What do you believe are the three
most important things in all the world? That was the question. What do
you believe, what do you think are the three most important
things in all this world? Well, I said, you're serious,
aren't you? And he said, I'm dead serious.
I'm dead serious. Time I was getting serious. I
said, well, let me think about it a little while. Let me think. Let me study it a little bit.
Give me a little time. He said, all right, I'll give
you all the time you want. Well, I came up with what I believe
are the three most important things in all the world. And
if I remember, I brought this at your graduation. I spoke at
the baccalaureate at Ashland High School that year, and I
brought this message, not this message, but a message on these
three things. So impressed me, I spoke in several
places about this, because I felt like I came up with the three
greatest, most important gifts, possessions, or things in all
the universe. I ask you to turn to 1 Corinthians
13. 1 Corinthians 13, verse 13. 1 Corinthians 13, verse 13. And now abide it. Faith, hope, and love, these
three. I know one thing, this flesh
will not abide dusk hour, to dusk I shall return." I know
that the relationship I have, my wife is sitting here, my son,
daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, and so forth. That relationship is not going
to continue. In heaven, they neither marry
nor give it in marriage. Don't know what. My works are
certainly not going to continue. I've been here at this church
33 years as pastor, and a day is a thousand years with the
Lord, a thousand years is a day. As far as God is concerned, I've
just been here two seconds. It's about like that, you know.
That's not going to amount to a hill of beans, because they
said, Lord, we prophesied in your name, cast out the devil
and did many wonderful works. He said, I never knew you. With
all the monuments you raised and all the things you did, works of iniquity, those things
aren't going to last. There really isn't anything that
you touch or you in any way are associated with by your senses,
smell, hearing, sight, touch, or any human relationship that
will even abide. Because he said, the fashion
of this world fadeth away. And God said, behold, I make
all things new. But now abide it, faith, hope,
and love. These are going to abide. So
these are the three greatest things. Faith, hope, and love.
The three greatest possessions in all the world. Faith, hope,
love. And that's what I want to talk
about. This thing, first of all, called faith. Abraham believed
God. Believed God. And whether it
be like that little child I was talking about a moment ago, nine
years old, I believe God. I believe God is. I believe God
created the world. I believe God made man in his
own image. I believe man fell and got almighty
purpose to save a people. I believe God sent his son into
the world to be our propitiation, that we might be redeemed by
him. I believe Christ was crucified. He was buried and rose again.
He went back to glory where he is our only advocate and mediator. I believe that. I believe that. And no one in this congregation
knows for sure that I believe that but me, and I do believe
it. That's the very foundation of
my hope and confidence is I believe God. Abraham believed God. He
believed God. Turn to Romans chapter 4. A hymn
writer wrote these words, O for a faith, O for a faith that will
not shrink, though pressed by every foe, foes from without
and foes from within. that will not tremble on the
brink of any earthly woe." Our Lord said, if you can believe,
all things are possible to them that believe. Can you believe?
Can you believe God? That's what we're talking about,
Abraham believed God. In Romans 4, it says here, verse 20, that
Abraham staggered not at the promise of God. He was not overwhelmed,
he was not shaken, he believed God. He believed God. that God was able to perform
all that he said he would do. See verse 21, "...and being fully
persuaded that what God had promised he was able to perform, and therefore
it was imputed to him for righteousness." This faith brought him the favor
of God. Now I know God decreed the favor
of God, and designed the favor of God, and purposed the favor
of God, and sought Abraham before he sought him, and called him
before he called on God, but we're justified by faith. And
without faith, no man can please God. And Abraham believed God,
and it was counted to him or imputed to him for righteousness.
Now look at verse 23. Now this was written not for
his sake alone. This wasn't just an isolated
case. This wasn't just written for
Abraham that it was imputed to him, but it was written and declared
for us also to whom this righteousness shall be imputed if we can what? Believe on him. If we can believe
on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead who was delivered
for our offenses and was raised again for our justification.
Brethren, I covet faith. I want to believe God. This faith
is the gift of God. This faith is saving faith. This
faith is obedient faith. This faith is faith that our
Lord Jesus Christ spoke of when he said, Thy faith hath made
thee whole. Let me illustrate it. Our Lord
Jesus Christ came down to the seashore where the disciples
had been fishing. all night, they'd fished all
night, they'd caught nothing. Now, these were expert fishermen. These were men who had made their
living fishing. They knew the trade. They had
their nets, they knew where to go, they'd fished these waters
all their lives and probably their fathers before them. And
these men had been out in their boats fishing and they'd brought
their boats to And after all night long, they said, and they
were cleaning their nets. They were tired and weary and
probably edgy. Hadn't caught a thing. Been out
all night. This is the way they made their living. They were
edgy and tired and weary, and they were cleaning their nets.
They were pulling them through the water and cleaning them and
doing these things, folding them up, putting them away. And our
Lord walked up and He said, Children, did you catch anything? And they
looked at Him and they said, Not a thing. Not a thing. He said, well, just push your
boat out from the land and go right over there, and throw your
net over the right side of the boat. And Peter looked at him
in probably exasperation and edgy, and he said, Lord, we've
fished here all night long. He didn't say it, but I know
he thought it, and I fished over there, and I know where to fish.
I've been fishing all my life. We fished all night long, caught
nothing. Now watch this. Faith. Nevertheless,
nevertheless, at your word, I let down the net. That's faith. Nevertheless, at your word, I
let down the net. You see what I'm saying is Christ
is the object of faith, and his word is the foundation of faith. And if you can, regardless of
your mind, your logic, your human reasoning, all these things come
into play, the arguments of your friends, the laughter of the
wives of this world, and all these come in. Whatever comes
into play, whatever, like Abraham, the age of his, this man was
against having a child. The age of his wife was against
having a child. All of these things were, but
he said, nevertheless at thy word, Abraham believed God. And that's the foundation of
faith. Let me show you another illustration, Acts 27. Turn over
there a minute. Now Paul was out on a ship, and
they were taking him from a certain place to another place, and the
ship was in trouble, real trouble. They were in a terrible storm.
And these men who were sailing the ship, had lightened the load,
they'd thrown off heavy cartons and bulky cargo, they'd thrown
it into the water, and they'd done everything they knew. And
finally, they gathered together, and they said, if we go down
with this ship, the undertow will take us under, we'll just
be drowned. The thing for us to do is just
get overboard some way and try to get to land or try to save
ourselves. And Paul stepped forth, verse
22. Verse 21, Acts 27, now watch
it. But after long abstinence, Paul
stood forth in the midst of them, and he said, Sirs, you should
have hearkened to me, and not loosed from Crete. You shouldn't
have sailed on this voyage, and to have gained this harm and
loss. And now I exhort you, be of good
cheer, for there shall be no loss of any man's life among
you, but of the ship. We'll lose the ship, but no life.
How does Paul know that? What makes him stand here, right
in the face of the argument of men who have been sailing all
their lives, capable mariners, who knew these seas, who knew
this ship, who knew the weather, who knew the condition? How could
Paul stand there and look them in the face and say, the ship
will go down, but it won't be one man's one life lost in the
whole outfit? Well, listen to what he said.
Verse 23, "...there stood by me this night the angel of God,
whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul, thou
must be brought before Caesar, and lo, God has given thee all
them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer."
I believe God. I believe God that it shall be
even as it was told me. That's my foundation of faith.
I can't stand here this morning and tell you about some wild-eyed
experience that I had. I cannot stand here this morning
and tell you that I feel holier than any other man. I cannot
stand here this morning and tell you about an experience I had
back yonder when a boy spoke to me and said, Now you're saved.
The only thing I can stand here and tell you is my hope for eternal
life is I believe God. Now, if you've got anything more
than that, These men of God never had anything more than that.
Abraham believed God. Paul believed God. And when that
Philippian jailer came to him and cried, what must I do to
be saved, that's what he told him to do, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. I believe God. All right, the
second thing, second precious gift and precious first one is
faith. And I'll tell you this, none
of us have the faith that we ought to have, and none of us
have the faith that we want to have, and none of us, by the
grace of God, have the faith that we're going to have. But
I'll tell you this, every believer has faith. It may be small faith
or large faith or great faith or whatever faith, but it's not
the strength of the faith, it's the strength of him who is the
object of faith. I've given this so many times,
but I still think it's an excellent illustration. Here's a metal
pole standing in the ground, and there's a vine, two vines
wrapped around it. One's a little vine, just a little
fragile vine, not a 32nd of an inch in diameter, but it's wrapped
around that pole. And here's a great big vine about
an inch in diameter or half an inch in diameter, it's wrapped
around the same pole. Let me tell you this. You move
the pole, they're both false. Whether it's a big vine or a
little vine, because it's not the strength of the vine that
holds it up, it's the strength of the Pope. And that's what
I'm saying. Whether you have small faith
in Christ or great faith in Christ, it's not the faith, it's Christ
that sustains it. It's Christ that keeps it. All
right, the second one is hope. Turn to 1 Peter 3.15. These things.
1 Peter 3.15. But sanctify the Lord God in
your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man
that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you." The hope
that is in you with meekness and fear. Now, this hope by which
we're saved, and the Bible says we're saved by hope, and this
hope which I covet, it's not a wish. For example, I hope that
it clears off this afternoon. Well, I have no assurance that
it will or it won't. I have nothing to base that hope
upon. That's just a wish. That's just
a desire. I hope it's beautiful tomorrow.
We plan to have a picnic. That's just a wish or a desire.
But this hope, he says, you be ready to give an answer to every
man that asketh you a reason of the hope that's in you. This
hope, watch it, is expectation. Not just a wish, not just a desire,
but expectation based on the promise of God. That's the Christian
hope. It's an expectation. Turn with
me to I Timothy 1. You see, Christ is our hope.
We don't just hope that when life is over and when the world
is ended, that we stand in God's presence. That's not just a wish
or a desire. That hope that we have of standing
in his presence accepted is because Christ loved us and gave himself
for us. It's an expectation based on
a promise and a performance and a purpose. See what I'm saying? Now, I have a hope. I believe
that if I had died this afternoon, that I would stand in God's presence
justified. I believe that one of these days
that I have a hope that God's going to raise this vile body
and make it like his own, and that eternally I'm going to live
in his presence, not in condemnation, not in hell, not in judgment,
but a joint heir with Jesus Christ. Now, that's my hope. And I expect
it. I expect it because God purposed
it. because Christ accomplished it
and because Almighty God promised it upon faith in Christ Jesus. So I have a reason for my hope. Do you hear what I'm saying?
I have a reason. Now, 1 Timothy 1, verse 1 and
2, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of
God our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, who is our hope? Christ is our hope. Our hope
is in a person. Somebody asked me one time, said,
Are you saved? I said, Is Christ still at the
right hand of God? Yes, he is. Then I'm saved because
he's my hope. He's my hope for righteousness
through his obedience. He's my hope for atonement through
his death. He's my hope for resurrection
through his coming forth. He said, Because I live, you
live. He's my hope of influence into the kingdom of God because
he, as my forerunner, has already gone and occupied it for us. That's my hope. True faith in
Christ gives hope. And this hope of eternal life
is not based on an experience, it's not based on a feeling.
It's not based on a work which we've accomplished, it's not
based on the thought of merit, but this hope is in Christ and
it's just as strong as our confidence is in Him. You say, I just, sometimes
my hope is just awfully weak. You know why? Because your regard
of Christ is awfully weak. Brother Joe Terrell preached
down at Franklin, Tennessee this week and brought a beautiful
illustration. Now watch this. Every one of
us have been on a seesaw. They call them what, teeter-totters
now, but they're seesaws back in my day. And you put a seesaw
or a teeter-totter on a board across this way and you start
out level. You get on one side and the other
fellow gets on the other. The higher he goes, what? The lower you go. And the lower
you go, the higher he goes, right? And the lower he goes, the higher
you go. And I'm telling you this. The higher your regard for Christ,
the higher your awe and respect of Christ, the
lower you are in your own estimation. And I'm telling you this, the
higher you can visualize Christ in all of his obedience and his
accomplishments, the more hope and confidence you can have in
him. That's exactly right. But now
if you start hoping in your works and hoping in your merit and
hoping in your deeds, who comes down? Christ comes down. When
you go up, He comes down. But when He goes up, you come
down. And I'll tell you this, if you can look to Him and Him
alone, do all confidence in the flesh. Just dismiss it, disregard
it, totally suppress it. There was an old preacher one
time who was asked this question. A man said to him, he said, you
trust Christ alone for your salvation, that's right. He said, you're
looking to him and him alone for salvation. You're resting
in him alone, that's right. He said, what if after all these
years of trusting Christ, you get to the gate of heaven and
they turn you away? He said, what are you going to
do? Well, he said, I'd be very unhappy.
But he said, I'll tell you this. He said, God would lose a whole
lot more than I'd lose. And the man was shocked. He said,
how can you say such a thing? God would lose more than you.
He said, well, he said, I'd lose my soul. But God would lose his
honor. God would lose his justice and
his righteousness, because he said, he that believeth on the
Son hath life, and I believe on the Son, and the Son is my
only hope. And I'm saying if I love the
Son and believe the Son and claim the Son and God turns me away,
he's going to lose more than I lose. Well, God's not going
to lose because he'll keep his word. He cannot lie. In hope
of eternal life, which God promised, God who kept... Turn to Titus.
Let me read that to you. Titus chapter 1. Titus, you say, Preacher, I believe
you're trying to give us some assurance this morning. That's
exactly what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to bring salvation
out of do's and don'ts and out of reforms and decisions and
out of laws and works and put salvation where it belongs in
Christ by faith. And a man who believes can have
hope of eternal life. Listen to Titus 1, verse 1 and
2. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
servant of God and apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the
faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth, which
is after godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, who
cannot lie, promised before the world began." Who promised it?
God did. God did. And that's my hope.
My hope is in Him and in Him alone. All right, here's the
last one. Now turn to 1 John chapter 4. Here's the last treasure. These three. These three I want you to have
desperately, faith, hope, and love. Now, here's the 1 John
4, 10. Herein is love. See it? Herein
is love. Now, that statement is like John
17, 3. What does John 17, 3 say? John
17, 3 says, Our Lord said, This is eternal life. This is it. This is it. This is eternal life.
that they might know thee, the only true God, Jesus Christ,
whom thou hast sent." This is eternal life. This statement
is like John 6, verse 39, which says, And this is the Father's
will. This is it. Don't look any further.
Don't look anywhere else. Our Lord said in John 17, This
is eternal life. Don't look anywhere else. This
is it, to know God. And in John 6, 39, he said, I've
come to do my Father's will, and this is my Father's will,
that of all which it giveth me I'll lose nothing but raise it
up the last day. Now, in 1 John 4, 10, it says, here is love. Here is love. We talked about
faith. Abraham believed God, example
of faith. We talked about hope. That hope is Christ. Christ is
our hope. Here it is. We hear a lot about
love, a lot of talk about love. People profess to experience
love. I hear young people say, I love
her, I love him. Folks claim to love God. They
claim, I love God, my Jesus, I love thee. We claim to love
each other. Would you really learn about
love? Here is love. Would you? Here it is. Here it is. I know it's not two
people stand down here to get married and claim to love each
other, and about six years they don't love each other so much
anymore. And about ten years, one's living in one town, one's
living in another. I thought y'all loved each other. No, they
didn't love each other. Evidently not. Would you learn
of love? Would you experience love? Would
you know real love? Here it is. That's what it says.
Here is love! And the next line. Not that we
love God. In other words, it's not in us.
It's not there. Don't look for it. Not there. Not in us. Not! Not! Here is love. It's not this.
That's exactly what he said. Here it is. It's not this. Now,
you may think I put us down too much, but I'm telling you this. Let it be sounded loud and clear.
There's no genuine love in the flesh by nature. for anybody,
God or man. You and I are incapable of this
love. You and I are incapable of faith,
faith is the gift of God. I read that a while ago, it's
not a work that's any man's, it's the gift of God. You and
I are incapable of any hope outside of Christ, my hope is in him.
And this now abides at these three things. You see, the flesh
and all that's connected with the flesh is gone. It died in
the garden. In the flesh dwelleth no good
thing. In the flesh no man can please
God. From the sole of the feet to
the top of the head, no soundness, no faith, no hope, no love. This
is all heavenly gifts, spiritual gifts, in Christ, God-given. There's no love in the flesh.
Turn to Luke 6.32, and I know, I know, I know we talk about
mother's love and all this sort of thing, but I'm telling you,
I'm trying to be honest with you, mother's love, like all
other human natural love, is selfish love. She loves her own.
She loves those that love her. She loves those she produces.
That's just so, Luke 6.32. Well, if you love them that love
you, what thank have you? Anybody does that. Sinners, rebels,
Christ crucifiers do that. You do good to them which do
good to you, what thank have you? Sinners do the same, and
so forth. You may not fully understand
what I'm saying, but my friend, you will someday. Our Lord said
to his disciples, I've got many things to say to you, and you're
not able to bear them now. But now you will someday. And
I'm telling you this, there's no love in any human being by
nature. That's just so. If you want to,
you can turn to Romans 5, 1. Let me show you this. Romans
5, verse 1. Romans 5, 1. Listen to this.
Romans 5, verse 5. Here it is. Hope maketh not ashamed,
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost." That's where we get love. It's the gift of God. It's shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. And back to our text. And I hope you're hearing what
I'm saying. Here is love. Here it is. This is what God says. Here it
is. Not in us. Not that we love God. And let
me tell you something. You don't love God, you don't
love anything else. Because everything lives and
moves and has its being in Him. Man can't love anything and not
love God. That's right, all right. Here's
the definite, here is love. Here it is, God loved us. Would
you know the truth of love? Then you go to Calvary, there
it is. God so loved that he gave his Son. Christ so loved that
he gave himself. Would you know the depth of real
love? Would you know the nature of real love? Then look nowhere
but God's love for us. Here is love. God loved us. Here is love. Now, I could give
you a theological definition. I could say the love of God is
infinite because God is infinite. I could say the love of God is
everlasting because what God has done, He will do. What He
will do, He has done. Everlasting both ways. Never
ceases, having loved his own, he loved them to the end. I could
tell you theologically that the love of God is sacrificial love,
but that wouldn't help you much, would it? Wouldn't help you much.
But I'll illustrate it for you. I want everybody in here, me
included, to pick your worst enemy. I know everybody in here has
got somebody, you can go back, Clare, to when you were a child.
Or maybe your drunken father beat your mother and you up and
walked out and left you and never came back. You can take him if
you want to. You can just pick anybody you
want to. Pick somebody that did you so dirty, so low down, so
a person that low rated you and hurt you and broke your heart. Go on. Are you thinking? Maybe
somebody lately. But come on. Pick out your worst
enemy. Pick out your worst, most defiled, hateful, Selfish enemy. Pick him out. You got him? One
that seeks to destroy you, destroy your reputation, your character,
your home, anything. Pick him out. Now then, here's
what I want you to do. I want you to love him. Love
him more than you love yourself. I want you to love him. I want you to just reach out
with your heart and say, Lord, don't bless me, bless him. Give
him a good job. Make him happy. Give him the
love of a wonderful wife. Give him the love of wonderful
children. Just prosper him and bless him. Can you do it? I can't
do that. Then you don't know anything
about love, because that's love. That's what it says here, isn't
it? Here is love. Here is love. Not that we love God. Here is
love. God loved us. Now, we were his
enemies. In our father Adam, we tried
to throw God off the throne. When his son came down here,
we cleared our throats and spit in his face, nailed him to a
cross and said, Go on back to heaven and leave us alone. Get
out of our lives. We don't want you. We won't have
you to reign over us. We cursed him and sinned against
him, and yet He loved us. He commended his love toward
us. Isn't that why we were yet sinners? God, holy, pure, undefiled,
loved with an everlasting, sincerely, personally, purely loved us,
the lowest of creatures. That's love. That's love. And that's love. And look at
the rest of the line. And this is what he did. He loved
us and sent his Son. the darling of his bosom. Now,
you say, well, Preacher, I could, you know, that fellow, I believe
God's done something for me. I believe he's quieted the demons
in me and he's given me compassion and affection, and I believe
I can love him and not seek revenge. Beloved, avenge not yourself.
But wait, let me offer you another Suppose that man has been sentenced
to die because of some crime which he committed against you
or somebody else. Can you go down to the jailer
and say, taking your son by the hand, and say, I love this fellow
so much, let my son take his place and die for him? That's
love. That's what we're talking about.
We're not talking about this little old silly infatuation. We're not talking about this
stuff that lasts for a few years and then it turns to hate. We're not talking about this
silly sentimental emotional hogwash called religion. I'm talking
about love that gives and lives. and is godly and godlike, and
that's the only kind of love this Bible knows anything about.
He said, this is love. Hearing is love. Not in us. Not in us. Not that we love God. You say, I love God this morning.
I wish I did. I want to, but I want to. I want to daily. Oh, I want to,
but I'm afraid I don't. Not enough to claim it. I believe
God. I believe God. Well, if I love
Him at all, it's because He first loved me. But now to give myself
for my worst enemy, and to lay down my life that He might live,
that's what it says. Look at verse 9. In this was
manifested the love of God toward us, because God sent his only
begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. Here
it says love. It's not in us, not that we love
God. He loved us and sent deliberately,
willingly, on purpose, sent his Son to be a sacrifice, an atonement,
a propitiation, a substitute in my dirty, rotten place and
let me go and put his wrath on his Son. Better than that's love. That's love. And that's what's
going to abide. That's the reason he said, now
abide in faith. I believe God. Lord, I believe,
help my unbelief. Hope, my hope is an expectation
of the fulfillment of his purpose and his promises and his purchase
in Christ. But love and the greatest of
these. That which overshadows the other,
that which we ought to covet above all things, that which
gives evidence that we're born of God, that which a man cannot
know apart from knowing God, the greatest of these is love. And really that which ought to
characterize us most as believers is our weakest point. It really
is, my weakest point. Love. Look at the next verse. Beloved, if God so loved us,
if God so loved us, how did He love us? I just told you. We
ought also to love one another. If He can love me as I am, how
could I not love someone else as they are? They're just like
me. They're just like me. There ain't no difference. There is no difference. All is
sin. All is sin. Thing is, you say, well, I'd
love him if he loved me, but he loved us first. He loved us,
we didn't love him. He loved him when we had nothing
to return to him. Nothing. And verse 8 is what causes me
to dwell on this so much. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. Let's see if we can. It's not
too late. It's not too late. Let's see
if we, from children to adults in this congregation, can set
our thoughts and make our objective at least the attainment to some
degree of these three graces of which our Lord said these
are the greatest. Faith, hope, and love, but remembering, always
bearing in mind, the greatest of these, and