Why I Am a Cessationist - 1 Corinthians 13:8-13

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 and 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 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.

All of Chapter 13 is trying to tell us the supremacy of love and why love is greater than all the other gifts.

The Corinthians were elevating the more showy gifts, the more gifts that brought attention to the one who possessed them.

They loved the revelatory gifts, such as speaking in tongues and prophecy and relevatory knowledge, the knowledge that God would give them by the Holy Spirit on the spot where they can share that to the congregation, prophecies where God speaks to them, a word from heaven where they can communicate to the congregation, or speaking in tongues, a known language that they didn't study but could be interpreted by someone else in the congregation.

They loved these gifts because the Corinthians were carnal in their thinking.

Paul told them in Chapter 3, verse 1,"I would love to speak to you as spiritual people, but I can't because you're yet still carnal. You're fleshly." This is one of the reasons they loved Paul's preaching because of his oratory skill.

He was a polished speaker, and because of that they were impressed by that.

But Paul, because his speaking skills wasn't up to par, they despised him and they didn't value him.

Apparently, the Corinthians, they would overlook sin in their church and they would overlook all kinds of disruption in the services and tolerate a poor policy on the Lord's Supper and all kinds of problems.

But they really viewed themselves as spiritual people.

They viewed themselves as spiritual, but in reality, Paul says they're carnal.

The point being is because they were still self-focused.

They loved the platform. They loved attention.

The showy gifts, the spiritual gifts that brought tension to themselves wasn't about serving others or humbly working behind the scenes.

It was attention-seeking.

What Christian doesn't want attention? Applause.

Think about a lot of the Charismatic churches today where the worship leader and the pastor are up there fighting on who can be the more spiritual worshiper.

I mean, it happens. It happens in our day. It was happening then.

And so Paul is saying, listen, love exceeds all of this and it gives two reasons.

One, love is the foundation behind all the other spiritual gifts.

I mean, you can have the gift of knowledge and be one who interprets all mysteries, but not have love and you're nothing.

You can have all faith and not have love and you're nothing.

And if you don't have love, all the other spiritual gifts are not valid because love is the foundation behind all the Christian life.

And the second reason love, he says in this text, the second reason love is superior, he talks about how it's not self-focused, but others focus.

It's not flashy, but it yet is helpful, truly helpful, beneficial.

The second reason is love endures.

Verse 8 tells us it never ceases.

It's eternal. Love is what we're going to have in heaven.

Every other gift, essentially, is going to pass away.

Even faith and hope doesn't make it into the eternal realm.

But love does. It endures.

And so he's encouraging the Corinthians and encourages us to seek love and not to place over importance on the revelatory gifts.

Again, what are the revelatory gifts?

The revelatory gifts are, he names three of them.

They're tongues, the ability to speak in a known language that you hadn't studied, which is a supernatural gifting.

Revelatory knowledge, not knowledge that you learned through studying the Scriptures or learn through some type of active effort, but knowledge that you received supernaturally without study.

Just like learning a language that you didn't study or knowing a language or speaking a language you didn't study, all of a sudden you would have an infusion of revelation from above that gave you special knowledge that other people didn't have.

Or prophecy, which is the same thing.

Some type of prophetic word from the Holy Spirit that came from above.

And these revelatory gifts were designed to communicate from above to man.

God would communicate through these people, and these people would take their gifts and communicate for the edification of the body.

But Paul tells us where to seek love because he's going to say these revelatory gifts, tongues, prophecies and knowledge are going to cease.

They're not designed to last forever.

And in fact, he gives three reasons why they should expect them to fade away or to go away.

And I believe they went away within that generation.

I am a convinced sensationalist.

And a sensationalist believes that the revelatory gifts, not all the gifts, not miracles. We still believe in miracles today.

So a lot of sensationalists are like, "Well, don't you believe in miracles and healings?" Yes, God can heal and does still heal. That's why we pray.

But does man have the gift of healing?

No. Peter did.

But he does not.

In fact, no one has the gift of healing.

Now you may pray and God hear your prayers and do a miracle in your life.

We're not denying miracles.

I don't want to deny miracles.

And I'm not even denying if you say, "I know someone who went into a tribal community and never studied the language and all of a sudden he spoke to them in a language he never studied and they understood the gospel." If you say you've heard that or know someone to do that, it's like, "Well, that doesn't mean that's a spiritual gift that remains.

Maybe it was a miraculous event." But I'm a convinced sensationalist according to this text for three reasons.

And there's three positions on this topic.

One, there is the continuationist.

Continuationist believes that the revelatory gifts, speaking in tongues, prophecies, and special knowledge or revelatory knowledge still exist today.

These are our charismatic friends.

Then there is the open but caution, the open but cautious view.

That's what I used to be when I was younger.

Practically speaking, I never saw tongues done correctly or biblically, so I was skeptical, never practiced it, never sought to practice it.

But from the text, from Scriptures, I couldn't prove that it had ceased.

So I would say I'm open to it, but I don't believe what I've seen is real.

So I was open but cautious, and there's plenty of people that hold to that position today.

But today, and for at least probably 15 years, I'm convinced from Scriptures that these gifts have ceased, utterly ceased.

And they ceased at the generation that came after the apostles.

And I think we see in this text three reasons why.

Three reasons why I'm a sensationalist.

One, these revelatory gifts, not all the gifts, but these gifts that were designed to communicate divine revelation, were designed to pass away.

They weren't designed to last for thousands of years until our day.

They were designed to pass away.

They had three temporary purposes.

God gave the early church these gifts.

But when you study why He gave them, and the purpose of these gifts, you see that these purposes had a temporary objective.

Now, think of it this way.

You're driving down the road, and you see a road sign that says "bridge ahead." It tells you before you get to the bridge, the bridge is coming.

But once you get to the bridge and you pass the road sign, then now you're passing the bridge.

The sign no longer has a purpose.

You don't expect to see the sign after the bridge, but only before the bridge.

You expect to see these revelatory signs, these revelatory gifts before and in the process of their purpose.

But once you get past the purpose, and the purpose has been completed, the gifts have no longer a purpose.

What are the threefold purposes of revelatory gifts?

One, they were to prove, they were to be supernatural proof of divine revelation.

If I came up and said, "Hey folks, we're not going to preach the Bible today.

I've received a dream last night, and I'm going to tell you what God gave me in my dream." We need a miracle, don't we?

As I was going to give you my dream, and I would say, you would go,"What in the world do I want to listen to you teach about your dream?

How would I know if that was from God or not?

How could I be certain?" Well, what you would do in the Old Testament, you would prove that you were a prophet by some miracle.

Moses was given miracles.

Only God can do the supernatural, miraculous works.

Thus, when he did his signs, it showed that he spoke on behalf of God.

Elijah did the same thing.

Even Jesus, when he came, he said, "If you don't believe me for my word's sake, believe me for the miraculous works that I do.

At least look at the works that I do and not know that I don't come from God.

I speak on the Father's behalf." You can verify that by the miraculous miracles.

Well, here comes the apostles.

In order to prove that they spoke on behalf of Christ in an apostolic, authoritative manner, he gave them signs.

He gave them miraculous gifts.

In 2 Corinthians 12, verse 11, Paul says, "I ought to have been commended by you, for in nothing was I behind in the most intimate apostles, though I am nothing.

2 Corinthians 12:11

True, the signs of the apostles were accomplished among you with all perseverance, and signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds." You can see that the apostles proved their apostolic position by the miraculous signs and wonders that they did.

But one of the signs proving of their apostolic ministry, according to Hebrews 2, was they had the power, and only the apostles had this power, that they could lay their hands upon other disciples, and according to their own will, disposed other gifts upon those whom they laid their hands upon.

Hebrews 2, 3 tells us, "How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?" It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles, and here are some of the signs and wonders and miracles that the apostles did, it says, "and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will." You see, here the apostles could distribute these things, and this is why He told the Romans, "I long to come to you to impart to you spiritual gifts by the laying on of my hands." 2 Timothy 1, 6, "Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands." You know, we ordain people today, but we're acknowledging God's calling on someone, but we are not imparting spiritual gifts on anyone.

None of us have the ability to say, "Hey, you can speak in tongues.

Let me give you the gift of prophecy. Let me give you the gift of healing.

Let me give you these gifts." We don't have that ability, but the apostles did it.

So these signs and wonders were on upon the apostles and whom the apostles chose to lay their hands upon.

And if this is the case, after the apostles pass away, we know that the apostles was a temporary office to lay the foundation of the church to give us the Word of God, and they were the foundation of the church.

And once the foundation is laid and the faith has been once and delivered, there's no need for the apostolic ministry.

Once they passed away and died, then the gift of administering the revelatory gifts have died with them.

And so that generation, once that generation passed away, the gifts would pass away with them.

This was by design.

The second purpose of the revelatory gifts, which are makes them temporary, was they were designed to communicate to the nation of Israel that God's judgment has come upon them.

Now, in Drudur, Othamy, Chapter 28, God prophesied to Israel for their rebellion and unbelief.

He says, "I didn't come to you," speaking on the mountain when he came and gave them the covenant,"I didn't come to you in a foreign language.

I didn't come to you with a language you do not understand.

You didn't have to climb up somewhere.

You didn't have to descend nowhere.

I came down to you and spoke to you in a very easy language, in the Hebrew language.

But you did not believe me.

Therefore, the next time I come to you, I'm not going to speak to you in the Hebrew language.

I'm going to come to you in a foreign language, in a language that you do not understand, in order to show that you are under judgment, and I will provoke you, if you would, by other nations, and they will speak to you in that foreign language." Well, this is what Isaiah 28, 11 says,"For by people of estranged lips and with foreign tongues, the Lord will speak to this people." Isaiah 33, 19, "You will see me no more, this insolent people, the people of an obscure speech that you cannot comprehend, stammering in a tongue that you cannot understand.

That is, the next time I come to you, it won't be in a language you understand." And this is what Paul picks up in Romans 10, verse 19,"Did Israel not understand?

Romans 10:19

First Moses says, 'I will make you envious by those who are not a nation, and I will make you angry by a nation that you do not understand.'" And this is why, listen, if you've got your Bibles open, turn to chapter 14, verse 21.

Look at 1 Corinthians 14, 21.

Now, this only makes sense if you understand that these revelatory gifts, such as tongues, was a sign to the nation of Israel that judgment has come upon them and the gospel has gone to another nation.

It says, "In the law," speaking about Deuteronomy 28,"it is written, 'By people of estranged tongue and by lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me,' says the Lord.

'Thus tongues,' you see, Paul says,"are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers." So Paul is saying, when you see the sign, when you see the bridge is coming, you see the sign, he's talking to the Jews.

When you see the signs that God is speaking not in the Hebrew language, but he's speaking in these foreign languages, know that you're under judgment.

That's what he's saying.

This is a sign to the unbelieving Jews.

Now, since that judgment has come upon Israel, and I believe it happened in the 70-day deal, I think now that sign has passed.

It was sufficiently indicating that God has come, has turned from the Jews, and now he's brought the gospel to us Gentiles in order to provoke them to jealousy and hopefully through the gospel coming back to the Jew eventually.

Now, there's a third purpose for the revelatory's gifts.

They were a provisional, crude method of communication while they waited for the New Testament.

So here you have from 33 A.D., 30 A.D., essentially, to the mid-60s.

Most of the Bible is written by the time you get to 70 A.D.

So you have the first books to be written at the late 40s, maybe the early 50s.

The first print is written in 55, and most of the books were written after 55 and literally in the 60s.

By 65, 67, most of the New Testament, other than the gospel of John and Revelation, is finished.

So what are the church to do, the New Testament church to do, where they have the Old Testament, but now prices come and some more knowledge is needed, but the New Testament is not in their hands yet.

Well, God provided the early church in this transitional period between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, a crude form of communication through the revelatory gifts that were, I believe, as we'll see, was to pass away when the more sure word came to them.

And look at verse 8 of our text.

"As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge," that's talking about revelatory knowledge,"it will pass away." So here we have, at least we can say, without a shadow of doubt, that God told the Corinthians that these things would not last forever.

They were designed to pass away.

They weren't meant to be a permanent gift.

Now you have to figure out when did they pass away.

They're going to pass away.

We can be certain of that.

Everybody has to conclude that.

But when did they pass away?

Well, my second point, the revelatory gifts were designed to be replaced by a better form of communication.

Imagine the revelatory gifts as a means of communication, but think of it as two tin cans attached to a string.

I mean, it might work, but you get a lot of--it's not very good.

You know, have your practice app kids make these, take a couple cans and put a string between them.

Supposedly, I've never got it to work.

Supposedly, talking one of them and the vibration goes through the string, and you put the other can up to your ear and you can hear.

I mean, you kids can try that.

But I never found it to be that effective.

But maybe it did work or does work.

Well, there are methods of communication, some better than others.

The revelatory gifts were from the Spirit.

They were from God.

It was divine communication.

But it wasn't the best form of communication for various reasons.

Verse 9 says, "We know one part and prophesy in part." That is, it's just part--it's not complete.

It's not a full revelation.

It's just bits and pieces.

Ever been on the phone and you're driving down the road and it's cutting out, the reception's bad, and you're trying to listen, you're trying to listen, but it's choppy, it's cutting in and out, and you're trying to piece the words together.

You're trying to go, "Okay, I think I know what they're saying, but I only got half of what you said, but if I take the half, I can kind of formulate the context." And you've done this before.

I know you have.

You pretended like it didn't cut out and you acted like-- you don't want them to go over it again.

And so you kind of keep on talking like you heard everything.

Well, I mean, it did get something, but it wasn't the best method of communicating to you.

You see, they were partial forms of communication, these revelatory gifts.

Paul gives two illustrations to explain this.

One, he gives the illustration,"It's like a child's reasoning skills compared to a full adult." Look at verse 11.

"When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I felt like a child, I reasoned like a child.

When I became a man, I gave up childish ways." I mean, I'm not saying I'm a good communicator, but we could get a child up here to preach this sermon, and hopefully I'm doing just a little bit of-- come on.

Yeah.

[speaking gibberish] No, I'm serious.

This kid could do better than me.

I've talked to him.

You said that.

There's no joke about that.

But you imagine us sitting under the preaching of a young man.

I mean, we'd get some truth.

It could be beneficial, no doubt about it.

But it wouldn't be the same as a seasoned pastor coming up.

Well, that's what Paul is saying.

There's--this "Ribletory Gifts" is helpful.

We're glad for it.

I mean, we don't have the New Testament yet, but we're glad for this.

But there's somebody that's going to come that's better than this.

And then the second illustration he gives is a dimly lit mirror.

Look at verse 12.

"For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.

Now I know him, or then I shall know fully, even as been fully known." Now, you have to go back in time 2,000 years ago when they didn't have glass mirrors.

They had two forms of seeing their images.

One was a kind of a bird bath pool, you know, a shallow pool of water.

And if it's perfectly still with the light lighting, you can see your own reflection.

The other way--and this is going back to the Egyptian time-- they would take a piece of brass--actually, it was a piece of bronze.

And they would polish the bronze until it shined.

And they could see themselves.

But Paul is not even contrasting revelatory knowledge or comparing revelatory knowledge and revelatory prophecies and revelatory tongues.

He's not just comparing it to a finely polished piece of bronze.

He's saying this is a dim lit bronze.

The way that these mirrors work--and by the way, only the very wealthy could afford them.

But a common person in Palestine and throughout Europe and Asia at that time never had a mirror.

So go back in time, how would you know what you look like?

I promise you, your spouse knew your face better than you knew your own face.

I mean, you knew the back of your hands.

You knew what body parts that you could see.

But you really didn't know really what you looked like very well.

But in this illustration, the mirrors work.

These bronze, polished bronze only function by backlight.

If you didn't have light, you couldn't see yourself.

So he's saying this is a dim.

This is not a polished piece of bronze.

This is a tarnished piece of bronze in bad lighting conditions.

Now, that is what you have to see yourself.

It's better than nothing. You would take it.

You would look and say, "Do I have anything on me?

Is there, you know, you'd be trying to shave or whatever you're doing.

You'd be glad to have that to see yourself." But after, you know, if that was the case, if your wife was there, you would put the bronze, polished metal piece down and you look at your wife and say, "Did I get everything?

Did I miss anything? Is there anything on my face?

You know, is there anything in my teeth?" You know, you would be asking for help to see yourself.

And she, in turn, would be asking you, "How do I look?" That was just the everyday experience two thousand years ago.

Now, that's what you've got to keep in mind.

And so he's contrasting the revelatory knowledge through this poor form of seeing yourself to the best form of knowledge would be face to face.

And that's why you would put the bronze or the bronze piece of metal down and you would turn and look at your spouse and you would be looking at her face to face and be out in the daylight and you go, "Oh, I see clearly now." So this is a contrast, if you would, between a poor form of communication and a more perfect form of communication.

I look at it as it's partial knowledge.

You're only getting bits and pieces of truth.

You're not getting lies, but you're not getting the full truth.

It's like having a thousand-piece puzzle with only 500 pieces and complete it.

And you're looking at it and it's like, "Well, I think I make out.

There's trees and I see there's the sun.

This is going to be beautiful, but boy, I'm missing something." It's not quite complete.

It's in part, right?

It's choppy. It's partial.

It's incomplete. It's not yet clear.

Well, the reason the Revelatory Gifts were in part is, one, it didn't have the full New Testament canon.

It wasn't complete.

It wasn't sufficient yet.

It was also because such Revelatory Gifts had to be verified by the Church.

Chapter 14 talks about if someone speaks in tongues, they need to have an interpreter.

If someone prophesies, it says for the Church to listen and to verify the prophecy is indeed incongruence with what they already know to be true in the Scriptures.

And therefore, these Revelatory Gifts needed the Church body to verify them and to test them.

So you see, these things were subjective, and they weren't designed to be used in whole by yourself.

They were designed to be verified in the local church.

In other words, these forms of communication could be easily fabricated.

You can imagine someone coming in and saying,"I've got the gift of tongues," and they don't.

Or someone says, "I have a prophecy," but they're lying.

What keeps these Revelatory Gifts?

How can you be certain?

Well, that's one of the deficiencies of these Revelatory Gifts.

None of us have to come up and say, "Is the Word of God the Bible?" But if I was preaching my dreams, you'd be full of questions.

You'd be skeptical when you should be skeptical.

In fact, if I was preaching my dreams, you should have thrown me out.

But go back in this time when they had these Revelatory Gifts, you would still have to be really critical of what they're saying and verify everything.

See, there weren't a perfect form of communication.

They were just provisional.

Until the Bible comes, the New Testament comes,"I'm giving you these." Not perfect, not complete, but it's better than nothing.

You see, verse 10, "The Revelatory Gifts were provisional gifts designed to pass away after the perfect form of communication was delivered to them." Look at verse 10, "But when the perfect comes, the partial," that is, the incomplete, "will pass away." Now, what does it mean to be perfect here?

In context, it means complete.

This is talking about these are partial.

It's like you're getting bits and pieces of the picture.

But when you get the full picture, that which is bits and pieces no longer need it.

Now, ask yourself, do we have the full canon?

Do we have the faith once and for all delivered to the saints?

Are we still looking for something new?

Do we need a new revelation?

Or is the Word of God, the New Testament, all of Scriptures, are they sufficient?

Are they complete?

Do we need another Word?

No, if we say we need another Word, then we don't have the foundation yet.

But the foundation has been laid.

Do you understand what a foundation does?

You lay a foundation, then you build the house over here.

No, the foundation doesn't just hold up the infrastructure of the building.

It also sets the parameter of where the building is to be built.

You don't build off of the foundation.

Therefore, the faith is built upon the foundation, which is the apostles and the prophets.

And that foundation has once for all been delivered to us.

Now we build off the Word of God.

We build on it.

It's the perfect Word.

You say, well, I'm not convinced by that.

You say, I think this is the other form of interpreting this text.

This is the way I used to interpret it.

It was like that, which is perfect speaking about the revelation of Jesus Christ.

He's the perfect one.

And when He comes, we will see Him and we'll be like He is.

And we'll have the perfect revelation because we see in part now.

But when we see His face, we'll see Him face to face.

And when we finally see His face, we'll have complete revelation.

And it is true Jesus come, Jesus second coming is a revelation.

And it is true Jesus Christ is perfect.

So maybe Jesus Christ is that which is spoken about here.

But let me give you six reasons why I think this is speaking about the New Testament.

One, the Corinthians, when this was given, didn't have the New Testament.

So they would be still looking and waiting for it.

Two, the New Testament is perfect.

You know, it is the perfect revelation of the New Covenant.

Third, it is complete. The scriptures are sufficient.

Fourth, remember what Peter says in Second Peter, Chapter one, he says, you know, I saw Jesus transfigured with my own eyes.

I've seen him.

And I was there. I witnessed.

He says, no, I had this physical, empirical testimony of seeing the seeing Christ transfigured.

Don't you wish you had that?

Well, I would really believe if I could see him with my eyes.

And Peter says, however, we have a more sure word.

He says we have the word of prophecy made more sure.

Where until you do well that you take heed as a lamp shining in a dark place.

He's talking about the scriptures.

He says no scriptures has been given by private interpretation, but been revealed by inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

So this is the objective word of God.

And this is not this crude form of communication that had to be verified that could be fabricated.

This is the certain word of God. It is complete and sure.

Well, you know, often people say, well, this is talking about the coming of Christ because we see in a glass darkly.

How many times have you said that? Well, we see in glass darkly now.

You know, you got your Bibles open, but you're going. We still see in a glass darkly.

But when Christ comes, we'll see face to face and we'll be known even as we are known.

Well, that's a misunderstanding of this text.

Now, definitely we are waiting to see Christ in the space and that's going to be glorious.

No doubt about it, but that's not what this text is saying.

If you'll read closely to it, it gives you the meaning of it because imagine you're holding up this bronze piece of metal in this tarnished and you're in a dark room and you're looking at yourself and you're you're trying to get you got.

Did you miss a part spot shaving? Is there something in my tea?

You're looking and you're trying.

And they look to your wife and she's looking at your face face to face.

She sees your face without a mirror, without a reflection, without this crude method.

She's and she goes, no, you look good.

My wife says that to me every morning.

Notice what it says. It doesn't say we'll know God or know Jesus as he knows us.

It says we will know ourselves even as others know us.

We will be we will know even as we are known.

Now that's the key.

Others know you back 2000 years ago.

Get away from the modern mirrors 2000 years ago.

Others know you better than you know yourself.

This is saying you're going to know yourself as other people know you.

You're not going to have a reflective, crude form of knowing yourself, but you're going to know yourself as others know you.

And the point is not telling you that you're going to know yourself.

That's just an illustration to show us how much better the perfect form of communication is compared to this rudimentary form of communication.

It's that great of an upgrade.

It's that great of an upgrade that is going to bring that much clarity to our knowledge.

Therefore, I believe the New Testament is God's perfect revelation to us.

That brings a complete revelation to us, a sufficient revelation to us.

And it is the New Testament is more superior than these revelatory gifts ever were.

And thus the revelatory gifts, I believe, were a provisional method to get the early church by and to the completion of the canon.

Now you say, well, I'm still not convinced.

I mean, like, you're not convinced yet.

I'll give you one more reason to believe that the New Testament took care and brought an end to the revelatory gifts.

Verse 13, the revelatory gifts were to cease before faith and hope ceased and faith and hope cease at the coming of Christ.

Therefore, the revelatory gifts need to cease before the coming of Christ.

Now, I know that's a lot to take on.

I'll repeat that.

Look at verse 13.

It says, now faith, hope and love abide.

Now that is, it's saying faith, hope and love is going to go beyond the revelatory gifts.

He's saying prophecies, they will fall, cease, they'll be done away with.

But faith, hope and love abide.

So we know that these three gifts outlast the revelatory gifts.

The revelatory gifts are temporary.

Faith and hope are temporary, but they're going to outlast the revelatory gifts.

So here's the major premise.

Faith and hope will end at the Second Coming of Christ.

Here's a minor premise.

The revelatory gifts were to end before faith and hope ended.

Thus, the conclusion is the revelatory gifts have ended with the end of the Apostolic Era and at the completion of the New Testament.

Look at verse 8.

We go back.

It says, love never ends.

It's the greatest.

It doesn't say faith and hope never end.

It's only love never ends.

Love never ends.

Faith and hope will abide.

It will last longer than the revelatory gifts, but they will come to an end.

But love never does end.

This is what makes love the greatest of all the gifts.

It's eternal.

We'll have love in heaven, but we will not need faith and hope in heaven.

You see, faith will end at the side of Jesus Christ because faith, one of the elements of faith is believing the unseen.

Faith is not based upon your five senses.

We call those the empirical evidences.

You don't have to be a scientist to see Jesus Christ.

In fact, you can't see Jesus Christ because he's the unseen Christ, according to Peter.

Hebrews 11.1 tells us faith is the evidence of the things not seen.

Second Corinthians 5.7, we walk by faith, not by sight.

That is, we believe Jesus Christ, though we haven't touched him, we haven't seen him, we haven't heard him.

Remember what Jesus said to Doubting Thomas here, put your hands in my holes, the prints of my hands.

You believe because you see me, but bless her, those who believe without seeing.

Remember what it says in Hebrews 11 about Noah, that Noah, when he was warned about the judgment to come and the rain to come, not ever seeing rain, not ever seeing this, believed.

It says by faith, he obeyed, not ever having seen.

And so faith is operating based upon testimony, maybe a good, solid, trustworthy testimony, but it's not operating off of sight.

And thus, faith will, when we see Jesus, faith will be no more.

Our faith will be turned to sight.

Hope is the same way.

Romans 8 23 tells us, it says, not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for the adoption of sons, the redemption of our bodies.

For in this hope we are saved.

Now, hope that is seen is no hope for who hopes and what he sees.

But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with it.

Patience.

Yesterday, I was hopeful that the Razorbacks would win.

And as long as the game was going on, I had a little hope.

But after the game, there was no more hope.

My friend, David, I'll use his name, one of my pastoral friends, was trying to explain this idea that you don't hope for the things that you see.

If something is already given to you, I can't wait.

I'm really hopeful I'm going to get something for Christmas.

But when the gift comes to Christmas, there's no more hope because you've got the gift.

And he says, when you're single or you're engaged and you're so hopeful for the wedding day, you're just living without hope, and when we get married, I'm going to get married.

And he says, then after you get married, you don't have any hope.

Didn't come out too well.

But you understand what I'm saying?

Faith is for now.

Faith, we need it in this light.

Hope, we need it now.

We live by hope now.

But when we get to heaven, the blessed hope will come.

And we don't need hope in heaven.

We don't need faith in heaven.

Love endures forever.

It's the greatest of all the gifts.

Faith and hope, according to this text, abides.

That is, it's going to abide to the Second Coming where the Reletory gift will cease.

So here we're saying even the text is indicating that these things are not going to last forever.

They're going to cease.

But faith and hope will still abide.

So Christ comes back.

As one person said, faith will vanish into sight, hope will be ente--into delight.

Love will shine to the light.

See, the point of this sermon, and I know we're made into about proof for sesationalism, but the point of the sermon is telling the Corinthians, you're putting all your emphasis on these things that are going to pass away.

These are important.

They're good.

He says later, I wish you all spoke in tongues.

You all don't, but I wish you did.

I speak in tongues.

It's not that these are not bad gifts.

They were needed and helpful.

But you've got to understand they're not the important things.

Faith, hope, and love exceed these things.

And what exceeds faith and hope is love.

So what are we to take away from this message in conclusion?

It's like we're not to desire gifting that brings attention to ourselves.

The more show we give, we should desire that, which causes us to work behind the scenes to serve others.

We shouldn't want the spotlight on ourselves.

We should seek to go, how do I bless someone?

How do I love someone?

How do I care for someone?

This is the greatest thing we can do.

In fact, it's the foundation of the Christian light.

We shouldn't take this sermon, and if we come to the conclusion, if this has helped you come to the conclusion of sensationalism, this is not for us to go beat up everybody that disagrees with us.

This would be denying the text of loving.

We're not here to say we've got better knowledge than everybody else.

We've got superior knowledge.

No, we need to love one another.

No, we want to love the truth, speak the truth and love.

Another application here is that we should treasure our Bibles.

I mean, we should really go, I have the sufficient Word of God.

I don't need new revelation.

I have something that's sufficient for all of life and godliness.

I'm not waiting for a new revelation.

I got the end of the story here.

I know everything I need to know.

I need to study it.

I need to seek it.

I need to love the God, the Word of God.

You see, love is the greatest gift, not only because love is eternal, because I think we see in this text, especially as we looked at last week, love is self-sacrificing, is humble.

It doesn't promote itself.

It's gentle, lovely, kind, patient, and so forth.

May we seek love.

May we long for it.

May we love the Bible.

May we love God and love the saints, Jesus.

Let's pray.

Dear Lord, we do thank You for the Word of God, that that perfect revelation has been given to us once for all.

The faith has been given to us.

The foundation of our faith, the Holy Scriptures given to us by the prophets and apostles, has been revealed to us and we have it complete, perfect.

Let us build our lives upon it.

This we pray in Your Son's name. Amen.

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