When the winter's been torn,
How he loves her so well. Kiss each other hand in hand,
with love that we get one, and in saints we come in, with thousands
hands in one. So happy birthday to you, OK, let's go back to 1 Corinthians
chapter 3. Like I said, I didn't know what
I wanted to deal with tonight, and that's kind of a bad feeling
an hour or two before you're ready to preach. You're not certain. It's not that I don't have anything
to preach, but the difference between these two passions, both
are outstanding and excellent and profitable. But since we're,
I told you we're going to the first Corinthians on Wednesday
night, this is a little difficult passage to deal with, as you
probably noticed the first several verses here. But I don't know
if God in his sovereign providence brought this up right now. He
knows how to apply it. I don't know. He knows. This is a good book for us to
look at, so very relevant to our day. The first four chapters
of 1 Corinthians deal with preaching and preachers, and this is needful
and necessary for us to consider because there's so many of those
around today. I can't help but notice, and if it weren't tragic, it'd be
laughable how many of these places crop up everywhere. Any empty
storefront, any kind of building comes up empty, some self-proclaimed
preacher starts a little group in there. It's sad, really, isn't
it? But it's so relevant. that we
know today, because there's so many, that we know who the true
ones are and how you can tell the difference. So the first
four chapters, that's what it deals with. And then in chapter
five of 1 Corinthians, a serious sexual problem rose up in the
church. And this is certainly something
that needs to be dealt with in this day, and because of the
widespread perversion in our generation and the tolerance
of anything and everything, we need to look at it, don't we?
And then chapter six, all of this could have been written
today. Then chapter six deals with the believer in lawsuits.
What the believer, what our responsibility is, or how we should react in
lawsuits. They had those back then. Lawyers
were a big thing. Chapter seven deals with marriage
and divorce, which is very meaningful. So, all right, let's look at
chapter three. And pardon me if you can say,
I've got it. If you haven't had it, you will. Chapter three. Now, the church
at Corinth was full of people. Not necessarily that this church
here is full of all the problems that they have, but we will be
confronted with everything eventually. But this church was a very large
congregation. It was one of the first in the
early church, and they were full of problems living in a modern
world. But I'll give you a couple of reasons why they had so many
problems. Number one, they were a young
congregation. And just like young children
are prone to do foolish things, young children are prone to do
and get into bad things. So it is with those who are spiritually
young. and they're just a problem to
a thing. Secondly, I believe that the
Church, well, I don't think they had a pastor at this time. Obviously,
these various men were listening to them, Apostles speaking to
Paul and so forth, preaching to them, but I don't think they
had a full-time pastor at this time. Maybe they did, I'm not
sure who it was. Those who are under a really
steady diet of God's Word, first of all, at least for every life,
they're full of problems. Let that be a lesson to us all. If you miss out on God's Word,
you're not growing thereby. But I don't believe either that
they were listening as they should. I don't think they were listening
to God's Word through the preacher. And, well, let's look at Chapter
Two. Now, Paul, as we said, was a
true preacher sent by God. How do you know? Well, his message,
his methods, his manner, his character, his disposition, everything
about him. Jesus says that here, chapter
two, verse one, he says, brethren, I came to you, I came not with
excellency of speech or wisdom, to declare my beautiful testimony
to God. I came to you not to try to impress
you with my learning, or to have you be a follower of Paul, but
I just came to tell you what God says, and I'll say it again. Verse three, he said, I am with
you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. Have you
ever looked at that? As Paul says, who's weak and
I'm not weak? Who's bright and I'm not bright?
Who's apprehensive and I'm not apprehensive? If you listen to
a man, it's not that you're not sure of yourself. Verse 10, and what our brother
tonight read about Moses, in Romans number 16, when all those
fellas rose up against Moses and were saying all the things
that happened, were saying, you took this on yourself, you think
you're something, and we're somebody too, we're the most of it. that just broke his heart. Does
he really think he can do things like that all day? He doesn't
want to. That's how you know. That's how
you know. Verse 10. He said, But God hath
revealed some things unto us by the Spirit. He hath. Verse 10. The Spirit searches
all things in defense of God. God hadn't revealed His name.
Verse 12, "'Now we have received not the spirit of the world,'
and he's talking about, Paul is talking about himself and
Apollos and Paul through the Greek. This is not the spirit
of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might
know the things freely given to us of God, wisdom from above,
not worldly wisdom. That's what we're trying to impart.
First big thing. Now, he who is spiritual, he
who has been spiritually taught, he who is spiritually led, he
who is experienced, judges or discerns, understands all things. has a certain understanding of
not all things, but he himself is really understood no man can
understand why he is the way he is. And that's what he did
to us, because they're not spiritual. Well, chapter three now. Are
you with me? Chapter three, Paul says, verse
one, I've read them. I could not speak unto you as
unspiritual. But that's untrue karma. He said,
I couldn't teach you, I couldn't get across to some as According to God's Word, no,
but as I'm so kind, there is a world of people who talk like
the average person, human being, and talk according to man's thoughts
and opinions. In fact, he said, I couldn't
speak to some of them, because that's the problem. You're as
babes, verse 1, as babes in Christ. Now, it's good to be a babe in
Christ, but not always. A babe in Christ, Paul wrote
in another place, he said, In other words, be like little
children, quick to forgive, not so easily upset, don't hold grudges,
just go on, and no matter what happens, be children when it
comes to accidents and accidents. But don't be children in understanding
or conduct. So it's good to be babies in
Christ, that is, be to me and childlike and teachable and be
quickly forgive and forget and do all, but not to make any progress. You see what he's saying? And it is sad, but some don't
make much spiritual progress, and therefore act in a carnal
order. Just act like everybody else. All right, verse 2, he says,
I fed you with milk. But then he was guilty, and not
with me, because you were not able to bear it, either yet now
or at his table. You know, Thoreau wrote the Hebrews
5, the Hebrews chapter 5. These Corinthians were Gentiles
once. Well, the same problem was with
the Jews in Hebrews 5. who were well-versed in Scripture,
yet they had the same problem. Look at chapter 5, verse 12. He said, when for the time you
ought to be teachers, you may have need that one teach you.
But then, what's the problem? Well, fine. Verse 11, he said,
there were no hearing. See that? By now some of you are struggling
to hear this, but I'm struggling to speak to it. These are things
hard to be understood. Children have a short attention
span. Children can't concentrate on
anything very long. Children just have a real problem
to reflect. I go back to, well, look at verse
14 of that chapter five. It says, "'Strong meat belongs
to them that are full of full age, even those who by reason
of use have their senses exercised. What's the problem? It's lack
of exercise. What is the term spiritual exercise? Prayer, study, charity, consideration,
meditation, and so forth. I don't know what the word is
saying. It's what the preachers say. All right, let's go back to 1
Corinthians 3. So he said, I couldn't deal with all I would like to
deal with. He said, and here's the proof. He said, you're carnal because
there's envy and strife within you. Are you not carnal? Let me say this. I blame, I take the blame, preachers
can take this as much blame, at least partial blame, for things,
because I don't think that we demand or respect of attitude
here, that we do meaningful things. And that's our call. It should
be so. I remember growing up as a young
I was a young boy, and men like Martin Luther King, and all these
men were just so tireless youth, and people would love to be around
them, love to just sit and listen to them talk about Scripture
and things like that. There were men known for their
knowledge of Scripture, and serious and so forth. And they commanded
respect for the people, and the people decided to be around them. And I think that's a great problem
in our nation. It sure is. And I don't think
men are as bold to confront people today with certain things that
perhaps should be confronted, certain errors and problems that
need to be dealt with. But the Apostle Paul was, and
we're going to see that in this book. He said, you know, if I
come again and you're not straightened up, you ever read that? If I
come, and it's the 2nd epistle, he said, if I come and you're
not straightened up, yes, you are. That's what it said. They straightened up, buddy.
They did. Well, he said it ascribed visions. That's just karma. Envy. Envy is part of the problem. Envy. Can we be guilty of envy? Oh, certainly. And what was happening here as
well? They had busy priesthood coming in, and Perhaps some of
them weren't getting the attention that they thought they should
get. If the preacher was spending
too much time with so-and-so, so-and-so, he didn't pay any
attention. Just like little children, you
know. And they were envious of this,
and in strife began to quarrel with individuals, and they separated
into little groups and little schisms and factions, and it
became a popularity contest. That's what's wrong with me. You know, several little places
right now in need of a pastor, and I just pray for them the
way it's going on. You remember how it happened
here, don't you? The world went down, it was,
you know, that makes it very clear. But if you get in these
little popularity conflicts, there you have it. You have enough
people. You're not going to succeed,
God forbid, or you're not going to last, like the world. Even the apostles went through
this. Do you know that? Do you remember back when James
and John got together and said that? And their mother had it.
Do you remember when James and John's mother said to the Lord,
Would you make my son James your chief man and John second in
command? My boy would be better than the
rest of you old men. And they thought, boy, there
was a terrible fight among the apostles. That was a bad one. So they knew what they were talking
about. This didn't happen to anybody. At any rate, they were divided
into little factions. First four. One said, I'm a Paul. Another, I'm a Apollos. That's
carnal. Who is Paul? Bring it on. Who is Paul? through his apostles,
but just ministers, that is, messengers, by whom he believed. Even as the Lord gave to every
man, it could have been anybody. It could have been James, or
John, or Stephen, or Peter, or Philip, or it could have been
anybody. It's not going to be Paul that
you've heard the gospel from. It doesn't make you any better
than Philip. See what he says? And if the
other man doesn't want to get up to it, it doesn't make you
a better preacher. And so on and so forth. Read on. There's this ministry.
Verse 6. I have planted harvest water for the congregation. He
said the Lord built the house. Scripture said it. They let him
plant it. They're trying to build it. You're
going to see that in a moment, how the church is built. He said,
I prayed, I was watered, and God gave me a seed. He's the
one that's perfect. So then, verse 7, neither is
he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth. They're nothing.
It's harmless. It's God that gives the information.
It's all up to God. So He's the one that gets all
the glory, and He decides. He decides. He's decided on purpose. Now, He didn't plan it per se.
Now, let me read this quote by Pastor Crowley, just a commentary
on this. He said, And he is. And father, and I
say father, father, not to be ever held up as lords over the
people or to be a source of contention, of strife, or of popularity,
contention. All right, verse 8. Now, he that
planteth and he that watereth are one. That is, if God sent
these men, they're one. They're one in purpose, they're
one in attitude, they're one in And you really are. I'm just
giving you my own experience, OK? And you can't help but be
this way. You're human. When I was a young,
beginning preacher, there was so many men and so much more
to do than myself, even then. But as a young preacher, you
want to be, you want to do what I'm talking about. Nobody wants
to pay me. Nobody wants to, as Scott said,
make food out of me. And I just couldn't be the preacher
I want to be. I'd sit and I'd be in some place
where another preacher would preach in front of me. What do
you think is going to be on that? Or unless he was, let it be,
you know. I'm afraid not. I'm just afraid
not. But, uh, we've got a title to
tell this story with. But, uh, I hope, I think, I've
already said this thing, but it doesn't matter. Truly, if
the Lord, just as long as the Lord blesses somebody, you're
free. That's all that matters. Eventually, when you grow up,
you become normal in this life. Oh, bless him, pray for him.
Bless him so much that I just don't have to get up and speak
to him. Just so that, so that I can get
up there. For one, in purpose, action, one word, one, and our
goal remains, how to do that, good And every man shall receive his
own reward according to his own labor." Now, this is just the
principle that God has set down. You read what He said. Now, listen
carefully. Now, if I listen carefully, do
not misunderstand what this is saying. He's not talking about
rewards and then. It doesn't say rewards. It never does say, plural, rewards. In other words, since this man
works harder than everybody else, he gets more crowns and, oh,
he gets a bigger mansion and so forth. That's karma. That's
foolish. Everybody gets the same reward,
which, God said, is him. I am not receiving great reward. He said, no, you get rid of it.
You get rid of it. But, now, what he's talking about
here is those that labor in ministry. You reap what you sow. And we're
going to see here in a minute that whatever you, whatever names
and so forth you use is how things are going to appear in the end. Are you with me? In other words, if you reap,
if you sow to the Spirit, everything you do is to the mind's eye,
to God's Word. The Spirit wants you to do what
God's Word says, and sow to the Spirit, and you'll reap from
the Spirit. The flesh, you'll get flesh,
and it won't last. That's what this is all about,
okay? Churches. My son dies, my son
prospered, my son was full of strong people, and so am I. This
is what this is all about. I'm sure this is starting to
make you curious. Okay. Every man, or briefly so,
whatever he builds on, verse 12 through 14, he talks about
things to build upon. Remember? All right. Now, I had the invaluable, inestimable
privilege I've grown up in a church where the preacher, the pastor,
was absolutely 100 percent in the Catholic community and did things, and I say this
without hesitation, without reservation, and without pride in my parentage. It's not good at all. I say this
now as a preacher at High Street, looking back, that I had invaluable
privilege of seeing a younger man, now he was there, he grew
up there, who was absolutely 100 percent given to preaching
his Word to the good of God's people for the glory of God.
And God blessed him. God blessed him. Every church that we know of
is in some way affected by that church. And I observed that man. I had the privilege of observing
how that man operated, how he did things. And if God greatly
blesses that, I'd rather be a fool not to do things as I would.
I mean, just exactly that. I hope that God blesses his language,
too. And so I was a part of a church
like that. But, you know, and there were
possibilities about this and that and so forth. It wasn't
enough. I talked to her about peace. She'd been there from
childhood. There were popularity concepts for a lot of refugees
down the road. And this problem, I like this
one, I like that one. people get mad at the pastor
because he didn't treat this fellow right and this fellow
left right. And here's a young preacher who
came up that was just a firecracker and was just full of lies. And
that's Charles Pershing. And I want to hear him preach
more. And as it turned out, that fell
in line. It was a lie. Most of them did. Most of them
did. So I've seen these very things
happen. I wish you ran. And every man
will receive his own reward for his own labor. Carl, in one place,
said, I've labored more a month of this than any of my office. Remember that? He said, I'm not
fit to be an apostle. I'm less than the least of all
the saints, but I work harder than the rest of them. Who do you think I would be?
A prince. That's what he's saying. He's talking about the ministry,
all right? Verse 10. He said, and it's all
according to the grace of God. He's following up right now himself.
He's just saying, it's five-toe. And you get the fact. If you
call, talk about a great character. Most factors, certainly. Talk
about a graceful one. Why? Because he's there. And the Lord blesses that character.
Bless him. So, he's just a faggot, just
a faggot. God is not unrighteous. Scripture
says, forget, and not reward, labor. Work hard, and reap, and
reap. Verse 10, according to the grace
of God, he was given unto David as a wise master builder in another
place I believe it was 1 Corinthians 12, yes, where he says, Christ
is the one who determines who gets what. He's the one. We're the measure of the grace
of Christ. a true pioneer and missionary. He went out where the gospel
had never been before. What are you going to preach,
Paul? Well, what are you going to do, Paul? God sent this man
out into the world, a heathen world, didn't know God, didn't
know Christ. What's he going to do? Let's give them to wear clothes,
let's give them to visit one another, let's perform them socially
and politically, and so forth, and feed them. No, sir. Preach the gospel. The gospel
is what does all that. The gospel is the power of God.
That's what does all. I've seen this in Mexico. God
sent the brewers down there. They didn't try to make Americans
out of them. They'd hand out food and all that to the people.
Preach the gospel. And when God takes that gospel,
which is the power of God, and gives life, then they put clothes
on them. Then they wash their houses.
So he didn't take care of what God was giving, and so on and
so forth. The gospel was what? That's what it was. Word of God. So, he says that. So what he did was, Paul went
out, by the grace of God, and laid the foundation. Everywhere
he went, he did one thing. The one thing he did. He preached
the gospel. The gospel. That's what everything
is built on. That's who. Everything is built
on. Jesus Christ, the Lord. That
great and chief cornerstone. That precious cornerstone. He
said, I have laid the foundation of none of the buildings that
are thereon, that every man take heed of how He built them. Therefore,
the foundation is only one. It's all built on Him. Verse
11. If the foundation can no man
lay, then that is laid. In other words, it's God that
made it, Paul didn't make it. Paul's not taking credit for
it. It's God. Like you said, I told you before,
it wasn't me, it wasn't the grace of God. But what I did, Paul
said, is I went out and preached the gospel, the foundation, laid
the foundation. Because God, that's the foundation
that God Almighty laid. That's whom God Almighty has
on whom God lays the sin of His people, and that's on whom He
builds His kingdom. That's right. He's that cheap
partisan. And so everything is built on
Christ. Now, listen. Now, get into the
lead a bit. Get into the lead a bit. Now, this thing's built,
isn't it? Now, did you catch that?
This is me. All right? Christ, everything's
built on Christ. The Church stands on Him, in
Him. Solid rock, chief fortress on
everything, and everything we do, everything is built on that. Everything is built on that foundation,
because everything will stand or fall according to the foundation. He said in verse 10, I let every
man take heed how he feels on that foundation. Everyone, every
preacher, pastor, teacher, take heed. We have ladies in here
that are teaching our young people. This applies to you as well as
me. This is love. Take heed how you feel. We want
them to grow up. and be productive citizens and
good husbands and wives and children and so on and so forth. No. There's only one thing that'll
do that. No amount of urging and compelling and guilt manipulation
and worldly wisdom will do it. There's only one thing that'll
do it. And so we keep laying back on
the foundation. We keep building on that. We never leave the foundation.
We keep building on that. And the children, though they
may get tired of hearing that, and we search and search and
search for new ways to say the same old thing, yet this is what
God misses. When I was growing up in that
large congregation, folks, there was one thing, and that was one
thing at all. One thing, preaching. That's it. I'm getting ahead of myself,
or I'm going to get in a bad mood. He says, "'The day will
declare,' verse 12 and 13, "'any man building on this foundation
gold, silver, or precious stone, or wood, hay, or stone, "'every
man's work shall be made clear, it will be clear. "'The day shall
declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire. "'Fire shall
try every man's work of what source it is to do it.'" Now, this is not talking about
false preachers. This is not talking about false
churches or false doctrine. This is talking about true Christians.
This is talking about a true church, where the people who
are the preachers, starting with the preachers, got off and started
laying the wrong things on the foundation. And, in the end, it all falls
apart. We've seen that happen. It happened
to all the churches in the Revelation, didn't it? It was in Phil 5 and
so on and so forth. It couldn't happen here. If I don't lay the... If we don't
lay the right things on the foundations, If we build, if we don't take
any, how do we build? We can't. It's just as important,
Brother Henry, that you call my name in all this and make
certain you can, that the right things are being laid on time,
or else it's all going to come to naught and fall apart. How important is it? All right,
there's two things here, two distinct methods or materials
to use. You see it in verse 12. Gold,
silver, and precious stones. And then you've got wood, pavement,
and stuff. Gold, silver, and precious stones, wood, pavement,
and stuff. And it's all these things are
going to be tried by fire. Fire being tried. All right? Gold, silver, and
precious stones. Now what's the foundation made
of? A precious stone. Right? So these are things just like
the foundation. These are things compatible with
the foundation. You follow? Things that are compatible
with the foundation, which is a precious cornerstone. Whatever
we do here must be compatible with the gospel of God's sovereign
grace. Whatever we do, however we do
things, it must be compatible with the gospel that we believe.
Are you with me? All right, we say we believe
God is sovereign, in absolute control of all things. Yet, if
we resort to fleshly means, if we resort to our own tactics
and gimmicks and All these places that call themselves
churches today are nothing more than charitable organizations
looking for handouts from people all over the world, and doing
all sorts of things to get money to do God's work, for a second. To get money to do God's work. God's not in any of that stuff.
And it'll be seen, eventually. Throughout the Old Testament
scriptures, there are stories of God's people that were in
need. The temple was being rebuilt
by Nehemiah, and somebody made the suggestion
to him, why don't we borrow some money from the king and lower
interest rates? Why don't we do all these little
things and bring some money in? Nehemiah came to God and he said,
We're not going to do it. We say God owns all the gold
and silver in the land. We say we believe God is sovereign
and God will provide. But you're not going to borrow
from them to do God's work. God doesn't need you. You said
that, didn't you, in Psalm 50? And if I needed anything, what
would that get me? So, if we believe God is sovereign,
then our means, the way we operate, needs to be in keeping with that. You remember that story of David
going to invite a threshing floor to offer a sacrifice on the second
Saturday of the twenty-fourth? And David was grateful to God
for his mercy, grace, and goodness, and he wanted to buy something
from Othello to offer a sacrifice unto God. And Othello said, Just
think, I'll give it to you. He said, No way, man. He said,
I'm not going to give unto the Lord that which costs me nothing.
things that we've had work done here. For instance, a brick mason
was doing some brick work out here in front of everybody. Since
he's a church, they want to do their little work. He makes them
feel good, you know. Makes people feel good when they
can't be up to it at all. Well, he wanted to give a 10%
discount. I said, no. Whatever you charge
anybody out there, you charge us. We gave you a little more.
That's the way it is today. We're not dependent on fleshly
means. We say the gospel is the power
of God. We say that. The gospel is the
power of God's words. And we believe that. And yet,
if we resort to entertainment, how are we going to get people
in? We don't entertain them. What
will happen? We'll have a peach festival. It's not terrible about it, why
would we have that? But it's sneakily and trickily so we can
get them aside and make the members of our church delay funding for
our good family funding. But we'll have a meat festival
and give them all peaches and pomegranates and cream and so
forth. Bunch of snakes. How are we going to get them
in? Well, they ain't going to get
them in. God said, My sheep, hear My voice. I call them. What does that mean for if you
don't go out and tell? No, it doesn't mean that at all,
but what it does mean is we don't have to advertise like we're
selling products. We're not selling products. The
Gospel's not for sale. We're not trying to get members
of a club. So we're offering big There's
one preacher by, as I said one time, the way these fellows act,
what they do, kind of reminds you of a fellow who's trying
to entice people to marry an ugly bride by giving them a large
dowry. That's right. I tell you what
people, what will draw people, is if they ever see the excellences
of the glory and beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ, if they ever
see His beauty and His glory, if they ever hear God speak through
His Word, they'll tell that big band to step down. We don't need
you anymore. We don't want you up there. You're
just getting in the way. We want to hear from God. We
don't need this stuff. If God's in it, through the power of preaching,
that'll draw people. They'll come. They'll hear. And
that'll keep them from that day forward. It's time to win friends
and then plus people. As my pastor said, we're on the
trail of God's sheep. God knows them. And he said,
just preach the Word. That'll bring them in. That'll
bring them in. Don't do all this stuff. like
some business that's trying to sell cars. That's blasphemy. It's cheap, and it's godly, and,
well, we're not going to do it. God's churches don't do that.
It never has, never will. If you look through this book, you'll
never see the church operating like these fools do that. They
won't do it. The old silver and precious stones.
Now, these things are not found on the surface of Earth. What
you build on this foundation are things that are not just
on the surface. The old silver and precious stones
are things that are hidden, that must be dug, dug, must be digged,
must be mined, must be searched and discovered by most people. You understand what that's talking
about? So it is with everything spiritual. It's not on the surface. If I face back, it must be spiritual
this night. It takes digging. It takes digging. If you don't listen to this stuff
and then listen to that, it's so shallow. It's all sunshine,
from the depth to the top, from the leaf to the top, from the
gospel to the leaf. It wasn't any stubble you'll
find on the top of the ground. It wasn't any stubble. It just
pops up. I, every week, go out there and
bush hog our pastures and find little sticks and stuff laid
in the air, you probably hear it now. It just pops up everywhere. And that's what people do. They
follow after whatever new thing they see. You remember that story
in the New Testament? It says that people like nothing
better than to tell and hear some new thing. Whatever new
thing came along. A fella came up with a new niche. If you ain't got your eye on
something, or your gut doesn't let it, just try that. Let your gut
let it, just try that. It won't let it. It won't let
it. Only by digging, searching, uh,
to do the digging, you'll find something. Something you can
bite it, get off of it, and spill it. Get off of it, it's a real
thing. Wood, hay, and stubble is what?
Chaff. Now it may make a hot fire, but wood, hay, and stubble will
make a real hot fire when you start it up. Real hot. How long does it
last? Nancy, you're one of the elder
people in here. Don't deny it. You're married
and still a citizen. Did your mother ever warm a brick
up and put it in your bed at night time? That's a long time
to keep you warm. Put a brick in you. Now this will warm the house. Now these three things, But I
knew that, I knew that it had been done over at U. K. Club.
I knew that. They'd quarrel about it. People
in the boys' camp, they didn't have to care so much. Rocks were
their deal. But gold, silver, and precious
stones, these three things, they represent various things. Gold is what the king's crown
is made of. You look at the tabernacle that
talks about so much that's made of gold, bronze, the mercy seat,
everything, gold. Well, gold, what this substance
is, is God's Word. The only one thing you can build
a church on, that's God's Word. God's Word, God's character.
The more people get to know God, the more their fear of God, the
more their fear of God, the more they follow God, the more they
love God, the more they act like God, the more Godly they'll be. We study God, not John Wesley,
not whoever, men, Martin Luther, not men, but God. noble. Noble represents royalty. So we build on this about a character
and a worth. You know, silver, silver's always
been a price of religion. silver in the sun's sack. You
remember that story, John? Old Imhotep had the silver in
his sack, and the king says, I'm not going to see your face.
So she brings that sun. That's the price of redemption.
That's the silver. That's the surety. So then all
along we could go, precious stones being multiple stones. being all the aspects of God's
Word, the whole counsel of God, all the commandments of God. This is what you build on the
foundation. They're enduring, they're enriching, they're lasting
value, and if now, if a man... Now, here's the story. Verse 14 to 15. 13, 14, 15. Every man's work shall be made
manifest, but they shall declare it, because it shall be revealed
by fire, trials, difficulties, troubles. And the fire shall
try every man's work of what sort it is. If he resorted to
all sorts of things to bring people in, and it appeared to
work, It is. Because He wants it. That's all the way. It'll all
come from God. There's a being that no one will
see. I've known men, and do know men,
who were gospel preachers. I'll not mention any, I know
one or two so bad. A man a year ago, one of the
greatest preachers I've ever known. Yet got off on tangents. He didn't get on Paul's doctrine.
He didn't deny the gospel. He didn't bring in error. But he got off on other things.
He wouldn't have his son. And the whole thing justified.
Now, God had His people, His sheep, and He taught the gospel,
and that man was a gospel preacher. But he ended up in China, as
the man did. And all the... that whole church,
which was a solemn, huge congregation, just a... I think it doesn't
mean that. But it happens. Verse 14,
if any man's work abides which ye have built thereupon, he shall
receive a reward. If any man's works shall be burned, that is,
if it doesn't last, he shall suffer loss, but he shall be
saved. That's all that's going to be in the book. It's going
to be a fiery trial. It's going to be terrible. But if you'll be bold and be
tactful here, you know, kind of faith. Now, it doesn't do
us any good to worry about this, really, or to think about various
places. Don't do that. Let's fly out
of here. All right? Let's not even think about it.
Don't even be thinking about anybody else. Let's think back
here. What are we going to do here?
How are we going to do things? What has been laid here? What
foundation? And that's been laid without
a doubt. Or how are we going to continue
this? We've seen God bring people in. I'd like to see more people come
in. But not for the sake of seeing more people. He can do things
to bring more people in. That's not theology. I'm not
looking for ghosts or church members. We're looking for God's
sheep, and there's only one man, the sheep, over here. And if we pay it back, and if
we keep on paying it back, and life can grow, and we're back
in love, one man. So what are we going to do? We won't be able to misdirection.
Nobody. Our God's there, according to
the grace of God. No silver and precious sun. God forbid that you should use
any word, any stuff. If you pray with anything, it
can happen to you. Sure. Okay, same with me. Our Lord, thank you for the word.
Use it for your purposes. Thank you, Lord. through the
rebuke and the exhort. We pray that we can learn. Thank you for your many lessons. Thank you for keeping us. We
ask that you will continue to keep us by your grace. Keep us
cleaning the building of the foundation of those things that
you taught us. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you very much.