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You said that it is not likely that the Lord would bring back the one who was a backslider. And the Scripture that came to me, it says that He -- that the Lord is married to this backslider.
[CROSSTALK]
Yeah. I did not say that. I did not say that it is not likely that the Lord would not bring back the backslider. I do not even think I used the word, backslider, OK. I said that some people that are disobedient, He brings back after He judges them, and some He does not, and I cannot tell you how He makes His decision. That is what I said. When -- the Scripture that says He is married to the backslider --
[?Want this open?]?
Yeah, just a little bit, thanks. That Scripture, I have not studied it, but off the top of my head, what I would say that it means is that the whole living soul is sliding backwards, and He is married to this soul. We are His wife; we are His flesh. But that does not mean that every individual formed is going to enter in. That spiritual root of the soul, that ball of clay He is married to. He is married to the clay; He is not married to every individual form. Some people are reprobate silver, we are told in another --
Yeah.
-- place, that the billows are burning, and the fire is hot, but the wicked is not plucked out. Reprobate silver I shall call you; your salvation has failed. Silver, salvation, reprobate silver. I have done everything for you that I could, but salvation has not laid hold of you. Whack, smash the clay; I will reform you into another vessel. Do you understand the difference?
Yeah.
OK.
[INAUDIBLE] [?this morning?] I could not.
OK. I am sorry we only have one [INAUDIBLE]
You said that Paul was in full stature. If that was the case, would he not have gone on to live forever, or was that a temporary full stature?
That is a good question. It is a question that clearly demonstrates that we are not born again until we are born again, and the -- and to be born again, it is not what the church teaches you. To be born again means to be born into a new life. We must be born of water, and we must be born of the spirit. This existence is the birth into the water. This soul realm is characterized by water. Our bodies are something like 90-something percent water. There is water in the air. This is a water existence. Water typifies the soul realm, and when we came out of our mother's womb, we entered into a whole new world, from that which was the world which was in our mother's womb. The s- -- birth of the spirit, in like manner, will see us being propelled into a whole new world, not a world of water, but a world of spirit.
And as far as I know, there is only one man that was ever born of a woman who has been born of the spirit, into the world of the spirit and into a whole new life. His name is the Lord Jesus Christ. He was fully born out of this world, as you were in your mother's womb and were born into this world, so are we in this world in a spiritual womb. We shall be born into a whole new world of the spirit which we are blinded to at this moment, just as the fetus in a woman's womb is blinded to this world. So to be born again of the spirit means to have your whole life transferred, translated, converted from an existence in this soul realm, in these flesh bodies which are water, into a life in the realm of the spirit in a body which is spirit. And we do not fully understand these things, brethren, but we see Jesus, so nobody has been born again except Jesus.
If you would like, you can say, I have had a born-again experience, but the true word is I have been reconciled unto God. And now that His Son is being formed in me, I have been justified. That is the scriptural term. We have not been born again. Jesus said you must be born again, but Jesus is the only one who was born again. Paul was not born again. Paul had attained to the first stage of the resurrection. There are two more stages of resurrection to be fully born into life. It would be as if to say you were pregnant and your baby ceased to exist after the thir- -- after the first trimester. Can you hear that? Paul, who was Christ, ceased to exist after the first trimester.
[INAUDIBLE]
There are three trimesters in a pregnancy, of three months each. OK, that is a medical term. Apparently, there are radical differences in the fetus from trimester to trimester, three stages of spiritual development in the womb. Is that not strange?
[CROSSTALK] I did not know that.
[?Yeah?]. You did not know that?
No.
I never heard that word.
You never heard that word?
I never knew that there were three in a [CROSSTALK]
Really? Oh, I just assumed that you knew that.
I never heard that either.
Yeah, three trimesters. That is a medical term, yeah, definitely. And the fetus is most likely to abort spontaneously during the first trimester.
Wow.
[CROSSTALK]
Scary, is it not?
[CROSSTALK] in full stature, right?
Right.
[CROSSTALK] full stature.
Right. In this experience, which we are having today, which stars with our reconciliation to the Lord and ends with our being caught up to full stature, that experience is the first trimester of our spiritual development in utero, and we are most vulnerable and most likely to be aborted spontaneously. What does that mean? Our mother is not aborting us; our father is not aborting us. But -- what was that?
It just happens.
It just happens. Something goes wrong in the development of the fetus, and the body expels it. The body of the mother expels the baby because something is not developing properly. We are most likely to have that experience, spiritually speaking, in the place we are in now, and that includes full stature. We are most vulnerable; compared to human beings who have gone on to the second trimester and the third trimester, we are most vulnerable to spontaneous to abortion. You had 10 abortions. Did any of them occur after the third month?
Not abortions.
Spontaneous abortions, I am sorry, spontaneous abortions.
[CROSSTALK]
Yes, I am sorry.
[CROSSTALK]
OK, miscarriages. You had 10 miscarriages. Did any of them occur after three months?
I think, the third month was the last [CROSSTALK]
The third month. Every one of your 10 miscarriages occurred by no later than the third month. Paul spontaneously aborted. Now why would Paul spontaneously abort?
[INAUDIBLE]
Yes. Something was wrong --
[CROSSTALK]
-- in his spiritual development, and what was wrong was that the Lord said this is not the time for you to go to full term.
[INAUDIBLE]
Yes, exactly.
[INAUDIBLE]
OK. I am sorry to do this. I will try to get this microphone fixed.
I get confused about the sequence of events. Now when are we caught up? When does that happen? Is it at the glorification, or just --
I will tell you what.
[CROSSTALK]
Stay there. I am going to pull a chair up in the middle of the room so you do not have to jump [?up and down?].
[?It is all right?].
Would you turn that volume down just a little as I get closer to you? OK, I do not need that much volume. The catching up is the experience. That is a term which describes our experience, our transition from being completely dead, OK, to having Christ -- let me start over again. The catching up is the maturation of the mind of Christ which has begun to be formed in us, that immature seed, that engrafted word, when He reaches maturity, when He becomes strong enough to ascend to a position of power and challenge and put down your carnal mind, that is the catching up. It is the catching up of Christ in you to spiritual manhood so that He can become the mind of your person. It is not glorification.
[CROSSTALK]
That is full sta- --
[CROSSTALK]
The -- no, wait a minute. You are caught up to full stature. The end of the catching up finds you in a condition of full stature.
[CROSSTALK]
[?I see?].
[INAUDIBLE]
F- -- no. Full -- well, let us -- what term are you talking about now?
Well, it is not instant. Your whole --
OK. The catching up is a process. It could be over a period of years. The end of your being caught up is that you find yourself in full stature. Brethren, you enter into school as a young person; you go to college, OK. For five years you are going to college. At the end of -- oh, excuse me, at the end of the fourth year, you are caught up to the position of college graduate, but you have been working towards it for four years. OK, you a- -- you can say you are caught up to a human adulthood. Well, you are spending 18 years of your life learning how to be an adult, but at your 18th birthday, you have been caught up to the fullness of adulthood, OK. So full stature is the end result of a process which we call the catching up, which is -- takes place over a period of years. It could take your whole lifetime. Did I answer your question?
Mm-hmm.
OK.
OK, I just wanted to ask this question about these Scriptures. "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 shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with 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 with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." OK, I would just like to know what these Scriptures mean. We shall not -- we which are alive and remain shall not prevent them which are asleep. Well, we which are alive and remain, that is us and Christ in us, right?
[INAUDIBLE]
Well, to be honest with you, it is really hard for me to do that without notes. I can tell you what it means in principle, but to go word-by-word, I really cannot do it right now. But, basically, what Paul is saying about we who are alive and remain, in the Greek, what that is saying is that part of us which remains after the carnal mind is stripped away, after the severe, corrective tribulation that we go through, that part of our personality which remains and has been made alive because Christ is with us. That is who he is speaking about.
And what does it mean, we shall not prevent them which are asleep?
That I do not recall, but I have it on at least two messages. If you look in your encyclopedic index, I have done these Scriptures on two or three messages, OK, and most recently the message called "The Dead in Christ," I just restricted it to a couple of verses. I think, it is 78 message, part 1. [?I am not?] mistaken, but it is in your encyclopedic index. I did that whole passage, OK.
And I can tell you that the phrase, the dead in Christ, is a poor translation. What the Scripture is saying, the dead Christ, not the dead in Christ, but the dead Christ shall be raised in you first. Then your soul shall receive life, and the ends of your earth shall be raised also. That is what it is saying, OK. The dead Christ shall be raised first. Your body is not raised first, you see. The church that believes in a rapture, what they are really saying, if you analyze what they are saying, is that their body will be saved before their spirit, that their body is going to be taken away. No, the dead Christ in you is raised first.
If the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then the one who raised Christ from the dead shall quicken your mortal body. The resurrection is spirit, soul and body, OK. The phrase that talks about those of us who remain is speaking about that part of us that remains after Christ comes and judges our soul. And what part of us remains after we have been killed by --
[CROSSTALK]
-- the Christ? Our human spirit remains, and our human spirit has been made alive because after she has been sucked away or suctioned away from the carnal mind, she is now joined to Christ. So that part of us that remains and is alive, our human spirit, that part of us that remains after the carnal mind is crushed and has become alive because she is now married to another husband, Christ, OK. We shall not prevent those who are asleep. Well, as I recall it, the word prevent means go before. We shall not go before. We shall not be completely ra- -- completely born again into the realm of the spirit before those who sleep.
Now, I guess, God is giving it to me. Now this is a great misunderstanding in doctrine, brethren. Let me sit back on my throne.
[INAUDIBLE]
OK, thanks.
[INAUDIBLE]
Who are those who are sleeping in Christ? Now the church tells you that it is all these people whose bodies have died, who are waiting to have their grave dug up so they could be raised from the dead, OK. But I suggest to you, and I declare to you that this is the revelation of the Lord unto me, that the dead in Christ are those human beings who died in Adam's loins when he died. Now let me take that a little bit at a time; let me take that slow. We know that the Scripture says that Levi paid tithes in Abraham's loins, amen?
Mm-hmm.
OK. God looks at your ovum, women, and He looks at your seed, men, and He knows which ones -- which ovum, out of millions of ovum, are going to become human children that you will bring forth, and God looks at your ovum, and He calls them by name, OK. So the Scripture is saying -- and I have this on a message too. It is on the 186 series. It is on the Christ series, and it is in your encyclopedic index. The Scripture is saying that when righteous Adam died because the carnal mind killed him at the time of the fall, all of the human beings who were destined to be born into this living creation died because, in Adam, all died. Therefore, every human being being born into this world system enters into this world system dead, OK.
Now the phrase, sleeping in Christ, the Scripture uses this term to describe people -- or -- to describe people who are dead with a potential for resurrection, people who have died with a potential for resurrection. The Scripture says they are just sleeping, OK, but I declare to you the Scripture is not speaking about human beings who ha- -- whose body has died, that the dead who are asleep, the sleeping dead, are those who died in Adam's loins when righteous Adam died at the beginning of time. And it is this fallen creation who is sleeping, and there is no hope for us to be awakened until first the mind of Christ is raised from the dead in the creation.
This creation is programmed to reproduce. We are going to be marrying and giving in marriage and bearing children continuously. This is eternal torment until the dead Christ is raised. Remember, we are just one. We are not many; we are one. And until the mind of Christ is raised from the dead in this creation, this whole creation are those who sleep. Can you hear that, or did I confuse you more? Did I confuse you more? I have it -- I am not really prepared for this tonight, but I do have a message on it where I make it very clear on the 186 series. Let me take a look at this Scripture. Maybe God will give me more as I look at the exact phraseology. Where were you reading?
Oh, "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven," that is the Lord Jesus Christ. He shall come down from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God: and the dead Christ shall rise in you first. Paul is speaking about a spiritual experience. The Lord Himself is coming to save you. He is descending from heaven. He is starting out as the Holy Spirit. He is coming with a shout. I suggest to you that the shout is a shot of war, that the Lord Jesus Christ is entering into your heart and into your life, declaring war against the carnal mind. He is coming in as the Holy Spirit. He is penetrating your carnal mind with a war shout, and He is engrafting Himself to your human spirit despite the fact that she is married to Satan and has born Satan's child, the carnal mind. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming down from heaven into your heart, shouting a war car and penetrating you despite the fact that you are presently married in an adulterous marriage. And He is doing it with the voice of the archangel, and the archangel, I suggest to you, is Christ. So first He is coming as the Holy Spirit. There is a war cry, deliverance, spiritual warfare. Then the voice of the archangel. Then Christ is formed in you, and then with the trump of God, and the trumpet is the message. It is this doctrine that is being declared here. Now you cannot understand this doctrine if Christ is not being formed in you, so that is the sequence, the Holy Spirit, Christ and the doctrine.
And after that, the next thing that happens is that the dead Christ [?is going to?] -- I guess, maybe -- I guess that archangel is not Chr- -- you see, I really should not even be doing this because I do not have any notes in front of me. [UNINTELLIGIBLE] I cannot give it to you word-for-word. It could be that the -- descend from heaven, that the voice of the archangel is Christ in another man. Maybe I am the voice of the archangel to you tonight, and after you have this experience, the first thing that will happen is that the dead Christ in you shall rise, OK. Now as I said, I do not have my notes. I do not know whether it means the message is coming from me or whether it means that that archangel is Christ in you and the phrase, the dead Christ shall rise, is speaking about full stature. Maybe that is what it is saying. The Holy Spirit, the Lord, shall descend from heaven. He will shout a shout of war, spiritual warfare, deliverance, the cleansing of your soul. Then the voice of the archangel, Christ, shall be conceived in you, and then the trump of God; the message shall come, and you will be able to understand the message because Christ shall be conceived in you. And then the dead Christ in you shall rise first. The dead Christ in you shall rise to full stature. That is it; I got it. Did you hear that?
[INAUDIBLE]
The archangel is Christ in you; it is the engrafted word, the first stage of the imparted anointing. And the dead Christ rising in you is the catching up of that Christ which has been conceived in you unto full stature, which is the first stage of the resurrection. Am I answering your question?
[?Mm-hmm?].
Verse 17, "Then we which -- then which we -- then we which are alive and remain" -- then those of us that have survived the chastening, those of us that have survive the tribulation, that part of us which has survived the tribulation, the tribulation which is designed to kill our carnal mind, that part of [UNINTELLIGIBLE] -- of us which survives is the human spirit. Then we which are alive -- well, our human spirit that has been saved from the clutches of the carnal mind is now made alive because she is joined to her new husband, which is Christ. She was dead when she was joined to Satan and the carnal mind. Now she is alive. That part of us which was saved [UNINTELLIGIBLE] -- ripped out of the clutches of Satan is all of us that remains, and she is made alive because she is joined to a new husband, and together we shall be caught. Who together? Our human spirit and Christ shall be caught up in the clouds, OK. The clouds typify the soul realm. To meet the Lord in the realm of the spirit, and so we shall ever be with the Lord.
Again, I do not have my notes in front of me, but this is most likely a personal experience of your ascension out of Hell. The whole church is looking towards other people. They want to save other people. They want to minister to other people; they want to teach other people; they want to give tracts to other people; they want to heal and cast demons out of other people. But, brethren, you are in Hell; you are in Hell; you are in Hell; you are in Hell; you are in Hell; you are in Hell, and I am in Hell. Now if God sends you to somebody else, you minister, but your pri- -- the primary thrust of your ministry should be to yourself because you are in Hell.
This Scripture is for the individual; it is a description of our deliverance out of Hell. How is it going to happen? First, the Lord will descend from heaven, the Holy Spirit. Then the voice of the archangel, the engrafted word, which will enable you to hear the doctrine. Then the doctrine of perfection comes; this doctrine of Christ comes. And the result of you ingesting into your spiritual being the doctrine of Christ is that engrafted word, the seed which is the beginning of Christ being formed in you, shall eat this good, nourishing spiritual food. And He shall arise to full stature in you, and you shall attain to the first stage of the resurrection. Now this is --
[CROSSTALK]
-- happening because that part of you which survived the tribulation, your human spirit, is now made alive in Christ because in Adam we all died, but in Christ we are all --
Alive.
-- made alive. You shall be caught up together. Well, the King James says with them, and I do not have an interlinear in front of me, but I have got one good feeling it says you shall be caught up together with Christ into the clouds to meet. You shall be caught up together with Christ Jesus in you in the clouds, to the high place, the realm of the spirit where the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Father, dwells. This is the glorification, and then forever you shall be with the Lord. That is the glorification. That is the whole three stages of the resurrection there.
Sheila.
Yeah?
That word air, is that spirit?
It -- as far as I am concerned, it means spirit. You see, there are some things that I teach that I really cannot prove to you. Remember when we were -- in the early days, when we were in that deliverance church, our teacher would tell us you cannot prove deliverance to anybody; you cannot show it to them in the Scripture. You cannot prove the receiving of the Holy Ghost to a Baptist who does not believe in it. You cannot prove it to them. Well, this Greek word translated air is one of those things. You are going to have to get it by revelation. If you study it in the Greek, as far as I am concerned, it means the realm of the spirit, but I could not prove it to a Pharisee, OK. Did I answer your question?
And that is interesting because this question really does lead into the leading that God gave me tonight, so I would like to go with it.
OK, an Alternate Translation of 1 Corinthians 15:13-17. Let us hear it in the -- I think, you really got this in the spirit because you were even say fir- -- saying 1 Corinthians 15. I think, the Lord was really --
[CROSSTALK]
Yeah, He was really giving you a second witness that He wanted to do this tonight. Let us read it in the King James, 1 Corinthians 15:13-17, "But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen: and if Christ i- -- be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ: whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ is not raised, your faith is in vain; ye are yet in your sins."
Now I do not know about you, but those Scriptures confuse me. Does anybody know what that said? Well, I have an Alternate Translation for you, and let us try it. Apparently, there are Pharisees here who are saying to Paul that Christ was not raised from the dead. I am starting with verse 13. They -- what -- there were Pharisees preaching in the time of Jesus that there is no resurrection from the dead. I believe, it is the Sadducees that believed there was no resurrection from the dead. Is that correct, my Bible scholars here?
[CROSSTALK]
OK. The Sadducees, OK. I am so glad I have some well-studied people here. They catch me every time I make a mistake. That is good.
[CROSSTALK] they did not believe in the resurrection.
They did not believe in the -- oh, they were sad, you see, yes, because they did not believe in the resurrection. So Paul was addressing the Sadducees here, and --
[?The Pharisees did not think it was fair?] [CROSSTALK]
We had a wise guy in the congregation just say, and the Pharisees said it was not fair, you see; the Sadducees were sad, you see, and the Pharisees thought it was not fair, you see. I am so glad we are not religious.
But they are, right, jealous and envious all the time? They do not think it is fair, right?
Amen.
[?Oh, gosh?].
OK. So after a deep study of these verses who -- which are very confusing to me. I do not know. Are they not confusing to you, these verses?
[INAUDIBLE]
The Lord revealed to me that what Paul was saying here was -- now, wait a minute. Let me back up here, and let me point out to you that these verses appear right after chapter -- 1 Corinthians 15:2-3, where we had an int- -- in which we had an intense study revealing that the -- that Paul was not speaking about Jesus, the Christ, but that -- the Christ mind which died at the fall. In 1 Corinthians 15:2-3, we had a very controversial study by which I am convinced that Paul was not speaking about Jesus, the Christ, but was speaking about the Christ mind.
And this hidden, deep teaching is discussed through this whole chapter, whereby Paul is saying, brethren, the mind of Christ, which died at the fall, has to be resurrected in you and had to be resurrected in that man, Jesus, before the whole man could be raised from the dead, that that Christ mind, which died at the fall, was not raised from the dead in the man, Jesus. When the man, Jesus, was crucified, the Father would never have raised Him from the dead, that the reason the Father raised the crucified body from the dead was because the mind that was in that man had already been raised from the dead. And you cannot kill a man whose mind has been made alive unless he gives you permission, and if he gives you permission, that body is eligible, and that soul is eligible to be raised from the dead by virtue of the fact that the mind in the man had already been raised from the dead. Can you hear me? When you have a man who has experienced the first stage of the resurrection -- and what is the first stage of the resurrection?
Full stature.
Yeah, but what does it mean to us? Your mind --
[CROSSTALK]
No, that is the glorification. Your mind will have been --
[INAUDIBLE]
Your carnal mind, but your Christ -- the dead Christ in you will have been --
Raised --
[CROSSTALK]
-- raised from the dead, hallelujah. We got it, OK. The first stage of the resurrection, you are correct, it has two sides to you. Your carnal mind is killed, but what we really want to hear, we want to hear the positive side of it. If you have attained to the first stage of the resurrection, the dead Christ in you, in the form of your human spirit, has been raised from the dead. Once you have that experience, Paul -- Jesus said, no man can take My life unless I am in agreement. And even though Jesus agreed that wicked men should take the life of His flesh, the life of His body and His soul, because His mind had already been raised from the dead, because He had attained to the first stage of the resurrection, the fact that His body and soul died did not mean anything because the mind that was in Him was giving life to the whole man. Can you hear that?
Once -- let me say it again. Once your mind has been raised from the dead, if by some chance you succeed in killing that man's body and his soul, You have failed. You have still failed because, by virtue of the fact that his mind is alive and that you cannot kill a mind by crucifying a body, so by virtue of the fact that the man's mind was raised from the dead, the Father counted that as righteousness unto the man, Jesus. What? That His mind was alive. His mind was not dead in sin but alive in righteousness, that man, Jesus. His mind was alive because of righteousness. Paul said, your soul is dead -- your carnal mind is dead because of sin. Well, the mind of Christ was alive because of righteousness, and that life which is -- which exists because of righteousness cannot be taken or destroyed, ex- -- it cannot be.
So the body of the man, Jesus, was capable of being destroyed. Why? Because it was a body of a fallen man, which Jesus had inherited from His mother. He was in the body of a fallen man. He was capable of being killed, with Jesus' permission, so when that body was killed, the Father looked down upon it and saw righteousness. As the man separated -- now remember the teaching. When your body dies, your soul separates from it. Then your soul -- the next thing that happens is that your spirit separates from your soul. But when the Father looked down on the man, Jesus, He looked down on the soul of the man, Jesus, and He saw that the soul was not separating from the body. Why? Because the -- I am sorry. I said that wrong. He saw that the Spirit was not separating from the soul. Why was Jesus' Spirit not separating from the soul? Because His Spirit was Christ, and because His Spirit was Christ, His Spirit or His mind was giving life or making alive His soul. So the Father looked down, and He said, wow, those wicked man, they killed the body of the man, Jesus, but His soul is not dying. Why? Well, I see the Spirit that is in that soul has life, and the Spirit in that soul is keeping the soul alive.
So the Father raised the whole man from the dead. He said, well, the Spirit is alive, and the soul has received life, therefore I shall give life to this body. Can you hear this? Can you hear it? But when the -- can you hear this? When the Father gives life to a body, to a fallen body, it does not remain in the same form that it was in when it was dead because this body that we live in is in the image of Satan. It is a clay prison house that is necessary for the preservation of the dead soul. The soul cannot live in the -- cannot exist in this world without this prison house because she is dead. So when the wicked men killed the body of the man, Jesus, His body looked just like our body. To the carnal mind, it looked just as dead as this body looks because this is a dead body.
So they crucified Him, but something went wrong. The procedure is you kill the body; the soul separates from the body; the body disintegrates. Then the spirit separates from the soul; the soul disintegrates, and the spirit goes back to the Father in a form that is not attached to personality, but that is not what happened. Wicked men crucified this body that looked just as fallen as ours, but it stopped there. The spirit did not separate from the soul; the soul did not deteriorate; the soul did not go back to the lump of clay. The soul had been taken into paradise with the Lord Jesus Christ because His mind, which was Christ, had given life to that soul.
And when the Father saw that that had happened, He said, well, now I am not going to let this body corrupt, and by the power of His might, He transmuted the matter that the body of the man, Jesus, was formed of. He broke it down so that it no longer looked like a fallen human body, and somehow, by a procedure I do not fully understand, He mingled together, by His power, the atoms that had formed the fallen body of the man, Jesus, with the atoms of the soul that had received life and with the mind of Christ. And He mixed them all together like you would mix the ingredients to make a cake, and you could no longer tell what was the butter and what was the sugar and what was the milk. He made -- the Lord, the Father, made a whole new creature of the twain. He made one new man of the carnal mind, of the Christ mind, of the fallen body. Everything was broken down and reformed into a whole new creature, the beginning of the creation of God, that man, Christ Jesus. Is everybody OK on this point?
So we see 1 Corinthians 15 -- in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul is making a crucial point. If you are to understand the resurrection of the dead, not just in the man Jesus but what is about to happen to you and what is about to happen to humanity, if there is any hope of you understanding it, you must begin by understanding that there are three stages of resurrection and that the first stage of the resurrection is the resurrection of the dead Christ in you. So we see, in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul teaching this point in a parable. It is very hard to understand that. We even had some manifestations when I preached that. There may be people here right now who still do not believe it. It is very hidden, a very deep message, but there is no doubt in my mind that it is true. So we see that this whole chapter, 1 Corinthians 15, is devoted to this teaching, that if you have any hope of ending up like Jesus ended up, glorified, you must start by having the dead Christ in you, first, raised from the dead. You have to start at the beginning; you do not start at the end.
So Paul is speaking to these men, and he is saying, well, you do not believe -- first, Paul [UNINTELLIGIBLE] -- gives the account of the resurrection of the dead Christ, which runs into the resurrection of Jesus, the Christ. Going onto verse 5 -- well, let me start at the beginning. I am a little disoriented today. Let me start from the beginning. 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 speak about the resurrection of the dead Christ which was in the man, Jesus. Starting with verse 5, the Scripture is speaking about the resurrection of the man, Jesus, verse 6, the resurrection of the man Jesus. Verse 7, verse 8, verse 9, he is speaking about the resurrection of the man, Jesus. Verse 10, well, Paul is just speaking about his apostleship, and verse 11, he is speaking about his apostleship, and in verse 12, he says, now if Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how say some among you then that there is no resurrection of the dead? And he goes on to explain how you -- Christ in you must first be raised from the dead, if you are to have any hope.
Let us take our Alternate Translation. Paul is saying, "You say that it is not true that the dead Christ" -- and I suggest to you the word should be mind of Christ. "You say that it is not true that the dead Christ, the one who died at the fall, the mind of Christ, is being resurrected in the many members of humanity. If this is so and there really is not any resurrection of the dead Christ in y- -- in any of the members of humanity and if the dead mind of Christ was not resurrected in the man, Jesus, before he was crucified, then the whole man Jesus could never have been resurrected from the dead."
Now that is just what I just spent 15 or a ha- -- minutes or a half an hour talking to you about. Paul is saying, if the mind of Christ was not first raised from dead in the man, Jesus, when He was crucified, He would have never been rai- -- the whole man would have never been raised from the dead because the resurrection of the dead Christ was the first stage of the resurrection of the whole man. And the crucifixion of the whole man and the resurrection of the whole man was the third stage of the resurrection of the whole man, which began in an invisible realm, in His mind, in the realm of the spirit where only people with spiritual eyes could see it.
And there were people with spiritual eyes who saw that He was raised from the dead. Do you know that? Does anybody know where that is? The Gospel of John 1:14, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father)." The apostle John saw the glory, the resurrected Christ in the man, Jesus, who looked just like everybody else. Now down in verse 18, the Scripture says, "No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him." So the apostle John saw the spiritual, resurrected Christ in the man, Jesus, before the resurrection.
[INAUDIBLE]
Well, he may be speaking about the transfiguration. He could be speaking about the transfiguration, or he could be speaking about the fact that, just in an everyday encounter with the Lord, he saw in the spirit that this man was God. Now do not forget, when the Greeks came to Jesus -- came to the disciples or the apostles asking to see Jesus, the disciples went to see Jesus, and they said, the Greeks want to see You. Will you show Yourself? And He said, no, they look at Me as a natural man, and they cannot see Christ in Me. They have to wait till I appear in My body. But then in another place, Jesus rebuked -- I think, it was Peter, and He said -- Peter said to Him, I would see the Father, and Jesus said, after all this time, do you not know who I am? You have lived with Me; you walked with Me; You have eaten with Me, and you do not know that I am the Father. The apostle John saw that Jesus was the Father before that crucifixion and the resurrection.
And Paul said, I come to you in infirmity, and you received me as an angel of God despite my infirmity. And the whole church world is out there debating whether he had a problem with his eyes or a problem with his hands. The infirmity that Paul came to the people in was a spiritual infirmity. What he meant was that he was not in full stature. He meant that he came with the first stage of the imparted anointing, that he came with a Christ in him that was teaching them this same doctrine that you are hearing here.
He said to the people, you received me as an angel of God. What did he mean? He said, I came with the doctrine of Christ, but I was spiritually sick. I was not in full stature. Nevertheless, you received me as Christ. You saw that there was still sin in me, but you also saw the Christ in me, and you received me as if I were in full stature. You received of the Christ in me, everything he had to give you, despite my infirmity. You received of me before I was caught up to full stature, and you are blessed for that. That is what Paul was saying, so it is possible to see Christ in a man who is still sick in his sins, but you need spiritual eyes to see it, and the -- that is how the Jews stumbled over Jesus. They could not see it because they did not have spiritual eyes; they were carnal. So it is -- one of the challenges of this hour is to see Christ where He is manifesting, despite the fact that He is manifesting in a spiritually sick person and to not cast away the ministry of Christ that is manifesting because that person is still spiritually sick. It is the challenge of the hour, to the church. So let us try and get on with this.
So Paul is instructing these Sadducees, I guess, or the people in Corinth. He is speaking to the church in Corinth. Now was the church in Corinth not known as a carnal church, my experts here?
[INAUDIBLE]
Yes, it was known -- all these New Testament experts here. He was known -- the church in Corinth was known as a carnal church, and Paul is indicting them because they did not believe or they had doubts about the resurrection of the dead. And Paul is instructing them, and he is saying, look, brethren, the resurrection is in three stages, and it is going to happen to you too, but it starts in an invisible realm. What starts? The resurrection in you begins in an invisible realm. It starts with the resurrection of the dead Christ in you, and when that happens, you come under judgment. All kinds of travail enters into your life. People will not understand you. They will tell you, you are the source of your own problems. They will not have pity on you. They will hate you, and they will eat your flesh and condemn you for every weakness that the Christ in you is exposing, and this is the beginning of sorrows. No one will know what is happening to you other than someone who has already been through it.
The first stage of the resurrection is invisible, but there is no way -- Paul is saying to these Corinthians, oh ye Corinthians, there is no way you shall ever be raised from the dead if this resurrection does not begin in your mind. Do not tell me your body will die and it is going to be dug up out of a grave at some time in the future. Paul was saying, oh you Corinthians, if the resurrection does not start in you now, you will never be resurrected in the future. If your mind does not start to be raised now, you will never be raised once your body dies. That is what he is telling them. The whole church today is living in spiritual Corinth.
And as his example, Paul said to the Corinthians, if the man Jesus, who was Christ, did not have His mind raised from the dead before the crucifixion, He would ha- -- His body would have never been raised from the dead. So you carnal Corinthians, get it together; your body will never be raised if your mind is not raised first. And was it not to the Corinthians that Paul said, one of you follows Apollo and the other one follow- -- there is a -- was it not to the Corinthians that he said that? He said, you carnal Christians, you are going to miss this whole thing if you do not get the revelation the Christ must be raised from the dead in your mind in an invisible way, with much pain and tribulation, if you have any hope of ever having your body raised up. And carnality is the one thing that will hinder that resurrection from the dead, and you are carnal. That is what he was telling them.
So let us go on with this Alternate Translation. "You say that it is not true that the dead mind of Christ is being resurrected in the many members of humanity. If this is so and there really is not any resurrection of the dead mind of Christ and if that dead mind of Christ was not resurrected in that man, Jesus, before He was crucified, then the whole man, Jesus, could never have been raised from the dead. So if the dead mind of Christ was not resurrected in the man, Jesus, then we are exposed as false witnesses of God. Why? Because we have testified that God raised the whole man, Jesus, from the dead."
Now listen to this, I am going to read it again. "So if the dead mind of Christ -- you do not believe in the resurrection of the dead, so if the dead mind of Christ was not resurrected in the man, Jesus, then we must be false witnesses of God because we are out there preaching that the man, Jesus, was raised from the dead. And I am telling you, says Paul, that there is no way that man, Jesus, would have been raised from the dead if first His mind was not raised from the dead."
These carnal Corinthians were coming against Paul, saying I do not believe this doctrine, that my mind has to be raised from the dead. I do not have to do that. All I have to do is skip, leap and jump, and when my body dies, I am going to go to heaven. I do not believe your doctrine, that I am going to be raised from the dead in the flesh. I do not believe your doctrine that I am going to be caught up amongst great tribulation, right here in the flesh. I do not believe you. And Paul turned around and said to them, well, you better believe it, buddy, because I am telling you, if it is not true, the man, Jesus, would have never been raised from the dead, the whole man. If it did not happen to Him like I am preaching it, the Father would have never raised the whole man. And if the Father did not raise the whole man, if that is a lie, then we are false witnesses of God because we are witnessing to you and preaching to you that the Father raised the whole man from the dead. And for the Father to raise the whole man from the dead, His mind had to be raised first. So if you do not believe it, you are calling the whole thing a lie, and you are calling us false witnesses.
And if Jesus, the Christ, was not resurrected -- if the whole man was not resurrected, then our preaching to you about the resurrection of the dead and your benefit that it will happen to you also is pointless. Now listen to this progression. Paul is saying, if you do not believe that the mind of Christ was raised from the dead in the man, Jesus, then you cannot believe that the man, Jesus, was raised from the dead because He would have never been raised from the dead if His mind was not raised first. And if Jesus was not raised from the dead, then what is the point of me preaching about a resurrection to you? Because this is the way God decided to do it. And if it is not true that Jesus' mind was raised from the dead, then it is impossible that the man, Jesus, was raised from the dead. Then what am I talking to you for because you have no hope of being raised from the dead? Because, whether you like it or not, this is how God is doing it. Can you hear this? And if Jesus, the Christ, was not resurrected, then our preaching to you about the resurrection of the dead and your belief that it will happen to you is pointless because if the mind of Christ was not raised from the dead in the man, Jesus, He will not be raised from the dead in you either. And if He is not raised from the dead in you, your hope of age-abiding life is pointless because the carnal mind which you are born with is dead because of sin, and she has no power to raise you from the dead.
Now listen to this, brethren. This whole thing is about some Pharisees here saying that they believe that the body could be raised from the dead, but they do not believe that the dead Christ is raised in the mind. Listen to it now. Paul wrote this whole chapter to a bunch of people that are saying, I believe your preaching about the resurrection of the dead, and after my body dies, at some point, my grave will be dug up, and my body will be raised from the dead. And Paul is saying, do not you believe it. If your mind is not first raised from the dead, your body will never be raised from the dead because Jesus' mind was raised from the dead before He was crucified, and if it was not, He would have never been raised from the dead.
So, therefore, if you do not believe the whole message, not only that His body was raised from the dead by that His mind was raised from the dead at a separate time, if you do not believe that, me preaching to you about your resurrection of the dead is pointless. If you do not believe that the way it is going to happen to you is that first your mind is going to be raised from the dead, why is it pointless? Because for your mind to be raised from the dead means that you have to get a new mind, that your carnal mind cannot cut it. Your carnal mind cannot raise you from the dead. So if the Christ mind is not raised from the dead in you, your body will never be raised from the dead. So if it is your desire to believe that your body will be raised from the dead but that your Christ mind will not, our preaching to you is pointless because your body is not going to be raised from the dead unless your mind is raised from the dead. Because if your mind is not raised from the dead, all you have is your carnal mind, and your carnal mind does not have what it takes to raise you from the dead. Can you hear it?
Jesus, the Christ, was raised from the dead after the crucifixion because of the righteous condition of His mind. So if you have a hope that your body will be raised from the dead but you do not believe that Christ mind has -- that the Christ mind has to be formed in you and that that Christ mind has to be raised from the dead before your body dies, if you have any hope at all of your body being raised from the dead, if you do not believe that, our preaching to you is pointless. You have no reason to hope that you will be raised from the dead because you received a false doctrine and a lie, and it is not going to happen the way you would like to believe it. You must get a new mind. The mind of Christ must be formed in you; the mind of Christ must be raised from the dead in you, and He must crucify your carnal mind if you have any hope of your body being raised from the dead.
And if you do not want to believe what I have just told you about getting a new mind and the crucifixion of your carnal mind, if you choose not to believe that, then I am not going to waste my time preaching to you about the resurrection of your body because you cannot have one without the other. You cannot have the third stage of the resurrection without the first stage of the resurrection. That is what he is saying. You see, Pharisees find it very easy to believe that their body will be raised from the dead. Well, that is a very popular belief in the church today, but do not tell them about the sons of God. Do not tell them Christ -- the Christ mind has to be formed in them. Do not tell them about the warfare between Christ and the carnal mind because all that warfare between Christ and the carnal mind is all a part of the resurrection of the dead Christ. It is a part of the first stage of the resurrection, the warfare. They do not want to hear it. We just did a whole series on teaching in the kingdom church today that completely denies that formation of Christ. They want to believe that they will enter in automatically with their carnal minds, and it is a lie.
Christ must be formed in you. He must be raised from the dead in you. You must fight the war against your carnal mind. You must overcome your carnal mind, and Christ in you must crucify your carnal mind for you to be fully born into the realm of God's Spirit. And you could believe whatever you want, but your mind control cannot change the facts of God's life. This is the way it is. The resurrection is in three stages, and as distasteful as it may be to you, the first stage of the resurrection involves an invisible resurrection of the dead Christ in your mind and then the destruction of your carnal mind by that raised Christ. And that is the way God set it up, and that is the way it is, if it is going to happen to you at all. That is what Paul was saying.
Then speaking about those who are fallen asleep in Christ, verse 18, 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says, "Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." What does that mean? Those who fell asleep, those who died when Adam died. In Adam we all died. This whole creation died in Adam, so this whole creation are those who are fallen asleep, when Christ, at the beginning of time, died. That is what he is saying. We are all sleeping; we are those who are sleeping in Christ, the dead creation. And then Paul goes on to say, in verse 19, "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable."
And I did have an Alternate Translation on that. I believe, what Paul was saying, if our only hope of resurrection is here in this existence, how miserable; we are the most miserable of men. But with the hope the Christ will be raised from the dead in us, then we have something to live for. But if all that we have to look forward to is more of this existence, the most miserable of men are we, and this is what is happening in the church today. We have thousands of believers seeking to improve this life, and improve it somewhat they may. But Paul said, if your only hope is a resurrection that exists in this world, the most miserable of men are you because this world is Hell. Listen, Paul is saying, if you do not believe in the resurrection of the Christ mind in you, you are in a miserable condition because there is -- no matter what you do in this life, you are still dead. No matter how pleasant you succeed in making it, you are still dead; you are still in Hell. So Paul is saying, if all that you have to hope in is the best you can do with this life, you are a miserable -- you are miserable men. You are in a miserable if you do not believe that the mind of Christ can be formed in you and that you can be delivered out from the Hell of this existence by entering into the kingdom of God, which is in Christ after He is formed in you.
You have got to get out of this existence for d- -- you cannot be delivered and stay in this existence. Who wants to be delivered and stay in Hell? And it is being preached today. Contact the god within you, and have all of your needs met in this world system, and that is deliverance. No, God has better things for us than that, brethren. He wants us delivered out of Hell and born fully into the realm of His Father's Spirit, fully born into another world that does not look anything like this world at all. This is the realm of death. We are all spiritual skeletons walking around here. If you would like to understand it in parable form, imagine a world that is inhabited by skeletons as you know skeletons, just bones clanking down the street. That is what we look like to the Lord. What man looks like today is the skeleton of what man was when he was in Eden. Can you hear that?
God gives us a natural example of everything. Listen, let me say it again. If you could imagine a world where every person walking around did not look like us but looked like a skeleton, all bones with no flesh on it and did not have any of the signs of life that we experience -- a skeleton, you know what a skeleton is. Imagine a world of walking skeletons; that is what we look like to Jesus because when He compares our appearance to what the man -- to what man looked like before the fall, we are the skeleton of that glorious man. Can you hear that? We have lost the flesh of God. The flesh of God is what? Is the mind of Christ. It has disappeared from our bones. We are walking skeletons of a high spiritual order. Can you hear it? If you can receive it, receive it; it is the truth. We are the walking dead. This is Hell, the land of the dead, and we have an existence underneath the earth of our souls and our bodies. You are not going to Hell; you are there.
In verse 20 Paul says, "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits so them that slept." Now he is speaking about the man, Jesus, here. Jesus, the Christ, is risen from the dead, and He became the first man out of all of the dead members of humanity that slept to be raised from the dead. Those sleeping in Christ -- let me give you the exact phrase. Those who have fallen asleep in Christ is this whole human race who died in Adam. Those who have fallen asleep in Christ are those who died in Adam. The dead in Christ is the dead Christ. Can you hear it? The dead Christ is the mind which died, which is now in the form of your human spirit. Those who have fallen asleep in Christ are all the human beings who are being born and who are to be born with a dead mind, the implication of sleeping in Christ being that there is a potential present for their resurrection. They are not dead, dead, dead, dead, dead. The Lord intends to awake them from the sleep of death. Can you hear it? K- -- are you OK?
And then go -- Paul goes on to say, in verse 21, "For since by man came death," that in Adam all died, "but by man also came the resurrection of the dead." By the man, Jesus, the Christ, came the resurrection. So in case you did not understand that deep parable that Paul was giving us from verse 1 through verse 19, he now goes on to explain it on a more understandable level. "For in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man shall be made alive in his own order." Now this is what is going to happen to the individual. First, Christ, the firstfruits, the dead Christ is going to be raised in you. Afterwards, those that are Christ's at His coming, then your soul is going to be raised, and then cometh the end. Then the ends of your earth, your body, shall be raised.
"Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God." When Christ in you shall have delivered -- you are the kingdom. You are the -- each of us is a kingdom. When Christ in you has offered up the kingdom to the Father, when the Father becomes the full Lord and master of your life, when Christ in you shall have put down all rule and authority and power, when Christ in you has -- shall have completely overcome your carnal mind, for He, Christ, must reign, till He hath put your carnal mind completely underfoot. And the last enemy of this experience, which began with the dead Christ being raised in your mind, is that your last enemy, death, shall be destroyed. For He, Christ, has put all things under His feet, speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ. But when He says all things are put under Him, it is understandable that He is not speaking about the Father. The Father is still over the Christ. The Father is still the boss.
Verse 28, "And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him." After Christ completely defeats your carnal mind and is the Lord and master of your whole person, the Son will still be in submission to the Father and is going to offer us up to Father, that we may be all in all. This is the glorification. This is what -- this is the glorification, when Christ has fully put down your carnal mind, OK. Then He is going to offer up your whole person to the Father, that the Father might be all in all. That is the mixing together. Remember, I said earlier of the carnal mind, of the Christ mind, of your physical body. It is the making of the batter for the cake that results in your being a whole new creature. That is what Paul is talking about.
Verse 29, "Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Then why are they baptized for the dead?" Well, I do not have my notes in front of me. As I remember that, when I taught that before, it is not so much the baptism for the dead but the baptism into death, the baptism into the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, what is dying?
[?Your carnal mind?].
Your carnal mind. Well, if all of this is not true, if Christ -- the Christ mind is not being raised from the dead in you, what are you killing your carnal mind for? Huh? What are you doing it for? "Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead do not rise?" OK, if the dead Christ is not rising in you, then why are you being baptized for the dead? Why are you being baptized into the death of the Lord Jesus Christ? Why are you having the same experience that He had? Why are you killing your carnal mind? I think, that is what it means. I did not expect to preach this tonight. Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead or for the benefit of the dead? If the dead Christ does not rise in you, you cannot even be bapti- -- see, the baptism into the death of Jesus, into the same death that Jesus had, it is a spiritual baptism. It is the submerging of your carnal mind under the waters of the life of Christ. Now if Christ is not being formed in you, there is not even any baptism for the dead.
So this is not a very clear translation. But I believe that what Paul is saying there is, you know, you baptize it -- when you baptize in water, you enter into a covenant which says to the Lord, I am putting my body under the -- this physical water, and I expect you, Lord, to put my carnal mind, my sins, down under the water of Your sinless life. Well, if you do not believe that the dead Christ is being raised from the dead in you, what is the point of water baptism? What is the point of killing your carnal mind? What is the point of Christ is not raised from the dead?
And Paul says in verse 30, "And why do we stand in jeopardy every hour?" Paul's life and the apostles' life was in jeopardy for preaching this gospel of the resurrection of the dead. He says, if it is not true, why is -- why are we endangering our lives? And not [?of?] -- only that, why is the carnal mind trying to kill us wherever he can if we are preaching a lie? Why the spiritual warfare? Why a m- -- why do all these men hate us without a cause if Christ is not raised from the dead in us? That is what he is saying.
Verse 31, "I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is it to me?" He is talking about battling with the carnal minds of men. He says, what advantage is it to me? Why am I struggling with these carnal-minded beasts of the dead does not rise? What he is saying, brethren, is why am I struggling with your carnal mind if there is no hope of the dead Christ rising in you? Why am I letting you attack me? Why am I being subjected to exactly what I preached this morning about Elijah? Remember, I told you that the carnal minds of the sons of God rose up and tried to kill him because he pointed out their sins? Paul is saying, why am -- [?I am?] -- why am I pointing out your sins? Why am I struggling with the beast in you? Why am I exposing the man of sin in you if Christ is not going to rise from the dead in you? What is it all for? I am being persecuted and hated for nothing? What am I doing all this for if it is not true? Do you know what I am talking about?
Paul is saying -- Paul was saying to the Corinthians, I, as an apostle of God, have a ministry of pointing out people's sins, and when I do that, their carnal mind rises up and tries to kill me, just like we talked about Elijah this morning, OK. So Paul said, why would I be struggling with you and pointing out your sins knowing that your unconscious mind is going to retaliate against me? Why would I be doing that if I did not believe that one of the results of my doing that, the result of my pointing out your sin, despite the fact that your carnal mind is trying to kill me because of it, the result of my ministry to you is that Christ will be raised from the dead in you. If that is not true, why am I subjecting myself to the unconscious attack of your carnal mind? Why am I placing myself in jeopardy of being attacked by the witchcraft of your unconscious mind if I do not know that, despite your attack on me, the result of my pointing out your sins will be that Christ will rise from the dead in you? If that is not true, why am I doing it? Who needs to go around pointing out people's sins? I have nothing better to do with my life? Paul was saying, God sent me to point out your sins so that Christ could be raised from the dead in you. And if Christ is not really raised from the dead, what do I need this grief in my life? Do you understand what I am saying?
[?What?] happened to Paul, [?it did not happen?] for 2,000 years?
What did not happen for 2,000 years?
That Christ was raised in the people. It still has not come to pass.
Oh, you do not know that because everything is relative. If Paul says that he was wrestling with people in Ephesus, with their carnal minds, so that Christ could be raised from the dead, Christ could have been raised from the dead in a measure. The -- I believe that there were probably people in Paul's days who received the engrafted word. I do not know that they went into full stature, but their life improved. They received the engrafted word, and their life improved.
There was no benefit to them, just to us coming up?
There was no benefit to who?
To them.
Yes, there was a benefit to them. When Christ is conceived in you, there is always a benefit. OK, the conception might not have gone on to full term, but their life had to improve if Christ was raised from the dead in them. But do you understand the point that Paul was saying? Why am I exposing the sins and being atta- -- and people's minds and being attacked by the beast if the result of that exposure is not that Christ is raised from the dead in them? Do you understand that?
[INAUDIBLE]
OK. He said, what advantage is it to me if the dead do not rise? If it is not true that Christ is being raised from the dead, then let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die. If Christ is not raised from the dead, we have nothing to look forward to but death. Be not deceived: evil communication or evil companionships corrupt good manners. Brethren, you cannot hang out with someone filled with sin and not be corrupted unless Christ has sent you to that person and has given you a special anointing that you will not be polluted. If you hang out with sin-filled people at your own instruction, you will be pulled down. Sin has a spiritual gravity, and it is stronger than the goodness. It is stronger than the goodness which is found in the natural man. Sin is stronger than the goodness which is found in the natural man. Sin is not stronger than a mature Christ, but if Christ in you is not mature enough, sin can do great damage to you. Sin in another person can bring you down.
Then Paul says, in verse 34, "Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God." So Paul says, all you, in case you still did not get it, all you who are asleep in Christ, you are those who are asleep in Christ. You are sleeping because of your sins. Awake to righteousness; let Christ be raised from the dead in you, and awake out of the sleep of death which is bringing corruption into your life. So if there was any question in your mind who those -- who the sleep -- who those who are asleep -- what is the phrase? Those who are asleep in Christ. If you have any question about who they are, in verse 34, Paul says, you who are sleeping, awake to righteousness. So we, fallen man, are those who are sleeping in Christ, and our -- we are [UNINTELLIGIBLE] -- we are awakened when Christ from rai- -- is raised from the dead in us. When the dead Christ is raised from the dead in us, those who are sleeping, in whom the dead Christ is raised, shall awake to righteousness. Do you understand it? OK. Any questions? If not, that is it for tonight.
06/26/15 Transcribed by VerbalFusion
07/02/15 1st Edit CAS/BP
