Now let's stay right there at
1 Corinthians chapter 3 where Brother Randy just read. The past few messages I've been
dealing with the issue of the believers works at judgment,
final judgment. Several messages on that and
making the point that as we are not saved by works, but we're
saved by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ. And at
the judgment, we're not going to be judged based on our works,
but our works will be determined as evidences of our union with
Christ, the fruit of God's grace. In other words, when we stand
before God at judgment, our righteousness before God is not our works.
Our righteousness is the Lord Jesus Christ. And He's the only
right and title that we have to enter Heaven's glory. None
other. I've gone through several scriptures,
you know. And in these last messages, I've
dealt with what I call the whatabouts. When people hear that and they
say, well, what about this passage? Or what about that passage? And
this is pretty much the last one I'm gonna deal with on that
subject. But I've entitled this message,
Every Man's Work Made Manifest. And that comes from verse 13
of 1 Corinthians 3. when he says, talking about building
on the foundation, and he mentions gold and silver, precious stones. The precious stones there refers
to the, like those marble stones that they used in the ancient
world, they carved out to make a strong building. And then he
mentions wood, hay, and stubble. Those are things that are worthless.
to be burned up, good for nothing. And it says in verse 13, every
man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it. I believe that's talking about
the day of judgment, there are disagreements there. But he said
it shall be revealed by fire, that's the wrath of God, the
judgment of God against sin. And as we know, if you're in
Christ, we've already been judged for all our sins in Christ on
the cross of Calvary. Our sins imputed to him, and
his righteousness imputed to us so that we can say with the
Apostle Paul, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It's God that justifies. And then he says, and the fire
shall try every man's work of what sort it is. Now, what does
that verse mean in light of what I've been preaching on this? The issue here, you've got to
understand that scripture can only be interpreted by its context. And it's just like when I first
heard the gospel, my pastor taught me, he said that in some ways
it's simple. I mean, there are difficult passages
of scripture, and even believers disagree, not on the gospel now,
but upon what a particular passage may mean. But my pastor said,
you gotta find out who's talking, who he's talking to, and what
he's talking about. That's the issue. And that's context. And
so, what is the issue here in this every man's work shall be
made manifest? What's he talking about? Well,
he's talking about working. The Bible does not deny the existence
or even the necessity of a believer's works. In fact, it shows us very
clearly, it puts it in the proper context of God's grace as the
fruit and effect of salvation. Not the cause, not the ground,
but the fruit and effect. And I think of always that classic
passage that kind of summarizes it in Ephesians chapter 2 beginning
at verse 8. where it says, for by grace are
you saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And
then it goes on to say, for we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus, and what's the word? Unto good, not because
of. You see, unto good works, which
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. So in
no way are we to speak of the believer's works as being the
cause or the ground of his salvation or that by which he earns God's
favor and blessings. They're the fruit of God's grace.
Christ spoke of it in John 15. He's the vine, we're the branches. I heard a preacher a couple weeks
ago talking about works and fruit and he said, we produce fruit.
That's not true. We don't produce fruit, Christ
does, we bear it. We bear the fruit, we're fruit
bearers. Scripture speaks of bearing fruit unto God in Romans
chapter seven. So he's talking about working
here, but what is the context? Well, first of all, here's the
problem. The problem that Paul is addressing in the book of
First Corinthians, he addresses a lot of problems. This is a
church with a lot of problems. But the problem here he's addressing
is division among believers over preachers. That's what he's talking
about. Men and women have always had
a tendency to form an unholy attachment to men. And you see
that in the history of the church. But here he's talking about the
true gospel church. Division over preachers. Look
at verse one of chapter three. He says, I, brethren, could not
speak unto you as unto spiritual. The issue there is mature. those who have grown in grace
and knowledge to the point that they recognize the realities
of this problem and avoid it. And he says, but as unto carnal,
that word carnal means fleshly, even as unto babes in Christ,
infants. Now we know that every true believer,
sinners saved by the grace of God, has an inner warfare called
the warfare of the flesh and the spirit. And sometimes, We
act in the flesh and sometimes we act in the spirit. And what
Paul's saying here is you're acting in the flesh. What you're
doing here in this division is not of the spirit of God. It's
not of God at all. It's totally of the flesh. It
has to do with self-love. It has to do with pride. That's
all it is. And he said, just like a babe
in Christ. That's the best I can say for you in this situation.
Now there may be some false professions here. And we're gonna look at
that in just a moment. There may be those who are so
entrenched in attachment to a man that they're actually man followers
and not Christ followers. That's a possibility here. But
Paul's saying the way you're acting in your division over
preachers now, He said, the best I can say for you is you're a
baby in Christ. You're not grown, you're not
mature, you haven't learned better. And so he says in verse two,
I fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto you were not
able to bear it, neither yet now are you able. You've put
yourself in such a bad attitude and bad state of mind that I
can't go on to the meat of the word that would bring the assurance
of salvation as it drives us to look more to Christ, for you
are yet carnal. Verse three, for where there's
among you envying, and you know what envy is, that's a form of
jealousy, it's a severe form of jealousy. Strife, that's arguments,
and divisions. You might see in your concordance
there the word factions, divisions. He says, Are you not yet carnal
and walk as men? In other words, you're not walking
as according to the Spirit of God, you're walking according
to the thoughts and the intents of men. And he says in verse
four, now here's the problem. For while one saith, I am of
Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are you not yet carnal? Are you
not yet fleshly? Now I want you to notice something
about this. This is not a division between true preachers of the
gospel and false preachers. If you wanna learn about that,
go to the book of Galatians. This is not a division between
true preachers and false preachers. This is people sitting under
the preaching of the gospel, the true gospel, not a false
gospel, who are dividing over true preachers of the gospel.
You see, Paul was a true apostle of Christ. Apollos was a true
preacher of the gospel. Look back at chapter one. Paul
addressed this subject at the beginning of it. Verse 11. All through this, he talks about
it. But look, he says, He says, well, look at verse 10. He says,
now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be
no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together
in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been declared
unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the household
of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now, what are they
arguing about? What are they dividing over? Verse 12, now
this I say that every one of you say I'm of Paul. Some of
them had attached themselves to Paul. We follow Paul. He says, and some say I of Apollos. Some had attached themselves
to Apollos. We're of Apollos, we follow him. We like his preaching
better. Some of Cephas. That was the
Aramaic name for Peter. Some say we follow Peter. And
then there were those really highly self-proclaimed spiritual
ones who say, well, we don't follow any preacher, we just
follow Christ. Yeah. But it was division. Now there's
no preacher here mentioned who was a false prophet. Paul was
a true preacher of the gospel. Apollos was a true preacher of
the gospel. Cephas was a true preacher of the gospel. Peter,
the apostle Peter. So we're not talking about divisions
over false and true. Understand, this is in the context
now, you have to understand this. What they're dividing over is
these men, not over what's the true gospel and what's a false
gospel. You see, if the division is between the true gospel and
the false gospel, the matter's clear. Those who follow a false
gospel are lost. Remember, Paul said, those who
come proclaiming a false gospel, let them be anathema. He said,
and though I or an angel from heaven, if it's Paul, if Paul
stands before you and preaches a false gospel, Paul said, let
us be anathema. So that's settled. But here the
division is over true preachers, men who preach the gospel. And
how does Paul address it? We'll look back at 1 Corinthians
3. Listen, you know what he said,
his point here is this, and I'm gonna go back to verse chapter
one on this too. And here's what he reminds them
of first. Salvation is not of Paul. Salvation is not of Peter. Salvation is not of, salvation
is of the Lord. Salvation, your salvation, if
you're truly saved, it didn't come from me. Now, I may have
been the first one you heard preach the gospel, or I may have
been one who came along later, and you know, he's gonna talk
about that in a minute. Paul planted, Apollos came along
and what, but salvation is of the Lord, the Lord God, by his
grace through Jesus Christ, period. And that's what he says in verse
five. He says, look at 1 Corinthians 3, five. Who then is Paul? Some
translations say, what is Paul? What am I? And who is Apollos? What's Apollos? But ministers. You know what the word ministers
means? Servant. We're servants. Like John the
Baptist. I'm not the Messiah. I'm just
a voice of one crying in the wilderness. I'm not even fit
to untie his shoelaces. I must decrease, Christ must
increase. That's the issue Paul's bringing
forth here. He says, we're servants by whom you believed even as
the Lord gave to every man. Whatever gifts, whatever truth
I have, it's a gift from God. It didn't come from my intelligence,
it didn't come from my pedigree, it didn't come from my efforts. It's a gift from God, the gospel,
salvation, think about it. Think about it in this term,
how a sinner can stand before God and be declared righteous. Did any of that come from you?
Did any of it come from me? No, it all came by the obedience
unto death, even the death of the cross, the truth. Even the willingness to believe
the truth, where did it come from? Came from God. God makes
his people willing in the day of his power. It didn't come
from my goodness or my, it didn't come because Bill Parker was
a less obstinate, less rebellious sinner than the one who rejects,
no. It wasn't my decision that made
the difference between saved and lost, it was the cross of
the Lord Jesus Christ. You see that? That's what Paul's
saying here. And look what he says in verse six, I have planted
a pollished water. Paul was the first one that God
sent to Corinth to preach the gospel. That's what he means,
I planted. Now Paul's planting was a work. He did a work there
in planting the gospel, coming in and preaching the gospel.
But it was not a work that he did in order to attain or maintain
salvation. It was doing the Lord's work
by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul planting
is not his righteousness before God, Christ is. What did he plant?
He planted the seed of the gospel which leads sinners to Christ
for all righteousness. And then Apollos watered. Apollos
came along later and he preached the same gospel that Paul preached,
not a different gospel. But here's the key. but God gave
the increase. Paul could have come along and
preached the gospel, Apollos could have come along behind
him and preached it, and nothing ever happened, unless what? God,
the Holy Spirit, did his work. God gave the increase. Salvations
of the Lord. And look back at chapter one,
look at verse 13. Here's how Paul addresses the
division back here. He said, is Christ divided? You're
divided over preachers of the gospel. Is Christ divided? Christ and his church are one
in the eyes of God's law and justice. They're one in the spirit.
Is Christ divided? All right, some of you attach
yourselves to Paul, say, I follow Paul. Well, was Paul crucified
for you? How are your sins washed away?
Did it have anything to do with Paul? How is your righteousness
before God established? Did it have anything to do with
Peter? No. Christ is the one who died for our sins. He says,
were you baptized in the name of Paul? We're baptized in the
name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, not in the
name of Paul. And so he goes on to say, I thank
God that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius, lest any
should say that I baptized in mine own name. It gives you an
idea of sometimes how people can get attached to certain preachers. To the point now, and listen,
the Bible teaches us. We learned that in Galatians
6 this morning, the principle of sowing and reaping. We're
to love and to support and pray for those ministers, those servants
of God that he sent us to preach the gospel to us, to be under
shepherds. Nothing wrong with that. We're
to give them the respect they deserve because of their office.
But we're not to attach ourselves to certain ones to the point
that we divide from brethren over these preachers. And that's
what Paul's saying. How do people get attached to
certain preachers? Well, it could have been, well, he's the first
one I heard the gospel from. Well, that's fine. And you love
him for it. And you pray for him and you
support him. But you don't say, well, he's the only one I'm gonna
listen to because of that. Or somebody said, well, he's
the one who baptized me. That's what Paul's addressing
here. Well, that's fine, but that doesn't give you any right
to divide and deny other true gospel preachers. And I have
to emphasize that now. Understand he's talking about
division over gospel preachers and not between true and false.
We'll go back to chapter three. He says this, he says, God gave
the increase and he says in verse seven, so then neither is he
that planeth anything. In other words, in this matter
of salvation, I'm really nothing. God's gonna save his people.
He's gonna save his elect people. And he's gonna use his means
to do so. But don't get caught up in the means. He says, neither
he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. In other
words, Paul's saying this thing of salvation and this thing of
worship, this thing of living the Christian life, it's all
about God's glory, not about a man. It's not about man's glory. Man
has no glory. Our glory is Christ. Paul wrote,
God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ. This is about Christ. We're here
to preach Christ. We're here to lift up Christ.
We think about our godly mothers and we thank God for you, but
I'm sorry, I'm just not here to lift you up. We're not worshiping
you. We worship Christ, and if you're
a godly mother, you say amen. We're here to talk about him.
I often think, again, I always go back to John the Baptist,
because when I was in false religion, it was all about credentials.
What credentials do you have? Well, John the Baptist had some
great credentials, didn't he? I mean, look, he could turn to
an Old Testament passage in the book of Malachi, and say, that's
talking about me. I can turn to a lot of passages
in the scripture and say it's talking about me. It says Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I'm just
talking about me. But John the Baptist could turn
to that one specific prophecy of Malachi and say, that's talking
about me, folks. He could say I'm the last of
the Old Testament prophets. I mean, he had some credentials
now. He had a testimony. He could say the Lord himself
said there was none born of woman greater than John. But did he say any of that? He
could say I was martyred for the faith. He didn't say anything. He said I'm a voice. I'm not
the Messiah. I can't baptize you with fire.
That is the power of the Holy Spirit in the new birth. I can
baptize you with water. I can't give you a new heart.
I can't give you new life. There's one coming that's greater
than me who can do that. He was before me. He's preferred
before me. I'm not worthy to untie his shoelaces. And I love that passage. I think
it's in John three. I can't remember the exact reference
now. But it's talking about John's
preaching. And it's talking about two disciples who heard John
speak, and the next line says, and they followed Jesus. And
that should be the desire of every true preacher of the gospel.
That you hear me speak, but you don't follow me, you follow Jesus. You follow Christ. You submit
to him as your only righteousness before God. Well, look at verse
eight. Now, he talks about the gospel
ministry here in building the church. And he says, now he that
planteth and he that watereth are one. Paul and Apollos, Cephas,
they're all one, they're united in the gospel. They all agree,
we're sinners saved by grace. We have one way of salvation,
one way of righteousness. And every man shall receive his
own reward according to his own labor. Now what is he talking
about? Well, preaching the gospel. Planting
and watering, that's the issue. He's not talking about earned
rewards in heaven. That's not what he's talking
about. The Bible doesn't teach that. I've dealt with that in these
other messages. There is a reward. But as I told you, Scripture
has to be interpreted in light of Scripture. And listen to what
he says, and we'll get back to that in just a moment. But he
says, verse nine, for we are laborers together with God, you
are God's husbandry, Like Randy said, that's like a garden. Tillage
is the actual word. You're God's tillage. Like it's
stated in Ephesians 2.10 that I quoted earlier this way, we
are his workmanship. Created in Christ Jesus unto
good works. So you're God's garden. You might say it that way. You're
God's building. Preachers don't build the church.
If they do, it's a false church and it'll fall. Christ said to
the disciples, upon this rock I will build my church. That's
the rock Christ Jesus. That's not Peter. Peter wasn't
the rock. Peter was the petros. He was the little rock. But Christ
is the foundation rock upon which the church is built. And he's
the builder of the church. But see, you're God's building.
But now God uses preachers. It pleased the Lord by the foolishness
of preaching to save them. He uses his instruments, his
voices, And it says in verse 10, according to the grace of
God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder. Now Paul
speaks of himself as building, a wise master builder. And it's
all according to the grace and the power and goodness of God.
It's not based upon my abilities. It's not based upon my abilities
to persuade. He says, I have laid the foundation.
I preach the gospel here first. That's what he's saying. And
another buildeth thereon. Paul has come and he preached
the gospel too. And the Lord added to his church.
But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon." Now, you
see, he's talking about the gospel ministry in building the church.
God is the builder. It's all of God. When we plant
and water, God gives the increase. But he uses his preachers as
instruments. And the Lord spoke of this. Let
me just read you these passages. And you know, the church is often
Described in the scripture as a building where the little stones
that God puts in the place In Matthew 7, you know, he talked
about the the building on the foundation the rock that's the
church in Luke chapter 10 and verse 2 speakings to his disciples
listen to what he says therefore said he unto them the harvest
truly is great, but the laborers are few and Pray ye therefore
the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth laborers
into his harvest. What's he talking about? Going
out and preaching the gospel. Preaching the gospel. And look
at what Paul writes here. He says, let every man take heed
how he buildeth thereon. In verse 11. Look at it, he says,
for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is
Jesus Christ. Now that proves he's talking
about true preachers of the gospel. A false preacher, the foundation
that he lays is not Jesus Christ and him crucified, the Lord our
righteousness. The foundation he lays is a false
foundation, it's the one made of sand and it'll fall. So Paul said other foundation
can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. The foundation
of God's grace in Christ Jesus. that all of my salvation, the
forgiveness of my sins, my justification before God, through the preaching
of the gospel, what does it say? Paul said in Romans 116, I'm
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, it's the power of God
unto salvation, to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first,
the Greek also, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall
live by faith. The foundation of righteousness, in and by the
Lord Jesus Christ, not by man's works and efforts, not even by
man's will and decision, only by Jesus Christ. That's it. And other foundation can no man
lay, not any real foundation, not true foundation. And he says,
you've got to take heed upon how you build. What he's talking
about is the source and the power of this labor that he's going
through is God, and the foundation is Jesus Christ. So it proves
he's talking about true preachers of the gospel. But let every
man take heed. Now, look at it. Verse 12. Now if any man build upon this
foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, and stubble,
some say, There's different views of this verse. Some say that
he's talking about the precious true doctrines of Christ as the
gold, silver, and the precious stones. And it's true that the
gospel message of God's grace in Christ is the foundation message,
the righteousness of God revealed in Christ, and every doctrine
that we preach should be built upon that foundation. And anytime
somebody strays from that truth and gets into false doctrine,
they're leaving the foundation. And that's why you have so many
denominations today. That's why you have so many different
interpretations. That's why you have some people
who preach salvation totally by the sovereign grace of God.
Some people preach salvation as a combination of God's grace
and man's works. Some totally by works. I mean,
there's all kinds of different colors out there, different views,
different shades. And certainly the Bible teaches
us. For example, we read it this morning, 2 John verse 9. If any
man transgresses and abides not in the doctrine of Christ, he
hath not God. Those who abide in the doctrine
of Christ hath both the Father and the Son. So when you look
at this passage, and some say, well, the gold and the silver
and the precious stones are the doctrines of truth that line
up with the doctrine of salvation by Christ. Others say the wood,
hay, and stubble, and since we're talking about true preachers
of the gospel, have to do with true preachers who get sidetracked,
not to go into error and false doctrine, but get onto issues
that really mean nothing. Now, I'll give you an example
of that. I heard of a preacher in Louisville,
Kentucky one time, and they claimed that he preached the doctrines
of sovereign grace. I don't know him. I don't know
if he was really a true preacher, but he got sidetracked on fighting
communism in the 60s, and that's all he would preach about. Well,
we're against communism, you know, and that's fine, but that's
not how you build up on the foundation. I don't know if that was all
true or not. But that's how some people interpret this. But I
want to give you an alternative that I believe fits the context
even better than that. I don't believe that's what this
is teaching, even though those things are true in a sense. What
I believe this is talking about, and when it says, every man's
work, look at it again. Now verse 12, now if any man
build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood,
hay, stuff, every man's work shall be made manifest for the
day I believe it's talking about the day of judgment, shall declare
it, that declarative judgment, because it shall be revealed
by fire, the fire being the judgment of God, wrath of God upon those
who are not found in Christ, and the fire shall try or test
every man's work of what sort it is. It says, if any man's
work abide, if it continues unto the end, which he hath built
thereupon, this is the work of the minister, again, not to be
saved, not to be made righteous, but his work in the ministry
and preaching the gospel, and the results of that work abide,
if any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall
receive a reward. A reward, does that mean he's
earned something from God? And the answer's no. If any man's
work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall
be saved, this is a sinner saved by grace, yet so is by fire. Now what's it talking about?
The work here, I believe, refers to the fruit of his labor in
the gospel. We preach the gospel. Each one
of you are sitting here listening to me preach the gospel. Sad to say, the Bible teaches
us that not all who sit under the preaching of the gospel believe
it. There are believers, there are
unbelievers. Again, we're not talking about
where a false gospel is preached, that's a given, the scripture
tells us. Where a false gospel is preached, there's no fruit
of grace. Where the righteousness of Christ
is not clearly declared as the only righteousness in which we
stand before God justified by his sovereign grace, where that's
not preached, there's no fruit of grace. But where the true gospel is
preached, And Christ taught this in the parable of the seed and
the sower. The seed goes forth, the gospel. Some believed and
some didn't. There's the stony ground here,
the thorny ground here, the wayside here, but then there's the good
ground here. The good ground being the sinner saved by grace,
regenerated by the power of God. And it's every gospel preacher's
desire that everyone who hears him believes it. I want you to
believe. Not because I'm saying it, because
it's here in God's word. but not everyone does. There
are those who truly believe it. There are those who just claim
to believe it. What's he talking about here?
We know God brings forth his precious stones under the gospel.
I believe the gold, silver, and precious stones here is a metaphor
for true believers, sinners saved by grace. Sinners washed in the
blood of Christ. Sinners clothed in His righteousness.
Sinners regenerated, born again by the Holy Spirit, who believe
God, who believe Christ, and trust Him and follow Him. What's
the wood, hay, and stubble that comes under the gospel? Can it
come under the gospel? He says it does. If men who sit
under it come short of trusting and following Christ and just
follow a man, I believe that's the wood, hay, and stubble he's
talking about. Are you a man follower or are you a Christ
follower? He says, the day shall declare
it because it shall be revealed by fire. Am I really following
Christ or am I following a man or a group of men? That's the
key. Who do I follow? He talks about
reward here. And every man's work shall be
made manifest. In other words, to whom I preach,
it's going to be made manifest in the day of judgment who truly
believed it and who didn't. It'll be made manifest. Sometimes
it's made manifest in this life. And he talks about reward, he
talks about suffering loss, and I'll tell you what I believe
he's talking about. Let's turn to this and I'll hurry and close
here in just a minute. Look at 1 Corinthians 9. I believe it's pretty much the
exact same thing that Paul was talking about here
in 1 Corinthians 9 beginning at verse 16. And I'll give you
an example of it. Paul says in verse 16 of 1 Corinthians
9, he says, for though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to
glory of. I don't have anything to brag
about in my preaching. I boast in Christ. My glory is Christ. The fact
that I preach the gospel is a gift from God and it's a blessing
from God, but it's not my righteousness before God. He says, for necessity
is laid upon me, yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel.
I've got no choice in this matter. He says, for if I do this thing
willingly, I have a reward. You think Paul's saying he's
earning his rewards by preaching? No. What is the reward? Well, hold on. He says, but if
against my will dispensation of the gospel is committed unto
me, what is my reward then? Now, you hear that? What is my
reward? Verily that when I preach the
gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that
I abuse not my power in the gospel, for though I be free from all
men, yet have I made myself servant and all that I might gain the
more. That's my reward. What is my reward as a preacher?
To see people being brought by the power and grace of God to
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, to submit to His righteousness.
That's my reward. That's it. It's my joy and my
crown. That's what Paul said to the
Philippians. And I'll give you a great example
of it. Back in 2003, I came before you. And I told you that I was gonna
leave, I was resigning as your pastor, and I was going up to
Ashland, Kentucky. And a lot of you got mad. And I understand that. Incidentally, last year I told
them up in Ashland I was leaving to come back here and they got
mad too. And I understand that because
in the 18 and a half years that I was here, not only did I, by
the grace of God, preach the gospel to you, and many of you
came to know Christ by the power of God, but we became friends,
too, and companions, and those relationships. But you know what
my reward out of that whole thing was? That in the 11 years I was
gone, this church didn't disband and disperse. By the grace of
God, you held together. And even when a man came in here
and preached false doctrine to you, what did you do? You stood
firm for the glory of God in Christ. You don't realize how much joy
that gave this man up here. And I'd talk to you. And some
of them accused me of being an instrument in having you fire
a man, a man who was preaching heresy, incidentally. And I said,
well, I didn't advise him to do it, but I said I had a big
part in it. I preached the gospel to him for 18 and a half years.
I freely admit that. But that's the reward that Paul's
talking about. If this church had disbanded
and gone away because Bill Parker left, I would suffer loss. That
would be a real trial for me. That's what he's talking about,
the test of fire there. But God held you together and
brought me back. So here I am. But I thank God
for it. That's what he's talking about.
It's possible, you know, Paul did not encourage any of those
people to follow him. Peter didn't encourage any of
those people to follow him. I believe Apollos didn't encourage
any, but some of them did. And if that's what a person does,
that's the wood, hay, and stubble that'll be burnt up in the day
of judgment. Are you following Christ? And I pray that you are. All right.