Transcript

1 Corinthians 3, we’re going straight through this marvelous New Testament book, the apostle Paul, whose functioning in the office of Apostle, but also functioning as pastor of this church in Corinth. Now he’s not on site as pastor, but right now he’s the only pastor they have. And he’s got a real task on his hand as he’s dealing with the church with just about every kind of problem you can imagine. Divisions and strife and they’re suing each other and one boy’s have immoral relations with probably his step mother or mother, I mean, you, you name it, this church has it.

Now he affirmed them so very strongly in these first couple of chapters, talking about the fact that they were the chosen of God and the called of God, that they had righteousness in Christ, they were already sanctified in Christ. So he’s just saying you’re a child of God, you belong to the Lord, but you’re in a mess. And he’s starting to go through and dealing with one mess at a time and one of the particularly messes they had made was this whole idea of preacher worship. There were some saying, now I’m of Apollos, now, you’ve got to understand, Apollos was very articulate. He was a great orator, he had such dignity and power when he preached. And everybody just, just swooned over Apollos. And others say, well, we’re of Paul.

Now Paul didn’t have the persona charisma and the speaking voice that Apollos had, he was just sort of, they said, well, he’s just sort of simple and plain, you know, just an old Bible teacher, you know, Paul. Then others thought, well, now we’re of Cephas. Cephas meaning Peter, you know, and old Cephas, he’s from Jerusalem, and that’s where God lives, over there in Jerusalem. So we’re really spiritual, and others said, well, we’re more spiritual than all of you, we’re of Christ. And they had all these groups and divisions in the church, and as Paul is continuing down in chapter 3, he’s continuing with that thought in mind that I’ve got to keep reproving and rebuking them about this preacher worship thing, this problem they had of putting the messenger above the message. And putting the messenger above the Master.

But also he’, he’s shifting into another line of thought, he’s bringing us into this concept that’s called the judgement seat of Christ. 2 Corinthians spells that out clearly. And as he began this exhortation concerning the judgement seat of Christ, first of all he talks about leaders and leadership in the church. And how they will be responsible and accountable at the judgement seat of Christ. So tonight I want to deal with that one section, leaders in the church. I’ve just simply entitled the message, an exhortation about leadership. You can call them pastors or elders or overseers or bishops, all are biblical words for the same office, I’m just going to broadly call them leaders.

Exhortations about leadership. Let’s begin in verse 8. “Now he who plants and he who waters are one.” Let me stop there and remind you that Paul’s already earlier said that he planted the church in Corinth, but later, another associate minster, Apollos came along and did some watering on the same church. Continue in verse 8, “but each will receive his own reward, according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building upon it. But let each man be careful how he builds upon it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid which is Jesus Christ.”

First of all I want you to notice that leaders, Paul says, are accountable. Leaders are accountable. And first of all, I want you to notice to whom they are accountable. To whom they are accountable, and its certainly implied in verse 8 as he says, he who plants and he who waters are one, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. In other words, the, the one he’s laboring for, he’ll be accountable to. Of course, that accountability just means they are accountable to God. Verse 9, “We’re God’s fellow workers”. In other words, our accountability is to God, as God’s leader. In 2 Corinthians 5:10 says, “we shall all appear before the judgement seat of Christ.”

So let me add this side note, as we’re looking at leadership, the truths are also generally true for all Christians, but specifically at this point, Paul is dealing with leaders in the church. So he points out first of all, I want you to know, leader are accountable to God. Now he talks about them being God’s fellow workers there in the first part of verse 9. I believe Paul’s got something very specific he’s addressing here. Because these carnal Corinthians thought they owned the preacher. They thought they hired him, and I believe that’s what they mean when they said, man, we’re of Paul, and we’re of Apollos and we’re of Cephas, man, this is the guy that we have chosen to be our preacher. Man, you ought to hear our preacher, and, and there was a possessive thing.

They probably viewed Paul or Apollos or whoever, like some professional, or the owner of a professional football team would look at his players. He owns them, they are mine. I mean, these Corinthians would look at a preacher and say, man, we can measure him and weigh him out in our pleasure, we can exalt him with praise, or lower him with criticism, when we want to. And so what the apostle Paul is doing here, he’s taking the preacher out of their hands. In other words, he’s saying, get the preacher out of your hands, he’s not yours. Let me remind you church, and I”m saying this most for our radio and television audience, because this has been settled in your heart a long time ago, the church does not hire a preacher. And you don’t own the preacher, and he’s not your preacher. If he’s not God’s preacher, you don’t need to be listening to him. He’s accountable to God and Paul makes that very clear later in his epistles in his church at Corinth when he talks about the fact that I’m answerable to you is nothing to me.

Not that there should not be some accountability with the church, and the other elders of the church, of course that’s true, we have that here. But his point is, compared to my accountability to God, you’re nothing. And that’s the way it ought to be. And let me exhort those who may listen by radio or who may listen by television. Take your hands off God’s preacher. Let him loose, let him go. Well, you know we’ve got to watch him and we’ve got to control him, well if you have to, you ain’t go anything. You’ve just got a problem. And I mean, its time for some deacon boards to take their hands off the man of God. Its time for some WMU groups to take their hands off the man of God. Let God’s preacher go. He’s not accountable to you, he’s accountable to God.

And I tell you what you do, and I preach this in revivals all the time. I tell them, listen, you go to God and get on your knees and you say, God, you gave us this preacher. And God I tell you what I’m going to do, God, I’m going to get on my face, and God if I’m wrong or my attitude’s wrong, straighten me out. But God, if that preacher’s missing you and if he’s not of you and if he’s not seeking you, and if he’s not in your word, and if he’s not genuine, and if he’s not pure, if he’s not your man, God straighten him out or get ride of him. But God, I’m taking my hands off. He’s your preacher and I’m giving him to you. You want, listen church, you want me to tell you something, you show me a church where at least a portion of the men would generally pray that and they’ll always have a man of God in the pulpit. They will always have a man of God, God will honor that. But you know what some churches have, they have the very preacher they deserve to have. I, people come to me, well you, our preacher, he just don’t preach the word. That’s because you don’t want the word. You set there and listen and not getting it for years, you must not want it.

Most people get exactly what they want. What happened in Israel? Israel looked around and saw all the other peoples had a king. Well, God was suppose to have been their king, but they said, we want a king like all the other nations have. And so what did he gave them, give them. He gave them just exactly what they deserved, Saul, a carnal, worldly king. And I believe that’s what most churches get, they get just what they deserve. They get just what they deserve. You know the main reason I can’t get back slidden on God too far? Cause some of you pray for me. You pray and God straightens me out real quick. God said, I can slow you down buddy. I’ll put a stop to you.

But the point is, folks, the preacher is accountable to God, get on your face, get on your knees, and give him to God and say, God, we’re not going to straighten him out, keep him right, keep him in line, but you’d better. Because we’re depending on you God, and I’ll tell you what. God knows how to whop a preacher better than deacons do. Amen. He can whip a preacher a lot better than these deacons can. As a matter of fact, it sort of tickles me when somebody gets after me. Cause I’ll go tell God on them. Amen. Just go tell God, and I say, God, there’s a lot that yo may need to correct in me, but if these guys, if their heart is not pure, you get them off of my back. You know sometimes God, listen, sometimes God will raise up some trouble makers in the church just to get the preacher’s prayer life working better. I’ve been there. Done that. I know what that’s like. Contrary to what some of you believe, everybody in this church hasn’t always loved me.

Who is he accountable to? Paul said, let’s settle this thing right quick, you don’t own him, he doesn’t belong to you, he’s God’s preacher.

Secondly, what are they accountable for. I couldn’t figure out if that was grammatically correct, if I should say to what are they accountable, but whatever you know what I’m talking about. What are they accountable to do or get accomplished or be. What is it God’s going to hold that leader in accountability about. Well, let’s look at it there in verse 8. He says, “now he who plants and he who waters, are one.” So first of all, I think there is an element of, of team spirit here that a preacher’s got to be accountable for. In other words, Paul is saying, I planted, and I was one of God’s leaders, preachers for you, the church at Corinth, then after I got off the scene, God led Apollos in here, and he did further ministry with you, but we’re just one. We’re two servants serving the same Master.

There’s a team element, a team concept here. Where we’re two guys, serving one Master, for one main goal and that’s the glory of the Master. It takes a team concept. And we have that here on staff as we have associate ministers doing all kinds of things, there has to be a leader, but I need these guys on my team. I, they are essential to what we accomplish here. I have known pastors who bought beepers when they first came out. You know why they had a beeper. Because they wanted to make sure if deacon so and so got sick, somebody would beep them so they could go before an associate minister could go to the hospital. Afraid they would lose some brownie points.  You love people, and if people are sick you check on them, but the point is, there’s more carnality in stuff like that then there is spirituality a lot of times.

And a lot of folks, if, now I promise you, it doesn’t happen here, I’m just getting down to brass tacks this doesn’t happen here. I promise you it doesn’t but there are a lot of churches where a charter members sits there in the hospital and she’ll check off when the preacher came and how many times, because she deserves so much attention for him, because she thinks she’s somebody. Come on. That’s what its all about. And that’s what preachers find themselves,.. but it is a team concept. Some guys on staff are better at ministering in some areas than others. Some preacher and teach, some minister in various mercy and service and other helps types roles within the church, but it is a team concept. Even when one pastor leaves and another pastor comes on the field, they are a team, one pastor was gifted one way, and he accomplished certain things, then the other came in and accomplished other things.

I’m so grateful for Dr. Bob Pitman who was my predecessor here, and all the great work God did through hm, and then God handed the ball off to me, and then I’ve been able to carry the ball from there. But it was a team, it took both of us. Not one or the other, or one against the other. And not that I think that’s emphasized. We’re going to be accountable as God’s leaders when we stand there, did we have a team spirit, or were we in some sort of egotistical fleshly thing to try to get our churches to depend on us, to make us feel important. I want you to go to the hospital and be so filled with the word of God you call on Jesus. And then we all just show up and minster one to another because we love Jesus together. Not this fleshly carnal thing, of you’d better check on me every so many times.

Folks, if you’ve got to hire a guy, a professional guy to have mercy on you, what do you have anyway. Are you with me. What do you got when you’ve got to crack the whip on a pastor if he don’t visit enough. Come on folks. You don’t have anything. Its worthless. But anyway, the team spirit, I believe he is going to be accountable for that. But secondly, and this is the most important thing, “each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.” God says, you are going to be accountable leader, when you stand before me, for the labor in my vineyard in my work. Now he did not say you will be accountable for results. He did not say I hold you accountable for success. But I’m going to hold you accountable for labor.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, there are hundreds, literally thousands of missionaries all over the world, who are not seeing one fraction of the results I am seeing here. But I am convinced with all of my heart, at the judgement, I’ll be bowing in shame over the corner while some of those precious missionaries are standing there receiving reward because they labored, they did without two cars, they didn’t have five and eight suits, they didn’t have the nice salary, and, and the benefits, and the folks that loved them and looked after them. I mean, folks, I can’t even sneeze without about a hundred of you coming around saying, what do you need, can we help you. And that’s the way it ought to be. Folks ought to love their pastor, not, not decrying that, but I want to tell you, there are folks out there having a lot less and seeing a lot fewer results, and at the judgement bar of God, they’ll be exalted above anybody like me. Faithful to labor though not, maybe not seeing many results.

But guys who are out there getting it for God. Maybe some of them are out there in those Muslim areas that are hardened to the gospel, and they minister and minster and witness and labor and pray, self denial, putting self on the cross, doing without, I”m going to tell you something friend, you don’t look at this outward success and say, boy, he’s going to have it great at the judgement seat of Christ, when he gets his reward. No, its not results, not success, its labor. Its labor. We’ve got men in this church, dear men of God, who labored in some vineyards that were full of fleshly cancer and worldliness and dead religious tradition, and with all of their heart, they labored as hard as I’ve ever labored here, but only saw a fraction of the results, but I’m going to tell you, at the judgement seat of Christ, God will bless them with as much reward as I’ll have. Doesn’t that just thrill you. Doesn’t that bless you. Down here a preacher may not bet paid enough, he may not get his wages down here, and a lot of them don’t. And there may be some who get too much, but it will be just right, at the judgement seat of Christ. It will be equitable and just and fair.

Its sort of like a football team. He said, now you are going to be critiqued, you’re going to be, you’re going to be accountable for what you labored. Like a football team. You know when, they, when a football player plays, and I believe about every team, probably college at least up does this, maybe high school does this. Every player, after the ball game is critiqued for how well he performed in his position. Now, the ball player, listen, if any, if any sport is a team sport, its football. I mean, you’ve got to be, you’re all dependent upon each other. Let the, let the lineman just lay down one time and see if the quarterback believes its a team sport. I mean, it is. But, but every player is a team player. His concept is, or his main goal is, let’s win the championship. But at the same time, he’s aware, I’ll be critiqued for my particular labor and for my particular position, on Sunday morning, or Saturday morning, or whenever it is, after the ball game.

And that’s the way it is for a leader in God’s church. Our overarching goal is the church being built up to bring glory to God, but I’m also aware I’ll be critiqued and held accountable to my particular, particular labor and the potential of the field here. And also another thing Paul;’s got here is a rebuke, a reproof and a rebuke to this preacher worship problem that the Corinthians were having, and that’s why he’s saying, hey, we’re all just one. Quit exalting one, exalt the Master, don’t exalt the messenger.

So first of all we see leaders are held accountable. But notice secondly, I believe the text strongly points out that leaders are indispensable. Leaders are indispensable. Not a particular leader, but God has purposed to use people in leadership in the building up of his church, and he’s not going to change that until he comes back, and sets up his kingdom, they are indispensable, and if that’s the way God structured the church to mature and develop, under the leadership of God called leaders.

Now, he uses some examples here, look at verse 9. “For we are God’s fellow workers, you are God’s field, God’s building.” He uses two analogies here. He says, now church, you’re like a field and you’re like a building. Now isn’t the farmer indispensable to the farm? Or to the field. I mean, without him, there’s nothing going to happen with a crop. Isn’t the builder indispensable to the building being constructed. Certainly it is. And in the local church God has leaders he uses that he’s going to use to build up, mature, strengthen, and bring the church to the glory that God wants it to bring to him.

Notice there again, “for we are God’s fellow workers.” Have you ever, think, what an awesome thought that is. That we’re God’s fellow workers. That God could or would use a fallen sinner to be his fellow worker. Now we’re all laborers with God, every single one of you out there, you’re a laborer with God, just like I am. You have a different role, a different responsibility, but we’re all equally important, and we’re all laborers for God. But the labor of the leader is unique. Hebrews 13:17 says, those leaders will give an account, is referring to the local church. Now you see, the layman, labors knowing that he will give an account for what he did in the local church body. The leader labors for God knowing that he will give an account for the local church body. In that sense he’s unique.

You know when it said that a great leader can bring out the best in those that are around him. A great leader is able to take ordinary men and help shape them and fashion them into extraordinary men. Who can do extraordinary things. Perhaps God’s greatness is no more evident then when he takes a fallen depraved sinner, cleanses them, washes them, redeems him, calls him, and equips him and use him as his fellow worker. Is that not incredible. What a greatness God has. Not just to save us, but to say I can even use you, you ever wondered why the old joke was around when an old boy was particularly rowdy and hard to deal with and about as unspiritual as anybody in the church children’s program. And somebody would say, he’s going to be a preacher. You know why? God glories in doing that because he gets all the credit then. He takes the most unlikely people.

I remember the story where Johnny Carson had Billy Graham on his show and, and they were just talking there, and Johnny was just teasing and cutting up a little bit and Johnny Carson looked at Billy Graham and said, Billy, do you think, do you think I could be a preacher one day? And Billy said, you sure could, God uses the greatest sinners to make the greatest preachers.

We’re fellow workers with God. Now in the sense that we are fellow workers means that we’re indispensable. God didn’t have to call any leaders, and that’s something we should remember. God can build his church without us, but we cannot built it without him. I’m talking about us leaders. Are you with me. But he’s just chosen to use us, to call out some, to lead and be overseers and equippers of the church. Its an awesome thing. Because no one has used such imperfect material to perform such a perfect task. Or base vessels to perform such a noble task, as when God takes one of us, calls us to be his fellow worker in his local church.

He continues in verse 9 and says, “you are God’s field, God’s building.” You know, its amazing to me, today we have people that are consumed with a passion, to save the earth from the perceived selfishness and abuse of man. Everything from saving the little bitty snail darter minnow in a small stream in middle Tennessee, because they thought that that minnow may disappear from the face of the earth if they built a dam up there on that creek or that river. Or the great horned owl out in the western portion of the United States. Or the tigers over there in India. Or the rainforest of South America. There are people consumed with a passion for that. And some of that passion is appropriate, but a lot of it is zealous extremism.

Then there are others, and they are consumed with building things. They are consumed with building cars, maybe, an antique car, building their company, or just building something. And it, its more than just a casual, I mean, its their passion, and then there are others consumed with growing things. They, they’re consumed with their garden and their flowers. But listen, you know what God’s passion is. Building his church. That’s his passion. You know that’s the thing that, that I remember so clearly about being called of God was, every time I’d think about doing something else, I’d just think it through and it would seem so worthless and so useless. Big deal, you build a fortune 500 company, then you die. And your testimony for all of the universe was I made the best plastic models on planet earth. Wooo. Great. Now don’t misunderstand me, if that’s where God’s called you, you be the best plastic bottle maker on earth for God’s glory. Amen. That’s good for some, but for a guy called, he, he can’t get into that. The money or the wealth and all that stuff, it, its appealing for a little while, then it just kind of falls flat at your feet. And it doesn’t motivate you, it doesn’t’ do anything for you.

Now notice there are two analogies God uses here, as the Apostle Paul is penning these words to the church at Corinth, first we have the analogy of agriculture. He says, you are God’s field. The point he’s making is that God’s leader is responsible to plow and turn and seed and fertilize and water and cultivate and harvest that field of God, the local church, so that it can produce the greatest fruit to the glory of the Master farmer. Then he uses the analogy of architecture. He says, you’re God’s building. And, and the, the leader, the pastor is the man who is responsible to take the foundation that’s already laid, through, Jesus and the Apostles, we’ll talk about that in a moment and build the structure according to the architect’s master plan. So that the building reflects the genius of the architect who conceived, the Lord Jesus.

Now what are we saying here. We’re saying all this to say the leader’s indispensable. God has a purpose for calling out leaders. And let me give you an exhortation here, and I don’t mean this to just demean somebody, but all of these para-church groups, meeting on Thursday, meeting on Tuesday, I’ve got my Bible study group, we’ve got promise keepers, all of these things are a lot of good in a lot of these things, but these people who make that the center of their Christian service are not, I repeat, not in the will of God. Because God’s will is for a local body of believers, to come together, have God’s pastor, preaching and teaching and exhorting and building the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, administering the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s supper and they are to reprove and rebuke and exhort and grow and love and take care of one another.

You see, its real convenient for me to get with four or five other rednecks like me, and we can study the Bible and take about deer hunting, study the Bible, talk about fishing, study the Bible, talk about grilling out steaks, all the things I like to do, and that’s real fun and convenient. See, we can do that on Thursday and we can call that boy, we are growing in the Lord, we’re growing spiritually, but you know, I don’t have that option, because God says, now I want you to be tied in to a family where there is non rednecks, that you wouldn’t like to run around with. You’ve got to learn to love them too. Amen. I want you to be tied into a bigger family where there is a whole lot of little babies and a whole lot of real old people, and they all got all their unique problems, and you’ve got to be concerned about all of that.

You know, and that’s the way it happens in the physical real, you just get married and start having babies, and you can’t pick out the kind of babies you want, God just gives them to you. You don’t even know much about your spouse. Until you get married. And you learn to love and adapt and appreciate the people in the family and that’s what the local church family is. You don’t just get to pick out the group you can hobnob you just, you just get in on who God puts together. Amen. We’ve got some guys out here that weld and some guys dig ditches and some guys are carpenters, and some guys work in steel, and some guys own huge companies, and some guys are doctors and surgeons and lawyers, and, and probably socially speaking, if we form Bible study groups out there we’d never gotten together, would we?

But God, we just get in here, structure this thing the way the Bible says, preach the word of God, try to be real in our witness and see who God adds. I think Lord, we need another pipe fitter, we haven’t had one of them in a while when it, when you know, just, just God bringing all kinds together. What’s the point of it all. A local church is God’s system, and God’s going to use leaders to build up that local church, and the leadership is indispensable, as a car, part of God’s plan, and you need to have the center soul heartbeat of your Christian experience, anchored in a Godly local church. Until Jesus comes back, sets up the kingdom, that’s going to be the way he will do his work. Not to say that there is bad things going on in those other groups, they are just woefully incomplete.

Now look at verse 10 there, the first part. Paul says, “according to the grace of God which was given to me.” Then he talks about this specific role at the church of Corinth, but I believe when he says, according to the grace of God, he once again brings a little reproof and rebuke to the preacher worship problem at Corinth. In other words, he’s saying, you guys say you are of me because you think I’m superior to Apollos, do you not understand every  single thing about me that makes me effect or good or appealing to you as a leader, God did it, not me. Why are you looking at me, Paul says, look to the Master. Can I give you a personal word of advice as your pastor. Watch me close enough and I will definitely disappoint you. I will. By the grace of God I pray I never do anything of a scandalous nature, that would disqualify me from this office. But I mean, just, what we might call smaller stuff, just stuff, well you think, well he shouldn’t have that attitude, or he shouldn’t have said that like that, or if you watch me, I’ll disappoint you.

But if you’ll focus on the God who made the office of pastor, and that God in grace can use men that are not exactly the way we think they ought to be, but they are still God’s called men, then you look into the Master, not the messenger. And we can learn to get along with each other. I’ll just be honest. I cannot in my, in my, some of you probably hadn’t been here long enough, you think I’m just saying a lot of fluff that no, but I’m going to tell you, there is total substance to what I’m saying right now. If I was any more loved, supported and appreciated, I could stand it. And I attribute that to your maturity, not to my goodness. And that’s just the truth of the whole matter.

Thirdly notice that the leader is responsible. He’s responsible. We talked about him being accountable, he’s indispensable to the local church being built up, being all its suppose to be, thirdly, he is responsible to see that something particular happens. Let’s look at it there beginning in verse 10. “According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder, I laid a foundation and another is building upon it, but let each man be careful how he builds upon it.” Now here’s the thing that the, the God’s leader is so primarily preeminently responsible for. He is responsible to see that that local church is built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ. And not only built upon it, but built according to it, the foundation of Jesus Christ.

In other words, there has been a master architect who laid out the plans and we are responsible to see to it that we don’t build the church according to emotions or feelings or what looks good or feels good or draws the crowd, we’ve to make sure, we are responsible to build on the foundation that has been once for all laid, through Jesus and his apostles. Now we see this so very clearly, because the Apostle Paul begins there by talking about his unique ministry that he had of laying the foundation. That’s what he’s pointing out to, now I want you to follow me, don’t get lazy on me here, look at it in verse 10, he says as a wise master builder, I laid a foundation. The Apostle Paul is saying, I want you to know, as God’s apostle to the Gentiles particularly, I had a unique one time role of laying the foundation.

I was a master builder. And that phrase, phrase is the word where we get architect, he said, I was the master architect, other guys may build, other guys may be carpenters, other guys may do the electricity or the plumbing, all this figurative language of course, but I was the master architect. Now how could Paul say that. That sounds like arrogance, because he fulfilled the office of Apostle that is no longer being filled. And I submit to you, if you turn on the radio or television and a guy comes on there and says, I”m apostle so and so, you just say, that guys lost his marbles. God used the Apostles to lay a foundation. I want to tell you something, friend, we don’t need any more foundation than Jesus gave us through the Apostles. What we need to do is be responsible to build on it. Properly. There’s a lot of heretical thinking going around where guys are laying new foundations down right and left. My friend, you go back to Paul there’s enough foundation laid out by Paul in this book, you can build on it for the rest of your life and never get to nothing else.

Now, the point he is saying is that we have an awesome responsibility as God’s leader to make sure we’re building properly on that once for all laid foundation. Now Paul, let me give you further evidence of the fact that Paul viewed his role as unique in laying a once for all foundation, nobody else gets in on that. First of all, as Paul referred to himself in this book, the book of 1 Corinthians, he called himself the planter, which is the initial role in a field, the work of a field. He called himself the founder, that was in verse 10. Planter was back in verse 6. And then in 1 Corinthians 4:15 he called them their father. He didn’t mean it as reverend father, but in the fact that he initiated the work there and laid the foundation.

Now contrast that with the other leaders Paul refers to. When Paul refers to Apollos and the others he calls them not planters but waterers. He calls them not master builders, or master architects, but builders. And he doesn’t call them the father of that church, he calls them tutors. Pointing out that he’s saying, that I in the office of Apostle, particularly as God’s Apostle to the non-Jews, the Gentile churches, I am the one God worked through supernaturally and enabled me to lay the foundation, the doctrinal truth of Jesus and that every single builder after me must build upon that and according to that foundation, or they are in heresy. The leader is responsible to see to it, that he stay on the foundation, once for all established, by God’s Apostle.

Now, there’s a lot more I could say to substantiate that, but let’s move on. I want you to notice Paul’s confidence. Paul, is now, its incredible thing and Paul pops up here and says, I want you to know I’m God’s master builder. Boy, that sounds like arrogance, if you didn’t know Paul. I mean, where does he get this confidence. Paul has what I call Christ confidence. A Christ confidence. Not a self confidence. And I tell you the pulpits of America today, and literally the world today are suffering from men in those pulpits who do not have a Christ confidence. Men who much too often have a self confidence.

Let me talk just for a moment, about Christ confidence. The one who has a Christ confidence focuses on what God has done and is doing in him, and what God has done and is doing through him. All the focus is God, not him. So in other words, Paul is saying, and he points that out, first phrase, verse 10, according to the grace of God, I was the master architect. So Paul said, its God who saved me, its God who called me into full time ministry, its God who equipped me to be the apostle that I am and is continuing to equip me, its God who sustains me, so that I do not do something foolish to ruin me, and, and bring scandal in my ministry and lose this office, and its God who placed me as the Apostle to the Gentiles and particularly the church at Corinth. I want to tell you, Paul had confidence. It was a Christ confidence. Amen.

Now that’s important. Listen, I’m going to tell you, the man of God ought to get in the pulpits of America and preach with authority and if he can’t stand up there and preach with authority the word of God, he ought to quit and go sell insurance somewhere, have a Christ confidence. I want you to know I, and some of you will be shocked to even think that this is possible, I’m probably one of the most insecure people you’ll ever meet. But over the years as God sealed in my soul I call, I saved you, I called you, I’ve equipped you, I’ve placed you in the office and I’ve placed you in Muscle Shoals, I have grown in a Christ confidence. And I understand what Paul means when he says with not a trace of fleshly arrogance, I’m God’s master architect. He’s just saying, the grace of God has put me in this role.

Listen, it would be flesh to deny it. But to stand on it is humility, its accepting what God says. Now let me contrast Christ’s confidence with self confidence. Now there’s a positive and a negative manifestation of self confidence. The positive manifestation of self confidence is the guy who is confident in his human personality. He’s confident in his education. And he, his intellect, and in his talent and in his ability and in his skill. Its just flesh all over the place. But there’s also a negative manifestation of self confidence. Its the guy that says I can’t do that. I’m too this, or I’m too that, woe is me, I don’t have the talent, I don’t have the skill, I don’t have the personality, I’m not qualified, I can’t, that, that’s also a focus on self and its sin.

If God’s called you to do something, get your eyes off self, whether you are putting self up or putting self down, get it off self, get it on Jesus. Get it on Jesus. Its amazing to me, some of the people God calls to preach. The most unlikely people on planet earth. And once they get the old self crucified and out of the way, God just moves through them. Gloriously. But you, listen, get out of self, quit thinking self is something and quit putting self down, get self out of the way and focus on Jesus. Let him work through you, do what he wants to do.

Now back to our main point. What are we responsible for? To build upon and according to the foundation Jesus laid through the preaching of the doctrines of Jesus through those Apostles. And what did God do. once and for all, through God’s Apostles, particularly the Apostle Paul, he enabled those men, by superintending through them that as they wrote these precious books, they wrote the doctrinal truths of Jesus Christ and the gospel of Jesus Christ, so that that foundation is settled forever, and then when you and I come, we go straight to this book to make sure we build upon and according to that foundation laid by the Apostles. You know the Bible says, we’re, we’re built upon the foundation of the Apostles. Now you thought it was Jesus didn’t you. It is, its just that his instrument for confirming in written form, the foundational truths about him, he used Apostles to do that. And now we have the record, once and for all and settled.

My friend, the man of God is responsible to see to that happens. That’s why Paul told Timothy the young preacher to reprove and to rebuke and exhort with great patience and instruction. In other words, he says, Timothy, they are going to veer off over here, they are going to veer off over there, they are going to get weak on this truth and weak on that truth, you just keep hammering them with the word of God and you stay faithful and labor on doctrine until I take you home.

Verse 10, they were still talking about responsibility. He says, “but let each man be careful how he builds.” Alright, the master architect has already done his job, that was the Apostle Paul, he laid that foundation. Now all of us carpenters have got to come along behind Paul, and carefully carry out the plans of the master architect. Now you know they tell us, those great cathedrals over there in Europe, I’ve been in a couple of them on our mission trips. They tell us that some of those took well over a hundred years to build. I think there are some even centuries. And there were many successive architects involved in it, but they tell us that each architect and all the workers of the next generation who continued the work on that cathedral was very careful to follow the foundational plans of the original architect. And then the final result is a building that brings marvel to all succeeding generations.

That’s what we are to do in the church. There is no room for individual variables in the super structure, we’ve got to stay with the old standard laid out by the original architect. Jesus as he worked through his Apostles, the Apostle Paul, look at verse 11, we’ll be through. “For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” In other words, all other foundations are false, they’re facade on the outside may look substantial, but they will all fall. Now A. T. Robertson, that eminent Greek scholar tells us that when it says no man can lay a foundation, it literally means no man can lay alongside Christ any other foundation. He said, don’t find yourself any other foundation around the foundation of Jesus Christ. All you need is Jesus.

You don’t’ need any other foundation, all you need is Jesus. he is the only true foundation, and he is the complete foundation, and listen, the foundation of Jesus is completely incompatible with any other foundation. Completely and absolutely incompatible within other foundation. You don’t lay alongside the foundation of Jesus Buddhism, you don’t lay alongside the foundation of Jesus Hinduism, you don’t lay alongside the foundation of Jesus Confucianism. You don’t lay alongside the foundation of Jesus the followers of Mohammed and their doctrines. You don’t lay alongside the, the foundation of Jesus, the teachings and the doctrines of secular humanism. And you don’t lay alongside the foundation of the true Jesus, this uh neo-orthodox uh, Jesus, this non-divine Jesus of liberal theology.

The one foundation of Jesus is delivered through the preaching and teaching of the Apostle Paul is all the foundation we need. My friend, we’re talking about the onliness of Jesus Christ. It is the only foundation the church will lever need, and Paul says, God’s leader better be careful. Better be careful, that he is responsible to God to build upon and according to that once for all settled, established foundation. What is that foundation like? Well, particularly its expressed through the writings of the Apostle Paul, preserved forever, as a part of God’s authoritative inerrant word. The old song writer said, how firm a foundation, you saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith, in his excellent work. What more can he say then to he has said, to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled. Let’s stand together.