We'll take your Bibles and turn
with me back to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians, the third chapter. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. We'll be looking at verses this
entire chapter today, not as a verse-by-verse segment. But we will try to make it through
this chapter and explain this chapter today by God's grace.
And may God apply it to our hearts this morning. The title of the
message is, The Ministers and the Message. The Ministers and
the Message. Now, the Apostle Paul begins
this chapter. He begins this portion of Scripture. by rebuking this church at Corinth. He says, And I, brethren, could
not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto
babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and
not with meat. He's referring to what he has
already stated in the two previous chapters of this book. He says,
what I've started with, I've came to you. I came to you because
I love you. I came to you as your pastor.
I came to you because you need rebuke. And here it is, I've
given you milk instead of meat. I've given you milk. And so in
these two previous chapters, Paul sets forth the milk of the
gospel truth concerning the necessity of preaching the gospel of Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. That's what he sets out in the
first two chapters to do. He shows and proves the necessity
of preaching the gospel. He establishes it as the basic
rudimentary ABCs of the Gospel. This is like if you go into a
college class and you see a bunch of college students and then
you have an alphabet on top of the wall. This is what Paul had
to do. He had to go back to people who should have been mature,
who should have been listening and obedient to God. He had to
go back from the stake of the Gospel and he had to go back
to A. B, C, and he had to teach them. Do you think that that
did not stunt their pride? This was a church that was given
more gifts than any other church, and yet they missed the rudimentary. And I'll tell you, how can you
read a novel if you don't know your ABCs? If you don't know
how to read words, how is it that you can read a novel? You
can't. And so it is, how can you enter
into the great things of the Gospel if you have neglected
the minor things, the smaller things of the Gospel, the rudimentary
basic principles? And the basic principle he's
teaching is the necessity of preaching the gospel. This is the means that God saves
His people by. This is the means that God feeds
His people by. This is the means, according
to the wisdom of this world, is foolishness. But to us, it
is the power of God. We who believe, we know this
is the power of God. We know that if any man is to
be fed, if any man is to be saved, it is only under the sound of
the preaching of the Gospel. A, B, C. Simple. Plain. He said, I had to feed
you with that. I had to feed you that the gospel
is simple. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He is the object, the sum and
all that is in between in the gospel. He is everything in the
gospel. And so in chapter 2, he begins to teach them that
preaching is used by the Spirit of God, not by the gifts of men,
not by the gifts of the speaker, but only by the gift of the Spirit.
In other words, any message that we preach, although it is necessary
for you to hear, any message we preach will not come to your
heart because we are good speakers. It will only come to your heart
by the Spirit of God. That's it. You can't make it
come. I can't make it come. Only the
Spirit of God can give you these things. That's it. Only the Spirit of God can make
a man know the mystery of salvation, how God can be just and justify
the ungodly. Now, he may know that in his
mind, but he can't know it in his heart. He can't be saved
unless God gives it. Unless God plants it. Unless God gives you the gift
to see that salvation is the free, sovereign gift of the Almighty
God. And no man can come to know that
but by the Spirit of God. Titus 3 verse 5 says, "...not
by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to
His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus
Christ our Savior, that being justified..." How? "...freely
by His grace." We are saved. Now, so in chapter
3, Paul after laying again the rudimentary principles, in chapter
3 he begins his rebuke of this church at Corinth by declaring
that they are carnal. He says, you are carnal. You
are yet carnal. Verse 3, for you are yet carnal. Now Paul here is not speaking
to unregenerate people. Understand this, believer. When
you see that word carnal, he's not talking about lost folks.
He is talking about believers in Christ. Can we be carnal? Absolutely we can. These people
were, and we can too. We can too. These were believers
in Christ, and although they should have been mature, Because
they have given in to the old nature, because they have not
mortified the deeds of the body, but rather embraced the deeds
of the flesh, rather embracing the lust of their flesh, they
have become carnal. And so he brought them back to
the ABCs of faith. He said, I had to give you milk. I think when I was reading this,
I was thinking of Mariah when I was reading this. She's a babe
in Christ. Brand new babe in Christ. She
needs milk. She needs milk more than she
needs meat. These things that I've spoken are something to
babes. These are something for babes,
and they should be received easily, without any qualms or questions. I could understand a babe in
Christ questioning the necessity of preaching, but what I can't
understand is mature folks questioning it. He said, you should have been
up there where you could eat meat like the Ephesians. You know
how he started that gospel, don't you? He started that with the
deep things of God. Why? Because these people were
mature. But he said, for you, I've got to start out somewhere
different. Believers, let this be a warning
to us not to attend to the wisdom of this world. Well, pastor, I can't. I don't
attend to it. Be careful. Be careful. Do not attend to the reason of
the flesh and allow the carnal man to intrude on this basic
principle. Hebrews 2 verse 1 says, Therefore,
we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have
heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. Believers, our minds and hearts
are like broken cisterns. They can only hold so much for
so long. And they leak out. If I were
to give you a quiz on all the messages I had preached this
last month, do you suppose that you could possibly remember even
the titles? Sometimes it's hard to remember
the title when you leave here. Our minds leak out and we can't
retain the things that we would. Isn't that right? Of course it
is. Our minds can let these things
slip if they are constantly leaking and constantly needing to be
filled. Aren't they? How many times, believers, have
I declared to you this milk? How many times have I declared
the ABCs of the gospel to you concerning the necessity of preaching? That this is the means that God
has chosen to save sinners and feed His sheep, and yet many
of you, listen to me, many of you are forsaking the assembling
of yourselves together. You say, yes, pastor, I believe
the necessity of the Gospel. But yet you fail in following
and service to Christ. You're negligent to the Gospel. Negligent to hear the Gospel.
Negligent to the worship of God. Many still put the things of
this world above the worship of Christ. Let me ask you this. What reason
would you give to miss service? What reason? What reason is good enough to
miss the worship of Christ? If that's the rudimentary of
faith, if that's the necessity that God has chosen, if that
is the means that God has chosen for His own worship, then what
reason would we give to miss the worship of God? I, as a minister of God, declare
His message here three times a week. I do. I've declared it
once this morning, and this is the second time this morning,
and I will declare it again Wednesday. Three times a week, I declare
the gospel of Jesus Christ in this place. I do. And God, by
His grace, if He would give me grace to be faithful, I will
continue to do this as long as I live. If that is God's will
for me, I long to do it. And still, some refuse to avail
themselves to it. May I also ask you as Paul, are
you not carnal? Have you not put your own flesh
and your own desires above the worship of Christ? Have you not said to Christ,
you are my first love, only at 10.45 on Sunday morning? You're
my first. I'm going to put you first there
in that time. The rest is mine. The rest is
mine. I need to be with my family.
I need to spend time on my own. I work all the time and I don't
have any time for myself. So I need to take that time for
myself. It's mine and I want it and I
won't give up anything for it. Are you not carnal? Have you
not succumbed to the reason of your flesh? Have you not succumbed
to the reason of this world? Yes, you have. Are you not carnal? You have allowed the old man
to creep in and to disrupt the worship of God. Believer, is not the preaching
of the gospel necessary? Is it? Is it not vital to your souls? Of course it is. A.V.C. Simple. And yet some have neglected." And Paul here is rebuking them
in their carnality. But in this text, Paul is rebuking
them in a different way of their carnality. They have not set
themselves above the gospel. They have not set themselves
above the worship of God. But they have set ministers above
the worship of God. They've set the ministers above
it. That's what Paul is going to rebuke them for in this passage. These believers were attending
the worship, but they were not giving the glory to God in the
worship. And see, it's one thing to put
your body in the seat. It's another thing altogether
to give God the glory while you're here. And these men were there,
these men were listening, saying, yes, preaching is necessary,
but what they've done is they've elevated the man above the message. They've elevated the man above
the message. And so Paul is rebuking him here for that. In verse 4 he says, for while
one say, I am of Paul, and another says, I am of Apollos, are you
not carnal? Now today, I want us to divide
this message concerning this matter of ministers and the message. I want us to divide this into
two parts. First of all, we're going to
look at the ministers of God. We're going to look at their
calling, their gifts, and how you, as the people of God, are
to esteem the ministers of God. There's a certain way you are
to esteem the ministers of God that so as not to give them glory
above their message. And then we're going to look
at the message itself. I want us to see the message
and who gets the glory for this message. First of all, let's
look at the ministers. As we have seen, God has chosen by
the preaching of the gospel to save sinners. He has chosen and
appointed men to preach this gospel. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 2 says,
"...but we have in earthen vessels that the exceeding excellency
of the power may be of God and not of us." You see, Paul was
saying, hey, we receive the mystery of God, we receive the message
of God in this earthen vessel, in this clay pot. That's what
he calls himself. He said, I'm just a clay pot.
And I'll tell you what, if I were to take a pitcher and pour you
some water, You wouldn't glory in the picture. You'd want the
water. The picture really didn't do anything. It just poured the
water. That's all we are. We are vessels by which water
is given. The Word of the water is given
to you. And I'll tell you what, the glory
of this is great that God has chosen weak, beggarly vessels
such as us. It amazes me that God has chosen
me to do this. It absolutely amazes me. I know
of men highly more qualified in education of the gospel, but
God didn't choose them. God chose me." Wow! I can't believe that. God has
chosen the weak things. You want to see weak? You're
looking at Him. Weak things of the world to convey to you the
gospel of Jesus Christ. The power of the gospel might
be clear. That it is not by us. It is not
by our excellencies. It is not by our power. It is
not by our words. That the gospel is effectual
to you. That the gospel is applied to
you. It is not by us, but by God. That's why God chose us. To give
Himself the glory. And yet because of our old corrupt
nature, Believers, we are often tempted to exalt the man rather
than the message. Now friends, I can enter into
that. I myself can enter into that. Many times I have chosen
the man. I said, I'd like to hear this
man. Oh, that man is great. Oh, you
should hear that man. Now, he's really good. Now, this
guy over here, he's all right. But this man, oh, he's so much
better. He's so much better. I see you smiling. I know you
can enter in. That's good, because I'm glad
I'm not the only one. We all have done that. It's carnal. It's carnal to do that. So Paul
here puts ministers in their proper place. He puts ministers
in their proper place in front of the church. First of all,
ministers, preachers, they are called of God. Paul said, I'm
called to be an apostle. And just as Paul was called to
be an apostle, so is everyone that is called to preach. They
are called of God. They must be. If they're not
called of God, then they should not preach. If they are not called
of God, you ask a man, are you called of God? Well, I don't
know. You shouldn't be saying anything. You should get out
of the pulpit. If you don't know, who does? Get out! Quit! Men should be called of God.
And so is every preacher called of God, not just me. Every preacher
is called of God that is a true gospel preacher. Ephesians 4, verse 11 and 12,
He said He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists,
some pastors and teachers. Why? For the perfecting of the
saints, for the edifying of the saints. That's what He did. He
gave you a pastor. He gave you a pastor. A weak
and beggarly one, but friends of pastor. God called me to this
work. And God calls every man. He gives
gifts unto men. And this work of the ministry
is a gift, and not of the man. I tell you, if any man calls
himself, he is not a preacher of the gospel, and you should
not hear him. We are called of God. We are
appointed to these offices, and it is of no glory to us. You see, I wasn't called because
I was good. I wasn't called because I had
talents and gifts. And I know some men, they look
around their churches, they say, well, look at that man. Oh boy,
wouldn't he make a good preacher? Not if he's not called of God,
he wouldn't. Not if he's not called of God. I don't care how
talented he is. You know, if a man running for
an office of president, I'll tell you what, he has to work
hard, doesn't he? He has a start out. Say a man started in the
grassroots and he worked his way up to the city council. And then he did such a good job
at the city council that he was moved on up to the mayor. And
then he did such a great job as a mayor that everybody liked
him and they moved him to the governor. And then he moved from
the governor to the presidency. He had to work. He had to earn
his place and his office. Friend, I did not earn this office. I did not merit this office.
This office was given to me. It was given to me. God said, you go. And I said,
yes sir. Yes sir. And I went. And that's
every man of God does the same thing. You ask any preacher,
ask any one of them, and they'll tell you all the same story.
God called them. God called them to the Word.
And I'll tell you what, you couldn't tell them any different, could
you? You couldn't convince them any otherwise. And if you could,
they shouldn't be there. Friends, I was called of God.
And so is every man who is called of God. So then, if every man
is called of God, then what's the difference? What is the difference
between the men if all of them are called? Nothing. He says, what is Paul? What is
Apollos? They're not anything. They're
not anything. And friends, I'm not anything.
Just like every other preacher. You see, I can preach the gospel
to you, but I can't give it to you. Why? Because the glory is not
for me. It is for Christ. I give the
glory to Christ. Second of all, men are gifted
of God. The ministers of God are gifted of God. In verse 10,
Paul recognizes this. He says, I have been made a wise
master builder. Now friends, it is not wrong
for a pastor to give God glory for what he has been given. Isn't
that right? Paul said, I'm a wise master
builder. Was there anything wrong with that? No, because he gave
the glory to God. The glory belongs to God. God
is the one that called him and God is the one that gifted him
with his abilities. Now, you would agree with me,
everyone would agree with me that every preacher that you've
ever heard has varying gifts. Is that not right? Varying talents. I know some men. who can make
you spellbound when they're speaking. I mean, just in a carnal sense,
not in a spiritual sense, only the Spirit of God can do this.
But there are some men that God has gifted with an ability to
keep the attention of the people. There are some men that have
that gift. There are some men who are gifted in speaking, and
there are some that are gifted in deep things. I was listening
to a message of a man, and he said, here we go, we're going
to wait out a little while. And we're just going to be suspended
in this, because I can't answer this. I can only just show it
to you. And he showed me some things
that were deep things of God. And some men have that ability
to do that. Paul obviously had a deep theological
background, don't you think? He was gifted of God to see Christ. He heard his message directly
from Christ Himself. Don't you think he had deep things
he could say? Yes. But this man Apollos, he
had a different talent. He was gifted in speaking. He
had an oratory gift. But Paul says, what's that? What does that matter? Does that
matter? If a man is gifted to speak,
can he really do anything? Does his talent or his gift have
anything at all to do with the salvation of men? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. It's not the man, it's the message. It's not the man, it's the message. And if you've exalted the man
above the message, then you missed it. You missed it. You've given
in to worldly wisdom. Listen for the message and disregard
the man. Cheryl tells me exactly how she
feels about my messages when I'm finished. She's very honest
with me and I need that. And she says, the best messages
that you've ever preached have always been when God has moved
you out of the way. Very, very wise. Because I am
nothing without Him. It doesn't matter about my gifts
and talents, whatever they are. I don't know what they are. I
don't think I have any. But God, I wouldn't... David Pleasure
told me one time, he said, I would never listen to me. I understand
that. I don't think I'd ever listen
to me. But God has given gifts and talents, but it doesn't amount
to anything unless the Spirit of God moves. So God doesn't
give us any glory for our gifts. We're not to receive glory from
You because of our gifts, no matter who He is. Number three,
ministers are to faithfully preach the gospel. Look at chapter 4
and verse 2. I want to show you something
about stewardship. Look at verse 1, he said, "...let
a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ, and
stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required
in stewardship that a man be found faithful." Friends, I want
you to find somewhere in here where God commands us to be stewards
of money. It's not in there. It's not. The only reference of stewardship
has to do with the mysteries of God. Friends, I am a steward
of the mysteries of God. And God said He is required of
a steward, of a minister of God, not that He be found talented,
not that He be found good, but that He be found faithful. Faithful
to do what? To tell you the mystery. That's
what I'm here. I'm here to tell you the mystery.
I'm here to point you to Christ. I'm here to show you Christ.
And that's what every minister of God does. Every minister of
God is to show us Christ. We are all called of God. We
are all given different gifts. But we are all called to preach
the same message. Every time you have come to hear
me preach, every time you have come to hear
worship of God in this place, you should expect one thing from
me, every time. You should expect to hear Christ. You should expect that. Because
that's what you'll hear in this place. You will hear Christ honored. You will hear Christ glorified.
You will not hear the preacher honored and the preacher glorified. Not here. We don't deserve it. Christ deserves all the glory
and all the praise. No matter how simple a man may
make the gospel, Or no matter how deep a man may present the
gospel, it is all the same gospel. It is all the same. We all say, behold the Lamb of
God. Don't behold me. Don't look at
me. Don't listen to me. Hear Him. Hear Christ. He's worth hearing. He's worth
hearing. Behold the Lamb of God. He alone by His blood can forgive
you of all your sin. That's it. That's our message. Yet we are not to receive any
praise for this because no one believes based on our voice. No one will believe based on
the smoothness of my voice. but only by the Spirit of God
can He give life to sinners. Number four, ministers are to
be esteemed. They are to be esteemed, not
glorified. Esteemed, not glorified. We are
called, we are called to be gifted and to preach the gospel. We
are not to be put underfoot. Gospel preachers are not to be
put underfoot. 1 Timothy. Chapter 5 and verse 17 says,
Let the elders that rule be counted worthy of double honor, especially
them who labor in the word and doctrine. Double honor. Preachers are to be honored and
esteemed. What does that scripture say?
How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of
peace. They are to be esteemed and given
double honor above other men. Why? Because of them? No. Because
of their office. Because of their office. Friends,
we are sinners just like you. And I promise you, if you look
hard enough, you're going to be offended at something that
I'm going to do. You're going to be offended somewhere along
the way. Well, you esteem me not because
of me, but because of the office I hold. Preachers are to be cared for
by the congregation. We deliver unto you the spiritual
things of God, and preachers are to be cared for in all their
carnal necessities. All their carnal necessities
and cares must be taken care of by the congregation, by God's
people. The church is to care for all
their needs in this world. so that they may be free from
the cares of them, so that they might deliver unto you the gospel
of Jesus Christ." Now friends, I'll tell you what, that is the
fairest trade in all the world. Is that not? That's not the fairest
trade in all the world, giving you the spiritual things for
carnal things. And these things are really nothing
to us, but they are something in the service of God for you.
They are to be cared for. And they are to be attended to. Friends, I think that even pastors
make mistakes in guiding the church. But I guarantee you this,
every person that has ever followed a faithful pastor, a faithful
man of God, God has never let any of their mistakes be to the
destruction of the people that follow them. Never. It's always
been to their blessing to follow their faithful pastor. Paul said,
be ye followers of me, even as you follow Christ. They ought
to be esteemed. Although they are to be esteemed,
they are not to be compared to one another. They are not to
be compared to one another, nor are they to be objects of any
man's praise. Paul says this, he says, we are
one. Look at this in verse 7. He says, So then neither is he
that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God giveth
the increase. Now he that planteth and he that
watereth are one. In other words, every pastor
in this generation, I am the same. I'm the same as every other
pastor in this generation. We have one goal, one purpose,
one meaning to preach the gospel to you. That's it. Why then would we in our carnality
exalt one man above another man? You're not. You're not to do
that. I remember when I was starting
to preach, I was invited to preach to a small group in a small town. I had to drive six hours just
to get there. I drove six hours to get there.
And when I got there, this was a group of eight people. Eight
people. And when I got there to preach
the gospel to them, only three were there. Only three. They had found other things more
important to do. When the man of God showed up,
they found other things more important that had to be done.
But now this same group, when another man comes, every time
he comes, everyone drops everything and goes and listens to that
man. Now then, everyone can easily judge that what they are doing
is following the man and exalting the man above the message. That's
easy to be seen. And this is not only with me,
this group does it with every other preacher that has ever
come to them. But they see one man, they see
only one man who is worthy to be heard, and that is the man
that they have chosen. What are they? They're carnal.
They're carnal. They've exalted the man above
the message. And I know other men that when
we had conferences, if one man would come, I know that half
the church wouldn't show up because they just said, oh, I don't get
anything from him. I just don't get anything out
of the message from him. Well, it's not him. It's you.
That's what I kept telling them. It's not him. It's you. You're
listening for the wrong thing. You're listening at the man and
not the message. Believer, let this sink into
our heart and let this not be named among us to exalt one man
above another, but be faithful to hear the gospel every time
it is preached. Every time. And secondly, I want us to see
the message. Now, every man that is called of God to preach and
is gifted is worthy of esteem All men have the same message.
Charles Spurgeon's grandfather said this, My grandson may preach
the gospel better than I do, but he doesn't have a better
gospel. He doesn't have a better gospel. And that's true. That's
right. And I'll tell you this, what
happened to Spurgeon's church after he died? It died. Why? Because many men followed
Spurgeon. And I'll tell you this, I want
to bring this home to you. I'm going to bring this home to this
church right here. From what I have gathered and what I have
ascertained about the man, I've never met him, but I'm sure he
was a great man, Dr. Magruder. What I understand about
him is he was a great man of God. Great pastor. Great orator. Great somebody
who was able to expound the doctrines of God's grace and do it well. Very talented man. And what I
understand, he was a man of great esteem in this community. He
was a man that actually had a large following of people. But what
happened when he died? Where'd they go? I called one of those persons
who had attended his services for many years, and now she's
attending some freewill works religion church, and I asked
her why she doesn't come back. And she said, well, you preach
the same thing they do. What was she doing all those
years? Was she hearing the gospel? No, she was hearing the man.
The man entertained her and she stayed there as long as he was
alive. And then when he died, she went away. And so did everybody
else who followed the man and not the message. Can you see
how the carnal nature can affect people? Sure it can. When you come to worship, do
you come to hear me? God, I hope not. Please, please don't hear me. I pray you will hear God. And only by hearing God can a
man be saved and fed. How shall they believe on Him
in whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher?" Friends, preachers are sin of God to preach the
message of God. And what is this message? Here
it is in verse 11, For other foundation can no man lay than
that which is laid, Jesus Christ. I came to you this morning to
preach one foundation for the souls of men, and His name is
Jesus Christ. He is the foundation of our souls. Paul begins to use this analogy
of the building and he said, you are the building of God.
And what is this building of God founded on? It is founded
upon the rock of Jesus Christ and Him alone. This morning I
asked, at the end of the Sunday school lesson, the message this
morning, I asked, when you stand before God, what will you bring?
What will be your foundation? How is it that you will be able
to stand in that great day when God opens your heart and shows
you all of your sins? How is it possible that you'll
stand before God? There's only one hope. There's
only one foundation by which you'll be able to stand. And
His name is Jesus Christ. He alone is the foundation of
God. God said, Behold, I lay in Zion a foundation, a stone,
a cornerstone, a tried stone, a precious stone. He that believeth
shall not make haste. In other words, he that believeth
won't be anxious and won't be fearful. To believe on Christ
is to rest the weight of the building of our souls on Him
alone. On Him alone. He alone is the
foundation. of God, and God says, anybody
that's off this foundation, He says, they'll be cut off. I remember
when I was building a house one time with my dad, we had some
boards that went outside the foundation, and we took a saw
and we cut off all those boards that were outside that foundation.
And God says, anybody off this foundation will be cut off. He is the only sure foundation. Every other foundation is worthless. Friends, what is the foundation
of your soul resting on this morning? Is your house built on the sand
or on the rock? Jesus Christ is that rock, that
sure foundation by which all who believe have a good hope. They have a good hope this morning.
Do you have a good hope? I pray you do. And second of all, when
we preach this message of the foundation, we build on this
foundation. We are to take heed how we build
on this foundation. Paul says in verse 10, he says,
let every man take heed how he builds on this foundation. This
morning I'm building on the foundation of Christ. This morning I'm building
on the foundation of Christ. And we are to take hay, heed
how we build. And look at this in verse 12.
He mentions six materials. Gold, silver, precious stones,
wood, hay, and stubble. There are six materials by which
we build on this foundation. We that preach on the foundation
of Christ are warned to adorn the temple with those things
that are good." Which of those six are good? You want a house
built, what would you like it built on? Do you want wood, hay,
and stubble, or would you rather have gold, silver, and precious
stones? I think I'll take the first. I'd like to have a house
built on that. So when we adorn the foundation,
when we build on the foundation of Christ, we expound on Christ,
we show you gold, silver, and precious stones. This, my friend,
is the sound doctrine of the gospel. If you'll notice that
those three materials are materials that are tried, right? They're
proven. When you put gold in the fire,
what does it do? It takes off all the dross and it becomes
pure. What happens if you put wood, hay, and stubble in the
fire? Do they become tried and purified? No, they burn up. They
burn up. So when we preach the Gospel,
we are to hold fast the form of sound words, proven words,
tried words, true words. When I preach to you, I want
to tell you the truth. I don't want to tell you a lie.
I don't want to tell something that doesn't have any effect
on your souls. And we can talk about the weather.
It's a beautiful day, isn't it? Now, how much value does that
have on your soul? Nothing. We can talk about politics. How much value does that have
on your soul? Nothing. We can talk about the millennial
reign. I heard someone preaching on this the other day, and he
just was preaching about how the Jews are going to come and
how this is going to happen. All foolishness. Foolishness. That has no effect on the souls
of men. It doesn't adorn the doctrines
of Christ. That's wood, hay, and stubble.
wood, hay, and stubble. We're to preach those things
that adorn Christ. Love, peace, joy, meekness, temperance,
faith, good works, salvation, the blood, righteousness, holiness. These things adorn the foundation.
These things are solid. These things are pure. These
things are right and good. And this is what I long to preach
to you. I don't long to preach to you
about the wisdom of this world. That's not the business of ministers.
It is to preach Christ. And I'll tell you, some people
take this verse and they say, well, pastor, you know, those
Arminian preachers, they're just building wood, hay and stubble.
No, my friends, they're on another foundation altogether. They're
on another foundation. Their foundation is flawed. It's
cracked. It's not sure. And I don't care
what they build on that foundation, they're not on the foundation
of Christ. But I'll tell you this, there are some gospel preachers
who have strayed from this. And I know that you know some
that have strayed and went to preaching politics. Went to preaching all practical
messages with no sound doctrine as the foundation of practical
living. What good is a practical message
without Christ? Wood, hay and stubble. It's nothing. Nothing. Christ is to be the sum and substance
of our message and we build on Him. Everything comes from Him. And so we are to be warned as
pastors not to be thinking about the things of this world, but
we are to preach and adorn the doctrines of Christ. All God's
men are to labor in the gospel, shall only have one message,
one foundation, Jesus Christ, and we preach Him for the glory
of God and not ourselves. And your job is to attend to
that service. Not exalting me, not giving me
the glory, giving God the glory while you sit here. If you neglect these things,
are you not carnal? What's the difference between
a carnal believer and a lost person? Not much. I tell you, there's a lot of
people that think, I'm carnal, but they're really lost. I don't know. I don't know what you are, if you're
saved or lost. I'm just having this message
came to my heart, and I recognize some of you are carnal. Some of you put the things of
God, things of God below the things of this world. You've
raised the things of your flesh above the things of God. And some of you haven't. And some of you have. And I pray that God, by His grace,
might brand this on your heart. Because I'll tell you, if He
doesn't, you'll walk out of here feeling guilty, then you'll leave it
alone. And you'll be the same as you came in. But I pray that's
not the case. I pray that God would convict
your heart and give you repentance and faith to believe God. not
for my glory, but for the glory of God. Let's stand. We'll be
dismissed in prayer.