Known for his unique ability to simplify profound truth so that it can be applied to everyday life, Adrian Rogers was one of the most effective preachers, respected Bible teachers, and Christian leaders of our time. Thanks for joining us for this message. Here's Adrian Rogers. Christmas is spelled Love. Christmas is spelled love.
What is the Christmas message? John 3.16. For God so loved the world. That he gave his only begotten son.
Now, you're looking for something to give somebody. This Christmas. Why don't you give what God gave, give love? Give love. God so loved the world that He gave His Son, and when He gave Jesus, He was giving us the gift of love.
Our world. is in desperate Condition. We have a lot of self-styled technicians and bureaucrats and doctors of whatever, who have prescribed many uh palliatives and cures for humanity's hurt. But it is well said, truly said, what the world needs now is love. And um Jesus Talking about the last days said, Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many.
Shall wax cold. Love is a commodity. that is desperately needed, and especially in this Christmas season.
Now the thirteenth chapter Um 1 Corinthians is really a chapter on love, but it comes between. Chapters 12 and 14. You didn't know that, did you? And these two chapters, chapter 12. And chapter 14 are dealing with the spirit-filled life.
And the real mark of the spirit-filled life. is Love.
Now chapter 12 deals with spiritual gifts. Chapter 13 deals with love. And chapter 14 deals with power. And when you have love, Then you know how to use spiritual gifts. With power.
That's what it's all about. This chapter is not just put in there accidentally. Paul, in the middle of a theological treatise on spiritual gifts, is talking about love.
Now, that's not by happenstance, that's a strategy. There are three things I want you to see about love tonight as we think about Christmas being spelled love. First of all, I want you to see. The very virtues of love. Look, if you will, as we begin to read here.
Though I speak, With the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity. And every place, if you're reading from the King James like I am, every time it uses the word charity, you may substitute the word love because we use the word charity today to mean being kind to the poor or something like that. but it literally means Christ-like love.
So, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, I am become as a sounding brass or a tinkling symbol.
Now what he's saying here is that love is absolutely indispensable. There is no substitute for it. He's saying, for example, that oratory, speaking with the tongues of men and of angels, is not a substitute for love.
Sometimes you go to the park and you see maybe a statue of a Lion. Maybe he's made out of iron. and there's water that's coming out of his mouth. and he never tastes a drop of it. I think some of us have heard speakers and preachers that way.
They may have the gift of oratory, but they don't understand the love that is necessary truly to teach and preach the Word of God. And we've heard enough sermons by Dr.
Sounding Brass and Dr. Tinkling Cymbal. What he says here is that if I have not love, I'm become a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Oratory. Speaking, preaching, teaching is no substitute for love.
In verse 2, though, I have the gift of prophecy. And understand all mysteries and all knowledge. And though I have all faith that I could remove mountains and have not love, I'm nothing.
So he's saying that love is greater than prophecy.
Now, I know enough about preaching today that if you want to get a crowd, if you were to announce. On one hand, I'm going to preach a series of sermons on prophecy, or on the other hand, I'm going to preach a series of sermons on love. I can tell you after 40 years of preaching experience that far more people would come to hear the series of sermons on prophecy than would come to hear the series of sermons on love. Isn't that true? People are interested in prophecy.
They want to know what's going to happen. I know folks who have gone to seed on prophecy and they can tell you the meaning of the third toe and the left foot of some beast in Revelation and split a theological hair into seven equal divisions and yet they don't have love and our Lord says it is splendid nothing. They have heaven on their mind but they've got hell in their hearts. And then he says love, not only that, it's greater than knowledge. You might have a head full of knowledge.
But John Wesley Who was the founder of Methodism? Said that all knowledge without love is splendid ignorance. Think about it. Love is indispensable. It is greater than oratory.
It is greater than prophecy. It is greater than knowledge. According to verse 2, it's greater than faith.
Now faith is indispensable. It's incredibly important. You cannot know God without faith, and yet, he says, Even if you had faith, such faith that you could move mountains and you had not love, he says it's nothing, nothing. That's what he said. What he's saying is, what good is it to remove mountains if you can't remove malice?
If you don't have love, and then he says, Love is greater than feeding the poor. Look, if you will, though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor. And if you don't have love, again, it's nothing. You see.
Some people give money instead of love.
Now you can give without loving, but you cannot love. Without giving. Parents sometimes give material things as a substitute for love. And people need more than our charity. They need more than our pity.
They need actual love. Then he's saying that love is more important than martyrdom. Look at it again, he says, and though I give my body to be burned and have not love, it profits me nothing. The false religions. have their martyrs.
As a matter of fact, We know of people today who will blow themselves up in order to blow somebody else up. I mean, if a man is willing. to die himself. There's hardly any way you can defend yourself against such an individual. And many of these people don't love you because they don't love themselves.
I'm not saying that we as Christians ought not to be willing to die for our faith. But what our Lord is looking for more than people who will die for the faith is people who will live for the faith and show that living by loving. And so he says, if you give your body to be burned and have not love, again, it is splendid, nothing.
So that is the value of love. Notice what love is like. This Christmas season, you're going to need this. Look, if you would, he says here, first of all, that love is patient. Look at it in verse 4.
Love suffers long. You say, well, you know, I don't have much patience. Why don't you just be honest and say, I don't have much love? A lack of patience is literally a lack of long-suffering. It is a lack of love.
And then, not only is love patient, love is kind. It says it, it is kind.
Now what is kindness? It's love in the little things. Another word for kindness is courtesy. Just being kind, being courteous. One woman Came down the aisle of the church to give her heart to Christ.
And the preacher wanted to know what had impacted her life for Christ. She said you did. And he said, Well, I'd be interested to know what was it that I said. That brought you to Christ. And she said it was nothing you said, it was something you did.
She said, I was standing near when somebody criticized you. very sharply. And I thought unfairly. And I listened to the way that you responded to her. And I saw the kindness.
with which you dealt with her viciousness, and I knew that your faith was real. Real love, again, is not jealous. This verse says it envies not. You know, jealousy is a horrible, terrible thing. And it's been called by some a green-eyed monster.
If you really have love, you're going to be willing to give credit when credit is due. You're going to be able to praise others. You're not going to think that somebody else's gain is your loss. You're not going to cringe when other people are praised. And then he says that love is humble.
Well, he says here in the King James, it's not puffed up. Love and pride don't dwell in the same heart. True love. is humble. True love can say, I am sorry.
True love can say, please forgive me. True love can say, I forgive you. And then it does not behave itself. Unseemly. That is, true love is not rude.
People say, well, I just say what I think, I speak. Forthrightly I have the gift of prophecy. Don't ever excuse your rudeness. Under the guise that you have the gift of prophecy. He that speaks unto men in prophecy speaks unto men in edification, exhortation, and comfort.
Real love does not behave itself unseemly. It's unselfish. It seeketh not its own. This Christmas, stop worrying about what you're going to get. Begin to think about how you can show the love of the Lord Jesus.
Real love is even-tempered. It's not easily provoked. It doesn't have a hair trigger. A mister Drummond wrote a sermon on 1 Corinthians 13, the title of the sermon was called The Greatest Thing in the World, and it was love. And in that sermon he said this.
No form of vice Not whirliness. Not greed of gold, not drunkenness itself does more to un-Christianize society. Than an evil Temper. And so real love is even tempered. And then real love is not suspicious.
It thinks no evil. It doesn't uh think the worst, it's not paranoid. It doesn't join the society of mud slingers. Have you ever met anybody who doesn't trust, or somebody who doesn't trust anybody? I can tell you very frankly, that person does not know.
Love. I've talked to you here about the value of love and the virtue of love. Let me just in a few moments talk to you about the victory of love. Begin now in verse 18 and look at it. Love Never Fails.
That's one of the greatest statements in the Word of God. Love. Never fails. Love is eternal. It will never pass away.
Love never fails, whether they be prophecies, Facial failure. 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. Don't get puffed up about what you know.
You don't know. 1% of anything. Don't think that you know the future. All you've got is Uh an educated guess. You say, well, I know what the Bible says, yes, but the many things about the future that have not been revealed to us.
The Bible says the prophecy is to be sealed up to the time of the end. And the Bible says it doth not yet appear what we shall be like. And a little child can ask questions about heaven that nobody can answer. I don't care what seminary he teaches in. We know in part.
We prophesy in part, and it's time that we had a little humility about some of the things that we know and some of the things we don't know. But love lasts. Love is more important than education, it's more important than ability, it's more important than money, it's more important than handsome looks, it's more important than prophecy. All of these things are going to pass away. I tell you again, love is the greatest virtue.
It is the greatest commandment. Matthew chapter 22, verses 37 through 40. Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Now, folks, Jesus, no other authority, no lesser authority than Jesus said love is the greatest commandment. Then what would be the greatest sin? To fail to love, because that would be the breaking of the greatest commandment. The Apostle Paul says here in 1 Corinthians 13 that love is the greatest virtue. I'll tell you something else: not only is it the greatest virtue and the greatest commandment, it is the greatest testimony.
Listen to what the Bible says. John 13, verse 35: By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you have love one to another. And that's the reason we must never divide over details. That's the reason we must incredibly love. We must constantly love.
We must sacrificially love. We have got to love, and we've got to drown every insult in the river of love. We have to show love. And listen, folks, let me tell you this: there are a lot of people who are not lovely. Real love is not giving me what I deserve, it is giving me what I need.
Real love is saying, I will love you and do you good, regardless of what you do to me. It is the greatest testimony. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another. But not only is it the greatest virtue and the greatest commandment and the greatest testimony. It is the greatest motivation.
Do you know what motivates me? You say, well, you want to. have a successful church. No, that's not what motivates me.
Well, you say you want reward in heaven.
Well, I do, but that's not what motivates me. The same thing motivates me, I think, that motivated the Apostle Paul, and I believe motivates you. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 14, For the love of Christ constraineth us. The love of Christ constraineth us. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all.
It's the love of Jesus Christ. When Jesus asked Simon Peter, Peter, lovest thou me? And then he said, if you do, feed my sheep. He didn't say, Do you love sheep? He didn't say, do you love to feed sheep?
Do you love me? The great motivation for teaching that Sunday school class, for coaching that team, is the love for Jesus Christ. It is the greatest motivation that will move you, keep you going more than anything else. Jesus said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. The Apostle Paul said, the love of Christ constraineth us.
And I'll tell you something else. Love is the greatest confirmation. Do you want to know whether you're a child of God? Do you want to know whether you're saved on your way to heaven? Listen to the word of God.
1 John 3, verses 14 and 15. We know that we've passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. And that's it. And folks, that's black print on white paper. We know that we pass from death unto life because we love the brethren.
He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. And whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
So I just want to say on this Christmas season that the thing we need to do. More than anything else, it is to do what God did when He sent Jesus, and that is to love. For God So loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son. There was a Christian, an aged man. He was dying in Scotland.
And a friend came over to say goodbye and farewell to this man. And this man said to a friend who had come to say goodbye to him while he was dying, he said, Well, I've just had three other visitors. Two of them have gone, but the third visitor I'm going to keep with me. Forever. And he said, Well, who were they?
He said, Well, The first visitor who came to see me was Faith. And I visited with faith and enjoyed faith, but I told faith Goodbye. I thank God for your company, Faith. I have walked with you since I first trusted Christ. But now I'm going to die.
And I won't need you anymore, faith. Because faith will be lost in sight. I'll see Jesus face to face. Then he said, I had another visitor to come see me. And the name of this visitor was Hope.
And he said, we had a wonderful time. And I visited with hope. And then I said to Hope, Farewell, Hope. You've helped me in the hour of battle. You've been with me in distress when my heart was broken, when I've had so many needs.
You've been there like a rock, like an anchor. But hope. I won't need you anymore. Goodbye, Hope. I'm going to heaven where hope has turned to fruition and fullness.
But he said the third visitor I had with me He said, he is with me now and will be with me. His name was Love. I said to love, love, you've been my friend. You've linked me with God. You've linked me with my fellow man.
You have comforted and gladdened me in all of my pilgrimages. And now I'm going to heaven. But love I'm not going to leave you behind. You with Me? will enter into the city of God through the gates of glory.
And you, my friend, love, will be perfected in heaven. Is that not what the Bible says? Listen to it. In verses 12 and 13, 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. Hope Love. These three.
But the greatest of these is love. Brothers and sisters, Let us love one another. For love. is of God. Father, I pray that you will just.
this Christmas. Help us to show the love of Jesus. to everyone we meet, And Lord, may we be so filled with that love. that that love will spill out. not selfishness, not pride, not arrogance.
Lord, in our teaching. In our preaching. In our giving. in our sacrificing. May it all be infused.
with love. In the holy name of Jesus. Amen. If you would like to learn more about how you can know Jesus or deepen your relationship with him, simply click the Discover Jesus link on our website, lwf.org. For a copy of this message or additional resources, visit our online store at lwf.org or call 1-800-274-5683.
Thank you.
