The Power of Agape Love, Pt. 2 (08/06/2023)

Very good. Thank you guys. You're up here early this morning preparing too.

That's a bit of a sacrifice. You can turn mine down just a hair, Ben. Bobby, thanks for...

I see lots of new lights that are working. Appreciate that very much. He's always doing something around here to make this...

Are the fixtures aren't working? Oh, that one. Yeah. Oh, well, we don't need that.

Just show how little hair I've got. That's okay. Just leave that one. Might create glory up here.

Yeah. Anyway, appreciate it so much. Good to see all of you. Viviana, good to see you back and smiling, feeling better.

I'm hoping. Good. And all of you, great to see you today. Well, I will get right into this.

I thoroughly enjoyed our Sunday school class, adult Sunday school class today. Very thought provoking about revival and, you know, how man can't really cause it.

God has to do it. And there's a lot of people that don't get that, but that's okay. Great lesson though,

Ben. Super. A lot to think about. You might just teach the same one next Sunday. We can keep thinking about it.

That was good. Yeah, I have seen many efforts at revival. I've seen two.

Well, one of them I didn't see it was Dr. Freeman's. I wasn't there, but I heard it about it. My grandmother saw it in my head.

It actually happened the same spring that I got saved, but I was in Waco. I went in my head, so I didn't

I didn't observe it. But a hundred and something people were saved at that revival. Many of them young people that were on drugs and stuff.

And some of those are preachers even today. And then Brother Myron and his wife,

Tony, invited me to one out on the East Coast. It was quite interesting, quite amazing. But I've seen many attempts at revival where, you know, this

Lord didn't decide to bring it. And I'm talking about at churches, not national. Ben's lesson was on national revival, which is a completely different topic.

But boy, did it did it mirror the United States of America.

And when you look at the state that Israel was in when this occurred, it reminds me so much of the state we're surrounded by now in America.

And it's almost it's almost like we're striving against the same things. The only thing is the

Lord does not allow us to burn things down and kill people like he allowed in the Old Testament. I mean, he went out and slew the false prophets and burned their bones.

And so, you know, I would turn that right over to Noah to let him do that for us if we could still do it.

But anyway, it was quite a great lesson. Well, we're we are going to change the subject a little bit to about having a revival in our marriages.

So we're talking we're talking about marriage and a little bit about child rearing and things like that.

And let me see. Let me get my notes to kind of where we are now. Last time,

I think I mentioned that the apostle Paul provides the definition of love and Peter defines the dimension of love.

And we were still on the definition and we covered most of that, but not all of it.

So turn with me to First Corinthians 13 and verse eight, and we'll pick up right there where we kind of where we left off and hopefully get into the dimension of God's love, which to me is fascinating.

And First Corinthians 13 for let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for the service already today and for our

Sunday school classes and the power of your word and how it fills our hearts and our minds with thoughts and determinations and things we want to change in our own lives.

And Lord, thank you for always reviving us by your word. And so we ask you to teach us in this hour in Jesus name.

Amen. Remember where you see the word charity starting there in verse four of First Corinthians 13.

It is the Greek word agape, and so a modern translation would be just simply the word love.

In the King James 1611 day, charity didn't mean exactly what it means now.

That word has changed over time, the meaning of it. And so just insert the word love either in your mind or pencil it right there in your

Bible. So love suffereth long and is kind. Love envieth not, love vaulteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly.

Seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoices in truth.

Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

Charity never fails, but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease.

Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. And we find in this little passage, it's interesting to look at the context, which if we have time, we will a little more later this morning.

But this is God's definition of agape love. And agape is that kind of love that only a

Christian can have because it comes from God. God is love, and when God enters your body at the moment of your regeneration and your body becomes the temple of the living

God, then it becomes the temple of God's love as well. And that is the predominant symptom of a person who's really saved as opposed to a person who's religious and knows all the verbiage from the

Bible and can say all the right Bible words and Bible phrases and all of that. The difference is a true

Christian, you can look in their eyes, you can see the love, you can see the kindness. If you don't see that, then make note of it.

Because within a year, most likely that person will create problems in the church. I've observed it for 40 years, and fortunately the

Lord has protected us through all of that all these years. And you just have to know what the

Bible says happens when a person is born again and what the symptoms are. Now, all of us can be in the flesh, though.

But if you're looking at seasons of time, then all of a sudden you start to see patterns.

And we learned that in the stock market. Like one dot does not make a pattern, does it, Dave? You've got to have at least three.

So one event doesn't make a pattern. You could have a Christian treat you unkindly, and he can be real, or she can be real, correct?

But you know what the real Christian does? Jesus says, don't let the sun go down on your anger.

And it says, before you come to the altar, and that's a picture. We don't really need an altar in the New Testament church, but it's a picture of coming to worship

God. Before you come to the altar, you go to the brother and get right with him and then come back. That's what

God says, and that's what a true, genuine born -again person will do. If they don't do that, then you're not to judge.

I mean, you don't know. God knows, but your trust level goes down a lot when you see that not happening as far as someone claiming to be a

Christian. Because here's the very definition. Now, we talked last time about half of it, maybe not quite, but pretty close to half.

We talked about the fact that love was patient and kind and that it doesn't envy.

And we talked about the fact that it's not easily provoked to anger. We talked about the fact that it doesn't make a, if you remember this, like a laundry list of evil things that your spouse has done.

And I mentioned last time about Dr. Freeman's rule that he and Pat taught me in Charlotte when we didn't even have kids yet.

And he said, look, here's the rule. When you're married, it's normal to fight, you know, have spats.

I don't think we've ever had a fight, but we have spats, all right? And he said, but here's the deal. Once you kiss and make up, then when you have the next spat, it is not permitted to bring the previous one up ever again.

You don't get to bring that stuff up and bring it into this argument. You see the point? Great advice, great advice.

But we talked about that. And so let's pick up on some of the ones we didn't quite cover yet.

In the scripture, right after it says, love envies not, it says, it vaulteth not itself.

And that means it doesn't brag on itself. And now remember, this whole thing is sort of a, we're going to talk a little bit about figures of speech today.

Some of you guys that are still teaching in school, like you know them all, you remember, we've all forgotten them, right? I'll remind you of some of them.

But this is personification because it's taking love and treating it as it's a person.

So if love is a person, here's how it would act. But really what it's trying to get us to do is say, okay, if we have love in us, here's how we will act.

You see the point? And I think it's beautiful how the Holy Spirit personified love, but he's pointing out, okay, this is you.

If you love a person, this is you. And if they love you, this is them. And this is how it works. And so when it says that it doesn't brag on itself, the main thought behind that is it's thinking of the other party more than himself.

In a marriage, the spouse is thinking of the other spouse being successful, the other spouse being happy, the spouse being, you know, walking down that line of finding

God's will in their life step by step, and you're happy for them, and you're not sitting there bragging on how

God's done all that in your own life. And secondly, then it said, and this is interesting that it's right next to it.

It's almost like an emphasis because the next one says it's not puffed up. Now it's not the same

Greek word as vaunteth not would be, but it's, it's actually the

Greek word means to be inflated. So this is a really good English translation, puffed up.

And we have that expression in English for a person that is sort of bragging about themselves.

They're puffed up. It kind of means the same thing, doesn't it? So why do you think the Lord put it twice there?

It's an, it's an emphasis on this particular point, but where it says it's not puffed up, it might be even a stronger word for bragging than just to say the word bragging.

So this, this is showing that you, you want to be very careful that your spouse doesn't look at you and think that you're puffed up, that you think everything's all about you.

It's not about them. And so that's the sense of that one.

And if you love the person, then you'll work at this, you'll work at making this so all right, the next one, it does not act unseemly.

Now that's a great old English word that we don't use a lot, but it's a very, very important word in today's society because so much is unseemly.

And so let's kind of track this meaning down a little bit. You could, you could say a synonym of unseemly is unbecoming.

And really the Greek word, that's a very good translation, unbecoming.

But what does it mean? Well, if you look up in Webster, see what it means in English, because this is a great translation of the

Greek word. So it's going to give the meaning of the Greek word, basically. It's not according with established standards of good form or taste.

Now it's interesting because in society, those standards change, don't they? Well, in the

Bible, they don't change. So when you have a society that is not informed by scripture, because all they ever hear is little platitudes in church, little 20 minute devotionettes, and they're not getting down into the word to see what the

Bible actually says about what is appropriate, then whole societies become unseemly in God's eyes.

And they think they're just fine in their own eyes because they're just doing what everybody else is doing. And that's what's happening in our poor old sick nation.

So it means not according to established standards of good form and taste, not suitable for the time or the place.

Now this is a secular translation I'm giving you here. It can mean inappropriate, unseasonable, graceless, improper.

I like this word, undecorous, unsuitable. So I think that it's very easy to think about times when we've seen people do something and we go, wow, that was kind of not real appropriate, or say something like that.

And this is what it's saying, that love does not make a practice of acting in an unseemly fashion towards the one it loves.

Well, that could straighten out a lot of marriages. And I would have to say when

I was younger, it would be the guys that were mostly unseemly. But nowadays,

I've walked out of restaurants and seen groups of college kids where the girls were cussing every other word and just curse words left and right.

To me, that was unseemly. But we don't do this. We don't act this way to people that we love.

And then the next one, it says, love does not seek the well -being of self first, but of the other.

Love does not seek the well -being of self first, but of the other. For example, in Philippians 2 .4,

it says, look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

And Philippians 2 .20 says, for I have no man like minded who will naturally care for your state.

Paul's talking to a church that had some needs and he said, I can't find another minister that will even come help you.

I don't find another person like minded who will naturally care for your state. For all these other ministers seek their own, not the things which are of Jesus Christ.

That's kind of creepy. That's talking about the ministers. So that one says love doesn't act that way.

Love is not easily provoked, it says, to anger. It doesn't think evil or make that laundry list of evil towards the other person.

It doesn't sit there and make a list of weaknesses they have and think about that all the time. Genuine love doesn't do that.

The Bible says love covers the multitude of sins. It does the opposite. You see, the modern church likes to teach transparency.

Tell a person exactly what you think about them, because it will help them be better. The Bible doesn't say do that. The Bible says love covers the multitude of sins.

You overlook their weaknesses and you pray. I mean, you might notice them, but you can pray and ask the

Holy Spirit to strengthen them in that area. You don't have to tell them how bad they are all the time. I don't know anybody in this room that likes to hear that.

I don't care who you are. You don't like other people telling you your weaknesses. You know why? Because you're saved and you're good and you don't want to be bad.

So you don't want to even think you did anything wrong. Am I right there? You don't want to think you did anything wrong.

So when someone starts to point them out, it feels really bad. Now there are times when the Bible says we ought to rebuke and admonish, but if you check the context of that, that is in the context of the elders rebuking and admonishing church members that need that because they're in sin, open sin that the society around has noticed.

It's a little different than what I see some people in the modern church thinking is their goal is to point out everyone's weaknesses.

I don't think that's taught in Scripture. I mean, show me Jesus. Did Jesus ever do that to his followers?

The only people I see him doing that to are the Pharisees. You with me on that? I mean, that's my observation.

So there are tactful and kind ways to deal with people in your life, even if it's a spouse that may have a weakness that you think could be helpful to them if they knew about it and got rid of it.

But you got to be so careful how you do that, because if their mind's not open, they're not going to listen anyway. They're just going to feel bad about it.

So the best thing is to pray about it. And if you think you need to play a role in it, which often you don't, you just let the

Lord do it. But if you do, you just pray and say, Lord, open the door where maybe they bring it up.

I'm not going to bring it up. Maybe open a door where their mind would be open if you want me to say something.

If you don't, I'm just going to let you work on them. That is the best, not only in marriages, but in relationships among brothers and sisters in church as well.

All right. So it's interesting that it moves on down, talks about not easily provoked, thinks no evil.

Then it rejoices not in iniquity. Now, that's kind of a weird

Greek word, actually. Kairo, which means cheerful or happy.

And so love is not cheerful or happy when it sees the person it's love in sin or iniquity.

Well, that seems like obvious that that would be the case. But love does not rejoice in sin.

And now you think about couples, men and women together.

Think about it in our society, young people starting to date or have a boyfriend or girlfriend.

If either one of them truly loves the other, they will not rejoice in iniquity together.

Does that make sense? They won't rejoice in things that are not godly that they could do together.

And it could be a place they're going, a place they shouldn't go, that they go together. It could be music they listen to that the

Holy Spirit doesn't want to listen to it with them. It could be anything. But that's what this means is if you love that person, you won't do things together that rejoices in sin or makes sin seem fun or happy.

And that's interesting that it says that about love, but it certainly does. Then it says what it does rejoice in.

It does not rejoice in sin. It does rejoice in the truth. Now, where is the truth?

There we go. So like if you love another person, you talk about this with them.

The Bible even says God rejoices when he looks down and sees two of his people talking about this together. Right?

So the Lord loves that. That conversation we were having at the end of a

Sunday school class, the Lord loves that stuff. When we're sitting there thinking, we're iron sharpening iron.

We're all thinking and have different thoughts about what the passage might mean. We don't even have to all agree about it.

But if we keep discussing it long enough, we will come to a consensus about everything in the

Bible. In my opinion, if we're keeping the 10 rules of Bible interpretation and we're relying on the

Holy Spirit to teach us. Yeah. So the Lord just loves those kinds of discussions. So love rejoices in truth.

And that is such an important thing in a marriage is having that Bible in the home and having it not dusty on the coffee table, but actually looking into it together and talking about it together.

And then look at this one. Love bears all things. The Greek word literally means covers something in silence patiently.

Isn't that interesting? Cover something in silence patiently. That doesn't sound like you're being so transparent that every time your spouse does something wrong, you point it out.

Does it doesn't sound like that to me, but that's a, that's a sure road to a divorce right there.

But it bears all things. Like if you love the person you bear up under all their weaknesses, because you, you, you wouldn't have married them if you didn't think if you didn't already see those anyway.

Now that's, I don't like, I really don't like marriages that happen so quickly that you haven't had time together enough to know the good, the bad and the ugly.

Like you've actually had a few spats together while you were dating where you didn't, you disagreed on something.

How did that work out? You know, did that work out well? Do you like some things in common?

You don't have to like everything in common. I mean, you're a man and a woman, you're not going to like everything in common, but are there some things you just love doing together?

Things like that. You know, those are the things that you start to build on is that friendship before the marriage and then during the marriage.

And that last, that's the thing that lasts the whole marriage is that friendship and enjoying doing certain things together.

And so what's, what's interesting about it though, as far as how love treats the things you don't enjoy about your spouse, it bears, it just bears it.

It bears up under it. It just like, it just, it doesn't matter. Like you can bear the weight of that easily because you love them so much.

If you want to pick on somebody, we can all pick on each other all the time.

That's why that's the only thing I can see in the whole Bible that says grieves the Holy Spirit. It says very clearly, it grieves the

Holy Spirit when we don't have unity and when we pick on each other. So it's not good, especially in a marriage.

So it bears all things. How much is all? It's a little Greek word, pos.

So how would you define it? Sometimes it literally means universally all. Sometimes it means some from every group of things.

What do you think it means in this case? All, that's exactly what it means.

All right. The next thing it teaches that love believes all things. Now, isn't that interesting?

So someone tells you that they saw your spouse doing something and your spouse says,

I didn't do that. Who are you going to believe? You're going to believe your spouse because if you love them, you're going to believe what they're saying.

It literally means to trust the one you love in all things. And if your spouse does do something wrong and comes to you and ask forgiveness, having already confessed it to the

Lord and ask for his forgiveness, what should you do? You should forgive them. And now

I will tell you this. If you have a case in a marriage where, where there is a guilty party and it has to do with adultery, the council that I've given people through the years is okay.

But the, but the guilty party wants forgiveness is asking for forgiveness. Then you ought to forgive them, but it, but they need, and I'll, I will tell the guilty party in front of the other spouse, you know, you have to understand that this person no longer has to trust you on certain things.

Like you need to let them look at your phone anytime they want to see it. You don't even need to have a password on it. Let them pick it up and look at it whenever they want to.

I know generally that's not right, but now, because you did what you did, you now owe that to them.

So you're going to need to be like that. You're going to need to be where you're okay with that.

And you're going to need to know that it's going to take you three to five years to build back that person's trust by living right, rather than just saying stuff.

You could use alcoholism as an example. The alcoholic says, Oh, I'm not going to touch it again. Well, are you just going to, let's say that's your spouse.

Are you just going to believe it? Are you going to say, okay, I, I believe you mean it, but I want to see you live it for a while.

That's okay. It doesn't mean you don't require the guilty party to prove themselves over a period of time, because that is just fair.

And a good counselor will tell the guilty party, you must allow your spouse to question you and look into things and know where you're going and when you're going to be back and don't get upset with them.

If they even call your friend that you said you went fishing with and see if you did, you got to let them do it and not get upset for about three years, three to five years.

Are you good with that? Yeah, I'm good with that. Well, then that works. So what happened there is the trust was violated in a serious manner.

Well, you reap what you sow when you do that. So this idea of believing all things is general.

It doesn't apply in a case where one of the two spouses has in a guilty manner, totally obliterated the trust and the heart of their spouse.

Yeah, you can forgive them, but you don't have to trust them for a while. You got, they need to prove themselves. And that can be done and work very well in marriages be even stronger after that.

Okay. So I've seen that before. How about hopes all things?

Well, I remember the English word hope has changed from the time it was translated into hope.

But what is the, what is the real Greek word mean behind the idea of hope? Who can tell me in kind of layman terms, what it means?

Does it mean, I hope the Cowboys will win, but they probably won't. Does it mean that? Or what does it mean?

Yeah. Great. That's word for word, a joyful expectation of a certain future event.

So when the Bible says that love hopes all things, what it means is in a good translation is, uh, it expects good things to come out of this marriage, right?

It hopes all things it expects good things in the future, in this marriage.

And in day to day, that expectation is there. All right. How about endures all things?

That's interesting. It comes from the Greek word hoop on Nate, a no and it means to bear up under or to stay under to remain under.

Um, so to stay under or remain under.

So if it's true that love endures all things, then it's very difficult in a

Christian marriage where both spouses are born again. Uh, it's very difficult for that marriage to break up because if it's true that genuine agape love can bear up under even bad things happening, then they tend to stay together even when bad things happen.

Now there's some interesting, um, corollaries to this that we'll, we'll get to in this study.

Um, especially where one of the spouses is not saved, or even when one of the spouses claims to be saved, but does not exhibit the fruit of a saved person.

Uh, then you may or may not bear up under that for a whole lifetime. You don't have to, by the way, most preachers think you do.

Scripture doesn't indicate it. And that's a little beyond the scope of this study is a, is a study of divorce.

So I'm not going to go into that in this study, but we could, but it would be a very long study in and of itself.

Um, a scripture on divorce. Um, most preachers learn it in seminary when they're young and they don't picture themselves ever having one.

Would you agree with that? So they're not interested in the topic. So they do not study it on their own. And so a lot of what preachers believe about it has been obtained from another human being that said, here's, here's how it works without them actually looking at scripture.

So, uh, when you actually look at scripture, it comes out quite a bit different. And you find out a lot of the catch phrases are taken completely out of context about what we think divorce is and shouldn't be and should be in all that.

Uh, I'll just leave it at this. God invented it for a good reason. It was God who invented it and it was for a good reason sometimes.

So I don't want to go any further in it. Maybe we'll discuss it at some future time in detail, but, um, let's see, endures all things, uh, uh, never fails.

Well, uh, the literal Greek word means to drop away. Um, it cannot be driven out of one's course.

You cannot be driven out of a course. So if, if you love a person, if you genuinely have a gap, a love for a person, uh, that love doesn't fail.

Um, it is true that you can love a person and choose not to stay with them though. When you say, oh, brother

David, where are you going with this? Well, trust me, I've, I got an interest in divorce at one point in my life, a personal interest, not with me and my wife, but with someone in my family.

And so I studied it in detail for hours and hours and hours and every verse in the old

Testament and the new Testament and ask the Holy spirit to help me put it together in the sense that he means it.

And so I have a different view of that. Uh, almost as vividly different as my old view of when the rapture happens compared to what

I think the Bible teaches, because the same thing happened there. I didn't have a personal interest in it as a young man.

I just took other people's word for it. And when you actually look in scripture in detail and you keep the 10 rules

Bible interpretation and you use the real definitions of the Greek words and you look at it in detail, it can change your view of what

God means by something. So I do have a different view of it now. And if you're interested in private and want to ask me, what are you talking about up there?

I'd be happy to discuss it with you. Even, even provide you with a paper

I've written on. It's not complete. I want to write a book on it someday, but I don't want it to be my first book. So, because I haven't written a book yet and published a book.

I don't want that to be the first one, but I would like for it to be one. So I have started, but it's not anywhere near complete, but it's interesting.

So when you have two spouses that are both genuinely born again, and then they have this agape love, because it's

God in them that loves the other party. And therefore the love is not based on what the other party does.

Then it's really hard to dissolve that marriage. That marriage will tend to be together till the rapture.

And then we'll find out who's right about the rapture, right? I hope I'm wrong about it. Charlotte hopes

I'm wrong. Everybody hopes, my mother used to hope I was wrong about it. But, okay.

So that completes the definition of, of love.

But I would like to continue with this a little bit, because in the context that this is found in is very, very important.

I mean, this obviously was a definition of God saying, here's what love is. If it's real, this is it. If it's for me, this is what it is.

If it's agape, this is what it is. But you noticed I started with verse four and that doesn't start with verse four.

It starts with verse one and actually begins in the previous chapter to get the context of it. I want to look at that just a little bit this morning.

So that would lead me to discuss, hopefully briefly, one of the most misunderstood portions of Scripture in the whole

Bible, at least by today's church, the modern church. One of the most misunderstood portions of Scripture in the whole

Bible by the modern church is in the context of this definition of love.

I want to make the point that what this whole thing is about is what we just discussed, love.

The whole context is about love. And anytime you want to take something out of context, say, no, it's about this over here.

You got to be really careful. You just pull one verse out. Maybe it's right above all these verses, 14, 16 different points on love.

And right above that is a verse that says something. And you pull that out and you leave this out and you want that to be the main thing, you can get in real trouble.

And so there is such a passage as that in this context. And I think it's one of the most misunderstood portions of Scripture.

So I just want to mention it since we're here. But before we do that, let's review. I told you we're going to have a grammar lesson this morning.

Let's review a couple of figures of speech that we learned in grammar school.

One is personification, which we just discussed that a little bit, didn't we? Who can tell me in layman's terms what personification is?

Okay, yeah. So figures of speech in general, what they are when you study grammar, especially when you study style and writing, how to write well, you learn that you use these figures of speech because for some reason the human mind responds to that and you get the point even better.

And there are several of them. Personification is interesting because what it is, you're talking about maybe inanimate attributes and you make them sound like they're a person.

And for some reason that gets the human mind to think about it better and focus on it, learn it better.

And it's all through Scripture. All of these figures of speeches are used in the Bible by God who wrote it.

The Holy Spirit uses figures of speech. Look at the book of Revelation. There is a lot of figures, many figures of speech of all different kinds in there.

And then some of it is literal, but some of it's not literal. And the only way you can tell is in the context and by the

Holy Spirit teaching you. So let's talk about a couple of other figures of speech.

One is called hyperbole. Who remembers that one? I got you there. Forget about it. You're not going to remember it unless you've been teaching it this past season in school.

But you can remember it because the word almost sounds like what it means is almost hyperbole.

Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration. I am a master at that. My wife will tell you that.

All my family joke about it all the time because when I tell a family story, it gets, you know,

I'm using hyperbole to make you remember the point of the story. Bible does it all the time. So it's very godly.

Like the time I walked in and Charlotte said, you didn't make that up. She said it just like that.

She was reading something Spurgeon said that I've been teaching and she saw that he said it.

And she says, you didn't make that up. So just like that. So hyperbole is you use exaggeration on purpose as a rhetorical device or a figure of speech.

It can be used many times in poetry or any type of speech giving oratory.

It emphasizes, evokes strong feelings and creates strong impressions.

As a figure of speech, it is usually not meant to be taken literally. So can you remember that definition?

Because you're going to need it in a minute. So let me read it again. Hyperbole, hyperbole, I can't even say it.

Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device. That means like a speech giving, rhetorical means giving a speech sort of.

As a rhetorical device or figure of speech in poetry and oratory. It emphasizes the point.

It evokes strong feelings. It creates strong impressions. That's why we use it.

It makes people remember the thing you're talking about. As a figure of speech, it is usually not meant to be taken literally.

Especially remember that last part. The point is that it's not literal.

It is a picture to make you remember a literal thing. Okay, it's a picture.

You're exaggerating something to make you remember the real thing. Because you might think it's boring.

So I'm going to exaggerate it so you don't think it's boring. And that way you'll remember it. And it's important that you remember it.

So we add a little exaggeration. Does that make sense? That's what it is.

It's a well -known figure of speech. And what about a metaphor? What's a metaphor?

Well, it's similar to a simile. What's a simile? What's the difference between a simile and a metaphor? I have the advantage of having looked at these this week, and you didn't refresh your memory, right?

So a metaphor is used for implying a comparison between two things that may have something in common, but are in general different from each other.

Okay? She ran like lightning. That's a metaphor.

Right? She's not lightning, but lightning is fast, and she's fast. So that's a metaphor.

All right, so now you know what they are. So now let's go right up above this passage we've been in where the definition of God's love is.

So let's go to 1 Corinthians 12, verse 30, and we're going to now look at the context.

Do all people have the gift of healing? Now, this is very, very important in our society today.

I'm going to get to my favorite topic here. Do all people speak with tongues?

Now, this is a form of grammar. What do we call this? It's called a something question.

What do we call it? It's a rhetorical question. What does that mean? You're not looking for an answer.

You're teaching them by pretending you're questioning. So when

Paul says, do all Christians have the gift of healing, he's telling you all Christians do not have the gift of healing.

Only some do. Then when he says, do all speak with tongues, he's saying not everybody speaks with language.

Remember, the word in Greek means languages that are known in the world. It's not gibberish. That's not even spoken of, at least not as God's will for the church, anywhere in the

Bible. Language, but can all Christians speak a foreign language miraculously that they never studied?

Yes or no? Can all Christians do that? No. So why do we have whole denominations where they have classes on how to speak in tongues?

And I'll ask a rhetorical question. If it's a gift, can you teach it? If it's a

Holy Spirit gift that he puts on you, can you teach someone to do it? It's almost like Ben's question, like, can you make revival happen?

No, God has to do it. Anyway, rhetorical questions. Do all interpret?

Can all Christians listen to someone speak a foreign language that they never studied and stand up and say, here's what it means in English?

And yes, it's from God. Does everyone have that ability? I don't think so. But then

Paul comes in and says, okay, so the Corinthian church, you're having a problem with trying to look more spiritual than the other guy sitting next to you.

That is your problem. That's what Paul's teaching. You have a problem with this. So he said, here's what I want you to do. Look at verse 31.

Covet or desire earnestly the best gifts. So does that not teach us that healing people and speaking in tongues and interpreting things are not the best gifts of the

Holy Spirit? Are you with me? Am I right or am I wrong? It's what scripture says.

And yet show I unto you a more excellent way. Now he goes into chapter 13 verse one where he talks about what is the topic?

We just discussed it in detail for two Sundays. So what's the topic? The definition of a gap, a love and how important it is, right?

That is the topic. So now when he talks about tongue speaking and healing and interpretations and words of knowledge and all this stuff, he says, but I want to show you a better way.

And he's going to talk about love. Isn't that interesting? So you see how context matters.

So look at verse one and 13 right before verse four, where it goes into the definition, 16 point definition of God's love.

Here's what it says. Though. I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love.

Remember charity is always love. So just say love when you read it. No, I speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not love.

I am become as a sound in brass and a tinkling symbol. What type of figure of speech is that?

Metaphor. Very good. Dave senior. It is a metaphor. This is talking about a person who is doing these gifts that everyone can see in the church so that they see more spiritual than the next guy.

And they're doing this out in open where everybody can see it. And he's saying, okay, let me tell you what that's like.

She ran as fast as lightning. He's saying, okay, that is like a Pharisee.

Who sees the little widow lady over here, quietly put all that she had and then leave and where no one can see her.

But when he puts his vast amount of money in the gift, he blows a trumpet and has someone banging on symbols while he does it.

That is what this is talking about. So the metaphor is a person who wants to do these showy things in the church is like that.

He's like the Pharisee. Interesting how it's not studied like I'm teaching it now, is it?

They pull out this verse and says, they speak with tongues of men and angels. Oh, we're speaking an angelic language is what tongues is.

Do you know there's nowhere in the Bible ever anywhere in the Bible that teaches there is an angelic language.

But they said, well, there it is right there. Well, is that what this is teaching? Or are we looking at figures of speech?

Well, that's a metaphor. So even if we don't have anything else, we at least have to say

Paul is comparing people that do that stuff to Pharisees who want to be seen.

They're showy. They want you to see them doing spiritual things and being spiritual. And the question is, would they receive any kind of reward in heaven for that?

Otis didn't think so. Otis used to say, if you even knew you did something good, you probably, you probably didn't.

Because when the Holy Spirit moves in your life and causes you to do something for him, you don't see that as something to brag about.

You just, you just do it because you love the Lord. Right? Anyway, so there's our first point.

Now let's keep going here. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries, how many?

Okay. And all knowledge, how much knowledge do you have? If this is you, all knowledge that God has.

Okay. And though I have all faith, how much is all faith?

That's the amount of faith Jesus had. I have as much faith as Jesus when he walked on water that day.

In fact, more than that, because I don't remember Jesus ever removing a mountain into the sea.

But he said, you know, if you have, if God put the faith in your heart to make you think you could do that, you could do it.

Jesus taught that, didn't he? I've never seen anyone do it or read in history. No one's done this yet. But this person has that kind of faith.

He has all faith. And now let's read it again.

Though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and I've got so much faith that I have all the faith that there is, and I can command a mountain to move into the sea and it will.

And though I have all that and I have not love, I am nothing but a

Pharisee. You get it? This is the context this teaching is found in.

And though I bestow all goods to feed the poor. So how much of my assets and money and cars and house and land am

I going to sell and give to the poor? If it says all, how much?

A hundred percent of everything I have in this life, I'm going to sell and give to the poor. And though I give my body to be burned and don't have love, it profiteth me nothing.

What group, religious group are you familiar with? Maybe you have to be my age to be sort of familiar with it because it happened during the

Vietnam War a lot. During the 60s, you would see it on TV. What religious group where the religious leaders will sometimes burn themselves alive?

You'll get it, Dave. Mahatma Gandhi? They might, but that's not the main one that I remember.

Who knows? Buddhism. Remember the Buddhist monks during the Vietnam War that would pour gas on themselves and burn themselves?

And it is something that's... We were burning draft cards, that's true.

All right, so do you think that that's a part of biblical Christianity, that we should burn ourselves to show our love for the

Lord? Okay, so why is that in here as something that's taught just as surely as speaking in tongues of angels?

If it's literal. No? No?

It's... Okay. It's actually not a metaphor.

It's hyperbole. So this is the language of exaggeration.

It's being used by the Holy Spirit to teach us the important thing, which is 16 points of love.

Okay, so it exaggerates and talks about things we cannot do and wouldn't do. No Christian of the right mind would do these things.

And one of them is to burn yourself, to kill yourself by fire, that for any reason would never be something

God would want us to do. And then when it talks about that you can speak with...

Well, let's go upside down here. Let's kind of talk about it from the bottom up.

You're going to burn yourself, okay? You're going to get rid of everything you have and give that to the poor.

Or you're going to know everything there is to know in the universe, including what God knows.

Or you're going to even know mysteries that God hasn't even revealed yet, but you know about them.

Or you're going to have so much faith you can just tell a mountain to go into the ocean and it will do it. Or you're going to speak in tongues and languages that angels speak in.

Now, how many of those things are real? They're actually real things that God is teaching you in the Bible you're supposed to be doing.

None of it. So it is hyperbole. It's God using exaggeration to treat you that even if you could do those things we just listed that you're not supposed to do or you can't do, even if you could and you didn't love the person you were doing that to or for, it's not worth anything.

So it's a teaching on love. It's not a teaching on speaking in heavenly languages. There is no such thing in the

Bible. And yet it's in every charismatic, and I won't say every one I've ever met, that believes in the charismatic movement or Pentecostal movement, believe that they can speak in a heavenly language.

And they get it from this one verse taken out of context, seriously out of context.

Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you?

Let me see if I may have switched passages here. Yeah, 1

Corinthians chapter 14, verse 1. You know, he says to covet the best gifts.

Where does he mention what the best gift is? 1 Corinthians 14, verse 1, it says, follow after love.

So here he's talking about love again and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that you may prophesy.

And as you read through this passage, prophesying is going to be the one you should covet. But you've got to know the definition of that.

It can include telling the future like the Old Testament prophets and the early church prophets could do and the apostles could do.

But the main meaning is to speak forth God's word. In that part, we still can do.

The speaking the future part has ceased. But the church still has the gift of speaking forth

God's word as we preach this Bible, do we not? And that should be the main gift that we covet.

But it talks about it. It says rather that we speak forth God's word. For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaks not to men, but unto

God, for no man understands him. So God understands all human languages, doesn't he?

Because he's the one that separated the people at the Tower of Babel, correct? And he created all the human languages.

So would you agree that if I could miraculously speak Italian, which I wish I could, without studying it, which

I don't want to take the time to do, but if I could do that, it would not benefit you if I preached a sermon in Italian this morning, but God would understand it, wouldn't he?

I could say some wonderful things and praise God in Italian and he would understand it. He might think

I was a Roman Catholic, but he'd understand it. That's a joke because most of them are in Italy. But anyway, joke's over.

For he that speaketh in an unknown language speaks not to the men in the room that don't know the language, but he speaks to God, for no man understands him.

Howbeit in the spirit he speaks mysteries to the men, but not to God, right? But he that prophesied speaks unto all men.

So if you teach the Bible in the language of the people, then you speak to all men unto edification.

It builds them in the faith. It makes them stronger. So do that. Don't do this other stuff is what Paul's saying.

Isn't it funny that most of the charismatic movements based on the book of Acts and the book of Corinthians and Paul's telling the church at Corinth, stop doing that.

Don't do that so much. Do this. Preach the word. So it edifies people with doctrine, sound doctrine and exhortation.

And it will comfort the people. He that speaketh in an unknown language, all he does is he builds up himself.

He makes people think he's spiritual. He builds up himself. But he that speaks

God's word edifies the church. So Paul is showing us what we ought to be doing and not doing.

I would that you all spoke in languages. In other words, I wish all of you had the gift of languages.

But he's already said all Christians will not have it, didn't he, earlier. He said, but I wish we did.

It'd be cool if we were all so spiritual that we could move mountains into the ocean. But we're not. He said,

I wish we were. But rather, I would rather you prophesy. I would rather you preach the word of God than that.

For greater is he that prophesies than he that speaks with tongues. Unless someone could interpret that and tell the church what the foreign language meant so they could be edified.

So, I mean, it's fascinating to really see what the Bible does teach about these things. Now, brethren, if I come into you speaking with foreign languages, how's that going to profit you?

Unless I speak to you either by revelation or by knowledge or by prophesying or by doctrine.

So, don't you think it's interesting that the word doctrine is thrown in there? Because how much do you see that in these churches?

Where they're speaking in foreign languages in order to teach strong doctrine to people. It's just so off.

In 2 Peter 1, verse 18, it says, And this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount.

Now, this speaks of the transfiguration. Where they actually heard

God's voice say, No, I don't want you to listen to Moses. I don't want you to listen to the prophets.

I want you to listen to my son. Remember that? So God's voice came from heaven and said, listen to my son.

And in that passage in 2 Peter, the very next verse says, We also have a more sure word of prophecy than God's voice from the heavens.

Now, how can that be? I mean, if we were sitting in here and we heard a booming voice tell us to do something, like go burn

City Hall or whatever, would we really know that was

God? Especially if it said go burn City Hall. Would we know that was God? It could be miraculous, right?

But would we know it was God? Yes or no? Why would we not know? Because it's subjective.

Dave may think it is. His dad may say, son, that is not God saying that.

That's the devil, right? It's subjective. But the Bible says we have a more sure word of prophecy than God's own voice from heaven because it's subjective.

Some people won't even hear it. Some people won't believe it's him. Some will say it is him. Some will say, well, I thought it said this.

Well, I thought he said this. But he says we have a more sure word than that, where unto you do well that you take heed, as unto a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts, knowing this first that no prophecy of the

Scriptures or of any private interpretation. So Peter is saying this

Bible right here is a more sure word of prophecy than any kind of tongue speaking, any kind of revelation that someone would stand up and give, that even if God's voice came into this building and said something out loud, the doctrine in this

Bible is more sure. Do you believe that? Do your friends out here, of course, kind of believe that, though?

Most of them are into that stuff. Most of our friends are into this stuff that God forbids.

For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the

Holy Ghost, and it was pinned, and we have it. It's called the Bible. Chapter 2, verse 1 says,

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false prophets among you, who secretly shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the

Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious devilish ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

These same people that believe this stuff will take the sound doctrine that you teach and make fun of it.

I see it happen all the time. Oh, you're a Calvinist, or whatever. They'll mock the sound doctrine and tell you something new that God just taught them that you need to know.

And through covetousness shall they with feigned words, that means fake words, make merchandise of you, whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

So, wow. We see hyperbole and metaphor used.

And though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, and I don't have love, I am become as a sounding brass and a tingling cymbal.

That is a metaphor, but in the midst of the next few verses, the whole thing turns into hyperbole and compares speaking in tongues with the

Pharisees who wanted people to see them giving alms. And in Matthew 6, 1 -3, Jesus talks about that and says,

Don't do that. 1 Corinthians 13, 2, And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all these things, the hyperbole is just obvious once you see it.

And burn myself, you know. But if I don't have love for the people I'm doing these things for, it means nothing.

So, we've learned what love is, and we've learned what love isn't. We've learned what religiosity can look like and what real love can produce.

Jesus, in John 3 -34 said, For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God.

For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. So Jesus had full faith.

But Paul said in 2 Corinthians 10 -14, For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure.

He says, I don't try to minister with the gifts these other men have.

I just use the gifts God gave me. Isn't that interesting? I mean, there's so much to be learned about it in so little time.

Paul said, Not boasting of things that are outside of our measure, that is of other men's labors.

Isn't that interesting? 1 Corinthians 13 -3, And though I bestow all goods to feed the poor, if I don't love them, it profits no one anything.

So, basically the message is, I am nothing if I don't have love for the brethren.

Now, that's the whole point. We see the metaphor, I am as nothing.

I love if love is not the motive behind the things that I'm doing. And that just holds true throughout all of this teaching in this context.

So, it definitely teaches what love is not. It's not these religious acts.

James 1 -27, Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory with respect of persons. That's an interesting verse.

Like, don't do what you do to have other people respect you for your religiosity. So, I think that's the main lesson that's in that passage.

True religion is all about unfeigned love for people. And if this is true of people in general, and it's true of brothers and sisters in the church, it is a thousand times more important in our homes, with our spouses, with our children, and in our home.

So, now we have seen God's definition of love, what it is and what it isn't. And next time we will talk about the dimension of love, which will be quite interesting.

Let's stand and have a prayer together. I'll give you a hint, though.

Love is not three -dimensional. It's four -dimensional. And that is something we can't do.

We can't understand beyond three dimensions. So, it will be interesting to see that next time.

Lord, thank you so much for your word. We ask you to bless it in our hearts. We ask you to remind us of the very definition of what agape love is, 16 different points that it doesn't do and that it does do.

And, Lord, we see from Scripture other things about the religious acts that we might try to do to impress people that love doesn't do that either.

And so help us to remember these things in our homes. Help us to practice the basic tenets of kindness and gentle -heartedness that you're supposed to use with each other here at church.

Help us to practice those things with our spouses and be careful what we say and how we say it.

Be careful what we do and how we do it. And may we walk with the love of Jesus Christ in our hearts.

We ask you to go with us into our time of fellowship. Bless the meal in Jesus' name. Amen. You are dismissed.