This is, Schofield says, calls this the model church as we read about. Thessalonians. Paul had gone there on his second missionary journey, had witnessed to him, souls got saved, and it's amazing what he taught them in the first, he was there only about three weeks about, and so the doctrines that they took in are amazing, and their response becomes what he refers to as the model church. So chapter one of verse Thessalonians. Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus, onto the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace beyond you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, greeting from God to them. We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers. Remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of God and our Father. Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God that you got saved. For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance, as we know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. And you became followers of us and the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost. so that you were in samples, examples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God were to spread abroad so that we need not to speak anything. For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come." So much for reading the scripture. Let's pause for a prayer. Dear Father in heaven, we do thank and praise you for the great God that you are and we thank you we have this opportunity to gather with those of like precious faith to have the Word of God, the New Testament in complete form in our hand so that we can study it and we can compare it and we can gain understanding and wisdom through the Word and by your Holy Spirit so that we can grow in grace and the knowledge of you. and understand and apply your plans, purposes, promises for us that we might become what you'd have us to become, to the glory of God and Christ, to our benefit and to the benefit of those around us, and even for this opportunity to gather and encourage each other, work together, strive together with those of like precious faith for the furtherance of the gospel. So may what's said today be encouraging and challenging as need be, and may we be willing to be corrected and transformed. May we have our sins confessed so that we're in a place where this can take place. And may it be profitable, edifying, encouraging, comforting to all. And pray that you direct to the Sunday school program, that you'd work to the same end, that gospel given to young children, that they could believe and be saved, and then that truths be given that they could grow. And pray for the nursery and for the little ones that they would have a calm spirit and it would be able to be able to do that service without great troubles. We do thank you for Vacation Bible School and for this opportunity we had last week and the numbers of young people that you allowed to come to be ministered on to and we pray for each one of them that they might have heard and responded to the gospel. If not, those words they heard would keep working in their heart as well as the parents that came. We just pray that souls could be saved and that young believers could grow. And we just thank you for all that were involved in that ministry, for those that were serving here, for those that helped in various ways, for those that were behind the scenes and praying, whatever measure, that it was of one mind, one accord, for the same cause. And so we just thank you for all the blessings you give to us. In Jesus' name, amen. If you would like to open your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 12, we have been working through this book and we are in chapter 13, but we're going to start here so that we get some background for that chapter 13, the latter part. So let's have a word of prayer. Dear Father in heaven, we thank and praise you again for this opportunity to gather and for your design of the local church, whereby when we place our faith in Christ, we become members of the universal church and then we are able to gather in any area and have an experience and be part of a local church. And how you provide for that local church members with different gifts so that each can minister and provide something for the well-being, edification, the growth, and the comfort of the body of believers so that we can all grow and we can collectively serve together in the furtherance of the gospel. So we thank you for this opportunity. May we have an appreciation for that design and for each the other and take heed to your word as you give further explanation of these truths and how we ought to minister even as by grace through faith in drawing on your riches. Thank you now for this time in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, we want to get this subject back on track. So we are looking at the early church in chapter 12 as he begins to talk about their gathering together and God's design for the body and how the local church should function. He says in chapter 12 verse 1, now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you to be ignorant. And so he goes on to explain it. We have a Schofield note, which will kind of help us speed through this chapter. The Greek word The Greek word is plural and refers to things pertaining to the Holy Spirit and is a key to the chapters we're looking at. Chapter 12 concerns the spirit in relationship to the body of Christ, how each one is given a gift to minister and how that works in likeness to the human body. The baptism with the spirit, as we place our faith in Christ, we are baptized or the Holy Spirit has given ministers to us life, and then we are, we could say we're baptized with the Spirit, but then we're baptized into the body of Christ as members of the body. The baptism with the Spirit forms the body by uniting believers to Christ, and that's in the invisible spiritual realm. He is the risen and glorified head, and we are united to each other. The symbol of the body thus formed as a natural human body and all the analogies are freely used, which he then talks about, which we've looked at. So we look at a physical body and the different members and what each one contributes to the well-being of the physical body and our functioning. That principle holds over in terms of the spiritual gifts that he gives, which would be of a variety. He also says, and to each Christian is given a spiritual enablement or capacity for specific service. Now there are general things that we are, we're all called to be ambassadors of Christ, but may not have a gift of evangelism, but we are still to present the gospel, be ready to give any man the reason of the hope that's in us. So we're all ambassadors, but there are various gifts. None is destitute of such a gift, but in the distribution, the spirit acts in free sovereignty. So he decides what function or special gift you'll be given to minister to the believers. There is no room for self-choosing. Christian service is simply the ministry of such a gift or gifts as the individual may have received. The gifts are diverse, but all are equally honorable because they are bestowed by the same spirit, administered under the same Lord and energized by the same God. So as the note says, every believer is given a gift to minister or gifts to enables them to have a special ministry or contribute to the well-being of the local church, serve to the encouragement edification and furtherance of the gospel. We did note, and we'll be seeing that again, that in the early church, in the transitional period, after Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, he sent the Holy Spirit and began the church age. And he is calling out, Church Ekklesia is calling out unto all men unto salvation through the gospel. And as they believe, they are then gathered out, they are sanctified, set apart into the body of Christ. And so when this first took place, first began, all the doctrines concerning this new dispensation or the church age's age of grace had not been revealed. And they began to be revealed after God sent the Holy Spirit. And so he began to reveal the doctrines concerning this church age, the promises and provisions, what was going on, and all that we have written now in scriptures. But it was just being revealed along with the eschatology, what is in store for the church. What was in store for Israel by promise was the earthly kingdom. But we see in scriptures that what was promised to the church age was the rapture and we would be part of a heavenly nation. And so these doctrines weren't found in the Old Testament. And so they were being revealed in the beginning. And as it was being revealed through the apostles, they begin to record it. And so Christ died in 33 AD, or that's typically the time believed as we have different issues of calendar dates and stuff. And John's last book, which completed the canon of the scriptures written in 90 to 95 AD. So when Corinthians, when Paul was writing to these Corinthians, they were lacking the Bible. They didn't have this New Testament. They said that maybe Matthew was written in 37 AD. That's debatable, but that would be the earliest. And that doesn't really contain much about or really doesn't contain anything about the church age. And so they didn't have what we have. So to jumpstart the church, God gave gifts to the believers so that they could bear witness that God was, that they were of God, they could give testimony of what God had to say in parts, and they would be able to perform miracles, signs and wonders to give verification or credibility. And so there were some different gifts given then in this initial phase that are not given now. More on that will come as we go on, but that's the general idea. So looking at the idea of gifts, he gives gifts to believers now, but not all the gifts, the kinds of gifts that were given originally are given. Many have stopped, but he still gives gifts to every believer for the functioning of the local church here and now. So let's read verses four through seven. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are diversities of administration, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operation, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all, or to profit the body of believers. He will be profited by it, and he will be able to minister to others. They then will minister to him, and we have equal equally being profited, equal value. Verse 11, now all these work that one in the self, same spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will, as Schofield said, he decides who gets what gift, what their place of service is, it's not up to us, ours is simply to respond, say what is your will for me, be available to serve, and then that will become aware as the opportunities arise and we're available. So he gives this and he divides to every man as he will. For as the body is one and hath many members, as we think of the physical body and all the members of that one, and all the members of that one body having many are one body, that's also the idea of Christ, physical body versus the body of Christ and the local church. For by one spirit we are, are we all baptized, identified, placed into, immersed into the body of Christ. Nothing to do with water. We are placed into that body of Christ, whether Jews or Gentiles, we become children of God, we become born again Christians, whether we are bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. That's the idea. Design of the church. Verse 27. Now you are the body of Christ, speaking to believers. and members in particular. We all are members together, but we have different functions, different gifts or giftings to contribute, just like a body, members of the body. And God has set some in the church, and this would be at that time. Some of these that he mentions in terms of these gifts are no longer given, and we'll see why later. God has set some in the church first apostles. They were foundation layers. He revealed to them the truths of the gospel. They were to go out and win souls and establish the doctrines and they were to record them. Secondarily, prophets. which we looked at before, and Schofield identifies them as not a fourth teller. Sometimes we think of the prophecies of the Old Testament. They were telling what will take place in years down the line or foretelling things. This is rather a fourth teller, one whose gift enabled him to speak to edification and exhortation and comfort. What he would be able to do is, because they didn't have the New Testament, And they needed this information and these doctrines of the church age. God would give people with this gift an understanding or he would reveal to them those truths as he is doing with the apostles. But here in a local church, there wasn't apostles in every church. And so these that had prophecy would be able to contribute by divine revelation, some measure of truth. doctrine, promise that would be later revealed and written down or later recorded in the scriptures. So he had to give them information for this church to get on its feet and for the spread. And he had to do this in a, what we would say as a supernatural or miraculous way, as opposed to how he's doing it now. Though the spirit is still involved and it's still all the work of God, it was different then. And then we, so we read on, 27, and now you are the body of Christ and members in particular, and God has set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, another area that is not a, where they're gifted as we think of healings, gift of healings, helps would still be there, government still be there, diversity of tongues, no longer, But we'll look at that. Are all apostles? No. The principle of the idea, different gifting. Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? No. Do all have the gift of healing? No. Do all speak in tongues? No. Do all interpret? Having a gift to be able to interpret a foreign language that they hadn't learned, but God revealed what it was. That gift doesn't exist now, but they were all given different gifts for the rapid spread of the gospel. Then he goes on in verse 31, and this is what we were working on. He says, but covet earnestly the best gifts. So when they gather together, they should desire that of the variety of these gifts, and some were sign and wonder gifts, that the best gift to minister to the believers, the local church should be used. And in chapter 14, he's gonna go on and say that prophecy, desire prophecy, that would be most effective in ministering to the believers by teaching the word of God. And they didn't have the scriptures. And so the revelation of the word of God would be of greatest important, more important than seeing a sign and wonders gift that was impressive but it didn't give you any, it may not give any or some, any knowledge or understanding or edification or encouragement, comfort. So he also then goes on And at the end of verse 31, he says, and he wanted to show us second thing he wants to do is we teach us to covet the most important thing that would benefit our gathering together and all the believers. And secondly, he says, I want to show you the more excellent way to be ministers. And he wants to show us a way that we should the mindset and motivation that we should have as ministers of the body, ministers of God in the body, regardless of your gift. And he's going to identify that as having an attitude and having a motivation of love. So he tells us in chapter 13, one through three, that no matter which gift you had, how great it was, if it wasn't, if you were not operating under the principle of love, motivated by love, then it was a waste of energy. It didn't serve the glory of God in keeping with his plans and how he has designed this. So chapter 13, though I speak with the tongues of men or angels and have not charity, have not love, have not agape love, is that which is motivating me, then I'm just making a lot of noise. I am become as a sounding brass and a twinkling cymbal. 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 not motivated by love, love of God and love towards others, then I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, great sacrifice, and have not love, not motivated by love, then it profiteth nothing. Now, what he's talking about is agape love. And I mentioned last time this, they kind of coined the word agape to be used to identify a godly quality of love that is seen in God and is not found in the natural man. This kind of love is seen in the character and mindset of Christ, of God. And it is the character and outflowing behavior that God wants to reproduce in us. And he does this when we look to him as believers and we walk by faith and in so doing we're filled with the spirit. Now I mentioned before, and it's worth letting it sink in, that when we think of agape love as Karl Dente, Pastor Karl Dente came here years ago, said this definition that agape love is that quality in God and now reproduced in the believer that causes one to act in the best interest of others in light of spiritual truth, regardless of personal expense. And so he is placing others before him and acting in their best interest in light of spiritual and eternal truths, regardless of what it costs them. And so there is a servant mentality, a sacrificial attitude And that is what is supposed to motivate us. Given a gift, then what is to motivate you, what's the heart attitude, the mind supposed to be, and it is agape love. To act in the best interest of other believers, as we think of the local church, in light of their spiritual, in light of spiritual and eternal truths. To minister to them, and to do it at, willing at our expense. That servant sacrifice idea. When we think about looking at it in terms of God's character, in 1 John 4, 8, the very last part of the verse, it says, God is love. And that would be that agape, that quality, that character is agape love. And that is personified in God. Then we have in 1 John 4, as we think of it acting out, it being a motivator causing him to act out, behave, Do something. In this was manifested or in this was demonstrated or this was shown the love of God toward us. He loves us, but it is demonstrated by his acting in our best interest in light of spiritual truths, regardless of personal expense. So it is manifested because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. He sent his son to be our Savior. We needed to be saved. All men were born in Adam. Adam had fallen in sin. We were born spiritually dead. We were born under the condemnation of sin and death. And our nature was incompatible with God and we were hopeless and helpless. And we were headed for the lake of fire, separation from God. He could not accept us into his presence. And so here in his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. What did he do? Since justice demanded death for sins against me and I couldn't save myself and my nature was corrupt and sinful, unrighteous, he sent his son to be my savior. And the son of God left the glories of heaven to become my savior, to sacrifice himself is a substitute. He was delivered to the cross of Calvary and God executed the just demand of death, which was against me and his son. This was a great personal expense to him and to his son. And he bore our sins in his own body and paid our debt. He did this out of love, motivated by love, so that you and I could be saved. He'd have a way to save us. And so we see that love manifested, acting out or demonstrated and acting in the best interest of us. And so we see the love of God. That's the love that he wants to reproduce in us, that quality of love, where our interest is the glory of God and the well-being of others, whether they be a lost soul that needs salvation. And so we're motivated by the love of God to share the gospel because we are children of God. And it's the will of God, all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. or whether we're motivated by the love of God to minister to fellow believers and help them, encourage them and function together as a body to make grow in grace and the knowledge of him that we might abound in love yet more and more and in truth and that we could collectively then working together shine as a light and serve in this community as a pillar and ground of truth promoting the gospel, believers encouraged, ministering together, growing, and reaching the lost. That's the holy calling concept. When we got saved, we got new life, we got new purpose for life and new provisions for life. And in that we have this holy calling to have fellowship with Christ, partake of the divine nature, allow this change to take place so that our attitudes, our motivations are of God, and then serve God in keeping as ambassadors and ministers of God. So thinking of that love and moving on on this concept here of God's love. We also have in John 3, 16 through 18. Here's 16 through 17. We see the love of God again as it's manifested. For God so loved the world, He so loved you that He gave His only begotten Son, who came to die for our sins, paid our debt in full, Having completed that, he was buried. He rose again, a living savior, to walk among men, ascended into heaven. And then we have 10 days later, the Holy Ghost coming and the church beginning, but he is our savior, victorious. He sent him to do this so that we who were lost, that if we would believe on him, we would not perish, but we'd have everlasting life. That's the motivation. So when we see a lost sinner, we should have sanctified the Lord Jesus in our heart and be ready to give answer to him, the reason the hope that is in us, so that that lost sinner can get saved. Christ said, as a father sent me into the world, so send I you. It's will that all men be saved. And so the offers on the table, the work is done. And all a man has to do is believe. We look at 17, for God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. Well, we can identify with that cause, the furtherance of the gospel, individually and collectively. Then we have the personal response that's involved in this, whether initially or as we think of ours to this holy calling, but here it says, he that believeth on him is not condemned. Well, what happens when one believes? Well, that work of Christ, his death for our sins at propitiation is applied to us in the legal sense, we are declared justified, our sins are washed away. So God looks at us as in Christ, our sins were imputed to him, his righteousness is imputed to us, and we become children of God. He gives us new life, causing us to be children of God, we're born again of the seed of God with a righteous nature. that righteous nature can't sin, but I have an old sin nature, which causes problem. And that becomes a subject for John. But at any rate, he that believeth on him is not condemned. But he that believeth not is condemned already. Why? Because he's in Adam. He's dead in sin and trespasses. His nature is corrupt, and he refuses to trust in or respond to the love of God and trust in Christ as his Savior. So he is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. That is the love of God. And Paul says, I want you to know the excellent way, the best way to minister as children of God, whether you're going to be ministering in the body of the body, the local church, or whether you're going to be reaching out to the lost, but he's focusing in on the church here. And he wants to reproduce this in us in and through us. And he does this by way of teaching us through the Word of God and the Holy Spirit being our inner tutor and teacher and are responding by faith. And with the faith reliance, then he enables us, he ministers to us that very quality, which I don't have in and of myself, and neither do you. It is a provision from God whereby we are able to enjoy that personal relationship and express his character. And so we read in Galatians, that the fruit of the Spirit is love, that agape love. I don't have that naturally. Naturally, I am self-centered, self-serving. And if in my natural self I did anything that was humanly good, it would have been motivated by my own approbation, lust, or some measure for my own glory. That's what we are like by nature. But our new nature is righteous, and it has a quality of the eternal nature of God, that eternal life, that godly quality, where it can now grow and express itself as we walk by faith. And the Spirit is there to provide that. So we're to walk by faith, we're to be filled with the Spirit, we're to be led by the Spirit, we're not to grieve the Spirit, we're not to quench the Spirit, but allow Him to minister to us. And that which he produces is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law. Now, if you were here on program night, you would have seen a comparison as the seventh and eighth graders went over this verse, and then they connected it to 1 Corinthians chapter four, as we look at how he describes love is manifested. So let's look at chapter 13, read verses 4 through 8a. And then we will kind of look again at that comparison that they had made. So he says that we should minister out of love. And so we need to understand what that is. The Word of God is given to teach us. And if this is something that is foreign to my nature, say, well, you should walk in love and say, well, what is love? Well, I know human love and this and that. No, I want you to understand the quality of love that's God's, so that you would allow that to be manifest in you, which is the transformation of our mind and our being conformed into the image of Christ. So love, agape love, verse four, suffereth long and is kind. Love envieth not. Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly. Love seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked. Love thinketh no evil. Love rejoiceth not in iniquity. It's looking at spiritual and eternal truths and this opportunity that we have to glorify God and win souls. It rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things. Love hopeth all things. Love endureth all things. Love never faileth. Now we went through these last week as an attempt to kind of describe them as we think of the characteristic, the mind and character behavior that love would be. But because they had done that at the Vacation Bible School program, I thought we could compare the two. Now this, I had to dig in my old notes to find the old slide. So I just took a picture. We used to have that projector. So I just took a picture of it. And I don't remember where the source was. So maybe it was Betty and her class. Maybe it was something else. It wasn't mine. But There's a lot that's out there that's not mine, that is very good, better than I could do. So we compare the two. And the fruit of the Spirit is love. And so the comparison as we look at this chapter is love seeks not our own, is not selfish. Self-centered me first cares more for others than for self. So yeah, that's exactly what we see in God. Joy, love rejoices not in a nickety, but rejoices in the truth. Doesn't delight in evil, gloat over wickedness or revel when others grovel. Is never glad about injustice or wrong, but is happy when truth triumphs. Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth. And there's a motivation, this mindset and the motivation that drives us and the joy that we experience in a right relationship with the Lord. and in ministering. I don't think there's a greater joy that can be experienced in this life than when we are in fellowship and able to serve. And with the right attitude, it's incredible. Witnessing to someone else brings about a great joy. Serving others should bring about a great joy. Ministering in the church should bring about a joy to be able to be part of the body of Christ and work together for the glory of God. Peace. Love is not easily provoked. Envy is not. It's serene and stable, not irritable. Touchy or easily angered. Doesn't fly off the handle. Is not possessive. Never boils with jealousy. Doesn't want what it doesn't have. It's content. It's at peace in a state of harmony with God and grateful and content and thankful. Long-suffering. Love suffers long, is slow to lose patient, never gives up. Gentleness. Love is kind, gracious, thoughtful, concerned. Love is generous. Look for ways of being constructive. You say this is all part of the character of God. This is what the fruit of the spirit wants or the spirit wants to produce in me. This is what he wants me to become. This is what he wants you to become in an increasing manner. He goes on and says, faithfulness. Love thinks no evil believes all things will hardly notice when others do it wrong. That's not what we're normally like. Doesn't hold grudges or keep score of the sins of others. That's not what we're normally like. Doesn't harbor evil thoughts or plan revenge. Is not suspicious, not fickle, but always protects, trusts God, and does not doubt others' worthy or integrity. Meekness. Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, is humble, not proud, arrogant, conceited, haughty. Doesn't strut, brag, or boast. That's kind of our natural ego nature. Cherish doesn't cherish inflated ideas of its own importance, have a swelled head, is not anxious to impress, doesn't demand its own, doesn't insist on its own rights. Temperance, self-control, love does not behave itself unseemly, not rude and decent, unbecoming, forcing itself on others, but has good manners and it is disciplined and controlled. So that's certainly the characteristic of God and Jesus Christ and should be of us. He says, be holy as I am holy. Become holy as I am holy. How? By the grace of God. As we respond to the word of God and allow the spirit of God to direct, we have a faith response, faith reliance. The spirit of God then is able to begin to produce these and develop them so that we become increasingly more like Christ. Love bears all things, is able to endure obstacles, bears up under or puts up with anything. Love hopes all things, it keeps up hope, never looks back, but always looks for the best. Love endures all things, always preserves, no, always perseveres, but keeps on going till the end, cannot last anything. Love never fails, and here they have never dies. Now, you stop and think about what he's been describing, and let's just flip back, if you would, to Ephesians 4, and kind of put this together as he addressed this subject in different words, but explaining the same. Ephesians, he talks about us as being believers, that we are to abide in Christ or that's the idea. But we have the spirit of God. So we're in Ephesians 4 verse 30 is where we want to look. So we have the potential to be filled with the spirit and be partakers of the divine nature in an experiential way because we are children of God. We have the potential because we have a sin nature to operate according to the lust of the flesh. The Spirit of God and the Word of God are that which is given by God to enable us, enable our new nature to have victory, to grow and to energize it. If we don't walk by faith, aren't filled with the Spirit, we will walk in the flesh. That's the natural power. This is the new power. And you could draw it with a switch. from our mindset, if you would, to the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, and as we operate by faith, we're turning on that switch, and we are, in a sense, allowing God, who's waiting to minister by way of the Spirit and His Word, to minister to us the things that we need. He's not gonna force you. When we fail to walk by faith, we're shutting off that switch, and we're gonna revert back to the old energies that drove us before, which are the world. And so we need to be walking in the spirit. We need to be abiding in the Lord. Without Christ, we can do nothing. Without what he provides through the Holy Spirit and word of God, we can do nothing. And so we have as believers then this opportunity to respond by faith and live godly or to not respond by faith and live ungodly. So he says in verse 30, and we want the idea of love here, how it's manifested, but also understand these principles. Verse 30, he says, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you as a believer, believer, not every, not unbelievers, but whereby you as a believer are sealed onto the day of redemption. He gave you the Holy Spirit to be your inner tutor, your comforter, your enabler, minister to you, the things of God. then we ought to allow him to lead. So he says, don't grieve. Grieve not the Holy Spirit by resisting and not responding by faith. How foolish that is, but we can be very foolish. And allow him to lead, which would then result in through his provisions that we would be letting, we're cooperating, all bitterness, wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice as we think of the nature mindset of the sin nature. And become, we're gonna be changed and be becoming more kind, be becoming kind one to another, we get our fruit of the spirit, we get the same ideas in the love, the manifestation of love. Become you kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. Be therefore imitators of God as dear children and walk in love. Those are words of encouragement here. This opportunity that we have and we look at the nature of this and should be something that we'd all desire. And if we look at this and we compare ourselves, we should be able to acknowledge that we need him to enable us to do this and that it is far better. I would be a far better me if this is what was being produced. And so let's turn to Colossians. Pastor Lehman is talking on that, but let's go to chapter three. He's basically telling us in the verses five through nine that we're to have a mentality to take sides against the flesh, we're to reckon ourselves, take into account that we have been loosed from that so that we don't have to follow after that, but we don't have the dynamics power to experience that or to make that happen. But through the Holy Spirit, we have those provisions. So he says, Verse 8, we'll pick it up. But now you also put off all these, as we think of the old sin nature and its mindset, the world philosophies, put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, feel the filthy communication out of your mouth. Well, that's very similar, worded different, but same things as in Ephesians. Lie not one to another, seeing you have put off the old man with his deeds. You've become a new creature. You have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. So we're taking in this information about what manner of God, life or character God is, and what manner our new nature is, and how it could be reproduced by God in us. Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all. Same idea of the body concept. Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved. Those three terms describe you as a believer, as your positional standing. What you put on are the things that pertain to his nature, partaking of His divine nature, or as we think of it, related to the fruit of the Spirit, what He wants to produce. So I have to come to terms and understand so that I don't grieve the Spirit. This is what He wants to produce. And I should let Him by way of a faith reliance. So we are to put on bowels of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering, fruit of the Spirit, and that manifestation of love in chapter 13. forbearing one another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do you. And above all these things, put on charity, love, that mentality, and that which would motivate you to act in the best interest of others in light of eternal and spiritual truths, regardless of personal expense, so that you can actually serve God by the grace of God, motivated by that character of God, which would be pleasing to God. Serve his purpose instead of being like a sounding symbol. Or as we think of those that he listed in chapter 13. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which also you are called in one body. We're called together in the body of Christ. So there should be peace in here. We should strive together for the unity of the body of believers through the spirit. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly Individually and collectively, teaching and admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. We should be rejoicing in the Lord. Manifesting, motivated, manifesting, experience love. Whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God, the Father by Him. So having discussed this, And we see this theme coming over. And I mentioned on a Wednesday, I don't know when I mentioned it, but we were at the board meeting one night and brought up some verses. And of course, love appeared. And Chris Puller says, you can't go too many chapters in the New Testament without having love brought forth. And if we were going to exalt something, and though there's value in everything, Paul's gonna go on and say the greatest is love. The greatest is love. So that should be something of great importance for us to understand and learn and apply. So let's go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and we're gonna move on. Now, we have talked about the fact that we are given these various gifts. So he's discussed love and the attitude and outward expression is the best way to minister. And he goes on to say, as we look at the end of or the first portion in eight, that love never faileth. And I had one of the verses I will look at it says it never dies. And so the way in which we should minister is out of love. Then he tells us, as we think of these sign and wonder gifts, these miraculous divinely given gifts, that as they had them then, that they will not continue. But we are to minister out of love. Regardless of what gift or gifts were given, we're to minister motivated by love, which requires being filled with the Spirit. There are gifts then that were given at that time that are not given now because they're no longer needed. And we've mentioned before an apostle is one of them. Paul wrote he's a foundational foundation layer. So when he got saved, church age had just begun. God took him into the desert of Arabia and for three years taught him. And he went back, I don't know if he went back and forth to Damascus or not, but his base of hour, his tutelage came in that desert. And he says in the book of Galatians that it came by revelation of God. And so there was no Old Testament scriptures that talked about this, this is brand new. And so God began to reveal this to these apostles and they became the foundation layers. The foundation is Christ and his work on the cross, but the church is built on him. And so they began to receive these doctrines and they began to record them as we have these various letters, but this took time. When this is done, the letter is complete, the Bible is complete, the New Testament is, the canon of scriptures is done. There is no more revelation about this that God's going to reveal. This is everything that we need to know is contained in this scripture. And we have it here written for each of us to have and read. And there was other gifts that were given that were miraculous as we think of jumpstarting the church. And so verse eight, we read, love never faileth, love never dies. Love will never cease to be part of the nature of God, nor will it cease to be the part of the nature of what our new nature would be, should be expressing or would express. That'll never change. But whether there be prophecies, that gift, They shall fail, they shall cease, whether there be tongues that gift. They shall cease, whether there be that gift of knowledge, it shall vanish away. So there are three of these unique gifts that he points out as we have this issue of what's the greatest gift and we look at it and we see what we get some sense of what was going on in this early church. He says that these supernatural, these divinely provided miraculous signs and wonder gifts are only temporary. And so the new American standard says that the gift of prophecy will be done away with. You say, why? Well, if the prophecy, if the gift of prophecy was so that we, going back into days of Corinth and we're gathered together and we don't have the New Testament here and God gives the gift of prophecy so that a man can understand, he reveals to that a man a particular issue, doctrine, promise, so that he can communicate it to the fellow believers. because they don't have it in this form, that was very needful. But if we can open up the word of God and we can see all that written and study it, we don't need that anymore and there is no more information to be given. It's all here, this is complete. As complete as God wants us to have and if he wrote more information, we would just struggle more trying to grab hold of it. If there are tongues, they will cease. Now there were tongues and interpretation of tongues. And so tongues was a, an ability to speak a foreign language without having studied it or learned it. And we, I think we read about that in Acts chapter two on the day of Pentecost is that they waited for the Holy Spirit came and they had the cloven tongues and they be cloven tongues of fire on their head. They began to speak in tongues. And you had this giant gathering of people for the religious holidays. And they came from all different areas. And they came from areas where the language that they spoke was different. And so I don't know what language they spoke, but you might have somebody speaking French, some Chinese or whatever different languages. They all gathered together because of their Jewish background. And these disciples from, as they said, from Galilee, these unlearned men came down and they began to talk to them in the language that was from their home country or where they resided. And they stood and marveled and said, how does this unlearned Galilean know this language? And it was God working in them, providing them with a unlearned ability to speak. So that there could be this mass spread of the gospel and there would be a testimony by God that that was of God. Then there was the gift of interpretation. Now this gift apparently was the ability to interpret a language that you hadn't learned. Apparently they couldn't speak it if it was just interpretation, which we'll get at more in the next chapter. But when a foreign language was spoken, this guy could interpret it. He didn't learn the language. And so how did he do that? I say, well, how did you do that? I don't know. God gave me that ability. But that's not being given anymore. But that causes rapid spread of the gospel and bore witness because they couldn't show you in the New Testament. Here, I'll show you the New Testament. Well, there isn't one, so I can't verify that. And so God did it that way. And if there's knowledge, it'll be done away with. Now, knowledge was a gift given by God at that first generation. Believers would have spiritual knowledge and wisdom that had come by way of the studying the word of God. God gave it to them because they needed that special equipment equipping at that time. So how did you know that? God revealed that. Then he gave gifts of discernment to others. Does that sound right? Does that seem right? Yeah, that seems right. And so he provided this way. He doesn't provide that way now. We stand on the word of God. If it's not recorded in the Word of God, then it's, if someone comes up with something new and different, it's not true. It's the Word of God. Now, God still gives knowledge and wisdom, but he doesn't do it in that same supernatural way as to have never studied or it's all of a sudden revealed. We learn by studying. That was true in the Old Testament. That's true now in the church age. There was a unique time where This was needed. If you turn to Proverbs chapter 2, we go back in the Old Testament and we see how this learning, gaining wisdom and knowledge is said to have taken place back then. Proverbs 2. My son, if thou will receive my words and hide my commandments with thee so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom and apply thine heart to understanding, yea, if they cryest after knowledge and lift up thy voice for understanding, if thou seek her as silver and searches for her as treasures, what's involved? A willingness on your part to want to learn. to desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. Because God has put it on the table for you to have, but he's not gonna force you. We were talking with Chris before, we talked about his message and one of my grandchildren took notes, maybe they all did, but one of them took notes and he showed me. And he had inclined his ear and his notes were really, very encouraging what he gained. You teach in Bible school and there are some that aren't paying attention or don't pay attention. There's not a lot you can do. So if you don't incline your ear to hear, you will not hear. If you don't listen, if you don't have that desire like that, you aren't gonna get it. But this is how it takes place then. And this is how it took, as we think Old Testament, that's how it takes place now. But there was something different going on in that beginning. Now, if we do that, what happens, verse five, then shall I understand the fear of God and find the knowledge of God will find it. Well, that's a little different than what we see in the gift there, that they were looking to the Lord, but the provision was supernatural without studying, without having the material. And it is God that giveth wisdom. Out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. That's the word of God. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous. He is the buckler of them to walk upright. He keepeth the paths of judgment and preserveth the way of his saints. Then, then as we seek to learn of God and he reveals those truths to us by way of his word and the Holy Spirit's ministry, Then shall you understand righteousness, judgment, equity, yea, and every good path when wisdom entered into your heart and knowledge is pleasant to thy soul. And discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee. So that's how it works. Desire the seer milk of the word that you may grow thereby. See, I don't wanna. Well, then you're not gonna grow thereby. That's just the way it is. It's not what God wants. All right, back to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Verse nine, and there is a couple of different views on this nine through 12. And I'll explain them and I'll tell you my preference. Verse nine, for we know in part, and that's a present, indicative present active. And so at that time in Corinth, he's telling these believers for we know in part, and prophesy in part. We know in bits and pieces, and we are prophesy, prophesize information given in bits and pieces. To me, that makes sense. Verse 10, but then that which is perfect, but when that which is perfect is come, that then that which is in part shall be done away with. Now, he said that those three things are going to cease, that we know in part, we understand how that would fit. And then he says, but when that which is perfect, perfect is also translated complete or the end, is come, then that which is in part shall be done away with. Now, this begins a kind of a little differing opinions. we have to identify what that which is perfect is. And there's that being a kind of pronoun, you gotta go back and you find out what was it referring to and it becomes a little difficult and debatable. So we have a couple different views, Nelson's puts them out. When that which is perfect is come, the Greek word for perfect means end or completion, This is one opinion. Most likely this is in reference to the second coming of Christ and the completion of all things. The reason is, is that end of verse 12, he says, when that takes place, he talks about that, but then face to face, now I know in part, but then shall I have, I know even as I also am known. And if we are thinking of it as being perfect, that we would know perfectly that I would know perfectly, then that won't happen until the rapture occurs. But the second one right here, but some have interpreted perfect as returning, well, that which is perfect is referring to the completion of the New Testament canon. That would be my position because that's pretty much what we're talking about is the revelation of the word of God. Now, you can have your own opinion. He goes on and he says, the mirror is probably the word of God, which can give us only a partial understanding of God. Well, that I don't know. It gives us a full understanding whether we comprehend it or not. It is. This will all change when we see him face to face. Well, that's doctrinally true. When we see him face to face, we will be perfected. We will have a greater knowledge. We won't have a sin nature. But if this, that which is perfect comes, refers to the rapture in Christ, then we have a question. When will those gifts end? They will cease, but in reference, it would seem that it wouldn't be until that which is perfect, Christ coming at the rapture. And so my view is this second one. The reason that these specific gifts will cease is because the New Testament is complete. We won't need prophets, prophecy to tell us what's going to be written in the Bible because it's written. We will be able to explain the gospel and we will learn the way that it has been throughout history apart from this time. The actual revelation is not being given now. And so though there are religions who claim they are getting words from God, they are not. The Bible is complete. We are not getting things piecemeal anymore so that this is the information that we have as they did, but there was other information that wasn't revealed. None of it is missing. Our problem is our lack of study and lack of understanding, which takes time and growth. Verse 11. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. No, this was a transitional period. And I think that this is, this would be kind of an analogy. The child being, was a child speaking of Paul himself or believer, or was it in reference to the church? and the progression that we have of revelation. Is it a matter that he was immature, but when he gets to heaven, he'll be mature? Or is it in that the state of the church being infantile and just having limited information in this growth process that they were seen, or he sees them as likened to a child. Then we look at it and he says, I spake as a child. And if you have the idea of the three that he talked about, you have tongues. And so they were speaking, they had communicative skills that were given to them that they hadn't learned. misunderstandings of eschatology that had to be revealed and explained. Paul had corrected Peter in his attitude and behavior in Galatia, when he was in Galatia. We had a conference in 49 AD where the apostles got together to hammer out the issues, understanding of what was required for man to get saved. What's required of a Gentile? What does a Gentile have to do in order to be accepted as a member of the church. They were working this out as God revealed it. Thirdly, he says, I thought as a child, and I thought of the gifts that they were more fascinated with these gifts. Look at these, look at these sign and wonder gifts. And they were to be shifting from that to be focused in on the giver. And so Christ was being revealed and it was not just this miraculous gifts. And so when I became a man, I put away childish things. And when the canon of scriptures was complete, the childish things ceased. That's my view on it. You can have a different view. If you take the view that he says that which is perfect is come, speaks of the rapture, and then we'll be perfected, then you say, well, that's doctrinally sound. But does that, and if you say it's the canon of the scripture, that's doctrinally sound. So which one is the subject matter? What is the context driving at? You can make that decision. But when the canon of scriptures was complete, we have this written in John. We've received the witness of men. The witness of God is greater for this is a witness. This is the witness of God, which he testified of his son. He that believeth not in the son hath the witness himself. He that believeth not in God hath made him a liar because he believed not the record. This is the record. And now we can bear witness and give testimony and seek to evangelize in using the word of God. It is complete. And so I think that's what he's talking about. Verse 12 then is another problem. And maybe support your view if you have a view that it has to do with the rapture. For now we see now Corinthian 51 AD. For now we see through a glass darkly. Now if you have a Schofield Bible and you have a little note there in the middle it says in a mirror in an enigma. So we see in an enigma. At that time they see is looking in a mirror an enigma and that enigma is a person or thing that is puzzling to understand. So he uses this, tries to explain these things using things they would be familiar with, which gives us a need for, or this may be helpful, depending on which way you want to lean. This is out of the Bible knowledge commentary. A city like Corinth, famous for its bronze mirrors, bronze mirrors, would have particularly appreciated Paul's final illustration. The perfection and imperfection mentioned in verse 10 were deftly likened to the contrasting images obtained by the indirect reflection of one's face viewed in a bronze mirror. Apparently it was not the same as the mirrors we have, that it would be distorted. So he says that like looking into this mirror, that gives a distorted perspective, that that will be changed. or that it's different than when you look at a face directly. So you look at someone and then you look at their reflection in that mirror and it's not the same. Such, Paul said, was a contrast between the imperfect time in which he then wrote and the perfect time which awaited him in the church when the partial reflection of the present would give way to the splendor of perfect vision. Now you could say, well, that's the Lord's return. Or you could say, the word of God fills in those impartial or the partial reflection. Then Paul would see God as God now saw Paul. Then partial knowledge would be displaced by the perfect knowledge of God. Perfect is the complete, all scriptures given by God for inspiration, by inspiration of God for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good work. Perfect, complete. That's what it's given for. You can make your call. This makes sense to me. It sticks with the subject matter. If you say it's Christ that is bringing, that is perfect, and that's when this will take place, then are you suggesting that these gifts continued or are continuing or still are? Are we following after a Pentecostal mentality? Do we actually see them demonstrated? Then we go on in verse 13. And we have this statement. And now abideth faith, hope, charity. These three, but the greatest of these is charity. Now, if we were to look at what would be the greatest things, if we compare the spiritual gifts, if we look at it in a mentality or attitude, we're to express love. So what would we desire most for ourselves by way of our thinking and attitudes and behaviors or whatever, or desire of someone else? We would desire the expression of faith. the expression of hope, the expression of love, regardless of whatever gift you have. If you don't know what gift you have, don't worry about it. If you have opportunity to serve and you have a willingness to serve, then that'll be your gift. Contribute and God will lead you diverse ways, gifts of help, administration, whatever. Be part of the body, you'll be contributing. But what is needed is faith, What is needed, well without faith, it's impossible, please God. So again, no matter what gift you have, if it's not operating by faith, it's impossible, please God. If you aren't operating by hope, now hope is a confident expectation of good things that are sure to come. That hope is in the Lord. So we operate by faith, we operate by hope. Believing the promises of God. Believing he'll work all things together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose. Believing that he's gonna safely deliver us out of here. Believing that as we go through trials and tribulations, that he's allowed these for good purpose. So we have hope, confident expectation, based on God. We're walking by faith. And love. And I started out with 1 Thessalonians 1.3. And part of the reason I did that is because this was set forth as the model church. Nope, that's not the right one. So he commends them. I'll flip back there because, all right. 1 Thessalonians 1.3, you don't have to turn there. Model church. He gives thanks to God for them in remembrance of them, making mention of them, remembering without ceasing your work of faith. work of faith, work that was motivated, work that was a response of faith. And labor of love, labor that was motivated by love. You look at Vacation Bible School, what would you like to see? Well, I'd like to see the various gifts. Well, yes, we appreciate them. And one of the things is we think the whistleblower, when Roberta called on Monday morning and she said, I don't know if I can make it. She hadn't slept and she's a whistleblower. And the whole thing works on her blowing the whistle on time. If it's not on time, if she doesn't blow it on time, we're all out of sync. One gift of help changed the whole thing. Labor of love. And they had patience of hope, confident expectation in our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 10, they were waiting for his return, and so they lived in light of that. What gift you have isn't as important as that you operate by faith, hope, and love. Object of your faith is the Lord. Your hope is in the Lord, and you're motivated by the love of God to serve. Now, back to first, you didn't turn, but I did. So first, give me a second. First Corinthians chapter 13. Then he says, the greatest of these is love. Well, now abide faith, now abide hope, now abide love. That's what we're to operate in. But the greatest of these is love. And I thought about that. And I thought, here's the definition of faith and love, according to Hebrews, not love, faith and hope. Faith is a substance of things hoped for. Faith is a substance of the confident expectation of things that are sure to come, the evidence of things not seen. Now, when I get to heaven, my faith will be turned into sight. What I had trusted God, what I trusted in not seeing him and having loved him, as we think of Peter and as we trusted him in terms of what he had promised, as we think of this heavenly future that will be mine real experiential so I will walk by sight in the kingdom of God. Don't be faith in something that he