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(Return to Love Series)

…and you look at those fears, and you look at those doubts, and you prove what is true and let the truth and the love of God, get rid of the fear, and get rid of the doubt. That’s what you do. Because if you just put it in the back of your mind Satan’s going to come along one day and he’s going to push that button, and what’s going to happen? You know what’s going to happen. So this tells us the whole process. This shows us what we need to do.

“We love Him, because He first loved us.” And then he gives the acid test. “If a man say, I love God, and hateth [is hating] his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God Whom he hath not seen?” (vs. 19-20). Now that’s quite a test, isn’t it? Now what you need to do with this is just think about those people you know you ought to love and ask God to help you love them. And the first thing you’re probably going to do is have a trial. Why? Cause that’s how you are going to learn the love of God. Try loving someone as Christ has loved us in spite of themselves. Those that you know that you need to love and are not loving, see if you can inspire them to love you in return by asking God to help you love that individual, to care for that person, to help them, inspire them to respond to what you are doing. Now what if they don’t for a long time? What do you do then? You just keep at it. You never give up, you see. Now verse 21, “And this commandment have we from Him, That he who loveth [is loving] God love his brother also.” So that’s the kind of love that God wants us to have.

Now you see, it’s the Spirit of God that makes all of this possible. That’s what does it. Let’s go to 1 Corinthians 2. And it is the Spirit of God that helps us understand all these things, helps us grow, helps us to love each other. Now here’s how the apostle Paul came. 1 Corinthians 2:1, “And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:1-2). But he wanted to know everything about Christ, and he wanted them to know everything about Christ.

“And I was with you in power and strength and demonstration of the Spirit, and my carnality was at its greatest authority.” No. “And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power [that is the power of God]: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men [or on a man], but in the power of God. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect [that is, those who are spiritually mature]: yet not the wisdom of this world,…” Now you see there’s no room for philosophy of the world in the way of God. And the Greek word wisdom is sophia from which we get the word “philosophy”, which means lover of wisdom. “…Nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought [they are all going to come to nothing]: but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him” (vs. 3-9). Notice that. That love Him. Because if you love Him, Jesus said, “If you love Me you will keep My commandments.” See. It’s not that you keep the commandments and you develop love. Love inspires you to keep the commandments. It’s the other way around. Can you have commandment keeping without love? Yes, in the letter. You sure can. What does it lead to? Futility, dead-end, carnality, judging, pickiness, doesn’t it? And I’m sure none of you have experienced that, have you? [laughter] I say that in jest. You’ve all experienced it, because there wasn’t the love.

“But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit:…” So this is how God’s love and God’s knowledge comes to us. If we love God, He’s going to grant us more of His Spirit and understanding. And it’s a constant growing thing. “…For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God” (vs. 10-11). So therefore, we can’t take the world’s religion and bring it into the way of God and try and make understanding out of it. Now there may be some things of value that we can learn in a technical sense, but the true love of God has got to come from the Spirit of God, and the deepest thing for us to understand is the love of God by the Spirit of God.

Let’s see what this did for Paul. We know that in Acts 9, what was he out doing? He was on his way to Damascus, filled with eros love, orders from the high priest to arrest all of those, take them bound back to Jerusalem to be beaten, to be jailed. Now let’s see what happened to Paul after he was converted. Let’s come to Galatians 1. See what the love of God did to Paul. This is what it needs to do to us, brethren.

Galatians 1:13, here’s where he started out. “For ye have heard of my conversation [conduct] in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it:” And this means to just take and to root it up like a boar hog with the big tusks that come out of each side of the snout, and just rooting and tearing apart. That’s what he was. “And profited in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased God, Who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace,…” (Gal. 1:13-15). All right, there he starts out.

Now let’s come to 1 Corinthians 15, back just a few pages. Let’s see how Paul’s attitude changed over a period of time. How that with the love of God he became more humble. How that with the love of God he could see God greater, and he could see what God was doing to a more full extent.

Let’s pick it up here in verse 4. “And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures: and that He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: after that, He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once;…” Now can you imagine what those brethren thought when they saw Jesus raised from the dead? That must have been an experience. Must have really been an experience. “…Of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, He was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all He was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time” (1 Cor. 15:4-8). Now what did he consider himself? And this means an abortion - one who was aborted.

“For I am the least of the apostles…” Notice the humility that the love of God brought him. The more that he grew in the love of God, the more humble he became because the greatness of God becomes so overwhelming. “…That am not meet [fit] to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all:…” (vs. 9-10). And I think Paul worked extra hard because of what he did. I don’t think he was trying in any way to make up for what he had done, because you can’t make up for it. There is no work you can do to make up for your sins, is there? Is there anything you can do to forgive your sins? No, except repent. So notice his attitude here.

Let’s come to 1 Timothy 1, and let’s see how he expresses it here. Now I’m kind of going in chronological order in the writings of the apostle Paul. 1 Timothy 1:12, “And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, Who hath enabled me, for that He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;” So God is the one Who puts anyone in a teaching or ministerial position. “Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” Now notice, he comes all the way from profiting in the Jewish religion all the way down to saying “I’m a chief sinner.” That’s what the love and Spirit of God will do. Now notice verse 16, “Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting” (1 Tim. 1:12-16).

Now let’s come to Ephesians 3. Now this was just before he died, when he was writing in prison. And God revealed to him and the other apostles the great and overwhelming plan of God. See, God had to reveal this to them step by step. Because it is an awesome thing to contemplate and to understand that God wants you to become as He is. You see, that’s why with children, what do you do with children? You are reproducing yourself, correct? Do they become equal to you? Yes, they do, don’t they? Sometimes when they grow up, they think they’re more equal. [laughter] God wants us to learn that that’s what He’s doing with His family. He is not creating infants to be infants through all eternity. He’s creating sons and daughters to share eternal life with, and he revealed this to the apostles.

It says right here concerning the mystery of God, Ephesians 3:5, “Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men…” And just think about it right here at the end time. And I say this a lot, and you’ll probably hear me say it again, which is this, brethren, we’ve got all of God’s word. All of God’s word. Now isn’t that a tremendous blessing? Now what are we going to do with it. Think what some people did with just part of the word of God. We’ve got all of it. Is God going to hold a higher judgment on us? No question. No question. “…As it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel: whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of His power. Unto me…” Now notice how his attitude kept going more and more, and more to the real understanding of human nature compared to the plan of God. “Unto me, who am less than the least of all [the] saints…” Now how’s that for a hierarchy? Doesn’t exist does it? Nowhere. “…Less than the least of all [the] saints, is this grace given [to me], that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;…” (Eph. 3:5-8). And that comes through the love of God. So that shows you exactly what God is doing.

Let’s come to 1 Corinthians 13. Now let’s understand something about 1 Corinthians 13. There are quite a few things we can understand about this. And I think I finally figured out why some books of the Bible translate the word agape as charity, as it does here in 1 Corinthians 13, rather than love, because I think that was reflective of the committee that was doing the translating when they did the King James. So the ones who translated the Gospel of John, 1, 2, 3 John, they translate it love. Here the committee that did 1 and 2 Corinthians translates it as charity. But what this is telling us, this is the most important thing. You can go through 1 Corinthians and you can see all the problems that they had. Divisions, following a man, allowing fornication, eating things sacrificed to idols, eating at the table of demons, saying that that was all right. Having wild church services with tongues, with a psalm, with an interpretation. You had your Peter party over here, your Christ party over there, your Paul party over here, your Apollos party here. And it came to church and it was like coming to a zoo. And I imagine the apostle Paul was wondering, “Oh, God, why on earth do I have a church like this?” Boy I tell you. But what is it today? Some people ask me, “What church era do you think we are in?” I tell them 1 Corinthians. [laughter] Because that’s exactly what we are. Every problem there.

So he says, “Now I’m going to show you the way out of this.” 1 Corinthians 12:31. “But covet [desire] earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.” The way of love. The way of God. And 1 Corinthians 13 what we are going to see and understand and discover is this, that this is describing the nature of God. Isn’t that profound?

Notice how he starts it out. “Though you speak with tongues…” No, he says “Though I…” So who’s he applying this to? Himself. He’s saying, “Though I [as a minister] speak with the tongues of men and of angels…” Now I remember when John Paul II was coronated. That was during the Feast of Tabernacles 1975. I imagine many of you remember that, right? That year I kept the Feast in Pasadena, and we stayed down in San Pablo in a persons home, and went on down to Tucson, Arizona. And I was glued to that TV, because remember John Paul I was coronated just 30 days before. And if you read Martin Malachi’s book, he was going to get rid of the Masons within the Catholic church and [slap] he was snuffed out. So John Paul II came on. And here, 54 years old, or 56, I forget which, and he could speak 45 languages fluently, flowing from one to the other without even a stutter. And I thought, “This has got to be last Pope.” You talk about a Babylon. Not only is it Babylon but he can speak in all the languages of Babel, right? And I looked at that and I thought, “My, my, we must be getting close to the end.” Now look, he’s getting feeble and he’s doing all he can to try and make it to the year 2000. I wonder what the next Pope is going to be like. And you know this one can’t last too long, so keep your eyes on that.

But you see, though he could speak all those languages, and like Paul said, even if you spoke the language of an angel…now I don’t know what language the angels have, but when they communicate to men they use the language that we speak. But can you imagine what it would be if someone said, “I know the language of an angel.” Oh my, self-exaltation, right? Yes.

If I have that, “…and have not charity [love], I am become as [a] sounding brass, or [and] a tinkling cymbal.” It doesn’t mean as, it means you become one. Now have you heard any sermons like that? Yes. Just so much noise. Not conveying anything to teach or to uplift, or to inspire. So if you have all of those things, what does it count?

Now verse 2. Now here’s loveless prophecy. Have we experienced loveless prophecy? Yes. “And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity [love], I am nothing.” Not only does it profit nothing, is nothing. So you see, when you get all this substitute eros and phileo love all together looking to these things, what happens? All going to fail, right? How many here remember 1975? Oh, yes. How you going to understand prophecy? Now what if you studied prophecy? Is that going to give you understanding? That won’t give you understanding.

Here, let’s hold your place here and let’s go to John 16. And all the way through the covenant that we have, the covenant of eternal life, which we read all these words during the Passover. Jesus said, back here in chapter 15. Oh, there’s so much here, I tell you these four chapters are really marvelous. I’m overwhelmed every time I read these.

Let’s go back to John 14:15 so we can see how this is going to come to answer the question: how are we going to understand prophecy? “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that he [it] may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth;…” (John 14:15-17). So you receive the Spirit of truth because you love God, because you love Christ.

John 15:9, “As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you: continue ye in My love. If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love” (John 15:9-10).

Now John 16:13. It talks about the Spirit of truth again. “Howbeit when he [it, as it should read], the Spirit of truth, is come, he [it] will guide you into all truth:…” So it has to be based upon the love of God and the Spirit of God working together. “…For he [it] shall not speak of himself [itself]; but whatsoever he [it] shall hear, that shall he [it] speak: and he [it] will shew you things to come” - - if you love God. That’s how we are going to understand prophecy, brethren. So we can all relax. You don’t need to buy a plane ticket to Petra this year. No, God is going to work it out and I may talk a little bit about prophecy this afternoon. I see I’m not even going to get halfway through what I have here but, you’ll just have to bare with me.

Now let’s come back to 1 Corinthians 13. So if I have the gift of prophecy…now this can mean two things. Understanding prophecy, one thing. And prophesying in the way of forth telling of God’s word. There’s a telling forth of events, which is one kind of prophesying. There’s a forth telling of the word of God, which is inspired kind of speaking kind of forth telling. That’s what it’s talking about here.

“…And understand all mysteries…” Boy, what happens when you have all knowledge? What happens when you have loveless knowledge? You have mental superiority, right? And with the young, they become conceited. Like your friend Bill Gates over here, who has billions. Or, if they’re old they become dictatorial. And we’ve experience that too, right? Yes. So this kind of knowledge and things like this is hard, it’s cold, loveless, presumptuous.

But what is he saying? He says, “…and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains,..” Now what would happen? What’s harder to move than a mountain? Well, I haven’t been in the mountain moving business myself, but what is harder to move than a mountain? Human nature. And besides, if you had the ability to move a mountain, what would you probably do with it? You would plop it down in front of your enemy because you had no love so you didn’t love your enemy, so you’d put it down right in front of him and cause him trouble. Now if you don’t have love, “…I am nothing.” Now what does nothing mean? It means you are a non-entity.

So how important is love then? Well, hey, boy, greatly important, you see. True love causes you to exercise the mental powers through the Spirit of God to choose the will of God to become your will. Now that’s very profound. You need to understand that. God does not expect you to give up your will. God does not expect you to check your brains in at the door. God gave you a mind to use. He’s given you the Holy Spirit to add to it, to understand. He’s given the love of God so you can understand, you see. But what He wants you to do is He’s wants you to choose His will to become your will. That’s what’s so important. And isn’t that in the daily prayer? Your will be done. And what’s the biggest problem in the Church today? Too many people want their will to become God’s will. That’s how all false doctrines come. That’s how all of these things develop, because someone has a will that they want this, or they want that, or this is interesting, and I discovered this, and how great that is.

Jim Hyles and I were talking about all these false doctrines flying around, and we thought, well just look at all the false doctrines concerning the Passover. I mean it’s unreal. So we thought, well, Jim said, “I can come up with some false doctrine and I bet some people would believe it.” And I said, “What’s that?” “Well, in the years when you have the Passover in the middle of the week, what we ought to do is fast for three days and three nights and that way we’ll know more about God because we fast three days and three nights.” You know, there would be people who would believe that, and they would do that, wouldn’t they? Why? Because they want their will rather than God’s will. God never said fast three days and three nights. So we’re not going to go around making our will the will of God. What we have to do is let the will of God, then, become what we desire. Just the opposite.

Let’s go on to the next one and then let’s go to the next verse. Loveless service and sacrifice. Boy I tell you, the epitome of loveless service and sacrifice. “And though I bestow all my goods…” Now it does not say to feed the poor in the Greek. It is that you give out all of your goods for whatever. “…And though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity [love], it profiteth me nothing” (1 Cor. 13:1-3). This is the whole concept of world’s boot-strapism, right? To improve yourself. To become better. Discipline yourself. Now you can do certain things that way. You can accomplish certain things that way, but is it going to generate the love of God? No. Will you be more disciplined? Perhaps. Well, what if you discipline yourself and you become Mr. America, or Miss America, or whatever, the greatest, the best, the strongest, the most beautiful, the most handsome, and all of this sort of thing? Now what do you have? Without the love of God, nothing. So you give everything that you have. I mean some people have even given everything to their cats, right? Buy 100 years of cat food. [laughter] Set aside the whole house. Boy, oh boy. Then you make the ultimate sacrifice of eros love. You give your body to be burned, thinking that will please God. “…And have not charity [love], it profiteth me nothing.” God isn’t going to do that. God isn’t going to respond to that. There are plenty of people out there who are sacrificing for this and that. And besides, most of them like to get their names in the paper, right? Yes. What does God say? When you do your alms, don’t let your right hand know what your left hand is. And when you give, don’t sound the trumpet before. So that excludes Ted Turner, right? Who gave what, a billion dollars to the UN?

This doesn’t show the works of love, but it shows the works of eros. You do not obtain the blessings of God’s love, or blessings by giving away. What you do, you give because you love God. Now you understand how that works with tithes and offerings then? That’s why we tell people, listen, if you don’t love God and if you don’t give because you love God, we don’t want your money. We’re not going to merchandise the brethren. That’s why when you got the General Epistles book, there was not a bill. That’s why we don’t send out letters saying, “Send in money. We really, really, really need money.” No, what you need to do is work within the budget that God has given and make do with that. Can God take care of whatever is needed? Yes, if you believe God, He will. Is He going to provide everything you may desire? No. So it’s the same way in our lives, you see.

So look at all of that. Become as sounding brass. I’m a non-entity. It profits me nothing. Whatever you have, that kind of substitute carnal eros love to accomplish a physical thing without agape love, it is worthless as far as any spiritual standing before God. Now you may have people in the world say what a wonderful person you are. You may have your name in print, or a plaque, or a statue, or a monument saying how great you were. But that greatness sometimes ends up like poor Mohammed Ali. You look at those pictures where he said, “I am the greatest.” And you look at that poor man now. What a shame. What did it profit him? What did it profit the world? Nothing. And when he’s gone and another generation goes by, who’s going to remember Mohammed Ali. So you see, that’s why the love of God is the most important and that’s what we really need to learn.

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