Alright, brethren, let's go to
1 Corinthians chapter 4. The Corinthians had been greatly
blessed of the Lord, enriched by Him in all things. That's how Paul began this letter
to the Corinthians. He thanked God for the grace
of God given them by Christ Jesus. And he said, in everything you're
enriched by him, in all utterance and in all knowledge, even as
the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come behind
in no gift. No gift. They didn't come behind
in any gift. They're waiting for the coming
of our Lord Jesus. And Paul said he will confirm
you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of the
Lord Jesus Christ, because God is faithful who called you to
the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. But there was
a whole lot of, if you would have seen them, you wouldn't
have thought any of that was true. Because there was a whole
lot of, they had fallen into being carnal, being carnal. And it had gotten so bad, some
believed Paul was sin of God, others said Paul was not a true
apostle. Now we're talking about God's
saints here, we're talking about believers. Many preferred the
preacher Apollos. So Paul used himself and he used
Apollos as an illustration. He declares they both were earthen
vessels, sinners saved by God's grace. They were sent to preach
Christ and then crucified, and every gift that had been given
them was of God. Every gift given to Paul and
Apollos and every gift given through their preaching was the
gift of God. And his point is in this is that
God has done all in the salvation of his people. Salvation is of
the Lord and he gifts his people and he continues to do so. So
we have no reason to be puffed up one against another. No reason
to glory in ourselves. think more highly of ourselves
than we ought. Our focus is going to be questions to ask ourselves. And these are questions that
only we can answer. It's questions to ask our own
selves. We'll read a little bit for context here. Let's begin
in verse 6. He said, In these things, brethren,
I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for
your sakes. And ye might learn in us not
to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you
be puffed up for one against another. 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? What people say of you is not
the final test. They were saying Paul was not
an apostle. They were saying, I am of Paul,
I am of Apollos. They had their reasons, you know. He said, verse 8, Now you are
full, now you are rich. You've reigned as kings without
us. And I would to God you did reign, that we also might reign
with you. For I think that God hath set
forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death. For
we made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to
men. We are fools for Christ's sake,
but ye are wise in Christ. Paul is speaking with irony here. We're fools for Christ's sake,
that's what they thought of Paul and some of the others, but you're
wise in Christ. We're weak, but you're strong.
You're honorable, but we are despised. Even into this present
hour, we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted
and have no certain dwelling place. In labor, working with
our own hands, being reviled, we bless. Being persecuted, we
suffer it. Being defamed, we entreat, were
made as the filth of the world and are the offscouring of all
things unto this day. I write not these things to shame
you, but as my beloved sons, I warn you. And we'll focus on
these questions we should ask ourselves, and we should ask
ourselves these questions daily. He said, verse 7, 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? They were
puffed up one against another and they were speaking negatively
of each other. And this was the word the Spirit
of God gave Paul. Now think about that. This is
the word the Spirit of God gave Paul to write. This is the antidote
for pride. This is the word God will bless
to break the heart and make us humble and contrite before him. First of all, here's the first
question to ask our own selves. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? This would be good to ask ourselves
every day, ask ourselves, self, who makes you to differ from
another? Who maketh thee to differ from another? No child of God
is different from any other by nature. We're not any different
from any other sinner by nature. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. All those that God has sanctified
by the Spirit of God and made holy by God and brought to see
Christ to be our righteousness and our sanctification, yet in
our flesh dwells no good thing. This is what we see being on
display with the Corinthian saints. These are saints. And what they're
displaying, though, was not the new man, but the old man. In
our flesh dwells no good thing. But Simon said, Verily every
man at his best state is altogether vanity. God is holy. In him is no darkness. He's light. He's perfect purity. Now you think of you and me at
our best state, brethren. Adam was in the best state of
any man other than the sinless God-man. He was in the best state
any man's ever been in, a state of innocence in a sinless world,
and yet he sinned and came short of the glory of God and plunged
every one of us into sin and death. And as a sanctified child
of God, when he was at his best state, God had brought him into
a peaceful state, into his best state, and David fell. our health, our mind, our memory,
our strength, what we purpose to do, all is subject to change. It's all subject to change. It's
true of the wise and learned man, and it's true the very same
of the unlearned man. The psalmist said, surely men
of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie.
To be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity. Trust not in oppression. Become
not vain in robbery. Don't steal a man's character.
Don't steal at all. Don't steal Christ's glory. If
riches increase, set not your heart upon them. God has spoken
once, twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God. The only man who changes not
is our God-man mediator, Christ Jesus. Our Lord Jesus Christ
came in human flesh and God alone in His Son by His Spirit made
His people to differ. God made His people to differ
by choosing us by His free and sovereign grace in Christ before
the world was made, choosing who He would save apart from
anything about me and you. The Son of God made us to differ
by coming and perfecting forever His people by His one offering
on Calvary's cross. The Spirit of God made us to
differ when He found us lost, blind, dead, ruined in sin and
He quickened us to life and He gave us faith in Christ and purified
our hearts through faith and made us trust Christ alone for
our righteousness. And He keeps quickening us and
He keeps renewing us and keeping us. God made us to differ by
His grace. That's it. For each child of
God that's been given faith in our Lord Jesus, our life is at
God's right hand. Our lives at God's right hand
and in Christ at God's right hand we are secure from any change
whatsoever. In Christ at God's right hand
you're secure from any change whatsoever. Go to Colossians
2 with me. I'll show you why this is so.
This is what the Spirit of God is going to keep us knowing Colossians 2 and verse 10. He's going to keep his child
knowing you are complete in Christ. That's where you change not.
That's where you are secure. That's where your life is in
Christ. You are complete in him, which is the head of all principality
and power, in whom also you are circumcised with a circumcision
made without our hands and putting off the body of the sins of the
flesh by the circumcision of Christ on the cross, on the cross
in Christ. We were buried with him in baptism
in the judgment of God. He said, I have a baptism be
baptized with and how I'm straight until it be accomplished. All
His elect were baptized in Him on Calvary's cross. That's how
the body of our sins was put off. Wherein also you're risen
with Him through the faith of the operation of God who raised
Him from the dead. And you being dead in your sins
in the uncircumcision of your flesh as He quickened together
with Him, that is in regeneration, and He blotted out, bringing
you to faith in Christ, He's forgiven you all trespasses,
and He blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against
us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing
it to His cross. And so there in chapter 3, Paul
says, your life is at God's right hand. Seek such affection there. You're dead, verse 3, your life
is hid with Christ in God. Your life is hid with Christ
in God. And when Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall you appear with Him in glory. Those
wicked deeds of our flesh in spirit and in deed right here
that he talks about putting off can be put off one way. By being
turned to the Lord Jesus Christ. Being turned to see that everything
you have you were made to differ by God's grace in Christ by the
doing and dying and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ alone.
That's what He's going to bless, to turn us from us, turn us to
Him, so that we treat our bodies like they are dead, like they
are dead. God's mercy will never change
toward His saints, for Christ's sake. Oh, give thanks unto the
Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever. At our best state, we're vanity.
We're perishing. We're earthen vessels. But God's
mercy endures forever. In Christ, we are complete, and
he's going to keep you. He's going to keep that new spirit
he's made and put in you, trusting him alone. And his mercy endureth
forever. It's of the Lord's mercies we're
not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They're new every morning.
Great is thy faithfulness. And because Christ is our righteousness,
because he's the righteousness of his people, Our righteousness
will never change. Our righteousness will never
change. This will greatly affect what we do, but what we do will
never affect this. Our righteousness will never
change. The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all
them that have pleasure therein. His work is honorable and glorious,
and His righteousness endureth forever. And He is the Lord our
righteousness. He is our righteousness. For
if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death
of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life,
brethren. By His life. Who made you to
differ? It's only God. And it's only
grace. God declares of his elect Israel,
he said, against any of the children of Israel, so not a dog move
his tongue against man or beast, that you may know how that the
Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. The
Lord made you to differ. Now here's another question to
ask ourselves. What hast thou that thou didst
not receive? What hast thou that thou didst
not receive? God commands us to humble ourselves. You know how He's going to humble
us? He's going to make us know we have nothing but what He gave
us. That's what's going to humble us. When we get to thinking too
highly of ourselves, He's going to bring us into a situation
that teaches we don't have one thing but what He gave us. Everything
we have is the gift of God. Listen to Romans 8.35. He said,
Who hath first given to him? Who first gave to him, and it
shall be recompensed unto him again. For of him and through him and
to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. Of him and through him and to
him are all things. And he gets all the glory. God
is life. Christ is life. He gave, He made
man and gave us life. He created Adam, the first man
out of the dust of the earth and breathed into him life. Well,
likewise, in the new birth, it's the Lord who gives us life. It's
the Lord who alone gives His elect His spirit and gives us
a new spirit in the new birth and continues to quicken us and
strengthen us entirely of Him alone. Entirely of Him alone. Entirely of Him alone. Of his
own will begat he us with the word of truth. That we should
be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. He begat us with
the gospel. Hereby know that we dwell in
him and he in us because he's given us of his spirit. The only
way you know God is he gave you the Holy Spirit and brought you
to know him. The only reason we have an understanding
of him and believe his gospel and have continued to this day
trust in his gospel It's because He gave you the understanding.
Christ said, it's given to you to know the mysteries of the
kingdom of heaven, but to them it's not given. We don't have
enemies amongst brethren. We're one body. We got one head.
Our enemies are those that hate the gospel of Christ and would
divide God's people. That's our enemies. God's people
are one in Christ by the blood of our Redeemer and will stay
one in Him. And He's the only ones who can
work this sin, brethren. He continues to quicken by His
Word and strengthen us in the inner man by His Word. This is
how He humbles you from poking out your chest and wobbling your
neck and thinking you're something when you're nothing. He does
this. Our prayer and dependence is upon God. Paul said that He
would grant you, that He would grant you according to the riches
of His glory to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the
inner man. That He would grant you. That's
what we need. We need Him to grant. If He grants
us strength in the inner man, we're going to go down, down,
down. Not up, up, up. We're not going
to be proud. We're going to go down. We're not going to, uh, what
was that Brother Rob just read in Galatians? Trying to provoke
one another. That's it. We're not going to
be provoking one another and envying one another. We go down. We go down. Through the creating in us a
pure heart and giving us faith in His Son, God gave us the righteousness
of His dear Son as a free gift. Creating in us a pure heart,
giving us faith in His Son, God gave us the righteousness of
His dear Son as a free gift. Romans 5.15, not as the offense,
so also is the free gift. What do you have that wasn't
given to you? This is a free gift. If through the offense
of one, many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift
by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, and it hath abounded
unto many. Not as it was by one that sinned,
so is the gift. The judgment was by one to condemnation. One sin brought us into condemnation.
We got a lot of sins that got to be forgiven. We have to have
a lot of sin forgiven every day from now to the end of your life.
Well, he says the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. God's forgiven. He's made us
righteous. That's what justification is.
If by one man's offense death reigned by one, much more they
would receive abundance of grace, and the gift of righteousness
shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. He's given you eternal
life. You have it. And it's never going
to end. And it's by Jesus Christ being
justified freely by His grace to the redemption that's in Christ
Jesus. Repentance and faith and every grace is the gift of God. It is the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit. And
it's freely given to us by our risen Redeemer. And it's given
in a different measure to each of his children. The only reason
that one believer differs from another believer is the grace
of God giving one measure more than another measure. The only
reason. But to every one of us is given
grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. To one
is given the spirit by the word of wisdom. He's made wise. To another the word of knowledge
by the same spirit. Not everybody knows how to admonish
and exhort. Some have that gift more than
others do. To another, faith by the same spirit. All have
faith, but all have not the same measure of faith. But all these
are worked by that one and self same spirit, dividing to every
man severally as he will, in the measure he will. God made
us differ from the world by this. and he makes us differ from one
brother to another and he's the only one that does it. So we
can't very well be puffed up about that. We can't very well
look down our nose about that. We didn't have anything but what
was given to us. Any good works we perform is
the gift of God worked in us. We're his workmanship. We were
created in Christ Jesus and the good works, and God hath before
ordained those works, and we shall walk in them by God. By
God. Paul said, by the grace of God
I am what I am. And His grace which was bestowed
on me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all,
yet not I. But it wasn't me, he said. It
was the grace of God which was with me. He couldn't boast in
it. He wouldn't boast in it. And then everything in providence
is a gift of God to us. You know why the Corinthians
were where they were? You know why they were having
all these problems? Because they needed it. They needed them. God was humbling them. He was
showing them they weren't as rich as they thought they were.
He was showing them He gave them everything. All he had to do
was take his spirit away a little bit, and they went to murmuring
and disputing with one another. And he showed by that, by their
pride and their haughtiness, they weren't everything they
thought they were. That was God's providence to them to humble
them. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to His purpose. That's all things, brethren.
What do you have that you didn't receive? All things, even providence. God has given His children an
eternal inheritance, a gift, an eternal inheritance. We can't
even fathom what that will be, but it's going to be with Christ
and it's ours. He accomplished it. He earned
it. He purchased it. And all these
blessings He gives us are given by Him and Him alone, brethren.
Every one of them. When God chose His people, what
did He say? He blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ
according as He chose us in Him. And Christ Jesus came and laid
down His life. And when He arose, what did He
do? He gave gifts unto man. And he keeps doing it. Everything
is at his disposal to give to his people in measure as he will. And he has an eternal inheritance
that he has accomplished for his people and he shall give
us this inheritance. He's the Prince of Peace. And
listen to this from Ezekiel 46, 16. Thus saith the Lord God,
If the prince give a gift unto any of his sons, the inheritance
thereof shall be his sons. It shall be their possession
by inheritance. You know who that prince is?
That prince is Christ Jesus, the Prince of Peace. And if he's
given an inheritance, it shall be your inheritance. If you're
children born of his spirit, then you're heirs, heirs of God
and joint heirs with Christ. Everything that's he is he gonna
give to his people share with his people everything that's
here. You'll sit at my table in my kingdom. He said I'll serve
you God's gonna give us strength to abide in Christ And bring
you through every affliction in this world because he's given
us his covenant promise that he shall deliver his children
to that inheritance He shall listen to this He said, I'll
bring you into the land concerning the witch. I did swear to give
it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and I will give it
you for a heritage, for an inheritance. I am the Lord. That's a heavenly
Canaan. That's what he promised Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. It wasn't a land over in the
sand. It was heavenly Jerusalem, and he's going to give that to
his people. Look at what Peter said, 1 Peter 1.3. Do you see this, everything from
beginning to end is a gift of God to us? What do you have that
you didn't receive? Not anything. Of course all temporal
things too are given to us, but we're talking about things we
need. We're talking about life here. Spiritual blessings are
all given of our God. He said in 1 Peter 1. He said,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which
according to His abundant mercy, hath begotten us again to a lively
hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance
incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved
in heaven for you. For you who are kept by the power
of God through faith unto salvation and it is ready to be revealed
in the last time. Ready to be revealed. Inheritance
is ready, brethren. It's ready to be revealed. So,
what do we have that we didn't receive? Who made you to differ?
God did, by His grace. What do we have that we didn't
receive? Not one thing. Every single thing was given
to us by God and is being given to us by God. In 2 Corinthians
5.18, Paul said, All things are of God. who hath reconciled us to himself
by Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. Eternal life is the gift of God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The gift, it's eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Every
blessing we have is in and by God's unspeakable gift, and that's
His Son. This is the record. God has given
to us eternal life, and this life's in His Son. That's what
I said at the beginning. There's one place where your
life is. It's in His Son. It's in His
Son. Secure, though no matter what
comes, you're secure right there. Child of weakness, look right
there. Thanks be to God for His unspeakable
gift. God never takes back His gifts. He never takes them back. He
don't give them to you, and then when you stumble, oh, I'm taking
that back. He gives them to you, and He
gives them to you, and He gives them to you. His mercies never
fail. They're new every morning. The
gifts and calling of God are without repentance. He never
takes them back. He that spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for each of us, us all, how shall He not,
because He's justified us, because He's made us holy and righteous
and redeemed us, how shall He not with Him, with Christ, freely
give us all things? How shall He not? Now, here's
the last question to ask ourselves. Now, if thou didst receive it,
Why dost thou glory as if thou hast not received it? Well, I
don't glory. That's glorying. Well, how dare
you say I glory? That's glorying. Well, I'm thankful I'm not like
they are. That's glorying. This is what I heard. That's
glorying. Look at chapter 3, verse 21. He says, Let no man glory in
men, for all things are yours. All things are yours. That's
what's going to keep us from glorying in other men and in
our own selves. For God to make you know all
things are yours, given by God. by grace, undeserved, unmerited,
demerited many times over in the walk of faith. And yet all
things are yours, whether it's Paul or Apollos or Cephas, the
ministries he's given, whether you like them or not, he gave
them to you. Are the world, this world's your
words, believer, are life or death? Death's yours. Are things
present? It doesn't matter how crushing
things present may be. God gave it just for you, for
your good. It doesn't matter how happy and
how accomplished you might feel that you accomplished all this
by your hand and did this or that by your hand. Nope, it was
things present given to you by God. Are things to come? You know, I don't know what's
to come. I know this though, and this is where I rejoice in,
it's going to be of God, and it's going to be for you and
me who are His people. All are yours. All these are
yours, and you're Christ, and Christ is God. So what does that
make you do? What does that make you do? I read it to you already from Romans
8.36. It makes you give all the glory
to our triune God and His Son, our Lord Jesus. For of Him and
through Him and to Him are all things to whom be glory forever
and ever. Back there in 1 Corinthians 1
verse 29, the reason the Lord saves through a bloody cross,
the reason He saves in a way where He gives everything gives
everything needed, continues to give everything needed. The
reason he saves through the foolish means of preaching, using foolish,
despised preachers. Here's why he does it. And this
gives some context to the letter. Paul's saying this because they
were despising Paul. And he wrote this, and he said,
the reason he saves this way is that no flesh shall glory
in his presence. But of him are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness,
and sanctification, and redemption, that according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. You know where it's
written? Jeremiah 9.23 says, Thus saith
the Lord, Let not the wise men glory in his wisdom. Christ is
our wisdom. Neither let the mighty men glory
in his might. Christ is our righteousness.
Let not the rich man glory in his riches. Christ is our riches.
He's our sanctification. He's given us all. He redeemed
us with the unsearchable riches. Let him that glory glory in this,
that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I'm the Lord which exercised
loving kindness and judgment and righteousness in the earth.
And all was taking place in the church at Corinth, as out of
order as it looked and as terrible as it looked. It was God working,
loving kindness and judgment and righteousness, teaching his
children through their own sinful falls and infirmities and being
puffed up that he's the one who saves his people. And so he said,
these things are things I delight in. So what does he make you
do when he makes you understand this? We say not unto us, O Lord,
When he's really worked this, you know, we'll get some gifts
and he'll bless you and you'll go a little while and you start
feeling a little accomplished and a little strong and we start
feeling a little bit too more of ourselves than we ought. And
he'll work again and bring you down and show you, you don't
have anything but what I gave you. All he has to do is just
give you a little space and we'll see, we'll fall right on our
face, and we'll see, I need Him for everything, strength and
powers of God. And when He gets through with
that, you say, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name
give glory, for Thy mercy and for Thy true sake. Isn't that
what you want in your heart? Don't you want God to have all
the glory? His people want God to have all the glory. It's what
makes us shameful of our sins, shameful of our prides, and shameful
of our impatience, and shameful of everything opposite the food
of the Spirit. That's what our flesh is. And
He keeps showing you that He's long-suffering. That's why He
makes you suffer long. When, you know, somebody will
push and push and push and push, and then finally you say, have
you forgotten you're a sinner? And you might speak of their
sin and show them their sin. Well, you're not being long-suffering,
and you suffered a long time before you got to that point.
And you keep suffering long by His grace. But when you don't,
He shows you, I'm suffering long with you. And that's what keeps
you, strengthens you again to know it's all of His hand. And
He gives it all. I pray, Lord, to bless that. Amen. Brother Greg.