.
[39:30] It is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body. There is a spiritual body. Two Sundays ago we were considering the raising of Lazarus by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[39:55] Last Lord's Day we considered the resurrection of the Lord himself. Having been crucified and buried, he rose again from the dead.
[40:10] Today we want to think about the consequences of this fact that is declared by the gospel that Jesus rose from the dead.
[40:25] And that is how Paul describes it to us. I think alerting us to the nature of the resurrection or what is true of the resurrection body or the body that is resurrected.
[40:48] So I want us to first of all notice that in these words that we are looking at today, what Paul is doing is responding to a question.
[41:01] And that question is asked on the basis of a false assumption. So his response is a response to a question that is asked.
[41:17] Secondly, we have a description of the body that is buried. It is not a very pretty description, but it is an accurate picture of the body that is laid to rest in the grave.
[41:39] And thirdly, we are given a description of the body that is raised in the resurrection.
[41:50] And that again is something, while it is quite different to the ugliness of the picture that is given of a dead body, it is a quite mysterious, in many respects, picture that we are not fully able to comprehend, and yet we are able to think about it in light of what Paul says about it.
[42:23] Where do we find the question that Paul is responding to? Well, we find it more or less where we began to read today. In verse 35, some man will say, How are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come?
[42:44] How are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come? And when you look at the context, look at the response that Paul gives to that question, he regards it as a foolish question.
[43:02] Because the question is foolish because it is asked by those who are incapable of understanding the response that Paul can give.
[43:19] And if they are not incapable, then the answer to the question would be apparent to them. Now, what do I mean by that?
[43:30] Well, if you go back to the proof that Paul gives to us regarding the gospel, he begins this chapter with an explanation, if you like, of the gospel.
[43:49] I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received. How that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.
[44:08] And then he lists those who saw that. Now, we discussed that last week, when we saw the evidence that was presented to us concerning the risen or the resurrected Christ.
[44:21] He was someone that is known to have been dead, and yet he was alive again from the dead. There are witnesses, and he lists them, because those that he is writing this epistle to, many of them will know at least them by name.
[44:41] And having said that, we know that for them, as well as for many to this day, death has always been an issue.
[44:58] It is an issue because it is so final, it is so clearly something beyond which they are unable to go.
[45:10] It is a point that they believe that no one can expect to go beyond it. And many people who try and resolve this issue, and it is an issue, death is an issue, there is no way that we can pretend it doesn't affect us, that it isn't a specter that lies in our future, that it isn't something that we have to contend with, either personally as we experience it, or personally as we see others experience it, and try and resolve in our own mind the implications of that.
[45:59] Now, some choose to do that with silence. They say nothing. It is something that they suppress, something that they choose not to discuss, something that they choose, you know, I've often heard, or been present, in the company of those, and probably many times over a lifetime, do you find yourself in a situation where this topic crops up, the topic of death.
[46:34] And very soon, into the discussion, people will say, or will shy away from it, it's a morbid conversation.
[46:46] It's a depressing thing. Don't allow us to spend too much time on this, because it can only end in one way, with us feeling depressed, and despondent.
[47:00] So there's a conspiracy of silence, if you like. An inevitable consequence of not wishing to deal with it is the desire to not say anything at all about it, or as little as possible, because we know that it causes us sadness.
[47:25] But then on the other extreme, there is the desire to deal with it in some way, where it is considered with a mind that is trying to make as little as possible of it, where you end up with elaborate pipe dreams.
[47:56] People will say something like, well, I like to think of death as a release. I like to think of death being something that will be a door into the good things that I didn't enjoy in this world.
[48:16] I like to think of it as an experience of joy and endless bliss. And where the notion comes from that that is what it is like is not explained, but the desire is there and that's sufficient.
[48:38] You know, this week alone, I found it very, last week maybe, I found it very disconcerting listening to people being interviewed who suffered from this terrible sinful and I suppose was a lawless act on the part of a crematorium that had mishandled their role and many were affected by it.
[49:13] Whatever you think of cremation, whether it's right or wrong, that's not the issue. I don't want to consider it because it is in this day and generation something that people find very painful.
[49:27] They've left with no alternative but to go down this road. But biblically it is not something that the Bible encourages.
[49:39] But the thing I want to mention is this, listening to those who were affected by it and the relationship they had with the ashes of those that were cremated and their thoughts and their feelings and how they focused on loved ones in this condition.
[50:10] And very, very seldom did you have any insights into the reality of what death involves. You felt so sad because of their grief but their grief itself was ill-informed.
[50:28] Their grief was so lacking in understanding of not just of the awfulness of being separated from loved ones but what death brings into the experience of all.
[50:47] and if a person goes into death and prepared then there are consequences more dire still. Now in the days of the apostle unlike so many in our generation death was a reality to them and they had to deal with it almost on a daily basis and they had to be in touch if you like with those who were bereaved and they had to deal with realities offered and they had to in some way try and work out the implications of what it meant for a person to die to lead this world and there were very many theologies if you like many philosophies at work within these very societies that were adored with the truth that
[51:54] Paul was declaring and that the gospel was setting before them and that was what made Paul respond to their theologies and their philosophies and saying look the gospel of Jesus Christ declares to you a risen saviour a resurrected saviour a person who has said clearly and lucidly that having vacated the grave that he is going back to his father and that in the presence of his father his people will be brought to experience the joys of what that means and in this chapter he says without the resurrection my faith your faith is a faith that is meaningless it is in vain our salvation is a false salvation we would still be in our sin and death would be the end it's as simple as that there is no gospel there is no good news death is the end and that's the stark reality for everybody today if the gospel is not the gospel if the truths of the gospel are not the truths of
[53:20] God and these truths say to you that Christ died and rose again and has gone to heaven and will return and take his own to be with him then there is only one alternative not a spiritual existence in a ether that some would contend as what they will experience it is the grave and nothing beyond it but Paul preaches a gospel that says we know that Christ rose from the dead and if you believe different to that then death still is the spectre that lies in your future it is the spectre that haunts you in the present it is the spectre that you cannot straddle or bypass and the promises that the scripture brings to the believer is that
[54:21] Christ rose and because he rose those who are in a saving relationship with him can think about death without fear can think beyond death with hope and a prospect a certainty a comprehension that lies beyond the experience of death is nothing like anything they've experienced in this world now the people who were asking Paul this question were asking it with a false assumption the assumption was death is all powerful and nothing and no one can defeat it and no one but no one would want to encounter it if at all possible and it is impossible for you to avoid it and you can see where they are coming from you can understand how they in Paul's day were not strangers to death and understood the implications of it you know in your news bulletins this week you saw perhaps a child nine year old ten year old child who had been buried alive in the ruins of her home temporary home in
[55:55] Gaza and she was brought out from the rubble and she was looking for her family and her family had been taken from her her mother her father her sister her brother a 12 month old and maybe slightly older sibling and she she was confronted with the reality of that confronted face to face with the torn body of her younger brother and that person is dealing with death it's reality it's consequences it's torment it's grief and nobody can say that it's not powerless nobody can say to her that it hasn't deprived her of love and loved ones but Paul insists that even no matter how horrific death is and the horror of it should not be ignored the awful reality of it should not be put to one side it should be dealt with in the way the
[57:17] Bible deals with it in the way Christ presents it in the way the truth of God insists that we realise that there is only one remedy for it so how does Paul describe it well he describes it first of all he says the body that is dead is sown in corruption and is using an illustration an analogy from the natural world where he is likening the body to a seed that is sown and he is doing that because he wants the contrast between the seed that is sown and the plant that grows from it to bring before your mind's eye the glaring contrast there is between what is perishing what is corrupt and put in the grave and what follows on from that for those who are in
[58:19] Christ he describes it as sown in corruption and I suppose you shy away from using language like that we are so sterilized in the way that we talk about death even when I speak about it I say well a person has passed away a person has gone but the point that Paul is making is that corruption is the experience that death brings but you have to go back in order to understand the extent of the corruption to the very beginning because when God created man man was devoid of any form of corruption he was untainted by any form of corruption he was perfectly holy he was constantly in the presence of his
[59:30] God enjoying the privilege of sharing in fellowship with that God but the moment that sin entered into his experience corruption entered into his experience it was not that he died in the sense that he speaks about it here but death began to be part of his experience he was subject to disease he was subject to infection sickness destined ultimately to return to the dust from whence he came corruption begins even before the corruption of the grave takes hold and he says it is sown in dishonor sown in dishonor oh well you're saying that's a bit too extreme if anything and we should be glad of it there is a solemnity surrounding the manner in which we conduct ourselves with regard to the death of someone we know in these communities there is a solemnity and there is a right and proper handling of the person's body as they journey to the grave we pay them honour we pay them respect we remember them with a dutiful expression of what it means to respect who they were but Paul is getting to one thing here when he is saying it is sown in dishonour
[61:27] Charles Hodge one of the commentators says that the life of every one of us possesses a short lived attractiveness it possesses a short lived attractiveness whatever it is that that people see in us that makes us worthy of their favour or their respect it is short lived whether it is physical beauty whether it is mental acumen whether it is the bonds that that are inevitably part of our belonging to families those who possess that attraction the attraction fades but it will disappear when death enters into the experience of that person there is a trade in America
[62:35] I don't know if it is so much in this probably is in this country there is the role of the mortician as far as I understand it the mortician is somebody who whose role it is is to to take the dead body and to glamorise that body so that when a person sees the body all the ravages of death are hidden from sight through the the the way that they they paint and they colour their face and take away the colour of death it is a skill but what is it doing it is hiding away the reality of what death brings into the experience of all of us it's an act of futility just as surely as you hear so much today many say to you
[63:43] I want to be in control of my destiny I want to know that when I die it's when I want to die and not before and all that is really saying is I don't want to die but when I do I want to have a hand in it I want to say that it's not the pain of disease that's going to to take away from me what I am but at the heart of such thinking is this that they are trying to deal with something over which they are incapable of exercising control the person that will die will die regardless of whether they are ushering it in or whether they are choosing an avenue where they are trying to deter the effects of death
[64:47] Paul says it is sown in dishonour it is sown in weakness you cannot think of anyone more powerless than a dead person a person who has yielded his life they are no more capable of exercising resistance to what is done to them as they lie prostrate or without life they have no more authority over their life they have the notion perhaps that we can influence the world in which we lived after death I think there is a book in the study somewhere of the 12 most powerful men in the world who influence it after their death life well maybe they are able to accept influence by their by their policies by their philosophies but these policies are what live on these philosophies are what survive they don't and it's no no great thing that their memories live on when they themselves don't or for however long lived their memories are they are powerless and the powerlessness of death is evident that they are no longer on the scene of time to change their mind on anything how many people do you actually read about who thought at the very outset of their lives that they knew the answer to certain questions and they were driven on the basis of their conclusions and then by the time they got to old age they changed their minds how many politicians do you know who have changed track and who have seen the foolishness of their thinking and there's no change in the grave whatever it is that you did in this life will follow after you in that sense but then
[67:13] Paul contrasts that with this he says they will be raised in corruption they will be raised in corruption at the moment Christ quickens the dead body corruption is at an end it is at an end that will never perish or decay that body is raised by the power of an endless life an indestructible life incorruptible now that that is a big change somebody who has from the moment of their birth been subject to corruption at the moment of the resurrection no more subject to it because they have the life of Christ in them that stays the power of corruption and prevents it from ever affecting them and it will ever be that it will always be the same in corruption is what is true of them it is raised in glory you would think well he's slightly wrong there surely he says it is raised to glory but no he is raised in glory that body of the person who was raised in the resurrection will possess a glory that belongs to that body that will never diminish that will never be in any way hidden from view to who are till the glory shares in the glory of Christ and that glory will radiate and that glory will be there to be seen and enjoyed by those who share it.
[69:55] Remember what Paul said to the church at Philippi. He said of the Lord Jesus, he shall change our vile body that it might be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
[70:17] Christians marvel at what is said about them and it is said about them, remember, because they are Christians. They cannot think of themselves as they are today be fashioned like unto the glorious body of Christ.
[70:40] Jesus rose from the dead and he possessed the glorious body of the resurrection. Whatever that body is like, but it is glorious.
[70:51] And it is raised in power, he says. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.
[71:02] You would again expect the words to be by power. Jesus exerts his power on the dead rise and his power is the one power that is in exercise.
[71:17] But the truth is also that the person who rises with resurrection, glory, body will have power that is undiminished.
[71:35] It will not be exhausted. The body, which is a glorious body, which is Christ-like, will never again be diminished in any way or restricted in any way by sin and death.
[71:53] You remember that the promise of judgment is accomplished.
[72:07] The promise of, let me put it like this, when death occurs, we are told quite plainly that it is followed by judgment.
[72:18] And what is said of the believer who is judged is that he will be presented without sin before Christ.
[72:32] Where Christ will then receive him to himself, whoever the believer is. And we find questions asked about this.
[72:44] they will rise with a spiritual body. What is a spiritual body? Does that mean that the body is no more, but that they are in some way like some cloud figure, nebulous, without any physical qualities or aspects to that body?
[73:06] That is not what it is saying. that the person who rises is the person who is spiritual in a sense, possessive of the faculties of soul that mark him out as a child of God, an image of Christ, with these fully formed qualities that make him able to interact with God, to share with others as they interact with God, to experience the blessedness and the unrestricted access into the glorious presence of God as a worshipping body of people, sharing the same ends and with the same delight in what God has provided to them.
[73:57] It will be, Paul says, like the resurrection body of Christ, made ready for its eternal existence in the presence of the triune God.
[74:15] Read on in this chapter, verse 51. Before, he says, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.
[74:25] He's saying that about whoever is going to be in the world when Christ comes, they will not be asleep in the grave, but they will experience the same change that the body in the grave will experience.
[74:42] The resurrection will have occur in the experience of the dead, but the changes of the resurrection will be the same for those who have not died.
[74:59] In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last throne, for a trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised, incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
[75:11] It's not we might be, or if all things are equal, but we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on in corruption, this mortal must put on in immortality.
[75:25] So when this corruptible shall I put on in corruption, and this mortal shall I put on in immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory.
[75:43] If you believe the gospel, you believe this. If you believe the word of God, you believe this. If you believe that loved ones who have gone before you, that you've had to leave behind in the dust of the ground, and who have lain in the ground for years perhaps, that ease will rise on the great day of the resurrection.
[76:14] corruption. And, you know, the fear that some had in Paul's day was, well, what will it be like who wants to see a dead body rise? But it is a body without corruption, a body that is full of glory, a body that is Christ-like, a body that has no constraints put upon it apart from living for God in the likeness of God in the flesh.
[76:47] Do you believe that? Do you trust the gospel that teaches you that? Or are you still living on as if you're saying, ha, I don't find that so difficult to believe.
[77:04] I find that so difficult to expect. When you're gone, you're gone. When you're dead, you're dead. When you're near your grave, you're there for keeps.
[77:18] Well, Christ is different. Christ says that he has the last word. Christ has told us by his own life, by his own death, by his own resurrection, because I live, you also will live.
[77:39] I would trust Christ before I trusted in my own senses, my own failing belief. And may God encourage you to look to his word and to trust in what he teaches us.
[77:54] Let us pray. O Lord, O God, how foolish it is for us to speak to you as God when we cannot believe that at your right hand that there is the Son of Man, the one of your own appointment, the one who is the great high priest of his people, the intercessor, the one who is able to plead our cause on the basis of the merits of his finished works, works that involve him in not just going to death but triumphing over it on the grave.
[78:34] We give thanks that we can trust in him to fulfil all that is left to him to do and we pray that that would be something that finds us ready for it.
[78:47] Watch over as cleanses in Jesus' name. Amen. The closing psalm is Psalm 102. Psalm 102, the second version of the psalm at verse 23.
[79:06] My strength he weakened in the way, my days of life he shortened, my God O take me not away in midtime of my days I said, thy years throughout all ages last, of all thou hast established, the earth's foundation firm and fast, thy mighty hands the heavens have made.
[79:28] They perish shall as garments do, but thou shalt evermore endure, as vestures thou shalt change them so, and they shall all be changed sure.
[79:40] but from all changes thou art free, thy endless years do last foray, thy servants and their seat to be established shall before thee stay.
[79:53] These verses my strength be weakened in the way, my days of life be shortened. My strength be weakened in the way, my days of life be shortened.
[80:16] my God will take me not away, and let thy moment be thy set.
[80:39] Thy years right throughøre Lovekommen Thy mighty hands, the heavens are made.
[81:18] The parishioners, God bless you, but thou shalt evermore endude, as they should, thou shalt change them so, and they shall only teach you.
[81:58] But from all changes thou art free, thy endless years to last for thee, thy servants and their say to me, is the great child before thee.