Leonard Ravenhill emphasizes the paramount importance of love in the Christian life, drawing from 1 Corinthians 13. He argues that despite the church's many needs, the greatest is love, which must stem from a pure heart. Ravenhill critiques the tendency to focus on spiritual gifts and power while neglecting the foundational role of love, which he describes as the cement that holds the church together. He illustrates that true love is selfless, enduring, and essential for genuine Christian fellowship and service. Ultimately, he calls for a revival of love within the church, asserting that love is the greatest commandment and the essence of a spirit-filled life.

The following message was delivered by Reverend Leonard Ravenhill during a regular session at the Christ for the Nations Institute. He is speaking on the subject of love, based on 1 Corinthians 13. A hymn a minute ago, standing on the promises, I thought of the famous Baptist preacher. I once preached a week with him, dear old Vance Havner, and I think we sang that hymn, standing on the promises, and he said, well that's nice, to sing standing on the promises, but I find there are more people sitting on the premises. Now I don't know which you think is the most profound chapter in the Bible, this of course is open to public opinion, but this afternoon we're going to deal with the chapter that I think is maybe the most profound. And this is in the first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, the 13th chapter. It has 13 verses, and if we take as long over each one as we've done some nights over one text, well you should be home for breakfast about Tuesday morning. 1 Corinthians chapter 13, and we read all the 13 verses. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become a sounding brath or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing. Charity suffereth long and is kind. Charity envious not, charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, does 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. Pretty good standard. Charity never faileth, but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I thought as a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then shall I know, even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, and hope, and charity, these three, but the greatest of these is charity. In the two thousand years of its erratic history, the church of Jesus Christ has lacked many things. And she still lacks many things today. But there's one thing she's never lacked, either in the past or the present, nor will she in the future. And that is critics. She's always had plenty of them. We have a very ripe crop right now, both inside of the church and outside of it. Everybody's an amateur diagnostician, trying to take the pulse of the church, trying to tell us what's wrong with her. Some say, of course, she has no faith. Well, if she has, it's very weak. And some say she has none or very little power. And some say this, and some say that, and some say the other. And very often people say to me, Brother Ravenhill, as you crisscross what we call the church of God, what do you think is the most essential thing in the day in which we're living? Is our need faith? Is it vision? Is it power? What is it? And I always answer, you disagree, but I always answer in one simple word. The greatest need of the church today is love. And the qualification is love out of a pure heart. And it's essential to remember this. Because again, the emphasis today on the work of the Spirit in the human heart is on power. But God's emphasis is not power, it's purity. And it's an awfully dangerous thing. I was reading only today the foundation of the apostolic church in America in 1900, through Parham, I think the man was. And he was a man who ministered in holiness circles and many other circles. And then there was a dramatic operation of the coming of the Spirit of God without asking. The Holy Ghost fell upon them. And they began to speak in tongues. A woman stood up praying, spoke in eloquent Chinese, and not only that, what I've not read before, but she wrote out the message in brilliant Chinese and it was faultless because the Holy Ghost gave it. And immediately false fire developed. Now you know we're so worried about not having false fire that we settle for no fire at all. And this is equally dangerous. Wherever the carcass is, the eagles will be gathered. Wherever you get truth, you get error. And every time the church of God is silent, on a cardinal point of doctrine, the devil fills in the gap. Why do we have Spiritism? There is a revival of Spiritism on even now in America. You read the magazine Esquire, which I do not normally take, but I took it this year in March. And Look magazine ran 20, 16 pages I think in Esquire, 24 on the present revival of demon worship, devil activity, terrible. And usually when the church is silent or not correct in her teaching on the Holy Spirit, the devil comes in with false spirits. When the church is silent on divine healing, the devil raised up Christian science. There's always something to fill in the vacuum. When the church was silent on regeneration, up came the teaching of reincarnation. And if you trace it through, which isn't my job, you'll discover every time there's a gap, Satan rushes in to fill that gap. Now, I say that love is the answer. It's my simple conviction. It may seem to oversimplify the thing. But I believe today that a baptism of genuine Holy Ghost love would put the church of God back into business. Now, some will say right away, well you blasted, say, the church of Rome this week. And you know I've got news for you, I'm going to continue blasting it. You say, well love your enemies. Rome isn't my enemy, it's God's enemy. I love my enemies, but I won't love his enemies because he isn't, he's going to roast them. So don't you ask me to do what God isn't going to do. If the church of Jesus Christ is a building, and doesn't the Bible say that you and I are not David living stone, but we are lively stones. Now if you build up stones, you've got to have something cementing them together. And if you and I are the lively stones in the church of God, then love must be the cement that holds those stones together. If the church is a body, and this is what the Bible says it is, then love must be the blood stream in that body. Now in the past 50 years, Biblical scholarship has given us a crop, and nearly an over crop of translations, transliterations, paraphrases and what have you, of the New Testament. And two pioneers in this field, there are many, many of them now, but two pioneers in this field were one, Dr. Moffat, and the other, Weymouth. And when Dr. Moffat made his translation of 1 Corinthians 13, he gave us, in my judgement again, the most superb picture of a sanctified, or if you'll change the vocabulary, a spirit-filled life of anybody that ever put a pen to paper. Read it sometime, I'll quote some of it during the message. You see, he took issue with this King James Version. Now there are some people who won't read any other version at all, I don't blame them. I like the little Irish lady, my Irish wife says it was an English lady. Well anyhow, the little old Irish-English lady, somebody gave her a new translation of the New Testament for a Christmas gift, and she returned it. Because she said the King James Version was good enough for Paul, so it's good enough for me. Well, she missed it by about 2,000 years, but you know what she means. She means that she doesn't like twisting and torturing sometimes the Scripture, to make it fit our vocabulary, or our theology. Now here you have this very beautiful, stately, dignified, Elizabethan English. And many of the words in the authorised version have lost their meaning totally. And the issue that James Moffat takes with one word in this chapter is that word charity. Now let's clear the ground here, and you've got to do this with anything you read from the Bible, or anybody who preaches from it. To whom is the apostle writing here? I'm trying to, next year I think I'm going to quit preaching and do nothing but write, because there's so much I want to say, and I think I'll do this. So you pray the Lord will send me $20,000 so I can get some publishing done, and I'll print it through this office here maybe. But there's so much to be said, in my judgement, to balance truth. Did you ever know a child who if he was offered a job, or a chance to swing in the garden would choose the job? Don't we usually rather be entertained than be employed? Isn't it usually true in the spiritual realm, you'd rather rush to a breakfast or a banquet than go and try and rescue a prostitute down a back alley, see a good brother here from Teen Challenge, he was from Teen Challenge, quoted him the other day leading that song you remember, he may have forgotten, what was it now? Thank you, amazing, great. Somebody remembered what I said, isn't that wonderful? Not many do. But I remember him leading that song that day. Now, what was I saying? Oh, I'm trying to get people on the beam. Because most of us are hopping around on one leg theologically. Now I take a middle of the road attitude about gifts of the Spirit. And there's a great advantage in doing that, because brother if you walk down the middle of the road you get hit with the traffic going both ways. And I go to holiness churches and say, hey I hear you're with a Pentecostal group, sorry we don't want you. So what? Think I'm going to cry? And then I go to a Pentecostal group who say, you don't believe that everybody must have the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Oh, I believe that. But I don't believe that everybody, I can't help it. I don't believe that everybody who receives the baptism must have gifts, at least not within 10 minutes of receiving the baptism. It's not your business to direct the Holy Ghost. That may be news but you better swallow it. Who is Paul writing to? To the Corinthians. Who were they? They were Greeks. What did they love? Oratory. And so here when he says to these Corinthians, I may speak with the tongues of men. He doesn't say he does speak with all the tongues of men and all the tongues of angels. And what's more I don't believe any man is capable of doing that. Utterly beyond him. Now it's true in the next chapter he says, I thank God I speak with tongues more than ye all. But you see these people they loved oratory. When they went to school they didn't have choirs, they had competitions in oratory. Oh, they'd catch on immediately when Paul says, I may speak with the tongues of men. You see this is the most controversial church in the New Testament. They had every gift of the Spirit and therefore they had more problems. He says they're carnal. Well you say, how can a church be carnal and spiritual at the same time? How can people be carnal and spiritual? He doesn't say they are in my judgment. He says the church is carnal and spiritual because half of them in the church are spiritual and the other half are carnal. And therefore you've got a dialogue, you've got controversy. As I've said repeatedly, if you pray God open the window of heaven. Well when he opens the window of heaven, the devil will open the door of hell and you'll be caught in the middle. Long, long since I ceased to pray what I think is a childish prayer. Lord bless me. I never ask God to bless me. Don't I need God's blessing? No, not in that way. Not the way I did years ago. I don't pray that God will bless me because usually implied in that is Lord ease the burden or make me happy or do something. My concern is not Lord bless me but make me a blessing. Now if he blesses me, he could bless me and it wouldn't go any further. But if he makes me a blessing, whatever the cost may be, somebody else is going to get the benefit, the outflow. Now I say Paul is speaking to the Corinthians and they knew very much what he was talking about. After all, they had had the most eloquent orator in history and that was Demosthenes. He was born with an impediment. He slurred his words. And in order to get over this problem, this what we would call a stammer, he went to the seashore and he took little pebbles and put them in his mouth and he learned to get his tongue around the pebbles and his voice over the words until he developed a voice that was as musical as an organ. Sometimes he would roar. Sometimes he'd whisper. And such was the eloquence of these men who spent their whole life developing these intonations and these cadences that we're told that there was an auditor by the name of Cato. Now at that time there was an enemy of Rome and the great enemy of Rome was Carthage across the Mediterranean. And every time he spoke, didn't matter what he was speaking on, he pointed in this direction. He ended up his peroration by saying, Carthage must be destroyed. And men would pull out swords they weren't wearing and rush to a bridge that wasn't there in order to destroy their enemies. There's the power of oratory. You drag out your sword and you haven't got it. You run for a bridge that isn't there. But this is oratory, stirring people. And Paul says, you may speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have oratory like that. Now Rome, the greatest military machine in the world was destroyed not by an outside force. She rotted on the inside. And I don't believe there's a nation in the world today that can destroy America. America will die but she'll commit suicide. And she's getting desperately near to doing it in the hour in which we live. She doesn't need any outside power. She's morally rotting. She's destroyed on the inside. The five great things that destroyed the Roman Empire, I won't quote but two of them. One is they were destroyed, three, they were destroyed, number one, by divorce. They were destroyed, number two, because they begged more and more and more for less working days and more circuses. And three, they exalted women too much. Those were three of the main facts which are very prevalent in America or even in England today. Now Paul says, I may speak with the tongues of men and of angels. Who is he saying it to? The Corinthians who loved eloquence. Who is he warning? The Corinthians who have gifts of the Spirit. Now look at the immediate background to this explanation. He's talking in verse 27 of the previous chapter. Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular. Notice who it says, and God hath set some in the church. Notice where they are. They're in the church first, apostles, and then prophets, and then teachers, and then miracles, and then gifts of healings, and then gifts of helps. Boy, I wish a few more folk could pray about getting that gift. We've got lots of other gifts, but we don't have many folk with a gift of helps anymore. And then he says governments and diversities of tongues. Who set them in the church? God set them in the church, didn't he? And what does he do? He sets them in order. There are prophets and apostles. But our trouble is, we want the pastor, we want the prophet, and the evangelist, and the teacher, and everything else all rolled up in one. And that isn't what God says. You see, if you've got a tent, we used to take a big tent around in England, and we had what we call a bell tent to sleep in. Now if you've got a bell tent, all you have, you've got a tent with a pole in the middle. Now if you take the pole away, what happens? The tent goes down. But supposing you have a tent with 12 poles round, and you take a pole away, does the tent collapse? No? Supposing you take a pole away from it, does the tent collapse? If you take a pole away from that side, does the tent collapse? One from it, you could take 4 or 5 of those poles, but the tent would still hold up because you have the poles there. Now you see, we get some churches, Presbyterian or Pentecostal, and oh brother, aren't they big, big churches? While your great preacher is there, or some big shot in the middle, that you take the pole away, and what happens? That church goes down. You can lose 600 members in about a year, and the church has gone down to something. Why? Because the foundation was not laid upon the apostles and the prophets, but on a pastor. Now I don't believe there's one man capable of running a church, and I don't think you can prove from the New Testament that you should have just one pastor in the church. If you're going to reduce it, you'd have to reduce it to two at the very least. Jesus sent out the 70 two by two. You get Peter and John, Paul and Barnabas, Paul and somebody else, always two, never one. A.B. Simpson, the great preacher on Fifth Avenue, New York. I wasn't around when he was preaching. I preached in the church, and you know, great as he was, he had Dr. F.E. Marsh. Can you think of a church where either F.E. Marsh or A.B. Simpson was teaching? Brother, you'd get that fat, you'd need a truck to get you home nearly. I mean spiritually. And Campbell Morgan would never pastor a church by himself. He must have someone else sharing that ministry. Oh, but we think we've got one or two gifts, and boy this church is really going to go. I slipped into a church in New York not long ago where a few years ago you couldn't get a seat morning and night with 1,200 people, and that night when I went there were 75. How do you account for it? Or some say, because there's so much crime and problem. Well, up the road, not very far away, 15 cents then, 30 cents now on the subway. Just a few blocks up the road you've got Dr. Steve Norford with a church holding 1,400 people, and I preached in that too when it's been nearly full in the morning and nearly full at night. So that isn't the answer altogether. You see, you can rewrite a lot of things, but brother, you can't rewrite that book. The church is built on the foundation of the apostles and the teachers and the prophets, and if we do God's work in God's way at God's time with God's power, we'll get God's success. Do it any other way, you'll get partial success. Again, you'll be running an eight-cylinder automobile on two cylinders. Now, all right, he's talked about gifts. Then he says in verse 29, are all apostles? What's the answer to that? Come on now, be honest about it. Never mind your theology. Answer logically and biblically. Are all apostles? Right. Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Oh no, it says not, logically. You can't be consistent on nine items and then suddenly twist it because somebody told you the other angle. Now you don't like that, I know. But I'm not here to tickle your ears. As I told you, if you've got itching ears, scratch them yourself. I'm not going to scratch them. I'm only trying to bring people into perfect balance, you see, because one of the leading exponents of Pentecost in England, and I've never met a finer gentleman, was a man by the name of George Jeffreys. And for 15 years, his sister went to tarrying meetings and she never received the baptism with tongues. Now I don't care what you get under heaven. And you can't disprove this. Whatever you get under heaven, you're going to get by faith anyhow. I know a lovely woman. We heard her preach not long ago. She's a Baptist too. And she really does some dramatic and wonderful teaching. And then she said, you know, God baptized me with the Holy Ghost. I entered in, in fullness, in power, in liberty. I got purity. I got anointing. And I spoke in tongues. But more than six months after, and I never doubted once I was filled with the Holy Ghost. You know, some people want me to believe that John Wesley was never filled with the Holy Ghost. That some little cantankerous, bitter, carnal little fell around the corner two before spiritually, and two before in a church. He's Pentecostal just because he speaks in tongues. Look, if you haven't got a purity of heart, you didn't get the baptism of the Holy Ghost according to the Scriptures. Acts 15, 8 and 9 that nobody preaches on. God which knoweth the heart. Peter talking about the house of Cornelius. God which knoweth the heart. Acts chapter 15, verses 8 and 9. And God which knoweth the heart bear them in the house of Cornelius witness, giving them in the house of Cornelius the Holy Ghost, and put no difference between us in the upper room and them, giving them tongues, nor purifying their hearts by faith. Now some people won't have me because I believe that there is a genuine valid gift of tongues, and they won't have me. Now the other school won't have me because I believe that there is a gift, but I don't believe it's for every Tom, Dick and Harry. Isn't it stupid? Isn't it illogical? Isn't it unbiblical? If I come to your church and you say, well we have gifts of the Spirit, well I'll say hallelujah genuinely. But if you've only got the gift of tongues and interpretation and you lack wisdom and knowledge and all the other things, brother you're no more Pentecostal than the Baptists up the road. All I'm asking for is for fair play in the Word of the Living God. If you don't believe in the gifts of the Spirit, then brother you're a liberal as far as I'm concerned. I'm concerned. Now if you go the other way and say well we believe in gifts, as I said the other night, if you find the outline of doctrine for the Mormons, you'll discover that one of the main points of faith with the Mormons is that they speak with tongues. Does that make them Pentecostal? Now be honest about this. Haven't you backslidden in your life at some period and still been able to speak with tongues? Come on. We met a man coming out of a movie in England. A friend of mine said, you know he used to be one of the most outstanding young men in our Pentecostal church. And he turned back and said, Hi. Oh he said, oh as much as I'm coming out of the house of the devil and I don't feel too convenient. And you know what he said? He said, well I may be backslidden but I can still speak in tongues. The gifts and callings of God are without repentance. But the trouble is we don't lean on the Holy Ghost. We lean on the gift. You see. Now I say, if I don't believe in tongues, well because I do believe in tongues as a genuine experience not for every Tom, Dick and Harry on earth but whomsoever He willeth to give. If you set a table out with gifts and they vary from shall we say $1,000 to $10,000 and I see my name on one and somebody says, do you know that gift in there is only worth $1,500? The third one is worth $9,000 and the fourth one is worth $12,000 and the fifth one is worth $15,000. You want to swap them over. And I'm just taking the labels off and switching them over and the fellow comes in and says, Hey I got that gift. Well I don't want that gift. I'm going to select the gift. Have I? I don't think so. We're Quakers right now aren't we? No, Paul isn't saying that he you see the danger is to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Now this is a very, very common interpretation because I work with folk who do it. You see they say Paul here has been reciting the gifts and they're very wonderful but notice what he says, I show unto you a more excellent way there's something far better than tongues and these things. Are you sure? Don't you think really that the gifts of the Spirit are really the tools that God gave to the church to do the job? If somebody's prostituted them that's not my business. Again I'm not going to back off from having real fire because somebody else uses false fire. Now what does Paul say? I may speak with the tongues of men and of angels and if I have not charity let's kick the word out like Weymouth and Moffat have done. Kick it out and put love there. Now he doesn't say though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love gifts are nothing. He says if I have gifts and have no love I'm nothing. He's not devaluing the gifts he's devaluing the person. Notice he doesn't say if you can do miracles oh brother they'll gather round if you do miracles. I know a man who packed tents with thousands and had miracles every night and biggest love offerings in history nearly and slept with a prostitute every night right after the meetings. And I can prove it. Oh you can do the miracles. But he says supposing I do all these miracles and I have faith to remove a range of hills from their places and have not love miracles are nothing. He doesn't say miracles are nothing. He says I am nothing. He doesn't say tongues are nothing. He says I am nothing if I have no love. He doesn't say the word of knowledge is nothing. He says I am nothing if I have no love. He is not devaluing gifts. He's devaluing an experience. And he doesn't say if you have tongues or miracles or these other things and have no love you're a second class Christian or a third class Christian or a fourth class Christian. Do you know what he says? If you do all these and have no love you're nothing. You're zero. That's all. You may pull the wool over the eyes of the crowd. You may build a personal fortune. You may do a lot of things but in the eyes of God unless these gifts are ministered in the Holy Ghost and He is the Spirit of love as I said to me in many ways this chapter is the most profound chapter of all. Who is the first being in the world? Come on. Who? And God is? Oh He's not a miracle. Huh? Do this when you go home. I don't have time. I always run out of time. When you go home read through this chapter carefully and will you notice two things that Paul here is telling us things that are permanent in the church of the living God and things that are passing. As for tongues they will? As for knowledge it will? Vanish away. As for the miracles they will? Pass. But now abideth? Come on. And? And? Right. These? But the greatest? Oh so that's what the Bible says. 1 Corinthians 13 is like a ring of gold with three precious stones and the three precious stones are faith and hope and love. These three but the greatest of the three is love. Hmm? So the first being in the world is God and God is love and the first and greatest commandment is thou shalt the with Oh hold it, hold it. We used to have an old holiness preach in England they used to say you know God cleanse my heart and fill me with the Holy Ghost. And He's cleansed my heart from all sin because the scripture says thou shalt love the Lord thy God with what? Oh well carnality never loves God with all it has does it? So the heart must be pure if you're going to love Him with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength. No, no, no. Paul isn't saying if I speak with tongues and I do the miraculous and I have no love the gifts are nothing. He says you can operate them even when you're backslidden you can operate them because the gifts and callings of God are without repentance and you can still operate them without love and it's not the gifts are nothing it's your nothing and I'm nothing. Right. The first and greatest commandment the first being in the world is God and God is love. The first and greatest commandment is thou shalt love the Lord thy God with what? All heart and with all strength and with all thy and with all thy Hey that doesn't leave a room for much else does it? That's pretty watertight when you think of it. You know once when I was in Ireland somebody offered me a lovely telescope a long brass telescope for fifteen dollars I thought it was worth about ten times that and I bought it for my three boys took it home triumphantly thought now of course these boys are going to be real happy and they'll mount this telescope in our upper bedroom window and they could see all over Manchester and they're really going to be happy there and the boy came downstairs and he said Daddy this is a lovely telescope I said well Paul I'm glad you like it he said you know Daddy it's no good for the day time I said what do you mean? He said it's not a terrestrial telescope it's a celestial you can only look through it at night you see Daddy we won't have to go to bed now will we? so see how easily you can make blunders and so he said and look at it Daddy he said you see there's the barrel of the telescope now watch this Daddy and he pulled out one extension and you know just as he did that this scripture came to my mind because the first being in the world is and the first greatest commandment is and the first fruit of the spirit is oh right there's the barrel of the telescope love joy peace long suffering gentleness meekness goodness temperance faith they're all in the barrel of the telescope now you're going to have to develop them you've got a couple of little babies here this afternoon lovely little things and I guess they can assert themselves they can talk smile now they've got brains but they haven't got intelligence yet at least they haven't got education yet now because they have a brain you can educate them and you know a baby knows at six months old who is the boss do you know that so you better watch it it's a long delay after that you know so you're a big boss before it's six months old and you know that one of the leading musicians in Japan now is teaching a class of children the violin he's got two thousand of them between two and three years of age he's teaching them a violin boy I guess sometimes it sounds like two thousand cats all squealing but anyhow he says you can't teach them too young they can pick up music you can do a hundred things with a child most of you don't have time except to stuff them off to look at channel twelve or something but you know the potential of that child from being about a year old is just amazing you can get a child to teach by the time it's two or two and a half is no problem really now the same thing is true spiritually you see I say we'd rather go to meetings to be entertained than come to a meeting where it demands a little bit of concentration and mental sweat and get down to the word of God and after all what is it the emotion of I hid in my heart my book doesn't say so what does it say thy word of I hid not in my head in my blood stream in my heart it's motivating me for out of the heart of the issues of life now here's the greatest the greatest being in the world again God the greatest commandment thou shalt love the Lord thy God the greatest the first fruit of the spirit it's singular not plural it's a bunch of grapes love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, peace goodness, temperance, faith you know I think there's a whole lot of us not you I didn't say that I put the ring right round and said a whole lot of us that need another real baptism of love your neighbours aren't impressed whether you speak in tongues or stand on your head and clap your feet no they're not but you manifest some love oh there's a little word in there I wish it wasn't there it kind of hurts when you have to oh boy I got my finger on that word again I wish it wasn't in the New Testament I'm always running into it it's not difficult you don't need a Webster to define it do you know what it says it just says oh boy I got my finger on it again there A-L-L oh isn't that a stiff word I mean if it said love beareth things you'd say right I'll go along with you Paul but when he says love beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things well you say that proves he wasn't married or else you say he can't have had a mother-in-law like mine he'd never have said it like that what does he say love beareth all things I say again isn't it fantastic that this is the man going down the road he was going to liquidate the church of the living God breathing out threatenings if I find anybody like this I'll put him on the block and chop his head off if I can find some people down there I'll just kick them all into the arena and watch the lions devour them who are these people we've got thousands of years of Jewish monopoly of God and you say a little cult has come up a nameless nameless homeless penniless carpenter some of the best men in the world have started following him if I find any of them I'll just rub them out like a schoolboy kills a fly and the man with all that bloody intention on him writes love never faileth hey that's a big jump isn't it isn't that a long way from breathing out threatenings to saying well I've got something now and it never fails do you know amongst other things as I think of it now because I may miss it further up the road you know he says love what do you know anybody ever suffered more than Paul you see I'm trying to get you on a keel you want to run to meetings and be blessed and banquets and meet with somebody and rub your shoulder with a millionaire and then you don't ever send the suit to the dry cleaners because that's where you touched him and you want to get a lot of artificial ecstasy or vicarious blessing Ananias you know a good conversationalist is not a man who sits down and monopolises the conversation for an hour he's a man who says his piece and quits and lets somebody else talk and by the same token true prayer is not me unloading on God it's allowing God to unload on me and one morning I think maybe only one man stayed to listen and say Lord have you got any orders today and he said I have Ananias I want you to go down the road in this city in this street to this house isn't it wonderful God knows your name and address even where you're lodging that's what he said didn't he he said going to the street called straight to the house of Judas enquire of a man called Saul of Tarsus I've already given him a vision that you're coming isn't that nice and I want to tell you I've been revealing myself and I've told him how many things he must what are you sure say it again some of them didn't hear how many things he must for my name's sake oh I thought he was just going to bless him and make him a famous preacher and let him have miracles and healings and do how many things he must suffer and he says Lord keep filling keep filling keep filling that I may fill up the sufferings of Christ that's all God gives you the Holy Ghost for so you can suffer John 14 26 what says when the comforter is come the comforter that's made up of two Latin words comfortis with strength it isn't comforter in the English sense to take a fretful child and nurse it and take care of it and pat it and say now darling be quiet and I love you so much alright that isn't what the Holy Ghost does he comes with strength that where I would fail even with my resolution and determination and zeal oh this man had more zeal before he was saved than we have after as for zeal persecuting the church suffer for my name say show me your back boy and he slips his toga down and says what do you think to that and it looks like a ploughed field he's the greatest saint on earth and God let him be lashed to a stump and be lashed four times received I five times received I forty stripes saved well what's five forties two hundred and five less a hundred and ninety five times he was lashed thrice I suffered shipwreck once I was stoned in perils of the deep in perils of mine own countrymen in perils of the city in perils of the water this is a spirit-filled life beareth all things Paul will put you to death he says hallelujah that'll be good wish he'd get on with it hmm hey you slip into his room and say Paul how are you and he says excuse me a minute back's a bit stiff you know that broke one or two vertebrae and a few ribs at Listery you know you notice my eye hangs down like this oh he was no oil painting he wasn't one of you big boys with a lovely smile you know just had his teeth all recapped and got a tour to pay and all the rest of it to look smart you know the big evangelists don't have haircuts do you know that I could give you the names they don't have haircuts anymore they go to hairstylists and have it teased what a day day of effeminate men and masculine women no wonder we're in trouble brother he got something nobody could gain on him you know God loves you so much do you know He'll let you go to the heights the heights of glory with Him and then He'll let you go in the valley of humiliation you'll think you're in hell and everybody else has back slid Moses was on the mountain with Him how long 40 days right I'll give you a B plus anyhow 40 days on the mountain He wrote 5 best sellers He saw the finger of God right on stone in 40 days of revelation we don't know a thing about and do you know one day He's gonna lie like a piece of dung in the street and all the nations are gonna trample on Him and laugh at Him that's the other end of the spectrum isn't that what revelation says huh does it or doesn't it sure does the Lord is transfigured on the mountain but He has 40 days wrapped in silence where He went through temptation from A to Z what makes you think you're gonna have a joyride you say you know it's rough today oh I've had a rough day today oh I do wish there was a banquet tonight oh well friend you better get really straightened out this afternoon you're not living on the Holy Ghost you're living on banquets you're not enjoying the presence of the Spirit you're enjoying emotion oh wouldn't it be wonderful if say the Lord just got about two Apostle Pauls out of this gang this afternoon wouldn't it be wonderful somebody else to sell out like He did but first of all you've gotta realize this that the supreme thing on this earth is to be filled with God and God is love and the greatest commandment is love and the first and greatest fruit of the Spirit is love and that love never faileth did you ever do you ever visualize I get a lot of help out of poets some of them anyhow a hundred years before John Wesley was converted and he was converted what about a quarter to nine on the 24th of May 1738 and a hundred years before that there was a little beautiful petite French lady who really loved Jesus and she did what lots of people did one day she got some inspiration and she began to write out what was coming to her and just as though the Spirit was dictating did not she wrote she wrote this and John Wesley who loved languages translated it out of the French into English and this is what he translated out of the French come Saviour Jesus from above assist me with thy heavenly grace empty my heart of earthly love and that's where it begins all earthly love and for thyself prepare a place now tell me if there's anything stronger than this outside of the Bible this is the next stanza she wrote and this was his battle song all of his life nothing on earth do I desire huh? nothing on earth do I desire but thy pure love within my breast this only this will I require and freely give up all the rest wealth honour pleasure and what else this short enduring world can give tempt as ye will my soul rebels for Christ alone resolved to live thee will I love and thee alone with pure delight and inward bliss to know thou takes me for thine own oh what a happiness is this could you really say that nothing on earth do I desire well except of course the 71 automobile and we're kind of struggling to get wall to wall carpeting and we've been trying to get a swimming pool in the backyard for three years and a few of those things and we've been trying to get a swimming pool in the backyard for three years and a few of those a swimming pool for three years and a few of those and we've been trying to get a swimming pool in the backyard for three years and a few of those things and we've been trying to get a swimming pool and a few of those and we've been a swimming pool in the backyard for three years and a few of those and we've been trying to get a swimming pool in the backyard for three years and a few of those and we've been trying to get a swimming pool in the backyard things and we've been trying to get a swimming pool for three years and a few of those things and we've been trying to get a swimming pool in the backyard for three years and a few of those and we've been trying to get a swimming pool in the backyard for three years and a few of those things and we've been trying to get a swimming pool in the backyard and a few of those things and we've been trying to get a swimming pool in the backyard for three years and a few of those things and we've been trying to get a swimming pool in the backyard for three years and a few of those things and we've been trying to get and a few of those things and we've been trying to get a swimming pool in the backyard for three years and a few of those and we've been trying to get for three years and a few of those if I remember right Jackson the Methodist who wrote I want dear Lord a love that feels for all a deep strong love that answers every call a love divine a love like thine a love for high and low on me dear Lord a love like this bestow and then Charles Wesley I must quote him to finish this section anyhow one day he felt this inspiration he began to write all thou who camest from above the pure celestial fire to impart kindle a flame of sacred love on the mean altar of my heart and there let it for thy glory burn with inextinguishable blaze and trembling to its source returning constant prayer and fervent praise my we'd do with the baptism of that love wouldn't we now what is 1 Corinthians 13 well you say it's a hymn of love that's right it sure is when I was a kid a boy when I was a boy they didn't have very good cameras and they didn't used to say turn your head this way or pose this way if you're a preacher they used to say you just stood up there and they took a picture of you and you know they were really horrid most of them the cameras weren't very good and your trousers looked like concertinas for men now the women wear them but there were some very strange pictures nowadays you have a picture taken 9 cases out of 10 what is it all they do is take head and shoulders isn't it now what is 1 Corinthians 13 1 Corinthians 13 is a full length portrait of Jesus Christ 1 Corinthians 13 is a full length portrait of a spirit filled believer change the phrase if you want a sanctified believer look we took this word what do you mean by charity charity suffers long charity what do you mean by charity well I'll tell you we were coming down the road there there was a box collecting stuff for the salvation army and it was too full and it was burst out at the side and there were sacks of things and coats and dresses and all kinds of stuff hanging out now what was that it's charity isn't it charity means you give away your surplus your old clothes and your surplus cash that's about it isn't it your old clothes and your surplus cash I had a little lady came to a church I passed it do you know I think she'd more old clothes than the salvation army everybody in the church gave her old clothes old hats old shoes old dresses brother she could come I think nearly every day in the week she could come with different clothes and she'd stacks of them you know we'd be singing blessed assurance and I'd be singing yes whose is that hat and then I'd look again and say oh I've seen that coat used to have a bit of rabbit round the neck and she's torn it off sing the next stanza and I'd be looking saying yeah I know I know those clothes I know they once belonged to that was about it you know she'd pull the skin off and change the buttons or like ladies do take the feathers out put a couple of bananas or something in the top and the whole outfit was changed you know she looked like but one day she came in a beautiful new ensemble oh and she waited in the foyer of the church and she said how do I look this morning I said you look wonderful she said you see this dress nobody ever wore it before this colour this hasn't been used look at my shoes see they're new and my handbag and my hat well I said did your sister die a rich aunt no she said you know Mrs Brown in church she's given me all her clothes spring summer winter for about the last 10 years I said well I kind of figured it I kind of worked that out but she said she came to my house the other morning and said Mary could you come to town this afternoon she said yes I want to take it in town you haven't seen the new styles and the new shots have you the winter outfit no well you come along and she said I went along innocently and she said she showed me a short window and said isn't that a beautiful coat now isn't that a nice nice we would call it a face cloth and little bit of mink round the collar and that hat suits it fine doesn't it and see the shoes and the handbag and everything yeah very lovely for folk that can afford it she said well I've had my eye on that set the whole week let's go in the shop so she went in the shop and she whispered to the lady that was serving and she said you bring me a hat like this and a dress and a coat like this and shoes about this size and a handbag and the dress that goes with it and I'm going to slip the little old lady here behind this in this room and we're going to give her the whole rig out and she said she bought me everything and she said you know she said this morning she told me Mrs. Brown said this morning I was praying and I was saying Lord I love you I love you and he said shut up does the Lord ever say shut up to you or can't he get a word in edgeways you love me you can't love vertically without loving horizontally you can't send love upward when that little old woman across the aisle wears all your junk now charity gives all the old stuff away love says I'll wear the old stuff and I'll buy you the new stuff well I respect all of you saying amen I hope you'll do it tomorrow but I'll tell you the size suit I take later but but that's it isn't it I did get this suit given it cost about 120, 30 dollars now I that wouldn't mean much to some of you famous preachers but anyhow I went in this shop and this man said to me there's a suit just a suit for a preacher try it on I said it's nice I think it's nice in fact I think it looks better than me and on the peg but he said alright try the slacks on try them and he says right when can I come for it I said what do you mean come for it he said well it's for you so I went along a couple of days afterwards and he says do you like the suit try it on I said it's fine and he put it in a nice cover for me and he said well there you are brother Avenue I'm giving you the suit and I said you're certainly not aren't you going to take it I said I sure am are you going to pay for it I'm certainly not well what do you mean you're not going to take it you're not going to pay for it you're going to take it I can't give you what do you mean oh I said the other day you know when you said now that suit is for brother Avenue the angel in heaven says credit one suit from brother Jones to Jesus Christ I don't follow no I said most people don't because Jesus said in as much as you did it to the least of these my brethren you did it unto me doesn't it say at the judgment seat that when you're trying to stand tall there the Lord's going to say now just a minute you know when I was naked you didn't visit me and when I was hungry you say Lord you got confused excuse me saying this but I wasn't on earth when you arrived oh no but you said you were a member of my body and that woman over the aisle is a member of the body now some of you are going to have credit and you thought you gave somebody you know that dress with a hole in you gave to the missionary you didn't give a dress with a hole in to the missionary you gave it to Jesus at least you could have repaired the hole oh yes all that old junk you stuffed in everybody get all you can that doesn't matter you know those things that are faded or those tragedies ladies have it doesn't match your eyes and throw it in the box we're going to send it all to the mission field you know they're glad of anything on the mission field it wouldn't do for us oh good night I mean my pride goodness you don't think I'm going to come to church you see these little things that really build us up in the faith in as much as you've done it there or in as much as you didn't do it you did it or you didn't do it to Jesus Christ not to somebody across the aisle all right we throw the word charity out we put in love love suffereth long love envieth not Moffat's translation love is never rude love is never resentful love is never glad when others go wrong love beareth all things love believeth all things love hopeth love endureth anything wrong with it no so we took out charity and put in love now we take out the word love and make it a full length portrait of Jesus Christ right Christ suffereth long and is kind Christ envieth not Christ vaunteth not himself Christ was never rude Christ was never resentful Christ was never irritated Christ was never glad when others go wrong Christ could bear all things Christ could believe all things Christ could hope all things Christ could endure all things anything wrong with that isn't that true now you took out charity and put in love you took out love but in the name of Christ you take out the name of Christ and there you put put carnality there and read it backwards way carnality doesn't suffer wrong carnality isn't kind carnality envieth carnality vaunts itself it's puffed up it's always glad to hear a bit of scandal and gossip particularly about the Christians and what's more very glad to pass it on it's just between me and you over the phone you know carnality vaunted itself carnality is puffed up it's arrogant it's rude it's self seeking so we took out charity and we put in love we took out love and we put in Christ we took out Christ and we put in carnality let's throw them all out well what are we going to do leave a vacuum no we're not going to do that we're going to make it more interesting still do you know what we're going to do we're going to put you there now don't be nudging your husband or your wife you just read it for yourself well I say will you say not audibly quietly in your heart after me I suffer long I'm kind I'm never rude I'm never resentful I'm never angry I'm never glad when others go wrong I'm always very slow to expose I'm always eager to believe the best I've a love that can bear all things I've a love that can believe all things I have a love that that just makes me walk as Jesus you see if you stand here and sing angelically I walk today where Jesus walked and I like that song you won't even raise an eyebrow or an eyelash a real one or a false one you just sing I walk today where Jesus walked and everyone says oh I got so blessed as you say and I'm glad they did you won't raise a flutter if you sing I walk today where Jesus walked but I'll tell you what change it and you sing I walk today as Jesus walked you'll have 50 people lining up and saying who do you think you are and yet the scripture says as he was so are we in heaven where? say it loud in this world oh I thought this was like the song says what a foretaste of glory divine oh no no no oh no I must tell you listen Paul says some very daring things doesn't he when he writes do you know I don't think he ever said a more daring thing than when he writes to the Philippians in the first chapter and I think verse 20 there do you know what he says for me to live is Christ and to die is gain did you ever see the sun or maybe you did when the sun was sinking in the west and it was just a red ball but I mean did you see the sun in what we call Meridian in the middle of the day well I can't even look at that there's a bulb there if you can't see it it nearly blinds me when I lift up my head how do you think I'm going to look at the sun but I once tried it when I was a little boy I was sitting there and I thought well there are the sun's rays coming through the window and yet I've never seen the sun in my life I'll go out and have a look so I went out and I stared at the sun and you know what happened I got two big red balls on my eyes and when I came in I rubbed and rubbed and the more I rubbed the brighter they got and I sat down and cried because I thought I was blind now my eyes aren't made to look at the sun oh I can look at the sun it's 93 million miles away and the only way to look at the sun is not to look at it the only way to look at the sun is to buy a thing called a spectroscope that would cost you maybe 75 dollars and then you sit down there and you look right into it like the eye of a camera and as you move your head this way and the other the sun is a solid ball of flaming red and when you move a half an inch it's a solid ball of brilliant blue and when you move a shade further it's a solid sphere of green vivid bluey green and every color of the spectrum all the colors of the rainbow are in the sun but you can't look at the sun you've got to look through a spectroscope you say well I can't afford a spectroscope well go to the preacher's shop in town Woolworths and you can buy a piece of glass a piece of three cornered glass and just stand it up there like that or maybe your granny used to have one of those things with those hanging pendants of glass on get one of them and stand it up and sit over here and it's brilliant red and sit over there and it's a vivid green it does the same thing whether it costs 10 cents in a dime store or 75 cents or you could pay thousands for a spectroscope but you can't look at the sun all you can do is look through the machine and see the sun now somebody comes and says to Jesus you talk about your father why don't you show us the father and Jesus says he that has seen me you can't see God the only way is look not through the spectroscope but the spectroscope of the incarnation and you look through the spectroscope of the incarnation you can see God because he that seeth me hath seen the father I'm as full of love as the father I have the power of the father the peace of the father everything the father has is in me but now Jesus Christ has gone and I say Paul says one of the most daring things ever he says Christ isn't here so you don't look in him but I'm here and what things you have seen in me you do them and when we get to the judgment seat I'll say Lord they were following me or to another church he says be ye followers of me even as I am a follower of Christ would you like your family or pastor would you like your church to follow you just pray as much as you do and love as much as you do and serve as much as you do and weep as much as you do and fast as much or do you say well of course you should read books of some famous men I know I'll tell you are you the example to the flock what things you have seen in me because he says Christ liveth in me and the life I live in the flesh every appetite is subordinate every other appetite is crucified Christ lives there now a couple of things remember a fellow that came to Jesus I can't have imagined he came like this and said you know I think you're the greatest preacher in the world I was sitting on the edge of the crowd when you preached that marvelous sermon and they're calling it now the sermon on the mount marvelous fantastic of course if you read some of the bible notes you've got and will you remember whoever bible whoever whatever bible you read the bible is inspired but the notes are not trouble is you think because it's on the page Scofield said it forget Scofield he didn't know much half of what he didn't know was wrong anyhow particularly if you say that the sermon on the mount is for a heavenly state of the millennium good night compulsory righteousness nobody can do wrong in the millennium they've got to do right by act of God why do you need the holy ghost then nobody's going to do any wrong but what about living the sermon on the mount now but Lord I like it but you know you said something that really got under my skin you said that well for instance like loving everybody being kind and gracious now I've got a brother and he is a brother he's been in trouble three times and I've bailed him out you don't know what it's costing me how many times am I going to do this seven times Jesus said no how many times oh so he went home and he bought a big piece of plywood and he made four seventy times four hundred and ninety squares and he put it behind on the wall at the house and every time his brother did wrong he put an x on and when he got to four hundred and eighty five he says to his brother one day listen you know what you that preacher told me about three years ago to forgive you four hundred and ninety times and brother you've got to four hundred and eighty five and you wait till you do just about five more and you've got it coming did he say that lady putting her tongue out at me well that's alright but did he say that hmm well I don't get mad as much as I used to but I mean after all there is a limit to human endurance isn't there well I think I once heard about that but you haven't I'll have to say to you like Jesus said to the disciples have I been so long with you I'm not talking about human endurance I'm talking about an indwelling holy ghost who doesn't crack up and give up for God has not given us the spirit of fear but the spirit of love and of power and of a sound mind oh forgiving your brother seventy times seven isn't that something in other words you're wearing him out by love nothing wears folk out like love this really wears them down love never faileth prophecies will fail tongues will cease I'm going to leave those at this side now some people say well there you are tongues shall cease well look if you say that they vanished when this full revelation come like some people you've got to say that knowledge has passed away and the way the church acts sometimes you think it really had but it hasn't and the gifts haven't ceased not until that day when the Lord comes love never faileth that's tight isn't it you say Mr. Ravenhill you should read that verse over there doesn't it say in verse five that this love doesn't behave itself unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked I mean I'm not easily provoked now you ask my husband I'm not really easily provoked you know I mean I can really go on but you know sometimes I really do blow the top when I blow the top I think they dropped a bomb in the house but he says that love is not easily provoked you know I mean it can stand so much but then there's a limit you know when men are racing round a race track in automobiles they go round and there's a sharp bend but there's always a road that goes straight on do you know why because if the fellow loses control and he can't make the bend he can go down straight down that what they call a safety road an escape road but he's out of the race now a lot of people want to make that word easily an escape road but I've got news for you it isn't in the Greek it isn't in the Greek the Greek says love is not provoked seeketh not her own and it thinketh no evil you know I think that sometimes we look for revival as though we expect God to split the roof of the church and come down and lay us all out or jump to the sky or do something but you know you could have revival this afternoon if you wanted all you have to do is to find out the person that you don't like the most in this church and get up and go tell them you've been stupid and silly and childish and you're sorry and from now on you're going to love them I preached in a big church and a couple of things and I will finish a big church three years ago in Idaho there's a large audience and a big gallery filled and just before I began to preach a big big fellow like a typical film actor you'd say the sheriff of the town came in nice uniform his gold star his revolvers and he sat by a very beautiful lady there and when the meeting was over I said look God won't do there's something that God can't do for you He can't repent for you and He can't make you willing to do certain things now if your spiritual life is dried up and you've got anger and bitterness and strife and an unforgiving spirit and hatred and all these other malice against somebody in this church you just get up when we pray you get up and go around the church and start reviving your own soul say I'm sorry I've been bitter and childish and unforgiving and resentful and all these things please forgive me you see a lot of us want to come to the altar and get things forgiven but we won't go to other folk and ask them you know the scripture says before you come to the altar leave the gift at the altar and go get reconciled to your brother straighten it out with him and I said to the congregation bow your heads and right now if you've got bitterness an unforgiving spirit hatred a grudge you can't be a grudge and be a Christian have a grudge and be a Christian you could be a backslidden Christian but you couldn't be a Christian and have a grudge if you've got something like this will you pray right now and make confession only on one condition that as soon as you've made it you'll get up and go to somebody in the church and this beautiful beautiful lady stood up and she really wept and she put her hand down to try and get and her husband felt it this big sheriff and he got hold of it and she was shaking so much she shook him and she crumbled up and broke down in tears and then what he stood up she kind of you know prayed like a seraph quiet little voice and he stood up with a voice booming you know I suppose I've more hatred in my heart than anybody in this town I've run it you know and he began to say what he'd have to do as a sheriff God I'm full of bitterness full of hatred full of anger unforgiving spirit my heart's a cesspool of unclean things oh brother he went to town and then he started to cry and he said oh God cleanse me and fill me with the Holy Ghost and a woman half way up the church she got up and she said Lord it began to be a competition she said I've got more anger than those other two put together I've got more bitterness and I found out afterwards she had do you know why because that man was a sheriff and this was his wife and she was the wife of the deputy sheriff and the deputy sheriff had to do all the dirty work that the big sheriff shoved on top of him and all the hatred that the sheriff had was multiplied in this felon he hated everybody in town plus the sheriff and of course this had gone over to his wife and she stood up trembling and weak and crying and she said now Lord you've cleansed me and you've forgiven me and you've given me the spirit I believe I'm right back in harmony with you and I said amen and she walked down the aisle and she knelt in front of the sheriff and his wife and she took the sheriff's hand in one and she said George his name was she said George and he said yes and he said Mary and he held her hand and he held his wife's hand and I slipped out of church it was quarter past twelve when I went back to the service at night the pastor said to me hey that was some service this morning my the Lord cleared some stuff up for us he said you know you slipped out of the meeting a quarter after twelve I said sure I was very tired and he said do you know the sheriff and his wife and that woman were still there at quarter past one they were still there at nearly two o'clock cleaning everything up getting things straightened out saying how they go put things right with other people really really cleared the whole mess up the following Friday night happened to be the wedding anniversary of the of the pastor and his wife and I remember till we got home last Friday was our wedding anniversary my sweet wife and I but anyhow they had a little cup of coffee and some cakes you know like you good folk do and this lovely lady came to me could I speak to you I said yes she said you know it's been wonderful in our house this week I never thought I'd live in heaven I said well have you been living in heaven she said yeah we've been living in heaven the week before you came it was hell we just decided to get a divorce and the pastor said well let's see what God does well Brother Raven let's see what God does God may have something to say postpone it you see I'm his second wife his first wife died and he's my second husband my husband died and we had known each other a long while and then after a courtship of so long a year or something we decided to get married now he's got three children growing up and I've got three now he and I love each other but our kids every time we go in cat and dog fighting fratching and I stand up for my children he stands up for his children and things have got so bad that we just said well we'll have to we'll have to we can't live like this we're going to be neurotic and she said you know since last Sunday she said wasn't it wonderful to see my husband in church I mean he's the most public figure in town confessing openly before the congregation what a vile bitter wicked man he was I said it sure was she said something more wonderful happened when we got home I said what was more wonderful she said he got in with his big voice says come on you know Tom, Dick and Harry and Mary and Carol and said come on I want you my kids came out and his kids and he said oh sit down so she said my family sat there his family sat here and she said that big man got down on his knees in front of each child and put his hands together and he said will you please forgive your daddy I haven't been a real daddy to you as I should be you know I've been so tired when I came home at night I just want to get rid of you that's why I bought your TV sets for your bedroom I just wanted mummy on her own so we could talk together and have a little relaxation I get so bored with crime and chasing people and all the filth in town but you know I've not been the daddy I should be will you forgive me and one said yes and the other said yes and the other said yes and then he went to the other three and you know what well what do you think they kind of said well after all I mean if dad's asked us to forgive him we can very well sit here and not ask to forgive each other so this one went to this and said well I'm sorry I behaved like a cat and the other one said well I behaved like a dog and the other one said well I behaved like a tiger like something else a tiger and you know before long the whole family was in tears and they all knelt down together had a prayer meeting and had a real time of blessing and she said you know this week's been wonderful oh if it only lasts oh it'll last while ever you obey trust and obey there's no other way even if you go to college for 25 years you still come back and you trust and obey there's no other way can I tell you just this single thing I was in another church I preached this message some Sundays ago while we were having dinner with the pastor a phone call came he said you did oh man I've prayed for that I just wondered how long it would take he did she did they are you're going oh it's worth the whole crusade I don't know what to say he rang off he came back to the table he said brother Ray you know God worked a miracle this morning we've got a brilliant young man in our church very high family and well his sister she's a very beautiful girl and she got friendly with the fellow been going with him for about a year and last year she came home and told a sorry story and the brother said get her out of the house as quick as you can send her to some other city let her have the baby there touch the thing up oh the mother said look if we don't love her who will well I don't care I mean we're so well known why does she want to reproach the family like this drag our name in the gutter well we're going to rush a wedding through well I'm not going to the wedding well at least you could buy them I wouldn't spend a dime on them and I don't care if she lives another 50 years I'll never speak to her I'll never admit I have a sister my brother-in-law just about killed him if I could get my hands on him oh he was professing Christian you know and he was crying on the telephone he said I just called my sister 1,500 miles away my brother-in-law answered the telephone he said Jim is that you I'm sorry Jim I love you who's speaking your brother-in-law George you what you what do you say I love you did a miracle happen yes it did he said the Lord showed me this morning I'm professing to love that way and I don't love this way and do you know what I could get off from the office I'd love to spend a few days with you do you think it's possible will you put my sister on the phone and he says to his sister he could hear him say I don't know what's gone wrong but something happened to your brother either his head or something he loves us he says he loves you too and she said he loves me oh no hi George hello sweetheart I love you like I used to love you when you were a little girl you know we used to play in fact I love you more than that now because I just kind of loved you with family love but now I love you because God's love is in my heart and you know I want to come up there and have a few days with you and I want to go around shopping and buy you a gift that I'd never have bought you before a better gift and I want to really show my love to you God so loved the world that he gave Christ loved the church and he gave if we love the church we'll give love ever stands with open hands and while it lives it gives for this is love speaking it's prerogative to give and give and give and do you know what the disciples of Jesus do ooh some of us are don't have too much problem loving our enemies it's loving your friends that's the problem isn't it that when the centurion caught a man called focus in Sinope in the early days second century of the church and he said do you know where focus is and he said yes centurion I know where he is do you know the party of Christians he leads I've got a list of people here twelve people have to be killed and focus is the leader and I'm going to kill him and focus says well I know focus very well but you're not going to kill some men and then get into bed when the sun's going down you couldn't sleep could you killing killing men look you come in my house and take supper let me wash your feet I've got honey I've got meat and I'll give you a lovely meal and I've got the cleanest linen in this town and in the morning I'll wake you at the crowing of the cock and I'll give you another meal and I'll take you straight up to focus and I'll put your hand in his like that and the soldier said to the centurion let's do it we have to sleep somewhere he solved all the problem he's going to wash our feet give us food get us up in the morning wash our feet give us breakfast and take us to focus and they accepted the deal and when they got in the room and was snoring all that little focus p-h-o-c-u-s his name is spelt focus he lived at Sinope s-n-i-n-o-p-e and all that little focus had to do was go around the back of the house and run through the trees over the mountain and they wouldn't have found him in the morning because they didn't know the track but he did and you know what he did as soon as he heard them snoring he went to the back of the house and he found a spade and he dug a hole six feet long and two foot six wide and four feet deep and when he got the dirt out of it he stuck his shovel in the dirt and did what Jesus did put his hands together and sang a hymn of praise to God and went to sleep and woke up at the crowing of the cart and washed the feet of the men and gave them the best breakfast I was leading them out of the garden when the soldier said he said he put his hand in the hand of focus and he isn't doing it focus said come this way now don't go through the gate on the main road turn this way will we focus yes and he took them through the trees that it pruned and the flowers he loved and they saw a grave and he turned his back and he said to the centurion there you are sir I'm focused you are who I'm focused I lead the Christians here I'm the man that you want to kill the centurion said to the soldier draw your sword cut his head off do it yourself he said are you refusing to obey Caesar what evil has he done of course he's proved he's a Christian because he's willing even to let his enemy kill him cut his head off I can't the little old man in his white suit his white beard and his snow white bald he head just look right into the eye of the centurion and he said it's all right I love him he laid his life down for me I lay mine down for him the centurion said close your eyes just one flash of the sword his head fell off his body fell in the grave and there was a man who loved his enemy even to the point of death you know when this love is shed abroad in our heart by the Holy Ghost and you keep all the channels open to God and walk in the light this is the only thing that will revolutionize the world isn't it strange on this last second I was in a shop yesterday and they had love tokens everybody's talking love but that's not love that they talk about that's sentiment it's sloppy the only love that can change this world is the love that became incarnate the only love that will change the world you and I in is when your body your soul and your spirit becomes just love from center to circumference saturated with love what Wesley called love divine all love excelling you'll have to pray with him finish then thy new creation pure and spotless let us be let me see thy great salvation perfectly restored in me change from glory into glory till in heaven we see see thy face I hope people will say about this center or about the church you pastor not sarcastically genuinely with an air of mystery around it see how these Christians love one another this is the badge of discipleship Lord Jesus give us a badge to wear no give us a uniform no give us a sign no give us a password no well Lord Jesus you're going to leave us can you give us something so that everybody that sees us will know that we're your true disciples he says yes and you don't have to wear it you don't have to show you don't have to say because love is a language the blind can see in the deaf can hear and he says this is the mark of a man who is really filled with God by this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one toward another and we pray grant to God that your prayer may be fulfilled in us we should be sanctified through and through cleansed filled with thy love that whatever gifts or ministry you give us they'll never be ministered with arrogance they'll never be ministered with anything to draw to ourselves but only to exalt thy name extol thy name all baptize us we pray thee with this love of fresh that what has been impossible should become what was impossible become possible what we could not endure we shall endure dismiss us we pray in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Amen. Thank you.