So, we turn in the Bible tonight to 1 Corinthians, the book of 1 Corinthians, as we're working through this book tonight. And in your pew Bibles, if you're visiting tonight, that is found on page 1212. I'm going to actually focus on the first 15 verses tonight. So I'll be reading through verses 17, but the text will be 1-15. Let's give our attention tonight to the word of the Lord. But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it, and even now you're not ready. for you are still of the flesh for while there is jealousy and strife among you are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way for when one says i follow paul and another i follow apollos are you not being merely human what then is apollos what is paul servants through whom you believe as the lord assigned to each i planted apollos watered but god gave the growth so neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building. According to the grace of God given to me like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become manifest for the day will disclose it because it will be revealed by fire and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward if anyone's work is burned up he will suffer loss though he himself will be saved but only asked through fire do you not know that you are god's temple and that god's spirit dwells in you if anyone destroys god's temple god will destroy him for god's temple is holy and you are that temple may the lord bless the hearing of his word Well, it is absolutely true that when we become desensitized to sin, the lines of morality, as that happens, the lines of morality get pushed farther and farther and farther back. And when you begin to think about what happens to the next generation, the next generation comes and that's all they've known. That's all they've known is this line getting pushed farther and farther back so that now that is the accepted cultural norm, isn't it? You see this with human sexuality today. Where was the line years ago? Well, the line years ago probably was at some point, many of you remember, it was adultery. That was the thing you never did. And now that line has been pushed farther and farther back. Now it's homosexuality. And if we're following the trajectory of Rome, you know what's coming next. The problem is that our children are growing up in a culture now where that is the norm. That's the norm that our children experience and know. And you see in this particular culture now, raising children in that, how difficult it is becoming to even speak out against it. Think about it. Our children are growing up when that's the norm. What about their children? Do you realize that that same phenomenon is true with Christian ministry? What we've been learning in Corinthians is that there is a design. The sky's not the limit. There is a mission and a mandate that Christ gave to his church. There is something that he put in place. There is even a means and a method that he put in place for how the ministry is to be carried out, how it is to be done, how we do ministry. But just like with basic morality, when over time we become desensitized to God's design, what do you think happens? Well, where does that line go? The line gets pushed back further and further and further and further. And like with homosexuality, you come to a time where it becomes incredibly difficult to say and speak against ministries that are against God. You feel the pressure. You know the pressure. It's a real pressure. And if we're silent about that, the next generation comes along and they just think that what is this now aberrant form of Christian ministry is the accepted cultural norm. It therefore must be God's design. And that can happen just within a few generations. In a few generations, everything could be lost. Now why do I raise that? tonight why do i say that tonight well this is why the book of first corinthians was so needed this is why the book of first corinthians had to had to be given paul is really in this book giving us a massive deprogramming that was already needing to take place in the first century he was deprogramming a church that had fallen into the world trying to be culturally relevant in other words paul was putting a halt on the tactic of the devil to assimilate worldliness into the christian ministry and make it mainstream that's what what was going on and tonight we really are approaching the end of this first section in corinthians and paul is beginning to summarize that's why you'll notice some repetition here summarize many of the themes that he's been saying and dealing with to now again touch on them but to have people think about the consequences of this listen this has serious consequences this is not just oh come on don't be some stick in the muds no this is this is serious there are serious consequences when the ministry is not being followed as christ has designed it i want everyone to look down at verse 13 and you'll see this and this is a verse i'm sure in the course of your lives you've read and you've been terrified of it and i could probably assume that you understood it all out of context and wrong but it's been an abused verse in the history of the the church but look at verse 13 where he says that the judgment day and the fire is going to reveal each one's work and if that work does not endure it will be burned up in verse 17 if anyone then dares to defile this temple it's with that work god will destroy him that obviously could cause great amounts of distress if it's not understood properly and by the time i'm done i hope you will understand what paul is doing and why he led to that conclusion so paul is aiming here tonight what paul is doing tonight is to say compromise when it when it comes to the design of christian ministry it's very serious and we we should we should all care a lot about what we do in ministry what our children are involved with in ministry what they are receiving in ministry why Because we're dealing with people's souls. We're dealing with eternity. We're dealing with where people go forever. So it's serious. And Christ has told us what to build with. Christ has told us what to do. Christ has told us what it is to look like. And compromise can wreck that. And the struggles of the Corinthian church were all indicative of that compromise where Paul is going to again address some of those. So what we have tonight, if you're taking notes, I thought I was creative. I'm never very creative with outlines. But the first would be the confrontation over the problem in Corinth. What you have right at the beginning is a major confrontation here for the first time that Paul confronts them directly, finally gets to it, and he hits them. He confronts them. The second is a clarification to answer the problem. So a confrontation, a clarification, and then the conclusion that follows. Chapter three begins with Paul's first confrontation to this church. Look at verse one of chapter three. But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it, and even now you're not ready, for you are still of the flesh. That is a real in-your-face charge, I think. Paul's looking at the church in Corinth and saying something that must have really struck them, especially in that culture, must have been quite offensive to them. You guys are carnal. Can you imagine saying that? You're fleshly. in a sense you're sinful and you're weak in your entire view of the christian ministry and it's really interesting when you look at this to be reminded that he still says it to them as brothers doesn't he he believes they're christians in fact even in the rebuke he's not approaching them and saying that they're without the holy spirit or he's not approaching them and saying that there's some kind of class of carnal Christians, which this is the kind of key verse that gets abused for that, which means you could have faith in Jesus Christ and then proceed to live the rest of your lives in a carnal manner. That's just not biblical. That's not what he's saying here. He's addressing them as believers. He's addressing them as brothers. They're still affectioned here. But he's saying you're still too much of the flesh. Your minds are still worldly in their thinking. You're still too tied to the world and to its values in your assessment of Christian ministry. And he goes on to describe this. He says, because of that, I fed you with milk and not solid food. For until now, you still can't receive it. What was the problem? I fed you with milk. but you're not ready for solid food. We read that and we probably think, well, as I have heard in the course of ministry, there are baby Christians and then there's the real mature Christians. And, you know, the baby Christians start out and they do the loose stuff in worship until they get to real maturity, right? I mean, I've heard this repeatedly in my time as a minister and that we would be considered as doing the meaty stuff tonight. You know, this would be the meat church. Well, that's not the distinction. It's fascinating that Hebrews says, the author to the book of Hebrews said to them that they needed milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness since he is a child, but solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment. Maturity has everything to do with discernment. Meat has everything to do with discernment. Here's what Paul's saying. What did he do when he was among them? What did he do when he was among them? He said, I fed you with milk. Well, he's been telling us the whole time what he's been doing among them. I preached to you steadily. I knew nothing else among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I preached the gospel to you. i preached it and i didn't stop and paul has been saying the whole time this is god's wisdom this is god's power it pleased him through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe that was the milk that was the basic christian teaching he preached the cross to them but here's what happened they went on from that i want you to think about that they went on from that and that was the problem they thought the wisdom was seen in moving beyond that to do things in ministry that would work they didn't go on in that do you see the difference? They went on from that, but they did not go on in that. It's never that we get the milk and then we're done with that. It's that we take the milk and we continue to grow in that to maturity. In other words, we never get beyond the basic message of the cross. We never sort of get there and start the Christian life that way and then we're done with it. We go on to maturity in that power that's what he's been trying to tell us growth in the christian life is seen in understanding as we go forward that there's real power in weakness and my whole life begins to be shaped in that kind of thinking that's maturity in other words paul will explain this to them later on that when he was given a thorn in the flesh the first thing he thought was the answer was to just get rid of it with bang Lord take it away but then he realized no no no the real power in this is that the more that my life is conformed to the death and suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ there the power of God rests on me so he's been saying the whole time to them in Corinth Christian growth is growth of knowing that there's power in the message of the cross that there's power in my life being conformed to that it's a theology the old theologians called it of the cross what paul is saying is to the corinthians they never advanced in the basic message of christ crucified to know its power in their lives that is so important there are babes and they haven't fully tasted this power yet they haven't experienced knowing christ in this paul says in philippians 3 in the power even of the resurrection but instead they're sacrificing the wisdom of god they're sacrificing the chosen power of god in the foolishness of the message preached and doing that they were sacrificing real changing power in the ministry this is why paul said at the beginning that when we then substitute the christian ministry to use human wisdom we strip the cross of its power and that's why this church was full of a host of worldly problems you could go through this church and it's problem after problem after problem after problem until they understood the reason those problems were there division lack of discipline wreck wrecking the lord's table immaturity about spiritual gifts fighting internally members suing one another marital problems ransacking the church all of these problems were indicative that they had bought into a worldly view of ministry and paul's saying until you get that you won't know power you could ask it this way is there something more to the christian life beyond the cross for now? Do we think that we start with the cross and look for more power? In other words, isn't our lives framed at this point while we suffer a while until we enter into glory? Isn't it framed around and according to the message of Christ and Him crucified? Paul would say we're being delivered to death that the life of jesus may be manifested or revealed in our mortal bodies we carry around this treasure in what jars of clay and the greatest evidence of departure from this and lack of growth was what this is what he was using to launch into this was their following of men what are you guys doing making the ministry about human abilities and and human powers and he says that shows you're still of the flesh you're still thinking like mere men you're still of the world and your thoughts um think about it these divisions demonstrate that he says that in verse three you're still of the flesh for while there is jealousy and strife among you are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way see it you're thinking this is about the power of men you're aligning with human reasoning reasoning around the ones in the ministry whom you think demonstrate the most power and that indicates total spiritual immaturity you're all saying i'm of paul and some are saying i'm of apollos and you remember paulus was the golden mouth preacher of the first century powerful preacher paul says that's fleshly i think of um the little farm church pastor the little faithful farm church pastor laboring in the world he sees few faces he endures hardship he fights discouragement he has no outer draw he may be a fine preacher but nobody would ever come in because he just doesn't have all the stuff there's nothing about it that appeals to the to the human flesh and yet steadily and consistently he delivers god's word each and every week works hard all week to do that he preaches the cross and then there's the hero down at the big city church who has written book after book after book he's known for his oratory skills and he draws thousands in and all eyes are on him that's the American church. You want to talk about a church full of fleshly-minded people. Do you think it's about that, says Paul? If you think the power is in the man, if you build your Christianity around him, you're an infant. You're not growing in the true power of God. You're not going forward in the true power of God. You're not going on to maturity. And you can say this across the board. Infants think the power is in what? Infants think the power is in the music. Infants think the power is in the buildings. In our own relatability as pastors. And Paul is saying you're sacrificing true power. That's not where the power is. The power is not in our response. At this point, Paul explains for them and clarifies for them what ministers are. And I love how he does that. He doesn't say who. Did you notice that? What ministers are. What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believe as the Lord assigned to each. We're just little slaves. We're farmhands. The Corinthians, you can kind of feel the offense of this, right? I mean, they were so enamored with the greatest speakers and the greatest abilities. And, you know, here comes Paul and saying, do you know I'm a farmhand? You know that great, powerful preacher, Apollos? He's just a farmhand. You're thinking the power's in the messenger and you've got it all wrong, which indicates it's an entire view about ministry. You've got to rethink here. You know, I love this. It's so good for me to hear. It's so good for all pastors to hear. We're just labors in the vineyard. That's all we are. And he uses a metaphor even of the garden here where there are crops that are planted. And he says, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything. But only God who gives the growth. God gave you messengers to plant in his vineyard. Do you know who we are? We're one sent through whom you believed, right? Paul says, we are servants that God used so that you may come to the faith. But Paul says, I planted and Apollos watered. And here he's having them think about the specific tasks of the apostles. In many respects, the apostles themselves were church planters, weren't they? They were certain men sent to go. They planted these church and they knew what to do with planning. They were peculiarly gifted. They coordinated. were they were gifted in this in this in this area and then god would would raise up and then he would send a water he would send a water and i have to say this this is one of the most misunderstood aspects of church life that churches go through stages and there are growth stages and ministers come and go according to god's own purposes whenever he wants i've just come to the conclusion there's no answers to when it should be this is god's he does what he wants when it comes to this they come and they go because it's the lord is building that church he's strengthening that church he's growing that church and it's sometimes they need they needed a planter at another time they needed a water and they need more waters different kinds of waters and the waters do what we just keep the soil wet so that's my job you understand i'm just trying to keep the soil wet i'm trying to dump water on you if you stand right here you'll get spit on but i am just dumping water water water water water water that's all my job is keep the whole thing wet but god gives the increase i love that that's so important for us to hear tonight isn't it he corrects everything by saying no man ever caused the growth in your life No man ever was the cause of that. I don't care if you sat under golden mouth casostrum in the early centuries of the church, or you sat under Charles Spurgeon himself, or you sat under a little faithful farm preacher. Those who faithfully deliver God's word to you were never the cause of the growth. Why do I say that? Well, how many could have sat under Spurgeon and were never born again? And that's a scary thing to think about. Chris Gordon will never be the cause of growth in you or your children. He's the instrument. In other words, he's a vessel. But I'm concerned with one thing in the Escondido URC and it's doing it well. It's watering this all the time. And if you ever begin to think it's about I'm the cause of the growth, if you ever begin to think that the growth of this body or if the Lord sees fit to build this thing and build it strong and bring in other people. It's not about the man. It's about God's good pleasure to open up hearts. And your growth, v. 6, God gave it. V. 7, He says it again. Only God gives the growth. And you've got it all wrong when you divide up men like this. You've got it all wrong when you view men like this. We're one in purpose. Yes, we have different roles, but we're one purpose. And the great assignment given is to build. We'll talk about that in a minute. All ministry is in no way dependent on themselves, the preachers. Not upon those who plant or water. The success of ministry is not ours. Never has been. And why then are we seeing so little of the increase truly of the church today? Because we're all about quick results. We're all caught up in this. The workers are sent to preach and we all should be for the same purpose, shouldn't we? Shouldn't we all have the same goal? It's that on that day there would be a rich harvest and my prayer sincerely for every one of you here is that you're there. It's freeing for me. I'm going to be rewarded not on the results, But I have a big concern. The Lord says that the ministers are rewarded based on what? How was their watering? Did they give themselves to it? You know, I read an article last week and the title was, You'll Never Believe What's Drawing Millennials to Church. And the millennials are going in droves to this church in D.C., this Reformed church. But not by anything normal. No, there's no relaxed dress code. There's no coffee bars. You know, they're not short practical sermons. It's none of that. Here's what's reaching them. Orderliness. 45-minute prayers. Old Psalms and hymns. And a 55-minute sermon. You wouldn't even let me get by with that. It's a two-hour service. Places packed out with young people. In D.C. God chose to do that. But the issue for the pastors doing that is giving themselves to what he said. So far tonight, he's confronted their problem of worldliness, why they've remained babes. He's clarified what the ministry is. And finally tonight, he gives a sobering conclusion on how you should evaluate the ministry. All of this has huge implications for the ministry of the church, and I love this part. He switches, this is so powerful, he switches metaphors to that of a building. And he says in verse 10, According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. I want you to imagine the imagery here. There were contracts about buildings in the first century. They knew this. Anyone who received the contract, it was strict. You went according to code. Imagine constructing a giant building. We're fellow workers. It's God's field, God's building. You are, he says. You're the building. This is not unfamiliar. In these contracts, you would have this serious warning against any unlawful damage to the existing structure or damage to material. Fines would be huge. And if you find anything about the ancient world, it took great care. If you know anything about it, it took great care with building structures. You still see these things to this day. And you thought inspectors were bad today. Paul applies this. God has given out a contract, if you will. The inspector, he's the inspector of the building. And he makes sure everything is built correctly, according to specifications, according to code, without mistakes, without fraudulent activity, which was the language used in these contracts. And God allows these, if you will, subcontractors to do the work. These subcontractors are Paul and Apollos. They're doing the work. They're all sent to build. They are sent out and they are ordained servants, aren't they? The imagery then is, this is the church. This is God's building. He sends out pastors and the pastors are sent with materials. What are we called to do? This is the Great Commission. You go and you preach and you baptize. It's a word in the sacrament ministry. I want you to preach the word in season, out of season. This is what you do. This is what I call you to do. Build with that. The church must be built with real care. If God is sovereign over the whole thing and everything is His, you understand how dangerous this position is. Whoever undertakes and steps into it had better make sure that he is guarding his steps carefully when he does it. And thinking very carefully about what he's using to build with. Whoever takes up the role of being part of the building project, Paul says and issues the warning, take heed how you build. You need to consider. And so essentially he's looking at us. and this is instructive for you so that you would be discerning of a lasting ministry. This is what he's saying here. The foundation's been laid. He laid it. You ever seen a great foundation go down? He laid it. What is it? He's been telling you the whole time. It's Christ and Him crucified. It's the gospel. Jesus Christ and the foolishness of the message preached, the message of Christ going to the cross, pardoning sinners, becoming the curse, putting himself under the law, fulfilling all righteousness, doing everything that God demands so that sinners can be saved from the wrath to come, resurrecting the third day, seated in heaven, the foundations laid, there it is. Whatever's added to that, you better be careful. You kind of see how a coffee bar doesn't work, does it? Whatever one pastor said exceeds the limits or introduces confusion which would change the character of the building so as to threaten its eventual collapse is warned. You can't build something on top of a foundation that won't support it. You all know that, whoever builds. Whatever is being built, it has to fit the grand plan. No shortcuts. Building's hard work. Oftentimes it's trench work. There's nothing quick about it. It's long, it's steady, sometimes it's hard. There's a lot of sweat involved, a lot of agony. What would be the most destructive materials to use? Well, if a foundation is set up and you add materials to the foundation that can't support it, what's going to happen at some point? The whole thing's coming down. This is why you have to say it. churches who are building with the wrong things you know how many of these come and go you know how many of these are here today because they've they've slapped a label on it and it just appeals to the whatever people want for the moment and then the next label over here comes and people realize there's nothing in that they didn't get anything there's no meat there's nothing there's nothing that that that that ever built them up there's nothing that gave them life so they're jumping and they're jumping and they're jumping these structures keep crashing it goes on all the time god sets apart specific men to build paul says take heed each one how you build what was paul dealing with in corinth this church was building with the wrong materials it's using the world's wisdom to try to build the church it's using human innovation it's taking what he said last time belongs to the mind of God and you can't get into the mind of God. Only the Holy Spirit can get in the mind of God and he has to bring it to you. But you can't take what is from the mind of God and pass it on through human wisdom. That's the wrong material to pass it on. How will our gospel make it in such an innovative culture like this? How will it ever make it when when all of these great things are going on and we just do something that looks seemingly powerless, it's because when you build with His materials, the Holy Spirit's blessing. Now here's where the rub comes. Couldn't the Lord use other stuff? We hear that all the time. You're putting God in a box. No, you are putting God in a box because you're saying, think about what they're saying. They're forcing upon Him other materials. couldn't we have an ice hockey ministry or whatever? What did the apostles build with? They preached. They baptized. Now when I see people slapping on ministry everything and people stepping into the subcontracting role when they were never set apart to do that, and then they interject chaos into the building project or they're building with materials the master craftsman never said to use or they're building with materials that will never be able to support the foundation because it's opposite of the design that Christ gave, shouldn't we have some cry out? When everyone begins to do their own thing in the name of the Great Commission or everyone begins to build with whatever they think would work, why have we not fallen into Israel's trap of everyone ruling by the dictates of their own hearts in the ministry? And Paul says, listen, this is why it's so important, brothers and sisters, and this is what I'll close with. If anyone builds, verse 12, on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become manifest for the day will disclose it because it will be revealed by fire and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he's going to receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. You say, what in the world is he talking about? What Paul is saying is this. The quality of how people are building. Some are building with excellent materials. Some are building with gold. Some are building with silver. Precious stones. Others are building with trash. They're building with things that will never make it. They're building a temple out of straw, if you will. And Paul is saying the day of judgment is going to reveal it. And that's why I said last sermon, I don't want to get to the end of my ministry and find out I did nothing for the profit of your souls, right? That's the worst thing that could be said for you. and for me day of judgment each one's work is going to be tested and revealed by fire and so the fire is a testing here so the quality of work will be evaluated remember he's using the building uh metaphor and analogy and and what moves me here is some will find in their life labor of giving themselves to this because they steadily through thick and thin when it was hard and difficult focused on the preaching of the cross and didn't give in in season out of season convinced rebuke and exhorted with all long suffering and teaching they stayed steadily in it they kept their head in the book they didn't waver they're going to have an awesome harvest it's going to be it's going to be awesome it didn't look real glorious when it was happening oh no no it was sometimes painful they they it was tough to deal with but the end's going to reveal this beautiful structure because they honored the lord in the working with the materials he gave and they built carefully on the foundation others however built with human wisdom and through the techniques of the world you know and this kind of explains while they're notice what he says here he says that if you look at the end of chapter 3 in verse 14 if the work that anyone builds on the foundation survives to receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only else through fire. There are ministers who will barely escape. You look at the ministry and you stand back and you say, why didn't you go farther? You preached, but you didn't give us anything. You didn't give us the gospel. It's a fine line here. And in Psalm, he says in the next section, if anyone's work is burned up he will suffer loss though he himself will be saved as through fire and he says in verse 16 do you not know that you're the temple you just applied it you're it god's spirit dwells in you if anyone destroys that temple god will destroy him there are some destroying the temple and that day is not going to be good for them they are using worldly wisdom and they're actually destroying the church. So, you see why this matters tonight. Paul says to me, under the inspiration of the Spirit, the Lord says to me, take heed, Chris Gordon, how you build. Why? Because that matters for you and your children. Maybe we're all content tonight as we close this to think a lot about how this church is being built. And anything other than this foundation that has been laid, this glorious message of the cross, this glorious message of Christ and Him crucified, if we build with anything other than that, the Reformers said to us over and over, it's just gimmicks. May today the foundation of the cross, the foundation of the Lord Jesus Christ that has been laid be what we build upon. And you know, then you're going to realize on that day, how wonderful will it be to realize that the course of the ministry you were in, the course of the ministry that you listened to and received in true faith as Jesus Christ was proclaimed, that your house was actually built upon the rock. It's going to stand. And that's the good news, that the Lord gave us this church, The Lord said he'll be with us to the end and he's always going to preserve his church. He'll never let the gates of hell prevail against it. He will always raise up faithful ministers who will give themselves to this. But make sure you value it and teach your children to value it because this is a matter of life and death. May Jesus Christ be praised. May his church be renewed and may we only build on that glorious foundation. Amen. Heavenly Father, we bow the head and we are grateful tonight for the ministry that You have put in place. But we humble ourselves and realize that it's not that the Escondido URC has arrived or we think that we're all perfect and doing it just great. No, Lord, we ask humbly that You would take away anything that offends You. And that this ministry here would be strong in the design that You gave. That the people would all have confidence in it. That the name of Jesus would be glorified as we have confidence in the foolishness of the message preached and that you would be pleased if this is purely to you, and we know that. As the watering goes on, if you build your church strong as we pray in the Heidelberg, we ask that you would do that in this place and all over the world where the gospel is faithfully preached. And in this late hour, O Lord, we ask that You would do that since the time is short and the day is at hand. Be merciful to us, O Lord. And may Your salvation reach to the ends of the earth through Your powerful gospel. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.