Let us be vigilant, doctrinally, morally, to keep Jesus Christ as the one and only foundation of our church.

Watch over me, accept nothing that I say that cannot be squared with the sharp angles of Jesus Christ revealed

in Scripture.

How can a church stay faithful in a shifting culture?

In this episode of Light and Truth, John Piper turns to 1st Corinthians 3, verses 10 to 17, to call us to be

vigilant in doctrine and life, ensuring that everything we do in the church aligns with

Christ our unshakable foundation.

This sermon was originally delivered at Bethlehem Baptist Church on March 6th, 1988.

The picture of the church that we spent time on last week in the text just preceding what Andy read

was the picture of a field and Paul was a planter in the text just preceding what Andy read was the picture of a field, and Paul was a planter

in the field, and Apollus was a waterer in the field.

Now, we have a different picture that emerges at the end of that text, and that's picked up here,

don't we?

The first picture, field, the second picture, building. That's the new picture.

You see it in verse 9. It says, we are fellow workers for God. You are God's field. That was the first picture of the church. God's building.

That's the second picture. So Paul is shifting now, and we'll spend all of his time in the rest of this chapter, on an architectural model of the church rather than an agricultural model of the church.

And not any longer is he a planter, he is a foundation layer, and Apollos is no longer a waterer. He is a brick mason or carpenter. He's building

the structure on this foundation that Paul has laid. So he has the same kind of thing in mind,

but a different picture. And now you can see that confirmed if you drop down to verse 16.

Do you not know that you are God's temple? So if you say what kind of building does he mean in

verse 9? The answer is he means a temple. The church is the temple of the living God in which the Holy Spirit dwell.

So he shifts from a field where people are growing and bearing fruit to a temple where the people are stones, I guess you could say, living stones from 1 Peter 2, in which God dwells.

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