The Unbreakable Bond: God’s Love That Never Fails

• The Definition and Nature of Love 00:03:29 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor defines love as 'charity' that never fails, contrasting it with temporary spiritual gifts like prophecy and tongues, and explains the Greek word 'pipto' (falls) to emphasize its permanence.
• The Eternal Origin of God's Love 00:04:40 ▶️ 📄
  > Using Ephesians 1, the pastor argues that God's love is eternal, having chosen believers 'before the foundation of the world,' establishing it as an unchanging attribute of God.
• Adoption and Sonship 00:07:33 ▶️ 📄
  > Referencing 1 John 3, the pastor describes God's love as an 'adopting love' that makes believers sons and daughters of God, distinguishing it from worldly love.
• The Security of Salvation 00:09:12 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor asserts that because God's love never fails, salvation cannot be lost, refuting the idea that believers can lose their salvation by citing John 3:16 and the permanence of being 'born again.'
• The New Covenant and Prophecy 00:10:33 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor connects Jeremiah 31's promise of an 'everlasting love' and the 'new covenant' to the virgin birth and the permanent nature of God's covenant with His people.
• The Virgin Birth and Conception 00:12:35 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor describes the virgin birth as a unique historical event and part of God's everlasting kindness, leading into the promise of the new covenant.
• The New Covenant 00:13:02 ▶️ 📄
  > He quotes Jeremiah 31 to explain the new covenant, noting it is internal ('law in their inward parts'), relational ('I will be their God'), and permanent, lasting as long as the sun and moon exist.
• Eternal Security and Election 00:14:27 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor asserts that the covenant is everlasting and that believers were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, ensuring their salvation is secure.
• God's Patience with Sin 00:15:23 ▶️ 📄
  > Addressing the concern of ongoing sin, the pastor uses the book of Hosea to illustrate God's patient, long-suffering love for His people despite their adultery and unfaithfulness.
• Marriage as a Metaphor for Christ and the Church 00:19:39 ▶️ 📄
  > He references Ephesians 5 to show that husbands are commanded to love their wives as Christ loved the church, emphasizing sanctification and the presentation of the church as holy.
• Justification and Peace with God 00:22:01 ▶️ 📄
  > Using Romans 5, he explains that being justified by faith brings peace with God and access to grace, where believers stand firm in hope despite tribulation.
• God's Love for Enemies 00:23:10 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor highlights that God commended His love by dying for us while we were yet sinners and enemies, urging believers to pity and pray for unbelievers.
• The Nature and Duration of God's Love 00:25:12 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor defines God's love as the force that enables believers to stand on judgment day, noting it began in eternity past and lasts 'to the end' of time and the believer's conformity to Christ.
• The Failure of Disciples and Christ's Restoring Love 00:28:06 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor contrasts the disciples' failure (betrayal, denial, sleeping) with Christ's unwavering love, using Peter's restoration as an example of love's power to bring repentance.
• The Armor of God and Righteousness 00:33:15 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor connects the 'breastplate of righteousness' in Ephesians to 'faith and love' in 1 Thessalonians, arguing that faith and love are components of the righteousness that protects the believer.
• Faith Working by Love 00:36:34 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor argues that faith is useless without love, citing Galatians to show that faith works by love, and that God's love is the foundation for both salvation and daily spiritual walk.
• The Supremacy of Love in Eternity 00:38:30 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor explains that in heaven, faith and hope will vanish because they are fulfilled, leaving only love as the eternal virtue before God.
• The Nature of Holiness and Love 00:37:58 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor explains that believers are chosen to be holy and blameless 'in love,' noting that while faith and hope are necessary on earth, only love remains in heaven.
• The Transition from Earth to Heaven 00:38:30 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor contrasts the current state of faith and hope with the future state in heaven, where faith becomes sight and hope finds its end, leaving only love.
• The Marriage Supper of the Lamb 00:40:04 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor references Revelation 19 to describe the marriage supper of the Lamb, identifying the church as the bride clothed in the righteousness of the saints.
• The Righteousness of the Saints 00:41:03 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor explains that the fine linen in Revelation 19 represents the righteousness of the saints, which is the righteousness of Jesus Christ, replacing the armor of faith and love used on earth.
• The Security of the Believer 00:43:52 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor quotes Romans 8 to affirm that nothing can separate believers from the love of God, emphasizing that God justifies and Christ intercedes for the elect.

• Sermon Illustration 00:01:06 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the analogy of a 'sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal' to describe the emptiness of spiritual gifts without love, and references the cultural trope of 'looking for love in all the wrong places' to contrast human love with God's love.
• Sermon Illustration 00:12:22 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses a humorous analogy of a 'big 600-pound woman' going around a man to clarify the metaphorical meaning of 'a woman shall compass a man' in Jeremiah 31, explaining it refers to the virgin birth of Christ.
• Sermon Illustration 00:16:21 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor recounts the story of the prophet Hosea, who was commanded by God to marry an adulterous woman and then buy her back from slavery, illustrating God's patient and redeeming love for Israel.
• Sermon Illustration 00:18:22 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses a personal analogy of being a husband with limits to contrast with God's infinite patience, noting that while he has limits, God's love never fails.
• Sermon Illustration 00:28:06 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor recounts the night of Jesus' betrayal, highlighting how the disciples failed (Judas betrayed him, Peter denied him, all fell asleep) yet Jesus loved them 'to the end,' illustrating the persistence of divine love despite human failure.
• Sermon Illustration 00:33:15 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the metaphor of spiritual warfare and the 'breastplate of righteousness' to explain how faith and love protect the believer's heart against the 'fiery darts of the wicked one.'
• Sermon Illustration 00:41:19 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the analogy of exchanging the 'breastplate of righteousness' (faith and love) worn during the 'church militant' phase on earth for a 'robe of righteousness' in heaven, where the fight is over.

• Pastoral Charge 00:10:09 ▶️ 📄
  > Examine one's faith and attain certainty of salvation.
• Pastoral Charge 00:24:07 ▶️ 📄
  > To pity, pray for, and show mercy to unbelievers who are enemies of God.
• Pastoral Charge 00:31:13 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor commands the congregation to diligently ensure their salvation and election by cultivating specific virtues.
• Pastoral Charge 00:40:27 ▶️ 📄
  > True believers are to listen and anticipate the marriage supper; non-believers are to feel envy and seek salvation (get born again).
• Pastoral Charge 00:45:48 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor prays for the Holy Spirit to prevent unbelievers from leaving until they repent and receive Christ.

[00:00:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:02] Today we continue in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. We have today and perhaps one more message, if the Lord wills, on the subject of love or charity.
[00:00:16] And thank you all for being good sports and singing so well. Psalm 136. You see how in the Psalter the words are from the Bible?
[00:00:30] And that word that is translated mercy in Psalm 136 in the King James is steadfast love in other translations.
[00:00:40] And that steadfast love is what we're talking about today.
[00:00:43] After preaching on love for some time in 1 Corinthians 13, we come finally to verse 8, but I'm going to read the entire chapter.
[00:00:53] We're going to be focusing on verse 8, And it's specifically the phrase, charity or love never faileth or fails.
[00:01:01] So with that, let's read 1 Corinthians 13.
[00:01:06] Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.
[00:01:15] And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith that I could remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing.
[00:01:23] And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
[00:01:33] Charity, or love, suffereth long and is kind.
[00:01:37] Charity envieth not.
[00:01:38] Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things,
[00:01:57] charity never faileth.
[00:02:01] But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail.
[00:02:03] Whether there be tongues, they shall cease.
[00:02:05] Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
[00:02:07] 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.
[00:02:18] 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, I put away childish things.
[00:02:27] For now we see through a glass or in a mirror darkly, but then face to face.
[00:02:35] Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known.
[00:02:42] And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three.
[00:02:47] But the greatest of these is charity.
[00:02:50] Let's pray.
[00:02:51] Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this magnificent chapter of your holy word.
[00:02:56] Now, Lord, help us, we pray, to understand the great wonder and privilege and blessing that your love never fails.
[00:03:06] And Lord, it never will, it never has, and we give you praise and thanks.
[00:03:10] May it be brought home to our minds and hearts this day, the grand importance of this truth that we might cleave evermore to our spiritual husband, your son, Christ Jesus, in whose name we pray.
[00:03:26] Thank you. Amen.
[00:03:29] This verse 8, specifically, charity never faileth, really is kind of the capstone of all of these verbs that describe charity, beginning in verse 4.
[00:03:41] Long-suffering, kind, does not envy, so forth and so on, ending up with charity never faileth, as opposed to the other attributes that are mentioned there in verse 8. Charity never fails, but prophecies will, and tongues will, and special knowledge
[00:04:01] will vanish away. But charity never fails. And we'll talk about that. First of all, the word there for fails, and the Greek is pipto, which literally means falls. That charity or love never falls. Of course, fails, falls kind of goes together, but the technical and literal meaning
[00:04:21] of the word is falls. Love never falls. So that's interesting, something to remember.
[00:04:28] Well, this charity that never fails, by the way, when did it start? If it never falls and never fails. Has it been around for a while? Well, as a matter of fact, it's been around forever. Let's
[00:04:40] take a look in Ephesians chapter 1, also authored by the Apostle Paul, of course, inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. Ephesians chapter 1, let's look at the first six verses. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in
[00:04:55] Christ Jesus, grace be to you in peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
[00:05:09] And what are those blessings?
[00:05:10] Well, look at verse 4.
[00:05:12] According as he hath chosen us in him, when did he choose us?
[00:05:17] Before the foundation of the world.
[00:05:20] When did this love start?
[00:05:21] Before you started.
[00:05:23] Before the world started.
[00:05:25] This love of God that never fails is an eternal love.
[00:05:28] Notice.
[00:05:28] According as he hath chosen us, we who are believers, in him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should be what?
[00:05:37] Holy and without blame, before him in love.
[00:05:43] Interesting. Praise God.
[00:05:45] What a wonderful truth.
[00:05:47] Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
[00:05:58] First of all, this love never fails because it is eternal.
[00:06:02] It's always been there and it always will be because after all, God is love and he changes not.
[00:06:08] He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.
[00:06:10] And so this love with which he has loved us who are believers, who are saints, never fails and we give God praise that it's always been there and we being born again, those of us
[00:06:20] who are, it has been bestowed by his grace upon us through his son, Christ Jesus.
[00:06:26] to him be glory, honor, and praise.
[00:06:28] Amen?
[00:06:31] Notice also in verse 6 of this Ephesians 1, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
[00:06:41] It's the very same Greek word as the base there, beloved, as it is that we are to be without blame before him in love.
[00:06:48] Verse 4, and so who is the beloved that we have been made acceptable in?
[00:06:54] Jesus Christ.
[00:06:55] Praise God.
[00:06:56] There is a connection between God's love and us being made acceptable in the Beloved, who is, of course, Jesus Christ.
[00:07:03] Well, what kind of love is this?
[00:07:05] Well, it's the God kind of love.
[00:07:07] Well, what kind of love is that?
[00:07:08] You know, let's turn, if you would, to 1 John chapter 3 and get an understanding.
[00:07:13] As you do, remember that famous song, you know, looking for love in all the wrong places.
[00:07:20] Well, the problem is they're looking for the different kinds of love, but not the love of God, because the only place to find that is God himself.
[00:07:31] And so 1 John chapter 3, this is the first couple of verses.
[00:07:33] Behold, what manner of love.
[00:07:35] The question is, what kind of love is this?
[00:07:36] Well, the King James tells us, behold, what manner, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us.
[00:07:42] What kind of love is this?
[00:07:43] That we should be called the sons of God.
[00:07:46] Hallelujah.
[00:07:48] A lot of people wouldn't want to adopt you or me, but God did, praise the Lord.
[00:07:55] If you're born again, he said, I'll take that one.
[00:07:57] Yes, sir, I'm going to adopt that one.
[00:07:59] Of course, this is God's love.
[00:08:01] What kind of love?
[00:08:02] Not just that he saves us, but that he brings us to be his very sons and daughters.
[00:08:06] An adopting love.
[00:08:07] Hallelujah.
[00:08:08] The Father hath bestowed upon us this love that we should be called the sons of God.
[00:08:14] Therefore the world does it know us, knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
[00:08:18] Beloved, notice, before Paul calls Jesus the beloved.
[00:08:23] Now John calls you the beloved.
[00:08:25] Praise God.
[00:08:26] Hallelujah, that same love of God is now in us if we've been born again, because the Spirit of love, the Holy Spirit of God is now in us by faith.
[00:08:34] Praise God.
[00:08:35] Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
[00:08:48] Hallelujah.
[00:08:49] Praise God.
[00:08:51] Well, we see when it started, we see what kind of love it is.
[00:08:57] Doesn't this remind you of, for God so loved the world, John 3.16.
[00:09:02] For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
[00:09:09] Aren't you glad that love doesn't fail?
[00:09:12] Why did He save you?
[00:09:13] Well, there's many reasons, ultimately for His glory.
[00:09:16] But John 3.16 says, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.
[00:09:21] why did he send his son because of love praise god his love doesn't fail those who say that we can lose our salvation believes that love can fail god's love can't fail salvation if you're
[00:09:33] truly born again you'll always be born again say well i've seen people leave the faith no they didn't never had it that's what jesus says depart from me you workers of iniquity i never knew you
[00:09:42] they say lord lord didn't we do this didn't we do that then we come to church on christmas and Easter, or whatever else. But no, I never knew you. But those that he knows, those who are born again,
[00:09:52] those who become sons and daughters of the Most High God, by the power and spirit of love, it will never fail. They will be preserved until the very end. Love never fails, and that's a good thing.
[00:10:05] Now, if you've received that love, you know what it is, and it's salvation, and it will not go away.
[00:10:09] It will not fail, because God's the one who saves us. God's the one who can keep us. If you're not sure about your salvation, get sure. And once you are, you'll never lose it. You'll never, because
[00:10:20] God cannot fail. His love does not fail. God so loved the world. Praise God. I'm glad that love doesn't fail. As a matter of fact, this isn't just revealed in the New Testament, but it's there in
[00:10:33] the Old. Take a look at Jeremiah 31. What a key chapter in the Old Testament, because in Jeremiah 31, as you've heard us preach, there is the new covenant promised in Jeremiah chapter 31 and verse 31 and following.
[00:10:48] But let's go back in Jeremiah 31, if you will, to verse 3.
[00:10:54] Jeremiah chapter 31, verse 3, the Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee, with what kind of love? An everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Praise God. An everlasting love. If it's everlasting, can you lose it? Praise God. Just
[00:11:18] like salvation, right? He who believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
[00:11:26] Everlasting love and everlasting life go together, you see? And so, praise God. He has loved his people with an everlasting love. Now, we don't have time to break this down, but we've talked about it before. In this chapter, we have the new covenant that we'll read here in a moment in verse
[00:11:44] 31, promised 700 years before Christ came. But we also have what seems to be obscure, but I think Pastor Andy and I agree, and a lot of conservative commentators recognize a prophecy of how love is
[00:11:57] going to manifest in verse 22 of the same chapter. Notice God says, in Jeremiah 31, I said verse 22, yes, how long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter? For the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth. What's the new thing? A woman shall compass a man. A woman shall
[00:12:22] compass a man. Now, as I've said before, don't think about some big 600-pound woman, you know, going around a man. That's not the idea. A woman shall compass a man. The virgin birth.
[00:12:35] The virgin conception. Christ coming inside of a woman for nine months. A woman, a new thing that's never happened, never happens again. This is part of the everlasting kindness that has unfolded in our space-time history some 2,000 years ago, and then in verse 31 and following is the
[00:12:56] promise of that actually in covenant language.
[00:13:02] Jeremiah 31, a few verses further on, verse 31, 31, 31, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
[00:13:12] What kind of covenant?
[00:13:13] Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant they break.
[00:13:21] although I was a husband unto them.
[00:13:23] Oh, well, he must have loved them.
[00:13:25] He's a husband, right?
[00:13:26] Say the Lord, But this shall be the covenant that I'll make with the house of Israel after those days.
[00:13:30] Say the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people.
[00:13:38] They shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother.
[00:13:41] Say no, the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them.
[00:13:46] Say the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more.
[00:13:52] Now how long is this covenant going to last?
[00:13:55] Verse 35 tells us, Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinance of the moon and the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar.
[00:14:07] The Lord of hosts is his name.
[00:14:08] If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever.
[00:14:16] In the rest of the chapter, he gives all of these things.
[00:14:19] He says, if these things can be stopped, then my covenant will be broken.
[00:14:23] In other words, the covenant is not ever going to be broken.
[00:14:25] It's an everlasting covenant.
[00:14:27] It's an everlasting love, and it's through the everlasting Son of God who was born of a virgin 2,000 years ago, spotless, sinless Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world, the very same Lamb of God who with the Father and the Holy Spirit
[00:14:43] in counsel before anything was created, you and I and all who believe were chosen in Him, the One who came to be compassed by a woman for nine months in a virgin womb to live a sinless life
[00:15:00] and to die and suffer the punishment that we deserve, that the everlasting covenant of our salvation might be written in the blood of the One who loved us and gave Himself for us.
[00:15:14] Praise God.
[00:15:15] Hallelujah.
[00:15:16] And so, some might say, yes, but what about our sin, Pastor Joseph?
[00:15:23] You know, I haven't lived as holy a life as Pastor Andy.
[00:15:27] Well, that may be so.
[00:15:29] But nevertheless, nevertheless, there is still hope for you.
[00:15:38] And for that matter, for me.
[00:15:41] Turn to the book of Hosea.
[00:15:42] I understand that the men I have not been in that class but the men in discipleship have gone through the book of Hosea it's a wonderful story about the truth of God's everlasting love with his people
[00:15:57] in the Old Testament God is seen as married to his people Israel in the New Testament Christ to the church and is our sin if we're truly married to him is our sin going to break that marriage covenant
[00:16:09] well in the story of Hosea we find that Hosea has this wife that he's to get who is an adulterous wife who goes and plays the harlot time after time.
[00:16:21] And God doesn't tell him, go and divorce her, she's a sinner, be done.
[00:16:25] He says, go and buy her back.
[00:16:26] She's debased herself so much that she's fallen into slavery.
[00:16:31] He is to go and buy her back as a slave, but now to be his very bride afresh.
[00:16:39] You find in Hosea chapter three, verse one, Then said the Lord unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the Lord, toward the children of Israel.
[00:16:50] So you see, this really happened to the prophet Hosea, but it is also a story that points to how God loves the church.
[00:17:00] As the Lord is toward the children of Israel, verse 1, who look to other gods and love flagons of wine.
[00:17:08] So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, for a homer of barley and a half homer of barley.
[00:17:14] And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days.
[00:17:16] Thou shalt not play the harlot, thou shalt not be for another man, so will I also be for thee.
[00:17:23] For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim.
[00:17:31] afterwards shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God and David their king and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days wow that's a a patient husband she's
[00:17:45] not only in sin and continually in sin he buys her back he says listen you're going to wait there uh and you know you're going to one day be holy and you're going to love me again how long is it
[00:17:55] going to take well as a matter of fact Israel's not going to have a king well there was 400 some years that they didn't right more than that even uh 580 years they had no king up until the time
[00:18:08] that christ came as king but this is actually pointing to the latter days when god's people will return and and want to be his bride how when does that happen it just hadn't happened yet has
[00:18:22] it that sure is a patient husband folks i'm a husband i can be long-suffering but i got limits right? But praise God, his love never fails. Amen? Hallelujah, because you're the bride that he's waiting on to get right, okay? And we need to return to him with hearts filled and aflame with
[00:18:43] love for our Savior. That picture, of course, is in the text, 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 4, when the verbal forms of the descriptions of love begin. What's the first one that it begins with?
[00:18:57] Charity is long-suffering, if you have the King James.
[00:19:02] We have a newer translation, patient.
[00:19:04] But I think in this case, long-suffering is even more accurate and appropriate.
[00:19:12] And who's he suffering with?
[00:19:15] Us!
[00:19:18] You feel like, hey, people, I'm the life of the party.
[00:19:20] People are happy I'm here.
[00:19:22] God is long-suffering towards us because he is love.
[00:19:27] And he's espoused us to himself through his son with the spirit of love.
[00:19:33] And this we see beautifully portrayed in the book of Ephesians once again in chapter 5.
[00:19:39] There where husbands are commanded to love their wives, of course just before that we can't omit the just as important command to wives to submit to their husbands, but that's not what we're preaching on today.
[00:19:53] Ephesians chapter 5, verse 25.
[00:19:56] 25, husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it.
[00:20:06] Why?
[00:20:06] That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church on wedding day, right?
[00:20:16] Not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.
[00:20:22] So ought men to love their wives as their own body.
[00:20:27] He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
[00:20:29] For no man ever yet hateth his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church.
[00:20:33] For we are members of his body.
[00:20:35] The church is a member of whose body?
[00:20:38] Christ's.
[00:20:39] We're a member of his body.
[00:20:40] We're a member of his flesh and of his bones.
[00:20:43] Can you get any closer than that?
[00:20:46] For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife, and the two shall be one flesh.
[00:20:51] this is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Praise God for that love, that cleansing love, that marital love, that love. Christ loves you more than any husband or wife ever will, more than your own sweet mama, more than your children, more than anything you can
[00:21:14] imagine. How do we love him in return? Now, this love that God has bestowed upon us is beautifully picture in the book of Romans. Let's take a look and I want you to pay close
[00:21:29] attention in chapter 5 to a particular word that is attached to the love that God gives us that takes us back to our text in the idea in 1 Corinthians 13 that love never fails. Remember I said
[00:21:43] the literal rendering of the Greek word translated fail means to what? Well you guys are on the ball today. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. You awake? Ready to go? Wonderful.
[00:21:54] Romans chapter 5, verse 1.
[00:21:55] Therefore, after those young ladies who are in the Roman study, we get to chapter 5.
[00:22:01] The gospel has been presented.
[00:22:03] If we are born again by grace through faith, it says, Therefore, verse 1, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand.
[00:22:22] What's the opposite of stand?
[00:22:26] Isn't that interesting?
[00:22:28] Into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
[00:22:32] And not only so, but we glory in tribulation also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, patience experience, experience hope, and hope maketh not a shame, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts
[00:22:44] by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
[00:22:48] For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
[00:22:52] For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
[00:22:59] But God commends his love towards us.
[00:23:02] God wants us to see his love so beautiful, so wonderful.
[00:23:05] How?
[00:23:05] He commends it to us.
[00:23:07] He shows it to us.
[00:23:08] He displays it to us.
[00:23:10] How?
[00:23:10] He commends his love towards us and that while we were yet sinners, when we were yet in enmity with God, while we were yet in our sin and not loving him but loving ourself, Christ
[00:23:20] died for us.
[00:23:22] This is love that never fails.
[00:23:24] This is the way husbands we're called to love our wives.
[00:23:27] Much more than being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.
[00:23:33] You see, we are deserving of His wrath.
[00:23:35] We are in sin.
[00:23:37] And yet while we're at enmity with God and in sin, He dies for us.
[00:23:40] That's love, brothers and sisters.
[00:23:43] Much more than being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.
[00:23:48] For if when we were enemies, enemies to who?
[00:23:52] To God.
[00:23:53] When you see somebody who's an unbeliever, and they're just a sorry old sinner, and they're wicked, and they're mean to you, don't be upset with them.
[00:24:02] How would you like to be an enemy of God?
[00:24:04] You can't be in any worse position in the whole wide world.
[00:24:07] Pity them. Pray for them. Have mercy on them.
[00:24:10] For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
[00:24:17] And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have received now the atonement.
[00:24:25] Notice it says that now that we've been born again, we find ourselves in verse 2, by whom also we have access, access to God, by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
[00:24:39] We stand, we don't fall.
[00:24:41] We stand on the day of judgment.
[00:24:43] It says in Revelation, Oh, the day of the wrath of the Lamb of God has come and who shall be able to stand?
[00:24:48] And no one, unless you have been washed in the blood of Christ, you've trusted in him, born again, and made right by his finished work on the cross, by grace, through faith, in Jesus Christ.
[00:25:06] And if so, you're able to stand.
[00:25:09] How?
[00:25:09] Love is the thing that stands and never falls.
[00:25:12] And we are saved, how?
[00:25:14] By his love.
[00:25:15] And isn't that manifest in this chapter that we just read?
[00:25:18] Notice again, verse 5, our hope makes us not ashamed.
[00:25:22] Why?
[00:25:22] Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
[00:25:27] And then this whole thing in verse 6 through 8 is a picture of the overwhelming love of God who would die for us and bleed for us and suffer for us when we are yet at enmity with God
[00:25:38] and in our sin going about our own lives.
[00:25:42] This is the picture that God presents us of the love that he's given to us.
[00:25:47] Now, in this love, we've asked ourselves, when did it begin?
[00:25:52] Eternity past.
[00:25:54] What kind of love that we should be the sons and daughters of the Most High God?
[00:25:58] And we've asked other questions.
[00:25:59] What about our sin?
[00:26:01] Well, even though we sin, if God has betrothed us to himself, Christ has dealt with our sin.
[00:26:08] We trust and repent and believe.
[00:26:11] Well, any questions left?
[00:26:14] How well did the disciples do?
[00:26:16] Oh, if I could just do as good as a disciple.
[00:26:19] And by the way, how long does this love last?
[00:26:22] Well, turn to John chapter 13, verse 1.
[00:26:27] The night that Jesus was betrayed, the next day he's going to be on the cross.
[00:26:32] Notice how verse 1 begins of John chapter 13, verse 1.
[00:26:36] How long does Christ love us?
[00:26:38] Now, before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own, look at this, which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
[00:26:56] That's pretty powerful.
[00:26:58] How long did he love them?
[00:27:00] To the end.
[00:27:01] What end?
[00:27:02] The end of his life?
[00:27:05] The end of their lives?
[00:27:08] To the end of the end.
[00:27:10] To the end in that they, it says in Ephesians chapter 4, that God in His ascension, glorious ascension, gives gifts unto men and to the body of Christ and offices of teacher and evangelist and all of these others
[00:27:23] for the edification of the body, for the growing up of the saints, that we are growing up into the head which is Jesus Christ until we all come to the unity of the faith and to the perfect stature of the measure of the man.
[00:27:41] When does that happen?
[00:27:42] When we get to heaven.
[00:27:43] And so he loved them unto the end, the end of time and the end of our conforming to the one who loved us and gave himself for us, as we read in 1 John 3, verse 2, for when
[00:27:59] we see him, we will be like him.
[00:28:03] He loved them to the end.
[00:28:06] How well were they treating him that night?
[00:28:09] Well, one goes and betrays him.
[00:28:11] One for 30 pieces of silver, the price of a slave, Judas.
[00:28:16] Another who swears, though every man abandon you, not me.
[00:28:23] I'll stay with you to the very end.
[00:28:25] I'll die with you.
[00:28:27] Who was that?
[00:28:29] How well did he do?
[00:28:33] And yet he loved them to the end.
[00:28:36] All of them fell in one way or another that night.
[00:28:39] Each one of them, when he's praying, in the most difficult time, the Son of God trod that tread the earth.
[00:28:49] They're all asleep.
[00:28:51] I can relate.
[00:28:52] And so, could you not watch with me one hour?
[00:28:56] Although y'all all seem engaged today.
[00:28:58] Praise God.
[00:28:59] I am too.
[00:28:59] I'm excited.
[00:29:02] And then, of course, they all leave him.
[00:29:04] And then Peter denies him three times.
[00:29:08] And, of course, we see Jesus restoring him in the end of John.
[00:29:13] But maybe this is why Peter penned in 2 Peter chapter 1, if you want to turn there, these words.
[00:29:22] In 2 Peter chapter 1, Peter speaks to us by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, I think about the love of Christ, really.
[00:29:32] Let's take a look.
[00:29:33] 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 1, Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ, grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and
[00:29:47] of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers
[00:30:03] of the divine nature, hallelujah, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, and besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue we're adding knowledge and to knowledge temperance or self-control to temperance patience hey this
[00:30:21] sounds a lot like love doesn't it and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and then what's the capstone and climax and to brotherly kindness charity isn't interesting charity is the climax for if these things be in you and abound they make you that you shall neither
[00:30:44] be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:30:48] But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from old sins.
[00:30:56] Wherefore, the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things, you shall never, what do we say that love never does?
[00:31:13] It never fails, and the Greek word peepto behind it literally means if you do these things, and the capstone of it all is charity, you shall never fall.
[00:31:29] Charity never fall.
[00:31:32] Charity never faileth.
[00:31:35] And though Peter was sorely tempted, Christ prayed for him, and he did repent, and it was love, the power of the love of God that was in Peter that brought him back. For remember, when Jesus comes
[00:31:50] to Peter at the end of John, he asked him three questions to restore him. And each time, what does he ask him?
[00:31:58] Peter, do you? Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.
[00:32:05] And we can go and preach that on another time, the significance of the words there, but three times, do you love me? He denied him three times. Three times, same question.
[00:32:15] Do you love him? At the end of the day, brothers and sisters, this is the one question. If you love him enough, you'll be in his word. If you love him enough, you'll be in prayer. If you love him
[00:32:27] enough, you'll be in church.
[00:32:29] If you love him enough, you will be loving towards your brothers and sisters. And how do we love him enough? We never can.
[00:32:38] But, by the power of the Spirit of God inside of us and the Spirit of love, as we are more and more conformed to him, we can more and more for his glory.
[00:32:48] Amen?
[00:32:52] Think about this.
[00:32:53] Do you think there was any spiritual warfare going on that night?
[00:33:00] If there was a graph of spiritual warfare, I imagine that the night Jesus was betrayed, it was pegged as high as it could possibly go.
[00:33:11] And isn't that interesting that in Ephesians chapter 6, verse 10 through 18, right?
[00:33:15] It says, you know, brethren, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, you know, but against powers and principalities, spiritual wickedness in high places.
[00:33:24] Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to do what?
[00:33:31] As opposed to fall, right?
[00:33:34] Stand with your loins got about with truth, having on the breastplate of your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, above all taking the shield of faith, which will quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one,
[00:33:49] the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.
[00:33:55] Interesting.
[00:33:56] That breastplate of righteousness which covers the heart.
[00:33:59] How are we saved?
[00:34:00] After all, the entire book of Romans, the theme is the righteousness of God.
[00:34:04] I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
[00:34:07] For it is the power of God and the salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
[00:34:10] For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. From the faithfulness of Christ to our faith, we receive it. That even is a gift from him. But it's interesting, this breastplate of righteousness is mentioned another
[00:34:26] place in scripture, a couple other places. But let's take a look at the one that's closest in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. And the breastplate of righteousness has a different name. Anyone know what the name is? 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, let's take a look, verse 5 through 11.
[00:34:45] Ye are all the children of light and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness, but ye brethren, it says, therefore let us not sleep, I'm sorry, verse 6, as others
[00:34:58] do, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that be drunken or drunk in the night but let us who are of the day be sober putting on the breastplate
[00:35:10] of righteousness is that what it says the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet the hope of salvation do you think the writer of Thessalonians didn't read Ephesians as a matter of fact he wrote Ephesians this Paul so here the breastplate of the armor of God is described as
[00:35:32] faith and love.
[00:35:34] In Ephesians, the same breastplate is described as righteousness.
[00:35:39] Isn't it interesting that if we're going to be righteous, faith and love both are components of that righteousness.
[00:35:50] Is it not the love of God who sent His Son for us to die on the cross? And then the faith that we receive that gift and it is even a gift, the faith itself is a gift of God.
[00:36:04] that none should boast.
[00:36:06] Interesting.
[00:36:08] Faith, hope, love.
[00:36:11] Isn't that the end of the chapter, really?
[00:36:13] These three.
[00:36:14] But the greatest of these is love or charity.
[00:36:17] Brothers and sisters, it is that love that sees us through.
[00:36:21] It is that love that guards our heart.
[00:36:23] Yes, it's the righteousness of God, but without faith, yes, we walk by faith, not by sight.
[00:36:28] And it is faith by which we overcome.
[00:36:31] Faith is the victory.
[00:36:32] But do not forget love.
[00:36:34] if it wasn't for the love of God that was for us from the foundation of the earth that was manifest most richly and climatically in the death of Jesus on the cross for you and for me
[00:36:44] even when we were yet in enmity against God and our sins and yet it is also that love that helps us walk that walk day to day it's not just that we walk by faith
[00:36:54] but we walk by love because we know from the book of Galatians that faith worketh by you still haven't got it some of you love faith works by love faith doesn't work without love. Without the love of God, your faith is useless. And so that's for salvation, but also
[00:37:10] in our daily walk in the spiritual warfare that we face. The very blessed faith that guards our heart is a breastplate of faith, but also of love. You see how this is not just, Brother Emilio,
[00:37:23] not just squishy preaching. This is good stuff. Not me. This. This. Praise God. The power of the love of God. The power of the love of God manifest by grace through faith in Christ. And remember
[00:37:40] Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4, God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the earth that we should be holy and without blame before him in what? In love. That's very interesting.
[00:37:58] in love. Think about this for a moment. He chose us before the foundation of the earth in Christ that we should be, has it happened yet? We should be holy and blameless. Are we holy and blameless
[00:38:13] in every way now? But we will be before him in faith. No, before him in hope. No, before him in love, because once we get before him in heaven, the only thing left is love.
[00:38:30] Now, the things that abide, fate, hope, charity, but the greatest of these is charity, because when we get to heaven, there won't be any faith anymore. Faith will be sight. You don't need faith. When we get to heaven, there won't
[00:38:40] be any more hope, because the hope has now found its end in Christ.
[00:38:44] There won't be any more long-suffering in heaven. Praise God.
[00:38:48] There won't be any more need to endure.
[00:38:51] There won't be any more need. There won't be any more pride.
[00:38:54] Praise God. There won't be any more vaunting yourself. Praise God. There will be only kindness.
[00:39:00] The other fruits of the Spirit, joy and everything else, will just automatically be manifest. But the need for these other graces, like faith and hope and perseverance and long-suffering will all vanish.
[00:39:14] Because the end of it will be manifest.
[00:39:17] And we'll be in that end. He loved us to the end.
[00:39:22] and the only thing left is love itself before whom we'll gladly bow and cast down our crowns.
[00:39:31] Amen.
[00:39:34] I find it interesting that at the end of the chapter at hand, 1 Corinthians 13, as we mentioned, now abideth these three, faith, hope, and charity.
[00:39:46] But the greatest of these is charity.
[00:39:50] When we look at the scene of heaven, what's it going to be like?
[00:39:55] Well, the next message, Lord willing, we'll take a look at that.
[00:39:58] That'll be our final message on 1 Corinthians 13.
[00:40:00] But before then, let's turn to Revelation 19.
[00:40:04] Revelation 19, we find the marriage supper of the Lamb.
[00:40:09] Who's the Lamb going to marry?
[00:40:13] Every true believer.
[00:40:14] We are the bride.
[00:40:18] If he commands husbands to love his wife, do you think he's going to love us?
[00:40:21] Of course.
[00:40:22] This is a picture of Christ loving the church.
[00:40:25] So what's going to happen?
[00:40:26] Revelation 19.
[00:40:27] If you're a true believer, listen up.
[00:40:28] this is going to happen to you. Verse 6, if not, listen up and get envious and get born again. Revelation 19, verse 6, And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the voice
[00:40:40] of many waters, as the voice of mighty thundering, saying, Hallelujah!
[00:40:44] For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife hath made herself ready.
[00:40:55] And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white.
[00:41:03] For the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.
[00:41:09] In heaven, we're going to be clothed with fine linen, which is what?
[00:41:12] The righteousness of the saints.
[00:41:14] Interesting.
[00:41:15] That's going to cover us, right?
[00:41:16] Just like the breastplate of righteousness.
[00:41:19] Because on earth, we're the church militant.
[00:41:21] We have to fight against powers and principalities.
[00:41:24] But when we get to heaven, that fight's done, isn't it?
[00:41:27] And then we exchange that armor for a robe of righteousness.
[00:41:32] We had the breastplate of righteousness, but now we have the robe of righteousness.
[00:41:36] And remember, according to Paul, that breastplate of righteousness is really made up of two components, which is what?
[00:41:43] Faith and love.
[00:41:45] But when we get to heaven, the faith will be sight.
[00:41:49] And we're only clothed in praise God.
[00:41:55] Praise God.
[00:41:55] And isn't that appropriate for a wedding?
[00:42:06] Forgive me for my pause as I stand in awe of the God who has orchestrated all of this for a sinner such as I.
[00:42:21] And so, Ephesians 1, one more time, verse 3 and 4.
[00:42:29] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world
[00:42:43] that we should be holy and without blame before him in what?
[00:42:53] When we get before him, what will be our state?
[00:42:59] It will be characterized more than anything else by love.
[00:43:03] Before him in love with our heavenly groom who loved us and gave himself for us, who bought us with his own life and blood who is our righteousness who gave us the faith by which we are saved
[00:43:21] who clothes us in the same.
[00:43:25] The righteousness of the saints is the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
[00:43:32] Aren't you glad that charity never fails?
[00:43:39] Well, brethren, what more is there to say?
[00:43:45] You say, oh, he's being prideful now.
[00:43:48] No, no.
[00:43:50] What shall we say to these things?
[00:43:52] If God be for us, who can be against us?
[00:43:55] Who shall lay anything against the charge of God's elect?
[00:43:58] It is God that justifieth, yes?
[00:44:00] Who is he that condemneth?
[00:44:02] It is Christ that died, yea, rather has risen again, and is even at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us.
[00:44:09] Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
[00:44:13] Shall persecution, or distress, shall tribulation, or famine, nakedness, or peril, or sword?
[00:44:20] Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
[00:44:26] The verse just before that says, of course, remember, it says, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
[00:44:34] As it is written, we are killed all the day long.
[00:44:39] As it is written, we are killed all the day long for him.
[00:44:43] We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
[00:44:47] Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors.
[00:44:50] How?
[00:44:50] through him that what?
[00:44:53] Loved us.
[00:44:54] How do we conquer?
[00:44:56] Through the lover, the beloved, and through his love that is bestowed on us.
[00:45:00] For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, neither height nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
[00:45:19] from the love of God which is towards us in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
[00:45:30] Aren't you glad that love never fails?
[00:45:34] Amen?
[00:45:36] Dear Heavenly Father, we do praise you and worship you.
[00:45:40] We marvel at your goodness and your grace.
[00:45:43] Oh, Lord God, your love for us.
[00:45:45] What manner of love is this?
[00:45:48] Lord, if there be even one person here today who has not yet received that love, Don't let them leave, Lord, till they come and bow the knee willingly to receive that love incarnate, your Son, Christ Jesus.
[00:46:02] We who've received you by grace through faith, may we grow in this love.
[00:46:07] May we be encouraged to know that love never fails, love never falls.
[00:46:12] And so may we stand day by day fighting the good fight of faith, step by step as we walk this pilgrim journey on our way to Zion when we see you face to face and that confirmation process
[00:46:28] that you started before the foundation of the earth in your son Jesus in the spirit of love will be fully and finally complete for you have loved us to the end and to you be all the glory, honor, praise
[00:46:48] and may you be that which our soul loves more than anything else. In Christ's name we pray and thank you. Amen.
[00:47:00] I stand amazed at the presence of Jesus the Nazarene number 223 in the hand.