Gooding, David: 2 - 1 Corinthians 13

Now, as you know, we are currently studying one Corinthians chapters twelve, thirteen, and fourteen. Chapters which, all three of them, speak about the topic of spiritual gifts. This is a topic which unfortunately has led to much disagreement amongst the Lord's people in different centuries, and not least in our own. So that what we are trying to do this, these evenings, is to come back to scripture and the Holy Spirit who inspired that scripture, to see if he will help us understand what arguments, what considerations he inspires the Apostle Paul to bring before us on this exceedingly important topic. And again, what we're trying to do is to not, not to take a verse here and there, but recognizing that all three chapters deal with this topic of spiritual gifts. We're trying to see the message as a whole. All the detail insofar as we can, but how it all fits together and presents us, as you may expect, with anything coming from the Holy Spirit, with an exceedingly balanced account, with exceedingly balanced and sane and practical instruction on this important matter. So last week we attempted to cover chapter twelve, and I have to confess the obvious, I did all the talking, and doubtless that left you with pressures building up beneath, you'll see the diaphragm and elsewhere, you'll see, ready to explode given the slightest opportunity. I have to disappoint you tonight, I'm going to talk again, you'll see. So the pressure will really be mounting up, uh, for the ensuing weeks, and pray keep it mounting up. You mustn't let, let me get away with things that might seem okay at the start, but upon further inspection are not right. And certainly you mustn't get, let me get away with thi- with things that are obviously not right from the very start. And the organizers tell me that they're going to give you due opportunity in the weeks ahead, which weeks I haven't yet promised, uh, Dulcie, uh, for the general discussion of these matters. But I talk again tonight because, as I say, what I personally think is important is that we should not just fasten on a verse here and there, and then using it as a springboard, go all round the world unto all sorts of other things, but try first to consider this whole topic in the context, uh, that the apostle himself discusses it in. Let's begin by casting a very brief eye over chapter twelve just to see where we've got to. We noticed last week in chapter twelve verses one to three the basic test by which to judge all spiritual gifts, and that is by their doctrinal content. And in particularly, what do they say about the person of the Lord Jesus? That is to say, when people come under the influence of whatever spirit it is, that gift, that spirit, that message that is conveyed are to be judged by the doctrinal content, by what is said about the person of the Lord Jesus. Secondly, verses four to eleven, that there are diversities of gift. And in the first part, verses four, five, and six, differences of gift, the same holy Trinity that gives, bestows, and works and empowers those different gifts. And then verses, uh, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, that not only are there different gifts, but one and the per- same person doesn't normally en- have them all. But God gives to each one different gifts as it pleases him. Then we noticed, uh, ver- uh, next last week, verses twelve right down to verse twenty six, In which Paul talks about those who, uh, being in the body of Christ, feel themselves inferior. Why? Well, to use the analogy, the foot says, because I'm not the eye, I'm not the body. Translate that into the realities he's talking about. One person says, ah, I'm not an evangelist, so I'm not in the body. Or another person comes along and says, uh, uh, are you a prophet? No? Well, you're no good then. That cannot be said. The foot shall say, because I'm not the eye, I'm not in the body. That is nonsense. You don't get into the body by being a foot. You don't get into the body by being a prophet. How do you get into the body? You'll get into the body by this double process, baptized in one's spirit by the blessed Lord Jesus and made to drink of one's spirit by the Lord Jesus. And Paul explicitly affirms that all believers have both been baptized in the Spirit and made to drink of the Spirit. If they had not been so done, both operations simultaneously, they wouldn't even be in the body. A body depends for its existence on both those operations simultaneously. So I mustn't say then, because I'm not an apostle, I'm not in the body, and I mustn't let anybody tell me, because I'm not a teacher, I'm not in the body. And if I were to say, oh, I wish I were a teacher, why was that? Well, then I could be secure I'm in the body. Oh no, you couldn't. It's the other way round. Yes. Similarly, he deals in verses twenty one following with the superior brigade. Those who, because they've got a gift, think they don't need others who have different gifts. The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee. Put that illustration into the real situation. The prophet cannot say, ah, I'm a prophet, so I don't need the evangelist. And the teacher cannot say, can he, of any of those gifts listed at the beginning of the chapter. Verse eight, for instance, word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, healings, workings of miracles, prophecy, spirits, discerning of spirits, different kinds of tongues, in translation of tongues. Who cannot say of any on them, or if you do, you're wrong for saying it, I don't need you. They are all necessary, says Paul, to a complete body. Then finally we noticed verses twenty seven or uh to uh thirty one, as we came to the end of the chapter last week, that while all gifts are necessary, not all gifts are equally important. My little finger is necessary to a complete body, but it isn't as important as my heart, is it? Because I could survive without my little finger. I would find it very difficult on times to survive without my heart. Some gifts are more important than other gifts. You say, hurry up and tell me which are the most important, you see, because I want to know which are most important. You do indeed, for verse thirty one now exhorts us, desire earnestly the greater gifts. I take the verb, zeluti it is, in verse thirty one to be an imperative, not merely a statement you do desire, but you are to desire. You say, wait a moment, uh, sir. If the giving of gifts is in the sovereign disposal of the Holy Spirit himself, what's the good of my praying for souls to be saved, I suppose? We don't take that view, do we? At least I hope we don't. No, sovereign though he is, he reserves the right in his grace to listen to our requests. Doesn't guarantee he'll give us always everything we think we need, but we are to seek earnestly. We are to seek earnestly, therefore, the greater gifts. Some will say that the verb is not only imperative, it's in the plural. That means not the individual seeking, but the whole church seeking. Well, that is true. If a church got together and decided it could do with an evangelist or a teacher, why not wait on the Lord for it? Yeah? It is also possible for an individual, isn't it? You'll get an example in chapter fourteen. Here's somebody that speaks in tongues, and it making no sense to the congregation, he's told to pray that he may translate it. So it's open to the individual, isn't it, to desire. Righto, then we are to desire the greater gifts. And you say, well, now then, righto, come on and tell me which are the greater gifts. Well, I'm not going to tell you that yet, of course not, because the Holy Spirit doesn't. For just at that point, he introduces a whole chapter, uh thirteen it is, with thirteen verses, before he gets round to telling you which are the greater. And the chapter that he now writes is, of course, the very famous chapter to do with love. You say, what, what, what is he going off for that for? I thought he was talking about spiritual gifts. What is love? It's all very nice, is love, but what's that got to do with spiritual gifts? Why doesn't the man keep to the point? He's as bad as some other preachers we have. Why doesn't he keep to the point, and when he started on spiritual gifts, keep on talking about spiritual gifts, now go off onto some other thing, how marvelous love is. Ah, and what you're saying is, aren't you, what has it got to do with gifts? Well, as you now see from the opening word, it's got everything to do with gifts. In fact, this is one of the fundamental things to get hold of if you are thinking about gift. You say, what's it got to do with gifts? And in particular, what has it got to do with seeking gifts? All right. Why would you seek any gift? You say, I would like to be an evangelist, that's what I'm seeking. God give us more of them. Um, tell me, why would you seek to be a gift of an evangelist? Because I do so enjoy preaching as what's like, you know, I enjoy preaching the gospel. You should hear me in my bedroom some Thursday nights when I haven't, you know, after I get home to the meeting and there's nobody around, and I preach the gospel in my bedroom like one. I enjoy it immensely. You do? Well, carry on. But is that why you want, um, the gift? So you can preach? Well, then you'll be in a very dangerous place if that's all you want it for. Why? Because the basic principle, an utter sine qua non, as the lawyers would say, is that if you're seeking gift, your motive must be love. And that means not love for yourself, does it? It means love for the other person. What would you seek a gift for? Well, if you don't seek it out of love for somebody else so that you can help the other person, but you seek it for your own gratification. Now listen to what the, uh, the inspired apostle says. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but haven't love, I'm not doing it because I love the other fellow. I am become sounding brass or clanging cymbal. I don't know whether you like sounding brass, it gets on my nerves. Clashing old sound. Ooh. I won't be unkind, but I've been in many a Buddhist temple, and suddenly you get frightened out of your life. Somebody gets a mighty great hammer and beats it on a gong you never heard the likes of. Wow. So is it when somebody uses a gift in church, that is, without love. They're not considering how it will help the other person. They're not loving the other person. They're just using a gift. And if I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, Paul is laying it on, isn't he, because there isn't anybody this side of the glory that would ever know all mystery and all knowledge, not, not even the Paul himself. He said later on, we know in part. He's really laying it on thick and heavy, isn't he? Suppose we had all knowledge. Well, you will do one of these days in heaven, my dear brother, my good sister, you'll have all knowledge, you'll know all mysteries in heaven. Suppose you already had it. You had all faith so as to remove mountains. A super duper George Müller, five or six of them all rolled into one. And you have love? You have not love? Well, you are nothing. You are utterly insignificant. You say, surely it signifies something. I just moved that big mountain. Well, if you did it merely as an exhibition of what big muscles you've got, and it wasn't done out of love for anybody else. You are insignificant. So what? You'll move the mountain. What does it mean then? And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and I give my body to be burned. You say, is that a gift? Well, it can be, yes, there is a gift of liberality, isn't there? To some, God has given the gift of being stewards of his material goods in a special way. But suppose I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned but have not love, it profiteth me nothing. And you will note with what care the inspired apostle speaks, doesn't he? That is the thing to be noticed. This is inspired, you know, the language is exceedingly exact. He says here, um, if I give, for instance, all my goods to feed the poor but have not love, he doesn't say, and it doesn't profit the other people at all. Because it could, couldn't it? Suppose you are multimillionaire from Australia, you'll see, owner of five or six nationwide newspapers and goodness knows what else, and you, uh, give, uh, five million to the poor of Kabul. What for? Just to get publicity for your- yourself and your paper, you'll see. So what? You say that won't profit the folks in Kabul. Yes, it will. Yes, it will. The hungry and the starving will profit immensely from your five million pounds worth of medicines and goods. Whatever your bad motive was, it won't do you any good. It profiteth you nothing. I give my goods to be burned and have not love. It profiteth me. It may profit them something or do me the slightest bit of good. And Paul thus, uh, pushes home, doesn't he, this fundamental lesson that must guide me in two things. It must guide me in seeking gift. How well? Well, I must ask myself, why do I seek this gift? Am I being moved by the love of God to seek this gift? How will I love people by it? How will I benefit other people by it? And then I must seek ge- uh, grace, mustn't I, whatever my gift is, to see that I always exercise it in love. And that's a thing in which we're not always a hundred percent successful, is he? At least, I know I'm not anyway. For love suffereth long and is kind, and love doesn't envy. You should hear a teacher go through the list. Love suffereth long and is kind. When you get to the point where you say, if they ask me about Northern Ireland again, I'll tear my hair out. If they ask me about the sons of God, uh, and the daughters of men in Genesis six, oh, That's the Greek question, you know, if you want to travel this world and and teach the word, that doesn't matter whether you're preaching from the Prodigal Son or the book of the Revelation or Proverbs chapter eight, or Ezekiel, or when you're finished and you say questions. Yes? What do you think about the sons of God in Genesis six? So often asked, I promised myself, threatened myself sometimes to have a tape recorder made with an answer to it so I can switch it on and say that's my answer. Wouldn't always be nice, would it, if some earnest young lady, some earnest student young man comes, and this to them is a very big thing, and they have just discovered it, and if you didn't take their questions seriously, you could slight them, and you could, in the extreme case, put them off Bible study forever. They've just begun to get keen and take God's word seriously. Love suffers long and is kind. Yes. And that, you sit down, and don't tell me how I know it, I know it by a thousand and one experience, when you feel you've made a mess of the whole thing. Yeah. And the next brother gets up and gives a brilliant thing. And afterwards at the cafeteria, everybody's saying, wasn't that a marvelous message? And love envious not. So you made a mess of it, did you? That's too bad. What are you doing it for? Hmm. In the use of our gifts then, does not, is not puffed up, vaunteth not itself, does not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own. We'll say, eh, is not provoked, does not take account of evil, rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but with rejoices with the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Important as they are, those descriptions, I shall not now dwell upon them at any greater length. Not because they are not important, but I have my eye on the clock, you'll see. And if too many more weeks go by and you don't get a chance to, to, to, to, to question and to contribute, I shall be in real trouble, you'll see. So I pass them by now quickly, not because they are not important. Here are the basic principles in the seeking of and the exercise of all gifts. And you'll see, says, uh, Paul in verse eight, there is another big consideration. Love, love never faileth. But whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I have been known. But now abideth faith, hope, and love, these three, and the greatest of these is love. So now in the exercise of our gift, there is another very big consideration. That gift is temporary and a passing, uh, device. There's come a day, says Paul, when you won't need prophecy anymore anyway. You won't need tongues. You, uh, won't need special knowledge. All that will be done away. It is, after all, at best, only a temporary device. Whereas there are certain things that will never be done away, and they are love, hope, and faith. And of course, the biggest of those three, all three permanent, but the biggest of them is love. So this is another act, uh, uh, motivation in my attitude to gift. One day, special gift in that sense will not be needed. Love will always be needed. But now these verses, verses eight to thirteen, have, uh, been verses that very serious Christians have disagreed about, haven't they? And I suspect, to be fair and even-handed as I can, I better tell you both major interpretations and leave it to you to make up your mind which you think is the better interpretation according to the context. So here comes interpretation number one. If it's your interpretation, try and refrain from clapping. Also, I'm going to give the other interpretation, and I shall ask them likewise to refrain from clapping. We're not here to opposing sides, we're out for God's truth. The first interpretation then, held by very, very high-powered, uh, students of scripture. Like Professor Warfield, the great Presbyterian was he, or some such of America. That, uh, asked the question, well, what is that which is perfect? Verse ten: When that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part shall be done away. What is that which is perfect? And Benjamin Warfield, along with thousands of others of highly responsible men and women, have said that that which is perfect is the completion of the New Testament scriptures, the New Testament canon. That the gifts here mentioned, prophecy, tongues, knowledge, were temporary gifts given until the canon was completed. That when the canon was completed, then by definition, these temporary gifts, prophecy, knowledge, and tongues ceased. Therefore, any tongues that came afterwards must by definition be spurious. What support could you possibly get from scripture for that view? Well, they quote again, uh, Ephesians chapter four, and perhaps we ought to look at it. Ephesians chapter four, That is describing gifts. This is talking of the risen Christ, Ephesians four verse eight. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended on high, he that is the Lord Jesus led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. And here are the gifts, verse eleven: He gave some to be apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints unto the building, unto the work of the ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ, till we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That's what gifts are for, to bring you to spiritual maturity, a full-grown man. And when shall we become full grown men? Oh, says this interpretation, look at verse fourteen, that you may no longer be children. You are children at the moment, but pray don't remain like that all your life. Learn to be grown up, not only morally and emotionally, but learn to be grown up in your doctrine, that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men in craftiness after the wiles of error. Don't be children any longer. Learn, speaking in truth, the truth in love, verse fifteen, to grow up in all things into him which is the head. This interpretation says, look here, this is the purpose of gift. It came alongside of people who in early days, in the early churches, did not possess the complete canon of the New Testament. All they had was an odd epistle of Paul, perhaps a bit of a gospel, perhaps even an ep- an epistle from Peter, who knows? Some places had two letters from Paul. Some might have even by this time had a bit of a collection, but certainly they hadn't the New Testament. And therefore they needed the gifts in the church, and prophets in particular, through whom God could communicate his Christian truth. But when they got the complete revelation, they could stop being children. I wonder what you would say to me if I said to you, the trouble with you is you're a lot of children, tossed to and fro with every wind of, of doctrine, aren't you? You would say, no, we're not, and we're thinking about cancelling your commendation anyway. What you'll say to me, isn't it, Walter? You'll say, what are you talking about? Been in Apsley Street fifty years, sixty years, seventy two years, ninety and a half years, and you say we're still children? Of course we're not. And that is what, therefore, some are saying. No, you have had the whole canon to guide you. You are no longer children. Whereas the early churches, not having the complete New Testament scriptures, they needed special gifts like prophecy and tongues to help them, uh, grasp orally God's New Testament true, true see. But when the complete... Now, as you know, we are currently studying one Corinthians chapters 12.