1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:13,040 of this beautiful gem in God's Word which deals with the matter of love. 2 00:00:13,040 --> 00:00:19,820 Last week we saw together the preeminence of love and its portrait. 3 00:00:19,820 --> 00:00:26,280 We said that if there were such a thing, we could describe this chapter as a non-narrative 4 00:00:26,280 --> 00:00:33,320 biography of Jesus Christ, for these words beautifully describe our Lord in His dealings 5 00:00:33,320 --> 00:00:35,680 with us. 6 00:00:35,680 --> 00:00:42,880 We can go to the Gospels and find illustrations after illustrations which would give us insight 7 00:00:42,880 --> 00:00:47,560 to the phrases found in verses 4 through 7 where love is described. 8 00:00:47,560 --> 00:00:50,160 Let's look again at those verses. 9 00:00:50,160 --> 00:00:52,480 Love is patient. 10 00:00:52,480 --> 00:00:55,000 Love is kind. 11 00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:57,160 It does not envy. 12 00:00:57,160 --> 00:00:58,720 It does not boast. 13 00:00:58,720 --> 00:01:01,360 It is not proud. 14 00:01:01,360 --> 00:01:03,480 It is not rude. 15 00:01:03,480 --> 00:01:06,320 It is not self-seeking. 16 00:01:06,320 --> 00:01:08,480 It is not easily angered. 17 00:01:08,480 --> 00:01:11,600 It keeps no record of wrongs. 18 00:01:11,600 --> 00:01:16,000 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 19 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:25,720 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 20 00:01:25,720 --> 00:01:30,320 We'll continue reading for our text today with verse 8. 21 00:01:30,320 --> 00:01:36,680 Love never fails, but where there are prophecies, they will cease. 22 00:01:36,680 --> 00:01:40,160 Where there are tongues, they will be stilled. 23 00:01:40,160 --> 00:01:43,760 Where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 24 00:01:43,760 --> 00:01:53,840 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 25 00:01:53,840 --> 00:01:56,600 When I was a child, I talked like a child. 26 00:01:56,600 --> 00:01:57,920 I thought like a child. 27 00:01:57,920 --> 00:02:00,840 I reasoned like a child. 28 00:02:00,840 --> 00:02:06,640 When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 29 00:02:06,640 --> 00:02:10,440 Now we see but a poor reflection. 30 00:02:10,440 --> 00:02:14,400 Then we shall see face to face. 31 00:02:14,400 --> 00:02:17,440 Now I know in part. 32 00:02:17,440 --> 00:02:23,240 Then I shall fully know, even as I am fully known. 33 00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:27,080 Now these three remain, faith, hope, and love. 34 00:02:27,080 --> 00:02:31,160 But the greatest of these is love. 35 00:02:31,160 --> 00:02:37,880 Isaac Watts, the great poet of Britain and the writer of many of our hymns, has fashioned 36 00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:43,880 a poem based upon 1 Corinthians 13, which captures some of the thoughts. 37 00:02:43,880 --> 00:02:51,120 Had I the tongues of Greeks and Jews, and nobler speech than angels use, if love be 38 00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:58,400 absent, I am found like tinkling brass, an empty sound. 39 00:02:58,400 --> 00:03:04,400 Were I inspired to preach and tell all that is done in heaven and hell, or could my faith 40 00:03:04,400 --> 00:03:07,080 the world remove? 41 00:03:07,080 --> 00:03:10,240 Still I am nothing without love. 42 00:03:10,240 --> 00:03:16,200 Should I distribute all my store to feed the hungry, clothe the poor, or give my body to 43 00:03:16,200 --> 00:03:20,240 the flame to gain a martyr's glorious name? 44 00:03:20,240 --> 00:03:25,800 If love to God and love to man be absent, all my hopes are vain. 45 00:03:25,800 --> 00:03:34,120 Nor tongues, nor gifts, nor fiery zeal the work of love can e'er fulfill. 46 00:03:34,120 --> 00:03:37,320 Love is unique. 47 00:03:37,320 --> 00:03:43,800 One may be greatly gifted and even well known, but without love he is nothing. 48 00:03:43,800 --> 00:03:47,880 We have spoken concerning love's preeminence and its portrait. 49 00:03:47,880 --> 00:03:53,960 Today we look in verses 8 through 13 at the permanence of love. 50 00:03:53,960 --> 00:03:58,000 Love is going to be around for all of eternity. 51 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:04,360 You notice, for example, in verse 8, the first part of the verse, the permanence of love's 52 00:04:04,360 --> 00:04:06,200 power. 53 00:04:06,200 --> 00:04:10,200 Love never fails. 54 00:04:10,200 --> 00:04:16,800 Then the last part of verse 8 through verse 12, the permanence of love's place. 55 00:04:16,800 --> 00:04:22,160 And then in verse 13, the permanence of love's priority. 56 00:04:22,160 --> 00:04:25,280 Now let's go back and look at these one by one. 57 00:04:25,280 --> 00:04:29,280 First the permanence of love's power. 58 00:04:29,280 --> 00:04:34,200 Found in those three words, love never fails. 59 00:04:34,200 --> 00:04:42,000 It doesn't say that love seldom fails, but it says that love never fails. 60 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:47,040 That does not mean that love cannot be rejected. 61 00:04:47,040 --> 00:04:51,280 Nor does it mean that love cannot be refused. 62 00:04:51,280 --> 00:04:54,880 But it does mean that love never quits. 63 00:04:54,880 --> 00:04:56,720 It never stops. 64 00:04:56,720 --> 00:04:59,520 Its power goes on. 65 00:04:59,520 --> 00:05:04,480 That word fail is an interesting word that has a lot of ramifications. 66 00:05:04,480 --> 00:05:14,640 For example, it can mean and be referred to a petal that falls from the flower. 67 00:05:14,640 --> 00:05:23,880 Love is a beautiful blossom that gives off a fragrance that can fill a home or a church 68 00:05:23,880 --> 00:05:31,200 with a fragrance that honors God and pleases people. 69 00:05:31,200 --> 00:05:34,480 Love never loses that fragrance. 70 00:05:34,480 --> 00:05:38,200 You and I can, but love will not. 71 00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:44,320 No petal from this blossom will ever fail or wither or fall down. 72 00:05:44,320 --> 00:05:50,400 It's a word that can be also used of a ship that goes off course during a storm. 73 00:05:50,400 --> 00:05:55,760 It means to lose control, something like those oil platforms in the North Sea this last week 74 00:05:55,760 --> 00:05:59,680 in the fury of that tempest. 75 00:05:59,680 --> 00:06:05,480 Those platforms began to shift and to lose from their moorings. 76 00:06:05,480 --> 00:06:08,600 What it says here is that love never does that. 77 00:06:08,600 --> 00:06:10,000 It never goes off course. 78 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:15,200 It never strays, despite the buffeting and the opposition that it may encounter. 79 00:06:15,200 --> 00:06:18,840 Love never fails. 80 00:06:18,840 --> 00:06:24,520 It is also used in the sense of collapsing or to suffer ruin, like a building that would 81 00:06:24,520 --> 00:06:27,960 be constructed and which would then collapse. 82 00:06:27,960 --> 00:06:32,760 I have been told that when the towers, for example, up here in Shoreview were constructed, 83 00:06:32,760 --> 00:06:38,760 the twin towers, that one of them, after being half built, collapsed and killed five men 84 00:06:38,760 --> 00:06:41,440 who were working on it. 85 00:06:41,440 --> 00:06:46,760 Love is never in danger of doing that because love does not collapse under weight, under 86 00:06:46,760 --> 00:06:48,120 stress. 87 00:06:48,120 --> 00:06:50,840 Love never fails. 88 00:06:50,840 --> 00:06:57,020 As Solomon wrote, many waters cannot quench love. 89 00:06:57,020 --> 00:07:03,120 Just as God never changes and God never fails, so agape love, God's kind of love, never 90 00:07:03,120 --> 00:07:05,360 fails either. 91 00:07:05,360 --> 00:07:13,080 We see it in the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, a love that drove him onto Calvary's cross, 92 00:07:13,080 --> 00:07:18,200 though there were many opportunities whereby he could have stepped aside. 93 00:07:18,200 --> 00:07:23,400 But having loved his own, he loved them to the uttermost or to the end. 94 00:07:23,400 --> 00:07:28,920 He refused to be deterred from the direction that his love was driving him. 95 00:07:28,920 --> 00:07:34,360 His love nailed him to that cross, his love for you and for me. 96 00:07:34,360 --> 00:07:39,560 Despite the fact that his own disciples turned against him, despite the fact that there were 97 00:07:39,560 --> 00:07:48,360 enemies that shouted for his crucifixion, Jesus Christ loved them as he loves us, and 98 00:07:48,360 --> 00:07:52,940 he died for the sins of the world. 99 00:07:52,940 --> 00:08:01,000 Some of us this morning were alive in 1929 when that fateful day came in which our economy 100 00:08:01,000 --> 00:08:02,560 collapsed. 101 00:08:02,560 --> 00:08:09,680 To put it simply and perhaps too simply, the demands of our economy were so great at that 102 00:08:09,680 --> 00:08:13,120 point that our banks were unable to sustain it. 103 00:08:13,120 --> 00:08:19,560 And consequently, when the banks began to fail, the economy failed. 104 00:08:19,560 --> 00:08:24,520 And there was a great collapse causing some people to commit suicide because their whole 105 00:08:24,520 --> 00:08:29,040 life's work suddenly collapsed before them. 106 00:08:29,040 --> 00:08:31,640 Love is never that way. 107 00:08:31,640 --> 00:08:39,920 No matter how much demand is made upon love, it will not collapse and fail. 108 00:08:39,920 --> 00:08:46,440 There is power in this kind of love, the kind of love that loves the object despite the 109 00:08:46,440 --> 00:08:50,000 reaction of the object. 110 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:54,940 This is seen in the story of a young man who was imprisoned some years ago without the 111 00:08:54,940 --> 00:08:56,920 knowledge of his parents. 112 00:08:56,920 --> 00:08:59,640 He was in a distant state. 113 00:08:59,640 --> 00:09:02,840 Suddenly the word came to them that their son was imprisoned. 114 00:09:02,840 --> 00:09:07,840 Immediately they went to that city to visit their son. 115 00:09:07,840 --> 00:09:12,500 He heard that they had arrived and went to the visiting room in the prison sullen and 116 00:09:12,500 --> 00:09:16,280 prepared for angry recriminations against him. 117 00:09:16,280 --> 00:09:22,600 But instead, his parents only voiced loving concern for him. 118 00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:27,520 He broke into tears overwhelmed by the love that they evidenced. 119 00:09:27,520 --> 00:09:32,040 And he said, I thought you would never forgive me, that you would disown me. 120 00:09:32,040 --> 00:09:34,960 They responded, why should we do that? 121 00:09:34,960 --> 00:09:40,560 You're our son and we only want to help you. 122 00:09:40,560 --> 00:09:43,160 Love perseveres. 123 00:09:43,160 --> 00:09:45,200 Love never fails. 124 00:09:45,200 --> 00:09:48,360 This kind of love is an unqualified love. 125 00:09:48,360 --> 00:09:54,760 It is not a love that says you act in this way and then I will react with love toward 126 00:09:54,760 --> 00:09:55,760 you. 127 00:09:55,760 --> 00:09:58,200 It is not this kind of love. 128 00:09:58,200 --> 00:10:05,920 This kind of love is so deep and so foreign to the natural nature of men that it can be 129 00:10:05,920 --> 00:10:08,120 described only as God's love. 130 00:10:08,120 --> 00:10:14,800 It is a love that loves the object despite the reaction of the object. 131 00:10:14,800 --> 00:10:21,920 This constancy of love makes it a dynamic force which is unequal among men. 132 00:10:21,920 --> 00:10:26,760 It will never diminish in its power. 133 00:10:26,760 --> 00:10:32,720 Love never fails in spite of the action or the inaction of the one who is loved. 134 00:10:32,720 --> 00:10:37,560 Love never gives up. 135 00:10:37,560 --> 00:10:43,480 Do you know that kind of power in your love? 136 00:10:43,480 --> 00:10:47,520 Are there those that you're ready to give up on this morning? 137 00:10:47,520 --> 00:10:53,240 Perhaps a husband or a wife or a child. 138 00:10:53,240 --> 00:10:58,280 Maybe it's a neighbor or a church member or that person at work who's been bugging you 139 00:10:58,280 --> 00:11:05,120 for years and you are ready to throw in the towel and say I give up. 140 00:11:05,120 --> 00:11:08,820 Love never gives up. 141 00:11:08,820 --> 00:11:19,960 It has a permanence to its power and it reaches and reaches and reaches out to the object 142 00:11:19,960 --> 00:11:30,400 of its compassion even if that object spurns its compassion, its understanding, its patience, 143 00:11:30,400 --> 00:11:35,360 its kindness, its courtesy and all of the other things that we've talked about in verses 144 00:11:35,360 --> 00:11:38,320 four through seven. 145 00:11:38,320 --> 00:11:42,360 Love has an unlimited power to it. 146 00:11:42,360 --> 00:11:48,000 I believe today that more people have been brought to the faith in Jesus Christ and saved 147 00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:53,480 through sermons on the love of God than sermons on the wrath of God. 148 00:11:53,480 --> 00:11:59,320 They are both true and they are set in a counterbalance to one another. 149 00:11:59,320 --> 00:12:02,640 Hell is as real as heaven is real. 150 00:12:02,640 --> 00:12:08,000 But it is the love of God that draws men. 151 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:12,640 Now we see this displayed graphically in that story that Jesus told about the man who had 152 00:12:12,640 --> 00:12:13,640 two sons. 153 00:12:13,640 --> 00:12:19,360 And the younger of them said, give me my goods that I may go off and live the way I want 154 00:12:19,360 --> 00:12:20,360 to live. 155 00:12:20,360 --> 00:12:26,120 The father gave him the goods and he went out and squandered everything until he lost 156 00:12:26,120 --> 00:12:31,520 his reputation and his friends, his self-respect. 157 00:12:31,520 --> 00:12:37,680 And then it says he came to himself and he said, I'm going back to my father. 158 00:12:37,680 --> 00:12:41,840 Why do you think that son wanted to go back home? 159 00:12:41,840 --> 00:12:47,960 It was because he knew that there he would find acceptance. 160 00:12:47,960 --> 00:12:51,680 He was willing to go home as a slave. 161 00:12:51,680 --> 00:12:56,000 He was willing to say to his father, make me like one of your hired servants. 162 00:12:56,000 --> 00:13:03,280 When he got back home, all he could get out of his mouth was, father, I have sinned. 163 00:13:03,280 --> 00:13:09,720 And his father with great depth of love threw his arms around his son and received him, 164 00:13:09,720 --> 00:13:12,720 welcomed him. 165 00:13:12,720 --> 00:13:18,560 I believe that day after day that father had stood as it were out in his yard looking down 166 00:13:18,560 --> 00:13:21,040 the road for the return of his son. 167 00:13:21,040 --> 00:13:25,600 And on the day when he saw the figure of his son come down the road, there was nothing 168 00:13:25,600 --> 00:13:33,000 that could have stopped him from running to his son and receiving love. 169 00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:35,520 Love has great power and it's a permanent power. 170 00:13:35,520 --> 00:13:37,680 It never fails. 171 00:13:37,680 --> 00:13:42,520 Now notice with me secondly the permanence of love's place. 172 00:13:42,520 --> 00:13:45,940 Not everything is permanent like love. 173 00:13:45,940 --> 00:13:48,080 There are some things that are temporal. 174 00:13:48,080 --> 00:13:53,480 In fact, most things are temporal, including the spiritual gifts. 175 00:13:53,480 --> 00:13:58,120 Now again, we have to remember where chapter 13 falls in 1 Corinthians. 176 00:13:58,120 --> 00:14:03,200 It is in the middle of a section that's dealing with spiritual gifts. 177 00:14:03,200 --> 00:14:06,560 This is a great problem to the church, according. 178 00:14:06,560 --> 00:14:10,760 Paul explains something about it in chapter 12 and more about it in chapter 14. 179 00:14:10,760 --> 00:14:14,520 And right in the middle of the two, he talks about love. 180 00:14:14,520 --> 00:14:17,120 And now we come to part of the reason as to why he does. 181 00:14:17,120 --> 00:14:21,520 He wants to show to them that more important than spiritual gifts is their love for one 182 00:14:21,520 --> 00:14:24,220 another. 183 00:14:24,220 --> 00:14:31,120 He says, whether there are prophecies, they will cease. 184 00:14:31,120 --> 00:14:35,120 Where there are tongues, they will be stilled. 185 00:14:35,120 --> 00:14:39,000 Where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 186 00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:44,800 In other words, the apostle is saying the spiritual gifts are for time only. 187 00:14:44,800 --> 00:14:46,800 They are temporary. 188 00:14:46,800 --> 00:14:49,000 They are transitory. 189 00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:55,920 They are unlike love, which has a permanent place. 190 00:14:55,920 --> 00:15:00,280 The gifts are transitory. 191 00:15:00,280 --> 00:15:06,440 I don't believe that Paul is particularly speaking about tongues in these verses, but 192 00:15:06,440 --> 00:15:10,480 he does something very interesting here, which I'm going to ask you to file away for future 193 00:15:10,480 --> 00:15:12,680 reference. 194 00:15:12,680 --> 00:15:19,360 He does two things to indicate to us that tongues would be the most transitory of them 195 00:15:19,360 --> 00:15:20,360 all. 196 00:15:20,360 --> 00:15:25,200 He does say that both prophecies and knowledge will cease, but he also says tongues will 197 00:15:25,200 --> 00:15:26,200 be stilled. 198 00:15:26,200 --> 00:15:30,080 When he says that, he uses two different verbs. 199 00:15:30,080 --> 00:15:33,720 This is not clear in the King James Version, nor is it clear in the version I have before 200 00:15:33,720 --> 00:15:35,200 me, the NIV. 201 00:15:35,200 --> 00:15:38,400 It is clear in the New American Standard. 202 00:15:38,400 --> 00:15:42,920 The same verbs apply to prophecies and knowledge. 203 00:15:42,920 --> 00:15:49,920 What he says here is that the gifts of prophecy and knowledge will be abolished, will be done 204 00:15:49,920 --> 00:15:53,240 away, will be set aside. 205 00:15:53,240 --> 00:15:56,600 We'll return to that thought in a moment. 206 00:15:56,600 --> 00:16:02,880 Concerning tongues, he uses a different verb, and he says it in a different way. 207 00:16:02,880 --> 00:16:08,160 He says concerning the gift of tongues, they will be stilled, or they will cease. 208 00:16:08,160 --> 00:16:12,680 The thought is that they will stop by themselves. 209 00:16:12,680 --> 00:16:15,000 They will be stilled of themselves. 210 00:16:15,000 --> 00:16:18,400 They will cease of themselves. 211 00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:26,040 He sets them aside as different, in a category different, than both prophecy and knowledge. 212 00:16:26,040 --> 00:16:28,160 And then he does something else interesting. 213 00:16:28,160 --> 00:16:32,940 From that point on, when he refers to gifts in this chapter, he doesn't mention tongues, 214 00:16:32,940 --> 00:16:36,700 but he does mention prophecy and knowledge. 215 00:16:36,700 --> 00:16:43,400 The strong implication being that before, prophecy and knowledge would be abolished. 216 00:16:43,400 --> 00:16:47,880 Tongues would already have ceased of themselves. 217 00:16:47,880 --> 00:16:51,440 I ask you simply to file that away, and we will come back to it at a later time when 218 00:16:51,440 --> 00:16:57,600 we talk more about the gift of tongues, which is obviously a very controversial gift today 219 00:16:57,600 --> 00:16:59,680 that some claim to have. 220 00:16:59,680 --> 00:17:03,640 But let's talk about what Paul is saying here. 221 00:17:03,640 --> 00:17:12,000 He is saying that more important than the spiritual gifts is love. 222 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:15,940 Prophecy and knowledge, he says, will be abolished. 223 00:17:15,940 --> 00:17:17,620 Look at verse 9. 224 00:17:17,620 --> 00:17:20,740 We know in part. 225 00:17:20,740 --> 00:17:22,800 We prophesy in part. 226 00:17:22,800 --> 00:17:30,280 In other words, the gift of knowledge, which the Holy Spirit gives now, is only partial. 227 00:17:30,280 --> 00:17:36,040 And the gift of proclaiming God's word, which he gives now, is only partial in its scope. 228 00:17:36,040 --> 00:17:39,920 It does not include all prophecy or all knowledge. 229 00:17:39,920 --> 00:17:44,840 But he says, when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 230 00:17:44,840 --> 00:17:51,160 And so he tells us there when the spiritual gifts will be abolished, when they will be 231 00:17:51,160 --> 00:17:53,640 set aside and done away. 232 00:17:53,640 --> 00:17:55,840 And when is that? 233 00:17:55,840 --> 00:17:58,880 When perfection comes. 234 00:17:58,880 --> 00:18:06,320 Now the word perfection here is a Greek word that means to come to fullness of maturity. 235 00:18:06,320 --> 00:18:10,120 It's not talking about sinlessness in this context. 236 00:18:10,120 --> 00:18:14,280 It's talking about something that is full grown, something that is culminated, something 237 00:18:14,280 --> 00:18:16,900 that is completed. 238 00:18:16,900 --> 00:18:19,040 That's the word for perfection. 239 00:18:19,040 --> 00:18:27,760 He describes the now as imperfect, as immature, as still working toward perfection. 240 00:18:27,760 --> 00:18:32,360 That perfection or maturity or full grownness will come. 241 00:18:32,360 --> 00:18:35,360 And he says when that comes, the gifts will be abolished. 242 00:18:35,360 --> 00:18:37,360 There will be no need for them. 243 00:18:37,360 --> 00:18:44,840 Now there have been a number of thoughts as to what this refers to. 244 00:18:44,840 --> 00:18:51,480 There are some who argue that that which is mature here refers to the completion of the 245 00:18:51,480 --> 00:18:56,240 New Testament canon. 246 00:18:56,240 --> 00:19:01,040 It is that when the New Testament was written and completed, that there was no more need 247 00:19:01,040 --> 00:19:05,760 then for these spiritual gifts. 248 00:19:05,760 --> 00:19:09,400 Yet that seems rather hard to say in the fact that prophecy and knowledge are still with 249 00:19:09,400 --> 00:19:11,640 us. 250 00:19:11,640 --> 00:19:18,560 So it seems difficult to me for one to argue very strongly that what is perfect here is 251 00:19:18,560 --> 00:19:20,400 the New Testament. 252 00:19:20,400 --> 00:19:25,360 I believe that what he is saying here is the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. 253 00:19:25,360 --> 00:19:31,160 And more than that, the eternal state, when time will have ceased and eternity begins 254 00:19:31,160 --> 00:19:32,840 again. 255 00:19:32,840 --> 00:19:38,280 That state of culmination and perfection as it were. 256 00:19:38,280 --> 00:19:43,080 I think we see that in what is said later here in the chapter. 257 00:19:43,080 --> 00:19:50,580 He describes the now as being a poor reflection in verse 12. 258 00:19:50,580 --> 00:19:57,520 He says, but then, obviously referring to the point of perfection he mentions earlier, 259 00:19:57,520 --> 00:20:02,040 then we shall see face to face. 260 00:20:02,040 --> 00:20:06,840 It seems to me that rather obviously he is speaking here about being face to face with 261 00:20:06,840 --> 00:20:10,360 the Lord Jesus Christ. 262 00:20:10,360 --> 00:20:12,800 Now we see a poor reflection. 263 00:20:12,800 --> 00:20:14,600 Corinth was well known for its mirrors. 264 00:20:14,600 --> 00:20:18,720 It was one of the industries there. 265 00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:24,600 They highly polished brass in order to get a reflection. 266 00:20:24,600 --> 00:20:29,440 The kind of mirrors that we have today of course were unknown at that time. 267 00:20:29,440 --> 00:20:34,480 He says now we see as it were a reflection of things. 268 00:20:34,480 --> 00:20:42,160 But then when things are matured, when the full grown has come, when perfection comes, 269 00:20:42,160 --> 00:20:44,800 we will be face to face with Jesus Christ. 270 00:20:44,800 --> 00:20:47,260 There won't be any reflection. 271 00:20:47,260 --> 00:20:51,920 He also says now I know in part. 272 00:20:51,920 --> 00:20:57,580 Then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 273 00:20:57,580 --> 00:21:00,580 God fully knows us right now, doesn't he? 274 00:21:00,580 --> 00:21:02,320 He knows all about us. 275 00:21:02,320 --> 00:21:07,040 But we only know partial things. 276 00:21:07,040 --> 00:21:12,840 But then in the future we shall know fully. 277 00:21:12,840 --> 00:21:17,960 God's plans, God's program will be obvious for we shall look at it from the viewpoint 278 00:21:17,960 --> 00:21:19,920 of eternity. 279 00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:28,440 We shall stand in a timeless state and look upon time as a complete work and program of 280 00:21:28,440 --> 00:21:29,440 God. 281 00:21:29,440 --> 00:21:30,800 We will know it fully. 282 00:21:30,800 --> 00:21:35,200 We will see it as God sees it. 283 00:21:35,200 --> 00:21:43,400 So when he says that the gifts will be abolished, gifts like prophecy and knowledge, he's talking 284 00:21:43,400 --> 00:21:47,440 about that time when we will be in the Lord's presence. 285 00:21:47,440 --> 00:21:48,640 He illustrates it this way. 286 00:21:48,640 --> 00:21:55,600 He says when I was a child I talked, I thought, and I reasoned like a child. 287 00:21:55,600 --> 00:21:59,640 But he says when I became a man I put those things behind me. 288 00:21:59,640 --> 00:22:05,640 In other words, he is saying that right now we are like in a childish state, a state of 289 00:22:05,640 --> 00:22:06,640 immaturity. 290 00:22:06,640 --> 00:22:11,440 But then we will be full grown. 291 00:22:11,440 --> 00:22:14,520 That's the thought in this very word perfection. 292 00:22:14,520 --> 00:22:23,600 He says then we will be as mature and we will put away those things that are part of childhood, 293 00:22:23,600 --> 00:22:26,760 referring to the gifts. 294 00:22:26,760 --> 00:22:33,280 When we are with the Lord Jesus Christ, what will be the need for the gift of prophecy? 295 00:22:33,280 --> 00:22:34,720 There will be nothing to proclaim. 296 00:22:34,720 --> 00:22:35,720 All will be obvious. 297 00:22:35,720 --> 00:22:42,480 What will be the need for the gift of knowledge any further? 298 00:22:42,480 --> 00:22:45,480 For then all of us shall know fully. 299 00:22:45,480 --> 00:22:48,560 The gifts are intended so that we may minister to one another. 300 00:22:48,560 --> 00:22:55,440 At that time the body of Christ will be complete and mature and full grown and we will be with 301 00:22:55,440 --> 00:22:56,640 the Lord. 302 00:22:56,640 --> 00:22:58,200 The gifts will be set aside. 303 00:22:58,200 --> 00:23:05,960 There will be no need for them in that state of eternity which is to come. 304 00:23:05,960 --> 00:23:10,880 But I emphasize again that what he says here is that tongues will cease of themselves and 305 00:23:10,880 --> 00:23:18,440 the implication is long before that state comes in the future. 306 00:23:18,440 --> 00:23:21,840 The permanence of love's place. 307 00:23:21,840 --> 00:23:26,380 The gifts are temporary. 308 00:23:26,380 --> 00:23:32,760 They are for time, but love is forever. 309 00:23:32,760 --> 00:23:34,880 Love will be around in eternity to come. 310 00:23:34,880 --> 00:23:37,720 We will talk about that again in a minute. 311 00:23:37,720 --> 00:23:44,680 As we come to verse 13, he speaks about the permanence of love's priority. 312 00:23:44,680 --> 00:23:48,720 He says now these three remain. 313 00:23:48,720 --> 00:23:56,920 These three virtues or these three qualities or graces remain or abide. 314 00:23:56,920 --> 00:24:01,720 He names them faith, hope, and love. 315 00:24:01,720 --> 00:24:10,440 Have you ever noticed how often those three things appear together in Scripture? 316 00:24:10,440 --> 00:24:15,880 Sometimes take a concordance and trace it through and you will notice that five or six 317 00:24:15,880 --> 00:24:22,440 times in the New Testament faith, love, and hope all appear together. 318 00:24:22,440 --> 00:24:24,680 Not always in the same order. 319 00:24:24,680 --> 00:24:30,680 Not always right together as they are here, but within the same paragraph for example. 320 00:24:30,680 --> 00:24:32,600 Let me show you an example of it. 321 00:24:32,600 --> 00:24:34,400 First Thessalonians chapter 1. 322 00:24:34,400 --> 00:24:38,960 Turn over there a second and I will show you what I mean. 323 00:24:38,960 --> 00:24:43,600 First Thessalonians chapter 1 and verse 3. 324 00:24:43,600 --> 00:24:56,600 He says, We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith 325 00:24:56,600 --> 00:25:08,120 and your labor prompted by love and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 326 00:25:08,120 --> 00:25:15,240 So here is one example of those three words in one verse appearing together. 327 00:25:15,240 --> 00:25:22,040 Those three graces should abide in the life of every Christian. 328 00:25:22,040 --> 00:25:33,580 Faith of course is that trust that rests upon God's word and which leads us to act. 329 00:25:33,580 --> 00:25:36,360 It causes us to labor for Jesus Christ. 330 00:25:36,360 --> 00:25:39,120 Faith produces action in the life. 331 00:25:39,120 --> 00:25:45,800 When you go to Hebrews chapter 11, the thing that stands out in that chapter besides the 332 00:25:45,800 --> 00:25:51,900 word faith is all the activity that faith inspired. 333 00:25:51,900 --> 00:25:56,780 Faith was not some kind of a feeling or an emotion that came over those people, but by 334 00:25:56,780 --> 00:25:59,900 faith they did something. 335 00:25:59,900 --> 00:26:01,480 Faith leads us to action. 336 00:26:01,480 --> 00:26:06,320 It is faith that brings us into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. 337 00:26:06,320 --> 00:26:12,080 We are saved by faith through the channel of faith. 338 00:26:12,080 --> 00:26:15,660 After we are saved, faith is still a part of our walk. 339 00:26:15,660 --> 00:26:19,440 As we have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so we are to walk in him. 340 00:26:19,440 --> 00:26:23,400 We receive him by faith, we are to walk in him by faith. 341 00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:25,640 Faith is a part of the Christian life. 342 00:26:25,640 --> 00:26:28,440 Again, Hebrews chapter 11 illustrates that. 343 00:26:28,440 --> 00:26:30,140 All of those people were believers. 344 00:26:30,140 --> 00:26:31,800 By faith they did things. 345 00:26:31,800 --> 00:26:38,920 May I say to you that God is pleased when you and I live by faith? 346 00:26:38,920 --> 00:26:43,960 May I also say that there are a few of us that do it? 347 00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:48,000 Did I include myself in that category? 348 00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:51,840 And not with much pride? 349 00:26:51,840 --> 00:26:59,560 We are so used to living in terms of our resources and what we can do. 350 00:26:59,560 --> 00:27:04,040 Faith is almost foreign to many of us. 351 00:27:04,040 --> 00:27:13,040 Last week I was with a friend who wanted to buy his wife some flowers for the Thanksgiving 352 00:27:13,040 --> 00:27:16,240 table, a centerpiece. 353 00:27:16,240 --> 00:27:19,040 He didn't have enough money to do it. 354 00:27:19,040 --> 00:27:25,440 So he and his wife prayed about it for two or three days and nothing happened. 355 00:27:25,440 --> 00:27:29,480 No one showed up at the door with flowers or anything. 356 00:27:29,480 --> 00:27:33,640 He was in his office. 357 00:27:33,640 --> 00:27:37,960 This would have been Wednesday morning of this last week. 358 00:27:37,960 --> 00:27:45,480 And a friend of his came in the office and pulled off a book from his shelf and opened 359 00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:46,680 the book up. 360 00:27:46,680 --> 00:27:53,040 And inside this book, which my friend had bought for a dollar at some sale, were two 361 00:27:53,040 --> 00:27:57,800 twenty dollar bills. 362 00:27:57,800 --> 00:28:02,600 And so the fellow that was holding the book said, hey have you ever looked at this commentary 363 00:28:02,600 --> 00:28:04,480 recently? 364 00:28:04,480 --> 00:28:07,240 And my friend said, well, no, not really, I just bought the book. 365 00:28:07,240 --> 00:28:10,440 He said, I think you ought to open that book up and look at it. 366 00:28:10,440 --> 00:28:14,920 There are lots of treasures in that book. 367 00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:18,360 So he took the commentary and opened it up, forty bucks. 368 00:28:18,360 --> 00:28:20,080 You know what he did? 369 00:28:20,080 --> 00:28:23,800 Went to the telephone and called the forest and ordered some flowers. 370 00:28:23,800 --> 00:28:27,920 He felt that that was an answer to their prayer. 371 00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:33,760 When was the last time you prayed for flowers? 372 00:28:33,760 --> 00:28:35,760 Or for a parking place? 373 00:28:35,760 --> 00:28:41,600 Which is even more nitty gritty, isn't it? 374 00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:44,880 And now abide faith and hope. 375 00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:47,600 What is hope? 376 00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:53,480 Hope is biblical optimism. 377 00:28:53,480 --> 00:29:01,440 I don't belong to an optimist club, but I believe I am an optimist, but a realist at 378 00:29:01,440 --> 00:29:02,880 the same time. 379 00:29:02,880 --> 00:29:09,720 Our optimism is based not upon what we see around us or upon our trust in man's goodness, 380 00:29:09,720 --> 00:29:15,480 because that's kind of non-existent, but our optimism is based upon God's promises, you 381 00:29:15,480 --> 00:29:16,480 see. 382 00:29:16,480 --> 00:29:22,760 Our future is as bright as the promises of God, as someone has said. 383 00:29:22,760 --> 00:29:24,920 We ought to be biblical optimists. 384 00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:26,860 That's what hope is. 385 00:29:26,860 --> 00:29:29,800 It is an optimism about the future. 386 00:29:29,800 --> 00:29:34,120 We look around us today in this country and we see the morals going downhill and our economy 387 00:29:34,120 --> 00:29:39,680 is in trouble and all kinds of problems with Russia and terrorism. 388 00:29:39,680 --> 00:29:43,120 Why, it seems like a hopeless situation. 389 00:29:43,120 --> 00:29:45,040 It's not. 390 00:29:45,040 --> 00:29:48,240 It's not because God is still on the throne. 391 00:29:48,240 --> 00:29:52,080 And because He's on the throne, there is hope. 392 00:29:52,080 --> 00:29:55,440 Man can't live without hope. 393 00:29:55,440 --> 00:30:00,720 Does hope possess you? 394 00:30:00,720 --> 00:30:07,720 Or do circumstances come crashing down on your life and raining on your parade? 395 00:30:07,720 --> 00:30:12,840 Don't allow them to do that. 396 00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:15,160 Maintain hope. 397 00:30:15,160 --> 00:30:19,880 Don't get your eyes off the fact that we have a blessed hope to look forward to. 398 00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:26,120 Allow that hope to keep bubbling within you, an optimism about the future, about God's 399 00:30:26,120 --> 00:30:31,520 promises, because God has got some great things in store for us. 400 00:30:31,520 --> 00:30:33,960 The best is yet to come. 401 00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:35,960 The best. 402 00:30:35,960 --> 00:30:39,960 Faith, hope, and love. 403 00:30:39,960 --> 00:30:45,800 Now we've talked a lot about love last week and this week, so I don't want to say a lot 404 00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:54,040 more about it, but love is that which prompts me to sacrifice for others, including my wife, 405 00:30:54,040 --> 00:31:04,360 my children, my fellow workers, my friends, my neighbors. 406 00:31:04,360 --> 00:31:13,440 Love causes me to reach out to them, to do good for them, to be kind and to be patient 407 00:31:13,440 --> 00:31:16,880 with them. 408 00:31:16,880 --> 00:31:22,640 Love helps me not pass along bad reports about them, but to maintain a controlled tongue 409 00:31:22,640 --> 00:31:25,680 to be silent. 410 00:31:25,680 --> 00:31:32,840 Love causes me to rejoice when truth prevails, not to rejoice over iniquity. 411 00:31:32,840 --> 00:31:36,120 Faith, hope, and love. 412 00:31:36,120 --> 00:31:40,840 These three abide, and folks, they ought to be in our lives every day of the week. 413 00:31:40,840 --> 00:31:44,800 They're evidence of a spirit-filled life. 414 00:31:44,800 --> 00:31:51,040 There's one sense, I suppose, in which these graces will forever abide together. 415 00:31:51,040 --> 00:31:56,440 As someone has said, faith will go on possessing God more fully. 416 00:31:56,440 --> 00:32:03,040 Hope never ceases to catch new glimpses of his glory in the wonder of eternity, and love 417 00:32:03,040 --> 00:32:06,840 will forever seal the child of God to his heavenly Father. 418 00:32:06,840 --> 00:32:14,000 But it is interesting to me that in this verse it does say that the greatest of these is 419 00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:15,000 love. 420 00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:22,920 And what I see there is love's priority and the permanence of it. 421 00:32:22,920 --> 00:32:27,160 Now why does it say that love is the greatest? 422 00:32:27,160 --> 00:32:30,520 Let me suggest several reasons why that might be so. 423 00:32:30,520 --> 00:32:39,520 In the first place, because both faith and hope will find culmination in the Lord's 424 00:32:39,520 --> 00:32:40,520 presence. 425 00:32:40,520 --> 00:32:43,400 Here's what I mean by that. 426 00:32:43,400 --> 00:32:48,000 When we are face to face with the Lord Jesus Christ, there will be any more need, in one 427 00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:50,440 sense, for faith. 428 00:32:50,440 --> 00:32:54,600 For faith will then be sight. 429 00:32:54,600 --> 00:33:01,440 And hope will be culminated in his presence. 430 00:33:01,440 --> 00:33:04,920 But love, it will persist. 431 00:33:04,920 --> 00:33:05,920 It will continue. 432 00:33:05,920 --> 00:33:13,040 In Ephesians chapter 3, Paul prays that those believers may know the depth and the width 433 00:33:13,040 --> 00:33:15,800 and the length and the height of the love of Christ. 434 00:33:15,800 --> 00:33:21,400 And then he says that you might know the unknown. 435 00:33:21,400 --> 00:33:25,960 That's the unpossessable, the love of Christ. 436 00:33:25,960 --> 00:33:30,880 There is no way that we can ever say love is culminated or love is ended. 437 00:33:30,880 --> 00:33:32,840 Love is eternal. 438 00:33:32,840 --> 00:33:34,480 In that sense it's the greatest. 439 00:33:34,480 --> 00:33:36,840 But there's a second reason I think it says it's the greatest. 440 00:33:36,840 --> 00:33:41,960 And that is that love is the essence of God. 441 00:33:41,960 --> 00:33:48,320 It does not say in the New Testament that God is faith or that God is hope. 442 00:33:48,320 --> 00:33:51,900 But it does say that God is love. 443 00:33:51,900 --> 00:33:59,040 That word is so significant that it can be said that God is love. 444 00:33:59,040 --> 00:34:01,480 God is agape. 445 00:34:01,480 --> 00:34:04,520 So much does it describe his nature. 446 00:34:04,520 --> 00:34:08,360 Perhaps that's the reason that it says it is the greatest. 447 00:34:08,360 --> 00:34:14,440 A third reason that it may say it's the greatest is that love is the root of the other two. 448 00:34:14,440 --> 00:34:23,720 For if you go back to verse 7 you find that love trusts and love hopes. 449 00:34:23,720 --> 00:34:26,640 There's faith and hope. 450 00:34:26,640 --> 00:34:30,440 And love is that which produces it. 451 00:34:30,440 --> 00:34:33,560 It is an outworking of love. 452 00:34:33,560 --> 00:34:38,280 And so in that sense, because love is the root of the other two, perhaps it says here 453 00:34:38,280 --> 00:34:42,280 it is the greatest. 454 00:34:42,280 --> 00:34:47,280 I want to suggest another reason why love is the greatest. 455 00:34:47,280 --> 00:34:57,240 Hope and faith are for ourselves, but love is for others. 456 00:34:57,240 --> 00:35:03,440 And finally may I suggest another reason why love is the greatest. 457 00:35:03,440 --> 00:35:12,240 It is because love is that which will be illustrated and incarnated for redeemed mankind forever. 458 00:35:12,240 --> 00:35:17,840 What do I mean by that? 459 00:35:17,840 --> 00:35:24,320 Have you ever wondered if Jesus Christ will return to his spirit form? 460 00:35:24,320 --> 00:35:30,880 After all of redemption has now been taken care of and after it's all applied, and all 461 00:35:30,880 --> 00:35:35,680 the redeemed are with the Lord, and time has ended, and new heaven and new earth, and eternity 462 00:35:35,680 --> 00:35:38,200 has begun again. 463 00:35:38,200 --> 00:35:47,800 Have you ever wondered if Jesus Christ, God the Son, will return to spirit and lay aside 464 00:35:47,800 --> 00:35:53,880 the body in which he incarnated himself in Bethlehem? 465 00:35:53,880 --> 00:36:00,760 I believe that there's ample reason to think that Jesus Christ will never do that. 466 00:36:00,760 --> 00:36:08,640 That we will always be able to look upon God the Son in glorified human form. 467 00:36:08,640 --> 00:36:11,160 Why do I say that? 468 00:36:11,160 --> 00:36:17,400 If you go to the book of Revelation, chapters 21 and 22 sometime, you'll remember that 469 00:36:17,400 --> 00:36:21,360 those chapters deal with eternity to come. 470 00:36:21,360 --> 00:36:24,440 Time has ended, eternity has begun again. 471 00:36:24,440 --> 00:36:26,960 It's far in the future. 472 00:36:26,960 --> 00:36:33,880 It describes there the new heaven and the new earth. 473 00:36:33,880 --> 00:36:42,920 It describes the new Jerusalem, which it would seem will be the center of that recreated 474 00:36:42,920 --> 00:36:46,160 heaven and earth. 475 00:36:46,160 --> 00:36:52,200 From it the glory of the Lamb, it says, shines throughout the universe. 476 00:36:52,200 --> 00:36:56,840 It lights that whole city and beyond. 477 00:36:56,840 --> 00:37:04,040 In chapters 21 and 22, the name that is used again and again and again for Jesus Christ 478 00:37:04,040 --> 00:37:10,400 is that name, the Lamb. 479 00:37:10,400 --> 00:37:16,640 It's the name that is seen for the first time, I think, in Revelation. 480 00:37:16,640 --> 00:37:20,720 Back in chapter 5, where John is caught up into the presence of God and is overwhelmed 481 00:37:20,720 --> 00:37:23,120 by all he sees. 482 00:37:23,120 --> 00:37:28,320 But then in chapter 5, he notices that there is a scroll. 483 00:37:28,320 --> 00:37:32,800 Some of you have been studying Revelation on Tuesday nights, and this is review for 484 00:37:32,800 --> 00:37:34,360 you. 485 00:37:34,360 --> 00:37:39,680 But there is a scroll that is there, and the question is asked, who is worthy to open the 486 00:37:39,680 --> 00:37:43,920 seals of that scroll? 487 00:37:43,920 --> 00:37:46,420 And no one is worthy. 488 00:37:46,420 --> 00:37:50,940 And John begins to weep because there is no one there who is qualified to open the seals 489 00:37:50,940 --> 00:37:52,900 of that scroll. 490 00:37:52,900 --> 00:38:01,920 And then an angel says, don't weep, for the lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed. 491 00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:04,440 A lion. 492 00:38:04,440 --> 00:38:10,080 And then it says John turned around and he saw, not a lion, but a what? 493 00:38:10,080 --> 00:38:12,400 A lamb. 494 00:38:12,400 --> 00:38:16,360 A lamb as though it had been sacrificed. 495 00:38:16,360 --> 00:38:25,000 In other words, that lamb, which represents Jesus Christ, had upon it the marks, the wounds 496 00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:26,000 of sacrifice. 497 00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:29,840 Now that's in heaven. 498 00:38:29,840 --> 00:38:35,640 There's no indication that those wounds ever disappear, or that the lamb is ever found 499 00:38:35,640 --> 00:38:39,320 in a different form than John sees him there in chapter 5. 500 00:38:39,320 --> 00:38:47,960 The point is this, throughout eternity to come, you and I will be reminded of the significance 501 00:38:47,960 --> 00:38:54,920 of love, because you and I will look upon the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, and we will 502 00:38:54,920 --> 00:39:01,680 see the wounds in his hands and his feet, and we will remember that he was sacrificed 503 00:39:01,680 --> 00:39:03,640 for our sins. 504 00:39:03,640 --> 00:39:10,600 That's the greatest illustration that love could ever have. 505 00:39:10,600 --> 00:39:18,800 Love has a permanent priority, because it will be illustrated forever in the person 506 00:39:18,800 --> 00:39:23,320 of Jesus Christ. 507 00:39:23,320 --> 00:39:26,660 My friend, God has loved you so much that that's what he's done for you. 508 00:39:26,660 --> 00:39:28,920 He has given his Son for your sins. 509 00:39:28,920 --> 00:39:30,720 Isn't that marvelous? 510 00:39:30,720 --> 00:39:39,400 He has made it possible for us someday to be face to face, as it says here, with himself. 511 00:39:39,400 --> 00:39:45,760 Now frankly, I don't know all that that phrase, face to face, implies. 512 00:39:45,760 --> 00:39:52,120 But it at least means this, there is no closer communion than two people can have than to 513 00:39:52,120 --> 00:39:54,680 be face to face. 514 00:39:54,680 --> 00:40:02,120 There's the phrase that is used to describe the fellowship, the relationship between God 515 00:40:02,120 --> 00:40:07,440 and the Word in John chapter 1. 516 00:40:07,440 --> 00:40:12,200 They were face to face, it says, in union. 517 00:40:12,200 --> 00:40:21,280 And that very same phrase is used of you and me, for saved, face to face, in the closest 518 00:40:21,280 --> 00:40:26,640 kind of union with God. 519 00:40:26,640 --> 00:40:27,640 How can that be? 520 00:40:27,640 --> 00:40:30,200 Well, because Christ has died for our sins. 521 00:40:30,200 --> 00:40:35,420 He's made us worthy through giving us his righteousness so that we can stand before 522 00:40:35,420 --> 00:40:41,860 God and know that kind of communion and union with God. 523 00:40:41,860 --> 00:40:45,200 But we can't wait till then to make that decision to trust Christ. 524 00:40:45,200 --> 00:40:48,000 We have to do that now. 525 00:40:48,000 --> 00:40:56,680 Now in the childhood state, now in the temporal state, now during lifetime. 526 00:40:56,680 --> 00:40:59,600 This is the time of decision. 527 00:40:59,600 --> 00:41:03,200 If you have never trusted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I hope that you will 528 00:41:03,200 --> 00:41:05,400 do it today. 529 00:41:05,400 --> 00:41:09,040 Because you see, we do not know how long we have in this life. 530 00:41:09,040 --> 00:41:14,620 This last week, the students at Faith Baptist Bible College down in Ankeny, Iowa were released 531 00:41:14,620 --> 00:41:18,760 for Thanksgiving, just like most other college students. 532 00:41:18,760 --> 00:41:23,960 They all drove toward home, but there was one student in the state of Iowa who on his 533 00:41:23,960 --> 00:41:31,280 way home had a head-on collision and was instantly in the presence of his Lord. 534 00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:36,120 You see, because we're college students, doesn't mean that we have forever. 535 00:41:36,120 --> 00:41:39,040 Doesn't mean we have 70 years. 536 00:41:39,040 --> 00:41:42,160 We don't know how long we have in this world. 537 00:41:42,160 --> 00:41:47,820 That's why it is so critically important that when we understand our need for Jesus 538 00:41:47,820 --> 00:41:53,680 Christ to come into our lives and to save us, that we make the decision then to do it. 539 00:41:53,680 --> 00:41:58,400 If you've never done it, I hope you will today. 540 00:41:58,400 --> 00:42:03,880 For those of us who have made that decision, let us remember the permanence of love. 541 00:42:03,880 --> 00:42:08,440 We are never going to be beyond the boundary of love. 542 00:42:08,440 --> 00:42:12,000 We will always be within its arms. 543 00:42:12,000 --> 00:42:19,280 And so let us live a life that is controlled by love. 544 00:42:19,280 --> 00:42:25,740 Let us surrender our lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ so that the fruit of the Spirit 545 00:42:25,740 --> 00:42:29,120 in our lives may be love. 546 00:42:29,120 --> 00:42:32,080 Let's bow together. 547 00:42:32,080 --> 00:42:37,920 That's easy for us to talk about love and to think of it in general terms, but could 548 00:42:37,920 --> 00:42:43,360 I ask you to think just a moment, allow the Holy Spirit to probe your mind a little bit, 549 00:42:43,360 --> 00:42:46,040 to stimulate you to think. 550 00:42:46,040 --> 00:42:56,840 Who is it among your family or friends or fellow employees, who is it that today or 551 00:42:56,840 --> 00:43:03,680 tomorrow needs to sense the love of God through you? 552 00:43:03,680 --> 00:43:16,280 Who needs to sense that patience, that kindness, that goodness, that forgiveness? 553 00:43:16,280 --> 00:43:23,720 Will you allow God to bring to your mind one individual, at least, to whom you may manifest 554 00:43:23,720 --> 00:43:29,520 the love of God? 555 00:43:29,520 --> 00:43:35,680 Now with that person in mind, will you silently pray and say, Lord, you know how difficult 556 00:43:35,680 --> 00:43:47,020 it is for me to love that person, but love that person through me. 557 00:43:47,020 --> 00:43:59,160 Show me what to do that I may express love, love undeserved for that individual. 558 00:43:59,160 --> 00:44:12,520 Father, I pray that you will take love from the level of just emotion and make it the 559 00:44:12,520 --> 00:44:21,360 controlling factor of our lives so that it will control the words that we say, even the 560 00:44:21,360 --> 00:44:27,200 way that we say our words. 561 00:44:27,200 --> 00:44:41,520 Because love to control our thoughts, our motives, and of course our deeds, cause us 562 00:44:41,520 --> 00:44:50,960 to live, to think, to speak like Jesus, love incarnate. 563 00:44:50,960 --> 00:44:55,520 I pray that that individual or those individuals that you have brought to our mind in the quietness 564 00:44:55,520 --> 00:45:04,920 of these moments will be warmed and will respond positively to the love that you will exhibit 565 00:45:04,920 --> 00:45:10,520 through us to him or them. 566 00:45:10,520 --> 00:45:16,880 But even if there isn't that warm response, I pray that you will love them through us 567 00:45:16,880 --> 00:45:25,480 anyway, and then again and again. 568 00:45:25,480 --> 00:45:29,480 And I pray, Father, for some friend who may be here who has never responded to your love 569 00:45:29,480 --> 00:45:33,160 and received your Son as Savior. 570 00:45:33,160 --> 00:45:40,000 As we close this service, may there be the opening of the heart and the reaching out 571 00:45:40,000 --> 00:45:44,280 by faith to receive Christ. 572 00:45:44,280 --> 00:45:48,600 Now let's stand together. 573 00:45:48,600 --> 00:45:58,920 I'd like for us to open our hymnals and to say in number 306, which speaks of the 574 00:45:58,920 --> 00:46:03,960 Lamb of God, let's stand together. 575 00:46:03,960 --> 00:46:13,880 Just as I am without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me, O Lamb of God, I come, 576 00:46:13,880 --> 00:46:15,760 I come. 577 00:46:15,760 --> 00:46:21,480 If today there is a need in your life for a public response of some kind, there is an 578 00:46:21,480 --> 00:46:26,960 issue about which God has been dealing with you, and we encourage you to come as we sing 579 00:46:26,960 --> 00:46:30,120 this closing hymn of our service. 580 00:46:30,120 --> 00:46:32,880 God may meet that need today. 581 00:46:32,880 --> 00:46:37,680 Perhaps you need to come to trust Christ or to settle some matter between you and your 582 00:46:37,680 --> 00:46:38,680 Savior. 583 00:46:38,680 --> 00:46:42,120 If you need to come, respond to Him now. 584 00:46:42,120 --> 00:46:43,120 He loves you. 585 00:46:43,120 --> 00:46:44,120 Let's sing. 586 00:46:44,120 --> 00:47:08,640 Just as I am without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me.