10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. 11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. 14 If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.16 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. 18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness”; 20 and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” 21 Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours: 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come—all are yours. 23 And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

We’ve been studying through the book of 1 Corinthians, going verse by verse and we are here in chapter three this morning, verses 10 to 23. We saw last week that Paul is addressing the carnal Christians in the church in Corinth. Very clearly we saw that a carnal Christian is not a Christian who does not go to church or is a person that simply does not live the kind of life you think a Christian should be living. But rather the carnal Christian is a Christian that goes to church regularly; that seems to be very theological, who does everything outwardly to show that he is a Christian, but internally he is divisive and proud. He exalts himself about what God has said. The carnal Corinthian Christians set themselves up to be the judge, the jury, and also the executioner in the church in Corinth. And Paul is stopping them telling them, “Hey, listen, you think you can judge everybody who’s speaking in the church? You think you can judge those who are ministering in the church?  I’ve got great news for you. You’re all going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and you’re going to be judged as well.”

 Paul addresses them, telling them to stop acting foolish by simply passing judgment upon the people around them, especially those people that are ministering in the church in the context here. But it applies to everybody else as well. The church in Corinth was dividing themselves. Some said that they were of Paul, some said they were of Apollos, some said they were of Peter, and some said they didn’t belong to anyone but to Jesus Christ. They were causing divisions within the church. Paul is saying, “If you cause divisions in the church, you’re not a wise but a carnal person.” 

So many times when we judge other people, we think we are wiser than them.  That’s why when we judge, we say, “Oh, if I was there, I wouldn’t have done that. I would have behaved much better in that situation.” Or “I have much greater understanding about this.” Paul responds, saying they know nothing and that they cannot be the one to judge people in the church. And in place there will be a judge for them one day. In verse 10, he goes on to say, “According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed of how he builds on it.” 

Paul acknowledges that everything that is given to him is given to him because of the grace of God. He isn’t boastful and says, “Look at the way I’ve built this church. I came here and I built this church up. I planted and I ministered. I did all these things so I deserve some credit.” Paul could have easily said that. But instead, he chose to say that it is because of the grace of God that he laid the foundation of the church in Corinth. Paul completely acknowledged that it is only because of God’s grace and God’s undeserving favour on his behalf that he even had the opportunity to lay down the foundation. As we saw last week, Paul uses two examples to bring forward the point he’s trying to make. 

The first point is being a farmer. Paul says that we are God’s field, he says, and he says that he is God’s farmer or husbandman or the one that works in that field. The second example is that of a builder. Paul says that there is a foundation upon which the church must be built. Now the foundation here, he clearly tells us, is Jesus Christ. No matter how great your building is, if your foundation is not correct, that building is going to collapse. No matter how much you have invested in constructing your building, if it is not based upon a proper foundation, that building is going to collapse. You can be as skillful as you want. But if your foundation is not proper, that building is definitely going to come down. So the most important thing is that the foundation should be correct. Paul says that it is Jesus Christ and His Word upon which the church is built. 

In Matthew 7: 24 – 27 Jesus Christ likens the person that listens to his word and obey it to the person that would build upon a rock. “24 Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.

 26 “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”

There are churches that are not based upon the foundation of Jesus Christ. Many churches and huge ministries are built, whose foundation is not Jesus Christ. In the passage that we read, that when a church or a ministry, or even your own life, is built on any other foundation except for Jesus Christ, one day, the judgment is going to come and you will be in great, great ruin. There can be no other foundation, except for Jesus Christ upon which the church or the ministry or your own life should be built upon.

 In Matthew 16, Jesus Christ said, “Upon this rock, I will build my church.” He is referring to himself as the rock upon which the church is built. So we see that the foundation is very, very important. And as I said, it doesn’t matter how large or how impressive your ministries are, if it is not based upon Jesus Christ, if it is not based upon the word that Jesus Christ has said, your foundation is wrong. And one day it is all going to collapse. Throughout history, we have seen that again, and again, haven’t we? We lived 2000 years from the time of Jesus Christ. And we saw ministry after ministry, pastor after pastor, life after life destroyed, because they were actually not built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ. 

Practically, what does it mean to build your life on Jesus Christ? It means that your life should be built upon His Word. You are going to hear His word and obey His Word. That is how you will build your life upon the foundation of Jesus Christ. Paul adds that how we build is going to matter as well. Because he says that there are going to be people that will build with silver precious stones, and there are people who will build with wood, hay and straw. There are two kinds of materials that you can use – materials that will endure or are temporary and will just burn up if any trial comes through. 

Have you seen a kilo of gold? How does it look? Compare that with a kilo of hay. A kilo of hay would be a huge stack but a kilo of gold is small in comparison. Paul is very clearly telling us quality is much more important than quantity. A lot of times we kind of live our lives based upon that. We do not consider the quality and are more worried about the quantity. Though here in this passage he addresses those who are especially called to ministry, these principles apply to every single person. You could be a person that is living just going on about, doing things just as a regular person. But know for sure that being a Christian means you are building something. What kind of materials are you using in order to build because one day it will all be judged. 

He says in verse 13, “each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.” Paul uses three different words here. First it will become clear, second it will be declared and third it will be revealed. The first word means ‘to be made clear or evident’; it means it will be made visible and will no longer be hidden. The second word means that it will be manifested, whatever is inside will be brought out. The third word, revealed means ‘to be completely uncovered’, there can be no covering on the day when you will be tested by fire. Combined with all these three words, Paul is giving us the picture that there is going to be a day where there will be critical judgment at the judgment seat of Jesus Christ. 

Paul says that in 2 Corinthians 5: 10 “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” Everybody is going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. That includes you. God is going to ask you an account of the things that you have done – whether it is good or bad.

Paul also says in Romans 14: 10 – 12, “But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. 11 For it is written:“As I live, says the Lord, Every knee shall bow to Me,And every tongue shall confess to God.”12 So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.”

There’s going to be a day when you will have to bow your knee and confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord. And you are going to give an account of your life to God, not your friends or your parents. On that day you will have no excuse. 

So, my friends, it is very clear for us that at the judgment seat of Christ, there is no hiding of your righteous or rebellious acts. Both your good deeds and the sins that you have committed  are all going to come forward. They will be made clear. Paul says they will be declared and they will be revealed. Paul says that they will be put through fire. Do you know that in heaven, God has a record of everything that you’re doing? It’s like a supercomputer. It logs everything. The data never runs out, the memory never runs out. There are no hang ups. All the time it is recording. Every idle word that you speak on Earth is also recorded in heaven. Every time you gather together and speak about the Lord, it is recorded in heaven.

In Revelation 20:12, “And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.” There’s a nice book that’s logging every single thing that you’re doing. And you will find your name on it. 

I can only imagine okay, this is just my thinking. This is my imagination of how it could go. It could probably be wrong. This is not dogmatic, but just my understanding of standing before Jesus Christ. An angel is going to walk and then show a nice book. Everything that I’ve done, all my works, are recorded. There’s probably a nice mansion that is there with my name on it. It says ‘Stevens Dumpala’. I’m looking at it. It’s got all my certificates there hanging on the walls. It’s got all my accomplishments and achievements, all my photographs and all the awards that I received for the great things that I’ve done, it’s all there. And then the eyes of Jesus Christ look through that. The eyes of Jesus Christ in the book of Revelation are said to be like what? Like fire. He’s scrutinising and going through it. Then suddenly, my house is on fire. I’m shocked as I see my whole house on fire. All my awards, all my great achievements, all those amazing things that I thought were very important are burned up. Everything was for outward appearances to make look great. We’re all just like wood, hay, and stubble, they were all burned up.

I hope that in the end, there is much more gold, silver and precious stones to be found than the wood, hay and stubble in your lives. My friends, how are you building your life? And especially if you’re called to minister. You may view it as small and insignificant. I don’t believe that there is any Christian that is not called for ministry. What does Paul say? We are all ambassadors of Christ. There is no Christian that is simply a Christian for namesake. As we said several times in our church, either you are a growing Christian, you are a disciple of Jesus Christ or you are not. It’s as clear as that. There is no in between. “I am a Christian, but I don’t follow the Word. I don’t do what Jesus Christ asked me to do. But I’m a Christian.” No, you’re not a Christian. The word ‘Christian’ means the one who follows Jesus Christ. The word ‘disciple’ means the one who takes upon the yoke like Christ and follows after Him. That is the disciple of Jesus Christ. So there is no excuse for any one of us to lay back and relax and say, “I’m not going to build with precious stones, gold and silver, but I’m just going to use the cheapest materials that I can find.”  

A lot of times we find shortcuts. We would rather not do hard labor. You know how hard it is to get gold? You got to dig, you got to be in a very scary place to unearth and dig out the precious stones, it takes time and effort. But finding wood, hay and straw is so easy. Just walk around the street, you will find it. I’m very sure if we take a truck and walk around just in Patto, we will fill the truck with all the wood and hay and straw that we could find here. It’s very easy. But if you have to find gold, silver, and precious stones, that’s going to take time. That’s going to take a lot of energy and hard work. Likewise, Paul is saying that doing the ministry of what God has called you to do or  building your life as a Christian is hard work. 

“I’m just gonna relax, lay down. My life has to be easy. I don’t have to have any convictions. I can just go based upon my feelings. I can live the way that I want to live.” If this is your thought process, you are going to be in a big shock on the day when the works that you have done will be set on file and nothing will remain. A day will come when things will be judged. You know when you construct a house, before you enter the house, there is a thing called an inspection. The inspector will come and scrutinize the place. He looks at the kind of construction that you’ve done. If you don’t pass the test, he won’t give you the occupancy certificate. No matter how much money you spend, you can’t live in that house. But he has to certify and say, “Yes, this is a good construction. This is a building worth living in.” 

 The same way Jesus Christ is going to judge you and all of us. Verse 14, “If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.”  As much as sin will be judged and punished, your righteousness will also be rewarded. There are many rewards that the Bible especially promises to those who live a life that is godly. There are five different crowns that you will find in the Scriptures.

NUMBER ONE. The incorruptible crown for those who live a life of discipline in 1 Corinthians 9:25.

NUMBER TWO.  The crown of rejoicing. In 1 Thessalonians 2: 19 talks about the rejoicing crown for living and impacting life.

NUMBER THREE. The righteous crown for those who love the return of Jesus Christ in 2 Timothy 4:8.

NUMBER FOUR. The crown of life for enduring trials in James 1:12. 

NUMBER FIVE. The crown of glory in 1 Peter 5:4. 

So we see that there are many crowns that are given in the Bible which you can receive when you stand before Jesus Christ. But we also see in verse 15 that some are going to be losing the reward and suffer a loss of the things they’ve worked for. 2 John 1:8, “Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward.” John desires that you will receive the full reward, but some will not. There are three categories of people in this passage.

•  – The first is the one who is building his construction upon the foundation of Jesus Christ with the silver, gold and precious stones, and that has endured the fire and has received a reward. 
• – The second person has built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ, but has used wood, hay and straw. His work is burnt up and he has not received a reward. 
•  – The third person that Paul describes is the one that destroys the temple of God.

Alright, Paul goes on to say, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God?” The word ‘you’ is actually plural.  He’s talking to the church collectively. Now Paul does talk about individuals as the temple of God as well later on in chapter 5. Each one of us is also the temple of God, and we must keep it holy, collectively as well. The church is the temple of God because it is when the church gathers together, that the presence of God is among us. That’s what Jesus Christ said, ” When two or three gather in my name, there will I be in their midst.” Jesus Christ is here in our midst because we are gathered in His name and we are the temple of Christ. The Spirit of God dwells in you. We are in His presence this morning. 

In verse 17 he says, “If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him.” So there are going to be people that will destroy the church; destroy the temple of God as well. That is a greater warning that Paul is giving here. In fact, he’s addressing the church in Corinth telling them, “Hey, you’ve been carnal. You are causing divisions in the church, and by doing so you’re gonna destroy the church of God. You’re gonna defile the church of God by bringing worldly wisdom into the church. You think that you’re wise, but you’re absolutely foolish. You’re building your foundation on sand and it will be destroyed.”

In verse 18 onwards he goes on to give three commandments. 

NUMBER ONE: The first commandment that he talks about is “Let no one deceive himself.” You can be deceived by yourself and not just by somebody else. You cannot be like Adam, “The woman that you gave me, she told me something. She deceived me.” You can’t be like Eve either, “You see the serpent was very cunning, the serpent deceived me.” No you can be deceived by yourself. You hear the very famous words, ‘follow your heart.’ My friend, you cannot follow your heart. The Bible says the heart is full of deception. If you follow your heart, you’re gonna fail. You’re gonna deceive yourself. It says here, ‘Do not deceive yourself. Let no man deceive himself.’ The word ‘deceive’ here is actually an intense deception. It’s written in the present tense. Basically Paul is saying that those believers in church are continually deceiving themselves, thinking that they are wise and somehow have a greater advantage than those around them and those that are ministering in the church as well. 

NUMBER TWO: Paul is telling you not to deceive yourself and he goes on to say why you should not deceive yourself. Verse 18, “If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool so that he may become wise.” That is our second commandment here – to become foolish. Now this commandment is not for a believer to become stupid in their life and become dumb in doing things. That’s not what he’s talking about. He’s telling us to become foolish in the things of this world. Now we saw previously from Chapter 2 onwards that Paul is talking to the church in Corinth, telling them the wisdom of the world has nothing and doesn’t profit us anything. The most foolish thing that God could do in comparison – not saying that God can do foolish things – is equal to the greatest achievement of a man. The wisdom of man is nothing compared to the wisdom of God. Paul goes on to say the wisdom of God is found at the cross, which is the most foolish thing for the world to understand. The world sees the cross and says, “Jesus Christ is a loser. He hung on the cross as a common criminal, a thief. He died. He lost it all. He became nothing.”  People were mocking him at the cross. They thought that was it. – the wisdom of man. They thought they did a great thing and achieved something great. That is where the wisdom of God was revealed. 

So he says, let a man become foolish, because your scholarly opinions, your worldly understanding, your worldly wisdom, is not going to bring the righteousness of God. It’s not going to enlighten you in the things of the Word of God. My friends, I want to be very clear with you. A great Bible study won’t help you understand the word of God. Am I saying that you should not study? No, I’m not saying that. We have a few teachers here as well. You should pursue the things that God has created. In fact, all studies actually originated in the study of God. From theology is where education came from. All our universities originated because of the study of the things that God created. You study nature which God created, which is biology. Or you study the chemicals, the sun and the moon and the stars – everything of which God has created. 

Now, I’m not saying that education itself is wrong. There is an education you can receive but there is also the philosophy of the world. Now, that is what we are talking about. There is a system in this world that is so against what the Bible says. When that comes into the church, Paul says that that is going to destroy the temple of God. Are we not witnessing this right now in the churches? The things of the world coming into the churches. They say that if you are born as a boy, you can suddenly identify as a girl. This is okay by them – you can even come to church, be part of the serving team and even be a pastor. You can do whatever you want. Where are we heading to?

It is okay for a man to dress like a woman. It is okay to have an attraction between the same sexes. What a tragedy that this is happening around the world. And that is coming into the churches. When that happens, the worldly philosophies and the worldly wisdom will destroy the church. God says that if any man destroys the temple of God, God is going to destroy him as well. A lot of times people think that it is wise to do those things. They have all kinds of philosophy. They bring up psychology, saying due to your genes and DNA – which have certain markers – is the cause of all these things. 

So, if you’re addicted to smoking, there is actually a genetic disorder that they can find and  label you as somebody having a medical issue and not a moral issue. Let’s say somebody is addicted to porn. They say, “This is a genetic disorder.” You take away the responsibility of the person. A man behaves like a woman, they’ll say again, “This is a genetic disorder. I can’t do anything. God made me this way.” So Paul says that the things that are seemingly wise in this world are completely foolish. What the world considers to be wise, God considers them as foolish things, because it says in verse 19, ” For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness.” There is going to be a day when God is going to catch the so-called wise people, the philosophical people, the people that are worldly in their own craftiness, and He is going to bring judgment upon them. They’re going to be caught in their own clever trickery which in of itself will become the basis of His judgments.

Now, perhaps we think our sin, our deceit, our trickery, our rebellion, our cunningness can be used to fool people around us. We think that we can hide behind the schemes and philosophies of man. You think you can deceive the church, your parents, your children, and all the people around you, but when you stand before God, God is not going to be deceived by your vain philosophies. God is not going to be deceived by your wisdom and psychology. For Him, it is clear. God will declare it and reveal it. He is going to bring out what is in the heart of man and everything is going to become very clear. When you stand before Him, you will get to know why you did what you did. Not just you but everybody will know. There’s going to be a day of public judgement.

NUMBER THREE:  Verse 21 – 23 says, “Let no man boast.” We see the Corinthian church has become very boastful. They thought with all the amazing preachers they had, they increased in their knowledge. They had gifted people in the church that were very profound in the way they were speaking. But in spite of that, Paul tells them they have nothing to boast about. Verse 21 – 23 says, “Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours: 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come—all are yours. 23 And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.”  

He says that you cannot boast about any man. You cannot say, “I belong to Paul.” “I belong to Apollos.” “I belong to Peter.” Or, “I belong to Jesus Christ.” You cannot divide the church that way because everything that is given to you is also given to  the church all together. Whatever we have as a church – the talents, responsibilities, whatever the leaders face in the church – is given for the edification of the church as a collective. We’ll get into the spiritual gifts that God gives in the church. Now, no spiritual gift  is given to you for yourself. A lot of the times people go around say, “I’m a healer come to me.” It is not given for you so you can go boss around telling people, “I’m a healer, come to me.” The most misused gift is the gift of prophecy.

As we see, spiritual gifts are given so that you can edify the church as a collective. People completely miss out on this. So believers are given all the spiritually gifted people as a collective. That’s what he’s saying, ‘All things are yours, collectively to the church.’ If it’s Paul who’s ministering in the church, Paul is not given because he  is somebody special. Paul is given to you in the church. Same thing, if I’m here in the church, I’m not given so that you or I can become boastful and say, “Oh, I follow Pastor Stevens.” We are not given to be exalted. We are given for you. He goes on to say, “I’m so glad that I’m here on earth so I can minister to you.” Paul goes on to say that the church has given everything – the world, life and even death, the things that are present, and the things that are yet to come.  All things are given to the church. There are so many people out there that think the church is nothing. If you are a Christian, and you are not attached to a church, you are not a Christian. 

The one who is risen from death; who is revived and made alive in Christ Jesus will seek the company of the living. Have you ever seen a living person going and fellowshipping with the dead person? If an alive person goes and lives in the cemetery, what are you going to call him? A lunatic, a crazy man. No living person goes and talks with dead people. A living person seeks a living person out. Now, if you’re living in isolation, it’s terrible. I experienced isolation for a short while. Many, many years ago, I was all alone for a couple of months and it just drove me mad. We need people. A living person will automatically search for another living person. Now that’s what church is about – the gathering together of these living people who can come together and fellowship together. It is absolutely absolutely important that you be part of what God is building, which is the church. Jesus Christ is building what? What’s he building, he’s building his church. We have nothing to boast about. Whatever spiritual gifts that you have or whatever ministry God has called you to do,you have nothing to boast about. Rather glory in God. 

Now I’m pretty sure you heard something from the word this morning. When you hear, you do it. You don’t come and wrap your ears. No, you will become a foolish person then.  Build your house upon the rock Jesus Christ, and build with good material, it’s gonna take hard work, you know, having convictions in this world is hard. It takes a lot of hard work to stand up for the truth and say why you believe what you believe. If you’re in a business, you have to have the conviction to not  cheat the people that are coming to your business. You might suffer a loss but you’re building upon the things that the Bible says. If you’re a woman that’s at home, you might be questioning what you are doing and building. Every person is building their lives. As I said, no Christian is devoid of a calling. Every single person has a calling in their lives to go out there and minister to people. You are all ambassadors. So if you’re a man doing all the work and then you think, “What am I doing?”

Build your life with things that are valuable. Do that hard work. Go the extra mile. Do things as unto the Law and not unto the people. Practically speaking if you are a child and you think about what you are going to build, you have a great future ahead. In your youth you can build convictions in your life that will form and help you build your life with precious stones and silver and gold, and not simply with wood, hay and straw. 

So everybody is going to be judged, and everyone will either receive the reward for their faithfulness to God or for their rebellion against God. Both will be rewarded, so you can have a positive reward or a negative reward. So we want to put all our praise and glory in God and not in men. Thank you for hearing, and may God bless you. I hope the Lord has spoken to you and about the things to change in your life. I pray you will go home, think about this message and make corrections as the Spirit of God leads you.