Please open your Bibles with me to 1 Corinthians 15. 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians. Verses 13 and 14. But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen. And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is vain also." The resurrection body of Jesus Christ is an essential part of the gospel. It's not just the hubcap on the Christian bus. It's the frame of the bus. It's not just the power of a locomotive, but it's the steam that goes in and drives the pistons. I want to emphasize that I believe that the body of Jesus Christ physically, bodily, arose from the dead. And He's alive forevermore. Now there's a heresy afoot. And heresy always attacks the vitals of the gospel first. And this heresy says, something like this. We believe the resurrection, but we just don't believe that the body of Christ was involved. We don't believe that the body of Christ came out of the grave. It was rather some materialization that the disciples saw it was some spirit or it was some ghost or something like that. The real body is gone. These heretics maintain what I believe denies the gospel of Jesus Christ. The apostle said here That if Christ, now He doesn't debate with them about the believer's body here. He just says if there is no resurrection, then Christ did not rise. Because He's going right back to the source of it. Let me tell you what some of these heretics say at the outset. Some of you may have known John L. Bray. I don't know if Brother Bray is still living or not. I know that he was writing articles for the Baptist Examiner in the forties because I have surveyed every bound volume of the Baptist Examiner and there was articles in there by John L. Bray. But he became a preterist and in the rapture of the Christians he says this, we are not interested in this whole body surviving. He's talking about our physical bodies. Billions have turned back into dust. Some have been eaten by wild beasts and sharks of the sea. Some animals, after digesting the remains of a human body, are then eaten themselves by other humans and in turn digested by them. And some humans have been eaten and digested by cannibals. Are these to be brought forth and reassembled and re-resurrected? If the old body is to survive, he asks, in resurrection, which set of teeth will the Lord claim? Which set of hair? Which heart or kidney? or other transplanted organ now belonging to someone else, if all the cells of our bodies undergo change, he means to be completely changed over a period of years, so that all the cells are not the same cells they were several years ago, would just the cells at hand at the time of the resurrection be taken? No. This is not what God is wanting to do. This old body is going to have to lie down and die. And the Christian who lives therein will move out into a better one, which is immortal. That's what he did. Now let me ask you a question. I'm not going to go into detail on this. I assume, I'm not a biologist, but I assume that it is true that our bodies completely replace the cells and so forth over a period of years. I think that's true. I saw a few years ago, I got in contact with an old Marine buddy, and we calculated when he had shipped out and I saw him the last time. Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, it was 51 years since we'd seen each other. If I had seen him walking on the street, I would have instantly recognized him. Was it the same man? Of course it was the same man. He still laughed the same way. He still talked the same way. He still had the same physical frame. But hasn't all of those cells in his body changed? Yes, I'm sure they have. Still the same person. There is a continuity between the body that dies and the body of the resurrection. And you say, can you explain all that? Nope, I can't. I don't have to. I'm dealing with the God of all creation. He spoke the universe into existence. And will he have any trouble with these things? Not at all. Let me give you another. Bishop John A.T. Robertson died in 1983. He was an Episcopal. He said, but I believe strongly that a Christian can be free to say that the bones of Jesus lie around somewhere in Palestine. for the conviction of Christ's living power, I'd like to know what his definition of that was, that which is what belief in the resurrection means does not turn on any theory of what happened to the body. That's a denial of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Again, the preterists The full preterism, and let me say, if I'm talking to any of you that take these positions, I want you to know I'm not talking to you individually. I'm preaching what I believe. But I'm not talking to you. I'm not throwing rocks at you. But I'm going to tell you right now, I don't like preterism. Every time those men look at a term in the scripture such as the coming of Christ, their mind suddenly flips over and they say A.D. 70. Over and over, it's A.D. 70. Well, here's what full preterism holds, and I know there's all different kinds of them. They hold that Jesus' second coming is to be viewed not as future, Not a bodily return, but rather a return manifested in the physical destruction of Jerusalem. And listen, I'm quoting from their own word now. I'm not giving you what I think. This is what they say. So I would like that to be clear. Full Preterism holds that the resurrection of the dead did not entail the rising of the physical body, but rather the resurrection of the soul. Of all the absurdities that a man ever uttered in his life, there is no such thing as the resurrection of the soul, because the soul does not die. I was just talking about some things like that one time on the job, and it was two or three men came up to the bench where I was working, and one of them was a Jehovah's Witness. And someone said something about who we worshiped, and this Jehovah's Witness said to me, he said, well, we all worship Jehovah, the same God. I said, no, we don't. He looked at me in disgust and said, what do you mean? I said, your God is a pipsqueak. And he couldn't imagine what in the world. I said, let me ask you a question. Can your God do anything to a man after he's dead? And he said, no. And I said, well, the Lord said, don't be afraid of him. That can kill the body. But after that, there's nothing else they can do but fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. I said, your God is a pipsqueak and he's not the God of the Bible. I say the same thing to these predators like this. So, the Preterists maintain then that there is no resurrection of the body, and they say that the resurrection occurs when we die. Now that's their doctrine. Let me give you another one. Charles Taze Russell, the founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses, he said this, the man Jesus is dead, he's writing, and this is about 1899 I think, Forever dead. Our Lord's human body was, however, supernaturally removed from the tomb. Now where did he get that? The Bible doesn't say anything about that. Because had it remained there, it would have been an insurmountable obstacle to the faith of the disciples. We know nothing about what became of it. except that it did not decay or corrupt, whether it was dissolved into gases, or whether it's still preserved somewhere, as the grand memorial of God's love and Christ's obedience. And of our redemption, no one knows. Watchtower Society still teaches the same heresy. Let me remind you of this. You remember when Abraham and Sarah They had tried to do their own work, do God's work for him. And he appeared to them and said, you're going to have a son. They couldn't believe it. Do you remember God? Is anything too hard for the Lord? I don't know all the answers. about these objections. But I know Him who made the promise that He would resurrect the dead. And I believe by the grace of God what He said. And I believe He can do it. And I believe that He will do it. Now, let me in the next place consider with you that the resurrection body of Christ met all the standards of the biblical definition of the term resurrection. Death is the separation of the soul from the body. It is not the death of the soul, it's the death of the body. And when the body dies, the soul departs to be with Christ. And our Lord said, fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul. but rather fear him that is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." There's a separation there. The resurrection, the term is death reversed. You make death according to the scripture what it is. Separation of the soul from the body. And resurrection is the reversal. He's going to bring the soul and the body back together. The body has to be resurrected in order to do that. Now, there are many of these references in the Old Testament, and I will refer you to a few of them. Because we must know that the Jews, in the time of our Lord, didn't have the New Testament. How did they know about the resurrection? They got it from the Old Testament. Because the Old Testament revealed it. In Isaiah 25 and 8, this is in what scholars call the Little Apocalypse of Isaiah, 25 and 8, the scripture says, He will swallow up death in victory, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces, and the rebuke of His people shall He take away from off all the earth for the Lord. has spoken it. When our Lord says victory, it's a real victory. You know the victories that we have had in war and so forth leave a far cry from real victory. I was in the Marine Corps And we went for a training landing on the island of Iwo Jima in 1956, 11 years after the original landing in 1945. Some of the landing craft still washing back and forth in the water there. We won the victory there, but there were almost 7,000 graves of the Marines that were killed there. Victory, but not total victory. Those 7,000 men never came back to their families. But I'm telling you, when the Lord God says that He's going to have the victory, it's going to be a complete victory. There won't be one corpse left in the whole earth because He's going to raise, even the wicked dead are going to be raised as a part of His promise because He does more than what He says that He will do. In Isaiah 26 and 19 also, the Scripture says, Thy dead men shall live. What does that mean to you? Thy dead men shall live. You go by the cemeteries all the time. What we need to remember when we look out there at those graveyards is, one of these days, those graves are going to open and those bodies are going to come out. because God said so. Together with my dead body they shall arise, awake and sing, you that dwell in dust. For thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. What do you suppose the prophet was talking about? What's buried in the earth? Not a single soul has ever been interred in the earth. Only bodies. These physical bodies. They go into the earth. And they are going to come out. Because the earth is actually going to cast them out. Can't hold them anymore. Doesn't want to hold them anymore. Because God is going to call and they shall come forth. Hosea 13, 14, there's another. I will ransom them from the power of the grave. You know the grave's got a lot of power. There's not a doctor in the land that can do anything after a person's dead. You don't even need to call him. When someone dies, that's it. The doctor holds his hands out. Can't do anything else. will ransom them from the power of the grave. I will redeem them from death. O death, death itself, I will be your plagues. I will be thy destruction. Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. And the Lord here declares that he's going to ransom his people from the power of the grave. And that requires that he vacate every grave on the face of this earth. That includes those buried in the sea. That includes those that were at ground zero at Nagasaki and Hiroshima. That includes those that were eaten by beasts. And every other form of death and every other way that death has destroyed these bodies, our God is going to reverse it. And He's going to give that resurrection. Romans 8.11 is another passage which teaches the resurrection body. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead, that's what happened on resurrection Sunday morning. If He dwells in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by the Spirit that dwells in you." Mortal body. That's the subject of the resurrection. Not the soul. It's the body. Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 4 that them which sleep in Jesus, what is it that sleeps? The body. The Greek word from which we get cemetery means sleeping place. The graves are the place where the saints sleep. Their bodies sleep. Not the soul. The soul is with Christ. Christ's resurrection body manifested certain essential characteristics, and I want to mention some of those. We can't be exhausted. First of all, I want you to remember with me that everything that, in the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul is talking about the resurrection body, and he talks about all these attributes that our resurrected bodies will have. But what we have to remember is that every one of those attributes which our bodies will have, we will have them because Christ's body had those attributes. And that's essential to the gospel. Now, first of all, 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 43. And here the scripture says, it is sown, the body, In dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. So it's going to be a glorified body. It's not the same body that goes into the grave as to its condition. When it died, it may have died of cancer. It may have died in war. It may have died of other diseases. It may have died in youth. It may have died in old age. It matters not. It's going to be a glorification of that old physical body. But it's still the same body. It's not a different body. It's not somebody else. I've often thought of this. What some men are teaching Now, I believe in the millennium. I know some of my brethren don't believe that, but I believe there's a millennium to come, a thousand years. But did you know, according to this idea that the resurrection doesn't have anything to do with the body, that during the millennium, you might play kickball with your skull? Of course! If the body doesn't rise! Well, there's the bone, and there's the skull, and there's the femur, and a few other bones. And you could just say to Brother Chris, Brother Ron, come over here. Let's have a game here. Here's this skull. We'll use this as a ball. And I'd say, yeah, I'm going to kick that ball. That's the skull I had when I was in this other world. I'm telling you what now, that borders on blaspheming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The next thing that I want to mention about this body is in the 42nd verse, and it's said to be incorruptible. So this resurrection, so also in the resurrection of the dead, it is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. The body, when it goes into the grave, if it hasn't corrupted, it will corrupt, because that's the nature of the physical body in the grave. Also, it is in the 44th verse said to be a spiritual body. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. Now what does that mean? That means that the body when it comes forth in the resurrection will be spiritual. Note, I did not say and Paul did not say that it would be a spirit. It won't be a spirit. It's going to be a real body. But it's a spiritual body and it's adapted to a heavenly environment. You say, what's that mean? Well, I can illustrate that for you so you, even a child can understand it. When you take little ducks that have hatched out, they will go around with the chickens. They'll eat with the chickens just like they do. But you let them get close to the pond, and what will they do? They will hit that water. How do they know what that water is? I don't know, but the Lord made them to know, and I've seen them do it, and they'll go right in it. They're not the least bit afraid of it. It was natural. Our spiritual body will be naturally adapted to the spiritual things of the world to come. Then, also, he says that it will be a heavenly body. Notice in the 48th, 49th verses, for as is the earthy, such are they that are earthy, and as is heavenly, such they also that are heavenly, and as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now, that means that we will still have a physical body, but it's going to be marvelously transposed. Not replaced, but transposed. We'll no longer be immune to death, to suffering, sickness, disease. We'll never get tired, and we won't sleep. We spend a third of our lives sleeping. When we get to glory, we'll never need that anymore. We're going to have a heavenly body. We're going to have the, it'll be a powerful body. It will be one that will be totally different than it is, and yet it's going to be the same body. Now, it's important for us to recognize that. The same body that died is the body that shall arise. I want you to note with me in 1 Corinthians 15, 53 and 54, that the Apostle Paul does something rather neat. For this, and mark the pronoun, for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality, so when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality. Then shall be brought to pass that saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory." It seems to me that Paul is trying to say there, I'm talking about this body and I want you to get the point. It's this body. It's not some other body. It's this body. When the angels appeared to the disciples as Christ ascended up to heaven. I think they were echoing what Paul would write in 1 Corinthians 15. They said, this same Jesus. The same Jesus that went in the grave? That's the one that came out of the grave. That's the one you've just seen here. This same Jesus in the same body. He's going to come again out of heaven. When Jesus appeared, He appeared a few times after He ascended. One of those was to John on the Isle of Patmos. And one of them to the Apostle Paul. But did you know that each time He identified Himself? I am He. that was dead, and behold, I'm alive. I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest." What was he doing? He said, I want you to know who I am, and I am Jesus of Nazareth. Now let me give you some of the evidences of the bodily resurrection. In John chapter 2, verse 19, Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the Jews to whom he was speaking, they were asking for a sign for his cleansing the temple, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews unto him, forty and six years was this temple in building and will you rear it up in three days? I enjoy good commentaries, and I use them to the best of my ability, but I don't always agree with them. Sometimes I'll cross swords with them. But listen, when you get a divine commentary, when you get the Scripture telling you what something means, there's no debate. That's what it means. And here we have the divine commentary. They asked and said, you know, this temple was forty and six years, and you're going to do that in three days? He spake of the temple of His body. What is the temple? That's where the soul dwells. It's in this body. He meant the body which they were beholding, they were looking at it, and if they destroy it, He was saying, He would raise it up again The very same body that they would destroy and he would do it within three days Now listen, i'm talking about the resurrection body of our lord. Jesus christ You destroy it. He said to them I'll build it up again You tear it down. I will raise it up you demolish it. I will set it up again You crucify it and I will raise it from the dead You kill it And I will resurrect it." And that's exactly what He did. It was the same body. Or else His Word meant nothing. He said to them as they looked upon Him, and I don't mean to say that He pointed to Himself, and I don't know when they got the connection, maybe not that day, but they figured it out. Because as soon as they have crucified Him and He's dead, they go to Pilate. And they said, we remember that while the deceiver was yet alive, that he said after three days. And therefore, we need a guard on the tomb, lest his disciples come and steal him away, and the last error be worse than the first. And Pilate said, you got your guard. Take those Roman soldiers and go over there. Now, I want to tell you what I think. When that guard got over there, what was the purpose they were sent over there for? It was to guard the body that was in the tomb. Now, I know human nature. If I'd have been sent on that guard detail, when I got there, the first thing I'd have done was open that tomb and make sure that body was there. I don't know that they did that, but I'm telling you that's the way men think because they knew pretty well if the whip snapped, they were going to be on the sharp end of it. And therefore, they had to know what they were guarding. And I think that when that angel come down and the stone was rolled back or hurled back away from that, and those guards saw that tomb was empty. I think they fell as dead men right then. The body was gone. And they knew it. And they knew their gooses were cooked. So, we see that these things speak of a bodily resurrection. Now, the body was gone out of the tomb. Nobody questioned that. The angel said, He is not here, for He is risen as He said. Come see the place where He lay. It's right there. And furthermore, the grave clothes were still there. Now when the Jews, the Jews did not embalm incidentally. And when you read about the burials in the scripture, it's not embalming. That was not the purpose at all. The Jews wrapped the the limbs of the body, the hands and the legs and so forth, and the whole body with linen cloth. And they put in myrrh and aloes. You say, well, what was that for? It was to keep the odor down when they corrupted. And there was 65 pounds of this. That's a tremendous amount. And they wrapped Him in that. But on the resurrection morning, The part that had been put around his head was folded together and laid aside, but the wrappings had collapsed so that it was just like a cocoon. But the body was gone. They knew there was a mighty power that was loose, and so they knew that he had risen from the dead. The empty grave gave evidence of the resurrection because when John and Peter ran to the tomb, when John saw those grave clothes, the scripture says, he believed. Right then. So that gives evidence of it. There are many other of these testimonies and witnesses the testimony of the women, the testimony of the angels. One that's very significant is that Jesus Christ Himself, after His resurrection, rebuked His disciples because they did not believe the others when they told Him they'd seen Him alive. Now listen, can you imagine the Lord rebuking somebody? for not believing what they hadn't seen? If he arose from the dead, then they had reason to believe it. But if he didn't, how could the Lord rebuke them for that? Christ's resurrection body had the marks of the resurrection on it. His body had flesh. and bones, he said, take a hold of me and see. I've got flesh and bone. You know that a spirit doesn't have flesh and bone and you see that's what I've got. That's proof of a resurrection. And Christ appeared, we have record of, I believe 12 different times to different people on different circumstances. Those are the accounts we have. The last appearance was out on that mountain, well known to them, unknown to us, where above 500 men saw our Lord at one time. I've often said that I think there were probably 2,000 or 2,500 people present there, including women and children who were not counted. And there they saw the Lord Jesus Christ, and He was alive from the dead. And he had the marks of the crucifixion in his body, and I believe he bears them for all eternity. What is the resurrection? It is the reversing of death. The body dies and is buried. In the resurrection, the body comes forth in an incorruptible and a glorified form, reunited with the soul. And it is the same body, but marvelously changed. You remember Thomas? Thomas said, unless I put my finger in the nail holes, unless I put my hand in his side, I won't bleed. And on the second Sunday, Jesus appeared again and said, Thomas, reach forth your hand, your finger, your hand. And in what I believe is the most profound confession recorded in a New Testament, Thomas said, My Lord and My God. When Jesus Christ comes again, all His people will say, My Lord and My God. And we shall know Him by the Prince of the nails in his hand. May the Lord bless you.