The Jewish Final Solution to the World's Problem - Introduction to the Rapture, Part 3

[0:00] Turn in your Bible to the book of Psalms, and this morning we'll be looking at Psalm 100.

[0:19] And above it it says, All men exhorted to praise God. A Psalm of Thanksgiving.

[0:30] Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before Him with joyful singing.

[0:45] Know that the Lord Himself is God. It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves.

[0:58] We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise.

[1:11] Give thanks to Him. Bless His name. For the Lord is good. His loving kindness is everlasting, and His faithfulness to all generations.

[1:28] Thank you, Gary. I just love that psalm. Some refer to it as the old 100th, and it's just got a lot of good stuff in it, and yet it's very brief and very much to the point.

[1:45] I would like to guarantee you that there will be a Q&A this morning. I'm going to aim for it, but I'm not going to promise it because it may not work out, so we'll do it if we can.

[2:00] And for people who wonder, well, why do you even do that at all? Well, for a number of reasons, and I haven't explained this for some time, but I would like to just go over it again.

[2:11] There is no set pattern for the conducting of a church service or a worship service. We aren't told anywhere in Scripture that these are things that you must do or should do, apart from the reading of the Scripture and the preaching of the Word and prayer.

[2:33] Those are the three ingredients that I think ought to be included in anything that is called a church service. But insofar as time and effort that is given to each or what, or whether there are extras, in fact, the Bible doesn't say anything either about making announcements.

[2:48] But we found that it's about the best way we have of making connection with people and communicating as to what's going on. And when you consider that years ago, and I'm talking about going all the way back to the Old Testament now, we don't really have any guidelines provided there for preaching other than what took place in the synagogue eventually.

[3:12] And that had to do with the people would stand for the reading of the Torah, the scrolls. The rabbi would get the scrolls out of the cabinet.

[3:24] These were large rolls that would roll up like a scroll. And he would read from that. And then everybody would sit down. And someone would preach on the passage of Scripture that was written.

[3:39] This is exactly what Jesus did in Luke chapter 4. When he returned to his hometown of Nazareth, he was invited to give the lecture for the morning. And he preached from that passage.

[3:52] I think it was Isaiah 61. And he says, The Lord has anointed me to preach the gospel and so on, and to give deliverance to the poor and so on.

[4:04] And then we are told, And to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the scroll.

[4:16] And he didn't finish the line. And the line went on to say, And to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

[4:27] And the judgment of our God. That part he left out. And that's really curious. So you might look that up sometime in Luke 4. It's an amazing passage.

[4:38] And why he omitted that, we've talked about in the past. And I'll not go into it again. But I say that just to say that that's the only kind of order of service or pattern that we have.

[4:49] So we feel free to include a Q&A from time to time. Because that's one way that the congregation can respond to what has been said from the pulpit.

[5:05] And anyone who thinks that whatever comes from the pulpit comes from God is extremely naive. Because it originates with God.

[5:17] But it is filtered through a human mind. In this case, it's the preacher's mind. And that means it may or may not be what God once said.

[5:33] Because I certainly don't have any claim for infallibility. I am as capable of teaching something that is not true as anybody else is. And we all have blind spots in our theology.

[5:44] And we all have weaknesses. No body has it all together. No denomination and no non-denominational church has nothing but truth and pure truth and no error.

[5:59] It doesn't exist. So what we are to do when we teach and preach is to examine the scriptures like the Bereans. When Paul preached the gospel in Berea, they searched the scriptures to see whether those things spoken by Paul were true.

[6:21] Does what this man said comport with scripture? Is this what the Bible says? And if it does, you go with it. And if it doesn't, then you reject it. And that's what you're supposed to do here.

[6:33] So when I preach, if you hear me say something that you are convinced is not true, and especially if you've got chapter and verse that refutes it, and you don't share that with us in the Q&A, shame on you.

[6:46] Because I'm looking for truth too. And the reason I'm looking for truth is because I know I don't have all the truth, and I want more. That's what truth does. Truth creates an insatiable appetite in you for more.

[7:00] You want more. And when God gives you truth, and you reject it, that's when the truth stops coming. God gives us truth only that we are obedient to.

[7:13] And he gives more truth based on that. So, that's why we have a Q&A. But there have been a lot of changes. You know, churches have all different kinds of... You know, I've often said that individual churches have a personality about them.

[7:29] Congregations have a personality. The same way an individual has a personality. And you'll go into some churches, and you clash. You can't wait to get out of there.

[7:40] And you don't go back. And some churches you can go into, and you mesh. You say, you know, I really feel like I belong here. I feel like this is what I need.

[7:51] This is what I want. So, with some congregations, people gel. And with some, they jolt. And it's just the way it is.

[8:02] That's because people are the way they are, and churches are the way they are. We have a chemistry here that you all create. Every individual creates and contributes to the corporate chemistry.

[8:13] Each of you is responsible for making this church what it is and the way it is. And some people come in, and they like it, and they feel right at home. Some say, this is not what I'm looking for.

[8:26] Maybe they want more liturgy, more formalism. Maybe they want more candles, more this or more that. It's fine. That's, you know, if that's what you want. It's a free country.

[8:36] Go where you find it and where you're happy because I can't believe that people are going to get anything out of a church service if they're sitting there feeling like they don't want to be there. So, anyway, changes occur, and music is different.

[8:51] You know, I was reading a thing about history in churches the other day. And, you know, it hasn't been all that long that congregations never even sang in church.

[9:04] Special music was unheard of. Never was special music. And there wasn't even congregational singing. I mean, they didn't have a hymnal and sing.

[9:15] It just didn't exist. There was just prayer and preaching. That was it. And there were no organs and no pianos or anything like that. And then, eventually, somebody got the idea of picking up on the Jewish hymnal because the book of Psalms, is the hymnal of Judaism.

[9:37] And these people committed many of the Psalms to memory because they set them to music. And it was easier to remember a Psalm if you had a tune to go with it. And that's exactly what they did.

[9:48] And that's one of the principles of learning. And what does that have to do with my message this morning? Absolutely nothing. But you can take it as a piece of trivia anyway. So, let me begin.

[10:01] Would you indulge me? Well, I get on a roll sometimes in writing. And I just write until the pen quits. And this is what I've written in connection with this message this morning.

[10:14] So, I'm reluctant to read to you because I don't like people to read to me when I'm in the audience. And here I am doing it to you.

[10:26] So, forgive me and indulge me, if you will. Our series, labeled The Jewish Final Solution to the World's Problem, continues. The irony of it all is that the Jewish people who are actually providing the solution is completely unaware of it.

[10:46] Except for those relatively few Jews who have already come to faith in Yeshua HaMashiach, Jesus Christ as their Messiah. We are now engaged in the consideration of the rapture of the church, the translation of the saints, as recorded principally in 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians 4, as well as other passages that give the rapture treatment in a more abbreviated way.

[11:14] The rapture is, in a real sense, not a subject of prophecy, but belongs to the mystery category. You will, as time goes on, become much more familiar with the terms prophecy and mystery, and the critical distinctions between them.

[11:31] Yet, in another real sense, the rapture is a subject of prophecy, as well as mystery. The rapture is not prophecy, in the sense that it is not mentioned, nor even hinted at, in the Old Testament.

[11:47] It, along with other subjects, like the fusion of the Jew and Gentile into one new body called the Church, spiritual non-water baptism, but baptism by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ, of which he is the head, the subsequent indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the body of the Holy Spirit in the body of each believer and others that will be considered later, are all absent from any mention in the Old Testament.

[12:19] These, and others related to them, all belong to the category of mystery. This is what Paul was talking about when he said, Behold, I show you a mystery.

[12:32] In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul means that God had revealed something to him that had never before been disclosed.

[12:43] And in Ephesians 3, he said it was something hidden in the mind of God and never before made known. So it is in this sense that the rapture belongs to mystery and not prophecy.

[12:57] Yet, and at the same time, while the rapture is not prophesied in the Old Testament, it most surely is prophesied in the New.

[13:08] And we are privy to it in 1 Corinthians 15, 1 Thessalonians 4, plus others. Still, even though the rapture is not in the usual category of prophecy, that is, belonging to the New Testament, not the Old, it is nonetheless, and this is important, it is nonetheless another contribution from the Jewish people that is an integral part of the Jewish final solution to the world's problem, simply because God used a Jewish man to reveal the rapture and prophesy regarding it.

[13:50] Saul of Tarsus, a Hebrew of Hebrews, of the tribe of Benjamin, circumcised the eighth day, and so on. Saul, who was to become Paul the apostle, reveals his pedigree about his Jewishness in Philippians 3.

[14:08] Not only Paul, but our best information reveals every single writer of the New Testament to be Jewish.

[14:18] All of the twelve apostles, plus all of the writers after them, were thoroughly Jewish. Some questioned Dr. Luke, who wrote his gospel, and gave us the historical accounts in the book of Acts as possibly being a Gentile, but even if he was, even if he was born a Gentile, which is not established, he most assuredly at the least was a proselyte to Judaism, and thus a member of the commonwealth of Israel.

[14:49] All of these were Jewish, and by their writing of the Old Testament and the New, constituted an undeniable basis for literally providing the Jewish final solution to the world's problem.

[15:06] For the record, and to maintain the crux of our title, the Jewish final solution, began to be revealed in Genesis 12, with God calling the man Abraham, then Isaac and Jacob, son and grandson after him, to be the genetic line through whom the world would be redeemed in the promise of a coming deliverer or Savior Messiah.

[15:30] This one would be born in the fullness of time, live a life of complete approval of God, his heavenly Father, die on a cross for the sins of humanity, and come back to life after three days, indicating the price he paid for the world's redemption was satisfying to his Father.

[15:49] This is all wrapped up in the core of the Jewish final solution to the world's problem. Long story short, the Jewish final solution to the world's problem is Jesus.

[16:07] Crucified, buried, and risen again. That, he, is that final solution. And as we have stated before, the irony of this entire affair of the redemption of humanity is completely lost on the vast majority of the people of Israel who are responsible for providing it all.

[16:32] Only the Jews that now constitute a small number, comparatively speaking, by being believers in Christ as their Messiah, have any true understanding of just what their contribution is.

[16:44] The rapture is currently underway in our study, and I am including this as a bona fide contribution to our overall theme about Israel and the Jewish people, despite the fact that the only participants in the rapture will be Christians and believing Jews.

[17:04] Are we saying that we are then to be lovers of the Jew and hold the Jewish people in great esteem? Absolutely.

[17:17] We are not only to love Israel, but we had better love Israel if we want to be pleasing at all to God. A Christian who hates the Jew is an oxymoron, a complete contradiction in terms.

[17:35] And let us be quick to add, a Christian who hates the Arabs is also a contradiction in terms. Christians should love the Arabs more than the Arabs love the Arabs.

[17:50] We who have been redeemed by the blood of a Jewish Savior have no business hating anyone. We are to mimic our Heavenly Father who so loved this world that He gave His only begotten Son.

[18:09] I look back to my childhood, 75 years ago, around 1940. I recall my grandfather deriding and displaying contempt for the few local Jews who lived there in our town of Chillicothe, Ohio.

[18:34] One of those Jews was a local merchant who owned a hardware store in town. And my grandfather made it quite clear that whatever he needed from a hardware store is something he would do without, rather than buy it and give any money to that lousy Jew.

[18:56] That was his sentiment. 1940. And it had been the sentiment on the part of many for hundreds of years prior to that.

[19:07] And we've seen some of those instances and how it terminated in, well, I would like to say terminated in that it was the end of it, but it isn't the end of it. But it did culminate in the massive, massive Holocaust of World War II.

[19:25] And anti-Judaism has not at all died out. In fact, it will intensify as time goes on. And it will reach proportions unimaginable during the time of tribulation.

[19:39] Scripture refers to it as the time of Jacob's trouble. And Jacob, of course, is a direct reference to Israel. So my grandfather, bless his heart, he was a believer.

[19:53] I don't have any doubt about that. I can still see my grandfather and grandmother kneeling on chairs in the kitchen. I think it was 315 Park Street in Chillicothe, Ohio.

[20:08] And I was about five years old. And I can still remember them kneeling in prayer on a Sunday afternoon and praying. I never knew what they were praying about or who or anything.

[20:19] But I remember them praying. They were believers. And at 2 o'clock on Sunday afternoon all across the nation, radios and, for any of you young pups, television didn't even exist.

[20:33] I mean, not only was it not black and white, it wasn't, period. It didn't even exist. But everybody would gather around the radio. And at 2 o'clock on Sunday afternoon, E. Howard Cato would come on with the Cato Tabernacle from Indianapolis, Indiana.

[20:49] And they would start out with that familiar theme song every morning, Ere you left your room this morning, did you think to pray? And they listened to that religiously. And I know they were believers.

[21:01] And my grandparents were like so many people then and today. They were replacement theologians. They believed that the church had replaced Israel and that the Jew was being persecuted throughout the world.

[21:14] And rightly so, because he had a coming, it was the Jew who was the killer of Christ. And he ought to pay for it. And his descendants ought to pay for it. And we ought to rub the Jew's nose in it every time we get a chance.

[21:27] That's called anti-Semitism. It is alive and well, especially in Europe. And it is rearing its ugly head in certain areas here in the United States today. And as I mentioned, it will intensify as time goes on.

[21:40] Now, what I want to talk to you about, how are we going to put this together, this concept of the rapture and the resurrection? Well, you must understand that it is because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ that there will be a rapture, a catching away of the body of Christ.

[22:03] And the first reference I want you to turn to is one we've already visited, but we need to camp here for a while. And it's 1 Corinthians 15, where the apostle is dealing with objections to the resurrection.

[22:15] And there were some who had them because they did not understand the concept of resurrection. This is in connection with the inundation, if you will, of Greek thought and of a kind of dualism that saw the physical body as undesirable.

[22:35] And the only thing that was worth anything was the spiritual. And this relates to a kind of Platonism and a kind of dualism that saw the only thing good about man being his immaterial self and that the physical body was detestable and that the physical body was that it was the sin factor and it was to be depreciated and denied and repulsed and all the rest of it.

[23:11] It was an abnormal way of looking at our bodies. And our bodies are not to be regarded that way at all. Our bodies are a work of art. They are created by an intelligent being and they bear the image and likeness of God.

[23:28] And the human body has a dignity to it that no other biological life form has because we alone bear the image and likeness of God. So there is nothing dirty about the body.

[23:41] There is nothing sinful per se about the body, even though the body can be used to engage in sinful acts and so on. So the Greek thinking of the first century was for an individual to come back from the dead.

[23:58] Who would want anything to do with that? That is gross. That is undesirable. That is detestable and so on and so forth. And they understood nothing about the permanency of the body that God intended for it and certainly nothing about the resurrection body and the glorified body.

[24:14] So they looked down their nose upon anyone who talked about the resurrection of the body. Ew! Who would want that? They simply didn't understand.

[24:26] And there are a great many people today who didn't understand. And Paul is addressing some of these concerns. I'm just going, for time's sake, jump into verse 12 and see this first objection that he deals with.

[24:38] Verse 12 of 1 Corinthians 15. Now, if, and this is a first class conditional clause in the Greek, and it could better be translated by since. Since, rather than if.

[24:51] Now, since Christ is preached that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

[25:02] But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been risen. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain.

[25:13] Your faith also is in vain. And he is dealing here with the proposition that many people in Grecian society, which of course would put the Corinthians right smack dab in the middle of it, he is dealing with this issue of their repulsion and rejection of the concept of the resurrection of the physical body, not thinking in terms at all of the glorification that is involved.

[25:38] And insofar as our physical bodies being resurrected physically, with, well, let me, let me put it this way.

[25:51] There is a vast difference between a physical body being brought back to life and a physical body being resurrected.

[26:04] The difference is day and night. Jesus Christ did not simply come back to life. He was resurrected. And there's a world of difference there.

[26:16] Because had he merely come back to life, he would have been nothing more than another Lazarus. Lazarus was brought back to life when Jesus said, Lazarus, come forth!

[26:28] And out of that grave he came. But it was the same Lazarus that went in that grave. And he still had the grave clothes on him.

[26:39] And Jesus said, Unwrap him! Unwrap him and let him go! As far as we know, Lazarus had to die again. Because he had a body that was brought back to life, but it wasn't resurrected.

[26:52] Jesus Christ was resurrected. And the difference is immeasurable. So if you're talking about bringing an aged, decrepit, diseased, physical body back to life, I'm with the Greeks.

[27:13] Who would want that? If that's your concept of a life come back from the dead, who would want that? But a resurrected body, that's entirely different.

[27:26] And here, the Greeks are panning the whole idea of the resurrection because they don't understand what is involved with the glorified body.

[27:37] They don't understand that Jesus Christ has an entirely new body. He's the same person, but with a glorified body.

[27:48] Now, exactly what that means, we'll try to explain somewhat. So this is his first objection. He wants to make clear that Christ has been preached, that he's been raised from the dead, and that is a fact, and that being the case with all of these witnesses that he goes on to identify.

[28:08] Paul says, he appeared to Peter. He appeared to the women. He appeared to the twelve. He appeared to 500 brethren at one time. And he says, and most of them are still alive.

[28:21] You can check this out with them. They saw him. They heard him. And then he says, and last of all, he appeared unto me. After he was resurrected, after he ascended to heaven, having spent six weeks on earth, after his resurrection, he ascended to heaven, and then he appeared to me on the road to Damascus.

[28:47] We have not followed cunningly devised tales, as Peter says, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. Listen, we know what we're talking about.

[29:00] We were there. Our hands handled him. Our eyes beheld him. There are untold witnesses who have nothing to gain by lie.

[29:12] And some of them gave their lives for that truth. Can you imagine anyone being willing to die for something they know is not true?

[29:25] And that's what this is all about, because nothing matters apart from the truth. That is our most precious possession. Nothing matters apart from truth.

[29:36] The second objection he deals with is found in verse 34. Verse 35, I'm sorry.

[29:48] Verse 35, same chapter. But someone will say, how are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?

[29:59] Because they're thinking only in terms of the kind of body with which they're familiar. And really you can't blame them, because they don't have any appreciation of a resurrected body.

[30:11] All they know is, these present bodies, when they die, they begin to decay, and break down.

[30:23] That's the nature of biological life. When it dies, I don't care if it's a human being, or a frog, or a snake, or a horse, or whatever. When it dies, the law of thermodynamics sets in.

[30:39] And that's the law of decay, and deterioration. And everything starts to break down, and it returns to the source from which it came. We, human beings, along with all biological life, are taken from the earth, from the ground.

[30:59] And that's what we've returned to. It's dust to dust, and ashes to ashes. That's what you're going to be, eventually. And this is the only kind of body that the Greeks knew anything about.

[31:13] So you really can't fault them in a way for saying, you've got to be kidding me. Come back from the dead? I guess maybe these were original zombies or something.

[31:23] I don't know. Zombies are very big now. Very stupid, too. You know, I just inject something here. Does it not go to show you the extreme poverty of creativity in the media when they have to start making a big deal out of zombies?

[31:52] Wow. And when all they can appeal to for creativity are the superheroes that we used to read in comic books when we were kids, and now they make full-scale movies out of them with all the special effects that they can do that they couldn't do a generation ago, and now they just go crazy with the special effects with Spider-Man and Superman and all the rest of the stuff.

[32:13] All that is a reflection on the paucity of creativity that exists in the entertainment world. Anyway, let's... How are the dead raised and with what kind of body do they come?

[32:27] You fool. Surely you don't think we're talking about the same kind of a body that went into the ground being resurrected. That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

[32:39] And that which you sow you do not sow the body which is to be but a bare grain perhaps of wheat or of something else. Now here he's using an illustration from nature and he's saying that when you take a seed or a grain and put it into the ground you bury it you water it and it's going to produce something but what it produces will not simply be a decayed seed multiplied but it's going to be something entirely different and you're going to be amazed at what comes from that seed that was placed in the ground because it's going to be so remarkably different there's virtually no comparison.

[33:38] In John 12 Jesus talked about himself and he said unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies it abides alone.

[33:55] In other words that's all it's going to be is a grain of wheat that's a false thing. I could take a grain of wheat or a grain of corn and put it right here on top of this pulpit and a year from now it would just be a kernel of wheat or a grain of corn probably starting to deteriorate but it's not going to grow and it's not going to produce anything new it's just going to sit there so unless it dies when it goes into the ground it abides alone that's all it'll ever be it's just that single grain but if it dies and if it's watered it brings forth an abundance something entirely different in appearance and usefulness as opposed to what was buried now he's saying that's the way it's going to be with your body the body that is planted in the ground that dead body is going to be dramatically transposed into something entirely different on the same plane as a grain of wheat that falls in the ground and of course

[35:10] Jesus was talking about himself and his upcoming death he was going to be that human grain of wheat that would be sown in the ground in his burial and out of his resurrection is going to come new life for you wow no wonder Paul devoted so much time to this resurrection and no wonder we called it the sine qua non as the latins say the sine qua non without which not so without the resurrection Christianity is not nothing to offer resurrection is everything wow god gives it a body just as he wished and to each the seeds a body of its own all flesh is not the same flesh but there is one flesh of men and another flesh of beasts and another flesh of birds and another of fish we call these marine life and avian life and animal life and and then he says and there are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies but the glory of the heavenly is one and the glory of the earthly is another there is one glory of the sun another glory of the moon and this glory has to do with effulgence with radiance with beauty with with a spectacular kind of consideration so verse 42 by way of conclusion so also is the resurrection of the dead it is sown that is it is placed into the ground a perishable body that's all it is that's all it can be a perishable body this is why we bury people a statement that I've often made at graveside services that always gives people something to think about especially unbelievers that out of all of the biological life forms that

[37:26] God has created and he has created hundreds of thousands of them marine life and avian life flying through the air and animal life on the earth out of all of the biological life forms that God has created man is the only one that buries his dead the only one and we do so because the human body has a value and a dignity to it that mere animal life does not have we alone bear the image and likeness of God and that gives the human body an innate kind of dignity and value that no mere animal has so also is the resurrection of the dead it is sown a perishable body it is raised an imperishable body now all these terms mean and I'm sure you're probably familiar with them but for any young people who may be here the perishable body concept means that it decays and it deteriorates and it breaks down in the same way that when you go to a grocery store you will see certain items in the grocery store particularly in the produce department that are mentioned as being perishables and that means when you buy those things at the supermarket those perishable vegetables and fruits you have to eat them or freeze them or can them or something within an appreciable amount of time because if you don't they go bad that means they are inedible they get rotten you can't eat them that's what it means to be perishable and that's what these bodies are they are perishable bodies but look how they are going to be raised it is raised an imperishable body that simply means the opposite it is a body that is incapable of deteriorating breaking down

[39:44] I can't imagine a body like that can you imagine a body well some of you can because you are young enough but when you get older you won't be able to imagine a body without aches and pains comes with the territory someone has said old age is not for sissies and you develop aches and pains as you move along through life and things start to break down and wear out and I heard one fellow say you get to be my age what doesn't hurt doesn't work sometimes that's called a perishable body Paul said when he wrote to the Corinthians in chapter 5 if this earthly tabernacle he's talking about his physical body if this earthly tabernacle be dissolved and the word in the Greek literally means falls apart sometimes you feel like you're falling apart if this earthly tabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God made in the heavens reserved for us made without hands he's talking about a glorified body that's the body that

[40:47] Paul's talking about here that's the body that Jesus Christ came forth from the grave with it is an imperishable body a body that is no longer capable or subject to breaking down decaying rotting or anything else it is sown in dishonor actually the word is better weakness it is sown in weakness and that's what a that's what a dead is there anything weaker than a dead person you can take the most confirmed alcoholic that ever came down the pike and he's all dressed up in his departure best lying there in the casket the man never could in his life refuse a drink and you can take a bottle of Jim Beam and set it right there within reach on that casket and he won't move a muscle because he's dead he can't that's weakness nothing nothing is more inert or weak than something that has died doesn't provide doesn't put up a fight doesn't object to anything it just lays there lifeless dead sown in weakness it is raised in glory that is as far removed from weakness as you can get it is raised in great power and splendor totally unlike that body that was sown it is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body doesn't that sound like a contradiction in terms because we tend to think of spiritual as being immaterial but if it is immaterial how can it be physical that is the mystery of the glorified body and you are going to know that someday we all are who know

[43:03] Christ you are going to stand there and look wow I don't know how we are going to appear different but I know it is going to be glorious and we will be examining that word glorious too because there is a lot more there that meets the eye it is raised a spiritual body if there is a natural body there is also a spiritual body so also it is written the first man Adam became a living soul the last Adam who's that who yeah absolutely he is the last Adam by the way don't refer to him as the second Adam I've heard people do that Jesus isn't the second Adam he's the last Adam there won't be any after him he's the last

[44:04] Adam he became a living soul the last Adam became a life giving spirit however the spiritual is not first but the natural that's what we are now then the spiritual and so it was with Christ the first man that is Adam is from the earth made of the earth God fashioned him from the dust of the earth the second man is from heaven God sent this one God made the first one fashioned him from the dust of the earth but he didn't do that with Jesus he sent him he was from heaven so as is the earthly so also are those who are earthly and as is the heavenly so also are those who are heavenly and just as we have born the image of the earthy and we all do we shall also bear the image of the heavenly that's that resurrected body now I say this brethren flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of

[45:19] God this flesh and blood simply means man in his natural state cannot inherit the kingdom of God nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable let me tell you something that nobody has ever heard before and nobody has ever known before and nobody could ever figure out and we wouldn't know it even right now if it weren't for the fact that the resurrected Jesus revealed this truth to the apostle Paul Paul didn't think it up this isn't his idea this was something that was hidden in God I'm going to tell you a mystery this is what God revealed to me we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed I can never read that verse this is a bit of the flesh but

[46:25] I remember visiting a church where I was a guest speaker some time ago and it was years ago when our kids were little and Barb had taken one of our kids back to the nursery I don't know what it was and they had a sign up over the crib that quoted the verse printed in big letters it says we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed that's a pretty neat verse for a nursery never been able to get that out of my mind every time I read this verse I think of that now you will too we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable those that were planted as perishables will be raised imperishable and we shall be changed for because this perishable must put on the imperishable that's what is intended for the kingdom of God in verse 50 the imperishable and this mortal that is a body that is capable of dying will have put on immorality which means a body that is not capable of dying and then will come about the saying then it will be fulfilled that death is swallowed up in victory

[48:00] I want to close with a question for you these bodies that are going to come forth at the rapture when the trump sounds here and in first Corinthians four and the dead in Christ shall be raised first then we which are alive and remain are caught up with them in the clouds and so shall we ever be with the Lord now I want you to think exactly how is that going to happen I used to just kind of let my mind wander and I know found out how dangerous that can be sometimes but I guess I had a mistaken notion that when the rapture occurs these dead in Christ that rise first are going to come out of these graves and you're going to see all of these disturbed graves in all of the cemeteries all over the world wherever there's believers they're going to come up out of that vault and up out of the casket that is placed in the vault and up out of the sod that is above them and they're going to leave all these gaping holes in all these cemeteries all over the world is that what is that what is that what's that going to look like how's that going to play out and in further consideration of that and in comparison with some things I want to share with you next week it isn't going to be that way at all there will not be any disturbance at all nobody will even know that anything has happened and you'll be able to walk through these cemeteries and you won't see a thing that has changed and yet those who were buried six feet under are gone how

[50:01] I don't know if I can wait till next week or not but I'm not going to let the cat out of the bag now and we've got I'm already on my time if you were planning on really leaving at 1130 feel free to get up and leave and nobody will think that you are rude okay but is there a quick question or comment anyone Joe Joe up here wait for the mic Joe okay I hope and I suspect you'll probably mention this next week when Jesus arose the very time he arose there were saints somebody that came out of graves in a graveyard near Jerusalem at that time and went in to Jerusalem and were observed by living souls and people yeah you're right absolutely right and somehow that has to tie in

[51:10] I think with what you're probably going to present next week and there is a description I think in those verses it's in John that there was signs in the graveyard somewhat that those that come out yeah so somehow I guess I'm saying I want you to somehow next week justify or tie that in with what you're going to present next week okay thank you and we'll leave it with that one question because I'm already over on my time but I hate to tell you this Joe but what I've got next week doesn't have anything at all to do with that and and what you brought up what you brought up is a very important event a valid consideration and it's only mentioned in that one gospel is it Matthew is it John well I'm not sure I thought it was Matthew but I'm not sure anyway I am eager to tell you

[52:10] I don't have the slightest idea what that was about I don't know what happened to those people I don't know if they died over again I don't I just don't it's a complete puzzle to me there are a lot of things in the Bible that remain a complete puzzle to me and that's one of them I've just never been able to get a handle on that so but what I do have to share with you I won't have any problem backing up and it's a glorious thing it's a glorious thing if you stand we'll be dismissed father we are so grateful for truth that you have provided and we pray for the spirit of God to take anything anything uttered of the flesh and let it pass away and come to naught and whatever has been uttered that is of the spirit of God then we trust that it will find lodging in hearts that are waiting and eager for the truth may the spirit of God give each of us discernment between the true and the false thank you for what you have been pleased to reveal thank you for what little ability we have to make these connections and what we do know and thank you that you receive and you justify and you forgive and you pardon and you cleanse everyone who puts their faith and trust in Jesus

[53:41] Christ as their own personal substitute and savior from sin and you do it solely on the basis of your grace and not our merit anyone here not understanding that truth we pray the spirit of God will impress it upon their hearts and minds so they will look to the Lord Jesus as their sole savior in every way his wonderful name we pray amen