Alright, if you take your Bibles
again and turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 4. 1 Corinthians chapter
4. My text will be found in verse
7. We'll read verse 6 and then verse 7. The apostle says, and these things,
brethren, and given figures of himself, being a wise master
builder, being a sower, He is nothing more than a steward of
the gospel of Christ. He is nothing more than a servant.
And He did this for a purpose that you 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
hast not received? Now, if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? Entitled this message this morning,
A Great Difference. A Great Difference. Now the church
of Corinth was one that was greatly blessed of God. They heard the
gospel from some of the greatest preachers that God has ever placed
upon the earth. They heard the gospel from Paul. They heard it from Apollos. They
heard it from Peter. And yet, instead of humility,
Instead of these blessings causing humility in the church, it rather
caused the opposite. It caused pride. It caused pride. One would say, you know, this
church, they were in a great division. They were dividing
themselves based on preachers. One said, I am of Apollos. Another
says, I am of Cephas. Another says, I am of Paul. And
this caused great division. They were exalting the men of
God above what was written. It caused great pride. Now this is true that preachers
want God to do one thing. God to do one thing. God to do
one thing. God to do one thing. Preach the
gospel. Paul tells the church in Corinth
in chapter 1 and verse 17, I came not to baptize. Is baptism important? Well, of course it is. The Lord
Jesus instituted the ordinance of baptism. But that's not our
purpose. Our purpose is not to baptize. That's not what we're here for.
Very simple. Very simple. Very specifically
how? Not with wisdom of words. lest
the cross of Christ be made of none effect. And every time we
preach this gospel there is a response. Every time. Those who believe
it have a response and those who do not believe it have a
response. What is the response of those
that do not believe? Paul says this, he says, for
the preaching of the cross is to them that pay. Because to
the world, because to the world, because to the world, because
to the world, because to the world, because to the world,
what we're doing is foolish. It is not necessary. It's foolish. You guys wasting
your time over there. I got more important things to
do. This is not important. Yeah, they may nod their heads
and say, yeah, well, it is kind of important to never show up.
Why? It's foolishness. Let's be honest. You want something
more. You don't need this. It's foolishness
to them that perish. But what about the saved? What
is it to you? What does the preaching of the
gospel mean to you? to us who are saved, it is the
power of God. We know it's the power of God
because we have ourselves experienced it. Someone preached to us and
in the power of God, He saved us. And I know this, every time it's
preached, we are fed, we are nurtured, we are refreshed by
this Gospel. Is that the power of the preacher
or the power of God? We know it is the power of God. But to this world, there is nothing
more foolish than preaching. To the world, there is nothing
more outdated or out of touch. All you do is preach Christ.
I got other things you need to talk about. I don't have anything
else to talk about. I don't have anything else. Listen,
I don't have anything else worth talking about. I guarantee you in most pulpits
today, what are you going to hear? What do you think you're
going to hear? You're going to hear about how they overturned abortion. Right? Most pulpits are going
to talk about that and how wonderful. It is wonderful. I'm glad. Very
thankful. Thousands upon thousands of lives
are saved because of that wonderful thing. Does that save anybody? No. Is that the power of God?
No. It is the preaching of the cross
of Christ. That's the power of God. That's
what saves men. And so that's what we do. We
preach the gospel. The preaching of the cross is
to them that perish. Foolishness. But there's a difference,
isn't it? To us, there's a great difference. It is the power of God. We preach
that the Son of God suffered by His death suffered for the
elect of God. He bore our sins in His own body. He said, the reproaches of them
that reproach Thee hath fallen on Me. We declare this Gospel that Christ
alone is the Savior. You know what preaching is? Preaching
is simply declaring. You know, there's a reason you
sit there and you listen and we don't have a back and forth.
Because that's not preaching. Preaching is declaring the gospel
to you, not debating it. And you may like it, you may
not. You may disagree with it, you may like it. Whatever, it
doesn't matter to me. Paul says it's a light thing
for you to judge me. I don't care about your judgment. It
doesn't bother me. I'm not here to be judged by
you. I'm here to declare the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I will not debate it. I will
not debate the truth that this gospel, if God's free and sovereign
grace, is the only gospel. The salvations of the Lord, I'm
not going to debate that. I know this then, that all free
will works religion is a doctrine of devils. And God sends men. He sends preachers. Sinners who
are quickened by the Spirit who believe this gospel. He sends
these men and equips them for this ministry to do one thing.
Preach the Word. That's what he told Timothy.
I charge thee. I charge thee before God and
the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead
and the disappearing. Preach the Word. That's it. Preach the
Word. That's what we're here to do.
Now listen, not all men are called to preach, are they? Not all
men are called to do this. Not all men are called to this
office. Not all men are equipped for it. God does call certain men to
this office to preach His Word. It is a very high office. It
is a very weighty thing for us to declare the Word of God. And yet I know this too, that
everyone is called to witness the gospel, aren't you? Are you
not called to witness as well? Are you not called to go out
into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature?
Of course you are. It is our commission to do this. But what then are you to think
of us? How then are you to hold us? In what light are you to
see us? We preach the word not that you
should glorify us, not that you should glorify men, but that
you should glorify God. How do we do this? How do we
set your eyes upon God? How is it that we are to exalt
God rather than ourselves, simply by this, by preaching the Gospel. That's what exalts God and abases
men. This is the aim of every true
Gospel preacher, is to put you in the dust and God on the throne,
exactly how it is. We're just declaring, I don't
really put God on the throne, He's there, I'm just declaring. And that's what the gospel does.
That's what Paul's been doing. He said, I've transferred myself
and Apollos in a figure so that you might see us as we really
are. So that you might put us in our
proper place rather than exalting us. He said, I've given figures,
transferred figures to myself and Apollos. He gave pictures
of himself that he planted Apollos waters. He was a wise master
builder, stewards of the gospel. Not that they should be exalted,
but look, that you might learn not to think of us above what's
written, that every one of you should not be puffed up against
one another. God gives preachers to faithfully
declare the gospel of Jesus Christ. But really, what are we? What
are we? But your servants, for Christ's
sake. I'm not above you. I'm under
you. I'm here to serve you. Serve you by preaching the gospel
of Christ. That's how we serve. We preach
the gospel of Christ. And what are we? Nothing. In
other words, I have no power to make this gospel effectual
to you. I can't do anything for you. I can declare it to you
and that's what God has given me to do. Declare the Gospel
of Christ to you but I cannot make it effectually. I cannot
save you. I have no power to do that. So
then why in the world would you glory and preach it? And yet that's a temptation for
us, isn't it? Who among us has not done that? We can look at
the Corinthian church and try to look down. We can't look down
on them. We've done it ourselves. We've exalted men for years.
We've lifted up men for years. But if we'll learn this text,
we'll learn not to lift up men. We'll learn not to lift up ourselves. But we will learn to glory in
God. I've got four things, four things
this morning about this text. The text says, who maketh thee
to differ from another? The first thing I got is this, a difference made. A difference
made. Second thing is, who made the
difference? I want to describe the difference,
then I want to see who made the difference. And thirdly, I want
to see who gets the glory then, for the difference that's made.
And fourthly, Where then is boasting? Where then is boast? First, what's
the real difference made? If you're saved by the grace
and power of God, there is a great difference between you and the
world. There is a great difference. A great difference. Now, we all,
all of us of Adam's race are different. We're different. We're
different in appearance, We may be different in status. We may
be different in our culture. We may be different in our height,
our weight. There's differences, aren't there?
There are men and there are women. There are differences. But one
thing is this, no matter where you're from, no matter if you're
rich or poor, young or old, we all have one thing that threads
us all together. One common thing, and it's just
the same in you as it is in me. We are all born dead. Mariah, your little baby, now
you pay attention, he's dead. He's dead. Now he's alive physically,
but he's dead. He's born that way. You and I
had that same experience. We were born dead. We were born
enslaved to sin. No one taught you to sin. Do
you spend a lot of time teaching your child to lie? Annie, you spend a lot of days... Are you frustrated because your
children tell the truth all the time? It's ridiculous to think that,
but that's true. You don't have to. David said,
in sin did my mother conceive me. Don't you understand that? You were, at conception, you
were a sinner. You were a sinner. We all bear
this. This is what we have in common.
There's no difference in this area. We are all born sin. We all have broken the law of
God. We all, by nature, cannot and will not come to Christ.
I tell you that there's one Savior. I tell you there's only one hope
for you. He's Christ. Don't come to me. Don't come
to your parents. There's no hope in them. Come
to Christ. Believe on Christ. Behold, the
only Savior. God sent one Savior. His Son. He was perfect. His salvation is perfect. Why
won't men come? Is it sad? It's appalling that men won't They would rather choose the
things of the world and the lust of their flesh rather than bowing
the knee to Christ. We all had this in common. This
is us by nature. Therefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world and death by sin, so death passed upon
all men for all have sinned. God says of the man's sin in
Genesis chapter 6, He said, God saw the wickedness of man was
great in the earth that every thought of the imagination of
the heart was only evil continually. Now that's something we all have
in common. All of Adam's race, there is
no difference in that. No difference. God says, why shall you be stricken
more and more? Why shall you be stricken anymore?
You will revolt more and more. You know what the law does? It
only causes us to rebel. That's what it is. The law can
only cause you to rebel. It cannot cause you to obey.
It causes us to revolt. Why? The whole head is sick. The whole head. He says there is from the sole
of the foot to the crown of the head there is nothing but wounds
and bruises and putrefying sword. This in every one of us is no
different. I don't care how religious you
are. I don't care how good you think you are. You are nothing
better than the worst pedophile by nature. You are nothing better. you will in no wise merit the
favor of God any more than the worst sinner. because the carnal mind is enmity
against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be. Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, he tells us of our
nature, he says, the natural man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God. I preach the things of the Spirit
of God to you, I preach Christ to you, yet you will not receive
them. They are foolishness unto you, neither can you know them,
because you are judged already. You are condemned already. This is no difference that no
man can come to Christ except God draw him. There's no difference
in this. We're all the same. No man can
come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him, Jesus
said. So in this matter of spiritual death and sin and depravity,
there is no difference. There is no difference. In the
flesh shall no man please God. Therefore, by the obedience of
the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight." Don't you see
that there's no difference in that? It doesn't matter what
you think about yourself. If you come to God in your works,
you will perish. If you come to God with your
offerings, you will perish. There's no difference. There's
no difference. We all, by nature, have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. I know this, except you repent,
you will die. There's no difference. Remember
the Lord Jesus, they asked Him about those Galileans who Pilate
slew with their sacrifices. And Jesus said, no, you think
that those were the worst sinners because such a violent thing
happened to them? You think they were the worst
sinners in Israel? He said, no. But except you repent,
you shall likewise perish. You got that? There's no difference.
Except you repent, except you believe on Christ, you will perish
just like them. You must repent, you must believe
on Christ or you will perish. Believe what? Believe that by
His obedience He obtained righteousness. That by His blood He satisfied
the justice of God for the sins of His people. That God raised
Him from the dead and He is right now seated at the throne of God.
Scripture, He tells us this. He said, Thou has given power
to the Son of Man over all flesh for this purpose. That He should
give eternal life to as many as Thou has given Him. And right
now the Spirit of God is poured out The Spirit of God moves and
He calls sinners to faith in Christ. And they will believe. Jesus said, All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. Have you come to Christ? Have
you come to Christ? Now, by nature, there was no
difference. But have you come to Christ?
Have you believed on Christ? And I'm here to tell you, there
is now a difference. If you believe on Christ, if
you are saved by the blood and righteousness of Christ, I want
you to see the difference. What's the difference? The difference
is spiritual life. You that believe on Christ, what
is the difference now? There was no difference before
you believed, but now that you believe, there is a difference,
and it's a great difference. The difference is now your life. Isn't that what Paul says? And
you hath he quickened who were dead in trespass and sin. You who were dead, now you are
alive. The same God who sent Christ
now sent His Spirit to His elect and He called us. He gave us
life and we believed. What's the evidence of your spiritual
life? profess to be alive. What is the evidence you're alive? Is it your works? What about
your ceremonial baptism? Is that the evidence? No, no,
that's not the evidence. The only evidence of spiritual
life is this, faith. Faith in Christ is the evidence. Do you believe on the Son of
God? Well, how do you know your faith
is real? If faith is the evidence of spiritual life, what's the
evidence of faith? Love. Do you love this gospel? Do you love Christ? That's the evidence of true faith.
Faith worketh how? By love. Do you love the brethren? John says this. You tell me how
much you love God all you want to. If you don't love the brethren,
you're a liar. You're a liar. I hear people all the time. Oh,
I love Jesus. I love Jesus. And you know what? They never
worship with God's saints. They never come to see God's
people. How do I know they're liars?
Because they don't love us. They don't love the gospel. They're
liars. Truth's not in them. Their faith
is not real. So the evidence of life is faith. Don't you see the difference?
They do not believe on Christ. What a great difference. You
do believe on Christ. They have no life. You who believe,
what a difference. You have life. They do not love the gospel.
You do love the gospel. They do not love the brethren.
You do love the brethren. What a difference! What a difference! Jesus said about the Spirit of
God, He said, You must be born again. You must be born again. Without this difference, there's
no hope for you. He says, The wind bloweth where it listeth.
You can hear the sound thereof, but you can't tell whence it
cometh or whither it goeth. So is everyone that is born of
the Spirit of God. And the result of this new birth,
he says in verse 14 of chapter 3 of John, he says, as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up. That whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. So what's the evidence
of this spiritual wind that blows? It's believing that God has lifted
up Christ. for your sins, trusting in Christ. Oh, the wonder. We who could
not believe, believe. You remember when you couldn't
believe? Remember when God exposed your sin and you desired to and
just could not? What a torment it was. What a
torment to know that I needed Christ and I could not come.
It was the most humbling thing that ever happened to a dead
sinner, is to be exposed and know this, that I have no right,
no power to come. And I knew I needed to come.
And then one day I came. One day I believed. You know, I use that illustration
often because it's just so good. A lady came and gave her testimony
of her faith. She listened to a message. And
she said, I started that message not believing. And she said,
by the middle of the message, all of a sudden, I found myself
believing. What a difference. What a difference. Here's another difference. You
are washed. You are washed from your sins. You that believe in
Christ, you have been thoroughly cleansed from all your sins. You have been washed as white
as wool by the blood of Jesus Christ. Listen to what God says
about your sins in Isaiah 44, verse 22. I have blotted out
as a thick cloud thy transgression. And as a cloud thy sins return
unto me for I have redeemed thee. God has blotted out all your
transgressions and all your sins. You are justified. You are... You know what justified means?
It means innocent. It doesn't mean like you're innocent. It
means you're innocent. When a judge stands up and declares
you to be innocent and you are guilty, then he's unjust. God declares you and I to be
without sin. Justified. This is what he says
in Romans chapter 3, being justified freely by His grace. How in the world could He justify
a guilty sinner through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus? Look at Jeremiah chapter 50.
Look at verse 20. You can mark this down. If you
ain't got this mark, you should. If you're a believer in Christ,
you should take this, and when you feel the conviction of sin,
roll it over here. Look at this. In those days,
and at that time, sayeth the Lord. That is the day of Christ's
crucifixion, the day of justice being satisfied by the blood
of Jesus Christ. In those days, the days of grace,
and at that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall
be sought for, and there shall be how many? How many? When God seeks for your iniquity,
how many is He going to find? None. None. And the sins of Judah, and they
shall not be found. Now, why in the world is that?
For I will pardon them whom I reserve. What a difference. All you could
do by nature is sin. And yet now, by the grace of
God, through the power of blood of Christ, You have no sin before
the eyes of God. Now, what about your experience? Any man say he had no sin, he
makes God a liar. But if we confess our sin, he
is faithful and just. You didn't do... See, God didn't
do anything with that old man. When he saved you, he didn't
do anything to the old man. He put him down. He put a new
man in you. There is the difference. He has
put a new man in you and that man is created after God in true
holiness. In that man there is no sin. In that man he is as holy as
Christ. But because of the old man still
here, what is this? The constant warfare within the
heart of every true believer constantly battling with the
old man of sin. He is a corpse about our neck
and we desire only to be rid of Him. He drags us to the earth. And we desire to be only clothed
with His righteousness. And you are sanctified. What
does this mean? You're holy. You're holy. You're sanctified. Hebrews 10
and verse 10, by the which will, Christ said, I came into the
world to do the will of Him that sent me. And by the which will,
what will is that? That you be holy. That's the
will of God. That you who believe, you should
be holy. Christ came to do that will and
He did that will. And He says this, by that will,
by the which will, we are sanctified. through the sufferings of the
body of Christ once for all. Don't let nobody tell you about
this matter of progressive sanctification. That sanctification is once for
all. You have been sanctified once
for all through the offering of Jesus Christ. Now it is true. Believers, again, there is a
difference outwardly. There is an outward type of sanctification
Surely we see that, but that has nothing to do with your holiness,
nothing to do whatsoever. We are justified, we are washed,
we are sanctified. And there is a difference in
our wisdom. A difference in our knowledge. We who have heard
the voice of Christ and do follow Him by faith, we are given spiritual
wisdom and understanding to know the mystery of the gospel. To
the world, this gospel is an enigma. It's a mystery. It's
useless. How in the world can these people
sit there and possibly listen to this over and over and over
again? It's a mystery! It's a mystery. How can you get
any joy out of listening to a man abase you and exalt Christ? How
can you get any joy out of that? It's a mystery to them. But to
us, we know it is not a mystery. It's not a mystery to us. John said this in 1 John 2 and
verse 20. He said, You know all things. We have an unction of the Holy
One and You know all things. You know all things? Joanne,
you know all things? Scripture says you do. You know all things. Now, you may not know everything
in this world and worldly wisdom and worldly knowledge, but you
have the knowledge, the only knowledge that matters. You know
Him. Do you know Him? Do you know
Him? I know Him. I know whom I have
believed. And I am persuaded that He is
able to keep that which I've committed to Him against that
day. I know Him! Well, you know all things. You know Him. You know everything
you need to know. Everything else is useless knowledge,
isn't it? Think of all the years a brain surgeon spends in college
and gaining all that knowledge. When you're dead, how's that
knowledge going to help you? Are there going to be brain surgeries
in heaven or hell? Useless knowledge there. Useless. If you know Him, you know everything. You know all things. You have
wisdom. You have true spiritual wisdom. And lastly this, you have an
inheritance. You have spiritual life. That's
different, right? You're washed of all your sins.
That's different. You have been justified by God.
That's different. You have been sanctified by God.
That's different. You have been given all spiritual
wisdom and knowledge by knowing Christ. That's different. They
don't know Christ. They don't care for Christ. And
the last thing is this. You have an inheritance that
they don't have. Go over to 1 Peter. Look at this. Look at this in 1 Peter. Look
at your inheritance. 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1. Look at verse 3. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His
abundant mercy hath begotten us again to a living hope. See,
there's that new birth. He's begotten you again. But
listen, you've got a hope that nobody else has got. You know what a hope is? It's
not a wish. It's an anticipation of something.
This hope I'm talking about is rock-solid assurance of something.
You have a living hope. What is your living hope? It's Him that's living. Christ
is my living hope. All my hope of heaven is living. A living hope. by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible,
undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. Listen, this inheritance you
have, what a difference it is than any other inheritance, isn't
it? This inheritance is incorruptible. You cannot corrupt your inheritance. Nothing that happens in time
or eternity will ever contaminate your inheritance. You got several kids and you
made out your last will and testament, right? And all of a sudden, boy,
those kids go off the rails. And then you go back to your
lawyer and say, well, I'm going to change this. Those kids, boy,
they're horrible. I'm not going to leave them a
dime. And you give it to charity or something. And all of a sudden,
the kids come back and they're doing well. Well, I'm going to
go back and change that and we're going to give it to them because
they're doing good. That's not how our inheritance is. Your
inheritance is not based on what you've done or what you're doing.
It's all based on what Christ did. Therefore, it is incorruptible
by you. You can't corrupt this. What
a difference. What a difference that is between
an earthly inheritance and this one. It's undefiled. And listen,
it doesn't fade away. This inheritance you have is
eternal and it doesn't diminish in value. I was thinking about
something. Say that you had a great, great,
great, great grandfather. During the Civil War, he was
the head of the Confederate States, alright? Jefferson Davis. He
was the head of the Confederate States. You know what? He wanted
to put aside money for you. And he said, okay, I'm taking
all of this money and I'm going to put it in a safe and lock
it up. It's the most money that anybody It was never known at
that time. You put it in a safe. And he
said, I'm going to give it to this person in 2022. He's going
to open that safe and he's going to have that inheritance. You
open it up and it's Confederate money. It's a lot of Confederate money,
but it's worthless. It has no value. Why? The value faded with time. I was watching this. Car values
back in the 1950s. How much was a car back in 1950?
Maybe $3,000, $4,000 back then. You know, how much is a car now?
How much is a dollar worth now compared to what it was back
then? You're paying $85,000, $90,000 for a truck. You see, money and value of those
things fluctuate, doesn't it? Disinheritance, it's value. stays
the same. It is of infinite value. Why? You can't buy it. You can't merit
it. You can't earn it. It's something
Christ merited, earned for you, and it's eternal. It fadeth not
away. Listen, and it's reserved. It's
reserved. What does that mean? You don't
get it now. What you have is a down payment.
What you have is the spirit, is the down payment. The earnest
of the inheritance, Paul said. The earnest of it, but not the
whole thing. Aren't you glad? What does the
law seek in this world? They seek an earthly inheritance. They seek earthly things. Money, lust, greed, power, all
of which are fading. Here's the difference. Your inheritance
is in heaven. Kept by the power of God for
you. What a difference. What a difference. I know this. I'm going to have
to go quickly on the others. The second is, who made the difference?
You have spiritual life. You're cleansed. You're washed.
You're redeemed. You're sanctified. You're made
holy. You have an inheritance that's
incorruptible. You know all the spiritual wisdom
and knowledge of God. You know Christ. What a difference! Now, who made the difference?
You or God? Who made the difference? Did you believe on Christ because
you were superior in intellect? Did you sit one night and weigh
out the options and reason among yourself? Well, I really don't
want to go to hell, so I guess I'll choose Jesus. Is that how
it worked? No. Did you earn it by your skill,
religious skill? What about your knowledge of
Calvinism? Did that cause your salvation? Did that make the
difference? God forbid any of us should ever
dare say anything because that's against the Word of God. The
Scripture says, as many as received Him, to them gave He the right
to become the sons of God. You who believe, you are the
sons of God. There's another difference. I
go on and on about the differences. You are a son of God. You received
Him. You are a son of God. But how is it that you received
Him? Being born not by blood, not
by the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. The reason you received Him is
God gave you life. God gave you life. God gave you
faith. Paul says that we are saved by
grace through faith. And that faith is not of yourself.
It, faith, is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should
boast. Who then maketh thee to differ?
This, to a believer, is a rhetorical question. It's a silly question,
isn't it? Who maketh thee to differ? You know immediately
who did it. Listen, here's how He did the
difference. Listen, God made you to differ
by His electing grace. You were made different in eternity. This difference, this separation
was made in eternity between you and the rest of Adam's race. This separation had been made.
God chose you. You who believe. God chose you. before the foundation of the
world. So, therefore, God the Father is the cause of this difference. Go to Ephesians 1. We're going
to go through this. God the Father made the difference.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why?
He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ. He blessed you with all of these
spiritual blessings. I just mentioned them. Life,
washing, Justification, sanctification, redemption, wisdom. All of these
blessings. He blessed you with them as He
put you in union with Christ. According as He had chosen us
in Christ. Before the foundation of the
world, this was His purpose. That you should be holy. Isn't
that one of the blessings? That you should be holy and without
blame before Him? God the Father in love predestinated
you. Under the adoption of children,
isn't it? Is that the difference that you're a son of God and
they're not? Well, who made that difference? God did. In election,
He made you a son. Not by your merits or will or
power. How? Look at that. By Jesus Christ
unto Himself. According to good pleasure of
His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He
hath made us accepted in the Beloved. You were separated.
You were made different by the electing grace of the Father.
Secondly, you were made different by the redeeming grace of the
Son. The redeeming grace of the Son. Look at this second part. In whom? We have redemption through
His blood. The forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of His grace. You see, you were made different
in the Son. You were given to Christ, put
in union with Christ by the love of the Father, that by Christ
you should be holy. Therefore, the Son of God has
come, and as your surety, He made you holy." Now, here's a
question. When were you saved? Now, God purposed your salvation.
In the eyes and mind of God, you were as good as saved. But
when were you actually saved? You were saved when Christ came
as your surety and saved you. You were saved. You were saved
when He did it. As your surety. That's what Christ
was from eternity. Your surety. Remember, we got
an illustration of this. We got an illustration of this
of Judah. When Judah became surety for
Benjamin. He said to his father, he said
this. In Genesis 43 and verse 9, he says, I will be surety
for him. Of my hand shalt thou require
him, if I bring him not to thee, and set him before thee, let
me bear the blame forever." You see, Christ became sure of it,
guaranteed. He says, if I bring not your
elect to you, let me bear the blame. Therefore, when Christ came into
the world, what did He do? He saved His people. He saved
them. in whom we have redemption. You
got that? We have redemption. You were redeemed before you
ever knew about it. You were redeemed before you
ever experienced it. You were redeemed by the blood of Christ.
The forgiveness of sins. How? Through the grace of God. That's why you were forgiven.
Through the blood of Christ. Christ came as your surety and
merited your righteousness by His blood. He redeemed you from
all your sins. By His resurrection, you are
now justified. Thirdly, it was the Holy Spirit
who made the difference. As I told you before, we all
had that in common. We were dead in sin. But when
the day of grace came, Who made the difference? The preacher?
No. You? No. It was the Spirit of God who
quickened you. Look what Paul says in Ephesians
1 again verse 8, Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom
and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will,
according to the good pleasure which he had purposed in himself.
that in the dispensation of the fullness of time He might gather
together in one all things in Christ, both in heaven and earth,
even in Him in whom in Christ we also have obtained an inheritance
being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh
all things after the counsel of His own will. In other words,
all providence, all those things were moving together in time
to bring you to this, that We should be to the praise of the
glory who first trusted in Christ. Who first trusted in Christ?
God did. God trusted Him with all your
salvation. Listen. In whom you also trusted
after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
In whom after that you have believed you have been sealed with the
spirit of promise. Sealed, like a king would seal
a letter with his insignia and it was not to be opened under
penalty of death. Even so, God has sealed you in
this inheritance. You who believe, what a difference
He made. What a difference. God chose you. Christ redeemed you. The Spirit called you and passed
by millions of others. Why? What's so special about
you, Eric? What is it? It's Christ. It's Christ. He's what made the difference. Respect your text. Who maketh
thee to differ from another? You've been made different. Don't
deny it. You have. To deny it is a sin. To deny the difference He has
made is a sin. To put it under a bushel and
make it less than what it is, is a sin. We are now the sons
of God. It does not yet appear what we
shall be. Who makes a difference? Thirdly,
who then gets the glory? Look at your text. Who maketh
thee to differ from another? You are different. Who made it?
God. What askest thou? Thou dost not receive. Do you
not receive it of the Spirit of God, your faith, your love?
Why then in the world then, look what he says. He says, now if
thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory? Who gets the glory? Glenn, why in the world are you
still here? Why do you still believe? Why does any of us still believe?
Who kept you? God. Who then gets the glory
right now for your faith and your love and your difference?
God. God gets all the glory. He made the difference. Where
then, lastly, where then is boasting? What right do we have to boast
ourselves above anyone else? who understand the grace of God
should be the most humble people upon the face of God's earth. We have no right to look down
upon anyone, especially our brethren. And yet we do. We look down on
our brethren. Somebody is weaker than we are,
and yet what do we do? We boast ourselves above them. How dare we do such a thing? Some brethren who's caught up
in sin and we set ourselves in such a position above them and
condemn them. What right have we? God made the difference. He's
still making the difference. Where then is boasting? Paul
said in Romans, he says, boasting is excluded. How? By works? No. By the law of faith. Faith that is a gift of God.
Salvation is a gift of God. Where then is glory? Why should
you glory in any preacher? You shouldn't glory in men. There's
no power in preachers. Power's in God. Who maketh thee
to differ from another? And listen, what a great difference
it is. May God then receive all the
glory that is due His name. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.