Donnie got here Monday afternoon,
right after we did the TV tapings, and we've been loafing ever since
then. And I almost feel bad saying
that to you all. We've had such a good time of
fellowship while everybody else has been out. Well, somebody's
got to do it. But we're so happy to have our
dear brother Donnie Bell with us to preach to us, come up and
preach. Turn your Bibles with me back
to 1 Corinthians 13. And it is always wonderful to
be here. I've had three of the best days
that I've experienced in a long, long, long time. I feel like
a new man. I said, Carl, I feel like I could
dance. He said, we're not against it. But I'm not going to. I'm not going to. First Corinthians
13. I want to... Is that better? That better? Okay. All right. I want to talk about three greatest
treasures. And there in verse 31 of chapter
12, where Todd read, he says, but covet earnestly the best
gifts, and yet show I unto you a more excellent way. There's
very few things that men, well, this is the only place in the
Bible where it says that covet is in a positive, God-glorifying
way. And that's covet earnestly, the
best gifts. Everyplace else you find about
covet, it's always in a very negative way. And that means
to desire earnestly. To desire earnestly. There's
people that covet in this world. And if you covet anything and
desire anything in the place of Christ, Paul says that it's
idolatry. Anything that you desire to put
in the place of our Lord Jesus, want more, desire more, have
more materialistic things, and make a name or ambition or whatever
it may be, it's idolatry. But down here in verse 13 of
chapter 13, look what it says. These three, three greatest treasures. I believe every believer covets
these things, desires these things, want these things, and now abideth
faith, hope, charity, these three, but the greatest of these is
charity. Charity. These are the most desirable,
most precious treasures a soul can possess in this world. Paul, Peter said it was precious.
Hope, hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God shall
broaden our hearts by the Holy Ghost. Charity, oh, to have the
love of God, to know something about the love of God, the love
of Christ. Faith, hope, and charity. And
why anyone would not want to possess these greatest treasures
is beyond me. Why anyone wouldn't hunger and
thirst after these and everything else be secondary is a mystery
to me and the saints of all the ages. It really, really is. If your children, if your children
and you, and you love your children, I know you do, but if your children
should ask you what's the three most important things in this
world, what would your answer be? If your children ask you,
what's the three most important things in this world? Would you
say education? Education's the most important
thing, and all you're doing gets you an education? You got to
have an education. I remember my son, just a boy,
I told him, son, I'd rather you dig ditches and know Christ has
become a millionaire and not have any interest in him. And would it be if they ask you
what's the best thing to possess, a good job? Oh, everybody wants
a good job. You need to make a living for
your family. But is that the most important thing that you'd
tell your child? If they ask you what's the three most important
things? Would you say a good husband, a good wife? Good husband,
good wife is precious all by soul. They're precious. He that
obtaineth a wife obtaineth favor of the Lord. Would it be to be
saving, to be frugal, to be a good manager? Would it be to be popular,
to excel in sports, to labor, to fit in? But what is the three
most important things in this world, the three most precious
possessions, the gifts in this world, things that you can hold
on to, things that will abide, things that will carry you through
this world and keep you no matter what else happens. And that's
that faith now abideth. Faith, hope, charity. And I know some things that won't
abide. The flesh won't abide. This flesh will not abide. This
flesh is perishing. This flesh is weak. This flesh
has no ability, it has no strength. And I tell you, God wrote curse
on it. God said it's cursed. It started dying in the Garden
of Eden and death passed upon it. And man's days are numbered. We all are going to go to our
long home. We're going to the house appointed
for all the living. This flesh is not going to abide.
It's going to get weak, going to lose our hearing, going to
be stooped over. We're going to get old, we're
going to get wrinkled, and the flesh ain't going to abide. And
I know something else that won't continue, that will not abide.
Our relationships in this world, I don't care how deep they are,
how precious they are, they will not last. You can be married
to the most wonderful woman in this world, or you can be married
to the most wonderful husband, just as sure as you are, that
relationship is going to come to an end someday. It comes to an end. There comes
a day that there's a time that every earth relationship, everybody
in here married, somebody's going to bury their husband or somebody's
going to bury their wife. Or if you're children, you're
going to bury your children or your children's going to bury
you. There's not a relationship that's on this earth that's going
to abide. That's not going to happen. And I'll tell you something else
that won't continue. They're not even worth mentioning. And
that's what we call our works. What works that we may have,
what works that we may look at, we say, they won't continue.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, He Himself says, Why call ye me, Lord, Lord,
and do not the things which I say unto you? He said, depart from
me. Lord, we've done this and we've
done that and we've pressed out devils and we've preached in
your name, prophesied in your name. He said, depart from me.
Awfulest words you might ever hear, you workers of iniquity. And I tell you, anything you
can touch, anything you can have contact
with your seeing, hearing, smell, taste or touch is going to perish. I know down home, my father-in-law,
he lived in a place It's called Clifty and that place was so
big at one time it lacked one vote being the state capitol
state of Tennessee. And you go over there now, there's
absolutely not one house there, not one person lives there. And we'd go through there and
there's this big field. He said that used to be full of houses.
And they had a building down here and they'd have pie suppers.
And the preacher would come in and preach for a few days. And
everybody would come from all around. And there's not evidence
that anything ever existed there. Now. Nothing. And so nothing. And this world
will pass away. There's all that's in it. But
bless His holy name. Our Lord said there's coming
a time. Behold, I'm going to make all things new. But I tell you what will abide.
I'll tell you what will abide. Faith, that'll abide. Faith, hope and love will abide. Look, let us deal with this word
faith. Now abideth faith. The scripture says that Abraham
believed God. Abraham, he didn't believe in
God, didn't believe some things about God, but he believed God. And when we talk about faith,
faith that abides, I believe, I'm going to talk about me now
for a minute if I can. I believe that God is, that the
heavens declare His glory, the firmament show His handiwork,
He spake and it was done, He commanded and it stood fast,
He created a world out of nothing, and as old Scott used to say,
when He runs out of nothing, He'll make another nothing and
create another world if He chooses to do it. And I believe God is. And I believe that God made man
in his own image. And when God made man in his
own image, he raised both hands in the fist of God and said,
I don't want to be in your image. I like my image. I like my rights. I like my power. I like my ability. I like my freedom. And he fell. But before he ever fell, Before
he ever fell into sin and was estranged from God, and God put
him out of the garden. Before that ever happened, God
in His sovereign purpose, in His sovereign will, chose to
save a people. He had a people chosen in Christ
before the world ever began. And He meant to save those people. And they were His people given
to Him. They was His from all eternity.
And how He saved those blessed people, Even they didn't know
they were that, but I believe how He saved His blessed people.
He sent His Son into this world, come through the womb of a virgin,
and that blessed man who come from that womb of that virgin
was none other than God manifest in the flesh. And that us men
who came here, the only way that He could save us was for Him,
in His own body, in His own soul, in the presence of God, take
our sins in His own body on that tree, and answer to God for our
iniquities, our sins, and our transgressions. And that they nailed Him to a
tree. And if I'd have been there, I'd
have been one of those around the cross saying, yes, let me
hear that hammer again. If I'd have been there, that's
what I'd have done. But oh, they took him down from that tree.
And he was lifeless. His body was lifeless. Him and
who was alive, he was lifeless. And they took him down off that
tree and they wrapped him and they put him in a tomb. But he would admit staying in
that tomb. No, he would admit staying there.
Oh, they went over there to see, where's the Lord? That stone
was gone, where's he at? Why are you looking for the dead?
He's not here, he's living. And I believe our Lord Jesus
rose again and he had tarried on this earth for 40 days and
40 nights for one reason, to give infallible proofs that he
was who he said he was. He said, Oh, Thomas said, I'm
not going to believe unless I can look at his hands. I'm not going
to believe until I can put my hand in his eye. Do you know
what he said? Those two looked out of his mouth
and the Lord Jesus said, Here, Thomas. Here, Thomas. Oh, my Lord and
my God. Oh, and I tell you, not only
did he rise again, but he went up one day. He went up. Men were standing there watching
Him. They was talking to Him. Gravity lost its hold. And up
with the Lord Jesus Christ. And they just stood and watched
Him and watched Him and watched Him. And He went through the
clouds and He went out of sight. Some angel spirit said, why in
the world are you standing there gazing into the heavens? He said,
He's going to come back just like He went. Oh my! And He says there right
now, at the right hand of God. And you know what He does for
us? Simon Peter, I prayed, you know, Satan desires to hack you
and sift you as wheat. But I prayed for you. Because
your faith fell not. I told you faith would advise.
And He's up there and He takes our name, He takes our cause,
He takes our witnesses, He takes our inability, He takes everything
that's wrong with us, and He makes it right in the presence
of God. And oh, and I tell you what,
it won't be long that He'll come again and receive His own unto
Himself. He said, Father, I will that
they whom Thou hast given Me be with Me. You see, that's the
key to it. He told that thief at the cross,
today Thou shalt be with Me. And He said, I'll take you and
receive you unto Myself that you be, I will that they be with
Me and behold My glory. And you reckon we'll do that
one of these days? And I'm going to tell you something
right now. No one in this world or nobody in this congregation
knows that I really, really, truly believe this but me alone. And nobody knows in this congregation
whether you believe it or not but you. And I tell you, there's only
one foundation of my hope and my confidence in this world.
And the only one of faith I've got is this right here. What God said. Look with me over
in Romans chapter 4, just a minute. Romans chapter 4. This is the
only... You know, it's not what the church
believes. It's not what they write in some creed somewhere.
It's not the Heidelberg, it's not the 1689 London Confession
or the 39 articles of the Church of England. No, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no. I've got to have something more
substantial than that. I don't need somebody to get
up and say, well, I'm going to deal with you today on the 8th
article and the 4th point on the 13th line, and then away
they go. Could all listen to what he said
here in Romans chapter 4 in verse 20. We're talking about Abraham
now. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief. What did God promise him? Here's a man standing out in
the desert. And God said, Abraham, look up. He said, can you tell how many
stars there are? I said, no, no, no. He said, look down. And look
east, look west, look north, look south. Tell me how much
sand there is. I said, I have no idea. He said,
well, that's what I'm going to make you. I'm going to make your
children like the stars in the sky. And Abraham, you know what
he said? He never had a son. Didn't have
any hope of having a son. But God said, I'm going to visit
you. And you know what? He did not
stagger. But he believed God. And he was,
listen to what it says, strong in faith, giving glory to God.
And listen to it now. And being fully persuaded that
what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore
it was imputed to him for righteousness. Oh, listen now. Not for His sake
alone it was imputed, but for us also. To whom it shall be
imputed. Now listen, if we believe on
Him that raised up our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. Oh, for
faith that will not shrink, though pressed by many a foe. That will
not tremble on the brink of any, any earthly woe. Faith. Faith is the gift of God. We
don't have it. Can't buy it, can't muster it
up. Todd can't give it to me, you can't give it to me. And
oh, it's the gift of God. God gives it and it pleases God. The only thing that God said,
this is what pleases Him. And faith is what joins us to
the Lord Jesus Christ, unites us to Christ. And faith, faith
itself, Because God decreed that we'd have it and He treats us,
He gives it to us and then treats us like it was always ours and
we always possess it. He gives it to us and then rewards
us like it's something we always had. He gives you faith and then rewards
you for the faith He gives you to Him. Huh? He designed it in a purpose.
And I tell you, faith justifies us before God. It is said in
verse 25 of Romans 4, who was delivered for our offenses, raised
again for our justification. Now the justification has been
done. Justification was accomplished on the cross. Justification was
accomplished in eternity. Justification was accomplished
on the cross. And justification was accomplished in my heart
when God brought me to faith in Christ. But I tell you, look
what He said, and therefore being justified by faith. Faith justifies
us in the sight of God in Christ. And the faith is the gift of
God. And I tell you why, that's why our Lord Jesus said so many
times, thy faith is made ye whole. Thy faith has saved thee. And
this faith I'm talking about right here. It will endure a
fiery trial. God can turn up the fire so hot
that you think, I cannot bear it. I just cannot bear it. It's
too much to bear. And I tell you, God will turn
up the fire and your feet burns, your soul burns, your heart burns,
your mind burns, everything about you burns. And He'll send persecution. He'll send you through the...
He'll take you in the waters that you say, boy, you got your...
You stand on your tiptoes and the water's right here. But faith... Faith just refuses
to believe. that God will not bring you through
every single one of those things. One of these days you'll have
your head like that and then all of a sudden you'll look down
and you're not even in the water anymore. One of these days you'll
get up after you've been in that fiery trial and the fire's gone. And you lift your heart and you
lift your hands and you bless the Lord and say, Oh, bless the
Lord, oh my soul and all that's within me, bless His holy name. And let me tell you something.
Here's the key to faith. Christ Himself is the object
of our faith. His Word is the foundation of
our faith. Oh, listen. I can't tell you
tonight that I've had any kind of a vision. that I've had to
feel more holy than anybody else, I had some earth-shaking experience,
but I can tell you this, that my hope before God tonight, and
if God let me live till tomorrow, and lets me come up here and
preach again, lets me get home tonight, I'll tell you one thing,
this right here, this right here, is the only warrant of faith
I've got. God said it. God promised it. He will not let me and will not
let you ever, ever get through something and your faith give
you a faith that will ever fail you under any circumstances.
It just won't do it. And oh, I believe God. And I
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed. Now I know that none of us, I'll
speak for me. I do not have the faith I ought
to have. I don't. I don't have the faith I want
to have. But by the grace of God, the faith that He gave me will
carry me through this life. And if I get to a condition where
I don't even know my name, and I'm laying in a state of of a
coma or something. That won't make any difference.
You know why? Because God made a promise. And
I'll close my eyes before that ever happens and say, Lord God,
you made a promise. And I believe that you're going
to keep your promise. And he promised one day, he said,
I'm going to come and get you again. Donny Bell, I'm going
to come get you one of these days. I'm going to come get you. And everything you've ever longed
for in your life, I'm going to give it to you. You want to see
me face to face? You're going to see me. You want
a perfect love? I'm going to give it to you. You want an eternal rest? Just
sit down right here and enjoy yourself for the rest of eternity.
Huh? Oh my. But I tell you, it's not
the strength of our faith. It's the object of it, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Well, let's look at this little
word, hope. Let's go back over at our text.
Look at this little word, hope. I love hope. I love hope. Now about his faith, faith abides. You know, I don't know how long
I've been coming up here. Me and Todd met years and years
and years ago. And I've met you all before you
all ever got married. And here you are still sitting
here. Why is that? It's not because he's the best,
you know, the best preacher, a good preacher. It's certainly
not because I'm a good preacher. But it's because we have a blessed
and gracious and glorious Savior. And that's what we want folks
to believe, Christ. Faith in Christ. All right, let's
look at this word hope. Now about his faith, hope. Hope. Paul told the Romans, he says,
you know, hope that is seen, we're saved by hope, that hope
that's not seen is not hope anymore. Once you realize what you hope
for ceases to be. But let me tell you something
about hope, and Simon Peter says, you know, be always ready to
give an answer to every man that asketh you of the reason of the
hope that's in you. Now, hope is not wishful thinking.
Hope is not wishful thinking. Hope is a confident expectation
based upon the Word of God. And what I mean by that is, I
hope to be forgiven. I hope to be justified. I hope
to be justified by the Almighty. I hope to be justified by the
eternal, infinitely holy God in heaven. Now, one of two things
is true. Either that's wishful thinking, or it's based on God's Word.
Which is it? Down home, you can die drunk,
you can beat your wife until she's senseless and then die.
Nobody ever goes to hell in Cumberland County, Tennessee. Once you cross
the Mason-Dixon line, I don't care what kind of condition you're
in, you're there. Now that's wishful thinking.
Have you ever heard anybody ever say that? I'm going to tell you
once something happened one time. I had this funeral of a man that's
in the church. The Lord done took him and his
wife both home. Oh, Elbert Blalock. You remember Brother Elbert?
You know, he had that little speech impediment. Tiny little fella. And his nephew was there. He got killed in a car wreck.
And I was supposed to take care of the funeral. There wasn't
but about five people there. And Elbert didn't even dress up.
He come in an old pair of work overhauls and he walked up that
casket and said, That boy wasn't nothing good alive, and he ain't
no good dead. He never was good for anything.
That's what he said to everybody. He said, that boy, he just wasn't
worth the salt in these biscuits. He just went on and on about
it. And I stood up there, boy, now what am I going to say? So you know, we don't go on wishful
thinking. Our hope is based on a blessed,
glorious, confident expectation. Based on God's blessed word.
And a hope that's blessed on what God said. God said that
the love of God shed a broadened heart. That's why we're not ashamed.
And I tell you, you know we've got a good hope. You know how
we've got a good hope? Through grace. It's a sure hope. You know why it's a sure hope?
Because Christ is the author of it. Do you know why it's a
purifying hope? Because the Holy Ghost works
in us to purify us. And it's a blessed hope because
one of these days we're going to see Him to whom we've longed
to see. We are looking for the appearing
of our great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And man's
hope is not based on God's Word, it's just wishful, wishful thinking.
Look over in 1 Timothy 1, just a minute. 1 Timothy 1. Excuse me. I want to talk about
our hope here a minute. And Christ, Christ himself is
our hope. Look what it says. Paul, an apostle
of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Savior and Lord Jesus
Christ. Now leave out those other two
words. They're just put there to make it sound better, but
listen. Our God and Savior, Lord Jesus Christ, our hope. I don't need which he is in there.
I don't have to say Christ. Christ's my hope. And that's
what Paul said here. Christ is my hope. And I tell
you, he's my hope right now in the sight of God. for all my
righteousness before God. He's the hope of my righteousness.
He's the one that gave me His righteousness. He's my hope that
He put my sin away by the sacrifice of Himself. He's my hope for
the resurrection in the last day because He ever lives. He's
my hope for entrance into glory because He's already went there
as my forerunner. John the Baptist was a forerunner
for Christ, and he'd come to say, there's one coming after
me. And I don't know how to get my mind around this, I don't.
But he said, he's there as a forerunner. Do you know how many people go
to glory a day? Can you have any idea how many saints enter
into glory? All over the world. And they all get there, you know.
And the Lord Jesus Christ is there for the forerunner and
He calls every single one of them. He says, they're coming,
they're on their way. Donnie Bell will be here. He'll
be here tomorrow afternoon. As far as possible time is 4
o'clock in the afternoon. But when I get there, it won't
be 4 o'clock. You know what it'll be? Eternity. And that's my hope for interest
in the glory. He's done been there. He's made
the way. He's went before us. And all true faith begets this
blessed hope in Christ, and it gives us a good reason for this
hope. It's Christ in you that's the hope of glory. And this hope
that he's talking about here, that abides, it's not based on
any experience we've had. Man, I've had lots of experiences.
Oh, I've had some good experiences this week. Good experiences.
And every once in a while, I'll have a bad one. I used to, you know, I used to,
Well, I won't say that, but you know, there was a time that I
was as wild as a red river steer. You know, I'd be preaching, and
I'd step off the pulpit, and I'd step on that pew, and I'd
hit that one, that one, that one. I'd go all the way back,
walk back down the aisle. Boy, man, oh, boy, ain't that
preaching. But that's not preaching. That's
flash, flash, flash. Thank God he saved me from all
that sorry, sick, God-hating, Christ-rejecting, God-dishonoring,
shameful religion. And you know what true faith
is? True faith begets a good hope in you, and it's what is
that good hope? Christ in you. That's the hope
of glory. It's not based on experience,
not based on feelings, not based on a work we've accomplished.
Any merit we may think we have, our hope is as strong as our
confidence is in Christ. And Christ is our hope. And I
tell you, if you take the Lord Jesus Christ from a believer,
what is he left with? You take the Lord Jesus Christ
away from a believer and he falls just that quick. He right now,
right this moment, And before we get out of this
service, and when you go home, the Lord Jesus right now is our
source of our present and our future happiness. Right now,
if I have any hope tomorrow, Christ will be my hope. Without
Him, without Him, there is no hope. Without Him, we'll be in
our sins. Without Him, we're still under
the curse of the law, and we're without God in this world. And
you say, well, my hope's off a week. If it is, there's only
one reason for us to have a weak hope. It's because our regard
in Christ is awful weak. Joe Terrell used an illustration. And this is so. He said, you
know, a man gets on a seesaw. And he said, and this is the
way it is. If you get a high view of yourself and your faith
and get your eyes on yourself, Christ will be down here and
you'll be up here. And that's the low, low regard
of Christ. But if you have a high, high regard of Christ, when you
get down here, then Christ is up there. So don't never, never let that
seesaw get up. Don't never let it get like this.
Don't even let it get evil, even. Stay down. And I tell you what,
that's why we... Oh, bless His name. We cannot
make Him high enough. We cannot preach Him glorious
enough. We cannot honor Him enough. We cannot love Him enough. We
cannot worship Him enough. We cannot adore Him enough. We
can't have enough faith. We can't have enough hope. We
cannot give Him what's due Him and honor Him the way He deserves
to be honored. And I may be weak in faith and
weak in hope, but I tell you one thing, I'm not going to give
either one of them up. Huh? No, no, no, I'm not. I'm not
going to do it. Now let's look over at this word
love. Look at this word love. Now by the faith, hope, and charity. And what does it say about love?
The greatest of these is charity. Greatest of these is charity.
Now, I want you to look over here at 1 John chapter 4. Look
with me at 1 John chapter 4. I don't know why we went back
to 13. But love, you read back in the study
about love, this commandment I give unto you that you love
one another. I want to do what Christ commanded. Don't you, John, Christ command
me to love? I want to do that. But look what
it said here in 1 John 4, 10. Herein is love. Herein is love. This is kind of like John 17,
3. This is eternal life. This is
eternal life that you might know God. This herein is love. Lots of people talk about love.
They claim to love God. They claim to love Christ. They
claim to love each other. But you want to know what love's
about? It's not about two people getting
married, decide they don't want to be married anymore, going
their separate ways. Anybody can use the word love.
I think it's the most abused word in the English language.
Two words, most abused words in the English language, love
and hate. People say, well, it's something that, you know, I just
hate the taste of that, or I just, I just, but I just love that.
And that's just things, it's material things. Instead of saying,
well, I just like it, or I don't like it very well, or I enjoy
it very much. But when it comes to the word
love, that ought to be a word that ought to be used always
in the right, right way. You know, not to say I love peanut
butter. I like peanut butter, but I don't
love it. I don't love a thing. I love
people. Ain't that right? We love people. You know, I've been in their
home. They treat me like a king, treat me like royalty. And they
got a nice home, but I love them. And love, herein is love. Look
what he said, herein is love, not that we love God. Herein
is love, and the first thing he says, not that we love God. It's not in us. It's not here.
And as far as this flesh is concerned, there is no genuine love in the
flesh by nature for God or for man, either one. And he says,
not that we. Everything we have is the gift
of God. For by grace are you saved through faith in that not
of yourself. It's a gift of God. There's no hope outside of Christ.
And I know it said in this flesh dwells no good thing. And all
that's connected to this flesh is awful, awful. And these three
spiritual gifts, love, love, and no love, and I'll tell you,
I hope you all understand this, and I don't mean to say it in
a harsh way, I don't want to say it this way, but there is
no love in the flesh. Even a mother's love is a selfish
love. You know whose child she loves
the best? You know whose child she takes the most pictures of?
You know whose child she brags on? Whose child she shows off? Whose child she going to set
up with when they're sick? Hers. Hers. Huh? She loves her own. They love what they produce.
There's no love in the natural man that we're talking about
right here. But where do we get this love? It's yet abroad in
our hearts. Now look at it again here in
John 4.10. Here in this love, not that we love God. Not that
we love God. Oh, if he had left it like that,
what a mess we'd have been in. Mitch, what a mess we'd have
been in. But he didn't stop right there.
Not that we love God. What did he say? But that he
loved us. If he would have said, not that
you love God, I'd have to say, yes, that's true. But he didn't
leave me like that. But he loved us. Well, how do
we know he loved us? He sent his son to be the perpetuation
for our sins. And I tell you what, to love
God, to know God, to have the love of God in your heart, that
is something that only believers know. Only believers know. Would
you know the depth and the reality and the preciousness of real
love? The only way we can really know
about God's love for us, go to the cross, go to Calvary, go
to the Calvary, go to Gethsemane before we got to the cross and
listen to our Lord Jesus Christ as he prays there. Tears, tears
flowing from them holy eyes. tears coming from them eyes that's
so blessed, so glorious. Those eyes and that heart, that
heart so full of love, that heart so full of compassion, that heart
so full of grace. And you watch him get on his
face, and you listen at him there as he groans and cries out to
God. And then you watch him as they
nail him to that tree, and you watch him as he hangs there.
And you say, now boy, that's, who in the world would do that? Who would love, why would He
go through that? Here in His love, that God loved
us and sent His Son to be that propitiation. I could give you
all kinds of theological definitions of love. It's eternal, it's sacrificial,
it's immutable. But there's no appropriate illustration
for it. But I'll tell you, I'll give
you something to do, give you something to work on. You pick out somebody, Every
one of you here tonight. You pick out somebody who is
an enemy. Somebody who's wronged you. Grievously
wronged you. Somebody you despise. Pick somebody
who has treated you as low down as you could be treated. It may
have been somebody mistreated you even when you was a child. Now you take that enemy. You
take that person that so mistreated you. And right now, start loving them. Think of the person that's mistreated
you the worst, whether it's a brother, a father, a child, a husband,
whether it was a child, whenever it was, you take that person
that so mistreated you, that you despise, you don't even like
to mention their name, And you, right now, in your heart,
love Him. Love Him. Let your heart go out
to Him, right this minute. And you start thinking of that
person, and you say, Lord, Lord bless him. Lord bless him. Bless him, not me. Give him every good thing. Take what you're going to give
me and give it to him. Take my blessings and give him
my blessings and let me do without. Find that person that did it
in your heart. You say, Oh Lord, bless me. Oh
Lord, please, please do something. Oh God, give him the very best.
Can you do it? Can you do it? I'm going to say something and
I don't mean to shock you. If you can't do that, then you very well may not have
the love of God in you. What does the scripture say in
Romans 5, 8? God commendeth His love toward
us even when we were enemies. Oh, to be an enemy of God. And I tell you, it can be done. It has to be done. There's no
alternatives in this business. You can't go through life despising
people. You can't go through life holding
grudges. You can't go through life and have any peace, have
any hope, have any assurance. If you hold some kind of a grudge
and you have an enemy that you cannot forgive, and yet you cannot
pray for. You know what our Lord said when
all those folks were gathered around the cross? He said, Father,
forgive them. They know not what they do. And I always send His Son to
do what? To save us. And when I talk about
this love, we're not talking about this old sentimental mess
that people believe in. The kind of love that don't last
but just a little while. We're talking about real love,
giving love, forgiving love, Bible love, God's love. And this
is what I love behind faith, hope, and charity. And beloved, If God so loved us, how we ought so to love one another.
You know what our Lord said would be the greatest identifying mark
of his people? He said, by this shall all men
know that you're my disciples. How? Because you have love, one
toward another. Well, you say, well, preacher,
I sure fell in all three of those things. I do too. But I ain't
going to quit. Oh, no, I'm still going to keep
seeking love. I'm still going to keep seeking
faith. And I'm going to still covet these things right here,
these three precious treasures, faith, hope, and charity. Believe
God. Hope in Christ. And love our
Master, love His Word, love His people, and love your enemies. Three precious treasures, God
give them to us. Our Father, in the blessed, blessed
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you that this privilege
that you've given me to be with the children of God here, to
rejoice in Christ with these saints of God, to be numbered
among the living. Thank you for this time. And
I pray that, Lord, that you take all the draws and destroy it
and take the good, the things that It would honor you, use
it to your glory in the good of these saints gathered here.
I ask these things in Christ's name. Amen.