The Church Today In Its Building Itself Up In Love

The Church Today In Its Building Itself Up In Love THE CHURCH TODAY IN ITS BUILDING ITSELF UP IN LOVE
EARNEST BEAM A debt of gratitude is owing institutions such as this for the attitude of mind and habits of life you cause young people to adopt. I want to express my sincere thanks to our Father in heaven for the men and women of faith, of courage ,and of vision who have made and are making such educational foundations possible. Not long since, in California, I heard a discussion concerning some land that was for sale. "It is not worth that much if the Japanese have been farming it,” one man said to the other. And the other man asked, “What have the Japanese to do with it?” To which the first replied, “They can take all the good out and leave the land almost worthless for agricultural purposes until years of building up processes have been employed.” Our civilization is running down. We have been taking entirely too much out of men and not putting enough back. We are going to change this procedure very soon now or we are going to leave this stage of action. The universe is against it. But schools such as these are great helps to the home —to fathers and mothers who care how their children are developed—’for yours is just the opposite of the Japanese with the land. Instead of taking out, you develop those processes of thought and habits of life that enable the student to take the great God of the universe into himself. This truly becomes a well of water springing up into eternal life. Again I thank the Lord for all the good all of the men of faith thus engaged have done for Him and for the world.

SPIRITUAL GIFTS IN THE EARLY CHURCH
Spiritual gifts is the subject Paul has under consideration in that church at Corinth when he comes to pen the thirteenth chapter which was read for us by Brother Silas. Let us get the setting of this chapter that treats so pointedly of love. The twelfth chapter enumerates the gifts of the Spirit possessed by the church of apostlic days. A study of each gift would be profitable for that church was a body. It was not merely a torso. It had feet with which to walk, and hands with which to serve, and eyes to see as well as ears to hear, and above all, it had a heart that cared. The Holy Spirit was the Assembling Agent. That harvesting machine was complete. But these gifts added nothing to the moral and spiritual character of those Christians. These powers that they possessed lodged in the character of God—not in them—and they were not the better for possessing them. This point is of extreme importance and understanding it you will see why Paul contrasts these gifts with love. When times were better than they are now we had shipbuilding there in the Los Angels harbor near Long Beach. Some of the shipbuilding companies are located in Los Angeles. Now suppose it is pay day and one of you goes to Los Angeles and is given the ten thousand dollar pay roll to carry down to the men at work. Are you any richer by this pay roll that is for others? No you are not. You might excite the envy of a friend of yours if you should get out in Long Beach before going on down to the harbor and begin to show him that ten thousand dollars and how very prosperous you are. Some men in merely handling money for others, of the which not one dime is their’s, suddenly are lifted very high in their own conceits. And imagine yourself exciting the envy of your friend who scarcely can find enough for food and rainment but you have ten thousand dollars! And, yet, you are not a pennyworth richer. No bread can you buy with that ten thousand dollars, no clothing can you buy and no rent can you pay. That entire sum is in your hands for the good of others and you are not the richer for it. Spiritual gifts were like that .

Paul speaks expressly in Ephesians the fourth chapter that these gifts were for the “work of the ministry.” And yet a few days ago a sister of mine together with her friend were dining at the home of friends. And about as soon aa they were seated at the dinner table they became engaged in a discussion of spiritual gifts. One young lady had prayed for a week or so and professed to have one of the gifts. She thought herself perfect—complete—and that she had arrived at that state of character where she could fulfill all the pleasure of God in herself. The young lady was sincere and meant well too as many another like her also is. But she was wrong—terribly wrong.

Each side in that little discussion went for re-enforcements so a few nights found all the company together again with a “Brother Rogers” to help them and with me to help “us.” I said to this young lady who thought she was perfect (complete): “You prayed for a week or so and were by direct fiat of the Lord made entire. No hard benches did you sleep on nor taunts did you take nor suffering did you have worth the mention. And yet you arrived at perfection. The apostle Paul labored in strifes and sorrow and hardships and sufferings almost beyond our comprehension and afterward pened with a hand that still trembled from the terrible buffetings he was undergoing: ‘Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.’ How hard it was for him to come by the unimpeachable character and how easy you came by it. To arrive at perfection after a week or so of mere prayer is unworthy the Saviour with a cross, the men of faith of the ages, and the God who gave His son for the world.”

“But the gift is the guarantee. God will not give the gift except you are wholly pleasing in his sight,” she reasoned. “You are tragically in error,’ I replied. (I spoke in kindness and she listened well.) I continued by showing her that the very church (at Corinth) possessed of so many gifts were “babes in Christ,” "carnal.” Among them "envying, strife, and divisions” and that their “walk” was “according to man.’ Rejoicing was there that was not good, and neither was the rejoicing of the young lady good. I believe I persuaded her of this. And the discussion continued until proof sufficient was given that the possession of these gifts added nothing—not a thing—to the moral and spiritual character of the possessor. True, they were largely given to converted persons—to good men—but the possessing of them neither made them good nor were they necessarily well developed spiritually. They were with these gifts exactly where the man with the payroll was—in possession of something to build up others but which enriched them not. The gifts gave the wisdom and showed the behavior of heaven and gave the proof that the message was divine (the truth and the proof of the truth) but the possessor’s character was not made better.

It is further pointed out that one might speak in tongues of men and of angels and personally be nothing but a noisy, troublesome person. Too, he might understand all mysteries and all knowledge—have the gifts with which to do this — and personally be nothing; that one could give his body to be burned and all his goods to feed the poor and it profit him nothing. These gifts lodged in the character of God—in the character of those who possessed them. But the “end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and faith unfeigned.” (1 Timothy 1:5.) And Paul kept this end in view and therefore contrasted these gifts with charity.

Another Mistake
Riding east with a very good friend of mine—a law student and a Christian—he too raised the question of whether the whole world would not be converted if a great display of these gifts were in evidence. And I asked, "Suppose they were converted, then what? Would they on that account be the kind of characters God wants? Will mere belief do it?” After some study I believe he was persuaded that these gifts are not needed to the development of character. And here let me interpose for emphasis. I come to Abilene with just two words: I am pleading for unification—integration—within us—for character and for unification with the whole world outside of us. This calls for character This calls for love. This state represents the completed circuit. The germ of life in a seed will not cease its work until it has deposited energy like itself—until it has deposited the seed that will repeat the same process. And the love set forth in Christ never stops until it has made us like Christ. The end of the commandment —the end of all ordinances, church name, sacrifices, toil, suffering—all—the end is' charity. Any system abortive of this is not of God. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” Except the church of Christ produces character—and love is that character—superior to the denominations it so sorely criticizes, it has no right to exist. To what profit is it that we may grow a tree with more luxurious growth than our neighbors? What does it matter that the tree abides more soundly within the principles of proper living? If his fruits equals ours our whole procedure is worthless and only has in it some excellency that is short lived. God goes for character—for love. The something that mothers have by instinct is what we must come to have through salvation in the realm of the Spirit. That something is love. That is God. That is the cosmic energy—the essence—of the moral and spiritual universe. The scheme of the ages is to produce character, love, life and not systems, dogmas and doctrines. These, to be sure, cannot be disregarded but are essential. But if they do not bring us to perfection—to completeness—to the love—character that God has—then are we salt that has lost its savour and we are good for nothing. We are then the most putrid thing in the world. And this love—this character—is not a direct bestowal of God for then had he as well taken the rocks and the trees for his children. We must rise up in faith and hope and God will give us the joys and the sorrows, the successes and the failures that will perfect that character. The two words are: Unification within—integration—no lost motion, and unification with God, the angels and the whole world of men. The one method of this end is not the mere bestowal of gifts but the hard, ugly, vexing way of the cross. But I anticipate my speech concerning unity for tomorrow afternoon and will return to the subject in hand.

It is a serious mistake to think that God is all the while anxious to use his supernatural power. If he did use it constantly we would then be walking by sight—regularly seeing his power—rather than by faith, to walk by faith is to trust him when we cannot see. Evidence is every-, where abundant both in nature and in revelation that God does not choose normally to use his supernatural power. It is so evident that we strongly suspect those who constantly clamor for signs as still being a “wicked and adulterous generation.” God’s manner of giving by the processes of nature is a living testimony against this constant longing for the sup-ernatural. Every natural birth with the incident suffering and the long, patient care of the infant is a testimony against it. The acquisition of knowledge and wisdom so necessary even for this short earth-life is likewise an abiding testimony against it. In the realm of salvation and revelation the testimony is as abounding. Why trouble Noah to build the ark? Why not speak it into existence? Why forty days and forty nights with Moses on the mount and then the offerings of the children of Israel in order to build that tabernacle that was to house the heavenly likenesses? God was very particular and all things must be made according to the pattern. The God who “spake and it was done; who commanded and it stood fast” could have spoken it all into existence. He did not do it. Why choose twelve unlettered apostles to carry the message to the world? Why not let Jesus and the angels take a day off up there in heaven and thunder the mesage of salvation to every corner in the earth? They would have made no mistake in the message and, too, the whole world have started off together with the wonderful news. Why not raise up a set of prophets every one hundred years to thunder forth the message anew? We can depend upon men to get matters badly twisted within one hundred years. And so might we multiply the considerations. Every one points to the grand conclusion that God is anxious to use this supernatural power. And we can be sure he is not anxious to use it for it is neither consistent with his character nor good for us that he should. All the philosophies of man ever written are not worth a featherweight that do not begin with facts— things as they are—things that have been done. See what God hath done is the way to begin to learn. Both the quaking of Mount Sinai, the thunder, the lightenings, the Voice that spake, and prior thereto the wonders in Egypt- all these show that God begins with things done. So of the miracles, wonders and signs which God did give with Jesus - •• yea, more, the person and character of Jesus himself—all is God showing his power and goodness that we might reason with facts and not with theories. But all of these displays just mentioned are spernatural and exceptional. Nature and the doings of God as recorded by faithful witnesses are just as enlightening to us if we will but consider. The theory that God is anxious to use his supernatural power is wrong and has wrecked the usefulness of many a man. The superintending providence of God, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, God hearing our prayers—all these are apart from the supernatural. They are all mysterious but not miraculous. They are as much a part of the way God works with his children today as the force of life is a part of his way in nature. And the fact that we understand neither working does not make either of them miraculous. Mysterious is one thing. All life is that. Miraculous is quite another agency. That is the exceptional and God does not choose to use it regurarly.

We are taught today that we need to pray God and have some miraculous manifestation of the Holy Spirit. With some every step of the way must be marked by some miracle. If it does not happen then exaggeration is employed to pump up the ordinary and to make it a miracle. It is a most striking fact that in the Bible those, for the most part, who know nothing of the coming of the miraculous were sometimes endowed with it and those who wanted it had it not. Simon the sorcerer offered money for one of these miraculous powers but he did not get it. I do not know that there is a great difference between him and those today who offer both money and sanity in some cases to get something. He was in the “gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.” If that same Holy Spirit was speaking through us now with Peter then I doubt not the same diag-nosis would be made in many cases. Those who asked Jesus for a sign were assigned by Jesus to a similar disposition of character—a wicked and adulterous generation. Brothers and all, we are often so sinful that we are in- capaole of judging aright our motives and thoughts. How reverently we should then come to His word. Truly to us these words are spirit and they are life.

I pointed out to my companion in travel on the way here that no people ever saw more wonders—more miracles— than did those Israelites who came out of Egypt. It is appalling to think of what they witnessed. But the carcases of nearly all of them fell in the wilderness because, they neither had faith in God nor did they know him! Think of it! Let these dead carcasses instruct us and all those who constantly clamor for gifts—for the miraculous. Life is not built upon that scheme and happy is that man who comes to see the “more excellent way.” Our greatest strength can become our greatest weakness. These very gifts are a case in point. Given of God to sup port the infant church they made them great. But when that church began to focus attention upon them and conducted themselves in such a way that they would have need oi them always they were found to be very weak, (carnal, walking as men, babes, rejoicing in the wrong things). My mother cared for me when I could not care tor myself. My father counselled me when I would have been ruined without his counsel. They fed me. They clothed me. The instructors taught me the elements of education and the mediums whereby I may use the knowledge and the wisdom so essential to physical manhood here. But now would I not have been in a ridiculous state if it had been necessary for me to bring them all with me here for these addresses? And if I never could bargain for myself in the affairs of men and go in and out among them without carrying a nurse along to put me to sleep and an instructor to read to me and a father to caution me not to give all my money to the first sranger who asked for it— would I not be ridiculously weak? These very agencies ordained for my childhood would be my weakness should I need them always. Their voice—their care—their instruction—their counsel—all—is to lodge in me and become a part of me and make me a mature person until I unconsciously use all of their ways. Then am I grown to manhood and can put away childish things. It is precisely so with these gifts. How could God ever develop spirits of faith, of hope and of love if all the while he was to do all for them as he could and did do with these gifts? The continuance of the gifts Would have kept them perpetual babes. But once beholding the perfect—the mature—the full stature of Christ—we can come by his ways, his thoughts, his ideals until we are completely regenerated and made anew. And when we arrive at that stage we have love as God is* love—perfect as He is perfect. We will find ourselves able to live in this world by His grace and like the oak of the forest, the beast of the field and the man of the world we shall be fully equipped unto every good work if we abide within his teaching. By faith we contact God, by hope we continue in the way, and love is the goodness of God himself. These elements lodge in our own character and make us to be what God wants us to be. But those gifts lodged in the character of God. How right Paul was! Surely this is the more excellent way.

How It Worked In Building The Church
Jesus exhibited love in providing the foundation for the church. Those twelve disciples would have burst into as many particles asi persons without his love. There was plenty of material for them to have warred each other to death. But Jesus found them, changed them, and made them ready for the kingdom “in spite of” themselves. Love always works “in spite of.” In mothers, in God, in Jesus it goes on when all else stops. Jesus went on with the twelve when they considered themselves so soon perfected and would have led the way knowing not they savoured not the things of God but only of men. He stayed with them when they fell to discussing who should be the greatest. He was with them when they would have fire come down from heaven to devour the adversaries. He stayed with them when they all forsook him at Gethsemane. He stayed with them on the cross and thought of the forgiveness of their sins. He was with them afterward in their perplexities. He empowered them at Pentecost. Love found a way to perfect everyone of those apostles with good hearts. Only ho who had a demon was lost. This marvelous accomplishment stands both as a challenge and a living rebuke to the whole world. There are thousands of people with just as good hearts as we this day have that we have never reached. If we loved as Jesus loved we would win them. But I anticipate the latter part of this address.

Love did it. Love worked in Jesus. Let any man consider carefully what Jesus experienced at the hands of those disciples and still perfected them “in spite of.” This powerful example became the very dynamic of the early church. The type was forever set.

Take the life of Paul as a further example of how love worked in building of the early church. Yes, Paul loved. Just because John spake of love and was that disciple whom Jesus loved, it does not argue that Paul was not loved and loving. He was. No minister from the ascension of Jesus until now of whom we have record compares with Paul in the excellency of love. Others wrote of it but where is the record of their accomplishment? And love acts. Love does things. Love finds a way. Paul did that. In the case of John Mark it was Paul who would not take him the second time. He had turned back the first time. Paul would not take him again. Why? Paul had a sense of completing this work God gave him to do.The urge that is in every- plant to complete its life cycle; the urge that is within our physical constitutions to take us on to maturity; the power that was with Jesus until he could say “it is finished”—that power was with Paul. Mark was a contradiction of that power. He turned back. And that power was love. Paul had it. He was one of very, very few men who truthfully could say, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”

I have seen the frost come upon the corn in the milk stage. It became chaffy, unfit for seed, and devalued for food. O, the thousands of Christians like that! But the frosts did not cut Paul down until he finished the course. He exibited the full, hard kernel that the frosts of winter cannot harm. He did that because he had love. And consider what that meant in the life ot that early church. The very hardness that Paul endured gave him wisdom and understanding. He is the one writer more than any other that set the church loose from Judaism. Judaism w'ould have destroyed it. Paul saw that and gave the needed instruction. He did that because he had love. He suffered the consequences because he had love.

Paul demanded purity of life free from hyprocrisy. It takes a good man to make that message effective. Paul had the necssary goodness because he had love.

He was never deterred from the goal because of circumstances. He used them all to the glory of God. It takes love to do that.

It takes a good man to stand when hundreds depart. It takes a good man to leave a desposit of faith that God can use when he is dead and gone. It takes a good man to be robbed of every proper consideration among men in order to bless and save those'men and their children. It takes love to do that. Paul did it.

It took love to plant the flag of the King of kings in every land. Paul did it.

Paul is one man that gave himself to the Lord.. And the Lord gave him love; What powers this little man left in that early church' for good! He was its very life blood. Members came to emulate him as they always will do their leader. Even those who despised him when he lived were made powerful by him at his death. We praise dead saints while we persecute the living ones. No lives other than those of Jesus and Paul are needed •to show how love worked in the early church. The apostles immitated the life of the Lord they had known. And like Joshua of old, they reared up a generation of men and women who knew the Lord. They signed the death pack with Jesus. They actually died to things of this worJd They were controlled by the Lord. It was love at work. The Church Today In Comparison
How often do we see this exhibition of love today? It is a rare excellency among us. But those few we have seen with it shone and shine like the stars of the firmament. Those who have had it have made us desire to sell all we have that we mav possess this treasure too. The generality in the church today do not have that love of which the Bible speaks. Have you noticed that most of the things over which we have quarrelled in the churches during the last fifteen or twenty years have been matters that did not call for purity or affections, nor the disciplining of the will but only tne using ot our tongues and pens? A man could argue on the “college question,” the “no-class question,” the questions surrounding baptism, and near or about every other question and be counted loyal. At heart he may be no different to the man of the world. The fact that he argues well on these of itself proves little. It is too much like paganism where a man could bring his gift to the altar but take no account of his personal life. Tt was the unexamined life. We have a great many unexamined lives. The weapons of the carnal are used right and left of us. And the kingdom of God is not now and never will be built by them. Love is lacking. The early church had love enough to disfellowship the covetous. I never knew of a case like that in modern times. We are all to much possessed of our possessions to start a disfellowshiping movement on covetousness. Yet there is the demand in the Scripture? not to eat with the cove tous. It takes love to make that commandment effective. What charges would come in the church if we disfellow- shiped the covetous from pure motives? It would mean we had love. And that would work to the building of the kingdom. There is a plain passage of Scripture in this matter. We do not use it. The railer was put out of the church in the long ago. If there is any hateful thing that brother may not say to brother today—any insinuation he may not use—I confess I do not konw what it is. Love made for reverence of personalities in those days—the love of the spirit that came from God. Even Michael would not rail against the Devil. The Devil would have been railed against good and proper if my brethren had been there. Fools still rush in where angels fear to tread. Along with our democracies these evil days we have counted even persons as common and to be spoken of and against almost as we will. I even heard a prominent brother say he liked another one because he could use such “withering sarcasm.” Contempt for the person of another, if I mistake not, was counted by Jesus, as between brother and brother, equal to murder. Love would cast away this vile sin and make the church of to-day once again inhabited by the Holy Spirit. The early church put out the jokers and the foolish talkers. We do not. That is because we do not have the love that early church had. Our manners are all but gone. I heard of a prominent brother who was very ill. Some fear for his life was felt. But the report came back that he was doing fine and “able to tell one joke after another.” That makes us think of Paul—it is so different. How can a man tell one joke after another in plain violation of a plain passage of Scripture and tomorrow hear the cries of the op- pressd and deal gently with them? How is that gangrene, that callous to be removed from his spirit so that he may be as responsive to the call of God as the rose is to the sunshine? It cannot be done. Sins find us out. They tell their story. There are problems in the church today that the jokers and men without a cross can never solve. They have come to this hour unprepared. The sins witness against them. They cannot see right because they have not lived right.

Covetousness, railers, extortioners, jokers, foolish-talkers— what do we do with such now? Nothing. The early church had love enough to cast them out rather than to do them the injustice of permitting them to think they are Christians. The “spiritual” restored the erring in the days of love. They did it with all longsuffering and lowliness too. We see more of the opposite of this than we do of the other.

I speak plainly and I mean it so. The world has a right to. expect better things than this of us. Our children have the right to expect it. The Lord has the right to demand we do not insult the Holy Spirit thus and drive Him from our hearts. And these “little” items are but indices—they are like buds on the tree. They tell the story of the life that is within. These plain violations declare a terrible condition of our hearts. It is away from love. It makes mockery of the religion of Christ. It crucifies him afresh. The troubles of the early church were largely from without. They had love within and easily withstood all things. Yea, they used “all things” to the glory of God. We never have done that as a people. The Japanese have a tree which by nature belongs in the forest and would grow large. They cut the tap root, leave the surface roots, and make pot plants of the trees. The gospel is a world plant. It feeds by way of love. We have taken away this tap root loday and feed upon the surface. What a fearful reckoning awaits us! If we had love we too would make the church pure and not violate the plainest passages of Scripture; if we had love we too would use “all things”—“the world, life, death,, things present, things to come”—and evangelize the world if we had love we too would finish the course. We would bo perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect—complete.

We can argue for the right name, for the correct baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and tell everyone how loyal we are but unless we come to have love we will show to the world more and more that we are nothing but sounding brass and tinkling cymbals. And we cannot have love until our wills, our affections and our intellects are all coordinated for God— all—and until we make the world—the whole world—our field. In short, there cannot be love without the cross. It is the method.

It is the Father’s good pleasure to give the church of tomorrow to those who love. To those souls among us who labor on patiently and lovingly in hard places—to those who know the weight of the cross—the church of tomorrow and the ages to come will be given. Make no mistake about it. I beg all of you young people to find the little places, the hard places, here in the United States and abroad. Go there and live and work. Take the cross of Christ. Take it and keep it when no man applauses. Love will develop in you mightily. Whatglorius personalities you will become!

Two things only will I say in concluding. Jesus Christ never did send the gospel abroad for the purpose of declaring good things and doing good things without first demanding we be good. If we make the tree good we will bear good fruit. If we long and pray and work that we may be perfected by love so sure as God is in heaven and Jesus is His Son will we come to have good fruit. And to this end, and finally, I would cite you to Jacob who came to meet his brother Esau. These were twins. They were different characters. You have two natures in you also. Jacob knew he could not meet that brother alone. He needed help. And when he got hold of that angel that came to him he would not let him go until he received help. When you once consider your weak, human nature you will find it insufficient for the way of the cross. I beg you then to consider Jacob. Tell the Lord you cannot win out against the nature that will pull you down to hatred and fruitlessness without His help. When you mean that sincerely and pray him sincerely you will find He will send upon you the joys and the sorows, like angels of blessings, to bring you to that state of love you must have. And unto Him will be the glory through Jesus Christ our dear Lord.