Not Easily Angered, Thinks No Evil, Rejoices

Introduction

We will be beginning our study this evening in Ephesians chapter 3, if you’d like to be turning there with me. As has been announced, our study during this series has been primarily concerned with 1 Corinthians 13, and we’ll be returning to that this evening in just a moment.

Certainly want to add my word of welcome to everyone. It’s good to see all of you here and visitors from various places. It is a blessed thing, isn’t it, to join together as we have already in our worship. I would like to mention again tonight what a wonderful thing it has been to sing with this church. You have wonderful song leaders who are dedicated and who want to do their very best to prepare. And clearly we have a congregation of Christians here who want to join in heartily in that aspect of the worship. We thank you for that. It’s a great blessing. What we’ve been studying this series is a portrait of Jesus Christ Himself. As we study love in all of its facets as God has described it to us, we’re really studying Jesus.

Because he in its perfection showed us what love is. And so we’ve been analyzing how God describes love, how he defines it, and what we have found out is that in every sense he describes it in action. Love is a deed in God’s dictionary, and we need to learn all we can about how love acts. Because in that we are fulfilling the essence of who Christ is. And that’s why I want to begin with Ephesians 3 tonight. In a prayer that the Apostle Paul prayed fervently to God for the Christians at Ephesus, as he certainly was also praying for all of us who are Christians. For this reason, I bow my knees. This is verse 14 of chapter 3. For this reason, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.

That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now, brother and sister in Christ, that beautiful prayer prayed for Christians in the first century, rings down even to the present day, if we could just be filled up with the fullness of God, and I’m convinced what he’s saying in this prayer is the way to do that is to come to know the length and the breadth, the width and the height of the love of Christ Jesus that passes knowledge.

If we could just come to understand that and be filled up with the fullness of God, this prayer will have been fulfilled in our own personal lives. And not only that, we will be closer to matching the example of Jesus. But now I want you to see that that’s not an impossible thing. Because read the next verse with me. Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. I’d like to impress that passage upon your mind. You just imagine right here at this level, everything you can ask or think. Right here. That’s a lot, isn’t it? Just try to think of everything you can ask or even think about. Now, what God says in this passage through the Apostle Paul’s prayer as he praises the God of heaven, is that he can do above that.

Here’s all that you can ask or think, God can do above that. That’s not all he says. He says he can do exceedingly abundantly above that. So I can’t reach that high. God is able to do much more than we can even imagine in our own personal lives. As we become filled up with the knowledge of the love of Christ. But now let’s finish the verse. How does he do that? According to the power that works in us. That’s how God does that. And how does God’s power work in us and fill us up to do what God wants us to do? I’m convinced is as we become filled up with the fullness of God and you want to know what God is, 1 John 4 says, God is love.

That’s why this subject is so important. And so, if you’ll go with me back now to 1 Corinthians 13, we’re going to pick up our lesson where we left it off last night. And I want to do that by a brief review. I learned a long time ago. I’ve been teaching math for a long time. And I learned a long time ago that my students aren’t going to remember half of what I say. So I’m not naive about that. But I do know this. The things they will remember are the things that have been given to them based on the three rules of teaching. You’ve heard this. There are three rules of teaching. The first rule is repetition. The second rule is repetition. And the third rule is repetition.

And I believe in it. The things that you remember are the things that you think about, the things you meditate on, the things you bring to your mind over and over and over again. And isn’t that precisely what God wants us to do with this book? And God help us never to get tired of the repetition of what God has told us in this book. So let’s look again at verses 4 through 7. And this time the repetition will be done in a little different way.

But you start with me in verse 4. God’s description of love and how it acts. Every one of these expressions is a verb, I remind you again. In every case, it tells us what love does. Now, in some cases in English, it sounds like an adjective because of the way it’s been translated. But I’m telling you, in every case in the Greek language, it’s a verb. This is how love acts. Or does not act. Love suffers long. Love is patient with people. It never runs out of patience. Love is like the heart of the waiting father for the prodigal son who waits and waits and waits, and when everyone else has given up, he is still standing there with his arms open. Love suffers long. Love is kind.

The root meaning of that word is useful. Love is useful. Love spends itself on things that are good for others. Love seeks to do things that are in the best interest of other people. Sometimes that’s strong discipline. Sometimes it’s deeds of gentleness and tenderness. But love seeks to spend itself in kindness. Love envy not. Love is never jealous. The Corinthian assembly was full of jealous, party-spirited people. Love never seeks self-exaltation. It is thoroughly pleased when someone else succeeds. Love is not envious. Love is not boastful. You remember I told you last night the root meaning of that word is wind bag. Love is not a windbag shooting off its mouth about its accomplishments. Love is far more concerned about others achieving honor and not much to say about itself.

Love is not boastful. Love is not puffed up. You see, puffed up is the inner attitude that results in a windbag mouth. I told you last night that the root word for this one is the same word from which we get our word bellows. And when someone is puffed up with himself or blown up inside with an exaggerated view of who he is, with all that hot air blown up inside, it’s going to come out.

And so we get the wind bag mouth from the puffed up spirit. And then love does not behave rudely. Rude people are self-centered. I will do what I want no matter what you think. Love isn’t that way. Love always takes into account and into consideration how someone else will feel and react. And love does not seek its own. Love is not selfish. I wanted to expand on that one just a little more tonight by referring you, if you’d put your marker here for a moment, to Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2.

And when I look at this passage, it almost brings a lump to my throat. Because this is one of the passages that my dear beloved mother would drill into our heads as children. I can say this one by heart because of my mama. Because she had us say this over and over and over and over again. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And I say to everyone that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God has given to every man a measure of faith.

Isn’t that marvelous? God is calling us to be transformed in our thinking. Just do a whole change in yourself. And the way to think is not the way the world directs you. Folks, the way of this world is to be self-centered. Do you see it all around you?

Look out for number one.

I guess I was most impressed with that notion some years ago when I saw the ad about giving blood, a selfless act. And the ad that came out said, the life you save may be your own. Seemed to me perfectly fitting with the thrust of our time. No, sir. The notion that Christ taught us in his own perfected love was that he was willing to sacrifice himself for even those who despised him. As he gave selflessly with a renewed mind like you and I ought to have. Philippians chapter 2. Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God considered not a thing of robbery to be equal with God. But he emptied himself, took upon him the form of a man, and became a servant of men, even unto the death of the cross.

You see, love seeks not her own. World doesn’t equip us for that. But God says, change your mind. One other point about that before we get to the things we want to discuss tonight. The Bible talks a good bit about slavery. It seems to me in America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, everything about slavery is against our very nature. It’s like we just rebel against that idea. But I must tell you, my dear brother and sister, that God calls us to be slaves. Oh, I know that he sets us free. But we’re free to be his slaves. And what a slave does is submit himself in selfless service to his master. That concept is so foreign to our society that it’s hard for Christians sometimes to grasp.

1. Love Is Not Provoked

The length and the width and the breadth and the height of the love of Christ Jesus, which passes knowledge, that’s a dimension of it hard for us to grasp. Christ calls us to serve. The master of the universe took upon himself a nature and then humbled himself after that and said, I didn’t come for people to serve me. I came to serve. Let’s go back to 1 Corinthians 13. And let’s look at the next notion that our author here through inspiration describes for us. We’re back now in verse 5. Love is not provoked, my version says.

Love is not quick to take offense. I like this one. It’s the Phillips translation. I’ve mentioned it to you several times. Love is not touchy. Isn’t that good? Love is not touchy. And I think all of those give you an idea of what this word is talking about. Let’s go now to the description that we’ve tried to give each night. What does the word actually come? What’s the word from the Greek from which it comes? In this case, it’s the word paroxuno. Paroxuno. I’m sorry, my dad isn’t here tonight, because I’d like to pull this one on him and see if he knows it. There is an English word that comes directly from that Greek word. Paroxuno. I wonder if anybody knows what it is. My dad would know.

It’s the word paroxysm. P-A-R-O-XYSM, a paroxysm. And now my next question is what is it? And I got you, didn’t I? Paroxism. A paroxysm is like a sudden outburst. It’s like when you’re overtaken and you just have this. Something’s just coming out of you like that. Paroxys, usually based on anger. And when folks get supremely angered quickly, they have a paroxysm. And what this verse says is love doesn’t do that. Love does not, I don’t know how to say it in English. Paroximate.

That’s really good. That’s what he’s saying here. Love is even handed. It doesn’t fly off the handle. It doesn’t blow up. But I’m sad to say, sometimes some of us do. You see, the word literally means to sharpen or to stimulate. It’s anger aroused, and it’s anger stirred up that gets out of control, is what that is. Love doesn’t do that. It is not easily irritated, it’s not ready to fight.

And the first thing somebody says is, your version says, love is not provoked. Love doesn’t get angry. First thing somebody says is, Well, aren’t we supposed to get angry? And yes, God got angry, didn’t he? And usually when I talk to folks about this, the first thing they bring up is say, Well, what about Jesus? When he went into the temple, and he took the whip, and he drove them out of there. And the passage says that the zeal of the Lord ate him up. Was he angry? I think so. And I remember one occasion when Jesus was teaching on the Sabbath day, and there was a man out there with a withered hand. And those Jews were just waiting, weren’t they? They were just watching.

What’s he gonna do? So they could catch him again. And the passage in Mark the third chapter says he looked out over that audience and he saw the hardness of their hearts, and he was angry.

Oh, yes, God gets angry. But I must remind us all that’s one of the most dangerous emotions every one of us has. And God knows how to control it perfectly. And what this passage says is love does not paroximate. It has anger under control. Would you go with me to James chapter 1? Oh, I know the man of God must be angry, and I would say to you, if you want to justify your anger, use it in clearing out the temple when it’s not being used by the way God wants. Direct our anger against things that are in direct violation of God’s will. And control it for a majestic use, like Jesus did. But I’m sad to say that most of the time that’s not the way our anger vents itself.

When we get angry and say something ugly that we shouldn’t have said for the purpose of hurting someone, that’s not the way God directs anger, and that’s not the way love gets angry. In James, the first chapter, therefore, my beloved brethren, verse 19 says, Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. You see, outbursts of anger is just another form of selfishness. I matter so much that if what you do disturbs me or bothers me, I’m going to let you have it. Because what I want and what I think is most important, most significant. And I’ll tell you, brother and sister, I just believe that somehow Christians have a metamorphosis when they get into their cars.

And they somehow think that things are all different now because we’re behind our smoky glass windows. And the air conditioning is on, and we’re in our radio euphoria. And somehow we think we can express our selfishness. But I want to tell you, anger is one of the most dangerous emotions we have. And what love does is it tames that emotion. It puts it under control in God’s way.

Probably the most familiar to you is Ephesians 4, where it says, be ye angry and sin not, doesn’t it? When is anger not an action of love?

That’s the way love would act. But when you let it fester and grow and eat you up from the inside out, that’s when you get a paroxysm.

When it leads to abusive speech and profanity, when it leads to personal attacks and throwing fits, I’ll not soon forget sitting in a business meeting. God spare us from such things.

When a brother in his 60s who’d been an elder in the Lord’s church, things didn’t go the way he wanted them to go. And he gradually started turning red from the gills up. And you could see the boiling taking place inside. And pretty soon a paroxysm came on. And he blurted out some very ugly things. Got up out of the meeting and stormed out of the room and slam the door. And we had about three young Christians in that business meeting that day that had never been to a business meeting before. The Apostle Paul’s prayer is that we may know the love of Christ Jesus that fills and passes knowledge and understanding. And here sat three babies in Christ, watching a man who was an elder in the church have a paroxysm.

And it was destructive.

We need to get that anger under the control of God. Elders are to be slow to wrath. Thank God for your elders here. People who can demonstrate the way love acts in live, real fashion. And then turn back to Romans 12 with me for just a moment. That same blessed passage talking about relationships between Christians and practical applications of the love of God. Says in verse 18, if it is possible, as much depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. For as it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. One thing love learns to do is to take situations where anger turns into vengeance or vengeance motivates anger and turn that over to the Lord Himself.

That’s part of knowing the love of Christ, which passes all knowledge.

2. Love Thinks No Evil

Bring it under control. And I want to give you some practical hints. Some in this audience have a greater difficulty with that than others. Plan ahead. Plan ahead. Avoid situations where you’re likely to lose control. Prevent it if possible. Develop the capacity little by little to stop the excess in your own life when it comes to this emotion. And love can help you do that. Proverbs 29, 11 says, A fool utters all his mind. If you do nothing else in learning to control anger, learn to stop your mouth before it’s too late. Back to 1 Corinthians 13. It says, love does not seek its own, love is not provoked, love thinks no evil. Thinks no evil. Well, let’s turn to that one for a moment. Here is the word that’s used in that passage.

It’s the word logizomai. And maybe you do or do not know what that word comes from. But it literally means to reckon or take account. It was used commonly in that time of bookkeeping, keeping records as an accountant. And here are some other translations of that expression. Love does not keep account of evil. Love keeps no score of wrongs. Love keeps no record of wrongdoings. Love is not resentful. And I’ll tell you one thing I learned in studying this particular lesson that had not hit me before. And that’s this. This same word is used of our God in heaven in the book of Romans, chapter 4. And I want you to turn there with me and be struck with this point. Because it shows the contrast between what love does and what we often do.

So look with me in Romans 4, and let’s listen to what it says about God’s love. First of all, in verse 8, it says, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. The word impute in that verse is this word or a form thereof. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. You know what that’s saying? Blessed is the man on whom the Lord does not keep books of all the sins you’ve done. Now I want to ask you something. Aren’t you thankful that God has promised us that when we do what He says and He forgives us, that it is over. And there isn’t this record kept out there to which you can refer again and again and again and again and bring up all the mistakes we’ve made.

Back up a little bit. In the same Romans, the fourth chapter. Verse 5 says, But to him who does not work but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted. You see that word? For righteousness. God does reckon our righteousness when we’ve done what he says, and he makes an account of it. Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man, to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works, blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, whose sins are covered, blessed is the man whom the Lord shall not to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. Now let’s make the application. Because there’s such a practical application here for every one of us. You see, the Lord doesn’t keep records when we’ve been forgiven.

So let’s talk a minute about our families. There’s so many practical applications of love acting itself out in our families. You see, God’s not offended. He’s not resentful.

When we’ve been forgiven. But it seems like for us, we do that. We keep books. And we read it and reread it and reread it. And it’s like in families, we store up the resentful things that are there in our lives, especially as this true of husbands and wives. And they drag up past mistakes, they store up the evil in their hearts and spew it out at strategic moments in destructive ways, and my does it cause problems. I don’t mean to say that you ought to let things sit in the past that haven’t been dealt with. What I’m talking about, brother and sister, in our homes, is when we’ve dealt with it, we’ve forgiven one another, and we’ve passed beyond the situation. May God help us to become like love.

Love doesn’t make memories of evil things. And now I’m going to stick my neck way out. And don’t think it’s because my wife isn’t here. Because I’ve already said this in her presence.

But in my limited experience, it seems to me that ladies are better at bringing up past details than men are.

Not to say the men don’t need it as well. But it never ceases to amaze me when my wife can say, you remember back on February the 3rd when Benji had a fever of 103, and we gave him two aspirin and Tylenol, and he couldn’t sleep for three hours, and I stayed up with him half the night. And I say, uh I didn’t even know what year that might have been. Or did that really happen? Is that kind of the way it is at your house? And that is such a wonderful thing to have such a vivid memory of so many things. But it can also be a curse.

In this case, in that case, in this case, in that case, in that case, that we’re supposed to already be past. And love does not do that.

And when you look at 1 Corinthians 13 and you see this expression, love thinks no evil, that’s not saying love never recognizes evil things. That’s a misleading translation, I think. It’s not that love never thinks about any evil thing that comes up, we’re hit in the face with it all the time. What it’s saying is, love does not login. Love is not an account, I’m keeping a record here now. Love is hasty to forgive and to put things in the past. Do we have minds that contain memories that remind us of our hate for someone? Of the awful things they did. God help us to obtain this characteristic of love. That has the capacity to put out of our minds things that are past. And aren’t you glad God does that?

3. Love Does Not Rejoice in Iniquity

Aren’t you glad that you don’t have to come cowering back to God and say, Lord, here I am again. I’ve done it again. Because God doesn’t treat us like we treat each other. And thanks be to God that he doesn’t. Now look at verse 6. Love does not rejoice in iniquity. Love takes no pleasure in iniquity. Iniquity, adikia, literally unrighteousness. Love doesn’t take any joy in its own iniquity. Of course, love doesn’t have any iniquity, but it’s talking about love as a person here. Did you know there are people who rejoice in their own sin? Why, have you ever listened to men brag about their exploits, their ungodly exploits? And I’m sad to say that there’s some women just getting in the same category. Neither does love take any joy in the sin of other people.

And I’ll not ask you to turn to this one. Let me just read you this part. And even as they did not like to retain God and their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do things which are not fitting. Being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetous, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness, etc., etc., etc.

And then it says, who knowing the righteous judgment of God that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but approve those who practice them. Love doesn’t take any joy in other people’s sins. But some people do. And some people even rejoice when people get in trouble because it makes them feel like they’re a little holier than the other. Love doesn’t do that. Some people even wish someone will sin, so it’ll hurt them. Psalm 69, verse 9 says, the reproaches of your people have fallen on me.

And that passage was quoted in the New Testament and referred to Jesus Christ our Lord. Do you think Jesus could be happy when he was bearing the reproaches of the sins of other people? There’s no joy in love for sin.

Love does not rejoice in iniquity. In our sick society, there are people who reproach God and people who are lost. And what does love’s reaction do for them? Love’s reaction is how in the world could I rejoice when I know the awful effect sin has on people. And has on God Himself.

And love speaks to gossip too, my dearly beloved. Love is not happy to hear evil things. It’s not happy the effect evil things have on people. And it certainly takes no pleasure in spreading it. Gossip is vice enjoyed vicariously. Love hates the sin, it hates the way that sin hurts God, and it hates the way that sin hurts the sinner himself. And it never rejoices in that.

There are times when silence is yellow. Times when we ought to stand up on our feet and regardless of the consequences, challenge the gross evils of our time. And may God raise up Christians who’ll stand up for what’s right.

We’ve had enough molly coddling of sin.

And if I may just take a little side trip here with you just for just a moment. It was but a couple of three years ago. It’s been more than that now. Time gets away from us. That one of my daughters came home from high school, having sat in a school law class in a public high school, and the teacher had playing in that class the video of an R-rated movie. No request of whether the students wanted to see that or not, no opportunity to be excused from class, so not have to watch the filth. That thing contained nudity, filthy language from one end to the other, gross violence. And there sat six classes of students, one right after the other, watching that mess.

She’d never seen anything like that and didn’t want to be there, was too embarrassed about that? You just get up and walk out.

Well, I called the principal. And I said, I’m calling you first, sir, because I want to know if this is school politicy to allow such as this to go take place in our public school classroom. He said, Mr. Pain, that is not acceptable. I will investigate this and call you back. Well, within a few hours, he had already called me back, and he said, I want you to know I’m officially apologizing for this school for what happened in that classroom. We’re sending out a memo today to every teacher that such as that will not take place on our campus. The next day he called me back and he said, Mr. Payne, we’re taking action on this, and I want you to know I appreciate your calling, but there’s one thing that disturbs me.

He said there were six classes of about 30 students each, and you are the only parent that called. Now I want to ask you something, brother and sister in Christ. Are we going to sit by and let the devil take over? Love doesn’t rejoice in iniquity. It is sickened by it. And the horrible effects it has on everything around it. And I’m afraid that what’s happening to Christians in our age is they don’t love enough. Because love hates sin. And what I see instead, and it makes me almost weep to think about it. I’m thinking of a group of young Christians in a church in Tampa that I heard about that can hardly wait till Thursday night. So they can all gather at the house of one of them and they rotate around all different people’s homes so they can watch one of those filthy sitcoms.

That’s the way I describe it. The subjects of that particular sitcom are so gross and filthy, I don’t know why a Christian would want to watch one minute of it. And it’s their favorite program. And these are Christians. Love does not rejoice in iniquity, it doesn’t sit around and laugh when filth is being presented. But it’s happening to a lot of us. I ask you, Christian, are you going and paying good money to watch the movie and television industry dump your minds full of garbage? Shame on us. Love doesn’t rejoice in iniquity, it rejoices in the truth. And sometimes we need to stand up and be counted. Times when we are not speaking up, it is the most blatant form of cowardice. Sometimes silence is yellow.

But there are other times, brothers and sisters, when silence is golden. When to tell the truth is to make many hearts bleed needlessly, and when nothing is accomplished and everything is hurt by a loose tongue. Just because it’s the truth doesn’t mean you have to tell it. Love learns to make those judgments because it doesn’t rejoice in iniquity.

4. Love Rejoices in the Truth

But then he says, But love rejoices in the truth. I think the best translation of that is love rejoices with the truth. It rejoices with the truth, because the truth is the basis for everything that God describes as righteous. It rejoices when the truth is taught and when the truth is lived. You want to make joy happy? I mean, pardon me, you want to make love happy and rejoice. You let truth be lived and taught. Then love’s happy. But the least compromise with truth takes the joy right out of love. Some people say, well, we ought to just love each other and not make such issues over all these details and doctrinal issues. Let’s just love each other. I want to tell you, my beloved, love the way God describes, does not compromise one iota with truth.

It rejoices with the truth, not with error. Let’s turn to the book of 2 John. And look at verse 6. And listen to this closely. You say, I want to love like God loves. I want to know the love of Christ and be filled up with all the fullness of God. This is love, verse 6 says. That we walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment that, as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it. This is not saying it doesn’t matter what you believe, is it? It’s saying love listens with all of its detail and carefulness to what God says and then it follows after. And what if people transgress and do not abide in the truth? Let’s read on. Verse 9.

Whosoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. And he who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house, nor greet him, for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds. How does love react when somebody’s twisting the truth? It will have no part in it. Because love rejoices with the truth.

Love rejoices in the truth. It loves to bring out the best in people. Didn’t Jesus do that? Can you think of how many times Jesus brought out things about people that were not the ones you’d think he’d bring anything out about that was good? I think of the centurion that said about Jesus, you don’t even have to come to my house, just speak the word and it’ll be done, and my servant will be healed. And Jesus said, I haven’t seen such faith in all of Israel. And do you remember how many times he used the Samaritans as illustrations of good things? Those hated dogs? And Jesus would bring them out and say, Here’s what’s good about them. You know what you need at your house, mom and dad?

You need somebody that can bring out the best in your children and build them up and show them what’s right before God, and when they do it, praise them for it. Rejoice in it. And let them know it. It is said of a Scottish minister after he died, there’s no one left in our village to appreciate the triumphs of ordinary folks. Love rejoices in the truth. It rejoices in good things, it brings them out, it highlights them. I hope there’s somebody at your house. I know there’s some people in this church because I’m the recipient of some of it, and you are too, who are constantly encouraging and bringing out the best in people and encouraging the truthful things that they do. That’s the way love acts.

Because love rejoices with the truth.

Conclusion

And if we could just learn to put into practice those things, and whether we feel like it or not, to act today like love acts, what a difference it’ll make in this whole world, in this congregation, in our homes, in our workplace, and wherever we find ourselves, because love never fails. And I thank you for your wonderful attention. If you’d get your song books now, we’re going to close our service by inviting anyone here tonight who may be ready to obey the gospel of Jesus Christ to do so before this night is out. We never wish to leave our service without providing you an opportunity to confess the name of Jesus Christ. And were you to come forward tonight in a moment when we sing, we’re going to ask you do you believe Jesus Christ as the Son of God?

And if you with all your heart can say yes to that, then we’ll stop our service. We’ll baptize you in water for the remission of your sins, and you can begin your life for Jesus. And are you a Christian who straight away won’t you come while we stand and as we sing? Well, I’m convinced this is a series that we all probably need to get the whole set of tapes and listen to over and over again till we have well ingrained in our hearts and minds the definition, the true meaning of love. And David Duncan may not want me to say that, but there’s a register on the table in the back if you’d like to have it. By the year’s end, he’ll get them all copied, I’m sure.

He’s very faithful about doing that. You know, our society is so uh ingrained with the idea of tolerance. We hear the religious world often talk about love, to the point that many have gotten mistaken about what love is. We sort of think that love is tolerant, and we just sort of embrace any aberrant uh behavior. If you really love, you let it go if they’re homosexual. And we we embrace all kinds of doctrines religiously if we love. There are people who think that it just means hold your arms out and give a smile on your face. Well, love is positive, but God also hates. He hates evil. It’s a wonderful lesson tonight, and ought to cause us all to think about what love really is and try to apply in our own hearts and minds the characteristics of love.

I know many of you cannot be back tomorrow night. We’re thankful for your coming and know that you’ll be in other places of worship. But there are visitors with us who are from this community, and we certainly hope you’ll be back with us, as well as all of our own folk, as we will close this particular series of sermons tomorrow night at our 7 30 service. In just one moment, I’m going to ask Brother Mark Copeland to come to the microphone and lead us in a closing prayer. I would like to say one word.

But one brother I’d like to make mention of, and I’m sure is of concern to everyone here. Brother Al Lovelady, who is one of the elders of the Par Street Church, I understand underwent surgery yesterday. Just a few weeks ago, it had uh bypass surgery and yesterday for carotid artery. And during the surgery, suffered a stroke. His left side was uh paralyzed, but they said today that he was able to move his uh left leg and also to see out of the left eye, and they were working with him and hopeful that it would completely recover. He is in Florida Hospital South. I know Brother Lovelace would appreciate your keeping him in your prayers. Now there’s nothing further. Let us be standing as Brother Copeland comes and leads us in a closing prayer.

Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, as we come to the close of this service, we’re so thankful, Father, that we’ve had this wonderful opportunity to feast upon your word. We’re so thankful that through your Son Jesus, we truly have come to realize that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found in Him. Through Thy Holy Word, we have this opportunity to learn of that wonderful wisdom and knowledge. We’re thankful for the experience tonight and for the opportunity we had to hear Brother Pain to open thy word and to remind us of the spiritual riches and gems that are found in your word. Help each of us, Heavenly Father, to come to know more the love of Christ in his truth and simplicity. Help us, dear God, to be more loving in our relationship with those around us.

Forgive us for the many times in which we have failed to show the love of Christ in our lives. And help us as we leave this place tonight to resolve to allow Christ to truly be seen in us. As we close, Heavenly Father, we do so mindful of the dear brother who’s just been mentioned. So many of us here, Father, have known Brother Lovelace for many years. We’re thankful for the many years of service that He has provided. We pray, Heavenly Father, that if it be within your divine will and providence, that he might yet have many more years of faithful service. We ask, dear God, for thy richest blessings upon the doctors and nurses that are ministering to Him. We pray that you would guide their hand and bless them with wisdom, to use what skills and tools they have at their disposal.

But Heavenly Father, we ultimately look to you and to your Son Jesus as the great position. And in your Son’s precious name, we ask, in whatever way, according to your will, that he will have a speedy and complete recovery. For whatever happens, Heavenly Father, we’re so thankful for the precious hope that we have. The hope that so many of our loved ones have been able to realize as they pass from this life to the next. We pray that that hope will sustain us at all times. We pray that you be with us now as we leave this place. Bless this congregation as they continue to go throughout this meeting, as they work in this area. Bless us all wherever we serve, Father, to be faithful and fruitful in our service.

And pray that you might continue to be with Brother Payne and bless him and his effort to serve you and be with his family as well. All these things we ask always in the name of your Son, our precious Savior Jesus. Amen.