Seed Sowing Analogy 1 Cor 15:36

So this morning I want to talk about Paul's seed sowing analogy. This is one of the areas that trips people up on the subject of resurrection and why we continually have this conflict on is the resurrection about raising individual bodies from the ground and closely connected to that is it about a rafter of people off the earth which some believe or is it covenant related and I think as we study with Tyrone and others and as I do further study we come to appreciate covenant a lot more than we have in the past and it causes us to change some of the paradigms that we've had. I'm going to try to do my best to make this lesson simple. I'm not going to work so hard at making it short but to give you these points and I'm also going to record this later and put it on YouTube because I think it deserves to be there. Now some of you may not know but there's been an ongoing I guess little conflict and contest between a person in the Preterist community and myself. It seems like we're always locking horns on this topic because I think it's so devastating to the subject here and yet that person has a following of people who believes in his view and of course there's the covenant creation view but it seems like everyone wants to attack the covenant not covenant creation excuse me covenant eschatology and resurrection from that perspective but everybody wants to attack it and demean it as though it's unworthy of even any consideration so I'm going to let you be the judge this morning as we talk about it. One of the most important points in dealing with the resurrection are not the you know over-encompassing one but I one of the beginnings or starting places would be the seed analogy because in that context the first Corinthians 15 Paul raises the question that some have asked when he says how but you know some man will say verse 35 how are the dead ones raised up and with what body do they come foolish one what you sow is not made alive unless it dies so we're going to just talk about verse 36 break that down a little bit and see if these concepts make any sense to you now what does it mean to sow to sow the body uh does it mean to sow an individual physical body or does it mean to sow relative to a people a covenant people into one state and then raise them out of that state into another state I would call the gentleman's name it's not necessary some of you will know who I'm talking about anyway but I'm not going to call his name but this is what we're dealing with according to some sowing is a birth process and according to others which I think is the biblical point of view stay where I can stay in the mic it is a dying and rising process let's look at what Jesus said in John chapter 12 and verse 24 he said except a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies it abides alone but if it dies it produces much grain now some of you may remember the olden days when the preachers would put a chart like this on the board or on a bed sheet or on a chalkboard and they would put this is what man says and this is what God says on the other side I don't know if any of you remember those kind of lessons but this is kind of what I'm doing here so I'm going to say that this is what man says and this is what God says and you be the judge now to be sown is it a birth process in other words we are sown when we are born into this world or is it a dying and rising process that is sowing occurs when a death occurs and then out of that death a life comes look at the text except a corn of wheat falls into the ground and dies it abides alone but if it dies it brings forth much fruit that's Jesus's words about it now let's see if Paul agrees with Christ he said foolish one what you sow is not made alive unless it what unless it dies so to answer the first question and I'm asking you to answer it is sowing when you are born or is sowing a dying and rising process and I'll explain to you why as we move on in the lesson but I would conclude what Paul said and what Jesus said it falls into the ground it dies and then new life comes as a result why would someone say that it is a birth process I think one of the reasons that it is stated that it is a birth process is because of the problem that the seed analogy gives for people who use it individually because in order for something to die it requires that it is what alive that's a necessary prerequisite of something that dies it has to be what alive so when you sow a seed what kind of seed would you be sowing a living or an alive seed that makes sense if Jesus said accept a corn of wheat fall into the ground and what and dies that means it has life so the seed analogy demands that whatever you sow must be alive when you sow it therefore if you're going to make it individuals and you talk about putting an individual in the ground either you're dealing with a dead seed or you have to find a way to make it living that's why this person cannot use dying in the individual perspective because it would demand that you bury the person alive that's what happens with physical resurrection if we're going to use the analogy so what happens is they reject the analogy and say well Paul is mistaken Jesus is mistaken but they're right according to them and so this is how they get the live seed because they can't go with death because they know that means putting a body in on that's dead and you don't sow dead seed exactly and so here is the problem so now they say okay it's birth now we got the seed alive but here's another problem with that sowing the seed is birth how many people are born I'm not asking for a number everybody that that's the right answer everybody is born so if everybody is born what does that mean and if sowing means to be born then that means everybody is what everybody is so does that make sense okay so everybody is so now if everybody is so what does that mean what's the next conclusion then everybody has to be what uh well yeah but what happens after so let's go back to Jesus statement unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies it abides alone but if it dies it does what it produces fruit more fruit so if we sow a seed that seed goes through this dying process but it also goes through a what coming alive process so let's go back to the question if everyone is sown everyone will die and everyone should what rise that's the simplicity of the seed but now we encounter another problem because we have two classes of people in the world we have a class of people who are righteous and we have a class of people who are what who are unrighteous so if everyone is sold and therefore everyone rises what's the distinction between the resurrection of the wicked and the righteous there would be none in this scenario and this is very very important for us to understand the other thing about this is sowing is a process from a divine source as far as the scripture is concerned it is a process from a divine source all right so let's check let's look at that a divine source as opposed to a human source now when you were born how does that process occur does that process occur from a divine source or from human sources human because you have a male and a female they come together impregnation occurs and therefore a birth right so that's a human source here's what the bible says in hosea chapter 2 and verse 23 Yahweh says I will sow them unto myself in the earth does that sound like a divine or human source it's divine I will sow them unto myself in the earth now something else about it sowing is a prophetic is natural birth a prophetic so it's not it would not be hosea 2 23 is prophetic that's a prophecy that god spoke to hosea I will sow them unto myself in the earth and if you look at the context he's talking about a group of people he's talking about israel I will sow them unto myself in the earth so it's prophetic now something else about is birth when you look at it in its origin in the past or is it in the future when you talk about birth from the beginning I guess the best way I can say that that would be something that's been going on from time memorial right or immoral if whatever is correct so the birthing process has been going on forever hasn't but if the sowing process was a prophecy was it already passed when hosea wrote it or was it future it would have been what future I'm writing too big and getting too low on the board are you all following me if the text says I will sow them unto myself in the earth we have a divine source it is a prophecy and it was future to the writing of hosea when was hosea written around what the 8th century bc roughly somewhere around in there in that time because he he prophesied the uh carrying away into the syrian captivity right it had to be written before then all right so it was a future prophecy so then how long had people been born how long were people being born prior to hosea's prophecy you don't see the problem it cannot be birth because that's not prophecy it's not future and it's not done by a divine person all right there are only two here's something else all right I will sew them unto myself in the earth if you look at the comparison of hosea chapter 2 with hosea chapter 1 you will see that the time frame for the sowing did people start being born naturally in the last days no all right so that doesn't work I want to readjust my board here oh here we go don't worry about it all right all right so there are but two sowers in the bible only two if it's birth how many sowers but there are only two turn to matthew chapter 13 verses 38 and 39 all right does anybody have it let's read it yes all right go ahead nail this is during the parable of the explanation of the parable of the weeds uh the field is the world the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom but the tares are the sons of the wicked or the wicked one the enemy who sowed them is the devil the harvest is the end of the age all right back up did i miss one did i miss verse which verse was that verse 37 maybe uh verse 37 says he who sows the good seed is the son of man that's what i want all right did you all see that he who sows the good seed is the son of man put it up for a second last day this this was happening in the past or forever it's been going on forever compared to the last and now what we've just that was that the one who sold if it's a bird it's every man right and the only other way to be sown is to be sown by the devil as far as the last days were concerned according to the bible you could not be sown before the last that means and if jesus is the one who sows if the son of man is the one who sows then sowing could not have occurred until when that's true it could not have occurred until the last days because jesus was sent in the last days wasn't he hebrews 9 and verse 26 hebrews 1 1 and 2 god who in various ways and various times uh spoken time passed into the has in these last days spoken to us by his son whom he's appointed heir of all things by whom also he made the worlds so and then the relations for in verse 4 but when the fullness of the time was come god sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law all right so sowing could not have occurred until the last days but also it had to happen based on the seed analogy of john chapter 1 12 and 24 and first corinthians 15 36 it would have to happen after what after he died you see this the lesson will teach itself you just gotta listen to what's going on after he died now someone said well william aren't you saying that christ was buried in the ground was he put in the ground alive nope see jesus died to more than just breathing air he died to a realm a state luke 9 31 says when moses and elijah met on the mount of transfiguration they spoke with christ concerning his decease which he would accomplish at jerusalem what was he dying to he was dying to that old covenant world written the text in matthew chapter 13 that we just read say the field is the cosmos jesus came into that old covenant cosmos but he also died to that old covenant cosmos so he was sown in that world well what world do you think the believers were sown into they have to die to the same one okay so jesus was the ultimate seed but there it is the son of man and sowing therefore and resurrection now that's coveted right there that is jesus dying through the ministration of death the old covenant and rising into the ministration of righteousness that's why the text tells us in second corinthians chapter 5 i think it's verse 16 therefore we know no man after the flesh for although we have known christ after the flesh that's not his physicality yet henceforth know we him after the flesh no more why because when he was when he came into the world as we said before born of a woman of the seed of david according to the flesh galatians 4 4 romans 1 and verse 3 but declared to be the son of god according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead remember in acts 13 today or you are my son this day have i begotten you that's his resurrection when god raised him from the dead jesus had a new birth into a new realm he's the first fruit and that's what that that is talking about he's the covenant man the one seed of abraham now let's look at something else relative to this so we have only two sowers in the bible it's either christ or the enemy or satan sowing is a birth if sowing is a birth here's how this writer explained it he said a seed has a germ life within it in other words it has an outer shell and the germ life within it and what happens is when you sow the seed the outer shell dies that's the old body and a new body forms around that germ life now listen very carefully to what he's saying he's telling you that the germ life of the seed doesn't die are you with me it's like it doesn't die well wait a minute if it doesn't die what kind of life is that it's got to be eternal or immortal or something right that's a real problem see if you make it birth it gives every man immortality otherwise you got you got people walking around who have no life dead men walking that can't be everybody's born and if everybody has this inner germ of life everybody has immortality walking around before they ever get to christ before they're ever sown by christ i hope you all are following this so every man has immortality that's a contradiction here's what the bible says turn over to uh dale if you're still with me 1st timothy chapter 6 and i want to say verse 16 there's one of those verses in there between 14 to 16 but i think it's 16 if you have that fighting the good fight of faith no not not that one okay 1st timothy 6 16 should start with who alone 16 yeah 16 all right i got you all right read it in a moment tito you can read verse 15 if you want add 16 all right 15 and 16 um well he begins in 13 in any case uh he will manifest in his own time um he who is i just want enough so we know who we're talking i'll start at 13 i urge you in the sight of god to conserve time go ahead i urge you in the sight of god who gives life to all things and before jesus christ who witnessed the good confession before pontius pilate that you keep this commandment without spot blameless until our lord jesus christ's appearing which he will manifest in his own time he who is the blessed and only potentate the king of kings and lord of lords who alone has immortality all right did you hear that who alone has immortality the word alone in that text is mono not stereo not five-way sound or whatever you call that only one who alone has immortality so if they're not sown by christ how do they get it how do you have a life in you that can't die when christ is the only one who has it and in order for you to get it you got to be sown by him you think being sown by satan is going to give it to you here's the other part of that they charge us with universalism oh if you believe you are a universalist watch and what is a universalist a universalist is the concept of believing that everybody's saved regardless of what they do so let's see if they have this germ of life that doesn't die that raises them by birth who's the universalist you see what individual body stuff gets you and they've been trying to pawn that off on us i'm not going through this stuff with this guy but he persists a lot of times they don't regard me as having much of a voice you know that's just invalidate they mark they marginalized i don't have enough rank born i know they marginalize they just choose to like anyway it's all right but they're the universalists now here's the other side of it let me tell you why he has to have this this birth and and this uh inner germ that's living because he has to have someone to put in hell but if he has to have someone to put in hell there's got to be two sowings where do they get the other birth or the one birth i don't know how they make it work see this creates a problem with the righteous and the wicked because they both got the same thing but they got to split them somewhere and send some of them to hell that ain't in the bible and the others to heaven all right here's another problem so you don't have that problem over here because everyone that is sown is sown by faith without faith it is impossible to please god for he who comes to god must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him hebrews 11 in verse 7 and so when you go to hebrews chapter 11 and look at all that list of people who died in faith the scripture will say in verse 39 these all died in what in faith is that universalism no that's a condition that they met in order to participate in the process was not universalism here's another point about the seed they want to argue that the seed has continuity in nature a natural body and a spiritual body so right now we're in our natural body the outer shell but when we die we're going to come back into this spiritual body that's going to be the uh the new body so we argue for this discontinuity and continuity it's it's like it but it's not the same thing one's natural one spiritually and they turn the concepts of of uh psychic costs versus pneumatic costs into biology versus spiritual something spiritual and it's really not it's a matter of those who accept the word of god and those who reject the word of god dying in faith you see first corinthians 2 14 and 16 or 14 through 16 but see there's another continuity that they don't talk about and this again shows how they reject paul's seed sowing analogy the continuity of time the continuity of time okay let's say we start at day one of creation of the physical world not not discussing tyrone's study we're going to talk about day one of the physical world whenever god created it right and then whenever the first birth occurred and then following that whenever the first death occurred now here's what happens with the seed when you sow a seed there's no gap in the process of the dying and right do y'all get that there's no gap in the process of dying and right i need faith i like to be well let's put that on yeah but guess what you have with birth a gap because if the first man who died was sown in his birth how long did it take him to rise or would it take him to rise huh he'd least have to wait till the last days the 70 ad right we're talking about a preterist here okay a full preterist so he believes the resurrection that happened in 70 ad so the only time they could rise would have been when in 70 ad that's a huge gap between the dying and the rising are you with me when you get to jesus sowing them there is no huge gap let me give you what the text actually says literally it says foolish one what you are sowing present active indicative that means this is a process that's going on in real time when paul wrote it because the seed is the word right luke 8 11 the apostles were preaching that word and people were coming alive through that word the word of christ so the language says and see this is they reject the grammar too what you are sowing is not being made alive that's present active passive or middle which means that an action is happening to you it's passive so there is a sore who is sowing and as the sore is sowing and people are accepting the word they are being made alive in real time what you are sowing is not being made alive but watch the next phrase and this is this is the beauty this is one of my favorite greek terms and this person knows how devastating it is the last part says i mean remember what you are sowing is not being made alive unless it may die now get that i've got unless it excuse me i've got the greek up on the screen okay let me walk over here for a second it's a verb aorist subjunctive active third person what does that mean if you all didn't hear me on the mic it's a verb what did i say aorist subjunctive aorist active uh subjunctive singular active subjunctive okay now here's what the aorist means and we have to get this the aorist means it says it may die but because it's aorist subjunctive in other words that's a marriage between two greek terms they have been joined together and one means one thing and the other word means something else so the aorist means past that the action has already occurred at some time in the past but the subjunctive means future probability of the future so the action is not completed it means that it will be completed at some time in the future so when we look at these verbs in the new testament and we see them talking about something in the past we have to be very very careful because we will assume that it's all done in the past and it's not does this mean it is not another remember when i taught the aorist subjunctive on first corinthians 49 y'all don't remember y'all remember that same thing right here so aorist says they have the process of dying with christ but that complete dying and right and rising was not consummated yet that's why he combined the two verbs together if it was just a one and done he would have just used the aorist and that would have been it it's the already but and that's what you see all throughout the scriptures and then you have those same people particularly the futures or y'all believe in process resurrection it was a process and that process is the second exodus tell me was israel delivered out of egypt in one night you could say they came out in one night can't you but their deliverance is not just out of something it's into something they didn't reach the promised land until how many years later 40 years and the bible says this day the reproach of egypt has been rolled away from you we have to see that process at any rate that's what first corinthians 15 uh is saying so as far as timing timing is concerned they have a gap now let me show you the other problem with the gap if you have a gap and you're supposed to get rid of the outer shell tell me a minute what are you putting in the ground if you got this inner germ still living you're burying somebody live aren't you so even though they try to get around burying you alive they still end up burying you alive but here's the other side of that as long as it take a body to decompose it doesn't take long but here's the other thing okay so if you're out of that body you got this long period of time before 78d occurred if you go all the way back to the beginning right um to raise them but then that means that you're in a state without a body is that right you were bodiless well i think paul had something to say about that didn't he in second corinthians chapter 5 and verse 3 he said let me let me get over there and and read it chapter 5 and verse 3 i'll read verse 2 and 3 he says for in this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from where heaven see they want to make that the physical body and it's not that's your covenantal clothing that's the new tabernacle verse 3 if indeed having been clothed we shall not be one found how naked well if you're in the ground without your new body what are you naked the very thing all goodbye see they were putting on the new covenant on top of the old while it was passing away that's just what second corinthians 3 says when moses went up into the mount and got the law the tablets and when they broke them and he and um he came down uh and then after i think the second time but nevertheless there was a glory on moses's face and when they looked at moses they were afraid why because they didn't understand that it was not an already passed away glory but a what a passing away glory even as they looked upon it it was already passing and that's what second corinthian is telling you so when people are looking at the old covenant in the new testament it's not already passed away that glory was still there it was passing away but old covenant israel who rejected jesus christ couldn't see that that glory was passing just like they didn't see it in the time of moses look hope is desire and expectation it was their hope to move out of the ministration of death into the ministration of life paul didn't write first corinthians to people who had never heard the gospel he wrote it to the people who had been many of the corinthians hearing and believed were baptized they were already christians yet they had the hope of coming out of the ministration of death told you i was gonna make it simple but i didn't say i was gonna make it short so it breaks the continuity you have to have the rising going on at the same time or you know concurrently with the dying otherwise your seed dies and doesn't germinate it can't rise so you can't have thousands of years of gaps between the birth process and the resurrection process it ought to be one and the other and that's what was happening in the new testament and that was only because of the transition now it happens almost instantaneously all right so you have this issue of being naked now let's see is there anything else i want to cover here before we before we close oh yes so where does this come from all right get me dale second timothy chapter one verses nine and ten and we're wrapping up second timothy one nine and ten and there's a lot more from hosea that could be added into this i wanted to give you the basics something simple that you could follow and hopefully you took some notes because you can go out and preach this to anybody all right second timothy chapter one verses nine and ten and watch go ahead who has saved us and called us with a holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace which was given to us in christ jesus before time began but all right who has saved us and called us with what with the holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace which was given to us in christ jesus before time began read on but has now been revealed by the appearing of our savior jesus christ all right do you see that time frame there he didn't say a human birth he says but now that means the time after jesus has appeared but now has been revealed by the appearing of our savior jesus christ who has what abolished death and brought alive and brought what life and immortality to light through the gospel oh no he brought it through human birth procreation there is no immortality in man apart from christ he brought it through the gospel that's why it's essential to obey the gospel doesn't the bible say every seed produces after its own kind genesis 1 11 and 12 and isn't that true you go out and you plant a watermelon seed are you going to pick pears off the tree it's not going to work is it produces after its own kind so here's our last text i think 1st peter chapter 1 verses 22 and 23 and watch how beautiful this is 1st peter chapter 1 verses 22 and 23 since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit in sincere love of the brethren love one another fervently with a pure heart all right love one another fervently with the pure heart you've purified your souls in obeying the truth all right first 23 sorry having been born again not a corruptible seed but incorruptible all right now that's where we tie in the bird but it's the new birth it's the birth of regeneration not the birth of generation having been born again not of what kind of seed not of corruptible or perishable seed but of imperishable why because christ alone has what immortality the only people who will live in christ are those who come to him by faith and so when you're talking about the resurrection of the dead ones in first corinthians 15 they were alive because they had to die they had to be sown but they couldn't be sown until jesus came and died in the last days but they weren't physically alive were they were they what were they alive to what were they alive to see them they died in faith not having received the promise excuse me they died in faith not having received the promise why because hebrews 9 15 says and for this cause he's the mediator of the new covenant for what reason for the redemption of the transgressions which were under what the first covenant that those who are called might receive there's your subjunctive again the promise of eternal inheritance so jesus came to take away the sins of the people in the old covenant they were alive to see what do you think about the ones who were living they were in sin too the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost they all had to die to sin that's why christ is necessary that's what resurrection is about it's about restoration to god to the father through jesus christ no man comes into the father except by me that puts you into the heavenly land the heavenly kingdom into the heavenly tabernacle where there's no need of the sun or the moon etc because the lord god and the lamb are its light and they shall bring the wealth of the nations into it it's the kingdom of god brothers and sisters i hope that lesson helped you and uh was plain enough for you i wish i could have made it short but just didn't work out at any rate uh if there's anyone here who has a desire and need to response respond to it that's the gospel message that we should be taking to the world and helping them to understand and we need to help our brothers see it so we can get rid of this concept of individual body resurrection and uh being raptured off the earth uh and and corporate does not rule out individuals everyone who was involved in that corporate process is an individual it's just a collection of individuals in the one body of christ