Well, I want to turn your attention
to the passage we read earlier, 1 Corinthians chapter 3, and
the section of verses from verse 10 to verse 15, because it's
a passage that is often mistaught and misunderstood. What people
will say is, you are saved by the skin of your teeth by the
gospel foundation. You know, the gospel, that's
what gets you saved. But the way you live it out,
the way you go on and you live, the degree of your sanctification
personally as you learn more and more to become holy, this
is what they teach, it will either lead you to be given extra rewards
when you get to heaven, or it will lead to loss of reward,
punishment even, not to mention shame, because you are found
to have been inadequately sanctified in your Christian life. That's
what many, many, many teach. It's certainly what I was taught
in younger years. And it's wrong. It's completely
wrong. Why do many teach this? Why are
they so wrong? And what is the correct interpretation
of these verses? Now you see, Paul preached a
clear gospel. Paul preached a very clear gospel. He preached salvation from sin,
accomplished by Christ alone. How are we saved from our sins?
Our sins condemn us before the character and law and justice
of God. And as we are, as sinners in
the flesh, when we meet the holy God who is altogether different
from us, then if by revelation God has shown you anything of
his holiness and of your sin, you know that you stand condemned
in his sight, and that the very character of God must condemn
sin. And yet there is salvation accomplished
by Christ and him alone. It's salvation, we read, to the
uttermost. It isn't left halfway hanging. It isn't left with things to
do. It's salvation to the uttermost. It has no contribution at all
required from the person who's saved. That's a wonderful thought,
isn't it? You know, whenever you think,
oh, somebody's going to give me a million pounds, but I have
to find 10,000 pounds in order to have some... Well, I can't,
I haven't got 10,000 pounds. Well, sorry, you can't have the
million pounds. You see, this is the kind of salvation that
is so often preached. But no, the biblical salvation
that is revealed by God, the salvation that is in Christ and
Him alone, requires no contribution whatsoever from the person who
is saved. And all of these blessings of
God and of salvation are received by faith, by that gift that the
Holy Spirit gives. He gives eyes to see that which
you couldn't see, the natural man cannot see. They're foolishness
to him, neither can he know them, they're spiritually discerned,
but God gives spiritual discernment, sight, sight of the soul. What
is sight of the soul? We call it faith. He gives faith
that we might see and believe the truth of what Christ has
accomplished, what God has done, who God is, and as a result,
life is transformed. Now this was the gospel that
Paul preached, and he was an evangelist, he was an apostle,
and he was an evangelist, and he was what we would call today
a missionary going from place to place preaching the gospel
wherever he went, you read of his journeys in the Acts of the
Apostles with those that went with him and where he preached
and where he planted churches and wherever he had been ministering
and had established a church there was always a danger and
it was this that Satan would seek to sow error in that place
where Paul had preached absolute solid truth, an absolutely true
foundation of gospel grace, Satan would come in. When Paul had
moved on, going somewhere else, he would seek to sow error. How
do we know this? You read Revelation, as we did
a couple of years ago. As we went through that, we saw
wherever God planted a church, Satan would come in. Even at
Ephesus, the letters to the churches in Revelation, even at Ephesus,
where there was such a dramatic witness to the truth of the Gospel
of Grace in such a godless, idolatrous city as Ephesus, and yet, a few
years later, When the risen Lord Jesus Christ in glory is telling
John to write to the church at Ephesus, he says, you've done
all these things well, very, very good, but I have something
against you. What was the one thing he had
against them? You have lost, you have left your first love. That was it. You've left your
first love. Because why? Satan had come in
and sown error. How does Satan do it? He brings
in false teachers. He brings in teachers who mingle
gospel truth with all sorts of other errors. You'll see it in
the article I put on the back of the bulletin that a well-known
theologian many, many years ago, he wrote books in the 1960s,
He said this, and it remains true today. A half-truth, masquerading
as the whole truth, becomes a complete untruth. That's a fact. A half-truth,
masquerading as the whole truth, becomes a complete untruth. That's a fact. A half-truth,
masquerading as the whole truth, becomes a complete untruth. That's
a fact. A half-truth, masquerading as the whole truth, becomes a
complete untruth. That's a fact. A half-truth, masquerading as the whole truth, becomes a
complete untruth. That's a fact. A half-truth, masquerading as the whole truth, becomes a
complete untruth. That's a fact. A half-truth, masquerading as the whole truth,
becomes a complete untruth. That's a fact. A half-truth, masquerading as the whole truth,
becomes a complete untruth. That's a fact. A half-truth, masquerading as
the whole truth becomes a complete untruth. Beware of it, beware
of it. Satan put in false teachers,
mingling gospel truth with law, the bondage of the law, with
philosophy. Oh it can't be like this, it
must be such and such a thing. With fleshly piety, oh that's
going to do you so much more good When you get to the courts
of divine justice, oh, the fact that you've lived a good life
after you believe the gospel is going to have so much benefit
for you. Oh, you better not have this
or that or the other, but you better deny yourself, because
all that is good in the reckoning of God. You see, it's all false
teaching. Where did it come? In Antioch,
for example. In Antioch. you know, north of
Jerusalem, before you get round into Turkey, in what is now Syria,
in Antioch, what happened there? Men came from Jerusalem, saying,
oh yes, we believe the gospel, but you've all got to be circumcised,
all the men have got to be circumcised, because you can't be saved just
by the gospel of Christ. You've got to be circumcised
as well. Do you remember? And Paul that knows the council of
Jerusalem, absolutely not. And he said that Peter was in
the wrong because Peter was afraid of the Judaizers, the people
that were adding all of these things to the pure gospel, and
Paul rebuked Peter to his face. In Galatia, which is in modern
day Turkey, in Galatia a legal gospel was added to the foundation
that Paul had laid. In Galatia, you read the epistle
to the Galatians, how Paul is vehement in his opposition to
these false teachers who brought a legal gospel. They added legal
requirements on top of the foundation of the gospel of Christ. And
he says, doesn't he? He says, it's just like this
glass of water that I've got in front of me here. I'm quite
happy to drink that. And if you put one little drop
of cyanide poisoning in it, it'll still, oh, 99.9% water. I'm not gonna drink it. It's
got that one drop of poison in it, which makes the whole glass
poisoned. And so it is. With error, which is contrary
to the gospel of grace. It's poison. And Paul said, let
anyone who preaches any other gospel than that which we have
preached, let him be accursed. Let him be accursed. So, some
of these that followed Paul, and followed the foundation he
laid, they were simply false deceivers. They were in it for
what they could get out of it, because there have always been
such. They're in the church today, the so-called church. They're
in it for what they can get out of it. They're in it because,
for many of them, they regard it as an easier life, an easier
way to make a living, than actually doing business in the real world,
which I'm telling you is tough. I've done business in the real
world. It's hard work. It really is. There are no, well,
very, very few easy jobs these days. Very, very few. And some
are in it, preaching, being ministers of churches, because they find
it an easier life than going to work. As Paul writes to Titus,
he warns about such people, he says, their God is their belly.
They're in it for what they can get out of it. Others, others
that followed Paul, were basically sound regarding the foundation,
but they were in danger of building on it, by which I mean teaching
and preaching, worthless and damaging doctrine. Look at verse
15. If any man's work shall be burned,
he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so
as by fire. It's speaking of a preacher who
himself knows the foundation, he's going to be saved, but all
the work he's done in preaching, it's amounted to nothing. And
when it gets examined, it's going to be burned up. You see, the
task of a minister, of a preacher, is to build up the church. The
church is God's people. to build them up with wholesome
teaching that is fitting for the foundation on which it is
built. What's the foundation? The gospel
of Christ. Christ is the foundation. The
church's one foundation, we just sang, is Jesus Christ her Lord. That's the foundation, but the
teaching that's built on it It has to be fitting for that foundation. This passage is not about believers
suffering loss of reward for not living a good enough life,
not at all. This isn't what it's about. It's
about preachers, and what they preach, to build up the temple
of God on the foundation, the church of God. So what is the
foundation? What is it to build on it? What
sorts of buildings are there? And how is the building proven?
And in the process, we'll seek to apply it to ourselves. First
of all, the foundation. Look at verse 10. Paul says this. He's talking about laborers.
He's been talking about preachers. This is the whole context of
it. That's why it's wrong to interpret it as believers not
living well enough and suffering loss as a result. It's about
Paul and Apollos. They were preachers. He says,
we're laborers together with God, preachers. You, the people,
the church, you're the farm, if you like, you're the vineyard,
you are God's building. But they, the preachers, are
the laborers building it up. And he says in verse 10, according
to the grace of God, which is given unto me. That's where he
got it from, it's not his own strength, it's the grace of God.
As a wise master builder, God's made him a wise master builder.
He who persecuted the church, God has made into a wise master
builder. He says, I have laid the foundation,
the gospel foundation, and another, because I've moved on, I've moved
on to another place, another has builded thereon. Another
one has followed up with teaching. But, he says, here's a warning,
let every man take heed how he builds thereupon. You see? Do you know, just as we have
to take heed, we're warned in the Gospels, Jesus said, take
heed how ye hear. Take heed Don't be flippant about
this. Don't be lackadaisical about
it. Take heed. Be careful. You have a responsibility. Think about how you're going
to hear the gospel. Well, in the same way, take heed. preachers that follow up this
foundation that Paul has laid, take heed how you build on that
foundation. Paul had preached the true gospel
of grace and salvation. Now I want you to turn back to
Isaiah 28 and I want you to put your finger in there and don't
lose it because we're going to be coming back to it a little bit later. But first of all let's look at
verse 16 of Isaiah 28. Isaiah chapter 28 and verse 16. I'll give you a moment to find it.
Isaiah 28 and verse 16, where the prophet writes this,
Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, this is God speaking
by His prophet, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation stone,
a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth
shall not make haste, or shall not be moved from it, shall not
move off it. I lay in Zion a foundation stone,
a foundation stone, a rock of foundation stone, a precious
cornerstone, a cornerstone on which the whole building is built.
Do you know 1 Corinthians, the same epistle that we're in, and
as I say, keep your finger in that place, but back in 1 Corinthians
in chapter 10 and verse four, that rock was Christ. were told again and again. It
was a rock that was in the wilderness with the children of Israel when
they came out of Egypt and we're told that rock was Christ. That rock. The rock that Moses
struck the rock and water came out to give water to the people.
Such a picture of Christ and spiritual water and the benefits
that flow from Him. That rock was Christ. He is the
solid foundation. He is a foundation that is fit
for an impressive structure. You know, you have to build,
whatever the building is like, the foundation has to be such
that it will support the structure. And a good foundation needs an
impressive building on it. If you go to London, the tallest
building in London at the moment is the Shard, that thing that
looks like a big pinnacle of broken glass pointing up over
a thousand feet into the sky. I wonder what the foundation
is like, it must be enormous it must be an enormous foundation
because London isn't like New York built on granite, London
is built on clay so it must have an enormous foundation but you
see the building that's on top of it is impressive because it's
fitting to the foundation that's underneath it We need a building
to go on the foundation of the gospel that is fit for that foundation. We need an impressive structure
to be built on top of it. How does it happen? How is it
that it's like this? That basic foundation is a foundation
of sinners reconciled to God. This is what we need to build
on. This is what preachers need to build on. The foundation is
sinners reconciled to a holy God. It's a foundation of Christ
who has satisfied divine justice as the substitute for his people,
his particular people, his people whom the Father gave him before
the foundation of the world. It's a foundation where he has
established righteousness. He, the substitute of his people,
coming and living under the law, made of a woman, made under the
law to redeem those who are under the law, when the fullness of
the time was come, He came and established righteousness. He
honours the law. He has honoured the law. He has
made it honourable. He has paid sin's penalty. How has he paid sin's penalty? In his own body, on the tree,
bearing the sin of his people, making it his own sin. He never
sinned, but he made that sin his own sin, and he was held
accountable for it, and he was held guilty of it, and he was
punished accordingly for it, and he paid the penalty for it,
to the uttermost. He paid that penalty. In the
price, the currency that he used to pay it, was his own precious
blood. His own precious blood. The life
is in the blood. price of the sins of his people
was the life of the Son of God, of the very Godhead, God and
man. The fullness of the Godhead dwelt
in him bodily and he went to the cross as a man in flesh and
bones and died and shed his blood and paid sins penalty. This is
the foundation. What an impressive, impressive
foundation. What a magnificent foundation.
Have you heard a solitary thing in what I've said about anything
that man does contributing to that and defiling it in the process? Not one whit, not one little
bit. And so we read that he is able
to save to the uttermost, uttermost, those who come to God by him.
God saves to the uttermost those who come to him by the Lord Jesus
Christ without assistance of any sort. And the apostle Peter
had seen this. Turn to Matthew chapter 16. Matthew chapter 16 and verse
13. Matthew 16 and verse 13. You're probably very familiar
with this passage. When Jesus came into the coasts
of Caesarea Philippi, he's with his disciples, and he asked his
disciples, saying, whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, some say that
thou art John the Baptist, some, Elias, Elijah, and others, Jeremiah,
or one of the prophets. And he saith unto them, but whom
do ye say that I am? Who do you twelve say that I
am?" And Peter, always the spokesman. Simon Peter answered and said, the Son of the Living God. You
are the promised Messiah. You are God in human flesh. These two things, you are the
Son of the Living God. You, a man who I am speaking
to now, we disciples are speaking with now, we believe that you
are God. You are God come in the flesh. You are the Word in effect, is
what he's saying. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And we beheld
his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth. You are that Son of the living
God. And secondly, you are the Christ. You are the Christ, the
promised Messiah. You are Immanuel. Immanuel means
God with us. You're Immanuel. You're the Christ. You're the one who comes as the
substitute of his people. The promised seed, when Adam
and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, and God clothed them
with the skins of an animal, and he said to them in verse
15 of chapter 3 of Genesis about how Satan would bruise the heel
of the seed of the woman, but the seed of the woman would crush
his head, Satan's head. This was the promise that sin
would be dealt with in the one that God would send, this promised
Messiah. And Peter says, you are that one that God promised
in the Garden of Eden. We believe that you are that
one. You are the rock, you are the cornerstone, because look,
Simon Peter answered that, and Jesus answered, verse 17, and
said to him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and
blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is
in heaven. You see, you weren't taught it by another man. Oh,
it's God's way, He's preaching, but you weren't taught it by
another man. When Even now, if by what I'm
saying you hear and believe something, it's God using the words by His
Spirit to teach you. My Father has revealed it to
you. And I say unto you, verse 18, that thou art Peter. Do you
know what Peter means? Peter, petrified? Stone, stone. But it's, the word there is the
word for a little stone. You are a little stone, Peter,
but upon this rock, this rock, which rock? Christ himself! Upon
this rock, upon this rock of Christ, I will build my church,
and the gates of hell shall not fail against it. The church isn't
built upon Peter as the first pope, that's complete nonsense! It's built upon Christ. The church's
one foundation is Jesus Christ, her Lord. she is his new creation
by water and the word from heaven he came and sought her to be
his holy bride etc. That's what it is. I will give
unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatsoever thou
shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. It's talking
about preaching the gospel that Christ came to deliver to his
church. He, the rock, who is that foundation. He is the rock. He is the cornerstone. He is the one that God promised
in Isaiah 28, 16 that he would give. a cornerstone, a foundation. It is Christ, all that he is
and all that he has done. On this rock of what Christ is
and what he has done in saving his people from their sins, Christ
builds his church. You see, in our lives, we build
our lives on different things. In our fleshly nature, We stand
on what we are in ourselves. We build on ourselves, what we
are ourselves. And Jesus taught in the Sermon
on the Mount, Matthew chapter 7, that to build on self and
to build on your own thoughts and to do that which, you know,
like it says in Judges, everyone did that which was right in his
own mind. When people who live exactly like that today, the
vast majority, they're building on sand. Because do you remember,
we used to sing a chorus about it, didn't we? The wise man built
his house upon a rock. The foolish man built his house
upon the sand. And the storm came, the storm
of life, the storm of trials, the storm of death, the storm
of judgment, the storm of eternal reckoning came. And the house
that was on the rock stood firm, but the house that was on the
sand fell flat. The foolish man, the foolish
man, built his house on the sand of self. The foolish man, the
fool, hath said in his heart, says Psalm 14, the fool hath
said in his heart, there is no God, no God for me. That's being
a fool to say there is no God. Oh, there's no God. The Word
of God says, if you say that, the Word of God says you are
a fool, and you are a foolish man building your life on sand,
because everything that is your life is going to fall down flat
because a storm is coming. A storm is coming. It might not
be in this life, but it might be, some of it will be, but I
tell you, it's definitely coming when you must leave this life,
when God calls you from this life into eternity and you must
stand before the judgment seat of Christ and receive the things
done in the body and if your house is built upon sand as the
foolish man's house it will fall flat it will be destroyed you
will be condemned now back to Isaiah 28 15 in Isaiah 28 15
you see God says there what the fool
has done, what scornful people have done, people who scorn the
rule of the Lord. In verse 15 he says, you have
said, we have made a covenant with death, and with hell we're
at agreement. When the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, it shall not come unto us, for we have
made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves. You see, they've made a covenant
with death. Who is it talking about there? I was listening
to the service. I mean, don't worry, I don't
tune in to get any teaching from it. I just tune in out of curiosity
when I'm making breakfast between 8 and 8.50 on a Sunday morning
occasionally. And this morning it was a service
I think that was recorded and relayed from the Keswick Convention
up in the Lake District to which we used to go in the big tent
and everybody used to think it was so good and oh the singing
was so good. I tell you that That organization
and everybody associated with it has completely, completely
and utterly lost the truth of scripture and the gospel of grace. They don't even know the foundation. There is no hint of the foundation
there. Because what they've done is
they've said, we've got a religion that will save us when the judgment
comes, we've made a covenant with death, we're in agreement
with hell, it'll be alright with us. We're fine. We've got our
religion and it keeps us. The overflowing scourge, it shall
pass through and it won't come to us. We've made lies our refuge,
you see. Whether you know it or not, they've
made lies. The falsehood of a false gospel. They're hiding. in a system,
in a gospel, in a doctrine, which will not protect them. Because
in verse 17 God says this, he says there's a true foundation,
verse 16, but then verse 17, judgment also will I lay to the
line, and righteousness to the plummet. You know what you do
when you're building a house or a wall? You have a plumb line,
and you check whether your wall is as vertical as that, because
you know that plumb line is absolutely, as they say, plumb vertical.
You know it is, and you check, is that corner, you know, having
built one or two walls in my time, I often like to look to
see, Does that one line up with that one? Oh yeah, that's a vertical
wall. They're in agreement. Judgment
will I lay to the line. This refuge of lies God will
judge. The righteousness to the plummet.
Righteousness? We'll see whether it's really
righteousness. We'll see whether it's really true. When that day
comes, this refuge of lies will be tested against the truth of
God, and a storm's coming. The hail shall sweep away the
refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place,
and it will be a place of drowning, not of hiding and of safety.
And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your
agreement with hell shall not stand when the overflowing scourge
shall pass through. Then shall ye be trodden down
by it, to see how serious this is, how serious it is. Well, that's how Paul found the
Corinthians when he first came to preach there, and everybody
else to whom he went to preach, because that's man in his natural
state, hiding under a refuge of lies, thinking that everything
will be alright with him and his family for all eternity,
thinking that when they die they're going to go and all join hands
together and all have a party, in their supposed heaven. But
it's not true. It's a refuge of lies. It's a
false hiding place. That's how Paul found everybody
he went to preach to. But God assured him, God assured
him, not on the basis of what you say, Paul, not because your
words are powerful, Paul, But as he said to him in Acts 18,
when he came to Corinth, he said to Paul, there's Paul in fear
and trepidation. Can you imagine this heathen
Greek city, full of its philosophy, its worldly philosophy, full
of its evil practices. And people there, if they were
religious, all they had was this refuge of lies and this covenant
with death. And he says, don't be afraid,
but speak and hold not your peace. preach to them for I am with
you and no man shall set on you to hurt you for look what God
says in that city of Corinth he says I have much people in
this city God had his people there how did he know he'd chosen
them from before the beginning of time oh I don't like that
doctrine that's the doctrine of the Bible my friend He had
much people in that city. What does it say when the apostles,
Acts 13.48, when they preached the gospel, those that were ordained
to eternal life believed it. So he preached the foundation,
which is Christ. And no doubt, he preached sin
as transgression of the law, and repentance. And in the process,
as Isaiah 28, 17 said, swept away the refuge of lies, and
some of those that heard him, God's much people in Corinth,
they cried out, what must I do to be saved? As the Philippian
jailer did, what must I do to be saved? And the answer? In
a breath, believe on the rock. Believe on the foundation. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. Look to the
faithfulness of Christ in atoning his people's sins. And they trusted
Christ. they believed him, because God
opened their hearts. As Paul wrote to the Thessalonians,
he said, when we came to you, he talks about knowing your election
of God, because when we came to you, what manner of entering
in we had unto you. Here are people who are heathen
by nature and by culture and by practice, and Paul came and
preached the gospel to them, and he said what manner of entering
we had. Why? What did it say about Lydia
at Philippi? on the banks of that river, as
Paul preached there, there's Lydia and the other women with
her, and it says, and God opened her heart. Why was there a manner
of entering? God opened her heart. He says
to his church in Revelation 3, he talks about doors, he said
there's a door, if I close it, no man can open it, but if I
open it, no man can close it. He opened Lydia's heart, and
she believed the gospel of God's grace. a trusted Christ. In 1 Peter, Peter remember, who
said you are the Christ, the son of the living God, 1 Peter
chapter 2 verses 4 and 5 he writes about Christ, to whom coming,
coming to Christ, as unto a living stone Cornerstone, chief cornerstone,
disallowed indeed of men, the men, the builders of the religious
system that was Judaism, they looked at Christ and they said,
oh, we're not adding that as a cornerstone, oh, chuck that
one away, that can go on the rubbish heap, that's no good,
but chosen of God and precious. Ye also, as lively stones, are
built up a spiritual house. And you, all of you, have built
up a spiritual house. All of you who believe the gospel
are an holy priesthood. Oh, I can't come to God unless
I have a priest. I tell you, believer, you have
one priest, one high priest, who is our Lord Jesus Christ,
but each believer, each believer is a holy priesthood unto God,
to offer up spiritual sacrifices. What are those spiritual sacrifices?
They're the spiritual sacrifices that are offered up as we look
to Christ by faith, and what he has accomplished. And that's
acceptable to God, by Jesus Christ. That is the biblical foundation,
the rock. That is Christ. Him we preach,
Him we lift up, and so saints are saved. But how should preachers
preach to build upon the foundation of Christ-centered salvation?
Having preached the foundation, how do we teach souls to rest
on Christ? To rest on Christ. Is your soul
resting on him? You believed him, but is your
soul resting on him? You know when you sink into that
comfortable chair, you're letting it take your weight, it's a comfortable
place. Are you, spiritually, are you
resting on Christ? Are you resting on him? Just
like a building settles on its foundations. Remember the warning
to preachers, take heed how we build. We must take heed how
we build. That's the warning. There might
be some who are solid when it comes to the foundation In other
words, they're saved on the basis of what they believe, but as
preachers, they build unworthily on it. I've used nearly all the
time, but let's just go on and finish this. Verse 12, what are
the ways in which we can build upon the foundation, the true
foundation? Now, if any man build upon this
solid foundation, what? Gold, silver, precious stones,
wood, hay, stubble every man's work shall be made manifest shall
be tested shall be shown for what it is 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 is your preaching on
the foundation your Attempts to build up the people of God
by what you preach are going to be tested by fire. It's going
to be tested to show what it is like. Gold, silver, precious
stones, wood, hay, stubble. These must all have spiritual
applications. What are the spiritual applications
that there must be? Well, there are three characteristics
that I think are related to all six of these things. They're
characteristics of value. Value. Value. Some of gold is
the most valuable. Well, precious stones, some might
argue. Silver is valuable. Precious stones, certainly. And
other stuff is not so valuable. Wood, well, there's some value
in it. Hay, hardly. Stubble, Stubble? Virtually nothing. Fit only for burning. They don't
let them burn it these days, but a few years ago, you could
always see at the end of August the fields of stubble burning
for miles around. They don't do that now because
they regard it as being rather dangerous. I don't know whether
it is, but anyway, value. Secondly, weight. Have you ever
picked up a lump? I know you might have gold rings
on, but I'm talking about a big bar of gold that's about the
size of a house brick. Have you ever picked one up?
It's incredible. A block of gold about the size
of a house brick weighs, what would I say, it must weigh the
same as about five house bricks or thereabouts. Yeah, approximately,
I guess, something like that. It's heavy, isn't it? Weight.
And here's another thing. Combustibility. Flammability. You know, gold, silver, precious
stones, you put them through the fire, and they might get
hidden by the ashes, but at the end of it, you root around, you'll
find the gold is still there. However hot it's been, the gold
will still be there, and the silver and the precious stones,
but the wood, the hay, the stubble, flammable, flammable. Gold. What is it then? What's the spiritual
significance? Gold. Must be. Gospel doctrine. Build on that foundation, gospel
doctrine. Build on that foundation, solid
meat. Look at the start of chapter three. I, brethren, couldn't
speak to you, as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto
babes. I fed you with milk. and not with meat. Meaty doctrine. Meaty doctrine that builds on
the basic foundation of Christ. You weren't able to bear it.
I couldn't talk to you about it, because you were like babes,
you could only tolerate milk. You don't give a newborn baby
an eight ounce rare steak to eat, do you? Not at all. Couldn't
possibly digest it. And he's saying that about them.
No. The thing to build with is gospel doctrine. Solid meat.
The solid meat of sovereign grace. The solid meat of particular
redemption accomplished. The solid meat of justification
for all eternity. The promises of God. The solid
meat of the promises of God. The way the scriptures from start
to finish constantly show the promises of God in respect of
salvation of his people, the precepts of the gospel, the ordinances
of the gospel, the things that God has said and shown, this
all is used to build up in the soul. On the foundation, it's
gold. It's gospel gold. Building that soul up. knowing
that in your body, in what you are, your body is the temple
of the Holy Ghost which is in you and it's being built up on
the foundation just like the churches as Ephesians 2.20 says
you're built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets,
Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom all
the building fitly framed together groweth into an holy temple unto
the Lord, in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation
of God through the Spirit. This is the work of God, to build
up on that foundation. This is what makes for good preaching,
good building upon the foundation which is Christ that Paul had
laid. This is what it is. Developing
the marks of true saints. What are the marks of true saints?
you read all the epistles and you see how often you find three
marks, three abiding marks of true saints. Oh that they don't
defile the Sabbath day, no sorry you won't find that anywhere.
Oh that they don't do this thing or that thing or they keep this
aspect, no you won't find any of that. There are three things
that are always written down as the marks of true saints.
They have faith, the faith of God's elect. Faith, they look
to the faith of Jesus Christ. They have hope, they have a good
hope of eternal glory. And they have love, one for another.
By this shall all men know that you are my disciples. Faith,
hope and love. Faith, hope and love, gold, silver
precious stones 1 Peter 1 verse 7 the trial of your faith being
much more precious than gold faith gold much more precious
than gold that perisheth though it be tried by fire your faith
will withstand the fire of judgment Faith, being much more precious
than gold. Isaiah 55 verse 1, come, ho everyone
that thirsts, come, buy without money and without price. Buy,
well, how are you going to buy without money? You buy with the
gold of faith, that's it. You buy with the gold of faith. Read about the Laodiceans. I
counsel you to come and buy with the gold of faith. Come and buy
with the gold of faith. Silver is hope, hope. My hope is built. We're talking
about building on a foundation. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. The foundation. My hope is built.
Silver. Precious stones. Precious stones. We could spend so long on this,
I've run out of time. Like Song of Solomon, the precious
experiences of the love of God. No, take heed not to preach wood,
hay, and stubble. You see, so many preach a structure
of wood on the foundation which is Christ. The wood of religious
rules, the wood of duties, of rights that religious folk find
nice to look at. Like looking at a nice wooden
spire. In the distance it might look
good. And it's got gaps in it, and so you take hay to stuff
the gaps in the wooden spire. the hay of resolutions and vows
and remorse and efforts at increasing personal sanctification. And
then, oh, maybe some rain's getting in, so you take some stubble
to thatch it. And what's the stubble with which
you thatch it? The stubble of human merit? Oh,
come on, come on, let's whip up this human merit and fleshly
holiness and piety and Let's try and make a show of these
things, like hypocrites, as Jesus said, making an appearance of
fasting, making it look like they're rich, to get them some
sort of blessing and benefit in the eyes of other men. The
sort of legalism and Phariseeism that ignorant builders, preachers,
have heaped upon Christ's foundation. I could have spent another hour
talking and filling those things out, but I won't. I think you
get the point. What are preachers to preach?
Faith, hope, and love. The gold, the silver, the precious
stones of the faith of God's elect on that foundation. Just
look at all the wood, hay and stubble that so much Christian
religion seeks to build upon the foundation. Oh, why do they
do it? Because they don't know any better.
Read that article in the bulletin. Unlike Paul, 1 Corinthians chapter
2, verse 2. I don't even need to turn a page.
I determine, says Paul, not to know anything among you save
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Oh, my friends, any who aspire
to be preachers are determined not to know anything among those
you preach to than Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And on that
foundation, build up faith, hope, and love. Because verse 13, every
man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it.
Show it for what it really is. It will be revealed by fire.
The wood hay, the stubble, they'll be gone. but the gold, silver,
and precious stones, they will endure. All the wood will burn. It's worthless. It's not enduring.
But the gold, the faith, the hope, the love will stand the
test of the day. And that's what we'll seek to
do. With God's help, because we can't do it of ourselves.
Without Him, we can do nothing. We'll seek to build only gold,
silver, and precious stones on that foundation.