Will you please turn to 1 Corinthians 3? We will read from verse 10 through verse 17.
According to the grace of God which was given unto me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation; and another buildeth thereon. But let each man take heed how he buildeth thereon.
For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
But if any man buildeth on the foundation gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, stubble;
each man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself shall prove each man’s work of what sort it is.
If any man’s work shall abide which he built thereon, he shall receive a reward.
If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as through fire.
Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
If any man destroyeth the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, and such are ye.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee for calling us into the fellowship of Thy own Son. We praise and thank Thee. It is all grace and mercy that Thou hast brought us into such a glorious divine fellowship.
And now, Lord, we just look to Thee to open our understanding and to bring us into such a life of fellowship that we may truly accomplish all that Thou hast ordained, even before the ages.
O Lord, we do look to Thy Holy Spirit to open Thy Word to us in such livingness and freshness, and bring Thy Word deeply into our hearts, that it may transform us and conform us to Thy own image.
Lord, this is a work only Thou canst do, and we just trust Thee for it. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
We are still in 1 Corinthians, from chapter 1 through chapter 4.
The problem with the church in Corinth—or the number one problem with the church in Corinth—is their division. But Paul approaches this problem in a positive way. That is to say, why is division so serious? It is because there is a calling that we who believe in the Lord Jesus have been called into.
Now, if we only can see our calling, it will deliver us not only from division, as it were, but from all the other things that you will find being dealt with in this letter.
Brothers and sisters, we need to remember a fact, a glorious fact: that you and I, all of us who believe in the Lord Jesus, have been called into the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
That is to say, we are to share in common with our Lord Jesus Christ. We ought to share with one another our Lord Jesus Christ. We are in such a fellowship.
And because this fellowship is so holy, so heavenly, so spiritual, and so of life, therefore anything that is not so holy, so heavenly, so spiritual, and so of life will be a contradiction to that fellowship.
Our Lord Jesus, as the Son of God, has fellowship with His Father, and His Father has fellowship with Him. In that fellowship there is no darkness, no unrighteousness, no unloveliness. It is a perfect, harmonious fellowship.
It is a fellowship that is selfless, a fellowship in which They share everything, withholding nothing. Whatever the Father has, He gives to His Son. Whatever the Son has, He gives back to the Father. Their fellowship is in the Spirit, in the Holy Spirit.
And now this fellowship has been extended to us who believe in Him. Our Lord Jesus shares His Father with us. He does not withhold anything that He knows of His Father from us.
In like manner, the Father shares His Son with us. He does not withhold anything that He gives to His Son, but shares it with us. How we are all called into fellowship with one another!
We mentioned last time that we enter into the fellowship by believing in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. At the same time, the way we fellowship with one another is also based upon Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
To put it simply, when we fellowship, when we share with one another, what do we share with one another? Do we share one another with ourselves? No. We share with one another Christ—the Christ that we know.
And in order to share with one another Christ, we have to allow His cross to work in our lives so that we may know Christ as our life, not only as our Savior, but as our life. And we learn to live by that life.
Now, this morning we would like to go to chapters 3 and 4. It is still on fellowship, but it tells us that, in that fellowship, there is something going on.
Calling involves responsibility.
We are called into the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. And because we have been called into such a privilege, there is a responsibility that comes upon each and every one of us.
The Bible says, “Many are called, but few are chosen.” In other words, we are all being called into the fellowship, but whether we bear that responsibility and fulfill that responsibility or not, that is something to be determined.
Fellowship is not an empty word. It is not just a theological thought. Fellowship is living; it is very real. It touches our life—not only our personal life, our family life, and our social life. In other words, fellowship touches our whole being.
And because of that, there is something that comes out of fellowship. That is to say, fellowship is building.
And that is the reason why, in chapter 3, you find the apostle Paul mentioning this matter of building. How is the church built? How is the temple of God built? It is built by the fellowship of God’s children.
As we fellowship, we build. We either build or we destroy. There is a responsibility in us.
You know, our Lord Jesus said:
Upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Here is the foundation. He shares with us what He is. He shares with us all that He has done for us. He is the foundation. And now, upon that foundation, He said, “I will build My church.”
Now, what is His church? His church is nothing but God’s building, the temple of God in which God dwells by His Spirit.
He is the foundation. And we who are called into this fellowship are all building upon that foundation.
Now, the apostle Paul says that he is a wise master builder, not an architect, because the architect is Christ Himself. He is a master builder, but a wise master builder. Why? Because he laid the only foundation that could be laid.
Not only Paul did that; all the apostles did that. We find that the church is built upon the foundation of the apostles. Now, what does that mean?
It means that the apostles report to us that which they have seen, heard, contemplated, understood, experienced, and touched—that life, that Word of life, that eternal life, Christ Jesus. They faithfully share with us all that they have learned of Christ, and that is laying the foundation.
But it is not only Paul, Apollos, and the other apostles who are doing such work. We all are called to have a part in that building.
And that is the reason why Paul said, “I, as a wise master builder, have laid the foundation.” And that foundation can be nothing else but Jesus Christ.
Let each see how he builds upon it.
He wants every one of us to see—that is, to understand, to know, to take it to heart—how each of us builds upon it.
So, brothers and sisters, fellowshipping is building. As you fellowship with the Father and with the Son, you are building something into yourself, into your life.
And as you fellowship with your brothers and sisters, you are building something into your brothers and sisters. We are all involved in that building of the house of God, of that holy temple of God, of that place in which God is to dwell in His Spirit. That is what we are all doing.
After you are saved, you are immediately put into that building work. Whether you are conscious of it or not, it does not matter. If you are not conscious that you are building something, you are still building something.
Whether you are alone, whether you are with your brothers and sisters, whether you are in the family, even when you are at your work, you have been called into that fellowship. Therefore, consciously or unconsciously, continuously, day and night, you are doing some building work.
And that building work is not an ordinary building. It is building the house of God. It is building the temple of God. It is building the dwelling place of God. It is building the church.
I hope this will be deeply impressed upon every one of us.
Oftentimes we forget that we are all building something. We think that it does not matter when I am alone; nothing happens. But, brothers and sisters, even when you are by yourself, something is going on. Some building is going on.
Whether you are with brothers and sisters, consciously or unconsciously, you are building something into that house.
The foundation is Christ. In other words, what is built upon that foundation has to be of the same quality, the same nature, and the same character as the foundation.
To put it another way, what is the church? The church is the extension of Christ. That is the reason why you find in 1 Corinthians 12:
The body is one, and hath many members; and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is the Christ.
That which is built upon the foundation, if it is going to be God’s dwelling place, has to be of the same nature, quality, and character as the foundation, which is Jesus Christ. So, what are you building into it? You build Jesus Christ into that foundation. That is the extension of the foundation.
So the Bible says our Lord Jesus is not only the foundation; He is also the cornerstone. Not only the cornerstone, He is also the topstone. In other words, the whole building is a corporate expression of the foundation, of what He is.
Do you get it now?
And if that is the case, then how important it is, how careful we must be, as to how we build.
We are all building. You may not feel it, but it is going on. And do not forget: you are building something of eternal value.
Isn’t this strange? Our God, who is able to create heavens and earth and all the things in heaven, on earth, and even underneath the earth, builds all these by Himself alone. He does not ask your help.
But strangely, when He is building His own house in which to dwell, He calls you and me, and all of us, to join Him in that work. It is marvelous in our eyes.
What faith He has put upon us! He knows what we are. He knows what we will be doing. And yet He has faith in us. He calls us to come to fellowship, and by fellowshipping, to build His house.
Do not think that you are engaged in this building only when you come to the meetings. Even when you are at home by yourself, you are contributing something to it, good or bad.
Twenty-four hours a day, there is no vacation, because the work is urgent.
So the apostle Paul says, “See how each builds upon it.”
Unless you are not of the Lord, unless you are not saved, unless you do not believe in the Lord Jesus, then you are not in that building work. But once you believe in the Lord Jesus, you have been called, whether you like it or not, and the responsibility is upon you, whether you are conscious of it or not.
So let us be careful as to how we build on it.
Now, you find the emphasis seems to be on the materials, because Paul says some may build with gold, silver, and precious stones, and others may build with wood, hay, and stubble.
So basically, there are two kinds of building. How do you build? You build either with gold, silver, and precious stones, or you build with wood, hay, and stubble.
We know that gold in the Scripture always represents the nature of God, because gold is the most precious metal: incorruptible, weighty, valuable, shining, and lasting. So in the Bible, you find gold always represents something of God.
The holiest of all was overlaid with gold, pure gold. The ark was overlaid inside and outside with gold. The mercy seat was pure gold. Even the lampstand was pure gold. Gold in the Scripture represents the nature of God.
Silver in the Scripture represents the redemption of our Lord Jesus, because you find in Exodus 30 that every Israelite who was numbered above twenty years of age had to pay a ransom money, and the ransom money was half a shekel.
So, in other words, silver represents the redemption of our Lord Jesus. He gave His own life as a ransom for us.
Precious stones speak of the work of the Holy Spirit, because these matters have to go through pressure, heat, darkness, and time until they become precious.
The work of the Holy Spirit is how He patiently, in the dark as it were, secretly works in our lives so precious stones may be produced.
So when you think of gold, silver, and precious stones, they all represent what is of God, of Christ, and of the Holy Spirit. And you can build into that house with such material.
Now, of course, if you want to build with such material, it costs you something. Gold is costly. Silver is costly. Precious stones are costly. You do not get these things free. You have to pay a cost for them.
And the cost that you have to pay is yourself. Self is the cost. You have to deny yourself, take up the cross, and follow the Lord. That is the cost, the ultimate cost.
And that is the way that the nature of God is incorporated into our lives. The finished work of Christ becomes a reality in us. The Holy Spirit is able to constitute Christ into our life.
And out of that which you have received, you share with your brothers and sisters. That is building with gold, silver, and precious stones.
Furthermore, if you build with gold, silver, and precious stones, because they are so costly, you cannot build a huge building with them. It may be small, little, hardly seen, but it is there. It is real. It is permanent.
On the other hand, you may build with wood, hay, and stubble. Wood in the Scripture always speaks of man. Men are like trees.
You remember in Judges 9, Jotham used a parable about the trees. The trees wanted to find a king. They said to the fig tree and to the vine, “Be our king.”
And they said, “No, we have our responsibility. We produce wine; we produce fruit for God. We do not want to be king.” So they went to ask a thornbush, and the thornbush said, “Okay, if you want me to be king, come under me. Otherwise, fire will come and burn you up.”
So trees always represent the nature of man.
Hay—in 1 Peter 1, we are told:
All flesh is as grass,
And all the glory thereof as the flower of grass.
So you find grass represents the glory of man. It is fading and withering.
And then stubble. I think we all remember how Pharaoh commanded the children of Israel to make bricks with straw. So straw is the work of man.
In other words, everything comes out of man, of yourself, of your natural self. There is no working of the cross in that life. So what you put in is yourself.
And because wood, hay, and stubble are cheap, you do not need to pay a great cost. And you can build a huge building with them. Everybody can see it.
Now, is this theory? No. Paul illustrates it. So you find in chapter 3, at the beginning of chapter 3, he tells us how the Corinthians, in their fellowship, built into that building.
He said, “I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ.”
Now, the word “fleshly”—sarkinos—the best way to distinguish it, I would like to change it to “fleshy,” not “fleshly”: fleshy.
Now, a babe is very fleshy. A babe attracts people. Everybody considers a babe attractive because he is very fleshy. He does not hide anything. That is what he is. If he wants to cry, he cries. It does not matter who is around him. If he is hungry, he wants to eat. Very fleshy.
Now, when we are babes in Christ, that is what we are: lovely, but fleshy.
And those who are babes in Christ can only drink milk. What is milk? Milk is predigested food. Your mother has predigested this food, and then it becomes milk to the babe.
In other words, you have not exercised your spiritual faculties to distinguish good or evil. So you need something that has already been made ready for you. That is babes.
So, in other words, babes in Christ have to be fed with milk. People have to digest God’s Word and make it into a message, then deliver it to you as milk, so that it is easy to digest. You do not need to exercise yourself. That is babes.
And what was the situation? He said, “There are still among you jealousy and strife. Are ye not carnal?”
Now, “carnal” means not only the composition of the matter. We are composed of flesh, and this is the material; this is the matter, so it is fleshy. But it is neutral. In other words, there is no evil moral sense within it.
But when it says “fleshly” or “carnal,” there is a moral element injected into it. So, in other words, we all begin as babes, but we have to outgrow babyhood.
Now, if you do not outgrow your babyhood, then you become carnal. In other words, you become fleshly—not fleshy, but fleshly—because there is a moral sense behind it.
And when you are fleshly, what are the symptoms? Jealousy, envy, strife, and quarreling. These are the symptoms. And you will act according to man. Even if you are a Christian, you will act according to the man of the world.
There is no difference in outward action.
Now, these are babes in Christ. They do not grow up. And these Corinthian believers, because they did not grow up—now, why did they not grow up? Because they refused to pay the cost. They refused to accept the cross of Christ into their lives.
They wanted to maintain themselves as they were—to be themselves. What is wrong with that? “My opinion, my thought, my way. This is how I see it. This is what I want. What is wrong with that?”
Babes in Christ—that is wood, hay, and stubble. That is the way you build into it.
On the other hand, the apostle Paul used himself and Apollos as the opposite example. So, when you reach chapter 4, you find the apostle Paul said:
Let a man so account of us, as of ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.
We are servants. We are nobody. Do not uplift us. We belong to Christ. We are but servants. It does not matter how people think about us. The One who examines us is the Lord.
And look, as you read chapter 4, how is he building through fellowship into this house?
Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place;
and we toil, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure;
being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things, even until now.
This is building with gold, silver, and precious stones.
The Corinthians, in building with their own flesh, thought they were filled, they were rich, they had reigned, they had become strong, they were in glory.
But Paul and the apostles, in building with gold, silver, and precious stones, were appointed to death, made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men, fools for Christ’s sake.
Isn’t it true that people who build with wood, hay, and stubble can build such a huge building? Everybody can see it and praise it. And yet, if you build with gold, silver, and precious stones, it can hardly be seen, and people will think that you are doing nothing, that you are accomplishing nothing. Isn’t it true?
But the problem is this: if these things remain as they are forever, then why be foolish? Be wise in the eyes of man. But unfortunately, Paul said:
The work of each shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself shall prove each man’s work of what sort it is.
One day we shall all appear at the judgment seat of Christ.
Now, brothers and sisters, some people may say, “Well, if I believe in the Lord Jesus, isn’t it true that I will not be judged anymore, because Christ has been judged for me on Calvary’s cross?”
That is true. If you believe in the Lord Jesus, Christ has already been judged for you. Therefore, the judgment has passed over you, and you are saved. That is true.
But remember, that is the judgment of the great white throne. It does not mean that a believer will not be judged.
The believer will have another kind of judgment. It is called the judgment seat of Christ.
You find in 2 Corinthians 5:10 that we shall all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, and what we have done in the body shall be reckoned with.
In Romans 14:10, we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God. So, in other words, there is a judgment that we as believers will go through.
We will not go through the judgment of the great white throne, because throne speaks of government. There, eternal death or eternal life will be decided.
Thank God that judgment has passed over us because Christ has been judged for us. And God is righteous. He cannot judge us again because He has already judged our Substitute, Christ. Thank God for that.
But that does not mean that because you are a child of God, there will be no judgment at all. There will be a family judgment. As the family of God, we shall all one day appear before the judgment seat of Christ.
When will that be? Where will it be? The Bible tells us: at the last hour, when the trumpet shall sound, those who are dead in Christ will be raised from the dead. Those who are living and remain will all be caught up into the air.
Where the Lord is, and those who overcome with Him, we shall all be gathered before the judgment seat of Christ. And everyone will be judged accordingly.
We are called into the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. And being called, we are all engaged in that building. One day, what we have put in will be judged. It will be judged by fire.
Now, isn’t that strange? If it is being judged by something else, the wood, the hay, and the stubble may stand. But if it is by fire, then all that is of wood, hay, and stubble will be burned.
But all that is of gold, silver, and precious stones will shine.
The fire will try each work. And what is the fire? In Hebrews 12, we are told:
Our God is a consuming fire.
He is the fire. In other words, He is examining us according to what He is. To put it another way, at the judgment seat of Christ, what Christ is looking for is Himself.
What have you put in, in your fellowship? Do you put in Christ, or are you putting in something else? Something else will be burned, but Christ will be glorified. Now, that is the difference.
And yet the Bible makes it very clear to us: even if you build with gold, silver, and precious stones, and they stand through the fire, you shall receive a reward.
This is not gift; this is reward. And we know that the reward is the kingdom to come. You shall reign with Christ for a thousand years. That is the reward.
But if the work of anyone shall be consumed by the fire, now what will happen? He will suffer loss, because his whole life after he was saved was lost. Nothing counts before God.
But he shall be saved, only as through fire—barely saved. So, brothers and sisters, this has nothing to do with eternal salvation. It is a matter of losing the kingdom.
Now, because of this, brothers and sisters, it is a serious thing. You know, sometimes we take our Christian life carelessly, thinking that it does not matter.
“It does not matter what I am doing. It does not matter what I am not doing. It does not matter how I live, or how I do not live. It does not matter when I am alone. It does not matter when I am meeting with brothers and sisters. It does not matter.”
Oftentimes we come to the meeting without contributing. But without contributing, you are contributing something to that building process. Something is still going on.
Are you building, or are you tearing down and destroying?
So here you find:
Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
Brothers and sisters, we are the temple of God collectively, and the Holy Spirit dwells in us.
Now, if you corrupt the temple of God, him shall God destroy. Now, the word corrupt and destroy are the same word in Greek.
We can corrupt the temple by putting in wood, hay, and stubble, or we can build the temple by putting in gold, silver, and precious stones. Now, what are we putting in?
You may think, “I am not putting in anything.” When you are not putting in anything, you are putting in wood, hay, and stubble. Think of that, because that process is going on day and night, unceasingly. Even when you are alone, it matters.
For the temple of God is holy, and such are ye.
Thank God for that. So, dear brothers and sisters, let us be warned and let us be encouraged.
This is the reason why we who are called into the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, must be true to our calling. Be responsible.
Let us pray.
Dear Lord, we do thank Thee for this Thy high calling. We do look to Thy grace to enable us to respond in the right way.
Teach us how to look at eternity instead of living in time. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.