We've had one missionary preach
for us already, Brother Cody Groover down in Mexico, and now
we're having another missionary come preach for us, Brother Clay
Curtis, a missionary from Arkansas to Princeton, New Jersey. And my friends from Princeton
don't mind me saying that. Such a dear, dear fellowship
that God allowed us to meet. Where's Scott? Where are you,
Scott? What was it, 94 we first met? And God called out some
of his folks and raised up a gospel work, Sovereign Grace Baptist
Church in Princeton, New Jersey. And then nine years ago, he called
Brother Clay to be pastor. And he'd been a dear friend from
I guess he was 18 years old when we met, 17, 18, somewhere in
there. His grandfather passed away for 40 years out there where
Brother Darwin is in Taylor, Arkansas. He was a dear friend.
His grandmother's still out there. We've talked to her just every
little bit, and she's a delight. And his parents just, thank God
for friends. Just thank God for friends. You
come preach the gospel to us, brother. Let's turn in our Bibles to 1
Corinthians chapter 14. In verse 1, we read, follow after charity. First Corinthians 14.1, follow
after charity. And desire spiritual gifts. But
for what purpose? For what purpose? Look down at
verse 12. It says, seek that you may excel
to the edifying of the church. That's the purpose. In verse
26, The last sentence there, he says, let all things be done
to edify him. Every gift Christ gives is to
edify his body, his church. And every member, individual
member of that body in particular, is to edify his body. that God
gives. We don't have gifts that they
had in the early church, but we have some gifts. And everything
God gives is to edify his body. He gave some apostles, he gave
some prophets, he gave some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers
for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ. Every gift Christ
gives, everything he gives is by one spirit. And everything
he gives is for one purpose. It's to edify his body. Not to divide his body. To edify
his body. Not to amputate members of his
body. To edify his body. Look there
in 1 Corinthians 12 verse 4, there are differences of gifts,
but the same Spirit. There are differences of administrations,
but the same Lord. There are diversities of operations,
but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the
Spirit is given to every man to profit with. It's given to
edify, to profit. The purpose of Christ's gifts
are to edify. Seek that you may excel to the
edifying of the church. Do all things unto edifying,
he said. And so if I'm gonna do everything
to edifying, there is a gift I need above all other gifts. There's something we're gonna
need if we're gonna edify above all other gifts. It's the love of God. The love of God. The love of
God in the heart makes God's child use God's gifts for their
proper purpose. And that's to edify. That's the
only way we'll edify is to have the love of God dwelling in us. That's the only way. After the
Apostle Peter denied the Lord three times, He left the ministry. Peter left the ministry. And
he went back to his fishing. He went back to his nets. He
went back to his life. He left Christ. And Christ came
to him. And do you remember what Christ
asked him? He said, Peter, lovest thou me more than these nets? Do you love me more than these
nets? And Peter said, Lord, you know, you know I love you. And he said, feed my lambs, edify
my church. He didn't ask Peter, do you know
this point of doctrine or that point of doctrine? He didn't
ask him that. He didn't ask him what gifts he had, how capable
he was. He said, Lovest thou me? You see, if you have the love
of God in your heart, you will know true doctrine. And doctrine's necessary to feed
his lambs. But it's only by having his love
in you that you'll know true doctrine and believe the doctrine. Believe it so much that you'll
trust him to make your brethren stand. and trust him to bless
the word, and trust him to edify the church, and to compact the
members together, so that from the head, they get everything
they need, and they're made to edify one another in love. You'll
trust him to do that, but only if his love dwells in you. That's
why he asked Peter, do you love me? That's what makes a man qualified
to feed his lambs. And only then, that's the only
thing that'll make us edify the church. We can have all other
gifts and not profit the Lord's people. Christ is the only one
that can bless it. He's the only one that can bless
anything we do. And all the ones he blesses is
the ones in whom he dwells and in whom he's given the gifts
and in whom he's blessing the gifts. So it doesn't matter if
I just have gifts, it doesn't matter if I just have ability,
it doesn't matter if I know all doctrine. It doesn't matter.
Look here, chapter 13, verse 1. Though I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels, and have not charity, I become as a sounding
brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of
prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge so that I have
all faith so that I can remove mountains and have not charity,
I'm nothing. If I bestowed all my goods to
feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned, this charity
we're talking about is not self-denial, it's not almsgiving. He said if I gave everything
I possessed and even gave my body to be burned, and have not
love, it profiteth me nothing. Now the first question I want
to answer is what is charity? What's he talking about here
when he talks about charity? What is that? To have charity
is to have God our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ dwelling in
you. That's the charity we're talking
about. We're talking about Christ. We're talking about God. To have
charity is to have God, is to have Christ in you, dwelling
in you. Look at 1 John 4. 1 John 4 and
verse 7. 1 John 4, verse 7. It's to be made a partaker of
God's nature by the new birth. He says in verse 7, Beloved,
let us love one another, for love is of God. What we're talking
about, the word love here is the same word translated charity.
And it is of God. We don't have this by nature. It's of God. Love is of God.
And everyone that loveth is born of God. That's how we're given
this love. We're born of God and we know
God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. God is love. That's the essence
of God. God is love. In this was manifested
the love of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten
son into the world that we might live through him. And that word
might means everybody he sent his son for shall live through
him. We have eternal life through
Christ. He is the life. That's why God
sent his son. And he says here, herein is love,
not that we love God. This is a free, sovereign love,
not based on any good or evil in us, it's of God. Not that
we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the
propitiation for our sin. It means he sent Christ to successfully
make satisfaction to God for the sins of his people. He sent
Christ to redeem his people and purge our sins and make atonement
to God and reconcile us to God so that there is no charge from
God that can be laid against us. God sees us in his Son better
than that. We are one with his Son. And he says there's nothing to
charge them with. My Son is their propitiation. And we have an advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ, our righteousness. Beloved, if God
so, in this manner, loved us, we ought also to love one another.
And basically what he said here is God loves us for Christ's
sake. And in that same manner, we ought
to love one another for Christ's sake. No man hath seen God in
any time. And if we love one another, God
dwelleth in us. That's what we're talking about.
God dwelleth in us. He lives in us. He dwelleth in
us. He abides in us. And His love
is perfected in us. It's complete. He's not trying
to create love in His people. He's not trying to make a new
nature that is love. It's complete. He's done it.
By God dwelling in us. Look at this now. And hereby
know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he has given
us of his spirit. We didn't know him before. And
we have seen because he dwells in us. And we testify because
he dwells in us that the father hath sent the son to be the savior
of the world. Not to try, but he did. He saved
the world. that God sent him to save. And
we've seen this, and we testify this, we know this, because he
dwells in us. And he says here, whosoever shall confess that
Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. He's made us one. And we have
known and believed the love that God hath to us. That's how we
believe and know it, because God dwells in us. God is love and he that dwelleth
in love dwelleth in God and God in him. That's why we love God. God is love and therefore love
is of God. And when God dwells in you, it's
to be born of God, it's to know God, it's to have God dwelling
in you and you in God by His Spirit in you. And when that's
the case, brethren, He makes you to dwell in love. Before we lived in envy and malice. We dwelled in envy and malice
and hateful and hating one another. That's what the flesh was. The
carnal minds enmity against God. We lived in the flesh. But you're
not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If so, be that the spirit
of God dwell in you. If he dwells in you, you don't
dwell in that flesh anymore. You dwell in love. You dwell
in the spirit. It means, I don't even know how
to put this. We're so one, you can't tell
where one ends and the other begins. What he is, we are. Because he
became what we are to make us what he is. He dwells in us and
we dwell in him. You ladies got those nesting
bowls and you put them one in another, you know, like that,
and it just looks like one bowl. That's something like this. He's
in his people and we're in him. That's the love we're talking
about. So if a man somehow could have all gifts, more than anybody
ever had, you know, we all want some gifts. I remember being
younger and being admiring my older brethren and different
gifts they had, and I wanted those gifts. But if we had every
gift that God could possibly give us, if this were possible,
he could give us everything, but we didn't have this love,
this union with Christ, we'd be utterly worthless. Worthless. We'd be puffed up in pride. We'd
be a boastful sounding brass and we'd be such a distraction
from the glory of Christ. We'd be like a little tinkling
cymbal just sitting over there just annoying the fire. If you
all listen to our audio recordings, you know we meet in the firehouse
and you've heard the beep, beep, beep, beep of the fire truck
backing up into the bay. Oh, that annoys me. I just turn
my hearing aids off and I don't even hear it now when I'm preaching. That's what a man would be without
the love of God in him. Just annoying and a distraction
from the glory of Christ. If you read through the book
of 1 Corinthians, you know what Paul is teaching here? He's teaching
that when he's slighted and when he's offended by his brethren,
when they wouldn't even support him, he said, I do everything
I do for This motive, whatever glorifies God and whatever will
keep me from being a distraction so that the gospel will not be
hindered. That's what this love makes a
man do. That's why he's profitable. He doesn't want to be the one
that be sad. I don't want to preach and when I get finished,
you say, boy, he can rattle the rafters. Boy, he can really lay
it down. That boy can, I don't want you
to say that. I would utterly fail if that
was the case. I want you to take a good drink
of cold water and it be so good to you that you don't even know
what kind of vessel it came in. That's what I want. I don't want
you to say he's son, I want you to say Christ is all. Christ
is all. And if a man doesn't have this
constraint of Christ's love, everything he does, he'll do
to receive honor from men. Remember when Christ said to
the Pharisees, He said, I know you, that you don't have the
love of God in you. He said, because you receive
honor from men. He said, here I am. I've come from God. God
sent me to you. I've come to you from God. And
you don't receive me. But another man will come in
his own name, with his own gospel, with his own word, speaking whatever,
and you'll receive that man. And he said, how can you believe
when you receive honor one from another? You know, when you want
to receive honor from a man, you'll change your doctrine.
If you want to receive honor from a man, you'll preach what
man wants to hear so you can get that honor. And usually that
honor comes in the form of Benjamins. And you'll change whatever you
have to change to get that honor. But you know what? That honor
that man wants, Christ said that keeps you from believing Christ. Receive not the honor that comes
from God. The honor that comes from God
is Christ himself. He's the one that comes that
men won't receive because they want that honor for men. Now
brethren, the fire that is kindled, when fire is kindled, the fire
that is kindled is like the fire that kindled it. Well, here's
the second thing. Charity is like its source. Charity is like its source. When
we talk about charity being in you, it's gonna be like the source
that created it. The love of the new nature is
like the divine nature from which it's born. The love of the new
nature is like the divine nature from which it's born. Look here
at verse 4. Charity suffereth long and is
kind. Charity suffereth long and is
kind. 1 Corinthians 13 verse 4. God
is love and God is longsuffering and God is kind. You know the
one reason God didn't destroy the world when Adam sinned in
the garden? It's because Christ had entered into a covenant with
God and he was the surety of his elect. And for Christ's sake,
God was long-suffering. He suffered long with us. He
suffered a long time until Christ came into this world to redeem
his people. And you think about how long
you and I walked in sin and rebellion and hated God and how long-suffering
he was. God's longsuffering is to His
people. And God's longsuffering is for
the sake of Christ. God is longsuffering in His kind.
He's still longsuffering with us. Because were it not for Christ,
He's still longsuffering with us. We need Him to be longsuffering
with us. And the reason this world is held in store right
now is God still has a people and He's longsuffering. God's
not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
And Peter says, therefore, you account that the longsuffering
of God is salvation. You impute not what's not, you
impute what's a reality. The longsuffering of God is salvation. It is salvation. We ought always
to stand for the truth of God in Christ. We ought always to
stand for the truth of God in Christ. But it's so sad, and
this is what got me thinking on this message, it's so sad
when believers get in the flesh over points of doctrine. That
is the saddest thing in the world. Getting arguments over points
of doctrine, true doctrine, and becoming patient with one another,
with fellow believers. Or worse, start calling believers
that they've dealt with for years and years and years, heretics. How long did God bear with you
and me before we believed the truth? How long did he bear with you
before you believed the truth? And who made you believe the
truth? Paul said, despise us thou the
riches of his goodness and his forbearance and his long suffering. Have you forgotten that it was
this goodness of God that led you to repentance? Think of what the Apostle Peter
did. Think of what the Apostle Peter did. He didn't just put
his foot in his mouth and speak something about the doctrine
of election or this or that that was just, you know, a little
wrong way to say something or something that could have been
said better. He denied the Lord Jesus Christ three times. Flat
out denied him and left. And what did Christ do? He bore
with all that and he went and he restored him. He went and
restored him. He loved him. Perfect love comes
to his child and says, lovest thou me? Perfect love constrains
us by his love to Worthy of the vocation wherewith we're called
in lowliness and meekness and longsuffering and mercy. Endeavoring,
makes you endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond
of peace. Look here, verse four, charity envieth not. I don't
know that I'm not, in case y'all are tired, I know you're tired.
I don't know if I'm gonna go through all these. I'm just gonna
go through some of them and I'll stop when I stop. But I'm not
gonna keep you forever. So don't worry about that. Verse
four, charity envieth not. You know, envies of the sinful
man of the flesh. James said, the spirit that dwells
in us lusts to envy. The Pharisees and the self-righteous
crucified Christ because of envy. What is that envy? Why did we
do that? Why did we do that? What is that envy? Christ is
wisdom. He's righteousness. He's sanctification. He's redemption. And the envy
of the natural heart is I want some of that. I want to be that.
I want to be the one that gets the glory for doing that. That's
the envy of the natural heart. That's why we envy the Lord.
But only when the love of God's put in the heart will we cease
envying Christ and glory in Him. And say indeed He is wisdom and
righteousness and sanctification and redemption. We'll glory in
Him. And not only that, you'll love those that love Him. Because
you're born of the same spirit. Look at verse 4. Charity falleth
not itself and is not puffed up. You know what Christ said?
Learn of me. Why? How? What confidence did he give you
to come to him and learn of him? Because I'm meek and lowly in
heart. He's not somebody that can't
be approached. He's not somebody that's so puffed up and exalting
himself that you can't approach him. He said, I'm meek and lowly
in heart. Just come here and talk to me. Come here and learn
of me. Knowledge puffeth up. Charity
edifies. And if a man thinks he knows
something, all that man proving that he thinks he knows something
is that he don't know anything yet as he ought to know. And
listen to this next word. But if any man love God, What
are we seeing, John? If any man loved God and Paul
said the same is known of him, God knows that man and that man
knows God. That's how come you love God.
Now that's to know something, to love God and know God. That's
knowing something. But to think we know something
or that we're something because of something in us or something, that's just being puffed up.
and makes us to know him. You know, that believer, what
Paul was talking about in that chapter, back in 1 Corinthians
8, I believe it was, he's talking about if there's a man, you got
liberty, you know that you can eat anything, drink anything,
it doesn't matter. But another brother doesn't have
that knowledge. He's weak, but he's a brother.
And let's say a glass of wine. You're going to have a glass
of wine. Well, he don't know he can have a glass of wine.
He's going to get offended if he comes to your table and has
a glass of wine. Now, I have to always make this statement.
At the Lord's table, we're going to have a glass of wine because
that's his table, not mine. But if you come to my table,
I'll make concessions for you. If it's going to offend you,
rather than sin so against Christ, he said, That one that truly
has love in him will say, I won't drink it while my brother's near
because I don't want to offend him. That's love. That's what we're talking about.
Christ didn't offend people on purpose. And we're not trying
to offend people on purpose. Why? Because I might just get
the opportunity to preach Christ to them while they're sitting
at my table. And they won't hear a word I'm saying if I'm sitting
there drinking a glass of wine and all they can concentrate
on is that glass of wine. You see what I'm saying? It's so
we don't hinder the gospels. You gotta have love in your heart
or you won't do anything to edify one another. It'll just divide
and split and say, I'm gonna do what I wanna do, it's my table. You know there's two places where
the Lord, he said, if a man invites you to a feast, an idol's feast,
he said, you go there, you eat, you don't think a second thing
about it because the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.
And he said, but if there's a man there that's a brother, and he
sees you gonna eat that, and he's offended by it, and he thinks
that it's wrong, he said, don't eat it! You know why? Because
the Lord is the earth's and the fullness thereof. In other words,
it ain't your table. And it ain't your food. And it
ain't, God's given it all to you. Christ said, now if it's
not offending my brethren, you're free to it. But if it's offending
them, don't eat it. I'm just talking about love.
I'm so weary with this thing of brethren dividing with one
another over points of doctrine and over... A man will be with a man for
30 years and that pastor's born with him and he's suffered with
him and he's been offended by him and he's loved him and he's
tried to minister to him and he's prayed for him and he's
done all this for him. And two or three weeks goes by
and the preacher puts his foot in his mouth two or three times
and all of a sudden the man says, well, I can't worship under him
anymore. Is that what love does? You know
what love did? Love bore my sin. Love took my place. Love became
that shameful, awful, wretched thing that I am. Love sank to the lowest, lowest,
lowest place. Forsaken of God and forsaken
of brethren. Because love is the righteous
fulfillment of the law. Love hung there on the cross.
Love that hung there on the cross is the righteous fulfillment
of the law. He hung there loving God and his brethren as himself
to the point he was willing to be forsaken of God and forsaken
of his brethren, forsaken of everybody to glorify God the
Father and save his people from our sins. That's love. That's love. That's the love.
That's the only way that I'm going to be constrained to love
when I'm not loved. That's the only way I'm going
to be constrained to think the best thoughts and bear the sin
of my brethren and bear the faults and bear the ugliness And that's the only way you're
gonna do it with me. But I can tell you this, that's needful. It's needful to have, if it's
needful, God's gonna put somebody in the church that is falling
and stumbling and in sin and in trouble. That's needful. You know why it's needful? To teach you what Christ has
done for you. and to remind you what Christ
has done for you. And to make you practice what
Christ has done for you. We've got a young girl, Sarah,
y'all heard her sing, it's going to nursing school. And you know
a nurse goes in and she learns her books and she studies her
books and she studies all about how to be a nurse in her books.
And then one day she goes through clinicals. She goes in there
and gets her hands dirty. We hear the doctrine and we are
taught the doctrine by our Lord, but our Lord's going to put you
through the clinicals too. He's going to get your hands
dirty so that you are made to experience the love of God in
your heart. That's what we're talking about. And this love won't behave itself
unseemly. Everything God did adorned God. Everything he did wasn't unseemly.
It became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things
and bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their
salvation perfect through suffering. It wasn't unseemly. It became
him to do it that way. It became him to do it that way.
Love doesn't seek her arms, not provoke, doesn't think evil.
Christ said, I ain't come to do my own will. I came to do
the will of him that sent me. That's perfect love. That's love
coming, not seeking His own, but the will of Him that sent
Him. Perfect love didn't make Himself of any reputation. Took
the form of a serpent. Bore the cross. And He says,
now let this mind be in you, which was in Christ. You want
to be great? You want to be great in God's
kingdom? You know what Christ said it is to be great in His
kingdom? Be the minister. Be the servant. Be the least.
That's greatness to God, because that's what Christ did. That's
who he is. Love's not easily provoked. You
think about how many times a day, if it wasn't for Christ, that
we would provoke God to anger. But the scripture says, God's
slow to anger. He's plenteous in mercy. Like
a father pities his children, he pities them that fear him,
for he knows our frame. He remembers we're just dust.
He's not easily provoked. He thinks no evil toward his
child. He says, I know the thoughts that I think towards you, thoughts
of good and not of evil. He's going to bring it to an
expected end because he purposed it. That's our God. He doesn't
rejoice in iniquity, he rejoices in truth. That's why Christ had
to be made sin on Calvary's tree. God rejoices in truth, not iniquity. There's a law in Deuteronomy
that says if a man shed blood outside of the camp and he don't
bring that blood to the altar, blood shall be imputed to that
man. Not to make him have shed blood. Imputation won't make
him have shed blood. It won't be imputed to him to
make him have shed blood. Blood will be imputed to him
because he has shed blood. That's why. God didn't impute
sin to Christ to make Him sin, God made Him sin. And because
He made Him sin, He imputed sin to Him. And God has not imputed
righteousness to us to make us righteousness, He's imputed righteousness
to us because Christ has made us righteous. By the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous. Because God rejoices not in iniquity,
He rejoices in the truth. There was a time, brethren, that
I rejoiced in iniquity and I rejoiced and I called it my work and what
I'd done and all this and I didn't know doctrine. I didn't know
Christ. I knew doctrine. My grandfather was a sovereign
grace preacher. I knew five points of Calvinism and I could argue
the five points of Calvinism with you. But it didn't matter
to me if you spoke evil against my Lord and said he died for
everybody and failed. That didn't bother me then. Why? It was just doctrine, that's
all. But when Christ entered into my heart, he put the love
of God in my heart, and it ceased being a doctrine, and now it's
my God, it's my Savior, it's my Father, and it started to
matter. That's when I stopped rejoicing
in iniquity and started rejoicing in the truth. And that's why you don't rejoice
in iniquity to hear gossip and slander about your brother. You
know, if somebody calls you and wants to talk about your brother,
and just say, look, I'm not going to listen to that. I wouldn't
listen to it if they were calling and talking about you. I'm not
going to listen to you talk about them. We're one in Christ. We got too much good to talk
about one another about what Christ has done for us to be
talking bad about one another. Will came home the other day
and had this big old gash in his calf and bleeding everywhere. And I thought, man, it hurt me. Because that boy, he's my flesh
and blood. And our brethren are our flesh
and blood. More than that boy is mine. My relationship with
that boy, he'll end one day, if God don't save him. But it
won't with my brethren. Christ dwells in us, brethren,
and we dwell in Him. So never speak evil. Love bears
all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all
things. That's why love never fails.
It never fails. Now listen to me carefully. Love
never fails because Christ shall not fail. Love never fails because
Christ shall not fail. Now listen carefully to me. Remember
this. He says in verse 8, ìWhether
there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether it be tongues,
theyíll cease. Whether thereís knowledge, itíll
vanish away. For we know in part, we prophesy in part. But when
that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be
done away. And he gives a parable here. When I was a child, I thought
as a child, I understood as a child. He's saying these things right
now, brethren, as much as we need them, as much as we value
them, as much as we enjoy what's going on right here this weekend,
this is the childish thing. One of these days, brethren,
we're going to be with the Lord. Now we see through a glass darkly,
but then face to face. Now I know in part, then shall
I know even as also I'm known. Now abideth faith, hope, and
charity, these three, but the greatest of these is charity. When we get to glory, what we're
going to find out is this. That all important point of doctrine
that I had to separate from my brother over was a speck of dust. You could have taken every bit
of the knowledge I had and put it on the tip of a sewing needle. And God's going to say, I didn't
save you because of your little speck of dust, and I didn't save
him because of his little speck of dust. I saved you by my grace
because I made you a new creation by the work of my son. Your circumcision
and your uncircumcision didn't have a thing to do with it. God
teach me that. God teach me that. I said to
you, I used to admire these brethren who could preach and so boldly
and so dogmatic and so, and just so with such volume and clarity
and all that. And I still admire that. Don't
get me wrong now. I do admire that. But I'll tell
you what I love more than anything else. And I'll tell you how I
learned this. when I fell. And all my brethren, so many
began to doubt me and wonder and question. And that brother that said, my
love hadn't wavered. And he proved his love hadn't
wavered. And he loved me anyway. And he kept preaching Christ
to me. He never wavered on the doctrine. That made me realize
above everything else, love's the important thing. When faith's gone and hope's
gone, we're gonna still have Christ. We're gonna still have
him who is perfect love. And we're gonna be one with him.
And imagine that in a kingdom where we all are the greatest. because we all love to be the
least. Amen. Thank you.