(Bible Analysis of Man) Man's Body Immortal - Part 1 — Willie Mullan

Bible Analysis of Man and the Mortal Body

Theme again this evening. Yes, we're looking at the Bible analysis of man these days. That's what the Bible says about man, and we've already looked at a created man, for God created man in his own image.

And then we had a good look at fallen man, for the man that God created to disobeyed God and sin entered. And then we looked at the saved man, and we found out a lot of things about the saved man. And then we looked at the spiritual man, and then we looked at the carnal man.

And now we are going through different parts. We have looked at man's conscience, and that was a great night. And we looked at man's memory, and man's imagination, and man's understanding. And last week we looked at man's body for the moment or two.

A still mortal body, of course. I want you to get that word, you know, into your mind. And then we looked at the saved man's mortal body last week. Do you remember that? Because there is a difference, you know, between the un-saved man's mortal body and the saved man's mortal body.

There is a difference. And we'll go into that difference just in a while, if that clock allows us. Have a look at this now for a moment. This is Romans, chapter 8. Romans, chapter 8, just to save time, we're reading at verse 11.

The Spirit Gives Life to the Believer's Mortal Body

And Paul, reasoning things out here in his own wonderful way, said, but if the Spirit of Him, and there is a capital S there, but if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead were in you. And Paul's thinking of God raising his son from the dead, but God raised him from the dead.

And look, he's speaking about the Spirit of God. But is the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead well in you? And, you know, if you're saved so much, you're indwelt by the Spirit of God. We dealt with that very forcibly last week.

What is the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead well in you? He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. I want you to get the whole of that now.

I want you to get the words, mortal bodies, because that's what we were looking at last week. We were looking at a saved man's mortal body. And there is a difference between the saved man's mortal body and the unfaithful man's mortal body, because the unfaithful man's mortal body has no holy ghost within it.

Just get that into your mind now, because that's a very vast difference. But there are many more. And this is the mighty statement, isn't it? But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.

And an old doctor way out in Canada said to me once, I want to ask you a question about this. Does this mean that God will quicken our mortal bodies when resurrection morning comes? I said it means nothing of the sort, because those are not mortal bodies, those are dead bodies.

We're talking about mortal bodies just now. And we're talking about mortal bodies with the Spirit within them. And dead bodies have not the Spirit within them. Don't make any mistakes in this now. Oh, it's a mighty fact, you know, that in life God quickens mortal bodies by His Spirit.

But I don't want to go into that this evening. The quickening will have to do for again. I just want you to get the fact that these are mortal bodies. As I stand before you, and this body is made of flesh and bones and blood running through my veins, I'm a mortal being.

Those that is not. But remember this, that this mortal shall one day put on immortality. That's another subject, isn't it? The saved man's immortal body. It's a different thing altogether. Hope you're getting the differentiations.

The Resurrection Body and Immortality

Have a look at 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 60, Paul writing to these believers that Corinth said, Now this I say, and then he put a little word brethren in there just to let you know he's talking to the believers.

Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. I think that's absolutely clear. You see, you would know that I cannot go to heaven. And he's talking about the kingdom of God in its eternal sense.

You see, the Russellites run about and they do a lot of talking about the kingdom of God. And they rang the bell one day and they opened the door and there were two boys there and I don't know who they are immediately.

And I said, now, who are you? He said, we belong to the kingdom of God. And I thought I would have some out of you. I said, you couldn't belong to the kingdom of God. For flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

And as far as I can see from you, you're flesh and blood. Well, I put them off the track immediately. It was unfair of me to do it, but I do have fun at times. I'm allowed to. I'm safe with them all the time, just having fun.

But I put the two boys so far off the track that they didn't know where they were. I said, show me the Bible. And they opened it and it says, Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

You tell me you're in the kingdom of God and this book says you cannot be. It wasn't fair of me. But they didn't know the answer. You see, the kingdom of God is in this book in many senses. The kingdom of God is in this book in a spiritual sense.

Acts about the kingdom of God. It's neither meat nor drink. It is within you. And at this moment, that is true. But that's in a spiritual sense. Because the kingdom of God is in this book in a millennial sense.

And our Lord will come back to this earth. And the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of God and his Christ. And it will be the kingdom of God in a millennial sense. Oh, but the kingdom of God is in this book in an eternal sense.

This is what Paul's talking about. I can't go to live in God's eternal kingdom in a mortal body. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Oh, you see, he's just making an impossibility here.

For this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Neither God's corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery. We believers shall not all sleep. He means we shall not all die.

But we shall all be changed. Isn't that wonderful, you know? You see, we may not die. Oh, joy, oh, delight to go without dying. That's what the hymn writer got. Yes, you see, the Lord may come at any moment, and we which are alive and remain just as we are now, if he came at this second, we would rise to meet him, and we would never go through the valley of the shadow at all.

May not die, you know. We shall not all sleep. But there's one thing sure, we shall all be changed. And you know it will happen in a moment. In the twinkling of an eye, just a half wink, that is, at the last trump for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

For this corruptible must put on incorruption. This is the bit I'm hurrying through. This mortal must put on immortality. Oh, what a day that will be. Fancy, you know, this old body, this old mortal body, you know, it's going to put on immortality.

And what a mighty day that will be. You see, I want you to get the whole of that. Last week we were looking up a saved man's mortal body, and what it was for. And Paul could see that this mortal body of ours down here, it is first of all for the magnification of Christ.

It says, Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. That's what it's for, you know. Not just for swinging around. It's for the magnification of Christ. And then you remember he said to the Corinthians, knowingly not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you.

You see, it's not only for the magnification of Christ, but it's for the habitation of the Spirit. And then he quickly said, ye are not your own, ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body.

And we found out that the saved man's mortal body was for three things. For the magnification of Christ, for the habitation of the Spirit, and for the glorification of God. The triune God made this body for himself.

And that's what we were looking at last week, weren't we? Now, I want to go a little bit further tonight, and I want to look at this mortal body of ours, taking upon it immortality. Now, we've got to think very carefully here, we must be led by the Spirit and the Word of God.

The Heavenly Citizenship and the Transformation of the Body

It's turned to Paul's letter to the Philippians. And we're at Philippians, and we're at the third chapter. And Paul's writing to these saints at Philippi, down at chapter three in verse seventeen, uses this word, brethren, again very carefully.

He always did this, because he's talking to the believers. He said, brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example. And then, these two verses are just in a parenthesis.

He says in verse eighteen,. From any walk of whom I have told you often, and I'll tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. And there are a lot of folk around who are the enemies of the cross of Christ.

But Paul wasn't afraid to say this, whose end is destruction, whose blood is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. But when he was talking to these brethren, and to be followers, and to mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example, he goes on to say, verse thirty,.

For our conversation is in heaven. You see, we're a sort of heavenly people. But we must not get so heavenly minded that we're nowhere for use. We're still on this planet and servants of the Lord. Our conversation, our citizenship, if you like, is in heaven.

Now, it's true that we're going through this withholding wilderness. But we have an eye on a city that has foundations, you know. And our citizenship really is in heaven. From whence also we look for the Savior.

I want you to get that word, that word Savior. He's looking for the Savior. You know, when we talk about the blessed hope and looking for the great God, sometimes we look up and we say this same Jesus.

Sometimes we say the Lord himself will come. Sometimes we say when the chief shepherd shall appear. Sometimes we say when the master of the house shall return. He's got a lot of phrases to pick from, but he's got Savior here.

Now, it's one of the wonderful words placed, and produced, and preserved by the Holy Spirit in inspiration in this book that shows the inspiration of the Word. You see, he's going to talk about our bodies in a moment.

And you know, our bodies are not just saved yet. Oh no, this will remind, it's perishing every day. The outward man perishes. Oh, I know that eventually it will be looked after, you know. Yet this tabernacle in which I'm living now, it's dissolving at this very moment.

And I'm looking for a Savior of the body. Did you get that, because that was a very crucial openness. It wasn't put there by me, you know, it was put there by the Spirit of God. Watch what he says now and you'll get it.

For our citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, this body, this body of our humiliation, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.

Ah, that's what we're going to talk about tonight. It's taken me a long time to get on to it, but never mind. We'll get there. So, when we talk about this model, putting on immortality, we just mean the moment when the Savior of the body will return, and we shall be changed in that split second.

And our body, this body, this mortal body, will be made like unto his glorious body. So, that's what we're going to think about just for a moment or two, his glorious body. Oh, what a phrase. Let's go to Hebrews chapter 2 for a moment, the letter to the Hebrews, and we're at the second chapter.

Christ's Holy Flesh and Precious Blood

Let's turn just to get the proper connection. For it became him, see that's a lovely phrase, it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering.

For both he that sanctifies, and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee, and again I will put my trust in him, and again behold I in the children which God has given me.

Then he starts the argument. For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same. I want you to get that very carefully, because we're going to look at his body for a moment or two in the days of his flesh.

Now that's getting away from his glorious body just for a moment, but we've got to do that. But I want you to see his body in the days of his flesh. For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same.

Now when we say took part of the same, we must see it in the tense. In as much as the children were flesh and blood, he had also flesh and blood. But there was a difference between his flesh and his blood, and our flesh and our blood.

I want you to get the hold of that, you know, in case we get mixed up here. When we say he took part of the same, the same only in the sense that as much of this is flesh, so his was flesh. And as much of the blood or the liquid that flowed through my veins was blood, so his was blood, but with his difference.

You see, his was holy flesh, and his was precious blood. That just makes a little bit of a difference. It was only the same in the sense that it was flesh, as much as flesh is flesh, and blood is blood.

Oh, but there's a vast difference, isn't there? Yes, you see, you remember Luke's gospel. Let's go back to Luke's gospel, and we're at Luke chapter 1. I think this is worth doing. It may just upset the notes tonight, but I can't help that.

I think I ought to do this. And we're at Luke's gospel, and the angel has come into Mary, and the angel has declared, Behold, thou shalt conceive and bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus.

He shall be great, and all the rest of it, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. Verse 34, Mary said unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon me, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee.

Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee. Now, let's get on this, because I want you to get the hold of that, you see. Yes, you see, there is a difference. You see, when Adam disobeyed God, and sin entered into the world, and let's get that building corrected again, into the world, not into the garden, you know, sin came from everything.

Trees, and birds, and grass, and all the rest. Because of this disobedience, sin entered into the world, and then death by sin. So the death cost upon every man, or the word means everything, because birds die, flowers die, and grass dies, trees die.

Well, yes, you see, it is precious, and it's good. Now, somewhere in here is death, and I am going to die, you know. I like it, or you like it. But that wasn't the same with Christ at all. Not at all.

For there was no sin there. Oh, death had no change on him. Not at all. If he had so willed, and we are not allowed to suppose, if he had so willed, he could have left this world at any time, and gone to heaven, and nobody could have stopped him.

Oh, no, he had to step into death to die. You see, we are dying men, but he wasn't a dying man. He was a perfect, sinless man, going forth to die. That's different. I want you to get the hold of that.

Because I want you to see this holy flesh, and this flesh and blood. This is not the same of all the blood of all the creatures on this earth. This is blood without a stain or spot. This is precious blood.

There wasn't any more like this. I think it's time we saw our Lord Jesus as the unique person that he was and is. So, I want you to see this, you know, his body, we are looking at his body in the days of his flesh, holy flesh, and precious blood.

The Offering of Christ's Body Once for All

I want you to get the hold of this bit, even though it's going to take time. That holy body had to be offered, and that holy blood had to be shed. I want you to get the hold of this. It's got a Hebrews chapter 10.

We're at the letters of the Hebrews, and we're at chapter 10. Oh, I know this may be texting you a little bit, but you've got to just get through with me as much as you can. Now, this is one of the great chapters of the New Testament.

It's Hebrews 10. For the law having a shadow of good things to come. And when we talk about the law, we're not talking about the moral law, the Ten Commandments, we're talking about the ceremonial law, the offerings, the law of the offerings, as Duke would put it.

For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, just the shadow, come never with those sacrifices. And now you can see the law he's talking about. It's the law of the offerings.

It's those sacrifices which they offered year by year, continually. See the two words in the middle of the verse, come never, make the comers. They're on to perfect. You can offer those sacrifices as long as you like, they can never make them perfect.

Here's how he argues, for then would they not have ceased to be offered, if I could find an offering somewhere that would make me perfect. Oh, then I don't need another one, do I? No, but you can't find it, because the worshippers once purged would have had no more conscience of sins.

But in those sacrifices, or offerings, there is a remembrance again made of sins every year, for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Sure you would know that.

Oh, they may have been the shadows, or the pictures, or the type, if you like, but they're not the very thing, you know. They're only pointing to something. Pointing to what? What's this, verse five? Wherefore when he cometh into the world, and who are we talking about?

Talking about the Lord Jesus. He said, Sacrifice, and offering thou wouldst not, but, but a body hath thou prepared me. Oh, this was a mighty body, don't make any mistakes about this. It's all those who talk about the virgin birth, it doesn't matter, they don't know anything about it.

If he was the sinful son of a sinful man by a sinful woman, he'd be a sinner. It couldn't be my sake, he's way beyond that. Oh, a body hath thou prepared me. You know, you should look at the word body.

Try and get it, it's Christ's body. Look at the word thou, who's he talking to? Thou, he's talking to God. Who's talking? Thou hath prepared me. When he cometh into the world, the changer, he's looking up and saying, Sacrifice, and offering of the old times, no use to you.

But a body hath thou prepared me. Holy body, and precious blood in the tooth. You got the hold of that now? Because that's worth getting the hold of. Yes, what's this? Verse seven. Then said I, Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me.

Oh yes, God had said a lot of things about him in the book. He had come to do God's will. He'd come to do God's will in this body and with this blood. Yes. Verse nine. Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God, he taketh away the first.

All those old offerings of bulls and goats don't count, that he may establish the second. Now, he had come to do God's will in this body, and here's the will. By the which will, we, as believers, are sanctified, and the word just means set apart, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ won't fall.

Yet that, because that body was offered. A holy body was offered. You notice, don't you, that he offered himself without a spot to God, don't you? Well, each time you did. Don't let a soaper or any of them boys make little of this body.

They won't do. Won't do for a moment. We must guard this in every shape and form. You see this, by the which will, we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest in the old economy, standing daily ministering and offering, oftentimes the same sacrifices which come now, but take away sins.

But this man, after he offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. He'd almost feel like saying hallelujah, wouldn't he? Yeah. It says in verse 14, for by one offering, one offering, the offering of the body of Jesus once for all.

So by one offering he has perfected forever. Oh, come around and talk to me about getting lost again. Do you see what I'll do with you? Oh, you know nothing about the cross when you talk like that. Oh, that's one offering.

Listen to it. It's like music to me. He has perfected forever. Ah, don't talk, Trapper, about being lost again when the offering of the body was made to save you. If your faith is in that offering, that sacrifice tonight, you should shout hallelujah.

You see, friends, if you go back to chapter 9, let's have a look at chapter 9 there. Jesus, verse 13, falling into the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh.

That's all a bit of the old economy. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience? You see, away down at verse 22 it says, and almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without shedding of blood there's no pardon.

You see, we need this. We need this holy body offered as God's Lamb, and we need this flesh of blood shed. You know what we're talking about when we say shed, don't you? I hope you do. You see, I worked with a surgeon for a long time, and we became great friends.

And some mornings he would say to me, we're going to remove a tumor this morning. Would you like to come? I said, yes, I would. And so, you see, he always took me in with him to the dressing room and put a big gown on me and a mask on my face, and you couldn't tell me from Adam.

So I just walked in with him. And once I walked in with the chief, all the other doctors and surgeons had to stand aside. You see, they thought I was a big shot from London. They didn't really know how big a shot I was, that's for sure.

And so, you see, I've seen blood shed surgically. See, I'm putting the knife on, opening, blood shed surgically. And you must have seen blood shed accidentally. There's a car crash, and you pull somebody out from behind the wheel, and there's the blood flowing.

And in these days, in this country of ours, there is blood shed brutally. Some of these IRA rebels went in the other evening and tied an old lady of 84 to a chair and battered her face. Why wouldn't I like to be doing the birch for them?

They don't think a man's a man at all. They go, no, maybe like that. I think it's terrible. I think that something should be done about it. Only thing we hear is talk. That's all we have got for years, talk.

And they talk and talk and talk. And a woman in the courts in Dublin today or yesterday said that she had murdered a man up here. And then they come on the TV and tell you there is no evidence of anybody doing anything.

And the woman standing in the dock and saying she did it. My God, where are we or who are we or what are we doing? Yes, blood has been shed brutally. We are not thinking of blood shed surgically or blood shed accidentally or blood shed brutally.

We are thinking of blood shed sacrificially. All but we are thinking of a cup of blood shed, something with value in it, something on paper with no death in it. Show a life of the fleshes in the blood and we are dying.

Oh, not him. He wasn't. His was. So you can see this, can't you? Yes, you can see his body in the days of his flesh. I thought I should do that for you. But you know, he died. And on Sunday nights here I preached on Christ died.

And I pointed out we use this phraseology every day. We say so and so died last night. Mother didn't. So and so wrestled as long and as weakness as he could. And then death overcame him and he became dead.

Not that one of us wants to die or step into death. I shall live as long as I can. But one day it will maybe overcome me and I will become dead. But that didn't happen to Christ. Oh, no, even when he was on the cross, even when he hung there, you see, he had to dismiss the spirit.

Yes, he dismissed the spirit as one of the old betrayers of that. He actually stepped into death. And the great picture is the Ark of the Covenant going into the Jordan when all its banks was overflowing and it went in willingly.

Yes, there was one who was willing to die in my state and they took that body down because it was only the body that was dead. You know, don't make any mistakes. They laid it in the tomb. And the third day it rose again.

Christ's Bodily Resurrection in John 2

You know, I was talking to a professor yesterday. I think the culprit might be here tonight, who took in a tape to the other day from this very meeting last Tuesday. And he said to me, I want to talk to you about this resurrection.

This resurrection of what? He said, the resurrection of Christ. Do you really think that his body rose again? I'm very sure it did. He said, now, could you give me a simple, clear, unmistakable verse that would prove it rose again?

The same body. I'm talking about the same body. The body that hung on the cross. Yes, oh, look at it. Yes, here we are with John 2. You know, it's very silly of this to me. I want you to get the hold of this.

Our Lord Jesus is in Jerusalem. And he clears out the temple. Verse 15, when he had made a scourge of small cobs, he drove them all out of the temple and poured out the change of money and over through the table.

Spoke what a day it must have been. You see, people think our Lord Jesus is off the topsy, but he walked into the temple and got the hold of the big table and heaved them over. Can you hear the clatter of the money on the marble tiles?

Boy, that would upset a Jew or two. Our Lord Jesus did it. Yeah, if I went and did it, you know, all the old religionists around the country would say, that's him. He and Paisley, they're two bad boys.

He's worse than I am, of course. Never mind. Verse 16, and said unto them that saw those, take these things hence. Oh, what would he not say about the ten of stables now in the house of God? And the billiard tables.

I think he would shout, take these things, they don't belong to God's house. Not a bit of it. Verse 18, then answered the Jews and said unto him, what signs doest thou unto us seeing that thou doest these things?

Jesus answered and said unto them, destroy this temple. Now, one of the great Greek scholars, Dr. A .T. Robertson, who is a master in Greek and the New Testament Greek, said that at this point in the New Testament, there is a mark to describe what he did.

You see, sometimes when you watch the Bible, you don't watch the picture, and you might miss something. But it's good to watch the word, even if you miss the other. And what our Lord Jesus did was this.

He said, destroy this temple. Destroy this temple. And Dr. A .T. Robertson said that the mark was there to show what he was doing. Now, they weren't watching him, you see. They were just with their heads down and their hands up their sleeves, and they're pious looking.

They're pretending to pray and they knew nothing about praying. Just old Pharisees. Verse 19, Jesus answered and said unto them, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it. Let's get off. I'll tell you, every Russell Lake and the country is afraid of that word, it.

You won't face it, you know. Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it. Not something like it. It, I will raise it. Now, the Jews weren't watching him, and they just jumped through the tension.

Then said the Jews, forty and six years was this temple in building. Because they thought he was talking about the temple that was behind them. He was standing on the steps of the temple. And they thought he was talking about the big building, and they weren't watching him.

And they thought when he said destroy this temple that he was speaking of the temple behind them. They made a big blunder, you know. You see, it says here, then said the Jews, forty and six years was this temple in building, and we'll go there and up in three days, but he speak of the temple of his body.

So I said to the professor, what would you get out of that now? I said there is no argument. I said yes, you know. He rose again, and then he rose again. The body that rose, the same body with the marks of the nails in his hand, and the sword mark or the spear mark in his side, and the marks in his feet.

It's the same body, just with this difference. There was no blood in it now. Blood was shed. I want you to get that, because that's the mighty thing, you know. This is his glorious body, it's just flesh and bones.

The Glorious Body Has Flesh and Bones

Let's have a look at Luke's gospel, chapter twenty-four, just for a moment. Luke's gospel, and we're at chapter twenty-four, and we're all in the upper room, and it is the first day of the week, and some of whom have heard that he rose again, and of course it's very difficult for them to take it in.

Verse thirty-six, we're trying to save time, and as they thus say, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and said unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and afraid, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.

Small s there, the old word for ghost, thought they had seen a spirit or a ghost. She also argued with me when she said, that proves there are spirits. I said, friend, I want to tell you this, that the angels are spirits.

You know it's said in Hebrew, that he maketh his angels spirits. They're their spirits. Oh, but it proves this with what I was up to the other night, it's true. That the angels have neither flesh nor bones.

A spirit has no flesh or bones, therefore the argument about angels having flesh is nonsense. They have neither flesh nor bones, nor sex organs if you want me to come out of them to be open. They thought they had seen.

You know this word supposed is a great word. Oh, friend, stop supposing, please. If we look at Mary in the moment of truth, at the tomb, and you know she supposed she would be God. Yes. And if we look at the Virgin Mary, you know when she was leaving the temple, she supposed that her boy was in the company.

Mother, don't you suppose that your wee fellow is in the company of the saints. You make sure about it. It's your chance. Because if the Lord comes, if he's of a certain age, you might leave him, you know.

You don't suppose him, dear. You just make sure about your wee fellow. That's all. Now this supposed, you know when they stoned Paul and dragged him outside the gate and left him there. They supposed he was dead.

What a mess they made. He wasn't, you know. Yes. The Philippian hero cried in the night because he supposed all the prisoners had been fled. Oh, stop this supposing. Don't suppose. They supposed it was the spirit.

Look at verse 38. He said unto them, why are you troubled? Why do thoughts arrive in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have.

Ah, when he rose again, this glorious body. This is what our body is going to be made like. This glorious body. It has flesh and bones. You see, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Ah, but flesh and bones can.