Now we're going to stay right
there where Brother Jim just read in 1 Corinthians chapter
3. And I've entitled this message,
We Are God's Building. I probably could have more appropriately
entitled it, We Are God's Work. And what I'm talking about there
is salvation, both of individual believers, but mainly of the
church collectively. We are God's work. And the reason
I say that is because the Apostle Paul uses two analogies here.
He uses the analogy of a husbandman, a farmer, planting a field, and
that's what happens when God gathers his people together.
He's the one who puts the seed in the ground and causes it to
grow. And then he uses the analogy of a wise master builder in verse
10, where he says there in verse nine, for we are laborers together
with God, you are God's husbandry, the tillage, as one translation
says it. And you are God's building. And
that's what the church is. It's not man's building. It's
God's building. We're not church builders. God
is the church builder. We just preach the gospel, we
invite people to come to church, but we don't use man-made methods
to get them here. That's important, we understand
it, because today that's what most churches are. They're just
buildings built by men and women who have used man-made ideas
and methods to get people in and try to keep them in, and
it always involves a compromise of the gospel. And so what I
want us to do is look at this passage here. There's several
things that we have to have clear in our mind to understand what
Paul's saying here. Somebody once said this about
interpreting the scripture. When you come to a passage, first
of all, realize who's talking. Well, now this is the Apostle
Paul. who was a preacher of the gospel of God's free and sovereign
grace in and by the glorious person and finished work of Christ.
In fact, he made that clear at the first chapter and the second
chapter, and he made this statement in verse two of chapter two.
He says, I have determined not to know anything among you save
Jesus Christ and him crucified. The gospel, how God justifies
sinners, through the blood and the righteousness of Christ,
not based upon man's works, not based upon man's will. This is
Paul. And we know ultimately it is
God the Holy Spirit speaking through Paul. So we know that
Paul was not a preacher of the law. Now that means this, whatever
he's saying here, he's not whipping people with the law. He's not
beating people down with the law, with guilt. That kind of
thing. He's seeking to draw the people
of God to do what is right because they were doing wrong, to do
what is right with cords of love. Do it because it's right. Be
motivated not by law, not by legal threats, not by mercenary
promises of earned reward, but do it because God loves you freely. Do it because of grace and gratitude. That's what Paul's doing here.
It's an exhortation. So who's talking? Well, secondly,
who's he talking to? Well, he's talking to professing
believers in a visible local body, a visible local church
in a town called Corinth. We're gonna talk about that,
this in a minute, how the Bible recognizes that there are individual
local bodies of believers called churches, plural, but then there's
also a universal church. I know a lot of people don't
like that language, but who is the universal church? Well, that's
all of God's elect out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation.
We'll talk about that in just a moment. But these are professing
believers. Do you think that everybody in
that congregation in Corinth were true believers? And I would
say probably not. In fact, I know that they all
weren't. If you read through 1 Corinthians
and 2 Corinthians, he exposes some. But they all professed
to believe the one gospel. And that's key. You didn't have
a, A church full of what they call Arminians here, and Calvinists
here, free wheelers here, and all that stuff. No, they professed
to believe what Paul preached. Paul was the first man that God
sent into this city to preach the gospel, and this church was
established through Paul. That's what he means when he
says this. He says in verse eight, or verse six, he says, Apollos, another minister of
God, watered, but God gave the increase. Paul said, I planted
it. He was the first one to come in there and preach the gospel.
Apollos followed after Paul and came in there and watered what
Paul preached. In other words, he preached the
same thing. He built upon what Paul, but it's God who gives
the increase, Paul said. It wasn't Paul who put the power
in this thing. It wasn't Apollos. It was God. Christ is the power of God unto
salvation, not the preacher. I don't care who he is. I don't
care how much you admire him or love him. And even with the
truth, those who preach the truth, those who preach a lie, there's
no salvation there. But God gave the increase. So
he's preaching to professing believers, encouraging them to
do what's right. to stop doing what they're doing. And of course, we can see that
it's division over preachers. He'd mentioned that back over
in chapter one. He said, I hear that there's
division among you and over preachers. Some say I follow Paul, some
say I follow this. That's wrong, he says. And that's
what he's preaching about, that's the third thing. Who's preaching,
who's he preaching to, and what's he preaching about? He's preaching
about divisions that should not be. You know, there are divisions
that are right. Every true believer ought to
be separated from the world. Those who are people of the light
should be separated from darkness. Those who believe the truth should
be separated from the lies of false religion. That's a division
that should be. That's a division made by God.
But when it comes to the unity of believers, true believers,
there should be no separation, and Paul's dealing with that.
Well, in this passage, there's several things you gotta have
clear in your mind to understand what he's talking about. The
first thing we need to have clear in our minds is the issue of
spirituality and carnality. Now look at verse one. I, brethren,
could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal,
even as unto babes in Christ. Now that word spiritual, what's
it referred to? Well, spiritual in this sense
is referring to true children of God, those who have been born
again by the Spirit. Carnal, the word carnal is the
same word as flesh. And carnal and flesh here refers
to the sinful actions and thoughts behavior, even of true believers. Now there is a sense in which
someone who is carnal, fleshly, is not even a believer. Look
back up in chapter two in verse 14. He says, the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can, they're
foolishness to him, neither can he know them because they're
spiritually discerned. The natural man refers to how
we are born, fallen in Adam, and naturally sinful, spiritually
dead, unregenerate, not born again. That's the natural man
there. There's nothing but carnality
in the natural man, even in his religion. You understand that? When you hear about a fleshly
person or a carnal person, The natural man don't ever get
the idea that he can't be religious, that he can't be moral in the
eyes of men. Remember what Christ said of
the Pharisees who were lost. He said, you do indeed appear
righteous unto men. And then he said, except your
righteousness exceed theirs, you shall in no wise enter the
kingdom of heaven. So up there in verse 14 of chapter
two, he's talking about lost people. Unregenerate. Christ said you must be born
again or you cannot see the kingdom of God. You must be born again
or you cannot enter. The natural man there is a lost
person who has not been regenerated and converted, not been born
again. But he says in verse 15, this is chapter two now. He that
is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no
man. Now the spiritual person there is a believer. One who's
been saved by the grace of God through the blood and righteousness
of Christ and who has been given spiritual life from the dead.
Think about passages like Ephesians 2.1, you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins. The spiritual person there is
a born again person. A believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ. One who's been given the gift
of spiritual life from God. One who's been given the gift
of faith in Christ. One who's been brought to repentance
of dead works and idolatry. One who perseveres in the faith,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. But
the Bible also teaches that within the spiritual person, the born
again person, there still exists the power and presence and influence
of sinful flesh. Isn't that right? Look over at
Galatians. Just read you a couple of things
here. Galatians 5, verse 16. Talking to professing believers
again. And he says in verse 16, now
he's talking to believers, spiritual people, this I say then, walk
in the Spirit, that's the Holy Spirit. In other words, conduct
ourselves as the Holy Spirit guides us and motivates us and
energizes us in the Word of God, continuing to look unto Christ
for all salvation, for all forgiveness, For all righteousness, don't
look anywhere else. Because I can tell you this much,
if you're looking anywhere else for salvation, for forgiveness,
for righteousness, it's not the Holy Spirit guiding you. Do you
understand what I'm saying? If you're looking within, for
example, to find your reason to count yourself a child of
God, looking at your accomplishments, Even what you might claim God
has enabled you to do. My friend, you're not walking
after the Spirit. No, sir. Because the Spirit will continually
turn your eyes and your heart and your mind and your confidence
to Christ. The glory of His person. The
power of His finished work. Pleading His righteousness imputed
alone. That's, and walking in obedience
to Him, seeking to honor Him, seeking to witness the glory
that He's given, the power of His grace in your life, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. So he says, walk
after the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh,
verse 16. What do you mean, Paul? I've
been born again by the Spirit. What do you mean that I don't
want to fulfill the lust of the flesh? Is there still lust in
me? Do I still have the flesh to deal with? I know I was a
natural man. I was lost in my sins. I know
I was spiritually dead and totally depraved, but I've been born
again by the Spirit. But God In this world, he has
left us in a warfare. Look at verse 17. For the flesh
lusteth against the Spirit. My own, now listen to me, my
own fleshly, sinful desires lust against what the Spirit, the
Holy Spirit, tells me, motivates me, and energizes me to do. And he says, and the Spirit against
the flesh, the Holy Spirit, lust against the flesh. And he says,
these are contrary, the one to the other. This is in one and
the same person now. Contrary principles. Opposites,
no mixture now. And he says, so that you cannot
do the things that you would. I think about the Apostle Paul
when he wrote in Romans chapter seven, I wanna do good, he said,
but I can't. You say, well, what is it, Paul?
You must have a real problem. You can't do anything good. Not
according to God's standard of goodness. I wanna be perfect,
Paul's saying there. I wanna be like Christ. But I
can't do that because I'm a sinner. I still have the remaining presence
and contamination, influence of sinful desires, the flesh,
carnality, and I have to fight it every day. It's a warfare
that abides within, and it will not let up while we're in this
life. Understand that. It's a warfare
we've got to fight every day. Now, I will give you some good
news about that, though. The battle's already been won. It's already been won by Christ.
The flesh can plague us. Oh, it can bother us. And when
I say that, I'm not talking about somebody inside me other than
me. It's me. Yeah, I'm the problem. but it's referred to as the flesh. I know that my whole life should
be a testimony to the glory and praise of God, but there are
many times in my life, I just, oh, I go off on a tangent. God will not let me go completely
now. He won't let His children go
completely. Brother Mahan, you say we're
on God's leash. Like a dog. But we fight this warfare. And
the warfare's already, the victory's already won. When Paul, when
he came to the end of Romans 7, he cried out this way. He said, oh wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? Oh my soul,
isn't that what we are? This body of death. And as you
get older, you realize how much this is a body of death. And he said, I thank my God through
Jesus Christ my Lord. And then he said, I cannot be
condemned. The flesh can plague me. My own sinful desires can can
burden me, but here's what it cannot do. It cannot condemn
me. Because there is therefore now
no condemnation in Christ Jesus. I have, listen to this, this
person who's in this warfare, who cannot do good according
to God's standard of goodness, which is perfection, I stand
before God in a perfect righteousness that cannot be contaminated and
cannot be taken away. It's the imputed righteousness
of Christ. And that's why I cry with old
David of old, blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputed
righteousness without works. But life in this earth as a regenerate
person, a spiritual person, is a battle. And there are times when we can
say, yeah, we're acting spiritually. For example, coming to worship
service. I'm not saying that what you're
doing this morning is perfect. You see, we realize that the
perfection of the law can only be found in Christ. Even our worshiping is not perfect. I'll guarantee you're struggling
right now. If you're honest, aren't you? I know I am. It's a struggle. But God, we
pray, keep our minds focused on Christ and your word. Can
you do that perfectly today? Has your mind wandered any off? Yeah, I'm not even 10 minutes
into the message. Our minds want, isn't it? Aren't
we a pitiful lot? Including this preacher. Oh,
wretched man. We act spiritually. Sometimes
we act carnally. We're not in a state of carnality
because, you know, Paul wrote that over in Romans chapter eight.
He said the carnal mind is enmity against God. If you haven't been
born again, you have nothing but a carnal mind that is hatred
against the true and living God. He that is spiritual. So here's
what Paul says in verse one, I, brethren, could not speak
unto you as unto spiritual. There's a problem here that hinders
me from speaking to you of the glorious spiritual things that
we enjoy talking about. The glory of God in Christ, the
peace that passes understanding, the joy and peace that comes
from believing. Those are the things that, don't
you love to talk about those things? I do. But you got a problem
and so therefore I have to speak to you as under carnal, even
as babes in Christ. You're acting like babies. Whenever
we act carnally, that's what the scripture says about us.
We're walking according to man's ways and not according to God's
ways. And this is the issue. Paul is simply telling them,
and it's not complicated, stop doing what you're doing. Stop
it, that's what he's saying. You don't need a 10-step program.
You don't need to go out and buy Reverend so-and-so's book
and how to get you to be like what you are. Stop it! That's
what he's saying. That's carnal. That's bad. Now Paul doesn't say stop it
or you're going to hell. He didn't say stop it or you'll
get less rewards. You'll be in a cabin, I'll be
in a mansion. No, that's stupid, that's law, that's legal, that's
graceless. But he says, stop it. Now look
at verse two. Here's another distinction we
need to make. Milk and meat. He said, I fed
you with milk and not with meat. For hitherto you were not able
to bear it, neither yet now are you able. Verse three, he says,
you are yet carnal. or whereas there is among you
envy and strife and divisions, and are you not carnal and walk
as men or according to man's ways? Now, the milk of the word
and the meat of the word. A lot of people, I believe, have
a misunderstanding of that. You know what the milk of the
word is? Well, it's the gospel. In fact, Peter wrote, desire
the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. The
milk is something we should desire. I'm preaching unto you today
the milk of the word. Well, what is the meat of the
word? It's the gospel. Now, there are particulars of
the gospel that we go on into. A lot of people say, well, the
milk of the word is smile, God loves you. The meat of the word
is election. That's crazy. Just simply saying people smile
God loves you is not the milk of the word. In fact, it's a
lie. Because the Bible says that God
loves those whom he chose in Christ and gave to Christ for
whom Christ died. They're called his elect. Some
people act like, well, there are two gospels. You've heard
of the word Arminianism, which is free willism. Well, that's
the milk of the word. No, that's a lie. That's deadly
to the souls of people. And then you've heard Calvinism,
that's the meat of the Lord. No. That's just the truth. It's
sad that people label those things by the names of men. Because
you see, the church is not man's building. It's God's building. That's what it is. What's the problem here with
milk and meat? What Paul is, he's not talking about the content
of the message, he's talking about how he would approach them. And here's the problem, the preaching
of Christ is both milk of the word for babes and strong meat
for mature believers, but he's referring more to the manner
of his teaching, how he would approach them, because there's
a problem. And here's what Paul's saying.
Because of these issues that have arisen in the church, that
have divided you who claim to believe the gospel, instead of
talking to you as my spiritual brethren, I have to talk to you
like unruly children, babies. You have to be corrected. in
things that you should know better. And what's the problem? Look
at verse four, while one saith I'm of Paul and another I'm of
Apollos, are you not yet calm? You're dividing over Paul and
Apollos? Well listen, verse five, who
then is Paul and who's Apollos? Who are these guys? Does it make
you feel better that you follow Paul or that you follow Apollos?
It shouldn't. These guys are ministers by whom
you believe. They're servants, that's what
minister means. Minister does not mean the right
reverend doctor so and so. Ministers don't mean that he's
got a Ph.D. and a T.H.D. and a D.D.C. or
whatever. It's a servant. That's what a
minister is. A servant of God, a servant of
the church. And he said, even as the Lord
gave to every man. You see that in verse 5? What
are we doing? We're just talking about what
God has freely given all of his people in Christ, which none
of us deserve and none of us have earned. That's what we're
talking about. Well, you're acting like Paul
earned his keep or that Apollos earned it. No, we're just ministers
of Christ. And we're just preaching according
to what God has given us and given you. Now he says in verse
six, I planted, I was the first one to preach here. Apollos watered,
but God gave the increase. So who does the glory go to?
Paul? Apollos? No, it goes to God. God be glorified. Let God be
true in every man a liar. Verse seven, so then is he that
planteth anything, neither that watereth? Neither is he that
planteth anything, nor he that watereth, but God that giveth
the increased. This is what we're here for.
We're not here promoting a man, we're here promoting Christ.
And he says, now he that planteth and he that watereth are one.
Paul and Apollos were together. They're not divided. Why would
you divide over them? And every man shall receive his
own reward according to his own labor. Now that doesn't mean
we're gonna earn our reward. It just simply means that we're
just simply doing what God has called us to do. And the reward
is the reward of grace in Christ. And so he says in verse nine,
for we are laborers together with God, you're God's husbandry,
you're God's building. That's what the church is, God's
building. And that's another distinction
we need to make. What is a church? The word church
is a Greek word that means called out ones. People who have been
called out of the world and into the family of God. That's what
a church is. That's what it literally means.
Those are being called out. Now, how have they been called
out? By the preacher? No, by the Holy Spirit through
the preaching of the gospel, which is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth, Jew and Gentile, for therein
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, from knowledge
revealed to knowledge received, God-given faith, For as it is
written, the justified shall live by faith. There are many
names in the Bible for the church. And there's many ways to look
at the church. I made this statement before. There are local bodies
of believers known as churches. Here's the church at Corinth.
There's the church at Galatia. The church at Philippi. The church
in Albany. The church in Ashland. Church
in Ruston, we could go on and on. And that's individual, local,
and that's important, that we identify with and support a local
body of believers if there is one in our area. There's some
people that we know, they don't have any place to go to church,
as we say, because everything around them
that they see as far as buildings and religious organizations,
there's no gospel there. That's a sad place to be, but
I'm thankful that we can help them with our live stream and
all of that. So there are local, now what
is a true church? A true church is one where the
true gospel is preached. If you walk into a building,
a religious organization, and the preacher's not preaching
the true gospel, you don't have a true church there. We got to
be discerning what you've got there is one of Satan's tears
That's right a false church Then there's the universal church
that's made up of all true believers in all ages all over the world
That's not different denominations It's the elect of God that's
the church and It's those whom God justified in Christ. It's
those who are adopted into his family. And they are known in
this way, they are called out under the preaching of the gospel
by the Holy Spirit to faith in Christ and repentance of dead
works. They submit to Christ as the
Lord their righteousness. And they gather together in local
areas to do that. Now that's God's work. That's
not man's work. God uses men and women to point
the way, bring them in, but it's God's work. When Christ asked
the disciples, who do men say that I am? And they gave all
the answers that people speculate and have their opinions. Peter
spoke up and says, you're the Christ, the son of the living
God. You're the Messiah, you're the Savior. Christ said, blessed
are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for God, for man's not revealed,
the flesh and blood hasn't revealed that to you, but our Father which
is in heaven. And he said, I tell you, Peter,
you're a little stone, but upon this rock, this big rock, boulder,
I'll build my church. And that rock was not Peter,
that rock is Christ. Christ is the rock of the church.
He's the foundation. He's the head of the body. He's
the heart. He's the life of the church.
He's the sustainer of the church. And he builds his church. Paul wrote in Ephesians chapter
two, by grace are you saved, verse eight, by grace are you
saved through faith that not of yourselves, it's the gift
of God, not of works, lest any man should boast, for we are
his workmanship. Created in Christ Jesus. In other
words, we're God's workmanship, we weren't even created by our
own efforts. Created in Christ Jesus. Unto
good works, not because of, which God hath before ordained that
we should walk in them. Well, look at these last few
verses and I'll quit. He says, we're God's husbandry,
look at verse 10. It's according to the grace of
God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder. The wisdom
of God that Paul had. The power of God that he had.
It wasn't of himself. It was of God. It's the grace
of God. And he said, I've laid the foundation. What does that
mean? I've preached the gospel. I've preached Christ crucified
and risen from the dead. I've preached the righteousness
of God, which is the entire merit of Christ's work as our surety,
our substitute and redeemer. And another buildeth thereon.
Another preacher comes along and builds thereon, but let every
man take heed how he buildeth thereon. Be careful how you build
on that foundation. There are people who build wrongly
on that foundation. They go astray. And I'll talk
about that, Lord willing, next week. In other words, they don't
continue in the gospel and its particulars and its implications
in the word of God. They go off on a tangent. I've
seen it happen. Preachers get sidetracked and
they get full of themselves and they come up with some new idea
and begin preaching it and what happens? They begin to So would
he and stubble, that's what he says later on. And I'll talk
about that next week. And may the Lord bless his word
to our hearts.