As always, I consider it such
an honor to be able to be here. I dearly love your pastor, his
wife, his family. It's my family. And I am thankful. From the passage that Brother
Sammy read, there's a question. that Paul
the Apostle asked in that passage of Scripture, and it was found
in verse 7. It says, For who maketh thee
to differ from another? That question right there is
the very heart of the message that I'd like to bring this morning,
and as I said, bring it over both services this morning. Who maketh thee to differ? Now, obviously, when it comes
to a man or a woman being born in Adam, there's no difference
at all. There is nothing that is different. You that believe this is the
way that it is, there are two natures in you. For the nature of which you were
born, that is being born in Adam, this is the way it is. for all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is a
nature that is within you that believes that is no different
than the nature in any other man or any other woman that does
not know God. All have sinned and come short. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. There is a nature within you
that believe that hates God. You say, well, I'm a believer. I agree with you. But there's
a nature within you that's still flesh, that which is flesh is
flesh. And nothing's changed as far
as that nature is concerned. There's a nature that still resists
hearing the gospel, there is a nature that is within you that
still despises and hates God. Now, you that believe know that. You hate Him with that old man. Paul said in Romans 7, he said,
ìIn my flesh there dwells no good thing.î He said, ìWith my
flesh I serve the law of He doesn't want to hear. He doesn't want
to pray. He doesn't want to love. He despises. You put all men in a barrel as
being found in Adam. Put them all in there. Shake
them up. Pour them out. I'll tell you what they're going
to do. They're going to think and say and do the very same thing
as being born in Adam. And you know that. That's where
that war comes from that's within you. There's a battle that's
going on within you that believes. And you resist yourself. You fight. You war. Contrary. But you look around. And you
look. And you're going to find that
there are some that God has called out of darkness. and they're
different. They have a different attitude
concerning God's glory and God's honor and God's grace and God's
will and God's salvation. There's some in this world that
are different. Sinners, yes sir. Sinners. Paul said of whom I'm Not that
I was a sinner. I am a sinner. But they're different. And there's some of them that's
sitting here this morning, Darnell. There's some that are different.
Who maketh thee to differ? As a believer, he's a different
kind of sinner. That's what I want to preach
to you this morning in these two messages. kind of sinner,
all sinners. But there's some that God has
called out of darkness, has imparted a new nature. There's two natures
in a believer. I've heard some say there's a
great controversy going on today whether or not there's two natures. No, there's no controversy. There's
no controversy at all. God's people have two natures
in As a new nature who make it the who has caused the to have
a discriminating difference who make it the different. That's
what it who has distinguished you look in your margin of your
Bible who has distinguished you. You know between one man and
another. Well Paul said in Philippians
2 13 for it's God which worketh in you both to will and to do
of His good pleasure. There are two kinds of sinners,
lost and found. There are two kinds of sheep,
you know, as far as we recognize. They're either lost sheep or
found sheep, regenerated sheep, but they're all sheep. Almighty God, before the foundation
of the world, chose His sheep. They've always been His sheep.
They've always been His elect. They've always been the blessed. Have God's people ever been under
His curse? No. No. Has Almighty God ever looked
upon them any other way? except in the person of his son. No, not his sheep, not the blessed
of the Lord. Has God ever looked upon his
sheep under his condemnation? I was talking to Brother Scott
the other day. You talk about a blessing. Your pastor told
me one time, he said, you've got to be the most blessed man
I know. I said, ìHowís that?î He said,
ìWell, youíve gone to a church that God is obviously blessed,
Katie Baptist Church.î He said, ìFifty years sat under a man
that God has obviously put His blessing on, Scott Richardson.î
He said, ìYouíve come into a church, and youíve got that pastor.î
He said, ìWhen youíre gone away and He said, You go somewhere
to preach. You got a man to fill in for
you, and it's Scott. He said, You sit down with that
man. And he said, You talk to him
and glean from his wisdom. I told him, I said, Yeah, Paul,
I think you're right. I think I am the most blessed
man I know. That's exactly right. But I was asking Brother Scott
one day. I said, Let me ask you something. I said, You know,
folks talk about Our God, you know, at one time, they say that
God, you know, looked upon His people in condemnation. Scott said, the Scripture says
there is therefore now, right now, no condemnation to them
that be in Christ Jesus. He said, how long have they been
in Christ? I said, they've always been in Christ. He said, now,
to God is now. And it's always been now with
God. Never been anything but now. And he said, God never changes. He said, if God doesn't see them
condemned now, and God never changes, when did God ever see
them condemned? I said, you just settle some
things in my mind really quickly, real well. There's two kinds
of people, sheep and goats. Who maketh you to differ? You that believe. Who maketh
you to differ? Well, obviously, Paul is saying
there's a difference. There must be a difference because
he wouldn't have used that word if there wouldn't have been a
difference. Who maketh thee to differ? Paul said in 2 Corinthians
5, 17, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things have become
new as far as you are concerned, as far as your understanding
of it. Not God's. You are enemies in your mind. but not in his, not to his people,
not to his elect. The old man's still there, but
there's a new man, a new heart. Ezekiel 36, 26 says, A new heart
and a new mind will I give you, and a right spirit will I put
in you. There's something different.
Something's changed. There's a new principle. put
within a believer, not merely a new opinion added to your old
nature. Now, that's just not so. Almighty
God does not improve or reform that old nature. The old nature
is dead. I want you to turn with me to
the book of Acts, and this is where we're going to stay for
the remainder of this message and the next. Acts chapter 9. This is the account of a man
called Saul of Tarsus. And this man, Saul of Tarsus,
who we would know as Paul the Apostle, he was traveling to
Damascus with some letters of authority, and he was going to
take all who were of the way. And he was going to take them
and imprison them, kill them, going to do away with them. And
in his mind, he was doing God a service. He thought he was. But now the Lord revealed to
this rebel that what he was doing was he was persecuting himself. Persecuting his people. But he
was persecuting the Lord Jesus Christ. And Almighty God takes
it personal. I've got two kids that attend
this congregation right here. I've got two more that attend
there in Franklin, Tennessee. And I'm going to be real honest
with you. A lot of folks in here that I love,
I respect. But if you do something to one
of my kids, I'm going to take it personal. You try to hurt Gabe or you try
to hurt him, it's personal to me. Kelly, it's personal. You
do something to one of my kids, Sarah or Becca, you say something
to them, you raise your voice or raise your hand, you try to
curse them, I'm going to take it personal. You'll get a phone
call from me. I promise you, you say something
and you're going to get a phone call from me. Sammy, let me ask
you something. You let somebody take that little
girl. Now you think about it. Here's
how personal it gets. You say they pick her up, start
trying to throw her at each other, laugh, make fun, slap her around.
You going to stand back and just watch her? Personal. Saul of Tarsus was going down
the road one day, and the Lord stopped him. Stopped him in his
tracks. Here was a man that later confessed
himself in the book of Romans. I said a while ago, he said,
I'm a sinner. Christ Jesus, he said, 1 Timothy
1 15, a faithful saying. And he said, this is worthy of
all acceptation. You write this one down. He said,
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I'm chief. And you know, he wasn't just
trying to be, you know, somebody said, oh, no, no, Paul, you're
not really the chief of sinners. He wrote that under the inspiration
of the Spirit of God. He said, you want to know what
the epitome of rebellion is? He said, you look at me. He said,
I'm it right here. But the Lord did something for
this man. And there's twelve characteristics
that I want to bring out about how God saved this sinner. And
I'm going to tell you this. It's the same characteristics
of everyone that God's called out of darkness. Here is a different
kind of sinner. There's sinners that are sitting
In congregations all over this nation, I don't doubt it, where
God Almighty has been pleased to withhold the hearing of the
gospel. This is a blessed place. Rocky
Mount, Virginia, blessed town. But there's some different kinds
of sinners. And here's the first one. A different
kind of sinner. One that God has shown mercy
to is one that God Almighty arrests and stops him. Verse 3 says in
Acts 9, it says, As he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly
there shined round about him a light from heaven. God stopped him. Paul said of
himself in Ephesians 4.1, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech
you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you're called. Every person in this room this
morning that God Almighty has shown mercy to stopped him. He arrested him. Why did God
put you where he put you, where you could hear the gospel? It's
because he was going to show mercy to you. That's a different
kind of sinner. God will leave a man and let
him go and just let him do whatever he wants to do. And he's just
being religious and he's doing fine as far as he's concerned.
And he goes to church and he's this and he's that and the other.
But one that God shows mercy to is one stops him. He arrests him. He may arrest
him, stop him up a sycamore tree. He may stop that sinner and arrest
that sinner while he's sitting next to the customs collections
like he did Matthew. He may take a Peter and he may
just say why he's out there fishing. He said, you, you follow me.
I'll make you fishers of men wherever he arrested you. I can
tell you this, He stopped you and put you in a place where
He was going to teach you something. Why did you grow up around here?
Why did you move here? Why did you marry the person
you married? Why did you do what you did? It's because Almighty
God arrested you. Providentially moved you. Whatever
the circumstances were, God was going to show mercy. That's a
different kind of sinner. He just didn't leave you to yourself.
He just didn't leave you alone. He just, he put you right here. And you think, I look back on
the way things were, and how they worked out, and why I was
doing this job, and I got transferred here, and I got... Paul says
in 2 Timothy 1, Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our
Lord, nor of me. His prisoner, you think about
this, what a badge of honor. Yeah, who are you? I'm a prisoner
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He stopped me. He didn't leave
me alone. I could have been anywhere today, but God Almighty was not
going to leave me alone. There's a different kind of sinner,
an arrested sinner. Boy, what liberty! What freedom! that God would arrest a man and
stop him, stop him in his tracks. Secondly, second sign, second
difference, sinner to whom Christ has shown
mercy. Mercy is a called sinner. And an inquiring sinner, you
know, many are called. if you were chosen. A lot of
people may sit under the gospel and hear it, but something is
different about one that God has shown mercy to. Verse 4 and
verse 5, He fell to the earth and He heard a voice, now look
at this, saying unto Him, Saul, Saul, Whenever the Lord Jesus Christ
is going to call a man out, the Scripture says in John 10, 27,
My sheep, they hear My voice. How do they hear it? Well, they
have an ear. I understand that. But here's
where they hear it. They hear Him. They hear His
voice. They hear it through the preached
gospel. You that believe, you hear it right now. I know you
do. You hear it. You hear the message of the sovereign. You hear the message of the Lord.
You hear His voice. My sheep hear my voice and I
know them. And they follow me. There's the
evidence of one that has heard His voice. They hear the voice
of the shepherd because of the sheep. That's how they hear. They're the sheep. There's a
different kind. Paul said in chapter 22, I'll
just paraphrase this. He said there was some, they
heard. They heard a voice, but they didn't hear the voice that
spoke to me. They heard as if it were thunder. Did y'all hear
something? I don't know. Saul is a different
kind. God calls a man out of darkness. It's a personal call. It's distinguishing. It's effectual. And they follow
me, you said. They accompany me. They're following after, reaching
after, hungering after. You didn't believe. Why did you
come this morning? Because I wanted to hear His
voice. I just anxiously anticipate hearing
the voice of the Master. And you know, He's spoken to
me before there. I'm going back. You can't drive
God's people away. They hunger. They hear. That's
a different kind of sin. They inquire. Who are you, Lord? That's a different
kind of sinner. Who are you, Lord? You ask a
man by nature and everybody knows God. Everybody knows Jesus. Oh, yeah, yeah, I know. Yeah.
Oh, yeah. Well, you know, we do church
and, you know. Here's a different kind of sinner.
They don't inquire one time. They're always inquiring. You
that's known Him the least and you that's known Him the longest.
Here's where you are. Who are you? Lord, you tell me
again. Tell me one more time. Lord,
speak to me again this morning. I've heard of you. I want to
hear of you. Paul the apostle says, Oh, that
I may know Him. You think he knew Him? Sure he
knew Him. What did he want to do? And I
got up this morning and I was going over these notes right
here. I was thinking to myself, Lord, I want to know you. I'm reading about you. I've heard
of you. I want to hear again. That's
a different kind of sinner. One that just admits, I'm just
a beggar that sits at his table every day. I want to know you. I want to hunger after you. Give me a hunger. I know this,
you don't give me a hunger and thirst. That's a different kind
of sinner. An unregenerate will cast him
off. They'll stick a bumper sticker
on there and they'll say, you know, they'll say, my master
is a carpenter's son or my master is a babe and you know, boy,
my master, me or Jesus has got a good thing. Let me tell you
a different kind of center. Who are you? Teach me. Teach me afresh this morning.
I want to know who you are. Well, it's 10 o'clock. Only got 10 more points to do.
Why don't we just stop right there? We'll just start up afterwards.