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Love Series #7 - Part 2

“By this we know that we love the children of God, [now notice how this comes] when we love God [that’s always first] and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous [burdensome]” (I John 5:2-3, Berry’s Interlinear). They’re not grievous. They’re not hard to do. Did God ever give us a commandment we could not keep? He gave us mighty, powerful, spiritual goals to attain, didn’t He? But did He not give us His Spirit to attain it? If God says we’re going to be perfected in love, is not God going to give us His Spirit to do so? Yes, He is. Absolutely. Without a doubt, because God loves us, and Christ loves us.

Now let’s go to I Corinthians 13. We’re going to see what love can do for us. So the last part of this is going to be a “can-do, how-to. Now let’s understand something. If you kind of fail at it at first, don’t worry. Keep at it. It has to be perfected. Let’s look at it the other way. If you have to grow and overcome, are you perfect? No So therefore, in order to grow and overcome and be perfected in love, you have to have experiences to do it, don’t you? Yes, you do. And some of the experiences are very, very tough. It would be nice if they were all easy. It would be really nice if it will be just like taking a hot knife and cutting through butter. Man, we would think, “Wow, we’re really doing it.” But I want you to know something that’s very important, verse 8, this is important: “Charity [Love] never faileth…” Can God fail? No. Is God love? Yes. Love never fails. So what you are doing, then, is doing something which will not fail. Now you may not get the reaction you want, that you think you should have at first, but it’s still never going to fail. God has given the promise. It will not fail. Now if in this life it’s not totally achieved, it will be accomplished when you have a chance as a spirit being. Now just think how our love is going to be perfected when we’re resurrected. Just think what that’s going to be like. Love never fails.

Let’s come up here to verse 13: “And now abideth [lives – these are living things] faith [which I think is like the precious stones in I Corinthians 3], hope [which I think is like the silver], charity [love, which I think is like the gold], these three; but the greatest of these is charity [love].” And that’s what God wants. It is absolutely amazing how that, when you really practice it, when you really understand it, and begin to understand it, the more you realize how much more you have to learn; and how much more you realize that in order to have your love perfected, you’ve got to really draw close to God, let His Spirit be in you. This gives you motivation to pray. You see, instead of having a sermon from a minister, “Brethren, you haven’t been praying and studying!” Bam, Bam, Bam, Bam! I remember one time a minister came down from Pasadena down to Torrance, California, and he got up there, and he gave a bombastic sermon, “14 Reasons Why Your Prayers Aren’t Answered.” We all sat there and, boy, we got…whoosh, because we knew every one of those sayings kept us from getting answered prayer, right? It got done, I was driving home I said, “My, he could have just told us one way to get our prayers answered. That would’ve been helpful.” Right? But if you’re preaching the love of God, that you want to drink in of the love of God, then you are going to have every reason in the world to pray. Isn’t that correct? Yes. That’s the way God wants it done.

Now let’s come to I Corinthians 12:31. After he gets done explaining all their vanity in Chapter 12, and the different parts of the way the church is; and then in Chapter 14 he discusses it a little bit more about their vanity. You see, I Corinthians was written on how a church should not be. And I imagine the apostle Paul was nearly pulling out his hair and his beard to try and figure out this renegade church over in Corinth. I even remember a minister saying one time, “I wonder why it’s in the Bible?” Today we know, because of every heresy that we have had.

So he gets done with all that. Now notice how Paul does it here, verse 31: “But covet [that means desire] earnestly the best gifts: and yet [but he says, I show you] show I unto you a more excellent way” (I Cor. 12:31). “I’m going to show you something that is better than any other gift that can be.” I Corinthians 13:1: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity [love], I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.” Just so much noise and dissonance. “And though I…” He’s applying it to himself. This is for every minister to read and study, so that he knows how to conduct his ministry. “…Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge…” (I Cor. 13:1-2). And it really doesn’t matter how much you know, really doesn’t matter how much you can know, how much I can know. When we get all done, and we pull ourselves up to our greatest height and stand before God, we’re going to feel like the smallest little midgets that have ever been around, if we try all that vanity to think how important we are. That’s what happened to Job, wasn’t it? Yes, it was.

“…And though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity [love], I am [it does me] nothing.” “I am nothing.” Would be a lot of people who would like to have faith like that. I would love to have faith that I could just help people the way that God would want to have them helped. But you know, we have to grow in love first, then God will. And who knows? God wants to know: Are you going to grow in love that after this thing is done or you pray for the person, are you going to continue to love them? Are you going to continue pray for them? Are you going to continue to think about them? Or is this sort of like an assembly line…brrr – next, and on down the line. Not so. See? You’re nothing. If you don’t have love it doesn’t matter.

 “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor…” Let’s back up one thing here. Let’s put it this way: though you have all knowledge to reorganize your church in any way you want to, if you don’t have love, it is nothing. It is going to fail, guaranteed. Because God is going to make sure that you understand, if you don’t love Him it really, really doesn’t matter what you do. Now continuing: “…though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor…” and have notoriety in the newspaper and on television; “…and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity [love], it profiteth me nothing.” (verse 3). That’s why when you go to Matthew 7, as we were earlier today, all those coming up and saying, “Lord, look what I did in Your name! Boy, I did this, I did that, I cast out demons.” He said, “I don’t know you. You get away from Me, you that work iniquity” (Matt. 7:22-23, paraphrased). See, because if you don’t love God and keep His commandments, it doesn’t matter what you can do. You can use the name of Jesus Christ day and night forever. But if you don’t love Him, it’s futile; it’s vain; it’s taking His name in vain. And besides, there are going to be a lot of things that were done, that people have done, that Christ is going to come along and say, “I didn’t ask you to put My name on that.”

Now here’s what love is going to do: “Charity [love] suffereth long…” (verse 4). Now notice, in all of this (if you have the King James Version) love suffereth – is suffering long. So the more love you get, maybe the more suffering you’re going to endure. I don’t know. But love will help you bear it. I know one of the founding members of our congregation out there in California, she was a diabetic, she was nearly blind, she had cramps in her legs, and couldn’t get her muscles straitened out. And she had a cane, she had to walk, she had to be moved around in a wheelchair. And yet people would call her and she would cheer them up. People would be depressed – and she had every reason to be – yet she gave them hope. And then her husband all of a sudden got a stroke. He was rejected out of Worldwide because He smoked – he was a “bad man.” So when he was told to leave, he never went back again. She asked me about it and I said, “Just pray that God will work it out.”

Well God worked it out in the way that she never expected. Here she was, crippled, in a wheelchair, couldn’t see, had to fix for her husband. Bang, he comes down with a massive stroke and almost dies, and is in the hospital for two months. And he comes home, have to have all the nursing and everything there. Well what happened, he quit smoking; and what happened, his mind came back; and what happened, he asked to be baptized and he was baptized. And I had the pleasure of doing it. See, “all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose.” (Rom .8:28, paraphrased). Not the way we think. But that was good. We all learned. We all prayed. And then, low and behold, his test was, she died first. And I remember at the funeral he said, “Oh, God, why did You take her?” And I told him, I said, “Because she was ready.” And he understood that.

So love suffers long: “…and is kind [and this is patiently enduring]; charity [love] envieth [is envying] not…” Not looking at what someone else does and then think, “Oh, boy, I got to have that.” No jealousy, you see. Not affected by covetousness. “…Charity [love] vaunteth not itself…” And vaunting, that’s interesting. Vaunting means you don’t brag or boast on yourself. And haven’t we heard that? “I am the greatest. I am the only. God called me.” Well God called all the brethren, my friend. Not a bragger, not rash, “…not puffed up…” Puffed up means to pant up or to inflate. No, we all have to remember we have nothing we didn’t receive.

Verse 5: “…Doth not behave itself unseemly…” Which means, then, it’s going to have proper understanding. It’s going to be gracious. It’s not going to be crude or rash, telling dirty jokes. Do you think God was pleased that down at the college where they had the handball court up in ministers lounge that they had up there, after they got done playing racquetball, they all sat around and told dirty jokes? Do you think God was pleased with that? No. That’s rash behavior. That’s unseemly. That’s improper conduct. “… Seeketh not her own…” No hidden agenda, no preaching for self-serving. Helping, loving, outgoing. “…Not easily provoked…” Doesn’t say you can’t be, but not easily. And if you are, you can overcome. God’s love will do it. “…Thinketh no evil…” That is, it’s not thinking and practicing living in evil. Doesn’t do that.

Here, let’s go Romans 1. This is how the world is. This is how most of television is. Here’s what most of the world is doing, the way it’s living, the way it’s conducting its life. Thinks no evil, not planning it, not plotting it, not scheming it. Not trying to undercut the boss, not trying to take, not trying to get ahead by putting down; not thinking, “How I can become a tattletale and run off to the minister and get this person in trouble so I can get their job?” Here’s what happens when you have that kind of behavior. Verse 28: “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge…” Not even God. We’re to have the laws and commandments of God written in our hearts and our minds; not only to retain God in our knowledge, but let God dwell in us.

“…God gave them over to a reprobate mind [which means void of judgment], to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness…” Sounds like I’m reading tonight’s television program, right? “…Maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers…” That sounds like Washington D. C., doesn’t it? “…Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable…” You can’t move them. “…Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but [they] have pleasure in them that do them” (Rom. 1:28-32). You see, brethren, our day is coming when Christ returns. And we’re going to be able to undo every one of these things. But what we’re going to have to do is show them the love of God.

Now let’s come back to I Corinthians 13:6: “…Rejoiceth not in iniquity…” Doesn’t find that that’s happiness and joy, is sorrowful. “…But rejoiceth in the truth…” Always in the truth. And isn’t that so, when you study the Bible and you come across something and learn it for the first time? Don’t you rejoice? Aren’t you happy? Doesn’t it lift you up? Doesn’t it give you an exhilaration? Yes, indeed. “…Rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things [regardless of what it is], believeth all things [that are right, and good, and true, believe everything that Jesus Christ said, yes], hopeth all things…” Even the worst sinner can be brought to repentance, can he not? Did not God call Saul, who was called Paul, who wrote what we are reading? Do you not think that he understood the love of God, coming from where he did? Yes, indeed. So there’s hope. I pray that every one of the ministers repent. I pray that all the brethren repent. I pray that God reaches out into each one of their lives, so they can grow up in Christ. They ought to. So there’s hope.

“…Endureth all things.” Regardless of what happens, you endure it. Sometimes it’s tough to take. Sometimes you have to grit your teeth. Sometimes you don’t understand. But it endures all things. “Charity [love] never faileth: but whether there be prophecies [Oh, and we’ve had so many, haven’t we? Yes], they shall fail…” (I Cor. 13:6-8). None of God’s will. These are prophecies of men, in the name of Christ. They won’t fail. Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away but My words won’t” (Matt. 5:18, paraphrased). You can be guaranteed every prophecy of God is going to be fulfilled right to the jot and tittle, because that’s what Jesus said. Right? Yes. These are prophecies of men.

“…Whether there be tongues…” That is, languages and so forth. So people, you know, they get all excited and so uplifted they can speak, he says, “It will pass away.” I guarantee you one thing, we’re not going to speak Hebrew in the Kingdom of God. We’re going to speak whatever language God puts in our new spirit brain when we’re resurrected. Just like He put language in Adam and Eve’s minds when He created them, we’re gone to communicate with God, whatever language it’s going to be. Please understand this (speaking of sacred names) there is no such thing as a sacred language. God is Holy, God is true, God is pure. But do Hebrews or Jews have pagan worship and pagan names within their language? Yes, they do, just as pagan as anything else. So tongues will fail. “…They shall cease; whether there be knowledge [as we know it now], it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away” (verses 8-10). It’s going to be replaced with the perfect thing. That’s why God wants us perfected in His love. With all our heart, all our mind, and all our soul, and all are being, and everything that is within us.

“When I was a child, I spake as a child…” That’s why I said there is the second calling. We need to grow up. “…I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” So that’s why with everything we do, we need to grow up in Christ, be mature in Him. Isn’t that something? And for a lot of us we don’t have too many years left to do that. That’s why God wants it now. He’s not going to wait around for all these politicians to try and figure out what they’re going to do. God is going to sweep it right away from them. “…Put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face…” That shows God is a person. You’re going to see God face-to-face, Christ face-to-face. We’ll see Him as He is, because we’ll be like Him. “…[And] now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity [love], these three; but the greatest of these is charity [love]” (verses 11-13). And that’s what God wants us to grow up into and be perfected, brethren. That’s what God wants, and that’s how He wants it done because God is creating His family, and God has a place for every one of us. That is so profound, that is so great, that is so marvelous.

Let’s go to I Corinthians 2. This is absolutely stunning. Now you will experience this too. Everyone who loves God will. There will come a time when you can’t sleep at night, and you’re going to lay there and think about God, and you’re going to lay there and think about His love. It’s like David said that, “You try me in the night seasons; You try my reins….” And he talked a lot with God while he was lying in bed. And I tell you one thing, God’s love and the understanding of His plan will come at times so overwhelming that all you can do is lie there, and thank God, and cry. That will happen. I don’t care how tough you are, I don’t care what your intelligence is, I don’t care what it may be. But when God gives you, with His Spirit, the grasp of what He’s giving you, it is overwhelming and will increase your love, and will increase your ability to love God, and will make your salvation greater, and your joy greater. And you will grow up in Christ.

Now let’s pick it up here I Corinthians 2:9: “But as it is written, [the] Eye hath not seen [you haven’t seen it yet], nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” Remember Jesus said, “If I go, I’m going to prepare a place for you. And if I go I will come again” (John 14:2-3, paraphrased). He’s preparing the whole universe, brethren, for us. “But God hath revealed them unto us…” The only way we have understanding is by His Spirit. It must be revealed. You can’t go to the world and get it, because they don’t know. You can’t go to the rulers of the world and say, “Tell me what life is all about.” They don’t know. You can’t go to the religious leaders of the world and say, “Tell me what life is all about.” They don’t know. God has to reveal it with His Spirit. “…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” (I Cor. 2:9-11). And God wants us to grow up into it. Here we’ve got the whole Bible, brethren, all of God’s Word, and yet the church of God is asleep at the switch and throwing away knowledge when we ought to be literally climbing into the Bible and just delving as much as we can out of it. And when we’ve done that, we realize there so much more because the reality is going to come. This is the foretaste; the reality is going to be the resurrection. Yea, the deep things of God.

Now notice: “…no man [knows], but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know…” God wants us to know to the very most of our utmost being: “…the things that are freely given to us… Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy [Spirit] Ghost teacheth…” And remember, we were promised that the Spirit of truth will lead us into all truth, and the greatest truth is going to come at the resurrection. That is going to be powerful. And I tell you, there’s one man I want to meet, it’s Paul. You bet. Now notice, he says: “Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy [Spirit] Ghost teacheth: comparing spiritual things with spiritual [things]” (vs. 11-13).

That’s how we understand it. That’s what Paul was trying to teach this renegade carnal church. “You’re wasting your whole time out there, people; you’re carnal. Build on Christ. Get rid of the sin out of your lives. Don’t go court with each other; don’t fornicate; don’t brag that you eat things before idols, and that you can speak in tongues.” And he ends up, Chapter 13, in saying that the love of God is the way it is, then he finishes with Chapter 15 on the resurrection. What a marvelous piece of writing that God inspired. This is tremendous, that God loves us so much, that He gave this, so we can find our way out of the trouble. Because He put Paul through misery to write this epistle so that today we know. Now that’s absolutely powerful.

Now let’s go to Psalms 63. Here’s what the love of God will do for you. This is written by David, a man after God’s heart. And brethren, what’s wrong with being after God’s heart? That’s what God wants. He doesn’t want our hand, He doesn’t want our legs, He doesn’t want our body; He wants our heart – wholly, completely, devoted to Him. And He with His heart wholly, completely, devoted to you, and all of the brethren. He can perfect the love of all the brethren in the world. That, God can do. So here’s how we need to respond back to God. It’s how David did it. “O God, Thou art my God; early will I seek Thee: my soul thirsteth for Thee…” What did Jesus say, “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” (Matt. 5:6, paraphrased), right? Yes. God wants to fill you. “…My soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth for Thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; to see Thy power and Thy glory…” (Psalm 63:1-2). That’s going to be a magnificent thing to see the power and glory of God.

“…So as I have seen Thee in the sanctuary. Because Thy lovingkindness…” The very love of God, the very grace of God: “…is better than life, my lips shall praise Thee. Thus will I bless Thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in Thy name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness [think of that spiritually]; and my mouth shall praise Thee with joyful lips: when I remember Thee upon my bed, and meditate on Thee in the night watches. Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice. My soul followeth hard after Thee: Thy right hand upholdeth me. But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth [God will take care of all the enemies]. They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion for foxes. But the king shall rejoice in God; every one that sweareth by Him shall glory: but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped” (verses 2-11). It almost sounds like the end of the book of Revelation, doesn’t it?

Now let’s finish and let God inspire us, and uplift us. Let’s go to Psalms 149, one of my favorites, then we’ll go to one more place after that. Now you want to know what we’re going to do on the sea of glass? Right here, Psalms 149:1: “Praise ye the LORD. Sing unto the LORD a new song, and His praise in the congregation of saints.” That’s us, resurrected on the sea of glass, right? “Let Israel rejoice in Him that made him [Yes, we are created in Christ Jesus]; let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. Let them praise His name in the dance: let them sing praises unto Him with the timbrel and harp. For the LORD taketh pleasure in His people: He will beautify the meek with salvation” (Psalm 149:1-4), in a way that we cannot see, or comprehend, or understand.

Now let’s go to Ephesians 3, and we’ll finish here. And I know this is one of my most favorite parts of the Bible. And I tell you what, whenever I get discouraged and down this is where I turn, because these are the words of God that can help you. So if there’s any part of the Bible to wear out this is it. Ephesians 3:14, it says: “For this cause [for the very love of God] I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of Whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, [coming from the very radiant being of God Himself] to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man…” To give you the strength, to give you the love, to give you the hope, to give you the faith, to give you the conviction, to give you the desire. “…That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith…” Living in you, Christ in you the hope of glory. “…[And] that ye, being rooted and grounded in love…” (Eph. 3:14-17). That’s what you’re to be rooted and grounded in. That’s what you’re to be never move from – the very love of God.

“…May be able to comprehend with all saints [God want you to know] what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height [the magnificent plan of God]; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge…” No knowledge in the world will give it to you but His love. “…That ye might be filled with all the fulness of God” And brethren, that is your first and second calling. Now He gives this promise to make sure you know it is guaranteed: “Now unto Him that is able [that means has the power] to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think [above that], according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end” (verses 18-21). And brethren, in the family of God, we are going to love each other, it’s going to be such a marvelous existence being with God the Father and Jesus Christ, and to be able to show the love of God to this whole sin-sick world. That is your calling.

Love of God #7

Scriptural References

1. Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-16

2. Matthew 5:48

3. 1 John 4:5-6

4. 1 Corinthians 13:11

5. 1 John 4:6-7

6. 1 John 2:3-6

7. 1 John 4:8-21

8. Deuteronomy 6:5

9. Romans 7:19-25

10. 1 John 3:19-24

11. Romans 8:14-21

12. John 7:3-4

13. Matthew 5:43-44

14. 1 John 5:1-3

15. 1 Corinthians 13:8, 13

16. 1 Corinthians 12:31

17. 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

18. Matthew 7:22-23

19. Romans 8:28

20. Romans 1:28-32

21. Matthew 5:18

22. 1 Corinthians 2:9-13

23. John 14:2-3

24. Psalm 63:1-11

25. Matthew 5:6

26. Psalm 149:1-4

27. Ephesians 3:14 -21

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