1 Corinthians chapter 13. If you look in the last few verses
of chapter 12, it says In verse 27, now you are the
body of Christ and members in particular. Each one of God's
people are individually part of the very body of Jesus Christ. And God has set some in the church,
first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that
miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities
of tongues. In the Corinthian church they
lusted after, lust is probably the wrong word, maybe it is the
right word, I don't know exactly, but they wanted the gifts that
were most evident. So tongues was one of those carried
over into our day. After God stopped giving that
miracle at the close of the life of the last apostle, there was
no such thing anymore because the gift of tongues, and all
those gifts were given by the laying on of the apostles' hands.
So there is no such thing as that gift today, although people
do pretend to have it, and some people expect that if you don't
have it, you're not a Christian, all sorts of strange things.
And we're not surprised by that, but it can be intimidating if
you've ever been in a church. so-called that does do that.
But in any case, in those days it was a real gift. The Corinthians
sought after it, but notice it's last in the list in verse 28.
And then he asks, are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles?
Have all the gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do
all interpret? But covet earnestly the best
gifts. And yet, show I unto you a more excellent way. So that
last phrase there is intended to draw our attention to what
follows, which is chapter 13, a more excellent way. It's not
about me, it's not about you, it's about Christ and His body,
about His people. And that's what this next chapter
is about. And I want to cover this with
you and try to get to the rest of this as well, but we'll probably
spend most of our time here. I've entitled this message The
humbling and comforting nature of love. And when you look at
what love is in chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians, it humbles me. It greatly humbles me for several
reasons. It first humbles me because I
find everything there that I'm not. Which is the way God's Word
often works when you read it. Does that happen to you when
you read God's Word? You find everything that He describes
about wicked people? is in you, and everything He
describes about the righteous is lacking. That's the nature
of God's Word. It always lays us bare, and there's
a good reason for that. First, it's the truth. And secondly,
it shows us that we're guilty and in need of a Savior. And
thirdly, it teaches us where to go for all of our salvation.
It's in the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we do that, then God's
Word has the proper effect. But if we pretend that we're
something that we're not, then we don't do ourselves any good,
and we certainly don't honor God in His Word. So let's read
this 13th chapter, realizing that this is going to humble
us, so get ready to be humbled. But that humbling, hopefully,
will draw out, as I pointed out last week from Matthew 22, will
draw out our adoration and our appreciation for what God has
done for us in Christ. In spite of us, the Lord Jesus
Christ, God the Father, has loved us with an everlasting love.
So, look at this in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Though I speak with
the tongues of men and of angels, not just men, but angels, and
have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or as a tinkling
cymbal. Tongues makes men noisy, but
it doesn't make them loving. And it doesn't do them any good
if it's there without love. The gift of tongues does nobody
any good. It certainly doesn't do the one
who speaks in them any good if they don't have love. That's
what the first verse says. And though I have the gift of
prophecy, that means I can foretell like Balaam. Remember Balaam? He spoke many wonderful things
about Israel and about Christ and about the things to come.
But he didn't have any love. And though I understand all mysteries,
that means I can tell you everything in the Bible, what it means.
And all knowledge, like Solomon. And though I have all faith.
So that I could remove mountains. Such a miracle. An incredible
thing that no one could possibly do. But I can do it because of
my faith. And I have not charity. I am
nothing. Not just a little. Nothing. And
though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, take everything
in my bank account, my house, my car, my clothes, everything,
and give it away to someone else who needs it. And though I give
my body as a martyr to be burned, and have not love or charity,
it profits me nothing. Absolutely nothing. Because you
see, when we do those things, With an intent of gaining something
by it, it's the very antithesis of love. Love never starts with
an attitude of doing in order to get. That's not love. Getting is not love. Giving is
what love is. And so I don't give in order
to get from God. To do so is to make God a genie
that I can control. Like he's my servant and I'm
his master. And it's to try to make God my
debtor by these trinkets and these things. Or to take my sinful
body and try to earn from Him atonement for my sinful soul.
Those things do us no good. Okay, so that's what love is
not. Or that's what it means to do things without love. It
doesn't matter what it is. If you do it without love, then
it's worth nothing to nobody. To anybody. Charity, verse four,
charity suffers long and is kind. Now when the word charity here,
it's not a special word in the original language, it's just
the word that people in the time of the translations, they used
the word charity in those days because it signified usually
a kindness and mercy towards the poor. And so they thought
a good word to translate it. But the word is really just the
word for love. The love of God. Whenever you
see the love of God in scripture, that's the same word here. It
should have probably been translated as love. But it's okay to use
charity as long as we understand it that way. Charity suffereth
long and is kind. Charity envieth not. Charity
vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly,
seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth
not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things,
believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things,
Charity never faileth. But where there is prophecies,
where there be prophecies, they shall fail. Fail means they'll
come to an end, because the prophecy has been fulfilled. Where there
be tongues, they shall cease, and they did cease, and they
have ceased, and we don't need them anymore. Whether there be
knowledge, it shall vanish away, because it's complete. We'll
have a perfect knowledge when we reach glory. For we know in
part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect,
in other words, when the fulfillment of all things is made in the
end of time, when that which is perfect is come, then that
which is in part shall be done away. The same thing is done
in the book of Hebrews. All the sacrifices of the Old
Testament were only a typical thing. And when Christ came and
actually fulfilled those, and put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself forever for His people, there was no need for those other
things. So when the perfect came, that which was done in part was
done away. We don't sacrifice animals. Verse 11. When I was
a child, I spake as a child. I understood as a child. I thought
as a child. But when I became a man, I put
away childish things. It's important that men become
men and not remain children. The evidence of becoming a spiritual
man is to put away childish things and to possess manly things. Love is a manly thing. For now
we see through a glass darkly. That's our present state. We
can only see what we see by faith, and we can only see in a limited
sense. But then, face to face, when we see Christ, we will know
even as we are known. Now I know in part, but then
I shall know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith,
hope, charity. These three. He doesn't mention
all those other gifts, does he? But the greatest of these is
charity. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for. We don't have what we hope for,
but we possess it in our enjoyment by faith. We have a confidence
in what God has said about future things, and so in our present
experience, we enjoy that thing that God has said with confidence
that we have what God has promised in His Word. That's what faith
is. An illustration I read a long
time ago, it stuck with me. It's like when you're standing
on a ship and one man is standing beside the other man and he looks
out far to the distance and he says, I see a ship there with
17 men standing on the bow and it's blue and he describes the
ship. The other man says, I don't see a thing. The difference is
that one was looking through a telescope or whatever, binoculars
or something. That's what faith is. It takes
things that are distant, future, and it brings them close. But
when we have what God has promised us in our experience, not by
faith, but literally, then faith is done away. We don't need faith
in heaven. But we appreciate faith now, and I appreciate faith
now, when I find it in others. For example, when my wife believes
me because I said something, and she acts as if what I said
was actually the way things are, she believes me. I appreciate
that. I find that endearing, don't
you? It's like she actually believed
what I said. And took it on my word. Think
of how God has given us faith now in order to make us take
him on his word. You see the connection, close
connection between faith and love there, don't you? And he
says, and hope, hope is a confident expectation of what God has said
of things that are, again, future. Faith is a substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And hope is that confident
expectation that someday I'll actually receive what God has
promised. And it's looking forward to it. But we don't need hope
when we have what we hope for. But charity. Love. Love is something that we have
now, know now, but in heaven we'll still have it, we'll still
know it. It will be the one thing that endures. God is love. God never ends. So let's look
at each of these things here with that overview on this chapter. Love is one of those things that
we all like to talk about. We know what love is innately,
don't we? We have a sense of what love
is innately. And I think some of the best
examples of love, the most prominent use of the word love is not love,
strangely enough. And that's usually the passion
that people have for one another in a romantic manner. That's not love. That's an attraction
based on what you see, based on what you get. But there is
a love between a man and a woman, isn't there? A love that gives. And there's a love that I think
is almost purer than that, that I've seen in my experience. It's
the love between a mother for her children. Have you ever seen,
if you've been married, if you've had children, you know this is
true. The labor that your wife has gone through to have those
children. to have them with you and for
you, to raise them up, and to teach them in your place, and
to teach them about you and all the things that they do. A mother
loves her children. And if you've noticed the love
of a mother, a baby can be crying and screaming and just a real
crank. And yet that mother won't get
upset at the baby. Why? Because the mother knows
that it's just a baby. And she loves that little child.
She has to get up in the middle of the night to nurse them and
care for them. My love ends when I'm sleeping
because I can't get up. I tried. I made an honest effort. It showed how little, puny, insignificant
my love is. I tried to help my wife, but
it was pitiful. But she got up all the time for
years. Seven children. And anyway, I
see that love of a wife, of a mother for her children. I think that's
probably the purest love. You've heard those phrases, that's
something only a mother could love. It's true, isn't it? And
you find people who are great criminals, and their mother won't
disown them. Because she sees something there
that no one else sees. And yet all of those loves that
we have on earth, really can't be compared with true love. And we can only see this in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so when we look at 1 Corinthians
13, what we're going to see here are things about love. God gives
us several things about love. One of the things that we must
know about true love, I mean the love of God, is that love
is, in Galatians 5.22, is the fruit of the Spirit of God. When I say fruit, I mean it's
produced by Him. We can't generate love in ourselves. We can't even know what love
is without the Spirit of God, because God is love. We can't
know love if we don't know God, and we can't know God without
His Spirit. He makes Himself known to us, and He gives Himself
to us, and comes and dwells in us, and produces the fruit of
love. And that love is His work. And so, that's the first thing
we see about love. And another thing I really like
about love, and maybe this is one of the most endearing things
about love, as summarizes it best, is found in 1 Peter chapter
4. I'll take you to this so that
you can mark it down in the place in scripture. It says, in 1 Peter
chapter 4 verse 8, he says, Above all things, above all things,
that means at the very top of the list, have fervent Charity
among yourselves, not romantic passion, that's not what he's
talking about. He's talking about the relationships between God's
people. Have fervent charity among yourselves,
for charity, or love, shall cover the multitude of sins. The multitude of sins. Proverbs
10, verse 12, and Proverbs 17, 9 say the same thing, that love
covers a multitude of sins. I've seen that too. I've seen
the love. Maybe I find it more easy to
find in women than I do men. I've seen the love of a mother
or a wife. Not only love her children, but
love her husband and cover his sins. Hide his shame. Have you
ever seen that? I've experienced that. It's one
of the most endearing qualities about love is that love hides
those things that make us ashamed because of who we are and what
we've done. Love, in God's case, not only hides it, but takes
it away. He remembers it no more. That's
love. Anyway, that's at the top of
the list. It's not really in this. It is in here, but it won't
be obvious until we read through this. So that's the first thing
I want you to remember about love. Did you know that in the
New Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ really only gives us two
commandments? The first one is that you would
believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the second
one is that you should love one another. And 1 John 3.23 says,
this is His commandment, that we should believe on the name
of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as He gave us
commandment. He calls it, singular, commandment
here, but it's really two, and he speaks about it before that,
that we should keep his commandments. His commandments aren't grievous,
and this is his commandment. He says multiple, and then he
says one, because faith and love are so intricately connected
and inseparable that you can't have love unless you have faith,
and you can't love God unless you believe the Lord Jesus Christ.
So that's why they're mentioned as one. They're never found apart. You can't have love without faith.
You can't have faith without love. And so in Galatians 5,
6 it says faith works by love. In other words, you know when
someone believes on the Lord Jesus Christ because you see
their love for Him and for others. And so that's why it says we
should believe on Him and love one another. He keeps it simple,
doesn't He? And then the other thing is that
we also grow in faith in love. Faith in love is not something
that we just have to the maximum. It's not like we get it all at
once. We get it, but remember the man in Mark 9, 24, he said,
Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief. In the presence, wherever
there's faith, there's always unbelief. No one can ever say,
if you don't believe God perfectly, then you're not a believer. Because
all people, all faith is imperfect. And so is love. And so that's
those kinds of things. The other thing, I mentioned
this already, is that love is the sign of maturity. In Colossians
3.14 it says, above all things, put on charity, which is the
bond of perfectness." And so there's, that's, and in 1 John
4.12 it says, "...if we love one another, God dwells in us,
and His love is perfected in us." So it's the bond of perfection. It's what identifies a mature
walk, a mature attitude towards God and towards one another.
We all need to grow in love, don't we? And the other thing
about love is that, and this is something you don't think
about, but you find it intuitively, is that love is like a cementing
glue or a bond. That's why whenever people get
married, they take those vows and they say, sickness and in
health, in richer or poorer sickness and in health, basically good
times and bad times. I will never leave you, I will
never forsake you. That's the commitment that a
man and a woman make to each other. Love is a cementing bond,
and they say that on the basis of their love. But more importantly,
it is the love of the Lord Jesus Christ for His people that causes
Him never to be separated from them. You remember what Romans
8, 35, and 39 say? Who or what shall separate us
from the love of Christ? What? Find it. There's nothing. It's a question that has an answer,
but it doesn't have to be answered because the answer is there is
nothing. Nothing in me. Because who can condemn one for
whom Christ died? Who can accuse one God justifies? And nothing outside of me, not
in life, not in death, not things present or things to come, not
things past, not things in heaven, not things in earth, nothing
shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. That love of Christ for His people
is a cementing bond that will not allow them to be separated
from Him ever. And so, that's the way God's
love is. And because of that, because we have those clear statements
in scripture, we know that God's love has these characteristics. One of them is it's special,
it's particular. God either loves everybody in
the world, and therefore everyone will never be separated from
Him, or He loves no one and everyone will all be separated from Him
for their sin, or He actually loves some people and none of
them will be separated from Him. And the rest will, because of
their own sin. And that's the truth of Scripture.
God's love is special and particular. If it were general, it would
be no different. We could use this comparison
and be like me saying to Denise, Honey, I really love you. And
then saying it to every other woman in the world, Honey, I
really love you. What good is that to her? It makes no sense. God's love is special. It's particular.
When Jonathan In the Old Testament, after he saw David go out and
kill Goliath, because he loved the nation of Israel, and he
loved the glory of God, and he heard Goliath stand up and defy
the armies of Israel and the living God, David took those
five stones in his hand and went out and killed Goliath in the
power of God. And Jonathan, after that, David
comes in. He's standing there before his
father, Jonathan's father Saul. And David's standing there before
Saul with the head of Goliath in his hand. And Saul is asking
these questions and David's answering the questions. David's just telling
him who he is and what he did. How he did it. Jonathan says
in 1 Samuel 18.1, it says, the soul of Jonathan was knit together
with the soul of David so that he loved him as he loved his
own soul. That was a bond, a cementing
bond. That love of Jonathan for David
is a reflection of our love for Christ when we see what He's
done and hear His voice. Hear what He says about what
He's done to us. And so that's the first thing
we see is that love is a cementing bond. It's not only a love between
on the part of Christ for His people and on our part toward
Him. But it's a cementing bond between
the members of Christ's body. It says in Ephesians chapter
4 verse 16, it says, "...from the Spirit of God, from
the Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole body is fitly joined
together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth."
That means that by the grace of God, working by love to one
another for Christ's sake, that we are bound together. There's
something that connects our bones to one another, like members
of the body. Like ligaments join bones to
bone. That love we have for one another,
for Christ's sake, is a cementing bond. But of course, it's really
only the love of Christ that's perfect. So our bond of love
for one another is never as strong as that. But nevertheless, that's
what it is. And it's a cementing bond that
causes us, even in the body of Christ, to forsake others and
join together in the name of Christ. So we want to be together
because here we have a communion and fellowship of our Lord Jesus
Christ who died for us and rose again and lives for us and is
everything to us. And so that bond is not only
between... Love is a cementing bond. It's what keeps Christ
from forsaking us. And it's what keeps us together
in the name of Christ. But notice in 1 Corinthians chapter
13, it says that love suffers long. Now the word here suffers
long, it means patience. Patience. There's something about
love, you know, that's very admirable, is that it's patient. I gave
the illustration of a mother's love for the baby. And then the
baby gets bigger and starts making messes all over the house and
everywhere. Breaking things and constantly
nagging, pulling on her dress. The baby doesn't even know what
mom is doing. Cleaning up, fixing food, cleaning
up after the food, cleaning the house, taking care of everything
in the house and still having time. To the baby it seems like
all of its mother's time needs to be devoted to him or her.
The mother's just patient, through it all, patient and faithful. Patience is a quality that's
connected with faithfulness. Because when we're patient in
love, we don't stop loving, we're continuous in it. Love is faithful
through thick and thin, in good times and bad, especially it
shines in the bad times, doesn't it? And this is the thing about
the love of God for His people. When we see what He's done, we
know what we are, and yet God's Word continually comes to us
and ministers to us and tells us, all of your hope And all
of your righteousness and all of your sin payment is found
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look to Him and that constant
Word coming to us week after week, each moment of every day,
pointing us to Christ. And finding our all in Him, that's
the love of God. That's the patience of God towards
us. Putting up with our sin, bringing us to Christ, and pointing
us to Him, and causing us to learn and love Him. That's what
love does. Through thick and thin. When
we're our worst, that's when love shines the brightest. Look
at Romans chapter 5. I'll take you to a couple of
scriptures about this. Romans chapter 5 and verse 5. He says, "...hope makes not ashamed,
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost which is given to us." See, God's love, it not only
does for us, but tells us how He loves us. When you love someone,
you tell them. But not only tell them, but you
show them. And this is the proof of God's love, verse 6, Romans
5. For when we were yet without strength. We read last week in
Matthew 22, verse 37 through 38, how Jesus said in answer
to the lawyer, what's the greatest commandment? Jesus said to love
the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with
all your mind, and with all your strength. With all that you are. And yet, who can say they've
ever done that one time? And that's the most reasonable
thing to do. God is holy. He's lovely. There's
nothing wrong with Him. To not love Him means that we're
unholy and there's a lot wrong with us. And yet it says, when
we were yet without strength, unable to do one thing of all
that God requires, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. That's the love of God right
there. All other loves are as if they
are not love in comparison to His love. God who is holy, God
who is everlasting and infinite in His being, who hates iniquity
and loves righteousness, gave His Son to die for the ungodly. And then He goes on, for scarcely
for a righteous man will one die. Yet, peradventure for a
good man, some would even dare to die. But God commendeth, that
means He made known, He proved, He exhibited, He showed His love
toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us. We'll never exhaust that verse. Much more than being now justified
by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. Listen
to this last one. For if, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more
being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. When I was
in grade school, I remember, you know, you get teased, you
get picked on, you get mocked, whatever. People are always trying
to do something to make themselves better at your expense, it seems
like. But can you imagine standing there in front of your enemies,
a crowd making fun of you in whatever way, and you actually
pouring out your most intimate and deepest thoughts before them,
making yourself bare, and expressing to them your love for them? We can't even do that, can we?
That's way, way, way beyond our ability. And yet the Lord Jesus
Christ did that for His people. He went to the cross, He endured
spitting and mocking and suffering and punishment, even death. He had done everything right. And then He paid for the sins
of His people and bore those sins before God as one who had
never done anything right. Had only done wrong and the worst
of all of those things put on Him. And He paid for it Himself. For who? Those who were without
strength to do anything. One thing for God, who were ungodly
sinners, even the enemies of God. Look at Titus. The book
of Titus says the same thing. This is the long-suffering of
God, isn't it? This is the love that shines
in spite of who we are. Titus chapter 3. He says this in verse 3, For
we ourselves were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving
divers' lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful,
we hated people, and we were hateful by others and God, and
hating one another. But, that's the word of surprise. That's the Word of Grace. "...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." Such an intimate love of God. So intimate, so
free, so undeserved and undeservable. It's all of grace, which He shed
on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. That we, being
justified by His grace, should be made heirs according to the
hope of eternal life. From the depths of hell to the
heights of glory. That's the love of God towards
His people. And, back in 1 Corinthians chapter
13, love is kind. Love is kind. The word means
it's not harsh, it's mild. Jesus said, I'm meek and lowly
of heart. Nothing, I find nothing more attractive than kind humility. Someone who truly shows an interest
in you in a kind way. And they seem to not even see
all of the problems that present themselves when they look at
you or observe you. They look beyond that. And they're
just kind to you. Kind. It's such an endearing
quality, isn't it? And with humility. Have you ever
seen someone who, you know, they look like they've lived a life
and they're all wore out and they're harsh and everything,
and a little child would come up to them, unpretentious, and
just smile and show them kindness. And you can just see them take
such delight. It's almost like a frozen block
of ice starts to melt right there. That's kindness. The Lord Jesus
Christ says, I'm meek and lowly of heart. Come to me, you who
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The Lord
Jesus Christ was perfect. Absolutely without sin. And on
the earth, have you ever been in a situation where someone
can't control themselves in an immoral way? It's like, man,
you just need to straighten up. I'm a sinner and I can't tolerate
sin, hardly, in others. I'm so critical, I'm so judgmental
about it. But the Lord Jesus Christ was
absolutely perfect. If anyone had a right to find
sinners offensive, it would have been Him, wouldn't it? But He
says, Come unto Me, all you who labor, and are heavy laden, and
I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, for I
am meek and lowly of heart. It's easy. When we come to Him
and see who He is and what He's done, we find Him all lovely,
altogether lovely. Then it takes away, it disarms
us, doesn't it? Sinners, when Jesus was on the
earth, were attracted to Him. They never felt threatened. They
never felt like they should go away. They wanted to come to
Him. And remember that. That love is kind. And thirdly, it says, love envieth
not. To envy means when you see someone
else receive something that you don't have or more than you have.
Maybe it's just praise. recognition, or maybe it's things,
maybe it's skills or talents, and you don't have that, and
you think, oh man, you know, I kind of wish that they would
fail. Because that would give me a
little satisfaction. That's called envy. Who can stand
before envy? Proverbs says, it was for envy
that they killed the Lord Jesus Christ. But you know what you
do when you don't envy someone? You actually want the very best
for them. You actually are happy when they're
happy. My son, for example, is thinking about an example of
this. My son is able to play the piano pretty well. I don't
envy that. I'm actually glad. I like to
sit and listen to Him, even though I can't. I would like to, but
I can't. But I don't envy Him at all.
And I could go on and on. My wife can sing and has a beautiful
voice. I don't care that I don't have
a beautiful voice. I mean, sure I'd like to be able
to sing with her sometime, but I let her sing. And I just enjoy
it. Why? Because I love them. And if one
of my children is blessed with a good job or whatever, better
circumstances than mine, I don't envy them. I'm glad for them.
Why? Because you love them. But when we envy, it's just a
red flag that says, alright, you right now, you do not love
that person. You hate them. But love envieth
not. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
envy, did he? It was nothing. He actually made
himself of no reputation. He who is equal with God made
himself of no reputation. He took upon him the form of
a servant. And took on the nature of man.
human soul and a human body, and did more than that. He actually
bore for His people all their sins as His sins before God.
Stood before God as if they were His own. They were made His own.
And then He bore the full punishment. Not only the guilt and shame
and filth of them, but the punishment for them. And He was glad to
be able to do it. For the joy that was set before
Him, He endured the cross, despising the shame. He was glad because
He had those that He loved. He didn't envy them. He only
thought of them. That's what love does. And then
fourth, it says, love vaunteth not itself. Love doesn't attract
attention to its own works to gain recognition for the good
things that it does. How many times, I'm wondering
if I've ever done anything without that desire. It's a sad thing,
really, what's in me. It's a shameful thing. But love
does not try to make itself the object of attention. It doesn't
boast in itself. It likes to take the back seat
in order to promote the one that it loves, to do good for them.
Love is happy to do things for others without recognition. That's
kind of humbling, isn't it? Because it's so hard to find
that even one time in myself. I like to think about this illustration. When a man adores his wife, he
draws attention to her because he wants people to see her beauty. To know her wisdom, and her knowledge,
and her kindness, and her charm, and her humility, and her faithfulness,
her wit. How warm and welcoming she is
and how it's so nice to be with her. He wants people to know
his wife. He takes a back seat. He sees her and loves her. And
he wants other people to see those qualities in her because
he loves her. And he doesn't vaunt himself.
And so he's not pushy. He doesn't try to get what he
wants with demanding force. But sweetly woos and persuades
with the the nourishment of a father or the love of a husband for
his wife in order to gain the object of his love. He doesn't
vaunt himself. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
vaunt himself. It says, His voice was not heard
in the streets. He didn't go around parading.
In John 7, when his brother said, you know, if you do these things,
you seek to be known. You need to go to Jerusalem.
He says, You know, your time is always ready, but my time
has not yet come. He didn't come in order for people
to put Him on a throne. He came to serve. I didn't come
to be ministered. I came to serve. And so when
He took off His robe, and He laid aside His robe, and He picked
up a basin of water, and He picked up the feet of those disciples
that have been walking in the filth of the streets, and the
excrement of animals and people, And he took those feet in his
hands, and he washed those feet. And he looked up. Instead of
looking down, he looked up at his disciples. And they were
recoiling in shame that he would touch them and be so humble before
them. He says, you call me master and
lord, and you say, well, for so I am. If I then, your lord
and master, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's
feet. Love is not puffed up. It doesn't
vaunt itself. Abigail told David when David
sent messengers to bring her to him to be his wife. She said,
let me be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord. You asked me to be the wife of
the king. I just want to be a servant to wash the servants feet. That's
how unworthy she saw herself. She loved, didn't she? Love is
not puffed up. 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 says, "...you
know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich,
yet for your sakes He became poor, that you, through His poverty,
might be made rich." It doesn't seek its own. And then it says,
the next thing is that, "...love does not behave itself unseemly."
That's a word we don't use very much. I've used it on my kids
a lot. I didn't realize it wasn't a word in popular use because
You know, when you read things in the King James Bible that
aren't common and you tell your kids, you just assume that's
the way those... But anyway, love, unseemly is a word we don't
use. What does it mean? It means to
be rude or shameful or indecent and disgraceful. Love is not
rude. It's not shameful. I hate it
when I do something that makes my wife ashamed of what I've
done or said. So love doesn't try to shame. the one that it loves in order
to gain from them. That's the worst kind of evil,
isn't it? It seems like it. It makes me recoil whenever I
hear someone belittling, for example, a man belittling his
wife in public and bring shame upon her. And it makes everybody
else pity her that she would be made such an object of public
scorn in order to provide him a platform for his pride and
arrogancy. Doesn't that offend you? Love
doesn't do that. Love doesn't do things that are
indecent. It doesn't stand on the weaknesses
of others in order to promote itself, like the Pharisee who
said, Lord, I thank you. I'm not like others, not like
that man over there, this publican, points him out, makes a shameful
spectacle of him. Love never considers it gain
to put shame to someone, to put someone it loves to shame. Those
kinds of things are done with a total lack of self-control
and intemperance, as I said, to draw attention to ourselves.
Love doesn't do that. Sometimes we are intemperate
in that way, in an angry way. rather than by wisdom expressing
patience and kindness for the benefit of those that we love.
When Paul wrote the epistle to the Corinthians, have you ever
noticed how he wrote? He reasoned with them. And these
people were the most childish and shameful people in all the
New Testament. The two epistles, the longest
epistles out of Paul's hand, went to the Corinthians. These
people, you would think, are the ones that needed to be, you
know, chastised. He was so patient with them.
He opens his letter with the most beautiful description of
how the gospel is the wisdom and power of God. It's all that
we love and all those things. He ends in 1 Corinthians 15 with
the thing about the resurrection. He takes everything that was
a weakness in them and he turns it to our edification. That was
Paul the apostle. And think of all the labor that
went into his letters. How it must have been difficult
in prison to write in the cold and poor lighting. And the hard
stone bench or whatever he sat on. Who knows how he could actually
write. I don't know how he did it. But love did it. Love labored. His letters are
beautiful and clear. Not because he just sat there
and like... He thought about every word very
carefully. The Spirit of God guided him.
I'm sure he had to repeat some of his labors. Anyway, love doesn't behave itself
unseemly. And love does not seek her own.
Love doesn't seek its own. I've said this in so many words
already, but love puts the needs of the one it loves above its
own needs. If you love someone, you look
to make sure that they're taken care of, don't you? You make
sure they're taken care of even at your own expense. In fact,
you think of ways to fill their need by what you have. It's humbling, isn't it, to look
at love in the face? If you don't seek the good of
those you claim to love, then in reality you love yourself
more than them. And that is not love at all,
is it? Love actually makes sacrifices. It doesn't boast in its sacrifice,
but it sacrifices. And so we don't seek attention
for the kindness that we show to others, but we do it when
we love someone, we do it in order for them. It's for their
good, don't we? And then it says, love is not easily provoked. Love isn't touchy. I'm very irritable sometimes,
but love isn't. Love isn't easily provoked. God
isn't easily provoked, is he? Aren't you glad? If the Lord
was easily provoked, where would I be? Where would you be? But
it's not easily provoked. Love actually covers, as I read
in 1 Peter 4.8, covers a multitude of sins. Jesus told his disciples
when Peter asked, Lord, how often should I forgive my brother in
a day? Seven times? He probably thought he had reached
the maximum. No, I tell you, 70 times seven. Forgive and forget. And then,
love thinks no evil. That means it keeps no record
of wrong. Love doesn't put a negative spin
on everything. It's not suspicious. Love thinks
the best and gives the benefit of the doubt when it thinks about
the one it loves. People who love you will do you
wrong. Haven't you noticed that? What
are you going to do? Love thinks no evil. Forget it. Forgive and
forget. God remembers our sins no more. Hatred stirs up strife, but love
covers all sins. Proverbs 10, 12. And one more
from Proverbs 17, 9. He that covers a transgression
seeks love, but he that repeats a matter separates very friends. So love not only doesn't think
evil, but it doesn't propagate evil. It doesn't go around telling
about other people's sins. Have you ever noticed as a husband
how great a debt you owe your wife to her for not telling about
all your sins? It's a shameful thing if a wife
gossips about her husband... and brings out his weaknesses
or things he's done... because she's not covering up
for him. And I know husbands are animals. They need to be... They have
really no... There's no reason for a wife
to cover up for them. Not in the husband, but in the
wife. She has to often hide his shame and his weaknesses. That's
one of the things I love about my wife. She doesn't go around
talking about all the things she knows about me. My kids don't
even do that. Hey, you know my dad did. No, no, no. Don't go there. May
the Lord give us grace to love as Christ loved, to hide a multitude
of sins. It means don't impute. Love doesn't
even impute sins. It doesn't account for them. Don't you love being loved by
somebody? You know what I know about love? Not by what I've
done, but by what others have done for me. My mom, my brothers,
my sisters, my wife, my children, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
how we know love, isn't it? He says here that love doesn't
rejoice in iniquity. I know it probably seems like
I'm going through this slow, and I apologize for taking time,
but I think these things sometimes, we're almost done. Love doesn't
rejoice in iniquity. Sometimes people call love, what
isn't love at all, it's a perverse kind of love because it It actually,
in order to accept people the way they are, we're just going
to act like sin is actually wrong, perversity is actually right.
That's not love. God doesn't rejoice in iniquity
in His people. He doesn't love them as if they've
never done any sin. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that He loved us and gave His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. His love for us actually made
a full removal of our sins on the basis of strict justice.
How? At no expense to us, but at full
expense to Him, He laid those sins on His Son, and He bore
Him, the Lord Jesus, bore in His own self the wrath of God
for our sins. And God punished Him, gave His
own Son for the worst criminals. He hates iniquity, and He hated
it so much that when He found it on His Son, He put His Son
to death under the wrath of God. He rejoices not in iniquity,
but he does rejoice in the truth. Love rejoices in the truth. Have
you ever found that you rejoice in the gospel, that you really
love the gospel? I just love the gospel. It's
the truth. I love the gospel. I love how God saves sinners.
I love that God would make Himself known to us, even after He had
done all for us, when we were ignorant of His love to us. I
love the way God rejoices in the truth, and I love the truth
He's caused us to rejoice in. That we can accept one another
for Christ's sake. We rejoice in the truth that
I can receive you for what God has received from Christ, because
that's the way He saved me. And I can trust Him to receive
me for Christ's sake because that's what He said in His Word.
Love bears all things. It covers in silence. It doesn't
expose sins. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself
bore our sins in His own body on the tree. He put up with us
and He bore our sins. My wife loves me and she bears
my sins. Whatever faults she has, I don't
want you to know about them. Especially, not from me. And
love believes all things. Love believes all things. I mentioned
it already to you. If my wife ever believes something
I say and she acts accordingly, it just like tickles me pink. Because I'm not really worthy
to be believed, but she does. She does. It believes all things. You know,
I think that this is one of those areas where when the Lord... When we love the Lord Jesus Christ,
we believe what He said. We believe that we're sinners
and that humbles us. It puts our face in the dust.
And we believe what He says about what He did in order to take
away our sin. Even though we have no evidence
for it in ourselves. Except this trust, this faith
that He has given to us. We believe His word. And so we
come to Him. When He says, I will not leave
you comfortless. I will come to you. We believe
Him. We hold to that. We expect Him. And we look for
Him. And we love Him for it. And we
love His people. We actually want to know what
He wants us to do. And even when we don't find ourselves
doing it, we come to Him and ask Him, Lord, help me. Give
me that grace that I might do what's in your heart. Love hopes
all things, it believes all things, it hopes all things, and it endures
all things. What love can't see, it hopes
for. And what love can't see, it believes.
It believes about God and His Word, what He said in His Word,
even though we can't see it. And it believes, love believes
about believers, what God has said about them. That for Christ's
sake, that God for Christ's sake has forgiven them all their sins.
And so, who am I to hold against them sins that God has already
forgiven for Christ's sake? We can't do it, can we? Love
believes all things, and hopes all things, and endures all things. puts up with everything. Love puts up with and endures
long for the one it loves. And here's one that is the last
of the 16 things that God says here about love. Love never fails. Love never fails. God's love
never had a beginning. And God's love never has an end. There's no separating God from
His people, so there's love for them in Christ. And I want you
to see these things. I want you to think about it.
It says in 1 John 4, verse 16. We have known and believed the
love God has to us. How can we know and believe the
love that God has to us? He tells us what He did for us
in Christ, in His Word, here in His love. Not that we love
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. What greater love is there than
this? How we ought to therefore love one another. 1 John 3.16
says... In fact, let me turn there because
I forgot the exact words. 1 John 3.16. The Lord Jesus laid his life
down for us. 1 John 3.16. The 3.16's in the
Bible. 1 John 3.16 says, 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. When God the
Father gave his people to Christ in eternal election, the Lord
Jesus Christ loved them. Because they were his father's
and his father had given them to him. And his love for them
caused him to give everything for them. When God tells us what
he's done for us, he doesn't require us to do for his people
what Christ did. He just simply says, look how
he loved them. He gave his son for them. And
he receives them only for what he finds in Christ. He loves
them for Christ's sake. And then He tells us to love
them, because we're saved in the same way. How could we not?
If we truly believe the Lord Jesus saved us for nothing found
in ourselves, but for what God found in Him, then we should
believe that He saved our brethren, who are no different than us
as sinners, except they're not as sinful as we are, to love
them as God has loved us. If the Lord Jesus laid his life
down for us, we ought to lay our lives down for one another.
Let's pray. Dear Lord, we thank you for the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet
for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might
be made rich. What kindness and love of God
our Father, and God our Savior, and God the Spirit of God who
comes to us, He gave Himself for us and gives Himself to us. This is our God and Savior. Dear
Lord, we pray, teach us what You've done in our heart. Cause
us with sincerity by Your Spirit to love You with all that we
are in such a way that we would count it nothing to give all
that we are to You. And help us also to know that
to love you is to love your people, and not to love them is to not
love you. Help us to know this is what you meant when you told
Peter, feed my lambs. feed my sheep, feed my sheep,
dear Lord, help us to do so. Help us to have this maturity
of love that loves the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ and
the salvation of His people and their union, the bringing together
of those people to Him in glory like John the Baptist to rejoice
when we hear the sound of the bridegroom's voice and to see
the bride brought to Him. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.