God’s Dwelling in the Local Church

Transcript

GR 1306
10-16-05
God's Dwelling in the Local Church
I Corinthians 3:16-23
Gil Rugh

We're going to the book of I Corinthians in our Bibles, I Corinthians 3. We're talking about the local church, because that's the focus of the letter to the Corinthians. And chapter 1 verse 2 Paul said that he was writing to the church of God, the one being at Corinth. It's not possible to overemphasize the importance of the local church in the plan of God in the world today. In fact, all that God is doing in the world today in redemption and salvation focuses in the local church. I keep emphasizing local church because sometimes we talk about the church and we develop this nebulous idea. Now it's true the Bible talks about the universal church. The universal church is comprised of all believers in Jesus Christ, from the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, right down to today. And it includes the saints who have died and are in the presence of God. Men like Paul, Peter, and Apollos who have been mentioned in these opening chapters of the letter to the Corinthians. But the focus of God's work in the world is on the local church, which is the manifestation of the universal church in the world. So the New Testament is occupied with the local church as the focus of God's work and God's presence in the world. Sometimes I think we as Protestants have reacted to the Roman Catholic doctrine of the church and its error and swung the other way and played down the biblical emphasis on the church and its local church manifestation.

Paul is writing to the church at Corinth. When a person becomes a believer in Jesus Christ, they are immediately placed into the body of Christ. I Corinthians 12:13, for by one Spirit we have all been baptized into one body. That's the church universal, and the New Testament knows nothing of a person who has been placed into the body of Christ who is not now part of a local church. So Paul doesn't write to believers in the city of Corinth who have chosen not to belong to the local church at Corinth. Because such a concept would be totally contrary to the whole biblical emphasis of God's work in the world.

We're in chapter 3 of I Corinthians, and in chapter 3 Paul has used two analogies to show something of how God is working in the world in the church. The basis for what he is writing is the problems in the church at Corinth. It's a church characterized by division. And the divisions, the quarrels, the conflicts in the church at Corinth are not over doctrine. Paul doesn't have to deal with any doctrinal error, false teaching in that sense in the church at Corinth at this stage. It does infiltrate the church later. But it centers around personalities. One person likes Paul best, one person likes Apollos best, one person likes Peter best. And it became personality cults, and the church was divided and split around people, rather than united around Jesus Christ.

So Paul uses Apollos and himself as examples and in verse 4, when one says I am of Paul and another I am of Apollos, are not you mere men? Aren't you functioning just like men who don't have the Holy Spirit of God working in their life? This is the way the world functions. Then he goes on to use an example, an analogy, and he pictures the church at Corinth like a field. And God owns the field, and He assigns His servants responsibility in the field. He sends some out to plant seed, he sends some out to water the seed, and so on. So the workers in the field, the workers in the church, are just servants of God doing the tasks that He has assigned them. But God is the one producing the growth in the field. The end of verse 6, God was causing the growth. The end of verse 7, it is God who causes the growth. So the Corinthians ought not to be rallying around servants, like Paul or Apollos. All they were doing was what God assigned them to do as His servants. And the focus ought to be on the work of God. These servants aren't working in conflict with one another, they are working in harmony with one another so that the work of God is accomplished, producing growth. And all the credit goes to God for the growth, because He is the one who produces the growth. So it's foolish to honor the servant when you ought to be honoring God.

The second analogy is that of a building. And that's in verses 10-15. And here the church is pictured as a building. And God assigns workmen responsibilities in building His building, the church. It's built on the foundation of Christ, and now different workmen are contributing in different assigned ways. In the analogy of the building, the emphasis is on the workmen using quality materials for the construction of the building. And as was true in the picture of the field, so in the building the workmen will be rewarded. In the picture of the field, the last part of verse 8, each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. We noted there, the workmen are rewarded, not on the basis of the growth, because God produces the growth, but on the basis of their diligence, exhausted labor, in their service. In the workmen working on the building, they will be rewarded on the basis of the quality of materials they use in building the building. Not on the size of the building, not on the beauty of the building, but on the quality of the materials they use as workmen contributing to the building of this building.

Let me review with you in verses 10-15 seven things Paul noted in these verses that will lead us into the next section. 1) This is found in the first part of verse 10, God's grace gifts individuals to contribute to the development of the church. Verse 10 began, according to the grace of God which was given to me, like a master-builder, I laid a foundation, a wise master-builder. But you'll note the emphasis again is on God's sovereign control of it all. He by His grace gifted Paul to serve at a certain capacity, He gifted others to serve at a different capacity. That's the same with the servants in the field at the end of verse 5 of chapter 3, the servants serve as the Lord gave to each one. He assigned them their responsibility. So now with the workmen on the building, He has assigned them their responsibility and equipped them to do the work He wants them to do. 2) Each man must be careful how he builds on the foundation, the last part of verse 10. Each must be careful how he builds on it, the foundation. That statement, each must be careful how he builds is the central point in verses 10-15. That's the key. What kind of materials are you using as you contribute to the building of this local church. Remember, the field represents the local church at Corinth, the building represents the local church at Corinth. Of course, by application, as the Spirit has given this for all the local churches God would establish through history, and of course is directed to us as well. 3) The only foundation for the church is Jesus Christ. Verse 11, no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. If this building is built on anything other than the foundation of Jesus Christ, it is not truly a church. It's a social organization, it's a club, whatever. But it's not the church, because to be the church of God, it has to be built on the foundation of Jesus Christ—the truth concerning His person and work, the message of the cross as the means of salvation. 4) There are only two kinds of building materials in verse 12. There are those materials that are precious and durable, there are those materials that are worthless and perishable. The point is not, what does gold represent, what does silver represent, what is the hay, what does the wood represent. No, there are just two classes of materials—precious and durable materials, and worthless, perishable materials. 5) Each man's work will be tested by fire in the presence of Christ, verse 13. Each man's work, and the end of that verse, the fire will test the quality of each man's work. So we're talking about individuals using the gifts God has given them to build the local church. And when Jesus Christ returns, all their work will be put to the fire to test its quality. 6) We will be rewarded for the work that survives the fire, verses 14-15. Each man's work, which he has built on it, if any man's work remains, he will receive a reward. Verse 15, if any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss. So we're talking about rewards. Same as in the parable or the analogy of the field. Verse 8, each will receive his own reward. So the issue is not salvation here, we're dealing with those that are saved, that are building on the foundation of Jesus Christ. The issue in the analogy of the building is the quality of their work. Are they building consistent with the foundation? 7) Loss of rewards does not affect salvation, the end of verse 15. Even if all your works are burned up, you'll be saved, so as by fire. That saved through the fire is a proverbial expression like being saved by the skin of your teeth. Somebody escapes a burning building he says, I just got out with the clothes on m back, I just made it. Now I said, well you either made it or you didn't. Yes, but here you have nothing else to show for your life and your labors. Now we noted, some people say, well I don't care, as long as I'm going to heaven, doesn't matter to me whether I get rewards or not. That kind of statement borders on blasphemy. To tell God that I don't care what your plan is, and the rewards that you tell me that are so precious and so important, I'm indifferent to them. That's not a mark of spirituality, I mean, that would be crass carnality to have such an attitude.

The quality of materials is building with the truth of the Word of God consistent with the message of Christ that is the foundation. He Himself is the foundation. We're building on Him with quality materials, staying with the truth that the Spirit has revealed that he talked about in chapter 2. And we'll see he's going to come back to this. Anybody who tries to use the wisdom of the world to build the church is using worthless materials, and it may even be worse.

Let me read you what one person wrote on this section, verses 10-15, before we move into the new section. Commentator on the passage said, it is unfortunately possible for people to attempt to build the church out of every imaginable human system predicated on merely worldly wisdom, be it philosophy, pop psychology, managerial techniques, relational good feelings, or what have you. But at the final judgment all such building will be shown for what it is, something merely human with no character of Christ or His gospel in it.
Now what's going to happen with verse 16 and 17, Paul is going to take the analogy of the church as a building a further step and give the strongest warning we have in the New Testament to those who are working on the building of the local church. And then he is going to tie it all together by summarizing what he has covered since chapter 1 verse 18, on the contrast between man's wisdom and the world's wisdom. He says, remember, and we'll come back to this as we wrap this up, the issue in the church at Corinth was there were those in the church who were attempting to use the wisdom of the world, a course mixed with the message of Christ to build the church at Corinth. And Paul's argument is, it can't be done. And we end up magnifying men, because now we've brought human wisdom into the picture, and something of their not gifted abilities by the Spirit, but something of, you know, they just have that leadership charisma. They just have that ability to speak in such a way that attracts you, they just have a plan and program that works. And the church at Corinth is being divided over these kind of matters.

That's what we're talking about when we're talking about building with quality materials. We have to stay with that which is consistent with the foundation, Jesus Christ. We have to stay with the truth. We have to remember the church is the pillar and support of the truth, and the message that centers in the finished work of Christ.

Verses 16-17 give an analogy of the church as the building of God and a warning about those who work on God's building. And then verses 18-23 are going to give a summary of the issues involved in man's wisdom and God's wisdom, which we'll just basically review what he said in chapter 1 verse 18 through chapter 2 verse 16.

Let me just read you what one writer wrote about verses 16-17. This is the strongest warning in the New Testament against those who would take the church lightly and destroy it by worldly wisdom and division. And I believe that's correct. This is the strongest warning in the New Testament, verses 16-17, about those who would take the church lightly and would destroy it by human wisdom and division. We're dealing with the church and as God's workmen working on the church, and we're talking about the local church. And our focus here is on this local church where God has placed us. It's a serious business that we're involved in, not something to be taken lightly. And woe be to the church if we begin to use the world's wisdom and try to mix it with God's wisdom. You cannot do God's work with the world's wisdom, you cannot do God's work with the mixture of the world's wisdom and God's wisdom. You can only do God's work by realizing the foolishness of the world's wisdom and the true wisdom, which is God's wisdom.

Look at verse 16. It starts out with, do you not know. This is the first of ten times that Paul uses this rhetorical question in this first letter to the Corinthians. Do you not know? We still use the expression today, don't we? Your children do something they should have known better, known not to do, you say, don't you know any better? It's a rhetorical question. You're not asking them for information on the subject, you're telling them they ought to know better, you're telling them that they are not conducting themselves consistent with the knowledge that they have. That's the point here in the Corinthians. Do you not know? I mean, of course you have to know this, this is basic. Yet the reality of it is you're not living in light of this truth. Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? Now he's taken the analogy of the building in verses 10-15 and further focused it. Now it's a specific kind of building, it is a temple and all his readers would be familiar with the temple. Anyone with Jewish background, of course, would be familiar with the Jewish temple; the pagans were familiar, their city was filled with temples. They would know what the temple is, it's the dwelling place of God. And that's what Paul's focus will be. The local church is the dwelling place of God.

Turn over to Ephesians 2. Paul uses the same analogy for the church at Ephesus. This is true of every local church, so the letter to the Corinthians he's focusing on the church at Corinth. In the letter to the Ephesians, he's focusing on the church at Ephesus. But what he says to those is true of every local church, it's true of this local church, it's true of every other biblical local church, church that's founded on Christ in this city and across the nation and around the world. Look in Ephesians 2:19, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord. And you'll note, it's growing together into a holy temple. He's going to cover that in a moment in I Corinthians. The temple of God is holy. Well, if it's the place where God resides, of course it is holy, because He is holy. And in whom you also are being built up together into a dwelling of the Spirit of God. You see the same picture, the local church being built up. Now here they've been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, but what was the foundation the apostles and prophets established? Jesus Christ. They came preaching the cross.

Look at Ephesians 2:4, but God being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. Verse 8, for by grace you have been saved through faith, that not of yourselves it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one should boast. Verse 13, but now in Christ you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Verse 16, God has reconciled them both, Jew and Gentile, in one body to God through the cross. So that's what the apostles and prophets established the foundation—Jesus Christ, who He is and what He has done for the church. And now the temple, the dwelling of God, is being built up. And you'll note in the context, Ephesians 2:18, through whom we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. You have the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

And while you're in Ephesians, turn to chapter 4 verse 3, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. And this will come out as we move through Corinthians, but I wanted you to note it here. You'll note that work of the Spirit is, He's produced unity. Now the believers in the church at Ephesus need to be sure that they do all they can to preserve that unity. Otherwise they are fighting against the Holy Spirit and the work of God in the church. Serious business.


Come back to I Corinthians 3:16, do you not know that you are a temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now important here to keep clear what we're talking about. He is talking about the local church as the building of God and the temple of God. Later in I Corinthians, turn over to I Corinthians 6, he uses the physical body of the individual believer as an analogy of the temple of God in which the Holy Spirit dwells. Chapter 6 verse 19, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God. You are not your own, you've been bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body. There can be no immorality and godless behavior because the Spirit of God dwells in your physical body. We'll talk about that when we get to chapter 6. That's not what he's talking about in chapter 3. He's talking about the local church as the dwelling place of the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God dwells in you, chapter 3 verse 16 says. That in you at the end, that's a plural you in the Greek. You, the church of God in Corinth, you are the dwelling place of the Spirit of God. You, the church at Indian Hills, you are the dwelling place of the Spirit of God. This is not a meeting of the people of God together today, this local church is the place where the Spirit of God resides. It's not the only place where He resides, He resides in other local churches in this city also, and across this nation and around the world. We need to understand the seriousness of the matter here. The Holy Spirit of God dwells here. We're not being proud and arrogant in saying that, we would be proud or arrogant to say anything else, because that's what God says. The local church at Corinth, with all of its problems, with carnal behavior as we saw in the opening verses of this chapter, with immorality being practiced in the church as we'll see in chapter 5, with the divisions and conflicts, it is the place where the Spirit of God dwells. So we understand what the church is.

The Spirit of God is here, this is the Spirit of God who, back to chapter 2 verse 10, the things that you could not learn, spiritual truth through human wisdom. Verse 10, to us God revealed them through the Spirit. It's the Spirit of God who enables us to understand what He has revealed about God and God's work, God's salvation. Verse 12 of chapter 2, now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit is from God that we may know the things freely given to us by God. And in chapter 12 verses 7, 11, we'll be told that it's the Spirit of God who gives gifts of God's grace to every believer, each individual believer, so that he can contribute to the development of the body, in the analogy of chapters 12-14. Here it's so they can contribute as workmen to the building of God's temple. So the Spirit of God dwells in the church. It's crucial, that defines its very character.

Look back in chapter 3 verse 17, follow through. If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him. Serious matter. The word destroy is used here twice—used once in the present tense and once in the future tense. And in Greek there is an emphasis, and it's hard for us to pick up in English. You're aware you can rearrange words in sentences in other languages, because they have forms and so on that enable you to know what the order is. And in Greek you have, if any man the temple of God destroys, destroy him God will. The two words destroy are put right together in the sentence. What he does to the temple, God will do to him. If the temple of God he destroys, destroy him, God will. If any man destroys, present tense, is in the process of destroying the temple of God, God will destroy him. Now at the end of verse 15 where he talks about those who build with worthless materials, and at the judgment day all their works are burned up and demonstrated to be worthless, there is no reward for them. But their salvation is secure. They will be saved, the end of verse 15, so as through fire. But don't develop a false security here, that any workman working on the church, no matter what he does, is secure. There are those who are working on the church in such a way, they are destroying it and they are on their way to destruction. Now keep in mind, we're talking about Paul saying the church could be destroyed from within. And I won't take time to give examples of churches that have been destroyed from within, but inner conflict and division and the work of those who profess to be believers. It's a serious matter, and you'll note we're talking about the local church. The universal church cannot be destroyed. Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of hades will not prevail against it. You cannot destroy the universal church. Local churches can be destroyed. Woe to the person who destroys the church, the local church, because that is the temple of God and where He dwells. That is an attack on Him. They are doomed to destruction. Does that mean people could lose their salvation? No. Paul doesn't even go down that road, he doesn't deny.......... Well how am I going to know if someone is using poor materials or somebody is using materials that are destructive and they themselves will be destroyed. You know in many of these cases I can't make the decision and I'm not called to. Now there are judgments we have to make, we've talked about, we'll get into that later in I Corinthians. When we get to chapter 5 he condemns the Corinthian church for not exercising judgment in the proper sense, in a proper way. But it's a warning from God. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 7? On the judgment day many wills say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, we did all these wonderful works in your name. And He will say, depart from Me, cursed ones, I never knew you. Doomed to the fire prepared for the devil and his angels. What a concept. People thinking they're doing the work of God and they're on their way to an eternal hell. People in the church at Corinth being warned, leaders and workmen, and what they are doing in mixing the wisdom of man into the ministry and building the church is destroying the church and they are on their way to destruction. So don't take false comfort in the idea, we're all going to get to heaven, some of us will have more rewards, some less rewards. At least we're all going to get there. Those who destroy the church aren't going, they're going to destruction. Serious matter, we're talking about local churches, the place that the Spirit of God dwells and has placed His residence on earth.

Let me read you what one person wrote, commenting on this passage. The ways of destroying the church are many and colorful. Raw factionalism will do it, rank heresy will do it, taking your eyes off the cross and letting other, more peripheral matters dominate the agenda will do it, admittedly more slowly than frank heresy, but just as effectively in the long haul. Building the church with superficial conversions and wonderful programs that rarely bring people into a deepening knowledge of the living God will do it. Entertaining people to death, but never fostering the beauty of holiness or the centrality of self-crucifying love will build an assembly of religious people, but it will destroy the church of the living God. Gossip, prayerlessness, bitterness, sustained biblical illiteracy, self-promotion, materialism, all these things and many more can destroy a church. We take it lightly, I'm not going to have to look at that, I was right. We need to be careful. That doesn't mean we give up discernment. We have to divide over truth, the church is the pillar and support of the truth, as Paul wrote to Timothy in I Timothy 3. It must be built in accord with its foundation and stay with the truth. But we think we'll help God out, we'll spoil the Egyptians, the phrase that has been popular down through church history at various times and became popular again in our day. We will take the best of the world's wisdom and bring it to God's wisdom, and there we will do the work of God. And we destroy the church. Serious matter. If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him.

Why? For the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are. The temple of God is holy, and that is what you are, church at Corinth. You are the temple of God, you are holy. Do you not know what you are? You are the temple of God, the Spirit of God dwells in you, you are holy, that's what you are. It's amazing, what's the first word that comes to your mind to describe the church at Corinth. Holy? Probably not, right? We usually think of it as the carnal church, because of the opening verses of chapter 3, the church that has all kinds of problems. You know what God says the church is in its character, in its very nature? It can be nothing else. It is holy. So there can be those working against that holiness, detracting that holiness, and attacking the holiness in a destructive way, but that's what the church is. It is holy. That's what the church at Corinth is, it is holy. After having rebuked them for fleshliness in the first 4 verses of chapter 3, he tells them, that is what you are—the holy temple of God. The church loses sight of this, we want our church to be known as the fun place. Oh come to our church, it's fun, or come to our church, it's .................. (fill in the blank). The church needs a local church to be known as the place of holiness. It's a holy place. Not just a building, but the local church is the local church. The building is holy only in the sense that we as the church are assembled here. This building is not the church, we are the church. But the church is holy, that's what we are. Founded on Jesus Christ, we are holy. Now we may not be building with the materials that are consistent with the foundation and the holiness of the character of the church, those are worthless things. We think we are going to help develop a more attractive building, a bigger building, a more aggressive building, using the wisdom of the world. But we're building with wood, hay and straw. Well people aren't drawn to holiness today, you know. They come to the church, they're not expecting holiness, so there's no sense in driving them away.

And you see what happens, I decide I'm going to do God's business instead of letting God do His business. I'm a workman on the building, I'm to take and build with quality materials, realizing this place is holy, these people are holy. That's what we are. Do we not know this? We think we can remake the church in the world's image as a place the world will want to come to. You read material that supposedly comes with evangelicals that can show you what they learn from Disneyland. We go to Disneyland to learn how to build the church today? The world's wisdom? And think we're doing a mighty work for God? And I don't know where we've crossed the line between using worthless materials and destroying the church, but God does. And He's the only one who has to know, because He'll do the judging. We must be very, very careful. We look around and we feel the pressure, because we say, well their church is growing, ours isn't. I'm a pastor, I feel the pressure. Why isn't my church growing? Their church is growing. Maybe we ought to learn what they're doing and begin to do it. Well, maybe God who causes the growth has determined He's going to produce growth there and not here. Now I need to back up and look and see, am I being a faithful laborer in the field, am I using quality materials? And what God chooses to do in this portion of His field or in this building is His business. What He chooses to do in that field and in that building is His business. And that church may be growing by the grace of God, but I determine I'm going to grow like them and I begin to use the wisdom of the world so that I can grow like them. God does His work with His field, with His building.

So this is where we come to in verse 18. I'm just going to overview these verses. We'll pick up with them and lead into chapter 4 in our next study. And these just recapitulate what he talks about in chapter 1 verse 18 through chapter 2 verse 16—the conflict with the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God. And there is no mixing the two, there is no spoiling the Egyptians. The phrase comes from Israel in the Old Testament when they were going to leave Egypt. They went and asked for precious things from the Egyptians, and so they spoiled the Egyptians. So that's been allegorized and spiritualized to mean that the church can go and take things from the world and incorporate them into its ministry, and thus it will be more effective. The point of the whole discussion on the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God is there is no mixing the two. You either do it with God's wisdom or you do it with the world's wisdom, and the world's wisdom is foolishness. The world thinks God's wisdom is foolishness.

Look at verse 18, let no man deceive himself. Now note this, this is in light of what he just said about rewards and what he said about the danger of eternal punishment. Let no man deceive himself. We're talking about people within the church being self-deluded and self-deceived. If any many among you, any man in the church at Corinth, any man in the church at Indian Hills thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish so that he may become wise. Don't delude yourself in thinking you're the clever one. I've learned how to carefully take the wisdom of the world and incorporate it into the building of the church. And if you have any doubts, just look at what I've done. Again this week, I get two or three pieces of material in the mail inviting me to conferences and offering materials to help me build the church. And again, nothing to come to this conference because we're going to show you how to study the Word and teach it effectively. But we're going to teach you what methods we've learned, we're going to share with you the things that work. You can be guaranteed as 80% of the churches who have used this material have found, that they are larger than they were last year. I say, what are we talking about? The wisdom of man. Don't deceive yourself, if any man among you thinks he is wise in this age, he must become foolish. There is that wisdom foolishness that comes from chapter 1 and chapter 2. Remember the word foolishness, we get the English word moron from it, stupidity, moronic, foolishness. So there is no mixing it. If you really want to become wise in the church, you have to be a fool. That foolishness begins when we turn from the wisdom of man for our salvation, and believe in the foolishness of the cross and experience God's salvation.


Back up to chapter 1 verse 17, Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech. Remember that word cleverness, sophia, the word wisdom. Not in wisdom of speech so that the cross of Christ would not be made void. See what happens when you mix, remember when we studied this, when you try to mix the wisdom of man and the message of the cross, you nullify the impact of the message of the cross. We don't want to get confused, people think, well look, they mentioned the gospel. But they gave the antidote, they mixed it with the wisdom of men and the message of the cross has been canceled, nullified. Paul says, I didn't use the wisdom of men in my communication. I just preached the pure gospel, because if I had used the wisdom of men, the cross of Christ would have been nullified, made void.

For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those of us who are being saved, it is the power of God. The end of verse 21, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe, as the world looks at it. You must see yourself as a sinner, and Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the one who died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin, and your only hope for salvation is to place your faith in Him and His death on the cross. Foolishness. That's the only way of salvation.

In chapter 2 verse 4, my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. Now we're told that you must become a fool to be truly wise. That doesn't mean that the world doesn't have wisdom as a result of God's common grace. And I can go to a medical doctor who is not a Christian, and he can diagnose my ailment and often bring about a cure. But he cannot bring to me a message of spiritual salvation apart from the truth of God. He cannot bring spiritual truth that will nourish my soul and build me to maturity, using the world's wisdom. And so both our salvation and our growth comes through the truth, the wisdom that God has revealed.

One person made an important note, the wisdom of this world cannot be improved or developed into the wisdom of God. It must be destroyed. There is God's way of doing it, which is His wisdom, there is the world's way of doing it, which is totally opposed to God. And verse 19 tells you, the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. You want to know what God's evaluation is? Foolishness, moronic, stupid. The world says that about God's wisdom, and let's now look at it from God's perspective. There is only one way to be saved—God's way. There is only one way for the church to grow and develop as God's temple—God's way. Focused on God's wisdom. All that it does centers in the truth that God has revealed through the Spirit and founded on the work that Christ accomplished on the cross. The evangelical church today, local churches across this country and in other places being infiltrated by the thinking that we can be smarter, we can use the wisdom of the world. You can't bring what God says is foolishness and do the work of God, no matter what the “results” look like. It won't stand the test of fire. And woe be to the preachers and teachers who are using that. I don't know where the line is that they cross, but they are really destroying God's temple and manifesting that they themselves are objects for future destruction.

He supports what he says here with two verses from the Old Testament. The first from Job 5:13, for it is written, he is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness. A picture of a hunter and he traps the animal in his own cleverness. He uses the cleverness of that animal against itself to trap him. Man's wisdom doesn't bring him salvation, God says it is foolishness and all it does is ensnare him and bring him into the judgment of God. Second quote is from Psalms 94:11, the Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are useless. They hear this. The word reasoning is the way that the unbeliever uses his wisdom in thinking out and planning and working out his schemes. So he can write his books and produce his materials and tell the church how it can really grow, how it can really be successful. The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise—they are somewhat helpful, they have their place in the church as long as they're not central. They are useless, they are without value. Now again we're not saying that unbelievers don't have general wisdom bestowed by God's common grace. We're talking about spiritual matters, we're talking about the work in ministry of God's church. This is the wisdom that has to be central to everything and all. That's it. But it doesn't work. Well maybe God's not producing the growth in that field, that's not my responsibility as a servant. If He sent me out to plant, I have to plant; if He sent me out to water, I have to water. I will be rewarded on the basis of my labor. If the building is not as big as I would have liked it to be, not as well thought of as what I would have liked, not as influential as I would have liked, I will be rewarded on the basis of the quality of materials that I have used in building. I need to be careful to focus on what God has called me to do and appointed me to do. And when I decide I will do what only God can do, I will get into trouble, because then I start producing that which is a counterfeit. The world can build a great business, the world cannot build a great church. Only God can build a church. The world with its wisdom can do marvelous things, the world with its wisdom cannot produce spiritual life, cannot produce spiritual growth. The wisdom of the world is useless in that sense.

Somebody is going to say to me, well, don't we use the wisdom of the world in the church? We have heating and air conditioning. What can I say? Don't you know any better than that? I mean, these things are not what our church is about. So then let no one boast in men. There is the summary of it, this is what he talked about in the first two chapters—don't boast in men. What are you boasting about men, then? You understand it's not about men, and anything that Paul accomplishes, he only accomplishes by the grace of God. And later Paul will tell them, by the grace of God I am what I am. So why are you honoring Paul and holding him up and worshiping at the feet of Paul and dividing the church over Paul? And you have the Paul faction and the Apollos faction. Don't boast in men. For all things belong to you. Don't get so small. Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come, all things belong to you, you belong to Christ, Christ belongs to God. That says it all. In Christ we have everything. Aren't you looking forward to the glories of heaven and the opportunity to sit down with Paul and visit with him? He belongs to you, you belong to him. We are all part of the family of God, the building of God, God's field. We are a result of God's work. You think I'm going to get to heaven and fall down on my knees and worship before Paul? I appreciate how God used him, I appreciate the letter to the Corinthians that the Spirit of God used Paul to write. But I don't worship at the feet of Paul, because it is God's work. We can appreciate that God has used different people in our lives, but we better not be boasting in them, worshiping them, dividing the church over them. Death belongs to me. Why? Because in Christ death is conquered. I don't look forward to physical death, it may come, but even physical death has been overcome and we'll get to that in chapter 15 because I am guaranteed the resurrection of this body. So in Christ I have everything.

I need to understand so that the church is not divided. That doesn't mean we can't appreciate different people in their ministry in our lives and their work in our lives. We better not divide over it. It means other Bible-believing churches in this city, founded on Jesus Christ are not our enemies, we're not doing battle with them, we're not in competition with them. That is God's work in that place, the Lord bless them. I try to make a practice in my prayer life to pray for those ministries and those men, that God will bless them and their blessings will increase. And the measure of my ministry is not them, the measure of their ministry is not us. We need to have the focus as God gives it in His Word. We are the people of God, we are His work, we belong to Him. We cannot divide the church over things that don't matter. Churches divide over color of carpet, over whether they're going to put an addition on the building, over whether they're going to ............... God forbid we do that. What is this church about? We want the testimony of this church, the dwelling place of God which is holy, oh, yeah, they had a major split out there, they were going to have a building program and so some people left. What does that say? I mean, we are the church, we're in the dwelling place of God and we divided over whether we're going to put a physical structure out here. Doesn't mean people can't have opinions, can't express themselves. But God forbid that we divide the church over it. Well I know so-and-so and he was against it, too. So? What's this church about? Truth, it's the pillar and support of the truth, it's founded on Jesus Christ, it's being built with the truth of God. All our ministries are to be pervaded with the truth. We do other things, it's not what we're about. We sort out other things.

We've talked about the carpet, my first hour asked if I was going to use carpet and chairs and music as examples here. I said, no, I don't need any more trouble. We can talk about it. We can ............... I'm not going to resign my pastorate if the carpet is the color I didn't want. Some people think that may work, it won't, I'm not going. And I don't care what they do with the seats because I stand to preach. If the choir loft comes or goes. I can live with it. We put an addition on or we don't put an addition on. I'm open. There are things, though, that I will die for, and that's the truth, the truth of God. We have to be willing to say, it's not my opinions, it's not my thoughts. This is God's church, it's a holy place. Not within the confines of this building so we walk in and now we've entered the sanctuary. No, God is present if we would go out and meet in the parking lot, God would reside in our midst. If we would go down and meet in the stadium, God would reside in our midst. If we would go to a bar, God would reside in our midst. It's not the building, the physical structure, it's the people. What a remarkable thing God has done, and now in Christ it all belongs to us.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the greatness of your work in Christ. And Lord if we are honest we all admit to becoming small in our thinking, centered on ourselves, our desires, our likes, our dislikes. We forget this is your church, this is your temple. Not mine, not someone else's, not ours. Yours. It is holy and we as your church are holy. May all of our attitudes and all of our actions be shaped by this wonderful truth, and that in Christ you have provided all things for us. May we be a testimony as a local church of your work of grace, that this is a place characterized by your holiness, shaped by your truth, built on your Son, in whose name we pray. Amen