Turn with me again to that fourth
chapter of the book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 4, and verse 7. to put down pride and bring one into a time of humility, Paul, the great
preacher, makes this demand out of the
people of Corinth. He says, For who maketh thee
to differ from one another? That's a great question. But if you ever find out the
answer, who maketh thee to differ from one another, your heart
will be made to rejoice. For who maketh thee to differ
from one 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? Well,
there is a difference. For who maketh thee to differ
one from another?" There is a difference. There are some who believe, and
some who believe not. They are some saints, and they
are some who are not saints. Who makes the difference in all
this? Why are some saints and some
are not saints? Why are some lost and some saved? Why are some believers and followers
and some are not? That is what it amounts to. Now,
whatever difference there is in us from one another, we ought
to be able to resolve it all into the will and the purpose
of God, who by his distinguishing grace makes one man to differ
from another. Now, that will solve the problem. By His distinguishing grace,
He makes one man to differ from another. One is a believer and
one is not a believer. He makes them differ by freely
bestowing favor on those whom He pleases, which he owes to
no one. He's not obligated to bestow
favor on anyone because he does not owe anyone anything. Now, this is hard work for a
proud heart. If a man's heart is steeled against
God and his grace and believes that he has something to do with
making himself to differ. When he hears that God freely
bestows favor on whom he pleases, which he owes to no one, his
heart is heartened and he finds it a hard and difficult work
to believe. I think most people forget that
we stand or fall by faith, and faith alone is that which
joins us to the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith in itself can do nothing
in itself. We get into a high opinion of
ourselves and what we are in ourselves and what we can do
for ourselves and toward our own selves. We need to remember
that our standing and our acceptance is alone in God's Christ. And that God views you and I
if we are in Christ. He views us. He sees us and loves us. He views us in him. He doesn't
view us in ourselves because there's nothing in ourselves
that is lovely. We are altogether unlovely. And he is altogether lovely,
but as we stand in the Lord Jesus Christ, stand in him, you remember
I told you here the other day that God in eternity chose a number out
of Adam's fallen race unto himself, and he put them in Christ. And he did that before the foundation
of the world. God viewed every member of Adam's
race before they had been. And he chose, according as he
pleased, one here and one there and one someplace else. And he
put them in the second person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He put him there, and where he
put him, he kept him. So we need to remember that if
we are saved by the grace of God, that we stand in Christ. We stand in him. Now, know that
our standing And our acceptance is alone in Him. And God views
us in Him. And He loves you and I in Him. He pardons you and I in Him. He justifies you and I in Him. He accepts you in Him. He delights in you in Him. He rejoices over you in Him on
His account and because of Him and Him alone, and He blesses
you and I that are in Christ with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ. Now, let me read that to you
from the Bible here. In Ephesians chapter 1, if you
want to turn with me, Read this together. Listen to what it says. Ephesians chapter 1. Well, he
begins this chapter by telling us who he is by way of authority. He is an apostle of Jesus Christ,
and he is an apostle not by his own choosing or because a group
of men got together and thought Paul would be the best man to
lead the flock, but he's an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of
God. It was the will of God before time ever was that Paul be an
apostle, although Paul did not meet the qualifications at that
particular time, but he's an apostle by the will of God, and
Paul said he is writing to the saints which are at Ephesus,
and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. And he tells them, Grace
be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, here's what I want you to
see. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath, past tense, it's already taken place, it took place in
eternity past, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places where I am, in Christ. So you see what I'm
talking about when I say we need to remember where we stand. We stand in Him, our acceptance
is in Him alone, that God sees us in Him, loves us in Him, pardons
us in Him, justifies us in Him, accepts us in Him, delights in
us and rejoices over us in Him, in Christ. Well, this is the
faith in which we stand. This is the faith which we are
to live by and the faith that we are to die by, this faith. Faith in Christ and Christ alone
as our righteousness, as our law keeper, as our sin bearer. Now, if we can clothe our mind,
you see, if we clothe our mind with anything else in the spiritual
realm by way of words, such as, well, I think I'm saved because I've
been baptized. Well, I raised my hand when the
preacher said, does anybody here want to raise their hand and
say they love Jesus? I love Jesus. We need to have our mind's memory
and our conscience saturated with how we are accepted before
God. We cannot be accepted in ourselves. We must come in another's name,
not our own. We must come before God wearing
another man's garment. We have nothing in our hand to
bring. All of our doings, all of our
groanings and our moanings add nothing to it. So close your
mind, your memory, your conscience with Christ's blood and his righteousness. And if you don't do that and
you profess to be a believer, then you'll lose your comfort.
You'll lose your joy. The psalmist says in one of the
psalms, he says, Not unto us, but unto thy name. give glory
for thy mercy and thy truth, in his name. And our Lord says,
when ye pray, say, Our Father, which is in heaven. And Our Father,
if you ask anything in my name, the Father will hear you. Now,
let me say in just a few minutes here, that all of us here tonight,
there is a step between us and death, all of us. Not the older
ones only. There's some here that are yet
in their teens, some in their 20s, some in their 30s, some
in their 40s, some in their 80s. I don't want to say that, Bob. Some of them are 80, and some
in their late 70s. And we're just a step, all of
us, young and old, we're only a step. We've got a step to go
into death. And so you've got to have your
mind right. There's a movie here that I've seen on the television
several times, and it's about Luke. What was the name of the movie
where Paul Newman? Cool Hand Luke. You remember
Cool Hand Luke? I've watched it a dozen times.
Stan and I have watched that together, and Stan can quote
every word. before they say it. In fact,
he's quoting some of it right now. And the boss, the boss man, he
always said, Luke, get your mind right. Get your mind right, Luke. Well, if we get our minds right
and have our minds clothed and our memory and our conscience
with the blood and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, then
we'll be ready to take that one step into the cold water of the
River Jordan. We'll be ready. Because we'll
have a good home. Because our Savior has went before
us. Well, you've got to pass through
the river of death to get to where? To get to the promised
inheritance. See, we've got an inheritance.
We've inherited all that the Father has. And we're joint heirs,
heirs of God and joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we're passing through this unfriendly world, unfriendly. It's opposed
to what we believe. We dare not tell people what
we believe. Sometimes I'm afraid to say anything
to someone for fear if I say it, they'll put me in jail or do me harm some way. This
hostile world we're traveling through and we haven't got any
friends here. They're all enemies. The only
friends we have are like-minded believers. And so we've got to
have help, and help cometh from God by and through the Lord Jesus
Christ to saturate our minds and memories and our conscience
of who God is and what God's done for us in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And if we do, we pass through
this cold Jordan River to our promised inheritance. Now, do
you draw back from the thought that you're going to have to
pass through this cold water? Well, no. Remember, I told you
that we are joined to the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. And faith
is not of yourself. Faith is of God. Faith is a gift
of God. He gives it to whomsoever he
pleases. Who hath made you to differ?
One has faith and the other doesn't have faith. It's God's sovereign, distinguishing
grace. That's the answer. He owes no
man nothing. But he does give faith to some,
and others he passes All right. Do you who are of faith, do you
shudder at the thought of this death business, that you've got
to die to get out of this world? And it may be sudden death, it
may be a long lingering death, a painful death, and none of
us wants that. But it might be our lot. It might
be. Faith, faith, faith builds a
bridge across the gulf of death. Faith, faith lays them arches
that hold up the bottom of the bridge to get us across. So don't draw back. I told you here a minute ago,
faith of itself is but an empty hand. But faith brings its author,
and that's God himself. That's the Lord Jesus. Faith
is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Faith
is its author, and the object of faith is the Lord Jesus Christ,
and by clothing our mind and our memory and our conscience
with His victories. You have not achieved any victories. I have not achieved any victories. I've won no crowns. I've got
no awards. But He hath achieved some victories. Bless God, His victory is our
victories. His victories that He achieved
was for us, not for Himself. Our Lord Jesus Christ was not
a sinner. He was never lost and forlorn
and far off from God. He's God Himself manifested in
the flesh. He came down here and conquered.
He's the conqueror. He's the great one. Well, if we clothe our mind, memory,
and conscience with his victories, then we too become victors over
death and the grave. likes to talk about the grave.
Talk about death, all right, and you'll get along pretty well,
but if you start talking about death, I mean talking about the
grave, where corruption sets in. People don't like, oh, you
mean down in the hole, and the lid of the coffin is closed,
and the men throw the dirt on the coffin, and you're there
by, oh, I shudder to think. Listen, with his victories, what
kind of victories did he win? Well, he hath abolished and destroyed
and repealed death. Over here in 2 Timothy chapter
1. Let me read this. 2 Timothy, maybe it is,
I'm not sure. Chapter 1, verse 10 maybe it is. No, that's not it. Where is it,
Pat, in your Bible there that he abolished He abolished death. I thought it was in Timothy 1
and 10. Where at, Mike? 2 Timothy 1 and 10. 2 Timothy 1 and 10. Well,
I'm in the wrong book. 2 Timothy 1 and 10. Now, yes, you're right. Thank
you. Thank you. Thank you, Mike. Who? It sounded like Daryl. It all sounded like to me. Who
hath made thee to differ? Listen, the ninth verse. Listen
to this. Who hath saved us? He's talking
about the Lord Jesus Christ. Who hath saved us and called
us? with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace. When
was this purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus,
when? Before the world began, but is
now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Oh, the great conqueror, oh,
why should we be afraid of death? He said, who hath abolished death
and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
He hath abolished, he hath destroyed, he hath repealed death. How did he do that? Why, Jesus
Christ took away its sting. He took the sting out of death. It's like a wasp. A wasp stings you and hurts you,
but if you take the sting out of the wasp, the stinger, the
wasp can't hurt you. And our Lord Jesus Christ took
away its sting. He removed its curse. He charged
or changed it into a precious blessing and called it sleep. It says when you die in Christ,
you what? You fall asleep in Jesus. I've got nothing to be afraid
of if I'm in Christ. Death has been conquered. He's removed the sting. They
only sleep in Jesus, he said. So put off and put away any fears
you might have of death if you be a believer in the Lord Jesus. Put away those fears and sing
with me, Death, where is thy sting? Oh, grave, where's thy
burn? Thanks be unto God who giveth
us the victory, victory over sin, victory over hell, victory
over death and the grave. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the captain
of our salvation, He's the one that hath made us to differ. You see, Our Lord Jesus conquered
death and you and I have nothing to be afraid of because he has
taken the power out of death. It hath no power over us. We
just die and go to sleep. Go to sleep and sleep in Jesus.
That's all there is to it. Thanks. be unto God. Lord, help us. He's the only
one who can. I hope all of you here have got
that hope, hope in Christ. That's my only hope. I don't put no stock in my preaching. I've never gained no favor with
God by my preaching or anything I've ever done, said, or hoped
to do. I don't trust that. My hope is
built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. That's
my hope. My hope's in Him. I hope your hope's in
Him. I hope everybody's hope's in
Him. May the Lord bless you.