The chapter of 1 Corinthians
chapter 13 that Brad just read to us is often used in the setting
of, say, a wedding or to remember and to consider in order to remember
to love. Charity is a word that perhaps
in the older English when it was translated from the New Testament
Greek was used to mean love and for some reason the translators
used the word that's translated charity here and translated it
as love elsewhere in scripture. So I'm not sure why they chose
the word charity because it turns out that in our day and age charity
sometimes just means being kind to the poor or giving to a organization
that you get a tax refund or something like that. But it means
much more than that as you can see from the reading here. And
it means a lot more than what is used when we use it in the
context of a wedding or something like that as well. The Corinthian
church was a church that had many problems. And the problems
they had were all over the place. One of the biggest problems they
had was that, well, one of the first problems that's mentioned
is that they were critical of the apostle Paul. And they doubted,
some of them doubted that he was even an apostle or that he
was, they compared him to other apostles, and so they had this
problem of comparison and judgmental, critical spirit. And it was that
kind of an attitude that led them, on the one hand, to look
at other people in their church and either consider them lower
because they didn't have the gifts that they had, or be envious
of them because they didn't possess the gifts that those others had.
So this led to these problems where one of the members would
claim to be a Christian by the means of Peter or Apollos or
Paul, and then this competition, this ambition to be better than
another, it led to what's called schisms. And that's where people
group together within an organization and they sort of take sides,
one against the other. And they had this attitude and
the apostle Paul says where we were just reading there that
verse 11 of chapter 13, when I was a child, I spake as a child,
I understood as a child, and I thought as a child. And he
has some reference to the Corinthians in this. In chapter 3, he says
they're carnal. In chapter 11, he corrected them
because they didn't take the Lord's Supper properly. They
viewed it as a feast, and some had a lot, some had nothing.
Some went hungry, and some were drunk. So you can see, and then
there was other issues with the Corinthian church. Some people
were taking other members of the church to court in lawsuits. And then one man was committing
sexual immorality with his father's wife. So they were completely
messed up. Now, in the beginning of this
book, if you were to go back and look at the beginning of
this book, the things that the apostles spoke here leave no
doubt that these were believers. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and
verse 2, he says, unto the church of God, which is at Corinth,
to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints,
the sanctified ones, with all in every place With all that
in every place, call on the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both
theirs and ours." So it's clear here that these were believers.
And then he goes on in the 17th verse and he talks about how
in correcting them about the baptism, they were focusing on
that. He said, Christ didn't send me to baptize, but to preach
the gospel. And he goes on, and he tells
them in the clearest language that Christ and him crucified
is the gospel, and that's what he's sent to preach. In chapter
2, verse 2, I determine not to know anything among you save
Jesus Christ and him crucified. So this was the message of Paul
to the Corinthians in the beginning, and this was his message at this
time when he addresses all of these serious problems in this
church. There were divisions among them.
There were envyings and strife. Who was the greatest? Were they
of Paul or Apollos or Cephas, Peter? Did they have this gift
or that? And those in chapter 12 and 13
and 14, he's addressing this. these problems that they had.
And one of the big problems they had was this matter of speaking
in tongues, it's called, or actually it just means speaking in languages
that you did not learn, but you were enabled to speak by the
Spirit of God. that was a gift. It was given
in the early church in the book of Acts, if you read chapter
2, all of these different nations, and I think there were, I don't
know, 15, 17 different nations named there, and each one of
them represents a different language. And yet when Peter was preaching,
all who heard him, heard as if he was speaking in their mother
tongue, and that was that gift that God gave to them. They were
declaring the wonderful works of God. They were declaring the
gospel through the gift of the Holy Spirit to these who heard
them, and they were hearing them in their own language. And so
tongues is used in modern times to suggest that there's some
kind of a gibberish that people use, and they don't understand
it, but they're somehow edified by it. And then there might be
other people who can figure it out while they're talking and
explain it to others, interpreting it. But there's a number of errors
with that. Number one, it's not gibberish.
It's a language. It's for people to hear. Number
two, it's to communicate the gospel. And number three, as
it says here in chapter 12, that God has said, summon the church
first. And he lists them, apostles and prophets and teachers and
so on. He goes to miracles and gifts of healing. And then he
lists, last of all, the diversity of tongues or languages. So it's
clear that these things that he lists here are not all present
today. in the church. And the reason
for that is that this was written at a time before the Bible was
completed. The scriptures had not yet been
completed. And once the scriptures were
completed, and by the way, the completion of the scriptures
is called a canon, just C-A-N-O-N, not two N's. Canon meaning the
measuring reference to what is true. The scriptures are God's
complete revelation to us today. And so we don't need these things
that were given in the early church to validate the word that
was preached by the apostles. If you were to look at Acts chapter
8, we won't do that, but Philip had been preaching the gospel
and many heard and believed him, but they didn't receive the gift
of the Holy Spirit until the apostles came down and laid their
hands on them. And so it's clear from that text
of scripture that the gift of the Holy Spirit, which was part
of that gift, was the ability to speak in these languages,
to communicate the gospel. That gift was only given through
the laying on of the apostles' hands. And since there were only
12 apostles, and once they were dead, the scriptures were not
only completed, but also there was no more need for this laying
on of hands because God wasn't communicating that gift anymore,
just as he's not communicating these other gifts that way. There
are no one today who has the gift of healing. If there were,
then they would be going to the Veterans Center and giving legs
to soldiers who lost them, or hands, or whatever was missing,
eyes to the blind, the ability to speak to those who can't,
and so many more things, healing, going to cancer centers, wherever
the sick are, they would go there and they would heal them. But
they don't, because they can't, because there's no such gift
today. Because the issue is not physical healing. The issue is
spiritual healing, and there's nothing greater than the gift
that God gives to a sinner to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
In fact, if you were to look at John chapter 14, where we
are in the sermon today, I'm going to be spending a lot of
time in 1 Corinthians, but in John chapter 14, Jesus says this
to his disciples, In verse 12, he says, verily, verily, I say
to you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall
he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because
I go to my Father. And then he goes on to say, whatever
you ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be
glorified in the Son. If you shall ask anything in
my name, I will do it. So it's clear that when the Lord
Jesus ascended to his father and sent his spirit into the
world, that Christ was in his people by his spirit, and he
was accomplishing works that were far more extensive than
the works he did while he was physically on the earth. And
that refers to the building of the church. Remember, the building
of the church was what the gates of hell would not prevail against,
and Christ would do that through the preaching of the gospel.
So that's why Christ sent the Apostle Paul to the Corinthian
church and to other churches, was to preach the gospel. And that's what he did. But these
Corinthians were messed up because they were getting these gifts.
Some had gifts of this, that, and the other. And those who
had the least gift, which was this one to speak in other languages,
had an attitude problem. Those who didn't have the gifts
they thought were best, they envied. And those who had the
gifts boasted. And one of the things that the
apostle told the Corinthians many times, I think he told them
five different times in this one book here, is that you are
puffed up. Puffed up, your head is swelled
up with pride. And so you can see that if you
just take all these things together and you look what the apostle
said here, he preaches the gospel. He exhorts them to faith in Christ. And he tells them that love,
not these other things, is going to endure. And love is the more
excellent gift. That is the most excellent gift.
Look at 1 Corinthians 14 verse 1. 1 Corinthians 14 verse 1. This is right after what Brad
just read to us. He says, follow after charity
and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that you may prophesy.
And I'm not going to get into the details, but the part I wanted
to emphasize here is follow after charity. He means to earnestly
pursue with a desire to have and to receive this gift from
God, which is love. And you know, so many times,
just read the Bible, especially the New Testament, how the Lord
emphasizes this one grace of the Spirit of God that's given
to his people, which is love for one another. love for one
another. And let me take you to a couple
of verses of scripture to highlight this again. In John, the gospel,
John chapter 13, he says in verse 33, little children, yet a little
while I'm with you, you shall seek me, and as I said to the
Jews, whither I go, you cannot come, so now I say to you, a
new commandment I give unto you. This is it, that you love one
another. Notice how I want to underscore
this, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. He
brackets it. Love one another as I have loved
you, that you also love one another. You see, such importance. By this, he said, shall all men
know that you are my disciples if you have love one to another.
Now, you can pick up the epistle of 1 John and you will read about
this love there. In 1 John, look at 1 John, the
epistle, and I want to just read a couple of verses there to you. He says in verse 11, 1 John chapter 3, I'm sorry, actually
we're going to read from verse 9. 1 John chapter 3 verse 9,
Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin, for his seed
remaineth in him. He's talking about the Spirit
of God. That's God's seed. Christ in us, the hope of glory. Christ in you, your life. He
says, for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because
he's born of God. Whatever's born of God doesn't
sin because it's God's own nature imparted to us in the new birth.
just like the nature of our father, it's only sinful, but the spirit
of God given to us is only holy. Verse 10, in this the children
of God are manifest and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth
not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his
brother. You see, Neither he that loveth not his brother.
This is the message that we heard from the beginning, that we should
love one another, not as Cain, see that's the beginning, who
was of that wicked one and slew his brother, and wherefore slew
he him? Because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous.
It was envy. Marvel not, my brethren, if the
world hate you. You know that we have, we know
that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren.
He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Look at verse
16. Hereby we know, hereby perceive
we the love of God because he laid down his life for us and
we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Look at chapter
4 and verse 7. Chapter 4, verse 7, 1 John. He
says, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God,
and everyone that loveth is, notice, born of God and knoweth
God. So it's pretty clear, isn't it?
In fact, it's so clear that it makes me wonder, do I know God? Have I been born of God because
of these things? But in 1 Corinthians 14, verse
1, this word follow, it means to earnestly seek after, which
means we obviously must seek it from the Lord, the one who
is the giver of every good and perfect gift, right? Isn't that
what James 1.17 says? The Father is the giver of every
good and perfect gift. And this love is, he says in
1 John 4.7, is what all those who are born of God do. So it's
the result of a spiritual birth by the Spirit of God, our Father,
the Spirit of Christ in us. It's not something that we can
generate. Even though it may seem good
when we look at these words from 1 Corinthians 13, what we have
to realize is that from man to love, for a person to love, to
know love, to believe in the love of God and to be an object
of His love and to actually exercise that love in my life. That person
must be loved of God and all of the love that they have must
arise from the goodwill of the Father and must be in Christ
must spring up in me by the Spirit of Christ in me, who is the Spirit
of God, sent from Christ, the head of the body, to all of his
members, and that I and they, all of the members of Christ
as one, might know and believe and have the assurance of and
exercise the love of God in my life. And this is the love of
God. And therefore, if I possess this
love, it is the result of God's electing love, and of Christ
redeeming love, and by his blood, by which he obtained my redemption
and gave me the spirit of God. And therefore, without God's
sovereign grace and election and redemption and the new birth,
I cannot know and I cannot love God. I cannot love his people.
It's the gift of God. In Galatians chapter 5 and verse
22, he says this, the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit, something
the Spirit produces, the fruit of the Spirit is love. That's what it says in Galatians
5.22, in love. And then he goes on and describes
all the things, this is important, that are the result of that love.
which includes joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. Okay, so you can see that love
is put at the first of the list because it's the chiefest. He
says in 1 Corinthians 3, now abideth faith, hope, and charity,
these three, but the greatest of these is charity. Love is
the more excellent, isn't it? We believe on Christ, don't we?
Do you? Is the Lord Jesus Christ your
only hope? That when you stand before God,
that you would shudder to think that you would expect recognition
from the Lord Jesus Christ for something that you did, doesn't
that make you utterly loathe yourself to even think
that you might try to claim, well I, just fill in the sentence, No,
no, I want to be found only in Christ. In the day of judgment,
now in my conscience, at the cross, from eternity, find me,
O Lord, in your Son. That's what faith does. And we
can't see that now, can we? But one day we will. Now we walk
by faith. We do not walk by sight now.
But in glory, when we're given a spiritual body to see the Lord
Jesus Christ, then we will no longer need faith, because we'll
see him as he is, and we'll know even as we are known, as he says
here in verse 12 of 1 Corinthians 13. But to love requires the
Spirit of Christ in us. because Christ is love. In fact, as Brad mentioned, not
only this time, but the last time I asked him to read this
chapter, and this is true of this text of Scripture. All of
these attributes, these qualities described in 1 Corinthians 13,
are just merely describing the attributes and qualities of the
love of Christ, aren't they? When you read it in that light,
he first says, look, it doesn't matter what I have as a gift,
even as a spiritual gift, if I do not love, it's nothing. That's what he's saying here.
And I might somehow rise to the ability to give my body to be
burned in order to obtain something from God. But if I do not have
this love, which is the gift of God's grace, by the Spirit
of Christ in me, because Christ died for me, then I'm nothing.
It doesn't matter. I've wasted that sacrifice of
my body Because I try to obtain which is only given to me by
grace and the result of God's love. It's the same thing with
everything here. If I give all that I have to
the poor, like the rich young ruler, it doesn't do me any good. Which proves that the rich young
ruler could never have obtained eternal life that way. So if I bestow all my goods to
feed the poor, though I give my body to be burned, it profits
me nothing if I don't have love, if I can even remove mountains. by some spiritual gift of faith,
but I do not have this love that arises from the spring of the
Holy Spirit of God in me, because Christ died for me. And God the
Father has given Christ for me and given His Spirit to me because
Christ has died for me, to know the Lord Jesus Christ and see
by faith that He is my all, and therefore love Him for that.
If I don't have that, then even though I can move mountains around,
It doesn't mean anything. And I could speak even with the
language of angels and men. All the languages on the earth
and all the languages of angels. If I don't have love, it is nothing,
you see. And that's why the first verse
of chapter 14 says, earnestly seek after, pursue this gift,
love. We can't produce it. And I do
believe the Lord Jesus Christ, but I see that my faith is far
from perfect. I want to believe him more and
more. Last night, it happens to me often on Saturday nights,
I couldn't sleep for a long time and I was thinking, Lord, do
I even know you? I just seem so far from what
I ought to be, both in faith and love and hope and everything.
And so what should we do? Well, then you look to Christ.
You look to Christ, and that's the title of the message. Look
to Christ and run to love. Pursue it. Seek it from the Lord
as a gift. He must give us a grace of his
spirit, the spirit of Christ, who himself embodies this. He's the personification of this.
And so when we read these words here in chapter 13, we see not
only it's the most excellent gift, that it will endure beyond
faith and hope. When we have what we hope for,
there's no more need of hope. If a man possesses what he hopes
for, why does he hope? There is no more need of hope.
But beyond this life in heaven, the one thing that will endure
is the love of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Spirit in us,
connected to Him, the head. And from the head to all the
members of His body will flow this grace of life and love that
will never end. It's eternal. Eternal life, eternal
love by the life of Christ in us because He is love. All of
the gifts besides love promote a person. They can be used to
promote the person. Oh look, I can speak Hindi, and
Chinese, and Arabic, and Eskimo, and Native American, Indian,
all these languages. Look at me. Man, I wish I could
do that. You see there? There's pride
and envy right there in that. I can heal. I can heal. You couldn't
heal him, I said, okay, I'll come by. My shadow will just
fall on that person. They'll get healed. See that? And these
things just lend themselves to promoting ourselves or envying
others. But that's not the point. It's
not the point. They were given to edify the
body of Christ. The whole body. And that's why
he spends so much time in chapter 12 saying, what if the whole
body were an eye? Where were the hearing? That
would be awkward, wouldn't it? It's almost comical, but he does
that in order to show the foolishness of thinking, well, this part
of the body is more important than that part. I heard Todd
Nyberg say, well, what if, you know, when you're the head, you
don't need any adornment. You're just as good looking as
you can be if you're the head. But if you're like the liver,
ugh, you know, who wants to be the liver? Well, that's the way
the body is, but are you going to live without your liver? You
can live without your finger, but you can't live without that,
can you? So you see these things are all part of the same body.
Sometimes you get a little hangnail or something, it's like, oh man,
that hurts. And all you can think about is that little tiny thing
on your finger that hurts. because wherever there's something
wrong with you, it draws attention to the weakness of your body,
and your whole body responds, doesn't it? That's the way the
body of Christ is. There's not one person in the
body of Christ who is superior to the others. And that's why
when Brad read this, he says, in verse, 25, that there should be no schism
in the body, but that the members should have the same care, one
for another, you see. Whether it's your little toe
or your liver, you need all these parts. They're all important
to you. And so that's the way we're to care for. And Paul even
emphasizes the fact that those parts of our body that seem the
least honorable, we give to them the more abundant honor. So the
weakest members of Christ's body are those that we would spend
the most time addressing. in this matter of love. That's
what he's saying here. So that we are acknowledging
the fact that what the Lord Jesus Christ, His attitude towards
His body, He loves all of His people with the same love. He saved them with the same blood.
He brings them all to eternal glory. They're all with Him. They're all in Him. What more
could you ask for? The Lord Jesus Christ is our
inheritance. Are you going to rise above that?
Are you going to have some reward bigger than that? Are you going
to tout a little crown somehow above others in heaven? No, that's
foolish to think that. No, everything is designed to
honor Christ, the head, and his body is all part of that. And
everything flows from the head to the body, and that's where
this love comes from, through the Spirit of Christ to his members. And that's why it's important,
we should follow after this, to desire what he desires. And
so he says these things here about love, that it teaches us
to consider and to think on Christ, doesn't it? Because when I think
of myself, I say, I'm sorry. I know myself well enough to
know. I cannot claim these characteristics. Because I see, even in the very
best thought, there's this conflict that I'm doing it for myself.
And that's always there, isn't it? And something else that I
wanted to point out here, and this is important, I think. At
least it is to me. Have you noticed in the New Testament,
and I pointed this out last week, that the commandments the Lord
Jesus tells us to keep can be distilled to just these two?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and love one another. That's
it. And have you ever thought on
the fact, as it's mentioned even in scripture, that love is the
fulfilling of the law and that everything that is prohibited
by the law is fulfilled in love? Have you ever noticed that? In
fact, in Ephesians chapter 4, it says this, Putting away lying,
speak every man truth with his neighbor. Now, lying is a nasty
habit, isn't it? It's a nasty habit. When we deceive
others, when we say something with our mouth that we know in
our mind is different, that's called a lie. And we misrepresent
ourselves to others, Or we misrepresent our motives or what we're doing.
All these things we hide, we deceive. It's called lying. He
says, no, don't do that. Because when you lie, it's not
love, you see. But speak every man the truth.
Love loves the truth. God cannot lie. Therefore, to
lie is opposed to God himself. So he says in Ephesians chapter
4, where I was reading around verse 25, he says, putting away
lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are
members one of another. You see? So make it your aim
to only speak the truth, to only speak what is true, because lying
is a habit. And when we make habits of these
things, then we don't even realize we're doing it. But when we see
that, that is not love, and that we're to pursue love, then lying
becomes a big issue, doesn't it? We're members one of another.
Why would I lie to the one that I'm one with? He also says this
in Ephesians 4, be ye angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down
on your wrath. And you know what it is to be
angry. That person has offended me. Well, they cut me off in
traffic. How dare they? They were rude. You know, oh,
maybe they were rude, but you're not the judge. So stop thinking
of yourself as the law that everything is violating. You're a sinner
too. Neither give place to the devil.
Don't make it your habit to do the devil's bidding. Let him
that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor working
with his hands, the thing which is good that he may have to give
to him that needs. You see, we don't steal anymore,
we labor to give. Jesus, in Psalm 69 or 89, I can't
remember which, he says, he restored that which he took not away. And so all these things are just,
they're just summarized by this. He says, let all bitterness and
wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from
you with all malice. And then he goes, and he sums
it all up. He says, be ye kind one toward another, forgiving
one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. And that's what I mean, looking
to Christ and running to love. And then he goes on in the next
couple verses of Ephesians 5 and he says, let me read it there
because I don't have it written down in front of me. Ephesians
chapter 5 and verse 2. I love this verse. I've been
mentioning it every week now for probably 10 weeks. He says,
walk in love. Walk in love as Christ also has
loved us. See, there's that, as I have
loved you, as Christ also loved us and gave, has given himself,
that's what love did, he gave himself for us, an offering and
a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. He gave himself to God.
It was to God's glory, God's will to accomplish God's work
and save God's people for his name's sake. Christ did it for
His love to His Father and His other hand on His people because
of His love to them, and He sacrificed Himself. That's love. He didn't
look for a return, He gave Himself. He didn't look to be served,
He served. He was the only one who could stoop from the place
that he was and make himself lower than he was. Lower than
he was. We can only go to the level we
are. He stooped lower than he actually was. And that's what
he's saying here. All these things that he puts
in the negative, don't do this, don't do that. The flip side
of it, in the positive is because of love. So we don't have to
have a long list, do we? We don't have to have a long
list. You know what the opposite of pride is? It's the love of
humility. You know what the opposite of
covetousness is? It's giving in love. All these things. You know what the opposite of
lying is? It's telling the truth. You know what the opposite of
self-glorying is? It's Christ-glorying. You know
what the opposite of serving myself? It's serving Christ for
His honor and His glory. It's serving one another. edifying
one another. That's what the body does. My
body, I had this wound and it's taken a long time to heal, but
magically, almost magically, new skin is growing over that
wound. How did that happen? The body's
taking care of itself. Of course, it's all by God's
doing. Everything's of the Lord. But still you see the way that
God has put us together. He's teaching us. This is the
way the body of Christ works. We minister to one another the
gospel of His grace and all of this cause for puffing up or
envy and this holding grudges and anger and malice. Remember
what the Lord did for you. You also were sometimes foolish,
disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures. hateful
and hating one another, but after that the kindness and love of
God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to his mercy. He saved us by
the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which
he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, being
justified by his grace You see, this is what salvation does.
Faith in Christ brings this attitude. Look at Galatians chapter 5.
Galatians is a wonderful book about faith in Christ. It's not
about what we do, not what we can do, not even the work of
God in us that saves us, but it's the work of Christ for us.
And God's work in us teaches us that Christ for us is who
justified and sanctified us. And that act of God giving us
life by his spirit is that sanctifying effect. that the blood of Christ
brings to us by His Spirit. But look at chapter 5, Galatians
5. In Christ, in Jesus Christ, verse
6. Verse 5 says, we through the
Spirit, notice how it's all through the Spirit, not my own ability,
not natural ability. These things don't come out of
my own ability. Without me, Jesus said, you can
do nothing. Therefore, we through the Spirit
wait for the expectation, the hope of righteousness by faith. I love that verse. But look at
the next one. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth
anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith, which worketh by love. Where does faith come? By hearing
the word of God. Where does love come? By believing
Christ, looking to Christ. Never expect to find anything
in yourself you can boast in. And if you're envying others
because what you find in them, you need to look to Christ. You'll
never find righteousness in yourself or in another, but you will find
it in Him. You'll never find, I was reading
or listening to a sermon, I can't remember, by Gabe Stoniker and
from Philippians chapter four. And he was pointing out that
in Philippians chapter four, that they were, at the end of
it, he says how that the saints that were with Paul in Rome were
saluting the saints who were in Caesar's household were saluting
the saints that were in Philippi. And he pointed out very well
that, isn't it amazing that Paul was taken captive and held as
a prisoner in Rome, and yet the Lord, to his prisoners, to the
ones who held him in prison, he dealt with them in this way.
He saved them. He saved them so that the saints
in Caesar's household, Caesar's own household, salute the saints
in Philippi. That's amazing, isn't it? That's
how we should deal with our enemies. He saved them. That's the way
the Lord dealt with us, isn't it? How did he deal with our
enmity against him? He saved us by his grace, out
of love, because of the blood of Christ. through the Spirit
given to us to see and believe Him, and that is the result of
faith in Christ. It works by love. Where there's
faith, there's love, and where there's love, there's faith.
And these two things are the result of the Spirit of Christ
in us, ministering to all those who are in Him. And that's why
when we take the Lord's Supper, which we're about to do here,
we're together. We're together. And we take it
at the same time. Together. Because this is all
one body. It's amazing, isn't it? Love
suffers long. Our Lord Jesus suffered long
with us, doesn't he? Love envies not. He never envied. He gave himself. He made himself
of no reputation. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love quietly covers all sin. Love doesn't impute, it doesn't
remember, doesn't hold a memory of wrong done. Love always seeks
the best for the one it loves. And Christ's love always achieves
the object of His love. What an amazing Savior we have.
Pursue this. Seek it from God. And by faith,
walk in love towards one another. All right, we're going to take
the Lord's Supper now. Brad and Tom, if you would please,
can you, I think Denise has got them all together. Yeah, we're
going to pass out the elements for the Lord's Supper. I'm going
to read to you from 1 Corinthians chapter 11, the very book we
were just in where the apostle, after correcting the Corinthians,
had preached to them the gospel. And after correcting the Corinthians
now, I want you to see here what he says to them. They were, he
says, they were, each one was eating and taking supper before
the other. Some was hungry, another is drunk,
he says in 1 Corinthians 11, 21. That's amazing. These were
believers? Yes. Can churches have such sinners
in them? Can you be a true church and
have all these problems? I would like to find a church
that didn't have any problems. Someone said, if you find a church
that doesn't have any problems, don't go there, because you'll
ruin it. I like that. Don't go there. Someone else says, church is
full of hypocrites. Yes, it is, and I come there
to be saved from my hypocrisy by the Lord Jesus Christ. Anyway,
but in 1 Corinthians 11, He says this, I have received of the
Lord that which I also, which also I delivered to you. Isn't
that wonderful how the Lord Jesus Christ ministers as the head
through the member of the apostle to the body. I received it of
the Lord, I also delivered it to you. That the Lord Jesus,
the same night in which he was betrayed, he was thinking of his apostles.
He took bread, and when he had given thanks for that bread,
he broke it, and he said, take, eat. This is my body, which is
broken for you. This do in remembrance of me.
Take the bread. This is what was broken for us,
Christ's body. This was what was given to us,
Christ's broken body. And he tells us to take the symbol
of it, this emblem of his broken body, and in eating this physically,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as all of my worthiness. Let's take and eat. He said, this do in remembrance
of me. This is the way we know the Lord,
isn't it? Through his broken body? His body was broken so that we
wouldn't be broken. He says in verse 25, in the same
manner, also, he took the cup when he had supped, saying, this
cup is the New Testament in my blood. It makes the everlasting
covenant all the conditions fulfilled, nothing but the blood. Don't you love it? This do, and
when you're doing it, as often as you drink it, do it in remembrance
of me, the one who made the covenant, who is the testator, whose death
put it into force. and his blood redeemed us from
all of the transgressions that were under that first testament.
So take the cup and remember Christ by it. His blood made me worthy. As
often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you show, you
preach, the Lord's death till he come. Wherefore, whosoever
shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily,
without faith in Christ, shall be guilty of the body and blood
of the Lord. So let a man examine himself.
Are you in the faith? So let him eat of that bread
and drink of that cup. We always want to ask the Lord. You go to the Lord. You don't
go to a preacher. You go to the Lord and you say,
Lord, am I yours? Give me that faith. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Lord, increase
my faith. If faith is the gift of God,
please give it to me for Christ's sake. I can't know you, I can't
worship you, I will be separated forever from you unless you give
me this grace to look to Christ who died for me. Amen. All right, let's have our song,
our last song. Page 104, Jesus paid it all.
Page 104. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength
indeed is small, Child of weakness, watch and pray. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. Lord, now indeed I find Thy power
and Thine alone Can change the leper's spots And melt this heart
of stone Jesus paid it all All to Him I owe Sid had left a crimson
stain, He washed it white as snow. For nothing good have I
Whereby thy grace to claim I'll wash my garments white In the
blood of Calvary's Lamb Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. I stand in complete. Jesus died my soul to save. My lips shall still repeat. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. Let's pray. Father, thank You
that You have given, You saw their need, and You gave the
Lord Jesus Christ to fulfill the need that you saw and that
you required to receive us as your children. Behold, what manner
of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called
the sons of God. And we pray, Lord, that by the
Lord Jesus Christ, by His death and His risen life, by His reigning
power, by His Spirit given to His church, that He would dwell
in us, that He would produce in us all that we do not have
of ourselves, that He would cause us to look to the Lord Jesus
Christ for everything and find our all in Him. And we would
so love one another because this is what He has done for us. He loved us and gave Himself
for us and nothing can separate us from His love. What an amazing
Savior. Thank you. Thank you for who
you are, for your word, for your salvation, for your people. We
need all that you have given to us. In Jesus' name we pray
and for his sake, amen.