Expounds on the nature and importance of spiritual gifts within the body of Christ, drawing from 1 Corinthians 12-14. It emphasizes that every believer receives a spiritual gift and must discover and exercise it for the body's edification, illustrating this with the analogy of different body parts needing each other. The message then transitions to the supremacy of love, detailing its qualities and permanence, contrasting it with temporary gifts like prophecy and tongues. The sermon concludes by highlighting faith, hope, and love as enduring graces, urging believers to live by these principles and foster unity within the church.
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And we'll read from verse fifteen. For by one spirit will we all have tied into one body. Whether we be Jews or Greeks, whether we be God or three, and have been all made to drink into one spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. That the good shall say, Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body. Is it therefore not of the body? And of the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body. Is it therefore not of the body? Is the whole pointy word an eye, where were the hearing? Is the whole word hearing, where were the smelling?
But now hath God set the memories. Everyone and in the body unto the pleased him. And if there are one member wherever the body, But now are they many members, yet but one body. The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of leave, nor again the head of the feet, I have no need of use. Nay, much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary. And those members of the body which we think to possess honorable, upon these we bestow more upon the divine, under uncommonly passive, more abundant calmness.
for a family of hearts of no need. But one has tempted the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked, that the Shippinu says in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another. Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it. For one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are body of Christ and members, in particular. Over to chapter thirteen, though I speak of the tongues of men and angels and have not loved, I have become a sounding brass of a tinkling symbol.
And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mystery and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not loved, I am not. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to the poor, and have not love, it profiteth me not. Love suffereth not on this kind. Love envyeth not. Love wanteth not itself. It not profiteth not behave itself on seemly. Seeketh not her own. It is not easily provoked.
Thinketh no evil. rejoices, not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. There is all things. Believe of all things. Hope of all things. Endure of all things. Love never fails. But for there be prophecies, they shall be done away. For there be tongues, they shall see. For there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we all part and we prophesy in part. but when that which is perfect is common, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child. I understood as a child.
I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see and emerge darkly, for then, face to face, now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I know. and now abided faith, hope, love. These three, the greatest of these, is young. And they caught out his passing. These very important passages of his word. Yesterday evening we were looking at these passages concerning spiritual gifts. Time ran away with me, and I thought to pass on to something different this morning.
But I think it would be profitable just to continue what we were looking at last night. This great subject of spiritual gift that is imparted to every individual child of God is not one of us here this morning that are truly Christ, members of the body of Christ, that God has not conferred some spiritual gift on. And I think the very important thing is to discover what it is. are then by all means developed and exercised in our little lifetime here, so that we're given the function and a profitable way in the body. Now, I pointed out last night that these three chapters is a beautiful illustration of the function of the body.
In chapter twelve here, we get the body formed. How was it formed? It was formed at Pentecost. That creates historical event. When the Holy Ghost came down, and the hundred and twenty believers were baptized into the body. That was a dramatic thing. I believe that God, in looking at it, in his estimation, it was the whole body that was in his mind. It was something historic. It was something inclusive. And it was something final. are as far as we are concerned, when we trust the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, we are put into the body.
And so to speak, we participate in that baptism. And you don't see that the passage right here in the center of this tremendous chapter, for by one spirit were you all inclusive, not tied into the body. Whether we be Jew or Gentile, bond or flee, and have all made a drink into the One Spirit. And twice over, we get that impulsive term. Unfortunately, there's a lot of people today think that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is something subsequent to conversion. That is not the teaching of the Word of God. A person who's not on the body, not linked to Christ, is not a Christian at all.
It's something that's simultaneous with the new birth. That baptism into the body by the Holy Spirit practically as it took place when we trusted Christ for salvation. But then as time goes on, we realize the function that we have to perform in the body of Christ. Like Paul, after making that tremendous statement about the formation of the body, he uses an illustration on a three-fold Many a time when I look at it, I think that Paul must have had a twinkle in his eyes. But he used this see-full description of the members of the body and their function.
He speaks, first of all, of the foot on the hand. That the fruit shall say, because I am not the hand, I don't belong to the body. And he says, is it not a member of the body? And then he uses the illustration of the ear and the eye. And if the ear shall say, because I am not the eye, I don't belong to the body, said the visitor from under the body. Well, what's he speaking about here? Here are four members of the body, very, very important members of the body, and there, so to speak, there's a little imaginary conversation between them. First of all, the hand on the foot, and then the ear on the eye.
We mentioned last night that the hand is one of the most important members of the body. Everybody knows that a hand, you see it all the time. And I mentioned last night a pianist. Anytime I see a person sitting down at the piano or an organ and those fingers going up and down the keys, I sit with my mouth open. That lovely coordination and to see the hands functioning open down those keys. I've never been able to do that. I tried it years ago when I was young and I had to give it up. It's not my gift. I can't do that. My fingers don't cooperate in playing an instrument. But there's the type, and then again you get the typist.
You find a group secretary doing a hundred and twenty words a minute on a typewriter and not even looking at the keys. I have learned to type. But the way I type is what they call the Columbus method. First of all, find a key and then a light on it. I've learned to type with two fingers. And I'm able to do it a little bit quicker. and I would sit down and write a letter. But oh, to see that person that is a real expert and the fingers going up and down the keys on the typewriter, I'm absolutely amazed. And then you think of the hand of the surgeon. I've been a couple of occasions in an operating room. I was on the table.
But I always looked at the hand of that man that held the knife. And I looked at the man and I knew that he was confident. I knew that he had certain degrees in aid training. And when they gave me an anesthetic, I had delivered myself, old-hearted, to that man, knowing that that hand that held the knife was able to do something that would result in my recovery to hell. A hand of a surgeon. A hand. Oh, that very, very prominent memory. Good brother Philip. Whoever looks at your face. At least in this country, they're covered with a sack and a shoe. If I was in Africa, I wouldn't talk like that, because an African usually doesn't wear a sack and a shoe.
He's generally in his bare feet. But in any case, if you looked at your hand and your foot, you found that they are, and not a man, that both are exactly the same. The hand has a wrist. The foot has an ankle. And as far as the bonds on the structure of your hand and your foot, they're exactly the same. But one is on the ground, in contact with the earth, and brother, hand, he's so primed. And so, Brother Fuji says, because I'm not the hands, I don't belong to the body. What is Paul talking about here? There must be no jealousy. You know, the sum of God's servants are fed for a prominent position.
We do thank God for men that God has raised up. that move in and out among the people of God, under God, that they stand on the platform, and we enjoy fellowship with these dear servants of God. But then there's another brother, and you never find him on the platform. God is not his gift. He's a member of the body, who is in rather an obscure position. But many a time I've thought that the people that are in the obscure position today are the palace in any local company of God's people, and especially the sisters. I know many, many dear servants of God, members of the body. You'll never find them prominent in any assembly.
You'll never find them on their feet taking part. But yet there is a balance of the assembly. There must be no jealousy. Some people are highly gifted, and others may be not so highly gifted as others. The parable of the talents, we find that one man had five, another had two, and another had one talent. And the Lord, He gave them those talents to be occupied with and to function in the way that God would have them do it until He comes back again. What's the five-talent man? I think the Apostle Paul was a five-talent man. I mentioned Al's Gibbs last night. And I've had mentioned some other men too that I know.
Dear, dear servants of God, that are highly, highly gifted by God. They're in a prominent place. Well, that is where God has placed them. And then true talent man. I think maybe Simon Peter was a true talent man. And I'm not going to tell you the gifts that he had. You know them yourself. One thing he had the gift of the God. It was one gift that quite Peter had. But, oh, that dear, dear soul, a practical man. He was a true talent man. And then there's a one talent man. What does that mean? Well, he's a specialist. to some of my dear brethren that specialize in some line of ministry.
I know Senator always, always talk about the tabernacle. We have a dear friend in Africa. We call him tabernacle-born. And every time he opens the Bible to talk is the tabernacle, the tabernacle, the tabernacle, the tabernacle, and is able to minister in the most profitable way around that line. He's a one-talent man, a specialist. And somebody says, what's a specialist? The specialist is a man who knows more and more about less and less. But because that type of man among us to do, they specialize along some line. But the point of this, whatever the position that God has given us and whatever talent, what our gift God has given us is the responsibility in the body to function and seek to carry it out in fellowship with God.
There must be no jealousy. So this is the argument between the foot. on the hand. Now the second is concerning the eye. And Paul, here, speaking along another line, he said that the whole body were an eye, far were the hearing, and the whole body were an ear, far were the smelly. And she's speaking about the ear. Did you ever in a nightmare ever see a monstrosity with a great big rolling eye? the whole body of great big rolling hour you know sometimes we sit and listen to Africans talk and they have all kind of legends and I've learned an awful lot from vocabulary and so on by listening to them and talk in their own language and they have a story of where the white man gets his wealth so you know the missionary that comes and settles among us is the kind of a multimillionaire why he wears a shirt and he's very nicely dressed and when he builds a house he puts curtains on the windows we don't have we don't have cloth on our bodies and he has he
has cloth on the window and the thing that we're multi-millionaires and they want to know where we get it all well the story they have is that down on the river there's a monstrosity there and barely in the morning before the African is up out of his up out of his hut he goes down to the river and he whistles and up comes this monstrosity. There's a big head and a great big rolling eye, right in the middle of his head and just one little eye. And he says to the missionary, what do you want? Or he says, I want a box of holes, I want a bill of cloth, and he has a shopping list, and he comes with this individual, and he has his shopping list over to him, and then he ducks down.
After a little while he comes up again, he says, what? and he has a box of holes and he has a veil of cloth, and all that was on the shopping list, he has it there. And of course the missionary, he gave his them up and goes off to his home. And when the African comes along at six o'clock in the morning when the sun's up, there he's sitting at his nice little home in the middle of the woods, and he's sitting pretty, because he has that friend down at the bottom of the river, and he hands him over, the eight people are only by, this one strategist. What is Paul speaking about here? If the whole body were an eye, where were they hearing, and if the whole were hearing, where was this man? You know, there must have been no monopoly in the body.
Is it possible that this any man has all the gifts of the Spirit concentrated in himself? You know, we need to put the Holy Spirit here, providing, and distributing. These gifts, among the people of God, one is gifted in one way, another is gifted in another way. But today, the Son will take the position that all the gifts are concentrated in him. What's he speaking about? There must be no clarity. And there's such a thing as a person taking the position in the local church, he does everything. All the gifts are concentrated in him. No clarity.
I believe in the plurality of elders in every Luther church, and gifts are distributed in the church, and there's no man that ever was born that has all the gifts concentrated in himself. First of all, no jealousy, and then secondly, no monopoly. A person monopolizing all the gifts. It's always a delightful thing to see any look and company of believers and those that have been gifted in certain ways among the congregation. functioning and helping along the work of the Lord. But then there's a final illustration that he uses here. If there were only one member, where would the body?
How far are there many members yet that one got it? And the eye cannot say, unto the hand, I have no need of you. Nor again the head of the feet. I have no need of you. Here again is an illustration, and I think it's very important. Here again we get the eye on the hand, and we get the head on the foot. And we're told that we're completely dependent one upon another. Every time I look at the passage, I think of some experiences that we had years ago. The area where we live in Africa was lion country. We very, very seldom ever talk about lions.
but we have many, many experiences with them. And on our journeys, lying beside a fire at night, we always had a high fire rifle lying alongside the bed. We don't advertise that. It was never, never used, never used upon a person, but it was for protection. And when you're lying there beside a fire at night, inhale the roar from the forest. And I have known on some occasions, where a lion will jump out of the forest and one of the men, one of the Africans sitting there, would want to light on him and pick him up and carry him off. So we always have a rifle. And on a number of occasions, going out early in the morning on taking a turn in the path, there he stands, the King of Peace.
You know, some people who have never met a lion, except in a zoo, say, all you need to do, look them in the eye. And he'll turn away. He's a fruit of the human eye. That's absolute rubbish. He'll do nothing of the shark. He's a king. And he knows it. Sometimes I go to a zoo and I stand before the lion cage and I talk to him. So we're awfully sorry to see you here. We have seen him in his own environment. And I tell you, he's a king. And he knows it. I've seen him jump on the back of a bull and steady himself. And then one snap from that mighty prowl. He'll hit the bull on the side of the face and they'll break its neck.
Not only that. If he's attacking a man, he'll knock him down. And if you put one paw between the shoulder blades and the other paw, he'll grip him by the forehead and the one little pull if you break his neck. He's a very, very powerful animal. And sometimes walking or off a little bit in the native path in the early morning, and you take a turn on the path and there he stands. Now, if he's had a good meal, he'll completely ignore you. But you don't know whether he's had a meal or not. And it's a good thing that if you have a high-powered rifle in your hand, loaded, and with a steady nerve, if you meet him, there's only one place if you hit him that you put on.
You have to sever the spinal cord between his head and his body. Otherwise, if you hit him anywhere else, in that last few moments before he could shoot it through the heart but in those last few minutes he'd just tear you apart so you have to have a steady nerve and you know the hand here and the eye comes into operation and the hand the eye cannot say to the hand I don't need you and so your hand and your eye you point the gun at him and you steady your nerves and you point it at a certain place on his body and then you squeeze the trigger and if you're fortunate, you'll hit them in the right place and you'll go down.
Because sometimes your nerves are not too steady. The hand and the eye, not too steady. And maybe your gun is a little bit shaking, your hand is a little bit shaking and you hit them in the wrong place and if that happens, then the head cannot say to the feet, I don't need you. You get out of there as fast as you possibly can. I think that Paul, I think that it had a twinkle in his eye when he was speaking about these things. Oh dear Brother Futz, he has to come into operation and every single member of the body has to function. Now these are the things that Paul is speaking about here and then he's speaking about no schism in the body.
And every member has to function in cooperation one with the other. So the three things he uses in the illustration is there must be no jealousy. Secondly, there must be no monopoly. And thirdly, there must be no independency. My dear brother, my dear sister, I need you. We all need each other. We can't function independently of one another. We all need one another to function in the body in the position where God has placed us on the gift that He has conceded to us. Have you discovered what your gift is? Are you developing? Are you functioning? in the body the way that God has placed in her.
I thank God for godly men and godly women that are taken on that as a practical application of this great truth of spiritual gift in the body. Now the apostle here, he goes on from this chapter where he's speaking about the functions of the members in the body and then he tells us about a more excellent way. And he comes into this lovely, lovely exposition of love. It's in three parts. First of all, we're either the pre-eminence of love. That's beautiful. Compared with a lot of the gifts here at the beginning, the pre-eminence of love. Oh, it's possible to be an orator who might have the tongue of melon of angels.
But if I don't have love, just a slanting past, a tinkling symbol, just a tinkling rock, and it's just valued at that a great big theory. And he speaks of a number of gifts here. First of all, the orator. And then the philanthropist and so on, and all of these gifts. If it's not motivated by love, love behind it all the time, it's not worth anything at all. So the first section here, the first three verses of this great chapter concerning love, is the preeminence of love. And then there's the properties of love. The next three verses, we get here fourteen different qualities in love.
Eight of them are negative, and six of them are positive. These negative qualities that we get here, I think, are just a description of what is happening at Karnas. He speaks here, not in vain. Not pasta. He got that right at the commencement. And if you look at these negative qualities, we get here, where love, the things that love does not do, he'll find that he's going over one by one these different things that were not observed in Karns. But then he gives us six positive qualities on view of the day. I think that they are manifest only in the person of Christ himself.
He is the personification of love. Go time this morning to look at these different qualities, although they're most important and absolutely beautiful. I think that any man worth his salt could easily spend a whole week on this beautiful, beautiful chapter. Love. The qualities of love. Fourteen on together. Eight of them negative. That was corn. Six of them positive. That is the Lord Jesus, the great patriarch, the great standard of love. And then finally we get the permanence of love, not the end. I believe that the term that's used here, when that which is perfect has come, I personally believe that that is twofold.
I believe that in the early days of the church, the infantile period of the church, not the beginning. I believe when the canon of Holy Slip Church was completed, when that which is perfect has come. Apparently when Paul wrote First Corinthians, There were only two epistles in two parts of the New Testament in existence at that time, possibly the first epistles of the Thessalonians on the Epistle of James. They didn't have a whole Bible. It was the infantile period of the church, but for that which is perfect is come. That is when the whole canon of Holy Scripture, when it was complete, we have God's complete mind and will and His Word, that which is perfect is come.
And then that which is imperfect or in part, it passes away. And notice that in that period there we get, that if asked for tongues, they shall cease. And I believe that that was the infantile, early period of the church. But not which is perfect is God. And tongues shall cease. And by the way, the word there, the grammatical construction of the word is, they shall cease of themselves. That is, they shall gradually fade out. They have fulfilled their purpose, and therefore they don't exist. And then at the end, he tells us of three things here, permanent, faith and hope and love.
Oh, thank God, as far as love is concerned, it's permanent, it never passes away. Some would say that faith and hope, they will pass away too. Well, I don't know. I think that this great principle of faith, even when we see Christ face to face, in the glory, and that today we look through a mirror and we see darkly, we see very clearly certain things we don't understand at all when we get to heaven. When we arrive on the glory, thank God we shall fully know then, even as we are fully known in the present time. That is the second period here. First of all, the completion of the canon of Holy Scripture, and then secondly, when we finally arrive home, we'll understand in a way that we never can down here.
But these three terms, faith and hope and love, I believe that all three are permanent. In the early days of Brethren, there were three men. I've mentioned this several time this, I just want to close. those Jim Nelson Derby and those George Miller and those Robert C. Chapman. And I always think of these three men representing these three graces. As far as faith is concerned, dear George Miller, but same with God, for over fifty years, he was completely dependent upon God for material supplies.
And the Lord never let him down. Many, many things happen. Children sitting in waiting for their breakfast in the morning. And at the center of the table there was a knock at the door on the supplies room there. So the Lord never disappointed him. Wonderful, wonderful story. And over Mueller's head, I would add the word faith. And then John Nelson Darby, a man who had twenty-six years of age, left the Episcopalian Church on account of conviction, started to break bread in a very simple way and to study the Bible. He was an outstanding scholar. He was a gold medalist in his last year at Trinity College in Dublin. A man who translated the whole Bible, first of all, into German.
And then he translated it into French. And then he brought it back again into English. It's what we call the new translation today. And by the way, it's one of the finest translations in the English language of the present time. An outstanding man. It was he. along with other young men, all in their twenties, sitting, studying the Bible, recovered the great truth of the Lord's coming, the imminent return of Christ and the difference between the rapture and the appearing, and the three great tactical words, the Perusia, the Apocalypse, and the Epiphanes. And for the very first time in centuries, the tremendous truth of the imminent return of Christ was recovered at that time.
And I think that most people that are studying the thing would say that Darby was responsible for that recovery. If you ask John Wilford in Dallas, or Charles Riley, or Dwight Pentecost, any one of these men would acknowledge that it was Darby who was the man responsible for the recovery of the church at that time. And over his head, I'd like the word for it. But there's another dear brother in chapter, the brother in Barnstable in England. A man who lived, it was a hundred years of age, his name was Robert C. Chapman. And over his head I read the word love. Faith and hope and love. You know, those dear souls, they've only held together.
They could have revolutionized Krishna. But unfortunately one day there came a rift between faith and hope. I'm not going to go into detail, but I was just too sad. The mate's heart broke. Faith and hope. There came a rift. And a low love. Robert C. Chapman tried to put his two arms around the two men. And hope began. He didn't succeed. And that rift to the last of the present day. Oh, beloved brethren. In spite of all that we read here concerning spiritual gifts. Let's never forget them. Faith and hope and love.
And of these things, Terry provides us today in this tremendous chapter where, well, they can just expand it for us so beautifully. I think it will be a help to us in our service for God at present time. I have made up my mind. As far as I am concerned, I know I'm on the last lap of the journey. I don't know how long the Lord is going to leave me here. I thought two years ago the Lord was saying, your time's up, come on, Lord. Left me here for a little while. But whatever is left, I will never, never introduce anything among God's people that would cause any friction. Or anything that would disrupt.
Or bring in disharmony. Or friction among the people of God. And again, let me just say I'm closing. The three things that I want to give my life to, whatever is left of it is. First of all, building. Building. Edification. Secondly, binding. binding God's people again. And thirdly, beautifying, beautifying the people of God. Building and binding and beautifying. Oh, the Lord, help us all to be a little like Christ in the wonderful, wonderful trade that we find here in this magnificent chapter for his names. I shall we pray. Our blessed God and Father, again we thank you for thy word.
We know it serves us our heart. right to the core of our being. Our Father, we think of so much failure, not only at current but in ourselves. We have nothing to boast of. We have no right to be complacent, but our Father, we do pray that in all sincerity we may seek to carry out the principles of thy word, of anything that thou hast given us to do, whether it's prominent or obscure. Our Father, we pray that we may seek to carry it out. and faithfulness to thyself, to thy precious word, unto the person of our beloved Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. Be honest, in his own worthy precious name.