Verse nine of 1 Corinthians 3. For we are laborers together
with God. You are God's husbandry, you
are God's building. According to the grace of God,
which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the
foundation and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take
heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man
lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if any
man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones,
wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made 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. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon,
he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned,
he shall suffer loss. But he himself shall be saved,
yet so as by fire. Now, this analogy of the foundation,
a building, it has one foundation, clearly, two types of buildings,
one fire and two results. Men have complicated this, but
it's a very simple analogy. And what it refers to, the gospel
teaching of it is very clear. When we get in trouble is when
we assume things, we deduce things from what the scripture says.
Let's just see what God said and may God give us grace to
hear with ears that he alone can give. The one foundation
is Jesus Christ. That couldn't be more plainly
stated. Jesus Christ. The God-man. Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. It's not a crapshoot. He came
to save them and he saved them. Christ, the anointed of God,
the Messiah, God's son. And we see from the context of
this passage that the laying of that foundation, Paul said,
I've laid as a wise master builder, and Paul's not boasting of himself,
we've seen that. He said in another place, unto
me who is less than the least of all the saints is this grace
given that I should preach. God bless the worst scoundrel
on this earth. with the privilege of preaching
his gospel. So, but he said, I've laid the foundation. The Lord Jesus Christ, the preaching
of Christ is laying the foundation. And notice Paul's wording in
verse 11. No other foundation, for other
foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus
Christ. The foundation was laid before
Paul laid it. It's already laid by God. We
just confirm it. We lay down in a certain place,
that foundation. We establish upon a certain building
site, a certain church, a certain location, that foundation, that
rock. The rock upon which Christ builds
his church is himself. He said, "'Upon this rock.'"
What did Simon say? The Lord said to him, who do
you say that I am? You're the Christ, the son of the living
God. "'Upon this rock will I build my church, "'and the gates of
hell shall not prevail against it.'" That doesn't sound like
it's up to us really, does it? Aren't you glad? We're fellow
laborers with God. That means you can't mess it
up. And it means more than that.
If we burn up and all that we do burns up, the foundation will
stay strong. It'll stand and it'll be as firm
as it ever was. How firm a foundation is laid
for your faith in the excellent gospel of our savior. So the
foundation does not exist because of us. We exist because of the
foundation and we are privileged to lay that foundation as we
preach the Lord Jesus Christ wherever we go. It's himself. There are six different building
materials mentioned here, but clearly two types. Three that
are strong and three that are weak. Three that are beautiful
and costly and three that are not. And more relevant to the
context, three that can't be burned and three that can. And so there's two types of building
here. And this analogy compares the
work of the ministry. As Paul said, he laid the foundation,
more than half the New Testament was written by Paul. I'd say
the Lord used him as a wise master builder. The foundation's laid,
isn't it? It speaks of builders and labor
because this church was, the Corinthian church was making
much of the builders themselves. We've seen in the context of
the first two chapters that they were saying, I'm of Paul, I'm
of Apollos, I'm of Barnabas or whoever. And they were bragging
on the builder, the waterer and the planter rather than God who
gives the inquiry. They were boasting of the servant
and not the master. And Paul thoroughly corrects
them on that. Wouldn't you say it's been pretty
thorough? Even to the point of showing this analogy here concerning
the ministry and those who preach the gospel in Christ's ministry. He rebukes them for being carnal
and trusting in men rather than being thankful to God that gave
the men and gives the increase of their labor And now I know,
and you probably do too, from experience, as well as the scripture,
what religion teaches about this reward mentioned in verses eight
and 14. Look at those two verses. Verse
eight, we didn't read tonight, but let's look at it. Now he
that planteth and he that watereth are one. It's not a competition. Preachers of the gospel, the
witnesses of Christ, are not in competition with one another.
Apparently this church took it that way, didn't they? They bragged
of who their preacher was. Preacher doesn't care about that.
He just wants you to hear the gospel. He didn't care how many. If there were three of you here
tonight, we'd do the same thing, wouldn't we? Because it's been
that way before. But I'm glad all of y'all are here. I really
am. I'm glad I'm here. I don't take for granted the
fact that I'm here. That's God's grace. But look,
and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own
labor. We saw in the context there that
what's the reward of planting a vineyard or planting a farm,
planting a crop? The crop. The increase, the fruit,
that's the reward of it. You may be planting somebody
else's crop, but still it's the crop. The reason, if there's
no crop, you ain't getting paid. So the increase is the crop and
with the husbandry, we're gonna talk about that a little bit.
But according to the grace, for we are, verse nine, laborers
together with God, you are God's husbandry, you are God's building.
Now verse 15, or let's see, what is it? It's not verse 15, 14. If any man's work abide which
he hath built thereon, he shall receive a reward. So in both
cases, then that word reward means dues paid. You get paid
for your work. That's all it is. But we know,
at least the Baptist church, I can tell you what they believed
about it. They believe that people will
be rewarded differently in heaven based on what they do in this
world. That some people will be rewarded
greatly. Other peoples are gonna be, you know, I guess digging
in the dumpsters in heaven or whatever. There's gonna be different
levels, different hierarchy. The Lord said, even on this earth,
it's not gonna be like that with you. There's not gonna be like
that. He that planteth and he that
watereth are one. And by God's grace, we're gonna receive and
only want one thing in glory, to be with Christ and to be like
Christ. That's how Paul described heaven.
I want to depart here and be with Christ, which is far better. The truth of the matter is no
believer wants to be rewarded at all according to what they
do. Anybody? You want to be rewarded based
on your performance in this life, anybody? Nobody that knows the
Lord Jesus is going to want that. If I'm not rewarded according
to what Christ did for me, then I'm not going to be in heaven
anyway. Not a question of rewards there. You're not even going
to be there unless all that you receive from God is because of
Christ. And it is Christ. And what have
you ever done that would stack up against what he did so that
you would rather be rewarded according to what you did rather
than what he did? Anything you've ever done? Listen to this verse of scripture
and answer me a question. Romans 4.4, now to him that worketh
is the reward not reckoned of grace. but of debt. It doesn't
mean we don't work. We are in his service and we
do what he gives us to do and we're glad to do it. We're thankful
by his grace we're able to do anything for him. But what he's
saying there is if you work for a reward, if the reason you work
is to gain favor with God, then the reward is reckoned not of
grace but of debt. God owes you something. Is that
how you feel about it? So here's the question to you.
Do you want a reward based on what God owes you? Or would you
prefer a reward that is based upon the grace of God? Well, that's an easy answer for
a believer, isn't it? Of course, that's not what this
reward in our text is. As we saw in verse eight before,
this means payment for labor. The analogy of the farmer the
payment is a crop there is the increase the return For the labor
is a crop fruit God gives that increase and The increase is
the result of the work What's the result of preaching the gospel
The ministry, that's what Paul's talking about here. The analogy
is a farm or a building. Well, what's the result of preaching
the gospel? What's the fruit of that? What's
the end result? Sinners are saved, right? The
church of God, God added to the church daily such as should be
saved. and those that were ordained
to eternal life believed. Sinners are saved. The reward
hasn't changed from analogy to analogy. If the foundation of
Jesus Christ is laid, then that which is built thereon is the
honor and glory of Christ, the simplicity that's in Christ,
the rock of refuge, the temple. These building materials mentioned
here, when it says gold and silver and precious stones, We think
of precious stones as diamonds and rubies and things like that,
but that's talking about marble. Precious stone is what, those
are the materials that the temple was built out of. And that's
not a coincidence. God says we're his temple in
this world. He builds his church and it's
the temple of the most high God that will withstand every fire,
every storm, Our house is built on a rock. Remember that? There
was a wise and a fool. One built a house upon the rock
and the other on the sand. When God builds a house, it's
on the rock, the Lord Jesus Christ. And when he lets us in on it,
that's what we do too. And we shall not be greatly moved. And there is a reward for that.
But listen to it. Turn with me to Philippians chapter
four, please. Philippians chapter four, verse
one. Philippians 4.1, therefore, my
brethren dearly beloved and longed for my joy and crown. So stand fast in the Lord, my
dearly beloved. What affection he had for these
believers at Philippi and everywhere that he was part of the family of God.
My dearly beloved and long for my joy and my crown. That word
crown is the prize awarded to the victor. You're my crown,
he said. You're the result. of the preaching
of the gospel, of the building that God builds. 1 Corinthians 9, 16. Turn over
there with me too. I want to have you turn to a
lot of scripture maybe tonight, but let's look at this one too,
because this is the reward. This whole passage is talking
about God rewarding those that labor in the gospel. That's pastors,
particularly in this, Context but it's if you you see
this in the Word of God concerning all believers You're building
a house tonight You're building a house And you're in on the
building of this house not the wood and drywall the church Church
of God the Lord let us in on it and his reward. We're not rewarded with some
trinkets in glory, more jewels in our crown or our bigger mansion. Who cares about that? We're gonna
be with Christ. But in this world, there's a
reward. There's results. There's pay for labor rendered,
for work done. And this is what he's talking
about. For the preacher, which is, again,
the main context of our passage, it's you. It's you. And look, in 1 Corinthians 9,
16, 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. Now there's different ideas about
what that means. Of course, woe is unto any man
that preaches if he doesn't preach the gospel. That doesn't seem
to be the context of what Paul's saying here. That wouldn't exactly
fit with what he's talking about. It says, woe unto me if I don't
preach. The Lord called him to preach and gifted him to preach.
There is a necessity in that. Y'all know that preachers get
discouraged at times. And I've never known a true preacher
of the gospel that didn't want to quit at one time or another.
And I'm not proud to talk about that. It's not, I'm ashamed of
it, but I've been there. But I told another preacher one
time, I'm going to quit. And he said, no, you're not. He knew better than I did. And
I think he understood something of this. There is a necessity,
who's gonna tell the glories of the Son of God? If not the
men that God's called, there is a necessity laid upon the
preacher of the gospel. And of course, the gospel, it's
gotta be the gospel. There is just one foundation.
But look, if I do this willingly, you see why I said what I did
about the content? If I do this willingly, If I do this because
I counted a privilege and an honor to do so, I have a reward. But if against my will, a dispensation
of the gospel is committed unto me, we could get into that, but
here's what I'm getting to, verse 18. What is my reward then? 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. My reward for preaching the gospel
is preaching the gospel. Isn't that clear? That's pretty
clear. The gospel is its own reward. What an honor, what a
privilege. Notice that the rewards here
spoken of in both of these passages are in this life. They take place,
they're given in this life. I believe in the reward this
is talking about. Not that there's varying degrees
of rewards in heaven, but there are here. Clearly there are here. Notice the wording of this passage
in Mark 10, 28. Turn over there with me, please.
Mark 10, 28. Mark 10, 28, Peter began to say
unto him, lo, we have left all and have followed thee. This is right after the Lord
had told the rich young ruler to go sell all that he had, give
it to the poor and come follow me. And of course he went away
sorrowful, he couldn't do it. He didn't have it in him to do
it because the Lord didn't and didn't give him faith in Christ.
If he'd have known who Christ was, he'd have called it in,
wouldn't he? Hey, sell all my stuff, I'm out. But he didn't, he didn't know
who he was dealing with. And so he went away sorrowful.
And then Simon said, we've left everything and followed you.
And Jesus answered and said, verily I say unto you, verse
29, there is no man that hath left house or brethren or sisters
or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake
in the gospels, but he shall receive a hundredfold now in
this time. Houses and brethren and sisters
and mothers children in lands with persecutions. Just kind
of threw that in there, you know, you're gonna be tried. But think about it, you know
how many brothers and sisters I have? A hundred fold is just
a, that's just a number, just an illustration. It's way more
than that. I've lost, I feel like, sadly,
some of my blood family. But look what we've gained. Houses. I don't know how you feel about
that, but my house is your house, literally. You want to come live
with me? Come on, we got an extra room. These rewards are in this life.
You see that there? Now in this time, and in the
world to come, eternal life. And what is life? It doesn't
mean we're just gonna live forever in heaven. It's not about that.
What did the Lord say in John chapter 17? This is life eternal,
that they might know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent. Christ is glory. Christ is our
exceeding great reward then, but now, and the gospel itself, just this,
being here, having the privilege of being in, being the body of
Christ. What's better than that in this
wretched world? You tell me. You tell me what's
better than that. We are rewarded by God in this
life, not because we deserve anything, but because we're his
charge. We don't deserve for him to use us at all. We don't
deserve to be even in his service at all. But since we are, since
he does use us, he takes real good care of us. That's an understatement,
isn't it? Who goeth to warfare at any time
in his own charges? Who planteth a vineyard and eateth
not of the fruit thereof? Or who feedeth the flock and
eateth not of the milk of the flock? No man that woreth and tangleth
himself in the affairs of this life that he may please him who
has chosen him to be a soldier. We're at war at the Lord's charge. And to say that we have everything
we need would be disgraceful. We have so much more than that.
So much more than that. Remember verse nine again in
our text. for we are laborers together
with God. I said to you last time and repeated
it tonight, the first thing that rejoiced my soul about that verse
is that if we're laborers together with God, we can't mess that
up. There's no way you can mess that up. God can't fail. But
let's understand something else about verse nine too that's also
very precious. Laborers together with God. Does
God need anybody to work with him? Does he need anybody? He said,
if I did, I wouldn't ask you. But God told me, laborers together
with God is a privilege. It's not a duty. It's a blessing,
not a drudgery. It's God doing something for
us, not us doing something for him. but for reasons known only
to God and not contrary to his purposes. To accomplish his purposes, by
his design, there are some who build wood, hay, and stone. They
build on the foundation in the sense that the word of God is
the foundation, they preach the gospel. There are those who know
the Lord Jesus Christ and preach the truth of the gospel, And
yet, a preacher's just like you. There's a lot of flesh in every
one of us. A lot of flesh. And if the Lord
lets us go for just a little bit, you remember when we were
studying the book of Revelation, he said, I know your works. And
it wasn't all good, was it? It wasn't all good. That's what we're talking about.
Your work in the ministry. Some of it's wood, hay, and stubble. It's cheap. It's unstable. They build on the foundation
in the sense that the truth is there. The Lord said to the church,
to the church, I say to you, I've got some problems with you,
right? So it doesn't mean it's not a
church. Paul said he laid the foundation. He wrote more than
half the New Testament. He wrote what he preached. Christ
is the foundation. He said, we preach Christ crucified.
Both houses are built on the foundation. And if that which
stands up to the fire is the plain, simple, true, faithful
preaching of Christ, and it is, In the wood, hay, and stubble,
it's evident what they are. It's fleshly concerns. It's side
issues. It's pet arguments that people
make from the pulpit. It's the desire to promote yourself. All of the fleshly things that
you could imagine. that would enter in. There are
churches where the gospel is preached, but so also is a lot
of flesh and foolishness. And when the refiner's fire is
applied, all of that's gonna be burned up. We see, even now, the smoking
ruins of churches like this. We see the continual decay of
others. And we pray God, may it never
be us. May it never ever be us because
there's nothing in us to keep it from happening. We need his
grace. That's what we need. Cheap materials. If you don't
have that much invested in the house, it's not gonna stand. It's a flammable, unstable junk
house. And that preacher will escape
only so as by fire. He's like a man that his house
is burning to the ground. He's laying on the front lawn.
He's alive, but he's lost everything. He's lost all of it. Again, I'll
let your own experience paint that picture. But how vital it
is, how vital. how necessary, how desirable,
and how we cry to God that I might, by His grace, determine to know
nothing among you. Save Jesus Christ and Him crucify. One thing about gold and silver
and marble, it's expensive. I don't get the metaphors mixed
up though. Christ has redeemed us without money and without
price. We're redeemed with the precious blood as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot. But this we're talking about
right now, the ministry, the church, this doesn't happen without
price in this world. And of course, I'm not talking
about money. Well, Chris has fixed and started asking for
money, no. No, not talking about just that. It's about making
the church a priority, the priority. It's not about making the church
building out of gold and silver like much religion does. That's
what it's about to them. But the analogy of price here,
precious materials, it has to do with commitment. It has to
do with faithfulness. It has to do with honoring the
Lord with your time, with whatever ability He's given you, with
all that you have, with your heart, with all your heart. where a man's treasure is, that's
where his heart will be also. That's what this is talking about.
I'll tell you this, as I said, the gospel is its own reward.
Your pay for planting a crop is the crop. The reward for building
a house, what's the reward for building a house? You have a
house. What's the reward for preaching
the gospel? Here we are. Whether in this
building or another building, it's God's building. It's God's
husbandry. You and the gospel itself, the
church. And one other thing, Christ is the reward and the
way that you get the reward is Christ. He's the work, right? We're here to preach him, to
exalt him, to honor him, to obey him. What did he tell us to do? Go preach. And he's the reward for that
too. And if you've been sitting here
long, you know that, don't you? What, why have most of y'all, Been sitting in this place together
with the rest of us for decades. Because I'm so pretty. That's
not the main reason. Oh, the Lord, the Lord meets
with us, doesn't he? When I came in here tonight and
would sing that song, Well, some of you were really lifting the
roof, and it sounded so good, just singing from your heart
and delighting in the fact that the Lord rules and reigns. His throne is a throne of grace.
Turn with me to Revelation chapter three, and let's close with just
this last passage of scripture. We mentioned Revelation 3.14. this gives a little bit of insight
into the ministry that we're talking about and what's involved
with it and In our place in it verse 14 of
Revelation 3 Unto the angel of the church
of the Laodiceans right these things saith the Amen of The faithful and true witness,
the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works, that
thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert cold or hot,
so then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will
spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest I am rich
and increased with goods and have need of nothing, and knowest
not that thou art wretched. and miserable and poor and blind
and naked. So this is a church that the
Lord raised some problems, a big problem. But look what he says. I counsel thee to buy of me gold,
shroud in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment,
that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness
do not appear, and anoint thy eyes with eye salve, that thou
mayest see." How is it that we see? With what are we clothed? What are our riches in this world?
It's all Christ, isn't it? Every bit of that, every bit
of that. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. He told us, if this
applies to us, he told this church, Because he loved him. Because
he loved him. I rebuke and chasten, be zealous
therefore and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and
knock. You know how religion has used
that to say that the Lord Jesus stands at the door of the lost
sinner's heart to see if the sinner will let him in, you know.
He's the king of glory. If he wants in, he's getting
in, isn't he? Saul of Tarsus didn't open the door. The Lord
knocked it down and came in. And we thank him
for that. Do not leave it up to us. Don't
leave eternal matters up to a wretch
like me. But he's talking to his church
here. Listen to how precious this language is. Behold, I stand
at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and
open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him
and he with me. Isn't that beautiful? So let's leave here with that
thought. The foundation is laid, isn't
it? and the Lord has blessed us to know the gospel. We know
that Christ is King, the King of glory, the King of grace,
the King of mercy. May he give us grace to look
to him alone, to determine to know nothing else. to praise
his name as the song we sang exhorted us to, the Lord is King. Lift up, lift up your voice. He's great. And that the Lord would come in and dine with us, that
he would come in and we'd have sweet fellowship with him. God give us grace. Have mercy on us. Let's pray
together.