How Will God Judge What I Do Today?
00:00:00.000 | Well, we get a regular flow of email questions about eternal rewards, and rightly so.
00:00:11.880 | And today's question comes to us from Song, who asks this, "Pastor John, regarding 1
00:00:17.320 | Corinthians 3 verses 10 to 15, what does this mean that our work done in Christ will be
00:00:22.840 | tested by fire and will get rewarded accordingly?
00:00:27.400 | What of our works will burn up?
00:00:29.600 | What's the difference between what this burning leaves unburned and what is consumed?"
00:00:35.020 | How would you answer these questions?
00:00:37.640 | It's probably important that we read this, in fact, maybe go back a little farther than
00:00:42.520 | verse 10 because the context here matters to get things oriented correctly.
00:00:51.400 | This text, people can test this.
00:00:53.400 | Now when I read it, it's not first or mainly about the general good works of all believers,
00:00:59.880 | though I think the implication is going to be there, but it's first and mainly about
00:01:04.360 | service in the Word to the church and how she's built up, putting stones in place and
00:01:13.620 | building the church with right teaching.
00:01:16.180 | So let me read it and you look for that, whether or not some teachings are combustible straw
00:01:22.300 | and some teachings are precious stones.
00:01:25.760 | I'm going to start at verse 5, not verse 10 of 1 Corinthians 3.
00:01:31.200 | What then is Apollos?
00:01:33.640 | What is Paul?
00:01:35.440 | Servants through whom you believed as the Lord assigned to each.
00:01:40.160 | I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
00:01:45.540 | So comment.
00:01:47.440 | He's starting with the analogy of farming, but he's going to shift to the analogy of
00:01:53.520 | architecture and building in just a minute.
00:01:55.560 | So be alert to that change when it comes.
00:01:58.200 | So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
00:02:05.400 | He who plants and he who waters are one and each will receive his wages according to his
00:02:11.880 | labor.
00:02:12.880 | So comment.
00:02:14.540 | He's talking about rewards, these wages that you're going to get.
00:02:17.800 | He's talking about rewards for how he and Apollos planted and watered.
00:02:23.680 | That is how they ministered the word of God for the planting and the growth of the church.
00:02:31.160 | Now verse 9, for we are God's fellow workers.
00:02:36.080 | You are God's field, God's building.
00:02:40.240 | There's the transition from farming to architecture and building.
00:02:45.480 | According to the grace of God, verse 10, according to the grace of God given to me like a skilled
00:02:52.400 | master builder.
00:02:54.680 | So he's fully into the new metaphor now.
00:02:57.120 | I laid a foundation and someone else is building on it.
00:03:03.640 | Let each one take care how he builds on it.
00:03:08.520 | Comment.
00:03:09.520 | So you can see that the context is building on the foundation of Christ with kinds of
00:03:16.720 | teaching, which of course is interwoven with kinds of living because what you teach is
00:03:23.960 | aimed at producing a new way of life.
00:03:26.800 | Verse 11, for no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus
00:03:32.000 | Christ.
00:03:33.000 | If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,
00:03:39.800 | comment.
00:03:40.800 | So following the flow of the thought, I take gold and silver and precious stones to be
00:03:47.920 | faithful, biblical, apostolical, edifying truth that you're building on gospel foundations
00:03:56.400 | with, while wood, hay, and straw refers to teachings that are either false or distorted
00:04:04.600 | or out of proportion or self-serving or contrary to the gospel in some way or contaminated
00:04:10.820 | with sinful thoughts or ways.
00:04:13.640 | Now verse 13, each one's work will become manifest for the day we'll disclose it because
00:04:22.080 | it will be revealed by fire and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
00:04:31.920 | If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.
00:04:38.220 | If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss though he himself will be saved, but
00:04:45.760 | only as through fire.
00:04:47.460 | So here are four implications I'm going to draw out of that text and that comment.
00:04:55.940 | It is possible to be a true Christian and for various reasons have a distorted view
00:05:02.100 | of some truth in the Bible and actually mislead the church with those teachings that are not
00:05:10.940 | fully biblical and be saved.
00:05:14.260 | Go to heaven.
00:05:16.000 | Those teachers will be saved according to verse 15, though their work will be burned
00:05:21.640 | up or at least part of it will be burned up.
00:05:24.780 | So we can be thankful.
00:05:26.100 | Oh my goodness.
00:05:27.860 | Think of it.
00:05:28.860 | Think of all the denominational differences among us.
00:05:31.820 | Think of insider denominations, how many different ways we interpret scripture sometimes and
00:05:37.380 | how many different things we view.
00:05:40.480 | If we had to be flawless and perfect in our teaching, pastors, small group leaders, parents,
00:05:48.160 | in order to be truly Christian, there'd be no hope, right?
00:05:51.380 | God is merciful and willing to forgive.
00:05:55.340 | I'm tempted to point out all the errors other people make instead of me.
00:06:01.900 | I'm sure we're all going to have our knuckles wrapped significantly by the Lord that we
00:06:07.380 | couldn't see more clearly in the Bible, but not every mistake is a damning mistake.
00:06:14.860 | So that's the first observation.
00:06:17.820 | Two, that should not make us careless about the scriptures because this is real loss,
00:06:27.020 | real loss.
00:06:28.020 | We suffer loss when our teaching works get burned up.
00:06:33.580 | There are real rewards that we will not have if we teach error.
00:06:39.880 | And even more serious than the loss of rewards, if we're cavalier about our teaching as if
00:06:46.860 | it doesn't matter, that might be a sign that we really are not standing on the foundation
00:06:54.260 | of Christ and are not Christian teachers at all.
00:06:57.500 | It does come to that with some teachers.
00:07:00.320 | That was the kind of thing Jesus had to say about the Pharisees.
00:07:04.200 | They were professional teachers and had fundamentally failed to understand the Old Testament and
00:07:10.460 | were not part of God's faithful remnant.
00:07:15.020 | Third implication, when you try to think through what it really means that the works are burned
00:07:21.820 | up, it seems likely to me that this refers not just to a false teaching being exposed
00:07:30.820 | and excluded from heaven, but it says in verse 14 that the teacher's work will be burned
00:07:38.640 | up.
00:07:39.640 | That is, he's built something with his teaching and what he's built may just go poof in the
00:07:47.460 | judgment.
00:07:48.740 | Things he thought he had constructed with teachings will be found to be worthless.
00:07:53.560 | And the scary thing is that may include people and ministries.
00:07:58.020 | It may include the lives of people that he thought he'd brought to Christ and built up
00:08:02.580 | in the faith.
00:08:04.300 | And it proves that they weren't Christians at all because they didn't understand the
00:08:08.380 | gospel because it was so clouded by what he taught, though he himself was a Christian.
00:08:15.220 | And the whole ministry he may have built on his clouded view just goes poof in the fires
00:08:21.540 | of judgment.
00:08:23.420 | And the last implication I would draw out of this is that in 2 John 1, 8, we have everything
00:08:30.420 | echoed again.
00:08:31.420 | "Watch yourselves so that you may not lose what you have worked for, but may win a full
00:08:40.180 | reward."
00:08:41.460 | And I think that suggests that even though the main focus of 1 Corinthians 3 is not general
00:08:50.080 | works of believers but true and false teaching, it does imply that the application—in other
00:08:58.500 | words, there's an implication here that the lives of Christians in general are also instructed.
00:09:06.740 | Paul says, for example, in Ephesians 6, 8, "Knowing that whatever good anyone does, this
00:09:13.220 | he will receive back from the Lord."
00:09:15.500 | Everything, every good is going to get its reward.
00:09:18.540 | So it isn't just teachers who need to be vigilant over what they teach, but all Christians need
00:09:26.220 | to be vigilant over what they do or what they do with what they are taught, whether they
00:09:32.820 | themselves build themselves up in their most holy faith with what they hear.
00:09:38.220 | So when it comes to the impact on the building of the church, the building, the effect would
00:09:45.060 | be the same if a false teaching produced a false disciple or a true teaching produced
00:09:52.900 | a false disciple because the disciple himself hardened his own heart and rejected the truth
00:09:59.740 | that he was faithfully taught.
00:10:01.900 | In either case, the church is damaged.
00:10:05.100 | In either case, the living stones that were supposed to be built into a holy temple for
00:10:11.620 | the Lord would prove to be no living stones at all.
00:10:17.540 | In one case, that might be owing in part to bad teaching.
00:10:23.000 | In another case, it might be owing to a failure to live out good teaching.
00:10:28.180 | So everybody needs to be vigilant with how we build, how we build others and how we build
00:10:34.020 | ourselves with what others teach us.
00:10:37.140 | So the final upshot of the text for all of us, I think, it's a call to teachers and learners,
00:10:45.500 | every Christian, to stand on the one foundation, Jesus Christ, and build ourselves and build
00:10:54.020 | others as living stones into a faithful growing church where Christ dwells and to do it with
00:11:01.780 | as much truth as we can see.
00:11:05.620 | Sobering and motivational as well.
00:11:07.820 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:11:08.820 | And thank you for making this podcast a part of your weekly routine.
00:11:12.660 | We appreciate all the many of you who subscribe and listen in each week.
00:11:16.620 | You can subscribe to our audio feeds.
00:11:19.000 | You can search for our past episodes and you can even reach us by email with a question
00:11:23.380 | of your own.
00:11:24.380 | You can do all of that through our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:11:29.940 | Well probably one of the most difficult things about parenting is knowing when and how to
00:11:33.180 | explain to our children the reality of God's eternal judgment, eternal torment away from
00:11:39.820 | the presence of God.
00:11:41.140 | This is a hard truth.
00:11:43.860 | And of course we can wield it unwisely, but it's also an essential truth and we are obligated
00:11:48.860 | to help our children to understand it.
00:11:51.220 | But how do we go about it in a tactful way?
00:11:54.140 | John Piper has a lot of thoughts on this and if you are a parent, this will be an episode
00:11:58.820 | I think you will not want to miss.
00:12:00.380 | That's going to be on Wednesday of this week.
00:12:02.900 | So you can return and join us then.
00:12:04.780 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:12:06.340 | Thanks for listening to the podcast and we'll see you then.
00:12:08.780 | Bye.
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