As I said, verse 7 of 1 Corinthians
4 is a verse that I tend to quote quite a bit, but it was a blessing to look a little
closer this week, and I pray the Lord will indeed meet with
us tonight and teach us the gospel from these verses. Back to verse
six, and these things brethren I have in a figure transferred
to myself and to Apollos for your sakes. And let's talk about
that for a minute. What Paul had transferred to
himself and Apollos in a figure, but we've been looking verse
by verse in this, so we know what he's referring to here.
It's these simple illustrations. of the gospel ministry. He transferred
in a figure the concept of Paul and Apollos and these other Cephas
as farmers and as builders. And he's transferred these things
in a figure to them for a purpose that they might learn, that they
might learn. These simple illustrations of
what it is to labor in the ministry of the Lord. He used the example
of a farmer and he used the example of a builder. In the illustration
of the farmer, he put the ministry in clear perspective by saying
that he that planteth is nothing. He that watereth is nothing.
They're just laborers. And when you think of it in a
spiritual sense, what a blessing to be even included. God don't
need us to do that. He made paradise without us and
then put us in it. But God gives the increase and
it's his farm. You are his husbandry, verse
nine of chapter three. You are his husbandry. And in
that same verse, you are his building. We lay the foundation. Christ is the foundation. Listen,
turn with me please to Hebrews chapter three. This sparked my
memory when I typed that down, what the scripture, what our
text says, that we lay the foundation, but Christ is the foundation.
And Hebrews 3.1 is what came to my remembrance. and I believe it helps us here.
Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, that's
what we are, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the
apostle and high priest of our perfection, Christ Jesus, who
was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful
in all his house. Now Moses is a type in picture,
The friend of God, he's called the friend of God. So he's a
type in picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, but consider Christ.
And the comparison here between the picture and the reality,
the shadow and the object that casts the shadow. For this man,
Christ was counted worthy of more glory than Moses in as much
to this extent, as he who hath built the house hath more honor
than the house. That's a lot. For every house
is built by some man, but he that built all things is God.
And Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant.
And indeed, he pictures Christ in that, for a testimony of those
things which were to be spoken after. But Christ, as a son over
his own house, whose house we are, If we hold fast the confidence
and the rejoicing of the hope, firm until the end. You see why
Paul used these figures, these scriptures we've read.
give context to what he said next, listen, in that same text,
that you might learn in us not to think of men above that which
is written. That's why he used the figure
of the house and the builder, the one who owns the house, and
the one who's just a laborer. that you might learn. And notice
the words in our text, for your sakes. This is for your sakes
that you might learn. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
4, please. 2 Corinthians 4, 13. We having the same spirit of
faith, according as it is written, I believed and therefore have
I spoken, we also believe and therefore we speak. And when
we do, when we preach the gospel, we do so knowing that he which
raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and
shall present us with you for all things are for your sakes.
How many times have we seen and said, God has a universe because
he has a people. And he has a people because he
would honor his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the kingdom of
heaven is like unto a king that made a marriage for his son.
That's what this is. It's all for your sakes. That
the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many Maybe
when we read that part, it's for you. Maybe you thought, well,
what about God's glory? There it is. That's what does
redound to the glory of God. Saving you. Saving his people
from their sin. That's what glorifies him, his
mercy. Show me your mercy, Lord. Show
me your glory, is what Moses said. Show me your glory. I'll
have mercy. On whom I'll have mercy. It's
all gonna redound to the glory of God. That's the highest purpose
for everything and everybody. But God is glorified in doing
all of this for your sakes, that you might learn not to think
too highly of men. The gospel is preached for your
sakes, that you might learn, Paul wrote, and learning Manifests
into a thousand blessings. Learning. We're blessed in, I
say a thousand, I don't even scratch it. We're blessed in learning. Remember
what he said, take my yoke upon you and learn of me. And what
will that result in? You'll find rest under your souls. Learning of him. These are written
that you might learn And what specifically here is being taught
is gonna be a blessing to us, but every aspect of scripture
that we might learn who to think highly of, that's implied here. Because the reason we can't think
too highly of men is because there ain't but one man that's
worthy of all glory. And every blessing now comes
from that, from learning. Every blessing that we experience
in this life, we enjoy through the preaching of the gospel.
Take my yoke and learn and find rest. Is your soul weary? Learn of Christ. He's meek and
he's lowly in heart. He's touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. What is the answer to every problem
that you have? You need to hear from God concerning
his son. That's it. That's it. Do you see how our verse is worded?
What is it that will teach you not to think more highly of men
than you ought? that which is written. You see
that there? That's key now. That's key. He doesn't say that you might
learn not to think of men above that which is proper. He doesn't
say that you might learn not to think of men above that which
they deserve. He says that you learn not to
think of men more highly than that which is written. That which is written. If you
wanna find out about yourself even, you've got to hear from
God. You're not gonna know anything
about yourself except that which is written. You can't learn about
yourself by looking at yourself. You gotta look to the word of
God. It is written. The written word of God whereby
we learn that you may learn. And a while ago, we were saying
that the preached gospel is for your sakes, for your sakes. What
good will it do you not to think too highly of men? Well, it'll
enable you, it will encourage and exhort you. If you learn
it now, if you learn not to think too highly of men, what's gonna
happen? You're gonna think more highly of God. Because that's
what distracts, that's what gets in the way now of us thinking
of God as we ought. Because we start thinking of
ourselves a little bit too much, too highly. It will enable you to seek what
you need from the right one. When you stop thinking too highly
of yourself and other men, you'll stop looking to them for what
you need. And look at the last phrase of
the verse, that no one of you be puffed up. How important is
that? Paul has written four chapters
so far concerning that very thing. Has
he not? Is that not what we've seen since
the beginning of chapter one? All of this is concerning not
being puffed up. Not saying I am, I am, I am,
I am of Paul, I am of Apollos. Quit glorying in the flesh yours
or anyone else's. Do you know that the day that
you realize you're nothing is the day that you will cease all
contention with others? Your anxiety will go away. Your
anger, your pride, your self-righteousness will cease the day you cease
to think too highly of yourself. This is not something that it
would be nice if we learn. This is something we need to
learn. Look at the time and the care
Paul took to inform the answer to this one question asked in
the next verse. Verse six we've been looking
at is just a lead up to this one question in a sense. All
of it's profitable, all of it's meaningful, but you'll see how
all of this leads up to this one question. All of chapter
four and all of the previous three chapters are in a great
sense a lead up to this one question, why do you glory? You look back
at the first three chapters of this book and ask that question
after every verse it fits. Why do you glory? Why do you
glory? Almost every verse would make
perfect sense if that question was added to that verse. Just
chapter three, let's just go back to chapter three, verse
one. And our brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual,
but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. Why are you
glorying? You're acting like lost people.
What are you glorying? Why do you glory? I have fed
you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto you were not able
to bear it, neither yet now are you able. Why do you glory? That's
not something to glory in. For you are yet carnal, for whereas
there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are you
not carnal and walk as men? You walk in as lost people. Why
do you glory? So that's the question here.
Look at the, It seems to me that the issue
of glory in anything or anyone else besides Christ and what
he accomplished is something that matters to God. You reckon,
is that an understatement? And he's been very clear about
it. Very clear about it. That you might learn, verse six,
that you might learn. These phrases are so key. All of this book, all of this
book, So far, that you might learn this. For your sakes, don't put your
trust in men. Don't be puffed up for any reason. Glorying, boasting is excluded. Why do you glory? Look at verse
seven. For who maketh thee to differ
from another? Who maketh thee to differ from
another, and what hast thou, that thou didst not receive?
Now if thou didst receive it, what are you, glory? As if thou
hadst not received it. Now these are rhetorical questions
to remind us of a simple truth. And the first thing I want us
to be aware of and to be warmed by, because this is the nature
of all men, and this is the root of the problem. All of false
religion is based, and this is gonna be a broad statement. We
have to think about this. Is this too broad? All of false
religion is based upon sinners making themselves to differ. All of it. It's all based on that. Everything they say comes down
to that. That's the goal of all of their so-called ministry,
is for you to make the difference. That's a problem. Faith to false
man-centered freewill religion. Faith is the sinner making himself
to differ. This is not a straw man. This
is the testimony of their own words. God has done all of this,
but now it's up to you. You've got to make the difference.
Heaven or hell, what's it going to be? It's up to you. Who really make it thee to differ?
What do you have that you didn't receive? Faith, did you not receive
faith? Did you come up with that? This principle that's taught
all through these chapters, why do you glory? Why do you glory? We preach that you might learn. We preach that which is written. that you might learn not to glory
in men. It's the reason everybody goes
to hell, goes to hell. Glorying in the flesh. Salvation is up to you. You must
make yourself to differ from other men. Others will die and
go to hell, but you can decide not to. Others will refuse and
perish, but you can walk this aisle and repeat this prayer
and make that all important decision to be different than others. I've got a question for all of
them. Why do you glory? Why do you glory? God's glory
will he not give to another? He'll put you in hell first. And that's the reason that he
will. Boasting is excluded when it
comes to this thing of being saved by grace through faith. It's not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God. You'll perish along with your
imagined free will. You'll drop into the flames of
hell. and eternal torment deciding things. Romans 9, 15, for he saith to
Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will
have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth. You don't make the difference. God has mercy on whom he will.
He makes the difference. Who maketh thee to differ? Why
do you glory? It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Will
you cast disdain upon the very mercy of God in preference to
your so-called free will decision? I'll say this to you. If God
does not bring us down, by teaching us what he has written and causing
us to bow to his son, then he will bring us down another way because he must increase and
we must decrease. Why do you glory? Consider the
words of Galatians 6.12. Let's turn there if you would,
please. Galatians 6.12. This is the issue now. And you
say, well, Chris, the application here that Paul is making, this
is talking about believers. Yes, it is. And we're gonna talk
about that a little bit. But this is the issue. It always
has been the issue. And it's what we are to guard
against. Because as believers, we're still
in this flesh. Why do you glory? Galatians 6.12,
as many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain
you to be circumcised. Now think about this, same issue,
different situation, different consideration. They desire to
make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised
only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of
Christ. Now think with me about this
tonight. We quote this scripture quite a bit, too. Think about
this. The reason they constrain you
to do something, and you can scratch out, well,
don't scratch out part of the scriptures, but think about it
this way. They constrain you to make a
decision. They constrain you to walk an
aisle. They constrain you to get saved. Why? To make a fair show in your flesh.
Is that not why they do it? That's exactly why they do it.
And if they didn't do it, would they not suffer persecution?
Would they not lose half their, probably more than half of their
congregation? I had a preacher tell me that.
He said, I believe what you're saying, but if I preach that,
it'll split this church wide open. Right to my face. But listen
now, for neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the
law. What's the point of being circumcised if you're going to
stop there? If you're going to keep that part of the Old Testament
law, you've got to keep all of it. It's not a pick and choose. Don't you hear the law? You that
are justified by the deeds of the law, don't you hear the law? But they desire to have you circumcised
that they may glory in your flesh. Look how many circumcisions we
had. That'd be weird if we did that now. Circumcised, we had
10 last week. But that's what it amounts to. But God forbid that I should
glory. You see that our text here and
this in our text, but God forbid that I should glory save in what
He did. You see that? The cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ, what He accomplished. Don't look to what you have done.
I got saved when I was 10. Oh no, no, that's bad news. That's bad news. By the grace
of God, we're saved this night because we look to Him and not
anything we've ever done or said or repeated or walked or confessed
or decided or anything. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom this world
is crucified unto me and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus,
neither circumcision availeth anything. He doesn't care about
that. He's not pleased by what you
do or don't do, nor uncircumcision. But here's what matters. Here's
the difference. Has he made a new creation in
you? Has he created you new? A new creation. Why does he say
it that way? Because that's something we can't
do. We don't create, God does. That's salvation. You must be
born again. How are you going to do that?
You ain't. You ain't. God's going to do that for you,
in you. Here, let's ask this question
about this. How would saying to people that they don't need
to be circumcised, how would that cause them to persecute
the one that said that? You ever considered that in this
verse? Why would that upset them? You don't need to be circumcised.
Why would that upset them? The offense of the cross is that
it is successful. The offense of the cross is that
it is sufficient, and it is satisfactory for the salvation of your soul,
and therefore anything you do, have done, or ever shall do,
has nothing to do with the salvation of your soul, nothing. That's
the offense. The cross means simply that it
is not up to you, to put it. in the context of modern religion. I guess they've been saying that
forever. It's up to you. That's the offense of the cross.
It says not so, not so. Christ decided everything on
Calvary. He decided everything. Now you
look to him and live. Look and live. That's why men hate the Christ
of the Bible and his cross. You don't make yourself to differ. God has put a difference between
this world and his people. And his people rejoice in him.
being circumcised, walking in and out, repeating a certain
prayer, making a decision, it's all exactly the same thing. Look with me at Galatians chapter
five, please. Verse one, Galatians 5.1. Stand
fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us
free. What has he made us free from?
Be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage, the bondage
of the law. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you
that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. Does
that mean everybody that's circumcised is going to hell? No, listen,
look at the context of it. If you be circumcised, if you
keep the law in order to please God, if your salvation relies
in any way upon you doing anything, Christ shall profit you nothing.
But for I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that
he is a debtor to do the whole law. That's what I said a while
ago, or the scripture said a while ago. If you're circumcised, you
can't stop there. You've got to keep all of the
law perfectly in heart, in word, in deed. He's a debtor to do the whole
law, and Christ has become of no effect unto you, whosoever
of you, here's what he's saying when he's saying, if you be circumcised,
are justified by the law. In other words, you did that
thing that the Old Testament law required, it indeed required
it, to picture Christ, to show the cutting away of the flood,
to show the very thing that our text is teaching. have no confidence
in the flesh, and rejoice in Christ Jesus alone. Whosoever of you are justified
by the law, you're fallen from grace. You're fallen from grace. How can that one simple thing
forfeit for me the salvation that Christ wrought? Because
in being circumcised, you think you made the difference. Why do you glory? Why do you
glory? Why do you glory? Who truly calls a thief to differ
from another? If you received the gift of faith
in Christ, as the Bible clearly teaches, then why do you glory
as if you came up with it? That glorying will cost you eternal
life and bring you down to hell. That's why there's four chapters
about this and so much scripture about this. It's the gospel. It's the gospel. It's him or
you. You're gonna trust yourself or
you're gonna trust him. And that same type of glorying
as a believer is just as horrible. I realized that the context of
our verse, he's applying that to believers or who he's given
the benefit of the doubt. As believers, he didn't know
the heart of every person in Corinth, in the church of Corinth. But are believers susceptible
to this? You still living in that flesh, ain't you? And it's
just as horrible in a believer as it is in an unbeliever. Just
as God dishonoring as it is in false religion. A believer is
vulnerable to glorying in self, even knowing what we are before
God. We know, by the grace of God, we know what we are and
we still glory in this flesh. From whom much is given, much
is required. You might wonder if a believer
is saved. Aren't they mutually exclusive? Being saved by grace
and glorying in the flesh? It would almost seem that way,
doesn't it? A believer, you might wonder if you're saved by free
and sovereign grace and knowing that your own works and character
are the problem, not the solution, then how could a believer ever
glory in the flesh? Isn't not glorying in the flesh
integral to believing in Christ? Exactly. That's why Paul said
in 1 Corinthians 3 verse 1, I could not even speak unto you as unto
saved people. I'm speaking to you as though
you were lost people. That's why he said that. Look
at it in chapter 3 verse 1. Our brethren could not speak
unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal. How can you be
spiritual and glory in your flesh? How can you know who Christ is
and what you are and what he did for you? How could you ever
see the son of God giving himself his own soul and offering for
our sin and ever glory in your flesh? It's as though you're
lost. As unto carnal, even as unto
babes in Christ, there's hope. There's hope for us. Maybe it's
just that wicked flesh rising up, but I'll tell you this, whether
it's that or we are actually lost, we've got by God's grace
to come to the place where he increases and we decrease. We've
got to come to the place where we say, God forbid that I glory. Don't let me glory in anything
but Christ and what he did on Calvary. I fed you with milk and not with
meat, for hitherto you were not able to bear it, neither yet
now are you able. For you are yet carnal, for whereas
there is among you envying and strife and divisions. That's what happens when you
think too highly of the flesh. There's strife, there's division,
there's envying. Are you not carnal and walk as
men? There's only one way to take that. You walk in as though
you don't even know the Savior. It's arguably the first thing
we learn when we see Christ. You reckon? There's no reason
to put him in order, is there? You see any point in that? But
arguably, it's the first thing we learn. When we see the Lord
Jesus Christ, that all of our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. All of our pride is evil and we're sinful and wretched
and guilty and vile in every way. Is that the first thing
you saw once you saw him? Job said, now mine eye seeth
thee and I abhor myself. So the question must be asked
now of all of us, why do you glory? What a glory, God give
us grace to be able to say with all sincerity of heart, God forbid,
God forbid that I should glory saving the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And let me close with this thought.
I know this is given as a rebuke in our scripture. There's no
other way to see that. in the context of this verse,
but what cause for gratitude unto God? Everything we have
is from Him. Everything, all of it is from
Him. So may we glory in Him alone.