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Speaker 2Chronicles is just a psalm of thanksgiving. I think that's a really good way to start our worship. How about you? To give thanks? And David writes, give thanks to the Lord and call upon his name.
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And that's what we wanna do. Make known his deeds among the people and sing sing to him. Sing praise to him. We're gonna do that. Speak of all his wonders, glory in his holy name, and let the heart of those who seek the Lord be glad.
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Wanna choose gladness this morning. Seek the Lord in his strength and seek his face continually. Shall we do that? And let's pray for strength to do that. God, we do pray for that.
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We are people that are of distraction, and I'm asking God that you would give us a heart that is, dedicated and loyal and and seeking you, because you are good and you've created us and you've created us for you. And now may this expression of praise and worship be pleasing to you and edifying to this church body. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Here we go.
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Hold on my God. Hold on my God. You're up, my friend.
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Speaker 1I wanted to keep singing. Welcome. We're glad that you're here this morning. I'm glad that everybody, I'm seeing all these football teams represented as I look out this morning. Something about that.
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Welcome and announcements. I've got a few. Middle school and high school girls study will pick back up the first week of February. Melissa and JR Lynn, would y'all stand up? There's one of em.
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There's the other one right there. The middle school girl study happens during the in between time, the connect hour. So, middle school girls downstairs in the library still, right? Is that right? Very good.
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So, that's starting back up. First week of February. The annual congregational meeting is today and it's after the second service. We had it between services one time and decided never to do that again. Because there just wasn't enough time to meet, greet, have fun, have the meeting, and then get back out of there.
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So, January 11 today at 12:15. So, right after I get through preaching today, we'll have a congregational service. Few things that we need to vote on. Most of it is kind of what do you call that? Routine.
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Yeah. But it's great. We're also looking back at a wonderful year that God has it's amazing. So, we have annual reports to booklets. If you'd like one of those, you're welcome to em.
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So, that's today after the second service. 09:00 on Thursdays, Jane Kranenburg leads a ladies study in the fellowship hall and it is, actually, it's not just for ladies but that's who comes. 12 ladies typically come to that but you're welcome. 09:00 sharp and they study from nine to eleven. Awana is on Monday nights.
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It happens at the same time as Monday nights down the hall. So, every Monday night, 06:15, meal music, and a message. Awana starts a little bit earlier about six in this room because kids matter to God and we can get scripture into their heads at this point that they can draw off of for the rest of their lives. There is also a women's Wednesday worship starting up this week, not last week, like I said, this week, January 14, that'll be Wednesday from ten to twelve and that'll have small groups associated with it too and I am time of teaching. So, that ought to be fun, ladies.
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Monday nights, these are all backwards this morning. Anyway, welcome. We're glad you're here. If you would stand up, the band will bring you back together with another rousing praise of little lord.
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Speaker 2Amen. And say hi to somebody.
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Speaker 1Thank you, Carl. Yeah. Yeah. They're picking me up.
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Speaker 2Shall we bless the Lord? Oh, Lord, that you would teach us to praise you even in the hard times, even in the rough going. We would say blessed be your name. Thank you, God, for the character that you build through trials, and thank you, God. May we pause even to thank you for when things are going wonderful and that we would still depend on you and in those times.
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Amen. Isaiah 40, the Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the earth. He never grows weak or weary. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Is that good news or what?
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You know what else is good news? That you and I can overcome because Christ has. Because Christ is living, you and I can overcome. This world gets tough sometimes. Would you agree?
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But because Christ and his sacrifice, he has overcome and we can too. And by our faith in him and through the word of our testimony in him, our faith in him that he is good and that he is alive and active. And I wanna sing that together. Seated worthy of honor Amen. Listen to this from from first John four four.
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The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. Like, is no contest between Jesus and the enemy, Satan. There... There's just not. I mean, Jesus really is more powerful.
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He is greater, and greater is he who is in us than he is in the world. And I pray that that's a truth that would really sink in for us because sometimes we think that the darkness is greater than the light, and it is not. It is really not. Can we give thanks here? Our offering team is up here, and and I wanna give thanks for everything that God has given.
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God, we do. We give you thanks that first and foremost, you are greater beyond, Lord, that we can comprehend and imagine. The darkness has not overcome the light, and God, you are light. And that light shines in and through your believers, and I pray that it would even more so. There is nothing that can extinguish that light, and I pray, God, that we would continually trust you from day to day even in the the hard things.
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And God, we thank you for every good and perfect gift that comes from you. We thank you God for, for just supplying for our needs. And this is a way for us to say thank you, and we trust you, and we give back, and here's an open hand. Rather than a closed hand in me mine, it's a, hey, this is this is because I appreciate what you've done for me. And I pray that you would use these gifts not only here in Jackson, but to the ends of the earth so that you would be known.
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That is our goal here. That you, Jesus, would be known. So we give you thanks, and we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. You can be seated.
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Speaker 1I have the privilege to be here with you doing this. Study in Corinthians together and I feel like y'all are doing that because a lot of people are coming up to me during the week and saying, oh man, this is really good and or more often, oh, this is really hard. Like, this is this is a hard thing. I don't like thinking like this. And either way, we're studying Corinthians together and I think God's primary tool for making us more like Jesus is this.
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It's it's actually getting serious about what this says and what it means and last week, when I ended up, I ended up with this slide. Actually, it was white and blue but you could barely see it. And this, I said, was one of the ways that I I thought that it was a really good illustration. It came, it comes from a book. It comes from this book actually.
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Understanding and applying the Bible by Robertson McQuick and it's a hermeneutics textbook that's used all over in lots of different seminaries. It's used in lots of Bible colleges and even high schools, Christian high schools, and whatnot but he lays these out over the first two or three maybe four chapters that this is that there are problems with these different approaches. I I put it into the bull's eye. But I think that there... These are definitely diametrically opposed and these are opposed.
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And afterwards, a lot of you came to me and said, that made sense to me. That makes a lot of sense. And I... What I ask you to do is consider where you are and try to find somebody that's opposite from you and get together. Has anybody done that this week?
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If you did, you've got a chance to go through the sermon today because chapter 13 is all about love. And talking to people that are not like you about things that matter to both of you sometimes can be very very irritating. I want to say, so understand and apply in the Bible. Great book. If you don't, if you want to see more about that concept that I had mentioned, it's in there and there's that printing of it and that printing of it.
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It's been printed for years and years and years. It'll probably continue in print and they're cheap and they're bunch of em available online But understanding and applying the Bible, the reason that I brought the book up is not to plug doctor McCookin whom I love who I love, but to say understanding is one thing but applying is something different. This chapter is 13 verses long and we've all heard it. If we've ever been to a wedding, we've heard it. You've heard it and you've it and you've heard it and it's not hard to understand.
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The applying it is the hard part in this case. So understanding and applying. We're gonna shoot straight for the center, try to get what it says, understand it in a way that we will understand, and his his concept in mind too, is you should always go back to context, where you are, when you are, and figure out what the situation was about in its contemporary context back then and then bring it forward and and do with it to apply it to our lives today. So that's what we're going to shoot for. And last week ended like this, twelve thirty one A, I ask you to consider whatever you had not considered before about that verse.
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It can be indicative or imperative but this last verse, it says, and I will show you a still more excellent way. That was kind of the teaser that Paul put out there, the commercial for this week. Chapter 13. So, first Corinthians 13, we're going to try to understand and apply the more excellent way. That's what he calls it.
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God, would you, by your spirit illuminate what we're looking at today. As I went through it this week, I I was overjoyed about the way that you love. Lord, but it also put put me face to face with my own shortcomings and my own shortfalls. So, God, would you would you build us up through the truth this morning? In Jesus name, let us see what's here.
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Amen. So, first Corinthians 13 breaks down into three really really distinct parts. This is a pastor's dream. When something breaks down into exactly three parts, it's very nice, you know? It's very easy to get a handle on.
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So indispensability of love is first, some characteristics of love are second, and then the permanence of love is last and we're going to go through understanding first. So, understand it. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I'm a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. What has he been talking about for the last chapter? Spiritual gifts.
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Grace gifts that are given to each one to manifest the spirit of God for the upbuilding of all, for the common good and so tongues is one he mentions multiple times, multiple times. In fact, it was last in the last three lists. Now, he said, now, if I do, some translations say, because I do. If I do, speak in the tongues of men and of angels, those are tongues which he normally would not understand, has not studied, but they're languages, of men and of angels, but I do it without having love, I'm a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. Do you all get that?
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Pretty simple to understand. You can do this without love, and if you do this without love, you're annoying. Sorry. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith such as to remove mountains but I have not loved, then I am nothing. It doesn't say my actions are nothing.
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It sayeth, I am nothing. It reduces me to nothing. If you have prophetic powers which he will later claim prophecies better than tongues and let me just clear that up. Prophecy is proclaiming the word of God. Proclaiming the word of God.
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It can be about future events but more often in the Bible, even Old Testament, more often, it is proclaiming that which God has said. So, prophecy, if I have the prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and all faith, I can remove mountains with it. I really am gifted but I do it without love. I, worthless. Annoying and worthless.
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If I give away all I have, what did Jesus say to the rich young ruler when he said, what must I do? He said, give away everything that you have. He could have done that if I give away all that I have. What if he went to the stake to be burned? If I deliver up my body to be burned, martyrdom.
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But if you do it without love, you gain nothing. You can't pay enough to gain anything if you do it without love. Three verses. Already getting to you. It's already getting to me.
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So six gifts, grace gifts, charismata are mentioned specifically, the grace gift of tongues by God's supernatural grace. You've been given an ability of either tongues or of prophecy or of knowledge or faith or generosity or even martyrdom which most of us would not consider a gift but it's in there, not just here, multiple times martyrdom because the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. God uses the death of his saints to further his gospel. Without love, these are worthless, even annoying, and they're unprofitable. Love is indispensable.
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Point one, over, right there. Love lives itself out. I love... I told you I was reading DA Carson's book, Showing the Spirit on this subject and one of one paragraph hit me about these four verses which we've all heard thousands of times. In these verses, love is not so much defined as it is described, not so much theoretical as practical.
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Not one element is sentimental. Everything is behavioral behavioral. It's about what you do. In fact, put the heading for a while as love does, and then I had to say, oh and it doesn't. Love does and it doesn't, that didn't work.
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Love lives itself out in what it does and in what it doesn't do. Nothing sentimental. Everything is behavioral. He gives us a model. This is what love looks like.
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Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful.
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It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things. Love believes all things. Hopes all things. Endures all things.
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There it is. Now, it feels like somebody ought to get married right here, doesn't it? Every time that you hear this, you think of it in the context of marriage and that is one loving relationship where this definitely shows up but this is about the church. Paul was writing in the middle of a study on spiritual gifts. It's right smack dab in the middle, twelve, fourteen, thirteens in the middle of it and he's saying, this supersedes all of that.
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All of the spiritual gifts that you're talking about, that you're longing for, that you're trying your best to get the one you want. This is what love looks like. This is the more excellent way. Love lives itself out. I I made a list.
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Actually, I I had a little help. I've I've listened to several different pastors this week and this one, the guy was John Piper and he said that they fall in two categories, and after he named the two categories, I put them in the list. Love is both enduring and it is humble. The green things up here, the enduring qualities is it is patient, long suffering. It bears all things, believes all things, through all things, it still believes, hopes all things.
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It's optimistic, endures all things even when things are bad. That's the enduring qualities of love. It is also humble, and humble is is humble as some of y'all say, not envious, it's not jealous, it's not boastful, it's not proud, Not arrogant. Literally, it's puffed up. Remember earlier when he said you are all puffed up and I told you it's like yeast where it just kind of grows.
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Like you ever throw a tortilla on a grill and have it just kind of see them flat? It just inflates itself. Puffed up, not arrogant, not rude. Love is not rude. It's not offensive.
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There is a way Christian that you can be offensive to the world. Please don't do it. Not insistent on its own way, not irritable, not resentful, that is the keeps no record of wrongs. Keeping account of wrongs is not resentful, and it does not rejoice at wrongdoing. So far, these are easy to understand, right?
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That's understanding this. We got it so far. That's what love looks like. Love lives itself out. It's enduring and humble and it also the only two that didn't fit a category, kind is not really enduring and not really humble.
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It's kind. It's in a category by itself and happy for the truth to come out, rejoices with the truth. That's what love does. It rejoices with the truth. Doesn't cover things up.
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If there are problems, they're open problems. There are things that we know about. It's kind and it's happy for the truth to come out because Jesus said, the truth will set us free. Recognizing in our own shortfalls is a good thing and if we in love do that, it's very very helpful in the way we live our lives. Love lives itself out.
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Got a little quote here too. It's not surprising that the opposite of love in first Corinthians 13 is not hate. Love and hate we think of and the whole yin yang we think of it. Love and hate. But it's not love and hate.
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The opposite is pride. The opposite of love is pride. The main category of what love does not do is arrogance, seeking its own way. So, we set ourselves and our self examination and we pray. Lord, reveal and destroy the pride in our lives.
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Amen. Love lives itself out. Alright. So how did Corinth measure up? Do you remember the rest of this book?
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If I went back to these lists, you could say, not envious. Oh, yeah. They were envious big time. They were envious cause they had divisions and they wanted to be some of those power mongers. Boastful, oh, they even boasted in men, not arrogant.
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No. So arrogant that they didn't care what you thought about meat offered to idols, they were going to do it. Rude? Yeah, that one too. They missed on almost every mark and it's almost in order of the other chapters that he's brought these things up.
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Paul has given this list of what love is and he's saying it's what y'all aren't. Corinth. Love lives itself out. Enduring and humble. So, third point, already.
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Permanence of love. Verse eight says, love never ends. You could stop right there. Love never ends. It is permanent.
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It will be here forever. Now, what's interesting about this is it goes on to contrast it against things that won't be here forever. As for prophecies, preaching, proclamation of God's word, what he said, what he is saying. As for prophecies, they will pass away. As for tongues, different tongues that we speak, they will cease.
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You remember Revelation, we all gathered around the throne and we will sing what? In one voice. Tongues will cease. One tongue. The tongue around the throne praising God.
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Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty. As for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. I can know a lot about this. I might be a little ahead of some of y'all and I might be behind others but I can know it but I can only know it in part.
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I can only preach it in part. But when the perfect comes or when perfection comes, when the end comes, the partial things will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child. I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child.
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When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now, we see in a mirror dimly but then, face to face. Now, I know in part, then I shall know fully even as I have been fully known. I have right here, consider the humility of the we. Paul says, for now, we, me, and you.
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I'm the guy writing the letter. I'm the guy you wrote the letter to. I'm the guy that is the authority but I know that I don't know at all. Even having been taken up into the second heaven and which he'll mention in the next letter. For now, we see in a mirror dimly.
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Have you considered what it's like to look in an ancient mirror? You look in an ancient mirror and they're burnished. I was watching a program on television recently and you can shine up a piece of flattened silver only so much and it's kind of a murky look. Even if you had the best mirror of the ancient world and you're looking in it, your scope is still limited. Right?
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If you're looking in a mirror, consider your scope. You're holding it out here. Even if it's a big mirror, all you can see is what you see in this. You can't really see that the way it is. You can only see what the mirror shows you.
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And if it's an ancient mirror, probably this size, kind of wavy. You get it, but it's not clear. We see in a mirror dimly, but then we shall see face to face. Now, I know in part, I'm not a senor Sabe Lotholo, I'm not a mister know it all. Okay?
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Now, I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. This is one of my favorite verses for funerals. The funeral of a Christian, to me, this is the most encouraging part. How many times do you go through life and wonder, Lord, why? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?
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How long will my enemy triumph over me? Lord, I want to know you more. I'm seeking after you. I'm trying to read through your word but it's just nothing's happening. I feel like my prayers are bouncing off the ceiling.
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I don't know you like I want to know you. That's the way we know now but then, we shall know just as we have been fully known. You know, God knows every hair on our heads. He knows everything about us and when that time comes, we will know everything about him. Praise God.
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That's something to look forward to. So, now we see in a mirror dimly but then face to face. Now, we know in part and then I shall know fully even as I have been fully known. So now, faith, hope, and love abide these three but the greatest of these is love and so in an effort to understand this, I want you to look at it and temporarily to consider the tenses of what's going on. Love never ends.
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So, that started before the foundation of the world and it goes until eternity future. Love never ends. Love is permanent. As for prophecies, they will pass away, okay? So, prophecies do have a time frame on em, shelf life.
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Tongues will cease, shelf life, inherently inferior to love. As for knowledge, it will pass away. Knowledge, Paul says, puffs up. Knowledge is what makes us arrogant. The more we get, the more we think we know.
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When the perfect comes, the parsha will pass away. Shelf life. When I was a child, I spoke like a child. I thought like a child, reason like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
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For now, and this is temporal. Now, there are several views as to exactly what this perfection idea means when the comes. Some people do believe that the perfect is when the closing of the canon of biblical scripture closed, that is when perfection came. Perfection, the end came to the end of this word of God, and that's a reasonable view and it fits into a schema that seems to make sense, and I don't have anything bad to say about it. There's another view that this perfection is the moment of glorification, the day of the Lord, the day of Jesus.
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I think a more straight up view of this passage looking at it for what it says, not allowing other scripture to influence it, but looking at this, we think that when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. We can see faith, hope, and love and we can see that at the day of the Lord, when Jesus returns, Faith will no longer be necessary. Does that make sense? Because faith shall be sight. We shall see it.
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Faith is no longer necessary. Hope, we are looking forward to something that will happen. Jesus has returned. It's steady and it is going to happen but once it happens, it's happened. What is left?
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A loving relationship with God for the rest of eternity. Faith, hope, and love abide now. Praise God that faith and hope are alive but love continues forever. So, I I think like I said that the that the closing of the canon is very important. There's a very good reason for wanting to put that boundary up and say that.
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Because if you don't put up the boundary that the canon of scripture closed and that was when God had given us all that was sufficient, it opens the door for the Quran. It opens the door for the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Science, whatever the Christian Science thing is. It opens the door for continuing prophecies and I think there's danger in that but I think there are other places that you can see that that's not the case. So just looking at it for what it says, consider the tenses. The only thing that is forever is love.
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Love is permanent. So love is indispensable, love lives itself out, and love is permanent. Those are as far as understanding, we could have the prayer right now, we go home ten minutes early. But we're not here just to understand what it's about. We're here to understand and apply this more excellent way.
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So, this is where I get clammed up. Three very practical starters. First of all, accept the scriptural description of love. Accept what the Bible says about love is actually true. That's the first step in applying this passage.
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Do you believe that love looks like Paul described it to the Corinthians in chapter 13? Accept that scriptural description of love as being true. That's your standard. That's what it looks like. Jesus is the exact representation of God's nature and God is love.
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John four, first John four eight, and Hebrews one three, I think. Jesus is exact representation of God's nature. So, second step in our practical start up thinking about applying this passage is substitute Jesus in the place of love and this is beautiful. Watch this. Jesus is patient and kind.
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Do you agree with that? Jesus does not envy or boast. True. Jesus is not arrogant. Would you say he ever acted arrogantly?
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Never. The Pharisees said he acted arrogantly, an arrogation of the divine prerogative when he healed the guy but he said what he did it for was to prove that the son of man has power on earth to forgive sin. He authenticated his message through wonders. He's not arrogant. What's the saying, Lauren?
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If you can brag without lying, go ahead and brag. He's not arrogant because it was true. Jesus is not arrogant and he's not rude. Jesus does not insist on his own way. Although he has made the only way to heaven, he does not insist on it.
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You have a choice. He is not going to force you into heaven. He's made a humble living way. He's not going to insist on it being the way that you choose. Jesus is not irritable or resentful.
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Everybody out there that you talk to, if they hate Christians or hate church or hate organized religion, if you ask them about Jesus, say no. Jesus is cool. He's not because he's not irritable and he's not resentful. Jesus does not rejoice at wrongdoing. Jesus rejoices with the truth.
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He said, the truth will set you free. Jesus bears all things. He bore it all to Calvary. Jesus believes all things. Jesus hopes all things.
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Jesus endures all things. Jesus never ends. That's quite an exercise looking at Jesus and going, he is exactly what that chapter describes. Here's the news. In applying first Corinthians 13, you have to pay attention to what Jesus said.
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He's our model for love and he says, just as or in exactly the same manner that as I have loved you, so you must love one another. John thirteen thirty four. Hard one to get around. Do all the hermeneutical leaps you need to. You can't get around it.
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He said, just in the same way that I love you, that's the way you're supposed to be loving one another. So, our next little practical starter here is insert your name or insert I everywhere that the Bible says love and hold this little mirror up to yourself and I'm I'm doing this and I put it in the eye not in you because I don't want you to think I'm saying you. I am patient. Is that true? I am kind Is that true?
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Is it true with everyone or is it just true with the people I don't have to be around very often? I do not envy in Jackson Hole. I do not boast in Jackson Hole. I am not arrogant. Is that true?
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I am not rude. Is that true? I do not insist on my own way. I am not irritable. I am not resentful or I keep no record of wrongs.
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I like that version. I do not rejoice at wrongdoing. Oh, one day they're going to get theirs. But I rejoice with the truth. I bear all things.
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I believe through all things. I hope through all things. I endure all things. How do I measure up? I have never felt so unlovely as when I was preparing these slides for this morning.
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Am I enduring and humble? Am I kind? Am I glad for the truth to come out? Or would I rather it stay hidden? Going way back to the beginning of this book, as bad as this might make you feel to look at yourself in this light and see, I am not loving.
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I'm certainly not loving like Jesus is loving and I'm his representative here. I'm the continuing part member of his body. What the world believes about the church comes from how we love them. In this process of sanctification between belief and our day of the Lord glorification. This is the process where God by his spirit works on us and for me this week, the Holy Spirit was stirring constantly saying, you could be more loving.
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You could wipe clean that list of wrongs suffered. In order for me to be sanctified, I must yield to my lord. I must yield to the Holy Spirit and what Paul is saying to them, he's saying to us. He's saying exactly that. If this is not the way you're loving, you're not loving.
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The work of the Holy Spirit in our lives lets us know to be kind, to not be arrogant, to not be proud, to not boast. Am I humble? Am I enduring? This is the only way that we can be. Christ was and we've all acknowledged that.
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I see the smiles on your face when you see, yeah, that he is like that. He's like that with me. Patient and kind. Yeah. Not forcing my hand.
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To those who are being saved, the power of God is not just for salvation. To those who are being saved, the power of God is about sanctification and cleaning us up and making us more and more and more into the image of his son, and that's what this chapter is about. So you have a choice to go with, do I believe it Or do I think that's just foolishness? I think that's the last lie. They'll know we're Christians by our love.
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Would you stand with us and we'll sing together? We could almost, it it isn't a minor key, and usually minor key songs are either sad or somber. This can be sad or somber, or it can be the hope that this world has. Amen.
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Speaker 2That one cuts deep, doesn't it? But it is so good. Seriously. Can we... Let let me...
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Let's pray before we sing. Oh, lord, how good are you? How good are you? And, well, thank you for your love. We do recognize that we fall short, and when we sing these songs, they are ideal.
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But the way that we act is often not. And so we're not just making this, our song. We're making it our prayer, our expression of worship, our our our our agreement with your word saying, help us to love each other as you have loved. Amen.
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Speaker 1Amen. And I got a long benediction for you today but listen to it. Four, seven. It's first John four seven. Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
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He who does not love does not know God. For God is love. In this, the love of God was manifested towards us that God has sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we love God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, then we also ought to love one another.
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Amen. Amen. Amen. I have I have the privilege of doing this. Studying first Corinthians together.
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That's what I I think. This is my job. This is something that I get to do all the time and I really really enjoy it but I what I also enjoy is when people come in and they say, wow, this is really good or wow, this is really hard which is probably more honest response to first Corinthians because it's so so deals with sin and what's wrong in the church at Corinth and so, I just enjoy studying first Corinthians together and we are doing this in order and we're in the middle, right in the middle of a study on the spiritual gifts. What has been called the the great, well, that's what it says. The the grace gifts that God gives to each one of us.
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He gives them individually to manifest himself to the world and for the common good of the church. So, studying first Corinthians together, it's right in the middle and you need to remember that. The context is right in the middle of study on spiritual gifts. He has been going off for some time now especially pointing out the one that it seems the Corinthians had been paying the most attention to. The gift of speaking in tongues, prophecy comes up quite a bit, and a lot of the charismatic giftings, the one most of y'all would would recognize that way.
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Last week though, I said, this, and this received a lot of attention afterwards. I said, that diagram really helped me to think about things and I didn't come up with this. Robertson McQuilkin wrote this book, and I mentioned him last time. He wrote the book. The first four chapters are basically this.
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I put it into the bull's eye, but the dogmatic is diametrically opposed to the existential way of seeing scripture. The supernaturalistic is directly opposed to naturalistic, and we can really fall pretty much anywhere on that spectrum, that on that bull's eye, and we can fall way outside of the bull's eye and not care at all either. But our goal is to be right there, shooting straight in the center, not too far to either side. And that book is a great one. If you're having trouble with your past church history keeping you too far in one camp or another, this might be a good place to start.
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Understanding and applying the Bible by Robertson McCook and I know of about five or six seminaries, different denominational slants that all use this as their hermeneutics textbook. How you understand and apply the Bible. Dave's favorite word. I see you over there, Dave. It's been reprinted a bunch of different times.
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So, it might look different but you can Amazon that puppy and and there are plenty of em and they're cheap but it's really really good. If you want to just borrow one, I have a couple But that comes from that and what we're shooting for is to get a good, even handed view of scripture and understand what it is that it says. One of the things that Robertson McCookin would say is you need to understand it in the context that was written because words mean something. They meant something to the person writing them, even inspired by the spirit. They meant something to the guy writing them and they meant something to the original recipients.
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They carry weight and they still apply to us today is what we're after. How does that apply? So it's not just about understanding that context, but it's about applying it to our lives today. So the last part of last week's service, said, Paul builds into chapter 13. He launches us in twelve thirty one b and says, and I will show you a still more excellent way.
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So we are going to today go through all of chapter 13, there are only 13 verses, and seek to first understand what they mean, and then second, to apply them. So, this is our task before us. It's really nice when a preacher looks at a passage and it has three points. You don't have to you don't have to manufacture one and you don't have to kick others out. This passage has three main sections and these are they.
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The indispensability of love. Love is absolutely indispensable. Next, we get some characteristics of love in verses four through seven and then the permanence of love and understanding part of this sermon is going be about those three things and it's straightforward because I don't think that this is, honestly, I don't think it's hard to understand. Understand it. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I'm a noisy gong or a clanging symbol.
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So, what has he been talking about in chapter 12? He's mentioned tongues about four or five times and he knows that that's what they're emphasizing. They have mentioned it earlier in the book too. Speaking in tongues is one of the gifts that they see to be very elevated and they are looking after. I even changed twelve thirty one a, may have changed it for some of you.
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There's only one translation that I know of that presents it as an indicative verb there where y'all are earnestly desiring the higher gifts but I'm going to show you a more excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I'm a noisy gong or claiming some. What's he saying? Doesn't matter if I speak in tongues, if I don't have love, I am annoying. Annoying.
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Meaningless. And if I have prophetic powers. Now, prophecy I mentioned was the foretelling and the forthtelling. More often than not in the Bible is the forthtelling of God's word. This is what the Lord has said.
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In the pages of scripture, this is what it is. So, my job, this office is proclamation of the word. It's a prophetic type thing. May not be your idea of the charismatic movement but it's the proclamation of God's word. If I have prophetic powers and I understand all the mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith, such as to remove mountains.
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Can you imagine? Have any of y'all worked with peak fates for just a little while? You ever grab a shovel and try to move a mountain? No. Faith wise.
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So, as to remove mountains but I have not love, I am nothing. It doesn't say that my efforts are nothing. It reduces me if I have all prophetic powers, all mysteries, all knowledge, and all faith. That's a pretty good combo there of gift mix but if I do those, if I practice those without love, then I am nothing. I am nothing.
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That's something. If I give away all that I have, what did Jesus tell the rich young ruler to do? When he said, what must I do? He said, give away everything that you have and fall after me and he's walked away and didn't do it but Paul says, if I did though, like the rich, young ruler, give away all that I had like Jesus asked him to or if I deliver my body to be burned, martyrdom, the gift, charismata of martyrdom, the gift of martyrdom. If I deliver up my body to be burned but have not love, then I gain nothing.
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So it's unprofitable. Annoying, worthless, and unprofitable without love. Six gifts specifically mentioned, tongues, prophecy, knowledge, faith, generosity, and martyrdom and we would say probably, as God uses them properly in the context of love, those are, that's a fantastic mix of gifts but he's saying without love and it's possible to do this without love. They're worthless, annoying, and unprofitable. So, that's not hard to understand.
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Love is indispensable. If you want to live the Christian life and you want to be someone that is godly, then you must love. Love is indispensable. Without it, worthless, annoying, unprofitable. Next, love and I changed it from some characteristics of love to love lives itself out.
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Love lives itself out. DA Carson, I'm reading the book, Showing the Spirit. I'm just kind of I'm keeping up with him as we go in order these sermons and I love what he said about that. In these verses, just three verses or four verses. In these verses, love is not so much defined as it is described.
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Not so much theoretical as practical. Not one element is sentimental. Everything is behavioral. This talks about what love does and what love doesn't do. Love is patient and kind.
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Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.
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Love bears all things. Believes all things. Hopes all things, and you could actually put through in there, believes through all things, hopes through all things, endures through all things. Love lives itself out. Make that thing move, Lindsay.
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Love is patient. Can you flip through these for me, Ren... Lindsay? Love is patient, kind, does not envy, boast, not arrogant, rude, does not insist on its way, not irritable, not resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, rejoices with the truth.
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Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Now, would you take this man? Would you take this woman? It feels like a wedding. Every time we hear that.
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It's a description of love and it does not matter if it's man to wife love or if it's love of a congregation, one member for another, or for one church with another denomination. Love is love and this is the way that it is. Love lives itself out. I put in the green things, the kind of positive stuff, and the pink, I put the other stuff and if you really look at it and you break it down, there are two categories and I didn't name em. I actually read something by Piper where he named them enduring and humble and I agree with him.
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The enduring ones, patient, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. That's great. That's that shows a patience, a calm, long suffering attitude that shows that you can and will endure because love can and will endure. And humility is the other one, humble or humble as some of you say. Not envious or jealous, not boastful or proud, not arrogant.
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Literally, the word there is puffed up and puffed up we've seen before in the chapters where he's talking about you are puffed up even where you're definitely wrong, you're puffed up. Have you ever thrown a tortilla onto a grill and just seen it sand fly? Where it just kind of fills itself up and it's puffed up. It's the same tortilla, right? It's just a tortilla but it's puffed up.
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Not rude, that is offensive, not insistent on its own way, not irritable, not resentful, keep an account of wrongs, that not resentful is, yep, that's how they hurt me, yep, that's how they hurt me. Yep, they did that wrong. Yep, they did that wrong. Keeping an account, keeping a list, resenting someone for what they have done in the past. They do not rejoice at wrongdoing.
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So, that's humble. Enduring and humble. There are two other ones that actually are there that don't fit neatly into these categories and one of em is that love is kind. Kind and the other is that love rejoices when the truth advances. Man, you're getting a picture of what love is?
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Love lives itself out. It's enduring and humble. It also is kind and happy for the truth to come out. It's not trying to hide the truth. It wants for the truth to come out.
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My prayer this morning is that we would be ready for the truth about ourselves to come out. Love lives itself out. Now, how did Corinth measure up? If you look at the list, the love is patient and kind. You can see every one of them if you start at Corinthians in the first chapter, you can see that they were not patient.
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They weren't even patient with Paul getting the letter back to him. They weren't patient with one another. They were not being kind to one another. They had division all over the place. Some of the division was about people being puffed up about their own opinion.
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It is absolutely a list, a rebuke. The most beautiful chapter, the one we read at every wedding. It was a rebuke to people who were not living in a way that was loving. So Corinth was not measuring up very well, and that's Paul's point, right in the middle of the spiritual gifts. You're arguing over which one is the best.
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This is the way. Actually, in this service, I listened this week to a sermon that Bud Searles did a few weeks back when I went out to Nepal and so Bud's sermon was fantastic. I love that. And I started thinking about it listening to his sermon last early in the week this week. I started thinking about how it affects me, how it affects me.
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That's where this application thing was really heavy on my heart this week. The permanence of love is the third point. Love never ends. You can stop right there. Love never ends.
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It's permanent but Paul then contrast it with other things that do have an end. As for prophecies, proclamations will end. They will pass away and as for tongues, they will cease. Actually, it's a middle verb, meaning, they will cease of their own accord. When we're standing together all around the throne and we're singing in one voice, one tongue, holy, holy, holy, cease.
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Tongues ceased. There's another interpretation, another possibility for that, that tongues ceased after the apostolic era and that they ceased because they were no longer necessary. We have the whole word of God and I will not decry that one bit. It is a way of looking at it. It's a it's a decent way of looking at it.
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You have to bring in other things but in this passage right here, it's pretty obvious that tongues will cease and knowledge, it will pass away. So, that's at sometime future to Paul. To us, is it past? Knowledge has not passed away. We're still proclaiming prophecies have not passed away.
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So, it's hard to just say hard and fast, this passed away. God may still choose to use that. We have to just deal with it the way it is. For now, or for we know in part and we prophesy in part, we proclaim in part. I can know this well and I might know this better than some of y'all and I might not know it as well as some of the rest of y'all but I can only know it in part.
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I cannot know it fully. But I can proclaim that which I know and so can you. Even if it's just a little bit. I had one guy this year that his his testimony is he doesn't know what happened to his life except for when he gave it to Jesus. He now just knows who he is in Jesus and so when people say, what happened?
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He goes, Jesus, man. Which is a great, it's a great testimony. Jesus, man. He he he's taking over. For we know in part and we prophesy in part but when the perfect comes or when teleos, perfection comes, the partial will pass away.
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Now, this is where there is a way of figuring out when is this perfection? Is it the closing of the canon at the end of the first century AD? It could be and I won't argue with you if you say that's the case. It could also be and I'll tell you in a bit. It could also be the day of the Lord.
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When the time comes that we see Jesus face to face, these things will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. Looking back and seeing that, he's saying, so far, you've been acting one way, but there is a time that you have to mature and you have to start living this out. Love lives itself out.
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For now, we see in a mirror dimly, but then we'll see face to face. Now, I know in part, then I shall know fully even as I have been fully known. There are couple things to think about just in these verses, this third part about the permanence of love. One of em is, I love this and it struck me this week, the humility of the we right there. So, Paul is speaking to him this other group of people.
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He doesn't say, you see in a mirror dimly. He says, we. See in a mirror dimly. All of us know in part. We don't know it fully.
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Even though Paul was taken up in the second heaven and we'll tell them that in the second Corinthians. He did not claim this absolute knowledge. Now, was the Holy Spirit using him and writing scripture that is absolutely true and absolute knowledge? Yes. But there's a humility to the word we.
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For now, we all as human beings see in a mirror dimly. Consider the mirror for a minute too. A mirror from the ancient world about that time, usually handheld mirrors would be about this big and they're made out of, you know, they could be brass or they could be gold or could be silver. Could could be any metal pretty much shined up, polished, burnished, flattened as best they could do, but it's still not that silvered glass mirror that we're used to that gives you a really really clear picture of what's going on. Antique mirrors, those old mirrors, give a picture of what's going on but it's not completely clear.
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The other thing is a mirror is limited in scope. When I'm looking at myself in a mirror, I see myself okay, but I can't see what's going on over there or over there or over there. I can't see everything. It's limited in scope and honestly, when we look in the mirror, we're usually looking at ourselves. So, we're not thinking so much about other people.
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Not often do you use a mirror to look at somebody else? You would just look at em, right? So, for we see in a mirror dimly, kind of a rough, oh, rough version of what's going on but my favorite verse for funerals is this one, but then, we'll see face to face. Whether it is when we meet our earthly demise and we see Jesus face to face, it says, now I know in part, but then I shall know fully. You know, God knows every hair on your head.
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God knows everything that there is about every single one of us and he knows us fully, completely. Knit us together in our mother's womb, knows us very, very, very well. And this verse says, that I shall know fully just as I'm fully known. That's comforting for Christian at death. That's very very comforting.
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So, consider the tenses of all these two. Love never ends. So, that started before it, I mean, in eternity past, before the foundation of the world and it continues for an eternity future. Love never ends. It always has been.
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God is love. It always will be. Same yesterday, today, and forever. So, that's the tense on that one. As for prophecies, they will pass away.
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So, it ends. It has a shelf life. Tongues will cease. Knowledge, pass away. For we know in part, we prophesy in part.
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We are knowing and we are prophesying in part. But when the perfect comes, all that will pass away. For now we see in a mirror dimly. Now I know in part, I shall know. I...
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Just as I have been fully known. God has known you forever and you shall know him one day if you put your faith and trust in Jesus, his loving provision for sin. Now, faith, hope, and love abide. They are abiding right now. They exist.
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Faith, hope, and love. These three. Now, think about this. Faith is we are looking forward to and we are putting a confident belief in something that will come to pass. Faith.
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Would you all agree with that? We're doing that right now. We can put our faith in something right now but at that great and mighty day of the Lord, when we see him face to face, will faith be necessary? No. That will pass.
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Hope. Hope, confident assurance, and that which will come to pass. The incorruptible hope of Christ Jesus, his return, our future with him in heaven. When we get there, will there be need for hope? Nope.
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But love will continue throughout eternity just as within the godhead, we will love him and he will love us and it will be unclouded. So, love is permanent. Those are the three points for the understanding part of the sermon. Love is indispensable. Love lives itself out and love is permanent.
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So, that part of the sermon is about understanding. I spend a lot of time on the understanding part. In some ways, I just like to do the understanding part because I want for you to understand it, break it down however necessary in small pieces if necessary and give it to you so that you can understand it and I expect that the Holy Spirit working in your heart will allow you to put that shoe on if it fits, right? Yield yourself to what God has for you. That's that's the deal.
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That's what I do. When I'm looking to understand, I'm understanding it with an eye towards applying but today, I'm going to go more into the applying and I'm going to do a little bit of step by step. I'll give you three of the first most practical steps that you can do for understanding and applying this most excellent way. First of all, I just challenge you to accept the scriptural definition and description of love. That it is what it says it is.
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That it is actually patient, kind, and all those things. Love is that. So, accept that. If you can get your mind around it, the understanding part of that, accept it. Let it hit home.
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This is what it is and second, I want to go here. God is love. We get that from first John four eight and Jesus is the exact representation of God's nature. Jesus is the glory of the living God, the exact representation of God's nature. That's from Hebrew Hebrews one three.
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If we take that, let's substitute Jesus in the place of love. We put Jesus's name anywhere where it says love because Jesus is love. Jesus is patient and kind. Do you agree with that? Is that true?
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Absolutely true. Jesus does not envy or boast. No. Jesus does not. He had plenty of reason, plenty of reason, but he does not.
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And if he had, if he had said how good he was, he was that good. My grandfather had a slogan and he said, if you can brag without lying, go ahead on and brag. Usually bragging is lying. Jesus is not boastful. He's not arrogant or rude.
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Jesus is not irritable or resentful. Does he keep a record of wrongs, Christians? Throwing them far as the East is from the West. That's why he died. He's not resentful.
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Jesus does not rejoice at wrongdoing. But Jesus rejoices with the truth. The truth he says is what will set you free. Realizing your shortfall is the beginning step to saying, I am sinful and you are not and I want to accept the grace given. That sets you free.
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Rejoice with that truth. Jesus bears all things. Jesus believes through all things. Jesus hopes all things. He endures all things.
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Jesus never ends. I think that's my mic going. So, as we think about that, we've accepted that it's true and now we're looking to Jesus and seeing that that is the way that he loves. The next step, as hard as it is to see, Jesus gives us in John thirteen thirty four. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
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Just as I have loved you in the same way that I have loved you, so you must love one another. Is that humanly possible? Humanly? No. It takes the love of God.
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We can love one another because he first loved us. But he's commanding us to do it. Just as I have, so you must. That is a command. So, the application phase of this sermon is this, now substitute I in the place of love.
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We just did it with Jesus and it rings completely true and we all agree on it. So, let's do that and I'm not saying you, I'm saying I but I want you to read through it in your in your head, say it to yourself and just as we did with Jesus, see if it's true. I am patient. Is that true? I am kind Is that true?
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I do not envy in Jackson Hole. I do not boast in Jackson Hole. I am not arrogant I am not rude. Is that true? I do not insist on my own way.
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Jesus, in the Garden Of Gethsemane, after having lived a perfectly righteous life said, if it be possible, lord, take this way, this cup away from me but if not, your will be done. He did not insist on his way. I'm not irritable. I am not resentful. I do not rejoice at wrongdoing but I rejoice with the truth.
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Is that true? I bear all things. I believe through all things. I hope through all things. I'm optimistic.
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I endure all things. I'm long suffering and patient. Is that true? Now, the Corinthians don't look so bad, do they? The Corinthians look just like they're in exactly the same state we are.
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If you remember chapter 11, he was telling them about the Lord's supper. You gotta treat people with love. Wait, take care of one another and this just builds on it and it's a very personal bud called it he had gotten to the point where he just kind of got fed up and he said, no, this and he's just finally to the point but he's right in the middle of the study of spiritual gifts and you have to think about that. All of the arguing throughout all of the ages over spiritual gifts and what they mean and when the time comes even, when that time comes where everything is perfect, all of the arguing that we've done, if we do it with this in mind about ourselves, I think there'd be less arguing going on. We would see how limited our scope is.
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So, honestly, how do I measure up? Am I enduring and humble? Am I kind? Am I glad for the truth to come out? So, the truth is, we all fail.
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We all falter right here and the process that God has us going through, we've talked about this a lot since the beginning of this book. God chose from the beginning the way that it was. The cross was the way Life, death, burial, resurrection session if you want to include it. This is Christ's work. It's been done.
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The gospel witness goes forth and at some point, we believe that gospel and we take it in and once we have that, we've accepted God's way. We've confessed our sin. We've called out to him for help and faith. It begins a process whereby God is sanctifying us, cleaning us up, consecrating us, making us more and more into the image of his son as we are yielded to him. It starts with the truth of knowing that we are not like God and it grows saying that we do yield our lives and want to become more like you and through this sanctification process which is the work of the Holy Spirit, through this process, we can become more and more and more loving.
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Until the day of the Lord and then, we shall know just as we are known and then, perfection will be there. That will be the place where we know the whole deal. We know everything about when this stuff was talking about. We will understand it better by and by but that sanctification process starts with what you do with this. The message of the cross to those who are being saved is the power of God.
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It's not just the power of God for salvation. It's the power of God for this sanctification. So, as you look in the scripture and you see this tough lesson like this to see yourself in a mirror that does not, you don't look so good but Christ has made the way for you to love and he says, the way that the world is going to come to know me and experience my love is through you. So, I want to read something James Montgomery Boyce wrote about this. Do those who are not yet Christians, well, let me back up.
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Oh Lord Jesus, teach me to love others as you love. When we pray this way, God will help us and we will begin to grow in the love and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do those who are not yet Christians see God in you? It's a breathtaking thought but this verse teaches that they can and will if you will love others. Will you?
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Remember that this is not a divine invitation to as I have loved you so you must love one another. It's not a divine invitation and it's not like Jesus said, won't you please love others? It's not even a series of steps to successful living like you will be happier if you love one another. It's Christ new command, love one another. God grant that we shall do that and in doing so, we may truly be his disciples.
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So, I have one song and it's the natural for this occasion. They'll know we are Christians by our love. If you want to talk about it, if you feel like some god's uncovering something in your life and you want to talk about it, I'm here a lot, all the time and I'm available a lot here all the time and I'll meet you wherever you are. Even including during this song, if you want to come down front because you're Southern Baptist. I'll be glad to.
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And it would be just like home for me. But they will know we are Christians by our love. It's hymn number four twenty nine. Would you stand together and we'll sing this? Minor key, a bit somber, but this is the way that they're going to know.
