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Alright, so take your Bibles, 1 Corinthians 13, I didn't want to miss a week, so we're going through Corinthians on Thursday today, and then on Sunday we'll go through 1 Corinthians 14. But before I get to the sermon, I just want to give you one story, just one story about the soul-winning conference, is that what we're called here, no it's not the mega, the new IFB soul-winning conference, whatever they called it right, I'll tell you one story, I don't know what that, there can't be all these names, anyway, on the second day of the conference, so on the first day we went soul-winning from 9 to 12, well actually no, at 9 o'clock we met for breakfast, and then by 10 o'clock we were out soul-winning until 12, and then the conference started about 1 o'clock to get back and getting registered and all that kind of stuff. But on the second day, we were out knocking doors, and it was a bit of an unreceptive area the second day, but you know, when you get, you know how you explain the Gospel, I was going through the Gospel with one of the guys at the door, and he was pretty slow, like it took a while for me to have to explain every point, he was much slower than the average person, and then when I got to Revelation 21.8, you know where you go through the list of people that go to hell, you know you go, but the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death. So I was going through that with him, and normally what I do, well not normally, but every now and again I do this, when I get to murderers, the fearful and believing, abominable and murderers, I might say something like, you know, have you ever murdered anybody? You know, or something like, you know, well none of us have murdered anybody kind of thing. That's what I normally do, to give him this brief period of relief, oh yeah, that's not me, just so I can get to all liars, you know, so it's all of us, it's not just murderers, it's all liars. But I got to murderers, and he paused, and I thought okay, he's a bit slow, so I went through it again, you know, have you murdered anybody, expecting you to say no. And he goes, well, you know, just once, but it was an accident, just once but it was an accident he said to me. So I didn't have to get to all liars, I mean, he got to murderers, he got saved, praise God for that. But 1 Corinthians 13, 1 Corinthians 13 verse 8, 1 Corinthians 13 verse 8 says, charity never faileth, that's the title of the sermon tonight, charity never faileth. Look at verse number 1. So you may remember chapter 12 was about the spiritual gifts, right, that God, the Holy Ghost had given, has given everybody, anybody that's part of the body of Christ, spiritual gifts, some more than others, some of greater measure than others, to serve and edify the body, to serve and edify the church. And now chapter 13 is really interesting when it comes to the topic of spiritual gifts. It's probably one of the key passages that deals with why the gifts existed for a time period and why they no longer exist as they did back in the past, though I still believe there are spiritual gifts. I do believe the Holy Ghost still gives us gifts to edify the body but not in the same measure or in the same way that it did in the early church when the apostles were still there. It's actually a really important chapter and every verse has a lot of truth in it. So look at verse number 1. Paul says to them, though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, and we'll just stop there for a minute. What were the tongues? Someone that could speak in tongues, biblically, what were they speaking? They were speaking real languages, right, just spontaneous, they didn't have to learn another language. I mean, I don't think anybody knows the language, what language, let's think of one. Mandarin. Probably nobody here knows Mandarin, okay? But if you could just spontaneously all of a sudden speak Mandarin and preach the gospel in Mandarin, that would be the gift of tongues, right? That's what we read about in the Bible and though he says, and this was a gift that Paul had, because he says, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I have become as sounding brass or tinkling cymbals. So we've already established that the tongues of men are world languages, the gift to speak into another language spontaneously. Now when I went once, I can't remember where he was, I think it might have been Sippy Downs, I came across the door of a Pentecostal man, and we started talking and obviously he believed you could lose your salvation and all those kind of things, I was trying to preach the gospel to him, but all he wanted to speak to me about was tongues. And he asked me the question, do you speak in tongues? And I said to him, yeah, I can speak in two tongues, English and Spanish. And when I said that, he just rolled his eyes, he goes, no, I don't mean just the tongues of men, but the tongues of angels, right? Because I think he realizes, and he must have been challenged in the past, that when you read about tongues in the Bible, they're world languages, they're real languages that people speak. But obviously he's speaking in his gibberish, you know, whatever it is, you know, the gibberish that they talk that has no understanding, that has no meaning, that nobody is hearing the mighty works of God in that language, and he's telling me, no, that's the tongue of angels, because here Paul says, though I speak in the tongues of men and of angels. So what are the tongues of angels? Well, you know, he's trying to say that what he speaks is the tongue of angels. Now keep your finger there in 1 Corinthians 13 or a bookmark and turn to Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1. Now the Bible is our final authority, amen? The Bible is our final authority, you know, it is our foundation, it is the authority of this church. So whatever doctrine we teach and believe must come from the Word of God, okay? So if we're looking for the tongues of angels, if we're talking about the heavenly host angels, then let's look at what tongue the angels spoke, right? So let's look at Luke chapter 1, and I'll just give you, look, angels speak to men throughout the Bible many times, okay? But let's just get some of the more popular ones. So Luke chapter 1, verse 11. Luke chapter 1, verse 11, it's the story of John the Baptist, okay? The story of John the Baptist, verse 11. And there appeared unto him, that's Zacharias, John the Baptist's father, and there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled and fear fell upon him. But the angel said unto him, so is the angel speaking? Yes, the angel said something to him. Said unto him, fear not Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard, and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shall call his name John. Now do you think the angel, the tongue of this angel, was a tongue that Zacharias could understand? Or do you think he was going ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba? What do you think he was speaking? Do you think he was speaking a real language, or was he speaking gibberish? Right? Now look at, drop down to verse 18. Look at, drop down to verse 18. And Zacharias said unto the angel. So did Zacharias understand? Absolutely! He understood what the angel said. And he responded to the angel. And Zacharias said unto the angel, whereby shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years. Alright, actually I didn't finish verse 13, but it doesn't matter. He tells Zacharias that, you know, they're going to have a son that is John the Baptist. Now drop down to verse 26. You're still in Luke chapter 1, verse 26. Now this is the story of Mary. Okay, Mary being, you know, falling pregnant to have Jesus Christ. Verse 26, and in the sixth month the angel Gabriel, so another angel, well it could be the same angel, I think it might have been the same angel, Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her and said, so now the angel is speaking to the angel. Speaking to Mary, right? Now what is he saying? Is he speaking a common tongue, or is he speaking some unknown tongue? He says, hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women. Now I wonder if Mary understood what he said, or is it just some gibberish, right? Look at verse 34, down to verse 34. Then said Mary unto the angel. So Mary responds to the angel. She understood what the angel said, she responds to the angel, and she said, how shall this be, seeing I know not a man. So this is the angel coming to tell Mary that she was going to have Jesus Christ. So we see the tongue of angels, just very easily from the Bible, are tongues, are languages that men speak. It's the same thing. The tongues of angels and a man are common tongues that anybody can understand. Now you might argue and say, well maybe Zacharias and Mary, they're believers. Maybe they had the gift of tongues. So maybe the angel was speaking in some unknown tongue, but because they were believers they could understand what the angel was saying. First of all, two problems with that, number one, the gift of tongues was not given until the day of Pentecost. So that was after the resurrection of Christ. Christ hadn't even been born yet in this stage, right? But the second problem is, it's not just believers in the Bible who talk to angels. If you want, turn to Numbers. If you want, otherwise I'll just read it to you. Numbers chapter 22 verse 31, and this is about the false prophet Balaam. The false prophet Balaam. He's not a believer. He's not a believer. He's a false prophet. Numbers 22 verse 31 says this, then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam. Do you guys know the story of Balaam, where he's riding on his donkey and the donkey didn't want to proceed forward because the donkey saw an angel and the donkey starts speaking to Balaam. Balaam, do you guys know that story? We might have to cover that one day. But anyway, he's getting angry at the donkey, he strikes the donkey, he's like, why aren't you moving forward? And that's why the donkey speaks back to him. The Lord allows the donkey to speak to him. But then it says here in verse 31, then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand, and he bowed down his head and fell flat on his face. And the angel of the Lord said unto him, so to an unbelieving false prophet, the angel speaks to him, wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three times? Behold, I went out to withstand thee, because thy way is perverse before me. And then in verse 34, it says, and Balaam said unto the angel. So now Balaam, the unbelieving false prophet, responds to the angel. He doesn't have the gift of tongues, right? Certainly not. And Balaam said unto the angel of the Lord, I have sinned, for I knew not that thou stoodest in the way against me. Now therefore, if it displeased thee, I will get me back again. So we see that these angels, New Testament, Old Testament, believers, non-believers, the angels are speaking, the common tongues of men that anybody can understand. And so according to the Bible, not according to me, but according to the Bible, what are the tongues of angels? Modern everyday languages. So this modern Pentecostal tongue, which it's not even, I refuse, I don't like calling it tongues, that they're speaking in tongues, because biblically there are tongues that are spoken, right? I don't want to confuse it with what's true and what's awesome. I mean it's awesome to be able to speak another language and preach the gospel and get people saved. Now that's a fantastic thing, and I feel like sometimes we're afraid to talk about the gifts of tongues because of what happens now in the modern day Pentecostal movement. That's just nonsense, that's another spirit. It's another spirit that moves these people. First of all, if they are doing it through some sort of power, it's another spirit. It's not the spirit of God, because that's not what we read about in the Bible. And yet if it's not done by some other power, then they're just faking it. It's one of those two things, or maybe it's a bit of both, I don't know. So the modern day tongue speaking movement of the Pentecostal charismatic movement is totally unscriptural. They've got no scripture to base the doctrine on. No scripture whatsoever, so please don't get deceived by what they teach. But look at verse, if you go back to 1 Corinthians 13, look at verse number 1. He says, Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, so Paul did have the gift of tongues. He was able to speak in other, it would make sense if he was like the apostle to the Gentiles, and obviously the Gentiles spoke many tongues, it would make sense that he could preach in other languages. But then he says this, he says though, if, sorry where am I, yeah, speak with the tongues of men and angels, and have not charity. What's charity? We don't use that word so much today, but it means love. But it's not just a feeling of love, it's not just saying I love you, it's love in action. It's love in action. That's why when you think of charities, when you give to a charity, we give to a charity because we think they're doing something to help people in need. It's not just, oh yeah, we love people in need, no, we're going about doing something for the people in need. That's what a charity is, that's what charity is, it's love in action. So it says though I have this amazing gift to speak in other tongues spontaneously, though if I don't have charity, he says, and have not charity, I am become a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. So what's a sounding brass? It's just a musical instrument, a tinkling cymbal is like a percussion sound, it's like a cymbal, like on a drum. He says if I don't have charity, if I don't have love, even though I have these amazing gifts, then I'm just all noise. I'm all noise and no substance is what he's saying. I'm not profitable at all. You need to have love in what we do. And this is such a powerful chapter on love, on charity, because everything we do in service to the Lord ought to be done because of love. It ought to be done through charity, otherwise we become like this sounding brass and tinkling cymbal, just noise, for the sake of noise. That's not what we want to do. We want to make sure that our noise that goes forward is profitable and it's not nothing. Verse number two, he says, and though I have the gift of prophecy, so Paul had the gift of tongues, now he's got the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge. If you guys remember, there's a gift of knowledge, so he's got that gift. And though I have all faith, remember the gift of faith, someone that had a greater measure of faith, he has that as well. So that I could remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing. So we can see here that Paul had been given many, many gifts of the Spirit. Of course, as an apostle of Jesus Christ, you would expect the Holy Ghost to use him and he was used in a powerful way. So he had all these gifts to his disposal. That's why he was able to do such great works. But he speaks about the gift of prophecy, understanding all mysteries, all knowledge, and though I have all faith, and so that I could remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing. Again, he just reinforces the fact that he has charity. The reason why he is so effective in starting churches, in building up churches, in writing the Bible, I'm writing many books of the Bible, is because not just the gift, but because he had the charity. He truly had a love for the saints. He truly had a love for the lost. That's what made him effective. One of the questions that I've often had when I read the Bible is, you know, he says here, though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains. And obviously, keep in mind, I think it was chapter 9, you know, Paul was addressing the criticism about him whether or not he was an apostle, do you remember that? He was addressing, hey, I am truly an apostle of Christ. And this kind of proves that he was, because who was the one that spoke about having the faith to move mountains before that, it was Jesus Christ. But Paul wasn't there when Jesus Christ, during the ministry of Jesus Christ, those three years from his baptism to his crucifixion, Paul wasn't in that picture. And so this kind of proves, and we've seen this already in this book of Corinthians, that Paul lines up perfectly with the teachings of Jesus Christ. The first few chapters of 1 Corinthians is him pointing them to Jesus Christ, not to man, not to uphold man, he points them back to Christ. And we see his teaching on marriage and divorce lines up perfectly with what Jesus Christ taught. And yet, do you think he had all that to his disposal? You know, the scriptures were still being written, they were still being copied, it's not like he had these things to go by, but the Spirit of God revealed these things to him, and it revealed to him the teaching that Jesus taught about moving mountains through faith. Now, just this idea has always puzzled me, because you never read about anybody moving mountains, right? I mean, there's nobody in the Bible that moves mountains, there's no one that's done it, like today, you don't find people, because they have great faith, moving mountains. So I kind of studied this a little bit a while ago, I don't want to go too much into it, but I actually believe the faith that moves mountains is about preaching the Gospel throughout all nations. I actually believe that's an illustration of preaching the Gospel throughout all nations, because if you remember back in Daniel, with a vision, with a dream that he interpreted of King Nebuchadnezzar and the statue, and if you might remember there was a rock that was cut and destroyed the feet of that statue, and then out of that rock, they grew a mountain, and that mountain represented the Kingdom of God, and then Jesus Christ says about how you can actually, if you have faith, you can remove a mountain and cast it into the sea, and sometimes in the Bible the sea represents the nations, represents the Gentiles, and so my understanding of my study of moving the mountains, this great faith, is taking the Kingdom of God throughout all nations and preaching the Gospel and getting people saved. And that's an illustration of what's taking place, because you're taking that mountain, that Kingdom of God, and it's growing because you're getting people saved of all nations. So I actually believe that's what it's referring to, because you don't see anywhere in the Bible anyone actually physically moving a mountain. And I don't even know what the reason for that would really be. What benefit would there be to move a mountain, but what benefit would there be about preaching the Gospel across all nations? So anyway, that's just something I wanted to point to. I'll just read it to you quickly. Matthew 17 verse 20, this is where Jesus taught about it, and it says, And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief, because they couldn't cast out a devil, because of your unbelief, for verily I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove and nothing shall be impossible unto you. So I'm just trying to point out there that hey, Paul taught the same things that Jesus Christ taught, even though he wasn't there during the ministry of Christ. So Paul is legit, Paul is legit. Now remember, he's writing to the Corinthian church, the Corinthian church had major problems. They were boastful, they had divisions, they had great sins. And so the reason Paul is writing to them about charity now is because there was a lack of charity in the church, there was a lack of love. And that's why this church was falling apart, and Paul had to explain, hey you need a charity. Yeah you've got some gifts, great, but if you don't have a charity, it's nothing, it's not worthwhile. He's even referring to himself, if he doesn't have the charity, it's not worthwhile. Look at verse number 3, 1 Corinthians 13 verse 3, and you know, he expounds on this, And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, so he says, even if I give everything I have, I sell everything I have, and give it to the poor, and feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, if I just sacrifice myself for the service of others, to the point that my body gets burned, I'm totally used up and destroyed. And have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. I mean that's amazing, you can do great, amazing works, but not have charity, and if you don't have charity, it profits you nothing. Think about that, we go out sowing him, we do the works of God, we serve the Lord to our greatest ability, but if we do it without the charity, it profits us nothing. I mean I don't know what impact that has on the rewards in heaven, but I actually believe that also doesn't profit you here on this earth. It probably doesn't give you the satisfaction that serving the Lord truly does if you do it with charity. Because if you do it thinking of others, you're doing it because you want to build a church and edify a church, and help a church grow, and for the love to develop in the church for one another, that's going to be a lot more satisfying than just doing the works for the works sake, right? I mean think about your day to day job. If you're just forced to do your job, forced to do it, without really liking it, you're not going to be as productive, you're not going to be as satisfied. But if you just love your job, you know you love being there, you're going to obviously be more productive, it's going to profit you more, you're going to be more satisfied, because you love what you're doing, right? That's why people that have their own businesses, they start up their own business and things like that, they work the longer hours and they're a lot more passionate, because it's something they truly love, right? Something they truly love and have done for themselves, and so when you serve the Lord, you got to make sure you do it with charity, you do it with love, you do it with passion for others. So that way it profits you, it profits you, it makes it more satisfying, and you're more likely to come back and do it again. Look at verse number four, verse number four. Now it gives us a list of what charity is, okay? So charity is this love in action, how can we ensure that when we serve, we do it through charity? Well, we've got a list here. Now often this list is quoted during marriages. We know when a husband and wife are getting married, they read through this list because it's about love, it's about charity. And I think it is very applicable to a husband and wife, it truly is, but the context is that this is about the church. It's about this church that's falling apart, hey, you need to have charity, you need to make sure you have these attributes in the way you treat one another, your relationship with one another. Look at verse number four, charity suffereth long. What does that mean to suffer? It's an old English word, you know, it means to allow, right? Allow. Charity allows long. What does that mean? You're patient. You're patient with one another. And as we read through this list, I want you to think about this, are you patient with your brethren? Okay? Think about your marriage. Are you patient with your husband, are you patient with your wife? You know, think about, you know, just your friends and your family. Think about, you know, how effective are you at demonstrating charity in your life? And then it says, and is kind. What's kind? Being gentle, right? Being soft and gentle to one another. Charity envieth not. So you rejoice in another person's success. You don't become bitter at someone else's productivity and success. You rather rejoice in that, right? That's if you have charity. Charity vaunteth not itself. So vaunteth means it's not boastful, it doesn't boast about itself, okay? Do you boast about yourself at the expense of others? If you do, then you don't have charity. And then it says, is not puffed up. That's not being prideful, okay? Do you lower yourself and exalt others in the church? You know, do you see yourself lower as someone, hey, how can I serve another person in the church? Or do you see yourself as higher and like, ah man, all these other, you know, believers isn't that up to my standard, you know? No. You know, charity means you lower yourself, you don't exalt yourself, you're not prideful. Verse number five, doth not behave itself unseemly. So charity is of right and proper behavior. Right and proper behavior. Seeketh not her own, it says there. Seeketh not her own. So you're not, you're looking out for the needs of others. You don't seek your own. You don't look at how you can benefit from a problem. You seek, well how can I fix that problem? How can I help fix that problem rather than how do I take advantage of that problem, right? You don't seek your own benefit. Is not easily provoked. You know, you're not easily, if you have charity, you're not easily offended. You know, you take it on the chin a bit, right? If you get a bit of criticism your way, you know, you don't get easily offended, you don't get easily provoked. You think about that, hey, is that legit criticism about me? Is that something I need to change, right? You know, people that are easily offended, they don't have charity. You know, they don't have charity. If you can take a bit of criticism without getting upset, then you've got a bit of charity, right? You're willing to consider what the person has said is true, okay? Then it says, think of no evil. Think of no evil. So you think the best of people. You know, they're innocent until proven guilty, right? You don't get so upset at someone, you think, hey, this person is trying to do the best they can, right? You know, I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt. You don't think evil, you don't think how you can harm others, how you can get them down and put them down. No. You know, you don't think evil, right? Even if it might be evil, you don't think evil straight away. You think, hey, maybe they just, you know, I just need to give them a bit of time, a bit of benefit of the doubt, you know, rather than jump on top of that person straight away. Verse number six, rejoice if not in iniquity. Rejoice if not in iniquity. So, you know, charity doesn't mock the failure of others. And look, Christians, Christians like to kick other Christians when they're down. Honestly. I mean, I've seen this in every church I've been at, when people are down, yep, there comes a Christian to kick them once again while they're down, right? Rather than lift the brother up, let's just kick them as much as we can, that's what happens, right? But that's not how, that's not charity. We don't rejoice in iniquity, right? We don't rejoice in personal sin, okay? We don't rejoice in personal sin, we don't mock the failure of others, right? But then it says, but rejoiceth in the truth. So someone that has charity rejoices in the truth. They want the truth, they desire the truth. It doesn't matter how unpleasant the truth is, right? And the Bible has a lot of unpleasant things to say. But if you have charity, you're going to accept that truth even if it's unpleasant, right? You rejoice in the truth because you know it's the truth of God, right? It's not the truth of man, but the truth that comes from God. Verse number seven, charity beareth all things. What does it mean to bear? It means to carry, right? You carry one another's burdens, you know? Do you listen to others, right? I mean, if someone comes to you with a problem, a struggle that they're having, you know, do you quickly try to, you know, I'm not interested, you know, I don't want to hear that and go away, or, you know, do you have a sincere ear? Are you willing to help that person just get that thing off their chest and help carry a little bit of their burden with them so they can feel better? That's what charity is, right? You look out for the other people. It says believeth all things. Again, this is similar to, you know, not giving people the benefit of the doubt. You know, you're not trying to seek to catch someone in a lie. You believe all things, right? You come with a positive attitude. You think this person's telling me the truth. You're not trying to find them out in a lie, okay? Hopeth all things. So this is someone that's positive, that's hopeful for the future. You know, that's not always negative and cast down. If you have charity, you're positive. You're hoping for things in the future, right? You're hoping for good things to come your way, right? Because again, I think I've preached on this before when I was preaching about being a good friend. If you're always negative, you know, and look, we live in such a blessed country. We have so many things. You know, when I was in Detroit preaching the gospel, you know, the first house, sorry, the first day, I mean, the houses were falling apart, guys. Like the roofs were caved in, you know, the windows were barricaded. You know, it was a black community and people, I mean, you'd walk like through five houses that were deserted and you find one house someone answered and they were like hidden behind bars, right? We have, we don't have that. We don't have these houses just falling apart all over the place, right? We live in a blessed country and it's such a sad thing when Christians are so negative. You bring other people down. Hey, charity means if you have it, you're hopeful. You're thinking of the positive. It doesn't mean you will never go through negative times and need to talk about negative things, but you know, you rejoice in what you have. You don't rather, you don't look down and be upset about the things that you don't have, right? You're positive about the things that you do have. You hope for all things. Then it says endure of all things, endure of all things. You don't give up. If you have charity, it doesn't give up in trials and tribulations. This is a good one for marriage because marriage will always have trials and tribulation. You'll always have problems with your spouse. Once you go through that honeymoon period, once you start living with one another, you realize, hey, they're not perfect after all. They've got their faults, but hey, what's charity? It endure of all things. It's going to last. It's going to last a distance, even if it's difficult, even though there's trials and tribulations. Verse number eight. Now this is the one I want to get to, verse number eight, charity never faileth. And in the context of this verse, what it means by that is charity will last forever. When we look at the gifts of the Spirit, we're going to see soon that these gifts will cease. These gifts, these early gifts that were given to the early church, they're going to be done away with. But one thing that will never be done away with in a church is charity. It will always be there until the time Jesus comes back and takes us home to heaven. We can always express this love and charity toward one another. Look at verse number eight, charity 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. Now before we look at these gifts, okay, before we look at all these gifts and how they're going to fail or cease and vanish away, I want you to turn to 1 Peter chapter four. Keep your finger in 1 Corinthians 13, go to 1 Peter chapter four, because I just want to add one more thing to charity here, okay. First Peter chapter four, verse seven. First Peter chapter four, verse seven. It says this, but the end of all things is at hand. Be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer. And above all things, have fervent charity among yourselves. So just charity, no, fervent charity amongst yourselves, why? For charity shall cover the multitude of sins. What does that mean? That means I know you're all sinners, I'm a sinner, I know you have sins, and I know one day you're going to do something to upset me, and one day I'm going to do something to upset you, right? But if we have the charity in the church, it's going to cover multitudes of sins, right? It's going to allow us to not get so upset and fight and split and get so offended so easily. If we have the charity in place, even when we do wrong and we fail, we're going to be more compassionate toward one another, okay? And that reference in 1 Peter comes from, oh you don't need to turn there, but it comes from Proverbs chapter 10 verse 12. It says, hatred stirreth up strifes, but love covereth all sins. So Peter's quoting the book of Proverbs there, hatred stirreth up strifes, but love covereth all sins. That's not saying we hide sins, but it means we're more compassionate, right? We're not just going to throw someone under the bus as soon as they do something wrong. We're going to give them a time to repent and get right. The opposite in Proverbs 10 and 12 is hatred stirreth up strifes. And if there's strifes in this church, and if there's strifes in any church, I'll tell you why. Because there's hatred. There's hatred and not charity. So we can overcome strife in this church by having the charity rather than hatred toward one another. Now back to, actually turn to 1 Corinthians 14, we'll just take a couple of verses here. So what I'm getting to now is when and why will these spiritual gifts cease? When will they fail? When will they vanish away? Before we do that, I just want to show you one more reason for tongues. Obviously we know tongues was to preach the gospel in other languages, but let's look at 1 Corinthians 14 verse 21. 1 Corinthians 14 verse 21. In the law it is written, with men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people, and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord. Wherefore tongues are for a sign. A sign to who? Not to them that believe. Are tongues for believers? Do I come here speaking in another tongue for your sake? No. Okay, that wouldn't work. If I just start speaking Spanish right now, will you guys understand, or maybe Nicholas and a couple of you guys will, but not many of you will understand, right? It's not for the church, not for believers. It says here, but to them, in verse 22, but to them that believe not. So if there's a Spanish speaker out there that's unsaved, I can go to them and speak in Spanish the gospel. I can teach them the wonderful works of God in Spanish. It's for the unbeliever. And again, think about the modern day tongue movement. Where do they speak in tongues? Are they preaching the gospel to the unbeliever in tongues? No. They're doing that in the church, amongst the so-called believers, amongst the so-called Christians in the church. So again, just to reinforce the fact that what they do is totally unscriptural. In fact, what they do is the opposite to what we read in the Bible. The rest of it says, but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe. So prophesying preaching is for those that believe. Anyway, I just wanted to show you that truth from 1 Corinthians 14. So understand, when the gift of tongues was being given, it was to preach the gospel to go throughout all the nations, all tongues, right? That was the purpose of it. And I think, yeah, we read that in Romans 10, if you want to turn there, Romans 10 17, Romans 10 17, it just confirms this truth. Romans 10 17, Romans 10 is an excellent chapter about preaching the gospel. It talks about just the process of someone believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. But Romans 10 17 says this, so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So you can understand why people of other tongues and nations need to hear in their language so they can have faith to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, right? But then look at verse 18, but I say, have they not heard? Yes, verily, the sound went into all the earth and their words unto the ends of the world. So even here in this time, when the book of Romans was written, the gospel had gone throughout the whole world. They had heard why? Because of the gift of tongues. Remember, starting from the book of Acts chapter 2, the day of Pentecost, people came from all nations, heard the gospel, they eventually had to go home, they got saved, they went preaching the gospel, it went throughout the whole world. That was the purpose. Because guess what? They didn't have a Bible. They didn't have the completed New Testament just yet. And as we read through, you'll understand that once this New Testament was completed, once the scriptures were canonized, these gifts were done away with. And I know there are other Christians that have a different interpretation to this, but this is the interpretation, and I'll try to prove it to you with other scriptures, this is the interpretation that I believe, is that the tongues and these gifts of prophecies were ceased when the Bible was completed. Because now we've got all the Word of God. Now if you need it to go into all the world, you can translate from the Greek or the Hebrew, and now when you've got the King James Bible, you can even translate straight from the English to go through it. Most Bibles, I read about this, most Bibles that are in a foreign tongue today, like all the main foreign tongues, and even the lesser tribal tongues, were translated straight from the King James Bible, because people know English, and they take the English and they translate it into other languages. Now back to 1 Corinthians 13, verse 8, charity never faileth, but whether there be prophecies they shall fail. What's these words? They shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. What does it mean to cease? To finish, right? Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away, disappear. Now prophecies, now understand this, it doesn't mean that, because prophecies are just proclaiming the Word of God. Does that mean it doesn't exist anymore? No, because I'm preaching right now. In a way, I am prophesying right now because I'm proclaiming the words of God, right? And what about tongues? No, I mean, like I said, I can speak Spanish, some of you guys might be able to speak in other languages. Okay, so, I mean, it's not that you can't speak in other tongues or prophesy or even have knowledge, it still exists, but that specific gift that was given is done away with, okay? I mean, if you want to speak in tongues you can, but it's just going to require a lot of effort to study that language, it's not going to just happen like that, okay? But they shall cease, they shall fail, they shall vanish away, okay? So again, the modern-day tongue-speaking movement, ask them, when did it cease? I mean, it says it's going to cease, it's going to vanish away, ask them when? Well for them it's never going to cease or vanish away, right? So I mean, look, the Bible's very clear that there's going to come a time when it ceases and we're going to see when it does. Now let me just explain a couple of things here. By prophecies, because the Apostle Paul and the other apostles did not have a completed New Testament, I believe by prophecies what they're saying is they were able to preach the Word of God, like the whole Word of God, the full thing in context, even though it wasn't fully completed, wasn't fully copied and handed out, which explains why Paul knew what Jesus taught. He was given that prophecy as a gift of the Spirit, something that was miraculous. And then by tongues, again, the spontaneous language, so that he was able to preach the Gospel in other language prior to the Bible existing and the Bible being able to be translated and going out throughout the whole world. And then he says all knowledge, right, whether there be knowledge. In verse 2 he said all knowledge, he has all knowledge. So he had a perfect understanding, I believe a perfect understanding was given to the apostles prior to the completion of the New Testament, okay? So they could preach sound, sound doctrine, rather than just bits and pieces, okay? And again, the proof of that is that the Bible was written by, not just Paul, but by Peter and by James, and yet you put those things side by side and by Jude, and it's perfectly aligned, it's perfectly consistent, even though there were other people writing it, and, you know, copies weren't done, it's because the Holy Spirit was able to give them that knowledge, was able to give them the all knowledge, right? They knew what the other apostles were going to be writing about, so when they taught, sound doctrine, they were able to teach the New Testament, what we read in the New Testament, even without having those scriptures at hand, okay? Look at verse number 9, verse number 9, for we know in part and we prophesy in part. So remember the for is a conjunction, okay, because, okay, so it's attaching itself to verse number 8. So when he says in verse number 8, these things shall vanish, these things will fail, they will cease. Why will they cease? Why will they vanish? Because or for we know in part and we prophesy in part. So again, just pretty much what I said to you, the scriptures weren't completed. So they had parts of what they were preaching, they had parts of what they were teaching, the scriptures were in parts, it wasn't all completed just yet, okay? That's why it was going to cease at some point, because right now it existed because things were in parts, okay? But then they were going to cease when they were no longer in parts, okay, that the prophecies and the knowledge wasn't going to be just in parts. Look at verse number 10, verse number 10, all these things go together. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. So what was in part? The prophesying, the tongues, the all knowledge, all of that was the part, those things will be done away with when that which is perfect is come. And I put forward to you that that which is perfect is the completed New Testament, the complete canonization of the Bible, that which is perfect. And I know some people believe this is actually talking about Jesus Christ, and yet I can kind of understand and I think that you can take some principles and some truth and apply it to Jesus Christ, but would you call, would you say to Jesus, that which? You know, you'd say that, like, you'd say who, right? This isn't talking about a person, but talking about a thing. But that which is perfect is come, sorry, then that which is, which in part shall vanish away. You know, Jesus is not a that, okay? Now, let me just see what I was going to think about here. Turn to 2 Peter chapter 1, 2 Peter chapter 1, 2 Peter chapter 1, because, see, a natural man, let's say an unbeliever, and even maybe even a believer, if I could speak spontaneously in another language right now, that would be pretty miraculous, right? If I could just prophesy, you know, future events and it just came true, that would be pretty impressive. If I could just move a mountain, you know, with faith, you guys would be pretty impressed by that, right? So, like, an unbeliever would think, man, if these prophecy, sorry, if these gifts of the Spirit were still in effect, that would be amazing, okay? Why would it need to vanish away? You know, why would it, I mean, is the scripture, is the Bible really more effective than these miracles? Is it really more effective than these gifts? And yet, turn to 2 Peter chapter 1, because the Bible is more effective than these miracles and these gifts, okay? Remember, Jesus Christ was doing amazing miracles, right? He was raising the dead, you know, he was healing the sick, he was making the lame to walk, and did everyone just fall on their knees and believe in Christ? No, right? Look at 1 Peter, sorry, 2 Peter chapter 1, 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 16. This is Peter speaking, remember, Peter was there with Jesus Christ from the beginning, right? And this is what he says in verse 16. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables. So he's talking about that, you know, he hasn't followed or believed false reports or things that were made up. He says, but, sorry, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. So Peter says, look, we witnessed Jesus Christ. We were here when he was on this earth in his ministry. Verse 17. For he received from God the Father honour and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. When did that happen? That was the baptism of Jesus Christ, remember? When Jesus was baptised, the heavens, the voice came out of the heavens to the Father saying this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Peter witnessed that. Peter saw that. He just saw that miracle, okay? And then verse 18. And this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount. So this is a transfiguration of Jesus Christ when Moses and Elijah were there with him on the mount and, you know, the apostles were scared, you know, they were scared about what they saw. So they saw these amazing miracles. They saw Jesus Christ in his glory, but look at verse 19. We have also a more sure word of prophecy. So we have something that's more sure. We have something that's more reliable. What is it? The word of prophecy. Where unto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day start arise in your hearts. What is this sure word of prophecy? Verse 20, knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. So Paul says, wait, we saw the amazing miracles of Christ. We saw him in his majesty. We saw the Father speak to him from heaven. I mean that's fantastic, but you know what's even better? What's even more sure? What's even more reliable? The scriptures. The scriptures we testify of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because why? Because it's the word of God that brings faith into our lives. It's the word of God that brings faith for someone to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not the miracles. It's the word of God that brings faith. That's the effective power that we have today in the Bible. That's why we don't need these gifts of miracles because even if we had them, it wouldn't be as effective as the word of God. We have the completed word of God with us right now. Instead of us doing things in part, prophesying in part, speaking in tongues in part, no, we have the sure word of God today and that's why our church is built upon the scriptures. What the scriptures say, we teach. Go back to 1 Corinthians 13, 1 Corinthians 13 verse 11. He continues to expound on this, 1 Corinthians 13 verse 11. When I was a child, I spoke as a child. I understood as a child, I thought as a child, and when I became a man, I put away childish things. First of all, this is an analogy of a child that matures, a child that grows up to be a man. He says, when I was a child, I used to play with toys, I thought as a child, I spoke as a child, children generally laugh at immature things. You guys will realise this when you're older, you'll be like, why did we laugh at that? It was so stupid. It's just going to happen, right? Because when you grow up, you put away the childish things. And let me just say, if you're an adult and you're still playing with childish things, you've got to grow up, you've got to man up, but that's not what it's about. This is an analogy about what we've just been discussing, these gifts. What he's doing, he's likening the gifts of tongues, the gifts of prophecies, the gifts of all that, all those things that look so fantastic, and we think, man, it'd be so good if we had them today. He's likening that to a child. He says, that's like having been a child. But then when you become a man, you put away those childish things. Why? Because something has come that's more perfect, which is the word of God. So people that are still hoping, man, I want to talk in tongues, you know, the modern Pentecostal movement, hey, you're looking for childish things, grow up, read your Bible, because it's all there. All the prophecies of God is there, all the knowledge of God is there. And if you want tongues, hey, learn a language. So you can go and preach the gospel to another nation if that's what you want to do, right? But really what they want to do is just be full of pride, you know, look at me, you know, the God's given me this gift of gibberish, right? It's full of pride. It's not charity, because charity doesn't boast, okay? Charity doesn't puff up, but that's what the modern-day Pentecostal movement does. They puff themselves, they think they're so good, they think they're so high and mighty, they think God's given this wonderful gift, hey, but they're thinking of childish things, and what they're doing is not scriptural anyway. It's probably a movement of the devil, okay? Now, look at verse 12, verse 12. For now we see through a glass. Now this isn't talking about like a window, sometimes the Bible talks about a glass like a mirror, okay, and in this stage it's referring to a mirror. We now see through a glass. So when you look at a mirror, you can see yourself, right, but it says, for now, not like 2018, but for now when he wrote this letter to 1 Corinthians, for now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face. So right now, the mirror we look at is murky, it's cloudy, it's dark, we can't see our face very well, but there's going to come a time when we can see face to face. We can see our own face in that mirror, it's going to be completely clear, okay? Now I know in part, but then shall I know, even as I also am known. Okay, so without the completed New Testament, it was kind of murky to them, okay, all these teachings, all the things that we have to our disposal, and what a shame, what a shame if we don't read the Bible, because back then they would have loved to see face to face, but today we can see that, we don't have to see through a glass darkly. Now in a sense we kind of still do, because there's still a future to come, you know, we don't still fully understand what it's like to have that resurrected body, to be living in the millennium with Christ, to be living in all eternity, from a sense, from a physical sense, yeah, we still see through a glass darkly, but when it comes to the Word of God, when it comes to prophecy, when it comes to preaching the Gospel, when it comes to the clarity of what we see, of salvation, and the doctrines that we have in the Bible, we don't need to see that darkly. We've got the Scriptures to enlighten us, to reveal God's truth to us, okay? So it's a shame if we don't read our Bibles, because man, we've been given a great honour that we can see something face to face, because now I know in part, but then shall I know even as I am known. So it's talking about this clear mirror, which I believe is the completed Bible. Now I'm going to try to prove this a little bit further, please keep your finger there in 1 Corinthians 13, and please turn to James chapter 1, James chapter 1, okay? James chapter 1 verse 23, James chapter 1 verse 23, and this is a pretty common passage, but it says this, For if any be a hearer of the Word, Now what's the Word? The Bible, the Scriptures, right, the Word of God. For if any be a hearer of the Word, and not a doer, He is like unto a man beholding his natural face, where? In a glass, or in a mirror. So the Word of God here is being described as a mirror, right? If you hear the Word, it's like you're looking at a mirror, okay? So by comparing James to 1 Corinthians 13, we can see this relationship there, with the glass or the mirror, referring to the Word of God. And then verse 24 says, For he beholdeth himself, for he looks at himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. So if you hear the Word of God, but you don't do it, it's like you look in a mirror, you see yourself, but then you forget what you look like, because you're not doing the works. But if you do the works, you'll remember what you look like, because the Scriptures has a strange way of being like a mirror. You can read the Scriptures, and you can read about yourself. You see the sins that you struggle with. You see where you stand positionally before God, either as an unbeliever, unsaved and on your way to hell, or as a believer, as a saved child of God, that ought to serve him with all our might, ought to love him with all our love, strength, might and mind. It serves as a mirror to reflect back on us, and if we're doing the work of God, we're going to remember the things that we've read, like looking into a mirror. And so I believe that's the parallel there to 1 Corinthians 13, talking about that mirror being cleared, is because now we have the whole Word of God available to our disposal. Now look at verse, go back to 1 Corinthians 13, 1 Corinthians 13 verse 13. 1 Corinthians 13, 13. That was the memory of us, wasn't it? It says, and now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three. But the greatest of these is charity. So it says, look, when all these gifts are done away with, these amazing gifts are done away with, there are three things that are still going to abide, they're still going to last forever, okay? That is faith, right? Of course, because you need to be saved by faith, and we need to live by faith, we need to walk by faith, hope, right? Hoping for the Lord's return, being positive, being hopeful about God's future for you, for your service to the Lord, and charity, that's what we've been focusing on, the love toward the brethren, right? But the greatest of these is charity. The greatest of these, maybe that should be the title of the sermon, the greatest of these is charity, right? So what abides after these spiritual gifts are gone? Love, hope, charity. These are the greatest things, if you go back to 1 Corinthians 12, verse 31, remember we were going through this list of gifts, then he said this, but covet earnestly the best gifts. So it's good to covet gifts, but then it says, and yet shall I answer you a more excellent way. The more excellent way is what we just read about in chapter 13. That is having charity for your brethren, okay? If there are any questions that you want me to answer, maybe I feel jet-lagged, if there's something that I did not explain very well, please ask me after the service, let's pray.