5 through 15, or our verses for
today. Who then is Paul and who is Apollos? Some say, what is Paul? What is Apollos? but ministers
by whom ye believe, 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 gives the increase. Now he that plants, he that waters,
are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according
to his own labor. For we are laborers together
with God. Ye are God's husbandry, ye 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 builds their own. But let every man
take heed how he builds their own. For other foundation can
no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. For if any man build upon this
foundation, gold, silver, precious stone, 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. Taking our text from I Corinthians,
I need not remind you, for we remember in our former study
of this epistle, that the church here at Corinth, which was raised
up under the ministry and the apostleship of Paul, was the
most problem-plagued church that Paul dealt with and that he served,
ministered to, and preached the Word of God unto them. I think
this might account, somewhat, for the length of this epistle
that it is a rather lengthy one. Because there was much, there
were many things that were amiss that Paul gives them guidance
on and corrects them on in this great epistle. And then I wonder
if you might consider this. Do we count it significant? Has
it entered into our mind of all of the problems that were there
in the church at Corinth, which one of them does Paul address
first? Well, we look at that and we
see It is not the incestuous person in chapter 5, that great
sin that was going on. It was not the antinomian belief
and practice of some as described in the sixth chapter of the epistle. And it wasn't that very thorny
question about marriage and divorce that he deals with at length
in chapter 7. It was not on the contrary opinion
and the trouble of conscience that came by eating meat sacrificed
to idol that he deals with in chapter 8, chapter 9, and chapter
10. Nor was it the confusion over
the gifts and their exercise in their public worship and their
abuse of the supper of the Lord in chapter 11 through 14, neither
was it the fact that some there denied the resurrection of the
dead, and that's dealt with at length in chapter 15. No, the
first thing that Paul goes straight to is the matter of their division
and their schisms over their minister, their party spirit
that had raised up among them concerning those that were preachers
and teachers who taught to them the word and the things of God. Now, this subject is breached
early in the epistle. We see that Paul breaches the
subject in chapter 1 and verse 10. No more has he written nine
verses than he comes to deal with this subject. Paul lets
them know that he had received first-hand information concerning
their contention and their strife over or concerning their minister. Some of them saying, I am of
Paul. Another group saying, I am of
Apollos. Another group said, I am of Cephas. And still another said, I am
of Christ. And this was a four-party, as
it were, schism that was among them there. Now exactly what
are we to make of this? How are we to understand it? What is Paul describing? What kind of relationship or
what kind of attachment is Paul condemning and rebuking them
for claiming? Well, we notice something in
chapter 1 and verse 12. That is that Paul is pretty or
fairly inclusive in his rebuking them. He says, every one of you
says this or that or the other. The words are along this line. Each of you, each one of you
is saying. Each one of you is declaring
their attachment to a certain minister. Some of them saying,
I am a Paul. Now look again very carefully
and closely at the scripture and you will see that Paul uses
the word am only this one time in the first of the verse, and
that of himself. I am a Paul. Though it certainly
is implied and refers to the other three factions that are
mentioned. Linsky, pretty good on the Greek
and the tenses, and others that are familiar with this Greek
word am, said that it is what might be called a genitive. That means that there is an attachment
marking or making or establishing a relationship, what one calls
the genitive of ownership and dependence. And for what it is
worth, it is the same word that Paul uses In describing himself,
I Corinthians 15 and 10, I am what I am by the grace of God. That is, Paul, the Christian
apostle and the Christian preacher, was dependent upon grace. was attached to grace and had
an attachment and a relationship unto grace to where he could
say, I owe all that I am to the grace of God. I am of grace. But the I am here of Paul, these
were likely some of the first converts that were made in the
city of Corinth. Paul had come among them as a
gospel pioneer, if you will. And the Lord had used him. He had preached the gospel. The
Lord had opened the hearts of them, and they believed the gospel,
and they believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. They were converted,
some of them, when Paul was there. preaching the Gospel for the
first time. Now, if you're interested, the
account of Paul's coming to Corinth, you have in the 18th chapter
of the book of Acts and the first 18 verses give an account of
Paul's visit unto Corinth when he came and preached the Gospel. That passage said that he spent
a year and six months there teaching them That's in verse 11. And could be that his devotees
were these, and that his devotees were mostly or mainly from among
the Gentiles who had believed his preaching of the gospel. But then Paul said, There are
others who were devoted or attached to Apollos. Now this is a shortened
form of the word Apollonius, and he was, some say, an Alexandria
Jew by birth and nationality. Some not only favored him because
perhaps they were converted under his ministry, as stated in 1
Corinthians chapter 5, by whom you believe. But I think many
also had, when it comes to Apollos, had been charmed by his eloquent
way of speaking and his gift of words and of speech. For of him we read in Acts 18
and verse 24 through verse 26, some of these things, that he
was an eloquent man, that he was mighty in the Scripture,
that he was instructed in the way of the Lord, being fervent
in spirit, and that he spoke diligently the things of the
Lord, And in Acts 18 and verse 28, he mightily convinced the
Jew, showing by the Scripture, that Jesus was the Christ. But there were others at Corinth
who said, I am of Sheba. Now, we know that this is the
Arminian name of the Apostle Peter as we know him, and this
name Cephas is used by Paul in 1 Corinthians 9 and verse 5,
chapter 15 and verse 5, and in Galatians chapter 2 and verse
9. Now, this servant of the Lord
was also at times called Simon. Now those saying, I am of Cephas,
or I am of Peter, could well have been Jews. And we remember
that Peter had been with the Lord from the beginning, and
that might have been impressive unto them. He had his apostolic
authority directly from the Lord Jesus Christ. He was and had
been the chief apostle among the Jew in Jerusalem where, as
Gil said, Peter or Simon saw the miracles of the Christ, heard
his teaching, and, as John Gill suggests, thus did identify himself
with the ministry of Peter, quote, still had a regard to the ceremonies
of the law whereby they fixed upon Peter as their minister,
as their favorite. Now finally, some were represented
as saying, I am of Christ. This is rather hard to understand
and to bring out and to exegete. At least it is for me. This is
hard to understand. It's not so easy to see and to
explain exactly who they are. Whether they were right or whether
they were others following Christ and were right, or whether they
too were a faction like the other three and were to be blamed by
the apostle and rebuked. We know one thing about it. that
Peter does not mention this again. He does not mention it again
in his saying, I am of Christ. Though he does mention the other
three factions again down in 1 Corinthians 3 and verse 22,
bringing in himself, Apollos again, and Cephas. Now, in between
chapter 1 and verse 12, and our text here in the third chapter,
the apostle stays on the subject of the ministry and ministers
of the gospel. And especially is he defending
his way of preaching and his method of preaching. And he tells
them why he did not preach with enticing words of man's wisdom. Though he did not do that, yet
there was a wisdom in the gospel of our blessed Lord. And the
reason that it is not evident to more is because, in the end
of chapter 2, the natural man cannot receive the things of
the Spirit of God, and that's why the gospel is foolish and
undemanding. Now, coming to chapter 3, verses
1 through 4, he gives them a very strong rebuke for their carnality,
of which their contention concerning their ministers was an evidence. He said they were carnal, they
were fleshly. Now this does not mean that he
considers them unregenerate or unchristian, for he addresses
them in chapter 1, verses 2 through 4, as the church of God at Corinth,
as the sanctified in Christ, and called saints and having
grace by Jesus Christ." So he's not calling them unregenerate
men. He's calling them carnal. But what he says is they were
yet so uninstructed in the things of Christ. They were babes in
Christ having need of milk rather than of meat. He fed them according
to their capacity. It is interesting to contrast
something with the Corinthian church and the Ephesian church. For in the Ephesian church, in
Acts chapter 20 and verse 20, he kept back nothing that was
profitable unto them. And in Acts 20 and verse 27,
he says to the elders at Ephesus, I have not shunned to declare
unto you all of the counsel of God. What a difference there
was in the spirituality of the church at Ephesus and the church
here at Carmel. Now why does Paul call them carnal
in verse 1? Well, it's because in the fourth
verse, while one saith, I am a Paul, another, I of Apollos,
are ye not carnal? That is, you are fleshly. And he somewhere else calls them
acting like men. Calvin called this, quote, misguided
devotion, unquote, on the part of their minister. And in verse
5, Paul, to make his point, drops the other two and uses himself
and Apollos to make a proper contrast. And he shows them how
ministers are to be viewed, as well as to show how they are
engaged in a common aim, a common goal, and a common end. And that is the conversion and
edification of God's elect and the building up of the church,
the house of God, or the temple of God. And beginning here at
verse 5, how they ought to view their minister. And as a lead-in
to that, Paul asks them, who or what is Paul? Who are what
is Apollos? What were they unto the people? What were they unto God, our
blessed Lord? To those who said, I'm Apollos,
those who said, I am of Apollos, to those who preferred to be
called by the party of one or the other? What was it that determined
their preference for this one or for that one? Was it the way
they preached or was it what they preached when they were
among them ministering? Was it a personality contest
that had broken out among the people there. Could it have anything
to do with age or personal appearance or anything like that? Now, one thing that you can count
on is that most people will either overvalue or undervalue their
minister, one or the other. Few will find the absolute middle
ground. And some will base their affection
for a minister on the fact, Brother so-and-so baptized me when I
came unto Christ. Or another might say, Brother
so-and-so married me and my wife or my husband brother so-and-so
preached my mama's funeral, or brother so-and-so visited me
every day when I was in the hospital. And rather than his faithfulness
to the Word of God, they would base their affection upon something
else, rather than being the one who told me about Christ and
who preached Christ unto me. Now to the question, who is Paul
and Apollos? Do you notice in verse 6, I planted
and Apollos hath watered. Paul tells them how they are
to consider him and Apollos as ministers, as ministers of Christ,
as ministers of the gospel. Now Paul uses the word here that
is the word diakonosso, which word is most often or commonly
translated, at least in the King James, it is translated by three
different words in the New Testament. Now, the first word would be
minister, singular, or ministers, plural. And the second way that
the word is translated is by servant, singular, and servants
in the plural. And the third way is as deacons,
and that word is translated from the same word. Now, the word
here describes an attendant It describes a servant. It describes
one who runs upon an errand in the name and the behalf of another,
one who serves another. It means to wait upon or to serve. Now how can we reconcile Paul's
words here with his frequent claims concerning his apostolic
authority? Often Paul claimed an apostle
of Jesus Christ by the will of God. Does he here seem to lessen
the ministry? Other places he insists upon
that authority as a called apostle of Jesus Christ. Now the answer
is very simple. Here He is opposing their party
spirit and their schism, that they must not exalt men, even
ministers, unduly. And Paul bids them to consider
the relationship in which he and Apollos and Cephas stood
unto them. What was that? It was as ministers. messengers, servants by which
they believed or through whose ministry they believed in Christ. He said in chapter 4 and verse
1 that they were to be accounted or regarded as the ministers
of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God or the secrets
of God. So let's make a point here as
we go along. at this juncture in our study,
that those who undervalue preachers will soon come to undervalue
preaching. That those who hold preachers
in a low esteem will sometimes come to hold preaching in a lower
esteem. And we're seeing that in our
day. Church after church is falling into this illusion. A heavy emphasis, the heaviest
emphasis upon music and singing and entertaining are the presence
or the testimony of some celebrity that they have brought their
way. And see what Paul says in the end of verse 5, even as the
Lord gave to every man." What are we but ministers, even as
the Lord gave to every man? I and apollos, or servants, We
are minister by which you believe, even as the Lord gave to each
of us. I think it seems better to apply
the last phrase not to the people, but to the ministers, the servants
of God. That their various accomplishments
were according to their gifts, their ministry, and their usefulness
unto the church is of and from the Lord. The difference between
them is traceable back to the spiritual endowment which the
Lord had given unto each of them. Then, moving in our text, Looking
at verse 6, the apostle uses a couple of very easy to understand
or perceive metaphors in order that he might illustrate how
the work of one minister complements the work of another. He uses
a couple of very clear metaphors here. Now, the two metaphors
are, let's look at them. Number one, from agriculture
or farming, as we might call it. He'll give us a metaphor
from agriculture and use it as an example. And the second one
is from architecture or building, engineering, or the raising up
as a building. Now, as we see, In the end of
verse 9, Paul says, Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. Ye are God's husbandry, literally
tillage. You are God's tillage. God's field is how we also might
express it. You are God's building. Now, in verse 16, he calls them
the temple of God. You are the temple of the Almighty
God. And look what Paul does. Paul
refers to the ministers as, quote, laborers together with God, unquote. Fellow workers they are. And verse 9 kind of separates
the two medicars while summing them up. There are three possessives
for us to look at in verse 9. One in regard to the minister
and two in regard to the Corinthians or the church or the congregation. Notice, God's fellow laborers
we are. I, Apollos, Cephas and other
ministries. Look at the two other possessive,
God's husbandry ye are, God's building ye are. Now, let's consider
the two metaphors separately. First, noticing the claim of
Paul's part here in regard to the dual metaphors in connection
to the Corinthian church or assembly. Now, as to calling them God's
husbandry, tillage, cultivation or field, Paul says this, I planted. Ye are God's tillage. I, Paul, planted. That's in verse
6. As to calling them God's building,
or God's temple, or God's shrine, Paul says, I laid the foundation. I lay the foundation upon which
the structure stands. Now if you look at verse 6 through
verse 8 together, the metaphor A metaphor being another way
of using other words to describe a likeness or an expression that
is suggested by the metaphor. Verse 6, I planted a polis watered,
but God gave the increase. Literally, God made it to grow. I planted, that is, I preached.
Apollos came along and he watered. But it is God that made or that
caused or that gave the increase. Now, this paints a picture in
our mind, something we are familiar with. Well, city folks not so
much. They think food comes from the
supermarket. But we have a picture in our
mind the various preparations of the labor and bringing in
a field from its barrenness until the time of the harvest. And
that includes the clearing of the ground. The field must be
cleared. There is the plowing and the
breaking up of the fallow ground. Then at the proper season, there
is the sowing of the seed. Then when the sprouts have come
up, there is the hoeing, the plowing, and the weeding and
such like to keep them out of the crop. James said something
along this line in chapter 5. Verse 7, that the husbandman
waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth until he receive
the early and the latter rain. All things coming together to
produce the desired harvest or crop. Now, several things there
are, therefore, that must come together to produce a good harvest
or crop. the ground till, the seeds sown,
the sun to warm the ground, the rain at the exact right time. Then all after that is dependent
upon the providence of God, the power or the blessing of God
whether or not there shall be a crop. So Paul says the same
of a spiritual harvest in verse 6, bringing down the conclusion
in verse 7 that the planter and the waterer are nothing. This he says not to denigrate
or to put down the ministry, but to show that when the Word
of God has been preached, and even when it has been watered,
only God can give the increase or cause it to grow. There is
nothing in themselves, minister, or the people are in their own
strength. They cannot cause the seed of
the Word of God to take root in any heart. They cannot cause
spiritual life to come forth, but God can and God does. He quickens. He opens the heart
like he did Lydia in the book of Acts. And he causes them to
be believers in the Word of God and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice, Paul having said, I plant
it, he will soon remind the first believers down in chapter 4 and
verse 15 of this same book I have begotten you through the gospel. Now, I know that's a favorite
verse of gospel regenerationists, but I don't think they're just
in claiming it. For as seen in Acts 18 and verse
11, a year and six months, Paul, quote, teaching the word of God
among them, unquote. Indeed, he planted. Indeed, he
sowed the seed of the Word of God and the Gospel. His conclusion
is this, planter and waterer are co-laborers, and each will
receive their just reward, or the reward of their work, the
reward of their labor. Now, coming to the tenth verse
that we read and the expanding upon the second metaphor, that
of a 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 their own. but let every man
take heed how he buildeth their own." Remember what he said?
Ye are God's building. Now, I have laid the foundation. The foundation being, for the
most part, the most important part of any building. No building
or structure will ever be stronger than its foundation. Every structure
built upon the sand will fall in the time of the flood. When Paul says, I have laid the
foundation, in its context it means that Paul labored first
among them in the preaching of the gospel, planting the word
of truth, laying the foundation, which in verse 11, by the way,
he said, is Jesus Christ, sure, strong, indestructible. Christ is the very, Christ is
the one and the only foundation of a church are of Christianity. Other foundation can no man lay
other than this, Paul said. I defer to John Gill. A quote
from him as to Christ being the foundation which Paul is describing. Gill wrote, and I quote, he is
the foundation personally considered as God-man, as mediator on which
the church and every believer is built, the foundation of the
covenant of grace and eternal salvation." And as others have
pointed out, other writers, Christ is the doctrinal foundation of
the Christian church. 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 5,
we preach Christ Jesus. 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 23,
we preach Christ crucified. Paul lay the same foundation
everywhere and anywhere that he preached the gospel. That
was the person, the doctrines, and the work of Christ are the
doctrinal foundation of a Christian church. What doctrine? Well,
his eternal deity, his virgin birth and incarnation, his divine
and eternal sonship, that he is sovereign Lord at the right
hand of God, his vicarious redeeming death, victory over death and
the grave, his exaltation to the right hand of God as priest,
as mediator, and as our advocate and our intercessor. These are
the doctrinal foundation and positions of the Christian church. Paul, notice, refers to himself
as a wise master builder in laying the foundation. An expert builder
is how we might express it, how one version translated. And yet,
Paul clears himself of boasting by the first words that we read
in verse 10. according as the grace of God
was given unto me." According to the grace of God, I laid the
foundation. And yet, he is careful to say
that it was a result of the grace of God bestowed upon him. And not just saving grace, though
that too, but the gifts of grace, the wisdom of grace, grace which
qualified him as a minister for the world. For it was Paul who
said, I am what I am by the grace of God. When in that verse he
says that he outlabored the other apostles, He quickly adds this,
yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. I outlabored
the other apostle, which grace, he said, was not bestowed upon
him in vain. John Gill wrote, in contrast
to the other apostles, Paul traveled over a greater part of the world,
preached oftener, wrote more epistles in our Bible, was the
instrument of more conversion, planted more churches, and suffered
more than they." This he attributes to the grace of God which was
bestowed upon him. Now concerning this foundation
which Paul laid, which is Christ. Not is it the only foundation,
but none other can be laid than that which is Christ. But, he
said, let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. Verse 6, I planted, Apollos watered. Verse 10, I laid the foundation,
another builds on it. Remember the words of our Lord.
John 4, verse 37, Now is the saying, one sows, another reaps. He said to His disciples, I have
sent you to reap where you have bestowed no labor. Christ is
the foundation. All built upon it must correspond
exactly unto Him, must bear an intimate relationship unto Him,
and any who lay a foundation in the secular lay one that is
suitable to the building that is to be erected upon it. Now the teaching and the doctrine
of Apollos therefore must agree with Paul. Any other that builds
upon the foundation, meaning other ministers, must be careful
how he builds, but also with what he builds upon the foundation. Gil put it this way in verse
10, that any build see that he builds by line, evenly, according
to the analogy of faith, that he builds in proportion to the
building, and that he only lays such things upon it as are becoming
and suitable unto it." Paul mentions two sets or two sorts of material
here in this passage. The first is gold and silver
and precious stones, jewels. And the second is wood and hay
and stubble. And a good many expositors are
of the opinion of that of Thomas Goodwin that all truths of the
gospel built upon the foundation of Christ, Paul calls gold and
silver and pearls and all things enticing words of man's wisdom,
Jewish fables and philosophy, human traditions and all of that,
wood and hay and stubble. Now that being the case, most
of what we see today in what is called Christianity has a
foundation of quicksand and is built of wood and hay and of
stubble. having a mostly unregenerate
membership. Mostly an unregenerate membership. It is important that we understand
in closing that the whole text And especially verse 13 through
15 is applicable to ministers, not unto private Christians as
you read that. Paul warns them, every man's
work that he has built upon this foundation shall have his works
tried by fire, and the fire shall try every man's works of what
sort it is, and the wood, hay, and stubble shall be burned,
the other shall stand the heat of the fire, the minister rewarded
or lose according as his works are tried." It behooves us, therefore,
to build only upon Christ and to preach only Christ and the
doctrines of Christ in the building up of the churches in the world.