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In 1 Corinthians 3 verse 1 the Bible reads and I brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual but as unto carnal even as unto babes in Christ I have fed you with milk and not with meat for hitherto you are not able to bear it neither yet now are you able for you are yet carnal for whereas there is among you envy and strife and divisions are you not carnal and walk as men. So here he's referring to the fact that he wants to be able to really teach them the meat of the word and really preach them a lot of profound truths from the Bible but instead because they are so fleshly and that's what carnal means in our modern vernacular fleshly they're in the flesh they're not in the spirit he's saying you're as babes in Christ so you need to just have the milk of the word you can't even handle the strong preaching that I want to do now go to Hebrews 5 because there's a very similar statement made in Hebrews chapter 5 to what we see here in 1 Corinthians chapter number 3 look if you would at verse 12 and first I'm sorry Hebrews 5 the Bible reads for when for the time you ought to be teachers ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat but everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness for he is a babe but strong meat belong it to them that are of full age even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil so here in this patch we see the same thing he says when you ought to be teachers you have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God meaning you need somebody to teach you the basics of the fundamentals because you're a babe in Christ now notice who is it that can handle strong meat the Bible tells us that it's those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil so according to the Bible the way that you grow up spiritually to the point where you can handle the strong meat of the word is by using the word so somebody who does a lot of Bible reading a lot of study but they're not putting it into use they're not doing the work the Bible teaches that that person is not a full age that person is not a mature believer and that person is not ready for the strong me that's why you know I don't want to listen to somebody teach Bible doctrine who's not out doing the work who's not doing the soul-willing there are a lot of people who are know-it-alls and they have all this they think that they know everything they have all this information but according to the Bible you know real wisdom and real knowledge and knowing the deep things of God come from those who are actually out doing the work and using the word and putting the word into practice you know it's like somebody comes out of college for example and they have a lot of knowledge about a certain field but I guarantee you you could put that guy who graduates in a field of you know business management and put him next to a guy who's been managing a business for the last four years and you know the guy who's been doing the work is gonna have more knowledge than the guy who just sat in a classroom and just got all the theory right okay and and you know there's a saying that I heard and I really liked it the one who's doing the work is the one who's doing the learning because when you go out and you want to train somebody and I remember when I was a child you know my dad he would he would show me how to do stuff but he didn't always want to let me do it though because he would just kind of rather do it himself and he always said those who can do and those who can't teach so he's like that's why I'm not a good teacher that's what he used to say so he would never let me get hands-on consequently I didn't learn much about some of the things that he was doing because I wasn't doing the work that's why I wasn't doing the work because you got to get your hands you're not gonna learn how to be a mechanic unless you get your hands dirty you get under the car you turn the wrench and that's how it is in the Christian life too that's how it is with everything you can't just sit there and just read the Bible sit in a classroom you know where you really learn about the gospel and and preaching and soul-winning is going out and winning souls getting behind the pulpit and preaching a sermon you know getting on the piano and playing a song you can't just read a book about the piano I read this 700 page book about the piano you're not going to be able to play a single song you have to use it and the Bible says that be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves and he said if you he said he for he that let me let me start over be hearers of the word or be he doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves for if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer he's likened to a man beholding his natural face in a glass for beholdeth himself and goes his way and straightway forget what manner of man he was but who so look at them to the perfect law of liberty I'm just not able to think straight he being not a forgetful here but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed as he so notice two kinds of people there who hear the Word of God the forgetful hearer and the doer of the work you know the guy who's doing the work and so what God's saying is if you don't do the work you're gonna forget what you learn and it's the same thing if you go into a classroom and learn a lot information if you don't use it you're gonna lose it you can learn how to speak a foreign language and be fluent don't use it for a while and you're gonna completely forget that language and so one way to make sure that you're not a milky you know baby type Christian is to get working roll up your sleeves and do the work but not only that here you know he's saying your carnal your babe in Christ I can't teach you the strong preaching that I want to teach you he says that the evidence of the fact that their babes in Christ the evidence of the fact that they're carnal are these things listed in verse 3 there's envying strife and divisions and he said that proves that your carnal and you're walking as men for while one say if I am a Paul and another I am of Apollos are you not carnal who then is Paul and who is Apollos but ministers by whom you believed even as the Lord gave to every man now look if you were to James chapter number three James chapter number three and we'll see this covered also over in James 3 look what the Bible says in James 3 13 who is a wise man and in dude with knowledge among you let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom now doesn't this tie in with what I just said about how you got to be a doer of the work you know if anybody is wise or knowledgeable he says let's see their works let's see what they're doing let's look at the works that they're doing so that fits in perfectly with what we just heard look at the opposite of that but if you have bitter envy and strife in your hearts glory not and lie not against the truth this this wisdom descended not from above but as earthly sensual devilish for where envy and strife is there's confusion so we go back to first Corinthians 3 so we see in James 3 in a similar conversation that the same type of things they are characterized an earthly sensual carnal fleshly type of an attitude which is that envying and strife are there now you say well what does it mean envying and strife what he's talking about because he says if you have envying and strife and divisions he's saying that's a sure sign of carnality and the context of what he's talking about everybody's talking about Paul and Cephas and so forth he's explaining that those who are carnal they have envying and strife in the sense what is envy it's when I basically am jealous or covetous in our modern vernacular of someone else's position basically it's when people are jockeying for positions of leadership that's what we're seeing here we're seeing basically people trying to get followers behind them and instead of being concerned with doing the work of the Lord instead of just being concerned with you know Christ's glory and his honor they're concerned with you know getting their own following and basically they're they're concerned with with you know having authority and silver you see he's referring here to divisions where people are making too much of a person and making too much of a man and making too much of your position now we ought to be following Jesus Christ not lifting up a man and elevating him too highly in a cult like way doesn't matter who that man is it doesn't matter how great of a man we're talking about no man should be elevated too highly in our minds and what he's saying is this causes strife and division when we feel like we have to line up behind these certain personalities and we make you know and for example when you're building a statue of a preacher you know you've already gone way too far in this direction you know this graven image or molten image and and you know we see it all the time where people they idolize a certain preacher and then you'll sometimes show them clear doctrine from the Bible and you'll show them what the Bible says but if it's contrary to that preacher that they idolize they don't want to hear what the Word of God says they're more interested in what their hero says and you know that is what we're putting somebody on way too high of a level and we need to make sure you know it's in it don't get me wrong because it's great to have heroes it's great to have role models it's great to have people that we can follow and learn from but you just need to be careful that you never elevate that person too highly to where when you see scripture from the Word of God it can't contradict what that guy says whether that's me or whether that's anybody else you know we need to make sure not to lift up man too much he says that your carnal verse 3 for as there is among you envying and strife and divisions are you not carnal and walk as men we saying is if we were all walking in the spirit we wouldn't be worried about who what preachers more popular or who has what position wouldn't be envying other people's positions of authority and wouldn't be fighting with each other would all be on the same page we're all being guided by the same spirit the same word of God look at verse number five he says who then is Paul and who is a policy but ministers by whom he believed even as the Lord gave to every man now that's a pretty sobering thought when the Bible says that God gave these ministers to every man he says ministers by whom he believed even as the Lord gave to every man now what he's referring to there is when you got saved somebody preached the gospel to you somebody was a minister by whom he believed somebody brought you the plan of salvation and it wasn't always one person because he goes on to talk about how one person might plant the seed another might water but it's God that gives the increase and so maybe there were several ministers by whom he believed different people who gave you the gospel and preached to the gospel but the Bible says even as the Lord gave to every man and I believe that what he's saying there is that God has planned and appointed it is God's will that every man hear the gospel and the Bible talks about in Ephesians 4 he gave some pastors he gave some teachers he gave some evangelists you know God is calling his children to go out into the highways and hedges and preach the gospel to every creature but the question is are you going and are there people out there whom God has appointed and God has willed that you would be the one to bring that person the gospel and the plan of salvation but you're not going you know when you go out so many God can lead you to the door of someone who's ready to hear the gospel or somebody who's been prayed for and somebody who you know the seeds already been planted it's already been watered and they're ready to hear but you know what if you don't go God can't lead you anywhere how can God lead someone who's not going anywhere how can he lead you when you're sitting still how can he lead you when you're not moving you know when you're doing the work when you're going somewhere he can direct your path but if you're not even on a path there's nothing for him to direct if you're never even knocking a single door he can't lead you to that door if you're not opening your mouth boldly to proclaim the gospel in other situations you know he can't even he can't even bring people across your path because you're not going to do the work and so that's a pretty sobering thought when you think that there are people whom God has given me the responsibility of reaching with the gospel ministers I can be the minister by whom they believed and God has given that to every man look at verse six Paul says I planted a Paulist watered but God gave the increase so then neither is he that planteth anything neither he that waterth but God that give it the increase so what's he saying there the one who plants and the one who waters that's the preachers that gave the gospel he's saying compared to the Lord they're nobody so don't make too much of a big deal about a certain man and lift him up on too high of a pedestal because he's not really the one giving the increase you know I remember sometimes being at my old church when I was in California someone would compliment the pastor and sometimes I would even compliment the pastor and I you know I'd walk up to him and say hey that was a great sermon you know and he would obviously get a lot of compliments like he was a great preacher and here's what he always say yeah he just say yeah isn't that a great truth or man it's a great book so he would always try to divert the glory to the Word of God where it belonged like oh why thank you you know I thought that I don't by myself you know I've been working on that for weeks you know it was good wasn't it you know he would always redirect that and say yeah it's a great book man isn't that a great passage or isn't that a great story in the Bible and and and put the glory where it belongs on God that's what he was doing it says in verse number seven so then neither is he that planted anything neither he the water but God to give it the increase now now here's a key thought in verse eight now he that planteth and he that water it are one and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor what does that mean when it says he that planteth and he that water it are one what he's saying is it's the same person one person is not just the all-time planter all I do is plant and then another person just all they ever do is water do you see what I mean he says he that planted these waters are one meaning that they're the same person and I've had people tell me they said well you know I never win anybody the Lord God's just called me just to just plant the seed but I just plant the seed with people and just let them think about it you know what God has called those who plant also to water and also to reap that harvest God's gonna give the increase and so we all need to be getting people saved you know we all need to be not just a seed planter you know we need to do every stage of the process okay he says he that plant neither water they're one and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor meaning you don't get a reward just for showing up at faith for Baptist Church oh man this church is doing so much I'm gonna get so many rewards in heaven just for being here he's saying no you're gonna get a reward based on your own labor the work that you actually did not just that people around you did he says for we are laborers together with God year God's husbandry year God's building according to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder I've laid the foundation and another build it there on but let every man take heed how he build it there upon look at verse 11 for other foundation can no man lay then that is laid which is Jesus Christ 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 what work of what sort it is if any man's work abide which he had built there upon he shall receive a reward any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved yet so is by fire so what is this talking about here the foundation is Jesus Christ that's talking about the fact just that you're saved you've believed on the Lord Jesus Christ Jesus Christ is in you you are his child you are saved you are born again now you have a choice on how you're gonna build on that foundation anybody who believes anybody who's safe has the foundation in place Jesus Christ is the foundation now it's up to you how you're going to build on that you're either going to build gold silver and precious stones or you're going to build wood hay and stubble and God says that your works that you do are one day going to be tried by being made to pass through the fire and the work that the works that abide the fire you'll get a reward for those now if we were to pass these objects through the fire gold silver and precious stones are not destroyed by fire gold and silver will be purified by fire but they're not going to be destroyed wood hay and stubble that go through the fire will be burned up and so he's saying that's how your works are the things that you do with your life fall into these two different categories of gold silver precious stones wood hay and stubble what is the difference the gold silver and precious stones is the things that you do that have eternal value the wood hay and stubble are things that you do that have no eternal value now I do not believe for one second that he is talking about sin here when he mentions the wood hay and stubble when he says you're building upon the foundation with gold silver precious stones wood hay and stubble if you think about it is there really anything sinful about wood as a material I mean building things out of I mean this pulpits of wood right does it need to be gold silver and precious stones up here no there's nothing wrong with wood right but is this pulpit going to last through the fire no it would be burned up so wood hay and stubble are not necessarily sinful things or wicked things or ungodly things but it's things that you spend your life on that have no eternal value not even bad things and there's nothing wrong with having some wood hay and stubble in your life as long as you realize you're not getting a reward for any of it so why spend all your time on something that's temporary that's temporal when you could be spending your life and your time and energies on things that are eternal gold silver and precious stones for example you know I have to make a living in order to pay my bills and provide for my family is that sinful for me to go to my secular job and turn the screwdriver and make a living? no but do you think that I'm necessarily going to be rewarded at the judgment seat of Christ for just such a great fire alarm install? now there's nothing wrong with doing it it's not a sinful thing but it's in the wood hay and stubble category it's just it's something that I'm doing that doesn't have eternal lasting value now indirectly it can obviously you know I take the money I earn I put it into the Lord's work or I you know take the money I earn and I feed myself and then I have the energy to go out and go soul winning and you know I feed my family I raise children I pay for them and then they can go off and serve God so obviously indirectly it can get it can produce things in the gold silver and precious stones but you know for example you know let's say I'm into sports which I'm not really into sports but let's say I were really into sports you know which category do you think that is? wood hay and stubble. I'm not saying it's a sin but I'm saying it's not something that Jesus is going to reward you for okay it's something that does not have eternal value and so what the Bible is teaching is that we're basically going to stand at the judgment seat of Christ and if you would you really need to compare this passage with another passage because he mentions here that you know we're going to build our life on the foundation of Jesus Christ either the gold silver precious stones or the wood hay and stubble go to 2nd Corinthians 5 and we'll see another passage about the judgment seat of Christ about the very same thing. Now this is an often misunderstood passage because a lot of people have this idea that at the judgment seat of Christ and I heard this a lot growing up that at the judgment seat of Christ all you're going to have to give an account to God for all the sins that you've done. All the sins you've done in your whole life you're going to have to stand before God and give it again and sometimes you'll hear people rebuking other Christians saying you're going to stand before God and give an account one day for what you've done today you know and try to scare them with that. Now I don't believe that for one second I've also sat in a church service in a Baptist church and been told that you know when you get to heaven God's going to have a big screen and play your whole everything that you've done it's going to be exposed to everyone. And you're like wow how beautiful heaven must be I can't I can't wait to get to heaven isn't it going to be great. I can every bad sinful thing I've ever done can be put on display to everyone who's ever lived. Boy it's so great heavens getting sweeter every day I mean it's but it's not a biblical doc because thanks be to God the Bible says as far as the east is from the west God has separated us from our sins. He said their sins and iniquities will I remember no more he said he's cast our sins into the depths of the deepest sea he's put all of our sins behind his back the Bible says we thank God are not going to have to go through a run down of our sins. I remember one time when I was a little kid I think I was four years old this is one of my earliest memories I was four years old I was in kindergarten because I started a year early and there was a girl on a swing and I just walked up and just pushed the girl and she fell in the dirt okay you know this is what a four year old does and I remember just being terrified like because I heard this preaching that said shortly thereafter I heard this preaching that said you're gonna give an account for everything you've done and I remember just being terrified like what am I gonna say I mean I have no answer there's no reason there's no justifiable reason why I push that girl off the swing on the playground at recess what am I gonna do what am I gonna say this is gonna be humiliating now it became you know now I feel pretty comfortable standing before God about that because you know now I'm you know now I'm I'm 31 years old and you know if I were to die tonight and God said what were you thinking when you were four years old and you shove that girl off the swing I would just say like you know I was young and stupid you know I was four I was a little kid you know I did a dumb thing I don't know so do you see how ridiculous that would be wouldn't it be ridiculous if someone for example made a newspaper article or something that said you know pastor Anderson exposed as a fraud as a false prophet when he was four we've got evidence he shoved a girl off a swing when he was four wouldn't it wouldn't you think that was dumb okay it's ridiculous to bring up something from that long ago isn't it and isn't it also ridiculous because I'm bringing up to an adult something that they did when they were four don't you think that somebody between 4 and 31 probably learns a lot like hey you shouldn't walk up unprovoked and shove people for no reason you know like a bratty child and so what I'm saying is that just as silly as that would be wouldn't it be silly for God decades later or hundreds of years later and in the case of some believers thousands of years later to bring up things that they did that were wrong at every stage of life and and if God were to ask them and people have often preached and said you know you're gonna have to give a reason why or you did these things you're gonna have to give an account of why you did these things you're gonna have to explain why you know I mean what are you gonna say to God when he brings out your sins and says why did you do that I mean what is there any real I did it I'm a sinner I blew it okay let's go to the next thing it's gonna take a really long time now look it's ridiculous because we've been saved from our sins according to the Bible we've been delivered from our sins and but and here's the thing the moment that we die the flesh dies or the moment that the first resurrection takes place you know the coming of Christ in the clouds at that time we're going to be changed in a moment twinkling of an eye and our sinful flesh will be forever gone so we're going to be perfect right when we get to heaven I mean we're not going to be sinning in heaven are we no cuz the only reason we say this cuz we're in the flesh the flesh will be gone so when we get down we're going to be perfect and at the judgment seat of Christ since the judgment seat of Christ happens after the first resurrection after Christ coming to class in fact it happens at the very beginning of the millennium right after he finished his pouring out all his wrath that's when the Bible teaches that these rewards will be doled out in Revelation 11 at that point we're going to be staying for God body soul and spirit in his image without sin without fault and then we have to give an account about stuff that we did back in the past when we were in the flesh a long time ago now there are a lot of scriptures that teach that we will not be judged for our sins you know or people will take the verse that says but I stand to you that every idle word that men shall speak they shall give a count thereof in the day of judgment that's talking about unbelievers because the unbelieving Pharisees to whom he that he's directing that will not be at the judgment seat of Christ they'll be at the great white throne judgment where they will be confronted with their sins and be humiliated and cast into a lake of fire and brimstone salvation is what delivers us from that now the reason people misunderstand this is because when they see this in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 even though there's a lot of scripture that talks about we're forgiven our sins are forgotten our sins are gone they take this portion in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 where he says in verse number 10 at the very end of the verse good or bad what they think that means is that we're talking about things that are good versus things that are sinful but what I encourage anyone to do is to look up every time the word bad is used in the Bible and the word bad and the Bible usually does not mean sinful all in fact almost never does it mean sinful when I looked it up it talked about bad figs you know the fruit figs bad figs talked about a bad sheep a bad house you know if you look up bad over and over again that's what it means throughout the Bible it means something that is of no value to anyone and he talked especially in Leviticus when he used the word bad a lot he's talking about valuing or estimating you know you know you give an estimate in the business world he's talking about estimating or valuing houses animals servants and they evaluate something and decide whether it's good or bad and that's the the usage of the word and so that's what's going to take place at the judgment seat of Christ God's going to evaluate our works and see of what sort they are whether they're good or bad whether they have value or whether they have no value now what has more value gold silver and precious stones or wood hay and stubble you know the gold silver and precious stones so if you put these two passages together it helps you get a picture of the judgment seat of Christ look at verse number 10 for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ and go back to verse 9 because we'll get the context that we're talking about our works in verse 9 it says wherefore we labor labor means to work hard that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him present in the body or absent from the body in the context here he's saying whether it's on this earth before we perish physically or whether it's after we're already in heaven he says we labor that we might be accepted of him for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive talking about receiving a reward the things done in his body according to that he had done whether it be good or bad and so here the reward or the receipt of our labors is either going to be good or bad it's either going to be gold silver precious stones valuable of eternal bite or it's going to be wood hay and stubble something that has no lasting eternal bite but this is not going to be a chastisement for our sins you see if we need chastisement for our sins God will give it to us in this life okay if I go out and do a bunch of sinful things today God is going to punish me here and now while I'm in my sinful flesh okay he's not going to punish me after I'm already made perfect and in heaven now I'll prove it to you because the Bible teaches that the purpose of God's correction is for our benefit the Bible says that our earthly fathers chasing us after their own pleasure saying you know what our earthly fathers tasted us because they didn't want us tearing apart the house and our footprints all over the ceiling okay so that's why they tasted us because you know what if you don't chase in your children you're gonna have a miserable time parenting so he's saying you know our earthly fathers they chasing us for their own pleasure but God chases us for a different reason because you see if we act a fool it's no skin off God's back whereas if kids act a fool the parents suffer obviously the head of the house becomes a madhouse okay but God chases us for a different reason the Bible says they chasing us after their own pleasure but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness so according to Hebrews chapter 12 the reason why we get chastened and chastised and and spanked as it were and punished is for our benefit that we might be partakers of his holiness it's so that we learn our lesson and do right and be holy as he is holy now let me ask you this when does it make more sense to chase in us while we're in the sinful flesh and we still have many opportunities to do the wrong thing ahead of us or after we're already in heaven perfect and it's all over see how ridiculous that is it'd be like this it'd be like if I took my adult child my adult son who left the home he's serving God he's righteous he's godly he's I'm proud to call him my son and I say you know what son you did a lot of bad stuff when you were 11 and I realized I didn't spank you for it and I just found out about it I didn't know you did this stuff I must thank you now that doesn't make any sense because he's already learned so many lessons from the time he's 11 he doesn't need that spanking he's already living right he's already serving God that would make no sense for God to punish us once we're in heaven once we're in heaven there's no punishment there okay the punishment happens now oh you think you can just live everyone is that what you're saying pastor Anderson there's no consequences for Christians who are disobedient yes there are consequences for Christians who are disobedient but listen to me now all of those consequences come in this life and the proof for that again is that in Hebrews chapter 12 he says but if he be without chastisement present tense where of all our partakers present tense then are you bastards and not sons he says if you're not getting punished now you're not a child of God if you're living in sin and not getting chastised on this earth you're not saved you're not a child of God because he he scourges every son he receives he disciplines and punishes all of his children says if you're not getting that discipline you're not in the family and so saying that he's gonna punish us later when we get that is not biblical he doesn't say well if you be without chastisement where of all our partakers just wait till the judgment seat of Christ then I'm really gonna lay into you that's not what he's saying at all and that would contradict all the scriptures that that that give us the assurance that our sins are forgiven and forgotten and that we will stand before him we will we will not be ashamed and and so forth now those who is let me ask you is there a negative aspect to the judgment seat of Christ there could be a negative aspect not a punishment aspect not God being negative for us but the negativity of the judgment seat of Christ go to 1st Corinthians 3 and we'll look at it once more the negativity at the judgment seat of Christ is a loss of reward now that's gonna be a disappointing feeling not that God's gonna bring up the fact that we shoved somebody on the playground when we were four years old or bring up the fact that we stole cookies out of the cookie jar or bring up the fact that we committed sins when we were in our teenage years or in our 20s or 30s you know stuff that's so he's not gonna bring that up the negative aspect though is gonna be when we get there and we see everything that we spent our entire life trying to achieve and it's all just burned up in smoke I mean think about that what if you worked and worked and worked and worked and and you laid up a bunch of physical money in the bank and and then all of a sudden it was all just gone you had all this money you've been worried you've been saving up you've been dreaming of they could retire and spend all your money and it's just gone that would be a very strong feeling of disappointment and loss and I think that if you get to the judgment seat of Christ and you haven't done anything for God that mattered you're gonna feel a very profound disappointment and loss just to watch your works be burned up and you know you might see other people getting great rewards and think wow you know I got nothing all right you know now here's the look what it says look down at your Bible there and this again proves that it's possible for a person to be saved without doing any works because a lot of people think you have to do works to be saved no it's just you just have to believe on Jesus Christ because look it says here in verse 13 every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and again it's not our sins that are on display it's our works and he says because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort of this if any man's work abide which he had built thereupon he shall receive a reward if any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss watch this but he himself shall be saved yet so is by fire so right there it says that he himself shall be saved even though the works are burned even though he lost his works he himself shall be saved now of course some people have tried to turn this into a teaching of purgatory that that last phrase yet so is by fire and it's amazing how people can build an entire doctrine on that one little phrase yet so is by fire you know this is where the Catholics will take you and say see there's purgatory right there yet so is by far God what they're saying is God's gonna put you in the fire now there's nothing in this passage that teaches that God's gonna put us in the fire okay when we're standing before him in our perfect sinless body soul and spirit conform to his image he's not throwing us in the fire at that point what point would it be to resurrect us give us a brand new body glorified body in his image so you can throw it in a fire okay that doesn't make any sense and so you know don't misinterpret the passage it's the works that are going through the fire not you if any man's work shall be burned so what's the opposite of being burned being saved the opposite of being burned is being saved the opposite of being saved in this verse is being burned if any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss but he himself meaning as opposed to his works shall be saved yet so as by fire and it says in verse 16 and notice it doesn't say yet by fire says yet so as by fire like as like by fire he's saying verse 16 know ye 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 seem it to be wise in this world let him become a fool that he may be wise you say what does that mean when it says if any man defile the temple of God him shall God destroy for the temple of God is holy whose temple you are you know God again that's talking about the chastisement that we face on this earth and some people whom God whom God is just not able to correct you know God will chastise us and chastise us but there are certain people whom God is not able to correct where basically he will literally kill them and bring them home for example King Saul is a great example is here's a guy who God keeps warning he was saved the Bible's clear on that he went to heaven but God keeps trying to correct King Saul and he's not getting the correction not getting the correction and finally the last thing that God tells him is he basically tells you know through the Prophet Samuel speaking to him says tomorrow Samuel of course is not in hell Samuel was saved and Samuel says to Saul tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me and the reason why Saul and his sons were killed was because of the fact that he was sinful against God and would not repent and so if we as believers live a sinful life God will chastise us and chasing us to try to get our attention and he'll discipline us and correct us but if we fail to receive that correction we may even lose our lives because God just realizes well you know what if you if I can't fix this and if you're not going to do any good for me down there anyway you might as well just bring you home you know there's no point and then you're losing out on rewards you're losing out on what you could have done with the rest of your life and so forth and so he says in verse number 19 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 vague therefore let no man glory in men bringing things back to the beginning of the conversation about lifting up men too highly for all things are yours whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things come all yours and year Christ and Christ is God's let me just give you the whole chapter in a nutshell because it might seem like we're talking about a few unrelated things but really this whole chapter all ties together in a very cohesive thought let me just summarize it for you he's saying to them you know I wanted to preach to you the strong meat of the word I wanted to give you strong preaching you were not ready for that you're too much of a baby in Christ you don't have the maturity to handle what I want to preach to you I had to just go back and teach the most first principles of Christ that the milk of the word the foundation you don't have the fundamentals down you don't have the basics down you're a baby in Christ why because you're not doing the work that's why why because instead of doing the work you're bickering and fussing about who gets the title who gets to be up on stage who gets to be the one that gets the glory you want glory you envy others and wish that you would get the glory you're striving and fighting with other people over over personalities not over doctrines or biblical truths you're you're striving and being divided over whether Apollos is a better preacher than Paul or whether Cephas is better than them both and he says look instead of getting so wrapped up in Oh Apollos is so wonderful Oh Paul is so wonderful he said you know what you're gonna be judged one day on your works you are gonna receive a reward for your own works not Paul's you know you get all excited and salivate oh you know and look honestly there are people like this who are sycophantic and I know that's a big fancy word but there's a word sycophantic meaning that they literally worship and idolize a man and they look at you know and people do this with sports stars some people get way too into a sports star or way too into a rock star I mean you see people just bawling and crying so it's all the musicians so wonderful or you know so-and-so the athlete and and and what what Paul is saying here because people can be that way even about preachers sometimes where they just get too obsessed and and just they just think that that the preacher is better than what he really is now it's good to have respect for somebody it's good to look to somebody and realize hey this is somebody I can follow or learn from but you know not just he's so great I can't believe that you know I'm actually in the presence of you know and people can can can go overboard can't they and you know what God's warning he's saying you know what you need to be your own person do your own works preach your own sermon win souls yourself that's where you're gonna get a review you know following so-and-so isn't gonna get you anything at the judgment seat of Christ he's saying you need to do your own work and realize that it's about Jesus it's not about Stephen Anderson or any other preacher you know it's not about Paul Chappell or Dr. Treiber you know and it's like you try to tell you try to talk to somebody about the Bible it's like Paul Chappell, well Dr. Treiber, I don't care what Dr. Treiber says I don't care what Paul Chappell says I don't care what anybody says I care what Jesus says and if you want to talk to me and you want to get my attention and you want me to listen you speak the words of God to me and then I want to hear what you have to say because you know what when you get to heaven you're not going to get any rewards for following so-and-so you're gonna get rewards for the work that you did and so you need to get out there and do some works on your own again nothing wrong with following people but you know you got to balance things out don't you get the balance and so we need to be careful that we have our own personal walk with God and that we go directly to the Bible to learn and not just get everything secondhand through man and lift man up and put him on a pedestal and say well I just trust I mean if Pastor Anderson is preaching it has to be right I just trust him he would never lead us astray I just trust his judgment you know be careful with that because the Bible teaches that when you listen to preaching and you know I happen to think that I'm right about everything you know or else I wouldn't be saying it if I didn't think it were right I wouldn't be preaching it would I but you know what do you think I'm really always right about everything now no and so that's why you need to judge what I say judge what I say and read the Bible and search the scriptures daily to see whether these things be so and not to lean heavily on man and and have your spirituality reliant upon him but rather have your own walk with God let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer father thank you so much for this chapter help us not to be carnal help us not to be babes in Christ where we need we always need some man to put the food in the blender for us before we can eat it and and and spoon baby food into our mouths or or or you know nurse us with the milk of the word help us rather to be mature adult believers who can pick up the fork and knife and dig into the Word of God ourselves and and and father I believe that the reason why people are worshipping man so much is because they're their babies and and and babies you know have to be reliant on other people to feed them every bite but father help us to grow up and be our own man spiritually and feed ourselves the word and and and and have our own personal walk with you and not be reliant upon others all the time and we thank you for your word in Jesus name we pray amen all right let's go in