Well, good morning. Let's open
up this morning service in the blue hymnal number 36 number
36. A mighty fortress is our God.
If you could please stand number 36. A mighty fortress is our God,
for work never failing. Our helper he amid the flood
of mortal ill prevailing. For still our ancient foe doth
seek to work us woe. His craft and power are great. and armed with cruel hate, on
earth is not his equal. Did we in our own strength confide,
our striving would be losing. We're not the right man on our
side, the man of God's own choosing. Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He. Lord Sabbath is His name, from
age to age the same, and He must win the battle. And though this world with devils
filled should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God
hath willed His truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim We
tremble not for him His rage we can endure For lo, his doom
is sure One little word shall fell him That word above all
earthly power, no thanks to them abided. The Spirit and the gifts
are our through Him who with us sided. Let good Zandkin bread go, This
mortal life also The body they may kill God's truth abided still
His kingdom is forever You be seated, please. Good morning. The snowbirds have flown south.
We're so glad to have Fred and Mary Jane back with us. We missed
you guys. Glad you're here. Psalm 27 says, One thing
have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after, that
I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. For in the time of trouble, he
shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of his tabernacle
shall he hide me. He shall set me upon a rock."
What a glorious promise. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father, we're so very thankful that you've allowed us once again
to come here to this place. We thank you for the promise
of your presence. We thank you that you put into
our hearts to be in thy presence. Lord, we do pray that you would
hide us. Hide us in Christ. Give our feet a firm standing
in him. We thank you for his accomplished
work. We pray that you would be pleased
now by the power of your Holy Spirit. To reveal the glory of
his person and cause us to wonder. Calls us Lord to worship. We ask it in Christ name. Amen. Mary in Sarasota's father, Gene,
those of you that have gone to Sarasota know Gene. He came to
every service for the last two or three years. And he's been
here a few times. He passed away on Friday. And
we're going to have a memorial service for him at the VFW in
Sarasota on Saturday. I mention that to ask you to
pray for me. I'll be trying to preach the
gospel to a lot of his friends that obviously never heard the
gospel. So pray the Lord will be pleased
to to enable me to speak and give someone ears to hear on
Saturday. They're going to be flying, Mary's
flying his body back to, somebody help me out, Wisconsin,
Milwaukee, for the burial, which will be, I think, the 15th of
this month. you have your bibles let's open
them together to first corinthians chapter three first corinthians
chapter three and my hopes this morning are to deal with this
entire chapter because there's one theme, there's one thought
that continues throughout the chapter. And if we get hung up
on one verse, we may lose sight of the message that the Lord
has for us through this chapter. I've titled this, Revealed by
Fire. Revealed by Fire. The Lord makes
it clear in this chapter that all works will be revealed in
the end by the fire of God. And that which is not of Christ
will be burned up. And he's the only one that's
going to survive the fire. You've heard it said, life is
short and soon will pass, and only what's done by Christ will
last. Not what's done for Christ, but
what's done by Christ. He, his feet have been tried
in the fire and they have, the Lord reveal, describes the Lord
in Revelation as having brazen feet, feet that have been tried
in the fire. And so the message here is that
whatever the Lord doesn't do is going to be burned up and
uh... whatever he does will be for
his glory and for the salvation of his people uh... whatever
we do will be will be consumed by fire wood hay and stubble
uh... there's nothing to it That which
is of the flesh is flesh. The flesh profiteth nothing. And everything that's done in
the flesh will go in the way of the flesh. And only that which is done by
Christ and which glorifies Him will survive the test of fire. Now, that's the message of this
chapter. And the appeal that the Lord,
the admonition, I guess I should say, that the Lord is making
for us is to set our affections on those things that are going
to survive the fire. to set our hearts on Christ because
he's the only one that's going to survive. Alright, he begins in chapter
3 verse 1 and I remember in religion we would take this passage of
scripture and use it to justify a doctrine that we called the
carnal Christian. Now to us the carnal Christian
back then was a person who prayed the prayer, made a profession
of faith, invited Jesus to come into their heart, and therefore
one saved always saved, and yet now they have fallen completely
out of fellowship with the church. They've got no interest in the
things of God, and they're living their lives in the world, and
we would say, well, they're just a carnal Christian. They, you
know, they're They're saved, and that's not at all what this
passage of Scripture is talking about. Don't anyone comfort themselves
in thinking that because someone made a profession of faith, someone
made a decision, someone had an experience, that that in and
of itself is the hope of their salvation. The Lord is speaking
to active members of the church. And he's saying to them, you're
acting carnally. You're acting like babies. You're
acting like children. Those of you that have more than
one child have the experience of knowing what rivalries can
take place among your children. and how they can compete with
one another for your attention. And, you know, you put two or
three or four children in a car together and what do you have
one of them saying, he's touching me, or she did this, or she did
that, or they, you know, and that's, and there's strife. There's strife among siblings
because they're in competition with one another. And that's
what the Lord's saying about us when we act that way in the
carnality of our flesh as adults. They say, you're acting just
like children. You're acting like babies. You're getting your feelings
hurt too easily. There's strife and contention among you. And
it ought not to be. It ought not to be. Look what
he says. And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as spiritual,
but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. These are believers. These are
believers. These aren't people that had
an interest at one time and have completely fallen away. He said,
I couldn't speak to you as spiritual adults. I had to deal with you
as children. Why? For I have fed you with
milk and not with meat. For hitherto you were not able
to bear it, neither Yet now are you able, for you are yet carnal,
for whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions,
are you not carnal and walk according to man? This envying, this strife,
this division, this contention, this competition that there is
among you, it's man glorying in man. And the only thing that's
going to put that away is to look spiritually to Christ. You've
got your affections set on the wrong thing. You're looking at
yourself, you're looking to promote yourself, you're looking to glory
in yourself. Look over, let's skip over a
few verses to verse 21. Here's the conclusion of the
matter. Therefore, let no man glory in men." Vain glory is what it is. I've
said this so many times and it's so true. The Scriptures are clear
on this. Anytime there's strife among
men, there's some vain glory going on in there. Somebody doesn't
feel like they've gotten the reward, the attention, the accolades,
whatever. uh... that they deserve and so
they're they're they're fighting there's wars and fighting among
them uh... james speaks about that let's
turn over there to the book of james james chapter four from whence comes wars and fightings
among you Come they not hence even of your own lust that war
in your members you lust and you have not, you kill and desire
to have and cannot obtain, you fight and war yet you have not
because you ask not. You're trying to get what you
want from another person. And that's the source of your
conflict. Ask it of God. Ask God to give
you peace. Ask God to give you hope. Ask
God to give you comfort. Ask God to give you glory in
Christ and you won't be fighting with one another for it. You'll
be able to rest contently in what the Lord gives you. at it
he starts out by saying you you just you acting like a bunch
a little kids in the car a fighting over who's who's who's touching
who and who's in the right seat news you know it why because
you're not looking to Christ you glory in yourself you you
you're not it you you're acting according to the flesh this is
how fleshly men act it's not how spiritual men or to act Alright,
go back with me to our text. Verse 4, For while one saith,
I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are you not carnal? think about the church in corinth
the church in corinth was made up of two groups of people uh... one would have been the jews
and another would have been uh... the greeks and uh... the jews would have identified
with the apostle paul he's one of us you know he he understands
our culture He understands our needs. He understands our background.
He's one of us. The Greeks, on the other hand,
would have identified with Apollos. And they would have said, Apollos,
he's mastered the art of Greek oratory, and he's a great speaker,
and he's not like that Paul. He's one of us. We identify with
him. And the Lord's using this conflict
between the believers in the church to expose their carnality
and to expose their immaturity. You know, I got thinking about
this. One of the things, we live in a day where everybody's talking
about, well, how do you identify with this generation or that
generation? You know, people coming from
different perspectives, different cultures. And I'm so thankful
that I don't have to try to make the Gospel and the Word of God
relevant to one group or another. You may belong to generation
X or you may be a millennium or you millennial or whatever
they call them or you may be like me, a baby boomer. It doesn't
really matter. The gospel is timeless. The scripture
says that I will turn the hearts of the fathers toward their children
and the hearts of the children toward their fathers. we're not
trying to make the gospel relevant to a particular culture uh... that the gospel is relevant the
word of god is timeless i think about that the writers from two
three four five hundred years ago that have that that that
preach the gospel the preachers that preach the gospel and that
are still a blessing to the church today are those that supported
their preaching with Scripture. Those that used illustrations
from their day and from their culture, they've pretty much
passed by. But those who used Scripture,
those who compared the spiritual to the spiritual, Scripture to
Scripture, they're still a blessing to us.
The message has not changed. The message is just as relevant
to the 12-year-old as it is to the 90-year-old. And that's what
Paul is saying. You're taking sides because of
your cultural differences. And when you do that, you're
just acting like the world. And you're losing sight of that
which is spiritual. Because that which is spiritual
is relevant to every single one of you. That which is spiritual
is Christ. And He's the answer for whatever
your language, whatever your cultural experience, whatever
your generation differences might be. Those are just fleshly differences. The spiritual truth of the gospel
is perfectly relevant to every person of every age and So he's saying, who then is Paul
and who is Apollos, verse 5, but ministers by whom you believed. They just, all they were were
preachers. Even as the Lord gave to every
man. I have planted, Apollos watered,
but God gave the increase. So then, neither is he that planteth
anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase."
You've got your eyes off of Christ. And you're glorying in a man.
And you're glorying in a man that you think identifies with
you. Because you're glorying in yourself.
and you you you've lost sight of Christ said they're just me
on they're just preachers God was the one who gave you the
ears to hear the Lord's the one that that that open the eyes
of your understanding he's the one that regenerated you those
men didn't do it they they were just They were voices for God, but
they were the audible voice. But the inward call came from
the Holy Spirit. Now, verse 8. He that planteth
and he that watereth are one. And every man shall receive his
own reward according to his own labor. Now, the Lord told Abraham, am thine exceeding great reward
and in Matthew chapter 6 I think it is in the Sermon on the Mount
when the Lord talks about giving your alms and and blowing the
trumpet before you give your alms in other words let everybody
know what you're doing the Lord concluded that whole passage
of scripture by saying they have received their reward So the
reward that man receives is personal attention, personal glory. He's glorying in himself. He's
looking for the approval of other men. And that's what this whole
passage is about. Remember the verse 21 that we
looked at? Therefore, let no man glory in men. Don't glory
in man. Don't let the right hand know
what the left hand's doing. Don't seek the approval of your
peers. You want the glory of Christ,
and you want Him to be revealed to your heart. And if you're
acting like children, and you're operating in the power of the
flesh, and you're just being carnal, you're looking for personal... you're promoting yourself. You're
promoting yourself. For we are laborers, verse 9,
together with God, and you are God's husbandry, garden, farm. John chapter 15, where the Lord
said, I am the, you are the vine, I am the branch, or you're the
branch, I'm the vine. You've got to abide in the vine. to bear fruit. And those branches
that do abide in the vine get pruned by God. And those that
are fruitless get cut off and thrown into the fire. What does
it mean to be fruitless? What's the fruit of the gospel?
It's the glory of God. It's the exaltation of Christ.
That's the fruit of the gospel. Alright, go back with me. for
you are god's husbandry you are god's building this building
is built on one foundation and no other foundation can be laid
the foundation is christ we are as peter describes us living
stones put together uh... on the foundation of the lord
jesus christ so there's the There's the reward. The reward is the
building up of the church, which all points to the glory of Christ,
not the glory of man. Verse 10, according to the grace
of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I laid
the foundation and and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how
he buildeth thereon." So, Paul said there's just one foundation.
That foundation is Christ. There's no other building. And
a lot of men are going to be building on this foundation.
But let him take heed how he builds. You put flesh on the
foundation of Christ and that flesh is going to be consumed.
You put that which is spiritual on the foundation. In other words,
you put Christ on Christ. Christ is all and in all. So this whole passage is telling
us, get your attention off yourself and look to Christ. Don't take
yourself so serious. Don't be so easily offended.
You're just glorying in yourself when you do that. You're acting
like babies and you're acting like carnal men out there in
the world. But that which is spiritual, that which is spiritual exalts
Christ. For other foundations can no
man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Well, he's not
talking about building another church. There's one church. There's
one foundation. There's one gospel. There's one
God and Father of us all. There's one baptism, one truth. It's all built on that one foundation.
And that which is carnal, anyone that's ever stood to preach knows
that in preaching there's a lot of flesh. and it and it's it
just I mean I wish I could get rid of every bit of it you know
my hope is that it's all gonna it's all gonna be burned up that
which is of the flesh is flesh in the flesh profit of nothing
is just all gonna be burned up it's all gonna be consumed it's
not gonna last the only thing that's gonna last and the only
thing that's going to that's going to result in the salvation
of sinners is that that points to Christ, that that glorifies
the Lord Jesus Christ, and that which is done by Christ. So he says in verse 12, if any
man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stone.
What is the gold, silver, and precious stone? That's Christ.
He's the gold tried in the fire. He's the silver. He's the precious stone. That's
Christ. If Christ is built on Christ,
then he's going to last. But that which is of the flesh,
that which points men away from Christ, and causes them to set
their affections on something else? It's wood, hay, and stubble. And when the fire comes, the
wood, hay, and stubble is going to be consumed, and that's going
to be a good thing. For in that place, in that place,
there's nothing but righteousness. Nothing but righteousness. Nothing's
going to survive nothing in this world that's done in the flesh
is going to survive. It's all going to be consumed.
Every man's work shall be manifest for the day shall declare it
because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try
every man's work of what sort it is. What the Lord is saying to me
and you is make that which is going to last
valuable. Why would you value something
that's not going to last? Only that which survives the
fire is going to last. So why would you allow the temporal
that's that's going to be destroyed to be so consuming look to that
which is going to last for if any man's work abide which half
built thereon he shall receive reward at reward is going to
be the The blessing of God using the gospel of Christ to save
sinners to His glory. That's our reward. We're not
looking for extra things other than Christ. He is our reward. And if any man's work shall be
burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved
as by fire. I'm so comforted with that. All the flesh that you and I
have so much of is going to be tried by fire and is going to
be consumed, yet He Himself shall be saved. So this consuming of the flesh
is not the destruction of the soul. It's preserving that which
glorifies Christ. Know ye not that you are the
temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? This
is his tabernacle. He's talking about the church
as a whole, and he's talking about the individual believer.
We're the temple of the Holy Spirit. Now, this next verse
used to bother me a lot. Maybe it's bothered you. But
I want to hopefully give you some understanding that will
not give you an excuse to sin, but give you some deliverance
from the threat of judgment. Look what he says. For if any
man defile the temple, How many times have
you defiled your temple? How many times? I stand fear
and trembling to preach to you that I'm afraid that I would
say something that would be a hindrance to someone, that would be a stumbling
block, that would not be true, that would point someone away
from Christ, and that would ultimately defile the temple. The word defile
here, you can look it up, it's the word destroy. It's the word
destroy. He's not talking about the sins
that believers commit. He's talking about destroying
the foundation. He said whatever you build on
that foundation, if it's not of Christ, it doesn't point to
Christ. If it's not done by Christ, it's
of the flesh and it's going to be burned up. But if any man
destroy the foundation, no other foundation can be laid but this
foundation. You try to build on another foundation, then if
any man destroy the temple of God, him shall God destroy, for
the temple of God is holy, which temple we are. So if anyone destroys
the gospel, and tries to build on another foundation, a foundation
of works, rather than a foundation of grace. God says that's another
gospel, which is no gospel at all. And that man will be destroyed. Let no man deceive himself. If
any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him
become a fool, that he may be wise. So he's talking about man
promoting his thoughts above God's thoughts. He said, I've
got a better way to do it. And the Lord said, no. There's
one church, there's one foundation, there's one gospel, there's one
truth, and only that which is done by Christ on that foundation
will survive. If you think you're smarter than
God, you think there's a better way, then you need to think again. Become a fool. The gospel will
make you to be a fool to the world. And the foolishness of
God is wiser than man, isn't it? What does the gospel say? The gospel says you and I are
nothing. Christ is everything. The world doesn't want to hear
that. Just watch the political debates.
What is valued in our world? What's valued? arrogance, independence,
power? Is that not what's valued in
the world? And those things are looked to
as strength? And humility is looked to as
weakness? Is that not the values of this
world? And the opposite is the truth.
All that bravado that the men of this world exercise in order
to get an advantage over another man is only a manifestation of
that man's weakness. It's not his strength, it's his
weakness. It's his attempt to get control
because he's afraid. humility and submission and pointing
to Christ and self-deprivation. That's strength. That's strength. That's confidence. Is it not? Can you see that? that man glories in man and that's
what the Lord is saying if you act like the world you're just
being carnal you're being worldly and you're acting like babies
because those people are children they're just little children
fighting over the next piece of pie but you're not like that
you're spiritual you're grown you're mature you're confident
not in your ability but you're confident in the foundation on
which you stand and you're confident that this church is going to
last and that all that stuff of the world all that stuff of
the flesh is gonna be burned up it's gonna be consumed it's
not gonna last so invest your life into that which is gonna
last and acknowledge what the world
considers to be strength for what it really is. It's a bunch
of scared men in their weakness trying to get an advantage over
one another to show their strength and it's... You see that, don't you? You
do see that. It's so clear. Isn't that so
crystal clear? So, let the man who thinks he's
got something and can do something, let him become a fool. He'll
become a fool to the world. The world will look at you and
say, well, you don't have strength, you don't have power, you don't
have ability. For the wisdom of this world
is foolishness with God, for it is written, he taketh the
wise in his own craftiness. And again, the Lord knoweth the
thoughts of the wise that they are vain. All that stuff going on in the
world, it's empty. It's vanity. It's man trying
to be God. What the Lord is saying is, bow
to Christ. Point to Him. Give Him all the
glory and all the praise. He's the only foundation. And
only that which points to Him is going to survive the fire,
the test of fire. So, you know, why would you want
to invest in something that's going to get burned up? And therefore, the conclusion
of this whole chapter is, therefore, let no man glory in men, for
all things are yours. You don't have to fight with
the world for position and power. It already belongs to you. It's
been given to you. Wherefore, whether Paul, or Apollos,
or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present,
or things to come, all are yours. Do you believe that? Let me ask you this. Do you belong
to Christ? Are you a child of God? Does
he own everything? Does he possess everything? Where
does that put you? See, whether you're able to hear
the gospel from Paul, or Apollos, or Peter, or whether things of
this world, or things to come, or death, all are yours. Why? Because you are Christ,
and Christ is God's. You're in Christ. Christ belongs to God. Christ
has been given the preeminence and he's Lord over all things,
the living and the dead. So why engage in a fight for
vanity? Why do it? It doesn't make sense,
does it? And if you do it, and we do it,
and every time we do it, We're proving our immaturity and we're
proving our carnality. Alright, let's take a break.