I appreciate your prayers. I've been diagnosed with Parkinson's for 15 years. When I go somewhere, people come up and say, are you still alive? Well, thankfully, I am. Wish I could participate in that question and answer period. I can answer any question. Most of the time it's, I don't know. People, when the pastor was bragging on me, Brother Burford leaned over and said, you've got the wool pulled over his eyes. But I am beginning to get a grip on some of the questions. You know, we want the answers. You have to understand the questions. before you make any progress on the answers. Turn, if you will, to 1 Corinthians 3. I thank your dear pastor for allowing me to be part of this conference and I appreciate him very much. We were together in a conference and he preached and I fell asleep. I told him not to be offended. If I was still upright in the pew, you're doing good. But I appreciate his ministry and his pastor. Let's look to the Lord in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful for the opportunity to be together in your presence. Fill us with your Holy Spirit. Bless us. Help us. I pray for this sermon and each of the sermons, that they'd be a benefit to your people and a call of grace to those that are lost. In the name of our Savior, we ask it. Amen. The pastor asked me to preach this sermon. In 1 Corinthians 3 and verse 9, Paul says, for we are laborers together with God. year God's husbandry, year God's building. Paul speaks to the church at Corinth, which he started. You can read that in Acts chapter 18. In speaking of the church here, he mentions two metaphors. He says, ye are God's husbandry, or ye are God's garden, ye are God's building. In verse 7 he talks about God's garden or husbandry. He says, so then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase." And so that was the lesson there on God's garden. Then in verse 10 through 15, we have God's building, which the church is the house of God. He says, according to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon the foundation, gold, silver, precious stone, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it. Because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so is by fire. The church is the temple or the house of God. Paul says, I laid the foundation. You can read in Acts 18 how he came to Corinth and preached the gospel. God said to him in Corinth, I have much people in this city. He didn't mean many people that were converted, but many that would be converted that were God's people by election. Then he says, the foundation is laid. We start churches by carrying out the Great Commission, preaching the gospel, baptizing the converts, and then teaching those converts to obey all things. The building continues even after the foundation is laid. Now Paul here really is talking to pastors and preachers that would come to Corinth after he was gone. And he said, I have laid the foundation, but take heed how you build thereon. Make sure that you're building gold, silver, precious stone, which is what a temple ought to be built with, and not wood, hay, and stubble. Here is the picture that Paul is painting. Years ago I was down in Mexico and I had to drive all night and in old Mexico and many of the towns you would go in and up on a hill or an eminence there would be a church, a Catholic church, and it would stand in contrast to the houses that were made out of just thatch and wood. I remember I was very tired and somebody let me go in a little thatched hut and sleep and it was really nice. The air went up right through the ceiling, of course, and so it was cooler than you would have expected. Now the buildings, or those which people looked at as temples, they were more solid. But this thatched hut, you put a match to that and it'd be gone before you could get out. And so Paul says anything dedicated to God or in the case of heathen to their God would be made more substantially than the average dwelling places. We think of the Parthenon, the Echo Corinthus, and other great buildings. And we see there that people consider that a temple should be much more substantial in its material and its building than just somebody's home. The Bible says the Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings in Israel. And the house of God means something to the Lord. So we want to discuss this. First of all, we must build. We're told to build. God has had, we think of places where the Lord has placed his name. I think of Jacob when he was at Bethel. Think of the Tabernacle of Moses, the Temple of Solomon, the Temple of Zerubbabel. And Haggai 1 is talking about the Temple of Zerubbabel, and it says, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain and bring wood, and build the house, and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. Then he says, You look for much, and lo, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why, saith the Lord of hosts? Because of my house that is waste, and you run everyone unto his own house. And so God wants us to build his house. And he says, I have judged you because you built your house, but you've left the Lord's house in ruins. Not only are we to build, but we are to build with care. This is God's house in 2nd Chronicles 2 verse 4. He says, Behold I built a house to the name of the Lord my God to dedicate it to him and to burn before him sweet incense and for continual showbread and for the burnt offerings morning and evening on the Sabbaths and on the new moons And on the solemn feast of the Lord our God, this is an ordinance forever to Israel. And the house which I build is great, for great is our God above all gods. And who is able to stand, who is able to build him a house, seeing the heavens and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him? For who am I then that I should build him a house, save only to burn sacrifice unto Him. So the Lord says we need to build with care because God is a great God. He's Jehovah. He's the self-existent one. And we worship Him and we remember His great redemption. And this is to be taken care of because the house of God is the place where the Lord will be worshipped and where His gospel will be remembered. We need to build with purpose. The purpose of God's house is ultimately His glory. The purpose of all things is ultimately His glory. But the purpose of God's house is that God's glory might not be brought about unknowingly. The Bible says, even the wrath of wicked men shall praise Thee. But in God's house, it's on purpose. That's the whole point of God's house, that God may be glorified. In Psalm 89.7, the scripture says, God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him. Ephesians 3.21 says, unto him be glory in the church. We're not building a theater. We're not building a social club. We're not building a monument to self, but we're building a house for worship. You know, you think of the Bible talking about gold, silver, precious stone, wood, hay, and stuff. I could get the rolling stones. They're so old, I don't guess anybody wants to hear them sing. But you get the Rolling Stones or some famous singer, and you could have more than anybody around here in church. It doesn't mean a thing to the Lord. He's interested in His glory. As we build the house of God, we need to remember that we are given a blueprint. God said to Moses, and look that thou make them offer that they'll make them after the pattern which was showed thee on the mount. God has told us what his house is to be like and how to make it and of course the gospel that is preached there and the way things are conducted. Moses is told to do it according to the pattern which was showed thee on the mount. I started preaching back in the 70s, and that was called the period of the church growth movement. And the only thing that mattered was how big a congregation you had. And people would have conferences, the big name preachers. Church growth conferences, come see how I did it. We don't care how you did. Let me show you what I mean. One of the best illustrations I've ever heard was given by Al Gormley, pastor, dead now, but was pastor in Lexington, Kentucky. And he illustrated the need for a blueprint in this way. He said, before I was saved and before I became a preacher, he said, I worked in sheet metal. Now whether it's sheet metal or plastic or wood, it doesn't matter if you're going to, say you have a shop and you're going to sell rabbits, wooden or sheet metal rabbits to put out in your garden as a decoration. He said you cut out your first rabbit and you make it just like you want it. And then he said, you take a marker and you put a P on it. That P means pattern or prototype. He said, when you make your second rabbit, you take the first rabbit and you use it as a pattern to cut out the second rabbit. Now, what about the third rabbit? Well, do you take the second rabbit to make the third rabbit? No, you take the first rabbit to make the second rabbit and the third rabbit, and it doesn't matter how many, if it's a million, how many rabbits you make, you always use the first one as the pattern. That's where the P is. That's the pattern, that's the prototype. And people, if they want to have a conference on church growth, you go where the P is. And that's how you build the church. And if you cut out rabbits and you use the second rabbit for the third and the third for the fourth, pretty soon your rabbit will look like a dinosaur. Look like a dog, look like a rhinoceros, who knows what it'll look like. And look thou that thou make them after the pattern which was showed thee on the mount. The pattern is the church at Jerusalem. It's the Word of God found in the Holy Bible. And we better do things according to the pattern that God showed us in the mount. We are to consider the cost of materials. My wife and I have the children over to, our children and grandchildren over to eat on Sundays. And I told Linda, that's my wife, I said, to have, they, I make pot roast for them, they like the way I make it. Multi-talented. And I said, you know it costs $90, $80, $90 to get enough roast, enough beef to make a roast? Well, think about the cost of building materials. Now wood, hay, and stubble, Doesn't cost all that much. But building a temple, that's something else. The Bible says in Acts chapter 20 and verse 28 that we're to feed the flock which God purchased with his own blood. In 1 Peter 2 and verse 5 it says the church is to be built of living stones. how careful we ought to be because it cost the Lord a great deal. It cost our Lord Jesus Christ his own redeeming blood to make people suitable materials. Again, we don't build out of wood, hay, and stubble, but gold, silver, and precious stone. Now wood, hay, and stubble, that's not bad. It's not, we're not being told not to build the church out of things that are bad. It's just not suitable for a temple. You know, when we build the church, we want people that are living stones, people that have been born again, people that have spiritual understanding. We as pastors want a credible profession of faith. We don't see the heart and we don't know the heart. We just do the best we can. I remember some people coming in, a couple with several children wanted to join the church. I pastored First Baptist Church of Independence, Kentucky for 22 years. I asked him about their salvation, various things. And the man was doing the talk and suddenly the wife broke in and she said, what we want is a football game for the young people to meet each other every month. I said, wait a minute. We're not talking about football games. We're talking about serving God. We're talking about something where we may be called on to give our lives for the Lord Jesus Christ. I think you need to stop and think a while before we proceed any further as to what this is all about. Don't ask me about football games. Gold, silver, and precious stone. Living stone. Another thing that we see in these things is that builders are not owners. You say, well, I think in my church or our church that we ought to do this, we ought to do that. Jesus said on this rock I will build my church. It's not our church, it's not your church, it's not the preacher's church. It is the property of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And he made his will known in the Holy Scripture as to how it's to be built, and why it's to be built, and what it's to be built. Now, there are sources of danger, things that are dangerous for churches. First of all, immature leadership. you know uh... new converts that are just beginning to be taught or young preachers that are just beginning to grow they're not in a position to tell us how the church ought to be built you'll have some sports star or some celebrity come to know the Lord and next week they want to advise churches as to how God's work ought to be done. You know, you take an engineer, like in New York City, you have the Empire State Building. And it takes a lot of knowledge. You have to be able to read blueprints. You have to understand a lot of things to build something like the Empire State Building. If I were staying at a place in New York City and the man that was the architect for the Empire State Building was there and I began to discuss it with him, I said, you know, buddy, this is a big building. I think at least on the bottom floor you ought to use two by sixes. Instead of two by fours, he'd say, you're goofy. Why would you even think to give an opinion about something like that? And so we need to have some knowledge to talk about building the house of God. You'll have to excuse me here. Most of the time my notes are all wrinkled and I can't read them. The reason is, with Parkinson's, you have what's called, well I can't remember what it's called, but most of the time I make my notes and I throw them in the garbage. Then I have to go look for them and they're all wrinkled up. See what I'm talking about here. Something about the Empire State Building. But it takes knowledge to build the house of God. It takes understanding. I, several years ago, I had something that was kind of humorous happen. I received a solicitation in the mail, and the fellow seemed like it was $50. He said, for $50, we'll send you instructions as to how to build a Christian haunted house. And they had the testimonials about what this Christian haunted house had accomplished. said that we had more people saved through our Christian haunted house than we had through preaching the whole year. I read that and I thought, I wonder if this guy ever read Luke 16. You say, what happened in Luke 16? Well, a rich man died and went to hell. And while he was in hell, he wants a drink of water. And he's informed that there's a gulf between those in heaven and those in hell, and it's not possible to get a drink of water. And then he says, well, I have five brothers. I don't want them coming here. Send Lazarus. Send this poor man that's laid at my gate and begged through the years. Send him to warn them. And Abraham said to him, no, there's a gold fix, that can't take place. And the rich man then says, if you send Lazarus from the dead, they'll repent. And Abraham says, no, that won't work. They have Moses and the prophets, let them notice, let them hear. In other words, this haunted house won't do the work of the Lord. Certainly it won't do the work of the Lord if somebody that was literally dead returned from the dead. If that won't work, then the haunted house won't work. And you think of how ridiculous this is. This rich man is arguing with Abraham. Abraham says, they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And he begins to argue, nay, father Abraham, if one go from the dead, they'll repent. Think about that. I'll let you in on a little secret. I made a Christian haunted house one time. That was a long time ago. You say, well, I don't doubt there's somebody in this audience now, and in the back of your mind, you're saying, well, I still think it would work. Abraham did. Abraham thought it was the preaching of the Word of God. You say, well, I built a big temple with a Christian haunted house. Yeah, but maybe the trouble is you made it out of wood, hay, and stubble instead of gold, silver, and precious stone. You know, it takes a little longer to build the Taj Mahal than it does a tobacco barn. Another danger is thoughtless imitation. I'm sure the pastors that are here are familiar with the illustration of David bringing the ark to Jerusalem. And you remember how God said to put stays through the sides of the rings on the Ark, and the Ark of the Covenant, and to have the Levites carry the Ark. But when it was gone into the land of the Philistines, they wanted rid of it because God was judging them. And so they put it on a cart, and they let an oxen pull it, and I have no doubt they thought this was the better way. But when the ark shook and Uzzah reached up to steady it, God smote him dead, made David angry. But after David settled down, he realized that it wasn't God's fault, it was his fault, that he had not listened. And so we need to beware of thoughtless imitation. of imitating the world. I think of one of the kings of Israel that went into a pagan temple and saw an altar and he thought, wouldn't that look good in our temple? And brought a pagan altar into the temple of God. It doesn't matter what they do in Broadway or Hollywood or Madison Avenue or Nashville. They go to Broadway. We can do more with a play than we can with preaching. Go to Hollywood. We can make a film. Go to Madison Avenue. We can learn to advertise. Go to Nashville and learn to entertain. But we are not to imitate the world. We're to obey the Holy Scriptures. and then careless intrusions into the house of God. In John 2, it tells us about our Lord Jesus Christ. Humanly speaking, Jesus Christ was crucified because of his zeal for the house of God, Herod's temple. We read this in John 2 and Verse 13, it says, And the Jews' Passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves and the changers of money setting. And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them out of the temple. and the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables, and said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence, make not my father's house a house of merchandise. And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." It was zeal for the house of God that caused Christ to be crucified. And you see, In Herod's temple there was a court of the Gentiles. That's where the Gentiles came to hear the reading of God's word and to learn about God's word. And the Sadducees didn't care. whether or not they learned anything, whether or not they came to know the God of Israel. And they set up a place where potential sacrifices could be sold and bought. And the money that was given every year by the men of Israel, there was a table there where they could, for a small fee, change it to the right coin. And that was a careless intrusion. A Gentile comes in to pray and to seek God and all he can hear is bang, rattling around. There are things that do not belong in the house of God. And then last of all, especially the preachers, here's where we need to pay attention. There's a danger to the church when we forget the coming judgment, the judgment seat of Christ. There are two theories as to what this means. When it talks about wood, hay, stubble that will burn, or gold, silver, and precious stone which will stand the test, it should get our attention. Arthur Pink had a theory. He said that when it talks about the wood hands double being burned up, that that was not the future coming of Christ or the future judgment. He said that was something that takes place day by day and year by year down here. He said that when people build churches, If those churches are not built out of gold, silver, and precious stone, but they're built out of wood, hay, and stubble, and you see the church under the most common problems, or when a favored personality as pastor has left, they just kind of disintegrate. Now, I see the truth of what Pink's saying there. In fact, I think of the church I grew up in. There was an old Baptist preacher that preached Baptist doctrine, and he grew old there, and he finally had to step down as pastor, but he left a functioning church that tried to preach the gospel and do God's work. A new man came in. He built a church to where it was one of the ten largest Sunday schools. made a name for himself. And when he left, there just wasn't much of the church. Instead of building a great church, what really happened is the church was destroyed. You see, when we talk about salvation, we have two things that need to be saved. We have a soul and we have a life. Through Christ, through faith in Christ, our soul is saved. But we must always remember that when it comes to how successful we are, God is the judge. And the future judgment will declare that. I started church and pastored in Louisiana seven years, in southern Louisiana in the river parishes. And there was a large church of a different order next to our church. And one Sunday morning, we were driving up to church, and there was a billboard on the side of the road. And it was advertising this large church next to ours. And it says, voted the church of the year. I turned to Lyndon. I said, it's all gone. The judgment seat of Christ occurred and I missed it. People say you're the church of the year. It doesn't matter what they say. It matters what the Lord thinks and what He says. Now, this may sound kind of strange to you, but what Paul says Here in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, kind of offends my theology. Probably Paul's right and I'm wrong. But I have a hard time putting all this together. Let's read this again. 1 Corinthians 3. Beginning in verse 10, he says, according to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereupon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. Why, Paul, why do we need to be careful? Well, he says, for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon that foundation gold, silver, precious stone, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work should be made manifest, for the day shall declare it. Notice, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so is by fire." Now here's where I have the problem. It seems to me that what Paul is saying is that you can have a saved man. He can pastor an actual church, a real church. He can build wood, hay, and stove and be saved, so is by fire. Well, that causes us to have to look at what Paul is saying. Now certainly Paul is not saying that men that corrupt the gospel are saved. He's certainly not saying that men that have no regard for the Word of God are saved. But he is saying That a man can preach the gospel, but not build with the gospel. That a man can preach the gospel, but maybe present a watered down appearance of what New Testament Christianity is. You know one thing that I wondered about, they had big conferences up in Indiana and Virginia on how to build a church. Well, 1 Corinthians chapter 3 is the most extensive explanation in the New Testament on church building. And I wonder why they never preached on that. That's something to think about, isn't it? I want to pastor the church of the year. I want to pastor the largest church. A good place for us to start is not wanting everything that we do to burn up. You say, what does that mean, save us by fire? That means you wake up in the middle of the night, your house is on fire, you put on your bathrobe for decency's sake, jump out the window. And as you hit the ground, the house collapses and it's all gone. But you're saved. But so is my fire. I thank God that he saved me by his grace. But when it comes to this matter of church building. It's not enough that our soul is saved. I want my life to be saved. I want the things that I do to count. Just one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last.