with me to 1 Corinthians 13.
I have three points I want to call
your attention to in the message. The first one is the importance
of love. The second one will be the attributes
of love, and the third one will be the permanence of love. Now,
when the Holy Spirit sent the disciples forth to preach the
gospel. The Spirit of the living God
gave to them unusual gifts. The Spirit of God gave to these
early apostles and these early preachers such gifts as the power
to speak in other languages, to preach the gospel in other
languages. The Holy Spirit gave them the
power to heal the sick. The Holy Spirit gave them the
power to prophesy. Now these gifts were their credentials. That's exactly what they were.
They were credentials, and they were signs that God was speaking
through these men. They didn't have the New Testament.
When Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, James, Peter, when these
men went out to preach the gospel, they didn't have the books of
the Bible that you and I have. They didn't have 1st and 2nd
Corinthians. They didn't have the book of
Romans. They didn't have the book of Titus and Timothy and
1st and 2nd Peter and Hebrews and Romans. They didn't have
these books. They had the Old Testament. And when they went
forth to these Jews to preach Christ as the Messiah, as the
Redeemer, Christ Jesus as the one who would redeem his people
from their sins, they didn't have anything but the Old Testament.
And God gave them these supernatural powers, these gifts of healing,
gifts of tongue, gifts of prophecy. They spoke things that God revealed
directly to them. Paul told the people, you listen
to me, I'm speaking for God. I'm telling you what God would
have you hear. And he couldn't say, turn to
the book of Romans and I'll read it to you. They had to believe
he was speaking for God. And God gave them these gifts.
Now let me show you that. Turn to Hebrews chapter 2. In
Hebrews the second chapter, verse 17 and 18. Now listen to this.
Hebrews chapter 2, verse... Hebrews chapter 1 it is. Hebrews chapter 1. Let me find
it. I jotted down the wrong verse
here. Hebrews 2.4 it is. Hebrews 2.4. Now listen to this.
God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders,
and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according
to his will." These men who preached, God was bearing witness that
they were his witnesses. Now when John the Baptist sent
the two disciples to the Master, And they asked the Master, John
wants to know if you are the Christ. Are you the one for whom
we are looking? Are you the one of whom Moses
spoke? Are you the one that God will
send to redeem Israel? And Christ said, you go back
and tell John how the lame walk, and the blind see, and the deaf
hear, and the dead are raised. Now that's proof, that's credential,
that's signs of my power, that I'm from God. And when these
disciples went forth, our Master said in Mark 16, turn over to
the 16th chapter of Mark, our Lord said that they would go
and preach the gospel, and he that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. In verse 17 of Mark 16, He said,
And these signs shall follow them that believe. They were
signs. They were credentials. They were proof that God was
speaking through these men. In my name shall they cast out
devils, they shall speak with new tongues, they shall take
up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not
hurt them, they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."
Now, I'm not denying the possibility of God bringing back these marvelous,
wonderful gifts. He may. But He hasn't thus far. They are not operative in our
day. They're not men going up and
down this country preaching with the power to preach in other
languages unless they go to school and study. We have missionaries
who preach the gospel in French and who preach the gospel in
Spanish and who preach the gospel in other languages. But they're
dedicated, devoted men who love Christ and love the gospel, but
they've had to go to school to learn these languages. And they're
not men. I find no proof whatsoever, and
I'm willing to hear. I'm willing to believe if adequate
proof is brought forth. There are no people giving sight
to the blind except the lions' eye bank. That's about the only
one I know. And there are no preachers giving
hearing to the deaf. And there are no preachers raising
the dead. And there are no preachers healing
the sick today. Now, God heals. Now, don't misunderstand
me. I believe in divine healing.
The Bible teaches that. Is any among you sick? Let him
send for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing
him with oil in the name of the Lord, and he shall be healed.
God does heal. But God has not given to his
ministers in this day these signs and these credentials because
we don't need them. We don't need them. All in the
world I have to do this morning to bring you a message on the
subject of love is ask you to turn to 1 Corinthians 13. Here
is God's Word. Here are my credentials right
here. If they speak not according to
the law and the prophets, it's because there's no light in them.
These are my credentials, the Word of God. I don't need miracles
and signs and wonders like these other men did. They did need
them. They were necessary, they were essential. Here these men,
poor, unlearned, ignorant, fishermen, shepherds, and other vocations,
here they were going out among skeptical Jews, among the Pharisees,
and the scribes, and the Sadducees, and proud, arrogant, conceited
people divided into religious camps, and these men had to have
some credentials. It was absolutely necessary.
And God gave them these signs, and God gave them these credentials,
and God gave them these miracles, as Paul said in Hebrews 2, 4,
as credentials, as signs, that they were sent from God. Like
Nicodemus said to the master, we know you've come from God.
No man could do these miracles except God be with him. Now then,
when a man stands up to preach today, we know that he's sent
from God if he preaches according to the word of God. Not his word,
but God's word. Now, the early church at Corinth
had become fascinated with these signs and these miracles and
these gifts. They'd become fascinated with
the gift of tongues and the gift of prophecy and the gift of healing.
And they'd become sidetracked. They had become fascinated with
these things and were putting too much emphasis on the gifts
and too little emphasis upon that which is essential, and
that which is most important. And that can happen to us. I
know when I got hold of the doctrines of grace, I'm sure that the pendulum
swung too strongly over to what we call Calvinism. And I just
felt like it was the greatest thing I'd ever heard, and it
was. But you can become fascinated with these things and forget
some other things that are very important. And you take prophecy. I remember the first time I ever
ran into what we call the premillennial interpretation of the Lord's
return. That's about all I preached for a little while. I studied
books on it, and read it, and devoured it, and preached it,
and even got hold of the trail of blood one time. back when
I was 21 years of age, and taught that. That's the proof that Baptists
are the only people that are saved. You've read that book,
I guess. And we get fascinated with these things, doctrines
and prophecy and denominationalism and even Calvinism and all of
these things, and that's what happened here in the church at
Collins. They got fascinated with these
gifts of healing and Have you seen John Heal lately? Have you
seen Peter Heal lately? And another got fascinated with
tongues. He could stand up in front of
the crowd and preach in another language. And others got fascinated
with prophecy. I have a word of prophecy. And
word of prophecy, they could speak things that they couldn't
read. It wasn't in the Scripture. They got it directly from God.
That's what a word of prophecy is, a word directly from the
Lord. And that's why Paul wrote what
he did in 1 Corinthians 12. Look at it with me now. Verse
28. And God had sent some in the
church, first apostles, and secondly prophets, and thirdly teachers,
and after that miracles, a gift of healing, health, government,
diversities of languages. Are all apostles, are all prophets,
are all teachers, are all workers of miracles? Do all have the
gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do
all interpret? But covet earnestly the best
gifts, and yet show I unto you a more excellent way. Though
I speak with the tongues," here's the importance of love, though
I have the gift of tongues, and I have the gift of tongues so
that I can I can speak like an angel, the tongues of men and
of angels, and have not love?" Have you ever heard an old Chinese
gong where you stand back and hit that thing and it boings,
you know, and rings like that? Paul said that's about all you
amount to if you don't have love. Though you speak with the tongues
of men and angels, and you don't love Christ and you don't love
each other, a man may as well stand back and hit a sounding
brass or jingle one of these little cymbals that the Salvation
Army girls play on the street corner. That's about all it amounts
to. And though I have the gift of
prophecy, now think about it, I have the gift of prophecy,
and I understand all mysteries. And though I have all knowledge,
and though I have all faith, I have faith so that I could
say to this mountain, Be thou removed and cast into the sea,
and have not love. I am nothing. Nothing. Now, we've got some high-powered
preachers in this day, and we've got some high-powered theologians,
and we've got some that know the mysteries and they have the
knowledge and they have the talents and they have the gifts. But
Paul said, if you don't have love, you're nothing. Nothing. And though I bestow
my goods to feed the poor, I'm generous, I give, I'm the best
giver in the church. And though I give my body to
be burned, though I am martyred for my faith, and I have not
love, it profiteth me nothing." Now that's the importance of
love. In fact, our Master said that the whole law was summed
up in these two, to love God with all your heart, and your
neighbor as yourself. That's how important love is.
And Christ said, by this shall all men know you're my disciples,
not by your doctrine alone, not by your gifts, but by this shall
all men know you're my disciples if you love one another. That's
the sign. That's your credentials. And
Paul wrote, Now abideth faith, hope, and love, these three,
but the greatest of these is love. And John wrote, He that
loveth not knoweth not God. He that loveth not his brother
abideth in death. So I don't think we could emphasize
more strongly the importance of love than has been given to
us right here in these opening verses. I may have the gift of
tongues, I may have the gift of prophecy, I may have the gift
of healing, but if I have all that and have not this one thing,
I am a noisy gong, I am a sounding brass, I am nothing, and it profiteth
me nothing. Now in verses four through seven,
The Apostle gives us, and I know this is going to scare you to
death, fourteen attributes of love. But I'm going to be very
brief on each one of them. I'm going to bring out all fourteen
of the attributes of love. There are eight negative and
six positive attributes of love. But I want to look at them, each
one, briefly. Now the first one is this, and
I'm going to give you the negative attributes first. And then we'll
go on to the positive attributes. In verse 4, it says, Love envieth
not. Verse 4 begins with, Love suffereth
long in his kind, but here are the negative attributes first.
Love envieth not. What is envy? What is envy? Well, envy is a name for many
evils. Moffat called it jealousy. It's
another name for covetousness. not being content. It's another
name for malice. But chiefly, this is what envy
is. Now listen to it. Envy is the
pain that one feels at the superior talents or success or prosperity
of another. That's what envy is. Envy is
that pain which one feels at the superior talents, success,
or prosperity of another. Now here's what Paul is saying.
True love, rather than being envious, will rejoice when another
is prosperous. True love will rejoice when another
is successful. True love will rejoice when another
is talented. True love will rejoice when another
is blessed, and not be envious. and not feel any pain or disappointment
over the prosperity or recognition which that person has attained.
Love does not envy. Now the second negative attribute. Love vaunteth not itself. What does that mean? It means
this. Love does not show off. It does not show off. Love does
works of kindness not to show off, not to be seen of men, Not
to be praised of men, that's not why love acts in kindness,
but love acts in kindness solely from the motive of affection.
Not to be seen and not to be praised, but solely because of
the affection and care which is in the heart. Matthew chapter
6, this is what our Lord's teaching over here in Matthew the 6th
chapter when he says, Take heed that you do not your arms your
works of charity before men to be seen of them." To be seen
of them. Otherwise you have no reward
of your Father which is in heaven. Now the third negative attribute. Love does not show off. It does
not make a display of its acts of kindness, a display of its
acts of affection. It does it not to be seen of
men. And then love is not puffed up. That is, true love is not conceited. It's not proud, and it's not
arrogant. When we genuinely love another
person, we want to praise them. We want to give them attention.
We want to praise their gifts, not our gifts. We want to praise
their talents, not our own. We want to praise their good
points, not our own. True love has a humble attitude. As David throughout the book
of Psalms, who am I? Who am I that the Lord should
choose me to be king over Israel? As Mephibosheth before David,
who am I that you should show mercy to such a dead dog? Who
am I? That's what love asks. Who am
I that God should love me? And who am I that you should
love me? Love is not conceited. Love is
humble. It doesn't expect it. And then
the fourth attribute, fourth negative attribute, love does
not behave itself unseemly. Now that simply means this. True
love is not rude. True love is not rude and discourteous. Peter says in 1 Peter 3, verse
8, Two simple words. Be courteous. Be courteous, not
rude. And this is not talking about,
this is not just talking about in the church here. It's easy
to be courteous here. This is the atmosphere of worship
and an atmosphere of religion. But we're talking about being
courteous when you're in your automobile driving down the street.
We're talking about being courteous when you're in your home with
your wife and children and loved ones. We're talking about being
courteous when you're on the job, down at the mill, or when
you're at school, or when you're with your playmates, being courteous.
We're talking about being courteous when you're where you're not
known, among strangers. Being courteous in a store, being
courteous in a restaurant. Christian courtesy. One writer
said this, Christian courtesy is the offspring of Christian
character, and Christian courtesy is revealed in our daily words
and conduct and temperament on the street, in the school, at
work, at home, and at play. And Christian courtesy comes
forth from Christian character, and where there is no Christian
character, there's generally no Christian courtesy. Love does not behave itself unseemly. That is, it's not rude. Rude. And then in the fifth place,
the fifth negative attribute of love is this, love seeketh
not her own. That's verse 5. Seeketh not her
own. Now the person who seeks his
own happiness, the person who seeks his own pleasure without
concern for the happiness and pleasure of others will never
find it. He'll never find it. Not true
happiness. not true joy, because true happiness, according to
the Master, is making other people happy. He said it is more blessed
to give than to receive. And then one writer made this
statement, true love can enjoy nothing alone. A palace alone would be a prison.
When true love finds something good, it wants the object of
its affection to share it. When true love finds something
wonderful, something pleasurable, it wants the object of its affection
to share it. It wants others to share it.
True love can find no happiness alone, can enjoy nothing alone,
and listen to this, love, true love, has not a wish a desire,
an aim, or an aspiration bounded by the limits of self. Our Lord taught us to pray, give
us this day our daily bread. And if I have bread and you don't,
and I'm happy, I don't love you. I don't love you. Love seeketh not her own. And
then in the sixth place, love is not easily provoked. This
is the sixth negative attribute. Love is not easily provoked.
What does that mean? It means this. Love is not touchy,
resentful, and easily offended. Am I easily offended? True love
is not easily offended. It's not sensitive. Charles Spurgeon
said this one time, talking about taking offense easily, being
sensitive. He said, we take this person
whom we call by our name, whom we cover with our caresses and
idolize in our vanity, and we clothe this selfish person in
gaudy clothes of conceit, and then we put him on an exhausted
pedestal. where he is acutely sensitive
to any slight or any criticism, he must be petted, he must be
humored, he must be pampered by everyone or he becomes offended. He's full of suspicion, he's
keenly alive to neglect either real or supposed. But love is
not easily offended. That's not love, that's egotism,
that's selfishness. It's not love. It is not easily
offended. And then, here's the next one.
Love thinketh no evil. Now, there's not a person here
that doesn't think evil thoughts. That's not what we're talking
about. We're not saying that if a person really loves God
and loves others, that he never thinks things that he shouldn't
think. That's not true. And this is not the reference,
but rather here is what Paul is saying, love thinketh, keep
it in the context, love thinketh no evil. That is, the person
who truly loves another does not think on the wrongs which
have been done to him. He does not remember the offenses. He forgets them. He not only
forgives them, but he forgets them. He forgives as God has
forgiven him and remembers them no more. That's what the scripture
says. Now, I know there's an old adage, an old saying, an
old wise tale that goes like this, well, we can forgive, but
we can't forget. Well, I'm saying that the Word
of God declares, having not forgotten, you haven't forgiven. You've
got to forget to. Remember it no more. Love thinketh
no evil. Now, let me give you an example
of that. Suppose you're building a house
or you're working with concrete blocks or something, and you
mash your finger. And you take time out and you
put some iodine or something on it, and you bandage it up,
and you go back to your work. Now, if you can concentrate your
mind on your work and forget that finger, it won't hurt nearly
as bad. Not nearly as bad. Just forget
that you hurt your finger. And I'm not saying it'll quit
hurting. I'm saying that it won't hurt
nearly as bad. But if you keep on thinking about
it, and thinking about it, and keep your attention on that finger,
the more you think about it and the more attention you give it,
the more it'll hurt. It'll throb, and every spurt
of blood that comes that way will be an awful, agonizing pain
because you're thinking about it. And even so, if someone has
said something about us, or done something to us, and we feel
that it's wrong, and we feel like that they've done us wrong,
if we keep thinking about it, I don't care how long ago it
happened, if it happened a year ago, or ten years ago, if you
keep your mind on that thing, you're going to keep on being
agitated by it. And the thing to do is forget
it. Absolutely forget it. Love thinketh
no evil. It remembers no evil. It doesn't
go back and dwell on these things. It forgets them. And then the
last attribute, negative attribute, is this. Love rejoiceth not in
iniquity. Love does not rejoice nor find
pleasure in my sins, but grieves over them. I don't rejoice in
the things that I've done wrong. I've heard people talk about
their past life as if they were proud of it. I've heard people
talk about their sins as if they were proud of them. Love does
not rejoice in iniquity. You know, the Apostle Paul, a
time or two, made reference to the fact that he persecuted the
Church and so forth, but very rarely. When I hear a man always
standing up, giving his testimony, a preacher, writing a book on
from prison to pulpit, or from dope addict to pulpit, or from
something else to the pulpit, it bothers me that he keeps on
going over his gambling and drinking and swearing and perversions
and corruptions. It bothers me that a person keeps
wanting to bring it up and talk about it. It gives you an idea
that he's sort of proud of it. But love does not rejoice in
iniquity, not mine nor yours. It does not rejoice in my fall
nor your fall. It grieves over my infirmities
and it grieves over your infirmities. That's the reason a gossip cannot
be saved. A person who delights to gossip
and enjoys gossiping does not know true love. It does not rejoice
in iniquity. It grieves over other people's
infirmities and true love finds not only, does not find pleasure in either
hearing these infirmities repeated and does not find joy in repeating
them. It rejoices not in iniquity.
Now briefly, the six positive attributes of love. Now listen
to this. First of all, in verse four, love suffereth long and
is kind. In other words, now listen to
me, love is not only present in the good times. That's the
easy time to love. But love is present in the bad
times. Someone said this, a virtue that
cannot endure suffering is no virtue at all. as faith that cannot endure trial
is not faith. Love which cannot love you when
you're not lovely is not love." You see what I'm saying? In other
words, when a woman and a man stand before the preacher and
he says, do you promise to love each other in sickness and in
health, in poverty and in wealth, in the bad that may overshadow your days, and the
good that may gladden your ways. You see, love suffers long. Love
continues. Love is kind. Love continues
even when things are not going good, when things are going bad.
Now, if Don Fitzer loves me, he loves me when I'm being nice,
and he loves me when he's seen me when I wasn't being nice.
But he loves me, and you see, that's what I'm talking about.
He loves you A person really loves you. They love you when
you're on target and when you're not on target. Love suffers long. It continues. It's kind. Now,
in the next place, he says in verse 6, Love rejoiceth in the
truth. Love rejoices in the truth of
the gospel, and love rejoices when men and women are walking
in the truth. Now, brethren, love has a wide
heart. which delights in the spiritual
growth of others. Love has a wide heart that delights
in the spiritual growth of others and the growth of God's kingdom. Love has a universal spirit,
has a Catholic spirit. Love is glad not only when this
church is blessed, but when that church down the road is Love is not only glad when this
church has the presence and power of God's Spirit, but love rejoices
when other congregations have the blessings and the power and
the visitation of God's Spirit, rejoices in the truth wherever
the truth is preached, wherever the truth is held, wherever the
truth is loved. You see what I'm saying? And
then, in the next place, love beareth all things. beareth all
things." Now, in the books that I read in preparing this message,
there are two good meanings put on this attribute. The first
one is this. When it says, love beareth all
things, it's saying love covers all things. Now, love will conceal and hide
an infirmity in another person rather than exposing it. And
the reason that I'm convinced that there's not much true Christian
love. Not much. Because the minute
a person finds out something about another, he just can't
wait to tell somebody. And that person just can't wait
to tell somebody else. And that person just can't wait
to tell somebody else. And that's exposing And the terrible
thing about it is, we do it, we expose others, when we don't
even have proof of it. We weren't even there. We don't
even know if we're telling the truth. We are slaughtering that
person's character, and we have absolutely no proof whatsoever
that it happened. That's not love. Love covereth
a multitude of sins. Love, rather than exposing, covers
it. Hatred, envy, jealousy exposes. Love covers sins. You say, you
mean I'm supposed to suspect a person is guilty of a certain
thing and then cover up for him? Exactly. That's exactly what
I'm saying. That's exactly what I'm saying.
You cover up. Love covers a multitude of sins.
It barret all things. It conceals iniquity. And the
second meaning of this. beareth all things, meaning love
like a strong tower will bear up under all assaults, all assaults. It'll never quit loving. It'll
bear anything. That old tower, that watchtower,
that light tower rising up among the rocks out there in the ocean
to warn the sailors of the treacherous shoals and the rocks on the shore,
It'll stand the beating of the waves, it'll stand the crash
of the thunder and lightning, it'll stand the driving rain,
it'll stand the freezing winter, it'll bear up under all assaults. And I'll tell you, true love
will too. It'll bear up under all assaults. True love refuses
to quit loving. It refuses to quit loving. It
beareth all things. And then next, it believeth all
things. It believeth all things. First
of all, love to God will believe his word. Won't it? It will believe
his word. And then secondly, love for others
will believe in them. It will refuse to believe reports
unless substantiated by the strongest evidence, that is, evil reports.
And even then, even then, it will believe, it will believe. I believe my friend, I believe
my friend will come out on top of this
thing victorious, and that he has in his heart a desire for
God's glory through it all, and I believe in him. I believe in
him. Because love in the next place
hopeth all things. Now hope is more than optimism.
Hope is more than a sunny disposition. Genuine hope is based on what? Expectation. Hope is based on
expectation. And here's what we're saying.
True love is a genuine feeling of confidence. that that object
of love will either continue in the faith and continue in
Christ, or will someday come back to principles of righteousness. I believe in him, and I hope,
based on expectation, that he will, or she will. And then love, last of all, endureth
all things through the darkness and the light. through doubt
and assurance, through adversity and blessings, love is persistent. Look at verse 7. Love beareth
all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth. Love endureth. Love is persistent, that's what
we're saying, and its persistency is proof of its power. Now here's
something that I think the Lord gave me from this verse right
here. Let me see if I can express how
I feel about it, what I believe about it. When love reaches this
stage of endurance, it enters into a rest. It enters into a rest. Love does not have to prove itself
anymore. It has entered into a satisfaction,
a state of rest. It's like faith in Christ. In
other words, we have in our hearts faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's our Redeemer. The Scripture says that we were
dead in trespasses and sins. He came down here to this earth
as a man in the likeness of sinful flesh. And he went to the cross
and died for our sins. He was buried and rose again.
He ascended where he was at the right hand of God as our Mediator.
He's our great High Preacher. He loved us, he gave himself
for us, he intercedes for us, he's preparing for us a place
in glory. Now, we are at rest about it. We've ceased from our labors.
We've ceased from trying to prove anything. He doesn't have to
prove his love for us, he doesn't have to prove his gift of grace,
and we're not trying to prove to him that we're saved. We have
entered into his rest. We cease from our labors, enter
into his rest. There's a relationship between
me and Christ by God's grace that cannot be broken. I'm satisfied,
I'm at rest, I'm content. Christ is my Redeemer, my only
Redeemer, my only hope. Like Ruth said to Naomi, thy
people shall be my people, thy God shall be my God. Suffer me
not to leave thee, entreat me not to leave thee. I'm satisfied.
Now that's the kind of love we need for one another. Love that
doesn't have to be all the time proven. Love that's at rest. In the same way that I love Christ
with a love that's entered into arrest, I need to love you, and
you need to love me, and you need to love one another. It's
that love which is submissive to God's will, content with today,
anticipating future joy, yet leaving that to God's love, bearing
all things, believing all things, hoping all things, enduring all
things, a persistent love. I am not leaving you. I am not leaving you, and you
are not leaving me. Whatever comes or whatever goes,
we'll always love each other. Now the last thing, the permanence
of love, and I close. Verses 8 through 13. Now love
never fails. Whether there be prophecies,
they're going to fail. Whether there be terms, they're
going to cease. Whether there be knowledge, it's
going to vanish away. For we only know in part, we
only prophesy in part, everything we have is a partial gift, limited. But love, when that which is perfect is
come, that which is in part shall be done away. Verse 12, For now
we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face, now I
know in part Then I shall know, even as I am known, and now about
it faith, hope, and love, these three, but the greatest of these
is love." Here's what Paul is saying. Everything about us is
temporary. On every side there are objects
that appeal to us and excite us and awaken our ambition and
our zeal, but all of it is a passing thing. The riches of this world are
passing fancies. The fame of this world is passing
vanity. The possessions of this world,
even the relationship we have in this world, everything is
a passing thing except what? Except love. Except love. Something better is going to
take the place of prophecy. Something better is going to
take the place of tongues. Something better is going to
take the place of faith. And that is reality. Something
better is going to take the place of this body. Something better
is going to take the place even of my relationship by faith with
Christ Jesus. Because there's no perfect faith.
And then I shall have, I shall see him and know him as he has
known me. But love, listen to this, love
will never pass because there's nothing better. There's nothing
better. There's nothing better than love.
There's perfect love, but it's still love. There's the love
which Christ has for us, but it's still love. That's the reason
love never faileth. And that's the reason that though
faith, hope, and love, these three, the greatest of these
is love. And you know, I've had people
say to me concerning this message, and these thoughts have gone
through my own mind, That's a wonderful, wonderful goal, but we can't
attain thereunto. Now, I want you to think about
that for a moment. If we can dismiss any command
of Christ by saying, I just can't reach that plane, that plateau,
if we can dismiss any of his commands that way, then there's
no need to preach on anything, is there? There's no need for
me to preach on faith because you say, well, I can't attain
to perfect faith. There's no need for me to preach
on love because you say, well, I just can't reach it. But the
thing for us to do is say this, by God's grace, this is my goal. By God's grace, this is my make
love your aim, this kind of love. I want God to give me a humble
heart, a broken spirit, a contrite heart, And I want him to give
me and work in my heart genuine love, like Paul is talking about
right here in 1 Corinthians 13. I want to grow in grace, I want
to grow in faith, and I want to grow in love. Our Father in
Heaven, bless this message to the pastor's heart and to the
hearts of the people. And grant, O Lord, by thy will
and for thy glory, that this grace of love in each one of
us shall