1 Corinthians 3:9

For we are laborers together with God, and you are God's husbandry... you are God's building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another builds thereon. But let every man take heed how he builds thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, and stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire... If any man's work abide which he has built thereupon, 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 by fire.

How you build matters: one day the fire of God's holiness will test every work, and only what was built upon Christ will remain.

A Church Shaped by the World

Paul is writing to a church that, in many ways, was experiencing problems similar to what we see in our own nation and state. It was a church influenced by the ways of the world and the philosophies of man. The things of the world had crept into the body of Christ, and they were exhibiting tendencies that lined up more with the works of the flesh than with the Spirit of God and the fruit of the Spirit.

Unfortunately, that can happen within our own lives individually and within our church corporately. As we move through 1 Corinthians, we recognize that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Allowing such things to remain is very dangerous. So Paul writes to rebuke wrong attitudes, wrong motives, and wrong actions in the church at Corinth.

One of the issues that divided them was the various teachers God had used to establish the work there—Paul, then Apollos, and even Peter, or Cephas, who came into the region. Factions formed. People divided into camps: "I'm of Paul," "I'm of Apollos," "I'm of Cephas." Paul says, in essence, this is wrong, this is carnal. He reminds them in verse 9 that these workers are workers together with God. They are united with the Lord, and it is ultimately God's field.

Four Truths About God's Building

Paul then develops a different metaphor: God's building. This can be classified both as the church corporately and as the individuals of the church personally. God wants us built upon the right foundation, and furthermore built in the right fashion. Both the foundation and the fashion are extremely important. There are four things we see about this work.

First, God is its designer. God designed the church for a specific purpose. He has a plan and a role He wants the church to fulfill. He drew out the plans and established the blueprints. Many in our fellowship come from construction backgrounds—you know that if you have plans for a project, you must follow them, or you will not pass inspection. And there is coming a day when we will stand before the Lord for inspection.

Second, Christ is its foundation. The foundation of my life individually and of our church corporately must be the Lord Jesus Christ. The foundation ought not to be Luther, Calvin, Wesley, or even Chuck Smith. They may be used of God as wise master builders, but they cannot be the foundation. We may call them founders, but we can never see them as the foundation upon which our lives or ministry are built. There is a very real danger when we begin to side with what a person said over what God said. We always need to look back to the word of God.

God's Servants Are Its Builders

Third, God's servants are its builders. Paul says God chose him by grace to be a wise master builder, and that another builds upon the foundation. God has elected, called, saved, and equipped individuals within the body of Christ to build this structure.

In Matthew 16, you may remember Peter's great profession. When Jesus asked, "Who do men say that I am?" Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus said, "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." God ultimately builds His church, and when He builds it, it will stand against the plans and attacks of the enemy.

But God uses the people within the body of Christ to do that work. In Ephesians 4:11–12, Paul says God has called and ordained some as prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers—to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. It is not just the leaders doing the work, but the body of Christ that they equip. God assigns the tasks, God gifts the workers (as we'll see in 1 Corinthians 12), and God gives the rewards to those who do the work.

Build With Care

Fourth, God's builders must build with care. This is where our attention will focus this morning. How are we building?

I'm not talking about physical buildings. This building is nothing more than a shell—the place where the church meets, not the church itself. You and I are the church. The Bible doesn't give blueprints for buildings. Perhaps you came out of a church that met in a much more holy-looking building, and when you came to Calvary Chapel you looked around and thought, "This is the church?" No—this is our temporary building where this church meets. We are the body of Christ.

As God's builders, we must take care in the way we build. We must build with the right materials and the right focus—good quality, with an eye toward eternity. I say good quality because in our society a church is often judged by the quantity of those who attend rather than the quality. The mega-church is quite an American thing—and in many ways a fading thing, a fad of another generation. There is a view that a large church is automatically successful and good. That may be true, but it could also be true that the church is a mile wide and an inch deep. We need quality in view over quantity.

The Day Will Declare It

We need the right perspective regarding eternity, because there is coming a day when you and I individually will stand before Christ to be inspected—and the body of Christ corporately as well. That inspection comes by fire. "Every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire." Underline "the day." The fire is the fire of God's holiness, and it shall try every man's work of what sort—what quality, what substance—it is.

The foundation is clearly important, but so is the structure. In Matthew 7, closing the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says whoever hears His sayings and does them is like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; when the rain, floods, and winds came, it did not fall. But the one who hears and does not do is like a foolish man who built upon the sand, and his house fell, and great was its fall.

Notice Jesus does not say merely His words, but "whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them." The one who applies God's word has built a strong foundation. Storms reveal the foundation. You don't usually see a foundation—it's not until the storm comes that you realize how shallow it was. Every few years when California gets big rains, you see grand homes built on the cliffs of Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, or La Jolla—millions of dollars in value—slide down the hill and come to nothing. The storm reveals the foundation.

Other Foundations Will Fall

I'm thankful the Lord placed me in a family where I received a strong foundation early. My parents took us to church, and my mom tells me I prayed to receive Christ at four years old. For many of you, the foundation came later—in high school when someone invited you to church, or well into adulthood when the storms of life came, your life was falling apart, and someone preached the gospel to you. The foundation must be Jesus and His word being applied. Any other foundation will fall.

Paul says there is no other foundation than Jesus Christ. Yet people try to build on other foundations. There are churches in our community that have Christ's name on the sign, where people carry Bibles and put fish on their bumpers, but within those walls the foundation is not Jesus' words. It is man's philosophy, the world's wisdom, political activism, social justice, and other causes—which may even be good things—but the foundation is not Jesus Christ. Whatever they build will collapse when tested.

I'll go so far as to say those who hold liberation theology have the wrong foundation—they've built on political activism. The emergent church's primary foundation is social justice, a social gospel—dealing with AIDS in Africa, hunger, healthcare. Those may be good things, but it's the wrong foundation. They may have a great structure but the wrong foundation.

Building Properly on a Good Foundation

Paul, knowing he had established a good foundation for the Corinthians, says you must also build on that foundation properly—not in a way dictated by the philosophies of this world, the wisdom of man, or our own appetites and desires. That's what was going on at Corinth. They were given over to their own appetites and desires.

So Paul, like a wise inspector inspired by the Holy Spirit, says the structure needs to be taken down. Any construction worker knows the feeling when the inspector says, "No, this needs to be removed." It cannot be merely reformed; it needs to be removed and rebuilt properly—with silver, gold, and precious stones, not wood, hay, and stubble. Notice the list goes from value down to quick combustion. There is coming a day when it will be tested by the fire of God's holiness.

Salvation Versus Reward

Paul is speaking to people with a good foundation. Their salvation—their entrance into the kingdom—was based on the foundation, Jesus Christ, His death, burial, and resurrection, not on the works built upon it. I need to make this very clear. We see it in verse 15: "If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved." Salvation is not dependent upon works.

But there is something dependent on works, and Paul calls it reward (verse 14). Many believers feel that getting into heaven is reward enough. Many say, "That's it—I'll be with the Lord eternally." Yet Jesus and the New Testament authors make clear that beyond entry into heaven there are rewards, sometimes spoken of as crowns—the crown of righteousness, the crown of life. After we pass into eternity, God will give rewards to His servants according to how they built: gold, silver, and precious stones, or wood, hay, and stubble.

On the day of Christ Jesus, the fire of God's holiness will come through. The wood, hay, and stubble—all associated with the flesh—will be purged. The gold, silver, and precious stones will remain, bringing honor and glory to God, and He will reward His servants accordingly. But this has nothing to do with salvation. Other religions and philosophies say your salvation depends on your works—that when you stand before Allah or whoever, your works determine your destiny. Not so in Christ. Our salvation accords with the work Jesus did on our behalf. But there are rewards that come in heaven.

A Picture From the Fire

All of us remember the 2007 fire that came through North County. A couple days after it burned through the region, Pastor Eric and I found ourselves in Rancho Santa Fe among some of the largest, most beautiful homes in our nation. We went house to house with the fire department as chaplains, supporting families who had lost everything. These homes were massive—tens of millions of dollars—but when the fire came through, nothing was left but ash and smoke, the same as in Rancho Bernardo or Ramona.

But I found one house very interesting. Walking up the long driveway, you could still see the melting Ford emblem and the alloy wheels of what had been a beautiful custom truck running down the hill, and at least a $70,000 Porsche burnt in the front yard. Wood, hay, and stubble—destroyed. But the family that lived there, four or five of them with a group of firefighters, were in the middle of the smoldering pile, picking around and finding diamonds—"Oh, I found another one"—diamonds from the jewelry box and the safe, one after another. Everything else destroyed, except gold, silver, and precious stones.

Our minds go to rubies, diamonds, and sapphires, but this passage speaks of the precious stones cut by those who built the foundation of the temple. So how is our life built?

Everything Laid Bare

There is coming a day when it will all be revealed. You may look like the most spiritual person in the church, sound like the most spiritual person in all of North County, but on that day everything will be laid naked and bare. All you thought in the secret times of your heart, all you did when no one was watching, will be exposed—and if it was wood, hay, and stubble, it will be burnt and left as ash.

I guarantee many will be saved yet come in with zero reward. In this life they seemed to have everything; they received their reward here. Everyone said, "Oh, what a magnificent pastor." But standing before God, they will be left with nothing. And the little old lady who spent the last half of her life praying diligently for the work of God and for the pastors—she will be the one left on that day with much gold, silver, and precious stones.

So Paul asks: how are you building? Is it dictated by your appetites and desires, by the flesh, by man's wisdom and the world's philosophy? Or by the word of God, built in such a way as to bring Him glory? The day is coming.

Living in View of That Day

Romans 13 speaks of that day: "It is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day." We must be ready for the great and glorious appearing of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Titus 2:11 says, "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared unto all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world," looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Living with this in mind—that the work of our lives and our church will stand before God and be purged by the fire of His holiness—inspires us to live more boldly in our witness, more pure in our conduct, and more desirous of fellowship within the body of Christ. Hebrews 10:25 reminds us not to forsake assembling together, and so much the more as we see the day approaching.

A Heavy Word, an Eternal Hope

You may say this is a heavy message—and I'm sure Paul felt it was heavy when he wrote it to the Corinthians. Jude says to save others with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh. Sometimes I sense God has called me to a ministry of comforting the disturbed and disturbing the comfortable. Would to God we would recognize that what we do today has eternal consequence.

The best illustration I can offer I heard from Pastor John Courson. We say, "Getting into heaven is enough; I don't understand this reward thing." He said it's like a young son who sees mommy and daddy kiss and thinks it's weird and gross—but he won't think that way when he's married. We look at heavenly rewards now and say, "What's that all about? It's not important to us." It won't seem that way when we get there.

Notice Paul says "every man's work" shall be made manifest—not just the minister, not just the Christian in the chair, but every man's. Hebrews 4:12–13 says God's word is living and powerful, and there is no creature not manifest in His sight; all things are naked and opened to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. Romans 2:16 speaks of the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to the gospel.

May we look forward to that day with expectation, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Closing Prayer

Father, Your word is truth. We pray that You would sanctify us by Your truth as we prepare to go from here, that we—like James exhorts—would be hearers and doers of the word. Lord, burn away any chaff that is in our lives by Your Holy Spirit, that we would be vessels of honor unto You. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.