Baptist Church. If you guys want to go ahead and take your hymnals, we're gonna
turn to page number 19. Page number 19, there is a fountain.
Page number 19, sing it out on the first.
Let's sing everybody. Brother Armud, would you please open us up with a word of prayer?
Amen. All right, if you want to take your hymnals, turn to page number 325.
Page number 325, trust and obey.
Page number 325.
To trust in joy, to trust in sin, to trust in...
Sing everybody, at this time we will have our announcements.
Everybody, welcome to your Foundation Baptist Church.
Our first of the week is Galatians 3, 8, which says,
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free,
there is neither male or female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."
That's Galatians 3, verse number 8.
Tonight we're at our Wednesday evening Bible study.
We're going to be continuing on from 1 Corinthians chapter number 3.
We had one week break because we had our pastor come up,
preach a Friday sermon, which was a great sermon that was not YouTube friendly.
So that's a Rumble Only burner right there.
He didn't want to get the new channel nuked for us,
so he was like, "I'll just put it on Rumble Only, probably a good idea."
For soul winning this week, I want to make one announcement with the upcoming events.
First of all, we had one person saved on Sunday, is that what it was?
So I'll add that to the total, we'll update that.
And the second thing I wanted to announce about soul winning is that
we were going to have the Chaney soul winning marathon this Saturday,
but now we're moving it one more Saturday forward in time,
which is going to be October 4th, because that works better with my schedule anyways,
and because it's Cali's birthday, so it works out well for everybody.
So next time we'll kind of probably put it in a more appropriate,
I wouldn't say appropriate, what would I say?
A more, because it's usually at the end of the month at the beginning,
so we'll try to flip that back again in the next month.
Second thing is we have Brother David Akers preaching for us for both the Sunday Sermons,
which I hope you guys all enjoyed, because I enjoyed them a lot and thought they were really good.
Some people just are naturally very smooth with their words.
I wasn't blessed with that, but I'm glad to see other people are in this world.
Brother David preached a couple of good sermons on.
The first one was about eternal security, once saved, always saved,
and if you don't believe that, that you're not truly saved.
I mentioned this on Sunday, but it's really true.
I like hearing, especially when it comes to salvation of all doctrines,
these things really reinforce that church because we never want to set up our kids for failure.
We don't want to be a church that gets loose on big important doctrines like that.
Salvation is the doctrine that you need to have right as a Christian.
So I'm always glad to hear about it.
And then he preached a good sermon in Psalm 77 talking about Asaph
and how we deal with struggles and everything happening for a reason.
It was really good sermons.
If you didn't listen to him, I'd encourage you to go on the YouTube page and check him out.
We did give out the Old Testament Challenge prizes.
I think I said this too as well, but we had eight people that finished the challenge,
which is pretty incredible to me.
I know a lot of people, that's not to discredit people that didn't do it.
I mean, people are busy, understand that.
But I just think it's really awesome that we had eight people finish this challenge,
which was a huge challenge, and it really is a testament to how much these kinds of churches
try to focus on getting people to read the Bible for themselves
and getting people to come to their own conclusions on doctrine,
which is the opposite of what a cult would do.
But this is not the sermon, this is just the announcements.
But yeah, the last couple things I'll say is that we have our new memory verse,
Psalms 46 verse number 1, so you can tell that to my wife if you're a kid and get a piece of candy.
And also I have, we're getting, we announced that, oh, first of all,
Brother Paul just sent me a message on WhatsApp and said that Miss Victoria's water broke,
so she's starting the process of giving birth to the baby,
so we'll be in prayer about that when it comes to the prayer request times.
And then the second thing is that it's Callie's birthday coming up,
and we're going to sing her "Happy Birthday." Today is the actual day, Friday.
It's this week, okay? So if you want to follow along with me,
we'll sing "Happy Birthday to Kyla." I didn't say Kyla the first time, right?
You're going to play your own birthday song? Wow.
Just because it's your birthday, we'll let it happen, okay?
Probably doing it at the hospital, probably watching the live stream.
The doctor's like, "What's going on?"
That's all for announcements, so we'll get into prayer, and then we'll do our third song.
Dear Father God, thank you so much for this wonderful day, God.
Thank you so much for everything you do for us, God.
Thank you so much for everybody that came to hear your Word preached tonight.
I just pray that you'd be with the prayer requests that we have right now, God.
I just pray that you would be with Miss Amanda's mother
and help her with whatever her needs are,
and I pray that you'd be with Miss Victoria's dad's health
and with Miss Victoria's health right now
and with the birth of their baby coming, God.
I just pray again that you would help everything to go smoothly with that,
and I just pray that you would.
Alright, if you want to take your Bibles, we're going to turn to Psalm number 117.
Psalm number 117.
Psalm 117, we'll sing it out on the first.
For his merciful kindness is great torna,
and the truth of the Lord endureth.
Everybody in the room, would you please pray for the offering?
Thank you so much again for this wonderful day, God.
Thank you so much for anything you do for us, God.
Thank you so much for things you do for us in this life, whether it be spiritual or physical, God.
And we just thank you so much that you take care of us all, that you think of us all.
I just pray that you bless everybody in here that does come faithfully, God,
and that does do their best to serve you, God.
And I just pray that you reward them according to their labor.
Do you say I pray? Amen. Amen.
I hope everybody can open up their Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 3.
1 Corinthians chapter 3.
And here at Shura Foundation Baptist Church, we read the entire chapter before the preaching.
So, 1 Corinthians chapter 3.
The Bible reads.
1 Corinthians chapter 3.
"For we are laborers together with God, 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 buildeth thereon.
But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon.
For other foundation can no man lay that is laid, which is Christ Jesus.
Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble,
every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire,
and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
If any man's work abide, which he hath 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.
Know you not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.
If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
Let no man deceive himself; if any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, for it is written,
He taketh the wise in their own craftiness; and again, the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.
Therefore let no man glory in men, for all things are yours,
whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come,
are all yours, and you are Christ, and Christ is God's.
Brother Jason, would you go ahead and pray for the servant?
Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for this day, Lord, I thank you for everything you've done for us.
I pray that you please open our hearts to the preaching of your word.
Lord, we're all around you with your spirit and your preaching, so dear Jesus, amen.
Amen.
You guys are there.
In 1 Corinthians chapter number 3, we're going to look at verse number 8, where the Bible says,
"Now he that planteth, and he that watereth, are one.
And every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor."
The title of my sermon tonight is "Rewards and Purgatory."
Let's pray. I do it for the God. Thank you so much for this wonderful day.
Thank you so much for everything you do for us, God. Thank you so much for this church, God.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to preach your word and to read and learn from a great chapter, God.
I just pray that you would help me to do this chapter justice, God,
and help me to deliver well the message you put on my heart, God.
And I just pray that you would keep me from saying things you wouldn't want me to, God,
and let me say boldly the things that you do want me to say.
I ask all these things in Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
Title of my sermon again, as I said, was "Rewards and Purgatory."
We're here in 1 Corinthians chapter 3,
and tonight we're going to be continuing off from where we left off
the Wednesday before last.
And just a little quick recap,
just because it has been a week-long break from that.
The title of that sermon, the first part of it,
was called "Stop Acting Like a Child."
And I was explaining kind of three main points from that sermon.
The first one was that carnal Christians and babes in Christ
are very similar to real-life, worldly children.
And I was explaining how if you want to be someone who's not carnal,
you should act the opposite of how children behave in their daily life.
Because as cute as children are, they're not spiritual examples by any means.
And they're examples of what you should not be doing in a spiritual sense in reality.
The second thing I talked about though is how low of a view
and how humble of a view Paul had of himself.
Like, it's really incredible. You'll see it more in this chapter as I kind of go on.
But Paul truly gives all praise and all glory to God.
And it should just be such an example to us that we should never think of ourselves highly
because the apostle Paul, who did far more works than any of us could imagine to,
said, "Who is Paul?" And he says, "And who is Paulist but ministers by whom he believes?"
So Paul had a low view of himself so we should have a low view of ourselves as Christians.
The last thing I kind of talked about though was this idea that soul-wanting is a process
and that not every conversation that you're going to have with people out soul-wanting is going to end up
in a salvation. You just realize it's okay because I used this analogy with the plant a couple Wednesdays ago
but I was explaining how like when you go and plant a plant in the ground it doesn't grow immediately
and when you water it it still doesn't grow immediately and Paul is using this analogy with soul-wanting to kind of portray the same idea
that just because you plant something in the ground just because you water it you're not going to always see that growth right away.
So when we're out soul-wanting and you're having conversations with people they're not always going to get saved
but that doesn't mean that it was for naught. It doesn't mean that it was just useless at the end of the day.
There can be a lot of profit in that as long as you don't trample all over that plant as you leave the door.
And I kind of explained what I meant by that last time so I won't go into it right now.
But just be kind to people at the door. Be loving to people. Show the love of Jesus Christ.
That's our job when we're out soul-wanting as Christians.
Don't leave a bad taste in people's mouth because we're ambassadors of Jesus Christ.
We represent Jesus Christ.
However, though, I do want to make a correction on something that I preached last time I preached in this chapter concerning that analogy with the plants.
Because while I think that that analogy is still true, that not every time you go soul-wanting you're going to get someone saved and that a lot of the times it can be a process, I think that's true.
However, when I was studying more for these verses and in the next chapter, if I'm being honest with the text, I'd have to say that the analogy doesn't work perfectly with how I presented it.
The analogy, in my opinion, the planting of the seeds is the salvation, when you actually take a step back and look at it.
There's a couple ways to prove that, but just go over to 1 Corinthians 4, verse number 15, if you would real quick, 1 Corinthians 4, verse number 15, it's one chapter over, I need to get there in my own Bible.
But I just think it's important that you're always honest with what the text says, not that I would try to be deceitful on purpose or anything like that.
But sometimes you just repeat things that you hear a lot, and sometimes you start working up like a bunch of points without kind of doing a deeper dive into things.
And I think this might be a potential of that, and I've heard people say this before, that, you know, the analogy.
But it's important that even when a principle is true somewhere else in the Bible, that doesn't mean that that specific passage of Scripture is teaching that specific principle.
I think that's the case here.
Verse number 15 of chapter four, though it says this, it says, "For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers, for in Christ Jesus," this is Paul speaking, "I have begotten you through the gospel."
So Paul's being very clear here that he's the one who got these people saved.
So if you kind of take my analogy as how I presented it last time and take the seeds as just being like maybe putting doubt in someone's mind or maybe starting the process of salvation, per se, by someone, you know, potentially believing later on.
It doesn't work anymore because then the watering, like, it would be like Paul is kind of not getting these people saved, but he's giving them a good spiritual, you know, guidance towards it.
And then Paul, Apollos waters that a little bit. And then like someone else gets them saved. And the, and the analogy that I gave before, but Paul's very clear here that he's the one who begat these people in the gospel.
So the seeds there are salvation. And if you even think about the parable of the seeds, you can see that as well, that the three seeds that are planted are all saved. The one who's not saved is the one that's cast by the wayside, the one that doesn't get planted in the first place.
So I just think it's important to bring that up because it'll come up a little bit later on in the text. But moving on though, verse number eight of this sermon, I want to see another huge aspect in this process and a huge teaching that Paul is portraying in this chapter. Verse number eight says this, it says, "Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor."
So what I want to start out with tonight is this, is that what Paul wants us to understand is that we're rewarded according to our labor, not according to our results as Christians.
And I think it's important to realize again that Paul is teaching this because he wants us to understand that no matter what role you play in this process of the planting or the watering,
that God doesn't look at one person better than the other in that regard for who you are in that process. He looks at the amount of labor that you put into that process.
And if you look back at verse number six in the same chapter, because he ties these two together, he says, "I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase."
He's tying verse number six and verse number eight to say this, that the planter is not better than the person that waters, and the person that waters is not better than the person that's planting these seeds. They're one.
What does that mean? They're equal in the sight of God. What differentiates these two people though, in the sight of God, according to rewards, it's the labor that they put into this process.
That's what he's trying to say right here. So you should just understand that God's not judging how spiritual you are, how many rewards you're going to get just solely based on the results per se that you bring out soul winning.
He rewards you according to the effort and the labor that you put into soul winning and that you put into discipling people and getting people baptized and preaching the gospel.
Why is that? Because God doesn't reward according to our results. What did that verse say that every man receives reward according to his own labor? That's what it says.
Can you just realize this as well? Who's responsible for the results at the end of the day? It's God.
So why would he? Why would he be judging people and giving them works according to results when he's responsible for bringing forth the results?
Does it make sense? But it does make sense if you realize that he's rewarding you for the labor you put into that process.
The way because I just this is why I'm kind of there's a couple of reasons to bring this up.
But one of the things I want to bring up first is this what you should take from this is that the person who's getting hundreds of people saved in Africa because Africa is a very receptive place.
The gospel is not inherently getting more reward than someone else in America that's putting in the same amount of labor into soul winning just because Africa is a more receptive place.
I don't believe that God is just like judging these people as like way more spiritual way more holy like they're going to get way more rewards than us because they're getting people more people say obviously and that's not to diminish that work.
I'm thankful for anybody to get saved anywhere.
I don't care all glory goes to God for that.
I'm happy anywhere that someone gets someone saved.
My point isn't to diminish that it's to say this.
I want to encourage you to realize that even if we're not putting up numbers like people do in places like the Philippines or like Africa, God isn't looking at the results and getting rewards according to the results.
He's giving us rewards according to the work that we put in.
So if you go out faithfully and so when like God says in America and you do that same amount of work in Africa, I think those results are equal.
And obviously, we don't know all the nuances of how God judges things.
But I'm just saying in general, okay, you put in an hour of soul winning in America, you're putting in an hour of soul winning in Africa.
I think it's pretty equal in the sight of God because it's important to realize that as well that God judge things in God judges things in perspective.
If you think about the woman who gives the two mites in that story and Jesus praises her and says she gave way more than everybody else did here.
Why? Because she gave from all that she had and everybody else was giving out of the abundance that they had.
So I'm only bringing that up because I want you to realize that God judges things in perspective.
So he's a just God. He judges things perfectly every time.
So that should encourage you as a soul winner.
This is what I want to encourage you as a soul winner to do is to not focus on the results that you're getting alone out soul winning.
I want you to focus on the labor that you're putting in because that's what God rewards you according to is what we see in this chapter.
Another analogy for this that I think kind of makes us all make really a lot of sense as well.
Say this, say I go soul winning a place like Africa, say I go for a whole month straight.
I go every single day of the month and I get 200 people saved because Africa is very receptive to the gospel.
I've been to Africa and I've been to the Philippines and they're the two most receptive places I've ever been to preach the gospel.
People flood around you and want to hear you preach the gospel.
It just reminds you of things in the Bible.
They just swarm you and come up and want to hear the gospel, which is a pretty awesome experience.
We should do a missions trip to one of those, by the way.
It'd be really awesome for everybody.
But going back to the analogy, if I go in soul win in Africa for a month straight, say like two hours a day.
So what is that, like 60 hours, depending on how many days are in the month?
Say I get 200 people saved.
Then we have a different person who goes and says I'm going to go soul winning in San Francisco, or even I guess you can do Spokane, Washington, really.
Say I'm going to go soul winning in Spokane, Washington, but this year I'm going to go every single day of the year.
So I'm going 365 days, two hours per day.
So that comes out to like what, like 700 and some change of hours of soul winning.
And say they only get 100 people saved because America is not as receptive.
In this scenario, who's putting more labor in?
The person in Spokane, right?
So like, like it, because I'm saying the guy who goes for a month, I didn't say this part of the analogy that kind of breaks that we're just going to dumb.
But I was saying that the person in Africa didn't go soaring for the rest of the time for the year.
He just didn't go at all.
Then you can see that like the guy in America, his labor is more.
So I would suspect that he'd get more awards according to God.
And again, we don't know all the nuances, but I'm just trying to bring this idea forth to you that the results is not the only thing you should be focused on out soaring.
It should be the labor you're putting in.
If you're focused on getting rewards, if you're worried about getting rewards.
I'm going to be in that, so I'm going to move on.
The second reason I'm bringing this up, though, is because I want everybody to realize that since we're awarded according to the labor we put in and not just the rewards we get,
that should encourage you to give a thorough gospel presentation out soaring.
Because you shouldn't just be so worried about just getting a tally so that you can pat yourself on the back or so that you can boost the church's numbers.
Once you realize that you're not getting a reward just based on the results, like you're getting sales commission, like you're listening to some salesman or something like that,
it should encourage you to give thorough gospel presentations and not stress out about trying to force someone to pray with you or to try to push through a gospel presentation.
Because here's the thing, I'm not saying in this room, I'm just saying in general, I've seen a lot of people where they're so focused on getting the person to pray,
they just push through a gospel presentation and get them to repeat after them. And I'm looking at them and I'm like, "Dude, that guy didn't even understand what you were saying."
And I think, I mean there's many reasons for that, sometimes it's just pride, but I do think that sometimes people are like, "Wow, if I get these numbers, I'm going to be getting all these rewards."
But when you realize that it's the labor that you're putting in that God rewards, it should encourage you to just, you know, give people an accurate, quality, thorough gospel.
And not to focus on the number. And that should just be something we realize as Christians. Like, soul-warning is not a game. It's not a video game.
And it's not a sports game where you're trying to go for, like, high scores or big numbers or allocates. This is a serious thing.
The preaching of the gospel is the most important thing we can do on this earth as Christians, as far as works go for other people.
It's the most important thing that we can do for other people. So don't worry about the numbers. God is the one who gives the increase at the end of the day.
God is the one who's responsible for getting people saved. Just give people an accurate, quality, gospel presentation.
And if they believe, praise God, that's our goal out there. We want them to believe, right?
But don't just focus on that because it'll kind of poison your mind when it comes to soul winning.
And also I want to bring this up because people get discouraged when they go out soul winning, when they're not getting salvation.
They're like, "We're just wasting our time out here." Not so.
When you go out soul winning, whether you get someone saved or not, if you go out for 10 years straight and you got nobody saved,
you still did what God told you to do. So you're going to be rewarded for every single time you went out in that 10 year drought.
Because God rewards us, not according to our results, but according to our labor.
I'm saying that a lot, but I really want that to ingrain into people's minds.
Because I want people to get out of this mindset where they only focus on the number.
We like numbers. We put the salvation totals in the bulletin because we want to encourage people to go soul winning
and encourage people to say, "We're doing a good work in Spokane."
But beyond just the number itself, we truly are concerned about people's souls
and making sure that they know that they're on their way to heaven because the gospel is so easy to understand.
The last thing I want to kind of bring up with this is that with this idea, it kind of piggybacks off the first point,
but when you realize that your reward is according to your labor, not just your results,
it'll help you not to be worried about just stealing the deal with people in this sense.
In man's eyes, when we say who got them saved, we'll say the individual that got them saved,
even though we all know that it's Jesus Christ that gets everybody saved.
But in man's eyes, they'll look at someone and be like, "Well, he got that person saved."
But in God's eyes, he sees everyone that put labor into that process, and he will divide that accordingly.
What that made me think of is when I was talking with Brother Orion about this at dinner,
the two Russian guys that we were preaching the gospel to, the two brothers, were they cousins?
I can't remember exactly. Brothers? Yeah.
The one was saved, and the one wasn't saved, and Miss Amanda and Kylie were giving this guy the gospel,
and he was a tough case, so they called us over, and then me and Ryan are trying to preach him the gospel as well,
and then they're interjecting back into it, and then his brother is even getting in on it, and he's like,
"I got to get some of this," right? And at the end of all of it, it was Miss Amanda that prayed with him, yeah?
So she just gets all the reward, and we're just sitting there like, "Man, I wish I could have got some of that," right?
Not so, right? And obviously we shouldn't only be motivated by rewards.
I'm only using that story to show you that God sees the labor that every single person put into that situation,
and He'll reward it accordingly, and it took a team effort to get that person saved, so it's going to be a team reward, yeah?
That's kind of my point in saying all this. I'll kind of move on. I had one other kind of thing,
but I think I've proven the point on that quite well. Look at verse number nine in this chapter.
It says, "For we are laborers together with God. Ye are God's husbandry. Ye are God's building."
So going back again to the theme of this first sermon about Paul having a low view of himself,
Paul's trying to make it very clear here that, hey, he's like, "Hey, I planted you guys,
and Apollos watered you guys, but make no mistake about it."
He's like, "You are God's husbandry, and you're God's building." Not Paul's. Not Apollos.
You're God's husbandry and God's building. So he's giving all credit and all glory
and all authority to God in this situation, because he wants us to realize this,
that the laborers and the ministers are not on the same level as the owner of the field
and the owner of the vineyard, who is God in this analogy.
And that word "husbandry," if you didn't know that, that's what it's saying.
It's saying we're his field or his vineyard or something along those lines.
We don't really use it. I guess people do kind of use this word,
but my uneducated self does not use this word.
But yeah, he's bringing two analogies, though, here.
He uses the planting, the field analogy, and then he uses the building analogy.
But these are like the dreams of Pharaoh in the sense that these analogies are one analogy.
It's the same thing. He's just breaking off into different things
to help it be more understandable to everybody.
But again, moving on past that into verse number 10.
Before I get to that, I'll just say that Paul truly does want us to realize though
that God is responsible for our salvation and God is responsible for the increase that we have.
And he wants us to realize as well that without the owner of the vineyard, the laborer can do nothing.
Which is reminiscent of what Jesus says in John 15 where he's like,
"I'm the vine, you're the branches. Without me, you can't do anything at all." Right?
It's the same thing here. Without God, the laborer in the field
and the laborer for the building, they do it in vain.
First Corinthians 3, 10, though, it says this.
It says, "According to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder,
I have laid the foundation and other buildeth thereon.
But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon."
A couple things I want to bring up with this.
Number one, if you've seen the Lego movie, which I'll confess my faults, I saw that.
It was back when I was a Wicked Senator, okay?
But if you've seen that, it messes you up when you look at this verse.
Because if you don't know that movie, he calls the Lego builders, like master builders.
So every time I read this, I'm thinking, "Paul's building with Legos."
I'm like, "Get this out of my mind, okay?"
On a more serious note, though, a master builder, that's kind of like an archaic term more so, nowadays we would just say an architect.
What Paul is saying is that he's like a wise architect, the leader of a building project.
If you don't believe me on that, the word that underlies this, which I thought was really interesting, is "architecton,"
which is, you can see where "architect" comes from, yeah, "architekton."
Which is funny, too, because Kylie, when I said this word to her, she was like,
"Oh, it sounds like the modern Greek word, which is "architektonas."
And I was like, "Yeah!" And I was like, "How do you know that?"
And she's like, "Because they teach it to you on DuLingo."
And I was like, "Why is DuLingo teaching 'architect' in, like, the first series of, like, lessons? It makes no sense."
DuLingo is wack. I'd preach a whole sermon about that, too.
Every unclean bird, but that's for another day.
Where are we at here? Not the sermon for now, though.
1 Corinthians 3, verse number 11.
This is what I want to say lastly about this.
Is that Paul is saying, again, this is why I was saying that,
why I thought the analogy was a little bit off on last time.
He's saying that he's the one who laid this foundation.
And when you look at these analogies side by side and you compare them,
the planting of the seeds is the beginning of the process, right?
For, like, when you're going to plant a garden or any kind of plant.
And the laying of foundation is the first step in the process for rising up a building.
So he's saying that he established these people.
He's the one who got these people saved.
So the watering, what I would submit to you, is basically discipleship from Apollos,
that Apollos is teaching these people and helping them to grow.
And Paul is basically saying that whether you're a person who's getting people saved
or you're someone who's helping someone grow as a Christian, become more spiritual,
they're one, they're equal, is what he's saying.
And he says that they're one also in the sense that you should be doing all these things.
I should pause and say that as well, out-soul-wanting.
When you're out-soul-wanting, our goal is not just to get people saved.
We want them to get baptized as well, and we want them to come to church.
So you should do that when you're out-soul-wanting.
After you get someone saved, what you should do is say the next step that God wants you to do,
not for salvation but just for a better relationship with Him, is to go and get baptized.
That's what he commands us, what we see in the Bible, that's what we should be telling people.
And we should try to get them to come to church and try to disciple them.
And in America that can be a little bit hard, but that's something that we should still be trying to guide people towards.
Because you just realize that, because he used that analogy that he begets them, begets them, begets, bagats,
has begotten them in the gospel, something.
When he uses that analogy, it's kind of saying that you're per se,
and I want to be careful just because the Catholics go weird with this,
but like you're like their per se spiritual father there, so you're supposed to be guiding them.
So you want to kind of, when you, not kind of, when you do get someone saved,
you should be trying to guide them on the right path, not just salvation.
Salvation is great and that's the main thing, but give them the next steps as well,
because they're like sheep that don't know what to do and you're supposed to guide them.
1 Corinthians 13 verse 11 though, Paul at the end of that verse in verse 10 says that
we need to be careful, every man should take heed how he buildeth there upon.
And look at verse 11, it says for other foundation can no man lay that is laid which is Jesus Christ.
So again, that's another proof that I have that this is Paul getting them saved.
If Paul's the one who lays the foundation and this foundation is Christ, what is he saying?
He got these people saved. He got them in Christ.
They're builded upon Jesus Christ because Paul planted them.
So again, that's just another thing that I think kind of proves that.
Going on though in verse number 12 it says this, it says, "Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is."
So the foundation that we're built upon, every single saved person built upon is Jesus Christ.
We all have that in common, but then Paul says after you're saved, there's things that you could be building on this foundation,
and he tells us that these things can be wood, hay, and stubble, or they could be gold, precious stones, and silver.
What do these things represent though? The wood, hay, and stubble basically represents vanity and the things that don't matter in this life.
You're stacking up a bunch of useless stuff in this world, and the precious stones and the gold and the silver
represents everything that's important, everything that we do for the kingdom of God, everything that affects the kingdom of God in the long run.
And I would want to say this as well before I move on past this, is that the wording is a little bit confusing that he uses here
because he says like, "I planted you. Apollos built you." And then he's like, "But take heed how every man builds upon this."
Why I think he's saying that is because he's basically saying this. Someone is responsible for getting you saved,
and then when you come to church, there's a pastor or some kind of spiritual leader a lot of time that's going to help build you up.
But then what Paul is saying is that you can't just rely on that alone. You are responsible for building yourself up as well as a Christian.
So you, at the end of the day, are responsible past just the beginning stages.
After the beginning stages, you're responsible for stacking up precious stones and gold and silver as a Christian.
Someone else can't build you completely, is what he's trying to say here, is what I think he's trying to say.
The wording is a little bit confusing in my opinion though.
Verse 14 says this, "If any man's work abide which he has built thereupon, he shall receive a reward."
Verse 15 says, "If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire."
So if you kind of take this analogy and understand what it's saying,
what Paul is teaching is that if you go and spend your life after you get saved on a bunch of vanity,
on a bunch of things that don't matter, on a bunch of things that are worldly and of this world,
he's saying you're going to get no rewards for that in heaven.
You're going to lose that all day up in heaven.
All the things that we love to do so much on this earth,
if they're not for the Kingdom of God, it's all going to burn up one day.
The sports we're into, the video games we're into, the books we're into that's not the Bible,
all these different hobbies that we do, watching TV, any of these things,
they're fun in the short term, but Paul says they're going to burn up at the end of time.
So he's saying take heed how you build, because if you just build up for yourself a kingdom,
according to this world, you're going to lose it with the perishing of this world as well.
But he says if you stack up precious stones and jewels and silver,
he's saying you're going to be rewarded for those things,
because those things will be tried in fire and they'll survive through the fire.
This should teach us though, as well, and you guys can go,
where do I have you guys going next, go to Matthew 12.32, Matthew 12.32.
This should tell everybody though, or excuse me, this proves to us
that salvation is once again by grace, through faith, not of works,
and this analogy proves that perfectly, because here's the thing about this analogy.
Paul says this foundation is Jesus Christ. Both of these people are built on Jesus Christ.
He says if one guy stacks up a bunch of vanity, a bunch of useless works
at the end of time, they all get burned up, but guess what?
That guy is saved, is what the Bible says right here, yet so as by fire.
That proves that works are not necessary for salvation,
which is what the Bible says over and over and over again.
The works that you do, according to this analogy, what do they get us?
They get us a better relationship with God, and they get us rewards up in heaven.
But what you should notice about this analogy is that the works have nothing to do
with them being built on this foundation, that is Jesus Christ.
That is solid no matter what works they do,
because our works have nothing to do with going to heaven.
So this proves once again, if Romans wasn't enough for you,
right here in 1 Corinthians, he's proving to us that your works have no bearing on your place in heaven.
You're built on Jesus Christ through your faith in the gospel.
You guys are going to Matthew 12, verse number 32, I believe, yes.
I want to mention a couple other things before I move on from this though.
Number one is this, is that fire in the Bible is not always synonymous with hell.
And I think it's important to realize that because there's a few scriptures that people will try to twist
to teach that fire is always talking about hell.
So they'll be like, this can't be talking about Christians.
It's just important to realize though that this chapter proves that fire,
though a lot of times it does symbolize hell, does not always symbolize hell.
So I'm not going to go too deep into that just for the time sake of this sermon,
but I just want you to have that in the back of your brain somewhere
so that when you interpret a passage of scripture and you see fire,
you shouldn't just always put hell there.
Sometimes it actually is a metaphor like the joe's what they're saying, okay?
The fire is.
But they're wrong most of the time, okay?
Number two is that I thought about this when I was writing this sermon is that
I just realized how little sense it makes for rewards to be attached to heaven
or excuse me, for work salvations.
For work salvations, it makes no sense for them to think that
they're going to be rewarded for their good things that they do according to heaven
because I want you to step into the mind of a work salvations real quick.
They think that all the good things that they're doing is their ticket into heaven.
So then why would they be rewarded for things on top of that if they think
that they're earning their way to heaven in the first place?
You understand what I'm saying?
Like we believe that we're saved just by faith so that the good things that we do
we can be rewarded for them because that has nothing to do with our salvation.
But why are they getting like double rewarded here
where they're getting their way into heaven and getting rewards on top of that?
Makes no sense. Heaven should be their reward in that scenario
if you were to believe like a work salvations does.
But obviously, and I even just showed you salvations by faith.
That's what the Bible teaches over and over again.
The last thing I want to talk about with these set of verses though is this,
is that this is basically the only verse that the Catholics use
to teach that purgatory is in the Bible.
They have a few other like cutesy places they get to
that they'll kind of be like, you can see the symbolism here.
But when you like really nail them down, you're like show me where purgatory is at in the Bible.
This is the only place that they can take you to.
Supposedly shows that purgatory is here.
What is purgatory though, if you don't know what that is?
I should also say they do something with 1 Peter 3 19,
but as you'll see in an article I'm about to read later on,
they even say that that's not 100% purgatory.
But let me get into this definition of what purgatory is.
According to Catholic answers, it says this,
"The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines purgatory as a purification
so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven,
which is experienced by those who die in God's grace and friendship
but still are imperfectly purified."
That's what the Catholic definition of purgatory is.
And they say that this verse in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 is where it's teaching this.
There's another part of this, a different article, but it's talking about purgatory as well.
On the same page, Catholic answers, it says,
"Some fundamentalists," that's us by the way, "also charge,"
but we don't believe this argument, which is kind of funny,
"says charge that the word purgatory is nowhere found in the scripture.
That is true, and yet it does not disprove the existence of purgatory
or the fact that the belief in it has always been a part of the church teachings.
The word trinity and incarnation aren't in scripture either,
yet those doctrines are clearly taught in the Bible."
Which is a true argument, a true statement. It's a fallacy to say that.
If you say just because a word is not in the Bible, that doesn't mean the doctrine is not true.
We believe that the rapture is true, but the word rapture isn't in the Bible.
Trinity as well is their own example that they used.
There could be an idea in the Bible that isn't listed as a doctrine, how we would call it.
But he continues on this. It says, "Likewise, scripture teaches that purgatory exists
even if it doesn't use that word and even if 1 Peter 3.19 refers to a place other than purgatory."
Which 1 Peter 3.19 is about the spirits in prison, which I've already told you guys before.
That has nothing to do with purgatory.
That's talking about Jesus Christ getting the spirits that were bound in sin,
which is every unsaved person on this earth saved by preaching them the gospel.
You can prove that I'm not going to do that right now, though.
But if you want to look that up, you're more than welcome to.
The other thing about us as Baptists, we want you to look up the Bible and see what it says for yourself.
So anything I say up here, feel free to fact check it.
I want you to fact check what I say, because God is our ultimate authority.
And if I'm teaching them this against the Word of God, I want you to go with what the Word of God says.
But the spiritual person is not purgatory there.
This is what it also says in this article.
It says Christ refers to the sinner who will not be forgiven either in this age or in the age to come,
which is Matthew 12, 32, where I had you guys turn one of me flip back there real quick.
It says suggesting that one can be freed after the death of the consequences of one's sins,
which that is not what Matthew 12 is teaching.
Look at Matthew 12, 32. Look at what it says.
It says, one page over it says, "And whosoever speaketh the word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him;
but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him in this world, neither in the world to come."
Jesus is not implying that you can get forgiveness in this other world to come as long as you don't blaspheme the Holy Ghost.
What he's saying is this, he's emphasizing the fact that if you do blaspheme the Holy Ghost, you are doomed completely.
He says, "You're doomed right now, and you're doomed later on. You will die and go straight to hell if you blaspheme the Holy Ghost."
That's what Jesus is emphasizing here. He's not saying, "Oh yeah, as long as you don't blaspheme the Holy Ghost,
there's an opportunity for you to maybe sneak into purgatory, and then maybe right up to heaven afterwards."
Because what does the Bible say? It's a point in time when a man wants to die, and after this, the judgment.
You don't get a second chance. If you die without believing in Jesus Christ, there is no purgatory, you would die and go right to hell.
That's what the Bible teaches. And they're a little loose, like, again, I'm not even going to get into it myself.
Let me just finish reading the rest of this part of this article. It says, "Similarly, Paul tells us that
we are judged. Each man's work will be tried. And what happens if a righteous man's work fails the test?
He will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire." Which is 1 Corinthians 3.15.
That's what they quote here. It says, "Now this loss, this penalty, can't refer to the consignment to hell
since no one is saved there, and heaven can't be meant since there is no suffering fire." They have in quotes there.
The Catholic doctrine of purgatory alone explains this passage. No it doesn't though, because here's the thing.
This is the first thing that's wrong with this. Number one is that they just add this suffering into the text right here.
Because you do suffer loss, you suffer loss of things, but you do not suffer in the fire. That's not what this analogy says right here.
They just add this in to the text. This makes me mad though, and I think I've mentioned this before, but this is like the exact same thing that people do with Luke 16 and Abraham's bosom.
They do the exact same thing. They act like God's just going to drop some bombshell, groundbreaking, super important doctrine in a random piece of scripture with no context, no explanation behind it.
He just randomly drops it in here, even though it has nothing to do with the context of the passage. Garbage. It's not true. That's not how God operates in the Bible.
And God mentions heaven so much in the Bible, and He mentions hell so much in the Bible.
If there was a third option, you'd think that it would be at least one time mentioned clearly, not just kind of derived from this, like, unclear analogy right here.
I hate when people do that with the Bible. You should have clear scripture for important doctrines that you believe.
And this is what you should also realize. Nothing in 1 Corinthians 3 so far has been in the context of the afterlife and sense of, like, where you go when you die. What has it been in the context of?
Rewards that you get according to your labor, which actually fits the analogy that it's teaching right here, and is the first thing wrong with how they interpret these things.
Go to Romans 14, verse number 11, though. Romans 14, verse number 11. Because what does it mean, though, when it says that we're saved but by fire?
I think the first thing that he's teaching is that, you know, like, he's trying to emphasize the fact that we truly will suffer the loss of the things that we have that is wood, hay, and stubble.
Like, he wants you to understand that nothing is going to slip through the cracks right there. If you come up with a bunch of vanity, it will all be lost. I think he's trying to emphasize that.
But here's what else I think he's doing. He's making reference to this. In Romans 14, verse number 11, it says, "For it is written, 'As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.' So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God."
The Bible teaches us in Romans 14 that we will give an account to God for the things that we do on this earth.
When you compare scripture with scripture, though, with 1 Corinthians 3 and with Romans 14, you'll understand that this account that we give to God is not to determine whether or not we go to heaven or hell, but it's for the rewards that we get on this earth.
But when I was thinking about this, I was like, "But what is he tying together with this fire?"
And I was like, "Oh, it came to me. It makes a ton of sense."
Because what he's doing is this, is that when we give account of ourselves to God, which would be the rewards that we're laying up on this foundation in that sense,
who are we giving an account to? God is called love, but what else is he called in the Bible? A consuming fire, right?
So that consuming fire tries our works. And what sense that when we give an account to God, he determines whether or not they were vanity or whether or not they were done for the kingdom of God.
That's what I believe he's teaching right here. And that's why I think when he says that you're saved by fire, because who are we saved by at the end of the day?
God Almighty, who is a consuming fire? So that's what I believe that he is teaching right here.
And even if you don't believe that, okay, here's more problems with this teaching.
Number one, in the rest of this article, they go through and they say our other proof verse, besides 1 Corinthians 3, is in Maccabees.
The book of Maccabees. Just go there real quick. But you'll find the book of Maccabees is not in the Bible.
You know why? Because it's Catholic trash, that's why. Because the book of Maccabees, they say in this article,
they're like, the Baptist took it out, not the Baptist, but they say Christians just took it out
because they couldn't handle the teachings, the true teachings of the church.
It's like no, Christians have removed that for centuries because it's trash, because it's garbage.
And I preach a little sermon about why the Apocrypha is garbage,
but you can do your own research in your own time and just see that the Apocrypha is full of dumb stories,
full of false doctrine, and full of historical inaccuracies. It's not the Word of God.
So when they appeal to Maccabees, I'm like, I don't care. That's garbage to me.
You might as well cite Harry Potter, in my opinion. Harry Potter would probably have more weight
than the book of Maccabees would to me. But they say in Maccabees, he prays for the dead.
Yeah, because, again, that shows why that's not from -- that the book of Maccabees isn't of God,
because that contradicts what the Bible actually teaches, which is that once you die, after that it's the judgment.
There's no point to pray for the dead anymore. You should -- and they're going to be -- I'm not even going to get into that fully,
but, like, it makes no sense to pray for the dead, because your prayers have no effect once someone dies on whether or not they go to heaven or hell.
They're already in one of those places as soon as they die, and there's no leaving those places once they die.
Keep going on this, though, in this article. It says -- and you guys can go to Ephesians 1-7 while I'm reading this.
And, by the way, I'm not getting through this whole chapter, so fear not. We only have a little bit of time left.
Revelation -- obviously, they cite Revelation 21-7, and they say this.
"Why would anyone go to purgatory?" This is what they say.
"To be cleansed, for nothing unclean shall enter heaven."
That's where they quote Revelation 27.
They say, "Anyone who has not been completely freed of sin and its effects is, to some extent, unclean.
Through repentance, he may have gained the grace needed to be worthy of heaven.
This is to say, he has been forgiven and his soul spiritually alive.
However, that's not sufficient for gaining entrance into heaven. He must be cleansed completely."
Later on in the article it says this,
"It is entirely correct to say that Christ accomplished all of our salvations for us on the cross,
but that does not settle the question of how this redemption is applied to us."
Well, lucky for them, I can settle how this redemption is applied to us,
because the Bible clearly lays it out, because if you get past the dumb teachings of the Church Fathers
and would go with what the Bible says itself, you'd find the answer, which is what?
In Ephesians 1-7 it says this,
"In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace."
In Acts 10-43 it says this,
"To him give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins."
So how do we get this blood of Jesus Christ applied to us as Christians?
It's by believing on Jesus Christ.
That's what the Bible teaches.
Why would I need something besides the blood of Jesus Christ to forgive me of my sins in the first place?
That's blasphemy.
Saying the blood of Jesus, it can kind of get you clean, but what you really need is to get burned in purgatory.
Blasphemous, straight to the devil.
The blood of Jesus Christ is what cleanses us from all unrighteousness.
That's what the Bible actually says.
Not fire, not purgatory, not the prayers of the Catholic Church,
but the blood of Jesus Christ applied to your heart.
That's what's sufficient to forgive you of all your sins.
And when you're clean, you're not just a little clean, you're clean every whit.
You're made whole completely, is what the Bible teaches.
Once you're saved, you're always saved.
Once you have the blood of Jesus Christ applied to you,
you can no longer have sin imputed under your record either.
So they miss this because they're all lost in La La Land.
Here's another thing they missed about this analogy, though,
because here's two things that really kill this.
This verse is talking about real rewards,
not where you go when you die.
It says your work is what's tried.
Your work is what's tested in the fire.
So that, like, "Every man's work shall be made manifest,"
is what verse 13 says in Corinthians.
"For the day shall declare it because it is revealed by fire,
and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is."
Here's another thing that debunks this teaching,
is that the Bible says here that every man's work is tried in the fire.
So if you think about this, the Catholic Church would have to believe
that every single person that dies goes to purgatory,
because every man's work is tried in the fire, right?
But the Catholic Church doesn't believe this.
They believe that there's people that go straight to heaven when they die,
especially the saints that they canonize.
They say they didn't even have to go to purgatory
because they died with no venial sins on their record,
which is another thing that is not in the Bible, venial and mortal sins.
The other thing, though, is everybody's work is tried in the fire.
That means everybody. All means all, right?
We're not Calvinists here, where it's just like,
"Oh, all doesn't really mean all right here."
Every man's work should be tried in the fire.
So they'd have to submit that every person when they die has to go to purgatory,
which they don't believe.
If you go and look up on their website, they don't believe that in the first place.
So the analogy falls apart.
And it falls apart because, as well, as I said,
this is for our rewards that we get in heaven,
not for whether we're going to heaven or not in the first place.
Give me a break.
Because both of these men, and this analogy, as I said,
they're both built on the foundation of Jesus Christ, regardless of their works.
That is where I'm going to end this sermon off
because I was going to go more into it, but this was 43 minutes anyways.
And I figured if I went through the rest of this, I'd end up rushing through the verses.
So I was just like, I'd rather do these verses justice
because these next set of verses, as well, the Catholic Church also abuses.
The Bible teaches purgatory is a real place, even though it's false in this part.
And then the next thing where we pick off next week is they say that suicide is an unforgivable sin.
And if you die with committing suicide, you'll go to hell when you die,
which is not what the Bible teaches either.
But again, I'll get into that next week for time's sake.
But kind of just in summary of this sermon, I want to say this.
We learned a couple of things in this sermon.
Number one, and I hammered this point really early on, but just remember this,
we're rewarded according to our labor, not according to our results.
So when you're out so wanting, focus on the labor that you're putting in,
not just, oh, I'm not getting people saved.
Hey, God gives the increase though.
God, you'll see people saved in God's timing.
And even when you're not getting saved, people saved in that moment,
you're prepping it for other people.
And the second thing I just want you to realize is that purgatory
is only found in the teachings of the Catholic Church.
It's not in the Bible.
And if that is your only proof verse for a major doctrine, you are way out to lunch.
You are way out of line because you are supposed to compare spiritual things
with spiritual, not spiritual things with the teachings of the Church Fathers.
But with that all being said, let's pray.
Dear Lord God, thank you so much for this wonderful day.
Thank you so much for everything you do for us, God.
Thank you so much for your Holy Word, God.
And thank you so much that we can check it and we can rely on your own words, God,
not what man teaches us.
I just pray that you would help us for the rest of the week
and help us to be on fire for you and be spiritual for you
and help us to have more labors for the harvest.
Do you want me to pray? Amen.
Take your hymn and we're going to turn to page number 63.
Page number 63. Go sit down.
Page number 63.
Sing it out on the first.
There is calm when no gel comes.
No more clouds in the sky.
No more tears to dim the eye.
All is peace for ever sure.
What a day she'll see.
When eye looks fake.
When he takes you page she'll see.
That's the singing everybody.
Brother Ron, would you please close this little word of prayer?