Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.
~ John 5:28-29
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. nd the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
~ Revelation 20:12-13
And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
~ Daniel 12:2
The Resurrection of the Wicked, by Charles Haddon Spurgeon. The following contains an excerpt from his sermon, “The Resurrection of the Dead”.
“There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.” Acts 24:15 c, d
II. But now we come to the resurrection of the wicked.
Will the wicked rise too? Here is a point of controversy. I shall have some hard things to say now. I may detain you long, but I beg you, nevertheless, hearken to me. Yes, the wicked shall rise.
The first proof is given in the second epistle to the Corinthians, 5:10, “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he has done, whether it be good or bad.” Now, since we are all to appear, the wicked must appear, and they will receive the deeds done in the body. Since the body sins, it is only natural that the body should be punished. It would be unjust to punish the soul and not the body, for the body has had as much to do with sin as ever the soul has had.
But wherever I go now, I hear it said, “The ministers in old times were known to say there was fire in hell for our bodies, but it is not so—it is metaphorical fire, fancied fire.” Ah! it is not so. You shall receive the things done in your body. Though your souls shall be punished, your bodies will be punished as well.
You who are sensual and devilish, do not care about your souls being punished, because you never think about your souls, but if I tell you of bodily punishment, you will think of it far more. Christ may have said that the soul should be punished, but He far more frequently described the body in misery in order to impress His hearers, for He knew that they were sensual and devilish, and that nothing that did not affect the body would touch them in the least. “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in the body according to what we have done, whether it be good or evil.”
But this is not the only text to prove the doctrine, I will give you a better one—Matthew 5:29. “If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.”—not “thy whole soul,” but “thy whole body.”
Man, this does not say that your soul shall be in hell—that is affirmed many times—but it positively declares that your body shall. That same body which is now standing in the aisle, or sitting in the pew, if you die without Christ, shall burn forever in the flames of hell. It is not a fancy of man, but a truth that your actual flesh and blood, and those very bones shall suffer, “thy whole body shall be cast into hell.”
But lest that one proof should not suffice you, hear another out of the same Gospel—chapter 10:28, “Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Hell will be the place for bodies as well as for souls. As I have remarked, wherever Christ speaks of hell and of the lost state of the wicked, He always speaks of their bodies. You scarcely find Him saying anything about their souls. He says, “Where their worm dieth not,” which is a figure of physical suffering—the worm torturing forever the inmost heart, like a cancer within the very soul. He speaks of the “fire that never shall be quenched.”
Now, do not begin telling me that that is a metaphorical fire—who cares for that? If a man were to threaten to give me a metaphorical blow on the head, I should care very little about it. He would be welcome to give me as many as he pleased. And what say the wicked? “We do not care about metaphorical fires.” But they are real, sir—yes, as real as yourself.
There is a real fire in hell, as truly as you have now a real body—a fire exactly like that which we have on earth in everything except this—that it will not consume, though it will torture you. You have seen the asbestos lying in the fire red hot, but when you take it out it is unconsumed. So your body will be prepared by God in such a way that it will burn forever without being consumed. It will lie, not as you consider, in metaphorical fire, but in actual flame.
Did our Savior mean fictions when He said He would cast body and soul into hell? What should there be a pit for if there were no bodies? Why fire, why chains, if there were to be no bodies? Can fire touch the soul? Can pits shut in spirits? Can chains fetter souls? No, pits and fire and chains are for bodies, and bodies shall be there.
You will sleep in the dust a little while. When you die your soul will be tormented alone—that will be a hell for it—but at the day of judgment your body will join your soul, and then you will have twin hells, body and soul shall be together, each brimful of pain, your soul sweating in its inmost pore drops of blood, and your body from head to foot suffused with agony—conscience, judgment, memory, all tortured, but more—your head tormented with racking pains, your eyes starting from their sockets with sights of blood and woe, your ears tormented with—
“Sullen moans and hollow groans, And shrieks of tortured ghosts.”
Your heart beating high with fever, your pulse rattling at an enormous rate in agony, your limbs cracking like the martyrs in the fire, and yet unburnt. Yourself, put in a vessel of hot oil, pained, yet coming out undestroyed. All your veins becoming a road for the hot feet of pain to travel on, every nerve a string on which the devil shall ever play his diabolical tune of Hell’s Unutterable Lament. Your soul forever and ever aching, and your body palpitating in unison with your soul.
Fictions, sir! Again, I say, they are no fictions, and as God lives, but solid, stern truth. If God be true, and this Bible be true, what I have said is the truth, and you will find it one day to be so.
But now I must have a little reasoning with the ungodly on one or two points. First, I will reason with such of you as are very proud of your comely bodies, and array yourselves in goodly ornaments, and make yourselves glorious in your apparel. There are some of you who have no time for prayer, but you have time enough for your toilet. You have no time for the prayer meeting, but you have time enough to be brushing your hair to all eternity. You have no time to bend your knee, but plenty of time to make yourselves look smart and grand.
Ah! fine lady, you who take care of your goodly fashioned face, remember what was said by one of old when he held up the skull—
“Tell her, though she paint herself an inch thick, To this complexion she must come at last.”
And something more than that—that fair face shall be scarred with the claws of fiends, and that fine body shall be only the medium for torment. Ah! dress yourself proud gentleman for the worm, anoint yourself for the crawling creatures of the grave, and worse, come to hell with powdered hair—a gentleman in hell. Come you down to the pit in goodly apparel. My lord, come there, to find yourself no higher than others, except it be higher in torture, and plunged deeper in flames.
Ay, it ill becomes us to waste so much time upon the trifling things here, when there is so much to be done, and so little time for doing it, in the saving of men’s souls. O God, our God, deliver men from feasting and pampering their bodies when they are only fattening them for the slaughter and feeding them to be devoured in the flame. Again, hear me when I say to you who are gratifying your lusts—do you know that those bodies, the lusts of which you gratify here, will be in hell, and that you will have the same lusts in hell that you have here? The debauchee hastes to indulge his body in what he desires—can he do that in hell? Can he find a place there where he shall gratify his lust and find indulgence for his foul desire?
The drunkard here can pour down his throat the intoxicating and deadly draught, but where will he find the liquor to drink in hell, when his drunkenness will be as hot upon him as it is here! Ay, where will he find so much as a drop of water to cool his parched tongue? The man who loves gluttony here will be a glutton there, but where will be the food to satisfy him, when he may hold his finger up and see the loaves go away from him, and the fruits refuse his grasp?
Oh! to have your passions and yet not to satisfy them! To shut a drunkard up in his cell and give him nothing to drink! He would dash himself against the wall to get the liquor, but there is none for him. What will you do in hell, O drunkard, with that thirst in your throat, and having nothing but flames to swallow, which increase your woe? And what will you do, O rake, when still you would still be seducing others, but there are none with whom you can sin? Do I speak plainly? Did not Christ do so? If men will sin, they shall find men who are not ashamed to reprove them. Ah! to have a body in hell, with all its lusts, but not the power to satisfy them! How horrible that hell will be!
But hear me yet again. Oh! poor sinner, if I saw you going into the inquisitor’s den to be tormented, would I not beg of you to stop ere you should put your foot upon the threshold? And now I am talking to you of things that are real. If I were standing on a stage this morning, and were acting these things as fancies, I would make you weep. I would make the godly weep to think that so many should be damned, and I would make the ungodly weep to think that they should be damned. But when I speak of realities, they do not move you half as much as fictions would, and you sit just as you did ere the service had commenced.
But hear me while I again affirm God’s truth. I tell you sinner that those eyes that now look on lust shall look on miseries that shall vex and torment you. Those ears which now you lend to hear the song of blasphemy, shall hear moans, and groans, and horrid sounds, such as only the damned know. That very throat down which you pour drink shall be filled with fire. Those very lips and arms of yours will be tortured all at once.
Why, if you have a headache you will run to your physician, but what will you do when your head, and heart, and hands, and feet ache all at once? If you have but a pain in your reins, you will search out medicines to heal you, but what will you do when gout, and rheum, and vertigo, and all else that is vile, attack your body at once?
How will you bear yourself when you shall be loathsome with every kind of disease, leprous, palsied, black, rotten, your bones aching, your marrow quivering, every limb you have, filled with pain—your body a temple of demons and a channel of miseries? And will you march blindly on? As the ox goes to the slaughter, and the sheep licks the butcher’s knife, so is it with many of you.
Sirs, you are living without Christ, many of you—you are self-righteous and ungodly. One of you is going out this afternoon to take his day’s pleasure, another is a fornicator in secret, another can cheat his neighbor, another can now and then curse God. Another comes to this chapel, but in secret he is a drunkard. Another prates about godliness and God knows he is a wretched hypocrite.
What will you do in that day when you stand before your Maker? It is a little thing to have your minister upbraid you now, it is a small thing to be judged of man’s judgment—what will you do when God shall thunder out not your accusation, but your condemnation, “Depart ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels”?
Ah! you sensual ones, I knew I should never move you while I spoke about torments for your souls. Do I move you now? Ah no! Many of you will go away and laugh, and call me, as I remember once being called before, “a hell-fire parson.” Well, go, but you will see the hell-fire preacher one day in heaven, perhaps, and you yourselves will be cast out. And looking down thence with reproving glance, it may be, I shall remind you that you heard the Word, and listened not to it.
Ah! men, it is a light thing to hear it—it will be hard enough to bear it. You listen to me now unmoved—it will be harder work when death gets hold of you and you lie roasting in the fire. Now you despise Christ—you will not despise Him then. Now you can waste your Sabbaths—then you would give a thousand worlds for a Sabbath if you could but have it in hell.
Now you can scoff and jeer—there will be no scoffing or jeering then. You will be shrieking, howling, wailing for mercy, but—
“There are no acts of pardon passed In the cold grave to which we haste; But darkness, death, and long despair, Reign in eternal silence there.”
O my hearers! The wrath to come! The wrath to come! The wrath to come! Who among you can dwell with devouring fire? Who among you can dwell with everlasting burnings? Can you, sir? Can you? Can you abide the flames forever? “Oh, no,” say you, “what can I do to be saved?” Hear you what Christ has to say, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” “He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned.” “Come, now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
EXPOSITION
1 CORINTHIANS 15
There were people in the apostles’ days who had an idea that there was no resurrection. Paul endeavors to refute the idea, and teaches the Corinthians that there was a resurrection from the dead. From the first to the eleventh verse he proves the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and upon that grounds the doctrine of the resurrection of the just.
“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye received, and wherein ye stand:”
“By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.”
Now, we expect to hear a whole list of doctrines when the apostle says, “I declare unto you the gospel,” but instead of that, he simply tells us of the resurrection of Jesus, for that is the very marrow of the Gospel, the foundation of it—that Jesus Christ died and rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures.
“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.”
“And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.”
That is the whole of the Gospel. He who perfectly understands that, understands the first principles, he has commenced aright. This is the starting point if we wish to learn the truth, “that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.”
“And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve.
“After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.
“After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.
“And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.”
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is one of the best attested facts on record. There were so many witnesses to behold it, that if we do in the least degree receive the credibility of men’s testimonies, we cannot and we dare not doubt that Jesus rose from the dead. It is all very easy for infidels to say that these persons were deceived, but it is equally foolish, for these persons could not every one of them have been so positively deceived as to say that they had seen this man, whom they knew to have been dead, afterwards alive.
They could not all, surely, have agreed together to help on this imposture. If they did, it is the most marvelous thing we have on record, that not one of them ever broke faith with the others, but that the whole mass of them remained firm. We believe it to be quite impossible that so many rogues could have agreed forever.
They were men who had nothing to gain by it, they subjected themselves to persecution by affirming the very fact, they were ready to die for it, and did die for it. Five hundred or a thousand persons who had seen Him at different times, declared that they did see Him, and that He rose from the dead, the fact of His death having been attested beforehand.
How, then, dare any man say that the Christian religion is not true, when we know for a certainty that Christ died and rose again from the dead? And knowing that, who shall deny the divinity of the Savior? Who shall say that He is not mighty to save? Our faith has a solid basis, for it has all these witnesses on which to rest, and the more sure witness of the Holy Spirit witnessing in our hearts.
“And last of all,” says the apostle, “he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time: for I am the least of the apostles.” We should not have thought Paul proud if he had said, “I am the greatest of the apostles,” for he occupies the largest portion of the sacred Scriptures with his writings, and he preached more abundantly than they all. There was not one who could exceed Paul, or even come near him in his arduous labors, yet he says,
“For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”
When he looked upon the mercies that God gave to him he always recollected how little he deserved. And when he found himself preaching, oh! with what pathos did he preach to the ungodly, for he could always close up—“But I obtained mercy, that in me first Christ might show forth all longsuffering as a pattern to them that believe.” Have I a persecutor here? Let him know that his sin is a most damnable sin that will sink him lower into hell than any other, but even for him there is mercy, and abundant pardon. For Paul says he obtained mercy even though he persecuted the church of God.
“But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”
“Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.”
“But by the grace of God I am what I am.” That is about as far as most of us can get, we shall never get any further. “By the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all.” Then he stops himself, “Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”
We should always take care that we do not take any of our good works to ourselves. They are the effects of grace within us. If we once get putting the crown on our own heads we shall soon have heavy heads for our trouble, but if we put them all on the head of Jesus, He will honor us if we honor Him.
Having thus proved the resurrection of Christ, he goes on—
“Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
“But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen!
“And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is 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 be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.”
Perhaps it does not strike you at first sight that there is an indissoluble connection between the resurrection of Christ and that of all His people. Perhaps you do not see the marrow of the argument. The apostle says, “If the dead do not rise, then Christ did not rise; and if Christ did rise, then all the dead will rise.” Do you see how it is?
Why, because Christ and human nature are now so linked together that what Christ did, He did as the representative of all His people. When Adam sinned, the world sinned, and the world died. “As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive.” Christ could not rise except as the representative of His people, and “if Christ rose,” says Paul, “then his people will rise; and if he did not rise then we shall not rise, because we are one with him; and if we do not rise Christ did not rise, because we are one with him.” See here a connection which cannot be broken—that if Christ rose, then must the dead rise also.
This brings another argument.
“Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.”
How do you like that thought?
“If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”
For they were then persecuted, cast to the wild beasts, shut up in prison, and if this life were all, what would be the value of the Christian religion? It would only make men miserable.
“But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept.
“For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
It is no use for the Arminian to strain this, and say that it proves that every one receives grace through Christ. It says no such thing, it simply says, “die” and “live.” Everybody shall live at the resurrection.
“But every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits: afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.
“Then comes the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
“For he must reign, till he has put all enemies under his feet.
“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”
Here the great proof flashes out—if death is to be destroyed, then there must be a resurrection, for death cannot be destroyed until the very bones of the saints are delivered from the strongholds of the enemy.
“For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith, All things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.
“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, that God may be all in all.”
We are not to suppose, when we read that Jesus Christ will deliver up His kingdom to God, even to His Father, that He will therefore cease to be God or cease to be a King. Understand this—God the Father gave to the Son a Mediatorial Kingdom as Man-God, but the Father was just as much God when He had given Him that kingdom. It was His own special kingdom which He, as the Man-God Mediator was to take, and God the Father lost no glory by giving it to Him.
When Christ shall have worked out all His Mediatorial purposes, when He shall have finished the salvation of all His elect, He will lay the crown of His Mediatorial Kingdom at the feet of God, and as the Man-Mediator, He too will be subject unto the great JEHOVAH, the Three-one. Then there will be no Mediator any longer, since there will be no necessity for any mediation, but we shall all be gathered in one, even the things that are on earth and the things that are in heaven—one in Christ Jesus.
Then Christ will have His kingdom as God, but as Mediator He will have no kingdom. It is a destruction of office, not of person, nor yet of honor. It is a laying aside of His official capacity, not in any degree a diminution of His glory and honor.
“Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?”
This text has had thirty or forty explanations. Doddridge and a great many more think it refers to the practice, when a martyr died, for another person to come forward and fill the offices which he held, and so to be “baptized for the dead.” But the meaning I like best is: What shall they do who are baptized with the certainty that they are not baptized to live a long while, but that immediately after baptism they will be dragged away to die—baptized in the very teeth of death?
For as soon as any one was baptized, the Romans would be looking after him, to drag him away to death. Thus they were many of them baptized as if they were being washed for their burial and dedicating themselves to the grave. They came forward and said, “O Lord, I give myself unto Your service—not to serve You here below, for that the enemy will not let me do, but since I must die, I will be baptized and brave it all. I will be baptized even for death itself.” Well, what shall these do who are baptized in the certain prospect of death if the dead rise not? “Why are they then baptized for the dead?”
“And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?
“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 advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die.”
It does not say that Paul did fight with beasts at Ephesus, but a great many others did. It was a common practice to put Christians to the lions, giving them a short sword, and bidding them fight for their lives, and sometimes, strengthened by God, they fought manfully, and come off alive.
But “if,” says Paul, “I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not?” I might as well give up my religion, then I could lie down and be at peace. “Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die.” Oh! wicked Paul! To quote from a heathen poet! How disgraceful. If I were to repeat a verse, and it looked as if Shakespeare or any profane author ever wrote such a thing, how criminal! say you.
But I like good things wherever I find them. I have often quoted from the devil, and I dare say I shall often quote from his people. Paul quoted this from Meander, and another heathen poet, who wrote far worse things than have been written by modern poets, and if any of us who may have stored our minds with the contents of books we wish we had never read, and if there be some choice gems in them which may be used for the service of God, by His help we will so use them.
“Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.
“Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.”
You can read what follows at home. It is so beautiful, like one great rolling poem, with more music in it than Milton’s “Paradise Lost.” We will conclude by reading the last few verses.
“Behold, I show you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.
“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”
Christ is coming, and He will find some alive on the earth, and those who are alive will not die. Paul was so full of the Second Coming that he says, “We shall not all sleep.” He did not know but what Christ might come while he was writing the letter. And we are so earnestly looking for Christ, that we too are constrained to say, “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
“O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
“The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
“But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
What a shame it is, when we sometimes attend a funeral and hear that magnificent portion of Scripture read over by a chaplain without heart, or soul, or life—the quicker he can get through the service the better. Oh that such noble words should be so awfully spoiled by men who know nothing about them!
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”
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