The Deep Dealings of God Pt 23 - Let Us Go on Unto Perfection - God's Love [1 Corinthians 13] — Phil Beach Jr.

Stand up nice and quietly against the wall. Don't run. Please children. Please don't run. I Want to ask a question? All right, how many have thus far? Experienced the touch of Jesus in your heart in your soul, isn't he wonderful?

Let's praise him. Amen. It's him. It's his hand. It's his love. It's his touch that we all so desperately need right? Praise the Lord alright. Father we just want to thank you for the children. We pray God that you'll place your hand upon their life.

We dedicate them to you a fresh Lord as they go to Children's Church. We claim every one of them for you Lord. We claim their hearts for you. We pray that you will preserve them from the wicked one preserve them from the lie of this age.

That tells them the most important thing in life is to get what they want. Help them to see Lord. The greatest joy is to be free from ourself and to become a love slave to Jesus Christ. We claim them for you Lord.

We simply say Devil, you can't have them because we've given them to God. Amen. God bless you in Children's Church. May the Lord speak to every one of their hearts by the Word of God. Amen. I'm excited this morning about Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God.

Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God

He is Almighty. He is the Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end the first and the last. He is the great comforter. He is the Almighty God. He is the healer. He is Altogether lovely. He's the perfect one.

He's the reigning one. He is everything and all and all and I trust this morning that through his Word He will speak to our hearts and energize us and strengthen us and encourage us In wherever and whatever we're going through at this moment.

So let's bow our hearts for a moment our Father in heaven. We thank you for the precious Holy Spirit. We thank you for his ministry and our myths. Ever living to reveal the splendors of Jesus Christ the glories of the man in glory ever living.

To communicate to us all the good and all the power that Calvary produced. And father this morning We do pray that the eyes of our heart would be opened as we look into your word and we pray Oh God that you would communicate the incorruptible truth of the Word of God and deeply plant it within our beings Lord that it might bring forth a harvest of righteousness.

Lord we stand against every scheme we stand against every plot and Stratagem of the wicked one not in ourself but through the Word of God and we pray that the Word of God would effectively expose the powers of darkness that are seeking to lead us astray and That the Word of God would be able to lead us to the light of God's truth and through it Lord.

We might be free this morning free our soul Lord free our soul from fear. Lord we ask that Jesus Christ Would walk in our myths through his word laying his hand upon each and every one of us and healing us.

Father we stand against diseases in our myths by the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. We thank you Lord that you are the great healer and that we cannot heal ourselves. Nor can we confess our healing but you when your word is spoken.

When you stand in our midst and you speak and say arise and be healed. Then we know Lord that we are healed. We thank you for the faith. That's arisen in our hearts Lord. We thank you Lord For the atmosphere of faith the atmosphere of heaven that you have brought into our midst this morning.

We're listening for your word. We're listening for your healing word we're listening to your healing word that can speak to our Crippled condition and say oh you crippled want to rise. We're listening for your word.

Oh God that can speak to our blindness and say oh he blind one open your eye and see. We're listening for your word oh God that speaks to us in our darkness and says, Behold, I am the light of the world.

Lord, in our confusion, we're waiting for You to speak to us and say, Behold, I will be Your peace, O Jesus. Be that which we need this morning, we pray. We thank You, Lord, that though at times it seems that we're being defeated, it seems like we're losing ground, but we hear Your Word this morning speaking to us saying, All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Father, we look to You for Thy Word. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. We're going to look, by the help of God's grace this morning, at what it means to experience spiritual maturity. We're going to look this morning, as we've been laying a foundation for many weeks now, at the eternal perfections inherent within Jesus Christ, which God wants to produce by the power of His Holy Spirit in our lives.

Brothers and sisters, I pray that God will give us a listening ear, because this Word that will continue now for several weeks, it's almost in a scary way practical. In other words, it's going to touch us right where we live.

This is going to get into your home. This Word's going to get into the way you look at people, the way you deal with your husband and wife and children and your friends. This Word's going to get into us.

And it's going to shake us up. But it's going to produce life. It's going to produce the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ. But brothers and sisters, before we get into this, and this is a continuing message on Hebrews 6, verse 1, let us go on unto perfection.

The cry of the Spirit of God right now in your life and my life is the desire that we might move on to spiritual maturity, move on to spiritual adulthood. Spiritual adulthood means the putting off, the putting away of childish things, childish ways, childish ways of thinking, childish ways of speaking, childish ways of acting.

You know, the temper tantrums. It's time for us to accept the call of the Spirit of God. It's time for us to submit to the child training of God so that we can come to spiritual maturity. Spiritual maturity will result in releasing us.

Listen closely. It will result in releasing us from a world that revolves around ourself. Spiritual maturity will result in releasing us from essentially an I-centered, me-centered, my-centered way of looking at things.

Spiritual immaturity is characterized by perceiving. You see, all of us have a way of looking at things. All of us perceive things. Spiritual immaturity keeps us bound to perceiving things by how they affect us, how they relate to us.

And the work of the Holy Spirit and the work of the Word of God is to emancipate us from that mindset so that it is no longer how it affects me, how it affects my welfare or my good or my bad, but how does it affect the glory of God?

How does it affect the purpose of God? Does it give Jesus a bigger place in my life? You see, when God wants to give Jesus a bigger place in our life, it's not always to our personal benefit. It's not always to our personal success.

It's not always to our personal increase or our personal enlargement. And that's the trap that spiritual immaturity is caught in. We see everything as it relates to us. And this is why... Was that an amen out in the hallway?

My, my, I tell you. Listen, this is why there's so much trouble in our relationships. Now, I hope you have boots on with steel toes today. Back in the 70s or late 70s, when I first got saved, I, for just a few months, worked on a construction crew.

And the big thing was to get those big boots with steel-tipped toes in case a piece of... What do you call it, Dad? The thing that you... The wood that you use to build frames? The scaffolding or the big pieces of wood would fall on your toe.

You wouldn't break it. But relationships are suffering today because we're resisting. Listen, we are resisting the pain that comes when Father speaks to us no longer as children, but as sons and daughters.

And requires that we put off our childish ways. Before we get into this, and we're in no hurry. No hurry we've got until Jesus comes. We're going to walk slow. We're seeking to move with the Holy Spirit.

Because God wants His Word to minister to us. He wants His Word to find a place in our heart. But now listen closely. Let's go for a few moments way back to the beginning. Genesis chapter 1. This is something the Lord has put into my heart, and He confirmed it this morning.

God’s Desire to Communicate After the Fall

This is something that we all need to ask the Lord to help us to grow in. Listen carefully. In Genesis chapter 3, we know the story about Adam and Eve. And we know that the serpent came in and beguiled them.

And lied to them. And as a result, they sinned against God. That brings us to verse number 8 of Genesis chapter 3. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amidst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where are you? Brothers and sisters, the first thing that God did when He saw we had fallen into sin, was He sought to communicate with us.

He sought to talk to us. He sought to ask a question. Brothers and sisters, in the day that we are living in, it is vitally important that we hold to the truth of God's Word that teaches us that God wants to communicate to us even when we have fallen and failed Him.

He wants to talk to us. Adam, where are you? Parents, listen. Communicate with your children. Talk to them. God knew where Adam was. He wasn't talking about a geographical location. He was saying, Adam, where are you on the inside?

What's going on? Adam, talk to me. Talk to me. Tell me what happened. Don't internalize what's going on. Listen, to be a healing vessel through which Jesus Christ can encourage people, you don't need to be an educated person with a degree.

You don't need to be a skilled preacher or teacher. All you need is to have a heart that can look at someone in the love of Jesus and say, talk to me. What's going on? Tell me what's going on. It is the lack of communication, the lack of heart communication that is essentially paralyzing and crippling.

If you notice, society is geared toward the destruction of communication. Families no longer get together at night and look at each other in the eyes and say, hello, Bill, how are you? Tell me what's going on.

No, no. The television and the computer and the games and the activities, what about communication, brothers and sisters? What about looking into each other's face and saying, tell me what's going on.

Bury one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Brothers, there is a warning from the Spirit of God to us this morning, brothers and sisters, and that is guard your heart. Guard your heart.

Let me tell you, brothers and sisters, human beings were created with the need to interrelate one with another. And when inanimate objects begin to take the place of heartfelt communication, a decline begins to occur.

Listen, what is atrophy? When you don't use a certain muscle. People who are paralyzed suffer from atrophy. Their muscles are not used. There is a spiritual atrophy occurring today. There is a part of us that is created by God, for God, for genuine communication, genuine interaction with God, communion with God, and also it's intended to be that which we enjoy with one another.

There's a faculty, there's a very part of our being that is essential, that is suffering from atrophy, non-use. Listen, we are living in a generation where people don't even know how to communicate one with another.

Let's be honest, alright? How many here feel that they have a difficult time communicating with people? Communicating. Communicating your thoughts. Communicating your struggles. God is a communicator.

Adam, talk to me. But you know what happens? We internalize. We go inside. We hide ourselves like Adam. The very nature of sin, the very nature of sin is it wants to hide itself. It wants to cover itself.

That's the withered hand. We want to hide it. We want to hide it, but Jesus is saying, talk to me. Stretch forth your withered hand. Tell me what's going on. And so, God met Adam with a series of questions.

The series of questions were not for God's benefit, but were for Adam's benefit. The series of questions were intended by God to arrest, to stop the inevitable condition that sin produces. And that is, we draw back into ourselves away from God and away from those that we love.

And in that state, we get confused. In that state, we get distorted. In that state. And so God asks questions. Brothers and sisters, may I encourage you and I this morning, stand against the influence of the world that would rob you from communion with God.

That will rob you from communion with His precious Word. And that will rob you from communion with those that are in your life. We were not created to essentially communicate with inanimate objects. And that's basically what our lives have been reduced down to.

We communicate with inanimate objects. We fellowship with Ricky Ricardo and Lucille Ball and Spock. We know them. We feel a camaraderie with them. But what about the giants? Or the Lakers? Now we have to distinguish between the things that differ.

No, I'm not preaching against these things. God help us to have maturity to hear what God is saying. When these things take the place and cripple and begin to become our actual relationship and our fellowship, they need to be taken out of our life.

And so I'm praying that God will use this short little word here. Adam, where are you? And He will put something in our hearts. And that something will happen in our lives in order to correct these problems that are in our life and in our families.

We have communication problems, brothers and sisters, with God and with each other. There's a scripture in Matthew chapter 6, which is the word that we want to open up with that will lead us into this incredible, life-changing revelation of God's love.

But here's the word. It's found in Hebrews chapter 6. Verse number 21. How many find as you're turning there, how many find the temptation in your heart to avoid communication? It's easier not to communicate, isn't it?

It's easier not. That's true with our relationship with God. And that's true with our relationship with one another. Matthew chapter 6, beginning in verse number 21. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Where your treasure is, or whatever it is that is valuable to you. Or whatever you consider to have worth. That is where your heart will be. And my question this morning is simply, are you praying, oh dear God, so work in my heart, so work by the power of your Holy Spirit, so work by the power of your word, so as to give me the ability to value the things that you value?

Brothers and sisters, God has given us all things richly to enjoy, but the things that we see with our natural eyes and the things that we feel with our senses are not the valuable treasures that we are to have our hearts set on.

There is a whole world in Jesus that is filled with treasure. I asked one of the brothers this morning as I walked in, how are you? And you know what he said? I'm wealthy. And I don't think he was talking about the amount of money in his bank account.

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Brothers and sisters, one of the outstanding signs of growing in spiritual maturity and in spiritual adulthood is that we begin more and more and more to value the things that God values.

And we find our heart's desire is after those things as opposed to being after the things that we can grasp for with our hands. For where your treasure is there will your heart be also. Labor not, Jesus said, for those things which perish, but for those things which endure unto everlasting life.

Paul said, while we look not at those things which are seen, but those things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen, which are invisible, are eternal.

And so this morning we're going to look into treasures, pearls of great price. We're going to look into wealth that will never perish. Wealth that makes up the kingdom of God, that makes up the kingdom of the heavens.

The wealth that all the saints possess in glory right now. The wealth that Christ Himself is. We're going to look at a world that is in complete contradiction to the world that we live in. And it is my desire and prayer that God, by the power of His Holy Spirit, will put into us a desire for these things that exceed any other desire.

And this is the very reason why Jesus said in verse 31 of chapter 6,. Therefore take no fault, saying, what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or wherewith shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek.

For your Heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Therefore take no thought,.

These words describe the heart that is touched by the grace of God, that is captured by the Word of God, that is being transformed by the Spirit of God, enabling the soul, enabling you and I as the believer to value, to put worth upon, and to seek after those things that are eternal.

Spiritual Maturity Is Measured by Love

Trusting our Father in Heaven to care for all other things. 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Beginning in verse 1. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tingling cymbal.

And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity, it profits me nothing.

Verse 2. And though I have the gift of prophecy, prophecy in and of itself is good, but to seek after prophecy can indicate pride, and understand all mysteries. Understanding mysteries is good, but in understanding mysteries we could become a little bit arrogant.

All knowledge, and though I have all faith that I could remove mountains, all of these things sound quite wonderful. And there's a tendency within our lives, within the body of Christ, to make it an issue with God.

Lord, I want these things. Lord, I want faith. I want to understand mysteries. But the asking of these things, and even the receiving of these things, do not in and of themselves indicate that we are necessarily pleasing God, or that we are necessarily growing into spiritual adulthood.

Amazingly, there seems to be a great emphasis on these things today. A great emphasis. So essentially we can have these things, but there's something in it for us. Oh, there's something in it for us when we understand great mysteries.

There's something in it for us when we can prophesy and speak elegantly. There's something in it for us when we have all faith. Oh, there's just something there that touches the depths of our ego, the depths of our desire to want to think that we're important, or to want others to think that we're important.

Oh, there's something there! Beginning in verse number four, we begin to see a picture of our Father in Heaven and His Son, Jesus Christ. The call to spiritual maturity is not an emphasis on charisma, giftedness.

It's an emphasis on character. Not what I can do for God, but, oh God, make me like You. We need multiplied grace now as we look at those things that are the exact opposite of any one of us apart from the grace of God.

This is not describing natural temperament. This is not describing natural goodness. None of these things describe anything that any person might have naturally. Each one of these words describe a quality inherent within the divine nature, the Lord Jesus Christ, that He is seeking to produce in our lives.

Number two, each one of these qualities must find a place in real life to be produced. These qualities are not produced in Bible school. They're not produced in an ivory tower somewhere. The scenario, the setting by which these qualities are produced is let us go on unto maturity.

It is the togetherness, the walking together with one another, the experiencing of the various different difficulties and trials and temptations and struggles that we're going through. One of the signs of spiritual maturity is we cease from wishing that we were somewhere else, that we were someone else.

Oh, if I only had more of this. Or, oh, if I only lived there. Or, oh, if I only had this kind of a home. Or that. The grass always looks greener to the immature heart. Immaturity is characterized by a short season of contentment and a long season of discontentment.

A short season of contentment and a long season of discontentment. And then within that discontentment, the mind is spinning, the mind is plotting, how can we change this? But as God begins to work maturity in our life and begins to give us a heart that is able to put off childish ways, we begin to recognize that our problem is not in what's going on outwardly, but essentially our problem is what's inside.

And that we realize that God is working on the inside through the circumstances. And that circumstances no longer have the eye of an enemy to us. Because we see the eye of our Father and we recognize that circumstances serve His purpose.

Long-Suffering Love and the Forgiveness of Others

And that develops a rest, a contentment, a cessation from fighting and struggling and an upward looking, all by grace, an upward looking to our Father in Heaven. Beginning in verse number four. Charity suffers long.

To suffer long is to put up with a very, very long time. As opposed to hasty anger. To put up with for a very long time as opposed to hasty anger. To endure patiently as opposed to losing or giving up.

This word is used particularly in relation to others. It's used particularly in relation to others. And so when the scripture says love or charity is long-suffering, it indicates a quality that God alone possesses and that God alone can put in us that enables us to put up patiently with others.

Now brothers and sisters, in order to drive this home, there's a parable that we want to read. Matthew chapter eight. I believe it's very important that the Lord put charity suffereth long first. This parable will help us to understand the depths to which this particular scripture charity suffereth long.

It will help us to understand the depths of the meaning of that verse. Listen carefully as we read in Matthew chapter 18 beginning in verse number 23. Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king.

Now this king we're going to interpret as being Jesus himself. Okay? This is King Jesus. This is our Father in heaven. This is the king that the story is talking about. Jesus spoke in parables which are earthly stories to illustrate heavenly truths.

Parables are earthly stories to illustrate heavenly truths. So this is an earthly story. Some parables actually were true and some he just made up. But they always illustrated a heavenly truth. Listen to this.

There was a certain king which would take account of his servants. Our accountability is with King Jesus brothers and sisters. There'll be a day of reckoning when we'll all stand before him and we'll have to give an account.

Now let me say this. We will have to give an account for many different things but in particular we're going to see this particular accountability and what it has to do with. And it connects to charity suffereth long.

God help us. Help us Holy Spirit. Help us Lord. I pray you'll turn the video camera on. Let us begin to see by revelation of the Holy Spirit the truth about the measure of grace that's working in us right now about this Lord.

Help us to see. And when he had begun to reckon verse 24 one was brought unto him which owed him ten thousand talents. But for as much as he had nothing to pay his Lord commanded him to be sold. And his wife and children and all that he had and payment to be made.

Notice verse 26. If you write in your Bible then I want you to make a cross reference that's about to occur. Just watch. The servant therefore fell down. Now let's stop right now. Every single one that is in this order to pay.

We have sinned against God and God is asking for an account and we're saying God we don't have what it takes. Lord we stand guilty before you. There's none of us here who is exempt from this truth right now.

Not one of us. The servant fell down and worshipped him saying Lord have patience. Now cross reference that to 1 Corinthians 13 verse 4a. Because it's the same word. Charity suffereth long. Lord have patience.

In other words he was saying God I've blown it. I've sinned. I've failed you. But be long suffering toward me. Be long suffering toward me. Have mercy on me please God. I don't want you to sell my family or my children and my wife.

Lord have mercy upon me Lord. Be long suffering. What happened? I will pay them all. Then the Lord of that servant was moved with charity. Compassion. And loosed him. Freed him. And forgave him the debt.

But the same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants which owed him a hundred pence. The same servant. That's you and me. We cried out to the Lord for mercy and he forgave us of our debt.

And now what we have done we've been forgiven ten thousand dollars. And now the same servant Phil, you we left the presence of our master and we found someone one of our own brothers or sisters. The scripture says here a fellow servant this fellow servant owed him a hundred pence a hundred dollars.

And he laid hands on him and took him by the throat saying pay me that thou owest. And his fellow servant fell down at his feet and besought him saying have patience. Now did that servant hear that word before?

It came out of his mouth when he was bowing on his knees before the king who was demanding him to pay his ten thousand dollars. He said the very same thing. Have patience on me. And now he is in the very same situation with a fellow servant that he was in with the king.

In verse 30 says and he would not but went and cast him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servant saw what was done they were very sorry and came and told unto their Lord all that was done.

And his Lord after that he had called him, said unto him brothers and sisters listen to this language. O thou wicked servant I forgave you all that debt because you desired me to. Should not you also have had compassion on thy fellow servant even as I had compassion on you?

And his Lord was angry and delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you if you from your hearts forgive not every one his brother for their trespass.

Charity suffers long. There's your commentary. There's your meaning of this thing called charity that we know nothing about. I'll take liberty by the Holy Spirit now and say you look and find your closest and dearest friend here and let them cross you and you see how much love you have in your heart for them.

We don't know much about this love but this is what spiritual maturity is. And I tell you there's a lot of dear Christians today who have been delivered to the tormentors because they would not forgive the person that hurt them even after they cried out to Jesus and Jesus forgave them.

I'm not going to go into this deeply but the Bible says fear hath torment. And isn't God's word fits together? But perfect love what? Casts out all torment. May I say brothers and sisters the root of our inability to forgive from the heart lies in the absence of this perfect love.

And the absence of perfect love produces fear and torment. James chapter 5 verse number 7. Be patient therefore brethren same word patient unto the coming of the Lord. Behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and he hath long patience same word until he receive the early and latter rain.

Be ye therefore patient same word charity suffereth long. We're not going to move on to the next one. We want to stay here for a few more moments. Now listen brothers and sisters please let us go on unto perfection.

Maturity Through Present Relationships and Trials

Where do you think God is going to give you the opportunity to discover this wealth this gem this piece of pure gold inherent within the heart of Jesus Christ. Where are you going to find it? Right where you're now.

The people in your life right now are God's gift to you so that you can discover first of all how you have no ability in yourself to be long suffering and patient and forgiving. But once you discover that you can take that withered hand you can take that failure you can take that miserable sin oh I failed so much here I prayed God forgive me and he forgave me and I'm holding this grudge or I'm wrestling with being patient with this person or that person.

Have you seen it for what it is? Have you seen it to be a withered crippled condition in your heart? God says be long suffering and we've got to say but Lord it's not in me to be long suffering. It's not in me to be long suffering Lord.

I'm just the opposite. I could wring their neck. I could plot ways to hurt them real easy Lord. I could wish that they would perish from the earth. If given an opportunity I'd seek vengeance Lord. And God says at the moment of our confession not until the moment of our confession he says stretch forth thy hand and then the miracle of transformation takes place and Jesus begins to put in us apart from us something from himself and we find the power.

After we swallow the bitterness of defeat the bitterness of I don't have it in myself then we find the sweetness of God's word and Jesus. And that's that's where that's where we find Stephen being stoned.

You know without grace we're closing now without grace do you know what you'll do when stones are being thrown at you? You know stones not literal when you're being hurt you're being taken advantage of you're being misunderstood you know what you'll do?

You'll get your ruler out and measure the size of the stones. Here's how you know whether there's a forgiving heart in you or not. Not only will you get your measuring rod out and measure the stones but whenever you talk to someone you'll start talking to them about the stones being thrown at you.

But when grace comes and when the road of maturity begins to dawn upon us and Father begins to discipline us like Stephen when the stones begin to come what does it say in the scripture? Stephen's eyes looked where?

Up to heaven, Bill. They weren't on the stones. They weren't on the size of the stones. His eyes looked up to heaven and he saw the Son of God standing. And then what came out of his mouth? Do not hold this sin against them.

I would think that probably Stephen saw not the stones that were coming at him but the boulders he was throwing at the Lord. You see the stones that were coming at him was his fellow servant. His fellow servant in the parable.

His fellow servant. His fellow brother. But oh, he didn't see the size of those stones because he saw the boulders that he had thrown at the Lord himself and that he had begged for mercy and God said, I release you of your debt.

So Stephen was too preoccupied with the size of the boulders that were forgiving him to be able to even reckon the little stones that were coming at him and brothers and sisters, there is a grace available in Jesus Christ.

There is a grace available when God begins to bring us down the road of maturity where our eyes are so captured on Him and we see Him so clearly that we don't take into account the wrongs against us and we have the power to be long-suffering toward our brothers and sisters and put up with their faults.

Okay dear ones, that's number one. Let's look to Him now for a few moments because I believe God has spoken to all of us and now He wants to work in our hearts.