The of Day of Fire | Sermon 11/03/2024

All right, if you would, please turn with me in your Bibles to the first letter to the

Corinthians. We're in Chapter three going to be in verses 10 through 17 today.

The title of the sermon church. Is the day of fire. The day of fire.

So starting in verse 10. Of the first letter of the Corinthians, Chapter three, here now the inerrant and infallible word of the living and true

God. According to the grace of God, which was given to me like a wise master builder,

I laid a foundation and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it.

For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident for the day.

We'll show it because it is to be revealed with fire and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work.

If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved yet.

So as through fire. Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you?

If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy and that is what you are.

Thus ends the reading of God's holy and magnificent word. Let's pray once more as a church.

Lord, as we approach your word today, I ask that you would illuminate the scriptures by the

Holy Spirit the same Holy Spirit who inspired them, who gave us these.

Lord, your word is eternal, has relevance today. It is sufficient and it shows us your wisdom.

We've been talking a lot about that. We need your wisdom, dear God. We need to know the mind of Christ.

And so, Lord, with such a complex section of the text, would you please explain to us,

Lord, what this day of fire is and what exactly is happening in this, Lord? We seek to know that we can be ready for that day, ready to face you with gladness.

So, Lord, please be with us. Keep us focused on you and your word this morning. In Jesus name, I pray.

Amen. Well, church, last week we saw the

Apostle Paul speaking with agricultural language, right? He talked about farming and growth and he demonstrated what?

That we're all fellow farmers. We are God's field. And he said we are all one.

And Paul did this to combat the division that was occurring in Corinth because that division was stunting the growth of everyone.

At the end of our section, the Jewish evangelist said, we are God's building.

And that will lead now into a discussion of works, rewards and the final day right here in our text.

And this is an analogy that the Corinthians grew up understanding. They could grasp construction and building very well.

By this time, they had already seen the construction of many, many buildings.

There was the Temple of Apollo with these massive, massive columns.

You had the Temple of Octavia built upon this raised podium platform, this base.

And then the Romans had even built at this time these theaters with some stadium seating and stages all out of stone and various materials.

They've seen these things their whole lives. And of course, there were the infamous Roman baths where there was even a cooling room and then there was a warming room and even the latrine room, right, where everyone sat communally and did their business.

And you would talk in the morning sitting on your stone hole and going to the bathroom. And this is something that they grew up with.

They understood construction. They understood these things. And it took planning.

They understood that these things took planning. Organization was a must to build any of this sort of stuff.

And it took laborers. So you have masons, carpenters, engravers, and just pure muscle as well.

It took a lot of materials, a lot of materials. And upon breaking ground, everyone knew a quality building needed a strong foundation.

Fail to respect the building process, though, in the start, the middle, or the end, that would result in a doomed structure, doomed to ruin.

And the Apostle Paul doesn't want the church in Corinth, he's saying, oh, you're my building,

Corinthians, you're my building. And he doesn't want them to be doomed to ruin. He doesn't want them to fall over.

And that's why he's written so strongly from the beginning. So let's take a look. Verse 10, he says,

According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder, I laid a foundation, and another is building on it, but each man must be careful how he builds on it.

So before the Apostle Paul speaks on anything he or any man or woman has built for the kingdom or in the kingdom, he demonstrates how we are even able to build, okay?

How is this possible? All of the good works, all of the deeds done in righteousness, all of the watering, all of the sowing of seeds, the servanthood, all of it, all that we do as Christians is according to the grace of God given to each redeemed worker in Christ.

That's what he says. According to the grace of God given me. It's got to start there.

And that's a consistent theme throughout Scripture. Grace is what comes first.

It enables one to work deeds that the Almighty approves of.

One must be saved first. And so that means that God must do a work in me and in you before we can do any work in His name.

Right? We saw it a couple of weeks ago. Then the natural man, he says, the natural man, the man who's just a soul cannot please

God, and he does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. So the Spirit must come to you and make you spiritual.

And we saw what the definition of spiritual was. It's being indwelt by the

Holy Spirit. That's the only way someone's spiritual. And so think of our favorite passages on the topic of grace.

You have what everyone goes to Ephesians 2, 8 through 9. For by grace you've been saved through faith, for it's a gift of God, not a result of works, not according to man, so that no one may boast.

It's one of the verses that we love most, especially talking with Mormons or works -based religions.

But what's interesting is verse 10 comes next. The grace, though, must come before verse 10 can.

It's sequential for a reason. You cannot work before you can work.

Because think about Ephesians 2, 10. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which

God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. So the grace of God takes someone like you and me, before we were saved, and we used to be a demolition worker.

We used to want to tear down the things of God. We were in rebellion to God, and He takes us from being a demolition worker and He makes us someone who works righteousness in the kingdom of God.

It's important for Paul to mention this. Even before any rewards are given, before the works are done and before any rewards are given, grace must come first.

Because according to the grace of God, we were saved. According to the grace of God given us, we work these works.

According to the grace of God given us, we will receive any sort of rewards. Grace is always the starting place.

I think it's important that he does that. He says, like a wise master builder,

I laid a foundation. St. Paul states, I was a wise architecton.

Architecton, this is where we get the word architect. Arche means the beginning.

And this is one who initiates the project. The architect starts the project, stays with it to the end, and observes it and rules over it from start to finish.

And like any wise architect, you don't start building walls, and try to arrange them in a rectangular shape.

They'll just fall down. You don't build a roof first, and then you try to jack up one side of the roof and build a wall from the top to the bottom.

It doesn't work that way. You don't start with siding. You don't start with drywall.

You don't start with any of the finishing until you've done the most important step. The wise architect lays a foundation.

Lays a foundation. Jesus even said in Luke 6, verse 49, Jesus said, the one who builds a house without a foundation can expect for it to collapse.

It will fall. He says, great will be the ruin of that house.

Very great. And so a foundation in construction is a solid base of which the structure is built upon.

It rests upon it. It is the bottom part. As many wise men have said, a house is only as good as its foundation, right?

And so that's what Paul sees here. And I believe what Paul is telling the Corinthians is that when he came to Greece and he proclaimed

Christ crucified in Corinth and they started to believe, he laid a foundation there by the grace of God.

He erected the most crucial aspect of the Corinthian church.

The base. Paul built the base on which everything else is built.

And he says, since I left, others have come to build upon it.

And you say, is that bad? Is that wrong? I started this foundation and he says another is building upon it.

That's not bad. That is to be expected. Paul called Timothy, Titus, Epaphras, Luke, among many others, he called them his fellow workers in Christ.

He called Apollos a fellow servant. Then he said in verse 9, we are

God's fellow workers. We are co -workers here. We are co -builders in this building of God.

Because the kingdom with Christ at its head won't be built by one single man.

One human won't build it. You know, we often try to elevate Peter as the first pope or just the pope in general of our day.

We elevate these people at Christendom. They are the builder.

They are not the builder. They are one of the builders. Well, not the pope. But we are fellow workers.

It won't be built by one. There have been a lot of great men who have started foundations in new areas, but these men die.

They move on. They go away. They've built a foundation. Another comes and builds upon it.

And the greatest ones who build are often nameless. The nameless ones often keep it going.

It's never just one. It's not just the leaders.

It's the entire congregation. It's going to take the whole of God's people to build

God's kingdom. And Paul knew that. So he doesn't speak bitterly.

He doesn't speak jealously. But he speaks cautiously. There's a warning here.

We'll get to that. They discovered an ancient contract from the 2nd century

B .C. A couple hundred years before Jesus Christ came on the scene. They found an ancient

Roman contract with the architect. Here's what it said. He shall work continually.

He shall hire enough skilled craftsmen and he must be warned along with any who take part in the work against stealing fraudulently.

He is also warned that the work must be demonstrated one day as worthy.

There will be an inspection. It will have to be deemed worthy. And that's in our text.

Each man, Paul says, must be careful how he builds upon the foundation.

And so, maybe he's referring to elders who are leading at the church at Corinth.

Maybe he's thinking about the men who are these leaders of these factions. They've got to be careful.

Because as much as a good foundation is paramount to a sound structure, the way other laborers build on a quality foundation can change its worth.

And I've seen that in my life. I've seen that when I was a young boy a few times.

We couldn't ever really afford an airfare. And we would do long road trips for vacation.

We were living briefly in the east side of Texas in a place called

The Woodlands for just like a year and a half. But mostly I've lived my life in California, Arizona, and Utah now.

And we drove all the way talk about the most boring drive in the universe east end of Texas or I should do this east end of Texas all the way to Los Angeles where all our family are.

And I've driven from Phoenix to California California, Los Angeles up to Washington State.

And do you ever see those buildings that are just dilapidated? They're down and you wonder number one, who built that?

What did they do for a living? Where did they get their food? And why did they live all the way out here?

And then why did they leave? Do you ever think that stuff? I think that stuff all the time when I'm on a road trip.

But you often see I would see a foundation, I would see a base, concrete, wood, whatever, it was still there.

But then all the roof was collapsed maybe there was a few studs up, but that's it.

Windows were broken out. And so it's important to Paul that not only the foundation be built well but that anyone who builds above that foundation it be of the same quality.

That's very important. Especially when you see that he says it's

God's building. It belongs to God. You remember God has meticulous instructions for the construction of the tabernacle.

How much more does God love the church made up of people rather than a tent made of canvas?

Because the building that we're talking about is the people of God. This is serious to Him.

This is so serious to God. How this building is built.

So he'll address right now the importance of the right foundation and not tearing up the one that's already been built.

Verse 11, for no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid which is

Jesus Christ. So the foundation is finally identified. It's Jesus Christ.

And the strongest parts of the foundation are its cornerstones. And the cornerstones of the foundation are

Christ crucified. They're the gospel. Now what happened in Paul's ministry is he'd lay this sound, strong, firm foundation of Jesus Christ with these cornerstones, but then false brethren would come behind him.

The Judaizers, other men. He would be there in a place for a year, year and a half, two years, sometimes three.

And you know what would happen is men would come after Paul and this might have been the thorn in his side.

He was so frustrated with these men. He would call them the false circumcision, the false brethren, false teachers.

He would say they're going to hell because he would lay a foundation of Jesus Christ. Men would come after him and pervert what was laid.

And either they would take a pickaxe and a sledgehammer and they would destroy the foundation of Christ and they would start another or they would build weird stuff on top of it and that is what would happen to him in his ministry.

You even have though well -meaning, sound theological pastors and teachers and evangelists trying to teach but it was a little weird but they would build upon these foundations that would happen.

Maybe self -centered pastors, self -centered preachers. His prayers were often that God would provide righteous and Christ -loving laborers after he's gone.

Because building on the foundation rightly is keeping the building in line with the plum and true straight cornerstone of Jesus Christ.

That kind of structure built on Christ, with Christ, by the power of Christ, that can't be shaken.

It can't be torn down. And on the flip side, you don't start building something else.

Brothers and sisters, as soon as as soon as you do that, as soon as you start to build, so here's the foundation, it was laid and then you come over here and you reject that and you start to build something else on a new foundation, you've just changed things.

We see that. We see that especially in the Old Testament, we see that with Jeroboam. Go to 1

Kings 12 or go to your printout real quick, let's read it together. Because as soon as you start a new structure you're building an idle temple.

You're not building on the cornerstone of Christ. So think, look at this. At this time the kingdom is split,

Rehoboam is the king in Judah, where Jerusalem is, that's where the temple of God is, but then now the ten northern tribes are split into the northern kingdom they call that Israel.

Israel and Judah, and so they get their first king. And this man's name is Jeroboam.

Look at 1 Kings 12 verses 25 -31. Here's what he did. Then Jeroboam built

Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. And he went out from there and built

Penuel. Jeroboam said in his heart now the people will return to the house of David.

If this people go to offer sacrifices in the house of the

Lord of Jerusalem then the heart of these people will return to their Lord.

Even return to Rehoboam king of Judah and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.

So the king consulted and he made two golden calves and he said to them, to the people it is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem.

Behold these are your gods, O Israel they are the ones that brought you up from the land of Egypt. And he set one golden calf in Bethel and the other he put in Dan.

Now this thing became a sin. For the people went to worship before the one even as far as Dan.

And he made houses on high places and he made priests from among all the people who were not of the sons of Levi.

So Jeroboam demonstrates that anything built not on our

Lord is in competition with him. He did a false copycat and he pointed wickedly to these golden calves and said these are

Yahweh, these are the Lord who brought you up out of Egypt. Blasphemy. It's evil.

It's idolatrous. God doesn't dwell there. God's presence wasn't with these golden calves in Penuel or Dan.

God dwells in his people in the church.

He's called us the church. Paul has called us God's building. Christ has called himself the temple of God and so we are built upon Christ.

In fact the temple in Jerusalem was never meant to be

God's dwelling place forever. Do you understand that? The tabernacle and then

Solomon's temple was just pointing to the fact that one day God would dwell among his people and we would be called

God's building the church. It was intentional that the temple would be destroyed.

Jesus said it in Matthew 24. Not one stone will be left upon another that will not be torn down.

When Christ died upon that cross, the veil that separated us from the presence of God in the

Holy of Holies, it says it was torn in two. It was a very thick veil. It was torn in two and opened up to say that this is no longer needed.

You will have direct access to God's presence. Jesus said it in John 4.

We went over it. The Samaritan woman says you Jews worship in Jerusalem.

We worship here. Jesus told her woman I tell you there will come a time when we won't worship

God in buildings made by human hand but we'll worship God in spirit and in truth. This is that reality.

We are living that reality now in Christ. That's who we are. We are the building of God.

I think about Abraham. It says in Hebrews chapter 11 it says Abraham was looking for a city which has its foundations whose architect and builder is

God. Abraham was looking for a place where its foundation and the architect and the builder is

God. That's what he hoped for one day. And then the prophecy of Isaiah came true as well.

Isaiah 28 verse 16. Look in your print out. Therefore thus says the Lord God behold

I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone a costly cornerstone for the foundation firmly placed.

He who believes in it will not be disturbed. Who is supposed to believe in a rock?

No one. So God is not talking about stones here.

He's talking about Christ the cornerstone. He who believes in it that cornerstone will never be disturbed.

Christ is the only firm foundation. He is the solid rock. Paul says that Jesus Christ and Him crucified is the only way that this gets built rightly.

No one can lay a foundation other than this one. And this gets replicated from the church of Christ to even things in our lives.

Christ ought to be the foundation of everything we do. Christ ought to be the foundation of your parenting.

Christ ought to be the foundation of your marriage. Christ ought to be the foundation of how you run a business politics, law economy, whatever it is

Christ ought to be the center and basis and foundation of what we do.

In other words God is the eternal architect and He has laid out building codes.

Will we follow the building code of God? Will we look to His law and His code on how

He wants His building constructed? Because the next few verses are very serious.

God will inspect our work one day. But before we go into that day of testing, look at the building materials in verse 12.

Look at this. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver precious stones, wood hay, straw.

You have six materials listed here. What are we supposed to understand from this list of resources?

There are several theories that theologians have considered on this. Why did

Paul mention these exact six resources? The first theory is that maybe

Paul is trying to get them to answer the question, what will survive fire?

What will make it through fire? You have the first three materials gold, silver and precious stones.

That could be a reference in the Greek to jewels or it could be a reference to things like granite or marble.

Precious stones. That's the image we have. Those things gold, silver and stones are highly inflammable.

They don't burn easy. The second group though, the second group of three the second group of three is wood, hay and straw.

You can ask our two firemen brothers right here. They would tell you that wood, hay and straw are very flammable.

They kindle very easily. Therefore, the theory is we're supposed to think about what burns and what doesn't.

Now the second theory is this that there are not two groups, three and three but there are three groups of two and each group symbolizes a sort of value for each work.

Think about it. Gold and silver would demonstrate lavishness, luxury, gold, silver.

The second group, precious stones, maybe it's marble, maybe it's jewels and wood, precious stones and wood they would have less value than gold and silver but they would demonstrate strength.

The third group is hay and straw and those are what?

Near worthless. The third theory is this. The third theory is that Paul is thinking of the construction of the tabernacle in Exodus maybe he's even thinking of part of the construction of the first temple in 1

Chronicles and so if you read those accounts the building of the tabernacle in Exodus, the building of the first temple,

Solomon's temple in 1 Chronicles, then you would have seen that God said use silver use gold, overlay it over wood, use artistic design, use jewels to beautify things and stones were even cut for the temple and of course they used wood from the most famous tree in the

Bible. What's the most famous tree in the Bible? The cedars of Lebanon, right? And so they used those in the temple and this kind of makes sense a little bit.

When you look in verses 16 and 17 Paul brings up you are a temple of God so maybe he's talking about the temple but we have to think contextually the

Corinthians didn't grow up with that they don't know anything about that they are gentile believers and so what

I think Paul is trying to do with saying any man building on the foundation of Christ using any of these materials is that the wise builder will only use the most superior materials the highest quality materials must be used because there are some in the kingdom who build on the foundation of Christ and sometimes they use materials of inferior quality they are building something no doubt about that they are building something but what they are using will not endure like the materials used by other builders and that's the question right?

What will you and I use here? What will we use? What kind of materials will we use to build

God's kingdom God's building? Will you use superior materials or inferior materials?

The superior is no doubt the wisdom of God the superior materials are utilizing the mind of Christ.

It's being spiritual to be able to appraise all things rightly. That's what he said in previous verses.

The inferior then, what are the inferior materials used to be built on the foundation of Christ?

That would be using sometimes the wisdom of man it would be sometimes acting in the flesh walking as he said like mere men and mere women not working together being unspiritual being divided you might still be on the foundation of Christ but you're using inferior materials attempting to build anything that is to construct something that can come easily crashing down what will stand the test of time?

According to our text today, what will stand the test of God's revealing fire?

Let's read through verses 12 -15 12 -15

Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold silver, precious stones, wood hay, straw, each man's work will become evident for the day, the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work.

If any man's work which he has built on it remains he will receive a reward if any man's work is burned up he will suffer loss but he himself will be saved yet so as through fire

A lot going on there a lot to unpack but you have to understand some of the

Corinthians have wanted to be on display, they've wanted to show off their spiritual gifts, look

I can speak in tongues, look I can heal people look I can preach really well some of the leaders of these factions have wanted to show off their deeds

I do a lot of work look how beautiful this work is Paul says they will do that, they will show off their deeds, but not in the way that they want

One day a day is coming when each man and woman's work will become evident at the final day

Paul refocuses their minds on the fact that they and all of us will face

God one day and the Lord of Glory judges based off of His standards and not the standards of men or the foolishness of men

God doesn't want what looks righteous God doesn't want what looks righteous,

He wants what is truly righteous because you can spray a bale of hay gold with spray paint but it doesn't make it gold you can make something look good but will it last, is it true for the day he says the day will show the work it will somehow become visible and that day of course is the day of final judgment and we don't know exactly how the work that you and I build is shown, but it will be we don't know

I can't even wrap my mind around it how will we all be there sitting, standing, bowed, whatever and in front of everyone your works will be shown, they will be revealed and they'll be tested by fire

I can't even conceptualize it what does that look like remember unbelievers will go to the final judgment but our context is solely on believers right now he's not mentioned any unbelieving people in this passage, that's really important it is the day that is apocalyptic and poor, a day revealed with fire and it makes sense that there would be fire you see that, what do you see on the top of Mount Sinai when you consider the holiness of God you see fire when

God was leading the people by night, what did you see you saw a whirlwind of fire, a pillar of fire what do the scriptures say about how

Jesus will return 2 Thessalonians says the Lord will be apocalupsis revealed from heaven in flaming fire this is holy fire do

I think this is literal fire I don't know it could be this holy glory this glorious brilliant gold looking thing that we can only liken to fire you know what

I mean it's this shekinah glory this amazing fire the bible says holy fire

Peter even speaks in his second letter about the works of the earth will be burned up with incredible fire it will be an inferno again, what does that mean does that mean the literal earth will burn as some have said or is this this glory, this cleansing glory we don't know but the test of fire or arrival by fire is nothing new

Isaiah 66 Daniel 7 Malachi 3, Malachi 4, just to name a few demonstrate the

Lord will come in fire his chariots will look it says like a tornado that's what it says in scripture his chariots will look like a tornado of fire a whirlwind of fire as God comes down fire cascading around the holiness and magnificence of God it will be an awesome day a fearful day for both the believer and the unbeliever albeit in different ways in different ways this is the fiery day of testing you know throughout history there have been fires recorded that have destroyed whole cities but then it is heard that somehow some structure made it through the burn zone, the flames that specific building did not burn down and it's often famously remembered that in the great

Chicago fire of 1871 one of the only buildings one of the only buildings that survived in the burn zone was the famous water tower and if you haven't seen it before you know maybe you're thinking of some metal poles with a ball on top filled with water, that's not what this is the

Chicago water tower looks almost like a castle it's beautiful it's ornate they used to make everything nice beautiful architecture later on Google the water tower in Chicago you'll see it, it's amazing looking it was built with limestone and although some of the roof burned just a little bit out of everything the structure was still there and the

Chicago water tower has since become a symbol of hope and resilience for the residents of Chicago that something like that was able to endure that kind of inferno has become this symbol of hope in fact, this testing of fire this concept of testing of fire some builders have made smaller scale buildings with all the materials that they're going to use they've made smaller scale buildings and what they do is they light it on fire in a controlled area and they watch and they see, how does it burn how does it go down, will it stand up this testing of fire is nothing new you even think about ultimately how is gold seen to be pure you have to light it on fire you have to melt gold to the point to find out if there's impurities in it this testing by fire is all throughout our world but this is

God's fire testing this is His this is

Him looking for worthiness impurities and according to Paul God's fire in this context and purpose is not to destroy or punish in this context

God's fire, you gotta hear me out right here, this fire is not meant to destroy you or punish you or me even though this fire this holy fire will be used in the unbelieving world in other contexts, according to the scriptures this fire has a specific purpose, this fire shows and tests the quality of each person's work that they did on earth and it's quite simple in that what has true value, what is made of superior material what is of eternal worth will endure the test that's it and don't forget what did

I say, what happened Paul said according to the grace of God given me so don't be triggered here

I'm not talking about this is what will prove you being saved if you have enough of these works you will be saved that's not what he's saying here in fact he makes sure that they don't get confused even if you build with inferior materials, he says you will be saved yet so as through fire so don't get that wrong but the things you do for the kingdom the things you do for the kingdom of God that you do in righteousness those things that are truly spiritual, those things that aren't muddied with the flesh those are the things that will remain when the holy fire comes down on your work but the things that we've done in the flesh the things that are tainted by our selfishness the things that he's been talking about with them jealousy, strife it doesn't matter if I come up here and I want to be seen and I want the glory and I give the best sermon you've ever heard and people go oh praise

God we walk out of here, that was the best sermon I ever heard it goes online, it goes viral if I did that and that sermon somehow impacted thousands of people but I did it for me boom, burned up gone, obliterated that's the image that we have when we serve

God but we do it in a fleshly way with a fleshly motivation

God of course can and will use it for his purposes in spite of it but it will not endure the test of fire yeah that sermon edified people and some people walked away from that kind of sermon and went that helped me praise

God that he uses those things that are tainted by the person who did it, tainted by their sin but it will burn up for that person who did it

I would not be rewarded for that not rewarded for that kind of thing verses 14 and 15 state this if any man's work which he has built on it foundation of Christ remains, he will receive a reward if any man's work is burned up he will suffer loss but he himself will be saved yet so as through fire remember so far in this context we have two types of believers both building on the foundation of Christ one who contributes to the building with quality work and quality materials and one who contributes to the foundation with second rate work and second rate materials one will receive reward and one suffers loss both believers here's the truth

I don't I don't believe it all this would be very rare, very rare I believe that almost all of us will come to that day, that day of fire with a mixture of the two materials that's just what's going to happen and the more the more

I walk through this Christian life and I look back at what I used to do even great things, wonderful things

I feel like the longer I'm a believer the less gold and silver and whatever will be there

I feel like the longer I go the more will burn up you know, the things I look back on it really causes me to examine myself,

I hope it does for you as well what will actually remain, what remains what are we building with and can you can you imagine that can you imagine that day when you know, you can't see

God but Jesus is there revelation says his eyes are like a flame of fire, on his head are many diadems his feet are like burnished bronze somehow in Jesus glorified state, it says that his hair is white and brilliant and Jesus is standing there and just like Revelation 4 and 5 there's a sea of emerald glass

I know that God's presence is over there can't see him if I were to come and look upon him it would kill me

I have access to him but God's there,

Christ is there the holy angels are surrounding and then your works show up and they get tested it's amazing to think about does that image give you any sort of pause does that idea make you think about how you're building because it should what you need to know though is that approved work does not earn salvation and tainted work does not lose it as one commentator states since Paul does not speak of righteous men over against sinners, but of two types of builders, both types being

Christians, the reward seems to be something additional to salvation but then at the same time when one suffers loss, they don't get less than salvation, does that make sense you don't receive less than salvation you can only receive more than salvation when you're building with superior or inferior materials even the unskilled church builder will be saved however, he will be saved yet so is through fire but before we talk about what it means to be saved through fire, what does it mean to suffer loss what does it mean to receive a reward on this day of fire it's kind of like the ancient contract we read, if the architect builds with poor materials and part of the building is deemed unworthy, he can be charged a fine but that fine in this case is not monetary, it's different as the

Corinthians as you and as I watch the things we thought we did for Jesus Christ burn up there will be grave disappointment we will not just be robots that now that we're saved and in heaven we don't feel anymore or we only feel this sort of glee and joy there will be feeling, every tear will be wiped away but there will be a moment here where there will be disappointment, there will be an understanding that although God sovereignly used it there are some things we did that sometimes hurt the body of Christ or did almost nothing for it think of some of the builders who peered out in Chicago in the 1800's and they looked out and they said, is my building still standing?

and just the disappointment the remorse, the sorrow oh, what we labored on, what

I built is gone but then think about the man who was the architect of the

Chicago Water Tower and as everything was smoldering and they walked around and then all of a sudden it hit the news and it hit the streets the

Chicago Tower still stands, the architect would have been swelling with pride would have been full of joy, satisfaction and of course there will be a time when we will answer for what we've done and what we've said and what we've built this is heavy stuff, this is stuff that pastors don't talk about Jesus doesn't discriminate

He says, everyone will give an account for every careless word and everything they speak and that's hard to imagine what is this day like?

every tear will be wiped away there will be no more death and I suppose that after this fiery day it's important for us to not lose heart it's important for us to not be overwhelmed with over examining our works or to be fearful of the day of fire, we should not we should not but it's important to know

I think what it's going to be is it's going to be important to know what required the sacrifice of Christ I think it's going to be important for us to know that to know how costly it was for God to give

His own Son and we will need to know that in a way that we can't fully grasp here

I think that will be part of it this is the day of fire and even now we receive what

God says is chastisement and discipline Hebrews chapter 12 says if you don't ever receive discipline from the

Father, you're an illegitimate son so the good news is if you've been feeling like you've been receiving chastisement, you're a genuine son or daughter of God, that's the promise, but even so chastisement is one thing

Jesus took our punishment that's the point but even though Jesus took our punishment does that mean we get to do whatever we want in the flesh?

do we get to live however we want? do you get to live by your own building code? there's still accountability anything else would be a misunderstanding of Christ's atonement and so our consolation is that no matter what legitimate accusation that can be charged to you on that day, no matter what burns up on that day it is impossible listen to me, it is impossible for you to pay the fine that only

Jesus could with His own life He has served the sentence that was meant for you you can't serve the sentence that He already did it's impossible and what

I imagine is on the day of fire on the day of testing and revealing by fire

I believe that we will hear, come enter into my rest come, come into the joy of your master and that's the promise that's the promise, you'll see what burns up you'll see what remains you'll see rewards but the suffering loss isn't like all of a sudden

God goes, okay, let's take a few points off of that guy's salvation, right? No, that's not what it is

He's going to get, in my father's house are many mansions, you get one less mansion, right? That's not what it is

It's that idea that one last time one last time when it says you will suffer loss there will be a disappointment but then you'll remember where you are who's in front of you and he'll say, come it's okay, son it's okay, daughter

I built what you couldn't have built and even the good things that you built were because of me what did

Ephesians 2 .10 say for we are his workmanship creating Christ Jesus for good works that he prepared beforehand that we would walk in them it's incredible so he gets the glory for what remains and he paid for what doesn't remain and gets burned up that's the promise now it's hard to define what rewards are, what are the rewards we don't have them spelled out in scripture so I can't tell you what they are there's nothing that says and some people have thought this some have thought that you will get a closer seat to Jesus in the long table at the lambs supper with his bride that at that great reception you'll be sitting there, you'll get a closer seat to Jesus, there's nothing that says that, there's nothing where you'll get more glory, more anything there's nothing that says that about these rewards okay the only indications that we have are even what

Paul says in 1st Thessalonians 2 19 -20 Paul says excuse me, for who is our hope or joy or crown of exaltation is it not even you he says to the church in the presence of our

Lord Jesus at his coming for you are our glory and joy and so what we see with that is when

Paul thinks about rewards he doesn't relish in any thought of receiving personal recognition but he sees his reward as watching other people that he gave the gospel to walk into the halls of heaven he said you are my joy and my glory and my exaltation when

Jesus comes and you go with us to heaven that's my reward he says that's what

I want to see the presence of God and all of us together he wants to see them walk into the halls of heaven if he were the only one there and none of his works burned up Paul would say he suffered loss if Paul was the only one there at the fiery day and all the people that he gave the gospel to none of those churches none of those people were there he would suffer loss he would consider that loss even if nothing burned up as the apostle

Paul when you think about him he almost died on over a dozen occasions he was lost at night in the sea adrift he was beaten to a pulp but his thoughts even at the end of the day when he put his head to the ground his thoughts were on the church the churches that he planted and he would think

Lord Jesus sanctify them entirely bring them to you one day let all the work that I did oh

Lord not be in vain and as a pastor I can relate to that I can see where he's coming from it kills us when someone falls away when someone comes to faith in Christ and we baptize them and then a time later they never come back and we see that they're doing false worship or renouncing

Jesus altogether it kills us it really does to think that what we do on Thursday night to think about the people that we poured into that that would mean nothing but what a gift to know that you and I that we've made a difference by the grace of God given us it is possible though talking about rewards and I say this with some level of hesitancy because I don't want you seeking this

I don't want this to be your motivation we do see I'll tell you an element in scripture where part of the reward will be at least

God's expressed approval and maybe in front of a lot of people or the heavenly host maybe it's his loving affirmation of you and your labor for him recognition is possible but it's interesting when you see symbols of recognition and God's approval on people in heaven where do you go to see images of heaven when you look at Daniel you look at Ezekiel but you look at Revelation and the 24 elders have recognition upon them what do they have on them the 24 elders have golden crowns they have something that other people don't they have a sign of God's approval affirmation they have some level of glory that others don't the 24 elders but what does it say in Revelation it says that they will cast their crowns before him and they will say to him worthy are you

O Lord to receive glory and honor and power and whatever and that's what it is whatever recognition you could possibly get you could go

Jesus you deserve all the recognition you deserve it all I couldn't have done any of this if you didn't save me that's the idea his grace enabled all of it but as far as what it means to be saved yet so is through fire we get an image of this someone who is near a blazing fire and though his clothes smell smoky and they're a little bit singed he escaped you can think of it this way

Lot and Abraham who seems like the more righteous man just say it

Abraham right Abraham he had faith in God it was accredited in his righteousness

Lot decided to live in the lavish lavish luxurious sinful land of Sodom and yet he was saved but he was saved from burning sulfur and fire from heaven and you can best be sure that that sulfuric smell was on his clothes as he ran he ran away that's kind of the image we get you think about when

Peter says in the days of Noah there were eight persons who survived they were he says these words he says they were saved so as through water some are saved so as through fire in the days of Noah these eight were saved so as through water did they get a little wet

I think Noah and his family got a little bit wet but did they drown and die no no so Lot escaped the burning sulfur the fire from heaven

Noah and his family escaped the water saved so as through water but think about it this way the best words of encouragement for all of us are these three words right here in the text it says will be saved will be saved and that is such a comfort that is an infinite never ending forever reward that is the reward of all rewards

I may use dry and rotting wood sometimes in God's kingdom but nothing can change the wood of the cross that Jesus died on for me or for you that's what it is nothing can change that and so the point that Paul is trying to make about the judgment is this don't seek rewards don't seek rewards and he's not even trying to talk about the fact that one day wicked leaders or faction making leaders will one day have their works put through the fire that's not even what he's trying to say

Paul's point in our text today is from verse 10 go back to it verse 10 he says at the end be careful how you build on the foundation of Christ as a believer the question comes back to what are you using brothers and sisters will it last on the final day on the day of fire so we have two more verses

Paul shifts to a more direct approach with the Corinthians in verses 16 and 17 go there he says after this day of fire he says do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you if any man destroys the temple of God God will destroy him for the temple of God is holy and that is what you are so you see some kind of accusatory language in here a little accusatory tone but can you imagine these believers have seen structural marvels from the

Romans I told you about all the temples that they had within eyesight it's not unlike what we experience here when

I look outside my house in Harriman I see lit up the ochre temple

I see the south Jordan temple and I see the draper temple all lit up at night

I see these structures I see these white temples white washed tombs and I see these structural marvels but then the apostle writes to them and he writes to us people have seen these amazing buildings and he writes to us and he says don't think that those are where God dwells you are the temple of God and these are people who have been meeting in dingy houses these are people who have been meeting in secret in the cover of darkness sometimes during persecution these are people who meet in house churches synagogues sometimes very basic living quarters and they've seen all these magnificent buildings and so have you and I and he goes don't think about those you are a temple of God you are the temple of God do you not know that the spirit of God dwells in you because the grandest temples aren't made with human hands but just as Abraham was hoping for a temple that would be made by God we are

God's building he dwells in us that's the truth but here's where it ends it gets very serious for Paul it's not that he believes that some sort of threat is coming like a wrecking ball to God's church from the outside he's built on the foundation of Christ and now other men are building upon it and some of their materials are lousy but he knows it'll still work out it'll still get built but then he says this if anyone among them anyone who comes and says they're a brother or sister in Christ and they come and they don't build with superior or inferior materials but they start to destroy what

I've built what God has built God will destroy them God will destroy them they ought to be warned and he knows he knows that ultimate demolition of the church of God the universal invisible church is not possible but what he's talking about is

Corinth he's talking about Apology Church Utah he's talking about this church and that church and all the new places that a foundation of Christ is laid and then men and women start building upon it and they use superior and inferior materials but it's being built and it's true it's on Christ but he says some are going to come and they're going to be inside that's the image that we have and they're going to try to destroy what's been built vainglory maybe it's pride maybe it's false teaching these tactics can hurt the building of God so what do we have to do sometimes sometimes we have to start fresh we see another building and that church has been divided because there were wicked men who destroyed it and the true believers go off to the other building and they just keep laboring that's what you do if you've been hurt if you've been part of a building that someone tried to destroy and they made a dent in it you find somewhere where they keep building for God on the foundation of Christ and you keep going or maybe

God has called you to go somewhere new and you help build on the foundation of Christ but the point is you don't stop you and I don't stop we don't stop until the day of fire but woe to the men and women who try to destroy the temple of God so in the end

Saint Paul gives us hope he says you're different since we are the temple of God we're holy that means set apart in the

Greek we aren't reserved for fire or destruction even though some of our works might be we are set apart to be in the presence of God for all eternity and it started with grace it ends with grace never forget this church our hope is not on how we build our hope is not in the materials we use these things should be examined no doubt but our hope isn't in the building our hope is in the foundation

Jesus Christ and so if that's the case for you today if your hope is in the foundation of Christ then your work will remain at the day of fire and no matter what remember in Proverbs chapter 10 verse 25 it says when the whirlwind passes the wicked will be no more but the righteous have an everlasting foundation that's

Christ Amen let's pray Lord thank you for your word thank you for how it teaches us

God we want to maintain a balance of reverence where we understand that the grace that you've given us isn't a license to sin your grace isn't a license or a freedom to build with inferior materials but we're thankful God that your grace is what covers even our inferior building and it is your grace that allows us to build anything of worth that you've prepared the works beforehand that we would walk in them and so God we thank you that this day of fire isn't the day where we're shown to be believers or not it is the day where we will see you and we will know your holiness and perfection we will know your goodness and perfection we will know what it's like to rest in all the fullness that you promise us we will be saved thank you

God even if some of us escape like Lot so as through fire but you are good

Lord thank you for these things thank you for these promises we love you