I will open our Bibles to I Corinthians
13, and I have some introductory
comments that I feel impressed to make. I was studying and preparing
this message yesterday, and talking to one of our members, I mentioned
that when I study to preach on the subject of Christ-like love,
I get sort of depressed for several reasons. I don't see a whole
lot of it in me, and I don't see a whole lot of it anywhere
else. That's right, and it kind of depresses you, not the kind
we're looking for. The very thing that ought to
characterize believers is perhaps our weakest point. Our Lord said,
by this shall all men know you are my disciples, if you love
one another. And I see so much division, especially
in churches, so much jealousy, envy among preachers, and this
sort of thing ought not to be. It was prevalent in the church
at Corinth. Paul had to rebuke them for it.
And so the person I was talking to said, well, if you think it
depresses you to prepare and preach on it, think how it depresses
us to listen to it. So I want to say these things
before I begin the message. I don't want to take the teeth
out of this message now. I don't want to take the edge
off of it. I don't want us to lay it aside as something that
is not really important. Salvation is by grace through
faith in Christ. Now, a man isn't saved because
he loves people, he loves people because he's saved. That's exactly
right. A man, in other words, not by
works of righteousness which we've done, but according to
his mercy hath he saved us. And you say, well, I see I see
love in the bloom, maybe, in the bud, but maybe not in the
fruit in my life. Well, thank God it's in the bud,
in the bloom, in the blossom. And if it is in the bud or the
blossom, it will be someday in the fruit. This is a grace in
which we grow like any other grace. And you just don't come
to a brand new tree that you've planted and expect to find it
loaded down with fruit. But now when you come to an old
tree that's been sitting out there in the orchard for years,
like some of us, you do expect a little fruit, or the master
says, cut it down, it's cumbered the ground. And so it's a matter
in which we grow. And then I can give you many
examples of men who really knew God, who really knew God, and
yet they had struggles in this area. I was reading just this
afternoon about David. when he was uh... going down
there and kill everybody that in the camp you know this fella
nabal was that his name nabal and uh... david had an army out
there that was hungry and he sent word for nabal he had defended
this fella nabal he had saved his whole his whole farm or ranch
or whatever it was and he just wanted something to eat and nabal
said nothing to do and david told his men said we'll show
him we'll teach him a lesson We'll go down and kill everybody
that's ever male in the camp, including the baby boys." Now,
that wasn't Christian love, was it? But David loved God, and
he was rebuked for that and dealt with about it, but it still was
there. And then what about Peter and the Gentiles? For years after
Christ died on the cross and ascended back to glory, Peter
had a struggle loving Gentiles. He had a struggle loving Gentiles. About like my friend, Brother
Griswold, had love in black people, you know. But, you know, he just
had a struggle. He had a struggle. And then Paul
and Barnabas, you remember when they had that falling out? Paul
and Barnabas were partners, comrades in the gospel, and they had a
knock-down drag-out. In fact, one went one way and
one went the other. They were later reconciled, but nevertheless
it was there. What I'm pointing out is this,
that the subject I'm setting before us tonight must be set
forth in its beauty and in its strength, not in our weakness.
So that's what I'm going to try to do, set it forth as it's set
forth in God's Word as a goal for us to reach for, as a grace
for us to seek, and as a gift of God. And for us to pray like we pray,
Lord, increase my faith, let us pray, Lord, increase my love,
because it's just very, very important. Now, Paul closes chapter
13 with this comment. He said, talked about the gifts,
and then he said, I show you a more excellent way. I show
you something better, something better. I show you something
better. Now, this grace that we're talking
about is not optional. It is a necessity. It is a necessity. It's not optional at all. If
a man is really redeemed and knows God, he wants to glorify
God. And we glorify God in this grace. It's not optional. It's a necessity. And John declared, he declared
this, he said, it's proof to me that I'm saved. I know that
I pass from death unto life because I love. That's proof to me, that's
evidence that I'm a child of God because I love. Now then, let me clear up two
or three misunderstandings or misconceptions before getting
into this psalm of love. Let me clear up two or three.
First of all, I mention the use of the word charity. You see,
it says, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels
and have not charity. That word is sort of indefinite.
It's sort of uncertain, the word charity, for this reason. In
our day, when we mention charity, what's the first thing you think
of? What's your favorite charity? The Red Cross. In other words,
you think of welfare. You think of helping someone
by giving alms or food or clothing. Well, that's not what we're talking
about here. We're not talking about almsgiving. We're not talking
about welfare. We're not talking about helping
the needy. A better word is just plain love. Love. And that's what I'm going to
use all the way through. Now, here's the second thing I want to clear
up. All the way through this chapter, we'll use the word love,
where it uses charity, because we're talking about plain love.
All right. Secondly, often when you think
of the word love, it's been used in an area in our day to which
it's not referring here. When we deal with the subject
of love, we're not talking about feelings for the opposite sex.
That's not what we're talking about here at all. Like two young
people, a boy and a girl meet, and they say they fall in love. Well, that's not what we're talking
about here at all. We're not talking about that.
Most of the time, that's infatuation. That's not love at all. And here's
the third thing I want to clear up is this. The main application
in this psalm is not our love for God. That's not what he's
talking about here. Although, now listen to me, although
any real love is impossible apart from God. In other words, the
people who have this grace are people who do love God. But now
when he's talking here about though I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels and have not love for God, that's not
what we're talking about. That's not what this is dealing
with. This is talking about love between one human being and another. That's exactly what it's talking
about. Now, talking about love for God,
although it's impossible to love apart from loving God. Let me
read a scripture. Don't you turn to it. Let me
get to it quickly and read it and turn back. But in 1 John
4, it says this, "'Beloved, let us love one another, for love
is of God.'" That's what I'm saying. And every one that loveth
is born of God, and knows God, and he that loveth not knoweth
not God." That's what I'm saying. That's true. Love is of God.
But this is not talking about love for God. Also, I want to
determine the source of this love. Now, this will help you.
The source of this love is not in us. You remember Sunday I
said, herein is love, not that we love God. The source of love
is not in us. In the flesh dwelleth no good
thing, and love is a good thing. We are incapable by nature, by
human nature, we're incapable of loving anyone. That's exactly
right. Or for that matter, producing
any grace or any fruit of the Spirit. A natural love is the
fruit of the Spirit, right? The fruit of the Spirit is love.
A natural man can't produce the fruit of the Spirit. He cannot
produce the fruit of the Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit is
love. Now, we love ourselves like an animal loves itself.
It'll eat every other animal, but it loves itself. It'll fight
to keep from being eaten. But that's not the love we're
talking about here. Its origin is in God. Its example
is Jesus Christ. Now listen to this. Love is demonstrated
by Christ, and up until he came into this world, True love was
never fully demonstrated. Exactly right. Never fully demonstrated
in the flesh. No man ever loved like Christ,
before or since. He is the example, the only example
of this love. And the power to love is through
the indwelling Holy Spirit being a part of his fruit. The fruit
of the Spirit is love. You see what I'm saying? That's
what I'm declaring. Its origin is God. It does not
start in here. It comes from without. Every
good gift and every perfect gift is from God. So when we're talking
about, I want to love people, you don't produce it here. It
comes from Him. The love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. And anything good that we do
is in response to what He's done. We're just channels, and that's
the way we must pray. We must pray. It's not, Lord,
let me produce it, but you produce it in me. It's not I, but Christ
liveth in me. I must also point this out. The
love we're talking about here is love between one human being
and another. I'm talking about male and male.
Jonathan loved David as his own soul. You know what Scripture
says? Now, I know every time you mention loving another man,
you get into this gay movement, this homosexual trash and reprobacy. But I'm talking about men who
love God, love each other. And I'm talking about female
loving female, male loving female, loving friend or foe, brother,
sister, old or young, rich or poor, learned or ignorant. I'm
talking about a love that God puts in his people. by the power
of his Spirit. And it's a principle. It's not
an act. It's a principle. It's a nature. Someone said that Christ-like
love, God-given love, is a principle which wishes to bestow the best
that it can. And that's physically, materially,
spiritually, mentally, every way he can. It wishes to bestow
the best that it can on the object of its affection. That's a good
definition. Christ-like love, is that love?
Christ, how did he bestow the best on us? He gave himself.
Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life
for his friend. True love wishes to bestow the
best that it can on the object of its affection, and it motivates
and governs conduct. Love gives. Love forgives. Love shows mercy. And then it's
genuine, it's unpretentious, it's lasting, being the work
of God, it can never be destroyed. That's right, it can never. So
what I'm saying, I said this Sunday, I see folks say they
love each other and they get married and all, and ten years
later they hate each other. That was not God, of God. If
it had been of God, it would have continued. That's right. What God does is forever. Nothing
can be added to it or taken from it. What God does is forever
because God does it. That's what Ecclesiastes said.
All right, let's go to our text. Go to our text now in 1 Corinthians
13, and let me see if I can be brief and be very much to the
point. As I said at the close of the
other chapter, Paul exhorted the Corinthians to desire spiritual
gifts. I covet so much to be able to
preach. I believe God's given me the
gift to preach the gospel. I want to preach better, better,
better, better. I want to preach better than
I've ever preached before. I want to preach with more power
than I've ever preached before. I want the gift of discernment.
I want to be able to discern the scriptures. I sat down today
and I was writing a Sunday school lesson. from 2 Corinthians 10. And I got so frustrated reading
all the different commentaries, and I just said, Lord, why don't
you show me what this means? Why do you make me work so hard?
Why do I have to dig and dig and dig for this? I want to know
what that means. Just tell me what that means.
I covet that gift of discernment, don't you? Discernment in the
Word. I want to be right, not wrong.
I want to lead people right. And that's what he said, covet
the best gift. covet the best gift. If I could
preach in Spanish, it would throw me dead, wouldn't you, Charlie?
When I go down there, don't preach to an interpreter and just rattle
off that Spanish or French or whatever. I covet that gift,
but there's something better than all those gifts. There's
something better than supernatural gifts. There's something more
to be desired than the ability to preach. More to be desired
than knowledge of the Word, more to be desired than spiritual
talent, more to be desired than offices, and you know what it
is? True, spiritual, Christlike love for other human beings.
That's what he's saying here. He said covet the best gifts,
but I'll show you something better. I'll show you a more excellent
way. Look at verse 1 now. Suppose
I could speak with the tongues of men, that is, languages of
every nation. Suppose like some great person
I could preach in 15 languages. I could go anywhere in the world
and just speak. Suppose I could. Suppose I could preach with such
oratorical ability that would equal an angel. Wouldn't that
be something? Wouldn't that be something? And
yet, if I don't have that God-given, heartfelt, brotherly love, a
true root of love for all men that flows from the true love
of God, all I'll do with this mouth is make an irritating noise. That's what he said. I'd be like
a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. That's just so. He's just saying religion without
love is offensive. It's offensive. It's offensive
to God, and it's an offensive sound. It's just flat offensive. And it's of no use to me and
no use to others. If I could speak with these tongues,
and even like men, all nations, angels, and have not love. Look
at the next verse. Suppose I have the gift of prophecy.
whereby I could deal with the mysteries of Israel and the mysteries
of Egypt and the mysteries of the Arabs and the mysteries of
the future and the mysteries of Scripture, and even tell,
foretell, foretell the purposes of God in the future. Suppose
I could, and I had a vast knowledge of hidden and sublime things,
all this wisdom. All this natural wisdom. Suppose
I had faith so that I could move a mountain, which Christ referred
to over there in Matthew 17. But he said, if I have not this
brotherly love, what am I? I'm nothing. You're a big, fat
zebra, that's what I am. Boy, I tell you, I'd love to
speak with the tongues of men and of angels. I'd love to have
an understanding of the book of Revelation. Just tell about
all the beasts and the dragon and the Antichrist and all the
777-666 and all these things, you know. Wouldn't that be some
drama? Charts up here and pull down those things and point to
what's going to happen. Suppose I had all that and I
do not love my brethren. He said, I am nothing. That's
the superiority of love. Now watch the next verse. And
though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor," you say, well,
preacher, why would a man do that if he didn't love people,
didn't love the poor? That's a good question, isn't
it? Well, he might, like Ananias and Sapphira, who were seeking
the praise of the Church and the Apostle. That's why he might
do it. Or he might, like the Pharisee
who stood in the temple and do it for self-righteous religious
purposes, when he said, I give alms to the poor. Isn't that
what he said? He said, I fast, tithe, pray, give alms to the
poor. There are a lot of reasons why
a man might give his goods to feed the poor other than because
he loves them. He may do it for praise. He may
do it for recognition. He may do it for self-righteous
purposes. He may do it to find acceptance
with God. Or suppose, listen, I give my
body to be burned. In other words, I die as a martyr
for my religion. You say, well, why would a man
give his body to die as a martyr for his religion if he didn't
love people? I bet you Saul of Tarsus would
have died for what he believed before he knew Christ. He'd have
died for it. He'd have fought you for it.
In fact, he did fight for it. You can find a lot of people
who fight. Jim Jones gave his life, along
with 900 other people, for what he believed, and it was false.
And he certainly didn't love those people. He wouldn't have
murdered them. So you can give your...and have not love if prophets
mean nothing. Now, those three verses give
us the superiority of this gift of love. That's how important
it is. That's just how important it
is. Now, I'm not going to go over it again. I think I've gone
over it enough. But to enforce in our minds the
great importance of pursuing this grace of love. It's superior. Well, he came to the three things
that abide—faith, hope, and love. And I expect every one of us,
if we were to be asked tonight, what area of your life would
you like for God to increase manyfold? About every one of
us would say, give me faith. Yeah, we would. Well, Lord, give
me a little faith and a whole lot of love, if I got to have
a smaller amount of one of those. That's right. That's what he's
saying here, the superiority of love. Lord, make me a great
preacher, even if I'm not a lovely person. No, let me love if I
never preach again. I believe that's what he's saying.
He says, Lord, give me understanding, give me knowledge. No, if I'm
not able to understand another word I read, let me love people. Now, I'm not overemphasizing
this because Paul says I can have all these things and I'm
an irritating sound, I'm nothing, it profits me nothing if I can't
love." That's what he's saying. That's the superiority, the par
excellence of love. And that's the reason I say let's
pursue it, let's seek it, all right? Here's the nature of love.
Now I'm just going to go statement by statement. He says this love,
let's use the word love, not charity, that's the old English
word, love suffereth long. What does that mean? It makes
a man patient. It makes him long-suffering.
Patient and long-suffering with what? With the faults of others.
You don't have to be patient with the successes of others. You have to be patient with the
faults of others. That's it. It makes him patient.
It's patient. It's patient. Love suffers long
and is kind. It's not easily offended and
given to wrath. Love is kind, that is, it's tender
and compassionate. It's tender. Look at Ephesians
4.32. Let's look at this verse real
hard just a moment. Love is patient. And love is
kind. Listen to what it says in Ephesians
4.32. Be ye kind. Kind. Kind in thought, kind in
word. Kind in look. Kind in countenance. Be kind one to another. Tender-hearted. Tender-hearted. You're not less of a strong person
because you're tender and gentle. Be tender-hearted. Forgiving
one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you.
It doesn't show a sign of weakness to be tender and gentle. Not
at all. Love is that way. It's kind.
And then love envieth not. Love doesn't boil over with jealousy. Love is happy at the prosperity
and happiness and success of other people. Love not jealous
and envious. Not true love. And I think I
can demonstrate that in our attitude toward our own children. You're never envious of your
own child. You're not envious over their
happiness or their success or their well-being. You never envy
anything they have. You're not jealous. And even
though that's a carnal love and a natural love, a spiritual love
would extend to all men and all believers especially. You're
not envious, envious and jealous. And then he says, Love vaulteth
not itself. He is not puffed up. In other
words, love is not proud. Love is not conceited. Love is
not arrogant. Here's the thing. What have we
got to be conceited about? That's what I'm asking. What
have I got to be proud of? Everything I had, God gave me.
If I have a good mind, God gave it to me. If I have good clothes,
God gave them to me. If I have a job, God gave it
to me. If I have a family, God gave it to me. If I have the
gift to see your speaker here, God gave it to me. He said, Who
maketh thee to differ? What do you have you did not
receive? What did you come into this world
with? Nothing. What are you going to leave with? Nothing. God gave
you all in between. You can't preserve any of it.
You can't hold any of it. You can't keep any of it. So
love bought it, not itself. It doesn't need to. It's not
proud and puffed up. Oh, we have no right pride. When
we read the six things God hates, the six things God hates, number
one is pride. He hates it. He hates it. He said, pride goeth before destruction
and a haughty spirit before the fall. God resisteth the proud. He giveth grace to the humble.
He just despises it. All right, look at verse 5. Love,
still the nature of love defines. Love does not behave itself unseemly. Love does not behave itself unseemly. You know what that means? Love
is not rude. It's just not unmannerly. It's
just not. It's not rude and unmannerly.
You see, I'll tell you what begets rudeness is self-righteousness.
When we're rude with someone and unmannerly and treat them
with contempt, The thing that produces that is pride, conceit,
and self-righteousness. That's exactly right. The reason
folks are rude is they're proud, and they're arrogant, conceited,
and self-righteous. But love produces courtesy. Love
produces humility. Love produces a low opinion of
ourselves and a high opinion of others. Yes, it does. And
then love seeketh not her own. not her own way. Love does not
demand its own way. I heard a young man talking about
marrying a young lady recently. He said, well, I think we love
each other, but she just wants her way and I want my way. I
said, well, I'd hold that wedding up for a little while until somebody
gave in to somebody else's way, because it's not going to work. Love does not demand its own
way. Love does not demand its right. Love does not demand that my
will be enforced at the expense of everybody else's. Turn to
Philippians 2. Philippians chapter 2. I had
this scripture written down here. Philippians 2, verse 3. Listen to this. Philippians 2,
3. Let nothing be done through strife
and vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other
better than themselves. every man on his own things,
but every man on the things of others. Let this mind be in you,
which was in Christ, who thought it not robbery, who being in
the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God,
but he made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant,
was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself. and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. So love seeketh not her own. No, it doesn't. And then look
at the next line. Love is not easily provoked. You know what that means? I'll
give you an old Kentucky word that love is not touchy, not
touchy. You know, somebody says he carries
his feelings on his sleeves, he's easily offended, you know,
easily offended. Well, love is not easily provoked,
not touchy, not easily offended. It's not resentful. Love is not looking for something
to get mad about, not looking for something to get upset about.
Some people, you just have to walk on eggshells to keep them
upsetting them or making them mad, you know. You've got to
be careful what you say, what you do, or they're going to get
mad. Well, that's if they don't love you. Love is not easily
offended. Love, think, is no evil. You
know what that means? Love does not carry about a suspicious
nature looking for faults. No, it's not suspicious. Not
suspicious. But rather, love thinks the best. It's not suspicious. Some folks
are so suspicious of everybody else, they have a suspicious
nature. They're looking for something, something there that's even if
it's not there. But love, think it's no evil.
Now look at verse 6. Love, this love rejoices not
in iniquity. It does not rejoice in someone's
fall. It rejoices in what? In the truth. It rejoices in goodness. Love,
someone said this, I believe it was Moffat, he said love is
never glad when someone goes wrong. You know what a man is he wishes
others to be? Did you know that? What he is,
in his heart, he wishes others to be. If he delights in someone
falling, that's because he's a fallen character. If he delights
in someone succeeding, it's because he's a success. He wants others
to be what he is. And I think this, I think that
gossip is really rejoicing in a fall. I think any time we repeat
a matter that we've heard I think it really, the reason we're repeating
it is we're just kind of glad it happened, so we could tell
it. I really do. I believe that's the basis of
gossip, is rejoicing. Love does not rejoice in iniquity,
it rejoices in the truth. And listen to this, love beareth
all things. And I looked that up, and this
is what that's saying. Love covers with silence all
things. Love covers with silence. the
faults of others. Let me show you two or three
scriptures. Turn to Proverbs 10. Proverbs 10. We'll look first at verse 12.
Now, this is what I'm saying. I'm saying that love beareth,
or covereth, all things. Now, Proverbs 10, verse 12. Hatred stirreth up strife, but
love, what? cover it, all sins. Look at Proverbs 11, across the
page, verse 13. A tale-bearer revealeth secrets,
but he that is of a faithful spirit, that's a loving spirit,
concealeth the matter, puts the lid on it. All right, Proverbs
17, 9. Proverbs 17, 9. He that covereth
a transgression seeketh love. But he that repeateth a matter
separateth very friends." He's not a loving person, he's a divider,
he's divisive, he wants to tear things up. So what Paul is saying,
the same thing over here in 1 Corinthians 13, verse 7, "...love beareth
all things, covereth all things." Charlie Payne said today, we
were talking about this message, he said, Even a fish wouldn't
get caught if he kept his mouth shut. That's enough right there. All
he needed to do was keep his mouth shut and he'd never get
skin. And we need to learn that, don't I? All right. Love beareth
all things. Love believeth all things. Let
me give you a quote I picked up from someone. It's better
to believe the best of a brother and be disappointed than to believe
the worst and destroy friendship. Love believeth the best. It's
better to believe the best about a brother or sister and be disappointed
later on down the road than to believe the worst and destroy
friendship. And then what's this? Love hopeth
all things. What love can't see, it hopes
for. He'll come around. He'll be all
right. It never gives up. Love hopeth. It won't give up.
That I'm through. I'm through with him. I'm through
with... No. Love hopeth all things. And love
endureth all things. It'll endure trial, sorrow, sickness,
disappointment, misunderstandings, hurt feelings, offense, yet well. Because this is the love Christ
has for us. How much has he put up with in
us? I mean, all the time, every day, and he still loves us. And
he said, if he so loved us, we ought to love each other. Just
keep on loving. If your brother sins seven times,
forgive him seven times. Seven times? Seventy times seven.
Love, enduring, all kinds of things. So that verse seven there
is one of the key definitions. beareth all things, that is,
covereth all things, it believeth all things, it always believes
the best, it hopeth all things, and it endureth all things. Now,
here's the PowerPoint, the permanence of love. Love never fails. This kind of love never quits.
Now, he goes back, like he did in chapter 12, starts talking
about these gifts again. You see that, Tom? whether they
be prophecy, goes right back. That's the reason these chapters
can't be divided. Paul has dealt with this church on the subject
of gifts, the giving of them by God, separately by the Holy
Spirit, as he will, sovereignly, the misuse of them, the abuse
of them, the use of them, and all these things. He talks about
prophecy and tongues and faith and all these things, and he
said, but I'm going to show you something better, better than all these
things. And he shows us the superiority
of this principle in the heart, the superiority of this grace
of God in the heart for all men, love. And then he shows us the
nature of it. He says the superiority of it,
and then he tells us what it is. It's not this little silly
sentimental infatuation that's here today and gone tomorrow.
It's a principle that never fails. It's a principle that abideth
ever. It's the nature and life of God
in a man's soul that grows in grace. Now, look at verse 8. It'll never fail. Whether they
be prophecies, they're going to fail. Actually, no matter
what we tell or say or teach, It's going to be superseded by
perfection. Isn't that right? Superseded
by perfection. It'll fail. Whether they be tongues,
they're going to stop. They're going to cease. Suppose
you could speak with all these tongues. It wouldn't do you a
bit of good and glory. They're going to cease. Whether they
be knowledge, we, Paul, what's that scripture we used to quote?
Man that thinks he knows something knows nothing as he ought to
know it. We don't know anything. We don't know that much. We don't
know that much. Thank God we do know that much,
but that's all we do know compared to what we're going to know.
He said, where there be knowledge, it's going to vanish away. But
we just know in part, and we just preach in the teeniest part. We preach in an essential part
and a necessary part, and that's Christ in His blood. But it's
just in part. But when that which is perfect
is come, that which is in part shall be done away, but love
keeps on going." That's what he's saying. That's exactly what
he's saying. Love never fails. Prophecies? Down. Knowledge? Down. The tongue? Down. We know in
part. When that which is perfect is
come, that which we've used and often abused is going to be done
away, but love keeps right on going. And they said, when I
was a child, a little bitty boy, I spoke like a child, I understood
as a child, I thought as a child. When I became a man, I put away
those childish things. And when we stand in the perfect
image of Christ and look back, you say, well, we remember the
earth, we'll remember it all right, but we'll have no use
for it. That's right. It's just like I would, my mother
and dad still lived in Alabama, and they still had my room back
there with my little old my little old tractor with the rubber wheels,
you know, I doubt very seriously I'd go back and sit down on the
floor and play with that thing. I doubt very seriously that I
would do that at all. I hope I wouldn't. I hope I wouldn't. I sure do. And that's the same
thing when we stand perfectly conformed to his image and we
look back on these trinkets which have been so magnanimous and
great. And boy, when I was five years
old, that tractor was something. It had rubber things. It climbed
up. Maybe I would play with it, you
know. It'd climb up the steps and do all those things, you
know. And I just, I was just crazy about it. But these things
that we've been, so important to us, they put a weight. But
love goes on. Look here at verse 12. Now we
see through a glass dimly. We do see like men as trees walking,
but then face-to-face, face-to-face with God, face-to-face with Christ,
face-to-face with the living embodiment of truth, face-to-face
with glory itself. Boy, I tell you, wow, now we
know in part, then I shall know as I am known. And now about
is faith, but faith will be replaced by reality, not reality, but
faith will be replaced by revelation of Christ. In other words, now
we believe in Christ, then faith will be replaced by sight. And
hope will be replaced by reality, but love will never be replaced.
It will still be love. Isn't that what he's saying?
That's exactly what he's saying. He's saying, and now abideth
the three greatest. Faith, hope, and love. But faith
someday will be replaced by sight. I won't need faith anymore. I live by faith and I won't need
it someday because I'm going to see. And hope, I need it now. I need that blessed hope, but
someday I won't need it because I'll have the reality of Christ's
image. But love, I'll need it. It's going to go right on. And
that's the permanence of it. I hope that's been helpful, and
I hope it's been encouraging, and I hope it's not been depressing.
I didn't mean for it to be at all. I didn't mean for it to
be. I just, I feel like that every one of us here, because
this is a loving church, we don't love like we ought to, we don't
love like we're going to, we don't love as much as we even
we should. But I detect love. I see it. I see it. more than
anywhere else, and God's been good to us. But I want us to
even grow in that in which we're growing. I want it to just take
over, just like kudzu, just everywhere. Just take over, just cover everything.
The love of Christ will cover a multitude of sins. Well, Mike,
come lead us in a closing hymn, please.