Open—Tim Roach
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We've heard about holding the knowledge of the truth, holding fast at which we have.
We've been in.
Admonished to guard the truth with the moral exercise, with our moral condition and the way we live our lives in it, with a godly life.
I want to look at First Corinthians chapter 3.
In back in second Timothy chapter one.
Those Stan read that verse about continuing the things which you have learned.
And we are asked to walk into practice in Paul's doctrine. And in First Corinthians 3 we have the judgment seat of Christ, an aspect of this judgment seat.
The judgment seat is where we receive rewards for how faithfully we walked.
In Paul's doctrine, that's First Corinthians 3.
And the rewards that we receive will be used.
We we we talked about the appearing at the at the Reading meeting. The appearing is when the Lord comes and takes his rightful place here on earth. He destroys the enemies, He sets up His Kingdom and then He uses you and I.
He uses us to to serve him. That we we read that parable about the servants that went out and they when they came back they received the rewards. One would have the authority over 10 cities, 1 / 5 cities. Well that's referring to you and me as we are going to receive our rewards at the judgment seat and you're going to be able to use your rewards at that time during the reign of Christ.
And these these rewards will be used for serving Christ during the Kingdom reign of Christ. And so we need to be encouraged to be faithful, be a faithful servant now. And so you have perhaps more responsibility in for your faithfulness in the Kingdom. And so we'll notice in these verses that it's also possible for us to lose our reward as we get down in the verses.
It's possible for us to lose our reward that the Lord has reserved for us for our faithfulness to Him. But first you have to be faithful, and if you're not faithful, we can lose that reward. So in First Corinthians chapter 3.
And verse 6.
Paul's rating Here he says, I have planted Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth but God that gives the increase. Now he that plants, and he that waters are one and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor, so.
When you preach the gospel.
Or you teach the doctrines of Scripture. You will never know the full results.
Of what you the work you have done. You'll never know the full results until the review of our life's work at the judgment seat of Christ. You know when a farmer, he, he plants well. Now they use equipment, but and I know in Malawi, they take a little seed, they dig a little hole with their finger, they put it in, they put a little bit of fertilizer, they cover it over and then they go plant the next one. Well, when a farmer plants this crop, he puts the seed into the ground. Then he needs to irrigate it with water.
Then he needs to let God allow God to make it grow into food that we can eat.
God alone can make the seed go through the process of increase into food.
God will not reward you for how many people get saved.
Or how many people you preach to God's going to give you a reward for your labor of planting and watering with the word of God.
Now listen to this.
It's it's very important to God that when you are planting or watering that you preach truth.
If you preach a false gospel, perhaps telling people you need to do good works in order to get to heaven.
00:05:02
There will be no reward for your laborers. You may serve the Lord night and day, but if you have the wrong message, there can't be a reward. And if you preach that a believer should go to the Church of his choice or you mix in Judaism into the worship.
And you're preaching this. You will not receive a reward for that.
Because you're building with wood, hay and stubble. And the picture that the Lord gives us is that when our work, he's going to judge our works and they will go through the fire. The person won't go through the fire, but the works will go through the fire. And anything done with wood, hay and stubble that's not done according to the to the word of God, it's going to get burned up. So we need to build with gold, silver and precious stones. And so when we teach the principles of God's Word.
About how Christians should.
Meet together for worship. You need to be accurate.
You must preach truth.
And your teaching must agree with the apostles doctrine. And if you mix in a little bit of error with the truth, there can't be a reward for your teaching.
And you may feel shame in your soul as you see your work of teaching being burned in the fire because you have wasted that part of your life and your energies.
By teaching the error and and you will suffer loss. And we need we need to make sure that our teaching and our preaching agrees with the apostles doctrine now in.
1St Corinthians 14.
In verse 36.
And he says, What came the word of God out from you? Or came it unto you? Only in these verses The Apostle Paul is admonishing the Corinthians because they they were perhaps changing the teachings as if they had invented God's order, and they were telling everybody what to do. But no God's word came from the Spirit of God, through Paul and.
So we know the Word of God did not come through the false teachers we, you and me. We did not invent the teachings of God's word. The Word of God was inspired by the Holy Spirit, and the Word of God came to the apostles who wrote down the teachings. And that's what we have in the word of God. And we cannot change God's teachings to suit our own beliefs or our own desires to fit our own situation. So we must agree with.
Then we must practice the apostles doctrine about the gospel and about church order.
Let's read verse 37.
If any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.
If you are teaching the word of God.
You must agree that the teaching of the Apostle Paul is truth and that he received it from God. Read verse 38. If any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant.
If you do not know the teachings of Paul's doctrine, or if you don't agree with certain aspects of Paul's teaching, or you don't practice according to his teachings.
This verse says you are ignorant.
And if you are ignorant.
You are to remain ignorant, and that means you should not be a preacher or a teacher of God's word.
If you continue to preach into practice ignorance and error, you're going to lose out when the rewards are given out at the judgment seat of Christ.
As we practice these teachings, the doctrines of the Apostle Paul, we're going to meet up with a lot of.
Of people trying to pull us into their way of church practice.
And we're going to have to give up a little bit of something of Paul's doctrine and able to practice according to what some people from a church will tell you, that their way is right. Or maybe you like their entertainment, you like the way they preach, you like their choir, you like this, you like that.
00:10:15
It's going to pull you away from Paul's doctrine. And when you pull away from Paul's doctrine, it's going, you're going to have to give up things, you know, I lived in in.
Nebraska for a while and there's an assembly there. And the assembly kind of dissolved and one brother went to the Baptist Church. Others families, they tried to stay together for a while and then they disbanded. And so my wife and I, we moved to.
Out of Nebraska to Minnesota, to another assembly. And there's an old brother who an old neighbor. He was a Christian man. And he looked at me and he says, why do you have to move all the way up to Minnesota just to have Christian fellowship? You can go to the Baptist Church. You don't have to give up any truth in order to do that. And he says, look at this brother, he went to the Baptist Church. No, he doesn't have to give up truth to do that.
I visited this older brother a year later and he said to me, you know, I was wrong.
That brother who went to the Baptist Church, he had to give up so much in order for him to stay there at that church, if you're going to be affiliated with other Christians.
We can have fellowship with them like our brother said.
And it's helpful to have fellowship with them.
But if you start imbibing their teachings and their practices, they're going to pull you away and you're going to be enjoying things that please the flesh. And when you start doing things that please the flesh and entertainment in the churches, it's going to start pulling you into the world. And then you're going to look for your entertainment in the world and it's going to draw you away from the Lord.
The next verses that we'll look at are concerning the aspect of how we function as the body of Christ for assembly, worship and meetings.
And the reward here is given. This is back in First Corinthians 3.
The reward here is given or withheld based on our adherence to the word of God. First Corinthians 3 verse 9. 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, that's Paul have laid the foundation and another builds there on. Let every man take heed how he builds there on.
Paul is the one who wrote the main teachings for the operation of the local assembly.
And how the assemblies interact with each other and with with other assemblies who are also gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. And in verse 11 he says for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Christ Jesus. See Paul got his teachings directly from the Lord Jesus Christ when he is in heaven. Jesus Christ is the foundation of the church and Paul his teachings are based on Jesus Christ.
And so the foundation Paul laid is the teaching that he wrote for the function of the assembly, the function of the Church, 1St Corinthians 1.
And verse 10.
Says now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
This is what we are building on the foundation. The speak the same thing, perfectly joined together, same mind, same judgment. We're building these things on the foundation and we will be reviewed for this aspect of the judgment. Seat of Christ in in this this chapter in verse 12.
1St Corinthians 3 verse 12. 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, if that's the that's the things that you've done for yourself or for your own desire or anything is in error that does not agree with the apostles doctrine.
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If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so is by fire.
You want to be more than just saved and get into heaven. You want your life to count for something, for the Kingdom of God, for the Lord Jesus to get. And it's not for our own glory that we live our lives to please God. It's to give honor to God, to give him honor and glory. And this is very important that we understand that the apostles doctrine, that we understand the apostles doctrine so that we can teach it.
And we can practice it more accurately. And so as you build on the foundation, we want you to receive a full reward for your laborers, for the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I just say these few things because I don't want you to suffer loss. But our our time is up, so we'll we'll stop for now.