Alright, turn with me back to
1 Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians 3. The Apostle Paul had laid by
the grace of God, that which God had taught him, as a wise
master builder, he said, the foundation. And then he declared that we
as we preach, as you hear. But especially, he's talking
to preachers. But I want to make something perfectly clear. As
a preacher of the gospel, and Paul is primarily, I realize,
he's talking concerning preachers. He said, take heed, how? That's what he said in the latter
part of verse 10. Let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon. And as you hear, as you hear
the gospel preached, take heed how you hear. Now we've been exhorted many
times in scriptures. to take heed concerning some
things. And the reason that we're exhorted
so often to take heed is because we need to take heed. There's
a good reason to be careful. Now, let's listen to this. I'll
read this to you, Matthew 24, 4. Take heed that no man deceive
you. For many shall come in my name,
saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many." What did he mean
when he said that? Many shall come in my name, saying,
I am Christ. What they're going to say is,
I'm telling you the true gospel. That's what they're saying. I'm
preaching the true gospel to you. I am preaching to you the
real way to Christ. He said, you take heed that no
man deceive you. Mark 4, 24, take heed what you
hear. Why? Because Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Gospel, the Word of God. If it's not a true Gospel,
then it's not the Word of God. He said, you be careful what
you hear. Now listen, if you can't back
up what you're hearing by the Scriptures, then it's a lie. If you can't back it up, I'm
not talking about if somebody takes and twists the scriptures.
There's been a lot of twisting of scriptures. But if I can take
what somebody's saying, if they pick a scripture and they say
this is what that's saying, and I've told you before, if I can
put it up on a fence post and I can knock it off with a scripture
that I know we know what that one's saying, then all that means
is we just didn't understand what the other one that we placed
so much confidence in. We just didn't understand what
it meant. He said, you take heed what you hear. Listen to this,
Mark 13, 9. Take heed to yourselves, for they shall deliver you up
to councils in the synagogues. You shall be beaten, you shall
be brought before rulers and kings for my sake. That is for
believing me. For testimony against them. What
he said is this, you take care because you're going to be hated
of all men for Christ's sake. Does that mean just, you know,
from the religions of this world? Yeah, well, yeah. Yeah, it means
that. But listen to what the Lord said,
Matthew 10, 36. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
Be resolved. Be resolved. What's it going
to cost to follow Christ? Now, let me tell you what it's
going to cost. Everything. Everything. Everything. I guarantee there's not a person
sitting in here this morning that's a believer that can't
enter into that. I'm telling you, it hurts. But man by nature does not believe
the gospel. And when God reveals the gospel
to you, Even your own family will turn against you. Now, I've
experienced that personally. I know what that feels like.
You do too. Listen to this, Luke 11.35, talking about taking heed.
Take heed that the light in you is not darkness. What does that
mean? Well, we all believe something.
We all believe something. If a man, a woman truly possesses
the light of Christ, He will look, she will look to
Christ alone for salvation. And will turn their back on everything
that they ever thought that they had to do to be saved. That's what the Apostle Paul
said. He said, I counted all these
things that I formerly believed. I was a Hebrew of Hebrews. My
mama, my daddy was a Hebrew, and I was a Pharisee, and I persecuted
the church. But, when Almighty God called
me out of darkness, He said I counted all of that but dung. Loss for
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. That
I might know Him. If the light that is in you is
darkness, And how will I know if the light in me is darkness?
The light that is in you is darkness if you believe that you've got
to do something in order to be saved. If you think that you've
got to do something, I don't care what it is, I don't care
what it is, but if you think you've got to do something in
order to be saved, then the light that is in you is darkness because
it's not by works of righteousness that we've done. But it's according
to His mercy that He saves us. Luke 12, 15, take heed and beware
of covetousness. For a man's life consisteth not
in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. What does
that mean? Be careful against a desire to
get stuff at the expense of hearing the gospel, at the expense of
casting yourself upon Christ. Our life is not dependent upon
what we possess. So here concerning the building
upon the foundation of Christ, the Apostle Paul says to the
church at Corinth, let every man, latter part of verse 10,
take heed how he buildeth thereupon. That is, stay upon the one needful
thing. Be watchful. Be watchful. Don't be distracted by things
that so easily steal us away. I'm telling you. Now you listen. This message was the one that
I was talking about last week. I was going to try to preach
and I just couldn't. I just couldn't do it. I just couldn't do it. And I pray the Lord bless you
today, because I'm telling you, listen to what God has to say
to the people, to His people. Listen. 2 Corinthians 11.3 says
this, But I fear, lest by any means,
as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should
be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." What he said
was this. Be careful that your minds be
not drawn away from the singleness of Christ. That's it. That's
it. That's it. You want to know why? When we come together. Have you
ever noticed that when we come to the services here, it doesn't
matter if I'm in Song of Solomon, or First John, or Romans, or
Acts, or Revelation. Have you ever noticed that the
message is the same? I don't ever say anything by
the grace of God. Don't ever say anything different.
Ever notice that? You know what? That's by the grace of God. Because
let me tell you what the natural mind wants. Can you give us a
little extra something here? I mean, is this all you got? There was a church years ago
that I was asked to leave. And this is the reason. They
said, we thought that maybe you would be preaching the whole
counsel of God. I know what they meant. They
meant, aren't there some other things that we're supposed to
be dealing with? The Apostle Paul says, you take heed how
you build on the foundation. Take heed how you do. What does
he say in verse 2 of chapter 2? Look right back. 2 of 2. I am determined not to
know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I'm going to talk concerning
God's eternal counsel. I'm going to talk about God's
electing grace. I'm going to talk about particular redemption.
I'm going to be careful to make sure that we're always reminded
what we are, sinners saved by the grace of God and perseverance
of the saints and preservation of the saints by God's power
and grace. It's always going to come back
to the same message. Why? Because that is what God
Almighty has been pleased to use as the means of calling out
His elect. There is no other message that
the Spirit of God is going to bless. I mean, we can sit here
and tickle our ears all we want to, but I'm going to tell you
in a few minutes what's going to happen to it. Let's take heed that our message
is consistent with God's Word proving Scripture was Scripture. And that Christ Jesus receive
all the honor, glory, and praise, there is no other way to build
upon the foundation. There's no other way. This is
the message. Are we at liberty to preach whatever
we want to? Again now, I know this. This is why, you know, We're going to have a seminar.
We're going to have a rummage sale. We're going to have a,
you know, we're going to have the whatever, whatever. We're
going to have it. Why? Because we want to see something
different. We want to see something new.
We want something exciting. That's what they did in Athens.
They sat around all day long and all they wanted to do is
to hear some new thing. Tickle my fancy. And tell me
something that I've never heard before. Well, it'd just be the
same next week. But now you've already heard
this, God gave us something else. Concerning the things of the
tabernacle, in the Old Testament, whenever God Almighty gave Moses
the pattern by which these things, when that candlestick, when God
told Moses to build that candlestick, And that ark, Jeff, that mercy
seat on top, listen to what God told Moses. According to all
that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern
of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it. What did God tell him? He said,
the way that I told you to build that brazen altar, that's the
way you build it. The way I told you to build that
tabernacle of the tent. That's the way you build it.
You build it exactly the way I told you to build it. Now,
verse 12. Now if any man build upon this
foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble. Now, I want to ask you something. On the foundation of Christ is
built something. And we're building something. Paul said, as a wise master builder,
I've laid the foundation. And another comes, and another
comes, and another comes, and from the time that the foundation
was laid, upon that foundation is being
built something. What is it? What is it? Alright, listen to 1 Peter 2.5.
This is what's built on the foundation. Ye also, as lively stones, are
built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Listen to 1
Corinthians 3.16, Know ye not that ye are the temple of God,
and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? At Scripture I read this morning,
you're no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens
with the saints, built upon the foundation of the apostles, the
prophets. Jesus Christ himself is the chief
cornerstone in whom also the building fitly framed together
groweth. into a holy temple in the Lord,
in whom also you are built together for habitation of God through
the Spirit." So, here's what's built upon the foundation of
Christ. It does not matter. It does not
matter what men say that they are building on. If they're not
building upon the foundation of God The absolute sovereignty
of God in setting forth the Lord Jesus Christ as the foundation,
the surety, the mediator, the representative, sovereign grace,
God electing, God Almighty predestining. If it's not built on what God
said, then I'm telling you, there's nothing eternal being built.
So here's what is being said right here. Understand something.
Paul is not talking about false preachers. Okay? He's not talking
about false preachers. When he's talking about building
on the foundation of Christ, he's talking about the church
being built on the foundation of Christ. And what did he say
is on that foundation can no man lay, which is Christ Jesus. Now if any man build upon this
foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble. I
want you to notice what is being built on that. And he's coming
back to this one thing that he said in the latter part of verse
12, let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon. And as soon
as he said that, after he's talked about no other foundation can
a man lay, he starts talking about the materials that's on
that foundation. He said, now you take heed Now,
heed is taken. He said, now you take heed how
you do it. Now, how do we build upon the
foundation? Well, you know the answer to
this. Preach the gospel. Preach the gospel of Christ. That's how we do it. Now, heed
is taken. when concerning the building
up of the lively stones upon the foundation, heed is taken
when Christ alone is magnified. His glory, His name, His work,
His character, and when Christ alone is preached, that right
there is revealed to be gold, silver, Precious stones. Christ only. Christ only. He is the only message. He's the only message. Remember
the two on the road to Emmaus. The Lord came up to him after
his resurrection. They started talking to him and
he said, uh, what are y'all talking about? And they questioned. He knew there, you know, in town,
hadn't heard. And beginning at Moses and all
the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the
things concerning himself." This book is concerning the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's why we talk about it in
the book of Proverbs. It's so easy for me to look in
the book of Proverbs and naturally see there's some good advice
in the book of Proverbs. But if I don't see Christ in
that scripture, then I have not seen the message of the Spirit
of God. I've missed it. I've missed it.
If it's just good advice, then we've missed the gospel, because
the gospel is concerning. Now, whenever we build upon the
foundation Himself, and it's Christ only, Christ only, Christ
only, gold, silver, precious stones, He is set forth. as being
gold, silver. Listen to this. Psalm 5. Psalm
of Solomon. What is thy beloved more than
another beloved? O thou fairest among women. What
is thy beloved more than another beloved? This is when the daughters
of Jerusalem was asking the bride. I personally
believe the daughters of Jerusalem in the book of Song of Solomon
is just tares. I think they're tares. They're
in the church, and they're there that the wheat, the true church,
might be made manifest. But they're there. God's allowed
them to grow together until the time of harvest. And the daughters
of Jerusalem, they're asking, because the bride had asked the
daughters of Jerusalem, have you seen my beloved? Have you
seen my beloved? I can't find him. Have you seen
him? And listen to what the daughters of Jerusalem, who I believe they're
religious, But they're tares, they're not true believers. They're
in the church, and the true believer, the true church asks the tares,
have you seen him? Do you know where he is? And
listen to the tares' answer. They're trying to find out something
about the bridegroom. The tare says, well what is thy
beloved? Now here's the tears asking the
church, what is thy beloved more than another, O thou fairest
among women? What is thy beloved more than
another, beloved, that thou dost so charge us? And then the bride
says, my beloved is white, he pure, ruddy, the chieftest among
ten thousand. His head is as the most fine
gold, his locks are bushy and black. It's Raven. He's eternal. He's eternally young. When gold and silver and precious
stones are set forth, concerning the glory of Christ. That is
when a man takes heed how he builds upon the foundation. Listen to David, Psalm 138, 2.
Whenever gold and silver and precious stones are built on
that foundation, here's what, I'm telling you, the Word of
God is magnified. I will worship toward thy holy
kingdom and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy
truth, for thou," this is talking about God, "...thou hast magnified
thy word above all thy name." What has God Almighty set forth
above all His name and character? I read that, Carl, and I mean,
I'm thinking, if God wouldn't have said that, I'd have never
even dreamed to say that. Thou hast magnified thy Word. That Word that endures forever,
that Word, heaven and earth are going to pass away. What's going
to be left? The Word of God. When gold and silver and precious
stones are built upon that foundation, the building up of the lively
stones. When Christ is honored, that's referred to. Gold, silver,
precious stones. So heed is taken when we build
upon the foundation concerning the glory of Christ. That's gold
and silver, precious stones. But then he said also, wood,
hay, stubble. Now, what kind of preachers is
he talking about? Real preachers? True preachers? God's preachers? What do you
mean, wood, hay, stubble? What is that? What do you mean?
Well, I can tell you this. If gold and silver and precious
stones be the faithful proclamation of the gospel, with nothing added
that we think is needful to make it affectional, wood, hay and
stupple would be anything that is not, it's not error, it's
not error. Wood, hay, and stubble is not
error because it's true preachers that are preaching. But it describes
the rubbish that is found within every man and that war that goes
on within every man and it's when we're tempted and succumb
to the temptation to add something or let something else become
an issue that is not the issue. Look back at verse 4 in this
right here. Now let me tell you what is wood,
hay, and stubble. For while one saith, I am of
Paul, another saith, I am of Apollos, are you not carnal?
Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom
ye believe, even as the Lord gave to every man?" It's not
that the gospel is not preached there, because it is. Whenever the foundation is being
built upon, and Christ is the issue, that's gold and silver
and precious stones. But I'm telling you, We need
to take heed how we build upon. Why? Because it is so easy to
be distracted by stuff that is not the issue. It's not the issue. And it may be stuff that is really
good. It's good. It's good. I'm not for, I'm not for, you
know, I'm for feeding the, I want people that doesn't have any
food, I want them to eat. I really do. I don't want somebody to,
you know, somebody came in this building here, just, I mean,
I had just gotten here and it's just before everybody got here
this morning and, you know, they're going somewhere and they, you
know, you know. What do you do? It's not that
I'm against helping people. I don't believe in abortions. I don't believe in that. I don't
believe in that. What is that? It's murder. I don't believe
that, but let me tell you this. That's not the issue. The gospel
is preached and these issues, there's a lot of issues in the
world, and I understand that they're important to a lot of
people, but when it comes to the building of the church, the
calling out of God's elect, whenever God Almighty is not that which
is only set forth, The problem is when we're distracted with
things that have no eternal significance and we omit the weightier matter. The only issue is the gospel. Marvin, I think we've got something
that we need to deal with from the pulpit. What is it? Well,
it's so-and-so and so-and-so. By the grace of God, it ain't
gonna happen. I mean, I'm not saying that there's not a time
to deal with some things, but when it's gold and silver and
precious stones, that's the only thing that Almighty God is going
to bless. And everything else, and it's
not for God's preachers, but for the hearers. If there is
an issue, and it is not the issue of the gospel of Christ, I'm
going to tell you right now, it's just wood, hay, and stubble.
It ain't worth talking about. Forget about it. Just forget
it. When there's nothing but Christ
proclaimed, the laborer has taken heed how he builds upon. But if anything distracts him,
if he's distracted. And don't think that we're not
all susceptible to be distracted. Listen to the Apostle Paul now.
Was Paul a preacher of the gospel? Well, yeah. God had called him
to preach the gospel. Listen to Paul's struggle. Romans 7, 18. I know that in
me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For to will is
present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not.
For the good that I would, I do not. The evil which I would not,
that I do. And if I do that I would not,
it's no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me. I find
a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. I delight
in the law of God after the end of man. I love the gospel. I
love the gospel. But I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind, bringing me to captivity
to the law of sin, which is in my members. Oh, wretched man
that I am! Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? Paul said, I'm struggling. I
am struggling. And whenever we're distracted,
take heed. Take heed what you hear. Take
heed how you hear it. Take heed to yourself. Take heed
that the light that is in you is not darkness. And he tells
God's preachers, you take heed how you build upon the foundation. By the grace of God, I want to
preach Christ and not be distracted. Is there anything to distract?
Absolutely. Satan is subtle. He'll come to you and
he'll tell you, you need to take care of this. What does the scripture say? Casting all your care upon him,
he cares for you. Come unto me, all you that labor,
heavy laden. I'll give you rest. I get so
distracted that quickly. Mitch, it's amazing. What is
it? Wood, hay, stubble. And what's going to happen to
it? Verse 13, 1 Corinthians 3, Every man's work shall be made
manifest. And again, I'm not talking about
false preachers. I'm talking about us, y'all. The day shall
declare it because it shall be revealed by fire. How do you
know he's not talking about a false preacher? How do you know? Well,
look at the last part of 15. I'll be there in a second. If
any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss. Now, you
know, if it stopped right there, if it stopped right there, I'd
say, well, you know, if any man's work be burned, he's going to
suffer loss. He was a false prophet. But what's the next line say?
But he himself shall be saved. Well, now I've got a problem
now with a false prophet. Why? Because whoever this is
is going to be saved. He's talking about God's preachers.
You see what I'm saying? I mean, He's talking to us. So verse 13, Every man's work
shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it. It shall
be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work
of what sort it is. Every man's labor is going to
be revealed by the purging fire of God's omniscience. God knows.
God knows. what sort, what quality it is. It may not be completely openly
revealed until the day of judgment. And I cannot tell you the depth
of all of the purging and all of the burning. I know that God's
preacher is going to be saved, I know that. But there's going
to be a suffering, there's going to be a loss, it talks about
it. Here's what I'm going to find out. If it remains, verse
30, every man's work should be made manifest. Verse 14, if any
man's work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive
a reward. If any man's work abide. Now, what is going to abide? Was it gold and silver and precious
stones? Now I know that even every preacher
that preaches As I proclaim Christ, you know what I know I am? I'm
a sinner. I'm a sinner. That Christ has
borne my guilt to be His own. And has put it away. So I know
this. The gold and silver and precious
stones is not talking about me and my quality. It's talking
about Him. Setting forth Christ. I'm just
an earthen vessel. in whom God's been pleased to
put a treasure and teach the gospel. And I've set forth. So gold and silver and precious
stone, that's going to remain. And the scripture says concerning
that abiding work, he shall receive a reward. A reward. What reward? I think there's
a reward now and there's a reward then. What is it? 1 Corinthians
9, 16-18. 1 Corinthians 9, 16-18. Here's what scripture says. For
though I preach the gospel, I have nothing
to glory of. For necessity is laid upon me,
yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. For if I do this
willingly, I have a reward. But if against my will a dispensation
of the gospel is committed to me, what then is, what is my
reward then? Now, this is what I want to get
to. 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. Paul said this, this is my reward. This is my reward. I was permitted
of God to preach the gospel to you. That's my reward. That I was permitted of God,
not as a job, not as a job. Well, hey, what do you do to
make your living? Well, I mean, graciously, God's people
meet my needs, but I'm going to tell you something. I'm not
a hired servant of this church. I'm a servant of the Lord Jesus
Christ. My reward is that I was permitted of God to preach the
gospel to you. That's my reward now. But there's a reward coming. Isaiah 62, Behold the Lord hath
proclaimed unto the end of the world, through the proclamation
of the gospel, say ye to the daughter of Zion, behold thy
salvation, thy savior cometh. Behold, his reward is with him
and his work before him. His reward to them, to his people. What is it? It's redemption and
salvation wrought by him. That's a reward. That's to hear
him say in that day, well done, thy good and faithful servant. If any man, back in 1 Corinthians,
as I wrap this up, 3, if any man's work abide which he hath
built thereon, he shall receive a reward. But if any man's work
shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be
saved, yet so as by fire. If any man's labor, effort, toil
shall be burned." Now, think about what was just
said. In keeping with the context,
we're talking about God's preachers. He says he's going to be saved.
I know it's God's preacher. I know it's a believing preacher.
I know that. If the labor, though, of a believing preacher be burned, anything And the fire of God's
omniscience is going to reveal what it was. I may not even know
the fullness of what it was. But I can tell you this, God
knows. God knows. And whatever was set forth in
the building of the Lord's church, man's not going to get any glory
for it. It ain't gonna be because I was so cunning with my ability
to speak, with the words of wisdom and the way I was able to set
forth. I may not even realize the depth
of the wood, hay and stubble. I can't even see the depth of pride in me. I don't even know how much you
know, how much I think I added to it. I'm trying to say it in
a way you can understand what I'm saying. I don't know the
depth of my depravity and how much I was, you know, taken up
with myself and while I'm preaching the gospel, thinking to myself
right now, man, I tell you what, I knocked this one out of the
park. Man, I tell you what, I drove this one home today. I don't
even know the depth, Mike, of what I'm doing. But I can tell
you this, God does. And when that church is completely
built, there's not going to be anything in it that gave me anything
to glory in. That wood, hay, and stubble,
while I was preaching the gospel. that pride, that battle that
goes on within me, mixed, you know, as even in the presentation
itself. God's going to burn it up. It's
going to be, if any man's work shall be burned, he's going to
suffer loss. He's going to be saved, but there's
going to be a loss. Let me just see, as I really
am quitting, if I can make this simple to understand. set forth wood, hay, and stubble
in such a way that you can understand what I'm saying. The uselessness of it. I probably
told some of you this, I got a bad habit of repeating things.
Years ago, I was making a trip, and going to make it at night
so the kids would be able to eventually go to sleep It was
about a 10-hour trip and I was going to make it easy on them.
To give them some entertainment, I had a little TV installed in
the back of the van and had a little DVD or VCR or whatever you'd
call them, had a cassette something thing. It was a movie. And I'm
driving down the interstate. I'm going to central Louisiana
from middle Tennessee. And it was a good movie, so I
just adjusted my rear view mirror so I could see the movie. And
I'm watching it. I'm watching the road. It's at
night. I'm on the interstate. I'm going through Meridian, Mississippi.
And in Meridian, Mississippi, if you're on I-20 heading west,
going to central Louisiana, there's a road that exits off there called
I-55 and it goes to New Orleans. I'm watching the movie. I've
made this trip a lot of times. Somehow I wasn't watching what
I was doing and I got on I-55 heading south to New Orleans.
And about the time I thought I was supposed to be in Jackson,
Mississippi I came up to it at night now. Interstates always
look like interstates at night. I don't care which direction
you're going. It still looked like an interstate. And I pulled
into a place and I didn't recognize it and I thought I've taken a
detour here in Jackson. So I go to a little store and
I asked them, I said, how do I get back on I-20? She said,
just go right down here about a mile, mile and a half, you'll
come to a stop sign, take a right and go maybe just a couple more
miles and then get on I-55 and head north and go back toward
Jackson. I said, no, you don't understand.
I said, I just got off of I-20. She said, no, you didn't. I said,
where am I? She said, Bob's one stop. No, I said, what town am I in? She said, Laurel, Mississippi. I said, how far is Jackson from
here? She said, 92 miles. I said, 92 miles to Jackson? I thought I was in Jackson. I
had over a hundred and eighty miles. Now let me ask you this,
was I going to central Louisiana? Yeah. Did I eventually get there? Yeah. But do you know that 180
miles was lost to me? It added nothing. It added nothing
to my trip. Not at all. Let every man take
heed. What did I do? I didn't take
heed of where I was. I should have been watching.
If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss. That was
just insignificant mileage. It added nothing to my trip. It just cost me more money and
time. If any man's works shall be burned,
he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so
as by fire. That last phrase right there
carries the same significance as this verse of Scripture when
it says, yet so as by fire. That's 1 Peter 4.18. If the righteous
scarcely be saved, Where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
Now that passage is setting forth this. When it says, if the righteous
scarcely, it talks about the preciousness of that salvation. Since absolute justice before
God must be satisfied. And holiness is absolutely required
for any man to be accepted of God. And both of those can only
be found in the Lord Jesus. That means that the righteous
are scarcely saved. That is, with much difficulty
that only God can accomplish. With man, that's impossible.
With God, all things are possible. So when it says, if any man's
work shall be burned, while he's preaching the gospel, I'm not
saying it wasn't a true message being preached. of what was being
put upon that foundation in the building of the church. I'm going
to tell you something. Wood, hay, and stubble of a man's
pride or a man's thoughts or deviation or arguing about who's
the best preacher. Every bit of that is going to
be burnt up. I don't know when it's going
to be burnt up, but God says it is. And I'm not going to get
any glory for the building up of that temple. That temple is
going to be built by God Himself, and only that which honors His
Son is going to remain. I pray that God bless these words
to our heart as we consider taking heed to how we build, how we
hear, for Christ's sake. Amen.