Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to 1 Corinthians chapter 4, and
reading through our text, verse 7. For who maketh thee to differ
from another? And what hast thou that thou
didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? 1 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse
7. The Corinthian church was a church that Paul saw was
divided because of pride. It evidenced itself in several
ways. One way, in the previous chapter,
chapter three, was that they were saying, one was saying,
I am of Paul, another, I am of Apollos. They were making a matter
of pride as to who had been used in their conversion or who they
were professing to follow after, and Paul saw this as something
so contrary to the gospel. And he used himself and the other
apostles as an example, really, to shame them into realising
their error, when he gives this comparison as to what they were
as apostles, the pathway that they were walking in, and how
they were so despised, they were spectacle, they were fools for
Christ's sake, and labouring, working with their own hands,
being defamed, we entreat, And he says, I write not these things
to shame you, but as your beloved sons, I warn you. There they were, they were taught
by him. He was, as it were, a spiritual
father to them. And yet they were acting as if
they had things they had not been taught or not received from
God at all. and they were walking in pride. And so he uses this epistle to
deal with this, and in our text he gives three humbling questions
to them, and through them to us, that we will look at in a
moment as our three points. But maybe remember this, how
Pride first was the reason of the fall, Satan saying that if
you were to eat of this forbidden fruit, you should be as gods,
knowing good and evil. It was the temptation to pride
or to be something great. Our Lord, he heard the Disciples,
or he's aware the disciples were disputing by the way, and he
asked them, no doubt he knew exactly what they were disputing
about, but they held their peace because they were disputing in
the way who would be the greatest. And the Lord reproved them. He
said, a child before them. He said, who will be greatest?
Let him be as a little child. But even the disciples thinking
of this, seeking the highest place, as it were, one at one
right hand and one at the left hand to the Lord in His glory,
the Lord teaching when you are bidden to a feast, don't take
the uppermost seats, take the lowest rather than if you take
the uppermost and then the governor of the feast says that you should
take the lower room and you with shame go take the lowest room,
it is better to have said you come up higher, but the natural
part of man is to be filled with pride. Dear Peter, he says, though
all men be offended, yet will not I, as if that he was somewhat
better and some stronger than the others. But we are warned
in Proverbs that pride goeth before destruction. We think
of the case of Nebuchadnezzar and how the Lord dealt with him
when he said that all this kingdom, all this might, all of this is
mine, by my glory and my might. And God spoke and said, all this
is taken from thee. And they drove him from men for
seven years. He was, as a man, lost his reason. God preserved to him his kingdom.
And He also brought him back again and to be able to say of
God that those that walk in pride, He is able to abase. The Lord uses many ways for His
people to keep their pride down by making them aware of their
infirmities, their weaknesses, by keeping from them, It may
be a degree of their success, but it is kindness for the Lord
to deliver us from that which Satan, he is the king over all
the children of pride. And so I want to look at these
three questions that are in our text. Verse seven, 1 Corinthians 4,
verse seven. First one is who? Who maketh
thee to differ from another? The second one is this what? What hast thou that thou didst
not receive? And the third question is why? Why dost thou glory as if thou
hast not received it? Three searching questions for
the Corinthians and for us. The first one is who? Who maketh
thee to differ? Well before we look at the who,
there is what is done. Paul is very clear on this, there
was a difference. A difference had been made. If we go a couple of chapters
on, if we look at chapter six in the same epistle, he there
is speaking to them about the unrighteous and ungodly, in verse
9, he says, Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit
the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,
nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of
God. And such were some of you. But ye are washed, but ye are
sanctified, ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
and by the Spirit of our God." And he speaks of a difference,
a difference that had made, who made thee to differ? He's saying
in this epistle they do differ. They are different to what they
were once. We think of how he speaks to
the Ephesians as well, and writes to them. And he says, you hath
he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein
in time past ye walked according to the course of this world,
according to the Prince of the Power of the Air, the Spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also
we all had our conversation in time past, in the lusts of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath even as others. that
God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved
us, even when we were dead in sin, hath quickened us together
with Christ. And then he speaks of what they
were in Christ. There is a difference. Wherever God's work is, there
will be made a difference. You think of Noah, Why was there
eight that were saved in the ark and all of the other perished? What a difference between being
in the ark and outside of the ark, a difference between life
and death. And then we have with Lot, Lot
dwelling in Sodom and yet he did not perish in Sodom, why
not? God brought him out Well, it
delivered him, but destroyed the inhabitants of Sodom and
Gomorrah. There was a difference that was
made there. What about the children of Israel
going through the Red Sea? They went through on dry land. When the Egyptians tried to do
the same, then they were destroyed. They perished in the waters.
There was a difference. Wherever God works, He will make
a difference, and we vitally need that difference. If we continue
in the same way as we were born, if we are the same as the world
and not made a difference, we've all been most miserable. should be a real incentive why
we are not ashamed of being different. It's a big thing, often with
a young person brought up under the sound of the truth, to then
be different at school, different in the workplace. I always remember
the account of a couple of lads that used to go and have the
Bible read to them by this lady And the place where they worked,
they got to hear what they did. And the first one came in and
they said, oh, we know what you were doing on the other evening.
And he was ashamed of it. He didn't own up to it at all. And the other one came in and
they asked him, and he's very open, unashamed of what, and
they said, oh, he's not ashamed of what he was doing. But by
nature we often are. But this truth of God making
a difference, we should be very, very thankful if he has made
a difference, if we are different than the world. We mentioned
Peter in our introduction. When he denied his Lord and Master
those three times, the third time, was where they said that
his speech betrayed him. He was a Galilean. So then he
started to curse and to swear, to change his speech so that
it didn't make him stand out as being different. May you never
be ashamed of a difference that the Lord has made, a difference
between us and the world. When it comes that last great
day, not like Noah's day, but the day of the judgment of God,
then it would be a blessed thing to be found amongst the people
of God and not amongst those of the world. God made a difference
between Isaac and Ishmael. The sea came through Isaac, not
Ishmael. He made a difference between
Jacob and Esau, and the promise came through Jacob, not Esau. Right the way through the Scriptures,
there is differences, and God is making those differences.
He is a sovereign God. If we go back to the very first
promise, In Genesis 3 and verse 15, as man listened on, as God
spoke to the serpent, he says, I will put, notice this, and
I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed
and her seed, it shall bruise thy head, thou shalt bruise his
heel. I will put this difference between
the seed of Satan, the wicked one, and the seed of the woman,
between Christ and the wicked one. That enmity, remember when
in John 17, the Lord says of his people, I have given them
thy word, and the world hath hated them. That is all that
is needed to have arising that enmity and hatred. And that comes,
it is God that has made that difference. In the very first
promise of the seed of the woman, which is Christ, to thee the
Lord said, to Abraham, and to thy seed, not of many as seeds,
but of seed, which is Christ, says Paul to the Galatians. That
is where the promise is. And that enmity, and you could
see it when Christ was on earth, and it was what was fulfilled
at Calvary. Our Lord bruising Satan's head,
it bruised his heel. And it is God. So when we have
this question, who maketh thee to differ? We can go right back
to the first promise of Christ. I will put enmity, I will put
this difference, I will put this conflict between the two. We find the same if we go through
to when the Lord began to work his signs and wonders in Egypt,
in Exodus 8 already, some signs had been wrought and The Egyptians
and the children of Israel, they both suffered the same. But then
the Lord said that he'd make a difference. And in Exodus 8
and verse 23, and this is when the Lord was going to bring the
swarms of flies, he says, I will put a division between my people
and thy people. Tomorrow shall this sign be."
And the Lord did so. And there came a grievous swarm
of flies into the house of Pharaoh and into his servants' houses
and into all the land of Egypt. The land was corrupted by reason
of the swarm of flies. But that was not to be amongst
the children of Israel. The Lord then made a difference
right through with those signs. Now the question, who maketh
the difference? It is God, it is Him that is
sovereign to do with His own as He will, and to make that
difference in the way that He is designed to do it. And amongst the fallen sons of
Adam, He is the one that begins that difference and begins to
make that difference and make that change. Salvation is of
God. He is the author, He is the beginner. And maybe just note this, you
might think of many evidences of the new birth, many evidences
of the Lord's work, but here is one, the Lord made
a difference. And you can put that with our
own lives as well. Like Paul said, later on here
with the Corinthians, and like he said to the Ephesians, it
wasn't just a difference between them and the world, It was a
difference in their own lives. Their lives had changed. You
think of the Apostle Paul, sore as he was, on the Damascus road,
hailing men and women to prison, who were calling upon the name
of the Lord Jesus. And the Lord met with him on
that road. The Lord spoke to him. Who art thou, Lord? I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against
the bricks. What a difference! Saul of Tarsus,
a persecutor of the people of God, now he is one to immediately
preach that Jesus is the Christ, and now he is persecuted. But
in Paul's own life, God had made that difference. He is well qualified. to write to the Corinthians in
this way. He had known it personally. And
we are blessed if we know that personally as well, and be able
to answer this question, who maketh thee to differ from another? Do we differ from another? And
are we aware who has done it? If we do differ, and it may be
Those of you that realize the difference, but not yet put this
together as a token for good, a token that this is the Lord's
work. You might have been looking for
various other evidences of the blessing of God in your soul,
and yet He's given you one. And in the text tonight, He tells
you This is my work. I have made that difference.
I hope it is so that a spirit will bear witness that you can
see and see that this is the Lord's work and he has made that
difference. The apostle is very clear with
the Corinthians here. They did not make this difference
themselves. God made it. And yet they were
forgetting this. They weren't remembering this,
and so is lifting them up with pride. But God had made it, and
we have to remember that all our lives. We're not to forget. We are His workmanship, formed
by Him. You think of our first parents
in a natural way. The Lord formed them out of the
dust of the ground, or he from the side of Adam. They didn't
form themselves. A baby in the womb doesn't form
itself. God gives conception, and God
forms it, beautifully set forth in Psalm 139, fearfully and wonderfully
made. And if that is so naturally,
how much more is it in a spiritual way that God has made that difference? He's made his people different
than the world that lieth in sin and wickedness. Paul says
later on in his second epistle to the Corinthians, he speaks
of unbelievers, be ye not unequally young together with unbelievers. What concord does the Lord's
people have with the ungodly or with those obedient? He says,
come out from among them, touch not the unclean thing and I will
receive you and you shall be my sons and my daughters, saith
the Lord Almighty. He's setting forth this difference,
he's not minimising it, he's not making out it's nothing,
describing it as something of no consequence. He is highlighting
it as a mark of his own work and his own doing, something
not to be ashamed of, but also something not to be proud of,
because it's God's work. Hymn writer says, why? Why was
I made to hear his voice, enter while there's room, while millions
make a wretched choice, rather starve than come? It is the Lord. This is the answer. Who maketh
thee to differ from another? Well, Paul has a second question. And this begins with the word,
what. And what hast thou that thou
didst not receive? What hast thou? A question again. Well, let us think of it in a
natural way first. And we think of what Job said.
You know, in Job's afflictions, his deep afflictions, when the
Lord permitted, allowed Satan to touch all that he had, but
not his life. We read Job saying, he arises,
he rents his mantle, shaved his head, fell down upon the ground
and worshipped, and said, naked came I out of my mother's womb,
and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave and the Lord hath
taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. It's really minor, isn't it?
We see a newborn baby. They come into the world with
nothing. No clothes, no wealth, nothing. They only have what their parents
have. But then we see the other end.
We see those that may have had all wealth and wisdom and everything
of this world's goods, but you see them when God takes away
their breath, and they have nothing, and they have no more part in
anything here below. They go out of this world with
nothing. We cannot take it out with us. Those things that we have here,
they are given to us, our children are lent to us. All things are
gifts from the Lord. Job is very clear, isn't he?
The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. It's a good thing to come to
that to make us submissive when things are taken away. Those are good times when the
Lord may shine upon a blessing that we've had, a blessing that
He has given, that we've taken for granted, we haven't seen
it, has come from His hand, and then He shows us that it comes
from His hand, and we're thankful and we praise Him for it, And
then very quickly he takes it away. But because we've clearly
seen it was given by him, we're able to join with Joe. The Lord
gave and the Lord hath taken away. There's many times that
I've proved that. Many times in hell. Sometimes
I can remember now, spots in the road. I've been driving along
and it'd suddenly come upon me I haven't been ill for a few
months. I've had a cold, I haven't been
ill. I was so thankful. And the next day, or perhaps
later that day, I've come down with a cold, come down ill. But before the Lord made me ill,
he showed me, he'd given me several months good health. And I've
been thankful for that. The world would say, you shouldn't
have thought that, you shouldn't have said that, that was bad
luck. You should have touched wood or something. But when we
know the Lord in his kindness, he shows us the blessings that
he's given before he takes them away. And I've proved it so many
times that instead of made murmuring, it's been given thankfulness.
because we know we do not deserve those things that are given. Paul, when he writes to, or when
he speaks to those at Mars Hill, he says to them of the God that
they were ignorantly worshipping. He says, whom therefore you ignorantly
worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all
things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth,
dwelleth not in temples made with hands. Neither is worship
with men's hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He giveth
to all life and breath and all things, and hath made of one
blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the
earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the
bounds of their habitation, times of health, times of sickness,
times of sorrow, we sing of it in our hymn 64. And where we
shall live, where we shall go, all appointed by God. But what about Spiritually. We need that, don't we? If we
are to be blessed, when we come into this world, we have no spiritual
life. We're dead in trespasses and
sins. We read that in Paul's letter
to the Ephesians. Paul says, as we read, to Those
at Mars Hill, He giveth to all life, yes, natural life. But
our Lord says that I give unto them, give unto His sheep. My
sheep, they know my voice, they follow me. I give unto them eternal
life. They shall never perish, neither
shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Really, when the
Lord begins and He makes a difference with a sinner, He begins giving,
and He keeps on giving. I remember that is one phrase
that Matthew Hyde used in our anniversary services last year. He keeps on giving. And that
is true of our Lord. He keeps on giving. He starts
to give when He gives eternal life to His people, and then
He keeps on giving. He gives them life, He gives
them grace, He gives them teaching, He gives them wisdom, He gives
them ability, He gives them skills, He gives them strength of body,
strength of mind, strength of soul, He gives them discernment. All comes from the Lord. Every good and every perfect
gift cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness
nor shadow of turning. Every blessing comes to us through
Jesus' precious blood. What hast thou that thou didst
not receive? Is there something we can say? Well, we were born with Wisdom
born with discernment. Yes, we know that it does follow
through families, that some have one gift, some might have gifts
at languages, some have practical abilities and gifts, some have
others. But it's God that measures these
things out, that gives these gifts and then sanctifies them
to His use. Paul says, as we have yielded
our members, servants, to unrighteousness, even so now yield them to righteousness
for God's service. And we think of how the Lord
said in the wilderness that he'd given to Bezalel that wisdom
to be able to make the ark and to make all of the things from
the pattern God showed to Moses in the mount. God gave him that
wisdom. We don't all have wisdom to do
practical things and ability to do practical things. The Lord has given me quite a
bit, in a way, of practical things. I remember when I was a youth,
I had a tape recorder. It went wrong. I pulled it apart
to try and fix it. I couldn't fix it. Couldn't put
it back together either. So I threw it in a rubbish bin.
And then I came in a few hours later, and there it was on my
desk, all fixed and working. My brother had picked it out
of the bin, and he fixed it all up. And you see those differences,
where one is able to do it, and one cannot. But it's a blessed
thing, where it is acknowledged that wisdom and help comes from
the Lord, and is sanctified for the Lord's good, and used for
the people of God, and for the benefit of the churches. But the point that Paul is making,
these things do not belong to us. We've received them from
the Lord. And every spiritual gift, every
blessing, everything that we need for time and for eternity,
all comes from the Lord. We read in Ezekiel 36, of the gifts that God will do,
giving a new heart, a new spirit, and cleansing from all uncleanness. And he says, I will be inquired
of by the house of Israel to do it for them. One example was
the case of Solomon coming to the kingdom, the Lord giving
him the vision, ask what I shall give thee, and he asked wisdom. feeling his own weakness, inability,
and the Lord not only gave him wisdom, he gave him riches as
well. It's a good thing then, if we
are reminded through Paul's epistle to the Corinthians here, that
whatever we have, in natural or spiritual gifts, that comes
from the Lord. is not something that we have
manufactured and done ourselves. And this is an encouragement
as well for us. We think of regarding wisdom,
where James says in his epistle, if any of you lack wisdom, let
him ask of God who giveth to all men liberally and abrideth
not, and it shall be given him. And that applies to other things
as well. Where we lack wisdom, where we
lack understanding, you think of Philip coming to the eunuch,
understandest thou what thou readest? How can I, except some
man guide me? And the Lord used the ministry
of Philip. We think of when the Lord rose
from the dead and he appears to the disciples in the upper
room, then opened he their understanding that they would understand the
Scriptures. Should any of those disciples
say, I am superior to the rest of you, I have understanding,
it all came from the Lord. That you're on the way to Emmaus
had to be reminded, they fools and slow of heart to believe
all that the prophets have spoken, or not Christ who has suffered
these things. and to enter into His glory,
beginning at Moses, all the prophets, in all the Psalms, the things
concerning Himself. We need the Lord to impart and
to give to us these things. And where He has, we are to trace
these things to the Lord, for our encouragement, for tokens
for good, for knowledge that we are the Lord's. You say, but doesn't the world
have things given by the Lord? You go into a hospital ward and,
you know, a six bed ward and five unbelievers and one believer
and they're all healed and they all go out and the unbelievers
say to the believer, well, so much for your God, You prayed
for healing, but we haven't. And we've still been healed.
You see, God doesn't exist, it's just in your mind. But at Last
Judgment Day, the Lord will bring those five to the bar and say,
you did not ask, and I healed you. You did not even acknowledge
or even recognize that I'd healed you, and so you didn't give thanks
at all. But this, my child, did ask,
And I healed, and they gave the glory to God. You see the difference? There's not one force in the
world for unbelievers and another for believers. God is good to
all, his tender works are, his mercies are over all his works. He opens his hand, he satisfies
the desire of every living thing, makes it rain on the unjust and
just, sun to shine on, Those that serve Him, those that serve
Him not. May we always remember this,
the great difference is God's people see it. They recognize
it. They know that God has given
it. It didn't come from themselves. They didn't heal themselves.
It wasn't the skill of the surgeon. They're in the Lord's hand. And may we be able to see, be
able to say this is the Lord's doing and marvelous in our eyes.
or the thing proceedeth from the Lord, and not be like the
world, but ascribe it to something else, or even like these Corinthians,
that were rising up in pride. And this is why the apostle brings
these questions. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? What, what hast thou that thou
didst not receive? Aren't they humbling questions?
Yet we need them. The hymn writer says, the heart
uplifts with God's own gifts and makes even grace a snare. It is all the time, as ministers
of the gospel, so easy to be puffed up with pride. Sometimes
I look at some of my brethren that have been so blessed and
used amongst the churches and in the books that they write
and the things that they do, and I think if that was me, pride
would just destroy me. How have they kept humble? But
the Lord knows how to do it. He knows how to keep one humble. Sometimes it is in secret ways
that only they know. The Lord balancing those clouds
to to keep us low, and it is for our good. So then we have
the last question that the Apostle has to these Corinthians, why? For who maketh thee to differ
from another? And what hast thou that thou
didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it,
why? Dost thou glory as if thou hast
not received it? They're acting as if they haven't
received it from the Lord. They're taking the credit to
themselves. But how foolish for the people
of God when the very fact that it's received from The Lord is
a token for good, is our badge of being one of the Lords. If we were to, and I speak reverently,
come before the throne after death, and we'll ask, well, let's
see these things that you've got here to present. And one had it, and it had the
badge that it came from the Lord. And the other, it hadn't. It
had come from that person. How would that give glory to
God? How would that be a badge of entrance? The Lord will have
regard to the work of His own hands. The Lord spoke of those that
came before His throne. and said, Lord, Lord, open unto
us. And he says to them, I never
knew you. Depart from me, all ye work iniquity. And he says of those that they
were saying, but thou hast taught in our streets. We have been
called by thy name. But the Lord says he never knew
them. and they were still working iniquity. In other words, there'd be no
change, there'd be no difference. And also they were having regard
to what they'd done. When saw we thee naked and did
not clothe thee? When did we not give thee a cup
of gold water or minister to thee? Inasmuch as ye have not
done it to the least of these, my brethren, ye have not done
it unto me." But those of his people, they say, when did we
see thee? When did we do these things?
They weren't even mindful of what they'd done. But the Lord
had wrought in them, is God that worketh in you to will and to
do of his own good pleasure. The Apostle Paul, he says what
I am. I am by the grace of God. What
a difference to saying what I am is by my own skill and endeavors
and work. But Paul doesn't do that. And
in fact, in this chapter, this is what he is saying to them,
that he wants them to be followers of him. He says in verse 18,
now some are puffed up, as though I would not come to you. They've
got so much pride, they're not even gonna receive him as a father
and as a teacher. But he says when he comes, he's
not gonna be deceived by words, but by the power. The kingdom
of God is not in word, but in power. The effect the difference, the
change. I must decrease, he must increase,
will be that which the Lord works in all his people. But growing
grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
that's not growing more and more in knowledge so that we get puffed
up with knowledge. We grow in grace, grace is the
opposite to works. We're growing more and more in
the thought, if ever my poor soul be saved, tis Christ must
be the way. More seeing our own works as
being as filthy rags, but more seeing our need for the mercy
and grace and gifts of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord spoke
in John 15, of himself as the vine, we have the branches, the
branch cannot bear fruit of itself, neither can ye except ye abide
in me." When he's speaking of here as receiving, if we are
to bring forth fruit, if we are to receive, it is our union to
Christ that brings that about. You think of the severed branch,
no fruit, in fact it dies itself. When it is in the vine, then
it's receiving everything from the root. And how humbling that
is for the people of God. But how reassuring when the Lord
says, from me is thy fruit found. And he says concerning his people
in their old age, they shall still bring forth fruit in old
age. In other words, though faculties
fail, As the years increase, outward labours, minister not
able to minister any more, but they shall still bring forth
fruit. And it is because of the union
with the Lord. And a true union and blessing,
it works in a humbling way. And the apostles saw this with
the Corinthians, it didn't. There was pride. We sang in our
metal hymn of pride. And where that is so, there'll
be contention, there'll be troubles, there'll be differences. But
when we are brought low and esteeming one another greater than ourselves
and viewing that all that we have comes from the Lord, then
there's a peaceable church. And then the Lord has the honour
and glory and not man. And it's no surprise then that
the apostle take such pains with this Corinthian church to deal
with pride, and to give them some questions to think over
in us. And may we go away thinking of
these questions, how we would answer them. Who maketh thee
to differ from another? Do we differ? Who is it? And where we see it is the Lord,
take courage, be encouraged if the Lord has done a work in us.
And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? If we have
to say we have nothing but what the Lord has given us, then may
that make us then to be humbled and not glory as if we had not
received it, but to walk in a way that gives the honour and glory
to the Lord. Oh, how we need that precious
blood shed on Calvary, applied to us, the benefits and blessings
of Christ's life and Christ's death. We have nothing in ourselves
and everything in Christ. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him. But if Christ
is not our life, then we haven't got that assurance. and that
token that when we know he is our life, for me to live is Christ
and to die is gain. This is the apostle that wants
these Corinthians to be a follower of him. And may we be a follower
too. Amen.