I'd like us to turn to 1 Corinthians
and chapter 13 this morning for our study before the Lord. Our heading this morning is Christian
love. I want to talk about the word
love and we see that gloriously set before us in this great chapter. I was reading this not so very
long ago and it was the last verse 13 of chapter 13 that caught
my attention. Now abide in faith, hope, charity. And these three, but the greatest
of these is charity. In a sense our thoughts will
be rooted in that verse, but we should certainly look at the
whole chapter. And of course I started reading
at the end of chapter 12. It's very important because In
a sense, Paul has written, as he has, as led by God, because
of the difficulties in the church of Corinth. They needed to know
about love. I think everyone thinks they
know about love, but do we know truly about godly love? Yes, they had the blessings of
God. There were many gifts and so
on amongst them, many things to commend them. but there were
things wrong as you know there was a serious problem in the
church as we know an immoral problem and Paul had to deal
with it quite severely, and though there was a repenting and a restoring
as we read in chapter 2, these things had to be dealt with.
It's easy to, as it were, walk away from problems that they
had to be dealt with. And so, Paul is conscious that
the church which he founded had blessings within it, and we know
that from the first two chapters he speaks to them, but there
were divisions. In chapter 1 of 1 Corinthians,
in verse 10, he says now I beseech you brethren by the name of the
Lord Jesus that ye all speak the same thing and that there
be no divisions among you that ye be perfectly joined together
in the same mind and in the same judgment for it hath been declared
unto me of you my brethren by them which are of the house of
Chloe that there are contentions among you so although they had
much Paul has been told there were many things wrong, there
were divisions amongst them, contentions, and he says, you
know, contentions about who baptised them it would appear, contentions
about which preacher they should listen to and so on. I'm sure
you're familiar with some of this from the beginning of 1
Corinthians and it's very important. And it sets, as it were, the
scene. That's why Paul said, well, I
came to baptise and to preach the Gospel, not with wisdom of
words, lest the cross of Christ be of none effect. I've come
to preach the Gospel. And he, as it were, reduces himself. He says, you know, you're like
the Greeks. You want to be shown wisdom and knowledge. And the
Jews want a sign. But he says, well, I'm here to
preach Christ. and him crucified. Yes, it's foolishness to you
Greeks, but Paul said that's what he is all about. The Corinthians
put themselves above Paul. If you read the two epistles,
you see they had a very poor view of Paul. I think I've spoken
on this before, they demeaned him. They said his voice and
his presence, there's nothing special about Paul. Paul is not
interested in that. He says God's chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. And I think in part
he's speaking about himself. He said, well, maybe I seem foolish
to you, but the word of God will confound you. But no flesh should
glory in his presence, says Paul. And this is really the background,
isn't it, to this epistle. That though there was much, you
see, the Pentecostals love 1 Corinthians because they read about gifts
of the Spirit and they major on this. but they don't really
measure on the main thrust of the epistle which is that Paul
is setting forth how we should conduct ourselves and how our
church should be ordered, how our church should be structured,
how the church should come to the Lord's table. You know, all
these things are beautifully set out in this great epistle
of Paul. There were these divisions. There's
to be a better way, you see. And Paul wants to set that before
them. He says in chapter 2 of my speech,
my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom. He says,
I want your faith to stand in the wisdom of God. In verse 7 we speak the wisdom
of God in a mystery. we bring to you things that were
not revealed before but God has made known in these last days
the greatness of this gospel so we need to know those things
that he's saying you know no you're not superior and Paul
has trouble talking to them the beginning of chapter three he
says I brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual but
unto carnal even as unto babes and so on he says you're yet
carnal It's a stern word, isn't it? And when we read this, we
have to read it ourselves. We have to apply these things
to ourselves. It's very easy for us to say,
oh, well, that's not me. And I'm not like that, so I don't
have to take any notice of what Paul says. No, you don't. You
and I, we've got to take notice of this. And we come to this
sort of lovely chapter. You know, we can have works of
mercy and self-sacrifice, and that's a good thing. But if there's
no real love there, what is the Prophet's for? Where is it? Why are you doing it? And so
they had much, but they lacked much. What they lacked at its
root was godly love, which is what I want to speak about this
morning. This is what this chapter says, and it's an emphatic chapter,
it's quite interesting. love in this chapter is the common
love word that's used is a New Testament word. It's the verb
agape or the noun agape. And it's often used and it's
used of godly love, Christian love. The other word, the other
verb for love, to show love is philia. A place like Philadelphia,
you know, is based on that word. That's a word for affection.
That's also used in the New Testament. We have the one word love, and
you know, I often talk about words, how abused words are in
our day. People would say, oh, I love
chocolate. What they mean is, I like chocolate. They don't
love chocolate. In fact, they do, they have a problem, but
they don't love it. So when you use the word love
today, it's very hard, isn't it? We have to sort of qualify
it and make it more emphatic. And that's important. In the
word of God, they had phileo, and they had Agapeo, he had these
two words for showing love and it was clearer and that's why
it's good for us to sometimes look at word dictionaries or
the Greek and to see these things. It was set forth clearly and
it has been chosen by the translators of the King James in this chapter
13 to use the word charity but it's therefore not a unique word
only for this chapter it is the common word for godly or Christian
love that's used Jindal doesn't use it, he uses love but in a
sense there is a beauty in it in a sense it is emphatic it
does catch your attention I'm sure that when the translators
did this they did it deliberately that we might stop, we might
look at this and we might carefully think about it because we've
got this wonderful, wonderful passage. These are the things,
says Bohr, you should abound in. Yeah, you make a great thing
out of it. You're really apostles and teachers
and you have all knowledge and all the mystery. You know this,
don't you, from the first two chapters. You haven't got any
love. And the church, you're falling out, you're arguing,
you're dissensions, you're disorderly, you come to the Lord's table
and some of you are just eating everything and drinking everything.
You think you're a good church, but you're not. That's what Paul
says. How do we know a healthy church? Is it because we've got
a notice board outside every day of the week? We've got meetings
and activities and we're doing all sorts of works. Does that
say we're a good church and God's pleased with us? What's the state
of our hearts? What's the state of our worship?
What's the state of our love for Christ? That's what we want
to know now. If those things are right then
we will abound in good works and we should. So there is a
test for us there. loves this passage. I've seen
services that have been at Westminster Abbey and some worldly person
will come up and read with great powerful voice will read this
in a sort of theatrical way because they see it as literature don't
they? They see this as prose and yes
it is well written but in the sense I was thinking about it
yesterday I thought you know it'd be much better if it was
badly written. It'd be much better if it was poor English Much better
if it wasn't prose, but it still had the truth, wouldn't it? Then
the worldly people wouldn't be reading it and misusing it. Maybe
we would take notice of it. But we have to say, we have a
book before us that's full of the truth and it's nicely been
well written, hasn't it? It's got beautiful language.
That's not why we love it, we should love it for the truth.
And it's memorable, isn't it? The King James, you can remember.
And we thank God for that. But the way Paul sets this forth
is just wonderful, isn't it? It's one of the most wonderful
parts you could read of Scripture. It's deeply, deeply moving. When
you read it, if you're not moved, you need to ask God why you're
not moved. Because we should be moved by it. Not in the way
the world is, people are moved by Shakespeare or by a song or
whatever. We want to be moved because God
speaks to us through His Word. And this word is a strong word.
We're speaking of the love of God. We're speaking of the love
of Christ, that great love that Christ had for his people. We are not like those who have
free will views. If they preach Christ, we're
glad that they set forth Christ. but they have a view that he
came to make salvation possible if men might just turn to him
but we are dead in our trespasses and sins we can't just turn to
him in John 15 verse 13 we read greater love have no man than
this than a man lay down his life for his friends Jesus didn't
lay down his life that people might possibly turn to him and
might possibly find God If you believe that, then what hope
have we? But no, he laid his life down. This is where Christ
came. He laid his life down for his
friends. For those whom God had given him. That people elected
from eternity. What a mystery. This is a dis-doctrine. It's an offence to people. But
it's the greatest comfort in the Gospel. We don't know this
truth. We don't know the comforts of the Gospel. and so we see
this lovely chapter you know we can we have we look through
it we can yes we can we can speak with the tongues of men and angels
says Paul yes you think you're great preachers but you can be
like sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal he said you can you can
have prophecy he says and understand all mysteries or think you do
and and you've you think you've got faith to remove mountains
but if you haven't got love He says, you've got absolutely nothing.
You can give all your gifts away, but you haven't got love when
you do it. You've got nothing. What is love like? This is what
love is really like. It's long-suffering. It's kind,
isn't it? It's not vain. It's not puffed
up, says Paul. And he's saying these things
because that's what he found in the church. And if we're honest,
we have to look at the Bible as a mirror. Some of this is
true of all of us, true of me, true of you. You can't read this
chapter and say it's not me. Just close it, put it back on
the shelf. God would say these things to us. He doesn't rejoice
in iniquity. You rejoice in the truth. And
you can bear all things. We live in a day where people
can't bear anything. They're so impatient, so angry, so hot-headed. If we have Christ, we should
bear all things, believe all things that are in the truth,
hope all things, and our charity shouldn't fail. That love should
be constant. We shouldn't be in and out. We shouldn't be sort
of vacillating in our love. He says, but you think you've
got these prophecies and tongues. He says, but they shall fail.
He says, they shall cease. They shall vanish away. He says,
we only know in part. You think you know everything.
But Paul is the apostle, says, we only know in part. God has
made known to me the mystery of the gospel. But I only, it
says Paul, I only know in part. Remarkable. But when that which
is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done
away, he says. When I was a child, I spoke as
a child. And he's already told them, you are like children.
You need milk, he's told them in chapter 3. I would give you
food, but you're not, you know, I need to give you milk because
I know you think you've got the meat. You haven't. You haven't got that knowledge.
He says, you're like children. He says, but you should be men.
Put away childish things, says Paul. And we love this verse. I love this verse 12. We see
through a glass darkly. That's where we are now, isn't
it? We have so much before us. God
has given us so much light that he says we see through a glass
darkly, but if we be in Christ that time is coming when we shall
see face to face. What a wonderful hope. That's
the believer's hope. The Muslim hopes he's going to be in a place
of like carnal paradise, but the Christian hopes to see Christ
face to face. Now I know in part, but then
shall I know even as I also So this is where we are. This is
the context. Let me bring in here, as a sort
of parallel passage here, what Paul has to say about married
love, because I think it's so important in our day. This is
a battleground. It's a battleground that our
society has lost to its great cost. It's a tragedy that has
taken place. Who would have thought But we'd
live to a day when we didn't know what marriage was. And we
didn't understand marriage. Marriage was ordained by God
from the creation. It's a creation order. It's from
the very beginning. Man and woman. Women were created
separately. And a man was to take and have
his wife and to love and they were to become one. And God has
set that forth in society. Even the National Church struggles
to own that what a day of evil we live in but there's a very
high standard of course and it's in Ephesians chapter 5 and it's
important that we understand this because we can't understand
love and true love and human love unless we understand what
it was that God has instituted and what God intends and once
you know that then all the things that are going on today about
redefinitions of what marriage is they fall by the wayside they
are gross errors and they are evils And there's going to come
a time when we'll be arrested for standing in a pulpit and
saying this. And I'm not saying that lightly. There's pressure coming on churches.
Wives are to submit to their husbands. Husbands are to love
their wives. Read this from the beginning
of verse 22 of Ephesians 5. Husband is the head of the wife
and the wives today, the women today won't have that. That's
God's order. God will bless that. That's not
tyranny. that's God's loving order in
the family and the headship carries responsibility and this is what
God would have us understand that husbands are to love their
wives but verse 24 we see therefore as the church is subject under
Christ so let the wise be to their own husbands and we read
in verse 27 that he might present it to himself a glorious church
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing that should be
with holy without blemish so ought men to love their wives
as their own bodies he that loveth his wife loveth himself and he
doesn't hate his body he says we are members of his body for
this cause shall a man leave his father and mother shall be
joined unto his wife just been reading at home of Rebekah coming
to Isaac. Isn't it lovely? It's a lovely
part of Scripture. Rebekah came to Isaac and it
says he loved her. And it's just lovely to read that. God worked
in all of that mystery of why should Rebekah be brought to
Isaac and yet he loved her. And we see that the hand of God
is all in this. Now verse 32. This is a key verse. This is a great mystery. So Paul
is drawing attention to this. This is a key verse. He says,
but I speak concerning Christ and the Church. There is the
mystery of married love. Nevertheless, let every one of
you, in particular, so love his wife, even as himself, and the
wife see that she reverence her husband. Just as God expects
the husband to love his wife, so there is that love of God
for the church. And when we read in 1 Corinthians
13 about that expression of love within the church, we parallel
this. God says there is married love. In their society Corinth was
a dissolute place. They needed to understand what
true love was, what marriage was, even as we do in our day.
And it's to the cost of our nation. and it's going to do great harm
and great damage and great illness and great woe because we don't
keep the word of God and God has set that forth and when we
read about love we must understand that this is not the highest
form and that's unfair because the people aren't married and
of course they aren't called to be married and of course they
can know and express high levels of love I'm not saying that they
don't for one instant but we're seeing that the concept of marriage
That marriage relationship has been set forth as a pattern of
the love of Christ for the church as his own. And what man can
put that away? That's such a high thing. We
need to know these things. You need to know. I need to know.
We need to be firmly rooted in these things because they will
be challenged. Challenge when we go to work. Challenge when
people go to places of education. Challenge with the people you
meet in society, as long as you don't know who you're meeting,
the way they dress and what they look. It's very, very difficult
in our day. And all these siren voices making
out this is great, it's as good as married love. There are those
who have these profligate lifestyles who say it's better than married
love. and all these societies and these
people are paraded in front of us they're given titles and knighthoods
it's a very very sad day that we live in be aware what is true
love what is false love there's so much that's called love that's
illicit when there's love between so-called love between people
of the same sex I would say that's not love not in God's eyes it's
an offence to God we know that we don't like it, it's an offence
and for saying that we could be in grave trouble I went out
in the street and said these things and they'd lock me up
you wouldn't see me for a long time I'd be told I was full of
hate but we've got to love people so if you meet people who have
these lifestyles we've still got to try and share the gospel
with them we've got to try and pray for them but we recognise
the error that they're in. There are many other errors.
There are many other crimes. People could be murderers and drunks
and many other problems. We're not trying to call that
out separately. It's sin. That's what we're dealing
with. Paul is saying there's a better
way. In the church we've got to be so different. That's why
we have this passage. You and I must be different.
People need to see the gospel is real. They need to see it
in us. It's a great challenge. Can they
see it in us? Well, God gave Christ for us. Let me just take some other verses
now on this matter of love. John chapter 13 and verse 34. A new commandment I give unto you,
says Christ, that ye love one another as I have loved you,
that ye also love one another. So why should we show care and
concern for members of the church? Is it because we like? You have
to say, like in any society, sometimes there are people you
like and people you don't like, if we're honest. Sometimes in
churches the people don't actually quite get on well with us. Wrong,
isn't it? But we have a command. Why should we show love? Not
because we like people. That's not the Gospel. The Gospel
says you do it because that's what Christ has commanded you
to do. you've got to show love that's different to how the world
and if you do, it says verse 35, by this shall all men know
that you are my disciples if you have love for one another
if we were a church, which we're not where we didn't get on and
we're all backbiting and talking about each other and speaking
ill of each other elsewhere what would people think of our church? when Joel's sister came over
and just spent a little time with us She just felt there was
a spirit of care and love between us. And that was nice. Nice that
she saw that. You know, we're not perfect.
But that's what people want to see, isn't it? They want to see
the true gospel. Oh God, help us. We know that
we're sinful and weak. We make many mistakes. I'm afraid
at times we're perhaps too conscious of them. Go over to chapter 15
of John and verse 12. Again Christ says, this is my
commandment. that you love one another not
that you love just that you love one another listen to this as
I have loved you that's the standard I'm afraid that's a real challenge
for us who among us can say I can do that I can love my brother
and sister in Christ as Christ has loved us that's the standard
we can only do it by the grace of God we haven't got it to do
that we're so carnal we're so partial at times aren't we 1
Thessalonians chapter 4 and verse 9. Bear with me, my fingers don't
work as well as they did. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and
verse 9. says Paul, but as touching bravely
love ye need not that I write unto you for yourselves are taught
of God to love one another God teaches us yes his word comes
to us with the Spirit of God is in us in a sense we are we
are taught and of course we must on this subject have a look in
in the first epistle of John in chapter 3 you know there's
this much in that particular chapter on this on this topic
1 John and chapter 3 and verse 11 this is the message that you
heard from the beginning that we should love one another says
John and he enjoys the example of Cain and Abel there's a terrible
example of two brothers the opposite and not to be like that at all
and then in 1 John chapter 4 and verses 10 and 11 herein is love
not that we love God but that he loved us and sent his son
to be the propitiation for our sins we didn't love God, God
loved us God sent his son for us and in verse 11 beloved if
God so loved us we are also to love one another if you feel
the love of God you must feel the love for your fellow believers,
for those in the church, for all that God would shed that
love in our hearts, my heart, your heart. Now why, we look
at this great chapter, why faith, hope and charity? There abide if faith, hope and
charity, these three. And it's not immediately obvious
and I'll set forth what I think is the answer, but I can't prove
it, in a sense, because this is what Paul has drawn our attention
to. But we should just see these
things. They are, as it were, principal
graces. I think I got that expression
from John Giller, one of the commentators. I just looked this
particular bit up. And I think there's something
in that. Firstly, faith. The electing grace of God comes
and we are granted faith. Faith is a gift of God, as I
said before. It's a something, isn't it? And we thank God that when faith
comes we have something, something spiritual, something almost as
though it was real to us, that we should believe. And that underpins
all things. So faith is a foundation stone
and that must abide, mustn't it? And if you've got faith,
this is how I see it, you have hope. Your hope is in the gospel,
your hope. I spoke on this not long ago.
It's not like the world says, well I hope the bus is coming.
Hope in the New Testament is a powerful word. It's an expression
of that which you really do believe is going to come to pass. and
you really do believe in the things of God, therefore you
have hope. Faith leads to hope. Hope is essentially an expression
of believing in the Gospel, believing in all that's going to happen
in your life, believing in the coming again of the Lord Jesus
Christ and an eternal home if you're in Christ. That's your
hope. Faith leads to that. And I think that these things
go together. And then charity seems to me
to be how it outworks in practice. If you've got faith and hope
and God is working in you, then your life should be a life that
is affected and coloured by charity. That's the sort of person you
should be. You should be, in the New Testament sense, a charitable
person. It's what we should all aspire
to. We should all seek that God's love is shared abroad. in our
hearts these graces should be there and that in a sense charity
that love underpins all that we do in our lives you've got
the love of God in your heart and it affects the way you go
about your work the way you live in the home it affects your relationships
to your friends doesn't it and so on but if you haven't got
that love then you're going to live a different kind of way. So, to me, that's how these things
come together. I hope that is helpful to us. Now, we looked at Romans, and
in the reading this morning, Romans, and chapter 5, and these
first eight verses, and I think they're very helpful to us in
this context. You see, we are justified by faith, therefore
we have peace with God. And so, as you were, faith there
is a foundation. and we see that Paul says in
these first few verses that it works through us, faith works
and there's patience and experience and experience leads to hope
and hope make if not ashamed because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, you see, we have hope
and then we read there verse 5 the love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Ghost this is what we need to know
in Christ we need to know that love of God shed abroad in our
hearts and then we can understand then we can as you were by the
grace of God live as Paul sets forth in 1 Corinthians 13 for
all this is rooted in Christ verse 6 when we were without
strength Christ died for us He wouldn't die for a righteous
man, we read, but perhaps for a good man. But we read in verse
8, a very important verse, that God commended his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We believe in free and sovereign
grace, we believe it's the work of God. He died for sinners.
He didn't die for people who'd done something to deserve salvation. There was not one work, nothing
they added to it. No. Why we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. He didn't
die in vain. He died for a people he loved.
People from eternity who were going to be saved. We know who
those people are. It is in the mystery of God.
The charge of the church is to set forth and to proclaim Christ
to all who will hear him and we trust that God through the
gospel will draw to him all men, all kinds, conditions of people
will be drawn to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's terribly
important. It's rooted in faith and faith
gives hope and therefore when you have true religion then you
have godly love. You know what I'm talking about.
You experience it. You're moved by it. You read
this chapter and it's a very powerful chapter because it can
stir you to sit and meditate on it. It could move you to tears
but it might also move you to joy because of what Paul sets
before us. It's a wonderful, wonderful piece
of scripture. We need, as we read them in Romans
5, we need that love of God shed abroad in our hearts, all we
need to seek Him. And God comes in power to us.
There's a parallel passage, one we often turn to in 2 Corinthians
and chapter 4. It's not quite the same, but
it's important in the context. And again, in this chapter, Paul
again is still dealing with them. He's still dealing with the problems.
He says in verse 5, we're not preaching ourselves but Christ
Jesus the Lord and ourselves are servants for Christ Jesus
sake. He's still trying to establish his own authority, his apostleship
with these people. He says we've received a ministry
and we faint not. He says we've renounced the hidden
things of dishonesty. this is what Paul wants to say
and it's in the context of 1 Corinthians 13 we need to understand this we read God who commanded the
light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts not
just our minds but in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Have you had
that experience? Has God revealed Christ to you? I do pray constantly that we
might all know this. We might know in our dark hearts,
and they are dark, that light, when it comes, it's glorious.
It's not just the light of God, it's the glory of God. I can't
express these things too emphatically. And what does Paul say? We have
this treasure in earthen vessels. Our bodies are like earthen vessels. What has God put in them? When
he brings the knowledge of Christ, when he brings the Gospel, when
he brings grace, when he brings faith, when he brings love to
us, this treasure. Now I possess a number of things
in this world. The Lord has been very favourable
to us. But they are not my treasures. Really? I could lose them all
tomorrow. What is my treasure? It's Christ.
That's what it has to be. Is that your treasure? We must
hold light the things of the world. We had a fire a year ago,
we could have lost the whole house. I thank God we didn't. I thank God that he was very
merciful and enabled us to come through that. It was difficult.
But it makes you appreciate what you have and it makes you appreciate
what you have in God and that you were prepared, I guess we
were sitting in the fire engine watching them running all the
hoses out thinking they were going to wreck the house and
I was at peace, I can honestly say that I felt well if we lose
it all we lose it all but we didn't by the grace of God and
why we have this treasure in earth and vessels that the excellency
and the power may be of God in the end if you are a Christian
you do everything you do because you love Him you love Christ
You love God. You love God because He sent
Christ to save you. Because He sent Christ to save
you, you love God because He was sent. And that's at the root
of our lives. That's how we should be. And
then Paul goes on to say, yes, we're troubled, we're perplexed,
but we're not cast down, we're persecuted, we bear in our body
the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's all these things thrown
at him, but he's got Christ. And that's the challenge for
us. This is true religion. People talk about true religion.
This is true religion. If we understand anything of
this, what Paul was saying here, this is true religion. We, before
God, don't want to have the tongues of men and angels. No. We want to be, as Paul says here,
we just want to live those kind of lives that bear all things.
that where a love doesn't fail where the love desires to know
the things of God oh may God so help us and we know that the
worldly things some of the things that we've looked at this morning
some of the things that Paul speaks of like even he says prophecies
and mysteries he says these things are going to pass away our lives
are going to come to an end we'll pass away all the things that
we own or possess all our possessions will all fail, wear out, they'll
all pass away. But do you understand this? Do
I understand this? What's going to abide? What is
going to stay? What will still be here? If it's
true. True of you, true of me. Now
they'll abide if faith, if you've got faith. If you haven't got
faith, you haven't as you were started. May God grant faith. May you seek Him, that you might
know Him. But what abides? Faith, hope, charity. Charity
is love. Godly love. Those things will
abide. Those things will survive. And
we read the greatest. Isn't it wonderful? The greatest
of this. This is our God. It's love. Charity. Godly love. Do you know
that? Words cannot express how great
it is. We need to know that. We need
to feel it. And we need to see that it's all summed up really,
isn't it? in the person and the work of
Christ. If you say, have you got Godly
love? You're saying, do you love Christ? Do you know Him? Is that
the most important thing to you? Is it the most important thing
to me? Well, I trust before God that some of this might help
us to look to Him. That's what the Corinthians needed
to do. They were so full of themselves. And we're all like it at times.
I have to confess at times I really get fed up with myself and some
of my attitudes. But we need to, as Paul says
in Philippians chapter 2, we need to have that mind of Christ.
And we need to look to Him, and from Him we shall receive that
love, that love that will abide. And we thank God for His precious
word of truth. Amen. We've seen as our concluding
thing this morning here, over 249, and we'll tune in at Queen's
College, 760.