So, the title of the sermon this morning is The Requirement of the Resurrection. The Requirement
of the Resurrection. And I title it that because the resurrection is not an optional doctrine.
You know, there's some doctrines that we could not all agree on. There's some doctrines where
we can have fellowship with other people, other Christians that, you know, if we don't see eye
to eye on it, that's okay. We can still be friends. The resurrection is not one of them. Look,
if you are wrong on the resurrection, we cannot have any fellowship with that person. If you're
wrong on the resurrection, and I'll just come out and say it, you're unsaved. You know, we're gonna
see that here in a minute. If you deny the bodily resurrection of Christ, you shouldn't even call
yourself a Christian. You shouldn't call yourself a Bible believer. And we dead sure can't have
fellowship with somebody. Now, when I say have fellowship, I'm not saying we have to completely
shun that person or whatever. We don't have to ask, you know, the grocery clerk at the counter,
hey, do you believe in the resurrection before I do this transaction? Obviously,
we gotta go through life and live with people. And I'm saying, when I say we have fellowship,
I'm saying we can't make our close acquaintances. We can't have our best friends. We can't be in
the same yoke with unbelievers. And that's what somebody is who denies the resurrection. They are
an unbeliever. Why is that? Why would we draw such a hard line on the resurrection of Christ?
And part of the reason I'm preaching this is because we really didn't have an Easter sermon.
It kind of dawned on me recently that we really never really had an Easter sermon this year
because of the whole COVID thing. But this is a doctrine that needs to be preached on a regular
basis, the resurrection of Christ. It's an essential doctrine. It's something that we all
must see eye to eye on. And I don't suspect that there's anybody in the room that would deny the
resurrection of Christ, the bodily resurrection of Christ. Nonetheless, there are people out there
that deny it. And you might even run into somebody. You might have a family member,
or a relative of some kind, or a friend, a coworker who believes, calls himself a Christian.
But then they also deny the bodily resurrection of Christ, like the JWs, which we're going to focus
on in particular later in the sermon. Look, you shouldn't be fellowshipping with that person.
You shouldn't be having them over, you know, talking Bible with them, jiving with them,
hanging out with them, whatever you want to call it. I mean, you should admonish them. You should
say, hey, you're unsaved, you know, by all means. But I'm preaching this because of the fact that,
you know, you might just run into somebody that doesn't believe the resurrection of Christ.
It's necessary for salvation. That's why you can't have fellowship with somebody who denies
the resurrection of Christ because of the fact that it is not an optional doctrine,
because of the fact that you must believe in the resurrection of Christ in order to be saved.
It's part of the gospel. It's the essential part of the gospel, to believe in the death, burial,
and resurrection of Christ. You can't just believe in the death. You can't just believe
in the burial. You also must believe that Christ rose from the dead.
That's something that has to be taken by faith. I can't take you somewhere and prove to you that
Christ rose from the dead. You know, I can't produce some kind of evidence.
It's something that you have to believe by faith. You have to decide for yourself,
did Christ raise from the dead or not? Now, when people are thinking about it,
I always try to get them to think about this. If somebody rose from the dead today,
let's say that happened. Let's say there was a resurrection today. You know, somebody was
wrongly executed, like Christ was. You know, they were falsely charged. They got the death penalty,
and they were killed, and they were put in a casket and buried. And then three days later,
that person came out of the grave and showed himself alive to many witnesses.
Do you think that just maybe there would be a blog post about that? Do you think that might
just make the 11 o'clock news somewhere? Do you think maybe somebody somewhere would write that
down? You know, and that's exactly what happened here. You know, you say, where's the proof? Well,
ultimately, the Bible is its own proof. Look, if somebody rose from the dead,
somebody's going to write about it. That's big news, because that's never happened before.
No one's ever done that. In the history of mankind, has anyone been brought back from
the dead? Now, of course, we look in the Old Testament, we can see examples of God bringing
people back from the dead, but not in such a manner as Christ, where he was publicly executed
before everybody declared himself as the Son of God, showed many proofs that he had the power of
God, that he was God in the flesh, preached many powerful sermons, had the attention of the world
at that time, and then was put to death and came back from the dead. You must believe in the
resurrection, and you have to believe it by faith. It's not optional. It is necessary for salvation.
And if you would, keep something in 1 Corinthians 15, but go over to 1 John chapter 4.
Jesus said unto her, speaking of Lazarus' sister, Martha, I believe it was, he said unto her,
I am the resurrection and the life. He said, I am the resurrection. That's who Jesus was. I
am the resurrection. He that believeth in me. So to believe in Jesus is to believe in the
resurrection. He's saying, look, I am the resurrection. And he that believeth in me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall
never die. Believest thou this? And that's a question we all have to ask ourselves at some
point in our life. Do we believe that Jesus Christ is the resurrection? Do we believe that
though we die, we are going to be raised again by faith in him? And you can't have one without the
other. You can't say, well, I believe in Jesus, but not the resurrection. You say, well, who does
that? Lots of people. It's out there. It's a thing. There are people out there that say, hey,
I believe, I believe in Christ. I believe in God. I believe in an afterlife, but I don't believe in
the resurrection as told in the scriptures. But you can't have one without the other. You have
to have the resurrection. The resurrection is required for salvation. It is a necessary doctrine.
And you say, well, who would ever deny that? What professing Christian would ever deny that? But
I should have had you stay in 1 Corinthians 15. And keep something in 1 John 4 if you're already
there, but go back to 1 Corinthians 15. Even in Paul's day, we saw, we just read this morning that
there were people that were denying the resurrection even as recently as when Paul was alive.
I mean, Paul was alive when Jesus was alive. So just that short time later, there are already
people who are denying the resurrection of Christ. And that was big news back then. That
was something that spread like wildfire. I mean, the one that came back from the dead, this prophet
Jesus Christ and his followers, they spread that news throughout all the world at that time.
It was preached. It was published in every nation eventually. But even as soon as then,
even as early as that, you still had people who were denying the resurrection of Christ.
Look at verse 12, 1 Corinthians 15. It says, now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead,
how say some among you that there is no resurrection from the dead? He's saying, look,
if we preach that Christ is rose from the dead, how do you preach that there is no
resurrection of the dead? Yeah, some people are denying the coming resurrection. But look,
what's the point of Christ raising from the dead if there's no other resurrection, right?
But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen? He's saying, look,
if you're going to deny the coming resurrection that is yet to come, then Christ is not risen.
To deny the resurrection, then you're denying the resurrection of Christ. And if Christ be not
risen, verse 14, then is our preaching vein. Say, look, we might as well just shut up. What do we
got to talk about? That's how essential this doctrine is. That's how important it is.
If Christ isn't risen from the dead, let's just close our Bible and go home.
Let's just stop having church because there's no point. We can sit around and talk about the moral
laws and we can talk about how to live a good, godly, clean life. But is that all that we have
to look forward to is just clean living? And that's a good thing to look forward to. There's
a lot of benefit that comes with that. But let's not forget the fact that one day as this passage
lays out, we're going to put off mortality and put on immortality. And that's a thought that
should really excite us. That's something that we should dwell on. That's something that we need to
get our minds wrapped around. Because that thought is going to help us live this Christian life
through the highs and the lows, knowing that one day, mortality must put on immortality.
The terrestrial must put on the celestial. The earthly must put on the heavenly. That one day
we're going to rise in a new body, glorified body. He says, look, if Christ be not risen from the
dead, then our preaching is vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we have found false
witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ, whom he raised not up.
If so be it that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. And if Christ
be not raised, your faith is vain, and ye are yet in your sins. I mean, that's the worst part of the
news. You're still in your sins. That's why it says in verse 19, if in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. And not just because we're false witnesses,
but because we're still in our sins. Because somebody has not come and died for our sins,
and justified us by being risen again from the dead. And this is so, I'm making the point here
of, you know, hey, the resurrection is necessary, and there's people out there that deny it. They
were denying it even in Paul's day. And even after Paul wrote this epistle, and preached,
and wrote other things, this heresy persisted. It's not something that Paul dealt with in Corinth,
and now we just look back and say, well, that's crazy. I'm glad he snuffed out that false
doctrine. It continued on, you know, even into the early, you know, the coming centuries,
shortly after that, in the form of, hopefully I say this right, docetism. I don't know,
it's a derivative of some Greek word. D-O-C-E-T-I-S-M. You've probably never heard it before,
so however I pronounce it, you probably don't care. Docetism, whatever it is. Which is,
you know, it comes from the Greek word, and again, I don't speak Greek, but I'm just taking the
Encyclopedia Botanica at its word here. It says, basically means to seem, you know. It's something
that appears to be a certain way. And this was a heresy that came up back then, which taught that
let me just read it. It says, it's a Christian heresy and one of the earliest Christian
secretarian doctrines. So it's a doctrine where that broke away from orthodox belief,
you know, just the typical standard traditional beliefs of Christianity. It was one of the
earliest forms of it that broke away and became a secretarian belief, a secretarian doctrine,
which affirmed that Christ did not have a real or natural body during his life.
They go so far as to teach not only to deny a bodily resurrection, they actually even
taught that, hey, even during his life, it wasn't even a physical body. It was a spiritual,
just ethereal type of body. It wasn't a natural body during his life, but only an apparent or
a phantom one. And now you say, that's a very strange doctrine, and indeed it is, but what
they end up doing consequently is denying Christ's resurrection and his ascension into heaven.
Because if you deny that he had a physical body, you know, then you deny that he bodily
rose again from the grave. You're essentially denying the resurrection of Christ. So we see
even back then, Paul was already dealing with, in his day, people that started coming up with these
strange and perverse doctrines that teach that Christ did not raise from the dead. And here they
had this kind of, they go to this extreme of saying, well, not only did he not have a physical
resurrection, he never had a physical body to begin with. Milder docetists, whatever you say it,
docetists attributed to Christ and ethereal and heavenly body, but disagreed on the degree to
which it shared the real actions and sufferings of Christ. Now go over to 1 John chapter four.
So we see that this heresy of denying the resurrection is something that started very early
on, which is why we're warned in 1 John chapter four, verse one, beloved, believe not every
spirit. You know, there's gonna be a lot of people out there that come and say, oh, I'm a Christian.
Well, I believe the Bible. There can be a lot of preachers that stand up behind pulpits and claim
to be men of God and claim to know the way of salvation. But the Bible says, don't believe
every spirit. It says, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they have God. Now,
how do you do that, of course? With the word of God. You know, we examine, we judge with the word
of God, like the Bereans. You know, we search the scriptures daily to see whether these things be
so. You know, and that's, you know, that, you know, that's one of the, that's why it's always
so strange when people call churches like this a cult. This cult's not going to encourage you to
go home and read the Bible for yourself. They're going to say, you know what? You need me to,
you need me, the preacher, to get up and tell you what the Bible actually says. In fact, you don't
even need to bring your Bible to church. And you shouldn't even read it. It's dangerous, right?
Like I believe the Mennonites teach that. They, or even the Amish, they'll teach, you know,
it's dangerous for you, the lay person, to even read the Bible because it's just going to confuse
you. Yeah, because what I'm reading here isn't lining up with what I'm seeing and hearing.
But that's how you, that's the admonition of scripture. They, they dead sure don't want you
reading that one to try the spirits, to see whether they be of God because they know they're
not of God. And that's why the Catholic church wants to preach everything in a strange language,
in Latin, in some dead language that you can, you wouldn't even know, begin to know,
and tell you not to read your Bible because they don't want you to try the spirits and find out
everything that they're teaching you is, is unbiblical or extra biblical. It says,
believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God. Why? Because many false
prophets are gone out into the world. That's John saying this. One of the apostles of Christ,
even in his day, he's saying, look, there are many false prophets God in the world already.
And we know in the, in the, in the, in the end times, perilous times shall come that, that,
that, that, that, that, that, uh, seducers shall wax worse and evil, messing it all up.
They shall wax worse and worse doing what? Deceiving and being deceived. Right? So has
it gotten better since John's day and sound like there's been a decline on the false prophets in
the world. If anything, it's gone up. There's more of them. There's more Christian sects that are
teaching strange things. There's more false churches out there that have just, you know,
billions of people in them, millions of people of them, hundreds of thousands of people in them.
And he said, because many false prophets are gone in the world, that's why we're to not believe
every spirit, but try them. Hereby knowing you in the spirit of God, every spirit that confesses
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. So that's one of the essential things that you
have to believe to be a Christian. That's one of the, one of the essential things that we should
examine when we're trying a spirit. Do you believe that, uh, that Jesus Christ in the clump is come
in the flesh? Talking about that God was manifest in the flesh. Do you believe in the deity of Jesus
Christ? And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus has come in the flesh is not of God.
And this is that spirit of antichrist, where have you have heard that it should come.
And even now already is it in the world. And you see it there. And even in Paul's day,
even with these doocysts or however you say it, these people that came and said,
Jesus didn't come in the flesh, came in a spiritual body, came in a heavenly body.
And that hasn't gone away. That's just changed. You know, that's a very strange belief. They
didn't gain a lot of popularity, but look, the spirit of that antichrist hasn't gone anywhere.
The spirit that preaches that Christ has not come in the flesh that denies the bodily resurrection
has not gone from the earth. It's still out there. Where have you have heard that it should come and
even now already is in the world. It's, it's still out there. It goes on and says, more,
more thorough going doocysts asserted that Christ was born without any participation of matter.
And that all the acts and suffering of his life, including the crucifixion,
were mere appearances. They were just apparitions. They were just like, it was like you were just
watching, you know, a Hollywood movie. It was like you're just watching it play out on a television
screen. Wasn't actually happening. It was just appearing to happen. Very strange doctrine,
but that spirit, you know, we may not have doocysts today. It's, you know, it takes on
the form of Gnosticism and so on and so forth, but that spirit of antichrist that teaches things
similar to that, that's still in the world today. That hasn't gone away.
And it's completely contrary to scripture. I mean, go to first John chapter one.
I mean, what a strange doctrine to teach that Jesus Christ never came in the flesh,
let alone rose again from the, in the flesh. It's a very strange doctrine. It doesn't line
up with scripture. Look, when we try the spirits with the word of God, we say this doctrine falls
apart very quickly. Look at first John chapter one, verse one, that which was from the beginning,
it's talking about Jesus, God, Christ. He was with God in the beginning, right?
He was the Alpha and the Omega, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,
which we have looked upon and what else? And our hands have handled with the word of life.
He's saying, look, I mean, John knows he was the one that he was the beloved disciple that rests,
that lay upon his bosom. He was that close to Christ. His hands have handled him. He's touched
him with his own hands. The word of life. He's felt God in the flesh. He knows he was there.
So it's a very strange doctrine, but I'm telling you that this doctrine has persisted in the world.
And how you say, well, how is that? Well, because of the fact that the JWs,
the Jehovah witnesses today, which is, you know, I've run into quite a few of them here in Tucson.
You go knock doors in Tucson, you run into more Jehovah witnesses than I have in other places.
This, they have a strong following in Tucson. They have almost as many churches here in Tucson as
they do up in Phoenix and a city that's less, not even half the size, right? Maybe a third of the
size, but they, they deny the bodily resurrection of Christ. Now they're not going to go so far as
these doses, these Gnostics who say, Oh, it was all just this mystical apparition the whole time
that none of that really happened. It was just the appearance of it happening. That Jesus didn't
really suffer. It just looked like he did. It wasn't really him shedding his blood on the
cross. It would just look like he was shedding his blood on the cross. It's wicked. And it hasn't
changed. Well, that part has changed, but what hasn't changed is that they deny the bodily
resurrection of Christ. You know, this is right from jw.org. I'm not going to bore you with the
entire article, but it's on there. And anybody knows anything about Jehovah witnesses? No,
this is true. They can't deny this. This is on their official website from an article,
which stated the Bible says that Jesus was put to death in the flesh, but made alive,
resurrected in the spirit. See what they're trying to do there. And they're quoting their perverted.
You can't even call it a translation because it's not, it's just an interpretation. It's a
rewriting of the scriptures, the new world. What is it? The new world translation or something like
that. I'm not sure it escapes me now, but it seems like they're trying to quote first Peter chapter
three 18. In fact, in the article immediately after that sentence, they give a bunch of
references. First Peter three 18, acts 13, 34, first Corinthians 15, 45, second Corinthians,
five 16. And we're going to look at some of these. In fact, we're gonna look at all of them
eventually. They're saying, look, in fact, go over to John chapter two, John chapter two.
The article states that written on jw.org, though, they're not going to deny a physical app. You know
that Jesus wasn't just a mere apparition that he physically was here in a body.
Cause you can't really say, believe the body that Jesus was in the body. You can't really
believe the Bible and then tell me that it was just an apparition. Cause we just read
first John one. Let's says our hands have handled. It's a stupid, silly doctrine we could,
you know, easily debunk. But where they get tricky is say, Oh, we're not going to say that,
but we are going to say that, you know what? He didn't rise again in a spiritual body. He
rose again in a spiritual form, not a physical form. And I'm telling you that is the same spirit
of Antichrist all the way from back in Paul's day. That is still out there in the world. It's just
more subtle. And they try to take, instead of trying to avoid the scripture, they just take it
and they try to twist it. They try to twist it and they try to even put out their own version
of the Bible, you know, and teach things. Now they, they quoted first Peter chapter three.
Are you in first Peter three? I had you go to John or didn't I go to first Peter three. I'm
sorry. I got you going all over the place. I know it's early, but Hey, you know what?
Hopefully you had your coffee. All right. Came came. Yeah. Someone's got some already, right.
Sipping away, you know, hopefully you're, you're, you're woke up. You can stick, stick with me. I
know we're going a little deep this morning, but you know, that's what we're here to do.
Amen. First Peter chapter three is what they're trying to quote. And they quoted as this,
that Jesus was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit. Now, is that what the
Bible says? Is that what the Bible says? That he was made alive in the spirit because the way
they're trying to word it makes it sound like, but when he came back, he was in the spirit. He
wasn't in the flesh, but that's not what first Peter three says. When you actually go to first
Peter chapter three 18 in a King James Bible, the standard by which all other interpretations
in the English language are held to, it says this for Christ also hath once suffered for sins,
the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh,
but quickened in the spirit. No, by the spirit. He was quickened by the spirit. He wasn't made
alive in the spirit. He was made alive by the spirit. Cause that word quicken just means alive,
right? The quick and the dead. We'll see that later. Go over to John chapter two,
John chapter two, actually go to first Corinthians 15, first Corinthians chapter 15.
So right out of the gate, the very first verse that they try and quote, they get it wrong.
And that should be enough right there for anybody who's got had anything to do with these JWs to
just write them off for what they are. Antichrist devils. Now I'm not saying every person that's
a JW is, you know, some devil to be, you know, cursed and avoided, but I am saying,
you know, we got to separate the person from the religion that, you know, people that are teaching
the Jehovah Witness doctrine that are, you know, that are, you know, promoting it, they're putting
it out there that are writing it down and teaching in their churches. They are devils. They are
antichrist. Cause they deny that Christ has come in the flesh. Maybe not in his first room when he
first showed up after the virgin birth, but they deny he's come in the flesh after the resurrection.
That is the spirit of antichrist to deny that Jesus, to deny that Jesus Christ has come in the
flesh, whether the before or after his death. Jesus said in John 2, Jesus answered, destroy this
temple. And in three days I will raise it up. Obviously he's speaking about coming in the
spirit there clearly, right? That's what the Jehovah's Witnesses would have you to believe
that he's saying, destroy this temple. And in three days I will raise it up. Okay.
Then said the Jews 40 and six years was this temple building. How will thou rear it up in
three days? See unsafe people always choke on the resurrection like these Jews, like Jehovah
Witnesses, but it says in verse 21, he spake of the temple of his body, not a spirit. He said,
look, when you destroy this temple, when he said, and we know from verse 21, this body,
I will raise it, this body up again in three days. It didn't say, I'm going to get an extra body.
I'm going to load her body. I'm going to manifest as a spirit creature. Their words.
Look, Jesus wasn't a spirit creature, like an angel. He was God in the flesh, in the flesh,
in a body before his resurrection and after his resurrection. That's what John 2 is teaching.
It's clear as day. He said, look, destroy this body, destroy this temple, and I will raise it
up again in three days. First Corinthians 15, where you are, did I have you go there?
I got you all over the place this morning, right? First Corinthians 15. Look at verse 42,
so also is the resurrection of the dead, because this is another passage they reference. They don't
quote it. And when they make this statement, they just throw a reference out there.
Just go read first Corinthians 15. And because it's kind of a trickier passage,
it could be a little cryptic. And if you go into it with a certain mindset,
you could get tripped up by it. He says in verse 42, we're going to back up a few verses.
So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption. It is raised in incorruption.
It is sown in dishonor, is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power.
It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and
there is a spiritual body, okay? But he's not saying that there's a body that doesn't have...
It's a spiritual body, but guess what it is? It's a spiritual body. It's still a spiritual body.
It's not just this ethereal... It's not just a spirit. It's a spirit body, right?
You are a spiritual being. That includes your body. But the body that we have is natural,
right? It's a natural earthly body. There is a natural body and there's a spiritual body.
That's the body we're going to receive. That's the body we're going to have.
And so it is written, and this is where they quote, they just, they skip all that.
They skip all the other, the context of 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and just go right to verse
45 and say, so it is written, the first man was made a living soul and the last Adam was made a
quickening spirit. Now, really, those are interchangeable terms. Living, quickening,
it's the same thing. Soul, spirit, could be the same thing. What he's saying is, look,
there's a difference between the old Adam and the new Adam. There's a difference between the
natural body and the celestial body. That's every verse leading up to it. That's what Paul's laying
down. That's what he's saying over and over again. But verse 45 isn't him just going off on some
tangent and just teaching some real quickly, just throwing this out there. That, oh, there's a
natural body and then after that it's a spirit. It's just a spirit. That there's no actual body.
No, it's a spiritual body that you have. What he's showing us here is that this speaks to the
new nature of the new believer. That's what that spiritual body is, that quickening spirit.
That body that is sown in, or excuse me, rather, raised in incorruption. That's that new creature,
which we already are in Christ. We're just waiting for our flesh to catch up,
which is what will happen at the resurrection. When we die, we're going to leave our natural
body, this flesh, in the grave. We'll depart and be with Christ. But at the resurrection,
God is going to bring that body back and glorify it and put them back together again.
That is the spiritual body. That is the terrestrial putting on the celestial.
That's being transformed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, as the Bible teaches.
That's what he's talking about here. It's not the fact that Jesus was a spirit creature. That's not
what 1 Corinthians 15 is talking about at all. You can't read 1 Corinthians 15 if you are saved
and have the Holy Spirit walk away saying, oh, that means that Jesus didn't bodily come back
in the resurrection. You're not going to walk away with that. But that's what the JWs, these
Antichrists, would have you to believe. Deny that Christ is come in the flesh. It's the spirit of
Antichrist. And here's the thing. He was referring to that new creature.
Because here's the thing. You can't go to heaven with a dead spirit. When you get saved,
his Holy Spirit moves in. You're revived. You have a dead spirit. You're not without
a spirit. I hate just winging these things out there because this is like a whole other doctrine
that you should probably preach on. It can be kind of hard to grasp. But basically, when you get
saved, the part of you which is spirit is revived in Christ. Now, does your body change? No. And
believe me, I've been looking and it's not changing. I get up in the morning and look in
the mirror and go, no, guess not. Maybe tomorrow. No, the body stays the same, but the spirit is
changed. Our spirit is made alive in Christ. We are a new creature. All things are made new.
If any man therefore be in Christ, he is a new creature. Not will be, he is a new creature.
That moment. It's just that your body hasn't changed, but one day it will.
Why does it have to change? Why do you have to have your spirit revived? Because you can't go
to heaven with a dead spirit. You can't go there. You have to have a spirit to go to heaven. It has
to be renewed in Christ. Look at verse 46. He says, Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual,
but that which is natural. And afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth
and earthy. The second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also
that are earthy. And as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
Like to be heavenly, to go to heaven, you have to be heavenly. You have to have that new spirit.
And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.
Look, you can't take that carcass with you. You got to leave the body behind. And if you have a
dead spirit, there ain't nothing left to go to heaven, to go be with the Lord. You have to have
that spirit revived. And then later, as I talked about, he'll revive and give you a new body.
But it says this, Neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. You have to have a new spirit.
Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep. We shall all be changed.
We shall be changed, right? In the twinkling of an eye at the last trump, for the trumpet shall
sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible. And we shall be changed for this corrupt must put
on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality. It's necessary to have a quickened
spirit to be made alive in Christ. Go ahead and turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
2 Corinthians 5, I've already quoted it. It's a familiar passage, but I'll begin reading in
verse 16. In 2 Corinthians 5, 16, Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh.
Yea, that we have known Christ after the flesh. And by the way, they also put this as a reference
to that stupid statement they made. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.
Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new.
So they reference verse 16, which says, henceforth know we no man after the flesh. Yea,
though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet henceforth know him no more.
And that's confusing. They say, oh, this proves our doctrine, that verse. And then you have to
sit there and go, okay, what are they trying to say here? Because they don't expound upon it
in their article. Maybe there's a character limit or something on their website. I don't know why
they don't go into it. You care explaining these verses? Though we have known Christ after the
flesh, henceforth we know him no more. Yea, we don't know him after the flesh in the sense that
we're not going to walk and talk with him on the surface. We're not going to be like John and
handle him like that. That doesn't mean we're never going to know him again in a spiritual
body. What they're trying to say is, well, we don't know him in the flesh because he's made
a spirit. But you can't argue that. That's an argument from silence. That's not what it means.
And verse 17 goes on and explains it. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.
Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. That's how we no longer know Christ in
the flesh because we're made new. Now we know him in the spirit. Now we know him in the celestial.
Now we know him in the new creature, which is in Christ. We don't know him after the old man.
We know him after the new man, which is created in Christ Jesus. That's how we know him.
Does that make sense? We're getting that. Go over to Matthew chapter 20, Matthew chapter 20.
It says, and that you put on the new man in Ephesians four, which after God is created
in righteousness and true holiness. That's how we know Christ. Not because Christ has made this
ethereal spirit after the resurrection, and now that's how we know him. We know him no longer
after the flesh because we are created as a new man in righteousness and true holiness.
We're created by God in a new, we're new. We're the ones that are new.
They go on in this article and says, which says Jesus's own word so that he would not
be resurrected with his flesh and blood body. That is a blasphemous statement. That is blasphemy.
You're basically calling Jesus a liar. You're calling him a cursed.
When you say Jesus's own words showed that he would not be resurrected with his flesh
and blood body, that's wicked as hell. He said that he would give his quote,
here's what they just start quoting. They don't tell you exactly which one of these verses that
they're going about to reference it is. He said that he would give his flesh in behalf of the
life of the world as a ransom for mankind. John 651, Matthew 20 verses 28.
If he had taken back his flesh when he was resurrected, he would have cancelled that
ransom sacrifice. Look, that's just stupid. That's just dumb logic. That's just stupid thinking.
Oh, he literally dies on the cross at his physical body. They bury him, but if he comes back and
takes up that same body, well then the ransom's over. Then that sacrifice is of no use. No,
here's the thing. He still died. He still died. It doesn't negate the fact that he
still shed his blood and gave his life as a ransom for many.
He justifies the resurrection by coming back in that same body. He gives us hope,
the hope that is in us, the hope of Christ that we also will be resurrected and be like he is.
Let me just throw out these verses that they quote. I showed you how he had gone to John 6.
Where did I have you go? Matthew 20. Go to John 6. John 6.
If he had taken back his flesh when he was resurrected, he would have cancelled that
ransom sacrifice. Unlearned and foolish questions avoid, the Bible says. That's unlearned. That's
stupid. That's vain jangling to say something like that. And it's blasphemous to sit there
and say that Jesus said he wouldn't be resurrected in his own body. When he specifically said,
as I read to you earlier, destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days, and he
was referring to his body. They're saying the exact opposite. They're saying that Jesus didn't
say that. They're liars. They're antichrists that teach this, that believe this. If you're
me, you're not an antichrist if you believe it, but you're believing what an antichrist believes
if you believe this junk. He said in John 6 verse 51,
I am the living bread which came down from heaven. I'm reading this because this is what
they reference. They make these stupid, blasphemous statements and then this is where they want you
to turn and read. They quote John 651. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any
man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh,
which I will give for the life of the world. Well, there you have it folks. We've been wrong.
The JW's got it right. I mean, doesn't that just clear it all up for you?
No, it doesn't clear it up for me at all.
And it goes on the same thing in verse 52. The Jews had the same problem that JW's do today.
Maybe it's just something about those letters. J, W, I don't know. It says, therefore,
they drew, strove among themselves saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat?
They don't get it. Then Jesus said unto them, oh, let me clear it up for you. No. He says,
oh, you're confused? Let me just double down on that. Let me just go ahead and spin you around
some more. He said, verily I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his
blood, you shall have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life,
and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink,
is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwell within me and I in him.
Oh, I guess you can't be saved unless you eat Jesus. And it's, you know,
people who aren't saved, they all choke on this. You know, no pun intended.
That was bad, right? But they do, right? They all stumble is what I should say over this.
The AWUs, the Catholics, oh, we got to eat his blood and drink his flesh?
Enter the Eucharist. Enter, you know, the wine. Enter transubstantiation,
which is not just a difficult word to say, but also a very strange doctrine,
which basically teaches that when you eat the Eucharist and drink the wine,
that it literally becomes Christ's physical body and blood in your stomach.
That's what they literally believe that, and it's not Jesus, but as soon as you consume it,
it literally turns into Jesus, his body, his blood. And there's, I mean, how much body and
blood is there to go around? How many Catholics have been eating Eucharist and drinking wine?
I mean, are they rationing here? I mean, what's going on? There's only so much to go around,
right? But the JWs, they teach that, you know, they stumble at this too. They read that and
they say, they, I mean, they reference that, but they don't want to go to that extreme.
Where am I here? Go over to, go to 1 John chapter 3, 1 John chapter 3.
They're saying, look, if Jesus just took back his flesh, if he gave us flesh,
you know, like it says, they misquote it, but Matthew 20, it read,
the son of man came out to be ministered to, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many.
Say, look, if he gave his life and that physical body and then took it back,
you know what, then it's, it's, it, it, it, it would just not, it would disqualify his sacrifice.
Bible says in Acts 13, verse 33, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children,
and that he hath raised up Jesus again, as it also is written in the second Psalm,
thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. And as concerning that he raised him up from the
dead, now no more to return to corruption. He said in this wise, I will give you the
sure mercies of David. So they teach that, that Jesus, you know, when he died,
when he came back from the dead, that he had a spiritual body, that he was a spirit,
that he didn't come back in that same body and that, and that what he had, he actually got a
loner. He went to the rental, he went to the rental body company and said, hey, give me this
model. You know, it's got to look like this. It's got to have these features. You know,
it's got to have prints in the hands. It's going to have a hole in the side.
It's got to look exactly like my old body. So everyone thinks it's my body,
but it can't be my body. So you want to drive a car exactly like the one you already have?
So you can fool everybody who thinks you're still driving the same car? It's stupid. And it makes
them a liar. Trying to just deceive people. You know, he's trying to, you know, he's trying to
have guile. Neither was guile found in his mouth, right? But let me read to you from Acts 13. It
says, and it's concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption.
Look, that's a moot point for a spirit creature. Look, if I'm raised as a spirit creature,
like the JW's belief, that doesn't, yeah, of course it's no more to return to corruption.
You know, why even say that? Because corruption is, you know, another word for corruption is to
rot. You know, things that are corruptible are things that decay. That's another word
for decay in the Bible. Look, he raised him from the dead, now no more to return to corruption.
Returning to corruption is not even a concern if you're a spirit creature. The only people that
have to worry about returning to corruption are if you have a physical body that could rot.
But he's saying, look, he's raising him up from the dead, and that that new body that he has is
never going to return to corruption. It's incorruptible. And it says that he did not
suffer his, he did not leave his soul in hell, neither suffered his flesh to see corruption.
If Jesus came back as a spiritual creature and got another body,
guess what happened to the old body? It suffered corruption. You know, after three days,
a body begins to rot, to swell, turn colors, and turn into, you know, rotten flesh. But he says
that he did not suffer his flesh, the flesh that he had, to see corruption. And how did he do that?
Did the other body just disappear? No, his spirit came back, his soul came back into that body,
stood up, and walked out of the grave. And he showed himself alive. He revived that body.
And it was made a new body. It was made after the spiritual, the heavenly, at that point.
You know, that's a moot point for a spirit creature. Oh, you don't have to worry about
corruption. Well, yeah, duh, I don't have a body that could corrupt.
Are you in 1 John? Did I have you go there? Okay, good. Look at 1 John 3, verse 2.
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. But we know
that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
He's saying, look, when Christ comes in the cloud, in a moment, in the twinkling light,
we shall all be changed. When he appears, we shall be like him. Talking about the fact that
we are going to be transformed, that our physical body is going to be changed to be like Christ's
body, which is a really cool thought. If you ever stop and think about that, because when you read
the Gospels and you read about the things that Jesus was able to do after the resurrection,
you could do that too. Walk through walls, disappear, manifest over there,
and by the way, you could still eat, which is a relief to all Baptists.
So if you eat some flesh, or eat some fish, and so on and so forth,
and you think about it, well, that kind of makes sense. If we're to rule and reign with Christ one
day, and the Bible teaches that some are given authority over 10 cities and some over five,
we're going to literally rule and reign on the earth with Christ, you're going to need that kind
of a spiritual body that can just, you know, oh, got to go take care of business over here,
show up, right, and take care of business. It's a long way from Jerusalem down to whatever city,
right? But that's the kind of body you're going to have. You're gonna be able to just show up.
Look, that's what the Bible is teaching. It sounds like, this sounds like some kind of
comic book. That's reality. Christ, how did he leave this earth? You know,
let's reenact it a little bit, right? He kept going, right? He'd gone right through the roof,
right through the tiles, right through that, right all the way. I mean, that's the kind of body
you're going to have. I'm excited. You know, I think that's cool. You know, that kind of,
and this is not really part of the sermon, but, you know, that's why a lot of these superhero
movies are kind of, they're borderline blasphemous. Like Superman. They want to like, oh,
wouldn't it be cool if you can fly and be like God, be God-like? Because that is an attribute
that I believe we will have in that type of body. Now, are we going to do the things that he did?
Probably not, right? But you're going to have some semblance of that, of what Jesus was able to do.
That's what it says. We shall be like him. Now, why am I turning there? What's the point I'm
making here? When will we have that body at the resurrection, right? We will be reunited with our
glorified physical body at the resurrection. And that's what he said over in John five,
he said, verily, verily saying to you, the hour is coming. And now is when the dead shall hear
the voice of the son of God. And they that hear shall live. For as the father hath life in himself,
so he also have given life to the son to have life in himself, and I've given him authority
to execute judgment also, because he is the son of man. Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming
in the which all they that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and they shall come forth,
they that have done good under the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil in the
resurrection of damnation. I don't want to take time to explain all that. The point is this,
is that there's coming a day at the resurrection when that which is in the grave is going to be
risen again. The body is being brought. What do you bury in a grave? You bury the body, right?
But he's saying, look, we're going to be like him. When we see him, we're going to be as he is.
And part of that process, when he, okay, get the picture, when he shows up, the last trump
in the moment, the twinkling of an eye, the dead in Christ shall be raised incorruptible.
He's bringing the body out of the grave, right? The physical body. He's changing it into a
celestial body, a celestial body, it's still the body. And it's reunited with our spirit,
which is in heaven. And it's made a new creature completely. It's the whole package at that point.
Which means this, that he's saying we shall be as he is, which means this, that he did the same
thing, that he took a physical body out of the grave, he took his body out of the grave, and
took it to heaven. That otherwise we shall be as he is makes no sense. Am I making sense here?
I'm trying to make this as clear as I can. When you're resurrected, your body comes out of the
grave and is reunited with your spirit in heaven, in the clouds, with Christ. And then we shall be
as he is at that moment when we see him. Which means, so if that's how he is, we're like him,
he took a physical body out of the grave. To me, it all adds up.
And those that live in the second coming will go into heaven physically.
Think about that. I should have gone over to First Thessalonians chapter four,
I'll start to wind this down. First Thessalonians chapter four.
First Thessalonians chapter four, it says in verse 13,
Why I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep,
that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus shall God bring with him.
So God, notice that. That those that are asleep in Jesus, those that are already dead,
God is going to bring with him. Okay, at the second coming.
God will bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord,
that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord,
meaning those that do not sleep in Jesus, those that are alive unto the second coming of Christ,
that go through the tribulation, and are there when Christ comes in the clouds,
if we are alive and remain, it says there that we shall not prevent them which are asleep,
meaning that they're going to go first. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a
shout, and the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise
first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together within the clouds,
to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be in the Lord.
So notice that God both brings and raises those that are asleep in Jesus. Did you see that?
He's saying, look, don't worry about those that are asleep in Jesus. God's going to bring them
with him when he appears. But also he goes on and explains that, look, when he appears with those
that are asleep in Jesus, he's going to raise those that are asleep in Jesus first and bring
them together. And then we shall be as he is, which teaches again that there is a spirit,
that the spirit is in heaven, but the body is raised again in incorruption,
to die no more and is reunited, which means that the resurrection is a physical bodily
resurrection, which means that Christ's resurrection was physical and bodily.
It wasn't just a loner either. It was his body that he died in, that he brings back.
It's very clear in scripture. I've got to wrap this up.
The Jehovah Witnesses would have you to believe that Jesus, because they have to explain this.
They have to explain, when he came and showed in Luke chapter 24,
when he came and said, he said, why are you troubled? Why do thoughts arise in your hearts?
Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see for a spirit,
not flesh and bones, as he see me to half. Anyone who reads the Bible one time is going to catch
that. Jesus showed up with flesh and bone. It's interesting he didn't say flesh and blood,
because flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, which is a whole other doctrine.
It appears that our new body will not have a cardiovascular system because the life is in
the blood and we won't have need of that because we have eternal life through the spirit. Chew on
that. What I'm trying to make is that you can't read the Bible and not notice that. Jesus, when
he showed up, his idol said, handle me and see. Look at the hands. Look at my feet. I have flesh
and bone just like you. Give me a piece of fish and I'll eat it. He showed them his hands and
his feet. Now the JWs, they can't just go, oh, they have to explain that. They would have you
to believe that Jesus, well, he must have borrowed a body. He must have borrowed a body of somebody
who died in the same manner as he did. That's what they literally believe. How do you explain
the hand? Well, you say, oh yeah, he must have borrowed a body. So he borrowed a body and what
did he tell Thomas? Thrust thy finger into my side. That wasn't the treatment everybody got
when they got crucified. Normally they'd break the legs, remember? When they came, they said,
hey, you got to kill him. It's the Passover. So they came to break the legs of the two
mouth actors that he was hung with. When they came to Jesus, he was already given up the ghost.
Then they pierced his side to kind of be like, is he faking it? And they poked him and blood
water came out. So Jesus is showing up. The JW, this is what they would have you to believe,
that Jesus showed up in a borrowed body that had the exact same wounds as the one that he was in.
You say, well, that's a crazy sect that believes that, and they are. It's a strange
doctrine that makes no sense and is unbiblical. And it is the spirit of antichrist because they
do not believe that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. But you know what? They're not the only
so-called Christians who deny the resurrection. Real quick, this BBC article said a quarter of
people who describe themselves as Christians in Great Britain do not believe in the resurrection
of Christ. So now you got a bunch of people who run around saying, oh, I'm a Christian,
but they don't even believe the resurrection. You know what? Then you are of all men most
miserable. If we only in this life, we have hope of Christ, then we're miserable. Your faith is
vain. Our preaching is vain if Christ be not risen from the dead. A denial of the bodily
resurrection is a denial of the resurrection period because that's what the resurrection is.
It's bringing back the body to life. That's literally what a resurrection is. So you can
say, oh, I believe in a resurrection, just not a bodily one. Then you don't believe in a
resurrection. Then you deny the resurrection. And believing the resurrection is essential for
salvation. The Bible says in Romans, go to Acts chapter two, okay, Acts chapter two. The Bible
says in Romans concerning his son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David
according to the flesh and declared to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of
holiness by the resurrection from the dead. How was he declared to be the son of God with power
by the resurrection from the dead? That's what declared Jesus Christ to be the son of God
to the world. So if you deny that, you're denying that Jesus Christ is the son of God.
You're not saved if you deny the resurrection. And I mean the bodily resurrection because that's
what a resurrection is. Look at Acts chapter 20. You know, I already read it. I'm sorry,
go to first Corinthians 15. Last place I promise. I got it right this time. First Corinthians 15.
He said, neither did his flesh see corruption, right? If we deny the resurrection,
we're found to be false witnesses. Like the Jehovah witnesses, like the Jehovah false
witnesses was what they should call themselves. Because it's exactly what you are when you deny
the bodily resurrection of Christ. He says in first Corinthians 15 verse one,
Lord of our brethren, I declare unto you the gospel, which I preached unto you.
He's saying, look, here's the, you want to know what the gospel is? What I preached unto you,
which also you have received and where you stand by which also ye are saved.
If you keep in memory that which I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain.
Look, he says the gospel that he preached unto you is the gospel by which we are saved.
And what is that? Verse three, for I delivered unto you first of all, that which I also received,
how that Christ died for our sins according to scriptures and that he was buried and that he
rose again the third day according to the scriptures. Look, you can't have the gospel
without the resurrection. You can't have the first two without the third. You can't have just the
death. You can't have just the burial. You must also have the resurrection. It is an essential
doctrine. It is, it is required. And the Bible says a man that is an heretic after the first
and second admonition reject, you know, so let's make a real quick here, a practical application.
You know, you're out talking to, so you're knocking on doors and you run into Jehovah witnesses
and admonish him once and admonish him twice and then reject him. I have, I have no interest in
spending my time arguing with people about clear, simple doctrine because next door there's a guy
who doesn't want to argue. Next door there's somebody who just wants to hear the good news
of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ and will get saved. So if I run into some Jehovah
witness who wants to, you know, they always do this, oh, turn in your Bible to go over to this
passage in Ecclesiastes. Some obscure passage, some book of poetry that says that, you know,
there's no knowledge in the grave, therefore when we die we don't exist.
So I'm going, I'm not going to sit and go, go round and round, chase my tail with these people.
The Bible says a man is an heretic after the first and second admonition reject.
So if I run into Jehovah witnesses that wants to deny the bodily resurrection of Christ,
maybe turn them to a passage. Maybe go over to, you know, book of John, go over to 1 John chapter
one. Go over to, you know, Acts. Show them these passages. Go to Acts chapter two, verse 29. Show
them it. Say, look, it says, you know, these flesh didn't seek corruption. You know, have them
explain that. And, you know, if they want to persist, it's like, well, bye. Not even have a
good day. Just see you and leave and go. And you say, why? Because we don't want to waste our time,
people that are going to, you know, make us chase our tail. And you say, well, that's kind of harsh,
but you know what, denying the resurrection of Christ, that's a pretty big deal.
And when you're teaching people, when you're out there actually actively trying to,
you know, promulgate your doctrine and publish this abroad, that, hey, Jesus Christ didn't
rise in the flesh. He borrowed a body. It's blasphemous to sit there and say that Jesus
never said he was going to come back in a physical body, even though he did
say it. And then he actually did follow through and come back in physical body, his own flesh.
It's wicked. All right. So now hopefully we can see that tonight or this morning, rather, that,
you know, the resurrection of Christ is an essential doctrine. Why? Because it's a
requirement for salvation. If you deny the bodily resurrection of Christ, you are not saved. I don't
care how often you go to your kingdom hall or your whatever church, how holy of a life you live,
how nicely you put yourself together. You deny the resurrection of Christ, you are not saved.
You are the spirit of antichrist. Let's go ahead and pray.