Corinthians Series (Part Five)
Text: 1 Corinthians 3:9-17
OPEN WITH PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING
Well good morning to you. It’s good to see you all here with us this morning.
It is good to gather with the Church on the Lord’s Day right!
We are in 1st Corinthians chapter 3 this morning, and we’re looking at the last two of three metaphors that Paul uses to describe the church. If you remember from last Sunday, we saw how the Apostle Paul had to kind of use some harsh language in order to shock these Corinthian believers in order to get them to stop focusing on themselves, and start focusing on what matters – namely Jesus. He basically told these believers in Corinth that they were acting like infants, and that they still had to be fed milk. And let me give you one more quick point about that before we get to our text today.
Infants – babies – they have to be fed right? They have to be given milk. And then as they grow, you can start giving them solid food. But adults… adults are different. Adults don’t have to be fed. We have to eat, but we feed ourselves right?
So Paul calls them out. But then he kind of softens his tone, and says to them, that they are also God’s field. And we started to look at that as well. How he and Apollos were basically just farm hands. They were the guys who planted and watered. And that brings us to our passage today.
We’re in 1 Corinthians 3:9-17, so let’s take our Bibles we’ll look at that together.
(READ TEXT)
So Paul and Apollos are working for the Lord. And there’s a couple of ways we can look at that. First we can look at it and see that Paul and Apollos are fellow workers together, working FOR God… and the second way is that Paul, and Apollos are fellow workers, working WITH God, as He is working in the hearts of His people. It’s not an either – or situation. We are called to work as unto the Lord; in other words, working with the mindset and attitude that we are working FOR God, while at the same time, we are working in accordance to the grace and strength He gives us to do the work. Working WITH God.
And “YOU” are God’s field. Now that word, “YOU” there is plural. So Paul is addressing the whole gathering of believers. He is just as much talking to you and I as he was to these believers in Corinth. In Oklahoma we’d say, “You-all are God’s field.”
Now I don’t know about you, but as I was reading through this, and studying this, and preparing the message for today… I read that and my mind immediately went to the parable of the sower. You can find that in Matthew 13, Mark 4, and Luke 8, and we’ll just turn to Luke’s Gospel, because we know Luke traveled with Paul quite a bit… and take a look at it. Luke 8:11-15 (READ).
So the seed that’s getting planted is the Word… Remember Paul planted and Apollos watered… what did they plant and water? The Word – The Gospel. The Word of God.
And there are some, and they hear it, and the devil comes and snatches it away so that they may not be saved. So that’s before salvation ever happens… right. Matthew explains it a little more in detail, he says that they hear it and don’t understand it… and we talked about that a couple of Sundays back, when we explained that the message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, and how 1 Corinthians 2:14 says that, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is NOT ABLE to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” So this is that person right? They’re not saved, but they hear the Gospel, they don’t understand it but they’ve heard it – they’ve heard the truth – but they don’t know it to be true… and the devil comes and snatches it away. How does the devil do that? Lies… “Did God say?” “Is that actually what God says?” “Saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone? Oh no, no, no… you’ve got do this and this, and this as well…” There’s a million different false gospels out there, and million different ways the devil will get a person to become confused and question the truth of God’s Word. That’s what he does. He is your enemy. Period!
Verse 13, these hear it, they receive it with joy, but they have no root in themselves and they believe for a while… now that word believe there in Luke 8:13 means to be mentally persuaded. It’s not talking about saving faith. So this is someone who hears God’s Word, mentally agrees with it, but there’s been no real transformation, or conversion. They’ve mentally assented… Sometimes you’ll hear people say they have head knowledge, but not heart knowledge. This is why James says, “Even demons believe, and they tremble.” They have knowledge of the truth, but not saving knowledge. These are those kinds of folks who are going to stand before the Lord on that great Day and say, “Lord, Lord, didn’t we cast out demons in Your Name, and do all these wonderful works in Your Name.” And Jesus is going to say to them, “Depart from Me, for I NEVER knew you.” And you see what happens to them here… right?
They endure for a little while, but when the tests come, and the persecution comes, they fall away. And that can mean a lot of things. It could be, “Oh you want to identify as a Christian? You want to say that you’re a follower of Jesus huh? Well you can no longer work here if that’s the case.” “You can no longer get the medicine you need if that’s the case.” “You can no longer buy food if that’s the case.” And that’s one way this testing happens… but there is another way as well. And I personally have seen more people turn away due to this second kind of testing than I have the first kind… Here it is – “God I’m praying for healing for this person I love very much.” And the healing never comes. “God I’m praying for wealth.” The wealth never comes. “God I’m standing on your Word for a miracle.” The miracle doesn’t come. And they in-effect say, “Well God didn’t do what I wanted Him to do, when I wanted Him to do it, and how I wanted Him to do it, so I’m done.” And they fall away.
How do you pass that test? Well… I think Job is a great example of how. If you look at Job, he was an upright man who shunned evil and feared the Lord. He was a faithful follower of God. And then BOOM! He’s attacked out of nowhere.
He loses his wealth, he loses his family, and he loses his health. Just relentless assaults against him by the devil. Job doesn’t understand why. He doesn’t know what’s going on. He doesn’t know that at the end of all of this, he’s going to get back everything double. He’s getting attacked by Satan. He’s getting attacked by his wife. He’s sick, and miserable, and his so called friends aren’t any help at all. And in the middle of all of that you know what Job does. He says probably one of the greatest statements of faith in all Scripture. He says, “Even though He slay me, I will hope in Him.”
The seed that fell into Job’s heart, didn’t fall on stony ground.
Then there are those who Jesus says are the thorns, or thorny ground, verse 14, “And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.” Now… do you think Paul may have had that in mind when he called these folks in Corinth infants? Maybe… maybe they’re caught up with the cares of this world. You know… keeping up with the Jones’.
Riches! 1 Timothy 6:9, “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.” - like choking out the Word… making you an immature infant in your faith… leading you into all kinds of weird and false beliefs. You could go on to verse 10, but we’ve got to keep moving or I’ll never get through our text. Do that at home, ok…. Read 1 Timothy 6:9-10, and compare it with what you hear from most TV preachers today. I challenge you to do that, and we can talk about it tonight. Ok…
But then there’s good soil – those who hear the Word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience. YOU ARE GODS FIELD. What part of the field you are remains to be seen. YOU ARE GOD’S BUILDING.
Now Paul says, “Like a skilled (or wise) master builder I laid a foundation.” And he’s already alluded to that, His intention was to preach Christ where He had not yet been preached, that’s what he’s referring to here. He laid that foundation, Christ crucified. The Message of the Cross… and someone else – Apollos – is building upon it.
At one time, someone laid a foundation here at Fairview. Someone preached the Message of the Cross. Someone came and preached Christ crucified. Someone planted this church, and preached the Gospel, and laid down a foundation. And over the years, many others have come along and built on that foundation. Some built with gold, silver, and precious stones… others have built with wood, hay, and straw. Some you may have thought were building with one and they were actually building with the other… and that goes both ways. Ultimately all of that will be revealed for THE DAY will disclose it. It will be revealed by fire. Now hopefully, even if they were building with wood, hay, and straw, that builder will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved.
Now catch that – that’s saying that there can be well intentioned builders… well intentioned waterers… and they’re building with the wrong materials… they’re devoting their time and ministry to the wrong things… whether through ignorance, or misplaced trust or ideas… or they’re watering weeds that were sown alongside the wheat by the enemy. Jesus talks about that in Matthew 13, right after He gives the parable of the sower…
Now let’s look at verses 16 & 17 and close with that, because they tie right in with the Lord’s Supper which we’re about to take.
“Do you not know that you (again plural – meaning the Church), are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? IF anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.”
In other words, someone might come in and preach in ignorance… they might build or water in ignorance… they might say something that God’s Word never actually says or teaches, and that work will be burned up on the Day of the Lord…. It will be revealed to be incorrect or in wrong. But to the false teacher who comes in and purposefully tries to destroy the Church, or twist God’s Word intentionally and with crooked, or perverse, or evil intentions. God will destroy them. That’s why Paul says later on, when he reminds them of how they should be when taking the Lord’s Supper, he says, “Some of you are weak, and some of you have even died, because you did not discern THE BODY.” – meaning the Church, God’s building, the Temple. All of you, who have the Spirit of God dwelling in you.
We’ll stop here for today, and we’ll take communion.
PRAY
COMMUNION
CLOSING.
