Good evening. If you have your Bibles, please grab them and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. 1 Corinthians chapter 13. This summer, we've studied this text. We're deep into the text. Tonight we're going to be jumping into verse 7. So we're six verses deep. It's taken a number of weeks just to get to verse 7. Please follow along as I read 1 Corinthians chapter 13 beginning in verse 1 all the way through verse 7. This is the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth because he loves them. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I'm a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. This is the word of the Lord. So this summer, as we've studied this text, there's been sort of a rhythm to the way that our preachers have gone about preaching these sermons, about teaching you guys what love means, because the Apostle Paul has made it very clear to us. They're very simple phrases that we've been looking at. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is not rude. And the typical rhythm, if I'm not mistaken, has been that the preacher will stand here and say, love is patient. You should be patient. The reason you should be patient is first, because Paul's telling you, second, because Jesus was patient, and third, because God is patient. And then Parker, who did a great job, would continue on to points number four, five, and six and say, you should be kind. The reason you should be kind is because Jesus is kind and because God is kind to you. And that rhythm works very, very well. when it comes to explaining this text. And it's very helpful to look at the text that way. And it seems that we can follow that rhythm all the way until we get to this little quadrant, these four little phrases that Paul uses where he includes the words, all things. So it's true, Jesus is patient. It's true, Jesus is kind. Then we run into a bit of a hiccup tonight. Jesus believes all things. Jesus hopes all things. I don't think it's true. I don't think Jesus believed all things. I don't think Jesus hoped all things, at least not in the way that I would think about it the first time that I read that text. That's not what I would think. Did Jesus believe everything? Certainly he heard lies and told people, yes, you're lying, and he certainly didn't hope that the devil would prevail over him when he was being tempted in the desert. So he didn't hope everything. He didn't believe everything. So tonight, as we unpack those two phrases, love believes all things and love hopes all things, First, we have to do a little bit of unpacking, just literarily, so that we know what the Apostle Paul is telling us to do when he tells us to believe all things and hope all things. Now the word believe, believes, in this text is the same word that Paul uses when he talks about a person who believes the gospel, a person who believes in Jesus. Consider Romans 1 verse 16. I'm not ashamed of the gospel, it's the power of salvation to all who believe. Believe, it's the same word. John 1, to those who received him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. That's belief. That's what it means to believe something, is to accept something as true. And that is exactly what Paul is telling you to do in this instance, is to accept something as true. But make note, he's not telling you to accept everything as true. Point number one, the application And the point of love believes all things is that we as a body of Christians, when interacting with other Christians, are to err on the side of belief as much as possible. That's point number one. Err on the side of belief. Now take note. Paul's instruction in this verse, just like it's been throughout the entire passage of 1 Corinthians 13, and the entire book, the entire epistle of 1 Corinthians, is instruction to believers. He's talking to a body of believers, a congregation of people who believe the gospel and trust Jesus Christ for their salvation. That's who he's talking to. So I'm sorry if you're not a believer tonight, you will hear the gospel. I hope you come to know the Lord Jesus Christ and trust Him for your salvation. But this message is for the church, for the believers, those who know Him. Now, this advice that Paul's giving us as believers, to believe all things, is extremely practical. It means to assume the very best in every person to the best of your ability. That when someone's telling you something, you should sincerely believe what they're saying to you. That you should err on the side of, yes, you are telling the truth. Christians ought to accept what other Christians tell them as true. What Paul's doing is he's calling for a change in disposition. The way that the Corinthians treated each other was not good. It was not this way. Clearly, he wouldn't have given them this exhortation if they weren't already failing in this way. So contextually, let's look at the church at Corinth. What's going on at the church in Corinth that would lead Paul to have to say, you guys need to stop doing what you're doing and start believing all things. So here are some of the problems going on in Corinth. Sexual immorality. Misunderstanding of spiritual gifts, specifically in chapter 12. Division among believers. I follow Apollos. I follow Paul. They're believers taking other believers to court. The whole book is basically a description of the mess that the Corinthians have made of their own church and Paul's effort to teach them how to fix it. So, clearly, and especially if we look at chapter 12, the issues of spiritual gifts is really what Paul's speaking into with chapter 13. He's having to describe love because they've messed up spiritual gifts so badly. So clearly, their interactions between one another was one where they would have doubted one another in conversations because of spiritual gifts. So consider the church at Corinth. There's one man who believes he has the gift of speaking in tongues. And so the one man who has the gift of speaking in tongues is speaking in tongues loudly and proudly and he's making a show out of his spiritual gift and he's in the wrong. And then another man comes in and says, I have the gift of prophecy and here's a message from the Lord to our church. And that man who's loud and proud, who speaks in tongues, looks at the man who just prophesied and says, wrong, I doubt it, no way. He doesn't believe all things. He doesn't hope for the best. in his fellow believer. He's doubted his believer. And it's offensive that he's done that. So Paul is telling the Corinthians to be done with their offensive suspicion. It's offensive and wrong to be suspicious of a fellow believer when they tell you something. Especially when it's regarding the spiritual health and the spiritual life of the church. It's extremely offensive to do that. So Paul's gesture here is be done with your pessimism. Be done with your doubting of one another. Be done with, I'll believe it when I see it. John Calvin in his commentary puts it this way. As we are naturally spiteful, we are consequently suspicious too, and take almost everything amiss. Love, on the other hand, calls us back to kindness so that we think favorably and candidly of our neighbors. A loving body of Christians believes one another. A loving body of Christians errs on the side of, yes, I believe you and I trust you. Have you ever been in a situation or a relationship where some person just had no confidence in you, where they just don't, they don't seem to think that you can get the job done? I've had many situations like that in my life, one in particular. When I was in the sixth grade, I was on a basketball team. I was about four foot nine, and I weighed too much. And on this basketball team, I played point guard. I don't know why. It was a big issue that they ever decided that I should play point guard. But during this one particular game, I played point guard the entire game. And I would dribble the ball up the court. I would often make turnovers. I would miss shots. I mean, I was pathetic at basketball, and I was so little. So late in the game, we're down. My team's down, and we're sort of all gathered around during a timeout or something. And the coaches are talking to us, and they sort of take a step back so they can talk to one another. And they don't think that we can hear them talking. And the one coach, who had to be delusional, looks at the other coach and says, you know what? Let's get Chandler the ball. We're going to give Chandler the chance to win this game for us. And the other coach, who doesn't know that I can hear him, says, he's a horrible shooter. And he's exhausted. We're not giving Chandler the ball. And so sure enough, that coach won the argument. I sat on the bench, watched our team lose, which we would have lost if I had the ball anyway. But I went home that night and I was so furious. I was so disappointed in myself, really. I mean, I had no self-confidence because this man didn't believe in me. He had no confidence in me. He didn't love me enough to say, yeah, let's give Chandler a chance. And the next week we had a game at 8 p.m. and I told my mom that I didn't want to go because I was concerned with not getting enough sleep. Which is ridiculous, first off, because I was in the sixth grade and what middle schooler says that they need more sleep? But I didn't go, I really, I claimed that I was an insomniac and we saw doctors about it, but... Okay. Erring on the side of belief within a body of believers will encourage and help the camaraderie and the general attitude of a body of believers. Consider that if you interact with one another and say, I'm a believer and I'm going to tell you something about my life. I'm going to share something about my life with you. And the other person rejoices in hearing the truth. How much fun and how much joy would you get from telling that person the truth, knowing that they're going to rejoice and that they're going to sincerely believe and hope that you are telling the truth. It's the attitude of the congregation to go, we want to tell the truth to one another. We want to know one another truly and sincerely. We want to believe all things that one another say. And we want to hope sincerely that what we are saying is true. This is a heart issue. It's the same reason that Jesus in Matthew 7 verse 1 says, judge not that you be not judged. Because the heart and the mind of man wants to judge the other hearts of man, and we judge swiftly and incorrectly all the time. We see people do things and we assume the worst in them. We're very pessimistic, especially among believers. So consider in a congregation, if one man comes up to you and says something about the way that they love their wife, are you gonna respond to them in your heart by saying, yeah, right? Like, I doubt that. I bet they go home and fight. I bet they go home and hate each other. Or when somebody asks where Bill is because he's late for the meeting again, the assumption should not be, oh, he's probably hung over again or he's probably with his mistress. You shouldn't want that to be true about Bill, but how quick are we to make those assumptions about people? If it's true and Bill is in that sin, go talk to Bill and tell him that he's wrong. But if there's any chance that it's not true, then assume the best, hope for the best in Bill, especially among believers. You should really, really want everybody in the congregation to be telling the truth and being sanctified in the truth. Your word is truth. This is not a sermon about how to treat unsaved people. So when you're interacting with unsaved people, when you leave tonight, don't assume that unsaved people are telling you the truth. The fact of the matter is they're probably not. Because they don't have the Spirit of Christ in them and the consciousness of the Holy Spirit convicting sin constantly, their tendency is to tell you lies. They are darkened in their understanding and so nearsighted that they are blind. This is a message for how to treat believers. Now the sad reality and the real root of the reason that we do this to one another is because we're very prideful. And our pride causes us to have a double standard in our interactions with one another. We trust ourselves. We trust ourselves very, very much. We are true to ourselves. We very seldom deceive ourselves. And when we do make mistakes, we expect that we ourselves deserve second chances from other people. How quick are we to ask for second chances? And how slow are we to hand them out to other people? We don't want to hand out second chances to people. We've been commanded by Christ to love one another as much as we love ourselves. And I think the same is true. We should trust one another as much as we trust ourselves. We should believe other people as much as we believe ourselves and give one another as many opportunities for second chances as we'd like ourselves to have. That's what it means to love one another as much as you love yourself. Now, in erring on the side of yes, that's true, in looking for the best in people, point number two is don't forgo your reason. Don't be dumb, don't be foolish in the way that you interact with with believers. If somebody is clearly telling you a lie, and they will, people will tell lies. All men come forth speaking lies from the womb. The heart is deceptive above all else. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. You will hear lies even in the church, even in believers who are being sanctified. They're still sinners. You're not to believe everything that you hear, not everything that you hear. That's clear in scripture. First John four, one beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. The implication there, there will be spirits that are not from God. Test them, find them, avoid them, get them out. So Paul's not saying a blanket statement. If anybody says anything that has to do with Jesus accepted as true, no, 1 Thessalonians 5.21. Test everything. Hold fast to what is good. Do you see how there's two implications in that? Test everything. Some stuff's going to be wrong. It's going to be really bad. And when you find out what's good, hold fast to it. Don't just be okay with it. Hold fast to it. What would you say about the stuff that's untrue? Get it out. Be done with the stuff that's untrue. So when a man in the church gives you false testimony, you know that it's wrong, then gently rebuke. It would not be loving for you to accept a lie as true. When I turned 16, I started to drive, which is scary for the entire town of Atlanta, Georgia. But when I started to drive, I would oftentimes, I always had to ask my parents if I could go anywhere. And I would always ask my dad, hey, dad, can I go over to so-and-so's house? We're gonna, you know, shoot some pool and watch sports in it. Yeah, sure, you know, you can go. And every time he would tell me that I could go, he would say, Don't forget to close the garage door. So the car was in the garage. I would lift up the door, back it out, and then pull out, and I was supposed to close the garage door. It's a very simple thing to do, but it wasn't on my radar when I was 16 years old. So one particular night, I asked my dad, I said, can I go over to my friend's house and we're going to watch SportsCenter and shoot some pulleys? He says, yeah, sure. You know, that'd be fine. You take the car. Go ahead. I said, oh, thanks, Dad. You know, it's great. And sure enough, I'm walking out the door and he says, don't forget to put down the garage door. I looked at him right in the eye. I said, yes, sir. You got it. And so I get in the car, lift up the garage door, back it on out, and there I go, on my merry way. The garage door's wide open. And I wasn't thinking, you know, the radio was blasting, I was excited to get to my friend's house. And about two minutes later, I get a phone call from my dad. Hey, Dad, I just left, you know, why are you calling? And he says, Chandler, my dad's a very wise man, he said, Chandler, did you close the garage door? You know what I said to him? Yes, sir. I did. I lied straight to my dad. Now, my dad has an option here. He could look at 1 Corinthians 13 verse 7 and say, well, I'm a loving man. You know Chandler, I'm just going to assume that a squirrel came in the garage and closed it for you, or opened it for you. You know that you did what was right because I love you. I'm going to assume the best in you. You probably didn't do anything wrong. No. He was standing in the garage seeing that the door was open. There's still exhaust from the car. I mean, he's like, So here's what he did. He said, Chandler, turn around. Come close the garage door. You're in trouble. You can't go to your friend's house anymore. On the way home, I ran out of gas. So I don't believe in karma, but it happened. So it would not be loving for my father to accept my lie as true. In the same way, if somebody tells you a lie and you know that it's a lie, love them by telling them that it's a lie. If it's Paul's goal for the church in Corinth to speak the truth in love to one another, then they must first be able to tell what is true and what is not. You have to know what's true and what's not in order to know that when someone is speaking to you, they're telling you the truth. How can you test everything if you don't know how to test it? If you don't know what's right and what's wrong, if a teacher gives a test, and doesn't have an answer key, how can the teacher claim that you got a particular grade on that test? It's impossible. So you need to know the truth. Some of you, myself included, are unloving, not because we don't love the truth, but because we don't know what the truth is. You have to know what the truth is to be able to love the truth. Study the truth. Love the truth. Know the truth. Jesus said the truth will set you free. Where's the truth? It's in this book. Read the book. Know the book. I think that all Christians should strive to have a grid. a grid, that when they're in a conversation with another believer, they can hear what that believer is saying, and if it's not rooted in the cross, like Paul says, that's the way he talks, all speech rooted in the cross, and if it's not rooted in Scripture, they can go, where are you getting that from? Help me to understand, because I want all of my thoughts to come from this book. I want to be ruled by this book. It's the main source of truth, my main contingency of reality for the universe, that it comes from this book. So know the book, love the book, trust the book. There is ample reason why the word believes is followed by the word hopes. We should believe all things. We should also hope all things. And I think that the reason is because believe is an easy application. I've just explained it to you. When you're talking to another believer, believe them. Do your best. Err on the side of belief. Try to believe other believers when they're telling you a truth. Now to hope that another believer is telling you the truth is a little more difficult. It's a lot more up to you and your heart. It's a little more ethereal. And we're gonna talk about it more later on. But it's all a heart issue. To believe all things and to hope all things is a heart issue. The hope is strictly internal, strictly what's going on in your hearts. And you ought to, as believers, sincerely hope that other believers are telling you the truth. And beyond that, once a believer has lied, if they have lied, you ought to hold on to hope that the Spirit of Christ in them might convict them of that sin and give you an opportunity to show them grace and give them a second chance, that Christ might be glorified, that an evidence of God's grace might be displayed in their life. Now, point number three. Your ground for loving one another is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The only way that you will love one another, believe all things, and hope all things is if you know and trust the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now Paul does not explicitly mean in this text, love believes all things, as if to say that love believes the gospel. He would have said that if that's what he means. And love hopes all things that love hopes in the gospel of Jesus Christ or hopes in Christ. He would have said that if that's explicitly what he meant. But he does implicitly mean that. He means that in order to be a member of a body of Christians who believes all things and hopes all things, you must believe the gospel and hope in the grace of God that's in Christ Jesus for you. It's the only way you'll succeed in your effort to believe all things and hope all things. And the reason we know this is because throughout the entire New Testament, all the epistles that Paul writes, every time he gives a command, he also gives the fuel for how you're to do it. The fuel for obedience to what he's just told you to do. Here's one example. Romans 12, verse 1, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. What's the fuel? The mercies of God. He could have just said, I appeal to you, therefore, present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God. He could have said that if he wanted to, but he didn't. He throws in there, by the mercies of God. Because as the Romans are reading this, they're going, okay, present my body as a living sacrifice, why and how do I do that? Because God has had mercy on you. And in the same way, the whole book of 1 Corinthians, He's given exhortation, exhortation, do this, fix this in the church, change this in the church. And in 1 Corinthians 15, where does he go? Remember the gospel, by which you were saved, by which you're being saved, by which you will be saved. Remember the gospel, remember the gospel. That's the rhythm of Paul's commands in the New Testament. And it's the same here. Believe all things. Why? Because of the gospel. It's the only way you'll succeed. We as a body of believers ought to be so strongly united by the gospel of Jesus Christ. So strongly united. I think it would do us all well to just ponder the weight of the gospel as it pertains to life and existence and the purpose of the entire universe. the gospel, knowing that one another believe the gospel and are ruled and rocked by the gospel and that we trust one book and that we hope in one thing ought to make unity in the body so easy because we should be looking for evidences of God's grace in one another all the time. Like it's all we look for, like it's all we hope for, is that God would show up in the lives of one another. A group of people united by the gospel of Jesus Christ is wildly powerful. But that body must actually know the gospel and actually live a life wholly dependent on the grace of God in order for that to be true. Consider a room of people united in their view of the purpose of the universe. Like a room of Jets fans can get into a game because they love the Jets. This room is in one mind that the purpose of everything is that God be glorified and that Jesus Christ the Lamb be praised forever by all people who have ever existed that every knee would bow and say, Jesus Christ is Lord. We're talking about colossal eons on eons on eons of dynasty of power that we're rooting for, not the Jets who have been an organization since the early 1900s or whatever. The gospel is extremely, extremely weighty, and it's so important that we know it and that we know it accurately. Last week, we were at youth camp, and I led a team with two other co-leaders. It was myself, fellow intern Alicia Grumbach, and Jacob Johnson, who's a very godly man from Pennsylvania, or Massachusetts, the Northeast, one of those. I love Jacob. He was an incredible leader. And in our group, we had about 10 kids in our group, and we, on one of the first days, we sat around in our circle after one of the fantastic talks, and we asked each of the kids to go around and tell us, are you saved, are you uncertain, or are you not saved? It's a very bold, good question for young kids to ask. And so we went around the room, and the majority said, yes, I'm saved. And one particular kid, who's the one we're gonna talk about, said, yes, I'm saved. I've been saved for three years. And we as leaders heard that and went, Wow, I mean, that's great. Oh, three years of trusting God for your salvation, three years of repentance in sin, three years of honoring God with your thoughts and deeds. I mean, wow. I mean, that is something. And so the next day, we broke off into smaller groups in one of our discussions, and Jacob had this particular kid and two other guys in his group, and so they're sort of talking, and at one point in the discussion, he gets to this kid and he says, hey, you said you've been saved for three years, why don't you tell me the gospel? And the kid says something to the effect of, well, you know, you just, you read your Bible, and you believe in God, and you'll go to heaven. He's wrong. It's not the gospel. It's wrong. He's not just not living according to the gospel. He doesn't even know the right answer. It's very devastating to hear that as a leader. And so Jacob Johnson, who's a genius, says to this kid, how certain are you that that's the gospel? Kid said, not too certain. He said, okay, would you bet $5 on it? No. All right, would you bet $10 on it? No. Okay, how about $20? Would you bet $20 on that being the gospel? No. Jacob said, would you bet your life on it? Would you bet your life on that being the gospel? The kid said, of course I wouldn't. No way. And Jacob looked at him and he said, And not just your earthly life, not just, give me a gun, if you're wrong, I'm gonna shoot you in the head. Your eternity, forever, depends on whether or not you know, believe, and trust Jesus Christ for your salvation. Not whether or not you read the Bible and believe there's a God. Kid is not saved. To the best of my knowledge, he's not saved. And Jacob, in all sincerity, when the kid said he was saved the day before, was so excited. Oh, he's saved. He's gonna learn so much about the gospel that he believes this week. And then to find out the next day, he's wrong. He's not saved. It's the most devastating news that a leader could hear. If you need a reminder of the weight of the gospel, talk to a mother who knows the Lord, who loves the Bible. who has kids who aren't saved. She could have the most worldly successful kids on the planet. I mean, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Phil Knight as her three children. And she will be devastated on the last day that her kids are unrepentant sinners deserving of hell. Because what does it profit a man to gain the entire world and forfeit his soul? That's what you're doing if you don't know the gospel. No matter your worldly success. This is the hope that unites us as a body. Eternity, in union together, believing one thing about the way eternity is gonna turn out. We're on Christ's team, he's the winner, we're together. Therefore, I wanna believe all things that you say. I wanna speak truth to you, I want you to speak truth to me, and I don't just wanna believe it, I wanna hope it. And this is the gospel of Jesus Christ, just so we can know it together tonight. We believe that God is perfect, that he created everything that's ever existed, he sustains everything moment by moment, that he sent his perfect son, Jesus Christ, to live a perfect life that we could not live, and die a death that we deserved to die, and that he rose from the dead, that we might be justified, and that he sits enthroned above every heavenly being at the right hand of God, the Father, even now. And we hope that Jesus our Lord is waiting for the day when we stand judged and God says, what about this one? And Jesus says, I died for that one. That one's perfect. That one's got my righteousness, dad. And God looks at us and doesn't just say, okay, all right, come around back this one time. Come on. And he says, justified, perfect, mine. This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. Come on, what are you waiting for? That's what we hope for as Christians that day, glory. That's the hope that unites us. And if you don't believe that, Paul's gonna tell you, you don't belong here. You don't get to be believed by other people. You don't get to enjoy the fellowship. of Christians. The reason is because you couldn't possibly enjoy the fellowship of Christians if you didn't believe that gospel. If you didn't rest your life on that gospel. The hope of heaven should rule the life of a Christian. And when life's tough, look to Paul. He gets it. Philippians 3.8. I count everything as loss compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Everything. Is that true for you? Do you count everything as nothing because you know Jesus? If you compare anything in your life to Jesus, does that anything look like nothing? I mean, really? Philippians 1.21, to die is gain. Gain. Why? Because God's there. Christ is in heaven. He gets to behold the face of Jesus when he dies. How could dying not be gain for a man who really believes that? Romans 8, 18, Paul again, I do not consider the present sufferings worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed to us. Paul suffered more than probably most of us in this room ever will suffer. He doesn't even wanna have a conversation about whether it's worth it. It's not even worth comparing. Don't even line them up. I've decided it's worth it. You can take everything from me. It's nothing, it's dung. I want Jesus, I wanna know him and the power of his resurrection and share in his sufferings. It's all He wants is Jesus. It's all we should want as a church is Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Listen to 1 Peter 1.13. Set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. It's called hyperbole. Set your hope fully. You have no other hope to give if all of your hope is in Christ Jesus. You can hope that the Mets will win tonight or tomorrow or that it won't rain. No, set your hope fully on the grace that will be revealed to you at the day of Jesus Christ. You have a certain amount of hope that you can give to things. Christ wants all of it, and he deserves all of it. We are to believe the gospel as Christians, like we believe that we exist, like we know that we exist. We should be constantly thinking of and believing the gospel. We should believe the gospel like we believe there's a son We don't even have to be looking at the sun. We can just look out a window and see the reflection of the sun or see that it's still bright out and go, there is the sun. That's how we should believe the gospel. Make no mistake, it is a miracle and a gift beyond words that any of us believes the gospel. But once you've believed it, how could you want to think on anything else? Once it's been revealed to you that Almighty God, who should have sent you to hell, decided to send his son to die in your place, how could you want to ponder anything more deeply or more long than you ponder that one thing until the day that you die? That's why Paul says to know him. He just wants to know him and the power of his resurrection, justification. Paul wants to know and think on the hope that he has in Jesus Christ, that one day he will be glorified. We are to hope in the grace of Christ, like a scuba diver hopes in his oxygen tank. We are to hope in the grace of Christ, like a skydiver hopes that his parachute opens. If you're 150 feet below sea level, and somebody takes away that mask, you're too far from the top. You're going to drown. You're going to die. And if you try to swim up that fast, your head's going to explode. And a skydiver, if you just right before you hopped out of the plane said, you know, just trust me, you don't need the parachute. What idiot skydiver would believe you? A skydiver needs his parachute. Do you think that if a skydiver is in free fall, realizes that his parachute is not opening, that he's concerned about the mats? You think he's concerned about anything except that his parachutes not going to open his life is over because he has no parachute. He's going to hit the cement. His brain is going to explode. Your life depends upon the gospel. If you're crossing your fingers that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true, you don't believe the gospel. You don't hope in Christ. We are to be so strongly united by the gospel of Jesus Christ that seeing evidences of God's grace in one another should come so easily and be such a delight, such a delight. That's how this plays out in the body, knowing the gospel, believing all things, hoping all things, that's how this plays out. Point number four, hope in fellow believers because of Christ in them. hope in fellow believers because of Christ in them. I was at a conference several months ago, and they did a Q&A session, and Thabiti Anyabwile, who's a pastor in the Cayman Islands, was there. And they asked Thabiti this question. They said, Thabiti, if you could go back and relive the first five years of your pastoral career in the Cayman Islands, What would you change? And I sat there and I expected, you know, some doctrine shift that he had, something in scripture he hadn't looked into enough, some theological oversight. Do you know what Thabiti said? He said, if I could go back and relive those five years, I would encourage every single instance of God's grace that I saw in anyone, instead of looking for ways to correct people. Don't you see? It's helpful for a pastor to encourage and correct people. It's helpful for him to know the Word and say, you're doing this wrong. But, consider 1 Timothy 1, verse 5. Among a list of exhortations that Paul's telling Timothy, stay in Ephesus, they're messed up. They've got some issues, you need to stay there until these things are fixed. Talk to the elders, fix this. Here's what Paul writes, the aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons by swerving from these have wandered away into vain discussion. Okay, so here we see there's two bad things that happen from a lack of love. First, Paul sees, Timothy, you're about to go tell these people that they're wrong. Take love with you. Do this with love. Don't just go give them a laundry list of things to do. Take love with you. Do it in love. What does it say at the end? Certain persons by swerving from these. Swerving from what? Love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith have wandered away into vain discussion. So here we see that the lack of love is the reason that they've wandered away into vain discussion and love is what's going to bring them back. So if Timothy went to these elders in Ephesus without love. He would be giving a solution to the lack of love without love. It'd be like trying to put out a fire with a bucket of gasoline. Oh, it's liquid, this looks like it's, no, it would explode. It'd be a big problem. Thabiti, Anyabwile, looks back at his first five years of being a pastor. And he realizes that he should have been seeing the best in people and hoping for the best in his flock the entire time. And it's not because the people around him are the best. I'm sure they were fine, but they're wicked sinners. They probably were messing up and probably needed instruction. But the reason he should have done that is because it would have led him to know more intimately the grace of God in the lives of his fellow believers. Not because the people would appear more awesome, but because if he made a mental note every time that God had done something through a wicked sinner, he would have glorified God more for what was going on in his church. Instead, you know what happens? People get to walk into Thabiti's office and say, thank you for correcting me. I've now done this correctly. Who just got the credit? Thabiti. I bet that's devastating to hear as a pastor who knows that he does nothing in his church, that God's in complete control of his church. Thabiti would have known the grace of God more if he looked for the grace of God more in his fellow believers. Left to their own devices, no member of any congregation could contribute to the well-being of a body at all, let alone be expected to be sanctified on their own accord. They need the grace of God. believing all things in fellow believers and hoping for their sanctification is seeking the grace of God and the Spirit of Christ in the fellow believer. Is the body full of wicked liars? Yes, absolutely. Every one of us. But this encouragement from Paul is to hope in your brothers and sisters, to hope that they would tell you the truth because of the Spirit of Christ in them, not because they on their own accord can start to magically tell the truth. They won't. Only if Christ is in them, only if the grace of God flows out of them will the congregation tell the truth. Look for a second at what the spirit of Christ does to a believer. Romans 8, 11. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. Your fellow believer has been raised from the dead. So love that person because God loves that person way more than you ever could. Believe that person when they speak because they're a regenerated sinner. Hope in the future of that person. Hope that they'll be better tomorrow than they were today. Have grace enough and hope enough to give them a second chance when they fall, and they will fall. But what a joy to get to exercise the grace of God in your life and go, I'd want a second chance. Here's one for you. not because of them, but because of the Spirit of God who raised Christ that dwells in them. Because you hope in Christ, hope in fellow believers. Paul is living that out as we read this epistle to the Corinthians. Paul clearly has a huge, ambitious hope for the church in Corinth. He wants them to be improved and sanctified and fixed. But consider the state of the church. Consider some of the things that Paul has told us are going on in the church. Members, believers, taking other believers to court. There's a man sleeping with his father's wife. They're confused about marriage. They're divided between Apollos and Paul. They're disillusioned regarding spiritual gifts and they're full of pride. And we know just from chapter 13 that they're impatient, unkind, envious, boastful, arrogant, rude, insistent on their own way, irritable, resentful, they rejoice at wrongdoing, they don't bear all things, they don't believe all things, they don't hope all things, and they don't endure all things. Wouldn't this be an appropriate time for the Apostle Paul to go, there is no hope for you. I'm done with the church at Corinth. But no, he wrote an entire epistle that said, God can do this, God can fix this, God's gonna use me to show you what's wrong. He has a sincere hope in the future of the church at Corinth. I mean, he really believes they can improve. And the reason that he believes that is because he loves them. Look at the beginning of the letter, chapter one, verse four through nine. I give thanks to my God always for you. Even when he finds out that there, taking other believers to court. I mean, wicked, wicked things. I give thanks to my God always for you, because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in Him, in all speech, in all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed among you. Does Paul believe the Corinthian church? so that you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful. by whom you were called into the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. He knows the church is messed up and full of sinners and has a ton of issues, but he's really, really confident, and he really believes and hopes that God, who is faithful, will sustain them to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's not dependent upon himself. He knows that God is gonna do this. That's where his confidence comes from, for the church in Corinth. Personally, the gospel is our only hope in this. Forgive because God forgave you. Forgive because God forgave you. Give second chances because God has given you a second chance in Christ. He's given you a million chances. You're so desirous of second chances, hand a few out. Hand a lot out. Give grace because God has given you grace in Christ. Love one another because God has loved you. believe all things, hope all things. Do you know why we can hope in Jesus? Do you know why we can sing that Christ is the solid rock on which we stand and all other ground is sinking sand? Because Jesus has seen the outcome. And he hasn't just seen it, he's told us that he's seen it. In 2002, the Georgia Bulldogs were playing the Auburn Tigers. It was the fourth quarter. I was 10 years old. I was watching the game at my aunt's house. Aunt Susie, who's a Bulldog fan. My whole family are Bulldog fans. And we were watching the game on two separate TVs. There was a group of us upstairs and a group of us downstairs. And the group upstairs was my mom, my grandmother, sort of the more subdued group. I was up there because there was food. And we're watching this game. It's the fourth quarter, it's fourth and 15 on the 19-yard line, okay? UGA is down by four. So, it's do or die. If the pass that's about to be thrown is not caught, the game is over. If the pass is caught, and it's beyond the four-yard line, or in the end zone, then the game's on. So as I'm watching, David Green takes the snap, steps back, and right as he releases the ball, My heart drops. Worry fills my heart. The reason is because I saw Michael Johnson headed to the corner of the end zone. I knew that's where David Green was going to throw it. And there were three defenders heading towards him. One tied on him, and two coming close after. And I thought, triple coverage. Well played, David Green. Nice. And right about the time my heart dropped, you know what I heard? A thunderous roar from the basement. Their TV was about three seconds ahead of ours. I heard him screaming in just jubilation. I mean, they were so excited. And the ball's in the air. And you know what filled my heart? Joy. He's going to catch it. I knew he was going to catch it. I'm going, Mom, watch this. He's going to catch it right there. It's going to be a touchdown. And he did. And we won. Go Dawgs. The point is that Jesus is watching the game way before you. In fact, he's playing the game. And he's won the game. That's why the hope that's in Jesus Christ is so solid. It's so solid. You know what's great? He's told us. Philippians 1.6. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Not might. Not might. He will. He will. Every knee will bow. Every tongue confess. Revelation 5. Jesus is there on the throne. And thousands and thousands, myriads of myriads are clothed in white, singing, holy is the Lamb worthy to open the scroll. It's over. This game is over that we're playing. John 6, 44, all who the Father give to me will come to me. 1 Thessalonians 5, 24, he who called you is faithful. He will surely do it. Surely. There's no maybes when we talk about hoping in Christ. The hope in Christ is the most solid rock you could possibly stand on. So my encouragement to you, church, hope in Christ that you may love one another. That's the only way you'll be able to believe all things and hope all things in your fellow believer. Let's pray. God in heaven, Thank you for today. Thank you for waking us up and giving us life and breath and a heartbeat. Thank you for giving us life and breath and everything. Father, I thank You for Your Word. I thank You that Your Word is true, that we can depend so fully on the truth of Your Word, and that it reveals to us the person of Christ, the person of the Gospel. Lord, I pray that everyone in this room would know the Gospel with their heart more than they knew it yesterday. Tomorrow they would know it more than they know it today, and that they would put all of their hope in Jesus Christ. Father, take our hearts Take our minds, take everything that we are, and devote us to You. Employ our tongues to sing Your praise. Father, I pray that we would be wholly dependent upon the grace that will be revealed to us at the day of Jesus Christ. And I pray most earnestly, Lord, that this body of believers would love one another. And it's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.