Westtown Church
Westtown Church
Love Bears All Things
God is love, and love is like a good roof that covers, protects, endures, and never leaks.
I invite you to open your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 13 this morning, if you have them. 1 Corinthians 13. We've been going through the love chapter, probably as appropriate as any subject on Father's Day, and that's how I'm going to introduce it. So I'm going to have you stand. I'm going to read scripture to you. I probably should have just had you stay standing, but some of you need some exercise. That's all right. I'm going to read a shorter version this morning. I'm going to read verse 7 version. This morning. I'm going to read verse 7. It's God's Word. Let's receive it with faith and love in our hearts.
Speaker 1:1 Corinthians 13, verse 7, Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Heavenly Fathers, we come to your word. We ask now that your Holy Spirit would help us understand the love of Christ. It's in Jesus' name we pray. God's people said Amen. You may be seated.
Speaker 1:Our focus this morning is going to be on love bears all things. Love bears all things. Really, that encompasses a lot, doesn't it? Love bears all things Properly understood. Let's ponder that this morning.
Speaker 1:And what I mean by properly understood is every verse of the Bible is understood in light of all the other verses of the Bible. The rest of the Bible always sheds light on a particular verse. It doesn't just hang out there in midair by itself. And so, for example, when Jesus says if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, he cannot be my disciple. Well, it's helpful to understand what the rest of the Bible says about our mother and father and our love for our family, so we can better understand in what sense Jesus is speaking that way. And I think it's fair to say that when we come to any particular passage of the Bible, if you can locate some of the key words or even a key word in the passage or in a particular sentence of the Bible and knock the fuzz off that key word, it helps us get a particular sentence of the Bible and knock the fuzz off that key word. It helps us get a clearer grasp of the whole and what it's trying to say.
Speaker 1:And I think this morning the word bears is what we're going after. What do we mean? Love bears all things. And so you dig around a little bit and you find in the commentaries or in your notes there that, oh, this is a present verb. It's a verb. Love bears all things. It's a present verb, meaning love is always and constantly bearing all things. Love remains in this ongoing state of bearing all things. It's a constant, ongoing thing. But the root of this word bears. You hear it in several verses in the New Testament. It helps us knock the fuzz off it a little bit more.
Speaker 1:Matthew 8,. We hear it in a couple places where the root is used as a noun. Listen, in Matthew 8, the centurion says to Jesus Lord, I'm not worthy to have you come under my roof, my roof. And in Mark 2, the four friends of the paralytic, you remember, they took him and they got on top. They couldn't get through the crowd to Jesus, so they took him up on top of the roof. And it says they removed the roof above the paralytic and lowered him down to Jesus. There's that word again, Same root word roof.
Speaker 1:That helps us, because then we can begin to ask ourselves well, what does a roof do? Well, a roof protects. I love how one theologian puts it Love springs, no leak. Love springs, no leak. A roof endures. What does it endure? It endures the harsh elements from outside. Why? For the benefit of those who are on the inside. It endures the harsh elements on the outside for the benefits of those who are on the inside of the home. And that's what love does. Love endures all things, or we could say it puts up with all things. Love supports another in all things. Consider this idea of covers Love covers.
Speaker 1:1 Peter, chapter 4, verse 8. The apostle Peter says this Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. That helps us get a sense of how great this covering is. Love doesn't cover a few sins. It's not like we said last week or the week before. It's not like baseball three strikes, you're out. It covers a multitude of sins. Jesus put it this way 70 times 7. There is no limit in true love.
Speaker 1:Think about how God's love covers us like a roof, a good roof. We hear it in the psalmist God's love is a refuge. Because what God is a refuge? He is a refuge, One in whom we can take cover. He is the kind of a God in whom sinners can take cover, Aren't you glad? And that's what he teaches us in the Bible.
Speaker 1:Sin makes us want to run from God, Like Adam and Eve, after they sinned in the garden, they went and hid in guilt and shame. But God sought them out. He went after them in love and he gave them a covering. He took away their own pitiful efforts to cover themselves and he gave them a covering. He took away their own pitiful efforts to cover themselves and he gave them a covering. So love covers like a roof. God is a refuge.
Speaker 1:You hear this since in Exodus in the Old Testament, God was getting ready to bring His people, His covenant people, out of slavery in Egypt, and so when the angel of death was going to sweep through the camp, he had instructed them you put the blood of the Passover lamb on your doorposts and the angel of death will pass over those homes that are covered in the blood of the Passover lamb. There's a covering that comes through the blood of the Passover lamb, and we see something similar in the tabernacle and temple worship where once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest would go in to the Holy of Holies and he would take that blood of the Passover and he would sprinkle it on the top of the ark. There was a mercy seat that sat on top of that ark with the Ten Commandments that we have all broken inside, but it was covered by the sprinkling of that blood. There's an old hymn covered by the blood. I don't know if some of you have heard this or not. Once in sin's darkest night I was wandering alone A stranger to mercy I stood. They are covered by the blood. They are covered by the blood. My sins are all covered by the blood. My iniquities, so vast, have been blotted out at last. My sins are all covered by the blood From the burden I carried. Now I am set free, for Jesus has lifted my load. Lifted my load. Oh the love and the grace I received in its place when he put my sins under the blood. Do you have peace with God this morning? Jesus is a refuge for sinners. His love covers a multitude of sins when we come to Him by faith.
Speaker 1:The Apostle Paul, when he wrote the book of Romans, was flushing this idea out when he quotes in Romans 4, the seventh verse. There he quotes from King David. A thousand years before Christ, King David lived and Paul quoted from Psalm 32. David had been forgiven by God for his adultery with Bathsheba and his murdering of Bathsheba's husband. And David wrote this in Psalm 32, which Paul quotes to prove that we're saved by faith in Christ alone. Here's how Psalm 32 begins, which Paul quotes to prove that we're saved by faith in Christ alone. Here's how Psalm 32 begins, which Paul quotes Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered.
Speaker 1:There it is again. Whose sins are covered in the love and the forgiveness of God, whose sins are covered in the love and the forgiveness of God. And aren't you glad that God's love covers even heinous sins like adultery and murder? Maybe you lack assurance this morning. Maybe you believe in Christ, but you're just not quite sure God covers all of your sins. You're haunted by them. God's love covers it all. He's not half a savior, he's a full savior.
Speaker 1:There's that great hymn, rock of ages. What Cleft for me. If a storm's coming, you want to get in the cleft of that rock. Rock of ages. Cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Isn't that something?
Speaker 1:As sinners, what do we need to hide from? We need to hide from the just judgment of God, the just wrath of God poured out for sinners. That's what we need to hide from. But isn't it something that it's this very same God in whom we take refuge for salvation? And so RC Sproul used to say we're saved by God, from God. This God, who will surely carry out just judgment, is the very God who says through Christ, come, hide in me, take cover in me. Through Christ, my son, and you'll be safe. Rock of ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from thy wounded side which flowed that covering's not for free. It cost Christ His life. Be of sin the double cure. Save me from wrath and make me pure.
Speaker 1:Love bears all things. It covers all things. Love bears all things. It covers all things. God so loved the world that he gave you and me Jesus as a loving cover. Thank God for Him. He shed His blood that we might live safely under His roof of love, now and forever. And then, when we see who God is and what he's done for us in Christ, this is where we have to pause and reflect. Do we give other people cover in their sins? Are we a cover for other people? Are they safe with us? Are we a refuge for them, Especially when they fail us, when they sin against us? How do we respond? We see what God is like. We see what he's making us to be. We see what we need to pray for God. Make me more and more like that. Make me more and more like Christ, by the grace of your Holy Spirit. Love bears all things Paul says, and so it's like a roof it protects and it protects others, especially when they're vulnerable due to their sins. It protects others and covers others, especially when they're vulnerable due to their sins.
Speaker 1:Kim Barnes was telling me that there's a study coming up the ladies are going to do and the men could profit just as much. I'm sure it's why love does not gossip. When we have that juicy morsel about someone else, what do we do with it? They're vulnerable. Yes, they've messed up. Now what? Now what John MacArthur says? There's a perverse pleasure in exposing someone's faults and failures. Exposing someone's faults and failures there's something sick about enjoying and delighting and passing on juicy morsels. The devil enjoys that, God hates it.
Speaker 1:I once watched a program on spy networks and how spy networks work, and one of the age-old techniques of spying is that you identify your enemy's weaknesses and even their sins, and even their sins. If they're in debt, for example, you can lure them, expose that vulnerability, lure them and once that cash has been exchanged, you have them. Or if a man is a womanizer, for example, once you get him in a compromising position and you have video of that or proof of it. Well, now you have him.
Speaker 1:And so these folks then have to live under the threat of exposure. They're totally vulnerable. Their whole life can be destroyed with this knowledge. There's no loving cover. They live in the slavery and fear of the knowledge of their enemy. Their enemy has them right where they want them. You see, this is the world. This is how the world operates. This is how enemies treat one another. In other words, Aren't you glad God is not like that? Do you know? Heaven is a world of love. What a beautiful world it will be when there's no more need to spy on one another, no more need to gossip about one another, no more need to do these things that we somehow think will make a better world, but indeed just promotes distrust and damage.
Speaker 1:So what do we do in our personal relationships? What do we do in our personal relationships? What do we do with information? When we find out, Do we give others loving cover or do we spring a leak and gossip? Do we use it against them in some way? Use it against them in some way? These past several years. These past several years have seen in our country.
Speaker 1:Firefighters have been busy. They've been battling a lot of fires. You know Out west, you see them, You've seen some closer to home. But what happens with a fire? It usually starts with a little spark, a little something, and it goes from there and becomes a forest fire. Our Lord's brother James says this in the third chapter.
Speaker 1:So also the tongue. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire. And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. That's sobering, isn't it? Whenever we misuse our tongues in an unloving way, it's been inspired by hell. The devil has tempted us and lured us. He can't take our salvation, but he can set our tongues on fire by hell. That's a sobering thing.
Speaker 1:What if God delighted to expose our sin and our failure before the world? We would want to run and hide and never come out. What if God wanted to share what he knew about us to actually use our sins against us? What if this is what God took pleasure in? Aren't you glad he's not like that. God does not take pleasure in these things. What if God tattooed our three worst sins on our forehead? Thank God he doesn't, Because God is love and love does not do that.
Speaker 1:Love doesn't do that because God does not do that. Love bears all things, it covers and protects all things, especially the sinful, especially the vulnerable, the widow, the orphan, the weak, the sojourner, the outcast. And this is what we see in the cross of Christ. This is one of the things the cross of Christ teaches us. It teaches us how we get the forgiveness of sins. Christ died for our sins against God. Christ died for our sins against God and this helps us understand that when the Holy Spirit comes into our life and changes our hearts by the grace of God, when we trust in Christ, we come to understand and we grow in our knowledge that as we mature more and more we use others' failures and sins against them less and less.
Speaker 1:Think about what Jesus did on the cross. He not only bore our guilt Thank God for that he took our legal guilt, wiped all of our guilt off the record books of heaven, Amen but he also took our public shame. He was stripped on that cross and mocked. He took our public shame. He took sin upon Himself and all the shame that comes with it as the guilty one, as the vile one, as the one who deserves what he's getting, that we might not have to bear our guilt nor our shame at the final judgment as God's people. Aren't you glad?
Speaker 1:I know many people that are convinced of the guilt of their sin, but they still think that somehow, on judgment day, God is going to shame them before the world. I don't believe that's true at all. That's not the nature of God's saving love. Yes, we'll give an account, but we will not be shamed. God is not going to shame us. Christ took our shame as well as our guilt on that cross. That's why you can look forward to the final judgment day with joy, rather than this gnawing something or other that you're not quite sure. It's going to be all that great For God's people when the trumpet sounds and Christ returns. It is going to be a great day for all of His people. So look forward to it with joy and in faith, Because Jesus is no leaky roof. He is a refuge. We have full safety covered in His love. But Scripture has to interpret Scripture, and so, even with this pronouncement of what love is that it bears all things.
Speaker 1:It must be said that there's time when we do have to confront sin, the sin of another person, and the Bible's pretty clear about that. For example, in Galatians 6.1, the Apostle Paul tells the Christians in Galatia, he says, Brothers, if anyone's caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted. So there are times we have to approach another Christian about something he says. If you have to approach another Christian about something, go in a spirit of gentleness and even if that's a sin toward yourself, go in a spirit of gentleness. Our default should not be guns a-blazing toward another.
Speaker 1:I never tire of thinking about Peter. I think a couple of weeks ago I mentioned Peter's denial. Isn't it something? Jesus was dying for Peter's sins. As Jesus is dying for Peter's sins, Peter denies Christ three times. Christ is dying for those denials as Peter denies Him. But when Christ sees Peter again after the resurrection, peace be with you. What a beautiful covering we have in Christ Christ-like gentleness.
Speaker 1:There were times Jesus and the apostles had to rebuke more firmly. I certainly won't say there's not a place for that. But that wasn't the default. That wasn't the default. Rather than gossip, Jesus tells us in the Scriptures how to handle a matter Go to the person personally and private, Talk about it. How can we talk about it gently? Well, we take the beam out of our own eye first before we deal with the speck in theirs. And that means we go to them practically with an awareness of our own sin and how we have all failed other people many times ourselves. But we go to them and we are aware of how Christ has endured and bore our sins and suffered for our sins, and so we extend and ask for God's grace to be that same way to someone else.
Speaker 1:Scripture even reveals there's times we have to publicly talk about sins in the church. That is absolutely one of my least favorite things to do. I've had to do it. I don't like it, but we have to do it sometimes.
Speaker 1:Sometimes someone has to be rebuked, not just firmly but publicly, and that's painful for the whole church whenever that has to happen. 1 Timothy 5.20,. Here's what Paul says to the young minister Timothy. But those who persist in sin should be rebuked in the presence of all so that the rest may stand in fear. There's times keeping it private or covered over is not what's best for the whole. And in those times, especially where there's a persistence in sin, not a first-time failure and a gotcha or anything of that matter no, that's not the spirit when there's just stubbornness in a sin.
Speaker 1:One of the problems in Corinth is they were overlooking scandalous sin. They were overlooking unrepentant, ongoing, scandalous sin. You can read about that in 1 Corinthians 5. A man had taken his father's wife. No, you can't do that. And they weren't doing anything about it. So Paul rebuked them as a church for not dealing with it.
Speaker 1:And so there's times required by both love itself and by the law, and rightly so, that we have to expose. We cannot and it wouldn't be right if we covered over certain sin. Think about a case. I, as a pastor, I have to report cases of sexual and physical abuse. Love requires it, the law requires it. But even then I'm to do it with weeping and with a motive to protect the vulnerable. It's sad when sin degenerates to that level.
Speaker 1:And so love conceals and here's the caveat when it can, when it's possible, but it is not always possible. Sometimes love has to expose. Wisdom is needed to know when to conceal when to expose. But what is love's impulse? Paul is putting the emphasis on this. What's love's impulse? What's love's pleasure? What does love enjoy and delight in doing? What does love prefer? It prefers to bear all things. It prefers to cover all things in love, in personal relationships. And so God confronts us with this this morning, and let each man and woman and youth and child examine their own heart. Is that my default in personal relationships, To cover the failures of others, even when the sin is against me?
Speaker 1:Back in 1 Corinthians 9, we get a glimpse into love bears all things. Paul was attacked personally. He was slandered horribly. Anyway, he says he has a right to be financially supported by the churches. It was actually a right that he had. But then he says in verse 12, nevertheless, we have not made use of this right. But we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. You see, that's the word endure, Same word as bears here in 1 Corinthians 13. He endured anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ. And so love bears all things, it endures, it puts up with all things in that sense.
Speaker 1:And so in this case, Paul gave up a right. He gave up his right, in that particular situation, to financial compensation. Why, For the sake of the gospel, out of his love for God, out of his love for the lost, out of the good for the church? And back in 1 Corinthians 6, you had Christians taking each other to court. Paul rebuked them verse 7,. To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong and why not rather be defrauded, but you yourselves wrong and defraud even your own brothers? Now there's much to be said about that. But what's Paul's point? Where love abounds, where love abounds, these things should be able to be worked out in the church amongst fellow believers. When Christ went to the cross, he wasn't demanding his rights.
Speaker 1:The Son of God could have called down when he came the first time, he could have brought the judgment. He came the first time he could have brought the judgment and he would have been right to do it. He didn't come to do that the first time. He could have called legions of angels upon His enemies. He didn't do it. He came to bear the curse for sin even for His enemies. The curse for sin even for his enemies.
Speaker 1:If you really stop and think about it. It's hard to fathom, isn't it? The purity and the holiness of the love of God. Heaven will be filled with this kind of love. We'll be surrounded by people that, if they could, death will be no more. But if they could, every person would die for another in heaven if they had to. What a beautiful, beautiful place.
Speaker 1:Christ could have brought judgment. But instead, what did he do? In love, he bore what he bore painful rejection. You ever been rejected? It hurts People can say it doesn't, they can put on a tough face, it hurts, it doesn't they can put on a tough face, it hurts, he bore it. Terrible abuse, Terrible suffering, the horrors of wrath and judgment. Christ bore that for us.
Speaker 1:Talk about harsh elements and he bore that so that we could then live in safety under His covering. Aren't you glad? This is the love of Christ. Love bears all things. Jesus doesn't hold our sins against us. He has covered them with His blood. He continues to cover them. He always will cover them. He's the Passover Lamb, the true Passover Lamb, and with His blood over the doorposts of our hearts, the judgment of God will always pass over us. He's the true mercy seat, and so that we don't have to worry about the wrath of God for having broken the law of God. He gives us that safety. Rest assured, dear Christian.
Speaker 1:I tell you again there is no hole in a roof put on by the Jesus Roofing Company. They talk about a 20-year roof, a 30-year roof, a 50-year roof. 50-year roof is nothing. Jesus gives you an eternal roof. Aren't you glad? That's the roof I want. It never springs a leak, it never has to be replaced. God is our refuge. Let's be thankful to him for what he's done. Let us repent of the ways that we have not reflected that in our own life. God forgive me for the way I've not borne with other sins as I should. Let's be a safe place for other people. Yes, sometimes we do have to confront sin, but even then it should break our heart. Let's pray for God's help.