July 2026
Sermon Transcript
We are here in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and we are actually not going to finish the entire chapter today — there is just too much good information here. We are going to get through verse 17. The name of this sermon is The Judgment Seat of Christ. There are going to be several verses before we actually get to the meat and potatoes of the judgment seat of Christ that kind of prepare us and help us get an understanding.
Starting here at verse 5, the Bible says: "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?" The Bible is very clear many times in 1 Corinthians and throughout the Bible that everybody gets saved because somebody gives them the gospel — by whom ye believed. You are always seeing people that are saved because somebody gave them the gospel. There were ministers, people that gave you the gospel and taught you the truth, and that is why you believed. And the Bible says even as the Lord gave to every man. According to this, God gave to every man a minister by whom they are to believe. And what that means is that it is God's intention that every single person hears the gospel. In God's plan, he actually has it set out so that everybody would hear the gospel.
Now, does every single person hear a clear presentation of the gospel? Absolutely not. But even though Christians are the minority, if every Christian in the world were zealous to preach the gospel, do you know what would take place? Everybody would at least get a chance to hear the gospel. Maybe they would refuse it. Maybe they would reject it. Maybe they would not listen. But according to the Bible, God gave to every man someone by whom they are supposed to hear the gospel.
Now here is what you have to understand. We go to the mall to preach the gospel. We go to parks. We go door to door. And some people are willing to listen and some are not. But here is the thing — when it comes to your personal family, they might listen to you preach the gospel when they might not listen to me preach the gospel. You have to understand there are certain people in your sphere of influence where maybe they would not listen to anybody else, but they would listen to you. Perhaps you have friends or co-workers or neighbours who respect you and think highly of you. Now if a soul winner came to their door, they would find it strange. They would not want to listen. They would feel uncomfortable. But if you actually gave them the gospel, they might actually listen. And you have to realise that when the Bible says God gave to every man, who do you think it is that God has designed to preach the gospel to your cousin? Probably you. Because I am probably never going to meet your cousin. Who do you think God has designed to preach the gospel to your mum and your dad and your sister and your cousins and your relatives? Probably you. And this is something that is convicting to all of us because all of us have unsaved family. We go door to door and we try to give the gospel to someone — they reject it and we might never see them again, they might never have another chance. But when it comes to your personal family, you are going to see them again. You are going to see them at Christmas, at New Year's, at other holidays. In the Philippines there are a lot of family get-togethers where people kind of set aside religion to be together as a family. At funerals, family comes together regardless of religion to honour the person who has passed. There are opportunities there. Of course it is difficult to preach the gospel to your family. Preaching the gospel is always difficult, always intimidating, and always hard unless you are filled with the spirit. But the thing is, I can walk up to someone in a park and if they reject me it is not the end of the world. When you preach the gospel to your relatives or neighbours or co-workers, inside your head you are thinking if this goes wrong I could get in trouble. Now obviously with co-workers there is wisdom in how you do it — on company time you are meant to work, so maybe during lunch breaks or after work you say, hey can I take you out to eat, I want to share something with you. And if they do not want to listen, back away, you do not want to get in trouble. But you want to at least try to give people in your sphere of influence a chance, because God has set aside for everybody to hear the gospel from somebody.
Go to Mark 16.
I think the best way to preach the gospel is to go where there are a lot of people. Even in Australia, there is great success preaching the gospel at the mall if we are talking about getting a lot of people saved. But that alone is not sufficient, because not everybody goes to the mall. There are some people you have got to go to their house, and the good thing there is you hit every single door — you are giving people a chance at every single one. Whereas at parks and malls, not everybody is necessarily there, but you run into people of generally the right age and groups you can talk to. So I think the best way is to go where people are.
But the problem is if all you do is go to public places and parks, there are still a lot of people not being reached. And then there are certain people you are not going to reach door to door. But as a saved person, you might have the opportunity to preach the gospel to your cousin or your relative.
Mark 16:15: "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." It is God's intention for every man, every woman, every boy, and every girl to hear the gospel. And God has a plan where he says there are certain people in your sphere of influence that I want you to preach to. But unfortunately, most people are not doing that. So as soul winners we are trying to do as much as we can and make up for saved people that are not soul winners and are not doing their job.
Now you might say, okay pastor, I am already preaching the gospel, so it is good enough, right? But here is the thing — even if everybody got an opportunity to hear the gospel one time, I think we should give people the opportunity to hear it as much as possible. Maybe on one day they are not willing to listen. Maybe circumstances change in their life, they hit a low point, and now they are receptive to the gospel. So we ought to give people as much of a chance as possible.
Let me give you one example here in Joshua chapter 2. Joshua 2:9: "And she said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath."
In my opinion, in this story I think somebody has already come and shared with Rahab the plan of salvation. When we read the Bible we do not always see the precise moment somebody gets saved. But obviously people are getting saved in the Old Testament too. Salvation has always been the same — the only difference is they looked forward to the coming Messiah and did not necessarily know quite as many minute details as we do about the gospel. The death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, his name is Jesus — these are things we know we need to believe. Whereas in the Old Testament they looked forward to the coming Messiah, though I do believe they understood there was a resurrection coming. But things are a lot clearer to us in 2026 than they were thousands of years ago predating Jesus Christ.
She obviously says your God, he is God in heaven above and in earth beneath. And I think somebody had actually already come to her and given her the gospel and explained salvation to her.
Verse 12: "Now therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the Lord, since I have shewed you kindness, that ye will also shew kindness unto my father's house, and give me a true token: and that ye will save alive my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death." And the men answered her: "Our life for yours, if ye utter not this our business. And it shall be, when the Lord hath given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with thee." Then she let them down by a cord through the window, for her house was upon the town wall, and she dwelt upon the wall. And she said, "Get you to the mountain, lest the pursuers meet you; and hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers be returned: and afterward may ye go your way."
Then notice this in verse 18: "Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didest let us down by: and thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father's household, home unto thee." Whose job was it to bring them home? Rahab. Those were the only people she could reach. I believe Rahab was already saved. I do not think her entire household was though. Obviously there is the physical dimension where they need to be in the house to be spared, but I also think there is the obvious symbolism with spiritual salvation. She is the one person that could actually reach them. Nobody else would have listened. But they know her. They are willing to listen. And the men say — you bring home your father, your mother, your brethren, your father's household.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 3.
Now in 1 Corinthians 3:6, I think this is a very misunderstood and misapplied verse. I think the main meaning of verse 6 a lot of people miss. The reason is because at the end of verse 5, we are talking about preaching the gospel as the Lord gave to every man. But notice what it says here in verse 6. You can make that application, but I do not think it is the main application. Notice what it says: "I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase."
The way I have usually heard this preached is the idea that sometimes you go out and preach the gospel and you do not get anybody saved, and all you are doing is planting — and somebody later on comes and preaches at the same door and waters it, and eventually they get saved, and you get the same reward because you both did the work. Now that is maybe a side application, but think about this in the context of 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Paul was the one who was leading the church in Corinth, and then who was it that the book of Acts talks about that took over? Apollos.
How often do you go out there and plant a seed preaching the gospel and then somebody else gets that person saved? Does it happen? Absolutely. Usually when you go out and preach the gospel, they either get saved or they do not. And so what actually took place is that Paul was the leader of the church of Corinth and then he left. And Apollos watered what Paul had already started planting. So when it comes to who did more important work — was it Paul or Apollos? Well, Paul started the work, started the church, gathered people together, and led them, and Apollos took over. They are both basically doing the same thing and they are both going to get a reward — that is what the Bible is actually teaching here.
Now the reason why this is important is because people use verse 6 to justify not getting anybody saved. I remember missionaries coming into my home state in West Virginia giving their presentation and testimony at church. There was one missionary who had been on the mission field for a long time who actually said from the pulpit — hey, do not lose courage preaching the gospel because I went more than a decade without getting somebody saved. This is literally someone our church was supporting. And the idea he is presenting is, you know what, God sent me and we have preached and we have really planted, and one day someone is going to water and they are going to get saved. He is using this verse to justify doing nothing. How are you getting nobody saved? I do not care what country you are in — how are you not getting somebody saved? That is ridiculous. Even in unreceptive countries you can get somebody saved. And if the country is so dangerous that you cannot preach the gospel openly and you cannot get anybody saved, why are you a missionary to a country where you cannot do anything for God? It does not make sense.
But there is this mindset where people say Jeremiah was the weeping prophet because he never led a single soul to the Lord. Or they say Noah, the preacher of righteousness, never got anybody saved. Wait a minute — nobody got on the ark. But why would you say Noah never got anybody saved? Getting on the ark is not the same thing as spiritual salvation. And in the Old Testament, the focus is on these prophets that cried against cities and preached against cities and got persecuted. But if you were to look at people in our modern day who have done great works for God, what are the things you would talk about? Would you talk about them going door to door soul-winning and getting people saved? Well, maybe a little bit, but honestly you talk about them getting banned from countries, getting protested, getting persecuted, the big things they went through as a result of doing great works. The same is true in the Old Testament — you are seeing prophets being persecuted for the cause of Christ, for preaching the gospel, for standing up for the Lord. That does not mean they were not preaching the gospel and getting people saved. You look at stories like Elijah against the false prophets of Baal — I promise you he is also talking to people and explaining the gospel and getting people saved. Otherwise God would not greatly use him. And so when it comes to Paul and Apollos, could you make a side application that sometimes Apollos preached the gospel to someone that had already heard it but did not get saved and then they did get saved? Yeah, that probably happened. But do you think Paul led a church of unsaved people for years and then Apollos watered and they finally got saved? No. What is taking place is that Paul led a church of saved people, preached to them, did a great work, and Apollos took what was already started and helped teach them more and more.
Go to John chapter 4.
There are a lot of examples of this in our modern day that we can apply, particularly when it comes to our churches here in the Philippines. We started with members from day one. Why? Honestly, it had nothing to do with what I had done because I did not have a big name or anything like that. It is because of other people that had done great works for God. You think of the new IFB movement and pastors whose sermons are online, obviously Pastor Anderson but other pastors with an influence as well. And when brother Jimenez was right with God he had a big following and did a great job, and there was a following and people ready from day one. When I came down from the recommendation of brother Jimenez, there were people I was able to lead from day one. Then we were able to start our church in Pampanga because people knew there was an established like-minded church in Manila. And the same thing with Melbourne — there were people from day one because of what John 4:37 says: "And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours."
What that means is that other people did labour, other people built a following, and you are able to take what was started and enter into the labours of other people. This is not something to get upset about or defensive or prideful about — saying I did it all on my own. Because all of us enter into the labours of other people. I could look back to my parents raising me — they did a great work and taught me great things. Then somebody else got me saved. I did not get myself saved. And then at various IFB churches in my first few years of being saved, I grew and learned from great pastors. Then I was able to start a church with members from day one — because of the labour of other people.
For the church in Melbourne, you have got a great congregation from day one because you are entering into the labours of other great men that have done great works for God. And of course you have been meeting together and motivating each other for a long time, so I am not negating the work you are doing. What I am saying is you knew there were other like-minded people because of the work and labour of other people. And there is nothing wrong with that. Instead of getting defensive, get excited and say hey, we have got a group of people — let us do something, be thankful for what we have been given, and take it to another level. I will always say openly that I have entered into the labours of other people and I am not upset about that. I am thankful for the fact there were people from day one.
And you say, well, who gets rewards then for the work you are doing if you are entering into the labours of what other people did? Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 3.
With this idea in mind in verse 6 — where the real application is not about soul-winning primarily but actually about leading a church and entering into a work — verse 6: "I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour."
What does this mean? Do not worry about who gets the most rewards. You get rewarded for the work that you do. We are going to find out one day — God is going to make it manifest as he is going to talk about in the rest of this chapter — the works and the rewards we get. So whatever situation you are in in life, whatever age you got saved, whatever church you are a part of, just do the most work for God you can, be as big a blessing as possible, and we will find out who gets rewards. Yes, people that have done the groundwork are going to get rewards. If you are part of a church, serving God, going soul-winning, you are going to get rewards. If you are leading a church, you are going to get rewards. We are all going to find out how much we get. Whether you are planting or watering, you are both serving God, you are both doing what is right. Be thankful for that, and you are going to be rewarded for that.
Verse 9: "For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building." There is an important phrase here to understand — with God. In verse 9, we must always remember that when we are labouring, when we are going soul-winning, when we are doing what God says, we are not doing it alone. We are doing it with God. This is important because it stops us from getting prideful, but it is also enormously encouraging when we go through dark and difficult times. Because the reality is, if I was doing things on my own, I would just not be able to make it. You have to have God on your side.
Go to Mark 16. I want to show you something quickly and then we are going to get to the judgment seat of Christ starting in verse 10.
Mark 16:19–20: "So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following." The commandment to go out and preach the gospel — they went and they preached everywhere. The Lord was working with them. They were not doing it on their own. It is not like God is sending you out and you are on your own, buddy. God is with you every step of the way when you are serving him and doing what is right.
Now this statement offends a lot of people, specifically Calvinists but others as well. God will work with you and God can help a lot of people get saved with you as you do the work. But God cannot and will not get anybody saved without you. What I mean by that is in the context of soul-winning there in Mark 16 — not a single soul is going to get saved unless we go out and do the work. God will always work with us. He will not work without you. Nobody is getting saved unless somebody preaches the gospel.
Do I think God can put circumstances on people's lives that can make them more ready to hear the gospel? Absolutely. But it requires a soul winner to preach the gospel. And this is very important to realise — it is not a prideful thing to say we go out and get people saved. Am I the saviour? No. But at the same time, even though I am not the saviour, I am still part of the saving process. When I explain the gospel to someone, without that they are not going to get saved. If nobody goes out and preaches the gospel, nobody is getting saved. And look, we do not want to deemphasise the importance of soul winners. I have heard people preach before saying let us not put too much emphasis on the soul winner because God is already preparing people's hearts and getting them ready. That is madness. Somebody must go out and preach the gospel or nobody is going to get saved. The good news is God is always going to work with us — we are not doing it in our own power. But he will not work without us. He is not going to come down from heaven and preach the gospel to someone. Nobody is getting saved unless we preach the gospel.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 3.
The Judgment Seat of Christ
1 Corinthians 3:10–12: "According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, 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 this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble."
Jesus is the foundation. When Paul said I have laid the foundation, he is basically saying he started this great work, he planted this great church that at one time was great. He laid the foundation of Jesus Christ. He built a church where the foundation is about Jesus Christ and the word of God. And another one is building thereon — but you have got to take heed how you build upon it. Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Now the Bible speaks about as we build upon this foundation, it is going to talk about our individual rewards for the work that we do. If any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble — the Bible lists six things in verse 12. The first three are gold, silver, precious stones. The next three are wood, hay, stubble. There is a clear distinction between these six things. You have got three things that have real value — gold, silver, and precious stones. They have value because they are not common. They have value because they are rare. Gold is a precious commodity. If there was just an overabundance of gold in the world, it would have no value. But there is not, so it has real value. Silver has real value as well. Now I am not going to go on a rabbit trail about our modern-day monetary system, but the reason a small piece of paper has value is because the government tells you it has value. There is no intrinsic value in a small piece of paper because there is an abundance of paper and trees. Whereas gold, silver, and precious stones have value because they are rare.
Aside from the fact that gold, silver, and precious stones are rare and have real value, and wood, hay, and stubble are very common things with no intrinsic value, there is also something called being able to abide a fire. That is what the Bible is going to describe here in 1 Corinthians 3.
"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." The Bible is saying there will be a day at the judgment seat of Christ where everyone's work is going to be made manifest. The day is going to declare it, and it is going to be revealed by fire. Now this is known as the judgment seat of Christ in 1 Corinthians 3. There is another judgment we are going to look at briefly later in the sermon — the great white throne judgment. The judgment seat of Christ is about getting rewards as a saved person. The great white throne judgment is about getting punishment as an unsaved person. Neither one of these is about are you good enough or bad enough to determine whether you go to heaven or hell.
I have seen videos before where somebody dies and they stand in line, step on a scale, and they are either the good egg or the bad egg — kind of like the scene in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. But that does not happen at the judgment seat of Christ. You die as a saved person, you are immediately with the Lord in heaven. You die as an unsaved person, you are immediately in hell. There is no judgment to determine if you make it or not. You are either innocent or guilty. To the unsaved world they do not get this because they think salvation is about being good enough to make it. But there are two judgments, and neither one of them is about are you good enough to make it to heaven. The judgment seat of Christ is about getting rewards.
Now here is the thing — there is nothing sinful or wrong about wood, hay, and stubble. They just do not have any intrinsic value. They are not really meaningful. The Bible uses terminology in some places where it says bad, and people see the word bad and think sinful. That is not what the Bible is trying to imply when it says good or bad. You can have eggs that are either good or bad — you get 12 eggs and you look to make sure there are no cracked ones. Sometimes you crack an egg and it is already spoiled, it is already bad. And sometimes there is meat or whatever and it is bad. The same thing is true with our works. There are things that are not necessarily sinful. Not everything is either godly where you get rewards or sinful. There are things in between that are neither sinful nor particularly godly where you just do not get any rewards for doing them. When the Bible says wood, hay, and stubble, what it is referring to are things that do not intrinsically give you a reward — just things you do in life.
I will give you an example of something I believe is very necessary and very important but I do not believe you are going to get a single reward in heaven for — brushing your teeth. Taking care of your teeth, taking care of your hygiene, putting on deodorant from time to time, washing your hair — these are things you need to do, but I do not think you get a reward for brushing your teeth. It takes time. In fact there are a lot of things in life that take time. You might be a man who likes to have a beard. Even if you like having a beard you still trim it from time to time. As ladies, your hair grows out and you might cut it. As men our hair grows out and we have to cut it because we do not want to look effeminate — we want to be men as the Bible says. But do you get a reward for getting your hair cut? No.
There are also things in life such as hobbies. I think hobbies are great, I think they are fun, I think they are good. Do you get rewards for having hobbies? No. And if you have too many hobbies in your life, it actually goes along with what the Bible speaks about — let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily beset us when we are running the race. A sin is wrong and is transgression of the law. But there are other things that are not a violation of the law, not transgressing or breaking God's law, but they are weights. Things that weigh you down.
Let me give you an example. Some people have a weighted book bag and they use it to exercise — it helps make a hike or a run more difficult than normal. Or people lift weights and they get pretty strong, so they put a band around their waist with weights hanging down to make it more difficult. But the thing is in our lives, if we are running a race and trying to go as fast as possible, added weight is going to make you slower. I like to stay in shape and I stay pretty active, but if I had an extra 20 kg on me it is going to make me a lot slower. A marathon runner who is a great runner — you add another 10 kg to them and they are not running the marathon nearly as fast, because you have got to lay aside every weight if you are going to run a race.
So there are things in life that are not sinful but they are bad, they are wood, hay, stubble. They are a time waster. They get in the way. And look, I believe in having a balance in our lives because honestly you can burn out. There is only so much you can do. I do not teach that you just have to read the Bible 24 hours a day because I think sometimes you can push people too far and then they cannot take it anymore. But I am just saying the more weights you have in your life, the more things that distract you, they are just going to cause you to do less for God. And as much as possible we want to have as little wood, hay, and stubble in our lives as necessary.
It is going to be revealed by fire and it is going to be made manifest. We do not know right now who is going to get however many rewards. I do not believe that just because I am the pastor, I automatically get more rewards than the members of the church. I see a lot of people at our churches that love God and are very zealous. I am sure the same is true in Melbourne. There are many of you that are doing awesome things for God. I see the pictures, I see people soul-winning, I see people pushing for more and trying to do as much as possible for God. It should not be a big deal to us trying to figure out who is going to get the most rewards or who is doing more for God. We should all worry about our own work. We are going to be rewarded based on the work we do, and it is going to be made manifest one day. We are going to find out. And in heaven after the judgment seat of Christ, you are going to be able to tell who gets what rewards. But we do not know for sure right now. We should all just worry about ourselves and do as much for God as possible — soul-winning, Bible reading, living godly. The day is coming when it will be made manifest, because the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
For the sake of time I will not turn there, but in Daniel 12 it says: "They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." I do believe the Bible is saying you will have a certain level of light or shining about you if you turn many to righteousness. You are going to be like a star. So I think in heaven we are going to see people that are very bright because they have turned a lot to righteousness — they have gotten a lot of people saved and done great works for God.
When Is the Judgment Seat of Christ?
A lot of people wonder when the judgment seat of Christ is. The Bible speaks about the judgment seat of Christ and the great white throne judgment. The judgment seat of Christ is for rewards for saved people. The great white throne judgment is for punishments for unsaved people. You see the great white throne judgment very clearly after the millennial reign of Christ, where the punishments are being handed out. So people naturally assume the two judgments are at the same time. But that is not actually the case. Remember that in the millennial reign of Christ we are going to rule and reign with Christ, and according to the Bible you rule and reign based on the level of what you have done. And so the Bible teaches pretty firmly that the rewards at the judgment seat of Christ are given before the millennial reign of Christ, whereas the great white throne judgment is after the millennial reign of Christ.
Now obviously for those who get saved after that point — I do not believe that when they die they immediately get their rewards. I believe that is going to come later on. But we have these two big judgments: the judgment seat of Christ, which precedes the millennial reign of Christ, and the great white throne judgment.
1 Corinthians 3:14: "If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward." Why is it that we get a reward for the work that we do? Because God gave us a gift. You do not have to pay back a gift. Do you understand that eternal life is a gift? Salvation is a gift. We do not pay back a gift — it was given as a gift. Now if somebody gives you a gift, you should feel a sense of obligation and appreciation for that gift, and if you have the opportunity in the future you would want to help them out in return. But here is the thing — God says what I gave you was 100% a gift. And the thing is we cannot repay it. What God does is actually give us rewards for the work we do. We do not have to work to try to pay back that gift because nothing we do can repay it. Nothing we do, because the fact is our good works do not outweigh the bad. Preaching the gospel does not outdo the fact that I have lied. So we do not repay the gift. We get rewards that God will give us for the work that we do — because we were given a gift, and you do not have to pay a gift back.
For the sake of time I will not turn there, but the Bible says: "Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." In the context of reaping and sowing, we often look at this and talk about if you do bad you are going to have a punishment, you are going to reap a bad consequence. And that is true — be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. But at the same time two verses later it says let us not be weary in well doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. There it is talking about doing good. This applies to both good and bad — you sow good things you get good things, you sow bad things you get bad things. And so as much as is possible we should be zealous to preach the gospel and not faint and keep serving God and we can keep getting rewards.
Verse 15 — Saved Yet So as by Fire
1 Corinthians 3:15: "If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire."
Originally I was going to turn to the great white throne judgment, but for the sake of time I went on various rabbit trails today and I still have a lot I want to say about this verse. In your free time you can look at Revelation 20:11–15, which covers the millennial reign of Christ briefly and then covers the great white throne judgment after it.
This is very different from the judgment seat of Christ. Do not get confused between these two things. Judgment seat of Christ — to get rewards, for saved people. Great white throne judgment — the punishment given to those that are unsaved. Because in hell, when people die right now, they are all equally punished. But that would not be fair to last forever because there are some people that are serial killers and there are other people that are nice people who never received the gospel. Going to hell at all is the worst punishment you could possibly imagine — honestly beyond what we can imagine, hell for all eternity. But there is going to be an equal balancing that God is going to determine. Those that had more opportunities to hear the gospel and rejected it, those that did a lot of bad things, those that were wicked people — they will be punished more in the lake of fire. At the great white throne judgment, their soul is reunited with their body and they are thrown in the lake of fire for all eternity and given the proper punishment they deserve for what they have done. That is very different from the judgment seat of Christ.
Now I want to show you verse 15 because a lot of people teach weird things based on this passage. Some say you can lose your salvation in 1 Corinthians 3. Others say purgatory — like the Catholic Church, because anytime they see the word fire they jump to hell, and anytime they see water and baptism they think you are drinking water. You have got to look at the context. It is talking about things being thrown in the fire and it is talking about getting rewards — things that are either good or bad, things of real value or not of value.
When people say, well, it talks about being burned — I want you to notice very clearly. It says if any man's work shall be burned. It does not say if any man shall be burned. The person is not thrown in the fire. The man or woman is not thrown in the fire. The works are thrown in the fire. And it says he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved. Not only does this not teach that you can lose your salvation — if anything it proves eternal security, because you are going to be saved even if everything is burned up. But it says yet so as by fire.
Here is the thing — the Catholic Church takes this and says purgatory. This is perhaps their biggest verse in the Bible to prove purgatory. Now I have read the Apocrypha before and I can tell you the Apocrypha does teach purgatory — there is a long section, I believe in 2 Maccabees though I could be wrong, that talks about purgatory. But of course the Apocrypha is not the word of God. There is some historical information in it that is pretty good and there is historical information that is flatout wrong. It is not reliable and it was not inspired by God.
But they use this one verse in 1 Corinthians 3:15 to try to prove purgatory. Here is what it says on what I believe is Catholic.com: Paul is discussing the judgment after death that every human being will one day face, framed in the context of loss and reward. Each man's work will become manifest, writes Paul, for the day of judgment will disclose it because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. Paul then describes a state of being. He cannot be describing hell because people are being saved there. He is not describing heaven because there is imperfection being burned up there. Paul is describing a third place — purgatory, a place or state of being where the faithful dead who are in a state of grace but not yet purified of all imperfection go for final purification to prepare them to enter the glory of heaven.
So the Catholic Church teaches there is a stage called purgatory. It gets that name because in purgatory you are purged — PURG — from your uncleanness, from your imperfection, where you are not totally cleansed. You are saved, so you are not going to go to hell, but you still have a cleansing process afterwards to get the uncleanness out. This burning that takes place is like a mini burning — and they try to back away from this and say well, there is no pain there, it is just a cleansing process. How it works exactly we do not really know. But any amount of burning is awful. When I have gone through painful things in my life, the one thing I say to myself is — in all things we should have some gladness. And I think to myself, you know what, this is a reminder to me to take hell very seriously because hell is worse. I have been through painful things. I have been through surgeries, a torn ACL. A root canal at the dentist is very painful. Accidentally burning yourself is pretty bad. It reminds you of how bad hell is.
But here is why what they are saying does not make any sense. I agree this is not referring to heaven. I agree it is not referring to hell. I do not agree it is referring to purgatory.
Because the thing is — people's works are being burned up. Not the person. The person is not being cleansed. It is the work that is being burned up. So the same reason it cannot be hell is the same reason it cannot be purgatory — because the person is not getting burned up at all. All that is taking place is someone is getting their rewards dished out.
And look, the Bible speaks about our works being burned up. In my opinion, in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, it is hard to tell how literal everything is. What I mean is obviously there is this judgment and obviously things are being made manifest. Are we literally going to see gold, silver, and precious stones? Are we literally seeing wood, hay, and stubble? Somehow we are seeing something where we can find out if it abides a fire. It might not be word for word necessarily literal in terms of all of a sudden something goes and gold, silver, and precious stones are on the other side. But maybe it is — I honestly do not know. What I do not believe is that in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 God is going to show us all of our sins on a big screen projector of everything we have ever done, and that is the wood, hay, and stubble. That would be pretty embarrassing. I have committed a lot of sins, I have done a lot of stupid and foolish things that I am embarrassed about and do not want anyone to know about. It is certainly not something I would brag about or want people to know. I do not believe that is what is taking place.
But I believe what God is doing is saying — hey, you had your opportunity for rewards. Let us see what you did. Let us see what actually abides the fire. And basically somehow God is going to make manifest what is there — whether there is a literal fire or whatever — and then we are going to find out on the other side what your rewards are. How literal that is and exactly how it works, I do not really know. But God is using an analogy to help us fully understand what is taking place.
This is not purgatory — you are not having sins presented. This is not hell. It is showing you what abides the fire, and it is going to be manifest. How exactly that takes place, whether it is a literal fire, I am not 100% sure. I would tend to think it probably is a literal fire and somehow things are thrown in and we find out on the other side. But it is not the person being thrown in the fire. And the important thing for us to understand is that you will get rewards one day. So take your life seriously. Do not waste your time and lose out on all the potential rewards you could get. Nobody knows right now for sure how much you are living for God. But one day it will be made manifest and everybody will know.
Verse 16 — The Temple of God
"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are."
I do not want to go too much into these verses for this sermon, but I wanted to show you them as a segue because we should want to do what is right to get rewards. And this shows you the other side of the coin. Why are you defiling and harming your body? Because you are missing out on rewards when you sin and when you do wrong. It is kind of like a motivation — God is going to destroy you if you do wrong, God is going to punish you in this life. God wants you to take care of your body, obey his commandments, and do what is right. And hey, if it does not motivate you that God is going to give you rewards, how about this — God is going to punish you if you do not obey. He is going to destroy you in this life. Hopefully we are motivated by getting rewards. If not, be motivated by the fear that God is going to judge you and punish you in this life.
Both things can serve as motivation. It is kind of like Galatians 6, which is more famous — be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. You will be punished in this life. God will destroy you in this life if you defile the temple of God. And the Bible says: "Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." When do we reap? At the judgment seat of Christ. Two things are motivation. Number one — you do good, you get rewards. Number two — you do bad, you get punished. But not punished in purgatory, not punished in hell, but punished in this life when you do wrong. And so God says be holy, for I am holy.
So here we see the judgment seat of Christ. It is an important doctrine to understand because the Catholic Church butchers it and a lot of people have weird teachings about it. This will take place before the millennial reign of Christ and we will get rewards based on the good things we have done. It is not a judgment to determine if you go to heaven or hell — that does not exist. You either go immediately to heaven or immediately to hell. And then after the millennial reign, Revelation 20 speaks of the great white throne judgment where unbelievers are going to be punished for each and everything they have done. Their soul and their body reunite and they are thrown in the lake of fire where their worm dieth not — referencing their body — for all eternity.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and to learn about the judgment seat of Christ. Help us to be motivated, God — whether it be by the fear that you are going to judge and punish us, which all of us need sometimes, but also help us to be motivated by the fact that we can get rewards. You will give us rewards for the great things we do because we were given a gift. It is not something we have to pay back. God, help us to not be weary in well doing, but to continue to strive to serve you and love you and do great things for you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.