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(Return to Love Series)

“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him,…” Remember what we read? He who humbles himself shall be exalted. Who humbled himself greater than Jesus? No one. Who is exalted more than Jesus? No one. “…And given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (vs. 9-11).

Now hold your place right here and go to Revelation 5, and we’ll see where verse 10 is fulfilled in type. Revelation 5:9. This is after Christ was given the scroll to open it, and open the seven seals. And then the 24 elders sang this hymn. Verse 9, “And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;” And that is a marvelous thing, brethren. You know, God is doing things that we don’t even know about. And when we get to the point that we think we are the only ones, we’re the most small minded people in the world. Even Elijah, after he did what he did, he ran away, after they killed the 450 prophets of Baal. Then Elijah got afraid after he prayed for the rain and the food came, so he ran away from Jezebel. Went down in a cave quivering and whimpering and said, “Oh God, I’m alone. I’m the only one left. They killed all your prophets and I’m down here.” God was merciful. He didn’t answer him in the thunder. He didn’t answer him in the earthquake. He answered him with a small still voice and said, “Now Elijah, behold, there are 7000 who haven’t bowed the knee to Baal.” And he didn’t even know one of them. And I often wonder with that. I wonder how many more people God has that we don’t have a clue about. Wherever they may be on the surface of the earth, of every nation, and kindred, and tongue and people.

“And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts [four living creatures] and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;” Do you ever think you ever heard a choir? Whew, imagine what that’s going to be like, thundering up there before the throne of God. “Saying with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea [there the fulfillment of that Philippians 2 verse right there], and all that are in them, heard I saying,…” Now I don’t know how the whales are going to bless God. I don’t know how the fish are going to do it, and I don’t know how the birds are going to do it, but they’re going to do it. “…Saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever” (vs. 10-13).

So this is why God wants us to have the love of God. That’s why brethren. And stop and think how puny all these stupid little doctrines. How puny all of the hard-handed judgments and criticism we’ve had against each other. Now sometimes we need to stand for truth and show what’s wrong, that’s true. But we don’t need to kill each other in the mean time. God has called us to something so great and marvelous and powerful that it is absolutely just the greatest thing that has ever been.

Let’s come back to 1 Corinthians 13. So 1 Corinthians 13 is the formula to have the love of God, and love is the essence of God-likeness. And if we’re going to be godlike we must have love. Now let’s continue on the next two then.

“…Is not easily provoked…” And I will have to admit, brethren, that’s one of my greatest weaknesses. Yes, it is. That’s a hard one to overcome. But God willing, given time, God’s Spirit and understanding, with Christ in me I can overcome it. “…Thinketh no evil;…” Boy, I tell you that’s why we need to be very careful what we’re watching on TV and listening to on the radio. Have you ever had one of these stupid ads stuck in your head, and you can’t get rid of it? One happened to me the other day. “Don’t forget a Mazetta”, which is Mazetta cheese. “Don’t forget a Mazetta.” It’s going to take me another two days to get rid of it. (laughing)

And, “thinks no evil” means, don’t be imputing evil motives to people. Though some people may not have overcome enough that they can do things in a way that you really think they ought to, but who are you to be their judge to condemn their heart. Accept what they do on the surface of what they do. Don’t think evil and say, “Well, I know why he did that, or she did that.” Can you read a mind? Can you understand a heart? Do you really know the motive? No. I can’t. You can’t. Are we sometimes taken advantage of because of that, by giving the benefit of doubt? Yes. Is it not better to be taken advantage of a little bit than to think evil and impute wrong motives and judge the heart when that’s God’s prerogative and domain? Yes. Can God heal it and overcome it? Yes. Have you lost anything? No.

Verse 6, “Rejoiceth not in iniquity,…” And I tell you what, I don’t rejoice in the things that happened because people get hurt. I tell you these tornadoes that were down there in Alabama - 250 mph wind. Oh my, my, my. And you see the houses torn out, hundreds of them, ripped away. You watch something on television. Don’t rejoice in iniquity. Don’t watch that kind of thing. You don’t need to do that. Even if your enemy is done in. Don’t rejoice in it. Thank God that He delivered you, but do as David did with Saul and Jonathan - mourn. “…But rejoiceth in the truth;…” That’s what we need to be looking to, the truth of God, the love of God all put together.

Now notice verse 7. “Beareth all things,…” Now think on that. What is God going to ask you to bear? I don’t know. But whatever it is, all things that come to you, bear them. That means bear up under. That means to hold up as to having pillars to strengthen and uphold. You bear all things.

“…Hopeth all things…” Now that’s very important, because in hoping you can realize that even those who have gone astray, as I mentioned before, God can bring them back. If God can call people out of the world, or the Catholic church, or the Protestant church, can He not call them out of an apostate Worldwide, or UCG, or whatever? Yes, He can. And hope for them. I don’t condemn them, the people. I condemn the practices that are ungodly because God does. But I hope that there will be repentance. I hope that there will be change. I hope that those people who’ve conducted themselves in an evil and a wrong way even out of maliciousness or ignorance, that they come to repentance and be in the kingdom of God. We all need to have that hope. If someone offends you, hope that they will learn and overcome and you don’t have to go correct them or do anything. Overlook it, be forbearing. Hopes all things.

“…Endureth all things.” Now I don’t know what it’s going to be like when we come to the beginning of sorrows, but there’s going to be a time when we come to the beginning of sorrows. And I’ve got a booklet at home that someone mailed me from a converted Russian. I think he was a converted Russian Jew in the Soviet Union, who in believing Christ, was thrown into jail, was thrown into prison. And the worst part of his ordeal was for three years he was placed in a cell 30 feet below the surface of the earth with no light. And they slid his little tray of pittance of little food under there. And he said when you’re down there you loose all track of time. You loose all track of when things begin and end. And you sit there and pretty soon you understand that the only thing that really counts is the love of God. And the only thing that he could do toward the last of the three years that he was there was say, “Oh God, help me. Oh God, help me.” At that point Sabbath keeping is not important. You don’t even know what day it is. None of us have gone through anything like that. And I tell you, see, endures all things. None of us have been put through anything like that. I mean for some of us, we endure going through a day of trial and stress. We come to the end of the day in exhaust and say, “Man, that was a hard day.” But I tell you what, we need to keep things in mind like this man went through to understand we’ve gone through nothing.

What we have to do in the future endures all things, “[Love] Charity never faileth:…” The love of God cannot fail. God cannot fail. “…But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail;…” (vs. 8). Now let me just mention here, that does not mean the prophecies of God. I’ll prove that to you. Hold your place.

Go to Matthew 24. And I know that has been used as a justification when the church, in making a mistake, and the prophecies didn’t come out the way they said they would, they said, “Well, it says prophecies will fail.” Question: Who’s prophecies were they? God’s or men’s? They were prophecies of human interpretation, weren’t they. Notice, Matthew 24:34. “Verily I say unto you, This generation [whichever one is the end-time generation] shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away” (Matt. 24:34-35). If the word of God is truth and there’s no lie in it, how can any prophecy of God fail? Did any of the prophecies concerning Christ fail? No. What prophecies have failed? Human interpretations wrongly interpreting scriptures have failed. And this is what it’s talking about in 1 Corinthians 13:8. Let’s go back there now. Those are the prophecies that will fail.

“…Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease;…” And by the way, God created all languages. So for people to say you have sacred names…they shall cease. What language are we going to speak when we’re resurrected? I don’t know, but God will put it in our minds at the resurrection what kind of language we will speak, just like He created Adam and Eve with a language already in their brains, right? Yes. “…Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.” All the things we know, it’s going to be changed. It’s going to vanish. “For we know in part, and we prophesy in part” (vs. 8-9). And we better always understand that brethren. We don’t know everything. We don’t understand the prophecies. But if we love God, we will when the time comes that we need to.

“But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child,…” And all childish things hold back from growing up in a maturity of Christ. This is what Paul is talking about. You come from a childish love to a mature Godly love. That’s a total change. “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man [full grown adult], I put away childish things” (vs. 10-11). And that’s what we need to do in the Church of God. We need to put away all the childish things and the petty little things that come along. Let’s focus on the love of God.

“For now we see through a glass, darkly [we can’t see everything clearly, but we see darkly]; but then face to face: now I know in part [and that’s always true]; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (vs. 12). And that’s going to be a wonderful thing brethren. Jesus prayed the last prayer, “Father, I pray that they will know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom you have sent them.” And that is eternal life.

“And now abideth…”, or that is, remains. Living and remaining, that’s what abideth means. Now is living. What we’re talking about are the issues of life. “[Now is living] faith, hope, [love] charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity” (vs. 13).

And so brethren, that’s what we really need. That is the difference between carnal eros / phileo love, which can never substitute for the true agape love of God. The true agape love of God comes down from God to you with His Holy Spirit. Has come down to you through the sacrifice and the love of Jesus Christ. And we need to have that come out from us to each other, and then back to God, and God back to us. That’s how then we can really truly grow. And so since this is the Feast of Unleavened Bread, that’s the greatest way to put away the leaven of sin, is to be filled with the love of God.

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