to 1 Corinthians 12. I know where I'm going in this
message tonight, but I don't know how I'm going to get there. In the 12th chapter of the book
of 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul is dealing with spiritual
gifts. He's dealing with the special
talents in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, which the
Holy Spirit is pleased to bestow upon believers. He starts the
chapter, verse 1, chapter 12, with these words, now, concerning
spiritual gifts. Brethren, I would not have you
ignorant. That's what it's all about. That's
the subject. Now, I'm writing, he said, concerning
spiritual gifts. We're talking about the gift
of preaching. In those days, we were talking
about the gift of preaching the gospel in other languages. In
those days, we were talking about the gifts of healing, the gift
of faith, the gift of the power to give, the gift of teaching,
and all of these different gifts that we'll read about in a few
moments. And he says down here in verse 4, chapter 12, there
are diversities of gifts. we all do not have the same gifts.
Everybody's not a preacher of the gospel, that is, a pulpit
preacher. Everybody's a witness. Everybody
is a preacher in the sense that he proclaims and sets forth the
gospel to an audience, if it just be one person, it could
be your wife or your children or the person with whom you work,
but everybody does not have the gift of preaching the gospel
from the pulpit. Everybody does not have the pastoral
gift. Everybody does not have the gift
of prayer. I've heard men, everybody prays
now. Don't misunderstand me. Every
believer prays. But everybody doesn't have the
particular gift to lead the congregation in prayer. That is a gift. It's a gift of prayer. Everybody
does not have the power to give as much as others. We give in
an equality. This is the reason that I reject
the principle of tithing in this state. I'll tell you why, one
of the main reasons. I like what old brother Mews
said, if a man tithes, he's under law. If he doesn't, he's an outlaw.
We can't do any less than people did under law. I'm not going
to do any less than 10%. But now let me give you an illustration.
You know, the New Testament teaches that we give in proportion as
God has blessed us. That there be an equality of
giving. All right, let me give you an
example. Here's a man who makes $100,000 a year. I doubt that
anybody in this congregation does, but I'll just, I'll shoot
high to keep from hitting anybody. But here's a man who makes $100,000
a year. He's a member of the church. Here's a man that makes $5,000.
He's a member of the church. This man has no children or two. This man has a family, a young
man, struggling, trying to get started. He has 34. All right,
we've preached tithing, 10%. That means this man gives $10,000.
That leaves him $90,000 to live on. $90,000 to live on. This man is called upon to give
10% of $5,000. That's $500. That leaves him,
John, $4,500 to live on. Is that equality? There's nothing
equal about that. This man lives on $90,000 a year. This man lives on $4,500 a year.
There's no equality at all. There's no proportion there at
all. This man who makes $5,000 doesn't want to give any less
than they gave under law. But he's not capable of giving
in proportion. There's this man. Nobody needs
that much money. No believer needs that much money.
God has trusted him with more. God has enabled him to give more. His giving ought to be ten times
what that man is. Ten times. If he's going to give
unto the Lord. If he's going to give sacrificially.
If he's going to support the kingdom of God. And so this system
of tithing is with the believer who understands that all things
are God's. And he gives me, if he gives
me the power to pray, I pray. But all men pray. But I pray
in a special position. If he gives me the power to preach,
all of you are responsible to preach and to teach. But every
man's not a classroom teacher. Every believer will be teaching
his children the things of the Lord. He'll be teaching his neighbors
the things of the Lord. But every believer doesn't have
the ability to stand in front of a class and interpret the
scripture. And you wouldn't expect him to,
so don't be discouraged. And the same thing with giving.
Every man does not have the power or ability to give like another
man. If God's given you that gift,
you better exercise it. The same reason Wade, he's given
me the gift of preaching, I'd better exercise it. And giving
another man the gift of prayer, you have that gift Cecil, you
have that gift Charlie, you have that gift Darwin, you have that
gift different ones of you. Jack, better exercise it. You better be men of intercession.
You better call on God. That's your gift. You better
exercise that gift. Stir up the gift that's in you.
You remember the man with the talent? God gave one ten, one
five, one one. The fellow with ten used it for
God's glory. The fellow with one hit it. He
won't take care of it, you know. He knew he had it, but he didn't
want to keep it shined up and polished and hid it. God took it away
from him and gave it to the fellow at 10. So these gifts of the
Spirit, it says in verse 4, there are diversities of gifts, different
gifts. There's the gift of wisdom in
leadership. God's given some of you men the
ability to lead men, to influence men, to with your humility and
with your dedication and with your faithfulness. I tell you
folks, watch it. And you can be an influence for
good or for evil. And if God's given you that leadership
quality where men look up to you and men respect you and men
follow you, that's a gift. All men aren't leaders. All men
do not have influence, the same influence that you have over
others. And you better use that gift
for God's glory. You better use it for the unity of the church
and not the division of the church. If you're a leader, you better
be leading the right way, even if it's just influencing two
people. You've got three close friends, and you're the spokesman
for the group. You're the one who does the talking,
and they usually follow you. Better lead them right. Better
use that gift. And this, we could go on. They're
gifts. They're gifts of encouragement.
Encouragement. They're gifts of private counsel.
Some of you are good at that. You can sit down with someone
and encourage them. They can come to you with their
heartache, they can come to you with their trials, they can come
to you with a broken heart, and you encourage them, you strengthen
them, and you talk. That's a gift. Everybody can't
do that. And that's what he's saying in
verse 4. They're diversities of gifts, but the same spirit.
And then in verse 11 he says, but all these worketh that one
and selfsame spirit, he divides to every man separately as he
will. God made me who I am, he made
you who you are. He made me what I am, he made
you what you are. He gave me the gifts he gave
me, he gave you the gifts that he gave to you. Now here's the
reason, verse 12, for as the body is one and has many members,
and he goes on and talks about the hand and the eye and the
ear, and the feet, and there are many members in a body, and
all the members of that one body, being many, are just one body.
Just one body. So also is Christ. That's the
church. That's the family of our Lord
Jesus Christ. It's one body, for by one spirit
we've been baptized into one body, whether we're Jews or Gentiles
or old or young, male or female, bond or free, we've been made
to drink of one spirit. And the body is not one member.
I tell you, I really dislike, and I don't know where it originates,
I can't find it in the New Testament anywhere, but I dislike this
idea of the clergy and the laity. That's not in the New Testament.
It's just not there. A division between the people
of God, where the clergy is placed upon a pedestal, and down here
somewhere is the laity. It's not in the Scripture. We
don't want to separate our head from the rest of our body. We
don't want to separate our arm from the rest of our body, no
matter what particular important place it occupies. So don't separate
any from the body. It's all one body. And verse
18 says, Now God has set the members, every one of them, in
that body as it pleased him. And boy, I'll tell you, if you
can see that. that by the grace of God I am
what I am, I am who I am, I have what I have, I know what I know,
I'm able to contribute where I'm able to contribute because
of God Almighty's pleasure and His will. And verse 27, look
over there, now you, you are the members, you are the body
of Christ and members in particular, you're the members of Christ.
And God, as verse 28 says, he set some in the church first
apostles. I'm not an apostle. Don't aspire
to be one. Nobody else better try it. Because
the apostolic office is no more. Secondarily, prophets. I hope
that I'm able to be a prophet. Thirdly, teachers. Some of you.
Miracles. Miracles. All the gifts of healing. Healing is of God. God heals
people. That's the cause of the mercenary
merchandising hooksters who've missed you. Walter wrote me this
week about a lady who said she was healed in their service down
there in Methoda. When I was down there last time,
we had a service out in one of the Pueblos, and he said, now
the people, some of them after the service, want me to pray
for them. They're sick. He objected that day. I said,
oh brother, no I do not. Let's just pray for him. And
after the service, there were three or four people came, gathered
around Walter down front, and there was prayer that was made
for these who are sick. Our Lord tells us, pray for the
sick. Any sick among you? Let him send for the elders of
the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with
oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith shall
save the sick. We need to pray that God might
heal and pray healing is of God. He uses means, but he can heal
without means. He can heal by means, but all
healing is of God. Let's don't look for somebody
who has the power of healing in his hand. It's not there.
It's in God. And let's don't go to one of these folks who
don't preach. Brother Barnard said to me one
time, he said, if I ever find one of those healers that preaches
the gospel, I'll listen to him. But so far, I've never found
one that preaches the gospel. But let's don't follow folks
like that, that capitalize and make merchandise of people through
this healing process. But if you're sick, there's prayer
for the sick, and there's the gift of healing and health, the
gift of health and government, leadership. Diversities of tongues
or languages. Are all apostles? No. Are all
prophets? No. Are all teachers? No. Are
all workers of miracles? No. Do all have the gift of healing?
No. Do all speak with tongues? No.
Do all interpret? No. Did and then don't now. One of the greatest mistakes
that any religious organization ever has done, and this is being
done by every denomination and most every church in this town,
they'll build a mold And they'll try to fit every one of God's
children in it. Did you ever notice that? Try to fit every
one of them in that mold. They all got to dress alike,
they got to wear their hair alike, they got to wear their clothes
alike, they got to talk alike, they got to pray alike, they
got to give alike, they've got to witness alike, they've got
to be successful alike. They ever one are fitted and
tried to fit them into that mold made by the preacher. He's the
one that tells them where to go, what to do, what to say,
how to be, how to live, and that's the biggest mistake that any
man ever made in his life. And he even tries to fit the
infants and the adults in the same mold. The babes in Christ
and the elders in the same mold. And if the babe in Christ won't
fit and an arm hangs out or he's still sucking his thumb, they'll
exclude him. It's the most ungodly thing I know anything about.
God's people are all saved by the grace of God and they all
know Christ and they all love Christ, but they're not all alike.
They're just not all alike. You have the impulsiveness of
Peter, you have the loving ways of John, you have the sons of
Zebedee wanting to call down fire on folks because they're
sons of thunder because they weren't doing things like they
were doing them. All the different ones throughout the scripture.
They're just not all alike. Do all have these same gifts,
or are all just alike? No, sir. All the children in
your family are not alike either. You going to throw any of them
out? They all sit at the same table, eat the same food, and
born to the same mama, but they're different. Some of them are daylight
and dark. And God's children are different. And he makes them
that way. All the stars in heaven are different.
Every snowflake is different and every believer is different.
But every believer bears the image of his son. That's the
good part. Every one of them. Now he says
in verse 31, covet the best gifts. Now brother, there's nothing
wrong with wanting to preach. I believe desire to preach doesn't
constitute a call. Because if that were true, every
man in this building would be preaching tonight somewhere who's
saved. Everybody. Desire doesn't constitute a call.
It's part of it. But desire to preach, desire
to teach, desire to pray, desire to give, desire the best gift,
desire the ability to intercede, desire the ability to mediate
for someone. I don't mean as this mediate
or Christ, but when we go to God in prayer for someone, that's
interceding. That's mediation. desire to be
a mediator for someone else. If my children won't pray, I'm
going to pray for them. I'm going to pray for them. If
my loved ones won't pray to God and won't call on God, I'm going
to call on God for them. Can you say that? Moses did for
Israel. Paul did for the Gentiles. They
wouldn't pray, so he said, well, you won't pray, I'll pray for
you. Job did. Job came before the Lord. His
children were over there having a celebration. He said, Now,
Lord, my children may not be praying tonight, so I'm going
to pray for them. My children may not be calling on you tonight,
so I'm calling on you in place of them. If you won't pray, I'll
pray for you. If you won't thank God, I'll
thank God for you. If you won't call on Christ,
I'll call on Christ for you. Desire that intercessory prayer,
that going to God for somebody else. He's stubborn, and he's
self-willed, and he wants his own way, but Lord, forgive him.
He doesn't know what he's doing. Isn't that what our Lord said
for us? Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're
doing. They don't know what they're doing. And can you do that? Now, we get mad at somebody that
don't agree with us, and we say, let him go on to hell. That's
not intercession, is it? That's one of the problems of
dear Brother Shelton, telling folks you can go to hell for
your trouble. We need to grow out of that and we need to pray
for people who are going to hell in spite of the mercy of God
in this world and in this day. Covet the best gifts. Covet these
gifts. And yet I show you, watch this
next line, and yet I'm going to show you something better.
I'm going to show you something better. I'm going to show you
something richer. I'm going to show you something
greater. I'm going to show you something higher than all these
gifts. and all these gifts. And then
here are four or five things that I feel like I ought to say
here. Now, it's unfortunate that there's a chapter division here
between chapter 12 and chapter 13. You see, Paul says, I'm going
to show you something, and that's the end of it. He says, I'm going
to show you something better. I'm going to show you something
better than being the best preacher in the world. I'm going to show
you something better than being the best having the most faith of anybody
in the world. I'm going to show you something
better than having the gift and ability to preach the gospel
with the voices of angels and men. I'm going to show you something
better than healing, something better than tongues, something
better than being a best teacher or interpreter of scripture in
the world. I'm going to show you something better. Now why
is it better? And he's talking about love.
Cecil read it to you a moment ago. Though I speak with the
tongues of men and of angels and have not love. Here's the
something better, it's love. And here's the reason. First
of all, these gifts, these gifts in chapter 12, we've been talking
about, they are distributed among the brethren by the Holy Spirit.
And the sisters, and the women too, they're distributed among
the people by the Holy Spirit. One has what another lacks. One
has what another lacks, so that they might be one body. The eyes,
not the ear. But the eye cannot say because
I'm not the ear, I'm not part of the body. The hand is not
the foot, but the hand can't say because I'm not the foot,
I'm not the body. And I tell you this, when one
part of the body is afflicted or hurt, the rest of the body
hurts too. Your whole body knows if you
have a headache. Your entire body knows. Your
legs know it. Your arms know it. Your eyes
know it. Every part, your temples know
it, if you have a headache. And this is what he talks about
in chapter 12 too. If we are one body in Christ
and we are in love with one another, if one of the members suffer,
the others suffer too. If one member's weeping, I guarantee
you the rest of them are weeping too. If one of them's rejoicing,
the rest of them are rejoicing, if they're one body. If one of
them is blessed, the rest of them is blessed. You know when
that woman came to Christ to seek help for her daughter? David
Estrada preached this here several years ago. When that woman came
to Christ, she didn't say, have mercy on my daughter. She said,
have mercy on me. Her daughter's afflictions were
her afflictions. Her daughter's pains were her
pains. Her daughter's tears were her
tears. Her daughter's sufferings were
her suffering. And when we become so close in
Christ, when we become like one body in Christ, if God's pleased
to work this grace in our midst, then when you pray, you won't
have to pray, God bless John. You'll say, God bless me, because
when John hurts, I hurt. And she said to Christ, she said,
Lord, have mercy on me, on me. Because if you have mercy on
my daughter, it will be mercy to me. And that's that closeness. Now here's what Paul's talking
about. I want to show you something better. Because these gifts were
distributed among the brethren, what one like the other had,
all didn't have the same gift. But the grace of love belongs
to every believer. Now the gift of preaching doesn't
belong to every believer, but the grace of love does. The gift
of teaching doesn't belong to every believer, but the gift
of love does. That's right, the gift of love
does. Love is a grace and a gift that every believer has. And
the scripture says, he that love is not, knoweth not God. For
God is love. And if God dwells in us, love
dwells in us. And if any man says he loves
God and hates his brother, he's a liar in the truth. Not any.
Because love is a gift and a grace that Every believer has. So when
we go back here and talk about these gifts, they're different. A man may have one or none. A
man may have two or three. The Holy Spirit divides to believers
separately as he will, for the glory of Christ, for the good
of the body. But I'll give you a gift and a grace he better
have, and that's love. Love for Christ and love for
one another. And then secondly, these gifts work for service. in the kingdom of God. He says
in Hebrews that God accompanied their preaching with miracles
and signs and wonders as credentials, as proof for service in the kingdom
of God, to bring men to the knowledge of Christ. God gave me the gift
to preach, I believe, for the service in his kingdom, for his
glory, to bring his sheep to himself. I'm out looking for
the sheep, I really believe. very strongly in the providence
of God in this matter. Last Sunday, I was telling the
men in the study, I prepared a message Monday two weeks ago
for television. It was supposed to be preached
last Sunday. I had a lot of liberty. I believe the message was a message
everybody needed to hear. But last Sunday was a pretty
nice Sunday and everybody went to church. And my message wasn't
on TV. The Olympics were on 11 o'clock.
They're skiing down the mountain and I wasn't on there. And you
know, that's enough to upset you. You prepared the message,
it's supposed to be on the television. I had Ronnie Jr. turn it on in
there and he came to me and he said, you weren't on this morning
and your tendency is to get a little upset. And maybe a few years
ago I would have gotten more upset. But God taught me something. Now, just be still. If God wanted
that program on this morning, it would have been on this morning.
And you know when God wanted it on? He wanted it on when the
snow was ten inches out there and folks were at home and the
churches were closed. And I'll bet you we preached
that message to three or four hundred thousand people this
morning. On substitution and sovereignty and satisfaction
and redemption. And God wanted it on this morning.
He is the one that gives, and these gifts, God gave me this
gift to preach to people. But He gave me the gift of love.
for my relationship with him. I can do without these gifts.
And this is the third thing. These gifts are temporary. They
are limited to this earth. You look at verse 8 of 1 Corinthians
13. Now let me tell you something.
This is important right here. These gifts are temporary. He said love never fails. Whether
they be prophecies, they are going to fail. Whether they be
tongues, they are going to cease. Whether they be knowledge, it
will vanish away. But this grace of love will never change. Never
change. It's never replaced. There's
never anything better. Never anything better. He said
you covet the best gifts, best in your estimation. There's nothing
wrong with coveting the best gifts. There's nothing wrong
with wanting to be used for God's glory. There's nothing wrong
with wanting for God to use you in his kingdom. But I'm going
to show you something a whole lot better. I'm going to show
you something a whole lot greater, a whole lot more important. Because
God may make you the best preacher in town, but that's going to
end someday. He may make you the best Sunday school teacher.
He may make you a man of prayer, a prayer warrior, an intercessor.
He may make you, give you the gift of comfort and healing and
all this. I'm going to show you something that will never fail
and will never pass away. And that's to bring you to the
place where you love Christ and you love one another. If you've
got that gift, if God's given you that gift, that grace, you've
got something that every believer should have, must have, you've
got something that every believer needs, you've got something that
will never be changed, never be replaced, and you've got something
that's essential to your relationship with God. Now down here in verse
1 through 3, listen to this. He says, though I speak with
the tongues of men, this is power and oratory, man, they said he
can preach the stars down, well that's well and good. Or even
with the tongues of angels, and I don't have love, if I don't
have this grace of love, well I'm nothing but a sounding brass
or a tinkling cymbal, and who, there's no pleasant sound to
sounding brass and tinkling cymbals. There's no pleasant sound. And
though I have the gift of prophecy, oh, this would be good to have,
wouldn't it? Gift of preaching, gift of interpreting the scripture,
gift of understanding the mysteries of grace and the mysteries of
theology and of all knowledge and the gift of faith so I can
remove mountains and have not love? Which one do you rather
have? Now, just come on. Which one
do you rather have? Paul says here, if I don't have
love, or with all the rest of this, I'm nothing. I'm nothing. That's the reason he's saying
it. The emphasis today is misdirected. We have preachers who are urging
people to do, do, do, and the Bible urges them to love, love,
love. We have preachers who are emphasizing
people to win souls and and do all these different things, and
the Bible is emphasizing, seek the gifts, seek to speak in the
tongues, and seek the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and seek all
these things. And the Scripture tells me over
and over again, seek to be like my Lord. He loved men, He loved
them. And the more noise a fellow makes,
the more people are attracted to him. But if I have not love,
and look at verse 3. And though I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,
you see, that's a martyr. Wouldn't it be something to be
burned at the stake for the glory of Christ? Well, you know something
better than that? You know something better than
being the best preacher in town? It's being able to love one another.
You know something that's better than having all the theological
knowledge and understanding and guilt and And being generous,
sometimes generosity is self-love and self-righteousness. Or to
be able to be generous and also for it to be motivated by love,
real love, real love. You see, love has no rival. This
is what Paul is saying here. He talks about there was a rivalry
in the church over the gifts. There was a little division and
strife, and this fellow was preaching and somebody else wanted his
place, and this fellow was speaking in tongues and somebody else,
well, he'd like to do that. And this fellow had this leadership
place, deacon maybe, elder, teacher, and folks were clamoring for
the gifts and all, and Paul said, Hold it! Hold it! Now just settle
down, he said. He said, These gifts, there's
diversities of gifts, and the Holy Spirit gives the gifts as
He will. and the body is one, and every
member is not the same, and we have gifts differing from one
another, and God gives as he pleases for his glory, but he
says this isn't where it is, this isn't the important, you
might be able to speak with the tongues of men and of angels,
but if you don't have love for one another, you're like a sounding
gong in a tinkling cymbal. You see what he said? You might
have all this theological knowledge so that you know when the tribulation
is going to be, and what the abomination of desolation is,
and who is the Antichrist, and all the theologians, the Calvinists,
and the Pelagians, and the Armenians, and the Superlatsarians, and
all that stuff. But he said, I'll tell you this,
if you don't have love, you're nothing. And you just might sell
your land and houses and bring it like Ananias and Sapphira
and lay it at the apostles' feet so you can get a little praise
and credit. Or you might even go out and fight the battles
of faith and die at the stake. But he said, if you have not
love, it won't profit you one blessed thing. That's the importance
of love. Love has no rival. We'd better
learn how to love. Love has no rival. Nothing is
as important as a heart broken. Nothing is as important as a
heart's submission. Nothing is as important as a
heart in love for the Redeemer and with fervent love for one
another. He says, look at verse 8 again, love never fails. It never fails. It never fades
out. It's never replaced. It never
becomes obsolete. It never comes to an end. Never,
never, never. Now a fellow who who preaches,
look at verse, if you will, verse 9. We know in part and we prophesy
in part. In other words, the best preacher
that ever lived is going to be amazed at what a poor preacher
he was. He didn't tell the whole story.
I hear people saying, I preached the whole counsel of God. No,
you don't. You don't even know the whole
counsel of God. Now Paul didn't say he preached the whole counsel
of God. He said he hadn't shunned to declare the whole counsel
of God. Nobody on earth knows the whole counsel of God. The
best preacher or prophet who ever lived only told a part of
the story. I feel like we've covered a lot
of scripture here in the last few years, but I just told a
part of the story. I don't even know it all. By
no means, I don't even know a good part of it. And tongues and gifts
are temporary, and they'll be replaced, and the wisest man
in theology who ever lived only knows a very small part of the
story. I picked up a book off of a bookshelf
one day. It was just one of those little
pocketbooks, about $1.95 or something. You know how big they are, little
pocketbook, and on the front it said all about the Bible.
All about the Bible. I thought, that's interesting.
That seems smaller than the Bible, you know. all about the wisest
man, he only knows part, he says we know in part and we're prophesying
part, and one man said when the perfect revelation of God's mercies
has been revealed, we're going to be embarrassed at how little
we knew. We're going to be embarrassed
and astonished at how simple we were. But I hope we're not
embarrassed in this category of love. I hope not. And then Paul said in verse 11,
he remembered when he was a child, and this is interesting here,
he said when I was a child, verse 11, I spake as a child, I understood
as a child, I thought as a child, an immature infant. That's what
I was, I was just a kid. But when I became a man, when
I reached physical and mental maturity, I have the wisdom and
maturity to put down my silly toys and my childish ways." He
said, what's that talking about? He's talking about you and me,
because he just said, you know, that we prophesy in part, and
we preach in part, and we know in part, but when that which
is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away.
In other words, listen to this. There's some things right now
that we count very precious, which will soon be of no value
at all. Those little fellas in the nursery, there's a blanket that little
guy sleeps with every night, you know? He has it in his mouth,
and where's your blanket? You don't have it anymore, do
you? That'd be silly, wouldn't it? Well, there's some things
that's precious to him. Now, if you go on a vacation,
you better take that blanket with you. Ed Ballard takes his
pillow. I couldn't resist that, Ed. But
he takes his blanket. And you know that little girl
has that little, that pacifier. And those things are precious.
And we've got some things that are precious to us now that one
day will be of no value at all. That's right, they'll be of no
value. There's some things, and I mean this seriously, there's
some things that we think we know, and some things that we
pride ourselves on the knowledge of those things. But when we
are finally made like Christ, and we're finally spiritually
mature and perfected, when we become full-grown believers,
we're going to put no more value on those toys. then that child
puts on his pacifier and his blanket. There was a time when
it was the whole world to him. And I'm thinking, are you thinking
with me? There's some things here that are mighty important
to us. In heaven, we're going to discard many things that we
think we can't do without. We're going to discard many things
that are so precious to us and so important to us as a child
discards his toys when he gets to be a man. Some things that
we see now that we can never get enough looking at, we won't
even want to see them anymore then. Other things that we know
now and feel like we'll never forget, but when we know perfectly,
these things are going to be put aside. That's what he's saying
here. He's saying in spiritual knowledge
and wisdom and understanding, brethren, we're but infants.
Let's don't get proud and lifted up. We don't. We don't know anything.
We don't know anything. We know God in his mercy, but
only in part. We see the Lord's grace in Christ,
but only in part. But we're going to someday lay
aside these childish toys and these childish things. Let me
show you verse 12. He says, now I see through a glass darkly,
dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then
I shall know even as I am known. I only know in part. I see through
a glass. Did you ever try to look through
a cloudy glass? a glass that you could see, you
could see dimly, but you couldn't see well. Well, that's the way
we are. We're limited by the mist of trouble and the clouds
of trial and the infancy of our spiritual natures. We're just
held back. Someday, it'll all open up. And all of our guilt and knowledge
and understanding is only in part, we were just infants. We're just children playing But
now wait a minute, that child with his blanket is still God's
child, you see. And me with my limited knowledge
and understanding, I'm still his own. I'm still his own. I'm still his own. We don't make
fun of them, because that's the world in which they live, and
this is the world in which we live. We're limited to... Paul
said, when I went to heaven, I saw things it wasn't possible
to utter. It wasn't any use Paul coming
down here and telling what he saw, because there's no capacity,
Charlie, to receive it. We compare things with things
that we understand. And I preach to you, and I preach
to you in part, but it's the only part I have. And it's the
only part you need in this world. But now you won't need me to
preach to you in heaven because all these things are going to
be revealed to you, open, just like face to face with the Son
of God. But don't cut a man off because
he admits he doesn't know everything. He may be the one to listen to
him. The fellow that knows everything just might be the one to show
him. He might know some things that weren't revealed to him.
But don't cut a man off because he's not perfect. The man that
is just might be the one that is cut off. But the man who,
like he says here, but we are limited to our spirit, to our
world, to our flesh, to our understanding, to comparing things that we know
with things that we know about. And Paul, when he came back from
heaven, he said, I saw things. It wasn't lawful. It wasn't possible.
It wasn't understandable. Tell me what you saw. Can't do
it. I don't even have the words to
tell you about it. And we know in part, but now when that which
is in part shall be done away. Oh, I'm going to see Christ. I've seen him by faith. I know
something of his beauty and his glory, but very little. But I'm
looking forward to that day when I shall see him in his full glory,
aren't you? In his full beauty. And then
I'm going to see myself. Now, none of us really see ourselves
as we are. Do you know that we all have
a very flattering opinion of ourselves? Yes, we do. Yes, we
do. We've seen a little bit of our
fall and our ruin and our natural depravity, and day by day we
see more of it, but brother, let me tell you something. We're
going to see a full revelation of it in glory. And that's when
we're really going to be able to sing, under him that loved
us and washed us from our sin, in his own blood. I'm going to
see just what a wretch God did save when he saved me. I'm going
to really see. God's going to let me see the
pit from which I was dug, the Gehenna from which I was saved,
the wrath and judgment and corruption from which I was delivered. He's
going to let me get a good look at it. I'm going to see myself.
And then I'm going to see the church more clearly. I hope I
love you now, but boy then, we're going to know what love is. And
then we're going to see the providence of God. This is something I'm
interested in. I believe Romans 8, 28, all things
work together for good to them who love God, who the call according
to his purpose, but John Newton said one of the greatest surprises
in glory is going to be the discovery of how God dealt with us and
to find out that on this earth, because of our limited understanding
and our limited knowledge, we prayed against some of the very
things that were best for us. That's where we're going to find
that out. We actually prayed against. some of the things that
were good parts that God was sending our way. And we're going
to find this, that we're going to find in heaven that we fretted
and troubled ourselves over some of the richest mercies of God's
grace. We fretted some of the richest
mercies, some of the direct dealings of God from heaven with us, we
fretted over them and complained about them and were troubled
over them. Because we couldn't see the end. And we're going
to find that every trial was ordained for our good. We're
going to find that out. Ye fearful saints, fresh courage
take. The clouds you so much dread
are filled with mercy, and they will break with blessings on
your heads. His purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste,
Sweet will be the flower. Sweet will be the flower. Now
all these gifts and so forth, knowing in part, should be done
away. Look at verse 13. And now abideth faith, hope,
and love, these three. But what's the greatest? What's
the unchangeable? What's the essential? What's
the important? Love. Love. So this is the gift,
this is that which never changes, that which is to be coveted above
all things. Lord, teach me how to love. Shed
abroad your love in my heart. Give me a love for Christ, and
a love for his precious blood, and a love for his spirit, and
a love for his word, and a love for his church, and a love for
his people, and a love for my family, and a love for lost rebels,
and a love for my enemies. Give me this gift of all gifts. If I never open my mouth again,
help me to open my heart to all men, because that's most important,
because I can open my mouth with matchless oratory and be worth
no more than a sounding brass but tinkling cymbal. Our Father, our Lord said a new commandment
I give you, that you love one another By this shall all men
know you, my disciples, if you love one another. The fulfillment
of the whole law is found in this, that a man love the Lord
his God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself. Give
us a spiritual understanding of what frail creatures we are,
and how dependent upon thy grace And keep us low at our feet,
and keep us stripped of every rag of self-righteousness, to
help us to fall in love with Christ and with one another. For we pray in his name, amen.