Alright, turn with me to 1 Corinthians
3. Paul summed up the ministry in
1 Corinthians 3.9 saying we are laborers together with God. And I know often when you're
talking about the preaching of the gospel, men accuse you of
saying that you take to yourself more authority and more power
than you actually have. And that's true if we do that
of ourselves. But here Paul says we're not
by ourselves, but we're fellow laborers with God. We do what
we're able to do, and the rest of it God accomplishes. Ye are
God's husbandry, and ye are God's building. Now here the church
of the living God is likened to a building, God's building. And this building is sometimes
called in the Scriptures a temple. Now I want you to look at a few
passages of Scripture with me this morning. Turn first of all
to Ephesians chapter 2, where God's husbandry, that is His
garden, and where His wheat which He'll gather into His barn. He
planted the seeds. and where his husbandry and the
good seed of God planted into good ground and raised to the
time of harvest. And then he tells us we are God's
building. Now look here in Ephesians chapter
2 verse 19. Now therefore you are no more
strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints
and of the household of God and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets Jesus Christ Himself being the
chief cornerstone, in whom all the building..." What's he talking
about? What building? His church. That's his church. He said, "...upon
this rock will I build my church." The church is this building to
which he refers. "...in whom all the building
fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple." This building
is not just a building, but it is a holy temple in the Lord. Verse 22, "...in whom ye also
are built together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit." And
then again over in 1 Peter chapter 2, turn over there, the ministry is like unto a building,
a divine structure. A temple wherein God takes up
His abode and makes His presence known. Now look here in 1 Peter
2, verse 4. To whom coming, that is, coming
unto Christ, as a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but
chosen of God and precious, and ye also as living stones, are
built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. And then, if
you will, turn with me to one more scripture, Hebrews chapter
3. We're talking about the ministry
here. We're talking about the preaching of the gospel. We're
talking about the church of the living God. We're fellow laborers
with God. We are His husbandry and we are
His building. And it's building of a house.
And the building we do is as fellow laborers with God. It's
a divine structure. And as the tabernacle was given
exact instructions, it's not by accident here that the Holy
Spirit calls this into mind when he talks about the temple and
talks about the house of God and talks about, he's referring
back to the tabernacle. And all those things that applied
to the tabernacle were just pictures of this. And so, as the tabernacle was
given exact instructions on its building, so it applies to the
spiritual building. There's instructions. free to
go out and just preach whatever we want to preach. We're not
free, we're not at liberty to say whatever we want about God's
means or about this or about that. He told Moses, he said,
and he's just talking about the picture here. He said, when you
build that tabernacle, you see to it that you build it exactly,
isn't that the word he used, exactly according to the pattern
I showed you in the mountain. And it's the same with the Church
of the Living God, this spiritual building. He was faithful in all his house. Moses was as a servant for the
testimony of these things which were to be spoken. What things? What things? Well, the Lamb.
the blood sacrifice, the priesthood, the high priest, the offering
up of the atonement, the mercy seat, speaking of Christ our
propitiation. And then look here in verse 6.
But Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house are we
if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope
firm unto the end. Now this is the great house,
the great house of God, which he builds together with his people.
All right, now go back to 1 Corinthians 3. Look here at verse 10. According
to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master
builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon.
but let every man take heed how he buildeth their own." Now Paul
was an apostle. He held the highest office in
the church. He would be an instrument of
God in writing nearly half of the New Testament. He would be
used of God to set in place the foundation of this gospel age. And I appreciate all the confessions
of faith, all the great confessions of faith that the churches drew
up, the Philadelphia Confession and all these great confessions
of faith. But these confessions of faith are not the foundation
of faith. Rather, the gospel as it's set
forth in the Scriptures by these men chosen and called of God
to this task. This is the foundation. Paul
said, as a wise master builder. Who made him wise? God did. God did. And what did He call
him to do? To lay the foundation. And to
this special calling, He tells us over in Hebrews chapter 2
that these men, talking about Paul, and talking about Peter,
and talking about all these men, these men, as Christ was confirmed
by miracles, wonders, and signs, so these men were confirmed the
same way who laid this foundation. And so he tells them, I'm a wise
master builder, made wise by Christ Himself, who called him
up to the third heaven and showed him all things concerning Christ
and His church. And the same could be said of
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, of Peter and James. These men
were wise master builders. Men sent of God as witnesses
whose words were inspired by God Himself. God breathed. And he said, we lay the foundation.
And then others build on it. But take heed how you build.
Now, he's talking here to ministers. To ministers. That's who he's
talking to. Others are going to build. We're
fellow laborers with God. He's talking about ministers.
He's talking about the ministry. And he said, my part of this
ministry as a wise master builder is to lay the foundation. Your
job is to build on it as fellow laborers with God. For other
foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, Jesus Christ.
Anything contrary to Christ as he was set forth of God and manifested
in his life, death, and resurrection, and clearly applied by the apostles,
is of no value to a man's soul. None whatsoever. He said to the
church at Galatia, there be some that trouble you and would pervert
the gospel of Christ. But though we or an angel from
heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we preached
unto you, let him be accursed." Now, he says, I've laid the foundation,
and the foundation is Jesus Christ. Verse 12, if any man build upon
this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, hay, wood, or
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 whatsoever it is, what
sort it is." Now remember what Paul's talking about here. He
hasn't changed subjects. He's talking about preachers,
preachers, fellow laborers with God. He's talking about gospel
preaching and gospel preachers. And here he's talking about their
work and what sort of materials they use. They're preachers that
only build with the most precious of materials. When they build
from the pulpit, they build with the work of Christ, with the
sovereign lordship of Christ. They build with the deity of
Christ. They set before the people those
precious things of God in Him. Unto you therefore which believe
Christ is precious. When you preach Christ, you're
preaching pure gold. Pure gold. When you're building
this house, you're building this house like they built that temple.
They used gold. Overlaid those precious things
with gold. Everything inside that tabernacle
was gold. Pure gold. And silver. And precious gems on the breastplate
of the priest was all these precious gems. Everything inside that
building was precious. Precious. And that's what Paul's
talking about here. There's preachers that only build
with the most precious of materials, gold, silver, and precious stone. And then there's preachers who
will nail anything together just to show progress. They stand
up there, they're apt to say anything. That's hay, wood, and
stone. You see what Paul's saying there?
I've laid the foundation. You be careful how you build
on it. Be careful how you build. And I tell you this, hay, wood,
and stubble are not very glorifying to build on this glorious foundation
of Christ. I built my boss's house, and
if memory serves me correct, we put almost 40 yards of concrete
in the footings for his house. We put almost two tons of steel
in that foundation. Nearly two tons. foundation was
formed on top of solid bedrock with 50 tons of limestone overlaying
that thing. Now can you imagine, this is
just an earthly thing I'm talking about, but can you imagine the
look on his face, who hired me to build this house, if on that
great foundation, I took all them pains, laid that great foundation,
and then I showed up next day and built a thatched hood on
it. Would you say that would defeat
the purpose? And that's what Paul's talking about here. What
was going on in Corinth is they had laid aside the gold and silver
and precious stones. They laid aside the gospel and
they were building with nonsense. They were just in an uproar over
nothing and they were letting all these things slide that they
should have been preaching. The gospel had lost its preeminence
in the church. And Paul is going back now and
he is laying this foundation for the gospel. The gospel is
preeminent in the church. This is preeminent. If you are
going to be fellow laborers with God, you are going to build His
church with Him. You are going to use precious
materials. You are not just going to use
whatever comes into your head. I don't believe Paul is talking
here about false prophets. heresy or another gospel. Rather,
I believe he's talking about those who preach useless, empty,
trifling things. Now, that's what I believe. Not
that the man is a lost man who's preaching, but he's a man preaching
who wasn't called of God to preach. And he's got things that he wants
to say. An agenda of his own. He's got
certain pet peeves that he wants to get out and he gets on his
soapbox and he starts in on. That's what I believe he's talking
about. And through education, ambition, and ignorance, they
become philosophers and intellectuals and counselors. And there are
a lot of things men can preach which have no bad design. They
have a good design. And they like to argue that.
What's wrong with it? There's nothing wrong with that.
It's what you're not preaching. There's where the problem is.
A lot of things that men can preach
that have no bad design, but ultimately they produce a bad
result. That's what was going on in court. Reform, for instance. Isn't that
a good thing? Isn't that a good thing? Men tell their congregations
they need to live more godly than in this present world. Do we? Well, sure we do. Sure
we do. They tell them they need a closer
walk with the Lord. Do we? Sure we do. They tell
them they need to be more motivated, more inspired, more zealous.
Do we? Absolutely. They tell them they
need to love more, and be more merciful, and more kind, and
more generous, and more gracious. And all of those things are true.
All of that's good, but none of that is of any benefit to
a man's soul if you don't preach Christ to him. If you just tell
him to walk, you need to walk, you need to walk, you need to
walk, you're going to have to produce the walk. And the foundation
for the walk is Jesus Christ. It's just hay, wood, and stubble.
Christ is our motivation. The love of Christ constraineth
us, so preach Christ to me. Preach what Christ has done for
me. That's what sheds abroad in the heart, that love of God. Christ is our goal. We want to
be like Him. And as far as nearness to God,
the hymn writer said, near to God, nearer I cannot be. For
in the person of His Son, I'm as near as He. You cannot be a testimony to
God unless you receive the testimony of God. And here's another thing,
ceremonialism. We can fill in our services with
ceremonies, Sabbath keeping, and testimonials, and birthdays,
and anniversaries, and business meetings, and Mother's Day, and
Father's Day, and Easter, and Christmas, Valentine's Day, and
whatever else men can find to come up with to celebrate. And
none of these things are evil in themselves, but they're just
hay, wood, and stubble. We forget what we're here to
do. We're not building anything. We're just up here bang-jangling. Trials, Paul says. Fiery trials,
troubles, persecutions. These are the things that will
prove the work. of the true minister, and he'll
prove it in the hearts of those who gather to hear him. Verse
13, every man's work shall be 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. I'm so thankful for some
of you in here. I'm thankful for your attitude
in trials. I told somebody the other day,
I said, you're an inspiration to me. Me? Yeah. You. You. I'm thankful for you. because
of how you go through these trials. The true believer, the man who
hears, he goes through the trials and his attitude is good through
the trial. His mind is good in working through
the trial. You see what Paul is saying?
The day is going to declare it because it is going to be tried
with fire. Be careful what you tell your congregation because
they are going to go through trials and your work is going
to be proved. Verse 14, if any man's work abide which
he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If I preach
Christ to you, and you're given a mind and heart to rest in Him,
and to walk in Him, and to trust in Him, and grow in Him, and
know Him, and patiently wait on Him, And that faith is tried,
and it remains victorious. I'm rewarded. I'm rewarded. I'm rewarded to see it. Somebody said, what do I get?
What kind of reward? What do you get out of it? I
get the satisfaction of knowing that I preached to them the message
of God. I get the assurance that God
is using me in His ministry to His saints. I get the gratitude
of those who listen to me and found what I said to be real
and genuine when the trial comes. When the trial comes. And each
time it comes, they are a little bit more assured that that man
who has been teaching them is the Son of God. Each time. Each
time. 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. Let me see if I can simplify
this a little bit and make this as clear as possible. If any
man's labor and work crumble around him, and his converts
prove to be false professors, he'll suffer the loss of all
his work. Everything that he's done, he'll
suffer the loss. He'll suffer the loss of his
labor, his effort, and the praise given to him by those he spoke
to. And he'll see the folly of his
ways. God will reveal to him the folly
of his ways and the folly of whatever drew him into the ministry.
Yet he himself shall be saved by whatever fiery trial exposes
it to him. And he'll be like a man, Brother
Mahan said this, he'll be like a man burned out of house and
home who escaped only with his life. All that he spent his life
doing will crumble. The storm's coming, Christ said.
What's your house built on? Built on the sand or built on
the rock? If it's built on sand, well,
why would it be built on sand? Because that man who was preaching
to you was never called to preach to you. You can be a believer and build
with hay, wood, and stubble, but your shack ain't going to
pass through the fire. It just ain't going to happen.
And in the end, what God will bless is what God has designed,
ordained, and made known. And the rest is hay, wood, and
stubble. All that it is. And while our
intention may be good and the things which we preach not false
doctrine, yet the preeminence of the gospel is not preached.
We're not building with gold, silver, and precious stones,
but with hay, wood, and stubble. Pastors earnestly contend for
the faith. They preach Christ and Him crucified. They preach justification by
the free grace of God through the substitutionary work of Christ.
And they preach about the fruits of that justification. And we
cannot be fellow laborers with God and build with materials
that mock the very glory of God that was accomplished and manifest
in Christ. May the Lord help us and guide
us and direct us in what we preach and remind us often of what we're
doing and for whom we're doing it. That's what this was all
about. You see how Paul's building this
thing? He's telling us the means of
God. He's referring us back to our
own experience of grace. And he's going on and he's showing
you how the Holy Spirit incorporates himself and his work into this
thing. And then he finally comes down
and he begins to draw us a picture. Fellow laborers with God. We're
his husbandry. We're his building. And then
He begins to show us how important these things are that we preach.
And God bless these things. You bless these things.