a more excellent way. So covet
earnestly. To covet is to fix your desires
upon something, whether it's good or whether it's bad. It
means to desire earnestly. To covet means that you want
more, desire more, more what others have, whether it's materialistic,
whether it's money, whatever it is. And to do those things is to covet
things of the world is evil and we know that I know it and you
know it but here he talks about coveting earnestly and what does
he say the best gifts and you know what the best gifts are
and all of them are gifts look down in verse 13 of chapter 13 and now by the faith Hope. Charity. These three. But the greatest of these is
charity. Is that not the best three gifts
there are? I said, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage,
Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage,
Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage,
Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage,
Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage,
Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage,
Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage, Courage,
Courage, earnestly, earnestly desire faith. Hope. Oh, hope. Couldn't live without hope. And
I certainly, certainly desire charity. Don't you earnestly
desire charity? The love of God. And these are
the most precious treasures a soul can possess in this world. And
why anyone would want to possess Anything other than these three
great blessed treasures is beyond me. Why would we want to possess
them? This is what our Lord meant when
he said hunger and thirst after righteousness. These are the
things that goes after those. And I tell you, this is something
I know for a fact. I know in my heart, I know from
experience. I know from the scriptures. These
are the things that we desire and earnestly covet. And if you,
if your children ask you, if your children were to ask you,
what's the three most important things in the world? Children
was to sit down and say, what is the most, three most important
things in this world? How would you ask them? Would
you say education? That's the most important thing.
Now education's important. Oh, it's so important. Would
you tell them a good job? Oh, if you just had a good job.
A good husband, a good wife. Or tell them to be saving, to
be frugal. Or would you tell them the greatest
thing that they should desire is to be popular, to excel in
sports. To fit in. And I tell you, whenever sports
becomes more important than the gospel, you're in trouble. Sports is wonderful. Sports is
nice. Ball is great. Everybody ought
to be involved in them if they can. But when you put that in
the place of the gospel, it's no good. It's no good. And I say that honestly and truly
and sincerely. But I'll tell you the three,
what is the three most important things in this world? The three
most precious possessions, gifts in this world. Things you can
hold on to. Things that will abide with you.
Ain't that what it says in this verse 13? And now abideth. It'll abide with you. Now abideth. That's what we want, things that
will abide with us. Things you can hold on to. Things
is precious. And I know that the flesh, it
won't abide. God told Adam, he said, oh, Adam,
out of the dust you come and to the dust you're going to go.
And that's what's going to be the end of all this flesh. Man's
days are numbered. We'll all go to our long home
one of these days, the house appointed for all the living.
And all of our relationships, they won't last. They won't last. Husbands and wives, they'll all
have to say goodbye to one another eventually. That's just the nature
of living. That's why the Lord says, you
know, there's neither marriage nor giving of marriage in heaven.
We're as the angels of God. And let me say something right
here about reality, about these relationships. If you lose a
husband or a wife, if you know they're a believer, you're happy,
you rejoice in it. But the reality is that they're
not here anymore. You can't touch them, you can't
speak to them. And that's your reality you have
to deal with, coming home and they're not there anymore. Everything you do makes you think
of even though you know they're not thinking of you. And they're
not having a clue what's going on in this world. But reality,
what they are going through and what you're going through, two
different things. Is that not right? And so these
relationships won't last. And our works, our works won't
continue. Our Lord Jesus Christ says, why
call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? And
one of these days, He's going to say, depart from me, you workers
of iniquity. I never knew you. And I tell
you what, in a day, a day, one of these days, a day is as a
thousand years, and a thousand years is a day. And all everything
we do is going to discontinue. And anything that you can touch,
anything you have control over, and you can touch, taste, handle,
and your senses, It's not going to abide. This world and all
it's in is going to pass away. And our Lord said, Behold, I
make all things new. And one of these days that's
going to happen. But I want to talk about these three things.
These three things that will abide. And I know this and you
know it. Faith that will abide. As long as we're in this world,
faith will abide. Hope will abide. And charity will abide. And always
says faith. And you know what the scripture
said? Abraham believed God. And I believe God. I believe
that God created this world. I believe that God made man in
his own image and I believe that man fell from the state that
God placed him in and he fell and he fell so far from God that
God's the only one can go and pick him back up. He is so lost
that only God knows where he's at and how to find him. He is
so desperately hopeless and helpless that it's God that must go and
get him. And I believe also that our Lord
Jesus Christ and God in eternity purpose to save a people. A people that was given to him
in a covenant of grace. And that God sent his son into
this world to be the atoning victim, to be the sacrifice for
our sin, for our redemption, to pay our debts. I believe that
our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, nailed to a tree by the hands
of Roman soldiers in the Jewish hierarchy. I believe that they
took him down off that tree and they buried him in a grave. They
put a great big rock over it. And then on the third morning
the rock was gone and our Lord Jesus Christ was too. He arose
again from the dead. And I know this that our Lord
Jesus Christ ascended after 40 days back into glory. And right
now He sits at the right hand of God, our only mediator. The
only way we can talk to God and God can talk to us. And I believe
He's our advocate. That if God, if He don't stand
before God for us, we're all a bunch of gold jesses. That's
what Abraham said, I believe God. And that's what I believe
in God. Don't you? I believe that our
Lord Jesus Christ will come again. and receive His own unto Himself
with all power and all glory. And I'll tell you something,
nobody in this congregation, nobody in the world knows I really
believe this but me, myself. Ain't that right? Nobody in this congregation or
nobody in the world knows I believe what I just said, but me. Now,
how about his faith? He's all died in faith. Oh, the
one foundation of my hope and confidence is I believe God. His word is my only warrant of
faith. When Abel, Pilgrim Rich, and
his bosom buddies in the child's despair, and he found the key. And you know what the key was?
He believed God. He spent all that time in John's
despair's castle. And he come out and said, oh,
I've been here all this time, and I've got the key to get out.
What was it? He believed God. And the door opened. Oh, look over here in Romans
4 with me just a minute. Romans 4. Oh, the one foundation of my
hope and confidence is I believe God. I don't believe in God. I don't believe there is a God.
I don't believe that there's a... I believe God! God spoke, and I believe that. God said it. I believe what He
said. That's what we're talking about.
Look what he said here in Romans 4, look in verse 20, talking
about Abraham, he staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being
fully persuaded that what God had promised He is able also
to perform. If he promised it, he'll carry
that promise out. He'll keep that promise. And
being fully persuaded, and therefore it was imputed to him, counted
to him for righteousness. Now, listen to it, it was not
written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him. Listen,
but for us also. to whom it shall be imputed if
we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. Oh, listen. Oh, for a faith that
will not shrink, though pressed by many a foe, that will not
tremble on the brink of any earthly woe. Our Lord said, all things
are possible to him that believes. And I know this about faith.
Now about his faith. Faith is a gift of God. All these
things have come as gifts. Faith is the gift of God. God
gave us this faith. I know preachers tell people
all the time, said, oh, you've got faith if you just exercise
it. Faith is not like picking up
weights and exercising your arm. That's not the way you get it.
You can't buy it from the preacher. You can't stand in the healing
line and get it. You can't buy it at the grocery
store. If you get it, God's got to come
down from heaven and he got to put that in your heart. And all
you see, faith is the gift of God. And faith is all that pleases
God. Without faith, it's impossible
to please Him. Faith joins us to God, unites
us to God. Faith, faith finds favor with
God. He decrees it, he designed it,
and he purposed it, and then he turns it around and rewards
us for it like it belonged to us to start with. He gives it to us and then rewards
us like it was ours and we had it to start with. Oh, and I'll
tell you something, faith justifies us before God. Look over in Romans
5. Oh, it's faith justifies us before
God. Therefore, being justified by
faith. Christ raised for our justification. Didn't we believe on Christ?
Therefore, our faith justifies us because in the sight of God,
we believe what God said about His Son. And this by whom also
we have access by what? By faith into this grace wherein
we stand. Look down verse 24 So, excuse
me. I'm in the wrong place. Oh My
but anyway Romans and he says, you know, how do we get this
faith faith is given to us God gives it to us and I know something
about saving faith It's a faith that obeys God. It loves God. It needs God. It has to have
God and he read tonight He said that faith has saved thee. I When he read tonight and in the
service tonight, he said, thy faith has saved thee. He told
that woman, go, thy faith has made you whole. He was the one
that made them whole, but they came to him believing that he
had the ability to do it. He told a man, stretch forth
your hand. The man couldn't do it. But with the commandment
comes the ability to do. And if Christ tells you to believe,
he gives you the ability to believe. And so you see, beloved, faith.
God rewards faith like it's to Him. Faith gives Him all the
glory. Abraham, when God told Abraham
that he was going to have a son and that the son that he was
going to have was going to be his own Savior, going to be his
own Redeemer, going to be the Messiah, going to be the Son
of God. Do you know what Abraham said? I believe that. I believe that. And he looked,
Abraham saw the day of Christ and rejoiced in it. That's the
kind of faith we're talking about. He looked down through the ages.
And he saw the day of Christ and rejoiced in it. They said,
well, you're not 50 years old. He said, for Abraham was I am.
And Abraham believed me before I ever got here. Oh my, I'll tell you something
else about faith. Christ is not only as a gift,
but Christ is the object of our faith. His Word is the foundation
of our faith. That's the very foundation of
our faith. As I'm telling you, what else
have we got to do? You know, I read lots of books,
a lot of good books. People put all kinds of stuff
up, you know, and you read all kinds of stuff. Mr. Spurgeon
and Gill and Durnall and Philpott. You read all these fellas and
you read them and they got good things. But, beloved, if you
want something, Charles Spurgeon, I'm not trusting his word for
salvation. John Gill, as smart as he was,
I'm not trusting his words for my salvation. This is the word. This is it right here. That's
the foundation of our faith. God, my, the word is the foundation
of our faith. And that's why we say, always
say the scripture said, the scripture said, the scripture said. I can't
tell you tonight that I had a vision. I can't tell you I feel more
holier than anybody else. I can't tell you I've had some
earth-shaking experience, but I can tell you this, that my
hope for eternal life and my hope of acceptance before God
is I believe God. He told that Philippian jailer,
he said, Sir, what must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou must be saved. And I tell you what, I
put all my eggs in one basket, hang my soul on one person, cast
myself at the feet of one man, and that's the blessed Son of
God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I know this, and I tell you,
none of us have the faith we ought to have. None of us have
the faith we want to have. And by the grace of God, none
of us have the faith we're going to have. And I know it's not
the strength of our faith, it's the object of our faith that
saves. I used to have a, in my front
yard, I had a grapevine, and I had a post set in the ground.
And the grapevine, you know, boards were crossing, the grapevine
grew all over it. Now, was the post holding up the grapevine,
or was the grapevine holding up the post? You take them posts
down to Grapevine Falls. Well, you take Christ away from
a beaver. We're going to be like them grapes. We're going to hit
the ground. That's why our Lord said, smoking
flax and a bruised reed, he would not break. Now let's talk about
faith. I've talked about faith. What
about hope? Oh my Lord, you pray tonight
Lord if I don't believe, I won't believe now. Don't let us be
deceived, oh I won't believe. I'm the only person who ever
questions their faith as people's got it. I've never seen a hypocrite
question his faith. I've always seen, I've heard
him brag about it. Heard him brag on how strong he was. I've
heard him talk about all the things that's been accomplished
by it. But I've never heard a hypocrite say, Oh Lord, give me faith. I never heard him say, Lord,
I believe, help thou mine unbelief. But now let's talk about hope.
Now abideth faith, hope, hope. Let me say something about hope.
Hope's not just wishful thinking. It's not wishful thinking. Hope
is a confident expectation based on God's blessed word. I hope
to be forgiven. justified, accepted by an infinitely
thrice holy, immaculately holy, righteous God. Now either it's
wishful thinking or a confident expectation, which is it? If it's based on God's word,
It's a good hope. It's a sure hope. It's a purifying
hope. It's an abandoned hope and a
blessed hope. And if it's not based on God's
word, it's just wishful thinking. Now, ain't that right? If it's
not based on God's word, it's just wishful thinking. But if
it's based on God's word, then you got a good hope. Ain't that
what you say about people when they get 60,000, you know, they've
got a good hope. They got a good hope. And oh,
what is a good hope? Well, look over in 1 Timothy
1 and I'll show you. What is a good hope? 1 Timothy 1. What is this hope we're talking
about? Now by the faith, hope, and charity. When we covet these
things, do we desire these things? Well, what is this blessed hope?
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our
Savior, and Lord Jesus Christ, our hope. God didn't say anything else.
That's another thing. Just read that and leave and
go. Oh, when we talk about He's our
hope. He's our hope for righteousness. How? Through His obedience. He's
my hope for atonement through His death. He's my hope for the
resurrection when I die because He lives. He's my hope for entrance
into glory because He entered in for me ahead of time and He's
the forerunner to enter there and said, there's one coming
after me. Oh, true faith is Christ begat
a good hope in us and he gave us the reason for it. Christ
in you, the hope of glory. And I tell you something, beloved,
this hope's not based on experience or feeling or work that we've
ever accomplished or any merit. Our hope is a strong confidence
in our Lord Jesus Christ. Jackass when he called him down
out of that tree. You know I come out of that tree.
He believed Christ. He didn't have anything before
Christ spoke to him except a bad name. He was the chief of the
Republicans. He wasn't just a regular. He
was the main piston rod. He was the main guy. Had a whole
bunch under him. And he climbed up that tree,
and the Lord spoke to him. He come down out of there, and
the faith and hope went home with him that day. He had confidence
in the Son of God. Bartimaeus had confidence, and
our hope is strong as our confidence is in Him. And Christ is our
hope. What would happen to you and
me if you took Christ away from us? It just don't bear thinking about.
What would happen to me and you if you take Christ away from
us? Where would our faith be? Where would our hope be? That's
why it says we covet these things. He's our source of present and
future happiness and hope. And without Him, we're still
in our sins. But listen, I'll tell you something. That's why Paul said, Christ
our hope. There are several things he said
about Christ. He said, Christ is my righteousness. Christ is my hope. Christ in
you, the hope of glory. And he said, Christ who is our
life. Everything he had in this world
and every hope he had, it was in Christ. He said, I want to
win him. I want to be found in him. I
said, oh, everything that I've ever accomplished in this world,
it wasn't me, but it was grace that was in me. And oh, he says, when I leave
this world, I expect to depart and be with Christ for me to
die again. I desire to depart and be with
who? To be with Christ. Not to walk on streets and go,
not to see granny, not to see grandma, not to see your wife,
but to go see Christ, to be with Christ. Oh, I'll get up and be
with all the rest of the apostles. No, I want to go see Christ.
That's the hope. That's the blessed hope we have.
And oh, you say my hope's awful weak. If your hope's weak, I'll
tell you why. Because you regard Christ. You
regard an opinion of Christ. A regard is how you see Christ
is really weak too. I remember I've told you this
before. Joe Terrell used this illustration. He says, like being
on seesaw. He said, you know, the fellows
down here, the other person's up there. And when you're down
here, somebody's up there. And he says, you know, and said,
if you're down here, Christ is way up there. And if you get up here, Trust
in having confidence in your flesh in any way in anything
you've ever saw said or done then Christ goes way down here So let's just stay right here
Don't even get up Don't even get up Oh my Listen let me just deal
with this other one Oh my goodness Faith? Oh, covet earnestly. Don't you desire faith? Hope? Hope, what a blessed, blessed
thing, hope. And when we cry out to the Lord,
when you know how many times have you cried out and said,
oh Lord, oh Lord, oh Lord, be before me, come to me, help me. You know, and that's who we go
to. We go to Him. Why? Because we believe Him.
We got confidence in Him. We got a blessed hope in Him.
and then love. Now about her faith, hope and
charity. Look over here in 1 John chapter
4. Let's talk about love just a few minutes. Look what it said here. John
4.10. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the perpetuation
for our sins. Herein is love. Herein is love. This is like John 17, when our
Lord Jesus Christ says this, Is eternal life that they might
know thee the only true god and jesus christ whom thys is the
will of god We said I came down from heaven not to do my will
but the will of him that sent me And this is the will of him
that sent me that Everyone that sees the son shall have life
And oh listen here in his love Lots and lots of talk about love
Lots of talk about love Lots of people claim to love God,
love Christ, love each other. Oh, but you want to learn about
what love is? Here's what John said about it. This is what the
scripture says about it. It's not two people getting married
and bound to live the rest of their lives together and then
after a little while going their separate ways. No, that's not
it. But look what he says here in
his love. And the first thing he said about
it is not that we love God. Here is love and he wants to
qualify. Not that we love God. It's not in us. It's not here. There's no genuine love in the
flesh by nature for God or man. He says not that we Not that we, faith is the gift
of God. No hope outside of Christ. And
here he says, here it is love, not that we love God. It's not natural to us. In the
flesh dwells no good thing. All is connected to the flesh
died in the garden. And these things that I'm talking
about, they're gifts, they're spiritual gifts, gifts of God. And I'll tell you something,
there's no love in the flesh. Even a mother's love is selfish
love. And you know, I'm telling you
the truth. Who does she love? Her own. Mary used to say this
all the time, ever crows babies to the blackest. And that's the way it is. When
we have a baby, we say, I didn't know I could love so much. And
that nursery's full of babies. Very interested only in yours
when you get in there. And when grandma goes to sit,
they just won't see that one. Grandpa goes sit, that's the
only one they want to deal with. I'm telling you, see, that's
what I'm talking about. Even the mother, her love is selfish
love. She loves her own. She loves
what she produces. There's no love in the natural
man except for what belongs to him and his family. But you know,
where did we get this love that we're talking about? Romans 5,
5 says the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost. But now look what else he says
here, again in 1 John 4 and 10. Herein is love, not that we love
God. But now listen to it. But He loved us. Oh, listen. Would you know the truth and
depth of real love? Go to Calvary. Go to the cross. Go to where our Lord Jesus is
there. Follow Him all of His life. But
you go to Calvary. Here is love. Here is the very
nature of it. That our Lord Jesus Christ loved
us. And how do we know He loved us?
He gave Himself for us. When they drove those nails in
his hands, he never murmured. When they dropped that tree down
in the ground and they ripped that flesh and his bones started
coming apart, he never murmured. He never said, oh. Never said a word. Why did he
do that? Because he had a love for a particular
blessed people that He loved and He's given to Him. And I
could give you all kinds of theological definitions of love. I could
say it's eternal, it's sacrificial, it's immutable. But oh, I tell
you, there's no illustration for it. But let me give you something
to do. If anybody here got anybody that
they have as an enemy, somebody that's really wronged them or
somebody that they have a real, real hard time with, I'll tell
you what, you go pick out somebody that you have as such an enemy. Someone's wronged you, maybe
somebody you even despise. Pick out somebody who treated
you as low down maybe, low down as ever, maybe better to you
while you were a child. Now you turn around and start
loving that person. Isn't that what our Lord said? Love your enemies. If you love
them that love you, what they can't do. If you do good to them
that do good to you, what they can't do. But love them that
despise you. Love your enemies. Now you find
somebody that's mistreated you, that's hurt you, treated you
low down, now love them. Love them. Let your heart go
out to them. Can you start praying and say,
Lord, bless him, not me. Give him every good thing. Can you pray that for somebody
that's mistreated you previously? If you can't, we don't know anything
about love. Herein is love, not that we love
God. And you know when God loved us.
God commended his love toward us even when we were enemies. Christ died for us. Huh? And what does it say here? It says, sin is the only begotten
son to be our perpetuation that we might live through him. Oh
my. We're not talking about an old
sentimental junk, that kind of love that don't last but just
a little while. But real giving love, forgiving love, Bible love. Verse 9 said, Herein this was
manifested the love of God towards us. God didn't just didn't say
I love you, He manifested it. Oh, He sent His only, only begotten
Son into the world. Why? That we might live, live,
live through Him. Not because we loved him, but
he loved us. Sent that son into this world
to be the sacrifice for our sins. Now what will abide in this world? What will abide? Everybody in
this building, they got somebody they lost, somebody they love
with all their heart. But what will keep on keeping?
What will abide? What will stay with us? now abideth
faith, hope, and charity, and love of all the things there
is. Our Lord says that's the greatest
of all. The greatest of all. And that which should characterize
believers more than anything else is these three things. These three things. Faith, hope,
I read this morning when Paul wrote to Philemon, he said, I
know of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and love for all
the saints. But beloved, because we don't possess these
things the way we desire to, we're not going to quit desiring
them, are we? Not going to quit covering them, are we? No, no.
We're just going to keep seeking these three treasures until we
don't need them anymore. And I tell you what, there'll
be a treasure to you. And there'll be a treasure to
those that watch when you get ready to pass from this world
to the next. Not only will it be a treasure to you, your faith
will, and your hope will, and the love you have. But I tell
you what, it'll be a treasure to those standing there watching
you too. It really will. I tell you it'll keep you. It's
real. It's real. Faith, hope, charity. And let's prosper in these things.
Seek these precious things. Believe God. Hope thou in God. And God help us to love like
our Master. Even love our enemies. Our Father, in the blessed name of
our Lord Jesus, thank you for letting us meet tonight. Thank
you for the truth. Thank you for giving us faith
and hope and love. Oh, may we desire these things,
seek after them, covet them. And Lord, we pray for Annie,
Kyle, her family. Lord, you give them an abundance
of grace. And Father, bring people to yourself and bring glory to yourself through
us. In the way what seems good in
your own eyes. Lord, we bless you and praise
you and thank you. Oh, bless your name. Amen. Let's sing the love of God out
of this. Yeah, you lead that. Let's stand
together and sing this, the love of God. I stride by truth, all the rightful
love of God. Out of us, we claim the ocean ground. Our goodness grown, contain the whole, no
stress.