All right. First I want you to turn to Matthew
22. Let's look at it. several times
together, but it is one of those vestiges which perhaps we should
look at every month, week. It's a necessary one and a helpful,
beneficial, truly something you can feed upon. Matthew 22, our Lord said this
about love. Verses 37 through 40, Jesus said
unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart
and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is the first
and great commandment. This is it. This is the first.
So when we talk about love, that's where you start. Love
to God, the true God. Read on. And the second is like
unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. These two commandments hang all
the law. The Ten Commandments, the first
four, are talking about toward God. Love God, take his name
in vain, and so forth. And the next six are for man. Don't steal, don't kill, and
so forth. So he said this love fulfills
all the moral law. You see that? Love to God, love
to humanity, fellow man. And the prophets, he said. And
the prophets, the design of God's Word is to create a love for
God. worship of God, which in turn
will make you love your brother. All right, 1 John 3, 1 John,
little book of 1 John, all the way before Revelation. So our
Lord said, this is the commandment, this is it. Do you remember how
many times the Lord said that? This is my commandment. Remember
that, how many times he said that? This is my commandment,
that you love me, and I love you. He says it's not a little
commandment. But you say that you heard it
from the beginning. It's what God told Moses. Well, look at
this, 1 John 3, verse 1. Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
sons of God. John 3, 16. For God is so. In this way love the world, people
out of every tribe, kindred, nation, and son of heaven. God
loved the people in such a way as to give His only Son. Spare
not his own son. That's, behold, what manner of
love, father, has bestowed upon us, unworthy as we are, unloved,
when he loves us, his people. And we should be called the sons
of God. Look at verse 14. So he says, And we know that
we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.
We love the brethren. This is one way. And you may
know, down in verse 18, little children, he says, let us not
love in word, and that is not just say we do, or in tongue,
but in deed, in action, and in truth, truly. Hereby we know
that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before
him. I want to know I'm a child of God, don't you? Look at chapter
4, verse 1, I'm sorry, verse 3, verses 7 through 12. Beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God. Everyone
that loves is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not
knoweth not God, for God is love. And this was manifested in the
love of God toward us. Now, you might want to write
out the margin here, John 3, 16, because this is a, this is
a, this, Brother Henry, this tells who God does love, doesn't
it? And this was manifested love of God toward us. Who? Beloved. He said beloved, didn't
he? Toward us, because if God sends
only begotten Son into the world, that we might live. Now, herein
is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us. The only
reason anyone loves God is because God first loves him. To love
one another. Read on. Stay with me. No man
has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God loves
us. See that? Chapter 5, one more. Verse 1. Whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And every one that loveth
him that begat him loveth him also that is forgotten of him. Everybody that really loves God
and loves Christ loves those who love God and love Christ. All right, that's a fact. Now
go back to 1 Corinthians 13, it will say that, okay? Had to
lay down the facts. The facts are God's true people
love the living and true God. They don't care how lovely someone
seems, how sweet and all that, how moral and kind. If they don't
love the true living God, the God described in this book, no
matter what he says about himself, They don't love that now. As He is. They love Him being sovereign. Don't you? Don't you love to
hear of your sovereign God? Don't you love Him being just,
holy, righteous? All right? And, fact, they love
one another. I mean, God's people really love
one another. It's not just fake. I know you're
proud of that. Yeah. And this is proof that
God is in them, that Christ is in them, because this is unnatural
love. It's not natural to love somebody
who's not your flesh and blood. You know, it's just not natural.
It's best with somebody a little different than you are. It's
natural to love yourselves and love your family, but not your neighbor. So that's
a miracle. All right, now, this is, these
things here in 1 Corinthians 13, I like the Beatitudes, Matthew
5, where he says, God's people, all, they're all that way. All
of God's people are poor in spirit. All of them mourn over their
sins. All of them are humble. All of them. Right? But those are also exaltations. Right? We need to be encouraged
No, in no sense. Well, all of God's people love
this woman. They do. And these things, from
the Spirit, this love that He's going to describe here is in
all of God's people. It's there, to a degree. All right? It's not perfect. All
right? It's not perfect. That's why
this is written, to encourage us, to exhort us, to teach us. All right? And our motives and
what should inspire us, number one,
the best of the most, what should inspire us the most is this is
how our God is toward us. All of this. Kind, long-suffering. Are you with me? We need this.
Everybody here needs it. This will help your marriage.
This will help your family a lot. It will help you with your neighbor.
It will help everything. All right? Are you with me? All
right, now, verses 1 through 3. We'll just skim through there.
He says, Though I speak with a ton of men, tons of men and
angels who have my love, I become a sounding, brash, retentive,
and simple. It doesn't matter how articulate I am. If I don't
have love to God and others, it might well be gone. Verse
2, Do I have the gift of prophecy? So many think they do, and understand
all mysteries and all knowledge, doctrine. In our case, though
we might know the doctrines, if we don't have love, we're
nothing. We truly don't love the God of the doctrine. Some people don't. We've been
talking with a woman who keeps talking about Calvinism, Calvinism,
Calvinism. She loves Calvinism. Well, you
know, I believe what Calvin believed, but that's not... And I said
something to her about it. I said, well, we like to refer
to it as the truth. She said, well, that's what the
Jehovah Witnesses say. I said, no, that's what John
the Apostle said. I don't care if they have used
the term, that's what the apostles did. Calvinism, the word, is
not in the Bible. The truth is. As much as I love
the truth, we're not in love with doctrine, per se, but it's
with God who is described by the doctrine. Right? There's
a difference. That's what that's saying. Read
on. If I, though I had all faith
and could do great things, and had not charity, I'm nothing.
Though, verse 3, though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor,
give my body to be burnt, and do great and noble humanitarian
things, and have not love, if I'm really not good in love to
God and appreciation of Him for what He's done for me, and true
love toward those I'm good for, You're wasting your time. Might
as well not have done it. Save your body. Save your goods. All right, what is true love? All right, now here's something. Now, again, every one of us,
when we read this, we're going to say, that comes partially. Partially. But now, it's there. And that's what I want to show
you. To grow. All right, let's read. Verse 4. Love, and the word charity,
this is interesting. What the Bible calls charity,
we call love. What we call love, the Bible
calls charity. What do you think of when I say
charity? Give Him. Couldn't think of a better description
of love than this. Huh? Huh? It says Christ loved
the charity and what? Gave Himself. So there you go. That's my description. This is
really a good word. Charity. And charity is free,
isn't it? Charity is something you just
want to do. Why? Love for taxes. All right, verse
four. Charity suffereth long. That's
where we get the words long-suffering. How long will true love suffer
abuse? When you talk about suffering,
that means suffer ill-treatments or abuse. Not long. Let's take a parent and child
for example. You may have used that many times.
Take a parent, and here's a child, a rebellious child, an ungrateful
child, an unthankful child, a resentful child, and does everything in
spite of the parent when the parent has done nothing to love
the child. How long has the parent been critical of the child? How long? He loves her. It's not going to quit, is it?
It's not going to quit. True love. Suffering mom. How
long? How long does our God suffer us? How long does our God put
up with us? All the days of our lives. All
the days of our lives. So he says, You love one another
as I love you. You put up with ill treatment.
Just be glad you aren't treated like you ought to be treated.
Right? Love suffered with longing. Love
is kind. Love is kind. That's a good description
of love. Love is tender. It's just tender,
sweet, considerate, thoughtful. Think of somebody, you know,
that's a lovely person. Is that not a good description
of your heart? I mean, both of them. Huh? Kind, tender, considerate,
thoughtful. Your whole family. And this family, too. Kind. Love is kind. Love is thoughtful.
Love is tender. Love is tender. Whoever or whatever
you love, you're tender toward them. You treat it tenderly.
Kindly. Love envieth not. Love envieth
not. Love would rather see the one
it loves prosper more than it save. Is that how you feel about
that in the world? Kevin, huh? You hope he grows
up to have and hold, right? You don't mean what if he grows
up rich and you're still scraping? No, you won't end it, you know.
Will you? You'll rejoice in it. Love would
rather see the prosperity of a loved one than of themselves. John, the Apostle John, wrote
over in, I think it's 2nd, 3rd John. He said, Beloved, I wish
above all things, yeah, I wish above all things that thou mayest
prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers. He meant
materially. Now, where did John, where was
John? He was like old Robinson Crusoe
on an island. But love is out here. I don't
know. He's out here to help you all prosper, even as your soul prospers. That's
the important thing, and I hope he has. Go get her. That's love, isn't it? Love endeth not prosperity. Love
endeth not the gifts and talents of others. Again, I use your
children. You hope they grow up to be smarter,
more talented, richer, just have everything. Do you not? You don't envy, you
wouldn't envy any of that about freedom. Now, this is church here. This is how we love our brethren. Let's say Brother John there
gets a mansion. I don't think he's in danger
of that, but if he is, let's say he is. He's got a huge mansion,
we all do, doesn't he? Since he thinks he is. Boy, John's doing well. He doesn't
work in WB4. He didn't reach up to a guy. Would you rejoice in what he's
saying? Oh, he's saying we rejoice. John doesn't have to make strings
anymore. He's got to make that love instead of one him, not
me. Right? So, let's keep it in context
here at the church. Love vaulteth not itself. Verse
4. Love vaulteth not itself, and
is not puffed up. These go together, not cracked. Love vaulteth not itself. I know
you've been around people that love to talk about themselves. And, but love now is truly interested
in the other person. True. interested in the other
person, rather than displaying their own knowledge and talents
and all of that, really. And again, use your children
as that example. Children, I may never get over
to the Barry's house. And Janette, you know, she can
tickle those items. I mean, she can really tickle
them. Kevin was starting to play. Kevin,
she said, Kevin, play us something. Now, Kevin, are you good at your
mom? Since about 34, 50 some years,
and you might be as good as your mom, but her, Kevin's mother,
that's not good. Y'all listen to Kevin. Now, like
I said, all of us come far short of these things, but this is
the general tendency of every believer. You see, these things. And I want you to take heart,
too, if you feel a desire for this thing. If you just feel
a desire to have this kind of love, take heart. All right,
verse 5. Love doth not behave itself unseemly. That means get out of character.
Now, we all do, but not all the time. Man's got a problem with
his... We all get bent out of shape. That means when you've got shape,
you get bent out of it, you know. But it'll go back, hopefully. But we all get bent out of shape,
don't we? But this love is not unseemly,
though. That means, well, love is not... Love is courteous, love is considerate,
love is polite, love behaves, etc. We all act, you know, just bad
at times, but that's not the general character of God's people. They're considerate and kind,
one another. Read on. Love seeketh not her
own. Seeketh not her own, but doesn't
seek its own rights, will, way, desires, pursuits. That's like a man and a woman
that get married. Well, people, this thing of careers,
I understand it. Often both people have to work,
but really neither one of them have a, if they're really in
love and married, neither one of them have a career. None. That means that's what you really
are after. That means that's your life,
a career, that's my life, that's what I'm pursuing, and that's
what the world does. Here's a man who's a doctor,
his wife's a lawyer, and they've got their separate careers, and
they've got this little convenient marriage for tax purposes. Right? Marriage is my career. Right? That person you married,
that's when you took those vows, that's what you said. That, he
is my career. I forgot what I was saying, I
said, she's your twin. I said, I do, I'll be the last
one there. That's the career marriage itself. Seeking not her own rights, wills,
desires, pursuits, but love. Seeking the other's desires and
pursuits. Again, I use your children. You
save up all your money and you want to We'll give everything
you earn, what? I ought to do it starting before
you die. Alright, read on. Love is not
easily provoked. That hurt? Well... Love, now, is not easily
provoked. It's not touchy. Easily offended. Resentful. You
ever been around somebody that would walk on eggshells for fear
of offending them? Don't do that. Love's not like
that. Love's not like that. Because
look at the next thing. Love thinketh no evil. Love thinketh
no evil. What love says is that they really
didn't mean that. You know, when a person gets easily
offended, easily provoked, why didn't she say that? What did
she do? Now, love says, I didn't shout at a man that day. I had
a bad day. They didn't mean that. They weren't,
you know, doing that to hurt me. I do that every now and then. That's what the Bible said. Love thinketh no evil. Love is
not suspicious. Love thinks the best. Now again,
this is, we all come part of it or there's some of it, but
it's reason this is written. Feed us when we might grow. We're
going to mature on this right now. Get all the nursing out
of it you can. You don't need it till Sunday.
All right? Get all the vitamins out of it
as you can. Love is not easily provoked. I'm afraid we might
remember that tomorrow when the alarm clock rings. Think of no
evil. Think of the best, not suspicious
or cynical. after more unlovely than sin-sensitive. Oh, I'm mad about that. Look
at the next thing, verse six, rejoices not in iniquity. Love
rejoices not in iniquity, rejoices in the truth. Love is never happy
when somebody else, someone you love, fails. are false. If you love somebody, you want
to see them fall. Again, I could use your children
or your husband or wife as an example. You don't want to see
them do anything bad or wrong. No. My dad said this, what a
man is, he wishes others to be. If he's evil, he can like to
sin and hurt people. Because that justifies his own. You understand? That's how birth
got like that. Birth doesn't cease in somebody's
favour and favour. Rejoice is not indicative. Rejoice
is in the truth, with the truth, the truth of the matter. This
brings us to gospel. Love is not gospel. I don't know why we need this. That threefold criteria for repeating
a matter? No, we all do. We all repeat
something. But if it's a brother or something that we're talking
about, number one, we ought to consider, is this true? What am I about to repeat? Do
I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it's absolutely true? Number two, is it kind? I don't want to rule out most
gossips, because nobody knows absolute truth. If something
is hearsay, well, so-and-so said, wait a minute, let's get to the
fact. Everyone knows up in the court
of Hollywood is going to go, so-and-so said, well, what's
your source? Throw it out. We're not even
going to hear it. Don't take it as evidence. Number
two is kind. That's what I'm about to repeat
about so-and-so, is it kind? Is it going to be kind? Number
three, and this will rule out all of us, is it necessary? Do I need to repeat it? See, you've got a little benefit
from it. We'd quit gossiping, wouldn't we, if we practiced,
if we kept those three things in mind. So learn to rejoice
in, not in iniquity, but in the truth, the truth of the matter.
Christ is truth. Christ said nothing but the truth,
didn't he? Nothing but the truth out of his mouth. When he called
somebody's name, remember his name, he looked at them and thanked
them. Truth. That's the truth. Let's
be like that. Verse 7. Barreth. Love Barreth for all things.
This word Barreth, I want you to turn with me, Proverbs 10.
Proverbs 10. I left a psalm called Proverbs
10. The word Barreth is the word
covering. That's what the word is. Like a tent. This is a word that
actually comes from thatch roof on a house. That's the old Greek
word, thatchwork roof. Nothing. It serves up stripes. If you
hate somebody, you want to stir things up, you want to cause
some trouble. But love, cover it, all sin. We never go around
thinking things about our loved ones, do we? Cover that. Keeping it, we know it's true.
So, cover it up. Look at chapter eleven, verse
thirteen. Proverbs 11, 13, a tail bearer,
revealing secrets. But he is of a faithful spirit.
He considers the matter. Boy, if you've got somebody,
a friend, that is a confidant, somebody you can confide in,
you've got something. You've really got something.
Somebody you know and keep a confidant. Verse nine, this is mentioned
many times, cover, love covereth a matter. Chapter seventeen,
Proverbs seventeen, nine, says, He that covereth the transgression
seeketh love. But he that repeateth a matter
is concentrated. So love beareth all things. That's what
it means. Read on, back to the text. Gotta
hurry. Look at verse 7 in 1 Corinthians
13. Love beareth all things, covereth
all things. The side covers the side. So,
love believeth all things. Love believes the best. Love
has a bright outlook. That's why you married that boy,
who had nothing. Right? Huh? Or that girl. When y'all got married, and you
had nothing. That's why you got married, wasn't
it? You didn't show her you were married in the first place. Janann,
you showed her you were married in the first place. And vice versa. Now, love believes
the best, has a bright outlook, positive outlook, believe with
all things. Love believes with all things,
hope with all things. You know, it's better to believe
the best about somebody and be disappointed than to believe
the worst and be wrong and cause trouble. You understand? Let
me repeat that. It's better to believe the best
about somebody and then disappoint you. That is, think the best
about them, but they disappoint you, than to believe the worst
and be wrong. And then you disappoint them. You
say, you love them better. So what we need to say always
is, they didn't mean that. They loved me. I loved them.
Love hope with all things. Love never gives up. Mothers have sons on death row
in prison. He's a good boy. He's a good boy, I know. Just
give him another chance, your honor. Right? Ain't none of us on death
row, so we ought to hope all things at least. hope for the
best. She'll come out of that. He'll come out of that. I'll be there. I hope somebody
has mercy on me. Yeah, that's great though. I
know there have been some of you in here getting in some bad
shape, but I just I'm going to slap you. And I can get the same
way. That's been... I can get the same way. Maybe you want
to slap me. We'll come out of that. Right?
Lord brings us out of that. That's what we got to hope. Oh,
Roy, he's acting, he's acting mad. I wish he'd straighten up. But he doesn't straighten up.
He'll come out. That's what love hold to thought. Love endureth all pain. That
sounds like suffereth all pain, but it's different. Endureth
all pain. Love will go through it. And you all, when you first got
married, who was I talking to that's been married? Twenty-seven. Who was I talking to today? On
the phone. Am I here? Huh? Yeah, that's good. But, uh, anyway,
those of you that have been married a long, long time, you took those
vows to love each other in sickness, health, sorrow, How did it go? I do good ceremonies, I can't
remember. For richer, for poorer, for better,
for worse, for sickness and poverty or health or whatever it is.
And you do, you start it out poor. And you go through things, trials,
sickness, poverty, disappointments and all that, but love and do
it. Love endureth those things. Why? Because He loves that person. He's married for the house. He
lives the house. That's the one He loves. Right? Right. Love endureth all things. All right? Verse 8. Love never
faileth. That's how it concludes. True
love and faith. Honey, I don't love you anymore. Well, this truth follows. If you don't love, right. This follows. You never did it
to begin with. True love. True love. True love.
True love. True love. True love. True love. True love.
True love. True love. True love. True love. True love.
True love. True love. True love. True love. True love. True love.
True love. True love. True love. True love. True love.
True love. True love. True love. True love. True love. True love. True love.
True love. True love. True love. True love. True love.
True love. True love. True love. True love. True love. True love. True love. True love. True
love. True love. True love. True love. True love. True love. True love. True love.
True love. True love. True love. True love. True love. True love. True love. True love. True love.
True love. True love. True love. True love. True love. True love. True love. True love.
True love. True love. True love. True love. True love. True love God, in his mercy and his doctrine
of providence, for children's sake, for peace' sake, for a
lot of things' sake, for society's sake, keeps people together and
gives them some semblance of love, even among our believers.
Right? But real love, Christlike love,
this kind of love, only comes from Christ. That makes sense. Sure does. It only comes from
God. This is not natural. This is not natural indeed. The
reason divorce is 60% now. And I understand that people
are unsaved in getting divorced and all that, but there's no
excuse between believers, unless one of them Leaves, one of them
has just now got reprobate, and a monster, and it's clearly,
that'll be clearly revealed. And you can't do anything about
that. And you still love the person. But they won't have anything
to do with you. You can't do nothing about that. Amen. But if you're a believer,
you don't stop loving. Loving everything. Our Lord,
that's the reason He said, love your enemies. That's what he did, and what
God did when we were inmate. Well, love never fails you. If
it's of God, well, it's forever. Whatever the Lord does is forever. Do y'all need those things? I
do. Well, read on down. We know him
part. Now, he's talking about those
things that people coveted him. There were people that wanted
to preach, there were people that wanted gifts of languages,
there were people that wanted to have a part in the church
and things like that. He said, we just know him part.
Well, I sure wish I knew what the preacher was talking about.
He just knows him part. If Paul said that, Can't remain still in irony.
Just know it in part. We prophesy it in part. Yeah,
I'd like to have this knowledge of the Spirit. But really, we
just know it in part. And read on. They say when Christ
has come, everything we've ever done or known, or whatever you
know, it won't matter if I was a preacher or swept the front
porch. Huh? What's the big deal? You do whatever
you got to do. Don't invent those things. It's
all going to be done. It's all going to be nothing.
I sure wish I could play the piano like Kerry. Kerry wishes
he could play the piano. So he can play the piano. That's nothing. We're going to
hear music and share everything I've ever played in my life.
When we hear it, it's fake as a child, understood as a child. In other words, I don't wish
that I was back, wish I could do things as I did when I was
a child, I don't have room for that. So this is the way we're
to be, spiritually. I thought I was a child when
I became a man and put away childish things. Don't envy those things. Those things are going to pass
the first way. Now we see through a glass darkly,
but then face to face I know in part, but then shall I know
even as I also know. None of us really know anything. We're just repeating. We're like
a dog. I got inspired as a dog. I do. I've got the smartest dog that
I know of. He's just a dog. He's not as
smart as me. He's just a dog. And that's us. Think the smartest human being,
what is he? Just a smart human being. Big
deal. And all this is going to be done
away with when he who has wisdom shows up. Verse 13 and now about
these three things we live by faith that is we don't We don't
live by sight We live by faith and God's Word and unseen God,
but this is his Word would take everything From his Word that
we believe we live by faith hope We hope. We have a strong hope,
a good hope through grace. We have a firm hope that is from
the heart. We believe that we're going to
receive the things that God promised here. All right? And charity,
love. These three. But the greatest
of these is love. Why? Because it abides forever. The faith and hope are going
to get away. We're not going to live by faith
in heaven. We're going to live by sin. So what will happen? What will it matter how much
faith we have? We're going to actually
have His arm around us in glory. And touching, handling. Like
John said, we've handled it. And we won't have to help anymore.
So what will it matter? Here's a fellow who had a lot
of hope. Here's a fellow who didn't hardly have any. Don't need it anymore. But love? That's always gonna be there.
But perfect. Perfect. So he says in verse
1 of chapter 14, follow after charity. Follow after charity. Pursue it. When you follow after,
when you're after something, you're after it. Right? Follow
after it. Go after it. Be a lover. That's what it means to be a
lover. And be a peacemaker. That's what
our Lord said. Blessed are the peacemakers.
Those that, as Peter said, provoke one another to love. We provoke
one another to love. We need to start... I'm going
to make you love me, Roybal. Halloween's nice to you. You've
got to love me. to promote one another the most.
That's what that means. Ain't that what our Lord did
to us? Provoked us goodness of God. Praise God. He provoked us to
love. We provoked Him to anger. He had His love for us. I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna
woo, I'm gonna win that boy. He's gonna love me. Let's go
to the peacemakers. They shall be called sons of
God. God's people are all lovers.
God loves His people. All right, let's stand. Our Father, we hope that this
will be much more than words and doctrines. We ask that You
would, by Your Spirit, plant these words in our heart as seed
and plant it, water it, make it to grow in Your glory. Herein
is the Father glorified, that we bear much fruit, and the fruit
of the Spirit is love. So we ask for this, this greatest
of all things, love, love for Thee, Supreme Lord, love for
our brethren, in Christ's name. Amen.