1 Corinthians 3: Wisdom, workers, worth, witness — Frank Sona

The Foundation of Christ and the Work of Christian Workers

1st Corinthians chapter 3. This is not a repeat. This is a different focus on the same passage. 1st Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 1, and I brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

Let's go down to verse 6. I have planted, Apollos watered. But God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one.

They're united. They're workers together. They agree. And every man shall receive his own reward. Now you're well aware that word reward carries the thought not only of initially what is going to be given at the judgment seat of Christ, but it also involves higher responsibility.

That's actually the word. So that how faithful you are, what we do for the Lord here, will determine our faithfulness and our responsibility rather to him in the kingdom. It says for we are laborers together with God.

Here God's husbandry, here God's building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed.

It's interesting that word there for take heed is the Greek word which literally means, it's the word bleppo. It means to see, to actually look at carefully. Let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.

For other foundation can no man lay, then that is laid which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work, every man, shall be made manifest.

For the day, looking ahead, 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. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward, a hire.

If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss. But he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile, now the word there, I want you to notice a few of these words very carefully.

The word here is actually to corrupt the temple, and it's in the continuous tense, which means it would be an ongoing thing. It's not a one-off. It's a continuous thing. The Epistle to the Corinthians has the word destroy several times.

In almost every one of the occasions, there are a different word or a derivative of the other word. This word here means to mar, to corrupt, to mar, to ruin it from the purpose for which it was intended.

And so he says, if any man corrupt, defile, the temple of God, him shall, that's future tense, him shall God destroy or corrupt again. Same word. For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. Let no man deceive himself.

If any among you, many men among you, seems to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may become wise. And then again, the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. And we're going to end there.

The Gospel Foundation and the Wisdom of God

Yesterday we looked at building and the contrast between the wisdom of this world and the wisdom of God, the power of God. We looked at how Paul came to Corinth and the background of that city and what they prided themselves in, the knowledge, the wisdom, the philosophies, as well as in the arts, as well as in paintings and canvas and so on.

They were still in a moral culture. They were a wicked city. And yet Paul comes in there with the gospel. He preaches the gospel and sees an assembly planted. Now, it was in Corinth where there were such other notable personalities, like Apollos, a man that was mighty in the scriptures.

Aquila and Priscilla are also finding their way in this city of Corinth. So there are a number of notables in terms of the scripture. But I want you to think of four things as I focus on a different thing.

And I want to leave some time for someone else too. So I want to notice wisdom at its source, wisdom and the source. As he brings in wisdom, spiritual wisdom, godly wisdom, the wisdom of God, in contrast with the wisdom of Corinth.

He's going back to the foundation, the foundational work that was done, the foundation that was laid. That is absolutely vital. And let me just say this to younger believers here. Foundational truths that you take in are so vital to your life.

The first steps that you make, those foundational, formative steps, are absolutely vital to your successful, faithful, Christian living. And Paul goes back to the assembly and how it was planted. And he brings before them the foundation.

No other foundation can be laid than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. What is he saying? Is he saying that the person of Christ was actually there? No, he reminds them that the person of Christ was indwelling in the inner temple.

But what he is telling them is this, that that foundation of that assembly was planted in the preaching of the gospel, the message of Christ and him crucified. And so he goes back to a gospel that was brought to them, a gospel that was pure, pure.

It wasn't about positive living. It wasn't about changing your lives. It wasn't about a different way of thinking. It wasn't about suggestions. It was a pure, unadulterated gospel that, as we've been hearing, blasted those sinners out of their moorings, gave them life, changed them, made them distinct from the society in which they were living.

That is what we need. And I would just encourage assemblies. There are assemblies that are going down to gospel series one week, two weeks. There are some that don't even preach the gospel. The pure gospel.

Paul comes right back and says this assembly was founded, planted in that pure gospel message. Not only was the gospel pure, it was potent. It was powerful. It gave results. And the other thing is it was preached.

Paul, there's no substitute for the preaching of the gospel, the heralding forth of the gospel. I can tell you there are places that have tried, and this is the truth, they have actually tried to do puppet shows.

Clown gospel preaching. They have, some assemblies have tried to introduce DVD presentations, and they've put up a big screen, and I have nothing against an electronic screen or technology, so I want to make that clear.

But if we are substituting other things for the gospel, it is not what the assembly was founded upon in the New Testament. And we are deviating from that. And so as this assembly tried to do that, sending out invitations even into the community, wanting, what they were trying to do was let people know that, you know, we're normal.

We're normal people. Here we are. And it was actually about something that was totally unrelated to the gospel. But they were substituting something for the gospel that was not the gospel. You know what that is?

That's the wisdom of this world. And Paul says wisdom at its source in the assembly goes right back to this. He goes back to church planting, the planting of the assembly, how it began, and how it should be carried on.

Testing Church Models by the New Testament

Now why I am saying this is because we never, never must forget what God meant an assembly to be. How he meant it and established it in its starting, in its inception. Because, I want to speak very slowly, and I want to speak very clearly, especially because this is a college town.

This is a university town. There are a number of young people here. And when I say young people, I certainly mean those that are a younger generation. We are surrounded by thinking that is not according to the New Testament.

Not according to the New Testament model. And sometimes, even innocently, people can take that in because they want something to work. And they are misled, carried away with what other groups and organizations are doing.

And it seems to work there. Their numbers are growing. They're experiencing population explosion. Well listen, if that was the yardstick of spiritual blessing and God's approval, Joel Osteen would be the most spiritual man on the planet.

And so we would have these mega churches. Now, we need to be very careful. Examine everything by the light of the New Testament, by the scriptures. Let that be your yardstick. Let the holiness of God be what carries you on in these decisions.

Let what is for the glory of God, according to his own word, dictate the direction that you take, not only personally in your life, but as an assembly. I'm bringing this in because, again, church planning is becoming a very popular expression, a very religious expression.

My mind goes, I was having meetings in Hatboro. John Meakin and I were there, and we stopped in the afternoon for a coffee. And we went into a Starbucks, and there were two men, and they had these commentaries, all spread out on the table with their coffees.

And I went over, and I kind of peeked over, and looked at some of the names on the commentaries, and they were pretty good. So I said to John, I said, look, look, look over here. I said, hey. I said, I'm gonna talk to those fellas.

So I went over, and I said, I told John, I said, you get the coffee, you buy, and I'll go talk to them. So as I went over there, I said, hey fellas, I said, how you doing? And they looked up, and they said, okay.

And I said, what are you reading here? I said, I see you have got some good commentaries. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, there's no talking. There's no even engaging. So I said, well, we're here. I said, we're having gospel meetings down the road.

I said, we're preaching the gospel. And I said, are you saved? Yes, yes, we're saved. Then they said, we're church planters. So I said, oh, church planters. So I said, where, what group are you with? They said, Acts 29.

I said, you mean Romans 1, right? I said, there is no Acts 29. I said, it doesn't exist. No, they said, we're members of Acts 29. That's what we've named our group. We're church planters. I said, how do you go about doing it?

Well, he says, we just, we rent a building, we have maybe different things that we have for society around us, and we show them how, that they can live a better life. I said, but they don't have life.

Why would you ask them or expect them to live a better life if they don't even have life? They need to be born again. They need to face their sins. They need to face judgment. I said, do you not tell them that?

And I could see them. They started, they started drinking their coffee very quickly, and they were getting ready to leave. Now that sounds novel, Acts 29. It's a real organization. It's part of what is referred to as the Gospel Coalition.

It is the New Calvinists. And there are men, and I will name these men that are part of that, I have no problem, because you could, you can email them yourself and ask them, and they will tell you what I'm going to tell you now.

Men like Matt Chandler, Mark Driscoll, John Piper, Francis Chan. These are very well-known names, and this Acts 29 might sound novel, but if you think about it very carefully, it is literally adding to the Word of God, because God ended the book of Acts at chapter 28.

And for them to call their organization and link it with a Bible book and add another chapter to it is them putting their ideas and their agenda above the Word of God. It's wrong, in its name even. There are other men, and what they want to do is they want to do a, their church-planting ideas are based on a societal change, changing society, revolutionizing.

And so parachurch ministries are brought out, and all these other places, so that they will move into a society and find a niche, and that it will grow in a socially acceptable way, as people accept a biblical view and then they are absorbed into the mother church view.

There are places where we know them well. There are men and women and boys and young people that we have lost to these groups, and they have bought into this mother church philosophy, and there are satellite broadcasts, and there is the one pastor and the one man, and when people, you ask where they go, they will tell you the man's name.

The New Testament teaches an autonomy of New Testament churches. It does not teach satellite churches. It does not teach a mother church philosophy. Every assembly is a golden lampstand. It is sanctuary of God.

It is dwelling place of God, locally in that individual locality. That is what the Apostle Paul planted. That is what God wants. That is what the New Testament teaches. Anything else is a deviation from the clear pattern of what we have laid down in our New Testaments.

Critiquing Purpose-Driven and Megachurch Approaches

There are those that teach, well, you have the purpose-driven church, a bestseller on the heels of the purpose-driven life, one of the best Christian sellers of all time. And Rick Warren and Saddleback Community Church, they have set it up as a paradigm of church planting and results.

I have read the books. You will read about what Rick Warren set up in the building of that church. Rick's rules. Ten of them. Rick's rules. When I come to the New Testament, I hear Paul saying, Who then is Paul?

Who then is Apollos? God gives the increase. It is church of God. And it is His authority. Then there are other things that go along. I remember I went down to Texas, and that is the place where megachurches exist.

And my brother-in-law was telling me, he says, you have to go. I was actually looking for a bookstore. And he said, well, you have to go to this place. And he told me the name of it. He said, they have a bookstore right in the church.

So I said, well, okay, I'm really interested in just the bookstore. So he told me where to go. I went down there. I parked my car in parking spot of this church. I think it was H29, okay? And when I went in there, it was so large, I couldn't believe it.

There actually were cobblestones inside up around the whole perimeter of the ceiling and going down this massive building. There were pictures of the apostles, and there were two restaurants, one for fine dining, one for casual dining, and there was the bookstore.

I looked at what they called the sanctuary. It was locked. One place that should have been open was closed. Everything else was open. So as I went down there, as I went into the bookstore, I asked about it.

I said, who is the leader, the pastor here? They told me who it was, and they said, well, here are his messages. They said, would you like to hear them? Would you like to have one? I said, yes, I would be interested.

Okay, they're only $5 each, okay? Now you can go on the Internet and get any of these men's messages for free. They were charging $5 for them. So I said, can I just look at one? And so they put the message on, and there it began.

The big band and all the instruments and the music, working the people up, getting them to sing, and there they are waving their hands. And it was all about emotionalism, all about feel-good, all about just getting the people to work them into that zone.

It's all about me. Because, you see, if it were really all about the Lord, you wouldn't have those numbers. That's why Paul says, wisdom at its source, he says, Because we preach Christ and him crucified to the Jews, a stumbling block, to the Greeks, foolishness, to the wisdom of this world, something that is disagreeable, distasteful, but to God, fragrant, powerful, real, of Christ.

The Worth of Workers and the Sanctuary

That's wisdom at its source. Workers at the start. He goes to that and he says, Paul, myself, he says, Apollos. He goes and he evaluates his own work, and then he evaluates the work of others. And he is speaking of these men.

Think of these men, Paul and Apollos. Wouldn't you have loved to have men like that in the assembly here? Well, there are some assemblies that wouldn't have wanted men like that because of what they would have preached, what they would have taught.

But I thank God for men that taught the Word of God in truth, that presented to us truth that would stabilize, that would strengthen us, that would support like a pillar the truth of God and preserve assemblies.

He evaluated that. And he was saying, he says, Do you see what natural wisdom does? What the wisdom of this world does? And it's very significant. He points back to chapter 2 and he says this. Had the rulers of this world known it, they never would have crucified the Lord of glory.

Now, what is he saying by that? First of all, he says the rulers of this world. This is the upper echelon, the height, the top notch of society. He's saying the rulers, these first ones, the leaders in the community, in society, in politics, in education, in government.

He says had they known it, they never would have crucified Him. You know what he's saying? They couldn't know it because they couldn't see it because they depended on a wisdom that was not of God. As a result of that, if we depend on that same wisdom, that same thinking, religiously, politically, educationally, morally, whatever, we will also fail to see Christ.

And what we want to do, what God wants us to do, more than anything else, is to see the Lordship of Christ in God's assembly. It is all about Him. Workers at the start. The worth of the sanctuary. From verses 12 through 17.

The worth of the sanctuary. Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest for the day, shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire.

The fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. Now primarily, initially, he is speaking to teachers and leaders, those that are building into the assembly by what they teach. But the scope is widened after that to everyone.

Let every man take heed how he builds thereon. Every one of us. What we are putting into the assembly. The tenses are interesting. The words are interesting. Present, continuous. To keep building into that.

To keep a carnal life. An empty life. A life that's not spiritual. To be a member of the assembly and the fellowship there. And not to contribute anything of spiritual weight. Do you know what that does to the assembly?

On a continuous basis. You know what Paul is saying here? He says, look, you're babies. We went over that yesterday. But he says, you need to grow up. But he says, if you don't grow up, if you don't go on, he says, what will happen is, this assembly that God intends to rise and display this, will be marred.

It will be marred. And whoso mars the assembly from God's purpose to which he has ordained it, him will God mar. Him will God mar. What we have heard this weekend, and what you experience when you open that book in your lap called The Word of God, is very serious.

It is very, very serious. Every word of it, every word, puts a level of responsibility on each of us to not mar the sanctuary of God. That sanctuary, that assembly, speaks to us of the special presence of God.

It is the naos, the inner temple. Not the outer temple, like the Jews had, but the inner temple, the dwelling place of God. That seems to escape a number of Christians. They don't understand the difference between omnipresence and the special presence of the Lord.

People say, well, the Lord's everywhere. How can you say that he's only in the midst of the assembly? We're not saying, and the Bible is not saying, that he is only in the midst of God's assembly. But it is teaching, and it is telling us, that in a special, unique way, God dwells in the midst of his people.

God is omnipresent. He is everywhere at once. But in a special, unique, administrative way, the presence of God, the special presence, is in the midst of his people. If you don't understand that, then how do you understand verses even in the Old Testament, where the Lord says, he tells Israel, don't go up, for I am not with you.

How do we understand that? If he says, don't go up, I'm not with you. Well, he's everywhere at once. How could he say, I'm not with you? His special presence wasn't with them. God had withdrawn his special presence.

And in the assembly, in the sanctuary of God, it is his special presence, his unique presence, as he dwells in the sanctuary of which we are that sanctuary. Him will I mar. 1 Corinthians chapter 5, we have brought before us a man who is delivered in discipline to without, to the sphere of Satan.

And the apostle writes, and he says this, that he may be delivered unto Satan, so that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. I think what is simply being said is this, how this man responds to the discipline of the assembly upon him will really determine if he's a believer or not.

He has been put into a sphere that is Satan's realm, without. Everything outside the assembly is the realm of Satan. The within is a different realm, a distinct realm. The realm of the sanctuary, the realm of the assembly, the realm of the special presence of God, the within, the fellowship.

That the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus, if he responds in a way that he is at home in the without, then it shows he's not a believer. If he responds to the discipline and he repents and turns to long to be back to that company, it will be obvious he is a believer, and the spirit will be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

He will suffer loss for what he has done, but he himself shall be saved, so as by fire. So that would link a little bit with what we've read in chapter 3. If any man mar, he's not talking about the gross sins, a continual carnality, a weightlessness, a spiritual void of just coasting.

Can I implore you, add spiritual weight to that assembly. Because in this assembly, we're brought before us the preciousness and the holiness in these two examples. Preciousness, gold, silver, precious stones.

Holiness, the dwelling place of God. In contrast to that, there is the worthlessness and the lifelessness of the wood, hay, and stubble. Now it is significant that wood, hay, and stubble really are three items that speak to us of things that have died.

Wood that's been cut down. Hay, grass that's been mowed, cut up. Stubble, stalks that have been cut. Speaks of death, dead things, lifelessness. Gold, silver, precious stones. Precious things, valuable things.

Please, younger ones especially, don't waste your life on the dead things of this world. Don't bring to God's assembly. And when you bring to God's assembly, let me rephrase that. Don't bring to God, because he dwells in the midst.

Don't bring to God that which is worthless and lifeless. Bring him what's precious. He brought to you what was the most precious thing, his own son. Bring to him what is valuable. Lastly, I just want to speak on the witness of the scorching, if I can put it that way.

The Judgment Seat of Christ and the Testing of Christian Work

The fire that is going to scorch and burn what is of no value. Now he goes back to the past, at the foundation that was laid. He goes to the future, and he brings before us the judgment seat of Christ.

There is both rebuke and reward at that judgment seat. I don't know what you think the judgment seat is going to be like. I think there are some that think it's going to be like someone has said, a Sunday school picnic, where just rewards are given out, and, oh, pin this on your chest, and here, come here, I'm going to give you this.

It is a very sobering thing. While I am anticipating it, there is a sense in which I am also dreading it. I know we say, and I'm willing to discuss this with anyone, I know we say that sin will not be in question at the judgment seat, because all our sins are past.

But let me just say this. Sin has a different characteristic, if I can say that, because there will be things addressed at the judgment seat that will be elements relative to the family. The Apostle Paul, in the second epistle, says this.

We will be judged according to the things that we have done in the body, whether they be good or bad. I don't know how else you can interpret that. Good or bad. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

What about unconfessed sin? Do we really think that that is just going to be glossed over? What about wrong influences? Whether it's in relation to other believers, whether it's in relation to the assembly, wrong influences that will cause that assembly to be swerved away, that will introduce things that are wrong.

Men and women that are introducing, do you think that that is never going to be addressed? And do we think that that's not sin? What about wasted time? How much time do we spend? We're so worried at times about the big things.

But the problem is this. You know what gets us to the big things? When I say the big things, I mean the big bad things. It's an accumulation of all the little things that erode and cause us to think wrongly.

And that's what brings us to the big things. Wasted time. What about indifference to God's Word and God's will? What about those that say, I know what God says, but I'm going to do my thing anyway. I'm going to go my way anyway.

Do you think, is that sin? Isn't that rebelliousness? In fact, the Old Testament says they're linked with witchcraft and idolatry. Do we not think that is? What about prayerlessness? Worldliness? These are things that will all be addressed.

And you know what that is? If we live lives like that, we'll be burnt up. On the other hand, there are sisters here. They radiate godliness. I thank God for you. I shook hands with a sister earlier, and you know what she said to me?

She says, I'm praying for you. She says, I'm praying for the meetings, and I'm praying for you. You know, there's a reward in that for her. What about some dear brother who just reading his Word, all of a sudden now he sees something, and he's evaluating his life.

And God speaks to him, and he does it. He carries it out. Maybe it's a cup of cold water. Maybe it's a gift to someone. Maybe it's encouraging someone. Maybe it's some young life, someone that they see maybe going off track, and they come alongside.

What about a word of encouragement? You know, a word of encouragement is like a cup of cold water. You'll be rewarded for that. That will be given at the judgment seat. It will be as gold. These things are very serious.

Very serious. But I will say this. To fail to do what God has told us to do is very serious, and I will just tell you one little account, and then I'm done. I had a friend. We were in eighth grade together.

He lived in Pennsylvania, and we would talk about being saved, and I told him how I was saved, and he said he was a Christian and never had a time when he was saved. Later on, he called me to tell me, I'm saved, Frank.

He was in his teens, and he went on. He actually became a minister of a Berean Baptist church. Years later, he called me up. He said, I remember the things that we used to talk about, Frank. He said, I've been reading my Bible, and I can see that, he said, women are to wear head coverings.

He said, but we don't teach that. So I said, but it's in the Bible. I said, it is, Mark, it is. I said, you got a hold of that? Yeah, I can see that. So I said, wonderful. I said, look, I'd love to learn more.

I said, hey, I'm willing to come down. I said, I'll spend a couple days with you, whatever time. I said, we can go over the Scriptures together, and we can look at them. And I said, I'm willing to do this.

This is a great thing, Mark. I said, and you know what? Who knows, but there are other believers you come in contact with, and you can tell them as part of that little Baptist church. You know what he said?

He said, well, let me think about it. He called me back two weeks later. He says, Frank, I can't do it. He says, if I do that, I'm going to lose my job. I said, Mark, you've got some very serious things to think about.

I said, this is more than a job. This is the Word of God. He refused to do it. Facebook. Talk about Facebook. He never said anything more, but I saw him pop up on Facebook. He lost his job. He lost his wife.

He lost his family. He turned away from light that was given to him. God gives us light at times like this, at times, personal times. If we turn away from that light, there's no telling how far we'll go.

God helped us to be sensitive, to be driven to him and to his Word, and to build in spiritually to not only our lives, but to God's assembly, to make it what matters, because it is what matters in light of eternity.