How God Builds His Church
Tom Shrader works through 1 Corinthians 3:1-9, arguing that Paul's description of fleshly, immature believers is not a license for a fruitless "carnal Christian" category but a warning about unexamined professions of faith. He contrasts the deeds of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5, pressing listeners to apply both a doctrinal and a moral test to their own lives. Central to the message is the Reformed conviction that salvation is entirely God-given and God-driven, and that genuine faith will always produce measurable, ongoing change in a believer's character and relationships.
“Salvation is God-given, God-driven, God-empowered, and God-originated. The gift is not from man to God. The gift is from God to man.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: 1 Corinthians
Recorded: 2001 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 46 min
Themes: assurance, fruit of the spirit, false conversion, spiritual growth, self-examination, repentance, carnality, genuine faith, concerned parent, doubting your salvation, prodigal child, raised in church, young adult, struggling with sin, new believer, parent of teenagers
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 3:1-9, 1 Corinthians 2:14, 2 Corinthians 13, Matthew 5, Romans 12, Galatians 5, Philippians 2:12-13, James 2:19
Theological Themes: carnal christian, perseverance of the saints, sanctification, regeneration, lordship salvation, fruit inspection, soteriology, means of grace
Full Transcript
Introduction: A Concerning Conversation
Open your Bibles, if you would, to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Today we will look at verses 1 through 9. This is an important passage — one that many people either misunderstand or misapply.
I had a lady in one of the priority living studies a couple of weeks ago, and we were talking, and she began to talk about her daughter. I said, "How's your daughter doing?" And here is what she said: "My daughter's not walking with the Lord right now." I said, "What do you mean?" She said, "Well, she's getting ready to move in — this will be the third time she's moved in with a live-in boyfriend. She's certainly not been the mother that she should be. She's involved in some other behavior that, frankly, is not desirable. She has no thirst at all for any spiritual things."
I asked the lady, "Is your daughter a Christian?" And she reacted with indignation at the inference that somehow this girl might not be a believer. I had no such inference at all — I was simply asking the question. She said, "Well, absolutely. When she was five years old, she asked Jesus into her heart."
A Warning to Young People
We see variations of this all the time. We have a number of students in here this hour, so I want to talk to you specifically. You've been in church a while, and you talked about Jesus when you were five or six or seven. You've hung around long enough to learn all the phrases, and you can keep your parents off your back just by spitting out certain phrases. They want to believe you anyway, because they don't want to think their little girl or their little boy is not a Christian. So they give you a free pass and let you slide.
Then all of a sudden, we get you in junior high, and you have some level of freedom, and we see some rebellion. Then you get into high school, and all the restraints are gone, and we see what's really there. And what we see is not that you aren't walking with the Lord — it's that you were never the Lord's at all. That is a real danger.
One of the greatest concerns I have for my own girls is that they were raised in a Christian home, went to a Christian grade school and high school, and have been in this Christian environment all the way along — that they might be so deceived they never come face to face with their sin. I hear that concern all the time, especially from parents, because we so desperately want our kids to belong to God. But we are doing them no favor by pretending they are Christians when they aren't.
The Lady's Response Was Classic
I thought that lady's response was classic. She said her daughter wasn't walking with the Lord — and yet her daughter is living with a man, failing as a mother, involved with drugs and alcohol, and has no desire for church, fellowship, or the Bible. I didn't say this to her, because I'm too nice, but I said to myself: she's not a Christian at all.
Martin Luther said this: "When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said 'repent,' it was His will that the entire life of the believer would be one of repentance." In other words, we are continually turning to Christ and from our sin. A life with no evidence of that turning is a serious concern.
The Danger of Misapplying This Passage
This passage we are looking at has become a great comforting passage to many people, and I believe that is because it is being misapplied and misunderstood. Paul has been talking in these first two chapters about philosophy and worldly thinking, and then about the thoughts and wisdom of God. He has been talking about those who are perishing and those who are being saved, and he summarizes it all right there in chapter 2, verse 14 — there is a natural man and a spiritual man.
Some have taught that here in chapter 3, verses 1 through 9, Paul creates a third category called the carnal Christian. The idea is that you can have not just a natural man and a spiritual man, but also people who are Christians in whom nothing is going on, nothing is happening — they have heaven for sure, but there is no change in their life. If you have been clinging to this passage as comfort for someone you love — a brother, sister, child, co-worker, or spouse — someone who made a profession of faith but in whom there has never been any change, I want to take from you the comfort you are deriving from this passage, because it ought not to be a comforting passage at all.
When someone comes to me and says they are not really sure they are a Christian, I do not say, "Well, tell me when you received Jesus." I say to them, "Why don't you think you're a Christian? What is going on in your life, your heart, your mind that makes you think you might not be a believer?" These are not my statistics, by the way — these are Billy Graham's own statistics: 90% of those who walk an aisle at a Graham crusade, by their own numbers, are not converted.
What Paul Is Actually Saying
Now let us take a look at what Paul is actually saying. He said, "I, brethren, could not speak to you as spiritual men but as men of flesh, as to babes in Christ." Paul is writing to this arrogant church that is filled with division. They love to boast about how eloquent they are in their philosophies. Remember, he has talked about natural men and spiritual men.
He addresses them — and this is important to see — as "brethren" and as "babes in Christ." The word "brethren" is a term that carries recognition and love. He reminds them that they are brothers, but they are certainly not looking like it. He calls them babes in Christ, which carries the inference that they are in Christ. He is at least treating them and speaking to them as though they are Christians. And then he says: you are in the flesh.
The Two Kinds of Flesh
In these first three verses, you see the word "flesh" or "fleshly" appear three times. The first time, in verse one, the Greek word used is *sarkinos*, which refers to flesh and blood — this physical stuff we are made of. The second time, in verses two and three, the word is *sarkikos*, meaning to be driven by, dominated by, or governed by the flesh. These are two very different words.
Here is what Paul is saying. In verse one he says, "You are men of the flesh," meaning you are ordinary flesh and blood, just like us. Because of that, when he came to speak to them, he started right where they were. It would have been of no value to speak to them about serious things because they were not ready for them. Paul is giving them the benefit of the doubt — he cannot look into their hearts, and he acknowledges that — but based on their profession, he treats them as brethren, as Christians, as babes in Christ.
The dilemma Paul names is this: when he came to them, he could only give them milk. He could not give them solid food. He could only speak about the elementary things of the faith — Christianity 101, again and again. One author writes it this way: a new Christian might explain the atonement as simply "Christ died for our sins," but a long-term student of the Word would go into such things as regeneration, justification, substitution, and propitiation.
Ray Stedman puts it like this: "Christ died for my sins" — that is milk. "We died with Christ to sin" — that is meat. When you rejoice in the hope of sharing the glory of God, that is milk, because that is simply looking forward to glory at the end of life. But when you learn to rejoice in your suffering because you know that God is working out something in your life that nothing else could, that is meat. That is grown-up faith.
Still on Milk After Seven Years
Paul is writing back to the Corinthians after being away from them for some time. He is saying, in effect, "I remember when I was with you, all we could talk about was 'Jesus loves me, this I know.' We ought to be going deeper than that by now." The same thing is true in our own lives.
There was a man who was talking along, and there was nothing going on spiritually. He said, "I'm really a baby Christian." When asked how long he had been a Christian, he said seven years. Seven years is not a baby Christian. A baby Christian is seven months, seven weeks — but not seven years. The problem was not immaturity in time; the problem was that he was still *sarkikos* — still fleshly, still living for the flesh.
The evidence Paul points to is telling: all sorts of jealousy and strife. Jealousy is that self-centeredness, that internal attitude. It then manifests itself outwardly in strife, in action. A selfish, self-centered, jealous person is frequently at odds with everyone around them. Nothing is at peace in their life; they are in turmoil with every relationship.
For students especially, this can look like this: "I don't get along with my teachers. I don't get along with my fellow students. They're all idiots. They don't get it. Nobody understands me. I'm the only one who gets it." Here is the truth: the problem is not them. The problem is a selfish, jealous heart. You are the problem, not them. That is where the jealousy and strife come from.
What Your Relationships Reveal
William Barclay writes this: "You can tell what a man's relationship with God is really like by looking at his relationship with his fellow men. If a man is at variance with his fellow man — if he is quarrelsome, competitive, argumentative, a troublemaking creature — he may be a diligent church attender, he may be a church officeholder, but he is not a man of God."
That is worth staying on. A person may be sitting in the pew with their notebook open, underlining passages, winning at Bible trivia, even holding some office in the church — but if all their relationships are destructive, they are not a man of God. However, if a man is at one with his fellow man, if his relationships are marked by love and unity, then he is on his way to being a man of God. If he is distant from his fellow men, that is good proof that he is distant from God. If he is divided from his fellow men, he is divided from God. If he loves God, he will love his fellow men.
Now Paul is not saying that if you get along with people, you are therefore a Christian. What he is saying is that if you are a Christian, you will get along with people. That is the direction of the argument. If I am truly a Christian, I will not be at war with everyone around me. There are certainly people in our lives who are determined to make things difficult, but the responsibility still falls on us. As Paul writes in Romans 12, "As far as it depends on you, live at peace with one another."
The Factions at Corinth
The jealousy and strife at Corinth manifested itself in an almost theological way. Some were saying, "I follow Paul," while others were saying, "I follow Apollos."
The Heart of a Servant
Paul says we are nothing but men. What is Apollos? What is Paul? They are servants. This is an important word, and we miss something by not having the Greek here. We see Paul identify himself frequently at the beginning of his letters as Paul the bondservant, or Paul the slave. The word he uses here is a different Greek word. It means a servant — one who performs a menial task of any sort, a table waiter, a busboy.
What Paul is saying is: I have a servant's heart. My concern here is what can I do for you, not how are you going to meet my needs. Paul said, I am concerned about you, not about myself.
The Corinthians were trying to pit one leader against another — "I follow this guy, and I follow that guy." Paul says, no, don't bring me into that. We are not in competition with one another. We are in cooperation with each other because we are working toward God's kingdom.
The Radical Reconstruction of the Heart
There is a norm that ought to be present in your life, and you find it in Matthew chapter 5 in the Sermon on the Mount. When Jesus speaks there, He gives a beautiful picture of what ought to characterize your life. It does not matter whether you are a junior higher, a high schooler, or ninety-five years old — if you say you are a Christian, it ought to be present.
One author writes it this way: What Jesus promises is not gimmicks to give us goosebumps, or a mental attitude that has to be pumped up at pep rallies. Matthew 5 describes God's radical reconstruction of a heart.
Here is that Sermon on the Mount — here are the Beatitudes. First, we recognize we are in need: we are poor in spirit. Next, we repent of our self-sufficiency: we mourn. We quit calling the shots and surrender control to God: we are meek. We are grateful for His presence and yearn for more: we hunger and thirst. As we grow closer to Him, we become more like Him: we are merciful. We change our outlook: we are pure in heart. We love others: we are peacemakers. We endure injustice: we are persecuted.
This is not a casual shift of attitude. It is a demolition of the old structure and a creation of the new. The more radical the change, the greater the joy. Whether it is in the marketplace, at work, or at school, there ought to be a radical, distinctive change in your life — and that change manifests itself by you becoming a servant. That is all Paul is saying.
God Causes the Growth
Paul says that Apollos watered and Paul planted, but God caused the growth. "So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but it is God who causes the growth." If there is anything we understand at this church, it is that God causes the growth.
Max Lucado captures this powerfully: Please note, salvation is God-given, God-driven, God-empowered, and God-originated. The gift is not from man to God. The gift is from God to man. Grace is created by God and given to man. On the basis of this point alone, Christianity is set apart from all the other religions of the world.
Every other approach to God is a bartering system: if I do this, God will do that. I am either saved by works — what I do — by emotions — what I experience — or by knowledge — what I know. By contrast, Christianity has no whiff of negotiation at all. Man is not the negotiator. Indeed, man has no grounds from which to negotiate.
Faithful in the Process
God is the one who causes growth, and so Paul says that the one who plants and the one who waters are one — they are all on the same team, all in this together. And each will receive his reward according to his labor. This is revolutionary truth, and it is a very freeing truth for many people.
What it says is that my reward — my pleasing God — is not based on my success. It is based on the work. God rewards me not according to whether I fail or succeed, but according to whether I join in the endeavor. God wants one thing from you. If you are here today, God is concerned about one thing and only one thing: your obedience, your faithfulness. That is all He wants.
God is not looking for you to go win souls in the neighborhood, because you cannot win a soul. God is looking for you to go and witness in the neighborhood, because you can do that. God is not looking for you to argue someone into the kingdom, or to convince an unbelieving spouse, or to somehow make a child believe. You cannot do it. Only God can do that. What God is looking for is for you to be engaged in the process.
Process Over Results
God is not result-oriented when He looks at our lives. God is process-oriented. We live in a result-oriented world. If you are a salesperson in an office, every week there is a sheet that tells you what you sold. If you sold a lot, you are valued. If you sold a little, you are not. No one cares how many calls you made or what your life looks like — the only question is whether you sold or not.
We live that way in nearly every area of life. Did the team win or lose? That is all we care about. God comes along and says, that is not how I evaluate. I look at the process. Were you obedient? Were you diligent? Did you engage in the things I called you to be engaged in? And I will take care of the results.
Test Yourself
This is not one of those lessons where you say, "I wish Uncle Billy could hear this." If you are sitting next to your mom, do not wonder whether your mom gets it. If you are sitting next to your kid, do not wonder whether the kid gets it. You test yourself. It is interesting that at the end of the two letters Paul writes to the church at Corinth, in 2 Corinthians chapter 13, he says, "You test yourself. You examine your own self." Here is the paraphrase from the Living Bible: "Check up on yourselves. Are you really Christians? Do you pass the test? Do you feel Christ's presence and power more and more, or are you just pretending to be Christians when you aren't a Christian at all?"
This is the most important issue you can settle in your heart. Last Sunday at Daytona there was an accident — a tragic accident. Dale Earnhardt went into the wall and was killed. Well, that alone is not tragic. That is a bad break. I feel bad about that. What is tragic — and I have no idea where Dale Earnhardt is spiritually — is that if he does not know Christ, Dale Earnhardt just spent the first week of an eternity in hell. That is tragic.
Let me tell you something that is pitiful — the most pitiful thing I see — and that is somebody who thinks they are a Christian when they are not. This is not simply a process meant to make you wonder and question and feel bad about yourself. It is an important process to go through because your life begins to change as a result.
The Doctrinal Test and the Moral Test
Here is the so-what of today's lesson. Have you been saved? Do you pass the doctrinal test and the moral test? The doctrinal test is this: you believe Jesus is who He said He was. You believe you are a sinner, separated from Him by your sin, and that without Christ there is no hope for you. You believe in Jesus Christ.
However, if that is all you do, you are not a Christian. James tells us the demons believe, and they shudder. You believe Jesus is who He said He was? So far, you are qualified to be a demon. There is a doctrinal test, and because that doctrinal test is true, your life begins to change.
A Life Transformed
I received an email on Friday from someone who attends one of the Priority Living studies. Let me edit out the parts about me — we will post those on the website — and get to what she actually said. Here is what she wrote: "I became a Christian a little less than a year ago, and the last eleven months or so have been incredible. As you have said so many times, if Christ is truly asked to be part of your life, nothing is the same again. And indeed, everything in my life has been transformed in — this is a great phrase — a breathtakingly short amount of time. I have so much still to learn about the incredible things called grace and forgiveness and love, and He is teaching me more."
This is an eleven-month-old believer, not someone seven years in. There has to be a change. Your life will change. If you believe Jesus is the Lord and He is the Master, then by definition you are the servant, and you will desire to do what the Master says.
Converted People
An interesting conversation took place this week among some people about East Valley Bible Church. They were talking about the fact that we have an enormous need in terms of volunteers — birth through high school, we probably need four hundred volunteers to pull that off every week. And while we do have to make people aware of that need, have you noticed there is not a lot of pleading and begging going on? Then the conversation turned to money. Many of you — probably not the students, but the adults in here — come in and, as part of your ritual of looking at the bulletin, go over to the financial update to see how we are doing. And you look and think, that is unbelievable — they are year-to-date already a little bit ahead. And we do not even take a collection. How does that happen?
There was a pause, and I said, I can tell you how it happens. We have something in our church that you do not find in a lot of churches: we have converted people. You do not have to tell a converted person to give. We get the question often — "How much should I give?" — but we never get the question "Should I give?" Because a converted person understands that giving is what they are supposed to do. When someone says they are not sure how much to give, I tell them that is actually not quite the right question. The real question is: how much of God's money should you keep? We will talk about that another time, but you get the idea.
People sometimes say they do not go to church because all they ever talk about is money. We do not talk about money at all — except when it appears in the passage, because then we have to address it. And yet God meets that need. Why? Because many of you are converted people. When you are converted, the most natural thing in the world is to see your life begin to change and to begin to give.
God's Work in You
Now, you say you have passed the test — prove it. Not to me, and not to anyone else right now. Just prove it to yourself. Paul writes this in Philippians 2: "Dearest friends, you were always so careful to follow my instruction when I was with you, and now that I am away, you must be even more careful to put into action God's saving work in your life, obeying God with deep reverence and fear, for God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey Him and the power to do what pleases Him."
As a believer, here is what he says in verse 13: God is doing this work in you.
The Desire to Please God
The work that God is doing is putting in you a desire to obey Him and to please Him. When children are very young, their deepest desire is to please their mom and dad. It is just natural. In basketball, a young child would make a basket and immediately look around to say, "Did you see that? Are you happy?" That is what little children do — "Dad, look at what I drew for you." They want that parent to be proud of them.
I have to point out that children grow out of this attitude, and that is when sin starts to manifest itself. But even students who are in rebellion against their parents still want those parents to be proud of them. They may be masking it and fighting against them, but deep down inside, a child wants the love and approval of his parent. And that is what Scripture is saying: if you are really a Christian, inside — even if it does not always show on the outside — there is a desire to please your Father and to live for Him.
The Doctrinal and Moral Test
If you have been saved, there is a doctrinal test and a moral test, and you prove it to yourself by the fruit. In Galatians chapter 5, Paul writes: "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. For the desire of the flesh is set against the desire of the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh." What Paul is saying is that there is a struggle in your life.
You may have heard someone say, "The Holy Spirit led me to come and talk to you about this." But that idea of being led by the Spirit is not what Scripture is describing. The whole concept of being led by the Spirit is the idea of a moral change that takes place in an individual's life. He says that if you are led by the Spirit, there will be a behavioral change in your life.
The Deeds of the Flesh
So now you must judge your own life. Do you see the fruit of the flesh? Here in Galatians 5, "the deeds of the flesh are evident" — immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissension, factions. Paul says plainly that people who practice these things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
The word he uses is *practice*, and it is in the present active participle, meaning a continuing, ongoing process. If you are involved in any of these things in an ongoing way, and there is no brokenness in your heart, then here is the truth: you have no biblical assurance of your salvation. If there is enmity all around you, strife with everyone, disputes and dissension, an inability to get along with anybody, Paul says those are the deeds of the flesh.
The Fruit of the Spirit
A Christian's life should instead look like this: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." So examine your life and take a look. Are you there doctrinally? Is your behavior there? Is there a desire in you to please God and to do the things He has called you to do? Is there a spirit of reverence and fear and awe before Him?
If there is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control present in your life, there is a degree of spiritual, biblical assurance that you are a Christian. If there is not, let me warn you — you may not be a believer at all.
No Exceptions, No Lowered Bar
I do not accept the idea that someone is simply "not walking with the Lord" when there is no evidence whatsoever. I understand a mother loving her daughter, but how can she say her child made a profession of faith at age five when there is no evidence, no desire for the things of God, and no change? If there has been no change, you are not a Christian. You are pretending to be one, and the most loving thing we can do is hold the mirror up and let you look clearly, so that you can come to the same conclusion yourself: "I am not a believer."
That conclusion is not the end — it is an invitation. Come to Christ. Believe that Jesus is who He said He was, and He will do what He said He would do. Confess your sin, believe, and your life will change.
And let me say this directly to the students here: I do not accept that because you are a junior or a senior in high school, you are judged by a different standard than adults. You are not. If there is no fruit in your life, you are not a believer. Just because you are a student does not mean we soften this or lower the bar and say, "Well, they are just kids." If you have said you are a Christian, then the standard is the same — love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If it is not there, then you are not a believer. That is what Scripture says. I did not make that up.
Closing Prayer
Are you a Christian? God, do that great work in our lives. We thank You for Jesus. Father, remind us that salvation is God-given, God-driven, God-empowered, and God-originated — that it is from You to us, not from us to You. Father, we pray that we would be faithful and obedient. I pray today that You would open our eyes and allow us to see our lives as they really are. To those of us who know Your Son Jesus, let us be encouraged and grateful that You are working in our lives. God, thank You for Jesus. Thank You that You call us not merely to produce spiritual converts, but to be obedient. God, we do that — and even that is because You have put this work in our lives.