Now we're going to look at 1
Corinthians chapter 3. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. And Paul said, And I, brethren,
could not speak unto you as unto spiritual or mature believers. but as unto carnal, even as unto
babes in Christ." Paul here is rebuking the people, the believers,
the believers, his brethren. He's rebuking his brethren, believers
in Christ at Corinth, accusing them of behaving like unconverted
people. That's what he's saying, you're
acting like carnal people. They're acting like carnal people,
natural men. They're acting like babies. That's what he's saying, acting
like a bunch of babies. And that's what he's saying in
verse 1. Now, these verses do not teach a carnal spiritual
theory of believers, not teaching that at all. Paul is talking
to this church, and he's starting off, he's saying, I ought to
be I ought to be speaking to mature people, especially mature
people in Christ, but that's not the case. In verse 2, he
said, I fed you with milk because of your immaturity, because you're
acting like carnal people, you're acting like natural men, you're
acting like babies. I fed you with milk and not with
meat, for up to this time you were not able to bear meat, neither
are you now able. because of this immaturity. You're
not mature enough to digest the meat of the Word, the strong
meat of the Word. For you're yet carnal. For whereas
there's among you envy and strife, their assembly, the assembly
of believers, ought to be characterized by love, not strife, by love,
not envy. by love, not divisions. And that's
what he's saying. There was strife among them and
words between people. They were forming little groups
and little cliques and little parties here in the church. And
he said, that's not spiritual, that's carnal. He said, that's
not acting like the people of God, that's acting like the world.
That's what the world does. The world's full of hate and
envy and strife and division. The church ought to be full of
love and mercy and forgiveness and grace. And he said, there's
among you envy and strife and division. Are you not carnal?
And do you not walk as men, as natural men? That's how you're
behaving, like a bunch of babies, like a bunch of natural men.
He's really rebuking this church. He's dealing with them strongly,
strongly. And he said, this is one of the
causes of the strife. And the discord, verse 4, one
of you or a group of you say, I am of Paul. Paul's my leader. Paul's my preacher. I believe
what Paul preaches. I believe the way Paul preaches.
I follow in Paul. And another said, well, we're
of the camp of Apollos. Another said, we are of Cephas.
Another said, we are this, that, or the other. He said, is that
not carnal? Is that not the way natural men
act? We're Republicans and we're Democrats. Or we're liberals
or we're conservatives. Or we're left-wing or we're right-wing. Or we're this or we're that.
That's the way natural people act. Christians ought not be
divided that way. They ought not to be divided
into camps, choosing one preacher over another or one person over
another. Even ourselves over another. We ought to consider
the things of others, not our own things. Look not on your
own welfare, but the welfare of others. So this is what he's
saying in these first four verses. He says, he's writing to this
church. He preached at this church almost
two years. Now he's away from it and he's
writing back and he said, I'd like to take you into the mysteries
of the Word of God, into the deep things of the Word of God.
I'd like to take you into the great revelations of God's truth. But he said, you're not able
to bear it. You've still got to be taught to love one another.
You've still got to be taught to dismiss this envy and strife
and divisions that are among you. You're acting like babies,
he said. You're acting like carnal men. One says, I'm of Paul, another
I'm of Apollos, or I'm of Cephas, or I'm of somebody else. And
then he asked in verse 5 through 7, he said, who is Paul? Now
who is Paul, really? And who is Apollos? They're only
ministers by whom you believe the gospel. They're men whom
God sent to you. And when God's through with them,
He'll send somebody else. And when God's through with them,
He'll send somebody else. That minister's not the end.
Christ is the end. That minister's just a vessel
to be used at that time, and then God will move them along
and bring in another. That's all He is. He's just a
voice, just a vessel, just a minister, even as the Lord gave to every
man who believes, He gives him a minister. How shall they call
on him in whom they've not believed? And how shall they believe in
him of whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall the preacher set
to be sent? You know, religious people are to be blamed for this
reason. God uses means. Now, the Lord
purposes from all eternity in his great wisdom and counsel
to accomplish his will and his purpose. But to accomplish that
purpose, the Lord uses means. But foolish men, instead of taking
the means and using it to bring our eyes to Christ and our hearts
to Christ and our feet to follow Christ and our arms to embrace
Christ and our hearts to love Christ and our lips to praise
Christ, we stop with the means and get to playing with them.
And give our attention to the means. I can give you several
illustrations. Just take Mary. Mary. And you folks from up north
will appreciate this. I got a letter from a dear lady.
And she rebuked me severely. She wrote a long letter. A long
letter rebuking me. For the way I pronounce our blessed
Lord's mother's name. She said it's not M-A-R-Y. Whatever
that sign is, long A-R-Y, it's Mary. Mary. You know, not Mary, it's Mary.
Well, I wrote her back and said, Mary's something two people do
in front of a preacher. That's what you do, you marry
somebody. But Mary is the name of a woman. That's right, it's
Mary. Like it's jelly. Well, anyway, Pete and Mary,
the Lord gave Christ through Mary. We're to worship Christ,
but they worship Mary. I know preachers and people who
worship this book. That's right, they worship the
book. They don't worship Him. The Jews of old, they stopped
with a feast. They stopped with a Sabbath day.
They stopped with Abraham. They said, we have Abraham. We
don't need you, Christ. We've got Moses. And like Charlie
brought a message one time or a devotion or something about
that brazen serpent that they lifted up. Well, they took that
thing down and made a god out of it. Till Hezekiah, when it
came along, burned it, ground it to powder, said it's a worthless
piece of brass. Well, you say, not us. We've
taken crosses and put them on our buildings. And put crosses
everywhere you look, there's a cross. And I'm not even sure
Christ died on a cross that looked like that. It might have been
like this. It might have been a single pole
for all I know. Just a single pole hanging on a tree. We don't
know this. Whoever said it was this way.
But we're that way. And we're no different than these
folks right here. They were worshiping the means.
And he says, who is Paul and who is Apollos? Just ministers
by whom you believe. Even as the Lord gave to every
man, he said, verse 6, I have planted Apollos' water, but God
gave the increase. It's God who saves men. So then,
verse 7, neither is he that planteth anything, he not anything, neither
is he that watereth anything, but God is everything, and God
gives the increase. Now then, now watch this, and
this is something we need to learn. In verse 8, now he that
planteth and he that watereth are one. What he's saying here
is God's ministers, whether it's a pastor, a missionary, any preacher,
teacher, God's ministers, God's ministers are one. They're one. Each one will be used as God
decrees. Each one will be used where God
is pleased to use it. But the Lord God uses every one
of them for one purpose, His glory. Whether it's Mike singing,
or the other group singing, or these instrumentalists playing,
or me preaching, or Cecil teaching, or whoever is teaching, or who's
occupying this pulpit, or any pulpit, or comes in, visits this
pulpit and preaches in conferences. God's ministers are just one,
that's all, just one voice. One voice declaring one gospel,
one message, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and all of them
ought to have one cause. his glory. And when we look upon
them and when we hear them and when we receive them, if it's
somebody reading the scripture in the study, whether he's a
pastor or an evangelist or a missionary or one of the men of the church,
whoever it is, at that time he's God's voice as far as I'm concerned.
Whoever's leading in prayer, he's God's voice as far as I'm
concerned. He's to be heard. And he's one with everybody else
in the ministry of the gospel. Just one, that's all. That's
what he's saying. He that planteth, he that watereth,
he that giveth, he that prayeth, he that lendeth, he that whatever.
And every man shall receive his own reward according to his own
labor. He'll be blessed of God and honored
of God and upheld by God, whatever the labor. Now let me tell you
something, I thought of something sitting right here. Whether it, in other words, whether
we have a small thing to do or some great monumental effort
to perform, let's do it as unto the Lord. You know, someone wrote
this one time, if God sent two angels down from heaven, one
of them he commissioned to rule a nation. The other he commissioned
to sweep the streets. When they appeared before the
Lord to receive their marching orders, and it's already been
said that one of you is going down to sweep the streets and
one of you is going down to rule the nation, they wouldn't care
which they did, because they'd seen the glory of God. They wouldn't
care, Cecil. They wouldn't care. Whether it
was for the glory of God, they wouldn't care, I promise you
that. For the glory of God, they wouldn't
care. It wouldn't matter one bit to
them, whether it was a small task, a medium task, or a large
task, because in God's kingdom, whatever is done for His glory
is great, because He's great. He's of infinite power and glory. And God may use a man for one
message. He may raise a man up for one
message. And in the kingdom of God, he
that's first shall be last, and last shall be first. He that's
greatest to be your servant, that's right, he's the servant
shall be greatest. So whatever that man's doing, or that woman,
if it's what God gave him to do, and God sent him to do, and
he's doing the will of God, he's great in the kingdom of God.
Now that's right. And we must stop looking on men
as being great, because there aren't any great men, our God
is great. We must stop looking upon special efforts as being
some great effort or some lesser effort or some minute effort.
Anything God lays on our hearts to do is great. Our Lord showed
that when he was standing with his disciples watching people
give. And folks came by giving large
gifts, I mean, scrumptious gifts, big bags of money and things
like that for the temple. And here came a widow. just came
by with her veil on, and she put down two pennies, two pennies,
less than pennies, and walked on. And our Lord pointed at it,
and he said, she's given more than they are. Now, the disciples
couldn't understand that, and the way we figure things, we
don't understand it either. But she gave from her heart,
she gave sacrificially, she gave all that she had. And though
you could buy very little with that, you couldn't feed one person,
and with that gift over there, you could feed a thousand. And
that's great, but this is greater in the eyes of God. And you know,
in our eyes, I tell you, I look sometimes at these sweepstakes
that people win. I see a million dollars or two
million dollars. That's astronomical to me. But
that's nothing to God. We read the other day in the
scripture, he calls the stars by name. How many stars are there? Billions and trillions out yonder,
light years away, and he calls each one of them by name. He
owns a cattle on a thousand hills. These things, if I gave the whole
U.S. Treasury, it wouldn't mean anything
to God. Not anything. So it's not what you give, it's
why. It's why. See what I'm talking
about? You can't impress God by the amount. It's not what
you do. It's not how many sermons you
preach. You may preach 15,000 sermons. And a fellow may come
along for the glory of Christ, preach one, and ring the bells
of heaven. That's right. A man may just
give one testimony. and bring the glory to Christ,
and it's worth more than 10 million messages in which he has no glory. Now, so what I'm saying, let's
don't start measuring things, because we're all labors together
with God. See that in the next verse, verse
9. For we are labors together with God. You are God's husbandry. You're God's building. What's
a husbandry? That's a vineyard. That's a farm. I go out here
and plow on the farm, and I go out here and plant on the farm,
I go out here and turn the sprinklers on, water the farm. It's not
my farm, it's God's farm. I hear preachers sometimes saying,
now my church does this. I don't have a church. Christ
has a church. I hear them also saying, my people
wouldn't hear that. I bet they wouldn't, but God's
people will. And we need to cease to call,
folks, our church and our people, your God's church, he said, your
God's vineyard, your God's building, your God's building, all belongs
to Him. We're just servants, that's all. Just servants. And some servants serve here,
and some servants serve there, some servants are back in the
kitchen, some are dressed up opening the front door. Some
are out sweeping the walk, some of them are cutting the grass,
some of them are raking the leaves, but the servants are all over
the place, and they're where the Master put them. And they're
doing what the Master told them to do. And I tell you what we
better do, do it with all our might, as unto the Lord. With
all our might. Now I'm telling you that, because
I'm going to show you why in a moment. With all our might,
as unto the Lord. Do it right. Do it for His glory. Do it because He assigned me
to do it. Now notice verse 10 and 11. According to the grace
of God which was given to me, now Paul's pointing to himself
now, but he gave this grace to me, this particular place, position,
and work, task. As a wise master builder, he
calls himself that compared to these foolish false teachers
he's been quarreling with, as a wise master builder, I have
laid the foundation. Now, my friends, that foundation
is Christ. And Paul faithfully laid the
foundation, Christ Jesus. You have to say that. Paul laid
for us in his preaching, in his epistles, he laid for us the
foundation, Christ Jesus. I've laid that foundation. Turn
to Isaiah 28. Isaiah chapter 28. Listen to this. It's just one
foundation. Paul is the master builder. Paul
is the preacher. Paul is God's servant, laid that
foundation, but it's God's foundation. In Isaiah 28, verse 16, thus
saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation. You
say, what's Paul saying he laid? He was God's humanist. He was
God's humanist. He laid the foundation in his
preaching. That's what I've tried to do
here. these years is lay a foundation, and that foundation is a stone,
a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation, and he that
believe it on him, that's Christ, shall not make haste. So let's
read on verse 10. Now, Paul said, he tried to show
the people, don't be a preacher follower. Don't be divided into
camps. Don't say, I like this preacher
more than that preacher. The different folks are likeable
and some not so likeable. Apostle Paul wasn't a likeable
man according to his own word. According to his own word. But
he preached the truth. And we don't come to be likeable
or lovable or all this sort of thing. We're just serving God
where He wants us. Doing His will. And he said,
as far as me, verse 10, according to the grace of God given to
me as a wise master builder, I've laid the foundation. And
another buildeth their own. I'm going to leave, and there's
another preacher, another teacher, another witness, another person
is going to build on that foundation. He's going to build on that foundation.
I've laid that foundation. Now, what I'm saying to you is
this. This whole Scripture is written to believers, to people
to whom Paul preached Christ. The right foundation was laid
The right foundation was set forth and other preachers and
teachers and witnesses and so forth built, even you're building
on that foundation. Every one of us are. Then he
gives us a warning, but let every man take heed how he builds their
own. Take heed how he builds their
own. Everyone that follows me, Christ said, is going to build
on that foundation I've laid. Turn to Ephesians 2. Let me show
you this same scripture again, talking about the foundation
that has been laid. Ephesians 2, verse 19. Now watch
this. Now therefore, you are no more
strangers and foreigners, but your fellow citizens with the
saints and of the household of God, and you are built upon the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself. being the chief cornerstone.
See that now? That's the foundation. And we're building on it. Now,
this is written, 1 Corinthians 3, this scripture is directed
primarily, I say primarily, and the scripture is bifocal, but
it's directed primarily to preachers and teachers. But it includes
every believer. Because every one of us, and
one of the men prayed this in the study tonight, every one
of us have a part in God's ministry. I tried to show that this morning.
We have a part in God's ministry by our presence, by our participation,
by our prayers, by our support, by our gifts, by our encouragement. And it's as much your responsibility
as mine to examine this ministry and be sure that it is the ministry
of Christ. It's as much your affair as it
is mine. All right, now here Paul says, as a wise master builder,
according to the grace of God given to me, I've come in and
preached and I've laid the foundation. You take heed how you build on
it. How you build. All right, our first concern
is the foundation. I believe I can say, can you?
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and his righteousness. I trust in Christ. I believe
the gospel. I believe I can say that. I believe
I can say with Paul, there's none other name under heaven
given among men whereby we must beseech. That's the name of Christ. I believe I know what Christ
said when he said in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. I know this, there's no gospel except that concerning
his son. I know this, there's no salvation
except in Christ. I know this, there's no church
except that of which he's the head. I know this, there's no
Christian, no man's a Christian, no man can call himself a Christian
unless he loves, believes, and receives the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that what this book says? You say that's narrower. Well,
yes it is, and it's called the narrow way. It's called the straight
gate. It says without the shedding
of blood, there's no remission. It says there's one God, one
Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and one mediator between
God and men, and that's the man Christ Jesus. There's one source
of information, and that's his word. There's one gospel taught
in this word, and that's the gospel of Christ. and is one
mediator and one intercessor and one redeemer, and that's
the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that correct? I believe that. I firmly and strongly and completely
believe that Christ is that foundation, that I'm complete in Him, that
in Him, in Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,
and I'm complete in Christ through faith, in the Lord Jesus Christ. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath life. He that believeth on the Son
of God shall never die. He that believeth on the Son
of God is passed from death unto life. Is that correct? That's
our foundation. That's the one foundation. That's
the one foundation. Other foundation can no man lay
than that which is laid. That's been laid. That's what
Paul said to that church. That's what's been laid here.
That's what all of you with me are saying. That's our hope.
All right? Verse 11, Other foundation can
no man lay than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus.
Now, if any man build on this foundation... Now, you've got
to say these people are saved, because that's the foundation.
And he says you're building on that foundation. Let me show
you a scripture on the book of Philippians, chapter 1. This
is a scripture a lot of people have had trouble with, in Philippians,
chapter 1. about some preachers Paul's praying
for and loving and encouraging. Philippians chapter 1. Now watch
this. Philippians 1 verse 14. Are you with me? Philippians 1, 14. And many of
the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much
more bold to speak the word without fear. In other words, he was
in jail when he was writing this. And he said to some preachers
out there, Some preachers who know Christ, they're my brethren.
And here I am in jail, and they're waxing confident. My being in
jail has encouraged them some way to be more bold in preaching
the Word. That's what he said. My bonds,
that's his chains. He had fetters and chains. And
he said this has made them more bold to speak the Word of God,
to speak the Word of God without fear. Verse 15. Some, indeed,
preach Christ. Now, what are they preaching,
Tom? They are preaching Christ. Isn't that what he said? They
are preaching Christ. They are not preaching Erah. They are
not preaching Moses. They are not preaching the law.
They are preaching Christ. These are saved men, brethren
of Paul, who are preaching Christ. But some of them are doing it
out of envy. You say, envy ought not be in a preacher. You are
right about that. But that doesn't keep them from
being there. See what he said? They are envious. Who are they
envious of? Envy of Paul. They envied his gifts, they envied
his talents, they envied his success, they envied the glory
God gave him. But they were still preaching
Christ. He said some of them were doing it out of strife. Strife, preaching Christ out
of strife. Some also of goodwill. The one group I talked about
he said preached Christ of contention, always contentious about something,
always arguing about something. Always arguing, always trying
to set people straight, but they're preaching Christ out of contention,
not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds. They
say, well, if he'd preached like us, he wouldn't wind up in jail.
If he'd do it our way, say, if he'd just do it our way, he'd
be more successful and he wouldn't be in prison half the time. And,
of course, that made Paul feel bad. They weren't sincere in
that. They didn't know what they were
talking about. But the other group, out of goodwill, verse
17, the other out of love, they know that I'm set for the defense
of the gospel. What then? What's your attitude
about this, Paul? Notwithstanding, either way,
every way, whether they're preaching out of envy or strife or pretense
or truth, Christ is preaching, and I rejoice. So everything
wasn't always hucky-dory and everything wasn't always like
it ought to be, but this, he preaches Christ. And what I'm
saying here is that these people know Christ. I'm not, you know,
we're so quick to say, well, he's not saved. A person does
this, that, well, he's not saved. How do you know? If he's on Christ,
he's saved. If he's built on the foundation
of Christ Jesus, he's saved. Yes, sir, and I'm sure in Philippians
1, those people were preaching Christ, or Paul wouldn't have
said so. And I know they were preaching the Christ of the Bible,
or Paul wouldn't have rejoiced. And I know they were preaching
sovereign grace, or Paul wouldn't have rejoiced. But there was
envy. You know, people talk about,
in what we call the sovereign grace movement, there are different
places here and there where they don't understand each other and
they fall out over something. That's all right. It shouldn't
be, but if it's preaching Christ, I rejoice, don't you? As long
as the man preaches the gospel. It doesn't matter whether he's
here or yonder, as long as he's preaching the gospel of Christ.
That's the main issue. Whether he's jealous or envious
or contentious or divided or whatever, he's preaching Christ. And Paul said, I pray for it.
And here, this foundation is Christ. Now, that's our first
concern, is Christ. The sovereign Christ, the creating
Christ, the incarnate Christ. The obedient Christ, the suffering
Christ, the buried risen Christ, the ascended Christ, the interceding
Christ, the reigning Christ, that's our Christ, the sovereign
Redeemer. That's our foundation. But he
says, now, if any man build on this foundation, we're all building. And I'm going to be real careful
here, I want you to listen to me. And I want you to understand,
this is not written on saved people. These are believers.
This foundation is Christ. But every one of us, me and you,
everybody here, we're making some sort of contribution to
the kingdom of God. Yes, you are. Because I'm just
a nobody. Even nobodies are making contributions
to the kingdom of God. I'm a nobody too. I'm nothing.
Every one of us, some sort of contribution to others, to our
families, to all people in general, the person I am, the life I live,
the gospel I support, my attitude, my conversation, my conduct,
all of my witness, everything I'm doing has some relationship
to Jesus Christ and his glory. Everything I'm doing, because
I am a son of God, I'm a child of God. I'm built on the rock,
on the foundation of Christ Jesus. And every waking moment, every
letter I write, every phone call I make, every contact with individuals,
every dime I give, every effort I put forth, has some bearing
on the Kingdom of God, because I'm a part of the Kingdom of
God. That's true. I'm built on the foundation of
Christ. Now, our building on this foundation is divided into
two classes. He says here, everybody's building
gold, silver, or precious stone, wood, hay, or stubble. That's
two extremes, isn't it? Gold, silver, and precious stone
is valuable. Wood, hay, and stubble is no
value at all. Just rotten wood, hay, and stubble.
One is lasting. Gold, silver, and precious stone
will last on and on and on, indestructible. Wood, hay, and stubble won't
last any time. It's worthless, only fit to be
burned. Gold, silver, and precious stone
is of the Lord. Glorifying to God, wood, hay,
and stubble is the flesh. And we're building. We're building
on that foundation of Christ. Christ is my foundation. And
I'm building on that foundation every waking moment. in ministry,
in my contact with others, in my life, in my giving, in my
work, wherever I am, I'm making some kind of contribution to
that foundation. I'm erecting some kind of building
right now. I'm not talking about a building
over yonder somewhere. I'm talking about a building right now, my
building, me. Let me see if I can illustrate.
Here are two old men at the end of life. two old men, two old
believers, two old saved men, two old men who knew God, know
God, they know God, they know God. They're weary, they're old,
they're alone, life is about over. And they're sitting on
the porch of some sort of old soldier's home, a rest home or
something, sitting out there on the porch, rocking. And they
start talking, and they both say they're believers, resting
in Christ, they talk about the Bible, the Word of God. One of
them says, well, he said, I made a lot of money in my lifetime,
made a good bit. Of course, I don't have any use
for it now. I don't have no place to spend
it, nothing to do with it. And he says, I had a beautiful
wife. I had the prettiest wife in town. Everybody thought my
wife was the prettiest wife in town. And he said, I raised a large
family. I couldn't tell you where they
are now, but we just had a lot of folks at our house all the
time, children, grandchildren. And he said, I was a popular
man. I was a man of power and influence, and everybody knew
my name. Everybody knew me. Now I'm forgotten. And he said,
I owned some land. I owned a lot of acreage. I owned
some houses and land, but I sit now in someone else's chair.
And he said, I was highly educated. He said, I had several degrees,
but I can't remember a thing anymore. Can't even remember
yesterday. And he said, I always drove the
latest car, but I can't even walk now. And I always held a
top job with my company, but of course several other fellas
have held it since I left. I invented some things which
are all outdated now. And I was always a strong man,
healthy and handsome, but now I'm old and broken just like
everybody else, my age. What is all that? Wood, hay,
and stubble. That's wood, hay, and that's...
He's a believer. He's been a believer. But these
things that he's talking about sitting here and talking about
with regret, I'm sure, and remorse, These things he's talking about
are all gone. They're all burnt up. They're
all what they are, flesh, wood, hay, and stubble, crumbly. You
pick them up and they crumble in your hand. They're gone now.
And here he sits on the porch at the end of life. And he's
going back over his life. And though he believes Christ
and loves Christ and loves the doctrine of sovereign grace,
it's just been a self-centered life. Now, you think he's not
going to suffer loss? Yeah, he's going to suffer loss.
He's been suffering loss a long time. And I'm not talking about
suffering loss over yonder. We're going to be like Christ.
But I'm talking about right now. Now, here's the other man. So
he turns to him and said, you're a believer, you're a Christian,
what have you got to say about your life? Well, the man says,
I was faithful to the gospel of Christ. I had a part in a
church where the gospel was preached. I took part, I participated,
I prayed, I gave, and several people came to know Christ. And
then I helped and encouraged some young preachers to go out
and preach the gospel in established churches. And I prayed for them,
and I helped them, and I encouraged them, and they're out there preaching
Christ now. I don't even know where they
are now, but I do know they're out there, and I kind of gave
them a push. And I helped some missionaries all over the world.
who or how many people came to Christ as a result of their efforts,
but unsatisfied, got on the Word. And I prayed for and supported
a preacher school in Mexico. We had a fellow in Mexico that
had a bunch of young men going to school, and they were preaching
the gospel, and I helped them out. And some of them are still
out there telling the story. And during my lifetime, I witnessed
and I gave away some books. I gave away some tapes of the
gospel wherever I could. People knew what I believed.
I witnessed, imperfect as it was, but I still witnessed. And
God will bring fruit out of that. And I tried through my means
that God gave me to help others. And I put forth an effort by
my attitude and my spirit to encourage other people. to love
one another, and to love Christ, and to forgive one another, and
to adorn the doctrine of Christ. I tried to adorn the doctrine
of Christ, what I tried to do. And I preached the gospel, and
I sang the gospel, and I taught the gospel. And I participated
in the work of God. I rested in Christ, and I rest
in Him today. And I'm not sad. I'm not sad
at all. My heart is full of joy. I have
nothing fleshly or material like you, but I have a crown of joy
and rejoicing." That's gold, silver, and precious stone. Gold,
silver, and precious stone. And that's exactly what he's
talking about here. I believe that. Let's look at
it again, verse 10 and 11, 12. Now, according to the grace of
God which is given to me as a wise master builder, I've laid the
foundation, that's Christ. and another built it their own.
Now this can't be just the preachers, because without people there's
no preachers. It's the ministry as a whole,
it's all, it's those who participate, those who make it possible through
their prayers and their gifts and their efforts and their encouragement
and their presence and all these things. I tell you this, If folks had
quit supporting those false preachers, they'd quit preaching. Now, if
they just quit supporting them, but they're not going to do it.
And I tell you, true preachers of the gospel can't preach without
somebody supporting them. And he said, now, let every man,
verse 10, the last line, take heed how he builds on that foundation. For other foundations can no
man lay than that which is laid, which is Christ. Now if any man
build on this foundation, gold, silver, and precious stone, what
could that be, if it's not what I've been talking about? What
can it be? Gold, silver, and precious stone
will stand the trial of fire, the trial of time, the trial
of affliction, the trial of anything. Gold, silver, and precious stone.
So let's every one of us gauge our lives right now. as we clamor
and do things and give our energy and all these things, support
and all, just what's it amount to? What's it going to amount
to when this life is over? When I come to the end of this
life and look back over, what is all this amount to? Wood,
hay, and stubble, most of it. We're going to have to get interested
in this gold, silver, and precious stone. Now watch verse 13. shall be tried, shall be made
manifest. Now the Amplified Bible, and
this is difficult to handle, but I'm going to try to handle
it comparing spiritual with spiritual, the Word of God with the Word
of God. Here's the way the Amplified reads. The work of each one of
us becomes openly, plainly known for what it really is. For what
it really is. And what we do and give as unto
the Lord for his glory, how we serve on the foundation of Christ
by the grace of God that's given to us, by whatever God puts in
our hands, by the right attitude and spirit and sincerity and
simplicity as unto the Lord, the way we deal with others,
the way we deal with his word, the way we deal with his kingdom,
the way we deal with our friends, family, and so forth. That's
all going to be made manifest. It's all going to be revealed. going to be revealed. And watch
this. Now I'm not talking about quantity, I'm talking about quality.
His work is going to be revealed for what it is. Read verse 13. Every man's work shall be made
manifest. Every one of us is going to be
openly known, plainly known for what it is. For what it is. Watch this next line. 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." Now, nearly everybody disagrees with me on this. That's
sad, but I'm going to stay where I am for this reason. Most everybody thinks we're talking
about the judgment. But brethren, my judgment has
been judged. To them who are in Christ, there's
no judgment. There's no condemnation. I'm
not coming to the judgment except as a spectator. Christ is my
substitute. Is that not correct? Who can
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Anything! I'm not
talking about sin only, I'm talking about sins of omission too, commission
or whatever. I don't think anything can be
laid to the charge of God's elect. Christ Jesus forgave us of all
our sins, all of them, all of them, negligence as well as any
other sin. So this can't be the day of judgment. This can't be some kind of Christian
judgment where God pits one child against another and starts handing
out rewards. Christ is our reward. God said
to Abraham, I am your reward. But this is talking about this
day right here. And what I'm teaching is this.
I'm teaching this. I'm teaching that right here
in this lifetime. right here in this lifetime.
We're going to come to the end of this lifetime, and we're going
to look back at the junk we've given our lives to, the wood,
hay, and stubble, and we're going to suffer a loss. Oh, we're going
to be saved. It says, If any man's work abide,
verse 14, gold, silver, and precious stone, where he hath built their
own, he'll receive a reward. What reward? A reward of joy,
satisfaction. Satisfaction, that's a reward.
That's a reward. I tell you this, this congregation,
like I wrote in the bulletin, I don't do that for bragging
purposes. I put those notes in the bulletin so you will be encouraged. But down there in Mexico with
Walter Gruber, Milton Howard, over in other places, missionaries,
you have helped support, given them transportation. God has
used this ministry, and I think we can come here to the as the
latter days of it with some joy, happiness. Not charging God for
what we've done, but thanking God that he used us.