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Bro. Otis Fisher
First Corinthians, chapter 3, verse 3, Paul is speaking to these people and pointing out things where they need to grow, things they need to leave behind.
And he says, For ye are yet carnal, for whereas there is among you envying, strife, divisions, are you not carnal, and walk as men?
While one saith, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are you not carnal?
It seems as though the people in the church were divided, which is very unfortunate in any church, and some of them preferred to sit under Paul, others under Apollos, others under someone else.
And this should not be. First of all, there should be no teacher or preacher in a church speaking to the congregation that is not
Spirit -filled, in the will of God, speaking the words of God. Where there is a difference is in the delivery.
And if we are enticed by a man's speech, then we're looking at the wrong thing.
It may be fun to listen to somebody talk, but that's all it is, is a fun talk.
And he says, You are carnal as long as you are like this. He says,
Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the
Lord gave to every man? God has long, long ago decreed that each of his people shall have everything needed to function on this earth in his body.
Also, I would have you understand that this decree that was made long, long ago will hold throughout the ages to come.
And let me be sure you understand what I'm saying. He has ordained, predestined, not only each one of his people to spend eternity with him, but he has predestined everything that they will do, everything they will not do.
And that decree is once for all. When we leave this life, we do not leave that decree.
It goes with us, because in the next life, we will have everything that we need to function as we should in the body of Christ in the next life.
He will not make a new decree with each age. He's already made it, and it's an all -covering decree for eternity.
So, that brings me back to the necessity of studying now, while we are yet in this life, in this probationary period, so to speak.
We must study to the fullest right now in this life, or we will forever come behind where we could have been in eternity.
Now, I want you to get over the idea that, if you ever had it, that when we leave this life and go into the beginning and end of eternity, we'll know everything.
We'll have no questions. We'll have nothing left to learn. It'll just be one happy existence.
Well, it's going to be happy and joyful, all right, and we will be praising the Lord, all right.
But there are degrees in heaven, just as there are degrees of punishment in hell.
The degree in which you enter into eternity depends on where you are right now, right here.
Now, if we knew the moment before we died and could cram for the exam, we would do it.
But we don't. So we must live every moment as though the next is the last.
And if we shortchange ourself here, it's just that. We're just shorting ourself.
This holds also with the evil crowd,
Satan's seed. They have been granted everything they need to obey.
When we say that God has predestined all things, what does that mean?
Virge? Everything. Everything created. All right.
What about the movement of the blade of grass? Created that too. Is that predestined?
Sure is. Even the movement? You see, if it was not like that, you would spend your life looking for the division line.
What is and what isn't. But Dennis, everything is predestined by God.
That just concludes everything. It is meant that even the movement of the blade of grass to the furthest planet and the smallest rock on it, space itself is as it was ordained to be.
Verse six. I have planted, Apollos watered, but who gave the increase?
God. And Fred, it can't be any other way. It just has to be
God to give the increase or we'd have competition between man and God. God doesn't enter into any competition.
So then, neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth anything, but God that giveth the increase.
Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one.
Now David, think with me for a moment, only you think out loud. What's the meaning that the one that plants and the one that waters is one?
It means here is more important than the other. It's part of God's plan in life, working together not against one another.
All right. Although they may be in different places, teaching different things, different aspects of the truth, they are as one.
And every man shall receive his own reward according to his own, what?
His own labor. Verge, I'll never be disqualified because of you.
I'll never receive a reward because of you. Every man.
Now notice he said every man, he did not say every believer. Every man.
Bill, what's the difference between man and believer? So is it important that he said every man?
All right. Everyone. When he says man, he means every person.
Now let's see if we can find a reason for this. The reason that no one can come to the
Lord with their own works. You've probably, and I know
I have heard different people that had gained a state of notoriety in the entertainment world, especially, and they become saved and they have made the statement that now they can sing for the
Lord, or now they can play for the Lord, or now they can use their talent to glorify
God. Bill, what's wrong with that statement? Well, it is, what's wrong with it is that their talent to glorify
God, so that they have it all, is, is, is, you know, but I think it kind of relates back to the first step, when he talked about, and he would,
I'm sorry, he had a very simple one, but he had nothing paid for, he just needed a lemon, he needed water for one.
Neither did what they did because of their own planning or their own strategy.
Paul did what he did, you know, and that was what was in the name of God, what he had to do. God gave him the instructions,
God gave him the means that he needed, and so did the prophets, and so did the physicians that had something to say for us, or to provide for us, and they're wrong, and they are the ones that really do the things that we've got to get to.
All right. All right, suppose I pick three of you, as far as I'm concerned,
I pick them at random, and I bring you up here on the front seat with Greg. Now, I have certain work for each one of you to do.
It's reasonable to assume that some will do it more efficiently than others, but we're going to start with you knowing nothing about the job.
This is a new project, a new product, you have learned, you have heard nothing about it, and you're all starting from the same baseline.
How am I going to judge the output or the production of these three or four people if one of you come with full knowledge of the product, and act on that knowledge?
Can I judge all of you fairly? How? Gave us the balance, that's what we have, that's the way it is.
All right. Now, I want all of you to take it out of the Bible. You've gone to work for me in the business world.
We're not discussing spiritual things, we are simply, and I don't mean that God hasn't given everything, because he has, but we're assuming that everybody comes with their own little piece of knowledge, which is supposed to be zero, concerning this new product.
But I find out later that one of you had a lot of information to start. Now, Russell, is it possible, possible then for me to judge each one?
It's possible for me to judge. Yes. Well, fairly is assumed.
Probably not. Now, what Fred said was right. But we're setting all of the
God -assigned things aside for a moment. Well, brothers, isn't the difference when you bring three people up, you don't know what talents and what skills they bring to the job.
And when you give them the job to do, you see one does it better than the others. You can't make the follow -up that this person is better for that job because he did a better job today because he made a follow -up.
I think that's where you're going. But when God brings somebody to the table to do a job, he knows precisely what he's going to take them on.
So he makes a different judgment. First of all, he selects them to do the job that we might make, and he makes a judgment based upon understanding what they have.
Well, all of that's true, but I'm not getting my point over. What I want to convey to you is that the reason that no one can come to the
Lord with their own works or talents is simply because this is the only way that everything we do can be attributed to him.
If one comes with a talent of singing and decides to use that to serve the Lord, then he has taken it on himself to better God's movement on earth.
You can't do that. Everything is of God. The point
Paul is following here is that one is not any better than the other. They're all one in Christ, and everyone comes with no talent, no matter how intelligent, how well -versed you are.
The talent that is used for God starts when you come to God. Now, it might be in the area in which you are well -versed, and it might not, but we cannot come expecting to use that which
I know. That's rather vague. What I'm trying to say is that everyone comes with nothing.
You do not bring anything to God. You do not bring anything to Christ, even though he has gifted you with a lot of ability to do something.
You don't bring that to God. He chooses whether to use it or not.
It is his choice, if there is a choice, because if we did not all come with nothing, then some would have an advantage over the other.
Does anybody understand what I'm saying? But what if you have yourself hiring, say, three people up here, and one has more talent than the other, you find that later, you don't always think about it, one has more talent than the other, you, being human, would use the one with the most talent.
Does that sound correct to you? Well, yes. God, we come to God with nothing, but he chooses what to use, what we have.
He knows what we have. Because he gave it. But the idea from our viewpoint,
David, what I'm clumsily trying to say is that no one comes to God with anything.
You just can't put anything in that blank. Maybe you could put it this way, say it this way, that everyone comes to God with something, but the thing they have is part of them.
It's spiritual. All right. And when you get saved and you come into God's kingdom and into his realm, it is a spiritual realm.
And some people are mistaken by thinking that to bring the carnal baggage, even maybe in man's viewpoint, maybe beautiful, maybe the ability to sing beautifully, but it is a carnal thing in and of itself, and the only way to use the spiritual realm is if God wants it.
That's a totally sovereign choice of God. And I have seen sinners in churches all my life who get up and do a marvelous job from a technical point of view, and it has no anointing from God whatsoever.
And I'm sure I've seen preachers preach that way all across the board, but that's why we can't bring anything, because all we bring is carnal, fleshly abilities.
Even though God gave those too, it doesn't mean he'll use it in the spiritual world. That's right.
Thank you. That helped clarify it in my mind. It's all carnal.
Everything that we would bring would be carnal. Any questions? Well, think about it.
For we are laborers together with God. Ye are God's husbandry.
Ye are God's building. I want to lay a good foundation.
We are all laborers together with God. We're all working for the same goal.
That's Jesus Christ, the glory of the Heavenly Father. Ye is singular.
Ye and ye and ye and ye. Not collective. Ye are
God's husbandry, plural. All of us together make up the husbandry.
Now, Joy, that's a strange word for us Texans. What's it mean? This is referring to E .C.
Fred? We are his creation.
All right. Greg? Husbandry. Well, it usually has to do with agriculture.
But what does it mean to be the husband or husbandry? The worker.
Who said that? Harvey? Harvey didn't put his hand up.
All right. All right. It's the worker himself. So one that works with developing a better strain of cattle is a husbandry in the business of a husbandry of cattle.
So we are his husbandry. No particular category. We are his to work wherever he puts us in whatever area that we find ourself.
And it means we are held responsible, a steward, if you please. We are
God's building. Important. We are his building.
Now, Dennis, we think we know what it means by building. Just by way of information.
What's that mean to you? Well, I have a question. Is a building a noun?
Is it being in play? Or is it a structure? Or is it a bar or something that he's actually putting together?
No, this is a noun. All right.
All right. Now, we're God's house. God's building.
Wouldn't it be we are the results? Yes. Now, I want you to understand something.
Man would have neither work to do nor strength to do it unless God had given it to him.
Russell, we think we go to school and get educated and come out with a degree. And now I can do something.
Well, if you do something, it's because it's given to you by God, even the education. Even life itself.
Man would have neither work to do, Greg. You wouldn't have a job if it wasn't for God.
You wouldn't have the strength to do it if he hadn't given it to you. Now, by strength, I don't mean just physical.
I mean mental, spiritual, financial, whatever. John 11, 38.
Go to that with me, please. And I'd like for you to hold your finger there and go over to Mark 4, 37.
And then hold your finger there and come back to John 11, 38. Are most of you with me?
John 11, 38. Jesus, therefore, again, groaning in himself, cometh to the grave.
It was a cave and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, take he away the stone.
Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days.
Now go to Mark 4, verse 37 is where we'll start.
And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat unto the ship, so that it was now full.
So we get the picture that the ship is full of water. And he was in the hinder part of the ship, being
Jesus, asleep on a pillow. And they awake him and say unto him,
Master, carest thou not that we perish? He arose and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea,
Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
Two questions. The first one had to do with Lazarus, and he told them to roll the stone back.
And the second one was a storm on the sea, and he calmed the wind and the sea.
Now, Greg, he's going to raise Lazarus from the dead.
Boy, that's going to take some power. Why did he have somebody else roll the stone back?
Could he not have done that? When he's on board ship and was about to sink, he stilled the storm and the wind, but why didn't he help him bail the boat out?
So what do you learn from this? All right.
He will do that which is impossible for man. For us to not do that which we can is blasphemy.
It's a sin. It is putting God in a position of debtor, because you can quote a scripture that says,
I will be with you forever. I will protect you and take care of you. You will be my people, and I will be your
God. Then for us to not act upon something which we can act upon is tempting
God. And you don't tempt God. We must do our part.
And if you wonder what part that is, it'll be the part you can't do. Now, don't say, well,
I can't do that. I can't sing. I can't teach. I can't sweep the floor. I can't.
I can't. And say, he told me that if I would do what
I could, then he'd do the rest. That means since I can't sweep the floor, he will. But he might sweep it up with you.
But he's given us a brain and common sense, and we're to use that.
And you can't fool him. Four or five points here.
God provides the work. Is that right? Whatever it is, he provides it.
God gives us the strength to do it. Is that right? God gives the knowledge to do it.
Now, that doesn't mean that you won't have to go to school to gain that knowledge. But any knowledge gained is from him.
God gives the situation in which you find yourself.
Is that right? God controls the circumstances.
Is that right? Well, then, Virge, what's left for us? To obey whatever he tells us to do.
We need to do our part. And our part is just to do it. Just to do it. He provides the work, the strength, the knowledge, the situation, and circumstance.
And all that is left is for us to do it. Don't ever try to get out of it.
Any questions? Thoughts? I'm proud of it.
Yes, absolutely. Do you think after we do it, we're strong?
Oh, we fall so far short. I can remember when I was... Well, any job that I was involved in after we moved here, and we got the clock shop and furniture refinishing open,
I was so proud of the work that turned out. And honestly, I was proud because the
Lord had made it possible for me to do it. But, you know, I still like to hear people brag on it.
When I would create a screen door, it just thrilled my heart for somebody to just not believe what they're seeing.
And all of the time, I knew in my heart that it was the Lord that had done it, not me.
It's a battle. Paul had the same battle. So in Corinthians 10, 31, whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Now that ought to settle it, folks. We like to hold out one little corner someplace.
Whatsoever in Colossians 3, 17, whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the
Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. Colossians 3, 23, and whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the
Lord and not unto men. Too many times we want men to brag on it.
Now, verse 10, according to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder,
I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereupon.
Thereon, but let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon.
Now, first of all, he did not say, let every man take heed what kind of foundation he lays.
There's only one foundation. Bill, what is it? That's belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Okay, it's Jesus Christ himself. Death and resurrection. We're to guard against, one, false instructions.
Two, the instructions of false teachers. Now, stop for a moment.
Greg, what's the difference in false instructions and instructions of false teachers? Second time, it's about the teacher.
All right, so by that, then can we get false instructions from a sincere
God -teaching preacher? Yes, it's possible.
It is possible. It's because of lack of study on his part, dedication.
He may lead you wrong. The first can be from a godly preacher that is misinformed.
The second is the seed of Satan. For other foundation, singular, can no man lay than that is laid, which is
Jesus Christ. Paul says, I laid the foundation. Does that mean he's the foundation?
No, he laid it. What's it mean, Bill, that Paul laid the foundation?
He introduced the believers of that church to what that foundation was.
Okay, he presented to them the foundation. He presented
Jesus Christ as the foundation. Everything's built on him.
How many foundations does a building have, Dennis? One. Now, if any man build upon this foundation with gold, silver, and precious stones, what's fire do to those?
Purifies. Wood, hay, stubble.
Russell, what's fire do to those? Consumes them.
Every man's, this means all people, saved and doomed. Every man's work shall be made manifest.
My, what a statement. For the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire.
And the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
Let's go back. For every man's work shall be made manifest.
Brother David, every man's work will be made manifest.
Now, manifest means to be made visible. To whom will it be made visible?
To the man. All right, will this be a private showing?
Will the man himself? And it's not dealt with properly here.
Will be dealt with there. If, while in this life, if you have violated your conscience and you know it, you have not confessed to sin and it bothers you, what's one of the main things that concerns you?
If you're not going to confess. Who said that? We're afraid someone's going to find out.
Now, are we afraid God's going to find out? Are we fearful that we will find out?
But then who's left? Other people. I think, yes, yes, we like to make ourselves think that.
But from that, I would have to say that to be made manifest means it's going to be visible to others.
If you're afraid it's going to be found out here, what are you going to do there? Wouldn't it be better to wipe it out here?
If any man's work abide, which is built thereon, thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
So, Russell, going back to your answer, if any man's work abide, it would have to be built from what kind of material?
That would be sand, dirt, paste, and fire. The deeds that we do should be praised.
Debra? That's right.
So now we're down to something coming from God and something coming from ourself.
How can we detect the difference, Harvey? The fire will be made manifest.
All right, let me ask it this way. Wednesday morning, all of you housewives that are at home, you have the thought to bake a cake for little
Miss Somebody that lives on the wrong side of the track, that's poor, and you just can't get it off your mind and you bake the cake.
What do you suppose has prompted you to do that? All right, the
Holy Spirit. What if you do it and then things come up to where you never get to deliver it?
What then, Dennis? Well, maybe on the way over you was run over by a truck and had to go to the hospital.
And you never did get to take the cake. Harvey? Thank you.
If we are obedient to the intentions of the
Holy Spirit, it's not our job to see that it's finished. We carry it out as far as we can go.
But you remember what the Lord said about a dirty old man that looks at a woman?
Is he guilty? When? Already.
So it'd be the same way on the good deed. If you really intended to do this and you knew that the impression was from the
Lord, yet you did not get to carry it out, it was he that prevented it.
So in his eyes, the same as if you did it. Now, you cannot take it upon yourself to do something because every time you do, you have an ulterior motive.
It's either seeking a pat on the back. It'll be from pride, whatever it is.
Or to impress some neighbors, other neighbors. Or to go and see if she really is as poor as she claims to be.
So on and so forth. That is not of the Holy Spirit.
All right. If any man's work abides, now, we can know right here in this life about our work.
We must stop here. Well, let me touch on one other thing.
What in the final analysis is the product of our work in the very bottom line of what is the product of anything that we do in regard to other people?
Nothing to do with the salvation. Nothing to do with your rewards.
Maybe indirectly. But what I want you to find is the final analysis in the product of our good deeds that we do to others or bad deeds.
What does it accomplish? Well, that's true.
But that's not the final bottom line. Pat. All right.
It's hard for me to phrase the question right. Let me just tell you.
The final analysis of everything that we do results in the influence you had upon others while doing it.
Remember that the work is not the personal character of the person. But the influence he has had on the character of others.
That's why we can do something to someone as though we do it to God.
It is what I do should bring praise and glory to God or honor to God.
But also what is the final influence of my doing it?
What has that done to the character of others? Sure.
The influence upon others is our life here on earth.
We'll stop right there and come back to it next week. Now I have in the last two minutes a very.
Let me read this now one to a family. But wait, wait just a minute. This is something that's very prominent on my mind lately.
First Corinthians 3 16 and you'll get a copy. You know not know you not that you are the temple of God and the spirit of God dwelleth in you.
Question how do we know that the body is not the man? Answer because man can and does exist without the body.
So we know the body is not the man. First Corinthians 3 17 if any man defiles the temple of God him shall
God destroy. For the temple of God is holy which temple you are and the word temple has been added.
It should read which you are because the word holy. Refer the word of which you are refers to the word holy.
Question is it reasonable that a holy, righteous, pure, undefiled, godly creature would dwell, live in, reside in, stay at home in a sinful, lustly, lustful, debauched, wretched house?
Would a godly creature live in such a dirty pigsty? Of course the answer is no.
Is it reasonable that you can house or keep a godly spirit in a deplorable dwelling?
And the answer is no. I want you to take these one to a family and if there's any left hand them out.