WWUTT 1458 You Are God's Field (1 Corinthians 3:7-9)

There is a certain laziness that exists among American evangelicalism where we kind of have that cultural

Christianity. We just call ourselves a Christian and we think we're good. But we're all called to grow when we understand the text.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. Back to our study in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and opening up with these first nine verses.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, 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 yet ready for it. And even now you are not yet 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 believed, 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.

So we've been talking this week about the need to grow up in our faith, to mature.

Yesterday we talked about how when we go after those things in our flesh, when we sin, when we give in to temptation, those things keep us from maturity.

So we need to focus upon Christ. We need to be in pursuit of Christ. As it says in Hebrews 12, too, that we need to put off every sin and everything which entangles.

And we need to run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

You know, the Bible says that when we suffer, we share in our sufferings with Christ.

Even when we are tempted, we are sharing in something that Christ went through because he was tempted.

Yet he was without sin. He resisted every temptation. And so we must be as our

Savior and do the same as we endure these things that are in this world.

But we are not stained by the world. That's one of the things that James says in James 1, 27, that religion, our

God and father, receives as pure and faultless is this, to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

So not going the way of the culture, but continuing to be in pursuit of Christ.

When we resist temptation, we grow in Christ. When we are persecuted for our faith and yet endure, we are growing in Christ.

When we read his word, when we encourage one another, when we gather as a church, when we teach and admonish one another, as it says in Colossians 3, 16, these are all ways that we are growing in Christ.

But whatever we pursue in our flesh keeps us from Christ, turns our attention away from Christ, and then we're not growing.

All of these things that are carnality, that are of the flesh, that are behaving in a human way, they keep us from becoming mature men and women of God.

For as Paul is rebuking the Corinthians here, he says, you are not yet ready for some of those deeper things that I need to guide you in, for you are still of the flesh.

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?

Following after humans instead of understanding, as Paul will say in verse 5, that Apollos and Paul are servants through whom you believed.

You aren't believing in Paul, you aren't believing in Apollos, you are to believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ. And those who have served in the service of Christ are those who have led you to Christ.

It is not by them you are saved, you are not saved by the doctrine, the theologian or the teacher who taught you the way.

You are saved by Christ, you are saved by God and his grace that is upon you.

So look to Jesus and grow up in your faith. Stop looking to your own interests and entertaining your own passions, but look to Christ, cling to Christ, reach for Christ.

For it is only through Christ that we receive our growth. As we looked at yesterday in verse 6,

Paul saying, I planted, Apollos watered, but God provided the growth.

God is the one who provides the growth. As Jesus said to his disciples in John 15, 5,

I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

So this growth that we receive is only by God. Now you have a responsibility when

I tell you to repent of your sin, you have a responsibility to hear that and obey it. But as I'm telling you this, it's not my words, it's the word of God.

For Jesus called us to repentance in the beginning of his ministry,

Mark 1 or in Matthew 4, he says, repent and obey the gospel for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

So Jesus calls us to repentance. If your preacher tells you to repent, he's just repeating to you what

Jesus has said. Obey the voice of the shepherd, turn from your sin and turn to Christ.

And through Christ, you receive growth. Apart from Christ, you can do nothing.

So there is a personal responsibility upon each and every one of us to turn from sin and turn to Christ.

But understanding that this work that happens in us is by Christ, it is

God who is working through us. As Paul said to the Philippians, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is

God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. That's Philippians chapter 2, verses 12 and 13,

I believe is the reference there. So you have two verses back to back saying, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

And it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. This is ultimately the will of God.

But you still have this responsibility to turn from your sin, cling to Christ, read his word, gather with his people, his flock, his church.

Because as we're maturing here, this is not a maturity that we receive individually.

The maturity is to be done as a church. We're all growing together. The illustration that Paul gives in Ephesians chapter 4 is that we are a body building itself up in love into the head of the church who is

Christ. In 1 Peter 2, verse 1, I read this to you on Monday.

But going on from this verse into the rest of what Peter says here. So 1 Peter 2, 1.

Put away all malice and all deceit and all hypocrisy and all envy and all slander.

What are those things? Works of the flesh. They're all carnal things. They're all selfish. They're all things that we do for ourselves and not for the benefit of anybody else and certainly not to the glory of God.

In fact, those things tear down other people instead of building one another up. And so Peter goes on in verse 2, like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation.

If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. Now we all have an individual responsibility to this, but there is also a church responsibility that we grow together in this.

Consider verse 4. As you come to him a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious.

You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

For it stands in scripture, behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.

So the honor is for you who believe. But for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

They stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do.

And then a couple of verses that I mentioned to you yesterday, verses 9 and 10. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.

You hear the plural words that are used there.

You, the church, he's talking to the whole church. We're individual stones, but we are being built up as a house unto the

Lord. This is the whole church together. So this maturity happens together in the body of Christ.

I quoted to you from Hebrews chapter 12, where it says to put off every sin and turn to Jesus, who is the author and the perfecter of our faith.

Well, just a few verses before that, right at the end of Hebrews chapter 11, when the preacher there in Hebrews 11 goes through the hall of faith, all of these

Old Testament faithful people who had put their faith in trust in God, and it was credited to them as righteousness in verse 39.

It says there, and all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised since God had promised something better for us, that apart from us, they should not be made perfect.

Now, that's an interesting thing to say. See, as we are growing in maturity, we are also perfecting those of faith who came before us, because all of us, again, are being built up into a house unto the

Lord. There were bricks that were laid long before you got here, and you're another brick that is being built up in this spiritual house.

And so we, even those who are the bricks under us, they're all benefiting from the growth of this house.

We're being perfected in Christ. The whole church, even people who lived before the cross of Christ, and yet put their faith and trust in God, all of us are being built up as a house unto the

Lord, that we should be presented before him perfect on that day that we are presented to Christ in splendor, on the day of his return.

So all of us, as we grow, as we mature, the whole body of Christ is benefited, not just the church you attend, but other churches that are growing in Christ, and churches that have gone before us.

Those saints that have since departed this world and gone to be with Christ, the whole bride has not been presented to Christ yet.

That doesn't happen until every single saint, predestined from before the foundation of the world, comes together in glory to be presented before God, and we have that wedding feast of the

Lamb that is talked about there in the book of Revelation. And God will give to each and every one of us according to his work.

Paul goes on to talk about that here in 1 Corinthians 3. He says, I planted, Apollos watered,

God gave the growth, so neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only

God who gives the growth. You have the person who plants, the person who waters, who gets the glory here?

God, because he's the one who provides the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one.

Jesus talked about this with the disciples in John chapter 4, where he said, you're going to go out into the fields, and you're going to harvest what somebody else has already planted.

But the one who plants and the one who harvests receives the same reward. And so Paul using that same analogy here, he who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.

Jesus says in Revelation 2 .23, all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.

When you get to the end of Revelation, we read about great books being opened up, and each one is judged according to his work.

And so we are all fellow workers. Paul says to the Corinthians, you are

God's field, God's building, right? Just the same as Peter says in 1

Peter 2, that we're all being built up as a spiritual house unto the Lord. You are God's field.

You are the harvest that you might produce fruit. As Jesus said in John 15, whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit for apart from me, you can do nothing.

It is the father who is the vine dresser. Jesus said that in John 15 .1. I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser.

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

So this is important to remember here. We have an obligation, a command of God to mature, to grow in this faith.

We cannot settle for mediocrity. For mediocrity may actually reveal that we were not truly in Christ at all.

If we're not bearing fruit, how can we say that we are truly part of the vine? Those that do not bear fruit,

God will prune and cut off. Those that do bear fruit, he's going to trim so that we may produce more fruit.

This is the discipline, the spiritual growth that we receive from God who gives to all who ask of him.

Listen to this word from Vodie Bauckham. This was something that he preached. It was several years back, but still very important for us to recognize as we understand this command to grow up in our faith.

One of the marks of a man who's been walking with God over time is that he ought to be sound in faith.

If there is anything that burdens me, it is this idea.

In our culture, in modern American Christianity, we will not tolerate biblical, theological, and spiritual maturity in men.

Let me say that again. In modern American Christianity, we will not tolerate biblical, spiritual, theological maturity in men.

You just can't have it. Nothing above mediocrity. Oh, what do you mean? I mean, we're at this conference, and we,

I mean, of course we're all about this. We want men to be mature. We want men to grow up. Listen, I can prove it to you. In most of our churches, if you have a young man who's 16, 17, 18 years old, and this young man is reading church history, and he's reading theology, he knows his

Bible, he's studying his Bible, he has a passion for the word of God, has a passion for the things of God, and a passion for the people of God.

You know what happens in the average American church? They look at that 16, 17, 18 -year -old young man, and they say,

God must be calling you to preach. Really?

Why? Because you love the Bible, you love theology, you love church history, you're passionate about the things of God.

Now, what we ought to say is, well, that just means you're a Christian, right? No, not in the modern

American church. And you know this is true. In the modern American church, if a young man gets that serious about the things of God, immediately the mediocrity of manhood in the modern

American church says, you need to get away from the rest of us, because we will not tolerate your passion.

You've got to go get a seminary degree. You've got to go become a pastor. You've got to put Reverend in front of your name, so that I no longer feel guilty about my own mediocre pursuits.

And because of that, modern American Christianity is the only place in our culture where we will tolerate this cognitive dissonance between a man who will say,

I've been walking with God 30, 40, 50 years, and I know nothing. Because anywhere else,

I don't care what, you name the field. Name the field where in our culture, and I'm talking about just anybody, just lost pagans.

Name the field. I don't care if it's brick laying. I don't care if it's truck driving, whatever it is. If there's a man on the job who says,

I've been doing this for 20 years, 30 years, 40 years. And another young man comes to the job and says, hey,

I've heard you've been doing this 30 years, 40 years. I know if there's anybody who can show me the ropes, you can show me the ropes.

And we'd all say, yeah, of course, if he's been doing it that long, you ought to be able to come to him, and he ought to be able to show you the ropes.

Well, what if the young man comes to the older man, who's been doing this for 30, 40, 50 years, and says, brother, you've been laying bricks for 40 years, and I've just started.

Can I just come alongside you and watch you, so that I can learn how to be a bricklayer, because I'm sure you're a master at it now.

Oh, I ain't no master bricklayer. I don't know nothing about no bricks.

Now, see, we laugh, but how about this?

You've been walking with God 20, 30, 40 years. Sir, can

I come alongside you as a younger man, and you mentor me in doctrine, theology,

Bible, and church history? What's the response? I ain't no preacher. It's the only place in America where we accept something so ludicrous.

Where a man can say, I've been walking with God 30, 40 years, and I proudly declare,

I know nothing. I'm ignorant. I'm a babe in Christ.

A 40 -year -old baby, and I'm not ashamed of it. Nowhere else is that acceptable.

Only in the church. Only in the church. But the text says, one of the evidences of a man that belongs to God, who has been walking with God over time, is that he is sound in faith.

He's sound. We're called to contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all handed down to the saints.

And yet we proudly proclaim that because we don't have ordination papers, we're unwilling and unable to do it.

If nothing else, just having read through the Bible for 40 years ought to make you somewhat of an expert.

Amen? Hard -hitting words from Dr. Vodie Bauckham. Remember that Jesus said in Matthew chapter 16,

I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

God uses human tools to grow his church, so you are an instrument even in this growth that is happening.

You have a responsibility to one another, not just to mature yourself, but to see that your brother and sister in the

Lord are raised up in this faith also. Let us be a service to one another, and doing all this to the glory of God, who gives the growth.

Heavenly Father, thank you for your kindness and your goodness. Forgive us when we have become lazy and complacent, and have not done the work that is required of us to grow in our own faith, in our own walk as we look to Christ, and that we would also help our brother and sister in the

Lord. If we're not growing in the faith, our brother and sister are not growing in the faith. So all of this to the benefit of the whole church, and to the glory of our

God and King, who saves us and has called us by his own goodness and mercy.

Turn our eyes upon Jesus. We pray in his precious name. Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the

Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study.

Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.