[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word. Take your Bibles and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Man, it's a blessing to be here, and that was a blessing to hear that song.
[0:13] Let me say something I always say when I come here, and that is I appreciate this church. And I don't say this just to make Brother Austin Gardner feel better or whatever. He knows that. But I really mean what I say about I appreciate the missionaries here.
[0:26] I've been pastoring for 30 plus years, and we've had a lot of missionaries in, a lot of missionaries out. And I've just really been, I hate to use the word impressed, but just I like what I hear and what I see.
[0:39] I like the passion. I like the desire. I like the burden. I like the authenticity. They're real. And I just appreciate this church and appreciate the missionaries that we've had in our church. I also just appreciate the privilege that we've had over the last few years, mostly because of little Jim.
[0:54] Of course, there's nothing little about little Jim, but that's what we've always called him. Just being able to get back in contact with Brother Gardner and the mission and the people here.
[1:06] And I don't know how many of you know this, but we were not able to come to the summit. We were scheduled to come. My whole family got the flu during that time. But Randy and Joan Hayes, I don't know if you all remember Randy and Joan. Randy and Joan have been in our church for years.
[1:18] Randy's 51 years old, and Joan, I think, is 49. They just surrendered to the mission field. I mean, just a few weeks ago. And so God's been dealing with their hearts for some time.
[1:32] And so we're excited about what God's doing here, what God's doing there, and what God's just doing. I'm glad He's willing to do it with us because we're just lumps of clay. I want to talk about love tonight.
[1:43] And not in a sweaty palms, mushy way. But just the fact that we need to be lovers of God and lovers of the world.
[1:54] And before I really get into the text, 1 Corinthians... I don't know if that's me. Is it me hitting or something? We're good? Okay. Everything's good. 1 Corinthians 13, verses 1 through 3.
[2:05] We will eventually get there, but I want to just share some things before we get to the 13th chapter in the first three verses of 1 Corinthians 13. And I guess I just want to ask us tonight, and I've really been impressed by this passage of Scripture.
[2:19] Do I really love people? I mean, I think we always ought to evaluate where our love is with God. But the second thing to evaluate is do we really love people?
[2:31] And is that really the thing that's motivating what we do? If you go to 1 Corinthians 13, if you look at the previous verse, and he's talking about coveting gifts. And 1 Corinthians 13 talks about gifts and love.
[2:43] Romans chapter 12 talks about gifts and love. You don't really know how to operate in a gift until you know how to operate with the gift. And that's love.
[2:55] You've got to love right. You can have the gift. In fact, I'm going to share some stuff in 1, 2, and 3 of 1 Corinthians 13. I mean, I'm not even sure if I'm sure about what those three verses are emphatically, extremely saying.
[3:11] And we'll talk about those verses in a minute. But just do we love right? He says in that latter part of chapter 12, I want to show you a better way to operate with these gifts.
[3:23] In fact, if you go to the end of chapter 13, he talks about all these gifts and how they're passing. And some have one, some have this one, and some are not going to be around forever. But then he even says this, faith and hope, two great things.
[3:38] But even they don't last. Because the greatest of these is charity. When you get to heaven, you're not going to need faith. You're going to have sight. When you get to heaven, you're not going to need hope.
[3:50] Man, hopes have come to pass. But when you get to heaven, you'll still love. That's why he says love is the greatest of all these things. Let me just share some things with you that Jesus said.
[4:05] Here's what Jesus said when he was questioned. What's the greatest commandment? You know what he said? He said, love me, love God. And he goes back to Deuteronomy. He says, love God and love your neighbor.
[4:16] And not just love your neighbor. I wish he'd left that last part out. Love your neighbor like you love yourself. That's the tough.
[4:27] That's the difficulty. And when he says love your neighbor, he's not in essence saying love other believers. He's saying love the world. Love the world like you love yourself.
[4:40] Let's put that tangible. Spend money on the world like you spend money on yourself. Spend time on the world like you spend time on yourself. I know how I love myself.
[4:54] So Jesus was saying, if you want the two top commandments, and chronologically, they're not one and two. But in importance, they're one and two.
[5:07] Love God and love the world. You know what else he said in Matthew 22? On these two. Hang all the law and the prophets.
[5:22] Everything that's in the law and everything that's been prophesied by the prophets, dangle on these two things. That you love God with everything that's in you.
[5:33] And if you love God, you have no problem loving the world. Let me tell you something else Jesus said. Just trying to show you the importance of loving right.
[5:44] Here's something else Jesus said. John 13 or John 14. I'm going to leave you a new commandment. And I want you to love one another. Paul takes that and gives us tangible proofs or list of what that kind of love looks like in 1 Corinthians 13.
[6:03] Also Romans chapter 12. Jesus just said, love one another. And here's what he said about that. If you love one another, the world will know that you're my disciples.
[6:18] Just totally on how you love each other. And how you love the brethren. I want to go to a passage of Scripture. If you've got your finger there, 1 Corinthians 13.
[6:28] Go over to 1 John. Here's John on the same subject. 1 John chapter 4. We'll start reading in verse number 7.
[6:41] 1 John chapter 4, verse number 7. Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God. And everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.
[6:54] So it makes the connection. If you can't properly love the world, then it's kind of an illustration that you really have never experienced the love of God. Because if you have the love of God, then you automatically love the world.
[7:07] He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
[7:23] He illustrates, God does, His love for us in that He gave us the best thing that He had. Again, here's God proving, showing, illustrating, going out loud.
[7:39] Here's what God's love looks like. I give the best that I have. Verse number 10. Here in His love, not that we love God, but that He first, or that He loved us. And sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
[7:52] Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us.
[8:05] One of the ways that we illustrate to the world that God is real is the way we love each other. And sometimes even loving each other is tough. But if you go to Romans chapter 12, we're supposed to love the world too.
[8:20] Even people that persecute us. Let me just give you one verse. I think it's the 14th verse of Romans chapter 12. Bless them that persecute you. Bless and curse not.
[8:32] To that same one that persecutes you and maybe does evil towards you. What does He say? If he's hungry, what do you do? Feed him.
[8:43] If he's thirsty, what do you do? Give him something to drink. How we love one another and how we love the world is super important.
[8:57] If we're going to have the impact on the world. I won't use some of these other verses, but if you go to John chapter 17, in the Lord's Prayer, He's talking about impact on the world, and He's praying for believers, not the ones that are just presently there, but ones that will be saved down the road.
[9:15] And He's telling them, His hearers, listen, the way you guys are united and the way you guys love each other will prove to the world that I've loved you, you've loved me, God's loved me, and God sent me.
[9:27] All that's proved in how we love each other and how we love the world. So I want us to look in 1 Corinthians 13 tonight.
[9:41] Before we look at these first three verses, and I'm just going to give you three simple thoughts here in a minute. I just want you to look at a couple things. 13th chapter. These are tough verses.
[9:52] We've been going through some of these verses at the church. Let's just look at a couple of them. Beginning in verse number 4. I'll not mention Romans 12. I mentioned it earlier, but you might want to just read some of those things in Romans chapter 12.
[10:07] Gifts are mentioned. And then how you're to carry out and operate in those gifts, and it's to be love. Without dissimulation or without hypocrisy. It needs to be real. It needs to be authentic.
[10:17] Real love. And here again, you've got gifts mentioned in chapter 12, chapter 14. And in the middle of all that, you've got love, how we're supposed to operate in those gifts. But look at some of the things that it says down in some of these verses, which makes it extremely tough to do sometimes.
[10:32] And this is mostly within the family. Verse number 4, it says, Charity suffereth long. It means it's long-suffering. It means you just put up with stuff.
[10:42] But it's more than just putting up with stuff. You love them. So you're doing more than just putting up with stuff. Like a child.
[10:55] If you've ever raised a child, it can be tough. It can be a struggle. It can be frustrating. Make you think things like, I'm going to end that one's life so I can start another one.
[11:07] So it's not just putting up with people. It's really suffering long with them because you love them. It says it's kind. Kind doesn't mean that you've got a smile on your face and hate in your heart.
[11:21] Kind does not simply mean that you're very nice with the way you speak. Kind means you do good stuff. Kind means you do maybe what was talked about in Romans 12. You feed the man that's persecuting you.
[11:34] You love on the person. Hey, in the Sermon on the Mount, what did Jesus say about enemies? He said you love them and you do good to them. And you pray for them. Love is an unusual thing when it's biblically motivated.
[11:48] It says love envieth not. You're not envious of people when they're elevated. In fact, there's other passages of Scripture that says you need to celebrate somebody else before they celebrate you.
[11:59] You need to honor them. Prefer them. Put them up before you'd ever be put up. Don't think of you being elevated. Elevate them. That's abnormal to everything about who I am.
[12:11] It probably is you as well. Charity vauneth not itself. It's not puffed up. And that just means pride, which we all have issues with. Does not behave itself unseemly.
[12:24] That means you just don't act out. I don't know if my brothers ever mention this, but us Roberts has come from a long line of tempers. And when you've got tempers, that makes you act unseemly.
[12:38] That's why my brother and myself got thrown out of basketball games before and kicked out of school. Because we acted unseemly. Listen, just because my lineage has tempers does not mean I've got a crutch where I can speak out.
[12:54] Biblical love does not behave itself unseemly. It does not doubt. It suppresses. You know, there's some things that love suppresses, and there's some things that love expresses.
[13:08] And this is one of the things you suppress. It's one thing to want to say it. Totally different thing to say it. Love suppresses. It suppresses. The Romans 12 text says provides things for all men.
[13:23] And there's a little word in the middle. Honestly. The word means honor. In other words, all men that come in contact with you, they are getting an honorable testimony.
[13:35] Nothing you say, nothing you do doesn't look like the love of Christ or the love of the Bible. Doesn't act unseemly. Seeketh not our own.
[13:48] Is not easily provoked. I wish this one wasn't even in verse 5. Thinketh no evil. It just means you ain't suspicious.
[14:03] You're not suspicious of what somebody's doing. You just don't think evil about someone. Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in truth.
[14:16] Verse 7 is a tough one too. Beareth how much? Or what? All things. Believeth all things. Can I just use one little illustration here?
[14:27] Because we haven't gotten to verses 1 through 3 yet. But believeth all things? Let me go back to what Jesus did in Luke chapter 17. Does a man come to somebody and they've offended him 7 times in one day?
[14:38] Let me ask you a question. If somebody's offended you 7 times in one day about number 6, you're going to say, that man's a liar. He's done offended me 5 or 6 times and he's coming back to me and won't ask me to forgive him again.
[14:52] What does Luke 17 say? Forgive him. You know what this verse is saying? Love believes. Love believes. That might go against every fiber in your being.
[15:05] Because you might know someone that you just almost got to the point where you can't believe them anymore. Hey, you know what else is in that verse? It hopeth all things. You just always hope for the best for that couple.
[15:19] For the best for that individual. No matter how they push and frustrate you. You believe and you bear and you hope. What's the other word? And you endure.
[15:30] And again, that doesn't mean with a grimace. You endure. You're okay with it. Do you get the point that the love that's in 1 Corinthians 13 is kind of tough?
[15:42] It's just kind of tough. But can I show you something else in verse 8 before we go to 1, 2, 3? Charity never failing. It's the only thing that works. There is no plan B.
[15:56] What does Romans 12 say? Last verse. 14 to 21 is talking about dealing with persecutors. Dealing with enemies. Dealing with most likely the lost. How does it say to overcome evil?
[16:08] With good. That is so foreign to my makeup. Naturally. Overcoming evil with good.
[16:23] Here's what I want to talk about tonight. And this last part will go by as long as that. So we're good. I want you to go to verse 1, verse 2, verse 3. Of 1 Corinthians 13.
[16:34] And I just want to share three simple things tonight about love. And what motivates you? What motivates you? And I was listening to them as they were singing about amazing grace. And I love that song.
[16:45] And I've often thought about which is first. Was it grace that motivated the love and this huge, massive, redemptive plan?
[16:56] Or was it love that motivates the grace? I don't know. I just do know the Bible, we just read it in 1 John, tells me that God is love. And it's not the only thing God is.
[17:08] But it's one thing that absolutely is the essential characteristic of who God is, is He loves. He loves. He loves us.
[17:19] He loves the world. He loves unconditionally. He loves beyond description. I mean, there's just things I can't even explain about His love. It's not that I can't understand why God saved me when He saved me.
[17:32] It's that I can't understand why God still loves me now. I have done plenty since the day I said yes to the gospel. Yes to the entrance of grace into my life.
[17:44] I have done enough since that day to commit my eternal soul to hell. God still loves me. It's inexplicable.
[17:55] It's beyond description. The love of God. I don't know which one came first. Pastor probably tell you, but I don't know which one comes first. I'm clueless. Let's read these verses.
[18:08] Now notice how personal these are. If you mark the personal pronouns, you're just going to have a bunch of circles on these three verses. And that's important. This is Paul with like a personal testimony.
[18:21] And he uses extreme language. I want you to see that in these verses. He goes extreme with everything that he says.
[18:32] In fact, I'm just going to give you three simple thoughts. If you're writing stuff down, we're going to look at an extreme illustration. Tongues of men and angels. I mean, if God just gives us the speaking ability, and I do not believe tongues is for today.
[18:48] We're not going to talk about that. But Paul is saying, if I speak with the tongues of men and angelic voices. Extreme. If I can unravel everything in Ezekiel's prophecies.
[19:04] Just like untangle the most mysteries of the Old Testament. And just bring them out. Huge extremes. Or, if I lay my life down.
[19:17] And my body to be burned. Extreme language. Is used in these verses. But it's also very personal. Look at what it says. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels.
[19:34] Here's the other extreme. An extreme declaration. The absence of one thing. When you read these verses, there's the presence of many things.
[19:48] Tongues of men. Tongues of angels. Understanding. Mysteries. Knowledge. Faith. I give all my goods. I give all my life.
[19:59] For the cause of Christ. Trust. But I have not charity. Do you see that? The absence of one thing. You can have a resume that's pages.
[20:14] And miss one three word phrase. Trust. And you have not love. It's an extreme declaration.
[20:27] I mean, your resume's full. You'd be invited to college campuses. Speak. He's accomplished. He's educated. He's an orator.
[20:38] He can speak. Sound like an angel. He's got faith to move a mountain. But he has not charity.
[20:52] Now listen to the phrases. In verse one, I am become as sounding brass. And tinkling cymbal.
[21:03] Now I'll be honest with you. I've read a lot of stuff. On these verses. And I can't get anybody. To help me out. On what that indicates.
[21:14] Other than. Noise. The words are sound. No melody. Just noise.
[21:29] So what Paul is saying in verse one. Seemingly indicating the words. Is that if I speak. In the extreme. I mean God.
[21:39] God. Has given me. This extreme gift. And I speak with the tongues of men. And of angels. But I have one. Absent property.
[21:51] I don't have the right kind of motivation. The right love. It's noise. It's noise. Look at the next verse.
[22:02] And I have the gift of prophecy. And that can mean forth telling or foretelling. And understanding.
[22:13] Now get the word now. Remember these are extremes. All mysteries. Ezekiel's wheel. Got it. I ain't got that one myself.
[22:24] No. Proverbs. Proverbial. Anecdotes. Swing in the nose. Got it. Daniel's 70 weeks.
[22:37] I got all the numbers. And I almost know when Jesus is coming. You see what Paul is saying? Not understand some mysteries. All of them.
[22:48] Pick a question. Throw an anecdote. I got the answer. I got the answer. I got the answer. I got the answer. I got the answer. But if I don't have love. It's just answers.
[23:03] And though I have all faith. All. Faith. So I can remove mountains. Can you imagine if anybody was living today. Can move mountains. You buy that jet.
[23:14] You were talking about earlier. That 80 million. Can you imagine that? But I have not charity.
[23:25] Now look at the personal touch of this. It's Paul writing. He's using I, I, I, I, I. Me. In verse 1 he says, I'm just sounding brass tinkled.
[23:36] I'm just noise. I'm just. I'm noisy. I'm being hard. I'm expressing.
[23:48] But I'm just noise. But in verse 2 he says, I have not charity. But it answers that one thing. I. Am. Nothing.
[24:01] So the first thing. This first extreme. Confession. I'm just noise. Though I speak with the tongues of men.
[24:13] Tongues of angels. I'm just noise. Though I can unravel all the mysteries of the Old Testament. You just throw me a question. I got an answer. And it's definitive.
[24:24] It's detailed. It's beyond argument. But I don't have love. I am. Nothing. Look at the third one.
[24:40] Though I bestow all. Again, that word all. Not some of the goods. But all my goods. Sell my house. Sell my car. Sell my clothes.
[24:51] Sell the ones I need. I give it all. And I feed the poor. And though I give my body to be the ultimate. If I'm a martyr. If I go to a cross.
[25:03] A stake. A prison. A firing squad. If I give up my life. Notice what it says. It profiteth me nothing.
[25:19] Now here's what I want to close with. These extreme expressions that are given in this text.
[25:32] I think. I can't. I'm telling you. I've read a bunch of stuff on this. And nobody. Nobody definitively goes. What does it mean. When he says. I'm just noise. Does that mean that.
[25:44] Paul's messages. Paul's teaching. Paul's words. Paul's speech. Have no impact. Or no effect. Paul. Or is it just more personal.
[25:58] I tend to go with that. Rendering. That Paul may impact others. But for himself. It's just noise.
[26:11] I'll be honest with you. When I first started preaching. And I can't. I'm not saying that tonight. I got it all whipped. You know. Over in the little corner. My flesh. When I first started preaching. Pastors of church. When I came home.
[26:23] And Wanda was working with dinner. Or whatever. I'm waiting. I am waiting. To hear these words. Boy. What a message. What a message.
[26:38] And then I can eat. Okay. Bring. Bring the taters. Pride. Or something doesn't say something. You have to. After a message.
[26:48] That will give you something like that. You know. What motivates us. To do what we do. Hey. Do you think God. Don't like hypocrisy. Do you remember.
[26:59] What happened to Ananias. And Sapphira. Who sold some stuff. Just kind of lied about it. Just a smidgen. But they wanted to look good. To the church. Because everybody's giving stuff up. Everybody's selling houses.
[27:10] Everybody's selling lands. Everybody's going to the mission field. Everybody's just getting ready. To just sell out to God. We want to get in on that. From the look aspect of it. What motivates me.
[27:25] To preach. To teach. To sing. To go. To give. To do. To do. I promise you this. I do not want my life. To be noise.
[27:39] I don't want to get down to the end of my life. And realize when I stand before my Savior. That a lot of the years of my life. Was just noise. I'm satisfied. Many messages preached.
[27:50] Have been none. But that. Noise. Maybe benefit to the hearers. But of no benefit to me. Notice those next two phrases. When Paul says. I am nothing.
[28:01] And it profits me nothing. He doesn't say it doesn't profit others. When I unravel the mysteries of Ezekiel's will. But it profits me nothing. Because I'm just so glad.
[28:15] You think I'm so brilliant. That I can unravel all these mysteries. And I have this excellent ability. To speak.
[28:27] With the tongues of men and angels. I like it. That you like me. That will. That's my question for me tonight. And for all of us.
[28:40] Do I really not love what I do? And I do. I do. I love. Walking across the street. Every Sunday morning. Every Sunday night. And every Wednesday night.
[28:51] And preaching. I'm looking forward. To leaving Saturday. And driving to the coast of North Carolina. And start a Bible conference. On Sunday. And go through Wednesday. I'll come back in on Thursday. And I preach somewhere.
[29:01] Friday night. And Saturday night. And then Sunday at my church. I love it. But why do I love it? Why do I love it? Why do I love doing what I do?
[29:13] I do not want to be noise. I do not want to be nothing. I don't want my life to profit me.
[29:24] Nothing. The extreme. Of what somebody could do. But the extreme absence of that one thing.
[29:37] The resume. Of what's been accomplished. Without that one phrase. It has not charity. It's just noise. It's just nothing.
[29:49] And it just profits. Nothing. I don't want to live there. And I'm confessing. That I have spent. No doubt. Time. There. I want to make sure I'm loving.
[30:02] Because God loved me. You know how you'll ever get the love of God right? When you realize that God loves you. And when you really understand that God loves you.
[30:13] You won't have any problem. Loving others. The proper. Biblical. Scriptural. Way. Heads are bowed. Eyes are closed. Pastor you come and close as you see fit. Thank you. For this opportunity.
[30:24] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfredo, Georgia. For more information. Log on to www.visionbaptist.com Where you can find our service times.
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