Our Dependence on God

Our text this morning for the preaching will be 1 Corinthians 3, verses 5 -9.

I will, as I did last week and will continue to do throughout this series, which will last through January, Lord willing, read all of this chapter, all 23 verses.

The Apostle Paul, in what we handled last week, verses 1 -4, had told the

Corinthians how their tendency to align themselves with men forced him to address them as infants.

Well, they thought that was a great sign of maturity to pick a wondrous leader to follow. He said, no, it's not maturity, it's quite the opposite.

That was verses 1 -4. You see, they hadn't grown enough in the Lord to even be addressed as spiritual people.

I cannot address you as spiritual people. I address you as people of the flesh. Now they were infants in Christ, so there's no doubt that they were saved.

This is what the Apostle Paul said, or wrote, but he had to address them as though they were of the flesh, as though they were still of the world.

Their behavior, their tendency to align with men had proved just how skin deep their knowledge of Jesus Christ and the salvation they had in Him really was.

So now in verses 5 -9, which we'll read in just a moment, Paul offers them and he offers us the correct way to view themselves and the correct way to view other men, or as the great

Puritan Matthew Henry put it, how to cure this humor and rectify what was amiss among them.

It is not men upon whom they were or we are dependent for their salvation, any more than it is men upon whom they were or we are dependent for our growth into the image of the

Lord Jesus Christ. Something we pray for each Sunday when we gather together. They were, as we are, dependent on God for everything, not to say, or to say everything including especially, excuse me, including especially our spiritual growth, our growth into the image of the

Lord Jesus Christ. This dynamic process of going from where we were when we were babes in Christ, we first came to know his salvation, to where we will be when he calls us to himself.

So with that, please stand for the reading of God's word. First Corinthians chapter 3,

I'll read verses 1 -23 and I'll give you a bit of a reminder when we get to the text for today's preaching.

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 are 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 one says, I follow Paul and another, I follow Apollos, are you not being merely human? What then is

Apollos? Excuse me, this is beginning our passage for this morning. What then is

Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord has signed 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 as 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. Let no one deceive himself.

If anyone among you thinks he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.

For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, he catches the widest in their craftiness, and again, the

Lord knows the thoughts of the wise that they are futile. So let no one boast in men.

For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future, all are yours and you are in Christ and Christ is

God's. God bless the reading of his word. Please be seated. And let us now pray and ask

God to open our eyes and our hearts to his word. Heavenly Father, as we come once again to your word, to proclaim it,

I pray your hand of blessing be upon me as I proclaim the word that you have given all of us, the effort and the labors that I expended,

Father, that you would make good from them, that you use my weak efforts to do your powerful work, that all hearts are ready to receive the seed of your word, and that you,

Father, would do that work which only you can do and use that to grow us more and more into the people of God and the people that you have destined us to be.

And we ask you to do these things in Jesus' name, amen. So we often move too quickly past some of our passage,

I think, and one of the reasons we do that and go quickly through them and don't connect them is because of the way it appears in our

English Bibles. I have nothing against it, the way we make sentences and paragraphs and such like that, but it needs to be understood just for a moment that while the translators have done an excellent job of making sense of it to us in English, in the original language, there were no breaks between the words.

There were no spaces or paragraph markers or verse markers or chapters or even the names as we have in some of the books.

It was simply written, and the point here is that when these things were read to the people who first heard them, they went right on through.

Now again, I have nothing against the way we've divided these things up and given verse markers and paragraphs.

One of my first exercises in the homiletics class in seminary, the professor gave us a paper that had something written in English, typed out, all lowercase, it was very familiar to us.

I don't quite remember what it was, it was like four score and seven years ago, something like that. You'd be amazed how difficult it is without the spaces to figure out what those words actually were.

It took hours to sort it out and get whatever it was. I forgot what the paper was, but it was familiar to us.

The point here is, when this was first read to the Corinthians, without spaces, without paragraphs, without chapters, it was read from beginning to end.

So, Paul, chapter one, verse one, as we call it, by the will of God to be an apostle and so forth, right on through to chapter 16.

We break it up. And so, we, last week, ended and said, from when one says,

I follow Paul, and another, I follow Apollos, are you not being merely human? God bless, amen, see you next week, we'll pick it up then, and here we are picking it up again, and we start with, what then is

Apollos? Well, as I said, when it was first read, they went right on through, it was all connected together.

There's a train of thought. And we need to look at these verses this morning, verses five through nine, and understand that they are completing or following something the apostles said in one through four.

It's not a separate thing, and we're going to look at this and say, okay, it's a garden metaphor, which indeed it is, and we're going to take that, we're going to find specific applications for that, and we're going to work that out as what it says right there in verses five through nine.

I want to suggest to you this morning that we need to look at how five through nine ties to one through four, most particularly, without going through one through four again in any detail, let's just say the last verse there.

One says, I follow Paul, and another says, I follow Apollos, are you not being merely human?

Are you not acting as though you're not even saved? Are you not acting in a completely fleshly manner, and is this not the reason that I have to address you as infants in Christ?

And now in verses five through nine, following that train of thought, the apostle shows what this error is.

He's saying, what then is Apollos? What is Paul? They're merely servants, and so forth.

The idea here in these verses is growth, is growth.

The metaphors that are used are that of a garden, where Paul is the planter and Apollos is the one who waters, but who gives the increase?

It is God. And that's the main metaphor in here, and the metaphor of building, which comes in the last part of it, we're not going to do very much with that this morning, but pick that up next week, is also a metaphor where it means a building being erected, not simply a static structure.

So the point here is that what Paul is saying is, I address you as infants, and you need to stop acting this way.

You need to stop gathering around men, because you gather around men as you look for men to bring you spiritual growth, you're defeated before you even begin.

You're stunted before you're born, because you're asking men to do that, or you're requiring of men to do that, which men cannot do, but only

God. They made themselves dependent on men, rather than God, for their growth.

They didn't think this when they made their alignments, when they lined up behind Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or later, the super apostles, as they're sometimes called.

They didn't think that's what they were doing, they had no idea that that was the ramification or the consequence of this action, but that's what it was.

And we need to look at this this morning, and understand that growth is a subject here.

They were stunted, that's the idea of verses one through four, they're being addressed as infants, and now, how do we grow?

Well first, by making proper definitions of who we are, who the apostles were, who serves you the gospel today, who does which part, and most importantly, it is

God, and God alone who gives the growth. And you'd be surprised, if we look at ourselves honestly, and rigorously, and courageously, how often we depend on someone other than God, to do that which only

God can do, and what God requires of us. These metaphors, verses five through nine, are about growth, about growing into the image of the

Lord Jesus Christ. They had failed to comprehend just who the apostles were, and what their functions were, and what was going on, and exhibit one offered a proof, is that they gathered themselves around men as though it was by the men that they were saved.

It was actually as if these men had done the salvation, and there were ones they were counting on to bring them into the stature of that salvation.

Paul asks here, he says, what then is Apollos? What is Paul? It's a rhetorical question.

When one says I follow Apollos, and I follow Paul, you're not being merely human. So what is Apollos, and what is Paul? They're like this magnetic attraction by which you're doing something.

You Corinthians are doing something. And you're not gaining your self -prestige by attaching yourself to the right one.

You're not increasing your status. What are you doing? You're saying, here is my hero.

Here is the one who gives me what I need to be a mature

Christian, to be one who knows the deep things, because this one does. No, they're gathering around men as though men could do that which men are not equipped to do.

You can't freight us mere men, myself or Pastor Owens, with that much of a load.

We can't carry it. We weren't designed to carry it. Neither was Paul, neither was Apollos, designed to carry that load.

It was proof of their infantile behavior, you see. This is what had them stuck in this first stage of Christianity where they came to know salvation in the

Lord Jesus Christ. When their faith was given to them, their eyes were opened and their spirits were enlightened and awakened.

And then they stayed there, acting as though they hadn't even been saved, acting as though they were still in the flesh.

What then is Apollos? What is Paul? They're the ones who you're following and proving in them that you're merely acting in a human way.

What are they? What were they? What are your pastors, your deacon?

What are we to you? Paul answers it for himself and for Apollos. He answers it to the

Corinthians and he answers it to us today. What are we? Well, then he says, servants through whom you believed as the

Lord assigned to each. So they found themselves gathering around these prestigious looking men.

I want to be with Paul because Paul was the great Pharisee who was converted out of Judaism and became a

Christian. I want to be with Apollos because Apollos is trained in rhetoric and he speaks so eloquently. I want to be with Cephas because Cephas is the one who saw

Jesus transfigured on the mount and on and on and on. It goes, who are these men?

Who are the men who serve you? Paul says, servants through whom you believed.

You know, all of us were converted by the grace of God, for by grace you've been saved through faith.

This is not your own doing, it is the gift of God. The gift is the faith, of course. We're all saved by the grace of God, but I think virtually every one of us, if not literally every one of us, can look back and say, well, here's the man or here's the woman, here's the sister, here's the brother who helped me along that path.

Here's the servant that God used by his spirit to say to me the words of God and that's what

God used to awaken my spirit, to give me that new heart. Servants through whom you believed, as the

Lord assigned to each, not some grand master, not some eloquent, charismatic person who's going to attract more to them, not so I could point and say, look at my leader, look at the one

I've attached to, aren't I wise, aren't I smart because I follow this one? No, mere servants.

In the context, in the day and time when this was written, to be a servant was to be pretty low on the totem pole, no prestige, no status attached to that.

You couldn't point to a servant and say, look how grand I am, I'm following, whoops, a servant, a foot washer, the one who picks up the laundry and delivers it for you, that sort of thing.

Just servants, just menial labor, mere chattel bought and paid for by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

No matter how high up someone is on the social and economic status or how low someone is, no matter what that distance is, compare it now to where we are in distance from the

Lord Jesus Christ in terms of his stature, his holiness, his image, his righteousness.

This is what Paul is saying here, we're just servants. God used us, God assigned us, we didn't figure this thing out.

Any more than the gospel that's proclaimed from this pulpit is something new or innovative, something that I figured out, obviously,

Pastor Owen's the same. Any preacher who would claim to have figured out a gospel that he's going to teach you is a false prophet, a false apostle.

No, servants through whom you believe, those whom God used, those who were passive recipients just like you of the grace of God.

And because as passive recipients and acknowledging ourselves as servants, as menial laborers for God, spoke to you the word that God assigned to us.

So Paul says to them, he says to the church today, who is a mere man?

Well if you're being edified in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you're learning the scripture and how from beginning to end it speaks of the

Lord Jesus Christ and how it speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ and what it means to follow the flow of redemptive history and all these things that we try to bring forward to you, what does that mean?

Where's the credit go? Where's the glory go? Where's the honor go? To the servant? Of course not.

But to the Lord who assigned to the servant, to the Lord who gave that word to the servant, to the Lord who said, you servant, stand here and proclaim this to the people that I'm going to bring before you.

For us today, it will be the same in the afternoon as we regather should the Lord will that.

As it was for Paul, Apollos then, mere servants, mere proclaimers of the word of God.

Only the master gets, only the master should get, only the master can get any adulation at all.

Paul says we're mere servants doing what God assigned and how much credit do we get for that?

What does it say in Luke 17, 10? What does Jesus Christ say, I should say, in Luke chapter 17 and verse 10?

That when you've done your duty, you should say what? We are unworthy servants because we've done only that which is required of us.

We only did our duty. We only did what God through Jesus Christ told us to do. What credit do we get?

None. And I, like anyone else, I think Pastor Owens could say, I appreciate the thank you every now and then.

I appreciate someone saying, you know, the Lord spoke to me through the words that you spoke this morning or whatever day.

Yeah, I can say thank you for that, but I cannot take any honor for that. I cannot take any credit for the word that is spoken to you.

I cannot take any credit for the growth that it gives you in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's all of God and none of man.

Mere servants through whom you believed. And when we do our duty, when we proclaim this word to you, and when you do your duty and hear this word, and it grows you, and you grow into the

Lord Jesus Christ. All the credit, all of it is to the

Lord who did the assigning. You see, they thought the power was in man, and if they didn't think that explicitly, they certainly behave that way.

The power is in the spirit. The power is in the spirit who brings the word into men's souls with power.

Same as today, nothing I say is of any value, of any power, unless it is the word of God being explained and something that God would use with power to give you growth.

Verse 6, I planted, that's Paul, I planted a pollis water, but God gave the growth.

We're just doing our part. I'm a gardener. I don't know how many of you are gardeners.

I've tried it several times. I've only had a few successes. But you know, you can put the seed in the ground, or you get the plant, like the tomato plant that's a bit started.

I had one really good tomato garden. I can't think of how long ago that was.

My son is 41. I think it was about 10 at the time, so it was that long ago, and that rare to have success in gardening.

But you know, you can do everything. You can get the best stock that you can.

You can prepare, you can dig the hole right, you can put the drainage stuff in there, all the fertilizer, all the nutrients, and you can water it, and then what do you have to do?

Well, like any farmer, or even an expert gardener who has constant success, what do you have to do next?

Hope. Just watch it say, I hope this thing will grow. I've done everything

I can possibly do. Paul was the planter.

What does he mean by that? He's the one who brought the word of God to Corinth. You read about that in Acts chapter 18 and 19, how he went there and proclaimed the word of God.

He was there for a year and a half. I planted. He's talking about planting that seed of the gospel. Simply proclaiming that word of salvation in the

Lord Jesus Christ. Apollos watered. What does he mean by that? Apollos came later.

You can go through Acts chapter 18 and 19, you read all about this, but Apollos is the one who finally got there, and he watered.

He nurtured that seed. God used him to bring growth by teaching them the deeper things of the

Lord Jesus Christ, the consequences, the ramifications, the duties that come from the gospel, which God had brought to them through the words of Paul.

So that's the sequence there. Is Paul doing the planting? Apollos doing the watering? And then what can they do?

Well, I don't want to say just wait. That's what I did to wait for Zeal's tomato plants, which once in my lifetime came up, and we had a good tomato crop.

Well, I'm sure they prayed. I'm sure they prayed. I'm sure Paul, when he declared that seed of the gospel, he prayed all the time,

God, bring this forth into the hearts of men. I pray this morning that this word goes into your heart.

That's a place where I cannot approach, a place where no man can go. You know your own heart better than I ever will.

And only God can bring the word of God to you. And only God can bring growth into the Lord Jesus Christ by that word.

I planted. We're just servants. I just did the planting as God told me. Apollos did the watering as God sent him to do so.

And he did as a servant what God told him. And then God used that and God gave the growth.

Each does his part. You can do all you can to make the garden grow, except what?

Make it grow. So planting is the message of Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Let us never get away from that. Whatever statue we achieve in the Lord Jesus Christ in this lifetime, never forget that it's

Jesus Christ and him crucified. I forgot to count how many times I said that last week, that this is the message that came to them.

Jesus Christ and him crucified. This is the core, the platform for everything. And then watering, the message of how this plays out in life.

And then the growth. And what is meant by growth? He's talking about personal growth. Not growth in numbers, though we'd love to see that, personal, you, individual growth into the

Lord Jesus Christ by hearing of the things of the Lord, by going through the scripture in Bible studies, in the home groups that we have, learning about Jesus and your duties before God because he gave you faith to believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ. Growth to become more and more like him. Paul watered, excuse me,

Paul planted, Apollos watered, and then hoping for all,

I'm sure they prayed, but knowing that God and God alone could give the growth.

And because of that, because it's God who gives the growth, what is man?

You could ask God, what is man that you're mindful of him? And go through the rest of Psalm 8. What then is

Apollos, verse 5, what is Paul? And he comes back and he answers that in verse 7 for us. What are they?

Servants only, we've handled that. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything.

Well, we need to take this as Paul meant it. Are they something? Yes, they are something.

Paul, we may, in all his letters would proclaim himself to be or name himself as an apostle.

And here in our verses, in verse 5 he already said we're servants, so that's something. What does he mean by we're not anything?

We could say he who plants, he who waters is nothing. Nothing, we get the same sense of it, is not anything.

They are nothing in relation to making this wonderful, glorious process happen.

Why are you gathering around men, he's asking? We can't do anything of any value. Only God can grow you up.

Only God gave you faith to believe in the first place. Just using our weak words to bring that about.

Neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, just servants. We love to be congratulated, don't we?

And Paul would deny all that, we're nothing. No, it's all to God, but we love to be congratulated. I was watching a little football yesterday, and I noticed something, and we've seen this,

I'm sure you've all seen this, whether it's football or basketball or baseball or even kids soccer games. You're up in the stands, or you're seeing somebody up in the stands, and yesterday it was the quarterback,

I don't remember which one it was, and he made a great throw, and the receiver caught the ball, and it was like a first down or a touchdown,

I don't remember quite, but it was great, and then they panned up to the stands, and you know what you see,

I'm sure you've seen this a thousand times yourself, what are the fans doing? They're congratulating each other, you see that with all the high fives?

What did they do? Well, they didn't throw the ball, they didn't catch the ball, if it was a defensive play that was great, they're not the one who made the tackle, they're not the one who hit their home run or made the pitch that sealed the game, or anything like that.

Paul Lopatos would have none of that, no congratulations because they hadn't done anything.

It's not like a sports venue, where we get to congratulate ourselves for what? Because I picked the right team?

How much of that did we contribute, or how much does that contribute to the outcome of the game? Paul Lopatos would say, no, we're nothing.

It's so far from their lips, even as mere observers, not for himself or Lopatos, not for the

Corinthians, like the sports fans, think they deserve congratulations because they chose the right men to follow.

You know the problem there, though, is that teams change. Stars retire, stars move on, coaches get fired, mistakes on the field bring losses.

Your trust must be in He whose shoulders alone can bear the weight of your growth, and He who never changes.

Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. We need to look carefully at our hearts, we need to look at our own spirits, and make sure that we're not following mere men, that we haven't picked simply our favorite preacher, our favorite radio preacher, or whatever the case is, and are following Him to provide that which

He cannot do. We work hard to proclaim the Lord's Word, make it plain to you, make it applicable to you.

We can do no more, we can pray, we can do no more. Praying is a big thing, praying is an important thing, praying is required of us, but we must remember that only

God can bring this about because He who plants as a servant, the gardener, He who waters as a servant, the other who comes in and takes care of what was planted, neither of them are anything, but only

God, only God who brings the growth. You see, only the

Spirit of God can bring life, only the Spirit of God brought life to you in the first place, only the

Spirit of God can grow that life in you. Where does that growth come from?

Well, from the same place as the goal. What is the goal? I reach out after the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus, says the

Apostle Paul to the Philippians. He is the goal and He is the one who gives the growth, but only

God who gives growth, only the Spirit can bring life. First Corinthians chapter 15 verse 45 says that the last

Adam, now that of course is Jesus, the last Adam, the resurrected Lord Jesus, became a life -giving

Spirit. The resurrected Lord Jesus gives the life in the resurrection or will give the life that He had in the resurrection to us one day.

He became a life -giving Spirit. It is this living water that is

Jesus Christ that brings the growth. As John told the Samaritan woman in John chapter 4 verse 10, he says, if you knew who you were speaking to, you would have asked

Him and He would have given you living water, living water that would never fail, living water that would never run out or dry up, living water that will continue to bring life and more life and more life to your spirit.

Only God who gives the growth, only Jesus Christ who gives the growth, who uses

His Spirit to grow you up, only Jesus Christ who is the giver, who is the living water

Himself. This parallels, of course, verse 6 where he said,

God gave the growth, God gives the growth. I planted a pause water, this previous verse, but God gave the growth.

God brought good from the word that was spoken. And it's

God who gives in the next verse, continually gives the growth. Are you growing in the

Lord Jesus Christ? Do you know Him better today than you did, let's say, 10 years ago, 5 years ago, a few months ago, even last week?

You see, there's no end to the depths we can go to know

God and our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the deep things of the

Lord, the deeper and deeper things of the Lord. We don't mean mysterious things, we don't mean having a secret handshake that gets us into some inner sanctum.

We're speaking of simply knowing Jesus Christ better and better, a deeper knowledge of Him, the model of this church, a deeper knowledge of Jesus Christ by looking to His word and obeying that word, by placing ourselves into the means of grace that He has given.

Only God gives the growth. Are you growing in the Lord? Are you imbued in the means of grace that He's given us, that He's given you?

He goes on to say, he who plants and he who waters are one. The tasks, you see, come together for one particular goal.

The very common illustration here, and it works very well, I don't mind borrowing it and trying not to think of anything new, is a symphony.

I used to play in a symphony in high school. So I have some, understand, I was in the first chair trumpet, so I had the trumpet part, and then there were second and third trumpets, and they had their own parts, which paralleled mine but they were different notes.

And then there's the clarinets and the flutes and so on, you know how this illustration goes, and it all comes together by the director's instruction into one sound, into one piece.

He who plants and he who waters are one. Now Paul's only talking about himself and Apollos, but still we could expand it.

They had two different tasks, the planting and the watering, and they had one goal, which is salvation in the

Lord Jesus Christ, I planted, and growth in the Lord Jesus Christ, and Apollos watered, and then

God giving the growth, but they had one goal, one idea, one commission from the

Lord Jesus Christ, to bring salvation and to teach the implications and the duties of that salvation.

There's one Lord, it's one Jesus, it's one message, it's one gospel, one motive, God's glory is the only motive, it's one work, which is salvation centers, it's one goal to see them grow into the

Lord Jesus Christ. Very important to understand that Paul and Apollos were one.

It's very important for you to understand that Conley and myself in our ministry to you are one.

We're different people, anyone who knows us, we have very different personalities and talents and skills, but we're one in Jesus Christ, and we're one in our goal for what we stand here every

Sunday to bring to you, to bring to you the Lord Jesus Christ. We are one. One of the problems you see with what they were doing, their infantile behavior, was it brought divisiveness, and you can go through the rest of 1

Corinthians and you'll see this, but this is the beginning point, this is the incipient point, here's the genesis of it.

I follow him, and I follow that one, and all of a sudden you just made a boundary, a division, not just between yourselves, not just between you sitting on my right and you sitting on my left, which you're not doing, of course, but between the servants themselves, the ones that God sent as one, if you will.

It's sort of like Moses and Joshua, to conquer the promised land required the exodus, that's Moses, and the next chapter is

Joshua, they were one, David and Solomon, if you think of the temple where David planned and he financed the temple and Solomon built it, they were one in that sense,

Elijah, Elisha, would be that, where the two had one ministry, which Elijah began and Elisha finished.

What's my point here? Let's not forget that the overall context of 1

Corinthians has to do with divisiveness. It starts here with their infantile behavior, and their infantile behavior proves that they weren't growing in the

Lord Jesus Christ. But I don't want to forget divisiveness, because we won't have another chance in the rest of this chapter really to speak about that.

He who plants and he who waters are one. He who preaches in the morning service and he who preaches in the afternoon service are one.

He who does most of the outside counseling in his church, and he who prepares most of the administrative details that we need to keep this church running, are one.

Let me just say, woe to those who would bring division to them. What God has joined together, let no man separate, we're not married,

I'm actually, you know, I'm borrowing that from Matthew chapter 19, his teaching about marriage, but it does apply.

God is the one who arranged that these two Paul and Apollos would meet, as he who joined their work into one effort, and it's no different here today.

No different here today. We serve you as one. He who plants and he who waters are one.

He who preaches in the morning, he who preaches in the afternoon are one. He who does his rules for which

God has fitted him, he who does his rules for which God has fitted him, are one. Let us never return or go to, excuse me, not return here, praise

God, let's never go to that kind of infantile behavior that would bring any kind of divisiveness to this church or to any team or pair of any kind in this church who are as one working for the

Lord. He goes on, each will receive his wages according to his labor, and here is faith.

Understand that God will reward, that God will give what is right. It's like the parable of the vineyard that Jesus spoke about the men who came to work at different times, and the master, when he got the complaint because some who had worked shorter hours got the same as those who worked longer in the day, he said,

I will give you what is right, I'm giving you what I agreed. Each will receive according to his labor, and that's going to come out more in later passage or later preaching, as I read earlier.

He receives his wages according to his labor, that God will do what is right. And finally, he goes on, he says, for we are

God's fellow workers, we are servants owned by God. You are God's field,

God's building, the building metaphor we'll cover next week, but we are God's fellow workers and you are

God's field. So here are the definitions that we need. Here's where we need to be sure we keep ourselves away from counting on anything to grow us in the

Lord other than the Lord himself. We use the means of grace he's given us.

We come to them, we come to the Lord's table. That's a means of grace.

We come to Bible study. We come to preaching. These are means of grace. We're God's fellow workers. You are God's field.

A field is passive, a field receives this word. It's all

God's, it's all God's. And what Paul says is something like, how dare you gather around his servants?

We're mere servants. How dare you gather around us when it is God who sent us to you? It's God who made any good out of our efforts.

It's God who gets all the glory and all the honor and all the credit for anything that has happened or will happen.

Well, let us close with just a few comments here. We're here to feed you.

But not to grow you, we pray for growth. We do pray for your growth in the

Lord Jesus Christ. But remember that that's not something we can actually accomplish. If I'm here to feed you and not to grow you, is it because I don't care?

God knows I care. God knows calmly cares. No, it's because we're not capable of doing that.

It's more freight than we can carry. You load this truck with that load and our suspension is going to go flat.

Our tires are going to collapse. The frame is going to break. The engine is going to stall. We don't have the power to do what you demand if you demand that we're the ones who grow you in the

Lord Jesus Christ. We feed you. It's your duty to digest.

It's your duty to pray to God and to grow by it. I tell you that the word of God is sweet like honey to your lips.

I plead with you. We plead with you to believe that this word is powerful to save your souls, which is what

James says in James 121. And he writes to believers. He writes to those who are saved.

And what does he mean then? They save their souls. He means that the word is able to save you. The word that is able to save you is the same word that can grow you.

In his immediate context, it means to put away filth and all the rampant wickedness around them. That word is sown here week to week.

It's your duty to grow by it. Only God can grow you. So do you lay down your arms and surrender?

Well, no, you don't say I can passively just wait for God to grow me. I've been talking over and over about the means of grace, what

God has given you to grow you, what God has given you that he will use to grow you, which only he can do. Do you read your

Bible? Are you in Bible study with others? Do you pray? Brethren, do you pray?

Or do you treat Christianity like a hobby and leave it to your pastors or whoever or any mere human to grow you to do what only

God can do? What he will do if you do your part. Read Isaiah five about the vineyard

God planted. You do your part. God uses the means of grace as you dutifully immerse yourself in them and you become that beautiful vineyard that he planted, that he supplied.

He says, when I look for grapes, what did I find? And he says, I found wild grapes. But what could he find if we follow this duty?

Sweet, ripe, ripe and healthy and beautiful few. And why would it be so gorgeous? Because when

God walks in his field, which you are, he finds in you, your life, something that looks like his son,

Jesus Christ. Pray to the

Lord who alone can cleanse you with the living water.

Pray to the Lord to bring you into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, to grow you with the seed that week by week is implanted to you.

Pray to the Lord of life who can give you the living water and supply you with it always.

While we have the mind of Christ, while we have his indwelling spirit and his word, thinking

Christlike thoughts does not come automatically. It's a matter of your duty.

It's a matter of the means of grace. It's a matter of confidence and submission to God who alone can give the growth to you.

What is Paul? What is Apollos? Servants. What is your preacher this morning?

Mere servant. Who gives the growth? The same one who, by his grace, gave you faith to believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ, God and God alone. I would call upon you to receive the word week by week that is planted to you.

I would call upon you to read your Bibles, to study with others your

Bibles, to pray. All the means of grace that we have. Does that mean you'll grow yourself?

Of course not. These are the means of grace that God uses to do what only

God can do, which is to grow you into the image of his son, Jesus Christ. Amen. Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, and we thank you,

Father, for your spirit, for the living spirit who gives life and brings life and continues to grow that life within us.

I pray, Father, that we would be those who would, by your will and by your assignment,

Father, as your servants, grow more and more into the Lord Jesus Christ because of you,

Father, and the spirit that you've given us that accomplishes this in us. And we ask these things and pray in Jesus name.