Indeed, his faithfulness is great. We could spend weeks sharing testimonies to that end, could we not?  Now, because of his faithfulness, we have the opportunity to open up his word. So, will you take your Bibles and turn to First Corinthians chapter three, as we continue our verse-by-verse examination of this epistle, we're going to be in verses 10 through 17. And I've entitled my discourse to you this morning, "Works Worthy of Reward."

One of the great deceptions of the human heart is that man is an autonomous being that has no obligation to serve his creator, that he has no obligation to live in conformity to God's righteous standards, his laws, his commands. And many will fool themselves into thinking that there is no God, or at least they will live as a practical atheist, as if there is no God; and if there is a God, many will assume that they are quite moral and good enough to merit his eternal favor, and so they believe heaven awaits them. In fact, in our culture, pretty much everybody goes to heaven, right? That's the way people think.

And of course, with such a low view of God's holiness and such a high view of man's righteousness, the whole notion of divine judgment is preposterous to most people. The idea of standing before a holy God, before his bar of justice to account for our deeds and our motives is ridiculous. And what's even more ridiculous is the idea of eternal punishment in hell. Of course, what people fail to realize is that God has already judged the world in many ways. He did that.

You will recall, in the global flood, in the days of Noah, we know that he judged Sodom and Gomorrah because of their immorality, especially that of homosexuality. He judged Egypt for their wickedness. He judged Israel, he judged Judah, for their idolatry, their apostasy. In Romans one verses 18 through 32 we read of God's judgment, the wrath of his divine abandonment upon peoples, upon societies, that reject him, that fail to give him honor. And we know even right now that the judgment of God abides upon all who reject the Lord Jesus Christ, as Jesus said in John three and verse 36, so indeed, man is not autonomous. He will ultimately answer to the sovereign God who created him.

Furthermore, our sin is exceedingly more sinful than we can ever imagine. We only see the snowflake on the tip of the iceberg. Moreover, God's holiness is more holy than we can ever imagine, and God has made it clear in his word, therefore, that a day of reckoning is coming, that all men are going to stand before their Creator and give an account for every thought and every deed. In Hebrews chapter four and verse 13, we read, "And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." And in chapter nine and verse 27 we read that, "...it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment." And in Revelation 22 and verse 12, "'Behold,'" Jesus says, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me to render to every man according to what he has done.'"  

We know, according to Scripture, that the bodies of unbelievers will one day be raised from quote, "death and Hades," according to Revelation 20 and verse 13, and they will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ, who will be seated upon his great white throne, Revelation 20. They will stand there helpless, condemned in their sin, and they will hear the verdict of their life. The verdict will be guilty, and then the sentence of eternal judgment will be carried out, and they will be thrown into the lake of fire, which is also called the second death. Jesus says they will be cast out into the outer darkness. In that place, there will be "weeping and gnashing of teeth," Matthew eight and verse 12. Indeed, this will be a place of outer darkness, the furthest removed from the light of God's glory, a place of inconsolable grief and continuous torment.

Dear friends, if you're here today and you have never wholeheartedly embraced the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, realizing that you have no hope of salvation in any other name but him, then this will be your fate, and so I plead with you to repent. Place your faith in Christ.

You will recall the Apostle Paul when he stood before the people in Athens, in Acts chapter 17, he said in verse 30, "God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed," referring to Christ, "having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead." Dear friends, the unimaginable, horror of divine judgment should cause every believer to fall on his face and give thanks to God for his saving grace. Moreover, it should fan the embers of our evangelistic zeal into a roaring flame that we might present the gospel to those who are in such desperate need. As Paul said in Second Corinthians, five and verse 11, "Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men...", we implore men according to Second Corinthians 5:20 to be "...reconciled to God."

But the judgment for the believer is far, far different than that of the judgment for the unbeliever. And of course, this is our theme for the text this morning. We know that when Jesus returns, he will evaluate our life, and he will reward us according to our works, our earthly service for his glory; he's not going to judge us according to our sins -   that's already been taken care of on the cross, paid in full. You'll recall in Ephesians, chapter one and verse seven, "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us." Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who were in Christ Jesus."

Dave Harrell  

But dear friends, catch this, we will be judged. We will be evaluated on the basis of what we did for his glory and why we did whatever it was that we did. This is called the judgment seat of Christ, and there are two passages that speak about this. Let me address them first, because all of this is preliminary and very, a very important foundation to understanding what Paul is saying here in First Corinthians three. One passage that speaks of the judgment seat of God, or the judgment seat of Christ, is Romans 14 and verse 10, there Paul says, "For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God." Now we know, according to John 5:22 that the Fatherhas granted all judgment to the Son. So this is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, the Greek word for judgment seat is really one word, and it's translated "bēma," and it was used to describe a raised platform for athletic events. It was also used in political arenas, where an authority figure would be elevated to the "bēma."  And in athletic competitions, that person would judge the competitions and award the winners. In legal cases, like when Jesus stood before Pilate, we know he stood on a "bēma" in Matthew 27:19, and there the authorities would render decisions and so forth.

So we see this idea of believers judgment in Romans 14:10, also in Second Corinthians five and verse 10. There we read, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad." The translation bad is really not a real good one, because the idea here is not so much, that which is evil, but that which was worthless or of poor quality, of a low standard. We know, according to Jude 24 and we just sung about this, that one day we will stand in the presence of his glory, blameless with great joy. In Psalm 103, verse 12, we read that, "as far as the east is from the west, so far He removed our transgressions from us." And certainly, this refutes what I call the giant projector doctrine. Have you heard of that doctrine? Some of you may have. I remember it scared me to death when I was a young boy, and I've heard certain people preach on this. It's completely unbiblical, but it'll certainly make you straighten up for a while, right? And the idea is that someday, there's going to be this giant projector, and God is going to do a replay of everything that you've ever done and everything that you've ever thought, and everybody's going to see it. And I remember thinking, Man, I mean, I thought there were no more tears in heaven, right? I mean, that would be the most humiliating, embarrassing thing I could ever imagine. I don't want you to see my stuff. I don't even want to see my stuff, and I certainly don't want to see yours. But the good news is that's not a biblical concept. We're going to stand in the presence of his glory, blameless with great joy. I'm thankful that I can say and you can too, if you know Christ - with the apostle Paul in Second Timothy 4:8, "In the future, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing."

Now with this background, we come to our text this morning in First Corinthians, three verses, 10 through 17. And here the Apostle Paul gives further explanation concerning Christ's evaluation of what we do that was good or worthless. Now you will recall at the end of verse nine, Paul closed by reminding the Corinthians that they were quote "God's building." And there he uses a metaphor indicating that they were God's possession, that they were to be a unified church, not one that was divided into quarrels and factions and all of those things that they were unfortunately being a part of.

So now in verse 10, he is going to develop further this idea of God's building by using the analogy of actually building a building. And here we learn some very important truths concerning how we should serve Christ during our short stay on Earth. And what he's going to use here is an architectural and building analogy that gives us great insight into what God wants the building, this, how he wants the building of his church to proceed. And we're going to look at this under four headings. We're going to see, number one, that Christ is the foundation. Secondly, that believers are the builders. Thirdly, that good works are the materials. And finally, Christ grants the rewards. I'm sure you are going to find, as I have, that these truths are both instructive as well as very encouraging if we learn from them and obey them.

So let's look at the text. First Corinthians three, and verse 10, he begins by saying,

"According to the grace of God which was given to me..." Let's stop there for a moment. This is a reference to, I believe, three overlapping categories in Paul's life, each one being solely as a result of God's grace, not anything that he deserved. It would be a reference to God's calling him, his grace in saving him. It would also be a reference to God's grace in commissioning him to be an apostle to the Gentiles, and also a reference to God's grace in accomplishing in him and through him the things that he has been doing for the glory of God. So Paul gives God all of the glory. In fact, he says in Romans 15 and verse 18, "For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed."

So he says, "According to the grace of God which was given to me," he says then, "...like a wise, "which could be translated, "skillful" or "clever" or "experienced," master builder, "like a wise master builder." "Master builder" is one word in Greek, "architektōn" and we get our English word "architect" from that. But we must understand that the term, in the first century Greek, did not refer to what we would call an architect who merely designs buildings. Rather this speaks of one who also not only designs but builds buildings. We might say that this is speaking of both an architect as well as a general contractor. And so Paul is saying, I was a wise or skillful architect and general contractor when it came to building a church. And so you get the idea here that Paul wasn't sitting in some ministry headquarters, some place, designing how the whole thing is supposed to be built, but rather he is also out there working with others to build it.

And then he says, "I laid a foundation." And indeed, we know that the apostles laid a foundation of Christ and him crucified. It was a stumbling block to the Jews, but it was and foolishness to the Gentiles, but it was the truth that saved. And then he says after "I laid a foundation," he says, "and another is building on it." And that would of course, be a reference to Apollos, who was now the pastor at the church in Corinth, who succeeded Paul. So Paul was indeed a master builder who laid a solid foundation based upon the gospel. And we see this in every city that he entered. It's interesting. He would always go to the Jew first. He would always go to the synagogues. There he would preach the gospel. He would preach to them the mysteries of the New Covenant described in Jeremiah 31; they had some grasp of these biblical truths and then he would describe to them how God had promised that he was going to put his law upon their hearts and that he would enable them to lovingly obey him by the power of the Holy Spirit, Ezekiel, 36 and so forth.

Now most of the people in the synagogues would reject him this. They would try to run him out of town, or they try to stone him or whatever. But some of them would believe they would be converted and gloriously saved. They would know that all along, they would understand the Old Testament all along that Israel was to be the vehicle for God's covenant plans. And sothese Jewish converts then would join Paul in evangelizing the Gentiles. So that was his master strategy. This is what happened in Corinth. You will remember, he was there for 18 months, and then he left, and another began to build upon the foundation that he laid. We know the same thing happened in Ephesus. He was there for three years, and then Timothy continued on after he was gone, and on and on it goes in the the gospel record.

But Paul was primarily a church planter. He was the one that would come in and lay a solid foundation, and then others would really begin to build upon it. So all of this was wise. It was planned; it was appropriate. So where he's going here is, folks, there is no reason for you to be elevating one man over another and be factious and all of this type of thing.

Now let's remember as well, earlier in verses six and seven, he used an agricultural analogy to disclaim any tribute to himself and also exhort the people to stop elevating other men. He says, "I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth." I was thinking about this, God called me to this area to begin this church 22 years ago, to begin to lay a foundation based upon the gospel, and then to continue to strengthen it over the course of my ministry, and to try to build a super structure of biblical Christ honoring doctrine, and along with many others who have co-labored with me. And someday I will have to step down. I will be too old or too sick, or you'll run me off, or something will happen. And there will be someone else who will take my place. That is the plan. I hope the Lord returns before all that happens. In fact, I hope it returns, before he returns before lunch, but, but we live as if that won't happen. Sorry about that, Erin, I'm really looking forward to the tacos, but actually, I'm looking forward to seeing Christ more than the tacos, I got to be honest.

But notice what Paul adds at the end of verse 10, "But each man," now, let me stop here. This is primarily a reference to church planters, to pastors, to teachers, but it's going to extend to all believers, as we're going to see. "But each man must be careful how he builds on it." In the original language, the grammar indicates that this is an action that has to be continued. It's a never-ending process of the building. It's not like you finally get the building done, and then it's good to go. This is the role of the church, and all who are members of it.

Verse 11, he says, "For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid," referring to the one that he has laid, and based upon the gospel, "...which is Jesus Christ." So number one, we see that Christ is the foundation. And we all know that the most important part of any building is its foundation. If it is not laid well the superstructure will eventually collapse. The foundation supports the building, even as Christ supports the church. And so Paul is referring here to the gospel. The foundation of the church is the reality that a holy God has provided a way for sinful man to be reconciled to him through faith in his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who paid the penalty for the sins of all who would trust in him. He paid that penalty on the cross, and that is the only hope of salvation that we have. That's why Paul said earlier in chapter two, verse two, "For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified," referring to the gospel. Verse seven, "We speak of God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory."

Now bear in mind, in the first century, in his day, the Greco Roman religions were built upon a very different foundation. They were built upon polytheistic idolatry. And the Jews of that day had a different foundation. Theirs was the foundation built upon works-righteousness, law keeping and so forth. And in Matthew chapter 16, you will recall Jesus asked his disciples, "'Who do you say that I am?' And Simon Peter answered, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' And Jesus said to him, 'Blessed are you? Simon Bar Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father, who is in heaven. I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock,'" referring to the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. "'Upon this rock, I will build My church.'"

I've talked with many people who have attended churches all of their life, and they will admit that over the course of their life, they never heard the gospel. They heard a lot about tradition. There are those that hear a lot about social justice and social welfare. They hear a lot about morality and ethics, about positive thinking, about having a purpose driven life, how to manipulate God for prosperity and health. But they know nothing of the gospel. I remember a conversation I had with a Roman Catholic priest; interesting story I was, I had to perform a wedding alongside a Roman Catholic priest, a very interesting dynamic. And before the whole thing started, I had a chance to talk with him, to get to know him. And he was already rather inebriated, and the festivities hadn't even started yet, but I wanted to understand a little bit, you know, just your perspective on the gospel. And one of the things I asked him is, "Sir, I'm curious, is faith in Christ alone sufficient for salvation?" And he proceeded to tell me that the official position of the Roman Catholic Church is that a person must believe in Jesus Christ, but they must also be baptized and receive the Eucharist along with the sacraments, and obey the decrees of the Roman Catholic Church and perform meritorious works that he elaborated on a bit and make sure that you don't die with any mortal sins and, and, and, and.... In fact, what you see is Roman Catholic doctrine is the antithesis of the five Solas of the Reformation that adorn this worship center.

I remember asking the same question to a friend who had been a Mormon but had come to faith in Christ and in talking with him about the reality of his faith in Christ alone sufficient for salvation among the Mormons, he said, "Oh, absolutely not." And he went on to talk about how that they believe that through the atonement of Christ, all men can be saved, but you also have to be baptized by immersion. You have to receive the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. And you can also go to the temple, and you can be baptized for your ancestors who have already died, so that they too can be saved. And he said, you have to repent of every sin, pay your 10% tithe, which, by the way, they check your IRS records to make sure you're doing that; you got to raise your kids in the faith. And he went on and on; just enormous pressure, and it's fascinating. He talked about how God and Jesus, according to the Mormons, were separate physical people that dwelled on Earth and God was Jesus' father, and both of themdied on the earth. Lucifer, by the way, was Jesus' brother. They believe that the Bible, as well as the Book of Mormon, are the words of God. They believe that all men are born perfect and that you can't sin until you reach the age of accountability, which is age eight, and then you've got to confess your sins to a bishop. You have to repent. They don't believe there's such a thing as hell. There are three heavens and if you're going to make it to the third heaven, you have to do certain things to try to earn your way up there. And on and on it goes.

Bottom line, folks, their foundation is not the gospel. They are not churches - the good news of salvation by grace, alone through faith alone, in Christ alone, based upon scripture alone, for the glory of God alone, is nowhere to be found in those contexts. So Paul says in verse 11, "For no man can lay a foundation other than which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." I love the way Spurgeon put it, quote, "If any company of people calling themselves a church depend for salvation and eternal life on anything besides or beyond the merit of Christ's atoning sacrifice, they are not a church. Christ is indispensable to a true church. We cannot have a house at all if we take away the foundation. We cannot have a church of Christ if Jesus Christ is not there as the foundation."

Folks, my point is, this is a grave distortion of the gospel. This has nothing to do with the gospel that is not a church. It has no foundation. Phil Johnson, the executive director of Grace to You, that many of you are familiar with, which is the media ministry of John MacArthur, makes an interesting observation about the big four major cults that we have here in the United States, and they've spread all over the world now. But they are Mormonism, Christian Science, Jehovah's Witness and Seventh Day Adventism, all examples of churches without a Christ-centered foundation. Here's what Phil has to say. Quote, "It intrigues me that all four groups started in America. All of them began in the 19th century in the wake of the religious fervor and perfectionist teaching that followed Charles Finney from New England across Pennsylvania to Oberlin, Ohio. It was an era of significant religious confusion, homebrew doctrines, unchecked error, much like the evangelical movement today. In the words of Scripture quote, 'everyone did what was right in his own eyes.' So you had both men and women starting their own religions." He went on to say, "Most of them had deep roots in the superstitions of Free Masonry, Spiritism and other occult beliefs. They blended their superstitions with biblical language. They claimed they had some new light received directly from heaven, and people followed them in droves. The four major cults of Christian Science, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormonism and Seventh Day Adventism, all were born within a 250-mile radius of each other. "He went on to say, "The word 'cult' itself simply means a religious sect or community, but in common usage, especially in evangelical circles, the expression is normally reserved for groups that encourage a kind of obsessive commitment to a very narrow set of doctrines, authoritative, authoritarian leadership and their own body of extra biblical revelation. They are basically closed communities fully committed to some novel system of doctrine shared by no one else."

So number one, Christ is the foundation. Number two, believers are the builders. Notice in verse 12. "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 will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work." So here we see that all believers are continuing to build upon the foundation of the gospel, originally laid by the apostles. We know the end of verse 10, "each man must be careful how he builds it." Verse 13, "each man's work is going to become evident" someday. So we're all part of the church. We're all building upon the foundation of the gospels that was laid by the apostles.

And by the way, I might add that this must also be true in your personal life, in your marriage, in your parenting. Husbands, ask yourself, "Is this a priority in how I conduct the affairs of my private life, how I lead my wife and my family?" Does this animate dear friends, your personal pursuit of holiness. Does this impact how you shepherd your wife, your children, how you think when you get to know other people in dating relationships; wives, mothers, singles, whatever it is, you want to ask yourself, "Is the gospel the absolute foundation of everything that I'm building in my life?" Because if the answer is no, then it's just a matter of time that you will eventually collapse in a heap of ruin.

"'Everyone who comes to Me,'"

Folks, unless we are anchored in the Gibraltar of the gospel, and living consistently with those truths, all our plans are ultimately going to bring us to misery. Jesus spoke about this in John or in Luke chapter six, beginning in verse 47,

he says,

"'and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like:

he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against the house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.'"

"'But,'" verse 49,

"'The one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it, and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.'"

Indeed, that person will one day be swept away in the torrent of divine judgment and find themselves ultimately in an eternal hell. So believers are the builders in Paul's analogy. But notice something else in verse 12, he says, "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 will show it." Here's why, "...because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work."

Now, thirdly, what we see here is that good works are the materials. Let me explain this. We want to be very careful. We are never saved by good works. We are saved by grace alone. Good works do not earn our salvation. Good Works do not sustain our salvation. Good Works prove our salvation. Every believer, according to Ephesians 2:10 has been "created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." According to Colossians 1:10 we are to "bear fruit in every good work."

Now, as we examine this, let me remind you that what we're seeing here is a parallel with the analogy of the field and the laborers that Paul used earlier in chapter three, verses six through nine. Laborers, you will recall, they must sow and they water, but the harvest depends solely upon God, who causes the increase, who brings about the harvest. Likewise, we can and we must, use all the right materials to build the church, but its ultimate completion depends upon Christ. The life giving, the life sustaining foundation.

And here, Paul describes two different categories of building materials. Notice, "gold, silver, precious stones." These would be valuable non-combustible materials that will stand the test of fire, versus, "wood, hay, straw." Less valuable combustible materials that will not stand the test of fire. Let me give you a little bit of background here that I think will help you understand where the Corinthians would have been in their mindset when they first heard this.

Because most of the dwellings in ancient Mediterranean cities were thatched roof structures made of clay combined with wood, hay, which would be grass, and stubble; which is straw, in other words for straw. And because the climate was so hot and so dry, fire was always a serious threat. And so this analogy may well have been quite vivid to these residents here in Corinth. Moreover, in 146 BC, much of that city was destroyed by the Roman conquest, and it wasn't until 44 BC that Julius Caesar rebuilt the city. So it is very likely that many of the ruins from that devastation were still evident in parts of the city when Paul was there. People could see burned out structures, and those burned-out structures would only reveal those non-combustible materials that remained. And we know that wealthy homes and government buildings and even their pagan temples and so forth, would have had a combination of both combustible as well as non-combustible materials. Many of them would have been made of marble and granite and even gold and silver and jewels embedded in the walls. But they would have also had wood and cheaper materials as part of the facility.

So Paul's point here is this, some of our works will have lasting value. They will endure the testing fire of divine judgment, but some of them won't. God-centered service, offered in the strength of the Holy Spirit and for the glory of Christ, will be of great value. But man-centered service, offered in the strength of our mere flesh and for our own glory, or for the glory of some man, will have no value.

Now let's remember the context here in order to understand what the Spirit is saying through his inspired author. The Corinthians were enamored with the wisdom of man, "philosophia." They loved that wisdom. They had brought that into the church. They were accustomed to partisan politics, aligning themselves with their favorite philosopher, and now in the church, their favorite preacher, their favorite teacher; and they loved this wisdom from the world that they had brought into the church. And so they were elevating certain men over others. And along with the disunity that that brought in the church, there were many other sins that they came along with that, all bringing dishonor to Christ. Therefore, any materials that they used in the building of that church that did not harmonize with the gospel of Christ, that did not put his glory on display, would never endure the fires of divine judgment, the evaluation that would one day come. So the gold, silver and precious stones would be symbols of pure doctrine that is taught; pure doctrine that is lived in service to Christ. Regardless of what we do, dear friends, it must be biblical, and it must be done for the glory of Christ.

Verse 13, "...each man's work will become evident; for 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." Even as fire was used to purify metal, and it is to this very day, we see that it is also a symbol of divine testing all throughout Scripture. So God will test the purity and the value of our service to Him.

Now we all know that when we build a building, or we even add on to our home, that we have to get a building inspector to ultimately come out and inspect what we have done to make sure that we use the proper materials, to make sure that we space things the proper way; that the handrail is the proper height, that it is anchored the proper way, or whatever. All of the standards have to be met for the local building code. Well, folks, the idea here is that Christ is going to inspect what we have done when he returns. And practically speaking, anything that we do in our service to Christ, that is done in the flesh, or anything that we do that is based upon man's wisdom rather than sound doctrine, will be of no value. God wants us to build with the very best of materials. He wants us to give our best, not our leftovers. He doesn't want cheap imitations, no cutting corners, no winging it in Christian service, no attitude of laziness, the kind of "who cares" type of attitude being a part of a church and serving Christ in our life. He wants things to be built right with quality workmanship according to his divine standard for the church. He wants us to use our gifts and our opportunities to serve Him, to love him and others, and to do it with the right motives.

In fact, what's interesting at the "bema," he's not only going to judge what we did for his glory, but why we did it. Now, here's where I don't, I can't answer that even for myself. I don't even know my own motives. I don't know your motives. Only God knows that. In fact, Paul described this in First Corinthians four, beginning at verse four, he says, "For I am conscious of nothing against myself. Yet I am not by this acquitted, but the one who examines me is the Lord. Therefore, do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts, and then each man's praise will come to him from God." So to be sure, folks, anything that we do that is not gospel-centered, anything that we do that's motivated by self-promotion or self-interest or self-aggrandizement or applause - anything that we do that is lacking in love - all of that stuff that's just wood, hay and stubble.

Recall earlier in Second Corinthians 5:10, "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad, whether it's good or it's worthless." So folks, you can either serve Christ with gold, or you can use wood, right? You can either serve him with silver, or you can use hay. You can serve him with precious stone or stubble. And the question you want to ask yourself is, "What materials am I using?" Better yet, "Am I even part of this building, or am I sitting along the sidelines, watching everyone else?"

So Christ is the foundation. Believers are the builders. Good works are the materials. And finally, Christ grants the rewards. Notice, in verse 14,

"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."

Here, Paul describes three kinds of workers in the church, those who build with quality materials, those who build with inferior materials, and those who destroy the building. I want you to notice all those who build, which includes every believer, will be rewarded some day; all that we do for the power or for the glory of Christ, under the power of the Spirit, we will be rewarded. Now you want to ask the question, as I did, and I probably spent maybe four hours reading hundreds of pages this last week to try to understand what these rewards might be, and I have to tell you that where scripture is silent, we have to be silent. We have a little bit of hint, but we don't know. I mean, maybe we're going to rule in some special ways in other galaxies, right? We don't know. I mean, we tend to think that we're the only universe, right? That we're kind of it. We may be one speck among billions of other universes. I mean, your mind starts to blow that...I don't know what the Lord is going to do, but, but whatever, however, the reward is, it's going to be magnificent, right? Absolutely. Perhaps it's a reference to the reward being those who come to Christ as a result of our faithful service, as a result of our faithful teaching and living. They shall be, Paul says, "a crown of exaltation," Second Corinthians 11:4.

Remember in First Thessalonians two, beginning in verse 19, he says, "For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation?" He answers the question, "Is it not even you..." you believers that have come to faith in Christ in Thessalonica? "Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? For you are our glory and joy." So that will, no doubt, be part of the reward. And Paul asked the saints in Philippi, remember to shine as "lights in the world," Philippians 2:16, "holding fast the word of life." Here's why, "so that in the day of Christ, I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain, nor toil in vain." We know, according to First Peter five and verse four, for faithful pastors, there will be, quote, "the unfading crown of glory." So we have some sense of this, but we don't really know. But one of the things that we certainly can assume, with great conviction, is that whatever the rewards will be, they will be magnificent. They will be blessings beyond anything that we could ever imagine. Moreover, they will all redound to the glory of God and not to us. Ultimately, we will cast our crowns at his feet.

However, our works that are done in the flesh, works that are done based upon errant doctrine, those they're not going to survive, "He," he says, "will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so through fire." In other words, he himself will escape the fire of judgment like someone who is pulled out of the fire. In fact, the phrase "so through fire" was probably a metaphor like quote "a brand plucked from the burning" that we see in Amos 4:11; comparable to something that we might say, one who is "saved by the skin of their teeth," or something along that line. And I have to say that, since we're going to stand in the presence of his glory, blameless with great joy, I question if at that time at the bema, we're going to experience some great remorse over the loss of reward, some great sorrow. You know, it's not like we're going to say, "Oh Lord, come on, really, I don't get any reward? I mean, I worked in that church for 40 years. I get nothing for that?" No, you did it for your own glory. I don't think that's what's going to happen there, are you with me on that? But we just don't know. But certainly we know that we can lose reward. First John 2:28 says, "Now little children abide in Him." Why? "So that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. "Folks, we need to make every effort to build with the very best materials for the glory of God and seek to gain the greatest rewards we can for his glory. Second John eight, "Watch yourselves that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward." Folks don't live in such a way as to forfeit reward in your life. Colossians 2:18, "Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize." And the context there is by promoting legalism and other forms of false doctrine.

And I might say that, it's for this reason, folks at Calvary Bible Church, you're not going to see us starting up, for example, a deliverance ministry. It's just unbiblical. You're not going to see us teaching classes on how to speak in tongues, or you're not going to see us promoting marches for social justice or or global warming or picketing Planned Parenthood. We're not going to be distracted with those things. You're not going to see us joining in the ecumenical movements, interdenominational initiative to somehow have greater cooperation with all, quote, "Christian churches," because many of them aren't Christian at all. You're not going to see us participating in the holy alliance of Jews, Christians and Muslims to protect migrants from Trump's deportation or whatever. Don't do things that are worthless. They might, some of those things, might be good, but don't do things that distract you from what God has called us to do in building the church. Don't waste your time on things that don't build upon the gospel. Don't try to build a grand superstructure that isn't gospel centered. But rather strive to see men and women and boys and girls come to faith in Christ and live in conformity to him. Don't be a part of a church that doesn't have the Great Commission as its priority.

And he goes on, he says, in verse 16, "Do you not know..." and here he's speaking specifically to the Corinthians folks, you people in Corinth, and by extension, to us here, "Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" "You" there being plural, referring to the church. But we also know from many other passages even here, that the Spirit of God dwells within us individually, but also corporately. And he's saying, Don't you know that you are to be holy as God is holy. The church is to be holy as God is holy. You must guard the sanctity of the church, even as the Holy of Holies was guarded by a holy and glorious, omnipotent God - the Holy of Holies, in the tabernacle in the temple.

So he's saying what a sacrilege it is to do anything that would dishonor God or violate his standard or lead his people into error or sin, like some of you are doing with all the silliness that you're involved with, being divisive and being immoral and all of those things in the church. He goes on, and he says, "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 any man that tries to build upon a foundation other than Christ, any man that seeks to disrupt the church, anyone that seeks to deceive those who belong to Christ, those people are going to be destroyed by the very God that they mock. Very clear.

So beloved, our most passionate motivation, our highest aim must be to honor Christ, knowing that we are accountable to him, knowing that someday we are going to stand before him, and he is going to evaluate our life. He is watching everything that we do, and he sees things that we can't even see, and he is going to reward us accordingly. So can I challenge you with this? Folks, live a quiet, simple life in sincere devotion to Christ. Study his word, meditate upon his word, develop a personal pursuit of holiness. Last week, I was telling you, you know, weed your garden, get rid of all the stuff in your life that would prevent the seeds of biblical truth from finding a place to get in there and germinate and grow; cultivate that secret devotion, learn to live in the presence of God, remain in a state of communion with Him - all of those wonderful things. Be willing to serve him in obscurity, knowing that he's watching it and he's going to reward; don't look for the applause of man, wait for the applause of the Lord Himself, and anticipate that glorious day when he will reward us all because of his glory and grace. Amen,let's pray together.

Father, thank you for these eternal truths. I pray that by the power of your Spirit, they will manifest themselves in how we build our lives as being members of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, may we use the very best of materials and may we build with the proper motive to ultimately bring glory to you. So we commit it all to you, and pray finally, for those that know nothing of what it means to know Christ, Lord, I pray that today will be the day of their salvation. Move upon their hearts with overwhelming conviction, save them by your grace. I pray for Jesus' sake and in his name. Amen.