1 Corinthians 13. I will not
probably get through every verse. And we'll not deal with every
verse completely. We've looked at this many times.
We need to read the Scriptures daily. God's Word. All of us. We've been thinking about that
a lot lately, haven't we? And it's God's Word. And we need to hear from Him
though. It's His voice. This is how He speaks to us.
We need to be spoken to by our Father. Some passages we need
to read, perhaps more than others, or at least more often. I was
thinking about several. I started writing down passages
and my, my. But John 17. My, my. That's our salvation. Everything he said in that. When's
the last time you've read that? I want to give you great peace,
great comfort, John 17. By the way, in the last part
of that chapter, let me read it to you. I think I've got it
written down to read it, but I don't want to forget this.
But he said, he said, I in them, and thou in me, that
they may be perfect in one, that the world may know thou hast
sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me." He's
talking to the Father, saying the Father loves us like He loves
Christ. You heard me say that Sunday.
I know it's hard to believe, but Christ said it. And then
He says, He prayed that the love wherewith thou hast loved me
may be in them. So that's what he prayed. But I thought about Psalm 90.
I need to read that all the time about our eternal God and the
brevity of life and teach us to number our days and apply
our hearts to wisdom. Psalm 91, our safety, our salvation
for those who trust in the Lord. Nothing to be afraid of. He gives
his angels charge over you. It doesn't matter what comes.
Isaiah 53. My, my. Christ on the cross. Psalm 51. Keep naming them, huh? 2 Peter 3 is the end of all things. He said, I want to remind you.
Peter kept saying, I want to keep you in mind of these things
all the time. Christ coming. But 1 Corinthians
13. 1 Corinthians 13. Go there with
me. Love. In verse 13. It's easy to remember it. 1 Corinthians
13, 13. It's the greatest thing of all.
God's love. Behold, John said, what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called
the sons of God. That's the greatest thing of
all. And this love. This love of God for us is our
salvation, isn't it? He said that Sunday, if God loves
us, more secure is no one ever. God is love, our salvation, our
hope, the love of God that will not fail. Verse 8, love never
faileth. God's love is perfect. Perfect
love casts out fear, doesn't it? God's love is perfect. You
can't love anyone less than another. Once he loves, he can't stop
loving. It never stops. Unconditional. He says it's conditioned
on Christ. Well, yes it is. But he loved
us before the world began. It all goes together. You can't
have his love without Christ and Christ without his love.
The love of God will not fail. Sovereign love. Eternal love.
Love that will not, cannot fail. Will not quit loving His people.
I brought up Ephraim. I've got a lot to say. I love
Hosea, don't you? I brought up Ephraim Sunday.
He said, Ephraim, I can't give you up. I can't do it. He said, Ephraim's
gone to his idol. Just leave him alone. He's talking
like we live. Just leave him alone. Just let
him go. And he said, I can't. Love can't. That's God's love. And he saved him. Saved that
old boy. And this is why we are so adamant,
adamantly against this thing of universal love. God loves
everybody. And there's people in hell for
whom God loves. We're adamantly against that,
right? That takes away our hope. If
God can love us and leave us, then what good is His love? Right? He said, where is your bill of
divorcement? Didn't He? Show it to me. Show me where I divorced you. Didn't He? He said, your mother, your father
and your mother may forsake you. But not me. I've graven you on
the palms of my hands. That's our comfort, you see.
And people that talk about God loving Judas as much as Simon
Peter, what good is it? If God's love changes, that means
God changes. That's not perfect love. And
that makes me fearful. Knowing yourself, if God's love
can fail, we have no hope. Our salvation is not our love
for him. It's his for us. Right? Now, let me say this. Listen
carefully. You cannot be saved without faith, can you? You cannot. You are not saved if you don't
have faith. He that believeth hath life. Faith is a gift, isn't
it? Faith is a gift. Saved by faith. Whose faith saves us? Christ's
faith. Faith of Christ. Keep saying
that. But I have faith in Christ. Don't you? I believe in Christ.
I believe on Christ. Where did I get that? It's not
in myself. It's Him. See, it's both. I didn't have anything to do
with it. It's the same with love. Love's a gift. In chapter 12,
He talks about all these gifts. He says, I'm going to show you
the best thing of all. He said, covet this gift. I'm
going to show you a gift, an unspeakable gift, God's love. The God's love for us and the
love He puts in us. Romans 5, 5 says, The love of
God is shed abroad in our heart. Not only we're filled with belief,
hope that He loves us, but it's this love He's given us for Him. And those that He's given this
love, all things work together for good to them that what? Love
God. You're not saved if God doesn't
love you. You're not saved if you don't love God. You're not
saved without the truth. But it's the love of the truth.
The heart. The heart, man. Love comes from
the heart. But where am I? 1 Corinthians
13. But first, let me read you a few verses in 1 John. The whole book of 1 John is about
love, isn't it? Now, let me just read you a few. And you know these. And for the
sake of time, I'll just go through some of these for me. Brethren,
I don't write a new commandment under you, he said. An old commandment,
which you heard from the beginning. John was there when... You read
John 15 with me. John was there. He's the one
that wrote that down in the Gospel. Well, he wrote it again. He was
so impressed. He was so comforted and full
of joy. He wrote a whole epistle about it. God's love for us. Herein is love. Not that we loved
Him, but He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for us. And then the book is filled with
brethren. He loved us. We ought to love
one another. And we do. He said, He that dwelleth
in God, dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God. It's just a fact. You know, this is both a declaration
and an exhortation. It's both a declaration and an
exhortation, like the Sermon on the Mount, blessed are the poor in spirit. You're not saved
if you're not poor in spirit. It's not, you understand, it's
a declaration. This is what God does to His
people. He breaks their heart. He makes them poorer and contrite
and weak. You can't do it to yourself.
He didn't. And John says, those that love
God do because He first loved them. So you see, it's a declaration
and an exhortation. Exhorting us. Our Lord did say
this love grow, didn't it? Are you ready with me? Herein
is the Father glorified that you bear much fruit. And he said,
I've ordained it. It's going to happen. It's going
to grow. How? He abided in me. Okay, where
are we? 1 Corinthians 13. 1 Corinthians 13. This is God's
love. What we're going to see here
is God's love for us. Christ's love for us. It never
fails. And His love that He puts in
us. He says in verse 1, Though I
speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love,
I become a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. I may preach
the greatest sermon anybody's ever heard, but if it's not love
to God's glory and the souls of men, it's noise. It's just
doctrine without love. Right? Men are impressed with
oratory and all that. Well, most men like to hear themselves
talk. I read an old preacher one time
who said, it's one thing to love to preach. It's another thing
to love those to whom you preach. Boy, did Paul the Apostle love
those to whom he preached. They beat him to a pulp. And he was still beseeching them. That is supernatural love. And that's not of ourselves.
That's the gift of God. Cause of man. You know, there
are three kinds of love. And I'm going to list them by
going from low to high. There's human love. It's the
lowest kind there is. It's self. Humans love themselves. They love their family. They
love those that love them. They don't love their enemies.
They don't love the other kind. That's the lowest. And God puts
that in to keep us from killing each other. It's a kind of a
natural, all right? Then there's animal love. That's
higher than human love. I'm telling you, it's so, isn't
it? Masters can misuse and abuse
their creatures and they still love them. Don't they, Mike?
Cats. I got a cat that will not leave
my side. He adores me, doesn't he, man? My love is not as loving
as that cat. It's not. Animals don't leave their young. Most of them. You know what I'm
saying? It's true. And there's a love of God. It's
infinitely higher. than animal, than human. It's perfect love. This is the love we're talking
about. Where am I? Verse 2. Do I have
the gift of prophecy? Understand all mystery. That's
hypothetical, isn't it? Nobody understands all mystery.
But some people think they do. Well, big deal. If you don't
love God and God's glory, what's that profit anybody? Don't love
God's people? You're just trying to impress
people with your knowledge. No, I have all faith. I can remove
mountains, do great works. That's what the people in Matthew
7 said. Look at all these works we've done for you in faith.
He said, I never knew you. You weren't doing this out of
love to me. Verse 3, I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor. Brother Chapman, I listened to
him today on this. You know, most charity is done
for tax purposes. It's true, isn't it? It really
is. That's man's luck. Man, have not love to God. Though I give my body to be burned
and have not charity, have not love, it profits me nothing.
Martyrs, people that you have your you know, Buddhists and
all that, to have their bodies burned. They do it as a martyr,
you know, they want to leave a... people may remember them as some
kind of hero. We're talking about love to God
and love to man. This is the fulfillment of the
law, love to God and love to man. Verse 4, now he tells us
what love is and what love is not. what love does and what
love does not do. He says in verse four, charity
or love, and we've looked at this before, that it's called
charity here because, well, when we think of charity, what do
you think of? Giving. That's what charity is. Gifts. Gifts. Gifts to the undeserving. Gifts to those you love. Gifts.
Gifts. And that's the greatest definition
of love in it. My father once said this, my
pastor said, love seeks to bestow the best it has on the object
of its affection. Love just can't give enough.
Love must love. If you've got real love, you
must love. God is love. And he shows it. He gives. God so loved the world,
his society. Gave. Remember Brother Obey's
message? He gave himself. Our Lord said,
greater love hath no man than this. And he laid down his life
for his friend. So, charity, love. Suffereth long. Long suffering. Oh my. God's long suffering to
us, Peter said, is our salvation. Brothers, take into account,
he said, that God is going to bear with us, going to suffer
with us, going to suffer. We love our children. How long
will you put up with them? If you love them, you'll keep
putting up with them. You just do. What about God? His love is greater than ours.
Oh yeah. How long must I suffer with you,
our Lord said. How long did he? What does John
13 say? Having loved his own, he loved
him to the end. That's our salvation. Suppereth
long. Love is kind. Love is tender. Love is compassionate. Love feels
for the one it loves. That's our Lord in him. He knows
our prayer. He's full of compassion. Kind. He's kind, isn't he? Well, God's
people, that's what he puts in God's people, or he don't. Love
envieth not. What could our Lord possibly
envy in us? Nothing, of course. He who was
rich yet for our sake became poor. Envy, and my pastor described
it as it. It's an awful thing. Envy is the pain and the hurt
and the anger you feel by the prosperity of another. It's the
aggravation or pain you feel because someone else has more
of something, more gifts, more talents, more money, bigger this,
bigger that, can do things better than you, has more things than
you. That's not love. That's not possible. Not possible. Could a parent
possibly envy a child doing better than they
did. That's what you want, isn't it? My father's generation, they're
called the greatest generation that built this country by labor
and hard work and the farmers and the industrials and the machinists
and all that, they worked so hard, hard labor. Do they want
us to do backbreaking work like it? No. They want us to have
it easier than them. My father, here's a good illustration,
my father was perhaps the best preacher of the 20th century.
I'll argue with anybody over that. He came and sat under me
for about 10, 12, or 13 years, and I don't know how many times
he'd say to me, I've never preached that good. One time he said to me, he said,
if only I'd have had the wisdom you had at your age. I said,
Dad, come on. He said, you just love me. Well,
that's what love does. Right? That's what love does. Our Lord. One time he said to his disciples,
greater things than I've done you'll do. Not possible. He said, yes, the magnitude of
it. He said, I'm going to do it through
you and for many more years. It's Him doing it. But He just
delighted in them. Love envieth not. And do we love
one another? Charity, love, vaunteth not itself. Vaunteth not itself. It is never
proud, conceited, or arrogant. Our Lord was meek and lowly. The proud will be brought down
to hell, the scripture said. God is determinate, the scripture
said, to stain the pride of all glory and to bring into contempt
all the honorable of the earth. That's what it said. The lofty
looks of man shall be brought down. And our Lord said, you
take my yoke upon you and you learn of me. I am meek and lowly
in heart and you will find rest. You can't be too offended if
you're real low. If you're proud, you can. You
can. Oh, man. Charity is not puffed up. Not puffed up. Oh, man. Knowledge puffeth up, doesn't
it? What's love do? Humbles. Consideration of God's
love for us. How? Don't you love that song,
How Can It Be? that thou, my God, should die
for me. How can it be? How can it be?
Was ever love so great, so free? I don't understand. You can't
be puffed up. Can't. Love, verse 5, doth not
behave itself unseemly. The word is rude. He's not rude
and unmannerly. Love is considerate. Oh, did
our Lord consider us. He put us first. Love is courteous. We looked at that Sunday. Love
is courteous. Preferring one. Putting one before
another. That's exactly what our Lord
did. Every day. All day long, he was a servant
of his people. They weren't worthy of his service.
But this is love, isn't it? And the closest we can come to
understanding that is parental love, paternal love, maternal
love. If you really love your children,
you put them before yourself, don't you? I remember my mother. And John said this too. My mother
was such a servant to all of us children and her husband,
such a good servant. And she was always the last one
to sit down at the table. And she prepared us anything
we wanted, everything we wanted. Back years ago, if you didn't
eat three square meals a day, you're just going to die. Big
old breakfast. If you didn't have a big old
breakfast full of lard, you're going to die. Now if you eat
it, you will die, they say. But their wisdom's gone full
circle, and now they're saying, you better eat lard instead of
eating that margarine. Don't they? Anyway, my mother
would fix anything we needed and wanted, and we'd make sure
we got lots of lard. And, you know, it's grease you
needed. Right, Kelly? And I remember
four kids, when you got four kids, Two boys. It's tough to feed those guys.
Three boys. Four boys. Whew! There ain't enough eggs on the
farm. Well, she'd fix a pile of a dozen eggs or more and pancake
and all this stuff. And, buddy, we're not, we weren't
courteous. We weren't courteous enough.
They taught us. And we have those on the table, you know. But then
it was time to eat. And quite often, there was not
one egg left. And mom, we'd have, someone would
have grabbed that last egg. Mom, you're not eating it? You're
not going to eat that? Invariably she'd say, I'm not
hungry. Isn't that what our Lord did?
He went without. Went without. Preferring one
over another, the loved one. Not rude, but courteous. Love
seeketh not her own. That's it. Seeketh not her own,
but the good of another. Love is not easily provoked.
Oh, my. Aren't you glad our Lord is slow
to anger? Slow to wrath? Not easily provoked. We provoke
Him. Psalm 107, Psalm 106. All the
time. Keep provoking Him. Keep provoking
Him. And I love that. You read Psalm
106 last Wednesday. He talks about how often they
kept provoking him, provoking him, provoking him, provoking
him. And I love that word, Pam, never the less. He can never love them less.
He can never have less mercy. Brothers and sisters, this is
what will cause us to love and keep us from being easily provoked. It's the only thing that will.
The only thing that will produce in us a patient spirit and not
easily provoked is considering how patient the Lord is with
us. It's the only thing. You can't drum it up. You can't
do it. Try as you might. Love thinketh
no evil. No evil. Oh my. The Lord said
about us, I know the thoughts I have towards you. Nothing but good, like Brother
David. David, are you listening? We're
so glad you made that statement. David Edmondson, are you listening
right now? He told me he would. You were
raised up to preach, David, to make this statement. The Lord
is out to do you good. He's out to do you good. And
He does what He's out to do. Thinketh no evil. He thinks nothing
but good about you. He says, I know the thoughts
I have of you. Thoughts of peace. I'm going
to bring you, He said, to an expected end. You can expect
it to end good. You can expect, this is Psalm
91, no evil shall befall you. It doesn't matter what it is.
All things work together for what? Good. No evil. None. No matter what it is. As
bad as it may seem. You just wait. And you'll see.
And here at the end it says, we're going to know as we've
been known. We're going to see that the worst thing that ever
happened to us, we think, was the best thing. That God can't
do evil to his loved one. Love can't do it. Love maketh no evil. Now, here's
what. My pastor said, or somebody said
that, you know, if a man's heart is evil, that's all he thinks
about other people. And if you love somebody, you
don't think evil about them. Do you? One time the Lord said
to the Pharisees, He says, Is your eye evil because mine is
good? They envied Him. All the people
who were following Him. And his gifts, you know, they
envied that. They didn't love God. They didn't love souls.
They loved the praise of men. They wanted that. They wanted
people following them, not God. They were whited sepulchers. There was no love of God. He
said, I know you. You don't have the love of God in you. But a man's evil, have an evil
eye, that's all he sees in other people. Love thinketh no evil. Amen. Verse 6, love rejoiceth
not in iniquity, in the fall and the failures of others. Tell
me, even, you remember us thinking about our Lord where it says
He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked? He doesn't rejoice in that, does
he? Just something's got to be done.
And that kind of love, that's the love of God. That's not the
love of man. Our nature wants to see people
suffer, that do wrong, you know. And our nature loves to see people
fall, but not the love of God. and iniquity, the fall and the
failures of others. Love is never glad when others
go wrong. You know, somebody leaves the
gospel because there's no love of Christ
in them and no love for God's people. That's why they leave.
And love is never there. Love never fails. And somebody
leaves. There's nothing they would like
more than for other people to leave. Right? Satan failed. What's his whole purpose? It's to get other people to follow
him. Love, verse 6, rejoiceth in the
truth. Rejoiceth in the truth. Get to
the bottom of the truth. This world believes lies. This
world loves lies. This world loves to tell lies.
They're lying on God. They're truce breakers. They're
liars on each other, and they're slanderers. That's what people
love. It's like sport. Oh, I want truth, don't you? Our Lord is the truth. People
didn't love him. They didn't love the truth when
he came. They didn't love the truth. God puts the love of the truth
in His people. The truth of who God is. I said
at the outset that this is what God does in His people. All of
our assurance comes from His love for us. Okay? But there's something to be said
for seeing this work that God has done in you. You understand? I want to know. Love needs to
know that someone loves you. And if love really loves, it
loves. You need to know. I want you to look at this with
me. Number 283. Love needs to know. Love wants to know that someone
loves them. If you love somebody, you want
to know. You need to know. And you need to know you love
them, don't you? But look at number 283. This
is John Newton's great hymn that we all love, don't we? You have it? Oh, "'Tis a point
I long to know." I want to know this. And often it causes anxious
thought. Do I love the Lord or no? Am
I His? Do you have it? Am I His? Does He love me or am I not? My salvation depends on it. If I love, why am I like this? Why am I thus? That's in Job,
isn't it? Why this dull and lifeless frame? Hardly sure can they be worse
who've never heard His name. Could my heart so hard remain
prayer, a task, and a burden prove, and every little trifle
give me pain if I knew a Savior's love? When I turn my eyes within, all
is dark and vain and wild, I am filled with unbelief and sin.
How can I deem myself His child? If I pray or hear or read, sin
is mixed with all I do. You that love the Lord indeed,
tell me, is it that way with you? Yeah, all of us. Keep reading. Yet I mourn my
stubborn will. I find my sin a grief and a thrall. That's bondage, sin. Should I
grieve for what I feel if I did not love at all? Read on. Could I joy His saints to me? Are you glad to be here? Are
you getting any joy out of what you're hearing? Do you love what
you're hearing? Could I choose the ways I once
abhorred and find at times the promise, the gospel sweet, if
I did not love the Lord? No, you could not. There was
a time, this is the last place on earth you wanted to be. There
was a time I was only here because my parents brought me here. I started to say nobody brought
me, but he did, didn't he? My father did bring me here.
But he put in me. He really has a desire to be
here with you. That's the work of God. Read on. Lord, decide the doubtful
case. Thou who art the people's son,
Shine upon this work of grace, if indeed it be begun. Let me love thee more and more,
if I love it all, I pray. If I have not loved thee before,
help me to begin today. Isn't that wonderful? Is that
your heart's desire? I just believe the love of God
is in you. I go back to our text. So it
says, love rejoices in the truth. Love, verse 7, beareth all things. I've got to hurry. Love beareth
all things. The word means to cover over. That's what it means. Cover over,
beareth all things. At times it means to carry. That's
the love of God, and He bore our sins in His body on the tree,
and bears us up, carries us all the days of our life like a father,
a child, but He covers, love covereth all sin. If you love somebody, you don't
want it exposed to you. You don't want other people to
know it. You don't tell it. One of the most wonderful things
in all Scriptures to think about is when our Lord stood before
Pilate and opened up His mouth. He was me. He's not going to... You've heard people say, your
secret's safe with me. Don't tell your secrets to men,
but tell them all to Him. They're safe with Him. And only
Him covers it. Believeth all things. And brothers,
let's do that too. Let's not bring up the faults
of those we love. Let's cover them. Believeth all things. Believeth
all things. Well, I just, you know, our Lord
doesn't believe in us, All things that the Father has given Him
are going to be accomplished. And the love we're with the Father
that loved Him is going to be in us. He prayed that, didn't
He? It will be. It is. It's going to be perfected.
It sure is. And let's believe the best about
one another too, okay? She's just going through a bad
day. She didn't mean that. Love hope with all things. Hope
with all things. Endureth all things. Love, charity,
never faileth. Whose love? God's love. Cannot fail. Human love will
fail. He said that here. Everything
will fail. Animal, all this will fail. Prophecy
will fail. All these things will fail. Knowledge,
tongues, all of that will fail. It will see, but not love. Faith,
hope and love. The greatest of these is love.
Faith is going to give way to sight. It's going to be a day
we don't need faith. Right? Hope, when once we're
there, when we actually have Him and are there, you don't
need to hope for it. You have it. You don't need hope
anymore. But love? We're going to love as we've
never loved before. Perfect love. Complete love. Love Thee when
I love Thee with unsinning heart. When I see Thee as Thou art and
love Thee with unsinning heart. Then and Lord shall I know, and
not till then, how much I have. All because of His love. And
it says love shall never fail. Let me just give you a few illustrations
from the Old Testament. Mindy says she likes it when
I use the Old Testament to you know, with the new and vice
versa. Ray had a harlot. Who loved her? God did. How do
you know? He sent the messenger to her
and warned her. What happened? She moved with
fear. She believed him. She called on him. Please have
mercy on me and my family. Have mercy on my family and me. Didn't she? Joshua made a promise,
didn't he? Joshua set his love on Rahab. Alright? How long did she wait
for Joshua? As long as it took. She believed. She stayed in the house. She
didn't leave. Those men said, don't leave this house, Rahab.
They didn't tell her when they were coming back. Don't leave
this house. What did she do? She didn't leave
the house. Why? She loved that great salvation. She was looking for Joshua. And
when Joshua came, he took her out. He took her out and saved
her. And you know what it says? It
says she's still there. He took her all the way to Jerusalem
and it says she's still there today. Yes, that's what it says. She's still there. She's never
left. Never left. Ruth, what was her plea with
Naomi? This is every sinner's plea with
our Lord Jesus Christ in it. Entreat me not to leave thee. Don't let me leave. Don't leave
me. Your God is my God. Your people are my people. Where
you go, I'll go. Where you die, I want to die.
If anything but death separates us, please don't leave me and
don't let me leave you. What's that? What is that? That's
love. What happened? She didn't leave. Naomi didn't
leave her. Took her all the way to Bethlehem. Who'd she meet? What'd she find? Grace. Ruth. What about Mary Magdalene? Mary, when the Lord saved her
and cast out seven devils, she was at His feet like that cat
of mine. She wouldn't leave. Always at
His feet. That cat's always on her feet.
Please, I can't walk. Like a shadow. Move. She was at His feet. You know
where she is now? Right now. At His feet, He said, she's chosen
the best part. Why? She loved Him. Why? Because He first loved her. And He put this love. This is
not natural. This is supernatural. It's the
love of God. It won't fail, He said. His love for us won't fail. And the love He puts in us, brothers
and sisters, if He's put this love in you, you'll never quit
loving Him. And you won't leave. Love can't
leave. Real love can't leave. Somebody
may leave you. If you love them, you can't leave
them. Isn't that right? What's that? Simon Peter. Saved the best for last, maybe.
Simon Peter. He denied that he even knew the
Lord. You're one of those that say, I am not blanketed, blanketed,
blanketed. Ain't no way I'm one of them
Christians. What happened? The Lord looked
at him. Just looked at him. Melted him. Remember that article
by my dad last Sunday? Melted. The word that melts us.
Melted his heart. Just broke his heart. How could
I deny Him that loved me like that? So, in the end, they're sitting
around the fire. Our Lord, after all that, if
it's all said and done, After all of Peter's failures, you
know. They're sitting around by the
fire and the Lord asked Simon Peter one question. One thing. Now by the faith. Do you believe
me? No. Do you hope in me? No. Peter,
Simon Peter, lovest thou me? More than all the others. Do
you really? Did he stop and think about it? If he'd have had to stop and
think about it, he didn't love him. Did he? Yea, Lord. You know you love
me. How does he know? He put it there. He was telling him to examine
yourself. Know you're not your own self.
How did Christ be in you, except you be reprobate? And one of
the last verses in 1 Corinthians, in that letter, he says, If any
man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, maranathema.
God's people will. From now on, they can't leave. An old preacher once said, if
you can leave, you will. You will. If you can't leave,
you will. And the Lord said that. Will
you go away? Peter said, can't. I can't. And that's Christ's love for
him, holding him, and like old Jacob, he's holding him, too,
and won't let go. Okay, stay with it.