Dr. Haddon Robinson - Are you Passing or Permanent? (1Corinthians 13)

0:02 He was telling me that you only go around once in life, and the trip might be a very short one. What really matters in life is what is eternal. Therefore, you ought to live for Jesus Christ. I'm not sure if I really needed that bit of profound theology when I was a boy, but I do know that I have needed it quite often as I have become a man. I don't know about you, but one of the hardest things for me in life is to separate the passing from the permanent. I discover that I give a great deal of time and thought and energy and, in fact, worry to things that really don't matter very much at all. And things that matter a great deal often seem to be pushed aside. I guess all of us have difficulty making distinctions between what is passing and what is permanent. For example, I think we do that with people.

0:57 We sometimes think that people are part of the passage. After all, at best, most of us will not live a century. So we come to believe that what really matters are not people, but the causes to which people give themselves. What is really part of the permanent, we think, are civilizations and cultures and governments. After all, they were here when we got here and they remain after we've gone. So we tend to think that those things last and the people are part of the passage. Of course, if you take the Bible seriously, you know that that's nonsense. You know that it is people that are eternal. When the suns have burned their last, when the stars have been taken from their sockets, civilizations crumble when cultures disappear when governments are gone you and i will exist someplace forever no it's people that are eternal that's what c.s lewis was driving at in his book the weight of glory when he said there are no ordinary people you have never talked with a mere mortal it is immortals whom we joke with and work with and worry with and marry and snub and exploit, immortal horrors or everlasting splendor.

2:16 So it's people that are important to God. God does not love governments or civilizations or cultures. God loves people. And it is people for whom Christ died. So if you are going to give your life to the things that matter to God, then you will give your life to people. having decided that you still have some problems don't you what can you do for people what's the most important thing that you can do for those around you and again if you're like me you discover that you keep getting the passing all mixed up with the permanent the things we think are important are really bound to the earth and may not have much to do with heaven at all Let me see if I can get it this another way. If I were to ask you to name the three outstanding Christians that you know, I'd be intrigued with your answer.

3:12 Some of you might have difficulty getting up a list of three outstanding Christians. But perhaps on that list you'd have a preacher, somebody who stands in the pulpit and proclaims the word of God. He would get on the list. But sometimes we think the most important thing we can do for another person is to preach at them. Or perhaps on your list of outstanding Christians would be somebody who had an exciting spiritual experience. Somebody whose relationship to God made your experiences seem to be drabbed and dull and gray. Sometimes we think the most important thing we can do for other people is to challenge them or inspire them. or perchance you might have on your list that outstanding Christians someone who knows the Bible someone who knows what he believes and knows why he believes it somebody who has memorized all of the New Testament sometimes we think that the most important thing we can do for another person is to inform them without for a moment downgrading preaching without making light of spiritual experiences or without slighting knowledge of the scriptures, I think it's important that we look together at 1 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 8 where there Paul says that the focus of our lives ought not fall on spiritual gifts but instead should fall on love.

4:41 For Paul says in verse 8 of chapter 13, love never fails but whether there be prophecies, they will cease and whether there are tongues they will be stilled and whether there is knowledge it will see well we know in part and we prophesy in part but when that which is perfect comes then the imperfect disappears when paul says that love never fails the word that he uses therefore fails is a word that we used for the fading of a flower was a word that was used for the cutting down of a tree was a word that was used of a bone that had gotten out of joint when he says that love never fails he means that love will never fade as a flower fades love will never be discarded as a piece of timber no longer necessary love will never be replaced by something else that will never be pushed out of joint it is love is eternal that is the most important thing you can do for another person is to love that person in order to drive home that point paul contrasts love which is eternal with spiritual gifts which are really part of the pattern

5:56 he wants these corinthians who valued spiritual gifts to know that that ought not be the focus of their lives but the mark of a great christian is not whether he prophesies or speaks in tongues or has a great deal of knowledge the primary thing is to ask about his relationship whether he or she is a person who loves love never fails but whether there are prophecies paul says they will see first paul compares love with prophecy this is a gift that the apostle valued in fact in chapter 12 and again in chapter 14 he says if you're going to focus on a gift This is the gift that is of most benefit to other people. A prophet did two things. First, he presented God to people. He preached the word of God.

6:50 And secondly, he sometimes predicted the future. Paul wants us to know, as important as that was in Israel and in the church, prophecies fail. That is, they cease. They are fulfilled. For instance, back in the Old Testament, The prophet Isaiah, over 600 years before the birth of Christ, predicted that Jesus would be born of a virgin. Micah, another prophet appearing in essentially the same time frame, predicted that Jesus would be born in the village of Bethlehem, in the area of Judea. When Jesus appeared, both of those prophecies were fulfilled. He was born of the virgin Mary. He was born in the town of Bethlehem. So, that prophecy is fulfilled. it's ceased it's finished all those prophecies do now is to reinforce the faith of a devout man or woman prophecies as splendid as they are well that's true with preaching preaching will one day see there is coming a day when perfection comes when Jesus Christ appears when preaching will no longer be necessary there's coming a day the bible says when the knowledge of god shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea and in that day there will be no need to urge people to know god because everyone shall know him from the least to the greatest there will always be a place for song leaders and organists and pianists because throughout eternity we will sing the song of the lamb of god but it'll be a song service no preaching problem believe it or not there is a place for preaching now but not in the age to come preaching will cease as important as it is it ought not be the focus of life because it is really part of the passage not part of the perm paul goes on to say whether there be tongues they shall see he is here talking about languages that were a gift to the church for what it's worth the word for cease that you have is a different

8:59 Greek word that is used for prophecies which will fail or knowledge which will fail. Those are the two same Greek words, the words translated fail, but this word for cease is a different word. And the way the word is constructed seems to indicate that they will serve their function and they will be gone. If I understand 1 Corinthians 14 22, the purpose of tongue, This gift of languages in the early church was a witness to Jews that God was doing a new thing in their midst. Tongues were a way of showing the Jew that God's purpose had turned from the nation Israel and was now focused in the church, made up of Jew and Gentile alike. And for the Jew to understand that that's what God was doing, God was going to speak to them with strange languages. If you look at Acts 2, Acts 10, and Acts 19, the three places where tongues appear in the book of Acts, that's what tongues are.

9:59 They're assigned to the Jew that God was at work in the church in a special way. Whether you buy that or not is not my purpose this morning. But the point that Paul is making is that tongues cease. They have a function and then they're done. So a wise person will not put his emphasis on something like tongues. They are part of the passage. That's true, by the way, of languages generally.

10:27 Languages, see, the Greek that we have in the New Testament is drastically different from Greek as it's spoken in Greece today. Latin, which was a major language in the ancient world, is now a dead language. We study it in school, but nobody speaks it. Assyrian, which was once the major language of antiquity. It is now spoken by a few odd scholars and a few universities. Language is C. Like the gift of tongues, they are part of the passage, not part of the permanent. And Paul says, whether there be knowledge, it too shall see.

11:09 I suppose if our Pentecostal friends put the stress on tongues, the folks in the Bible church put the stress on knowledge. and somehow think that the most important thing in the world is to have a lot of Bible facts in our heads. Nothing wrong with that. Hear me well, Paul is no man to downgrade doctrine, but knowledge is part of the passage.

11:31 In fact, it passes very quickly. Just recently, I chatted with a friend of mine who is at the university. We were talking about the PhD exam I took back in the early 60s. The comment he made is, you know, most of the questions they ask you, they wouldn't ask you now because the whole view of communication theory has changed. They don't even discuss those things in class. I thought it was the last word in knowledge, and apparently new words have come. I have a friend who is a gifted scholar. A while ago, as we were chatting, he said, you know, the most discouraging thing about working in my field is that I know that 100 years from now, virtually everything I know will be discarded. Now, it's just as a way of failing. If I were to offer you a deal, if I were to offer it to sell you a set of encyclopedia for $60, you might be interested.

12:28 Until I told you that the set I had in mind was 60 years old. Then if you bought my set of encyclopedias for $60, nothing down, just $60 across the board, if you bought it, you would buy it primarily because it matters. That's the library you've got. You like the colors of the cupboards, but you wouldn't buy it for the information in it. Where is the theory that has not been challenged? Where is the boundary that has not been changed? Where is the information that has not been superseded? Where is the assured knowledge of yesterday that is not looked at as error today? Now, knowledge ceases. New knowledge takes its place. By the way, that's true with biblical knowledge. I hate to tell you, but they have revised the notes of the Scofield Bible. We thought that was eternal, but it lasted about 35 years, and they came out with a revision.

13:25 In fact, they have revised the translations of the scriptures, because things that we once knew, we know now we did not know. Archaeology tells us that we were wrong. Somehow putting your focus of life on knowledge and thinking that that is the end-all. is to spend your life with what is passing rather than what is permanent.

13:47 You see, the only thing that an immortal soul ought to give its life to is that which is eternal. And Paul is saying that's not gifts, not special talents, not special abilities. The only thing we really deal with that is eternal, is love. When you love people, what you are doing now in the here and now in that relationship to the other person is what you will do throughout all eternity. And the man or woman is wise and mature, who puts the emphasis of life on that which is eternal. Then, in order to illustrate his point, that is that spiritual talents, spiritual gifts are part of the passage. Paul illustrates that in two ways. First, in verse 11, he illustrates it from childhood.

14:42 And then in verse 12, he illustrates it from a mirror. Verse 11, he says, When I was a child, I talked like a child. I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put away a childish thing. Paul is saying that these spiritual talents, the ability to preach, the ability to handle languages, the knowledge that we have, is very much like childhood compared to maturity. When Christ comes again and the perfect breaks in on the imperfect, we shall see this as really being child's play. We'll look back on it as a kind of trivia. For example, children speak the language of childhood. It's great that children say mama and daddy.

15:41 It's nice to see them put a few words together. You really don't see many people who are 35 or 40 sitting around at a cocktail party saying, You know, when I was just six months, I began to talk. I've really been working at that. Would you like to hear me speak like a child? I've got that perfected. I think there was something wrong with them. In fact, when somebody is psychologically ill, one of the things that sometimes occurs is that they retreat to the language of babyhood. You don't admire that. You don't say, my, it's wonderful. He's kept up with baby talk all of his life. You realize as a mature person that was part of the passing, fine in its place, but not something that you would emphasize. That's true with the knowledge of childhood. I have a friend who has a daughter who is about half past five. A lovely youngster, but a while ago she was in Sunday school.

16:39 I had a missionary lesson and she came out and told her dad, I learned three things today. I learned about Jesus and I learned about Jews and I learned about Indians. He said, you know, I knew all about Jesus and Jews, but I didn't know anything about Indians until today. then a while later after she had done some silent thinking she said to her father you know I'll bet there are at least two or three other things I don't know and she was serious and you laugh at that because that's how children are they have fragments of knowledge and somehow think that they know everything but what they know is very partial very incomplete by the way that's true with our knowledge take anybody in a theological seminary the best they know about god is very very slim we really don't know very much we're like children what we know is the fragmentary it's incomplete and one day when the perfection comes and we see life as it really is we shall look back on All we thought we knew, and we'll realize it was like a child in Sunday school, like Ned in the third grade who scribbled in his notebook.

17:54 That's all it was. It just won't seem very important at all. That's the stupidity of giving yourself to what is happening. Knowledge is a way of puffing us up. I had a cousin who was three years older than I was. that may bother him now it didn't bother him when we were growing up he was a torment to my soul there's nothing on earth worse than being a seven-year-old in a world of ten-year-olds i remember one time sitting on the front steps of our house with him and he looked at me and said tell me one thing you know that i don't know What was worse, I couldn't think of anything he didn't know.

18:42 You think that when you're a 10-year-old. That's the way knowledge is for a child. That's the way knowledge really is for us, too. It's fragmentary. It will be gone. When Christ comes, we shall see it for what it really is. The fact Paul goes on and says, now we see through our glass darkly, but then face to face. Corinth was known for its mirrors. The mirrors in the ancient world were not made of glass. The silvering of glass to make a mirror did not begin until about the 13th century. Mirrors in the ancient world were made of brass, highly polished, and in that brass you could get a reflection of yourself. But the reflection was always a bit distorted, really hard to see clearly.

19:42 You could not get an accurate view of yourself. Apparently, the picture here is that somebody looking in a brass mirror and coming up behind them is a friend. And looking at the mirror, they see the reflection of a friend, but it's distorted, it's twisted, it's incomplete. That's what our knowledge is like now. When perfection comes and Christ appears, we shall turn and we shall see things as they really are. In the light of that face-on view of life, we shall see how incomplete what we know now is. In fact, the word that Paul uses when he says we see in a glass darkly could be translated we see in a glass as in a riddle. It's enigmatic. We look at the Bible, we look at life, and it's like a riddle. We just flew back from Europe.

20:39 Eight hour flight. They don't play enough music, show enough movies, serve enough food to make that thing comfortable. So, what Swiss Air does is give you a book, and in the back of the book there are riddles. purpose is to keep you occupied on the flight you know what a riddle is here's a group of dots draw a line from dot to dot don't cross any other dot when you were all through you should have included all dots except the three in the corners So, you play with it. It's all there, all the information that you need, and you start messing around with the dots.

21:18 And finally, I always cheat. I go to the back and find out how those dots come together. And once I see how the dots come together, the riddle is solved. I don't even go back and finish it. The complete knowledge makes all of this a riddle, no longer a riddle.

21:38 We spend a lot of time worrying and thinking, how in the world do you get the sovereignty of God to relate to the responsibility of man? How does prayer work? How does God lead his people? He'll know. It's like a riddle. But there's coming a day when we shall see things clearly and we shall look back at all that we thought we knew and we'll laugh. It was like looking in a brass mirror. Important, worthwhile, but not worth the focus of our lives. The point that Paul makes is that we ought to give ourselves to that which is permanent. We ought to give ourselves to love. And when we do that, these other passing things will take their proper place. The last thing that Paul says, however, is not only is love greater than the gift, but in the final verse he says that love is greater than the greatest.

22:46 He says, and now there remain or abide faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love. Sometimes when people read that last verse, now abide faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love, what they think Paul is saying is that one day faith will become sight and we shall see things as they are. one day hope will become reality and therefore hope will no longer be needed but love goes on forever there's an old hymn that says that faith will vanish into sight hope be emptied into light love in heaven will shine more bright therefore give us love good sentiment but it's not what paul is saying paul is saying there are three things that abide Three graces that go on for eternity.

23:43 Faith, hope, and love. Always, throughout eternity, we will be people of faith. Because always, we will relate to God in confidence and trust. That is always the basis of our relationship with him. So, there will never be a time when we will not have to trust God. There will never be a time when we will not have dependence upon God.

24:08 Always, throughout eternity, we will be people of hope. When we come into the world that is to come, we do not become God. Oh, we will be freed of many of our limitations, but there will always be new depths to explore, new heights to climb, new marvels to understand. There will always be before us the greatness of God for us to know. For us always, the best is yet to come. we'll never sit down on a cloud and strum a harp and say, well, it's all over we've arrived, there's nothing else to hope for we'll always be people of hope and we'll always be people of love and Paul is saying, of those three graces, faith and hope and love the greatest of these is love and then he quit he doesn't tell us why love is greater than faith and hope What he did was to leave it to me to explain it to you.

25:10 As I've tried to work with it, it seems to me that the reason that love is greater than faith and hope is first of all because love gives soul to faith and hope. Faith can be a very calculating faith. In fact, it can be for many people little more than a mathematical formula. I am a sinner. Christ died for my sins. I put my trust in Jesus Christ. My sins are forgiven. All nice and neat. Like one in one is two. That can be very cold. It can be very calculating. But love comes and takes that statement of faith and gives to its soul and life and vitality.

25:56 So that I do not approach God as a mathematical formula, but I have a relationship with a living person that I love. that's why the hymn writer speaking of that great transaction says what language shall I borrow to praise thee dearest friend for this thy dying sorrows thy pity without end oh make me thine forever and should I fainting be Lord let me never never outlive my love for thee love takes the formulas of faith gives them a soul love takes hope and gives it life and vitality quite frankly there is an interest in prophecy that I think is a perversion of the Bible we sometimes want to know about the ten nations of Europe and we want to know about Russia and Egypt and how the oil crisis fits in and we sit down like people reading the Wall Street Journal only it's 50 years from now and we try to get that all figured out the cold sorriest people i know are folks who know all about the prophetic program since they have hope the whole thing is going to blow up uh we don't have to worry that carter is going to have the final word there's some hope to that it's cold it's calculated you see when you read prophecy if you read it with hope you must also read it with love that is to know that what What we are looking forward to is his return.

27:33 We just flew across the Atlantic, and there's somebody in New York who knows all about the flights that come into the Kennedy airport. Knows when they leave, knows where they are above the ocean, knows when they land at Kennedy. And when a flight lands, he crosses it off and picks up another flight. But in New York, there can be a young woman who knows that on a given flight, 702 Swiss Air out of Zurich, there's a young man on that flight who is coming to be her husband. She knows that that flight leaves at 9 o'clock Zurich time and she is able to trace it as it comes across the ocean and she calls up and discovers that it's going to land right on time and she's there at the airport but what she's got is not just a timetable

28:27 she's got hope mixed with love what matters to her is that her beloved is on that plane that makes all the difference faith without love can be calculated Hope without love can be simply curiosity satisfied. Love gives virtue to the virtue. And I think that love is greater than faith and hope because love is characteristic of God. God does not have faith. God knows everything. Therefore, faith is not part of his character. God does not have hope. The future is to God what the past is to us. There are no questions.

29:20 There is no anticipation. But John tells us that God is love. So that when we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, because we put our trust in Christ, the mark of that indwelling the mark of the divine character is that we become loving people

29:43 it is that which shows others that we belong to god not hot hope not deep faith but fervent love Love is part of the permit. The thing that signifies your relationship to the Father is your relationship to the Father's children.

30:15 It is by your love that you show that you belong to Him. And I think in the age to come when perfection comes, very few of us will look back and say, Wish I'd preached the sermon. Never got a chance. do it i think very few of us would say man i wish i had spoken tongues but never had a chance to do that i think very few of us will say man i wish i knew more when i was back there

30:49 in the light of what we'll know that probably will never even cross our mind but if there is one regret that we may have in heaven it would be this I wish I had loved more. I wish I had done more to seek the highest good of those around me.

31:11 I wish I had said the kind and gracious words. I wish I had reflected my father more clearly in the way I loved his children. Isn't that really what you want from other people? You really sit around wishing many people would come preach sermons to you? Do you really have a deep desire that somebody will come into your life and speak to you in a foreign language that you don't know? Are you really interested in having someone quote the whole of the New Testament to you? In English or Greek? No. What you want desperately is for someone to love you. To care about you. To touch you. To help you. to seek your best.

32:07 And what you would like from others, others ask from you as a child of Jesus Christ. Love never fails. Now, throughout all eternity, we shall never outgrow it. It is the mark of belonging to him. that we love people very very much Thanks for having me. Father, in my best moments, I know that that's what I want. I want to love my wife, my son, and my daughter. I want to live in love towards the people who live around me. towards the folks who are part of this congregation Thank you for the enabling power of your spirit so that this is not a desire that is thwarted in frustration.

33:17 We simply come to ask that we shall pursue love, that we shall make it the aim of our lives, that it shall be characteristic of this congregation. That when people think about us, they shall say of us as they gossip, look at how they love one another. thank you for your love to us it reminds us of what our love should be for one another and now lord bless these friends as they live today throughout this week help them to rely upon you and upon your spirit. so that all of us together may be loving people for Jesus sake and for the sake of those who have to live with us we ask it