Love never faileth, but whether
there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues,
they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it
shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy
in part. But when that which is perfect
is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When
I was a child, I 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. 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 about a faith,
hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love,
follow after love. So you see the importance of
it, the preeminence it's given in scripture. And then Paul says,
run after it. That's that word follow. We know
that follow in the New Testament often means to imitate, but this
is not that. This means to run in order to
obtain. So he's saying run after love. Love is a word that gets used
a lot in this world and a lot of songs have been written about
it. A lot of things are said about
it. But we see what God means by love in this chapter 13. Not
the world, it's two different things. He's talking about in
this chapter selfless love. It vaunteth not itself. It's
unfailing love. That doesn't sound like the love
of this world. Long-suffering. This world doesn't
even know what that means. Seems like we're criticizing
and belittling people before they even finish messing up. Kind. It's kind. Relentless love. Love that is
the fruit of God's spirit. That's not what passes for love
in this world. That didn't come from God. According to this world's philosophy,
the greatest love is loving yourself. Did you see that in this chapter? Learning to love yourself. You
don't have to learn that. You have to unlearn that. Love that is vital. That's what
we see in this chapter. Love without which all other
attributes and achievements are meaningless. Listen to some scripture about
this running after love. Luke 11, 42. The Lord said, woe
unto you Pharisees, for you tithe mint and rue and all manner of
herbs and pass over judgment and the love of God. You're careful
to tithe these little things that aren't worth anything because
down to the little details, they sought to keep the law outwardly.
but you pass over judgment and the love of God. These ought
you to have done and not to leave the other undone. This is the
opposite of running after love, to pass over it. He said you've
passed over the love of God. When you keep these legal things
outwardly, you do the law, with the intent of establishing your
own righteousness. A sinner's hope is not in works
of righteousness, which we do, but in the love of God. You see
how they passed over love that way? They trusted their works. What does that have to do with
love? Salvation is God loving sinners. Sinners, in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. But according to works
religion, it's just a question of doing the right things and
not doing the wrong things. You've passed over the love of
God. Why did Christ come and die? If that's how sinners are
saved. They go about to establish their
own righteousness. Any works that we do should not
go undone. We should seek to obey God and
outwardly do what he says. That's what he said, that shouldn't
be undone, but not for righteousness. If you be circumcised, which
is the first thing that happens to you under the law, as a child even, eight days old, then Christ shall profit you
nothing. you so ever you be, that trust your works for righteousness. And look at it this way too,
you've passed over the love of God in another sense. The works
that you do, instead of doing those to establish a righteousness
before God, if the Lord has saved you and redeemed you and revealed
Christ to you, you're gonna do those things because you love
him. That's not why they did them. They did them so they could
go to heaven when they die. You've passed over the love of
God. So Paul is saying here, don't
pass over love, run after love, pursue love. Turn with me to 2 Thessalonians
2, if you would please. In verse 10, 2 Thessalonians
2.10, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that
perish, because they received not the love of the truth, that
they might be saved. And for this cause, God shall
send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie. Notice that this whole passage
of scripture has to do with the gospel and believing the gospel. They receive not the love of
the truth, and God sends them strong delusion that they should
believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believe not
the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. But we are bound
to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of
the Lord, because God, from the beginning chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the spirit and Belief of the truth,
but look at this notice this before we go on to verse 14 The remedy to not receiving the
love of the truth and perishing because of it The hope that a sinner has to
not end up that way rejecting the gospel and hating the Christ
that is preached in the gospel. The way that doesn't happen,
he doesn't say, they received not the love of the truth, but
you did. Well, they did, but that's not the answer. Because
that don't happen without the grace of God. He said, they received
not the love of the truth, but these over here, God chose you. There's the remedy, the electing
grace of God Almighty. That's how you don't hate the
gospel, is God picks you out. And then where unto he called
you by our gospel? When you heard the gospel because
God picked you out and loved you with an everlasting love,
he mixed faith with your hearing. And he called you by that gospel
to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, not
to the agreement of doctrinal issues, not to arguing with people
and showing them how much more you know than they do, but to
the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what the gospel is the means of, salvation by Christ, in Christ. So as we saw, In Luke 11 there,
where we read, where he said, you Pharisees, you keep even
the little details of the law, but you passed over the love
of God. So in Luke 11, love is highlighted as an inward principle,
a motivation, as opposed to law. We're not motivated by law, we're
motivated by love. And in 2 Thessalonians 2, love of
the gospel is highlighted. Love as it's seen in the receiving
of the truth of Christ. The love of God as it is shown
forth in the gospel, laid hold of in the gospel, and reciprocated
by those who hear the gospel. When you hear the gospel of what
love is, Christ crucified, God causes a reciprocation in you. Your hope is that he loves you,
but by God's grace, you love him too because he first loved
you. And now, in 1 Corinthians 16,
22, Listen to this verse. If any man love not the Lord
Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha. Anathema maranatha
means accursed when the Lord comes. In other words, let him
go to hell. If you love not the Lord Jesus
Christ, there ain't but one thing for you, that's hell. He's altogether
lovely. And this love that replaces law
as a motivation and that causes us to love hearing of our Savior,
it is in its essence a love for the Savior himself. We love the
truth because we love him. And we love him because he first
loved us and forgave our sins, freed us from the law, freed
us from the tithing except to do as an expression of love unto
him, freed us from any need to seek to establish our own righteousness,
himself being our righteousness before God. Demas forsook the ministry of
Christ. Why? Do you remember why? He
loved his present world. did not love the truth. He had
not the love of God in him. He sought not Christ. He had
no love for Christ that would have overcome. Like the rich
young ruler, he loved his stuff more than Christ. So you see the clear admonition
of our text, run after the love of God. Pursue it in the teaching
of it, Pursue it in the inner reality of it. In other words,
pray that we might love him more and more. Lord, increase our
love as well as our faith. Our love for you, for your people,
and for your cause in this world. One of the clearest signs of
apostasy and reprobation is to be a lover of your own self,
2 Timothy 3.2. Lovers of their own selves. Run after the love of God, love
for Christ, love for his sheep, love for his gospel, run like
your soul depended on it. If your love is fixed elsewhere, Fall on your face before God.
Seek, run, follow after the love of God. And your everyday actions
and mine will prove our priorities, our ambitions, and our delights
will show what we're running after. Now, less important in
this life is being gifted of the Lord in some particular way. And he says that, that this is
not vital. I believe that every believer
is gifted in some way to show their love for Christ and his
people. And we'll see from the scripture
that that's what it is. Whatever you're gifted to do
and you're able to do, as a good work, as a work wrought upon
Christ and a work done by faith in Him. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. And to do a good work on His
people is to do it for Him, to do it for Him. But these things
are expressions of our love for Him. His love for us is vital. His love for us is salvation. Election is love. That the purpose
of God according to election might stand. He said I love Jacob. Not I picked Jacob. He picked
him because he loved him. Love is election. But these gifts are the expressions
of our love for him. He gifts us. And gives us that
privilege to love him back indeed. That's what it is. Now you think
about that with me. I do believe everybody, every
believer is gifted in some way to show their love for Christ
and his people. But even if you were not gifted
at all, in any way, but you love the Savior, that's paramount. That's what matters. He loves
you, and because he does, you love him. but he does give these
gifts, and he says, desire them, desire these gifts, because God's
love for us always causes us to love him, and these gifts
are ways to express that love, and let me show you that from
the scripture. Notice that the most important one is preach, and the other gifts, like speaking
in another language, tongues, it's useless unless you use it
to preach. You see what he's saying? It's
all about, and notice he mentioned it twice, the edification of
the church, the edification, building up the church, teaching
the church, exhorting the church. Remember what our Lord said about
preaching? So it all surrounds the preaching. It has to do with
the preaching. If I start popping off in another language right
now, that's not gonna help anybody. It's not gonna mean anything,
it's not gonna profit anyone. He clearly states that here.
But if I'm able to speak in another tongue the gospel and interpret
that so that you can understand it, then it's beneficial. It's just the gospel in a different
language. but you have to be able to understand what is said.
So in both cases, whether it's the gift of prophesying or the
gift of tongues, it's the gospel that's paramount. And do you
remember what our Lord said about preaching the gospel? He said
to Simon Peter, if you love me, feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. So you see why I say that his
gifts or for the purpose of expressing our love for him. Now he uses
them also for the salvation of his elect. But as far as I'm
concerned, it's those words, if you love me, do that. If you love me, sing a gospel
song that blesses the hearts of my people. If you love me,
be a giver. If you love me, exhort and encourage
the brethren. If you love me, if you love me,
Notice again, now the gift of tongues is useless unless God's
sheep are fed. Look at verse five again. I would
that you all spake with tongues, but rather that you prophesied.
For greater is he that prophesied than he that speaketh with tongues,
except he interpret that the church may receive. And if I
feed my sheep or shut up, is that too strong? Feed my sheep. It's for the edifying of the
church. And if that ain't happening, shut it. Don't say it. Go in your closet and speak in
tongues. It's not worth anything. It's
not useful. It's not beneficial to anybody.
That's a little bit contrary to this world's, that brand of
religion at least. Look at verse 12. Even so ye,
for as much as you are zealous of spiritual gifts, Seek that
you may excel to the edifying of the church. Not so you can
brag that I have this gift and you don't. That was, if you remember
the context of all this, the early parts of this letter to
the Corinthian church, that was a problem in there. They were
greatly gifted. Many of them were greatly gifted,
and it was more of a problem than it was a blessing to. To the edifying of the church,
verse 13, wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue
pray that he may interpret. It's not beneficial. You remember
the word edify means to build up. It's not constructive in
God's church unless they know what you're saying. Very clear that the edification
of God's sheep It's what's desirable, not just gifts, just for the
sake of being gifted. And this has broader application,
as all of this teaching does. It always does. It has broader
application. A principle is established, and
you can apply that principle to many things. A preacher, for
example, who is greatly gifted to speak, he's eloquent. Maybe
he has a compelling voice. Those are beneficial things.
But if he don't preach Christ, he needs to shut up. If he doesn't speak plainly,
he needs to. If he doesn't minister the word
of God to God's sheep, he's useless. I don't care how talented he
is. Now, I don't want to take a whole
lot of time with this, but these four things in verse six are
distinguishable and together they define what preaching is.
So let's look at it for a minute. The essence of preaching the
gospel is the person of Christ himself. That's what's edifying,
that's what builds up his church. But apply these four things to
that. Revelation, the first one's revelation. And that's not talking about
God revealing something to you, although that's necessary, right? We don't know
anything without revelation of God. But that word revelation
here means to lay bare. When the gospel is preached,
The scriptures are laid bare. It's like Paul used that analogy
of a waiter serving food on a table. He said, we set it on the table.
Opening and alleging, that means to open it up and set it on the
table. If anybody's hungry, here is
the bread of life. The bread of life. And so that's what that is, it's
a disclosure of truth. If I speak a language that you
don't understand, I'm not making the gospel open and laying it
bare. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 3.12,
seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness
of speech. That's a necessity when the gospel's
preached. That's revelation, that's laying
it bare. That's making it clear, that's making it undeniable. And may it always be that way. Speaking in a tongue no one understands
precludes that. Also, again, by way of broader
application, somebody who's preaching in English that everybody can
understand, whatever the language the people understand, but is
not preaching the simplicity that's in Christ, is not profitable. It's got to be plain, it's got
to be laid bare, it's got to be also we provide things open
and honest in the sight of all men. We've got nothing to hide.
If you're offended, then I wish you weren't, but hey, this is
it. This is it. You don't get to
have a convenient gospel that you like. It's the gospel. And I pray you'll like it. By
the grace of God, we will or we won't. So the second thing there he
says is knowledge, and in this verse six here, this is what
our Lord spoke of in Matthew 11, 28. Come unto me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take
my yoke upon you and learn of me. Learn, knowledge, gain knowledge. So it has to be clear, and it's
also, it's got to teach you something. It's got to show you what you
haven't seen. That's the gospel now. If our
gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are blind. But God opens
blind eyes and we learn of Christ. We see him as he is, as much
as can be seen in this flesh. And we believe on him by his
grace. And you shall find rest unto
your souls. Even if you're clear in what you say, if no one learns
of the Savior, there's no rest for the soul. So that's another
aspect of it. There's no feeding of the sheep
without knowledge. Prophesying here, the third one
is preaching, which of course includes being clear and speaking
knowledge. These things are not exclusive
of one another, but it seems to be distinguished from just
telling what you know about God and the things of God. It's distinguished
this way, it seems like in the language here, by prophesying
being a divine gift to proclaim the truth. Clarity is a vital
part of that, but also just being given the boldness to speak for
God. If you don't have boldness in
anything else, God can still gift you to boldly preach the
word. The general revelation of things
that comes by preaching, which is it's the very power of God
into salvation. I might impart knowledge to you
as your father or as a friend, but prophesying is another thing
in a sense. It's the same gospel, but prophesying
requires that God gift you in a way to understand and tell
what God said clearly and plainly and boldly. But this also is
useless without a simple, clear communication of what is said.
To speak in an unknown tongue precludes that. He said, if I
do that and you don't, and I haven't preached Christ, waste of time,
worse. And then teaching, the fourth
thing here, this seems to refer to the exposition of scripture,
as we do. verse by verse by verse by verse
as it relates to establishing foundational truths. When Paul
spoke in other letters of the doctrine of Christ, he spoke
of these things that we know, that are evidently set forth
by us. Foundational truths of Christ
and his work of salvation and rightly dividing the word, establishing
those things. And these are all four of these
are similar and they're interdependent on one another. You can't preach
without being clear. You can't preach what you don't
know. Can't teach if God hasn't given
you an understanding. And Christ is the key to the
teaching, right? Most people will never go in
worship services, preachers, whatever you want to call them.
They will never go verse by verse through the scripture. Never
do it. Because they don't know Christ,
that's why. And they're going to get offended when they're
confronted with him, the one that they don't know. This is
not the Christ that they believe. And when they find that out,
they're not happy about it. And they don't want anybody to
hear about it because it ain't going to make them happy either. He's
sovereign. People don't like that. He does
as he pleases in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants
of this earth. He'll save you or he'll damn you. at his pleasure.
And you can't do anything about it. You don't get a vote. He's gonna do what he wants to
with you. That's why we recommend bowing and not making a decision. He's not interested in your decisions.
The more you do, the more you sin. I would bow. I would beg for mercy. Now these, as I said, are similar.
And what Paul is teaching here in all four of those emphasizes
the importance of Romans 10, 14. If you would turn over there
with me, I'll try to be brief tonight. This is very familiar,
but I want us to see how preaching being those four things, teaching,
preaching, knowledge, all of these things, making it
plain, It emphasizes the importance
of how then, verse 14, Romans 10, 14, how then shall they call
on him in whom they've not believed? And how shall they believe in
him of whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And if that preacher's jumping up here just saying a
bunch of gobbledygook that doesn't make any sense, saying, look
how spiritual I am, you can't believe on Christ. And that is
your only need, is to believe on Christ. So you talk about
a waste, it's worse than a waste. It's a scandal against heaven
to get up and not make any sense, no matter what language you're
speaking in. And how shall they preach except God send them?
They've got to be sent by God. You can't just up and say, I
want to be a preacher. Although I know some that have. As it
is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach
the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things.
but they have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah saith,
Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing. You see that? That's emphasized
in our text. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the word of God. Look at verse three back in our
text in chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians. Those four things, Pretty all-inclusive
as far as what happens when the gospel is preached, but look
at the effect. To building up, to edification,
to the building up, to the growing in grace of those. Grow in grace
and in what? The knowledge of the Lord Jesus
Christ. To grow in knowledge of him, to learn of him, is to
grow in grace. So edification, to be built up,
exhortation. Didn't we just talk about Sunday
morning how you ought to behave? That's exhortation. Worship,
love the Lord, serve him, look to him. And I'm glad that third one's
there, aren't you? Comfort. We're exhorted, and we fail. But there's comfort for sinners
in the preaching of Christ. Comfort. Where else are you going to get
that? But where the gospel is preached. None of any of that can happen
except by a plain, understandable informed God-blessed and revealed
declaration of Christ and what he did for sinners That's what
Paul is emphasizing here, and that's a gift now God Was received
Christ was received up into glory and gave gifts unto men and He
gave some apostles and some preachers and some teachers, and every
one of them is for the furtherance of his truth, for the feeding
of his sheep. And that looks like to me there's not
any better way to say I love you to the Savior than to do
something for his sheep. You reckon that's scriptural?
I believe that's about right. And notice in verses seven through
eight, we'll be pretty much through, there's a nuance of the importance
of clear gospel preaching. Here's another aspect of the
importance of it. Verses seven and eight. And even
things without life-giving sound, whether pipe or harp, even instruments
of music, Except they give a distinction in the sounds unless whoever's
playing knows what he's doing knows what he's talking about
in the gospel version or knows what he's doing How shall it be known what is
piped or harped For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound who shall
prepare himself to the battle You see he's saying even In non-life-giving
sounds, such as instruments of music, it's important that there
be a clear, precise, gifted execution of the notes in order to be a
blessing, and also to inspire, to encourage, to embolden, to
lead in the case of battle. And this tells us, first of all,
that the gospel is a life-giving sound. You see that? Even in things that aren't vital
to life, to eternal life, we see an analogy of how important
that which is vital to life, how important it is that it be
clear and concise and skilled, gifted, blessed of the Lord,
informed, not confusing, not unclear, The gospel is life-giving sound. To whom shall we go? Thou hast
the words of eternal life. That's the vital nature of this
gospel now. And this also emphasizes from
another aspect how vital it is that it be clear and resounding
and deliberate and piercing like the trumpet that rallies the
soldiers to battle. It inspires. The gospel signals
us. It rallies His people. Is there not a cause? Is there
not a cause? The glory of the Lord, is that
part of our cause? The salvation of His people?
The praise and adoration of His name, the exalting of His name?
The comfort. He said, comfort you, my people.
There's comfort in a definite gospel. Established,
provable, rooted, being rooted in the gospel. And may the gospel always be
clearly sounded from this pulpit and those from which it is sounded
now. May there be no misunderstanding
about how that salvation is of the Lord. May that be clear with
every note. The salvation of every particular
sinner that is saved is by God's choice. May that never be unclear. Because of His infinite love,
by the effectual blood of His dear Son, through God-given faith
in the eternal Lamb, who is the object, the author, and the finisher
of saving faith. May that never, may every note
make that clear. May it be a bold note, may it
be a resounding note, and the result be a rallying, a shout
from our hearts. Is there not a cause? to glorify
Christ in this world and to lift him up through the preaching
of the gospel. What use is a magic show if sinners don't learn who
Christ is? That he's all, that he's the
one thing needful. What use is it to impress the
flesh if the soul is not fed upon the bread of life? Father
Abraham told the rich man in Luke 16 that even if a dead man
returned from the grave and warned his brothers about hell, it would
do them no good if they don't believe the plain message that
Moses and all of the prophets set forth of Christ and his precious
blood and how sinners can come to God through the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, let us make it plain May
we point sinners to Christ as unmistakably as John the Baptist
did when he stretched forth his arm and said, there's God's lamb
that takes sin away, right there. May our preaching be as obvious
as the bread and the wine of the Lord's table, in which even
a child can see his body and his precious blood. And may he give us the discernment
as that gospel is preached that simply as those simple elements
through the gospel of the simplicity of Christ to discern his body
and blood and to find in him all of our salvation. That's my prayer and I pray Ask you to pray with me to that
end that it be bold and clear The Lord will bless his gospel
you see that that's what this is about Every gift it will go
through the rest of this chapter where it talks about that But
every gift is to that end It's for feeding his sheep And
he said if you love me do that do that Amen, let's pray