Osborne, Bernard: Studies In Mark-18 ~ Mark 12

And let's see if we can, uh, do the bigger part of it. Verse thirteen. and they sent unto him certain of the Pharisees and the Herodians to catch him in his words. And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou are true and carest for no man, but thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not? Shall we give or shall we not give? But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? Bring me a penny that I might see it. And they brought it. And he said unto them, Whose is the image and superscription? And they said unto him, Caesar's. And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God. And they marvel at him. Then come unto him the Sadducees which say there is no resurrection. And they asked him, saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us that a man's brother die and leave his wife behind him and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were seven brethren, and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed, and the second took her and died, neither left he any seed, and the third likewise. The seven had her and left no seed. Last of all, the woman died also. In the resurrection, therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? For the seven had her to wife. And Jesus answering said unto them, Do we not therefore err, because he know not the scriptures, neither the power of God? For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels which are in heaven. As touching the dead that they rise. Have you not read in the book of Moses how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but of the God of the living. He therefore do greatly err. So, in the previous encounter, it was a personal question which they were asking, as I pointed out earlier on, sometime earlier on in the days. And now it's a political question, and again, of course, it has to do with authority, but now it has to do with the authority of the state. And so the question is, shall we pay tribute or not? Now, I don't really need to have to draw your attention to the fact that here again we have this unholy alliance of Herodians and Pharisees. Pharisees, superstitious, formalists, care nothing but for the outward ceremonies of religion. And Herodians, men of, uh, this world, despising all religion and caring more for pleasing men than for pleasing God. The Lord Jesus warns us against, warns his disciples, rather, against both. And in fact, in his contact with them, the Lord Jesus spared neither the formalist, the Pharisee, nor did he spare the worldly. But here they unite, they unite in a common effort to stop Christ. So we have this strange, uh, connection again. Uh, I pointed out before, and let me repeat it, that worldly men, uh, formalists, materialists, and ritualists have very little real sympathy with one another, but oddly enough, they will unite again and again, men of different philosophies and political views, and they will unite whenever there's a chance to oppose the gospel, and so it is, it happens here. We'll not be surprised when we see that happen. Now, let's look again at the question, because once more the question was very subtle. And you know, what really, uh, sickens at you when you read the passage is the obsequiousness and the cunningness with which they frame the question. Look at what they say. Master, we know that you are true. So he's not likely to say anything but what's his truth to them. And you don't care for any man, so he's not going to be afraid of reprisals or reactions. You don't regard the person of men. You speak plainly, whether it's to Herod Antipas, who you call that fox, or whether it's to the leaders of the people. And what's more, more, and here is the, the last thing, because they never agreed with his teaching, but teach us the way of God in truth. So you notice the way that they framed the question. Wasn't he a teacher who was fearless of the consequences? Wasn't he a teacher who was guaranteed to tell the truth? And because he was fearless of men of whatever ilk, surely he would hardly refuse to answer honest and perplexed questions from, uh, uh, perplexed inquirers? Surely you wouldn't hide what you really thought. And so this is the way they were framing the question. Now, again, it seemed impossible to answer the question without peril. If he had said to the Pharisees, you give tribute to Caesar. Then these Pharisees would have gone back to the high priest, and they would have, they would have grasped on him to the high priest, and they would have said that here was a man who, uh, regarded the Jewish nation as under subjugation to Rome and accepted that subjugation. He did not resent it, he accepted it. Uh, he, in that sense, spoke against his nation. But if the Lord said, do not give, then, of course, there were the Herodians, and they would have gone along to Pilate and to Herod and would have accused him as a seditious person who was preaching rebellion against the Roman authority. So whichever way he answered, seemingly, he was caught. The trap was very well laid. Now, you know, in all these questions, really, there's someone behind these questioning questionings, and it it is possible to see behind these questions the cunning hand of Satan, Satan himself. And so the Lord responds, in a way which they didn't expect. What he says is, why do you tempt me? Why, bring me a penny, denarius, that I might see it. I mean, we might stop in passing for a moment and just indicate that the fact that he asked for a penny was possibly because he himself did not, within the folds, folds of his garment, have a penny to show, and so it would indicate, in that case, his poverty. So they bought him a penny. Now, the Roman penny stamped on the front of it would be the image of the emperor. There it would be. And so, showing them the penny, with showing him the penny with the Roman, the image of the Roman Empire stamped upon it, they were confessing their use of Roman coinage. They used the coinage of Rome. Now, that meant, of course, that all their commerce, all their business deeds were done in this currency. All their exchange was done in this currency. They bought and sold in this currency, and so on. In fact, not only did they buy and sell in this currency, but their trade traveled by Rome's roads, and it traveled by Rome's ships. It benefited from the protection of Rome's armies. And says the Lord Jesus in that case, since you accept the advantages of the subjugation, you must also endure the burdens. You must render to Caesar the things which are Caesar's. You must pay his taxes. And, uh, since they traded as Roman subjects, they are, they ought to pay the Roman tribute. What he was saying to them was, well, if we accept the, uh, amenities of the state and law and order, and the guaranteed coinage and communications and et cetera. We have no right to escape the, uh, burdens imposed by the state. Now let's look and see what they said. Shall we give? Verse thir- fifteen. And the Lord Jesus replies, render to Caesar. Now I draw that, your attention to that because the word is not the same. They said give, the Lord Jesus turns the word, changes the word to render. It wasn't a case of giving that which might lawfully be refused to be given, but it was a case of paying, giving that which could be lawfully claimed. They weren't giving the tribute as a gift to Caesar, which is how they phrased it. They had to give the tribute as a debt to Caesar. It was something they owed for the benefits they received. Caesar gave them the benefit of stable government. They were obliged to pay towards its maintenance. Now, the fact is that when they showed the penny, the question he asked is, whose image is it? Whose superscription? And here it was, Caesar's. So they were under subjection, they were subject to Rome. And in his answer, he says, render to Caesar the things to Caesar, to God the things to God's, as if to indicate that the reason they were subject to Rome was because they had never been subject to God. Whose image is that? And it was Caesar's. So the question would go on, could go on, whose servants are you? Caesar's. Whose kingship do you own? We have no king but Caesar, they would say. And they were subject to Caesar, and his image was stamped upon them. Ah, but you see, what the Bible teaches us is this, that these are people who are subjects to Caesar, and you can be subjects to the world and all that it has, but you can be a subject of God. And if you're a subject of God, what image do you have? We don't have the image of Caesar stamped on you, but you have God's image stamped on you, because the moment you become a servant of God through faith in Christ, what happens is he begins to change that image, change his image in you from glory to glory. In fact, change into the same image, the image of Christ. He begins to implant upon you and me the his image, the image of the Lord himself. But now, what the Lord Jesus was teaching in germ here is developed later, uh, in much more detail i- i- in the Epistle to the Romans. The Apostle Paul does this later there and also in other epistles. Now, let me just take one or two instances of this. When the apostle teaches about the relationship to the, uh, civil authority, what he says is that we're to pray for those in authority over us. I wonder how many prayer meetings in which we hear that, but that is what we're enjoined to do. One Timothy chapter two, We are to pray for those in authority over us, for kings and all the rest of it, that we might peace- live peaceable and godly lives. A- a- and so here's an injunction from the apostle himself. We are to pay- pray for those authorities over us. Says the apostle Peter, when he writes in his first epistle, honor the king. Oh, and the ruler of that possible time in the empire was Nero. And so the office was to be honored. A- a- and so here's a strange relationship which is being developed in the New Testament, and it appears even stranger when you come to the Epistle to the Romans in the thirteenth chapter. Let's turn to the Epistle to the Romans in the thirteenth chapter for a moment, and you'll see what the apostle says about the civil authority, the government. Now he is talking in an ideal sense here, uh, about it, but you notice what he says in verse thirteen, Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there's no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained, appointed of God. Whoso therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves judgment. For rulers are not attired to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, thou shalt have praise of the same. For he is the minister of God to thee for good. Thou do that which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain. He is the minister of God that avenges to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore he must needs be subject not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. For this cause pay ye tribute. That's the question they raised. For this cause pay ye tribute, for they are God ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore, and here we got the word which is used i- i- in Mark's gospel. Render therefore to all their dues, tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom is due, and so on. So let's just look and see what he is teaching here. We are to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. So what he is saying here is this, that obedience to the civil authority is enjoined because these powers are a divine institution for the orderly life of society. Verses one and two indicate that particular fact. They are ordained of God. Now that's not just a New Testament teaching, that is an Old Testament teaching. For you remember that what the writer, uh, the the prophet Daniel says is that God rules in the kingdom of men, and he gives them to whomsoever he will. So the authorities, the kingdoms, the governments which there are, are ordained of God. It is he rules in the kingdom of men, and he has never relinquished that. God still rules from his throne, and God is himself the f- the fount of all authority, and those who exercise authority on earth do so by delegation from him. Therefore, says but John, to disobey their he- them is to disobey God, is to to resist them is to resist, verse two, the ordinance of God. That's pretty strong stuff, is it not? Now, the, uh, fact is that, uh, we, if we resist civil authority, we resist God, except where these civil powers are themselves usurping the place of God. And when we do resist those civil authorities, what he says in verse two is we receive to themselves jud- judgment. That is temporal punishment as exercised by the civil authority. But, uh, that tells us something which, uh, we need to remember, of course, you and me, that Christians of all people should obey the civil law, the civil authority, that we should pay our taxes, that we should pay our tributes, and so on. Now, the fact that earthly government might be corrupt and tyrannical doesn't dis- both disprove the divine origin of government, more than the fact that you might have families which are, uh, dysfunctional, uh, disproves the fact that the family is of divine origin also. Now there's another reason why we should obey. And verses three and four tell us that, uh, civil power is aimed to promote the good of society. Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. He's a minister to thee of good, a servant to thee of good. And so here's another reason why we should obey. Ideally, civil authorities, and the, this is what they're called here, they're called the ministers of God. Interesting, eh? That's what they're called. And they're appointed to encourage that which is good and discourage that which is bad. Of course, he's looking at ideally here in this particular case. And in fact, uh, it is, he says, only evildoers who, uh, uh, who, uh, have anything to fear from properly constituted authority. You know, the apostle refers to these authorities, and he gives to them a power which is denied you and me. You see, you and I, and if we look back to an earlier chapter here in this particular epistle, we would see that what is n- not allowed us to do is to avenge ourselves, because vengeance is mine, says the Lord. I will repay. So we're not allowed to do that. But notice what he says about the civil authority. Verse four: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. So he gives him the power of vengeance. Interesting that he should do that. Now there's no contradiction, incidentally, here with one Corinthians six where the Corinthian believers were told they were not to bring their affairs to the civil court, because civil authority does not extend to the internal behavior and functioning of a local court. It is not for the Christian, in fact, it's very unbecoming of a Christian to go to with another Christian to the local court and to wash the dirty linen in front of the world. The disputes between Christians should be settled within the church itself, not before civil authority. So it hasn't anything to do wi- with that particular thing. Now, the last reason which Paul gives for obedience is given to us in verses five and seven. You must need to be subject only for wrath, that is for punishment if you're not obedient, punishment by the authority, but also for, for conscience sake. For conscience sake. So here's the other reason why we should be ab- we should obey, because it's a moral obligation. For conscience sake. We are to obey not simply for the fear of incurring the wrath of civil authorities, but we are to obey also for conscience sake. Uh, the Apostle Paul here clearly does not give the whole picture of the relation of the Christian to the state. Uh, that we need to tuck into that other passages as well, and in a sense, state government is here viewed, uh, rather ideally and not as it, uh, actually often is. And so it is that here at the end of it, Paul introduces the idea of an individual's conscience in the fact of obedience to the state. And basically, in his teaching, in the teaching of the Lord Jesus, what he says here, first of all, is that the Christian should obey for conscience sake, but it also shows the reason why, at another day, or perhaps at another time, that clause for conscience sake might provide a reason why we should not obey. Let me explain that. What if Caesar demands more than the things which are his? What if Caesar claims the things which are God's? What if the authorities are unrighteous? What if the state would violate in its commands upon us those things which, in its requirements of us, those things which would violate our loyalty to God? What happens then? Well, this is a question for the individual conscience, for conscience's sake. And these are questions which are not dealt with by the Apostle Paul here. But there is one answer given in the New Testament where the commands of the state conflict with the commands of God, and then the question rises, who should we obey? A- and it arises actually in the book of the Acts, a- and uh, though the Roman government was uh, the uh, the the the government, political government of Jew- o- o- o- of, of Palestine. A great deal of the administration of Palestine was in the hands of the council. And it was before the council that the disciples were arraigned. And what they were told was that they were not to preach in this name. Now that was a command from the council, the the authority. In fact, this authority was imbued not only with political power, but with religious power, and that was what they commanded. But that was the name which was brought salvation. There was no other name given into heaven, given amongst men, whereby they must be saved. The Lord Jesus had sent them out to preach in his name and to preach his name. And so here, the commands of Caesar and the commands of Christ conflicted. So what do you do in this case, when Caesar tramples on the commands of God? Well, the answer to that was, we must obey God rather than men, and they went out and preached the same message, were arrested and suffered for it. If you go back in the Old Testament, you could transpose this teaching of the New Testament to the Old Testament, but uh, it's there in Job, the fact that God rules in the kingdom of men, and the principle is seen there. There were three young men who were brought before Nebuchadnezzar. Ah, he was a real charming gentleman, was Nebuchadnezzar. Uh, he was quite happy to chop off heads, as happy as, uh, as we were to open pop tins. And if you read his story, you will find that this is exactly what happens. Whom he do it, he put up, whom he would he put down. It was at the whim of the king the people lived or king the people died. And these three young men, with all the satraps and kings and all the rest of them of the great empire of Babylon, were called to a vast meeting one day. All the bands were there, all the orchestras were there, and all the bands played. And when the bands played, everybody had to bow to a golden image which Nebuchadnezzar had made. These three young men refused to do it. And so he calls them because the Chaldean, that is the priestly caste, had grasped on them. They're brought before the king, and he says, look, you've got an option. You either bow or burn. What you gonna do? And they say, well, we're not fearful, okay? You know, if our God wishes to do, to deliver us, he's able to do it. But if he won't deliver us, we are still not gonna bow. Oh, so they were cast in the burning fiery furnace, and uh, in the wonderful power and provision of God, all that happened was they lost their bonds, and they found the person and presence of the Son of God. But the fact is, the option was given to them here. Why didn't they bow? When you're in Rome, do as Rome does. That's what the tenet of the world is, isn't it? The only thing to know in Jerusalem, they didn't bow. Go, they could have been hidden in the vast crowd. Well, you see, they were to bow to a golden image. That was the command. And the command of God was, thou shalt not bow down to any graven image or image of anything, likeness of man or anything else. You shall not bow down to it. This was the law of their. So here was the option. Their God said, no, you mustn't bow to, down to a graven image o- o- or whatever. And the king said, you must bow. And they said, if I can take the words of Acts, we must obey God rather than men. Even if we're thrown in the burning furnace, and we know that he's able to save us. That's what we must do. Now, our first allegiance, of course, is always to God, and i- i- it's a matter of conscience here, and uh, uh, there are, and I think that this matter of conscience is going to increase in the world in which we live, as we see governments passing laws and uh, insisting on things which you and I do not agree with, but which as yet do not impinge upon us personally. But there will come things which may well impinge upon us personally later on, and we may then have to say, what do we obey here? Do we obey God or do we obey man? So our first allegiance is to God, but it's noticed, it's to be noticed that when the Christian says no to Caesar's unauthorized demands, that no will always be more effectively voiced if he has said yes and obeyed all Caesar's legitimate demands. And so the, the authority of the state, uh, is, uh, pointed out by the apostle here. Let me quickly go on from there, uh, and I'll go on without any questions on that at the moment because I want to finish this off by five o'clock. Let's go on now to the authority of the word of God, and we're going to just look now at the story of the Sadducees. Now, we've been meeting the Pharisees and the Herodians, but we're a bit fed up with those. Let's now have a look at the Sadducees and say who they were. You know, there's a very common comment that you can usually, uh, describe a Pharise- Sadducee by what he didn't believe more than what he did believe. Uh, the Sadducees, of course, were the aristocratic party, and they were the conservative party politically. Doctrinally, they negatived practically speaking, the teachings of the Pharisees. They denied the extravagant claims which the Pharisees made for the oral law. The oral law was the Mishnah, not the law of God, the law that they claimed, the oral law they claimed was given at the same time. And they, uh, they, they, they despised the, the Pharisees' literal interpretation of the Torah. The Torah was the first five books of Moses. Uh, in, uh, Acts chapter twenty three, you get a definition, really, of what they were, what they did not believe. They did not believe in resurrection. Consequently, they would not believe in the immort- immortality of the soul. They did not believe in angels, they did not believe in spirits. And, uh, the, we we we understand about them more by what they did not believe than what they did. They didn't believe in resurrection because it was not explicitly stated in Moses' writings, as far as they were concerned. And they denied the immortality of the soul because they denied resurrection. Basically, they accepted Moses' writing alone as authoritative. And in reply to them, interestingly enough, the Lord Jesus covers all these things. He talks about spirit beings, he talks about angels, he talks about Moses' writings. In fact, he quotes from them, and he answers them. They were the modernists, or what I called them the other day, the rationalists, the people who denied the supernatural. Certainly they des- denied the resurrection. The old adage about the Sadducees is they denied the resurrection, so they were sad, you see. Um, uh, so there you are. Uh, but, uh, these were the things which characterized them. Now, in this particular chapter, what they intended to do was to hold the doctrine of the resurrection up to ridicule. And their question really was solely of the physical tie which made of twain one flesh. And that's why their story revolved around, around the old violate law again, this is where it was, but it revolved about around the union of these people, and it revolved around that physical union. When in the resurrection this woman rises and seven husbands rise, well, you know, who should we be united to? So they really were concerned with the physical, uh, side of it, and, uh, they had no idea that the body could be raised other than as it perished. And their arguments were, uh, as follows. You know, this life that we're in has enough problems. Got problems, but this life's got lots of problems, they were saying. Ah, you know, the fact is in an afterlife, well, if you've got an afterlife, you only create more problems. So they said, now just think of this poor old woman. Her problems are going to be perpetuated beyond the grave in resurrection, and her problems are going to be insurmountable. I mean, you know, she marries this person, this man, and uh, and they tell this unlikely story, you see. They tell based upon the Levare Levi law, they say this woman, the husband, and poor fellow dies. So, according to the Levare eight law, what happens is that his brother marries her, and he dies. And in both cases, there's no heir left. So it's now the duty of the third brother, and he dies, no heir. And it's the duty of the fourth brother now to marry her, and he dies. And by this time, I'd have been getting a bit suspicious of the woman, to be frank, and she left no heir either. And so it goes right down the seven, and eventually, having told the story, they go on to say at the end of the story here, uh, and the last seven had her and left no seed. And the last of all, they say, last of all, the woman died also, and we are very thankful for that, and we say thank goodness because that's the end of that. However, there it is, the seven have her. Now they say, listen, Lord, what happens in the resurrection? This poor woman will be faced with seven husbands, which is no problem with one, but you have seven? When resurrection to face, wow, Lord, what you making? So you got seven husbands now. Oh, you've got a problem, aren't you? And of course, when you think of the physical union, who's going to have her? Because down here, the seven had her, as they put it. So is she going to be the wife of one of them? A bit tough on the other six, isn't it, Lord? Is she going to be the wife of the seven of them? Oh, that's a bit hard on her, Lord, isn't it? And so they had tried to laugh this out of court, you see. Trying to make fun of the resurrection. Now, the Lord's answer is devastating. Now, he doesn't do what some of, some of the modern theological geniuses do, you know. He doesn't say to them, well, you know, uh, I must compliment you on a very thoughtful case, and then your case has been well advocated, and it gives us some fresh insight into a subject on which perhaps we're not entirely clear, and it is certainly a contribution to current religious thought, and and so on, and such bilge. What he says is, you are wrong, and you are wrong because you're ignorant of the scriptures, and you don't know the power of God. Bang, straight between the eyes. So there it is. He said they were wrong, in error because they were ignorant, biblically ignorant. And you know, much of religious error can be turned back to ignorance of the Bible. That's why we mustn't be ignorant of our Bible, isn't it? We must always, uh, have a reason to give, uh, give a script, have a scripture to give for the reason of the hope within us. We must read our Bibles diligently. We must make it the basis of our faith and our practice. And so he answers that way first of all. Now, I have been saying during this week and, uh, and, and repeatedly that the Lord Jesus always made the scriptures the basis and the final court of appeal. Now, he's been emphasizing that throughout. A- and you'll find that in his teachings, have you not read? What does it say? What does Moses say? What says the scriptures? How do you read? And again and again and again, he forces men back to the scriptures. Now, here, in this particular case, he is, he is dealing with people who regard only the Pentateuch, the books of Moses, as authoritative. Now, you know, what would you do if you were going to, uh, you were going to convince them of the resurrection? Well, of course, really, you would have to go back to the books of Moses because they would not accept anything else as fully authoritative. So where would you go to the books of Moses? And, uh, that would be a problem, perhaps, you wouldn't think about what the verse he thought of. But of course, they were about him. These were his scriptures, so he doesn't hesitate. And what he says is, do you remember when Moses at the burning bush? Remember? Well, do you remember that God spoke to him at the burning bush? And do you remember what God said? He said, I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now, what he was saying is this. When God spoke to Moses out of the burning bush, he did not say, I was the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, as if these men had died and it was the end. He said, I am the God, as if these men who had long since died as far as we were concerned, and their bodies were in the grave, as if they still lived on. And he says, what's more, the living God is not the God of the dead, but he's the God of the living, and he's their God, so these men must be living. He didn't cease to exist. He could not have called himself the God of persons who do not exist, and over whom death had completely triumphed, if he's known as the God of the living. So, in other words, these patriarchs are still living at the time of the Exodus. Though, of course, as far as the phys- visible world were concerned, they had been buried, but as far as God were concerned, was concerned, they were alive unto God. He's not the God of the dead, but he's the God of the living. He's the living God. You see, what's death? Well, in a sense, death is a change of relation to the world and to men, but it is not a change of relation to God, is it? It's a change of relation to the world because, well, we're no longer here. Change of relation to men because, well, we're not longer with them, but it does not change our relation to God because after death we still live, and God lives, the God who we have known down here. Now, the Sadducees thought, of course, that if there was a life after death, it would be the same sort of life as here. So there would be marriage, and uh, a- and uh, there would be that physical aspect and so on. It didn't appear to them that God could create a new kind of life, uh, which, in which life's insoluble problems would be solved. And they underestimated in that the power of God. And so he says that the resurrection would be by the power of God. You see, when God created man, he created the whole man, didn't he? We sometimes say that man is tripartite, body, soul, and spirit. That's right. But what had happened to these men was that their, their bodies were in the grave, and their spirit and soul had gone into eternity. But in the resurrection, what God is going to do, he's going to bring the whole man, and so body and soul, body will be united to soul and spirit. And so there, it, it, it, it, it begs the question, yes, there will be a resurrection because God is the God of the whole man. And in that resurrection, New Age will be peopled by new beings living a life under new conditions. And, says the Lord Jesus, they'll be, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. They are as the angels which are in heaven. There won't be angels. There's only one angel that I've ever met, and that's my wife, and she must be an angel to put up with me. But the fact is that they will be as. See, the need to propagate the human race will not no longer exist. That was something expressed in Genesis, be fruitful and populate the earth. But that need to pro- propagate will no longer exist because men will be, men and women will be immortal. And as far as reproduction is concerned, one of the chief purposes of marriage will neither any longer exist, and so humans will no longer marry. Not, of course, that love will cease, because the Epistle of the Corinthians tells us that love will never cease, but sexuality will be transcended, and personal relationships will not be individual and exclusive and physical in their expression. Uh, the Apostle Paul elaborates a little bit on this for us, and let me turn over finally to his elaboration of it in one Corinthians fifteen. and let me just point at one or two things here. I think some of you have benefited from my good friend Malcolm's ministry on this already, but let me just point out one or two things a- a- about it. And I want to read with you, uh, just verses thirty five to forty four. But one Corinthians fifteen, but some man 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. And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain. It may transfer wheat or some other grain, but God giveth it a body as this pleased him, and to every seed his own body. All flesh is not the same flesh, but there's one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, another of 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, another glory of the moon, another glory of the stars, one star goes from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. Sown in corruption, raised in incorruption, sown in dishonor, raised in glory, sown in weakness, raised in power, sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body. And, uh, then down to verse forty five: That which is first, that w- that, how be it that was not first which is spiritual, that which is natural, and after that which is spiritual. First man is of the earth, earthy. The second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such as they also that are earthy. As is the heavenly, such as they are heavenly. And as we born the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. And there are two questions which the Corinthians were raising. How are the dead raised? The question they were asking. And the second question, with what body do they come? And it's in verse thirty five. Now, as to how are the dead raised, what the apostle does first of all is he gives an answer from nature, and you will find that in verses thirty six. to thirty eight. Now, some people in Corinth, whether they're believers or not, had evidently ridiculed the resurrection. Uh, how can men possibly rise when their bodies have disintegrated? How are the dead raised? And Paul points to the miracle of harvest. And the questioner could answer his question by his own act of sowing in the field. He implies that in verse six, chapter thirty six. Now, the seed perishes, and the seed, which was the original body, perishes that is its properties might issue in a new and abundant life. And so it is with a believer who falls asleep. That new body is determined not by the seed, the body which is placed in the ground, but a new body is determined by God. God gives it a body, he says. So God will provide the resurrection body of every believer, and you will notice what he says in verse thirty seven: what you sow, you sow not that body that shall be but bare grain. God giveth it a body as it pleased him, and to every seed his own body. So the body which is placed in the earth is not the same body which is seen in resurrection. Uh, just as well, isn't that? For the body placed on the earth might have endured disease and be at the last stages, uh, of, of, of, of an aged life and known all its weakness and frailties. It will not be like that. And the bare grain which is placed in the earth is set in contrast to the beautiful plant which springs from it. What dies is nothing like that which appears. And far from the decomposition of the body presenting an obstacle to the resurrection, what he is saying is the seed is first sown, a- a- and decomposes and then issues a new life. So death is not a barrier to re- to resurrection, it is in fact a precursor to resurrection. And it prepares us for a thought that the body which will be raised is far more wonderful than the body that was sown. Interesting, isn't it? You don't really bury bodies of Christians, you sow them. And, uh, then with what body do they come? And so he goes on and talks about these celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies and glories of the sun and so on. And so now, uh, he is is looking back to the various types of glory, and he is saying there's a glory which is terrestrial, and there's a glory which is celestial, and there are various types of glory, uh, which are seen in creation. Glory of the sun, glory of the moon, and these glories differ. Glory of the sun far transcends the glory of the moon, and so on. And the God who has power to do that in creation will surely be able to bring about a state of glory in the raised bodies of his saints. The argument he's putting forward. And so there will be, he says, some differences. Now I want to underline to you or list to you the differences which are going to be in the resurrection body and the natural body that we have now. So let's look down the text, and we're going to look down in verse forty two. I always remember verse forty two actually, uh, because, uh, it brings me my memory back to a, to a time many years ago when this verse was read so challengingly, and it was read challengingly at the head of a grave. There was a young brother in, in our meeting, our assembly, who was going out to South America, uh, as a missionary to two children, and he spoke Spanish, he was a Spanish graduate, and he was going out to South America. And i- it was Christmas week, and his, his Christmas day was on the Saturday, on the Monday he was going to have his operation. Monday before Christmas, that is. And near us there was a big thoracic, uh, surgery hospital, big operations on chest and hearts. And what they discovered in wi- with him before, when he went, uh, he he he went before the doctors, he was going to New Tribes Mission. What he they discovered was he had a heart problem, a slight heart problem, and this hospital was famous for his operations. No, no difficulty in it at all. And he went into the hospital on the Sunday, and the Monday he had his operation, which was a routine operation, he died on the operating table. No one could explain how it was. And, uh, he left his young wife and two small children Christmas week. And on two days before Christmas, we buried him. And I- I wasn't responsible for the service. In fact, I was working, and I got time off from work, went to the funeral. It was- two seventy, wasn't too far from us, and it was pouring up with rain, as it can only do so in South Wales when the winds have passed over Ireland and come to us with the clouds laden with rain. And it was tipping down and cold. And I stood at the side of this grave, and a good brother was taking it. He just had a big umbrella to keep his Bible dry, and he was looking down at the coffin of this young man, and in a voice loud and triumphant, he pointed at the coffin, and he said, of course he meant what was within the coffin, this corruption shall put on incorruption. It's the way he said it which conveyed the thought that there was triumph here, not defeat, and that this corruption will put on incorruption. Never forgotten it, standing there soaked and dripping wet, and yet there was this note of triumph. Well, let's see what it is. Notice, first of all, please, there is a difference in continuance, in continuance from corruption to incorruption. Every believer will have a body possessed of incorruptibility and power and glory. Then there is a difference in condition from dishonor to glory, verse forty three, Resurrection body is going to be a glorious body, or as the Philippian letter t- letter tells us, we shall have a body likened to his body of glory. Just, uh, surpassing, just as surpassing the present body as does the beautiful plant, the bare grain which is sown into the soil. And then there will be a difference in control. Verse forty three: from weakness to power. You know, there was a dear old brother in our meeting, and uh, George, uh, was his name, his first name, and he came to us at the end of his life, and he came to us a Christian, baptized, and of long years as a believer, but he'd been in the Baptist church, and he turns up one d- one Sunday morning to us. He thought there was a preaching service on, and of course it was our breaking of bread, so he was very disturbed, you know, unsettled about this, and he wasn't too sure what we'd do. So he was, I went up, I was told about him, so I went alongside and sat to him alongside and said, now you know, you know what this is? Well, he said, I didn't know, I didn't know this was going to be, and he called it a communion service, he said, I thought it was going to be a preaching service. So I ascertained that he was a believer, that he'd been baptized, and I said, look, if you would like to stay and remember the Lord with us this occasion, uh, we would be happy for you to do so. You're a believer, you're baptized, you, uh, don't know anything about our practices, but what you do know, you've lived up to. And so he stayed. He had never been in the breaking of bread like we have. The minister dispenses things, you see? And his eyes shone when he came out. It was wonderful, you know? It was an experience he never had. He never, he came into fellowship almost immediately. He never missed a breaking of bread after that, however weak and frail he was. And, um, dear George would open, very often open the meeting in prayer. Now I want you to imagine this. There's a pathway up to the entrance of the hall of the gospel chapel that I'm in, and he would come up, walk up this pathway, and he had two sticks. And as he walked, he was so full of rheumatism that you could hear his joints clicking, you know? And it was a difficulty he got there. Then he would get up in the morning. Sometimes he wasn't able to stand, but he often started off in the worship in the morning, very quickly fell into i- i- into what we did, you know. And he would start off, or he may be second in prayer, but he would say something like this, Dear Lord, he'd say, we've come here this morning with joyful heart. And he did. And now this might be a bit English, but you understand you by by by by words which are similar. With joyful heart and lightsome steps. Light step. Now it was the very opposite of light step to see him coming up on his two steps, but his heart came up with light step, you see. And uh, I said to him, used to say to him when I was ministering from the front sometimes, George, one day you're gonna have a light step. There's gonna be change in control from weakness to power. All those weaknesses will be passed. There's a difference in circumstance, verse forty four, from natural to spiritual. Now, a natural body is suited to this life, but it's ill-adapted for the life to come. For that life, a body is needed which is attuned to the spirit, a spirit which is God-conscious, a spiritual body, not a spirit body, a spiritual body. That is that which answers to the need of the spirit, not compose the spirit, and it'll be suited to the heavenly setting, and it'll be entirely controlled by the spirit of God and empowered by the spirit of God, a spiritual body. And then lastly, there will be a difference in character from earthly to heavenly, and verses forty five right down to verse forty nine tells us about that. Notice that here we have these two heads, and you notice what is said of Adam, the first man, he is of the earth. Now, that is characteristic as well as origin. He is of the earth. He's not only earthly, but he is me- he is, he's not only merely earthy, but he is earthly. Now the second man is of heaven, and that's of origin, that's where he comes from, and of characteristic. He is heavenly. So origin and character are in view in both cases. Now those who spring from Adam, the man of the dust, the fallen being, are also likewise moral failures and return to dust. Believers in their glorified state, however, not only resemble Christ, but they will represent him as to what he, their prototype, is in himself, in his spiritual body. In other words, they will have a spiritual body like unto his body of glory. So death then is no obstacle, says the apostle here. In fact, it's the preliminary to resurrection. And secondly, resurrection body, in answer to those questions, will be like the body of the Lord. Now, in a sense, those two questions are answered very briefly in another verse. Let me turn you to verse fifty three And look at verse fifty three. With what body shall they come? This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality, an incorruptible, immortal body. How are they raised? Verse fifty two: in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. And so the answer was given to the Corinthians. The Lord Jesus, this chapter tells us, was the first fruit. They have not slept. And one day, all those that sleep in Jesus, and all those who are alive and remain, will be caught up together to meet him in the clouds. And we not only see him, and that will be beyond our imagination, but we'll also be like him, and we'll have a body likened to his body of glory. God has not only saved us from a lost eternity, he's in the process of fitting us for glory, and that work he will be able to accomplish when in heaven's glory we will be there completely conformed to the image of his son. Let's pray. Father, we thank thee again for your great mercies to us. We think of many of our beloved ones who have passed from this scene, and essentially, though their bodies are in the grave, essentially they're with Christ, which is far better. One day we may pass that way if that does not come. But if we do, we will do so in the very conscious knowledge that we're going to be with Christ, which is far better. And one day, in that great resurrection, we will be complete again. Body, soul, and spirit will be presented redeemed, redeemed because of the blood of Christ, and perfected into his image, morally, spiritually, and for the ages of eternity, to dwell in his lovely presence, not only to meet all those who've gone before and to share fellowship with them, and to meet those who we've never seen or have ever known, and to enjoy fellowship with them in this great family of God to which we belong. But above all, to be with him and to see him. Blessed Lord, speed the day, we pray. Have thy blessing upon this food which Spirit of God been provided for us, and we thank thee for thy goodness to us in the provision of our daily food. We praise thee for it. Give thee our thanks. And Lord, just now as there will be those traveling from us, we pray that you will grant them traveling mercies and take them to their destination safe. And for those who are presently traveling, we pray also that thou take them home safely. We ask these things, Lord, in our Savior's precious name. Amen.