This morning's message is from 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verses 8 to 13. And the title for the message is Love is Eternal. Love is Eternal. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. or I'm sorry, 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verses 8 to 13. And the word of God says this, love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away. As for tongues, they will cease. As for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part, we prophesy in part, But when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now, faith, hope, and love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love. Please join me in our time of prayer. Gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, we pray that you would speak to us this morning through your word and by the power of your Holy Spirit. We pray that as we conclude this amazing chapter on the importance of love, and as we prepare to enter into our Advent series for God, and we'll begin to reflect and focus upon your amazing love, the incredible love of Christ that was placed on full display for us in His birth, in His life, death, and resurrection. Father, we pray that you would help us to understand the importance of love for you, for us, That we would not only understand what it is, but why we ought to put forth all of our effort, all of our energy in chasing after it, Lord. We pray all these things in Christ's name. Amen. What is heaven? What is heaven like? It's a question that we've all pondered, we've all thought about it from time to time, we all have our ideas of what it might be like over the years. I've had the opportunity to read and study the topic of heaven from time to time and have always found it to be very encouraging, inspiring, and uplifting. It has always helped me to realize that despite all of our sufferings in this life, all of our trials and our tribulations, and the heartaches and the disappointments that we will inevitably face, someday this life will be a far, far distant memory. Imagine, if you will, a rope. that is 1,200 feet long, 1,200 feet, which is the straight line distance between where we are to the Bell County Courthouse. So I measured it because I wanted to give you a visual that you could understand. 1,200 feet is the straight line distance from where we are to the Bell County Courthouse. And then imagine, if you will, on the very end of that rope, the very, very end is a knot, a tie, at the end of that rope. And that knot represents the whole of your life in this world. With all of its tangled mess, we can sometimes feel like we're often tied in a knot with everything that we go through. That knot at the very end represents the entirety of your life and the rest of that rope represents eternity. No matter what we go through in life, no matter how long we may live, a hundred years in this world is just a blip on the radar screen in comparison to eternity, where we will spend millions and millions and millions of years. Thus, for good reasons, Christians are and have been fascinated with heaven. What is that going to be like? Much has been written about it. Songs have been written about it. Many sermons and lectures on the topic have been delivered over the last two millennia. One of the first that I was blessed to be introduced to on the subject of heaven was given by one of my favorite theologians, the late and wonderful Dr. John Gershner. And he preached a wonderful six-part series on heaven and hell, three parts on hell, three parts on heaven, and I listened to that probably 25 years ago, and since then I've gone back and re-listened on several occasions and found it to be extremely encouraging and inspiring. This sermon series can still be found and listened to for free on Ligonier Ministries' website. And to make it easy for you, for your benefit, I created a page on our church website titled Resources, and I have placed a link there. And I would encourage you to listen to John Gerstner's six-part series on Heaven and Hell. I believe he does a fine job. He does a wonderful job. And along that line, Recently I read through a book together with a dear friend of mine who was dying from cancer at a very young age, and some of you know him. And we went through together a book by Randy Alcorn titled Heaven. And while I certainly don't endorse everything written by Randy Alcorn, and I don't agree with everything in the book, I will say that I agreed with probably 98% of what he wrote. And it is a wonderful little book on the topic of heaven. I believe he does a wonderful job of combing through all the scriptures from the Old and the New Testament and giving the reader a very good understanding of what heaven is going to be like. Many songs. have been written by heaven and written about heaven and understandably so. They tend to be very popular. One song which was launched, there was one song written a while back, launched a particular band into stardom known as Mercy Me. Many of you have heard of that band and their song was at number one for many, many years and they even made a movie about it titled I Can Only Imagine. You probably have seen it. Some of the words read like this, I can only imagine, when that day comes and I find myself standing in the sun. I can only imagine when all I will do is forever, forever worship you. I can only, I can only imagine. Surrounded by your glory, what will my heart feel? Will I dance for you, Jesus, or in awe of you be still? Will I stand in your presence, or to my knees will I fall? Will I sing hallelujah? Will I be able to speak at all? Those are some very good questions that are difficult to answer. What will be our response when we find ourselves standing face to face before our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? A more recent song, Making the Rounds, is one by Casting Crowns, which in part reads like this. The only scars in heaven, they won't belong to me and you. There'll be no such thing as broken, and all the old will be made new. And the thought that makes me smile now, even as the tears fall down, is that the only scars in heaven are on the hands that hold you now. And for those of us who have lost loved ones that are dear to us, that we know have faith in Christ, even now, when we look back at their life and we enjoy their memory, it can bring tears to your eyes. You still experience the pain of missing them, of longing to see them. Yet there is great joy in knowing that the only scars in heaven are on the hands that hold them now. The point is that Christians have been preaching and writing and singing about heaven for 2,000 years. Because we know that no matter what this world has to offer, no matter what this life has to offer, no matter how wonderful the things in this world may be, they are nothing in comparison to what we will experience in the next life. We know that Jonathan Edwards had it right when he said, quote, the enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, to fully enjoy God is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. To go to heaven, he said, to fully enjoy God is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. The Bible is clear on this. The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 9, what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagine what God has prepared for those who love Him. We can't even begin to imagine how amazing and joyful and pleasurable and wonderful heaven will be. Those who have placed faith in Christ will experience in heaven the greatest joy, the greatest pleasure, the greatest happiness that a human being can ever possibly experience in this life. But why? How? What will heaven be like and what makes it so wonderful? This is ultimately what Paul is getting at in this passage in 1 Corinthians 13 verses 8 to 13. Two weeks ago, when we walked through verses one to three, Paul helped us understand that all of those amazing gifts or talents or abilities that one might have, all of the sacrificing that one might do for the church or for other people is all meaningless, Paul says, without love. Without love, it's meaningless because if you are not doing it, if you're not serving, if you're not using your talents or abilities, if you're not sacrificing for the church or for other people, if you're not doing it out of love for God and genuine love for others, then you must be doing it for selfish reasons. And in the end, Paul says, You will gain nothing. You will gain nothing. Last week from verses 4 to 7, Paul then defined love for us. And he made the argument that all of these attributes, or I made the argument rather, that all of these attributes share in common dying to self. They're all linked by that theme. Which is what the Christian life is all about. The Christian life is about dying to self. Dying to self is what Christ bids each of us to do. To die to self. In Luke 9, verse 23, Jesus said this, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. If you want to save your life, Jesus said, you've got to lose it. You have to lose your life to save it. If you want to have eternal life, then you have to be willing to give up your life in the here and now. If you want life after this world, then you have to be willing to give up your life in the here and now. Because living means loving God fully. That's what it means to truly live. If you're not loving God fully and loving others with the love of God, then you're not truly living. Living means loving God fully and loving God means dying. It means dying to self. But now, in this passage, Paul is going to tell us, in his own words, why love is so incredibly important to God. Why love is the thing that we need to seek after most. Why love is the thing that we ought to pray for most. More so than sanctification. More so than godliness. More so than holiness. More so than patience. or any other godly character trait that you can think of. Because all of those spiritual aspects of the Christian life that I just mentioned spring forth from love. They spring forth from love. If you truly love God with all of your heart, mind, and soul, then holiness, godliness, patience, mercy, and every other fruit of the Spirit will be the natural result of loving God. So with that as my intro, let's look at the text. Paul begins by saying, love never ends. Love never ends. Unlike some of these amazing gifts which the church in Corinth sought after, which many churches today place a very high premium on, Paul says, love will never end. To be clear, he then says, as for prophecies, they will pass away someday. As for tongues, they will cease. As for knowledge, it will pass away. So according to Paul, there is going to come a day when there will be no more prophecies. They simply will no longer be needed. There will come a day when the gift of tongues will no longer exist. It simply will no longer be necessary, according to Paul. He says the same thing about knowledge. Not that there will come a day when we won't know anything, when all of a sudden we'll have a blank slate once again. That's not what he's talking about. But rather, likely what Paul has in mind is the utterance of knowledge or the word of knowledge as a gift that he mentions back in chapter 12, verse 8. And you'll remember there that I said that the word of knowledge as a gift or the utterance of knowledge is the ability to understand the deep truths of God. Some people are just gifted at that. The point is that there will come a day when all of these gifts will pass away. They will cease. They will no longer be necessary. So Paul's first point, if you're taking notes, is this, all spiritual gifts will someday cease. That's the first point that he's making. All spiritual gifts will someday cease. And by the way, there are five points to this message if you are taking notes. And Paul's second point is this, spiritual gifts will come to an end when the perfect comes. Spiritual gifts will come to an end when the perfect comes He says in verses 9 and 10 for we know in part and we prophesy in part But when the perfect comes the partial will pass away so Paul says right now our knowledge is partial and Our knowledge is partial. That is, we don't know everything there is to know about God. We don't. There is much about God we still do not understand. We don't even fully know God because our sin skews our understanding of God. In many ways, we don't even rightly understand God because our sin skews our understanding of God. No one has all of their theology right. That's why there's so much debate among Christians regarding various points of theology. We all read the same Bible. We all believe in the inerrancy of Scripture, these evangelicals do. We all believe in the inerrancy and the authority of Scripture, and yet we still have Calvinists and Arminians. We still have Baptists and Paedobaptists. We still have Dispensationalists and Covenantalists. We still have Premillennialists and Postmillennialists and Amillennialists and Panmillennialists, who believe that it's just all going to pan out in the end. Our knowledge about all things divine is partial. It's partial. And then he says, we prophesy in part. In other words, biblical prophecy will not and has not given us all that can be known about God. The entire Bible has been given to us by means of prophetic utterance. In both the Old Testament through the Old Testament prophets, and in the New Testament through the apostles, and yet there is much we do not know about God. There are still many gaps in our knowledge, in our prophecy, that need to be filled in. However, Paul says, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. And here is where the debate begins. What does Paul mean when he says, when the perfect comes? Well, some think that Paul means the close of the canon. that when the final book of the Bible, the final book of the New Testament was written, that once the Bible was complete, then spiritual gifts came to an end because they were only needed for the foundation and the establishing of the Church. And there are some respected theologians that hold to that view, and I respectfully disagree with them. For two reasons. Number one, it is difficult to believe that Paul believed in his mind that at some point all of his letters and all of the letters of the apostles were going to be gathered together and put together in one volume and that when that happened, then the spiritual gift would end. When Paul said, when the perfect comes, he had something specific in mind. And most theologians agree that Paul very likely had no idea that his letters would be gathered together and studied 2,000 years later. He was simply writing a letter to a church. In the case of Corinth, he wrote three letters. To the Church of Rome, he wrote one. Paul did not have in mind the close of the canon. The second reason I think that that view is a mistake is that the Greek word that Paul uses at the end of verse 10 when he says, we'll pass away, those three words, those three words in the Greek, we'll pass away, is the Greek word katageo. Katageo. And in the Pauline epistles, this is a word that is pregnant with eschological meaning. It is pregnant with eschological meaning. Paul uses that same word twice in verse 8 and then again at the end of verse 11. But Paul uses that word some 25 times in his epistles in the New Testament. And it nearly always, it nearly always within context carries an eschological meaning in the mind of Paul. We're not going to look at all of these, but I'm going to read them to you. If you want to write them down and look at them later, you are welcome to certainly do that. But examples would be Romans 6-7, Romans 7-6, 1 Corinthians 2-6, 1 Corinthians 15-24, and then again verse 26, 2 Corinthians 3-7, and then verse 11, verse 13, verse 14, Ephesians 2-5, 2 Thessalonians 2-8, and 2 Timothy 1.10. And if you didn't get all those, I'll give them to you after the service today if you really want to write those down. But in all of those passages, it is clear that this word strongly carries an eschatological meaning in the mind of Paul. So Paul, in other words, is thinking about the end of time. A second view for what Paul means by when that which is perfect comes is that Paul is talking about the maturity of the church. That is, some have argued that when the church reaches a certain level of spiritual maturity, then the spiritual gifts will no longer be needed. There are two problems I have with that view. Again, the first is Paul's use of the word katageo. Paul seemed to have a view toward the eschaton when he uses that word. The second problem I have with that second view is it is difficult, at least in my mind, it is difficult to see how the church today is really any more mature than the church of 2,000 years ago. I read God's rebukes to the churches in Asia Minor in Revelation chapter 2 and 3. And you know those letters and those rebukes could be written to the church in America. I don't see that we've matured much more than the church of 2,000 years ago. So then what is the perfect? When will spiritual gifts come to an end? With an eye toward answering that question, Paul offers an illustration to help us understand what he is about to say and in order to lay the groundwork for what he is helping us understand. And so here's point three. When people reach full maturity, what we once needed, we no longer need. That's Paul's point. When people, human beings, reach full maturity, what we once needed, we no longer need. Look at verse 11. When I was a child, Paul said, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. Paul's point is that when we were children, we behaved in certain ways. We engaged in certain activities. We responded in certain ways. But once we become adults, we put those childish ways behind us. The things that we once needed, the ways that we once behaved as children, we no longer need when we become adults. For example, when a child gets hurt, If you're a parent, you know, well, you were a child, you were all children, and you know what I mean. When a child gets hurt, you put a band-aid on, even if it's minor, right? You put a band-aid on it, and you kiss it, and you cuddle them, you know, just to comfort the child, even if it's just a minor scratch. The band-aid and kissing the owie just makes it feel better. But there comes a point when you grow up and you realize, I don't need a band-aid for this. And I don't need anybody to kiss my owie. It's fine. I'll just move on. Some of us, when we were children, couldn't sleep without the nightlight. Because there's something living in my closet under the bed. Then we grow up and we realize there's nothing in the closet but a mess that needs to be cleaned up at some point. and I don't need a nightlight anymore to sleep with. Paul is making the point that someday this will be true of the church. There will come a day when these spiritual gifts that God has given to the church to aid the church, like a nightlight, these spiritual gifts that God has given to the church to aid the church or to comfort the church, like a band-aid, will no longer be necessary. But when will that day be? Point number four, the church will one day reach full maturity. The church will one day reach full, complete maturity. Verse 12. Paul says, for now, that is, in this present age, that's what he means, now, right now, in this present age, in this present life, we see in a mirror dimly. We don't see things clearly. Our knowledge is partial. Our prophecy is partial. But then, that is when the perfect comes, but then, face to face. When that which is perfect comes, our knowledge and our understanding about God and about the things of God will no longer be clouded by sin and bad theology. We will finally see face to face. Now that phrase, face to face, is extremely important in scripture. We first see it after Jacob wrestles with God in Genesis chapter 32, saying, For I have seen God face to face. We see it when Gideon is called by God to be the angel of the Lord, and he cries out, Alas, O Lord God, for now I have seen the angel of Yahweh face to face. And of course, the most well-known occurrence is from Deuteronomy 34, where we are told that Moses knew God face to face. The phrase denotes knowing and seeing clearly. That's what it means. knowing and seeing clearly. And so Paul says, for now, verse 12, in this present age, in this present life, we see in a mirror dimly. It's clouded. Our vision of God is clouded. Our understanding of the divine things of God is clouded by our sin, by this world, by our experience. But then, When the perfect comes, we will see face to face. We will see clearly. We will see clearly. He then says in the next sentence, now I know in part, now In this present age, our knowledge of God is incomplete. I know in part. Our knowledge of things divine has gaps in it. It is partial. But then, when the perfect comes, I shall know fully. I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. been fully known by who? Who is it in this entire universe that fully knows you? God. Only God fully knows you. In fact, God knows you better than you know yourself. You think you know yourself. You think you know what your strengths and weaknesses are, but God really knows what your strengths and weaknesses are. God knows you better than you know yourself. And yet, we don't fully know God. We don't fully know God. There are many aspects of God that are still a mystery to all of us. This is because no book, no book, even this book, can contain everything that there is to know about God. And even Even if we could. Even if there could be a book that could contain everything that there is to know about God. Even if God could have given us such a book that tells us everything that there is to know about Him. Our sin. Our sin nature taints and skews our understanding of God. our sin taints our proper understanding of God's word. Because for all of our efforts, for all of our efforts as a church over 2,000 years of church history to develop and implement rules of hermeneutics, that is the proper interpretation of scripture, we still end up with Calvinists and Arminians, Baptists and Paedobaptists. We're all following the same rules of hermeneutics. We all argue, interpret scripture in light of scripture. We all argue context matters. But yet we end up oftentimes on different sides of the theological debate. Why? Partly because one of the greatest challenges, one of the greatest challenges to overcome when it comes to interpreting scripture rightly is not interpreting scripture through the lens of our own bias and experience. Sin makes that extremely difficult. But Paul says there will come a day when the perfect comes, when we will know God face to face. And we will know God even as we have been fully known by God. My friends, the only time when that will be true is when Christ returns. When heaven is brought down to earth, And the Garden of Eden is recreated around the world. When sin is no more and there is not even the possibility of sinning, when the devil and all of his cronies have been cast into the lake of fire, then we will no longer see in a mirror dimly. Our view of God will not be clouded by our sin. And we will know God face to face. Then our knowledge of God will no longer be partial and distorted by sin, but we shall fully know God even as we have been fully known by God. So then here is the importance of love. Point number five. Love is the one thing we will always need and will always remain. Love is the one thing we will always need as a church and will always remain. Verse 13, so now, in this present world, is what Paul means by that, so now in this present age, in this present life, in the here and now, faith, hope, and love abide. They're here, they remain, these three. But the greatest of these is love. Love is the greatest of these. The greatest of these is love because love is the one thing that will always remain. It will always remain. When Christ returns and heaven comes down to earth and the Garden of Eden is recreated around the world, around the entire planet, then all of these spiritual gifts which aid the church in the here and now will no longer be needed. Because then we will see God face to face. Then we will know God even as we have been fully known by God. But there will also no longer be a need for faith on the new earth. Because what is faith? Faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11.1. But once we have the new earth, and Christ comes, returns, and establishes the new earth, and we are standing right in front of Christ, faith is no longer the evidence of things not seen. We see Him, and we see clearly What is there left to hope for? Nothing, because everything has been realized. Everything has been realized. All things have been fulfilled. All of God's promises have been fulfilled. All of His Word has come to fruition. And thus, the same is true of hope. Now we have hope. Because faith and hope go together, right? Faith is the substance of things hoped for. We hope for the future. We hope for eternal life. We hope for a day when all of God's promises will be completely fulfilled. We hope and look forward to the day when Christ will return. But when that day comes, what is left to hope for? Nothing. Because all of our hopes been fulfilled. All of our hopes have been realized. But love, love never ends. For all of eternity, we will ever love God With all of our heart, with all of our mind, with all of our strength, we will finally and perfectly love and worship God as we were designed to love and worship God. As our heart desires and longs to love and worship God. And we will do that forever. and we will finally perfectly and fully love each other. We will live in a world that is perfectly filled with love and is only filled with love everywhere. We will live in a world where people will only and always and perfectly love God and love each other. Can you imagine a world like that? I mean, we look around at the world that we live in and we see that it is filled with so much hate, and so much anger, and so much selfishness, and greed, and depravity. It is impossible to imagine a world that is simply filled with Love, love, love. It abounds with love. Everyone is just loving each other perfectly. Loving God. Love is in the air. Love dominates everywhere. Love, the perfect love of God, is what we will enjoy for all of eternity. That is why heaven is the greatest joy, the greatest pleasure, the greatest satisfaction that any human being can ever possibly experience because it is a place where people will only and always love. We will only love and worship God the way we were designed to. And we will only and always love each other in the way we were designed to. And this is why Paul says love is so much more important than anything. Because love is what God's people are going to spend eternity doing. So if you want to prepare yourself for heaven, and pursue love. Pursue love. Pray that God will give you a heart that truly loves Him with all of your heart, with all of your mind, with all of your soul and strength. And pray that God will enable you to love others with the love of God. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 1 and 2 scripture says this, Therefore be imitators of God. Be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Christ loved us by dying for us. The imitators of God, scripture says. Well, how do we do that? By dying. That's how Christ loved us. Christ loved us by dying. We become imitators of God by dying. By dying to self so that we might truly love God and truly love others. Thus, for now, for the time being, faith, hope, and love abide. But the greatest of these is love, because love is eternal. Let's pray. Gracious God, Heavenly Father, Lord, we pray, that you would cause the message of 1 Corinthians 13 to just latch onto our heart and our mind and our affections. Lord, we pray that you would, by your Holy Spirit, give us the desire and the ability to die to ourself, to take up our cross daily, to mortify our sin daily, to live our lives seeking always to make much of you and to make much of others, so that we might fully love you with all of our heart, mind, and soul, and so that we might love others with the love of God, with the love of Christ. We pray, Lord God, that you would give us the desire to seek after and to pursue love so that we might properly be preparing ourselves for eternal life with you in a world filled with love. We pray these things in Christ's name.