(Some pointers in this sermon taken from ’Studies in First Corinthians’ by M. R. DeHaan, M.D.)
Consider how you are building your life today. Charles Spurgeon says, "Ask yourself, Have I written in the snow?" Will the things I do endure the lapse of years and the times of change?
There will come a day, Paul says, when all our “his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work.” (v.13) The gold, silver, and precious stones will endure while the wood, hay, and straw will go up in smoke.
Paul was talking to a group of believers who has experienced the new life in Christ.
• Although they’ve come to believe and trust Christ, they were rather immature and were split up into cliques and different groups.
• Paul appeals to them on the basis of the fact that they are believers in Jesus Christ, to stop these childish practices of following men and exaggerating their differences.
• He says, “All of us - myself, Apollos, Peter - are doing the same job, but just in a different way. But we are labourers together, nevertheless. We all preach the same Christ, and you who have believed – whether through me, Apollos or Peter - are all resting on the same foundation.
Only one Person changed you. Only Christ gave you a new life. No other foundation.
• But now that you’re anchored in Christ, doesn’t mean that you can do whatever you like.
• There is this ‘construction’ going on – “Now if any man build upon this foundation…” (v.12).
• We are all builders in our own rights. You are all in it.
• And there are two clear end results – contrasting ends – gold, silver, costly stones, or wood, hay, straw.
In order words once we are saved, in Christ we are expected to produce works that are comparable to gold, silver and costly stones. Or you will end up with wood, hay, straw if you live a careless, unfruitful life. Both of these are real realities.
Being a Christian does not mean you have license to live as you please. We are to live for Him.
• Paul noticed the Corinthians were not building right – they were living carelessly, not maturing, steep in worldly thoughts and pride.
• He has to remind them of the coming judgement – not of their salvation but of their conduct in Christ.
As Christians, our salvation in Christ is settled. But the Bible says we will be called into account for our conduct after we have been saved.
• We are asked to render an account of what we have done with our salvation.
• We will be judged on the basis of your faithfulness in using your talents and your time and your possessions for the Lord.
This judgement is called, the “judgement seat of Christ.”
2 Cor 5:9-10 “So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”
This judgement will take place following His second coming.
• It will concern rewards or loss of rewards.
• It will have nothing to do whatsoever with salvation or our eternal destiny. That was forever settled at the Cross and appropriated by faith through God’s grace.
Therefore Paul has to say in 3:10 “But each one should be careful how he builds.”
• The devil loves to see us waste our lives away, in careless living, worldly pursuits, or be indifferent to God’s concerns.
• We have to be discerning and be wiser. Invest our life in God’s work.
The choice is yours, you noticed.
• At the end of the day, if we choose to continue our careless living, we’ll reap what we sow.
• Paul says there will be generally two groups of believers before the judgment seat of Christ – those who will receive a reward for faithfulness, and others who will “suffer loss” and see their “works” destroyed by fire.
He uses a strikingly contrasting picture to describe these two groups.
• One is those who build on the foundation gold, silver and costly stones, and the other, building on the same foundation, but with wood, hay and straw.
• Both of them are building on the same foundation, and therefore are safe as far as eternity in concerned.
• But the super-structure, that which they build upon the foundation, will be subjected to the testing fires before Christ.
INVEST IN THAT WHICH IS SPIRITUAL
Notice the first group – gold, silver, costly stones – are works of God.
• They are products of God’s creative acts. These are placed here by God in creation. I can’t produce them or make them. They are not the result of growth or some kind of development.
• These are works of God, works of the Spirit. Only such works of God are lasting.
• This has to do with things spiritual - our new life in Christ, the new creation. The salvation of the lost – that’s permanent in nature, eternally enduring.
But notice the products of the second group – wood, hay, straw – they comes through man’s work.
• They are not created in the form in which they appear, but are the result of a process of growth and development.
• They are the things of the old nature, and of the natural man. It will not last.
INVEST IN THAT WHICH IS VALUABLE
Notice a very striking second contrast – gold, silver and costly stones, they are precious, yet not bulky or massive.
• Only a little of them has a great value. I can carry a million dollars worth of precious stones in my pocket and you would never suspect or know that I have it on me.
• They have great value, but they do not loom large in the eyes of man.
Notice the difference with wood, hay and straw.
• They are big and bulky and massive, imposing but relatively worthless.
• A warehouse full of straw would not be worth the price of moving it. A lorry load of hay or wood is worth less than the smallest diamond.
This depicts the works of man. The world loves to measure achievements in terms of bigness.
• I can hide a fortune in a few small stones so you cannot see them, but a stack of hay can be seen one mile away.
But God says the precious stones alone will stay.
• How prone we are to appraise things in terms of bigness or mass – and overlook the little precious things which go unobserved.
• We have be discerning enough, to differentiate between gold, silver, costly stones, and wood, hay, straw in what we see and do today. The devil would like us to switch these two places, so that we’ll go for wood, hay, straw, thinking that they have the value of gold, silver, costly stones.
• We would be deceived if we like to do only BIG things, not little tasks. We like the crowds, we see the numbers, but God sees the gold of that precious shut-in, isolated from the world, almost forgotten, who carries on the all-important missionary work, praying and interceding, which is the secret of massive results (unseen by men).
There is a day of reckoning coming when our motives will be judged, when our works will be weighed in the light of, not what we have accomplished but what we might have accomplished.
• The servant with one talent who gained only one more will be rewarded, while the one who dug a hole in the ground and hid that talent will suffer loss.
• In the parable, the servants were given different number of talents according to their ability (Matt 25:14-18).
• God is not interested in quantity as much as He is interested in quality. It is faithfulness which will be rewarded, the fruit that remains.
INVEST IN THAT WHICH WILL LAST
Which brings us in conclusion to one other distinction – gold, silver, costly stones are permanent, and its value will stay, but wood, hay, straw will one day perish, go up in smoke.
• Only that which is done in Christ and for Christ will last.
• That which is done in the energy of the human effort and for human purposes or glory will be burned up. No matter how grand and impressive it may have been, no matter how men adore them.
• God judges the heart, and appraises everything on the basis of our motive and faithfulness with which these things are done.
M. R DeHaan: “The humble believer who serves God in his own little corner, in the kitchen, around the farm, in the office, because of His love for God and the lost, without thought of human praise or appreciation, will shine in glory there, even more than those who have been endowed with much greater talents, and yet have not used them to the full for the service of God.”
Don’t be deceived. That which is done for the sake for personal gain, popularity, influence or its impression upon men, will go up in smoke, for only that which is done for Christ will last.
If it is to be something that is spiritual, precious and that will last…
• Reaching out to save the lost
• Reaching out to encourage the saved
Mark 9:41
I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.
Luke 6:35-36
35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
Jesus said in John 15:16 “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit - fruit that will last.”
• We shall have to be judged on the basis of the abiding fruit.
• May the Lord help us never to be satisfied until we can see some lasting fruits in our life.
Look back over your life and your experience as a Christian since the day of your conversion.
• Can you see any change? Have you progressed? Are you standing still? Or have you regressed?
• Do you love the Lord as much as you did those first few weeks after your salvation experience?
It’s good to take stock and see whether we are making progress and being productive for Christ’s sake. For, after all, there is no standing still in the Christian life.
