Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians,
chapter 13. I thank the Lord for making me
a part of this congregation. ever since I got here and I continue
to do so. Bless him for making me a part
of this family. I really believe it is a family.
I believe this firmly because I see this one prevailing evidence
in this group of people, and that is love for one another. I believe it's real and genuine.
We've experienced a little bit of that in the last few days.
And it's been such a blessing. And I really believe, truly believe
that you people have a genuine love for Christ and his gospel
and one another. I really believe that. And I thank God for being, for
making me a part of this. I've been a part of a church,
a rather large congregation for a number of years, a large group
of believers where true love really existed, really has for
many, many years. And the members love one another
and love Christ's gospel, and they put that love into practice. I've seen that, and it was a
privilege and a joyful thing. And I say this, that in a church,
a true church, and make no mistake about it, all of God's people
love one another, and a true church manifests love or evidences
love within itself. But when true love exists among
members of a local congregation, things function like they ought
to. Things go along as they should,
very smoothly, and people act like they ought to act, they
give like they ought to give. I wish you could see the financial
report from 13th Street Baptist Church. It's, by today's standards,
it's not a very large congregation, perhaps 350 people or so, which
is not very large compared to some of these super churches
today. But out of 350 people, adults
anyway, The budget is just phenomenal.
It's just phenomenal how the people support the gospel. And
other places, and you people. God's people give like they ought
to give, sacrificially. And they act like they ought
to act. They speak like they ought to speak. Grace. Their
conversation is seasoned with grace. And they attend the worship
services like they ought to attend. It's encouraging to me to see
a group of this size here tonight. It's not very big by today's
standards, but by even some Grace Church standards, this is a big
Wednesday night crowd. It sure is. But I believe we
have this here. We have a rare thing here, and
I don't want to take it for granted, and I want to nurture it. I want
to strive to endeavor to keep this unity of faith and of spirit. But due to our strong wills and
our corrupt natures and our fleshly tendencies, it's necessary to
be exhorted constantly to love one another. It shouldn't have
to be, but it is, because we're so strong-willed and we're so
evil in our fleshly tendencies and our depraved nature, we have
to be encouraged to love one another. And perhaps I ought
to preach this once a month. I've already gone through 1 Corinthians
13 before with you last year at some point. I don't know,
forget when it was. But I felt compelled to do it
again, and perhaps you ought to go through it once a month.
This is a wonderful passage of Scripture. The reason being,
the reason it's so important, is because that Christ said,
by this shall all men know that you're my disciple. That's really
the only thing he gave, the only real evidence he gave that the
world could see and take note and confess that we're disciples
of the Lord Jesus Christ. They have love one to another.
And we're going to see in a minute, it's not just a wishy-washy,
just a blank, that's not just a general statement, but it's
a very particular thing that can be described and manifest
itself in a certain way. the true mark of discipleship,
love, love between members of the same body. And I want to
deal with the practical aspects of this first, our love for one
another, because this is the context, this is the way it was
written to begin with. If you'll see, if you look at
1 Corinthians 12 and then go down into 1 Corinthians 14, you
see the context. Paul is dealing with love between
believers and the practical aspect of love. And I want to save the
best for last. I want to apply all this to Christ,
show you how that He is love. Like that song, you could substitute
the word love with Christ. Christ lifted me. He lifted me. And he is not God, he is love.
We read that over in 1 John 4. So let's look here, beginning
with verse 1 of chapter 13. You be praying within yourself
that God will bless us in this. The apostle Paul says to the
Corinthians, he says, Though I speak with the tongues of men
and of angels, and Have not charity, and that word is love. It's quite
often used, translated this way in the old English, charity,
but it's love, that's what it means. Though I speak with the
tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am to come
as a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Now turn with me over
to James chapter one, the book of James chapter one. It's said, but true, that most
of us can talk a good profession. We're real good coffee table
Calvinists. We talk a good ball game. Some
people, by sitting there and conversing with them, you'd think,
oh, this is the greatest saint that ever lived. He knows it
all, she knows it all, and is so strong and so faithful and
so forth. We talk a good profession, but
do we live it? That's where the rubber meets
the road. God's not paying attention to
our words, is he? Oh, no, he's looking on the heart.
Look here at James, chapter 1, verse 26. If any man among you,
or woman, seem to be religious, and we all are religious, everyone
here is religious, else we wouldn't be in here. We seem to be very
religious Christians. And bridleth not his tongue,
but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is banished. Now look over at 1 John chapter
3. 1 John chapter 3. We'll get back to 1 Corinthians
in a moment. We're such good talkers, every
one of us. We need to back up what we say
with actions. We need to back up what we say
with actions. This is what John is saying here
in 1 John chapter 3, verse 18. Let us not love in word, neither
in tongue, but in deed and in truth, in deed and in truth. So, Paul says back here, though
I talk about loving God and loving Christ and loving his gospel
and loving God's people in a very convincing manner, though I speak
with great flowing words and very Calvinistic sovereign grace
terms. Though I speak in a convincing
manner, yet I don't show it. I don't really show it, but rather
even deny it by my action at times. I'm just spouting off. Might as well be beating a drum
and clanging a cymbal. I ought to shut up. I ought to
shut up. I'm not going to back it up,
what I say. And for me, a preacher, this applies to a preacher, if
I could be the best preacher on earth and yet not love the
people I preach to, I might as well be beating that same drum. And somebody once said that to
love to preach is one thing, but to love those to whom you
preach is quite another. It's all the difference in the
world, and it will come out in a man's I know a lot of men who
just love to get up in that place of power, if that's what you
want to call it. It's a place of weakness to me,
but love to get up there and, ooh, my soul. I'll shy away from
anybody that wants in this position, shy away from them. But you could
be the best preacher on earth and have not a love for, true
love for God's gospel, Christ and God's people. And you might
as well not preach at all. I don't care how powerfully the
man preaches. Well, look at verse 2. And he says, And though I
have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and
all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove
mountains and have not love, I am nothing. Though I may be
orthodox and well-read and doctrinally sound in all areas, it doesn't
matter. I don't care how much we know
about the doctrines of grace. If you're not gracious, you're
deceiving yourself. I don't care how much we know.
I'll repeat it. How much we claim to believe
the doctrines of grace, if the doctrines don't make us gracious,
we're nothing. We are nothing. I don't care
how strong someone seems to be in the faith, I don't care if
they have a knowledge of the doctrine, if they have not true
indwelling love for the person of Christ and his people and
manifest it, they'll prove to be nothing in the end. And I've
seen a lot of people. God help us all. God restrain
and keep us all. I've seen a lot of elders. I've
seen a lot of deacons. I've seen a lot of church members,
longstanding members, preachers. I've seen some pastors just up
and quit. and go down the road, prove to
be nothing, a nobody, a nothing, worse than that, an infidel.
Men leave their homes and families, and the Scriptures say they're
worse than an infidel, an infidel. Well, knowledge without love
is nothing. Faith without love is nothing.
Look at verse 3. And do I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor? And do I give my body to be burned
even? Go to the stake contending for
what I believe and have not love, it profits me nothing. It profits
me nothing. Most acts of kindness and charity
and humanitarian efforts and sacrificial endeavors, most of
them are done for personal recognition anyway. There they are now. Examine
your own hearts and your own motives, the things that you
do. the gifts that you give to this ministry, the things that
you do for others. Examine yourself. Is it truly
out of a pure motive of love for God, for what he's done for
you, and for Christ, for the gospel, for how much you appreciate
the gospel, and for the people that you claim to love? Is it?
Is it really? Not most of the time. No, it's
most of the time. And every, every so-called ministry
I use that term lightly, because every man that stands up and
takes the title of preacher says he's in the ministry. Every so-called
minister that's in that man's name, or has his name plastered
all over, it's certain, it's obvious that that man's nothing,
that he's not from God. It's obvious that he's in that
thing for himself. Anything done apart from a true
love to God in the souls of men and women is nothing, and God
calls it iniquitous. When those people came to him
and said they'd done so many things, he said, Depart from
me, you workers of iniquity. He calls even the plowing of
the wicked evil beside the Lord. not done in the spirit of thanksgiving
and praise to God. Love to him, true love to him
for what he's done for us. Here's some true marks of love.
Here's true love. He goes on to describe true love
here. How true love is from God, because
God is love, and how it manifests itself inwardly and outwardly. Look at these marks of true love.
Look at verse 4. Suffereth long. Love is patient
with other people, willing to put up with a lot because of
your love for that person. Long-suffering, willing to put
up with a lot. We put up with everything in
our children, don't we? We put up with the worst, the
worst of things in our children, our parents, those that we love,
our spouses, We put up with the worst, don't we? We're long-suffering
with those that we really, truly love. He's calling for that among
believers. He's not asking for it either.
He's demanding it. He says it's supposed to be among believers,
that we could be long-suffering with one another, to put up with
everything in one another. Why? Why should we do it? Well,
principally because Christ puts up with us, but also because
we need to be suffered with. by other people. There's a lot
that you have to suffer with from me. You need to suffer along
with some things that I do and the way I act and so forth, and
I, you too. We all need to be suffered with.
Oh, my. We all need to be suffered with.
Long time. Long suffering. Long suffering. True love suffereth long. Long
time. How long? We'll see in a minute. Forever. True love is kind, kind, tender,
not hard, not harsh, not abrasive, but tender and kind and gentle. The fruits of the Spirit are
tender and kind and gentle and so forth. Love, and love envieth
not, look at it, envieth not. It's not jealous, but it's happy
in the prosperity of others, really rejoices in the happiness
of others. Now you parents, these are the
clearest examples I can give. I use parents all the time. You
parents who truly want the best for your children, even above
your own desires, don't you? And your own wants. You really
do now. Our parents in here, you know what I'm talking about.
You want for your children what you didn't have. to the point
of sacrificing for them everything it takes to make them happy.
Why? You love them. You love them
with all your heart. You really do. And that's what
he's calling for among believers. Can it be done? He wouldn't tell
us to do it if it wasn't a requirement. Love one another, envenom, but
rather rejoice and not jealous over the attainments and the
prosperity and the happiness of other believers, but rejoice
in it and long for it and seek it out. Nothing is more contrary
to love and more adverse to love than envy. Nothing. Nothing is
more adverse to love than envy. Nothing. Love vaunteth not itself. It is not rash. buildeth not
up itself." Love is never proud. True love is never proud or conceited
or arrogant. Love for God, first of all, what
do we have to be proud of? Absolutely nothing, because what
do we have that we have not received? Now, if we have received all
these things, why do we gloat or baunt ourselves or are proud
as if we had not received No, that's not a true love and understanding
of God and what he's done for us. A true love for God and his
glory abases one's self. It doesn't braunt yourself. By
the grace of God, by the grace of God, we are what we are. And it doesn't braunt itself,
and it's not puffed up. True love is not puffed up. Scripture
says, if any man thinks he is something, When he's nothing,
he deceives himself. Let me repeat that. If any man
thinks he is something, and he doesn't say he thinks he's great,
or thinks he's pretty nice, or like that one fellow I talked
to on the phone recently, says, pretty neat fellow. Something. I mean anything. Anything less
than nothing. This picture says we're nothing. Man at his best state. You're
looking at what the world would probably, well, some people in
the world, would call probably a fine, upstanding, moral man
at his best state. A preacher, you know, for every
little wife and daughter and upstanding citizen and so forth.
Nothing. Less than nothing. Every man
at his best state is altogether completely vanity, unprofitable. worthless, a nothing, a maggot,
a worm, a worm at our best day. Truly, nothing. So true love
for God and understanding of Him and love for other people
and esteem of them, higher than oneself, is not puffed up, not
puffed up deceiving itself. Look at this. does not behave
itself. True love does not behave itself
unseemly. It's not misbehaving. This thing
gets harder and harder as it goes. It cuts deeper and deeper. True love is not rude. It's not
unmannerly. It's not stuck up. It's not moody. I'm guilty. We're all guilty.
But true love does not continually stay in this frame. True love
is not rude and mannerly, stuck-up. This word unseemly does not behave
itself unseemly. That means in unbecoming words
or indecent actions. No unlovely words or gestures
to the object of our love. We're all guilty, aren't we?
We're all guilty of becoming raging lunatics, even at those
we love. All of us are guilty and say
things that are just unseemly things. If you heard the conversation
between a husband and wife, wives in here, and probably all husbands
and wives in here, if you heard the conversation in a private
moment, you'd think, they don't love God, and they sure don't
love one another, do they? It's not misbehaving. We misbehave
quite a bit, don't we? We need our bottoms busted. Misbehaving children, little
babies, that's what we are. Misbehaving. But true love doesn't
stay that way. True love seeketh not her own.
True love seeketh not her own. Look over Romans chapter 15 with
me, just a few pages back. Romans chapter 15, verse 1. Romans 15, Verse 1, true love
seeketh not things for itself or himself, but seeketh the things
of others. Look at verse 1 of chapter 15
in Romans. We then that are strong ought
to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his
neighbor for his good to edification, and I tell you what, it will
be for your good too. Yeah, it will. Even Christ pleased
not himself, as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproached
thee, or the reproaches of them that ought to have been reproached,
fell on me, and he took it patiently. He sought not his own. Look,
the scripture says, let this mind be in you. What mind? The
mind of a servant, of service to one another. Servant, that
old saying is true. A friend in need is a friend
indeed. We see if we're a true friend
to somebody, we'll be a friend more than ever in their time
of need. Seeketh not her own, but really
and truly seeketh out and searcheth out the things of others. That's
true love. We need this bad, don't we? Need
it bad. We're so selfish, so self-centered.
True love, look at this. is not easily provoked. Somebody like to take a stab
at this? Not easily provoked, not touchy, or defensive, or
easily offended. We've heard this before, but
I'll say it again. This is a faithful saying, worthy
of all expectation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners, of whom I am chief. We all like to say that, don't
we? We're good Calvinists now, and we quote that all the time.
I'm a chief of sinners. Well, how then? If you're the
worst, if you're less than the least. Paul said that too. Can
we say that? Less than the least. Not worthy
to be called. We say it. least with our mouths. This is what James would say,
battle not your tongue, if you talk so freely and then turn
around and do the opposite. We say we're less than the least,
we say we're the chief of sinners, and somebody comes along who's
better than us and badmouths us. What do you mean? You're the chief of sinners now.
You deserve it. You're less than the least. You're
a nothing. You ought to be called badmouths.
That's what Remember, a fellow named Shimei was cursing David
one day, and Joab wanted to go cut his head off for cursing
the king. David said, no, wait, no, no.
No, God sent him. I deserve it all. I deserve to
be cussed. We all need a good cussing. Worse,
let me read you this. If you didn't read it in our
bulletin, Spurgeon wrote here. He said, Brother, if any man
thinks ill of you, don't be angry with him. You're a whole lot
worse than he thinks you are. If he charges you falsely
on some point, be happy. If the truth were known, oh my,
it'd be much worse. Or he's just charged you on some
misdemeanor when you're a felon. I'll tell you, if he knew you
better, he'd change the accusation and you'd be no gainer by the
correction. You'd be worse off. If you have your moral picture
painted, and it's ugly, be satisfied, because it'd just take a few
more true remarks to show what it really is. Right? Right. And I read this one, too. It
just happened to work together, these two articles. Love is not easily provoked. My father wrote this, my pastor.
He says, as long as we're in the flesh, We're going to have
misunderstandings among us and unpleasantries and even injustices. We're going to feel that our
rights have been violated and people have abused us and misused
us and stepped on us. What is to be our attitude? Scripture
says we're to forbear and forgive one another. To forbear is to
control our emotions, surrender our rights for the time being
in patient hope that God will reveal his purpose and will to
us. because He forbears us. My, so He's long-suffering and
patient with us and forgives. Forgives. To forgive is to actually
put the misunderstanding out of mind and restore a state of
love and fellowship. It's what God does to us. That's
what He requires of us. Forget it! Aren't you glad He
doesn't remember? He says there are sins in their
iniquities. I don't remember no more. None of them? None. I'll go and do likewise. He said,
forbear. Put up with it. Put up with it. Not easily. We all, why should
we not be easily provoked? Because we provoke others. We're
so full of things that provoke others, aren't we? I tell you,
some of you, I love you dearly, but you, I get provoked sometimes. I'm sweet. And I'm sure I do
you the same. I'm sorry, but we're just rotten
to the core, rotten to the core. And we need, we don't need to
be easily provoked because we ourselves easily provoke others. And with the same mercy that
you meet, you'll have it needed back to you, the scripture says.
True love thinketh no evil. Look at that. It's not easily
provoked, and thinketh no evil." Boy, oh boy, this is so important.
True love is not suspicious of others. What do you mean by that?
Did you hear what she meant? True love doesn't read things
into conversation. You know, we are. This mouth
is going so much. Especially me. Myself. The sun's up, the wind's up,
the sun's up here. It's right in my mouth, over
my mouth. And something is going to come
out that's going to offend somebody. And the same thing with all of
us. We've talked so much, so much. And if we want to, we can
make a mountain out of a molehill, can't we? We can find something
that somebody's said and take it wrongly and get offended so
easily. and think the worst about what
they say, when most of the time we've made something out of nothing.
We've read something into them, and they didn't mean a thing
by it. Scripture says, here, love thinketh no evil. We think
that about our, those that we really love, our family, don't
we? Oh, he didn't mean that. This is reading parents don't
see some things in their own children that other people see
so quite clearly, you know? When she's being a rotten little
snake or a heathen, you know, we don't see things in those
that we love, we really love. We don't see them unless we turn
a blind eye to them because of love. That's the sense in which
love is blind. Love is blind in that sense.
Thinketh no evil. Look at verse 6. Love rejoiceth
not in iniquity. Love is not happy with the falls
and falls with other people? Oh, this is so wicked. And we're
all so guilty of it, aren't we? Somebody falls or has a failure,
and what do we do? Under the pretense of pity and
sympathy and all, we run to somebody. Oh, no, no, covereth, covereth
a multitude of evils. Love doesn't repeat a matter.
Now, I want to turn to that here in a moment. Love doesn't rejoice
in iniquity, and gossip is nothing more than rejoicing in the fall
of somebody else. That's all gossip is. It doesn't
serve any purpose but to lift ourselves up and debase that
person. It's not helping that person
in any way, shape, form, or fashion, is it? No. Love doesn't rejoice
in iniquity, but mourns over the fault of truth. I tell you,
if your children or your husband or your wife have faults, you
don't go, you don't go spouting off about it, do you? Let me
tell you what, let me tell you what many do today. No, you don't
do that. Love rejoices in the truth, it
says. Rejoices in the truth. Love wants
to get to the truth of the matter. Love doesn't want to believe
a lie. I'd much rather get to the truth of the matter. Let's
get to the bottom of this. I want to know the truth of the
matter in order to vindicate. And I told you she didn't mean
that. And this is the reason we need to communicate, stay
in communication with one another, so we won't get, so our evil
imaginations won't run wild. If somebody says something, you
think they've been malicious, or what it go up to? Brother,
I'm sorry, but I just misunderstood what you said, or did I do something?
Communicate. Don't let the imagination run
wild when you stay quiet. We've discussed this. When you
stay quiet, and in a marriage relationship, a friendship, whatever,
a breakdown of communications, trouble, it's real trouble. You
have to open that line up. And in the end, you generally
realize that you've made something out of nothing, that that person
didn't mean what they were saying, and you took them all wrong,
and vice versa. We need that. We've been taken
wrong quite a bit of the time, and we need to be vindicated. And we come to the point where
we say, Boy, I'm glad that's not so. I'm glad I should have
known that she didn't mean that. I should have known better. And
feel ashamed of ourselves for thinking that way about somebody. Well, look at verse 7. Love both
all things. Have you been mistreated or offended? Have you been wrongly accused
or violated? Well, you've done it to somebody
else too. that you have. Look over Proverbs
10 with me, Proverbs chapter 10. We'll look at some of these,
a few of these Proverbs. Bearing up. He says, true love
beareth all things. To bear up under things, bear
up all things, it requires shutting up too. This is what I was touching
on there. It requires keeping quiet about
some things. To bury up under all things will
require keeping quiet about it. It requires shutting up, shutting
your mouth, bottling the tongue. Look at Proverbs 10, verse 12
with me. Proverbs 10, 12. Hatred stirreth
up strife, but love covereth all sins. All sins. Look over at Proverbs 11, verse
13. A tale-bearer revealeth secrets,
breaks down confidences. But he that is of a faithful
spirit, a true and loving friend, a faithful friend, concealeth
the matter. Look over at chapter 17, verse
9. And here it is, here's the key
verse. He that covereth the transgression, seeketh love. Seeketh love. Did you hear what so-and-so did?
No, no, no, I don't want to hear about it. I just want to hear
it. That's love, isn't it? Go somebody. You know what I
mean? He that covereth a transgression
seeketh love, but he that repeateth a matter separate it very free."
And we do it sometimes to boost our own selves. Maybe we're envious
of the friendship of somebody else and want to break them.
So I don't publish, like I said, I do not publish the faults of
my family and ought not to publish the faults of my church family,
not at all. because I love him too much."
Listen to this, consider him who endured such contradictions
of sinners against himself. You'd be weary in your own mind
and think, oh, he endured patiently, didn't he? Didn't he bear up
under all things, such contradictions of sinners? Things that people
say about us are probably true, like Spurgeon was saying, or
worse. Everything they said about Christ was false, but he bore
up Didn't he? Yeah, he did. Because that's
what we deserve. When he stood quiet, when he
stood as a lamb, it's done before her shearers, it's done before
Pilate. Remember, when he was quiet? He did that because it
was us standing there, Charles. It was us. And everything they
said about him in false accusation was true about us. True about
us. We'll look back at the text.
1 Corinthians 13. Verse 7, love, beareth all things,
believeth all things. It's better to believe the best
about somebody. It just is. I know a man, well,
my pastor always had this virtue, didn't he, Menden? He really
did. He always had this virtue that
he believed the best about people. He wasn't willing to believe
the worst, but rather believed the best about somebody. That's
the best way to be. The best way to be, rather than
be wrong about somebody and destroy a friendship, better be wrong
about believing the best than to be wrong and destroy a friendship. True love looks for and believes
in all the best things that can be believed and said about somebody,
the best things. We need to think on somebody's
virtues and not their faults, don't we? Listen to this. I've told you this before. You
might want to write this down. Here's three things, three, here's
the criteria for repeating a matter, for repeating something you've
heard. This should be the criteria. This should be, this thing concerning
gossip, this would regulate a lot of things that we said. You've
heard it before. Number one, when you hear something
about somebody, Ask yourself this question. Is it true? I
mean, is it true beyond the shadow of a doubt? Our court systems
maintain that, or try to, anyway. It's got to be beyond a reasonable
shadow, beyond a reasonable doubt. Presumably innocent. Is it true? Is it true? Secondly,
that would regulate whether or not we repeated something. Secondly,
is it kind? If what I'm about to say about
somebody, is it kind? The first should eliminate most,
repeating most things. The second ought definitely to
eliminate, is it kind? Thirdly, is it necessary? What good is going to come out
of me saying this, repeating this about somebody? How is the
glory of God going to be furthered along? How is the good of that
person? How are they going to be edified?
How am I going to be esteemed in light of what I say? Oh, I'd
cut all the rumors out, wouldn't I? I'd just cut them out completely.
I'd stop them all. And rather than be offended at
something or someone, something that somebody says or does, think
back. Think back on the past and see
if they've given you any reason in the past to believe the worst
that you're believing about them. You know what I'm saying? Think
back. I went to someone who was offending at me. And I begged
that person to, I said, is there, can you think of any time in
the past, any time when I've given you any reason whatsoever
to doubt, for you to doubt my love for you? And that person
said, no, I can't, but still they were still, were holding
something against me. I said, I don't understand that.
The person's usually true to form, you know. They've usually
given some indication in the past that they're malicious toward
you. It can't be isolated. Like I
was telling my husband and wife, we have these isolated incidents,
don't we? Where we raise up and flare up against one another
and act like demons, act like we hate one another's guts. But
those are isolated incidents, aren't they? They're not like
that all the time. No, no. And we don't hold, if we really
love our mate, we don't hold that against him. We'll just
forget it. He was wrong. He was just in a fit of anger,
you know. Well, it seems, it's sad to say
though, but one slip-up. He let us slip one time. One
misunderstanding. And we'll break down a friendship
that's lasted for years. I don't understand that. God's
Word sure doesn't understand it. That's it. Besides, look
at this. Look at what it says here. Love
hopeful for all things, even if somebody did mean what they
said. Love hopeful for all things, even if somebody did say or do
something against them, love hopes and longs for the best.
Well, maybe she'll change. That's the reason I say between
believers, the word divorce is never in the vocabulary. Don't
care how things get. Maybe God will change you. Or him. Maybe. Maybe he will. And if it's true love, he will.
Things will improve. They sure will. It won't stay
like that. Irreconcilable differences. We've
heard that grounds for divorce are irreconcilable differences. No. Ain't no such thing in true
love. You know what I mean? I heard
somebody say this to me. Somebody went to somebody and
said, isn't there anything that can be done to reconcile this
situation? They said, no, nothing. That's not love, is it? Nothing
that can be done? No. What are you saying by saying
that is, I don't want to reconcile. Right? Exactly. I don't want to reconcile. They've
offended me and I don't want that. I don't want that. And
what you say in Bates says, I don't love that person. I hate that
person. I don't want anything to do with them. Never in true
love, though. Love is always willing to reconcile,
no matter what he has done. Always willing to reconcile.
Always. Because, and look at the natural
order of things, it endures all things. True love endures it. We make these promises and these
vows before God and all these witnesses and everything. There's
sickness and health and sorrow and poverty and this and that
and the other, you know, till death do us part. Well, that's what it's supposed
to be. We make the vows because that's what it's supposed to
be, true love. Yes, it is. It's supposed to
endure all things, disappointments, hurt feelings, offenses. It's
supposed to endure it all. Why? Look at verse 8. Because
love never fails. Love never quits. Never. Never. It may be temporarily
put on hold or something, but it never quits, finally. Never,
never quit. Never stop loving somebody. You
hear somebody say, I heard this man, a preacher, left his wife
and his children. And his reason was? For his pitiful,
poor excuse to others was, I just don't love her anymore. That's impossible. That's impossible. According to this, right? Love
never fails. Never stops love. No, bud, you
never loved her in the first place. According to God's Word,
love never quits loving somebody. Never. ever. No way. Look at this. Prophecies, they
may fail. Tongues, they'll cease. Knowledge,
it'll vanish away. All these things will give way
to perfect sight. Love will only continue to grow
stronger and stronger. Stronger and stronger. We'll
grow in grace. True love grows. True love grows
graciously. We know in part. We prophesy
in part. We don't know very much anyway.
We can't do very much. But when that which is perfect
is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. All
this someday will be done away with, but not love. Not love. Listen to this. When I stand
beside my brother in glory, when we're standing there, both of
us, look just alike, in Christ there's no male or female, Jew,
Gentile, rich nor poor, young, old, nothing, all the same, in
Christ. When I'm standing there beside him or her, it won't matter
a hill of beans what I knew or could do and what they didn't
know without my step. It won't matter a hill of beans.
You know what will matter? I've got in there a bulletin.
I don't know if I can remember it or not. that the state that, this is
paraphrasing, this is not exactly how it's put, but the state God
finds your heart in when you die is the state you'll be in
throughout eternity, the way he finds you. Now, what's going
to matter? I love that man. Why? I'm going
to be beside him forever. I'm going to have to love him
then, that's for sure. Here I am. I have to stand right
beside him. Now, I'll say this carefully, because I'm not saying
that like old John Warburton's article about if what they consider,
what they call charity or love is receiving people that preach
a false gospel. I'm devoid of that kind of love.
I'm talking about brothers, true believers. And we don't know
really who they are. Sometimes it manifests itself. for true believers, at least
right here. We know, we all profess to be
believers, and that love needs to be manifest in that way here. It needs to be true, it needs
to be faithful, it needs to abide right here, because we're going
to be standing together throughout eternity. And that's the only
thing that's going to matter. Now, verse 11. When I was a child,
I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child,
but we need to quit being a child now. And I became a man, I put
away childish things." Now, he'd been talking about attitudes
here, hadn't he? That we need to quit being children or babies
in our attitudes and so forth, and grow up and mature. Because,
verse 12, we're really children in understanding. We see through
a glass darkly or dimly. We don't see and know very much.
We may think we do, but we don't. Then we're going to see face
to face. Now I know in part, but then
I'll know even as I've been known. And we brag right now and act
like children over, you know, children bragging on their bicycle
being bigger than their bicycle. It's pitiful. It's about the
size of our accomplishments. It's what we brag on. And we
act like children, and we don't realize what we're doing and
how we really look. And he says, someday we're going
to realize. And this is true spiritual maturity. True spiritual
maturity brings humility. A growth in grace is a downward
growth, growing meekness and lowliness. Christ said, take
my yoke upon you and learn of me. Mark the perfect man, Christ. He said, I'm meek and lowly. Meek. Meek and lowly. But he says, verse thirteen,
now abideth these three things, faith, hope, and love. These three. But the greatest
of these is love. Faith. These things abide now
while we're here on this earth. These three things abide. Faith.
We live by faith. The just shall live by faith.
We look unto Christ. We trust in Christ, Him alone.
We hope. We wait for that. We wait confidently
for the fulfillment of God's promises in Christ. Love. We love God and each other. But
faith is going to give way to sight. Someday we're going to
see Him as He is. And we don't need to just believe.
We'll be with Him. We'll see him. We'll believe
perfectly. Yeah, we will, because we'll
see him. Faith is going to give way to
sight. Hope is going to give way to reality. Let's hope for
those things. We'll have them. And then, but
love never ceases. Love only increases and grows. It will remain forever. So look
at chapter 14, verse 1. So he says, so that's the thing
you ought to follow after him. Follow after love, if that's
continuing forever. Nurture it. Strive to maintain
it, this unity of the Spirit in love. Strive after it. Hunger and thirst for it. Now, I've got to go over
these things. Now, this Scripture is bifold. And like I said, the usage and
the context of it here, as we saw very clearly there, Paul
is showing us the practical aspects of true love between one another. But I want you to notice with
me the amazing way that all of this applies to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Let's go back real briefly through this scene again. He
said, Though I speak with the tongue of men and of angels,
and have not Christ, I am a sounding blast, and a
tinkling cymbal. I tell you what, if I don't care
what I say, I know. If I don't know Him, I don't
know anything. Might as well not poke my big
mouth. Verse 2, And though I have the
gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge,
and have all faith, boy, he sure is a strong believer. He sure
does know the doctrines of grace. He sure can contend for me. Have
not Christ, though I have a strong, seemingly strong, profession
of faith, if I have not a strong possession of Christ in me, I
am nothing. I am not even a believer. Verse 3, And though I bestow
all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to
be burned, and have not Christ, If I do, no matter what I do
through, for the sake of what I believe, if I am not really
and truly abiding in Christ and him and me, it profit me nothing.
I might as well live the whole life of sin as to live a life
of hypocrisy and not knowing him truly. Verse four, Christ
suffereth long. Scripture says the long-suffering
of the Lord is salvation. The fact that the Lord Jesus
Christ came down here and suffered long, a long time, thirty-three
and a third years, suffered long, suffered under the wrath of God
for us, suffered under the reviling of men for us, suffered under
the trials and the tribulations and is touched in all points
as we are, yet without sin, because he suffered long under all these
things, we're saved. The long-suffering of the Lord
Jesus Christ is salvation, salvation. And look at this, Christ, that
loveth, suffereth long, is kind. Christ is kind, speaks for itself. Christ envieth not. Oh, on the
contrary, he was jealous for the glory of God and the good
of others. He was jealous He sought out the glory of God and
the good of others. He wasn't jealous for the glory
of God, but he thought it not robbery to be equal with God,
but yet he took on himself the form of a servant, because it
was God that he wanted to be honored and glorified. The envy
of not Christ brought it not himself. He really didn't. He really did not cry or lift
up his voice in the streets. I'm the Christ. Come to me. He
said, Come unto me, but in order to reveal the Father. He came
to honor the Father. as our supreme example, as our
substitute, but as our example, too, to show us that we're not
to honor ourselves, but to honor our Lord and Master. Even he
didn't vaunt himself. And it's not puffed up. No, he
said, I'm meek and lowly. Meek and lowly. Doth not behave—Christ
didn't behave himself unseemly. How did he behave himself? Oh, my, the altogether lovely
and righteous and holy one of God. He behaved Himself perfectly,
perfectly all His life. Oh, how He behaved Himself. He
behaved Himself in such a manner that God said, Oh, there's a
well-behaved child that I'm well pleased with. And God's pleased
with us in Him because of His behavior. His behavior is accounted
as ours. We're spoiled brats, but God
in Christ, or us in Christ, God sees us as well-behaved children. Doesn't hold himself unseemly. He didn't seek his own. He did
not seek his own. Not my will be done, Christ said,
but thy will. And he sought the salvation of
his people, not his own personal comfort. He never did anything
for his own personal comfort. Never. Never. A life of sacrifice. Love is not easily provoked.
Christ is not easily provoked. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad? We provoke him to anger every
day, Terry, every day, every minute of our lives. He ought
to say, every day, five minutes into our waking, into our waking
day, He ought to say, that's enough, that's it, that's all
I'm having, no more of you, you wretch. Shouldn't it? You ungrateful
wretch. You ought to continue. Probably. But he's not easily provoked.
What does he do? Thinketh no evil. Thinketh no evil. He himself
thought no evil. He only thought righteous and
holy thoughts. That's important to us, too.
God looks on the inside. Christ had to think righteousness
for us. Not only do it, but think it.
And he rejoices not in iniquity. No, no. Listen to this scripture
real quickly. God loves righteousness and hates
wickedness or iniquity. Because he truly loved righteousness
and hated iniquity. That's not us. Because he did,
though, God, by God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness
above thy fellow. Because he loved righteousness,
he hated iniquity and rejoiced in the truth. He said, I am truth,
full of it. He was it. He is the truth. And he bears all things, bears
away the sin of the world on his back. He bears the weight
of the universe upon him. He bears all things all right. He sure does. Believe with all
things. Christ had perfect faith. Did
he live by faith? Yes, he did. He had to, as a
man. A judge should live by faith.
Christ had to live by faith. Yes, he did, for our sake. Hope
with all things. He expected. He hoped. He hoped too. He waited for hope.
He hoped all things. He expected things to be just
like God said they would. And endureth all things. Christ
endured, as Scripture says, for the joy that was set before him.
He endured the worst of things, the cross, for our sake. All things. He despised the shame.
He endured everything that we were to endure at the hands of
this holy God for us. He did. Christ never fails. Christ never fails. Never! Never fails. He shall see the
travail of his soul and be satisfied. Why? Because by his knowledge
shall my righteous servant justify many. Justify many. He shall bear their iniquities. I beg to differ with these idiots
today. Christ didn't fail. He didn't
try to do anything. He got the job done. Because
love, Christ never fails. Scripture's true, right? He never
fails. Oh, He's going to come to the
Father in the end and say, They're all here. Behold, I and the children
which thou hast given me, they're all here. I got the job done.
Sure did. It's because He never failed.
Everything must be fulfilled written in the Scriptures concerning
Him. Everything. It says right there, it never
fails. I tell you, prophecies, tongues, knowledge, this world
and everything in it will fail. But Christ liveth and abideth
forever. He remains forever a priest,
a high priest for his people. A priest forever, Terry, like
Melchizedek, after the order of Melchizedek, having no beginning
or ending. Christ never fails. All these
other things are going to fail. This whole world, everything
in it, us, we're going to fail. But thank God our salvation is
dependent upon the fact that Christ never fails. Never. What was that song I had
written down for us to sing? 187. Jerry, come up here and
play this for us. Blessed be the tithe it buys."
What that tithe is, that's Christ primarily. It's the love of Christ. The love of God is shed abroad
in the hearts of God's people for Him and for one another.
Let's stand and sing a couple of verses there. Let's sing 1st,
2nd, and, oh boy, they're all good. We'll sing 1st and last. the second, third, and very first
breath. Let's go ahead and sing it. Second verse. Before our Father's throne, before
our Lord and friends, our pleas, our hopes, our aims, our wants,
our comforts and our cares, we share our I'll be your burden
bearer, and I'll pray for each other no matter where. abiding still. When we are stranded miles, it
gives us inward pain, but we shall still be joining hands. I'm sorry. Okay. Okay.