Blessed Hope Bible-Presbyterian Church
500 Upper Bukit Timah Rd, Singapore 678106
God’s work of redemption for fallen men is meant to rescue them from hell to heaven. The earthy, the man that lives upon earth, that is cursed to an unavoidable death, has a reprieve. And the earthy is starkly contrasted with the heavenly. The curse of the earthy is contrasted with the blessing of the heavenly.
Every believer has this hope that his mortal body will return to earth but God will remake new an immortal body. This immortal body is described as spiritual and heavenly. It is a body that is fitted for glorious, heavenly living.
The first Adam became a living being when God breathed life into him as recorded in Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
The contrast is made to highlight the glory of the resurrection body of the saints at the last day. He uses the words “incorruption, glory, power, spiritual body” to describe the glorified body given to the believer when the Lord returns.
Hymns: RHC 319 It Is Well With My Soul, 318 Blessed Assurance, My Soul Doth Wait for the LORD
Psalm 130 (KJV)
1 A Song of degrees. Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD. 2 Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. 3 If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? 4 But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. 5 I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. 6 My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning. 7 Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. 8 And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
Out of the Depths
OUTLINE
(1) Plead with God for Relief – Prayer (v1-2)
(2) Make Right with God – Penitence (3-4)
(3) Wait Upon God Meditating on His Promises – Patience (v5-6)
(4) Expect to Receive Mercy and Deliverance from God – Peace (v7-8)
The beginning of the human soul is at physical birth. Born into this world after the fall of Adam and Eve, man is plagued with the disease of sin that brings to him misery, suffering and finally death and then judgment in hell-fire. But God in His mercy did not leave men to eternal misery and torment.
Contrast is made with the glories of the bodies of sun and stars, and moon that God has made in the heavens above and the things that he has made on earth beneath, the birds, the animals, and the fishes. This contrast is made to distinguish our present physical body and the glorified body that we will receive from the Lord when He returns to bring us to glory.
This is the hope of the believer as one age and sees the decay of the earthly body. God will create anew a superior body for every believer. To the believer, there is no loss for him in the final equation in the light of eternity because God has promised to him a glorified body that will not decay and wear out like the earthly body.
Acts 27:27-44 (KJV)
27 But when the fourteenth night was come, as we were driven up and down in Adria, about midnight the shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country;
28 And sounded, and found it twenty fathoms: and when they had gone a little further, they sounded again, and found it fifteen fathoms.
29 Then fearing lest we should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern, and wished for the day.
30 And as the shipmen were about to flee out of the ship, when they had let down the boat into the sea, under colour as though they would have cast anchors out of the foreship,
31 Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved.
The Apostle Paul impresses the truth upon our hearts that the resurrection body is starkly different from our present mortal body by the illustration that the animals are different from the fishes and the birds in God’s created world. Although they are all fleshly beings but are different from one another. They provide for us the wonders of God’s creation that bring glory to Him.