Who Maketh Thee to Differ?

    Dr. James M. Gray wrote this: "Suffer a sinner whose heart overflows, loving his Saviour to tell what he knows; once more to tell it would I embrace." What do you want to tell, Dr. Gray? "I'm only a sinner saved by grace." A man who really knows God never graduates above that statement right there; "I'm only a sinner saved by grace." He may grow in grace, grow in talent, grow in gifts and grow in knowledge, but he's still only a sinner saved by grace.

    We have nothing to glory of, we're just using borrowed gifts. "Who maketh thee to differ? " (1 Cor 4:7). Are you able to preach, who gave you the power? Do you have a little more that somebody else, who gave it to you? Do you have more talents than the next fellow, who made you to differ? "What hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if you received it, why dost thou glory?" Why do you glory in your beauty? God gave it to you. Why do you glory in your strength? Without God you would not have it. Why do you glory in your wealth? God gave it to you. Why do you glory in your talent, in your singing ability?

    Let me tell you a story. Charles Spurgeon wrote this in 1855. "Last week the quiet neighborhood of Newton was disturbed by an occurrence which has thrown a gloom over the whole neighborhood. Something dreadful happened. A well-known teacher, a man who had been a principal of the academy for young men for years, who was my own professor, has become mentally deranged; he has lost his mind. A warrant had to be issued for his arrest, and while waiting for the vehicle to carry him away to the institution for the mentally insane, this old white-haired man, who had been a principal, stood on the porch at his home where he had lived all his life before his friends and neighbors, handcuffed to two policemen. He was then led away. He was my teacher; he was the man from whom I learned whatever human learning I have acquired. He was a man of genius, a man of ability! How fallen, how fallen." How quickly can human nature sink below the level of the beast.